#i promised a follow-up to that cliffhanger and i delivered

[tar-maitime]

if you stay by my side

Rating: T Characters: Maedhros | Maitimo, Fingon | Findekano Relationships: Maedhros/Fingon, fem!Maedhros/Fingon Additional: War of Wrath, reunions, major character injury, angst, indefinite but hopeful ending WC: 1k

Direct follow up to the last part of "talking to the air"

Fingon has been fighting to get back to Russandol for years, decades now - in some ways since the moment he died, and actively since word came through the tapestries that a fresh army was being sent to Beleriand. The news of two new kinslayings, though they horrified him, did not stop him. The incredulity of his family, dead and living, once he made his course known to them, did not stop him. Nor did Námo’s remonstrations, nor his uncle Arafinwë’s attempts to keep him from the host, nor the slews of orcs and worse monsters that he’s been battling his way through since he landed.

None of it will stop him getting back to her.

And now - now - he happens to glance over at the second force that’s pinned the current batch of orcs in place for his people to finish off, and he sees crimson banners and cloaks and hair like flame, and he nearly freezes. Gray eyes lock with his across the battlefield in disbelieving recognition. He can almost feel the embers of a familiar fire in the back of his mind where the remains of their bond lie, shattered upon his death.

Then an orc chieftain comes up behind Russandol while she’s distracted by him, and plunges a black spear into a gap at the side of her armor.

(It’s at a place that is difficult to manage with one hand, an obvious weakness. She used to have him or Maglor or a trusted aide help her with it. How long has she been letting this slide, why has she been letting this slide...)

(He doesn’t have time to think about any of this in the moment, but later - later, he will.)

He doesn’t even think before cutting his way to her, fighting so fiercely that he’s there before her knees even start to buckle. His sword rams through the throat of the orc who dared touch her, and then Fingon isn’t paying attention to the battle anymore, because Russandol is staggering and falling and he moves to catch her and follows her to the ground, cradling her in his arms.

(Their respective troops have little to no idea what is going on, but they do their work well anyway, fighting past them and driving the orcs back, leaving the two of them relatively safe.)

Russandol’s breathing is shallow and shaky, but she still gazes up at him like he’s the greatest wonder of the world. “Finno,” she murmurs. “It’s you. You’re really here.”

“It’s me,” Fingon chokes out, his hands shaking as he fumbles with his free hand at his cloak. It’s filthy, and the spear probably did damage that staunching the blood flow won’t help, but he presses the fabric against Russandol’s side anyway. “I’m here, Russë, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay. You’ll be all right.”

“How...”

“Ssh, save your strength, all right? I’ll tell you all about it once the healers have fixed you up. We’ll have time.” He can’t lose her. Not now. Not when he’s just found her again.

Russandol laughs weakly. “Again with the...trying to bribe me to...see a healer.”

“Well, this time you will,” Fingon says firmly, then twists to look back towards the support lines and yell, “Medic! We need a medic!” Someone will hear. Someone has to. “The healers will get you taken care of and you’ll be fine. And we’ll be together again.”

“Now I know...you’re making things up,” Russandol says softly. “You wouldn’t want me. Not anymore. Not after...”

“I do,” Fingon says, absolute as granite. “Always. There is nothing you could do that would make me stop loving you.” That had taken some working through in the Halls, but all of his agonizing seems very far away now. “I love you and I want you and I will get you help - medic! - and when you’re better and this is over we’ll--” He searches frantically for something to keep her eyes open and on him. “We’ll finally have a home together. Like we used to talk about. Just stay with me, Russë.”

Her eyes flutter. She reaches her hand up shakily to cup his face. “Tell me more, Finno,” she whispers. “Can we have Gil visit us there? He’s king now...wouldn’ be able to stay all the time.”

“Of course he’ll visit,” Fingon promises. He’s seen their son since arriving on these shores, gotten to talk with him some. Gil-galad is deeply conflicted about his mother’s kinslayings, but they can reconcile. It just needs time. “He’ll visit all the time. And so will Maglor, he’ll drive us mad...”

“And the twins,” Russandol says, and for a moment Fingon thinks she means Ambarussa, now dead, but no - “Elrond. Elros. Adopted them without you - ‘m sorry.”

“They’ll be there, too. I already know I’ll love them, Russë. You’ll have to introduce us - they’re my niece’s grandsons, too, aren’t they?”

Russandol nods weakly. “You’ll take good care of them.”

“We both will,” Fingon says desperately, holding her just a bit tighter. “Russë, please, stay with me, hang on--” He thinks he can hear running footsteps in the distance, prays to anyone listening that they’re healers. “Please, I came for you, I was looking for you for so long, through this whole stinking war; you can’t go now when I’ve just found you.”

“Finno.” There are tears spilling out of the corners of Russandol’s eyes, but she tries to smile. “Finnonya. It’s okay. You’re here with me. I got to see you one more time. It’s enough.”

“It is not,” Fingon says, forcing back a sob and turning it into stubborn fury instead. “You don’t get to leave me alone, Russë, it’s not fair, I don’t care if you want to get me back for the Nirnaeth or whatever this is, pick something else.”

It’s telling, he thinks with a sinking feeling, that she doesn’t argue about the Nirnaeth. She just settles herself in his arms like she would settle into a bed at the end of a long day. “Love you,” she murmurs. “You don’t have to wait for me. If you don’t want. Or if I go to the Void. Can find an Indis. You should be happy.”

“I should,” Fingon agrees sharply, “and I need you, so stay with me, Russë, so help me, if you die I will come and drag you back from Mandos or wherever else they throw you. Don’t make me do it, Russë, meldanya, please, just hang on.”

Her hand against his cheek goes limp, and Fingon has time for a single second of bright, pure panic before a trio of healers with Fëanorian red armbands descends on them and pulls Russandol out of his arms, working over her and bundling her onto a stretcher to carry away. It all happens so fast that for long moments he simply kneels there, staring after them as they run with the stretcher. He doesn’t know what happens now. He doesn’t know what to do.

They didn’t cover her face. They were still trying to help her; when they took her away, they were hurrying. There’s still hope.

Fingon picks himself up and takes off running after them. Whatever comes next, he needs to be there for her.

[an-idyllic-novelist]

Hotaru Haganezuka with Chise!reader headcanons 🎐🪴

Warnings: OOC, aged up!reader (will be in their late twenties), foul language from Hotaru, mentions of enslavement, violence, blood, and the setting takes place five years before the main plot of Kimetsu no Yaiba/Demon Slayer, so Hotaru will be 32 years old instead of his canon age, 37.

If any of the following warnings might be a potential trigger, please hit the back button on your mobile device or computer and read something else.

This is a two-part collaboration with @deathmetalunicorn1 featuring the character!reader as Chise Hatori from the anime/manga series, The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

Our inspiration came from the magnificent Haganezuka x reader created by @yuki2sksksk. If you guys haven't check it out, do so because it is amazing and deserve more recognition! :)

Before we begin, here a few words from my dear colleague @deathmetalunicorn1:

"I hope you all enjoy the fruits of our combined hard work on this project. Please stay safe and don't hate us for the cliffhanger :P

With that being said, sit back, relax, and enjoy! ;)

PART TWO LINK IS HERE

PART THREE LINK IS HERE

PART ONE: HITSUZEN

Being in a romantic relationship with Hotaru Haganezuka is not simple, even after five years of marriage. [First Name] would not have it any other way, though, because this temperamental man makes each passing second worth it. If she was given the choice to go back in time and start all over again, she would still reach out to the swordsmith. 

The two of them were acquaintances in the beginning, connected through Kanamori. [First Name] was one of two medicine peddlers who have set up shop in the village, selling their wares and providing treatment to ailing patients. Unfortunately, the chief was an occasional client due to his underlying medical conditions and old age, but thankfully  his tenacity allowed him to bounce back to his cheerful self with the proper medicines. Haganezuka was the one who picked  up the elder’s prescription when the latter caught a spring cold.

Their first meeting had been…awkward to say the least. 

She had been in the back wrapping up Lord Tecchin’s order in thick brown paper to ensure the corked, glass bottles were protected if the package accidentally fell on the ground when she heard the front door slide open, followed by an annoyed voice calling out if anyone was around. [First Name] promised to be right out, grabbing the parcel and walking quickly to the shop’s front.  There, Haganezuka stood; with his mask on, she couldn’t tell if she kept him waiting too long. 

“Oi. You’re the medicine woman?” He asked curtly. Kanamori mentioned before that annoyed or slightly pissed off pitch in his voice is normal, so she didn’t mind it and bowed to him.

“I am.” She introduced herself with a polite smile, holding up the package. “You’re here to deliver this to Lord Tecchin, yes?” Haganezuka nodded. She gave it to him as she bowed to him again, wishing the swordsman to travel safely. He left without saying another word….and it was a good thing that he did. 

If he could see them, he’d probably scream at the ayakashi hovering just outside of the shop. The wind chimes were enchanted to prevent them from coming any further and causing havoc. But it looked like [First Name] would have to ask the woodcutter to make at least three more to cover the shop’s outside perimeter. Maybe throwing salt twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, might help too. 

These ayakashi, yokai, and the more friendlier ‘neighbors’, have been here since the dawn of time. They exist in the void, in stories passed down from one generation to the next. If they manifest in the human world, feeding on negative emotions, it was [First Name]’s job to purify and eliminate them. 

But they were drawn to her like a moth to the flame because they know…they know  this medicine seller isn’t entirely human nor a demon created by Muzan. [First Name] was something else, something she didn’t want others to find out or else she’d have to move again. She was really starting to enjoy living here, at least the outside of it while her shop was located a block away from the udon stand. 

Everyone was nice to her, and the kids, at least some of them, liked to learn about the herbs she collected or how to use them. The swordsmen and their spouses would always greet her, asking how her day was going or to be careful on her next trip to search for herbs in the nearby mountains. [First Name] prayed that this monotonous yet peaceful life will continue. 

Haganezuka had never noticed the medicine woman until he picked up the old man’s prescription. She wasn’t unusual in appearance or demeanor; [Hair Color] tresses falling past her neck, pulled back in a low ponytail, limpid [Eye Color] orbs. Coiled around her neck on a leather cord was a polished stone necklace with a natural hole in the center of it. She wore a dark green kimono with a yellow obi sprinkled with white spots, the color of the obi matching the ginkgo leaves of her black haori. She wore the same outfit every day. Definitely not unusual unless you’re from a noble house or rich enough to have more than two sets of clothes. 

That brat Kotetsu seemed to like her well enough; he’d seen him and some of the other kids help her gather herbs in exchange for sweets, but she didn’t let them go too far in the mountains, only at the foot or surrounding fields. She acted as a mentor or chaperone to them, patting their heads when they did a good job and stepping in when things got too heated between them, whether it’s about finding the correct herb or something else a kid would be willingly to fight over with a friend.

The other villagers seemed to like her too. Even Kanamori and his wife, and old man Tecchin. He’d hear snippets of their conversation with the medicine woman, like how Kanamori said these words to her:

“Good morning, [Last Name]! Are you heading to the mountains again?”

“Mm. It shouldn’t take me too long this time though. Morinozuka will be giving birth soon, so I’ll be making another patch of pain reliever when I get back. How is your wife, Kanamori? Is she feeling well today?”

“Much better, thank you!” Kanamori said. “She would like it if you’d join us for dinner this evening.”

“Oh. I don’t to impose -”

“We insist!”

“....All right. I’ll close up early once the work is finished.”

“Wonderful! See you then, [Last Name]!” Kanamori waved good-bye to the medicine woman as she turned away and headed towards the gates, a large lacquered box strapped to her back. 

No, he was not spying on them from behind a building. He just happened to be passing by, nothing more than that!

Honestly, Haganezuka isn’t sure what to make of the medicine woman. She was everywhere now - at Tecchin’s estate, traveling the streets to deliver her client’s prescriptions, with the children, and outside of her shop either watering her potted plants or fiddling with the wind chimes. 

He wasn’t sure when it started..when she became a distraction. 

After returning to the village once he’d completed a delivery, he began to seek out the medicine woman. He wanted to know what she was doing; organizing her wares, dusting those shelves crammed with glass jars filled with fresh or dry plants? What is she eating for lunch? Does she take regular breaks from her work, or did she keep going until the sun had gone down and went home?

If she wasn’t in town or resting at home,  he’d immediately assume she went to the mountains and sit outside the sweets shop, munching on mitarashi dango until he saw she’d returned safely. 

And he wasn’t doing all of this because he is worried about an unmarried, young woman who practiced medicine venturing out on her own in a dangerous world teeming with flesh-eating demons. Not at all. Clearly if she can handle almost daily trips to the mountains, she can take care of herself! She doesn’t need anyone to look after her. 

That’s what he’s been telling himself, so why won’t this weird feeling in his stomach go away? Maybe he was sick…that had to be it. He couldn’t afford to get sick now, he’s got work to do, dammit!

Looks like he really has no choice but to go to the medicine woman’s shop. Get herbs for whatever ailment he’s caught, and see that she is safe and sound in her establishment today. A win-win situation. 

However, even after he’d acquired an herbal remedy and took it twice a day as the medicine woman instructed, that bizarre, flip-flopping in his stomach and heart did not go away. If anything, it got worse when he was around her.

He wanted to put all of the blame on her…yet was it really her fault when she hasn’t done anything wrong? Normally he didn’t give a damn what others thought about him whether they were a respected elder or a snot-nosed kid, so what made [First Name] [Last Name] an exception?

The answer to this question came to him at the sweets shop. He had just finished his work for the day and decided to treat himself with several sticks of freshly made mitarashi dango with a cup of green tea, sitting outside on a bench. When he saw the medicine woman pass by with a weary expression on her face, Haganezuka’s body moved on its own, walking towards her and offering the confectionery he was just about to eat. The exhaustion in her eyes perked up at seeing the food in his hand…then uncertainty. 

Like she didn’t want to be a burden and take something from someone, even when that person is willing to do so. 

That’s probably what pissed him off so much that he pushed not one but two dango sticks into her hands before stomping away. He’d hoped that would be enough to calm his thumping heart, to forget about the medicine woman so he could focus on his craft, but that soft ‘thank you’ tumbled from her mouth to his ears…damn it!

If that hadn’t been enough to piss him off and send him packing to the mountains the following day, it was when Kanamori pressed five coins in his hand, saying the money was from their mutual friend. It was the equivalent of the mitarashi dango and tea plus enough to buy an additional stick of the sticky confectionery.  

What is with that woman?!?

He was familiar with the trail up to the bone-white range of craggy cliffs. He’d first pass two rocks stacked on top of each other, followed by the god of safe travels on the right side of the road. He’d briefly pray to it and leave a pretty stone as an offering before continuing the trek.  

He’ll soon see the vast evergreen wilderness stretching from the northeast, the scent of pine needles tickling his nose. Within forty minutes of traversing through the muddy road and wet vegetation, he finally entered the mountain’s gaping mouth. Haganezuka inhaled a deep breath, savoring the crisp air and the mild chill in his bones, already feeling so much better than being confined in the village. 

Carefully removing the straps of his traveling bag from his shoulders, Haganezuka set it down on the ground and began pulling out the tools needed to carefully mine the ores he used to forge the nichirin swords for his clients without severely damaging the mountain’s interior. Double checking that he had everything he needed, the swordsmith allowed himself to forget the affairs in the outside world and immediately went to work. 

He had only removed five very gorgeous pieces of ores when he heard pebbles shifting and sliding coming from inside the cave…as he recalled, he is the only one here. He paused for a moment, reaiming still as a statue for a moment before shrugging his shoulders, resuming the task of obtaining a sixth ore. He braced himself, ready to stand up and find another spot when he heard a low growl. Thinking it was a bear that had made the noise earlier, the swordsmith braced himself for evasive maneuvers and an escape route as he shifted a leg backwards. But when he looked up…all he could see, no, feel, was warmth. A burning sensation. 

Turning around, his eyes widened in horror and confusion as his gaze fell upon the largest lizard he’d ever seen in his entire life. Its obsidian scales glowed beneath the flame that began at the crown of its head to the tip of its tail. Amber orbs flashed dangerously as it stared darkly at him.

For whatever reason, this thing was pissed.

In his shock, he barely managed to dodge a swipe of its claws when it raised its right leg towards him. His clothes weren’t torn, but his mask shattered onto the ground. Haganezuka rolled away to dodge another attack, though this time those claws dug into his back and it fucking hurt.

He pushed his body upwards, scrambling to put some distance between himself and this lizard as the latter crawled towards him, snapping its jaws and the earth beneath its feet melting. He felt his heart hammer rapidly in his chest as its throat began to emit an iridescent glow, growing brighter and brighter behind its rows of razor-sharp teeth. 

“Get down!”

He snapped out of his trance, his eyes widening in shock and confusion as he saw the medicine woman race towards him and the lizard. The thing turned around too, its jaws widening and ready to attack when [First Name] threw a small, circular orb with greenish liquid sloshing inside right into the creature’s mouth. It screeched, throwing its head back as thick wisps of black smoke erupted between its teeth, body swaying until it collapsed into a boneless heap on the ground, right by his feet. 

Although flushed and slightly out of breath, the medicine woman looked incredibly relieved before she looked at him with a pinched brow, anxiety and concern darkening her eyes as she kneeled by his side, removing the large medicine box from her back, setting it down and began opening its drawers, pulling out bandages, herbs, scissors, and tiny glass vials. 

“Thank goodness I made it in time before something happened to you, Haganezuka. Are you alright? Did the salamander bite you? Hm, doesn’t look like it. No damage to your arms or front. Let me see your back. Oh, no. Oh dear, this is not good. I’ll need to use some of this and that, and bandage you up until we get back to the village. Haganezuka, I need you to stay as still as possible for me while I apply this medicine on, all right? It’ll sting, and it might hurt, but that’s a good sign. If the salamander’s claw had dug any deeper, it would’ve been a much more serious injury.” 

He couldn’t speak, his eyes darting between her and the…salamander as the confusion in his mind deepened until he couldn’t contain his frustration and yelled, “What the hell is going on here?!”

She blinked, more startled at his raised voice than annoyed or terrified before she sighed, standing up with her supplies and kneeled behind him. “That was a salamander. As you saw, it can breathe fire like the dragons from those Western fairy tales. I’ve put it to sleep with a draught, but there’s no need to worry now. It’ll be out for several hours. Though, in theory they aren’t supposed to even be here. They normally live at a higher altitude in the mountains or make their nests around volcanoes.” She glanced over at the slumbering beast. “The fact there’s one here is alarming. No one from the village will be safe until it can be safely removed….and its babies.”

“Babies?!”

“Mm. The black ones are female. The scales of their mates are much brighter and colorful…no, more ostentatious. Almost like a peacock’s feathers. Beautiful to entice a potential partner in a dance, but not at all durable. Still…the fact that it showed itself to you….it must have wanted you to see something.”

“It wanted me to see something?” He asked, releasing a low hiss as he felt a stinging, white-hot sensation spread across his back. The medicine woman quickly apologized, squeezing his shoulder briefly before resuming her treatment. “Salamanders cannot be seen by normal humans because they are creatures attuned to magic. They’re what you’d call a ‘neighbor’. As for what it wanted you to see…I don’t know.” She said, carefully lowering his shirt once the bandages were secured around the torso. Her brow furrowed in contemplation.

“She might have known you weren’t a threat, but got scared when you were getting too close to her nest. If you respect the neighbors, they will respect you in turn. There. All done. Now, we need to get you out of here. Are you able to walk all right on your own?” 

He nodded, standing up immediately before he hissed in pain. “Yeah. By the way…you’re not gonna stay here with this salamander, are you?” He asked. She might have knocked it out with that potion, but he was not going to leave her in the mountain by herself. It would leave a bad taste in his mouth, and Kanamori would get pissed at him for supposedly abandoning the medicine woman when that is far from the truth. 

She shook her head. “No. Believe me, I want to help the salamander and its children…but this is a job I can’t do alone. Once we get back to the village, I’ll need to inform Lord Tecchin of the situation and get in contact with a few friends.”

Hagenezuka sighed, running a hand through his bangs when he saw something glistening on the salamander’s right leg. He raised his brow. “Oi. Is that….a chain?” He said. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw [First Name]’s face tense. She walked quickly to where the creature laid on the ground, only to take a step backwards when bright, orange blood began to drip down its scaly appendage. She examined it closely,  leaning forward. He watched in confusion as the shine in those [Eye Color] orbs darken. Whatever she saw, he could tell that the medicine woman was angry. This is the first time he’d ever seen her like this. 

She then stood up, walking past him, collecting his tools and bags, handing them to him before grabbing her medicine box, hoisting the straps over her shoulders. “We need to go while there’s still daylight left. Salamander blood is highly toxic and as you probably saw, resembles lava. It’ll burn anything it comes in contact with.” 

He scowled. He didn’t like being kept in the dark and he knew that this is neither the time nor the place to interrogate the medicine woman. He quickly guided her out of the mountain, following the trail back towards the village. To his surprise, [First Name] went into more detail about these ‘neighbors’. They could not be seen by normal humans, but those that could see them were either chosen to be seen…or selected as its next meal. 

The tales about them, the ones that parents told their children to keep out of mischief, held some truth. As she had explained earlier, by respecting the neighbors, they will respect you in return. But the ones who grow in strength by feeding off of negative emotions were the most dangerous ones of all: ayakashi. 

She can see and converse with these entities because she is a Sleigh Beggy. The simplest explanation of a Sleigh Beggy is a queen bee, drawing others towards her unintentionally because of the power she possessed. The wind chimes around her shop and home were wards designed to keep out the neighbors and ayakashi. If either of these supernatural entities would try to harm the villagers, it was her job to slay the latter and chase out the former. 

As enlightening as this conversation is, Haganezuka only just became more confused. “Right…but what was that shackle doing on the salamander? You said it shouldn’t even be here in the first place. Don’t try to deny it, you were pissed when you saw that thing on its leg.”

He did not miss how her shoulders stiffened nor the quickened pace in her stride. Was she still angry? Or was she nervous? Instead of interrogating her further, he decided to keep his mouth shut and just wait to see if anything happened. Several minutes later, his patience paid off when she inhaled through her nose, exhaling deeply before she shakily answered him.

“That shackle…it was engraved with the crest that I recognize. That salamander was from an illegal auction house. Instead of dealing with rare antiquities or other items that might draw in a very rich nobleman…the auction house sells neighbors. From fairies in the West to mermaids from the oceans, they’ll offer anything their client’s heart desires. But these people aren’t just buying exotic pets to brag about…they’re selling them as magical ingredients for potions, and even weapons to protect their household.”

Haganezuka was torn between feeling sick to his stomach and ready to hit something, but he forced himself to calm down.”And how do you know so much about that auction house?” He asked, gritting his teeth. 

She must have misunderstood his anger being directed towards her and not the despicable people would even think about selling these animals, no, neighbors, to the public so long as they could afford it, because she stopped walking. Her face paled, her eyes were wide with anxiety, and she was trembling like a leaf ready to fall off from a branch. 

He took a step forward and cupped her cheek, using his thumb to tilt her chin upwards so she’d look at him straight in the eye when she answered him….if she was even ready to do that. As far as she might be concerned, they barely interacted with each other until now. When he noticed the color in her face turn magenta, he felt his own face burn with embarrassment as soon as he remembered his broken mask laid in pieces inside the mountain. 

[First Name] swallowed, placing a palm over the hand that was on her face before she whispered softly.  “Because…I had been there… as merchandise. I was the last item of the day, ready to be sold to the highest bidder for whoever wanted a new weapon, a new pet…or a bedside companion. I was young. Fourteen, fifteen years old. The one who bought me was my master. He rescued me, gave me a home, and taught me everything I know about the neighbors, the ayakashi, and…things about myself I still hadn’t been ready to accept. It’s thanks to him that I’ve grown to become who I am today, and the people I’ve met along the way…they’re amazing. I never knew that this world was so big, still so full of wonderful things to see and learn even when it may seem like bad karma is around every corner.” 

Haganezuka felt his heart twist uncomfortably. She had been through a lot, probably just as much as the Kamado boy and his little sister…no, that wasn’t right nor fair to compare the suffering and the pains that these three have been through, separately or whatever made damned sense. He just…didn’t think that someone who smiled sincerely at others carried the responsibility to protect them from unseen forces beyond their comprehension. He hesitated for only a moment, pulling his hand away from her face to cradle the back of her head while the other palm rested on his left shoulder. He felt [First Name] stiffen at the sudden contact, then sagged against him. 

She eventually pushed away, looking at him with a hesitant smile before she nervously rubbed the stone necklace. He watched as she swallowed nervously then turned away from him, trembling fingers starting to rub to the back of her neck. 

“Unfortunately, despite my mentor’s immense power, this is something he could never erase. The auction house…they had a very unique tracking system. Even when the merchandise is bought, a tracking spell will be forever embedded even when the customer is satisfied. Think of it as….a fail safe if their purchase ever decided to escape and couldn’t be found by normal magical methods. No matter where I go or how far I was from him, the master would always be able to find me.”

Haganezuka frowned, opening his mouth to ask what she was talking about when the medicine woman pushed up [Hair Color] tresses, revealing an uneven, dark patch of skin shaped like a serpent eating its tail….no. Wait. This wasn’t something caused from being burned by the sun. He realized. This was created by a branding iron. The medicine woman had been marked like livestock. 

As if she had lesser rights as a human simply because she had been bought by her master. This had to be the same mark she saw on the salamander’s shackle. 

He didn’t know how long he couldn’t breathe or think…whatever he was feeling right now, it felt even more intense than the rage and frustration when he found out that Tanjiro had broken or lost another sword. The only way he had snapped out of it was when he felt [First Name] gently touch his forearm, looking up at him with concern.

Then for the second time today, he hugged her but it didn’t last as long this time. They had to get to the old man, and fast. That was his excuse. Haganezuka didn’t know what the fuck possessed him to act like this but damn it she’d better not breathe a word about this to Kanamori. 

Not. A. Word. 

[First Name] immediately informed Lord Tecchin of the situation once Haganezuka was left in the care of the elder’s doctor. She had, in so many words, explained there was an unidentified poisonous herb growing inside the mountains. Until she is able to determine its toxicity and create an antidote, it was too dangerous for the other swordsmiths to go there. If they require ores for their work, she will be more than happy to collect what they need so long as they stay in the village for three to five days. 

Including Haganezuka, Lord Tecchin is the only other person aware of her true nature though this is only possible…because he had met the master so many years ago, when he had been a foolish and young apprentice. She did not know the extent of their history, only that her master saved Lord Tecchin from a fate worse than death at the hands of a shapeshifting ayakashi. 

Now older and wiser, his main priority was the safety of the swordsmiths and their families. Lord Tecchin immediately sent word out to them all to remain within the village until further notice. She thanked him profusely for listening to her selfish request before departing his residence to make the necessary preparations to handle the situation. She’d asked about Haganezuka, but the tiny man reassured her that the ill-tempered swordsmith is in good hands, so there was nothing to worry about. 

[First Name] checked on him early the following morning at his workshed before she left the village to meet up with the acquaintances she had contacted to safely relocate the salamander and its babies from the mountains. She did use a little of her magic to speed up his recovery once she finished applying more medicine to the lacerations on his back, and she hoped he never found out the truth about Sleigh Beggys. 

The less he knew, the better it would be for both of them. 

Haganezuka couldn’t believe he’d actually done it. He had gotten to the market and purchased a gift for the medicine seller with help from Kanamori’s wife. He told them it was because he felt gratitude towards her for helping him in the mountains, but that is it! Nothing more!

He inhaled a deep breath, grateful that he’d been able to find a new mask so that no one could see just how red his face was right now, standing outside of the medicine seller’s shop. He glanced down at the item in his hands. A potted plant with pale pink flowers. She should like them…right? 

His grip on it tightened slightly before he stepped forward, pushing the shoji door open. He called out to her, and she heard him, yelling from the back that she’ll be right there. He heard the pitter-patter of sandals tapping against wooden floors, followed by a string of apologies as she stepped into the light, greeting him with a smile. He wouldn’t have minded so much if he hadn’t been caught off guard with how exhausted she looked; dark circles under her eyes, her fingers smeared with ink, and even the front of her pristine apron had seen better days. Is she really all right? She had kept her promise and gotten the salamander relocated to a sanctuary within three days, unless something else was troubling her?

“Sorry about that, Haganezuka. How can I help you today?” She said as if she didn’t look like shit. 

He felt his eyelid begin to twitch rapidly. “What the hell is wrong with you?! When’s the last time you slept? Don’t you dare tell me that I work too much on my swords when you look like you’re about to pass out right now! That’s it! Where do you keep tea leaves in this place?!” He immediately began looking around the shop, irritation boiling in his veins as his gaze followed the verdant overgrowth of herbs to a dark wooden cabinet sitting just beneath the window. He scanned the labels on the first shelf, and to his dismay, there were just remedial plants. Nothing that can be used to boil water and make tea for the overworked medicine woman. When he looked back at her, there was a stunned look on her face. Why the fuck did she seem so surprised that someone’s actually worried about her?!

“Why aren't you sitting down yet?!”

“Haganezuka, there are no chairs to sit in here except for the back of the shop, which serves as my workstation.” [First Name] replied softly with a small smile. “I’m still studying the effects of the salamander’s blood samples that I collected, and I’m quite close to producing an antidote. I appreciate your concern, Haganezuka, and I promise I’ll make myself some tea when I go home tonight.”

He pouted behind his mask. Suppose that is fair. He’d never eat or drink in his workshed unless he sat outside on the veranda with sticks of his precious mitarashi dango, which itself was a rare moment of relaxation for him. Instead of trying to argue with her further, he just held up the pot for her to take. He felt his heart race at seeing her smile widen, stretching her small hands and taking the gift from him…

Chink. 

His eyes immediately went to her wrist, where he saw the pieces of a jade bracelet crumbled onto the floor. [First Name]’s eyes widened before her complexion turned a sickly green, her hands trembling rapidly before they loosened their grip on the potted plant. It shattered immediately upon impact, soil and flowers flung in different directions as she lurched forward, hands coming to her mouth as blood spilled between her fingers. She pulled her palms away, looking up at the blood dripping from them in shock before staring at him.

“Huh?”

He watched in horror as she fell backwards and he immediately sprung towards her, barely managing to catch the medicine woman before she landed on the floor. He carefully lowered them to the ground. With one hand cradling the back of her head and the other around her waist, he shouted at her. “Oi, [Last Name], [Last Name]!  [First Name]?! Answer me, dammit, this isn’t funny! [First Name]!”

Haganezuka stiffened when he received no answer from the medicine woman. Heart hammering in his ears and sweat beginning to form on his brow, he shakily inhaled a deep breath through his nose, then exhaled with his mouth. As he performed this calming method, he replayed the sound that wind chimes made in his mind for several moments until he could think clearly. He steadied himself, knees bending slowly as he lifted himself and [First Name] off of the ground. He turned, ready to bolt to Doctor Adashino’s hut but his feet stopped moving when he saw a figure blocking the shop’s entrance.

 It was a boy, probably no older than fifteen summers, with lightly tanned skin and black hair with bright green eyes peeking from under sweeping bangs. He was dressed in different shades of charcoal, as if he were conjured from the darkness itself; from the yukata that draped over his broad shoulders to the socks and geta sandals on his feet. The swordsmith did not know why but there was something about this brat that rubbed him the wrong way. 

“What do you want?” Haganezuka snapped, pulling the medicine woman closer to his body. The stranger didn’t seem to notice him, instead he gazed sadly at [First Name], sighing forlornly. 

“You’ve done it again, haven’t you my dear?” He murmured. “You do have a way of causing chaos, even when you have the best intentions in mind for those around you. When will you become selfish and worry about yourself first?” Shaking his head, the boy turned his gaze to him, eyes glowing in the darkness of the shop. “Give me the child.”

Haganezuka felt his left eye twitch. “What?”

“I do not have time to squabble nor do I wish to waste my energy on you,” The stranger snapped, pointing at [First Name]. “She has collapsed from magical overexertion. She must be treated immediately, or her chances of survival will grow thinner. Sleigh Beggy children are not as strong as they used to be.”

A tremor of shock blitzed through his body at the stranger’s words, though thankfully it wasn’t so obvious with his mask on. “How do you know who she is?” He demanded, his mind scrambling with anxiety and memories he could barely recall in this situation, what he’d learned from the medicine woman when they walked away from the mountains that day. “You can’t be a demon. They can’t roam freely in the sunlight as apparently you’re able to, you’re not drooling at the sight of her blood, and they don’t know anything about Sleigh Beggys. Or ayakashi. They can’t be seen by others unless they want to be seen. So who are you? Are you a neighbor, some spirit that pities her? Or are you someone else?”

“Watch your tongue, boy -”

“Where did you buy her?” Haganezuka asked suddenly. The stranger went silent, raising a brow. “When and how did you find out what she is? Did she ask for her freedom or was that bought too?” The swordsmith said, firing question after question. The stranger looked at him with an expression of exasperation and annoyance, his eyes flashing yellow for only a brief moment. 

“For a mere human who had survived the salamander’s wrath, you’re quite arrogant, but fine. I’ll play along.” He said. “I found out who she was from the moment she stepped onto the stage of the Fleeting Petals auction house in Kyoto’s business district, just when spring had arrived. A respectable antique shop during the day, and once a year, the only place in this country where you can find more than enough items to start a private army or create your own harem, whatever suited the customer’s  desires so long as the money rolled in to pay the price. She was the evening’s final item, and I had gotten into a bidding war with two other contenders for her. An alchemist from the East, and a samurai. Both wanted a weapon, I needed an apprentice. It is through me that she knows everything about the ayakashi and medicine.” He crossed his arms. “Is that enough? Give me the child, now.”

Haganezuka ran his tongue over his bottom lip, heart quickening. There is no doubt that this is the master who had bought [First Name]’s freedom. How else would this bastard answer his questions so flawlessly, or even know where she is? The mark on her neck has magic that makes it easy for him to track her down, and it was the one thing he could not remove with all of the powers he possessed. When the shop suddenly became darker, he glanced around, and felt himself grow pale. On the wooden wall closest to him was a looming, horned shadow whose body stretched all the way to the ceiling. It stared down at him with luminous, bone-white orbs. 

No. He didn’t want to give her away. He didn’t want her to go -

He yowled when the shadow suddenly peeled itself from the ceiling, grabbing the medicine woman from his arms before turning towards the master. Now cradling his apprentice close to him even when it looked absolutely bizarre for a child to carry a grown woman, bright green eyes stared at him. 

“I don’t know why she has revealed her secret to you…but you must be something special. Regardless, she will return home with me. You will look after her house while we’re gone. No, I cannot tell you when she will return. This is the length of my generosity, human. Do not disappoint me.” The master and [First Name] were suddenly enveloped in billowing clouds of smoke, disappearing from Haganezuka’s sight. 

It was only a moment later that the swordsmith realized there was a sudden eruption of noise coming from outside, people chattering and some distant echo of hammers slamming against metal.

The front door had been opened this whole time. 

Taglist:

@saltyfruitbat

@13rurururi

@myrisan-melodies

@praisethesuuun

@sketchlove

[tackletofset]

If I had to choose one word to describe "Dark Heir," it would be 'OTHERWORLDLY.'

[There will be NO SPOILERS in this Review, only vague hints]

“Critiquing the idea of a classic hero and a reclaiming of the queer villain”

These words are written under the blurb of the very ARC. Sadly, most people are still missing the point.

Dark Rise is my true love in the form of a book series. 

As a queer person who grew up sympathizing with villains (who are often queer-coded), this book series undoubtedly serves as a great form of escapism. I feel seen and understood. I found a home here.

Reading Dark Heir was a surreal experience, almost like a sudden storm hitting me all at once. It was like being pulled into a whirlwind. It is everything I could ever wish for!!!

I devoured this book in just TWO DAYS, which is unexpected given my typically SLOW reading pace. It's worth noting that Dark Heir is considerably longer than Dark Rise (with Dark Rise comprising 34 chapters and Dark Heir containing 51). It is also fueled by my eagerness to continue the story after a two-year wait, particularly following that cliffhanger!

Will has always been my favourite character since "Dark Rise," and this sequel only amplifies it. I perceive his struggles with the truth of his identity, as a metaphor for internalized queerphobia. Many queer youth, including myself, have been told that our queerness is evil and abhorrent, leading us to hide and deny our true selves in the pursuit of acceptance from others. Will's yearning for his friends' acceptance, especially from Violet, his best friend.

Many of us would be delighted to see that James has POV chapters in this book! It's great to see his perspective on not only his feelings about Will or Sarcean but also about his family history.

I'm equally excited about introducing the new character, Visander, and I'm thrilled that he can be interpreted as trans. Knowing that CS Pacat identifies as genderqueer/non-binary, I would like to see him writing more trans-coded characters. Visander is a character who fascinates me, as there are times when he can be both lovable and yet totally frustrates me.

Praise Pacat (again), who has been so generous to give us the “Surprise POVs” which made me scream and jump up and down at 2 a.m.

I seriously love the parts where we got to explore more of the Old World. The twists within them are both surprising and, in a way, expected. I've always held the belief that history was written by the victors, and as a result, the truth about the Dark King and the Betrayer was also lost in time. It was also very gratifying to see that the characters that were once hailed as the paragons of virtue were not so saint-like after all.

I hate classic heroes. I despise them and I won't even try to hide it.

Doubtlessly, the Old World chapters are my favourites. And I yearn to have even more of them in Book 3 because I want to know more details about how Sarcean came to power- and his downfall, and the full truth about his relationship with Anharion! I wouldn't mind the book stretching to 60+ chapters to accommodate it.

Pacat has indeed delivered on his promises to infuse this sequel with even more "on-page gay" content, so readers need not fret about the shortage of romance. They are plentiful, to say the least.

Now, returning to my initial point:

!!!Dark Rise is not a story about escaping an abusive male partner!!!

While numerous stories tackle this theme, and it is worth telling, this is not one of them.

This is a story about queer people reclaiming their identities. It speaks to those who have been vilified, demonized, alienated, and even disowned from a young age by the very individuals who should have shielded them—their parents and guardians.

They are continuously taught that their queerness is immoral, abhorrent, and despicable, leading them to believe they must conceal and deny their true selves, often feeling as though they are harbingers of evil and thus destined for condemnation. It sheds light on how queer youths grapple with internalized queerphobia due to an environment that refuses to accept them for who they are.

The accusations hurled at the "villainous figures" within this story mirror the stigma that the bigoted society frequently directs at queer individuals: that we’re lewd, vulgar degenerates, disease-spreaders and a danger to children. 

Dark Rise and Dark Heir underscores our society’s twisted morality that the only available paths for queer individuals are either to deny their queerness or face the gravest consequences. In other words: be converted or unalived.

For those of us who have been demonized and alienated by the people who were supposed to protect us—we are not evil. We do not deserve the abuse directed at us, and it is not our fault. There is nothing wrong with us. We deserve happiness, love, safety, and acceptance.

We should all be unapologetic and unafraid of our true selves, like James.

And oH MY GOD. THAT ENDING!!! You think the prologue was crazy??? You wouldn’t LIVE to see that ending.

I have fantasized about *that* final line before, but I thought it was cheesy and that it might be something more like Prince Gambit's "The King! Damianos! He lives!" but it was not like that at all 🤣🤣🤣

It's my dream cheesy line 💜💜💜

[thewisaaaaad]

IM WORKING ON THE CLIFFHANGER I PROMISE anyway heres something completely unrelated about leshy :)

Leshy had lost the ability to morn. He had lost it LONG before the betrayal and sealing of Narinder, but he had never felt its loss as keenly as that day.

sitting against the wall, feeling the immense pain in his face where his eye once sat, he found that all he felt was a weak, flickering anger that struggled against an immense feeling of nothing.

he knew what he should be feeling: wrath against his brother for injuring them all, mad for him pushing into domains that did not belong to him, betrayed by his unstoppable search for knowledge he should not have, that Shamura told him not to seek.

but that wasn't true was it?

Leshy hung his head, remembering how narinder pleaded that he had destroyed the research as Shamura had asked. Besides, Leshy was still confused over why resurrection didn't fall in his brothers domain, no matter how much Shamura had insisted that death could not flow backwards. Chaos and Order were two sides of a coin that Leshy knew well, why would death not also control life? their brother being stronger should be a good thing, right?

The wounds the family had suffered were caused by a frantic struggle, not focused strikes aimed at wounding them. Narinder had not reached for his brothers eye, he had reached for his hand.

and yet Leshy had gone to bite his hand. the hand that had raised him with love and care. the hand that would ruffle his leaves in congratulation when Leshy mastered a spell. The hand that tucked him into bed, and fed him soup when he was sick and Kallamar was too busy.

the hand of the brother he loved

and yet Leshy felt no guilt. He felt...

nothing. a deep, sinking load of nothing. This, Chaos knew, was wrong. he had never been in a situation like this before, where someone he cared about was harmed in this way. but there was nothing.

for the first time in his godhood, he cursed the gift that it had given him. the one that had allowed him to embrace both his domains, causing chaos and enforcing order on his devotees without feeling guilt or remorse.

right now, Leshy wanted to grieve.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hundred years passed, and still he could not grieve.

his followers were thriving now that Leshy no longer had the energy or will to thrash about his domain or deliver judgement.

he supposed that this meant his rule had been poor up until this point. he added that to the growing list of things he should feel bad about.

but cant.

his brother never criticized his rule.

A disciple of his rushes to him, begging forgiveness that the god waves aside. He had plenty of mercy to go around, and it was the least he could do.

The message was from their sister and brother, requesting a meeting with him.

something to distract him from the melancholy, he supposed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What do you mean, 'All of them'?!"

Anger and shock were still familiar emotions to the worm. at least he still had them.

at least he was still worthy of them.

The meeting turned out to be quite important.

Shamura had another vision, which was about to have as disastrous an outcome as the last one did.

a sheep would come to free their brother. and Shamura wanted to put a stop to it.

The sheep had once been Narinders favorite. Perhaps this would prove to be another way to atone.

A plan was quickly made, far from the ears of their maddened sibling.

Heket and Kallamar would heard the sheep into Darkwood, making token sacrifices and examples along the way, to ease Shamuras fears.

All leshy had to do was pretend that the lambs died in his forest.

Shamura would never find the sheep in Darkwood. He prided himself on how the terrain warped and distorted, creating an impossible maze, where things like a scared population could easily be misplaced.

it should hold long enough to keep them safe until Shamura lost the prophecy to the depths of their shattered mind.

Leshy knew that he should feel bad about taking advantage of his eldest siblings condition.

Leshy found that he didn't care.

[drakeanddice]

Ahhhh! You played Laser-Ritter!? I'd love to hear how it went! Sorry, I don't often hear about folks playing my games.

We did! Short answer, it was awesome. I found Laser-Ritter following a game of Scum & Villainy with my weekly group which, while it was a fine game and was fun, had some tone/content confusion and failed to scratch the itch at the table. The game’s setting matter is largely pastiche of three to five different flavors of sci-fi and I, fool that I am didn’t drill down and sharpen the pitch…because I saw Forged in the Dark and assumed that it was shaving sharp right out of the box. Caveat lector, ersumshit.

But Laser-Ritter, damn. I cut myself thinking about how tight and focused that game is on delivering the promise on the front of the tin. You are fighting a galactic hegemony. Your life paths are all killer no filler calls to adventure from instantly iconic backgrounds. You wager your relationships and you kit and your tenuous, waning luck to do the impossible. You can deliver a snarky one liner as an active defense.

We ran a crew of loveable rogues on a tramp freighter transporting a broken auto soldier with memory banks full of Hegemony secrets related to a super weapon to wipe out the Rebellion. Their contact is cut out and they find themselves hunted at every turn by the forces of the Hegemony, first by a rogue’s gallery of bounty hunter types, and then an elite strike force led by Preceptor Ahriman Slake, the Red Right Hand of The Imperator. Diving for cover, going to ground amid the criminal underworld, and running out of options week by week, the Teknos wakes the Auto Soldier and downloads its memory banks during a climactic confrontation with Preceptor Slake and his goons. They broadcast the plans in the clear, trusting that the signal will bounce across the universe and if the right people can’t be told, then tell EVERYONE.

We called a season cliffhanger as the crew pushed the fateful button, the guns of the Hegemony leveled at them and haven’t been back to pick it up yet.

But we’re absolutely prison breaking at some point. Probably with the help of the defunct and broken Auto Soldier, Omni88, who remains at large.

It’s a damn fine game. Leverages a lot of player-facing tech and collaborative establishment of the fiction. Consensus building. Any game where I get to go, “Hell, yes. That’s cool!” is a win for me. And this one checks that box handily.

That being said, we ended up using an alternate hex flower lifepath system that was a little more targeted rather than the one out of the box, and we started with more advances that the rules according to Hoyle. We might’ve tweaked a couple of other systems to suit…I want to say combat was collapsed to Into the Odd style, except for big set pieces…this was a bit ago but I am left with pleasant memories and a mighty recommendation, which is really all I can offer a good game. It was, is, and will be again on my shortlist of “let’s do space opera” games. Notably, I will not play anything called Star Wars ever again.

[theabominableblogger]

Highlights and Notes on Being Halfway Through "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood"

Watching the dub, I'm still getting used to the English being delivered so that it matches the lip animation. I've been constantly criticized over watching dubbed anime instead of the sub (even in grad school by professors) but it's just easier for me to process and understand. I also don't usually watch anime but I decided to give this show a shot because I've been hearing good things about it

Crunchyroll only offers the first three episodes for free so I had to dig around to even find the whole show

The intros are LONG

Shout out to Bones for the fluid animation because it is STUNNING

That slow motion shot of Ed taking out one of Greed's chimeras? Amazing. Ling slow motion slicing Gluttony's head off? Amazing. Roy freaking carving his transmutation circle into the back of his hand so that he can use it whenever? Freaking metal.

With that in mind, some of the approaches for character designs for some reason don't work really well for me but that's just my opinion

The immense disappointment I had upon realizing that the white suited person in the third intro was not Greed but in fact freaking KIMBLEE

Episode 4. Oh God.

GREED. Easily one of the best characters in the show.

Riza Hawkeye is ride or die for Mustang and I could not be happier

TRAVIS WILLINGHAM. Just him.

Still freaking hilarious that Mustang freaking nukes Lust into oblivion and the voice actors married a few years after the episode aired

The name Barry the Butcher no joke sounds like a DnD NPC in hindsight

That shot?? Of Lan Fan looking back at Central promising to find a way to get to Ling?? Followed by the panning transition shot of Greed looking out on the roof??? Killed me dead.

Still think that Bradley's adopted son is the last homunculus we haven't seen yet- Pride

I honestly have no idea how old anyone is

Mother Nature saw Roy Mustang attempt to do anything outside and legit went "imma make this man's day worse" AND SHE DID

I did watch the blooper reel before watching the show so when the stew line came up, I immediately yelled "F- YEAHH!". Also did the Envy as Scooby Doo joke when that part came up too

Did the loudest Darth Vader "NOOOO" when Lust disguised herself as Havoc's date

Since watching Izuni's debut episode, I noticed afterward just how well written all of the main female characters are

No joke, I freaking ejected out of my chair when Ross was being interrogated because I put two and two together and just jumped around the room trying to calm down

Troy Baker's delivery of "You know, people normally reject me." That's it.

Alphonse's arc of trying to grapple his humanity is extremely compelling

Apparently an endgame ship I've learned of is Winry and Ed and honestly I think she could do so much better

Ling just collapses everywhere if he doesn't eat and honestly mood

So it's established that Father is NOT the Elric brothers' dad but he KNOWS of him and LOOKS almost exactly like him so.... my working theory is that Father and Hohnheim worked together previously for alchemical research and Father is actually some ambiguous being that took the appearance of Hohnheim like how Envy takes the form of a teenager

The amount of Eucharist jokes I made about Father drinking the essence of the philosopher stones...

As I pointed out to my sibling, the leader of the country is referred to as Fuhrer and just... hmm...

Armstrong doesn't even have a mouth, it's just his glorious 'stache doing all the work on his face

This show has no right half the time just completely ending episodes on cliffhangers

[deadbitchonline]

Honestly something I've noticed about a lot of popular western fiction lately is that a lot of it isn't good/was never good, it just constantly *threatens* to become good. Sherlock never had a good story to it, but it constantly alluded to a much larger and more interesting story that it would eventually reach - only to let its fans down in the end. So many of our shows threaten to be good until we eventually receive a lackluster ending, and I've fallen for it too. Killing Eve had a good first season, but the following seasons just screamed "it's going to become good soon... Wait until the next season to see Eve & Villanelle get together... There's a whole conspiracy here but you can't see it yet..." and it never delivered on those promises. The same could be said about Lost, the Walking Dead, Harry Potter, the MCU, Supernatural, RWBY, Homestuck, the new Star Wars movies, etc. (And before you get mad, I've personally watched all of these and liked them at some point or another, only realizing they were kinda "eh" to downright atrocious later, esp. in the case of HP.)

What's interesting about these shows is that they tend to generate the most fanfic, as fans wait in anticipation of the next season, coming up with theories as to how the show is about to become good or rewriting the bad parts. They threatened to be good so well that they hooked people, then left them disappointed when they never landed the ending. It's all about generating hype, and once you no longer have a product to sell? Who cares, push through a shitty ending. Get people excited about the next thing instead.

And I know to some degree I'm just talking about the prevalence to cliffhangers, but I really feel like it's more than that. So many shows release bland seasons with a finale that tells you next season will be better...

[baejax-the-great]

Bioware should have never released Trepasser.

1. A lot can happen between games—shake ups, writers leaving, devs leaving, entire projects being scrapped—repeatedly—and to leave a series of stand-alone games on a cliffhanger was a bad idea if they didn’t plan on following it up. It’s been seven years. I can say with confidence they had no actionable plans for following it up.

2. Optional DLC, particularly the last in a series of optional DLC, particularly a DLC that was not even available to all players (if you played on PS3, you were out of luck), should not contain deep plot-related elements. Inquisition was already a contained game that ended on a bit of mystery. The Inquisitor succeeded in their goal. Everything that Solas revealed could have (and should have) been revealed in a new game.

3. Because, given that the devs have already promised that newbies to the game will be able to understand what’s going on, everything that Solas said in Trespasser will have to be delivered somehow to new players in Dreadwolf. Most people are not huge fans of getting the same information repeatedly, or paying for the same information in two separate games, but return players are going to have to deal with it this time. It’s bad writing. Maybe they’ll do it in a clever way. I guess after seven years many of us will need a refresher.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - “Rapunzel Knows Best!” ( A first half of S3 Recap)

So I decided to place the recap after Be Very Afraid for several reasons. For starters it’s where the season three hiatus took place. It’s also framed like a cliffhanger episode the same as The Great Tree and Queen for a Day; so while Cassandra’s Revenge is technically the midseason finale, Be Very Afraid functionally servers this narrative purpose better. Finally I want to keep the Cassandra heavy stuff contained in it’s own recap later same as I did for Varian’s arc in season one. 

Also keep in mind, everything I discussed in previous recaps still apply here. Nothings changed and you could argue that the issues I bring up now could have also apply to past seasons; they just happen to be at their worst here. 

Here are the past recaps 

To Filler or Not to Filler

Hey, What Ever Happened to That Varitas, Guy?

What Is the Point?

‘Whatta Twist’

And here are the episodes that’s covered in this recap

Rapunzel’s Return Part 1

Rapunzel’s Return Part 2

Return of the King 

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne

No Time Like the Past

Beginnings 

The King and Queen of Hearts

Day of the Animals 

Be Very Afraid 

Poorly Defined Conflicts 

I’m not just talking about Cassandra’s lack of goals here either, though that is a part of it. I mean in several episodes the central conflict isn’t laid out clearly enough before being resolved.  We flip from one set up to the next without ever resolving the first; like in Rapunzel’s Return when Cass and Varian fight for screen time or whenever Rapunzel is suppose to learn one lesson only for someone else to learn a completely different lesson in every other episode. And to this day I don’t know what Rapunzel and Feldspar’s subplot in Lost Treasure was suppose to be about. 

There’s also of course the ill-defined overall conflict; which at this point has become convoluted and nonsensical to the extreme, and will only grow more aggravatingly stupid as the season progresses. The main villains lack clear goals, their motivations don’t align with previously stated facts, and the actual interesting conflict involving the threat of the rocks and their destruction of people’s lives and homes is just shoved under the rug and forgotten about.  

There is no story without conflict. Having the conflict be all over the place is not only confusing but makes it harder for the audience to invest in what’s going on. 

Failed Narrative Promises 

Tying in with the above statement regarding conflicts, we have failed narrative promises. Rapunzel is repeatedly told to that she needs to learn something in several episodes only for her not to learn it at all. She either learns some unrelated ‘lesson’ that wasn’t established, (like in Rapunzel’s Return with her pervious goal about ‘opening up to others’ being switched out for a generic ‘responsibility’ lesson that at the last minute, where she doesn’t even do anything responsible,) or she winds up ‘teaching’ the opposite lesson to a different character thereby rewarding her for her bad behavior.   

And that’s just within the induvial episodes themselves; there’s also broken narrative promises through out the overall story arc; like...

no justice/redemption for Lady Caine, 

no acknowledgment that the Saporians are the victims of colonization

no conclusion regarding Corona’s murky past

no satisfying ending to Varian’s plot that sees everyone in involve grow

a poor copout of an explanation for Cassandra’s face/heel turn

The Dark Prince reveal going nowhere 

The Brotherhood being put on a bus 

King Frederic, or any royal, not being held accountable for their past actions 

Lance’s new found responsibilities just being thrown away for the tenth time 

The Disciples plot being being dropped 

next to nothing in season two winds up being relevant 

And Rapunzel, the protagonist of a coming of age story, fails to learn anything at all 

I could probably go on but you get the gist. Tangled is incredibly frustrating show to watch because doesn’t deliver what it promises. You’re not being clever by ‘subverting audiences expectations’ unless you can justify your narrative decisions with previous set up. Tangled is too lazy to build proper set ups so it’s ‘twists’ leave you wanting to punch things rather then impressing you. 

Character Assassinations 

Every single character in Tangled the Series gets thrown under a bus, driven off a cliff, and then allowed to drown in the ocean of their completely unaware self-congratulatory smugness.  

Rapunzel is turned into a bully

Cassandra is given the idiot ball to hold permanently 

The King and Queen are lobotomized

Quinin gets replaced by a robot  

The rest of the Brotherhood are pale shadows of what they could have been 

Edmund is transformed from tragic complex figure into a dumb jerkoff who abuses his kid for a laugh 

Zhan Tiri, once an ancient demon warlock, is reduced to a floating impotent ghost girl 

The Saporians become poor hipster parodies

Cap is put on a bus

Any villain who isn’t Cass is gets ignored

Lance is infantilized to the point of absurdity

Eugene becomes a doormat 

and poor Varian is forced to become a complacent victim to his abusers as oppose to being allowed to keeping his dignity 

I think the only person who escapes this mass murder of characterization is freaking Calliope, and she’s hasn’t even appeared yet! (Well okay her and Trevor, maybe) 

This all ties back into the poorly defined conflict and failed narrative promises. Rather than let the characters drive the story, they’ve become puppets to the plot, and plot is really stupid and forced, and circles back in on itself and is full of contradictions. 

Manipulating the Audience’s Empathy to Do the Work for the Writers  

The reason why the creators believe they can get away with such poor characterization and lazy writing is because they expect the audience to do all the heavy lifting for them.  

Cass isn’t given an on screen reason for what she does because they’re hoping her fans will just automatically excuse her because they like her/relate to her and not, you know, get mad at the writers for dumbing her down. And after all who doesn’t love the creator’s pet? Meanies! That’s who! 

No one calls out Rapunzel’s bullshit on screen, because if everyone likes her, then you, viewing audience, should too. Because if you have any sort of independent critical thinking abilities and a sense of right and wrong then clearly you’re ‘just a hater’. 

Everyone should just shut up and be satisfied that Varian is even on screen now and be grateful for the scraps that they get cause he’s not the real point of the show and according to Chris ‘Varian fans aren’t real fans’. Even though they make up most of his viewing audience. 

I could go on, but it’s just variations of the above. The writing in this series is very fond of gaslighting the audience and trying to trick them into justifying the absolute worst behaviors while desperately hoping they doesn’t noticed the continued downgrading and dismissal of characters they do like or once liked.  

And the sad thing is, it’s worked. There are people to this day that still try to justify this show’s shitty morals and bend over backwards to excuse the likes of Rapunzel, Frederic, Cassandra, and Edmund.  Worst, there are loud sections of the fandom, (usually on twitter) who think bullying is okay and follow in Chris and his characters footsteps. Most of them young impressionable girls who are now ripe for TREFS to indoctrinate because they use the same bullying tactics and excuses for authoritarianism. 

Media does effect reality, but not in the way purists and antis would have you believe. No one is going to become a violent manic from playing a video game nor a sex offender because they read a smut fic. But they very much will conform to toxic beliefs if it’s repeated enough at them by authorities they ‘trust’; like say the world wide leading company known for family entertainment and children’s media, and the ‘friends’ they find within the fandom for said company... 

I’m not saying you can’t enjoy Tangled the series or that you’re some how wrong for liking it’s characters, nor do you have to engage with every or any criticism thrown it’s way. But yes you need to think about the media you consume on some level and valid criticism is very much important to the fandom experience for precisely the above reasons. 

Conclusion    

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of what’s wrong with this show, but it is most of its biggest problems laid bare. Anything that haven’t covered here or in the past recaps will be explored in the final recap. Cause this is it folks; the last leg of the journey for this retrospective. When come back, hopefully next week, we’ll tackle Pascal’s Dragon.  

[takerfoxx]

Wonder Egg Priority: I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Fine. Let's do this.

Okay, so if you've been following my blog over the last year, you'll know that I've been really high on Wonder Egg Priority. I love the characters, the concept, the direction, the weirdness, the gutsiness in directly tackling uncomfortable topic, and the relationships. I praised it highly and stand by that praise, and despite all the criticisms I'm about to lobby towards it, my feelings toward the show on the whole are mostly positive.

But then the show ended without resolving anything. It introduced a ton of characters and concepts that no one was really asking for, answering questions that very few people were asking while raising further questions in their place, and it ended on a cliffhanger.

But okay! A real finale was promised, a special hour-long episode to resolve things. We'd just have to wait for it to come out!

And then it did, and...

Everyone hated it.

It's was like the ending to Game of Thrones all over again. Well, maybe not on that scale, but I heard things like hot mess, waste of time, total disappointment, etc. Honestly, it put me off from watching it entirely for several months, because I still liked the show, and didn't want to be let down.

But I knew I had to tackle it sooner or later, and last night I did, and...

Well. Those were certainly...choices.

I mean, it might have helped had they not promised an hour but only delivered 45 minutes. And it also might have helped had half of that not been a recap of the series, leaving a normal-episode length for the actual finale.

But even then...

Look, we didn't need Frill and the bug girls in the show. No one was asking for a central villain. But if you're going to devote an entire episode to introducing her, then at least do something with her! Like, on its own, she's a cool concept! But instead of actually making use of that concept, everything...just sort of peters out. Nothing is really done with her.

And the wonder eggs? The girls that our cast was fighting so hard to bring back? Well, they do come back, but none of them actually remember any of the girls that were fighting for them, so I guess they weren't resurrected so much as pulled from an alternate universe, which just raises further questions that go answered. And our girls are upset at first, but then they just sort of shrug their shoulders, go "Oh well," and move on? Koito was a jerk the whole time who killed herself by accident? And then the girls all drift off and don't talk anymore? That's it?

And Neiru...did she kill herself or not? Her fellow clone friend shows up from another universe and then just sort of slips off. What's with Neiru's rat that gets swiftly forgotten? What's going on?

Look, I know this show had a very troubled production. And I know the writer admitted to making stuff up as they went along. I get that. And I'm not saying that anti-climaxes can't work. We didn't need a big, action-packed finale. We didn't need a huge battle against Frill. American Gods is my favorite book, and it very much ended on an anti-climax.

But that anti-climax worked because it still took the time to resolve everything! It still made sure to wrap up its plotlines and definitively end the story!

This isn't an ending. This resolves nothing. This feels more like the penultimate episode that leads into the finale. This feels like the writer tried to answer all the questions, threw a bunch of ideas at the wall, but then forgot to do anything with any of them.

And what's more frustrating is that when judged as a standalone episode, it's actually all right! Like I said, it's perfectly serviceable as a buildup episode. But as the finale? No. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work.

Now, this nothing of a finale hasn't soured me on the good parts. This isn't like how I felt about Future Diary, where all the bad bits made me come to dislike the story as a whole. What's good is still really good! But this really ought to have been better thought out. For everything that was great, there still was a lot of wasted potential here. And while writing by the seat of your pants can work, there are times in which it can blow up in your face. This is one of those examples.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts.

[geekywritings]

JUNGKOOK X READER PART 2 - Is this real life or am I in a drama?

Part 2 of my little Jungkook x Reader story. For all who need a recap of Part 1: You are a young vet, just trying to make your way home from work when suddenly Jungkook falls right into your car, taking refuge from a group of sasaengs. You give him a ride home and he exchanges contact details with you, promising to stay in touch.

The prompt for part 2 is: “It’s pouring rain, why are you here?”

For the next few days, all you could think about was that meeting. It still seemed so very surreal. And you didn’t even dare tell anyone about the incident, because who would really believe you? Even your best friends and work colleagues would just raise and eyebrow and shake their heads most likely. Such things simply didn’t happen to people. They were part of k-drama scripts or popular web toons and after a week, you did start to wonder if it had all been some kind of strange dream.

But exactly that evening, when you had just come out of the shower to enjoy a cup of tea and a new episode of your favourite show, your phone beeped with a new Kakao Talk message. You gave your phone a lazy glance and then almost dropped your mug when you saw it was from none other than Jungkook.

JK: “I’m sorry for the late reply, Miss Vet. Things got kinda hectic. But I have not forgotten my promise. I still owe you that thank you.”

You had to reread that message a few times and for a second you wondered if it was a scam perhaps, but who else would now about that event but him? For a second you wondered what to answer before typing:

Y/N: “No problem. You are an idol after all. And you did already thank me.”

It took only a few seconds until his answer popped up.

JK: “It still doesn’t feel like enough.”

Wow, did he know how cool that sounded? 

Y/N: “You don’t have to worry. Really. I’m glad I could help.”

This time he took a bit longer to reply.

JK: “Do you like flowers?”

Y/N: “Yes of course. Who doesn’t?”

JK: “Which ones are your favourites?”

That one was harder to answer. You liked quite a few and just named them all, allowing him to make the final choice.

JK: “Great. Can I send them to your workplace? I don’t think florists deliver late in the evening.”

It was sweet that he was so dead set on sending you flowers as a proper thank you and while part of you was delighted, the other part wondered how to explain the bouquet to your colleagues at the vet office. Still, you typed in your adress and sent it out. 

From then on you thought the conversation would end, but apparently Jungkook was in a talkative mood. He revealed that he had a free evening and was just relaxing on the couch with a good meal, before asking you what you were up to. You told him about the drama and he suggested watching at the same time, sharing comments through text. 

You had never done anything like it before, least of all with a stranger, but Jungkook seemed so nice and it didn’t feel so intimidating to write with an idol over messages. And after the first few shared comments, you actually started to really enjoy it. You two ended up talking throughout the entire episode, which was almost an hour long and then even half an hour on top until Jungkook announced that he was heading to bed. Noticing the time, you realized it was time to hit the pillows yourself. 

But as you laid there in your bed, you kept reading through the chat history, as if making sure it was still real. Especially that “Goog Night” with the cute little emoji brought a smile to your face, before you finally turned off the night light.

____

For the next two weeks, he kept writing texts every other day. Sometimes it was just a random “How are you?” or a comment to your recently posted Kakao Story that he didn’t dare post publicly. But sometimes he would ask if you were watching that drama again to share comments in real time. It had become kind of a ritual when the third week started and a day without his messages felt weird. You still couldn’t tell anyone about it, but your friends and colleagues did start noticing your smiles and your eager grabs for the phone. But whenever they teased, you just said it was some guy online. Their would never believe the truth and you didn’t want to put Jungkook in trouble either. You had seen how crazy his fans could be, so the last thing he needed was your chats to become the topic of online gossip. Besides, it was kind of exhilarating to have a secret like that. At this point, you had already totally forgotten about the flowers.

During the fourth week of knowing Jungkook, you were staying late at the clinic, taking your regular night shift to take care of your little patients. You had just made your rounds, giving all the animals their medicine and checking on their bandages, before sitting down in the reception area, in case of emergencies coming in. But it was a super quiet evening, so you took out your phone. Almost on cue, a message popped up: “Finished work?”

Y/N: “Nope, having a night shift today.”

JK: “Oh, sounds tough.”

Y/N: “Not really. It’s quiet tonight.”

Nothing came after that and you put the phone away again, turning your head to the entry, the glassdoor giving you a perfect view of the rain shower outside. It really was coming down hard today. Bored, you took another round visiting your furry patients, giving them an extra round of cuddles. Suddenly the sound of the door tore through the hallway and you were quick to place the cat with the broken paw down to go and check on the new arrival.

You were utterly stunned to see Jungkook standing in the half opened door, dripping wet and with a huge bouquet of your favourite flowers in hand. 

“It’s pouring rain! Why are you here?!”, you exclaimed, approaching him with a shake of your head. 

“Well, florists dont deliver at this hour.”, he said cheekily with a shrug. “So I came personally.” 

He held out the dripping bouquet to you, which you took gratefully, enjoying the heavy fragrance of the flowers.

“You really shouldn’t have, but thank you. They are gorgeous.”, you said, sending him a smile, before inviting him to the staff room. 

“Let me make you a tea and grab you a towel.”

“You got coffee instead?”, he asked, running a hand through his hair. It had changed color, you noticed, though you also instantly thought that you prefered it black. 

A few minutes later you came back with a small towel and a steaming cup of coffee, taking a seat across from him at the small table. The entire room was tiny, but it was enough for the team.

“So this is where you work, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s a good place. It has nice people and I like how we truly take our time for each patient.”, you explained. You knew that not every clinic was like that, having done internships elsewhere during your studies. 

“Aren’t you busy though?”, it was now your turn to ask him a question.

“I am most nights, but we do get our time off as well.”, Jungkook replied. “Our agency is a good place too.” You nodded, having read up a bit about Big Hit since your meeting with one of their idols. You also realized that you did know and enjoy quite a few of BTS’ songs, even though you had never been able to put a face to them. Now you enjoyed them even more.

“Do you want a tour?”, you asked, after a minute of silence fell between you, during which Jungkook tried to dry his hair. He agreed with a nod, before following you around. There wasn’t much to show, but he did spend some time in the patient rooms, giving the animals some pets and cuddles. He was good with them, you notcied and they seemed to like him in return.

“You have two cats at home, right?”, he asked, his hand still stroking a fat tabby, who was at the clinic because of stomach problems. The owner insisted something was wrong with him, even though you had determined that he just needed a change in food and a consistent diet. 

“Yeah, Mr. Paws and Pogi.”, you replied. “I got them both from here, when the owners didn’t want them anymore.”

Jungkook’s eyes snapped to you, one of his eyebrows raised. “People do that?”

“Sometimes, unfortunately. Mr. Paws has a missing paw, ironically. We had to amputate it and the owner thought his cat would need special treatment because of it. And Pogi just needs regular medication and special food.” Small things really, but some owners just couldn’t handle it. 

“I saw pictures of them and I never notcied the missing paw.”, Jungkook said.

“I don’t make a point of making it the focus on pictures.” 

You ended the tour back in the staff room, where Jungkook took his coffee for a few sips, the drink instantly helping to warm him up. 

“I have to miss our drama this friday.”, he suddenly announced. “So you have to give me detailed updates or at least a good summary.”

“You could just watch the rerun online.”, you suggested.

“It’s no fun alone. So unless you can wait a day for the new episode...”

“I make no promises, since the last episode ended on a cliffhanger.. but I’ll try to be patient.” He smiled at your humor, but you were serous. The show was more enjoyable with him. 

“How did you get here?”, you eventually asked.

“I took a cab, but told them to let me out in front of a restaurant nearby. From there I walked.” In the pouring rain no less. Probably so the cab driver wouldn’t tell where he went. It was a clever ruse, but it was a shame that it was even necessary. 

“Need a ride home?”, you asked. “I think I’m not a bad driver and I have some minor experience with idol passengers.”

His smile grew even wider at that. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“But I do stil have to work for an hour before I can take my break.”, you said, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“Just a break? What time do you go home?”

“This is just like a hospital with normal night shifts. Usually they are covered by our senior staff, but because some are on holiday, the task falls to me. So today, I’m staying till 7am. But I get the next day off.”, you explained. Those almost 24 hour shifts were draining, but rare, so you didn’t mind them at all. 

“Oh, I think I will need loads of coffee to make it until 7am...”, he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I might as well keep you company. That will be the perfect way to show my gratitude.”

“You really don’t have you...”; you started. 

“I have a free day tomorrow as well, so I don’t mind.”, he insisted casually. “Besides, we get a chance to talk about that drama in person. It’s easier than typing.”

You still didn’t get why he wanted to stay. Somehow you could not imagine that it was because he simply started to enjoy your company through your online talks.

For almost the whole night, you just talked and drank copious amounts of coffee. He followed you on your patrol rounds, helping you with minor tasks whenever he could. And although it was strange, it was the best night shift ever. Most of the time, it didn’t feel like you were hanging out with an idol, but just with a really nice guy. A really handsome one at that. 

“This is nice.”, Jungkook said, voicing what you had been thinking. “But I do need another coffee.”

“You could also just take a nap.”, you offered. “I’ll wake you before it’s time to go.” It was already 4 am at this point. 

He seemed to think about the offer. “Ok, but we will grab some breakfast together to make up for lost time.”

Did he really feel like he owed you all this time? You weren’t quite sure what to answer, so you just nodded and went to grab him a blanket. There was a small sofa in the staff room specifically for the nightshift or patients who could not see blood. 

“Goodnight, Jungkook.”

“Goodnight, Y/N”

Hearing it live was so much better than reading his text you decided. And with a smile you made yourself another coffee to last the remaining hours. 

[roguesandsaviors]

Grady Travis request: The Moment Things Change

Well, @anna-hawk​ asked for some angst and I think I delivered. Left it on a cliffhanger though if you wanted to know how it would end, you can let me know. :) The request was “Is that blood?” “…..No?” for Grady. Don’t hate me.

The night was quiet around you, leaving the two of you in a complete sense of peace for once. Around the farm, there was always something to do even far into the evening. The days were long but well worth it. Especially with Grady at your side. The man was a magician when it came to fixes that needed to get done. So, when things finally fell peaceful and you could escape the house, you two would head out to the barn and climb to the loft to look at the stars.

You had been friends, if it could be called that with Grady before he was drafted and sent off to the war. Never did you imagine yourself married with a family when interacting with him but when he returned, things began to change and before you knew it, you had been swept off your feet. The troubles he had didn't bother you. The war had changed him in a lot of ways but he was still the sweet man that you remembered. The night terrors and drinking didn't put you off, not when he could murmur the sweetest things and make you feel like the only one in the world. He needed a loving touch and it was one that you were happy to provide. 

The two of you were currently settled in the loft on a soft blanket, leaning against one another as you looked out the window in the loft. His hand was against your hip while you were lightly running your fingers through the hair on the back of his neck. Clear skies granted you a perfect view of the stars tonight. It felt like a good choice since Grady had a particular rough day with news of the passing of one of the members of his squad. There hadn't been any time during the day between the kids and chores to be able to check in and see where he was at. He had taken the news and immediately set himself to work, out at the barn and among the pens for most of the day. You were hesitant to bring it up, not wanting to ruin the soft moment that you had been able to create for him. And yourself really. A little selfish perhaps but you needed it as much as he did.

Leaning over, you kissed his cheek softly. The action granted you a smile, the soft one that you loved. 

"How you doing sweetheart?" His voice was low, barely above a murmur. 

"I'm perfectly fine," you offered. "Want to make sure that you are okay."

"Nothing you gotta worry about," he promised. Of course he would say that, not wanting to worry you. It was also a sure sign that he didn't want to talk about it, so you wouldn't push him. If there was something he felt like bringing up, he would. Otherwise, it was a subject that would have to be off limits for now. 

"Why don't we head inside? You can have the rest of the pie I made earlier." 

"Knew I loved ya for a reason." You hummed as you caught him in a proper kiss this time before pulling away. Getting up, you held your hand out to him. He took it, pushing up to his feet. The blanket could be left, who knew if you would get the chance to come out tomorrow. 

Climbing down from the loft, the animals were quiet, undisturbed by your presence as you walked through the barn and out into the night. Grady kept a hold of your hand, a small squeeze given occasionally, as if he was reminding himself that you were right beside him. It wasn’t an action that you minded, liking the feeling of his larger hand encompassing yours. 

Back at the house, you got him settled at the table with a giant plate of the pecan pie that you had made earlier in the day. The kids had done a fair bit of damage to it earlier and you had to end up hiding the rest to make sure that Grady actually got some. The garbage was full so with him settled in and enjoying the sweet, you decided to take it out yourself. 

Walking out towards the can, you hummed softly to yourself, though remained mindful that there could be a large predator watching you. That was part of the reason the garbage was set away from the house, hoping to avoid any inquisitive animal pressing too far into the house. Especially when the kids wandered the house when they got up at night.

You had just set the bag down when it felt like someone slammed into your back. Breath robbed from your lungs, you stumbled forward, mind immediately going to the worst case scenario. Bobcat, bear, coyote, any of them could have come out of nowhere. Scrambling forward, you spun quickly, heart in your throat, eyes darting about to see what had attacked you. There was nothing in the quiet night, no growls breaking the air, no glowing eyes peering out of the darkness at you. You tried to calm down your racing heart. Something had hit you, but maybe it was something silly like a bat.

The nerves and adrenaline had you hurrying back to the house, trying not to panic that something could be following you. A slow breath of relief left you as you stepped inside and turned to close the door. 

"Is that blood?" You turned to face your husband, confused about the comment. 

"...No?" Pain started to blossom across your back. "A bat or something flew into me. I'm sure it's okay." You tried to play it off but the pain was getting worse and now it was getting harder to breathe. Panic welled up once more, eyes focused on the worried face of Grady as he stood up and hurried over to you. He was saying something but it was like someone had suddenly put ear muffs over your ears. His voice was fuzzy and sounded far off. 

"Y/N?" He had grabbed your shoulders and guided you to a chair, right before your legs gave out on you. "Listen to me sweetheart. Everything's going to be fine. I need you to stay awake. We gotta get you to the hospital." Blackness crept to the corners of your vision. Hospital? Why would you need a hospital? He had said something else and all you could make out was bullet. He pressed something to your back and it made you cry out, the pain intense.

"Grady?"

"It's okay to be okay." It was the last thing you heard. 

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

The Dos and Don’ts of Writing Smart Characters

Since I started this blog, one of the most common questions I’ve received has to do with the portrayal of intelligent characters.  This is also one of the most difficult to answer -- excluding questions about characters with specialized knowledge sets, which are fairly easy to answer with source compilations.  Most of the questions have to do with:  how do you portray a smart character believably?  How do you make the audience relate to them?  Can I still make them likable?  How do I avoid the pitfalls of popular media?

Well, I’m finally here to answer, utilizing examples from some of my favorite (and occasionally, not-so-favorite) media.  Let’s jump in to the dos and don’ts of smart characters!

1.  Do let the audience follow the character’s thought process.  

As demonstrated by:  Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders

Albert Einstein allegedly once said, “If you can’t explain it to a five-year-old, you don’t truly understand it.”  And the sentiment rings true:  true genius doesn’t need to dazzle with big words and technobabble.  Instead, it makes the complex appear simple.

The same rings true for brilliant characters.  BBC’s Sherlock (more on that later) ceased to satisfy in its later seasons because it began to rely too heavily on visual glitz to avoid actually explaining its mysteries and how they were solved.  Similarly, the biggest complaints with block buster franchises -- Star Wars, The Avengers, Game of Thrones -- is that they became obsessed with “subverting expectations” cleverly instead of leading the audiences to their most logical and satisfying conclusions.

Meanwhile, the smartest and most satisfying media dazzles not by staying over the audience’s head, but by illustrating how simplistic the solutions can be.

Let’s start with my boy Tommy Shelby, the charismatic, swaggering protagonist of the charismatic, swaggering crime drama Peaky Blinders.  Using only his intelligence (and complete disregard for his own life/suicidal tendencies, but that’s not the point here), Tommy claws his way up from the near-bottom of the social ladder (an impoverished Romani in early 20th century Birmingham) to being a decorated war hero, to being the leader of a feared razor gang, to dominating the race track business, to becoming a business mogul, to becoming a member of parliament and trying to assassinate the leader of the fascist party. He’s also one of the paramount reasons why I’m bisexual.

So how can such a drastic social climb be conveyed believably?  Because Tommy -- as the viewpoint character -- is placed in seemingly inescapable situations, and then proceeds to demonstrate that the solutions to those situations have been there the whole time.  I recently watched a brilliant video on how this is done, which can be viewed here.

Early in season one, for example, he responds to aggressive new methods by the police by organizing a mass-burning of paintings of the king, and uses the press this garners to publicly shame the methods of the chief inspector who’s been antagonizing him.  In the next season, he talks his way into a deal by bluffing that he planted a grenade in his rival’s distillery.  My personal favorite is in season four, when he responds to being outgunned by a larger, American gang by contacting their rival -- none other than an Alphonse Capone.

All of Tommy’s victories are satisfying, because they don’t come out of nowhere -- we have access to the same information he does, each victory is carefully foreshadowed, and we are reminded at every turn that failure is a very real possibility (more on that later.)  So when he wins, we’re cheering with him.

Other examples:  Mark Watney from The Martian, who explains science in its most simplistic terms and with infectious enthusiasm.  He would make every character on The Big Bang Theory cry.  

Also, Miss Fisher from the AMAZING Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.  The dazzling, 1920s, female Sherlock Holmes of your dreams.  I cannot recommend it enough.

To apply this to your own writing:  Remember you won’t dazzle anyone if you smack them in the face with a “brilliant” plot twist.  They want to take a journey with your character, not be left in the dust.  

Also, for everyone in my askbox concerned that they’re not smart enough to write intelligent characters, just remember how simple the problems confronting smart characters can be.  Put them in a difficult situation, and provide them with a means of getting out.  Then, just let them find it. 

2.  Don’t assume the audience is too stupid to keep up (or try to make them feel too stupid to keep up.)

As demonstrated by:  Sherlock Holmes from BBC’s Sherlock.

Say what you will:  there were reasons why everyone was so captivated by this show during its first two seasons.  It felt fresh.  People had yet to become frustrated with the inescapable thirst for Benedict Cumberbatch.  The writing was sharp, and the editing clever.  And it wove a tantalizing web of mysteries that demanded solution.  The problem was, there weren’t any.

The most frustrating for many was how Sherlock faked his death at the end of season two, after which devoted fans spent two years creating intricate theories on how he might have pulled this off.  The creators responded by mocking this dedication in the opening episode of season three, by showing a fan club spinning outlandish theories (one of which included Sherlock and Moriarty kissing.)  This might have been laughed off -- at the time, many seemed to consider it quite funny -- if the creators had bothered to offer their own explanation of how Sherlock survived.  They didn’t.  And so began a seemingly endless loop of huge cliffhangers that promised -- and consistently failed to deliver -- satisfying answers.

The most egregious examples occur in season four, which provided answers to questions no one asked, and withheld answers for things everyone wanted to know.  For example, did you know that the real reason Moriarty engaged Sherlock is because he was hypnotized by Sherlock’s secret evil sister?  The same one who killed Sherlock’s best friend, whom Sherlock convinced himself was a dog?  Yes, that was a real plot point, in the climax of the series.  It’s an effort to befuddle the audience with brilliant and unexpected writing, but instead pulled them out of a story they were already invested in and made them far more critical of its pre-existing faults. 

It’s pointed out in the brilliant (if bluntly named) Sherlock Is Garbage, And Here’s Why that Moffat can be a great writer, but is a consistently terrible show runner, because he’s more interested in dazzling the audience with cleverness than actually telling a satisfying story.  The video also points out that the show often implied Sherlock’s brilliance, without ever letting the audience follow along with his actions or thought-process in a way that DEMONSTRATED his brilliance.  

I highly recommend giving the aforementioned video a watch, because it is not only a great explanation of how Sherlock Holmes can be best utilized, but about how writing itself can be best utilized.

Other examples:  The Big Bang Theory.  As Wisecrack points out in their wonderful video on the subject, the punchline of every joke is “oh look, these characters are smart nerds!” which is repetitious at best and downright insulting at worst.

How to avoid this in your writing:  Treat the audience as your equal.  You’re not trying to bedazzle them, you’re trying to take them on a journey with you.  Let them be delighted when you are.  Don’t constantly try to mislead them or hold intelligence over their head, and they will love you for it.  Also, cheap tricks do not yield a satisfying story:  readers will know when you went into a narrative without a plan, and they won’t appreciate it.

3.  Do remember that smart people can be kind and optimistic!

As demonstrated by:  Shuri from Black Panther.

Yes, brilliant people can be unhappy and isolated by their intelligence, or rejected by society.  But remember that intelligence isn’t synonymous with a cantankerous attitude, or an excuse to be a pugnacious ass to those around you!  

Part of the reason why Shuri of 2018′s Black Panther was such a breath of fresh air was the fact that she subverted almost all preconceptions about how a genius looks, acts, and regards the world.  And it’s not just the fact that she isn’t a sullen, middle-aged white man that makes her stand out:  Shuri has an effervescent attitude, and genuinely loves contributing to her country and family.  She referred to sound-proof boots as “sneakers” (and then explained the pun when her brother didn’t get it.)  She’s fashionable.  She teases her older brother, and cries when he is apparently killed.  She’s up on meme culture.  This makes her unlike pretty much every other genius portrayed in the MCU.

Except maybe the Hulk.  He can dab now.

Shuri is also allowed to take pride in her genius, and can be a bit insufferable about it, which makes her more enjoyable and rounded.  But she is an excellent example of how genius can be explored and portrayed in fiction, and I will forever be embittered that she was underutilized in Infinity War and Endgame.

Why, for example, are all geniuses portrayed as arrogant misanthropes?  Albert Einstein battled depression, but he is also said to have enjoyed blowing bubbles and watching puppet shows.  He was kind to those who knew him.  Similarly, Alan Turing behaved little like his fictional counterpart, described as “shy but outgoing,” with a love of being outdoors.  Nikola Tesla fell in love with a pigeon.  Why do we have to portray these people so damn gravely?

Other examples:  Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds.  Also an excellent portrayal of an intelligent person on the autism spectrum, as he struggles to interface socially but cares profusely for his fellow human beings.  He is brilliant, and completely precious.

Also, Sherlock Holmes -- the original version, and all faithful adaptations thereof.  Anyone who thinks Sherlock is an austere, antisocial jerk isn’t familiar with the original canon.  He blushed when Watson complimented his intelligence, for God’s sake. 

Then there’s Elle Woods from Legally Blonde and Marge from Fargo.  Brilliant, upbeat, optimistic geniuses.

To apply this to your own writing:  If you have a smart character who hates everyone around them for no identifiable reason, ask yourself why this is necessary and what this adds to the plot.  Are they angry about injustice, towards themselves or others?  Are they frustrated with an inability to relate to people?  Do they want to protect themselves or their family at all costs, including politeness?  If not, question why your brilliant character can’t also be kind to those around them.

4.  Don’t make your character perfect at everything they do.

As demonstrated by:  Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Ah, Wesley.  Some call him the original Mary Sue, and it’s one of the only times I’ve seen the term applied with some accuracy.  He is somehow the most gifted and least qualified person on The Enterprise.  He’s Hermione Granger without the charm, jumping in to answer questions before any of the trained officers in the room have the chance to, always in the right.  His only obstacle?  Why, the boorish adults he’s surrounded with simply don’t understand his brilliance!

As early as the series’ very second episode, Wesley -- inebriated by an alien illness -- forcibly takes over the ship from Captain Picard, only to later save it from a threat with a reverse tractor beam of his own design.  

Wesley was obviously inserted as a means of attracting younger viewers, but failed egregiously, because he was too annoyingly perfect for kids to relate too, and not cool enough for them to be invested in.  I binge-watched the various Star Trek series in my youth for Spock, Data, and my wife Seven of Nine, not to watch seasoned military and scientific officers get lectured by an adolescent.  Even Wil Wheaton, who had the misfortune of portraying this character, expressed a dislike for him.  

Precocious children are great, if you get them right.  But get them wrong, and they can easily become your most annoying character, marring the face of otherwise great media.  The most important thing you can do for a brilliant character is endow them with weaknesses and flaws -- even something as small as Shuri’s fondness for teasing her older brother made her enjoyable, as anyone with siblings could relate to their dynamic.  

But, what if you want a supernaturally talented character who not only fails to be a ray of sunshine, but is something of an arrogant, antisocial jerk?  Can they still work, especially if they also happen to be a child? 

Yes, under one extremely important condition:

5.  Do keep your characters out of their depth!

As demonstrated by:  Number Five from Umbrella Academy.

Okay, he’s not exactly a child.  He’s a fifty-eight-year-old trapped in a child’s body, who’s traveled back in time from a post-apocalyptic future to warn his siblings of an incoming Armageddon.  In other news, Umbrella Academy is a weird show.  Unlike the comics, however, the apes don’t engage in prostitution. 

 The effect, however, remains the same:  a preternaturally talented child who talks down to everyone around him, including his (apparently) older siblings.  So why does he work while Wesley fails so egregiously?

For one thing, it’s demonstrated early on that Five has the skills to back up his sanctimonious attitude, with the delightfully ultraviolent Istanbul (Not Constantinople) sequence.  It also helps that he lacks Wesley’s squeaky-clean moral code, to the point at which he can get drunk in public or kill without remorse.  

But:  the element most vital to his success as a character is the fact that he’s kept completely, and consistently, out of his depth.  He knows the world will end in eight days, but he doesn’t know how this will transpire or how to stop it.  Ultimately, he fails again to stop the apocalypse, and must travel back in time with his siblings for another chance.  

Most authors have the impulse to demonstrate a character’s brilliance by allowing them to succeed against insurmountable odds, but the Umbrella Academy writers show tremendous wisdom in allowing Five to fail.  This allows the audience to empathize with him, and countermands the effects of his arrogant attitude.

This advice isn’t just true for pint-sized prodigies.  Look back over this list, and take notes of how often the most successful characters are allowed to fail, to have flaws, and to ascend past their comfort zone.  

Other examples:  Virtually every successful example on this list.

Tommy Shelby, a character of limitless ambition, conducts a new, perilous climb outside of his social rank each season, which almost always puts him in positions of mortal danger.  He faces threats both external (rival gangs, evil priests, and rising fascists) and internal (hello PTSD, suicidal tendencies, and crippling addiction) but either way, we understand that his fast-paced climb is not for the weak-willed or faint-hearted.  

Mark Watney is a brilliant scientist who has been stranded in an utterly impossible situation for which absolutely no one could be adequately prepared (spoilers:  it’s on Mars.)  We are drawn in by his plight, and how he could possibly escape from it, and there we come to admire him for his courage, optimism, and humor.

Shuri, though not the main character of Black Panther, is allowed to show off both tremendous gifts and vulnerability, as she is powerless to stop the apparent death of her beloved older brother.  She watches Wakanda’s takeover both as an innovator and a young woman, and a large reason for her success is that she is allowed to be both.  

How to apply this to your writing:  When portraying intelligent characters, take stock of how often they fail, their level of control over their surroundings, their vulnerability, and their flaws.  We don’t want to read about flawless deities.  We want to read about characters who embody and personify our humanity.  So remember they need to fall down in order to pull themselves up.

Happy writing, everybody! 

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep6

Let’s just file this one under “top 10 shittiest anime deaths” *badum-tish*

Thoughts under the cut.

I feel like in a lot of ways this episode kinda highlights the highs and lows of the new series, and how it feels like it’s trying to be like three different stories at the same time and usually only succeeding at being one of them.

This episode, and this arc in general, as a standalone part of the franchise was actually really good, and delivered on the promise of ‘what if Mion actually became the culprit in one arc’, but as part of the answer arcs for the new series it just continues to feel kinda pointless and predictable. I still think that a lot of this has to do with them trying to be both a sequel and a remake at the same time, but unlike with the Rena answer arc, I honestly feel like even new fans could have guessed everything that happened in this arc, since it didn’t actually go into anything that wasn’t already discussed in Gou. So even on that level it doesn’t really feel like it’s providing essential answers that couldn’t have been worked out in advance.

It’s kinda weird how little this arc actually explored anything about Mion and Shion that wasn’t already shown in Gou, considering how much stuff from the VN related to them hadn’t been covered. A lot of their backstory stuff ended up not exactly being relevant to how this arc played out, but it just feels like a weird thing to gloss over when they’ve spent so much time going over stuff from the VN as it is.

Though on that note, I’m really curious about how they’ve made absolutely zero reference to the fact that Mion and Shion swapped places as kids, or anything about Mion’s tattoo. At this point I have to wonder if maybe Ryukishi just doesn’t actually like that plot point in hindsight, and is choosing to effectively write it out of the story here. I can see why, though, since from what I remember it kinda verges into being a twist for the sake of having a twist, and doesn’t actually do much for them as characters that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

The lack of basically anything to do with Shion’s backstory and her relationship with Satoshi still feels a lot more iffy, but at least some of this stuff feels like intentional revising on Ryukishi’s part. Which I think is a really interesting aspect of the new series as a whole. It feels like he’s taking the chance to look back on the VN and show us how he feels about it after all this time. The stuff with characters like Teppei and Rina seems to be his way of making up for them being shallow villains in the VN, and Satoko being evil here seems to be in part inspired by how little agency or control she had in the original story. I guess the big issue here is that a lot of people probably just straight up disagree with the things that Ryukishi thinks of as being problems with the VN that he’s trying to ‘fix’ here, but I think it’s really interesting to see him do this sort of thing, even if it’s messy and overly ambitious and doesn’t fully work.

For the most part I agree with all the criticisms about these arcs feeling like a bit of a waste of time as we wait for the story to eventually loop back to the Nekodamashi cliffhanger. Even from the perspective of this being mainly for the sake of new fans, it feels kinda strange to see such straightforward ‘this is what was happening behind the scenes in the question arcs’ style answers, with lots of reused footage and basically zero twists or reveals. The VN’s way of designing separate arcs that provide answers for the question arcs was more satisfying, and Umineko went even further with that by just vaguely going over the basic keys to figuring out all the how-dunnit mysteries of the question arcs, and everything else about the answer arcs there was just a continuation of the meta plot. So it feels kinda weird to see him loop back around to the opposite end of the spectrum here.

It makes me wonder if there’s some sort of larger meta mystery going on here that’ll become more apparent in the next arc, and will reveal that we didn’t actually know everything that was going on like we thought we did, but at this point I feel like it’ll probably all end up being a lot more straightforward than we predicted. But there’s still the looming specter of the meta plane stuff, the hints dropped about where this series fits into the wider WTC universe timeline, and the fact that the whole point of the new series in the first place seems to be guiding Rika and Satoko down the path toward becoming their Umineko counterparts. So all of that stuff makes me think there might be some curveball twists going in the future that expand the scope of the story, but I have no real idea what to expect from that, and if it’d even feel satisfying. As much as I’m a diehard Umineko fan who loves the idea of this being a Lambda and Bern origin story, I still worry that the execution might not work once we get to the end. I also don’t really think that anything the series does in the final arcs will completely make up for how predictable these first few answer arcs have felt on a week by week basis, lol.

In general it gets me thinking that in spite of how predictable the answers have been thus far, I’m largely clueless about how I think they’ll actually wrap up the overarching story with Satoko and Rika. It feels like there’s still a lot of different directions they could take it in, and a lot of it depends on just how far Ryukishi wants to go with tying this into other WTC works.

For one thing, I’m not even sure how to expect them to follow up on the Nekodamashi cliffhanger. It’s at least hard to imagine how they could stop Satoko from shooting Rika then and there, considering how this episode in particular went. And one way or another, we’ll have to see how Rika and Satoko handle being in a situation where they both know what’s going on with each other. I think it’ll then just depend on what Satoko’s mental state is like at that point, and also what they plan on doing with the whole looper-killing sword thing. I think Ryukishi’s implied multiple times now that the next arc will start to test Satoko’s resolve, and going by her attitude during the infamous gut-ripping scene, as well as her traumatized reaction to the punching glove box prank, I think she’ll be much less confident in her goals by that point, and probably more willing to talk about what’s going on.

I don’t think it’ll be as simple as ‘she just gives up and everyone forgives her’, or even ‘Rika beats up Satoko while everyone cheers and they all move on and abandon her’, though. I think there’ll be some kind of balancing act between redemption and punishment, but I also think that ultimately it’ll also tie into the Lambda/Bern origin story stuff they seem to be going for. I think I’ve said this before, but my best guess for how this will end is that the looper-killing sword will be used to separate their ‘meta selves’ who are aware of the loops and stuff, while leaving behind their regular physical selves who thus lose most/all of their memories of the loops. At least that way they can have their cake and eat it too by showing how Lambda and Bern became witches, while also having separate versions of them that get to stay behind and mend their relationship or something. But I’m not even confident about all of that, lol.

It’s also worth noting that the key visual for Sotsu features Satoko and Rika as teenagers, and the OP also features that pretty heavily, along with an ominous scene of the other main characters as teenagers. So that makes me think that the story will somehow get back to that whole time period, which makes me a bit more unsure how the last arc will go. One option is that the final Nekodamashi arc will just keep going until they become teenagers again, but the way those scenes are presented in the promo material makes it seem like Satoko and Rika’s relationship is still bad then. So maybe on the other hand we’ll just go back to the original Matsuribayashi timeline where Satoko first met Eua, but I feel like that’d probably be the happy ending where everything goes back to the original timeline and they all end up reconnecting again, so I’m still not sure how the ominous presentation of the teenage characters might play into that.

Either way, I think all of that stuff will probably just come up in the final arc. The next one will probably be covering Tataridamashi and Nekodamashi from Satoko’s perspective. The next arc should be where things start to shake up, but I still think they could easily cover both of those arcs in just five episodes. Nothing much seemed to be happening with Satoko until the final days of Tataridamashi, and I can’t imagine there being much to explore with how she set up the rapid-fire loops in Nekodamashi.

With what’s been hinted at about the next arc not going according to Satoko’s plans, and her resolve being tested, I think that this will probably be where things go entirely out of her control and she starts to doubt whether or not she should continue with her plans. Specifically I think that being in a new loop with Teppei being nice to her, and watching everyone else try to save her from her [perceived] abuse, will start to sway her toward thinking that maybe that sort of timeline is worth staying in, even if it means giving up on controlling Rika.

One way or another I think Ooishi went crazy all on his own. I think Ryukishi explicitly said in an interview that Ooishi went L5 naturally, and I think the manga version of Tataridamashi made it clear that Satoko was genuinely thrown off by how things went there, so she probably didn’t want Ooishi to kill anyone. I can see how he might have gone off the deep end by interrogating Teppei and realizing that there was basically a witch hunt going on against him, but I’m not sure how he would have ended up specifically blaming Rika unless Satoko pushed him into it. Either way, Teppei probably really did attack Keiichi at the end of the arc, and we know that Satoko just has one syringe to use, so at most she probably injected Teppei and then Ooishi went L5 naturally.

I’m also curious to see if/when Satoko learns about Rika being given the power to remember her deaths, since that’d also go a long way toward explaining what her intentions might have been with how that arc ended. I think Satoko is at least aware that Rika doesn’t remember how she dies, so I’m at least not sure what she’d try and accomplish by setting up a loop that only goes to shit at the very last second. It feels like it wouldn’t do a whole lot aside from making Rika confused in the next loop. But Rika only gets her ability to remember her deaths after that loop already ends, so Satoko could have only known about it if there’s some sort of conspiracy going on about Hanyuu. Which there probably is, since her whole presence in this is weird and her deciding to give Rika a new set of powers was always super suspicious, but still.

I’m also curious to see if we get any real payoff to the idea that Satoko’s looping is causing more and more people to remember past loops. Especially when it comes to the main club members, since there’s various moments in Tataridamashi and Nekodamashi, both in the anime and manga, that seem to imply that most of them are starting to remember things.

Even though the execution of this whole new series makes me a bit more wary about how any sort of new anime for Umineko along these lines might pan out, I can’t help but still really hope this is leading to something like that. For one thing I just think that if he’s going for a Lambda/Bern origin story with this, at the risk of alienating lots of existing fans, I think there should at least be a more concrete payoff to that than just ‘ok now you can go back and read the Umineko VN’. But I think there’s a lot of potential to be had with some sort of remake or sequel to Umineko where he gets a chance to revisit it after more than 10 years. One of these days I should still just make a whole post about my hopes and predictions for what could be done with any sort of new Umineko anime, lol.

Anyway, this got longer than I planned, but all in all I enjoyed this more than it probably comes across like I did, lol. Even if the plot’s been kinda boring, I think Sotsu has done a great job of elevating it with good direction and visuals. The moment to moment pacing can still be kinda choppy, and sometimes the presentation of flashback scenes is confusing and ambiguous, but in general it still feels entertaining to watch unfold, and the brutality has a lot of impact. I’m just hoping that the rest of Sotsu is more ambitious and surprising than these first two arcs have been.

[thingsanddreamsandstuff]

Ma'am I just discovered your fic, But in the end in Wonderland, we both went mad. I literally read the entire thing in one sitting and I am in desperate need of some therapy after that cliffhanger you have left the fic on. I would like to ask if you are still working on it. I must find out weather or not I must forcefully forget the last few paragraphs and let myself believe that its a happy ending, or if you have more of that absolutely golden plot worked out and in the works.

Hi there!! Thank you for this supersweet message! I’m so happy you liked this story! (But also slightly worried about you if you read all of that in one setting, it’s like a bazillion words at this point.) I promise you the next chapters are coming! And to prove that to you, I’ll include a snippet of the next chapter here ;)

Thank you for all the love!!! 

--

Wonderland Chapter 15

“Alex?”

“Hmm?”

“I think one of our phones is ringing.”

“Let it ring.”

“Babe.”

“I’m serious, people can figure out their problems without me for once.”

“But what if it’s serious?”

“This is serious.”

Sam giggled and lifted the blanket up, revealing Alex, her head just above Sam’s hipbones, toying with the hem of Sam’s black panties.

“Alex.”

“What?” Alex whined. “They’ll call back!”

“I love you,” Sam said with a crooked smile, “but it could be Ruby. I’m picking up.”

Alex groaned, but rolled off Sam, lying on her back.

“Sure, just leave me here all by my lonesome,” she pouted. “I can take it.”

“You’ll survive, big, tough Director Danvers.”

She pushed the blanket over Alex, whose feet stuck out from under the duvet.

“You say that,” Alex’s muffled voice complained, “but I’m about to hit a real dry spell here.”

“Dry spell,” Sam shook her head, tiptoeing over to their pile of stuff messily pushed into a corner of the room. “There hasn’t been a dry moment in here since you came over three days ago!”

Sam checked her phone.

“Oh,” she hummed. “False alarm. Lena’s just postponed the meeting with some investors. Meaning, I don’t have a zoom call this afternoon.”

Alex threw the duvet off her head.

“So you can stay in bed all afternoon?” she asked hopefully.

Sam laughed.

“So I can stay in bed for a little longer.”

“Well hey!” Alex said enthusiastically, turning on her side. “If that isn’t the best news you’ve delivered all day!”

Sam looked over at Alex who was winking at her – badly – and throwing her a salacious smirk.

“You, Alexandra Danvers, are the absolute worst.”

Alex fell down on the bed and bit her lip, beaming.

“So I’ve heard,” she murmured.

“Now,” she slapped the duvet, “put down the phone and come back to bed! I’ve still got things to show you!”

Sam laughed and put down her phone next to Alex’s.

“Hey, babe.”

She frowned, picking up Alex’s phone.

“You’ve got two missed calls.”

“Work?” Alex piped up.

“No, your mom.”

“Ugh,” Alex groaned, throwing the blanket back over her head.

“She misses you,” Sam said, walking back over to the bed.

“Uhu,” Alex deadpanned from under her fortress of blankets.

“Babe,” Sam said, throwing her legs over Alex’s form.

She settled down and slowly tugged the blanket away from Alex’s flushed face.

“You should call your mom.”

“Don’t wanna,” Alex pouted.

“You know,” Sam said, raising an eyebrow. “If Ruby ever left this house and refused to call me – ”

“If ever?”

Sam hit her head with a pillow.

“Awtch!”

“Then I would hunt her down with the FBI, CIA, and D.E.O. in tow to make sure she wasn’t missing or murdered!”

“And your point being?” Alex asked grumpily, rubbing her head.

“Call your mom!” Sam said.

Alex sighed.

“Fine, in a minute! But first – ”

Sam shrieked when Alex turned them over, and her back bounced on the mattress.

“I wasn’t quite finished yet.”

Sam threw her head back in laughter when Alex attacked her face and neck with a million kisses, wondering how she’d ever gotten so lucky.

--

“Have you heard from Kara lately?”

Alex sighed and shook her head, sipping her coffee.

They’d finally managed to get out of bed. Alex was sitting on a chair by the counter wearing nothing but a white sport’s bra and some joggings, while Sam walked around in her underwear and Alex’s open button-up.

The sunlight brought a golden tint to Sam’s hair, and Alex had to look at her own mug to concentrate again.

“No,” she said, putting her mug down on Sam’s counter. “I’ve tried to call her a couple of times, but it just goes to voicemail. She doesn’t want to talk.”

Sam kissed Alex’s neck, warm from the sunlight shining through the window.

“She’ll be okay,” Sam whispered.

“I know,” Alex said, letting Sam envelop her in a hug. “It’s just… we always work through our break-ups together. We might need some time… but we always talk about things? And now…”

Alex sighed.

“Now she won’t even send me a text to tell me she’s okay.”

Sam hummed. Her hands came together to rest on Alex’s abdomen, caressing her softly.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk,” Sam murmured in Alex’s hair. “You could call Eliza? Just to ask how Kara’s doing? That way Kara doesn’t have to explain herself, but you at least take some doubts away, no?”

Alex’s hands joined Sam’s.

“Yeah,” she whispered, turning her head. “Maybe.”

“Good,” Sam smiled.

They kissed, and Alex felt herself relax just a little.

“She’ll be okay,” Sam murmured against Alex’s lips. “How could she not be when she’s got you looking out for her like that?”

Alex grinned, her teeth bumping against Sam’s.

“Thank you.”

“For the sex? Oh, anytime, babe. Literally, no problem,” Sam teased.

Alex rolled her eyes.

“For what?” Sam asked kissing the spot behind Alex’s ear.

Alex sighed softly, basking in Sam around her.

“For keeping me sane,” she breathed.

Sam chuckled and pressed a kiss behind Alex’s ear.

“Anytime,” she murmured.

They both groaned when they heard another phone ring.

“Go talk to your mother,” Sam said with a kiss, before walking to the fridge.

“It could be Ruby,” Alex tried half-heartedly.

Sam glared at her over her shoulder and Alex sighed in defeat.

“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbled, “I’m going.”

“There’s a good girl,” Sam said with a smirk.

Alex threw her a look before going into the bedroom, followed by Sam’s laughter.

“Christ,” Alex mumbled, walking back out with her phone in her hand. “She’s called five times now! The woman needs a hobby.”

Sam rolled her eyes as Alex called her mother back. She picked up at the first ring.

“Mom? Yeah, you called?”

She rolled her eyes over-exaggeratedly at Sam for just a moment.

“Can’t you just ask Kara herself? Maybe she went for a walk.”

Alex smiled at Sam for one last second – before she suddenly stilled. Her next words were eerily cold. Scared, Sam would later think.

“What do you mean you can’t reach her? Did she go outside?”

Sam waited. She waited and could feel the onset of something she couldn’t quite pinpoint – but something undisputedly bad taking shape in her apartment. She could only stand there, frozen, as Alex suddenly became very, very pale.

“Because she’s with you,” Alex said slowly. “Right? I mean… she’s… home.”

The voice on the other end of the line became louder, and Sam watched with growing fear as Alex’s eyes widened and her entire body froze.

“Because she left for Midvale three days ago,” Alex said louder. “She said so herself! She left me a message – I… what are you saying?”

Alex paused while Eliza continued talking.

“Well if she’s not with you, then where is she?”

[jupitermelichios]

What I’d change about Rise of Skywalker

To be clear, these are changes I’d make to the existing script, not what I would have written instead. We can all agree Sheev coming back was, at best, a bit dumb, I’m also fully aware that a lot of people disliked TLJ for a variety of reasons and wanted ros to retconn more stuff, but this is not an attempt to change any of that. I’m taking the basic structure of the movie and shifting stuff around to create something I think is tonally and thematically more in line with the overall trillogy.

Also i’m aware the extended universe is sort of canon-until-proven-otherwise at the moment but as far as i’m concered there was a DC style crisis and it’s now open season on worldbuilding elements

- Starting right at the very beginning, our opening crawl is now just about immortality being one of the secret sith powers Sheev kept hinting about in the prequels

- Our very first sequence in the movie is now a (short) montage of Sheev sending psychic messages to members of the First Order, telling them to join his secret sith club. It’s not just Kylo, this is a thing he’s just generally doing, Hux, Pryde, Kylo, random Storm Trooper number 7, they’re all getting this same message.

- Kylo buggers off to go murder Sheev, because Snoke never actually let him graduate (or whatever modern sith do) so he’s not actually a sith lord, but he’s like ah, new/old sith lord is in town, I go kill him and I get to take his title by right of conquest rule of one styley, and also take out a threat to my power base. Also in the one scene we see of him interacting with the first order it’s pretty clear he actually really fucking hates being in charge, so a mission to kill Sheev is looking super win-win

- The reason Exigor is sacred to the Sith now, the reason Palpatine’s able to communicate accross planets, and the reason he’s still alive (ish) are all the same - the planet “has a heart... oF KAIIIBURRRRRR!” (yes the line should be delivered exactly like that) that amplified force powers

- Instead of just being Ian McDermott in white facepaint, Sheev’s design draws heavily on Darth Nihilus or Darth Sion, his body is dead or maybe nonexistant depending on how gross they’re prepared to go. The point is, the answer to the question ‘how the fuck did he survive?’ should be essentially ‘he didn’t’; he’s a consiousness and a fuckton of willpower and not much else

- We establish a temple/cult in this universe that worships twin gods and are generally all about balance and shit coming in twos and they think force diads are sacred. I’m thinking someone at the temple has resistance information, and when Rey and Poe visit, Poe goes to talk to the contact while Rey meditates and sees Luke’s ghost who tells her how he and Leia came here together and about their belief system and how there are different ways of connecting to the force than just being a jedi, setting up the plot point of the diad, our theme of ‘the people we love are never really gone’, and also laying the groundwork for what’s going to be a second theme of building something new rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, by establishing the sith/jedi dichotomy isn’t the only possible path to take.

- Rose and Finn are bored and stuck on base while their friends are on this mission, so when they get a distress call from a minor First Order base they go off to investigate. They find Hux, who’s been ousted in a coup in favour of the First Order just straight up following Sheev after Kylo wondered off, who promises them information. At this base, Finn also sees some young storm trooper cadets.

- Back at the rebel base they all meet up and Hux (who they’ve taken prisoner) tells them about Sheev being back, which they didn’t know about because he’s only been speaking to bad guys.

- Leia is already dying, Rey is super upset about it and during an accidental mind share, Kylo finds out and tells her Sidious knows how to heal people by transferring life energy from one person to another. The healing thing is specifically a Sith power this go around. We get a moment pretty soon after during a mission where someone gets injured, probably Finn, and she figures out how to heal them based on the hints Kylo gave her

- Also this time Leia still isn’t a jedi but not because of a prophesy, it’s because she disagrees with their philosophy, which is going to be relevant later. We get a line to the effect that ‘Luke didn’t grow up surrounded by the legacy of the Jedi’s failings, I did’

- The weird knife thing isnt anymore, it’s just a hollicron now, and the whole bit with both Lando and Rey’s parents and the bonty hunter are removed to give us breathing room elsewhere, it’s just a more tradtional fetch quest now.

- In order to get the holicron translated, Poe’s like “you’re not going to like this, but I maybe know a guy from doing undercover missions”, and takes them to Black Sun to speak to Darth Maul, that’s right, Darth Maul is here now, and he helps them because his prosthetics are breaking down and Rose fixes them and saves his life. Also he’s pretty pissed at Sheev for getting him killed so he’s totally chill with them killing the guy.

- The Hollicron tells them that the last known map to Exigor was stored in the archives of the temple of Corisant.

- They go to the ruins of the temple, a place that is both nostaligic and also has actual character significance to kylo and ties into our theme of how the jedi and the sith are both a bit shit, and even though it makes more sense for it to have been cleaned up, it’s full of little baby skeletons from Anakin’s massacre, just for the drama of it

- Rey and Kylo fight, he taunts her again with the promise of healing Leia, but this time Rey uses their bond and her knowledge of how to talk to force ghosts to basically force Kylo’s third eye wide open so he’s hearing a hundred force ghosts all at one, stabs him while he’s distracted, heals him, and then she fucks off, leaving him to talk to the force ghost of Anakin, who tells him he’s a moron who’s falling for the same bullshit Sheev used on him

- Rey joins up with the others, but at the Rebel base Hux has managed to escape and shoots Leia (it’s dramatic and she dies saving someone but it’s not actually particularly plot relevant so imagine your own death scene of choice here), and obviously Rey feels it

- At this point the gang split up, Poe and Rose go back the the Rebels because they know they’ll be needed, Finn goes off to rescue the storm trooper kids he saw earlier (yeah I’m adding a subplot what’re you going to do about it), and Rey goes off to fight Palpatine

- In the temple, Leia appears to Kylo as a force ghost while he’s doing dramatic ‘i can’t go on’ kneeling pose and gives him a little pep talk and name drops the title

- Finn goes to the first order base, finds the kids, and the little ones are on board with escaping but then they run into some teenagers who actually have guns and it cuts away on a ‘will they turn him in?” cliffhanger

- Rey arrives in Sheev’s big cave thing, tries to fight him but he’s all ‘the jedi could not defeat me before, what makes you think they can now when you’re barely more than a padawan’ and force lightnings her a bit. They’re not related in this universe, he just wants to steal her lifeforce to heal himself more because she’s powerful

- Turns out that the First Order have been tracking Hux, so they know where the Rebel base is so there’s a big space battle going on, and the First Order don’t even have any fancy secret weapon but there’s a lot of them and there’s not enough Rebel ships left after TLJ. Poe’s up in the air flying even though he’s the boss now, and Rose is on the comms trying to contact allies

"This is the Rebellion, please. In the name of Leia Organa, we're calling you. Please, if there's anyone out there. For Leia Organa, for Luke Skywalker, for Amilyn Holdo, please…" and then when there's no response, in tears, she whispers, "For Rose Tico, please!"

There's a beat of silence, and then the radio crackles to life.

"Rose Tico calls for aid, and Black Sun will answer."

A moment later another, "Leia Organa calls for aid and Cloud City will answer."

and then a moment later, “The Rebellion calls for Aid and the Free Troopers will answer” and we cut to Finn in a stolen First Order ship full of the trooper cadets of all ages.

A makeshift amada joins the fight, same as in the original version, and rose and circular briad crown girl who’s also been trying to call for back up hug in celebration and have a very brief ‘oh wait maybe i’m into you’ moment

- Back on Exigor, Kylo arrives to find Rey on the floor, dying. He takes her hand and we see them as spirits, surrounded by the flickering memories of their lives, they’re seeing one another properly for the first time, and they ackoledge one another as twins via the force (personally i’d make them explicitly siblings, by force if not blood, here to carry on the proud star wars tradition of ambiguously incestuous twins, but that might not fly with disney execs in the the 21st century), and then he gives her his life force to heal her and his last words are a title drop again, mirroring what Leia said to him, because this movie is cheesy as hell

- "The power of the Jedi could have lived in you, as the power of the sith lives in me. But instead you threw it away, for what? For that pathetic little boy? He was no more a true sith than you are a true Jedi!"

"I don't need to be a Jedi. The force is with me, and I am with the force. You have the sith. I have all that was and is and will be!"

Behind her force ghosts begin to appear, but not just jedi. There is as many of the Skywalker clan as we can get (including some reused green screen footage of Carrie Fisher), and Rose's sister, and Han, and people visually implied to be Poe and Finn’s parents, and Holdo, and behind them hundreds of others. Basically if we can afford them, they’re cameoing here, alongside a load of extras. And last of all, standing beside her is Ben.They exchange a look, and then Rey strikes. Palatine tries to force lightning her but it doesn't work, and she presses her hands to his cloak, pulls the life force out if him. Thes a terrible screaming and we see glimpses of the other sith, before they dissipate and the robe falls to the ground.

And obviously the space battle also gets definitively won at the same time, this is movieland, I’m thinking Finn and Poe have to coordinate an attack that relies on Finn using the force is that vague ‘jedi’s are all amazing pilots’ way episodes 1 and 4 both used

Oh and then at the end they’re all celebrating back on the Rebel base, and Finn starts to hit on Rose and she’s like “I’m not the one you want to say that too, also you’re not my type” and smooches circular braid-crown girl who’s been in the background of all these movies with nothing to so

Finn joins Poe and Rey and they all hug in the same ambigiously-poly way they did in the original, and then Poe’s like “I’m sorry about Kylo” kind of awkward because he still hates the guy but he knows Rey doesn’t, and Rey’s like ‘I’m not, the people we love never really leave us’

and then the final scene, Rey is carrying Kylo’s lightsabre and lays Luke’s and Leia’s on the altar of the temple of the twins, and goes to ask the priests to tell her about their religion, with the implication that she’s starting to build her own new version of the jedi

(and if I was disney this would totally be the set up for a new animated series about Rey travelling around the galaxy meeting new weird alien cultures and learning about what cool force powers they have, and the knights of Ren can be the bad guys, and sometimes she’ll come and help Finn and Poe and Rose with trying to rebuild the galaxy. And then they have to take out Black Sun in season 2 and it’s all super dramatic because they were allies sort of and had cameos, and now rey and maul are forced to have super cool spider-legs lightsabre battles instead)