#hoo boy this kid's about to get tortured so bad

[lu-sn]

The man tilts his head back leisurely, blows out a thick haze of smoke before leaning forwards and sliding a photograph across the low table.

"His name is Vegas," the man says. "Vegas Kornwit Theerapanyakul."

The boy sitting on the other side, who up until this moment has carried himself with an infuriatingly self-righteous air, blanches at the sound of the name. "You want me to take out a Theerapanyakul?" he hisses.

The man laughs, deep and full-bodied and condescending. "Believe me, kid," he says, gesturing at the photo with his cigar, "this one's gonna be real easy."

"He has recently, shall we say — fallen from grace," a smooth voice says from the darkened corner of the room. The woman standing there swirls the wine in her glass delicately, blood-red lips curving into a smile. "Stripped of his title, exiled from his mansion to a small apartment on the west side of the city. He's injured, too — multiple bullet wounds to the stomach, still in recovery. And his bodyguard count is pitiful."

The boy stares at the photograph of Vegas. The fire slowly returns to his eyes. "How many guards? Do you have their patrol schedule?"

The man passes him a folder, and the boy flicks through it rapidly. "Four guards in total. Their rotation puts two of them on the property at any time, but their coverage has lots of gaps." He nods at the floorplan that the boy is now scrutinizing. "Optimal entry points are marked on there, along with the time windows when they're most accessible. Your odds are best at night."

The boy grins. "Sounds easy." He looks up at the man, then glances over to the woman. His grin falters. "Is there a catch?"

The woman glides over, perches on the settee next to the man as she flicks another photograph between her fingers. "This might be the catch." She slides it over, rotates it to face the boy. "Pete Phongsakorn Saengtham. Vegas's boytoy of the month."

The boy snorts at the plain, placid-looking man in the photo. "So, not a threat."

"Not quite." The woman crosses her legs, rests an arm on her knee. "He's an ex-bodyguard. Used to work for the main branch of the Theerapanyakul family."

"Apparently Vegas rotates through men like tissues," the man sneers. "Uses them," he waves his hand aside, "and tosses them away. But his type is skinny twink, or overly fawning. Pete doesn't... quite match his MO."

"He's seduced other men away from the main branch before," the woman adds. "Never a bodyguard."

"He any good?" the boy asks.

"We don't think so." The woman purses her mouth. "He was guarding the main branch's castoff son. The invalid who never leaves the house. If he was of any use, he would have been guarding the real heir."

"Kill him if you need to," the man says boredly. "It's probably easier that way. Expect him to put up a fight, otherwise."

The boy nods sharply. "Understood."

The man looks at him for a long moment. Then he smirks. "You get this right, kid, and you're in."

The boy straightens up immediately. "Yeah?"

"Yep. Boss says so. You'll be family proper. This job's a big one, important client and all that."

The boy smiles wide, crazed with adrenaline. "I won't let you down, sir." He rockets up, drops into a deep bow.

"Good," the man hums. "Dismissed."

Once the boy leaves, the man turns to the woman. "Want to make a bet?"

The woman scoffs. "The kid's dead meat. You can't get me to bet on him." She sips at her wine. "No one's expecting him to pull it off."

"You think this Pete will be an issue?"

"If he's gullible enough to switch sides for a man? Not in the slightest." The woman leans back, self-satisfied. "But Vegas always has a trick up his sleeve. Time to find out what it is."

[hello-there-world]

hoo boy. thought about Cassidy and William again in the Rewrite. so uh, rambles incoming:

so like. i've mentioned it before on my blog (to my buddy Maxx, specifically), but to give the tl;dr: William does genuinely care for his children, but still sucks as a person. he'd even argue that anything he did that hurt his kids (though he'd probably get offended if you said that he was in any way hurting his kids...despite the fact that he Was, in fact, doing that) was for their own good. he effectively had the thought of "they'll understand/thank me when they're older." like, William was INCREDIBLY paranoid that, if he wasn't careful enough, his kids would die (hence why he, for lack of a better term, snapped after Liz died). Cassidy, on the other hand, thinks his father hates him (because he did. y'know. kill Cassidy and his friends), and Cassidy hates him "right back." he thinks the feeling of hatred he feels for his father is mutual. it's why he got even More pissed off when, in his eyes, William "pretended" to care when Cassidy (understandably, might i add) was angry and vengeful as a ghost. William doesn't understand why Cassidy "changed" (went from a quiet and anxious kid to being angry and violent), when...in a way, Cassidy had always been that way. Cassidy can hold grudges for ages, he could be petty, and he had a LOT of underlying trauma and anger that was bubbling under the surface. i think that learning what had actually happened to his friends, as well as his father killing him, broke the dam. Cassidy doesn't know how else to handle all of those emotions, so that's why he effectively lashes out as a ghost. those emotions need somewhere to go, and uh. i'm pretty sure a mostly sheltered seven-year-old doesn't know a lot of good coping strategies for anger and trauma. just saying.

William, due to all of this, thinks that UCN is, effectively, a major temper tantrum from Cassidy (if a bit terrifying...and painful), and that, eventually, Cassidy would get it all out of his system, tire himself out, you get the idea. um. Problem: Cassidy, effectively, wants some form of regret from William. some sign that he actually cared about Cassidy, that he felt bad about his murder. and while William does, in fact, have some regrets about Cassidy's murder, he's been trying so hard to justify it to himself that it practically drowns out that regret. so it's...a horrible cycle. Cassidy just wants some sign that William regrets what he did, so that he can move on and rest (because Cassidy really, truly, is tired), while William would rather get tortured over and over than admit any regret.

but that's not the only thing i thought of.

so like...William's paranoid about anything bad happening to his kids. that INCLUDES Cassidy. and since Cassidy's the youngest, obviously he has a...heightened sense of concern for him. to make matters worse, Cassidy has horrible anxiety issues (that CERTAINLY aren't partially William's fault, no siree), and Cassidy is "sensitive," as some would say. a "crybaby," even. and William, who sees some of himself in his youngest, worried about his son potentially getting bullied for things out of his control (and God, Alex really isn't helping those worries), decides to homeschool him, keep him close, make sure that, if Cassidy is out of his sight for any extended period of time, that he knows where he is, and that he'll be safe (it's why he's more fine leaving Cassidy at home with his siblings or letting him go to Fredbear's or Freddy's unattended, than, say...letting him have a sleepover at Kelsey and Andrew's house).

meanwhile, Cassidy wants to go to school, despite his worries. wants to prove he can take care of himself. wants to live a normal life, despite everything.

it makes him wonder...why can his siblings go to school? why is he the only one who has to stay home?

why is he the exception?

of course, Elizabeth, who was...mostly oblivious to how bad things really were in her house, thought Cassidy was lucky. he got to stay home all the time, he didn't have to sit through boring lessons, he had more than like, half an hour to actually have fun.

but Cassidy? he wanted to go to school, like his siblings did. because, well, that's what normal kids did. they went to school, right?

so, he tried to gently convince his father that he'd be fine; he had friends going to school who could keep an eye on him! Kelsey and Baker would be going to Kindergarten, and he knew them!! maybe he could try school out for a bit? just to see what it was like? i-if he didn't like it, then his dad could homeschool him! shouldn't he be allowed to at least try?

but, William never budged. the closest Cassidy ever got to convincing him was when William said he'd "think about it," but it was obvious that he really didn't.

all Cassidy ever wanted was to at least have the opportunity to live a normal life, to try to be like his siblings. to not feel like he was some fragile thing that needed to be coddled.

but he never got that chance.

Cassidy died before he could get that chance.

Augh, I love this. Poor Cassidy, he should get to be mad about it... and he is, but his dad just thinks he needs to chill out about it...

[e-the-village-cryptid]

i am very interested in your rant about Wednesday

hoo boy. ok so I'm way too tired right now to get into the more serious, real-world-affecting issues with the show so I'm going to leave that to tirrrb's excellent video on the matter and just go with the pettier, in-world issues.

spoilers ahead

[preface. I didn't completely hate the show. I actually found most of it enjoyable to watch. that's the reason I'm so passionate about all the problems with it]

ok so first off. this show would not have been a huge hit if it weren't for the nostalgia factor. the show was, to be honest, mediocre. the plot made no goddamn sense, the love triangle was forced and both love interests were boring and the same exact person, the "school for monsters" thing made no sense at all. the only reason it was halfway decent was 1. most of the acting was very good (most.) and 2. it looked good aesthetically. and the only reason it took off is because people already knew the addams family.

but here's the thing. here's the thing. I've heard people say the show hates its source material. I disagree. the show doesn't even know its source material. it's apathetic. and that's even worse. the show is based on the addams family as someone who once heard someone reference it in conversation would understand the addams family. they were like "what's our source material? ok so weird morbid family with goth vibes, the parents are continuously overcome with lust for each other, the daughter is even more morbid than most of them. got it." but like? what about everything else? where is the heart of the addams family? where is the camp, the flair, the hilarity, the delight, the obliviousness to their strangeness and their revelry in mischief? which brings me to something else:

the genre of this show is 100% incompatible with the addams family. full stop. you cannot maintain the concept of the addams family in a genre that takes it seriously. the addams family genuinely enjoy murder, torture, and death. this works in a sitcom! it does not work in a drama! in the 90s movies wednesday (kills? buries alive? if the latter, they were dead eventually) two people. it's played for laughs, because, you know, sitcom. wednesday would never in a million years be trying to PREVENT people from being murdered. but of course that doesn't work in a serious show; they'd be horrible people! but then you get this incongruence between wednesday talking about how awesome murder is and then being mad at her dad because she believes he murdered someone once. the result is that in Wednesday, they just seem like an edgy but ultimately harmless goth family, when the source material is they are all genuinely fucking unhinged in the best way. you can't take the addams family seriously, it just doesn't work.

and don't even get me started on the "school for magical kids" nonsense. what?? ok, completely making stuff up for a remake isn't ALWAYS bad, but.... in this case it really was. in a world full of vampires and werewolves and sirens, the addams family are STILL the weird ones because they're, what, goth? wednesday gets into the school before they even know she HAS magical powers, which also makes no goddamn sense. everyone treats her as special and makes exceptions for her because.... why, exactly? i agree with tirrrb that what netflix really wanted to make was some sort of monster high remake but they didn't have the rights to that so they just... co-opted the addams family instead. and it just doesn't make sense to do that with the addams family. the addams family is funny because of their contrast to the completely ordinary world they live in. you take away their charm by making their weirdness just some product of a larger magical world.

and the fucking love triangle. first of all. wednesday wasn't into either of them. there was zero chemistry there. and why did there even have to be a love triangle in the first place?? wednesday's rude to everyone so naturally everyone wants her and is convinced she's in love with them (?????). and good god. it took me four episodes to even tell those two apart. two identical white boys with identical attitudes and identical inabilities to understand the word "no". "you're sending me mixed signals" my dude if you think "no" is a mixed signal I think that's a you problem. love triangles are supposed to force some choice between something more than just the two boys, and they kind of tried to do that by making Tyler a "normie" (side note: calling them "normies" like it's an insult? what are y'all, emo 12-year-olds? get over yourselves), but then that... never really came into play? also Jenna Ortega's "emotionless" Wednesday face still managed to convey more emotion than either of those two boys ever did combined. like the most Tyler's expression ever changes is when he's literally being tortured, when he like, knits his eyebrows a bit (ok I'm exaggerating but not by much).

and what were they even trying to do with enid's werewolf thing? like it was very clearly a metaphor for queerness (they even had that godawful "conversion therapy for werewolves" line) but the metaphor was so confused. they had no goddamn idea what they were trying to say. "ok so interesting twist on the werewolf thing— it's actually NOT being a werewolf that's the metaphor for queerness here!" ok cool. then what. "ok so Enid feels left out of her family and like her parents are disappointed because she hasn't wolfed out yet." got it, got it, sounds a lot like parents being disappointed you haven't "stopped with the silly tomboy stuff and settled down with a nice man". keep going. "ok so even Enid is super upset about this even though she knows she should take it on her own time." yeah, internalized homophobia, got it. and then? "but then she wolfs out and realizes she was able to be a normal werewolf the whole time after all!! she's so happy and relieved and her parents are finally proud!" wait, what??

now it's time for the big one!! I saved the worst for last! the PLOT. THE FUCKING PLOT. THAT MONSTROSITY YOU CALL A PLOT. wednesday writers. listen. listen to me. twists are fine. red herrings are fine. but listen. here is the important part. when the twist is revealed, the viewer must feel like they should have gotten it before. they must understand why the twist is what it is. and they definitely, definitely cannot be left feeling that the red herring still makes more sense than the actual twist! there has to be an explanation for why the red herring appeared to be guilty even though they weren't! you can't just abandon that thread!! there are two big ones here that upset me.

the fricken "xavier is the monster" mislead. ok so he isn't the monster. why then, does he constantly see the monster in his dreams? why is it basically all he draws? why is it in his head so much? "oh that's easy! because he has this drawing stuff power!" yeah I know that but why the monster specifically? "because it's most relevant because it's gonna take down the school!" ok.... but why just the monster? why does he never see joseph crackstone? thornhill? aren't they an imminent danger to the school too? "uhhh next question"

Dr. Kimball. listen. she was a TERRIBLE therapist. she was so bad she literally couldn't have been a therapist. she was massively violating HIPPA all over the place, invasively entering her clients' lives during important moments outside of the therapeutic space, etc. it was SO BAD she couldn't possibly have been a real therapist but no it just turns out she was fine? red herring guys! listen listen listen you NEED an explanation for why your red herrings are Like That

also the entire Crackstone thing made no sense. "I hate people who do magic, magic is an abomination, therefore you must seal my crypt with magic and then use magic to raise me from the dead so I can use my magic staff to kill all these evil magic-doers" .......uh huh

ok I'm gonna stop here but let me say I didn't hate everything about the show! the Wednesday acting was excellent and Jenna Ortega really did capture the essence of the character. Bianca is fantastic, Eugene is fabulous. Enid and Wednesday's relationship was very genuine. Thing and Uncle Fester were great. the aesthetics looked great and the show continued being enjoyable to watch thanks to the good actors even when the plot was a train wreck. I enjoyed watching it most of the time! but good god were there some massive problems. in my opinion

[dafukdidiwatch]

One Piece - Episode 2

It’s actually a lot easier to review one piece now that I’m at episode 2 to be honest. I mean I still have that ping of “oh this came from the anime/manga” or “oh this is pretty different”. But I feel like it’s less prevalent now. I’ve gotten over the shock of OMG LIVE ACTION ONE PIECE GAH and now can actually see it for what it is. Another story. Which is good because Hoo Boy, they do not drop the ball in the second episode

Overview: Luffy, Zoro, and Nami discuss the Grand Line Map. But before they get anywhere with it, Buggy the Pirate Clown has captured them and forced them into his Circus Tent of Terrors to get the map back. While this is happening, Commander Garp is investigating the theft of the map back at Morgan’s Marine Base, and meets a nervous wreck of a cadet Koby just trying to get through his first day. 

So let’s start off with the obvious

Buggy is a nightmare

Holy Shit I mean I know people don’t like Clowns, but they went hard on his craziness. How everyone, even his own crew, is tip toeing on eggshells around this guy. He’s maniacal. Huge inflated sense of self worth and grandiose. Also a psychopath that let people keep their Hands so they can Applaud on cue To Him. Anime was all “ha ha giggles he’s clown wait uh oh he’s actually dangerous”. Naw they ain’t pulling that shit here. Buggy is a threat. Always a threat. 100% destroys everything and tortures everyone to get what he wants. He has some goofy moments like being a dumbass and punching glass like a moron, but he’s 100% Capital B Bad Guy for the entire thing. 

(Which got to say, I was lowkey waiting for Luffy to flip him off. No reason why, I just thought it would be funny at that moment.)

I have mixed feelings on the Buggy-Luffy “join me” type of deal. On the one hand, didn’t really like Buggy calling Luffy an outcast. He isn’t tho. Not like Buggy gave a shit since his whole goal is to mettle for the map. But Luffy wasn’t outcasted or a freak. He’s too happy-go-lucky to let insults like that impact him. And look there, Luffy never really gave into Buggy because yeah he knows who he is and is confident about that. So that felt a bit Meh to me. 

On the other hand, I liked how they handled the parallels between Child!Luffy and Shanks and Current!Luffy and Buggy. Shanks fought the bandits, defended his friends, literally lost an arm to help his kid. And Luffy took those lessons to heart, defends Shanks and his honor, says the same line about hurting his friends against Buggy with Known History to Shanks. The Antithesis if you will. For the live action episode, that felt well written and excellently handled, especially for an audience that might not have seen One Piece before. 

Also the Shanks Fight to get Luffy was super cool. Love seeing the crew in action and beating/killing all the bandits. A little lowkey sad that they didn’t keep the “guns aren’t for threats they’re for action” and the “Fair? What do you mean fair, we’re pirates” line. Those were great lines that really highlight that they are still hardened fighters/pirates that do still kill. But they kept the “Hurt me but not my friends” line so that’s acceptable. 

Sea King animation was terrifying and really cool. Love to see that in action, and we got to see basically Shanks using power of will against the monster to fuck off. Best, love it. Also laughed a bit when I saw Shanks arm just flying into the ocean after the Sea King’s first strike. It’s in the middle of the screen if you pay attention to it. I just thought it was a funny bit that the Sea King didn’t actually eat it, just tore it off. 

Keep rolling with the badguys here, Cabuji coming in with vengeance exposition backstory about how Zoro hunted down him and his brother and killed the brother for a bounty. Tells how badass Zoro is, shows how stoic, serious, and snarky Zoro is in the face of torture and death. Like they are locked in the circus prop section, this entire set up is really good. But I’m just sitting here thinking that Zoro didn’t track them for shit, he got his ass lost for 20 miles and kept running into those guys accidentally. I don’t know if or when the live action would ever touch on Zoro’s shitty sense of direction, but I hope they do. I’m just waiting for that reveal moment. 

I’m glad they are still keeping the mistrust and traitor vibes with Nami here. She never said she’s part of the crew, she tried to dip as soon as she could with outing Luffy’s powers. She hated the devastation that pirates made in the town, while also sneaky enough to have 4 different lockpicking sets. Love a girl bastard and thief. Especially the end hints of her having *le gasp* a secret corresponder snail working for someone! Oh That’s gonna be so good when we get to it. 

Another small thing about Luffy while I’m talking about the crew: Is it weird I find Luffy too smart? I mean, yeah his first instinct was to eat the map. But he’s rubber, his stomach can literally stretch. And the best place to hide something is on your person. Also he figured out the boxes and getting rid of body parts in reality that smart grab was Nami’s ploy. Though I guess the writers thought it would be best to make Luffy a bit more competent than just the original dumbass he was. Maybe the audience wouldn’t latch onto him as much or something. 

But I did love how Luffy states he’s “a different kind of pirate”. Still a pirate. 100% still a pirate. But not the pillaging or destroying kind. The “I can help my friends out just via violence” type. Not afraid to fight, won’t stand rules, just wants to do his own thing without hurting everyone. Given Nami’s stated mistrust on pirates, as well as the rest of the town, it’s nice that we have Luffy to be that distinction of a better pirate. 

Clown outfits and costumes were really on point. Like the design production went all out to make sure everyone is as wacky and crazy as One Piece is known to be. It’s a bit too bad that we don’t actually see all the clowns fight in one go. Like having Zoro kill/defeat them all offscreen felt like a waste. But the core of this episode was definitely focused on Buggy and Buggy v. Luffy. So it makes sense that they don’t want to…share the spotlight. (see I can make bad circus jokes too)

They’re also giving Garp and Koby a bigger spot in the series too. Anime/Manga we sort of forget about Koby until well after a lot of arcs. But now they are tying his story to Garp about Koby trying to be a Marine like how he wanted. He’s a lot more timid with being a marine though. And Garp, really threatening. In the “I’m a powerhouse and we all know this but I’m still polite” type of way. Still like him, and the live action has this as the parallel of “Luffy Pirates” v “Koby Marines” so two sides of the same coin. 

Too bad we didn’t see Morgan going down either. Or how Helmeppo spontaneously became a Cadet while Morgan was still in charge. But that goes under the “clowns killed offscreen” bit. 

Overall, really good horror circus vibes here. All the fight scenes were on point and clever. They are still blending in a lot of the original source material while making smart and fun changes to the story. And my sister wants to blast through the episodes because she just wants to get to the Sanji bits lol. So stay tuned!

[fictionz]

Help! Looking for horror comics from diverse voices

I read a bunch of new-to-me horror stuff every October, including short comics and single issues, but hoo boy is it real research to find horror comics that aren't by white (and mostly American) men. I also try to pick out a comic or two from each decade for as far back as I can find them. I'm going through the process now of selecting this year's comics, and while I'm confident I can find diverse voices and backgrounds for the comics I'll read, I'm interested to see if any horror comic fans out there have recommendations.

So if you know horror comics and have recommendations from diverse creators, whether it's people of color, or based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, or any other diverse background, lemme know! There must be a ton of comic creators right here on Tumblr that I'm missing out on. It can be a single issue, a story in an anthology, a web comic, it's all good. Maybe there's a horror Discord I outta join?!

As a bonus, here's the list of horror comics I checked out last year:

“The Boar’s Head Beast” by George Wildman, Nicola Cuti, Wayne Howard (1975) “I toyed with forces I couldn’t control.”

This has bits of Lovecraft but it’s mostly an adventure story, and that just reminds me that so much of the adventure stuff I loved as a kid is from the action subgenre of horror.

💀💀💀

“Ill Bred” by Charles Burns (1985) “I realized her muscles were getting larger and more defined.”

The story seems to go full tilt into men’s panic about gender and sexuality norms until it pivots into a Twilight Zoneish wink at the audience as the plot resolves to an acceptable state for the normies. Pretty gnarly body horror stuff.

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“Don’t Go to the Island” by Sfé R. Monster & Kalyna Riis-Phillips (2016) “The skulls at your feet are laughing at you.”

It’s been almost all white American men in my horror comics this month, so I’m pivoting to other creators and eras. Fortunately, the Bones of the Coast anthology has that and also focuses on the Pacific Northwest, undoubtedly my favorite region. It’s a good pairing with the Jackson story. A moody coastal vibe, the gray sky threatening something that doesn’t reveal itself immediately, but instead lingers behind trees and corners, watching and waiting.

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“Some Other Animal’s Meat” by Emily Carroll (2016) “What if inside, it’s somehow the wrong stuff?”

Some inside part is always going to feel like it’s different from yours.

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“Greed” by Becky Cloonan, Jordie Bellaire, Travis Lanham (2013) “Kindly take your place by the dead horse.”

I liked what I read here, but it’s clear it’s not meant to stand alone. It’s too brief and it feels like we’re (rightly) meant to read this entire book and perhaps the series before getting to this point.

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“Goin’ South” by Nancy Collins, David Imhoff, Jeff Butler, Steve Montano, Renée Witterstaetter, Electric Crayon, Simon Bisley (1995) “He has his hate to keep him warm.”

People in the 90s really wanted to see these sorts of bouts between characters from different media properties. There’s an essay in the comic itself that comments on the fascination. Of course, this just presages our modern era of cinematic media universes. As for this first issue in a trilogy, it’s a decent setup, but not much happens since it’s focused on getting the two characters into the same room by the end of a single comic issue. I think a cross-country trip/spree featuring Jason could’ve been cool if it wasn’t so rushed.

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“Winnebago Graveyard #1” by Steve Niles, Stephanie Paitreau, Jordie Bellaire, Jen Bartel, Alison Sampson, Aditya Bidikar, Mingjue Helen Chen, Sarah Horrocks (2017) “Where are the people?”

Ooh good setup here. I’ll return to finish this series for sure. I hope the big bad they introduce here gets a real powerful comeuppance, though it does feel like a setup for torturing some protagonists. Bonus points for a creepy carnival setting.

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“Seed” by Fiona Staples, Jose Villarrubia, Michael Dougherty, Todd Casey, Zach Shields, Marc Andreyko (2015) “For this is not a woman but a demon with no soul to save.”

I remember Trick ‘r Treat being more jokey with its anthology format, but this was just a straightforward historical horror tale. But I liked the sincerity and will certainly return to this book later.

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“Kill Screen” by Lauren Beukes, Dale Halvorsen, Ryan Kelly, Eva de la Cruz, Clem Robins, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rowena Yow, Shelly Bond (2015) “This better not end up in a bathtub full of ice with missing kidneys.”

Some of the writing here is cringey, but the character setup is intriguing. I’ll stick with it and finish the series after October.

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“The Fool of the Web” by Patricia Breen, Roel, Brenda Feikema (1997) “Your belly quakes with laughter even as I tremble in disgust.”

Sometimes you follow the maiden, and sometimes the maiden follows you.

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“Fortune Broken” by Sandy King, Leonardo Manco, Marianna Sanzone (2015) “Death runs from me, you old witch!”

A simple one, and too abrupt in its conclusion. A bit more time at the end and I might’ve been more into it.

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“The Cemetery” by Franco, Abigail Larson, Wes Abbott, Sara Richard (2022) “Don’t you just want to get this over with?”

How do we learn to navigate the scary stuff? And why do some of us make it while others don’t?

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“The Speed of Pain” by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart, Steve Wands, Will Dennis (2018) “I spent the week cursing God.”

Whoa nelly, this first issue is a great setup. It’s got that urban decay vibe of grungy industrial hellscape movies of the 90s like The Crow, Seven, and Dark City. I’ll definitely be coming back to finish this series.

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“Gestation” by Marguerite Bennett, Jonathan Brandon Sawyer, Doug Garbark, Nic. J. Shaw (2014) “I’ll deal with the corpse, my lady-love.”

It’s very satisfying when men in power are absolutely wrecked by women, so I appreciate the still too-rare opportunity to see it happen. (And you should know that this short comic story was expanded into its own series.)

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“Chemical 13!” by Michael Woods & Saskia Gutekunst (2009) “Everything is fine.”

Comeuppance stories about Nazis getting the wrath they deserve don’t hit the same anymore, not when they are just still around in daily life.

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“Hello, My Name Is…” by Nadia Shammas, Rowan MacColl, Licha Myers, Chris Sanchez (2021) “Workers have names. Management has power.”

What is a name but a tracking system? The means by which to search and destroy.

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“Sea of Souls” by Jenna Lynn Wright, Alvaro Feliu, Juan Francisco Mota, Ricardo Osnaya, Erik Lopera Tamayo, Jorge Cortes, Robby Bevaro, Maxflan Araujo, Walter Pereyra, Taylor Esposito (2022) “This isn’t the face I had when we met.”

The feel of a rushed committee affair, but stitched together adequately enough.

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“Crush” by Janet Hetherington, Ronn Sutton, Becka Kinzie, Zakk Saam (2018) “His eyes are as wild as the sea.”

Aye, that’s a Gothic story alright. The foreword by Jacques Nodell that introduces the anthology was actually a really good breakdown of the Gothic literature genre and its trappings. The ending is pretty gruesome but then I think that’s also a tendency in the scary Gothic romances.

💀💀💀

“The End of All Things” by Natalie Leif & Elaine Well (2014) “I’ll look at the lines myself.”

I wasn’t quite sure of the message here, and it’s probably a sign of a good story that I found it very compelling but wanted more. The ending evokes a sense of inevitable collapse beneath the weight of the world, that we are all inextricably linked to an entity we cannot escape.

💀💀💀

“Swamp Monster” by Basil Wolverton (1953) “You stare in unbelief at what used to be normal hands!”

There’s something appealing about these old, simple morality horror tales. I suppose it’s knowing that someone’s getting a comeuppance, or a rude awakening. So reading these is about knowing they’re gonna get it and enjoying the twisted revelation.

💀💀💀

“The Portrait of Sal Pullman” by Lonnie Nadler & Abby Howard (2019) “You fools, do you not see what this truly is?" 

Abby Howard is the ruler of the kingdom of creepy illustrated faces. Er, maybe the architect. The wizard behind the curtain? Oh, the god, the god.

💀💀💀

“O Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by M.R. James & Abby Howard (2019) “If you see any more spooks or beasties, please do let me know." 

I often fantasize about illustrating text stories if I had the skill, just to visualize what’s in the brain. It’s cool to see Howard taking that on with one of these old timey and appropriately spooky stories.

💀💀💀

“Rainbow Sprinkles” by W. Maxwell Prince, Chris O’Halloran, Martín Morazzo, Nimit Malavia (2018) “Arizona like in the movies of our dreams”

My first reaction was this isn’t horror (particularly after a more straightforward horror story in the first issue), but I think this is going to happen many times throughout the month. I’ve made the effort to seek out a more expansive range of voices and backgrounds in my horror selections and it’s going to require a broader acceptance of horror as a genre and medium for storytellers. All that said, this second issue of Ice Cream Man is more tragic and real, and horror fiction is, after all, a reflection of the horrors we face as real people.

💀💀💀

“Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall!” by Jack Davis, et al. (1953) “Why do they scream when they see you?”

First-person perspective in a comic must have been a fresh thing in the fifties, and if you’re going to do it, then you may as well pull from a classic like Frankenstein. I also recognize this sort of amnesiac monster thing from many stories since ‘53, in particular the disturbing “His Silicon Soul” from Batman The Animated Series.

💀💀💀

“The Harvest” by Shannon Campbell & Pam Wishbow (2016) “Just think of blackberry jam." 

Oh fuck yeah, that autumnal folk horror. Much of this sort of thing comes out of places with traditional seasons but I love that this anthology is all about horror from the Pacific Northwest, so here you can feel the gray gloom and green hells of those thickly forested areas. This particular story also gets into the insidious and unknowable machinations of plants. Who knows what they’re thinking…

💀💀💀

“In Each and Every Package” by Reed Crandall, et al. (1954) “I kept thinking of you and that gave me the strength.”

This came up in a list of noteworthy horror comics from the mid-century due to this gnarly cover that got held up as an example of the questionable artistic merits of this sort of stuff at the time. I also doubted the horror qualities of this series since the title itself says it’s crime fiction, but I gave it a shot. It’s crime fiction for sure and I don’t think I’ll read other Crime SuspenStories, but it definitely feels like something I’d see on Tales from the Crypt.

💀💀💀

“Roots in Hell” by Richard Corben (2016) “Have some of this mango. It’s delicious!”

Kind of an abrupt ending but I dig the conceit.

💀💀💀

“Mars Is Heaven!” by Ray Bradbury, Wally Wood, et al. (1953) “And Lustig began to cry." 

Looks like this story hit pretty hard in the fifties, but then the Godliness and paranoia of the nation was more potent then. Now it comes across as quaint.

💀💀💀

“Save the Last Dance for Me!” by Dennis O'Neil & Pat Boyette (1969) “Tin Toes makes the decisions around here!”

So many horror comics of this time are just peeks into the Ironic Punishment Division in hell.

💀💀💀

“Infected” by Bruce Jones, Richard Corben, Steve Oliff (1982) “You drag a shaking claw across your mouth and wipe away the sour smelling bile.“

Whoof. The casual racism is real bad in this one, even if it’s portrayed just to show the shitty attitude and personality of the protagonist. It feels more like some white guys riding the wave of edgy work like Heavy Metal to paint a portrait of “those people” and a cautionary story about getting involved with “them.”

💀💀💀

[Image missing because Tumblr has a limit of 30, but here it is.]

“Unpleasant Side Effects” by Kerry Gammill, Sam F. Park, Mar Omega (2010) “After I’ve recorded my findings, I’ll take care of this… thing.”

I liked seeing a modern take on the EC Comics comeuppance formula, and in particular an ending where the victims sorta get their due.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 315: I Didn’t Expect This to Blow Up

Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “guess which plot that you thought was dead is actually not dead and is making a comeback!” and we were all “EVIL HPSC??” and he was all “girl you know it,” and that’s the story of how we got a sexy Lady Nagant flashback with lots of guns and murder. Flashback!Lady was all “gotta murder peeps to preserve the people’s trust,” but then a little while later she was like “actually wait that makes no sense,” and so she shot her evil boss and they sent her to jail. Back in the present, Deku was all “okay fair, the hero system might in fact be a little fucked up, but hear me out... have you considered not helping AFO take over the world so he can murder like a bazillion more innocent people??” The chapter ended with the not-all-there Overhaul finally revealing himself to Deku, and I honestly have no idea where this is gonna go.

Today on BnHA: In what is unfortunately the single worst plan ever concocted by anyone in BnHA, Nagant is all “I’m going to try and get this Deku kid to panic and freeze up by putting someone in mortal danger.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t panic and freeze up at the sight of someone in mortal danger].” Nagant is all “omg no way.” Deku, who is now all of a sudden being so OP that even I have to acknowledge that it’s OP lol, is all “[smashes Nagant’s gun arm to bits]”, which sucks but is also really cool, and which also apparently makes Nagant decide that she actually likes this kid after all. Deku is all “NAGANT I REALLY LIKE YOU AND THINK YOU’RE GREAT SO PLEASE JOIN UP WITH ME AND STOP BEING EVIL.” Nagant is all “aw shucks (✿ •͈ᴗ•͈) well okay then” and everyone is all “( ･◡･) ✰ ( ˆᴗˆ ) ( ᵘ ᵕ ᵘ ⁎)” and then Nagant FUCKING EXPLODES LIKE AN EGG IN THE MICROWAVE AND FALLS TO HER DEATH!!!! except not really because Hawks saves her??? In conclusion, (a) THE FUCK, and (b) AFO TURN ON YOUR LOCATION I JUST WANT TO TALK.

so I have to tell you guys something, which is that barely ten minutes after I made that “please don’t send me spoilers” post the other day, someone replied to the comments in a stunning fit of “tell me that you’re twelve without actually telling me you’re twelve” energy and posted what seemed to be the copy-pasted spoiler summary from reddit or twitter or whatever lol. so here is my good news/bad news rundown of all that

good news: I have very well-conditioned ABORT!! reflexes and have trained myself to immediately look away from the screen (usually in dramatic fashion) as soon as I realize that whatever I’m reading is a spoiler

bad news: unfortunately as I was subsequently deleting said comments, I accidentally read the very last one

good news??: said spoiler was so unbelievably, absurdly over-the-top that I’m almost positive this person was just trolling. like, there’s just no way lmao

bad news: but in the unlikely event that it is true I will absolutely lose my shit I swear to god

(ETA: “NAGANT DIES.” that was the spoiler I read lol. like, literally all I read from the person’s comments was “My Hero Academia Chapter 315 Title: “Beautiful Words.” Chapter starts with...” and then I noped out of there, and then of all the comments to read as I was deleting, it had to be that one lol. I seriously was just like “SURE, JAN.” all “just how gullible do you think I am” sob. but I was wrong. a troll, but an honest troll they remain.

but anyways like I’m pretty sure Nagant isn’t even actually dead lol, so in the end this whole little adventure doesn’t even have a point to it, but for me it was a journey!)

anyway, so there are apparently two versions of the chapter today?? no idea what the difference is, but I’m going to go with the Bean version, because it’s the one at the top and I don’t feel like making decisions today

huh, so Overhaul is actually more coherent than Horikoshi was letting on

look at him having a whole back and forth conversation with her. side note, how is he still this jacked when he’s been sitting in a cell doing absolutely nothing for the past six months

anyway so he says he’ll go with her on one condition. I wonder what that condition could possibly be. do you think it could be the thing he literally hasn’t shut up about ever since he reappeared lol

yep! and damn -- maybe this guy will surprise me after all

still would be nice if you also felt a bit sorry for the little girl you tortured and traumatized, but this is something at least. maybe Deku will yell at him for that other stuff lol

(ETA: also can’t help but wonder if he wants to make amends because he put him in a coma, or because his plan was a failure and ended up destroying the family. just hoping you’ve finally had that “hurting other people is bad” epiphany dude.)

anyways so now Nagant’s arm is transforming again, and this particular transformation happens to be the only truly unsexy thing that Nagant has done thus far so I’m just gonna skip right on ahead lol

aaaaand we’re back to the delirious ranting

buddy. just. read the fucking room, guy

wow she really is aiming at Overhaul, then. those theories were spot-on

damn she’s really out here all “it really fucks with kids’ heads when you kill people right in front of them and make them blame themselves” like yo

I’m picturing her saying all this in a very loud stage-whispery tone while making very significant eye contact with Deku lol

uh oh but wait

um. okay. who’s gonna tell her. Nagant I might have some bad news for you about the kid you’re trying to capture here. specifically about the way he tends to do the opposite of what you’re thinking that he’s about to do

holy shit

so it’s basically just “tap x repeatedly to charge up your attack” lol

and okay, so that’s cool and all, but is anyone else wincing at the thought of what that must be like on his knees. oh to be young

anyway, but so to the surprise of basically no one, Deku did not, in fact, freeze. I am very sorry, Nagant. he’s just like this

LMAO

someone wanna tell me how getting yoloed in the fucking ribs by this fucking slingshot kid moving at literal sniper bullet speed is in any way even remotely better than getting hit by the bullet itself lol

(ETA: this is 10x funnier now that we know the bullet wasn’t even gonna hit him lmao.)

anyway so now Nagant is having an extended “!?!?!?” reaction about how Deku just moved with no hesitation, and I’m starting to get an inkling of fear that the rest of this fight isn’t going to go very well for her and maybe that’s what all the “hoo boy” is about

oh my god Deku are you about to Gomu Gomu no Rocket yourself at her you insane little man

now Three is popping up again and he’s all “I see you’ve learned your lesson and are now only using three quirks at once instead of five” like with all this effusive praise about how great and badass Deku is and sob, okay, yeah. this chapter is basically one of those machines that shoots tennis balls at people, except instead of tennis balls it shoots hot piping discourse

OH MY GOD

YOOOOOOOOOO but also, NOOOOOOOOOOO

lol oh my god it’s literally two opposing reactions at once wtf. do I love this or hate this. like just for once can Horikoshi actually let a badass lady character win their fucking fight without getting their arm ripped off, BUT ALSO fucking look at that absurdly cool “SMASH” onomatopoeia though. it looks like it’s about to float right off the page holy shit that’s some seriously good art

anyway so is this really the end?? do I need to break out my ಠ_ಠ faces

lmao okay yeah I can definitely see how this would piss a lot of people off

he basically one-shotted her and she’s all “damn this kid is so amazing that I’m about to do a complete 180 turn on all of my previous angst” lmao. Horikoshi is really shounening it up today

on the plus side though, maybe this means there’s still a chance for her to join up with him after all? unless that spoiler was true lmao, then all hell is gonna break loose

YESSSSSSS

OH MY GOD AND HE SAYS THE BULLET WOULDN’T HAVE DONE MORE THAN GRAZE OVERHAUL ANYWAY, wow, I’m actually more relieved by that than I would have expected. I mean I would have forgiven her either way, but it means that there was still more hero in her than she was letting on

YES!!! FUCKING YES, THANK YOU

lol but I mean, it’s also like, “oh so today they get to have brain cells”, thank you so much lol. sometimes it’s really hard to tell which times we’re supposed to question these character decisions that seem dumb, and which times we’re just supposed to full on embrace them and switch off our critical thinking

but okay, so in this case it really was Nagant going easy on him on purpose, and not just her fucking up for no good reason even though she used to do this for a living and was the best in the game. and I know in this case it’s probably just Horikoshi giving us some consolation headpats to soften the blow of her losing so abruptly, but you know what, shit. I’ll take it

also you guys the light is coming back into Deku’s eyes again for just a moment here and I’m having feels about it?? the way it still comes back when he’s reaching out to save someone, and following his own hero path instead of the much darker and lonelier Christopher Nolan path that’s been laid out for him instead that he never wanted?? it’s both reassuring and also very sad

YESSSSSSSSSSS

DO IT LADY OMG PLEASE?? PLEASE COME BE HIS NEW IRRESPONSIBLE ADULT SUPERVISION YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO

AHHHHHHH SHE’S GONNA DO IT AHHHH

p.s. I am now absolutely scared shitless that that spoiler was actually true sob. swear to god, I will throw this manga into a fucking volcano. but we’re almost at the end of the chapter and this seems just WAY TOO GOOD to be true fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck f

UCK

NOPE NAH SEND IT BACK, NOPE, NUH UH, DIDN’T ORDER THIS. “GULLIBLE” OKAY FUCK YOU?? “COUNTERMEASURES” NOPE, DON’T NEED ‘EM, WE’RE ALL FINE HERE. WE’RE ACTUALLY GOOD SO YOU CAN JUST GO, OKAY. PLEASE

fuck, lol, I don’t wanna do it. I don’t wanna scroll down what have I ever done to deserve this oh my god

WHAT THE HONEY-ROASTED FUCK

WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT FUCKING VOLCANO IN ICELAND THAT I KEEP SEEING ALL THESE PICTURES OF. WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT. LET’S GO

ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW

can someone please give AFO a really good, sharpish kick in the balls. just really let him have it. I’m so tired, what the fuck

-- ARE YOU KIDDING ME LOL WHAT

bro. I was literally going through my Excel folders to find the spreadsheet about female characters in BnHA that I made back when Midnight died. was gearing myself up for a wholeass rant. and honestly I might just let all of that continue simmering on low to keep it warm just in case lol, because to tell you the truth I have absolutely no idea what’s happening right now

my girl straight up does not have a face. she used to have a face. people usually need those, idk. like, even if she’s alive, her gorgeous eyebrows are definitely not making it out of this and I’m gonna throw a funeral just for them

how the fuck did AFO just blow her up?? how did he know what was going on?? and if he had a quirk that could explode people at will, why is this the first we’re hearing of it?? you’d think that might have come in handy at Kamino or Jakku, like what

(ETA: present!me, who’s had more than three hours of sleep and can now actually remember facts about the series, would like to remind past!me that AFO gave Nagant a quirk, and so this is probably just more Vestige shenanigans now on his part. that’s also probably why Air Walk suddenly stopped working out of nowhere. still doesn’t explain why he doesn’t go around blowing people up more often though but maybe he thinks it’s gauche.)

Hawks just straight up out of nowhere. just Mirioed his way straight into the chapter just in time to be too late sob. here I was looking forward to seeing your face when Deku showed up with his new best friend. can’t believe Horikoshi deprived us of that moment

on the plus side, WELCOME BACK, HAWKS’S FEATHERS. I have no doubt that in this chapter of Deku being an almighty threequirk-mastering god, and Nagant losing anticlimactically only to be immediately blown up because girl characters in BnHA can only be cool for one fight and one fight only, there are still some people who are focusing solely on the “how dare Hawks get his wings back when he is a MURDERER this is an outrage what about CONSEQUENCES” discourse, and to hell with all the other discourses lmao

anyway, so yeah. wow. and now it’s just occurring to me that maybe the real reason why Overhaul is there is so he can get a head start on that amend-making by actually doing a good thing for once in his life, and using his quirk to heal Nagant. assuming he can still do that

and so now Horikoshi has got me out here actually rooting for Overhaul. you know what, on that note I think I’m just gonna go ahead and call it a day sob

[darthmaulification]

boba fett NSFW alphabet

A/N: boba fett is just... *chef’s kiss* 😍😍 i want to hug and smooch him on the lips and have him absolutely rail me 🥴🥴

this is for post-sarlacc/mandalorian boba fett as well, and does primarily assume fem/afab!reader.

nsfw under the cut!!😘

A = aftercare (what are they like after sex?)

Boba’s positively soft after sex. He takes care of you so so well, especially after particularly rough rounds, and will make sure you’re safe, warm, and comfortable. This usually means he cleans you up, either by running you a bath or wiping you down with a damp cloth, and massaging away any aches you may have obtained. Boba is also uncharacteristically talkative while he tends to your needs, and it’s all praise like “You did so well, cyare” and “Such a good girl” alongside clarifying questions like “Do you feel sore anywhere?” and “Would you like me to run a bath?”. Boba makes sure you are completely taken care of.

B = body part (what’s their favorite body part of their partner? what about themselves?)

Boba doesn’t have a favorite part of your body, because he’s easily able to mark it all up and he’s never been one to pick favorites, but I suppose he’s like any other man and does enjoy your... feminine curves, so to speak. He particularly likes your hips, ass, and thighs, if not only that he’s able to spank them, nibble on them, grab onto them while he’s fucking you silly... it’s also because he loves watching them sway as you walk. There’s a certain perfect sashay mixed with a slight jerk in your gait that Boba loves to watch, how your thighs ripple slightly with each step, how your ass does the same, and how those perfect hips of your rock side to side... Yeah... there’s something perfect there.

If Boba had to chose a favorite part of his body and not say “The whole damn thing!”, he’d pick his arms and hands. They’re what he does everything with, how he handles his blasters and jet pack, how he handles fighting, how he handles you, etc etc. Boba’s hands and arms are where every skill of his is practiced and carried out, the limbs that can do anything. He finds a slight pride in that. Also, Boba knows you also enjoy his arms, so he finds it very amusing to flex for you every once in a while to get you blushing.

C = cum (basically anything to do with cum)

Boba Fett cums a lot, and he makes sure all of it ends up inside you. He finds it incredibly satisfying to dominate you in such a way, being able to paint your insides white, to claim you and your pussy as his. Boba also has a slight breeding kink, so he makes sure none of his cum goes to waste, sometimes pushing it back into you when it leaks out. 

D = dirty secret (what’s their dirty secret?)

Boba will probably never tell you this explicitly, most likely you will pick up on it with every breadcrumb he leaves, but Boba loves you so fucking much. He has so so much love for you it makes his heart bleed with the intensity. He’s never loved someone with all his being before, never cared this hard in his life. Boba may not even be able admit it to himself, love is a word that has brought him so much pain. But he loves you, he loves you, he loves you... Cyare, mesh’la, ni kar'tayl gar darasuum...

E = experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Very experienced. Boba has had many many sexual partners over his lifetime, so he knows exactly what he’s doing and his way around your body. Having the “tall, dark, and handsome” allure as a bounty hunter really helped him with this.

F = favorite position (what’s their favorite position?)

Boba has a couple positions he usually defaults to, all of which he enjoys. They are:

Leap frog. This is a close one for being his favorite position. Boba likes to keep you beneath him, for control, and when your flat on your chest, arms either trapped under your body or above your head, hips hitched up just enough to allow him access... well, that gives him all the control he could dream of. When you’re like this, Boba fucks the life out of you, draping over you to kiss your back and neck all while one hand is nestled around the front to toy with your clit. He also loves how desperate for more friction you get with this one.

Doggy style. He likes the control this position gives him, how he’s able to command you into it, set the pace, decide when you are allowed to come undone. Boba also likes being able to grab your hips and knead your ass as he rails you, leaving fingerprint bruises on your skin. He also likes spanking you and pulling at your hair. He also keeps a couple firm, large fingers against your clit, rolling that sensitive bud between them.

Missionary. Boba enjoys basic missionary because A) you’re smooshed under him, B) it gives him the ability to kiss you as he pounds into you, and C) he’s able to be versatile. He also likes how personal and intimate missionary is, being able to see your face and watch your facial expressions as you orgasm for him again and again. Boba also gives your breasts a lot of attention when he’s got this perfect access to them, kneading them and pinching and tweaking your nipples.

G = goofy (are they the more serious type, or more humorous?)

Boba is 100% about making sure that you are receiving the pleasure you deserve. He is giving you everything he’s got during sex, so there’s no room for being silly. The most “goofiness” that he partakes in is lots of teasing and dirty talk, which isn’t all that goofy to begin with, just as serious and commanding as he is.

H = hair (how well-groomed are they?)

Boba is a functionalist, so he’s pretty well groomed below the belt. Of course, of what he has left to groom. The Sarlacc pit’s acid wiped out pretty much all his body hair, including his happy trail and about a quarter of his tuft (Boba genuinely thanks the Maker every day his penis remained untouched), so there’s only a little bit to take care of. 

I = intimacy ( how intimate are they during sex?)

Boba is intimate in a very domineering, overpowering way. He gets you so close to the edge so quickly, so torturously that there’s nothing but this overwhelming closeness that occurs, this performance of worship. His hands and mouth on your body, his voice in your ear, it’s like you become one, when he’s steady above you, your bodies interlocked, fingers laced in your hair, tugging gently. It will feel like Boba pushes you to the limit, that the intensity is like a thousands stars burning over you at once. Boba’s presence is like that.

J = jack off (do they masturbate?)

When he was a younger, more spry, more sexually unruly man? Yes. Everyday, probably. Now when he’s older, has more self-control, and you by his side? Not so much. Rarely ever, to be honest. the only times he finds himself with the itch to yank it would be if he’s been gone from you for a while or if it’s a mutual masturbation type of situation.

K = kinks (any kinks?)

Boba is such a fucking sexual deviant and kinky bastard it’s no wonder he decided to be a bounty hunter, because only a bounty hunter would act up the way Boba does. He has quite a few kinks, but here are the main ones:

Daddy kink. Boba is the physical manifestation of the “Your daughter calls me daddy too” meme. He derives such a smug pleasure from you calling him Daddy. He also likes it for the position of authority it is.

Dom/sub dynamic. Boba is a bonifide top/dom and nothing is changing that. He’s the one in charge, who makes the rules and breaks the rules, and he isn’t relinquishing that anytime soon. Boba thrives in that position of power, and loves having you a submissive, moaning mess beneath him. If you are naturally a quieter, maybe introverted person, Boba would go near rabid because that softness is just what he’s looking for. If you’re dominate like him, he sees that as a challenge... Prepare to be dominated.

Praise/degradation kink. He really just loves to hear himself talk, huh? This man is constant, non-stop dirty talk during sex and he’ll be saying downright delicious things to you. He’ll be giving you all the pet names in the book, “cyar’ika”, “pretty girl”, “mesh’la”, etc etc. Every time you react the way he wants to, or you pleasantly surprise him with your response to him, you’ll be rewarded with utmost praise. He’ll coo to you about how well you’re taking his cock, how perfect your body is, how good your wet pussy tastes... everything. Boba also likes balancing the good with the bad, so he may use a bit of degradation, usually in the form of backhanded compliments or ruder nicknames. However, if you don’t like degradation, he will simply avoid it, easy said and done.

Innocence kink/virgin kink. Woo hoo boy... Boba loves if you are or act all shy and bashful with him in the bedroom. It really goes hand in hand with his dominate role, you being a submissive, blushing mess while he’s all big and intimidating (not in a fear way). He likes being the one to corrupt you by marking your body all up with love bites and small bruises, making your tight pussy his as he rails you. If you tell him you’re a virgin the first time y’all have sex, Boba might go feral.

Breeding kink. Before meeting you, Boba didn’t really have this kink. His younger years were spent angry and vengeful and full of sex that was meaningless at the end of the day. But after the Sarlacc, and snagging the Palace from Bib Fortuna, and meeting you, Boba kinda starts getting an inkling of wanting a little something extra... or a little someone extra. He starts genuinely contemplating and liking the idea of having kids, and it partly manifests in his dirty talk where he’ll say stuff like “Gonna let me fill you up?” and “Got to keep your pussy full. Womb too”. Boba likes the idea of you mothering his children.

L = location (favorite place to “do the do”?)

Boba’s favorite place to positively ravish you is anywhere that he has full control over the safety of the room. So this usually applies to the bedroom, where Boba has set up so many security measures that no one is getting in, but also to more public places. When Boba was younger, he was much much more into exhibitionism and would’ve been down to fuck like... in front of a crowd, to be honest. But he’s older now (and wiser too) so he values the concepts of safety and security, much unlike his past self. So while Boba may still fuck you in an alley or in the throne room, he makes sure that literally no one is around. He does this less out of the potential embarrassment, but more so because he knows he has a huge target on his back. 

M = motivation (what gets them turned on?)

If you start being a little tease, or show him a bit of sass and being overall more mouthy, his pants are definitely getting a bit tight around the crotch region. Boba loves it when and if you try to talk back to him or if you get all snarky.

On the opposite hand, Boba also loves it if you’re easily flustered, all pink-faced and bashful at something he says. He really finds a smidgen of shyness to be really, really enticing. It strokes his massive Dom Complex.

N = NO (what’s their turn offs?)

Boba has a few hard turn offs that he would never do, full stop. They’re age play/regression, consensual non-con/rape play, and extreme sadism. While he does have a daddy kink, it’s really only for the name and position of power, not the age factor (so he’s not into DDLG). And despite Boba being a big ol’ bastard, it’s never sat with him well to play the role of “rapist” during sex. Also, Boba likes a bit of punishment and being rough ‘n tough with you, but he has a limit of how far he’d go. He never wants to actually hurt hurt you. Even if you’re a full masochist and you asked him to do it, said it’s okay and everything, Boba would still never harm you and would probably get fully turned off.

O = oral (do they have a preference in giving/receiving?)

He doesn’t really have a preference, because he’ll go down on you and if you give him head, he’s all game, but fuck, does Boba like going down on you. He gets an immense amount of satisfaction from making you cum using only his mouth, having you completely undone and writhing just from his face between your legs. He also really loves your pussy??? Like it’s so perfect to him, the aroma, the taste, the slick, wet feel, the way it clenches and quivers around his tongue, etc etc??? Boba loves it.

P = pace & PDA (are they soft, sensual, rough, or feral? are they open to displaying the relationship?)

Boba fucks hard and rough and slow and with a purpose. He wants to give you (and himself, of course) as much pleasure as possible for as long as possible. He paces himself very well, the master of self-control he is, and he will have you orgasming and edging for ages before he finally dicks you down. Boba finds great pleasure in having you cockdumb by the end of it.

Sometimes though, Boba gives you that same purpose in a slightly different way. he still fucks you good, but he’ll be a bit more sensual, a bit more gentle. Often, it’s because you ask to love make, but occasionally it’s because Boba really really wants you to know just how much you mean to him.

PDA is very very lowkey and subtle with Boba. This is mostly because he and you know that if your relationship, especially with how deep it is, were to become too much of common knowledge, someone is bound to use it against you, specifically to get back at Boba. So, Boba doesn’t often even have a hand on you in public, or show any outward affection. What he does do though, is stand close to you or have you close at his side. He keeps you in his line of sight always, and it’s become a sort of dance you to have. Boba and you orbit each other in a way, never growing too distant nor too close. Though, its perfect for you.

However, if someone starts making moves on you, Boba may physically step in, cutting whoever it is off from you. He’ll make sure they know that your off limits, untouchable. Usually, this also brings the gentlest yet firmest of hands to your lower back.

Q = quickies (what’s their opinion on quickies?)

Yes. Just yes. Boba loves quickies. He might be addicted to them. It’s a mix of he is always Ready To Fuck and he just finds you so damn desirable and beautiful. Though he will always prefer having you for a few hours opposed to a rushed ten minutes. But don’t think he does any less of a good job.

R = risks (are they okay with experimenting? do they take risks?)

In his younger years, this would’ve been a hard, enthusiastic “yes”, but nowadays Boba won’t really actively experiment. If you have something you want to try, odds are he’ll go along with it, but he won’t ever bring up something new. He’s very content with his abilities, that are admittedly very very successful.

S = stamina (how many rounds can they last?)

Boba can last a long while, considering his age. He’s got years of experience and a whole lot of self-control under his belt, so he’s able to work you for at least a couple hours before he starts feeling it. He’ll having you cumming over and over again, working you with his mouth, hands, and cock. Boba also is very good at pacing and has this uncanny ability to restrain himself in a way that the pleasure for him doesn’t build up unless he allows it to. So don’t expect him to cum, even in light of your best efforts.

T = toys (do they own/use any toys?)

Again, used to when he was younger. But now he doesn’t because he knows he’s too damn good with his hands, mouth, and...y’know... to need any toys. Though, if you have any toys or you ask him to try one out, he’ll humor you and oblige. But he’ll tease you about it a ton, saying stuff like “Ah, but don’t you want my mouth instead?” or “I bet you’re missing my cock”. Boba will always make sure that you know he’s better than any toy that you’d introduce.

U = unfair (how much do they like to tease?)

Boba is such a smug shit. He teases so much and is so unfair that it borders on being cruel and he enjoys it, the fucking guy. If you’re into that, he’ll get you begging and in tears before he lets up and gives you what you want (read: need). But if you’re not into it, he has a base, “normal” level of tease, but he’d never take it too far. If he does push it too far, he’ll make it up to you however you want him to, because the last thing he wants is you too upset because of him.

V = volume (how loud or quiet are they during sex?)

Boba spends most his time during sex teasing the life out of you so he is vocal in that respect. He talks the talk, saying stuff like “You take my cock so well, little girl” and “Use your words, mesh’la, tell me what you want”. His constant dirty talk is sometimes broken up by growls from the back of his throat, heavy grunting and groaning, and the occasional low moan— all from the slick, hot heat that is you. 

W = wildcard (what’s a random headcanon?)

Boba struggles with pain sometimes, the aches left behind from the wounds he received from the Sarlacc pit. It usually flares up if he’s stressed or been overworking himself, making his skin feel tight, like there’s a constant pull in all directions. He also gets pain from age and overuse of his joints. Often, it’s only his knees and ankles that act up, but sometimes he gets it in his back and wrists. And though he never says anything about it, and never asks you for anything, he really does appreciate it if you take the time to give him a massage or run him a warm bath, despite how grumpy he gets when you do.

X = x-ray & x-tra (what’s underneath those clothes? any more random headcanons?”)

Boba is built like a fucking tank, an absolute hunk of a man. From a life of training, bounty hunting, fighting, etc etc, Boba has a body type akin to a powerlifter, he never built muscle for show, only functionality. He’s all broad-shoulders, stocky, and thick muscles. Unlike the beauty standard, Boba doesn’t have the ever-desired six pack abs or pinched waist, he has a hefty barrel torso and a slight, squishy tummy. His arms and legs are equally, if not more, strong and muscled like the rest of him, and Boba is very easily able to lift you up whenever.

Now, of course, Boba is very heavily scarred. He has scars of varying sizes, shapes, and ages, some being that shiny white while others are still pinkish, all over his body from bounty hunting and getting into tiffs. The Sarlacc also completed ravaged his bronze skin, leaving this impressive and tight web of scar tissue near everywhere on his body, though it’s most heavily condensed on his left side.

NOW HIS PENIS. Boba has a Nice Cock on him, that’s for damn sure. He’s not exceedingly big, but he is girthy. And weighty. Boba’s penis is 6 inches (15.25 cm) in length and just under 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) in diameter. He is uncut, and a prominent vein runs on the bell end of his cock. His balls are also very impressive and are fairly heavy.

Y = yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

High. Astronomical. Boba suffers from Horny Derangement Syndrome™. You touch his shoulder as you pass by him? His cock is hard. You give him a kiss out of the blue “just because”? He’s dry humping against you. You give him a cheeky smile and flirt with him? His pants are off. Boba is in a constant state of Wanting To Fuck. But, of course, if your sex drive doesn’t match his or if you’re not in the mood, he literally will not care or hold it against you.

Z = zzzz (how fast do they fall asleep after?)

Boba does not fall asleep until you have. Period. Full stop. It’s a bit of a machismo thing of his (he sees himself as the “protector” in the relationship) but it’s also because he just genuinely likes watching you fall asleep. Boba likes when you get all sleepy and droopy, melting against him, feeling all your muscles relax as your body starts to slow down. It makes him feel strong, comfortable, and most of all, loved. You falling asleep next to him, the Boba Fett, is almost the biggest exercise of trust you can show him, and he loves it.

[ssatoritendou]

Dinner for Three

Pairing: Chuuya/reader

Chuuya Nakahara

Word count: 1.4k

+ summary: After a day being tormented by Osamu Dazai all you want to do was spend time with the lovely Chuuya...but an enemy has other plans for both of you

Genre: fluff

Warning: mentions of weapons

“Osamu I don’t get why I have to wear a face mask?”

In a whiney tone, with a pout, the dangerous mafioso responded, “___ it’s a disguise. No one can tell who you are.”

“Osamu, putting me in a suit, a face mask, and a different hairstyle won’t fool anyone. Besides we are in headquarters. Everyone knows we work together.” You argued with him.

“Boo-hoo for trying to make our day fun. And make you look interesting.” He laughed with an evil smirk.

“Keep talking Dazai, you’ll end up in more bandages.” You mumbled.

You were going through the paperwork you had to finish filling out and filing.

“___ I’m bored.”

You sighed, “Osamu maybe if you did your paperwork on time, we could be out on a raid or literally anything else.”

“Why would I do it? When I have a pretty Belladonna doing it for me.”

You chuckled with a sinister smile under your mask but to Dazai it looks like you liked the compliment. “Actually I’m doing Nakahara a favor.”

He faked a pain in his heart and fell out of the chair. “How dare you do that dog a favor! You are supposed to be my associate, not his!”

“Osamu you do realize we all work together, you might be my mentor but I’m friends with everyone.”

“And to think I gave you...what did I give you again?”

“Hmm...” you thought “you gave a roll of bandages. I think you even said over drinks used them when you have horrible injuries. Then you poured Chuuya’s wine into his hat. We were asked to leave Lupin. If Odasaku was there controlling what you were drinking maybe we wouldn’t have been kicked out.”

“You just said Chuuya. You never call him Chuuya. Always Nakahara, Mr. Nakahara, and Executive Nakahara.”

“Did I? Careless mistake. You say it all the time must have picked it up.” You said with a shrug finishing the last paper for Chuuya.

Knowing full well you messed up. You weren’t supposed to call him that outside of the home. You were supposed to meet him tonight for dinner. But now the ever so clever mafioso idiot Dazai Osamu, was glaring at you.

“Do you have any idea what you want to do or what we should do? Besides play dress up. Heard anything from Ogai?”

He looked down at his desk filled with paperwork. “No, I guess I have to meet Akutagawa soon.”

“So I can go home?” You asked excitedly.

“Yeah yeah. Keep the phone on though.”

You left headquarters and went home. You plopped on your couch loosening your tie.

“Hey baby,… what are wearing?” He looked you up and down.

“Dazai wanted to play dress-up today. He said it was a “disguise”.” You told your boyfriend.

He growled at the mention of Dazai. “I’m sorry he tortured by that asshole.”

“Chuuya that is not a kind way to describe our friend.”

He rolled his eyes. “He is a suicidal maniac and a piece of shit. Do not call him my friend.” He growled.

“Ok, sweetie. I’m going to get ready for dinner.” You told him.

“You still want to go out even with the suspicious sociopath out there?”

“I just spent the entire day with a bored Dazai, he dressed me up as Mori does with Elise. I deserve a night out at my favorite restaurant with my big bad mafioso boyfriend is going to take me there.”

“He dressed you like the way Mori does with Elise?!” He yelled, taking that small comparison away from your statement.

“Dinner. Tonight Chuuya.”

“You were right. We are needed the night out.” Chuuya said sipping his wine.

“It pays to be in the mafia with multiple restaurants willing to close just for you.”

Chuuya hummed to that as you both raised your glasses clinking them.

You two were in a comfy corner in the party room restaurant, arched doors closed, large paints hanging off the walls, maroon carpeted floors, a private bar across from the door, and a table lit by candlelight. A fine red wine Chuuya picked for you two tonight. Him even pinning his hair tonight under his fedora.

You recently saw an old picture when he first entered the Port Mafia with short hair. You casually mentioned you liked how he looked in his teens. He nearly chopped off his beautiful long ginger hair with a pair of kitchen scissors. You threw a knife in his direction to stop him from doing so. You adore his long locks, loved calming him down with running your fingers through his hair. Or when he had a pretty stressful day brushing it for him and braiding it, that ultimately lead to him braid yours in return.

“So please tell me how was your day today My Love.” You asked him.

“Pretty boring had to go over shipments coming in from the north, that was early in the morning. Then there was the delivery process. I was able to go for a short bike ride briefly, nearly got mugged by a kid on the street. He looked like he was starving I didn’t blame him I’ve been there. So I gave him so cash and a card just in case he needs a family.”

“Ever so kind My God.”

“What did I tell you about calling me your god.” He brought down his hat to cover his face flush from the comment.

“It’s only true, Mr. Executive.” You said teasingly knowing that gets a rise out of him. You started to play footies with his legs under the pristine white table cloth.

“I would like to go to dinner once where we actually eat and not having me rush home because you can’t behave.” He growled at you grabbing your thigh possessively.

You giggled. “Sorry for teasing you.” You liked down at your wine glass twirling your finger around the edge. You noticed a strange reflection in the glass.

“Chuuya duck.” You said in a calm manner.

You both hit the deck just as a rain of fire of bullets was coming from the main dining room.

You flipped the table over as the both of you made your way to the bar.

“Can you use your ability?”

“I can’t see who is out there or how many. They are covered.”

“And we are pinned down.” You sighed.

So this is how you and Chuuya, the love of your life were going to die. Pinned down in your favorite restaurant being killed by Port Mafia enemies.

“What can you do with a blowtorch?” Chuuya asked pulling it up from under the shelf.

“Depends how much do you like that jacket?”

He smirked and started ripping the jacket up. Putting the ends in liquor bottles. You turned on the blowtorch, starring at the beautiful flame.

Chuuya was smirking happily watching you ready to burn down a building and give him an opening to kill these men that were trying to kill you.

He saw one of the bullets and saw an interesting logo on the side.

“…Mori Corp.” He said with an angry low tone. “Don’t, we can’t kill them.”

“What they are shooting at us?”

“They are blanks. Look at the shells.”

“Son of a bitch, Osamu Dazai!” You yelled across the restaurant. You stood up from behind the bar. “The next person who shoots, I will have your head and Chuuya will play with your decapitated head.”

Chuuya face went blank after you said that.

“Ok ok boys you heard the little lady. You can all go home.” Dazai said with an evil smirk.

You jumped over the bar into the main dining hall grabbing the bandage freak by the neck.

“What the hell Dazai! You tortured me all day and I wanted to relax with my boyfriend and you had to ruin it.” He was laughing, “Why the hell are you laughing your maniac?!”

“You said Chuuya is your boyfriend.”

“That is what this is about?!” Chuuya yelled at him from the side.

“Now, Now you two, you were keeping a secret from your best friend. You should have told me because you didn’t you got shot at.” He said with his dead stare.

“You are psycho.” You sighed holding your head in hand. You flipped the table back up pulling three chairs over. “Are you idiots coming to eat or not?”

[mrultra100]

Ultra’s Ramblings: The Johnny Test Character Tierlist

While I’m thinking of ideas for what I wanna draw next (And waiting for someone to order a commission from me) I feel like revisiting an old meme of mine from last year. As many of the people I hang out with know, I actually like Johnny Test. Sure, the original series was mediocre at best (At least in the later seasons), but it’s a series I’m familiar with and have been for many years. After the warm reception the Netflix revival got with its two seasons, I’m hoping that it gets a continuation. For now, I’m revamping the tierlist I made for the JT cast, along with adding in a few new faces from season 2 of the revival. And to make this more exciting, I’m gonna lay down a ranking system where I write down the tier of each character within. Some of these guys are in the upper tiers because they’re my favorites outta this bunch of characters. And with some of the others... Let’s just say that I don’t have anything nice to say about them…at all.

We’re gonna be going from bottom to top in terms of the tiers, that way, I can mentally wash the Tickler from my mind…Speaking of which…

The “Why do you exist?” Tier: Hoo boy, this is gonna start rough. I know that I can be a bit crazy when it comes to the series, especially with the V-Twins, but the Tickler? His mere existence just feels wrong to me. Not only spouting a creepy and unappealing design (He just looks like a worse version of Wacko, if we’re being honest), his main thing is tickling, and I’m not referring to tickling as a comedy aspect, I mean a full-on OBSESSION with it, as if the writers themselves had some sort of tickling fetish (Yes, for those new to this site, that’s a thing). Like Wacko before him, the Tickler wanted to get rid of kids, this time targeting Johnny and his sisters. So, how does he do it? Why, by kidnapping the Twins by spiking their ice cream, locking them in his basement, and starts to tickle torture them… Yeah, that just screams “creepy old man”, and that’s coming from a weirdo like me. I have no idea what the writers were even thinking when they wrote the only episode that this creep appeared in. It says something when the nerd who was majorly obsessed with the V-Twins is disturbed by the Ticker. Seriously, I don’t mean to kink shame, but why is tickling a fetish!? It’s supposed to be all innocent and all, not whatever the Tickler tried to carry out. I’m honestly glad he never came back after his episode, because sheesh, he’s one of the few characters in any sort of media that I actually hate, and I don’t go out of my way to hate a character. He frankly should’ve never happened.

The Just Terrible Tier: As much as I don’t wanna be all negative, I still got 5 more characters I feel ill about, so let’s just get this part over with. The Truant Officer is the least offending of these guys, because I still don’t like him, he was just trying to do his job. Still, that ain’t savin’ him from the confines of this list. Wacko is less bad than his creepo brother, it’s just how the later episodes have portrayed him as a flat character. That’s the reason why he’s here, he just feels more bland than he was in earlier seasons, and the fact that his motivation for hating and targeting children is never explained. Monty Butterworth is just an unpleasant little twerp, Evil Johnny from the short-lived Lost Web Series feels bland and unnecessary, and Hugh? I could mention how he’s a cheap, abusive jerk, but what hasn’t the internet said that’s been already said?

The Meh Tier: Honestly, I don’t have much to say about these peeps. They’re either boring, not that interesting, don’t have enough to stand out, or haven’t thought alot about. I know that there are people out there who like some of these guys, but to be frank, I don’t have enough to say about them. Take Xeandra, for example. She’s just the JT equivalent of Kristen Stewart, that’s basically it for her. She doesn’t get enough lines or screen time in her only episode (Then again, when you have the V-Twins stealing the show, she didn’t stand much of a chance). I’m starting to get bored of these guys, so let’s move on!

The Nice Tier (>:]): Alright, now this is where we’re getting into the good ones. For starters, I like the main 4, they’re cool in my book. And speaking as such, while they’re not as high as their vampiric selves, normal Susan and Mary are still good characters. As for Bling Bling? After seeing all of the memes about him, I’m not as keen on putting in with the bangers, but he’s still iconic, so he has that going for him. The other characters here, like Brain Freezer, Gil, Joni and Dutchy, for example, they’re pretty good in my book. However, as much as I like these guys, they’re still in second place, and for a good reason…

The ABSOLUTE BANGERS Tier: Now this is where things get spicy, and in a good way! Starting off with the Vampire Twins (Especially with V-Mary), if anyone here knows even a slight pinch of me, you all knew this was comin’ from a mile away!  They’re honestly some of the most fun characters I’ve seen, given how much I’ve been talking about them for years. But, they’re not alone at the top, JT was kind enough to provide a whole list of bangers, both in the original series, and in the revival. Zizar, Mr. Mittens, and Albert are my favorite villains from the series, the two dinosaurs and Senor Crabo from the revival’s second season are bangers in their own right (Helps that I really love crabs), Gameroid is a nice tribute to tokusatsu and kaiju, Mr. Black and Mr. White are basically memetic legends at this point (The former did blew up Malaysia, after all), Repto Slicer is a whole weapon in his own right (Literally, in his case), Lila is a spicy kind of hot, and so on and so forth

And there we go, a nice, solid, updated tierlist of the cast of the JT universe! Sure, there are many more characters than these guys, but most of them would just remain in Meh tier, so I’ll leave it at that. And if you have an opinion of your own that you wanna let out, comment down below and I’ll be happy to answer your question, and if you wanna make your own tierlist, be sure to click here. I’m just glad we didn’t went through a single whip crack during this whole thi-

*WHIPCRACK*

AW COME ON!

[forthegothicheroine]

american psycho, the company of wolves, beauty and the beast (og disney), beauty and the beast (disney remake), tim burton's sleepy hollow, the over the garden wall miniseries, disney's legend of sleepy hollow (lmao i want it to be fall so bad), sofia coppola's marie antoinette, sofia coppola's the beguiled, the innocents, fire walk with me, crimson peak, coppocula

Hoo boy! Stuffing this big series of answers below the cut.

American Psycho:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Love it! I don't think the book would do it for me (I don't do well with graphic torture) but I thought the movie did a good job of showing us the kind of things he was doing, while also leaving enough ambiguity even before the twist at the end, and letting us sympathize with his depression (even if he can't name it) while also making him deeply unpleasant.

The Company of Wolves:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Do I like it as a big feminist statement? Honestly, not really- there's no sympathy for any women who aren't Rosalie or maybe her mother, and I think we are supposed to be conflicted over whether the choice she makes at the end is the right one. Do I like it as an exploration of an adolescent female id? Absolutely. Sex and violence and terror and quests are all on her mind and are all equally awful and thrilling, and Rosalie wants what's bad for her and isn't sure it's actually bad for her and the balance of power is always see-sawing and the whole thing feels like the most amazing dream.

Beauty and the Beast (original):

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I thought the Beast was too mean when I was a little kid and forming my Disney opinions- I might actually like it more now. This is probably why I like the Cocteau version, even though what he does is basically still just as bad, because at least he's not a dick about it (and Panna a nevtor, which plays it all for gothic horror.)

Sleepy Hollow:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

In retrospect, this one shows a lot of the problems that would later kill my love for Tim Burton, but it's still a lot of fun. The Hessian is genuinely scary, Johnny Depp is mugging a bit but it's not as bad as it would eventually get, and I want all the dresses.

Over the Garden Wall:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Pure distilled autumn in its aspects of both harvest and death, fun and fear. It's a world based on vintage Halloween postcards and fairytales that don't actually exist but feel like they do. I love every character, and that momentary flash where we see what the Beast looks like haunts my nightmares. My only caveat is that I do sometimes have to tell other people to keep watching after Schoolyard Follies, there will be a plot I promise!

Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I think this is one of those where I never saw the whole thing, just the main song on one of those Best of Disney compilation videos. I'll at least give it credit for preserving the original story rather than making the Headless Horseman actually real (which I think most adaptations do because frankly the original story isn't long enough for feature length.)

Marie Antoinette:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

This seems like one of those movies where you've supposed to get into the mood of the music and the visuals more so than the plot or characters? I can get into that.

The Beguiled:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I still don't know if I want to see this or not! The concept sounds cool and creepy, but I don't like the idea that these ladies are the good guys. Or maybe I'm wrong and nobody's supposed to be a good guy? Or maybe I should watch the grimier original since I unfortunately find young Clint Eastwood hot?

The Innocents:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I'm personally of the opinion that the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw were real (it's just that screaming at a child is not a good way to exorcise them), but the deliberate ambiguity/unreliability of this version is also creepy in its own way. It's a much darker ghost story that you'd get from most big studio films of the time, certainly.

Fire Walk With Me:

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

This really did a good job of portraying its protagonist as a real person rather than just an object of clinical observation or perverse whimsy (which I think Twin Peaks the Return fell into.) It's just so heartbreakingly sensitive and Sheryl Lee does such a good job of portraying Laura as both kind and mean, loving and hateful, and absolutely the victim of someone she should have been able to trust. And then the end, where Cooper is smiling gently at her and the angel has come back and she's laughing in relief? Oh my god.

Crimson Peak

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

I didn't love this as much as I thought I would (maybe because I was spoiled about what was up with the Sharpes, or maybe because I didn't like the implication that Edith should have gone with the nice boy best friend she didn't love) but I'd still say it's a good entry in the gothic romance genre. Stunning clothes and scenery, great actors, scary ghosts, an ending open enough for fanfiction. If I picked this up as an Avon Satanic Gothic at a thrift store, I'd definitely be happy!

Coppocula (Bram Stoker's Dracula)

never seen | want to see | the worst | bad | whatever | not my thing | good | great | favorite | masterpiece

Oof. I don't want to be a snob about this. I've definitely liked Dracula movies that were wackier or dumber than this (looking at you, 2004 BBC version!) This one just breaks my heart because there's so much talent on display and I just. fucking. hate it! That soundtrack deserved a better movie. That red dress deserved a better movie. All the characters deserved better writing. Whenever someone tells me they love this movie, I have to nod and say that it's certainly beautiful looking, because I don't want to be a terrible gatekeeper, and if it was an original vampire story it might well be a guilty pleasure of mine. I just fucking hate it. On the bright side, it did give us Vlad the Poker in the What We Do in the Shadows movie, a pitch-fucking-perfect parody of Gary Oldman's Dracula, and the Nadja/Gregor plot in the What We Do in the Shadows tv show, a pitch-fucking-perfect deconstruction of the reincarnated wife trope.

[worstloki]

Wait...ATLA AU with Waterbender!Loki, and FireNation!Asgard. Mayhaps the spirits are more relevant in this AU, so people especially blessed by non-main/non-elemental spirits (so anyone other than La, Tui, Agni, uhhh Guain and Shu are the earth kingdom ones I think, and The Autumn Lord or air) can have some manipulation of Qi, but it works differently and is very, very rare, depending on the power level of the spirit, a bending blessing can last 1 generation without renewing it through more bending blood, or like 20 generations but it skips a few. So you can have Non-bender (but actually water bender Loki), or Insert Cannon Spirt that can give him some shape shifting blessed and maybe still Water bender but figures that that out waay later Loki. This ask is a little bit of a mess, but just Water Tribe Loki (who’s stuffed full of ‘water Tribe’s are barbaric’ propaganda) Living in Fire Nation Asgard.

because Loki, like me, simply must be the center of the universe:

- Asgard is the fire nation, obviously, and Odin has 3 kids: the fire-bending lightning-bending prodigy daughter, the spare fire-bender who is good but not as good who will strive to do what his father asks because Father simply must be right (even if he’ll realize later and switch sides), the non-bender who is the dishonorable family disgrace who freaks out and makes a run from home when he realizes he can water bend and neither of his parents can and realizes he was adopted? stolen?? and is maybe the avatar and oh frick Odin’s razing the other nations trying to find the avatar and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

- The “air nation” can be four temples/realms (svartalfheim, alfheim, vanaheim, muspelheim) which were wiped out on by the last Sozin’s comet, so the cycle moved on to the water nation (southern water tribe/jotunheim) (northern water tribe/nifleheim) and there ain’t no way he’s going there those people are barbaric monsters... aren’t they?

- he joins a Midgardian (earth-kingdom) circus road-trip that’s touring across the realms (yes, he juggles) that’s actually just the Avengers and maybe they’re all non-benders? maybe some of them are? None of them are too flashy but Loki’s trying to observe the mix of bending styles and pick up on bending techniques without making it too obvious that he’s not a non-bender

- cue Loki getting in touch with the Earth spirit and getting some neat blessing gifts with bending and now he can Earth bend too and suddenly BAM Thor attacks the circus and Loki water bends to defend his circus friends from his fire and they make eye contact and Loki is so scared/devastated at having to go up against Thor who is angry at Loki for leaving home and has been tasked to retrieve Loki - the water bending throws Thor off and in his confusion Loki freezes him to the ground and apologizes and runs for it.

- now the circus folks are all “um, dude??? the prince of the fire nation just attacked us and you didn’t tell us you could bend?? what’s up with that???” so he tells them he may or may not be Fire Nation Prince Loki and they all feel betrayed because “those colonialist jerks??” but Loki explains how he’s actually a water bender... and may also be an earth bender... and they’re all totally on-board with the avatar returning because it’s about time and the earth kingdom is on thin ice with them (ba sing se is Svartalfheim btw) and yes the reason we’re a mix of benders is because this circus is actually the white lotus the avengers and were touring the realms to low-key try finding the avatar who is supposed to be the saving grace and end of this war please

- now the circus folks are helping Loki meet all the other nation spirits (yes they venture into the terrifying Jotunheim and Nifleheim while searching for the spirit (”what do you mean you don’t know where the spirit is?? how’d you find the last ones??” “I only met one!! and it came to me!!” “well I guess we’re stuck searching everywhere in this frozen wasteland then”) and additionally he only gets to meet the spirit who grants him the bending after he accepts parts of himself and others (for example, the water bending was a result of him finally realizing that he didn’t stand a chance at the throne and it wasn’t until every shred of hope that Odin could one day be proud of him was gone that he was messing with the turtleduck pool and maybe saw the water spirit in the reflection and bent water) (the earth spirit comes to him when he accepts that there are people that will still be proud of him and he can move on with life because the circus folk like him for who he is and were excited when he successfully landed a bunch of throwing knives on targets and decided on that as an act he can do)

- The circus folk are also trying to teach Loki what little they know about bending btw since he’s admitted to copying and mixing their techniques together (he does all the bending in one style and yes it’s as chaotic for the opponent as that sounds because you can never tell what he’s going to bend) but there 100% has to be an episode where he steals the water-scroll  

- Thor chases them down and Loki can bend water now?? and he’s just trying to bring Loki back like Odin asked him too and then one time he catches up to them and Loki panics and bends Earth too and Thor realizes and stops fighting and tells Loki to just go. Thor goes back to the Fire Nation and argues with Odin and calls him out because Loki is the avatar?? he’s from the water tribe?? and he feels betrayed and does the Zuko-Ozai-Black-Sun-Speech-Without-The-Black-Sun about how neither Loki nor Thor need to prove themselves and he won’t tear this family apart any further (Frigga is in fact an absent mother here btw) and then Thor goes and chases Loki down over weeks and saves him (blue mask hero?? except... feathered-helmet hero??) from Fire Nation soldiers who got their hands on him and the circus folk are NOT happy to have him around (air bending comes to Loki when he finally forgives Thor for being an arrogant self-righteous meanie to him for years because Hela is attacking them now and this is so much worse and Thor gets his eye burnt by Hela and Bruce isn’t that good but he can water-bend and heal a bit so it’s not too bad and he takes a moment to breathe and goes for a walk and BAM air spirit) 

- they get attacked a few more times, loki tries getting over the trauma that is realizing the harm that the fire nation has done to all the other realms (and thor is learning this too by the way so when hela attacks you bet they try mentioning the damage and loss of culture the fire nation is resposible for even if she doesn’t care because she’s the heir she needs to be perfect because her two brothers weren’t and look what happened to them they were exiled and live with a blasphemous blend of peasants (and rich-kid-metal-bending-earth-nation-runaway-royalty tony (”WHAT?! SO THAT’S WHERE YOU GET THE MONEY?? I thought you were scamming people not selling cool metal toys and what are we doing that attracts all these royal snobs to us??”))

- Loki has a dream where the fire spirit tells him to keep searching and then one day Hela goes to burn Thor again and Loki just goes ahead and fire bends right back at her and hoo boy his fire isn’t blue but it sure is a lot and Thor does the “........YES!!!” thing and Hela gets stuck in a ring of fire while everyone else laughs and leaves and she can’t lose so watch as her “close friends” end up not being ty lee and mai but the valkyries (the kyoshi warriors are the Red Room Assassins in this AU and no it’s not a childhood torture house it’s just a mostly-women midgardian protection group (maybe Nat trained there so if the circus ever bumps into them she’ll know them? Jane should get to be one of them too even if she’s more into inventing... she and tony should Talk... maybe she and Pepper can beat him up and give him some Respect Women Juice the same way Sokka got his?)) 

- epic chase across the realms since Loki can bend all the elements now he just needs to figure out how the Avatar state works but until then the gaang is struggling to stay ahead of the Valkyries and get Loki trained up to take down Odin (Thor teaches Loki fire bending so that’s covered but no one else except Tony who is a metal-bending expert really learnt properly and Loki isn’t even a metal-bender)

- eventually Hela snaps from all the losses and as she becomes more unhinged Brun jumps sides and Hela kills off (or fires, if we’re staying PG) the rest of the Valkyries and now Brun is super guilty but she’s fighting to avenge them now 

- blah blah blah Sozin’s comet day and Loki goes up against Odin with the help of the Avengers (maybe Thor can take down Hela with the help of Brun and Nat?) etc. etc. 

- so anyways Loki takes Odin’s fire bending and that was the first time he’s entered the Avatar state and when everyone asks how it felt Loki goes “oh i’m not the avatar” 

- “you’re WHAT” “not it” “but you JUST went into the avatar state and everything” “yeah and kyoshi gives good head pats but I’m not it” “but-- you mastered ALL THE ELEMENTS?!” “yeah because I was gifted them by the spirits” “but you needed to renew the cycle after it was gone from the world for so long--” “nah I think the spirits just liked me and wanted me to have it” “they... just... like... you...??” “yeah” “so you actually ARE a non-bender Brother??” “oh yeah definitely I was, but not anymore :)” “so you ARE the avatar” 

- [twenty minutes later] “I just went into the avatar state and they just told me i’m not it” “...this happened while you were in the avatar state though???” *shrugs* “eh” “don’t SHRUG this off is there an actual avatar out there or no???” “maybe the real avatar was the friends we made along the way” “shouldn’t we go find them???” *cue everyone setting out on another grand quest to find the ~actual~ Avatar*

[fantasticstoryteller]

New Amsterdam Chapter 56

Daredevil stood broodingly on the roof, like a living gargoyle protecting his small corner of the city from those who would prey on it. Head bowed slightly to allow his ears to hear even the slightest of wrong-doing in the city beneath him.

“Yoo-hoo! Double D!” called Wade as he tumbled into place on the roof next to the masked vigilante. “How are you—urk!”

One of Daredevil’s hands closed around Wade’s throat. “Deadpool,” he said stoically.

Deadpool pushed him away and he allowed it to happen. “Man,” said Wade. “What’s with the grabby-grabby?”

{Rude. We should shoot him.}

[We’re not going to shoot him. We came for his help, remember?]

{If you’d just let us kill the bastard—}

Daredevil sighed. “What do you want?” he demanded tersely.

“Oh. I see. Brooding and morose. Well, I didn’t come—heh heh—to talk to the masked Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, I came to talk to the Badass Blind Lawyer.”

“A lawyer.” Wade was certain that if Daredevil’s mask was emotive—or had, you know, eyes—the man would be rolling them. “Why do you need a lawyer?”

“It’s not for me!” protested Wade. “It’s for my boyfriend! Well, I think he’s still my boyfriend? He hasn’t broken up with me yet, and he needs a lawyer.” Wade paused. “And, uh, I’d appreciate it if you could pretend to be taking the case pro bono. I’ll pay you,” Wade added quickly, “but he gets a little—finicky about that sort of thing.”

“You—have a boyfriend.”

“Aw, and he’s the sweetest thing!”

[He might not still be your boyfriend. You did kidnap him.]

“I had to! He would die otherwise!”

“Is that what you need a lawyer for?” asked Daredevil.

{Please. As if we’d need help with that.}

[Given that your plan was to kidnap the hot boyfriend who loved us, yeah. We need help.]

“I can hear your curiosity,” taunted Wade in a sing-song voice. “But no. We’ve got it covered.”

[We do not, you costumed ass!]

“So what do you—your boyfriend, need a lawyer for?”

“I think his landlord is pulling some shady, and I mean super shady, Shady Pines, shit with his lease.”

“That’s—surprisingly appropriate,” said Daredevil slowly. “I’ll look into it tomorrow.”

“Thanks, mi amigo!”

“Now go away. I have things to take care of.”

“Things? What things? Maybe I can help?”

[Maybe you can make it worse.]

“You don’t know that! Neither of us know what’s going on yet!”

Daredevil sighed. “This gang is having a meeting with a new player. I need to see,” the vigilante continued over Deadpool’s giggles, “if it’s something I’m going to have to interfere with.”

“Well, give me the down-lo on the low-down, and maybe I can help.”

“Can you shut up?” demanded Daredevil. He took a deep, slow breath.

{Wonder if that helps him calm down?}

“Deadpool,” said Daredevil slowly, carefully. “I need to go in stealthy. I do not want them knowing I’m there.”

“No problem,” Wade drawled. “Let’s go.” Daredevil glared at him, but turned to lead the way.

[He’s probably realized that fighting you over this will be loud enough to alert the people he’s trying not to alert.]

{Be vewy vewy quiet. We’ah hunting Dahdevil.}

[Shut up!]

“Shut up!” hissed Daredevil, alerting Wade to the fact that he was humming the Ride of the Valkyries under his breath.

“Sorry,” hissed Wade as they snuck into the abandoned theatre. Well, abandoned by the officials, anyway. Judging from the clutter below, it seemed that squatters had moved in. Judging from the tagging on the walls, these were gangs.

[Odd. Why isn’t the outside of the building marked?]

That—was a good question. Wade watched carefully. There were several gang members lounging on what used to be a stage while even more hid in the shadows on either side of the stage.

{Look! They’re wearing the red scarves as belts!}

They were. Wade silently swung around Daredevil to get a better look. The one in the center of the stage was clearly the leader and even though he was lounging in an oversized beanbag chair, Wade could tell he was tense. They all were. Whoever this “other player” was, they were on edge.

Footsteps alerted Wade to the new arrival and he turned as a teen walked confidently towards the stage, huge wings tucked close to her back.

{Isn’t that the girl we raised in another reality?}

[You mean, ‘Isn’t that the girl Peter raised in another reality.’ I seriously doubt she’d still be alive if we raised her.]

The teen on the chair began a slow clap as she approached and she stopped just before the stage, still mostly shrouded in shadows. “If it isn’t our very own interferer,” the teen said as he heaved himself out of his chair. His hands shot into his pockets and Wade could see the handles of guns in them.

[She’ll be fine. Remember, she heals faster than we do.]

“Interferer?” drawled the girl. “That’s rich, considering what you’ve been doing.”

What was she talking about?

[If you shut up and listen, we might find out.]

“Not something we’ve been able to do. And we didn’t attack your little sister again.”

{She has a little sister?}

The girl spread her arms wide. “They’re all my little brothers and sisters,” she said before settling her hands over her hips.

Wade was many things. He was flaky, he was insane, he didn’t have a good grasp (or any grasp, really) on social norms. But he knew a perfectly balanced fighting stance when he saw it.

[Maybe we did raise her.]

“Oh, they are? Then where were you when we started?”

“Not here; that’s for sure. You never would have gotten as far as you did.”

“Do you even know what we’re doing?”

“Do you?”

The banter was light, almost playful. The looks and body language were anything but. Wade stared, fascinated by the scene in front of him. The boy had the high ground (literally), but it was clear the girl was in charge. How had Daredevil put it? The girl was a player.

But—when had that happened? As far as he knew, she’d been in town for less than two weeks. How had she gotten mixed up in this mess, whatever it was?

“I know about the demon,” said the boy as he leaned forwards. Wade shifted. He recognized that tone of voice; it was the same one those religious freaks who’d tortured mutant kids had used. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“And it was tall, had eight legs, six eyes, and huge fangs,” replied the girl. She sounded—bored, of all things. “And you saw it transform right in front of your eyes, from a normal person you never would have looked twice at if you passed them in the street.”

[That was specific.]

The boy faltered and the girl nodded. “Yeah; I’ve seen it all before. You’re not the first to be roped into this, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you are the last.” Even from the catwalks Wade could see the amber eyes glitter. “I have my own problems with that one.”

“Oh? And what about the seal?”

The girl scoffed and rolled her eyes. “There is no seal,” she told him firmly. “There never was a seal. You’re being used to create a horde of monstrous minions.”

“Better to walk at the Devil’s side than be in his way,” said the boy, recovering remarkably.

The girl sighed. “I adore how naive you are,” she told him. “I really do.” She paced a step forward. “Those things have been changed. Those things are being controlled by a power-hungry psychopath. Despite all of this—they still need to eat. What do you think they eat?” Another step forwards. “What do you think they’ll eat when that one no longer needs you?”

The boy’s eyes narrowed. “You’re playing with fire,” he told her, voice shaking. She’d clearly said something that hit him hard—but he wasn’t willing to back down.

“Oh, are you referring to the ten armed people you have waiting in the wings? Yeah,” she continued as he broke out into a sweat, “I hate to break it to you, but you’re toddlers attacking a tank. It doesn’t matter how many of you there are, I’m a tank. You can’t hurt me.”

The boy, despite being on the stage and using the height to tower over the girl, took a step back. There was something in that flat tone of voice, something with that subtle hint of exasperation, that showed she was telling nothing but the truth.

“We can try,” the boy said as he pulled out a gun. He shot her.

Daredevil tensed and leaned for a jump down, but Wade stuck out a hand to stop him. He knew the girl would be all right. She had to be—even if she’d grown up in another version of his world, she was raised by him and she wouldn't have survived if a mere bullet could kill her.

The bullet hit the pink leotard, sank inwards—and then bounced back as the girl rounded back out to normal dimensions around where the bullet had been. “This is armor you idiot,” she said as she reached out and caught the bullet. She lined it up on the palm of one hand before flicking it with the other. The bullet grazed the cheek of the boy in front of her—exactly as it would have if she’d shot it from a gun. Impressive, considering it was flattened out of all recognition from the impact with her chest.

“Just to warn you,” the girl said, “I have perfect aim. I didn’t want to kill you.” She gently rubbed at her chest through the material of her leotard and grimaced. “That is changing quickly,” she muttered.

Wade drew himself up to his full height. “You can’t kill these kids!” he announced in his deep, SuperheroTM voice before dropping down in full Superhero landing style.

“That,” commented the girl dryly as he stood up, “is so bad for your knees.”

“I know, right?” said Wade. “But everyone does it!”

“To be fair, most superheroes don’t live long enough for the repeated damage to be an issue,” the girl responded.

“Eek! Dark humor; me likey!” He gave the girl a high five before clearing his throat and donning the voice again. “Spiderman will be pissed if you kill these children.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes and chanted the next part in time with him. “Because with great power comes great responsibility.” She dipped her head for a moment and then looked at Wade again. “Yeah,” she said. “Heard that one a lot.”

He smirked. “I bet you have.” He turned to the boys who were staring at him. They all knew who Deadpool was, and they were hesitating to engage.

“Remember Deadpool,” the girl said impishly, “Spiderman will be pissed if you kill these children.”

[Forget the children. Spiderman’s going to be pissed about Peter.]

{But Peter isn’t pissed!]

“Stay with witnesses,” the girl said grimly. “Hopefully, the army isn’t too big yet.” She turned, gently bumped her fist against Wade’s shoulder and started to walk out. She paused. “I didn’t make a mess in your turf Daredevil,” she said firmly with a wave to the vigilante before continuing out.

“Daredevil?” asked the boy.

The vigilante dropped behind the boy, landing almost silently on the stage. “Yes,” he hissed.

[musical-chick-13]

And Theon bc I love him

WHAT A COINCIDENCE I LOVE HIM TOO (this answer is gonna be a combination of books and show)

Send me a character and I’ll tell you the following:

• Did they live up to their potential? / In what ways was their potential unachieved?

-I would say yes. The only negative I have about his general arc is his death (which, see below). But Theon from the very beginning was, though not a particularly nice person, still relatable. Feeling othered, wanting to be accepted by an immediate environment that doesn’t accept you, isolated from and ostracized by your family, and the tension that comes between serving the different types of familial relationships in your life. Theon has no idea who he is, tossed aside by his blood family for not growing up with them and being “soft,” aka sort-of moral and having emotions that aren’t selfish rage or smugness (which, yep, that second part is a mood, see: my entire childhood and how no one wanted to be around an “emotional” “soft” child). And from there, he spirals out of control in a way that, while certainly not admirable by any stretch of the imagination, is still understandable in the context of the narrative and his characterization. And from there, after going through hell and quite literally losing himself (even to the point of straight-up denying rescue), he builds himself back up gradually, to the point where he expressed extreme regret for what he’s done, helps an innocent woman escape a truly horrifying situation, acknowledges that his family is generally garbage, and (in-show b/c again books aren’t finished), helping to restore his sister to power, rescuing her after his PTSD relapses while confronting Euron, and ultimately opting to protect the Starks come hell or high water in order to genuinely atone for what he’s done. He is no longer conflicted because he wants to do the right thing, and that right thing is defending the kingdom from the White Walkers and making sure Sansa and Bran are safe. And it’s no longer about fulfilling a duty or finding a family to fill the void. Because now he has found himself. I will contend that Theon has one of the best, most nuanced, most organic redemption arcs of all time. I will forever be grateful that I got to see that piece of storytelling unfold.

Although, I would love to know what he thought of Dany. A missed opportunity, that.

• How they negatively and positively affected the story.

-Positive: His arc of identity and finding where your loyalties lie ties into the overall theme of “How do you find yourself in a world where goodness, authenticity, and honesty are often punished and increasingly rare?” And it proves that governmental politics aren’t the only defining factors in decisions: familial politics can be just as difficult and dangerous, which adds yet another rich, complicated layer to the overall story. He has a genuine, honest-to-Drowned-God redemption arc, which is...not really present anywhere else in the story (no, Jaime is not on a Redemption Quest, I will die on this hill). But I think the biggest draw of Theon’s presence is that it deconstructs the whole “Character Revenge Fantasy” idea. He does bad things. We want him to be punished. But not like that. No one deserves that. How far is too far? What does retribution really look like? Given how easily that idea can be abused and go off the rails, is retribution even something to strive for? What is the point of using extreme violence/torture/mutilation/breaking someone’s psyche when it doesn’t really accomplish anything? Isn’t atonement and genuine justice a better option? It certainly was for Theon. He could only piece himself back together and do anything meaningful once he was out of his abusive environment. All of these are imporant questions that are posed by his existence in the narrative.

-Negative: Idk if I have much to say here. My biggest problem is his death (see below), but that’s not really a negative story effect so much as...being disappointing and narratively irrelevant. I gotta say, his introduction via his sister was...really weird. I genuinely have no idea why GRRM wrote that. It never came up again or had any kind of narrative ramifications and kind of cast a strange, uncomfortable light on his relationship with Asha/Yara for the remainder of the story. I can ignore and enjoy their later relationship it if I don’t think about it too hard, though, so I guess I’ll chalk it up to GRRM having a Bad Idea.

• What my favorite arc for them is.

-All of it?? Theon’s journey is kind of...one big arc, which is why I think it works so well. He has this overarching redemption plot which spans the entire series and informs every decision he makes (for good or for bad, depending on where in the aforementioned journey he is). The redemption arc isn’t bogged down with side plots or other pieces of narrative clutter, meaning it has time to grow and, thus, be gradual and realistic. If I had to choose a specific point, it’s probably when he tries to reintegrate back into society via supporting Yara. Gaining the Iron Islands’ support for her ruling, spiriting away with Euron’s fleet, and ultimately rescuing his sister after her capture. He can’t just go back into society. He’s scared. He has really bad PTSD. But he recognizes that putting his home in good hands is something bigger than just him because it’s Yara’s home, too. I just...I really love family relationships, y’all.

• What I think of their ending.

-I’m not really sure how I feel about this one. I get that the series is GrimDark™ and that people who make the right choice and fight for good die all the time, but Theon dying just felt...wrong. To me.

And, like...I get it. It makes sense to parallel his original descent into villainy (cemented by executing those two boys and pretending they were Bran and Rickon) with him dying to protect Bran himself. It ties into the whole very common trope of completing a full redemption arc by committing a completely selfless act at great personal cost. It’s kind of like the whole Missy thing in Doctor Who (which...hoo boy, that post is coming, make no mistake), where selfishness is directly opposed by making the ultimate sacrifice with no motivation for personal gain. And the fact that the last words he ever heard were “You’re a good man?” I cannot even begin to describe how much that makes me sob. But...honestly, I’m really tired of this idea that redemption has to end in death in order to be achieved or “complete.” I think it’s much more poignant to have a redeemed character live to help build a better world. Because what’s the point of telling people to be better if the “reward” is death? No one’s going to want to reform themselves if they think that’ll be the result.

I think the thing that Bugs Me™ the most is that Theon never really got to have a moment of peace when he was alive. Sansa gained the North’s love and at least had a secure childhood. Ned and Cat were happily married for years. Arya had parents who loved her and a good relationship with Jon. Jon fell in love with Ygritte and found his Night Watch Bros, and Robb (in show verse) had some very happy moments with Talisa. Davos put great stock in what he considered fulfilling friendships with Stannis and Shireen; Brienne was treated respectfully by Renly, Catelyn, and Sansa; Missandei and Grey Worm had each other and their friendship with Dany, who herself had many personal successes in her quest for the Iron Throne and saw the death of her abusive brother. Cersei even had moments with Jaime (who himself had several notable military victories and at least some time with Myrcella, as well as being gladly and deeply in love, however dysfunctional that love was), times when she successfully fought off enemies (including her dad), and some sweet moments with Tommen, as well as a huge victory via blown-up sept at the end of season 6. Theon was treated as a second-class family member by the Starks his whole life by being “traded” to them as a condition of war resolution AS A BABY, is immediately disparaged and mistreated by his immediate family when he tries to return to them, makes terrible decisions that almost cost him his conscience completely, is brutally tortured by Ramsay, is on the run with his sister from Euron almost immediately after, and has a PTSD attack that ultimatly results in him having to launch a rescue mission. And then he fights ice zombies. And then he dies. He never really...got to be happy at all? There was never any kind of “win” for him. Not even survival. The narrative couldn’t even give him that.

TLDR: Theon’s death seemed less shock-value-y than others (like, for example, Shireen or Missandei or, heck, Melisandre even), and it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It’s narratively-informed and it makes sense as an emotional through-line, but, ultimately, Redemption Cemented By Selfless Death is a tired trope, and I honestly thought this story (which...you know...serves as a deconstruction of common fantasy tropes/book tropes in general) was better than that.

• When I wish they had died. / If I think they should’ve died.

-So here’s where we get personal™ kids.

So, it’s no secret that I am...severely mentally ill. I’ve talked about expression/presentation of mental illness in regard to Cersei a lot on this blog, and how that (as paradoxical as it may seem) helped bring a sense of comfort and emotional resonance to me. Theon, post-Ramsay, has, I think, a very clear case of PTSD. Theon is one of the few characters I’ve seen where his mental illness isn’t the cause of the bad, violent, dangerous choices he makes. It only takes root after he has made the decision and conscious effort to better himself, and it, rather than demonizing him, serve to humanize him. His trauma didn’t define him. And although a PTSD attack led to him unintentionally losing Yara to Euron’s capture, he makes every effort to rescue her, a goal he does end up achieving. It is so rare I get to see a character who goes through these things, successfully fight them and come out with positive qualities at the end. Like...switching topics a bit here, Jaime going back to King’s Landing to (try to) escape and ultimately die with Cersei made sense to me because, as Jaime says, he is a hateful man. He never made much of an honest effort to be anything else. And he never truly wanted to be good; he just wanted to be liked. He wanted to adopt some personality that would make him feel less disconnected from the rest of the world. But Theon...genuinely feels remorse for everything he’s done. He makes a concerted effort to do everything in his power to improve the lives of people he believes are good and deserve to be safe. So, just...killing him off in a Completely Selfless Sacrifice (like...you know how a lot of mentally ill people put themselves through suffering-like OCD rituals, bottling feelings, self-harm, even suicide-in a misplaced attempt to “help” or “protect other people”) seemed antithetical to everything we saw of his arc.

Ultimately, with such a humanizing, empathetic portrayal of trauma and mental health struggles, seeing Theon be killed off just...pissed me off. I am so tired of seeing mentally ill characters die. I really want to believe that I can live through and thrive in spite of the things that afflict me, and I get example after example of characters not being allowed to do that. It feels awful, quite frankly. And it makes hope that much harder. 

I also just feel like...there was nothing the story gained from his death? I get the thematic parallels as mentioned earlier, but it didn’t really move the story forward in any significant way. It didn’t motivate other characters to do anything, it had no political ramifications, it didn’t serve to contribute to any kind of happy ending or commentary on society, it just...was sad. Again, I thought this story was better than that.

[crepuscularqueens]

anyway i’ve threatened to make one of these for long enough without actually delivering: playlist breakdown, sambucky edition

the war years - city and colour (they’ve both got a lot of shit to work through and have seen more than either of them ever signed up for! i think many a thought. there’s also a mention of a falcon which is fun to me) and can we push it all away? will we remain chained to the war years?

unblu - jenny lewis & serengeti (you know like???? yeah! loving a sad bitch, that’s what it’s about) how long will I wait for you? to become un-blue / baby, i been climbing the mountain to your heart i coulda sworn i saw a diamond shine in the dark

nobody else will be there - the national (a band im contractually obligated to include on all playlists) you said we're not so tied together, what did you mean? / hey baby, where were you back there when i needed your help? i thought that if i stuck my neck out i'd get you out of your shell like can you honestly think about that in the context of sambucky and not go bonkers? if you’re literally anyone else on the planet, yeah probably!

bet ain’t worth the hand - leon bridges (this one is for if you have the same brain disease as me and read into the sour feelings in the beginning of tfatws as “oh these two are bitter bitter exes. delicious.” bc yeah i eat that right up as you may know) i got it bad, i think you know, you're everything, you're beautiful. but my life is fast, can't make it slow, we're here right now kiss me before i go, but you got to let me go / i might regret that i can't be your man, sometimes the bet isn't worth the hand

no promises - san fermin (hoo boy! im a genius for this one!) i won't promise you if you follow me around, i won't let you down, i won't let you down, been wandering who's to say if we'll be found / pack your bags, leave your home, drive all night, do it for me

clusterhug - i don’t know how but they found me (for the absolute vibes, it’s just fun) calculated, cold, without remorse, we can go to town, we can turn around, we can do anything / as charming as we are, we are nothing but pretty trash

hot coals - cold war kids (another contractual obligation, this absolutely fucks tho. makes me absolUtely lose it folks) i don’t feel a thing walking on hot coals, no sensitivity in a fog of war try to unwind to enjoy the good life, but the pressure that i hold on my shoulders goes / he’s not the type and soldiers don’t go to hell, it’s a place reserved for the twisted and evil. now you ask how i’m feeling, i told you then, you’re gonna torture me slowly with it now there’s a LOT to unpack there! have fun thinking about it <3

big blue - vampire weekend (my fav song to put on shippy playlists with this kinda frenemies/reluctant allies to lovers energy!) when i was hurt and in need of affection, when i was tired and i couldn't go home, then you offered protection. so am i learning my lesson? or am i back on my own?

forrest gump - frank ocean (for the au energy! i actually have an unfinished wip semi-inspired by this song. maybe someday it’ll see the light of day! it’s a very loose inspiration tho jdflsjal) my fingertips and my lips, they burn from the cigarettes / you run my mind, boy, running on my mind, boy

joy - bastille (very cute to think about them for this song!) take a walk through the wreckage, clearing out my head, i hear your eyes roll right down the phone. i'm your walking disaster, keep on dragging me from self-pity, poor me

why do you feel so down - declan mckenna (pretty much the opposite perspective from joy! i like how they tie together it works very well im sexy and intelligent) so don't lie to me, i know i'm not as cool as I'd like to be, but why do you feel so down? again, i know i'm not a very good friend, why do you feel so down? sure, that's not something i'd stick around for, why do you feel so down? oh god, i know you think i'm safe and sound, i'm not / i think you're one of a kind so i'll never like myself, i think you're older and wiser so i won't let you tell, i think it over and over and hope you're thinking too, i think it over and over and hope i'm over you

waiting for your love - cold war kids (i have a permit that says i can use two songs from the same artist if i’m really feeling it, don’t worry. this was one of the first songs i thought of for the playlist btw) i was lost when i found you, prowling through the city without food, you took me into your bedroom and held me all night / i see ghosts all around you, still haunted by the wolves that would hound you. let me in to protect you, ooh baby, it's time

from eden - hozier (yes, like the song i lifted the title for my series for lmao) there's something tragic about you, something so magic about you / there's something lonesome about you, something so wholesome about you / there's something wretched about this, something so precious about this

i found you - alabama shakes (nice feel good song about being in love!) i remember all them lonely days, i traveled out on my own, then you brought me everything and you made my house a home

age of kings - the mountain goats (yet another contractual obligation. we should all know how i get about the nice boys who make the good rockin tunes) why should we hide from anyone? held you in my arms for the first time that day, felt like god's anointed when you didn't push me away

whole of the moon - the waterboys (so much of my childhood was spent listening to the waterboys, this is a special honor) i was grounded, while you filled the skies. i was dumbfounded by truth, you cut through lies / with a torch in your pocket and the wind at your heels you climbed on the ladder and you know how it feels to get too high, too far, too soon, you saw the whole of the moon

[pastabrand]

Unpopular PJO/HOO/TOA opinions

This is gonna be wordy but I’m not sorry for it.

Percabeth is hella overrated. It’s nice, but I would prefer other ships over it and some of y’all Percabeth shippers are scary as hell

I love TOA. A lot people don’t like it because it doesn’t include the main 7 and another topic that I’ll mention later but honestly, I could care less. I’m glad that the others aren’t there other than cameos. It means they’re getting a chance to heal after everything and honestly, good for them. People like to cast TOA as an unnecessary spinoff that didn’t need to be included yet it gives y’all the type of character development you scream and beg for in other books. It’s literally the perfect character development trope you crave, yet puts a good spin on it.

Some of you haven’t even READ toa and say you hate it. Like what? How is that supposed to work.

PJO was way better than HOO. TOA sits in the middle of the two.

I love TOA because it shows Apollo’s character growth from one of the most arrogant, cocky, and prideful gods. And even then, he doesn’t go from that to a helpless mortal loving fool, he stays arrogant and prideful but less so. Not to mention more understanding of mortals and demigods live and what they go through. He doesn’t go from one extreme to the other, but one extreme to more of a center balance. It’s more natural that way.

While Jason’s death in TOA was sorta cheap, it goes to show demigods can die at the least expected times. If Jason had died during the war, then it would be “oh, well, that’s what war does. It kills people. Nothing new.” Compared to Jason going about life as normal and one small mission is his end. It’s more impactful and realistic that way. It goes to show that life as a demigod is always dangerous, fighting or not.

Jason’s anger to Percy for not noticing Nico’s feelings towards him is absolute bullshit. Fuck that as a whole. Nico acting cold and hateful towards Percy doesn’t and shouldn’t equal “I like you, notice me please”. The internalized homophobia should be Jason’s focus, not Percy’s lack of attention at Nico’s feelings.

Same for Leo about Calypso. Not to mention they both shove the blame onto Percy like its his fault when it really isn’t. Having your memory forcefully wiped mere months after a war isn’t gonna help when remembering stuff like that. Not to mention the Gods are bums who will try to do as little as possible and leave the rest to demigods. It leads to one sided anger and unnecessary confusion and guilt on the other side. Bad writing on Rick’s part tbh.

People need to stop acting like Jason didn’t die. That’s clinging into a ghost and not letting it move on. I hate to be the one who says it, but Jason is canonically dead and acting like he isn’t won’t change shit. It’s gonna lead to unhealthy habits in the future, trust me. You can’t write a fic post TOA then be like “oh yeah, Jason’s alive because I want him to :)))” because that isn’t how life works sweetheart.

People also need to stop pretending TOA doesn’t exist. You might not like it but you have to acknowledge that it is actually there and it follows the PJO/HOO timeline.

Paul was just a card to give Sally a nice man to lean on when it wasn’t necessary.

Percy should’ve been wayyyy more suspicious of Paul when he was first introduced. 6 years of abuse from a “father figure” isn’t just gonna go away because “oh he’s nice.” Guess what? Gabe was nice at first canoncially (even if it was for a very short amount of time).

Percy. Has. Serious. Anger. Issues. He’s sassy and stuff, sure, but he’s also got some severe anger problems that he both inherited from Poseidon and developed and festered over time from living with Gabe for 6 years.

Percy is the type to act like Hades or Apollo, attack a lesser being(s) because he can’t go after the big shot without fear of punishment. I wouldn’t be surprised if some his expulsions were from beating up various kids and/or teachers.

For the first half of TLT, Percy did not like Camp Half-Blood or consider it his “home” other than Grover and Luke. The camp treated him like shit because he was a noobie at first and then because he was a son of the Big Three. He hated Poseidon for his lack of care and lack of help when he and his mom were abused under Gabe. Had Luke talked to him during that time period and/or Kronos spoke to him in dreams, he would’ve joined the Titans. His loyalty for the camp didn’t form until near the end of TLT.

Nico and Percy basically had somewhat personality switches. Nico was an excitable, happy, laid back, and naive kid while Percy was a quiet, angry, and irritable kid. Nico’s switch came from Bianca’s death while Percy’s was more gradual. In the end, Nico became the quiet, irritable kid and Percy became the more happy, laid back kid.

Stop ignoring the fact that Nico, a literal 14-year-old, traversed into Tartarus. Alone. There’s always fics of Percy and Annabeth recovering or suffering from the after affects of the fall and war while Nico is relatively normal. The boy is not and has not been okay. His life has been one shitshow to the next ever since he was ten.

Both Percy and Nico have incredibly dark sides to their powers that they seemingly enjoyed that was fueled by anger. Percy with Achlys and Nico with Bryce. Percy admitted to liking torturing the goddess and Nico, though more subtly, seemed amused by Bryce and his attempts to justify his crimes and then frantic attempts to stay alive. Bryce literally says “I’m Bryce Lawrence! I am alive!” And Nico casually responds with “Who are you?” as he turns Bryce into a souless husk of a person. You cannot tell me that he wouldn’t have tilted his head innocently and cracked a small smile at that.

Piper’s portrayal as a Native American. Do I even need to go into that?

Percy. Liked. Luke. The boy knew the son of Hermes for what? 1 week? 2? Yet considered him to be a friend, possibly a close one at that. It probably went the same route Nico’s crush did. Hero adoration to actual romantic feelings but godspeed. Not because he just wanted to like a boy, but because, other than Chiron, Luke treated him with kindness, patience, and understanding as a male figure, something Percy didn’t really have growing up. Not to mention Luke helped Percy when no one else would. As a 12 year old, those type of feelings were bound to develop.

People who make the characters treat Percy and Leo as dumb, oblivious, or one dimensional sassy bois™️. Percy and Leo would be offended and/or defensive of such a thing because of childhood trauma. How many years do you think they can to endure that when they were younger from people they were supposed to trust or respect? You seriously can’t think they would be fine with it because their friends. Maybe a reference once or twice, but constantly? Absolutely not. Old habits die hard.

Solangelo seemed forced to me. I dunno, Nico’s whole confession felt like a ruse to get him set up with Will right away. I felt as though there wasn’t any real “connection” between the two prior to them getting together. It all felt rushed and out of place for the setting they were in. I’ve never understood it nor liked it and usually try to avoid it. That and Caleo seemed like a way to put all the characters in relationships so that they were “happy”, portraying that they needed to be with someone to achieve their happiness. Leo and Nico would’ve been better off single and learning to love themselves before loving someone else. Same applies to Sally.

Nico and Thalia would never get along because Thalia would be a reminder of what Nico lost (Bianca) and how easily how she could be replaced.

Demeter kids need more respect. I feel like that’s what Meg is for. To show that they can also technically be considered “Big Three” material because, if you forgot, Demeter is a child of Kronos as well. That means Demeter’s kids are cousins with the Big Three kids as well.

Aphrodite’s kids also need more respect. Aphrodite in the PJO universe is literally older than all gods, as she was born from Uranus’ gentials in the ocean and arose from there. Their powers could be exapanded wayyy more if they were focused on more.

Not to mention Poseidon kids could possibly gain attibutes of what would be considered Aphrodite’s powers since she was born from the ocean and vice versa. The possibilities are endless there.

That’s all I could think of for now! Lemme know what you guys think though.

[winryofresembool]

Fic: Nightmares and Morse Code

Fandom: Heroes of Olympus (I imagine this happening some time post TBoO. Also, I have not read Trials of Apollo and I don’t know if I ever will so if this fic has some canon divergence, that’s why)

Characters/ships: Leo Valdez/Calypso

Summary: Calypso notices a certain habit of Leo's when she's trying to comfort him after a nightmare.

AO3 link

A/N: I decided to post this fic here too, so if you saw a link earlier, yes it’s the same fic. Anyway, I guess I am now officially writing non FMA content. Heroes of Olympus has pretty much consumed my life for the past few weeks (or even months by now) and while I adore Leo and also Caleo as a ship, I've noticed the fandom doesn't agree with me especially on the latter and there's very little Caleo content anywhere. So, I decided to change that! The idea of Leo saying I love you for the first time through Morse Code had me soft and I just had to write a fic around that. So, without a further ado, please enjoy and don't forget to review especially if you'd like to see me write more HoO content in the future! (And FMA fans, don't worry, I surely haven't abandoned Edwin or my fankids!!)

Genre: fluff, hurt/comfort

Warnings: none?

...

That night was particularly bad. Leo thought that in exchange for the happy moments he spent with Calypso, some evil force had decided to make his dreams double as bad.

Some of them were old, familiar ones. The fire that had killed his mother. Abusive foster families and bullies at schools he had escaped from. The voice telling him that he’d forever be the seventh wheel, his friends smiling and laughing together while he was stuck alone in his bunker. The Argo II group, all except him, getting killed by the giants, because of him.

But there were a couple of new ones too. In the first one he was back in the underworld, feeling that same pain he had back then he had died, positive he was on his way to Tartarus. But he found the second dream worse: Gaea was torturing Calypso, telling Leo that he had to pick from two options: either Calypso would have to die or she’d wake up again and destroy all the life on earth. If Leo had had to pick between himself and the rest of the world, he wouldn’t have had to think long. But… Calypso was just barely starting to learn what living in the real world meant after her 3000 years lasting imprisonment, she was so excited and happy to see new things, and genuinely wanted to be with Leo (despite the constant bickering) for reasons he didn’t quite understand, and… he could not bear the thought of living without her. Finally, he woke up to his own screams as he watched Gaea’s ‘minions’ cut her with a sharp knife yet again.

“Leo?”

It was too dark in his room to see, but he heard fast footsteps approaching him and soon the door was opened and someone switched the light on. He had to squint and protect his eyes from the light before he finally saw the slender figure next to him. Relief flooded into him as he realized that it had all been just a nightmare and Calypso was just fine, although with a very worried expression on her face.

“Hey, Sunshine,” Leo said with a slightly hoarse voice, attempting a lopsided smile but it didn’t reach his eyes. “What’s up?”

“I… heard you screaming.” Calypso replied, suddenly embarrassed about rushing into his bedroom like that.

“Me? Screaming?” Leo sat up and waved his hand, trying to brush it off. “I think your ears are not quite yet used to the mortal world, mi sol.”

“Leo Valdez. I’m serious. I know what I heard.” Calypso glared at him, her beautiful features getting surprisingly scary when she wanted to. However, Leo didn’t budge.

“Sirius? Like Sirius Black from Harry Potter? I thought your name is Calypso,” he attempted, fully aware of how poor his joke was.

“What’s Harry Potter?” Calypso asked with confusion, not yet familiar with the modern popular culture.

“Only the most popular black-haired fantasy hero of our time… After me, of course.” Leo winked, but Calypso wasn’t happy with his answer.

“You’re only trying to make me forget the original topic. Why were you screaming?”

His face fell and he was twitching his hands nervously on his lap.

“Fine. It was a nightmare. But nothing I can’t handle.”

Calypso looked at him sadly, wanting to reach him but not sure if she should. Instead, she said softly: “I know you’re trying to act brave for me, but you don’t have to. I can see that something is hurting you and I want to help you. Like you’ve helped me. Maybe opening up would help you feel better.”

At this point Calypso noticed that Leo seemed to be tapping a certain pattern on the wooden edge of the bed with his fingers. She wanted to ask about it, but decided against it. Instead, she sat down next to him and slowly inched her hand towards his arm, encouraging him to talk.

Leo shook his head to clear his mind. “I… well, in these nightmares, I was reliving some of my worst memories… My mother and stuff… But there was a new dream too.”

“Please. Tell me about it.”

Leo tried to resist but something about Calypso’s calm tone and expression worked like Piper’s charmspeaking and he started babbling so fast Calypso couldn’t keep up with him. “Calm down a bit, Hot Head,” she stopped him. “I only got the part that I was in the dream.”

Leo took a deep breath, trying to focus on his hands that were still tapping against the wood nervously. Then he started in a slower pace: “Yeah… Dirt Face… I mean Gaea…” he added when Calypso raised her eyebrow questioningly, “in this dream, she was trying to wake up again… And she tried to make me choose between you… and the rest of the world… I mean, either you die or them… and I couldn’t.”

Calypso let that information sink in. Trying to hide her emotions, she crossed her arms over her chest and asked: “Are you saying that you would even consider letting me stay alive if you could save the rest of the world?”

Leo probably hadn’t expected that reaction. He failed to recognize that a part of the reason Calypso asked that was to conceal the fact that she was moved, going defensive: “But Cal, remember how she tried to make you kill me in Ogygia. And she could have offered you something much better than I could. But you refused to kill me. You even helped me get off that island even though… you know.” In his mind he added ‘even though it hurt you’. “Do you really think that after all that I could just…”

“Hey, it’s OK. I… think I understand your feeling. But thankfully you don’t have to choose because I’m right here, I’m OK, and she’s gone.” Calypso squeezed Leo’s free hand briefly. After a moment of silence, deciding to change the subject: “That… thing you do with your fingers… Is that a Morse code? Or have you been listening to too much of that rap music you talk about?”

Suddenly Leo’s face went all red. Calypso probably would be weirded out by his habit if she knew the meaning. “You… don’t happen to know Morse code, do you?”

“Not really…” she had to admit.

“That’s… that’s fine. The thing I was doing was just something my mother taught me when I was a kid.” Leo shrugged, trying to look casual.

“Oh… I thought it might mean something.”

“Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. If you want to know, you’ll have to figure it out on your own.” Leo smirked, even though he couldn’t hide his blushing.

“Leo Valdez, so full of mysteries.” Calypso rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile a bit.

“That’s why the ladies love me! Even you fell for my mysterious charm.”

“Uhhuh.” Calypso pushed him back to his bed, sticking her tongue out. Then she spoke with a softer tone. “So, are you feeling better now?”

“I think I am. Thanks. Talking with you made me feel better.” He still looked like something was bothering him, though. In reality, some, annoying part of him tried to tell him to reveal the code.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Calypso replied, reaching to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Um, maybe I should go back to bed. We have some work to do tomorrow.”

“Sure… Well, good night,” Leo answered, looking a bit… disappointed? Before Calypso was out of the room, though, he said with a new determination:

“Hey, Sunshine. I’ll give you a hint. It’s ‘te quiero’ in Spanish.

“What is?”

“The code. And… I mean it. With you.”

“Oh. Okay.” Calypso answered, even more confused than before as she exited the room. She only knew a couple of Spanish swear words (thanks to Leo) so she had no idea what ‘kiero’ or whatever that word was meant. But she decided to find out.

…

A week later, Calypso heard Leo scream again. But this time, instead of waking him up and inquiring him about his dreams, she decided to sit down on a chair next to the bed and hold his hand, hoping it would reach him. She had spent a long time researching on both Spanish language and Morse codes and had finally cracked Leo’s code. Some part of her had already known its meaning but seeing it for real had made her strangely overwhelmed. As she saw him there, whimpering quietly, scrunching his forehead and looking so vulnerable , that exact same emotion he had been expressing struck her with force. This brave, determined, smart (and, she had to admit to herself, sometimes kinda funny) boy had been through so much. Ever since his mother had died, his life had been nothing but a struggle, and even now that they were (relatively) safe, the ghosts of the things he had experienced were still haunting him. She wanted to show him there were still things worth living, worth loving, in this world.

So she started softly tapping on his hand.

.. .-.. --- ...- . -.-- --- ..-

I. Love. You.

It seemed his form relaxed as she reached the end of the code. She waited a bit longer to see if the nightmare had faded away, but when she finally stood up about to leave, his fingers suddenly wrapped up around hers.

“So you figured it out,” a sleepy voice said against his pillow.

“I did,” Calypso admitted.

“Cal.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t go.”

Calypso wasn’t sure if she had heard right. “Huh?”

“I… I’d like you to stay.” Leo said, sounding unusually vulnerable.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Sunshine.”

“OK. I’ll stay then.”

Leo backed up in his bed to make her space, and she settled down next to him. She didn’t protest when an arm wrapped around his waist after he had put the comforter over them, instead nuzzling closer to him and taking in the warmth that was radiating from him. And gods, he really was warm. The two didn’t say much after that, but Leo’s fingers started automatically tapping an answer to her message against her stomach. Soon enough, both of them started drifting into sleep, this time a much more peaceful one.