#But it would’ve been interesting if it was in the scale of years

[driftingballoons]

So, how was it to not exist?

mixed reviews

[yourfatherlucifer]

Extraterrestrial (JYH)

Alien!Yunho x afab!reader

Summary: Your ship is on the brink of being forever lost in the galaxy, but when a monster invades your ship to top it all off, his plans for you are a cause for concern.

Warnings: SMUT MDNI, egg preg, alienxhuman sex, rough and mean Yunho, dead husband San, monster cock, tall ass Yunho

AU: Alien/Space

Genre: Smut

WC: 2.2k

Tags: For @potatomountain because I know you’ve been struggling lately, so I hope you can enjoy this with all your might. You deserve this. I love you, friend. This is longest I’ve written in so long..lol

Nets: @newworldnet

The rapid beeping of the ship was so overwhelming, the red lights were flashing in warning. The shaking was so powerful. If only you didn’t run into that asteroid belt earlier from running from a pirate space ship. With your crew still in cryogenic states, you could only handle this on your own.

You were the captain after all, the expert in the technology. Of course, you could’ve awoken your second in command but you didn’t want to bother them. The process was a painstaking one anyway.

The rattling was beginning to get annoying as you tried to do everything you could, “Dammit, come on!” You smacked the control panel, clearly getting frustrated.

There wasn’t another planet for several light years and that was so agitating. There was nowhere to stop to repair your ship. Even the hull was damaged, you were sure something fell off from the collision.

You were scared to death that your ship would explode and you’d never make it home. This expedition was supposed to save you from your dying planet to find a new one.

You reached down to kiss the photo necklace wrapped around your neck. It was of your dead husband, San. He was an astronaut explorer as well. But his ship was lost and he never made it back home. You could only assume he was dead. It’s been a year after all. So you took this mission upon yourself, in hopes of finding him or a new planet for your human population to live on. You wanted to make your husband proud.

“I’m so sorry, Sannie, I’ve failed us both and our planet.” A tear fell down your cheeks as your fist collided against the console in frustration.

A flash passed by your ship but you didn’t even notice, too busy focusing on your impending death.

The beep stopped abruptly which made you look around confused, “The hell..?”

A couple of chittering sounds caught your attention and you spun around, only to be met with an eight foot tall hunched over alien. He..if it was a he, was beautiful. With his tanned skin and green scales, he looked almost human. If it wasn’t for the scales and tentacles coming out of his back and his ridiculously long legs, you would’ve thought it was someone from your crew.

So, how’d it get in?

“What..what do you want?” You backed up into the console, clearly confused and scared.

Was he here to eat you? To steal from you? Just what-

His face softened up with a smile, “I’m not going to eat you, so you can stop thinking about it. I’m not going to steal from you either.”

“Then what is it you want? I don’t have anything else to offer.” You crossed your arms over your chest, still not sure of his intentions.

“Well, I have a proposition for you, human.” His long legs carried him over to you, from there you could see his beautiful green eyes and somehow handsome face.

You’d never seen an alien up close, of course, back on earth, there was always talk of extraterrestrials but never any appearing despite the very popular pop culture of alien invasions. Even with the planet dying, there was none.

“Well, I’ll fix your ship for you. But.”

“But?”

“Let me impregnate you with my eggs. It’s my species mating season and unfortunately for me. I’m away from my planet and you’re the only near species I can copulate with. I have to get these eggs out or it’s painful for me. I’m not about to waste them either.” His eyes scanned your body, clear with interest.

“If I agree, you will one hundred percent fix my ship?” You had to admit, he was far too attractive to deny his offer.

“Yes, and I don’t break my promises. I’m desperate and you’re definitely the perfect specimen.”

You shrugged your shoulders and slipped off your shirt, “Alright, I don’t see why not then.”

He grinned in relief, watching as your breasts bounced in their final confines, “Perfect.”

He walked even closer, grabbing you by the hips and lifting you with ease to set you on the ships console, “I will warn you, I’m nothing like the human men you can have intercourse with. I’m far bigger. I might just break you.”

You licked your lips in excitement, “I don’t mind, the bigger the better.” You joked, trying to ease the tension.

“You say that, until I’ve fucked you full with my children.” He grabbed the strings of his loin cloth and it fell to the floor.

Your eyes widened at the sheer size of his length, he wasn’t lying. This was the biggest cock you’ve seen, probably even the prettiest. It couldn’t even compare to your deceased husbands cock. Even though he was big for your species. But this alien, was massive.

He looked like measured to at least 10 inches, if not more. The girth was crazy as well. Green scales lined the thick and spined base. Just like some spots on his body.

“Um..wow…” you were in complete shock, unable to tear your eyes away, until you felt something thick and slimy pull your head back up to face him. It was one of his tentacles.

“My name is Yunho. That is what you will scream as I breed you, got it?” His voice became stern and it was so attractive, you could feel yourself becoming a waterfall below.

Yunho growled as his nose turned up to sniff the air, “I can smell you human, your cunt is excreting such a sweet scent. I must ravage you.”

You whimpered with his words, “Please, tear me apart. I want to feel you.”

“Be patient, human. You’ll get it.” His fingers wrapped around the hem of your pants and yanked them down, along with your soaked underwear. He threw them to the captain's chair behind him and groaned in the new exposure of your scent.

Yunho’s face dove to the source, his tongue licking up a stripe between your folds. Gathering your slick on his wet appendage. He moaned in the flavor, “Oh, human. You have no idea how I’m going to ruin you. You will search the galaxy for me after I’m done with you.” His teeth sunk into the plush of your inner thighs, “You will continue to search for the same feeling I’m going to give you. And only will I return to collect my kin.”

You could only whine in response, tugging onto his black hair.

“You are nothing but a breedable toy for me. Nothing more, nothing less, do you understand that?”

“Yes, yes!”

His tongue encircled your weeping hole and prodded at your walls, he was enjoying this far too much. Your human sounds were delightful to his ears.

“Yunho!” You cried out when he moved away from your cunt to your thigh once again, planting his teeth into the skin. You could only assume this was his way of marking his mate.

“What are you?” You whined as he pulled away.

“I will never tell you my species name. I will not let you find me until I need to find you. This is a one in a change opportunity, hush before I change my mind.” Yunho’s eyes flashed over, warning you with ill intent, “I will not hesitate to leave you and your ship stranded.” He was mean but you loved it.

He eventually lost interest in eating your cunt out and moved his tentacle to replace his tongue instead. It was slightly thinner than his massive cock, so it must be used to prep you.

As it slowly slid inside, Yunho had stood up, pulling your hips closer to his to the point his cock rested against your abdomen. It was so big that it reached the valley of your breasts. Just how was he going to fit without rearranging your organs?

He watched as his tentacle slowly sank in, he could barely feel how you pulled him in. However he could feel just how tight you were. That was going to be a problem. So maybe two tentacles would have to stretch you out for him.

He groaned in thought, he didn’t expect having to do so much work for a human cunt to fit him and his eggs.

“Come on, stop being so tight, human.” Yunho’s grip only tightened as his tentacle tried to slither in further.

Once that one was settled in, another snaked around from his back all the way to your occupied cunt. It pushed its way in, causing your mouth to fall open in a silent scream.

“That’s more like it.” Yunho’s large hand reached to cup your breast while he felt your cunt loosen around him, “Soon I’ll be able to breed you.”

“I don’t care, just fuck me, Yunho, please!”

Yunho shrugged, “If you insist.” His two tentacles began pumping in and out, the sloshing sounds of your cunts arousal and the excrement excreting from his tentacles didn’t help.

He held you tight to his chest because you could barely sit up straight with the way he was fucking into you. It was even his cock yet and he had you weak.

You weren’t used to being so packed. Just the two tentacles combined were bigger than your husband's cock when he used to make love to you.

“Stop thinking of that human man. I’m the one fucking you. Get him out of your head.” He growled in warning.

“I can’t just erase my husband’s memory!”

Since the image wasn’t disappearing from your head, Yunho bit between your shoulder and neck, “I won’t tell you again.”

“Fine!” You tried to focus on the way his tentacles fucked in unison only for them to pull out and get replaced by his monster size cock instead.

This time a scream fell out of your throat, he was so big. Far too big. You could feel him ripping you apart from the inside. Even the bulge in your stomach from him was painful, but felt too good at the same time.

His hips slammed against yours with each thrust. The console creaked in protest.

Yunho’s grip was so tight that it was nearly painful but you didn’t care, not when your senses were dulling from the way his cock buried itself deep within your wet cavern.

“Yunho!” You cried out. He was being very rough with you. He manhandled you all the way to captains chair, planting himself in the seat.

He made your legs straddle him. You didn’t know how you were going to ride him, not with how weak you felt, “Come on, human, you can do it.”

You whimpered as you sunk yourself back down, legs shaking in protest.

Yunho grinned as he watched you struggle to take him, “Don’t be pathetic, I know you can do it.”

Your hands gripped his shoulders as you repeatedly fucked yourself on him, “It hurts so good.”

His free hand squeezed the bulge each time it appeared on your stomach. He was making it worse but you assume he did this to get it over with. You were sure it wasn’t pleasant for him to fuck a human much smaller than his alien form.

As you reached your nth orgasm, tears were flowing down your cheeks, how hadn’t he cum yet? Why weren’t you filled yet?

“You’ll get it soon, be patient, human. You’re so eager to carry my children.” This had him smirking. He wanted to ruin you.

His hips thrusted up to match your pace and help you along, “Doing so well, little human.” His reached back to grip your hair and yank it backwards, exposing more neck to him.

Yunho marked your neck with more bites and bruises, marking his territory for any other aliens passing by or anyone that invades this ship while he’s gone, awaiting for his children’s birth.

Once his thrusted started slowing down, that’s when you knew he was near. His cock began enlarging and your eyes widened in shock, “Oh fuck, Yunho!”

He stopped your movements and waited as his eggs flowed out his cock and into your cunt, all the way to your womb, “That’s right..take it all. Like the good human mother you will be.” His hand rubbed your stomach as it began swelling with several of his eggs.

He was proud. Very proud and felt relieved. Yunho we finally free of his pain and relieved for the future of his bloodline.

“My perfect breedable toy.” Once his cock returned to normal size, he slowly pulled out, watching as you became breathless. Nearly doubling over.

“So full..” you whined, holding your stomach with such care.

“Good.” He stood up and rested you where he once sat, “I’m going to leave now. I’ll repair your ship on my way out. I’ll return in a few earth months. Your pregnancy won’t be as long as the normal human one.”

You looked ethereal but he wasn’t going to stick around, not when his use for you was over.

“Yunho..” Your breasts were in pain, already trying to accommodate the eggs inside of you.

“Don’t do anything to my eggs while I’m gone, or I’ll destroy everything.” Yunho’s eyes narrowed, making his way to the exit.

“I won’t..”

“Good. Farewell human, await my return.”

[multiplicationdivision]

Company Policy

Milo was stuck on the worst run he’d ever taken. Cargo needed in 2 days and just under that time to get there in his truck if he drove without sleeping. It would have been near torture and even if the payout was better than amazing, it wasn’t something he would’ve taken a week ago.

Milo had a trick these days.

He’d picked up a hitchhiker. A backpacking twenty something, dumb and rugged. A golden retriever of a man that was handsome in a sense, but not in any way Milo was interested in. Too sweet and trusting for him. Men didn’t last long around him like that.

Especially now.

He’d been sweaty when Milo had picked him up, his shirt wet with the hot sun and turned to mud from the dust. That’s what you ask for travelling around the middle of the southern nowhere. Barely a thing worth shit on the endless roads between truck stops and motels. Maybe a rattlesnake or two.

It had been easy to get the happy fool to wear one of his backup Tees. He kept his spare uniforms in the back, enough to last him the long trips. Gray polyester that was boringly company policy to wear no matter what. Like Milo was employed under Amazon or FedEx instead the knock off generic delivery company that was obsessed with him maintaining their nonexistent brand.

Company policy was absolute. Not the soft idea of absolute, Milo receiving consequences for not following the rules or maybe even getting fired. Nothing weak and mundane like that.

Company policy like this was some mind-bending shit. It wasn’t something that could be broken, not by Milo who’d already signed his employment contract. He was bound by it’s rules and it would be a claustrophobic feeling had he not gotten such a good contract. Great pay, great time off and an understanding boss. He could deal with the strange aspects of that contract for the benefits. Even manipulate them sometimes.

Only employees can wear their uniform. The contract states that on page 2 in full bold letters. Followed by a bunch of stipulations about assignment of uniform sizes and assorted accommodations.

The hitchhiker wore one of his shirts now. His ragged sweaty one was somewhere on the floor, balled up under the passenger seat. The man had said it was surprisingly comfortable for a uniform. Said he’d worked as a cashier for some fast-food joint and that theirs were scratchy. He’d said he was surprised Milo’s shirt fit him so well.

Company policy demands that only the employee who owns the uniform wears the uniform. Milo wondered if the hitchhiker noticed how baggy the shirt was on him minutes ago. How it sagged around his shoulders, the man smaller than him by far. Now it fit perfectly, tight against his skin.

Milo asks if the man knows about his favorite TV show. Some niche drama going back to the 90s, echoing the same plots over and over and over. The hitchhiker squints his darkening eyebrows, recognition blooming in real time. The man just remembering something he’d surely never watched.

He’d been clean shaven, but now the guy’s face was covered in a shadow that Milo recognized. He’d discuss his travels as he gazed outside. Not noticing the moment when the tales of a hitchhiker faded into recollections of hauls gone hilariously wrong.

Milo watched the changes out the corner of his eye, relaxing as the awkward conversation became easy. Their language becoming more and more alike by the second, the nervous dog of a man becoming loud like Milo. Discussing their nearly identical plan of scaling the Devil’s Tower and free climbing whatever parts of the Grand Canyon they could get to. Bragging about how little they needed to workout with so much time to spend climbing.

The other made sounds of discomfort every now and then. Milo wondered if it hurt to have a life scooped out and filled in again. It was likely just disorienting, the hitchhiker seeming to try to recount his college years only to remember that he’d been a cross country trucker for the last six years. He’d laughed about how nice it was that truckers could rely on each other when they needed help. Milo joked that it was hard not to pick him up when he was so handsome. They laughed because they looked remarkably similar.

At some point, Milo realized that he had ended up in the passenger seat. As if he’d slowly bled into existence without the awareness to realize it. Feeling a slight desynchrony from the still sweaty cargo shorts and trainers he’d been left with. The other Milo laughed at him when he complained. They both knew he had brought an extra pair of sneakers for this exact situation.

They were mirror images now, matching short beards and curly hair. A situation they were both used to by now. Three times policy had assured that the person wearing his uniform was Milo, no matter how it broke the rules of reality to do so. They were short staffed so his boss had told him to keep it coming.

Milo would always have a buddy for the road, someone to trade shifts with as the other slept. Another Milo keeping him company in every state, at every stop. It only cost a few nobodies and a shirt or pants.

It was a good trick.

[kiiyunz]

posted⠀by⠀junjiie⠀⠀⸻⠀⠀8th April,⠀2O24.

No-one’s journey through idol life is going to be all sunshine & rainbows, and that’s a fact I think we should all make peace with as soon as possible. If you’re going to type out a comment screaming bloody murder about how your favourite’s whole career has been nothing but shiny and perfect, then all I have to say to you is that I’m sure there’s been a whole number of not-shiny and not-perfect things going on when the cameras are off. Sorry. It’s just the truth. Probably. But I’m not here to talk about your favourite, I’m here to talk about mine. So, without further ado, strap yourself in for a run-down of IM KIHYUN throughout the years of NCT DREAM’s career—ranked on a three point scale: the GOOD, the BAD, and of course, the REALLY, REALLY UGLY.

CHEWING GUM 2016 FRUIT PUNCH & BUBBLE MIXTURE

15-YEAR-OLD-KIHYUN had three lines in their debut single, a yellow hoverboard, and a dream—literally, considering the name of his unit. He was every bit the mood maker most people know him as today, filled to the brim with excitement and a sense of self-confidence that some people may have thought he would’ve lacked. While he hadn’t fully settled into himself just yet, still had voice cracks, and acne breakouts he’d stubbornly refuse to be filmed with while suffering through, and bouts of clumsiness that would leave him with bruises all over his elbows and plasters on his knees, for the most part it felt like he was an experienced performer rather than a just-arrived rookie. Most people immediately took a liking to him, and although his popularity wasn’t as sky-high as some of his fellow members, the fans he did have were a force to be reckoned with right from the start.

But whether you loved him or hated him, the one thing that everyone seemed to take notice of was the way he just looked like he loved performing on every single occasion, putting everything he had into every stage even with the little amount of time he was given to show off both himself & his budding talent to the people watching. His stage presence was compared to a breath of fresh air on a summer’s day, the wide grin he aimed at the cameras at any given opportunity one that aimed to brighten the mood of anyone witnessing it, and the enthusiasm with which he delivered his lines was something that even the harshest of critics could give a nod of acknowledgement to. Altogether, it’s widely agreed that CHEWING GUM for Kihyun was a GOOD era, on our three point scale.

MY FAVOURITE MOMENT: MU-BEYOND

Kihyun very obviously and very fiercely despising the way his hair was styled for one of the photoshoots, and making no attempt to hide it. As soon as the camera flashes stopped, gone was his sunshine smile, and in its place was a look that, if they could kill, would have put the photographer six feet under (even if the poor man would’ve had no say in how it was styled in the first place). While a few of the other members were enjoying themselves on the glossy pink bouncing balls they were perched on, as soon as it was announced they were done Kihyun was shooting up and making a runner for the bathroom, shooting the camera a glare and tugging on a few strands of his hair as he went. Chenle could be seen cracking up in the near background, creased over from the force of his laughter. Kihyun yelled something back at him, but whatever it was was drowned out by the editors with the persistent ‘Chew-chew-chew-chew chewing gum’ over the top of the footage, seemingly growing a little louder in order to hide his words.

THE FIRST 2017 BAD HAIR & BASKETBALL

(STILL) 15-YEAR-OLD-KIHYUN had blue frosted tips and a tendency to get distracted on the music video set, far more interested in shooting hoops than dancing around in the school band-like outfit they were being made to wear and singing about being in head-over-heels in love with his teacher. He was still every bit the burst of energy he was previously, still throwing his all into everything he did, but it was obvious to some he’d rather be doing other things if he could. The whole riding-cardboard-cars-around was something he loved, though, and he stated more than once that was his favourite part by a mile. Kihyun was mostly the same as he was during the CHEWING GUM era in terms of performance, confidence, and the like—although it was noted by most that there was a little less of his occasional clumsiness, more stability in himself than there was previously. His popularity grew alongside the group’s, his consistent charm and apparent natural talent to draw people in appealing to many a new fan.

He slowly began to make more of a presence online during the MY FIRST AND LAST era, also. Posting both little messages and various photos of himself & the members (mainly in embarrassing positions, such as being half-asleep or making weird faces) on Twitter, interacting with fans whenever he could, and dragging out conversations for as long as he was allowed at fansigns, until the poor person in front of him was practically dragged along to the next member. And when there were more sides of him being shown to the public (and the internet, especially), there were more people waiting to pick apart every piece of him. While his popularity grew, the amount of people against him shot up in numbers, too. It wasn’t overwhelmingly bad, but there were a fair few who accused him of trying to take the spotlight too often, or being ungrateful for the opportunities he was being given after they’d heard the few comments he’d made here and there about the comeback’s concept not being his favourite. Still, despite these lower moments, there were still more pros than cons, and so MY FIRST AND LAST is another era ranked GOOD for Kihyun.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: MFAL FIRST WIN

He was so caught up in tugging at the various buttons and pins stuck onto his ugly blazer that he barely heard the MC announcing their win until all the other members were jumping around and crying and patting each other on the back. Kihyun himself didn’t cry until backstage, when it finally hit him properly that they’d actually won, so in the moment he was more so just a little confused and dazed than anything else as he celebrated with the rest, not-so-subtly trying to take the trophy out of Mark’s hands while he made his speech so he could get a better look at it, wrapping Jeno in a hug so tight it left them both wheezing, trying to jump on Jisung’s back in an attempt to get him to cheer up, and also making a whole host of excited gestures and faces over at the members of 127 across the stage.

WE YOUNG  2017 FUN IN THE SUN!

KIHYUN (NOW 16) loved every second of this era, and that was something you could make out from space. Even with his now-pink-streaked hair and sailor outfits they were being made to wear, he declared the music from the WE YOUNG era as his favourite thus far. It was just pure fun, simple as that. He enjoyed every performance they did, sang all his lines with a grin so wide it nearly split his lips, was as playful as ever with all the members, and simply let loose a little more, losing himself in the music rather than what people were saying about it. Despite him not overly loving the whole sailor concept, fans were of the opinion that he was one of the ones that pulled it off the best, and so he begrudgingly posted photos of him in the get-up as often as he could—to an overwhelmingly positive response every time. The public noticed that, while still not fully grown, Kihyun’s self-confidence seemed to be at an all-time-high. He really did look like he was just happy to be there, and his supporters couldn’t have been more glad about it.

What also made his fans happy was his amount of lines getting a boost. He’d consistently been receiving around three or four, five at a stretch, but now it was reaching into the sixes and sevens—which, really, was barely an upgrade, but it made a world of difference to fans of his. It gave him more of a chance to show off his vocal ability, and brought more attention to him from both the public & critics. It also just made him happy, to be able to spend more than ten minutes in the recording studio, to be given more of a chance to show off how he’d grown and improved so far (even if he still thought he had a ways to go before he reached the level of his role models, his own idols). WE YOUNG was yet another GOOD era for Kihyun by miles, with barely any pitfalls in sight, and probably his highest so far.

MY FAVOURITE  MOMENT: COMEBACK SHOWCASE

He was jumping all over the stage throughout every performance, throwing everything he had (and probably more) into every line he sang and every move he executed. It was clear he was trying his hardest to contain himself, trying not to scream every one of his lines into the mic or trip himself up, but it was also clear he was struggling. He was also as clingy as anything towards the rest, always hanging off of someone’s back or linking their arms together while they were walking. There was never a shot of him without a smile on his face, never anything he did that made it feel like he’d rather be elsewhere. His enthusiasm and excitement was almost infectious, leaking out of the screen to put a smile on the face of whoever was watching along.

WE GO UP  2018 BREAKDANCING & BEANIES

NEARLY-ADULT (AKA.. 17-YEAR-OLD) KIHYUN seemed to be reaching for maturity a little too fast, fingers outstretched towards his eighteenth birthday and desperate for the months to pass by just a little faster. He had decided, somewhere along the line, that he was ready to be rid of the cuter concept the group was intended to present, and was more than ready for a switch-up. And while WE GO UP wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for, there was certainly less of the more childish aspects that were seen in their previous releases—which was both an acknowledgement of all the members growing older and also something that served as a reminder of Mark’s upcoming graduation from the group, which Kihyun would’ve rather done anything but think about. Still, while he didn’t put as much of his all into it as he had done in the past, he still put a fair amount of effort into the lines he was given (which were lessened once again, to the disappointment of many) and choreography they were made to learn. Fans noted that his personal style was beginning to develop in the WE GO UP era, their suspicions of Kihyun dressing himself confirmed when he mentioned here and there that most of his non-schedule outfits were his own.

The introduction of Bubble helped to boost Kihyun’s online presence, something that had fluctuated from era-to-era thus far (his highest amount of interactions previously being within the MY FIRST AND LAST era), and while he didn’t use it all the time, he still made an effort to communicate regularly with those who’d signed up when he could. He shared his inner reasonings on his online presence with those who were asking—saying that if he didn’t like the concept of the comeback too much he would compensate by being online and able to interact more. It’s a rule he’s mostly stuck with over the years, and fans have now said it’s easy to tell when Kihyun hates a concept because they’ll wake up with three new Twitter posts and ten times as many Bubble updates. So on the whole, although it was definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, WE GO UP is considered yet another GOOD era for Kihyun—making that a four-long streak (that—apologies for spoilers—was going to be broken fairly soon).

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: FIRST SOLO LIVE

It was, to put it plainly, a little bit all over the place. He held it in his dorm room, half asleep but still managing to be every bit the charismatic personality most people knew and loved him for. He answered any questions threw at him with total honesty, didn’t hold his tongue when talking about various subjects that others may have (namely his personal thoughts & opinions on the comeback as whole—this live was where many found out he didn’t like it as much as they thought he did), and also showed a side to him that the majority hadn’t been able to see as much of before. He gave song recommendations, spoke about those who inspired him—both in a music and fashion sense—and altogether shared lots of fun facts that had been unknown to most previously.

WE BOOM  2019 RADIO SILENCE

18-YEAR-OLD-KIHYUN was noticeably.. Different. While Mark’s graduation had hit all of the remaining seven hard, the other six still at least pushed on and tried to act as if things were fine as normal, carrying on as most expected them to. Kihyun, however, had seemed to undergo a complete personality shift. He was withdrawn, quieter than he’d ever been—barely offering anything up in conversations or interviews even when prompted, barely any footage of him in behind-the-scenes content because he made next to no contributions to it; always preferring to stay in the background, on his phone with his headphones on and trying to ignore the cameras following them around. Public opinion of him was also beginning to slip further into the red, following leaked photos of him at an undisclosed individual’s party getting cosy with an unnamed and non-idol slightly older male just after the release of the mini-album—photos that went unaddressed by both the company and Kihyun himself. His name was starting to grow in infamy rather than popularity, but the boy himself didn’t really seem to care.

All traces of Kihyun on social media seemed to go completely cold, barely any updates from him that weren’t group photos or content. From the whole era there were a measly two Twitter posts from him, and his Bubble subscribers got refunded more often than not. But while he was refraining from making any posts, news websites and anonymous users were more than happy to leak more and more photos of him—always with the same boy, always at a party, or at a club, or just generally anywhere that looked a little shady to the hundreds of thousands that saw it. Rumours began to spread about a drinking problem, about a shady boyfriend, about countless things that painted Kihyun in a type of light that he’d previously avoided like the plague, but Kihyun himself made no attempt to defend himself, and so they only got wilder. It’s unanimously decided that the BOOM is the first (but certainly not the last) of Kihyun’s BAD eras.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: JENO LIVE

The then-blonde took it upon himself to disregard all the rumours spreading about his dongsaeng—although not in a direct way. He was careful with his words, as well-spoken as he always is, but made sure to especially shut down the accusations of Kihyun turning into some reckless party animal, taking the former leader’s graduation so bad he turned to less-than-ideal ways to cope. “Kyunnie isn’t like that, and never will be,” was what he told his audience, and many noted the flat look on his face. After the captain had, many of the others took their turn to come to Kihyun’s defence—mostly always with vague comments, but statements nonetheless. Chenle’s response in particular was deemed to be one of the most direct, replying to a comment while on live with a simple “You don’t know Kihyun like that” and then ending the live not long afterwards, leaving the conversation at that and somewhat encouraging the people speculating to do the same.

RELOAD  2020 CLIFF DROPS & HARMFUL HABITS

NOW 19, KIHYUN seemed to be at something of his lowest point thus far. While he made more public appearances, more attempts to join in with behind-the-scenes content (or just extra content in general), most concluded it was the result of management telling him he had to, rather that Kihyun himself choosing to do so—and his return only gave more opportunities for those looking to find all the things wrong with the once-charismatic & energy-filled vocalist. And to make matters worse for him, more information had been dug up on his newfound non-idol friends (or rather, the one boy in particular that everyone wanted to know about). Oh Jinwoo, he had been discovered to be called, something of an influencer-like figure known more often than not for his whole host of partners over the years and tendency to get mixed in with the wrong crowd. You could say that you could only imagine what this did to Kihyun’s public image (which was practically halfway ruined by that point already), but there was no need for imagination—practically everyone witnessed his fall from the (mostly Korean) public’s good books, yet nobody could do anything about it. It felt like every day there was another article released leaking more photos and spreading more rumours about whatever dark web Kihyun was tangling himself in, but still the company made no move to stop them. 

It was also during the RIDIN era that Kihyun was rumoured to have started up the habit of smoking, with (albeit blurry) photos released to support the claims. This did absolutely nothing to help his reputation, tanking it further. His future was starting to look a little uncertain, questions being raised over whether his actions as of lately would warrant either a hiatus or removal from the group completely. He might’ve delivered all his lines as fine as normal, danced along with the rest in the same practised & efficient manner he always did, but talent didn’t mean much when placed on a scale against damaging the whole group’s image, rather than just his own. When people began to turn their nasty comments and endless gossip onto the other members, Kihyun was starting to look like more of a hindrance than a crucial member. It is, without a doubt, agreed by all that RIDIN was a REALLY, REALLY UGLY era.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: KIHYUN LIVE

It was short, it was vague, and it was still very obvious he was nowhere near to feeling like his normal self, but Kihyun himself did come forward to address a few things—mainly the smoking incident, which he admitted to be true and said that while he was trying to put a stop to it completely, habits like that were hard to quit. After the negative comments began to override the positive & supportive ones, he was quick to shut it off again and return to what was becoming his frighteningly normal status of radio silent. Still, it was something—and far more than anything SM gave, at that. Other members were also quick to dismiss or shut down any comments they saw on their own lives discussing Kihyun and his future of the group, all that they said mostly being along the simple and short lines of “Kihyun’s staying with us” and not elaborating any further.

HOT SAUCE  2021 A START

20 YEARS OF AGE. Mark was back, their permanence as a group was finally confirmed, the graduation system having been abolished, and all eight of them were together again. After five whole years of being active they were finally releasing a full album, and getting the chance to do it the way they all wanted. But while things were happier in that regard, Kihyun’s situation was far from forgotten. Fans of his were relieved nothing had been done about his place in the group—even if a few solo stans wanted him out just as much as those who hated him did, for the sake of his own wellbeing rather than them holding any ill-will towards the other members—but public opinion of him was still mostly in the red. Things were again starting to feel like they were hitting a dead-end: with Kihyun’s presence sort of.. Drifting. Sometimes he’d be absent for a group live, sometimes he’d go silent on all social media for weeks with his only comeback usually being his presence in the background of another member’s photos. Everything was looking just as uncertain as they had during the RIDIN era—until Kihyun once again started a solo live with the simple title of ‘an explanation’ and proceeded to do just that: explain.

Most suspected he didn’t divulge all the details, but the run-down was this: he’d met Jinwoo at some party or other, and they’d gotten just as close as all the leaked photos and gossipy articles made them out to be (although, again, some thought them to be far closer). He’d led Kihyun into a little bit of a rebellious era, what he called his ‘chance to be young and reckless’ since he’d mostly missed out on it, what with all his years of both diligent training & as an active idol. While he admitted on the broadcast that it was fun for a while, he was also realising the damage it was doing to both himself & his fellow members, so attempted to cut contact with his newfound friend—to no avail, for a few months, as they had more than a few periods of arguments both over the phone and in person. He said he’d only officially completely cut Jinwoo off a few weeks before the live, and shared with something of a wistful smile that he didn’t plan to get in touch with him any more now that he was gone. His viewers were overjoyed to hear this, and the members shared the sentiment—but Kihyun still had a ways to go before he was back to being a generally accepted fan-favourite. Despite him taking his first steps towards being back to his usual self, HOT SAUCE is still considered a BAD era for the vocalist.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: MARK INSTAGRAM POST

It was a three-slide-long affair that was posted not too long after Kihyun’s live. The first was a selfie of himself & a sleeping Kihyun, one of the rapper’s arms gently holding the vocalist to his side while he grinned wide into the camera. The second, a solo shot of Kihyun’s face up close to the camera, tongue out and peace sign just barely visible in one of the corners, what with most of the frame being taken up by the odd expression he was pulling. The third slide was a short video, only ten seconds or so long, of Kihyun and him on the dorm’s sofa, the audio consisting the tail-end of Mark’s voice making a joke mostly unintelligible to the viewers that was quickly followed by Kihyun’s pure & unfiltered laughter as he cracked up at whatever the Dream leader had said. He was creased over, one hand repeatedly hitting Mark’s knee as the other held his stomach, breath coming out in jerky and uneven gasps as he tried to recover. The caption was made up of two words: ‘my KD.’ 

HELLO FUTURE  2021 COTTON CANDY & BACK TO NORMAL

STILL 20, BUT NOW SEEMING MUCH HAPPIER, by the time HELLO FUTURE era rolled around Kihyun felt to most like he’d healed fully from what had then been a period a month shy of two years worth of the continuous cycle of being somewhat of a public enemy. People thought it was the combination of getting the truth about all that had happened off his chest, the continuous support of his members both in Dream and in NCT as a whole, and the seemingly infectious happy mood that came with the HELLO FUTURE era that managed to finally get Kihyun back on his feet, and with him he was bringing performances reminiscent of how full of joy and excited he’d been during the WE YOUNG era, smile wide on his face in every shot and dancing filled to the brim with passion. He even made more of an effort to make appearances on social media—contradictory to the rule he’d made during the WE GO UP era of only being constantly online during concepts he wasn’t too fond of. He gave happy little updates every once in a while, paired with smiling selcas both alone & with the other members, was as talkative as most remembered him to be before what some had started to dub ‘the dark ages’ during any group lives they held, and even crashed a few of the member’s solo lives every now and again.

His change was noticed easily, and was one that began to slowly turn the tides of public opinion on him once again. The comments made about him being someone who was bringing the group down and ruining their reputation with his recklessness were slowly lessening, being replaced with positive ones, and soon enough his popularity was starting to grow again, instead of the countless hate trains and calls for him to be kicked out. Kihyun was well on the way (if not mostly there already) to being completely fine again, even apparently feeling well enough to make more than a few jokes at his own expense here and there about staying far, far away from any parties held by a friend-of-a-friend in the future. HELLO FUTURE was the light (or rather.. Rainbow?) at the end of the tunnel for Kihyun, and so it was considered his first GOOD era after the nearly two years of BAD (with one REALLY, REALLY UGLY, at his lowest) ones.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: MV REACTION

Kihyun was seated next to Chenle, which could only really mean trouble—as it always did whenever the pair were within two metres of one another. They were cracking jokes every two seconds, falling all over one another with laughter and unable to shut up for even a minute. The rest paused the video more times to tell them to keep it together than they did for them to comment on anything actually happening in the MV, but you could tell from a mile away that they didn’t really mind in the slightest, more happy to see Kihyun laughing and smiling again than anything. They also all made sure to cheer the loudest when the vocalist’s solo scene appeared on screen, and then proceeded to (lovingly) make fun of him when his ears uncharacteristically went bright red at the praise being showered upon him, although he tried to get over it quickly and return back to his self-confidence-filled self.

GLITCH MODE  2022 VIDEO GAMES & B-BOYING IN PROGRESS

NOW FULLY BACK ON TRACK (& FRESHLY 21), Kihyun was ready to throw his all into their second full album. He was as good as new, his overwhelming feeling of excitement for every track recorded and released as clear as day. He even (again) broke his no-contact rule a few times just to relay how much he thought fans were going to love the album, posting spoilers as often as possible and revealing as much as he could get away with before it dropped. When it was released, he was practically talking about it non stop, chattering away on all platforms about the styling, the stages, the music, how fun it was, how much he was enjoying himself—the list went on. He declared the GLITCH MODE era to be his favourite, point blank, no matter how much he liked anything they would go on to release in the future. Public opinion of him was mostly completely smoothed over by that point, and his personal fan base was growing with every passing piece of content that was released. He seemed at his complete happiest, throwing everything he had and more into every single thing he did during promotions & extra content.

The GLITCH MODE era was also when he opened his personal Instagram account, his first post being a picture of him and Jeno glued to each other’s sides in a setting people assumed to be the SM building, with the caption ‘my favourite colleague.’ His follower count rose quickly, and is currently sitting at a comfortable 4.8M, mostly in the middle of Jisung and Chenle’s own numbers. Since then his account has become a home to photos that at times feel more like an exhibition of all the other Dream members (and his closer friends from the other units also) than anything involving himself, nonsensical lives that usually occur at the early hours of the morning where Kihyun—either alone or together with whoever decides to either join the live or join Kihyun himself wherever he’s holding it—has free reign to chatter on about whatever he pleases, although most of the time when he’s alone it turns into an impromptu radio hour where he takes the chance to talk about his favourite recent albums & artists, as well as listening to any recommendations his viewers give him. Slowly beginning to recover his streak, GLITCH MODE is seen as another GOOD era for Kihyun.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: MV BEHIND

Kihyun had decided that he was going to properly get into breakdancing during the GLITCH MODE era, and saw no better place than his solo interview moment in the behind-the-scenes video to show off the moves he’d begun to learn. At first he just spoke about how excited he was for the comeback, with Mark hanging off of his back and chiming in with comments of his own here and there, but after a couple minutes of that he was shrugging the leader off of him and telling the camera to “Watch this!” before launching into an impromptu downrock routine while Mark watched on in horror, looking a little like he was on the verge of a seizure even if Kihyun was perfectly fine. He also tried to do a headstand, and by that point Jeno had also wandered over to see what all the fuss was about, and viewers had the pleasure of watching both the leader and captain attempt to stop Kihyun from giving himself a concussion—the latter looking like he was about to burst into tears, and the former looking as if he was seconds away from collapsing.

BEATBOX 2022 BOOMBOXES & MAKESHIFT ENGLISH LESSONS

21, AND, IN HIS WORDS, “IN HIS PRIME,” the vocalist & dancer took to BEATBOX like a duck to water. While it wasn’t a huge favourite of his, he still liked it well enough and had enough fun on both the sets of the music video and all the photoshoots that accompanied the release to make up for it. The choreography was also a favourite for him in particular, and he practised it so much he could be seen absently dancing along to it whenever he stood still for too long in almost all of the extra content both before & after the release. It was practically ingrained in him, all of it coming to him like muscle memory. He swore up and down he could do the BEATBOX choreo tied up and blindfolded by the end of the era, although he was far from complaining, dragging every idol he vaguely knew (and even ones he hadn’t even introduced himself to) to do the challenge with him backstage at all the music shows they attended. Hardly anyone was safe from Kihyun’s pleading eyes and charming smile, and fans joked they’d seen more of Kihyun on TikTok doing dance challenges than they had seen him on any other platform from all of his past eras combined.

He was also noted for his sudden unexpected closeness with Jaemin in the BEATBOX era. While they were far from just acquaintances, and had expressed their shared love for one another multiple times in the past (even after their not-really-fight they’d shared in their trainee years, the story of which Kihyun had retold during a live with Jeno and could barely get though sentences of without laughing at how ridiculous it sounded all those years later), he just seemed a little closer, a little clingier in all of the behind-the-scenes content; hanging off of his arm or dragging im off somewhere to talk about something or other. When asked about it somewhere, he simply shrugged with a big grin on his face. “I just like Jaemin-hyung,” was all he said at the time, but later in an Instagram post of the two on the set of the music video he had written the caption ‘please give me lots of love—and lots of followers too!’ with a whole array of heart emojis to accompany it, to which Jaemin commented with a lot of laughter and promising he’d bring his dongsaeng all the Instagram fame he seemed to desire. Now most definitely building his streak back up, BEATBOX was a GOOD era for Kihyun all-around.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: UNBOXING BEATBOX ALBUM

Sat with Donghyuck, Renjun, and Mark, Kihyun was tearing off the cellophane packaging of the album before the rest could even greet the camera, practically desperate to look through the photobook and (most importantly, so he could add it to his ever-growing collection of all the photocards he owned of his fellow members) see who he’d pulled. He yelled out in delight and brandished his brand-new Jaemin PC at the camera, before almost immediately pulling out his phone and prying off the case to slip it into the back of it (covering up the GLITCH MODE era Mark he’d pulled the last time they’d done an unboxing, much to the leader’s dismay). After that was done with, he started spending an unnecessarily long amount of time pouring over each page of the photobook, trying to think of English adjectives to describe them with and then distracting Mark from his own unboxing in order to get him to whisper them in his ear when he couldn’t think of how to translate them. ‘Hot’ and Jaemin’s practically-trademarked ‘Sexy’ was what he ended up coming out with the most.

CANDY  2022 EARMUFFS & CHRISTMAS KARAOKE

CHRISTMAS AT 21 was a very merry affair for Kihyun. He was as festive as could be, even wrangling Renjun and Jisung into buying a fake tree for their dorm that he decorated in a (very chaotic, and very loud) Christmas live a few days before the release of the EP. That seemed like the extent of his social media updates, though, only really appearing after that in group Twitter posts or lives (or occasionally the background of another member’s picture)—but this wasn’t all bad, seeing as it confirmed to most that he enjoyed the colourful and fun winter concept they were going with for the release. The only other real proper online presence he had was the random flurry of Bubble messages his subscribers would receive concerning his ranting and raving about his personal favourites from H.O.T.’s discography, seeing as he took it upon himself to listen to more of them because it was one of their songs they were remaking. Fans took delight in Kihyun’s wide smiles and overall joyful mannerism as he delivered lines about leaving his partner for another, saying his always-cheerful disposition made his performance of the title track all the more enjoyable.

In behind-the-scenes & extra content, Kihyun’s Christmas spirit felt infectious to viewers. There wasn’t a moment where he wasn’t belting out the lyrics to Christmas classics from all countries (even if he had to hold his phone up to Mark’s face on occasion and get him to help him with the pronunciation of some of the lyrics), or dancing around to something only he could hear in his head, or picking up some of the fake-snow they sprinkled around on a few of their sets and chucking it in Chenle’s face before sprinting in the other direction while the Chinese vocalist immediately gave chase, and the rest could only stand and watch it all play out. Now matching his previous four-long streak, CANDY is agreed to be yet another GOOD era for the vocalist.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: PACKING CANDY ALBUM

He was in Mark, Jisung, and Chenle’s group, and spent most of the time chucking baubles at Chenle, trying to balance the various items placed before them on the table on Jisung’s head & shoulders without him noticing, and steadily making his way through the whole rack of Chupa Chups sitting right beside him unattended rather than doing anything with the actual box in front of him. Mark took over the job for him in the end, leaving him to pretty much do whatever he pleased in the meantime (one of those things was repaying the favour Mark did him by tying him in bows with the ribbon that their boxes had come wrapped in, the leader making faces while he did so but doing absolutely nothing to stop him at the same time).

ISTJ 2023 MBTI FRAUD & IMPULSE DECISIONS

22-YEAR-OLD-KIHYUN was as energetic as ever, full of ideas and eager to get all of them heard. ISTJ was the album where he received the most writing credits, recorded as having helped with the lyrics for all tracks bar Like We Just Met and Blue Wave. Fans liked to see that he was showing a more creative side of himself this era, and that he was vocal about all the things he’d had input in or had helped shape into the final form, polishing it to perfection for their third full album. He was most noticeably supportive in their behind-the-scenes recording videos, where he got through all of his own sessions quickly & efficiently (but with no lack of passion and enthusiasm for the lines he was given—which most were happy to see were more than usual, similar to the WE YOUNG era in terms of numbers, even occasionally soaring a few higher) and then stayed in to listen to all of his other fellow members, cheering them on from behind the glass and dancing around as they recorded, greeting them with a wide hug and endless amounts of praise when they left the booth.

Another thing that was enjoyable for fans was his complete lack of awareness of what an MBTI actually was. He’d heard of them, of course, but he’d never gone as far as to take a test and find out for himself. So Kihyun, curious to see what the fuss was all about, turned on an Instagram live, propped his phone up against his desk, switched his laptop on, and took one there and then. He consulted with viewers about every single one of the questions, taking far too long to complete it than any normal person would-and, when he finally did, disagreeing with his result right up until he saw other people that shared his MBTI. He shut up pretty quick when he scrolled down a little more and saw that he apparently had the same one as Adele, changing his tune almost instantly and saying his result was the best of them all. Officially bumping his longest-running streak up to five, ISTJ was most definitely a GOOD era for Kihyun.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: MV BEHIND

He was clearly in his element, bouncing around from member to member to play with their hair or jump onto their back or whisper something in their ear before bursting out into a fit of snickers and running off again to see who else he could bother. He played photographer for most of their Instagram posts, taking the outtakes or moments where they had an eye closed or just clearly weren’t ready for his own feed, started a playfight with Jisung and nearly tripped himself up on a stray wire in the process, brought his own mini Bluetooth speaker to set one day so he could have a soundtrack while he caused his chaos, and attempted to show off more tricks he was learning, but was quickly stopped by Mark, who, as soon as he saw him getting in position for what looked like a cartwheel of some sort, was rushing over faster than light—his breakdancing routine from the GLITCH MODE era still very much as the forefront of his mind.

DREAM()SCAPE 2024 MOCKTAILS & ODD-LOOKING FRUITS

AGAIN FRESH OFF A BIRTHDAY (HIS 23RD THIS TIME), the vocalist felt just as excited for the release as he had for GLITCH MODE, even if it wasn’t a full album. It was calling back to their debut days, making a statement through all of the symbolism and hidden messages that was louder than any of them could convey with words, and was altogether a project that hoped to show to everyone how strong their bond actually was, to convince the few out there that were of the opposite opinion that they all loved one another throughout the thick and thin their eight years of being an active subunit, and weren’t likely to stop anytime soon. Kihyun was like Jisung in regards to all the fan-theories being made about the teasers, keeping his mouth mostly shut (although some thought that was just because he was barely on social media as it was), but did comment on some things in particular—namely Jeno’s back, the Jaemin trailer that had him locking eyes with the camera even in between a crowd, and the Chenle pill-biting scene. He kept quiet on his own, making brief comments about how cool he thought he looked on Bubble but not saying much otherwise.

The few things he did share about the comeback were mostly about the music. He had writing credits for the majority of the songs, but also had another piece of news that was exciting for him as a longtime personal goal he’d had for a good while—and that was that he’d assisted with the production on one of the tracks. Most that knew Kihyun knew that music production had been one of his interests since he knew what it was, and so naturally that meant they knew what some of his work in the production area actually getting used in an official release would mean to him. He couldn’t have been happier about it, and that happiness was a sentiment both the members and his closer friends outside of Dream shared with him, mentioning it in passing when talking about DREAM()SCAPE. Even if it only just ended, SMOOTHIE is considered yet another—making this his sixth in a row since ‘the dark ages’—GOOD era for Kihyun.

MY  FAVOURITE  MOMENT: DREAM()SCAPE COUPLE SONG MEETING

Amidst all the chaos, Kihyun was surprisingly quiet. He looked half-asleep for most of the meeting; Jamiroquai baseball cap backwards on his head, eyes drooping closed every now and again, and a thick sweater on that he kept pulling closer to himself as if he wanted it to suddenly transform into a blanket. The only thing he did the whole meeting was play Cooking Mama on his phone (we know this because he shared screenshots of his finished dishes on Bubble afterwards) and vouch for Carat Cake—yes, you heard that right, Carat Cake. The song that most of the members bar maybe Donghyuck acted as if it didn’t exist. He didn’t really care if it wasn’t a couple song, and didn’t really care if it didn’t get picked, either—he just wanted it to be known that was where his vote lay. It was his favourite song on the EP, and hoped that somewhere out there there’d be people that liked it just as much as him. At some point in the middle he got bored with both his phone and the arguments still going on in front of him, so he nestled his head in his arms and attempted to have a nap. Which, predictably, didn’t work that well. By the end of it he was still dead tired, still the only one that liked Carat Cake, but also the only one who had three stars on his Cooking Mama carbonara, and so he considered himself the real winner of that meeting.

[fullyinconsequential]

Here’s a 3am Steddie rant I think every Steddie lover (and possibly hater) should hear. I have no goal to convert anyone—just to say that the ship did not actually “come from nothing.” Here’s why:

I don’t understand how there wasn’t Steddie foresight in the writer’s room.

So they play it up in season 3 like Steve just can’t get the girl and when he does she’s not the right girl and yada yada yada—cool beans. I love his character arc with Robin, their friendship, her queerness. I love their entire bathroom interaction.

Specifically: “It’s somebody that I didn’t even talk to in school. Maybe cuz Tommy H. would’ve made fun of me, or I wouldn’t be prom king…. First of all, she’s hilarious. So funny. I feel like this summer I have laughed harder than I have laughed in a really long time. And she’s smart—way smarter than me…. She’s honestly unlike anyone I’ve ever met before.”

Traits Robin Also Has that Eddie Shares:

Outcast

Band Kid

The Witty Banter

Eddie’s personality is VERY Robin. Not perfectly so, but maddeningly close.

Another point:

This is just the same person in different gender specific fonts, A.K.A. Steve’s “love interest” versus a guy who called him “big boy” completely unprompted and interrupted a tender moment between him and his “love interest” and complimented him for an entire scene while Steve wore his clothes.

So, really, one of them’s Steve’s love interest and the other is Nancy Wheeler /hj.

I write a lot, and as someone who both writes and consumes an abhorrent amount of media, whoever wrote this down, casted and costumed this way, and allowed for the interactions between Steve and Eddie to be as nuanced as they were (EX: the scene in which Eddie steps forward like he has more to say to Steve before he goes off and kills himself) had to have known what was going to happen. There is simply no way of not seeing it.

And if they didn’t want people shipping Steddie at the scale which they do, here’s what went wrong:

First: defaulting to Steve wanting his ex back is just plain shitty writing. It means you don’t know where to go with the character anymore, and since you’re certain he’s done all the growing he can do, he’s just gonna double back to the conflict he was in in the FIRST SEASON.

Are you serious right now, bro?

Steve’s arc as a character has been absolutely heartwarming to watch. If anything, he’d have been better off given the “I need to figure out how to be happy on my own” narrative. Throwing him back at Nancy is a cop out, a big one.

Second: Eddie. Throwing Eddie in the mix was absolutely a WILD decision, because he looks like Nancy, he banters like Robin, and GENDER IS NO LONGER A PLAUSIBLE REASON FOR AN AUDIENCE TO DENY CHEMISTRY, OR EXPLAIN IT AWAY. Not in the year of our lord 2023, no sir. Not unless you’re going to explicitly state in some way to an audience that these characters are DEFINITIVELY STRAIGHT. And with Eddie, they went as far off that course as possible.

The outcast stuff. The D&D stuff. The hatred of the system. The mysteriously living with his uncle and not his parents. THE HANKERCHIEF IN HIS BACK POCKET.

So essentially, this is what they did:

They took a beloved character, flubbed over his character arc because they weren’t sure what to do with it.

Then, they created a SECOND beloved character, made him likable, lovable, even, and relatable. Then they gave him half and half personality and looks of Steve’s last two love interests. Then they gave us scenes of them together where they showed chemistry, genuineness, and playfulness.

Then they EXPECTED that we as an audience had enough heteronormativity left as a society to say—oh, those two guys aren’t flirting with each other even a little bit because they’re two guys and obviously that doesn’t happen.

WHEN IN THE SAME SEASON WE WATCHED WILL AND ROBIN GO GAY PANIC AND DESPAIR LIKE?????

Pick a side pick a side, are your characters fucking gay or is your audience fucking blind?

Point being, I have some friends IRL who don’t really get this. They think Steve and Eddie hardly interacted enough for there to be romance at all, but I think it’s less about how much they interacted and more about the (unintentional) set up they were given by the writers.

Steve’s a truly beloved character and I don’t know on ST fan that wants to see him just end up back with Nancy Wheeler like his entire character arc was just to “get the girl” and “have six kids.” Which he already has by the way.

Anyway, that’s just my two cents. I’m not advocating for anyone to ship them, I’m just saying it’s honestly a perfectly logical conclusion to make, especially if you CARE about Steve as a character, you know? We want him to be with someone genuine, someone who challenges him to be better, to be different than he was. Nancy couldn’t handle doing that. Robin could, but they’re platonic af.

So why wouldn’t it be Eddie?

Rest in peace, by the way. You would’ve loved this text post.

[karaspal]

jon’a age up genuinely becomes a good story once you start looking at it as a metaphor. like grant morrison said, superman has normal problems on bigger scales. and this story is meant to represent growing up. there are three angles i’d like to point out.

nightwing (2016) #103

the first, and most obvious, is the feeling of growing up too quickly. it goes hand to hand with the regret of not doing enough reckless, fun things while you had the freedom to. a lot of people, especially in current years, feel like they’ve missed out on the teen experience. it’s usually due to mental health struggles and not having the energy to - the volcano represents that. a prison that holds jon and stops him from enjoying his youth.

superman (2018) #7

the second angle is from a parent’s point of view. parents usually feel like the time they spend with their kid flies by too quick. lois and clark saw jon being a happy 10-year-old and just three weeks later, he was 17 years old. this is a representation of the “they grow up too fast”. although, in their case, they do grow up too fast indeed.

action comics (2016) #1038

the most overlooked and, in my opinion, interesting angle is the portrayal of the distance that grows between the kid and their parents during their teen years. being a teenager is hard enough, but having parents who don’t understand your struggles makes it even worse. those are the years you develop your own self, instead of mimicking your parents. it’s a period of self-discovery. sometimes, parents are understanding and helpful. sometimes, they refuse to accept you are your own person so in their head, you stay the last age they liked you. this disconnect, where parents cling to an idealized version of their child, often leads them to ignore the teenager's struggles. and in doing so, a rift forms in the relationship.

it isn’t exactly like this with clark and jon, of course. had jon grew up with his folks, clark would’ve been more than happy to help his son navigate finding his true self. but jon didn’t. in clark’s eyes, he went from 10 to 17 in a matter of weeks. it’s hard to understand your son when suddenly he isn’t the kid who followed you around all the time anymore. when clark is wounded, he dreams of jon as a kid. it’s how he sees him still. and that’s not fair to jon, who is very much not that kid anymore.

mere weeks before that, jon begged clark to stay, but clark reassured him it’s fine. he couldn’t see how much jon truly was struggling. jon didn’t want clark to stay because he is superman, he wanted clark to stay because he needed his dad.

and clark tries to be a good dad, he does. and jon wants them to be close again, he wants nothing more. but the first step in mending their relationship is to accept it could never go back to the way it was. this is a time long passed, and they have to find a new footing in their relationship.

i’m sure there are more angles to this story, but those are the three i see. it’s not the best story, but once you looked at it as a metaphor and not a literal story, it becomes better.

[cellarspider]

19/30 A quiet moment

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We return to a movie that has monetarily developed a sense of childlike wonder, Prometheus.

You would think a movie about reaching out to aliens that created humanity would contain more of that, but this scene is all there is, mocking me eternally. This entry will be image-heavy and light on main text. Check the image alt-text for secondary analysis, should it interest you.

Y’know what’s a great movie? Contact.

[Video description: A trailer for the movie Contact. It’s a dense 2:27, and has good audio coverage of what’s going on. In fact, the audio design is impeccable. Whoever made this trailer was damn good at their job.]

Based on a novel by Carl Sagan and directed by Robert Zemeckis before he descended into uncanny motion capture hell, Contact is a thoughtful science fiction drama that follows a scientist searching for extraterrestrial life who receives Earth’s first message from space. It deals with disagreements around religion, and whether it’s compatible with the pursuit of science and wonder at the natural world. It deals with the messiness of human response to this situation, but ultimately ends on a hopeful note. But before it gets there, it can be eerie and tense, both from the ambiguity of the aliens’ intentions, and what humans might do to each other in response to the mere possibility of the signal being real.

Y’know what would’ve been a great horror movie? Precisely that premise, adapted to the Alien setting. Dedicated and marginalized and thoughtful people who devote themselves to reaching out to the stars, slowly learning that what they find there might be wondrous, but it is also unfathomably destructive.

This scene is the only one that captures something of that feeling. David goes off alone to investigate a sign of life elsewhere in the ship. He finds thousands of dormant urns, the promise of horrific destruction. And he finds what seems to be the command center of the ship. He’s dwarfed by the scale of it, looking like a child sitting behind the wheel of a car. And with a little prodding, he activates a hologram that shows the Engineers before everything went wrong.

He watches in complete silence, taking everything in, reveling in the swirling patterns of the ship’s star map, reaching out and catching a weightless little hologram of the Earth in his hands like a soap bubble. Its meaning is sinister, but the sheer experience of the moment is beautiful.

And then the hologram cuts out, drawing attention to a single stasis pod, where a still-living Engineer lies dormant.

This is the best scene in the movie. It wordlessly conveys the kind of wonder and joy of discovery the way the rest of the movie’s failed to do, it conveys information about the stakes and dire intentions of the Engineers in a non-explicit manner that could logically flow into the rest of the plot without clunky exposition, and it adds a further twist to what’s going to happen next.

David has just discovered that the Engineers were preparing to go to Earth, two thousand years ago. They were bringing death with them. One of them still lives. And David smiles. 

This is a fragment of a much better film, lodged deep in the runtime of Prometheus. It’s followed immediately by Holloway’s death, which failed to inspire much response in me at all, but this moment was beautiful. 

And next time, we’ll get to the best piece of horror in the movie. We have reached the summit of Prometheus. We’ll be tumbling back down the slopes soon enough, but for now, let’s enjoy this.

Citations for alt-text rambles:

https://youtu.be/uhHIM-1IZ_4 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Axial_tilt

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[usmsgutterson]

This might be a bit untypical but would you be down to write a kaz x reader oneshot with reader gettinf hanahaki disease 👀 i love your writing and i love angst so might as well ask 😭

The Rain- K.B x gn! reader

Okay, this request was really fun because hanahaki has never been something I've ever actually written (I found it intimidating until I wrote this fic) but I had a blast! I too am a lover of angst and I hope that this packs a bit of a tearful punch for those in need of a good cry lol.

Fic type- angst

Warnings-mentions of vomiting/sickness, a mention of a cough, a mention of a concussion (nina threatens to throw kaz against a wall and a concussion is brought up)

It’d started six months after you realized you were in love with Kaz Brekker. Petals would start coming up as you coughed, having developed what you’d thought to be a cold. 

You dismissed it at first. You’d thought that it couldn’t be, there was no way that the feelings you felt for Kaz ran so deep, were so intense, that the mere fact that the feelings were unrequited would’ve triggered something like Hanahaki Disease. It just wasn’t possible.

But, over the next few months, it grew worse. One or two petals remained the same, but you grew to see them more frequently. You grew sicker and sicker, coughing up petals every single day, until you couldn’t hide it from the crows anymore. 

“I’ve heard of it,” Jesper said with an understanding nod. “Wylan thought it to be interesting. He wanted to find an antidote, and as a result, I’ve been hearing plenty about the disease for the past three months. He thinks he’s close, if that’s any consolation.”

“It stems from unrequited love, doesn’t it?” Nina asked. You were sitting with the two of them across from you, Inej sat to your right, in a booth at the Kooperom. It was early morning, the sun having risen and the day having begun. 

You gave a weak nod, and Ninas eyes turned pitiful instantly. 

“It’s Kaz, isn’t it?” Jesper asked. “If it is, then maybe your love isn’t unrequited. Maybe he’s just too emotionally constipated to realize that he might just love you as you do him.” 

“It’s been nine months,” you said. “I don’t know how much longer I have. I can’t keep waiting for him to realize that he might—I just can’t. The longest someone with Hanahaki has lived has been a decade, and that was only a one off. There’s no cure for this, I have to die in pain because I fell for someone I can’t have.” 

Inej took your hand, gave it a squeeze as you rested your head against her shoulder, fighting off tears at the thought of it.

It was true, though. The lifespan for people with Hanahaki Disease could be anywhere from two to eight years. It was less than a thousand days of sickness or barely less than three thousand, and you couldn’t figure out which sounded worse. Dying early and sick or dying with an additional eight years tacked onto your life but having barely been able to function after the sixth, likely being bedridden past the seventh.

“You can try to move on,” she said. “You can find someone new, or you can do what Jesper and I are doing. You can hope that Kaz Brekker is just a fool enough to have not realized he feels the same. You’re nine months in. You have at least another fifteen. Let yourself be hopeful until you’re down to a year left on the minimum scale.” 

Nina reached out, took your other hand, and Jesper gave you a sad grin. “Mind if I tell Wylan? Maybe get him to start devoting more time to antidote?”

You gave a wordless nod, took a deep breath in an effort to stop the tears before they came. 

“We’ll find a way,” Jesper said. 

“I will throw him against a wall,” Nina offered. “Give him a concussion, hope it makes him see sense.” 

You managed a laugh, hoping that a cough wouldn’t come from it and swallowing back the the petal you felt come up when a cough came to fruition. You were lucky to have the friends you did. You knew that. You’d always known that.

-

“Yeah,” you said, shrugging as you walked into Kaz’s office. “Sorry. I’ve been sick lately.”

“Nina mentioned it,” Kaz said with a nod. “Wylan was glowering at me when she did, too. I noticed you’ve been looking sickly lately but I figured it wasn’t my place to ask.”

“It’s not,” you said, heading straight to the kettle Kaz had kept in his office. “I mean—you don’t need to concern yourself with it, is all. It was terrible for about a year, but it’s been getting better recently.” 

A lie, of course. It was getting worse everyday, and you’d only looked so healthy because you’d called in a tailor and a healer to see what could be done. The tailor had made you look like the person you were before the sickness kicked in, and the healer lessened the effects. You’d gone from vomiting halves of flowers to vomiting a petal or two every few hours, reminiscent of how you were when it started. 

“You’ll be useful on jobs again, then. Good to know.” Part of you wanted to punch him in the face, and the other part knew that the idea of a job was exactly why you’d gone to see him. You missed the jobs, the ones you were too sick to take part in throughout that year. The healer had given you another year, at least. Six more months would surpass until you got sick and could no longer work. 

“Yeah. I want in on the next one.” 

“Consider it done,” Kaz said as you poured the hot water into a mug and added two teabags to it. “Let me guess, you came round to steal one of my mugs, make your demand, and then go?” 

You coughed into your elbow, feeling the petals land on your coat sleeve and adjusting before Kaz could notice them. 

“Of course I did, Brekker,” you said. “Why else?” 

Kaz paused, not knowing what to say.

“Because I’ve—” he’d what? Missed your company? Missed seeing your face everyday, talking to you, listening to the sound of your voice? Missed the sound of your laughter, the sharpness of your wit, the distinctive way his heart flittered when he would catch sight of your eyes in the glint of the sun? The distinctive way his heart flittered, the way which he’d long grown used to ignoring because love was weakness to him? “Nothing. Nothing.” 

You scoffed. “Of course it’s nothing,” you said as you moved to leave.

Kaz shrugged, saying nothing as he watched you go.

-

You’d had a lot less time than you’d thought. Three months later, when Wylan had thought he’d finally found an antidote, Inej had found you, sound asleep in your bed at the Slat, your pulse gone. 

The first person she told was Nina, and then she made it to the Van Eck mansion and told Wylan and Jesper. 

She delivered the news to Kaz last, informing him he’d have to find a replacement for the heist you were due to join them on when the crew left a week later because you’d died of Hanahaki disease.

There was a funeral, of course. It was a small one, just Nina, Wylan, Jesper, Matthias, Inej and Kaz. Your body was cremated, a small headstone placed in the cemetery close to Black Veil, and your ashes blended with soil so that your body could return to the ground and take root in the earth. 

The soil was used in the memorial garden Jesper and Wylan had started, the one that Inej visited daily and helped maintain in the dry summers, the one that made Nina burst into tears the minute she saw it through an open window.

Jesper and Wylan had long grown used to seeing Matthias' version of the same, the deflation of his shoulders and sad look in his eyes when he realized that the garden was the one with your ashes

One thing that Jesper noticed about Kaz was that, whenever he was over and the garden came into his sights, he looked remorseful. Like he’d known that you’d died and it’d technically been his fault. 

He could never keep his eyes on it for too long, Jesper observed. He would always snap his gaze away after a few moments and would blink rapidly like he was fending off an expression of genuine emotion. It made Jesper scoff whenever he noticed it, but in the end, all that mattered was that you were where you wanted to be.

In a garden, amongst your favorite flowers, soaking up the sun when it came around and the rain you’d loved so dearly when it fell.

[herofics]

Dabi Dragon AU, part 3

A/N: I got a request on wattpad for more of the dragon AU I started about a half a year ago. You guys can find the first part here and the second part here. A bit more angsty stuff this time around

Dabi wasn’t really sure why he was staying. He’d never really taken an interest in anyone other than himself, so why you? What was so special about some little human? He was well aware of the fact that he had proclaimed you as his, which you didn’t really seem to take seriously.

He wanted to do something that would show you he wasn’t kidding when he told you that you were his. Maybe a gift would do the trick? It would take him a while to get back to his lair in the mountains, but he could make it back before sundown if he made haste.

“I’ll be back before sundown” Dabi suddenly announced as he walked out the door.

“Where are you-” your question was cut off by the sound of huge wings flapping. “Going?” you finished as you watched him disappear into the sky.

You just sighed. Hopefully he wasn’t going to steal from the king again.

A few hours later, just before sundown, there was a knock on the door of your cabin. You went to open it, not really being sure who it could be, since if it had been Dabi, he would’ve just kicked the door open.

As you opened your door, you saw there was a band of men standing in front of you.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” you inquired, having a bad feeling about the whole thing.

They were looking at you with such cold eyes. So much hatred from someone you didn’t even know was unnerving to say the least.

“You’re the one that has been harboring that dragon, are you not?” the leading man asked.

You swallowed nervously, as you started to close the door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I live alone”

“We know you’re hiding that wretched creature, you evil witch!” one of the men yelled.

The leader of the band forced the door open and the men pushed their way into your cabin.

“There’s no one else here, see!” you exclaimed as the men looked around the room.

“There are dragon scales on the bed” one of the men gasped.

“You’ve spread your legs for that monster, you whore! If we can’t have the dragon’s head, we’ll just take yours instead"

The rest of the men agreed, and you were dragged outside, kicking and screaming.

You were terrified, more scared than you’d ever been in your life. You were trying to get free from their grasp, but the two men that were dragging you just hit you to get you to stop. They tied your hands behind your back and pushed your head down on the block you chopped your wood on.

“Please don’t! I haven’t done anything! I haven’t done anything wrong!” you pleaded, crying as they held your head down and one of the men took out an axe.

“Nonononononono, please don’t!” you begged as he raised the axe.

You were going to die, you were sure of that. There was no one coming to save you, and in the end, like most of your life, you were alone. You didn’t want to die, you had so many things to do, so many places to see.

You weren’t even sure what made you do it, but as a last act of desperation, you screamed: “Dabi! Help me!”

There was a huge gust of air, and the men around you backed away. The one holding the axe dropped it in his panic and when it fell, it cut your cheek.

“The dragon! It’s here!” one of the men yelled.

You raised your head from the block and saw Dabi. He was standing behind you in his dragon form, his tail wrapping around you protectively. You started crying even harder, moving closer to him to feel safer.

Dabi was fuming, literally and figuratively. There was smoke coming out of the corners of his maw, he looked ready to kill.

Dabi roared and spewed fire at the men, who had raised their swords and axes towards him. They deserved to die for doing this to you, and he was going to kill them all, until he saw you looking at him with a terrified expression. He didn’t want to add to your fear, but he also wasn’t going to let these goons get away unscathed.

The men ended up fleeing, wounded, but alive, and when he was sure they were gone, he transformed back into his human-ish form.

He slashed open the ropes with his claws and the moment he did that, your legs gave out.

“You okay?” he asked, immediately realizing what a stupid question that was.

You were just sitting on the ground, crying quietly.

“Alright, c’mere” Dabi said and picked you up from the ground, throwing you over his shoulder. You didn’t even protest, which only added to his worry and anger.

He carried you into the cabin, and set you down on the bed. You were quite clearly in shock, and he needed to do something to bring you out of it.

“(Name), look at me” he commanded sternly but softly.

You raised your head and Dabi saw the cut on your cheek, still slowly dripping with blood. You were teary eyed and looked terrified.

“I’m never gonna let anyone hurt you again” Dabi hissed, still very much pissed off at the men.

“I-I was-I was so scared” you sniffled.

“We need to do somethin about that wound…” Dabi said, turning your head so he could get a better look at the cut.

Dabi wasn’t exactly well versed in wound care. He didn’t really need it nowadays anyway, being a super fast healing dragon and all, and back in the days of his youth someone else always did it for him.

“I need you not to freak out, okay?” Dabi said as he knelt down in front of you and grabbed your chin.

“Why-why would I-” you were interrupted by Dabi licking your cheek along the cut.

You looked at him, quite frankly shocked at what he just did.

Dabi was looking at you, searching your expression for signs of anger or disgust, but none of that seemed to be present.

“What-what’d you do that for?” you stammered, raising your hand to your cheek.

The wound had stopped bleeding and seemed to have mostly closed up.

“Huh?” you muttered.

“I heard dragon spit helps wounds heal, but I wasn’t sure if it was true. Now it looks like it won’t even leave a scar” Dabi smirked with a very self-satisfied expression, brushing his thumb over your cheek.

“Thanks?” you muttered.

There was a moment of silence between you as Dabi paced in front of you, and you could see that he was still filled with rage.

“I’m goin to kill those bastards” Dabi finally hissed.

“Please don’t” you said quietly.

“Why the hell not? They tried to kill you” Dabi snarled.

“They’re just scared, they don’t know you like I do”

“And their ignorance justifies them tryin to kill you?!” Dabi raised his voice.

“No, but-”

“You’re too damn kind to people who don’t deserve it. I’m goin to make sure they never hurt you again” Dabi said, heading for the door.

You sprung up from the bed and wrapped your arms around him from behind, just under his chest, which made him freeze in place.

“I don’t want you to get hurt too” you whispered against his back. “It’s not worth it”

“You’re worth it” Dabi said quietly.

He wasn’t even really aware of what he was doing as the end of his tail wrapped around your calf. You noticed it of course, but you didn’t say anything.

For a while you just stood there, your arms wrapped around him and his tail wrapping itself around your leg. You didn’t want to let him go, because you knew if you did, he would kill those men. He didn’t need anymore blood on his hands, especially not because of you.

Dabi wasn’t sure if he was going to give up on going after those bastards, but for now he would just stay with you. He wouldn’t let you out of his sight again. You were his, and no one was going to hurt you again.

[lavareview]

x - x - x

MODEL: THE ALADDIN

(Note: this model's name was spelled "Alladin" in catalogs. However, collectors have mostly taken to referring to it as the Aladdin, and I prefer to stick to the typical English spelling of the folk tale.)

Brand: Lava Lite

Introduced: 1975

Discontinued: Unclear, though the lamp no longer appears in a 1979 catalogue.

Base and cap colors: brass

Wax colors: orange, red, green

Fluid colors: clear, yellow, blue

Size: height 16” or 14”, diameter 9”

The 1970s were a time of innovative and out-there designs for the Lava Lite brand. Models of the 1960s established iconic shapes which would be iterated on over the years, and from the 1980s onward, the brand’s new offerings would focus on color and pattern variety as well as lamps with more classical shapes but featuring sculpted and highly decorated bases. In the 70s, though, interesting silhouettes were what made new designs stand out, and I think none is more emblematic of this design ethos than the Aladdin.

The Aladdin is an example of a high-concept lava lamp that does not rely on gimmicky detailing and patterns to get its core idea across. In a way, the Aladdin just makes sense – for what lava lamps are, the Aladdin feels like an inevitability. What is a lava lamp if not the idea of a magical lamp? It remains notable that the Aladdin preceeds the Disney movie – if it had not already been made, maybe it would’ve come out in the 90s.

The Aladdin originally retailed for $29.99. Aladdin lava lamps can occasionally be found on second-hand sites, where they usually sell for anywhere from $150 to $700.

MY REVIEW:

It feels like the Aladdin should be a lamp one has a strong opinion on. Is it magical, or gimmicky? Is it pleasantly quirky or over-designed? Is it timeless or dated? When I look at the Aladdin, I think I should either love it or hate it… But I don’t. I don���t think I’m a huge fan of it, really – I’m certainly not interested in acquiring one – but it also doesn’t verge into gaudiness enough to fully turn me off it. Simply put: I’m pretty ambivalent about the Aladdin, even though I tend to have pretty strong ideas about lava lamp designs.

I also feel I should have a set opinion on the cultural background of its design. At times the Aladdin feels somewhat awkwardly orientalist. Obviously, the lamp is based on Arabian oil lamps, and the name refers to the SWANA folk tale. Is turning this type of lamp (and choosing this particular name) into a cheap consumer product in poor taste? I’m not sure about that either; I can’t manage to really be offended by the Aladdin, at least not more than I am charmed by it. I seem to always be of two minds regarding the Aladdin.

SILHOUETTE: 7/10

My ambivalence towards the Aladdin means I’m not particularly enthusiastic about its silhouette, but I think it may be more important to judge it based on what it’s trying to achieve, and not simply on whether I think it’d look good in my bedroom. And as far as its design intent goes, the Aladdin does pretty well. The shape of the lamp is immediately recognizeable and unique. You could probably guess its name just by glancing at it.

On the other hand, I also think more care could have been put into the design. If you take a look at the traditional type of lamp the Aladdin imitates, you’ll find what I think is a much more elegant shape: far from a stout, round base with a short spout – which is almost more similar to an occidental teapot – these lamps usually have elongated silhouettes and long, curving spouts, which give them a far more refined look. In comparison, the Aladdin looks a lot less elegant and more clumsy.

One example of an Arabian-style oil lamp

Still – you can recognize the inspiration so evidently that the silhouette still works. It’s also worth considering that making the lamp longer could have also required scaling it up, and making it any bigger would not have made it more graceful.

DETAILS: 9/10

The Aladdin, like other Lava Lite lamps of the era, does without much detailing. In a way, it maintains a degree of simplicity and sparsity of design. Again comparing it to its inspirations, the oil lamps it is based on are usually much more decorated, with varied and intricate carvings. Does that mean the Aladdin should have emulated them, though? Ultimately, I don’t think so. With the colorful lava globe being its visual focal point, a lot of extra detailing would have made it look crowded – and I think what would have likely been a poor imitation of traditional Arabian designs would have thrown the lamp squarely into “too orientalist for comfort”.

Though, while the sparse design of the Aladdin works for it, the fact its spout and handle are black and don’t match the base is a faux-pas in my book. It makes them look like last-minute add-ons, rather than whole parts of the lamp. I think I’d have given the Aladdin full points here if those elements matched the brass of the base.

COLORWAYS: 8/10

The Aladdin only came in three colorways, all of them with a brass base: clear liquid/red wax, yellow liquid/orange wax, and green liquid/blue wax.

I think the choice to only include a brass base and cap makes sense: I think only a gold color would have also made sense, and it wouldn't have been different enough from the brass color to really need including.

As far as the globe goes, the different colorways of the lamp work well for what it’s doing. The colors all fit with the Arabian inspiration of the design, and I think they also work in evoking the idea of a genie’s magical form trapped within the glass globe. Still – a few additional colorways would have been welcome. I've seen a few custom Aladdins featuring purple wax, which I think is a good idea. I would have also liked to see a yellow liquid/red wax version; something including either pink wax or pink liquid would have also been lovely.

POWER: 6/10

Once again, I’m a bit conflicted here. The Aladdin should be really powerful, right? With a rather simple design, it evokes such a clear, defined vision! It almost tells a story simply by existing. But then again – why do I feel so lukewarm about it? When I think of those really impactful lava lamp designs, those that stay with me even when I’ve never had the chance to see them in the flesh, this is simply not one that comes to mind. Ultimately, the Aladdin just doesn’t have the kind of powerful draw I find in other unique designs such as the Wizard or the Fluidium.

MY FINAL LAVA SCORE: 7.5/10

Is my information wrong? Did I miss a detail? Do you have a better picture of this model? Is there another model you’d like me to look into? Please send me an ask or submit relevant pictures!

[my-coven-is-claudia]

Power in the Rue Royal Household

in the aftermath of reunifying their family unit, a power struggle emerges between claudia and lestat as they struggle to get along and adjust.

this scene opens with louis attempting to reason with a disgruntled claudia, who, understandably, is still enraged by and distrustful of lestat due to his assault of louis. louis himself is the designated mediator between the two, hoping that this is just a crack in their relationship that can easily be plastered over. however, this optimism blinds him to how harmful this environment is for not only him but claudia as well.

louis feels this is the only option for them in order to escape vampire loneliness, unable to imagine a reality without lestat or claudia by his side. and as claudia still loves and cares for louis, she sticks by him even as she is urged to make peace with the man she hates the most. however, this only strains their relationship. furthermore, they both (but especially louis) tiptoe around what exactly drove this wedge between claudia and lestat, only hazily referring to the incident. both know full well why claudia would be angry having to live under the same roof as lestat but there is an unsaid acknowledgment between the two not to explicitly talk about it, likely in fear of tipping the scales of their already precarious environment.

in an attempt to soothe claudia, louis reminds her that lestat has been teaching her chess and the piano, emphasising lestat’s supposed importance in the family and being an example of how he’s acted cordial towards claudia. however, she retorts by bringing up how lestat hasn’t taught her an important vampire skill.

louis tries to defend lestat, telling claudia that the cloud gift is something you either have or you don’t have only for claudia to not believe him.

at first, claudia’s distrust of lestat may seem unreasonable as both us the viewers and louis know that the cloud gift cannot be taught but claudia only has reason to be skeptical of lestat and is therefore suspicious of this claim.

a key reason for why claudia left in the first place is due to her feeling overly sheltered and suppressed living with louis and lestat. her main desire was to seek emancipation from her fathers and find other vampires that may actually teach her about vampire history and what it takes to survive which neither louis and lestat could provide. lestat is especially guilty of this considering his years of experience and knowledge of the great laws, barely disclosing any form of information outside of basic facts about vampiric nature. furthermore, claudia and louis have only just been able to convince lestat to reveal the details of his turning and who his maker is, which even claudia is skeptical of.

with all of this said claudia has every right and reason to distrust whatever comes out of lestat’s mouth. he hid things from her before and he could very well be doing it again.

cue! lestat enters stage right!

earlier on, claudia and louis had requested lestat to get rid of antoinette and in this scene he returns with evidence of his disposing of her.

however, considering it’s later revealed that lestat actually did not kill antoinette, this attempt at reconciliation reveals itself as merely performative. if lestat was actually interested in rebuilding his relationship with louis and claudia, he would’ve gotten rid of her a long time ago, and especially not with need to be prompted. this also suggests he does not see the issue with him keeping a mistress which is especially revealing about his believed position in the family considering louis has not looked at another man in nearly thirty years since jonah. lestat views his relationship with antoinette not as something that blocks him from rejoining their family but instead a requirement that louis and claudia must accept in order to sustain a relationship with him.

before continuing let’s take a step back to analyse the blocking and costuming featured in this scene.

firstly, lestat is positioned so that he practically towers over louis and claudia, looking down at them as they kneel before him. this creates an overpowering feeling, making lestat seem as if he is the one in control here. claudia and louis almost appear like children in this scene, appearing small and puny in comparison to lestat’s powerful stance.

this is further emphasised by the costuming in this scene. louis and claudia are both in more casual and relaxed clothing, dressed in what appears to bed-wear, clothed in robes. moreover, their clothing is warm and colourful, reflective of the vibrant palette of the townhouse itself. in contrast, lestat is fitted in formal attire, dressed in a drab navy that heavily juxtaposes with the saturated interior of the room. this helps to bring attention to his presence during this scene, making him stand out more. this subtly presents lestat as a powerful and dominating figure.

near the end of this scene, lestat notes how they should get the mantle fixed but claudia protests against this.

to which claudia states the most explicit reference to why there is so much tension amongst the three; the domestic violence scene that took place at the end of 1x05. throughout this scene there is a tense air in the room, even before lestat’s entrance. no one is willing to speak about or even think about what happened, why their family has fallen apart, why their home has transformed into a prison, because if they did it might reveal that there is no fixing this. the mantle cannot be fixed.

whilst lestat wants to erase his actions, claudia stands firm in remembering the damage that he has caused. she is the one who breaks this unspoken agreement and reminds us why their household has fallen apart. there is a snide tone in claudia’s voice as she says this, clearly sick and tired of acting hospitable towards lestat and is unafraid to be confrontational with him.

while we know that lestat is ashamed of and remorseful for his actions, at this point he is still unwilling to do the work needed to meaningfully reconcile his relationship with claudia. this is conveyed via his inability to understand why claudia may want to keep the damaged mantle. the mantle not only acts as a physical reminder of his harm towards louis but it’s presence acts as one of the only avenues of power that claudia can hold over lestat. by maintaining a constant reminder of his actions, claudia hopes that this will force him to fully face the severity of his actions. stuck in the body of a 14 year old, not even strong enough to turn someone, this is the only power claudia is able to wield and therefore it is no shock that she resists lestat’s efforts to rid this reminder of the pain and suffering he caused her and louis. her quick wits and resistance to manipulation are all that she has and she is going to cling onto that no matter what. she will never be his little plaything ever again.

all of these elements combined create a picture with lestat framed as the head of the household. the power lestat holds is crucial to acknowledge in order to understand the dynamics between the three. lestat’s position as the strongest vampire, the main source of income and the one with the most social standing as a white man situates him as structurally the most powerful out of the three. the horror of this scene and the majority of season 1 derives from this immense power disparity between lestat and louis and claudia and how he weaponises it in order to get what he wants.

the lie that lestat upholds is that this home is a family when that couldn’t be further from the truth: it is a cage.

[fravenwood]

[Book Review] The Priory of the Orange Tree

This review is as spoiler free as possible!

Book Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Author: Samantha Shannon

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date: 26 February 2019

ISBN: 9781635577921

Introduction:

Hi! Today’s book is The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon! Fantasy is my genre of choice for most reading and writing, and this book has been on my radar for a while. A standalone epic fantasy novel with strong characters, worldbuilding, LBTQ+ rep, and…dragons? Yes, please!

Plot Summary:

The Priory of the Orange tree follows the events of a grim fantasy world. About one thousand years prior to the beginning of the novel, there was a fire dragon (or wyrm, in the novel) known as the Nameless One. He was prophesied to return one day and destroy the world, infecting all humans with a disease known as the red sickness. We start by following the story of Tané the dragonrider, but we are soon introduced to Niclays the alchemist, Ead the spy, and Arteloth the messenger as our other POV characters. Each of them has unique goals and character arcs, and everything wraps up really nicely in the end. A breath of fresh air compared to many modern fantasy novels wishing to be the next Game of Thrones with massive cliffhangers and no resolution.

Characters:

Oh, Miduchi Tané. There’s a lot more to delve into about her backstory, but she doesn’t get a lot of attention during the plot. She makes a mistake in the beginning of the book, one that ultimately defines her path throughout the story—but she definitely has the least amount of thought and care put into her.

Niclays Roos has a bit more going on. He wants to create the Elixir of Life, a pursuit first given to him by Queen Sabran of the kingdom of Inys. He was cast out to an island after failing to provide it to her, and he decided to continue trying to create it only to deny her its power. An interesting premise, and backed up by a past relationship that gets further explored throughout the novel.

Ead Duryan is by far my favorite character, and I suspect Samantha Shannon’s as well. She gets the most attention, and her storyline is the only one related directly to the book’s title. Working as a spy for an organization known as the Priory, she seeks to protect Queen Sabran Berethnet at all costs. There is a legend that this royal bloodline must continue to prevent the Nameless One from returning. Her arc of learning to live in Inys and being pulled between life there and her duties as a member of the Priory is the most compelling in the novel.

If Ead wasn’t the best character, it would’ve been Arteloth Beck. He is sent away on false pretenses of an important espionage mission to separate him and Sabran. Evidently, the two are too close, and people worried they might be rizzing it up. This is a problem for those who wish to weaken the queen. Along the way he has significant growth, and his character traits are intriguing and complex.

Writing Style:

The prose in this book is beautiful. There are a few times where it comes across as a little infodump-y, but for the most part Samantha Shannon writes a vivid tale and somehow never runs out of steam through this chonker of a book. She uses lovely descriptive writing, being sure to bring each location to life. Aside from a few clunky dialogue lines or expository paragraphs, this novel’s writing is what really sucked me in.

Themes:

There are several themes in this book that deal with relevant social issues or moral questions. Whether or not someone is a good or bad person based on their past comes up multiple times, as does the issue of bodily autonomy for women. LGBTQ+ representation is also high in this book, a wonderful change from the norm in adult fantasy. It never felt forced, nor did it feel out of place. There are also great themes of perseverance, courage, the typical fantasy themes.

What I Liked:

The scale of the plot is massive, and the characters are still somehow lovable in their own ways. Even lesser-developed side characters have so much charm. The way Samantha Shannon brings them to life is unparalleled! There are lots of fun twists and turns, and those twists have turns themselves. I’m also a sucker for the “dragons were gone but they’re coming back” trope, and she executes it really well. The political sphere felt fully realized and imaginative, and the magic system takes the classic fire versus water idea and takes it in a fresh direction.

What Could Be Improved:

As previously mentioned, I could tell which characters were her favorites and that wasn’t necessarily a great thing. There were exposition moments that dragged on, and sometimes the pace was a little too slow or fast. Tané’s storyline in particular was odd, because the dragonriding thread should’ve been one of the most fun. Unfortunately, we rarely see her riding a dragon because the plot keeps throwing conflicts at her that prevents it.

Conclusion:

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a great fantasy novel. Beautiful prose, colorful characters, a lifelike world and gripping plot threads make this a must read for fans of fantasy and adventure.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5

[1neverendingstories1]

Oh yeah, I have a lot to say. Any-Man: Quantumania spoilers

This.

Okay. I love the first Ant-Man movie. It’s a comfort film, it’s what made me watch the rest of the MCU. So you can imagine my utter lack of enthusiasm when I was told that quantumania was going to be large scale. Scott, is small scale. He just wants to be a good dad to Cassie and ogle at all the handsome guys he sees when he meets up with avengers.

He’s a light character. He’s optimistic. He’s the comedic relief in every guest star he’s in. His lightness works so well to keep people, viewer and villain alike, underestimating him. It has always been used to give him the upper hand both emotionally and intellectually.

Knowing this? Makes Kang’s introduction—because that’s what this really is, Kang The Conqueror not He Who Remains, is why this movie was made—all the more perfect. Well, it would’ve been had the writers given it the chance that was so clearly there, had they tried to give it focus.

Kang was mostly a mysterious figurehead who spoke of horrors and wars and destroyed little children’s worlds like Slyvie’s for the “sacred timeline” with just the promise of more of his destruction if variations were allowed. That is what I’ve always considered to be his Thanos introduction. His single appearance in Loki was Kang’s version of the multiple teasers throughout phases 1-3 that Thanos had. It was faster, more efficient and more powerful because it told you exactly what he is capable of without making you figure it out or wait. It told you he is the end, no half of the universe no half of our heroes will survive. He did it all in a single episode. He did it all to make you know, so when we next see him we can feel.

Kang and Scott are extreme contrasts. They are light and dark personified. Their power difference (“you’re out of your league”) is so severe that they don’t just belong in the same fight they don’t belong in the same movie. And that’s exactly why Scott was the perfect person to introduce Kang.

Scott, while incredibly intelligent and did outsmart the forced field Kang set up, and did destroy the power source, is physically helpless to Kang. He was stepped on, broken and bloodied in just a few seconds under Kang’s strength. Just his body’s strength. And as Scott was forced to ground Kang looked at him in pity. Kang pitied the man he was killing because it was, laughably, inevitable. Scott has no way of winning. He knew that and said so himself. He knew the only way to get rid of Kang was to lose, for them both to lose and—isn’t that a thought. “Our hero was entirely helpless, he could only get rid of Kang if he also lost, are all our hero’s going to be helpless? Lose everything to Kang. Is that the only way to be rid of him?” This is how it should’ve felt at the end of quantumania to properly build the foundation for phase 5.

These two would’ve been able to bring the full fright and might of the upcoming Kang Dynasty had marvel let the movie be an Ant-Man movie. Quantamania should have been allowed to be like it’s previous two in the franchise and been a comedy, had focused on what made this franchise shine: it’s relationships: Scott and Cassie, Scott and Hank, Luis and Kurt, the blended family; the light even in the darkest of times. Instead it focused on the VanDyne women. Mainly Janet. Having the focus on Janet, her mysterious-past-arch with knives and fights and guns and the morbidity of being lost from your loved ones—while admittedly intriguing and worth exploring sometime else—that complete lack of light stole that weight the scale put upon this movie desperately needed. And Hope demanded darkness in her scenes with her curiosity of what horrors took her mother from her and ripped her father from her emotionally for years (and this is all interesting and important for her character/viewer and should be expanded upon further and could even be paralleled with Cassie so we can eventually see a bond between those two). However for this film to work, she needed to either learn how to finally accept light with her parents and Scott alike, or have already accepted it. Her scenes with Scott were extremely sweet, I will admit, but her relationship with her parents were more the focal point since the very beginning. Cassie, Hank, and Scott carried the lightness, but it wasn’t enough to balance out the scale with the sheer severity of Kang’s darkness, and the VanDyne women’s additions. Thanos, he had a reason. His purpose was perhaps one of the simplest motivations to understand. Kang, however, has an infinite amount of variants. What we know so far is that he wants power, he wants to conquer. When he’s done all that he wants to conquer himself; hence the war that started the scared timeline. But. Why did one of his variants decide to stop this? What would cause this variant to suddenly become guilt ridden, compassionate, tired of himself and his suffering he both experiences and causes? Kang is complex. He’s so very interesting. But how can we as the viewers even begin to care about this man who, whenever we see a sympathetic variant, gets killed off (Slyvie, Scott) before we can see why? Why did he change? Why would we care if we’re denied the opportunity to learn.

Seeing Janet and Kang interact made me lose the fear of Scott dying. I shouldn’t have lost that fear. Focusing on Janet being relatively fine (considering), and physically unharmed the whole movie, and having escaped Kang even after having destroyed his entire pursuit in life for years eliminated any fear of Scott dying. I walked into the movie believing he was doing to die, and I walked out thinking I was crazy for even entertaining the idea. I shouldn’t have lost that fear. We shouldn’t lose the fear of the man who threatened us with multiversal war in Loki. If they used Janet’s and Kang’s bond when he was banished and she was alone, not to show how cool Janet is (though yes she absolutely is for outsmarting and trapping him), but to parallel Janet to Scott it would’ve helped make not only the film’s pacing but also to connect the viewer to Kang.

Paralleling Janet to Scott and only through the eyes of Kang would’ve given the casual viewer the opportunity to ask why. Kang bonded with Janet over her kindness in saving his life, he valued her’s because of it. He wanted to eliminate her pain and bring her home to her daughter. But once she saw who he was she left and tried to stop him. That’s exactly what Scott is trying to do here. Get home to earth and protect his daughter, stop Kang when he tries to hurt others. If Kang saw this and still to kill him? Still tries to hurt everyone for his “great mission”? It would make Kang so much more approachable to understand. You would want to know why he would still hurt people he saw value in. He considers them good, yet he kills, and still sees himself as good?

Ugh. I don’t know. I feel like Ant-Man was the perfect way to introduce the Kang Dynasty but they just didn’t do it well. And they didn’t do it justice to the original Ant-Man or it’s characters.

Thanos, he had a reason. His purpose was perhaps one of the simplest motivations to understand. Kang, however, has an infinite amount of variants. What we know so far is that he wants power, he wants to conquer. When he’s done all that he wants to conquer himself; hence the war that started the scared timeline. But. Why did one of his variants decide to stop this? What would cause this variant to suddenly become guilt ridden, compassionate, tired of himself and his suffering he both experiences and causes? Kang is complex. He’s so very interesting. But how can we as the viewers even begin to care about this man who, whenever we see a sympathetic variant, gets killed off (Slyvie, Scott) before we can see why? Why did he change? Why would we care if we’re denied the opportunity to learn. Paralleling Janet to Scott and only through the eyes of Kang would’ve given the casual viewer the opportunity to ask why. Kang bonded with Janet over her kindness in saving his life, he valued her’s because of it. He wanted to eliminate her pain and bring her home to her daughter. But once she saw who he was she left and tried to stop him. That’s exactly what Scott is trying to do here. Get home to earth and protect his daughter, stop Kang when he tries to hurt others. If Kang saw this and still to kill him? Still tries to hurt everyone for his “great mission”? It would make Kang so much more approachable to understand. You would want to know why he would still hurt people he saw value in. He considers them good, yet he kills, and still sees himself as good?

Thanos, he had a reason. His purpose was perhaps one of the simplest motivations to understand. Kang, however, has an infinite amount of variants. What we know so far is that he wants power, he wants to conquer. When he’s done all that he wants to conquer himself; hence the war that started the scared timeline. But. Why did one of his variants decide to stop this? What would cause this variant to suddenly become guilt ridden, compassionate, tired of himself and his suffering he both experiences and causes? Kang is complex. He’s so very interesting. But how can we as the viewers even begin to care about this man who, whenever we see a sympathetic variant, gets killed off (Slyvie, Scott) before we can see why? Why did he change? Why would we care if we’re denied the opportunity to learn.

The movie didn’t really show any of this well, they didn’t let Kang be heavy in his power because they didn’t let Scott be light in his own.

[dduane]

So I mentioned (I think) a couple-or-few weeks back that I was starting to look into what Hasai’s human form would look like (since that’s data I’m going to need when we get to his novella in the Tales of the Five group). And what the heck: after some shopping around, I found it. That’s his basic shape, there.

It suits him for a number of reasons. It’s easy to forget (if not being attentive to backstory) that despite having become the most senior Dragon presently resident on that Earth, in terms of out-of-the-egg time, he’s also the youngest. He was the last-hatched Dragonet before the Journey, which makes him “now” (in story continuity) fully adult, but still in his earliest adult years in Dracon terms—just a young guy, and (in terms of his Dracon body configuration) a skinny one. His magic-using spouses, though, while devising his human body for him, wouldn’t have forgotten.

(And the design stages would’ve been interesting. While considering this the other day I abruptly found myself in the middle of a humorous but fairly heated discussion regarding the usefulness/uses of nipples for entities identifying as male. I made some notes for story purposes, but escaped as quickly as possible... because, seriously, when Freelorn gets started in talking-dirty mode?...) (eyeroll) 

...Anyway. That’s merely his human shape; there’s more design to be done. Dragons are culturally extremely sensitive about their hide and spine colors. “Livery” (as Segnbora translates the far more deeply-nuanced Dracon term) is profoundly important to Dragons for historical and personal reasons, being a visible indicator of family history and other issues. And even in human form, there’s no way Hasai would completely discard his original skin.

So this is a first stab at it. Various creators platformed at Daz offer products that let you do skin-on-skin overlays. This is going to work a lot better once I figure out how to add a proper overlay of scales rather than a texture labeled “Blood Zombie”. :) ...But the color’s generally right, and it’ll do for the moment while I experiment.

...Duplicating scaling made of living black star sapphire is going to be an entirely different challenge. But for the moment I’m taking one thing at a time.

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

Trevor's Sam Day

Ghosts Bingo @cbsghostsdaily.

Dynamic & Sam

***

AO3

When Trevor's not himself during his Sam Day, Sam learns that he's more upset after the memorial because he realizes what his 'bros' did didn't just affect him.

***

It’s Friday, which means it’s Trevor’s Sam day.  When they set up these Sam days, in which the ghosts agreed that they would bother Sam less and only be allowed to follow her around on their specific day rather than all day every day, Sam hadn’t been terribly sure it was a good idea.

Sam’s agreement to this was only due to the fact that having the general peace from most ghosts on a daily basis was worth having one day with some ghosts that annoy her more than others, like Trevor. 

It’s not that she doesn’t like him.  When he’s being chill and talking about things that don’t involve his hard-core flirting or gross comments (some of his comments that are more compliments are okay, but he leans into gross on accident a lot), she’s okay with him, but she never knows when the comments will veer into grossness.  Thus she’s been helping him stay on the compliment side by keeping a list of his comments and a scale of one to ten on if they’re acceptable.

He's been doing a lot better and focusing more on other fun discussions – although, she doesn’t understand a thing about stocks, and even less about his various travels for business, she does find them interesting.

It was very interesting to see a glimpse into Trevor’s beginnings last weekend when his parents came to visit, and she knows that Trevor’s always been a good guy – giving his pants to Pinkus and not being as on board with his douche-face bros really proved that – but learning how much of a dork he really was and how hurt he was at the idea that his parents divorced because of him really showed the softer side to Trevor that she doesn’t see often.

It's why she wanted to help him get his parents back together – no matter how weird it was, and it worked – the other ghosts watched, which was weird, but then, things got worse.   He discovered that he’d been lied to for so long and hurt for his mom going through it, but she thought… knowing it wasn’t his fault that things would be okay.

Trevor’s been rather… quiet ever since.  She thought that he’d be happy or more at peace.  His parents know about his death, now, and they are proud of him beyond anything, and yet, he’s quiet as he plays with the stress ball that he’s rolling back and forth on the desk and not chattering away like he usually does (sometimes critiquing her business skills, which fair because they are definitely bad businesspeople). 

Today, not so much.

In fact, he’s usually super excited for his Sam day (as the ghosts call it), but she had to remind him today. 

She only debates herself for a few minutes about if she should say something or not, but ultimately, she wants her ghosts to be happy, so she asks, “You alright?”

“Hmm-mm?  Yeah, ‘course.”

“Really?  Because you’re being kind of quiet.”

“I thought you liked it when I’m quiet.  You’re always complaining about my comments.”

“Not all of your comments – we have a scale, remember?”

Trevor nods.

“And regardless of the scale, you usually chatter on about your life and travels, and that’s interesting to listen to as I work,” Sam offers.  “Yet… you’re not doing that today, which isn’t like you.”

Trevor shrugs.  “Guess I’m not feeling it.”

“Which brings me back to – are you okay?” 

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

Sam frowns, looking at him, where he’s still focusing the stress ball, and rather than push it to the edge where he can then push it back, it falls off the edge and he groans.

She picks it up without hesitating and says, “I thought that seeing your parents and giving the peace of knowing what happened to you would’ve –”

“But they don’t know that’s the problem,” Trevor says, cutting her off.   “All this time, I thought they did – somehow, I didn’t realize when we found out what happened last year that it meant that my brother and my parents had no idea what happened to me.”

She’s not sure how to respond to that because, if she’s honest, she’d completely forgotten (until his body was found) that his parents (and brother, who she had never heard of before) didn’t know that he was in her B&B’s lake.  Which meant that they spent the last twenty-something years not knowing that Trevor was even… for sure gone. 

They had admitted that after a decade they realized he was never coming back and after seven years you can legally declare someone dead.  They hadn’t wanted to, but they knew deep down when he missed Hannukah that something had happened… it makes what Ari, the other guy, and her cousin, David’s, actions a lot worse. 

“All this time, I thought I did something stupid, and I let myself down, and – and I deserve to be stuck here because I was stupid, but I never thought about my parents or my brother.  I thought Ari or some police officer would’ve told them what happened, and they would’ve grieved me and moved on – that’s why I asked you to look up Nicky instead of my parents or brother.  I wanted them to move on (and I figured they would have), but it would’ve been hard to see that.  To know that they lived happily ever after without me.”

Sam had always wondered about that.  She kept expecting Trevor to want the sort-of closure that Pete had, yet, he never did.  It’s why, when his parents showed up last weekend, that she had been so willing to practically tell them that he was there (and help him get them back together).

“And yet, seeing them and knowing that they haven’t really been able to move on because they didn’t know that I had absolute bastards for bros, they didn’t know that I was here all that time, dead, and they don’t even know the story now.  All they know is I died here twenty-something years ago, and they only discovered the truth because some fisherman fished my skull out of lake.  That makes me so angry and frustrated.”

He heaves a loud groan.  “They deserved better than that!”

“YOU deserved better than that,” Sam corrects. 

As far as she’s concerned, his parents and brother aren’t the only ones that suffered for his so-called bros decisions and just because he was more hurt than angry when Ari visited last year, doesn’t mean that asshole deserved to get off scot-free.  The implications of throwing the body in the lake would be enough to ruin his life even if he didn’t go to prison and she honestly felt that’s what he deserved.

“Not knowing could’ve easily been part of what’s holding you back from moving on,” Sam states when Trevor looks confused at the idea that he deserved better.  “Maybe revealing the truth would be what does it?  I know you were against it before, but…”

She trails off, leaving the offer open.

Trevor looks thoughtful.  He’d originally nixed the idea, but that was when he hadn’t thought through the implications of it on his parents and brother.  Now, though, he’s angrier than he’s ever been and might be willing to go for it.

“How would we do it?  Contact Pinkus and Chet?”

That’s the problem, isn’t it?  She can’t exactly say the ghost told her… maybe she could…

“What if you told your own story…”

“Uh, Sam, you’re the only one that can see me,” Trevor states, slowly as if she’s forgotten this basic fact and doesn’t look like a lunatic talking to air all the time.

“I haven’t forgotten, but you have a power – a power that lets you type.  You could tell your story because you saw your memorial and you wanted your parents to know what happened.  I could find the story and verify some of it with Ari’s weird behavior and maybe contact Pinkus and the other guy and see what happens.  It could be told as a ghost story, a conspiracy theory – is it true, is it not?  That depends on if they believe in ghosts or not.”

“You’d really do that?  Because it could also, like, hurt your business.  You saw how Freddie responded to the idea of ghosts…” Trevor asks, eyes wide. 

It’s nice that he cares about the business, but she and Jay have already been talking about making it more like a ‘haunted’ B&B and weren’t sure how the ghosts would respond.  If Trevor does this, at least one ghost is here and going for it, so he’s likely to get everyone on board.

“We were thinking of rebranding anyway…”

Trevor picks up on what she’s not saying quickly and lights up.  “You’re going to make it a haunted B&B?” 

She nods.

“Do you how much fun we’re going to have with that?”

“Probably too much fun, and there’s no saying it’ll bring in more business, but … it certainly could.”

“I LOVE IT.  Alright, if you’re game, I’m game.”

Sam grins.  “Then, let’s get to work.”

***

It’s nearly a month later (because Sam wanted to ‘verify’ the information with Pinkus – who was super excited by Trevor’s story – and Chet – who was decidedly less excited), when the story gets published at the Ulster County review, and to no surprise to either Sam or Trevor, his parents return with his brother in tow the same day it gets published (Sam may have sent it to them via online link).

They ask a bunch of questions, and while Sam is explaining that she was curious and she’d found the letter, Trevor’s using the iPad to send them a message.

Hi mom, hi dad.  Hi J-dog. 

When he presses the read out loud button, they nearly jump out of their skin, but look at the iPad with almost an awe. 

“He does that a lot,” Sam says with a slight chuckle.  “I – uh – didn’t know how to tell you that I suspected he was here.  Sometimes, he’s left messages, but I wasn’t sure if I really believed in ghosts, and then, I found the story and what happened when Ari came to buy the watch made more sense… I wanted to verify and make sure…”

Esther is looking at her in wonder.  “So, when you said that – what if he was in actually there…”

“I believed it was possible and only confirmed it afterwards.”

She glances at Trevor as he presses the button again.

I’m sorry that you didn’t know what happened.  That you’ve wondered for over two decades what happened and only I could tell you the truth.  So, I had to share my story.

Sam could see the tears in his parents’ eyes, and Jeremy, who looks nearly identical, yet, older to Trevor looks on the verge of tears, too. 

“I’ll leave you guys alone.  I imagine there’s some things you need to talk about,” Sam smiles and nods at Trevor before leaving.  They deserve this just chance in private.

***

It’s sometime later, when Trevor reappears by her side.  His Sam day not quite over, and his family apparently gone. 

“I wish I could hug you, Sam, or at least be able to cry because honestly, I never thought I would ever get to feel this peace, even after the memorial, and now, I do.  … I just… there’s nothing I could do to repay this amazing feeling I have right now and that’s all because of you.”

Sam’s so happy for him.  She knows that he deserves good things, too. 

Even if he annoys her sometimes.

“Good, I’m glad, Trevor.”  She gives him a smile.  “You’re not going to get sucked off on me now, are you?”

He bursts out laughing.  “Nah, I feel loads better, but I think knowing that I can write to them anytime and still have that connection means I’ll probably stay for a while – they were disappointed I couldn’t come home with them, but being able to write is something that will give us all peace.”

Sam can admit that she’s a little relieved.  There’s a part of her that obviously wants to help the ghosts ascend, but there’s also a part of her that wants to keep her new-found family together.  “Good.”

“Plus, I am not missing the chance to be a part of a haunted B&B – people are literally going to come here looking for me… gotta have fun with that.”

Sam laughs.  “Well, that’s what the afterlife’s for, right?  Having fun.”

“It is now.”

“Good, so go have fun – your Sam day is officially over.”

Trevor grins and bows, “Until next time,” before skipping off up the stairs.

He’s finally getting a happy ending while living as a ghost, and she couldn’t be happier for him. 

Some ghost’s stories have a happy ending after all, especially if she can help it.

[deathbydarkelves]

In your AU you talk about calling Common "Human" instead. Why is that? Also, wouldn't something like Stormwindian or Elwynnian make the most sense considering how other languages like Night Elf are Darnassian?

(Disclaimer: I am not a linguist.)

Short answer: I don’t find the semi-colonial implications of a “common language”/lingua franca in any fantasy setting very fun to think about (at least when they're literally not explored at all). I also feel it cheapens interactions between characters from wildly different places. I understand why a “Common” must exist in video games and RPGs. Your players need to be able to communicate. But in the context of writing and even specific RP scenarios, I think excluding a true lingua franca allows for more creativity in inter-character interactions as they try to navigate that. It also gives more weight to multilingual characters being multilingual.

Long answer:

I simply don’t like the idea of a global lingua franca in fantasy and… in general honestly lol. Again, I understand WHY they need to exist in video games and RPGs like D&D, but I find it much more interesting and realistic to exclude them. And again, this is certainly something more suited for writing than MMOs.

The EXISTENCE of a lingua franca on a global scale — by my non-linguist understanding — relies on some sort of colonial history and/or a global, instant communication system. Azeroth doesn’t have an internet, and I just… don’t like colonialism. Crazy take, I know.

My narratives recognize the Alliance as imperialists unlike Blizzard’s, so it’s not like I took that out of the picture. They are absolutely colonialists lol and that is absolutely something that must be dealt with in my AU. I just didn’t want their influence to be that far-reaching, because honestly, I find that sad and unfun to think about. I do use WoW and this AU for escapism, among other things, so some decisions are motivated in part by that.

SO, I made Common a non-universal language and renamed it to Human to subtly imply that. I went with “Human” because many other languages in similar fantasy settings are named after the races that natively speak them and not the country (see: Dwarvish, Orcish*). It fit in a lot better to just go with that. Worth mentioning though! It does have regional dialects, some of which are so different they could really be considered separate languages. But they all originated from a group of humans, so they’re put under that umbrella. I suppose it’s more like a family of languages in that case then, like I made Zandali…

((*on that note, Orcish also isn’t universally spoken within the Horde.))

So yes, there would be a Stormwindian/Elwynnian dialect and an Alteraci dialect, etc. The Stormwindian dialect is probably most common because of the existence of the Alliance and of Stormwind’s place as a major trade city. Many dwarves in Ironforge speak that dialect, but inversely, many Stormwindians also speak Dwarvish (which also has its own dialects. All the languages in my AU have dialects to some extent). Or at the very least they’ll use Dwarvish words and expressions even while speaking Human. Like I’m doing right now with Italian (“lingua franca”).

There are mages who make livings off knowing translation spells (and even those can only translate literally). Travelers and traders are by necessity going to know the trade languages, Stormwindian Human being one of them (if we’re talking about the Alliance). But the average, non-human person very well might not.

I’ll end that whole ramble with a specific example of an OC story that couldn’t have worked if I went with Common as a true lingua franca: Cathala was stranded on Pandaria for about fifty years pre-MoP, and she had to learn Pandaren to get by. Eventually she all but forgot how to speak Darnassian. It’s a major point in her story when she meets Tarinne and Tarinne helps her relearn Darnassian. If I went by the game’s logic, there would’ve been almost no need for Cathala to learn Pandaren, and no need for her to relearn Darnassian. Which just feels so flat to me, and would take away a huge part of the foundation of hers and Tarinne’s relationship. Additionally, Cathala’s character heavily focuses on finding identity, and that whole history with language is a large part of it.

So TL;DR I renamed Common to Human as part of reducing its presence as a global lingua franca, which is key to the stories I want to tell.