#guess i will just save that analysis for the writing update!!

[dallonwrites]

okay actually looked at the lover boy wip intro again and this has me crazy because the grief in this was meant to all be about bobby but "remember that his favourite fruit was peaches and try not to cry over it" got me because felix's favourite fruit being peaches is like. a recent but definitive part of his character. and i can't remember if i just used peaches as a placeholder for bobby's favourite fruit (he does not give peach to me) and if i first wrote this before or after i decided peaches were felix's BUT now i'm like. what if this passage is him grieving bobby but it spirals around his grief for his relationship with felix??? find a lover the way you found felix and don't lose him this time but also find a lover because you're trying to find a connection as deep as the one you had with your best friend even though you know it can never be replicated. you can never find a lover that will love you like bobby (platonic, to be clear) loved you. find a lover in the fact you are alive even though it makes you nauseous because it just reminds you that your best friend isn't. how do you grieve someone who's still alive whilst simultaneously grieve someone who isnt? trying to grieve two people in two different ways and you feel guilty at the way they blend and blur because it feels like you lose your separate grips on both of them and you don't feel like you have space in you to accommodate all this ache. and like what if i edited all this to make that parallel more clear?? that his primary grief is bobby because he's the one who's dead but he's also grieving felix and probably doesn't even realise it?? and then the two become blurred?? and if he realised this he would actually feel fucking awful about it and like a bad friend?? haha just kidding unless??

[tirralirralirra]

something I love about having read/watched frieren and dungeon meshi concurrently is getting to see that, despite their similar broad genres (fantasy, DND-esque settings, failure op elf girls /lh), they are two very distinct stories that ultimately achieve the same* thematic goal through different narrative means.

like you have frieren's contemplative, almost slice-of-life style storytelling that focuses on how the connections between people make an impact, and how it's beautiful to cherish the memories of those we love, even the small ones (especially the small ones), and that being alive is so, so beautiful because of those things. Then juxtaposing this with the overall narrative of a literal journey to a land beyond in order to meet with the dead, while not losing focus on those that are alive. Frieren as a story takes time to explore the small things that make life beautiful (fields of flowers, the beauty and not the power of magic, stargazing and sunsets with your friends).

and then you have dunmeshi's tight narrative arcs that are built around urgency (saving falin, first from digestion, then from...chimera-ization), but also continually return to the same concept as a core tenet to both the literal narrative structure around meals and the overall story: to eat is a privilege of the living. That there is joy to be found in eating because it means you are alive, that you survived. That taking time to take care of yourself is honoring your life. That death is a part of life through the acts of killing monsters to eat, and that the dungeon's condition where a soul remains tethered to the body is unnatural.

For that last bit, I love how we're just introduced to the concept in the beginning as a bit of world building, something you might just take at face value of, "oh, I guess this is how this works in this story", and over the course of the story the characters start to interrogate that reality, culminating in Marcille's realization at the end that they took death for granted because of the dungeon's condition:

[ID: Manga panel of Marcille looking down in thought and saying "Look, this might sound a little weird, but...I think the entire point of this journey we went on....was learning how to accept death.]

(Panel is from the ehscans version, will update with official eng when the final volume releases)

I also love that the story takes the time to say, look, you can be in a hurry, but you still need to take care of yourself. Eat well, sleep well, What will you achieve in the service of yourself or others if you don't take care of the most basic qualities to survive first? The most recent episode is a good example of that with the focus on shuro vs. laios, and then there's this reinforcement of the idea by the end:

[ID: Dungeon meshi manga page showing Laios, Chilchuck, and Senshi shouting "A balanced diet!!" "R-regulating our daily rhythms!!" "And moderate exercise!!" respectively, followed by the three in various poses in front of the word "VICTORY" and Laios saying "If we watch these three points...we'll naturally work our way to strong bodies!!"]

Anyways this is all very disorganized and I have other things I need to do and I could write a more cohesive, actually organized thought piece on all of this with like, coherent points, but I don't really like to delve into literary analysis on my fandom account. it just lives in my head, rent free. thank you for coming to my ted talk tumblr. don't expect to see more of this, lol.

*I say same goal, which is not to say the only goal. stories can have more than one theme, it's ok if you disagree with me on this, but please bear in mind that I'm speaking very, very broadly.

[tamamatango]

Unplanned character analysis I should’ve saved for 6/23 but I need instant gratification whenever I have a thought or I explode

Sup nerds, thanks for reading my master’s thesis completely overanalyzing what literal scraps we have in relation to the new anime. Unfortunately no updates yet on that front but I’m starting to go a little Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs in anticipation so fingers crossed they drop something soonish. I have a couple of longer form posts in my back pocket that may or may not happen in a nearish timeframe, we’ll see what I get around to.

I was going to not do any more posts until one of those materializes but I’m detouring from that for a bit because I had an epiphany about Saburo now that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this series again. Those if you who know me and/or were around for when I was most active here know he is my favorite character behind Kururu and that’s still true. So here’s like. A reading of him that I think completely changes the way you will look at this character. If you don’t see him like this already.

Saburo(/Mutsumi since this goes equally for the manga side) is not actually cool. Like this kid is totally cringe and a weirdo right. Literally thinks of the most unnecessarily extra solutions to things, wardrobe that gets increasingly bizarre over time, writes poetry that is usually either obnoxiously cheesy or just doesn’t make any sense. Spends his free time doing stuff like talking to cats and collecting shitty kids’ meal toys. His drawings aren’t even that good most of the time. Unironically Momoka has more swag than Saburo does (granted Momoka has more swag than most characters but that’s besides the point). Yes he is a super genius and athletically gifted and conventionally attractive to other people his age, and (for manga Mutsumi only) it’s later implied he was modified by the N326 in some way. But here’s the thing—a lot of his peers either think he’s a smarmy ass show-off little shit (manga) or just completely inaccessible to the average person so why bother (anime).

The reason why he’s such a celebrity is because the only people who think he is really cool are children and preteen girls (and secretly Giroro but the whole reason that’s a funny joke is because Saburo is totally not appealing to adults at all let alone hardened super serious soldiers). But this is a very profitable and exploitable audience so he is really successful. He is the equivalent of a Disney Channel teen star. He’s like what Justin Bieber was in 2010 or whenever. In the manga Mutsumi gladly eats up this attention, but the anime pretty heavily implies especially toward the (until this year tee hee) end of the series that Saburo kinda dislikes being under the celebrity microscope and having producers who want to milk their child star as much as possible; he just wants to create and entertain and express himself freely which is why he does everything anonymously.

I think the anime tried a little too hard to make him unironically cool and my guess is that this is for a couple reasons. One, he has Akira Ishida’s voice coming out of him which yes was obviously chosen primarily because lol Kaworu but also his voice is just inherently associated with “we want you to think this character is a mysterious ikemen” most of the time. Two, compared to the manga there’s a lot more fillery stuff revolving around Natsumi idolizing him and because so much of the show is from Natsumi’s perspective, that’s the perspective the viewers (who were also intended to be children then, though I think now that it’s a 20 year old series they’re going more for the nostalgic adult audience) get as well. Don’t get me wrong though the VERY few serious moments he had were fantastic, 229 best episode movie 3 best movie etc etc.

You could also argue Kururu thinks Saburo is “cool” but I think he respects him more in the way that he’s kinda like him but younger so they understand each other intrinsically and that makes Saburo more reliable in fulfilling Kururu’s specific needs than most other characters. Saburo’s a lot kinder ostensibly but unlike the rest of the cast, who recoils at Kururu’s mannerisms and psychological torment of everyone, Saburo usually just thinks it’s funny. Kururu is much of a freak as he is but is very particular about his image and actively micromanages almost every aspect of his personality to get people to see him a certain way and avoid showing too many of his vulnerabilities (it’s all but confirmed in the anime that his entire cadence and vocal tics are an elaborate act and his normal voice is totally different). We don’t see it much on screen but it seems he can kinda relax a bit around Saburo who himself is totally out there but in a more genuine and unabashed way, like even in the anime where the radio persona is a secret it’s not like he acts that much differently on the air than he does in his personal life. Besides maybe the early manga Kururu is not really a romantic and probably thinks Saburo’s sappy wappy poetry is cringe too, but he likes Saburo enough that he supports him being himself no matter what bullshit that entails (besides getting himself killed of course). Sorry had to shoehorn best partners talk for a bit longtime Kirb readers know how it is.

So there is actually a specific thing that made me decide let’s do a fucking character analysis for the first time in like 5 years or something, and that’s that I was browsing through raws of the one 4koma book I don’t physically own (shoutout to @kagender for those scans along with some other cool stuff like Keroro Land issues, storyboards and ref sheets!), and it was these strips:

This is a 4koma series in which Meru and Maru from Movie 2 hang around with the main cast for funny shenanigans. Not super relevant because these two strips don’t have them pictured but anyways. They’re having a beach day and Natsumi runs into Saburo who is there to “surf” but actually there are no real waves and he is just pretending. Because he’s copying the 1978 film Big Wednesday (it is Sunday in the comic). In other words teenager larps because he saw it in an old movie once. I know this is not really a pertinent example because the Keroro Land 4komas are all very silly and non-canon (a lot of the artists are actually former doujin artists) but look. This is peak, okay. This is my ideal Saburo outside of serious scenarios. I’ve seen the vision.

I swore I was gonna make this a short post but it’s not I guess. Can’t resist turning these into goddamn essays. So to wrap it up: Saburo is some dorky kid who thinks he’s way more of a hotshot than he really is and totally owns it with no shame. This is adorable. I will defend him with my life. I need Anikero The New to agree with me here. In like 85% of cases I prefer the anime’s takes on everything but Yoshizaki cooked with the ideas behind this guy so listen to word of god. Give us more Silly Saburo. The TikTok teenagers of today deserve this representation.

[kimkhimhant]

I love the instinctual gravitation towards warmth it's one of my favourite pieces of fiction,, I'm curious what inspired you to write it/how did you come up with the premise

(no pressure to answer <3)

ahhhh hi thank you so much for the question and for reading TIGTW! i'm so glad you enjoyed it!!

honestly, there were a few things that inspired the particular plot, and all of it had to do with my own analysis of Kim as a character. if you hadn't noticed, i kind of obsess over him.

gonna start with two canon moments that influenced the direction of the story a lot:

this first one: kim staring at his empty hand after chay gets up, after kim himself was unable to say i love you. i think its a beautiful moment for kim's character – the emptiness and visceral loss. he didn't commit any physical harm, but it still manages to mirror the common trope of a character staring at the blood on their hands after killing someone. and the second one: we only see this scene on reflection and not when it happens chronologically, and it's so briefly shown we don't know what happens before or after, but in this moment, Kim looks wrecked. he's sitting there listening to Chay sing his love song in the studio, and he can't handle it. he looks like he's about to have a panic attack, and he gets up and leaves, and we don't know what happens next.

So TIGTW starts with that scene. the "what happens next."

So that kinda sets the stage for what aspects of canon most inspired me lol. I guess the main inspiration for the premise beyond that is personal experience and projection. We see very little of Kim as a character beyond what he shows to other characters in the show. (maybe that's intentional to the story-telling. we know as little about him as the other characters. we get only a couple brief scenes of him alone, either investigating, or playing the guitar/writing while daydreaming about Chay and smiling). but what we do see is someone who's very isolated and who flounders in the face of affection, but seems desperate for those little moments of warmth he gets with Chay. so in comes projection: here's an isolated and lonely boy with a fucked up family and a childhood that likely lacked a lot of emotional warmth – let's give him all the problems that hit closest to home for me.

An opioid high feels like a jacked up version of love and joy and warmth. Kim can't get those feelings anywhere else, but... he could get them here. He's scared of emotional attachment, he's scared of being Known, but a feeling of love and safety that he's in control of, that he can enjoy in private? he'd cling to it.

Im gonna be honest, I didn't have a full plot when i started writing it. I'd only planned up to chapter 11: Kim spiralling after fucking things up with Chay, and then getting shot saving Chay because he was under the influence, and this being the turning point for him getting clean. Everything after that was just the natural progression that seemed to make the most sense for his continued recovery. because i really really wanted to portray a real recovery process, that wasn't just: oh, he has love now, he has Chay and his brothers and he decided to get clean now and that's that. he's sober and recovered and happy and the story is over. because that's not how it works. by the time i finished the main story, i had about a dozen different updated outlines, because it developed more and more with every chapter i wrote lol.

i guess the short version of this answer would be: i saw myself in him, and i wanted to give him healing and a happy ending, no matter how long it takes for him to get there.

sorry for the huge tangent, and thank you again for reading and your continued interest in the story! it means a lot to me, especially because the story itself is so important to me.

[onecinder]

Tags guide (and fic requests)

Link to my post about fic requests

This tag guide is mainly for me because sometimes I wanted to find something I posted and I forget how to find it via tags, RIP. So yeah here's my messy tag system:

General

#my post = a broad tag encompassing my original posts (excluding reblogs) - can be fandom-related or my original stuff.

#analysis or #my analysis = analysis of fandom

#meta = discussing things like story structure, author's intentions for the story etc; so things that break the fourth wall

(Tip to sort for original posts: for #meta and #analysis, search for either one and then switch the toggle for 'original post' in the filters. That will filter out any reblogs or other people's posts tagged with that type of universal tag. Yeah I was dumb for tagging my stuff analysis without a unique string)

#my art = my art. that's it

#original art = art I made of my original stories, worlds, and characters. or just anything unrelated to fandom, could be a random study i did

#my writing = written snippets of original stories or fanfic

#random lore tidbits = lore of my original stuff

#fanart = well, yknow.

#onecinder silly doodles = not fully-fledged artworks, just my doodles at 1am

#onecinder silly rambles = not structured analysis but usually random thoughts that came to my mind, doesn't have to be about fandom either. Will sometimes include vids tho, honestly this is a broad tag synonymous with shitpost

And of course, the regular fandom tags

Specific? I guess

#zephyr = my original character Zephyr

#eury = my original character Eury

#wingbound = my original WIP novel Wingbound, where Zephyr and Eury are the main characters

#reblog string = discussions I have with other users via a series of reblogs! (love them)

#save = posts I want to save, yall can use this too, I might have some old OPM audiobooks and stuff under this tag.

#tag game

Will probably update as I add more tags or change these. Trying to develop a comprehensible system here lol since I have and will be using tumblr for quite a while.

[slimeywooper]

Labmas AU - Retrospective

I uploaded this to AO3 a little over a month ago but forgot to put it here as well.

These are the initial Labmas ideas that I posted before starting the story. I only skimmed over them while writing the first 3 or 4 chapters, so I thought it would be interesting to go over them again and see all the things that changed, got thrown out, or I simply forgot about! The original writing will be in purple font, followed by my thoughts or explanations of certain things from the fic. Some will have long walls of text, and others may have nothing at all.

I suggest reading the story first as this will spoil most everything in it.

The AU is about two hybrid clones of the Subway Bosses Ingo and Emmet. I'm leaning towards it taking place during the Rainbow Rocket shenanigans and being in second/third person, most likely with a reader insert from an alternate dimension where Pokemon don't exist, but the games, for the most part, do exist. I want the reader to know what pokemon are and the general gist of their world, but I don't want them to know the characters. So the reader won't know any of the people they are meeting since they are not in the games that exist in the reader's universe. I guess you can just imagine the reader only has Pokemon Mystery Dungeon type games, nothing with the mainline Teams or protagonists. Now, as thirsty as I am for the Train Men, I really don't plan on having this be a romantic story, maybe some elements but I mostly want to focus on a somewhat existential horror narrative.

In the very first paragraph we have a change. It's not set during Rainbow Rocket, it's set during Black/White. The grunts are described as having their chainmail attire. Colress in this story isn't in charge of Team Plasma like in Black2/White2, only it's science division. However, he's known to be a nasty individual when someone gets on his bad side, so he's given leeway by the grunts, even though he's not technically above all of them, just the lower rungs. As for the romance angle, it actually showed up much more than I thought it would. I was hoping to make a horror story with some romance, but I think it ended up being reversed. More romance, with a teeny bit of horror. The only part that I feel could be considered horror is when Kudari kills Colress' assistant.

The hybrids have Ingo and Emmet's Japanese names Nobori and Kudari. They were created by Colress, who is more of a Biologist/geneticist in this world, his goal being to create the perfect Pokemon. So far he's only had two successful experiments, those being Nobori and Kudari, though they are only considered successful in the sense that they were viable specimens and are currently alive and working alongside him. I view him as very much an opportunist, even in USUM when it appears he might have some remorse for his past actions. To clear up any confusion, the Colress in this story isn't the same one that is met in USUM, I was just stating some parallels between them.

I have more to say about Colress, but I'll save it for a later paragraph. There's a work on AO3 that I think is an amazing character study of Colress in the games. It's long, but goes over different things Colress has done and analyzes them.

An Unkind Person: An (Updated) Analysis of Team Plasma Boss Colress by IcyKali

I really like Colress as a character, and I don't think the canon one is anywhere near as awful as mine is, but he's certainly not a nice person.

Now I'm gonna say something regarding their ages that might bother some people. I'm of the opinion that most of the non playable adult characters in Pokemon are older than they look, barring certain characters like Ghetsis, Cogita, Warden Ingo ,etc. who are clearly drawn do have age lines. My logic being that many of them are in careers or have accomplished goals that would take years to complete. So for my AU, Ingo, Emmet, and Colress are in their early to mid forties, whereas the hybrid twins are in their early to mid twenties. They were created shortly after Colress graduated high school and was recruited by Team Plasma. Ingo and Emmet, graduating from the same high school as Colress, went on to become Subway Bosses and run Gear Station. They are connected to Team Plasma via a mutually beneficial business relationship. Gear Station gets funding from Team Plasma in return for information on the Subway Bosses' most promising challengers.

Everything in here looks the same to what I have in the story! Many fan works have young Submas, which I enjoy, but sometimes when it comes to these characters, I have to wonder how such young people got into positions of respect and power. Unless there is an abundance of young prodigies, which isn't impossible, it's fiction after all, but I like to have some variation in ages. As an extra note about Colress, I will add that he was attending University when he was hired by Team Plasma. It started as an internship, which then became paid employment.

Colress can't stand the Train Bros. I'm still trying to work out exactly what they did to piss him off, but like all good one-sided rivalries, it started in high school. Most likely something having to do with losing a Pokemon battle, and Emmet being extremely blunt, can't help but continually bring it up. Just stupid, petty stuff that has lasted half of Colress' life. Ingo and Emmet's DNA was used by Colress more of as a passive aggressive jab at them, not intending for it to be anything more than a joke. More of a "wouldn't it be funny if I added their genetics to my experiments?"

Colress' reason for his hatred of the Subway Bosses stayed the same, I was just able to flesh it out more.

That's how the hybrid's came about. Not intentionally, but because Colress was feeling like an asshole and wanted to mess around to see what he could do using the Train Bros. DNA, resulting in an "Oh shit" moment when he saw they were viable specimens.

I'm a big fan of Colress as more of an apathetic scientist, but In this story he's pretty much reached the limit of his patience with his line of work/ failed experiments. He never was fatherly towards the twins, only raising them to be tools for Team Plasma. Not out of any love for Team Plasma, but they're the ones funding his research. The hybrid twins are, begrudgingly, his greatest achievement. Colress doesn't hate them, but he greatly resents them, struggling to keep his composure if he deems they are acting immaturely or in a rash manner. They are a constant reminder of how much he hates the Train Bros. (As an aside, I'm going to continue to refer to Ingo and Emmet as the Train Bros. to help differentiate them from Nobori and Kudari since the hybrid twins have nothing to do with trains.) Though he despises the Train Bros., he knows there isn't anything he can really do about them, since their help in recruiting promising Plasma grunts is invaluable to the team. Having to interact with them sporadically and raise the Hybrid Twins has put a huge strain on his mental and emotional well-being, though that's due to his own issues (real or imagined). When Colress is with the Hybrid Twins, he refers to them as Noku, so he can grab both of their attention without using their full names.

Colress… is a terrible person. There's no other way to put it. In whatever way he is capable, he does love the hybrids. Colress doesn't like loving them, he wants to be as critical and logical as possible, but he can't help but care for them, and that upsets him greatly. It's hard for me to put into words exactly how he feels, so this part is going to be all over the place.

Though it's true that Colress regarded Nobori as 'the good one,' Kudari has always been his favorite. Even after he got older, and more unruly, Colress saw him as his lost child. In chapter 14, Nobori proposed a theory to Reader for why Colress is so horrible, that being he's lashing out for his own heartache and disappointment for how Kudari turned out. Colress has always been an asshole, but having to nurture Kudari as a baby really affected him, and he grew to love him. While they were growing up, Colress was strict, but his cruelty towards the hybrids didn't start until Kudari began to withdraw and become rebellious. This was due to him being part Galvantula, which makes him naturally independent, and because he's stuck in the laboratory. When Colress saw the boy that used to follow him around, and even styled his hair in the same way as him, start to decline mentally, it hit him hard. But instead of finding different outlets for Kudari to express his anger and restlessness, he started to punish him for it. What used to be crying fits during his childhood, became enraged tantrums in his preteens and adolescence. Around this time is when Colress first fitted Kudari with his collar, having it readjusted every couple years as he grew.

There's the question of what Colress was hoping to achieve by letting Reader interact with Kudari. He didn't stand to gain anything, unless Kudari really decided to play along and become an active member of his research team. But deep down, he knew that wouldn't happen. It was more of a decision made quickly, to prevent himself from having to hear anymore prodding from Reader, and have someone keep an eye on Kudari, while at least attempting to be productive. Even though he has Reader's help, Colress has been throwing them softballs, knowing they can't live up to what he wants in an assistant. Right after the death of the previous one, he went looking for a replacement, continuing to do so after Reader joined the team. If he had found one, he likely would have just made Reader Kudari's permanent caretaker.

This may be considered cliché by now, but Nobori is a Chandelure Hybrid, and Kudari is a Galvantula Hybrid. They never went through any Pokemon evolution, they were created to be Hybrids of these specific Pokemon. So they weren't born as a Litwick or Joltik Hybrid, they were always a Chandelure or Galvantula Hybrid regardless of age.

I've read different stories and headcanons about various types of hybrid Submas, but these were my favorites. I had pondered what it would be like to have an Elektross Kudari, but the mental image of an eel-man floating around just killed the concept for me, making it too silly for the type of story I wanted.

(As for their physical appearances, I first must admit that I love Warden Ingo. So Nobori's design is modeled after him. So I get to have a story with Ingo and Not Warden Ingo in it, without them being the same person! It's my cake, I should be allowed to eat it too!)

Nothing wrong with this, they are both good!

As far as outward appearance, Nobori doesn't look too different from a regular person until closer inspection. He has the slouched posture, tired eyes, and goatee of Warden Ingo. His skin and eyes are what give him away as a Chandelure Hybrid. Though his skin has the feel and durability of a normal human, it is a light lavender color, while his sclera are a glowing yellow, surrounded by black circles. Unlike a Chandelure, he does have Irises and pupils, but they are the same shade of black, giving the illusion that he just has very large pupils. Over the years, Nobori has been allowed to leave the lab on certain occasions, but he must always wear make up and contacts to keep the façade of normalcy.

For the most part, Nobori's appearance is the same, but I decided to give him the regular gray/silver Submas eye color.

Kudari is much more monstrous in appearance. Ignoring the Galvantula half, he has six eyes, four of which do not blink, and the top two of those four are blind. This creates a small black spot on the very top of his vision. (I don't think this is something that will come up in the potential fic, but it's just some background info on how his body works.) All of his eyes are purple, the main two consisting of light purple sclera and dark purple irises. Similar to Nobori, his irises and pupils are the same color making them look like large pupils. His teeth are sharp (and I'm arguing with myself on whether he should have an extra pair of fangs outside of his mouth for injecting venom.)His torso is the same size as Nobori's, but his arms and stomach are muscular from having to hold himself upright on his Galvantula body, which is much larger than that of a normal Galvantula.

The blindness of his top two eyes was not mentioned. It really didn't add anything to the story, nor does it cause him any issues with his sight. It's something he was born with, so he's learned to ignore it. A large difference here is the color of his eyes. After the initial posting of these notes, I looked at Galvantula again and remembered they didn't have purple eyes, so that had to be changed. Kudari has blue sclera and light blue irises. As for the pupils, I decided that they should be normal. The problem I had with making it appear as if the hybrids had large pupils was that, at least in my mind, it would seem goofy and cartoonish. Which isn't the look I wanted them to have, so that was thrown out. For Kudari's teeth, they are sharp, however, it's not in the way Iono has sharp teeth. They're closer to Anglerfish teeth. He does indeed have fangs, mostly hidden behind his sideburns, but the tips peak out. We don't get to see him use them, though they do start to leak in chapter 15, which embarrasses him.

Nobori and Kudari refer to Colress as "Dr. Colress." They know he created them but are under no illusions to the extent of their relationship with him. Early in their lives, they did yearn for a father and mother figure, but have since accepted their lack of parental affection. Nobori is much more quiet, resigned, and dependable compared to Kudari, who is extremely volatile and angry. This is due in part by his appearance. Whereas Nobori has been allowed to leave the lab, Kudari has never left and is sequestered to specific rooms. This causes some jealousy issues between them.

I would eventually develop the idea of Kudari murdering Colress' assistant shortly after this was written. When he was younger, Kudari was allowed to wander around the lab, for the most part unfettered. Then Colress tried to make him an assistant when he was a teenager, which is when the vents were installed in the laboratory. Once Colress realized Kudari was just screwing around instead of helping, he started to be limited in where he was allowed, culminating with him being sequestered to his room indefinitely(at least without a chaperone present) after he killed the assistant.

Kudari came across as much more pleasant than he was originally conceived. He still retained some of his unstable moodiness, but it wasn't anything as intense or unhinged as I intended. I wanted him to be more of an asshole, but whenever I started writing his dialogue with Reader, it just wouldn't come out that way. It flowed in a way that made him always friendly with them, and excited to hang out. Though writing him as he was originally planned would have been interesting, it would not have made sense to the story. If he were to be an asshole, Reader would have realized their mistake and told Colress that they no longer wanted Kudari around, which would have ended their interactions, Colress giving a smug "I told you so."

I find it very sad that Kudari wanted to surprise Reader with the fact it was his and Nobori's birthday, as opposed to him getting a surprise gift or celebration. He's seen many movies and shows, but doesn't know how to correlate them with his own life. The same thing happened when Reader accidently made a double entendre about touching him in chapter 10. There are plenty of instances in various forms of media where something similar happens, that he understands perfectly, but in the context of his life, he can't envision anything of the sort happening to him.

After spending so much time alone in his room, he begins to live some of his life in his head, twisting the things Reader says. He didn't always have an infatuation for Reader. It only became a romantic interest after he was bitten, and started to think that they loved him, in turn, loving them back. He becomes obsessed with the injury, not wanting it to close because that would erase the reminder of someone loving him. Then later, when Reader mentions wishing they could leave, he interprets this in his fantasies as them wanting to run away with him.

(I should also note, they are only considered brothers because their respective DNA donors are twins, they weren't actually created as one double Hybrid that split into two Hybrids. Ingo's DNA was used to create Nobori, and shortly after, Emmet's DNA was used to create Kudari. They are the same age as each other.)

Noku do share some feelings of comradery due to the circumstances of their birth and upbringing, but they are very different. They are prone to arguments and can even be quite cruel verbally to each other. At times, Kudari has even attempted to physically injure Nobori, but is stopped by either Nobori's flames or the collar Colress has fitted him with, which is capable of administering extreme cold. The collar is around his neck, and when activated, temporarily shoots a needle into his spine that triggers the freezing of his muscles so he cannot move for a short time.

Here we have a divergence from the story. Though the hybrids have had their spats over the years, and Kudari has attacked Nobori multiple times, there was only one instance that could be considered an actual fight. That was when they argued over the space in their shared room, and Nobori had to defend himself. At all other times, Kudari has attacked, but either been stopped by Colress, Nobori teleported away, or it was just a quick warning swipe, followed by Kudari retreating. As for arguments, Nobori is much more likely to try and quell them. While I was writing, he came to be a very caring brother, being the one tasked with looking after Kudari, before and after the incident with the assistant.

If Kudari had been allowed to leave and live on his own, he would have no issues in doing so(other than people trying to hunt him). He cares for Nobori, but he does not need him emotionally, not like Nobori needs Kudari.

I'm not planning on having any Pokemon battles in the story, but I do have an idea on how Noku's moves work. As I previously stated, Colress wants to create the perfect Pokemon. One of the aspects of being "perfect" for him is being able to use all the moves a Pokemon can potentially learn at any time and not having a limit of four. He had theorized that if a Pokemon had higher intelligence, then perhaps that would make them capable of accomplishing. This is what led him to want to experiment making Hybrids. His theory was correct, and Noku can use many different moves, but being half human, they have free will and aren't "trainable" in the same way Pokemon are.

Colress' dream goal is the same, I just forgot to actually explain it in the story, settling for putting it in the notes. As of now, I have no intentions of going back and sneaking it in anywhere. Maybe in a few years time, but, maybe not. I did have him mention a couple things that hint at what he wants. He tells Kudari in chapter 4: "A Pokemon that can't be taught to listen, isn't a Pokemon worth having." And later in chapter 13, he tells the Subways Bosses: "Well, they aren't quite up to snuff with what I was attempting to create, but I believe they are a step in the right direction."

>>This brings me to what exactly Noku are capable of. Nobori can form flames from his hands, and, under extreme emotional duress, he will sometimes spew them from his mouth. Usually only when he's upset and fighting with Kudari. I envisioned him as being able to teleport short distances. Taking a glance at Serebii.net, it doesn't appear Chandelure learns the move Teleport, but they can learn the move Ally Switch which mentions teleporting, so I'm just gonna cheat and say it's close enough. Other moves Nobori uses are Confuse Ray, Night Shade, Substitute, Dark Pulse, Poltergeist, Dream Eater and Ember/Flamethrower/Mystical Fire for fire type moves. Since he was a young boy, he has communicated with spirits that he sees and hears. It looks to other people like he is talking to himself, so he only interacts with them when he is alone, though he is constantly hearing their whispers. Kudari generates electricity from his body and can produce webbing like a normal Galvantula. His fingers are sharp like claws and the moves he usually uses are Spider Web, Screech, Gastro Acid, Bug Buzz, Poison Jab and Thunder Wave/Thunderbolt/Rising Voltage for electric types. In previous generations Galvantula could learn Frustration from a TM, which I also wanted him to know, but I think it would fit more with the story if it's just his state of being, angry and lashing out, as opposed to it being a move he knows.

Noku can use all of the moves that their respective species can learn, however, there are certain moves they use more than others. Most of these aren't displayed in the story, nor did I see any place to put them in. Nobori does teleport, and Colress mentions he's good at hiding in the shadows. Kudari's purple saliva could be taken as Gastro Acid, but most of these listed moves were just meant as examples.

I did think it would be fun for Nobori to be able to use a Chandelure ability detailed in the Pokedex entries: hypnotism. I have this ability work in conjunction with his emotion draining powers. He's able to sense emotions, and if he so chooses, can take them. Normally he doesn't do this, but he first does it to Reader when he senses they are upset. Preceding this happening, Colress introduced Reader to him, and instructed him to "keep an eye out if they need help." So he takes this as an affirmation that it's okay to do so. His hypnotism is different from a Chandelure in that he doesn't use his arms, he uses eye contact. If he takes everything they feel, that person will be left in a catatonic state. At least for a little while. This is what Colress was referencing when he said Nobori could turn Reader into a 'doll.'

As the story progresses, feeling Reader's positive emotions becomes like a drug for Nobori. Especially after he senses the same feeling from them that he's experiencing. When first meeting them, he felt curiosity and an initial physical attraction. Nobori has felt attraction before, but these were only fleeting instances from glances he's made to strangers outside Team Plasma headquarters. He's never interacted with any of these people to develop anything deeper than that.

Part 2 incoming in a separate post.

[strifesolution]

The last chapter was so good!! And since you were talking about the fic's details, I was wondering about the playlist (I am listening to the main one on a daily basis) and I imagine that every songs were carefully chosen. I can guess what some songs mean about 5r6c. Like, From Eden is probably about Eden and Callie. You also mentioned that Genghis Khan is Dan and Wilbur's song.

Would you mind explaining how did you choose these songs and how some of them are related to the fic ?

(If this is too bothersome or would spoil too much of the fic, feel free to ignore the question)

LET’S GOOOO we’re so happy you like the playlist :D you’d be correct, most of the songs are chosen pretty deliberately, though a handful are more just there for the “vibe” of the AU rather than specific lyrics.

Link for anyone who hasn’t seen it; we update pretty often! I added Flu Game last night actually. Expect... a lot of art for this AU with the new Fall Out Boy songs LOL

Since there’s… a lot of songs, and a good amount of them would be kinda spoilery, we’ve both chosen one of our favs and wrote up a little analysis.

Here’s Van’s (@irished-lads) of Neon Moon by Brooks and Dun copied straight from our DM’s

~~~

fun fact, this is one of the songs i listened to on repeat while writing the earlier chapters. this is the ideal chapter 16 song in terms of story and vibe, and while an early 90's country song may have not intended to talk abt the intricacies of gay cowboy polyamory, I Sure Can Make It Do That.

peep the beginning;

There's a rundown bar 'cross the railroad track / I got a table for two way in the back / Where I sit alone, and think of losing you

thinks about kevin and sean having their degrees of feeling alone at this point. sean's always had a little bit of a thing for dan (not to mention kevin flirting with sean nigh all the time- note that kevin's only had to pay for one drink), and while kevin may be. erm. Physically Intimate (this is a pg-13 blog) with dan,he also wants more. its that disconnect that him and dan has that feels a mile long. Now. see the chorus:

Now if you lose your one and only, / There's always room here for the lonely

well hey. look at that. some of the loneliest guys in aurora sitting next to each other in a bar sharing a bottle of whiskey. they're friends, sure, but in that moment (ch 16), they recognize that they both can be more than that. to each other, and to dan. theres always room here for the lonely.

~~~~

And here’s mine (Emma here!) of STRIKE 3 by Ferry

This song is where the lyric in the fic's description comes from; it’s one from the PMV series Parties Are For Losers. You don’t need to watch the series to get the gist of the song (it is really good though!) but within the context of the narrative, the singer is voicing their frustrations as they desperately try to help those they care about who keep putting themselves in harms way. “You spin the barrel of a fully loaded gun” is just a fancy way of saying “STOP BEING RECKLESS!!!” because, y’know, it’d be a literal death sentence to play roulette if the gun is fully loaded...

In terms of 5r6c… well, one of the fics' central themes IS protecting the people you love. Dan continuously worries about what life Daithi and Brian had before this that made them criminals, and Sean and Kevin are protective of Dan, thinking Daithi and Brian are dangerous in arc 1, and suspicious of Spiff in arc 2. Here’s a bit from the first chorus…

"If there's no winning, might as well just have some fun." I want to scream, when will you get it through your skull that I will not let you drown? "The light is gone, the thought keeps running through your mind, but fearing life is easier than fighting, right?" Oh please, just hide behind this back of mine and save your helpless spite.

Which is peak sheriff’s office argument back in chapter 7...

I also really like the first verse relating to Daithi and Brian in the gang.

Channeling love through the fear of being torn apart by crowds of your barbarian peers. The human filth around us wants to trample all that is dear under the guise of watchful reason.

We learn from…pretty much every time one of them brings up Evan that it is NOT a very happy place to be, particularly in Brian’s POV of chapter 9.

Lastly, we have the pre-chorus.

A thousand years ago, it was a tepid autumn day. A lock has sealed this door— But no more.

If you recall in chapter 16, we learn the raid on the farm where Dan’s family died was in the fall (not directly, Dan always visits the bar on the anniversary and Sean makes the connection himself…but anyway)

...this is because ding ding ding of this song!

Unfortunately I can’t really talk about the last chorus and outro without SPOILING EVERYTHING so you’ll just have to guess from there ;>

~~~

Hopefully that's some food for thought! Honestly we COULD go over every song on the playlist but then this ask would be WAY too long. Just really quick: Hell's Comin' With Me is a HUUUUGE full story song but I really can’t say who it's about without giving away everything, Ambrosia Wine is the Kiwo/Mango dynamic, and Devil's Train (not on Spotify but would be on the playlist if it was) is gonna fit really well for the next few chapters!

[chronic-ghost]

Aww that really was such a bittersweet chapter 🥺

It was so nice to see them together like this but also sad because it’s all so wrong. It should be right but it just isn’t with their situation.. with Chloe (even tho I don’t like her, she’s still Dieters partner) and the drug… I just want them to be happy 🥺🥺

Im glad Dieter didn’t immediately regret and pull away from her after the last chapter! I do still expect him to spiral eventually.. I’m also a bit sad that he relapsed but I guess relapse is a part of recovery.. hopefully eventually they can both let the drugs and addiction go and find recovery together! But tbh, you did write their drug trip beautifully!

And he loves her 😭😭😭 him saying it while high af makes me weirdly sad. And that he doesn’t remember if she says it back 😭

Pls don’t ruin him Natalie 😭

Also this moment made me 🥺 “He’s being overtly playful, the low lighting and single burning candle at the center of the table as the only nearby light source making him even more daring. But he knew he’d be admonished – it was too much in public and –“

Because you know he feels like that because of Chloe, because she admonishes him when he just wants to show off his love. And he has so much love and affection to give and I’m so glad he didn’t feel this way with Natalie 🥺

They’re perfect together and I’m so glad eventually it will end well for them. But the road to get there is gonna be rough.

I already can’t wait to read the next chapter!! I loved looooved this one! Thank you (: (also btw, i don’t know how exactly AO3 works but while the chapters are all there, the update date is still June 28? Idk if that’s on purpose or not but just wanted to tell you! Because even tho there’s a new chapter, the story doesn’t show up as just updated on AO3 so people may be missing some updates!)

Much love you you! 💕💕💕💕

Ahhhh nonnie I was waiting for your thoughts!!! 💗💗💗

I'm so sorry I didn't get to this sooner but these kind of long, thoughtful, insightful asks always honestly make me tear up a little and I never know how to respond with the appropriate amount of gushing!

As per usual, your insights are totally dead on -- they finally get what they both want, but at rather big cost to both of them. for now, natalie is a new drug for him, one he has no pre-established tolerance for.

i am SO GLAD YOU NOTICED THAT ONE BIT!!! I was really hoping someone would call it out because yes, while things are trending toward bad things, there is some fundamental connection that these two exist in space that they are their most comfortable in. There is something there, but neither one are equipped to handle it.

This was the chapter that I was probably most nervous for, just because most people are turned off by drug/dream sequences but they were all important to show a different side of their relationship.

As for the Ao3 date . . . I am hanging my head in shame. I cannot believe I haven't noticed that. The original publication date was messed up because I had saved it as a draft, but I definitely didn't realize it was 😳Thank you very much for pointing that out! Since I update on Thursdays, I'll go back and change them to the correct dates.

Thank you again for your weekly comments and fantastic character analysis and let me blather on about my favorite little blorbos 💞 See you next week!

[autcnomy]

I'll preface this by saying if at any point anything I say *does* sound patronizing please let me know so I can correct myself, I'm socially awkward and I sometimes say things the "wrong" way lol

I'm thinking the old CW Message boards made it easier to rp because of their formatting/overall setup (what with the ability to navigate to different threads VS sorting via tags looking for specific posts), I'm not sure how it works for Tumblr exactly (unless it's mainly a discord server type thing which is more isolated to specific user groups). I'd imagine reblogging a post to submit your part of the rp while using the general fandom tags might bog down the feed for non-rp users, so my thinking is if you use "smallville rp" or "lex luther rp" it should help others to filter it out, and maybe just save the general tags for the initial startup and stick to the specific tags for each update (again I don't rp so maybe someone else has a better idea, or better understanding, this is just me brainstorming). I'm not sure if people are using discord servers to do rp's either, I haven't needed to use discord so I'm unfamiliar with the extent of it's uses.

It is unfortunate that the superman fandom is not quite as active as other DCEU fandoms, but it's not totally dead thankfully. The Lex Luthor tag seems to be still fairly active so I think you have a shot of reaching your target audience (although some of the posts may dissuade you a bit honestly). I understand your timidness with using the general tags but think of it like putting out a virtual classified ad, networking for the character is still just as valid as posting your own story/artwork, so honestly if anyone has an issue it's really that person that needs to reevaluate themselves. The general tags are supposed to be a safe-zone for people to connect via their preferences, but at times not even Tumblr is immune from the "cyber Karens" it would seem. Still I think it's best to at least make a post letting others know you're available for rp, and make sure you clarify which Lex you wish to include (or if you prefer any variation than I'd mention that instead). I know at some point I did see a few posts using the rosembaum!Lex tag to help differentiate, but I don't know if the knowledge of that tag is wide-spread enough for you to find other rp's, in that case using the general tag would also be a form of insurance.

Honestly a masterlist can go a couple different ways depending on what type of blog you are. Fic-writers mainly use them like bibliographies, but I've also seen them link their responses to questions regarding headcanons/etc almost as though creating a sub-profile of their version of the character. I'm thinking that could be something that would work for you, maybe link some of your analysis posts regarding Lex's personality/relationships/etc. I also think it would be a good stepping-stone to include a SFW alphabet (there are different versions available, I'd pick whichever one works best), maybe an analysis post on his personality type as well (what are his letters?)? You could also include your recordings (honestly I'm thinking if you can get someone else involve you might consider doing a podcast). Ultimately the masterlist is just a way for other bloggers to navigate your page more effectively (speaking as a mobile user, they are a tremendous help). You can even include your rp information at the top with a list of rules, more specifically what POV you wish to write (I think 2nd-3rd person is what is preferable for most people, but I still see 1st person x Reader fics so it's still an option I guess). I know you're probably not wanting to do the x-reader method of rp, but maybe clarify what POV you wish to use for the established characters. Also if there are certain types of content you don't wish to cover in the story (i.e. anything potentially triggering or worse) I think it could help to include that as well. Readers appreciate content warnings/clarifications being up-front for fics (unfortunately not all writers follow this unspoken rule), so I'd imagine it would work just as well for a masterlist/rp rules list.

I remember the Dark Ages of the message boards so vividly, and I sometimes miss them, so trust me when I say I understand how strange it is to have to alter your tactics/verbage in order to be active with a fandom you've known since (almost) it's inception lol. The game keeps changing on us and we're all just trying to keep a grip on the wheel of social networking.

If nothing else just know that I really enjoy your content, and if I wasn't using my Likes like a bookmark page for all the stories/etc I want to keep track of I'd definitely like more of your posts (that's my curse as a mobile user, I have to make-do with what they give me on this app in terms of organization, I'm a few too many liked posts away from creating a masterlist of my favorite stories so I don't have to keep scrolling through my Likes lol). Also if I was more articulate, and had a better understanding of psychosis/etc, I might actually be able to contribute to the discussions more effectively.

(Damn this ask really got away from me, I wasn't planning on it being this long)

You're very passionate and well-spoken about Lex, so I think it's a crime that this blog doesn't receive the level of attention it deserves. I really think you have a lot to offer and I hope Tumblr algorithm/tagging system works it's magic in your favor.

I'll definitely reblog your rp-post when you're ready, I'm already stalking your blog so you'll know there's no chance of it getting lost in my feed ;)

I'm gonna post this for now and tag it for reference so I can read it asap. It looks extremely helpful so I thank you!!!! <3

[abyssalcreator21]

Pandemic Thoughts # 166

It is already the 3rd day of the New Year. Somehow, the time is not faster compared on the last two days or maybe this is just my feeling. But anyways, I am just on my regular schedule of sleeping, eating, and just going on social media. Our university has still no update about when we will have our classes resume, but the good news is that with our thesis, the statistical analysis is on the process and we are just waiting for the results afterwards. Yes, the plans of our adviser might not be accurate to what has been expected but at least we are getting movement with our paper. With our other subjects, I guess the current PIT's haven't been much taken care off and there are a lot of stuff to catch up. It has been raining a lot with the last days and boy, we got a cold Christmas and New Year that we have celebrated. It might not be fancy or wild compared on the other year, but still, I survived the past year and I am grateful for it. For the first quarter of the month, I am going to be busy with my school stuff. Also, I want to be active as much in cosplaying. It has been a fun year in 2022 and I also want to have fun in 2023, despite of the money constraints but I do think I can manage after all. That is why I need to hustle in finding work soon and adjust my everyday routine. I haven't told my mother I have bought a costume and I intend it that way, hopefully it will not be delivered on Saturday or even Sundays. Well, I guess the impulsivity of mine when it comes to money is still there. To be honest, I also hate it when there are a lot of financial struggles that are going on with my family. Being responsible for the payment of the internet because my mother has no work and my father has only 5 to 10k with his wage. Looks like I'll wait on the end of the third quarter with our allowance to be released or even so, I hope that soon once I graduate, I would love to grasp a job that at least aligns with my field of expertise. Writing, for example. But for this month, I am really have to be ready for the expense I have to pay with our thesis. Being prepared for the mock defense and finally settle our paper to be hardbound. Hopefully, I'll just survive the upcoming trials within this year and much as possible, save and save. Imagine spending 2k within two weeks. How great I am in managing my dough, HAHAHAHAHA. Well, that's just how life is. Not all time you get to be wise on how you handle your financial situation.

[nappingwithyuuji]

I ain't got no time if you ain't beside me

CORPSE HUSBAND X FEM!READER

Chapter twelve pt. two!

Previous - Next - Masterlist

Summary: You are a faceless youtuber who does Sims4 and ranty vlogs, but somehow you end up playing a game with your friend Rae and then things get 💕💕💕

Warnings: tw swearing.

“What do I say to that?” You mumble under your breath, still trying to process the level of almost unconditional affection Corpse had just given you.

Now, you decided, it was completely impossible for you to continue editing. So instead of being a responsible friend to him, you decide to take a break and stress bake a bundt cake recipe you had saved the previous day.

In your kitchen the world seemed under control. Everything is clean and where it’s supposed to be, the pressure and existential questions seemed to drift away as you flowed with ease with each tablespoon of poppy seeds you added to your bowl. Only once the cake is in the oven, your apartment smelling like lemon and vanilla, you sit down on your kitchen table to journal a few thoughts away.

“Content Plan/Ideas

*Bi-monthly updates

*Sporadic gaming streams whenever I feel like it.

*More deep dive film analysis?

*Covers? “

You write some ideas down, feeling much more inspired by taking control of your problems. After all, YouTube had started like a hobby for you, no planning usually went into it, but now your sudden rise in popularity screamed at you to take this more seriously.

Tempted to cross that last idea from your list, you still let go of your pen. You’ve always wanted to make music but always felt like knowing to sing wasn’t enough to sustain a musical career, especially after a few failed attempts at piano and guitar lessons that had traumatized you, so you thought you had given up on that dream. “Does Corpse know how to play any instrument?” Your mind wanders, imagining Corpse gently strumming a guitar. You had never seen any keyboards or instruments laying in the background whenever he called you with his camera on. But you guessed that it was probably different nowadays seeing that people could make beautifully intricate beats with just a piece of software.

After this realization, you're tempted to ask Corpse for help on that, your shyness and lack of confidence on your talents, win this time. However, a part of your decides to not strike that last idea, but just leave it for future times.

A/N: hey! nice to see you again this weekend! good news y'all! tumblr has lifted my shadow ban! hope you all enjoyed this lil baby update!

P.S: sykkuno's party is up next... friday the 8th of october, 4PM PST (which coincidentally falls on the day i'm celebrating my birthday yay)

Taglist: @sophiasrant, @rexit-mo, @sometimesicanwright, @socially-blue, @scorpios-echos, @gaysludge, @fairysums, @4444444-z, @bakugonua, @mishisamess, @lukewearingbeanies, @butterfly-skinnylegend, @boba-tea1206, @clubfairy, @moonlightlullaby (def not freaking out about that last tag…), @azlinh, @doodszs, @clxwnkid, @officiallyunofficialperson, @alice-went-away, @cherry-piee, @backseat-serenade-dizzyhurricane, @secretsandwriting, @penguinhope, @letsloveimagines, @catsrdabestsocks101 , @goddessofwaifus , @doodszs, @clxwnkid, @serosmissingtoe, @4444444-z, @just-a-sad-donut, @geologii, @duhitztrinidy,, @browneyedgirl365, @shoutaizawas​, @mell-bell, @astream-ofconsciousness, @lukewearingbeanies, @mysweetlittledesire, @lilycutechu, @bigdickdaddysatan, @infinitelycharmed23, @shy-koala-duck, @boba-tea1206, @cupcake525, @little-kity,

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

OMG YOU UPDATED ODNLB AND I'M DYING OVER HERE

LIKE, the little Adrienette?? Baby boy cares so much for his friends and seems willing to risk it all just to spend time with them.

ALSO THAT LITTLE MARIWALKER???? That's just so heartbreaking because he already told ladybug that he has no choice and this settled that on her mind as a fact???? SHE KNOWS THEY KNOW EACH OTHER OUT OF THE MASKS BUT THEY DON'T KNOW HOW GORGEOUSLY COMPLICATED THAT IS

This is a "we hate Lila's guts" account and i will not take any criticism on it. BTW I NEED ME SOME CHLOÉ REDEMPTION ARC, SHE DOES SEEM LIKE SHE'S CHANGED AND HAS GROWN AHHHHHHHHH

Let me lie down and cry for a bit because your fic is so beautiful and angsty and my brains keep theorizing about what will you write for next chapters while also imagining what to draw about it (I'm not that good at it but it's a great hobby)

In other news: I have midterms less than 10 hours from now (it's 5am here) BUT YOU UPDATED AND I NOTICED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AFTER PULLING MY STUDY ALMOST ALL NIGHTER, please wish me some luck for my Literary Theory & Analysis exam

omg I hope you did good on your midterm 😭 pls get sleep next time lol I promise the chapter will still be there when you're done with your test and have a nap lol

i support your lila hate account 100%. she's a sociopath or something idk, but she fell into the unredeemable villain role so easily! i always have 1 villain in my writing who's completely crazy but the others get (mostly) humanized with tragic backstories or redemption arcs...well i guess if i ever publish some non fanfic stuff, you'll see.

the mariwalker scene has been such a long time coming! it's one of the scenes that i first visualized for this fic; that cw would save marinette, she'd yell at him, and then the peacock mask would appear over his face & shut her up. i'm rather pleased with how it came out in the fic haha, just the right balance of quirk and angst.

honestly i'm just glad to hear you liked it! i treasure every comment & fanart i've gotten. still feels unreal to know my fic can inspire you to make your own fanart! like wow, my heart ❤️ thank you i love hearing your comments but pls go to sleep lol

[talkfantasytome]

More of the vacation AU I beg of you queen

Of course! And for calling me queen (😍), I saved you for a direct response. <3 I apologize it's taken so long! After I got the part 3 stuff up and handled some other requests, which I know your ask had come through around that same time, I then had a very busy week as I prepared to go to NYC for the weekend for a wedding. Lots of stuff to do, knowing I'd be away, and no time for a lot of writing.

And none over this weekend either until yesterday, where I instead took my adderall and ended up in a focused haze on an analysis question. 👀

Point is, I apologize for the delay!

Feel free to send me requests/prompts for this AU/story! I've got one ask with two prompts currently, but I'm definitely open to other ideas. And let me know if you want to be tagged to future updates! (Which will likely be based on asks I receive for it...)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Read on AO3

Word Count: 882

Warning: None, other than that this is a Nessian fic, so...sorry, not sorry. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nesta couldn't believe it.

Not that it really changed her goals for the evening.

She was just shocked at the coincidence. That was all. The chances of them both living in Philadelphia, even if it was a big city, was quite slim considering this resort caters to people from all over the world.

"We'll all have to get together sometime once we're back!" Feyre exclaimed.

Of course she was already making plans for after, as if this wasn't vacation. Wasn't a chance to enjoy a life that wouldn't come back with them.

Clearly they'd never see these guys again without actively trying to. It really didn't have to be any different from meeting guys that lived across the country. Or on another continent.

In fact, that would have been preferable.

"I'm sure that can be arranged, Feyre darling," violet eyes - Rhys - crooned.

Gross - vom.

Nesta managed to control her face, keeping the disgust at that nickname off of it. So sickly sweet, spoken with a seductive purr that sent chills up her body, and not the way Cassian's words did.

At least, she thought she controlled her face well.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Cassian started, leaning over to whisper in her ear, "but I have a feeling…if I tried calling you darling you'd never speak to me again?"

"Wouldn't matter," she sighed, looking up at him with a wicked smile. "You'd no longer have your favorite part, anyway."

Cassian's lips curved upward as he laughed loudly. "Guess I'd just have to put all of my focus on you, then." He winked, and Nesta couldn't help but bite her lip as her heartbeat fluttered at the innuendo.

His eyes noted the movement, darkening slightly as he forced them back to her gaze.

He was so focused on Nesta it was hard for her to breathe. She felt like she was the center of his world, even if just for these few minutes, and it was something entirely new to her. No one had ever given her that much focus, that much attention in her life.

It was too much.

They stood there for Mother-knows how long, drinking in each other's tension like a fine wine, unable to talk, to move, to notice anyone else. Their friends ignored it, either not noticing or realizing they weren't breaking through whatever seemed to wrap around Nesta and Cassian.

It was like they were having a silent conversation, one that only their subconscious understood. A conversation too deep for words or thoughts.

She didn't miss the throbbing in her core. The desperate desire to learn his body using her lips. But it was something more, too. Something she'd only ever acknowledge deep down within her.

And then Cassian smiled softly at her.

Before Nesta even knew what was happening she had taken his hand and led him away from the group. Glasses dropped back at the bar, they ended up in a small nook behind some plant, Nesta pulling Cassian's body to hers as their lips met.

He completely engulfed her, pressing her hard against the wall, their teeth and tongues clashing in a heated kiss that completely cleared Nesta's mind. He braced himself against the wall with one hand, the other circling her waist, holding Nesta close to him. He was so tall, his arms so long that his hand easily reached the small of her waist on the other side from where his arm started.

Her hands started in his hair, plunging into the shoulder-length, dark locks that were silky against her fingers. But soon enough they were roaming all over his torso, learning him as well as she could, marveling at the muscle beneath her touch.

They ended up on his back, pushing up his well-fitted t-shirt just enough so that they could rest above his pants. At the touch of skin to skin Cassian pressed harder, something rock hard and massive pushing into Nesta's hips, making her moan.

They were sloppy and passionate, and Nesta couldn't get enough.

"So, are you gonna invite me back to your room or what?" Nesta eventually asked against his lips, pulling at his bottom with her teeth.

"Oh no," he chuckled, giving her one final quick kiss. "Not tonight, sweetheart." He pulled his head up, his swollen mouth at her ear, ignoring the fire in her eyes at the nickname. "We're going to get to know each other first. And I'm going to make sure you're just as crazy about me as I am about you. So much so that you can't run off as soon as you find your pleasure - which you will, over and over again. You're stuck with me, Nesta. And I'm going to make sure that's exactly where you want to be."

He pressed his lips to her neck, Nesta whimpering. At his comments, his touch, both - she wasn't sure. But his lips lingered for a moment, and when he pulled away he said on to them, "I guess that seduction technique only partially worked."

Yet, as he walked away, as Nesta's eyes followed Cassian, she wasn't sure if her ragged panting was from arousal or annoyance at what could only be described as a challenge. At his cockiness, his certainty of how this was going to play out.

We'll see, Cassian.

@live-the-fangirl-life @generalnesta @secretlovelybeauty @nehemikkele @nestaisgod @julemmaes @live-the-fangirl-life @boredserpent @autumnbabylon @bo0kmaster69 @ddsworldofbooks @angelic-voice-1997

[jonghours]

ATEEZ ZERO : Part 2 Diary

finally got around to make an analysis of the [ZERO: Part 2] Diary. These were all presented in chronological order, however blended Yunho and Mingi’s stories together since they are easier to understand that way. I’ll add some references I’ve found through it but it’ll mosty be a recapitulation of the ATEEZ storyline.

also never thought I’d say this but: death tw and.. drugs tw.. I guess?

INTRO

the intro starts where we left it last time. Hongjoong mentions that The Cromer shone but he and the members were still in the hideout. they are actually in an almost identical alternative universe now, but they don’t know that yet. then the Giants In White enter the hideout looking for The Cromer. we all know who that is

now, two things about this

1) even though we’ve only seen one man in white in every MV, here it’s said to be many of them

2) I’m not sure if they are supposed to be littleral giants or just.. big guys and they just gave them this cool name in translation. the term used is 거구 which is just a word for people with a very big build.

we’ll get back to these in a while tho

01 Hongjoong

Hongjoong has a “think fast moment” that let’s be honest, he’d never be able to pull off in real life so 0 for accuracy, and tries to find a way to keep The Cromer away from the giants, since he already knows they can’t go back home without it. Hongjoong then notices a piece of glass under his feet which he throws through a window, making the Giants believe it’s The Cromer so they can run away.

now I know that a lot of people’s minds went immediately to where mine did

I’m not sure about San’s scene, but Yeosang��s secene in ANSWER has always been a glimpse of something we were supposed to remember for later, so this might finally be it.

02 San

after they escape the hideout, ATEEZ manage to find their way through the dark since the surroundings are identical to their original world. he notices one thing that I just.... here we go again

“Visible palces were similar to the reality we knew, but also sligthtly different. Under the cliff where Wooyoung saved our Bobo in the past, there used to be a valley and a gigantic rock on top but there, no sounds of water could be heard nor could the gigantic rock be seen”

there it is, ladies and gentleman we got a Bobo update that has told us literally nothing. now I guess Bobo is an ATEEZ thing instead of an exclusive San thing, even though it belongs to him? I’m starting to think this is a pet, most probably.

03 Wooyoung

here the story goes from 0 to 100 really quickly so to summarize in order: while ATEEZ are resting, the Giants find them and start dragging Wooyoung by his anckle. the members rush to save him and so they lose the Cromer, which is taken by the Giants who run away after some rocks ?) start falling from the cave (I seriously need a map) A girl comes from between the rocks and tells them to follow her. she’s described as “matching the moonlight” whatever that means.

05 Seonghwa

the girl has a brother and they are.... sigh... the Grimes siblings...... anyways

the brother tells them the White Giants stole his sister’s voice, so she can’t speak anymore. and here is where we get the whole backstory and I mean the Whole backstory of this world completely dumped on us, so I’ll try to summarize it:

the Central Goverment blamed human emotions for war and crimes and terrorism so they stared a series of AI simulations to control them. they created a way of policing human emotions and banned the arts. then, a group of men in Black Fedoras appeared out of nowhere and started performing publicly, inspiring people to fight against the goverment and rebel against it, creating a group named the Black Pirates. The goverment tried to capture them but since they have a Cromer, they are able to escape them every time. However, after the goverment started using the Android Guardians (or the White Giants) the goverment finally caught them.

my theory is that the HALAteez that visits Hongjoong and gives him the Cromer, is a member of the Black Pirates that gave it to him before getting arrested.

I thought it was funny how at the end Seonghwa says “the Black Pirates don’t matter, what matters now is that we need The Cromer to go back home” like king that is literally you.

on the topic of the giants, this could be interpreted as two things:

1) The Man In White or White Giant we’ve seen until now can’t be any of the ATEEZ members, as they are just androids

2) we’ve seen ATEEZ in white before, so who knows. maybe the goverment created an exact copy of ATEEZ but given the fact they were never caught before creating them, that doesn’t seem possible

for the moment I’ll stand on the idea that they are not ATEEZ

05 Yeosang

this is just a big ass letter he’s writing to his dad. like ATEEZ are going though a big time crisis and Yeosang is here telepathically telling his dad he’s fine here and doesn’t want to go back home because he sucks big time. this is so in character 100/100

this is also the full version of the text hidden in his AR photocard. here we find out that ATEEZ were kicked out from their hideout and separated by Yeosang’s father

06 Mingi / 08 Mingi

ATEEZ decide to find the Android Guradians to take back The Cromer, but the only person who knows where they are is a man called Left Eye who manages the Strictland (seriously?) dump. this man used to have a daughter that was run over by a car, and because this is a world without human emotions, no one came to her aid and se passed away. this turned Left Eye into a broken lonely man that purposefully inhales the toxic fumes at the dump he works at because he can meet the illusion of his daughter while he’s under its effects. 

Yunho feels sympathy towards him because it reminds him of his brother, while Mingi is a little bit more worried that their lives are in the hands of a man that can barely function and is intoxicated 24/7

ATEEZ have split into two groups now:

members who will go into the “pile of trash that looks like a cave” to find the girls voice (Jongho and Yeosang)

members who will convince Left Eye to find the location of the Android Bunker (Mingi is here)

now, this Left Eye has kind of finally helped me to make sense out fo some clues we were given a long time ago

1. the eye sticker on WONDERLAD

2. Hongjoong’s signature eye gesture

and if we assume AURORA is part of the ATEEZ universe, this shot of Hongjoong’s (left) eye in which he can see himself and the other members lost in the woods at night, just like in the Diary after they arrive at the new world

07 Jongho

Jongho, who is in the group that decided to find the voice, enters the cave with the toxic fumes wearing a (useless) gas mask and a rope tied around his waist. However, the moment he enters the cave the fumes filter through the mask and he finds himself in the basketball court, playing like he used to before he permanently hurt his leg. he forgets about what he’s supposed to be doing, and even convinces himself that all the memories he has after he stopped playing basketball are all a lie or a bad dream.

OUTRO

after Jongho’s rope stops moving, Yeosang goes inside the cave to help him. Left Eye starts attacking the members, so they lure him to a fume-free space, which only infuriates him even more after the illusion of his daughter disappears. then Yunho literally yells “your daughter is dead” in a very “she doesn’t even go here” moment, which prompts Left Eye to swing a bat at him while saying he’s gonna kill him

finally, once Yeosang finds Jongho, he’s so intoxicated with the illusion that he runs towards a cliff

the end

I do believe that the fumes that create the illusion are the ones causing.. well, ILLUSION, which we’ve all known was just a dream for a long time. it also fits with the cave seen at the end of the MV, which now can be interpreted as all of them running towards the cliff I guess.... fun!!

we’ve also seen the mist which now we could interpret as “fumes” in other MVs that have an.. otherwordly feeling

the strange hallway in SMN

the entire UTOPIA MV

and Mingi’s scenes in ANSWER

[ziamhaze]

Just thought about “kick, Push“ and wanted to thank you for writing this piece. I come back very often. Also I wanted to ask what your writing process looks like (if you like to share)

Hope you have a great day!

Hello!  So sorry for taking as long as I have to reply to this, life has been crazy busy.

First of all, thank you so much for reading my work and then...reading it again.  It’s mind boggling for me to think that there are people out there who have such a fondness for a world I’ve created that they find themselves wanting to relive it.  Really, it’s a very surreal thing.

As for my writing process, I actually wrote a HUGE post about this on my Patreon about a year or so ago.  To save myself the time, I’m literally going to copy and paste it below the cut.  That said, it’s the mindset I was in back then, so do keep in mind that some points may have changed since, as this past year has been a whirlwind for my writing.  In general though, it paints a pretty clear picture of how I approach a story and the steps I take to see it out.

Also, it should be noted that by no means is there a right and wrong way when approaching any sort of art.  I’ve learned by virtue of being in a professional writing atmosphere for over a year now that how I work is VERY atypical, VERY regimented, and VERY analytical.  Art is not this.  It can be, but it usually isn’t.

Enjoy the process.  Enjoy the mistakes.  And most importantly, enjoy the story.  It’s shown itself to you and for you, above all else.

WARNING: The information below contains spoilers for nearly all of my fics.  Proceed with caution.

In a few of my writing updates for the last fic I mentioned how I tend to write in a non-linear fashion.  I’ve got zero background in creative writing, however, I did dabble in screenwriting during my high school and undergrad years.  That being said, it’s a lot easier for me to write in a visual way with blocking versus simply planning a plot arc and writing it as I go (and also why I have so much dialogue in my stories; they’re really just elaborate film scenes linked to form a story without the b-roll).

What does that mean?

If you’ve read Customer of the Week you’ll have read Zayn using a similar methodology.  And truthfully, many many comic/graphic novel authors use screenwriting software and blocking breakdowns for the subsequent drawings.  But I will admit, I was a bit selfish with using my exact method for Zayn’s in that last fic.

I usually start a fic with 1 of 2 ideas:

A career I want one of them to have

A typical AU setting [ex: uni/frat, coffee shop, supernatural, kidfic, famous (athlete, model, singer)]

Genuinely, that’s what it all boils down to.  From there, I spend some time thinking about what it is they could do in those worlds and form a very simple objective/path that they will allow them to fall in love.  If I had to guess, I’d say The Heart of Him was the most difficult to plan because it was VERY subtle, not a lot of action or huge relationship build up; the easiest by far was Kick, Push.

Next, I do a lot of research on certain plot points.  For example, with Kick, Push I needed to see what the Olympic schedule was in order to know how many scenes I needed to fill to make it one per day.  Or with Z.A.Y.N. I had to make the longest playlist ever to just get the music down because I obviously wanted to have Zayn as a songwriter, but then I took AGES figuring out ok, so I have these 80 songs I love for lyrical analysis, how do I incorporate them?  I remember shifting around the songs on paper just to visually see it all and thought I was crazy, but then I realized if I bunched them together by subject matter, that would allow me to make the scenes’ dialogue based on those topics.  Even with Compartment 451 I needed to do tons of Harry Potter related research to see, could Liam even be a Head Boy and Quidditch Captain?  How does that work?  If it wasn’t canon, do I want to divert?  If I want to stick with canon and he can only be one then how do I switch the plot because it was very obviously based on how busy Liam was with both labels.

Ok, so once I’ve got the research down (though I still find myself doing more during the writing process if I don’t know what something looks like and I need to make it historically accurate or if they have a food item and I need to make it match the setting), I take time to break down the story into scenes, which is where Zayn’s explanation finally comes into play.  For several days (sometimes up to a week or so), literally all I do is map out the entire book.  Essentially, this is the whole of the creative process.  I think about settings and pacing and where things need to happen at certain times and all that good stuff.  It ends up very fragmented, but the best part is finishing because then I have 15-25 scenes and a fully finished story.

Numbering aside, this is what Scene 14 looks like for Customer of the Month:

Zayn’s Flat - One week later

FOR THE NEXT WEEK - liam focuses on reading rather than experiencing bc he’s loved the worlds they’ve entered, but he feels like they’re such a small piece of the larger pie and that’s a little unfair to zayn for having created the whole thing

Takes a long time to get through each bc he’s busy looking at the detailed art and appreciating that just as much as the storylines

Thinks about how much easier it’d be if he lived a life this structured and immediately rewarding - saving people or fighting for them

Zayn notices him lost in thought and comes over to see what’s on his mind

I envy his life and practice;  you could do it; no I don’t think I could; let’s see then

NINJA - Gets a training lesson - gruelling and long, knows Zayn will pull him out with the time constraints

Pair up with training partner - Zayn; flirtatious fighting

Get called in for first test to spy and get info on military chief - kill whoever gets in your way; liam knows he’s trained enough that he won’t ever get caught, so he won’t need to make that decision

Make it through mansion and while zayn goes in to get info, liam keeps guard, outwits a single man, but then doesn’t hear young boy walking around - knows he should kill him but can’t even when boy starts yelling, zayn comes out and signals for him to get in and they have to race through the palace to get out safely

So maybe you’re more of a samurai with your compassion

Now, this was the absolute original outline.  Things change and/or get deleted during the writing process, but this is where I start.  So imagine the entire story blocked out this way.  It’s very very very very difficult to do this (in my opinion) because you’re literally writing the entire story in a few days.  But like I said, once it’s done, you’re all good.  You can stand back and look at the whole thing and think, ok this needs to happen sooner or there was no foreshadowing for that, go back and add in scene 5, or, actually I need to add a scene in between these two because this happens too fast.  I know a lot of people/creatives would say, “but that’s why you do what you do - to create.  If this phase is the equivalent of molding a block of clay in a sculpture, then shouldn’t it be the bulk of your enjoyment?”.  Probably, but the amount of creativity and intense focus needed all at once makes the process a lot less enjoyable than you’d think.

So the hard part is out of the way, now what?

The writing.  Sort of.

Oddly, I find myself writing the first 10k or so words normally.  And by that I mean, simply looking at that scene’s bullet note list and writing it fully/coherently.  After that, I tend to peter off and ditch writing linearly for my second method where I “block out” a scene during the daytime and at night, go back and “fill it in”.  Because my motivation/inspiration was so low for the last fic, I sort of went crazy and blocked out about 70% of the fic all at once, then went back for a weekish to fill it all in (spoiler alert: I hated it).  But typically, and certainly going forward, I stick to the daylight/night time routine.

Here’s what a “blocked out” scene based around dialogue looks like as taken from the above ninja scene:

He’s even more determined than I am.

He sort of has to be if he wants to prove himself using only one arm.  I made him a bit like a militant robot for a reason.  -stares at Liam’s side profile-  You could train that hard if you wanted to.

I don’t think I could.

With these muscles?  -squeezes his arms lightly-  At least try so I can watch.

-smiles bashfully-  Can you afford to take the night off?

-liam doesn’t get an answer, just enough time to take a deep breath before he’s launched into another dimension-

And here’s what it looks like filled in:

“He’s even more determined than I am,” Liam mumbles, defeated over what it means to not be able to hold a light to a fictional character.

“He sort of has to be if he wants to prove himself using only one arm.  I made him a bit like a militant robot for a reason.”  Amid Zayn’s pause, Liam can feel his profile being studied, but he refuses to see why.  “You could train that hard if you wanted to,” Zayn opines boldly.

“I don’t think I could.”

“With these muscles?” Liam’s upper arm gets a light squeeze.  “At least try so I can watch.”

The racy comment finally gets Liam to raise his line of sight, his typical bashful smile present.  “Can you afford to take the night off?”

But Liam doesn’t get an answer, just enough time to take a deep breath before he’s launched into another dimension.

From there, it’s straight to editing draft one.  Word count depending, my beta reader will be sent their copy a week or so after that.  While she edits, I do all the administrative tasks associated with putting out a fic (drafting all the ao3 authors notes/tags/summary, making the picspam, making the BTS page, etc.).  When she’s done, I’ll split my screen, go down the fic for a final read through (draft 3), and look for her edits as I do my own.

As my plots get to be deeper slice-of-life pieces, the longer the scene breakdowns will take for me to create.  Without having ultra detailed bullet notes on talking points, the stories’ slow pacing and societal commentary will be near impossible to smoothly weave into a love story.  Can’t wait to see how much hair I lose in the coming years!

Anyhow, I hope this was an interesting look into how my fics go from concept to final product.  If you’re hungry for more, you can go back to the BTS page for “Compartment 451” to see the full fic in scene breakdown.

[life-rewritten]

Manner of D*eath (MOD); The Little Mermaid and The Warped Prince

This is a fun one, I promise. MOD  continues to be a ride with excitement, worries, and more questions to bring. But you know what after major rewatching and analysis, I have come to terms with how I think the story will go—the whole reason one; word Little Mermaid. I've written a past suspect list (here) before about who I thought the culprit is from episode 1. There's been a few changes to that, but I think I can finally guess who the culprit is that took Jane's life. And it's because of this foreshadowing with Little Mermaid. I'll explain even more. Little Mermaid not only helps me bring up my final suspects, but I also think it is a base for the romantic relationships in the show as well. So without further ado, let's dive into this analysis.

When writing my suspect list, I stated that there were many apparent hints to who the suspect is and why they could possibly do it. I didn't want to believe in my simple theory because it seemed too easy to guess and too simple to be. But after thinking about it, I also said that it's not about who's the suspect that matters but how we get to that information. The show has littered many plotlines making sure we don't feel comfortable about our feelings on who we think the suspect is. We've questioned Tan's involvement, That, Pued, The Mayor, Jane her self and others. So even though the suspect may be easy to guess I think with the way the writers and director made us go through loops slowly revealing the information and leaving some clues that can't be fully vouched for, or 100% agreed on, the reveal will still be shocking and fun to see how it unveils and ends, and there might be a forgotten person that surprises me. The issue I had with the show at first since I hate mysteries was if the plot wouldn't leave enough clues or subtext for us to understand what's going on and the reveal will be out of nowhere. But to my surprise, Jane already mentioned who killed her and why because of her mention of one book Little Mermaid. Let me explain more;

The warped Prince and the Little Mermaid

Little Mermaid, not the Disney one, the one (apparently an allegory to a gay unrequited love by the writer who is also important later for the base of the couples) where we have a depressing ending, betrayals and sacrifice. Here is a summary of that one, and the things we should focus on when reading it.

 Little Mermaid is about Ariel (that's not her name in the original, but I'm going to call her that), Ariel falls in love with the prince after saving him. She is determined to be with him and lets her self be changed to human to join his world, there's a list of rules, she has to be mute, she can't return back to the human world once she takes the potion, and she must make the prince fall in love with her. She goes through a lot of pain once she takes the potion, reunites with the prince who never saw the girl who saved him but someone else, if she wins the heart of the prince she'll obtain a soul, but if he marries someone else she will die with a broken heart and dissolve into sea foam. Alright great, so you're starting to see the difference with the Disney one right? Let's keep going. 

 The prince begins to like being with  Ariel, who is beautiful; their relationship becomes the best. Still, he does not have feelings for her romantically (I know I was shocked, why haven't I read the full story of this before. Poor Ariel she got friend-zoned) But the sad thing is the prince does love Ariel (the girl who saved him that he can't remember). He believes that the person who saved his life is a girl from the temple, the girl who found him when he woke up (sigh), so when his family tells him to marry the temple girl, the prince agrees. All of Ariel's sacrifice goes in vain. She is broken and is denoted by her sisters to eliminate the prince in vengeance to come back to the sea. However she can't do it, she loves him too much, and so she ends her self instead. Luckily the story doesn't end all too bad for Ariel; she obtains an immortal soul and goes up to heaven for her love and selflessness. The end.  

You're probably wondering why on earth I had to read this out to you. But bare with me, listen to the things that you need to see: 

The Little Mermaid sacrifices her self to get to the world of the prince. Her love for him makes her willing to be in pain, bleeding on her feet, stay mute, and lose her home because of him.

The prince is not in love with the little Mermaid despite her sacrifice. He loved the temple girl because he thought she was the person who saved him, and he was pressured into marriage with her by his family too. There's a love triangle.

The little Mermaid feels betrayal at the reveal of who the prince loves. She is forced to wait for death because she cannot speak or go home. 

The little Mermaid is told to get revenge by her sisters and get rid of the prince. But she wants to do the right thing.

She dies for love and selflessness.  

Are you seeing where I'm going with this? Let's look at Jane and how she fits this storyline.

Sacrificing her self for love; 

One of the biggest reveals of the show is that Jane was in love and happy with Pued. They had been a couple that was the talk of the town until one day they weren't. Jane went through a miscarriage that got her to fall into depression. No one knew why or understood why she and Pued ended. We discover that Pued coerced Jane into selling her body to the mayor and others so that he could stay prosecutor and have power. 

One, Pued is a warped version of the prince. The prince was indebted to Ariel for his life just as Pued was indebted to Jane for her acceptance to help him stay in power. Pued viewed his wealth and power as his life. Second, Jane let her self get assaulted, drugged and abused to make sure her boyfriend stayed on his throne. This is the same as the little Mermaid who lost everything of her, her tails were transformed forcefully (bleeding each time) to legs, and she had to deal with that on her own, she lost her voice, and she also lost her home. She gave up everything for the prince. 

It gets worse, Jane got pregnant and was forced to bleed (see the visual?) through her legs by getting a miscarriage. Pued and her broke up then. We can assume, she wasn't okay with what happened and her depression consumed her, I think there's more to it. Just as Ariel lost her voice and right to speak (her tongue was also taken, I know right? this story is wild ), Jane was forced to keep quiet by the higher-ups and the world of Pued. 

Now let's pause, Ariel had to lose her world and her home to go into the prince's. Pued's world was the same as Tan and Por; it was the mafia organisation. This probably was funded and supported by the mayor and the corruption of the justice system. The organisation put each of its members in a high position of power and status as long as they did something for them. Tan is Dam; he's a puppet as I wrote about in my past essay. He didn't mean to go into this life, but his mother wasn't alive, and his father was the one who roped him into taking care of his brother Pued. It's important to see why Tan had to hide and help Pued go into hiding. He didn't know the full details; he was told something different by Pued. I will explain what I think he thought was the reason soon.  Like the little Mermaid for love, Jane joins Pued's world of corruption without knowing how deep and dangerous it was.  She only notices the errors of her ways when another girl is eliminated due to mishap with the miscarriage, and that's Nat. She couldn't as a teacher stay still anymore. But it's more than that as well. Although she's a martyr, I think she also wanted revenge. Why? Let's go into point two.

2 There's a love triangle

You didn't see this one coming, did you? I mean I'm guessing people are starting to jump on the train with this. The first time we saw Jane, she was with Tan, so we assumed the love triangle was between her, Pued and Tan. This was further hinted at when Tan punches Pued because of how he grabs her and spoke to her (we didn't know). Tan protected Jane like a  girlfriend, but he didn't show any signs of remorse when she was removed. He went and covered up the truth instead. Still, moments after her demise, he speaks fondly of her she and him were friends, he did care about her and did miss her despite needing to ensure why she left was hidden. 

He's just a puppet under Pued's lies and instructions. The other love triangle was foreshadowing what we thought in episode 1; Tan, Bun and Jane. Bun thought Tan was straight, and in a relationship, we saw him go through remorse and sadness when he discovered the guy he wanted was already taken by his best friend. However, this love triangle isn't the reason why Jane took her life (or why she was removed because of love). There's one more we haven't seen, but it's been there. And it's upsetting and frustrating. In my first episode 1 suspect list, I wrote that Rutingwa was not to be trusted, but I was going to trust her for now because I didn't understand how she could be the one to pull Jane up the rope etc. However, I did notice her overreactions and over emotions when she walked in and saw her sisters demise. She was in the same clothes as the day before at the event. I found it odd.

 The second thing I called out and remembered is the terrorising of Bun only started to happen when she ominously asked him to keep updating her on her sisters MOD, Bun had gone to her first to say the MOD wasn't sui*cide, but it was actually mu*rder. Lastly, she again showed even more interest and anger once she discovered how the cops were hiding her sisters MOD (it's a red herring she couldn't care less, I'll explain soon) and she vowed to find out what happened. In the current episodes, she showed up again determined to know what Bun knew about the case, and she claimed she didn't know about her sister's reasons for depression. 

She didn't know anything about Pued and her sister's relationship just what others know.  So here is where you hear it from me first; Rutingwa is the person who is the suspect. I'll explain how she did it and how she is involved. But she's the temple girl, the person who misleads the prince into thinking she saved him. If the prince is warped in the show as Pued, then the temple girl is also warped. And it's the biggest betrayal. See why I think Jane had more reasons for why she was desperate to reveal the truth. She wanted to do it for justice (selflessness of the Mermaid) but because of revenge. The prince chose a girl from his world, and I think Runtingwa is also part of the corruption ring, and she is aware of it. 

3 The mermaid victim

Ariel, once she discovers the prince's betrayal at first isn't angry at him. She's just depressed, she cries and cries and waits for her demise. However, that's important to note because Jane also went through her fair share of depression. The reason why Ariel cried was because of loss of her self, and the sacrifices she made for this man, she felt stupid, heartbroken and defeated. She understood he didn't love her, but it felt like she had wasted everything for him. The reason why Jane went into depression in my theory is that she found out about Runtigwa and Pued. 

Her depression stemmed from her miscarriage, but she started to want to say the truth, the reason why she stayed with Tan to be protected because she knew of her sister's betrayal. She may have found out during the period of her depression and Pued may have told her it wasn't the case, but I think what drove her the most to want to reveal the truth at first was revenge. What led to her demise was confronting both Rutingwa and Pued that same night after discovering the truth. However, she kept quiet at first because of Pued telling her not to say anything, and the higher-ups threatening her to be quiet. I believe Pued made Tan keep an eye on her (he didn't know the real reason). 

4 Vengeance and Selflessness

But it's more than just the anger at the betrayal that probably made her break up with Pued. It was also the other factors. She knew what was happening to Nat and she couldn't say anything. She knew about the world of corruption and how it was taking her students and others, and she had kept quiet not because of love but because of fear, once Nat was hurt by the botched miscarriage, she couldn't stay silent anymore. 

I believe she not only uncovered the betrayal of her sister which led her to more anger and determination, to tell the truth, but her sense of responsibility as a teacher made her feel it was no longer acceptable. This is her little Mermaid's choice to be selfless. Instead of choosing to hurt the .prince at first after her sadness (she didn't choose to say something because of the betrayal at the end,  but she had the thought and probably started to gather evidence then), she decided to put her self in danger and unveil the truth about the corruption. (hence risking her life).

 The only issue is because of love for Pued she told him what she was going to do. He didn't take it lightly and warned her not to. She realised who he really was and he lost his temper and hurt her.  Remember that Ariel wants to get rid of the prince because her sisters give her that idea, just like removing the girls she cared about made Jane more determined, to tell the truth.  This is why Tan came and punched him; he didn't like what his brother said or did, even if he has to be a puppet Jane was his friend. This again shows you Tan didn't know what was really going on; he had to follow orders underneath Pued begrudgingly. The reason why he thought he had to cover up Jane's MOD was because he was misled. 

I won't be surprised if he knew about Runtingwa and Pued's affair and that's what he thought Jane was going to unveil and why Pued told him to keep an eye on her. He knew Pued was involved in Jane's demise, but he thought because her MOD would reveal the organisation he has to hide and protect his family, he had to keep their jobs intact. He was a puppet under orders which only started to realise the gravity of the situation once he fell for Bun. 

5 D*ying for love and selflessness 

So Jane, like the little Mermaid, decided to sacrifice her self and reputation. She decided to expose the higher-ups. However, on that night, she didn't expect that Pued would follow through with his warnings and come and try and convince her. Remember how I said I didn't know how Rutingwa would do all this to her sister, or where she got the strength to hang her sister? (Not that women can't be strong) it's because I think she and Pued both got rid of Jane. Now despite Pued being warped and cruel to Jane, I still think parts of him cared for her. The prince cared and felt indebted to the Mermaid; he saw her as a close friend. I don't think Pued meant to end her life. I think he went to warn her and scare her to stop like he made Tan do to Bun. 

I think Rutingwa, however, is the one who convinced him to make her demise look self-inflicted (trying to avoid words is so hard but I have to use all these synonyms not to get flagged on Tumblr haha). Rutingwa knew about Jane's MOD; she was involved in it; she also came to warn her sister. She even stuck by Bun's side to ensure evidence was taken care of, to keep him quiet by snitching. 

Pued went into hiding to avoid being seen as a suspect he faked his kidnap. Rutingwa could get away with hers by feigning ignorance. Now I really tried so hard to prevent a girl from being a villain in another BL, but I think Rutingwa is a brilliant villain. She has shown that she's heartless and determined to get her way if she is the villain. She's a plot twist because she's been hidden under layers and layers of other red herrings as we uncover the plot, and she and Pued hardly interact. When she feigned her ignorance about her sister's condition, it made sense to us seeing her fight for the police to expose her sisters MOD, but that's because she knew he was one of the corrupted people involved. They had planned to get Bun of their case. To make her self seem innocent. It's fantastic. 

The most obvious clue is that she is the closest person to the victim, just like Bun said in episode 1; it's always the ones closest to the victims that are the suspect, he just didn't deep how close it was, he was right it was her boyfriend, but it also was her sister who was putting on a show, in clothes she wore the night before and was acting naive about her sister's depression and spiral to her demise. Rutingwa is someone to keep an eye on. She'll go to lengths to be seen as innocent, and I think she's the main head of this, not Pued. Pued is just as Jane said spineless and weak, he's just spoilt and wanted to stay in power, he didn't care about Jane enough because he was in love with Rutingwa and they both sacrificed her to let him stay in his position and she in hers as his lover. It's messed up, but hey it's a brilliant plot. 

To Love or Not to Love: Little Mermaid a foreshadowing device for the couples 

So that's the first way the little Mermaid is connected to the foreshadowing of the plot. The second is the base of the romantic couples.

Two worlds apart; the little Mermaid and the prince are prevented from being together because of separate worlds until she joins him sacrificing her self and voice and then life for him to be there. 

To k*ill or not to k*ill. After discovering his betrayal, the Mermaid has to choose to save herself, go back to her world, or leave for love. She decides to sacrifice her life for love.

Misunderstandings and Regrets: The prince misunderstood the temple girl as his saviour he couldn't move on from that mindset, and so he didn't let himself love Ariel. Until the end, he never knew Ariel was the one he truly loved. 

Two worlds apart: Justice vs Corruption

As you can see, one of the themes of the love stories with everyone who is in a romantic relationship on the show (not the subtext ones) is being two worlds apart. Let me explain. 

Jane is torn by her ethics as a teacher vs her love for Pued, and she chooses to sacrifice her self to get to his world and be with him. 

Bun is torn by his morals as a pathologist and determination for justice ( due to past experiences with the police) vs his love for Tan who is part of an organisation that does crime and is linked to corruption. He sacrifices his suspicions and fears to get to his world and be with him despite being afraid he could be just like the people he hates. 

Sorowit is torn by his innocence and also determination for justice to his friends vs his blooming love for Tat who is connected to violence and the corruption ring that hurts him. He sacrifices his worries and resentments (because Tat even injured him when they first interacted for his friend) to get to his world and be with him. 

In all these love stories, the characters end up unveiling a betrayal, which makes them feel used with wasted hearts and love because their love was never real. In my theory, Jane discovers that Pued is not just spineless and heartless, but he also didn't love her, he loved her sister, and before she could do what was right she was eliminated. 

Bun has to come to terms that Tan may be the suspect and has lied and used him just to hide the evidence and the truth. Their love was never real, and he wasted his trust and heart on him. Sorowit will also come to the same terms when he discovers that Tat may be working for someone who knew about the corruption that is affecting all his close friends and Jane. (Nam, Nat, Jane). He also would force himself to question if Tat has a heart because of how cruel he can be. Bun is the person to warn him about Tat. 

Whilst Pued is warped prince, That and Tan are puppets forced to follow orders of an organisation that they can't escape. Without meaning, they both fall in love with Bun and Sorowit despite the danger and the fact that they're meant to stay emotionless and unfeeling since all they can do is be loyal to the organisation to remain taken care of. Tan has had no choice in the matter, and because Tat works for him, he also didn't have a choice and was probably forced into it at a young age. 

2 To maim or not to maim. 

The issue is that all couples had entered a dangerous situation, in order for one of them to survive in their world; one must be removed. For Jane, to return back to her world of responsibility and justice, Pued has to be exposed, and his reputation had to be ruined. If she told the truth, the whole town would be ruined. It had to be a decision between her and him and the rest. She chose to go to him selflessly, and he decided that she was the one that had to go. 

This is why it's a sad foreshadowing at some point Tan will have to make the same choice. Bun's life or His. And Bun will have to do the same after discovering the truth. They are both in a situation where one of them can't survive if the other does. If Tan survives, the organisation survives, the higher-ups win and the town is not ruined. But Bun is silenced. If Bun survives, Tan will be hurt and taken care of by the higher-ups and framed. Tat and Sorowit are the same. Sorowit's curiosity has got him involved in this too, the more he knows and stays with Tat the more his life is also in danger, the more Tat would also have to follow orders to get rid of him. Sorowit has to decide like Bun if he can sacrifice Tat for the truth to be revealed. In Little Mermaid, you know what path she chooses, she chooses love. Bun and Tan will choose love; what that means? I don't know, Tat and Sorowit are the same. 

Misunderstandings and Regrets

That's why we're in a sad predicament. Right now, the misunderstanding and lack of recognising Tat and Tan's innocence is going to drive a wedge in the relationship and case. Bun will believe Tan is the suspect, and Tat was the one who threatened Bun. They're both going to get framed. Just like little Mermaid was framed in the opposite as not the person who saved the prince. There's a lack of clarity happening at this time that could lead to fatal consequences; unfortunately, same as what happened with the prince and the Mermaid. For Pued and Jane, I wonder if Rutingwa framed her, could Rutingwa have been the person to make Pued stop loving her or trusting her? I don't know how, but like I said, she seems to be the strongest and scariest villain/suspect. She does what she wants to get what she wants.

 Could Pued have loved and cared about Jane the way the Prince cared about Ariel and the girl who saved him but somehow got lack of clarity on who she was in his life? Did Rutingwa seem more like the better person to help save his life and career? If she's involved in the corruption ring then yes. She probably seemed like a better wife or choice. But again Pued is the warped prince, Tan and Tat aren't. Their love is genuine and authentic. Bun and Sorowit will later come to terms with that, and choose to be the ones that sacrifice everything for them I believe just like the Mermaid did. Luckily the little Mermaid may not be a happy ending for Jane in the way she wanted, but it is a happy ending in the tale. She is rewarded for her love and selflessness. Jane's reward is the truth getting uncovered by Bun. Saving more girls from the situation she was in.  I also believe Tan and Bun whoever sacrifices would be rewarded, I believe this will have a happy ending, but that's just me.  They'll reunite at the end, finally unveiling the real villains and surviving. That's what I believe. 

So Manner of Death is about to become my favourite just from seeing the next episodes unfold. I could be wrong about this, but I don't see how yet, there are so many clues hinting to Runtingwa as the badass villain she is, as much as I hate girl hate, I commend her on her villainy, she's stone-cold,  if she is, she doesn't mess around, and I like seeing flawed women sometimes. I just want her to be the head of the whole thing, not just doing this because of love for Pued. But because of power and greed and determination to have a good reputation. I want her to be more cunning and stronger than Pued as a villain, even if he's the person who did it, I want her to be the one who suggested it. I don't know sometimes I like seeing women in this role, she's not an ex-girlfriend of the Bl couple who is determined to ruin them, she's not even the villain because of jealousy Pued wants Jane, she's doing it for power and reputation. Like Yes, you show how evil you are, and you own it. She'll be a great villain if she is as cunning as I think she is. Pued in my mind is a wimp, even if he hurt Jane, I don't think he meant to do it. But we'll see how cruel he can be.

I know the mayor, and police detective could be the ones, but with their reveal now, I don't think Jane was tricked or eliminated by them, they are red herrings to the story. Disgusting corrupted people who have power and control, but it's a puppet who did it because of fear. It's Pued. But maybe I'm wrong, and it is them, it wouldn't make sense with the foreshadowing of d*ying for love. They didn't eliminate Nat; she was eliminated because of the botched miscarriage, that's what I believe anyways. Let me know what you think? Any other suspects I'm missing?  You can check out my other analysis of the show in my masterpost. Let’s discuss about the show.