#and accidentally stumbled upon some serial killer shit

[avvpavv]

tfw you’re 14 and some dude with a gun is hunting you down in America because you’re TOO good at solving mysteries so you gotta call in your puzzle dad from the other side of the world to fuck ‘em up

[erazonpo3]

WOWM

so What Once Was Mine came out and I read it.

My General Thoughts are that this book was something of a rollercoaster but in like a pop up carnival with dubious safety regulations and diseases in the DIY log flume water kind of way. I had some fun reading it but I also feel like I picked up a rash.

If you're like me and you enjoy picking a book apart for morsels of interesting concepts then you might enjoy it, if you think holy shit why the fuck is a literal real historical serial killer in this book I need to see this then you might enjoy it, if you care about engaging plots and character beats then you probably won't.

If you want to ask me anything specific go ahead, but otherwise for more in depth thoughts: spoilers ahead

Basic Summary of the Plot

Okay so here's the deal. The story has the framing device of two siblings in a cancer ward, where one tells the other a story. I'll get into that later, but that's how it starts. Our actual story starts with a pretty long prologue: We learn that the King & Queen got the Moonflower thinking it was the Sunflower, Rapunzel was born with silver hair, and then baby Rapunzel kills a maid who accidentally hurt her when brushing her hair.

Oh, by the way, Max is a human man named Justin Tregsburg. Yeah.

Anyway, the royal family puts out feelers for legit witches who can safely take care of Rapunzel because the baby is too dangerous, and Gothel shows up to take her away. Queen Arianna visits Rapunzel once (but is only allowed to watch through a peephole) and decides watching another woman raise her child is too painful and throws herself into restoring the kingdom's orphanages instead.

Now we're in the present. Rapunzel is nineteen and she wants to go and see the lanterns (a mourning tradition of the Dead princess in this story). She tries to argue with Gothel but gets shut down, and Gothel makes her kill a chicken to prove the point that she can't go outside because she's too dangerous. However we as the audience already know Gothel plans to sell Rapunzel off as a bride or a servant or a weapon to some other nobles, because she's evil.

Also by the way Gothel still has access to our Sundrop Flower and is using it to live forever that's just a thing that happens in the background.

When Gothel is gone Rapunzel watches as a man (Flynn) stores a satchel in a tree outside of her tower, and that motivates her to leave the tower for the first time. Then she goes back inside the tower with her prize of a crown, and a skink she found and named Pascal. Rapunezl and Gothel have another spat, and Rapunzel decides she will run off to see the lanterns and she will find Flynn and make him her guide.

She ends up at the Snuggly Duckling and she doesn't find Flynn but she does find Gina, a young career criminal girl looking to break the glass ceiling. Gina agrees to help her find Flynn. They find Flynn, and he agrees to help guide Rapunzel to see the floating lanterns for a split reward of the crown with Gina.

The Snuggly Duckling gets burned down by Countess Bathory (yes that Elizabeth Bathory) and the Pub Thugs are pissed about it and also they're helping Rapunzel even though she didn't sing the I've Got A Dream song don't worry about it. We learn that the nobles that wanted to buy Rapunzel are now hunting her down so she can go to auction.

Gina takes them to her adopted mother's cottage. Gina's mother is a white witch, who goes by the name of Goodwife. She doesn't get an actual name she's just The Goodwife. Anyhow, the cottage is a magic safe space (for now) and Goodwife teaches Rapunzel that her hair isn't inherently evil and may not even be all that deadly! Rapunzel learns that her hair has other powers too, like the ability to turn skink Pascal into a sentient Chameleon. Yeah.

Also Goodwife tells Rapunzel she's the dead princess but this isn't like, an immediate call to action. Not a lot happens until we get this story's version of the Mother Knows Best Reprise where Gothel finds Rapunzel again but has to flee, but this Rapunzel has a bigger support network and isn't buying it. Flynn and Gina decide the safest course of action is to bring Rapunzel to the castle, but along the way she gets kidnapped by the Countess.

Gothel is pissed because she still wants the money for Rapunzel, so she rallies the armies of all the opposing bidders. Flynn and Gina convince Max the Man to send for his troops, and he joins them in going to the enemy castle. Flynn tries to sneak in, gets caught, and meanwhile there's a bloody battle out the front between the noble armies. Max jumps into the fray, Gina turns around and rallies the Pub Thugs.

Rapunzel uses her shrinking magic (!) to disappear half the castle and escape with Eugene, and the Pub Thugs arrive and basically end the battle. The Captain is dying but it's okay! Rapunzel turns him into a horse :) Also Rapunzel sees Gothel and tells her to fuck off.

The story ends with a tearful reunion between Rapunzel and her parents, Eugene and Gina are implied to be biological siblings, and things are good but of course in direct parallel to Cass Gina leaves at the end to become an adventurer. The end.

(There are a few other smaller plot beats, but you get the idea.)

MY THOTS

So here are my thoughts™.

Framing Device

I'll just state that I didn't like that the story was told via the vehicle of an older brother telling his 16 year old sister a different version of the Tangled Movie in a cancer ward. From what I've heard it also isn't normal for the Twisted Tales series to use a framing device for the AUs either.

I sympathise with the author's personal story, of course I do. That doesn't mean I'm stirred with compassion every time the flow of the story is interrupted to remind you to be sad because this is a story being told to a girl sick with cancer. It feels more than a little tragedy-porny rather than emotionally touching, and maybe that's because I'm too burnt out on real life tragedy to waste emotional energy on fictional cancer patients but we don't need to do Fault In Our Stars discourse again.

Real World References

This story goes heavy with Real World references. And another issue with the framing device as above is that you do feel like this is a story being told by someone namedropping every historical figure they know which makes it harder to get into the story.

There's like... a lot of references to Christianity, particularly in the prologue. There's a priest that thinks Rapunzel's hair is the work of the Devil or whatever. It's a lot. The Patriarchy is a thing. And that's not even getting into the Countess. I put it very succinctly in my notes so I'll paste it here:

I wish she’d just been an OC who could exist to chew scenery because the fact that she was a literal historical serial killer is super. Off putting. Like, she could have been an obvious reference to Bathory, but it feels like Miku Binder Hamilton levels of uncomfortable to me.

I miss Lady D.

Which basically sums up my problem with trying to take the setting of Tangled and put it somewhere in the Real World and somewhere on the Timeline. Who thought this was a good idea.

Misc. Thoughts

So, I used the five highlighter colours my ipad allows to organise my thoughts and organised them accordingly: Yellow for out of place IRL references, Blue for worldbuilding/character points that aren't plot relevant but still interesting, Pink for when something I find personally amusing happens, Purple for when the story feels like it's trying to 1-up the movie in some kind of way and Green for Heterosexual Nonsense. I'll touch on those last two in the Character sections but be prepared.

Also: for a book about giving Rapunzel killer hair, her hair isn't very dangerous. I wanted to see Rapunzel kill someone, and I'm disappointed that I didn't.

Characters

I'll do a deep dive into my thoughts about the characters before wrapping it up. I'm starting with Gina because she's honestly the easiest to get through.

Gina

Gina is a new character introduced for the story. She's a young woman trying to make it as a career criminal but keeps hitting that glass ceiling. So here's the down low, for all those who want to know: Gina is basically Cass, only not really. She's implied to be Eugene's biological sister, as previously mentioned, but you can imagine she's Cass the entire way through without breaking your immersion because if you imagined Cass if she were adopted by a Goodwitch rather than the Captain and had a looser, more wilderness survivor than trainee guard upbringing then you get Gina.

I liked Gina! I think she's fun as her own character too, and her best moments are when she's interacting with her mother Goody Goodwife, and she of course picks up a natural sibling rivalry with Eugene, but I was disappointed with how little she really bonded with Rapunzel because she needed to make room for Eugene and Rapunzel's romance.

Rapunzel

Okay, here's our protagonist. There's a notable effort to make Rapunzel more active in her destiny and whatever, and sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't. I was worried they'd try to go full butt-kicking girlboss with her but I was pleasantly surprised that Rapunzel was pretty useless in most scenes, genuinely love to see it.

With a more intimate look into Rapunzel's psyche through the medium of prose, we see Rapunzel really questioning Gothel's behaviour even before she leaves the tower, and while I appreciate that she can develop her own cynicism I feel it starts unnecessarily early. This is my purple colour; the movie needs to be "fixed" by showing the readers that this Rapunzel is quicker to distrust Gothel. She's also quicker to hatch a plan to go outside of the tower on her own, and she makes a plan to make Flynn her guide for the lanterns even though he never stumbles upon her in the tower- and even though she has a perfectly rational reason not to trust him which is that he is a stranger and a Wanted Thief.

In the moments where it does work is when Rapunzel is surrounded by her new support network: Flynn, Goodwife and Gina, who encourage her to question Gothel's sincerity, and Rapunzel comes up with her own defences for Gothel so that she can poke through them herself.

I have some other thoughts about Rapunzel's hair and her powers, like how the story provides the interesting concept that her hair gets different powers with the different phases of the moon, but a lot of the powers are uhhh stupid and also I feel like it really robs the story of the whole gripping conflict of "Yes I'm Rapunzel Yes my hair kills people what of it".

In as far as just Rapunzel herself though, she still felt pretty in character nonetheless, and maybe that's all I can ask.

Flynn Rider / Eugene Fitzherbert

My boy I am so sorry. They neutered my boy.

Long story short: Eugene in this story is the sexy lamp. He contributes nothing to the plot except to be there for Rapunzel to drool over. And of course because he won't get any character development, he starts from the very beginning as a sweet soft boi with none of the Flynn Rider characterisation from the movie because we don't have time for that, he needs to be husband material stat.

His whole character is the colour green for Heterosexual Nonsense.

So, here's the problem. In the movie, there's not a lot of time for ~friendship~ between Rapunzel and Eugene because they kind of immediately see each other as a romantic prospect. And whatever, it's a movie and there's only so much time. But this book had the opportunity to take things a bit slower and instead chooses to make Rapunzel get jealous whenever Eugene and Gina interact and for her to be constantly wishing he was holding her hand.

Say what you will about Lost Lagoon, but it tells a good romance story just by virtue of not intending to be a romance story, because the author is trying to convey a strong bond between Rapunzel and Cassandra without using "and they kiss" as a cheatcode. What Once Was Mine says "he was a boy, she was a girl, could it be any more obvious?" and leaves it at that.

Now as for how this all pertains to Eugene's character? Well, it just robs him of any flavour. In the movie there's a clear distinction between Flynn and Eugene, when we learn Eugene's real name about halfway through. We see a clear difference between the Flynn we knew- kind of an asshole, wanated to drop Rapunzel off at the Snuggly Duckling and get rid of her- and Eugene, who is sincere and chooses Rapunzel as his New Dream in opposition to his Old Dream of living alone on an island with a bunch of money.

This version of Eugene is basically Eugene all the way through, because the plot doesn't really need Eugene there but he has to be there because it's a Tangled AU so there's no Rapunzel rescuing Flynn from the guards and healing his hand scene, he just loves her immediately and that's that. They have a little spat at one point but it's cleared up later and not because they actually communicate but because they kiss.

Rapunzel only learns Eugene's real name at the very end of the story, and gives a speech about how Eugene is the real him, but it's just so flat because 'Flynn' has been sincere this whole time? Anyway he does nothing of value for the entire story except be there for Rapunzel to lust after. Eugene I'm so sorry.

Gothel

Gothel's sort of the Big Bad and is characterised as an abusive asshole, the usual. I wish there were a bit more nuance to her character but then again in this story she's not just being passively evil- taking care of Rapunzel for selfish reasons but nevertheless maintaining the status quo- she's being actively evil in trying to sell Rapunzel off.

It's notably funny that Gothel sees the Countess Bathory and is like "what the fuck".

Anyway Gothel in this story also feels very weak in part because this Rapunzel is more critical and in part because this Rapunzel has a new support network. It's for that reason the Mother Knows Best Reprise scene doesn't really work, because the original has Gothel pit Rapunzel against Eugene, whereas she can't do that here so it remains a Gothel vs Rapunzel thing.

She gets a boring death as an epilogue addendum that someone rips out the Sundrop flower, which tbh? lame. It would be a lot more fun if it were open ended but I am also preferential to Rapunzel actually using her killer hair to kill someone. Please

Captain Justin Tregsburg

It's Max. He was a human but then he got turned into a horse. what the fuck you guys

[scottsumrners]

so, you finished jessica jones? you liked it? i was a little iffy on the ending :/ what would you've done different ?

asdfghjhgfds sorry i was waiting until i finished the last two episodes to answer this

well, to answer your question, i thought the season was....hm. like. it wasnt THAT bad, like s01 iron fist bad, but also it wasn’t......necessarily....good? it was too slow and too sluggish. too many episodes required the show to take too many long turns that would lead them to the same place. the villain wasn’t interesting (sallinger felt like a rip off of any other ‘serial killer mastermind’ of....any crime drama tv show ever made), the conflict wasn’t that strong (”does killing a guy who is a serial killer make me as bad as him?” the answer is no, next question), aside from trish the characters had no development (what did malcolm do in this season aside from cheat on his girlfriend? absolutely fucking nothing. jessica’s development happened in the last two minutes of the last episode), and jessica’s love interest was so bland and boring that if he was a spice, his name would be flour.

personally, i hated what they did to trish - i like the character and i like her progression in the show, and i even like what she’s done in s03 (any cop killer gets a bonus from me, personally), but her trauma wasn’t explored because they needed a scapegoat to paint as the “big bad” of the season. trish clearly didn’t intend to kill the guys she killed - she was driven to it by the trauma caused by sallinger torturing and killing her mother, and after she was done with sallinger, it would have been easy to show that she would seek help in containing her anger, instead of just going “no actually she kills because she is fuCkInG CrAzY”. also, the show painting her as being in the wrong because ‘killing bad men makes you as bad as them” is ridiculous. she killed a serial killer, a corrupt cop, a serial arsonist; all people who had more than 10+ victims on them. people who the police would no go after (especially bc it was one of them), or because they had good lawyers who would get them off anyway. jessica being on the high horse of the “no killing” shit because “some people are redeemable” is ridiculous. i understand that coming from matt and his catholic upbringing but anyone with a lick of sense could see that the people trish killed could not, and did not want to, be redeemed. jessica herself had shown moments where she crossed a line, so trish doing so when she is still coming into her powers + her trauma blindsiding her was understandable. if jessica had been with her all along, they could be each other’s moral compass; if not, she should’ve at least let trish escape the country, rather than letting her rot in a prison cell on the mcu’s version of guantanamo bay

also erik’s empathetic powers were awfully convenient. apparently they were only triggered if someone was a killer but felt no remorse? if trish had resented what she’d done, she would’ve been off the hook? why does he serve as moral guide to anyone?

now, what i would’ve done differently - first of all, i would take the show back ot its roots. what made jessica jones s01 stand out was the fact that there was an ABSURD amount of tension in every episode. even when unseen, kilgrave’s presence could be felt in every corner of every episode and you never knew who was being affected by his influence, or what could happen next. the sense of dread and mystery made the show stand out, even when it lagged, but this aspect was completely lost on the following seasons. turn the show back into a game of cat-and-mouse. rely more on the fact that jessica is an actual investigator as well as a super.

also, instead of putting the axis of the show revolving around erik accidentally stumbling upon a serial killer and dragging jessica along with him (which. as i’ve said before, makes no sense, because sallinger just going there and stabbing jessica doesn’t fit his M.O. at all???), it would have been more interesting to make sallinger a serial killer who targets enhanced individuals. it would make his whole thing with people who “cheated” in life make more sense - he’d go after enhanced individuals because he thought they had an advantage by virtue of being randomly chosen by nature. it would be an interesting way of introducing the loners/excelsior. instead of a team of former super-heroes, they could have been a support group of people who had super-powers inflicted on them, and how they cope. it could also branch out the affects of the sokovia accords; we know that any enhanced individual is sent to the raft without due process, which makes the whole thing 100% more illegal and fucked, but like. who enforces the sokovia acts? is jessica registered? making the main villain a guy who hunts down enhanced would have been the PERFECT excuse to have jess reunite with the defenders (aside from luke’s cameo). i mean, we don’t even get to see her reaction to the fact that matt is alive!!

[eldri-sv]

22 - Shinsou

Kaori Shinsou has always been fascinated by people’s minds. She is one of the best students in her Criminal Psychology course at U.A. and - being the lucky girl she is - her professor is not only one handsome dude, but is also working on the case of the serial killer Stain - a case that has been going on for years. As she is about to become Professor Aizawa’s TA during the next term, a lot of other interesting cases start popping up all over the country…

TW: blood, violence

Oh, I'm getting used to walking on a thin line

(honey honey - Thin Line)

Kaori Shinsou was at a loss when she saw the scene that Aizawa and her stumbled upon. It looked almost peaceful, the way a police officer was tending to the wounds of one young guy with curly hair. The way two other young men were just standing there, one of them with a rope in his hand, the other holding his arm.

Kaori remembered the three of them from Professor Aizawa's class. Well, it wasn't really his class, he was just the programme coordinator, which meant he was responsible for everything they did, but he didn't actually teach them.

"What is going on here?" Aizawa asked them. Kaori saw an assortment of knives on the ground. There was a person tied up with some old (and really dingy looking) rope. There was blood dripping from one of the students' arms. He was a tall guy with short, straight black hair. He was wearing glasses and looked incredibly embarrassed. Kaori couldn't really figure out why, though.

Next to him was Todoroki, that kid with the burn mark. Kaori knew him, because he was Enji Todoroki's son and Enji Todoroki was kind of a big deal (albeit a controversial big deal). He was holding the rope connected to someone in tattered clothes, a bandana around his head. It looked like he was unconscious.

"My God..." Kaori breathed when she realized who that was. The knives, the dark side alley, that one Hosu officer that everyone knew about because he kept stealing drugs from evidence bags...

"We got Stain..." the third student mumbled, his voice sounding tired and exhausted. It was the guy with the curly hair... his name was pretty unusual, too, Kaori tried to remember what it was again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Midoriya? I leave you alone for a few days only and you go and get yourselves in danger like that, without properly alerting any authorities. Do you all know what could have happened to you? Anything could have happened to you!" Aizawa suddenly started rambling, walking over to Midoriya first, giving him an angry glare and - once he saw that there was nothing he could do - moving on to the other two. There were very few times that Kaori had seen him this angry before. Aizawa usually couldn't be bothered to get angry.

"Where the fuck did you even get that rope?" he asked Todoroki and the other guy. Kaori walked over to him. She was curious to get a look at Stain. Plus, the third student's arm did look pretty bad.

"You can find anything at a trash collection site, Professor." was all Todoroki said with a shrug. Aizawa looked like he was about to smack him for that smartass comment. Kaori had to appreciate the ingenuity of the idea, however.

"Hey, is your arm okay?" she asked the other student. When he looked at her, he reminded her of someone, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"No." he replied. It was really not the answer that Kaori had expected and it kind of threw off her groove at that point.

"Uh... can I have a look at it?" she wanted to know, once she had gotten over how blunt that answer was. Of course, his arm wasn't okay, but she didn't expect him to actually say it. She waited for him to take his hand away from the wound, while Aizawa was giving out to his students in the background.

It felt almost relaxing to Kaori to hear him rambling on like that, even though she wasn't really listening. It felt like a strangely grounding experience after this whole crazy night. That was, if that night was even over yet. Kaori sure hoped it was, because she had no idea how much more her sleep-deprived brain could process.

"Shit, that looks pretty bad..." Kaori mumbled, as she examined the students' arm. It was a really deep cut and judging from the little puddle of blood on the ground and from how pale he was, this student had lost a good bit of blood already. There wasn't much she could do right now, however. Except one thing. With a sigh she took off her new uniform jacket and started tying it tightly around the wound.

"Here, that should slow the bleeding a little. You look like you're not doing all too well anyway, so if you feel like you're gonna pass out, say something, or just sit down somewhere, alright? What's your name, dude?" she wanted to know. He gave her a thankful look.

"Tenya Iida. I remember you from the rescue exercise, but I don't think I recall your name..." he answered. Tenya Iida, huh? Looked like that whole family was set on ruining her uniform jackets.

"Kaori Shinsou. I'm actually interning with your brother." she said. His face lit up immediately at the mention of Tensei.

"Shinsou, when you're done there, go and check on Stain. Let's hope you didn't accidentally kill him, because if you did, then we'll be in a whole lot of trouble." Aizawa told her. Kaori bit her lip. Could it be...? Was that actually Stain? Serial killer Stain, that they had been hunting for years and years, now brought down by some first years at university? Kaori almost couldn't believe it.

"Of course, Sir." she replied and gave Iida a small apologetic smile. She turned around and knelt down beside the tied up man. The first thing she noticed was that his nose looked strange, almost like it had been broken a bunch of times. He had slim eyes and the structure of his face looked sharp and strict.

She reached out to his neck, trying to feel a pulse and after searching for a while she could actually feel it. She checked for breathing next. It was shallow, but it was there, which meant he definitely was alive and chances were that he would survive all this. He seemed to have some sort of head trauma, since he was still out cold and most likely some broken ribs. But that was all.

"He's alive, but most likely heavily wounded. Not much else I can see at this point, he'll need an ambulance." Kaori announced to all of them. She heard Aizawa sighing with relief. She didn't even want to imagine the kinds of trouble it would have caused for everyone involved, if he had been dead. Even with how things were right now the three students would be facing serious charges.

"Sorry. I was the police officer at the scene. I should have been able to do more, but I was only in the way." the guy in the Hosu police department uniform said. Midoriya shook his head.

"No, I don't think you could have done anything. This guy had a plan and he was strong. He was too well prepared." he said.

"Even the three of us against him, we barely managed to knock him out and only because he made mistakes. It would have been no problem for him to outsmart us if he had been expecting us." Todoroki agreed.

"Well, we should probably get him to the nearest police station..." the officer said.

"Hey, what are you doing here, huh?" Kaori heard a voice from the opposite side of the road. It belonged to an older officer, probably not far from retirement. He crossed the street with an angry look on his face.

"I thought I told you to stay on the train!" he added, pointing at Midoriya. Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

"Who's that?" he mumbled, glancing at Midoriya.

"It's the guy I'm interning with, Sorahiko Torino. But... why are you here?" Midoriya asked, looking utterly confused.

"I was told to come here all of a sudden. Not really sure what is going on, but I'm glad you're okay." he replied.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Torino."

"It's gotta be around here!" Kaori heard another voice, this time one she knew. She turned around looking at Hirota who came running towards them with two other officers. She was never this happy to see him in her entire life.

"Hirota! Fancy seeing you here." she shouted with a big grin on her face. He looked tired and a little beaten up, but mostly alright.

"Todoroki told us you guys might need help, but..." Hirota started, but was interrupted by another officer.

"Those injuries look serious, I'm gonna call an ambulance right away!" he said.

"Oh my God, is that..." the third officer said.

"Stain...?" Hirota breathed, looking down at the man who was tied up and unconscious on the ground.

"It is. Call for backup and get that ambulance." Aizawa told them, walking over to Kaori. Without a word he took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. Kaori looked up at him in awe. How did he know? She had done her best to hide how cold she was getting without her jacket.

"Thank you, Sir..." she mumbled and pulled the jacket tighter around her body. It was nice and warm and smelt of coffee.

"This is a pattern that's becoming slightly concerning." Aizawa said to her in a low voice. When she looked at him, it almost looked like he was giving her a tiny smile, before moving on. Kaori felt as if she was about to melt right there and then. Aizawa had no idea what he did to her.

"You ruined your uniform jacket? Again?" Hirota asked. Kaori shrugged, not sure if she was grateful or not for being pulled out of her trance.

"Iida's little brother hurt himself." she said. Hirota laughed.

"That family's set on destroying your uniforms, huh?" he commented and got out a pack of cigarettes. He offered one to Kaori. She only smoked occasionally, but today it seemed quite appropriate. She took one of the cigarettes and waited for Hirota to light it for her. She took a deep drag and blew the smoke up into the night sky.

What a weird night. She'd never have thought she'd come face to face with Stain - an actual serial killer that was active while she was studying Criminology and Criminal Psychology. While she was interning at the police station. And now here he was, captured on her shift. She had been checking for his breathing. It was weird.

"Get down!" someone suddenly shouted. It was like an instinctive reaction for everyone to jump down and lay flat on the ground once they heard that. When Kaori looked up she saw that a huge, bulky guy was holding a gun to Midoriya's head, dragging him further away from the group.

"Midoriya!" someone else shouted. Kaori scrambled to get back up on her feet while taking another drag from her cigarette. Would she never get a damn break? Wasn't it bad enough she couldn't sleep at night?

"You are all such hypocrites, this whole society's fake!" an unfamiliar voice suddenly shouted. Kaori had no idea what was going on, everything just happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, there was Stain on top of the bulky guy, pushing a knife deep into his neck. The big guy seemed lifeless.

"You all need to be purged!" he shouted, his voice cracking. He pulled the knife out again and was moaning in pain.

"This is all... to create a more just society..." Stain said. His voice sounded deep and rough and was somehow not really what Kaori had been expecting. Midoriya was on the ground, frozen in fear.

"Is he helping the kid?"

"No, he's taking a hostage, dumbass. Get ready to fight!"

There was so much going on around Kaori, she couldn't really process it. She was just staring at Stain who was still hovering over that guy he had just killed. Someone else came running in, asking some questions. Kaori later learned that it was Enji Todoroki, but in this moment she was just frozen in place and everything felt as if it was happening far, far away. It was like she wasn't really there.

Only when Stain collapsed on the pavement, Kaori snapped back into reality, stumbling around to keep her balance and being caught by a pair of strong arms. And then everything went black, as she passed out.

[hawkingbishop]

good behavior s1 liveblog

cc: @figwineshines

so, my thoughts so far: i just saw the episode where javis dad revealed to everyone that hes a contract killer. and he didnt think to call the cops when he found out? nobody at the dinner called the cops? it was just this thing looked down upon?? okay, so before all that at the beginning: stalker seems like he wants to fuck letty, like a sleazy professor sleeping with a student. wondering if letty has an undiagnosed mood or personality disorder. her vivid daydreams seem more like hallucinations? psychosis brought on from doing drugs? or from said mood/personality disorders? seems like bipolar or bpd to me, but im not a doctor, i just play one on tv. anywayyy, *deadname redacted* seemed like a total sleaze from the get-go as well. tiffany thought he was sleeping with another woman, but instead hes doing heroin and getting rammed up the ass by some sculpted hot dude. fuck tiffany and her mom. theyre bitches one second and then boom theyre on letty's side the next. and come on jacob. you should know better than that. the fucked up mom and how she basically sells letty her kid back in little snippets, like a fucking dvd rental. and then shes just a drunk asshole screwing one of lettys classmates and when shes not screwing him shes poisoning jacob against her. and finally theres javier. the sexy beast of a man. the sexy beast of a serial killer. hes so cool and collected and calm and confident and cocky and careful. but not careful enough, since his whole murder business was found out by a smart, observant thief. a smart, observant thief who cons him into bed and then she ends up trying to stop a murder, but then ends up shacking up with the killer. and then she stumbles on a poorly executed robbery and decides to rob the robbers. and thennnn christian tracking her down, drunk. and then her teaching him how to grift. and then him helping her steal 200000 fucking dollars. from the hotel that javiers sister works at. and then HIM ALMOST IMMEDIATELY GETTING CAUGHT. and nowwww theyre cut off from both of their families because of what they do to make money. they are alone together. and i just want them to be safe and happy and in love and able to see their families with no issues. 😫

BUTTTTTT mommy drunkest just said she lifted the restraining order!!!! so now letty can see jacob whenever she wants!!! (and how funny that robs middle name is jake 😆) poor javi. crushed and ostracized again. but letty is so good to him. and he is so good to her. kind of like how mama told letty that rob isnt like the other guys and hes good for/to her. their lives are very similar, its insane how shes been shitting on letty her whole life when shes exactly the same. well, i guess not insane. i guess maybe shes hard on her and is all "do what i say not what i do" because she regrets not being there for her when she was growing up and she doesnt want letty to lose jacob for good. shes been pushing her to get better, get sober, stop committing crimes.

im curious to see whats going on with javis fam. like did dadevil hire a private eye to follow javi because of his suspicions or did silk tell him? or did he find out about silk the same way he found out about javier? or did he see the police sketches of javier and letty from the couple at the resort and put two and two together? i wanna see whats happened to silk since that dinner. like does the father bring it up again? or does anyone ask him what papapsmear meant? is he able to go back to work and live his life as normal or did daddy morecucks get him arrested? did he give javi a headstart before notifying the cops? out of some deeply buried love? are the cops looking for him? tiffany is so flipfloppy. one second shes a cold bitch and the next shes a concerned friend. its good she kept jacob a couple nights. he needs to get out of his toxic household. and fucking *deadname redacted* pretty much just left his family to be a junkie whore?? and now tiffany has to take care of the kids and the house and her job and her friends kid and the stress of worrying about her junkie husband... (fyi i stopped the episode after the dinner about halfway through right when javier came home and says "i need you" to letty before they start fucking.) when he first came in the room, the way he was shrouded in shadows and the way he was standing and the pause before coming in and the lack of noise youd think would accompany a drunk rob, all of that made me think he may have "accidentally" killed rob. like maybe he confessed to him what he does and he realizes and regrets it and kills him to keep him quiet. because thats what he does. but this time its different because rob is practically family, and he regrets killing him, even if he was an annoying prick. i dont know 🤷🏽‍♀️. gonna finish this ep later.

[lil-smolpubby]

No one would’ve guessed that anyone would have to sneak around some nice suburban neighborhood. It was so nice and cheery! With lovely neighbors who would treat you with cookies, and kids playing in the sun. But something was off today. Something had been off for a while now. And only a few people knew. A small group of individuals who had accidentally come across an unfortunate meeting. A cult.

Disguised as some pleasant religious club, they went from door to door convincing people to join. And oh how eager those middle aged moms and dads were to join. And they were the next victims. And simply because they found out the true nature of this seemingly innocent club.

And oh how menacing this smiling man was. He was just so eerie and unsettling with that wide grin and cheery grin of his. It terrified them.

At the moment, the group was spending time at a small park in the neighborhood. A way to calm down and relax, and also a way as to spy on the cult members recruiting more members. You could seem them just a bits away in their white clothing, on the yard of some couple’s house. The leader talking in his cheery voice.

“Don’t you think we should maybe be in our houses? Or like, far away from this neighborhood in general?” The small one asked, raising an eyebrow at the one who was peeking from behind a tree and spying on the group. He then turned to them, with almost of an annoyed look.

“Someone has to keep an eye of whatever the hell these weirdos are doing! We can’t just let these guys brainwash the whole neighborhood!” He told them, looking at them as if it was obvious. Their expressions soured a bit at this, feeling a little irritated. This definitely didn’t help their anxiety, their leg bouncing up and down at a fast pace.

“Can’t we just call the police or something? They should be able to handle this sort of thing.” They suggested, trying to calm down.

“You really think the police are going to believe some cult is going around and brainwashing the neighborhood? Unless someone is murdered, they’re not going to give a shit.” He retorted, cramming common sense into their brain. And he did have a point, the police probably wouldn’t believe them. They didn’t have any evidence, and getting evidence would require breaking into someone’s house and possibly getting caught again.

“I really wanna go home..” They stated, sounding almost helpless. Their anxiety and paranoia had gone off the charts since that whole incident happened. They hadn’t been able to calm down since then.

“Hah, good luck with that when those fuckers are just a few feet away from us.” He laughed a bit, though quickly stopped after realizing their anxious state. “Sorry..” he mumbled, then going back to his spying.

A few more minutes passed of quietly sitting there and whispering among some members of the group. Then someone stood up, prompting the rest of the group to look up at her in confusion. “Um, what are you doing?” The peeking one asked, raising his eyebrow in confusion.

“I’m tired of sitting out here and sneaking around. I’m going back to my house.” She announced, causing disruption and chaos in the group. They all seemed panicked at her simply statement.

“Are you crazy? That’s basically a death-wish! Do you want to get sacrificed in some insane ritual?!” The spying one exclaimed.

“Yeah! Don’t you think you could maybe wait? Just a little while longer until they move on...” the small one added on timidly.

“Please don’t go, honey! I don’t want to become a widow!” Her girlfriend protested. But she refused, staying true to her statement.

“Sorry everyone, but I’m going. I’m tired and irritated, and I want to go home.” She said, then turning in the direction towards the houses and street.

Everyone stood up in panic and even more quiet protest as she started to walk in the direction towards the street. The whole group rushed to her, trying to be discreet and quick about it. But they were to late. The leader of the group talking to the couple, had already noticed.

“Ah, Sarah! It’s nice to see you again! I’d still love to have that chat with you!” He called out to her, starting to head in her direction. His voice was so cheery and welcoming and he had a large friendly smile on his face. But it was unsettling. There was something in his eyes that well... said something unpleasant. She seemed to freeze a bit upon seeing the man heading towards her, eyes widening a little in fear. Which of course looked a bit strange to the happy couple on their front lawn, leading some of the other members to urge them inside and insist they talk another time. It didn’t help when the rest of the group appeared in Daniel’s vision. “The whole group, isn’t this just great! Now we can all sit down over a nice cup of tea and chat.” He said, still heading towards the group.

So what did they do? Run. They all dashed off in a sprint. As dramatic and unnecessary as this may seem, it was a must for them. This guy was dangerous, and they didn’t want to be close to him. This caused the man to sigh, then start to chase after them. Calling after them and acting as if he was just some worried friend.

Though all the turning and changing directions was getting harder and harder for the smaller one. Maybe it was because they didn’t get enough exercise. Their breath was heavy and their side was starting to hurt. Despite their fight or flight instincts keeping them going, they stumbled a bit, falling behind and almost falling themselves.

“Wa-wait! Guys c’mon wait!” They called out to the others, not seeming to notice them and bounding ahead. That definitely didn’t help their anxiety and paranoia right now, along with that cult leader only a few feet behind them.

Speaking of which, who was catching up with them. The others were fast, and when he spotted the small one fall behind, he took that as is chance. Panting a little and out of breath, he decided to slow down but still make his way towards them.

“Ah...Jayce, so great to see you. Maybe we could talk a little over this..?” He asked while walking towards him, using a nice and gentle tone in order to appeal to them. But they didn’t fall for it. As much as they would love do be comforted and give into that sweet sweet tone, they wouldn’t fall for it.

They turned their head to the left, seeing the woods. There was a small patch of woods near the neighborhood. Teens and kids loved to go in there just to mess around or play in, many young ones ending up lost for a few minutes or so. The perfect hiding spot, especially with being so tiny. They may get lost, but they rather get lost than be in this situation.

So they bounded towards the trees, climbing over the railing separating the sidewalk and trees, and running down the slope. Sliding down, and falling and stumbling on their way towards the forest floor. Getting up and groaning in pain, then running for their life into the protection of the trees.

Daniel took a few steps before stopping in his tracks, watching the other disappear into the woods. His concerned expression changed to a neutral one. “Guess we’ll be doing this the hard way.” He said to himself, then turning to walk the other direction. Some members showed up, just having caught up with him. He turned his gaze to a tan girl with blonde hair.

“Jen, please fetch them for me.” He ordered calmly, receiving a simple nod in return from the girl. He watched as she started to head in the smaller one’s direction, jumping over the railing and delving into the forest.

Meanwhile, the small one was still bounding through the forest. Not paying attention to the scratches and cuts they were gaining as they passed through the greenery. They were desperate to get as far away from those freaks as they could. Their sides hurt and they were heaving, needing to catch their breath. Thus prompting them to slow down a little to a walking pace when they felt it was safe. They took a few more steps, scanning around to find a hiding place. Some big bush, a tree, a den they could hide in. Something. And then they spotted an old tiny shed hidden among the trees. They had no idea why it was there, but headed towards it. They really hope it wasn’t used by some serial killer or anything, taking a deep breath to help calm themselves down a little. They opened the door to the shed, revealing it was pretty much empty other than a few old and rusty tools hanging from hooks. Thank gods. They stepped into the shed, then closing it and sitting down in a corner. They could finally relax, even if it was only for a few minutes or so. They let out a sigh of relief, hugging their knees close as they closed their eyes. They would be safe here.

About half an hour passed, and they were still in the shed. They wanted to wait at least another half an hour, just to be safe. Though their temporary peace was interrupted as the door was slammed open, light flooding in. Their eyes snapped open, filled with fear. The anxiety came rushing back to them as their gaze landed on the tall blonde girl with a pleasant smile. Though they knew she was anything but pleasant. They scrambled up, reaching for one of the rusty tools for defense. Though their attempt was a failure as the other grabbed their arm, having quite a strong grip too. She pulled them towards her, the smaller one struggling and thrashing about to try and get out of her grip. But she was much stronger, pulling them close, back against her chest. Then whipping out a wet cloth and putting it over their mouth and nose. It smelled... strange and strong. Chloroform. Oh no. Their thrashing and struggling started to weaken a bit as the chemical took affect, their consciousness starting to fade. Though they kept trying to resist. The other hoisted then over her shoulder, starting to carry them back where they both came from. Their struggling ceased after a few minutes, but they were still trying their best to stay awake. Meaning they were fading in and out of consciousness. Everything feel so horrible and dizzy and heavy. They felt so scared, yet they couldn’t do anything about it.

Maybe about ten minutes later, the heard the clicking and opening of a door. Where were they? They couldn’t see, everything was blurry and dark. But they had a feeling of what it could be. Their eyesight and perception of everything started to become more clear as the cloth was removed from their face. Causing them to take in a big breath of air after having to deal with that horrible chemical stench. They were then put on the ground, stumbling to their knees as they hadn’t gained any of the strength back. Their were filled with anxiety and paranoia, taking in their surroundings. It was the same house they came across the night of the incident. A dimly lit room filled by candles and other materials that belong to this god damn cult. It filled them with terror. Even more so when they looked up, seeing they were standing beneath the feet of the oh so famous cult leader. Daniel. They let out a whimper of terror, not being able to help but cower under the terrifying man. That who was standing calmly with a neutral expression, though leaning more towards one of disappointment.

He didn’t get a chance to even open his mouth to express his disappointment before pleas started to flood theirs.

“Oh god, please please don’t kill me! I beg of you please don’t kill or hurt me! Please please please! I-I’ll do anything!” Their breath was ragged and tears had already bubbled from the corner of their eyes, streaming down their cheeks.

“Y-you can brainwash me! Or make me join! Just please don’t kill me, I beg of you!” They cried out for mercy, begging like their life depended on it. As it kind of did right now. They couldn’t help but let out a choking sob or two, practically hyperventilating as they sobbed. They didn’t want to die. They really didn’t want to die.

And that’s when his expression softened a little, taking pity on the poor thing. He couldn’t kill something as fragile and innocent at this, nor would brainwashing them do any good. Maybe he could keep them around. For more...personal reasons.

So he simply bent down to their level, a merciful smile on his face.

“No need to cry, my dear. We’re here to help you.” He reassured them, voice soft and gentle. He tilted their head up with his hand, thus making them make eye contact with him. They were highly confused by this statement. Help them? What kind of bullshit was that? What the hell did he mean by helping them?

“Wha-what..?” They simply asked in response, voice feeble and pathetic.

“We aren’t going to kill you nor are we going to brain wash you.” He started. “We want to help you if you will let us. Let me help you if you’ll let me.” They opened their mouth to speak but they were caught off by him continuing. “We are.... aware of the anxiety and paranoia that you face, along with some of your other issues. And we’d like to help you out with that. Negative emotions aren’t fun after all.” Their face was still filled with confusion. “Ho-how...?” They simply asked, wondering how the hell these people knew about this kind of thing. Did they dig into their background? That was terrifying.

“It’s rather obvious, my dear. You’re like a little rabbit.” He compared the two. “So, what do you say? Will you let us help you out?” He asked, tilting his head a little. They considered their options. This was basically a free card. If they declined, they could get killed or brainwashed. Something horrible that they didn’t want to experience. So their only real option was to accept his offer.

“O-okay. I’ll take it.” They stated, referring to the offer. Which in response, he smiled widely, clapping his hands together.

“Oh well that’s just fantastic!” He stated cheerfully, clapping his hands together. “I guess we should start by helping you calm down first. You’re our guest after all.” He told them, then standing up to walk to the other side of the room. He grabbed a bottle of pills and a glass of water. The fact that there were more drugs made them nervous. Though he came back with the water and pills, hanging the glass to them. They took it, being hesitant of course, holding the glass in their hands. They watched closely as he popped the lid off, shaking the bottle to get a pill or two out. He held out his hand as to gesture for them to take it. They looked at it with distaste and confusion, not wanting to take it. Then looking back over to Daniel, as in a way of asking if they really had to take it.

“I’d really appreciate if you would cooperate with us, Jayce. I really don’t want to have to do this the hard way.” He persisted, his smile still wide. Which was basically a way of saying that if they didn’t take the pill, he would ‘help’ to force it down. They simply nodded, quickly as to signify their slight panic. They quickly took the pill from his hand, placing it in their mouth and swallowing it with the water. They coughed a little due to taking it down to fast, wiping their mouth to clean any excess water or spit on their mouth. “It’ll kick in any second now.” He said, seeming eager for it to kick in. They really hoped it would just help ease their anxiety.

But then they started to cough a bit again. Then they became more frequent. More intense. Their doubled over as they had a hard time keeping themselves up, one hand resting on their neck. Tears pricked up in their eyes from the insistent and violent coughing. Their throat felt like it was on fire and their chest hurt so much.

Daniel’s expression turned into one of concern. “Oh dear.... this wasn’t supposed to happen...” he said out loud, seeming a bit disappointed.

They let out a cry of pain, though it came out as more of a choking sob. They felt a sudden wave of nausea came over them. Unable to hold back, they wretched on the floor. After throwing up, the coughing had died down, leaving them heaving on the floor. Their felt disgusting. Their throat burning, chest hurting and mouth tasting of vile. Another pathetic sob left their lips, feeling helpless and weak.

Meanwhile, Daniel just stood there and observed. Gaze focused on the effects of the pill. He seemed to be rather intrigued by the effects that it had on the small one. As if they weren’t supposed to happen. As if they were some type of experiment.

As they were able to calm down from that violent attack, they started to realize something. Things were blurry and hazy. They felt heavy. Like they were in some type dream. And that scared them. They started to hyperventilate a bit, seeming frantic and panicked.

“How are you feeling right now?” Daniel asked. Though he clearly knew how they were feeling, not that he would show that he knew.

“Can’t.. can’t mo-move...see.” They kind of babbled, very anxious and scared. “I...I..help. Can’t see. I-where....” they couldn’t seem to speak properly, to panicked to do so. They looked towards Daniel, looking to him as his only source of help. More seemed to come out of their mouth, but it was gibberish or to quiet to hear. Their eyes were filled with tears, big and round like a sick puppy.

“Shh..shh... it’s alright, I’m here.” He comforted them, a soft smile on his face. “No need to panic, I’ll help you. I’m here.” He almost cooed.

Like a child, they reached their arms out to him, desperate for someone. In return which he took their weight for them, taking them in his arms.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to speak. I’m here now. I’ll take care of you.” He assured them in a soft and comforting voice. He moved their head to rest on his chest, as to get them to relax. His hands gently stroked their hair, touching them as if they were a fragile flower. This was all going perfect.