#also i liked how everyone had different reasons for being in the borderlands

[sleepymjntyy]

Can I ask, why don't you like chishiya's character arc in the show? I have seen you being against it. May I ask why?

I have my problems with his arc too. Like how they never truly showed him as a bad person and scene with his parent was cut off too. They glossed over his arc in hope that people can easily sympathize with home but that was something I could already do in the manga.

nice question. now lets see if i can provide a nice answer.

it’s pretty simple really: it felt like an easy way to sympathise with a character. like bad, ooc fanfics. (not saying aib LA is bad.. im literally an aib based blog)

chishiya’s cold heart being a result of corruption in the med industry felt really ironic considering he wronged a patient in the manga. additionally, it didn’t make sense to me or some of the LA-only watchers who thought he would have some deep and profound reason to why he would sacrifice his peers without second thought.

to me, it felt like kuzuryuu’s story. and i quite liked the fact that manga chishiya and kuzuryuu had different backstories which made them clash in mindset but allowed them some insight on the other perspectives which is what gave them their development. this was also what made chishiya enjoy their game so much and want to do something out of character for once.

i honestly could go on but i just feel chishiya was completely rewritten as a character. his arc wasn’t as impactful to me as it was in the manga. but i should’ve seen it coming when they decided he was a hearts game specialist in the posters.

ofc i still adore how funny they made his character. its similar to manga!chishiya but has its own spin to it. its nice.

[planetariumwriting]

First Kiss - Niragi Suguru

highschool!niragi x reader tw: mentions of bullying

After winning another game – mostly because he killed everyone with his rifle – Niragi flopped on his bed. He wasn’t satisfied, to the point of making Aguni and the others suspicious. He didn’t yell, he didn’t smile, he was simply silent.

Nobody found the courage to ask him if something happened and it was the best decision, if you cared enough for your life. Niragi didn’t know how he could have reacted if somebody actually asked him that question. He was sad enough to not even answer, probably.

There was a reason. Before entering the arena Niragi was being himself, until he saw something. In a corner, next to some garbage bags, there was a heart-shaped peluche with the words “Happy Valentine’s Day”. His mouth went dry with highschool memories about that day. They weren’t violent or bad, but they were more like a mix between sad and happy. For once.

He turned on the other side of the bed, trying his best to not think about it. It was a lost cause, his brain was already thinking of it – thinking also if you were in the Borderland playing these fucking games – and he felt his heart dropping at the possible idea of you dying.

He wasn’t the type that would cry this easily, it didn’t even happen when he was bullied. With you, though, it was different.

Family was a mess, school was a mess, life was a mess in general but not with you. Even if he tried to ignore your existence during the Borderland, you were always present in the back of his head.

Niragi closed his eyes, letting himself remembering that moment with you. Again, life if it was the first time.

Niragi didn’t hate Valentine’s Day, but let’s say it wasn’t the best day to experience when you’re single with a big crush. The highschool was more permissive in this day – of course not about fucking in one of the bathroom’s stall – but, it was normal to share public display of affection.

He walked in the main hall and everybody was so extremely – fucking – sweet. In every corner you’d have looked, there was at least a couple kissing.

Niragi didn’t feel disgusted or something like that, but he couldn’t deny himself he was a bit envious.

His hands weren’t empty – or it’s better to say his bag – but he was too shy to give you the box of chocolates he bought. Niragi was already thinking at the worst scenario: what if you already had a Valentine? What if he saw you kissing another person?

It wasn’t for the box itself – he could eat the chocolates another day – but having a heartbreak wasn’t so easy to fix.

“Suguru, where’s your Valentine?”

It was a bunch of laughs that made Niragi back to reality. He turned around only to see his bullies laughing at him, probably to impress their girls.

In a way, he was grateful for the Valentine’s day because of this reason: his bullies wouldn’t annoy him that much because they were too busy fucking those girls in a hidden corner.

Lucky bastards, Niragi thought. They didn’t deserve to be with someone to begin with.

He entered the class and sat in the back of the class, he was more comfortable far away. And also, the teacher never bothered him in the first place because of this choice, so why not? He was good in every class.

After some minutes you entered the class too, saying your “good morning” like it was a normal day. At the end of the day it was actually a normal day, but Niragi still felt his heart dropping on the floor.

You sat in the back of the class, next to him. Niragi stayed calm and thought “just act if it’s a normal day.”

“Ehy.” He said and smiled at you, watching you getting more comfortable.

“Good morning!”

God, you were so sweet every time. He knew he could keep the conversation on – you would have answered to him – but he still felt like if he was bothering you, so he simply stayed quiet.

“Can I ask you a favor?”

Your question surprised him. You never asked for help and this was the first time. With him.

“Tell me everything.” he didn’t want so sound down so bad for you, but he failed. “If I can help you, I’ll do everything.”

He meant those words, especially after you defended him from his bullies. You risked a lot, considering that they wouldn’t have thought twice to beat a woman, but it didn’t happen. They simply watched you and left.

It was the first time Niragi felt safe and protected by someone. It felt so fucking nice. In a way, he wanted to re-pay you somehow, but a “thank you” was never enough.

“Can you come to my house this afternoon?” You smiled. “I need some help with math.”

Niragi didn’t pay much attention, he was just too happy to have an occasion with you. In reality, thought, you didn’t need any help – but it was just an excuse.

“Absolutely yes.”

His smile was pure and innocent. So many times you wondered why they tortured him, he never meant any harm. “Then after school we go together.”

Niragi was explaning to you the homework you both had for the next day, but you and him stopped for few minutes and stared into each other’s faces. Niragi felt he was about to blow up soon.

When you both walked to your house, he wanted to hold your hand. He felt this urge to grab it and squeeze it, softly, but he couldn’t.

Now he was thinking about kissing you, confessing you or giving you the box. Or all of them.

“Niragi.” Hearing you saying his name was a melody for his ears, he wished he could listen to it forever.

“Yes?”

“Look at me.”

He looked up and found you smiling at him. You cupped his face in your hand and kissed him. His lips were so soft, to the point of making you losing the urge to softly bite his lower lip.

A small moan escaped, but the consequence of it was you kissing him even more – sliding your tongue in his mouth and met his.

You wanted him to have the sweetest and most romantic first kiss ever, like it was for you in that moment.

Niragi’s hand grabbed your waist and pulled you closer to him.

You both broke the kiss for a moment, catching air again. You smiled at him and put your arms behind his neck.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

[the-starry-seas]

yeah i'm watching the borderlands movie, liveblogging-style commentary below

spoiler-free tldr: dedication to aesthetics and easter eggs. a handful of funny lines. about half of them didn't land at all. the lack of blood is rather unforgivable. would've been a 6.5/10 if that exact script was for different brand-new characters. as it is, 3/10 due to the character assassination

no reason for tiny tina to not be blowing the shit out of random things what is this girl doing ??????????????? character assassination

roland kinda gives me bl1 vibes but i'm still not even vaguely sold on hart's casting

probably the only psycho to not be screaming about meat bicycles 0/10 also that jumpsuit just looks... cheap. love the mask though.

wym knox

is that supposed to be a skag?

MARCUS WOOOOOO honestly this guy nailed it good job. though the ponytail... i'm confused. did i just never notice marcus had long hair? (one google later: yeah i'm unobservant as shit)

i don't recall anywhere but the literal actual dump in bl1 looking anything like this. krom is an interesting namedrop though

oh fuck yeah i love seeing robot POV- oh shit they're canonising lilith's last name being cashlin?

oh shit i know that bunty board mission look!!!! nice tbh

this voiceover is. not working for me however.

okay i love everything about claptrap, this is the obnoxious twerp that i know and... tolerate. yeah, let's go with tolerate. "even completely unjustified ones like yours" HAH

yeah lilith i feel that violence/expression combo

i cannot at all understand how the echonot is... a bot-only thing? but then again there's no other reason to have him tag along

OH SHIT I KNOW THOSE CROSSHAIRS

ah those fucking rakk

bunny! i know that bunny! got a booty like POW

LMAO good going tina finally she bears some resemblance to canon

zero reason for lilith to not teleport here but i guess they're saving the siren reveal? for some reason?

"LIKEABITCH" "MY BIG BRUDDAAAA" i kinda like it tbh. she was never going to be tina in a pg-13 movie but this is near-ish enough that i'm not upset

where's krieg during all of this exactly? ah there we go

wilhelm scream!

cgi on teh creature is looking a little shaky

claptrap's dedication to annoyingly singing everything, yeah, it tracks

okay so characterisation is... y'all've heard everyone bitching since the first trailer, right? but tina and krieg BFFs are growing on me and i'd read the fanfic

i'm not over krieg having hair sorry i even googled to make sure he didn't in bl2

SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

could they not have worn normal masks instead of whatever these glowy cyberpunk things are?

"kriegy give me a ride!" oh they're cute

w. what is moxxi's accent? also why does lilith have mommy issues suddenly

temu tannis. honestly i think the casting for her isn't horrible, and the characterisation isn't as bad as some other characters, but it's still not what i'd expect

i'm not buying eridian clone. do we not remember what eridians look like.

this is supposed to be sanctuary???? geez they had so many other visual things nailed, i don't. get that. arguably one of the most iconic places in the series, idk how it's That

oh shit, caustic caverns?

yeah tina and krieg are everything to me

"hope blooms in the strangest places" coming from tina is the worst, it's a perfectly fine line but from TINA? would've been fine from lilith

i am not buying that knife-throwing action, would it have been so hard to find a stunt guy who knew how to do that already?

an ambush by dozens of enemies sure would be a nice time for some siren powers but tbf that is some pretty smooth gunwork

krieg dragging claptrap up the staircae and hitting every stair along the way LMAO

would it have killed them to have ANY lighting in that hallway

no way on earth did tina just snap a guy's neck

IT'S TIME TO BLEEEED HAHAHA yeah i'll give em that one, nice

at this point i'm wondering if lilith is human. with the characterisation in this movie it would not surprise me if tina was a siren instead. and siren tina could be cool! but c'mon. ah so tina teleported them. yep.

firehawk is what? i mean i don't mind it. but. canon, y'all. then again tina is phasewalking so

oh no way did roland survive that

that certainly is a scene that happened

was this one of the workers' villages that got abandoned when the corporations pulled out? bandits attacked and she got orphaned, sent offworld, and fell in with a violent crowd? that's actually a decent backstory tbh, it's just. not lilith's backstory.

i swear this hole place looks familiar i just can't place which map it's from

oh that miniboss-looking dude has a baller design

OH IT'S THE SYRINGE NOISE WOO

that was dumb as hell, killing knox like that

OH FINALLY SIREN POWERS and looks like rewriting the elevator bit yeah it was phasewalking after all

"you have my word" oh yeah that's valuable

"i have to open it" you could just. teleport them out. like you teleported in. could you not. or just kill atlas.

okay the vault arch building does look pretty neat

FIREHAWK WINGS YES

whatever cgi they're doing with floating lilith... i don't like that.

Do Not Hurt The Tina

Do Not Hurt The Krieg

okay the firehawk shield effects are pretty cool

NOBODY KILLS ME BUT ME YEAH

i will always support kids being able to beat up their abusive parents

ooh hentai

ELLIE AND SCOOTER ELLIE AND SCOOTER ELLIE AND SCOOTER ELLIE AND SCOOTER

i still don't get these shantytown vibes for sanctuary but i do love me some fireworks

glorious meat fiesta

"come onnn do the thing" i love when characters say that and the other character is all naaah but then gives in almost immediately cause they love the person asking

FIREHAWK IN THE SKY ALERT DEEPLY FUCKING COOL

[leeyanyanyaaan]

I FINALLY GOT TO WATCHING S2 OF ALICE IN BORDERLAND LIVE ACTION AND IM???? my god it was so good im lost for words

BUT AT THE SAME TIME IM ALSO MAD AT EVERYONE (read: my dad, who hasnt even seen season 2 for himself bc he heard sm bad reviews) WHO TOLD ME IT WASNT GOOD/DISAPPOINTING AND THAT IT WOULDNT HAVE BEEN WORTH IT TO WATCH IT LIKE BRO WTF 😭😭😭💔

hot take: i genuinely think, in my honest opinion, season 2 was done so well and much better than season 1

Keep in mind that, as a self-proclaimed writer, writing comes first to me in any form of media i watch, regardless if its a live adaptation of a series i alrdy know abt or not; my opinion doesnt necessarily come from how "accurate" it is to its original source, but rather if how well its produced as a screen media production - altho i will admit, if i alrdy knew the origin series before the adaptation, i will definitely have some biad from my prior knowledge of the story.

so story time: talking w a friend, he suggested for me to read the alice in borderland manga, and since i only watched s1 of the netflix live action, i was like sure why not and went to read it. then i reached up to where s1 got up to and decided "hey why dont i rewatch all of s1 and then finally watch s2 so i can go in blind + reflect on the differences between LA and the og manga?"

and so i did, and having now freshly rewatched s1 + read the first part of the manga, here is my review: the execution/production of the live action was impressive and done really well, and they made sensible changes and additions to make it work for the show (ESPECIALLY the games that were originally filler chptrs in the manga and showing off arisu's intelligence!), but at times i felt that it didnt pull off the emotional moments/certain story points as well as the manga did. overall (at that point in time) it's definitely really good for a shonen live action if only the emotional moments had a bit more improvement.

and then i went watching s2 99% blind (1% being the fact i read a little bit until king of ♧'s game) and going into s2, from that small bit i read, i was alrdy preferring the direction/writing difference from the manga.

the end of s1 alrdy made a better establishment of the dealers/game management as well as the announcement of the face card games. from what i also saw in the opla, i think one of the necessary changes live actions have to make is to keep and utulize more major characters throughout the story instead of multiple short screen time supports for reasons such as adaptation length constraint, casting + screen time, etc. which i preferred a lot better bc we got more involvement of the supporting cast and the flow of the story was a lot smoother too! the relationship development between arisu and usagi was done so much better too (the konbini convo, im glad they changed how it went and didnt have arisu kissing usagi right then and there), which made their kiss at the onsen so much nicer! and then the queen of ♡s game! my god i loved all the psychological manipulation and more importantly the fact that it made sense!!! EVEN THE ENDING!!! i was waiting to be disappointed by a half-assed ending that made zero sense but i was pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the explanation/logic they gave behind the whole fiasco!

overall, alice in borderland? one of the best live action adaptations i've watched! (up on that list with business proposal, ruruoni kenshin and one piece ^^) i get the feeling that those unsatisfactory reviews of s2 was mainly bc hey couldnt appreciate the final queen of ♡s game psychology, the writing or the ending, and was expecting more action and dramatic ending, but imo it was very fitting considering that alice in borderland imo is more of a psychological series before everything else (like death note)

[lillyontheborder]

"Even You... Even Me."

Niragi x OC (Lilly)?

// This is a writing I did because I have Lilly in a love triangle with Chishiya and Niragi (in my own headcanons, I know that rp is different) and so I was feeling kind of sad and wanted to turn that into something.

// This is kind of vunerable for me, but also deals with the issue of bullying. So if you decide to read it, just know it does talk about bullying.

// I was up so late writing this man... I suffered... I wanted to get the idea out before I lost it

Lilly sat next to Niragi on the rooftop. They sat in silence as Niragi messed with his gun. He sighed and didn't acknowledge her. He was really scary when they first met, but as she got to know him, she realized and learned a lot about him. Of course she didn't agree with his actions or how he treated people, but he's been through a lot.

It wasn't pity... it was understanding.

He still scared her of course, but she felt differently about him now.

"I..." she began to speak, her voice barely above a whisper. She struggled to get it out, what she was going to say.

"What?" Niragi snapped, not bothering to look at the girl beside him.

"You know... I was bullied too." She whispered softly. She was treading carefully, but she felt like she needed to tell him this.

"Huh?" He questioned, immediately stopping what he was doing and looking at her in annoyance. "What are you talking about?" He said. His eyes flickered back and forth on her form, studying her expression and posture. "What is this? Huh? Are you trying to pity me? If so, then you can fuck off." He said before continuing to mess with the killing machine in his hands. He was clearly annoyed and slightly ticked off, but he didn't hit her, threaten her, or yell at her. Instead, he just continued what he was doing.

That made it obvious. He tolerated her.

"Sorry." She whispered.

"So what was it?" He asked, focusing on the task at hand.

"What? What was what?" She said, looking at him. The wind made her cold, especially in a bathing suit. It was colder at night, and being on the roof of a building didn't help. She felt goosbumps rise on her arms. She rubbed her arms to keep herself warm.

"What was the reason?" He said. He looked at her again, flickering his eyes like before. He smirked and let out a quick, short, laugh. "Your personality? The yelling? You're pretty annoying." He said, leaning closer to her to make it clear and obvious.

She looked away, but this time, he didn't. He watched her, waiting for a response.

"Yeah. A bit. It was mostly my appearance. I was filmed and had photos taken of me. Asked out as a joke. Glaring from grown adults while I was in high school, people laughed. I grew up in a small town. It wasn't nearly as bad as I'm making it sound but... it hurt. I fell into a deep depression. I hated myself." She paused and looked at him, smiling, as if mocking herself. "Still working on that part." He didn't say anything. He just stared.

"You know..." she started. She felt a lump in her throat, like she was going to cry. But she wouldn't... that was stupid. "I know I always joke about being hot and shit. All that over-femininity and dancing and singing and shit... it's to make myself feel better. I'm not that narcissistic. I promise." Her voice was weak by the end. "I don't even like myself that much." She paused again and looked down at all the people taking a nightly dip in the pool. "I... I wonder if coming to the borderlands was a good thing. Everyone is so focused on staying alive they don't have time to mock others. To make fun of me." She looked at him again, her eyes widening a little in playfulness. "Except you. You do that plenty." He just stared silently, not responding. He then scoffed, a short, brief laugh coming out of his mouth as he looked away.

"Tsk." he paused, staring at the gun in his hands. He hated this conversation. Why didn't he kill her already? For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to, and he hated it. Was it because she was the only one who wasn't yelling at him? Telling him he was a monster for killing people, or barking orders at him? He hadn't had a conversation that WASN'T about death and the borderlands in a while. It was oddly... calming. God he hated this.

"Everyone has pathetic lives." He stated, looking out at the people below. "Even you." He said, looking at Lilly. He stayed quiet for a moment before adding, "Even me." He paused. "It's all so fucking stupid. All this shit. All people care about is themselves." Why was he having this conversation? He wished he could shut himself up. But some small part about him... didn't want to stop.

"Yeah." Lilly laughed weakly. "We all suck... don't we?" She whispered sadly. "Even you..." She said looking at him with a weak expression. Whatever that meant. They stared at each other for a few seconds in silence. Lilly hated eye contact, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from the threatening man. "Even me." She whispered. They didn't break eye contact.

They didn't have to be friends.

They didn't have to be lovers.

They didn't have to be enemies.

But they tolerated each other.

And that was okay.

[magnuficentwo]

1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12 for Borderlands

[From this !] Thank u for the ask now I get to practice my VIOLENCE

1- The character everyone gets wrong

Hate hate hate hate hate how so many people write Rhys. Rhys is a character who's whole appeal {personally} is that he is very much Just Some Fucking Guy. Before the stories of Tales happened, Rhys was just some random dude who wanted to make it big, and afterwards, when he gets the opportunity to, he's still Majorly not his own person. He's influenced by the player in a meta sense, but also by Ugly John. This guy's identity is based off what the situation demands and what other people expect of him, and yet no one ever seems to acknowledge it, favoring instead his fucked up relationship with H.J as the sole atribute of his character [and this WILL pop up later trust me].

The guy has potential and the game acknowledges it (by the games own words, he rebuilt Atlas, became the CEO and even invented some cool new tech along the way), but he is NOT ALL THAT and I'm TIRED of people acting like there is that much substance to him. Just say you want the white men to kiss, stop putting on different hats on this guy and acting like hes all that

4- What was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

Moxxi slander. I swear, anyone who says Mad Moxxi is "annoying" or "a bitch" is 20% of the time a misogynist and 80% of the time a Handsome Jack sympathizer who thinks that she should've had some pity on The Active Space War Criminal. And this person did exactly that so yk how it is

6- Which ship fans are most annoying ?

Rhack shippers. No doubt. Partly because of my own personal gripes with how this dude is characterized {see: number 1}, but also because it's genuinely just so boring 😭 you can write this ship a thousand different ways but ultimately it boils down to "We need these white men to kiss" and nothing else. Also the whole "this guy manipulated this other guy for the entire time they interacted and then tried to kill him" thing.

8- Common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about.

There's nobody who is good in this game I'm sorry to all apologists out there but all these guys suck ass. This isn't a competition about who's most morally correct it's about who your favorite criminal is ok

9- Worst part of canon.

The way they don't expand on lore, not even a little 😔 Please just tell me how ancient eridian people got their hands on an Atlas gun all of a sudden. Or at least tell me something about Sirens. How does the magic in this universe even happen. For the love of God HOW did Pandora GET LIKE THAT how is anyone there LIVING. PLEASE just CRUMBS OF INFORMATION you can't have me guessing everything you're presenting !!

+ How they don't expand on characters. Like come on let me hang out with these guys they're so cool :(

12- The Unpopular character you actually like and why more people should like them.

Tannis Tannis Tannis I love you cringe fail autistic woman. I don't see nearly enough appreciation for her. Matter of fact, I see a lot of people hating on my girl like :[ Leave her alone. Here's my comprehensive list of reasons why you should actually like Patricia Tannis.

1- So smart. She seems to be one of the only 5 people who know anything about the setting and who actively tell you about related history. She's one of the only sources of knowledge on Eridian culture we have in-game, which means this also extends over to Sirens, magic and the vaults. Relevant stuff yk !!! /// 2- She's COOL LOOKING okay. Her design is more down to earth and restrained compared to other characters, and it makes her stick out a little more imo. It's also just wonderfully practical which fits for her being a researcher and scientist. /// 2.5- Girl... pretty... /// 3- This woman is so autistic have I mentioned that yet. Because she is. She unfortunately does fall in some pitfalls in terms of stereotypes {I.E: nerdy personality with tendencies to be rude to people, the whole facts and logic thing, etc} but also damn she is so relatable. I too feel nauseous at the thought of a social interaction but still actively crave to have conversations with other people. I also struggle coming up with words at the time of most need. I too have like 3 people who actively take me places and make me feel comfortable (SEE: Roland, Lilith, the VH in some cases). I too humanize objects and talk to them because of loneliness. That's so true. She's so real for that.

[lavend-ler]

???whats wrong with Vaughn???

anon, I have to tell u right off the bat that I had a misfortune of this being the first thing I saw as I woke up

ok tldr? nothing. there is absolutely nothing wrong with vaughn and I absolutely do not care whether u like him or u hate him. but u're here cause u want my rant abt him so

he commits the biggest crime a character can do - he's annoying. I cannot stress this enough but Vaughn is so annoying from the moment u meet him. he is constantly whining and complaining, nothing is right for him, he just gets scared all the time or bitches abt god knows what

Vaughn is a rly boring character. think abt it, there rly is nothing to him to make him interesting. as much as I like him becoming the bandit king there rly isn't anything special abt his actions, compared to any bl character actually. his story isn't interesting and reasoning why he even became a bandit king is so vague

he's not a character who has any agency in what he's doing, nor responsibility for his actions. I'm gonna touch upon this in a sec but for me it truly feels that no matter what uninteresting bs Vaughn is doing, the narrative is here to reward him for this. actually no matter what he does, the narrative seems to support him and never challenges his actions

speaking of no agency - remove Vaughn from the story and nothing changes. neither Tales nor bl3, nothing changes. he is such a nothing character, the only time he is allowed to "shine" is at the very ending and in Lilith DLC - cause at least it seems there they decided to write him a personality

I very much so hate how game and narrative treats Vaughn. the weirdest thing abt Vaughn is that the game is hellbent for u to like him. he's described numerous times as not only Rhys' best friend but yours, the player as well. I hate characters who are forced upon u to like them and it's such a baffling choice for me. borderlands, a game abt terrible ppl killing each other, wants real hard for me to feel sorry for this accountant and like him. when he just appears and does nothing to the story yet and it progresses and he still. does nothing. we're supposed to like him but why? cause Rhys likes him? why are we to believe Rhys likes him anyway?

the favoritism of his story is so blatant. the game actually kind of manipulates u to be nice to Vaughn and actively punishes u for choosing the wrong options. I don't think there is a single other character who would be panned out to look So Sad when u choose a mean option to them. everyone else talks back, is angry but Vaughn just simply Looks Sad and you should feel Bad for making him sad

which leads me to another point - I don't believe he even is a good friend to Rhys. it is revealed to us that Vaughn sold out Rhys to Vasquez and everything in game supports u not being mad at him. if u go back to game it doesn't even sound like he would ever tell Rhys if Vasquez hadn’t appeared

and if u choose to actually get mad at Vaughn the game still treats this scene as comedic. it's like sure Vaughn has betrayed u but heeyyy why would u be mad, u like Vaughn, he's ur best bro, he would never do a bad thing! and they even play the "bro" scene after u are a bitch to him, my god, it's so blatant

I am focusing on this so much to show u the lengths this game goes to favor Vaughn. think abt this - u can choose to be mad at him for double crossing u but that choice doesn't matter. he's still gonna be there, u can't do anything abt it. contrast this to Yvette who is also Rhys' best friend and also double crosses him. but the difference here is that the game doesn't want u to follow Yvette and doesn't want u to forgive her. have u seen her dialogue if u don't shock her? she's so nice and explains her side of the story. but the game doesn't want u to care abt her. remember when I've said literally nothing u do will make Vaughn consider that he's an asshole and he stays in the story? to save Yvette u have to make 3 SEPARATE CHOICES. if u don't do just one she's dead, she won't appear in the end

it's a me thing but I hate the conversation u can have with him in ep3 when he gets mad at Rhys for being cooler. I mean firstly duh and secondly now is rly not the time Vaughn. but he guilttrips u (and Rhys) until u chose the option to make him feel better

he's voiced by Chris Hardwick. I know that the characters are not their vas and the vas are not their characters but I deserve to take my time and say that I hate him and I think he's a disgusting person

and then bl3 happens. I don't even know what to say abt bl3, I mean we all know how bl3 plays out. all I can say is that he's gross, his model is gross, what he does is gross and what he says is gross. also his incompetence was amped up to 11

speaking of, have u tried listening to his voicelines in bl3? I have spent countless of hours listening to so many different character's voicelines but for Vaughn I couldn't even get pass 2 voicelines at a time, it was so annoying

I may not know much Vaughn voicelines but I do know one in which he says why him and Rhys aren't too close to each other anymore. I wouldn't care too much abt them being apart cause of all ^ that but how he says that Rhys chose corporate and he remained real? that's the most stuck up and terrible thing he could've said

again, honestly, I do not care if u like Vaughn or hate him but u wanted to know my reasoning so here it is. I gotta give credit where it's due, I do like Vaughn in epilogue of Tales and Lilith DLC cause then I feel like his personality is there. but other than that? I'm apathetic at best and hateful at worst

[strqyr]

I’m genuinely curious: why do you like Raven so much?

This isn’t an attack or anything, because I believe everyone is allowed to like any character for any reason. I only ask because I want to understand what it is that draws you to her. I don’t know if you’ve seen my post or not, but I understand why people either find her to be interesting, want to know more about her, and patiently wait for her return or why people absolutely loathe her for abandoning her family because she is a coward. I describe her best as interesting but also frustrating. That’s why she’s such a strange character to me.

Sorry for the loaded message, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts.

okay, first of all, full disclosure: i have like, three characters whom i have witnessed for the first time and it has just clicked immediately, dooming me to love them forever, with everything else that comes after just adding to it.

raven is one of those characters.

(the other two are cinder (obviously), and nisha from borderlands.)

beyond that, it's the mystery and complexity of her. duality, even. before we really get to know raven, we were told a lot about her, and that seems to be the theme. just like yang and cinder, we know stories of raven, what she's like, how she's viewed by others, and while there is some truth in those stories, it's never going to be the real deal. especially when some of those stories seem to contradict each other: you have stories about the cruel bandit queen as well as stories about the huntress who fought for what she believed in.

like, how do you combine those two? you just can't without cherrypicking what fits and what doesn't.

and raven's not making it any easier by wearing a mask – both literally and figuratively – to pretend she's someone she's not.

then you get to the big question: why? why did raven leave? finding out the truth explains why she would stop working for ozpin, but why leave her family? and after, why did she stay in contact with qrow and seemingly only him? why is she around yang but only as a bird? she clearly doesn't want yang to be part of the secret war, so why wait until yang is old enough to make her own choices instead of taking her with her when she was a baby?

raven has made choices, but some of those choices seem baffling under scrutiny, at least without knowing the full story. would knowing it make a difference? her amity arena bio seems to indicate that her choices were always between "bad" and "worse", so if we can look at her choices now and say "that was not it", what was the worse alternative in raven's mind?

she also, very clearly, has many, many regrets about the choices she has done, even if she thinks they were the best choices she had at the time. the way she justifies them doesn't scream "confidence", like she actually believes in the way of life she's living ("the weak die, the strong live"). it screams of someone who really did not want to be in that position in the first place, did not want to make those choices, but did them anyway for whatever reason. panic? it being a "it's you or me and i'm definitely not dying so..." situation? simply did not think it through?

it's not so much about finding out that all the choices raven made were actually justified (we're wayyyy past that point) but rather if they were understandable, given the situation. ya know, being like "i get it, i'd give myself 50/50 in that situation too, but like. still not the move."

it'd be easy to take one look at her and be like that's it. that's all you're getting. but the more you look, the more you realize it's only the tip of the iceberg and BOI does it go deep beneath the surface. and when you think you've gotten some answers, it just ends up raising even more questions, and i like that in a character; getting a chance to find out why they behave the way they do, which leads to understanding them better more and more, until it all clicks together.

there's also just a lot to me that's relatable; the regret, making all the wrong choices that end up costing you what you really want because you think there are no better choices, the insecurities, etc. not in the same scale of course, but like... yeah.

i think it would have been very easy to make a character like raven to an almost a caricature in simplicity, but instead they made her very complex, very human, and i love that.

[pitch-pearl-void]

(The borderlands anon from however long ago)

So, I finished watching the show a couple days ago, because there were a couple things that showed up consistently in fics i that I didn’t understand (blood blossoms, some of the baddies, a handful of fenton inventions, etc)

First off, I still very much prefer pitch pearl to amethyst ocean or whatever the hell it’s called

And also, do you know where pitch pearl as a ship came from? I know there’s the episode with fun and super, but is that all there really was? Or were there more early fandom headcannons that supported them as separate beings?

Hello again! Sorry this took so long, I wasn’t sure how to answer 😅

Canon did a poor job with AO. I would even say it did it dirty, but it's popular enough it doesn't need that kind of support lol. If you really want to give it a fair shake I’d recommend reading fanfiction for it, but I understand everyone’s preferences are different. I personally don’t ship it because shipping best friends is something I have real issues with, but it’s not a bad ship if you want something that’s soft and makes you feel all warm inside.

Onto pitch pearl tho!

Tbh, I’m not entirely sure myself how pitch pearl as a ship started. I don’t believe it was because of the Fun and Super episode, largely because those two are rarely used in the ship. 

I asked someone else, and they thought that moment in What You Want when Phantom was first torn from Fenton as this colorless ghost might have been what started the concept they weren’t one whole person. Because, honestly? This ship goes far, FAR back. A lot of the older fics made Phantom into a voice in Danny’s head or a spirit that could separate from him at will without the need of the Ghost Catcher in order to offer Danny comfort. They had no rules because there weren’t any set way yet. The fact that Phantom could move and think independently from Danny was enough to get people thinking. It wasn't all romantic, most of it was borderline at best. They mostly focused on hurt/comfort and self-love, finding a balance between human and ghost with the occasional kiss thrown in.

Then there’s TUE, where Danny meets his evil future self and learns that his ghost half killed his human half after merging with Plasmius. It definitely gave more credence to the idea there might be more to Danny’s ghost half than simply having ghost powers. It aired before Identity Crisis, so it set the stage with a BOOM and had a much bigger impact on the ship. Phantom being seen as his own person is a bit more credible when he’s willing to kill Danny. It helped that TUE was a VERY popular episode. It drew in a huge crowd, and everyone was curious about what made the ghost half snap like that if he’s supposed to be Danny.

Supporting that idea is that a lot of the older art and fics took a darker view of Phantom in general, seeing him as Danny’s darker half or a ghost out for revenge after being imprisoned for so long. Even the name “pitch pearl” was created with that in mind. I always thought of it as “white hair/black hair” in the same vein as AO taking inspiration from Sam’s purple eyes and Danny’s blue, but when I went searching for the origins for the name, the old explanation set Danny Fenton as white pearl and Phantom as pitch black. The reasoning for that was partly their jumpsuits pre- and post- accident, but also because Fenton is human and “pure” while Phantom is a ghost and dangerous--because without Fenton, Phantom became Dan and destroyed everything.

For obvious and somewhat personal reasons, I don’t subscribe to that. But it does make all the art where Phantom looks evil while holding Danny make sense. I don’t like dark romance, and I’m personally thrilled we moved away from such a dark beginning, but it likely had a hand in the early popularity of pitch pearl.

If I were to guess how else it started when the source has them as one person, I would say it was most likely the fanart? Putting Fenton and Phantom side-by-side has a yin-yang appeal, and when they interact in art, you get the sense that these are two characters, not one. This was really popular when the fandom was much bigger than it is now.

For instance

Save Our Soul by nycken isn't a shipping piece by any means, but it could very easily give rise to the idea, especially if someone is new to the fandom.

They did not shy away from it being a self-cest ship back then, though. The idea that Phantom wasn't Danny was there, but I don't think anyone looked for evidence in the show to support it. That seems to be something the ship has evolved into rather than something it started from, and it is honestly my favorite way to see it.

I do have many headcanons about how they aren’t the same person in canon if you're interested! There’s the out of sync transformations, the title sequence and how Super and Fun are shown to separate in the Identity Crisis episode, Vlad’s inability to clone Danny, the way Danny talks to himself, just all kinds of things! If you want to hear more about those I'd be happy to answer 😁 (they'd probably be easier too lol)

But yeah, I think it was TUE and fanart. There may have been other factors (I think this was around the time Yu-Gi-Oh and puzzleshipping was popular too) because fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum, but I really couldn't say for sure. It's a ship that means different things for everyone who ships it. I like the psychological questions when they start off as "one" (the bonded peeps version) and enjoy the aus like soooo much, but others like it only for aus, and others like it as a crack ship, and then there are even others who like it as something dangerous. Some people love it for Fun and Super in Identity Crisis because they're just fun caricatures. It's hard to find the origin point when it has so many branches lol

[geshertzarmeod]

In Other Lands Character Arcs

(Spoilers Abound)

I’m thinking about how the character arcs of all three main characters from In Other Lands center largely on moving away from what their families expected of them, even as each of them doesn’t necessarily think moving away from that is possible. And how it’s their relationships with each other that help them move in the directions they actually want to move in, and believe in their abilities to forge their own paths and lead fulfilling lives. Even if it’s not what their parents or home communities think a fulfilling life entails. This culminates in their refusal (along with Golden) at the end of the book, to let anyone else influence them when it comes to deciding where to be stationed. They’re ready to choose their own paths, together.

There’s something deeply appealing to me about this as a queer person, even as queerness (as defined by orientation or gender) is not actually a central factor in the shifting of each character’s relationship with their families. Actually, the character who comes closest to that is Serene, who is presumedly straight, but whose pushback against the rigid gendered expectations of her society so challenge her community that she and Golden are essentially banished at least for a time. This is only tangentially queer, I’d say, because she does this not for herself, as she seems to proudly fit & identify with elven womanhood, but recognizes the false limiting of manhood within her society and fights fiercely for Luke, Elliot, and eventually Golden, who I’d say is GNC for sure. For Luke, it’s not his being gay but his being monogamous and waiting longer than they expected (though he’s like, still 17!!! that’s still young!!!) to become sexually or romantically active that is off-putting to his family. For Elliot, his father is shocked not to see him with a man, but to see him happy (cue my tears). 

I was just thinking this after reading Girl, Serpent, Thorn especially, but I really love when queer books parallel queer narratives of shame and struggle and difference and growing pains, with queer characters, but about issues unrelated to their being queer (especially when they’re about magical/fantasy elements). Then we get to relate to queer characters and see them process a lot of the feelings we have experienced, but also get to see them be loved and value and supported unconditionally in their queerness. Anyway, for an individual analysis:

Luke Sunborn

First, because I know a lot of people might not have read it, I’m going to quote Luke’s perspective from Wings In The Morning:

There were reasons Luke hadn’t kissed anybody. The Sunborns, as a family, loved life and loved love, and treated it as a game. It was fine for them: it worked for them.

Luke had always known that a riot of brightness and different loves and leaving someone laughing was beyond him. He wanted kindness and steadiness: he did not want someone who would leave. He wanted love that would last. (location 2527 in my kindle book, I can’t tell what page)

Luke, the Sunborn champion, expected to excel in battle, and love (read: have sex) freely and easily and non-monogamously, becoming an avid reader because of Elliot - something his father is shocked by and a little ashamed of. Learning Elvish because of both of them. Breaking border camp rules, threatening superior officers, to protect Elliot, and to support Serene, even as he continually complains about it and, on paper, would always argue that those choices are Not Okay and Very Bad. Luke, whose bashful shyness around his crushes, whose concern over his first kiss, whose choice of Elliot as a partner, is incomprehensible to his family, snapping, “I don’t want anyone else,” at the elves. He’s chosen Elliot, even as Elliot still doesn’t at all believe it at that point, and he’s happy with that decision. Elliot’s his choice, and only Elliot. Notorious Sunborn sexual voracity be damned.

Luke’s journey is also largely about him working through his external, and later internalized, biases against magical creatures. It’s pretty clearly an analog to xenophobia, and Luke expresses more disgust, disdain, or fear, the more different a culture is from the one he grew up in. This obviously becomes internalized against himself, when he realizes he is half-harpy. He literally represses his wings from coming out, he sees harpies as monsters and includes himself within this. It’s awful, and it’s sad, and it’s a mixture of Elliot’s meticulous research and adamant arguments that harpies are people, and that Luke isn’t a monster at all (and neither are harpies and other non-human creatures), and Serene’s calm acceptance of him, that helps him move through this. 

This xenophobia, although clearly ingrained since childhood, don’t seem to be coming primarily from his family (certainly not from his mother) but from the culture of the borderguard in general. To me, it is implied that his father might at least casually buy into a lot of this, although he would never extend it to his son. It also is an interesting dynamic as related to the other two’s relationships with family, because Luke coming to love and accept himself, and to open his mind about non-human creatures, is actually him coming closer to his mother, rather than moving away. In my view, a part of why he bought in so clearly to this prejudice coming from the general bordercamp culture is because he was pushing away from his parents in the first place - he saw his parents being so wild and free in a way he knew he could never be that he pushed himself into the opposite side, into “reason” and restraint and conservatism. What he needed to learn was how to hold his more “traditional” wants and needs (although like, he’s kind of wrong about that. Elliott Schafer is not the traditional kind quiet love he’s imagining, and he didn’t want that anyway) while still celebrating all of the different approaches and cultures and loves out there, and that’s what he’s learning alongside Elliot and Serene. And he does this partially because Elliot’s love for him as a half-harpy is, according to his previous beliefs, just as wild and out there as his mother’s affair with his biological father, or all of Elliot’s flirting with various magical creatures. And as he accepts Elliot’s love, he accepts that too.

Serene-Heart-In-The-Chaos-of-Battle

From the first moment we meet Serene we know she ran away from home to join the border camp. She’s chosen to join the humans, to fight alongside men, to learn about the borderlands from a human perspective and use that to create an alliance and to create peace. She enters a world where she is looked down on, where she is sexualized and punished for trying to swim shirtless, and has to fight hard to take the classes she wants and have the opportunity to prove herself as she wishes. Instead of deciding her parents and community were right and going back to the elves, she digs her heels in and with Elliot and Luke’s help, fights back, fights to excel at the border camp and make things different and better, and prove her detractors wrong. 

Not only that, but she learns to respect men in a way she was not raised to do, learns to treat men as equals and partners, always defending both Elliot and Luke when her community disrespects them. This prepares her for her relationship with Golden (although Elliot still helps her along a lot, especially with their written correspondence) and ends in her and Golden essentially eloping after Golden ran away to fight alongside her. It’s also important that she accepts Golden fighting alongside her. That was not at all a given, especially as even towards the middle of the book, she seems to be thinking of human men as capable of fighting and strength and other “womanly” qualities, but not necessarily believing the same of elven men. She’s chosen a nontraditional path and a GNC partner in Golden, and for the time being, her closest family is not her blood but her beautiful boyfriend, her swordsister, and her loved and loving best friend Elliot.

Elliot Schafer

Last but the opposite of least is Elliot. What Elliot learned from his family is that he will come to nothing, that he will be forgotten, and that he will not be loved. I am so angry on this child’s behalf, for the ways he was neglected not only by his parents but by everyone before Serene. The ways his father had no interest in him because all he wanted was Elliot’s mother back (and I love Elliot’s observation that even if his mother did come back, his father wouldn’t know what to do, and would not be happy). The way his teacher literally accepted a small bribe to just...... leave him at the entrance to the borderlands, and none of the students cared. The way his mother not only left when he was a child but knew who he was the second she saw or even heard about him at the bordercamp, and never bothered to tell him, or show any interest in him whatsoever.Elliot has been taught, over and over again, that he is unwanted and uncared for. That he has to go it alone, and fill his own needs.

Elliot learns to respect Commander Woodsinger and to know that while she doesn’t necessarily love him, she knows him, and appreciates who and what he is, and sees value and strength in it. She, unlike his previous teachers and school professionals, understands him, and likes him, and values him. She’s not warm, but she’s a positive presence in his life, and part of him learning to believe he has value just as he is, and not just because he spitefully decided it to go against what everyone else has told him, but because it’s actually true.

He didn’t want his parents and his peers and the adults who have let him down to be right about this, so he does dream of being loved back. But he shows himself fully prepared to be the one who loves more in relationships, especially with Serene. He’s ready, at first, to take all she’ll give him, and revel in each part of it, even if it doesn’t match up to his love for her. It’s not until the moment he turns down Serene’s final advance (when she’s clearly settling for him) that he realizes how much he wants to be chosen first. And he believes that’s possible, and worth waiting for (and that in the meantime, he will help Serene up and help her find what she truly wants too).

Elliot knows Serene loves him. She shows him he deserves love, and in his devotion to her, Elliot begins to excel and challenge himself and learn to see his brand of obnoxiousness as something that might not be everyone’s taste but isn’t inherently bad. He trusts Serene to love him, at least as a friend, but he doesn’t trust that Luke will, because Luke reminds him of all of the kids who hurt him in the past.

And that’s why the slowest arc of this whole book is probably Elliot realizing that Luke.... actually likes him. Actually wants to be around him, and enjoys his presence, and even like-likes him - loves him even. It just can’t compute for him. And so we get basically an unreliable narration for most of the book regarding Luke. Elliot’s “aha” moment about Luke rewrites years of his life, shifting his understanding of so much of their lives together. And it solidifies Elliot’s discovery that he can be loved exactly as he is, obnoxious and annoying and all. He’s found people who love him for it, and they’ve chosen him, and they’re going to stick around.

[salvatoreschool]

Kaylee Bryant On "Legacies," The Importance Of Queer Rep On TV, Hosie, And More

"I have so many people constantly telling me that watching Josie on the show has made them feel more comfortable in themselves."

This week, Kaylee Bryant squeezed us into her schedule to talk about their role as Josie Saltzman on Legacies. As a huge Josie fan, I couldn't think of a better way to spend a morning than talking to Kaylee about The Vampire Diaries, Hosie, our favorite books, and more! Here's everything we talked about:

1. What was your audition for Legacies like?

My audition process was very interesting because they kept a lot of it a secret. I had no script and a fake character name. And then I had my second audition, a chemistry read, which Jenny Boyd [Lizzie] wasn't even at. I walked in and immediately just flat-out asked, "This is for the twins, right?" So it was long, but short and intense at the same time.

BuzzFeed: Wait, did you know which twin you were going to be playing?

I initially auditioned for Josie, and then during chemistry reads, they started asking me to read for Lizzie. And then we had our final callback where I finally met Jenny and we both read for both roles. They never told us [who was playing who] until Jenny had her appointment to go dye her hair blonde.

2. What's a typical day on set like?

Gosh, it changes every time. If it's a busy day on set, we're talking like 8 a.m. call time where we spend about two hours on hair and makeup and go straight into rehearsals. If it's a big sort of episode that involves stunt work and wire work, you're talking about doing maybe two scenes in a day. But if it's an average day, we can do anywhere from three to five scenes and we can start at 8 a.m. and wrap at 8 p.m. It really depends. I'm surprised if I'm not surprised.

3. You’ve said you’re a huge fan of The Vampire Diaries. Josie played Elena in the musical episode — what was that like?

It was surreal for sure. They had talked a little bit about doing a musical episode since Season 1. And I always thought that they were joking when they talked about doing Salvatore: The Musical!, so when they said Josie would obviously play Elena, I was like, "Hahaha." And then I got the script and realized I actually was playing Elena. The musical aspect of it was the easy part. The difficult part was, I think, getting into the iconic Elena attire and trying to feel normal. Because we have a lot of crew members that worked on The Vampire Diaries, and they kept coming up to me being like, "This is weird. I feel weird."

4. Do you have a favorite scene you’ve filmed with Courtney Bandeko (Finch) this season?

I really did love the scene that we had in the town square [when] we got on a moped. There were so many fans in the town square that were huddled in the rain — it was pouring rain, freezing cold — trying to snap photos of us. And it was kind of one of those surreal moments where it felt full circle, that I was on a Vampire Diaries spinoff in town square. It was a lot going on, but it was a lot of fun. It's always fun working with Courtney.

5. You and Danielle Rose Russell (Hope) also have amazing chemistry — what’s your favorite scene you’ve filmed together?

Oh gosh, we have a lot that are pretty amazing. Honestly, I'd say [Season 3] Episode 14 — we finally got to do a lot more scenes together. And it's always fun, especially when it's Josie, Lizzie, and Hope, because we have so much history character-wise. Any time you really get to dive into that, we love it.

6. I know Josie and Finch are working through some things right now, but I gotta ask — how do you feel about Hosie?

I love it. Danielle and I loved the idea of Hosie starting from Season 1, and we kept asking and asking and asking for it. So it's kind of funny and full circle that now the fans have kind of taken our side with things, and now they won't stop asking for it. All we want is this beautiful, dynamic relationship. And I think that the fans want that as well.

BuzzFeed: Yeah, I mean, people have even been asking me about Hosie, and I don't work on the show!

Oh, I'm sure! [Laughs] Obviously I love it, though.

7. Is there a particular Josie moment you’re really proud of?

Josie has a scene coming up in Episode 18 — or 19? — I don't know, but it's good. It's sort of the pinnacle of everything that Josie has felt over the past three years kind of culminating into one moment. So, I'm excited for people to see it.

8. You recently came out as queer. How has playing Josie, who’s pansexual, impacted you personally?

I felt a lot of pressure when I initially booked Josie because I was still figuring out who I was and what my label was. And playing a character who was so comfortable in who she was, it was inspiring [to me] in a way that I think a lot of other people watching the show have been inspired. I have so many people constantly telling me that watching Josie on the show has made them feel more comfortable in themselves. It's kind of amazing that we all have the same experience in that having queer representation makes you more comfortable.

9. You’ve been vocal about your Asian identity, and your character has spoken Japanese on the show. Did you have a hand in incorporating that into Josie’s character?

No, not at all! So, I spoke Japanese a few times on the [Instagram] Live and one of our writers, Penny Cox, saw me speaking Japanese and immediately went to Brett [Matthews] and was like, "We need to make this happen somehow." And then all of a sudden, I had a script in my hands. So it was a surprise, but a fun one.

BuzzFeed: Are you fluent in Japanese?

Gosh, no! I'm barely fluent in English. [Laughs] I would say I speak at the level of maybe a second-grader on a good day, though.

10. If you could pitch any storyline for Josie, what would it be?

I always joke that I want an episode that takes place overnight. That way, we all have to be wearing pajamas the entire episode. I just want to wear some comfy clothes for a whole two weeks, that's my main goal. So we can have a pajama episode, that's my pitch.

11. What's it like getting into character for Dark Josie scenes?

It's different in the sense that I know Josie so well. And knowing Josie in turn makes me understand Dark Josie. I have a whole different playlist of music that I listen to for Dark Josie — and I have the wig, which helps a lot with getting into character.

BuzzFeed: Well, now I have to ask what music is on that playlist!

I think "Bury a Friend" by Billie Eilish is a great one for Dark Josie. Also, "Villain" by K/DA is a prime example of a perfect song for Dark Josie, so I listen to that one as well.

12. What's your go-to Starbucks order?

Plain black iced Americano. Aria [Shahghasemi, who plays Landon] says I drink coffee like a sociopath. [Laughs]

13. What TV show are you currently binging?

I just finished watching Alice in Borderland, which is a Japanese show on Netflix. And I know Feel Good Season 2 just came out, so I think that's my next binge.

14. Damon or Stefan?

Stefan! They're both beautiful and I love them very much, but I'm Team Stefan when it comes to Elena.

15. If you could work with anyone from The Vampire Diaries, who would it be?

Ian Somerhalder has a lot of dogs. So, maybe I want to work with him for the sole reason of just talking about dogs. [Writer's note: Kaylee revealed she has two rescue dogs, one whom was sleeping right next to them during the interview! Kaylee described the dogs as "both complete and total nuts," but said she misses them about five minutes after getting into the car to go to work.]

16. Do you think you’re most similar to Josie, Lizzie, or Hope in real life?

I would say I'm an eclectic mix of the three. I can be very headstrong like Hope, very outspoken like Lizzie, and I try to be as loving as Josie, but sometimes that doesn't always work. But I'd like to think all three.

17. Is there a role people would be surprised to learn you auditioned for, but didn't get?

I've been auditioning since I was eight, so there's quite a few Disney Channel shows and movies. And I'm sure people would be surprised because I think I auditioned for like, all of them. It's very funny, one of the first jobs I ever booked in television was Kickin' It with Leo Howard [Ethan]. Talk about full circle — going from being 12 years old and having no idea what I'm doing to being a series regular on [Legacies] and welcoming Leo to the set.

18. Who's your favorite Disney princess?

Oh, I love Mulan so much. She was, like, my first crush ever. I also love Moana, but it's Mulan 1,000%.

19. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I mean, I do eat rice every day. So maybe just white rice — you can make rice into candy and...yeah, let's go with rice.

20. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only bring one book, what would it be?

Oh no! I recently read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and I really enjoyed that book. Oh god, Is that the one that I want to bring, though? I mean, I really enjoyed it and it has many different aspects to it. I don't know. Or should I go with Harry Potter? I go through different genres too, like right now I'm in a big sci-fi phase, but other times I'll go the opposite direction and only read biographies. Yeah, that's super hard. I don't think I would know!

21. On that note, what's your Hogwarts house?

Initially, when I was younger, it used to just be straight-up Slytherin. And now, I recently took the Sorting Hat Quiz and I got Ravenclaw. So I'm going to go with Slytherclaw.

BuzzFeed: What's Josie's house?

Josie would be Slytherin. She tries very hard and, you know, not everyone in Slytherin is evil. She just, you know, has her way of going about things.

22. Has anything super funny or embarrassing happened to you on set?

I trip a lot on set. I get scared very easily — if I come around the corner and somebody is walking the other direction, I get scared. Everybody knows to walk slowly around me because I get scared so easily.

23. What's your wildest fan story?

I've had people cry before. And I'm an empath, so if somebody starts crying, I immediately am like, "Please don't cry, because I'm gonna cry." And then it turns into this whole thing. Once we were shooting in the town square and this young girl with her mom started crying, and I just hugged her and I didn't know what to say. So there's a lot of that. There's also the occasional, "Where's your twin?" and...I don't have one, sorry! But yeah, I would say the people who cry always throw me for a loop.

24. How do you unwind after a long day?

I have an hourlong drive home from work, so I usually listen to a lot of music. And by the time I get home, taking off all of my makeup is very therapeutic. Because over time, we're working 13-hour days, 16-hour days, and it's just powder constantly building up on my face. So, washing my face is always very therapeutic. And then just laying back and reading a book and petting my dog is the best.

25. Is there a celebrity you get told you look like a lot?

Most recently, Sara Waisglass [from Ginny & Georgia and Degrassi]. We follow each other on social media now and I completely messed up because I don't know how Twitter works at all. I forgot that there's a DMing interaction, so we followed each other and I was like, "Oh, that's nice." And then just recently, I saw that she had messaged me being like, "We're twins! We should be friends!" And I immediately messaged back, "I'm so sorry, let's be friends!"

26. Who's your biggest celebrity crush?

Oh, I have so many. But consistently since I saw Orphan Black, Tatiana Maslany. Hands down.

27. Finally, have you ever caught someone watching a TV show or movie that you're in on a flight or anywhere else?

We were all, as a cast, flying to — was it New York Comic Con, or San Diego Comic Con? — one of the Comic Cons. And we were all sitting there and we saw that Legacies was actually on the airplane as an option. And we were all just uncomfortably staring at each other. Yeah, that was surreal.

Be sure to catch Kaylee in Legacies, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW!

[devinescribe]

Drives With Them

Alice In Borderland

Only doing Chishiya and Niragi because they're the only two who have access to cars hahahahahaha-

This song makes my brain go 'brr'

Chishiya

Warnings: Swearing, arguing

- He hates driving

- Learns it's the only way he can get alone time

- With you

- Can talk about stuff with you, and there's no one else to interrupt

-  He usually asks you by spinning the keys around on his finger and saying "Wanna go?"

- He drives pretty nice, honestly

- Hasn't crashed, doesn't make you pray for your life before you get into a car with him.

- Enjoys taking the longest way possible home

- Gives zero fucks if a group need the car for the games

- Usually ends the drive somewhere scenic to watch the sunset or if it's raining, he just parks the car and talks to you

"Wanna go?" Chishiya asked, spinning the keys on his finger, interrupting the conversation you were having with Arisu. "Sure! Sorry Arisu-Kun, gotta go," you said, excusing yourself from the conversation. "No problem. Have fun," Arisu smiled, leaving. You chased after Chishiya, grabbing his hand. He pulled it away and you scoffed. "Jerk," you muttered. "You know who is watching," he whispered back, nodding to Hatter. "And?" You asked as you left the building, heading over to the cars. "He could use it against us. I don't want you in danger because of me," he said, opening the door on the passenger side for you. "What a gentleman," you said rolling your eyes, getting in the car. He shut the door after you, getting in himself on the drivers side.

    "I'm sorry," he said into the quiet atmosphere after you two had been driving around the empty streets of Tokyo for a couple minutes. You only huffed, looking out your window. "I'm get that you don't want to make our relationship out there and shit, but I... I have feelings too Chishiya. I want to be able to hold your hand around the Beach, or just show you love in front of other people," you answered, he kept his eyes on the road, listening to your words. "I can understand that. But... you have to understand that I don't want you getting caught in the middle because you're with me," he said after a few seconds. You felt bad about being mad at him, especially when you knew he had good intentions. "I know... I'm sorry Chishiya," you apologized, looking at him. "It's ok. It's upsetting, I get it," he said, slowing down a bit as you got closer to the inner city.

"Sucks there's no radio," you said, holding his left hand on the glove compartment as you two drove around, the argument you had earlier having been talked through. "It's better, in my opinion. We can talk," he said. The sun was setting, the sky painted in an array of pastels, golden sunlight fading from view. You smiled at his response. "You know, when I first met you, I thought you were going to be a bitchy, antisocial, I hate people kind of guy, who would've pushed me off the roof for talking to him, but I'm glad only half of that is true," you giggled. "Oh? Which half is true?" He asked, as you noticed the car slowing down. "The 'I hate people' part. You just have no empathy towards them," you said, leaning on his shoulder. The car had stopped on a bluff that overlooked the ocean. Chishiya got out of the car, telling you to do the same. He climbed up on the hood of the car, making his way to the roof of it. You did the same, sitting besides him. You stared out into the ocean, watching the sunset as he sat besides you. "Beautiful..." he whispered. You looked at him. "It is," you said. "I'm not talking about the sunset. I'm talking about you you know," he said, cupping your face in his hands. You blushed, looking to the side. "I thought you said no PDA?" You asked, looking back at him. "I think... I think I'm willing to protect you if worse comes to worse. Hold my hand around the Beach. Kiss me around the Beach. Do what you want," he said, resting his forehead on yours. You smiled. "If they use us against eachother?" You asked. "If we go down, then we go down together," he said.  You laughed, kissing his lips quickly. You kept doing that before he said, "If you're going to kiss me, kiss me." Before kissing you passionately.

Niragi

Warning: Mentions abuse, bullying, swearing, weapons

- I'd personally pray to the gods before I get in a car with him

- Honestly pretty fun

- He goes fast, reckless, but somehow hasn't crashed

- He loves driving with you because it makes you both forget everything

- Asks you by going "Im going for a drive. You coming with me doll?"

- Late night drives after games that were especially hard on either one of you

- You had CDS and got the radio to work somehow. (Yes he helped)

- I feel like he's a car guy for some reason?

- Like, he knows his way around cars. But would rather drive them

- You know those cars that don't have a roof? It's just open? Yeah, those are his favorite.

- Ends drives with driving around slowly while you two talk about anything and everything

You sat anxiously awaiting the arrival of Niragi's group for the games. Your leg bounced up and down, scanning the groups that walked in. You swallowed thickly, trying to rid your head of the dark thoughts. You two hadn't been put in the same group for tonight, as the militals all got split up.

    You heard a couple girls whispering and laughing. You glanced at them out of the corner of your eye, and listened in to what the were saying. "She's so heartless when others loose people, but there she is anxiously awaiting her boyfriend's return," one of them laughed. "I hope Niragi dies so she can feel how others feel," the other responded with a giggle. You growled, grabbing your riffle, walking towards both of them. "Oi, if I were both of you I'd stop talking," you threatened, pointing your gun at them. They tensed up. "W-we didn't do anything!" One of them stuttered. "I fucking heard you. Bitch, I'm not deaf, you want me to feel pain as if I haven't before," you said darkly, glaring at them. "I lost my best friend when I first came into the games, I don't have family here, he's all I have left. You two think I haven't felt the pain of losing someone important to me because you don't know me, so shut the hell up," you said angrily, putting the barrel of your gun facing towards the floor. You gathered yourself again, walking back to where you were sitting. "I still hope he dies though... he's such a dick, I don't know why she stays with him," you hear one of them say. "Okay, that's it," you shouted, turning back to them. "You think I won't fucking shoot either one of you?! I'm not fucking scared to do so! And if Niragi doesn't come back then I'll just kill one of your boy toys and see how you like it! He's not... he's not a bad person. So shut up about people you don't know!" You yelled, getting angrier by the minute. "Well I bet he's already dead anyways! It's what both of you deserve for using so many of us as pawns in the games! You need to feel pain, and he deserves to die!" The other girl yelled. "He's not dead! He doesn't deserve to die!" You shouted back. You took your gun, firing a shot in between both girls. "That's a fucking warning shot, next time, the warning shot goes through your damn skull," you threatened, walking out of the hotel lobby, out to where the game players come back. You sat on the sidewalk, watching cars coming back, none containing your boyfriend. You saw Chishiya, and ran up to him. "I'm going to seem pathetic asking, but have you seen Niragi?" You asked, him swallowing back the tears of worry. Chishiya noted this want a time to joke about him being dead. He was a dick sometimes, but he also knew when it was enough. "No, I haven't. His game was on the other side of the city though. Maybe it was a longer game?" Chishiya answered. A soft 'oh' left your lips, and you nodded, thanking him. You went to a corner, sitting down facing the entrance. You brought your knees up to your face. "Please be ok... please... I need you here," you whimpered.

About an hour later, you heard the engine of a car come into the beach. You looked around, counting how many cars were already there. Only one was missing, which meant this car was the last one. You ran over quickly.

   To your relief, you saw Niragi standing by the car, talking to Aguni about something. You ran to him, hugging him as soon as you got there. "Woah, hey there princess," he said, hugging you back. "You stupid jerk, I thought you died!" You cried into him. You weren't one for crying, but it had been a night. Aguni looked at you strangely as he had never seen you cry. Aguni excused himself, giving you time to be alone. Niragi looked down at you, feeling a tinge of guilt. "I- I thought i-i was- I was gonna b-be alone again!" You cried, snuggling your face into his chest. "Never. You'll never be alone again, ok? I'm not going to let some measly game take me out," he said, giving you a kiss to the top of your head. "Im going for a drive. You coming with me doll?" He asked, holding the keys in his hands. You nodded, drying your tears.

The drive wasn't like most others that started fast and reckless. It was slow. The kinds of drives you two had on the late nights. "What game did you have tonight?" You asked, trying to break the silence. "It was weird. A 5 of  hearts. To win we had to kill the past in a way," he said, looking out. "That doesn't sound like a normal hearts game," you observed. "That's what I thought. Games of betrayal. The rules were simple. If you failed to kill the past, you failed. You had to say what part of your past you were killing too, or else you died... There were items all around the building, each from different people's past. There were films of people's memories, toys, pictures, audios, books, glasses... If everyone didn't manage to kill their past, the buildings boiler would explode," he explained. "What we're your items?" You asked, looking at him. "Glasses, notes, there was a video, a baseball, a pack of cigars and an empty beer bottle," he said. You pieced together the items. "The glasses you wore in highschool, the baseball that broke your nose more times than you can count, the notes kids used to pass you in class that said horrible things on them, the cigars your father burned you with, and the bottle you used to silence your sorrows," you said. ''Clever girl," he chuckled. "Your game?" He asked. "4 of spades. We had to diffuse a bomb in the that was at the top of this building, the elevator was out, and there was 20 flights of stairs. Oh, and a shooter. God was it fun shooting that motherfucker after he pulled my hair," you aaid. Niragi laughed slightly. The cool night breeze passed by you, and you closed your eyes. "When we go back to the old world, we should do this," you muttered, reaching for his hand. He grabbed your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours on the glove compartment. "I agree."

    He had stopped the car on a bridge, although there was no water under, just gravel. "I used to come to this place, look down, and think it would be a quiet place. So I started going there after school, hiding. Until they found it. Then you found me there. I don't know why you talked to me in high school anyways," he said, looking over the railing, down to the gravel covered ground. "Because I knew you didn't deserve what people said or did to you. And I also thought it was a nice quiet place," you said as he put an arm around your waist. "What did you run away from? Something or someone in your past that scared you?" He asked. "My family, my feelings. The monsters that lived in my head," you said, leaning your head on his shoulder. "I really love you, you know?" He asked, looking up at the stars. "I know. I love you too. Love you more than there's stars in the sky," you responded.

I'm brain rot, helpppp-

Also, this is just like if you are in an established relationship with them. I feel like they open up a bit more to you, so that's why they might be OOC.

[sleeping-on-cracking-ice]

Can you please write a SFW Alphabet with Kuina? 💕💕💕

Of course I can! Thanks so much for requesting! ❤️

SFW Alphabet | Hikari Kuina

{Alice In Borderland Masterlist}

Character: Hikari Kuina

Genre: fluff

*based in the real world, not in the Borderland

A - Affection

(How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

People would always perceive her as someone who hates affection, but only you would know the truth

PDA wise, she wouldn’t be a fan of affection out in public

She would hold your hand or have an arm around you but that’s it

When it’s just the two of you though, she would be so affectionate

She wouldn’t particularly always want to be touching you, but she would show her love through acts of service, like cooking or taking care of you

She would also just like being in your presence, like just being in the same room with you would be enough for her to feel comforted

B - Best Friend

(What would they be like as a best friend?)

She would be the quiet friend, but secretly really protective and strong-willed

She would always love spending time with you

Every time you ask her to hang out she would always accept

Your favourite thing to do together would be going to all different restaurants and trying the food in each one

I can see her as being quite hard-headed as a friend, probably not listening to a lot of people when they tell her not to do something

With her best friend, she would be very open to and would love to have deep conversations every now and then

Your parents would love her, for some reason everyone’s parents absolutely adore her

C - Cuddles

(Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

She would probably become super cuddly when she’s tired

If she’s had a long day, she would walk up to you and throw her entire body weight onto you, wanting to be babied

“Y/N, carry me.” “Kuina, I’m in the middle of somethin-” “Carry me please!”

You would never be able to sleep without her tucked so close to you

Even on really hot nights, she wouldn’t care if you’re sweating, she wants to feel you close and that’s all that matters

In the morning though she’d somehow end up on the complete opposite end of the bed to you

Her favourite way to cuddle would be sitting on each other’s laps

She would love the protectiveness she feels when seeing you all curled into her, tucked into her neck

And she would love having your arms around her when she’s on your lap, feeling happy and safe

If you thread your fingers through her hair, she would marry you right there

D - Domestic

(Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

She’d settle so quickly with you

Would act like you’ve been dating for years after only living together for two weeks

It would be comforting, seeing how she obviously trusts that she’ll be with you for a long time

She would talk about you to Chishiya and Alice like as if you two were married

Helping around the house wise, I have a feeling she has a hidden cleaning obsession

It would drive you insane most of the time, because she would always clean your empty cups and bowls up seconds after you put it down

She defiantly moves things all the time, and you always have to ask her were she’s put stuff

E - Ending

(If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

She would do it very slowly and gradually, always sending small signals that she wants to separate

She wouldn’t be able to do it straight up, she would feel too guilty

In the end, it would come to a mutual agreement, both of you deciding that it’s what's best, even if it’s incredibly hard

Would try her best to move on quickly, but would probably still have moments wear she would miss you months after separating

I think she would try her best to stay friends with you

She knows it wouldn’t be as close as when before you were dating, but at least it would be something

F - Fiancé(e)

(How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Would be so committed to you, she would want to marry you and have kids so quickly

She would want to go quickly because she gets excited about spending the rest of her life with you

She would always drag you to the jewelry shops to look at the rings

“Y/N look at this, they’re matching rings! This would suit us so well!”

You honestly find it adorable when she gets excited over things like marriage and kids

Look forward to it because it would definitely happen soon enough!

G - Gentle

(How gentle are they, physically and emotionally?)

Physically, I think you both would be a bit rough with each other

You would have wrestling matches on the loungeroom floor, the winner being the one who doesn’t have to cook dinner

I feel like in heated moments you two would throw each other around playfully while laughing and making out

Emotionally would be the complete opposite though

If you weren’t having the best day, she would stop everything she is doing and make you talk to her about it

She would be such a good listener, always taking your feelings into account in every situation and making sure you’re 100% comfortable

If you ever started crying in front of her, mother mode activated

She would coo and rub your back as you cry into her shoulder

Then she would pull back and kiss the tears from your cheeks, giving you big smooches everywhere until you felt better

H - Hugs

(Do they like hugs? How often would they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Her hugs would feel like a warm fire

I have a feeling that she always radiates warmth, like her skin is always hot

She would be your own little personal heater

She loves to do surprise hugs by picking you up from behind and pressing her face into your upper back while laughing at your struggling

She would hug you so much at home

Mostly when she’s bored. She would get up and go looking for you just to give you a big snuggle

I - I Love You

(How fast do they say the L-word?)

I think it would be an unspoken thing between you two that you’ve just always said it

When you said it to her for the first time, it wasn’t a big deal because it felt so natural

You didn’t even realize that you had said it until a few minutes after

Kuina would always have said it from the start, wanting to be honest and give her heart to you fully

You would say it to each other so often, like multiple times a day

It would be like a ritual to say it before going to sleep

Even if you’ve had an argument, she would refuse to go to sleep without saying it to you

J - Jealousy

(How jealous do they get? What would they do when they’re jealous?)

Probably doesn’t get jealous too easily

She would only get jealous if someone obviously was showing much interest in you

She knows and trusts that you love her too much to find someone else

Although, on the rare times when she would get jealous, she would be very upfront about it

If you were talking to someone who was very obviously flirting with you, Kuina would act really cliché and place a passionate kiss on your lips right in front of them

That alone would most of the time draw them away from you

“Oh hey baby, what was that for?” “Just claiming what’s mine.”

K - Kisses

(What would their kisses be like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where would they like to be kissed?)

Passionate kisses 24/7

She wouldn’t want any sissy pecks on the lips, she wants passion and tongue

Your kisses together would always end in dazed eyes and messy hair

Especially ones where Kuina would smash her lips onto yours surprisingly

You would just melt into her, completely at her mercy

Her favourite place to kiss you would obviously be your neck

Such spice and passion

She would love to mark it up, ending in your being frustrated about having to wear turtlenecks or cover it with heaps of foundation

Her favourite place to be kissed by you would be her shoulders

She would love when you hug her from behind and press your lips against her shoulders

She would just fall back into your chest, smitten for your kisses

L - Little Ones

(How are they around children?)

I honestly think she would not like any kids accept her own

She would tolerate kids, but she would hate it if they begun climbing all over her and pulling her hair and such

She would probably prefer newborn babies rather than toddlers

She loves their mushy little faces and big eyes

If someone in one of your families has a baby, she would always ask to hold them

Could probably spend hours just looking down at the tiny human in her arms, captivated by their small hands wrapping around her thumb

Would be so cute to watch though

After every time she holds a baby, she would have baby fever for a few days, always bringing them up in conversation with you and showing you cute pictures online

M - Morning

(How are mornings spent with them?)

Mornings would be so chaotic

I can see her being an early bird, always waking up refreshed and ready for the day

If you were still asleep when she wakes up, I can see her leaning over you with a cheeky grin on her face

“Baby~ It’s time to... wAKE UP!” *tickle attack* “AHHH”

She wouldn’t leave you alone until you woke up

Climbing and lying on you, peppering kisses all over your face

Never expect to have a peaceful sleep in with her around

N - Night

(How are nights spent with them?)

Probably gets tired easily, so she goes to sleep early

If you watched a movie together, she would probably fall asleep and you would have to carry her to the bed and tuck her in like a baby

If you go to sleep together, she would become extra clingy while she’s tried

When you’re trying to brush your teeth she would be draping her body across you

“We can cuddle in a sec just let me wash my face.” “Just come to bed now you don’t need to.”

O - Open

(When would they start revealing things about themselves?)

Would be open from the start of the relationship

She would hate hiding things from you

She knows that you may not be as open, because she understands that everyone has boundaries

She would tell you about her childhood growing up and how she struggled with her father accepting her

You would be the only person she’s completely open to

Everyone else has to earn her trust, but to her you’re going to spend the rest of your life together, so she may as well be honest

P - Patience

(How easily angered are they?)

She would be quite hard to really piss off

In your relationship, you would have really small arguments but they would be resolved super easily

Although, on the one occurrence that she became incredibly mad, it would be terrifying

She becomes so quiet, not talking at all

It would freak you out because it would be so unpredictable

Nothing you do would get her incredibly mad though, it would always be someone else related

Q - Quizzes

(How much would they remember about you?)

Probably everything

She’s quiet, but she’s observant

She knows everything about everyone

Definitely knows more about you than you do yourself

But she would always use it to her advantage

Always tricking you into doing things by involving things like your favourite foods or your favourite places to go

R - Remember

(What is their favourite moment in your relationship?)

It would be one night when you first became really emotionally vulnerable in front of her

You would have a lot of walls up during the first few months of your relationship, so Kuina values this moment so much

You had a bad argument with your parents, making you feel very emotional

You dragged yourself to Kuina’s place, wanting to be with no one else except her

You laid in her arms all night, feeling safe and warm in her embrace while talking about what happened, crying every so often

She loves this moment because she feels like it really brought you two so much closer and was a huge step in your relationship, strengthening your trust in her

S - Security

(How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

She would be very protective

Always keeping you close when out in public

Even with your friends that you’ve known for years, she would always get you to text her every now and then when you go to hang out with them

If someone sketchy was approaching you and talking to you, she would make sure to put herself in between you two and hold you behind her protectively

But of course, no one would want to mess with her due to her martial arts skills

One time she kicked a guy in the side of the head because he tried to grab your arm to drag you away from her

He definitely learned not to do that again

T - Try

(How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

You both wouldn’t go overboard on anniversaries

She’d plan something super simple, like a picnic date down at the local lake

Or a late night swim at the beach together after a restaurant dinner

For gifts, she would love to buy you clothes

She always looks at nice clothes and imagines you in them

Would get super proud when you like it and wear it a lot

As I mentioned before, her love language would be acts of service

She would show how much she loves you through doing tasks for you

Like making you tea / coffee when you don’t ask

Or giving you shoulder rubs after a stressful day

She would just love taking care of you

U - Ugly

(What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

She would be really bad at admitting she’s wrong

It would be the cause of most of your small arguments, but you would usually have to be the person to apologize

It’s not that she’s too prideful to say sorry, she would just most of the time believe that she is the one in the right

V - Vanity

(How concerned are they with their looks?)

She definitely tries to look at least half decent before leaving the house

It would sometimes cause you to be a bit late to some events

She would at least always wear foundation and mascara

Looking at her hair, it would sometimes get hard to keep that managed

When she’s around the house, she would her dreadlocks down and around her face

But when she goes outside she would always tie it up

W - Whole

(Would they feel incomplete without you?)

She’d try so hard to not come across as completely smitten for you, but the truth is really obvious

She honestly cannot go a day without seeing your face

If she had to go a few days without seeing you, she would feel quite lost

She trusts no one as much as she trusts you

Wants to spend her whole life with you, always being by your side

X - Xtra

(A random headcanon for them.)

She would have a weird love for onesies

Like the animal ones

Would have multiple in your cupboard, always wearing them around the house on cold, rainy nights or lazy mornings

She would look so cute and cuddly in them

You would not be able to let go of her while she wears them

Sometimes you wonder if she wears them just to have your undivided attention

Y - Yuck

(What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

She would hate incredibly loud and obnoxious people

Like those type of extroverts that are a little too confident for their own good

It would give her headaches if she dated someone who was always full of energy and talking her ear off

She prefers friends and lovers who are real and emotional, usually acting rational and calm

Of course she would love a little loud fun once in a while, but she knows when it’s time to chill

Z - Zzz

(What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

She moves a lot

I mentioned this before, but she would have herself wrapped around you when going to sleep but by morning she would be on the other side of the bed

You aren’t sure if it was from dreams she has or if she just does it naturally

Sometimes her tossing and turning would wake you up, and you would shake her awake to make sure she’s okay

SFW Alphabet Template

[fromrere]

Could the Seven of Hearts game be won?

The heart games are definitely the most cruel out of all the games in Alice In Borderland. They are psychological games, requiring one to toy with others' hearts.

So far, there were two heart games. Both ended in disaster, but from the Ten of Hearts game it was revealed that there exists a solution without having to kill anyone.

i. The Ten of Hearts game:

The Ten of Hearts game took place at the Beach. Momoka has been stabbed. The "witch" who took her life is among the members of the Beach.

The rules were as follows:

The murderer is just a witch in title, it can be a man or a woman.

If the players find the witch and burn their body in the Fire of Judgement, it's Game Clear.

The time limit is 120 minutes. If the limit is reached, it's Game Over.

Now, the catch with this game was the fact that Momoka has killed herself, which meant that she was the witch. This was pointed out by Ann, who was a forensic scientist before arriving to parallel Tokyo, but not before the militants managed to massacre a good amount of the population of the beach.

ii. The Seven of Hearts game:

This game took place in a botanical garden and had a player limit of four. This time the game was a hide and seek game.

The rules of this game were:

The time limit is 15 minutes.

One player becomes the wolf and the remaining three become sheep.

The sheep shall try to avoid the gaze of the wolf.

If the wolf has eye contact with a sheep, the sensor reacts and the sheep becomes the wolf.

After a new wolf is created, the sheep cannot become a wolf for the next 3 seconds.

Once the time limit is reached, the wolf gets a game clear and the sheep get a Game Over as the sheep’s collars will explode whereas the wolf's will come off.

Trying to remove the collar results in a Game Over as well.

There is something that sets this game apart from all the others. There is a prize. Apart from additional days on their visas, there were no prizes in the games so far. I’ll elaborate on the significance of this a little later.

iii. Some hypothetical solutions for the Seven of Hearts game:

I’ll now address some hypothetical solutions for the game. These are the most interesting ones I’ve found on the internet, but I’m sure there are many more out there. ( if anyone has any different solutions, don't be shy to drop it please )

iii.i.: Following the rules presented at the beginning of the game:

Throughout the game, there was a message on the screen, instructing the sheep to hide. The rule also advises the sheep to avoid the gaze of the wolf.

But why should the sheep hide when the wolf is the one who will get to live in the end?

iii. ii.: Theories that involve the making of multiple wolves:

There are multiple ways to do this, but they involve some sort of reflective surface. A mirror, or perhaps the reflection of the water. The goal of all of these is to lock eyes all at once. The cameras of their phones could also be used for this purpose.

The rules clearly state that there can only be one wolf, so this theory is debunked.

iii. iii. Disassembling the collar:

The headpiece that the players are required to use has two parts. The collar, and pair of glasses that identifies the sheep and the wolf.  At the start of the game, there were also many tools which the players could use as they wished..

Once a player has been identified as the wolf, the wire connecting the two parts could be cut. ( The sheep should stay out of sight to ensure that the identity of the wolf doesn’t change while the wire is being cut ) Then one of the sheep can make eye contact with the wolf whose collar now has been disabled. This process is repeated until every player is a wolf.

The problem with this is that there is not enough information about how the collars work. They could easily be interconnected which would mean that once the collar has been disabled, the other headsets would realize that the number of headsets has lessened.

iv. Can the game be even solved?: (as in everyone living in the end)

I believe that there was no actual way to solve the Seven of Hearts game.

This very well could’ve been a personalized game just for the four of them. The Ten of Hearts game was personalized for the residents of the beach as well. Isn’t it weird that the limit of the game was four people? In theory, the game could work with any number of players. Then what was the reason to only have four available slots?

We found out in the end of season one, there are game masters and dealers who set up and control the games. They also get to oversee the games, so if players try to mess with the rules they can easily intervene.

v. The purpose of the games is the loss of humanity:

The loss of humanity is very significant in Alice in Borderland. Generally, the longer you stay in Borderland, the less of your humanity you will retain. Some people lose themselves so much that they don't even want to get back to the real world. In this world they get to do whatever they desire. Someone like Niragi is a good example for this.

The games are created to destroy you, to break you down. Their goal is to destroy players’ humanity.

At the end of the Seven of Hearts game, the wolf got a piece of mutton as a prize. The players are treated like wild animals. Time and time again they have to kill one another to get a chance at life.

The players can be distributed into two groups. There are the ones who give in, who somehow come to enjoy the hunter- prey dynamic of the Borderland. Like I mentioned above, Niragi is one of these people. Last Boss is also someone who “flourishes”. These two created whole new personas while in Borderland. They finally feel powerful, they are finally the hunter, not the prey.

The other group is made up of the people who retained their humanity. Wanting to get out of Borderland is a good indicator of this. These are Chishiya, Usagi, Arisu etc.

[honeybeeadventures]

ALICE  IN BORDERLAND || a honeybeeadventures review

FULL DISCLOSURE: This review may be a little bit biased and that's gonna have to be okay this time because boy, do I LOVE this show.

If you're a fan of foreign tv shows and you haven't heard of Alice in Wonderland by now, then you may be living under a rock. This show, which premiered during the holiday season of the treacherous year known as 2020, is Netflix's most popular live-action adaptation to date. Yes, that's right, adaptation. That is because Alice in Borderland is based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Haro Aso.

This time, I will try to hold back all of my spoilers since this show is full of twists and turns and honestly, deserves a blank first impression going into it. I want to make sure that everyone who watches this show because of my review gets to experience it fully without my recapping the events haha. I will try to summarize without ruining anything, though.

Alice In Borderland is a Netflix Japan Original Adaptation of the manga that bears its namesake by Haro Aso which originally ran from April 2011 to April 2016. The show premiered on Netflix on December 10, 2020, and just 14 days later, a second season was confirmed by Netflix.

The show follows Arisu Ryohei and his friends after they witness fireworks in the middle of the day and are dropped into another world where most of the people in Shibuya are gone and the only way to survive is to risk their lives playing games that extend their visas and their right to live in that world. Every game is treacherous and usually ends with a loss of life, though some games do have finite solutions that can save players and preserve their well-being. Along the way, Arisu ( a name which is the Japanese way of pronouncing Alice, by the way ) meets a cast of characters that will seem fairly familiar to you if you've ever seen, read, or really have ever even heard of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol or any of its adaptations.

I typically talk about diversity when I review shows, however, as this is a Japanese show, it's not really fair or easy to judge them on that metric because of course, everyone in the show is Japanese ( as they should be since the manga is set in Tokyo ). However, I will say that in the show, there is a character who says that everyone is free to sleep with whoever they want, no matter what gender and there is also a character that is a part of the Alphabet Mafia ( LGBTQIA+ ... I should make a glossary for this blog lol ). While only one ( confirmed ) members of the Alphabet Mafia isn't a lot, it is based on a manga, and considering the manga is written/illustrated by a Japanese man who was in his 30s at the time, I'm gonna chalk that up as the progressiveness of Haro Aso while still wanting to keep his audience.

Now, down to what you really came here for. I'll list the scores below before we get into why I gave them these scores.

Originality of Content: 8/10

Production Quality: 9/10

Resolution: 6/10

Acting/Cast Members: 10/10

Ability to Keep Interest: 10/10

Provocation: 8/10

Obviously, this show did really well by my standards, and here's the breakdown so you can see why.

Originality of Content: 8/10

If we're being honest here, Alice in Borderland definitely isn't the first manga/anime based on the premise of playing a game to survive or get somewhere in the world ( see: Kakegurui, No Game: No Life, .hack//, Gamble Fish, etc. or Rengoku Dead Role which is actually...very similar to AIB ). However, despite this, it still feels like there's some strong originality brought to this concept. Combining the Japanese love for games and a classical western story gives Alice In Borderland just what it needs to easily become a fan favorite. As someone who really favors game-based anime and manga ( because I really favor game design ), I think that the way that Alice In Borderland is a refreshing nod to the genre.

There's a couple of reasons for this but I'll boil it down to just two. The first is that it's not predictable. The issue with a lot of the game-based animes that I'm familiar with is that they are fairly predictable since most games work the same way, but with Alice In Borderland that is different. The rules to each game that is played seem so simple that they seem deceptive but they also seem complex in the way that a riddle is simple yet complex. Every answer that first comes to your mind is probably going to be wrong and you need to think about it more deeply than that. Sometimes, when the rules of the game were being explained, I found myself wanting to pause to see if I could figure out the solution of the game, too, as I watched Arisu think of it, as well.

The second reason is that Alice In Borderland keeps things fresh with its cast of characters. Rather than some characters being evil because that's 'just the way they are', Alice In Borderland really speaks to the effect of the pressure that is put on young people to succeed and how that can end up in them being more mentally lost than they were, to begin with. It also highlights struggles with gender identity, self-worth, complex family relationships, and living up to one's potential. It does this in such a way that even when a character is downright evil, such as Niragi ( IYKYK), there is almost a feeling of pity for them. This isn't because you sympathize with their actions but more so because it isn't difficult to see how the pressure of life turned them into this monster that you are now watching there. I also enjoyed the fact that there wasn't as much dramatic irony in this show as in many others. While dramatic irony is never a necessarily bad thing, it was nice to genuinely be surprised when a character did something instead of knowing that someone was plotting behind someone else's back.

Production Quality: 9/10

This is a statistic that comes with an asterisk of context and that context is that before this, I had been watching Uchu Sentai Kyuranger and if you know what the production quality of that is like then you understand how it may have influenced this show's score a bit. Even without the comparison fallacy of the two, though, AIB scores high in production quality for one reason more than any other to me. For a show with a lot of blood and death, I wasn't unwilling to believe that these people had actually died. Yes, I'm sure that no actors were harmed in the making of this series, however, if I was a little more naive, I might've doubted that a bit. After all, Live Action adaptations are definitely not known for their believability. I will give AIB the benefit of the doubt in saying that this concept wasn't that difficult to pull off since most of the injuries were similar to what you'd expect on your typical action movie set ( compared to...you know...something involving sci-fi or fantasy) but even in the scenes where people get their necks blown off by explosive collars, it looked like they were nearly decapitated...the way that you would expect if someone's neck was blown off by an explosive collar. All in all, if you want to believe it, you will. It's definitely not a hard stretch.

Resolution: 6/10

Okay, okay, so if you've read the manga or have even glanced at the r/AliceInBorderlandLive subreddit then you know this is kind of an unfair score since...well, they're not done. There's more to the story and the eight episodes that we've seen thus far are only about a third of what AIB has to offer since the manga has two sequels, one of which will be finished on Feb. 18 of this year. However, I will see that statement and raise it with "What if it hadn't been such a great success?" I'm all for ending on cliffhangers to force the network or in this case, Netflix to continue your show but since the first season of AIB covers so much of the storyline, it almost feels wrong to end it short the way that it did. I did like how they had the big reveal of the villain at the end and the way they showed what was coming next but it did feel a little anti-climactic when I realized I was on the last episode since it seemed more like a mid-season break type end instead of a season finale. Since there is a sequel to AIB, I wasn't feeling too discouraged but it's definitely something to think about when watching. If you don't plan on reading the manga, you might be left content starving and questioning until sometime near the end of 2021.

Acting/Cast Members: 10/10

If I was just scoring this show on acting, then it would've gotten an all-kill because each and every single actor in this show from the side characters like Nijiro Murakami and Dori Sakurada to Kento Yamazaki who plays Arisu himself is beyond talented and amazing. It is important to remember that all of the characters in this show had a life before they were transported to the Borderland and in this twisted world, something about the changes that make them different than before so in a way, these actors are responsible for not only playing the characters but also the characters past selves before this growth period in which they change into something either completely opposite or completely different than who they were before.

Somehow, this cast manages to take characters that are already so established ( in the manga ) and become them to the point that looking at them within the role and looking at them outside of the role, it almost seems as if they are really two completely different people. As I said before, some of the characters in Alice In Borderland have a correlation to characters from Alice in Wonderland and have their own unique backgrounds on top of that. This gives to the depth of the characters and makes them dynamic but on top of that, it makes them complex, and yet, these actors seem to have the act of embodying these characters down so well that it astonishes me to see them in other roles and know that it's the same person.

I'll be breaking down my three favorite performances to give you a bit of insight on the reason why this show's cast is well-worth looking into.

Dori Sakurada as Niragi Suguru

So let's be honest here, as much as we all like to pretend that we're immune to someone being attractive just because they also prove to be an awful person, but if we're being honest with ourselves, we're not and I am most certainly no exception to that rule. Dori Sakurada is a handsome man whose good looks are only matched in quality by his amazing acting skills. If you're familiar with his work then you know exactly what I'm talking about and if you're not, then I'd recommend watching 3B no Koibito ( Available with English subs on Youtube ) or Scum's Wish ( Available on Rakuten Viki )  to get an idea of how varied this man's acting skills are. In AIB, he plays a character that is somewhat villainous and can almost be classified as your stereotypical movie sociopath. Yet, still, there's something intriguing beyond just his good looks. Dori Sakurada's performance breaths new air into the lungs of the character of Niragi by not only becoming the villain but also, by picking up the mannerisms and master gestures associated with the character that make him such a memorable part of the story. I haven't seen Dori's full Filmography but the character I have seen outside of AIB are a complete left turn from this character which makes me think that the casting director at Netflix Japan needs a raise for having chosen someone who looks so sweet to be such a villain.  

Nijiro Murakami as Chishiya Shuntaro

When it comes to characters that become scene-stealers, Chishiya Shuntaro is definitely one of them. This character is so powerful that I, even, named my cat after him. That is a fact of which I am not ashamed. From the second episode of the show, when we are first introduced to him, he becomes an integral part of the framework of the game he is involved in and it is obvious that we will see him again. That being said, there is no way to word Murakami's performance besides 'integral' as my friend put it, "I literally could not imagine anyone else playing this character." As Chishiya, Murakami takes on such a life and ease in the character that it's almost difficult to believe that the sly facial expressions paired with his nonchalant air are not in his nature and are, in fact, something that he donned for the role. I look forward to seeing not only more of Murakami as this character but exploring more of his filmography in general.

Aya Asahina as Hikari Kuina

Kuina as a character is someone that the protagonist does not meet until a few episodes into the show but when it comes to backstories and characters with rich personalities, she shines compared to a lot of other characters I have seen like her. I won't spoil her backstory for you since she's definitely someone who represents something that's a little bit rarer in stories from more reserved cultures but she definitely deserved a mention in this category due to her amazing acting skills and her flawless stunt scenes.

Ability to Keep Interest: 10/10 || Provocation: 8/10

While the rest of my stats got their own individual evaluation, these are going to be combined and the reason for this is because they have the same reasons for their scores. As I mentioned before, Alice In Borderland takes a new spin on the 'play games to live' genre that is so common amongst anime and manga and for that reason, it was able to keep my interest so much so I finished watching it over the course of two days. It was also a deeply thought-provoking situation because the nature of the games and the backgrounds of the characters forced me to think up my own games and my own ideas of where the characters whose backstories are not explained could've come from. That being said, a lot of the thoughts that the show provoked did end up becoming depressing, especially after reading the manga because I discovered that some games could not have had a better outcome due to their simple rules and that made me very sad because even if I am not attached to or fond of a character, I still do not enjoy their downfall.

Overall: 8.5 = DING! DING! DING! WE HAVE A KEEPER!

Overall, I enjoyed Alice In Borderland enough to have rewatched it one and a half times since I first watched it a few weeks ago. As someone who rarely goes back to shows that involve plot twists and suspense because I already know what's going to happen, that really says a lot for not just the storyline but also the acting and amazing intricacies that are in the show. I still feel like each time I watch it, I glean some new detail or fact that I hadn't thought of before and I come to understand the games a bit more with each passing scene or episode. I also feel that the more I rewatch the show, the more I sympathize with even the villains and come to value and understand their motivations and roles. 8.5 out of 10. I WOULD RECCOMMEND.

Thanks for reading!!

[love-fireflysong]

J K and Z!!

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

I mean I just started playing Dragon Age now didn’t I? Think that answers your question pretty handily I think lol. (Also debating on trying out Borderlands, but I’m terrible at and don’t prefer to play FPS style of games so I’ll have to think about that one a little harder.)

K -Say something nice about someone in any of your fandoms

Oh god, why would you ask me this one Ash????? I’m always terrified that I’m gonna leave someone out and make them think that I don’t like them when I love literally everyone I’m mutuals with lol. So fuck it, I’m just gonna say something nice about everyone and none of you can stop me!

@fudgeroach you are such a cool person and I love seeing how much progress you’re making in school and with you’re art that I cry a little inside everytime lol

@clumsybookworm18 i know we don’t talk a whole lot but I’m missed seeing you on my dash and I’m super excited and relieved to see that you’re back again and hopefully feeling a little bit better!

@elliepollie can’t wait to see what you have planned for when you feel ready enough to start posing again and I need you to know that that comment you left for me on baby it’s cold outside is the reason I’m even still writing in the first place.

@wacem I’m just gonna reply to all the nice things you said about me and say that I’m constantly honored that you’re taking the time out of your busy life with demanding jobs AND taking care of a toddler (cause I know how exhausting that one is lol) to even agree to not only draw that art for me but to beta read all my terrible, terrible grammer in the first place. Plus if anyone here is slow as a mollasacre it’s clearly me lol. 

@queenofbaws just thank you for always answering the multiple prompts i send you every week, still allowing me to send you the shit for (starve) sunday, and just dealing with me constantly sending you random songs and artwork. You are a saint for dealing with my undoubtedly annoying ass (even if we are on opposite sides of this pulp and pop war lol)

@jesus-hotsauce-christmas-cake while i don’t leave you comments like i should, please know that I have read everything you and ellie have been posting for maybe eventually will be our always and I’ve been greatly enjoying it. And it’s nice knowing that at least someone out there will enjoy what ever chrashley parents shit i put out in the future lol.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

I’ve always had a loose idea for a Tales of Phantasia au where Dhaos is defeated and everyone goes back to the times that they’re supposed to, but with Cress, Mint, Arche, and Claus defeating Dhaos 100 years ago instead of Morrison (who actually died this time if I remember correctly) it changed history so much that two seperate timelines now exist. One being the ‘original’ timeline where Dhaos was released, Toltus Village destroyed, magic gone form the world, and the other where magic still exists but because Dhaos escaped to the future 150 later, none of the stuff that kicked off the beginning of the game would have gone down.

Would have been angsty as shit lol, and I would have tried to twist the Narikiri Dungeon game and Summoner’s Lineage into it as well. With instead of Arche reuniting with everyone 100 years later like she expected, she won’t be able to see them until over 200 years later when Narikiri Dungeon takes place, and then she’s left with the decision on whether or not to stay in her timeline where she can use magic and where her mother still lives, or travel back into the other timeline instead. No magic at her disposal and with an entirely different version of her mother that won’t really be hers, and having to get used to a new history and world, but being able to finally live out a portion of her life with Chester and the others like she never got to in the first place and has desperately always wanted.

This then would have spawned other fics in this universe, leading to one that is causing the two timelines to collide, but that’s neither here nor there lol.