#but if she DOES hate Riz and want to kill him because she likes him that would still be a win for me

[clownjacket]

Okay my ‘why Kipperlily hates Riz’ theory: She handed out business cards first day, he handed out business cards first day, she’s tiny, he’s tiny, they’re both obviously overeager teacher’s pet type A rogues, they’re like male and female versions of each other and it’s obvious to everyone. What would most high schoolers do, in that situation, seeing another kid so similar to your friend on the first day that they somehow BOTH made business cards to hand out at school? AND they’re going to be taking classes together? You say “Omg, he’s literally the boy version of you, you’re SOULMATES, you’d be perfect together!” And what do you do when your type A tight-ass friend acts embarrassed by that? You tease her about it more obviously. You think it’s just good natured ribbing, and she KNOWS it’s just good natured ribbing, but for some reason she gets unreasonably angry any time she sees Riz after that. Maybe even uncomfortable? But she KNOWS she doesn’t have a crush on him, so why does it bother her so much?

[radiocrypt-id]

The bad kids haven't really looked too closely at the Rat Grinders (meta wise I know it's a commentary on different play styles and how shitty xp farming is and how op players/parties can become by doing the bare minimum if they put in the time while everyone else plays the damn game) but I find the split perspective problems absolutely fascinating. I can't wait for the Bad Kids to look at the Rat Grinders with envy and anger that the Rat Grinders got to live a normal highschool life without all this insane danger and experience being a teenager without it being the end of the world for them. Right now they just hate the Rat Grinders energy and are matching it back (which is a very high school thing to do. To have beef with a whole other group of kids and not even know why but you'll die on this hill because they started shit first)

Because to the Rat Grinders, from a purely outside perspective, the Bad Kids are fucking monarchs of the school, right? They skipped classes, ran around town, fought people, got arrested, hung out with a big devil? Every new staff member came at their recommendation? One of them has both her dads working at the school?? The destroyed school property, got teachers killed, straight murdered the coach? These fucking kids run around and are apparently scott-free? because the principal liked their chaos enough to let it go and help them avoid the police? To the Rat Grinders, the Bad Kids are untouchable. They're exempt from the law. They're liars, cheats and need to be humbled. It's unfair. From everyone elses perspective, it really does look like the Bad Kids have been given crazy favourtism.

Meanwhile, all of the Bad Kids have died at least once. They've been irreparably changed and are in a constant state of fight or flight. They assume everything is dangerous and anyone might be an enemy because for two goddamn years that was the exact case! They couldn't trust any adult first year! Literally anyone could have been infected with Kalina second year! who knows what happened with the Night Yord but I fucking bet they had issues with Yorbies pretending to be helpful just to kill them! Everyone, for two years, has been out to get them! They can't even sleep! And now they have to grind so hard or they fail. Adaine has a seemingly full time job after school basically every day because she literally can't afford to live? Fabian has taken on the most physically strenuous classes and sport one dude could and has dreams of also being a social legend because he's fucking lonely in that big house and he just wants to fill it. If anyone in the party fails or dies Riz is shit out of luck and wont ever get into a university? He so desperately wants his friends with him so he's working over time and ignoring his limits to make up for his party members not caring about the future. Fig is going through the strangest arc I've ever seen in my life? she's hard avoidant and taking three classes, so a 250% work load, because she's desperate to fill her time so she can't think about all the other work she has to do that if she ignores too long could crush her under the debt of her band from her label, or how alone she feels without her girlfriend around. Gorgug is so desperate to prove himself that he's doing four years of school work in one, trying to play catch up and also prove himself at the same time, he's taking it all so seriously but also is so fucking tired. And Kristen. Mother fucking Kristen "hey girlie" applebees. Expected to dedicate her life to a god with no direction, with the weight of failure being her gods death, while also being in school and also at your friends insistence needing to run for student body president and getting your priorities so mixed up and being completely left behind by her peers who didn't have to rework their entire world view and understanding of life in the span of a few months every few months.

The Bad Kids are in a terrible place. They're suffering. I want them to just say it out loud, to stop pretending they have it handled and are fine. I want Riz and Adaine to yell at the party to get their shit together. I want Fabian to tell someone how alone and abandoned her feels. I want Kristen to scream at Cassandra that she agrees, that it's not fair, she's just a kid, how could she be enough all on her own with no help? It sucks a god can only rely on a child, for both the god and child! They're both suffering from this arrangement! Neither is happy! I want Gorgug to beat the shit out of Porter with his inventions and rage at the same time, to make the best shit and use it in the most stunning way anyone has ever seen. I want Fig to finally get some freaking help, to have her teachers and parents reach out in a meaningful way and stop telling her to figure it out alone because clearly the pressure is too much for her to handle and she's drowning. I want someone, anyone, to look at the Bad Kids and tell them to stop. To help them. But I know it wont be that easy. I know it'll be the Rat Grinders yelling at how unfair it is the Bad kids get everything while they're on the sidelines that'll get under the Bad Kids skin and they'll yell about how awesome they are and that they didn't ask for any of this shit to happen to them and to fuck off. I know it's gonna get so much worse before it gets better. I know they'll figure it out and that it'll be a painful road there.

[ageless-aislynn]

Aislynn's Jumble of Random Thinky Thoughts on Halo s2 ep4 "Reach"

SPOILERS, but of course

Cpt Admiral Keyes went out like a total badass. I really do hate to lose him but I'm glad he got a better send-off than he did in the game (Halo: Combat Evolved). Seeing him with a pipe was an awesome little callback to the game, IMO. (Though smoking is bad; don't smoke, kids! 👎😬😉)

The fact that The Powers That Be took Silver Team's Mjolnir with them as they ran like cowards evacuated but abandoned actual Silver Team is the most realistic bureaucratic part of the episode. 🙄

I suspected Louis wasn't going to survive but him losing Danilo and then choosing to make that stand immediately after was both heartbreaking but bittersweet: he couldn't live without his beloved and his sacrifice gave John and Riz a chance to escape but also ensured that he didn't have to live long without his beloved. 💔

My Halo vehicle fangirling was cranked up to 117% 😇 here, with me pausing the show to yell, "WRAITH, IT'S A WRAITH! I love hijacking those things!!!" and then "SCORPION! A SCORPION TANK! Aw, man, I do BUSINESS when I have a Scorpion!" *wistful, lovestruck sigh* 💖 Please imagine my dad's 🤔⁉️ face during all of that, lol! 😇

John, my beloved, and Scorpion tank, my beloved... 😍🤷‍♀️😇😉

I was legit upset that Kai was gone the entire ep, not just 'cause I wanted to see her, of course, but because it seems an awful lot like she abandoned her team and that just doesn't seem like her at all. I know last ep she was very torn and upset about John and not really believing what he was saying, but also not wanting to narc him out, either. When she finds out what happened to Vannak, I think she'll blame herself for not being there and, honestly? I think she should. (Same as she should feel bad about not believing John, evidence to the contrary.) Not saying she could've prevented any of the bad stuff, of course, but she wasn't there when Silver Team desperately needed her and if they don't have her feel guilt over that, then that's really going to be OOC for her, IMO. 😔

And then of course, the "two" of the "one-two punch" from this ep... Vannak, nooooooooo! I was completely not expecting to lose him here but I really should have, considering we're straight up doing a version of Reach's game storyline and, as we all know, Noble Team didn't make it out of the game alive (other than Jun).

And yet still... Vannak! Not when he's just learned to love animal documentaries and feeding the birds! The big guy had so much more living to do!!! 😭😭😭 I'm going to really miss him and I'm going to completely ignore his death in any fanfic I ever again write, I'm just saying. 🤷‍♀️😉

Are we feeling like Soren will be getting a place on Silver Team, at least temporarily?

Okay, so I was a little surprised but in a good way over how hard everything about Keyes hit Halsey. She was genuinely kinda tongue-tied at seeing him, then her absolutely screaming at his death and her sobbing... I wasn't expecting that sort of reaction. She really did love him and I wouldn't have thought that before this episode.

I feel vaguely like John's ex just kidnapped his current girlfriend, lol. Also, I keep staring at Makee, thinking, "Is her hair a different blonde? Is she dying her eyebrows or something?" more than anything else so I really need to get over that, lol! Annnnnd I could kinda ship her with her Arbiter but nobody should be surprised at that 'cause I can ship a character with a mop that has a wig and googly eyes on it if the chemistry feels right to me...

I could also see not-Thel!Arbiter as being a suuuuper jealous boyfriend trying to prove he's better than Makee's ex... *shipper glasses, I has 'em at all times!* 😜😉

Since Makee didn't let her Arbiter (whose name is escaping me at the moment) go ahead and kill John, one wonders if it was because she does still have feelings for him or if she just needs him for some later nefarious purpose. And why does she need Cortana? I'm still wondering if we're going to get some sort of "evil" Cortana ala Halo 5 since her new look reminds me a lot more of her Halo 5 look.

This is a still, not GIF, from Halo s2 Cortana's new look, so you don't wonder why it's not moving. 😉

Halo 5 "evil" Cortana.

And you can see s1 Cortana in the GIF right above all of this.

Annnnd my favorite version of Cortana...

Halo 4 Cortana, whom I imprinted on as my very first Cortana, so this is her definitive look to me, what can I say? 🤷‍♀️😉

And bringing things back to the episode once more, I also had a game fangirling moment when John yelled, "Frag out!" as he lobbed the grenade. My dad soon learned that the marines tend to yell that as they're lobbing frag grenades in the various games, too! 😎

Ooo, and almost forgot John's absolute panic eyes when Keyes called him forward during his inspirational speech, lol. Poor Chief, d'aww! But that was a really great moment to show people that Master Chief isn't a robot, he's a flesh and blood person, and I think that was used to great effect in this moment. 💖

In summary, this episode had me

💖

[sumersprkl]

List of the Bad Kids, from most to least mortal:

1. Gorgug

I feel like Gorgug dies and is sent back to the terrible Orc Heaven he hated because he lacks any other allegiances, and there’s a whole adventure that is one-half Heaven Heist and one-half College Tour where the Bad Kids team up and assemble a crew to steal him out of there and find him an afterlife option he’d actually enjoy.

2. Riz

Riz probably dies before Gorgug, but since he already has an afterlife job lined up, he’s still kind of around? He’s definitely dead, though, in a pretty permanent way, so that’s why he’s this high on the list.

3. Fabian

(I know Kristen should be next but shh hear me out.)

I feel like Fabian, much like his beloved Papa, creates a merry band of death pirates that rivals Bill Seacaster’s hellish crew. But I don’t think he gets sent to the Nine Hells? I feel like he’s out there terrorizing Heavens instead. Maybe once he dies he gets together a crew of the allies they assembled in the Gorgug Soul Heist, and he becomes their captain. He occasionally gets together with Bill to have dramatic pirate battles, but I feel like they mostly operate on different turfs.

4. Adaine

Adaine is functionally immortal, but she very much does still die if she is killed, especially if she’s out alone without her friends and gets assassinated by elves who would REALLY VERY MUCH LIKE THE ORACLE BACK, PLEASE. She’s an incredibly powerful wizard, but shit happens sometimes. I think that as she’s fading out, she gets to pick the next oracle, and chooses someone who is NOT AN ELF to have one last “fuck you” to Fallinel and to preserve the legacy of the “People’s Oracle” rather than the “Elven Oracle.” She watches over the next oracle for their lifetime, and laughs when that oracle says that Adaine was probably not very good at her job if she couldn’t see her own assassination coming.

5. Kristen

Kristen is a plain unmodified human, so she dies before half-elf Fabian. But she’s also the saint of a god who probably doesn’t remember how afterlives are supposed to work. I feel like Kristen dies of old age, in her bed, surrounded by friends. And then Cassandra gets handed the soul of her greatest and dearest worshipper, and is like “???!!? What do I do with this???” So they create a perfect replica of Kristen’s body on the day they met, down to the missing finger, and they shove the soul back into it, and Kristen has to be a teenager again. I think that if Kristen ever wants to actually die, she’s gotta help Cassandra with planning and creating an afterlife first.

6. Fig

Fig probably has the functionally immortal elven lifespan from her mom’s side of the family, but she’s also an Archdevil? If she dies, she gets sent to the Nine Hells, which is where she lives. The other Archdevil we’ve seen is Gorthalax, who seems pretty unkillable, because his enemies keep trapping him in things instead of ending his life. So like. CAN Fig even be killed? UNCLEAR.

[0stentatia]

A “Riz & Adaine being lowkey besties” fanfic

The morning after they rescue Adaine & Aelwyn from Calethriel Tower, after she restores Aelwyn’s memory to before she was captured, Adaine is sitting at the back of the Van trying not to spiral. Riz joins her, and they have a little chat. 

(This is the first Fantasy High fic I’ve ever written & the first fanfic I’ve written in a hot minute so I’m sorry if it’s not the best but I needed this to exist because I love Riz & Adaine’s friendship sm.)

    The songs of the Treants danced through the air around Kei Lumennura as Adaine sat at the back of the van with the doors open wide. Her sister was curled up and unconscious inside, restored back to her unfortunate past self. There had been an abundance of pain seeing her sister weak and broken and vulnerable, but there had also been hope. Hope that maybe this would be a new start for the sisters. Aelwyn had spoken to her in a way that made Adaine finally feel like her equal, finally feeling like she wanted to care for her instead of casting Ray of Sickness at any chance she got. But the world was cruel and unforgiving, so the walk through Aelwyn’s mind had torn her heart out and then had given her no time to grieve. 

    The old Aelwyn was back, her father was possibly dead, and her mother was working for somebody who definitely wasn’t good. The anxiety was mounting, quickly. She’d taken her meds upon waking up this morning but that just took the edge off enough to keep her from being incapacitated by her panic attacks. Holding Boggie tightly to her chest, she was lost in her own thoughts as the rest of the group carried on. After some time, she was interrupted by a familiar voice. 

    “So… It’s been a uh, wild few days, huh?” She lifted her eyes from the spot on the ground they’d been focused on to see Riz standing in front of her. 

    She scoffed lightly and nodded her head, not saying anything. 

    Riz didn’t say anything else for a long moment either. He moved to lift himself up and sit beside her in the back of the van, his legs swinging slightly as they dangled over the edge. There was a heaviness in her chest. 

    She wanted to be back home, with Jawbone there to help her through any crises she may have, or at least to have her group therapy once a week to keep her grounded. She wanted to be far away from Fallinel, far away from those who had captured her and were most likely going to execute her. Adaine missed Elmville terribly, and she missed the comfort of familiarity and regularity that it brought to her just as much. 

    “I’m really glad you’re back,” Riz finally spoke again. He rubbed the back of his neck and turned his head to look at her. “We weren’t really sure what was happening to you, or what they were going to do with you, and that was…” He sighed, “The not knowing was scary.” 

    “I’m pretty sure they were going to execute me.” Adaine said quietly. 

    Riz’s brow shot up in surprise. “What?!” 

    “Yeah. I mean.. I was basically given a choice. Either stay and be their Elven Oracle and do everything they told me to do.. Or they were going to kill me, so the gift of the Oracle could be passed on to somebody else, somebody who would stay in Fallinel and do what they wanted.” The weight of the words leaving her lips fell on her shoulders like boulders. She felt too numb to cry. 

    “Holy shit Adaine… And your dad was fine with that?” 

    “Of course he was, Riz. He’s a foul little worthless excuse of a man. We already knew that.” She spit the words out venomously. 

    Riz said nothing in response, just pursed his lips together and nodded his head silently. 

    Boggie let out a soft ribbet as she held him in her arms. 

    “They tortured my sister there for so long… She was like a shell of a person when I found her. So broken and helpless… When she woke up here she asked me if we escaped or if we died and honestly, I’m not sure which answer she was hoping to hear from me…” She was silent for a few seconds before continuing, “Then I thought maybe we’d have a chance to really get to know each other, for the first time like… ever? Maybe we could be on the same side for once… But now that version of Aelwyn is gone and she’s back to being exactly who I always hated her for being.” Adaine let out a shaky breath and pulled her feet up, crossing her legs criss-cross beneath her. 

    “Does that make me a bad person? For wishing she could be in pain again, and wishing she could remember what she went through these past few months just because it hurts me more if she doesn’t?” She turned her head to look at Riz. 

    He laughed and she furrowed her brow at him. 

    “Sorry, I’m not— I’m not trying to laugh at you.” He shook his head and turned to meet her eyes, “It’s just funny to me that you think you could ever be a bad person.” He offered a small smile.

    She held his gaze for a moment, searching his face and finding nothing but genuine care and honesty. They’d talked about her family before. She’d told him bits and pieces about her parents, about how they were growing up, about her sister. There had been times when she’d even confided in him how she wished she and Aelwyn could’ve been close. He’d heard her say that it didn’t matter how much she hated and resented her sister, there would always be a part of her that wished things had gone differently. There would always be a part of her that longed to be close with her sister, and a part of her that loved her. 

    Riz knew what she struggled with. He knew how hard she tried to be the opposite of what her parents were, of what they’d turned her sister into. And he’d always been quick to reassure her that she was far from resembling anything close to them. 

    Adaine sighed softly before she looked out over the elven sanctuary, taking it all in. 

    “Are you okay?” He asked after a few more moments of quiet between them. 

    She scoffed again. “My shitty dad might be dead. I didn’t even get to have one nice day with my sister after saving her from being tortured for months on end. My mom is working for the Nightmare King or Kalina or whoever it is exactly that we’re dealing with. I almost got executed while I was in Elf prison and now I’m basically a fugitive, so,” She shrugged, throwing her hands up a bit as she did. Riz grimaced and she sighed heavily again, dropping her hands onto her lap. “I’m fine.” 

    Riz looked at her, skeptically raising his brow.

    “You don’t seem fine.” He challenged. She turned her head and shot him a look, opening her mouth to say something, but he continued before she had a chance, “You don’t have to talk about it. I’m not here to be a dick, I was just worried about you. I was really worried about you while you were gone and I thought maybe that I’d feel better now that you’re back with us but… I’m still worried.” It was his turn to shrug, lifting his shoulders and letting them fall gently back down. 

    “I don’t know what’s gonna happen with you and your sister or you and your family and these fuckin’ elves. There are still so many things we don’t have answers for and I don’t.. I don’t like not having answers. But when you weren’t here it just became so much more clear to me that nobody—” He stopped himself short, scrunching her nose in thought for a moment before continuing, “We can’t— I can’t do this without you.” He adjusted the hat atop his head. “This isn’t gonna happen again. I won’t let it happen again.” 

    “Well we seem to have taken down Calethriel Tower so I don’t think it could even if you wanted it to.” She said teasingly. 

    “Yeah I wanted to ask what happened with all that but there hasn’t really felt like a right time?”

    “Oh, Fig played her bass and it cracked a gem that made the whole thing come crumbling down. It was kind of rad, honestly.” 

    Riz chuckled softly. “Wild..”

    “Yeah, but I didn’t really expect anything less.” Adaine laughed along with him. 

    Another silence, comfortable and soft, settled between them as they looked out into the sanctuary, Fabian still dancing as the rest of the group encouraged him. 

    Still looking forward, Riz spoke again, “I’m sorry you got kidnapped and held as a prisoner, Adaine. We should’ve protected you so much better than we did. I wanted to come break you out sooner but we had some hang ups when we first got here, a bit of culture shock that set us back longer than I wanted and then the usual nonsense that set us back even more. I didn’t want you feeling like we were partying and having a good time and enjoying ourselves while you were being tortured or whatever... It felt fucked up.” 

    “That’s because it probably was a little fucked up.” She said, an ever-so-slight grin on her face as she teased him. 

    “I know,” He sighed, not completely acknowledging her teasing tone, “I couldn’t enjoy any of it. Fabian’s grandpa is too much to handle, honestly, and I thought the trees were kind of a nice vibe but then they started singing and it’s just…” He shook his head, clearing his thoughts and refocusing, “I’m just glad you’re with us again… This whole thing,” He gestured around to the rest of the party, to the van, to their surroundings, “Isn’t the same without you.” 

    She pursed her lips and gave a small smile, nodding her head slightly. 

    “I’m here if you ever want to talk, you know that, right?” He turned his head again to look at her, holding eye contact with her. 

    “I know,” She parroted the words he’d said not but a few seconds before, but sounding much gentler. “Thanks, Riz.” She smiled at him. It was a saddened, anxious, and broken smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

    “Anything for my best friend.” He replied, giving her a small smile and nudging her side gently with his elbow.

    After a few more seconds of silent eye contact, communicating thoughts of understanding and concern and care that Adaine felt too exhausted to have exchanged out loud, they both looked forward again. Sitting in silence, no longer alone, the comfort of Riz Gukgak’s presence beside her helped her feel like maybe she’d be alright outside of Elmville for a little while longer after all.

[w2beastars]

A closer look at some Beastars characters' philosophies

(I won’t get into characters such as Legosi, Haru or Louis since I already talked a lot about their philosophy AND how said philosophies have evolved.)

Juno:

Juno loves being a carnivore and takes pride in her strength and beauty that are the trademarks of a wolf. She is well-aware how hated her species is and she aims at becoming a Beastar(an elite in society) so she can spread her message about carnivore pride. She dislikes herbivores and is polite and friendly to them for the sake of her good reputation, and she is alright with the idea of segregation, believing it is in everyone’s interest.

So Juno is into egotism, meaning the theory that one's self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one's own action. She serves her own interest first and is only friendly or helpful if it somehow is in her interest. So it also makes her somewhat unkind if she is with someone who can’t be of use to her so to say. Heck, she is downright vicious to people who are somehow in her way, like Haru since she was her “competition”.

Melon:

Melon doesn’t care how civilized the animals of Beastars are. To him, they are beasts, creatures who are slaves to their instincts. They want sex and they want food, that is what drives them.

And sure, Melon is... somewhat right about the instinct thing... but he is also simplifying it because of his cynicism.

But since he believes everyone to be dumb animals(some smarter than others) then he feels absolutely no guilt about being a monster. He kills, deceive, and does whatever the hell he feels like. It seems like his philosophy is very similar to Doctor Moreau(look him up) who argues that the traits that separates humans from animals are just altered or disguised instincts.

Gouhin:

Gouhin believes that the best way to make the world a better place is by LITERALLY beating sense into other carnivores, one meat eater at the time. But he also thinks that carnivores SHOULD eat meat, but they should do it in the Back-Ally Marked where they can buy it from shops who received it from hospitals or undertakers. That is more moral than killing someone. And he only wishes to treat meat eaters who have lost control, not turn them over to the authorities since he consider the neat for meat a born cross to bear(hehehe.. bear...) and HE is in no position to judge since he is a panda, a carnivore who was born able to live by only eating bamboo.

That means that he get VERY impressed by Legosi who did not actually give into eating meat despite Gouhin locking him in a room with meat to try and teach him a lesson. He is constantly on Legosi’s back and berates him, but he actually consider him an exceptional animal, both mentally and physically. But he is STILL just an expectation that proves the rule.

Gosha:

Gosha is a pacifist, which is sort of funny when you consider the fact tat he was a child soldier who later fought crime with Yafya. But he got a family much to his surprise when his wolf girlfriend got pregnant, something that was SUPER unlikely since he is a reptile(remember, ALWAYS use protection). So Gosha adapted to becoming a single father after his wife died and led a completely different life than the rather violent one he had before. So his ideology changed a lot, making him sort of an uncle Tom who was well-behaved and simply allowed others to treat him poorly for being a poisonous lizard. He taught his grandson Legosi this ideology as well, that the strong should not use their strength.

Gosha believes that if you have strength, then you have the responsibility to not harm others. This means that if others comes to you looking for a fight, then you HAVE to evade the conflict by either leaving or possibly yield. If you fight, even for yourself, then you are a bully. This ideology is rather harmful since it means that you just HAVE to take it if others treat you poorly and it can lead to lack of self respect. In fact, you could argue that he hurt Legosi by raising him into being passive.

However, Gosha also believes that you have a responsibility to use strength to help others. So he becomes downright violent when someone either tries to harm his family or friends.

Yafya:

Yafya believes that the world is chaotic by nature and that carnivores are savages who just pretend to have self control. Even when he was friends with Gosha, he still thought of him as a big monster. A friendly monster, but still a monster. The only way to ensure peace is by ruling the world with an iron fist and that problems are best solved by kicking them till they are solved.

The problem with this peace-trough-force philosophy is that it requires someone to be the one forcing the peace. Yafya has to stay in insanely good shape to be the iron fist that hold society together, but no amount of carrot juice will change the fact that he will eventually grow old and tired and won’t be able to be that iron fist.

And when that happens, then an old problem will turn ten times worse. The problem of carnivores living in fear.

Because even though the existence of the Sublime Beastar is a government secret, there are still rumors about him and it is normal for animals to assume he is real. To herbivores, he is a hero. To the carnivores, he is a bogeyman. The Back-Ally Marked has graffiti everywhere where he is called the “Black Devil” since rumor has it that he eats carnivores(something that is true). So if this bogeyman either dies or becomes unable to be the force that scares them... well, then the one-afraid meat eaters will become very pissed off meat eaters.

Yafya only provides a temporary fix to society, not an actual solution.

Riz:

Riz the bear has a rather warped world view, but it is also one that is a result of... for a lack of better words; “laziness.”

Riz made a philosophy that herbivores were born to get eaten and that eating another animal is the same as making them a part of you. So the herbivore is being a great friend by “allowing” you to eat them up.

But the truth is that Riz ate Tem because he was stupid enough to stop taking his drugs and did not consider the consequences. But instead of feeling guilty about it, he sugarcoated it and made himself believe that it was an act of friendship. And if he REALLY bought his own bullshit, then he wouldn’t have gone back to his drugs. He would have kept eating other animals, making more “friends“. But he chose to just move on with his life after eating Tem, acting like nothing happened. That’s the act of a coward.

[swarmkeepers]

riz & gorgug for #5! ✨

5. heard you tell the same story multiple times but doesn’t point it out to you when you excitedly bring it up to them again + riz & gorgug (prompts linked here)

(starting immediately post-fhsy, and a little more angsty than the other prompt fills so far because it deals with some of the aftermath of spring break. sometimes friendship is late nights and brownie recipes and old stories.)

There are forty minutes left until Elmville when Riz digs his claws into the headrest of the passenger’s seat and clambers over the seat backs to sit shotgun in the Hangvan. 

Everyone else is asleep, or as Riz suspects in Tracker’s case as she stays oddly still as a human pillow for Kristen in the backseat, at least pretending to. But Riz is quest-restless even though they’re heading home, and Gorgug’s awake because he’s driving, and both of their darkvision light up the street ahead for them. 

Gorgug doesn’t look surprised when Riz lands in the seat next to him. Of course. Because his whole party knows that Riz doesn’t sleep, or at least has to be told to, or has to know that there are hit points to be regenerated and a fight to be alert for the next day. 

Streetlights speed by and Gorgug brings the van to a smooth stop at a light, accelerating smoothly up afterwards to not jostle anyone in the backseat. He’s practiced, easy, calm. Meanwhile, Riz’s thoughts are a messy turbulent maelstrom. He can’t sleep, and after everything in the Nightmare Forest if he never saw a bed again it’d be too soon. But, forget sleep, his brain isn’t even letting him relax right now, and Riz is struggling to figure out the questions that are on the tip of his tongue. His fingers itch for a ball of red string, trying to figure out why he wanted to be up here with the passenger seat and the windshield and Gorgug.

“What’s being a barbarian like?” he asks quietly, and Gorgug doesn’t exactly startle but does tip his head to the side curiously. 

“Can I ask why?” 

“I’m—angry,” Riz says, surprising himself, but it feels true enough. “I killed Kalina, but she said she was with me my whole life. And I hate that.” He wants to hiss, to bare his teeth and make the hair on the back of his neck stand up, but it’s not Gorgug he’s mad at. “Sometimes I wonder if I should use that to. Hit things.” 

“Okay,” Gorgug says. 

“And you—you know about that. About being angry, and not being. As comfortable. Or at least you’ve said stuff like that.” Riz picks at his long fingernails, pretending to be nonchalant and not looking up to see if Gorgug’s insight is better than his shitty attempt at deception. 

“Tell me about why you wanted to be a rogue?” Gorgug asks instead, and Riz understands it’s not really a question. He trusts Gorgug. He thinks about it. 

“Um, my mom was always a detective, I guess. And my dad was a spy, but I guess I didn’t know that.” Riz spends a lot of his time thinking. He’s realizing he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about himself. Maybe he needs to make a new conspiracy board. “Uh. I guess the first time I ever saw Penny sneak attack someone was really cool, I definitely knew I wanted to do that.”

Gorgug makes a soft hm? noise that asks Riz to keep talking. “Because I was little and Penny’s little too, and we were at the mall and some asshole catcalled her? And oh, man, you should have seen her, Penny was probably an Aguefort freshman then? But she told me to hide behind this vending machine and—”

--

They’re all the way home, with the Mordred Manor crew taking their stuff out of the trunk while Gorgug and Riz keep talking. Riz finished his story hurriedly as they pulled into the driveway, ending with Penny teaching Riz to make brownie bars at Strongtower after the sneak attack incident and being so cool and badass and nonchalant about making that guy’s nose gush with blood. He’s talking fast and gesturing big like he doesn’t usually, caught up in a story that he can tell well and that he hadn’t thought of in a while. Him and his rogue friends are tiny badasses. 

“That was a good story,” Gorgug says. “Rogues seem pretty cool.” 

Riz grins, all his fangs out and happy in the driveway of the manor. “Thanks, dude.” 

“I think you can be angry and not a barbarian,” Gorgug says, gently. 

And “Okay,” Riz says, gentled. 

--

It’s the tail end of one of Fabian’s all-out summertime ragers. The Bad Kids are in a big cuddle pile that barely fits on the picnic blanket on the lawn of Seacaster Manor, and Gorgug’s at the very bottom. Riz is tipsy on half a beer (goblin metabolisms are not good and it’s not his fault) and he thinks Gorgug looks a little lonely, lying on his stomach and tapping at his crystal with all the wind knocked out of him from everyone lying on top. He scrambles down the pile of friend-bodies and sits on the grass by Gorgug. Riz racks his brain for something good to say. He doesn’t want Gorgug to be lonely, not when Riz is going to be up all night and Riz is usually the lonely one.

“Di’ I ever tell you about the first time I saw someone get sneak attacked,” Riz says, words big and bubbly and coming out too fast. He doesn’t care, he’s buzzed and happy and Gorgug looks like he could use a good story.

“I don’t remember, tell me,” Gorgug says, putting his crystal down face down so its glow goes dark. 

“Oh man, you’re going to love this story. It was, like, me ‘n Penny at the mall, and there was this real asshole of a dude, and I didn’t know Penny went to Aguefort but she took out this knife? And it was like she flew at him—”

At some point in the story Gorgug falls asleep, and Riz is more pleased than annoyed. He looks cozy. And not lonely. 

--

“What’s this, The Ball?” Fabian asks when Riz takes a fantasy tupperware of brownie bars out of his briefcase and puts it on the the table in the cafeteria.

“They’re sneak attack brownies,” Riz says. 

It evidently does not clear up any of Fabian’s questions. 

“Penny—Penny Luckstone?—they’re her recipe, she taught me how to make them the same day I ever saw her sneak attack a dude,” he explains. “She like, jumped out from behind one of those fake potted plants at the mall and slashed him so bad with a dagger and then she didn’t even get sneak attack on it but she also socked him in the nose and it was like the coolest thing I’d ever seen. And then she just went home and washed the blood off her fist and then we made brownies.” He puts a hand on his chest. “And I’ll never forget it.” 

“Okay, The Ball,” Fabian says, but he takes a brownie. 

Next to him, Gorgug’s already halfway into his second, nodding happily and energetically so his hair flops in front of his face. “I love that story!” he says. He’s all leaned in, listening to Riz’s story.

Riz lights up—he’s no Fabian, with expensive magical gifts, and he’s no Gorgug either with little artificed trinkets and sweeping big gestures. But he’d remembered the story and remembered the brownies and wanted to make some, and he’s just glad his friends like them as much as he does.

“Because the secret ingredient is sour cream,” Riz confides. Fabian fake-sputters, sending tiny brownie crumbs everywhere, and Gorgug swats at him. 

“You were eating it just fine before!” Gorgug says indignantly. “Respect the brownie, dude!”

“You’re right, Gorgug,” Fabian sighs. He takes another bite. “They’re not bad, The Ball.” 

--

Riz only dimly registers footsteps pounding up the stairs and also a greataxe brute forcing its way through the booby traps at his office door. His crystal is abandoned on the floor next to him, the last text he sent to Gorgug still on the screen. It’d been “Having a bad time. At my office. Can you come help? Thanks, Riz” and it’d been typed out with shaky fingers as his breaths started coming too fast, the way it does whenever he lets himself be alone in his own office for too long. Riz hates it but he needs help. He forgot the period on that text and it’s been staring at him for the past few minutes. 

His brain is whirring too fast—Shadow Cat, Kalina’s eyes in his own eyes, Baron in his mirror in his own office, darkness and danger and Fabian in churning waters, he died in that forest and so did Adaine and so could any of his friends, bullets dodged and bullets fired and it’s too much, too much. His breaths are coming too fast but also not fast enough. Riz feels suffocated. 

He’s wedged himself into his own briefcase of holding, the sides squeezing his arms in a way that’s grounding and comforting when nobody else is here in his office to help.

But Gorgug is. Gorgug is here to help now. He skids to a stop in front of Riz and sits on the floor and Riz only dimly registers it out of the corner of his eye where his head is curled into his chest trying to make himself small, make himself safe. 

“Riz, can I touch you?”

Riz does his best to nod and Gorgug just wraps long lanky boy arms around his torso, gently lifting Riz out of his own briefcase and settling him in Gorgug’s lap as they sit on the floor of the office. He doesn’t let go, just squeezes tighter. It’s so much help, and also— “Can you. Talk? Anything— Anything’s fine,” Riz says. 

“Um. Sure, Riz. I guess I can. I could list a recipe? My parents have been trying to teach me to cook more, for when we go to college in a couple of years. I’m sorry, I’m not like Adaine, I don’t have lots of interesting things memorized,” Gorgug says, apologetic. Riz wants to be able to tell him not to be, but he’s a little preoccupied trying to make his brain tell his lungs to breathe.

“Uh, so these are called sneak attack brownies?” Gorgug says hesitantly. Riz realizes what he’s doing and tries to laugh, the giggle interrupting the choked breath he was trying to take.

“They’re called sneak attack brownies because they’re my badass friend’s recipe. And he learned it from his badass friend. Um, I don’t know this super well, actually, but I really should by now and I’m just going to keep talking and if it’s wrong then I guess it’s wrong? I know that you need chocolate for a brownie. And eggs and sugar. You told me the secret ingredient is sour cream.”

Riz nods, thudding his head into Gorgug’s chest a little. He takes a deep breath. Gorgug’s hoodie is soft. And he’s a good listener.

“Right, uh. After sour cream. Flour. And butter?”

“The butter’s— the butter’s unsalted,” Riz manages to eke out, voice small and quiet and mostly talking to his own knees. 

“Got you. Unsalted butter,” Gorgug agrees, easy as anything. 

“Penny said— Penny said that dude she punched’s tears were salty enough, that’s how I remember it,” Riz tells him.

“Tell me more?” Gorgug asks, and he waits patiently as Riz lets his brain just focus on a recipe, an easy recipe and a badass story. It helps, to be given something focused to do. And Riz is just so, so glad he has friends who will give that to him, will listen over and over again when Riz needs to talk. 

And Gorgug waits. And Riz tells him. 

from the prompt list linked here! i’m closing prompts from this particular list simply because i have so many excellent ones to get through

[cactusnymph]

Prompt fill #8 for @dimension20alphabet:

Home / Healing

Riz didn’t like sleep before he went on a quest to retrieve the crown of the nightmare king. Sleep is a pointless waste of time and if Riz could have some sort of magical solution for this, he would take it immediately. 

Now, after the events of their spring break though, Riz actively dreads going to sleep. He hates it. 

Hates lying in bed in the dark and thinking about all those things in the forest of the Nightmare King, about dying and coming back to life, about their trip to hell, about Kalina sitting on his chest in the night, threatening him to kill Fabian, about Kristen being torn up from the inside—those pictures follow him into his dreams as well. 

He knows that it’s stupid because the Nightmare King is no more and neither is Kalina, but the dreams haunt him still even after their quest is over and he’s back home in Elmville, where he should feel safe. 

Except now, when he goes into his office, he hangs a sheet over his mirror and when he looks at the floor and sees the scratch marks there he shudders and swallows. 

When he’s lying in his room, from time to time he feels a weight on his chest that’s not really there. 

Sleep and silence and solitude have become his enemies and he doesn’t know how to win this battle. 

After a week of barely sleeping at all, of a degree of caffeine that alarmed his mother to no end, Riz finds himself in Mordred Manor in the living room. Someone pushed most of the furniture out of the way and the entire floor has been covered in mattresses, pillows and blankets. 

All Riz wanted to do was check in with the others to see if they had any plans for the coming weeks, but now he realizes that the inhabitants of Mordred Manor have spent their nights sleeping in this living room together. 

And right now, in the middle of this all, lies the familiar figure of one Fabian Seacaster, snoring lightly with a pillow on his head while Adaine sits next to him, reading, and Ragh seemingly plays a game on his crystal. 

“Oh, hey, Riz, my man”, Ragh says, his usually loud voice surprisingly quiet and he raises his massive hand to wave at Riz. 

“Um—hey guys”, Riz says, unsure what to make of this. “What’s up?”

“Fabian has trouble sleeping at home”, Adaine says and smiles at him, sticks a bookmark between the pages and puts her book to the side. After regarding him for a few seconds she cocks her head. “You look like you haven’t slept at all.”

“Uh—maybe? Sleeping is...”, he gestures vaguely and doesn’t finish the sentence. 

“Hard?”, Ragh offers. 

“Yeah.”

“I mean, dude, feel free to crash here any time. We sent you some messages but you didn’t answer them, so we figured you were not into the whole slumber party thing”, Ragh says and Riz blinks. 

Now that Ragh mentions it, Riz isn’t sure where he left his crystal. And he was too occupied with his own brain and his sleeplessness that he didn’t even realize it was missing. 

“I guess it would be okay to try”, Riz says and steps forward until his feet hit the end of one of the mattresses. Adaine gently pats the mattress next to her and Riz climbs into the middle of the nest made of pillows and blankets. 

“Isn’t it weird to just—I don’t know. Sleep here? While other people do their thing?”, he asks. 

Adaine shrugs. 

“We went on a quest to defeat the King of Nightmares. I feel like we can use all the restful sleep we can get. And it helps to not be alone.”

Riz lies down and immediately remembers how part of his journey through the Nightmare King’s forest was to take a nap. 

He still feels entirely ridiculous about this. 

As someone who helped defeat a damn deity Riz shouldn’t feel as nervous as he does about sleeping. 

Just as he arranges some pillows in a way that seems comfortable to him, Fig and Kristen enter the living room. 

“Oh hey, Riz!”, Kristen says with a wide smile. “Have you decided to join us in our cuddle pile?”

“I guess”, Riz says and shrugs a little helplessly. He’s still not entirely sure if this is going to work, but even while he considers if he should maybe just stay awake until night comes so it won’t be too weird, he feels his eyes drooping. 

At some point, while he dozes off, he hears other people enter the room and he thinks that he can hear Ragh offer his lap as a pillow for Gorgug and Ayda’s voice making sure that it is okay for her to hold onto Adaine’s wrist while she sleeps and a warm presence next to him smells like motorcycle oil and leather and some sort of pretentious aftershave. 

And Kristen is there by his side ruffling his hair while saying “Sweet dreams, Riz.” and Riz feels like maybe it would be more normal to have enough of these people after spending so much time with them for so long, after being in close quarters with them for so long. 

But all he feels is a sense of safety and warmth, something that hugs him like a blanket and says “This wound will heal and these people will help”. 

And Riz sleeps. 

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Spider-Man Movie Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, he does whatever a spider can. And what do spiders seem really good at? Amassing huge quantities of hatred and animosity! True to the wily arachnids that inspired him, Spider-Man has quite the impressive gallery of foes, one that I might say rivals Batman as the greatest in comic book history with how colorful, crazy, and creative they are. Even villains derivative of one another, like Hobgoblin and Green Goblin or Carnage and Venom, manage to carve out unique niches that help make them fun and memorable.

And thankfully, these qualities usually translated pretty well to film! I’ve talked about how good Mysterio, Vulture, Kingpin, and Prowler are before, so now it’s time to cover the others all in one fell swoop! From the Raimi trilogy, we have Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Harry Osborn, Sandman, and Eddie Brock/Venom; from the Andrew Garfield duology, we have Lizard, Electro, Rhino, and Harry Osborn again; and leftover from Into the Spider-Verse we have Olivia Octavius, Tombstone, Scorpion, and that film’s brief take on Green Goblin! Oh, and why not throw in Riot from Venom while we’re at it, because he sucks way too much to get his own Psycho Analysis.

Motivation/Goals: A lot of villains are motivated by the classic motivation: revenge. All of the Green Goblins manage to have this as a main part of their actions, making them remarkably consistent and very easy to discuss. The Norman of the Raimi films wants to take out his anger at being frozen out of his own company, and his son wants revenge for his death, while the Harry of the Garfield films wants his vengeance because Spider-Man wouldn’t help cure him of his otherwise incurable disaease that would kill him (a fact made worse because Spider-Man is his actual best friend, Peter Parker, who is coldly condemning his pal to death). The only one who doesn’t really fit is the Spider-Verse take on Green Goblin, and that’s more because he has extremely limited screentime and spends all of it fighting Peter and being scary as hell.

Eddie Brock/Venom is a very interesting case as both halves of the character are motivated by different reasons. The symbiote half is, of course, motivated by the fact that Peter has tried to rid himself of it via using a church bell to kill it. Eddie, on the other hand, has the most absolutely hilarious motivation ever: He wants Peter Parker to die because Peter exposed him for submitting fraudulent pictures to J. Jonah Jameson. Eddie literally breached journalistic ethics but apparently Peter’s to blame for exposing his literal, actual crime! And he prays to God for Peter to die! This version of Eddie is cartoonishly hilarious.Finally, we have Max Dillon, AKA Electro, who is lashing out at a world that did nothing but belittle and demean him, giving him a far more sympathetic motive for revenge.

Kurt Connors is an interesting halfway point between the Doc Ocks and the villains above, because he is not really evil and his whole transformation came about for altruistic scientific reasons, as he tested his serum on himself because they were going to test it out on the public without consent. While the serum drives him mad, he initially only goes after those who were going to use his formula with people as guinea pigs.

Interestingly, the two Doc Ocks contrast each other. While both of them are doing evil deeds for scientific reasons, Otto Octavius is being forced by his tentacles and genuinely wishes to make the world a better place otherwise. Olivia, on the other hand, is a gleeful sadist who doesn’t care who she hurts as long as she can get some sort of scientific knowledge from it.

Sandman is interesting case because his motivations are entirely sympathetic and despite being the man who killed Uncle Ben, it was entirely accidental and he always regretted it. He only ever wanted to get money to save his daughter. It’s really hard not to sympathize with a guy who turned to desperate measures because the American health care system sucks even in a universe where a dude dressed in a bright red suit swings around New York.

Then there are all the rest. Aleksei Systevich, AKA Rhino, is just a criminal, and has barely any screentime to establish a motivation beyond that. This is especially hilarious because the ads really hyped this guy up, only for him to get maybe five minutes of screentime, with most of it at the very end of the movie before the credits (we don’t even get to see his final battle). Tombstone and Scorpion are basically just lackeys for Kingpin, with little established beyond that. Scorpion almost shows up entirely out of nowhere, just popping in for the fight at Aunt May’s house and then the final battle. And then there’s Riot, who just wants to start a symbiote apocalypse on Earth.

Performance: Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Thomas Haden Church as Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, and Sandman in the Raimi trilogy are, in a word, iconic. Dafoe brings a gleeful, cackling hamminess to the Goblin that perfectly suits him and manages to steal every single with how delightfully, cartoonishly evil he is combined with some hilariously chummy moments with Spider-Man. Molina as Ock goes in the opposite direction of hamminess, where instead of making Octavius cartoonishly evil, he gives him this air of gravitas to the point where he somehow manages to make this villain with giant metal tentacles that are controlling his mind come off as sophisticated and serious as Hannibal Lecter. Church meanwhile just looks eerily perfect as Sandman, as if he were ripped straight from the comics and put onscreen, and then of course there’s how well he manages to sell the emotional moments of the character.

The Harrys are a rather mixed bag, sad to say. James Franco and Dennis DeHaan aren’t really bad actors, but they unfortunately have the problem of living in the shadow of the actor who played their dad (Franco) or being in a really awful movie with a terrible script (DeHaan). Franco at least makes up for this by being hilariously, cartoonishly evil to the extent of his dad in the third Raimi film, but DeHaan unfortunately falls rather flat. Topher Grace as Venom is a choice that seems baffling until you realize Raimi cast an actor like this on purpose because he hates Venom so much he didn’t want to give him any dignity.

Jamie Foxx as Electro seems odd at first, but I feel it’s actually a great casting choice, and despite how unbelievably stupid the script is, he’s actually able to do a fairly good job. If his character was in a better movie, he’d probably get a lot less flak (and he’ll be getting his chance soon enough, apparently). Overall, he’s the best part of the Garfield films. Rhys Ifans and Paul Giamatti as Lizard and Rhino are serviceable, but neither film they’re in really gives them much to work with. Giamatti at least gets to steal the show with his brief scenes by being an absolute ham, but Ifans is sadly a bit forgettable in his role (though not for lack of trying on his part).

Now onto the Spider-Verse ensemble! Considering how I gushed over her delightful performance as the Wicked Witch of Westview in WandaVision as well as the fact she is solely responsible for me resurrecting this series from its long hiatus, it should come as no shock at all that Kathryn Hahn as Olivia Octavius is just perfect. Controversial opinion, I know, might get some flak for this hot take. Jorma Taccone as Green Goblin, Joaquin Cosio as Scorpion, and Marvin Jones III as Tombstone all do well for what they’re given, but it’s clear most of the love among Kingpin’s henchmen was given to her (and Prowler, but he got his own review where I talked about how great he is).

Oh, right, Riot. I forgot about him. Riz Ahmed, who plays the human villain Carlton Drake I forgot to mention because he’s incredibly boring, is a really good (and sexy) actor. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get to be quite as good and sexy as an actor like him should be in his dual role. In an interesting subversion of how things usually go, he ends up being rather bland compared to the hammy, bonkers hero. This was Tom Hardy’s show, and no one was stealing it from him.

Final Fate: The Raimi films were all made during a time when, if your name wasn’t Magneto and you were a superhero movie villain, you were dying, a trend I’m certainly glad is finally starting to die off. Thankfully, Green Goblin manages to stick around and posthumously influence Harry, so in his case it’s not so bad. Harry and Doc Ock both manage to overcome the darkness in their hearts at the end and sacrifice their lives to help save the day, while Eddie dies after becoming such a simp for the symbiote he leaps into it while Peter is blowing it up. With Sandman, Peter actually has a touching reconciliation with Sandman at the end, forgiving him for the death of Uncle Ben before Sandman dissolves into dust and floats away on the breeze. And no, this is his power, not Thanos’ snap reaching across time, space, and dimensions; Sandman actually gets out of these films alive.

The other villains actually get off easier, as most of them go to jail. From the Amazing Spider-Man films, DeHaan’s Goblin and Rhys Ifan’s Lizard both end up in prison, and it’s safe to assume that the villains of Spider-Verse are going to jail alongside Kingpin. Octavius was hit by a bus, sure, but considering how popular she ended up being it would be really dumb to have that actually kill her. With Electro and Rhino though, it’s really ambiguous, the former because he’s made of electricity and the way he was defeated means it is possible he survived, and the latter because we never actually see the outcome of his battle with Spider-Man. If the film they were in was actually good and warranted sequels, we may have found out what their true fates were, but at the very least Electro is moving over to the MCU alongside Molina’s Doc Ock.

Oh, right, forgot Riot again. He dies.

Best Scene/Best Quote: I’m combining these this time just to make it easier on me, because in at least in a couple cases the two are the same.

Green Goblin has a lot to choose from, to the point where it’s easy to cop out and just say every scene he’s in is amazing. I’ve always been fond of his chummy chat with Spider-Man on the rooftop, or the scene where he terrifies Aunt May, or the scene where he attacks the parade and vaporizes the board of directors with pumpkin bombs.

Dock Ock is easy: the train battle. This might be one of the best action scenes in any superhero movie ever, and since he’s the villain in it, it almost goes without saying..There’s a reason this scene is singled out so often.

Eddie Brock and DeHaan Goblin actually have their best scenes also be their best lines. Eddie praying for God to kill Peter Parker and DeHaan!Harry screaming “YOU’RE A FRAUD, SPIDER-MAN!” after Spidey refuses to give him a life-saving blood transfusion are just so absolutely hilarious and memorable that you can’t hate them.

Aside from the powerful forgiveness moment at the film’s end, I think it’s really indisputable that the best scene from Sandman, and perhaps the Raimi trilogy as a whole, is the scene of Sandman’s creation. Words really can’t do it justice, so just watch:

Electro’s best moment isn’t even actually part of the movie, unless you want to count his rendition of “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” No, his is from a Tumblr post, proving definitively that Electro’s power can not be contained.

For Olivia, I’d say either of the reveals for her are great. You can go with the twist that she’s the Doc Ock of Miles’ universe, or the twist that she might have fucked Aunt May. Either way, you can’t really go wrong.

The rest of the villains… yeah, I’ve got nothing. At least with Rhino you can say his entire time on screen was fun, but the rest? Nope. They’re kind of just there.

Final Thoughts & Score:

Green Goblin

Where to begin with this guy? He is everything I look for in a great villain: he’s hammy and cartoonish, he can be terrifying and threatening when he wants to be, he has a ridiculous yet memorable costume, every word out of his mouth is hilarious and memorable, and he’s played by an amazing actor. It’s hard to dispute that Doc Ock is the best villain in Raimi’s trilogy, but Goblin is definitely the most fun. If you thought he’d get less than a 10/10, you thought wrong.

Doctor Octopus

Aside from Green Goblin, Doc Ock is Spidey’s most iconic and memorable foe, nd this adaptation of him does not disappoint. By making him a more tragic and somewhat anti-villainous figure and putting him in the hands of someone as awesome and talented as Alfred Molina, they managed to make such a cartoonish villain retain that comic book silliness while still being a legitimately imposing antagonist. I suppose it helps that a director who knows how to balance silly and serous like Raimi helps. It’s absolutely not a shock that the MCU wants to bring Molina back, because really, I can’t see anyone making the dubious doctor nearly as cool as the 10/10 performance Molina gave.

Harry Osborn

Franco’s Harry has an interesting arc, but one that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense under scrutiny. Frankly, his descent into villain is handled well but when he actually gets to be a villain in the third film, things fall apart.. But at any rate, he gets to be cartoonishly hilarious while he pettily ruins Peter’s life, so I think a 3/10 is warranted just for how goofy he is.

Eddie Brock/Venom

For the longest time, I hated Eddie Brock, but loved the Venom symbiote for its fantastic design… A design hampered by the fact Topher Grace keeps sticking his face through the symbiote and talking in his normal voice. But then one day I remembered Eddie literally prays to God for Peter Parker to die, and I realize that as crappy as this version of Venom is, he’s undoubtedly hilarious. A 3/10 mainly because of how hilariously bad he is, though the design of the symbiote is unironically great. Shame Grace kept sticking his face through and that Raimi hates the character.

Sandman

Sandman is a villain who deserved a better movie. Sure, Spider-Man 3 is fun and funny, but a character with this much depth and emotional weight deserved a film of the caliber of Spider-Man 2. At any rate, he adds a bit of class and dignity to the proceedings, and Thomas Haden Church really nails it. He’s a 9/10 for sure.

Lizard

Lizard is just a very boring villain, which is a shame because Lizard is not a boring villain in the comics and other media like the cartoons. I don’t really know if he was the best choice for Spider-Man’s first outing; I’ll at least give him that he’s a more inspired choice than doing the Green Goblin again, but that doesn’t score him higher than a 4/10. As boring as he ends up being, that library fight was pretty cool and had a great Stan Lee cameo, so I can’t say he’s the bottom of the barrel.

Electro

Electro is a villain who desperately deserved a better movie. While his backstory as a nerdy fanboy who got kicked around by the world is nothing new, or fresh, or original, Jamie Foxx manages to make the character work fairly well even though almost everything around him is unbelievably stupid. The fact he managed to make “Don’t you know? I’m Electro” sound cool and badass is a testament to his skill, and thankfully he’s coming back in the MCU in some way, so I guess Electro’s power can not be contained to a single movie. Still, this iteration only manages to get to a 6/10, because while all the elements of greatness are there, he’s hampered by the abysmal writing.

Rhino

Paul Giamatti certainly looks like he’s having a blast here. His attitude is almost infectious, but alas, his time is too brief to bring any great joy, and his jarring appearance out of nowhere at the end of the film certainly do him no favors. Still, Giamatti keeps Rhino from sinking any lower than a 5/10.

Harry Osborn

This Harry is just a joke. His arc makes no sense, his actions are unbelievable, and he ends up looking like a really poor Warwick Davis Leprechaun cosplayer. The only thing of note about him is that he’s a Harry who becomes the Green Goblin before his father, something that doesn’t happen very often, and that’s not enough to score this loser higher than a 2/10. Not even killing Gwen Stacy makes him any more impressive, and that’s a real shame.

Olivia Octavius

Olivia Octavius is widely beloved by just about everyone who sees the film.. myself included. This is just a really fun, clever twist on Doctor Octopus, and it’s the sort of character you really hope gets a Harley Quinn-level break into becoming an iconic character across multiple forms of media. Kathryn Hahn’s fun performance and the wonderful design and fight sequences really make Olivia a 9/10.

Tombstone

Tombstone is a villain you might actually forget is in the movie, which is a damn shame. He’s an albino black man, a badass bodyguard, and has a striking design, but he gets a single line of dialogue and is tasked with bodyguarding a man who not only has cyborgs under his employ, but who murdered Spider-Man with his bare hands. Tombstone ultimately feels really superfluous, which is a shame because around the same time Into the Spider-Verse came out he had a very memorable and well-liked appearance in the Spider-Man video game. It’s a real shame but I gotta give this version of Tombstone a 2/10.

Scorpion

Scorpion has a lot of problems of Tombstone above, but he makes up for a lot of his flaws by having a really cool and striking design. Does it really make him a great villain? No. He’s not particularly well-characterized and he’s really just there to look cool and give Olivia backup. He’s a 4/10 at best, saved from being lower only by his awesome look. Looking cool really can get you far in some cases.

Green Goblin

Out of all the really minor villains in Spider-Verse, this version of Norman might be the best. His role is tiny, only appearing during the scene where the Peter Parker of Miles’ universe gets killed, but his battle with Spider-Man is what sets the entire plot in motion. His cool and terrifying design definitely help make him stand out enough to earn at least a 6/10.

Riot & Carlton Drake

Look, there’s a reason I kept forgetting these guys. They’re not memorable in the slightest. Venom may be a fantastic work of art, but that’s because Tom Hardy kills it in his dual role as Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. Drake is just a boring corporate villain, the kind I hate talking about and the kind I’d only ever even bother mentioning in a review like this. And Riot is just a generic Big Gray CGI Monster for the hero to have a final battle with. Neither of these two are particularly interesting, and neither deserves more than a 2/10.

That’s it, right? There can’t be any more villains, I must have covered them all. Well, not quite. There’s one more character who is most certainly an antagonist and who I really, really want to talk about. And you’re absolutely not going to believe who it is.

You ready?

Psycho Analysis: Emo Peter

“Now wait,” you may be asking, “Emo Peter? Really? How does he count as a villain?” Well, as Schafrillas pointed out in his video on Spider-Man 3, Emo Peter is actually the antagonist for much of the second act. Peter, influenced by the symbiote, becomes a raging jackass and hurts and alienates everyone around him by being a colossal douchebag, not to mention how violent he gets as Spider-Man. This is very much an extreme case of the hero’s greatest enemy being themselves, because literally, Peter’s enemy in the chunk of the movie with Emo Peter is his own overinflated ego

Motivation/Goals: I mean, at the end of the day, it’s still Peter. He still wants to do the typical Peter Parker stuff, he’s just a jackass while he does it.

Performance: It’s Tobey Maguire busting loose and getting to act like an absolute doofus. There is literally nothing about this that isn’t amazing and I’m sorry if you can’t see it.

Final Fate: Peter eventually comes to realize that maybe the symbiote making him act like an egomaniacal tool is not a good thing, and so rebels against it, ultimately leading him to the roof of a church where Eddie Brock is praying for him to die and, well, the rest is history.

Best Scene:

Best Dance Move:

Final Thoughts & Score: Emo Peter has gotten a bad reputation over the years, but Schafrillas’ video really made me rethink why. As he puts it, Emo Peter comes off not as someone cool, but as what a loser thinks a cool person would be (which makes him still a loser). It seems fairly likely that the audience isn’t supposed to be rooting for Emo Peter or finding him cool, but instead finding him insufferable, ridiculous, and funny. We’re supposed to be laughing at Peter’s egomania, at his absurd and hammy showboating, not cheering him on and desiring to emulate him.

And that ultimately makes it more satisfying when Peter overcomes his ego and decides to rid himself of the symbiote. It might seem like I’m giving Spider-Man 3 a lot of credit here, but even Sam Raimi half-assing a movie wouldn’t leave things completely devoid of underlying brilliance. Emo Peter isn’t a villain in the sense that he’s some superpowered antagonist, he’s a physical representation of the negative impacts of fame and ego on Peter. This is Peter letting go of what makes him a hero and just reveling in being an absolute jerkwad to everyone around him.

I love the memes as much as everyone else of course, but Emo Peter is also a pretty clever symbolic foe. But even though I’m giving him an 8/10, we all know the real reason why he’s scoring so high:

Ok, but that’s it now, right? No more Spider-Man villains? Well, maybe for now. But don’t forget:

There’s gonna be Carnage.

[koalaaquabear]

The 5 hour finale live stream just concluded and y’all, it was crazy. It has been a wonderful several months with all you guys and I am so excited for April 8th and Junior Year. 

MASSIVE SPOILERS UNDER THE FOLD IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE STREAM YET. Here is my clusterfuck of a commentary. Enjoy!

Fantasy High: Sophomore Year Live Reaction -HOOT GROWL BABY it's time. I didn't react to part one but wOW that one was crazy. Get ready for EMOTIONS :'(( -SIG FIG RESCUE MISSION lol #ontour -well ok brennan that canopy shit is scary as fuck -murph is still looking like riz -Zaphriel and Ayda!!!!!!! -"HOLD ME BACK GORGUG" i love u emily -Brennan I stg -Ayda is Gorgug's dad lol -oh shIT they're totally in the cottage -heLL YEAH AYDA!! -oh GOD figayda kiss? exceptional. -if ayda dies i WILL throw dice at Brennan -ok brennan make me cry then -GET THE VAN GORGUG -gorgug truly is the greatest wizard of this age -#hugeblueguy -aww zac oyama i love you -"semi-fallen" oH dEar -gorgug texts zelda IMMEDIATELY i love him -amaZING thank you zelda -"ew, creepy, hate that" -zaphriel is the best character you guys, what a homie -i keep forgetting ayda can fly. like she has wings. i know that. -AELWYN! -nOPE someone is coming through the forest and if it's arianwen i will kill cry -HANGMAN???? -HANGMAN!!!! HIS DOG!!!!! -HANGMAN NO I LOVE YOU YOU'RE THE CUTEST DOGGY -adaine i love you baby -"the weak yogurt man" -what high ranking devil??? -fabian you're adorable -aww fabian has a puppy!! (i get that the hangman is eight feet long don't @ me) -that's the first "the ball" -lou can never have the highest roll -BARDY BOYS -oop kristen and riz time -tracker? i barely even know her -chills, brennan. chills -someone in the chat just said "so did skrank fuck zelda?" -intense muSIC -nononononononono -ragh, tracker, and sandralynn better be all right -ooo a sTICK -HELL YEAH RETURN OF THE RIBBON DANCE -"riz weeps" holy shit i love him -"something bad always happens when we go off together" -#RIZTEN -awwoOOOOOOO -ayda can fly too! -absolutely FUCK this bridge ABOUT 30 MINUTES -poor ayda -please say they're ok brennan -"put your tongue baCK in your mouth" -sANDRA LYNN NO -"what kind of arrows" "you know what kind" fuCK OFF BRENNAN -if baxter dies i will cry -wait faerie fire is a cleric spell..? absolutely fuck me -ok aelwyn let's fuck shit up -calling the bank in the middle of this nightmare forest lol -heLL YEAH ZAPHRIEL -luck check luck check luck check -"y'all are going to turn into dragons" -fabian straight up cries? what a fucking rich kid -NO WAY HE HAD T H E COIN??? -REMOVE CURSE BABY -"nnOOO!" lmao -ally and brennan are in the chat -kristen's religion is REALLY coming in handy -the name was turned into the night yorb lol -"how's that axe feeling?" "..pretty light ;)" i love him -ayda can lift the axe??? exceptional -FIG IS KALINA? ABSOLUTELY RAD -brennan has created a place where illusions are real and emily is holding him TO IT -"do you have a dongle?" incredible -EMILY I LOVE YOU! KALINA IS A YOUTUBER BABY -wretchrot is baCK baby -aelwyn i love that -"i am a low quality child" "yeah ayda you're a bad kid" -"hey bitch" emily axford is a goddess -im sorry cOURT OF ELDERS? -NO I WILL CRY -ROLL INITIATIVE TIME -go OFF hangman -ooo some high initiatives babyyy -zac oyama is my favorite ever -"trackerrr" -brian as soon as emily was threatened said "how dare you" -brennan you FUCK "i'm awake for all of this" FUCK YOU -fig and her mommy issues: an album -absolutely FUCK THE TREE GUY -kick that wood elf BITCH ABOUT ONE HOUR -fuck him UP fabian, shit in his gODDAMN mOUTh -"SPRING BREAK YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER" -pleASE BRENNAN LET HIM SHOOT HER WITH THE TINCTURE -spRING break this is for the corn god -okay nevermind riz is holding his action -i love the intrepid heroes they're adorable -"ice feast" fucking love them so much -yES the ball thank GOD -brennan..? -"her rage ends" tracker = barbarian -FIRST NAT 20 BABY -"IT 100% WORKS BUT IT 50% WORKED" -that's the second "the ball" -bOOOOOOO BRENNAN -mad plans for the tree guy -sorry, is his name crAFTME ROOTDRINKER? -oh ok it's aelwyn we're fine -cone of cOLD baby i love aelwyn what a babe -you absolutely hate to see it -ragh my baby i love you -SPRING BREAK -tracker nO PLEASE -TRACKER JUST CRIT OH NO -brennan is really good at acting this btw -wait 14 on a crit??? i mean oH NO kRISTEN, bOO -disPEL MAGIC BABY -ALLY BEARDSLEY YOU ABSOLUTE GOD -aww kristennn is babyyy -tracker nooo don't cryyyy -you've sAVED your GIRLFRIEND -"some of us have already done that today" fig the sHADE -ally simply musT get new dex -absolutely fuck that brennan i don't need that vampire pixie -FUCK IT UP AYDA -FIGHT ME IN THE SKY! -"does a 29 hit?" daMN zac that absolute SHADE -53 DAMAGE?? CHEJ IS SO FUCKING STRONG -"goddamn paper lantern" -absolutely fuck you brennan -nevermind gorgug and adaine both passed the con saving throw -"i don't like you" lou really gets personally upset about this and i love that -nO NO NONONONO aelwyn and tracker are down -FUCK IT UP ADAINE -gdi brennan don't do this to us -ABSOLUTELY FUCK THE TREE -fig is straight up gonna kill her mom -this is scary as fuck -HANGMAN HAS A BREATH WEAPON AND YOU DIDN'T SAY SHIT??? CHOKE ON GRAPES BRENNAN -FUCK EM UP HANGMAN ABOUT 1 HOUR AND A HALF -wood elf is DOWN baby hoot growl -kristen thinks the elf is gak lol -23 DAMAGE??? AC OF 25??? ABSOLUTELY FUCK IT UP FABIAN -SHENANIGANS TIME FOR MURPH -HELL SECRET AGENT TIME -27??? RIZ YOU'RE THE HOTTEST -third the ball -imagine the ball is secretly SO HOT without the hat -YES BRENNAN GOT A NAT 1 EAT YOUR GODDAMN DICE -sweEET -fourth the ball (they've all been Lou cuz of course) -incredible turn murph -kalina is SO GOOD at skateboarding -#bloodphoto -KALINA HAS 23 WISDOM? absolutely fuck me -oh hELL YEAH FIG COUNTER THE COUNTER -emily is doing some SHIT right now you guys (fear spell) -DAMMIT that high as fuck wisdom -sorry WHAT she rips open sPACE??? -BABY BETTER SAVE THE GODDAMN DAY -let's go BABY -"mMMHHHHnnN leET ME tOUCh ItT" baby is fucking weird -"baby vs mommy" i love you siobhan -aelwyn better not DIE brennan -riz baby let's get it -trACKEr -nAT 1??? kristen is unCONSCIOUS?? -HUMAN DETERMINATION!!! THE GRIT BABY] -wait aura of life is badass!! they can't lose damage?? -okay scrap that we're gonna TURN UNDEAD and then MASS HEALING WORD? absolutely incredible -gorgug has so much goddamn health -FUCK THIS TREE DUDE -KILL IT AYDA LET'S GO -"her girl's side" *in lou voice* okAY bRENNNAn -second nat 1 but both of them re-rolled -GEM!!!! -LET'S GET GORTHALAX BABYYYY -"BIG DADDY" -ayda is so turned on lol -KILL IT CHEJ OKAYYYY -fuck this centaur -i'm so nervous -puT THOSE DICE DOWN BRENNAN -"you're gonna drop." shuT UP -riz is fULLY DEAD???? -i hate this. i hate this. i hate this. i hate this. i hate this. i hate this. -sHUT UP BRENNAN -baby is DEAD oh my GOD you absolutely hate to see it ABOUT 2 HOURS -nO NO NO NO NO NO NO PUT THAT CROWN AWAY BITCH -absolutely fuck me, the nightmare king is totally fucking back i hate myself -aww fabian is baby -hELL YEAH FABIAN SPRING BREAK -"i've lost one friend, that's too many" fabian is adorable -"that's a full ass miss, my guy" -sandra lynn just crit on chej :(((((( -14 damage is not very spring break of her (she did 28 but it was halved because gorgug is such a strong boyyy) -LET'S GO LOU -almost all of them are spellcasters wtf (only one who isn't is riz but he has a daily misty step) -fuck em up hangman -fUCK EM UP HANGMAN! d8 + 2d6 +8 i think -figaroth the unfaethable baby -THOSE ARE SOME SHENANIGANS FIG I LOVE IT (she's shattering the rubies to get a revivify diamond) -casts teleport??? aelwyn came here to FUCK -"i would love to teach you this spell" aww the abernant sisters liking each other is my new aesthetic -fuck em up adaine -you can hit the tree on a 12 babyyyyy -heLL YEAH 44 DAMAGE ADAINE IS STRONG NOW -kalina is not even that cool she just said "that's enough of that" in the most uncool way -2 down 3 to go! -omg wait it would be so badass if they could just remove curse on kalina -"Mr. The Insatiable" -ayda is such a sweetheart "i don't care if you want me to date your daughter but i do hope you love me" -"I LOVE THIS SONG" yes siobhan me too -on a DC 20 she got a 31!!!! consider my jeans creamed -SHRED BABY GIRL!!! -KILLIAN IS DEAD! RIZ IS ALIVE! -ayda is so turned on AHHH -I LOVE RIZ SO MUCH "am i interrupting something???" -fuck him UP chej! 3 hits, no crits -hell yeah mr. march!! oh sorry wrong series -a gROUP PROJECT i'm DEAD -someone in the chat called him "snac oyama" and you're rigHT -siobhan's straight fucking this tree UP -the spellcasters are like all out of spells at this point -fuck OFF arianwen. KILL YOUR MOM -"where's your father, aelwyn?" "last i saw, adaine killed him so *shrug*" i lOVE HER -FUCK THEM UP GORTHALAX -abolutely fuck the nightmare king -waIT GORTHALAX IS GONNA KILL THE NIGHTMARE KING -sidenote: fig calls gorthalax pops -dO IT BRENNAN kILL YOUR OWN BIG BAD -this treeant has GOT to be dead -NAT 1 on that attack?? SPRING BREAK BABY -no we haven't seen kalina in action brennan, and we do not want to -OH SHIT THE TIE! YOu just got FUCKed bRENnan eaT youR DICE -yeS AYDA ROAST HER -"GOTTEM!" -i'm sorry i just hallucinated, did you say 6 ATTACKS? -time to go VIRAL BABY -19 intelligence, 23 wisdom, 20 charisma for kalina? absolutely fuck me -riz just got kICKed! you absolutely hate to see it -GODDAMMIT -KALINA IS HOMOPHOBIC CONFIRMED ABOUT 2 AND A HALF HOURS -brennan be like "im about to kill this bird" -absolutely fuck me i hate this -let's go FIG -time to caTCH the bALL -murph has the same thinking face as riz and it's adorable -this is not very spring break brennan -DC 25 acrobatics check? c'mon faBIAN -29????? -fifth the ball (from the hangman) -"there's just something endearing about him" fabian loving his friends is adorable -absolutely fuck me that fire elemental is adorable -absolutely swaddle the ball -well hot take but fuck the nightmare king you guys -absolutely NOT brennan do NOT kill adaine you PSYCHO BITCH -PLEASE ADAINE LIVE -STRAIGHT DEAD? FULLY DEAD? FUCK OFF WITH THIS INSTAKILL SHIT BRENNAN -hell yeah ayda is back and kristen has the revivify diamond -aelwyn FULLY banished that unicorn -it's good to know ragh really doesn't want them to die -YES RAGH IS BACK BABY -fuck em up kristen -s/o to DND Beyond btw absolutely banger website -hell yeah mass healing word is awesome -clerics are GOOD you guys i should play more clerics -FUCK IT UP AYDA -SANDRA LYNN IS BACK BABY -skater chej is my favorite thing -aBSOLUTEly fuck the tree -i have no idea wHAT is happening ABOUT 3 HOURS -fuCK YOU nightmare king -i absolutely hate this battle but at least gorthalax is still standing -gorgug better split this gd tree -"what if we just kill kalina?" yeah zac it's that goddamn easy -brennan almost just fucked everyone -"does she want to borrow my teddy bear?" the SHADE -"MAKEOVERRR" i love you siobhan -this tree SUCKS -battlemaster is cool as fUCK SPRING BREAK -BARDY BOYS also i think that was a nat 20 -i can't imagine the thistlesprings watching the battle livestream and like worrying if gorgug is going to die -FUCK HER UP THE BALL -ABSOLUTE SHENANIGANS FROM MURPH! -with ADVANTAGE BABY -"has anyone seen my hat!?" keep it off baby you're HOT now -"mirrors negate mirrors" "i think oscar wilde said that" i love them -#hotrizweek? -holy shit fig is FUCKING THIS BATTLE UP -HELL YEAH KALINA ROLLS A NATURAL 2!!!! -hell yeah adaine is back and SO MUCH is happening that i'm like forgetting to write down my reactions -kill this woody motherfucker baby -the music is too lOUD -ok it's normal now -fuck em up gorgug -i'm sorry the chat is saying he did 90 DAMAGE?!?!?!? -KILL IT CHEJ ILY -fuck off brennan, absolutely fuck off -ABSOLUTELY FUCK OFF BRENNAN -gorthalax is FULLY DEAD? absolUTELY FUCK YOU -SAINT KRISTEN APPLEBEES -adaine has SOLVED THIS SHIT -god all the abernant names are confusing -fuck you kalina ABOUT 3 AND A HALF HOURS -BRENNAN I STG IF RAGH ENDS UP DEAD -hellish rebuke that bitch -c'MON faBIAN HIT that BITCH -wait is kalina a rogue and a druid? absolutely incredible -FUCK IT UP FABIAN -OMG THE HANGMAN BETTER FUCK THIS UP -YES THE BALL 31 DAMAGE -so the stream just ended. i'll say it again: absolutely fuck me -ok so we're back and kalina got fucked up -WHAT THE FUCK A NAT 20???????? YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO SEE IT -ALLY WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THIS -I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS AND NEITHER CAN BRENNAN -MAGIC IS REAL AND SO IS MY ALLY -i can't believe this. eat your GOD damn DICE brennan! -OMG ARE THE NIGHTMARE KING AND THE GODDESS ONE AND THE SAME? -THEY ARE! THE NIGHTMARE KING IS THE NIGHTMARE QUEEN -brennan is CRAZY AHHHHH -brennan absolutely stop this tension -28 insight. brennan is fucked -GO TOWARDS HIM KRISTEN -YES!!!! PLEASE SAY THIS IS A GOOD THING -ALLY GOT A NAT 20 THEY BETTER BE RIGHT -fear. is. not. real. -this is just like the ending of moana -NO WAY BRENNAN I LOVE YOU (you wouldn't believe it from what i have said but it's true) -this is intense i'm about to cry -you're meeting god and you say "is it too early for this?" -LMAO 5'9" -Moral of the story: IDK and that's OK -ok ally make me cRy -HELL YEAH NEW SHIRT BABY -i'm so emotional -"well oBVIouslY cASsAndRa" i wish every deity had names as normal and human as cassandra -fuck them UP cassie -i love that tracker's just like "uh... babe?" -love having god in your corner -no more hangman puppy :((( -RIZTEN are the CUTEST i love them "i love all of them, riz the most, we know this" -"we still need the crown for our grade" FABIAN I LOVE YOU -"counselo- former counsel- i'm an assistant :(" why do y'all think this man is hot -KILL ARIANWEN -"she tried to hurt me in my shattered state?" "that's her MO" aww adaine my baby -HOLY SHIT PLEASE GIVE GILEAR ALL OF ARIANWEN'S MAGIC -GORGUG YOU SWEETHEART I LOVE YOU -cassandra throwing SHADE -ThE vANdS -aelwyn throwing SHADE -AWW RAGH I LOVE YOU BABY brennan lives another day -"a big bug gave me a riddle" that is NOT what happened -aww the hirelings are all crying and i DO NOT stan -hell YEAH cassandra OH I STOPPED KEEPING TRACK OF TIME IT'S BEEN OVER 4 HOURS -hELL YES HANGVAN -i love you fabian -nO IS CHUNGLE DOWN BIM REAL? -maybe the real chungle down bim is the friends we made along the way -GARTHY i love them -arthuR aGUEFORT - absolutely wild -ayda and arthur is crazy -"snOGGING THE HEADMASTER'S DAUGHTER ARE WE?" -awww that is so smooth fig "you don't need to make me the most magnificent creature because it seems you already have" -ARTHUR PULLS THROUGH -garthy is a cutie i love how they care so much for ayda -oH FUCK ME garthy is ayda's child from her previous life -"your girlfriend's daughter fucked your mom!" goddammit siobhan i can't handle this -if they fail i will cry -CHRONOMANCY!? absolutely fuck me -"professor principal headmaster aguefort" -hell yeah arthur you're killing it -faelwyn? absolutely can't handle it -aww kristen is baby -jawbone and sandra lynn are ok? amazing -jawbone is the best character -"our parents are great" kill me why don't you siobhan -AWWW FUCKING STOP BRENNAN WITH THESE GIFTS -i just cried he wants to adopt her -"you're easy to love" jawbone is fUCKING me up -LYDIA BARKROCK what a badass i love her already -"a pheonix whom everyone she touches is reborn better" fuck off emily -gorgug is a cutie <3 <3 -ABSOLUTELY KICK SKRANKS BIRD ASS -GORGUG CONFIRMED FUCKS -riz is a dork i love him -who knew "you're so much like your father" could make me feel like that -GILEAR IS MOVING THE FUCK IN BABY -GILEAR WITH SELF CONFIDENCE IS MY AESTHETIC -aww jawbone gave ayda autism books? jawbone is the sweetest to ayda cuz OF COURSE HE IS -AYDA GETS HER SPELL!!! -Ayda's Comprehend Subtext is the cutest spell ever -adaine and fig's friendship is too cute -craig has always been down for everything. i don't know craig but i love him -YES HOOT GROWL HOOT GROWL I'M SO PROUD OF RAGH -"BAD KIDS FOR LIFE" RAGH IS A CUTIE -NO FAELWYN IS REALLY HAPPENING I CAN'T -fabian's laugh is so cute -i love how nervous fabian is -WAIT FABIAN AND AELWYN ABSOLUTELY WILL FUCK? -fabian's gonna get his KISSES IN -aww i get how hyped figayda is but they are truly so adorable -weLL EMILY AXFORD I WILL LET YOU HURT ME LIKE THAT -they said i love you :((( -tracker only deserves the best -TRACKER'S GOING TO FALLINEL? I LOVE HER -ragh is going too? gay road trip! -that's adorable -ABSOLUTELY NOT BRENNAN FUCK OFF DO NOT SAY THE NIGHT YORB IS GONNA BE THE NEXT VILLAIN -BRENNAN NO YOU BITCH I HATE YOU THE NIGHT YORB IS THE VILLAIN OF JUNIOR YEAR? -that was crazy. i cried, i laughed. i am fuCKING HYPED FOR CROWN OF CANDY AND JUNIOR YEAR GANG!

[samcrobae]

Contaminated, Part 2

Gif Credit: @loisbelcher

Tag list: @cind-in-real-life @carlaangel86 @briannab1234

Warnings: language, mentions of gun violence, character death, sad Angel 💔

long awaited part 2 to Contaminated. I havent figured out how to link all of the stuff in one place. so if someone can help a girl out, I’d appreciate it! I also didn’t proof read because it’s 10:45 PM .

Disclaimer: I never ever like to see Mi Angel sad, pero this was just the vibe for this particular story/song. If I could hug and love on Angel all day I would.

——————————————————————-

Your eyes fluttered open as the sun beamed in through the windows, the feeling of Angels chapped lips on your shoulder making you fully alert. You turn to face him in bed. “Morning,” you smiled at him and he kissed your forehead. “Damn I’ve missed this.. waking up to you. I never want to miss this again.”

_________________________________________________

A year later, you and Angel were in the best place you could have been. You were happy. you were more than content. you were safe. You had been spending more time with him, more time with the MC. You and Angel had your arguments, sure, but part of that was what made and you and Angel—- you and Angel. you played with the ring on your finger, the ring he put there just 5 short months after your return. “Pretty soon, you’re going to be stuck with his ass. You can still run if you want to.” Coco poked fun as he sat down at the bar next to you and handed you a beer. You look over at him and the other guys making their way over to you as they headed out of templo. You let out a laugh as Angel approached. “What’s so funny?” as he places his arm around your shoulders, bringing you into his side. 

“nah, nothing. I was just reminding Y/N here she has enough time to run from you if she wants.” Angel narrows his eyes at Coco “nah shes not going nowhere. shes stuck with me. for good this time.” he leans in and gives you a quick kiss. 

“well, lets go home and get ready if we’re gonna make it to this shit on time.” Angel nudged at you. 

You got home and jumped into the shower. “alright, but you need to wear this tonight, this is my favorite on you.” he held up a dress and you peeked out from the shower curtain. 

“ugh I hate that dress you know that.” you scrunched up your nose. 

“yeah but I love fucking you in it. so. wear it. Now make some room for me in there. you used all the hot water last night when I tried to shower.” He quickly strips down and gets in the shower behind you. He pulls you in close to him by your waist, so that your back is resting on his chest, his chin on your shoulder. “I still cant believe I got you to agree to marry my crazy ass.” he whispers to you. 

“Yeah me either, I guess I just love your crazy ass.” you say as you splash some water on his face. He moves his hands to caress your sides, then wraps them around your waist, to rub over your tummy. “You ever think about doing other things with my crazy ass?” 

“mmm.. like what?” 

“i dont know.. like, maybe have a couple kids?” 

you quickly turned to look at him “kids? really? Like our own kids?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. Its not the worst idea right? Nah it’s crazy right ? We probably shouldn’t. Shit with EZ and whatever is getting pretty fucked-”

“Lets do it. Let’s have some babies.” You interrupted him with a smile as you gazed into his eyes, seeing nothing but adoration for you in this moment. Leaning up, you kissed him and he brought hands to wrap around your lower back, holding you tight to him.

“Well then shit querida let’s get started!” He backs you into the shower wall and you let out a laugh as he attacks your neck with kisses and bites as the water falls onto both of you.

————————————————

Pulling into the yard parking lot you and Angel were arguing about something. The others couldn’t exactly hear what, but saw your hands flailing and his eyes go wide and could tell you were yelling at each other about something.

“Shit here we go...” Coco sighed as he sat on the porch with EZ taking a sip of his beer. You got out of the car and slammed the door shut “yeah fuck you Angel! Hey Coco.”

“What’s up Y/N” he muttered as you walked past him and into the clubhouse.

The night continued on and you and Angel had kept your distance but it was pretty obvious as you were at the clubhouse for a party and you were usually in his lap or pushed up against a wall making out. No one dared to ask though, knowing this was just how you and Angel were.

You were sitting at a table toward the front door with EZ when you heard vehicles approaching the yard. Everyone had been accounted for so no one was sure who it could be. Bishop eyes Angel and Gilly and before they could step out to investigate it all happened so fast. Multiple shots rang out and into the clubhouse spraying bullets everywhere. All you could see and hear were people running everywhere dropping to the ground for cover followed by shouts of “get down! Get down!”. EZ reached over and tackled you to the ground and under the table, shielding you as best as he could.

Shots rang out for what felt like an eternity and you weren’t sure how long you were under the table. When it had quieted you finally were able to notice the sharp pain radiating in your abdomen. Still laying on the ground, EZ looked over and felt warm liquid pool between you.

“EZ....”

“No, shit. No. ANGEL!!!!!! Angel!” He shouted for his older brother. “It’s okay, you’re okay, I got you. You’re okay.”

Angel found the two of you under the table and dropped to his knees when he saw you. “No... baby, no. I’m so sorry...”

“Angel... that’s a lot of blood. Can we go home? I wanna go home... let’s go home.”

“We gotta get her to a hospital let’s go let’s go! EZ help me get her up.”

The brothers got you up and into the truck. You rested in Angels lap as your eyes began to grow heavy, ears ringing .

“No hey, hey, stay with me alright? I need you to just stay awake. You’re gonna be fine. Just stay with me please baby. I love you. I love you so much.”

He was trying to remain calm but inside he was panicking. He knew this didn’t look good but he also couldn’t bring himself to admit it. Gilly and EZ were up front, EZ racing down the streets pretty much blowing every stop sign and red light there was.

“I’m so sorry querida.. hey stay awake.. I need you to stay awake. We’re gonna have some babies, remember?” Gilly and EZ exchanged sorrowful glances.

He tried his best to keep you talking, but as EZ pulled in front of the hospital entrance, you were quiet, in a deep sleep. Angel practically jumped out of the car and carried you from the car to the hospital “I need help! Help!” A couple of nurses who were passing by ran over grabbing a bed on their way to you.

“She got shot... I couldn’t help her anymore... she’s.. she needs help.” The nurses hurried you away behind a set of double doors and once the doors were shut Angel allowed himself to give into his emotion. Another nurse say with him and EZ, gathering your information and the details of what happened. When everyone left, He sat back against a wall and let himself slide down to the ground. His head in his hands, he sat sobbing.

EZ got down on the floor with him, sat silently next to his brother. “Hey she’s going to be okay Angel.”

Bishop, Creeper, Taza, and Riz ran through the entrance frantically searching the waiting room and settled on the floor where Angel and EZ had been sat.

Bishop approached Gilly, “how is she?”

“Don’t know. They haven’t said yet. Didn’t look good though, Bish.”

Bishop sucked in air between his teeth. “Shit. This can’t happen. Not to her. Not to him. He will spiral.”

It had been two hours and finally two doctors had opened the set of double doors and approached Angel, removing their surgical caps.

Angel rushed the doctors as soon as they came out into the waiting room “when can I see her? Is she okay?” The rest of his brothers circled them awaiting their responses.

“Y/N’s organs suffered a great deal of trauma resulting in a lot of blood loss, the injuries she sustained were very severe. Despite our very best efforts, she did not make it.”

Coco sucked air in between his teeth, hands balled into fists and he turned away from his brothers. Taza and Bishop let curse words solemnly escape their lips.

“She did not make it” replayed in Angels head as his ears started ringing and suddenly became nauseous. The instant pain that stirred and sat in his stomach became unbearable. His eyes were wide with rage, how could these doctors just let you die? Wide with pain, you had so many plans with each other, for your future together. Wide with fear, how was he supposed to go home to an empty house? How was he supposed to live his life with out you? How was he supposed to continue on? How does he rebuild?

“You fuckin let her die?!!!” Angel lunged at the doctors but EZ and Gilly intervened.

“You let her die! I’m gonna fuckin kill you! You piece of shit!”

“Angel-Angel!” EZ gripped Angels shoulders as Angel slowly sank to his knees. He was shaking, sobbing, uncontrollably rocking back and forth as he spoke your name and apologized for all of the things he would never be able to take back.

Bishop motioned for the rest of the guys. “This is war. Taza, make the call. This does not end here. We find who did this. And when we do, you bring them to him”, pointing at Angel.

“And I know what we need

You start letting me go

Cus our love is tainted.”

[rubyofhouserocks]

sundays, starlight, and other small magics (4/?)

Fic Summary: At age two, Aelwyn learned how to say the incantation required to cast the Light cantrip. At two and a half, she learned how to say her little sister’s name. At seventeen, she’s still learning how to say she’s sorry.

part i is here || ao3 link here

part iv

It’s about a month into her stay at the manor, now, and Aelwyn makes a habit of disappearing into the background. She’s trying her damnedest to become just another spectre haunting the winding halls of the house, to be another ghost lingering imperceptibly near the dominion of the living. If she treads lightly enough, she hopes, then maybe she won’t kick up the light film of dust that’s starting to settle on her history.

Tracker doesn’t even look at her twice anymore, eyes settling on Aelwyn only long enough to register her presence and then sliding away, back to Kristen or Jawbone or someone else who actually deserves her attention. It helps Aelwyn breathe a little more easily, but she’s miles away from any kind of sense of belonging; she’s pretty sure her presence is an acceptable inconvenience at best. She knows that her feeling of displacement is only exacerbated by her inability (unwillingness) to connect with her housemates, her conversations with them largely limited to pleasant banalities. Rectifying that problem seems a herculean task, however, when Aelwyn knows how off-putting most people find her genuine personality. It’s safer, she thinks, if she sticks to discussing the weather over the dinner table.

Still, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t efforts to include her.

“We’re about to watch a movie,” Jawbone says, standing in her doorway. Aelwyn already knew this information—it’s Sunday, and movie night is a Sunday tradition in Mordred Manor. Everyone usually piles onto the couch at first, but slowly they devolve into a giggling, squirming pile of entangled limbs on the floor that somewhat resembles a gibbering mouther. Rarely does the movie actually get watched. Aelwyn never comes to movie night, but Jawbone always takes care to invite her, looking so sincere that Aelwyn feels a pang in her chest. “We’d really like it if you’d join us.”

She’s about to respond, her mouth open to tell him I’m okay, or I’m a little busy reading, but maybe next time, or please just stop trying, when Jawbone cuts her off.

“It would mean a lot to Adaine,” and, well, Aelwyn is barely treading water through her guilt as it is. She just swallows and nods mutely, silently following Jawbone down the winding hallways to the living room like a woman walking toward her own execution. It’s going to be miserable—she knows it is—but she owes it to Adaine to try to be the sister Adaine asked her to be.

When she actually reaches the living room, however, it’s so much worse than Aelwyn imagined. Her heart rockets up to her throat, panic tightening her chest in a way more characteristic of Adaine than herself, because she is looking at a minefield of volatile seating possibilities.

Adaine is already sandwiched between Riz and Ragh on the couch, because all of the Bad Kids and their assorted sidekicks are here. All of the Bad Kids who Aelwyn either tried to kill personally, or otherwise almost killed through her actions.

Fuck.

She’s weighing the merits of sitting next to Fabian (who doesn’t hate her, but. Well.) against the more appealing option of just bolting out of the room when Adaine nudges Fig, who is already sitting on the floor in front of her, with her foot. Fig scoots over, and there is suddenly space on the nest of blankets directly in front of Adaine’s spot on the couch.

“Sit here,” Adaine says, eyes hard and determined like she fully expects Aelwyn to say no. Like she hasn’t—not to be dramatic—just saved Aelwyn’s life by making the decision for her.

“Sure,” Aelwyn says, and folds her legs delicately under herself on the duvet. She rests her back against the couch and tries to take deep breaths without anyone else noticing, mouth barely open as she tries to gulp in air to calm herself down.

Jawbone, meanwhile, beams at the full house and curls up in the cozy armchair he’s sharing with Sandra Lynn (despite it being far too small for two people). He pulls up Fantasy Netflix and selects something, probably a movie that the group chose earlier that Aelwyn lost her opportunity to vote on. She resigns herself to two hours of being unable to pay attention to the movie. Really, she doubts she will be able to pay attention to anything other than her own body. She feels too big for the space she’s in, feels gangly and awkward when her elbow brushes against Fig’s, or when Adaine’s bouncing right leg brushes against her shoulder.

She’s wondering how long she has to wait until a bathroom break would be a believable excuse to escape for a minute, or how many times she can get up for a drink or a snack without arousing suspicion. Oh God, what if this is the kind of movie where she’s expected to make fun of it, and she’ll have nothing to say, and—

and Aelwyn feels hands in her hair. She jumps out of her skin at the contact, trying to pull away until she hears Adaine say, “calm down, dude, I’m just gonna braid it.”

The hands continue moving in her hair and Aelwyn forces herself to sit still, even though she’s sure Adaine can feel the way tension is knotting up her shoulders. It’s a nice gesture, after all. A sisterly gesture. Aelwyn owes it to Adaine to be patient and accept this for what it is, however ill at ease she may be.

Soon enough, though, Aelwyn feels herself relax at the sensation of blunt nails running over her scalp. It’s tender in a way she isn’t used to, and that alone makes her uncomfortable, but it’s also…nice, in a strange way. No one has ever done this for her before, and there’s something in the repetitive motion that feels like being cared for. Once Adaine reaches the ends of Aelwyn’s hair (which took a while, Aelwyn guesses, but it didn’t seem like it), she takes the hair tie that’s holding her own ponytail up and uses it to secure her work.

“Can you pause it?” Adaine asks to the group at large as she smooths her hands down the sides of Aelwyn’s head. “I have to use the bathroom.”

“Of course!” Jawbone says, grinning the way he always does, “I could use a snack break myself.”

When she comes back, Adaine says, “let’s switch places, and you can do my hair.”

Adaine moves to sit on the floor, and Aelwyn’s hands shake a little as she realizes that she’s only ever braided her own hair, that she isn’t quite sure how to replicate the motions on another person’s scalp. But she isn’t going to deny Adaine this moment, so she nestles herself on the couch between Riz and Ragh. She carefully angles her body so as to minimize any contact with them and tries her best to do to Adaine what she does to her own hair.

“Ouch!” Adaine yelps immediately, leaning forward out of Aelwyn’s reach. “Pull a little harder, why don’t you?”

“Sorry,” Aelwyn says, but she has to smother a snort at Adaine’s indignation. She must not do a great job, because Adaine slaps her leg lightly.

“Whatever, just make me beautiful without the sadism, please.” Aelwyn can’t see Adaine roll her eyes, but she knows it must be happening as Adaine relaxes back against the couch.

“Aye, aye, captain.”

It doesn’t go great, but she does, technically, braid Adaine’s hair. She’s much more careful with the force she uses, trying her best to be gentle with her sister’s head. It leads to a loose, messy final product, which isn’t particularly stylish and probably is not the look that Adaine was hoping for. In any case, though, she doesn’t complain about Aelwyn’s too-harsh hands a second time, and the room is dark enough that Aelwyn’s handiwork isn’t really visible to anyone but Aelwyn.

“All right, thank you,” Adaine says as Aelwyn takes a hair tie from her wrist to hold the braid. Then, she looks sternly up at Aelwyn. “Now gimme my spot back.”

“You think I’m going back to the hardwood? As if,” Aelwyn scoffs as she relaxes into the cushions. Something in her chest unwinds when she realizes that it came out the way it was supposed to, light and teasing and silly. She realizes, too, that at some point she stopped being so aware of her limbs in relation to the boys on either side of her, her knee now casually resting against Ragh’s thigh.

“Fine,” Adaine shrugs. “If that’s how you want to play it,” and she proceeds to lie down on top of Riz, Aelwyn, and Ragh. Riz squawks and almost fumbles the bowl of popcorn he’s holding; Ragh just laughs and starts petting Adaine’s head. Aelwyn goes silent with shock, initially, but at Ragh’s cue, she starts laughing too.

It’s not particularly comfortable, but Aelwyn finds herself enjoying the second half of the film. After the credits roll and the yawning teenagers stumble off to find places to sleep, she finds herself thinking, maybe I could do this again.

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 13

What the Hell?

Hey y’all. We’re back with a very eventful episode of Fantasy High--both from a plot an RP perspective--so let’s not waste any time getting into it. As you remember from last week, the kids are split up doing their various investigative activities. The first group we’re gonna check back in with are the Owlbears--Gorgug, Fabian, Ragh, and the Hangman--who are with the gnomish tinkerers.

Gorgug talks to the head gnome dude (Krumpkin in case I didn’t mention before) and asks to have his shoes loaded up with springs, which he is happy to do. Lou--via an offhanded comment that he absolutely commits to--establishes that Fabian has extremely small feet which is not plot relevant but I felt like I needed to mention. While they’re waiting for the shoes to be done, Krumpkin brings in a logbook so they can see what Killian--the elf working for Arianwyn--bought. It was a lot of stuff used in making magical candles and 2 blocks of Dusk Moss Incense. Dusk Moss is a hallucinogenic moss that people use recreationally to have sort of lucid dreams while awake. Gorgug knows that some kids in school do Dusk Moss but he’s never heard of it being in incense form before. He decides to buy everything that Killian did to be safe--including the drugs which he and Fabian are (hilariously) very flustered about.  

The gnomes give Gorgug his upgraded shoes and, in return, they just want to check out his crystal. Easy trade. He explains to them how the crystal works and Gorgug realizes, “Hey. I’m surrounded by people who know how to build stuff.” Maybe they can help with making a cell tower. They think they might be able to do it but they’d need access to more raw materials. Either that or access to a satellite. Gorgug (with the help of Fabian’s Bardic) suddenly remembers: while he was in jail the year before his parents actually launched a satellite into space! And a bunch of the schematics and stuff for it are in the Van. They go to get it while we flash over to see how the Nerd Squad is doing. 

They’re still casing the room Arianwyn was staying in at the Owl and the Harp. Adaine finds non-detection runes her mom put up to keep Falinel from finding her. She also can tell that two rituals happened in the room: one to kill Killian and the other to put the Devil’s Heart Ruby (ie: The Gorthalax one) into his body. Riz realizes that the ritual isn’t about getting into Sylvere so much as getting the Shadowcat into Sylvere by way of having the gem Petrosmos (as is rock+osmosis--as in what’s going on with Ragh’s mom) with someone she’s infected. He also finds a lot of super old school medical texts written in, like, hieroglyphs almost. Adaine ritual casts Comprehend Languages so she can read it and one of the texts is a diagram of a centaur with scary looking cat symbols at its eyes, ears, tongue, sinuses, and spine but not the brain (which they later deduce means that she can access their senses but not their thoughts).  He also knows that the two rituals were cast 24 hours apart which means that either Arianwyn left while they were partying or somehow knew to do the ritual the second they initially grabbed Aelwen.

Adaine rolls to try to find proof that her mom cares about her any personal effects left behind and does that thing people always do in movies where they lightly shade over a piece of paper to see what was written on the sheet on top of it. She finds a note written in her mom’s handwriting that says: Aelwen is with me. You are betrayed. You have no other choice, darling. Come join us. It seems as if she wrote it down to make sure she was under the limit for Sending. Adaine assumes it was to her Dad since it wasn’t to her. Riz also sees that the amount they were packing is way more than they would need to get to the temple. It’s hard to tell exactly what they were going there to do though because they brought all the important stuff with them.

They discuss Kalina’s abilities some more and are pretty confident that she can only be in one person at a time. They also think she’s unable to get into a Moon Haven/the Hallowed Van but they’re not sure if she can get in if she’s already in one of them before they go in. Adaine wants to establish that any private info, they Message to each other instead of saying it out loud. With an 18 Medicine check, Riz knows there’s a cure but he doesn’t know what it is. He takes all of the research to bring back to the party clerics who we’ll visit right now actually.

The Clerics and Fig are in the shrine with Vrath, the super aggro devil who’s just served Fig a subpoena. Fig reads it and sees that she’s being subpoenaed as a witness for a Tribunal against Gorthalax for neglecting his domain (he’s gotten 9 summonses which have all lapsed). Fig thinks it’s just a misunderstanding since Gorthalax is in a gem. Fig wants to do some court shenanigans but Kristen convinces her to at least get everyone together first.

Gorgug gets the research to the gnomes and they think they can rig something up in maybe a day. Then, the Owlbears go check in with the other two groups. After being told about the whole subpeona situation, Sandra-Lynn points out that Gilear actually knows a good amount about the law. He insists he’s not a lawyer but agrees to help and, upon reading the subpoena, says it seems pretty above board. Fig and Kristen also think they might be able to recruit the devils to fight against the NK while they’re in Hell since devils hate demons.

Adaine sets up the Message system they talked about earlier and Kristen decides to peruse the medical docs Riz found. NAT 20 BAY-BEE! And Kristen might have a -3 to Dex but she has a +9 to Medicine. That’s a big ol’ 29! 

After taking a second to eat his dice and contemplate how jossed his plans are, Brennan says that they can make a tincture using Dusk Moss and some other alchemical supplies from Sylvere that would cure it and that, with a Nat 20, she understands it so well that she specifically can cure it with Greater Restoration. Sandra-Lynn talks about what she found (where Arianwyn and Co. entered the forest) to cover the fact that Adaine and Fig are Messaging this information mentally to the group so Kalina doesn’t know what they know. Adaine thinks maybe they should start saying things that are untrue out loud so that Kalina is getting bad info. Fig thinks maybe they cure everybody but one person so they can control the info she’s getting but realizes that Kalina would probably realize what they’d done and catch on. Tracker pitches that they also could just all go in the Hangvan to be safe and then Kristen could one by one cast Greater Restoration on everyone who needs it. But she can only cast it once a day so it would probably take longer than they have.   

Gorgug asks a very insightful question that hadn’t occurred to me--if Sandra-Lynn is infected, why isn’t Gilear? Fig relays the question to her slightly embarrassed mom who says she must have gotten it within the past 3 years. Not info Fig really wanted to know I’m sure but these things come up when you go adventuring with your parents.

Anyway, after some more discussion, they decide that they have to go the tincture route so they can all get cured at once since doing it piecemeal means they lose their element of surprise and they also decide that going to Hell to clear up Gorthalx’s tribunal is top priority. Tracker stays behind in the Van since she can’t get into the temple where the door is because of the mural while everyone else tries the door. Fig goes in first but stands in the doorway so it stays open (if anyone else tries to approach, the door starts growing thorns). Gilear walks in, Riz is hanging onto Fig. Fabian and Adaine are next, both on the Hangman but the doorway recognizes a devil (the Hangman) going through the door and shuts, leaving Fig, Riz, Gilear, and the Hangman in Hell and everyone else in the shrine.     

Gilear immediately gets knocked out by fire-rain but Riz brings him back with his healer feat and the Hangman (who is very sad puppy about being separated from Fabian) gives him a devil mark on his forehead that protects him from fire. Gilear also says that, as long as they go to the tribunal, the devils will have to send them home afterwards. On their way to the tribunal, Gilear has some playful banter with Fig which Riz is immediately suspicious of he gets Gilear to blurt out in a panic that he’s feeling confident because Sandra-Lynn and Jawbone broke up and she asked to sleep with him and he declined. They had a good talk and they left it on good terms but that’s what’s going on. Fig is happy Gilear is feeling more confident, especially since she feels a little guilty about his whole deal, a fact that shocks Gilear. She thinks it’s obvious. She’s a living reminder of the fact that he got cheated on by his wife. He pauses. Then he says he’s going to step up for her and turn his life around. Oh, also, Riz going absolutely feral but that’s unrelated. 

They get to court which is overseen by Vraz (plus a Spiked dude and a Chained dude--Blozo, Vraz’s boss, is stuck in traffic). Fig is called up and asked if she knew of any intention by Gorthalax to neglect his duties. She says no and that Gorthalax was trapped in a gem by Kalina via a proxy (which, you will remember, was her). Brennan makes Fig roll to get away with that tricky wording of the technical truth and Adaine gives her a Nat 20 portent roll to beat Vraz’s 23. That gets Gorthalax off the hook for punishment but they still have to get someone to run the place while he’s gone and the tribunal isn’t over. Vraz calls a recess and puts the party on house arrest in hell. Also, Fig cut herself to show her blood to prove she was Gorthalx’s daughter and inadvertently created a fully sentient imp valet for herself so that’s also something that’s happening.   

Back in the shrine, Adaine checks out the mural and sees an occult rune on the spellbook and realizes she’s seen it somewhere. They then go check out the spot Sandra-Lynn found where Arianwyn entered the forest and the briers there are actually more tangled than in other places, not less. It seems like they were trying to throw people off by entering through a less intuitive spot but also that it will probably slow them down. They go back home to prep and wait for the rest of the party. Fabian gets a ping from the Hangman asking if he should try to call his dad. After a little bluster, Fabian admits that yes, yes he should. 

Meanwhile, Kristen wants to check out their coins to see if they have the spellbook (though Gorgug thinks the baddies already have it) and Adaine realizes she saw the symbol at the Compass Points library so Ayda would know what it means. She doesn’t have Sending stocked so she decides to trance so she can either get a short rest or have a long one and get the spell prepared, depending on when they need to leave. Gorgug decides to go see how the gnomes are doing with his crystal. Since he’s there, he can help out. Nat 20! They get the crystal to work. He now essentially has a satellite phone.

He magic Facetimes Zelda who is at a party with the rest of the 7 Maidens. She’s shocked that Gorgug was able to rig his phone to work on the road and she’s not even mad at him anymore. She apologizes for reacting so strongly and says she misses him so much. In the background, her party members do the extremely teen girl thing of hyping up the boyfriend that they all like. He and Zelda have a sweet little conversation and Gorgug lets her know that they’re about to go into the forest so their service might not be great. Zelda says that they’re done with their quest so he shouldn’t worry about her. She also says he loves him which the gnomes with Gorgug are super stoked about. They pop some bottles. 

Adaine wakes up from her trance, restocks her spells, and casts Sending to ask Ayda about Planeshift and the rune she found. Ayda says they should use the Synod of Spires and has Adaine check her right jacket pocket where she finds a glowing blue key. When Adaine uses it on a nearby, glowing lock, she finds herself in this cool pocket dimension which Ayda also appears in. She gives Adaine a copy of the spell (it’s 1st level I believe) so she can use it too when they need to talk and the Sending spell would be inconvenient. Re the symbol: Ayda says it’s an Abjuration rune (but not a protective one, a meta-magic one ie: modifying magic) that masks powerful curses and spells by letting them Trojan Horse under a different curse (she says the underlying curse could be a vessel for other spellcasting which sounds like a spellbook to me). She also says the larger Trojan Horse curse would be better if it was something static--Adaine suggests the wall around the forest and Ayda says that could work.     

When Adaine offhandedly mentions that Fig is currently stuck in Hell, Ayda freaks about rescuing her immediately, eventually revealing that they kissed for an hour the night before (“AN HOUR???”) to Adaine’s immediate delight (until she starts in on the TMI at least). Ayda actually was about to call Adaine as well so she could ask her to use her Oracular abilities to suss out how to avoid any possible futures where Fig doesn’t want to be with her anymore which has got to be the most teen girl thing Ayda has ever done in any of her lives. Adaine tells her that that’s not really how her powers work but reassures her that Fig wouldn’t play with her emotions and it wouldn’t be weird for her to ask Fig for clarification about their relationship status. They end up having a little talk about how both of them are wired differently which they bond over and the episode ends with Ayda mentioning that she created the friendship section of the library that Gorgug found a while back out of loneliness. And now she has a best friend and a girlfriend (probably)! What a different ending that a devil subpoena.  

 Detention

Kristen for Trying to Handcuff Sandra-Lynn 

No one actually did anything too crazy this episode so I’ll give it to Kristen for a joke I have no idea how she saw going over well.   

Honor Roll

Kristen for Making Brennan Eat His Dice (And Going Full Jonas Salk All Over Kalina’s Ass) 

I think the only other person who’s made both lists in one ep is Fig.

Anyway, you know I had to give it to Kristen for that Nat 20 to figure out literally everything in those medical texts and how to cure everybody. What a clutch time for Ally’s dice powers to kick in. This is why Kristen had to almost break her leg ribbon dancing out a window. Equivalent exchange. 

(Also, props to Brennan for honoring the roll and probably jossing some of his own plans in the process.)

Random Thoughts

Housekeeping Update: There are only 7 episodes of Sophomore Year to go (not counting this one)!  March 25th is the last one so prepare accordingly! As much as I’m enjoying these, I’m pretty OK with this since I think more digestible content is one of the big strengths of Dimension 20 content. 

Also, for those of y’all who don’t watch Critical Role or missed last episode, on Friday (2/14) Ally will be playing on their Valentines Day one-shot of Monsterhearts (monster high school setting) and, based on the promo, looks like they’ll be playing a werewolf so be sure to check that out if you want more of Ally’s shenanigans in your life.  

I feel like Brennan must have a lot of fun coming up with nonsense gnome names. They’re all so insane. 

“Anything is an alchemical ingredient depending on what you’re trying to do.”

Lol at Lou being like, “We all have the same information and I didn’t figure out any of that,” when the Nerd Squad was figuring stuff out irl.

I love how Gorgug has no patience for eleven nonsense but someone says the word, “crystalmatron” to him and he doesn’t bat an eye. 

“This is in hell.”/”What!?”/”Hell.”/”What!?”/“Hell.”

Gilear: Everyone is in great danger all of the time

Adaine: I agree.

Gilear: Good? But also disquieting coming from the Oracle.

It occurs to be that Garthy is a really bad person to be infected by the Kalina Virus considering their occupation and how good they are at it. 

Fig is right. A simultaneous, “Bye Kalina,” would be very dope. 

If Kalina happened to be watching them at any in this episode, it’s good that they bought the Duskmoss beforehand. Like, if Kalina knows they bought Duskmoss blindly because they just bought everything Killian did, she’d be a lot less suspicious of them than if she sees them suddenly buy 2 huge bricks of an important ingredient in the cure for her.  

It occurs to me that Jawbone is also a bad person to be infected with the Kalina Virus. 

Oh man, Jawbone and Sandra-Lynn just got a house together with so many people. And now they broke up. I know they’re both being adults about it and all but you can’t tell me it’s not gonna be a little awkward.

I wonder what Zayn is doing back in the haunted house while this is going on. No real reason. Just wanna know. Like is Adaine gonna come back and he’s like, “I taught Edgar how to do a trick. What about you?” And she’s like, “Hoo, boy. Where do I even start.”

Fantasy drugs in D&D are always so so funny to me.  Also, lol at the fact that Adaine is actually pretty down to do fantasy hallucinogens (she thinks they might be therapeutic). 

The 6/7 Maidens texting Gorgug to be like, “Good job buddy!” is such a sweet detail. 

The vulnerability from Fig talking to Gilear in this episode. Gah. Fig’s thing is that she’s not a closed book despite what she says. She’s a wide open book for the most part. But that’s not the same as letting yourself be vulnerable necessarily. And the clear shock from Gilear that Fig would not only concern herself with his wellbeing in that way (like, she’s always head of the Gilear cheer squad but this is like, more than surface level, you know?) and that she would put it upon herself--something that she should never have to deal with as the child? I did not ASK for touching scenes from GILEAR but by God are they happening anyway.

Upon learning that Fig is wearing her library card behind her ear now instead of a clove (in tribute to Ayda of course) I got my library card and tried that and, folks, it is for sure a Choice. 

Man I hope Adaine messes with Fig over Ayda. Them acting like bratty sisters (like them fighting for rooms in ep 1) is one of my fave dynamics amongst the Bad Kids. 

Do we know how/why Ayda ended up in Leviathan in the first place? Like, did Aguefort just drop her there for some reason? Is that where she was conceived? How sentient are phoenixes? Does she have any kind of relationship with her mom?

“I want to be alone but also surrounded by my friends at all times.” Again, too real. 

Siobhan knows so many crazy words offhandedly. When Brennan said “synod” I started Googling and before I even pressed Enter she was like, “So it’s a church thing.” Wild.

@jamiebluewind has a Galaxy Brain theory that the kids need to get rid of all of their Kalvaxus gold for the coin/spellbook to reveal itself (details here) which I think makes a lot of sense because from a storytelling/gameplay perspective it would be weird for them to have possibly spent it before they even knew it was a thing they were looking for.

The obvious person that Arianwyn would have sent that Message to would be her husband but I’m wondering if either it’s a mislead or a trap because we know they’re not working together because of Aelwen (who I’m inclined to believe). What is your game Mom Abernant? What are you doing?

They got Gothalax out of punishment by saying that the reason he hasn’t shown up is because he’s been in a gem but 9 seems like a lot of summonses to have received in the past, what, four days (?) since he’s been trapped. Feels like a longer-standing issue potentially. 

Kristen and Gorgug each roll one Nat 20 in this episode and Fig gets one via Adaine’s portent roll. Fig and Fabian each roll one Nat 1. 

[yourdearhart]

Louis’ Self-worth (pt. 1)

Part 1: The Physical Aspect

*spoilers for the manga below*

I know I’ve made “Louis is pissed about being an herbivore” jokes on here, but mainly in that “haha no really” sense. Louis does hate being an herbivore. I think this is something that was instilled in him from the earliest possible age, watching the carnivores who caged him, and those who came and went and ate his friends; watching those friends be dragged away, and being helpless to stop it. He and the other herbivores were defenseless, and we know how, as a teen/adult, Louis hates being weak. The path between those two things is a straight line. 

Everything about him is built to flee and run at the first sign of trouble, and he despises it; Louis wants to fight. He was raised as food and seen as nothing more than a product; is it any wonder he grew to hate that product, the body that marked him for death? He hates carnivores, presumably because he developed a prejudice against them after what was done to him, but we know he gets past that. He does not get past his self-loathing over being an herbivore.

This is part of his trouble with Azuki: he despises himself and his body so thoroughly that when he looks at her, a fellow red deer (a fact he notes twice in his narration of their intimacy), he sees all the things about himself that he hates the most. He even calls it out during their rendezvous at the hotel:

Louis: Our thin and weak bodies intertwined... [emphasis mine]

This is not the first time Louis complains about his body’s weakness. After he fractures his leg during rehearsal for Adler, he berates his physical failures.

Louis: It seems like the more I exert myself, the more my body fails me...I know I wasn’t born with a body designed for battle. I’m built as food for carnivores to capture and devour.

13 years after he was rescued from the livestock pen, Louis is still painfully aware of his place in the natural world, and he resents, seemingly, everyone for it: carnivores for their urges, herbivores for their prey instincts. He’s disgusted with the part he plays in the natural order, and he pushes his body to the breaking point trying to be other than he is.

Repeatedly throughout the encounter with Azuki he has to tell himself this is normal, as if he’s trying to convince himself to be attracted to another deer. As we know, he fails, and his revulsion to attempted intercourse with another deer is so strong he has a physical response (throwing up).

Louis: This is normal. Nothing about this is strange. The only thing that’s strange is me. That’s why this situation is making me feel so uncomfortable.

What is he drawn to instead? Juno-- a fierce and deadly carnivore, a gray wolf. An image of strength. Also, for the record: a natural predator of the red deer.

Louis, to Juno (“Our Electric Cardiogram is a Straw Ripped to Pieces”): “You shouldn’t be ashamed of your hunting instincts because you’re a female.”

Louis (“Her Breasts so Translucent the Light of the TV Passes Through Them”): She [Azuki] doesn’t kiss like Juno...nothing in her mouth resembles those rough canine teeth.

Early in his acquaintance with Legoshi, he also remarks on his physicality, observing how even casually, even when Legoshi is trying to stay the wallflower that he is, Legoshi’s form projects strength and vitality.

Louis: “Your body is always flaunting its power.”

It’s easy to see that entire exchange with Legoshi in the leader room being tinted with envy. Louis hates Legoshi because Legoshi has what Louis wants: a body that can fight. If Louis could fight, he wouldn’t have been a victim. If he could fight, he wouldn’t have to be afraid, he wouldn’t be looked down on by carnivores, or pitied for his prey body. Louis is fiercely independent (to the point of getting angry with peers who sympathize with him after he lands in the infirmary), and for him, being a carnivore would increase his ability to walk alone.

What does he hate? Carnivores who try to hide their strength, who pretend to be weaker than they are.

Louis: “I wish you’d stop holding back all the time...I want you to bare your fangs!”

Legoshi: “No! I’d be breaking the law. A carnivore is forbidden from bearing its fangs at an herbi--”

Louis: “Don’t you dare lump me in with the other herbivores! ...It’s large carnivores like you who piss me off the most! ...I wish you’d challenge me sometimes--with everything you’ve got!”

When carnivores try to hide themselves, Louis’ feelings are threefold:

They’re trying to lessen themselves to make him feel safe, as if he needs to be coddled or protected, as if they need to dilute themselves for his comfort (as if he could forget what they are because they’re hiding their fangs).

They’re striving to be something weaker than they are. They are crafting themselves into an image of something Louis finds detestable--a weaker animal.

They’re hiding gifts he envies. Louis wants to be strong and deadly, so to see a predator pretend to be otherwise feels like seeing things he wants gifted to someone who doesn’t appreciate them.

I believe quite a lot of this ties into his early childhood. As I’ve discussed before on this blog, Louis openly admits to himself that his time in the livestock pen deeply scarred him, and is still affecting him at present. At one of his lowest, weakest points--when Legoshi, one of Louis’ only friends, is going to die in the fight with Riz and Louis is helpless to stop it--he calls back to that time when he was at his most helpless:

Louis: The fawn inside me is still crying in his cage.

Louis despises being an herbivore, because he sees them as weak, cowardly, prey. Having been raised for consumption, and been unable to help himself or his friends escape their fate, he can’t help but hate the body that failed him, which is why he can’t manage to make himself be attracted to other deer. Knowing he will never be as strong as a carnivore, Louis has poured his efforts into obtaining power in other ways: weapons, political power, intellectual prowess, a forceful personality.

This may also be why he was less than hysterical about losing a leg. Saving the life of his friend is the best thing his body could be used for, since it’s never been any use to him.

We know that Louis gets over his hatred of carnivores. This realization contributes to his decision to leave the Shishigumi, and it’s a powerful moment for him, coming in tandem with realizing he considers Legoshi a friend, and is afraid that he’s going to be hurt or killed in the fight with Riz. But his hatred of his own body and instincts continue--sometimes, it’s easier to forgive others than ourselves.

I’ve broken this into two parts because this has already gotten a little long and I don’t want you to have to scroll for miles to get through this.

See Part 2: The Mental Aspect here

[fairytellerxo]

More PT 1

This was an anonymous request. It was fun. Sorry it took a while.

...

“Sutton,” Angel Reyes leaned closer to the blonde and smiled goofily at her before he took another healthy sip of his beer. “I was thinking, it sucks that the fucker cheated and you broke up with him but it’s good, you were too good for him. You deserve better.”

Sutton nodded slowly as she looked up from her drink and smiled back at the man. In all the years that she had called Angel her best friend, she had never realized before that he was super attractive. Beyond just the friendship level. “Yes, I deserve a better boyfriend and better dick.”

“Yes, no lame dick,” he shook his head slowly. “Must’ve really liked him if you settled with bad sex.”

“I liked him so much,” she groaned before finishing her drink. “I am stupid. Now I’m single, drunk and horny.”

“Welcome to my life,” he scoffed. “That’s my daily issue.”

She shook her head. “You’re a guy though, you can stick your dick in whoever you fucking want. I cannot do it.”

“You can fuck, oh well the world thinks you’re a fucking slut. They’ll think it regardless.” He he looked at her before touching her face softly. “Sutton, you’re gorgeous.”

“You’re drunk,” she chuckled. “Super drunk.”

He smiled at her. “You’re drunk too.” He pulled her closer and nodded. “I have always wanted to do this.” He kissed her softly and sighed.

Sutton looked at him before kissing him back. “Is this happening?” She looked at him. “Yeah it is.” She laughed as she was pulled onto his lap.

…

“So, where are we going?” Sutton looked up at Angel as she laid on the living room floor. “Anywhere fun?”

Angel looked at her and shook his head slowly. “Nowhere if you don’t get up and get dressed, can’t fucking leave the house naked.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll get dressed depending on where you’re taking me. I gotta know it’s worth it before I get up and put effort into the day.”

He smirked. “I was just gonna take you with me to a party at the clubhouse. So maybe you can just stay here naked and I’ll go show face with my club.”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, do that. Just stay away from the hoes because you know I’m territorial and don’t want your dick straying.”

Angel scoffed. “My dick does what he wants to do. Lately he’s been all about you so that’s a thing.” He looked down her again. “You’re coming with me, just throw on a top and some jeans. You know the guys already.”

“We become fuck buddies and you wanna boss me around?” She stood up and smiled at him. “You’re like you’re handsome as hell.” She patted his cheek. “No bra, no panties?”

“Bra,” he nodded. “No one can tell if you have panties on or not when you’re in jeans.” He smirked. “Don’t be getting jealous either. I gotta socialize.”

“You can socialize,” she looked at him. “Just don’t go off and get laid by a little hang around or you can’t have anymore of this.”

“I thought we agreed, just sex, no feelings.” He followed after her into the bedroom. “Friends with benefits.”

Sutton rolled her eyes before looking back at him. “You’re right. No feelings just sex.” She smiled at him before grabbing a pair of jeans and a shirt. “I won’t cockblock you. I’ll be your wingman.”

Angel watched her carefully as she pulled the clothes on, the top she picked barely covering her breasts. He groaned inwardly, already regretting his comment. “Killing me.”

.

.

Angel sipped his beer, watching as Sutton laughed and talked with his brother. He had been hating the entire night, the way the guys seemed to check Sutton out, doing their best to be discreet about it. He noticed it though. The way Riz licked his lips slightly as he passed her a drink or even the way Creeper tried to woo her with his unconventional charm.

He had feelings and he had them badly. He wanted her to himself. He wanted to be the only one who had her and he didn’t even know where her head was with the whole situation.

“Looks like EZ is finally gonna get under someone and get over Emily.” Coco smirked. “I thought your friend was dating someone. You said she was when I wanted to ask her out.”

Angel smirked. “She was taken when you tried to go for her but now she’s single and ready to mingle.” He looked at Coco before he looked at Sutton who was now trying on his brother’s kutte. “That’s not happening.” He stood up and moved towards the pair. “Sutton, we’ve gotta talk real fast.”

“Okay,” she looked at him in confusion before sliding out of the kutte and passing it back to EZ. “You’re right, it is heavier than it looks.”

He nodded as his brother before leading her out of the clubhouse. “Sutton.”

Sutton smiled. “You finally ready to admit that you have feelings?” She turned around. “Don’t play dumb.”

“Okay, I’ve got feelings.” He shrugged as he looked at his feet. “Do you?”

“Yeah,” she lowered a bit and stared up at him. “Why else did you think I was getting on you about fucking around?”

“Thought you were worried about STDs,” he smirked at her. “I know we said no feelings…”

“We said a lot of things.” She wrapped her arms around his neck before kissing him. “I love you, alright, as more than a friend.”

Angel kissed her back and smiled brightly. “I love you too.” He nodded slowly. “So you love me huh?”

She pushed his face away and laughed. “You heard me stupid don’t make me say it again.” She shook her head frantically. “Let’s get out of here.”

[happys-crazy-queen22]

The Past Coming To Bite You In The Ass

Gif credit @xxrouxx

Chapter 4. Hope you all enjoy.

Happy Reading Dollies.

Tag @ilovetaquitosmmmm

Warning-kidnapping, abduction.

Coco helped me in the door with EZ holding the door, first day of many of having extra security but i don't mind I know the guys are just looking out for us. i felt my way to the kitchen table chair,"baby I'll be fine, If it helps I'll stay here. Go take a shower or something. I'm a big girl, If I need I'll ask Gilly or EZ. There in the living room." Even though he wasn't saying I could tell he was still there, "Johnny go I'll be fine." He hates being called by his real name but he only lets me call him that.

"Fine." He pouted like a five year old and left.I swear these boys are like kids at times, me and shi are like the mother hens but we love them wouldn't have it any other way.

Then there was a knock it sounded like it was my front door,which i find weird because the guys know I have a open door and come in.

I got up feeling my way to the living room,"someone here guys?''

"No just me and Gilly why?" EZ asked

"I heard a knock that sounded like it from the front door." I replied feeling my way to them to sit on the sofa. But I tripped on something

"Woah,you ok?" Gilly said catching me before I fell.

"Ya. What was that?" I replied sitting on the couch.

"Shoes i thought I moved out of the way before you came home, me and Gilly were moving stuff out of the way so something like you tripping didn't happen." EZ said sounding like he was to my left.I swear these boys are like kids at times, me and shi are like the mother hens but we love them wouldn't have it any other way.

Then there was a knock it sounded like it was my front door,which i find weird because the guys know I have a open door and come in."It's ok. I'm glad I'm home. Missed my boys." I laughed they were family

"We missed you to. Coco was worried sick about you when you were in surgery, both for you and Riz."

"I know Riz will pull through hes a tough guy. Him and shi are perfect for each other both have big hearts and would do anything for you."

"You girls keep them in line for sure." Ez teased

"He made me come out of my shell that's for sure. Saved me from a abusive realstionship, well i broke up with him but he kept coming after me. Maybe that's one of the guys that did the shooting." Then I remember seeing something before the glass broke i remember seeing someone in the house before the gunfire started. And i heard a glass brake from the kitchen

"Hey babe look at me,it's ok. No one's here." I heard Johnny's (coco) voice

"He did it i saw him. I know he did." I replied feeling for his hand and hugging him burrying my face in his shirt I could feel myself shake,"it can't be him he's in jail. I'm scared baby."

Cocos P.O.V.

"Fuck, I haven't thought about him in years not since I kicked his ass". Coco ran his hand down his face with a sigh.

"Who are we talking about"? Ez asked.

"It was before your time boy". Gilly shook his head, he remember that wanna be biker. He couldn't make it with Dee and he couldn't make it as a Mayan.

"Dee's ex, Aaron, he started as a prospect like you but was kicked out after what he did to Dee".

"He beat her"?

"Worse, he fucked her up so bad mentally".

"Why does she think he would come after you after all these years"? Ez asked taking a sip of his coffee.

"It all started when Shiloh brought Dee to a party one night. Aaron didn't allow her to come to the ones before, we didn't even knew she exsited until we saw her with Shiloh and he was all over her. Well that didn't last long when she saw me. We started talking and dancing. Aaron went pshyco and started beating her, she was covered in bruises when I came in and helped. She broke up with him and he went mad. He came to my house one night and threatened us saying 'If I can't have her no one can' but that was years again and since then he's been in jail".

"You've been keeping tabs on him"? Gilly smiled.

"Hell yeah, I wasn't letting her get hurt again but if this really is him then those bullets were met for me and Shiloh".

"Shiloh"? Ez was confused.

"Shiloh threatened to cut off his balls if he came near Dee again and she also planted meth on him with Riz help and thats why he went to prison. It was his third strike".

"But if he's out we need to warn Shiloh".

"Yeah, I'll call Angel and Creeper. Make sure they're packing". Gilly walked out the door getting on the phone.

"Ez, Can I ask you something"?

"Yeah brother anything"?

"Will you watch over Dee while I go visit a friend. They'll know if he's out".

"Yeah, no problem. I'll protect her with my life".

"Thanks man". Coco hugged Ez and went to tell Dee he was leaving and posting Ez and Gilly at the house. That he wasn't going to let anything else bad happen to her.

Coco arrived at his friends house, did a secret knock and entered being patted down for a weapon.

"Do you remember Aaron, Dees ex"?

"Yeah, I heard he got out, made a lot of friends while he was in. Some of them not to Mayan friendly".

"You knew and you didn't tell me"? Coco yelled, standing up hovering over his friend.

"I figured he would move on, not come back and dig up old wounds".

"Well he dug up the whole fucking grave yard. He shot at us at a party, put one of my brothers in the hospital, he may not make it and he blinded Dee forever. You should have told me".

"Then I guess I should have told you that he bought two AK-47s two months ago".

"That would have been very fucking helpful and it would have stopped all of this from happening. This, I'm blaming you. I will settle this score later but now I have to go protect my girl". He stormed out of the house, jumping on his bike and jeting off.

Shiloh's P.O.V.

Meanwhile, Shiloh was having a wonderful little time with the nurse once again. She wanted Riz to wake up so bad that she called in a favor and got him the MIR that morning, he was currently in.

"Miss, you need to get your stuff out of the room".

"That's my husbands room and he'll be coming back after he gets done with this test so if you dont mind, fuck off".

The nurse huffed, rolling her eyes and storming off. "I fucking hate this place". You growled.

"Shiloh". You heard Angels voice running down the hall.

"What, is it Dee"? You panicked.

"Sort of, its her ex".

"Aaron what does that little shit have to do with anything"?

"Dee saw him at the house that night of the party right before the gun shots".

"After all these years he's coming after us, what a asshole".

"Coco told us to watch you, and that he's certain that he's coming after Dee".

"Okay, Riz is almost done but I want you to tell Creeper to wait here for him". You said starting to walk off.

"Where are you going"? Angel walked behind you.

"To the room, I need my phone to call Dee, she needs me".

"I'll come with you".

"It's a hospital what's the worst that can happen"? Angel shook his head knowing he should have followed you but didn't follow you, he went to get Creeper.

You walked into the room and grabbed your phone about to speed dial Dee but you felt a presence and thats when you got knocked out, you could feel your body being dragged down the hallway as it was fuzzy.

During Rizs test he started moving, and sat straight up. "Where's Shiloh"? He yelled. Creeper heard him from the hallway and rushed in calming his brother.

"Hey, calm down. Angel is with her". But he wasn't, Angel came in and shocked them.

"What's going on? I can hear you from the waiting room".

"What are you doing in the waiting room, you're supposed to be watching Shiloh. Where is she"? Creeper questioned.

"She went to get her phone. Dees ex is out and she wanted to make sure she was okay".

"And you let her go by herself"?

"Its a hospital, what could possibly go wrong"? Angel ate his words when Riz came back to the room and Shiloh wasnt there, no one had seen her since Riz went in.

"I'll check outside and in the cafeteria". Creeper jogged off.

"I'm sorry". Angels head fell in his hands.

"You had one job to watch her and you let her go off on her own knowing there's someone out trying to kill her".

"I'm going to find her, I promise".

"You better and when you do make sure you put a bullet in the guys head". Riz told Angel, because he already knew what happened to Shiloh.

While Creeper and Angel looked for Shiloh, her muffled screams couldn't be heard in the closet.

"No use of struggling, no ones going to find you until they start smelling you decomposing body coming from here". The guy laughed, making your skin crawl.

"MTHERCKNG ASHLE ". You tried to speak but you weren't understood.

"Oh is the Mayan whore trying to say something"? He ripped the tape off your mouth.

"Fuck you, motherfucker". You spat.

"Ah a feisty whore". "Let me tell you something, the sons will regret getting involved with the Mayans".

"If you have something against the Sons then go after them not us".

"But its you that I don't like". He pushed the tape over your mouth again. All you could think was you're going to die and you wont see Riz wake up and how Dee is worried sick about Aaron and you're not there to help her. Tears started falling.