#i really really dislike the idea of this whole 'joke' concept

[collinnmckinley]

I dont normally say this a lot but, yall be smoking some weird shit if you think or hc Graves to be Adler's son... yes its all fun and all until someone takes it to another level and makes shit up and say its canon... and i really dont like how yall trying to make sense of it all.

[applestorms]

clawed my way through (some of) the epilogues and hs^2 again for dirkjake crumbs and i think there is a Genuine place for ultimate jake to fit into canon (or at the very least, lord jake english) since meat timeline jake never actually shows up visually in hs^2 and his final appearance in that timeline (minus a phone call or something w/ roxy? or was it kanaya fuck) is giving ult. dirk his spaceship and then proclaiming his undying love while desperately trying to get dirk to let him join him, to which dirk responds that he’ll “never let [jake] break [his] heart again” (ch39). agony.

two interesting things about the end of his arc in meat actually: for one thing, it’s kinda implied that along with giving dirk a spaceship, he also gave dave/karkat/roxy/kanaya/etc a spaceship to chase after him, so he’s at least taken some action to try to stop him. again though, we never see him after that point so like. the idea that he could just hope himself into becoming an ultimate self in the background is actually kind of a possibility?? like while the others try to chase dirk down, jake is figuring out how to brute force himself into ascension as a backup plan. second thing, dirk is very snarky in the narration about the fact that this dramatic goodbye he’s giving jake is the last time he’ll ever get to see him (jake see dirk, i mean) but ult. dirk also seems to lack power against alt. calliope when they fight over the narrative so jake ascending would actually pose a serious threat and might be able to override that, assuming dirk’s power over the narrative extends that far in the first place (thinking about that post talking about how narration is also a reflection of characters’ thoughts…)

candy timeline jake is also pretty interesting since he very notably starts being advised by BGD to be a kind of spy on the inside against jane’s. whole thing in that timeline. i actually completely cannot remember what jane does in the meat timeline, i think also some presidency bullshit, right?? that’s what the davekat thing was about??? but anyway BGD sounds pretty normal in all his dialogue, or normal for BGD at least, and is aware of both the game over timeline and ult. dirk’s bullshit enough to make fun of it so. idk maybe i’m just misunderstanding how ultimate selves work, but the fact that BGD wasn’t really “integrated” into ult. dirk feels significant to me, especially considering the fact that we can see caliborn/LE’s influence on ult. dirk so much (his narration in ch39 gives AR too, frankly, like the epilogues are obvs way more openly horny than hs proper but AR was always kinda like that too, especially about jake). hs^2 also ends super abruptly with some lore shit i skimmed half heartedly between calliope, roxy, and john again talking about his initial decision between candy and meat. that whole conversation pretty deliberately frames the decision between meat and candy as being parallel to terezi’s coin flip about whether or not to kill vriska, and roxycallie even tell john straight up that he needs to get vriska again to fix the story, perhaps assuming that’ll work again since it did when he was retconning the timeline? but imo, though maybe i’m biased cause i didn’t really review what vriska does post-canon again, it seems more fitting to me that jake would be the one to fix the bullshit timelines, considering 1. dirk is the one going bananas out of his fucking mind w/ control of the narrative, 2. thematically, pumpkins are the most logical, healthy alternative to meat and candy, fitting since caliborn explicitly aligns dirk and jake’s color scheme with them in the smut-drawing conversation and since (in the same breath) he establishes that he hates them and prefers meat/candy. but that’s getting into sherlock secret final episode levels of conspiracy, and i’m not sure i’m ready for that one

[dailyadventureprompts]

DM Tip: Creating a Campaign Skeleton

Learning to be a better dungeonmaster was a protracted process. A younger me was often so stressed out by the desire to be a better artist that I'd have legitimately mauled a person if it would've revealed to me the wisdom I sought (with my hands or even an actual maul given the chance).

One of my biggest hurdles was the idea of a universal framework for d&d adventures, a guideline that would tell me if the things I was creating were on the right track. It was sorely needed, I loved the process of being creative but without an understanding of how my creative energy was best used I ended up sinking days, weeks, or even months worth of energy into projects that went nowhere. Worse yet, when I DID get a chance to put my ideas into practice at the table they'd frequently spiral out of control and crash, resulting in even more stress.

Over time I learned from these mistakes, I got better, and then I got good. I moved from conscious incompetence to competence, and I ended up having a run of absolutely stellar campaigns that were everything my younger self could have dreamed of: stable, enjoyable, meaningful, and most importantly an absolute delight to my players. Routinely I'd have people, including folks that'd only played with me a few times, mention that getting together to roll dice and listen to me babel on in silly voices was a highlight of their week.

It was as one of these campaigns began to wind down (three years! a satisfying conclusion on the horizon!) and I started looking for a followup scenario that I decided to study all my really successful campaigns and figure out what connected them. The end result was something I'd been looking for for nearly a decade, a reliable format that I could build campaigns around.

I want to preface this section with the understanding that while this information is laid out in a vaguely chronological fashion there's no guarantee that these ideas will occur to you in any particular order. Inspiration is a funny thing, and each idea flows into the others to make a cohesive whole. Due to foreshadowing and setup reasons you're also going to need a pretty solid idea about all of these when starting a campaign, though exact details will likely change/ can be vague up until the moment they're needed.

The Reason: Who are we and what are we doing?

Gives your players a solid background to build their characters around and give them a reason to travel together, rather than having to ad lib one on the spot. Likewise sets expectations of what the campaign is "about" that you can build on or subvert in time. The reason doesn't need to hold true for the entire game, just long enough to serve as a framing device. EG: The Witcher starts out as a "monster of the week" setup and then uses that framework to pivot into politics and prophecy once we've seen the premise play out.

The Pilot/Crashtest Adventure: What's first?

I’ve already written about these, but the general concept is to give your party a mostly contained first outing that doesn’t have any larger bearing on the plot so they can focus on learning how their characters play/building the party dynamic.  By the time the party's finished this first adventure they'll have already started putting down roots in the world: they'll have in jokes, npcs they've started to care about, an understanding of what's on the horizon, and an idea of where they want to go next.

The Central Gameplay Pillar: How does this all work?

It's important to have an idea what your campaign is going to be about in a mechanical sense in addition to its plot and themes. There is a difference between an adventure that has the party delve a dungeon, and a dungeoncrawling focused campaign. I like to lead with these outright during the campaign pitch so that players can know what they're getting into. Your playgroup will likely have strong opinions about what they like and dislike, even if they don't have the words to describe it, so you might need to explain the ideas for them.

The Hub: Where are we?

I think every good campaign has a hub, some kind of settlement that the party returns to between adventures to offload loot, pick up supplies, and sift through the latest gossip to look for the next questhook. Letting the party return to the same place lets them build up a relationship with it, clarifying the picture in their mind as new details are added and they grow more and more attached. It's possible to have multiple hubs over the course of a campaign, but I'd advise really only having one per arc to best concentrate your efforts. Fill up your hub with distractions and side adventures, shorter stories that the party can get tangled up in while the larger adventure slowly reveals itself. Returning to the same hub also means returning to a familiar and expanding cast of NPCs, which helps your party become more and more invested in the setting

The Main Event: What's going to happen?

Here we get to the meat of the issue, the big story you want to be telling using this campaign. To pull off the sick narrative kickflip you wish to perform, you're going to need to lay a lot of groundwork, seeding in details left and right as well as giving the party a chance to stumble across evidence of your schemes without ever realizing the whole thing. To do this, you're going to work in the building blocks of your big reveal/twist/pending disaster into the setting along with those side adventures from the hub. This will give your party an idea that something is going on, but with more pressing matters to take care of they're going to be distracted up until the moment you decide to pull the trigger.

The Setting: What's over there?

While things like genre and tone are definitely things you should have a handle on from the outset, I personally feel like the details of a setting are best constructed on an ad hoc basis, either in a direct response to something required by part of the narrative (be it side story or main event), or pencilled in at the margins as the party explores the world.. That said, creation of the hub and setting often go hand in hand because it's important to match the settlement to the environment and then shape the environment to the quests inside the settlement. As for what's beyond your hub, I happen to have just written something about building out settings.

Now, this next option is one that I recommend you start thinking about only once your campaign is fully underway, so it doesn't clog up your creative process by focusing on something that you might not even get to

The Change: What the fuck?

A little while after the main event has kicked off and your party is off on the quest that will turn them from mere adventurers into heroes, they start to hear rumours of strange happenings. It's certainly not related to the present scenario, it may even be an unexpected windfall, but it's not something they have time to look into. Time ticks on, the land is saved, and the party is able to enjoy their victory lap as well as some dearly needed time off. Before they can get comfortable however they're slammed by some strange occurrence that they could have never predicted that changes the state of the world. A neighbouring kingdom invades, an important ally is murdered and they're blamed for it, a dragon starts rampaging through the realm. Its important that this event is outside the party's skillset, not necessarily diametrically opposed, but counter to what they were planning

artsource

[showtoonzfan]

Vaggie in the show really did piss me off, I just…feel bad for the character, like Viv HATES her so much and it shows. For most of the season, she’s just Millie 2.0. Her entire character revolves around Charlie. She exists to help her, to make her dream come true. Without Charlie she’s literally nothing and the show FLAT OUT says that itself in the third episode. I love how during that, she says she doesn’t know who she is without Charlie, but then proceeds to sing about how much she wants to protect her, something we already knew. Like…even Viv doesn’t know who Vaggie is without Charlie and that’s fucking SAD bro. How have you had this character for years and can’t even answer simple writing 101 questions about who they are and what they do outside of their partner/peers. And her having an identity crisis arc would have worked, but the show doesn’t do anything with that concept. Husk says she “hates herself”, and while her exorcist reveal may be the reason to that, the show puts no effort into actually showing us that on screen, cause the writers can’t seem to realize that we don’t know who Vaggie is at all OR without Charlie around. What are her likes and dislikes? What are her hobbies? Interests? None of that in the “female led” show!

Outside of her love for Charlie she’s SO flat and empty, and sadly her VA’s performance plays a heavy part in that cause Vaggie now just sounds so bored and lifeless all the time. Then we actually get to her exorcist reveal and I just know Viv stole this idea from the fan theories and decided to do it at the last minute, because the way it’s handled is so poorly done and lazily rushed. I felt NOTHING during that reveal because the show didn’t give me a reason to care. Not just cause everyone and their momma predicted it, but because there is ZERO buildup to it. Would have been nice to see this secret eating Vaggie up emotionally throughout the season and determined to keep it a secret, but nah…just flat out lay it on us like you do with all your characters Viv. Like….maybe develop the character FIRST before you reveal her darkest secret, and maybe actually show how this secret affects said character so we actually give a damn when it’s revealed.

Then near the end she has a supposed “arc” or we’re of course just told that. The moment Carmilla said that Vaggie was “too bloodthirsty and desperate for revenge rather than thinking of the people she loved”, truly shows how Viv doesn’t understand her own fucking characters despite trying to convince everyone she does. All we’ve SEEN is Vaggie thinking about the people she loves. You’ve shown us nothing else outside of that, you’ve said yourself that her whole purpose is protecting Charlie and making her dreams come true so what the hell was Carmilla saying? This of course would have made more sense if Vaggie was someone who desperately wanted to get back at heaven and we see her rage take over her love for Charlie and her plans, but again….we don’t SEE any of that. If anything all we see is someone who DOES care about the people around her and her actions were always out of love. I also hate how her arrival in hell is in flashback mode, this series is so allergic to taking it’s time, cause these are things you could have made into a full episode within itself, same for her meeting and falling in love with Charlie. Vaggie is a character that’s so easy to make likable and deep, and she WAS likable. But Viv could give less of a shit about her, in the end she ended up being so flat. Love how the joke of her name is that she was given that name by a sexist pig character, yet Viv decided to keep said name for her too that’s SUCH good writing.

[sihtricfedaraaahvicius]

The Extended Booking

Note: I really had to take a break from my current wips, as I began to dislike every word I wrote, so I decided to try and start a whole new fic from scratch. This was an idea/request from @neonhairspray, a concept which we discussed as a joke but it now turned into a story. I hope you will all enjoy this lighthearted fic 🖤

Warnings: 18+! smut/fluff.

pairing: Modern!Sihtric x you (f)

summary: your stay at an airbnb came with a pleasant surprise.

wordcount: 3,4k 

Masterlist

You couldn't believe your luck when you stepped into the most beautiful Airbnb you had ever booked in your life. Your trip to an enchanting and remote spot in England's countryside had been nerve wracking to say the least, as it was your first solo trip ever, but all stress fell off your shoulders as soon as you closed the door of the spacious bungalow behind you. One of your concerns had definitely been that your booked home was too good to be true, but you couldn't stop smiling when you dropped your bags and went to explore the incredible interior of your rental for the next seven days.

The place had many windows and was painted a warm shade of white, a nice contrast with the all black furniture and dark wooden floor. The living room had everything you needed; a TV that came with a game console and every possible streaming platform, all free of use, a comfortable sofa, two lounge chairs to relax in and a nice dining table with an impressive kitchen. There were three bedrooms, all equal in size, but one was clearly meant as the main bedroom as it had a beautiful dark wooden bed with a massive headboard, and there was a matching chandelier on the ceiling as well as an unlimited supply of candles to use. There was a bathroom with a walk in shower and a jacuzzi, with the walls and floor of the room made of white marble. The bungalow also had a back porch which gave view to acres of woods surrounding the place, and there was a little pond in the distance. There was no doubt you'd spot a lot of wildlife during your stay and, to top it all off, on the very end of the porch was a hot tub which was heated by firewood.

Your whole goal of this one week trip was to find yourself again and to hit that reset button on your life. Things had been rough lately and you needed to clear your head, and you immediately knew that this was the right place to do so.

The days went by faster than you wanted while you pampered yourself daily. You enjoyed several quiet hikes in the woods, reading books in the lounge chair, taking relaxing showers and you ended each day with a nice glass of wine at night, in the hot tub outside while moon bathing. You finally found that inner peace again but you weren't ready yet to go back home. You checked the forecast for the upcoming week and saw there should be loads of rain and thunder, and after the nice and sunny days you had experienced there you could only dream of being comfortable on the sofa with a book and a drink while the rain tapped on the windows and the thunder rolled through the sky. And so when you were supposed to pack your bags to leave the next morning, you opened the Airbnb app and saw that the option to extend your stay in the wonderful little palace of peace was available. Without any hesitation you booked another full week, and you threw your phone somewhere in bed before you fell asleep, feeling like a princess in a fairytale home in the woods.

The next morning you woke up late and had your coffee while sitting on the sofa, gazing out of the massive windows as the rain started to pour down from the sky. You smiled and sipped your hot beverage, your hair still messy and uncombed while wearing an oversized shirt with bunny flip flops underneath. Life is good, you thought to yourself, for the peace and quiet was all you needed. But then your heart skipped several beats while your body froze, your fingers tightly clutched around the mug in your hands as you suddenly heard a key being shoved into a lock. You snapped your head to the front door, where the sound came from, and you held your breath as you stared at the entrance with wide eyes when it suddenly opened. You felt your cheeks heat up as you watched a handsome but rugged looking man walk in, who didn't seem to notice you, as he closed the door behind him and threw his keys on the cabinet next to it. You swallowed hard while he kicked off his shoes in the open hallway and then raked his hand through his long, dark and wild looking hair. And it was then that the handsome intruder looked up and saw you sitting on the sofa. His sofa.

'Gods, what the fuck!' he hissed as he jumped a step back and grabbed onto the cabinet to keep his balance, 'who… who the hell are you?'

'I… I,' you panicked after your mouth had gone dry, 'who are you?!' you half yelled.

'Me?!' he almost snarled, 'I own this place! Who are you?!'

'I rented the place!'

'What?' the man asked, confused as he grabbed his phone, 'no, that… wait,' he scoffed and was quick to check his agenda, 'yes, I had my house rented out until this morning. You were supposed to check out three hours ago already.'

'What? No!' you jumped up, 'no, no. I extended my stay last night. I paid for one more whole week right away!'

He stared at you, even more confused than he already was five seconds earlier, and he began to scroll through his emails, looking for any confirmation of your stay while you went to grab your own phone from the bedroom. You figured the man you were dealing with was Sihtric, who was listed as the owner of the bungalow, and you became concerned about what would happen next as you walked back to the living room. Sihtric glanced at your appearance as you walked past him, back to the sofa, and if he wasn't so confused and startled right now he would allow himself to think that you were adorable in your oversized shirt and fluffy slippers, but there was no time to flirt with a pretty lady right now.

'Look,' he said and pinched the bridge of his nose, 'I don't know what went wrong, but clearly something did go terribly wrong. My place was only supposed to be booked until this morning as I'd come back home from a business trip. Airbnb made a mistake somehow by listing it as available, when it's really not. I mean,' he scoffed, 'I live here. I literally live here.'

'But what am I supposed to do?' you scoffed back, 'I can't just pack up and leave, I already changed my train ticket. I have nowhere to go and I sure as hell ain't going to pay for another home or a hotel.'

'Well I sure as hell ain't going to pay for that either,' Sihtric almost snorted.

You stared at each other for a moment, unsure about what to do next, and he then sighed while shaking his head, 'I'll call Airbnb and ask what to do.'

You agreed and anxiously waited while you watched him talk on the phone, and before the conversation was over it already became clear that you were both kind of screwed in this situation. You would get your money back, Sihtric informed you, but there were no available rooms nearby anymore apparently, so he either had to be an asshole and throw you on the street, or he had to allow a complete stranger to share his house with him for a whole week.

And it turned out that the intimidating man wasn't as tough as you thought, because he could simply not tell you to pack your bags and leave with nowhere else to go.

After your horrendous introduction, Sihtric had left the house to get some groceries to stock up his fridge. After he came back and eventually started cooking dinner, there lingered an unbearable awkward silence while you were both in the same room. You had quietly been eyeing each other up for at least an hour already, and both averting your eyes whenever the other would catch them.

You couldn't deny the fact that Sihtric looked good. His hair was messy but in a stylish way, he had a couple of tattoos on his body and was dressed in all dark clothing, his tight jeans showing off the good shape of his legs and buttocks. He surely was muscular and you wondered what kind of work he did, as a man in such good shape was probably not an office guy.

'Look,' Sihtric said, not being able to stand the silence anymore after a while, 'I'm sorry about earlier.'

You looked up at him as you sat at the dining table.

'I had a rough week,' he continued, 'a business deal went south and I had a long flight back home. I really needed some peace and quiet when I got home and I did not expect someone to be here. I never meant to be rude, that's not who I am,' he sighed and shoved a potato dish in the oven, 'I was just surprised and in a bad mood.'

'It's okay,' you smiled, 'I am sorry too for freaking out. I had nowhere else to go if you would've kicked me out, which I could've understood, because this is your house. So I'm really thankful that you're letting me stay.'

'Yeah,' Sihtric sighed softly again, 'we'll figure this week out, don't worry.'

During dinner you both started to warm to each other and to open up. You told him about the disaster your life recently had been and why you had booked a solo trip to ground yourself again, and Sihtric in return told you that he worked in finance and often travelled all over the world to close deals for his firm. He had houses all over the globe, renting them out whenever he wasn't staying in them, and this was the first time in years that a booking had gone wrong. 

You quickly started to enjoy each other's company later that evening and agreed to play a few games on his playstation. And slowly a certain tension began to grow, which wouldn't explode until a few days later.

The weather was indeed awful in the days that followed, as the forecast had predicted. There were zero options to go out and explore the area, so you tried to keep yourself busy inside the house. You read a few more books while Sihtric worked from home, often being busy writing emails and making phone calls from his living room. You'd try and read a few pages of your book but couldn't stop your eyes wandering off to Sihtric as he was on another call, pacing back and forth in front of the window that overlooked his woods surrounding his home, and you became more and more attracted to him as the day progressed. He looked so handsome, dressed in a white shirt that showed off his figure and a pair of fancy black trousers with a black belt, and the silver watch around his wrist was the finishing touch.

Sihtric clearly had a way with words and his charm seemed to work even through the phone. He closed deal after deal during the day, while he made you dinner every evening and relaxed with you until it was time to go to bed separately. The bedroom you had chosen to stay in, with the massive headboard, was actually Sihtric's bedroom when he was alone, yet he had no trouble giving it up for another week. But after a few days you both quietly began to wonder at night what it would be like to share the bed with each other.

Every time you spent some time together you started to become closer, and suddenly faint touches began to linger and eyes began to hold contact. Hands and fingers teasingly grazed over one's arms in passing and during the evening you started to put your legs over his as you watched TV. Sihtric gave you a flirty smirk at that and gently ran his fingers across your bare legs, giving you pleasant tingles all over your body and causing you to squeeze your thighs together.

'What's the matter?' Sihtric whispered with his breathy and warm voice, the sly smile on his face telling you he knew exactly what he was doing.

'Nothing,' you feigned being composed and collected.

'Nothing,' he said with a soft chuckle, then leaned in and trailed his fingers over your neck and shoulders, 'so,' he said quietly and licked his lips, 'are you finally going to ask me fuck to you? Or are we going to pretend there's nothing here for the remainder of your stay?'

You gave him a cheeky smile and scoffed lightly.

'I have to ask you?' you raised an eyebrow, 'I thought you were the type who would just pick me up and throw me on his bed. But… I guess I was wrong,' you faked a yawn and noticed how his eyes darkened as he saw the mischief in yours.

'I'll prove you wrong,' Sihtric whispered, and he then got up from the sofa.

He grabbed your ankle and pulled you towards him, then lifted you with ease and threw you over his shoulder, to which you yelped as you laughed, and you couldn't resist giving his ass a firm slap as he carried you to his bedroom.

'Watch it,' Sihtric responded with a lighthearted threatening tone.

'Or what?' you giggled.

'Or,' he said and threw you on his bed, 'there's still time to kick you out of my house,' he said with a grin.

'Trust me,' you chuckled as you spread your legs, pulling your oversized shirt up to reveal your thighs, 'you don't want to kick me out anymore after you've had me.'

You looked up at him, smiling as you bit down on your lip while you watched him take off his leather belt and unclasp his fancy watch.

'Is that so?' Sihtric murmured and took off his shirt.

Your mouth nearly watered as his biceps looked so biteable, his shoulders looked like great leg support, and his chest was more than firm enough to place your hands on when riding him. You nodded at him and kicked your legs with anticipation as your eyes darted over his body, but you were stopped when Sihtric grabbed your ankle again to pull you swiftly towards him as he stood next to the bed. He then pulled you up by your hands and removed your shirt, exposing you completely apart from your underwear. He then told you to unbutton his trousers, which you did, and you felt his cock twitch in his boxers with each teasing brush of your palm.

'Someone's excited,' you taunted and pulled him down on the bed.

'Can you blame me?' Sihtric breathed as he grabbed your face, his lips touching yours when he spoke softly, 'you've been wandering around my house for days, barely dressed, giving me looks and touching me just enough to make it look innocent,' he paused and chuckled darkly, 'but we both know by now you're probably not that innocent, are you?'

'I guess you're about to find out,' you smiled and flicked your tongue against his lips before you sucked his lower lip gently.

Sihtric then crashed his lips onto yours, kissing you hard and deep, a kiss that told the truth about how you both had been secretly longing for each other ever since you met. You raked your hands through his loose hair, keeping him as close as possible while he slowly bucked his hips into you, both your private parts still clothed with a thin layer of fabric which became soaked with both your fluids of arousal. Sihtric pulled you on top of him, his hands massaging your breasts and his fingers occasionally pinching your nipples. He then looked up at you, his dazed mismatched eyes betrayed he was clearly hungry for more, and he kissed down your neck and to your chest, lightly sucking your breasts in between wet kisses, his tongue flicking slowly against your nipple while you grinded against his hard cock and moaned at the friction.

But it wasn't enough, and you pushed him away to quickly lower his boxers, his leaking cock jumping out. You smiled, pleased at the size of him, and you wasted no time to slowly drag your tongue up his length and you teased the tip while you looked up into his eyes. Sihtric moaned and threw his head back on his pillow, his hands finding your hair as you wrapped your lips around him and eagerly took him in your mouth, sucking him off until tears ran down your face and a mixture of drool and pre-cum running down your chin.

'Good girl,' Sihtric breathed and allowed you to catch your breath, gently pushing you away.

He didn't want to finish that quickly, not before he had giving you the fuck of a lifetime, so he grabbed your face and wiped your tears before he kissed you again. Then he picked you up in his arms and walked you to the living room, where he threw you in one of the big lounge chairs. He pulled your panties down and was quick to lift your legs upon his shoulders as he knelt down in front you. He grabbed your hips and teased you first with a few soft kisses to your wet pussy, but the taste of you was irresistible and he soon licked and sucked your folds until your legs trembled and you almost cried out his name while you grabbed onto his hair and grinded your hips against his face.

Sihtric stopped before you could finish and he kissed his way back up to your lips, letting you taste yourself as he pushed his tongue in your mouth, sloppily making out until you both couldn't take it anymore. Sihtric then quickly ran to his bathroom to grab the essentials, some condoms and lube, and you squirmed with a smile when you felt his warm hand teasingly rub your sweet spot with some lube, and he gave you just a small tease of pleasure when he slid two of his digits inside you.

'Someone's excited,' Sihtric taunted back at you this time, feeling your walls clench around his fingers while he left love bites on your neck and shoulder.

'Sihtric,' you whined, 'just fuck me already.'

'Your wish is my command, my lady,' he chuckled and then winked at you, 'it's an all inclusive stay after all.'

You barely had time to blink and he had already gotten a hold of your legs again. Sihtric got up from the comfortable chair and towered over you. He brought your legs up, holding your ankles with only one hand as he pressed them against his chest, with his other hand holding your waist firmly as he slowly entered you, giving you some time to adjust before fucking you relentlessly in that same position. He kept your legs pressed together as he refused to let go of your ankles, which caused him to grunt and moan heavily as you felt so tight around him, and it made you cry out in pleasure all the same while you grabbed onto the various pillows around you as he continuously hit that right spot deep inside you. And he didn't stop pounding into you until you came, with his own release following shortly after.

Once all cleaned up, Sihtric wrapped you in a blanket and threw one over his own shoulders before you both sat on the sofa, his arms around you while you rested your head against his chest, both tired but satisfied.

'How many more days are you staying?' he wondered quietly out loud as he nuzzled your neck and left soft kisses on your skin.

'Only two more,' you whispered, a little sadly while you both listened to the rain as it tapped against the windows and on the flat roof, and you took his hand to press a kiss to the back of it.

'Well, I think you should extend your stay,' Sihtric said softly and squeezed you in his arms, 'for free this time.'

taglist: @foxyanon @alexagirlie @sihtricsafin @neonhairspray @gemini-mama

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if you want to be added to/deleted from the taglist, message me 🖤

[rkaln]

its akatsuki!Lee propaganda & #like what is the lore

random part V & sasuuuukeeeee

THANX U SKUUN♥ @egregiousderp for all ur ideas *U* and for permission to use your quotes

in general, THANKS♥ everyone from the Glugchat, you are an incredible community, and I really appreciate your support And I don't remember when my presence in the fandom was LIKE THIS

*********

but if they’re on the same team and Sasuke confides in him that he’s looking for his brother (to kill) that might be a sympathy point for Lee.

His whole grudge against Sasuke initially I mean? At first it’s just “ah he’s from a prestigious clan so I can test my own abilities against him.” But then Sasuke learns movement from Lee without Lee meaning to allow him to…

But if Lee eventually becomes Akatsuki is could also be because he’s trying to infiltrate it and locate Itachi for Sasuke.

Genuinely there’s a lot of possibility in an AU like this and a Sasuke and Lee friendship could be SO INTERESTING like this, because Lee’s personality is so similar to Naruto’s but also…a little different?

Sasuke would probably take the Gaara thing as “makes sense of course you want revenge on the man who took away your life too. We’re the same.

THE POTENTIAL FOR EDGY SASUKE AND LEE FRIENDSHIP IN AKATSUKI!LEE

© SKUUN

*********

I've thought about it a lot. I've never had much love for Sasuke, you know. but the more I thought about how their friendship would develop, the more interesting it seemed to me.

(by the way, it's funny if you look at the team that Sasuke has assembled - purely a TEAM OF RABID HYPERACTIVE EXTROVERTS, Lee fits in perfectly)

b u t

it turns out that they would still have time to spend some time with Orochimaru

when Sasuke comes to Akatsuki, not knowing that Rock Lee is already there

"…YOU AGAIN" "… AND HERE TOO"

and FUCK Lee wasn't there just because of Gaara but also because of Sasuke

(in general, it's funny to parallel, because Lee is in some ways similar to Naruto, and Sasuke is in some ways similar to Gaara

I can already go draw memes where Lee and Sasuke, with faces full of pent-up jealousy and indignation, look at Naruto and Gaara and randomly come to kage's office if they met TO REALLY DISCUSS BUSINESS …OKAY, I got distracted by how many jokes you can make on this concept

Anbu!Lee: 'I assure you, I'm just doing my job, I just want to make sure that the meeting IS GOING WELL' the rest of the anbu: 'yy e aaaah, of course. =/ after all, Naruto is definitely the one with whom the meeting can go wrong… mind your own business, we don't want to get involved in this') + another line of Sasuke and Gaara in the five kage arch is complemented by the fact that he now knows a little more about Sasuke because of Lee…..

so then think they would have to really try to get over their mutual dislike.

I think during orochimaru (I'll call it orochimaru timing lol) they still experienced it, but nevertheless they could already take a closer look at each other as individuals. Moreover, then it will be, on the contrary, a kind of period of skill improvement for both.

just imagine how Lee, with the same zeal with which he studied taijitsu, studies the use of chakra with Sasuke and Sasuke is improving his taijitsu skill

( while I was writing this, I realized that I had not decided which element of the chakra Lee had =/ )

I literally expect Sasuke to have to train with him - he still understands that they can train each other well, especially since Sasuke copied Lee for a reason, and the original goal of becoming stronger should be above personal relationships.

and for Lee if copying Sasuke on the exam was a pretty painful blow, now it's gradually becoming interesting Sasuke trained the speed skill with Kakashi for the sake of chidori, so I'm sure Lee could, u know TO REPEAT IT NOW

without sharingan technique is useless (the story of smol kakashi and this technique), but purely at speed without weights

just technically it can be done just as a fact of training. put a check mark in your head.

it looks to me like those moments when Lee is more confident in the correctness of his decisions.

because it's like a closed gestalt for himself, just technically to do what he saw from Sasuke at that moment It's like a confirmation that he's really right. that it was worth the risk to have such opportunities to use the chakra.

(by the way, I generally think what a huge potential Lee has then, at this moment they showed us the CHAKRA↓ if you add to this the things that were shown in the canon - the speed boost and the whole feint with weights, the opening of the gate, IT REMAINS ONLY TO GIVE HIM A BOTTLE OF ALCOHOL IN THE END. moreover, at first I also forgot about OROCHIMARU's SEAL, I remembered about it only when I thought about Itachi and joining akatsuki. I created a monster, you know. and I don't regret anything ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

but look at this…. chakrashot lol)

*********

Actually, it's about Itachi and Sasuke

initially, I immediately decided that Itachi had influenced Lee to join Akatsuki in the end.

so Skuun's ideas influenced me to think about it in more detail, because I didn't think about Sasuke at first.

"but if they’re on the same team and Sasuke confides in him that he’s looking for his brother (to kill) that might be a sympathy point for Lee."

so sooner or later they would have discussed this point too, and I think they would have managed to build a trusting relationship for this.

..at some point after Sasuke's rescue arc, Itachi would have found Lee. Also to talk, as it was with Naruto. (Apart from what was described in one of the parts where I told you that Itachi just chose to pick up the Konoha boy from Orochimaru in the mom mode lol)

Of course, this conversation would not be like a conversation with Naruto, I imagine how Lee, on the contrary, purses his lips "in a beak", saying that he and Sasuke are not friends at all. (for now)

Itachi would like to know more about Sasuke, but since there would be little information, he would eventually tell about Akatsuki, predicting that the alliance with Orochimaru would not last long.

"When you decide to leave, we'll find you ourselves." (Lee just didn't know that Itachi would know anyway, since he was looking out for his brother)

…will offer to help with the removal of the seal if he joins them. And this will be another small lead to Sasuke.

In the long run, it seems that Itachi looks to me next to Lee really like a bit of a "mom", a slightly more mentoring figure, which he could not become for Sasuke.

Moreover, he also understood that Lee would most likely sooner or later begin to understand what he had fucked up about. -> they would have had a lot of dialogues about it

- why did you leave -are you really right -what will you do after …you've talked a lot about becoming someone who doesn't use chakra, but you've given up on it. Is strength the main thing?...

"Sasuke showed me that there's no point in what you can't use."

*********

Skuun really inspired me to think about them a lot more

because in the future, it seems to me that they really have a pretty interesting long friendship, cemented by time and common problems

NOT TO MENTION THE WAR ARCH AND THE POST!WAR TIME (it's even a pity that I already described about anbu in another part ahahah)

and I really like the fact that then the canonical situations between Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara and Lee intertwine and parallel a little differently

I even started to think that maybe Sasuke would trust me with a story about his plans for the final arches.

and it seems that this would be a disagreement that would gradually grow and strengthen between them, because in fact the way of "correcting" Lee would be different, just because of Gaara. Where in the final arch he has already really revised his past choices, and despite some mistakes, he chooses in the end to just accept them, and use the acquired power for what he talked about from the first arches. for protection.

It would be a great entry into the arc of war.

He comes with Sasuke's team. They come to help and protect. …and there's just a tense silence between them for the first time in a long time, because Lee knows. but he would like to believe that he, too, will come to a different decision.

I'll also add a little bit about art from prison. I just think of them sitting in neighboring cells in these straitjackets, talking through the wall. Where Lee jokes dubious jokes about returning to Konoha, and Sasuke laughs very quietly anyway about where they ended up. (Lee hardly hears it, but he just knows)

"…YOU AGAIN" "… AND HERE TOO"

*********

I WROTE TOO MUCH HERE, although I wanted to think a little more about Sasuke's attitude to the "Gaara thing" T___T

"Sasuke would probably take the Gaara thing as “makes sense of course you want revenge on the man who took away your life too. We’re the same." ©

..and it is in this quote that one can reflect what Sasuke sounds like here

...want revenge on the man who took away

AND HOW WONDERFUL IT IS that this logic works, because HE WAS WRONG ABOUT ITACHI …SO AND HE WAS WRONG ABOUT GAARA TOO

but ok , apparently that's enough for this post

[faeriekit]

🥭 Rank from most enjoyable/fun to write to least: Fluff, Smut, Angst, Crack.

I can't remember which fic got me into your writing but I am really enjoying health and hybrids I think the attention to detail with language barriers is neat 😊 I feel like these options can be mixed a lot in writing would the ranking change depending on the combos?

I need you to know before anything that I had half this post penned and my computer randomly refreshed my post and burnt all of it. 💀

So. I can't. Uh. I can't do all of my fics on a scale, because of, um,

that. So. I'm just going to do a straight best to worst. Sound good? Great because I have no other idea how to tackle any of this.

Fluff:

Best: Snowdrift Sanctuary. Although even my best fluff has a little bit of angst in it, this is a sweet, warm story of inter-species fostering and the care it provides. What's not to love? It was even a Phic Phight fill, so I got to surprise someone with it.

Worst: Rituals and Rites. There's nothing wrong with this one; it's a cute ask fill, it's got some great silliness in it and a little irreverence, and I'm always happy to archive my stuff on ao3 lest tumblr finally pull the plug, but I always dislike uploading individual lil' things onto ao3 when there isn't much to them. It's not bad, I just...don't have a lot of fluff to pad out this binary lol

Smut:

Best: Lazy Sunday. By the time I got to this one I'd largely already hit my stride writing smut stuff, I liked how this couple gelled (and even have a few as-yet-unwritten scenes of their relationship I may never get around to!) and I like the couple as they are: weird and complicated and persevering into a yet-unseen realm of intimacy! I'm also not super into the kink in question, so it was super nice to see the piece well received by people who are into it and thought it worked well lol. How sad would it be if you tried to write a niche kink and it ended up completely flopping lmao T_T I'd never show my face in this town again.

Worst: A Visitation. Do not get me wrong, I love this fic, but you gotta remember that I wrote the first chapter completely exhausted and out of my gourd with fucking cauvid. 😭 I'm shocked it came out coherent at all! And everyone helped me workshop the last chapter, and it took forever to the point where I was writing like thousands of words a day and it was eating up my whole life...and sometimes I still go back in to reread it and I find MORE errors! 😭😭 This fic had all the birthing pains! Worth it, but OW!

Angst:

Best: Dig Three Graves In Apartment 31C. I rreeeeeeally almost put Hybrids here, but in the end, Hybrids is a hopeful recovery fic. This fic is all grief and loss and the stench of the aftermath of acute trauma in the air. It is sad— sometimes I still get comments shocked at how well it worked lol— and although the excruciatingly tough epilogue yon author had to write lifts it a little, it's not... There's no cure for this. Everyone in this picture is dead. That's just the way it is.

Worst: Feet on the Ground. A similar deal: I really like this fic but there wasn't a great ending line to close on so it's just...mediocre. I probably should have just waited to see if time would fix it, but it was a Phic Phight fill and we're kind of on a timer during the event, and I wanted to get it out so I could start working on other people's asks, so... 6/10. Fascinating concept, mid execution.

Crack:

Best: Infection versus Infestation. It was either this or one of the MPreg fills lmao, and I just. There's just so much going on here. The support network. The mental health. The powerpoint presentations. Bees. Medical pamphlets. Aliens. QPRs. Maybe the real fic is in the groupchats you made along the way. No notes hands down my one true rec for weird fics; all the way up and all the way down, it's inherently GenderFucked and surreal and young idiot adult bullshit. I love them your honor.

Worst: Percy Jackson, God of the Shrimps. A discord in-joke never makes sense as a discord out-joke. I am astounded people read this to this very day. I make it worse every time I even mention it in a post, but hey, that's showbiz. If you read this and actually found something there, more power to you. If you read this and were like "???"...yeah lmao

I'm glad you're liking health and hybrids so far! It's so funny to think that Hybrids used to be my downtime fic to recover from my other fics lmao...now it's beating Blister Pack to the tune of an additional 100,000 hits. I genuinely can't even conceptualize that number in my head. It's a such a bonkers concept that so many people could be glancing at a medical trauma fic from lil' ol' me. High school Faer who took anatomy classes for fun would be ecstatic. In the end, I tried to get a couple of unique fics to fill each category just because I like them so much. Sue me. It's my fic and sometimes I wanna talk about them with people lol.

Thanks for asking! 🧡🧡🧡🧡 This was fun!

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Okay okay with all the script hate for ATSV I'd like to at least take a moment to praise How they did Hobie right

And why they got Miguel wrong.

Mini-Ramble: The Concept of 'Can-dom'

a.k.a the writers really love Hobie and just fucking hate Miguel and it's borderline funny.

-------------

So, you know we are called fans, and we have a fandom. The fandom writes 'fanon'.

But what do you call the group of people who write canon?

And can the people who write canon also be a fandom in and of itself?

As someone who has worked on TV and film sets in NYC - across a couple of different departments - I can assure you:

YES.

And they act JUST LIKE US.

And I call it Can-dom.

And there's no better example of this, than the ATSV script.

Look at how they talk about Hobie:

To the writer who described Hobie as 'strong, long, and skinny-hot' and his guitar as 'throbbing' idk what you were on that day but keep it up.

Look at them rubbing their little writer hands together going 'hehehe they're gonna love this mfer to death he's so hot'

Miles calling Hobie cool and Hobie agreeing is literally just the writers complimenting themselves on how insanely rad and attractive they made their own character. I love it.

They could've done so much worse or described him as rowdy or cocky or rough but they're just like 'he's hot. really fucking hot.'

And everybody was in on it.

The designers read the script and was like 'really really attractive? the coolest fucking guy you've ever seen? ok boss'

and then drew a black cop killer with natural hair and beautiful sharp black features

Then the animation team looked at Hobie and was like YEAH HE'S SUPER FUCKING COOL

Then made a supercool technology just for the insanely rad punk character

AND THEY WENT TO DANIEL KALUUYA and had him do the super cool ironic funny lines for the super cool rad fan-favorite-to-be character

And then the whole production team looked at Hobie and they all looked back at their work and his arc and lines and design and animation style and they were like

Because after months and months and months of collective effort and going 'this guy has to be so likeable that disliking him is almost a moral failing'

And then just like us they finally saw the finished product and we're like

'THAT'S A WRAP. CUT. SEND THIS SHIT TO THE PRINTERS. He can't get any cooler we did it.'

Cause as someone who has worked in TV & Film and had been in the offices I can tell you:

Screenwriters are not some big wigs that come to work in suits and sit around on chunky laptops in complete silence sending emails

They are normal ass people in a cramped ass office and cubicles who joke with their co-workers, come in in jeans and a 'casual tshirt', and sit there chilling revising the same script a dozen times because they came up with a new idea that HAS to be in it. And sometimes they be having dogs in the offices.

They're dorks just like us. That's how they got there. By obsessing over the tiniest minute shit in stories and getting way too into characters and writing out our little stories.

To think they were squealing about Hobie Brown this whole time for years while making him.

And then giving him to the fandom and we're like FUCKING THANK YOU HE'S OURS AND WE LOVE HIM.

I know a lot of the time it may come off as a shady corporation manipulating the punk aesthetic for revenue - while it is that - its also an office full of writers and animators and designers literally making a mini fandom between them and snickering at their own jokes and ideas as they write this story I love it

It makes me think that - while the language towards Miguel is like.. undoubtedly questionable and something of necessary discussion -

I also just think that the office fandom just.. didn't fucking like him.

Like in the writers room over time they didn't like him and wanted to bully him 'ayo this dude is a clown and he's wildin out like a BEAST'

And putting in lines of Gwen clowning him just because the writers wanted to make fun of Miguel 😭😭😭

like.. just the thought of that.

- and the thought of the ATSV writers team just ganging up on him only for the animation team to turn around and be like 'give him the thiccest ass imaginable. make it clap when he walk'

HILARIOUS.

And then for the production team to have to look at this script of Miguel and look at his dummy think design and just sigh and be like 'fine okay the lines are fine but you HAVE TO TONE THE ASS DOWN'.

We bully our OCs all the time

And yeah they took that shit wayyyy too far cause like... The Spot murdered people why are y'all not looking at him and also Gwens dad is an asshole

But a part of me feels like the writers and production were fandom before fandom was fandoming.

Just like us they hyperfixated on two characters, the same characters the fandom would later.

And like the fandom originally did, they really really liked Hobie and just REALLY REALLY REALLY didn't like Miguel.

We're all like 'haha let's bully the shit outta Miguel as a little treat' and then they start taking it too far 😭😭

I'm just going to lay myself to (semi-)peace with this thought. I know it's pure speculation - I repeat, speculation - but like, writers are genuinely just like us. I wouldn't put it past them.

With the way the script is narrated I wouldn't be surprised if the first draft they put

**MIGUEL collapses to the ground with GABRIELLA in his hands as she DEPIXELATES. A look is devastation crosses his face. Ha, get owned, you fucking idiot.**

-------------------

Also they absolutely know about fanfiction. I haven't heard them talk about it and I don't know how much they know. But they know.

They may not be in the shows fandom, but they've usually been into older fandoms like Star Trek and thus know about the fanfic and shipping stuff.

If you read this far!! Hey hi how ya doing thank you for listening to my rambling. I wouldn't call this a full essay cause it's just my thoughts and opinions and like.... thoughts???

Anyway here's Hobie to make up for the fact I just said a whole lotta nothing

(actual picture of me arsoning the Sony headquarters if they fuck up Hobies characterization and make me regret this post lol)

Bye.

[kaibutsushidousha]

To be honest, your discussion of Minase's positive and negative qualities piqued my interest. What do you think are the main recurring fgo writers' strong and weak points? Also where would you rank the lilim harlot event?

For the sake of brevity, I'll stick to one per writer. Picking apart everyone to the extent I did with Minase would take forever and would be better done after their respective Ordeal Calls.

I hesitate to call Higashide's comedy his strong point because his huge hits are about as frequent as his huge misses. I suppose I'll go with clarity for Higashide's main strong point. Even when I think he sucked at delivering his point, I can always tell what he's trying to say, which is not something I can say about Sakurai's most compressed scripts. His weak point is his lack of ambition. It's nice to have at least one person in FGO's team who will never try to escalate things, but I can't see it doesn't make his stories more forgettable in the long run.

Minase was already detailed in his own post.

Meteo’s best quality is a tone setter. Requiem, Salem, and all his events come with an atmosphere that feels very tangibly different from what FGO usually does. Often his events are bad, but never they lack a unique identity. Which segues into his weak point, being that many of his events are comedy events and the man is simply not funny. Bullying Erice is his only consistently good joke, and when he tries other things, the results are more miss than hit. See Las Vegas and Wandjina World Tour for major examples of comedy events that failed hard at the comedy side.

Nasu is a master recycler. I don't know how he does it but the man is constantly reusing the same structures, the same themes, or the same dynamics and somehow it never feels repetitive. There is always something that makes the whole recipe feel fresh and unique despite being so easy to recognize the same usual ingredients there. And what I dislike about Nasu in FGO is how he's still stuck at the concept of selling waifus from the girls with routes days. Everyone has their list of characters who get ship tease with Fujimaru but only in Nasu's case it feels like an overwhelming majority and that some of the choices create too large of a difference between the summoned character and the character in the main story. Was it really necessary to do this with, say, Morgan? Melusine? Tenochtitlan?

And Sakurai I saved for last because one major reason this post took this long is that I was struggling to sort out what is characteristically good and bad about her. Well, even now I don’t have a simple and satisfying answer. Things can’t be simple with Sakurai, unfortunately. One friend of mine described the experience of reading Sakurai scripts as “playing chess against an opponent that doesn’t tell that you are in a game of chess” and that’s honestly a fascinating way to phrase it.

Sakurai is an intriguing combination of inflexibly ambitious and inflexibly professional. She has grand ideas for her characters and she will include them in the script without fail. But she's also strictly adherent to script size limitations. While Nasu is making Camelot and Avalon le Fae with total disregard to every possible limit, Sakurai is cramming so much into Septem's and London's microscopic file space that it becomes utterly incomprehensible. Nasu wrote Last Encore's plot as a whole ass novel and hired Sakurai to convert that into anime scripts because Sakurai is his expert in fitting a lot of stuff into tiny spaces. Tunguska was tossed at Sakurai because probably no one else could fit into its raid event constraints. And because she doesn't compromise on what goes in, her alternative is not revealing the mysteries about her characters but laying out all the hints so the players can figure it out themselves, which is a really fun thing once you're used to it (read: aware that you're playing chess against her).

And the answer to "Where would I rank the Lilim Harlot event" is 1st place.

[mfshipbracket]

as a permanent resident of the star wars fandom and also someone who's a ben solo fan but a reylo disliker, i feel like i can add a little bit of clarity to "why hate reylo":

i think a main reason people dislike reylo has a lot to do with the fact that after the force awakens, the other "main" characters of that trilogy (finn and poe specifically, the two non-white men) were written to the side in a sense, while kylo ren suddenly was at the forefront of the movies alongside rey. the fact that finn's whole premise - a force sensitive person who chose to stop being a stormtrooper - was basically ignored to further develop the turmoil of the villain, which pissed off a lot of people who already had an idea in their minds of rey and finn being together.

personally as someone who lost interest in the sequels with the last jedi (perceived luke skywalker characterization crimes are unforgivable to me) i vaguely enjoyed finnrey and much preferred finnpoe or finnreypoe (that hug during the rise of skywalker 🫶 it's canon to ME) but never really watched the movies for ships. i remember even coming out of the last jedi and thinking there was no way they were actually going to make reylo canon. it didn't feel like they had any chemistry then and it still doesn't feel that way now, and i just rewatched the rise of skywalker while at star wars celebration last month for some goddamn reason so i'm basically an expert (that is a joke)

i very clearly remember watching the kiss scene in rise of skywalker and instantly bursting into laughter. it didn't feel earned, it didn't even feel relevant. it felt like they kissed because it said so in the script. that's just my own opinion, clearly other people think otherwise because there is still a dedicated reylo fan base even today, good for them! but i actually was genuinely shocked they went that direction. after shafting john boyega and oscar isaac in order to give the white leads more screentime, the whole concept of reylo left a bad taste in my mouth, even though i normally go crazy over enemies to lovers, the more crimes against each other the better, etc etc etc (i am also a danmei fan).

anyways if you like the concept of reylo but hate the execution go read star wars the high republic!!! hashtag axelgella nation. there are literally ten of us

i love u. thank you for the information and also recommendation LOL… i don’t have much to add onto this . again others are welcome to add on <3 we super appreciate yours & others’ thoughtful responses about this

[trekkele]

Hi!

I was kinda curious about something. From what I‘ve seen in the Fandom it looks like Bruce was heavily judging and talking down to Stephanie when he found out about her Teen pregnancy, and he also used her to try and make Tim jealous about having a new Robin?

Considering Bruce never even wanted a Robin/dislikes his family also being Vigilantes (even if he is simultaneously proud of them) I don’t get why he would try and lure Tim back like that.

Especially his treatment of Stephanie seems wildly out of character. He wants to help Gotham as a whole, he doesn’t judge prostitutes, desperate criminals, or anything of the like, AND specifically has a softspot for Kids and teenagers, so his behavior makes ZERO sense.

But I get that canon does what it wants and sometimes goes for shock/drama for the heck of it and writes characters in a way that is more "interesting" (it really isn’t).

So what I really wanted to know is; is this also accepted as canon in the more Bruce friendly circles? Or is it more like Bruce cutting Jasons throat with a Batarang, where it was rightfully so decided that that‘s stupid.

(was there a """good""" or """understandable""" reason Batman acted like that?)

Ok so this is actually multiple questions and i love all of them because while i hate canon’s treatment of Stephanie and Steph-and-Bruce i love the core concept of the characters - which is, how do you deal with a alternate version of yourself? (Because i will never shut up about Steph and Bruce being parallels).

So to start, you mention fandom writing Bruce as judging her teen pregnancy which i cant speak to because i avoid those fics with prejudice and i havent read/dont remember if the canon ever even deals with that - but long story short No He Would Not. It does not fit his character or his stated goals to act like that. I dont really have more to say on that because the idea is absurd to me, so its kind of lighting up ??? When i try to imagine it.

(Also Bruce absolutely had a teen pregnancy scare/scandal are you joking? Easiest way to get your hands on the billionaire babies fund.)

The “make Tim jealous for Robin” is unfortunately, true but also that era of comics is so confusing. Tim is in boarding school with Alfred, he specifically asked Stephanie to take over Robin and for Bruce to train her, Bruce finally thought he was done with baby vigilantes but no, this kid arranged for a babysitter for him … bonkers.

The thing with Steph is that she was already a vigilante. Spoiler was an independent actor for almost as long as Tim was Robin, she didnt need Batmans permission or approval to start (but lets be honest she probably wanted it.) or continue what she was doing! So the thing with Bruce being harsher during training or refusing to train her … it wouldn’t work. It didnt work. It in fact led to the eventual confrontation with Black Mask and her “death”.

Majority of the Bruce and Steph fics ive read have done some serious frankensteining with her backstory and their relationship - for good reason. A lot seem to cut the teen pregnancy storyline entirely (a fact i feel neutral about. Its interesting and adds depth to Steph, but the way we talk about teen pregnancy has changed a lot since it was written.) as well as the idea that Bruce was trying to make Tim jealous- instead its about Bruce trying to convince Steph that being a vigilante is too hard, too dangerous, and too limiting for her to continue, which is mean yeah but at least its in character, especially for post Death in the Family Bruce who just wants these dumb kids to stop taunting death.

Its unfortunate that canon basically confirms Bruce’s fears with Stephanies death and its mildy infuriating how fandom treats it.

I cant speak for all of “Bruce friendly circles” (love that btw) but thats what ive seen more of, when their relationship is even discussed. I personally prefer fics that focus on her being Spoiler, and more independent of Bruce because of it - like Robin was an internship for a position she ultimately rejected, because it wasnt something she wanted. Also Barbara being more of her Batman with Batman being support staff. If that makes sense.

Was there a “good” or “understandable” reason Bruce acted like that? Grief, fear at what could happen if he let Stephanie keep vigilanting, Steph being unwilling to operate within Robin rules after being independent, and the usual “can you please go to bed its a school night” could work if you retconn his worse moments tbh. Was there a good or understandable reason Bruce was written like that? Misogyny and the inability to conceive of a female character who doesnt need him.

Im not actually sure i answered your question so Fic recs that include those big rewrites i mentioned: Blackbird by goldkirk, First as Tragedy, Second as Farce by autumngray

[smhtaehyung]

6 hours ➣ maknae line x reader

summary: 6 hours. One party. Amidst the chaos, you're stretched over three sides - the dillema of your best friend(jm) having feelings for you, your crush(jk) finally noticing your presence and their annoying friend who never gave a good impression. All parties unveil secrets of their own during a chaotic night.

Masterlist - under construction

Pairings: fuckboy!tae x reader, crush!jk x reader, jm x crush!reader , hoseok x random

Rating: 18+ minors DNI

Genre: smut, college au, nonidol!au, love cube sorta thing

wordcount: 3.2k

warnings: alcohol use, drug use, slight existential angst, innapropriate sexual comments, graphic depictions of smut, (chapt.2 ~ ), fingering, oral (f. m. recieving), kinky dares, slut shaming, protected sex, overstimulation, thigh kink, dirty talk, spit kink, multiple orgasms, degrading, face fucking >> reader is in love with jk, jimin is in love with a reader, taehyung is just there being hot and flirty.

author's note: hi! really debated whether to post a 10k one shot or splitting it into chapters, so... I split it into chapters :) also...I really need to make a new functional masterlist so it's under construction!!

Taglist: If you want to be in the taglist, reply to this post or dm me to stay updated :)

Chapter 2 release:

29th of September 2022 > 8 p.m (CET)

Hour 1

"A toast before chaos"

Time: [ 11:03 PM ]

There's a special place in heaven and/or hell reserved for people who throw huge house parties. What kind of a sociopath would risk their own home to become a place of sex, drugs and overall chaos induced by alcohol? Well, even though you disliked the whole concept of "parties are the pinnacle of your 20s" you still often went out with friends. Unfortunately, you had your own ways of learning how to not drink too much, trying to teach yourself something from your past mistakes. Still, you felt pretty stable and non pliable in making certain decisions for yourself.

Before you could even prepare yourself for mayhem, your best friend Jimin pushed you inside, already tipsy from pregaming at his place.

"Idiot! I almost fell."

"But you didn't, Y/N. That's the best part."

He teased you, making you slap his arm. People around you seemed to be observing the two of you, given the fact there was a rumor going around the university that you were in a casual relationship. Mostly sexual. However, there was nothing in your friendship that came across more than platonic.

Often times, both of you loved to provoke the people who spread those false rumors, getting a lot more "touchy-feely" in front of them. Their reactions were the fuel for your ongoing jokes.

So, out of pure spite, you two stirred the pot because the only thing you could do is to catch up with the chaos itself, especially at parties. You felt at ease once you finally got inside, observing how relaxing the whole house looked. People were scattered over the whole house, talking, dancing, laughing. Some upped the alcohol amount already, sometimes a common mistake among people. Girls were laughing and shyly drinking from their cups. However, you strongly believed in the saying - "It's always calm before the storm."

So, all you could do was make sure Jimin would sober up through the late hours, enough to walk you home and sit through the madness. Although, there were countless instances when you had to walk, almost carry him home, since he often forgot his limits.

Nonetheless, Jimin was a lovely guy, a good friend but unfortunately suffered a bad case of "Friday worshipping." It was a term you made up about generalized group of people who loved partying and couldn't stay at home on Fridays under any circumstances. And oh boy, Jimin adored Fridays.

His attention turned to the living room, hearing one of his favorite songs play. Jimin smiled right away once his best friend approached him. It was Taehyung, and you were attending his party. You indeed had no idea this was his party, let alone his house. If you knew you probably wouldn't come since you couldn't stand some of Jimin's friends, especially Taehyung.

"You know me so well." Jimin teased, nudging into his shoulder. Taehyung giggled, engaging in the small talk with him. You stood by Jimin's side, making the awkward eye contact around the room with people whilst the two of them talked. You felt under pressure once realizing Taehyung kept his eyes fixed on you in between talking.

You only officially met a few months ago, and you have been avoiding him at parties ever since. You have seen him around before, obviously, but just few months ago you talked for a little while, only to realize you didn't like his persona one bit. Taehyung seemed fake once he was out drinking, making you dislike him immediately. Maybe it was his aura or his cocky attitude, but something seemed off about him. Jimin always talked about Tae in the best way possible. Apparently, Taehyung was polar opposite in front of his friends, but his alter-ego always showed at parties and other social interactions of greater altitude. His soft, caring and deeper side didn't really impress you since you only seen him as a drunken mess or a womanizer. Or both.

Taehyung was good with the ladies, but became bored quite easily, getting the pleasure he needed only to dip out the next morning. Plus, he wasn't really good at articulating his thoughts. Just intrusive words and sentences exhaled into thin air out of nowhere.

Jimin made the first mistake of the night - left you alone with Taehyung.

"Jimin, no." You tried to whisper to him while he walked past you, furrowing his eyebrows out of slight confusion. As soon as you turned towards Taehyung, he was standing closer.

"Y/N, hey."

"Hi." you spoke quickly. As you were trying to come up with the idea to excuse yourself, he was quicker.

"Before you make up a reason to leave, as a host, I have to present you the "Supreme Kim host tradition." He smirked, grabbing a bottle of whiskey.

"I'm scared." Your deadpan tone made him chuckle.

"It's simple. You just have to drink with the host."

"And that's it?" You furrowed your eyebrows, confused by his manners.

"Yup." He poured the hard liquor into both white cups.

You wanted to drink immediately, but he scolded you.

"Yah. No cheers, nothing?" He raised his cup. His overly friendly attitude was concerning you. Something about him seemed off, but you couldn't decide what it was given the fact you were also slightly tipsy by this point. If you had to put your drunkeness on a scale you were at a solid 4/10. Still manageable, impressively not tripping over words.

"Cheers." You clank cups with him, remaining eye contact for a second. Taehyung downed his whiskey with ease, his face flinching slightly. You felt the strong drink hit the back of your throat, the rising burning sensation dominating your mouth. Taehyung stood in silence, glancing around the room before turning his attention towards you.

"Nice house, I guess. Good luck cleaning tomorrow morning." Your monotone voice was already irritating Taehyung, who just wanted to get to know you. As much as he knew the two of you never really got along, he wanted to know what was the repulsive thing that was dragging his will away from getting to know you. And vice versa.

"Oh, come on. Who cares about tomorrow morning?" He scoffed.

You kept silent, marinating in that awkward interaction, hoping he'd leave soon.

"You're not as wild as usual. Don't like the music?" Taehyung broke off the silence, not letting you win that easily. Both of you knew what you were doing.

"How do you know I'm wild?"

"I've seen you at parties sophomore year. Thought you left uni though. But lately you started going out again, right?"

"Well I'm here. I just became a book worm." You gave a half assed answer, making Taehyung dissatisfied with your lack of enthusiasm and emotion on your face. He felt the need to see the drunken version of you, before you even met him. He knew about your old party lifestyle, so you could say he was quite curious about seeing that again.

"A book worm? Or, you watched 10 Things I Hate About You way too many times and now you think you have that "Kat" bad ass persona while everyone at school still knows you as the slut-" Taehyung's direct tone sounded like a personal attack, your brain sending signals for you to leave.

"Nice party. See you around." You cut him off, wanting to leave immediately but he pulled your arm softly.

"I'm sorry. I won't be an ass. I promise." He tried to keep a smile hidden, but failed.

"Too late." You scoffed at him right as Jimin returned with a full cup.

You were so happy that the music was louder, since you wouldn't be able to stand the awkward silence you got stuck in again.

"So, what you talked about?" Jimin took a sip noticing a tension between the two of you.

"Nothing. I was just on my way to go the bathroom and hang around the place. If I don't see you, I'll call you when it's time to go home. You trust me, right?

"For a hundredth time, always. When have I not?" Jimin smiled, nodding at everything you said.

"Don't make me count." You placed a kiss onto his cheek, avoiding eye contact with Tae, who didn't like that one bit.

You felt Taehyung's heavy stare as you walked away, shaking your head. You successfully survived this interaction, wanting to treat yourself with another drink.

Passing by your peers, you made your way to the bathroom, thanking heavens it wasn't occupied. Taehyung's house looked better than you'd expect, the vintage interior combined with modern decorations impressing your taste. It was obvious he didn't live alone.

Taehyung lived with a few friends at this house, and you disliked almost all of them.

Bathrooms were always a weird place to be at the bathroom. And usually in the first hour of any party bathrooms were confessional spaces for drunken girls. You enjoyed the silence, and hoped you wouldn't give into the old version of yourself this night. You had a quite a long pep talk in the mirror.

________________________

Downstairs, Taehyung was trying to turn his focus on Jimin, who seemed a little anxious.

"What is it? You look weird."

"Nothing, I'm just...I think I'm going to do the right thing tonight." Jimin shyly spoke.

Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows and downed Jimin's drink.

"You had too much of these, obviously." Taehyung's tone was serious so Jimin started laughing, whining at him.

"Stop it. You know what I'm talking about." Jimin was now actually serious, pouring himself a new drink.

Taehyung couldn't help himself. He couldn't focus on Jimin. Maybe it was the music that suddendly got too loud and his palms started to sweat. It was the heat he felt in his cheeks due to alcohol. Taehyung made his first mistake of the night - he drank too much, way too soon.

Given the fact he wasn't much of a drinker, he hated the stereotype he got himself into - "people who can't drink much always get shitfaced by first 20 minutes at a party."

He was often teased by his friends because of it, so Taehyung tried to act natural, but it was poorly executed. He didn't focus on Jimin's voice at all, especially once you came back downstairs. Seeing you smile and joke around with people you ran into made him see the other version of you, the more enthusiastic one.

Sure, he thought you were quite attractive, even wanted to sleep with you on numerous occasions that you were out drinking, but this time Taehyung was certain it would happen. They don't call it the liquor of courage for no reason.

Suddenly, inside Taehyung's drunken brain, a plan was forming.

_____________________

As you were talking with some friends from uni, Jimin and Taehyung both kept his eyes fixed on you, adoring how your dress fit you perfectly.

"You wanna go hang out with Y/N?" Jimin quickly spoke

"Yup." Taehyung's horny brain answered without a thought, following him like a puppy.

"Haven't lost me yet!" Jimin spoke over the loud music, interrupting a conversation between you and two girls. He put his arms over you, making you roll your eyes.

"I give you an hour. Guarantee you'll lose me." You joked with Jimin as Taehyung was getting to know names to your friends. A big red flag to you. You didn't want anyone, especially your friends fool around with someone like him. A total ass.

"Anyways. You guys really that bored you came here to bother us?" You asked them both, looking Taehyung directly in the eyes, wanting to signal him to leave you and your friends alone.

"Oh c'mon. Don't be like that. Besides, we wanted to invite you to do a shot of tequila with us. Jungkook just brought it." Taehyung found an excuse pretty fast, noticing Jungkook behind you carry two bottles of tequila.

"Thank god I have the lemons." Taehyung cheekily smiled at you.

Your cheeks reddened upon hearing his name. Jungkook was shaking you up for a long time now. That awful feeling when your heart suddenly stops for a second after you see someone you have a crush on in this setting. And there he really was, standing tall next to you in the brightly lit white kitchen in his usual all black oversized clothing. He seemed to be having fun, drinking slowly from his cup as Jimin and Taehyung were cutting up the lemons and preparing the tequila shots. There were 6 of you at the kitchen counter. Yourself, your two friends, Taehyung, Jimin, and Jungkook.

Jungkook.

He was one of Jimin's friends you were crushing on for quite a long time. Jimin introduced you to Jungkook Freshman year of college and since then, you've been crushing on him in phases, only when he was available. Somehow, your brain gave up on him immediately once he got with someone else, making you feel tired of chasing him, given he wasn't single.

So, you could say you were quite considerate to him, always taking an innocent peek at him and his good looks. You only spoke on brief occasions, but even then only one question in your mind was reserved for him - please can we kiss? Of course you were never daring enough to say it out loud.

You and Jungkook were just quietly giggling to Jimin's jokes, spending most of your time staring at the floor.

"So good to see you. I haven't seen you in a long time at the party." Jungkook broke off the silence between the two of you. It made your heart almost stop beating.

"Yeah. I got bored at home. Wanted to have fun like the old times." You tried to ignore your sweaty palms.

Since Taehyung was often eaves dropping, he eavesdropped on your conversation. He realized how different and more reserved your answer to that question was when Jungkook asked you as opposed to him asking you the same question almost an hour prior. It really became obvious you were trying to sound cool in front of Jungkook.

"I get it. I love to balance out alone time and this." He pointed at the living room that was full of people dancing. It made you laugh how he stood out of chaos as such a calm figure - in the moment contradictory to what he was saying.

"I don't think you can get that wasted and dance like that." You turned around to observe the "too soon" drunk dude who had the time of his life dancing to pop music from 2000s.

He took the perfect opportunity to take a peek at your ass when your back was turned to him. Who wouldn't?

"You haven't seen me drunk yet." He smiled and looked down, taking a sip of his drink.

"I guess there's time for everything."

Taehyung thought your attempt at flirting was a crock of shit, and disliked your nervousness.

Jungkook thought you looked cute nervous.

"Here you go guys." Taehyung stood next to you, handing you and Jungkook the shots.

While everyone was putting some salt on their hand to lick it off, Taehyung took the initiative and sprinkled some salt on your and his hand.

Everyone said cheers and downed the shot, doing the drinking procedure. Taehyung did it in the fastest and most dynamic way, making you startled.

Taehyung had a mission for tonight. He wanted to bring out that fun side out of you, even if you hated him afterwards. There was something rewarding in you making slight contact with his skin, but he tried his hardest not to make moves on you. He wanted to get to know you, everything else was just a bonus.

Finally, as you were to grab your lemon to drink a belated shot, you realized Taehyung didn't give you a slice of lemon. You turned to look at him.

Taehyung opened his mouth slowly, revealing half the lemon for you to chew on.

"Ew."

"C'mon he's looking." Taehyung whispered to you.

"No way in hell."

"He likes wild girls, since you know, he's lame. This will impress him."

Jungkook slightly smirked, downing the little tequila he didn't finish from the first try.

"Shut up." You sighed, and in quick motions, drank - licked the salt - pulled Taehyung in for a kiss just to steal the lemon from his mouth. After a few swirls of your tongue, you managed to steal the lemon, chewing on it as you pulled away. Everyone in the kitchen cheered and you never seen Taehyung, such an ass, so proud of himself.

Jungkook smirked a little more, killing you inside because you couldn't read off his expression as he got up to talk to Jimin, who had his back turned to you and Taehyung.

"Whoops." Taehyung drunkenly giggled.

"What?"

"Nothing." He still didn't want to be the one to tell you that you were Jimin's long term crush. But he realized he might have broken the bro code.

"You're a good kisser." Taehyung spoke accidentally out loud, but it suited his usual direct approach perfectly.

You too - you spoke to yourself inside your mind.

"You're childish." You scoffed and walked towards Jimin, who forced a smile out. Jungkook, the good guy he was, excused himself before he went to the loud living room.

Approaching Jimin, you forced a smile out too. The room was slightly spinning but you were still quite impressed that you didn't bump into someone or something.

Jimin, of course, immediately pulled your hand.

"I knew we would see each other soon. I'm not that bad." He immediately started joking, easing up the conversation.

"You haven't left kitchen for the whole night. Is everything okay?" You spoke over the loud music.

"I was just about to go follow Jungkook. Hoseok came too. " Jimin nodded.

"Cool." You spoke, hoping Jimin would invite you to come with him. Jimin on the other hand had no idea that your crush was still very much active.

"Did he bring the weed is the question." Jimin wondered as you remembered the brief talk you had about Hoseok bringing weed when you walked to Taehyung's house.

"Aren't we gonna just drink first? I thought I wasn't going to lose you. And you know how you wander off when you smoke?" You smiled at Jimin and he couldn't help not to smile at you, regardless of it all.

"Then, after we smoke, let's play a game. Try to find me just before midnight."

"Alright Cinderella. Don't lose a glass slipper." You joked with him, shaking his hand. Jimin observed you with a loving smile. He was always quite protective of you, helping you in many situations, being the mental caregiver that hangs around crucial moments. He was the first to know you were crushing on Jungkook freshman year, but by the end of sophomore year, he thought that chapter had finished completely, all of your phases ending. Unfortunately, not the case.

"Let's make a toast." Jimin raised his cup towards you, smiling too much.

"To?"

"To Friday nights. Good friends...and frozen pizza."

"Probably best inventions ever created."

Jimin stood quietly for a little bit, sneaking a look up and down your body.

"Couldn't agree more."

NEXT CHAPTER

[quirkwizard]

Year Six: A Retrospective

Followers: 3,124

Total Posts: 10,750

Most Popular Post: Happy New Years with 12,876 notes

Favorite Post: Definitely my Keystone post. Not only is probably one of the biggest things I have ever written and had a lot of effort go into it, but it was actually kind of fun revisiting the arcs and figuring out how I felt about them. The D&D one was pretty fun though.

Least Favorite Post: While I don't dislike What’s This-All For One Edition: A Christmas Parody, there were a lot of annoyances around it. Not only was this kind of a pain to write, especially with such a fast song, the scheduling made it come out over a month late.

Funniest Moment: As much as I liked the wrestling commentary and joking about Aoyama's attack, I really liked the Pro Hero Parent Tier List. I think the concept itself was funny and had some jokes sprinkled throughout while still being offset by the actual analysis of these character.

Best Moment in the Manga: Izuku vs Tomura:

I hesitated to include this since it's still going on, but I couldn't deny how good everything has been between these two. I'm really enjoying a lot of the interactions and tactics on display between them, especially in the shared realm where it feels like these two can finally just talk to and understand each other.

Runners Up:

All Might vs All For One: For what sounds like a terrible idea on paper was honestly pretty amazing. It gives lot a of great moments and resolution with Toshinori and his character, all while giving one of the most unique fights in the series.

Toga vs Ochako: The dark horse of this arc. I did not expect the whole part to be this good and actually handled everything with a lot of tact and nuance. Plus, Ochako is finally getting some deserved recognition by the fan base, which is nice.

Worst Moment in the Manga: Stain's Death

Man, what a waste. For one of the most popular villains in the series, the guy that helped define the manga both in and out of universe, having him die without any further impact on the fight or story was such a terrible move. We can only hope that there is some justice for Stain before the series ends.

Runners Up:

Aoyama's Blast: I don't out and out hate this moment, but it does feel like a rushed after thought. It was barely built up to or shown, Aoyama Awakening his power comes out of nowhere, and Hagakure's appearance does feels extremely convenient.

"Decay" coming from "Overhaul": It could be that the wound is still fresh from this, but tying those two Quirks together raises so many questions and issues in the series. It felt like a pretty pointless addition that only caused issues.

Best Moment in the Anime:

Runners Up:

Worst Moment in the Anime:

Runners Up:

Once again, I have skipped out on this season. I haven’t been interested in picking it back up. Heck, I haven't even heard anyone say anything about it. Again, sorry if any of you were curious.

How would I summarize the year: I feel like things are starting to take a turn for the better.

What I would do differently: I really should close the ask box more often.

Thank you all for such a good year. Hopefully the next year will be better.

[mask131]

Alright, after all this time, here is my opinion (kind of review?) of Netflix's The Monkey King, aka The Monkey King 2023 (at least one of the Monkey King movies of this year). I haven't done movie talk in a long time, but here we go. Also, spoiler-free!

Let's begin with the question everybody wants to know about. Is this movie bad? Definitively not. You cannot say in good faith and honesty that it is a bad movie. If you really disliked the movie, the most you can say is that it is "average" and not average as in a "mediocre, okay, decent, basic" kind of way - average as in "the bad elements are balanced by great ones". But if you ask me, the movie is good. Or more precisely it is "Good, but not without its flaws". It does have some little flaws here and there that prevent it from being an excellent or perfect movie, but it is a good/great movie.

Let's talk already of the little flaws first. Many people have already pointed them out before, so I won't expand on them much. I will say that I watched all of the movie in one go, without stopping, without even realizing how time went by, I truly watched the movie with ease and in one go - I originally just wanted to watch the first part and then stop and take it back later, I ended up binging the whole thing, so you know, classic Netflix type of product where you just do it all in one go (which is a good sign!). There was just one moment I cringed a bit, and that forms the weakest segment of the movie for me, and it is the second part of the "fake orchard of immortality" scene. But this is tied to the way the Dragon King and his minions are handled.

The Dragon King is a very cool-looking character based on an excellent idea, but I have to admit that it is one of the most... surprising elements of the movie because while in some scenes he is written as a great character that works, in other scenes he dangerously borders the overdone cliche. Overall he is an enjoyable villain and a good character that fits in the whole created world, but I admit some of his jokes fall a bit dull for me (though the finale made hm even greater than before - in all the senses of the term). It is a bit in the image of his villain song, "Take the world by storm": when I first heard it I cringed at some lyrics and jokes in the beginning and wondered why this song was here, but then I re-listened to it, loved it and it can't get out of my head. It perfectly translates the Dragon King character as a cool concept and great idea that sometimes is pushed a little bit too much when things should have been a bit more subtle or shortened. Another thing that I would call ambiguous is the heavy influence and references to Disney movies, of which the Dragon King participates as he is the most Disney-villain villain a Netflix product ever created. I think all this Disney influence will split people in two - on one hand some people will dislike it because they will see as just copying what has already been done before, and perceive there a lack of true imagination ; on the other hand some people will love it because they will get back the feeling of the Disney renaissance movies and will appreciate the homage and having back traditional Disney villains and characters "as they used to make".

For me the biggest "flaw" if you can call it a flaw - which isn't really a flaw because it doesn't "hurt" the movie, it would be rather... the biggest "blend" of the movie is the way the new plot is handled. Because the writers of the movie took no real risk, took no chance when devising a new plot to convey the movie. I am not talking about the adapting part - because they did a wonderful job at adaptating in a simple and concise way the entire whole first part of Journey to the West, into a simple, easy to understand, one hour and a half movie mostly aimed at a young audience. And that is definitively one of the good points of this movie, because it isn't an easy feat at all! But as a result, to make sure they reached this state, they went with a plot that is absolutely "classic" in all the senses of the term. Everything was expected, nothing in terms of plot-twist or plot-advancement felt new, I could already guess what could happen and where things were going. Mind you, I am an adult who watched numerous Disney and Pixar movies and who knows Journey to the West and several of its adaptations, so of course I wasn't going to be surprised. Again, this movie clearly is aimed at a young audience - one without an extensive cinematographic knowledge, and one probably unaware of Journey to the West, so I guess for this target audience the "generic-ess" or "bland-ness" of the plot won't be much of a problem. Plus, I am forced to concede that the new plot to convey the events HAD to be as simple and classic as that, because this was the best way to again, simplify the original material to create an easily accessable, reachable and understandable movie for an audience unaware of the source material or not familiar with the culture it came from.

Some people have also pointed out that "the cultural mix sometimes work, sometimes doesn't". I agree with this too. Because one of the specificity of this movie is that it tries to truly be a modern piece (and thus goes with the Percy Jackson, Asterix and co treatment of having more modern elements in Ancient China), and it tries to truly be a Chinese-American movie, by mixing purely Chinese landscapes, material and characters with American references and influences (such as the Disney one). Sometimes it works in funny way (I can't stress ow hilarous it is to have Sun Wukong live in a Disney-like universe), other times it makes you wonder if this was a wise decision.

So anyway, that was the little flaws that prevented the movie from being perfect. As some reviewers said "It is great, fun, fast, hilarious and cool-looking, but a bit odd from time to time."

But what about the GREATNESS of the movie? Oh, the things I saw, the things to say!

If the creators of the movie did not take any risk plot-wise, on the contrary they took all the risks with the visuals. Can I just say first that the animation is absolutely gorgeous and wonderful? And I want to stress something that many cynical or worn-down reviewers tend to forget: today's technology, and today's animation, is something wonderful and majestic and a prowess of technology and technique. I remember when everybody bashed on "Elemental" for the plot or the characters, and nobody took the time to point out how GREAT and FRIGGIN AWESOME the visuals and the animations were. Hopefully I have a bit of an "anchor" here in the form of... my mother. Because my mother stopped watching animated movies around the 80s or so, and only started back looking at some from the late 2000s onward (and mostly because I watched them as a youth), and every time I share with her a new animated piece, she keeps pointing out how amazed and shocked she is at animation style or animation processes that, for me, as a kid who grew up with the wonders of the early 21st century, were just "normal". It really puts into perspective how far we got into the animation world and how exceptional these movies are today - even if the content is bland, the creation, the material and the effort put in them is wonderful.

And Netflix's The Monkey King is definitively one of those movies that benefitted from the recent boom in unusual and daring animation experiences these late years (Elemental, the last Puss in Boots movie, the recent Spiderverse animated pieces, this Disney movie which featured the first openly gay character and that was completely ignored by the press and whose name I forgot about...). They truly played all the cards, with fast-pace action combat, unusual designs, vibrant color palettes, a true work on camera angles, daring to shift animation from 3d to 2D for some sequences, gigantic landscape works, etc etc... Now, I noticed that some people were put-off by some design choices in this movie. It is true that due to their choice of more cartoony designs for the supernatural beings (to contrast them with the human beings), some of the Immortals in particular can come of as better-versions, but still a bit off putting, of some of the 3D animated Addams Family designs. I admit this might not win over everyone - but at least that is a risk and a dare the anmators chose to still go into the unusual and bizarre. Again, the uniqueness and work and daring risks with the visuals truly complete and "excuse" the "genericness" and "expectedness" of the plot.

The other great thing about this movie is the characters. It has been a long time since any children movie characters grew on me, but their handling of the Monkey King was a perfectly simplified and child-suited interpretation of the original Monkey King - not sweetened up, but without playing too much into the horror aspect either, and using perfect metaphors to convey in a simply way what the character is about (the metaphor of the teenager more irresponsible and unwise than an actual child, the concept of the wild child that was never raised or loved by anyone and so got on his own all throughout his life). There is no real subtlety in the characters, just like in the motifs (the HAND! THE HAND IS EVERYWHERE!), but at least they don't try to do overtly subtle or complicated stuff - they know they are doing a simple, down-to-the-point, let's-go-and-have-fun-and-not-think-too-much, type of cast and story, and they do ther best to do something simple but efficient, unbsubtle but fun without being overtly blunt or hitting you too much on the head either. And the character of Lin actually grew onto me a LOT, much more than I would have expected. I actually liked the character - and the fact that she is a child depicted as intelligent, mature and reasonable might be part of this.

People also heavily praised the music, which I agree, the soundtrack is really cool. The movie is very fast-paced - which did bother some reviewers who said they couldn't just pause and breathe - but personally I enjoyed it, because again it works with their simplification and heavy reliance on visuals and characters more than plot, the fastness of the action and the quickness of it all allows you to just take the whole movie whole, without anything dragging on too much. Again, simplicity is key - and for example the whole "end of the fake orchard sequence" felt somehow cringe, precisely because there they slowed down the action and took a bit too much time on something that truly wasn't worth as much.

When I talked about the risks they took with this movie, I shall include one risk that I had doubts about but actually kind of paid off - the stick. It is not a big spoiler, but Sun Wukong's magical staff is here a full character, a sentient being, and acts as the "make some weird noise mechanical companion" to the hero, which has been a character archetype ever since Star Wars, the original Clash of Titans, and other American movies of this era. I had BIG doubts at first, but ultimately it didn't felt very cringe or badly handled, and it worked quite fine. Ultimately, I also have to admire the team for going this route because I do not think this iea had been ever brought up in any adaptation or retelling of Journey to the West - I think this is the first time the magical staff is treated as a character rather than a prop, and this participates in the uniqueness of this movie.

Of course, let's also conclude by the big effort made by this movie to have a majority of Chinese-descending participants for this piece. In fact, I will conclude my review on this final thought: I am quite certain that there are lots of Chinese cultural references I, and others, missed in this movie, due to not being familiar with Chinese culture. Everybody saw the Disney influence ; but I had to dig up and research to find out the influence on this movie of other animated pieces of China. For example, I discovered that this depiction and incarnation of the Dragon King seems to have been heavily influenced by the famous Chinese animated movie of the 70s, "Nezha conquers the Dragon King", a movie I have to shamely admit I had no knowledge of the existence prior to a few days. So I am fairly certain there must be other easter eggs and references to Chinese movies, animated pieces or mythological adaptations out there.

[doughguts-art]

Okay okay back with more Bandit questions and observations now!!! Hi!!! First off, what's the model of his gun? Literally just curious, really doesn't mean anything unless I feel like drawing it lmao. Secondly, what's his thoughts on the people in power/the guardians + the queen (I'm lumping the Judge into the guardians)? You said he won't work when he can survive well on his own, but does his dislike stretch out to even wishing harm on the guardians? Actually, does he know if a guardian dies, their Zone dies, too? How knowledgeable is he on the world of OFF's lore and how it functions?? Thirdly, does he have any friends I should know about? You drew him interacting with Project Goldfinch/Just Finch to break up the text in my first ask, what's their relationship? Does Bandit scam him to hell and back, or do they just casually chat every now and then? Fourthly, I VERY BRIEFLY checked out Ask Bandit and here are some observations I made: Uno, how come you ship him with Red from Animal Crossing? Is it cuz they both steal and resell?? If so, that's hilarious and I love your sense of humor. Dos, when drawing him with Elsen 7 I did not know Bandit currently resides in Zone Three, because 7 lives in Zone One. This whole time I was under the impression he travels through Zones for some reason lol? I guess that's my curse of having a handful of ECU Elsen that do that themselves lmao. Last but not least, not something Ask Bandit related, just generally speaking, would you like to see any future doodles I make of Bandit, whether he's interacting with my own OCs or otherwise? If not, I totally get it lol. Sorry if this is too many questions btw!! You're free to infiltrate my inbox with silly questions too if you want, just to make it more fair. Thank you! :]

Apologies in advance, I didn't make any new Bandit art for this post so I'm just linking something I drew in April that I don't think I shared to tumblr XD Answer time!

I modeled Bandit's gun after a Glock?? Kinda?? I didn't really reference a specific model, more like loosely inspired. I probably should create a prop-reference for it, but I haven't yet.

Bandit's dislike for authority does not stretch to wanting to take out the guardians. It would be counter-intuitive to his role as a merchant to kill off his customers by killing off the guardians. Bandit cares too much about profit, and although the guardians are annoying, without them he wouldn't have profit.

Bandit is fully aware on how the world of OFF works, it's inner workings, and other meta things.

Bandit will say anyone is his friend, even if they clearly hate him. Louis would be the only one that would truly think of Bandit as a friend (except maybe my elsen-sona, but they're a mary-sue type oc and should probably not be counted if we're talking in-universe/story lol)

As Finch is the protagonist in my game concept, Bandit will be the merchant selling them items. Finch is distrusting of Bandit, but sees him as a necessity in their mission. I do have an idea where Bandit does steal something from Finch to propel the plot, but who knows if that'll stay in the final lol

Bandit x Redd is a joke ship created by @brandy-elsen (tagging the account it was posted on and not your current account because I do not wanna waste a tag on this I am sorry Brandy AHHSGFG). All the credits to her for the comedic genius. I think you guessed right as to why that ship exists tho. I just drew it for that post because it met the "two pieces of fanart" criteria I set.

Bandit travels the zones, your initial assumption was right. He is only in Zone 3 on the askbandit blog because of the story being told on there. He's gotta refill his stock of sugar manually since sugar happens to be one of the things he cannot magically pull from his pack.

I would love to see future doodles you make of Bandit! I like collecting all the fanart I get and posting it (with credits/links) to his gallery on toyhouse.

I'm terrible with asking questions, but I'll keep your offer in mind if I have any in the future! :D

a dapper Bandit in a suit

[kelocitta]

What if I want to hear your thoughts on the void worms and saint and how people see them? What then? Because now I'm curious ngl (no pressure tho)

Ah I certainly could try to get my thoughts in a row, and was sorta planning on it once I got a sideblog set up (I have it but its WIP at the moment) I can sorta cover what I primarily think though, a bit less properly thought out and in order. Warning for Downpour endings.

New addition made after I typed everything: I did not hold back this is so long. I went insane okay

*Small Note, I know Rain World is themed heavily around concepts of Buddhism and it's teachings, but for the most part I'm not really gonna invest much in that for my own thoughts on the things in it.

I'll start by saying I have a lot of complex thoughts on Saint, I don't dislike their campaign (It's neat!) but I do have hm… certain feelings on the what it communicates and how it communicates it, but I'll also say I think I interpret Rain World in a very different way than a lot of people do, or at least have a "second half" to the thoughts people tend to express, and the way Saint plays out gives me conflicted emotions from those feelings. That and with RW's inspirations its just… easy to be conflicted emotionally. Without going to far into things I guess you could say that in many ways I see Saint as a bad thing. Not really a villain but a… negative. It's complicated and I don't really have the words for it right now, other than I think RW does a lot with its themes of life and death and Saint complicates it as an outside force imposing a solution. And perhaps that statement there makes the caption on the art a little more clear- "Do you think yourself above it all?" as something that could be the statement of either Saint or the Worm.

Jumping from that to the "how people see them" I often see a sort of expression of surprise, mostly playfully, about how the solution turned out to be a slugcat (Saint). The idea there is a sort of novel "Ha! Its this silly little forgettable creature" but in what way is Saint any different from the worms? Are the worms not also creatures, just ones that live in an environment most cannot? They are massive and incomprehensible from our perspective, but thats hardly a new thing- there are some things just above peoples ability to understand, and that really doesn't make them abnormal or unnatural. I suppose I find the whole placement of the worms as some sort of divine creature or gods to be misplaced because even within RW the concept of a god is recontextualized- Five Pebbles gloats to the player that they are "Godlike in comparison" while rotting away from the inside and crumbling to pieces, because at the end of it all his position doesn't save him from the mechanisms of the world, even if he stands high above many of the creatures of the world and would be "incomprehensible" to a lizard or slugcat in the same way a giant space worm would be to us. Are the echos, ghosts as they are, gods? So what does it even mean to be a god, in the context of rain world?

There's another aspect, which is that ultimately the worms still lie at the heart of the solution, the final step when the survivor leaps into the void is to have themselves plucked by the worms and ascended. When artificer dives into the sea, the worms reject them for their incomplete karma (They observe them, and then leave, forcing artificer to just continue swimming), and they dissolve. They don't become an echo, they just fade away in the waves the void. Its not so much the just void sea that does the ascension- its the worms within it too. In this aspect Saint is very similar to them- but forgoes the void. To make a bit of a joke, a worm off the string.

So going back to my first statement on Saint being a bad thing… I said I wasn't going into it but damn, I am, a lot of people seem to view the void ends as some sort of "Life sucks, and then you die" kinda thing. Life sucks, you fail over and over, its unfair and horrible and then you die. And in the context of Rain World you die, and then you wake back up in a new life and start it all over again. But people tend to interpret this so… pessimistically. When actually Rain World, even the base game, actually holds a lot of love for that cycle as something worth it. Survivor wakes up after a traumatic event and they fail over and over, they exist in a frustrating environment they have no control over and no real help for- but its through those failures that they (you) get better. You fail less, you learn, you understand. And even if things stay unfair eventually you get your bearings and you can face that uncertainty with more confidence, you grow and establish yourself- you can even start going outside your safety nets and still succeed. To quote the actual achievement for survivor- "This land has become your home". The fun of Rain World, the part that sticks with people- is when it finally clicks and they start to get it, when they get just a little bit better at understanding the world they live in, the creature they are, and can find the fun in a world that is scary and unfair but something you can overcome if you just keep trying.

And that's the beauty of a life- that despite that suffering you can still get back up again and do better. You can do worse. But you still get back up. In the wide scope of Rain World's reincarnation, you can fail so badly its lethal but still, ultimately, try again. The world around you is cruel and unfair but not impossible. There can be rain and blizzards so awful that most things can't survive them but some things can, and will. Life finds a way. Even ascension, the escape- is something you can only get after you've gotten good enough to make it there. You learn how the world works, make peace with it. And at the end, if you so choose, you can take this and complete your cycle via ascension.

Downpour spins this all very differently with its endings- instead opting to give the slugcats ways to indulge in their lives- to find their homes, their families, find friends… It very much indulges in the exact opposite of ascension- a reverence for life, overcoming the suffering in return for the good. Attachment to the world. In Artificers case, they can indulge in such simpleminded lust for revenge and violence that they can lock themselves at karma one. It begs the question- is giving this up something to be desired? Is an attachment to life good or bad? If you know there is a solution to simply cease existence, what does it mean to take that choice? The Echos says as much- The Ancients understood how the aspects of how their world works. They sought such, and some failed, others didn't. Some resent their failure. Others made peace with it. Some don't understand why it was ever something anyone wanted. The rest ceased to be.

And I guess that's where Saint comes in as something I have conflict over. With the void worms there's an aspect of choice to choosing to cross yourself out. Saint acts as a solution to the fact some creatures cant possibly even know there is a way out of life to seek. The struggle for survival is, of course, a struggle after all. Death is something creatures want to escape, but failing to do so just means returning to the escape again. But what does it mean to take that choice from something that doesn't even know it has it? Will Saint take that choice from things that know it, and wouldn't want it? The iterators want it, sought it, direct those who ask to it, but that was the purpose of their whole creation. They are satisfied with Saint's choice to do so, but if the Ancient in undergrowth were still around, what of them? They seemed to not want to seek such a thing at all, moved by some unknown pressure. The world teems with life still- a harsh blizzard, a burning desert, these are not lesser ecosystems than a forest or a city. The world is not barren, not empty, and when the Ancients' towers finally crumble away into unrecognizable scrap and dirt made of rust, life will continue to pull themselves from the dust.

Its sad, its solemn to think that one day everything here and everything there will become nothing recognizable. That any link between past and future may vanish so thoroughly that no lines can be drawn between them… but it is also kinda beautiful in a way. The stubbornness of it all.

Perhaps this is just a very long way of saying I would become an echo.