#also apparently the K in his name literally stands for King???

[sonnys-space-junk]

EXTREMELY important Brian/Henry information from @ballardbait that everyone needs to be aware of

@mrshenrybolet you specifically need to see this

[katara0524]

Impromptu Ramblings about the NEO:TWEWY Demo

In case y'all weren't aware, I've been a pretty big fan of TWEWY for a couple years now, and with the sequel coming out next month, the excitement I feel for this game is greater than ever :) I played the Demo for the first time yesterday, and following a couple views of some livestreams of others playing it, I felt like sharing my (very ramble-y) thoughts prior to the release of the full game. This post WILL contain spoilers for both TWEWY and NEO:TWEWY, so if you want to avoid those from now on, please block the tags: #twewy spoilers, #ntwewy spoilers, #neo twewy spoilers, #ntwewy, and #neo twewy ^_^ Oh, and if you wanna keep up with any other posts I make about my experience with this game, please refer to the tag "kat plays neo twewy" :)

-First things first: I have not watched the Final Trailer and I don't plan on doing so to avoid spoilers, especially after the pre-release era of KH3 where a lot of the later trailers spoiled a lot of the endgame content. That being said, I've seen some minor screenshots from the final trailer including what many believe to be characters from the original TWEWY, namely Shiki and Joshua. That is all I know about the Final Trailer and I would very much like to remain as blind as possible going into NEO :)

-The very first cutscene was quite ominous in the sense that this game is likely going to be about "changing fate" (a recently common theme in Squeenix games, which I do appreciate), perhaps leading off from the end of A New Day in the OG and trying to stop an Inversion of Shibuya. Also worth noting that A New Day had similar aspects in which the main character experienced "future visions" of tragic events, although in A New Day these events were not able to be changed, while in NEO it seems like one of the main "powers" our protagonist has is specifically to rewrite these events and avoid a "bad ending." Very interesting indeed!

-I really like the revamped comic book style dialogue scenes, it's much more fluid and modern, which is an excellent direction for the series to take!

-I would love to have an actual PokemonGO knockoff of Final Fantasy creatures, please Squeenix that would be incredibleeeeee

-Also the LINE stickers??? Are so cute???

-I would just like to point out that Fret is an absolute treasure throughout this entire demo, he's hilarious and I will protect him with my life

-UHHHH don't like that Fret picked up some Reaper Pins just out of nowhere.....or the fact that they're apparently popular all over Shibuya.............did y'all not learn anything from the OG game or what lmao

-Okay so when I first got the "curry or ramen" scene and heard NPCs talking about the new curry place replacing the old ramen place I became IMMENSELY distressed that Ramen Don was totally cut from the game because....well, Ramen Don is a King okay?? But I'm glad to learn that no, he didn't fall off the face of the earth, he's still in business and he's the one opening the curry restaurant lolol. PHEW, crisis averted!

-.....I don't like the sudden appearance of a Wall Reaper and being able to read NPC thoughts. Wtf happened when they left the ramen place??? Are they playing the Game alive somehow?

-Okay so I have my own theories about this "Swallow" character and what they're up to but considering this is only the Demo and I still Have No Idea What's Happening, I'm just gonna say that I think Swallow intentionally led Rindo and Fret to the Crossing so they could join the Game. I mean, add in the fact that Swallow still communicates with Rindo during the Game and you've got yourself a suspicious character right there lol

-"Hey they're shooting off fireworks!" Fret honey that's not fireworks oof (see also: "*laughs* I'm in danger")

-WOOOOOO way to traumatize Rindo right off the bat like that LMAOO

-The visuals for the intro are VERY GOOD, the song is pretty decent until it gets all "screamo" (which I absolutely cannot stand sorry lol)

-Shoka is every Customer Service employee ever and I respect that

-Susukichi went from being "meh" to "WOW THIS GUY IS FUN" in the span of 10 seconds and I also respect that (he is also built like an Absolute Unit which is hilarious)

-The Wall Reapers (and just Reapers in general) seem.....way nicer and more helpful this time around?? Like in the OG the Wall Reapers were SO RUDE gfhjgjdfkhn and yeah I'm sure we'll get some like that but the juxtaposition of the first Wall Reaper in the OG compared to the first one in NEO is insane.

-The puzzles are quite a bit more entertaining this time around even if it's generally the same "fetch quest" formula lol

-"Rindo's Group" way to go Fret HFKJDGHSDFKJ mans really left the default name in there lmao

-OKAYOKAYOKAY so to those who aren't aware I am a MASSIVE SIMP for Sho Minamimoto, he's my absolute favorite and I think about him daily. HIS INTRODUCTION IS. INCREDIBLE. I LOVE IT SM.

-GOD hearing him actually SPEAK FULL SENTENCES is just SO SURREAL I love this sm

-Also the remix of his theme???? NEO TRANSFORMATION????? IT'S SO GOOD????????? It's like gone from a Boss Theme to a more triumphant sounding theme and I am HERE for it (every version of Transformation is just INCREDIBLE and getting a new one is even better)

-I Love Him, Your Honor

-Also idk how exactly but it's kinda weird seeing Sho in the OG vs NEO, cuz while he's mostly the same Insane Math-Obsessed Catboy, he's.....calmed down quite a bit?? Like OG made a whole point of how poorly he cooperates with others (not to mention just being completely unhinged and trying to kill everyone), whereas here in NEO he's......actually kinda working with others??? HELLO???? Sir what happened to you and Neku during those 3 years I would love to know all about it

-I guarantee you Sho is still probably scheming shite and will likely pull some total insane BS later down the road, and I am very much looking forward to that. Also, is he looking for a certain Pin or something??? Cuz he keeps talking about different Pins and even mentions "this is just another Psych Pin" like he's actively looking for a Pin to do something with. Maybe it also has to do with the "latent powers of Players" thing he mentioned as well??? What is this dude UP TO oml (also is he in contact with Neku at all?? they're both technically fugitives at this point right?? WHAT HAPPENED AFTER A NEW DAY I AM BEGGING YOU)

-I seems like Sho ALSO has an idea of what's going on in this specific game (even if he won't admit it straightforward). Per his quote "The game's 142,857. Factor it out," he's essentially saying, "This game is a neverending cyle, figure out how to get out of it" (or at least that's what I got from his "cyclic number" nonsense lolol)

-I do like how Sho mostly stays out of sight until he's needed for a battle or assisting with a mission, that's kind of on par with his whole "uncooperative" quirk from the OG, plus he might literally have to stay out of sight of other Reapers and Players considering he's likely breaking the rules of the Game (not surprising considering him and Neku broke practically every rule in the book during OG)

-The nicknames for Sho- I can't- They're so FUNNYYYY GFHJSDFKJ

-He goes from being called "Pi-Face" and "Tabooty" in OG to "Mr. Minami" and "M-Teezy" in NEO LMAOO

-(Wowee I just realized I've been mostly talking about Sho oopsies sorry y'all, this is what I meant by thinking about him almost daily he is THAT much of a fav of mine ghfkjsd)

-Okay RIP Fret and Rindo for not getting literally ANY explanation as to how the Game works OOF, that is kinda cringe that whoever gets the Pin earns points, not whoever erases the Noise (which like I understand but also URRRGGHHH I WANNA SEE THE SQUAD SUCCEED)

-"I should be going home now it's getting late" Oh you sweet summer child-

-Also love the mention of parents in this game???? KH you could learn a thing or two from TWEWY (poor Rindo's mom fhgjkdh)

-KUBO IS HILARIOUS I SUPPORT HIM AND HIS GROSS FACE (also thank you Final Trailer thumbnail for spoiling my suspicions about him very cool smh)

-Kaie is a LAD I also support him, go King type those funky texts I believe in you

-FRET PLS STOP SCANNING FHGJKSDHKJFGHFKJ he's like me when I scan in OG during Weeks 2 and 3 and see Taboo Noise coming after me ghfjdshfj

-Also Rindo can you stay off your phone for TWO SECONDS ik you're trying to figure things out but Fret is a jelly boi and I don't want him to be upset with you my guy

-Sho being an actual sorta mentor to the kiddos?? Who are you sir this is so unlike you ghfgskj what happened to the guy who tried shooting children in the face 8 times over LMAO (granted he's probably just using them but it's still nice to see him actually cooperating and sharing knowledge with the kiddos aaaaa)

-EYO EIJI OJI THE TIKTOK INFLUENCER IS BACK LMAO

-hgjkfshgkjf "we aren't glorifying capitalism on my watch" THATS SO FUNNY TO ME GFHJFSDGHJKS (also an all-orange ensemble is disgusting you deserve jail for one thousand years fkn Cheddar Goldfish Cheezit ass woman)

-WICKED TWISTERS NAME DROP EYOOO we love to see it

-gfhsgjf Poor Rindo embarassing himself for the sake of the Game that's incredible

-R e t u r n t o M O N K E. That is all.

-Dialogue during boss battles is HELLA cool i love that

-HHHHH THE KANON SCENE MADE ME A N G E R Y FRET STOP SIMPING MY GUY says the girl with a Literal Simp Encyclopedia and simps for pixels on a screen daily

-Can't wait to see the other Reapers :eyes emoji:

-CAN'T WAIT TO SEE NAGI MY BELOVED YEAHHHH WOOOOOO AAAAND that's about it for the demo lolol, I absolutely CANNOT wait for next month, this game is gonna be INCREDIBLE holy hell Prepare for more simping, more screaming, and more vibing from Yours Truly :) I fully intend on sharing more general thoughts like this on both Tumblr and Twitter so it's not just reblog-retweet-reblog-retweet with the occasional comment fhgskjd

If you wanna witness my insanity up close and personal I have a Square Enix Discord server called Sea Side Dreamers! You can look it up on Disboard, or you can add me on Discord @Katara0524#9244 for a direct link :) We have topics about Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, NieR, and ofc TWEWY (as well as other topics!), so if you want some good ol' chaos and chitchat, you're more than welcome to join!

[shangyangjunzhu]

THIS IS GONNA BE A VERY VERY LONG POST AND I AM NOTIFYING Y’ALL

SPOILER ALERTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

a lot has happened and it is kind of hard for me to remember the sequence but i’ll go through it one by one

a) asu knows that su jin-er’s kid is not zitan’s; from what we’ve seen in the drama so far it can only be tattoo general

b) su jin-er gives birth and apparently it is quite evident that the kid is not zitan’s, which means zitan has no use for her anymore and he is about to kill her tell awu asks for su jin-er and he is like okay take her away

c) su jin-er thinks awu is gonna give her poison wine but it turns out that she isn’t and instead sends jin-er and her baby off to jiangnan to live the rest of their lives together

d) there is this very interesting conversation that takes place between awu and xiao qi about how he is willing to take revenge against everyone even awu’s family, and that kind of sets the tone for future episodes

e) nanny xu misses the grand princess and goes to the monastery and ends up seeing jing-er there and that’s when huaien offs her on wang lin’s command

f) awu goes to look for nanny xu but asu tells her that she wasn’t here (he knows, he saw it and he breaks down but you know he can’t go against daddy wang); xiao qi’s soldiers dig around the monastery to find nanny xu dead; awu is devastated and she is aware that it must have something to do with asu and she obviously like i can’t trust you anymore

g) huaien and yuxiu finally visit awu and xiao qi; difference is yuxiu is here to meet them; huaien is here to plot; he reveals evidence that it was indeed zitan who plotted against him using helan zhen. s/n yuxiu tells awu that she was better off in the yuzhang mansion and that she can’t talk with huaien at all and that she can’t seem to read his mind

h) xiao qi is ready with his troops to kill zitan but awu is like wait what’s going on and after he gives her the evidence she is like “zitan is still the emperor think about the people of the country and the mess it’s gonna create” and xiao qi notices the calm in her eyes and is like “you knew all along” ( which isn’t true she found only two episodes ago)

i) xiao qi is in the court with his army and he is on the verge of killing him but awu intervenes and basically stops from doing so but not without chopping off a block of wood from zitan’s throne; it is then that he leaves but not without awu sending him off by standing on the fortress and they nod to each other (ahhh my heart) and it is then a flashback is shown which may be hinting towards the fact that all of this was done so as to let xiao qi and the soldiers leave the city so as to find out who is plotting what and then come in.

j) zitan has this whole mope session about how xiao qi almost killed him and it is then that awu gives him a whole deal of reassurance that her zitan gege shouldn’t be that way and all (i skipped through it cuz it was just so boring)

k) now that xiao qi is out, daddy wang and co. are ready to put their plan into action and they do but not without yuxiu trying to stop huaien with every bit of might left in her by literally holding onto him but huaien flings her aside and tells her that she isn’t capable of stopping him.

i) they march into the palace and it is then that yuxiu is seen from a very high part of the palace, begging huaien to not continue and telling him how they would have nothing if it were not for awu and xiao qi. she also tells him that all they ever wanted when they were back in ningshuo was world peace and that he is trying to destroy it. she tells him that she could beg awu and the emperor to forgive him and that everything will be alright. huaien is like nope and he shoots an arrow right at her and barely misses probably to deter her. but in this moment yuxiu is like so you want me dead and JUMPS OFF THE BUILDING. I kid you not he does not even go to her ; he has this little scream and his eyes just dilate and then he is like keep going. hu yao, who was left behind by xiao qi to protect awu, sees huaien and rages at him trying to kill him but ends up getting killed instead.

l) they charge and awu is like i am gonna get you out of here safely zitan and tries to use the secret passage but guess what that has been infiltrated as well. so they have no choice but to go to throne room where all the soldiers are there and daddy wang makes his epic entry shocking awu and zitan.

m) daddy wang sits on the throne and is like hahah i made it and awu is like this seat isn’t for you and threatens to kill herself the same way the grand princess did and wang lin is terrified and tries to stop her, which he does but now song huaien is like haha i am gonna be the new king now and he is like get daddy wang out of here.

n) he goes to awu and says xiao qi is useless, be with me, i am useful and pulls out the hairpin she asked huaien to give xiao qi on the day of their wedding and gives it to her. awu slaps him and is like get the fuck out of my face

o) xiao qi comes to the rescue and shoots an arrow at huaien and it is then that he reveals that he never really left and that he has known all long about him being a traitor it’s just that he never knew for whom and it is then that huaien gets up and brandishes his sword saying he did it for himself only for him to injured by a couple of spears. he says a bunch of stuff that i didn’t understand and then he dies. xiao qi breaks down and wails (oh god i cried)

p) awu finds wang lin and they have a really emotional conversation and then he dies right in front of awu.

q) awu, xiao qi, asu and caiwei are seen walking together after a brief time skip and awu tells asu that they plan on leaving the capital and going back to ningshuo, which asu tries to convince them against but realizes they are at peace there. yuxiu’s kid is shown playing with awu’s other adopted children and awu is seen crushed at how yuxiu left behind her child without even giving the kid a name. awu entrusts asu to caiwei and ask them to live a happy life. asu and awu part emotionally and awu and xiao qi leave for ningshuo.

r) zitan steps down from being the emperor and i assume jing-er is placed on the throne with asu acting as the regent.

s) awu and xiao qi are shown in ningshuo with dozens of kids and their friends from hulan assembling a map of cheng and letting their adopted daughter jump on various locations in the map the same way awu did when she was younger. awu is pregnant and they talk about how they want to watch all of their adopted kids and now their kid grow up happily

closing thoughts:

- i loved how they depicted the impact of the greed for power. wang lin, the dowager, huaien, potato, wanru are all dead and the reason lied in their insatiable greed. unfortunately collateral damage takes place too as seen with the hu siblings and yuxiu.

- i will be forever mad at how yuxiu died but jin-er is still alive; i mean i understand how awu still cared for jin-er despite her treachery and i know yuxiu wanted nothing to do with huaien and his evil ways and that she would rather die than be complicit with him but still i am so sorry yuxiu baby you deserved way better

- i do like the fact that the whole show off between awu and xiao qi was actually a secret plot; they’re good actors ngl

- i can see that a bunch of stuff has been cut off because the flow isn’t very clear but that’s forgivable as i know a bunch of stuff was cut down

- the dowager die btw like i don’t even care

- the happy ending was all i ever wanted!!!!!

- it’s confirmed; monarch industry takes the place of #2 on my list and will probably not move down further any time soon.

if you’re still here throw a comment so that we can share our feelings!

[teamsarawatshusband]

Word Of Honor - 1st watch insta thoughts - Episode 2

Here’s Episode 1

Okay, before I get started with the episode, thank you so much for your likes and kind words and explanations. Thanks @averageace​ for letting me know that ghosts aren't necessarily dead. And thanks @ pretty-much-obsessed for letting me know it's not xianxia but wuxia. K, no cultivators. Got it!

Oh, just for future reference: I love when you guys help me out in the comments with understanding stuff like this! As long as you don’t spoil the story, I'm super grateful for all the genre info and cultural insights <3

Anyway, here we go!

Episode 2:

Oooooh, it was smirky guy who stopped the whip. And everybody is watching. How embarrassing.

I kinda like purple girl. She's so feisty and sassy.

Ok, the kid wants to make friends with alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy. He's in town to buy pastries for his mom, that's so cute. I need a shorter name for alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy. Anyway, the kid gives him a bookmark like a key to where he lives. Alright.

So smirky guy really did recognize the fighting. Oh, Four Seasons Manor is a sect! Ok, ok. And that's their fighting style. Was smirky guy once a part of them? Still so mysterious.

The kids are singing about the 5 lakes. That seems to be important somehow.

K, alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy wants to hitch a boat ride. And the old man looks like the old guy who got the 7 nails last time, but he's probably not, i'm just bad with faces again.

Yooo, does alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy have so much silver? Yeah, I wouldn't trust him either, old man. Oh, smirky guy intervenes. And now the old boatman wants to do the ride.

Whoaaa, nice scenery with the water and the blossoms and the music. I wanna go there.

So, now he's at mirror lake manor. Was that the kid's place? I forgot.

Wow, that boatman is really something, shouting out his insults as alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy is simply standing on the dock. Can't he be a bit nicer? LOOOOOL, yeah, so now he really dashed without paying, that's what you get for being rude.

But shame on tragic hero lord guy.You should always pay your debts. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Whoaaaaa, the blossom trees. I'm in love. Tragic hero lord guy flies over them in slo-mo.

And when it's not snowing, it's raining petals. Why is there a boat on dry land? Is that gonna be important?

Ooooh, fan fight! Must be smirky guy. Yusss! And now they're dancing.

Oh, and now smirky guy is being poetic. Dude, you sound like you’re crushing on him hard, man. Alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy isn't having any of it, lol.

There's two guys talking about war in the next scene. One of them is the dad and the other a son. Is that our kid from before? He seems older. I hate being bad with faces. Oh, he's not the kid. He's his older brother. And apparently there's one more brother even. I'm gonna get them all confused so much. Ugh

Tragic hero lord guy gets to stay in a woodshed. And likes it. I mean... whatever makes him happy, I guess.

Ooooh, back at the palace, I remember the helmets of the soldiers. And there's the guy who took tragic hero lord guy's job and... the other, like... boss guy. Maybe a king or an emperor. New at the job guy talks about... stuff. He's killed people. And seems proud of it. And now he's talking about a children's song. Oh wait, is that the song that alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy noticed earlier on? Oh, the song is connected to the glazed armor. Got it.

Ooooh, they sent a spy after tragic hero lord guy. So that's why he went into hiding.

Back in the woodshed, either the alcohol was bad, or tragic hero lord guy is having issues with the nails thing. His veins are moving and it looks disgusting tbh. And he's kinda... fuming. Literally. Looks like he's got a bad smell. And now he's... trying to meditate the smell away?

Oh, there's a fire outside.

Why?

Oh no, it's the red guys with the masks again. They're killing people.

Ooooh, tragic hero lord guy jumps into the fight, alright. OMG, I LOVE THAT TREE IN THE BACKGROUND!!! It's so pretty.

I want it.

Somebody is trying to sneak a kid out. Possibly our kid. Not sure. And the red guys are following them. Hmm.

Oh, a bird. Tragic hero lord guy calls it a sparrow and a spy from the window of heaven, which... okay, but it's definitely NOT a sparrow. Maybe it's just a not so good translation.

Aww man, and now my tree's on fire! :(((( Why can I never have nice things? :(

Now it's raining yellow paper thingies. They kinda look like those smiley potato chips thingies that you can get in the freezer section at the supermarket.

Oh, they're weapons from the red guys. And the guy who's trying to sneak the kid out... is that the boatman?

Oooh, tragic hero lord guy jumps in. If that WAS the boatman, then he's getting paid alright. Heh.

Ok, wth? Swords are not supposed to be that bendy. That does not look like a good sword. How are you gonna stab anybody with a wobbly, shaky weapon like that?

And smirky guy is sitting on the window sill watching the situation unfold like a supermodel waiting to be called onto the runway. Instead of... like... HELPING?! Wth?

And he's an alcoholic too? Hmm

K, that was a short stay, they're back on the boat

Eww, the red guys cut of somebody's arm. Wait, is that the dad from before? And the others are... the kid's brothers? Maybe? Oh, whoever they are, they're supposed to have the glazed armor, and the red masked guys want it. And they're gonna kill them all? That's brutal, man.

But if they ARE the kid’s brothers and they’re about to die, then at least I won’t get them confused, so there’s a plus side.

Anway, alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy, the boatman and the kid are in some dusty place. And the boatman is savage as fuck. He wants his money, lol. I like him.

Oh no, so much information. I'm so bad at this. So the kid is supposed to hide at 5 lakes, but doesn't want to. And somebody saved somebody, I have no idea. I wanna know if alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy is gonna go meditate again, because it looks like he wants to.

And now the potato smileys are flying in again. Great. I'm never gonna unsee the potato thing now.

Anyway, alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy who seriously NEEDS A NAME(!!!) is getting smelly again. And the kid wants to defend them all and instantly drops the sword. That does not look good.

So many red masked guys.

LOL, alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy needs 15 minutes. To smell better, maybe.

Wow, the old boatman is a good fighter, but he stands no chance. Are he and the kid really the ones supposed to fight, while tragic hero guy is being smelly and smirky guy is still chilling who knows where?

See the stinky fumes?

Whoa the kid is willing to sacrifice himself for alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy. Who is just as surprised as me. And if it weren't for somebody intervening, they'd both be dead. Who is it?

Yooooooooo, purple girl coming in to the rescue. Of course. Need a job well done, leave it to the woman.

Wow, she's so badass. And the kid and the boatman are helping too. Alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy went back to meditating.

:O There were two nuts!!! I saw them!!! Is nuts guy one of the red masked guys?

Oh, NOW alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy is starting to fight. Probably smelled the nuts and got into it.

LOL, wth? Now that he's done fighting, he faints? And THAT's when smirky guy shows up? To catch him? And alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy wakes up again instantly to fight.

Lololol, wth? Smirky guy is like "Heh, you cute, let me wrap your sword around us." ;)

Maybe the wobbly bendy sword is a flirting technique and actually does serve a purpose.

He has really long fingers too.

Just saying.

Aww, would have been a cute moment if the boatman weren't deadly hit. And now he's smelly too. Wait, do smelly fumes mean doomed to die?

Ohh, he's gonna make him adopt the kid, isn't he?

Alcoholic tanned tragic hero lord guy drops a name, and says he's Zhou Xu. Is that his real name? Feels like smirky guy would probably recognize him if he gave his real name. But also maybe not. I know nothing. And smirky guy is mysterious as fuck. But I’ll take the name,because it’s shorter than the one I gave him.

Boatman is still a bit rude, threatening to curse Zhou Xu’s ancestors if he doesn't take care of the kid. Aren't they cursed already? Anyway, boatman can't know that.

Ok, old boatman has died and the kid is adopted. Cool, cool.

Oh, some fighter guys in nicely pleated skirts... who are they? Are they the guards of the manor? Are they there to help the kid? Whoever they are, they came too late and they set off fireworks.

Ok, smirky guy introduces himself. Wen Ke Xing. Oh boy, I hope I can remember that name.

Why is the kid dizzy? Did he get hurt?

Now they're discussing about the bread and nobody's willing to eat first while the kid is empty handed and very clearly hungry as hell. I feel so bad for him.

Why does smirky guy come across so snobby? I wanna like him.

Wow, they finally give the kid some food and now HE's refusing to eat it as well.

Purple girl is the only person actually getting fed tonight.

I mean, she deserves it. She fought the hardest.

Oooooh, smirky Wen Ke Xing guy is onto Zhou Xu lord guy. First stares him up and down while he's resting (lusting much?) and then flat out asks if he's in disguise.

Oh and the kid IS hurt. And smirky Ke Xing is the only one to realize too. He's redeeming himself. A little.

Zhou Xu lord guy doesn't want him to touch the kid though. Why?

Oooh, they're dancing again.

LOL, purple girl gets it. I saw that smile. I bet she's a shipper. What is the ship name? KeXu? ZhouXing? I literally had to scroll up and reread the names. We should just call them smirklord.

Okay, end of episode.

What did I learn? Names were dropped.  Zhou Xu lord guy has adopted the kid. Smirky guy is called Wen Ke Xing. He comes across a bit shady and pretentious and also flirty. Very flirty. But Purple girl is cool, and she trusts him so he must be kinda cool too. Still don't know who they really are and what they want. Like any of them. So far, I like the kid and purple girl best. I hope they all travel together to bring the kid to... wherever he's supposed to go.

Goals for future episodes: Find out who nut guy is. Learn the freaking names reliably. Find out people's connections to each other.

[naysaltysalmon]

Shoutout to @tiburme for tagging me~!

Rules: Name 10 favorite characters from 10 different things and then tag 10 people.

Oh, massive spoilers below btw.

1. Gon Freecss from Hunter x Hunter: My favorite shounen protagonist by far. At first you think he’s your typical happy-go-lucky bouncy boye :D who definitely doesn’t have abandonment issues or self-destructive tendencies that literally actually almost kill him later on, and then, uwu... The amount of complexity that Gon has as a protagonist who hardly ever has stand-alone development is nothing short of astounding. How during the Chimera Ant Art his characterization totally dips off to the side to become an unknowable entity even to the audience, while still retaining amazing character development regardless -- not to mention how brilliantly daring his decision to threaten Komugi is that nearly every other author with such a happy-go-lucky protagonist would shy away from in cowardice -- is absolutely surreal to me. The more I think and write about Gon, the more I fall in love with him. If I ever meet his father, and by that I mean his real father, the creator, Togashi, I have nothing else to say but,,, well done, sir.

2. Tanjirou Kamado from Demon Slayer: I’m really hoping the Demon Slayer movie comes out soon because I absolutely love this boy and how charming he is. Unlike most protagonists, not just of shounen anime but of seemingly macho story lines that involve power-ups and training in general, Tanjirou never lets go of his kind heart. (Welp, except maybe in some cases when he’s facing the Upper Moons later on -- I haven’t caught up yet -- but WE’RE GONNA IGNORE THAT for now.) From the beginning, Tanjirou’s kindness isn’t an obstacle holding back his power, though other characters pose it that way, but rather he cultivates his empathy to grant peace to the demons he faces. He smiles in the face of anyone who treats him poorly because of his cluelessness, and that’s just so heartwarming to see, and dare I say subversive to the hardened, calculating, and cocky male protagonists we so often get. Good job, Gotouge.

3. Joseph Joestar from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Giorno Giovanna was a close second, but I gotta go with Joseph. He’s the one who made me fall in love with the series, and with the later parts too. Unlike Jonathan Joestar, who was chivalrous and manly, Joseph was a riot: colorful, arrogant, funny, but also extremely clever. I absolutely loved his, “Next you’ll say...!” because at first I expected it to just be him being an overconfident asshole and eventually he’d be proven wrong at the ~Dai Pinchi Moment~ (please excuse my weeb speech, I legit didn’t know what else to call it), but then he hit the mark every time and eventually I was just waiting for when he’d pull that out and it was so hype. Also I surely can’t forget his transformation as an old dude in Part 3 -- him screaming “OOHHHH MY GAAAWDDDA!” and “HOLY SHIIIT!” murdered me every time. And of course, last but not least, the raw fucking emotion when Caeser died -- the dude actually gave a shit and wasn’t made entirely of wit and absurdity, but heart too. Joseph set the tone for what JJBA was as a whole for me (fuck off with that “but Part 3/Part 4 is the best Part” bullshit, Part 2 will always be top tier for me because of Joseph Joestar’s brilliant, bright, and beautiful absurdity -- but Part 5 was really good too). Araki really is a genius.

4. Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: My love for this series is a bit older than the series I’ve already mentioned, and TLoZ: TP was actually probably the first time I got seriously obsessed with a fandom. I love all the Links in their own ways, but Twilight Princess really drove home the “lone wolf chosen by the gods, fighting against the world” narrative for me. It made me feel important and strong at a time when no one cared about me. Seeing Link struggle silently through his quest with villagers who meant well but did nothing for him, and Midna who started out as a reluctant acquaintance and eventually became so much more, meant so much to me at the time I played the game. I will always love Twilight Princess the most because of what it did for me at one of the darkest times in my life, and because I felt completely and utterly immersed in every part of the story and gameplay through Link’s character, who was, and in many ways, still is, so relatable to me: Silent courage really is what I use to get through every day.

5. Greedling from Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): For once I’m not naming the protagonist of a series! Lissen, I still smile whenever I see the slightest reference to Edward Elric, but now he’s more of my childhood love. He’s just a part of my personality already? LOL. Anyway, FMA(B) has so many good characters that choosing just one doesn’t feel right (I mean, same with HxH tho). I say Greedling because that encompasses both Ling and Greed though, two of my favorite characters from the series! Ling’s apparent childishness in constantly running away from fights, making other people pay for his food, and failing to grasp the seriousness of the situation (until Lan Fan’s arm gets cut off lol oops) is so adorable and entertaining. He’s the best kind of idiot asshole, and I especially love how he teases Ed. After him and Greed fuse, Ling’s stout heart becomes even more apparent, as he constantly eggs Greed on to remember his past life, his friends, and become someone outside of Father/the Dwarf in the Flask. Conversely, Greed’s nonchalance and (of course) avarice are nothing short of entertaining and heartbreaking. Greed’s realization at the end, when he finally admitted to himself that what he wanted all along were “friends like these,” completely crushed me the first few times I watched FMAB. And when he’s screaming in the tunnels under Central after having killed Bido, remembering his friends, and he doesn’t understand why, and later attacks Wrath/King Bradley... that shit was so entertaining and cathartic to watch. None of his development feels like forced redemption, nor like it was too little development, since it mostly happens in the background and away from the “validating eyes” of the protagonists other than Ling. And at the end, when Ling and Greed work together to take down Bradley and all the soldiers invading Central HQ... it’s so beautiful. Many have said this before but I’ll say it again: Hiromu Arakawa wrote the perfect series.

6. Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler: Another protagonist! And another older obsession of mine. Ciel remains in my mind to this day mainly for his heartlessness in relation to his age, and the fluidity with which Toboso tells his story. Normally when authors write younger characters into their serious stories, they make “child adults” of sorts, but Ciel feels totally realistic to the extent that he is both childish and adult to me. Obviously, Ciel is responsible and (normally) level-headed due to being the head of the Phantomhive household, but also from trauma. Yet, his cruelty at times is what sticks in my mind the most: You really feel that he’s someone who feels he’s been abandoned by the entire world, given his experiences, and that makes him disregard or use others sometimes in order to reach his own ends. Normally, authors would be too cowardly to let their protagonists, let alone child protagonists, go to such lengths to avenge their family, or carry out their duty as the dog of the military (looking at you, Arakawa -- she’s still a goddess tho). But Ciel is unforgiving. He lies to Snake and tells him his troupe is still alive. He murders the entire troupe because he’s triggered -- a childish decision, but driven with adult-like power due to trauma. It’s devastatingly riveting, and I cannot forget his unrelenting, contained rage to this day.

7. Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars: This one may come as a shock to most of you, because I hardly ever post Star Wars let alone Ahsoka content on here -- but it’s true. Other than the blatant, half-assedly inserted heteroromantic partner they gave Ahsoka in, like, idk season 3??, Ahsoka is a fucking goddess. From her origin as a wee baby in the earlier seasons who didn’t really know what she was doing and was a bit of a cocky brat, to how she matures and becomes wise, resourceful, and fierce in the later seasons, I just love Ahsoka’s design and character to this day. The episodes that stick in my mind aside from the obvious are when she’s possessed by the Dark Side of the Force on that Force balance planet and her arrogance becomes so exaggerated that she threatens and attacks Anakin, her teacher. It was so fucking cathartic. Normally female characters, let alone young protagonist female characters, are never allowed to show the ugly sides of themselves in fiction, since women are always portrayed as perfect beautiful majestic angels or some bullshit like that. (Or they’re cocky/sexy/slutty villain women. ‘Kay then.) Seeing Ahsoka devolve into her basal desires and come out of it like hardly anything happened and she’s still a perfectly valid character was so amazing to see on a meta level; it wasn’t about her learning a lesson or anything, it was a thing that happened like any other character and then they moved the fuck on. I also distinctly remember the episode where she was trapped on that island/planet and she had to take out the aliens that were after her all by herself. That was so fucking empowering to watch and god fucking dammit I need to rewatch this series now. And of course, let us not forget the fact that the entire time, we were all expecting Ahsoka to just be another domino in Anakin’s downfall -- and she was, but not through the refrigerator -- but through walking away from it all. That was so powerful and moving -- and heartbreaking. By the end of TCW, her character carried weight and agency in the narrative, and god, I only wish whoever wrote her could write more female characters in the future.

8. Tigress from Kung Fu Panda: Maybe another surprise, but I think she deserves this spot. Tigress is a female character who starts out as kind of an antagonist, given how she outright tells Po to leave the kung fu temple within the first day of him arriving. She’s even jealous of the fact that he’s chosen as the Dragon Warrior rather than her -- but that’s due to the backwash of years of trying to live up to the memory of Tai Lung in order to please Shifu (which means “master” in Chinese but ok I’ll shut up now), her master and mentor over the years. She never says this out loud in the movie, which is what makes her character more believable. Others even joke about how stoic she is (and not in bad taste). Her character development is definitely present for those who are looking -- but I put her on this list because I’m so happy the movie doesn’t make it some huge dramatic emotional thing, because so often in media women are depicted as being overly-emotional and here Tigress is just a hurt child trying to make her mentor happy. But, she gets over it, her and Po become allies, even friends to each other -- she and Po talk like equals in the second and third movies, and she even tells him to back out of the fight with Lord Shen and he listens (I mean he doesn’t stay put but he doesn’t undermine her opinion either lol, like most jokesy protagonists of Western media would -- looking at you, Marvel). I like Tigress because she’s an antagonist without being a bitch, she’s powerful without being overpowered, and she’s not sexualized despite being a well-trained, at times jealous, and even emotionally awkward kung fu master. And I almost forgot to mention the best part: There is never an indication of romance between her and Po, or any other character, for that matter. She’s perfectly capable, complex, and lovely on her own terms. And that’s that on THAT.

9. Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit: I wanted to include at least one character protagonist from a live-action movie/book, lol. I feel like Bilbo’s pretty self-explanatory. He doesn’t wanna go on an adventure because he likes his doilies and warm sheets, but then Gandalf seduces him with the call to the outside world and possible death (LOL), and he fucking goes for it, grumbling the entire time. Isn’t that what any of us would do if given such a proposition? I like to think so. Bilbo obviously has his own gradual, evil transformation with the One Ring, becomes murderous and uses it to disappear, and grows a strong bromance with the King Under the Mountain (which happens in both the movie and the book), but I think what I like about him is that he really feels... down-to-earth? Like even though the adventure changes him, it never feels like he’s been stretched in a way that makes his core character traits of grumbling and bluntness disappear. He gets better at the whole adventuring thing, for sure, but he remains Bilbo, at least, to me, throughout the journey. It was heartwrenching watching him try to save Thorin in The Battle of Five Armies, honestly, but Bilbo’s the kind of character that I feel like has his own story and mythology aside from The Hobbit, and maybe that’s just the result of J.R.R. Tolkien writing the lore for every aspect of his universe, but My Point Still Stands. He feels like his own man apart from the series he’s in, yet he’s still so much fun in his series.

10. Barley Lightfoot from Onward: And last, this one is because I saw Onward yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by the characterization in it -- and anyone who thinks differently can kiss my *ss. :) I was not expecting the movie to take the twist of fleshing out the “annoying” (more like adorable) overconfident nerdy big brother. Normally those characters are swiped to the side because God Forbid The Comic Relief Have Any Sadness In Them. I was expecting the movie to focus on Ian’s journey to meet his fatha and that the movie would pull something stupid at the end like “oh actually there’s another phoenix gem underneath the school” or “actually since only his legs appeared then you still have 24 hours with him” or some shit like that, but I guess this isn’t an anime so those absurdist explanations wouldn’t hold water anyway. But still, for a kid’s movie, I was NOT expecting this movie to go so hard with the characterization. For once, the main character doesn’t get what he wants at the end, and instead realizes it’s his big brother, Barley, who’s been looking out for him his entire life. Meeting his dad would betray that reality. What happens instead is that the lovable big brother never actually said goodbye to their dad before he died, because when their dad got sick, said brother ran away from the hospital room in fear of all the life-sustaining equipment. (Is this some meta thing about Chris Pratt and Guardians of the Galaxy? Off topic and call me stupid, but I didn’t realize Chris Pratt plays him until I saw everyone freaking out about it afterward on Tumblr laksjdflak.) So instead, the lovable big brother talks to the dad at the end, and unconfident younger brother grows confidence and thanks big bro for being with him his entire life. It was so touching, dude. I cry. But the moment that sticks in my mind the most was when Ian was crossing the invisible bridge... Ian needed to have confidence in himself to be able to cross over a chasm in their path, and Barley knew that if Ian didn’t believe in himself, he would fall and die. They tie a rope around Ian for good measure, and Barley encourages him the entire way, but halfway over, the rope comes loose and slips off. Barley sees this and starts panicking, but of course continues to encourage Ian so that Ian will get to the other side. What got to me wasn’t the fact that he faked it for Ian, but that there are actual tears running down his face as he’s encouraging Ian to get to the other side, because he knows otherwise Ian wouldn’t have the confidence and would fall to his death. Like dude, that raw, complex emotion in a kid’s movie?! DUDE?! I was fucking surprised. The clear anxiety and grief in Barley’s face as Ian’s totally clueless and even dancing around in the air was just too much, omfg. Of course, then it’s played off for laughs, but... I guess that makes sense for the annoying overconfident nerdy big bro character. :’)

Okay these are way longer than I anticipated and I’m sorry, but also I’m really not. Hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on my favs!

Seems I don’t talk to that many people on here anymore: @stupidbluejay @mirycactusito @chronicstarlight

[harryp22h]

[FGO Fan Servant] Servant Caster, Genderbent King Sejong.

In celebration of Hanguel Day, a national holiday in Korea, I have decided to play my hand in creating a Servant. My first attempt, actually.

Introducing: Servant Caster King Sejong 'The Great'!

Name: King Sejong the Great

Class: Caster

Origin: Korea – Joseon Dynasty (1400s)

Alignment: Lawful-Good

Type: Man

Bio: The 4th King of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty. A scholar. A writer. A scientist. A mage.

Seeming to possess both insatiable curiosity and infinite kindness, along with a dash of spite-fueled stubbornness, she earned the title ‘The Great’, not for military conquest, but for her humanitarianism and progressive polices. In sharp contrast to her father, a king who murdered even his family for the throne, she was a kind and caring King of the People, one who fought tooth and nail for those in her care regardless of risks. An avid supporter and patron for the advancement of science and magecraft in order to improve her nation and her citizens’ livelihood, her most famous act would be the creation of Hangeul, an alphabet designed so that even the lowliest of peasants could learn to read and write within a week.

Class Skills

Territory Creation Rank C+: The Hall of Worthies, a Royal Research Institute which contained the King’s personal mage workshop.

Item Creation Rank B+: Was personally involved in the creation of Hangeul, and sponsored many other projects at the Hall of Worthies.

Personal Skills

Patronage B+: Served as patron to the Hall of Worthies, and sponsored many endeavors into the fields of science and magecraft. Heavily believed in Meritocracy and held the belief that anyone, regardless of status or lineage, could succeed if given the chance. Personally promoted a peasant to position of Royal Engineer, the most shining example of her beliefs.

Charisma B: Wildly popular amongst the populous, and able to persuade the fickle Royal Court, regardless of how many times she pissed them off.

Humanitarianism A: Improved literacy nation-wide. Supported paternity leave for both mothers and fathers. Introduced tax reform to reduce burden on famine-stricken areas. Funded many inventions to help improve citizens’ livelihood.

Agricultural Boon C: Penned several books on agriculture and farming techniques, then had them distributed amongst the populace to increase productivity.

Rapid Words of Casting EX: Invented an entire alphabet for the express purpose of easier and faster reading and writing.

Entertainment Revision EX: K-Drama. Gains access to skills she does not normally possess. Stronger the more dramatic and flashy the skill is. Similar to Imperial Privilege.

Bond 1

Born the 3rd child of the 3rd King Taejong (태종-이방원), and the grandchild of the dynasty’s founder Taejo (태조-이성계), Ido (이도) was originally never meant to inherit the throne. However, her 2 older brothers, horrified by the King’s, their father’s brutal actions towards anyone who possibly posed a threat to the monarchy, desired nothing more to do with the throne. They instead choose to abdicate the position of heir apparent to Ido, much to their father’s delight, who thought the studious and hard-working Ido as much better suited for the position. Given the title of Grand Duke and place under her father’s direct tutelage, the Royal Court feared, that like father like daughter, that there would be a second calling of Taejong, a bloody King who killed his half-brothers, his brothers-in-law, his father-in-law, his son’s father-in-law, and so many others to both obtain and maintain the throne. Luckily, the only notable trait she seemed to inherit was his stubbornness and his disdain for nobility.

 Bond 2

After her father’s death by surprisingly not murder, but old age, Sejong (세종), formerly named Ido, worked to distinguished her reign from her predecessors. She heavily promoted the pursuit of knowledge in the fields of both science and magecraft, and established The Hall of Worthies (집현결), the Joseon Dynasty’s Royal Research Institute, filling it with the brightest minds the nation had to offer. Meteorology, astronomy, military weaponry, alchemy and agriculture were some of the many fields being researched and expanded upon, with the hope that they could be utilized to strengthen Korea, both internally and externally. The King, holding a healthy amount of curiosity herself, participated as well, having a personal lab and workshop set up there.

 Bond 3

She did not care for social norms, and promoted meritocracy, holding the belief that if anyone, regardless of status or bloodline, were given an opportunity, could accomplish anything if they put their mind to it. The most shining example of this belief would be Jang Yeong-sil  (장영실), a former peasant-turned-Royal Engineer. Having heard rumours of his cleverness and ingenuity, she personally invited him, the son of an escort, to the palace, where he managed to pique the King’s interest after completing a series of trials. Impressed, she promoted him to the position of Royal Engineer and invited him to partake in the Hall of Worthies, despite the protests of the nobility. Nevertheless, he would prove himself a worthy addition, helping to create independent advancements in the fields of astronomy and meteorology using his knack for inventing. Bonding over their love of the pursuit of knowledge, he and the King shared a very close friendship, with him confiding in her his inventions and discoveries, and her taking him under her wing in the field of magecraft. Her trust in him was absolute, even willing to forgive him immediately when one of his inventions proved faulty and injured the test subject… who just so happened to be the King herself. Unfortunately, the nobility, jealous of the inventor and fearful for their own positions, seized upon this opportunity, having him tried and ultimately imprisoned, in spite of the King’s protests.

 Bond 4

Noble Phantasm: [훈민정음 – 한글]

The Proper Words for the Instruction of the People.

Rank: EX

 King Sejong’s most influential creation. The one that would rightfully earn her the title ‘The Great’. Developed in secret at the Hall of Worthies, its very existence alone had the potential to put even the King’s life in danger. Penned by the King herself, it was a scientifically-designed featural alphabet with 17 constants and 11 vowels, created to replace the ill-fitting Chinese characters that had been in use up to this point, in spite of Korea having had a separate spoken language for centuries. Designed to be easy to read and write, even a working man was capable of learning it in a week. Upon its completion, it was initially announced to the Royal Court, who vehemently opposed its very existence. Even those loyal to the crown protested, fearful that a literate populous would prove unruly and rebellious. In spite of, or perhaps because of the protests of the nobility, it was released on October 9, 1495 to the public with almost immediate success. It strengthened the Korean national identity, helping Korea to differentiate itself from China. It would kickstart a literary Renaissance, as even the peasants, now almost all literate, could participate, writing down their own thoughts and observations while reading those of others. Even the nobility, initially disdainful, would later adopt it, both in private and public affairs.

 Bond 5

A King of the People, who cared greatly for her nation’s citizens. In addition to Hanguel, she also penned several books of agricultural techniques to be distributed amongst the populous for increased productivity and surplus. She introduced tax-reforms, so that plague or famine-stricken areas could pay reduced taxes, focusing on recovery instead of immediate gains. She introduced paternity leave, not just for mothers but for fathers as well. Amongst other Kings, both past and future, she would go above and beyond the call, willing to risk her standing, her reputation, and even her health to improve the lives of her citizens. 

Almost suspiciously so. So very caring for people she should not have met. Should being the word here. There are rumours she snuck out of the palace to mingle with the populous. That would certainly be the case for most K-Dramas… 

Nevertheless, she truly earned the title ‘The Great’ as a King fully devoted to the cause of humanitarianism and the pursuit of knowledge. Long live the King.

[kpopfic-recs]

♡ nct twitter au rec masterlist ♡

Note: If you are unable to view the formatting on the mobile app, switch to reading on your mobile browser

(Last update 4/1/20)

Key: Fluff (❀) Angst (☆) Smut (☾) Personal Favorite (♡) Completed Series (✓) Incomplete Series (✗)

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Markhyuck

[untitled] by daehwient II ❀ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck starts getting weird messages from a number already saved in his phone as “Soulmate.”

Length of story: 58 parts

Warnings: None

[untitled] by 127vevos II ❀ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck runs a secret fan account for Mark and Mark's apparently not that dumb.

Length of story: 59 parts

Warnings: None

[untitled] by neoulture II ❀ ✓

Summary: Mark is a photographer that travels the world and Donghyuck is just getting on a plane to get away for a summer.

Length of story: 76 parts

Warnings: None

[untitled] by dreamysuns II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Twitter stan Lee Donghyuck wakes up in an alternate universe where he’s a member of his favorite band.

Length of story: 149 parts

Warnings: None

[untitled] by hyuckieee II ❀ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck confesses to his crush, Wong Yukhei, using song lyrics. The catch? It was the wrong number.

Length of story: 156 parts

Warnings: None

[untitled] by hyuckios II ❀ ☆ ♡ ✓

Summary: Where Mark has grown up knowing that Santa Claus is just make believe, but his perspective begins to change the night he comes home to find a boy with pointy ears bouncing around his kitchen, and there’s no way that’s a fucking Christmas elf.

Length of story: 158 parts

Warnings: Drinking, drugs, violence

[untitled] by hyuckieee II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck and Mark are enemies at Hogwarts, but a potion accident one day turns Donghyuck into a cute child who only clings onto Mark (because he was the first person he saw after the event) for a week. But when Donghyuck is back to normal it’s suddenly hard for Mark to treat him as usual. (Harry Potter!AU)

Length of story: 174 parts

Warnings: Bullying

[untitled] by seokmykiss II ❀ ☆ ♡ ✓

Summary: Mark is a famous rapper who happens to stumble across a beauty guru, Donghyuck, on Instagram. They quickly befriend each other, but there’s something the public doesn’t know about Donghyuck: he’s deaf. (Sequel is here, but discontinued)

Length of story: 199 parts (includes sequel)

Warnings: Mentions of abusive relationship

[untitled] by hyuckios II ❀ ☆ ♡ ✓

Summary: In a world where technology is advancing, Mark begins to hate the way his eyes change color according to his emotions, and now he has to worry about his hair always standing up - cause his new roomie at the research facility is literally full of static electricity.

Length of story: 215 parts

Warnings: Experimentation (?), kidnapping

[untitled] by hyuckoi II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck is the king of nerds and the president of the science team at school and Mark is the captain of the basketball team and they hate each other's guts until something really unexpected happens the same day of the decathlon and basketball finals. (HSM!AU) (Sequel is here)

Length of story: 458 parts (includes sequel)

Warnings: Drinking

watchdog by hyuckios II ❀ ☆ ♡ ✓

Summary: President’s son and certified troublemaker Lee Donghyuck hates every aspect of his private lifestyle, just until he meets Mark Lee: his newly hired watchdog, who drinks too much coffee and doesn’t smile very often, and yup, Donghyuck is intrigued. (Second and third installments)

Length of story: 486 parts (includes additional installments)

Warnings: Underage drinking, suggestive content

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Yuwin 

[untitled] by eyeronicmuch II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Yuta is a famous yet deaf piano prodigy and Sicheng is a time traveler.

Length of story: 58 parts

Warnings: None

[untitled] by eyeronicmuch II ❀ ✓

Summary: Yuta is a devil and Sicheng is an angel, who dislike each other but they both get assigned to watch over a human child.

Length of story: 145 parts

Warnings: None

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Johnten

  [untitled] by ritokki (+ Dojae, Luwoo, 2Tae, Markhyuck & Yuwin) II ❀ ☆ ♡ ✓

  Summary: Johnny is an angsty writer that doesn’t believe in soulmates. Ten has an ink allergy and hates the medical room. “Hi Mr. Soulmate, can you stop? I have an ink allergy.” (In which your soulmate writes on their skin and it appears on yours.) (Dojae spin-off, Luwoo spinoff, 2Tae spinoff)

Length of story: 972 parts (includes spin-offs)

Warnings: Mentions of homophobia, bullying, death, drugs & sex, drinking, light violence

  ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ ... ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ ... ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ ... ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿ ... ✿°•∘ɷ∘•°✿

Johnyong

[untitled] by yeehawlix II ❀ ✓

Summary: Where Taeyong was turned into a roach a year ago and has had to live as one since then and Johnny just happened to recently move to Taeyong’s old apartment where he still lives but as a cockroach.

Length of story: 54 parts

Warnings: Sexual content

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Johnjae

[untitled] by eyeronicmuch II ❀ ♡ ✓

Summary: Johnny and Jaehyun are neighbours, and Jaehyun owns a fat cat. Oh, and also it can talk.

Length of story: 54 parts

Warnings: None

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Nohyuck

[untitled] by hyuckieee II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Jeno and Donghyuck are enemies. Determined to annoy him to the fullest, Donghyuck spams Jeno’s number, causing him to block Donghyuck. Undeterred, Donghyuck uses Jeno’s number as a rant space. What happens when Jeno unblocks him — or didn’t really block him in the first place?

Length of story: 151 parts

Warnings: None

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Renhyuck

[untitled] by eyeronicmuch II ❀ ✓

Summary: Renjun is a conspiracy theorist trying to deduct unsolved theories and cases about aliens and Donghyuck is his sidekick, who is an alien.

Length of story: 100 parts

Warnings: None

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Johndo

[untitled] by yeehawlix II ❀ ✓

Summary: In which Johnny owns a Twitter account where he posts his dog— Nyoom’s pictures and Doyoung is a stressed singer who just wants to play with said dog. But one day after Johnny posts a face reveal, maybe Doyoung wants more than to play with Nyoom.

Length of story: 57 parts

Warnings: Sexual content

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Luwin

[untitled] by eyeronicmuch II ❀ ✓

Summary: Yukhei is a rather peculiar chef and Sicheng is a poor victim of his creations. Chaos ensues.

Length of story: 81 parts

Warnings: Vomit

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Jaesung

[untitled] by amaryllaus (+ Markren) II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Jisung works at the local movie theater. One day he sees a crying Jaemin in an empty theater and Jisung who just wants to go home offers free popcorn to him. Ever since then Jaemin would talk to him everyday.

Length of story: 128 parts

Warnings: Toxic relationship

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Nahyuck

[untitled] by hyuckieee II ❀ ☆

Summary: Bad boy Jaemin and cold guy Donghyuck get roped into the K-Drama world because the Higher Ups are done with them treating love like shit. What better way to make sure they learn their lesson than being trapped in a world full of love cliches?

Length of story: 154 parts

Warnings: None

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Markhyuckhei

[untitled] by hyuckieee II ❀ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck is a Taeyong fanboy who rants about his problems in Taeyong’s DMs, not expecting him to open them. It all changes when Donghyuck mentions a boy’s name and suddenly, Taeyong is invested (or in which they become bffs as Taeyong tries to help Donghyuck with his love life).

Length of story: 117 parts

Warnings: None

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Doyuil 

[untitled] by eyeronicmuch II ❀ ✓

Summary: Yuta and Doyoung drunkenly dress up as a bus and try to cross a vehicle only bridge at 4 AM and Taeil is the police officer who arrests them.

Length of story: 57 parts

Warnings: Drinking

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Multiple Pairings

[untitled] by hyuckieee (Donghyuck x Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin & Lucas) II ❀ ☆ ✓

Summary: Donghyuck is tired of his members not showing him any affection unless he initiates it first so he decides to take a short break, oblivious of the complete and utter chaos that will ensue.

Length of story: 139 parts

Warnings: None

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Red to Brown

Summary: I wrote this for RiKai Week. And it was supposed to be a companion piece to my "Underwater", where in that Naminé--while visiting Verum Rex--is still hung-up on Sora, even though KHIII made it all SoKai time all the time, and she eventually realized she needed to get over him for that reason and did. This was supposed to be Riku in Shibuya still hung-up on Kairi and needing to get over that, which he does, but it ended up a little weird with some SoRiku in it, too (that he also gets over) and a little Riku/Shiki and Neku/Shiki. Also, beware of TWEWY spoilers if you haven't played/finished that game.

(And I am hoping on doing another piece that’s more wholly RiKai for the week, too.) "Riku, why do you think Sora would be here?" Shiki asked kindly but uncertainly, as she cocked her head to the side and met his gaze with a concerned one of her own from behind her glasses. Right now, Riku, Neku, and her were at some burger place called "Sunshine", as Shiki and Neku tried to give him the lowdown. When Riku had first come to Shibuya, Shiki had been the first person he’d seen—that he thought was kind of fitting, because he’d always liked her—and while he hadn’t recognized her at first (because she somehow moreso resembled Xion than Kairi now), he’d heard her talking and recognized her voice and seen her lugging around her Mr. Mew. And then… then the things that Riku hadn’t allowed himself to feel at the Keyblade War hit him at full force, and he’d dropped himself at Shiki’s feet and begged her to help him get into the Game to find Sora. Then, Shiki had turned towards her orange-haired friend beside her in an embarrassed and panicked way—as she’d moved her hands this way and that—and had asked him, “What should we do, Neku?” And Neku—moving a strand of hair from out of his eyes—had just muttered, “Sunshine. Now,” and had helped Shiki get Riku to his feet. And as soon as Shiki had touched Riku (perhaps he was touch starved and had needed that comfort there?), Riku was very much himself again. And was that way right now, as they discussed things over food. "A wizard- a wizard that I know said he would be here," Riku answered, as he tried something called "French fries" for the first time in his life; and they were actually so good, he thought he might have died and gone to heaven. If only he had... it would certainly make his job of finding Sora easier that way. "And I guess I just had faith in that, that's all." "Riku," Neku whispered darkly, as he hid his eyes beneath his bangs and seemed to be wanting to say even more than he was. “You know that you have to be dead to play the Reapers' Game, right? —err, for the most part—so are you saying that-" "...Yeah. Sora's dead. And you're probably not going to believe any of this... but we were in a war and we alldied. But K-K... Kairi—Sora's girlfriend, that is—kept him tethered to life and Sora then... somehow rewrote time to bring us all back. But the cost for that was his own life. And he would've died from what he already did there, eventually… but our number one enemy had to put the final nail in the coffin by killing Kairi and making Sora use the power one more time to rescue her. Once he brought her back to our Islands... he vanished." Shiki was bawling her eyes out at this news. Tears streamed down her eyes, as she covered her mouth and made a choking. And Neku just looked like he wanted to hit something—as he muttered something about this “being like that time again”—which Riku couldn't blame him for. Once he'd made sure that Kairi was okay after losing Sora, he had punched every wall that he could find. "That's not- that's not fair!" Shiki exclaimed, standing up and throwing her hands onto the table—apparently she didn't mind making a scene at all anymore if it was for Sora’s sake, and that made Riku like her all the more... but was Riku imagining it, or had Joshua just come into the restaurant for a second and pressed one button on his phone before leaving? —"I mean, life isn't fair. Those of us who have played the Reapers' Game know that most of all. Neku didn't deserve to be murdered twice... Beat’s family didn’t need to insult him, making him then storm out and Rhyme have to come follow him just as a car was careening towards her... that though Beat tried to stop, couldn't do so and it killed them both. Joshua shouldn’t have had the RG treat him so badly, that he didn't want to be a part of it anymore. And my own really big misunderstanding with Eri was dumb, and it led to me going outside without my wits about me and falling and getting a concussion and waking up in the UG. And Sora was a really sweet guy who helped us all and deserved so much better than we got. So what can we do for you guys, Riku? Riku swallowed against a lump in his throat with everything that Shiki had just told him. He’d assumed his friends who had played the Reapers’ Game lives must have been bad, if they’d died so young to be in it to begin with. But he hadn’t thought they were like this. It reminded Riku of before his adventures had started, when he had thought that the worst thing in his own life that could surely hit him was an early death. And while since then, Riku, Sora, Kairi, the King, Naminé, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Xion, Axel, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus had definitely gone through even weirder horrible things than all of this, it didn’t lessen any of the sympathy that Riku felt for Shiki and her friends here. Instead, he only felt empathy for them. “I have… a strange request,” Riku said to Shiki and Neku, after he’d gone over to Shiki and run a soothing hand down her back and helped her back into her seat—Neku’s eyebrows had risen into his hairline as Riku did this, but he didn’t care. Shiki had seemed like she’d been having a panic attack for Sora’s sake and Riku wanted to help her—“Master Yen Sid was wrong before, but maybe he’ll be right about this one thing: he said that there are alternate versions of Shibuya—maybe of all the worlds—that at least one person here can get to? Do you think you can find this person and get them to take me to one? If Sora isn’t in this Shibuya, maybe he’s in one of the other ones.” Neku and Shiki shared a look here and soon began talking to each other in hushed whispers. Riku tried hard not to eavesdrop on them, since that was rude, and instead took quite a few swigs of the coke that he’d gotten with his burger and fries… but he thought he heard them debating which person they should ask: Joshua or a “Mr. H.” Shiki was leaning towards Joshua, since Riku at least knew him. But Neku said something that Riku couldn’t decipher, and then something about how Josh apparently could interdimensional leap, but couldn’t exactly control it so it would probably be best if they asked Mr. H. “Except that no one knows where Mr. H. is right now, Neku. He became a fallen angel after all he did for us in the First Game. You know that, of course. But he may have earned his title again after he brought Shibuya back from being Erased. So he may be contending with the Angels right now… or he may be in the UG, or somewhere in RG Shibuya. Since we at least know Joshua’s in the UG in the Room of Reckoning, and was even just here and changed our Frequencies so we’re in the UG now, I feel like I should go look for him there and go get his advice. So I’m going to do that. The less time we waste right now—when time if of the essence—the better!” And not allowing another word in edgewise from either of the boys, Shiki took off to do just that. And Riku couldn’t help smirking as she did so, as this attitude of hers reminded him quite a bit of Kairi. As Shiki went, Neku watched Shiki’s retreating form anxiously—and Riku guessed it maybe had something to do with Joshua, since he himself knew how pushy and dangerous feeling that boy seemed to be with all of his power. But Neku seemed to think this even moreso than Riku did, if the way he’d reacted to Joshua’s name being said a few times today was any indication—but finally seeming to decide that she was going to be okay, Neku leaned back into his seat and mumbled, “Fine. If she’s right and the Josh thing works out, that’s great. And I guess it’s better than me going to see him. I’m still pissed off that he didn’t seem to care at all when Coco killed me recently. But I don’t want to talk about him… Riku, you tell me about this Kairi girl and why you like her.” To say Riku was taken aback by this sudden line of questioning would have been a massive understatement. And he was shocked that Neku was bringing it up at all, since he didn’t seem to be the type who liked to pry into other people’s lives or have them look too deeply into his. But then again, Riku saw a psychology book of Neku’s opened up on their table—was he going to school for that now?—so maybe that was the answer to why the boy was now doing something that Riku would have assumed was out of character for him. “I’ll- I’ll tell you!” Riku stammered hastily—and surprisingly loudly—before he could take it back. “But only because I feel like my not talking about Kairi, and lying about some things, is keeping me from being able to find Sora. “Where do I even start? Kairi came to our world from another one—and in that way, she was the first clue to Sora and I that there was something bigger and greater out there—so of course I had to like her for that: this girl who wasn’t just the promise of an adventure, but perhaps the embodiment of it. And over time—as I grew closer and closer to her and her kind heart—my feelings grew, so much so that I really wanted to tell her I liked her when she was fourteen and I was fifteen… but didn’t, because I knew if given the choice, she and Sora would probably be together. “So jealousy grew in my heart, and I started doing bad things. Like, world ending kind of things and I didn’t even care. And because of my actions—literally throwing our Island home away, so we could get onto seeing other worlds already—Kairi lost her heart, and I was desperate to get it back, so I became even more of a monster. I would’ve killed this puppet that had been animated if I could give its heart to Kairi… I sided with an evil fairy who I knew wanted to take over the worlds, just because she promised she’d help me with Kairi. And I even tried to kill Sora as he fought me… “I fell into a trap where I became possessed, because of my stupidity and lust for power and desire to hear how great I was—and oddly enough, it was only then that I started coming back into myself—Kairi awoke because of a self-sacrificing move of Sora’s. And the man who had taken me over, Xehanort, tried to hurt her and I was able to fight him back just long enough that she could run away… and then I started fighting back in general. “Alongside Sora, I did the first really good thing on my journey—I locked myself, because I had to for it to work, behind the Door to Darkness, that would have continued spilling more evil out into the world if it had remained open and I was resigned to my fate there… but then I got a second chance to fight the darkness, and be who I was again, by taking on a place called ‘Castle Oblivion.’ And there, I was ashamed of the things I had done to Sora and Kairi. And I did hate my actions towards Kairi, too, because if I had succeeded and revived her… she would’ve hated the things I did to accomplish it. “So while I desperately wanted to see my friends again and make amends… for about a year, I told myself I had no right to that… even if a guise of Kairi is who told me I could use the light and darkness back-to-back… and even if I did at least try and keep an eye on her for a while, and ran into her again while she cried and begged me to stay—forgiving me for all I’d done and breaking me of my desire to leave ever again. “I know… I know she’d been a little afraid of me when I started to change, right before I destroyed our Islands, and who could blame her? So that massive leap of faith she made for me when she came back into my life meant so much… maybe- maybe that’s why when I passed out in the Castle That Never Was, it was with her name on my lips. “And then when we got home from the Castle That Never Was, we had some months together like we used to, and it was great… I haven’t seen her as much lately, because I’ve been busy on adventures with Sora and had him on my mind some lately—but even then, Kairi isn’t too far behind. My Data-self wanted to make sure to tell Data Sora about hurt that Kairi’s experienced, and when I met someone who had never once had anyone look past their appearance to see who they were, I thought of how lucky I was that Kairi had done that for me. And… my greatest failure is that in this Keyblade War, I let other responsibilities go to my head and I didn’t protect her—instead leaving her with a novice—which then led to everything else. And maybe- maybe I’m thinking if I bring Kairi’s Sora back to her, she might finally give me a chance.”” Neku was quiet for a long moment, as he let all of this sink in—and Riku was glad that he hadn’t interrupted him with too many questions, like “What’s a Data self?”, because some of this stuff was hard to explain, okay?—but finally, after removing earbuds from his ears and giving Riku his full and undivided attention, Neku spoke, “What I think is this, Riku: While I don’t want to tell you to give up on the romance you feel for this girl who seems to make your life worth it—believe me, I get it—and I’m only taking your word on the Sora and Kairi relationship here… Maybe you’re wrong and being too self-conscious and Sora and Kairi really aren’t together, and Kairi likes you. I don’t know… “The way you just talked about Kairi… I think you’re mostly over her, even if don’t realize it. The more you got into your story… the less you had to tell about her, and it even seems you’re really more about Sora now. I’m not saying you still don’t love her as a friend or sister—and I know how hard it is to let go of a safety crutch—but I think if you do… and let yourself believe that you’re not so selfish anymore, as to be looking for Sora just to impress Kairi—or even just to have Sora for yourself--you’ll find him.” And deep down, Neku was right… and Riku knew that he was, and had perhaps even sensed so for a long time. Because just as Neku got done telling him all of this, a man with short brown hair, glasses, a goatee, and a cup of beans in his hand appeared out of the ether and told Riku that while Sora wasn’t in RG or UG Shibuya, he was in High Plane Shibuya and could take him there.

[smolbeandrabbles]

Greed: Going 'Round - Talos x Reader Drabble (Captain Marvel)

Author’s Note: Requested by @my-little-fandom-corner... Which I just... I know I always say it but... I’m truly honoured and humbled by getting a request from my writing idol... My gosh...! Uh... I’m not sure this is even close to what you expected, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! 🙊❤🙈 ALSO - I’m sorry it took so long your blog name has literally changed three times since you requested it!!!!!!! Thanks Jordan Davis for saving my ass with this one - The power of shuffled music and lyrics can truly never be overstated... 

Disclaimer: AU. Marvel Universe characters not mine

Premise: With S.H.I.E.L.D (apparently) tailing every move you make, it isn't long before a fight with your boyfriend leads to something potentially far more dangerous... Or exciting. ...So, I went for Greed(y) = Possessive and kinda decided that’s how I was going to roll...  Okay. I don’t know what it is about him... But for some reason no matter what the situation is I always make Talos the voice of reason. And I’m living for that decision, this man knows his stuff!

Words: 2957

Warnings: It’s more of a Pre-Amble than it is sex tbh... / abusive relationship connotations (#NotOurBoi) / swearing

I still got your number and I wonder What you're doing tonight I heard you were hurting but he wasn't worth it Well I could've told you he wasn't right Well some buddies of mine They said you had a big fight in town You ran off crying At least that's what's going 'round Know how those rumors fly Sometimes they're all a lie Burn up before they hit the ground But right now there going 'round I don't wanna move in too soon I know your heartbreak is brand new If I never would've let you down This probably wouldn't be going 'round It might've been time And it might've been my bad But I wanna try again A second chance If you are in I'd be in...

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noun

intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.

Safe to say, you were not in a good place. SLAM-! Apartment door. SLAM-! Kitchen cupboard. SLAM-! Bedroom door. F**K! Now you’d forgotten something. SLAM-! Bathroom door. Why didn’t this surprise you? No. Why DID it surprise you?! Why were you sitting here crying over YET another man!? You were SO over this!! You weren’t even sure if you were supposed to call the previous one a man…?! You guessed he was a ‘he’ so… man? But… But this was so much worse. Trust you to end up dating some asshole, have an argument in the middle of your relatively small town that pretty much the whole world could hear, and then become the talk of the town literally.  You huffed and folded your arms. MEN--!! It’d been two days, and you hadn’t really noticed it until your friends pointed it out, but now everyone in the town was staring at you. But WHY-!? Okay, yeah, you’d had a huge screaming match with the guy… But, it wasn’t anything to write home about that you’d been yelling. So what had he been TELLING everyone? Well, that’s when the rumours started flying. And by now you were sick of everyone asking you dumb questions that were so clearly made up bullsh*t you didn’t understand how dumb people had to be to even ASK!! You almost screamed again and threw yourself back on your bed. This was just the worst. The worst….! So the last thing you really wanted was a knock at your door. “You have GOT to be f**king kidding me!?” You swivelled your head to look at your bedside clock and squinted. Who would come knocking at your door now?! You thought about ignoring it, but they were persistent and knocked twice more periodically before you sighed in frustration. “Okay-! I’m coming…” You reopened and re-slammed your bedroom door with enough force to make the contents of the shelf next to it rattle. Trudging to your front door, you glanced through the peephole and raised an eyebrow. Wait… what?! That was both impossible AND implausible… UNLESS--!!

You took the chain off the latch and opened it a couple of inches, eyeing him up and down. You were faced with Director Keller. Of course. Although, the real Director Keller had almost nothing to do with you these days, as he was somewhere in the middle-of-nowhere USA retired and with a family of his own. As far as you heard from Nick Fury anyway. And you didn’t often hear from him either. You weren’t a S.H.I.E.L.D agent; but considering your previous relationship you knew a lot about S.H.I.E.L.D and it wouldn’t surprise you that the man who was really in front of you right now would ask Nick and his agents to keep an eye on you. You rolled your eyes. Typical that some dumb blown-out-of-proportion argument with your boyfriend would get back to S.H.I.E.L.D, and somehow be deemed important enough for him to traverse halfway across the galaxy to see you for. You weren’t impressed though. Because you’d had this argument before. With him. You also knew you couldn’t just leave a Skrull standing on your front doorstep. You stepped backwards, allowing him to walk into your apartment. “You really need to STOP with this Keller stuff – It’s kinda weird! He’s like what, twice my age at least!? Is he the only human form you can even take-!? And you shouldn’t even BE here! Guess I’ve got S.H.I.E.L.D. to thank for that too, huh?” Talos didn’t get a word in edgeways. He should have guessed that. His eyes flicked to the picture frames upon your mantle piece and he smirked; “I think he’s a damn sight better than that guy.” “What the HELL would YOU know!?!” You snapped. You were still pissed at him too, so why he was trying to act like this also wasn’t basically his fault you didn’t know. He sighed, “Well okay, maybe this is better then…” You had to admit, you still found the ways that Skrulls transformed fascinating. You tried not to let that show on your face though. Within seconds there was no longer a human male standing in your apartment, but Skrull General Talos in all his purple and black leather, green-skinned, pointy-eared glory.  (And Glory was certainly the word.) You swallowed hard. Aw geez… That involuntary shiver made its way from head to toe as his hypnotizing deep purple eyes ran over your body. Not this again… You could hope it wasn’t noticeable. You knew you weren’t that lucky. “Not really.” He blinked, but managed to remain stoic as you folded your arms. You sighed, “Talos, what are you even doing here!?” “Seems you need a bit of respite…” He indicated to the photographs again “…I asked Nick to keep an eye on you.” “I don’t NEED someone to keep an eye on me.” “Well it appears that you do.” This time your sigh was frustrated, it meant he probably knew too much. And that Nick Fury knew way too much about you. “No I DON’T! I can take care of myself!” “Darling, if you’re running away from the guy crying in the middle of the street, I kinda think you need someone to keep an eye on you.” Was he being serious right now-!? “You came ALL the way back to Earth because of ONE argument?” Talos looked disapproving at the notion “Come on. We both know it’s not just been one argument.” You were taken aback for a moment, and tried to ignore the fact you knew you had the bruises to prove it; “Is that what’s happening here? Is Nick Fury stalking me? Because my relationship is none of his business. And it’s certainly NOT any of yours anymore.” “Stalking is a bit… harsh.” He’d rather you said it was protective. He wanted you to thank him. He had another thing coming. “Try possessive. Remember THAT word!?” He winced, yeah… That had become your favourite word to use during your break up argument. He took a breath “Y/N… I wasn’t here to argue with you… I simply want to know you’re ok.” “Try again.” You took a step backwards with a shake of your head “You didn’t come halfway across the galaxy for that…” “No” He advanced on you, “I came half way across the galaxy because you know we were right, and this guys a complete dick.” You guessed he was right. Annoyingly, on both counts. That didn’t stop you being mad. Unfortunately being mad also didn’t stop your body aching the closer he got to you – and your feet refused to move. You had really hoped to avoid proximity this close because of the way that he made you feel. The tingle over your skin as his gaze swept you again. There was silence as you visibly tried to control yourself – Stop it Y/N…! It’s not going to end well! It never has! – But Talos was so close, and you could touch him if you wanted, you could hear his breathing and every fibre in you wanted him to push you against your wall like he used to do and- You shook your head quickly and looked away from him in an attempt not to think on it, to get those images out of your head. When you’d called time on your relationship it was because you couldn’t take it anymore; he was too possessive… it was all too intense, and he always wanted too much. When it was good it was fine, but when it wasn’t it made you uncomfortable, and more than anything want your freedom back. Freedom you weren’t so sure he wanted to grant you. What were you to him anyway? You were human. Breakable. That was the point… “Well, where the hell did you go! You just left!!” “You said you didn’t want to see me anymore!” “But you’re HERE!” He couldn’t have it both ways, he couldn’t tell you he was staying away from you because you’d told him to, and then tell you he was here because you were dating a jackass and he thought you deserved better. Wait, is that what he was saying!? He thought he was better, did he!? “Well I think I’m a significant step up from someone who physically abuses you. Yes!” You’d had it. He wasn’t supposed to know that. Nick Fury was crossing lines as it was but that was just one step to far. You raised your hand to slap him but you didn’t get very far, his quick reflexes caught your wrist. “Don’t.” “Don’t WHAT.” You hissed “You have NO right to KNOW that!” “Y/N!!! Are you kidding!? Look what he’s doing to you!” “I KNOW WHAT HE’S DOING TO ME! WHY IS WHAT YOU DID ANY DIFFERENT.” Owch-! He visibly flinched at that. “There’s a difference.” Your laugh was bitter, “What, because it was love?! Because that’s what he tells me too.” It wasn’t that Talos was ever physically abusive. Just extremely rough, and grabby. More than once did you have to trail into work with scratches all over your arms having people asking you if you’d got into a fight with a cat. Haha. You also weren’t down for that. Add it to the list of reasons you’d ended it. Talos let you go and sighed, taking a step back, that you found yourself not wanting him to take “…I’m sorry.” You blinked hard for a minute. “Huh!?” “I’m sorry.” His purple eyes seemed to turn shades lighter in his sincerity. This was a little late; much more than a little late, but for some reason you’re were weirdly okay with that. “For leaving. For being too…” He searched for the right word “Physical… Greedy? Possessive?” His eyes flicked back to yours with almost a smile as he used your favourite phrasing again. “…With you.” It made you take a deep breath; “Where were you when I needed you most?” “…I always knew where you were and how you were… If it had gotten any worse you’d have known about it.” His voice was level, calm but soothing – he made your heart ache to match the way your body was still feeling. You shook your head “That isn’t what I meant…” He took a step forward that made you take one back “…What are you asking me?” You wanted to say nothing, you wanted to tell him that you were fine and he could leave, but you couldn’t. “…He’s not…” You bit your lips together “…He’s just an asshole. If he’s physical it isn’t intimate… I just… I need that. I just need that with someone…” You didn’t look at him as the blush crept up your face and down your neck. You didn’t say anyone. You said someone. And Talos knew you didn’t mean someone, you meant him. You missed that, that intensity. He could tell; those shivers that betrayed your body to him only got worse the closer he got and soon enough your back pressed up against the wall. Oh-! He placed his hands either side of your face and you were almost forced to look back to him. He could read it on your face, you’d spent so much time at the end of your previous relationship with him yelling at him for being too possessive, but you WANTED him to be like that now. RIGHT now. Talos growled gently as he bent his arms, resting his elbows against the wall leant his body into yours. He inhaled the familiarity of your scent. And the way you breathed, out through your mouth. OH God… Your mind flashed back; it must have been at least a year…  But suddenly it was just like yesterday. And you craved that physical intimacy so badly, it had to be him, nobody knew you like he did. Not in that way. By now you were biting your lip hard and your whole body moved with each breath you took in anticipation. You needed this… You had desired that physical connection for far too long; and Talos was nothing if not physical. Sh*t! Did he want you to say it out loud? You were looking between his ceaselessly darkening purple eyes. Did it really need to be said?

He watched the way your lips parted absentmindedly, the way your eyes somehow were simultaneously scared and innocent… but sinful. Which is why you offered no resistance as his lips finally hit yours. Pinning your arms down by your sides, you were instantly groaning into the kiss. What struggle you did offer was nothing more than playful. For the hell of it. So he would push you back into the wall; stay still. Not that Talos thought you would do that. He released your lips to a whine, lifting you from the floor; by your waist – as a human this gave him no problems. But that gave your arms freedom to pull him towards you by his jacket as you wound your legs around him. He almost laughed; your kisses were desperate, hungry… dare he say possessive..? And you already knew he just kissed so good…

He was already shrugging himself out of his jacket by the time you had even thought about doing it for yourself… Wriggling yourself free from your shirt where you let it fall carelessly in the hallway; your arms now around his neck continuing to pull him into you – keeping up the pressure between the wall at your back and his body pressed up against yours.You had meant physical intimacy… Reaching between the two of you he undid your belt buckle and began to slide your jeans down your legs. You uncoupled them from around him to also watch your jeans fall to the floor. The lack of his lips on yours allowed you to take breaths; but they were deep, shaky breaths. And your body throbbed with desire for him. Not that you didn’t think you weren’t making it pretty obvious as it was. His grip on you left those claw-like nails of his digging into your skin. But for once you didn’t f**king care! If anyone was going to mark you – let it be him. You gasped, thinking you might get your wish more than once as the rough kisses he was affording your neck became bites. You fluttered your eyes closed with another groan as he pushed up against you; your hips involuntarily ground into his – causing him to growl against your skin and dig his fingers just that little bit harder into your skin. “More… Baby… I need more…” He smirked into your neck; he couldn’t resist it “That’s Greedy.” You couldn’t help your laugh but it didn’t take you out of the moment. Far from it. He hoisted you up again and his eyes locked back with yours. Your heartbeat quickened but you smirked; you knew exactly where this was going…  He kissed you again – and it surprised you that he was so gentle. But you realised that Talos wanted to prove something to you; he was not the man you were seeing. And neither would he be anything that would make you push him away again…

*

Your arms were tangled with his as he lazily kissed across your shoulders. There were a multitude of scratch-like marks over your arms and thighs now… but this time they made you smile as you brushed your fingertips affectionately over his arms. “There’s just one problem.” “Don’t say that.” You huffed as he didn’t let you finish; “What happens when you need to leave again?” “What is that supposed to mean…?” “I mean, you’re not always going to be…here.” “But I’ll come back-” There was more to that sentence but he had to pause at the sudden BANG-! at your front door. It caused you to jump in his arms and he instinctively pulled you protectively to him.

“Y/N! WHAT THE F**K IS GOING ON!? OPEN THE GODAMN F**KING DOOR!” Your eyes flicked to your partner and the growl he elicited – that wasn’t good. He made a move to get up but you pushed him back “What are you doing-!?” you hissed and jumped again as there was another BANG-!  Talos’ eyes flicked back to you; you were tense in his arms, you were trying your hardest not to look fearful, but you were. That wasn’t you, he knew that. Whoever this asshole was had done this to you. “Y/N! I KNOW YOU’RE F**KING IN THERE! OPEN THE DOOR!” “Does he not have a key?” Although, Talos didn’t know why he was asking this. You shook your head “I stole it.” He sighed, as if to make his point “And you wonder why I came back?” He touched his forehead to your gently; with that soft purring sound that always made you think of cats. You closed your eyes gently with a smile. He knew it would calm you down, even just a little. “Let me deal with this…” He stood up and took a step back. He studied you for a second; and the next thing you knew you were staring back at yourself. A weird shiver crept up your spine – it was like seeing a ghost or… something that couldn’t possibly have been real. Your brain couldn’t comprehend it even though you knew what it was. “This won’t take very long. Wait up.” “What?” You blinked and rolled in the sheets to watch him leave the room. You listened for Talos to hear him walk to the front door. You bit your lip again but couldn’t suppress the smirk and let out a tiny groan of satisfaction – Oh. That guy was SO screwed! “Hurry back-!” Talos couldn’t help his smirk; he knew exactly why you’d ask that... ---

Thank You For Requesting!! 😘😘 Three sins down!💕

[snarkandsarcasmftw]

tag games, ftw

I was tagged by both @rampagewriting and @heelsamizayn to answer this and it seems like a fun time and my brain’s being a bag of dicks rn, so whhhhy not... Here we go.

0) Name/Nickname? If ya wanna share it.

Ashley, AA, Snark - mostly on here. Oh and lil bit, but... family only.

1) If you could bring any two fictional characters (from books or film/tv) into the same world who would they be, what world would you put them in, and what would their relationship to each other be?

Uhhh... Uhhh... Okay, alright, hm... This is going to be an unconventional answer but.. I’d take Bucky and Cap and I’d drop them right into the middle of The Walking Dead. Hear me out.. They’re both military trained / enhanced superheroes and they can walk that line of having compassion and being totally ruthless if they must. I think it’d be neat. They’d be friends / psuedo brothers, of course.

2) If you could drop yourself into any fictional world from books or film/tv, which would it be?

Oh god, oh noooo.. Every part of the fifteen year old trapped within my old woman body is screaming at me to answer Harry Potter -cos magic.. But.. I’m going with The Walking Dead. Just for the simple fact that I could smack both Lori and Dale Horvath in the back of the fuckin head.

Alternately.. I’d really wanna hunt vampires with Edgar and Allen Frog, and the eighties were my shit, so.. That too.

3) What’s your spirit animal?

A cat or a raccoon. I have under eye circles, stay up late, eat only junk and I’ll bite if you take my food plus kinda chonky ( raccoon) and I like to take naps, I’m... adamant about cleaning / grooming plus, I like to sit around and give people side eye when they’re doing dumb shit. ( cat.)

4) What is the most unpopular opinion you hold?

NO. NOPE. NOT ANSWERING. ISSA TRAP.

Okay, since I obviously have to put something here, I’ll say it. And I’ll start with wrestling:

Seth Rollins is vastly overrated and I don’t get the whole.. Attraction to him. And the same goes for Cody Rhodes. Also, is it just me or are his fucking intros too long? Idk, maybe that’s me and my lack of patience. If you like either of these, sorry, continue to do you, but.. I’m not a fan and I honestly don’t particularly care about either and this is my own personal opinion. I’m allowed to have one. I’m not saying bad shit about either guy here, if you take it that way, it’s your own damn problem? I’m not telling you not to like them. I’m simply saying I do not.

As far as media goes : Fifty Shades of Gray is fucking dumb. I mean.. 10 page contract.. to get what has to be mediocre dick, at best? And it’s not even written with any regards to true BDSM concepts for the most part? Nah. I’ll pass. 

And now, for one about our current situation: I think the idiots who hoarded TP at the beginning of this should be allowed to return things.. Provided it’s unopened, they have a receipt, and they don’t see a fucking dime of the money they spent and that the money from the returns goes to masks / other methods of protection for front line workers or straight into the unemployment packages and the stimulus thing. Like literally, the hoarder gets nothing, people who need TP / sanitizer / etc get UNOPENED NEW PRODUCTS and the front line workers get the proceeds of the voided returns. We all win here. (I realize this probably cannot happen, but. It’s one way to kind of... help this current shit show we’re all trapped in.) 

5) How do you like to style your hair most often?

Uhh.. Down. I’m too goddamn lazy to be bothered.

6) I always love this overdone question - you’re allowed three books on a desert island, what do you bring? (Note: Survival Guides don’t count).

The Shining, The Dark Towers series - Stephen King, The Client - John Grisham and The Outsiders - S.E Hinton

7) Something new you’ve learned in quarantine/lockdown/corona times?

That no matter how hard I try, I cannot apply false lashes. That more than two noisy things going in the background is TOO MUCH. Oh and I’m pretty damn good at baking when I bother to try / don’t toss out the directions.

8) Favorite alcohol? (Or non-alcoholic beverage if you don’t drink!)

Haven’t drank in... a while-ish. But my favorite thing to drink when I do is vodka or tequila. Occasionally White Claw ( i know, i know.). Favorite non-alcoholic beverage is water lately.

9) Music you can’t stand? Music you love?

I’m gonna get torn the fuck apart for this but yolo.. I can’t get into K-Pop. I’ve tried. It’s just.. It’s up there with new pop for me. Older boy bands / pop stars? Not a problem. I just don’t like a lot of pop music and I can’t get into K-pop. If you like it, awesome. It’s just not for me personally. Beyond that? I love literally any other kind of music. I have a veeeery varied eclectic listening preference but my all time favorite? 80′s glam / pop or country.

10) Have a favorite herb?

FIRST OF ALL.. GARLIC.. yeah, it’s not a herb buuuut... yeah.. Anyway, for actual herbs..Basil, Rosemary and Sage.. Oh and cilantro. Cilantro will save your ass in a pinch. 

11) What kinds of cups/glasses/bottles do you prefer to drink out of?

My big tol cold cup. Or.. my stemless plastic wine glasses, of which I have apparently lost.

12) Preferred mode of communication: texts, phone calls, emails, letters?

Text or email. I’m not... fond of making calls, but I will if I have to. I prefer texts or email. Oh, I do enjoy writing letters now and then.

13) What is your favorite weather?

Not too hot, not too cold. Not too sunny but not overcast and gray either. A light breeze. NO POLLEN.

14) What kind of lighting do you like?

Softer lights, for the aesthetic.. Overhead lighting, so my blind ass can... yannow... see. If I had my way, I’d have candles and string lights every where though.

15) What is the best thing you cook?

Honestly, I feel like it’s my chili or my stew. Alternately, husband seems to ask for chicken / bacon / ranch pasta casserole a lot, so... Idk.. I guess pretty much anything (except fucking hamburger helper, i can NEVER get this shit right, despite directions, sacrifices to the culinary gods and pleas/promises of my first born. It always turns out icky so I never cook it.) 

16)  Do you have a favorite font to write in?

Handwriting or typewriter fonts for the most part. Roboto when I’m writing / editing my own fics and such.

17) What is something you’ve always wanted to write in a fic, but you’ve been too afraid to? Or, what is something that you were afraid to write, but then you did and it ended awesome?

Honestly, I’m scared to death to write smut. Which is why I’ve been trying to write more of it lately. I won’t say it’s going awesome ( I’m pretty sure some of you sit and read it when I post and are like what the fuck... this isn’t realistic and this is so bad.) but it’s going.

I’ve wanted to dip my toes into writing for more obscure fandoms too. Like ones that I personally enjoy. As far as something I’ve always wanted to write? Horror. But I’m scared to death I’d fuck it up.

18) If you were in your favorite fantasy world, what would your weapon of choice be?

A sword or a knife. Machete, maybe?

19) Is there a commonly used expression/saying that you can’t stand?

While I agree with the answers J and K put to this “It’s in God’s hands, etc” - sometimes things are GOD AWFUL. The last thing I want to hear is what the reason God had for doing it is. So don’t tell me. 

Triggered is a useful term.. if it’s used right. And I’m starting to realize that 95 percent of people DO NOT know the proper use. They think that being triggered =‘s a reason to bitch and tear someone apart over some miniature thing they’ve done. So now, when I hear it being misused, it fucking annoys me.

20) What is something that you would like people to know about you?

I’m a grumpy ball of rage. I’m petty as fuck and saltier than all the oceans combined in the right circumstances. But.. I can be a nice person and I love getting to know people and helping people or talking to them. Even if it’s hard for me to start it off bc I’m fucking awkward as fuck also - hence the reason it takes a while for me to actually... attempt... conversing with new people both IRL and on here.

I’m gonna leave this open to anyone who wants to do it bc Idk who has or hasn’t already and I don’t want to annoy people. 

This was a blast!

[i-rove-rock-n-roll]

My Wips (and their progress)

Not in any particular order. This is also not all of them, just the ones I’m working on currently or plan to work on in the near future

Icarus--3rd draft, almost complete, currently standing at 68,490 words!

Icarus survived the fall and a bruised body isn’t going to stop him from getting back to his father. Unfortunately, he is whisked all the way to Libya and into a completely different bout of family drama, involving two brothers and a case of human sacrifice. Meanwhile, Minos, the king Icarus and his father escaped from, is hot on finding Daedalus, who is torn between mourning and denial, refusing to give up searching for his son. The ultimate question is ‘who finds who first?’

links here! (though I’ll probably add more in the future!)

Ariadne-- sequel to Icarus, follows Ariadne as she learns how to fully enjoy life and finds love with a deity named Dionysus. not even close to being done, standing around 8,000 words. Everything you love about Greek theater and drama all rolled into one. Also has a bunch of angry gods in it.

Helen--a retelling of the life of Helen and the Iliad from the point of view of a true daughter of Zeus and queen of Sparta. Helen is really tired of getting kidnapped, people. That’s all I’m gonna say.. A sequel (of sorts) to the previous two. Just started.

Medea--love and heartbreak of Medea, famous for both her use of magic and her relationship with a guy named Jason. And the fact that Theseus is apparently her stepson. And for being ruthless and killing her children (which lots of Greek characters did, I mean, hello Agamemnon, what’s up Tantalus) so her story is gonna have tons of drama. 

Set somewhere before and after Icarus and Ariadne, this is the fourth in my mythology series and has literally one line done.

Cain--about 3,000 words

Cain has wandered the earth since his brother’s death. He has lived among the homeless, walked across continents and sailed across seas. He hasn’t had a home for hundreds--thousands-- of years. Then he walks into St. Mary’s church and meets Father Turrell, a sarcastic priest that lives on coffee, chili, and musicals. Father Turrell offers Cain a job, and despite his better judgement, Cain accepts. What follows is mayhem, and Cain’s safe haven, like all his others, is ruined. But now he has Father Turrell stubbornly refusing to let Cain leave without him. So they begin to wander...and trouble follows. 

Redemption Day, about 15,000 words

When Gram Niesler returned home from prison, the last thing he expected was to be blamed for was arson. Especially considering the Donaldson’s house burned down before he’d even returned to town. Thankfully things straighten out, but Gram is soon hit with the truth that his cousin Nicki, who he still remembers as having skipped rope and painted his face with glitter, is the one behind the fire. Stranger still is her reasoning. Vengeance for her girlfriend’s death is one thing, but with literal angels and devils whispering in her ear, Gram is both trying to keep Nicki out of trouble, and tasked with helping her create a trial Armageddon. 

Reincarnation Series (No real Title yet)-- Follows the reincarnations of various deities in the modern world. Kicking things off are the duo Hunahpu and Xbalanque aka the Mayan Hero Twins! 

They always knew their dad was out of the picture, being a famous soccer player, but it’s when the twins go to find him that things get real weird, real fast. Confronted with magician half siblings and a snarky old grandmother, the twins have to wonder when their father will be home to see them. The answer, of course, is that they have to go find him. (That’s basically what I got so far both for a synopsis and a plot)

Wards and Wolfsbane (Tentative Title but idk what else to call it)  (K, so this one is also probably going to be a series as well, the first book focused on the relationship between two wolf born siblings who meet a witch. They are all just learning their history, of this wide world full of monsters and magic. Will also have vamps and other assorted magical folk hiding out) Just started the world-building, it’s Urban fantasy.

Witches and Werewolves have been at war for centuries, only made worse by the history of hunters and burnings. Each side has cause, has killers. 

Has children. 

These children are the ones that wish to change things, to form an alliance. Because they see a danger that their forbears do not. 

There is something else behind the curtain. And it’s coming very soon. 

Aztlán--my first spanish (well right now it’s spanglish) wip!

This follows a close circle of people during either the Mexican-American War or the Revolutionary war of Mexico (I haven’t decided if I’m doing two separate wips for each yet) It has plots, spies, explosions, grief, mourning, betrayal, funerals, weddings gone wrong, etc. Here’s a sneak peek in español 

Down We Fall--about 15-16,000

A story of weddings and political chess that begins with the bride stabbing the groom. The prince and the princess had been promised to each other as children, had grown up together as best friends, had told each other everything. 

But saying I love you was out of the question. 

In the realm of politics, both their kingdoms are struggling. Between infighting for current ruling authority and anarchy caused by the citizens, the pressure is put on. Something has to give. The prince and princess are not yet king and queen after all. The King is dead so who rules the chessboard? 

Please note! If you guys want me to talk more about certain wips or characters or just post snippets of whichever one of your choosing you prefer, please don’t hesitate to ask! And if you feel like chatting about these wips, writing in general, or even just talking about the weather, my messages are always open!

tagging my usual peeps! (add/remove, lemme know!)

@couchwriting@wallpatterns@luckydragonnerd@tokyoghoulua@xanthus-the-headless-stand-user@mkaiww@pheita@ashesconstellation@ashes-of-chironides@splotch-of-spice@the-real-rg@thecadmiuminkwell@ahotpeaceofshit@writingmyselfintoanearlygrave@talesofhemlock@aquaroseas@demonfairyprincess@softdramahoe @lifeofroos@panhasablog @candybunnieholic @superlock-on-pc @alwolfesblog

[douxreviews]

American Gods - ‘Muninn' Review

"Burn, baby, burn."

American Gods mostly gets its groove back after last week's misfire, Wednesday and Laura go on a literal trip down memory lane, and New Media finally makes an appearance.

Billie is not going to be OK with what happens to the library, however.

Interestingly, after my complaint last week about missing the Bryan Fuller signature soundscapes and dreamscape imagery, we open with exactly that. To be fair, that was probably largely due to avoiding the cost and logistics of actually showing a train derail after hitting a car on the tracks. Disorienting yet suggestive imagery combined with an off putting soundscape tell the story of a train v. car collision just as well and are much, much cheaper.

Whatever the reason, it was nice to have them back. It's interesting however, to note that there were several instances where the stylized camera work made it difficult to follow what was actually happening. For example, it wasn't entirely clear what was going on when Betty the Car reformed herself post accident. Were they reversing the footage of the car being crushed as a way to indicate the fractured way one of the characters present experienced that moment of the accident? Was it a visual metaphor? A dream someone involved in the crash was having? No, apparently the car was literally reforming itself, as it was sitting there good as new a few shots later. Another instance was when the scene transitioned from Shadow looking out of it in the wreckage to Shadow walking through some trees in daylight. All of the visual language of television was indicating that we'd transitioned to a dream Shadow was having, but we weren't, we'd just cut to later in the day when he'd gotten out of the wreckage and that hadn't been communicated to the viewer in a clear way.

Honestly, the whole immediate aftermath of the crash sequence just made you realize how good Fuller is at that sort of thing, because I can't think of a single occasion where he's used that same distorted imagery technique and it resulted in the action being unclear. At least, not in a way that didn't feel one hundred percent deliberate.

So, after last week's absolutely delightful pairing of Sweeney and Laura, this week we get Laura paired with Wednesday which worked much better than I was expecting it to do. It seemed odd at first that Laura would reject Sweeney and choose to go with Wednesday instead, particularly as she knows that Wednesday basically destroyed her entire life just to get her out of the way. She and Sweeney clearly were really connecting last episode, so turning on him for picking up her body parts off the road seemed like a forced way for the show to separate them. Then I thought about it for a minute and remembered that sabotaging her relationships with people that care about her is pretty much Laura's entire character description. Viewed with that in mind, the whole sequence of events makes perfect sense. It would have been nice if the show had made that point a little clearer. I hate to criticize a show for giving the viewers too much credit for figuring things out on their own, but in this case they could have stood to underline her motivations a little more.

Ah, Mad Sweeney. Pablo Schreiber continues to be the show's standout, and is more so every week. Thank god(s) that they kept both him and Laura around past their appearances in the novel and that they continue to give both of them so much to do. Hypocritically, I also feel like they probably should have cut Sweeney out of this episode after they left the funeral home, as all we really got of him were comic relief bits showing his bad luck road trip to New Orleans. But then, if they'd cut him out we'd never have seen the look on his face when he realizes that he's been 'rescued' by a Christian rock band, and nothing is worth that.

The thing that this episode felt like more than anything was a series of videogame side quests. Now, I'm not a gamer myself. I have an inherited tremor which makes trying to use a game controller kind of a pain in the ass. But my understanding of the whole side quest thing is that at various points in the game you have to stop working toward the main goal of the game, whatever that may be, and instead fulfill a little side mission, or earn some money, or solve a puzzle or something. That's what this episode felt like to me.

Taking the side quests in order, Laura and Wednesday head off to find another old god that has allowed himself to be co-opted by the new gods because Wednesday wants to kill him and somehow doing that will 'recharge' the coin in Laura's chest that's keeping her alive and making her superstrong. Again we continue this episode's theme of not explaining things properly, as it's never really made clear why killing Argus will do that, plus we're all pretty sure that Wednesday is lying to Laura the whole time anyway, which it turns out he is but the coin recharge thing still works anyway because reasons. Having accomplished that, Wednesday immediately betrays Laura and leaves her stuck in whatever Argus' realm is supposed to be. It might possibly be a TARDIS, there were some very distinctive roundels in that last hallway.

Great job with the design of Argus, by the way. This is our first god that we've seen who doesn't look like a standard human to us as his standard desktop theme and they did a great job making all of the eyes look real and disturbing. The fiber optic cable bundles that writhed like serpents were also a nice look. I don't recall ever seeing anything quite like it.

Technical Boy and New Media are also on their way to see Argus, because Mr. World wants them to... um... scold him for not updating his Norton Antivirus or something, possibly? Again, it's not entirely clear what they're there to do. You might be seeing a theme here. Similarly vague are New Media's actions with Argus. Was she actually betraying Mr. World to join an alliance with Argus? It would make sense, as he represents watching and she represents being watched, but if that's the case shouldn't Technical Boy have reacted in some way to that development? Instead he just politely stands back and doesn't stop Laura from killing Argus, then he and New Media leave without even mentioning it. And I've been remiss in mentioning it, but Bruce Langley really deserves a lot of praise for his work on this show. It's hard to play a character that irritating in a way that isn't irritating to the people watching at home, and he pulls it off.

Then we have Ifrit and Salim, who head to the corn palace to pick up a magic spear, as you do. Instead of the corn palace, they end up at a strip club called the Porn Palace, whose neon sign has a faulty first 'P,' making it appear to be a 'C' at first glance. That was a cute reveal. There they pick up the spear with no incident from a Lakota trickster god named Iktomi, who was played by the always wonderful Julian Richings, who many will remember as being the definitive Death over on Supernatural. This plotline felt the most perfunctory, and probably could have been replaced with a line of dialog later on down the line, but it's always nice to see Mr. Richings.

Lastly we have Shadow and his new friend Sam Black Crow, who gives him a lift to the storyline's next destination. Again, not a lot happens here and Sam feels very much like a mouthpiece for the writing staff to muse about things philosophically, but it works. Mostly because Devery Jacobs has an indefinable charm about her, but also because it opens up the concept of Two Spirit gender identification, which more people should know more about.

Quotes:

Wednesday: "Ah, Mrs. Moon. Did we sit on a wall?"

Mad Sweeney: "You just gonna lie there, let nature have her way with you?"

Laura: "Are you eating me?"

Sweeney: "Coward? I saved you." Laura: "I’m dead, coward." Sweeney: "Well, you’re welcome for picking up all your gory little f**king pieces up off the road."

Ibis: "The advantage of love at first sight is it doesn’t require a second look."

Technical Boy: "How the f**k is that an upgrade?" This felt like the writers pre-empting complaints about New Media. It probably was intended as such.

Wednesday: "So, you’re working on faith, huh?" Laura: "I definitely wouldn’t use that word."

Sam: "You ever hear of the Crow nation warrior named ‘Finds Them and Kills Them’?" Shadow: "No, but he sounds very efficient."

Laura: "Please. Tell me more about what I want."

Wednesday: "What’s the worst thing you can do to a book?" Laura: "Um.. Ignore it..?"

There are not words for how much I love the Hello Kitty collar on this shirt.

Bits and Pieces:

-- It's awfully convenient that Laura was literally blown to pieces in the train crash and Shadow only got a little bruised. But then, her body is actively decaying, so I supposed she'd be more explodable.

-- I know I'm fighting a losing battle here, but I have to say it again. A lit cigarette will not ignite fuel, no matter how many TV shows and movies show it happening. It will either be smothered by the liquid before it gets anywhere near generating enough heat for combustion, which doesn't happen in the liquid but happens in the off-gasses, or it will smolder until it burns out unless by some miracle the off-gassing reaches LEL (Lowest Explosive Level) before that happens. Please stop.

-- You could, however, use a lit cigarette to start a fire in a library full of parchment. It would take a little effort, but you could do it. But despite having a lit cigarette on hand at the time, Laura takes the easy route and uses a match.

-- It seems that Sweeney's bad luck only hits him when he's not around Laura, which sort of makes sense since he's also near his coin at those times.

-- It's interesting that Sweeney is still heading to New Orleans to see someone who I presume is Baron Samedi, since he was only going there to help Laura and she's not with him anymore. That's sweet. I hope he's the one who rescues her from Argus' domain.

-- Sweeney seemed genuinely hurt when Laura chose to go with Wednesday instead of him. I'm 'shipping those two so hard.

-- Argus isn't in the book, nor are any of the Greek Gods. Neil stated that he decided against featuring any of them since they get used so much more often in popular culture.

-- New Media just isn't working for me yet, although I know it's way too early to judge. I miss Gillian Anderson's celebrity impressions.

-- Laura's dad was a drunk. Now we know why he wasn't at the wedding. No word on if he's dead or alive.

-- I wonder what Wednesday is going to need the seedling for?

I know I'm sounding like I didn't enjoy much about this episode, but that's really not true. There was a lot of good stuff here, and many, many little details that show that someone was really putting their heart into it. I just wish that some of the storytelling had been a little clearer.

Three out of four creepy eyeballs.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water

[duskfloret]

8 FOR EVERYONE!!! >:33

♔「 @wholehcartedly & @conoscenze ; accepting 」kiki and vera are the real mvps ❞

8: How did you choose the name for your muse?(This is a little more of why I named them what I did, but oh well.)

Katsuo Mizushima–his given name means “victorious man,” which is a little ironic because of the fact that he’s so anxious and timid; regardless, he is still a prodigy in his own right, so it suits him too. His father named him! His surname is composed of characters that mean “water” and “island,” a reference to the fact that his family lives on an island. (On a slightly related note, his younger brother’s name, Shinji, means “truthful (second son)” and a) he’s an honest guy, and b) he’s not the product of an affair like Katsuo is.)

Ryoko Mizushima–her given name means “bright child,” which definitely suits her due to her intellect and how she seems so talented at everything she tries. Her mother named her, and it’s possibly a jab at how the woman prefers her daughter over her son, as Ryoko’s birth was a bright spot after, well, Katsuo’s existence.

Jonah–his name wasn’t picked for any particular reason aside from sounding nice. His master just liked the name and needed something to call his cat. It means “dove,” a fact his master did not take into consideration.

Noire–she was named for her hair colour, since noir is “black” in French! It also fits into the morality/ideas her mentor drilled into her growing up, where “black” means bad and “red” is good, and since she doesn’t consider herself as good… (This thought process has slowly faded and she doesn’t pay it much mind anymore, though; it does still influence the fact that her clothes are mostly red and black.) As for her real name, Cerise Bellerose, Cerise means “cherry,” which is her favourite fruit, and Bellerose means “lovely rose,” because she’s cute and often incorporates rose accessories into her outfits.

Kotone Furuya–her given name means “harp sound” and her surname means “old valley.” These weren’t picked for any specific reason. Her real name, Chinami Agano, also wasn’t picked for any specific reason aside from Chinami sounding cute.

Tzaphkiel–this is a given, based on the fact that she’s an existing archangel. But the nickname Tzan comes from the fact that I’m too lazy to write out her name every time I refer to her.

Kaeto Easton–Kaeto is pretty much just a different way of writing Cato, which is an old Roman name meaning “wise,” and Easton was picked largely just because it sounds kind of similar to the name of a city in the state where I grew up. As for his real name, Aspen Banks–aspen is a tree, one that has been symbolically (and maybe literally) cut down after his mother passed away, and Banks (though the name itself refers to hillsides) may or may not be related to the fact that his father sold him to pay off gambling debts, because banks and money and all.

Fane Vasile–his given name is the Romanian diminutive of one that means “crown,” and his surname is the Romanian form of one that means “king.” It’s ironic because he grew up poor and is still very frugal, and he’d never consider himself the least bit royal. Also, since Vasile is a form of Basil, which is the name of a plant, it reflects the fact that he likes plants a whole lot.

Takara Nakahara–her given name means “treasure,” which is both fitting and not; on one hand, her ability is rare and valuable, but on the other hand, she’s often looked down on and cast aside due to being an illegitimate child. Her surname is just meant to be a generic common one (as her mother was a commoner), and I like the way it sounds together. The name of her father’s family, Oshiro, means “castle,” which represents the fact that they’re important.

Inari–another given.

Sanae Agano–her given name means “rice seedlings,” and I didn’t pick it for a particular reason aside from it sounding pretty. Agano was the surname for a character that I’d since scrapped the idea for and wanted to reuse (I don’t remember the meaning and looking it up isn’t helping, but apparently there was a Japanese cruiser named Agano). Maiko means “dancing girl,” which I picked for obvious reasons.

Silvia Asenov–her given name actually means “forest,” but I picked it because it sounds like silver. Her surname doesn’t have much of a meaning and just sounds nice.

Nona Blanc–her given name just sounded nice (it means “ninth”), and her surname means “white;” this represents her purity, along with the fact that it can be used to refer to someone with blond hair.

Aris Sanna–his given name (a modern form of Ares) was picked for a few reasons: its relation to Greek myth, the fact that it sounds similar to Icarus, and because all the letters in it are also in Icarus. Sanna was just a name from a list of Greek surnames, though the site is now saying that it’s Italian… huh.

Kyros Iakovou–his given name was picked for the K sound in it, to match the K (ch) sound in Achilles. It’s also the variant of a name that can mean “farsighted,” which is ironic because he severely lacking in the department of foresight and good judgement. Iakovou was picked to create alliteration.

Maia Petrou–her given name can mean “mother” or “great,” and she’s both of those things; it was picked to reflect the fact that Andromache was the epitome of the ideal wife and mother, and to somewhat mimic the -mache part of the name. Petrou just sounded nice with Maia. Maia is also a star in the Taurus constellation.

Pyrrha Braun–her given name was initially picked because it’s pretty (and also P for Perseus), but the fact that Pyrrha is a figure in Greek myth sealed the deal. It means “red”! Then, I picked Braun because it refers to a person who’s brown-skinned or brown-haired, and put together with her first name, you get reddish-brown hair–or auburn, in other words.

Theon Marlowe–his given name… stands for Theseus the CEO, and the -n makes it an Ancient Greek name. It’s a reference to the fact that before he developed into an actual muse, Cae and I referred to a potential reincarnation of him as Theseus the CEO. Marlowe wasn’t picked for any specific reason.

Caesar Antinori–he’s named after an anime character because I was watching the second part of JJBA at the time and Joseph yelling, “CAESAR!!!” and saying, “Caesarino,” reminded me of how Pyrrha would talk to Theon’s younger brother, so… (Pyrrha also breaks the fourth wall by insisting he’s named after an anime character.) Also, there’s a vineyard in Italy owned by an Antinori family (I’ve heard), and the idea of, “No, not those Antinoris,” was funny to me.

Lena Antinori–her given name can mean “sunlight” or “moonlight” in Greek, and it has the same vowel arrangement as the -meda part of Andromeda.

Gino de la Fontaine–for the most part, I picked his name because it sounds kind of pretentious, which is ironic for someone like him. His first name means “ever-living,” which is a reference to him being a reincarnation, and his surname means “of the fountain,” which is just pretty neat.

Asher Gray–his given name means “happy; blessed”! It used to be an ironic name, but now that he’s worked through many of his issues, it’s true and suits him perfectly. Gray is because someone who once went by that name said to me, “Hi, I’m Gray without the R,” and that suits the fact that he’s pansexual. (The in-story reason is that Pyrrha went on some rant about names where both the first and last mean the same thing, and used “if Asher’s name was Ash Gray” as an example. Since he didn’t like his father’s surname, he picked up Asher Gray as a stage-name of sorts.) His actual surname, Barnett, doesn’t have any spectacular story behind it.

Anelie Vossen–her given name is a short version of a name meaning “grace” or “favour,” and she especially lacks the latter, as she’s the black sheep of her family. She’s not particularly graceful either. And then Vossen creates alliteration.

Akari Shiraga–her given name is written as “red village,” the red part being a reference to the ribbon in her hair. Shiraga is the surname of her guardian, who is the Big Bad in Ryoko and Katsuo’s canon storyline.

[femsff]

Every number that contains a 2 please 🍍

“hi, I’m not from the US” ask set

given how Americanized this site is, it’s important to celebrate all our countries and nationalities - with all their quirks and vices and ridiculousness, and all that might seem strange to outsiders.

For the record, I’ve included previously answered questions.

1. favourite place in your country?

Is it weird if I say my bed?

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

This is a toss-up. If I could choose without any consequences it would definitely be abroad. However, holidaying for me has always meant relaxing, preferably near the beach and an occasional stroll around town and maybe, depending on the company, a cultural outing, but I’ve been diagnosed with melanoma in the past and therefore such vacationing is out of the question. So, in actuality, it more often means I’m staying in my country and I’ll go somewhere (or visit friends/family) for a long weekend or something. It’s unfortunate, but I’m pretty sure my two cats are happy with the arrangement.

3. does your country have access to sea?

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

5. favourite song in your native language?

Hmm. I actually don’t listen much to the radio and especially not to songs in my native language specifically. The only one that really comes to mind right now is an older one that I heard a lot in my teens and it’s actually a sequel to another song by the same band. Part one is about when a good relationship starts to get rocky, all the dangers threatening their relationship, but that he (the singer) will keep the course because he knows their final destination. It’s pretty hopeful, I guess. Part two is when everything is ending, how they’re always fighting and love has turned to hate. Both songs have a maritime theme, and in the beginning he’s the strong one, the captain who’ll get them through it and in the second it’s like their ship has two captains and they’re steering in opposite directions.

6. most hated song in your native language?

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

Gezellig - has no direct English translation but basically means something along the lines of cozy, intimate, warm, fun, snug, homey and can be applied to situations (like having a great time with family/friends), an atmosphere or even the interior of a house or something.

Katuitdeboomkijker - has no direct English translation but literally translated means ‘someone who stares a cat out of the tree’ and basically means that you tend be a bit reserved and will observe everyone/a situation first before engaging. Often used to describe a person’s behavior in social settings.

Mierenneuker - literally translated it means ‘ant fucker’ and is basically the same as a nitpicker or hairsplitter.

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

I’ve already been to all my neighboring countries several times. My least favorite was probably Belgium (no offense, Belgians) although my friends and I did have a blast there when we went there on a week-long school excursion in high school (I think as freshmen or maybe sophomores). I haven’t explored much of Germany yet, so maybe that would be it? I also like the UK and would definitely want to explore more of it (and yes, I’m using UK rather than England because that way there’s more to explore!).

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

Oh my. Hmm. I think I’m going to have to go with ‘kut’, because of the k-sound which just sounds really good when expressing it in dismay/anger. It’s basically a vulgar word for a woman’s private parts and can be used in a similar manner as the English ‘fuck’. It is not considered as being on the same level of offensiveness as the English cunt. I also like ‘tering’ because you can really draw out the e. That’s the word for consumption (tuberculosis), by the way, but I only use it as an exclamation (there are variations where people basically wish it on you or, from the olden days, accuse you of suffering from it).

I probably should have prefaced this answer with the fact that in my culture, we tend to use diseases (often dreaded ones from the past) and sex organs in our swearing and profanity (also, often food for insults, like calling someone a pancake for being a dumbass).

11. favourite native writer/poet?

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?

Eek! I feel like this answer might disappoint folks, but I’m not a big fan of prose/poems and honestly, couldn’t name one. In my experience, translated written works always seem to lose something in translation though.

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

This is a tough one. I think I’m gonna go with a saying, “doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg”, which basically means ‘act normal, that’s weird enough’ because we don’t like crazy or over the top things.

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

I feel like this is a trick question and am now wondering if this questionnaire was created by an American or non-American. Why? Because, in comparison, Americans are very patriotic and nationalistic. My country and many in Europe are far less so, not in the least due to having seen the devastation such extremes can bring (WWII). This is not in any way meant as an accusation, it’s just an observation and I think, for the context, an important distinction that should be made.

Anyway, to answer the question, I’m not obsessed with my country’s history but am informed. History has never been my favorite subject (dropped it in high school as a freshman) but I do like to learn the origin of certain things in my country/culture.

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

Looking at the Olympics, probably ice skating. But soccer (football for the Americans) comes as a pretty close second and it’s definitely one the whole country goes wild for when the national team is in the EC/WC (think: orange madness). Don’t get me wrong, we also like the Olympics but it’s not on the same level. Yet.

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

In order to destroy them? Or to make contact with the aliens?

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Like I’ve said in another answer, we don’t really do the whole national pride thing to the same extent as some countries, but I like how we’re so small and yet are pretty good at certain things (water management, infrastructure, sports, agriculture, healthcare, science). My identity is not really tied to my country or vice versa, so I can’t say I’m really ashamed of something my country as a whole has done or does, but we used to be known for being very tolerant and the past decade or so you see more and more intolerance and that’s just a shame.

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

Good question. I think maybe beer or wine? A quick google search gave me no definitive answer either.

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

Belgium! There’s a long standing tradition of us calling the Belgians dumb and, apparently, they do the same thing about us! However, lately, the US is a very hot topic as well.

So, I’d say historically/traditionally the former but in every day conversation and such it’s the latter.

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

I used to feel that way, but now that I’m older I think I’m far more appreciative of my country and culture.

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

Yes, sometimes. They’re all cliches and many of the stereotypes are very dated. Also, for some reason certain movies/shows like to use the language probably because they feel it’s “special” since, relatively speaking, so few people speak it worldwide but then they apparently can’t be bothered to actually hire a voice coach who speaks the language and it ends up being incomprehensible for native speakers as they pronounce the words often in a mix of German and some kind of Eastern European language or something. Very strange. I mean, why even bother?

27. favourite national celebrity?

I’m not really into celebrities, so I’ll pick the king&queen.

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?

Nope, flat as a pancake as we like to say.

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

Not really, anymore. We just have a long standing tradition of mocking the Belgians for their lack of intelligence and accusing Germans of stealing our grandparents’ bikes.

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

[benjaminschreave]

spotlight

a/n: sup y’all, water and I are back with another cowritten ficcccc. this is really just a follow up to the whole ~kiss~ thing with Ben and it was also written pretty rushed and late at night, so please excuse any typos or bad writing. (for those of you wondering who aran is, he will hopefully be introduced tomorrow evening in an additional fic) merry reading, you filthy animals <3 word count: 1949

—————

k i n g

—————

The king sat at his desk with a million papers and a pen at the ready. There was also his daily cup of coffee. He didn’t really need the caffeine with his strange love for paperwork, but drinking coffee became like breathing over the years and now it seemed ridiculous to sit at his desk without a cup of the dark liquid.

He was about to read over the first document when a knock came at the door. When he called out for the guard to come in, the latter bowed. “Secretary of State, Hiddleston, wishes to speak with you, Majesty.”

The king stopped himself from raising an eyebrow at the unexpected visit and simply nodded. “Have him come in.”

The guard left after another bow and soon after, the monarch’s oldest friend entered the room, arms folded behind his back. “Majesty.”

“Leif,” this time he didn’t bother stopping his eyebrow from quirking up, “any particular reason for such a visit?”

The secretary opened his mouth but then closed it again. Then he showed the magazine he’d been hiding behind his back. The cover showed none other than King Christoper himself. His interview with “Illéa Now” wasn’t supposed to come out until later that week, so the king stood up and walked over to read it with amusement. “You’ve come to show me how good I look?”

Leif had no reaction. Odd, that at least deserved an eye roll. Christopher didn’t dwell on it and read the headlines next to his face. His brows knit together as he read out loud, “Prince Ben might not be as prude as we thought?”

When he looked up at his secretary and Leif only gestured for him to keep reading, the king was quick to search for an article about his son, skipping over his own interview and the pictures of girls who would arrive at their doorsteps later that week.

“Prince Drowned In Alcohol Only To Be Saved By A Strange Girl Who Performs CPR With Too Much Tongue?”

The king clenched his jaw.

—————

w y a t t

—————

I pressed my lips together at the title of the article. I had to admit it was a wittier headline than anything I’d thought I’d read.

Some people were saying maybe Ben knew Rosie from before that night, that it wasn’t just a fling. Not exactly the news you want being spread across the country when 35 girls are flying to your home in the hopes of dating and (possibly) marrying you. Girls would either be salty with him—which would be understandable considering—or maybe they’d go for the ‘amnesia’ tactic.

Ben was bound to hate reading all the different takes on the event regardless of its effects on the Selection. Any royal or celebrity on the spotlight loathes when the spotlight is more of a myriad of presumptions. It was kind of ironic that Ben was barely having his first sort-of-scandal despite being the eldest.

The span between our media attention wasn’t that far apart though.

Standing up from my desk, I walked over to the wall of pictures and smiled a bit at the most recent. Hazel awkwardly looking away as James, one of our many new guests, talked with all the excitement in the world. I was still wondering if I should even try helping those two out, but considering my personal experiences, I wasn’t too sure I’d want Hazel anywhere near a royal in that way.

Eventually my eyes landed on some of the most dreadful pictures I’d taken at the beginning of the year. I couldn’t really take credit, however, since most had actually been taken by Ben with my camera, but the fact that I taught him how to use it made me somewhat responsible for their existence. They were probably some of the most embarrassing pictures I owned.

Apparently my drunken self was quite the life of a party and though I still wasn’t sure how I’d ended up doing karaoke with a bunch of frat boys, it was kind of fun to look back at Ben failing to take a selfie—the only part of his face on the picture being his eyes on a side corner—and me on my knees, singing at the top of my lungs as one of the other guys singing literally pretended to play a guitar. It seemed like...we were just normal guys.

I still held it against Ben for letting me do that. My aversion to magazines and interviews was technically his fault since I wouldn’t have been so annoyed by them all if I’d had my senses that night. After all, when you somehow end up breaking a crystal stand filled with drinks by accident, you obviously become a stray royal that’s just waiting to become of age to wreak havoc at bars. Sorry if I didn’t appreciate interviews the following month after that. 

Still, it was one of those ‘once in a lifetime moments’ that maybe didn’t completely...suck and I’d needed the distraction that weekend. So I kept the pictures and eventually the wild prince singing at a club wasn’t that important. Same thing would happen with Ben, but I’d hoped he would wait until the Selection started to begin creating drama for himself.

Now he’d have to deal with it and the pictures that’d been taken, which weren’t exactly that fun to look back on. 

—————

l a y l a

—————

Ben couldn’t hear me as I approached him from behind, his hand hovering over a book on a high shelf in the library. Deciding to reprieve him of his current oblivious state, I promptly smacked him on the back of the head with a magazine.

“Ow! What the—“ He turned around with a glare, though I didn’t give him a chance to continue.

“Nope, me first. What on earth is this?” I frowned, holding up only one of several tabloids revealing Ben and an unnamed girl kissing on the cover. The unfortunate headline above read “Playboy Prince? Selection in JEOPARDY”

Ben merely sighed and went back to grab his book, spinning on his heel to walk away from me. “It’s exactly what it looks like.”

I didn’t relent, following after his steps. “Really. So you’re going to run off with this redhead and abdicate the throne to start a carrot farm in Honduragua?”

We reached a table covered in various notes and documents while I was met with a strange look from my older brother. “Does it really say that?”

I rolled my eyes. Seriously? That’s what he’s concerned about? “No you idiot, but it does mention all the problems this could cause with the Selection.”

He sat down at that, jaw tightening as he focused on the papers in front of him. “I’m aware.”

I leaned one hand on the table in front of him, raising a skeptical brow. “Then? Why’d you do it? You’re smarter than that Ben, why would you—”

“I know, Layla.” His gaze was sharp when he glanced back up at me. “It was a mistake, okay? I’d appreciate it if you backed off a little and let me deal with it.” As he focused back on his book, I mused over the fact that of course it was a mistake. What I didn’t understand was why.

I pressed my lips together, taking the seat across from his. This wouldn’t be something I’d let go of quite yet.

So I stared at him.

And stared.

And stared and stared and stared until he finally brought his eyes up to meet mine with a frown.

“I can literally hear the wheels turning inside your head.”

I barely held back a snort at that. “I’m just curious to see how you’re going to deal with this.” 

“How do you think?” His voice rose over the quiet of the library, a rare appearance of his temper.

At the sight of a couple of a maids glancing in our direction however, Ben leaned forward and hushed his tone. There’s the cautious brother I know so well.

“I’m going to apologize to Mom and Dad, and then try not to make any more stupid mistakes until the Selection starts. Best I can do.”

A beat as I took in his curt plan. “Wyatt rope you into it?”

He leaned back in his chair, running a tired hand over his face with a sigh. “I went willingly. It was a long day and I had a little too much to drink when that girl and her cousin came up to me.”

Another raised brow. “You didn’t even know her name?”

His features fell into a flat expression. “Yes, I did, but that’s besides the point.”

“Then what is the point?”

“You came up to me, Layla. What else do you want from me?” He was becoming more exasperated by the second and I felt guilt curl up in the pit of my stomach.

I wasn’t normally this difficult with Ben, but I needed to make sure this wasn’t a sudden change in character. It was becoming more obvious every second that it wasn’t.

Though I didn’t let my guilt show, instead leaning back into the chair and softening my expression a bit. “I’m just making sure you’re okay. And that you know where to go from here.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Uncharted territory. The media has always liked me up until now, but...” he shook his head, “for now I’m going to lay low. Pull a Clark Kent.” A corner of his mouth lifted into a half smile, sparking confusion from me, though I had the familiar feeling it was another inside joke between my two brothers.

“What?”

He laughed shortly at himself. “Nothing. But thanks for checking up on me, even if you have a funny way of showing it.” He gave a pointed look, making me shift in my seat and lift my chin slightly in defiance.

“It’s not funny.” Your face is funny.

He ripped a piece of paper out from a notebook. “Okay fine, how about aggressive?” Crumpling it up into a ball, he didn’t hesitate as he threw it directly at my forehead, hitting me with remarkable aim. It fell to the table in front of me, though I didn’t bother looking at it as I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I’m not aggressive.” Contradicting my point, I picked up the paper ball and threw it at his chest.

“Right, because you really proved your point right there,” he said with an annoying smirk.

I rolled my eyes and stood, realizing he would be perfectly fine. “I’ll come find you when you’re in a more appreciative mood.”

“Aw, come on, I’m appreciative. I love your violent comforting tactics.” A smile tugged at his lips and I quickly walked away, calling over my shoulder.

“Bye Benji.”

I intended to let him be, but before I turned a corner, I looked back in time to see him pick up the magazine I had left behind, any trace of a smile gone. He studied the cover with a growing frown, pressing his lips together and standing suddenly, the scrape of his chair echoing in the quiet of the library.

Walking over to a small trash bin, he threw the magazine inside with a little too much force, decidedly turning his back on it and sitting down to return to his work, though even from here I could see how tense his shoulders were.

I hesitated before turning around to leave him, debating on whether or not to go back and talk with him. You’ve bothered him enough for now, Layla. Let him be.

I just hoped letting him be wouldn’t turn out to be disastrous.

[alirhi]

I just want this done 😭

When I was 15, I started RPing with my friends over AIM. Usually we'd only stick with a particular story or set of characters (always original work; I wasn't much into fanfiction back then, though I'd started a few that never went far lol) for a session or two and then move on, but I had this one friend - we'll call her T - who had one character with a really rich, interesting backstory. We stuck with him and the boy I'd created to pair with him and just kept developing this story over several months.

My character, Zephan, ended up getting sidelined by another, much more interesting character who got added later, Kieran. And the first incarnation of what would eventually become the Crossroads series was born.

This is a really long rant, so I'll be nice and put the rest under a cut.

I have no fucking idea why T wrote with me, tbh. She was in her 20s. I was 15 and really annoying, and really bad at writing. 😂 I look back over that early material (and my ooc ramblings) and I want to die. Or reach back through time and slap that kid lmao. But anyway, for some reason this grown-ass lady put up with me, and my barf-inducing fawning over her character, and out of all that truly fucking awful writing, a pretty great idea came about.

I wasn't going to get into this, but then I realized context kind of matter lmao so here's a (hopefully) quick rundown on Crossroads 1.0:

Zephan is a bi cutie who meets a really hot guy, they hit it off right away (no insta-love, so at least I had that going for me lol) and start dating. They both have secret traumatic pasts neither is ready to reveal to the other, but of course, they come back to bite them in their respective asses. Zephan starts acting really strange; not moody so much as literally his entire personality changes. Eventually he learns that when he was a baby, he was possessed by this dying creature who needed a body - Kieran. And part of Zephan's trauma is actually linked to a monster from Kieran's past tracking him down. Kieran was weakened by the shit that almost killed him, so once he was safe in a new body, he kinda just went to sleep for 20 years. But then he started waking up and taking control of the body, which Zeph's not too happy about. They fight for dominance, hurting Zephan's bf in the process (emotionally lol not physically), and bf fucks off to a scary place from his past while Zephan and Kieran go to Kieran's home world to try to sort some shit out. It doesn't work. Eventually, they do figure something out with the help of one of Zeph's best friends, Leyna, who happens to be a super powerful witch. She splits them and gives Kieran a new body, he goes home to face his monsters, Zeph tries to find his bf... the whole thing was left unresolved because T and I drifted apart and I haven't spoken to her in like 17 years lol

in the meantime, I met a new bud. We'll call this one A. Me and A? IRL insta-love, yo! Not the romantic kind, but definitely BFFs from the second she first spoke to me. It's been a roller coaster since then lol. She's still very much in my life (is my unofficial sister) but our friendship has been nothing but drama the whole damn time. Not all of it was rl drama, though! A became my new RP partner! and guys, back in the day? This girl had some good ideas!

I can't remember anymore who was responsible for what. We spent years talking about this story... and not doing much else with it tbh. I got a little writing done here and there, but was hampered by all the rl fights and her flaking constantly, and when the drama got bad enough that we "stopped being friends" (every few weeks in high school lmao and a few times in our 20s), I had to go back and rewrite everything to get her contributions out of there.

It wasn't called Crossroads yet, btw. Until around 2012-ish, it was just this one story line - Achlais (T's suggested name for Kieran's world. I later learned that it's apparently Gaelic for "armpit" and was like "fuck that" XD but I loved the sound of it. so my friend - we'll call this one S - did some digging and found this really cool Greek deity Achlys and we were both like "yeah, that works." So...yeah. story was just Achlais/Achlys)

Achlais centered around Kieran and his struggles. Zephan became a footnote in this much more interesting character's journey. See, Kieran was born of trauma; he's a rape baby and the first thing he saw in the world was his mother being killed for having him. Never mind the fact that the man who killed her was his father and her rapist. Always blame the women, amirite? The cool thing is, though, daddy fucked himself over big time. Kieran was his first child, and by the very strict laws of their world (not Achlais; Kieran was born on a different world, called Takaldor, and then banished to Achlais) is the only legitimate heir to the throne. Oh, yeah. Daddy's King of Takalador. And mom? Mom's human, but she's also a Queen of another world in her own right. So enter leetle Kieran, heir to two thrones and shipped off to a third world and left to die. His body does, but his soul's too strong, so he body-hops for a while. Finds stillborn babies (no soul to fight him) and takes their bodies. Kieran gets to live, parents get to raise their child instead of mourning them. They never know their kiddo is actually just the vessel for a half-demon magical parasite lol.

It's in his last host body before Zephan that Kieran gets his name (mom was killed before naming him; he eventually found a host with a name he liked and kept it)... and also the bulk of his trauma. woo lol. He's kidnapped by the main villain, Kanaye (I was obsessed with A and K names in my teens. this story was rife with them until I painstakingly went through and changed as many as I could over the past few years), kept as a slave, bad things happen to him that I won't go into detail on because I forgot to put a trigger warning in the beginning. 😅 But just... really, really bad, traumatic shit. And even though his mind is fully grown at this point, his host body is a child (5ish when kidnapped, 7ish when Very Bad Stuff starts, 15 or so when he escapes. ...oh yeah, spoiler alert XD Kieran escapes). I had this policy that I still sometimes have trouble shaking off: I was never satisfied with my writing until it made me cringe (from ick factor, not from lack of quality lol. unfortunately, I have a very strong stomach and my tolerance for ick only grew as my writing got more icky lmao so... yeah. that snowballed.)

While in captivity/slavery, Kieran meets a girl also enslaved to Kanaye, named Amara (see? A and K names 🙄) and falls in love with her. He escapes, joins a gang (don't ask 😂 I'm trying to keep this as bare-bones as possible because there are a lot more stories than just this one in Crossroads), eventually when he thinks he's strong enough to take on this crazy demon wizard, he goes back to rescue Amara. he fails completely, Amara is mortally wounded, Kieran's host is killed, and Amara uses the last of her strength (she's magical af and that's why Kanaye kept her around) to push his soul to Earth. The whole thing with Zephan happens, just with a different bf who opens up this whole awesome subplot having to do with one of Achlais's moons. Anyway, when Kieran gets his own body back, he goes back to Achlais (where his enemy has literally taken over the world) and leads a war against Kanaye. Then he stands against his father to avenge his mother, and eventually becomes King of Takalador. unfortunately, it's a super ultra over-the-top racist world so they hate him for being half human, and there's like civil war and shit. fun stuff. Also, his mother is brought back from the dead lmao. There was stuff with different types of dragons, a whole slew of fantasy species and magic and y'all I have been building this world since I was 14 (yes, before the RP that kicked off the main plot. I had the world before I had characters or plot)

I would love nothing more than to go into excruciating detail about the worlds and their canon history and that awesome moon subplot and everything, but... I mean, look how long this already is, and I haven't even touched on the other stories yet lmao

The first non-Achlais/Achlys story to get linked to it was A's and my amazing (if I do say so myself lol) retelling of the war between the Biblical Heaven and Hell. It's told from the perspective of the First Fallen, and reframes the entire thing. Adonai (God, if you didn't know his name) is a psychotic fuckwit, there's an oft-repeated saying that no man is made more in His image than his Catholic priests, and Lucifer and his followers didn't fight for the throne or because they hated humans or whatever. that was all propaganda. They fought for their freedom, and they won. As part of the treaty that finally ended the bloodshed, they were given Hell but with the caveat that they have to torture the souls of evildoers. Kay, fine. They got a level for that lol. They finally have a home! They're safe from Adonai!

Until he breaks the treaty himself, determined to have his favorite pet back, and kidnaps Lucifer. His eldest daughter (a general who helped lead the first war) invades Heaven to get him back and a second war breaks out. The rescue attempt is ultimately successful, but Luci's just about fucking had it. There are all these rumors that Adonai can be killed, but because he created all things, kill him and reality unravels. Lucifer gives zero fucks. He's willing to put it to the test. Turns out is exaggerated... but pretty much true. The reality he created - Heaven and Hell - does depend on him being there and, y'know, alive lol. and so it all collapses when Luci kills him. The few survivors become refugees and they end up on - you guessed it! - Achlys!

There's also this whole other realm we created with our own made up Gods and Goddesses, that also comes into play and has its own story arc, but we'll get back to that. Just remember that the main Godly place is called Valdell.

Next we have the one I'm struggling with most rn, DJ's story. DJ is the oldest OC of mine in the entire Crossroads series. I made him up when I was 13/14. Originally, he was supposed to sort of blend into the background; he was just the bestie of the one I'd intended to focus on, Kali. but Kali's kind of a fuckhead and DJ was much more fun lol. They're both still in play, and still besties, but DJ is the main and Kali's just kinda there XD

Oh, DJ Gallagher, how I love thee, let me count the ways... On the surface, his story doesn't seem at all connected to the rest of the Crossroads universe (unless you're eagle-eyed and notice little Easter eggs here and there). There's no magic, it takes place entirely on Earth (in my hometown in the 90s, specifically lol)... doesn't seem to have much to do with this epic fantasy adventure. but oh, it does. DJ's got quite the future ahead of him... or did, when A was supposed to be writing this with me.

You know what? DJ's getting his own post. He deserves the attention lol. Just know that I love this boy, and his story is the part of this series giving me the most grief right now in my attempts to rewrite yet again to get all of A's crap out of the way.

Claddagh - Rebecca's story that I posted a bunch of snippets from a few days ago - is the next road added to Crossroads. What's her connection to all this? Well, in addition to her meeting Lucifer and his daughter/General Haliel, you learn that she is actually Rachel's (Kieran's mom) little sister. She's also the final piece of the puzzle at the end, in the one book that ties all of these stories together. Thankfully, despite many attempts to get her to, A never even tried to look like she was helping with this one. S was, back when we were friends, but she ghosted me in 2015, so I wrote her character out, replaced her with Fiona, and got a much better plot out of the deal, so that worked out lol. Thanks for being a bitch, S!

There are smaller parts, as well (Claddagh's planned to be a pretty long series, and so was Achlys when A was involved) - Dying Breed, in which Johanna's mother is abducted and skeptical, cynical Jo is forced to see a world of magic that her mom had been trying to show her (and protect her from) all her life; Annwn, where we're shown that Jo's mom actually knew a boy from DJ's story, Ice, and begs him to take on this insane quest that only gets crazier once he's actually on it; and the Winter trilogy, which genuinely started out as a joke, but my friends liked what I had, so I decided to keep it. That one's... it's different. XD it's a "reverse harem" story that gets pretty squicky. I'm not entirely sure how much of my original plan to keep. A never had a hand in any of this (though a mutual friend of ours, L, was briefly trying to help me with Dying Breed before she had to bow out) but just because it didn't come from our 2 AM spazz sessions doesn't mean all the ideas are good lol.

And then there's Heart and Seoul, which is actually a really long fanfic we wrote 11 years ago. We never finished it (almost, though) but it got popular for a while, so we decided to convert it to an original and, due to references mainly in DJ's story, it became connected to Crossroads. I was actually very happy to cut that lol. It's A's baby so I feel a little bad for saying this, but... I never loved that story as much as she did. It was fun for a while, but I'm so over it.

Valdell had its own trilogy planned, at first, too, but it was kind of just more of the same tired crap that one comes to expect from A - mpreg for the hell of it and a "doomed" romance. meh. On their own, they're not bad story elements if done right, but when it's literally every goddamn story she comes up with, it gets old real quick.

So that was Crossroads 2.0 - it went through many stages and rewrites, but that's the basic gist. We had this whole interconnected Whedonverse concept, and an MCU Phase 1, 2, 3 thing going on (Phase 2 was kicked off by one of the Valdell Gods getting fed up with all the mortals' bumbling and erasing all of existence except his home and the other Gods. his wife flipped shit until he remade it. DJ was brought back as a girl. wife was like "fucking really? are you kidding me?" so he rolled his eyes and fixed it, and DJ got a Phase 3. also, Lucifer got 3 phases because of some shit with the whole killing Addie thing and a boy named Cole...)

It got...complicated, to say the least. Convoluted is probably more accurate. So when I made the decision to cut A out once and for all instead of spending my life in limbo waiting for her to suddenly become reliable, I cut like... that whole MCU concept. I also cut out a lot of what happened in Achlys, and around 20 planned books got cut down to 5. and the whole struggle with DJ... character arcs that I loved are gone, that whole awesome subplot I mentioned in Achlys? gone. which means I have to rewrite shit all the way back to the first book, because it was an underlying mystery that persisted through the whole series!

A lot of stuff, I cut because it was just bad. Whether it came from her brain or mine, or this weird hive mind thing we have going on when we're overtired, doesn't matter. It was bad. Some stuff was great, but I cut it because it was either her idea initially (she used to be so creative before she dug herself a little rut and decided it was comfy and dis is home nao) or tied into her ideas and characters too tightly. I couldn't cut her Achlys characters, for instance, without cutting that mystery subplot even though the mystery was 100% my idea, because we'd worked together on building the shit necessary for it to exist, and solving it for the reader hinged on A's characters in the Zephan chunk of the story. and none of that is there anymore. Zephan's not a part of this at all. That whole story line is gone.

Unfortunately, erasing the Zeph part also erases Leyna and her brother Lucian, and Lucian appears in DJ's story and that was a clever little tie-in before, but now it's just... a random boy who appears for one scene and is mentioned once or twice, and that's it.

So it's been a struggle, to say the least. I don't know if I should stick to my guns and keep this new, much shorter Crossroads 3.0, or rework it one more time to keep these elements I loved...somehow. ugh.

fml.