#it is SO HARD to draw this motherfucker when hes dying oh my god

[mishapen-dear]

my little soup soup <3 gooping it up dying style

[ashprompts]

𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒

a collection of sentence starters from dropout tv's game changer. feel free to alter pronouns/text as you see fit

“I’ve been here THE WHOLE TIME”

“It’s hard to hold this much anger in my body.” 

“If you never hear from me again, you know what to do!.”

“If they don’t find me it’s because I was chopped up and fed to the pigs!”

“I SOLVED YOUR LABYRINTH, PUZZLEMASTER. THE MINOTAUR’S ESCAPED, AND YOU’RE GONNA GET THE HORNS, BUDDY”

“I. CANNOT. WIN!!!!”

“A lot of people have been saying that ___ is a singularly evil, wildly incompetent, befuddled nepo baby silver spoon motherfucker. This is what people are saying.” 

“If you can do ONE swing on the swing I will let you play with all the math puzzles that you want” 

“You’re not getting a FUCKING JOKE OUT OF ME until you let me out of this room! You want bits?! You let me out of this room for bits, motherfucker!”

“Are we gonna die before we get outta here?” 

“I’m gonna lose so fucking hard it’s gonna blow your fucking mind”

“But in this sick rodeo, this bizarre fucked up clown festival, we’re here celebrating what I can only describe as the sickness at the core of America.” 

“Give me the assignment and I don’t miss. I’m gonna DIE before this is over.”

“Your tower’s gonna fall. Laugh it up now.” 

“A river of sweat is running down my back right now.”

“I do hate zombies and I will have nightmares about this tonight. But in this moment I just feel like I’m surrounded by friends.” 

“We don’t give a cum.”

“If you’re in a hole, DYING. I WON’T BE THERE.”

“I showed them my feet, [name]! I SHOWED THEM MY FEET FOR NOTHING?”

“Stop shaking your cock in the middle of a fucking huddle, dude!”

“I’d fuck that pie.”

“If you’re like me, you eat a lot of ass.”

“I hate capitalism but I also hate losing.”

“I get my tongue so far up somebody it’s like I’m tasting their tonsils. I get so deep in there I’m gonna burn myself with stomach acid.”

“I like perching like a little bisexual gargoyle”

“If you were performing on a subway I would take money away from you.”

“I’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN TO PULL THE THREAD ON THIS SWEATER.”

“Icarus flying too close to the sun, but it seems Daedalus our little mastercrafter over here had some WAX WINGS OF HIS OWN, didn’t he? Wanted to see his son fall, faaaalll from the sky, OH HOW CLOSE TO THE SUN HE FLEW”

“Hey can I get an ah? … Don’t scream at me.” 

“You kinda have the vibe that your kids call you by your first name.”

“The day I DON’T curse when a body falls from the sky, call somebody.”

“Could I place an order? I’m hungie. What do you think would be the best pizza to order if I’m quite hungie? Um, I like cheese, what is your largest pizza? Yeah let’s get an extra large because I’m hungie. I’m hungie, I’m hungie, I’m hungie.” 

“WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!!!”

“So long as I am on this stage and drawing breath, you can good and goddamn believe I’ll be trying my best in every challenge.”

“Was it bad that we just started smashing shit?” 

“You didn't count on INGENUITY did you motherfucker?!”

“FIGHT THE BOURGEOISIE. I WILL VENMO YOU $20.” 

“This could be hell. This is very Satre-esque.”

“YOU ARE NOT GOD. THE MACHINE IS GOD.”

“Can you tell us why you’d do this to us?”

“I won’t be made a fool”

“I do feel like I’m in a nightmare”

“I’m the only one OUT of the loop it seems”

“Everybody do the wenis! The wenis is a dance! Everybody is a genius! Who knows it in advance!” 

"DANCE IS A SIN!"

"You think I'm gonna fucking roll over?!"

"It'll be a COLD DAY IN HELL when I go out like a fucking chump!"

"I don't care about winning, I just don't wanna lose"

[charaznablescanontoyota]

boat for short motherfuckers?

the lake is so quiet that audrey can hear the chirp of every insect, the call of every bird, the sound of her own heart palpitating in her chest. her eyes are squeezed shut so she doesn't have to see how far out in the water she is, but that just makes it worse - each wave that rocks her little rowboat could be someone with a mask and a knife coming up underneath it, tipping it over, dragging her below the surface.

"closing your eyes makes it worse," trish calls, across the water.

"yeah, i kind of noticed," audrey says flatly.

still. she opens her eyes. there are only three of them left on the lake, now; shigeo got his exit a full thirty minutes of mindful meditation ago, and shadow got his soon after. audrey's pretty sure shadow just fell asleep in his paddleboat, but the car must have counted it as enough rest and relaxation for the door to appear.

so it's her, it's trish, and it's al, who technically has a door on his boat already, but volunteered to stay behind until the others did too. maybe he wasn't expecting it to be so hard for them to relax, but he doesn't seem to mind having more time to fish with the improvised rod he put together back on the shore.

audrey sighs and drags her hands down her face. she can feel her genre butting up against the premise of this car, her danger sense pinging off of something she knows isn't there, and it's like bees in her brain. so maybe, actually, fuck the premise. maybe the way she gets through this isn't by being quiet and alone.

"when's the last time you were on a boat?" she asks aloud.

"oh," trish says. she's aimlessly paddling her paddleboat - pink, naturally - around in circles, sending ripples through the water. "in italy, when we split off from fugo. i don't remember a lot of it. i was dying."

audrey silently adds this to her mental catalog of insane trish anecdotes. she's not sure what reply she was expecting but - sure, italy. venice has waterways, right? that makes some kind of sense.

"you were dying?" al asks.

"my dad," trish says, which is all the elaboration she needs to give, because they've all seen her dad firsthand.

"i think the last time i was on a boat was when teacher took on me and brother as her students," al offers - maybe to cut the awkwardness, god bless him. "she stranded us on an island for a month."

"hey," audrey says. "what?"

"that's where i learned to fish," he adds cheerfully, every bit as skilled as trish at not elaborating on the anecdotes he shares from his home world. it's just harder to get annoyed at him for it.

"what about you?" trish asks.

audrey looks to her, squinting against the sun. "what?"

"when were you on a boat last?"

"oh. uh." she has to think about it. "i dunno. lakewood has...a fucked up lake. like, 'a murderer got shot by the cops there' fucked up. kids only go out there on a dare, or to fuck with each other."

the last time she was at the lake was at that party where noah almost drowned, she's pretty sure. audrey grimaces, tries once again to put the idea of outstretched hands under the water, ready to grab her ankles, out of mind.

"trish," she says aloud, grasping for something else to think about. "tell me a story that isn't about a time you almost died."

"i blew up a plane, once," trish says immediately, then pauses, hums to herself. "i think i almost died during that, actually. so - disqualified?"

"uh, no, fuck that. tell me about the plane you blew up," audrey says. it's true that the story might not meet her criteria but once, just once, she wants to hear the full story behind something outlandish that trish has so casually dropped into a conversation.

trish looks taken off guard; there's a beat of silence before she starts to actually tell the story, her voice low and careful, her eyebrows furrowed as she draws on the memory. audrey uses one oar to rotate her boat so she's facing trish, a little closer than before, then closes her eyes again and listens. it's easier to tune out the insects and the birds this time, easier to ignore the waves that rock the boat.

[taylorkellyreporting]

i hope no one minds if i liveblog this bitch: clickbait from 1x05

not sophie doing an interview

lmao what did nick think would happen?

maggie’s a cat 😭😭

oh shit she’s the woman they say he killed!!!

cameron helped ben create multiple dating profiles, payed for data to get info on nick, was helping with the picture of sarah, and went with ben to find her but this is where he draws the line?

ben’s either getting information or his ass kicked

this man did not learn his lesson the first time he broke into a house

i hope he loses his job

okay i know the photo was small and grainy but i really do think it could be matt. i’m sorry but i don’t trust the guy

i find it hard to side with cameron on this one just based on the fact that he was fine with invading these peoples lives until he deemed it wrong

i really love how far pia and sophie have come in their relationship and i hope it isn’t ruined by the end

“we’re just human beings. we all make mistakes.” it sounds like she’s excusing what he did

i don’t know why but i wasn’t expecting sophie to be ambushed like that

kinda find it hard to feel bad for sarah for dying when she was the one threatening suicide to get nick to stay in a relationship with her

what the hell why is he watching her from her webcam

simon is lying through his teeth

damn it that flashback with sarah was so painful

oh simon is insane

maybe simon is the one who ran emma off the road

pia, please don’t fuck the detective!!! PIA!!!!!

that’s such a conflict of interest

even though i knew it was simon, i’m still a little shocked

OH MY GOD I JUST HAD A HORRIBLE THOUGHT. WHAT IF THE OLDER SON WAS CATFISHING USING NICKS PICTURE AND NICK WAS JUST AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER THIS WHOLE TIME???? it’s far fetched but stranger things have happened

IM LOSING IT

i really think i figured it out. we’ve seen ethan using his computer and i believe his phone to talk to people but it’s never elaborated on who it is…

okay i just remembered that he was seeing emma when he was in los angeles BUT that doesn’t mean he was cheating with all of the other women, too

MOTHERFUCKER IT WAS ETHAN WASNT IT!!!!

betty gabriel is such a good actress

ethan has to know it’s his fault, right?

oh my God OH MY GOD

either the friend caught up with nick and did what simon couldn’t OR!!!! ETHAN FUCKING KILLED HIM

wait. wait wait wait wait wait wait. nick told simon that only one other person had access to his information and in the 1st(?) ep, pia was the only one who knew his password so either she did something to him and i got played this whole time OR ethan knew, too

i’m officially confused. if it was ethan, why would he be looking up mandy?

well fuck did emma imagine he was really there with her and then kill him?

i’m so stressed out

oh shit she’s real

lmao imagine if it was vincent

until they reveal who really did it, everyone’s a suspect lmao and rn that suspect is emma

well so much for that 😭 who the fuck was impersonating him

of course matt was the one being inappropriate with tara, i KNEW something was off about that guy!! i wonder if he killed nick, too

“i’m a pretty good groveler” pls 😭

what the actual fuck why is kai smirking? is he gonna try to kill matt for revenge????

matt’s fucking creepy whether or not he actually killed nick

WHAT THE FUCK

what the actual fuck

DID SHE KILL NICK?!

what a plot twist

this show really keeps you on your toes, my God

i’m so fucking confused - he WAS a cheater??? this show is insane

nick appreciated her so much, it must’ve been such a betrayal

her husband’s just as fucked in the head as she is

i still wanna know why the dating app was on his phone in the first place

fuck this show so much for having more twists and turns than a roller coaster

[lavenderwhore444]

Alright let’s talk about smell dick shigaraki BEFORE U JUDGE JUST HEAR ME OUT,shigaraki having a crush on u (of course) been wanting to be with u but he was too ashamed and embarrassed of his tiny dick, he thinks he never has a chance with u so he gives up, meanwhile u were dying for him to make the first move u end up asking him out, he couldn’t believe it of course he said yes forgetting all about his insecurities,everything went well now ya’ll are making out shit got heated, as u were trying to take his pants off, he started making excuses basically on the verge of tears, u finelly convinced him (ngl u kind of forced him) he started crying, truth be told u never cared about size in all honesty u liked pegging more so it didn’t really matter and u always found shigaraki beautiful, meanwhile shigaraki was having a full on mental down he started to get up since he knows u wouldn’t like him, until u pulled him and pinned him to the bed and pulled ur 11 inche strap on.

Kink pegging, god I love seeing shigaraki crying wtf is wrong with me- anyways I can’t think of anything, dont forget to drink water and get plenty of rest 

-🤡

At first, I was like, ‘mmm small dick Shigaraki,’ as a joke, but bro...I don’t think it’s a joke anymore.

Ok, so y/n’s quirk is a shallow mind-reading quirk. She doesn't know your thoughts, but she does know your urges.

I have loved small dick shiggy for as long as I can remember. He acts all tough just to have this tiny little cock in his pants while he gets all embarrassed maybe even feels like less of a man because society equates having a large dick to being a “real man.”

But u love him and think it’s so cute—little dick for mommy’s little boy.

If you see my writing style change during the smut it's because I either a). Put on a seggsy playlist. Or b). I definitely did not listen to an asmr thing.

MasterList

InteractiveFics

‘So pretty,’ Shigaraki thought, drinking you in, ‘god I wish you were mine, y/n,’

You were sat at the table with most of the league playing Uno with dabi.

“Draw four motherfucker, ” you said, slamming the card down.

He cursed under his breath, “fucking bitch, ”

As he picked up his cards, Dabi questioned why he decided to put himself through this bullshit, why did he choose to suffer? You always beat his ass.

He put down a card, watching you slap down your next card.

“Uno, ” you said with a shit-eating grin on your face.

You giggled at the look of absolute rage on his face. He slammed down his card, and you put your last one down.

“Well, Dabi, I win again, ” you said.

You lifted his chin so he could look at the face of his superior.

“Another round?” you offered.

“Only if you'll make a bet, ” he said.

At the end of the last game, he had noticed the new mirror Kurogiri hung showed your hand.

He stood up and announced to the room, “if I win this game, y/n has to ask out her crush,”

“Hey, who said I had a crush on anyone?” you objected.

“Your texts with Toga, ” he grinned, “but that's beside the point. If you win, I’ll do whatever you want for a week, ”

“Oh, it is on, ” you grinned, “you wanna shuffle the cards?”

He smirked, “doesn't matter to me, go ahead, ”

You shuffled the deck. There was no need for your tricks this round. Dabi’s tricks, however, left you baffled at the outcome of the game.

“I lost?” you whispered in disbelief.

“What are you waiting for, y/n?” Dabi said.

He pulled your chair out and nearly tipped you out of it.

“Dont be shy, ” Dabi whispered, leaning in.

Well, this was it. You had hoped and prayed Shigaraki would make the first move, but you were forced to confront him. You sidestepped dabi much to his confusion and sat next to Shigaraki at the bar.

“Need liquid courage?” he asked, unphased by the whole ordeal.

He hadn't even bothered to get his hopes up.

“No, I'm um here to ask you out, ” you said, looking down, “sorry this is so awkward, I'll just go now, ”

You got up, but he pulled you back onto the chair.

“I’d love to go out with you y/n, ” he said calmly even though his heart was beating out of his chest.

“Really?” You asked.

“Really, ” he confirmed, putting four fingers on each side of your waist.

He leaned in a little, father absent from his face. Your breathing picked up as you followed his lead, brushing your lips against his. For a minute, you had forgotten the whole room was watching in anticipation until they began to cheer. You sighed and tugged him upstairs.

“I don't need them staring at us, ” you said, sitting down on your bed.

“I totally agree, ” Shigaraki said, moving closer to you.

You couldn't help the blush that grew on your cheeks as he slung his arm around your shoulders.

“You're so cute, ” he said, turning your face towards his.

He pressed his lips against your lips. They were perfect though a little chapped from the cold winter weather. You kissed him back eagerly, gripping his hair with your hands. Your fingers slipped through his soft blue hair. He pulled away smiling and pressed his forehead to yours.

“You need to move the mirror downstairs, ” he said, “dabi could see your hand the entire time, ”

“That bitch, ” you muttered.

He chuckled, "I'm glad we're on the same page,"

He pressed another kiss to your lips, slow and steady. You couldn't help but feel a small need inside of you begin to grow. Obviously, you pushed it back down. You didn't want to pressure him so early on. As you spent more time with him, you couldn't help but get more and more turned on by him. You couldn't stop staring at the way the veins in his neck reached down to the slope of his shoulders and disappeared. His sharp jawline made your heart flutter when he turned his head to the side.

The next time you got him alone, you couldn't keep your hands off of him.

"mmph- y/n hold on," he laughed.

You pressed wet, hot kisses to Shigaraki's neck, and he threaded his hands through your hair. You tapped into your quirk, and it seemed he was practically screaming for you to fuck him, but he wasn't hard? You worked harder, pinching and twisting his nipples under his shirt. He was moaning and groaning, but nothing was poking your leg.

"Hey, Tomura, I can tell you want this, but you're not hard," you said, "is there, um, something else I should be doing?"

"no, y/n it's fine don't worry about it," he stammered, "we can go watch a movie or-"

You pushed him down on the bed, getting on top of him.

"Just lemme work my magic, baby," you shushed.

"um, babe, it's just. I-I don't know," he said.

He felt so exposed with his shirt off but taking his pants off? He didn't know if he could do it.

"y/n I-"

"shh," you said, "just lemme help,"

He began to panic as you pulled at the waistband of his pants, but his need outshined his growing fear stopping you from picking up on it. To his dismay, you pulled down his pants and boxers all in one go. He felt the cold air hit his cock, and he began to cry. Shigaraki felt so embarrassed. Why him? Why couldn't he have a body like everyone else's? Why couldn't he be enough for you? He got up, not saying a word until you pulled him back down onto the bed.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed, "I just- I want to be enough for you, but I'm just not,"

You held him, stroking his hair.

"You're more than enough for me. I'll always think you're beautiful," you said, "I don't care about bullshit like that. In fact, I have something better,"

You rifled through the drawer as he wiped away his tears. You pulled out a large strap-on and a bottle of lube. His eyes widened, and his cock twitched (as best it could). You giggled when you saw.

"someone's excited," you teased.

He blushed and nodded, "it um looks good,"

You smeared lube all over it and your fingers.

"Spread your legs, sweetie," you urged.

He did so gladly, exposing himself to you.

"fuck," you muttered under your breath.

He was so fucking gorgeous.

You pushed a finger into him as quickly as you could watching him gasp as his asshole clenched.

“You're very sensitive, ” you observed.

He blushed and pressed the side of his head into the pillow as he was still lying on his back. You guided his face, so he was looking at you.

“I want to see you, Tomura, if that's alright, ” you said.

He nodded once, “I’m okay with that y/n, ”

You smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

“You’re being a very good boy Tomura, ” you praised, “my good boy, ”

You started moving the finger again, circling and stretching his tight hole. He whimpered as you pushed in another finger. Despite feeling good, the experience was still a bit uncomfortable. Tomura bucked into your hand once he was used to the sensation. You watched in amazement as he acclimated so quickly; he was excellent at everything he did. How could one man be so perfect?

“More, ” he whispered, “please y/n. Give me more, ”

You kissed him much harder than before.

“Anything for you, ” you promise as you add in a third finger.

He squirmed and moaned while you prepared him. Your other hand grabbed the dripping toy. You pulled out your fingers, and he gulped.

‘How is that supposed to fit inside of me?’

You put it in inch by inch as he gasped and groaned.

“It feels s-so good y/n, ” he gasped.

You were only halfway in, and he was already losing his mind. His small cock was producing what seemed like a constant stream of pre-cum. Three-fourths of the way in, he started to struggle to accommodate the large toy. But he took a deep breath and let you push the rest inside. Once it's in all the way, he couldn't help but cry. It hurts.

“Take deep breathes for me, ” you said as you cupped your lover's face and left soft kisses all over.

He shook his head, “can’t. it h-hurts y/n, ”

You held him, kissing his forehead.

“It's okay, sweetie,” you shushed, “it's gonna be okay. You just have to hold on a little longer for me, ”

“I can't, ” he sobbed, “I can’t, ”

“Just one more minute Tomu. It’s gonna feel so good, ” you promised.

Shigaraki couldn't stop crying. He felt so full. Too full. You took his cock between two fingers and “stroked” it gently. He gasped and moaned so loud it reverberated throughout the room. You finally slid the strap onto your hips. You held it in your hands for most of the time, having much more control of your hands compared to your hips.

You rocked your hips gently. Slowly, not pulling out in the least. Tomura was clenching to the point of holding you like a vice. You moaned at the reaction. Even though you weren't being touched, watching your beautiful boyfriend come undone was enough for you. You let go of his cock, watching him squirm again.

“No, ” he moaned, “please don’t stop, ”

“I don't want you to cum too quickly, sweetie. This is your first time, after all, ” you teased.

He whined, “can you at least go faster y/n? Please?”

You picked up the pace without a word. Shigaraki wrapped his arms around your neck and pulled you down, so your chest was rubbing against his. Every time your shirt rubbed against his nipples, he let out a high-pitched moan. Your new angle hit his prostate head-on. His hands dug into your shoulders. If you weren't immune to his quirk, you'd be screwed.

“Y/n, ” he drooled, “fucking kiss me, ”

You were on him immediately, shoving your tongue deep into his mouth. He pulled at you hair.

“Y/n, ” he moaned into your mouth, “so good, ”

You sped up, and he yelped into your mouth. He was gasping for air even when you pulled away. You felt every part of him tense before his small cock shot out a surprisingly large amount of cum. Shigaraki was blissed out. Every part of him screamed to sleep, but he pulled you over him and yanked your hips down onto his face.

He licked and sucked, slobbering all over your pussy.

“Such a messy cunt, ” he groaned, diving back in, “all for me, ”

You collapsed onto his face, nearly suffocating his with your thighs (don't worry, he loved every second of it) before rocking back and forth on his face.

“Yes, ” you moaned, “god yes, Tomura, you're so good. I love it. I fucking love it. You're such a good boy. My good boy, ”

Shigaraki moaned into you at the praise, licking and sucking until you gushed into his mouth and all over his face. You collapsed next to him.

“Fuck, ” you gasped, “that was amazing, Shig, ”

You giggled and pulled him into your chest.

“That was so amazing, ” you praised again.

He wrapped his arms around you and muttered something incoherent before passing out immediately.

[transsexualhamlet]

tg anime vs manga *sighs*

i have the power of hyperfixation and anime on my side! AAAAAAAA

Ok now that we’ve gotten the sins of re post out of the way we need to discuss this. And I just feel that this needs to be covered because I can’t ever get away from constant discourse on this, mostly fueled by manga readers who feel entitled to always think they’re superior for reading the manga, that the manga is the only real canon, that it’s more complex or better, I’m so fucking tired of it. I am also a manga reader, and I tend to get like that sometimes too with many series (for example no. 6 and the promised neverland.) I get it. It can be really annoying to see something butchered on screen to what the original is, changed or represented differently or given a different message or simplified. But just. Some people like the anime and it’s not a goddamn holy war for y’all to fight. It only makes anime fans not want to read the thing even more yknow cause manga readers are pretentious assholes, and I am aware of this as one of them.

(again ok i’d like to mention i know this fandom is basically dead but a certain p*nterest is always like 4 years behind on fandoms so i keep fucking running into Discourse that’s like, still current, whenever i want old random ass content) (and youtube, why do i look at youtube comments, because I personally enjoy being offended? yeah probably)

And that brings me to the point of this anime vs manga. 

This is a lot harder to compare than a lot of other series, because there are just... so many more differences not just in the style and vibe but the story itself.

Disclaimer, I’ve never watched the anime for :re and i don’t intend to, because I honestly have no earthly clue how tf you can get from the highly diverged tokyo ghoul root A to re and make it make sense, and I don’t really want A ruined for me. So you can call me biased towards the manga in the case of re, i guess (which makes my eventual conclusion even more strong I’d say) Honestly I just see them as two completely different stories, the manga’s version connecting with re and A just like... ending there. So how we’re drawing the lines is basically tokyo ghoul A versus the manga and :re. God, I know this isn’t a fair fight because I already hate re so much, but I feel like the manga’s story is much more intertwined with :re than the anime’s is, so that’s what we’re going with.

oh god also another disclaimer this opinion is coming from the biggest fucking kanehide whore, you can disregard anything i say if you ship The Straights and/or do not care for my boi hide

To be honest, if I can take my own conclusions and liberties to the story, I like both versions, each have their pros and cons and kind of a conflicting message. They can’t really coexist. Usually I’d consume all versions and then create one consistent canon in my head for what I accept as the true events (for example my main owari no seraph, first season of the anime is canon but after that we only follow the manga since those can come together and make sense.) but it’s very hard to do that in tokyo ghoul, since I must confess... I really like root A. Like of course, it’s a lot different from the manga, but tbh I think it’s super valid. (unlike most Fans TM like this Fan TM who i’m sending this post to just to spite their singular Youtube Comment Section Discourse, yes I did write this post for you and many others like you) But the ideas that make up root A conflict a lot with the ones of the manga, so I just have to accept that they’re separate things and treat them as such.

Now to break it down so people can understand where I’m coming from I guess? God this is already so long here’s a read more

The Case for The Manga (including :re manga)

More Lore + Plot Shit: One of the main reasons that manga readers are pretentious little bitches is a valid reason, namely that, as is the case with most manga, there’s simply more to it than people can fit into an anime. (Although people need to understand that’s because,,, it’s simply a different medium, so it will have different pluses and minuses, such as for example a soundtrack, color, moving pictures,,, you know, all that. Anime onlys don’t say that the anime is better by stating these things that a manga won’t have... because they’re fucking obvious. So manga readers should stop acting like an anime is inherently sub-par for being less in depth, but we digress.) I can understand that reading the manga is kind of important for wanting to understand the lore (though there are like so many other reasons ppl might want to watch it other than to get the lore) and without the explanation of how all this came to be and how it works, everything tends to be really mysterious, confusing, and seemingly random. It’s really nice to know what’s all going on, of course, and stuff like the washuus, rize’s backstory, the explanation for like, kaneki in general, all that- if you’re looking for like, plot shit, manga is definitely your go to. But like, sometimes, you like, don’t actually care about those things.

Haise: Of course one of the most important things about well, including re is that I fucking love Haise. Like he is my favorite Kaneki. He’s just so wonderful, look at him in he glasses and he floofy hair and he striped pants and he energy boxers and he s p i c e and he MOM. And I really like how they took Kaneki’s character and developed it more with Haise, you can see his turnaround from innocent--> Emo--> Trying To Be Innocent Again But Failing and I think that’s really sweet tbh. I rejected that at first because I didn’t understand it but once I actually read re I thought it made a lot of sense and was a logical thing to do with his character. (though, uh, moving forward, after his hair changes again i disagree with it, haise 1.0 is a good take and i love him and i want the best for him) I could go on I’ve already written a post of what I think is wrong with :re so if you want to hear my take on kaneki’s 37 pokemon evolutions that’s in there

Good New Characters: And of course there are my favorite bitches such as quinx squad, oh my god, there was a terminal lack of dumbass squad vibes in the original and ishida fucking gave it to us, I love them, I love them with all my heart and I think that if I wasn’t attached to them I’d probably just cancel all of :re but like this is just my personal problem. God I love them. Ishida always pulls through with characters I’m now too attached to.

Vore Lmao:Ok like hear me out. I just get a laugh out of it every time the manga has to remind me of this little fucking fact. Like ok I just. Cannot get over it. It’s so serious about it too and like I realize it’s a serious deal but o h  m y  g o d

Ok and now that we’ve got that little rant over I do want to say that it is like actually really important past the “lmao that’s pretty gay” bit, like??? In some ways it’s more fitting than the anime because well, ishida’s point always seems to be “what would mentally and physically hurt kaneki the most right now” and does it because that’s who this bitch is. But it just?? Kind of makes a bit more sense for the storyline if we’re being picky here, it’s so,,, painfully on point? Like the entire reason he gave in to Being A Ghoul and all was so he could save his friends and shit (i actually do not remember if this was a thing in the manga but like? when he was being tortured and he like imagined hide being really mad at him and getting killed by jason and shit?) LIKE AND THEN HE GOES AND HAS TO BASICALLY BE THE PERPETRATOR OF THAT HIMSELF, FUCK, it’s a lose/lose situation of “don’t do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer” or “do the bad thing and watch your friends suffer but like, later” ishida please

The meaning of Hide being alive: Ok this is just me crying over chapter 75 still but like. Instead of in the anime, where hide’s point seems to be that instead of letting kaneki sacrifice anything more he’d be the one to give his life up and such, and save kaneki, in the anime tbh he just really wanted to be with kaneki right then?? and like ouch but understanding that in the manga he wasn’t just planning on dying and leaving kaneki to deal with it afterward he wanted to go on and continue to try to help the guy no matter the shit he had to go through, no matter if the dude just like forgot that he existed for two years and all- LIKE UH CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW HIDE DOESN’T EVEN EXPECT ANY APOLOGY? like kaneki’s like “OH MY GOD I’M SUCH A TERRIBLE PERSON” and hide’s like lmao nah it’s cool i’m thriving- that his big motto was “live” rather than “peace out motherfuckers it’s been fun”. Cause. Fucking. Ishida. Can’t kill off characters well but like at least he made keeping this one alive justified. 

The D e t a i l s: Ok well I feel like this is something everyone knows but the anime is missing a lot of really,,, crunchy details that the manga throws in there, like, well, kaneki’s fucking,,, bones thing, and other assorted details, g o d like those are missable if you want to never understand half the memes but also like,,, sometimes you just gotta read that shit. It also like, makes more sense when you do but sometimes it’s just stupid things that aren’t important but are fucking hilarious.

The Flavor: In general I’d say the greatest difference between the anime and the manga is the general flavor of the thing, the vibe in the manga is a lot, to be frank, darker and grosser and bloodier than the anime, which is a lot more focused on being pretty and Tragic than “HOLY SHIT WTF” but like. That’s valid. With that comes it being a lot more, real, and although the art may not be as polished as the anime’s, sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and the really gritty sketchy shit that’s in the manga sometimes is exactly what it’s supposed to be for the manga. (in the anime, i’d say that the colored and polished style fits it better, so we’re good there.) It’s a lot more real, in the manga, when the anime hesitates to “go there” a lot (and well, sometimes that’s welcome, but sometimes it’s like y o u  g u y s  c o m e  o n  r e a l l y maybe i DID want to see that did you ever think of that)

So like, to sum it up i’d just like to say it’s more detailed, sharper and darker and is simply So Much. There is just More Content

The Case for Root A

ON THE OTHER HAND, (buckle up fuckers)

Depth of Emotion (that Ishida was too much of a pissbaby for): God like you know what I mean if you read the last post, we spent a whole episode on these gay fucks in root A, with backstory and dreams and drawn out suspense and emotion and GUYS LOOK AT THEM NO REALLY OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS whereas hide’s limelight in the manga is a whole... two pages, oh whoopee, and that’s mostly due to the fact of ishida putting himself in a spot of “oh fuck goddamn if i drew that in i’d get flagged for gay porn” but that’s his own fault, so he downplays the whole scene and really keeps it in the dark, whereas in this anime it’s understandably a lot less,,, like that, but how it plays out here is simply... really nice and makes you cry and shit, whereas in the manga I’d go “oh god oh damn oh fuck” *laughs my ass off because i really can’t take this seriously*. You get just... more here.

To elaborate on this, in the anime, as a gay fucking bastard, I can get practically an endless amount of content from episode twelve, and endlessly stew over all Those Things about it, every hard hitting line, the expressions, the music making it even sadder, the ways the VAs say the words, the cinematic beauty of the blood dripping on the floor and like how it’s supposed to make you think it’s kaneki’s, GOD I COULD FUCKING GO ON, but if we want to get that in the manga... 

we get three incredibly basic lines, a blackout, and then a “QUICK LET’S MOVE ON TO SOMETHING ELSE BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES THE IMPLICATIONS OF THAT HAHA”

So if we want to have more, we need to write it. (sadly) None of it is ever played out canonically so like,,, all we can do is infer and make shit up. It’s like, I am a writer so like that’s my whole job but I really would rather have more content, and have the content that’s there get to be emotional instead of *blank face* “this is plot that is happening, sadly” but like maybe it’s just bc i’m gay

Really Fucking Beautiful (aesthetically as well as story-wise): This kind of just goes hand in hand with the depth of emotion bit, and I think it can’t really compared to the manga here because I’m gay so I see pretty colors and cry so the anime is understandably appealing for me, but I’m also talking emotionally, yeah. There’s a lot of plotlines and implications of the story that are really well played out, I always love to watch the original because it does a very good job handling a lot of the harder topics and stuff that makes the whole thing worthwhile- like the whole point you’re supposed to see that the ghouls and humans are both just as monstrous when you break it down, that there are good and bad people on both sides, everyone just wants to live and feel good in their own life and perspective, everyone has reasons that justify their behaviour in their mind, sometimes you just can’t win no matter what, all that... they’re all really important messages and make the whole story, and they were handled much more delicately and with more expertise in the anime. 

It’s hard to pin down, but I feel like the manga was just based more on Fight Scenes Characters OoH Fake Science and kind of just gave kaneki infinite power ups after Trying Harder no offense, obviously those things were there and they were still very good in the manga it’s just sometimes they were cheapened a lot by ishida really not keeping track of what he’s trying to say with his story and sacrificing it a lot for “BUT WHAT IF KANEKI’S HAIR AND IDEALS CHANGED AGAIN” instead of making it a whole cohesive work. (and yes, I am VERY aware of your “well aCtuAlLy the hair represents his sanity” thing i know i know and i’m about to rip it to fucking shreds so)

Understandable Character Development And Staying True To It: Which brings me to this point, character development. This was another thing that was just... handled with more expertise in the anime, whoever was in charge of it. Mostly this has to do with Kaneki, since like, no offense but he’s the only one who ever gets much character development other than like, juuzou (asmr you only get character development if your hair color changes) oh and i guess there’s tsukiyama but he’s someone who shouldn’t have gotten character development. Touka gets character development only before re for some reason, and like tbh that’s kind of it. I do think Juuzou’s character development was valid, because well... it made sense? I complained about it before because I was like “well he just turns into spicy L” but i’ve since changed my opinion, he’s best boy. But Kaneki? They went way overboard with him in the manga, and generally? Calm tf down ishida.

Breaking it down, one of the main things that most of the tried and true manga stans seem to hate about the anime the most is Kaneki going over to Aogiri in root A. Since they’re much more acclimated to the manga, they don’t understand why he would do that (quoting a particular ‘probably made sense in the manga!’ yes i know that whole thing was poking fun at the show and i felt it lmao) and they just pin it to “ahaha he has now become Edgy for the fans ehehe time to make fun of him” and TO BE FAIR YOU’D BE COMPLETELY RIGHT. I love to make fun of Kaneki when he does his edgy bitch thing because that’s what he is. A basic edgy bitch who is just,,, such a main character. But like. He does actually have his reasons despite popular opinion and to be honest I think they’re a bit more valid than in the manga, where he’s just like “well I’ve been tortured, that was not pleasant and i kinda did a bad thing, let’s go back to anteiku but i’m just gonna Try Harder To Fight this time”. I can understand that, but like, it seems like in the manga every Character Development of kaneki is some form of “i will now be stronger” except for the singular “I will now be a different person” which, well, we’ll get to that. 

In the anime though, even if it seems like more of a basic edgy bitch move, it’s like?? It makes perfect sense to me, and to be honest more than the manga does? Obviously he doesn’t wanna be best bros with Aogiri, he realizes they’re all bad people who have done really terrible things, but the fact is he now sees himself as the same thing, he now understands their motives because in his mind he is also now Bad TM. His whole character development of being tortured was that peace wasn’t an option no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn’t live being a pacifist and the world was forcing him to give the “i am the only one that understands! we need to stop fighting!” bullshit up because there was no way to achieve it. He realized if he kept himself the way he was more people he loved would be hurt like they already had because he couldn’t, so he doesn’t just Decide To Become Stronger, he gives up his humanity. And that includes basically letting himself defend his own actions and try to do “the right thing”. 

Him then joining aogiri makes sense because well. They’re the people who are the strongest, who have the power, who are the same as he sees himself. He still wants to protect the people he loves, he just also realizes he can’t do it by working with them since he now understands that their more peaceful ways will by definition get them fucking killed. His understanding is flawed, of course. He’s not really right. But this is his understanding and from that it makes perfect sense for him to join up with aogiri and try to still do as much as possible from that standpoint, realizing that most likely the people he’s trying to protect will hate him for it. I think that makes sense to me, what do you not understand about it? (I also understand that may make some people mad because he’d Doing Bad Things but I point to you he’s so soft, remember when he was really nice to naki when he was literally the one who killed the guy naki was crying about? remember when he was doing a raid and he saw that guy hiding and he never mentioned it? remember like the seventy times he Cried TM, yeah he’s problematic obviously but if you want problematic I’ll point you to a certain fucking black reaper. Shironeki has nothing on that asshole.)

I think what Kaneki did in the manga was fine, but in general the anime (again) had more depth of understanding and emotion versus a steady Try Harder Get Stronger shonen deal, which, well, fair, but like, nah. Continuing why I think the anime dealt it better is the ending of A, which was a lot more well rounded then *kaneki gets stabbed and then there’s a lot of random plot shit going on in the background*. Here Kaneki then got to round out the end of his character development by realizing slowly through the second half of this season, him becoming a kakuja and then basically deciding like, not to

((kakuja kaneki was dealt with again different in the anime and manga because he basically stopped trying to use it in the anime bc he realized it was a bad fucking idea but this goes along with the ‘his character development of “i’m gonna do bad things for good reasons” --> “actually no wait that was a bad idea” was actually done in root A instead of being dragged out into :re and it’s appropriate for its own medium and the messages it’s trying to get across so manga loyalists hate it’ but we digress))

So in root A we got to see him actually develop and realize himself through the second half of the season starting with cochlea, his interactions with Amon, and ultimately through Hide, that he’d been doing the wrong thing by becoming more monstrous/fighting harder because what he did was ended up forgetting the most important thing, *smiles in gay* HIDE.(well, his humanity. yeah. i cite the terrible opening for root A with the fun ‘the hands taking off kaneki’s mask are hide’s’ bit.) He then remembered again why he wanted so bad to stop the war between humans and ghouls, he wanted to be able to live in peace and not have to be a monster- something that was not dealt with in the manga (though for understandable reasons of We Need To Fuck With Him In Re More, they then didn’t deliver on creating something like that later so I take this.)

That’s most of the difference between the original manga and anime, but I’d also like to discuss (briefly, I’ve already yelled about them) the ridiculous amount of hurdles ishida went through to fuck with kaneki in the manga, Of course there is the fact that well, the slower transition of his character does make some more sense for the manga because if you take :re into consideration, his eight billion character changes are more tolerable when they haven’t like, already happened before in the manga (just the anime). It makes more sense there for Haise to be tormented by past kaneki telling him He’s Too Weak because in the manga he hasn’t already had that development prior to “dying”, and he lost his memories still believing he had to be strong even if he did bad things, whereas in the anime it doesn��t track because at the end like i just said he kind of gives up his ghoulhood on purpose because he realizes that joining aogiri and fighting and shit was really wrong because, hide. So I can see why those character decisions were not made in the original when planning for :re, but... the fact remains that those previous decisions do not make up for how absolutely weak :re’s game ended up being with kaneki. 

So tldr this entire section, All the manga’s defense of how they handled Kaneki’s development is basically void because all those choices were buildup for development in :re which ishida then COMPLETELY fell down on. So the alternative is better.

And now comes my yelling about how exactly Ishida fucked it up: hair colors and kaneki’s 80 kanekis. If black is supposed to represent sane and white is supposed to represent insane or, whatever, i dunno, who tf thought black reaper kaneki was sane? Who tf would think kaneki in the end isn’t? I haven’t looked into this really, and I’d really love it if someone explained it to me the way ishida was going for bc I do not understand it. Like that tracks with Juuzou, and with Kaneki up to Haise Original, but they don’t really make a cohesive sense seeing as after Haise’s hair color changed again that whole deal kind of goes to shit. Not to mention... I just... they completely failed to make those character changes actually part of the story, I’m mostly complaining about black reaper haise, none of him makes any sense. What’s his deal? He wants to protect who he loves? Tracks with the ghouls but fun fact he abandoned his kids? He actually cared for them? What then, he wants to be the strongest as possible? Sure but then?? Why?? I don’t understand his motives at all.

We also didn’t get to see him get his memories back either, which I was actually very much looking forward to, it just,,, like all of a sudden he’s talking with eto about yoshimura and i’m like bruh when tf did that happen? It’s bad, and although chapter 74-76 is super valid, and his change back into white hair kaneki makes sense, I also have the complaint about how haise basically disappeared just like he was worried he would. I think that was bad and I’ve said that already, it doesn’t make sense, he just literally throws those entire two years away to go back to the way he was before he was with the CCG and just forgets everything he’s wanted for the last few years? Fiction logic test fucking failed, and you’ve also broken my heart. Love Haise. You got rid of him. I love kaneki too but like. Why don’t they just. Like. Merge. He is one whole complex person, not one and an imposter, god. 

This is a big negative for re and the manga, so automatically a positive for root A where I simply Do Not Have To Deal With That Bullshit and the character development actually makes sense. I can understand the decisions in the original manga could have set up for good development in :re, but they completely failed to deliver.

root a didn’t fast forward to re at the end god damn let us process this shit first before you try to connect it to something else: The thing with this point is that it’s really difficult to separate the original manga from the continuing story in :re because the thing intertwines so much and immediately moves us forward with a ton of plot points for the next part of the story before we’re done with this climax and the end of this story. Sometimes that’s ok and I can see doing that from an author’s perspective because you want people to continue reading your story instead of taking that as the end but it’s really annoying on a reader’s end, because I’m picky and I want to be able to just be able to enjoy my original canon without it like, metaphorically touching :re on a plate. It’s something that I don’t even do with my own longer stories, like for example I have like a trilogy of >100k fics that like, well i’m technically not done with them but like. 

People really like the first one because it’s more focused on a more popular ship and basic elements people like about the thing, and then by the second book it moves on to talk more about the plot and lore and brings in more secondary characters. And so I knew that a lot of the readers of the first one wouldn’t want to have to deal with a lot of the “oh well stuff is happening elsewhere that will effect stuff later!!!” random plot shit that none of my readers actually cared about. So I kept it to wrapping up the points of the first book and then leaving the introduction of new characters and plot for the people who actually wanted to read it. Ishida didn’t do that, and of course it’s within his right to like?? Want to promote the next series but I’d have enjoyed it more if we ended it at kaneki’s “death” and wrapping up the deals with the rest of the characters instead of quickly shoving in the beginning of seventy more plotlines before the book ends. Like honey I simply do not have the reading comprehension for that. In the anime we get something that... makes sense.

In the anime, however, it’s quite the opposite, for example the reveals like Eto=owl=takatsuki sen were pushed before that and they saved episode twelve for, well, the end bit. Like what was actually the ending. There were detriments to this I had to say (LIKE GUYS I GET IT HE’S CARRYING HIDE HE’S CARRYING HIM I GET IT YOU’VE BEEN DOING IT FOR HALF THE EPISODE NOW OK I UNDERSTAND CAN WE MOVE ON) But like, I prefer the concept of a simple idea with as much emotion squeezed out of it as possible to a ton of confusing and contradicting ideas that are touched on for a second before moving on. So the *cries for half an hour* ending was much more appealing to me, and I can keep that separate in my head from any of the ideas that :re creates, letting me pretend it doesnt exist and imagine that’s the end and there’s nothing else to worry about. If we want to move forward and hear more, then we can, but it isn’t necessary like it is with the manga.

No Bad Takes that are hard to pry apart from good plot and characters:This is basically the downsides of the new characters, which is well, if I had to make a whole ~keep reading~ post about how problematic everything in re was that does have to count as a downside. I love the new characters, but they also come intertwined with a thousand really bad takes on like, everything, and of course I can ignore it and just act as though they were written in like, to be perfectly honest, a non transphobic way, it’s a real downside when the original anime was pretty pain-free in the way of their takes on their characters. They fucked everyone up in re and I will not elaborate, we’ve talked about this, it’s just the anime, and which i mean season 1 and root A, don’t really have any bad takes I need to try to get rid of, it’s surprisingly something I have little complaint about at all and I ALWAYS have complaints.

Hide!!!!: Obviously, you can tell that a lot of my opinions are going to be hide based because he’s the only thing I ever think about. But we have to take into account just how... hide???? This goes a lot into the depth of emotion bit but it also offers the other side of the argument for Hide’s part in the :re manga, which well. Was mostly chapter 75 if we’re going to be perfectly honest here. He doesn’t get any other limelight. Even in the chapter where Kaneki meets him again he gets a whole what, three pages? In the manga, he has an extremely valid deal about basically, living, keeping going no matter what, and that is a fitting part for the manga, considering the rest of the points there ride more on Keep Fighting instead of Think About Your Emotions And Morals, but honestly chapter 75 was really valid. So why do I still think the anime’s version where he like (ok I don’t know about the re anime we’ve discussed this, i don’t even know how they choose to explain that) he like, dies in kaneki’s arms is better overall? Again, I would have totally accepted that deal if it was made a part of the story because it made me cry, it was super valid, and if they’d continued in that way I would have agreed with it completely over that. But the fact is again that they failed to deliver, and Hide got largely ignored, suffered so much with so little outcome. There was so much buildup and it was incredibly valid, but when the time came for them to meet again and basically show... why it was important that Hide lived in the end? 

They didn’t. They straight up didn’t. Kaneki’s like “oh sorry bro... glad you’re alive and all...” *goes off and fights* and like? Honestly? @everlastingspiral is right, if that’s all they’re gonna do with him what’s the point of keeping him alive? I love every single panel of him and I wouldn’t have read re if he didn’t, but hide gets absolutely NO payoff. For letting kaneki literally vore his entire mouth off, leaving him disfigured and unable to talk, then kind of disappearing for two years and doing seemingly nothing but trying to help kaneki even though he’d forgotten the guy existed, risks his life like a thousand fucking times, eventually gets back to him and the dude’s running a fucking anti-human organization, helps him like Not Be A Volitile Pile Of Flesh Anymore and then what should have been a very important moment of them meeting again gets completely overshadowed by touka and random plot shit and more fights and they barely interact, they don’t even hug or anything, they barely talk, and at the end hide is still there but to be honest he’s gotten absolutely no thanks for all he did and ishida acts at the end as though he’s done very well with hide and gives him a tiny bit at the end throwing in a tragic backstory for fun (which hot take he really didn’t fucking need on top of it all) and... there’s no real hint that Kaneki is better off with Hide there, even though there should be. In 75, in his dream, kaneki is sobbing and crying and all like i’m so lonely without you but when they actually meet each other again? “yo” “hey” “uh sorry about,,, the thing,,, you know” “nah man it’s ok” “let me talk about myself for a bit” “yes you always do do you want to hear what I’ve been up to” “not really” “that’s fine i’m only here to support you”

...So you can understand why I’ve gone a bit sour on that. If that’s all you’re going to give him? Hot take? Let him die. Hide deserves better. (and i will deliver that in writing, but for the purposes of canon.)

In the anime, however (not counting re again... although he still gets the short end of the stick just in the original manga too compared to the anime) he’s properly dealt with! he gets his proper limelight and he gets acknowledged for what he’s done thusfar in the story, which is already so much. Kaneki then realizes that, but it’s already too late (or it isn’t, and they like negotiate with the ccg and then they get to live happily ever after) either way he gets appreciated and he gets hurt, but it’s properly acknowledged. And after all that, after saving kaneki and getting him to the cafe and doing it all while bleeding the fuck out, he gets to spend that time with kaneki and die in kaneki’s arms. And frankly? That’s all I think he’s ever needed. It’s really poetic and pretty and brings kaneki’s character around full circle, and even if it’s overly sappy, cliche, drawn out... he gets the attention he’s due and he gets a fucking break. He wanted to show Kaneki he wanted to do something for him and save him instead of the other way around, but then HE GOT ACKNOWLEDGED FOR THAT, instead of just well, tirelessly working towards it forever and having to be content to be a background character with practically no value to Kaneki anymore.

Keeps The Same Vibe: The big thing about this is that with the manga and with re, shit just goes all over the place, and I feel like I’ve amply showed that already through this essay or whatever this is. Again about the consistency and the professionalism, It’s a concise story that makes more sense than the manga while also being simply neater and more deep, making sure all the points, themes and messages work together and make sense to create a cohesive deal even if it’s not as long. (the manga is like ishida had a TON of good ideas for an essay but then fleshed out the thing ten minutes before deadline and managed to completely lose what his original thesis was even if the thing was 10 pages long.) Basically. yeah. That kind of sums it up, my last point concerns the ending.

Not Cheap Ending: If you want to hear my take about how absolutely terrible re’s ending was, check out my The Many Sins Of Tokyo Ghoul :Re post, and we’ve discussed how the original’s manga ending was bad and well not really an ending, it just leaves you unfulfilled and takes you into “well I guess I have to start a whole nother sequel series ig...” but root A like? Actually ends it? If a reader didn’t know that there was any content after that, they could pretty much infer that hide’s death or almost death whatever you inferred out of that ending (again we’re ignoring re) allowed Kaneki to finish his character development and realize they needed to stop the war, which basically tracks with what’s going on in everyone else’s perspective- eto’s problem with the world because of what happened with everything, is basically like, all of aogiri, juuzou and shinohara, amon and akira and kaneki and they can realize all they have to do is just sit down and fucking stop it because none of them want to be fighting, hide is the catalyst for that because the CCG can see how Kaneki cares for him? And it’s so open ended that you could just like literally believe that and there’d be no way for that canon to tell you otherwise, or you could go onto re and whatever if you wanted to. I think that’s the best thing. 

In conclusion, both have valid points, and in general I’d say that the manga goes better with :re and the anime is better as a stand alone but if I had to choose overall, this particular anime is better (taking into account only seasons 1 and 2), for mostly the reasons of favoring a simpler story taken with much more care and depth versus a more complex story with many, MANY imperfect elements, and I am aware I will get shot on sight for this opinion. So sue me.

[fandomentanglement]

Favorite Character Type: the Steadfast

So. In watching the Untamed, suddenly I realized what one of my favorite character types is and why I like a lot of the media I like.  I am just...all about the Steadfast character type. Loyal and patient in the face of sometimes ridiculous quantities of adversity, the one who will always choose their chosen when the chips are down. They will follow them into the goddamned dark (metaphorically, b/c the whole point is that they get through the dark together). 

Honestly??? The Steadfast character might not even be my favorite character in a particular series/show/book/etc (though they usually are), and the loyalty doesn’t have to be actively romantic (though it’s always underlaid by some flavor of love). They’re usually a secondary character or co-lead, and if they’re a main character, they’re possibly in service to their chosen in some respect. (Service kink? What is this you say? Ahem, I have no idea what you’re talking about.)

This relationship dynamic. Just. This dynamic. 

Here are all the examples I can think of off the top of my head from least obscure to most (more or less). 

James “Bucky” Buchanan Barnes (Marvel Cinematic Universe) — Look at this motherfucker. Sniper-support, literally goes to hell for his faith in the guy who he loves. (Bro or Romo, he loves Steve, I will fight you.) Till the end of the line? Yeah, and beyond, even after he falls off the goddamned train.

Merlin (BBC Merlin) — Merlin and Arthur, shipped together by the dragon in the basement since the very first episode. Destiny, two sides of the same coin, etc, and so on. But the point is. The point is that Merlin starts by drinking poison for Arthur and he never gets any less ride or die, despite the trauma and his fatalistic love-hate relationship with destiny.

Utena Tenjou (Revolutionary Girl Utena) — Okay, full disclosure, I have never finished the series, and Utena only partially fits this trope since she is the hero of her own story. However, her goal in life was to ‘be the prince,’ the one who is deliberately Steadfast, ready to win/serve/love(?!) the Rose Bride. When I was sixteen, I watched as much of what I could scrape out of my local vhs rental place with my little heart in my little hands and went, “Oh. Oh this.” She’s half my favorite character type and half of something completely unique, but she deserves to be on this list because she’s right down there at the base of my love for this whole trope.

Hardison & Eliot (Leverage) (both of them, my heart, my heart) — Look, these two are 2/3 of the OT3 of my heart. Hardison, because he will wait for goddamned ever for Parker. Just...everything about the peanuts and giving Parker space to be herself. Eliot because he basically marries them both at the end with ‘until my dying day.’ They all go through so much for each other, but these two especially are just...there in the background doing their thing and holding each other and Parker up and it’s magnificent.

Lan WangJi, Hanguang-Jun (The Untamed) — This fellow right here made me realize exactly the character type I love the most. He does not start off as the Steadfast, but he comes to it after an arc, and makes a declaration that I’m crying about right now just thinking about. You and me against the world, baby, no regrets. The show goes for epic high romance, while the book goes for puzzle pieces fitting together, but both iterations give me this and I love it so much.

Grace (Terminator: Dark Fate) — A newcomer to the scene and say what you will about the movie, I’m fond of it for a dozen reasons. But Grace. Grace right here. The movie layers over and redefines the original Terminator in all sorts of fascinating ways, and THEN gives us Grace, who is ready to fistfight god and the Terminator and everyone in between for a profound and encompassing (familial) love.

The rest are book characters and I’m going further and further back in time, so the gifs are only relevant and not of the characters themselves. T_T

Joscelin Verreuil (Kushiel’s by Jacqueline Carey) — Joscelin sets aside his entire life for the sake of Phedre, to become her consort and her protector. He, in the words of the book, “will ... stand at the crossroads and choose, choose again and again...” to stay with Phedre even down into the most literal of hells. And just, he’s exactly this Steadfast trope. Exactly. He chooses, repeatedly and with full knowledge of what he’s following her into, and he still does it over and over. 

Daemon Saetan SaDiablo (The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop) — These are my favorite books, but please do not read them without looking up the content warnings. Daemon, tho. He’s the embodiment of this steadfast loyalty and dedicated service. (And the series is This Trope: the Worldbuilding, so you have an inkling of why I love it.) There’s zero question he would carve his heart out upon request, and basically does so at the end of the first trilogy, breaking everything he’s tried so hard to build with full knowledge that that’s exactly what he’s doing.

Achmed (Symphony of the Ages by Elizabeth Hayden) — So. Achmed. Half of my first OTP before I knew what an OTP was. He’s not actually the romantic lead in the books, but he is the other side of the main character’s coin, the dark to her light. (And the first time I’d heard the coin phrasing, far before BBC Merlin.) He’s just...willing to give everything for her and it’s with this deep acceptance that yup, that’s how it is. Welp. He’ll back her up always, because the thing they have is legitimately described as something entirely different than her romantic love with the lead, and I have always loved that.

I think the thing that draws me to this trope is it’s mix of hopeful and stubborn and fierce. The reason each of them can be even called Steadfast is because they’ve been tested, often again and again, and they refuse to break faith. Even if it would easier. Even if they have competing goals. Even if remaining is to their own detriment. And yet they’re still there, still with their actions screaming their love even if they say absolutely nothing. And the person they’re dedicated to, maybe they’re not the most constant or they make mistakes or they cause suffering to the Steadfast for whatever reason. Still. Still. The Steadfast is there and will always be there. 

And they choose to be there.

[ephemeral-afterlight]

Day 8: Stab Wound

(But hold on a little while longer.)

Whumptober 2019 Day 8: Stab Wound

Word Count: 2054

Relationships: familial Creativitwins, platonic/familial dlamptr

Warnings: Stab wound (obviously), other minor injuries, blood, minor dissociation, lots and lots of cursing

A/N: yes, i know this is late! it’s only by 30 minutes though D: hopefully my characterization of the trash man is alright! this was fun to write hehe

Well. That wasn’t a very fun camping trip!

Remus has always been one for surprise. He likes the excitement, the variety, the fun! It’s healthy to keep a little bit of spice in your life. He’s not afraid to live by this sort of motto, because life is about the little things. Although, he isn’t sure that getting stabbed in the middle of the woods at three a.m. necessarily counts as little, but he’ll take what he can get.

So sue him! Maybe he likes to have a little fun sometimes. Routine is boring! Fuck patterns! Fuck authority! Cause anarchy!

And, uh, yeah. He’s pretty chill with living on the edge like that. But maybe… maybe just a bit further from the edge? He means, like, the edge of harmful societal expectations and complacency, or whatever dumb shit Dee and Lo-Lo rant about to each other at one in the morning. Remus loves his roommates, and would totally rip out a bitch’s spine for them, but they’re fucking nerds. Speak ENGLISH.

Yeah, the edge of “normal”. Not the edge of death.

He’s not gonna die out here, no siree. If he believes he’s immortal strongly enough, he will be. That’s what Barbie movies teach you, right? In any case, even though he refuses to die, getting stabbed hurts like a motherfucker, and it doesn’t help that it’s also storming. He just wanted a nice, fun camping trip, but nooo, some shitty-ass god out there decided “Oh! Time to turn Remus into a shitty cliche horror movie protagonist!”. Why can’t he be the antagonist? Or… wait, what’s the one in the middle of the two? The side character? He wants to be the one guy who is in the midst of all the action with the protag, but seemingly dies halfway through the movie, and then comes back at the end to be like, ”Haha, surprise, bitch! I’m not dead!”.

Huh. Maybe he shouldn’t make all of his life choices based on movie stereotypes.

Anyway, he wishes that at the very least it’d stop fucking raining, because it makes it seriously hard to crawl through the underbrush while slipping in mud and falling flat on his face every two seconds. The stab wound is painful, sure, but as long as he can keep pressure on it and not lose too much blood before he gets to the main road, he should be fine. But having to deal with the downpour hindering his movement and blinding most of his senses sucks ass. How the hell is he supposed to utilize his tracking skills and make sure he’s going the right way without being able to see, hear, or smell a single goddamn thing? He might like making other people wet, but that doesn’t mean he likes being wet himself.

So, he thinks he’s going the right direction. Trying to escape a batshit crazy murderer in the middle of the woods doesn’t leave you a lot of time to casually sit down at a table with a cup of tea and pull out your faded, burnt treasure map, but if he had a table and a cup of tea and a partially burnt map, he would totally do that. Maybe the killer would be so confused, he’d have time to run away.

The thought causes Remus to bark out a laugh into the white noise of the storm, which is a VBI (Very Bad Idea), because it goes straight to his stomach. The pain that radiates out from the wound is like, actually excruciating, hahaha! But... Remus is supposed to be the one who actually survives to the end. He-- he has to be. Who else is gonna fill Roman’s socks with wet concrete?

Oh, Roman. His brother would probably be crying like a little bitch if he were here. Now he’d be the protagonist, the one who’d make so many stupid decisions and somehow come out of it alive anyway. He’s like those teenage girls in horror movies who make you scream at the screen “Don’t go in the dark scary basement, you fucking idiot!” but for some reason, never have a single repercussion for any of their terrible choices. (Remus would be the one who would sacrifice himself for the main character near the end of the movie at the dramatic climax, but Roman can never know that.)

Maybe he wishes Roman was here so that he didn’t have to crawl all this way on his own, but whatever. His brother would probably be too busy whining about his ruined hair to help much, anyway. Not-- Not that Remus needs help! He is having a blast slipping and sliding through the sticks and mud and bushes, thank you very much!

“C’mon out, dude! Don’t draw out the inevitable!” a voice echoes from the trees, a yell that’s far too familiar for Remus’ liking. God, can this guy just give it up already? Go find some other helpless damsel to terrorize! He does not wanna try Remus right now. This may all be fun and games, but Remus is starting to get pissed off, and he is unafraid to take out the stress on this crazy dumbfuck.

Somehow, Remus is able to hear the guy’s footsteps come closer through the sound of the rain splashing all around him, and he speeds up. Probably better to just avoid the guy. Although Remus’d totally win in a fight, the dude does have a knife, and Remus would really prefer to not get stabbed a second time. There’s a drop ahead, a place where it looks like the floor disappears, so Remus shuffles over to it and peers over. It’s a small cliff, with maybe fifteen or so feet to the bottom, and Remus curses under his breath. Fuck, he’s gonna have to do it, isn’t he? And now that he’s looking, he can just barely make out some headlights flit through the trees and disappear, so he knows that he’s close to the main road.

With a grimace, Remus steels himself, then slides off the edge feet-first, trying to use his shoes as a brace against the incline. Of course, because his life fucking sucks, he somehow manages to hit a rock embedded in the side in the wrong crevice, and it pitches him forward off the wall to tumble to the ground below. He smacks into the wet dirt, is just barely able to bite his tongue hard enough to stop the scream from ripping from his throat, and he lands at the bottom harshly. 

His stomach is on fire. It fucking hurts, feels like he’s being stabbed all over again a thousand times over. Bruises are definitely going to start forming all over his body from that fall, and coupled with the fact that his leg hit the ground at a weird angle, walking is going to be even worse than before. Fuck! Why can’t he just catch a fucking break?!

Remus pants hard, trying to work himself up to resuming his trek, when he hears his attacker’s voice calling out from above again. It sounds like he’s coming to the edge, so Remus just swallows hard and scoots himself over through the agonizing aches in his body to lay flat against the cliff wall. He just has to hope the dude doesn’t see him. He can’t really see very well through the storm, but Remus thinks he sees the guy look over the edge. Silence is key, and that’s pretty damn hard considering the absolute torture that is his wounds, but he has to. To survive.

He can’t die today.

And then the guy’s yelling for him again, and his voice is getting further away, and Remus waits in the mud until he can’t hear his footsteps anymore. Vigour and adrenaline now fully renewed, Remus bolts into the trees again, crawl morphing into a crouched run when he’s finally in cover. He clutches at his stomach to try to lessen the pain, which of course doesn’t help, but maybe it’ll keep some blood inside of him or something. Probably not best to bleed out right before he can get help. That’d be a shitty movie ending, if he’s being honest. Absolutely uncreative and unsatisfying. -11/10. 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Is Remus delirious right now?

Despite all that, the sight of the road through a break in the trees is like a blissful breath of fresh air, a shining light of hope in the darkness. He’ll get to see Roman again, and prank Patton with bugs, and absolutely destroy Virge at video games, and listen to Dee and Lo-Lo’s stupid philosophy talks, and give his adoptive uncle Thomas a heart attack every time he does something stupid, and holy fuck maybe Remus is dying because when did he become sentimental? Ew.

A car finally comes along right as Remus manages to drag himself up onto the shoulder, and he waves frantically from where he’s kneeled on the ground in an effort to flag it down. Thank fuck, the car actually slows to a stop, and the window rolls down almost immediately. The face that pokes out is cute, and innocent-looking, and Remus prays to a god he doesn’t believe in that this person will actually help.

“Oh, jeez, are you okay? Why are you out on the road like this? Is-- Is that blood?!” the driver asks, horrified, and Remus tries to stumble closer. He doesn’t know what he looks like right now, but it’s probably horrifying, and he wouldn’t really blame this stranger if he drove away immediately. Maybe Remus will become like those ghost stories, the spooky legends about ghost hitchhikers. Ooh, maybe he’ll become a local cryptid! They can tell stories about him, and sell merch with his face on it, and he’ll be famous, and he can rub all of his sweet, sweet royalties in Roman’s face.

“Got-- I got stabbed. Crazy fucker got me while I was asleep. Help,” Remus manages to force out through his grit teeth, voice hoarse under the weight of the pain he’s in, and the driver looks extremely worried. For whose well-being, Remus has no clue.

“Alright, I’m taking you to the hospital. I couldn’t live with a guilty conscience if I left you out here. I’m Emile, by the way-- please don’t murder me, okay?” the stranger, Emile, says, and Remus chokes out a laugh despite himself. Emile gets out of his car and rushes through the drizzle without any hesitation, and Remus can already see that this is a genuinely good person. Anyone else would leave him here to die. He knows that. Even he’d leave himself here. But here this guy is, the kindest anyone has ever been to Remus, and it makes him wonder if he’ll still be as nice when he realizes that Remus’ personality is awful and the polar opposite of good and kind. (He knows he’ll never be good enough. He knows. He’s heard it enough, and he doesn’t need to be told again.)

“Not g’nna murder you. I can’t-- can’t even walk on my own, so,” Remus mumbles once he’s sure Emile is close enough to hear, and the latter just clicks his tongue with hands that frantically wave all around as if they don’t know where to go. Luckily enough for Remus, Emile pulls himself together quickly, slings an arm underneath his shoulder to help support his weight, and they limp back to the guy’s car together. As they do, Remus realizes the rain has stopped outright, and, well, isn’t that poetic?

Once he’s inside, dripping all over this stranger’s seats (okay, maybe he feels a little bad about that. When he’s a famous cryptid, he can pay for Emile to get his upholstery fixed), Remus starts to fade in and out. Not like the dying kind of “fading”, because he knows from multiple personal experiences what dying feels like, but more like he’s losing time as an effect of a literal stab wound. Oh, what did Lo-Lo call it? Desecrating? Dissipating? No, dissociating. Yeah, that’s the bitch. Yeah. Yeah...

He gets flashes now and again. Streetlamps outside, a tall building, hands underneath him, bright lights, rapid conversation. It smells like an E.R. It feels like home. He’s not gonna die today. Not yet.

[xsixxx]

Bad Influence, Chapter Four

Authors Note: Ok so this chapter carries on immediately from the last one. Idk I’ve rewrote this like 5 times & it never comes out quite how I want, so if it’s kinda shit I’m sorry 🤦🏼‍♀️ Feedback is welcome!

Warnings: Language (of course), drugs, Beth being a hoe

Tags: @triplehaitches @freddiessmallnipples @fire-and-blood-got @scarecrowmax @lovesick-heart0 @littlesunnymoon @80sheart-strings @cranberribread @inthebackofmycarlaytheirbodies @deaconsroger @zoenicoles @crazysaladchopshop @ggorehorror

*Vinces POV*

That fucker.

I watched that smooth motherfucker pull the girl that I should be fucking down on to his lap. Beths face flushed crimson as Sixx whispered something into her ear. She stood up angrily, shot him a look before smoothing out her skirt & adjusting her hair. Nikki didn’t take his dark eyes off of her once as she marched over to the bar & that wicked, self-satisfied smile grew wider as he watched her snatch the bottle of Jack out of Tommy’s hand & take a large swig.

“T-Bone, can I have a bump?” I heard her mutter, nervously glancing around to see who was within earshot. She momentarily caught my gaze & I raised my eyebrow & smirked at her. Just when I didn’t think Elizabeth Reynolds couldn’t getting any fucking hotter, she turns out to be deliciously audacious. Tommy choked on his drink, before a huge grin spread across his face. “Doll, for you, anything.” He winked & took her hand.

I don’t know what the fuck Sixx whispered to her, but that fucking asshole was one bad influence.

*Beths POV*

I felt the intensity of Nikkis glare as I walked past his booth, hand in hand with Tommy, towards the shithole bathrooms of the Whisky. I glanced at him & smiled. I’d wiped that smug, asshole smirk off of his face, at least.

Tommy ushered me into the bathroom & we both crammed into a stall, giggling like kids at our close proximity.

“Ok, so you’re sure about this Beth?”

“Oh just fucking show me how it’s done, you’re basically a pro now right, Mr Rockstar?” I laughed.

Tommy chuckled as he produced a little draw string bag & emptied out a razor, a pre rolled dollar & a little baggy of white powder. I scoffed at him.

“Jesus, do all coke heads come this prepared?!” I teased, just before Tommy clapped his hand round my mouth to silence me. We stood there & listened to someone enter the bathroom & start using the urinal. I could feel the alcohol taking affect, clouding my judgement & I desperately tried to stifle my giggles as I watched Tommy cut 4 lines neatly on the top of the toilet tank. The door to the bathroom opened & shut once again, signalling that we were alone in there again & I breathed out a sigh of relief before letting out a nervous laugh.

“What the fuck am I doing?!” I mumbled, watching Tommy expertled snort two of the four lines.

Tommy stood up straight, rubbing his nose, & looked at me curiously, almost as if he was worried. “Dude, I don’t know what Sixx said to you out there, but if you’re like, trying to prove something to him-”

“I’m not trying to prove anything to that asshole.” I snapped, defensively, crossing my arms across my chest.

“Ok, ok, that’s all good, I just thought, yanno, maybe he’d wound you up about not partying with us or-”

“I wouldn’t party with that piece of shit anyway.” I said sharply, cutting Tommy off again. I looked down at the white lines waiting for me & a little voice in my head told me how stupid I was being, that this wasn’t me, that I could stop now before I’d even started. “I don’t know T-Bone, I just feel like whenever I hang out with you guys, I’m always missing out. I don’t drink, I don’t party, I don’t have any fucking fun. I’m tired of always being the sensible one & I don’t know, Nikki said some shit tonight that made me feel..” I blushed, remembering how much I craved him in that moment. “Oh I don’t fucking know, he just got in my head & I just felt like doing something that wasn’t me, you know? Try something fucking new.”

Tommy let out a little laugh, “Well, cokes one way to do that doll. Look, there’s no pressure, they’re there if you want them, if not, more for me.” He shrugged, flashing me that cute boyish grin.

I stared at the coke, trying to ignore the feeling that my father was going to burst in any second & drag me home like a teenager caught drinking at their first house party. Nikkis face kept swimming into my vision & I swear, I could hear that low, velvet voice tormenting me, telling me I wouldn’t do it. My mind couldn’t help but wonder back to the feeling of his lips lightly brushing mine & I suddenly felt that flame of desire reignite. God, I wished I’d leaned into him..

I shook my head, snatched the rolled up dollar out of Tommy’s hand & imhaled one of the lines, without giving myself time to think too hard about what I was doing. I wanted to block out whatever fucked up attraction I was having towards Nikki fucking Sixx.

I stood up straight & looked over at Tommy, who looked somewhere between shocked & in awe. He burst out laughing, clapped his hands together & then pulled me into a tight bear hug.

“Doll, you fucking did it! You can officially party with Mötley Crüe!” He teased, kissing the top of my head. “How do you feel?”

I stepped away from his hug & assessed myself. Well, I wasn’t dying, I wasn’t hyperventilating or throwing up, so that was a win in my books. In fact, I just felt alert & excited, like this was the start of a really fucking good night.

I looked at T-Bone & smirked. “Like I could do that again.” He snickered at me & gestured to the last line of coke, laid out ready. “It’s all yours dude.”

I snorted up my second line with more confidence & ease & stood up giggling with Tommy as he elbowed me in the ribs & made jokes about being a proper groupie now. I playfully shoved him before unlocking the cubicle & walking out, straight into Nikki. He was stood casually, leaning against the bathroom wall, arms crossed, with one leg bent as he rested his leather boot against the wall. Fuck, he looked good.

I stumbled back into Tommy & Nikki raised an eyebrow at me. “Can’t handle your drugs, Princess?”

“Sixx, what the fuck man, you scared the shit outta us.” Tommy laughed, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder as he walked past & out of the bathroom.

“Why are you creeping out here, haven’t you got some other chick you can stalk?!” I snapped at him, looking in the mirror & adjusting my hair.

“Me, creeping? You know that you’re in the men’s bathroom, don’t you?” He smirked, walking up behind me, bending down slightly so his lips were at the level of my ear. “So, I got in your head, did I?”

I spun round to look at him, anger written plainly on my face. “You’re not creeping, yet you’ve spent the last 10 minutes in here, evesdropping on my conversation with Tommy?!”

“Well, you weren’t talking particularly quietly..” He said as he took a step towards me, forcing my back against the sink behind me. “So you were saying something about how I made you feel.”

“Like my skin is crawling.” I whispered back at him. Nikki chuckled darkly, my sharp wit taking him by suprise. He lightly dragged a finger across my shoulder & down my arm, testing my words. How was it possible for him to touch my arm & start a fire in my mind? I didn’t recoil from his touch & he noticed.

“I think you’re lying to me, Princess.” He smirked.

I could barely breathe as desire flooded through me once more, making me crave those smug lips on mine. The coke was making me feel brave. Or stupid. Or both. “Well why don’t you test your theory,” I dared.

Nikki let out a low laugh & his eyes flashed wickedly as they wandered down my body & back up, resting on my lips. He held them there for a second, almost debating his next move.

Suddenly, he grabbed my thighs, just below my ass & roughly picked me up & threw me on to the sink, forcefully pushing my legs apart so he could stand between them. He put his fingers under my chin & tilted my head back. I looked up at him with wide eyes, panting slightly from the shock. I bit my lip instinctively, which caused Nikki to smirk sinfully.

“You’re so fucking pretty when you look at me like that.” He whispered, amusement evident in his silky voice.

I played dumb. “Like what?”

That satanic smirk spread across his lips once again. “Like you fucking want me.”

“Who says I want you?” I whispered, breathlessly, wondering how far I could push him.

Nikki smiled arrogantly & brushed his lips against mine once again, my body burning with lust. But I held my own, not giving into his satisfaction just yet.

The door to the bathroom swung open as Mick, Vodka bottle in hand, strode into the bathroom, startling us back into reality. He casually looked at us, shook his head & pushed past us to get to the cubical.

Nikki turned his attention back to me. “You’re going to be easier to break than I thought, little angel.” He spoke softly, but almost threateningly, as hint of danger flashed across his green eyes that were coloured dark with a desire.

“You’ll never get another chance.” I taunted, snapping out of my trance & coming back to sound mind. I jumped off of the sink daintily, a pushed past him & strutted out of the bathroom with my head held high, knowing his eyes were fixated on my ass as I left.

*Later that night*

“Babe, come on, I think you’ve had enough.” Laughed Sophia as she swiped the bottle from my hands before I had chance to pour another drink. “Plus, you know all of this comes out of our pay check, right?!”

“Leave me alone, I’m having fun!” I shouted, slurring my words slightly. I’d only been drunk a handful of times in my life & I’d forgetten how fun it could actually be. Tommy & Vince had convinced me to play ‘never have I ever’ with them, except they’d changed the rules slightly, meaning that I had to drink every time they said something that I hadn’t done, which turns out, was a lot.

“I still can’t believe you’ve never had a one night stand Beth, what the fuck?!” Howled Tommy, still in a fit of giggles.

“Ok ok, I’m not a fucking rockstar who can pull anyone they fancy, you know!”

“Yeah but dude, you’re like, fucking smoking.” Grinned T-Bone, before Vince elbowed him in the ribs as Sophia punched him in the arm. “Ow ok, I’m just saying!”

“It doesn’t matter anyway babe, because we’re gonna change that when you come back to our place at the end of the night.” Vince said confidently, his hand stroking my inner thigh. I looked at him. I might’ve been drunk & a little bit high, but fuck, Vince was hot, there was no denying that. I pondered the idea. There are definitely worse people to fall into bed with, I thought to myself, glancing over to Nikki, who was sat at the same table, but making out with yet another girl.

What the fuck was I getting so worked up about?! I asked myself. Here he was, an hour after.. whatever the fuck that was we had going on in the bathroom, already practically grinding against some other chick in front of me. I shook my head, already bored of the drama that came along with Nikki. I’d decided I didn’t care, I was done. I already knew he was a bad guy.

“Well dollface, what do you say?” Smirked Vince, his fingers moving further up my thigh, snapping me back into reality. Mine & Nikkis little bathroom tryst had left me feeling frustrated & the affects of the alcohol & coke had me craving more. I leaned into Vince & smiled.

“Maybe, after all this time, tonight is you’re lucky night, Vinny.” I winked, laughing as his face changed from confident, to surprised & then to smug.

“It’s about fucking time!” Shouted Tommy, high fiving Vince & making me cringe. Nikki stopped macking on his groupie long enough to throw in his two cents.

“Looks like Little Miss Stuck Up has finally gotten bored with her life & is craving that bad boy in her bed. Didn’t I predict it Lizzy?” He sneered nastily. I shot him a look.

“I’m happy to oblige.” Grinned Vince, pulling me on to his lap & leaning in to kiss me. I hesitated, feeling Nikkis eyes on me, before I wrapped my arms around Vinces neck & let myself go, surrendering to my craving. His kiss was delectable. I could taste the alcohol & cigerettes on his lips, just like I did in that diner way back when, except this time, I wanted more. I moved my fingers into his hair & pulled him closer, feeling the satisfaction of lips against mine after Nikki denied me twice. I heard Tommy clapping & hollering & Sophia tutting, but I was too drunk to care. I pulled away from Vince, his smirk stained with my red lipstick.

“Come on then, we’re going back to your place, right?”

I giggled as he jumped up like an excited puppy & took my hand, leading me towards to exit of the Whisky. I glanced back & my eyes caught Nikkis for a fraction of a second & I could’ve sworn I saw a hint of jealousy in his green eyes.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 232: Giant Bitchslap Arm

Previously on BnHA: Gigantomachia woke up and started ninja-running toward Aichi prefecture. Then all of a sudden we cut to Hawks just chilling on an Osaka rooftop with a bag. Everyone was like, “whoa, Hawks, what are you doing in this arc?” Hawks was all “well I’ll show you” and then he had a flashback where he fucking murdered Best Jeanist, probably, and everyone was like “um, hey, what the actual fuck” and Hawks was like “well you asked” and we were all filled with regret for having done so. Back in the Ol’ Villain City, Twice caught up with Tomura and Spinner and they were very happy to see him, and Tomura was like “so anyway we’re almost at Re-Destro’s tower and I can’t wait to fucking kill that guy” and the others agreed but they also worried that Tomura was too exhausted to keep this up much longer, and so Twice went on ahead to try and finish off RD on his own. The chapter ended up with Twice #241762-D arriving at the top of the tower to confront RD and rescue my boyfriend Giran.

Today on BnHA: Twice creates some clones of Tomura and the gang to help him out. Re-Destro then insta-kills one of the clones and tells Twice that he’ll kill Giran if Twice uses his quirk any more. He then makes his arm go all big and he just fuckin’... [gestures wildly] WHIPASH!! and just smacks them all to death, and then he goes over to where Giran is and gets ready to kill him while he and Twice are having a moment. Thankfully the not-quite-dead-yet Tomura clone intervenes, and as he fights him, Re-Destro launches into a big villain monologue about the Mother of Quirks, a.k.a. the mother of the first superpowered child to ever be born. Long story short, that baby grew up to be Destro, and his mom was all “please be kind to him and let him live in peace!” and so they fucking killed her because people are terrible. As RD is wrapping up his story and about to kill the clone Tomura, the real one reaches the tower and is all, “TOUCH!!!” This is the single most badass thing anyone has ever done, and the chapter ends with a wobbly Tomura confusedly interrogating an enraged Re-Destro while “We Will Rock You” by Queen plays in the background omfg.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity immediately afterward, and added one or two ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

so this happened again

listen here my anonymous friend, thank you for not spoiling me, but I do have to say that if your goal was to have me once again approach this chapter in stark terror, mission accomplished lol

here’s how it’s gonna go. I’ve got a mirror, and we’re gonna use it to cautiously peek around corners before clicking to the next page, and from what I understand that should protect us from being instantly killed by Horikoshi’s murderous basilisk glare. the characters, on the other hand, well...

what kind of sound effect is this

glomp glomp? are these Horikoshi sound effects? does he know his little Twice clones are making enthusiastic hugging sounds?? and yet this is oddly in character though

also it looks like he’s cloning at least one Tomura and Dabi! so that should be fun. we get to see RD presumably murder them all on this little test run, and then they’ll hopefully have a better idea of how to approach this on their second go-around

RD says he had a lot of guards down below, and he’s praising Twice’s quirk. well, his “superpower”, anyway

that was the title of this chapter, incidentally; “quirks and superpowers.” I do vaguely wonder why they’re so insistent on using different terminology for it, and I wonder if there’s an actual reason for that

anyway so now Jin is yelling at the clones that they’re clones. so it’s okay if they die and stuff. lol. I’m sure that makes them feel a whole lot better

you guys this is fucking amazing though

I wonder if this Tomura is less sleep-deprived? also, Twice duplicated the hands as well! that’s something that was pointed out to me a little while ago, back when they were fighting Gigantomachia. this actually seems a bit iffy to me now that we’ve been reminded that he needs to understand the details of something in and out before he can copy it. like, he couldn’t copy the quirk-be-gone bullets because he didn’t know how they worked. but somehow he knows how these hands work though??

or maybe he doesn’t, and these hands don’t actually work like the Real Deal hands. that’s probably the case actually. so anyways I wonder if this Tomura will act a little different. I’m probably overthinking this to the extreme lol

and Twice and Dabi are making the exact same joke I made three paragraphs earlier about “that should make them feel a whole lot better.” get your own material you assclowns

last but not least, lol at him having to reiterate his tale of bravely overcoming past trauma yet again to Compress because he missed the whole story. poor Compress, all confused and out of the loop. I wonder if Twice duplicated his robot arm. it’s hard to tell in the picture whether it’s missing or he’s still just in the process of creating it

oh shit

heh. it’s possible Jin has not thought through the potential long-term consequences of this little undertaking at all sob. but that’s a problem for future Twice! right now current Twice has more important things to deal with, like kicking Re-Destro’s ass

yeah, you see, he’s all “don’t worry about that right now” and presumably tucking that whole notion away someplace in the back of his mind to be properly fucked up by later on. as anyone with ADHD can tell you that’s clearly the best way to deal with all of your problems

-- oh shit and it looks like this particular Twice doesn’t really need to worry about that anymore in any case

what is it with people in this manga being decapitated lately. who hurt you Horikoshi

uh, so. hey

are they?? they fucking outnumber you by a ton. though as you’ve just ably demonstrated, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything

fuck. okay let’s pause this for a sec to get our bearings here. so a bunch of clone Twices have RD cornered with a clone Dabi, Tomura, and Compress, all of whom have their own quirks, but presumably weaker versions of them. they’re also each basically one hit point away from a swift death, which is definitely something to consider

meanwhile RD has just the one of him, but possesses an unknown quirk, and does not seem to be at all fazed by the current situation which is a bit unnerving. oh yeah, and he does still have a hostage, though, if the others insist on taking their sweet time to go and untie my boy Giran. yeah. so that part’s also not good. dammit Twice untie him already

SHIT

MOTHERFUCKING -- OKAY JIN, LISTEN UP, NORMALLY I’D TELL YOU TO CALL HIS BLUFF, BUT A LITTLE MOUSE (ETA: referring to poor dead Miyashita, not the anon from earlier! I only just realized how that could possibly be read as being weirdly passive aggressive or something and that’s not the case! sorry anon!) INFORMED ME THAT THIS GUY DOESN’T ACTUALLY FUCKING PLAY AROUND, THOUGH. I HAVE A FEELING HE CAN AND WILL DO EXACTLY WHAT HE’S PROMISING, SO PLEASE TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY OMG I DON’T WANT YOU TO HAVE ANOTHER FRIEND’S DEATH ON YOUR CONSCIENCE AFTER WHAT HAPPENED WITH MAGNE

sob. where’s that mirror omg

okay... and we’re cautiously clicking forward... and good, Jin looks appropriately shook

maybe a little too shook. look I didn’t mean for you to just immediately freeze and surrender though, guy

aww but Tomura’s reassuring him

yes but as I already explained, you’re all technically one love tap away from the sweet embrace of death here while he’s at full power. it’s iffy dude. idk. I really like that you immediately spoke up to comfort your bro though! the League of Gentle Hearts continues to warm my soul

oh my god but seriously look at them

even Dabi is getting in on the friendship action. even if I’m not quite sure how he intends to not burn Giran to death along with RD lol. but at least his heart’s in the right place

-- oh shit

THEY LOOK SO WORRIED OMG AND LOOK WHERE RE-DESTRO IS STANDING

A COLD FUCKING CHILL JUST WENT DOWN MY SPINE OH GOD NO I’M NOT READY FOR THIS. I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU TOUCH A HAIR ON HIS SEXY GRAY HEAD I WILL WREAK VENGEANCE ON YOU SUCH AS THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN, AS SOON AS I’M DONE SOBBING MY FUCKING EYES OUT

SOB I DON’T WANT TO TURN THE PAGE. THE MIRROR ISN’T WORKING. HORIKOSHI IS A SADISTIC FUCK WHO HAS NO QUALMS ABOUT KILLING OFF EVERYONE I LOVE. BEST JEANIST, GIRAN, THE DOG. EVERYONE!!

SOBBB NOOO --

WHAT THE CHRISTING FUCK

OH MY GOD NO PUT IT AWAY!! HORIKOSHI KOUHEI I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON’T STOP RIGHT NOW!! I MEAN IT YOUNG MAN!!

SOB HE’S DRAWING IT OUT FOR ALL IT’S WORTHHHHHH I CAN’T I’M NOT PLEASE WHY

FUCK YOU AND YOUR COMEDIC INSERTION OF FOUR ADDITIONAL TWICE REACTION PANELS YOU PITILESS BASTARD!!

NOOOOOOOOOOO

THE BASILISK APPROACHES, GIRAN IN ITS SIGHTS!!

OH SHIT

holy -- fucking -- I don’t even

wow

well that all went down fucking spectacularly

looooool. okay, time to move on to plan B guys. bring on the indestructible mountain man. let Tomura have his “I have an army!” / “we have a Hulk” moment

so is Giran even still alive, or did he get caught up in all of that. lol I’m just fooling. of course he’s still alive, Horikoshi is going to drag out my torture for this entire arc and make it really slow and excruciating

yeah whatever. they have a hulk. just you wait

and some of the dying Twices are glomping over to Giran to make sure he’s okay, naturally. because my feels were briefly spared for a single fucking panel and we can’t have that, no ma’am!

HAHAHA WHY

THESE FEELS, MY GOD. WHATEVER!! JUST LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE THEN!!

JESUS CHRIST, HERE I WAS SHIPPING TOGAWICE LIKE ANYTHING, AND THEN HORIKOSHI COMES ALONG ALL “BUT ARE YOU SURE YOU WEREN’T ACTUALLY SHIPPING GIRANTWICE THIS WHOLE TIME” AND FUCK ME, HE’S FUCKING RIGHT

GIRAN IS SMILING SO SOFTLY MOMENTS BEFORE HIS LIKELY DEATH, AND I’M ABOUT TO PERISH IN A TYPHOON OF EMOTION. GIRAN IF I COULD LEAP IN THERE AND TAKE THE BLOW FOR YOU I WOULD

YOU GUYS HERE IT COMES. IT’S BEEN NICE KNOWING YOU ALL. LET’S ALL HOLD HANDS AND WAIT IN HELPLESS TERROR LIKE IN TOY STORY 3

and Twice makes sure Giran’s not alone at the end though. god I’m about to lose it for real though, shit

-- !!!!!!!!!!

(ETA: lmao I love that it’s making a “TCH” sound. like that hand is so done with his bullshit.)

what THE FUCK TOMURA ARE YOU SERIOUS?!! I WAS ALL SET TO GO ALL “OH HAPPY DAGGER” HERE AND THEN YOU TURN UP TO SAVE THE DAY WHAT IS HAPPENING

WHAT IS THIS CRAZY ADRENALINE RUSH AHAHA. DON’T BE FOOLED, THAT IS RALPH WIGGUM “I’M IN DANGER!” LAUGHTER THOUGH

but wow, so yeah. feels postponed. fucking deferred, motherfucker. FIRST WE GET OUR FIGHT ON

oh hey! funny you should mention! cuz it’s just that he’s been trying to prove said worth for the last six weeks! so if you could provide some convenient way for him to actually do that, that would actually be great. Machia is a harder sell than Simon fucking Cowell, so

oh, he’s still talking

actually this is super interesting to me omg. also that’s really fucked up. poor Damien! he didn’t do anything! all he did was glow a bit, what is wrong with people

(ETA: I have been informed by many kind people that Destro is not in fact the glowy baby Damien from China lol. I got kinda mixed up there lol.)

probably cuz they killed her

yep

yeah that seemed to be where that was leading. society is predictably fucked up, etc. that poor lady

this has nothing to do with anything, but I just want to throw it out there that I would kill to read an AU with the 1-A kids set in this time period roughly 200 years earlier where they have to hide their quirks for fear of being killed over them, and they’re all just doing their best and growing up scared and traumatized and some of them are bitter at the world and others are hopeful of one day making it a better place. oh my god. “makeste, that’s just an X-Men AU” you point out and oh my god you’re right. that means it probably already exists oh shit. I need to go on another fic binge

anyway

Tomura is all “yeah I know history too” and making me feel bad. some of us didn’t grow up in this universe, Tomura

Tomura just let the man talk, I need more worldbuilding stuff for my AU headcanons

you’d think that the Army would be embracing the word “quirks”, then? this woman seems like the type of martyr figure they ought to be all over. I guess there’s more to the story and I should take my own advice and shut up and let him finish

oh

I see, so they associate the government’s use of the word “quirk” with their oppression. idk, I feel like they ought to be trying to reclaim it then. but whatever

so he’s wrapping up now

oh!!

his mother?!

DESTRO WAS THE SON OF THE MOTHER OF QUIRKS? DESTRO WAS DAMIEN?!  holy shit!!

so that means RD is descended from the original quirk bloodline! yooooo I did not see that coming at all. no wonder the rest of the Army reveres him

anyway but now the interesting part is over and he’s moving on to crazed ranting

whatever you say buddy. how did you wind up with Giant Bitchslap Arm powers if your great-great-granddad was just some dumb glowing kid though

oh now he’s getting all pompous

I’m sorry I didn’t realize having a long and tragic family history was a prerequisite for kicking ass. though if it is. may I interest you in the horrific saga of the Shimura family, though. this so-called street punk has quite his own tale of woe actually

oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

(⚆_⚆) [sits up straighter]

AHHHH THEY’RE SAVING HIM!!

YOU GO LEAGUE!! YOU GOT THIS!!

AHHHHHHH

!!!!! THEN TELL HIM TO SUIT UP

oh shit wait I think he might be talking about Actual Tomura and not Gigantomachia! even better!!

OH HEY THAT’S A NICE TOWER YOU HAVE THERE. IT SURE WOULD BE A SHAME IF SOMEONE... PATTED IT GENTLY

LOOOOOOOOOOL YESSSSSSSSSSSS

(❛ӧ❛三❛ӧ❛)

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!

LMAO HE’S ACTUALLY BARELY KEEPING IT TOGETHER THOUGH AND IT’S THE BEST. “WAIT... YOU’RE THE GUY... BUT SHOULDN’T YOU BE... BUT WAIT WEREN’T YOU IN...?”

SO NOW IT’S ON BOTH EYES, EH? GOING FULL RORSCHACH UP IN THIS BITCH. WELL WHATEVER. I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW I’M HIGH ON THE ADRENALINE OF HAVING HAD THE FEAR OF GOD PUT INTO ME AND BEING RESIGNED TO ANOTHER CHAPTER OF HEADS BEING REMOVED FROM WHERE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE, ONLY FOR HORIKOSHI TO BE ALL “PSYCH!! I STILL LOVE YOU!” AND HAVE MR. RIGHTFUL HEIR COME UP AND FUCK UP RD’S SHIT OMG. AND I STILL SHIP GIRANTWICE!! AND GIRAN’S STILL ALIVE SOMEHOW AGAINST ALL ODDS OH MY GOODNESS

ohhhhh man. well, time to place your bets then people. who would win:

one megalomaniacal balding CEO with a giant arm who talks too much but has like an army and shit

One Sleepy Boi

hahaha. well, Tomura? time to get that worth fucking measured, then, kid

[current-mcr-news]

Casual Interactions #5: Full Transcription

John: Alright Frank, so what did you bring us?

Frank: Okay so, I was just out in Chicago, and I was there for a couple weeks. And I came across some things. One of which is my favorite. I'll start with the good first.

J: Yeah.

F: So the good is, every time I see a root beer that I've never tried- Here's the thing, I'm not a huge root beer fan.

J: Yeah, I don't know many people who are.

F: I can have one root beer and then I'm like, "Okay, that's enough root beer."

J: Yeah.

F: Maybe even half. But if I see one that I've never tried before, I have to, something about it, I just have to try it.

J: Yeah.

F: So, one time I came across the one root beer and it's called WBC, and it's made by, like there's a brewery out there called Goose Island.

J: Oh yeah, I know Goose Island.

F: So Goose Island makes this root beer, and it is by far, my favorite root beer I've ever had. And it's Chicago style, but you could only get it in the Midwest, and I've tried to look, you know, on Amazon and all that stuff, and it's like fucking astronomical on Amazon. But when I was out in Chicago, I found that they had it at Costco, so I bought like, fucking 14 cases of it. So I brought that.

J: You brought it across state lines?

F: I smuggled it.

J: Calling it, you're bootlegging.

F: You know, hey, what are you gonna do? I tried to go the legal route with it, but I don't think it's illegal to just buy something and move it.

J: Right.

F: Anyway, so that's the best. Now, the other side of the spectrum is a drink that I believe is what you would call a Chicago staple.

J: And that's what's in the shot glass.

F: And that's what's in the shot glass. This is Jeppson's Malört and Malört is a wormwood derivative.

Shaun: That's a terrible word.

J: Oh, something they put they put in absinthe?

F: Yeah, but it's not in that, like it's not gonna make you like, it doesn't make you crazy.

J: Okay.

F: It's more, from what I've been told, like a digestive, and almost like a Fernet and stuff like that. But it is by far, one of the most foul things I have ever tasted, and I feel like it's something that you can't describe until you've had it.

J: Alright, so let's do it.

F: Yeah, so here's to those that wish us well, and all the rest can drink some more Malört. Cheers. 3 2 1, go.

S: Oh! Fuck you, man!

F: Yeah.

J: Oh my god, that's- it's like a-

F: So here's the thing, wait wait wait. The thing about it, it's not so much the original-

J: It's like a licorice Listerine!

F: It's not the original shot that gets you, it's the after taste that lingers on your tongue.

J: My heart's on fire!

F: It's like if a grapefruit took a shit out of its- and the shit tasted like earwax, is just what it would be like in liquid form, would taste like Malört.

J: Welcome to Casual Interactions podcast. We're dying here. Can we drink the root beer now?

F: Yes, crack the root beers. That'll help.

J: Jesus.

F: This is by far my favorite root beer.

J: Oh my god, thank god. It was delicious. I think anything would be delicious though, after the Malört.

F: Yeah. Kinda great though, right?

J: I can still feel it on my tonsils.

F: Yeah, it doesn't really go away. It's got that weird sour, yeah I know. Maybe we should've done that at the end of this. We're so sorry!

J: It's okay. So we're gonna pick up from last week. We were talking about writing processes. We talked about what got us- this is gonna be a hard one, man. We talked about what got us into writing, but made us believe that we could do it too, and chase our dreams. You know, one: we didn't actually hear from Shaun a lot last week, because we ran over time, so that's, I wanna lead off with Shaun right now. I wanna talk about writing.

S: You want me to use that? I'll use it.

F: The coffee might help you.

J: But see, that's a weird mix. I mean, coffee, Malört-

F: Yeah well, here's the thing. I'm sorry, the Malört kinda clings to the back of your tongue like a demon.

S: Yeah it's like stuck in your teeth.

F: It doesn't go away.

J: I can't get it off the back of my tongue.

F: Yeah, it's still there. The more you drink it, the more you can kinda laugh as other people try it, because it doesn't affect you as bad.

S: I don't know if we should keep drinking it.

F: No, you don't wanna have anymore of it.

J: No!

F: It's definitely, that's a one and done.

S: My stomach is weird now.

F: Yeah. Yeah.

S: It does weird things to your-

F: Everything makes weird to you.

J: You know what's-

F: I just said "everything makes weird to you."

S: There you go. That's the title of this episode.

F: That's the Malört. Everything makes weird to you!  

J: Yeah, I had a giant cup of coffee before, I did a shot of Malört, I'm drinking a root beer. The ride home is gonna be terrible.

F: Yeah.

J: You live, you learn. I feel like I lost a bet.

F: Hey, well here's the thing. Yeah, it tastes like you lost a bet. It tastes a lot like the writing process, to be honest because-

J: Bring it back, Frank.

F: You know, that's the thing, it does. Because like, you know, I don't know about you guys, but at least for me like, the artistic process and all that stuff is, I know that it affects me in such a severe way.

J: Right.

F: Like, when I write a song and I feel like things are going well, and I'm able to express myself in a way that I'm like, "Oh shit, I fucking nailed that one!" Like, oh wow, that's a good song, or I wrote a really good line. You know like, sometimes you'll hear stuff in your head, and if you nail it- like if it comes out through your hands the way you heard it in your head, or even better, you're like, "Motherfuck," and you can ride that high.

J: Oh that's a huge high.

F: For a long time. And sometimes, when you're trying trying trying to write something, or you're trying to recreate that thing that you heard in your head, or you lost that thing in your head, because you fell asleep. You know, like you heard it in the middle of the night and you didn't fucking write it down, or kinda do a voice memo thing, you feel like you just drank a bottle of Malört. That's like, "Man!" Like, you just, I'm so sour at all times, I fucking snap at people, I'm not happy in any way, I'm a fucking grump.

S: Well, what it's like, and it happens to me a lot too, it's almost like these single serving doses of being bipolar.

F: Mhm.

S: That's what I think of it like.

F: Yes.

J: Wow.

F: Because I can be manic.

S: Yeah.

F: And so depressed.

S: Because when you write that thing and you're on this high, the next day or the next hour when something happens, and you question that, and it sends you off on this other tangent, and you're the total opposite.

F: Oh absolutely.

S: You're at this total low.

F: How about those times when you write something and you're like, "Oh damn, I cracked it. I'm actually pretty good at this, I can-" you know like, "all these things that I wanted to believe about myself are ture," and then all of a sudden, you listen back and it sucks. You're like, "No!"

S: Right.

J: See, I know what the opposite of it's like. I actually watched Back to the Future this morning.

F: Okay, alright.

J: Because it's one of my go to movies.

F: Very nice.

J: I'm burping up Malört. The eureka moment, I think, you wanna look at the visual of the eureka moment is?

S: I thought you said urethra moment.

J: Different kind of party, Shaun. We'll talk about that in another episode. It's the one where we get our prostates checked, because we're old.

S: Let's do that, now.

J: No. Doc Brown, when the DeLorean goes back to the future and he gets down, he's looking around, and he sees the fire in the street, and he's jumping up and down like, "Holy shit, I'm not crazy. Holy shit." It's exactly as I imagined it to be, "This is it, I did it." That is one of the greatest highs you will ever feel in your life, when you have that. Whether you're painting, whether you're writing, whether you're drawing, whether you're building a house, when you get It, you'll never get that high off of anything else.

F: Right. And I think that's why we continue to chase it. And that's, you know, one of those things that my dad, I think, tried to instill. First off, my dad was a drummer, my grandfather was a drummer, so music happened a lot in my world, you know? And I would get to go see, if I was, you know, if my dad played a place that my mom would let me go to, I would get to see him play. And if he was playing a bar or something she felt or deemed to be too seedy, then I would get to go see my grandfather play. He played at this like, restaurant which was almost like a speakeasy, actually.

J: Oh, that's so cool.

F: It was kinda hidden in the forest and it was the same crowd-

S: The forest?

F: It was, it was, I swear to god. You had to know, it was like a secret turn, and you went back like-

S: That's cool.

F: You know, 2 or 3 miles into the forest, and there was this fucking little "restaurant." I used air quotes, "restaurant," back there. And the same people, the same you know, older crowd went every fucking weekend. They had their own- they had assigned seating, it was, "That was my table, that was this table," you know? And so, they would play the songs every weekend, or whatever. But I would get to see them, and if I was really good, I would get to stay up and I'd go to the diner after, with the band and that was really awesome.

J: That's awesome. I mean, your grandfather was a drummer's drummer.

F: Yes, yeah.

J: And that was the, you know, the kind of- your dad too, the kind of drums that they'd play, people who know them, they know them. Because it's a very special kind of- it's not like you go to Guitar Center, you hear someone in the drum shop trying out everything. They're, to me, true drummers.

F: Also like true musicians, right.

J: They're cats.

F: Yeah, it was like- yeah! Totally. Total cats, you know? And that was the thing when I said, "I wanna be a musician, or I wanna start a band," their first thing was like, "Don't." Their first advice was, "Don't do that ever." And I think the second form of advice was like, "Alright well, if you are going to do it, then you need to know this. And the thing that you need to know is that there's music, and then there's the music business. And very often, one has nothing to do with the other." And I feel like, that happens a lot too, in the writing. And the writing is very much the music, but then when you show it to other people, it becomes the music business.

J: Right.

F: And what is say, you know, maybe commercially viable, or what do other people like, you know, what's going to grab someone's attention, and you know, it's almost like you start to soil the process and you soil the art form by ever showing it to someone else.

J: Yeah.

F: You know? Because you want so bad to be liked, or to have someone appreciate the thing that you do, and very often, if you're not careful, you can stray from your original path to have someone reaffirm what you're doing is good.

J: Well I mean, at our core, everyone wants to be loved. Everyone wants that affection, everyone wants to know that the work that they do gets that kind of love and attention back in the right way. And a lot of times, it just doesn't because you know, you said before, you have that moment in your head where your hand does what your head is actually thinking, it's awesome.

F: Yes.

J: It is subjective because what your head is now telling your hand to do something, it does it, you're like, "This is great," you show it to someone, and they're like, "Meh," and that's just, you know, it takes the wind completely out of the sails. Shaun, you've been writing comics now for how long?

S: I don't even know, man.

J: It's been a while, right?

F: It's been a long time.

S: Yeah.

J: By the time this comes out, Shaun will have published his fourth book, Wizard Beach for BOOM! Studios. And it's important because the books that you write, Shaun, are really not your traditional comic stories.

S: I try not to do what's been done before. I feel like if I did, what's the point?

F: Mhm.

J: Right.

S: You know? I also feel like what you guys were just talking about, you know, doing this for a period of time. You have to get to the point where it's kinda like, "Well fuck everyone." No one's gonna- not everyone's gonna like everything you do, right? So, for me and the people who are on my team, and my artist and my editors and letterers and colorists and everything, as long as we're happy, that's all that matters. If we're happy with what we put out, when we were in a band, we put out a record together, who cares what this one thinks or that one thinks? What matters is if we're happy.

J: Yeah.

S: That to me is what drives me and what my goal at the end of the day is.

F: In being say like, the sole writer of some stuff, right? Do you take input from say like, not co-creators but like, people that are drawing it or inking it, or stuff like that?

S: Oh absolutely. Absolutely.

F: So there is that collaborative.

S: Oh, comics are very collaborative. I mean, that's why it's important to work with people who are on the same wavelength as you are. And I feel like every book that I've been on, you know, the team behind it, the artist, the colorist, the editors, I feel like, first thing it's important to get your vision across. And after that, you know, it's important that they see what you're trying to do, and they help you get there. They're not trying to control it or trying to change it, they're trying to help you get to where you wanna be. I've been lucky enough to do that, and I feel like that's something that you know, I've done only create your own stuff so far, and I feel like I don't wanna do- I'm not interested in doing mainstream stuff because I feel like once you get into mainstream comics, that's when it becomes, you have 10 people over you, telling you what you can and cannot do, and at that point, is it even really your book anymore?

F: Right.

J: Right.

S: You know what I mean?

F: Yeah, I can see that. I can see that. I can see there being a lot of red tape and rules that you're gonna have to follow with an already established character.

S: Absolutely. Yeah.

J: So how is it different, Shaun, say than being in a band? We've all been in a band together, we've all played in bands where you- in a lot of ways, you're right. Your editor, your collaborating with the editor, the editor is giving you feedback, the editor is throwing ideas at you, but they're not sitting directly across from you when you're writing what you write. Like, in a band, you're in a room with 4 other dudes, or how many other people, you're looking people dead in the eye, you're coming up with ideas on the spot, you're riffing on it, you're bouncing it off together, like, what you do is, and I admire you so much for it. Like, the ability that you have to actually sit in front of a computer and just type things out, and write the books that way you do, I think that's an amazing gift. But you don't have to do it with anyone else looking at you. You get to do it as a singular pursuit. What's that like?

S: It's interesting because I look at it as very much like being in a band.

J: Right.

S: You know? I come to you with this riff I wrote, and then Frank's like, "Oh, I'm gonna play these chords over it," or Hambone's like, "I'm gonna play this bassline over it." And it's like, it's the same thing with comics. I'm gonna come to you with this idea, you know, sometimes you go with just an inkling of an idea, sometimes you go with a full blown out story. And then everyone gets together and they, being in a band obviously happens a lot faster, because you're right here. It's not over email and whatnot, but it's the same type of idea, you know? Everyone's collaborating, throwing in, and the goal and what the goal should be is to make what you're doing the best it can be, you know? If people start having egos, "I want this, I want that," then you need to get out.

J: Yep.

S: You know what I mean?

F: Yeah. I think that's always been such a pitfall of say like, a young artist is that like, "Just because I wrote it doesn't mean it has to be in the song or in the story."

S: Of course.

F: You know.

S: Of course. And that's something-

F: That's the thing, that's how you end up like, "Oh, this song is 27 minutes." Like, "Oh well, yeah."

S: We've done that.

F: "We had to get back to that main riff 16 times."

J: "I have this one shitty preset on this keyboard, and this jungle beat has to be in this song." "It doesn't fit the song at all." "It's fine, we're just gonna play it at the end."

F: "Yeah, we're just gonna put it in there."

J: "Just not gonna say anything about it."

F: "Just shove it in there."

J: Yeah.

S: But that's something that you learn over time in any medium, I feel like. You can be so sentimental about your ideas and creativity because you start off with this, but then that led to something else.

J: Right.

F: Right.

S: You know what I mean?

J: So let me ask you this, Shaun. Keeping in this theme now, you've done different comics for different studios.

S: Right.

J: You did Art Ops for Vertigo, you did the Killjoys for Dark Horse, now you're doing Wizard Beach for BOOM.

S: Right. I did Neverboy for Dark Horse too.

J: Did Neverboy for Dark Horse as well, right?

S: Yeah.

J: So is that like, say, working with different bands? Like, when you're working with a new editor, or working with new artists, and stuff like that? So it's different atmospheres?

S: Absolutely. Absolutely, it is. And that's why it's important to, you know, you wanna get to know these people a little bit before you jump into something.

F: Right.

S: You know what I mean? Like, even if it's from, you know, colleagues and people, your friends in the industry, and this person's great to work with and blah blah blah. You need to have a little kinda background, or even picking up books that they've done in the past. Like, what kind of books have they edited, what kind of stories are they doing? Are they, you know, if I'm gonna bring a story like Neverboy about an imaginary friend to a guy who only does war comics, that's not gonna work.

J: Right.

S: You know?

J: However though, you did Neverboy with Tyler-

S: Jenkins.

J: And he did, which I revere as one of the best comics to come out in the last 10 years, he did Peter Panzerfaust.

S: Right. That's interesting too because then you have an idea where you see someone's art and you're like, "Maybe he's only done this up to this point." You know?

J: Yeah.

S: Like, if you see a guitar player. You know, look at Ray Toro for example, he's a thrasher on the guitar, but then he can go back and play this classical kinda stuff, you know?

J: Yeah.

S: So you see something in there that you wanna maybe get out a little more.

F: Yeah. You see that there is versatility there.

S: Absolutely.

F: And you actually kinda expand upon it. One of the things I think about, say like, writing comics or writing books and of that nature, that I am envious of, yet also, I wonder if you are envious of the other side is, that you know like, being in a band and playing songs, sometimes you have to recreate those songs every night for a live show. But in doing that, sometimes those songs can kinda get fleshed out a little bit more, and you can expand upon them and they change, and you're able to, I guess, still be creative within a work of art that you've already made.

S: Right.

F: Is that something that you miss in the writing process, or is that so awesome that you don't have to worry about recreating it every night, and doing it in front of people live?

S: I feel like, I mean, there's upsides and downsides to both. I feel like a lot of people, you put out a book, you put out a record, I feel like a lot of people feel like they're defined by that one thing.

F: Right.

S: Whereas, you're not. This is just one thing you did, and then I'm gonna go do something else. I feel like a lot of people get caught up if something got bad reviews and whatnot, it's gonna bring them down to a point where they're just miserable, and it's like, you move on and you do something else.

F: But like, alright so say, with Neverboy. Issue 3 of that, if you were to get to, if you have to like, recreate that every night for a month.

S: Oh right, right.

F: Would it change and evolve?

S: Absolutely.

F: You know?

S: Absolutely.

F: Is that something that you maybe miss within this art form?

S: Yeah. You know, it's interesting because when you're writing, there's not one way to do it. Some people like to outline the whole thing first, and then go write it. Some people like to do it as they're writing it, and comics is so- precise 22 pages per issue, you can only fit so much, so many panels on a page.

F: Right.

S: So comics benefits from having an outline. However, having a very detailed outline prevents you from that kind of off the hook creativity that you would get if you were just stream of conscience writing.

F: Yeah.

S: But on the other hand, it's like you know where you're gonna end up. You know where the story's going. You know, it's like playing jazz in a club.

F: I like having restrictions and trying to use those barriers as inspirational tools. You know, sometimes that can kinda help with the process, you know? Being like, "Alright well, if I'm gonna write this song, if I can only do it with 8 notes," try to do something like that. Like, just see where it takes you, you know? Maybe you end up breaking that rule or what, but it gets you to a certain point and that's kinda fun.

J: It's challenging.

F: Yeah.

J: It's challenging instead of just verse, chorus, verse, hit the bridge, go home.

F: Yeah, just setting up different exercises for yourself and seeing what comes out.

S: Well sometimes that's where the best stuff comes. You'll write yourself into a corner, "How the fuck am I gonna get out of it?" You know what I mean?

F: Yeah exactly. Yeah. So alright well that's a question. When you're writing a book,right, and you need, what is it? Like a 6 issue story, right? Or like, story arc. Do you know where you're gonna end up at the end of it, or do you sometimes just start writing and be like, "I'm just gonna see how I can get the fuck out of this."

S: No, you should have an idea. Sometimes that changes during the course of writing it. But I feel like if you don't have an idea of where you're gonna end up, you're gonna have to go back and do a lot of fucking editing.

J: Yeah.

S: When you're done. You know what I mean? Some people do that. Usually when you're writing comics for these publishers and stuff, you're on a deadline and you don't have that luxury to just go off and free write for 6 issues and see where you end up, and then go back and edit the whole thing. I know someone like Stephen King for example, he comes up with this situation in his head and then just goes off and writes, and then when he's done he'll go back and edit it.

J: Right.

S: So if you saw his first draft, it would look nothing like the finished book. Comics, you don't have that luxury because you're on a timetable. You have to get the script in because the artist has to draw it and the colorist has to- and if you don't do it, then this one doesn't get paid, that one doesn't get paid. It's this whole stream of-

F: Oh god, that's so stressful.

J: That's gotta be so stressful.

F: Especially for me, because I'm such a fucking asshole when it comes to that kind of stuff. I'm like, yeah I'll butt fuck a song to the last possible second and make everybody hate me, and then go back to the original fucking version at the last second, you know what I mean?

J: Hey man, it's your nickel, you know?

F: Yeah.

J: So Shaun, how do you feel about say, you know, most of the stories that you tell are usually about 6 issues, sometimes just a little bit more. Is that something you prefer to do? Like, you're telling short but complete stories in a medium.

S: I would like to tell it even shorter.

J: Really?

F: Really?

S: Yeah, I feel like if you can tell something in 8 pages-

J: Right.

S: I mean.

J: Yeah, I mean, look, we all came up loving punk rock. We know less is more, all killer no filler. That's one of the things that I appreciate most about your style of writing, si that I know that I'm gonna get a complete story. You know, start to finish and some things, you kinda want more and you kinda are like, "Oh man, it'd be cool. Hopefully, maybe he does something else with it. Maybe he does something more with it." But you know, some of the best things that I've watched recently were like, "Oh, it's 1 season. This is all it needs to be. We're just doing this and we're gonna call it a day." So that's cool. That is, is that something that maybe you wanna do eventually, write a whole 700 page novel or-?

S: You mean prose? Yeah. I have prose stuff in the works right now. I've had that for a while. And it's interesting because it's very different from comics. Comics is very visual, you're looking. This is what we want you to see. When you're writing prose, it's your imagination. These are some words, take out of it what you get, you know what I mean?

J: Yeah. Awesome.

F: Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm just mulling that for a second.

J: Yeah.

F: To try to think of like, to go from the one medium which is so visual, and is showing you action without you actually having to kinda spoon feed it to a reader, and then having to- you know, then going to like a prose work and having to kinda, detail what's happening that's not being said, but it's actually happening and you have to make it flow.

S: But I feel like that's what's interesting and writing a comic script is like writing a screenplay. You're very direct, the shorter you are, the better. You wanna get, it's almost like directions, you know? This is your recipe. Whereas, prose it's like, you know, words are fun. You could come up with like, really interesting ways to say anything.

J: Yeah.

S: You know what I mean? And get any kinda imagery in your head.

J: See, I've always thought of a novelist as a writer, and half of an artist. And the half of the artist comes in where if you're reading a comic, you know, you tell the artist, "I kinda want this," and then they draw it out, so you visually get to see it. With a novelist, with you writing prose, you're actually painting the image or giving the broad strokes of that image to the reader, where they're gonna flesh it out in their own head. They're gonna visualize it in their own head, their own way. So you're kind of half the artist, right? You're kinda getting them to the set, nd they're gonna paint it themselves. Which I think is amazing.

F: How do you feel about, I guess, like alright say, maybe this is a premature question but, to write a novel and have people kinda fill in the blanks of, you know, what characters look like, or what things are actually happening, and then finding out about that later. Because I feel like that's a lot like, you know, writing songs where a listener kinda makes up their own interpretation of what that song's about, and you know, what it means to them. And sometimes you're like, oh that's, you know like, I love that it lives on in their imaginations. But when they get it so wrong, and you're like, "Oh, no. Goddamn it!"

J: Yeah, I think that's the dad. "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed."

F: Just disappointed, yeah. "So disappointed in your imagination."

J: Well I mean, but that's any kind of storytelling. I remember Kevin Smith used to hang out at this comic shop in Red Bank, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. I remember after seeing Chasing Amy I was down there with our friend Ian, and I went in, Kevin Smith was there. And I was like, I was young. This is a billion years ago. I was like, "Can you- what happened at the end of Chasing Amy?" And he looks at me, he's like, "What do you think happened, man?" And I'm like, "No man, I want you to-"

F: Oh man!

J: "Just fucking tell me."

F: Alright, Steve Albini.

J: "Just tell me, man. I've tried to figure this out on my own, like-"

F: Yeah.

J: "Talk to me like I'm a little kid, because I am." Like, you know?

S: I feel like if you're that-

F: "Hold my hand."

S: If you're that abstract, you're not really doing your job as a storyteller.

J: Right.

S: You know? If people are confused by what you're doing, and they don't understand what you're doing-

J: Yeah.

S: You're not doing your job.

J: There is that side of it, as well.

F: But what if that's what you wanted?

S: Well that's different. If that's what you're going for, you know? I mean, I'm all for surreal and abstract stuff. If you're telling a, if I'm telling a story in a comic, I want you to know what's happening. I want you to give a shit about these people it's happening to. You know what I mean?

J: Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I was actually sitting next to our friend George on the couch today, when he was like, "Hey, can I reach out to Shaun to tell him that I liked his book?" And so, our friend George texts you something along the lines of, he's like, "Your book is like Arc Rum and Mobius on like 70s psychedelic fever dream."

S: Yes, right.

J: And I saw that. When he- because he's a writer as well.

S: George is great.

J: And he said it, and I was like, "Wow, that is so on the money," yet I completely understand what's going on in the story, and I don't lose a step reading Wizard Beach, because I'm buying into it. It's stimulating my eyes, it's stimulating my brain, and I know what's going on.

S: Well here's the thing. The simpler the story, the more room you have to kinda go off and do all the weird and abstract stuff. If you had this big complicated story, it's a lot harder to do that kinda stuff.

F: I think that translates to music as well.

S: Absolutely.

F: You know?

S: Sure.

F: You start getting too busy, and you're gonna kinda lose all the intent and all of the power behind it.

J: Oh absolutely. As they say, 10 times of shit in a 5 pound bag.

F: But the bag's Gucci.

J: But the bag's Gucci. It's fine! Yeah. That's the equivalent of "I just went and bought a bunch of nice guitars and gear, but I don't know how to actually use it."

F: Yes, yes.

J: So we're gonna wrap up this episode and we will do a little more next time on writing processes. You guys have any final thoughts before we close it out?

F: You guys want another shot of that?

S: No.

J: No!

S: God.

J: No.

F: Never again? Never again?

S: Fuck.

F: Alright, I see how it is.

J: Yeah, so join- join us next month for another episode of Casual Interactions, where we definitely will not be drinking Malört again. So for Frank Iero and Shaun Simon, I'm John "Hambone" McGuire. Until we meet again, hold onto your friends.

[borgatabent]

Festival Of Many Colors - A Summary

day 1: poison! :D day 2: everyone fit your dates in here day 3: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Or, in more detail:

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 9:56 PM

It's the last day of the Festival of Many Colors, and as expected, your plans for the crew's involvement therein have fallen apart quite spectacularly.  People split off, like you told them not to.  People got poisoned and hurt, as you expected.  By the time your own kids split off from you, well, you aren't surprised.

At least you trust them to stick with the people they split off with.  They'd better.

You, though? You feel safe as can be as you wander the booths, eyeing the wares the local artists of the city have brought forth to peddle to the masses.  In particular, you've been standing before a rather ornate painting of a cat that just...well, it tickles you.  The roundness of its face.  The wide icy lakes of its eyes.  Arresting.  Brim of your hat pulled low, you notice nothing else as you look it over.

"Now ain't that something..."

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 10:05 PM

The festival has been treating you great so far. You got to reunite with an old friend and spend some quality time with your sharks! None of the Felt got (unintentionally) drugged as far as you are aware, and it's such a great opportunity to more or less openly steal food.  Great festival so far 10/10.

They even had some ameozwing pieces of art on display. So amazing you didn't even notice you lost your shark companions. So amazing you don't even notice the  man standing right next to you as you you stare at the painting until he speaks up.

The only thing that leaves your mouth is a half hissed "You!" in true anime fashion.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 10:09 PM

The troll woman's word brings your head up and away from the painting, but you don't need to look to see who it is.  It has been two years since last you saw her in person, but oh. Oh. You could never forget that voice.  When you turn your eyes down to Nepeta, your face is purposefully and carefully blank.

Until, once facing her completely, you allow a smile to unfurl across your face, slow and malicious. 

"Evening, kitten.  It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 10:21 PM

He's better at suppressing his emotions, your face immediately gives away your murderous intent. It's something you should work on but you can't help it when you see him in person, especially after so long.  Of course you knew you'd meet again but you are still surprised by how hard it is not to jump at his throat right here on the street. 

Easy now. You know you can't do that.  You remind yourself that you are going to, one day, and your fists unclench. Huh, you hadn't even noticed doing that. 

"Not long enough." That's all he get's out of you before you sweetly ask for the cat pictures price. It's childish for sure, but if the only thing you can do right now is a buy a beautiful cat painting before he can you will take it.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 10:25 PM

You chuckle, reveling in the hatred she glares at you.  It's rolling off of her, like heat, and you hadn't realized until that moment how much you truly had looked forward to this.  To see that rage directed at you was, in a word, sublime.  And then she's trying to buy that lovely cat painting. 

You think that's childish, Nepeta? Watch this. 

Cutting the artist off mid-speech, you say to them--never once taking your eyes off of the girl--"I'll pay twice the asking price for it right now."

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 10:39 PM

Oh that motherfucker. How dare he, he's not even interested in this fine piece of art, he just wants to piss you off. And he's successful at that too. 

You don't have as much money but you have a lot of hate in your little heart.

"Can you really afford that? Funerals are so expensive these days. Shouldn't you save up to get get poor sweet Aradia the best funeral money can buy?"  Your face doesn't show your hate quite so obviously now but it unmistakably seeps into your words. It's a low blow, but you don't give a damn.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 10:44 PM

That smile on your face snuffs out in an instant, and your mouth becomes a hard, angry line.  You can feel your face flush with a hot surge of anger, you can feel it pulse in your strained neck.  Your hand, which had idly been stroking over a small statuette of a cat similar to that of the one in the painting, goes still over its porcelain head. 

"You'd best button your lips," you say slow, "especially about things that don't concern you, Miss Leijon.  It'd be a shame if someone were to knock those pretty new teeth of yours out again for your smartassery."

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 10:52 PM

Yeah, that one got him good and you couldn't stop the smile from spreading on your face if you wanted to, showing off all these pretty, pretty teeth. 

"It'd be a shame if you'd have to bury your children too, yet here we are. How long do you think hot wings will make it? Chicken is a popular snack around here." 

Truth is, you don't hold any grudges against Droogs kids, they don't have to die anytime soon, they should bury him if things go your way. But it's the easiest way to get to him, and if he doesn't want you to ignore him? Fine, you can play dirty too.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 10:57 PM

Your jaw tightens, just as your grip on the little porcelain kitty does as well.  You can feel it grinding against your palm, past the skin, statuette against carapace.  Stone to stone.  You can hear it creak pathetically under the stress, and not for the first time, you imagine it isn't the porcelain kitty's head beneath your grip. 

You say, "Awful funny of you to mention.  Had some shark soup the other day.  Real tasty--you ever have it?" 

Coolly, you cast your eyes about.  Neither of the cat's pet sharks seem to be about.  You turn your glance back at her.  "Bet olive grub tastes just as nice this time of year."

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 11:02 PM

"Oh, no I can't say I had the pleasure yet, I prefer getting my shark fresh and raw." You are not going to fall for his cheap distractions. 

 "You think so? I hear alternian trolls prefer maroon bloods for such things. You know, since they usually don't grow very old anyways."

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 11:06 PM

"Yeah?"  You chuckle low in your throat.  It's not mirthful; it's a sound of warning.  "I'll tell ya, you kooky trolls are all full of surprises."

You turn to her then, your hand dipping below your collar for a moment.  When you raise it, hooked around your thumb on a thin gold chain, dangles a sharp tooth.  The very top of it, though run through with a hole to hold the clasp, is still dyed a light olive green.  "All kinds of uses for every part of you.  I'd love to see what I could do with those little candy corn beauties on that thick skull of yours."

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 11:22 PM

Oh that's dirty. You were trying so hard to hold back, can't cause a scene here, right in public, after all. But no, he had to go and take out his little trophy. Sick bastard, did he always carry that around with him or just for special occasions?

Hot white rage fills your head as soon as you see your tooth, you barely even hear his mocking words through it all, too fixated on it. You remember all too well how he took it, all the pain, all the misery, all the fury, bottled up and culminated over two long years like a fine wine. 

It feels like this single moment of rage stretches on forever until everything happens  fast and all at once. You hadn't even noticed that you had clenched your fists, hard enough to draw blood with your claws when you are already swinging a punch right at his insufferable smug face, connecting with an audible crunching noise. 

And god, it feels so good. Finally some sweet release.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 11:28 PM

The thing you've learned about trolls, after having a hand in raising a small squadron of them over the years, is that these fuckers are deceptively strong.  You wouldn't know it by looking at them, but you've seen them lay grown body builders flat at the tender age of 10.  So when that fist connects with your face, you feel the carapace beneath crack before you are sent reeling backwards into the crowd. 

Shouts of alarm go up around you as you bowl people over, only to quickly leap to your feet, easy as you please.  The shadow magic skin you're wearing on your face is crooked, torn at the seam of your jaw, and you take just a moment to pull it back into place before you lunge forward at her in turn. 

The porcelain kitty still in your hand, you grab at her collar to pull her up as you bring it down and shatter upon the crown of Nepeta's head.

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Yesterday at 11:39 PM

You are still too engulfed in that sweet rush of violence to see him coming in time to dodge the kitty, what a regrettable waste of art that was. The other thing about you trolls is how headstrong you are. Sure it hurts like a bitch, sure you can feel sticky olive blood pooling in your hair, but it's not going to anything to stop you.

Instead you take the opportunity to show him just how sturdy your pretty little head is. You grab him and headbutt him right in the mouth, hoping to break some teeth in the process.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Yesterday at 11:52 PM

You're sturdy, but holy shit, not that sturdy.  You can feel the hot spray of blood gush from your nose, from your mouth, from the now fractured carapace beneath your lips.  There is the click-click and drip-drip as you stagger back, broken teeth and candy red blood falling like rain to the ground below, despite the way you cup your mouth to prevent the fall.  It's all wet heat on your palm. 

The look in your eyes, one reverted back to its natural white after such a hard hit, is one of pure. 

Unbridled. 

Rage. 

"You fucking stupid bitch," you slur as you shrug off your heavy coat.  It's weighing you down, even if you had chosen it to hide the dip in your mostly healed arm, hideous as it is beneath the thin fabric of your shirt.  You spring forward, arm pulled back to launch a punch toward Nepeta's stupid fucking bitch face, fist surrounded by thick purple flame.  "Look what you've done to me!"

Coco (Nep/Ara/Sock)Today at 12:25 AM

Oh but you are looking, and you are so pleased with your work.  How's it feel to be the one who's too furious to think straight Droog? Pretty good it doesn't seem. 

It feels so intoxicating to finally have the upper hand, to finally not only stand on even ground with Droog, but above him. He's becoming undone right before your eyes and even though part of you knows it's not just because of you but thanks to a whole series of events he and the Crew recently suffered, you decide that no. This is all about you. 

Your rage, your revenge, your victory, ready for the taking. 

Exposing a glaring weak point like his arm was his first mistake, using it to attack you the second. You catch his arm mid punch without any problems. Sure the magic fire burns your flesh but you smile at his face despite the disgusting smell of your own sizzling flesh. 

"I think you are the stupid fucking bitch, kitten." 

You don't waste any time and use your opening to kick him right in the stomach, hard. But you don't let go of his arm, even when he hits the ground. Instead you pull, putting your strength to good use. You don't stop pulling not when you hear a a loud popping, and not when you hear a sickening a crunch. One last effort from your side and you finally stumble back, his arm in your hand. Your very own little trophy, one you will treasure dearly. 

You stand above him finally tasting sweet victory, blood rushing in your ears. This is better than any high you ever had. The temptation to kill him on the spot but you settle for another kick right into his oh so handsome face instead before you spit on him,  just because you can. "Always a pleasure playing with you kitty cat." 

With that you turn around to flee the crime scene and report to Snowman.

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Today at 12:35 AM

It's fast, it's all too fast--you're on the ground before you can even properly think, and then you're hearing this sound, and it's so hard to parse through the screams of the crowd down pushed as far back away from the two of you as they can get.  They're shouting for help, for the police, for something,but you can't hardly hear it over the pop and break of your own sinews, and that other sound.  God, what is that? 

Oh.

It's your own screaming.  That's new. 

When Nepeta pulls your arm away from you, you're left to stare blankly up at her.  The world is grey and hazy, but this olive troll and your arm are in sharp, painful focus.  You register the kick to the face and the heat of your blood pooling on the ground below you, and it just doesn't seem real.  Like a strange dream turned nightmare, in the blink of an eye. 

As she walks away, you go to lift your arm only to realize, whoops, that's not there anymore.  You lift your other and fumble around for your phone.  As you tap on the screen, now streaked with the gore of you, you realize you're shaking uncontrollably.  Or you suppose it is.  It seems so far away, as though you're watching some other armless sap shaking like a leaf in a tornado.

You put the phone up to your ear, still skewed from the hit you took earlier.  You think you're speaking loudly, but your voice is barely a whisper. 

"Hey Slick, uh... ...my arm's..." Before you can say another clarifying word, the phone slips out of your hand and comes to rest in the sticky red lake forming beneath you.  You pass out.

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 12:43 AM

Oh well. Oh shit. This was bad. You refound Nepeta a few moments ago, but the fight was already a little heated to step inbetween. Especially since Nepeta looked like she got it handled pretty well. (Better than you ever could.) Before you could quit the hemming and hawing and decide what to do, it was already over. And...

You definitely didn't expect THAT outcome. Now, Nepeta surely got hurt a little. But... she was fine enough to run away. You already had your camera handy for the festival. Some cute kissy selfies with your lovers and totally not stolen plushies on there. You're gonna check on your beloved meowrail in a minute, for sure. But until then...

Click.

Nepeta would want it that way. And then you are gone too. All you can hope is that Droog managed to catch your gleeful grin before he passed out.

Bunny (SS/07)Today at 12:42 AM

You're at the festival, already fighting the heat of rage from building up inside of you. You're looking for clues as to the whereabouts of the mysterious vendor from the other day. The one that drugged your son. He tore himself up pretty good and you're not going to rest until you have your vengeance.

That's when you think you might be hearing screams. It draws your attention enough for you to squint at the forming crowd. A few thoughts buzz through your head as you casually start making your way over--

Your phone rings. You answer. Your heart squeezes tight and a chill runs through you, cold enough to snatch your breath away. "Droog?!" You can hear the crowd still shouting on the other end of the line, as well as in that close distance. You start running, shouting for him on the phone to no answer.

You're shoving people aside, desperate and wild, until you see him. Unconscious, bleeding out, phone in his bloody fingers. You don't think. You drop to your knees and stop the bleeding with shadow magic. You're shaking him, trying to wake him up. Screaming at the people surrounding you.

"WHO DID THIS?! WHO FUCKING DID THIS?!"

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 12:48 AM

You had a gameplan. Day three made sense for you to arrive, bundled up and faking illness that you have been boasting. Scarf on, coat buttoned, one of those little paper masks to indicate a cough.  Perfect enough to get at least some sembelence of festival and buy a few pumpkins and lose a few games in the quest for the kiwi.  Maybe even heckle some of the crew since you heard they had a kissing booth all up and about.

So of course, just as you are about to waste said money on a dream you hear some sort of commotion nearby.  Immediately you abandon the baseballs as you break into a run, pushing and shoving until you reach the break in the crowd. 

And blanch at the sight.  Oh frog...  Still, time to get the authority voice on as you pull out a badge. 

"I need everyone to clear some space. NOW "  That was more for the crowd than Slick since you expect his shadowy magic is probably better suited for stopping the bloodflow than any bandage pressure you could provide.  You pull out your phone and dial up.  "We have an emergency situation here.   Massive injury. Ambulance needed."  You already have an idea of who did this based on your own sources but telling that to Slick sounds like the top 10 worst bad ideas right now.

Avery (PS/Sollux)Today at 12:54 AM

You're Problem Sleuth and you're running through the crowds that are panicking over the event that seems to be a girl tearing out Diamonds' arm and you've never dodged running citizens like this until you were in the court yard of Prospit when the war was announced.

Goddamn there were apparently a bunch of spectators to the de-arming and when you get there, you see Slick and you hear the wrath in his voice. Seeing you kismesis in si much rage almost makes you feel anger too. And you look around in time to see the tail of a green coat and you're running before you even know it. 

The Crew and whichever faction this was, you suspect Felt, are at each other's necks, you're trying to not even think of the new faction rising to power -- "Get out the way!" You're hot on the suspect's trail and you hope it better stay that way.

pixel~! (04/Dualscar/HD)Today at 12:56 AM

Your name is Clover, and you'd probably been catching up to the sharks. Everything was going smooth, absolutely everything- and then you turned and you saw Diamonds Droog hitting the ground, and it all happened so fast you could barely register it before you see Nepeta tear his arm straight off, and when she runs- 

Well, you do too. If anybody's gonna need some fucking luck, it's your kitty, after all. You're not thinking about anything else.

[insert missing post of Fin, fleeing along Nepeta and Trace and getting into the car]

Carro (DD/08/WQ)Today at 1:00 AM

Your name is the White Queen, and you had been nearby with your Dame when the commotion had started.  It had taken you until now to push through the crowd to get close enough to see what is happening, but when you do, you reel back.  Though you had promised yourself that you would not do so again for a long time, you clasp your hands together and focus your empathetic powers on your ring to send a pulse of calm through the crowd.  It won't do anything for the humans and the trolls among them, but it will be enough to calm the carapacians from outright rioting. 

In the meantime, your name is Snowman, and you are fading to and from black. In your room one moment, a few paces ahead of Nepeta the next.  She collides with you but you anticipate it, and you wrap your arms tight around her.  You toss a wink over her head at the men pursuing her, and in a shimmer, you fade to black once more.  You would both find yourself collapsed upon your own bed to soften the impact of your collision, bouncing once before settling.

pixel~! (04/Dualscar/HD)Today at 1:00 AM

The Dame herself, though- when the screaming starts, she replaces her glamour with something that the citizens don't know but her Agents would recognize as a favored disguise, and she gets on clearing everybody the hell out of the way. Her imagination presses up against the minds of particularly stubborn crowd folk, pushes suggestion in to make the process easier. Leave, leave, leave. Get to safety, get to calm, it will all be alright.

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 1:03 AM

Too bad, Fin. Because all of a sudden, Trace is gone. He has been tailing people long enough to notice that they, and more importantly Nepeta, had been followed, and ducked away to the side during the next best occasion. Hopefully quick enough.  It was. The crowd surely helped. You see someone that is very definitely not a Felt running right past the corner and past you, whereas everyone else tried their best to get away from anything green. 

 Maybe some of Clover's luck rubbed off on you too. Unfortunately for Mr. Sleuth. Before he has a chance to turn around, you reach for his collar and suddenly you're on his back. 

 "Not so fast, copper. This ain't your business" you just growl into his ear. A well aimed punch should take care of the rest. Time to get outta here.

Plush (Jadesprite[Jay])Today at 1:08 AM

Jay's ears perk as Clover texts her for a pick up, she leaps from the roof and teleports in front of Clover. Skidding to the side from the force of the teleport she looks at Clover, all of her soft and kind looks gone. She is determined and calculating. All in one go, as soon as she stops skidding she lunges at Clover, scooping him up over her shoulder and looking at the ones chasing. With a flick of a tail and a flash of green her and Clover are gone, standing in the main lobby of the Felt manor, Jay nods at him as she sets him down and teleports right back to the roof from before. Ready to extract anyone else.

Avery (PS/Sollux)Today at 1:09 AM

You're running and you're catching up, reaching out to harness your imagination to start forming your sword when the process is cut short by someone pulling you back by your collar and you choke. 

You look fast enough to see who it was and then the punch comes and you're knocked out. Falling to your knees and onto the cold ground of the alley.

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 1:09 AM

Soon after, Trace slips into the back of the car and tosses Fin the key.  "Get us home!" Squint around.  "Where did Nepeta go? Weren't you with her?"

Mikky the gay shark (05/JH/CD)Today at 1:10 AM

"I thought you were with her! " Car car key right. Time to scram.

pixel~! (04/Dualscar/HD)Today at 1:11 AM

Before the pup can vanish, Clover grabs her be the sleeve and as quick as a radio host, he tells her- "Check for the sharks, check the festival, get Doze before Slick finds him and decides to take everything out on him. They were nearby, I don't know where they went."

Shadow <3 (Jade)Today at 1:13 AM

Your name is Jade and you hears screams and slick's furious anger. Something bad has happened and you think it must be one of the bosses. You run to see what's happened and gasp at the sight. 

Droog's on the ground bleeding and Slick is there holding him, fixing with shadow magic but snarling for answers. Officer Ingleton is there too otherwise you'd step in to see what happened. Instead you question the people near you in fake hysteria, asking what's going on. 

You're very displeased to learn the stupid cat bitch was the one to cause this. Fuck, if this wasn't an escalation. The bitch was probably long gone too. What about the others though? 

This wasn't good. You're quick to go see what Felt was still left on the grounds.

Mikky the gay shark (05/JH/CD)Today at 1:14 AM

You name is Jude Harley and you are running to the car with your police badge in hand, but sadly no guns, just...the flare one? Right it's on your common equipment so you take aim to the car and shoot, permission can come later.

“STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW! " 

 Somebody roll a dice to see if he break a window or not.

Bunny (SS/07)Today at 1:14 AM

There is a ping of feeling. An attempt to calm your rage. It is swallowed whole. Nothing can quell your anger and your outright pain in this moment. A ring sitting heavy in your pocket, your matesprit of uncountable years broken in your arms. And a name ringing in your ears. 

Nepeta. "The cat girl in the Felt."

You've seen them scrambling away. And you won't chase them. No. You will plan. You will make sure that the next move you make completely and utterly shatters them.

"Lyosha... Lyosha wake up. Please."

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 1:15 AM

He's dead, Jim.

Meanwhile Kingpin is somewhere in the crowd, watching the show and having a damn good time

Mikky the gay shark (05/JH/CD)Today at 1:18 AM

And this is why you don't let Fin drive, with all the trails blocking the way and now a god damn flare breaking the back window the shark is now panicking and screaming. 

"AW FUCK! TRACE TAKE THE WHEEL !! OF ALL DAYS YOU HAD TO LET ME DRIVE TODAY!?" 

The trash you left earlier on the backseat is on fire.

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 1:19 AM

Oh no. Oh no no no. Not the window. 

"I CAN'T TAKE THE WHEEL WHEN- WHEN YOU'RE SITTING BEHIND IT! JUST! STOP! PULL OVER."

Mikky the gay shark (05/JH/CD)Today at 1:20 AM

>dramatic car break 

>those wheels are really good but they will look like shit after this 

"GET IN HERE YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 1:21 AM

Hey Fin, do you know this look? You know this look. It's the look Trace gave you after Itchy sucked your dick. 

"Move over." Growl.

Mikky the gay shark (05/JH/CD)Today at 1:21 AM

>You move over and try to put down the fire on the back 

"I’m taking no reponsability for this!"

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 1:23 AM

"Yes you are. I'm putting this on your phone tab." 

At least the car is still turning on. Time to get you home in a very relaxed and non-accent-risky manner.

Mikky the gay shark (05/JH/CD)Today at 1:23 AM

JH==> Attempt to chase the car once you heard the breaks but to no avail. No more flare charges anyway.

Plush (Jadesprite[Jay])Today at 1:17 AM

Jay nods to Clover quick and from the roof back to the scene. She dips quickly into the crowd and circles around, scenting for Doze, her ears pinned flat and tail poofed up with worry. Jay sees the tint Doze explained and pushes through the crowd, looking from the scene to the tent.

She reaches it and dips in, and spins to look for Doze, her chest heaving with quick breaths. Her cold expression not showing the panic she felt inside. "Doze? Come on we have to get the fuck outta this joint."

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 1:19 AM

Your name is Doze and you're just chillin in a booth a bit away but still close enough to hear the pandemonium. You got your bubble pipe and are looking at some badass woodworking stuff. Kind of cool. Gotta appreciate the arts really. 

You turn to Jay. "Oh hey checkout this baddass lil thingie. Got like tiny lil sharks etched on it. Think it'd make a good gift for Trace?" 

 Meanwhile you, Pembrooke Ingleton are on the radio.  There are some orders to pursue suspected targets as well as to get an ambulence out pronto.  Other than that, you're trying to keep the crowds calm and back and give Slick space.  Never entirely sure if that one will suddenly lash out at the nearest crowd or person.    Also not sure how he's going to react to medical personal wanting to take Droog to the hospital but that's a problem for future Pembrooke.

Shadow <3 (Jade)Today at 1:21 AM

You go back to the booth with the henna just in time to see the Felt, Doze you think, with Jay. And you freeze for a moment, shocked that she knows him. You stare and you realize that she doesn't just know him; she's with him. She's with the Felt.

You don't know why that hurts your very being.

Plush (Jadesprite[Jay])Today at 1:25 AM

Jay presses her nose between her thumb and forefinger and huff out a laugh while shaking her head. "God you are so fucking funky. Can't help but love that about ya." She taps the baddass lil thingie and lifts her hand with a flick, teleporting it close to where she teleported Clover to. "Okay it's home, and it's loud out there. Let's dip, and laugh about someone loosing and entire fucking arm." She holds out her hand for Doze to take. 

The fur on the back of her neck raise up and she looks over her shoulder and, her ears slowly droop as she stares directly into Jade's eyes. Jay's cold determination falters and for a second Jade can see the sadness, panic, and worry in her eyes. She shakes her head slowly and reaches more earnestly towards Doze.

Shadow <3 (Jade)Today at 1:27 AM

You step back in shock. She's Felt she was this whole time. And then you feel anger; anger at her, at that bitch cat and all of the fucking green bastards. You step towards them, towards her, but you have a feeling you won't be able to reach her this time

Lissa (Paint/Feferi/Kanaya)Today at 1:29 AM

You name is Kayana Maryam Spektor, and you are NOT calm. You are looking for the center of the chaos in search of your father who you've learn has lost one of his arms. You push and shove your way through people not caring if you knock them down.

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 1:31 AM

You, Doze, smile at Jay and hold out your hand but then turn to see what the sudden agitation in the air was. Turning around, you see oh...its the one gal you did henna for.   "Oh! Heya there.  Check out this badass woodwork thing this one booth was doin."  You give a wide smile completely missing the point.

Quinn (Equius 🐎)Today at 1:32 AM

Uh oh here comes a special boy!! Here he comes!  If ever there was a juggernaut made alive, it would be the steamroller that is trying his best not to bowl over the crowd while he linebackers his way through to the coordinates Jude gave.  The commotion is easy to follow, growing thicker as you get closer--and also harder to get through.

It's then that you end up almost running into the car, or the car running into you.  It's hard to tell which it is because you're JAYWALKING/running across the street to get to the location without looking for traffic, and so the car that's just started up and is burning rubber trying to accelerate.  The front bumper thuds into your hip and thigh and you skid just a tiny bit--but you also might have dented the bumper yourself, or at least the hood of the car when you slam a hand onto it to brace yourself from falling over.  Point being you hiss and yell more in surprise than pain--though your hip IS in a lot of pain--and you're scratching the front of the car while glaring absolute fury at the driver-- 

Oh. Oh.  Perfect timing.  You lock eyes with one of the Felt sharks--the orange one driving, and bare your teeth at him.

Plush (Jadesprite[Jay])Today at 1:36 AM

Jay freezes and whispers, "Doze, not now!" She grabs his hand, pushing him behind her and full blown growls. Tail lashing and ears pinned as she faces Jade, little bits of green bolts spiking across her body as she bristles up. She crouches and readies her hands for combat, "Walk away, Jade. Now." Her tail slowly but surely curls around Doze's waist, Jay didn't want confrontation but if Jade rushed her she was ready to get her and Doze out of there.

Lissa (Paint/Feferi/Kanaya)Today at 1:39 AM

Kanaya finally spies her Uncle Slick and... Oh no... Her father with blood leaching from his empty shoulder. "UNCLE SLICK!" you call out to him shoving people out of your way with greater ferocity.

Shadow <3 (Jade)Today at 1:42 AM

You glares at her; as if she has the audacity to tell you what to do?! "I want answers Jay!" You snarl back, not bothered by her light show, not slowing her step. "You're Felt; was this planned?! Was this all a fucking lie?! A ploy!?" You're not sure if you're more angry over Droog or angry at this feeling of betrayal. "Why'd she do it Jay?? Why cause an escalation now?"

Bunny (SS/07)Today at 1:42 AM

You hear Kanaya. Your gaze snaps to her and you hold Droog closer, halfway shielding his cauterized wound from her sight. "Go home," you order, leaving no room for question, "and tell the Crew. The Felt attacked us and we're going to--"

There are cops here, Spades. One is standing right beside you. The inspector. The one who had been poking around in your territory. You narrow your gaze, glaring at him. You'll deal with him later. 

"We're going to regroup," you say, "Get out of here."

Lissa (Paint/Feferi/Kanaya)Today at 1:46 AM

Kanaya's face is conflicted for a moment, but finally she nods and turns to go tears in her eyes but not falling. There's few people you would trust to make sure your father would be okay. You boss and father's matesprit is one of them. You follow the order and vanish into the crowds as you head home. You hoped you'd be able to convince your uncle to let you in on making this felt bitch pay.

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 1:47 AM

Pembrooke looks up, and puts two and two together. Right, Droog's daughter.  He lets her pass into the area unheeded as the ambulence siren begins to get louder. 

You frown, knowing well that tone of whisper,  and you see the glare....meeting it back with a narrow squint of your own before you finally get the nerve to speak aloud.  "There is an ambulence on its way to take Mister Spektor to the hospital. You are welcome to join him of course."  You were going to extend the offer to his daughter but apparently she walks faster than your mun types. >:U

Meanwhile Doze tilts his head, a moment of confusion then well...more confusion. Ok this isn't about woodworking. Hooboy. 

"Iffn this is about all the hootinenenery happening right now gotta say that there was no grandscheming on this one tho prolly not gonna believe that.  Just as surprised as everyone else I just wanted to get my gift shoppin done like fuck now its a pain in the ass."

Bunny (SS/07)Today at 1:50 AM

That's okay because you weren't going to let her. You hold Droog tight, keeping your gaze locked on the Inspector. The sound of sirens gives you fucking anxiety. But this is one of the very very few situations you'll allow one of your own to enter a hospital. You'll just have to be sure to pay off every fucking doctor and nurse and janitor you see to make sure you don't leave Droog's side and that he's receiving the best possible care.

Plush (Jadesprite[Jay])Today at 1:52 AM

Jay knows she should probably just.. teleport away but. She stands up ears shoved forward and her expression cold and empty, "You think it was planned for me to be here? To have been left by my family and for me to got all happy daisy to the Felt? Sweet heart, nothing is planned. It just happens." She turns slightly, not looking away from Jade, "Doze can you please grab on to me? Anywhere is fine right now." 

Jay's ears flick and she huffs at Jade, "I never lied, you just never asked. As for what cat babe did? Not part of the plan but man..." She leans forward, snarling, "was it good."

Quinn (Equius 🐎)Today at 1:54 AM

Because the mun has no reading comprehension skills and  is now revising actions, Equius continues from the incident with the car, having left a dent and a hook man car door claw marks down the side of it, and the car giving him a nasty bruise, but otherwise everyone is unscathed.

He favors his right hip a bit as he trots up to Pembrooke, breathing a little heavily and holding up the roll of police tape you have handy.

"Sir--brought this--Jude said it would come in handy."  You huff and shake out your leg a little bit, starting to get on the task of keeping people back and setting up a perimeter.

Shadow <3 (Jade)Today at 2:01 AM

You know it's just angry speaking; you know you should step back, take a breath. You're better than this and you know that in a way, Jay's right. What time they spent together, that couldn't have been a ploy it was far too genuine. You don't really understand what she means by a family leaving her, but you do understand what she says about the aftermath and you see Red 

 Before you've realized, you're already swinging a punch at her

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 2:05 AM

Pembrooke nods at Equius.  "Set up a perimeter. Start taking witness reports."  You notice the shattered bits of porceline.  "Find out which booth that came from and get their report in particular. I want to know exactly every word and detail that led up to this down to how many times they blinked." 

A few tents away Doze sets the woodwork down cause he aint a thief dangit, and rests his hands on Jay's shoulder.  "Sorry yo. Gotta go."

Plush (Jadesprite[Jay])Today at 2:08 AM

Jay grins at Jade, all of her malice and mockery going into that one good last look and just as Jade's fist is about to connect with her face... a flash of green goes through the tent and she is gone from Jade's sight and into the main entrance of the Felt manor. Jay sighs and pats Doze on the head, "I could of taken that other wood piece with us too if you wanted." She points to the shark one she teleported in before the commotion, "Least I got that one. Now pardon me, I need to go find some damn ibuprofen."

Shadow <3 (Jade)Today at 2:11 AM

She's gone before you can wipe that smug fucking look from her face and you're shocked and angry. But then, you feel... upset. Not that you missed, but that you tried to punch her. God what is wrong with you?! She's the enemy now; she has to get past this! You're not going to let this make you a liability. 

But, this shows that she's not just a furry for show. Maybe Scratch worked on her like he did Sock, except she was clearly more successful. 

....time to get out here too.

EJ (GHB)Today at 2:15 AM

You're the Grand Motherfucking Highblood---And you've been alerted to a commotion by Azzie. You smell blood on the air and normally it'd fill you with Glee. 

But that blood is your Moirail's blood. The motherfucker you'd slaughter leigions for. 

Your calm and gentle demeanor evaporates in a second as a wave of Terror washes over the crowd, forcing them apart as you Roar and Snarl, charging on all fours in the direction of your Moirail's scent. 

...You're going to Kill whoever did this.

Without question. You will find them.

Quinn (Equius 🐎)Today at 2:17 AM

He nods, immediately finishing with the perimeter first and wedging himself between the scene and various citizens, politely but forcefully scooching them back.

Before he gets to the witness accounts, he sidles back up to Pembrooke, voice lowered a bit quieter.  "Also uh, I was told to give this to you."  He passes the kiwi very sneakily like contraband, and nods solemnly, getting back to work.

He sets up some markers around the porcelain shards, voice raising up to tell people to form orderly lines and wait for questioning--before you feel a rush of nauseated horror and acrid fear that could mean only one thing.  You might be less susceptible to mental influences than lower blood castes, but you still freeze on the spot, getting OUT OF THE WAY when you see highblood frenzy coming towards the scene, grabbing Pembrooke's arm on instinct and pulling him behind you.  Just in case.

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 2:22 AM

Your business stern faced demeanor is temporarily shattered as you hold in your hand the blessed kiwi at long last.  It is softer and more perfect than you imagined.  But then you clear your throat and return to professional mode.  Just in time for you to be pulled behind Officer Zahhak as you hear the crowds start to stir. 

Craning your neck, you see the flash of black and purple as you inwardly brace for probably another one of the Crew's confidants to bust their way onto the crime scene like an emotional trainwreck.

EJ (GHB)Today at 2:32 AM

Not emotional. Angry. Very, Very Angry. Roars and snarls fill the air as the crowds part as he darts past the Blueblood and the Capricians. They don't matter. Finding his mate matters. 

He sees the blood...so much blood. Splashes of Olive.....

Slick is scented, acknowledged, but he's snuffling intently at his moirail, Snarling at anyone who dares approach. 

His common tongue doesn't even sound right, tinged heavily with Alternian, rearing up on his legs to his full height, eyes locking on the blooblood. "Who." This is not a request. It is a command. The leader of the Mirthful is asking a motherfucking question and he Best Motherfucking Answer.

jailed rooty (03/Dave/MK)Today at 2:35 AM

Oh shit. Lookit that. Kingpin was still watching the scene with delight. And just as the White Queen's awful attempts at mind- pardon, emotional control crawls past you, you feel another emotion wash over you that is sending a shiver down your back. 

Fear. 

One of the few times you truly felt that, if not the first. And boy, that was. Fucking. Thrilling. The source of that wave was hard to miss. A giant troll. One of them purple bloods. Kingpin had heard stories, but he had yet to see them in action himself. A thing he may get to change soon, perhaps.

Quinn (Equius 🐎)Today at 2:41 AM

He still has one hand gripped on Pembrooke's upper arm as he keeps him behind--he did not want one of his new bosses in the crossfire of the most reveared and infamous of their people, something that rivaled the title of the Condesce, though no one would state as much out loud.

His posture goes to military attention, expression sobered up.  His one consolation is that at least the force of that anger, that rage, isn't directed towards him individually.  Still, he's afraid.  Afraid for Nepeta, and afraid with the waves of empathetic terror that roll out from Baron like a swelling tide.

"Felt," he says with a low rasp, meeting Baron's eyes and ducking his chin a little.  "It was Felt.  I just arrived on the scene, but--"  He shifts a little, letting go of Pembrooke because he is the commanding officer who can speak on the situation, giving a pleading look to Baron to be dismissed from answering questions that he had no right to answer.

Bunny (SS/07)Today at 2:45 AM

You feel a sense of relief, although very slight, at the sight of Droog's moirail. You meet Sam with a soft headbump, hands full with Droog. You're lifting him up, preparing to carry him to the ambulance. "It was that cat bitch," you growl, "Nepeta. She's holed up with her posse by now." 

You lean close to Sam, muttering quiet enough for only him to hear you, "I want to dismantle them, Sam. We need to plan carefully. But if there are any of those green fucks or their associates running around, I want them taken care of. We're going to send a message. Understand?"

EJ (GHB)Today at 2:53 AM

...You needed that. You needed something to ground you, though tenuously. Your hand shakingly passes over Droog's lack of arm, wiping the blood over your face like the warpaint that's always present on it. 

The Blueblood is released with a wave. "ZAhhAk. DIssMiSSEd." 

There's clicks and whirrs that meet Slick's order, your voice thickly affirming. Your voice is neigh a whisper. "I'll bring their heads." Fuck I don't know how do italics but pretend with me people. Power Of Imagination. You're following to the Ambulance without a second glance to anyone in the crowd. You could care less. 

Greens will. Die.

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 2:58 AM

You stand silent, observing all of this. There is a lot that you're starting to discover and none of it is good.  Firstly that the Baron is far closer to Crew than you imagined and the sudden worry for your morail is bubbling up because you are pretty certain he is good friends with the Baron?? 

But there is also the detail of interractions and for somene to be able to call rank and authority to one of your officers is...also not the most ideal of things.  But something to be filed for later.

You watch the hushed whispers, no idea what is being said but you can likely guess.  This was not something the Crew was going to just take idly.  Just a matter of if their counter will be immediate or longterm.  You then watch Droog get loaded into the ambulence, waiting to see who goes and who stays behind.  Thankfully at this point he crowd has begun to scatter and disperse.

Quinn (Equius 🐎)Today at 3:04 AM

He feels a chill like ice dumped down his back for a whole other kind of dread now.  Baron might have let him go but his gut twists, because he... he doesn't work for Baron.  He doesn't.  He can barely relax even as he steps to the side from around Pembrooke, but he can't... he can't really meet his eyes right now for fear of actual distrust in them. One ear twitches, your considerable hearing picking up the low murmuring between Slick and Baron.  You don't hear what's said.  But he does hear the tone of voices and it's nothing but the promise of violence.

"...Permission to continue questioning, sir," he says to Pembrooke, eyes flicking up and then away again, hands clenching kind of uselessly at his sides.  Then, because he can't leave any stone unturned or irresponsible.  "....I'm sorry.  It... it won't happen again.  I was caught off guard."

Bunny (SS/07)Today at 3:06 AM

You hop into the ambulance. And just as cover, you call to Sam, "Get straight home and keep an eye on everyone. I don't want anyone else getting hurt, got it?"

WINK

You don't actually wink because that would be obvious as fuck but the sentiment is there. Also, with one eye, winking is extremely difficult. 

You try to relax enough to not lash out as the first responders get to work on your matesprit.

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 3:11 AM

"Permission granted." You simply state with a nod as you watch the ambulance doors close and start to pull out.  At this point, Slick and Droog were now the least of your worries other than the possibility of Slick just making everyone's lives miserable at the hospital.   You pull out your pen and begin to assist taking witness reports and gathering evidence. 

There will be times for talk later, but now that the action was fading you had a job of trying to get as many witnesses still about as you can before they filter away.

Quinn (Equius 🐎)Today at 3:21 AM

You give a short nod, going back off to round people up, focusing mainly on organizing them into categories of relevance.  After examination of the porcelain pieces again, you scout out the nearby booths--and sure enough, you find the most likely one, artisan crafts and all that.  It doesn't take much convincing to get the stand owner to come with you to the priority list of witnesses, her eyes cagey and wary after the whole trainwreck.

"This one saw them come into first contact," you murmur to Pembrooke, directing the woman to stay with the inspector.  "Would you like me to take her to the station."  To make sure she doesn't get cold feet and decide to stay out of mob crossfire.

EJ (GHB)Today at 3:23 AM

You understand the Wink with the intent for murder burning in your heart. Your grin in response is sharp and dangerous as you sniff the air, scenting for the Green Bitch before starting to move off to another direction. The police can think what they want, there's no concrete proof. 

 Clowns can be deceptively quiet as they're slinking out of the eye of attention.

Mabs (PI/02)Today at 3:28 AM

"I doubt it will be necessary.  It's just a simple eye-witness of the events.  Much like everyone else is giving."  You say that aloud, as you hope such statements will set her on ease in case she is worried that she may end up in the middle.   "I'd say take some forensic samples, get some photo of the scene Officer Zahhak."  you gesture to the olive and red blood as well as the various fragments of porcelien.

You set to task of questioning...hopeful that the other officers off scene are faring better.

[woozifi]

I WENT TO THE TORONTO DIAMOND EDGE CONCERT AND THIS WAS MY EXPERIENCE

ok first of all it honestly didn’t even hit me that this was ACTUALLY HAPPENING

then the lights dimmed & svt was thERE and i realized holy fucking shit this was real i’m seeing them in reAL LIFE HOLY SHIT

let me tell you, they are all fucking STUNNING. they look like they do in all the pictures/music videos except IN PERSON and it was incredible, they all had perfect skin and looked absolutely gorgeous

my friends and i had seats pretty up close (in row F) but on the far right so we saw everything from a weird angle, luckily we had aisle seats so i had some space to see, but i mostly ended up focusing on the members dancing closer to our side of the stage

they introduced themselves and i lost my shit at every single one of them

hoshi was so hyper god bless him he was jumping all over the place and fooling around and had so much energy i was so happy to see that, he did the whole “what time is it” and everyone shrieked “10:10″ it was amazing

IF YOU DIDN’T THINK I WAS LOSING MY SHIT SEEING WOOZI IRL WITH THAT GORGEOUS LOWKEY FADING RED HAIR YOU THOUGHT WRONG, HE WAS SMALL BUT BREATHTAKING

they were definitely pretty tired, though. seokmin was laughing and having fun on stage but he was pretty subdued at some parts, and jun and wonwoo were too. i think jun had a headache or something, poor thing

ok but the songs tho

it was so insane?? like they just went song after song and barely had time to take a breath except for when they changed into different outfits

vocal unit’s songs were performed in snazzy suits and they were lounging on thrones and shit with lightning and bats in the background i never would have thought their stage would be a BROODING VAMPIRE CONCEPT but here it is and i want to draw the shit outta that

hip hop unit was so fucking good, i didn’t film a single second of their mixtapes bc me and my friend nush were too busy jamming tf out. it was so funny, everyone around us was just kinda screaming and filming it but you see us assholes by the aisle getting hyped

seungcheol was being a rude ass motherfucker the ENTIRE time, running his hands through his hair and having it all messy and shit, holy crap he was so hot i lost my entire soul when he went close to our side of the stage

VERNON’S STAGE PRESENCE THO, LIKE BOTH HE AND HOSHI HAD THE BEST STAGE PRESENCE

wonwoo is SO SKINNY, i don’t think i can call minghao a scarecrow anymore bc at least he’s buffing up his arms, wonwoo was a fucking beanpole and i probably could lift him over my head

performance unit was sO good!!! they performed everything i ever wanted to hear. they started off with oh my god & i lost it, then proceeded to lose it further with swimming fool, highlight, and my i

holy shit, my i. holy shIT

this probably isn’t in order, by the way, the entire night is a blur

they had a brief intermission of sorts where they showed us pictures of svt as kids and it was sO CUTE. i was dying at seokmin’s though bc they just had that pic of him in like middle school or smth with that dumb hair and dumb glasses but they shoWED IT TWICE JUST WITH DIFFERENT FILTERS I WAS CRYING

anyways they said they’d give us a “hot stage” and i was immediately like yes yes yes yes yes idc what you’re giving us i WANT IT

and they perfORMED ROCK I WAS LOSING IT I COULDN’T BELIEVE ITTTT

they also performed chuck and it was so cute bc afterwards soonyoung was trying to teach us the “CHUCK CHUCK BRRRRR CHUCK” move and it was absolutely adorable

anyways when vernon started to say “it’s the end of the concert” i got so shook bc it literally felt like the concert just started??? the entire concert itself was like 2 hours but it didn’t feel like it at all!

but they performed don’t wanna cry and then an encore of shining diamond and healing and it was lovely

we had a special project where during healing we held up banners and shit and they looked genuinely so surprised and touched

like vernon and josh kept repeating how touched they were, and mingyu looked like he might start crying, and seungkwan was really close to my side of the stage and you could see how his eyes were shining and how bright his smile is, like they were all so heartfelt and humble and kept talking about how much they enjoyed the concert and how happy they were to be here and how they want to come back to toronto as soon as possible

it was that exact moment where i realized i fucking love svt so much and i sold my entire life to them

this was supposed to be one concert i can splurge on and then never again, but after seeing that i decided my wallet can fucking deal with it

anyways the hi touch went by so fast i was a little disappointed, like u rlly didn’t have time to do anything but maybe blurt out an “i love you” to every member and give them a hi five

like honestly, unless it was like the kcon hi touch where you actually HELD their hands and got a couple seconds with each of them them, i don’t think i can believe anybody who says they managed to utter out even a sentence and get a response back from them, our security kept pushing us through and shouting to us that “it’s a high five not a handshake” 

they were all even more gorgeous up close!!! the first one was chan and he had the sweetest smile but you could tell the poor baby was tired

and then not in order bc i can’t remember SHIT, but i remember jun and mingyu looking tall and gorgeous, and seungcheol smiled and touched my hand sO softly with his hair falling into his eyes jesus christ

ok but seungkwan??? actual angel. everyone says you can tell how much he loves and appreciates all of us carats and they’re all absolutely fucking right.

i’m so sad that i didn’t get the chance to say anything more to even josh or vernon who might understand me, i was so overwhelmed and rushed i could only say “thank you” to all of them dfgpaegpe i should have told them how much i loved them

ANYWAYS WHEN I GOT TO WOOZI I WANTED TO DIE, I COMMITTED EVERY FEATURE TO MEMORY, HIS EYE MAKEUP MADE HIM LOOK SO SOFT AND HE SMILED AT ME WHEN I THANKED HIM AND I WAS SO SHOOK

seokmin and jeonghan were right after him and i completely forgot about them both bc i was so shook by jihoon, i’m so sorry seokmin i’m so sad i can’t remember you (i think he was really tired too tho)

minghao was last and he gave me that adorable smile with his cute ass button nose and i WANTED TO CRY

so yeah my left hand touched all of their hands and one day i want to go to a concert that has an event where i can really talk to them all for a couple of seconds, i just want to be able to tell them how much i appreciate them for everything they do for us

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT

there’s some drama going around on twitter right now where soonyoung apparently threw shade at the fans mobbing them at pearson airport but idk if it’s actually true or not, it was hard for me to hear where i was standing but i knew for a fact that the translator was pretty terrible lmao he couldn’t keep up with svt at all

there was a disabled fan in a wheelchair up in the front on our side of the stage and they were all so sweet, they always smiled and waved at her, especially seungkwan and soonyoung

they really made sure that everyone felt noticed, they made sure to look around and wave at everyone in the balconies and shit too

jeonghan was an absolute angel???? he really made sure us carats on the far right of the stage felt appreciated, he took a lot of time to come close to our side and wave at all of us i wanted to cry

mingyu was really good with waving at us too, he’s tall and skinnier than i expected but an actual darling. my pal nush has a video where they were all lined up and he looked almost rIGHT AT HER and waved just as she was moving the camera to film her man junhui she was dying on the train this morning when she found out lmao

seungkwan too!!!

i blew a kiss at seungkwan when he was kinda looking in our direction and he smiled and wagged his finger and i thINK IT WAS IN RESPONSE TO ME??? IDK IF IT WAS REALLY BECAUSE OF ME BUT I WAS DEAD ANYWAY BOO SHOT UP MY BIAS LIST SO FUCKING FAST BECAUSE OF THAT

anyways i can’t believe that happened and i’m emotionally exhausted and dead, it was such a fantastic experience and i can’t wait to do it again someday

[ayma-nidiot]

In the White Light - Prideshipping fanfic Chapter 21

Also on AO3.

This will most likely be the darkest chapter in the entire fic, complete with lots of crying and cussing. Fair warning, Rex and Bandit King Bakura are going to suffer a ton in this chapter. This is the last chapter with significant Shrimpshipping. I promise the Prideshipping will get more significant from here on out!

For me, the characters' suffering is exacerbated by the horrible PMS cramps and bloating I had while writing this chapter. I also often get the flu when I forget to brush my teeth for a while and I think I feel one coming on (I just brushed my teeth this afternoon). Not helped, of course, by my intense work schedule. T_T Yet strangely, I feel more on a roll than ever!

Also, the title of this chapter is homage to one of my favourite yaoi manga, Ikoku Irokoi Romantan, by Ayano Yamane. I forgot to mention, too, why Kaiba refers to Rex as "rabbit stew." That is homage to one of my other favourite yaoi manga, Crimson Spell. Also by Ayano Yamane.

Chapter 21 – To Heaven or Hell

“So now that we know your real name, we need to head back to the palace,” Téa proposed. “Kaiba could be in trouble…”

“I… I don’t think I want to go.” Yami Yugi moped while hugging his knees. “Besides, Kaiba is more than capable of fending for himself.”

“Come on, man, you’re the king for cryin’ out loud!” Joey pulled Yami Yugi off the ground. “You’re gonna let one little lover’s quarrel make you shirk your duties?”

“But-”

“Ya’ know what, screw what Anubis said! He’s dead! And anyway, did rich- I mean, Kaiba actually say that he’d rather be president of KaibaCorp than be your wife?”

“…You know, you’re right, Joey. It may be hard, but… This isn’t the first time that we’ve quarreled, and it certainly won’t be the last. As any good partner should, I need to learn to communicate.”

“Pharaoh!” Téa smiled.

“What are you guys doing just standing there?” Yami Yugi summoned his Curse of Dragon and got on it.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” Joey mounted his Red-Eyes Black Dragon while Tristan joined him.

Tristan waited until they were nearly at the palace to speak his mind. “Say, guys? I noticed that those shrimpy brats weren’t with us the whole time.”

“Rex and Weevil, you mean?” asked Yugi.

“I just hope they’re not causing trouble at the palace…” Téa remarked. “Knowing those two, they’re probably- Oh my! The duel’s still going on?”

“Looks like a tag duel!” Tristan exclaimed, and his expression changed when he saw the half-shifted Weevil. “Whoa, it’s Spiderman!”

“Pretty sure that’s not what Spiderman is supposed to look like, Tristan.” Joey squinted. “Is that… It can’t be! Bug boy can transform like rich boy can?”

Red shadows and flames engulfed Weevil. He expressed no pain as he grew taller, becoming a gigantic spider that Yami Yugi remembered. “It’s that spider from the vision quest!”

“Raaaaa!”

As Weevil trampled onto the battlefield, charging towards Yami Marik, Rex looked to his Duel Disk. The Dark Effigy had disappeared, replaced by an even stronger monster card. “Weevil…” His gaze turned up to the beautiful creature his boyfriend had become. “This form… is amazing…”

“Aaaaaargh!” Four spider legs pierced Yami Marik’s body, and he died almost instantly.

“How do you like them apples?” Rex smirked at his only remaining opponent, who had uncharacteristically taken on a somber expression. “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue? Or should I say, spider got your tongue?”

“I thought I recognized you two!”

“Yeah, we’re the ‘brats’ who gave you back your Millennium Ring!”

“I’m talking about the past, you fool! You do remember the pharaoh’s vision quest, do you not? Doesn’t the spider look familiar?”

“Wh-What?” The truth finally clicked for Rex. “Now that you mention it, my rabbit form looked a lot like that rabbit, too. But what are you getting at?”

“I’m saying that just like Kaiba here, the two of you also had past selves. …Back when all of the High Priests were still alive, I used to be one of the royal family’s most hated enemies. They… They killed them all… They killed everyone in my home village of Kul Elna, just to make some fancy schmancy artifacts called the Millennium Items!”

“Bakura…” In a moment of weakness, Yami Yugi couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man.

“This is what started my war against the royal family. I wanted to steal the Millennium Items so that I may become pharaoh and overthrow the old one. And by my side the whole time were my most trusted thieves, Sia and Hu. As a bandit, I couldn’t bring myself to have compassion for another, not until those two orphans came into my life. Hu was an outspoken young man who had the ability to persuade anyone. Sia… He had a gift for writing and strategizing. He was my only equal in wits – so much that I had even named him as successor.”

“What happened to them?” Even a complete dimwit like Rex could feel empathy towards the Bandit King.

“In my desperation to destroy the royal family, I found another individual who hated the royal family as much as I did. His name was Anubis. I pleaded for his aid to kill the pharaoh, and in exchange, he asked for two strong individuals…” Bandit King Bakura’s breath hitched a few times. “So I offered to him Sia and Hu. But his experiments failed, and my only two friends had died… They died for nothing!”

“…” Kaiba couldn’t stand to look at Bandit King Bakura; even he felt tears coming on.

“And now… Now, I finally get to see them again!”

“What do you mean, ‘again?’” Weevil stood down.

“You…” The Bandit King continued to cry as he looked at Weevil and drew his next card. “Forgive me for what I’m about to do, Sia… No, Earthbound God Uru!”

“I… I’m a god?”

“That will be ‘was’ in a few seconds!” Bandit King Bakura played the card he just drew. “I play my spell De-Spell to destroy Archfiend Palabyrinth! Now history repeats itself!”

“What do you-” Weevil could say no more as his body and soul quickly began to fade. “Aaaaah!”

“You…” Rex fell to his knees and cried when Weevil had died. “YOU FUCKING BASTARD! What did you do to my boyfriend?”

“I got rid of the Field Spell he needed to survive… Hu, I’m sorry.”

“My name is Rex Raptor, you motherfucker! I’ll fucking make you pay!”

“Hey, calm down, rabbit stew!” Kaiba intervened, then turned to the Bandit King. “Bakura, in case you forgot, there are three duelists present right now! And right now, you’re looking at the one who’s going to kick your ass!”

“Priest Seto… No, I will be the one to kick your ass. You and your ilk… You took everything from me… You and the pharaoh will suffer in hell!”

“Please, like I haven’t been told to go to hell before,” replied Kaiba as he drew Polymerization. “I activate the special ability of my White Stone of the Ancients in my Graveyard to add a Blue-Eyes from there to my hand! Then my Assault Wyvern destroys your Battle Fader!”

“Rr...” Bandit King Bakura didn’t have any monsters on his side of the field or his hand.

“Then I tribute my Assault Wyvern to Special Summon the other Blue-Eyes in my Graveyard… Now, Blue-Eyes! Attack the Bandit King directly!”

“This physical pain… It’s nothing compared to what my people and I have suffered because of people like you!” After Rex didn’t draw anything that he could summon, the Bandit King slammed a monster onto his Duel Disk. “I summon Ally of Justice Quarantine in attack position! Good luck trying to Special Summon your light monsters now, Priest Seto. And…”

“Ah!” Rex had few words as the Bandit King’s gaze fixed on him.

“Good luck to you, Hu, in the afterlife… Ally of Justice Quarantine, attack Hu directly!”

“N-Nooooooo!” Pain seared throughout Rex’s body. “Weevil… Baby, wait for me… I’m coming… to join you…”

Rex’s death was the final straw for Kaiba, and he didn’t hold his tears back any longer. “Do you like torturing others, you monster?”

“Me? A ‘monster?’ Speak for yourself! Aren’t you the one who ‘destroys innocent souls’ every day? Even more so now that you are only one of three people who have retained their shapeshifting abilities to the modern world? And you plan to do it some more after you officially break up with the pharaoh and return to KaibaCorp? Also, you have no right to be sad about Hu’s death when I’ve known him for so long! Or… Don’t tell me that you’ve grown attached to someone other than the pharaoh or your younger brother?”

“Shut… up…”

“Make your next move! It will be your la-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Kaiba drew the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. “I can’t summon my ultimate beast yet, but I can get rid of your Ally of Justice Quarantine with my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”

“I won’t be defeated… Not by someone like you! I play the spell Jam Breeding Machine, and a Slime Token is summoned to my side of the field!”

“That’s it? A tactic that Marik tried on the pharaoh, and failed? Then I’ll set a monster and destroy that Slime Token with Blue-Eyes!”

“You’ll… never…. Aaaah! I play Pot of Greed! Then I’ll use De-Spell to get rid of Jam Breeding Machine so I can summon Brain Golem using the new Slime Token as a tribute!” Brain Golem, attack that set monster!”

“…What a dumbass you are, Bakura.” Kaiba didn’t bother to look at the card he just drew. “You just destroyed my last White Stone of the Ancients, which I banish to add the last Blue-Eyes White Dragon I need to my hand! Then I’ll activate the spell Polymerization to Fusion Summon my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!”

“That’s your ultimate beast?”

“No, my ultimate beast is…” Kaiba laid the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon onto his Duel Disk. “Myself! Behold the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon for the few seconds you have before it blasts you away! Shining Neutron Blast!”

Yami Yugi watched the final move of the duel, still floating from afar on his Curse of Dragon. “Kaiba… My love, well done.”

“So this… is how it ends…” The Bandit King looked to his arm; already, his hand had been consumed by the shadows. “I’m… finally dying.”

“Bakura…”

“What, you still have words for me, even now?” Bandit King Bakura gave a half-hearted chuckle. “What is it?”

“It’s about Anubis… I thought I’d let you know that the pharaoh defeated him himself.”

“He… He did, huh? Thank…. you…” So were Bandit King Bakura’s last words as his body and soul were no more.

Yami Yugi could hide no more, and ordered the Curse of Dragon down to Kaiba while his companions followed. “Kaiba!”

“Ph-Pharaoh…” Kaiba wasn’t prepared to face the man he loved. “And the rest of the Dweeb Patrol, too. You were watching the whole thing, weren’t you?”

“Er, most of it,” Joey answered. “We saw everything from when Weevil turned into a spider onwards.”

“Weevil… Rex…” Yugi, being the softhearted young man he was, cried. “They’re… dead, aren’t they? I know they were thorns in our sides the whole time, but… they really gave it their all in that duel! They didn’t deserve to die! Marik didn’t either!”

“Yugi…” Téa had begun to cry too, and before she could really break out in tears, she noticed Marik’s body glowing. “Hey! What’s happening to Marik?”

As soon as Téa took a single step forward, Marik not only moved, but he groaned. “Ugh…”

“Shit! That creep is still alive!”

Joey prepared to summon his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and stopped when Marik managed to get on his feet. “What do you mean ‘creep?’ Where am I?”

“Hey, easy there!” Tristan ran over to Marik, and helped him walk to where everyone else was. “So… You’re the real Marik, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. My ‘other self’ is gone for good this time.”

“Wait, Marik. Before you continue…” Yami Yugi pointed to two beams of light descending from the sky and hitting the ground in front of them.

“Aaaaaah! More enemies!” Téa scrambled about, nearly slipping on a sand dune.

“Guess again, Téa.” Yami Yugi waited for the light to dissipate, and was certainly surprised to see Rex and Weevil again, both in half-shifted form.

“Ugh…” Rex’s vision was still blurry, but not enough to obscure his view of Weevil and his eight spider legs.

Though he was just as weak, Weevil had strength enough to give his boyfriend a hug. “Rex! Oh, my beloved… You’re alive…”

Rex returned the hug, pressing his rabbit paws into Weevil’s back. “Weeves, baby… I’m even happier that you’re alive, despite the hell we’ve been through.”

“I will go anywhere, my love, as long as it is with you. I’ll accompany you to heaven or hell.” Weevil stroked Rex’s rabbit ears. His upper spider legs trailed from there to Rex’s back, pulling him in for a kiss.

“Um… Do we really need to see this?” Tristan’s eyebrow twitched.

“Well, I kinda knew those two were together,” Joey remarked, rubbing the space underneath his nose. “After Duelist Kingdom, they were inseparable.”

“I’m more interested in how they’re still alive,” spoke Yami Yugi. “Perhaps in a Shadow Tag Duel, if a duelist dies, they will come back to life if their partner wins.”

“Speaking of Duelist Kingdom…” Weevil spoke when he had broken the kiss. “I’m sorry that I was such an embarrassment back then.”

“Don’t worry about it, man.” Yugi shook his head. “That’s in the past.”

“Was I… Did I do good today?”

“Weevil Underwood, you were damned awesome out there!” Joey bent down to ruffle Weevil’s hair. “I wish I could turn into an awesome spider… god… thingy too!”

“You see?” Yami Yugi squatted to Weevil’s eye level. “If you just believe in the heart of the cards and see the errors of your ways, you have the potential to be a great duelist.”

“And if it wasn’t for you, my evil persona would still be plaguing me,” Marik added with a bow. “I am forever in your debt.”

“…Yeah, I’ll have to agree,” Kaiba hesitated. “You’re quite the worthy rival to the pharaoh. After me, of course.”

“K-Kaiba…” Weevil could feel light tears in the corners of his eyes. “Thank you… so much… for saving Rex… Not even all the cards in the world are… worth as much as him…”

Joey waited a while for Weevil to say something else and grew concerned when he didn’t receive a response. “Weevil! No… No! Not after you just came back to us!”

Kisara and Mana knelt down to check for vital signs. After confirming that Weevil – along with Rex – was indeed alive, Kisara spoke, “Relax, Joseph. They’re alive. They’re just out cold and in need of rest.”

“Hahaha…” Joey wiped away his few tears. “I-I knew that!”

“Mana, you and Kisara will take these two to the palace’s infirmary.” Yami Yugi ordered. “The two of you will be responsible for caring for them. We’ll follow in a little bit, after I’ve told Kaiba what I’ve learned today.”

[hellyeahrpmemes]

※ JENNA MARBLES SENTENCE STARTERS, PT. IV ※

here’s sentences from 10 more of jenna’s videos! feel free to change names/pronouns/zodiac signs/etc.! PART 1 • PART 2 • PART 3

WE GOT A HAMSTER

“I want a hamster.”

“This is like the fourth thing you’ve said to me all day.”

“No, we’re not doing that.”

“Okay, whatever you say, Papi.”

“I’m a walking ad.”

“Are you excited to be a daddy?”

“We have great music we can listen to in the car.”

“I think he’s had it with me.”

“Get you a boyfriend who’s great with animals.”

“I like you an awful lot.”

“This is my dream. I’m living my dream life.”

“This is all very complicated.”

“We’re doing the best we can, given the current circumstances.”

MY BOYFRIEND BUYS MY MAKEUP

“At this point, fuck it.”

“This shit is so fucking expensive, it’s not even funny.”

“It was a lot more frustrating than I thought it was gonna be.”

“This is already bad.”

“I feel like you’re trying to sabotage me.”

“It’s as magical as I’d hoped.”

“Did you just get it to eat it?”

“Can you please get that out of your mouth?”

“Are you happy with your purchases?”

“Why would you conceal something when you can draw attention to it?”

“Honestly, this isn’t that bad.”

“This is actually pretty.”

“I’m good at this.”

“You bought it ‘cause it was called ‘hysterical’.”

“Sometimes you need it for moral support.”

“That peace of mind is what life is all about to me.”

“Is that what you wanted?”

“This is very subtle.”

“Why are you so close to me?”

“I mean, it’s a look.”

“Are you pleased with that?”

“I think you look great, fuck.”

“I feel like it could be worse.”

“Don’t you like unbearable pain?”

“Um, so, can I leave now?”

MAKING A TINY LIVING ROOM FOR MY DOGS

“I’m really tired of explaining myself, so, you know what? I’m just gonna cut to the chase.”

“I want one of those…!”

“This isn’t my house, we rent this.”

“I can fuck it up a little.”

“Because I’m an adult…!”

“Fuck it, we’re just gonna try and see what happens.”

“Oh, this is gonna suck.”

“Pray for me 2k17.”

“It got in my eyes, it’s not funny.”

“That’s better than nothing, right?”

“I’m no longer scared to be in here.”

“It doesn’t fit exactly, but, ya know… give me a break…!”

“Perfect. Nailed it.”

“Did it come with any nails? Of course it didn’t.”

“She straight up stole a liquor bottle and left.”

“It’s nicer in there than it is in our house.”

“You have a French Bulldog lamp, which I’m honestly jealous of, and I might take.”

“I have an under the stairs Harry Potter cabinet wonderland.”

BRAIDING THINGS INTO MY HAIR

“I know what you’re thinking: this hair is very dirty. You are correct.”

“I’m being incredibly selfish lately and I’m doing whatever I want to, and I’m having a great time.”

“Maybe this isn’t the best method.”

“This is amazing and you know it!”

“See, this is what happens when you just think a little.”

“I’m having a great time, and everything is great.”

“I’m on a roll, and this is amazing.”

“Why is there a fork in your hair?”

“You’ll be jealous later.”

“This is gonna help you, this is gonna change your life.”

“Not only is this incredibly functional, but look at how beautiful. Stunning.”

“It’s starting to feel a little heavy, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“It looks great, it feels great, it is great.”

“I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but this might be the best idea I’ve ever had, in my whole life.”

“We’ve had the secret the whole time, we just didn’t think of it…! I mean, maybe ‘cause it’s stupid, but it doesn’t matter, the option is there…!”

“We still wanna get a little turnt, but just a little.”

“That’s so fucking dark, wow, I hate myself.”

“I’m literally the smartest person I’ve ever met in my whole life.”

“I’m a human Christmas tree.”

“I mean, is it stupid? Yeah.”

“I have everything in here that I could possibly need for today.”

“This is incredibly functional.”

“10/10 experiment.”

A FULL FACE OF RHINESTONES

“I’ve used spirit gum, and that shit doesn’t come off.”

“No turning back now.”

“Everyone has different dreams, okay, and this one’s mine.”

“I can see my own disappointment in the reflection of the rhinestones.”

“I didn’t come here to fuck around.”

“Is this bad for you?”

“Nah, it’s probably fine.”

“Is this beautiful or what?”

“Don’t let people on the Internet fool you, this shit’s fucking easy.”

“Ooh, it feels so good, ooh.”

“It’s okay? This is great…!”

“I look like crystal Santa.”

“This is gonna be a nightmare to get off.”

“That’s fucking dope.”

“Are you jealous?”

“Do you want me to do yours?”

“Can you think of anything better to do than this?”

“Julien, has anyone ever told you that you’re a kind and patient boyfriend?”

“Julien, relationships mean compromising.”

“If you don’t stop talking shit to me…”

“We have to break up now, I’m sorry.”

“Are you ashamed of me?”

“Oh my god, this is fucked up, dude.”

“I can’t see…! I can’t fucking see…!”

“What is so funny…!?”

“I feel like a lizard person.”

“Don’t do drugs, not even once.”

“I don’t know how to help me.”

“Where’s Jenna? Who are you, what have you done?”

“Ow, be gentle…!”

“I relate to none of what you just said.”

“I don’t regret it, I think this was worth it overall.”

“I hope right now that your face is doing better than mine.”

“I’m gonna go to the hospital now.”

“Alright, your turn.”

READING MEAN COMMENTS ABOUT MY DOGS

“Who goes on the Internet to just shit on dogs? Satan.”

“Is he okay?”

“Does that sound like Hell to you?”

“Why does everyone think you’re dead?”

“I love you so much, but there’s nothing in your head.”

“Can you be on the verge of tears if you’re already crying?”

“That’s the most accurate comment.”

“It’s like he wants to die.”

“Get fucked.”

“Marbles is alive…!”

DOING MY OWN ACRYLIC TOENAILS

“Why am I like this?”

“I’m still not done with my acrylic adventure.”

“Are they functional? No. Do they look good? No. Does anyone want them the way I’m gonna do them? No.”

“I think I’ve made a terrible mistake already.”

“Off to a rough start, I’d say.”

“What have I signed myself up for?”

“Vote now if you think this is a terrible idea.”

“Oh my god, what have I done?”

“This is my own fault. This is my fault.”

“I don’t know why I thought this was gonna be fun and good.”

“If we’re doing it, we’re doing it all the way.”

“Fuck with me…!”

“Oh, that is everything I wanted.”

“I’m so pleased already.”

“Oh, god, it’s a bloodbath…!”

“Pray for my toes.”

“Oh, no, this is getting bad.”

“Oh, it doesn’t feel good.”

“It still doesn’t feel great.”

“My vision is coming to life.”

“I really hope this doesn’t end in me going to the ER.”

“This is the most attractive I’ve ever felt.”

“Take that, motherfucker.”

“This is a mistake.”

“That is fucking disgusting, that’s next level nasty.”

“I fucking did this. I did this…!”

“This feels terrible.”

“This is a fuckshow.”

“That’s fucked up. That’s fucked up.”

“Ow, oh my god, be gentle…!”

“Don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that don’t do that.”

“They came out really elegant.”

“What I lack in a license, I make up for in zest.”

“Is that gross? I think that’s pretty gross.”

MY BOYFRIEND TEACHES ME JIU JITSU 2

“That is gonna be a big problem.”

“Alright, I’m ready.”

“I’m not Sensei, I’m Julien.”

“I’m not Papa…!”

“What do you call your jiu jitsu teacher? Papa? Father? Do you call him Master? You call him Nunchuck Daddy.”

“I wanna show you something I think you’ll like.”

“Why are you wearing shoes?”

“Were you hiding these from me?”

“I should’ve eaten before we did this.”

“I’m hungry. And tired.”

“You can’t be a rag doll.”

“Ow, what the fuck, Julien!?”

“You don’t push my arm into another dimension…!”

“This feels like an unfair weight advantage.”

“Your elbows are exceptionally sharp.”

“Do not lick my fingers.”

“Sensei, forgive me, nunchuck master daddy, forgive me.”

“No no no no no, I was asking a question, please don’t make me pay for my mistakes…!”

“You did not nail it.”

“I nailed it.”

“This isn’t fun anymore.”

“How dare you call me a non athlete!”

“Boy, I can bowl you under the table.”

“Don’t touch my feet.”

“I’m gonna grab that.”

“And I’m gonna caress your face.”

“Please be gentle and don’t kill me by accident.”

“Oh, wait, we’re going somewhere? Oh my god, I would’ve packed a bag if I knew we were going somewhere.”

“What is wrong with you, I thought you loved me!?”

“I have whiplash, I need to go to the doctor.”

“Shit, my plan has been foiled.”

“I’ve been to the afterlife, I know what it looks like.”

“Yes, Daddy, I’m ready.”

“Fifty Shades Darker, tie me up.”

“Do you care about my neck at all?”

“Why do you move like a sloth?”

“How are you supposed to do anything with this many clothes on?”

“Stop saying Fifty Shades Darker.”

“I don’t know what you’re doing, this is too advanced for me.”

“I’ve unlocked a jiu jitsu hack!”

“Don’t fall asleep!”

“That is karate and you know it.”

DOING MY OWN ACRYLIC NAILS

“I’ve fallen down another beauty hole.”

“I know what you do is incredibly artistic and complicated and a skill.”

“Right about now I’m gonna show you how to be extra 2008 hot.”

“Girl, I’m sorry, but I’m going over to the dark side.”

“I’m really gonna try. I’m gonna go for it.”

“Okay, wow, I’m having a hard time already, and I’m just fitting the sticker.”

“I guess we’re just gonna make a pointy witch nail.”

“I’m kinda stalling because I’m legit fucking terrified.”

“We gotta work faster, I guess.”

“Susie, girl, you are a liar, this is impossible…!”

“The beauty, the grace, the craftsmanship.”

“I think the fuck not.”

“That is so ugly.”

“God, that is a mess.”

“Oh my god, it feels awful, I hate it.”

“This was the worst idea.”

“I’m not gonna lie, though, this it probably the most fun I’ve had doing my nails in a long time.”

“This is really fun, it just feels terrible.

“10/10 would never recommend doing this at home. Ever.”

“Do you hear that sound? It’s like my fucking soul dying.”

“It looks wrong, it feels wrong, it is wrong.”

“I’m actually really proud.”

“I think it looks elegant.”

“Why is this so hard? I feel like this should be the easiest part.”

“I don’t give a fuck!”

“I should’ve given a fuck!”

“I have done the things.”

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done.”

“None of them look the same.”

“I’ve done it, y’all. I’ve drawn blood.”

“This is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made.”

“I have to get this off and I don’t know how.”

“I think I’ve reached the moment of madness.”

“I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking.”

“I’m so mad at myself for doing this.”

“It’s not even worth it. Look at that, it’s mediocre at best.”

REACTING TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE SMASH OR PASSED ME

“I see everything.”

“They seem harmless.”

“Is it cause I don’t like the Suite Life of Zack and Cody?”

“Is it cause I don’t get your Drake and Josh jokes?”

“I don’t know what I did to deserve that other than being an adult.”

“What’s a girl gotta do to get spit on by a stranger on the Internet?”

“Aw, that was nice.”

“Yay for me.”

“None of this offends me.”

“I don’t think I have a winning record right now.”

“Take me on a trip on your dick ship.”

“She called me 2008 hot.”

“What do I gotta do to get to at least 2010 hot?”

“I wish I was 1776 freedom hot.”

[ngeibheann]

HELL AND YOU

(Or “Proximity Rule”)

“I mean, I was dying of a fucking meth overdose. Of course, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.”  The explanation of hundreds of inexplicable scars. 

Pair: Mickey // Cassidy (ANTISANGUINE)

It’s about the proximity, more than anything else. It’s the warmth shared between bodies, still barely touching, fingers splayed across shoulder blades. Mickey doesn’t exactly know how to express the feeling of desolation that coming back from the dead gives him, and Cassidy had only barely missed witnessing the ordeal for himself.  They kept to Mickey’s own room, a dingy thing at the top of the Bonn Nui, showing the age of the building quite blatantly. It was Mickey’s own idea to bring him up to a private place, and he can’t shake the feeling of being a teenager again- complete with the slinking around the home and hiding behind closed doors to avoid confrontation. He could almost call it pitiful, in the same way. Another pity would be the sobriety. “Are ya all here, right now?” He asks, voice almost a quiet murmur, the small grin evident in his voice. “Or are ya really just this touchy with everyone?” “With nobody else,” Mickey says, softly. He doesn’t realize he’s practically whispering, hands trembling slightly. “And, I’m all here. For once.” “Ah,” Cassidy makes a small noise of understanding, glancing behind himself to check the still-unkempt bed. He places a hand over Mickey’s hip, a quiet guide to let them both stop standing for a moment, at least. “Bein’ all there is the worst, innit?” “The worst.” Mickey agrees, sitting near his nightstand. “You’d think it’d suck less, but now I’m just sore and jittery.” Nobody had to know that both of those things were gifted to him, rather than a commentary on his usual state of being. Cassidy seemed almost completely willing to accept it, save for his almost uncharacteristic quiet.  As if he were studying Mickey and the way he digs through the nightstand drawer, sputtering curses when he finally procures a pipe and a small round of foil. When he turns to face the other, prizes in hand, he’s greeted by a hand on his face. Mickey flinches, almost reflexively, before sighing heavily and leaning into the touch. “Somethin’s up with you,” He warns, quietly. “Bleach fumes finally get t’ you?” “I don’t usually like when people touch me.” Mickey says, pressing an impassive kiss to the other’s jaw, ignoring the bleach comment. “You’re just, new to me.” “Careful, been told I’m a real dirty bastard,” Cassidy says, and Mickey can’t quite tell if he’s joking or not. The short kiss he gets at the end of the comment only helps to confuse him more, however. “But, I’m still a little in th’ dark about you.” Mickey keeps working away at the foil, hash crumbling away from aluminum sheet as he picks up the resin and packs it into the bowl. He doesn’t remember leaning against the other, let alone how Cassidy’s hand had somehow slipped around him and caught at his waist, fingers wandering under the hem of his shirt. But, even still, he trusts him. “What’d you wanna know?” He asks, his fingers snapping to ignite a simple flame under the corner of the bowl’s chamber. “I got about thirty-two years of stories.” “Why hang out with a succubus?” Cassidy asks, fingers skating across barely Mickey’s exposed hip. “Incubus.” Mickey says, drawing in a deep inhale of smoke, evident through the glass walls of the pipe. “Horny demon in a wig,” He half-corrects himself, watching Mickey exhale a cloud of ash-white with a near pensive grace. Mickey glances at him, handing the cherried pipe over, smile evident. “Either way, why bother?” Mickey could admit some comfort, at least in the way he takes the pipe and smokes without prompting, or the languidly absent-minded touches. But the question stuns him, momentarily. He could ask about Benny, but he knew full well that Cassidy at least liked Benny in some degree. Enough to be nice. But, every time he sees Scarlett, he goes quiet and contemplative in a way that Mickey never really expects. “Do you want the truth?” He asks, pressing slightly closer. “Usually.” Mickey sighs, wringing his hands until the pipe returns to him, which he gratefully takes as an excuse to take another hit and delay the truth of the matter. “I sold my soul to her so I could be immortal,” Mickey says through the smoke, and he feels the hand freeze against the lowest rungs of his ribs. A small sigh of “sunnuvabitch” permeates the quiet air, and Mickey offers the pipe. Cassidy takes it, quietly. “I mean, I was dying of a fucking meth overdose. Of course, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.” “First time isn’t mainline, y’know that? I accidentally killed a guy with that before and-“ His ramble stutters, almost overly nervous despite the excess of the hash between them. His hand tenses, harsh against a long, ragged scar that he had previously left unnoticed. Mickey winces, discomfort audible. “Shite, sorry-“ “No, no, you’re fine,” Mickey says, hand over his. It’s an invite to stay longer, to touch more, to revel in the quiet privacy between each other. “You wanted answers, I can give you answers.” He’s not exactly sure if it’s the high or the honest-to-god desire to be seen in full by someone that drives his momentary lack of terror. But, he takes his chance, fighting briefly with his shirt to finally remove it- chucking it onto the hardwood floor. He leaves himself bare, save for the binder across his chest. Across his body, hundreds of warped and wavering scars hatching across the near-exposed bone. The look he gets in return shifts from a curious amusement to a harsh notation of gravity, the seriousness of the implications blatant on Cassidy’s face as he puts out the smoldering hash, pipe laid simply on the nightstand. “Are these-“ He asks, fingers ghosting along the scars against his ribs as Mickey winces to the touch. He realizes this, brow furrowing when he looks to Mickey, the mental math of the tragedy slowly rolling in. “She’s got a habit of beating the shit outta me, sometimes,” Mickey admits, hands over the vampire’s to encourage their position against his body. The base fear grapples with the innate want, and he demands that they want will win. “I’m a terrible motherfucker, so I might not die, but every day’s a new kind of hell. She also, er-“ “No, no. I’m not gonna let ya sit here an’ tell me how she’s allowed t’ make ya look like a goddamned ragdoll.” Cassidy’s voice is stern, eyes hard when he stares back at Mickey. “What kinda terrible would ya have done in thirty-two years t’ do this? Or do I have t’ give ya my whole talk on th’ moral bullshit a’ God?” He’s not sure what makes him think to situate himself on the other’s lap, straddling him to keep their proximities close and their words closer. Mickey makes a mental note to thank the dealer for that, later. “I have killed so many people.” He says, barely audible. He expects disgust, anger, disdain. Something to prove him terrible and unknowable. But, receives a hold in return, forehead against his in quiet contemplation and the general quiet mutter of “Me, too”. “So, is this the terrible bastard’s club?” Cassidy asks, still not letting go. “Cause if it is, we should make membership badges with why we’re goin’ t’ Hell.” The joke gets a small laugh, wandering hands trailing down the scars until he reaches one, still raw and pink.   “Clipped me with a butterfly knife a little before you got here,” Mickey admits, sheepishly. “If by clipped, we’re talking about how she gouged me in the stomach until I passed out.” Cassidy makes a noise of what Mickey can only call begrudging dissatisfaction, palming the trace of the wound when he kisses him, hard and defiant before he could add any sort of defense to Scarlett’s action. Mickey would have been shocked, but he finds himself leaning into the attention, sloppy concern feeling worlds better than the memory of death or the tearing of flesh.

The neediness of it only implores Mickey to try harder at fussing with the buttons on the vampire’s shirt, coordination faltering as the hash sets in. The two of them, half undressed and stacked on top of one another and completely sound with themselves in the quiet.

Too preoccupied to hear the door open, Cassidy moving to lay Mickey out on the bed in a fluid motion, the bartender giving a quiet woof of impress behind the move and the much lankier vampire pinning him to the bed. The door clicks shut, and the loud sucking of teeth permeates the room behind the incoherent muttering between the two.

“Oh, don’t mind me. I’ve just come to steal your bong.” Scarlett announces as she skirts across the room, digging through a closet who’s doors had long since been removed and replaced with a heinously tacky bead and macrame curtain. Mickey freezes, deer in headlights and practically mute. Cassidy, however, doesn’t take to the interruption with any measure of kindness. He stays almost too close to Mickey, an impulse to act like an inhuman shield between them.

“Go blow th’ owner of the smoke shop across th’ street, maybe.” He says, venom apparent. Scarlett turns around; glass tube in hand. Her expression feigns a sense of hurt before the grin comes.

“Oh, you’re a bold little fucker,” She says, waving the bong at the two of them. “Mickey, keep him leashed, I would really hate to have to blow your pet’s brains out.”

Mickey stays frozen, head falling to the side to stare long and hard at Scarlett, in a foggy sense of understanding. His hands stay firmly clasped around the back of Cassidy’s neck, a physical instruction to just stay put, motherfucker.

“There’s more weed in the nightstand,” Mickey says, unblinking.

Scarlett laughs, self-assured as she swipes the remaining drugs from the nightstand, smiling wide at the others on the bed, making note of the scar she had so recently gifted him.

“Glad to see you both finally got a room, crackheads.”

She leaves, as loudly as she entered, Mickey sighing heavy relief as he stares at the slow rotation of the ceiling fan.  

“You gotta just play nice,” He says, passively. “She did me at least one decent favor.”

“Favor?” Cassidy asks, incredulous. “She beats your bloody brains in just ‘cause she feels like ya deserve it. That’s not a favor, ‘s just miserable service.”

“Nah, like- she did me at least one solid,” Mickey says, looking back to him. “I mean, I think it’s pretty good.”

“What’s good about gettin’ kicked t’ shite by a demon in a wig?”

“I mean, we get to do this whole immortal thing together, right? That’s something.”

A beat between them, before a wheezing, resigned laugh.

That would be enough, Mickey thinks.

That justifies it, just enough.