#because another character already has the name rika

[rayhantochtli]

Redraw of that one pokemas Rika picture

[ryncorrect]

The Ssum 2 is actually... not that bad?

It has been 14-ish days since The Ssum: Love From Today (or The Ssum Season 2 if we must) was released. We were introduced to a new character named June, a blonde cutie pie that looks kinda sad (?) and fragile (?) and reminds me of Yoosung from the very first picture release. His voice and the way he talks even gives off Yoosung vibe even more. The spoiler stated, “He has ties to someone from Mystic Messenger,” and I was like, OKAY YOOSUNG????? Or perhaps a little far off, RIKA????? Then bam it’s actually—welp if you haven’t played it yet then I’ll let you find it out yourself lol

The revelation received mixed reaction from “wtf” to “WTF??” and I gotta admit I was one of them who was like,,,,, why,,,,, but it didn’t get to make me stop playing June route because:

- The writing in this season actually gets better

Teo route was boring af (spoiler alert?) boi kept doing part time jobs, we got two couple fights that didn’t even make sense, and somehow he ended up getting involved in a cult like ??????? I know they were trying to build a slow pacing relationship that lasted 200 days and added many “realistic” things but fam this aint it. And don’t get me started with the waiting time in between his chats, like 20+ minutes to wait for him climbing a hill, in a bed time chat? Nah fuk u man

Harry route.... god I hate don’t like it very much because 1) he doesn’t make it easy for me at all, 2) some of MC options in the chat are either gold-diggerish, or very jealous, or mean, or ignorant, and I don’t wanna be that kinda person

Don’t get me wrong, Teo and Harry are good characters and their designs are cool but the storytelling... is really all over the place

Since the writer from Cheritz’s previous games including Mysme is making a comeback in this season for June, playing his route now I can really see the difference. June started off falling in love instantly for MC and in only like 5 days I found out he has terminal disease. Nice. Tragic and angsty and very Mysme of you, June

BUT other than that, the conversation flows nicely, not too short and too long, the waiting time is reasonable, and I love how we get to talk about the planets thing in the chat; MC telling June to write in Gratitude Diary, June telling MC that he likes to read stuffs in Root of Desire, Piu-Piu advising us to look around the planets as we wait for June. It makes a huge difference for me. The whole meeting-a-fateful-stranger-in-some-random-app concept feels more realistic, and those planets are now part of the story and not just there to... exist. Though, it does make me wonder if June has this battery thing going on for him too, and if that’s why he doesn’t call us as often as Teo used to (but I’m still on day 10 and he’s currently trying to recover his health, so perhaps he probably just doesn’t get the energy and time to call us often lolol)

AND I KINDA LIKE PIU-PIU HERE. It feels... useful and friendly now. Piu-Piu in Teo route feels like a mean sassy bird and Piu-Piu in Harry route is just weird and likes to invade people’s privacy

- June having ties with Mysme character

Yes, this is also another reason I keep playing. Finding out that this new lovable character has a relationship with one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite games? I’m sold. I don’t care if this is just some way of Cheritz to get Mysme players into The Ssum. They have the right to do so—I mean it’s their game??? Some people are also saying that Cheritz should just release another contents for Mysme rather than doing this with The Ssum, and I think that’s valid. But Mysme has been running for years already, and keeping an otome game around for this long must be very hard. Releasing another content for Mysme means that Cheritz must gather their old writers, old artists, and old voice actors and perhaps they don’t have the resources to do so

Ofc this reason might not be true and Cherits just simply doesn’t want to work on Mysme anymore, and that’s their decision I’d like to respect

Also, if Teo and Harry made me miss Mysme because of their poor writing, June here actually makes me want to play Mysme again because he’s related to ***** and it’s fun being able to see ***** from different perspective

Moreover I’d rather be a gf of June who has half-brother (oops) from Mysme than being Zen’s ex. Wtf was that

And who knows? Maybe we will get another chara who’s related to V next????? Idk tho it might be too much of a stretch but I’m not gonna complain lol

- Cheritz is trying their very best

Them using AI art is wrong, and they have addressed that issue so I won’t repeat it here. I just wanna acknowledge their effort in making a game we would enjoy. They're pretty fast in handling and responding to our complaints, they still give us some battery freebies in the game so people who can't afford batteries or subscription can save them to play, and tbh you don't have to purchase every paid option in the chat too (I know I don't). Some players also share the paid pictures online, so you can decide to pay just for the pictures you wanna keep. We have a friendly and helpful community ;_;

The subscription price is still too much for many players and I myself can’t afford it every month because I have a family to feed, but I try to understand that in the end Cheritz is still an independent company that has to make profit. They have to pay rent, their employees, and people who work with them. I encourage people who can afford to keep supporting them, and those who can’t, I’m sure Cheritz appreciates our support and feedback just as much!

In conclusion, I just love them and I hope they keep up with the hard work

I want to say much more tbh but I’m kinda tired so now I’ll get back to work—while waiting for June for our lunch chat

[real-life-senshi]

PGSM Five Performers Special Talk Session - Fan Translation

In celebration of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Live-Action)'s 🎉 20th anniversary🎉, I present to you the never-been-done-before, full translation of the Senshi talk (3 pages long) from the "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Visual Book" (first released on April 30, 2004)!

Some notes & disclaimer:

I'm not a fluent Japanese speaker, but I do know Hiragana, Katakana, basic Japanese grammar and kanji, and a few good tools to use for translation. All's to say, all mistakes are mine. Sorry if there's any!

I'm also not a professional translator. Due to the grammar differences between Japanese and English, some sentences will sound awkward in English for the conversation to make sense.

Hama Chisaki is the old stage name Izumi Rika used when working on PGSM. She changed her stage name to Izumi Rika after changing production company and returning to the entertainment industry after a hiatus where she focused on school.

Please note that everyone's name is written in the order of (Family Name) (First Name) in Japanese style instead of Western style.

You can find scans of the full Visual Book at Miss Dream.org! I own a copy of the Visual Book, so I made some of my own scans for some of the images and was able to double-check the text outside of Miss Dream's scans.

Without further ado...

No matter in transformation as a Sailor Senshi or out of transformation, all 5 girls are incredibly busy in their daily lives.   Although there are not many opportunities for all the members to get together, but just like their development within the drama, the bond between them seems to be deepening day by day.

Here is a guest-talk session with all 5 of them. In fact, this is a "first in history”!

Kitagawa: Among the 5 of us, don’t you seem the most feminine and lady-like? Azama: Is that so?

—For this round of work, the 5 of you are gathered to do this photo shoot for the Visual Book, but you rarely get to all come together in a full group when you're shooting for the drama, right?

Sawai Miyuu (Sawai): That’s true. I think the first time all 5 of us got to shoot together in the drama was the assembly hall scene (Act 18)?

Azama Mew (Azama): And after that, there were a couple more times.

Hama Chisaki (Hama): But for the other times I'm the only one that's not really there. (laughs) Right now I’m Dark Mercury (Editor note: this is how everyone calls Sailor Mercury on site while she’s under the enemy’s control). Because of this, I’m all alone. (laughs)

—From “Crank In” (= Japanese term for starting film shoot) till now, over half a year has passed already.

Sawai: That’s so quick!

Hama: Eh, that means it’ll be farewell soon? (laughs)

Kitagawa Keiko (Kitagawa): But you can also think of it as there’s still another half a year to go.  It’s kind of like a turning point for us.

Hama: I see. From that perspective, it feels like we still have a long way to go. (laughs)

The truth of the 5 girls! Would you want to go back to that day?

—In reality, among the 5 of you which of you is most unlike the character you portray?

Sawai: Isn’t everyone quite similar to their character?

Kitagawa:  Not me.

Hama:  I don't think so either.

Kitagawa: (without hesitation) Yeah, you’re not.

Hama: Hey now. (laughs) But Mako-chan (= Azama Mew) also isn’t, so isn’t everyone quite unlike their character besides Usagi (= Sawai Miyuu)?

Sawai: Wait, what?

Azama: You really are just the way Usagi is.

Sawai: What? …… But one of us is more mature?

Hama & Azama: (in unison) Who?

Sawai: Me! Sawai Miyuu!

Everyone: ……

Sawai: Eh, why? That’s how everyone thinks of me?

Azama: Fashion sense, hairstyle, etc. is different though.

Sawai: Not like that! I meant my personality, my way of thinking, etc. (laughs) …… But, I still think with the 5 of us, we all are like our characters in individual unique ways……

Kitagawa: We look similar.

Komatsu Ayaka (Komatsu): What do you mean by that? (laughs)

Kitagawa: Like our aura, I think we all give off a similar vibe to the original characters.

Komatsu: Ahh, you’re right, we do fit the vibes.

Azama: I don’t think my vibe fits though?

Everyone else: You fit—!

Sawai: Such as the part where you’re both feminine.

Kitagawa: Among the 5 of us, don’t you seem the most feminine and lady-like? 

Azama: Is that so? 

Sawai: Then we’re fine up until the last episode, Minako is alive! Komatsu: Got it. I’ll do my best. I won’t die. (laughs)

Hama:  Seriously though, even for the people who have not seen the show at all, if they see the 5 of us, I think they probably can figure out which character each of us plays (just then, a sound of “pop” came from beside her.) …… Usagi-chan, stop popping your bone. (laughs)

Sawai: Ah, please transcribe the sound you heard just now in a cool* way.

「シャキーン！」(Shakin) was the word Sawai used to describe her request. Which is an onomatopoeia commonly used in manga to describe something done looking cool and eye-catching, like a character's victory pose. What a Usagi-like behaviour... lol

Azama:  That makes no sense. (laughs)

—Now that we’ve gotten to the punchline (laughs), I'd like to ask which of the 5 of you do you think gave a first impression that is the most different from the reality.

Everyone: Chisaki!

Hama:  Me, because I’m shy……

Azama: When we first met, I thought she was not talkative at all. Then before I knew it, she started talking a lot. ....... I don't remember how it happened in between. (laughs)

Kitagawa: But we’ve all changed [since the time of establishing first impressions].

Sawai: That’s true. At first, we wouldn’t even joke with each other.

Hama: Yeah. And before, they wouldn't ignore me or anything like they do now.

Azama: Eh? We would ignore you now?

Hama: I didn’t mean it like that. (laughs) Before, when someone made a [bad] joke, you wouldn't just let it slide, or say something halfheartedly like "yeah, yeah", right? I wish I could go back in time.

Kitagawa: I don’t want to go back.

Komatsu: Yeah, you’d want to move forward. (laughs)

Kitagawa: Yeah, let’s keeping looking forward. Because we’ve all done such hard work to get here already.

Hama: And I don't want to go through that winter again (laughs)……

The Senshi team divided? What would Minako’s fate be?

—As mentioned earlier, it took quite a long time for all 5 of you to get together in the show, hasn't it?

Sawai: I was really happy about it.  It was like, "Finally, all five of us are here!"

Azama: My friends laughed at that assembly hall scene though.

Komatsu: My family too. (laughs)

Hama: Eh? Why?

Azama: Y’know, we paused to pose a few times didn't we? And after all of that, we end up not fighting as a full team after all. (laughs) They said, "Aren’t the 5 of you supposed to fight together?"

Sawai: Speaking of, Venus has a lot of cool-looking arrival scenes.

Kitagawa: Halation*. (laughs)

Halation: (photography/filmography terminology) It means a halo-effect when additional lighting is added.

Komatsu: Come again?

Kitagawa: It's what Director [Sato] Takemitsu said. “This is the scene where the princess appears, so we'll need some halation,” he said.

Sawai: He really did say that quite a few times.  “Halation, more halation”, he’d say.

Kitagawa: He'd say, “It’s an iconic scene. So give me more halation!”  It's strangely still ringing in my ears. (laughs) But by the time this book came out......

—Everyone would’ve found out that Usagi is the real princess, and Venus is the leader (Act. 25~26).

Komatsu: That’s true. (At Kitagawa Keiko) “You’re the substitute”. (laughs)

Azama: And, the rest of us are like the other 2 spares. (laughs)

Hama: The princess, the leader and the sub, and then blue and green, it does feel like that. (laughs)

—No way! (laughs) By the way, do you guys have time to watch the show at all?

Sawai: I watch it. After all, sometimes it’s hard to imagine how I would look on TV. Even with commercial shoots, you never know how it's going to look until the final product is finished .......

Kitagawa:  I’m the opposite. I’m afraid to watch it.  At first, when I watched it on the On Air* date, I felt frustrated and thought, "I could’ve done much better now.” I guess I watch it mostly when I don’t appear much on screen.

On Air: Japanese filmography terminology for the first official footage release of a program, typically means the first episode of a series.

Azama: There was a time when I didn't have enough time to watch it, at its peak I'd miss the show for up to a month's time. So I'd binge-watch all 4 episodes in one go the moment I can instead, and I’m still 2 episodes behind right now. (laughs)

—Excluding your own scenes, what scene has left a memorable impression on you?

Kitagawa:  There are so many that I can’t decide on one.

Hama: It’s practically impossible to say our lines when suffering from pollen allergies. Sawai: It’d be like “In the name of love and justice… achoo!” (laughs)

Azama: For me, the scene where Akumi-chan (Editor’s note: During the time as Dark Mercury, Hama Chisaki’s character Mizuno Ami is referred to as “Akumi”, merging “Aku” (evil) with “Ami”.) was on the merry-go-round was great.

Sawai: That sideway glance was really intense. (laughs)

—Speaking of intense, the confrontation between Rei (=Kitagawa Keiko) and Minako (=Komatsu Ayaka) was also very exciting.

Sawai: And ever since then, I notice those two (Kitagawa & Komatsu) have become very close. (laughs)

Azama: And, those two (Sawai & Hama) are also really close with each other, so I’m left all alone……

Sawai: That’s not true!

Azama: Odd numbers are not good to work with after all. (laughs) From now on, I'll get closer to Luna (Sailor Luna = Koike Rina) instead. (laughs)

Hama: Lately, most of my time is spent in the company of the Shitennou. (laughs) I feel like it's been a long time since I’ve met everyone like this.

Sawai: I've also been spending a lot of time with Mamo-chan (Chiba Mamoru = Shibue Jouji) lately. And most of the scenes are done with gloomy expressions. (laughs)

Komatsu: Minako’s also suffering from time to time...I wonder what will happen?

Sawai: She did say there’s only six months left.

Hama: Let’s make a decision now?

Komatsu: About my illness? (laughs)

Hama: Wouldn't that make it easier [to act]?

Sawai: In talking with the collective staff-san, the story is supposed to be that Sailor Moon protects Minako from dying using the Silver Crystal......

Azama: Eh? Mamoru* dies from the Silver Crystal?

“To protect”( 守る) is pronounced “mamo-ru” in Japanese. Azama mistook Sawai's choice of saying “protect” with “Chiba Mamoru” the character.

Sawai: That’s not it! (laughs) To use the Silver Crystals to "protect" Minako.

Kitagawa: I guess that'll be in the last episode……

Sawai: Then we’re fine up until the last episode, Minako is alive!

Komatsu: Got it. I’ll do my best. I won’t die. (laughs) But before the last episode, I might die a bit.

Azama: Die a bit?

Komatsu: No, I meant to say, “I might die a bit before”. (laughs) (At Sawai Miyuu), Well, I’ll be counting on you then. (everyone laughs)

Sawai: But six months is quite a long time, isn't it?

Komatsu: …… So you want me to die sooner? Even though I just bowed at you. (laughs)

The Sailor Senshi’s message to their fans

—Since Crank In in the summer, winter had come and gone, and now spring has arrived……

Sawai: Crank-in was so hot! And I was running all the time.

Hama: At first it was just the two of us, me and Usagi. And Naru-chan (Kawabe Chieco) too.

Kitagawa: And I joined in September.

Sawai: It would have been rough to wear a shrine maiden costume in August.

Kitagawa: No, because there’s the fireplace, it actually always feels like midsummer for me.

Sawai: Oh I see. But even though I’m really glad winter’s over, now there’s pollen allergy to deal with in spring. (laughs)

Hama: It’s practically impossible to say our lines when suffering from pollen allergies.

Sawai: It’d be like “In the name of love and justice… achoo!” (laughs).

—To wrap us up, would you please give a message to your fans?

Hama: This kind of thing is so hard to do. (laugh)

Azama: Let’s go in the order of the day of the week*.

Japanese days are named according to the elements. From Monday – Sunday: moon, fire, water, wood, gold/metal, earth, and sun. This means Mercury's and Mars's order is flipped when compared to the Senshi lineup.

Sawai: The order of the day of the week. (laughs) So I’m first? …… Hm~mm, it has already been six months since the program started and the 5 of us have come together, please support us until the very end. We will also do our very best!

Kitagawa: For purchasing this book, thank you very much.  It's very much appreciated.

Hama: You can see the 5 of us outside of our usual roles in this book. And you can also see how we spent our New Year's (laugh), so please enjoy this book!

Azama: When thinking about how things will unfold moving forward, I think everyone will be looking forward to how things turn out, so let’s all be excited and watch each episode together! (laughs)

Komatsu: They said everything already. (laughs) I don't know what to do……

—It's the closing of this segment, so please end it with style.

Komatsu: …… Only six more months left.* (everyone laughs)

OMG, she legit just quoted her own line, THAT line from Act 18. lol

—Thank you very much. (laughs)

[hutaoscoffinn]

Head in hands

Rika SFW imagine/hc/whatever youre vibing with right now; a GN! Reader. Reader gets cold, how does Rika keep them warm? Holding hands? Lap cuddles? MOTHER BEGS FOR FLUFF

This made me squeal bc this is SO FUCKING CUTE HELLO AHHHHHHHHHHHHH I’m so in love with Rika that piece of shit (affectionate)

Warnings: none, its super fluffy, tooth rottenly fluffy even, Rika is a massive simp because as she should be, gn! Reader, this is so fluffy and cute ohmyGOD

Character: Rika of the Elite 4

Requests: OPEN

Well it’s starting to get colder so its no shock that you get cold sometimes

Rika usually doesn’t mind the cold, sticking to her usual button up with the sleeves rolled up and dress pants no matter what the weather is

Cmon she wore that at the 8th gym which was in the literal mountains like woman hoW

But when you and Rika start dating she immediately notices how you’ll start shivering in the cold, teeth chattering as the cold air seeps into your bones

So, Rika starts wearing a blazer to pass off to you whenever you get cold during the cooler seasons

Its a thick blazer, good quality that smells like her and as soon as she notices you shiver she’s wrapping it around you

This usually takes place in public settings when she has to keep up professional appearances and can’t get too affectionate with you

In private however?

Rika will be all over you

She’s a teasing shit so she will turn down the air to make you cold so you’ll cuddle up to her

And as soon as you start inching your way over to her, she swoops you up in her arms and settles you against her chest or in her lap

She’ll start kissing your cheeks and forehead as she hugs you tight, wrapping a blanket around you both or carrying you to bed so she can hold you nice and close

If you like hot chocolate or prefer hot coffee, tea, or even just warm milk she will make it for you as you two settle down to cuddle

Rika definitely enjoys this little strategy of turning down the temperature in your apartment at night too

That way, throughout the night she can hold you close and enjoy the affection you give her as you continue to cuddle up against her, seeking her warmth

If you ever do catch Rika’s little scheme of keeping your apartment cold and say something to her, she will brush it off as keeping the heat bill down

Despite the fact that the apartment feels like a goddamn tundra in the summer but Rika is more than happy to pay extra for the AC bill if it keeps you snuggled against her

Another one of Rika’s ways to keep you warm is to let you wear her shirts, sweaters, jackets, hoodies, ect

You name it she lets you wear it

She will probably even buy larger clothes to wear not only because she likes oversized clothes cmon have you SEEN how her button up hangs off her? But because she wants you to look adorable in her clothes as well

It doesn’t matter how tall, short, or what weight you are, Rika will get clothes that fit you comfortably and then wear them so that they smell like her before she passes them off to you to keep you warm and enjoy

This tactic especially helps when Rika has to do business for the Pokémon league which may keep her out of the house for days at a time

When she does have to leave, she will make sure you have plenty of her clothes and blankets to snuggle up to while she’s gone so that she can keep you warm even when she’s away~

Paldea was getting colder again as the fall and winter months settled across the vast land. It felt as though the frosty, winter mountain cursed the land to be covered in a hellish cold and you were sick of it. You had already gotten more than enough of the cold when you traveled that god forsaken mountain during your gym circuit when you traveled all over the damn thing to take on two gyms and fight Team Star’s fairy squad.

Which led to now, you gripping a fluffy blanket around yourself as your teeth chattered together thanks to what felt like frost covering your body. You hear a low chuckle behind you and you don’t even have to turn around to know who would dare take humor in your torture.

“Its not funny Rika. Stop laughing,” you huff, annoyed with your partner’s amusement at your devastating situation. You’re ready to curse at her when she laughs louder before you find yourself being pulled into a pair of warm arms.

Rika settles you in her lap, tugging your form tight against her body. She adjusts the blanket around you both and a small smile forms on her lips as you nuzzle your face into the crook of her neck, cuddling closer to her warmth.

“Better?” She asks with a small hum, amusement present in her voice that you choose to ignore in favor of soaking in your girlfriend’s warmth.

“Mmm much better.”

Rika’s chuckles softly before she presses a sweet kiss to your temple as she begins to rub your back lovingly.

“That’s it, just let me keep you warm, my angel.”

Reblogs are always appreciated <3

[runabout-river]

Sorry, but I need to say something I've been thinking about for a while. I found geto's death forcing. 1.he loses to a boy with no experience and the power of ''love''. 2.he was stronger and had more knowledge and experience than the boy yuta. 3. It seems that the author just wanted to get rid of geto so that this annoying villain Kenjaku could come. 4. In my opinion, Geto is the best villain. I don't understand why the author didn't want to continue with him. 5. His death was forced because Saturo already had a change in character and personality. What I'm trying to say is that in the film, Satura is already different, he's no longer that immature young man. 6. the serious work was much more dramatic if geto had survived saturo blow he would have become stronger and returned as a villain again with sukuna. Sorry if it's big, but I have these doubts that such a good and well-constructed character had a horrible ending and very little.

I can agree with much you said here but you have to realize one giant elephant in the room that makes all of this a little meaningless:

JJK 0 came out one year before Jujutsu Kaisen as a 4-chapter short story under the name "Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School" in 2017.

JJK came out one year later because the editors of Shonen Jump liked the concept of this short manga. Everything else in JJK was built on top of the decision to continue the story + change the main character and the two main antagonists.

That's why Yuta and Yuji have so many similarities like being new to jujutsu and having a "demon" inside of them. Megumi's equivalent in concept is Maki, his cousin (with Maki's power transferred to his father), and the reason why Kenjaku is a body hopping villain is because Gege took over the design of Geto while making him another character.

This is the reason why JJK 0 feels like a weird cut and end point for a fantastically written hero-turned-villain.

Geto's concept was:

Villain for a short story

Doesn't have prior connection with the protagonist because Yuta is new to the power system and has his own antagonist (Rika)

Gets a connection with another important character to make him a rounded villain instead of a flat one

That connection is with Gojo

That connection is being former best friends

Gets defeated by the protagonist

Dies at the hand of his former best friend

Everything in Hidden Inventory came after these facts were already established and played out. Gege had already written Geto's end and then he wrote the beginning and from what your thoughts are (though this is different for everyone) Gege didn't manage to quite connect the new beginning to the old end in a way that felt like a believable progression.

But to be fair, I'd rather have Gege break the constraints of a four-chapter long manga with limited time to tell a good story about a villain, than hang on to that and make his current story worse.

I love the way Hidden Inventory was written and Geto is a big part of that. It would've been a shame of Gege curtailed Geto's parts in it to make JJK 0 fit better into the narrative.

[marshmallowprotection]

Ooh I just thought of something!!

Remember at the end of Saeran's route (GE) and he tells us that we can either refer to him as Saeran or Ray?

Obviously we continue to call him Saeran, because that's what's shown and is actually his real name

But what if we decided that we wanted to call him Ray? I know that there's a little easter egg(?) in the game where he reacts to it and I think it was...slightly different to how he does when we call him Saeran? I didn't choose that option though so I don't exactly know what it says, only that he's okay with it

So...what would happen if we decided that we wanted to call him Ray from then on, instead?

He accepts it of course, but how would he really feel, knowing that he was once Ray, a man who was kind and gentle, but whole-heartedly convinced that he was nothing but weakness?

Wouldn't Saeran then be...reminded of all that?

Wouldn't he be in at least some way bothered or even upset if it was that we kept and wanted to refer to him as Ray?

Grr I can't phrase things as well as I want to get my question across because I'm not the greatest analyser of characters but I'm just so curious about this!

Here's the thing about that that I don't think a lot of people have had the time to consider. So, Saeran Choi is his birth name. People know him as Saeran Choi. The name that people expect to use is Saeran. It won't occur to anyone that he might use another name unless he tells them outright that it's okay to call him something else. He lets people call him Saeran for the sake of convenience because it's not wrong. It isn't wrong to assume that he is Saeran.

His name is Saeran. He identifies as Saeran. But, he also identifies as Ray.

However, there are only three people in this world who know about the existence of Ray. It’s you, Rika, and V. But, for the most part, it’s you and Rika. V didn’t understand who Ray was, and even when you tried to explain what was happening when he visited you to bring you some food, he didn’t get it, pushing the information to the wayside because his goal was to get you and Saeran out of Mint Eye. 

So, that leaves Rika knowing Ray to be the child she wanted to raise as her son to make up for her sins, and you as the person who knew Ray to be someone special to you. How do you even begin to explain to the RFA what happened? You don't. He even mentioned during the initial Good Ending that he didn't want to talk about everything until we had a chance to talk to V. He didn't want to discuss Rika or any of the details without his permission.

But, we know what happened to that. V didn't come back and let that happen. Instead, we were confronted with a sea of problems that did not stop for weeks. So, the RFA has no idea who Ray is if we mention him, or that GE Saeran even goes by Ray.

It's hard to explain to your friends this situation. It's not easy for him to put into words what he went through in his childhood, much less what he went through at Mint Eye. It's not that he's afraid of them misunderstanding or not getting what he feels. It's more so that he doesn't know how to put it into words.

There seem to be much more important matters at hand in his mind, such as saving his brother, so he doesn't think much of it. It's not like they're wrong by using one name. 

He isn't in a place where he will feel like there's a reason to be complicated over these feelings. You sort of already worked out all of these details in his route. So, there's really nothing here that would make him feel bad. He already knows who he is as a person and he knows you understand that. Use whatever name feels right in the moment, be it Ray or Saeran. He is Saeran and Ray.

There’s no wrong answer. When he's ready to tell the others about his past, he'll tell them with you by his side. But for now, it's a lot to tell people about when they're still getting to know him. he's still getting to know himself, frankly. 

This is the first time you've mentioned Ray by name to the RFA and Yoosung is the one that lets you know what's up. They don't know a single thing about Ray. All they know is that Saeran is Saeran. That's sad to think about, but it was more convenient for GE Saeran to let them use that name for the time being. You know who Ray is... who Ray was before he and Suit Saeran became GE Saeran.

As long as you love Ray and know him, that's all that matters to him.

As a reminder, GE Saeran is Ray and Suit Saeran. During those final hours at Mint Eye, they fused to become him. It was almost a sort of unconscious conclusion they reached... they were going to be strong together, but that's why a lot of GE Saeran's words feel so messy as he meets with you again.

He's still trying to understand if he's Ray or Suit Saeran. He's both and neither, something new and something old at the same time, and it's hard for him to explain until he has you in the garden and it all clicks.

Click "Ray" when he saves you.

Click "Saeran" when he saves you.

In the garden is where it starts to come together and he's able to put it into words.

As he continues to speak to you, the game pointedly lets you use either of his names to refer to him. Neither is wrong. Those are his names. It actually excites him and validates him to hear you use the two names! He loves hearing them. You made the name Ray have meaning when it was meant to be meaningless and you reminded him that Saeran meant something, too, and he was allowed to have it.

I genuinely don't think he would be upset if you decided to use one name more than the other. He is clearly comfortable being referred to by either name. He doesn't need to be insecure or afraid that you love one side of him more than the other. You already proved you cared about both Ray and Saeran.

Why in the world would he ever doubt that? Why should there be even an inkling of doubt in his heart when you were the one that taught him that both sides of him deserve to be loved?

[away-ward]

"

Why would Will try to limit how many chandeliers Emmy has? I assume she would have a warehouse when she and Damon keep supplies for jobs. It’s not like she’s filling every inch of her ceiling with them. That’s just dumb design. So if she wants to have her collection of chandeliers, let her?

And of course, Damon has to spoil her. This is extra irritating because I went back and checked the tampon scene that PD wrote, and they ended it with “Damon probably went in and got them”

Like. I don’t try to defend PD’s portrayal of willemmy anymore. Obviously, I just don’t get it. But it would be impossible to do so when Will is constantly telling Emory she can’t have something or he won’t get her something, and then Damon goes and saves the day.

I feel like we get it, already. Damon is everyone’s everything, and Rika is the star of the show." - your response to my anon post of all those extras from PD

I FUCKING KNOW RIGHT!!! And it really doesn't make sense at all that Will wouldn't buy Em another chandelier because LITERALLY IN FIRE NIGHT he said something like "i'm not gonna stop giving emmy what she wants" when she wanted to play with him so??????? PD is so- god, how can someone be this contradictory and frustrating?

At this point, i believe PD's the kind of author who likes to write books with weird-out-of-nowhere shock factors, but they don't know how to wrap them up well. That's why they kept on writing things that don't make sense. I feel like they're the kind of people who likes to do weird dramatic things (and write them too) and then they don't think their consequences will catch up to them, example: they're surprised when people don't get their connection and their expression because they didn't notice that THEY were the ones who were bad at explaining things, or just plainly never explained them well in the first place, with any coherence. Literally reading PD's books felt like an acid trip, being gaslighted by the author, only for the author to be like "heyyyy, no no no" but the text was "yes yes yes", like jumping through hoops just to get a point, and still not making it. But the author, of course, with their cult readers would be like "nooo it makes sense, you just don't get it" when literally those points they said still don't? Make? Sense? Just because they FEEL something, not because they THINK something. The last time i felt gaslighted by an author like PD was with Sarah J Maas' ACOTAR & TOG series, and it wasn't a good time, AT ALL. Author kept on contradicting what she wrote, and acting like readers are stupid or silly. I hate to be put in this position because i feel like these kinds of authors don't respect readers enough to trust us with their craft so not only they butchered their own story, even when we have out own underrstanding according to what THEY wrote, we're still wrong, just because we don't "FEEL" like they did. WTAF!

interesting point too, because wasn't Damon Torrance like this? His characterisation was literally just edgy Shock factor all the time, with no coherence, always being in the centre when unneeded, then he yaps yaps yaps, womp womp, acting like he has a point, but then the outcome of his plans, words, thoughts and actions that we read and we see were always so fucking poor. The reality of Damon Torrance did not match up with the rumour of Damon Torrance. Personally, I think what Damon lacked was GIRTH, he got a a dick, but does he have the girth? Absolutely not. He talks so much for someone who does nothing, and i hate these kinds of characters in fiction the most. Like if i can name one character who had girth, it's most likely Victor from Vicious by V.E. Schwab. That guy did have big dick energy. Didn't have to be overhyped by anyone, because Schwab took her time to craft and execute his character well on page. Damon was so icky to me because he was talking bigger than he can chew. Like No wonder he's PD's fav, like they both just don't make sense in a way? God, i sound so condescending, but i see more of their similarities now. And another example is Kaleb and Tiernan from Credence, again, horny rich fragile blonde blue eyes who can do no wrong, with edgy borderline abusive dark haired guy who got no personality than being edgy and wanting to paint the town red. The fact that Credence too was super fucking weird, and surprise surprise, Kaleb (the main LI) was so similar to Damon in his characterisation, even though there was no sense to hold on to that main pairing. Like??? Wtf? Tiernan could end up with the two other characters, but PD still chose Kaleb for her?

idk man, these careless way of crafting their own stories really made me lose some respect for certain authors. I understand it can happen to anyone, but damn, surely not too much? Especially the willemmy chandelier and tampon extras? It doesn't make sense! Will Grayson would never, he went out of his way to research about emmy's jewish fasting culture, but can't buy her tampons or chandeliers? Like did PD really think he was shallow like that? This man who hanged out with banks and choose to pick her bras? Wtf? No way would she be ashamed of that. Especially when it's so important to emmy. And the fact that he doesn't know emmy had vibrators? Ok now lets be fucking for real 🙄 PD really just dgaf about willemmy.

Right. PD’s treatment of Will reminds me of when TV characters eventually become a caricature of themselves the longer the series goes on. The Will PD is currently writing doesn't seem to reflect the Will that was in NF at all, and reminds me of how I thought the Will in NF and the Will in the rest of the series were two different characters because they didn’t match at all.

PD definitely likes to use a shock factor, and I guess most people read the books for that alone. There’s relatively few who are still stuck on them and who are also bothered by the lack of story development or follow through. Like, obviously I can sit through crazy, up and down plot lines, and stories that go back and forth, and plots that take a while to develop, but it has to go somewhere eventually.

And trust me, I suck at wrapping up my own long stories. Conclusions are hard. Keeping characters consistent isn’t easy. But I’m not asking for money, so I feel less bad about my skill level.

Damon was built up quite a bit, and for me, he didn’t hit. I, too, felt he was all talk and no bite. The more PD plays with his character, making him everyone’s everything, the less interested I am in him. I still stand-by that his book should have gone last and his redemption arc should have been the final climax of the series. Damon in NF feels so sterile. He’s so clean, nothing he does can scare me because I already know where his story goes. I want the scary side back, I want him to be exclusive to a few people. I want people to die curious about him. It wouldn’t have mattered how contradictory his character was if some of the mystery surrounding him remained in the end.

The reality of Damon Torrance did not match up with the rumour of Damon Torrance.

Again, this is more of a writing issue than anything else. It’s like that post from a few days back that talks about having your characters come up with a genius plan means… having to plot a genius plan yourself. It’s not easy when you’re not a genius and don’t have a writing team. IMO, the biggest issue was that people in-universe were supposed to hate Damon and be scared of him, but PD couldn’t hate Damon because they (and through Rika) sympathized with him too much, so he got watered down to be more palatable. Fan reaction doesn’t really factor much, because most readers these days will eat up any old “morally gray” or “amoral” character as long as he’s hot enough.

Cannot comment on Victor because I haven’t read Vicious, but I believe you. But your point here:

Didn't have to be overhyped by anyone, because Schwab took her time to craft and execute his character well on page.

Is exactly what I was thinking as well. PD started to believe their own hype around Damon, and in the end, they couldn’t keep him in the mold they created. Sometimes characters grown in directions that’s unpredictable, but also…sometimes authors sabotage themselves. I’ve done it. Again, not sure what happened with PD, if this is the case or not. But it just feels like that to me.

Then again, I was never really into Damon. I’ve always been way more interested in Kai and Will.

And another example is Kaleb and Tiernan from Credence

Never read Credence either, but was watching an unhinged recap on Youtube. Didn’t finish 'cause I got bored. Nice to know Kaleb was the one picked. I’m somehow not at all surprised by that. But gah, why?

This man who hanged out with banks and choose to pick her bras? Wtf? No way would she be ashamed of that. Especially when it's so important to emmy. And the fact that he doesn't know emmy had vibrators?

I actually hadn’t factored in the bra scene, thanks for the reminder. Solid point. Will Grayson goes above and beyond for the people he cares about, but somehow that’s all forgotten when Emmy asks for something, all so Damon can come in and be the hero?

Can we just stick Rika and Damon in a cage, so the rest of the characters can get a chance to actually shine? I wonder what PD would do if they were challenged to write a scene in which Rika and Damon couldn’t be used or mentioned? Maybe then we’d get some proper characterization.

As you can see, I’m feeling a bit condescending, too.

-KO

[epickiya722]

Would you mind if I ask about your thoughts on Takako Uro or Yorozu (either one) for the ask game?

Since Uro jumped on my list of faves since I recently reread her chapters, I'm gonna answer for her.

My first impression: "Is she... naked? That's actually a creative way to cover the bits!"

My impression now: As I said, Uro became one of my favorites of JJK. She's just such a cool character and I would like a spinoff story of her history. She was a leader of the Sun, Moon and Stars Squad! I would have loved to see how that went!!

Favorite thing about that character: She's just a great character to me, overall. Her design definitely captured my attention, but oh my gosh, that technique? It is so damn cool probably my favorite one in the whole series.

Least favorite thing: Oh my gosh, I hated she just blasted away by Ryu out of the fight and that was the end of her part of it. And then Ryu and Yuta got to sit down and have this chat while Uro was somewhere laying on the ground, probably unconscious, bleeding out and missing an arm because Rika fucking ate it! Glad she was alive after that though. She was smart enough in 216 to stay put because she felt Sukuna's presence in Sendai. Meanwhile, Ryu decides to challenge him... then look what happened! Uro would survive a horror movie, Ryu would probably be the first to go.

Favorite line/scene: Her response to Yuta will always be glorious to me. "The only ones who can say such things are the people who already made a name for themselves!" All what Uro had done in her first life was cater to a clan that didn't even allow her to have a name. And when she got one? When she got a name from someone she thought she could trust? She was used as a scapegoat. It was just so unfair!!

Favorite interaction that character has with another: She only has interacted with Ryu and Yuta and honestly, I liked those interactions but more so because Uro is just more entertaining during that whole fight. She was not afraid to say what she wanted and I love her for that!

A character that I wish that character would interact with more: I wrote a post about this and I it got to the point I had to write my fic, The Pink Sky and Cherry Blossoms. I wished for her and Yuji to have met. I just feel like they could have gotten along so well and I feel like Yuji would get where she's coming from.

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character: Mina Ashido from My Hero Academia. In terms of design, they both have pink hair and eyes with black sclera. I also find it funny they're related to space in some way. Uro manipulates it and Ashido is alien themed.

A song that reminds of that character: I have been continuously listening to Cobra by Megan Thee Stallion and every I do, I think of Uro. Also Rain by Coco Jones. That song is so beautiful and I just think that song captivates who Uro is.

A headcanon about that character: We didn't get to see what Uro's DE looks like, bit I imagine it would look like a sky with blues, pinks and oranges with hints of stars here and there. I think a sky would be fitting for her. Not only because of her technique being Sky Manipulation, but also she doesn't want to be tied down to anything. She wants to be free and the sky is an endless space she cab soar through like a bird.

An unpopular opinion about that character: Personally, I feel like she should have gotten to return at least in the fight against Sukuna. I said this is a recent post, but it just felt wrong to me that Yuta used one of her moves in the recent (249) chapter. I get his technique is copying and it was only for a second, but given how Uro feels about him and we really didn't get any closure for her character like that... it just felt unfair.

Favorite picture: She's just so beautiful!! 💖

Send Me a Character... ✨️

[ciaossu-imagines]

Moving right along! This is still based off the same fun prompt but for a different fandom! I've always loved Mystic Messenger, both playing it and writing for it and reading imagines for it so I couldn't resist! I hope you'll enjoy!

Put any character in my ask and I’ll try to find a song in my music that I think goes with them.

Jumin Han – I think I’ve answered this for another request I had done for Jumin, but Loneliness by Adrian von Ziegler, this really beautiful instrumental, always has been Jumin’s music for me. I can’t really fully put it into words why, which is an odd one for me, but it’s melancholic, somber, solemn, but still beautiful and hopeful and to me, that’s a play through Jumin’s life, who he was, who he is, and who he could become.

Zen – Again, another one where I think I mentioned this in a previous request I’d done for Zen, but I also think of Broadway and musicals when it comes to Zen, for obvious reasons, for both music I think he’d listen to and music that reminds me of him. Though it’s technically sung from a female point of view and is technically a love song, Satisfied from the Hamilton soundtrack always has strongly given me Zen vibes though. In something I imagine I’ll get a bit of flack for and a slightly unpopular read on his character, I do feel like Zen, while grateful and happy for the blessings he has, isn’t ever completely satisfied with himself, with his life, with what he’s doing. I do see him, just my read on him as a character, as someone who does have this almost hunger to him, this ambition and drive and need for goals and new things to reach.

707 – In a total flip from the fun, laughing 707 we see for a lot of the game and diving deep into Saeyoung Choi, my choice for him is always Bring on the Wonder by Susan Enan. Before he was 707, during his time as 707, and then back to being Saeyoung…this man has been through a lot. Through hell in some ways. He puts up this strong façade to hide it but he has. He copes through repression, through pushing things down…also, it strongly gives me vibes for his and Saeran’s connection.

Yoosung – Okay, I’m a dork but I always end up humming the World of Warcraft Main Theme playing through Yoosung’s route!

V – Any Other Name by Thomas Newman. Bar none, no other answer ever occurred to me. There’s something so sincere about the song, so solemn and almost bittersweet but warm and relaxing. V, for everything he did, is one of the most sincere men in the whole game. He is suffering, he truly is. The relationship with Rika…it’s all consuming. What he’s seen her do, what he knows about the truth of all the situations…it’s horrifying and sad and he bears it all on his shoulder, takes the blame all in his heart. But he still sees beauty, in her, in everyone she touched and changed, in the RFA, in the world he created with her, and that beauty makes the sadness just the barest hint sweeter for him.

Saeran – I heard his voice actor do a cover of A Whole New World from Aladdin and god, I fell in love and it’s still the song I always think of when I think of Saeran. Definitely worth a listen if you haven’t already!

Rika – Mogwai’s I Know You Are but What Am I has a real Rika vibe to me. It’s slightly off-putting, almost like two different songs are meshed together, in harmony but separate. It gives me goosebumps but is strangely beautiful and for someone like Rika…it fits to me. She’s charismatic, alluring and draws people to her. But it is almost, at times, like there are two separate Rika’s. There’s the Rika the RFA all knew and then there’s the Rika she feels in her head, the Rika she tried so hard to hide but that just threatens to swallow her whole and consume her completely.

Vanderwood – Just because it makes me laugh, I always hear Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers in my head whenever he shows up. That’s all you’re getting sadly, no big deep dive into why it fits or sums him up so much…it’s just honestly the song I associate with Vanderwood for my own dumb reasons!

[linkspooky]

Sooooo ya planning to create any more OCs for your future jjk fics?

Just wondering, totally not because all your OCs in your jjk have been interesting, human, complex, and emotional touching to me… 👉👈

Just kidding… they totally did. I loved them!

Thank you so much for sending this anon your positive feedback means the absolute world to me and encourages me to write. Sure, anon there are two OCs I am planning to either introduce or give more screentime in future fics.

One thing is Ocs are primarily there in my fics either to provide perspective on the main characters, foil them in some way, or serve as rivals / antagonists because I like to write fics that are like self-contained arcs that could appear in story or revisions of arcs that already happened. So like a lot of my ocs are formed around canon characters in order to contrast them which is why they are going to show up in future fics that choose to focus on those specific characters. So, ummmm!!! Here is a guy.

Commission by @ / Moedredd

He has technically already made an appearance in Three's Company, which is the fourth fic in the series and the prequel to werewolf. Uh, if Exponential Decay -> Exponential Growth -> Butterfly Curve are a set of three then it'd be Three's Company -> Werewolf -> Zenin Massacre Rewrite.

His name is Sigma (full name Shigema Kamo). His cursed technique is the ability to switch left and right, which is why he fights with two swords. He uses that in conjunction with new shadow style simple domain in order to counter domains. He has an innature cursed technique, but no cursed energy to use that technique. The reason why is because he was born with a heavenly restriction, he and his sister share all of their cursed energy. He can't use any cursed energy unless his sister supplies him with some. If his sister isn't there he may as well be fighting with cheap swords he bought at walmart.

But, eleven years ago his sister died. She only exists now as the remaining cursed energy she left behind as a gift for him (similiar to Rika and Yuta / Maki and Mai) so he is wielding his literal loved one as a weapon. He was also apprehended by Geto / Gojo / Shoko after he went rogue but instead of being executed he was passed onto Tsukumo Yuki who wanted to study his heavenly restriction.

Basically, he is going to make a reappearance in the first part of the Zenin Family Massacre arc fic where Yuta and Maki go to recruit Hakari while Megumi is sent to negotiate with the Zenin Clan. He is a foil for both Maki and Yuta, both as a bad end for Maki (what if there was nothing remaining of your sister in this world but a weapon and a desire to avenge them) and also for Yuta as they are both the nicest guys in the world until they lose their loved ones.

He's also connected to Choso which is why his last name is Kamo. I don't want to spoil anything, but Noranso is also going to make a reapparance in the first part of this same fic.

Commission by @ hollycircling

This Is Lio/Li/Lia, they're not nearly as developed as Sigma because they are meant to exist post Zenin Massacre arc and they are an oc for the culling games

The idea behind them is that they are the sole survivor of the Zenin Massacre besides Maki who is the killer, and Mai who gets revived basically by mistake. Maki didn't notice that they were still alive and didn't bother to finish them off. They're based on the idea that the Zenin Family Massacre is in fact a massacre, not everyone Maki killed was culpable for her abuse. It's like Geto slaughtering an entire village not everyone in that village made the decision to put kids in a cage even if Geto was rightfully angry at the perpetrators.

Like the protagonist of one story, can be a villain to another story. Li's life was not particularly good either, but they're feelings for their parents were incredibly complex and they didn't want them to die but it wasn't just their parents it was also their little siblings. (I am going with like Geto levels with Maki's massacre, she was thorough she wanted to erase them.) Li wasn't an especially hateful to begin with they were just a funky little closeted trans dude. In fact I'm floating around the idea that Maki, and Mai actually got along with them slightly better when they were children. Basically, they don't like the Zenin family either. And some part of it is liberating that they can finally start presenting themselves the way they want to now that they don't exist inside of the repressive structure of the Zenin and are no longer pressured to become a sorcerer and yet given this chance to live their own life the way they want they can't let go of the desire to see justice for their siblings. At the same time literally everyone they knew in their whole life is dead including their little siblings (they were the eldest) and that essentially turns them into Sasuke Uchiha.

Cycle of revenge stories fascinate me when you take a neutral view on it, instead of centering justice around the main character's POV. LIke, what if the person who wants revenge against you, has just as much reason to want revenge as you did? What makes your revenge more valid than their revenge? In this case Lio is after Maki for taking their little siblings away and Mai was the catalyst for Maki exterminating the Zenin. All of this is also kind of based off the idea that Quentin Tarantino originally planned a sequel for Kill Bill where the girl who's mother was killed right in front of her by the bride spends the whole movie hunting down the bride.

[holyguardian]

𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐓 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐄𝐑

repost don’t reblog

NAME: Muddy.

PRONOUNS: She/her.

NAME OF MUSE(S): Aerith, Genesis (firxga), Ariadne (rebelichor), Rika (rikavirkow), Jason/Miller/Millie (returnedtoashes), plus many more through worldbuilding.

RP EXPERIENCE/HOW LONG: I have arguably been roleplaying since childhood where tabletop games are concerned, but keeping the answer strictly bound to the computer and internet, I have been writing since I was 14.

PLATFORMS YOU’VE USED: … nnnh. MSN messenger, teen chat, IMVU forums, AIM, Skype, Tumblr, Line and Discord.

BEST EXPERIENCE: Fingerguns with both hands to Skit and Vers. I never expected to find friendships in this hobby, let alone ones that would flourish and mean so much? Which is perhaps a weird thing, but I am an incredibly quiet and private kind of person, so letting others into my life isn’t something I do easily or often. I have a very small group. And I will forever be grateful that Tumblr of all places could help me discover these friend shaped people.

RP PET PEEVES/DEALBREAKERS: I once had a roleplay partner who constantly forgot the same things about my OC, and it wasn’t small things I’m talking obvious basics like hair colour after already being corrected, so that level of disrespect and blatant disinterest is a huge turn-off. Problematic behaviours OOC are another ‘no thanks’, I can forgive a character for being difficult to write with but the person behind them has to be decent.

FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT?: ... depends on the mood. I can and have written all, though if I’m honest most of the time I lean into fluff. I don’t know why that gets such a bad reputation though. It feels like an accomplishment to see my characters grow into a healthy and stable life alongside others, angst still has its time but if I write CONSTANTLY in a place of hurt it feels forced. As for writing not safe for work, hi, hello, I will imply the lifestyle my blorbos have and discuss what the bedroom is like (Aerith is the actual worst offender), but I’m not going to constantly thread it because writing ONLY bedroom scenes isn’t me. If I could add my own category it’s ‘adventure’ which I very much love.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: Yes. I think I’m best in some kind of middle ground, 4 paragraphs is a general sweet place for me.

TIME TO WRITE: 😭🙏 me praying to my brain for the permission slip to write.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): Not even a little. That is, I have no interest in roleplaying ‘me’. The characters I choose have qualities that I don’t, which is... pretty standard for most writers on this platform. This is a place for fantasy, not a real life simulator.

Tagged by: Stole it.

Tagging: Be crimes, do gay, steal.

[the-alconbury-chronicle]

Creepy romance books

Okay!

So I didn't expect to be posting again so soon, but I have something I wanna say to more than just my family.

So as I might have mentioned...literally like two minutes ago, I am trying to write.

I do not plan to write romance novels, but I might still want to include relationships in my work.

For that reason, and that reason alone, I went to look for some romance books that include a trope I like.

In doing so I stumbled upon a video of books that use that particular trope.

"Huzzah!" I thought. "At last, a source of bountiful knowledge on this somehow niche topic!"

Imagine my disappointment when the very first book of the video completely bastardizes the trope I was looking into.

It didn't even just do it poorly, it totally corrupted it.

Which is a very funny joke...to me.

The book is called "Corrupt", okay?

What do you want from me, I'm not a comedian.

Anyway, the synopsis of the book is as follows:

Erika I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession. His name is Michael Crist. My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me. But I noticed him. I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away. Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore. Because he’s finally noticed me. Michael Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika. My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway. Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college. In my city. Unprotected. The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out. We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true.

Already sounds pretty gross, right? But it gets worse!

Apparently Michael is planning to harm, or even kill Erika, because she somehow got some of his friends arrested?!

Hey dude, hey Michael. Fucking how? Okay? How are you and your buddies, all grown adults by now, gonna hold an 18 or 19 year old girl respnsible for their arrests? Is she a teenage detective? Did I miss that part of the summary or something?

Regardless, Michael gets close to Erika, intending to gain her trust before betraying her to his friends.

But uh oh! Michael falls for her! So now, he has to protect this girl from a situation HE put her in!

Honestly, I feel like a title like "Corrupt", coupled with it's description of "dark romance" perfectly encapsulates the nightmare that must lie between the covers of this book.

I hope to anything that might be listening that people stop feeling the need to write books like this.

Like seriously, just write likeable characters, okay?

I know it's not that hard to write characters that aren't either total dumbasses or awful people!

Just write about two decent people who have a healthy relationship, and let any drama you need to be able to, you know, have a plot, come from other people or situations.

Hell, you could have a romance that fits into another genre!

Superhero romance? Sure, maybe a pair of vigilantes are into each other and their relationship is the focus of the story rather than the crime fighting.

Fantasy romance? Great! Two characters in a magical setting with cool magical crap going on who also love each other, write about that!

Why does every "romance" book have to be a toxic or even abusive relationship, huh?

It's gross, yucky.

Anyway, I think I've gotten that out of my system.

That's all for now,

Tyr

[olivereactsaboutgarbage]

One Piece - Volume 30

That’s a nice round number.

Chapter 276 - Shandian Rhythm

LOL! It’s funny, because Wiper is saying “Don’t use my name in vain”, the classic religious rule about God, TO God. “God”. ““God”“. “““God”““. “““Jackass”““. Very nice, very nice. *golf clap*

I’ve been trying to avoid using roleplay asterisks within these posts, but... some things are just too important. *clenches fist while wearing a golf glove*

 And those things are golf.

The insufferable god uses a Harry Potter Patronus to kill Wiper. Zoro wants a turn with the kryptonite. The insufferable god uses a Harry Potter Patronus to kill Zoro. I see how it is... even though he’s gay, the insufferable god’s aligned with J.K. Rowling... just like Dumbledore...

Wiper goes back to not being dead. The insufferable god asks him why he’s bothering, since he’s about to go back to being dead, since the insufferable god is insufferable. Wiper has a backstory, but the insufferable god has sky lasers.

Nami is the insufferable god’s only non-dead enemy. She says they should be friends. The insufferable god says “Sure. I like having allies who are only my allies out of fear.” Nami says “YEAH I ALSO LOVE PRECISELY THAT SAME THING” while sweating.

Chapter 277 - Maxim

Nami decides to have a jetski while she allies herself with the insufferable god. The insufferable god thinks that’s a little silly.

I guess that’s one way to describe electronics.

In this case, the electronic device is a boat-shaped aircraft.

Hmm... I feel like there’s something grand and poetic I could say about how the snake’s purpose within this story is vore, which is a fetish, and by restoring Lufpy, the King of Fetishes, to relevance, the snake is relinquishing its own relevance.

Well I guess it could have taken Asia as a hostage. In doing so, it would have remained relevant, even after restoring Lufpy to relevance.

But it didn’t so now it’s irrelevant.

Which means I don’t need to think about anything grand and poetic to say about it.

Because who cares.

Sometimes I forget that, even though it’s not that way within the context of the list of chapter titles on Wikipedia, within the context of this translation, Zoro is actually one of the characters where I call them by a different name since I changed a single letter. Just like Coins, Wiper, Papaya, Asia, and no one else. Anyway, Lufpy

has a strange reaction to Zoro’s body here which I find interesting. It’s almost like Lufpy’s absurd amount of value placed on the bonds of friendship has merged with a disproportionate level of hero worship. I don’t think Lufpy is... correct, for this to be his first reaction to seeing Zoro, Tony Tony Chopper, Nico Robin, and the knight god badly hurt and ambiguously unconscious and Nami missing. He’s treating Zoro like Zoro held the burden of being an all-purpose solution to any possible way things could have gone sideways. Like some kind of a... Deus ex Machina. When has Zoro ever been one of those? Never. Someone else is the Deus here. And that person is also the one with the Machina. And that person also fucking sucks.

Also, sorry, I accidentally forgot to hit enter until I was already two words into writing the above paragraph. Sorry. I’m so sorry. That was... sloppy of me. I’m so, so sorry. *bows my head in apology while crying golf-ball-sized tears*

Nico Robin isn’t dead, and Asia is a radar, so Lufpy has all the necessary information he needs to head into this arc’s finale.

Chapter 278 - Conis

Wait, hang on, before I talk about Chapter 278, I just remembered yet another thing I wanted to say in my reaction to that one panel where Lufpy reacts to Zoro’s body: I wonder if Lufpy’s tendencies towards unconditional trust and deep hero worship will ever be truly shaken. Maybe when he finds out the redhead thinks South is colder than North, or maybe at some other point in the story. Guess I’ll have to keep reading to find out. Speaking of things I haven’t found out yet, why was the third friend named Rika?

Oh, it’s like the ultimate surveillance state. Nightmarish!

wOULD YOU LIKE TO

Coins runs over a cop with a motorcycle and says that God is bad. Conservatives hate her! Children hate her too, that’s why they throw rocks at her. Speaking of rocks, there aren’t any sky lasers at the moment. Speaking of sky lasers, I feel like I might have said “Coins is now dead” in one of my earlier posts. If I did, I was wrong at the time. If I didn’t, I’m wrong RIGHT NOW. Speaking of being wrong RIGHT NOW, people who hate Coins realize they’re wrong RIGHT NOW.

Coins is saying all kinds of uncontroversial things like “The insufferable Dumbledore expy isn’t a god, and there won’t be any miracles, because there is no kami in this country.” I love linguistics! I’m glad Coins was able to tell us that we shouldn’t worship government officials, and also there aren’t any government officials nearby at the moment. Linguistically. Through language.

Nico Robin, isn’t your power’s SIMPLEST APPLICATION carrying lots of things at once? Just give all your friends’ dead bodies way more arms, and then let the corpses use those arms as centipede legs. You know. Like something out of a horror movie. It should literally be that easy, no?

YAAAAAAAY!!! *the crowd erupts into cheers because someone just hit a hole in one*

Okay, I know Lufpy presumably has a voice which Nami would be able to recognize, but frankly I find the idea that Lufpy doesn’t have a voice because he’s a manga character, so Nami’s one panel of confusion was in part because she had no way of vocally identifying the speaker in that speech bubble, and then her realization in the very next panel is because she recognized Lufpy via speaking style alone, to be far more charming.

...Man I sure do have a bad tendency of writing run-on sentences. Time to let that sentence stand unaltered as eternal proof of my bad tendency of writing run-on sentences, for historians to find later, buried under lots of jpegs of dirt. Then they’ll add my bad tendency of writing run-on sentences to my McWikipedia 4.0 page. The free online encyclopedia that everyone can love, ba ba ba ba ba, now updated to once again change the definition of notability. Now, “notable people” and “people who hate Rick & Morty-themed hotels owned by McWikipedia 4.0′s parent company, Sony” are mutually exclusive groups. The fact that they weren’t mutually exclusive groups was a problematic issue the first three versions couldn’t seem to fix. That’s the kind of future where historians who need to unearth my bad tendency of writing run-on sentences will be living in.

And yes, I WILL be notable enough to have a McWikipedia 4.0 page.

For you see...

I...

AM...

Wait, hold that thought. I just remembered: I’m supposed to be talking about One Piece!!!

Chapter 279 - Pirate Luffy vs. Kami Eneru 

Okay, that chapter title was worth every “This chapter is named after a 1v1″ chapter title that came before it in this arc. What would normally be a ho-hum “yeah this is the one where the protagonist fights the antagonist” chapter title instead feels freaking baller, because all the other 1v1 chapter titles make it feel hard-earned. Consistently listing each combatant’s faction within the 1v1 chapter titles also converts a chapter title like this from “the one where Lufpy fights Eneru” to “the one where Lufpy fights GOD” for added epic. The only thing which undercuts the hype a little is that this chapter title has a typo in Lufpy’s name.

Some people don’t want to evacuate, even after Coins convinced them to convert to atheism, because they want to see their loved ones who were recruited by the military again. A cop says “Being near the military is a job for cops!” Thanks cop! Is this the first time in the entirety of One Piece a cop has been helpful through action rather than through inaction? The gluttonous cop helped Lufpy not get arrested by cops, but it was through inaction.

Oh wait no the palindrome cop gave Lufpy directions. I forgot! Yeah I guess ACAB doesn’t hold true in One Piece. It almost does, but not quite. I guess CAB is true. I guess TAXI is true.

See, this C’s not AB. He was just pretending! Joke’s on them! Ableist slur!

Why am I saying this again? Oh right. Proof for my thesis that One Piece has taxis in it.

*beats this man to death with a golf club*

Oh, this fight is very good. I mean, it’s mostly just a guy I hate using very powerful attacks, so despite how cool the attacks look I can’t wholeheartedly root for the cool-looking attacks, intercut with Lufpy standing around doing nothing, and then a sad face. This is the best fight in One Piece.

Chapter 280 - Floating

Lufpy has type-immunity to electric. Lufpy is a ground-type Pokemon! This is consistent with Lufpy being rice. You see... in the very same arc where we learned that Lufpy was rice, rice was on the ground!

The insufferable Dumbledore expy can’t use electric-type moves... but he now audibly realizes he has other moves. He starts doing “dodge the attack” and “hit someone with a stick”. Then he realizes sticks aren’t that effective and makes it a trident instead. Then he realizes dodging normally also isn’t effective and starts swimming through metal.

No... this is so sad... Lufpy’s least-fetishy special move... exposed for what it truly is: Something only Nico Robin can do... in other words, Lufpy tricking people into thinking he has Nico Robin’s capabilities... in other words, Lufpy altering people’s states of mind to make them believe in something that isn’t true... in other words, hypnosis fetish...

YES!!! THIS IS SO GREAT!!! This is the last fetish Lufpy needed to become powerful enough to slay a god! In my last post, I was briefly under the mistaken impression that Lufpy’s final fetish was vore, forgetting that he already had that one. However, all along, it was hypnosis. Heh heh heh... foolish Dumbledore expy! By debunking Lufpy, you have given him MORE POWER!!! This act will be your undoing!

But first, Lufpy will have to extract himself from the floor. While Lufpy deals with that, the foolish Dumbledore expy decides to go ahead and enact mass destruction like he was planning.

LMAO??? EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME, IS GIVING NAMI HIS HAT THE ONLY WAY LUFPY KNOWS TO MAKE HER FEEL BETTER WHEN SHE’S IN A BAD MOOD?

Or wait, were both instances of him doing that because he didn’t want to have his hat on while he fought someone? Now I’m trying to remember what his head has looked like during his various fights, but I’m drawing a blank.

Chapter 281 - Deathpiea

Hmm... according to Wikipedia, this chapter’s Japanese name is “Desupia”. Is this line literally... “[I call it] despair. [It will redeem this world of] zetsubou.”

Asia is a firm believer in 1v1s. Good for her, she’s like five.

The foolish Dumbledore expy’s plan is to create a lightning cloud. Ah... I see... in this land, it’s a perfect synthesis between “execution” and “stuff”! Wait... the foolish Dumbledore expy is using “execution stuff” to “combat despair by enacting despair”... this is just Danganronpa. I think hundreds of chapters ago I said something about Kokichi being a blatant Lufpy ripoff? Well, it turns out Monokuma is just a blatant foolish Dumbledore expy ripoff.

Of course, the foolish Dumbledore expy’s trainer is a Pokemon NPC, and Lufpy’s trainer is a Pokemon PC, which means that when the person playing Pokemon inputs a move, the computer knows what that move is. Since the computer knows what move the person playing Pokemon input, the NPC knows what move the person playing Pokemon input. Since the NPC knows, the foolish Dumbledore expy knows. Therefore, Lufpy is seemingly unable to surprise the foolish Dumbledore expy.

Lufpy tries Passing every turn. Doing so raises his Defense to 100%, but lowers his Attack to 0%. Lufpy tries not having stiff legs. That’s a bit weird for him to do. Lufpy tries using a collision engine glitch. The computer wasn’t programmed to account for that, so the foolish Dumbledore expy is completely blindsided.

Chapter 282 - Desire

The foolish Dumbledore expy is now bragging that he’s pretty much already won. An apocalyptic event IS coming, and the only thing preventing the foolish Dumbledore expy from profiting from that event is merely Lufpy.

To prove how wimpy Lufpy is, he puts Lufpy’s arm in a hot golden ball. In Japanese-speaking countries, a hot golden ball is a hot human testicle. In English-speaking countries, a hot human testicle is a sexy human testicle. That foolish Dumbledore expy...! Lufpy already had enough fetishes to surpass a god! Giving him YET ANOTHER fetish on top of that is suicide!

Lufpy says that he’s not even the only person who’s stronger than the foolish Dumbledore expy--not by a long shot.

I.

I fucking forgot.

There were seven really strong guys.

And Lufpy only defeated one of them.

And they’re already looking for a replacement seventh guy.

...no wonder one piece is so long...

Nami changes her mind about wanting to be friends with the foolish Dumbledore expy. It turns out she only liked him for his lack of having killed Lufpy.

Meanwhile, what’s happening somewhere else, is...

Hmm... how do I make what’s going on here not sound like rape... in a way that’s consistent with the terminology I have injected into my reactions to One Piece... I already met my edgy joke quota last post... what have I gotten myself into this time...

Chapter 283 - On the Front Line of Rescuing Love

Phew... it was a false alarm. Usopp’s not unconscious. He even consented. I can say this without fear: Sanji is using Usopp’s penis.

I FUCKING TOLD YOU, NICO ROBIN! IT’S LITERALLY THAT EASY!

With regards to the sexy human testicle, Lufpy is breathing heavy and trying to get it off. Asia doesn’t want him to do things like that in places where she has to deal with it. Good for her, she’s like five.

Hmm... pedophilia... so much for avoiding an edgy joke overflow. Lufpy’s entire defeat scenario was kind of an elaborate gambit to put me in an “out of the frying pan, into the fire” scenario when it came to making an edgy joke. The fact that the foolish Dumbledore expy would do a thing like that to ME, the reader...! Yep. It’s official. The only thing missing from my hatred of the foolish Dumbledore expy that was present in my hatred of the glasses idiot was the out-of-universe level of my hatred. The glasses idiot was sort of poorly written, so a real-world reason for me to hate him was there. The foolish Dumbledore expy, meanwhile, isn’t poorly written at all. Now that the foolish Dumbledore expy has done an edgy-joke-catch-22 against me... a bad action with real-world consequences... he has crossed over into being my new most hated One Piece villain.

Fuck. Yes. This might be the best One Piece has ever been. This entire reading has been giving me the same “oh, One Piece is REALLY GOOD, actually” feeling I was getting at certain parts of the restaurant arc.

USOPP EX MACHINA??? USOPP DID THE THING THAT’S USUALLY RESERVED FOR ZORO??? USOPP DID IT??? BEST ONE PIECE ARC EVER???

Wait, don’t read the above paragraph. First, ignore the part of my recent character tier list where I said I liked Usopp less than Zoro now. Second, also ignore the part of this post where I said Zoro had never in his life been a Deus ex Machina. Okay NOW you can read the above paragraph.

Chapter 284 - Sorry

Ah, in my last post I talked about how offscreen villain-induced killings are a sexy little trope I enjoy. Another sexy little trope I enjoy, but this time a comedic one: People reacting to the situation they’ve walked into by doing a combo move where they chain from saying “I see” straight into closing the door behind them when they leave.

That’s like half the reason Chapter 169 is my favorite unadapted chapter of the Kaguya manga.

Heh... last time I mentioned Kaguya in one of my One Piece posts, I was able to successfully inflict torment on a single person. This time... I wonder... how many people will suffer in anguish?

Yeah... Nami and Usopp have my favorite character dynamic in One Piece. Probably because Nami is in it.

Uh... I dunno, bro... he attacks using electricity... and it’s an important instrument that runs off of electricity...

Usopp’s slapstick style of “combat” is not very effective against electric-type... does that make Usopp electric-type himself, steel-type, or flying-type? Well, I don’t think Usopp is anything like the foolish Dumbledore expy, so electric-type’s not it. Usopp’s good at crafting and likes to use hammers and stuff, which certainly evokes imagery of steel-type because of stuff like blacksmiths, but he also likes to imagine himself as a legendary figure, which does correlate with flying-type through phrases like “head in the clouds” and “high ambitions”. Not to mention he uses a slingshot, which is a weapon that causes things to fly through the air. So it could be either steel-type or flying-type, or even both. Yeah, actually... both steel AND flying seems like a REALLY fitting Pokemon typing for Usopp. Wait, but my favorite Pokemon types are Water because it’s what Squirtle and Quaxly are, Poison because it’s what Alolan Grimer is and also it’s just generally rad, and Ghost because Pokemon are cute and cute-scary is a delightful combination every single time! I thought better of you, Usopp.

Nami wants to escape with Usopp, but Usopp is a little busy getting killed. Sanji ex Machina.

Nami wants to escape with Sanji, but Sanji is a little busy getting killed. Oh well I guess. No skin off Usopp’s back.

Sanji tells the foolish Dumbledore expy to drop dead, then demonstrates how.

Usopp’s Penis

Chapter 285 - Capriccio

So you know back during the restaurant arc when I said “I thought it would be easy to rank the characters Nami > Usopp > Lufpy > Zoro > Sanji, but now that all this has happened, every single character is so good that I can’t use that ranking anymore because Lufpy and Sanji are way better than I thought they were, and all I really know for sure is that Nami is great and Zoro is the worst”? Same thing now with my most recent ranking getting thrown out of balance by just about everyone being better than I thought they were.

As I recall, I put all the characters into tiers in my most recent ranking. Yeah, let’s see here... Nami is still S Tier, Lufpy is still A Tier, Sanji is now A Tier instead of B Tier, Zoro is still B Tier, Nico Robin is now B Tier instead of C Tier, Usopp is now A Tier instead of C Tier, Tony Tony Chopper is now C Tier instead of D Tier, D Tier is now an extraneous tier that none of the crew falls into.

I’d say it’s gonna suck when I end up liking all these characters so much that they’re all clumped up together in S Tier, but if that ever happens, I’ll just add an S+ Tier to put Nami into.

Nami, Usopp, and Sanji are all like “Let’s find Lufpy, Nico Robin, Zoro, and Tony Tony Chopper so we can leave”. The foolish Dumbledore expy is all like “Well it sucks that Sanji did bad things to me, but this too isn’t enough to stop me”.

This... isn’t the way the arc is gonna end, right...? It’s a Shonen Jump manga. I mean, so is Chainsaw Man, so I guess that doesn’t mean extremely bad things can’t happen. And so was The Promised Neverland so it additionally doesn’t mean endings can’t be bad. Ba dum tsh.

Ah... that classic trope, especially popular in Japan, where the comedic straight man will angrily yell “DON’T DO THAT SILLY THING!” A tried-and-true classic. Whenever it happens, the audience knows that they’re allowed to point and laugh. Anyway,

*points and laughs... but why am i using my left hand to do the pointing? is it because i’m left handed? no, it’s because my dad is left-handed... that’s right, i’m phil mickelson, who’s fucking apparently a famous golfer*

Woah... Lufpy actually called the knight god by his name. He’s like, the only member of The Protagonists of One Piece + Myself who respected the knight god’s request for them to do that. Also, he called Wyper Wiper. I thought I was the only member of The Protagonists of One Piece + Myself who did that!

Oh, Asia is sad. And she’s tiny. And Lufpy is nearby. Phew, this arc will have a happy ending.

Asia, Nico Robin and the corpses, and Nami Usopp and Sanji meet up. Asia and Nico Robin say “Unfortunately, Lufpy is on a fool’s errand to rescue Nami”. Puh-lease. We all saw Lufpy watch Asia be sad. We ALL saw it! That’s not what he’s fucking after.

Fuck. My update might already need to be updated. Nami might have to share S Tier with Lufpy. Shit. Fuck. My joke about all the characters slowly creeping towards S Tier together might just be reality. Fucking shit.

Am I really that easy to please? Quick, I need to reassure myself that I have good taste... um... lemme think...

Bruno Bucciarati and Narancia Ghirga are in B Tier. Leone Abbacchio, Pannacotta Fugo, and Trish Una are in C Tier. Giorno Giovanna and Guido Mista are in D Tier. None of them will ever ascend to A Tier, let alone S Tier, because JoJo Part 5 doesn’t have good character writing.

Phew, it’s not that my standards are low, it’s that One Piece is good. Thank goodness.

Man fuck Giorno and Mista for being the main character and honorary main character of a JoJo Part that had Narancia in it. At least Bruno got to be an honorary honorary main character.

...noooooo I reached the end of this volume... I wanna find out what happens next, but... I need to start writing my Higurashi post...

[luc606]

An Autumn Morning

(by @luc606) Saeyoung feels like he doesn't deserve the life he's built, so you pull him out of it with warm fall drinks and some light yard work.

Saeyoung x MC (MC is referred to as "you" but never by name) 1649 words, FLUFF, a little sadness but not enough to call it angst, just domestic Saeyoung with domestic brother-in-law (to be) Saeran, takes place like a year after SE, roughly based on this ask

also technically goes for mystictober day one: favorite character

Saeyoung was not accustomed to paying attention to the changing seasons.

Before, there were only days, months, and years that were spent mostly in the bunker, the time passing carefully, but not precisely measured, like sand through an hourglass. Saeyoung was used to that kind of life, and once he met you, he had found new insecurity in how well that kind of life had seemed to fit him. Now that he was with you, finding his way into a normal life little by little, there were days where it was all he could do not to retreat back into his dark office and wait for you to inevitably get tired of acclimating him to being average.

Today was one of those days.

He’d woken up before the sun, though he could only tell this by the time programmed sun lamp you had asked him to build. He’d installed them all over the bunker, and it only somewhat made up for the complete lack of windows.

Inexplicably, you’d made the bunker almost cozy. Especially now, as summer turned to fall, you’d gently folded throw blankets over the back of the couch and bought seasonal candles for the kitchen and living room.

On days like this, these touches made Saeyoung’s heart ache. Couldn’t you see that this wasn’t right for you? His love deserved a sweet suburban house or a cheerful cottage with a bay window in the dining room, not a windowless bulletproof box that had once been home to daily illegal activity.

You stir next to him in bed.

“Saeyoung?”

On days like this, he doesn’t think he deserves that name.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he says, rolling over to face you. To make himself face you.

“You didn’t,” you say. And then after a pause, “Are you okay?”

Saeyoung knows that he should tell the truth, tell you that he’s having one of those days where he feels like he doesn’t belong in your light. He doesn’t want to, he wants to lie and say everything is okay.

He says nothing, but his hesitation is enough for you. You’ve spent three years with the man now, you know how to tell when he’s feeling this way.

“Baby,” you say, pulling him into you. “Go back to sleep.”

Despite himself, he does.

In the morning, when the sun emulating lamp has begun to turn subdued shades of orange and pink, he finds that he is alone in the bed. You’d let him sleep in, which he almost never does. He lays for a moment, feeling foggy, but soon the door opens to reveal you in your robe with two cups of coffee. He almost smiles, smelling the pumpkin spice creamer you’ve sweetened the coffees with.

“Good morning,” you greet him with a careful smile, handing him his sweet seasonal drink.

The coffee is in a set of matching mugs that had been an engagement gift from Jaehee. His is red and yours is pink, and there’s a curve in both of them that forms a heart when they’re placed together. He loves that you go out of your way to use these mugs more than any others you own.

Saeyoung takes the coffee from you and takes a sip, it’s warm and almost too sweet. He knows you put just a bit more sugar in his coffee because he likes it better that way, even if he should learn to drink it more plain.

“I hope you slept well,” you take a seat next to him on the bed. “We have some yard work to do.”

“Yard work?” he asks, his surprise coming out as a laugh.

Before, the land surrounding the bunker was unruly. The trees and tall grass camoflauged the entrance, so he’d never felt the need to trim the grass or leaves. Now, though, the yard – he had a yard now – was fully under the jurisdiction of his brother. At the recommendation of his therapist, Saeran had begun the project shortly after you’d moved in as a way to redirect anxious energy. He’d planted flowers and shrubs all around the bunker and had laid a garden path around the front leading around to a small herb and vegetable garden in the back. It was Saeran’s pride and joy, and Saeyoung had stayed mostly out of it. He’d only mowed the lawn once, and even then Saeran had complained about the lines he’d made with the mower not being straight.

“It’s fall,” you say, emphasizing this by raising your mug of pumpkin spice flavored coffee. “The yard is covered in leaves, so you should rake them.”

“Isn’t that Saeran’s job?” Saeyoung asks, incredulous. “I mean he never lets me do anything in the yard, I really shouldn’t–”

You cut him off, “I told him you’d do it for him, I’ll help.”

Saeyoung knows what you’re doing here, you’ve done it before. When he gets down, you’ve found that keeping him busy and out of his thoughts helps him overcome the feeling faster. But yard work? This was a new low.

“It’ll be fun!” you add, taking his silence as dissent.

Saeyoung sighs, but nods. Success.

You and Saeyoung finish your coffees in relative silence, you sit perched in your robe reading something off your phone while your fiancé shivers against the cool morning air, bundled in your large comforter as if it’s a shawl. When he finally finishes his coffee (you suspect he’s sipping extra slowly, putting off getting out of bed) you take the mug from him and tell him to get dressed. He makes no move to get up, but he’s miraculously clothed when you return from the kitchen.

He looks good, it’s not often that your nerdy Saeyoung looks like this – rugged, a little messy. He’s wearing jeans and an old red flannel with the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. He’s pushed his hair back, as he’s accustomed to wearing it now, but without any product, a few of his curls are stuck up in the air while a few fall back onto his forehead.

You kiss his cheek gently as you slip past him towards the closet and he offers a small smile.

“Give me just a second and I’ll be ready,” you say, already slipping off your robe in the closet entrance.

Saeyoung pretends he isn’t looking as you change into a pair of jeans.

“Can I wear this?” you ask, holding up a long-sleeve red t-shirt of Saeyoung’s that he normally wears to work out or clean.

“I’m surprised you’re asking,” he jokes.

You do usually steal his clothes without permission, he doesn’t ever mind.

You shrug. “You’re right there, I’m just being polite.”

He laughs, and his face turns just a bit pink.

Once you’re dressed, you take Saeyoung’s hand and pull him out the door, through the living room, and all the way out to the small garden shed he’d built for Saeran as a gift on the twins’ last birthday.

From the shed, in which Saeran has lined up every tool neatly on pegs along one wall, Saeyoung retrieves the rake.

“How are you supposed to help if there’s only one rake?” he asks you.

You laugh, “I’m here for moral and emotional support, of course.”

Saeyoung, feeling lighter already, whips the end of the rake towards you and gently taps your backside with the handle.

“Lazy~”

“Hey!” You laugh, lunging towards him and catching the rake in your hands and pulling your fiancé towards you with it. “Saeyoung!”

Saeyoung laughs easily, and you can feel the waves of his bad mood melting off. His moments of sadness, depression from a life’s worth of grief and anxiety pushed away for years, are fewer and further between now. He’s seen a therapist a few times, a colleague that Saeran’s therapist recommended, but most of his healing was done by seeing his brother survive and learn to thrive outside of the harsh conditions of their childhood and his time spent in Rika’s misguided care.

“And it’s not that much,” you say, “I’ll put all the leaves in Saeran’s mulch pile while you’re raking and we’ll be done in no time.”

You pull the rake towards yourself again, this time catching Saeyoung’s hip to steady him while bringing him in close.

“Are you feeling better?” You ask, voice low. “You look like you’re feeling better.”

Saeyoung startles, like he didn’t expect you to acknowledge out loud that he was feeling any kind of way at all, but quickly recovers before saying, “Yes, actually.”

He smiles as you pull him down into a gentle kiss, you feel him fail to keep the smile off his face as he kisses you back. His face is warm from the last little bit of summer sun that’s pouring down on you both.

“I love you,” you say, finally pulling away.

His eyes are intense as he pulls back to look at you.

“I love you too.”

☆

Later, after the fallen leaves have been relocated to Saeran’s compost and are no longer threatening to ruin the lawn, Saeran thanks his brother for raking the yard, not with words, but with a warm cup of hot chocolate and a soft grin.

Saeyoung’s heart soars when he sees that Saeran has made a cup for you, too. He thinks he’ll never get tired of seeing his two favorite people continue to love and accept one another as family. It’s everything he’s ever wanted.

He finds himself in a completely different state now than when he had awoken this morning. He settles into the couch next to you, able to appreciate the cozy autumn decor that you’ve adorned the bunker with. He no longer feels like this place is stifling you, he understands that you’re grateful for the security the home provides you, and he feels grateful too.

[gamerwoo]

[Tales from the Pack] Chan: Homewrecker (Part Six)

Characters: Chan x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, fantasy, it’s basically all angst i’m sorry lmao

Word count: 1,741

Summary: Chan caught your attention as soon as your eyes met across the market. Something about him drew you to him, and you knew you were meant to be. However, you were already taken and arranged to be married on your next birthday, so you could never be together.

a/n: things in bold are in english

Previous | Next | Homewrecker Masterlist

Rin frowned as she stared at her alpha. He was just reading a book at the kitchen table while she stood at the counter and just watched him, the frown not necessarily intentional, but it appeared because of her thoughts.

“Do you want something or are you going to continue to stare at me until you burn a hole in my head?” Jiung wondered, not looking up from his book.

She was well aware the older wolf knew she was there and had been watching him silently, she just wasn’t sure what to say to him. Whenever she tried to bring up what was bothering her, he just brushed it off and said everything would be fine. Rin absolutely loved Jiung, but she didn’t like how positive he always was. It was going to get him in trouble one day.

“I still feel like Eunjin’s getting closer to us whenever she screams,” Rin stated for at least the tenth time since meeting with Seungcheol’s pack. It had only been two days since then, but both nights, the pack had woken up to Eunjin screaming in the distance -- and Rin was sure it was getting louder each time. “I don’t like this feeling I’m getting, Ji.”

“Her screams were never an issue to you before, and now they are? She was in our house before, Corinne,” he reminded the younger girl with a chuckle, setting his book down on the table and turning his attention to her. “I’m telling you, everything will be okay. That probably has nothing to do with us.”

Rin grimaced at his use of her full name before making a face at him. But despite being playful with the alpha, she still felt immense worry that going into town with Seungcheol’s pack was a bad idea. She understood the pack’s promise to always help others in need, but she’d also heard the horror stories of how doing that had gone wrong for them. She was the newest member of the pack even though she wasn’t the youngest -- Jiung and Chanseong had found her on a trip to Australia  where she’d fled to from New Zealand -- so she didn’t have to go through the loss the pack had faced. But she’d heard they used to have so many more of them, and they’d all died from either trying to help other packs, or from very unfortunate accidents -- like Rika’s mate. And she feared that Jiung’s positive and helpful mindset was going to cause even more causalities, especially with them having to go into town to help. 

But, knowing Jiung would continue to wave away her concerns until she ultimately gave up again, Rin didn’t say another word about it.

-

Things were normal that morning in the house as Chan returned home. Only a few of the pack were awake -- he wasn’t sure why some of the pack woke at the crack of dawn, but at least it meant that there was usually breakfast for him when he got home --  but Soonyoung wasn’t in the kitchen waiting up for him like usual.

“He probably went into town again,” Junhui shrugged when Chan had asked about it. “He’s not in his room, so that’s my best bet.”

“Why’re you even awake, anyway?” the youngest wondered.

Jun sighed as he continued making his own breakfast, mumbling, “Stupid fucking birds...”

The pup opted to not comment on Junhui’s odd reoccurring nightmare and just ate his breakfast before going upstairs to sleep. He didn’t really sleep much when he was with you -- he might doze off a bit, but it wasn’t enough to make him feel rested -- so he often went up to his room after eating breakfast.

However, his slumber was cut short by an ear-piercing scream so loud that he only recalled one time when he heard it: when Eunjin had first seen Joshua. Chan immediately clamped his hands over his ears and let out a howl at the pain, curling into a ball under his blankets. It felt like it lasted forever, and even when it was over, it still rang painfully in his ears.

Feeling disoriented, Chan stumbled out of bed and made his way downstairs. He could hear the pack was absolutely silent, but he wasn’t sure why until he rounded the corner to the living room.

Eunjin had just passed through the doorway to the living room, frozen where she stood. The pack was all staring wide-eyed at her, but Chan was unable to see where she was looking since her back was to him. He walked forward and peered around her, following her gaze.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

Even though the whole pack was staring at her in horror, her eyes were locked with Hansol’s. The wolf seemed more surprised than afraid, staring back and blinking every so often without saying anything or moving a muscle. 

What broke the silence was Jooyeon whispering, “Is Hansol gonna die?”

The alpha blinked, broken from his horrified trance. The banshee was screaming in the face of one of his pack, and that struck fear straight through him. What was he supposed to do about that? What was he supposed to think?

He shook his head, softly replying, “I... I don’t know.”

-

Eunjin described it as ‘a bad feeling’. 

“I can’t tell what’s going to happen, I just get a feeling,” was all she was able to explain. But she clearly felt bad for shaking up the pack, quickly adding, “It might not be him dying! He might just...c-cause it...?”

That didn’t really make anybody feel better, but they felt bad for the poor girl. She couldn’t control it.

But with the date of your birthday quickly arriving, the pack was terrified of what was to come, and they had a feeling that Eunjin’s scream had to do with that. Ever since they made the plan with Jiung and his pack, Eunjin had been going out into the woods more and more often. As if the pack wasn’t stressed enough, now they had to worry about tracking down a banshee in the middle of the forest at night.

With only a few days left to work out the rest of the details of the plan, Jiung was going to go back to Seungcheol’s with Hanbin, Chanseong, and Rika while Kyung, Baekhan, and Jaesang went to scope out the town a little bit. Chan was growing more and more anxious as days went by, unable to think about anything else but you and getting you out of there. He knew it was dangerous and risky, but he was also excited that there was a chance of giving you a better life than what you had. It was scary, but it was a risk he knew he had to take.

However, as the countdown to the rescue mission grew shorter, Joshua seemed to grow more and more grumpy. He was even more irritable than normal, and more often than not, he wasn’t even at the house.

“I don’t know what’s up with him lately,” Jeonghan sighed, running his slender fingers through his hair. “He won’t talk to anyone, either.”

“I think I know what it might be,” Seungkwan offered, knowing Joshua wasn’t even around to hear them. “Well, Eunjin might.”

The pack was surprised. The girl who caused the most confusion that morning might have some answers for something else.

She just looked at him silently as the pack looked between the pair. But she seemed too nervous to speak up, so Seungkwan patted her hands he held in his and spoke for her.

“I think the voice she hears a lot is Lilly,” he admitted. Eunjin looked down at her lap, eyebrows furrowed. “She’s been telling me what it says, and she said it sounds female. She’s been saying things like ‘what if it’s like last time’ and, um... Love, what was the other thing?”

“‘He doesn’t want to leave me,’“ she recited, still staring at her lap.

“Right,” he nodded, “so I think he’s going to visit her grave everyday.”

“Why would he have to leave--?”

Soonyoung’s eyes opened as the realization hit him, cutting off Chan’s question, “Because we’ll have to move away.”

The pack fell silent, suddenly feeling heartache for their brother. Joshua was getting irritable because he was upset. All he had to be close to Lilly was the place they buried her which wasn’t too far from the house. But after all of this, they’d have to move farther away to the house Jiung had showed them. They’d be farther away from Lilly, and that made Josh upset.

“Let’s just cut him some slack for a while,” Jihoon spoke up.

Thankfully, a knock at the door broke the somber atmosphere. Jiung had arrived with his pack, so Seungcheol called for them to come in. The small group walked down the hallway and rounded the corner to the living room.

Eunjin looked up.

The next thing he knew, Chan was slapping his hands over his ears, doubling over from the pain. Had his eyes not been squeezed shut, he would’ve seen the rest of his pack -- including the mates -- and Jiung’s pack doing the same as Eunjin’s shriek made their ears feel like they were bleeding.

Once it was over, both packs slowly uncovered their ears and looked up at Eunjin. The banshee was standing up from her spot on the couch between Seungkwan and Seungcheol, staring with her lips parted and her blue eyes wide like she had with Hansol.

This time, she was staring at the other alpha.

-

At the edge of town, the small group finally composed themselves after hearing the awful scream. It was in the distance, but far too close for comfort. And it was in the direction of Seungcheol’s, which none of them liked one bit.

“What do you think that was?” Jaesang asked, looking to Kyung for answers.

Not wanting to worry the younger wolves, she just sighed and shook her head, “It’s fine, let’s go.”

‘Kyung, aren’t you worried?’ she heard the telepathic pup in her head, and knew Jaesang could hear him, too.

“No, Baek,” she promised, even though it was a lie.

Kyung walked into town with Baekhan and Jaesang flanking her, muttering to herself, “He better not be getting us into more trouble than we can handle, or I’ll kill him myself.”

[itsclydebitches]

Hey Clyde, did you check out Wonder Egg Priority at all? The first ep is super promising, but the series as a whole is one of those real fascinating disasters from a story and a production standpoint that might be up your alley as a thing to pick apart haha.

I’d warn that it’s also reeeeal offensive and this generally gets worse as it goes though.

Hi, Phoenix! How are you and Cube doing?

Okay, I hadn't watched Wonder Egg Priority when I received your ask this morning. Now I have. In a fit of intense curiosity I settled down for a rare binge session and tore through all twelve episodes + OVA in a single sitting. It is now nearly 3:00am as I write this because I, oh so clearly, make fantastic life choices.

A question for you: what did I just watch?

The rest is going under a read more partly for spoilers, but more-so because WEP—and the summary I'm about to give, because I feel like I need to try and explain this to tumblr's faceless void for my own, dwindling sanity—comes with about every trigger warning under the sun. Seriously, if you are triggered by anything that we might think of as a "standard" trigger (meaning, not unique to you and your own experiences), best to proceed with caution.

Right! What the ever loving fuck happened in this show? Well, let's work through this chronologically. Two genius, frat boy brothers (I get their names mixed up so I'm not even gonna bother) are locked in their apartment and closely monitored because of Super Secret Science Research. Even though, I think, they're the ones who created this company. Not important! What is important is that they're bored enough to create an AI for funsies, thinking of her as their daughter and letting her name herself Frill. Frill is the perfect, cutesy, also genius child who has a habit of popping her lips — which the camera focuses on in an incredibly creepy fashion. One day Brother #1 (the hot one) falls in love with a random woman we know nothing about and Frill gets jealous.

"Jealous in a general sense?" you ask, thinking this show is in any way normal. "Like, just of her Dad giving attention to someone else?"

"No," I respond, patting your hand. "Jealous because she's in love with him." Which, beyond the subject matter itself, comes completely out of nowhere. Frill has a line about what you'd do if some woman stole your husband away. I, fool that I was, briefly considered that these two guys were lovers, not brothers. Oh no. They're brothers. Frill just considers Dad #1 to be her "husband."

So, in true evil AI fashion, she murders the wife, leaving only her newly born child behind. Who is a daughter.

Uh oh.

Dad #1 locks Frill in a coffin-esque hole in the basement and goes on with his life. Things are great! Until years later when the daughter reveals that she has fallen in love with her uncle (Dad #2 to Frill). She knows (somehow??) that both her dad and her uncle loved her mom, so if the loser uncle will just wait a few years he can marry her instead! He brushes her off, but the next day she’s found dead of an apparent suicide.

Realizing that this was somehow Frill’s doing, he marches down to the basement and confronts the murderous child they’ve had locked up for years. She’s now surrounded by screens in, again, true creep AI fashion. How did she get all this while she was locked up? Oh, just the three bug girls she created as friends prior to killing the wife. They’re devoted slaves, I guess. So the uncle says enough of this insanity and seemingly sets Frill on fire.

OH and Frill’s subtitled dialogue also puts “uncle” in quotation marks, implying that the daughter was always Dad #2’s??

Anyway, both brothers are now super obsessed with death and claim that they think Frill has had a hand in lots of girls’ suicides, even now after her own death. This is brought into question later when it’s revealed that they might have just concocted this scheme to try and bring back their daughter. I’m really not sure. Regardless, they use hand-wavey science to create eggs that I guess contain the souls of young girls who have committed suicide, then they sucker in other young girls who have lost people to suicide to try and rescue their loved ones in a dream world, saving others along the way. A tomboyish girl, Momoe, lost a classmate who admitted to loving her, but who Momoe rejected. Rika, a former junior idol, used and rejected an overweight fan only to learn later that she’d starved herself to death. Neiru, the 14yo president of some science company (yup) was attacked by her sister before she jumped off a bridge. Finally Ai, our protagonist, is a victim of bullying who managed to make friends with a single girl, Koito, who then jumped from their school building for unknown reasons. They’re all given the chance to bring these individuals back to life, provided they protect other victims of suicide by defeating the monstrous traumas that drove them to that act in the first place.

And you know what? That concept was great. However, the execution ranges from “Okay, that was pretty good for an anime. Kudos there” to “That’s the most offensive thing I’ve seen in my life.” Needless to say, unpacking all the battles they fight would take a lot more than this already absurd summary. Basically, if you can think of something horrible to happen to young girls (and one trans guy whose existence in that egg undermines the whole message of the episode), there’s an attempt to tackle it here.

During all this the four girls become friends and Ai works through her suspicions about Mr. Sawaki, a teacher at her school. What’s going on with Mr. Sawaki? Uh… everything! He’s somehow connected to Koito’s death, he’s dating Ai’s mom, and Ai apparently loves him too because her friends say so, even though this is never actually addressed and she barely interacts with him. It’s all quite the complication.

In time though the girls complete their “mission” of bringing their loved ones back to life. Rika and Momoe manage it first, only to find that Frill’s bug-girl lackeys have arrived to kill them. Why? Because that’s what Frill does, I guess. Momoe’s crocodile familiar (cute animals the girls were gifted to help them fight) takes a killing blow for her and the bug-lady then proceeds to carve up his corpse and force feed it to Momoe. Fantastic!! Building off of that, the next bug-lady who Rika encounters kills her turtle too, following in the footsteps of her bug-sister by, presumably, forcing her to eat parts of its head. Ai refuses to sacrifice her familiar to stay alive, but luckily the suicide she was protecting turns out to be herself from a parallel universe (that's a thing now!) and she takes the killing blow herself, which is done by pulling out the eye she’s sensitive about (she has heterochromia.) So parallel Ai passes on (again?) and the three girls don’t work through this trauma at all, instead becoming more traumatized through the realization that the loved ones they brought back no longer remember them. They’re alive, but the relationship they all had with them is dead.

It’s about this point that the main storyline wraps up and I’m relieved that there’s an OVA to finish things off. Surely they can somehow bring this all together in 45 minutes.

…25 minutes of that OVA is recap.

So with only about 20 minutes left, we learn that Neiru, the only one to not complete her mission yet, has mysteriously gone missing. It turns out she was an AI/clone/something all along, made to replace her sister and, presumably, that’s what caused the whole stabbing-suicide incident. She successfully brings her sister back, but stays behind in the dream world because Frill promises her she can become human. How is Frill here when she’s dead? How will Neiru become human? Isn’t Frill the “temptation of death” or whatever? There are no answers. A flashback finally reveals that Koito was having a relationship with a teacher at another school, he committed suicide, she transferred, she tried the same thing with Mr. Sawaki, he kept refusing her advances, and finally while threatening suicide to get his attention, she accidentally fell.

(So why was she in the suicide egg if it was an accident??)

Except, all this information comes through Mr. Sawaki himself, there’s a whole subplot about whether he’s really a villain, or if Ai is just making him into one, and this show might as well be titled How Much Pedophilia Can We Put into One Anime? So make of that what you will.

A dead character randomly shows up, but it's fine because she's actually just a version from a parallel world. How did she get here? Why is she here? Lol, it's cute that you think these are answered.

Rika, the character who cuts and almost committed suicide halfway through the show, breaks down saying how much she misses her dead loved ones, right after her friends refused to let her go on another mission that would surely end in her death and… that’s it. That’s all we get about her.

Momoe too, though she’s hopefully just vibing somewhere with that longed-for boyfriend.

Ai transfers schools and then one day randomly remembers that she loves Neiru and rushes back to start cracking eggs again because that will? Somehow?? Let her see Neiru???

When I say there are too many unanswered questions to possibly list here I really, really mean it.

Finally, in a personal attack on me, the protagonist with a name that is literally AI is not in any way an artificial intelligence.

And that’s it! Congratulations, you now “understand” WEP. And see, the funny thing is that the off-the-rails, bat-shit crazy aspects kind of catch you off guard? Yeah, the first episode is fantastic. In fact, I think I got through about six episodes thinking that this was a solid, if at times really messed up anime, but I was willing to shrug off a lot of stuff due solely to the amount of sensitive material they were attempting to cover (which is always quite difficult to do). Probably the only reason I was able to binge so fast was because the first half of the series was so engaging. The characters are charming. The animation is GORGEOUS. There's actually a ton of good here that is also worth yelling about. But then the plot comes in like a freight train and I was left staring dumbfounded at my screen as more and more insanity kept happening. Having watched the "explanations" I am now more confused about the show I just saw.

Phoenix, if you’ve bothered to read this rambling, 3:00am rant: thank you. I think? Idk if I should actually be thanking you or cursing you for tuning me into this, but it was definitely an experience, that’s for sure lol.

I'm off to bed now RIP the chance of having normal dreams ✌️