#b) it's a silly sci-fi show

[spdrslayr]

002. atsv headcanons ! ★ poly jonathon ohnn & miguel o’hara x reader…

⁀➷ srcs... masterlist . rules . intro .

| synopsis, ୨♡୧ you’re in a poly relationship with the spot, and spider-man 2099. every day is a battle.

★ tags -> gender neutral reader; miguel o'hara; spider-man 2099; johnathon ohnn; the spot; poly; fluff; platonic spider-band; etc…

★ warnings -> cursing; petty small arguments; play fighting; miguel body-shames a cat

★ w.c -> 1,165

| xox, mei! ୨♡୧ -> after making those rival hcs i really wanted to write smth where these two get along!!

they get on each other's nerves so much. half the time you’re breaking up fights and mediating arguments. but no matter how stupid one thinks the other is - there’s still a lot of love involved. it just doesn’t come across as such when miguel throws an empanada at johnathon, or when johnny portals miguel into the sewers ❤️

what they do agree on is how much they love you. these superpowered freaks adore you and they’ll do anything and everything to keep you safe.

they’re both geniuses, so science is something big for them to bond over. the two bounce ideas off of each other and provide really good insight. both of them practically live in your home’s lab, so they spend a lot of time there together tinkering (and bickering.) if you’re a sciency person, ofc you’re joining them. if not, you’re just happy to listen to them ramble. you love your smart-ass boys!

miguel and johnathon are also huuuge nerds when it comes to cheesy sci-fi movies. they adore playing video games with you and doing weekly movie marathons.

★ they both use their powers to hog the popcorn hehe ★ miguel falls asleep quickly, because he feels safe with you two, and it’s the cutest thing. ★ but once johnathon woke him up from “awww”-ing too loud :( 

both miguel and johnathon hog the bed. it’s easiest for you to sleep between them, like a tight fucked-up sandwich. for the most part it’s great and insanely comfortable, but the two cling to you like you’ll fly away.

at first meeting miguel johnathon is skeptical, because miguel is the ceo of alchemax in his dimension. once miguel explains he went through similar troubles with the company in the past, and that he’s working on fixing it, johnathon feels a bit better. miguel offers him a research position but johnathon declines, more content with the idea of supporting you and miguel from home.

★ miggy things !

miguel teaches you and johnathon basic self defense because he’s so scared of his enemies targeting you two. he really appreciates daily check-ins and confirmations if you’re apart.

you and jonathan dote over miguel. you both know he’s been through a lot, so you’re always there to provide comfort and care when necessary. he has so much on his shoulders and you both try your best to take on some of it on for him. a lot of times, miguel will prefer to be alone for a bit, but once he’s collected his thoughts, he’ll come back to you and johnathon for cuddles.

another thing in spite of their disagreements is being silly together. yes, miguel can be quite serious but at heart he’s just as charming and witty as any other spider-person. he’ll say the funniest shit out of nowhere and it has you and jonathon cackling.

★ you show miguel a picture you took of spider-cat. the little man has his belly out and everything. ★“...fat ass.” ★ “BAHAHAHA-”

you and johnathon swoon over miguel’s spanish.

★ “god, that was hot.”  ★ “johnny i think he said he’s gonna kill you.“

miguel likes to slap johnathon’s back and it makes the lanky motherfucker start choking lmao

he goes to jess and lego spider-man for relationship advice. he doesn’t trust peter b. divorcee with that shit.

★ johnny things !

he considers himself a retired villain now. crime is no longer a necessity now that you and miguel have mended his broken heart. he has a shoplifting habit, though. it’s just so easy with his powers! miguel has threatened to turn him in numerous times.

if miguel needs it, he’ll help him out in the field, but overall johnathon prefers helping from the lab. same goes for you if you’re a vigilante as well.

he has a lot of trauma from the past, especially in regards to the accident. you and miguel always lift him up in your own unique ways. you tend to be more comforting while miguel opts for providing practical advice. johnathon really appreciates having you two as close company on tough days.

jonathon feels so damn lucky to have you and miguel. he’s always saying shit like “wowee i really hit the jackpot!” you love it and miguel thinks it’s stupid (-ly cute.)

johnny’s so smug about being the tallest (unless you happen to be over 7 feet tall - will you marry me-) miguel is still fairly tall, and webs things if necessary - so whenever johnathon reaches something for him he gets all pouty.

once he called miguel “papi.” miguel couldn’t take it seriously and fucking died. johnny’s still haunted by it.

★ rdr things !

you have the unique ability to make these two incredibly stubborn men melt in mere seconds. they both don’t respond well to authority, but they always listen to you. They trust your judgment and know you want the best for them.

they love teaming up to dote on you. on a bad day, they’ll prepare your favorite foods and do whatever you like, whether that be cuddling silently, talking about it, or something else. it breaks both of their hearts to see you upset.

the two are always hyping you up, no matter what you do. if you’re a student? hell yeah, write those fucking papers! are you a vigilante like miguel? you’re so brave and kind-hearted! do you stay at home? thank you for keeping everything in check and being there! but what matters most to them at the end of the day, is that you’re you, and happy and safe with them.

sometimes they just talk about how much they love you.

★ “y/n looks gorgeous today,” johnathan sighed. ★ “they always do though, don’t they?” miguel thought out loud, “we should get them a present.” ★ “for being pretty?’ johnathon asked. ★ “for being pretty.” miguel agreed, with a little smile.

★ platonic spider-family things !

jessica drew is your bestie and you wouldn’t have it any other way. johnathon and peter b parker are two dorky dads grilling together. don’t even get me started on miguel and lego spider-man.

miguel still scares the shit out of poor miles, but they’re both warming up to each other, slowly but surely.

johnathon and miles get along great. he’s become a scientific mentor figure for the boy, and it’s the sweetest thing. he and miles talk about physics all the time (because miguel is once again, scary) and johnathon helps him out with school stuff. miles will join the two in the lab sometimes, so you always set aside his favorite snacks for him :) 

gwen hobie and pavitr like to visit too, and they’ll join you guys for meals.

johnathon is so great with the kids. despite him being an ex-villain they absolutely adore him. he makes jokes and stupid references to embarrass them.

you, miguel and johnathon often babysit mayday so peter b and mj can have a date night.

[pameluke]

Thinking about Tommy liking movies and Buck not necessarily being that into them, but willing to watch a bunch because Tommy likes to educate him, and that’s always some hot quality time in Buck’s book.

Tommy’s into romcoms and Buck is into heroism, so they find a common ground with a bunch of action movies with a romantic b-plot. Lots of 80s movies.

It used to be, if Buck took a girl on a movie date, that he imagined himself as the hero, saving the day, kissing the girl. But now that he’s looking at all the hot muscly men showing off their big muscles on screen, he realizes that he might be into being the one that gets to be rescued for once. The one that gets to be swept off their feet with a big dramatic kiss at the end.

And he does have a big damn hero at home. Right next to him, on the couch. Being all muscly and badass and competent and hot.

Which is how Buck and Tommy start to (badly) roleplay badass action movie couples. It’s ridiculous and funny and fun, and stupidly, stupidly hot.

(Their favorite is their take on Demolition Man, where Tommy plays Sylvester Stallone’s character who is defrosted in the future, because he’s the only badass who can get the bad guy, and Buck gets to show Tommy the future and unfreeze his heart while Tommy gets to teach Buck the joys of physical sex instead of virtual sex. There are silly homemade sci-fi props.)

[thatguythatdrawsalot]

Blake - Atlas Design Critique.

Yippee I have more to say about character designs, this time it’s Blake’s turn with her Atlas look, there isn’t going to be a redesign but instead my OCs to prove a point. I promise next time there will be a redesign. 

RWBY Archives

This is gonna be interesting because before I can talk about Blake’s Atlas look I gotta briefly talk about Blake’s Menagerie design. This is all gonna culminate into the huge mess that is Blake’s Atlas outfit. Now this look has some meaning to it, by what it says Blake was wearing more white to hide herself, which makes sense for her arc at the time. It may look bad but the white coat had significance, when she ditches the coat and faces Adam to be in more black again it has a meaningful impact that she’s no longer running/hiding… plus the look with the white coat gone makes her look stunning! So tell me why she regressed her arc of hiding to be back in another uglier white coat to hide her ‘not dark enough purples’? It’s because the designer took the Menagerie look but made it sci-fi. They had no idea what to do for Blake other than to exemplify all the bad decisions in her previous look. Silly zippers that are reminiscent of Adam, a cat suit that’s impossible to put on and to take off, and ugly belts clamping her wrists for no good reason. 

And one other thing, why ditch the gold for silver? Wouldn’t it be nice for someone in team RWBY to wear yellow/gold? Why not the girl who’s going to be Yang’s girlfriend???

She’s the second one to freeze to death in team RWBY.

Hair

Again, I never want to direct hate towards a modeler, end of the day it’s the people who make the final decisions for the product who are at fault. When Volume 7’s poster came out nearly everyone was super excited to see Blake with short hair, it looked really cute and framed her face adorably. When the teaser/trailer for the Volume came out… everyone lost their mind at just how ugly the hair looked. False advertising at its finest. Blake’s hair was one of the ugliest examples of modeling I have ever seen in the show proper, it beats Weiss’ chunky braid. I cannot comprehend how Blake’s model got the approval with the hair alone. The hair was a droopy blanket/helmet. When they tweaked it, it still didn’t look good or even like the concept art. 

Primary Color - Black?

I’ve already mentioned that White has overtaken her color palette to regress her character development and her primary color along with purple. There is no ounce of pure Black on Blake. You can have Blake stand next to Cinder, Penny, Ruby, and Yang and they’ll have more Black than her. They try to compensate for the lack of Black with her GRAY hair, and Blake’s INDIGO catsuit. 

It’s ridiculous how the showrunners turn the B for Team RWBY into the representation of the color purple/white than BLACK. Are they afraid of having Blake be a black blob on screen? The reason she had limited black in the past looks was because of her long hair, but she cut it! Put as much black as you want now! Actual black! Stop overdoing white and purple. The black I used was from a direct screenshot of Blake in the DC movie, one where she had on her old outfit that represented her color and looked good- Positives?

I think Blake tops Weiss’ Atlas outfit cause I really can’t think of anything positive to say. If there was a lack of zippers and the concept of Blake was regulated to being a background character rather than a main character, the outfit could stand on its own. Or just MAYBE this would’ve been a better look for Ilia. It can be better for any other character than for Blake. I can just imagine Blake’s excuse for wearing this being “It looked better in the picture.”

Bonus Round - Ghira and Kali

You can skip this and go to the conclusion if you want, this is just me talking about how much I dislike the ‘Spitting Image Of Parent’ trope in fiction, as this always nagged me about Blake, Ghira, and Kali’s design. Alright so I don’t mind Blake being a cat faunus, I just hate the uncreative reason as to how she became a cat faunus, this was a trait inherited by her mother. Kali is a cat faunus. In the World Of Remnant series, an episode dedicated to the Faunus had a rundown that if two faunus’ of the same kind had a kid together, it’d be the same faunus. If two faunus’ were completely different, their child would be completely random. Kali is a cat, and Ghira is a panther, both felines technically but they really couldn’t just make her parents be human/faunus? They instead just increased the odds of Blake being a cat than something else or even her parents? They made her parents similar… a little too similar. Blake’s parents read to me as brother/sister by just how similar their colors and appearance are. It feels like two artists were tasked with making a mom and dad but didn’t communicate with one another on traits Blake could inherit from the other. I appreciate that they made Kali tanner with better-looking animated cat ears but seriously they start with black hair, yellow eyes, and end with a color palette being black/purple.

I don’t understand how Yang and Ren’s parents can feel like parents with their appearance but then drop the ball for Blake’s. It isn’t that hard, up above are my OCs; John and Penelope Ironwood aka James’ parents. You can argue that I made John be a spitting image of James but at least I TRIED. I had James inherit his mother’s navy eyes and curly hair. Whenever I draw/color James I just mix John and Penelope’s skin tones to make it James’ skin color. I tried to make them look like independent characters who could look like James’ parents but still unique. Conclusion

I don’t think anyone at RT can make Blake stunning, I hope Viz Media gives Blake a good outfit.

From the teaser image it looks like Blake is wearing black, only downside is the gold piercings. I like the idea of gold piercings but my god she looks way too much like her mother… and I really don’t like that trope.

However I’m gonna keep having my hope be alive for character designs than the story. Out of team RWBY I’m most excited to see Blake’s looks, if she looks awful for the final season I’m going to cry-

But of course, it’s just my opinion. If you love this design or hate the design, please share your opinion. I’d love to hear it! :D

[welcometogrouchland]

I also think it's nice that they made Camilla a sci-fi nerd and Luz a fantasy nerd. They're genres that are often seen as completely opposing one another by many people, which is what we're led to believe about Luz and Camilla in season 1. Luz is silly, nerdy, frequently in over her head and irresponsible and loves the boiling isles. We're led to believe that Camilla is the normal, conventional TV mother who'd be disgusted and terrified by the demon realm if she saw it.

Then yesterday's lie gives us a lot of nuance to this, and we realize that while they're still very different and now on opposite sides of a conflict, both mother and daughter are incredibly kind people (seen in their treatment of Vee) who love each other but struggle to make the right choices without hurting one another.

Then thanks to them drops all this Camilla characterization and we realize! She was a nerd too this whole time! The wedge between Camilla and Luz is motivated by past traumas and grief! and for the future has them switching sides on the central conflict of where Luz should stay (Camilla now wanting Luz in the demon realm because it's what's best for her, and Luz believing that staying in the human realm is what's best for the people she loves). They finally talk and realize that, like Willow pointed out earlier in the ep, the two are so alike. Camilla reveals that she's a secret nerd too! That she had a hard time growing up and accidentally hurt Luz trying to save her from the same fait! It's so important to me that Camilla keeps calling Luz a good witch. It's affirming her interests and goals, reminding her that she's just as good as the hero of her favorite story. And Luz finally only realizes that she wants to be understood...when she's finally able to understand her mom. When she realizes that the woman she loves and admires is just as much of a nerdy screw-up as her and that there's hope for her. Her palismen ends being multiple animals at once, showing both how Luz making unconventional choices (like carving an egg) keeps paying off for her and how her potential is limitless now that she finally knows and accepts her own goals, but to me it also reminds of the fact that Camilla is a vet and passed a love of all the weird and unliked animals (like wolves, possums, snakes, etc) to her.

It's just so so sweet and it really shows how much love and thought the crew put into this mother daughter storyline (FTF haters are not welcome on this page, respectfully). I can't wait to see how both of these misunderstood but healing women (who radiate "little/big sister" and "mom" energy respectively) are gonna interact with a) the lonely, easily manipulated and well intentioned but ignorant collector (a mix of both their interests as a magic being with a space motif! I just realized that lol) and b) the nasty puritan white man who's really obsessed with conforming to society's norms even when it literally doesn't benefit him at all.

Anyway, I believe in noceda( AND clawthorne 👀) family supremacy 💙

[casp1an-sea]

FANDOMS

if anyone actually reads all this, I’ll be impressed

Tv show themes through the years playlist

I colored the ones I cared most about in each section if none are colored it means I care about the things in that section equally.

Star Wars:

Original Trilogy 

Prequels 

I dont consider myself a sequels fan but I am obsessed with HUX and Kylux and basically anything first order

Rouge One

Star Wars Legends

Star wars Infinites

Star Wars as written by William Shakespeare 

Star Wars Clone Wars

The Bad Batch

Star Wars Rebels

Andor 

Mandolorian 

Obi-Wan Kenobi Series 

Star Wars Visions 

Tales of the Jedi 

Tales of the Empire

Anything Lego Star Wars 

THE ACOLYTE (may it rest in piece)

—————————————————————————

Marvel:

the movies (I’m not caught up yet) 

Falcon and the winter soldier 

Loki (not caught up) 

Wanda Vision

Avengers Assemble (literally so weird and silly) (not finished with season 5)

spider verse

Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies

Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man movies

—————————————————————————

Musicals/Plays:

Newsies

Bye Bye Biride

Christmas Carol

Wonka

Little mermaid

Shrek

Wizard of OZ

Anything goes

Sponge Bob

Beauty and the Beast

Guys and Dolls

Hamilton

Six

The guy who didn’t like musicals

twisted

ride the cyclone

Les Mis

The lighting thief (not finished)

into the woods

Kinda bat boy (HOLD ME BAT BOY TOUCH ME BAT BOY)

Gatsby

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

—————————————————————————

Games:

Zac McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders!!!! (Literally the best game)

Twisted Wonderland (read through book 6)

Ultimate Shark Simulator

Hogwarts Mystery (not caught up)

KOTOR (not caught up)

Star Wars Asault Team

Minecraft

Jedi Fallen Order (not finished)

—————————————————————————

Anime:

MHA (stopped watching mid season 4 only really care about Iida)

OHSHC

BSD

Angels of death 

Darling in the franxx (only really care about Goro)

Saki k (haven’t seen season 2)

—————————————————————————

Minecraft SMPs:

EVO

Dream SMP (not caught up)

Empires SMP

X Life 

After Life 

New Life 

Rats 

Pirates (not caught up) 

Trafic Light/Life Series (I only watch Jimmy, Joel, and Martin’s POVs)

—————————————————————————

2000s Kids shows:

MLP G3 and Friendship is Magic

Wild Kratts 

Octonauts 

TMNT 2012

Odd Squad 

imagination movers

Dinosaur Train

Lego Friends (The og version)

Monster High

Ever After High

Avatar the Last Air Bender 

Sofia the first

Elena of Avalore

dinosaur train

—————————————————————————

Weird Sci-fi and Fantasy Shows:

Doctor Who (only on the 4th Doctor) 

Read All About it 

H2O Just Add Water 

Wolf Blood 

Fragle Rock

Mako Mermaids (only watched season 1)

Alien Surfer Girls/Lightning Point

Thunder Stone 

Girl From Tomorrow 

Ocean Girl 

Sparticle Mystery 

Elephant Princess (featuring Liam Hemsworth) 

Eerie Indiana 

Girl’s World

House of Anubis 

A girl named Jo (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Blue Water High (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

The Prisoner 

Spell Binder 

Just Add Magic 

Maddigan’s Quest 

The Next Step (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Return to Jupiter 

Rocket’s Island 

Parallels

Silver Sun (not caught up) 

—————————————————————————

Disney Plus Telenovelas: 

Violeta 

Soy Luna 

Bia 

Intertwined 

O11CE

L-Pop

—————————————————————————

Misc fandoms and shows:

Harry Potter (not caught up, I do not support J.K. Rowling or read the books) 

The Tick (og cartoon version) 

Monk

The Outsiders (movie, book, and 90s Tv series) 

Alex Rider (the show not the books) 

Wild at Heart (never finished) 

White Collar 

National Treasure Edge of History 

The Lodge

Descendants 

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

Gilligan’s Island

NCIS New Orleans

Hell of a Boss

Hazbin Hotel

Heart Stopper

OFMD (not caught up)

Julie and the Phantoms 

Disney in general 

Tinker bell

—————————————————————————

Book series: 

Percy Jackson (currently only read the lightning thief)

The Final Six 

Horizon 

Thea Sisters (when I was little) 

Chronicles of Narnia

Wizard of Oz

The black stallion

Series of unfortunate events

The Outsiders

The Waterfire Saga

[mdhwrites]

Do you think it's a bit odd how muddy the premise of TOH is?

I can sum up the premise of other similar shows I've watched in one sentence to any hypothetical viewer going in blind. SU: A chubby boy struggles to master his own power, identity, and goodness while navigating complex family dynamics, old wounds, and sick sci-fi technomagic. Amphibia: Three girls search for each other, stretch their friendship to its limits, and find a way back home in a wacky land populated by amphibians. She-Ra: An imperialist soldier turned rebel fights to free her homeland from occupation whilst struggling with the unique bond she shares with her frenemy.... etc!

I'm just not sure what I could say for TOH. A girl runs away from home to be mentored by a wild witch? But she doesn't really get mentored, and she didn't exactly run away either (she just... didn't go home until it was too late.) A girl leaves her home dimension to enroll in a magic school - hm, but that wasn't really something she super duper cared about, it was just part of the witch gimmick for her.

What else?? A human enters a land of witches, only to discover sinister scheming from the only other human to genocide - which - he's 400-ish too, so, uh, that proves that... colonialism... um.. religion... Let's restart. A human enters witchland and discovers things are not as they seem - no, things are pretty much as they seem-

A closeted girl is thrust into a new world in which she can be herself, and catches the eye of a popular rich girl? Hey, that's not too bad, except it ignores a whole lot of other shit that went down.

How about: A girl enters a wacky land that fulfills her dream of living a fantasy to a T, including the unpleasant parts of the genre.

...Yeah, I guess that's the closest I'm getting. Anyway, what d'you think about TOH's premise? Is it clear to you?

So when I bring up that TOH has a split personality problem, this is what I'm talking about. It effectively is trying to tell three different stories, with three different tones. Any one would be good on its own. Any two would need some finesse but they had plenty of time. All three? Well, even disregarding time constraints, you would have had to be really smart in mixing all three elements in order to make something cohesive as keeping them all separate for longer would simply create the same problem as keeping them apart for a short time does.

And TOH doesn't even fucking try. The literal only element that consistently ties all three story ideas together is Luz. I'll get into it more in a second but this is part of why when you pitch the show to someone, you kind of just have to focus the entire description on Luz in one way or another. To mention any of the other elements causes you to inherently imply one is more important than the others and TOH never chose anything to prioritize.

But of course, what were the three stories trying to be told and with what tones? And I'll talk about how it handles each of them weaving into one another once I've just established a baseline for each.

Well, first we have the slice of life, comedy, coming of age story that is Luz, Eda, King and Lilith. Especially in S1, most hijinks with them are focused around blunt morality, hijinks and just dealing with a problem of the day. It is the most bluntly kid's show of any of them, adopting a lot of the tone of Amphibia. This is why we get so many B plots with King that are the same thing over and over again. It's why Lilith and Eda are on opposite sides of the law but they don't fight until the end but instead are just nice, silly sisters here for hijinks. It's also part of why Lilith is made into a joke in S2 because that is more keeping in line with the tone of this storyline than if she were to actually what happened to her seriously and mixed in with:

The second is a fantasy epic about the corruption of a world by hate and prejudice. Of one man's corrupted beliefs of religion and want for control ruining a land. It is a much darker toned story, meant to reflect the horrors of the real world and its prejudices. This is the plot of Belos and Hunter. It is also the plot that is the smallest part of TOH but should have been the most omnipresent due to how so much of it is tied strictly into the worldbuilding. A lack of world building easily makes this sort of story, like most dystopians, fall completely apart. It also is the one that requires the most adherence to it as conflicting elements makes this story feel all the weaker each time someone treats this existential threat as nothing to be worried about.

The third is the most obvious: The school drama/romance story. This one is probably the one actually trying to be the most concise due to how almost every element for a season and a half of this plot is dedicated just to the weird girl/serious girl romance. It's a classic and one I've iterated on multiple times myself as it's just a fun concept to handle.

So there you go. Three ideas that are each on their own a good story but have their own complications. Each one of these could have easily taken two seasons to properly explore and tell. With more efficient storytelling, any of them could have taken a single season or less.

But then you get the exponential problem of mixing them together. Because mind you, tonally you have a comedy slice of live, a romantic drama, and a dark epic. Those are VASTLY different genres for each tonally and in narrative intent.

The easiest combo is actually the first and second. This is actually what Amphibia is effectively. The show starts in a somewhat isolated part of the world so its lighter tone can not contrast with the darker epic that is to come, giving it a safe space for character development, relationships, etc. Then with each threat, it gets a little more serious with its tone. There's a reason Hop Pop buries the box in S1 but the confrontation about what that means isn't until S2. There's a reason why S3B of Amphibia is MARKEDLY more serious than anything that came before it. The strength of this combo is that when the darker elements show up, the contrast of what came before makes them hit all the harder and makes you care about the stakes.

So what about how TOH handles it? Well, Lilith and Eda are theoretically a blend of the two but Lilith is never treated quite seriously enough. Also, rather than it being ideological, it comes across more personal with those two and it kind of leaves Belos out of it for the entirety of the first season, especially due to how wishy washy the show is about the covens being a big deal. Then in S2, Lilith absolutely SHOULD be the connective tissue. Her and Luz share a similar anger towards Belos and the two acting on that anger is a way to show that hate in any form is destructive, playing on the grander themes of the epic side of it while bringing in The Owl Family.

Instead, Lilith is just kind of flicked away, rendering any connective tissue from S1 to just evaporate, especially as no one actually seems to have cared about Belos almost murdering Eda. Rather, Raine is the connective tissue for the two plotlines. You know, the character who never gets to meaningfully interact with Luz or King, nor actually has a role in potentially pulling Luz to different ways of learning like Lilith might have, meaning they don't interact with the mentor side either. Even in their first episode, Raine is entirely self contained away from the other two. Eda and King's closest contribution to the plot before S3 is honestly in trying to get info out of Warden Wrath and that's really it. Otherwise, they're entirely divorced from Belos, his philosophy and his machinations.

So next easiest combo: The grand epic mixed with the school setting. This is how you get things like S3 of RWBY, My Hero Academia or Harry Potter (Though HP sucks dick at it too because good old Joanne sucks both at being a good person and actually writing anything serious.) The school setting is used as a kind of safe space for drama, romance and teenage shenanigans while the dark elements allow those things to come to a fever pitch as well as a way to test the bonds made at school versus the grand threat's hate and evil. It's hard to make smooth though, if the fact that I listed two things with... questionable plot writing to put it mildly isn't indicative. It at least has been done before. Oh, Naruto pre-Shippuden could possibly also be counted as this.

And TOH mixes these two by... Hunter? That really is the closest it ever comes to mixing them. The school is easily the part that obliterates taking Belos' regime or themes seriously as it constantly, CONSTANTLY undermines the worldbuilding of the show and struggles to actually feel like a part of the grander society. None of the Hexside Squad members ever properly face what being a wild witch or ditching the coven system actually means after all. Amity literally treats it as something that will mildly disappoint her parents but isn't a big deal.

So all you really have is Sport in a Storm and Labyrinth Runners as at least those episodes are using the school setting to give Hunter a chance to make friends and become a better person, theoretically, and he's important to the epic storyline so that kind of counts. If you REALLY want to stretch it, Eclipse Lake is another point of crossover before all three plotlines are mashed together starting at Clouds on the Horizon but the only justification there is that Amity is from the school stuff, though it's closer to fitting the tone and tropes of the mentor's storytelling than that of the school's.

But that is still three... In almost 38 episodes.

The last one is easily the most awkward and the one I don't have examples for: Mixing the Mentor and School plotlines. It's actually pretty easy to see why this would be hard. Both are about teaching the main character but in different ways. I think you could claim some works have done this by having a specific teacher be the primary teacher/mentor for the main character while the school is just where that mentor is accessed.

So how does TOH mix the-

Error 404.

Huh...

I'm not over exaggerating that much. Besides Teenage Abomination, VERY WEAKLY, the two never actually mix. Eda comes to Hexside once. King interacts with the Hexside kids a couple times but always in episodes or B plots that are much closer to the silly slice of life stuff than anything trying to mix the two tones. Even when it does, you get Really Small Problems where neither story is progressed and it all feels bad. Remember the closest that Eda comes to ever being a part of fixing a school problem is in Understanding Willow where she's just a spell dispenser before then being an idiot for Gus. It doesn't make her look better or play with any of the themes. The next closest is during The First Day where she is isolated entirely in her own plot so it's not actually mixing it besides the fact that Eda is at the school.

And for all three?

Well... I think the best way to point this out is that the best example of all three plots coming together is Edric deciding to expand his knowledge of magic. He actively chooses to reject what society has told him, tries a new method endorsed by the mentor figure but does at least acknowledge that his old schooling didn't prepare him for it. It's not strong and it's still hamstringing the epic storyline because he's already practicing two types of magics and so is mostly just nervous about being any good at this but it's SOMETHING.

But otherwise? The three shall never meet. Even once Clouds on the Horizon happens, they never meet. Eda literally never spends time with the Hexside Squad, especially as a whole. King is barely a part of the mentor stuff by then and is purely in the Epic territory and he's still not interacting much with them. Even in the final episode, the Hexside members are entirely on their own while Luz, Eda and King properly take out Belos, rather than everyone trying to protect Luz or having to fight by her side.

This sequestering of characters, themes, plotlines, etc. causes the show to waste a LOT of time and never have a proper focus. You never know what the point to a scene is because what it's serving is unclear, if it's serving anything at all. The show, by the end, can still have cut Amity and Hexside out entirely and lost literally nothing except much of what made the fandom engage with the show. And a reminder: Disney SUGGESTED Hexside. Dana said yes. It wasn't forced on her.

And that fits the show's entire storytelling ethos. It never feels like it is actually focusing on a single point. Instead, individual episodes will present interesting ideas or statements that immediately conflict or need to be retconned by other episodes because nothing is properly congruent. It is all conflicting against each other because each part is acting entirely independent of the rest.

It is an ever growing leviathan but rather than bringing in more of what is around it to make it stronger, it only ever hurts itself more and more as the details that once shone on its surface are made murky and unclear by all it has piled upon it until there is nothing but a rancid sludge. Unclear, unfocused and hard to describe except in the most blunt way possible. So what is the most blunt way to describe TOH?

The only factor that gets to cross all three storylines: Luz. So the only way to describe the show is "A story of a teenage girl going into a fantasy story." What type of fantasy story? Who knows. The writers didn't seem to after all so why should we?

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[dude1818]

Anime Year in Review

Last year I made a silly post ranking the three shows I happened to watch. This year, I got way more into anime (and manga), so let's do it properly this time

Revue Starlight* - Easy top star spot. This anime was flawless. I watched it twice this year and will be watching it again. The story, the animation, the music were all impeccable. The music, oh my god; I listen to the soundtrack every day. Some of my other favorites on this list I'd only recommend based on your personal tastes, but this show should be watched by everyone. (The sequel and spin-offs, not so much. They all use the revues in a way that completely undermines the premise of the main series)

Heavenly Delusion - So fucking good. Second on this list, but I think it's the best show that came out this year. Deeply traumatic, but in such a satisfying way. The horror elements were so brutal and so well done, and I love that the man-eating monsters were the least gruesome part of the show. If it wasn't for the stinker of the ice monster episode, I think this could've been my favorite anime

Call of the Night* - Adored this show. Yes it's a celebration of the hedonism of vampires, but it's so earnest and down-to-earth with it that it feels so good to watch that I did it twice (sub and dub). I also got into the manga, which is sadly wrapping up next month, but hopefully that prompts an announcement about season 2

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - Super chill show, which is a great way to wind down the week. It's such a cool concept too, following the adventurer after the adventure is over. It's just a reflection on life and I love it

The Witch from Mercury (cour 2) - Given that I run a sideblog just for this show, it might be surprising that it's so low on my list, but the second cour was a lot weaker than the first. Not nearly enough of Suletta and Miorine interacting, and way too much chaff following Guel's B-plot. I've said it before, but I think the worst part of this Gundam show is that it's a Gundam show. A+ epilogue though, and Suletta is still my favorite character this year

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - I enjoyed the original comic and the live action movie. I didn't realize this new adaption was really a sequel, but it ended up being a great way to bring the old story to the modern decade. (Two decades later isn't much, but it was very of-its-time)

Spy x Family (cour 2) - Very fun show. Following several viewpoint characters means the individual episodes might be hit-or-miss (as much as I love Anya, the episodes at the school are relatively bland), but the overall package was sweet and enjoyable

Nimona - Another comic I really enjoyed. The movie was strong, although it cut a lot of parts out that I thought were important to the original story

The Orbital Children - Directed by the same person who directed one of my long-time favorites (Dennou Coil), the first two acts of this really felt like a modern update. Stunning visuals, great sci-fi, thrilling adventure. Went totally off the deep in the third act, though

Joshiraku* - As the characters pointed out, adapting a manga that takes entirely inside the green room of a stand-up comedy club is an odd choice. It was off-the-charts hilarious, though. Considering some of the scripts were entirely pun-based, it must've been an immense amount of work to translate, but they absolutely pulled it off

Oshi no Ko - The only reason I watched this show was because the OP was such a banger. (Several fantastic anime songs by YOASOBI this year, and Idol is easily my favorite.) The first, feature-length episode was incredible and I literally cried at the end. If it was a stand-alone movie, it would be a couple of spots higher on this list. The rest of the show was fine, but not really what I was here for. I'll probably still watch season 2 though

Arknights: Prelude to Dawn* - I bounced off the gacha game immediately, but the worldbuilding and character designs seemed cool, so I wanted to give the anime adaptation a chance. The plot was very thin but serviceable enough. At least it looked nice to watch.

The Magical Revolution of ... - Not typing that whole thing out. It was a cute show. The yuri stuff was nice, but I wish for a show about a magical inventor, there was a non-zero amount of magical inventing shown on screen

* indicates the show aired prior to 2023

A lot of shows I really loved this year. Looking forward to next year, the anime I'm most hyped for is obviously Dungeon Meshi. It looks like it's going to be incredible. The second season of Arcane is also scheduled to come out late next year, which is also very exciting. Technically Frieren has a second cour in January, but they're airing both cours as basically a single 24-episode season, so that doesn't really count

For older shows I mean to catch up on, YouTube has recced me clips of probably every single joke from K-On!, and it's really grown on me. Definitely going to watch that soon. I'm also in the mood to watch Bocchi the Rock! again. I should also make myself watch the first couple episodes of PMMM. Nothing I've seen on Tumblr has grabbed me for that one, but it's right in the middle of some of the other shows I was gushing about here and it would be dumb not to try it

[raisinchallah]

its the hatred and lack of understanding of the art of theater from nerds everywhere why the special effects and production in older sci fi properties are devalued and not taken seriously as their own intentional art form... honestly sick of it even being labeled as camp u dont understand camp you dont understand theater your mind is small and u have no love and expect literal representations in all your visual media and probably cant even appreciate musicals... but anyways even people who enjoy like the look of classic doctor who make some types of excuses or are like well i like that it looks shitty booo take this spineless worm from my chamber at once guards i think sometimes implies the way it looks was not intentional and no thought was put behind it flattens the whole thing like there are episodes that look bad with little effort or passion put in behind it or simply being pushed too hard but god something like the brain of morbius that heavily embraces the theatrical style the sisterhood of karns feature emphasizing makeup and large gestural movements it feels straight out of a play we simply do not expect b movie sci fi and horror to be delivered like that.. the style of theater that can create entire worlds with a bare set and a few objects offers limitless possibilities of how to use your space and budget and is just as legitimate of an artform as the expensive sci fi and fantasy movies and the stylistic flexibility it allows you as well as the creative ways u must solve problems on tight budgets and how u can use a sense of something being off of a facsimile of the world to create an eerie setting and the show dabbles in like many styles going from a level of realism when they film on location in modern earth settings to the uncanny and bizarre insane to me also i think people are sometimes so ashamed of like when it starts to look bright and silly like childrens theater or tv like insane the happiness patrol was reviled for YEARS and even lovers of it were like oh well sad it was marred by the silly costumes despite the story intentionally engaging with the conflict between performance and authentic expression and the long tradition of insane camp send ups of truly terrible people to give them not an ounce of dignity or area to view the work as supportive vs the menacing theatricality of greatest show in the galaxy rendering the show as a live theatrical performance but in a creepy and horrible way that towards the end it begins to contemplate its theatrical roots the good and the bad and dissecting it.... so on and such forth alright guards release them

[blueberry-lemon]

I really loved this show.

I did a quick Google + Tumblr search and found out there's a vocal group of people who hate this show? Which is a huge bummer, and now I guess I won't google around about it anymore lol, but…I wonder if it's partially because of the show not meeting what their expectation was going in.

Nagato was my favorite character from the Haruhi series when I watched the show and read the novels in ninth grade. She was also, if we're being blunt, my first anime crush. So this show basically had me right in its sniper crosshairs from the second I accidentally stumbled on it.

I'll organize these thoughts into three sections: Non-Spoilers, Spoilers for the Anime, and Spoilers for the End of the Manga.

Part 1:

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is a slice-of-life romantic comedy about a shy high schooler named Yuki Nagato (first name, surname, whatever you know how it is, I watched the dub because I love the Haruhi dub cast lol)

It's a spin-off of the Haruhi Suzumiya series, and clearly takes inspiration from an alternate universe introduced in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, which is the film that ended the anime.

The biggest difference between this show and the Haruhi Suzumiya series is that this show does not include aliens, time travelers, ESPers, or anything paranormal. It's just about the characters having silly fun time as high schoolers.

It's a weird vibe to jump into at first, but I really liked it overall. Possibly a hot take, but I love how Yuki is written in this show and I'm relieved that they didn't try to take the "blushing shy bookworm Yuki" version from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya as a literal inspiration. The Yuki in this show is funny, full of interiority, relatable, and more talkative.

Character-wise I also love Asakura and Haruhi in this show. I was on-edge about Asakura's status as a main character but by the end of the anime (and the manga) she was one of my favorites in the whole cast. Also her dub actor absolutely kills it in every episode. Haruhi, for me, is a strong improvement here than in her own actual series. She's written with care, depth, and humanity while still keeping her personality recognizable. She's much more sympathetic (both our sympathy, and her sympathy too) and it makes it a much easier watch. One of my thorns about the original Haruhi Suzumiya series is how overly cruel she is in the original.

Mikuru and Koizumi get the short end of the stick in this one. Mikuru gets a few lovely character moments ("i'll close my eyes!" is my favorite Mikuru moment across any of these series) but otherwise, both of these characters are basically just one-dimensional gags.

The most tiring parts of this show are when they lean back onto the "kyaaa you fell into my chest" jokes and stuff like that, which were extremely present in Haruhi Suzumiya. It's dumb, and not super funny. Luckily they're not too frequent, and there are ways I can sort-of justify the reason that they're in there, but it'd be a stretch.

All-in-all, I recommend this show to anyone who has watched Haruhi Suzumiya or read the novels! Just make sure you know that it's a silly slice-of-life and not a sci-fi extravaganza. I would not recommend watching this if you haven't seen Haruhi first.

Part 2:

Spoilers for all episodes of the anime below.

I feel like there are two main ways that you can approach this show, and maybe it's part of the reason why it got some backlash.

Interpretation A would be like: this is just a wholly separate story that has absolutely no paranormal stuff and absolutely no connection to the Haruhi Suzumiya story. It's a completely standalone, mundane, romantic comedy about entirely new versions of the characters. Thus, it has the creative right to re-interpret these characters however they choose, and is not obligated to feel "in-character", or have a big "payoff" or "tie-in" back to the Haruhi Suzumiya story.

Interpretation B would be like: this is a loosely tied multiverse story that is actually connected to the Haruhi Suzumiya series. It's the story of some sort of bubble universe that Nagato (the alien from the "Haruhi" series) created so that she can be a normal girl and experience emotions and relationships. Or, at the very least, she can create a new version of herself and let that new version loose in the bubble universe to see "how things would have gone if I was born a different person" or something like that.

I went into the show with both of these interpretations kind of equally floating through my mind, and I think there can be a lot of fun to that! You can do whatever you want. In terms of the writers' intentions, I feel like Interpretation A is the reality. There is absolutely no textual evidence for a multiverse or paranormal connection, and there's a scene later where a character seems to debunk the theory out loud. I think the creators of this series really just wanted to have full reign on it, and not be shackled by a multiverse or a literal followup to the Disappearance film/book.

If you go into the show expecting a multiverse reveal, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment. That said, I got some good emotional mileage out of the first half of the show by just muttering "This is what Nagato Prime must have wanted…" to myself at the end of every episode. Lol.

With that out of the way: again, this show really clicked with me. The gags are often pretty funny, the English dub cast is stellar, and the animation is great. There are a lot of things about this art style and character designs that I actually prefer over the original Haruhi Suzumiya by Kyoto Animation.

The show (and manga) are also really great at throwing in little blorbo chibis that I think are cute and funny.

Overall it's just a chill fun vibe. It's nice to "hang out" with these characters again, which is what I think has always been the crux of this whole multimedia franchise. As I mentioned, I think characters like Haruhi (and debatably Nagato) are even more fun to watch here than in the original.

Also, of course: the opening and ending are great and I've been listening to them on loop.

All this amounted to a fairly fun show that I was mostly enjoying (especially that Valentine's Day episode! My heart!!!) but everything really clicked with me once I hit Episode 10: Someday In The Rain.

(reminder, this is the anime spoiler section!)

The show immediately takes a SHARP turn in terms of tone in this episode. After being goofy rom-com silliness across most of the previous episodes, we are suddenly thrust into a sense of uneasiness. Yuki has a fall, having almost gotten hit by a car in the rain. From here, things become dead serious. She's acting strangely, and it's unclear what's going on.

For unexplained reasons related to her accident, her personality has completely shifted. Now, her demeanor is much closer to that of Nagato the alien from Haruhi Suzumiya. And it is not played off as a fun coincidence.

The show enters real drama territory as Yuki is acting strangely and her friends become really concerned for her. The music is completely different, the cinematography feels more unsettling. I was on the edge of my seat, and really appreciated that the show tackled this completely sincerely. Then they hit us with the whammy of Episode 11, where we jump back into Nagato's thoughts and see the day unfold from her perspective.

This turn throws us into a multi-episode arc that lasts pretty much the rest of the show (although is really only a "mid point" in the manga.) Nagato is a new person after the accident. Although she has access to all of Yuki's memories, they don't feel like her own. She has a completely new personality, and is having a conflicted out-of-body experience piloting Yuki's day-to-day life. She has new desires, new interests, new fears, and a new outlook. Now, she has to form new bonds with Kyon and Asakura.

I really like how this plays out dramatically, but it's also just fun in its own right. It's like the creators being like "look, we can write the old robotic Nagato too", and to great effect. It forces Asakura and Kyon to challenge their assumptions and make a new friend. It also, eventually, gets some pretty good gags.

It also gives us a short, emotions-packed, "fast-forwarded" version of the story's whole romance. The love that blossoms between Kyon and this new version of Nagato is, at least for me, really resonant and believable. It also forces this Nagato to be more introspective and brave than her romcom-Yuki counterpart, because this Nagato is reckoning with something that Yuki doesn't: the fear of having dwindling time.

I really adore this arc and it gets me choked up. I thought they nailed it, and honestly this version of "stoic Nagato" is still more interesting to me than any version of Nagato from the original Haruhi Suzumiya series. Blasphemous hot take, I know.

If you subscribe to Interpretation B how I mentioned above, there's some fun here to have if you want to headcanon that this accident is somehow the alien Nagato exerting control over this bubble universe. Maybe it's a thought experiment for Nagato the alien is find out if Kyon could ever truly fall with her monotone and stoic self. Again, I don't think that's at all what the writer intended, but it's a fun headcanon.

I think there's lots of other ways to connect with this arc. We all ask ourselves who we really are under the surface. Do your friends like the "real you"? Can someone fall in love with the "real you"? How do you even decide what side of your personality is more real?

I also think that living in a digital world of smartphones and social media does pretty much force us to have these out-of-body experiences. We are able to replay our own memories as outside observers, and wonder if that was really us who did all those things that are enshrined in digital evidence. I could relate to the things that the new Nagato was toiling over, even if nothing like this has ever happened to me.

I'm sure there are dozens of other connections and interpretations you can make with this arc, including neurodivergence and plural systems and recoveries from real-life brain injuries and accidents. It gave me a lot to think about.

On a bummer note, the anime basically wraps up here. I don't know if they were hoping to get another season or what, but this arc basically ends up having to serve as the culmination and ending of the anime. I don't love that, because it kind of ends the anime on a weird note.

Part 3:

Spoilers for volumes 6 through 10 of the manga below.

The anime ending felt so quick, it had me dying to check out the manga. I had to know how this all ended. What happens after this crazy experience? Do Kyon and Yuki fall in love for real???

The remaining manga volumes were a joy to read. We get even more blorbo chibis, and even more Asakura-being-a-self-conscious-mom. We got to see Kyon and Yuki, back to her normal self, bonding and growing together through the rest of their high school.

The final volume/arc in particular, centering on Asakura, I thought was great and really brought her character (and Yuki) to a satisfying conclusion.

I don't know how romcoms usually end, but I was happy to have this one give us a very corny and sweet "well here's them at graduation and afterward" fast-forward through time. I live for that stuff. Also the stuff at the end with the different haircuts and learning to cook, it was great and it felt like it really propelled Yuki forward in a way that characters from the original Haruhi Suzumiya don't really get to permanently change.

I think the manga really benefits from telling the entire story of their high school career and not ending at the conclusion of the personality change arc. With this more zoomed out view, that experience was almost like a traumatic event that they both went through, which helped solidify their feelings.

Anyway, all of that is to say…I think this is a really cute, special story and I'm glad I dipped a toe back into my Haruhi Suzumiya phase to check it out. I know it's not the surreal sci-fi story of the original, and it deals more in "mundane" than in "novelty." But I think that's more what I was looking for, these days.

At the very least, Nagato's status as "favorite anime character" has been re-earned, and can now be defended for years to come.

[elbiotipo]

Apologies if someone has already asked you this, but what’s the fixation with coffee industry in sci-fi settings in particular? I definitely get the potatoes thing, but I didn’t get the point of contention sci-fi coffee. Understanding the sheer diversity of sci-fi as a genre - couldn’t we still say that most human-centric sci-fi settings either have a) more or less the same industry we have now, however dystopian or utopian the setting is, and the characters would have brought a certain amount of coffee for whatever interstellar trip theyre on, or b) food or general replication technology where you can just go up to a machine and it synthesises a molecularly perfect cup of coffee? Compared to how genuinely mind-boggling the idea of a southern hemisphere Andean crop existing apparently endemically in a northern hemisphere European climate, sci-fi coffee seems like something that can be way more easily explained or even just. Assumed or implied. Otherwise we might as well start asking where starship captains get bread, or soap or pillows or anything really. (Should we start asking about that???) Thanks for your time if you choose to answer this, this ask is meant in good faith and as a fellow worldbuilding enthusiast I am just plainly curious what your thoughts are!

Fixation? I wouldn't call it like that. I used coffee as an example, much like potatoes, because it has a really interesting and important history behind it that many people don't know about it because it's considered just a household item. In science fiction, it's natural to associate coffee with hardworking space captains, it feels natural that someone so busy would enjoy it (there's also Picard with tea, no major characters with yerba mate unfortunately, but I'm sure there are, even if they're just mine) , but you say it's just "assumed or implied", and it still somehow shows up everywhere.

The fact is that coffee is a luxury good, expensive to produce and that is only considered a household item by us because of a whole industrial, economical and social history behind it. It's something very unique to... Earth, let's say. Which gets the mind wondering when it shows up so far from Earth. Indeed, WHERE do they get their coffee from? How expensive is it to import it from Earth, or if there's not an Earth, what's the replacement, and why do you still call it coffee if it's something different? Are there worlds that produce it? What are those like, what is the coffee sold like? Do they worry they'll run out if they packed enough for the trip? I did say I want "ethnobotanical papers" but just some throwaway lines about this give a big flavor to the story, one I wouldn't find elsewhere. Just some lines like "the coffee from Saudade Station just isn't the same as from Earth", as silly as they sound, give your world a depth that I relish.

You say if we should start asking where they get bread or soap or pillows? Absolutely. Do you know how expensive would have to lift flour to orbit, or have whole space habitats to grow grain? It's not something you can grow in the hydroponics section of a tiny ship, for example. These are all real concerns that space agencies have been working with for decades in the event for future space settlement, and they are very fascinating to think about. Most sci-fi does tend to even hand-wave the cost of lifting stuff to orbit by making spaceships act like airplanes, but the fact is there still. And replicators are the definition of a disruptive technology, there is literally nothing more disruptive to a story that a replicator that can create anything on demand. A society with widely-available molecular replicators would be so incredibly different from our own that even the fact of getting up to drink some coffee would be questionable to me. Unless you're writing an episode of, I dunno, Atomic Betty, I expect a writer to give at least care a little to adress that.

All these questions are important not because of pedantry or because I find them fun to talk about (I really do), but because they define the setting and the world your characters live in, and so they give them more personality and depth, but also, it's the core of science fiction to me: how science and technology change a society, and the stories that can be told with that, and those stories do include how the world works. If you don't adress that, it's just interchangable with any other genre.

[neighbourlypod]

Can I ask for some good fiction podcast recs? If its horror, even better

(i Just cant stand sci fi)

The Secret of St Kilda is god level horror with terrestrial manifestations. The Silt Verses is a world in which there is a god of everything but not every god is good.

The Night Post is a story about supernaturally conscripted postal service workers, and the lengths that desperate people will go to. Spirit Box Radio is about destiny and how it changes you. Care and Feeding of Werewolves is about balancing care and revenge. Hello from the Hallowoods is about love and pain and fear and love. The Sheridan Tapes... you should listen to it, it's very good. What would you do to save yourself?

For a chill vibes podcast: Monstrous Agonies is a cathartic world to inhabit. Also, it's not as indie, but Everything is Alive is pretty good too for when you want a calm show that embraces the strange.

For a silly podcast with undertones of the most visceral agoraphobic existential horror you can conceive of: you really cannot beat The Stench of Adventure. And if you like that, try Human B Gon next.

For absurd podcasts that Will freak you out: The Great Chameleon War and The Milkman of St Gaff's.

Best post-apocalypse is Elaine's Cooking Podcast for the Soul.

I also think that everyone should listen to The Amelia Project.

And, it's a pretty new one, but you should also check out Among the Stacks.

If you wanna listen to an audio guide for a museum or gallery that does not exist, check out the Godfrey Audio Guide and The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality.

Something that is not science fiction but might not really be your vibe if you don't like sci-fi is Station Arcadia, but I like it and I think everyone should try it. It has a rich lore and benefits from relistens.

If you want something more like it's based in the real world, In Strange Woods, 36 Questions (both musicals), Patient 33, Wooden Overcoats (absurdist, maybe magical realism?) and Seen and Not Heard (podcast made by d/Deaf and HoH creators).

[runawaymun]

3,16,23 for the writer game💕

FRIEND <3 thank you!!!

3.    Name a fanfic/story you are particularly proud of writing.

Any of my longfics, really! Though even with how dear to me Stars is I think I am more proud of Boundless Sky overall. Stars is good, don't get me wrong, and I'm extremely proud that I have finished it, but even though Boundless Sky isn't finished yet I just know I am going to be so proud of it when it is. I'm already proud of it. I feel like my writing has grown a lot, and I'm doing so much with the plot and ahhh. I genuinely think it's some of my best writing to-date and shows off a lot of my strengths as a writer.

16.   Any ideas you wanted to write about, but never did?

Oh, so many haha. I don't know that I will ever get around to writing that Magician's Nephew/LOTR crossover AU, partially because it is just so unweildy and partially because the actual plot is very vague. But for now it lives there in my brain as a silly thing to think about sometimes. I have a lot of ideas about Elrond in Valinor as well, but I don't know that I will ever get around to writing them aside from bullet-points. We'll see. I just have so many big projects bouncing around in my head, and that's hard to manage when I also have a giant 7+ book sci fi series I'm co-writing with my best friend! (let alone the hisfic novel I'm trying to find an agent for...and the steampunk greek myth series...and the victorian hisfic novel...and-- you get the picture)

23.   Most memorable review/comment on a fic?

Oh gosh, this is really hard to choose! I think the ones I usually go back and reread the most are the long ones that really delve into the story and characterization and try to track what I am doing. The ones that pick up on all the little details and show me that the reader is really thinking about my work. Those are so nice because a) I can see if I am successfully leading the reader where I want them to go, or if I need to make adjustments, and b) it's just so satisfying to see people get that invested. I've also had a few where someone has said that the fic came to them at the right time, and has helped them through something difficult, and those I really do cherish. One of my goals as a writer has always just been to help people, because there have been so many times in my life when a stories saved me. So...it means a lot to me to hear that my work has made someone's day better, or was comforting in some way, or taught them something new.

Writer ask game

[inbarfink]

So my read of “Time Warp” and it’s place in, like, the greater picture of ‘Rocky Horror’, is that... it’s almost like a microcosm of the whole show in a way? You take a piece of 50′s-60′s kitsch (Horror\Sci-Fi B-Movies for all of Rocky Horror, silly dance crazes for the Time Warp) and you, well, warp it through a 70′s sexy countercultural lense. Time Warp’s vaugely sci-fi time-travel theme isn’t that out of place with actual 60′s dance crazes when you consider the Monster Mash and the Martian Hop exist, but the fact that it prominently features pelvic thrust as one of it’s main moves gives it a bit more of a sexual undertone.

The big common theme of the verses is to, like, exaggerate the tone in which these dance-craze-song talk about the dances to a comedic level. So instead of the song going “oh do this dance it’s so fun!” it’s “this dance is the only thing that is keeping me sane, it’s like a dream, it literally transformed me into a being that cannot sense time!”. 

And each spesific verse has one of Frank’s entourage do their silly praise of the Time Warp by comparing it to something thats:

A. Weird to Compare a Dance To B. Somehow on the theme of 70′s Counterculture C. Relevant to their character.

If we start with Riff-Raff’s verse:

This is... drug imagery. Specifically alcoholism (”Drinking those moments when\the blackness would hit me”). Now, Rocky Horror is surprisingly more coy in its references to Drugs compared to it’s trio partner, Sex and Rock’n’roll... but those that exist do tend to center around Riff-Raff: the “Flow Morphia slow” line in ‘Over the Frankenstein’s Place’, “He thought you were the candy man” was apparently in reference to an old euphemism for a drug dealer, you can catch him down an entire bottle of wine when the characters go to the lab...

Riff-Raff’s verse is about comparing the Time Warp to a drug. Cause those are both ways he tries to hold on to his sanity against the general misery and dismay of his life. 

Magenta’s verse is also interesting:

First, I will remind everyone that Riff’s the one who sing the “you’re under sedation” part of the verse. Again, comparing the Time Warp to a drug is kinda his Thing.

Meanwhile, Magenta’s thing is more... I guess you can like this verse to her habit of spying on people via the castle’s security cameras, but I think it’s more about fiction? And probably spesifically movies. I mean, when you watch a movie, you’re like a voyeur from another universe, watching everything while being totally unseen. It’s often compared to a dream or a freeing fantasy. (And since in the stage version, Magenta generally shares an actress with the Usherette that sings Science Fiction/Double Feature, you can say that there IS literally a version of Magenta in another dimension watching all of this unfold). Movies are known for playing with one’s sense of time... and that’s exactly why Magenta’s comparing it to dancing the Time Warp.

The connection to the 70′s\counterculture theme is a bit more loose compared to her brother Riff-Raff, but she is framing watching movies\doing the Time Warp as a very surrealist and kinda sexual (’with voyeuristic intention’) thing, which is pretty out-of-step with the kind of meanstream culture at the time . For her both dancing and movies are a way to mess with her sense of reality. 

Columbia’s verse is the most obvious in regards to her character:

Columbia compares the Time Warp to love, or maybe sex. probably both. This is clearly deeply relevant to her character and also easy to connect with the fun and thrill of the Time Warp Dance. I think here, time ‘meaning nothing’ refers to the hedonistic lifestyle she’s leading. Time means nothing when you’re only living for the now. I know some people like to debate whatever the snake-of-a-guy is talking about Eddie or Frank, but...

I actually think... if we are to look at this verse as a literal thing that happened to her, it makes more sense if it’s just Some Guy? Like, this is just Columbia talking about she got introduced to the counterculture and probably about her first casual sexual encounter, it doesn’t have to be about someone she actually loves right now. Comparing a dance to falling in love is honestly a bit too Normal for theme and also I have a hard time imagining either Eddie or Frank driving a pickup track.

[feejee-mermaid]

Turn and Face the Strange

Read on AO3 | Written for the X-Files Flicked Switch Fanfic Exchange

My second ever fic. A million thank yous to @dsmulder4u​ for the prompt, and to @cecilysass​ for the incredible beta, feedback and advice 🙏❤️

A late night conversation - some truths are revealed. Missing scenes in the middle of 'Rush'.

“I spy with my little eye, something... chartreuse,” Mulder said, inching the Taurus forward. I-95 was a sea of red taillights.

“Come on, at least make me work for it,” Scully said. “Mountain Dew bumper sticker, Buick Skylark, three cars ahead.”

Mulder sighed. “This game’s no fun with you. I should start playing with Skinner.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll try not to be so aware of my surroundings.”

“Please,” he agreed. “It's the least you could do.”

“I just thought, those details aren’t going to notice themselves. Silly me.”

“Downright absurd of you,” he said. “Stay in your lane, Scully. Leave the details to the details.”

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel to the time of David Bowie’s Changes, which was crackling softly on the radio.

“You weren’t kidding when you said it was slow going,” he said.

They’d decided to head back to DC after leaving the police station and grabbing a bite to eat, anticipating the same bumper-to-bumper traffic Scully had crawled through that morning to get to the Pittsfield, Virginia morgue. Mulder had wanted to deliver the evidence locker surveillance tape to Chuck Burks ASAP, he’d said, so the man could work his spooky tech magic. Scully knew Mulder hoped Chuck would substantiate his theory – find hard evidence of a force, a specter, a poltergeist – whatever alleged entity was seemingly responsible for the theft of the murder weapon.

Scully didn’t know how the flashlight had vanished. But a terrestrial suspect was far more likely, and if she had to lay odds, one mired in the turmoils of adolescense, as her partner would say.

The case had intrigued Scully. And if she was honest, she was drawn to it simply because it felt lighter than their usual fare. Yes, the Sheriff's deputy had been brutally murdered, flashlight through the skull. Yes, a 16-year-old kid, whom she was inclined to believe was innocent, was terrified, in serious trouble and on the verge of throwing his life away.

But for once, there was no conspiracy. There were no alien forces at work. There were no cigarette smokers slinking in the shadows, no black oil, no toxic green blood, no bad remnants of a sci-fi b-movie, no fraught hospital bedside vigils. They were both clear-headed, whole, healed – as much as possible anyway – and by God, they were constantly smiling at each other.

And she was still remembering his lips, pressed flush and warm against hers at the stroke of midnight, ushering in a new millennium.

Well, she amended, not technically. 2001, etc, etc. But it felt like something new. It felt like the start of a possibility.

“Whatcha thinking?” he asked, crunching a seed he’d grabbed from the bag tucked into the car console and licking salt from his index finger.

From the passenger seat she watched his long, thick digit disappear into his mouth. God.

“Max Harden is bad news,” Scully said.

“Hmm,” Mulder said. “He definitely wants to play the bad boy. I’m not sure if that makes him a murderer, though. Maybe. Or maybe he’s just showing off for his girlfriend.”

Scully thought of Chastity and involuntarily bristled, then chastised herself for the juvenile feeling. She wasn’t sure she wanted to examine it very closely. The girl had shamelessly checked out her partner and Mulder had done a double take. She’d leveled him with a look, and he’d chuckled sheepishly, and that was that. But she worried about her reaction. She knew she had a possessive streak running below the surface, buried deep like a copper vein.

It tended to flare whenever he got appreciative glances from waitresses, rental car agents, flight attendants, or even the more overt come-ons from the Shelia Fontaines who seemed to inhabit every pocket of small town America. Wherever they went, women were undressing him with their eyes. Not that she could really blame them. She had eyes herself.

“You think so?” Scully said. “Just showing off?”

“Well, you know, the rebel persona – cliched as it sounds – when it comes to women, it has a certain appeal,” he said, clearing his throat. “Or so I’m told.”

Scully absorbed that token of information. She thought of what she privately labeled “Covert Ops Mulder” – black leather jacket, black turtleneck, two days worth of scruff and sweat – breaking into top-secret biotech facilities, jumping onto speeding train cars, eyes ablaze with recklessness, vengeance or virtue. She had to admit, it was hot. It was the same Mulder she imagined lying awake in the dark, save the glow of the TV, reclined on his leather couch surrounded by sticky VHS tapes, hand wrapped around his cock.

She flushed.

“Hmm,” she said. “Not speaking from experience, are you?”

He grinned. “Who, me? You know me, Scully, I’m like an altar boy on Sunday.”

She shook her head and smiled. She shouldn’t encourage him.

Mulder glanced her way, eyes playful. After a beat he returned his attention to the road.

“Hopefully Chucky can crack this one open,” he said, switching tack, punctuating it with a crunch of another seed. “Wanna grab dinner tonight? We can go over case notes at my place.”

****

They were slouched shoulder-to-shoulder on Mulder’s couch, papers and Thai takeout containers strewn across the coffee table.

He was chewing his nail, eyes scanning Tony Reed’s police statement for about the fifteenth time.

“Mulder, when Tony said he got to the woods –” Scully started, but got distracted by the pink flesh of his tongue running across the jagged edge of a hangnail.

“Huh?” he said, dropping the finger from his mouth and turning to face her. He was surprisingly close, his mossy green eyes looking into hers, their noses almost touching. She forgot the rest of her sentence. An inch forward and she could give him a bunny kiss. Which was not the kind of kiss she usually thought about when she thought about kissing him. Which was embarrassingly often.

She leaned slightly towards him, drawn like a magnet, feeling his gentle breath across her cheek. He radiated heat, and she could smell the notes of his cologne – woodsmoke and sage and sandalwood. She had the urge to play with his tie again – if he hadn’t flung it off hours ago – to grab it and pull him into her, pressing his perfect full lower lip to hers, slipping her tongue against his.

His cell phone rang. He leaned back, noticibly irritated, searching for the source of the sound, and eyed the device on his desk. He rose to answer it.

“Mulder,” he said.

Scully swallowed back both disappointment and relief. She sat up and started tidying the coffee table, collecting food containers and trash.

“Thanks a million, Chuck,” Mulder said into the phone. “We’ll meet you at the office first thing in the morning.” A pause. “Any hints?”

Scully made her way into his kitchen, depositing the rubbish in the bin under Mulder’s dish-filled sink.

“Right,” she heard him say from the living room. “Yes, that’s no problem. Alright, thanks again.” He clicked off.

“That was Chuck,” he yelled.

Scully walked back into the living room. “So I gathered,” she said. “He find something?”

“I think so, but he wouldn’t divulge much over the phone. He ran the footage through a couple of cool new toys – said the results were surprising. He’ll give us the full rundown tomorrow.”

She felt the weight of the day hit her suddenly, and the familiar urge to retreat after a charged moment. “Okay,” she said with a yawn. “Maybe I should get out of your hair then. We’ve gone over the file so many times I can’t really see straight.”

He shrugged, his gaze straying down her body and then back up to her face. “Stay for a drink.”

Something warm and fluttery settled in her gut. Against her better judgment, she accepted.

****

“What were you like in high school, Mulder?” she asked, sipping her beer.

It was late, and he was invading her personal space, face soft and open.

He took a sip of his own drink, thinking about the question.

“I was... coping,” he said finally.

“Most of the time I put my head down and buried myself in school work. Extra credit, honors curriculum �� anything to get myself as far away as possible. I applied to schools all over Europe, schools on the west coast. I couldn’t put Martha’s Vineyard in my rear view mirror fast enough.”

“What about the rest of the time?”

“The rest of the time… I might not have made the best decisions. I was angry. I was trying to keep things together at home, keep my mom functioning. My dad was just silent, drinking, absent. I was furious with them both for making me be the parent. And I blamed myself for what happened.”

She swallowed back a wash of empathy and anger. God, everything he’d gone through – every person who had failed him. She wished she’d known him then. She would have held him to her fiercely, destroyed anyone who hurt him.

“Imagine we’d met in high school,” she said.

“You probably wouldn’t have liked me,” he said.

“I would have.”

He smiled. “That would have been something. Wow, a young Dana Scully.” He elbowed her gently in the ribs. “You definitely were a Betty, by the way. Some things never change. I bet all the boys fought over who got to be your lab partner.”

She snorted. “If they did, it was only because they knew they’d get an A.”

She thought of herself then – introverted, studious, desperate to be taken seriously, aching to make Ahab proud. Sneaking out with Missy to parties, secretly thrilled, feeling guilty about it for weeks afterwards and burying herself in books like an act of contrition. If Mulder had known her then he wouldn’t have given her a second glance.

Mulder shrugged. “I doubt that’s true. And if it is – well – boys are idiots.”

“And what about you?” she said. “You must have done alright yourself. All that angst, all that personal tragedy. Oxford bound, basketball and swim team captain – young Fox Mulder must have been beating them off with a stick.”

He laughed. “I might have been beating something off, but it wasn’t prospective dates,” he said.

She rolled her eyes, taking another sip of her drink.

“Seriously,” she said. “No girlfriends?”

“There may have been one or two,” he said. “Nothing serious. Although when you’re sixteen, everything feels serious.”

“You mean no one seriously fell for that trademark Fox Mulder charm?”

He cocked his head. “I have trademark charm?”

“Come on Mulder,” she said. “You must realize the effect you have on people. On females, in particular.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Do tell.”

“You know exactly what I mean,” she said. “I’ve seen it a hundred times over. It doesn’t matter where we are – you flash a smile and they… react. They get ideas. Like Chastity today at the police station."

Mulder rolled his eyes. “She’s a kid, Scully. I mean, flattering that I might inspire teen admiration, but a kid’s a kid.”

She waved her hand, conceding the point. “Yes well, that’s just an example,” she said. “I’ve got plenty of others. And you do lay it on especially thick when you want something. Why do I get the feeling that started at a young age?”

He grinned. “Did I just hear, on the record, that Dana Scully thinks I’m charming?”

She shook her head, a parade of women running through her brain, that same possessiveness roiling in her gut. That wolf woman, Bambi, Detective White. Detective White. That damned case, she thought. Mulder had been infuriating and insufferable and unprofessional and she had understood with a clarity she’d never known before how much she truly wanted to fuck him.

“I admit nothing,” she said.

“Does it work on you?” he asked.

“Of course not,” she said. I see it coming a mile away.”

He nodded, scanning her face, a half smile lingering on his lips. “Especially when I want something,” he said.

****

They were both three drinks in and he was kissing her, really kissing her, his hot tongue plunging inside her mouth. Irresponsible, she thought. Thank God.

One of his big hands was cradling the back of her head, the other was holding her at the hip as his body pressed hers into the couch. She could feel him rigid against her belly. She was feverishly hot and out of breath and soaking wet and she should absolutely stop this right this second. She kissed him harder, snaking her hand around the back of his neck to draw him closer. She was out of her mind, blissed out, her nerve endings fried. And they still had all their clothes on.

Mulder pulled back first, coming up for air. He was panting, wild eyed, tucking strands of loose hair behind her ear. She saw questions in his face. But also something that looked like certainty.

“Wow,” he said.

She kissed him again, slow and deep, like taking the first drink of water after years spent wandering through the desert. If you drink too fast you choke.

He pulled back again, pecking her lips, kissing her cheek and her temple, and pressing his forehead to hers.

“Scully...” he started, then fell silent.

The enormity of the moment hit her square in the chest.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

She frowned, pulling away, defenses poised.

“No, I just mean – this wasn’t the right time to start this,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a case, we’re meeting Chuck in seven hours, we’ve been drinking–”

Trust Mulder to choose now to be reasonable for the first time in his life.

“It’s the perfect time,” she said, eyes turning glassy.

“I just want to do it right is all,” he said, cupping her cheek. “It’s you.”

“It didn’t feel right?”

He closed his eyes. “You know that’s not what I mean,” he said. “Of course it felt right. It felt like the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“Me, too,” she said.

“It felt unbelievable,” he said.

“This from the man who’ll believe just about anything.”

He smiled. She took his hand, lacing her fingers through his. He lifted their hands, brushing his lips across her knuckles.

“You – this – God, Scully, it means everything to me.”

She nodded, overwhelmed.

“I think… with us, Mulder… how can there be a wrong way?” she said. “There’s only forward, there’s only together.”

He wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close. She rested her face against his neck, breathing him in.

“After the case is finished, let me take you on a date,” he said.

She chuckled. “Really?”

“Yes,” he said.

She had been everywhere with Mulder. He’d been the face across the table at a thousand greasy diners, he’d been asleep on the other side of countless motel room walls, he’d been next to her through endless road trips, hands steady on the wheel as their high beams pierced the dark. They’d played a million games of Rummy and Go Fish, biding their time in airport lounges, McMurdo station, quarantine.

He was there through cancer, through Missy’s death, her pillar through every one of her saddest and most terrifying moments. Beside him, she’d had the space to develop into her professional best. He’d given her agency and contributions the respect and value they deserved, and the work had been better for them.

He’d protected her, he’d saved her, he’d shouted at her, he’d infuriated her, he’d told her bad jokes, he’d told her the truth, he’d held her hand. And vice versa.

He’d shown her ghosts on Christmas Eve and a baseball diamond for her birthday, even though he was months early or months late.

She had absolutely no idea what a date with him would bring.

“Okay,” she said. “I’d love to.”

He dropped a kiss on her head, then pressed his cheek to her hair.

“Good,” he said, “good.”

They held each other for a few moments. She didn’t want to let him go.

“We don’t have to rush anything,” she said. “But Mulder – I’m not waiting another seven years to kiss you.”

He laughed, pulling back to look her in the eyes. His gaze dropped to her lips, and he cupped her face. He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers firmly, with reverence and intent. A promise.

“Deal,” he whispered.

[yutafrita]

The Eternal Tragedy- CHAPTER TWO

Chapter ONE/ TWO/ THREE/ FOUR/ P/ B

⋆☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋆｡°✩🪐°. ⋆ ･: ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆☾ ﾟ｡⋆⋆｡°✩⋆ ･:

DO YOU HAVE A COMRADE?

Pairing(s): Mafia!Yuta x Reader, Mafia!Sungchan x Reader Reader Pronouns: She/ Her Genre: Angst, Sci-Fi, Fantasy Chapter Word Count: 6.3K Warnings: Graphic violence, blood, alcohol use, references to catastrophic sci-fi events, references to sexual assault Masterlist

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It started with flowers on your mirror at work. It was a bouquet of sunflowers wrapped neatly in a red tulle. Always with a note attached.

You had no idea why Sungchan would spend as much money as he was getting you sunflowers. They were impossible to grow on Mars and could only be farmed from Earth’s moon, making them obscenely expensive. You had never even touched real ones until the day after you first declined Sungchan’s offer.

Sunflowers had always reminded you of earth and the stories from the planet your grandfather would share with you. Anytime you studied old artworks from the period when humanity was on earth, you could almost always see the sunflowers there, calling to you.

But, how could Sungchan have guessed that these were the flowers you had always dreamed about? Tulips and roses had become just as rare a commodity as sunflowers, yet it was these that he chose. 

Several days after declining Sungchan’s initial offer, you headed out to work. Opening your apartment door you saw Yuta perched outside. Annoyed, you quickly locked your door and pushed past him.

“Not even a ‘hello?’ Or a, ‘why are you here?’” he sniggered, quickly catching up and matching your pace out of your apartment complex and onto the street.

“How did you even get into my complex? You need a card to even enter,” you stopped to ask him, ignoring the toothpick jutting out from his teeth.

“I just followed someone in- your neighbors are very nice,” you wished you could punch that stupid smirk off his face. You huffed, tightened your grip on the backpack you took to work and started back down the block.

“You know, every bouquet of sunflowers costs about a half a million bucks,” Yuta continued, matching your pace easily. “Even dead, those things can go for a very pretty penny.”

“He can have them back,” you refused to have something as silly as flowers hanging over your head, no matter how much you actually did like seeing them.

Yuta shook his head, taking out his toothpick. “It’s just very bold of you to be carrying them so openly every night into your apartment.”

“Is that a threat?”

“You’re quite confrontational,” he mused. Yuta followed behind you into the alley, shaking hands with several of the vendors as he did so.

“I’ve already told Sungchan- I don’t want that job. And I don’t like you just… showing up at my home,” you hissed the last part, not wanting any of the alley patrons to hear you.

“Well, Sungchan is just concerned about your safety, and I’m no one if not a people pleaser,” Yuta kept his eyes on the alley, his eyes scanning the shuffle of vendors.

“Bullshit. He sent you to intimidate me.”

Yuta whistled, his tail wagging enough for you to see it. “You’re feisty- that’s going to get you into trouble.”

You were trying to develop a comeback before he walked away from you, whistling as he did so, tail swaying playfully. “Bastard,” you muttered.

Slipping past the security guard after you got your coffee, you were greeted by yet another bouquet at your station.

“He splurged this time,” Seulgi whistled at you. Irene was having Seulgi fasten her red corset, who nodded towards you as she tightened the fastens on her cat-clawed friend. Shotaro had themed the night Angels versus Devils. It was clearly one of Seulgi’s favorite nights judging by the fact that she temporarily dyed her bunny ears red.

Seulgi was right- he did splurge. The bouquet was a mix of yellow tulips and sunflowers, easily double the already exorbitant price he had spent on the previous ones. It was clear to you that he was ramping up the pleading. You tried to pay the bouquet no mind as you changed out from your street clothes into the outfit you had shoved into your backpack.

“Oh thank god I’m not the only one dressing as an angel tonight,” Goeun smiled as she saw you put the small white wings onto the back of your short white dress.

“Bor-ing,” Seulgi teased.

“I’m just reusing an old halloween costume,” you admitted. 

“Maybe Sungchan will think it’s boring too,” Irene hummed. 

Seulgi sighed. “I still don’t understand why you won’t just take that job.”

“Not everyone comes from a syndicate family, Seulgi. I mean- I’d take the job too, but she has every right not to,” Irene defended.

“A job’s a job,” Seulgi shrugged. You all got ready with minimal chatting before Shotaro entered, clipboard first with a small halo on his head.

“Good evening ladies!” he cheered. After you all took your assignments, you stepped out from the beaded curtain to head over to the bartop, a familiar figure speaking to the security guard outside of your dressing room.

“Pretend to be excited to see me again, at least,” Yuta teased, seeming to enjoy the irritated look on your face. Scrunching your nose slightly, you ignored him and maneuvered to the bar, noting that he was following closely behind you. You moved to take your place behind the bar to start setting up as the fox man sat in a stool in the corner of the bartop.

“We aren’t even open yet,” you snapped at him.

“I’m here under official business from the boss, so that doesn’t matter,” he took out the toothpick from between his lips and lifted it towards you. “Throw this out for me, angel?”

You frowned, “don’t call me that.”

He tapped the crown of his head, “I was referring to your costume, but I do like how much it bothers you.”

You rolled your eyes, snatching the toothpick from him and tossing it into the trash can without another thought. You continued to ignore Yuta, speaking openly with Goeun as you two continued to set up the bar.

“I’m really hoping these stupid costumes help with tips tonight,” you mindlessly admitted to her. 

“Me too! I’ve had my eye on this vintage movie collection for a while so I’m hoping I can put a bid on it tomorrow.”

“Oh that’s so fun! I was just putting it in my savings,” you chuckled. You always knew that Goeun was the cooler of you two, but it was small admissions like this that reminded you of this fact.

“I don’t trust banks,” she muttered. Goeun wasn’t alone in this hesitation. After earth became uninhabitable and humanity spread itself across the solar system, the banks crashed and caused billions of people to be penniless. Nowadays, despite most banks claiming to be extremely secure, citizens of the solar system tend to rely on older methods of finance and saving. Your mother stuck to the method of hiding the family’s savings under the mattress, and after some trial and error in your college days, you found the water tank of the toilet to be the best method for you.

“Me neither. I’m just trying to save to buy a house.”

“Bor-ing,” she giggled, gently shoving your arm. Shortly thereafter, the club was open and in full swing- customers asking for their drinks and the two of you moving as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“Can you get me some soju, angel?” Yuta asked, setting his empty glass of whiskey on the counter.

You shook your head. “You know the policy is fifteen minutes minimum between drinks.”

“I made that policy.”

You paused your mixing, shooting the fox man a glare. “Does every member of the syndicate have a hand in this god damn club?” it was getting aggravating for you. Between Jisung being trained in different areas of the club, your boss, the owner, and now the person following you around all having such ties to the club and the syndicate, you were exhausted trying to keep up.

“I'm the head of security. How do you not know that?”

“I don’t ask questions,” you returned to making drinks for those at the bar, shooting smiles as you did.

“That makes for a great accountant,” he smirked. You ignored him, forcing your smile as you poured over the drinks and slid them down to the patrons. You rubbed your sweaty hands on the hem of your dress, looking back up to meet Yuta’s gaze. He lifted his glass again, wiggling his wrist as he did so. “It’s been fifteen minutes.”

You absentmindedly handed Yuta his bottle of soju, moving down the bartop to continue your job.

“How’s it going?” Goeun maintained her smile as she mixed her drinks.

“As good as it can be!” your smile was still noticeably forced. Shotaro rarely had you working as a bartender and usually preferred to have you as a waitress as evident by your normal shifts. However, he also wanted you to occasionally bartend and not get rusty, so, during the week he found it fun to throw you behind the bar with Goeun.

As the night passed and patrons started to slowly dwindle, you began to clean up the counter, collecting tips as you went. The feeling of the cash between your fingers and weighing on your small apron made an authentic smile appear across your lips. You continued clearing out glasses and waving goodbye to your patrons, all the while well aware of Yuta’s eyes following your every movement.

“So, if you aren’t following me around to just force me into this job,” you were topping off Yuta’s last drink for the night, “what is the reason?”

“I told you. Sungchan’s worried about your safety.”

“Hm, just as I thought. He’s a bad bullshitter,” you moved away from Yuta, keeping the smirk on your face as you imagined his dumbfounded expression.

“I told him he should just move on and find another accountant,” this caught your attention, and you swiveled around on the heel of your boot to study Yuta’s expression. “It’s obvious you don’t want to deal with the price of being a part of the syndicate, and I respect you, angel.”

You were quiet, the soft hum of the closing of the bar being the only sound between the two of you. 

“You’re being serious,” it wasn’t a question, just an observation.

“Sungchan doesn’t take well to not getting what he wants. Guy like him doesn’t become the leader of a crime syndicate by taking no for an answer,” Yuta gently pushed the glass towards you. “I also haven’t seen him ever work so hard to appeal to someone's affections.”

This made you pause. “Affections?”

Yuta furrowed his eyebrows. “Affections. Duh.”

A shiver ran down your spine. “So it isn’t just about that stupid job?”

Yuta laughed, swiping under his eye before he replied, “he won’t admit it. I don’t think it’s about the job- although, it would be a plus to have that position filled.”

For the rest of the week, everytime you would step out of your apartment to work, you came to expect Yuta’s presence. Rather than lurking from a distance, he enjoyed annoying you into small talk. At the same time, whenever you would enter work, you came to expect some other object at your station.

With flowers, you found yourself accepting it mainly because of the fact that you knew they would die soon in the Mars atmosphere anyways. However, when Sungchan began leaving more permanent items as gifts- necklaces, handbags, and today, a laptop, you found yourself dumping them into Yuta’s arms on your way to your assigned place of work.

“For all he’s spending on gifts he could be paying someone else to do the damn job,” you hissed at Yuta.

“I told him the same thing,” he whistled, unphased as he handed the laptop off to another member of club security. 

Yuta had taken to being in a corner of the room whenever you worked- far away enough that he wouldn’t breathe over your neck, but always close enough that you could feel his eyes on you no matter what. 

It was still difficult to meet his gaze for a few reasons. One reason was simply because it bothered you that you had put up with Yuta following closely behind you at all times. The second reason was because you still weren’t used to observing beauty like his so closely. You may not like the fact that he was a syndicate member nor the fact that he wouldn’t leave you be, but you would be a liar if you couldn’t admit that he was one of if not the most attractive person you had ever seen. 

It didn’t help how you’d sometimes find your mind wandering whenever you did look at Yuta. You wondered if his lips really were as soft as they looked. You wondered if his fingers were as nimble as they were whenever he played cards with other syndicate members. You wondered if he was as generous as a lover as he was whenever he’d tip you and the rest of the waitstaff.

Difficult, was becoming an understatement.

All the while, you hadn’t seen Sungchan since your first encounter with him, now nearly a month ago. Despite all the gifts he had thrown your way, the note on each of them was the same: I wait for your answer -J.S.

It bugged you more than Yuta following you around did. You already gave Sungchan your answer- but it wasn’t the answer Sungchan had wanted. 

Before work one day, you were eating a small snack of dandelion cookies, scrolling through listings of houses on your laptop.

Condo on Mars!

HOME ON SATURN MOON.

Apartments for Rent on Jupiter's Moons.

You shuddered reading the ads for Jupiter and Saturn's moons. Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune were the only planets in the solar system humans had not managed to properly colonize yet, but they have done a pretty solid job of colonizing their surrounding moons.

Begrudgingly, you shoved your costume for the night into your backpack and slipped out of the apartment. Like clockwork, you heard the sound of feet following behind you. You paused. These footsteps were different from the ones you had grown used to. Whipping your body around, your breathing halted.

“You look adorable,” Sungchan smiled, moving towards you with far too much familiarity. Instinctually, you stepped back. Sungchan stopped in his tracks, his eyes facing down at your feet.

“What are you doing here?” you asked, your voice coming out far more meek than you would have liked it to. Sungchan’s eyes moved up to meet yours and you felt the hairs on the back of your neck rise as they did. He was undeniably handsome, but unlike Yuta, there was something lingering in the back of this young man’s eyes- something you noticed the first time but only truly felt now.

Sungchan straightened out his tie before he spoke. “I asked Yuta to make sure you were safe while I was away on business, but I’m back now. Don’t need to bother the head of security if I’m available.”

“I don’t need protection. I’ve worked at your bar for over two years just fine,” you huffed. Not waiting for Sungchan to formulate a response, you started down the steps and out onto the streets. You may not have seen him in a month, but you were able to stew in your anger the whole time.

“I didn’t know that you were there, though,” Sungchan had managed to catch up to you, walking side by side with you down the sidewalk. Upon seeing his accentors, people nearly threw themselves out of the way, and you caught the corner of his lip raise in a smirk. 

“Whatever that means. Can you just… leave me alone? I already told you- I don’t want the job as the accountant,” you plead. A small, foolish part hoped that if you were direct enough, that Sungchan would understand and leave you alone. 

“I would have left you alone a long time ago if I could,” he replied blankly, his eyes watching your expression closely. Foolish.

“Why do you keep talking to me like that?” you stopped outside of the alleyway, well aware of the gazes streaming through as they watched the head of the largest syndicate speaking openly to one of his waitresses while not on the clock. “Why are you so… ominous? And why are you talking like you have no pride? Or agency? My god… I thought you were the boss.”

“I am the head of the largest syndicate in the solar system, I have more agency than you could even dream of,” this seemed to have struck a nerve in the deer as he glared down at you.

“Then why can’t you leave me alone?” 

Sungchan clenched his jaw before he ran his hand past his face and through the front of his hairline. “Just… consider my offer. I’ll see you tonight,” he brushed past you then, moving to enter the front of the Garden.

***

Shotaro had handed you an outfit to wear for the night, much to your dismay. He seemed to feel bad about it as he saw you open the box and pull out the ridiculous costume- well, ridiculous to you at least.

“This is a brand new skirt from Louis Vitriol. It was just in Paris-York Fashion week,” Irene admired the short plaid skirt, taking it from the box Shotaro handed to you.

“This is authentic Venus craftsmanship… These garters are hundreds of dollars each,” Seulgi added, her fingers tracing over the leather work. You shook your head, the heat rising to your face as you stared down at the note buried inside the box indicating who it was from.

“I’m not wearing this,” you felt your chest swell in anger. Shotaro rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from you as if he were ashamed.

“If you don’t wear it, I was told to send you away for the night.”

“Fine!”

“And then to fire you for walking off the job,” he muttered, his eyes darting away.

“You can’t do that,” Goeun spoke for you, her anger stifled by the silly schoolgirl outfit she had on. The theme was back to school, and while the outfit you had originally planned was skimpy, it paled in comparison to what Sungchan wanted you to wear.

“You’ll be working in the downstairs area tonight, so no one else will see you,” Shotaro added as if to comfort you. 

“Who would see me, then?” you asked, knowing the answer. Shotaro was quiet as he took a step back, announcing everyone else's place for the night and getting them out of the dressing room.

“I’ll be right out here. Once you’re ready I’ll take you downstairs,” Shotaro leaned in closely then, “if he tries something you don’t like, book it out of there. I’ll make sure you keep your job.” There was a weight placed into your front pocket, and then, you were alone. The outfit Sungchan had forced you into left little to the imagination, but tucked into your outer thigh and strapped in by the garter belt was the knife Shotaro had snuck to you. You had never gone to the downstairs area of the club. You knew this was where Shotaro’s office was, but never cared to learn more. 

Shotaro had led you down the marble steps and simply said, “last door at the end of the hall.”

Walking alone, the only sound was your platformed boots squeaking along the marble floor. You felt miserable. It’s not that you weren’t confident in yourself, you just hated the feeling of being so exposed- especially against your will. Your ass hung out from the bottom of the miniskirt, your button up shirt showed a little more of your torso and tits than you would have liked, and the garter belt emphasized far more than you deemed necessary. 

You were marching into Sungchan’s office fully ready to quit. You didn’t need this shit! You had saved enough money, and hell, you had a masters degree! He may be head of the syndicate and have his finger in every pie in the city, but he couldn’t control you.

Steeling yourself, you didn’t bother knocking before turning the handle to enter the space.

You weren’t sure what you expected. Maybe a large torture room where he showed you what happens to people who refuse his bidding. You even half expected a ridiculously lavish lounge filled to the brim with gold and other silly, opulent objects.

What you didn’t expect was what you got- a simple office with an oak desk, and several overstuffed bookshelves along the walls. In front of the desk sat Sungchan in a stool not meant for someone of his height as he hunched in front of a blank canvas. He was facing another small stool that stood empty. Sungchan turned his head your way and unabashedly stared at your chest.

“My eyes are up here, dipshit.”

“I guess I was never subtle,” Sungchan turned his gaze back up to your eyes. “Take a seat.”

“Why?”

Sungchan furrowed his brows, seeming to suck out the small bit of courage you were feeling as he did so. He raised a free hand and dug into his suit jacket before yanking out a paper.

“I heard through the grapevine that you’re looking to buy a home away from Nuevo Seoul.”

You didn’t even bother asking how he knew this, for it was obvious to you that Yuta had heard your conversations with Goeun.

“What if I told you that I have in my hand a deed to land that is yours to have?”

You shook your head. “It doesn’t matter. Plus, I doubt-.”

“It’s on the moon, the part that faces earth.”

You were silent. The community on the moon consisted of two things- the extremely wealthy families who could afford the plots of land there, and the two farmlands that managed to grow earthlike crops for a pretty penny. It was as close to earth as you could possibly get, but even on your nice salary it would be impossible to afford, hell, even with as much as the syndicate made it still didn’t seem possible.

How could Sungchan have possibly known that this was what you wanted?

Your bottom lip trembling, you forced a false confidence. “How do I even know that deed is real?”

He tucked the paper away into his suit jacket, turning back to face the canvas. “Take a seat and we can talk about it.”

You stood still at the door, glaring at Sungchan’s back. You couldn’t deny that you were curious about the deed, but you also reminded yourself of the immense distress even being in the same room as him caused you. The time ticked. Slowly, you walked yourself past Sungchan and to the empty stool across from him and the canvas. You didn’t miss the small smile that appeared on his lips that vanished just as quickly.

“You look lovely.”

“I hate this outfit. Now, tell me about the deed.”

“Can you cross your legs and place both your hands over your thigh?” he instructed, pointing at you with the pencil in his hand. Pressing your lips together, you crossed your ankles and set your two balled up fist on your overexposed thigh. “It’s a house my family has owned on the moon since humanity first colonized the solar system.”

“And why would you give that to me?”

“Because I know it’s the one thing that would convince you to stay near me,” Sungchan replied bluntly as he started to lightly sketch. 

“Why can’t you take no for an answer?”

He paused on his sketch, meeting your gaze now. You hated how attractive he was- his brown eyes seeming to pin you down where you sat. He was younger than Yuta at least at first blush, but there was something in the younger man’s eyes that showed someone wise beyond his years.

“Why the moon?”

You purse your lips at his question. You had never verbalized the truth to anyone- even in your head it felt… silly.

“It’s because the earth calls to you, isn’t it,” Sungchan looked back down at this canvas, and your eyes widened. “It calls to you, and even though you know the earth is no longer safe, you wish to be in its orbit and as close to it as possible. Is this correct?”

“H-how…?”

“I know lots of things,” he hummed, “and I could say the same. I feel called to you, and I want to be in your orbit.”

There were a lot of things wrong with his response. For one thing- the earth couldn’t speak for itself while you could. Perhaps it was because he was the first person to ever put together your fascination with the deserted planet and seem to respect it, but you stayed on the stool, watching him slowly sketch.

“Why did you put me in this stupid outfit?”

“I just wanted everyone to see how adorable you are,” he countered, a sly smile turning his face up. You looked away in embarrassment, staring at one of the many bookshelves he had in his office. He scared you, but you couldn’t deny the way you felt flattered by his attraction towards you. “Eyes on me please… I’m trying to get this lighting right.”

You turned your face back, hoping the blush faded away.

“You don’t seem like someone who does art.”

“That’s a little judgemental of you, no?”

You shrugged. “When I think of the head of the syndicate, I don’t think of someone who is as young as you who also is an artist.”

Sungchan chuckled then, still sketching. “I’m a lot older than I look.”

“Your head of security seems older than you.”

“I knew it was unwise to have you spending more time with him,” Sungchan clicked his tongue, glaring down at the canvas before his eyes flitted back to you. You looked at his deer horns, and how in the dim lighting of his office, they seemed golden, making his wings appear heavenly.

“He’s nice,” you defended.

“I’m sure that’s all you think about with him,” Sungchan sounded bored, the bite in his statement not being there in the way you would have expected. Before you could remind him of the fact that he’s the one that forced Yuta to watch you, there was a loud pounding at the office door, making you jump slightly in your seat. Within the blink of an eye, there was a weight on your lap. It was Sungchan’s blazer.

“Put this on, if you want,” while there was leniency in his words, one look in his eyes showed that it wasn’t merely a suggestion. Annoyed but all the while pleased to have some coverage, you slipped on the blazer. 

“Sir we need final input on the se-,” the man walking in paused before squinting at you, “the stuff that is legal. Hey, weren’t you that waitress who trained little Jisung?”

“One of them, yeah,” you recognized the man from the night you met Yuta. He sat a few booths down and was notable to you only for the fact that he was the only one at the booth without any accentors. Tonight, he had on a full suit and held in his hands a manilla folder. 

“I thought you only did still life paintings,” Johnny looked teasingly at Sungchan who ignored the man's comment and took the folder in his hand.

“Hm,” was all Sungchan said as he glanced over the contents. He sat back down at the canvas, leafing through a few more pages. “How distraught is she?”

“Extremely,” Johnny replied, his lips pressed tightly together. “I don’t blame her.”

“Of course not. Well…” Sungchan looked up at you, cocking his eyebrow, “can you pick a number between one and ten for me?”

Your face twisted in confusion, Sungchan’s unmoving expression giving nothing away. You caught Johnny’s chuckle and felt a small twinge of irritation.

“Three.”

“You’re much too nice… Fine. Cut three fingers and three toes- but make one of them his thumb, that’s all,” Sungchan handed the folder back to Johnny who quickly shuffled out from the office.

You jumped off the stool, eyes wide in horror and disgust. “What the fuck?”

“Hm?” Sungchan seemed bored again, looking back at where you stood. “Ah can you sit back down? I was almost done sketching.”

“Don’t use me in your sick fucking games!” You shouted, throwing off his blazer and tossing it to the ground.

“He assaulted her.”

You froze where you stood, ice flooding your veins and keeping you from moving. “What?”

“One of the syndicate-run brothels had an incident where a client ignored the boundaries of our workers. I would say he deserved to be punished,” Sungchan hummed. “I normally would want them to be castrated but we’ll just have the cops do that themselves.”

You were back on the stool for what felt like several hours then, your mind wallowing in a shame you couldn’t even begin to articulate. You hated Sungchan for pushing your own boundaries and his numerous attempts to get you to do a job you did not feel comfortable doing, yet, you were still in awe at the realization that they actually took care of all their workers. 

Sex work on Mars was illegal, but in Nuevo Seoul (especially if you were connected to the Dragon Crime Syndicate), the cops were willing to turn a blind eye to the brothels. At your job, Shotaro and the security team were always helpful. You hated working for the syndicate not because of how they treated you, but because you feared the repercussions of getting caught. 

Then, a petty, stupid, thought intruded into your brain; if Sungchan was willing to torture a man for someone he didn’t even know, what lengths would he go to for you?

You were quiet until Sungchan checked the time on his watch. “Seems like it’s closing time,” he sat up from the stool and dug into the pocket of his pants, taking out his wallet.

You stood up from your stool and brushed past him on your way towards the door. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You’ll be getting paid for your time in one way or another,” he replied, putting his wallet back in his pocket nonetheless. It was one thing for you to take money from patrons, but it felt like a whole other thing to take money from the owner of the bar, especially when you felt so sick in your gut. “I’ll be walking you home now.”

“I’d rather be alone,” you knew it was pointless, especially as you felt Sungchan set his blazer jacket back atop your shoulders.

“Neuvo Seoul may be safer than other big cities, but no way in hell you’re walking out of here dressed like that on your own.”

You clenched your jaw. “You made me wear this shit.”

He simpered, “I know.”

You followed behind Sungchan down the marble hall. When you initially made your way down, you had ignored your surroundings in a blind rage and fear. Now, you observed the different statues teeming about, the way each square inch of the walls held a priceless painting. You stopped in front of one, leaning in closely to confirm your suspicions.

“These are original paintings,” Sungchan answered for you. You didn’t turn around, knowing that he stood merely an inch away from your back. “It’s the abduction of Persephone.”

The painting was horrifying to you. The dark colors swallowed the two primary figures. There were hands clawing through the ground to try and save a struggling Persephone as she fought against her abductor. It was beautiful, this was undeniable, but you couldn’t deny the agony you felt when you saw it.

“I thought most Rembrandt paintings were destroyed when the earth was.”

“This one was a part of a big heist in the late 1900s, and whoever stole it sent it to the moon with some rich patrons decades later,” Sungchan explained. “Did you take an art history class?”

You shook your head, “my Mom works for the Paris-York Museum of Art.” 

“Ah, sounds like an interesting lady,” Sungchan’s voice sounded more distant. You turned your head back, seeing that he now stood several steps away, his eyes locked onto your own. 

The club was clearing out slowly, and as you made it back to the ground level, you saw Irene and Seulgi both gaze at you with clear looks of concern as they watched you re-enter with the head of the syndicate. 

“Good night!” Shotaro called over, his smile so bright despite the dark cloud that seemed to follow Sungchan. Maneuvering past other high up syndicate members all making sure to say goodbye to him, you and Sungchan were greeted by the chill of Mars’ night air.  While the man-made atmosphere made it possible for humans to generally survive on the planet, there wasn’t much it could do about the planet’s inclination to become frigid at night.

Begrudgingly, you slipped your arms through Sungchan’s blazer, sighing as the warmth enveloped your chest. You looked at the man who had his sleeves rolled up, arms tucked behind him as he quietly walked next to you.

“I like the cold,” he seemed to read your mind, his eyes glancing over at you. You averted your gaze, and focused on the nightlife that seemed to be slowly dwindling. You had gotten used to the odd schedule of finishing work at three in the morning, but you would never get used to Mars’ red moons in the sky and the citizens of Nuevo Seoul who also seemed to be finishing their own late night shifts. You looked back over at Sungchan, his wings fully exposed now that you wore his blazer.

“Do you cut out holes in all your shirts for those things?” you caught yourself absentmindedly asking. He stopped walking, his eyes studying you then. You realized what, to you, was an error- you felt comfortable enough around him to ask such a rude question. 

Then, he chuckled, “sometimes I do, but this shirt was tailored for me.”

You let go of a breath you hadn’t realized you were holding, nodding as you turned your gaze back down to your feet.

“You really shouldn’t be so curious,” Sungchan muttered. 

“I’ll have you know that I didn’t even know the head of security until a month ago, let alone… who you are,” you snapped.

“Ah, so you don’t know about the insane killing spree I had a year ago, that’s a shame,” Sungchan’s tone was serious. You met his gaze, and watched the corner of his mouth twitch, holding back a chuckle.

“That sounds like something you’d do,” you countered, pulling out your keys.

“Hm, not without reason,” Sungchan admitted as you entered your building's courtyard. Glancing up, you froze. Your apartment door was open and lights were turned on, and from what you could see on the third floor, men were teeming around the area.

“What the fuck?” Sungchan beat you to it, and looked over to you. “Stay here.”

“Fuck off!” you shouted, taking a step to move away from the syndicate boss before he moved directly in front of you. “This is my home,” your body trembled now as you looked up at Sungchan’s piercing eyes.

Sungchan grit his teeth, glancing up at the apartment before looking at your own shaking figure. “If I say to run, you run, okay?”

Even if you didn’t mean it, you needed the tall wall of a man to move out of your way somehow, so you nodded in agreement. 

Your apartment was in a disarray. Yuta stood at the front door, explaining himself to a visibly angry Sungchan.

“... by the time I got here the door was already broken open. They didn’t take everything, but-.”

“I don’t understand why the fuck you wouldn’t think to call me immediately,” Sungchan snarled.

You were too stunned to even interject. Yuta saw your dazed expression, and looked down in shame. “Sungchan asked me to meet you both here to make sure your place was safe… I should have gotten here sooner.”

“God dammit,” Sungchan pushed past the fox man, storming into your apartment as if it was his own. You surveyed the damage from the door, noting the two other men that greeted the angered boss as they cleaned up the broken glass scattered all over your floor. The flowers were all gone too, this much you could easily tell. 

Glancing to the side, your eyes widened in horror.

You shoved Yuta out of the way, rushing to your bathroom and seeing the worst sight imaginable.

“No no no no no no no no no no,” you repeated, your throat catching as sobs began to rack your chest. The lid of the toilet was tossed aside, and inside the water tank which formerly held your entire life savings, now just held water and two empty ziploc bags.

Gone.

It was all gone.

Tears were streaming down your face and you ran your hands against your cheeks in an attempt to stifle the sadness and anger welling up inside. All of your money was gone. You kept swiping your hands at your cheeks, snot streaking along the blazer as you stared down at the empty water tank. A hand rested on your shoulder, and you shot a quick look at the mirror.

“All of my money,” you told Yuta, your voice coming out in a croak.

“We’ll find them and get all of your money back, angel,” he tried to comfort you. “It’ll be okay.” You were so petrified and angry that you glossed over the stupid nickname he seemed to permanently assign to you.

You turned back around, meeting Yuta’s gaze. “Where’s Sungchan?”

He pressed his lips into a line, his fox ears twitching as if fighting back an urge you had no desire to decipher. “He’s on the line with some syndicate members, trying to get street camera footage.”

“Tell him… tell him I’ll take the stupid job."

CHAPTER THREE: SEE YOU COWGIRL, SOMEDAY, SOMEWHERE!

Taglist! @nini0620 @maleegayuh @projectxdemons @deakyspuff

[swagalicioussquids]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers ♡

We uh. Couldn't agree on a collective list. So here, have… 20 different "5 things that make you happy" lists. ✨

This probably goes without saying, but these are A) non-exhaustive and B) not necessarily in order.

Also, we banned ourselves from directly listing friends/family/partners because folks with a lot of loved ones were running out of space to list… anything else. lists under a cut because wow this got long:

🕯️ Nuri 🕯️

Orange things

Glowy things (candles, fairy lights, fireflies, etc.)

Nice comments on my writing (the more specific the better)

Shavuot

Talking to friends

🦀 Deyan 🦀

Cladograms

Art of my characters

Identifying amphipods

Silly pranks

Watching birds move

🐺 Mulch 🐺

Cats

Poetry

Plants (with a particular nod towards cosmos flowers and apple trees)

Honeycrisp apples

Puzzles

🌊 Boaty 🌊

Reading and writing smut

Being on boats

Dark chocolate

Party games with friends

Writing and receiving letters

👁️‍🗨️ [narrator] 👁️‍🗨️

Parrots

Spooky art with hopeful messages

Welcome to Nightvale

Eye motifs

Happy animal rescue stories

🪶 Datura 🪶

Children

Foggy weather

Mushrooms

Mosquitoes

Witnessing kindness towards children or oft-maligned animals

⛈️ Ezekiel ⛈️

Thunderstorms

Fireflies

Otters

Emojis

Learning about heroes

💀 Haunt 💀

Shopping (especially in new places!)

Watching cartoons

Boba tea

Listening to Nettle read

Clothes with fun or spooky patterns on them

🌵 Nettle 🌵

Sharing stories

Language preservation efforts

Forests

Dangerous plants

The company of family, including the chosen variety

🏹 Rook 🏹

Live acoustic music

Horses

Dogs

Romantic stories

Learning about history

☄️ Matt ☄️

Dwarf planets

Kitchen disaster fics

Sci fi

Sweat bees

Science memes

🌹 Roan 🌹

Being outdoors

Flowers (particularly roses)

Seeing my loved ones happy

Pleasant nature smells

A bit of good-natured mischief

☀️ Naeem ☀️

Roleplaying

Reading

Riding cars with the windows open

The sun

Puzzle games

🦝 Sariq 🦝

WINNING!! >:3

Raccoons

Pranks

Chaos

Rare steaks

🌨️ Snow 🌨️

Bunnies!

Sweet pastries

Spooky stories with happy endings

Pokémon

Making D&D characters

🐅 Biao 🐅

White tigers

Martial arts

Cartoons

Kids

Dance Dance Revolution

🔥 S'mores 🔥

Marshmallows

Beef ribs

Stories about dragons

Pop music

Camping

🪡 Silkworm 🪡

Pretty fiber arts (especially embroidery)

Spider webs covered in dew

Beautiful moths and butterflies

Stained glass windows

Being showed things that made people think of me

🦂 Fang 🦂

Karaoke

Pranks

Dancing

Comfy clothes

Trans and aroace pride stuff

⚡ Amarillo ⚡

YELLOW!!!

Pokémon

Coloring with twist-up crayons

Plushies

Silly stories