#and she would still get me a bunch of random stuff where I’m like ‘thank you but I do not want or need these things

[sassmill]

My mom has historically not given me birthday gifts (growing up this was because she would let me do whatever I wanted for a birthday party, and since then it’s because she helped me pay for college or would take me to see a show etc) but my birthday is tomorrow and she just asked me “so… would you like a dress form for your birthday??”

Yes yes I would!!!

[strawberry-lemonade-kisses]

Home alone

Tags - Modern AU, swearing, threatening children (in a joking manner), reader is called Mommy by children

When you first walked in the front door, before you were able to even slip into a pair of house shoes you were always bombarded with hugs and kisses of greeting, ones you were always happy to receive. When you walked in today, however, the house was unusually quiet. Which was not what you expected. “Sanemi? Shinya! Seina!” You called out to the whole household, heaving the bags of groceries into the kitchen as you looked around. The house was tidy, toys put back in their usual spots, and no blankets scattered around the sofa and floor. There wasn’t a single stuffed animal sitting in a random spot in the house. It was suspiciously spotless. “Sanemi Shinazugawa!” you called out again, wandering down the hallway towards the wing of the house where the bedrooms were. Peering into each room for any sign of a small human or even your owl-eyed husband. Going back to the kitchen you pulled your phone from your bag, dialing your husband's number. It was picked up after 2 rings. “Hey babe, what’s up?” “Where are you? Where are the kids?” You put the phone on speaker so you could put away the groceries, organizing the many snacks for the twins and even snacks for you. “We went to the park. I bet them that if they could clean their rooms faster than I could clean the living room we would go to the park. They won, don’t check under their beds though. They both shoved most of their stuff under them. I didn’t even want to correct them, they did it.” You laughed, knowing that even though they no longer shared a room, they still shared ideas and personalities. Your neighbor had mentioned a twin telepathy thing that you denied, but it seems you were being proved wrong once again. “Oh, alright. Thank you for cleaning my love, it looks beautiful. Not one single block for me to step on” Sanemi laughed this time. You could hear children screaming in the background, high-pitched laughter, and squeals of joy. “Is that mom!? Tell her hi!” “Hi, Mom! Dad lost! Izumi is here too!” “Get out of my face, don’t scream in my ear you two. Go play with The Tomioka’s you’ll see Mom later.” Sanemi continued scolding the twin, Seina’s sharp tongue lashing right back at her father. She was a crybaby most of the time but when she was riled up she had an attitude that could rival her father's. “Seina be nice to daddy! He doesn’t like loud noises they give him headaches.” You called out, hoping she could hear you. “You hear that brat? Be nice” You didn’t have to see to know Seina was pulling a face, the grumbling that resonated through your speaker made you shake your head. Thankfully Shinya had chosen to remain quiet. Although he was 10 minutes older than Seina, he had your temperament, more docile and quick thinking rather than emotional. “Alright babe, I’m gonna throw Seina in the lake, go ahead and make dinner for three” Sanemi interrupted your thoughts with a maniacal laugh. “DAD! NO!” giggling ensued on the other end of the line, a few squeals accompanying it. “Dad! MY turn, spin me!” Shinya was joining in. “Alright bud, hold on. Let me say bye to your mom first.” “Bye, Mom!” “Bye, Mommy! Love you” You gave them your love “Okay, baby we’ll be home in like an hour. I love you” “I love you too Sanemi, Be safe.” The line cut off, letting you continue with the task at hand.

“Mommy we’re home!!” Shinya ran into the living room where you were seated, jumping onto the couch next to you. “Daddy took us to the park and we got to play with Izumi because she was there too. There were ducks and even a bunch of frogs! Daddy said I can’t keep one” Shinya was pouting as he cuddled into your side, resting his head on your shoulder. Sanemi finally showed up, Seina fast asleep on his shoulder. You waved him over to you, motioning to the seat on your other side. “we can go back and visit the frogs. But you can’t take them from their home, their parents will miss them. Just like Daddy and I would miss you if you left.” Shinya nodded, letting out a yawn. “are you guys hungry? I made Beef curry.” Sanemi shook his head laying his head on the back of the sofa. “They wore me out just as much as the park wore them out. Did you know that Izumi bites? I’m so glad they don’t, I would have to bite back” You giggled, reaching over to smooth back his hair. before looking down at your son who was passed out on your shoulder. You cooed smoothing his hair down as well. “And you bite hard my love, I’m pretty sure I have at least one scar of your teeth on my shoulders” “ah, that is supposed to be there, no one is going to fuck with a woman who has my teeth in her. No one should fuck with you anyways” You nodded “Very true, I also don’t think anyone would mess with a woman who has two screaming 4 year olds. No matter how cute they are, they were terrors when they are well rested. C’mon, let’s put them to bed, then we can eat and pass out on the couch” Sanemi didn’t waste time getting up from the couch, offering you a hand as you lugged the children to their rooms.

[byyliss]

okay I read the doc and I have thoughts yeah!! I still believe that some of Alex’s behavior was admittedly inappropriate and a person like him should take time off the internet and get help+I believe it is possible for a person to have 20+ victims, and I think their mindset was “people Alex perpetuated a parasocial relationship with” like idk. groupchat members or smthn. but good lord are people handling this in a really immature and extreme way. I understand being so livid and angry about someone who caused you pain. but that level of just. Everything is so. Yeah!! I’m giving the plaintiffs the benefit of the doubt on the stuff that’s not confirmed yet, but mitchas public statements are just. Not excusable!! Ive personally spoken to these people before, so maybe I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt but like. idk it looks like donut just doesn’t wanna believe that their friend could be acting like that yknow. still weird of them to brush that off though.’Idk. No clue who doctored that Alex photo. I’d like to believe it was a random person stirring the pot, but honestly like. who knows!! sorry if this is all incomprehensible but it’s such a difficult thing for me to believe that these people would go to such lengths out of genuine malice to de platform some ex friend of theirs who behaved kinda shittily. But that doc doesn’t make shit look good!! it really doesn’t !! this whole thing is just awful. Thanks for sharing that document, I’ll have to look more into all this. For right now, it seems like a bunch of young people having an insane high school drama falling out that was publicised in an extremely inappropriate way. just. wild

Hi! I understand fully where you are coming from.

Mitcha's behaviour is one I've been following up close for awhile since this all started. And I don't believe they were a victim if anything other than their own poor mental health.

Mitcha accusing anarchist of faking the sh photo makes no sense. Someone looked it up using reverse image search and found the account.

I genuenly believe Alex is a woman with poor mental health and was suffering from it. She tried seeking validation from a group she thought she could relate with as a Trans woman but due to miscommunication and and people not drawing boundaries, feelings were hurt.

If Alex is a predator, then ven knew and kept it a secret up until it was convenient.

If Alex is innocent, then they all falsely accused someone.

If you want you can DM me to discuss it or just post here. I want to look into different perspectives

[losergeekwhoever]

CHRISTINE CANIGULA ❤️

AAA OKAY GREAT THANK YOU

Okay so thoughts on CHRISTINE

Favourite thing:

- How loud and busy her outfits are on Broadway. I like the patches a lot and it’s fun to draw her with a bunch of jewelry

- I reallly love her conversation with Jeremy on Halloween. Give me more of that

Least favourite thing:

- probably just that she gets with Jeremy in the end. I actually really like stagedorks I think they’re so cute buuuut yeah. Cute friends!

- Musical Christine is also very manic pixie dream girl, you know? I think if she had more time to be a little more human I’d like her ten times more.

Favourite line:

- “No this is where you meet for the swim team..” CHRISTINE!! Mean! AJJFAJBA

BrOTP:

- Michael and Christine I want them to be friends sooooo bad you have no idea. Reference point for their friendship is them in Stammer. I love Stammer

OTP:

- I think it has to be stagedorks. She and Jeremy should mostly be friends but if she’s dating anyone I think they’re so sweet. Am I being influenced by my love for Jeremy? Probably

nOTP:

- I feel like this is more of a 2017 fandom thing but Christine and Jenna? People shipped them right? Im just not a fan of that

- I actually don’t ship Christine with anyone in a major way..

Random Headcanon:

- She’s an only child.

- Doesn’t really cry about like anything. She CAN cry as an acting choice but otherwise does not

- I need to think about Christine more often I’m so sorry that’s all I’ve got

Unpopular opinion:

- I think I prefer book/play Christine

Song I Associate with Them:

- World’s Smallest Violin - AJR

-This song is like fast and fun. That’s kinda Christine!

-Thinking about Christine as trying to be totally okay all the time because other people have worse stuff going on and relatively she’s doing great. Imposter syndrome and feeling inadequate but needing to be on top of things to not let other people down. I think that kind of mentality leads her to being disregarded as someone with feelings. Like she puts a lot of effort into not being a part of anyone’s problems that she becomes an object people are vying for. She gets one chance to open up and vent like a person and Jeremy still ends up ASKING HER OUT. (“Let me play my violin for you”) It would be nice if she was allowed to complain or be a PERSON around her friends, but they keep disregarding her and trying to date her, and maybe that’s fine because it’s not like she’s REALLY suffering or anything (“Somewhere someone’s got it worse”)

Fav photo:

-I couldn’t choose between these two. I just love this scene in the London production so much. Oh my god Christine <3

And here’s Christine from my sketchbook if you’ve made it this far. I need to draw her more

[jq37]

Please let us know if you solve this mystery!

OK! It’s the end of the year so let me compile everything I was able to come up with (with the help of everyone I dragged into this–you know who you are and thank you and I’m sorry). 

To anyone who’s just seeing this and doesn’t have context, in November, right before the movie Wish came out, I made a longish post questioning who Allison Moore was (which, incidentally, is the first post that comes up when you Google “Allison Moore Disney”).

The reason I was curious about who this random writer is is because she’s credited as one of the co-writers of Wish, Disney’s 100th Anniversary Feature Film BUT she has no obvious experience writing for animation, children, or fantasy when everyone else on the main team has credits on stuff like Frozen and Encanto. I thought it was bizarre that there would be someone so green on a project so big so I went digging. 

Here’s what I learned:

(1) Moore wasn’t originally announced as being attached to the project. Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Fawn Veersunthorn were all mentioned when the project was officially announced in Sept 2022 (for example). Moore was not. And you’d think they’d mention the *co-writer*, right? You don’t start to see her name until a year later in Sept 2023 when the trailer dropped (for example). So it seems like she was brought onto the project later. Of course, this could just be a normal quirk of the industry or something I’m misinterpreting, but I think it’s worth mentioning. 

(2) Moore seems to have a lot more credits in stage writing than she does in screenwriting. I wasn’t able to 100% confirm it until recently (I’ll get to that in a second) but she’s written a bunch of plays and it seems like this is where she has most of her bona fides. 

“Allison is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships, two McKnight Advancement Grants and the Bush Artist Fellowship.”

That sounds fancy. But it still doesn’t say “Top Choice for Disney Anniversary Movie” to me. That’s not a statement on writing quality. I haven’t read/seen any of her plays. It’s about the subject matter. Look at some of these synopses:

None of that really screams Disney. Which isn’t to say people can’t have range. George Miller wrote all the Mad Maxes but also Babe and both Happy Feet. But if I was hiring someone for a really big project, I wouldn’t want that project to be their first attempt at expanding into that genre. 

(3) This isn’t actually inherently important but she was on an episode of Nailed it. That’s where this picture comes from:

She won the first round and the game ended in a three way tie for the first time in the show’s history. 

The only reason this is noteworthy in the larger scale of things is that, until very recently, this was one of only two places online you could see Allison Moore talking. The other is this very short interview on the red carpet during the premiere. 

There’s nothing in that interview that explains anything. It’s mainly her talking about how it was fun working on the movie and how good the movie is. 

Honestly, good for her for not being Extremely Online, but it really felt like I could get a bit of a handle on everyone else who’d worked on this project in a high profile way but not her. Which is part of why I started down this rabbit hole to begin with. There was nothing to show where she might have had a connection or an interest or anything that would connect the dots. 

For reference, Fawn (who was one of the Directors and story writers) has the kind of resume that I was expecting Moore to have when I initially Googled her:

Smaller jobs on other kids/animated movies (Hop, The Lorax, Despicable Me 2), some storyboard or art work on other Disney stuff (Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Ralph), and then a big break (Raya and Wish). Based on my understanding of the industry (and I know a fair bit because it’s one I’m interested in professionally) that’s a very typical track to get to the writing side of animation.  

A couple of people speculated that Moore got onto the project in a mentorship capacity. Now, I’m a Black woman who writes fiction professionally when I’m not on this hellsite (affectionate) with the rest of y’all. That means I have firsthand experience with what mentorship looks like in writing–both official Diversity and Inclusion type mentorship and more organic “Let me take you under my wing” type mentorship. I have *never* seen anyone get a job this high profile at the jump just due to mentorship alone. Going from zero to Disney’s 100th anniversary is kinda insane. This wasn’t some B project or something. It was a Big Deal Project. And this is Disney so they could have hired basically anyone they wanted. So you have to assume this was an active decision someone made and not just a thing that happened for lack of options. But in all my searching, Moore wasn’t mentioned except to just say she wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Lee. It was just the baking show and the Youtube clip.

Until today.

(4) I’m going to preface this by saying this doesn’t actually answer the question in a big AHA! way, but it is the only interview I’ve seen about Wish from Moore besides the red carpet clip.

On December 15th, Moore gave this interview with the San Antonio Current.

I stumbled across it while searching for a different piece of information and eagerly clicked to see what she had to say after three weeks of silence after the movie dropped on November 22.

Here are some highlights:

-In high school she was a theater kid and thought she wanted to pursue acting. 

-I college she did playwriting and eventually she got her MFA from Iowa (which has a weirdly great MFA program btw, and also, this interview is how I confirmed she was the playwright Allison).

-When she started on the theater track at her college, she told them she was a playwright so she could study that too even though she’d never written a play before. So it sounds like Wish isn’t the first time she’s just jumped into a new thing without experience. You have to respect the hustle.

But this is the most important line in the interview because it’s like, an answer and a non-answer all in one. She’s asked, “How did you go from writing plays to writing for TV and film?”

And her answer is, “I had a whole career writing for theater, and then when my son was born, I realized I needed to make more money, so I started pitching for TV. I worked in television for about a decade. In the midst of working in TV, I continued playwriting. That's how I got on the radar at Disney.”

Which kind of sidesteps the most intriguing part of the question? Like, first of all, it’s not 100% clear if she means her playwriting or her TV writing caught Disney’s attention. I’m guessing playwriting, but I could be wrong. Secondly, who is “Disney” in this situation? A Disney recruiter? A Disney director? Did Jennifer Lee see a production of Slasher: A Horrifying comedy while passing through Texas and think, “Her. I want her to be my co-writer on this children’s film.” And what did she do to impress them so much that they right away put her on the the *Anniversary Project*? Like, I know I keep harping on this but I can’t stress enough how big of a deal this is. It’s hard enough to write for just your average sitcom or little movie. To just jump on something this big is baffling. I obviously don’t expect Disney to be justifying their every hiring decision publicly but, usually, when someone is doing something like this, it’s very obvious why they were chosen and, even with this sliver of explanation, it’s still frustratingly opaque. And with the strange post hoc timing of the interview (seriously, doesn’t promotion usually happen PRE movie release?) It almost reads like an interview that exists because someone realized the lack of any online presence was weird. 

(5) When she was a kid, Allison Moore had a crush on Fox Robin Hood. That’s not at all important to the mystery, that’s just information she volunteered during the interview and that I’m now sharing with you. So when you search her name now, the top results are me wondering who she is, her IMDB, and her talking about how she liked Fox Robin Hood's little hat. Which isn't a LOT of information, but it’s more than we had before and that’s something.  

[arc-misadventures]

There probably an ask to this, but no doubt loss in one of the numerous purges I take upon my ask box. If so; Sorry!

Growing Pains

Jaune: Ughhh…

Pyrrha: Everything go alright with the doctor, Jaune?

Jaune: Noooo…

Pyrrha: Oh no! What’s wrong! Are you dying?! Please don’t die, Jaune!!!

Jaune: What?! No, no I’m not dying!

Pyrrha: Oh thank gods…

Ren: Then what is wrong, Jaune?

Jaune: Haa… You know I went to see the doctor because of a headache I’ve been dealing with?

Ren: Yes, you said it’s been keeping you up at night so we said go see the school doctor.

Jaune: Yeah well… The doc said it wasn’t some random headache… It was growing pains…

Ren: Growing pains? Well, you’re still at that age where people go through puberty. But, why would it be giving you a headache?

Jaune: Haa… Look…

Nora: Did you bump your head?

Ren: Twice?

Pyrrha: An equal distance from each other…? Uhh… Jaune, are those pumps?

Jaune: No… They’re horns…

NPR: WHAT?!

Pyrrha: You’re growing horns?!

Nora: Dragon faunas confirmed!!!

Ren: You’re messing with us, right?

Jaune: Nope… the XRays the doc took confirmed it… I’m growing horns…

Ren: Are you okay with this, you looked pretty… depressed.

Jaune: Haa… I don’t like how people have been treating me lately… Sure it’s better than being the butt of a joke, but I don’t like being treated as some sort of messiah figure! And, before because of the nature of my traits I could easily hide myself from the more fanatical faunas, but with this! Haa… Can’t hide horn sticking out from the side of my head… All I can hope is that they look cool, and aren’t six inches tall! That would suck.

Pyrrha: Are they going to be like that?

Jaune: Maybe; The doc says the horns may stay close to my head, and possibly fetter out the closer to the end of the horn. But, since I’m a dragon faunas they’re not sure what they’ll look like.

Nora: Have you finally accepted you place as a dragon?!

Jaune: It’s either that, or a freak… I’m going with what sounds cooler…

Pyrrha: Hahaha~! Oh that sounds just like you, Jaune.

Ren: So, are you upset you’re growing horns, or are you more concerned about the shape they may take.

Jaune: The later; Depending on the shape it will determine the burden they will place on me. And, how much of a pain in the neck they may be…

Ren: Are you being literal, or rhetorical?

Jaune: Meh, same difference.

Ren: W-What…?

Pyrrha: So, do you think you’ll be able to handle growing horns?

Jaune: Well, I talked to a bunch of horned faunas, and they gave some very helpful tips to dealing with horns. Since they’re growing I will get accustomed to the weight, and moving about with them. Most of their advice was cosmetic stuff.

Ren: Like what?

Jaune: Oh stuff like I will have to start wearing button up shirts, and other stuff like that because of how wide the horns may become.

Ren: Make sense; your probably won’t be able to get them on your head.

Pyrrha: Or, tear them ip trying to get them own.

Jaune: Yeah… They recommend that I also get ask for a longer, and wider bed to accommodate the horns. Also get reinforced, bedsheets, benefits, towels, anything like that.

Ren: Make sense.

Jaune: Oil to help maintain the condition of your horns.

Nora: That’s a thing?

Jaune: They were very insistent on this. I guess I’ll learn when the time comes…

Ren: Noted.

Jaune: Also, if I have to, I should wear little caps on the end so I don’t tear anything in my sleep…

Nora: Naww~! You’d look adorable.

Jaune: …

Jaune: So, yeah I learned a lot of useful stuff from those guys. Mostly…

Pyrrha: What did the girls say?

Ren: What makes you…?

Nora: Shh! She’s about to get very angry, don’t get in the line of fire!

Jaune: They gave me several recommendations on how to properly handle a Faunas girl with… Haaa… Handlebars… Very descriptive recommendations…

Pyrrha: Grrrrrrr!!!!

Jaune: Faunas girls are…

Ren: Excited…?

Nora: Desperate?

Pyrrha: A bunch of hormonal whores?!!

Jaune: Haa… Yeah, pretty much…

Pyrrha: Stupid hormel faunas bitches…?!

Nora: Okay… That’s it… Let’s go do some training, Pyrrha. Work out that steam! Ya!

Pyrrha: Yeah~! Bet up some faunas whores, that sounds like fun~! Hehehe~!

Ren: …

Jaune: …

Ren: You heard everything she just said, didn’t you?

Jaune: It’s cute that she forgot I can hear her grumbling. But… What she says in her grumbling…

Ren: What are you going to do?

Jaune: Haa… I’ll level with you, Ren. I’m very interested in several girls, including, Pyrrha. But… I’m unsure what I want, or what they want. So, I don’t plan on doing anything, until I’m sure what I need… What I want…

Ren: So, I take it most of the girls asking for your kids is not a willing quality?

Jaune: Well… for most of them…

Ren: …

Jaune: Oh shut it… Besides, I’m not going to bed a bunch of random girls just to have some kids! I only did that once, and I had a good reason on why I did that!

Ren: You… did…?

Jaune: Yeah, my sister, and her wife wanted a kid so they asked me to… to… uh oh…

Ren: Uh oh? What’s, Uh oh?

Jaune: I need to call my sister! I’ll be at the CCT tower if you need me!

Ren: …

Ren: Probably a faunas thing…

Ren: …

Ren: Oh…! Oh… Uh oh indeed…

[thehamletdiaries]

a comedy of errors (or: getting to Wittenberg)

So, I have, for a long time, wanted to visit Wittenberg, for obvious reasons. It is where my boys went to university, it is where they met; it’s a huge part of their story.

It’s also, it turns out, a nightmare to get to, particularly if you try and do it by train, from Amsterdam.

It was meant to be about a seven hour journey - which seems long but I’ve done longer and I was not especially phased by that. When one of my trains, however (there were…I don’t even remember…about five changes in the original route I was meant to take), simply did not exist, I was a little phased by that. I’d actually been indirectly warned the week before by a lovely woman I was on a writing retreat with; she is German and had written a short piece about how bad the German train system is.

So, when that train did not materialise, I decided to just keep going in the right direction. If there was a train I could get on that would take me across Germany headed east, and ideally heading a bit southeast if possible, I’d get on it. Well, I did that until it was too late at night and the next train from wherever I was at that point wasn’t until the next day, so I gave up and booked myself into a cheap hotel.

The next day, I started off in the same way; getting on trains that were heading in roughly the right direction, until finally, I end up in Magdeburg and there it is; an S8 that takes me right to Wittenberg station, at the perfectly reasonable time of 4:45pm. It’s freezing cold, even in the waiting area, but I only have about an hour to wait.

And then the train doesn’t come. It vanished from the board and was replaced by the next train. I’m very sure that it didn’t just change platforms or anything because everyone else waiting on the platform with me just sort of sighs and goes back into the waiting room. There is another S8 coming at 6:45pm. Not as good, but still fine. Except now I’m worried that train will also just…not turn up. But I don’t know what else to do, so I wait (I did at some point during all of this look at taxi options but there were no taxis around and every online and app based booking option I looked at said none were available to take me that far).

And then the 6:45pm train doesn’t turn up either.

At this point I’m freezing cold and trying to work out what on earth to do. Do I go to Berlin, which is absolutely in the wrong direction, and then see if I can get a train south from there? 

And then this guy carrying a Primark bag comes up to me. I’d seen him waiting on the train platform. Now, as a woman travelling alone, if a random guy comes up to you, you really do want to be careful. But I’ll say that all the vibes from this guy felt good and earnest and not at all creepy - and I was proved right in that so…sometimes you do have to trust your instincts on stuff like that.

Anyway, this guy comes up to me and just says, “Wittenberg?”. I don’t know how he knew I was going to Wittenberg, because the S8 stopped at a bunch of other places too, but I just nodded. I couldn’t ask him how he knew, or rather why he thought, I was going there either because he didn’t speak any English (and I know only enough German to say hello and thank you). He then typed out something into google translate on his phone; he was asking, if we split a taxi fare, if I wanted to share a taxi. Considering I had no idea how to get a taxi from there at all, I readily agreed - and long story short he did, somehow, get us a taxi and we drove through the dark to Wittenberg, communicating where needed via google translate on our phones. The taxi dropped me off just down the road from where I was staying so he walked me down to the apartment and then said goodnight and headed off. I was genuinely so grateful for his help.

So then, I get inside the apartment and open the lockbox which was supposed to have the key in it. It opens with the code I was given…but it is empty. I swore under my breath. 

I ended up knocking on apartment 1 (I was staying in apartment 3) where I could hear music was playing and a very nice young girl staying there let me leave my bags there and advised me to ask the guy in apartment 4. I knocked, but there was no answer…but then I thought I could hear someone in apartment 3. So I knock and a guy opens the door. Which is slightly bewildering. He also doesn’t speak English - and again, I have no German - so it’s back to google translate and long story short, they have double booked us. He tries to call the people letting out the apartment, with no success…and eventually I ask him if, for the night (it’s about 8:30pm by that point) there is a sofa I can stay on or something; I literally have nowhere else to go. He nods and shows me there are actually two bedrooms - not that either of us paid to have to live together, but for one night it seems like our only option.

However, I was only there for maybe an hour and a half when he knocks on my door to tell me, via google translate, of course, that the people letting the place rang him back and I can have apartment 2, which is free. He gives me the code for the lockbox - this time there is a key in there - and offers me a teabag from his selection to take with me.

I can imagine Horatio living in this room.

Without the modern trappings, of course (unless we are talking about a version which takes place outside of a specific time period, in which case…). It’s small but it’s big enough to live in, with a table and chairs, a sofa, a bed and a kitchen all in one room. There is a little trunk I could imagine him keeping books in. It’s a modest place, but he’d say he couldn’t want for anything more.

(ignore my mess)

The streets do look like how I’d imagine them to look.

I can imagine Hamlet and Horatio here so clearly.

From the apartment, you can hear the church clock. It chimes every hour.

[whumpsday]

K&J x MMSS 2: Valen & Liz Part 1

Kane & Jim masterlist / Magnanimous Moonrise & Savage Sunset masterlist

content: starvation, blood, nonconsensual restraint, muzzle/gag, aftermath of torture, misgendering a nonbinary character (non-malicious), mentions of rape/noncon, rescue, recovery, vampire whumpee

Note: This is NOT a continuation of the first KJ x MMSS crossover.

Set after K&J #39: Heat Wave Part 2 and after/diverges from 6M/6S

me and @not-a-space-alien are back with another collab!! part 2 will be posted tomorrow! nasa did pretty much all the editing on this one, so huge thanks to them!!

also: i included the taglists for both stories in the first crossover bc i thought it would be a one-and-done thing, but it’s looking like we’re gonna be putting out a bunch of stuff. as such, i will be including the taglists on this and the second part tomorrow as well, but if you’d like to continue being tagged in crossover pieces, please comment saying so in order to remain on the taglist! it’s opt-in! and as the next crossover will be 18+, please be 18+ to enter the taglist for that.

-

Liz hasn't been able to stop thinking about the vampire since she heard about him.

Valen Kithrara. If any vampires deserved to get what's coming to them, it's the Kithrara family. But Kane… Kane's a horrible person, too. He took away the only family she had left, methodically destroyed Jim's spirit until he was a paranoid, crying mess who took years to build himself back up. An abusive piece of shit who by all accounts deserves to die. And yet, as much as she hates to admit it, as much as she hates him, she can't help but feel bad for the guy. She even let him stay in her house for a few days during that heat wave fiasco last month, so it's safe to say they're fine now, she guesses.

If she can be fine with her brother's abuser who she still fucking hates, she can stop this random vampire she doesn't even know from being tortured, no matter what he'd done.

She's going to kill Valen Kithrara. Put the guy out of his misery. In and out, that's the plan. No more fucked up torture, especially when the person she heard about it from said he heard that all the useful “experiments” had been done months ago and it was basically just senseless at this point. She was able to get ahold of the schedule of that base, and it's supposed to be empty tonight. In and out.

When she gets there, she curses under her breath. There's a car out front. Someone's still here. No one's supposed to be here, but then again, neither is she.

She knocks on the door.

Nick answers. He's breathing slightly heavily, and looks caught off guard. "Er, can I help you?"

Oh, this guy is definitely hiding something. Perfect. All Liz has to do is get him to let her down there and she can stake the vampire. He won't want to admit he was even here, and if he does, she can just say the vampire attacked her. It'd be her word against his. "Hey, I'm Beth. I'm from a different branch a few hours out. I happened to be in town, and remembered hearing you guys have a live vampire here. I'm toootally interested in the experiments you're running. I gotta get going tonight, but I figured I'd swing by to take a look if that's okay, see what your setup is so maybe we can get some research going back in my county," she bullshits, giving him a friendly smile.

Nick narrows his eyes. "Are you on duty? Where is your hunting partner?"

"Nah, not on duty. Definitely don't do that shit alone." She laughs. God, she hadn't even told Laken she was doing this. She'll tell them after. "Just in town for personal business. Why, you guys understaffed and want me to pick up a shift?”

Nick blinks at her. "No, nothing like that. You may look, as long as you don't touch anything. I will warn you safely keeping a vampire in a setup like this involves a fair amount of homemade equipment. I made it all myself. I would be happy to share the blueprints with you if you have someone with the technical know-how to recreate them." He opens the door and lets her in, walking to the basement and unlocking the door.

"Cool, thanks!" Liz forces herself to sound enthusiastic, despite knowing she's about to see something truly awful, and follows him inside. What awaits her is something out of a horror movie. The room is filled with torture devices, and Valen himself- god, he looks even worse than Kane did, and completely terrified.

It's at that moment she realizes that she won't be able to do it. On the job, she kills strong vampires who fight her back. She can't bring herself to kill someone so utterly helpless and scared. Which means everything is suddenly a lot more complicated.

"So, what's that thing you've got it locked up in?" she asks.

Nick sits on the lid of the coffin, near Valen's feet. Valen begins to sob, titling his head to make eye contact with Liz. He can't speak, but the message is clear enough from the big, watery eyes. Please, please please please. "It's a shell of silver-core bars coated with iron, with internal restraints. We call it the coffin. The director insists that safety is our topmost priority, but this satisfies even him to know that this vampire isn't going anywhere. It would have to break through two layers of silver restraints, then remove the muzzle on its face before being able to use persuasion. And as a precaution, we never open the coffin unless at least two people are present."

"Well, shit, we've got two people here right now. I could spot you if you wanted to try anything out." The gossip she'd heard included that the guy doing the experiments could hardly even find anyone to go with him anymore because everyone was sick of his shit. "I'd love to see your work in action and everything, if you've got the time."

Nick stares at her. "Please show me your credentials. I could be fired if I didn't ensure the second party was qualified to supervise."

"Of course, yeah." Liz fishes out her hunting license. Elizabeth Lieberman, it reads. She's glad she chose an alias that works with her ID, but with the way her plan is evolving, she's becoming less sure whatever secret reason he's here right now would be enough to keep him from reporting her when she does what she's about to do. But she can't leave this guy here, she can't. She'll just have to figure it out. Get people to cover for her. "I don't think I ever got your name, by the way?"

"Nicholas." He examines the ID and apparently finds it to his satisfaction. He then gives it back, and walks over to the furnace, lighting it and setting the stoneware cup of silver in it to melt. This prompts a fresh round of sobbing from Valen, and him writhing inside the cage, but the device is too heavy for it to even shake under his thrashing.

Nick comes back and sits on the coffin again, crossing his legs. "Elizabeth Lieberman? It's nice to meet you. I don't suppose you're related to Jim Lieberman?"

"Nice to meet you too. Yeah, he's my brother. Got an apprenticeship a couple months after he got taken, started hunting the second I turned 18, never looked back." It's easier to say something genuine than lie through her teeth. What the fuck, is this guy gonna pour silver on him? Why? It's not like hunters could carry around molten silver. "How'd you get into it?"

"Interesting. I've always been fascinated by Jim's story. The two of you are very strong." Nick pulls down his shirt collar to reveal the scars from fang marks on the side of his neck. "I relate to Jim's story on a personal level. That is what got me into hunting." He releases the shirt. "I'm not a proper hunter, though. I don't have a hunting partner. I'm simply an affiliate of the guild. I do research and support."

Liz figured. The guy isn't built like a hunter. She's trained for this work half her life, and it shows. She knows she can take him easily. Hearing his story makes her feel wildly guilty about that, though. God, if he's been through what Jim's been through… well, if she does this right, he won't even know what hit him until he wakes up with a bad headache. And she can't just leave this vampire here.

"Congrats on getting out. That takes guts." She means it. She guesses that's the kind of thing that could drive someone to… this. "I think your silver might be done."

Nick smiles widely. "Thank you. Jim's book mentioned how much you two missed each other. I imagine you must feel the same hatred towards vampires as I do. As many of us do. If you'd like to assist, typically I have someone handle the vampire while I handle the equipment." He hands her a key, then he walks over to the furnace and holds the long metal tongs with the glowing silver on the end. "All you need to do is hold it still on the ground. Kneeling on the shoulders usually works well."

Liz stuffs the key in her pocket, grabs the stake off her belt, and slams the blunt end into the side of his head while he's turned around. She grabs him as he falls, making sure the molten silver that clatters to the floor doesn't get on him. "Sorry, Nicholas," she says softly, setting him down in the chair in front of the desk.

She re-sheathes her stake, pulls out the key, and approaches Valen. "Hey, buddy. Let's get you outta this mess." She unlocks the coffin, undoes the restraints, and helps him out of it.

Valen watches her approach the coffin through a haze. He'd been mentally preparing for more torture, and now this muscular, god-like woman had attacked his abuser, and is now approaching him like an angel descending with kind words. This is a dream, right? Was this really happening?

He is completely limp in her hands, in a daze. His cheeks are flushed. As soon as her hands are on him, he decides he's a little bit in love with her.

Liz decides to leave the cuffs on, and obviously the muzzle is staying. This isn't Kane. The collar won't come off on its own, so she checks Nicholas's pocket and finds his keys. After a couple tries, she finds the right one, leaving it inside the coffin before closing the lid. "Bet that's better, huh? C'mon, my truck's just outside. Let's get you up the stairs." It's obvious that Valen can't move that well on his own, and she supports him as they make their way up.

Before they leave the base, she stops. "Valen, right? Okay, a couple ground rules. I'm helping you because torture is fucked up, but I'm still a hunter. I will kill you if you give me a reason to. No attacking, no trying to take that off-" Liz points to his muzzle. "No trying to run off. Not that you really can right now, but that'll change. You don't hurt me and I won't hurt you. Sound good?"

Valen is so overwhelmed by what's happening. He'd just been sitting there, being subjected to another of Nick's night visits, when this hunter strides in and upends everything all at once. It’s different, and that scares him, a lot. He has no idea who this person is, or what they’re going to do to him, but… She said torture is fucked up. So it could be good. Maybe this was over? His brain refuses to register it. It feels like he’s wading through molasses trying to figure out what he should be feeling. His usual internal stream of pleas has been completely silenced by how suddenly everything had pivoted. He's never even seen this hunter before. The muzzle is staying on, so obviously things weren't going to be too good, but…

Cheeks still rosy, eyes wide with fear and hope, he nods silently.

"Good." Liz takes him to the truck, trying to decide on the best place for him. It would be a lot better if she had a trunk, but her only options are the passenger seat, the backseat, or the bed. The first two left her vulnerable to attack- Valen would lose, but she would be driving and that was dangerous as shit. The bed left him wide-open for escape.

She considers going back and getting the coffin, for a moment, but… instead, she sighs and just loads him into the passenger seat and buckles him in. He really doesn't seem like he'll attack. "There we go," she says, before climbing into the driver's seat. "Name's Liz, by the way. I live about three hours away, so get comfortable. And hey: you're out. Take a minute to celebrate it." She gives him a smile and a pat on the shoulder before getting on the road.

You're out. Is that what's happening? It must be, right? Valen lets his head lean into the window, bonking against the glass. He's out. He's away from Nick. He's away from Nick. He starts to cry softly with relief. He's still a prisoner, it's not over, but this seems like it's going to be better. He can hope for that. Maybe it's a lie, he has no reason to trust this person, but she is the first one to say what's happening to him is fucked up and do something to put a stop to it. But where is she taking him…? To her house?

Out of the corner of his eye, he watches her strong-looking hands on the steering wheel and working the gear-shift. He keeps replaying in his mind over and over the sensation of her lifting him up, helping him up the stairs, touching him gently to get him up into the seat and buckle him in. What can I do to make you want to protect me? Anxiety creeps over him.

Liz isn't very talkative on the drive home. She's a little on-edge with a vampire just sitting right next to her while she's driving after having fought so many, and keeps glancing at Valen to make sure he's still chill. She calms down once they finally get to her house. She's glad the timing is good- it's late at night, and no one is out, especially not in a town so close to vampire territory, so no one can see her taking a vampire into her house.

"Alright, we're home." She helps Valen into the house, sitting him on her couch. "I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to take a vampire home tonight, so I'm a little unprepared. Looks like you need… a bath, some clothes, and a meal, for starters." She reaches toward his face. "Not gonna hurt you, just checking out that muzzle," she warns. This isn't Liz's first rodeo, and she's assuming Valen must be at least as jumpy as Jim was when he first came home. The more assurances, the better. She grabs his chin and tilts his head a little, getting a good look of the thing. It doesn't seem locked, which is a major safety hazard she'd have to fix. He wouldn't be able to drink normally with it on, but… "Yeah, I can probably get a straw in there."

Valen's eyes light up with delight when she says this. She's going to feed him? Really? That makes him a little nervous--feed him for what? Dare he believe just because she didn't want to see him starving? And a bath, and clothes… Things you would give a person, and not a piece of meat. It almost feels wrong. It almost feels too much to hope for. Silent tears dribble down his cheeks again, tears of relief. Maybe he could convince her to take the muzzle off. Maybe she wouldn't feel the need to keep him locked up so tight. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe he could be a person and not a piece of meat.

Fuck, he really does remind her of Jim at 24. "Hey, it's gonna be alright." Liz grabs a tissue from the box on the side table and hands it to him. 

He remembers tissues, a relic from an era when he could blow his nose. He takes the tissue and dabbles delicately at his eyes.

"Let's… okay. Blood first, probably. Hmm." She'd heard Jim tell her how Kane jumped on him when he got a papercut, so this guy definitely wouldn't be able to control himself. "I'm gonna have to tie you up first, just for this first time- maybe first few times- to make sure everything goes smoothly. Stay there, lemme work this out."

She's able to scour something along the lines of rope from her camping gear, winding it around his legs and torso firmly and tying it off where he can't reach. Even if he tried to lunge at her, he'd just end up on the floor. "I'll take that off after your dinner. Just try to relax. It'll be fine."

Valen whines softly as Liz approaches him with rope, and starts to sob as she ties him up. It's not painful, it's not even unpleasant except psychologically. More restraints, more tying, more barriers between him and being a person who talks and laughs and says please and thank you and I love you. She tells him to try to relax and it'll be fine, but he can't make his brain believe it. It won't be fine. It's never fine. It's always worse. Things had been getting better, and now they were getting worse again.

Liz passes through the doorway into the kitchen. She'll get a blood draw kit tomorrow, but this will have to do for now. She cuts into her arm, bleeding into a cup.

As soon as the blood is outside of Liz's body, Valen does exactly as she'd predicted, lunging and ending up on the floor. His eyes are wild and predatory, nostrils flaring, and his cuffed hands gouge the floor, raking his claws in an attempt to drag himself forward, growling savagely.

Liz glances back, seeing Valen worming around on the floor. It must be awful to be that desperate for food. She fills about half a cup, which takes longer than she thought it would, before bandaging her arm- first with gauze, then with plastic wrap, to hopefully control the smell a little bit. She hopes Valen is able to control himself a little more after he's finished this. She grabs a straw and heads back to the vampire.

"Valen." He barely seems to hear her. Liz grabs him by the bound wrists to make sure she won't get scratched and pulls him up into a sitting position. She straddles his legs to keep him from moving around so much, then sticks the straw through the muzzle and into his mouth as he strains for the cup. "Fuck, finally. Drink up."

As soon as the straw is in his mouth it's like he's a completely different animal. He sucks and the blood rushes into his mouth, warm and wet. His face instantly loosens into a placid expression, eyelids heavy, lost in the sensation. His eyes flicker to Liz, straddling him. Oh hello, where did you come from, big angel? Thank you. Thank you. He feels the blood warming his frigid insides as it goes down his throat. Thank you. Thank you.

The blood is gone far too fast. The straw wheezes emptily against the dredges at the bottom, Valen still sucking, refusing to admit he's finished.

"Yeah, I get that's probably not enough. Here, lemme turn it around so you can get at the bottom of the straw." Liz pulls the straw from Valen's mouth, flips it, and sticks the blood-covered end back in. After it looks like he's done, she pulls it back out, getting off of him. "I know it sucks, but that's all I've got for you right now. I'll get you more tomorrow."

When Liz lets him lick the straw to get a little extra, he almost starts crying again. She's putting so much thought into his comfort it's almost too much to bear. Ideally he'd like to be allowed to lick the bottom of the cup as well, but he knows why Liz won't let him do that. Please take the muzzle off. I promise it'll be fine. He's starting to have the thought with increasing certainty. Before, back with Nick, he knew for a fact that the second anyone took the muzzle off he'd be using persuasion instantly to try and save himself, but…the urgency to do that was starting to fade, here. Maybe he didn't need to. Maybe they could just have a normal conversation. It’s too good to be true, of course, but it’s a nice thought.

Liz rinses the cup, then returns to untie Valen, helping him off the floor. "Alright. Bathtime, pajamas, then bed. We'll figure the rest out tomorrow. You'll be okay." She helps him upstairs, into her parents' old room. There's a queen-size bed, a bunch of boxes (as she uses it for storage), and an attached bathroom. "This is gonna be your bedroom and your bathroom. I'll get all the boxes and shit out of here at some point this week." She continues helping him to the bathroom.

When she takes him upstairs, he starts to feel a little anxious again as Liz takes him into a bedroom. But Liz is a woman. Even if she did that, it probably wouldn't hurt. It probably wouldn't even be unpleasant. Maybe he would even like it. He thinks about it for a little longer than he probably should, before he realizes what she is saying. Oh, he's getting a bedroom, and a bathroom, and pajamas. That's good, right? He wants that. He starts to bounce a little with excitement. He's getting amenities. Maybe this is okay.

Liz starts filling the tub with warm water, then gestures to Valen's boxers. "You want me to help you get those off, you wanna do it yourself, or you wanna leave 'em on?" She holds up a new finger with each option, indicating for him to do the same to pick which he wants.

He's going to get a bath, but oh, he has to pass the trial of making a decision first. At this point he couldn't care less about his boxers. He has no modesty left, no dignity to scrape up to try and save. He holds up one finger, to ask her to do it, then immediately feels anxious about if that was the wrong thing to do.

"Alrighty, here we go." Liz helps Valen get the boxers off, then helps him into the tub. The cuffs and muzzle are still on, since Liz is afraid he'll take the muzzle off if his hands are free. "I know leaving the cuffs on isn't ideal, but I gotta look out for my own safety too. We just met and all. I promise I'll figure out something better tomorrow, you'll get your hands free. I'll help you get cleaned up for today, though."

She washes his hair and body, trying to be mindful of any injuries, making sure to get under the cuffs and muzzle too. At one point, she presses the washcloth into his hands so he can wash anything below the belt himself.  She has to prompt him to do his own washing a few times before he has the wherewithal to do anything for himself.

After, she helps him into a set of pretty basic pajamas- she does unlock the cuffs briefly so she can get the shirt on, but they go right back on after. "Sorry, I know. It's temporary."

Valen leans into her touches, and at whatever point it's feasible, he leans into her, face into her shoulder, sighing contentedly, clinging to her with his bound hands if she allows it. It's probably pathetic. But he wants to say thank you, and he can't, and it's really, really disappointing when the cuffs don't stay off, but he feels cared for in a way he hasn't in a long time. Not safe, but safer. 

The pajamas are nice--any fabric would be a little scratchy against his injuries, but they're soft and warm, neither of which are anything he's gotten to experience in a while. He sits on the bed, feeling acutely the stark clash between the comforting, gentle pajamas and the hard metal cuffs just a few inches above the sleeves at his wrists.

God, he absolutely breaks Liz's heart. Before sending Valen to bed, she gives him a hug, now reasonably certain he'd want that. He seems desperate for any kind of gentle touch. “It's gonna be alright. It's over. No one's gonna hurt you here." She really feels like she's 20 all over again.

He really, really wants to believe her words. Maybe it's a lie, but for now, in this moment, it's true, and that helps him carry on for a little while.

When Liz leaves him alone to go to bed, he lies down in the luxurious softness of a real bed, but finds to his horror he can't sleep. He's out in the open. That means danger. This is horrible because he starts to realize the solution would be to be shut back in the coffin, which he would hate more than anything, but it's been his only rest and safety for months, training his brain to equate a narrow, enclosed space with sleep and safety.

But he's so tired he wants to cry. Is there anything he could do to possibly recreate this sensation? A weighted blanket maybe? There's nothing. The bathtub? The underside of the bed looks tall enough for him to squeeze under, but he doesn't want to leave the softness and warmth of the blankets.

Whimpering, he pulls the comforter off the bed and wraps himself up in it as best as he can, steps onto the floor, and kneels down, jamming himself under the bed and wriggling forward until most of his body is under it. He almost hopes it doesn't work because this is a less than ideal sleeping position, but he does eventually fall asleep.

Liz calls Laken until they wake up and pick up the phone, confesses everything, and tells them to cover for her. Laken is completely on board, and she goes to sleep too, knowing that Nicholas's "a hunter a 3 hour drive away came to steal my vampire for no apparent reason" story will likely not hold up against her "I was literally home all night and I've got people backing that up," especially when he's the one with head trauma and there's no evidence she was there.

The next day, Liz goes to check on Valen, only to find him missing. "Fuck! Where the hell did he go?!"

Valen is awoken by Liz's startled exclamation. Oh no, she thinks I ran off. He starts wriggling forward, but finds he's a little bit stuck. He grips the carpet fiercely and drags himself forward a little, getting his head and shoulders out from under the bed, letting out muffled exclamations to let her know where he is.

Liz rubs the sleepiness out of her eyes with a sigh of relief. "Oh. You do that too, huh?" At least he's coming out on his own, not needing to be coaxed out like Jim did.

You do that too, huh? Did……did Liz sleep under her bed? Why on earth would she do that?

She pulls him the rest of the way out. "Alright, game plan for today. I've gotta go do some shopping, I've got a friend coming over while I'm out. They're gonna feed you, too. After I get back, we'll get those cuffs off, sound good?"

Someone is coming over while Liz is out. That makes him nervous, but excited because they're going to feed him. He wants to ask if it'll be a man or a woman. Liz had said they. Was it just one friend or multiple friends? Realistically it won't really make much difference the gender of the person, or people, but it will let him know how nervous to feel, being alone in the house with someone new in this state. He decides to assume it'll be a man, this way he'll be pleasantly surprised instead of caught off guard if he's wrong, but immediately regrets it, beginning to shake with nerves.

They're coming over to feed you, not hurt you. Calm the fuck down.

But what if they didn't just feed him? Liz was taking the cuffs off, not the muzzle. He's still stuck having no way to tell anyone if something is wrong.

Still, he nods with enthusiasm at the prospect of the cuffs coming off.

Liz takes Valen down to the living room couch, and Laken arrives shortly after. "Hey!" they greet cheerily. "Jesus Christ, you look like you've been through the wringer. What's up, I'm Laken." They hold out a hand for Valen to potentially shake.

"He can't even answer that." Liz points out.

Oh, it's a man. Great. Awesome. Valen dies inside, ready to lie down and take whatever was going to happen to him as soon as Liz leaves. It was obvious Valen wouldn't be able to do anything about it, either resist in the moment or tell on him afterwards.

Valen's countenance shifts visibly and immediately, shoulders drooping. He starts to hold out a hand to shake Laken's, but thinks better of it halfway through and retracts. Maybe if he wasn't overly friendly, or tried to be standoffish or aggressive, he could at least put it off for a while, maybe until Liz got home if Laken didn't pay attention to the time. But then again, maybe Laken was one of those men who liked it better when you tried to push them away. He couldn't know.

Or maybe he's just a normal fucking person. Not everyone is a sadist like Nick.

But he has the opportunity.

That doesn't mean he's going to take it.

He has no reason not to, though. Well…Laken has an interesting hair color. That's nice, at least.

"That's cool." Laken says easily, retracting their hand. "No pressure, man."

"This is Valen." Liz introduces him, since Valen can't. "He's really scared right now, so try not to be too much." She grabs a thick clothing catalog off the coffee table and hands it to them. "Have him pick out what he likes from here, but don't let him write."

"You got it, boss. Blood stuff in the kitchen?" Laken asks.

"Yeah." She looks back at Valen apologetically. "Sorry. Laken's nice, okay? They're not gonna hurt you either. I'll be back in a few hours."

Apparently they're clothes shopping. Exactly how long does Liz plan to keep him here? She's made no mention of removing the muzzle. Does she plan to just have him live here forever, indefinitely muted? The fact that he is apparently going to receive clothes almost makes him feel good, but he just feels nervous instead. He can't make sense of the implications. Did they intend to just have a pet vampire in the upstairs bedroom? Chills go up his spine. Were they going to do other kinds of experiments on him? Surely not, right? She said she wouldn't torture him…

She'd said she wouldn't. Why would he believe her? Why would he believe any of it?

Still, when Liz leaves, he shuffles forward and reaches a hand out, as though to try and grab her to stop her from leaving.

Laken's nice. They're not gonna hurt you either. There's the they again. Laken must be nonbinary. He'd heard of such a thing in passing, mostly in the context of people around him crucifying it as ridiculous and juvenile. He'd secretly found it intriguing, but it doesn't put him at ease. A nonbinary man can still hurt him.

Liz leaves, and Laken claps their hands together, discarding the catalog back to the table for now. "How about breakfast first?"

And then they're alone. Valen's resolve comes back. I'm not stupid. I know you're probably lying. Don't treat me like I'm stupid. He wants to be fed, very much so, but he doesn't trust Laken, and he doesn't want to let Laken see how desperate and scared he is. He remains silent.

Laken shrugs. "Kay, we'll just go with that, then. You think you'll be able to be chill while I get my blood in a cup, or you need some help? Liz told me on the phone to tie you up 'cause you're still getting your juice back, but if you wanna give it a try without, hey, it's cool. Oh, uh, nod for rope, shake your head for nope."

Absolutely not. Valen feels like he would probably die if Laken tied him up. He's not as desperately hungry as he was yesterday, so maybe he'll be able to not lunge? But it was only one feeding…

No, he can't be tied up, absolutely not. He shakes his head frantically. He would rather suffer whatever consequences come from accidentally lunging than be tied up.

“Okay, cool. Let's get this ball rolling, then." Laken smiles at him, then goes to the kitchen and slices their arm to bleed into the cup.

Valen is able to resist a little bit this time, but after a few seconds the smell is too much. I need it RIGHT NOW I NEED IT GIVE IT.

He tries to stop and pull himself back, though, so he just sort of ends up bumping into Laken from behind.

"Oh, hey. It's gonna take a couple minutes, I think." Laken firmly holds Valen away at arm's length with their free arm. "Good to know I'm delicious, though."

Valen blinks at them. Well… That could have gone a lot worse. He wrenches himself away from Laken, chuffing air from his mouth and nostrils aggressively, still feeling threatened and vulnerable, trying to seem dangerous and prepared. He shuffles backwards and takes a seat on the couch.

Laken finishes preparing the blood, bandages themself, and sets Valen up with the straw, murmuring about how "You really seem like you need to smoke some pot. It's so sad vampires can't do that." They turn the straw around for him to lick the bottom too, citing "Liz told me this was a good last step."

Valen snatches the cup from Laken and clutches it to himself, glaring at Laken as he sips it. When Laken puts their hand near Valen, even for something obviously to help, he lets out a low warning growl like a dog.

When he's all done, they get the catalog back out, and a pen, handing both to Valen. "You can go through this and pick out whatever."

Valen’s heart pounds. Does Laken not realize that Valen can use persuasion through writing?  He’s being handed a pen.  He hasn’t had an opportunity like this in so long. His brain twists into anxious knots trying to figure out how to handle this.

Laken does not, in fact, realize. They open the book up to the first page for him.

Valen is suddenly conflicted. Should he try to escape now? Would that make things worse? They're being kind to him, but…

What is he thinking? He has to get out of here. It doesn't matter how nice they are, they're still keeping him captive. They can still do whatever they want to him. He's still at their mercy. This is probably all just to lull him into being complacent. His mind races. Oh no, he has to make a decision.

He takes the pen and starts to write a command, but to his horror his disused hands can't scrape together the dexterity to get it right on the first try, and he ends up producing some chicken scratch before fumbling and dropping the pen.

He lets out a whine and cringes, looking at Laken through his eyebrows.

"Hey." Laken snatches the pen up, suddenly serious. "I know it sucks you can't say anything, but you know why we can't let you, even if you seem like a nice enough guy. No writing, bud."

That…. also could have gone a lot worse. Laken is being remarkably patient. But Valen still has a hard time suppressing the instinctual fear welling inside him.

He takes the catalog, still bracing for retaliation. When none comes, he turns his eyes downward and points to a black turtleneck sweater.

Laken notices the increase in fear. "I get it, dude. You're just trying to survive, I'd probably do the same if I was you. Listen, I won't even tell Liz. We're cool." They circle the sweater.

Maybe Laken is okay. Maybe. He wants to believe it.

Valen goes through the catalog and picks out all the most expensive things. He doesn't realize until afterwards what he's done, but living among the nobility allowed him to develop expensive tastes. It was frustrating because if he could get back to his house, he still had a lot of money and jewelry he'd take from the Kithrara estate, which he could offer to buy the clothes he actually wanted--of course, in that case, he wouldn't need to be buying new ones.

These are the ones he wants though, he'd just done an honest assessment of the catalog for the kinds of things he'd typically wear. Lots of black tops with long sleeves, dark, tight pants, a long, heavy jacket with a hood. He'd even found a studded leather belt and knee-high boots. Which, unfortunately, cost almost $200, so he figured that was one of the more outlandish asks. He colors a little with embarrassment at his selection.

"Damn, you and Lizzie really are two peas in a pod. Maybe she'll give you one of her leather jackets. Dunno if she's gonna go for those boots, but since you can't, I'll argue on your behalf." Laken gives him a wink. "She'll totally cave. Oh, and, hey. You're trans too, right? You want binders or something?"

Valen looks up at Laken sharply, hardly able to believe what he’s hearing. He tears up instantly. He'd never in a million years thought he'd be able to get that at all, let alone without having to ask and plead for it. His wet eyes sparkle with newfound appreciation, and he nods. Okay, Laken is all right. He leans into them, grabbing their shirt.

But…. something still doesn't feel right. How are they going to care about details like this, and validating him, yet still deny him the very basic ability to advocate for himself? To communicate with them as an equal? Were they just buying him nice things like one would buy toys for their dog?

He looks up at Laken pleadingly and slowly points to the muzzle, hopeful inquisition on his face.

Laken sighs. "I can't. Look, I'll talk to Liz about it, alright? Like, honestly, I doubt she'll keep you here forever, so that'd definitely come off. She's probably gonna let you go. She's just paranoid, y'know? Her brother was held captive for years by-" They suddenly grin. "Ooh, I just got the best idea. I know someone you can talk to risk-free."

Uh-oh, it sounds like Laken is saying Liz's brother was held captive by a vampire. Talking with a vampire also had no risk because they were unaffected by persuasion. But his hackles raise defensively once again at the mention of a third unknown party, this one being a vampire. He tended to assume the worst of vampires, a trait he shared with humans--the assumptions were usually not that far off. But… This one was friends with humans, so they couldn't be that bad. Right? Unless they weren't actually friends, but another captive? Were they just going to be put together for a play date? But Laken had said Liz probably wouldn't keep him here forever, so…? He looks at Laken anxiously. He knows he can't really do anything about anything, but he trusts Laken, a little bit.

"Oh, this is such a good idea. I'm a genius." Laken enthuses, oblivious to Valen's anxiety.

Liz gets home soon enough. "Hey! Everything go okay while I was gone?"

"Super smooth." Laken agrees. "Didn't even use the rope for the blood stuff."

Liz flicks them on the forehead. "Stop taking risks." She unpacks the contents of her shopping: a blood draw kit, a small padlock, and these:

"This way we've got more than just yes and no," Liz explains. "They're not all relevant, like, the yes and no cards are redundant and we don't need hungry and thirsty, but at least you can tell me if you're hurt or something this way. I know it's for kids, but I figured it'd help."

"I actually thought of-" Laken starts.

"And if I put this on the muzzle, we can take the cuffs off." Liz grabs the padlock.

Valen is excited by her haul at first--a blood draw kit means feeding him will be easier, and these cute little cards bode well for his ability to communicate more complex things--he eyes the I want to go home card longingly.

But then she pulls out the lock, and Valen's stomach drops out from under him. No, no, no, please. She's said it as though it were a positive thing, to remove the cuffs, but it looks like a step backwards, definitely a step backwards. As it was now, anyone could take the muzzle off. With this, only Liz could take the muzzle off, or whoever she gave the key to. A key, almost a symbol of ownership as well as from the practical standpoint--if someone lost the key, or something happened to Liz, he would just be out of luck. It forced him to be completely dependent on her and at her mercy in a new and scary way. And if this was her solution, how long was she planning to keep feeding him? Because if the current rate of feeding kept up, he'd be able to break any padlock that wasn't silver fairly quickly. Were they going to stop feeding him? But Laken had said she probably wasn't going to keep him here forever, and would let him go. That was too good to be true, of course, but maybe- They kept telling him things that would make him feel better if they were true, but then doing things that were moving in the opposite direction. If they were going to let him go, putting a lock on his most hated restraint was definitely the opposite of moving in that direction. As soon as Liz declares this will allow them to take the cuffs off, Valen crumples, tears slipping down his cheeks, holding his hands out as though she'd threatened to hit him.

"Oh, hey hey hey, it's okay." Liz takes a step back at his defensive gesture, wanting to give him space. "I thought it'd be good, I thought you'd want them off. Um." She slides the cards across the table to him. "Any of these relevant?"

He shuffles through the cards with shaking hands, trying to find one that says I'm a person and you're not treating me like a person and I don't know how to convince you I don't deserve this. There wasn't one, of course, so he picks out the card that says I am sad and puts it on the table.

"He wants the muzzle off." Laken frowns sympathetically.

"I'm sorry, Valen." Liz feels awful for him. She imagines if Jim came home after his ordeal and wasn't even allowed to speak. "I wanna help you, but I've gotta look out for myself too. And it's just too big a risk for us to talk. I really wanna talk to you too, but it's a safety issue."

"He could talk to Kane," Laken says.

"What? No."

"Why not?"

"Because he's horrible and I hate him." Liz glowers.

Valen shuffles through the cards again, his newfound tool. He quickly lays out I need help, I am hurt, I am hungry, I am tired and I want to go home all in a row, hoping that maybe physically seeing his smorgasbord of negative emotions laid out would impress upon them the extent of his distress.

Liz exhales slowly. "I'll draw you some more blood. You'll heal. I'm sorry. We don't have to use the lock if you don't want. I'm trying to help you as much as I can without compromising my own safety."

"Can't we just drop him off at the border when he can run again?" Laken asks. "He wants to go home." They point at the card.

"…He's a Kithrara," Liz says flatly.

"C'mon, look at him. Do you really think he's gonna come back to human territory after this?"

"I don't know. I can't risk human lives on that."

"Then let him talk to Kane so he can say something more than I am sad." Laken argues. "I know you hate the guy, but he's the only vampire we know, and you know he'd be willing to help."

Liz hesitates, then sighs. "Fine. For Valen. But I'm going to complain the entire time."

Laken smiles. "You wouldn't be you if you didn't."

"Fucking abusive piece of shit." Liz mutters under her breath as she goes to the phone and dials.

Valen clutches his cards to himself. He does kind of want the cuffs off, although he finds them far less distressing than the muzzle. I guess there's no option to get both off… He has a hard time choosing, so he just leaves it, fine with things staying as they are if that's what they choose. He can use his hands well enough to do most things he'd want to, although it's a little annoying.

Sigh…..but hearing humans yet again talk about how dangerous he is, and how he can't be set free for human safety makes him feel small and hopeless again. He's never going to be free of that suspicion, that assumed guilt. But…it sounds like they're going to talk to someone who might help, so maybe it's OK to hope a little bit. He tilts his head in preparation for trying to hear whoever is on the other end of the line during the phone call.

“Hey Liz, what's up?”

“I've kind of got…” She glances at Valen briefly, “A situation.”

“Are you okay?” Jim’s voice takes on a sense of urgency.

“Yeah, yeah I'm fine, just… okay, I'll come out with it. Your situation isn't that unique. I've got a vampire here and he's scared and hurt and I can't let him talk, obviously. So I was wondering if we could meet up with Kane tonight and have him interpret.” Liz blurts out all at once.

“…Wow.”

“I know, I know. You were right, okay?”

“Yeah, I mean, first of all, always am.” Jim gloats. “Second, whatever you need. I'll go let him know what's going on. Can it be here? I think going to your place again would make Kane nervous after last time, even if it'll be night this time.”

“Sure, yeah. Thanks. I’ll see you later, love you.” As much as Liz hates having to rely on Kane of all people, she’s glad this is going somewhere

“Love you too.”

Liz hangs up the phone. "Well, I guess this is really happening."

Laken claps excitedly. "Yay!"

I guess we're going somewhere tonight… Valen figures. He's a little disheartened that the implication from that conversation is that this second vampire is also a captive, same as him. How were they imagining this was going to go? Why was it safe for them to talk to this second vampire, but not Valen? Laken seems excited for it, and Liz seems to think this will be better than the current situation, so maybe it'll be okay. It's a nice thought, that things will work out.

"I'll go get you a second helping." Liz heads to the kitchen and begins drawing blood.

"It'll be okay." Laken tells Valen. "It's all gonna work out." They tap all the cards except I am sad and I want to go home. "We can fix all these easy." They tap I want to go home. "I'm sure we can work this out. The last card depends on you, I guess."

Liz comes out with a fresh cup of blood and hands it to him. He's calm this time. Laken's sitting and talking with him has calmed him down a little. He tries to keep remembering earlier, when Laken had cared enough about his feelings to get him a binder. And just having them acknowledge This sucks was helping, too. It wasn't That thing deserves it or It doesn't feel pain the same way we do, don't worry about it or It's worth it for the greater good.

And they're giving him a second helping of blood. That's so very generous. When Liz comes over and hands him the cup, he pokes the straw into the muzzle, cheeks rosy, sipping placidly like a toddler with a juicebox. Maybe this is OK.

When he's finished drinking, he inverts the straw himself and licks it, watching Liz and Laken tentatively. He wants to say thank you. Even though he's only been able to focus so far on what was still distressing him, he has so very much to be grateful for. His situation has improved immensely.

He flips through his cards trying to find one that matches his feelings, then blushes fiercely and puts down I love you.

"Aw!" Laken is delighted. "Love you too!"

Liz feels super fucking guilty now. "Yeah. Just trying to… make this as okay as possible for you. I know you've been through a lot." She gives him a side hug and collects the cup.

"I've gotta head out. Good luck tonight. And Lizzie, binders too." Laken says, gesturing to the catalog.

"Gotcha."

"It was nice to meet you, Valen!" Laken says. "And hey, don't worry about tonight. Liz's brother is a sweetheart, and it'll be good to talk."

Valen holds up the card that says Yes. Something about a cartoon of a thumbs up makes it feel closer to saying "Nice" than giving a real thumbs up. Nice to meet you, Laken. Please don't die. Humans die so easily.

Liz's brother worries him a little bit, even if he's supposedly a sweetheart. He was held captive by vampires, and so surely has no great love for them. And he's a man, which never bodes well. He does, in fact, worry about tonight despite Laken's plea not to.

-

reminder: i included the taglists for both stories in the first crossover bc i thought it would be a one-and-done thing, but it’s looking like we’re gonna be putting out a bunch of stuff. as such, i will be including the taglists on this and the second part tomorrow as well, but if you’d like to continue being tagged in crossover pieces, please comment saying so in order to remain on the taglist! it’s opt-in! and as the next crossover will be 18+, please be 18+ to enter the taglist for that.

taglist:

@annablogsposts​​

@cc1010foxy​​

@darlingwhump​​

@emcscared-whumps​​

@nicolepascaline​​

@oddsconvert​​

@pumpkin-spice-whump​​

@soursagas​​

@thecyrulik​​

@whump-cravings​​

@whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump​​

@whumpycries​​

@annablogsposts

@badluck990

@barebarb

@cc1010foxy

@ceph-the-writing-spook

@cicatrix-energy

@crying-wings

@crystalquartzwhump

@cupcakes-and-pain

@cyberneticfire

@darlingwhump

@deluxewhump

@down-in-the-whumps

@elrysdoesstuff

@emcscared-whumps

@extemporary-whump

@extrabitterbrain​

@iamtheshriekingguineapig​

@icyheart-and-friends​

@inpainandsuffering​

@interdimensional-chaos​

@kira-the-whump-enthusiast​

@lactose-intolerant-egg​

@lilac-and-lemon-whumps​

@littlespacecastle​

@little-whumpee

@lost-in-labradorite-halls​

@magziemakeswhatever​

@melancholy-in-the-morning​

@morning-star-whump​

@myhusbandsasemni​

@mylifeisonthebookshelf​

@neverthelass​

@nicolepascaline​

@nine-tailed-whump​

@no-terms-and-conditions-apply

@not-a-space-alien​

@nyooom​

@octopus-reactivated​

@oddsconvert​

@onlybadendings​

@owencarvourenthusiast

@pigeonwhumps​

@pumpkin-spice-whump​

@quietly-by-myself​

@quirkykayleetam​

@ramadiiiisme​

@redwhump​

@scp-1296​

@secretwhumplair​

@the-whumperfly-effect​

@the-whumpers-grimm​

@thecyrulik​

@thegreatwhodini​

@themarlo​

@thingsthatgo-whump-inthenight​

@t0rture-me​

@vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff​

@whuarri​

@whump-blog-reblogs​

@whump-cravings​

@whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump​

@whump-me-all-night-long​

@whump-my-heart-away​

@whump-queen​

@whumperfully​

@whumpthisway​

@whumpilicious​

@whumpshaped​

@whumpwillow​

@whumpworld​

@whumpy-writings​

@whumpycries​

@whumpyzombie​

@whumpzone​

@wits-and-wrongs

@wolfeyedwitch​

[beecreeper]

1, 7, and 8!

Oh my god I ended up writing so much for this one O.O Thank you for the good asks

1.) What’s Durge’s creation myth? Not the ‘and then there was a gore baby’. Give me the details, what did Bhaal actually do for durge to torment Toril in a few years?

Eilidh I KNOW you know the answer to this one but also you know that I love durge creation lore thank you for letting me publicly rant about it.

I gave both of my durge’s surrogate bio mothers because even though durge was created from Bhaal’s flesh, I still wanted to give them somewhere to cook. (out of universe it’s because a friend of mine had an OC that matched the role of Briar’s bio mom too well not to use and then the concept got carried over to Ferox)

SO Briar’s bio mom is Saorise, an evil power hungry blood magic sorceress who really wanted a baby to mold into an extension of herself narcissist style. But she was infertile and also no man was worth doing it the traditional way with anyway so she made a deal with Bhaal instead – she would carry his freshly molded bhaalspawn and she would get to raise it however she wanted. Saorise didn’t necessarily worship Bhaal specifically but she knew his desperation for spawn could be leveraged in her favor. However things went wrong when a totally separate cult (not sure which god specifically because that’s more on my friend’s side of things) decided that Saorise needed to be taken out. So they cut the fucking baby out of her, womb and all. Saorise survived and is doing bitter old traumatized milf stuff in a different universe while baby Briar was then sold through sketchy Zhentarim channels to her foster parents and whisked away to Amn before Bhaal’s cult could track her down. Bonus fun fact! Saorise is Briar’s dream guardian which I LOVE because there’s some cool magic implied by the fact that her form is somehow in Briar’s mind despite the fact that they were separated even before birth.

Ferox’s bio mom is Amaura, a half orc woman who was a very very dedicated Bhaal cultist who was kind fringe devoted even by Bhaalist standards. She had witnessed and survived the absolutely brutal murder of her entire family as a child and then, in a freak twist of fate, the murder of her husband and child as an adult. This made her believe that she was specifically chosen by the god of murder and got WAY into it. She kept getting virgin mary style visions and whatnot telling her what to do in order to carry Bhaal’s perfect spawn. She did this is secret from the rest of the cult, both on Bhaal’s instructions and because “they just wouldn’t understand”. When it was time, she traveled alone to the Boareskyr Bridge (where Bhaal’s mortal form had been killed during the Time of Troubles) and drank from the cursed water there, which triggered “labor”. And by labor I mean “baby Ferox becoming a partial slayer baby and clawing his way out of her stomach”. I haven’t decided if it’s more brutal is she’s alive when it happens or if the water outright kills her and then baby Ferox has to crawl out of her corpse. Regardless, the next step is a bunch of goblins stumbling across this random blood covered orc baby sitting inside of a mangled corpse and going “DUUUUUDE THIS BABY FUCKING ROCKS! DIBS!”

7.) What were durge’s and Gortash’s first words towards each other (Be as vague as you want)

Hmmm hard to say. I’m sorry to say I don’t think I have anything specific here. For both of them, I imagine their first meeting was arranged by Gortash in order to discuss the details of the House of Wonders heist and formalize an alliance. In which case, both sides would have been “playing nice”. Gortash would have been outwardly schmoozing and trying to simultaneously flatter, intimidate, and impress his potential ally. Greeting them very graciously and respectfully with one of durge’s more formal epithets like “scion of Bhaal”, offering them a drink, that kind of stuff.

Briar went into the meeting essentially expecting to mentally flip a coin as to whether or not she would kill him, spent the entire time grinning like a cheshire cat while they tried to talk circles around each other. Decided he was fun enough to play with to hold off on killing him immediately. Seductively threatened to kill him at least once. Her first words upon entering the room probably would have been something teasing, like “well well, so this is the little lording himself” or something like that.

Ferox was very much a wall of stone at first. Went in very practically, like “Fine. You have something to offer me? Make your offer.” There would have still been some of that back and forth between them, with Gortash doing a lot of double talk and Ferox being careful and sparing with his choice of words. Unlike Briar, Ferox wouldn’t be trying to out maneuver Gortash but more trying to keep himself from getting played. He has to make sure this deal is actually good enough to be worth not just killing him, which is 100% what the plan would have been if Gortash had failed to convince him.

The vibes are that Briar and Gortash’s rapport was tennis and Ferox and Gortash was chess. It’s not a perfect analogy but I'm going with it.

I really want their initial meetings to be more distinct and have more intrigue and scheming and mind games and stuff like that involved but I am honestly super bad at thinking of that type of stuff. 😭 Maybe someday I’ll be inspired for a more specific scenario.

8.) What were their last words towards each other? And who really got the final say?

I’m not sure if this means last words pre-tadpole or last words overall, but I’m gonna answer the former because I have more specifically planned.

Briar: “I have to go.” Gortash: “Wait where the fuck are you-”

Okay the scene I have in mind is that they are literally in the middle of a typical evening of gettin’ down nasty when Briar has the urge to kill him. Which she has obviously had before. Aaaaaall the time. She’s gotten used to ignoring them because the plan is more important. But this one is different. This time she feels the urge and then has a thought like “I don’t *want* to do that”. Not “I won’t do that *yet*”. Not “killing him would be awesome but would cause a bunch of headaches I don’t want to deal with”. Straight up like... “If I killed him I think I would feel sad about it.” And she reacts like she just touched a hot stove. NOPE. THAT’S NOT RIGHT. THAT’S FUCKED UP WE’RE NOT GONNA DEAL WITH THAT. And so she just stops everything and leaves RIGHT THEN without another word. Goes to have an existential crisis about this, writes that prayer for forgiveness, gets decked by Orin, you know the rest.

For Ferox and Gortash, their final words before Ferox got tadpoled would have been something far more mundane. Just a simple reiteration of the plan and a goodbye before Ferox went off to take care of some business ahead of him at Moonrise. A simple “see you three days” kinda thing. Between Ferox and Gortash at that point, everything was running smoothly. Their relationship had been “established” and most of the drama of it passed -- Ferox had stopped doing the “no you have to stay away for your own good” stuff and resigned to the fact that “well this is gonna end really really badly but so is everything. Nothing matters and i can’t stay away from you”. Between winning that battle AND the recent overwhelming success of the Hell Heist and the progress of the Absolute plot, Gortash was absolutely riding that high and feeling completely invincible. From his perspective they just had to coast to the finish line.

The real conflict here was between Ferox and Orin. Orin was beginning to needle Ferox a bit more about the progress of the plan and how close Ferox was with Gortash and how it seemed like he was taking *orders* and Ferox was getting progressively more fed up with her. He was sort of swimming with guilt about the fact that he was actively planning to murder the entire world and didn’t want to think about anything. He just wanted to disassociate himself and follow through with the plan without thinking too hard about where it was leading. But every time Orin prodded him about Gortash he was forced to think about it again and real angry about it. Not a strict, flat anger like from a boss but a sharp, personal anger. He snapped at her with a reprimand, a threat, and maybe even a phsyical attack that, while maybe hard to see from the outside, felt like it fell outside of the purview of what was acceptable to her. Like, as the Bhaalist leader he had scolded her before, threatened her before, fought her before, but this was *different* and both of them knew it.  It was the moment it became personal and Orin knew that her bloodkin was lost.

Uuuuuuuh this answer got away from me. Tldr: Ferox and Gortash made plans to meet up at Moonrise to continue preparations for the Absolute, said a casual, mundane, and practical goodbye. They did not meet up.

[kimberlyannharts]

LAST TIME ON.....Power Rangers Hyperforce?  A bunch of crazy stuff happened that would take too long to explain because my god I am not rewatching all of those three-hour tabletop episodes just for a single one-shot book.  You just need to know there’s a team of rangers called Hyperforce that was mentored by Jen who went through a lot of shenanigans across their time stream until everything broke and they didn’t get a second season and everything sucks.  Also the pink ranger’s dad is the main bad guy and she works for him now.  Got that?  Okay.  Power Rangers Unlimited: Hyperforce.  

- eh you know what, let me just repost the recap from the previews.  it does a decent job at summing up the first season so we might as well have it again as a reminder for what’s happening

- fuck you dad i’m supposed to be taking down my dad

- yeah sorry Chloe but your plan never would have worked.  Jen is not allowed to die in any story ever written with her inclusion

- Alpha 55!!!!!!!!!  I did miss them.  Even if they started the confusing trend of taking MMPR stuff and repainting them gold and black  

- I still can’t fucking believe Joe/Nadira is canon.  Literally for what reason

- It took me a second to remember that Hyperforce went to the North Pole during the first season and I have to say I laughed imagining newbies picking up this mostly serious and dramatic book just to get to this page

- it’s a shame the answer to this was Eddie dumping this beautiful woman at the alter for Vesper and not Vesper simply adding herself to the marriage

- let her cook honestly 

- great character development, everyone!  now anyway 

- [always sunny theme] the gang gets betrayed.  also Marv and Joe are here

- I already made the Emperor Belos joke but now I’m distracted by the fact he’s stealing Drakkon’s half hair/half bald style.  It doesn’t look good guys, no matter where you part it!!!!!!

- you know, serious question here.  Did they give Marv shit for not getting the Battlizer in Hyperforce???  I thought it was just a Thing That Happened and everyone was like haha cool

- “upgraded Rita Repulsa” 

- see even Big Bad Dad thinks this story is rushed

- well at least he’s honest

- I find it funny that they’re pressuring Marv to be the leader just because he’s red when they were mentored by fucking JEN

- it’s a shame Hyperforce is canonically set in 3000s because you know if it wasn’t this would have set off a string of “[random ranger girl] is Chloe’s mom” theories  

- I mean she’s right.  what hope do we have from a team who couldn’t even get a second season

- idk Shattered Grid got fixed pretty easily.  Even the cracks that were supposed to be some huge existential consequence just kinda............were fine 

- Funny coincidence how the Hyperforce team goes to recruit the Wild Force team only for them to already be beaten.  I feel like this would have worked a little better if they went to the Wild Force team because they were pinging for help, because they genuinely don’t give a reason as to why they go to the Wild Force rangers specifically kjlskdlfksj just based on vibes, I guess

- first of all: going from referring to Spa’ark with he/him to they/them pronouns in the span of a panel makes me feel like the misgendering was an editor mistake, which........come on, guys

- second of all: it’s not a surprise that Taylor is the only one left considering her popularity but lbr her popularity is because she’s basically Wild Force’s version of Jen.  Jen, who was a main character in Shattered Grid.  sooooooo not helping the “this is just Shattered Grid” allegations

- third of all: IS DRAKKON THE ONLY VILLAIN TO LOOK AT WHAT RITA’S DOING AND GO UHHHH NO THANKS?  Spa’ark wanted to FIGHT Dark Specter!!!!!  why are they joining him now!!!!!!  why must we continue to destroy any of their nuance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t mind them having a body though despite it being a plot point that they're only a spirit/consciousness that exists inside their morpher/zord because I feel that’s easy enough to bullshit an explanation like Rita fixed them through magic or whatever

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Hello it is I connection terminated the random Tumblr user!

Ideas had:

Directly after waking upafter being controlled by a bunch of psychotic clowns for like a year Michael went to Henry for help. Henry built him the end of skeleton shell so he could do stuff again But also made Michael internalized the idea that his life is basically useless unless he does vigilante stuff. Also the idea that it basically didn't matter at all what happened to Michael himself as long as he could still walk and punch...

"Nightguar" Michael Is introduced at a charity event hosted by William. (I think he definitely has a "oh you have dead parents I have dead children isn't that so sad" talk with Bruce at some point) Also Tim is there. Then suddenly as Williams giving this speech about "Look at these new robots I made they have a criminal detection system will protect Any children who walk into my establishments!". When Michael bursts in through the glass ceiling and tries to kidnap/maybe kill his dad. But because The crowd and Batman don't know the context it just looks like scary villain came down from the ceiling and is now trying to kill nice children's entertainer William Afton. Basically Michael runs after that and has a little rooftop fight with Tim. Throws down a flash Bang and then runs away.

All of the fun times can easily disguise as humans everyone except baby is just really bad at acting normal. It's also not something they need to do much-

Michael has a lot of hang-ups about being the only non-human member of the bat family for so long. Like everyone else can kind of take off the mask and do normal people stuff (mostly). But Mike physically can't do that.... He also happens to live in a city where most of the metahumans are villains and most of the heroes are normal human people. He kind of sticks out and sometimes gets mistaken for a villain (Kind of a loose adaptation of the whole looking like William hence people wanting to attack him thing for cannon)

Whatever kind of ghost or something like that Michael Charlie and most of the other cast from fnaf are Makes anyone who is in the presence of them feel really Uneasy.. This kind of fades the more time you spend around the person. (This is a head cannon I have for normal fnaf too I just think it'll be fun here)

Cassidy's powers are based on how much pain herself and the people around her are in. Either emotional or physical. she shares a vessel with Evan (because it's easier To say then crying child) His constant sadness is A Perfect power booster! If you're wondering what her abilities are she can trap people in nightmares, Teleconesis, Telepathy, Reality bending,

Thank you for listening to my ramblings here's a sketch of Cassidy! More of a little concept sketch than her final design LOL but I hope you like it

Ah! Hi! Sorry for taking so long to answer I was recovering from my sister’s second baby shower (I didn’t have a panic attack at this one yay) but it’s been a few weeks and now I’m ready to type! (mainly hearts and key smashs)

HENRYYYYYYY!!!!!! I know you have good intentions but you are giving my blorbo even more of a complex than he already has :(

*lights up the bat signal to let Bruce know to make sure he has the emergency adoption papers ready*

Of course William would have the fucking audacity I want to hit him (and I know that that man is so good an actor probably the only member of the batfamily to notice anything off would be Cass and ether she’s not settled enough to go to galas yet or literally hasn’t joined the family)

There is no doubt in my mind that he pulled out the “I am so sorry about the loss of your son Mr Wayne. There is no pain worse than the loss of a child. I would know” I want to break his nose

Is it really a robin teen vigilante romance if it doesn’t start with a misunderstanding and a fight?

Of course she’s a good actor, she loves playing pretend. kill me

I have no words for this one just tears

Tim: Hey guys! this is my boyfriend Michael.

*the entirety of Young Justice about to beat up a corpse Because he has bad vibes*

Tim making distance between them with his bo: Back! Back I say!

I love her so much💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕 her little hat is everything to me

[maliro-t]

Happy Witcher eve! Since this is a blogging website, I’m gonna put up a long Blog Post™ I wrote a really long time ago about adaptation just to get my thoughts out there before new material comes out-- book spoilers abound but I don’t actually explain them.

I will always credit The Magicians for changing the way I think about what ‘good’ adaptation is, which is ironic, I know, but the fact that it stumbles so spectacularly in places is part of what did it for me, so ultimately thanks for the mess, I guess! I owe a lot of that to the fact I watched that show before reading the books, which obviously changes your perspective.

But that isn’t the case with The Witcher, and with all this endless talk of show deviations I’m like...there’s some Witcher stuff I honestly do not want to see adapted accurately lmao. I am tentatively curious to see what they do with the Rats & Mistle etc, mostly because I fully just....don’t want to see that story as written on screen but also have absolutely no idea what they could do to change it. I would say Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire are my favorite books in the series with Tower of the Swallow close behind, so I don’t dislike the Rats storyline overall--in fact, I think it’s thematically very good in the grand scheme of things--but when I first read it, Time of Contempt ending Like That after being my favorite book yet by far definitely put a damper on my excitement to start the next one, and while I don’t hate the story as it is (and do really like the nuance with which the group & Ciri’s place within it is fleshed out in Tower of the Swallow), there is truly no part of me that wants to see people adapt that page by page in uhhh 2023 onwards. Which is complex, too, because let’s say they fix the Mistle/Ciri relationship, give it a consensual start, make it less dysfunctional and low-key abusive: then can they be accused romanticizing the original source material? I mean, they’ll certainly be accused of shamefully deviating, but again, I really don’t mind that. But I don’t think I would prefer a version of them that’s healthy per-se, because the dysfunctionality is part of the point. Like, the Rats are interesting because they’re a bunch of kids who have been absolutely mistreated by society, totally uncared for, and they let their anger at the world overtake them so completely that their only vocation is violence-- they’ve been so deprived of a kind world that, despite their closeness, they barely even know how to properly care for each other, let alone other people. And they're still children! Angry, murderous, un-guided children! For Ciri they represent a kind of ‘cycle of violence’ style trap, which she eventually is forcefully shunted out of. The ‘love’ that she does find with them is fueled by hatred and conflict. But also, it’s like. How do you navigate that without being a) a little too close homophobic tropes for comfort and b) just like. fully unfun to watch at some parts???

That’s honestly how I feel about 85 percent of the Ciri stuff in Tower of the Swallow, which again, is a book I LOVE, and that stuff makes up probably at least half of it. But it’s also absolutely fucking miserable lmfao!!! I simply do not want or need to see it all on TV as written!!! I would appreciate a new take!!! It's miserable and I love it and I don't need it replicated. All three are true. Ultimately, it will be what it is, and I may enjoy it, or I may not.

But anyways-- all of that aside, demands for accuracy always fall flat for me because the books are so specifically literary anyways, with their frame stories, and in universe documents, and storytelling via witness testimony and gossip, letters with old census-style misspelled names, intermittent slices of Dandelion’s memoirs, etc etc etc--lest we forget the random chapter near the end of Baptism of Fire where the whole thing suddenly becomes a story being told to children squabbling over which characters they want to hear about next! This is one of my absolute favorite things about the series, and it’s something which with no uncertainty cannot be even slightly replicated in the show lol!!! So why shouldn’t they figure out what works for them in a different medium? Especially when it means there are many significant characters that we only see in slivers here and there in the books because of the amount of much third-party information being used to convey events. In a TV environment, I think the time they’re giving to flesh characters like the sorceresses is, for the most part, phenomenally well used, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing their takes on them. Cahir is another one I love, and he has definitely been taken in some different directions (although again his presence is so scarce for the first several books that they have that freedom) but he also has Things About Him in the books that I’m glad they are not adhering to thus far!

I certainly have my own disappointments with how changes turn out sometimes, which I’ve talked about a little--I speculated after watching season 2 that part of the reason for the changes that they made (which weren’t my favorite by the end of the season, but which were still enjoyable enough television) were because they felt locked into the action focused monster-of-the-week formula of the first season. That formula was a demand of adapting the short stories, but one which also created certain audience expectations for viewers coming in blind, so a hard turn into adapting a novel with very little actual plot was a risk they weren’t willing to take. (This is something that I later had uhhhh 100 percent confirmed watching an interview with the showrunner where she said this almost exactly lmao!!). I do still think it’s odd that they fully omitted some of the plottiest stuff with Philippa near the end in favor of their invented conflicts (conflicts which ALSO changed almost beyond recognition my favorite Yen & Ciri stuff from Blood of Elves but I digress), but that is the story they told so there really isn’t any point in could-have-beens. It’s way more useful for me to look at the show they are making and decide if it’s still fun or entertaining or interesting or ‘good’ or whatever on its own.

My point is really that a 1:1 adaptation really isn’t possible across media for this series, but even if it were, there really just isn’t a need for that, right? To capture the spirit of a story even with differences is still to honor it, and when the source material relies so much on being a book is there really anything wrong with an adaptation taking a different path through the same woods? Like, their differences don’t actually affect one another. The show being its own thing doesn’t ‘ruin’ the books. Change is not disrespect; it’s just change.

(except for when CDPR just like...forgot that Regis doesn't drink alcohol in the games; that WAS disrespect bc he is literally a character about addiction. but he WOULD be a connoisseur regardless so it is FORGIVEN)

[a-hypnos-v]

Re-imagining of Creepypasta AU/Concept idea.

So! So! Thanks for reading- and I’m not as well-versed in creepypasta lore as I once was, but! I’ve got an idea, sure it might’ve already been done but: might as well get the idea out there.

So: a bunch of the og characters (Tobi, Jeff, Clockwork, Jack, Ben etc) and instead of…becoming murders? They get caught and sent to a sanatorium/therapy institute for teens since their not of age of criminal responsibility (I don’t know much about that stuff, sorry) and they’re all less edgy in this version I guess, re-writes of the og backstories, less bat-shit insane I guess?

They all need to spend time with each other (unwillingly) and stuff for therapy and socializing reasons when (probably) Tobi/Jack, starts trauma-dumping about all the weird slender-man shit they saw. And in this au, everyone has ties to slender. And they go on this huge paranormal conspiracy since they all went insane and killed (almost) all their family (I’ll get into that maybe another time) they were basically being semi-possessed by slender after kind encountering him in the woods.

also a bunch of other stuff I’m brainstorming as I write this: The institution they go to is one of the actually good ones instead of the crappy abusive ones. Lou, Jeff’s brother survives but doesn’t become a murderer or targeted by slender man, just has some issues with the whole “my brother tried to murder me in my sleep” but he still really cares about him.

X-virus is in this, him and Tobi meet after the authorities find out that that… well they’re basically the only family each other has anymore. Cody isn’t a murderer, and is actually sane, just has psychopathy and empathy issues to work out. His dad died in a weird lab accident and he got injured during it: and he’s also the science/maths guy of the group, like the idea, got no idea how to execute it.

Jack had a girlfriend relationship thing going on, the girl and him got caught up in a cult. He looks normal at the start of the story, also he has glasses- not really that important but the side effects of the cult stuff they did make his eyes fill up with dried blood and turn black, turn his skin blue takes place after the paranormal investigation stuff. Jeff is a severe insomniac and Somniphobic, this happens after re-accruing slender man encounters, I mean it is fucking CONSTANT, slendy’s been stalking the poor fuck since he’s been a kid. when slender can’t reach him in real life he haunts his dreams. Came up with this from the “Go to sleep” motif.

Sally is also here, she kept getting bullied by kids in other institutions so she got sent here to avoid that. Ya know cus, why would teenagers with issues even target a trauma-ridden 7 year old? Like non of them have p#dophilic issues so it was seen as the best option, also she’s not affected by all the slender man hocus pocus. I want Ben to be in this but I have no idea how to do that- also I’m not sure if I should make the proxies (masky, hoodie) part of the group or ‘traitors’ or something. Or maybe their the doctors??? Since their adults??? I thiiink?

also Jane is only lightly mentioned, she”s like a re-accruing mentioned character no one sees, just a random ex of Jeff. Their backstories kinda clash so sorry about that. Also slender man and zalgo are kinda merged together in this version, mostly slender man but there’s a bit of zalgo mixed in for flavor.

Where did all these ideas come from? No idea! Feel free to tell me what you think trough comments, or reblogs! Not sure if I’d be able to write all of this but if any of you want to: go ahead and chat me up!

[stardew-bajablast]

✨ pinned post ✨

seems like all the cool kids are making pinned posts nowadays so here goes

my name is Star (it’s not but i’m not sharing my real name, that’s weird). I’m 25, live in the US. I’m autistic and have CPTSD, (and suspected but not confirmed ADHD). I was recently diagnosed with a chronic illness called interstitial cystitis and have been posting about some of my experience dealing with that here on my blog.

My pronouns are she/he (i prefer to use he/him online tho bc most people irl use she/her for me) and i’m nonbinary

this is my main blog and i don’t even think it’s worth me attempting to describe the contents, it’s just a bunch of random posts (but they’re my random posts!) and this blog is also where i share most of my political posts, but i make no promises my politics will not bleed onto my sideblogs

speaking of sideblogs, here they are:

@star-crochets

where i will post all of my crochet stuff

i also reblog a lot of other people’s stuff

also it’s probably got embroidery and knitting and other crafts stuff on there not just crochet

crochet is just what i do so that’s why it’s in the name

anyway that’s my crochet blog

@the-original----starwalker

weirdly enough most of the deltarune stuff still gets reblogged on my main not here

but there is some deltarune stuff it just depends

it’s gotta fit the vibe

the vibe being like…

idk frutiger aero and weird web 1.0 shit

dreamcore vaporwave liminal space type shit

idk it’s just sort of a vibe, go scroll through the blog and see for yourself

i am not the best at remembering to tag things but if y’all have any specific triggers or topics that you filter tags for and would like me to tag it, you are always welcome to send me a message and i will do my best to remember to tag it

anyway thanks for joining me, this has been Star’s Pinned Post. like and subscribe

[lovestuckyhatemarvel]

I took a day or so off because of life factors and now it’s a rainy Saturday and I’m gonna at least watch a few episodes and give some reactions to random stuff as well as note things I forgot or didn’t notice before. I at some point will stop doing an intro since I don’t think anyone is reading these consistently.

1.) I forgot El really just starts this episode back at the last time we saw her in episode 1, like almost a full year before season 2 starts.

2.) honestly I’d forgotten this sequence in general of her reaching through the placenta hole in the wall and then making it bigger.

3) I especially forgot that Mike kind of saw her through the window while agents are trying to get him to talk and he just keeps staring at the window like a dipshit

4.) I love this comically large tree that El can hide under that no one checks.

5.) Jonathan still does scrambled eggs and toast as a speciality

6.) Erica exists now

7.) the montage of the costumes us so cute

8.) Mike being a little bit racist

9.) I forgot literally no one else dressed up

10.) hopper is still very sweet and patient about Will when talking to Joyce

11.) I don’t care about these guys in the lab even though I probably should care about them fixing a power issue

12.) I fully understand where Nancy is coming from and I hate that at this point the Hollands are wasting their time and money and are tearing themselves looking for Barb when she will never come home. That being said, Steve isn’t wrong here. There is a shadowy agency that literally killed a man and covered it up as a suicide and covered up Will’s disappearance with a fake body that resulted in a funeral. They could really put themselves and others in danger. And something not fully discussed in this scene is: literally what would they even say? “hey, long story short, your daughter was killed by a creature from another dimension and her body is still there but you can’t talk to anyone about it or get her back or anything. Anyway, thanks for the McDonald’s.” Like that would be worse and they probably would not believe it anyway.

13.) Steve doesn’t even say forget forever, he asked to pretend to be normal on Halloween for one night

14.) I adore Max and if I’d known her in middle school, I’d desperately want to be her friend

15.) ok but how did el go from not knowing what half of food is to knowing how to skin and cook a squirrel? Like who taught her to do that? Her skill level varies wildly

16.) Billy is the fucking woooooooooooooorst and if he hadn’t died in season 3, it would have been something I did on my own in fanfic. People wanting to save him is crazy to me. He literally ran a bunch of kids off the road with his speeding car as one of the first things in the show!!!

17.) Jonathan not seeing what his mom likes bob is kind of hilarious to me because there’s a non insignificant chance that’s what he’s like when he’s 40

18.) still love Jonathan and will being adorable bros

19.) why is Billy so greasy???? Did he lather in baby oil before doing a keg stand???

20.) It was Nancy’s idea to go to this stupid party in the first place but now that she’s going with Steve instead of Jonathan, its a chore. Like ma’am you could have stayed home or insisted on doing some other normal thing. And by you, I mean the Duffers could have made up their minds

21.) bob and Joyce dancing in the living room is so cute

22.) every time max appears on screen I grin and whisper, ‘that’s my girl’, especially when she jump scares boys

23.) hop broke a promiseeeee but also that small child was only out there for hopper to buy candy off of

24.) max lives on Old Cherry Road

25.) Mike hating Max for no damn reason is so annoying

26.) jump scared right into the upside down

27.) Jonathan shows up to the party. Forgot that happened.

28.) all Steve was trying to do was stop Nancy from giving herself alcohol poisoning and he did apologize. But then she shatters his heart.

29.) Steve did leave her at the party which sucks but idk how I would be able to do anything else if someone called me a killer and said our love was bullshit

30.) I forgot El visits Mike through the void

31.) oh hi demodog. I remembered you were found in a trash can but not that you technically show up in episode 2, although not like seen by the audience

[princelyhelp]

bestie you have such good taste in webcomics give us some recs

OH MY GOD FINALLY!!! SOMETHING IM GOOD AT!!! okay so, a lot of stuff i read are queer webcomics ( specifically with gay men bc majority of the webcomics that are online and actually GOOD,,,, are about gay men ). anyways, here's a list of my favorite webcomics and where to read them.

omgcheckplease by ngozi: a webcomic written by a black woman aka my literal role model. omgcp is about a gay man named eric bittle who gets a hockey scholarship at samwell university. we watch eric learn about being a fratbro, coming in terms with his identity, fall in love, and become confident in playing hockey. it’s really cute and completed!! homophobia isn’t a huge part of the plot ( thank god ), like it’s there but the webcomic isn’t about the homophobic world. it’s just about bitty and his baking vlogs <3

tripping over you by suzana harcum: LITERALLY MY GO TO WEBCOMIC WHENEVER I’M SAD!!! CURRENTLY ON MY FOURTH REREAD. about liam and milo who are basically high school sweethearts and their lives from their last year of high school to their first year of college. deals with depression, disconnect between children and parents, divorced parents who still argue, arguments that happen in a relationship, and just finding yourself after turning 18/19. my favorite part of this webcomic is def the wedding scene bc i love love ( despite being aromantic ). 

heartstopper by alice oseman: YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT I WAS GONNA ADD THIS!!! everyone knows of this webcomic bc it’s so popular out of the three. literally makes me so happy and i relate to the characters a lot ( especially when it comes to my mental health and how that affects me on a daily ). gonna cry when the netflix series drop 

autophobia by g.h.s.t: sobbing, i love this. i think i have a thing for webcomics that deal with depression,,,,, probably bc i can relate to all of them AOGPIOAJGAOIGA also a gay love story but with high schoolers learning more about themselves, friendships coming to an end, learning to love and trust yourself again. it’s cute but also so sad. also if you talk shit about the artwork,,, i’ll throw a brick at you 

magical boy by the kao: OMG!!!! LITERALY!!! AMAZING!!! LOVE MY MANS KAO!!!! it’s a webcomic about a transman who comes from a long line of magical girls who protect the world from monsters. you can read it on tapas but you would have to pay ( VALID DO IT!!! IT’S SO GOOD!!! ). please be aware because the webcomic deals with the main character’s identity and his transphobic town and mother ( the dad is amazing, supports his beautiful son ). it’s still a huge rec

demon house by joanne kwan: this webcomic ended and im still not over it. literally a girl moves into this house with demons and it’s just her friendship with them. it’s also the first webcomic to truly draw angels how they REALLY look, which made me so happy. cried when it had to end. still crying over it OAIGJAIOGJAIG

the flying ship by jem milton: BEAUTIFUL, 10/10, I LOVE FOUND FAMILY PLOTS!!! it’s that diverse fantasy webcomic that we all need and deserve. the main character has a disability, another character is genderfluid, IT’S GAY!!!!! please read it, i need more people to read it. also the main character is written beautifully and doesn’t let their disability stop them from kicking ass ( bc people seem to think that disabled people cannot do the same shit as able bodied people )

lady knight by lion illustration: on webtoon and it’s truly amazing! about a bunch of 15 y/o who are training to become knights to beat up the darkness or whatever. but there’s a twist bc the main is a woman and usually, the knights are men but she was chosen. love her and her two best friends, ot3!!! 

hooky by miriam bonastre tur: I REMEMBER READING THIS WHEN THE VERY FIRST CHAPTER GOT DROPPED!!! about twin witches who missed the bus to their witch boarding school so they go to some random guy’s house to learn magic from him. starts off cute and silly before becoming dark and twisted. i sobbed when this ended, i’m still crying. 

other recs that i won’t go into details about: hooves of death, miss abbott and the doctor, lil char and the gang, midnight poppy land, LMLY, heir’s game, tower of god, boyfriends, space boy, siren’s lament, where tangets meet, always human, your letter, the girl from class, elena, for the sake of sita, matchmaker hero, kids are all right ( you will cry ), annarasumanara, and the stories of those around me