#like all 5 of the intersecting plots

[byuntrash101]

the good friend

f!reader x san x mingi ft ateez smut | mdni 3.4k san has known about mingi’s crush on his girlfriend for a while now. he also happens to be a very good and caring friend who values their friendship very much. and san would do just about anything to help a friend nsfw tags under the cut

a lil plot, idol!au, established relationship, bf san, mingi is the simp master, also rengoku hair mingi because i miss him, alcohol consumption (but consent is unquestionable), safe word mentionned but not used, pet names, (baby, princess, sannie...), unprotected sex (recommanded by 0/10 dentists), wall sex, semi public sex (full dorm hallway sex), exhbitionism/voyeurism, dirty talk, slight breath play (gentle), masturbation (f & m), controlled orgasm (f)

a/n: OMGGGG THIS ONE IS JUST SDMLKSQDMMSQLKKFF. i kinda like how turned out because im feral and shameless when it comes to these men. if you like it PLEASE TELL ME i might make a part 2 👀

@shinestarhwaa for you boo <3

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It’s funny how Mingi is still stuck in this same situation years later, he thought while staring at you from across the kitchen table. When he first saw you 5 years ago, your back leaned against the company building, eyes glued to your phone, he thought of how pretty you were but he was late for practice again and he knew he was going to be scolded by Hongjoong so he just hurried himself in.

This encounter should have been left at that, he would have forgotten about you the next day and he would be at peace right now. 

But no.

You were still waiting there when he got out much much later at night, sweaty, tired and starving. He took a look at you again but this time you lifted your face from the screen of your phone and your eyes met. He didn’t know why he was flustered and cursed himself silently when he whipped his head to the side, quickly breaking eye contact. But despite the uninviting body language you took the first step in his direction. It took everything he had in him not to stumble back and stand his ground in the most natural way he could muster given his current state.

‘Hmm… Excuse me?” you started hesitantly, “Hmm… I’m looking for…” Mingi was all ears and eyes for you, focussing on your every move and word. In that split instant he noticed the color of your eyes, the soft texture of your hair and the mesmerizing way your lips moved to form words, that made sentences which he was supposed to listen to and he was arguably doing a poor job. But right when he was losing focus you were interrupted.

“Y/N!!” San’s voice resonated from the entryway. You whipped your head in the direction of the voice and turned away from Mingi with the most radiant and heavenly smile he had ever seen. 

“Nevermind. Thank you” you said quickly before running to San’s side. 

Mingi stood there for a second completely stunned as he watched the pair of you walking away, San’s hand reaching for yours right before you disappeared at the intersection. 

The next day San made him promise not to tell anyone he saw you waiting for him. He didn’t tell him exactly you were his girl but Mingi was smart enough to figure that out on his own.

And that should have been the end of the story. You should have remained San’s secret girlfriend and Mingi would have forgotten about you and your perfect smile in a week or two…

But once again… no. It did not go that way.

Over the years it got worse. You both grew, you weren’t 18 anymore. You grew into a beautiful, stunning woman and Mingi grew into a man. And you even became friends. With the years you got to meet the rest of Ateez. You became friends with all of them but you were closest to Mingi without a doubt, much to his disarray.

That’s exactly how he came to stare at you from across the kitchen table as you were leaning your head on San’s broad shoulder, barely holding your head up as you had one too many bottles of grapefruit soju. San was gently caressing your flushed cheek.

Everybody was laughing, drinking and enjoying themselves, but Mingi who was also slightly drunk just couldn’t stop staring at you, stealing glances at you through his eyelashes. To the others he looked like he was zoning out like he usually does after a drink or two but in fact he was focussing on you. Precisely on your neck and the sleeve of your top slowly sliding off your shoulder. The large and rounded neckline of your loose oversized top was barely hanging to the edge of your shoulder at this point and if you moved even in the slightest it would completely expose your shoulder. To everyone present that wasn’t a big deal. Nobody had even noticed apart from Mingi. And when you lift your head up again to bark at Wooyoung that was making fun of you for being a lightweight it happened.

The tired sleeve gave in. Mingi had a front row seat on your delicate collar bone and the smooth skin of your shoulder lightly shiny. If only that was it he could have handled it but the large neck line was also hanging very low on your chest so low that his eyes were rapidly forgetting about your shoulder to solely focus on your chest. His eyes scanned the shadow of your cleavage, the ceiling light was casting on you, he imagined how your breasts would feel in his large palms, how soft your skin would be and how your nipples would taste on his tongue.

He thought so much that he started pitching a tent in his large cargo pants. The tent of shame like he liked to call it. The tent he tried to fight off so many times because San was one of his best friends… And you were… his.

That thought broke his own heart.

“Well! I’m swamped, guys. I’m going to bed” he declared getting up, both fists stuffed in his large pockets concealing the “shame”.

The others grumbled to make him stay. They were having a nice time but honestly he just wanted to catch a break from his own heart and hop into the shower.

San knew exactly why he wanted to leave. He had known for a while about Mingi’s feelings for you. In reality everyone knew except for two people. One was Mingi who thought he was so good at concealing himself when in reality he was staring at you like a puppy all day and the other one was yourself. You just never noticed because to you Mingi was a friend, an attractive friend, granted! But a friend nonetheless. You didn’t think further than that. To you the idea of him having feelings for you was so far-fetched that the thought never entered the realm of possibilities.

Once Mingi had decided to go, the members followed one by one, Hongjoong was the second one. At the end only Wooyoung and Yeosang were playing a drinking game while you and San crashed on the couch. 

San was absentmindedly playing with your hair when he caught your hand dangerously slipping below his belt. He gripped your wrist firmly, an amused smirk playing on his lips.

“Y/n~~” he quietly singsang. He knew that was going to happen. Alcohol had only one single effect on you. It made you horny. Without fail, whenever you all gathered like this and drank, it made you feral. And today San felt mischievous.

***

Mingi exhaled a big sigh before stepping in the shower, the hot water running on his large back helped him take his mind off the chatter and laughter erupting from the living room at the end of the hall for a while he just glided the soap across his body. The hot air made him dizzy. He felt the warm water on his face letting the stream run down his hair. As he closed his eyes, flashes of you came back to him. 

Your cute flushed face, eyelids half closed, your eyes made sparkly from the soju, this adorable dorky smile you wore all evening, the exposed patch of skin, the neckline of your top hanging so low on your chest. He wondered without even realizing about the way he would have loved to lay you down on that table right there. Peeling your clothes one by one, taking his sweet time admiring your body slowly giving away all its secrets. 

He felt himself becoming hard again. He kept his eyes shut as he guided the soapy foam along his half hard member. 

He dreamed about the melodic wet sounds you would make when he would slide inside you, about the way you would grip him so perfectly, about how your eyes would roll back and your lips would lazily hang open as you lost yourself to his cock, abandoning yourself to him, only him.

He gripped his length even tighter, rapidly dragging his fist up and down his shaft, turning his tip bright red from his arousal and the hot water.

He thought even harder about your hands muffling your high pitched moans shamefully as his powerful thrusts rocked your body under him.

Fuck he wants to see you like that, he wants to have you like that he thought as he drove himself crazy, on the verge of bursting. He felt himself twitch in his hand, precum and soap mixing perfectly making this sinful act easier than ever. 

“Fuck” he grunted considering to finally let himself go but at the last second he opted out of it. He suddenly let go of the aching organ, twitching and pulsing, hot and dripping red tip begging for release.

But Mingi just couldn’t keep doing that anymore. Just seeing you in the day act like your friend and fuck himself to the thought of you at night. He had to somehow snap out of this trance, break free from the spell you casted on him five years ago back in Gang-nam.

After five years he had to come to the realization that you were with San and you would never be with him.

So without thinking twice Mingi turned the water from scolding hot to icy. That had two purposes: one calming his raging boner and two taking his mind off the painful reality he had to accept. He caught his bottom lip between his teeth and hissed in discomfort at the sudden temperature change. But it was efficient enough.

He quickly dried off and wrapped the wet towel around his waist. He crossed the living room to head out to the hall where San's room and his were. But when he entered the hall…

“Please”

Immediately he hid behind the corner of the L shaped hall out of pure instinct. That kind of sounded like… you?

“Please” you whimpered again. 

This time there was no doubt it was in fact your voice. 

“Can’t we do it in your room?” you asked, your voice interrupted by muffled moans.

“No I wanna take you right here” San responded, determined.

“But what if Mingi comes back from his shower?”

San smirked. That was exactly his intention but he just chuckled and brushed off the question. 

“Also if you really didn’t want to do it here. You’d use the safe word, right baby?” San’s smirk grew bigger as you stayed silent. “Wanna use the safe word baby?”

“No…” you admitted half heartedly.

“That’s what I thought” he said brushing his tip against you.

San wanted to be caught. He couldn't explain it properly but recently he started thinking about maybe offering Mingi some kind of relief. Because he’s had that huge crush on you for so long it must be really troublesome for him, right? So this little show for him was kind of a way to blow some steam off for him. Yeah! That’s right! San was doing that out of the goodness of his heart, out of friendship! Because he cared oh so dearly about his friend and not because the idea of having an audience flipped a switch in him. A flip he’s been fantasizing about for a while now.

“Spread your legs” San whispered. 

Mingi’s heart rattled against his ribs and rang in his ears. He held his chest as he didn’t even dare to breathe, not to mention move a single muscle.

“Babygirl” San started his lips pressed against the thin skin of your neck. “You’re already this wet for me”

His fingers brushed against your center, still clothed but already soaking wet.

“Were you touching yourself at the table again?” 

You nodded shyly. You just couldn’t help getting incredibly horny every time you had a drink.

“Yes” you admitted in a shameful whisper.

“What a naughty girl. Passing the blush as an effect of the alcohol when in fact you're touching yourself under the table despite your boyfriend’s friends gathered all around you.” you whined. “Maybe it’s even exactly why you couldn’t resist the urge huh baby?”

Mingi bit his lip, trying his hardest not to gasp. To think that you busied your hands into your folds while he was eyeing your exposed chest. And to think maybe, just maybe, you exposed yourself on purpose?

“Please… Sannie…” you begged again.

Mingi was going crazy. This whole time he was just leaning his bare back on the wall, dampened locks of hair, trailing water down his body. He couldn’t see anything he didn’t dare to move a muscle but fuck did he want to have a peek. Before he could even realize the raging boner was back on. Forcefully pulling up the towel he had tied around his hips.

“I love it when you beg baby” San whispered, lips pressed to your blazing skin.

Me too. 

Mingi thought so loud he was scared you would both hear him. One hand instinctively traveled to his engorged member, giving it a firm squeeze at the base while the other hand was pushing his flaming red and yellow hair back.

“Please… I can’t wait anymore” you said, granting your boyfriend’s wish.

“Please what, baby?” San teased again as he pushed your panties to the side. You hissed when you felt his tip brush against your bare pussy, digging your nails in his broad back.

“Cock!” you hurriedly replied, lust filling your mind. So eager you could barely form intelligible sentences “I want your cock” you demanded in a strangled whisper, hardly keeping your voice down.

Mingi had fought the idea of you against his own mind too many times today. He won at the dinner table and he won again in the shower but this battle… Knowing you there begging to be filled to the brim, exposed for anyone who might stumble across the sinful scene… He couldn’t fight that. He had to look. He had to see you.

So he dared. He dared to peek, just enough to have a look. Just one eye is all it took. And he saw…

He saw the both of you entangled into each other, both facing one another, your back pressed against the wall while San gripped your hips firmly with one hand and lifted one of your legs up with the other to grant himself access to your beautiful and soaked little pussy. He saw his friend’s smirk and eyebrow twitch as he gently pushed himself into your welcoming folds. But all this was only anecdotal. Because nothing, nothing! could come close to you. Mingi only had eyes -one eye in this case- for you.

He saw how your mouth went agape as you took him in, he saw how you arched your back and rested your head on the wall you were pressed up against. And he heard you trying your hardest not to make a noise and failing so miserably, much to his contentment. 

That sound, that fucking sound. He will never forget.

The raspy sigh you produced, audible bliss dripping from your lips as you refused to close your eyes, taking in the exalted face of your boyfriend.

San spotted from the corner of his eyes the flaming red strands of hair peeking from the angle of the hall. It made him smirk, his little scheme had worked. It made him even more determined to put on a good show for his friend, determined to drag those beautiful sounds out of you until you would beg him to stop. And you could have sworn you felt him grow even bigger inside you.

Without a second thought San settled a pace that was especially designed for you. Deep and slow. Just enough to keep you on edge. With every roll of his hips into yours you felt every single inch of his length deliciously scraping your clenching walls, gripping him desperately.

“Fuckkk” you cried out, biting down on your lower lip.

“You like that baby?” San asked you, the evil twinkle of lust dancing in his eyes.

“Yesss” you sighed, barely holding yourself up on the only leg that was supporting you. 

You gasped as he bottomed out again, this time staying there for a while. You instantly started to rock your hips into his, desperately clinging onto the friction.

“That’s right baby” San growled as his veiny hand left your side to tightly wrap around your narrow neck. “Fuck yourself on my cock”

And you were more than happy to oblige. You lost it at his words, his deep voice sending a shiver down your spine, applying just the right amount of pressure to coerce you.

Unholy wet squelching noises bounced back on the walls of the narrow hall all the way to Mingi ears. His hands violently pumping up and down his cock, thick slimy precum coating his tip and being dragged with each movement along his shaft. It was so hard not to make any noise but he pulled himself together just so he could keep looking at you.

“Sannie Please… Fuck me harder” the last ounce of bashfullness had evaporated out of your body as the carnal sin was clouding your judgement. “Fuck me senseless” your tone was demanding. You just couldn’t bear it anymore. You wanted to cum. You need to cum.

Mingi can't believe his ears or his eyes or any of his senses as a matter of fact… To hear you say these words with so much drive, so much desire. To see you plead with those sultry eyes… If only he was the one right there between your legs right now. If only he was the one pumping his hot and dripping cock into you until completion. If only he was the one feeling your cunt clench and pulse around him.

“Your wish is my command, Princess” San whispered before he caught your other leg and lifted you up, flipping both your legs onto his shoulders and folding you in two against the wall. And he slid himself right back in. Where was his rightful place. You gasped, this position allowed him to go even deeper and tears started to cloud your vision as his tip so precisely hit on your sensitive spot. Both of your hips perfectly angled to fit inside each other.

“Fuck yessss… j-just like that” you whispered through gritted teeth. “Please don’t stop Sannie”. Your voices shaken with each of San’s violent thrusts. “Fuck I love your cock” you sobbed as your eyes lost their focused and your mind slipped in thick foggy haze. And San chuckled, his eyes leaving yours for a split second to briefly look at the flamboyant orange tuft of hair peeking from the corner of the hall.

Fortunately Mingi was way to focus on you to notice San had spotted him.

Mingi was about to burst but he was determined to cum with you. Picturing your twitching cunt in place of his gripping fist.

You were a couple of thrusts away from coming undone and San knew it. He knew everything about your body. He knew every micro expression, every sound, every queue.

“You’re gonna cum baby?” he asked, short of breath.

“Yessss” you whined, trying hard not to cum on the spot.

“Cum now. Cum on my cock right now” he ordered.

That was what you needed. In a split second you let go of the knot you’ve been desperately hounding on to and completely lose your sanity in an earth shattering orgasm that washes over your body.

Quickly followed by Mingi. Uncontrollably twitching and delivering what felt like gallons of cum in the towel, completely soiling it. Maybe even ruining it forever. It was so good, he never came like this. So good that an ever so audible groan of bliss slipped past his lips and into the world. Instantly he bit his lip and stopped breathing but it was too late.

San also let himself go, a smirk dancing on his lips as he happened to catch the shameful groan. You were unaware of why but that amount of cum was unprecedented and you attributed it to the thrill of the fear of getting caught. But San knew it was simply the joy and fulfillment of being a good friend.

IF U WANNA HELP ME PLEASE REBLOG WITHOUT USING THE COMMUNITY LABELS 🖤

a/n: what a ride dskfmkfmdkmfl. you liked it? you want part 2? SPAM MY COMMENTS AND ASKS AND REBLOGS BECAUSE I LOVE READING YOUR REACTIONS MY POOKIES <333 (a threesome in part 2? 👀)

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taglist: @staytiny816 @onysmamas

[sparrowlucero]

ik you were joking but I would be genuinely interested to hear about the flux cowriting credits strife if you feel like going into detail on it

So I have a big conspiracy theory about season 13 of Doctor Who ("Flux"), namely that there's a lost episode was scripted and even possibly filmed in near entirety, but ended up being cut and cannibalized in post production due to behind the scenes issues, and the fandom has yet to pick up on it.

For anyone who doesn't watch the show: Flux is a miniseries of Doctor Who; a full season was not commissioned because it was produced during Covid. The most important stuff about it for the purposes of this post are:

It's 6 episodes long (¹). The episodes are all directly continuous and could not be shuffled around. (I should clarify here that, no, the showrunner can't simply choose on a whim to make 10 episodes, or only make 4; they had to stick to 6, as that was the amount they were picked up and scheduled for)

The showrunner, Chris Chibnall , wrote every episode apart from episode 4 (Village of the Angels) which he has a co-writing credit on.

(More subjectively but perhaps relevant) The season is largely considered to be kind of a structural mess and (less subjectively) there appears to some abnormal and consistent production issues (²)

So the first thing I need to evidence here is that Chris Chibnall, aforementioned showrunner and writer of the entire season, was late. Like, really late.

Word of mouth gossip had been circulating for a while that there was some sort of on-set problem involving filming having to be paused because he was still finishing scripts: (³)

This would later be confirmed at a Gallifrey One panel (⁴) with Matt Strevens, the executive producer, who suggests that filming stopped to allow Chris Chibnall to finish scripts; he further implies that large swathes of episode 5/Block 2 weren't written until Episode 4/Block 1 (in which Kevin McNally debuts) was filming:

So with that context, let's talk about that Episode 4, "Village of the Angels", the only episode not attributed solely to Chris Chibnall. Co written by Maxine Alderton.

The filming pics reveal an interesting bit of trivia for Village: namely, the clapperboards show that the story was actually filmed as episode 5, not 4:

As the above tweet suggests, this doesn't make much sense. The miniseries is, again, a single continuous plot. It's not like they flipped Village and the current episode 5, Survivors of the Flux; the latter explicitly takes place chronologically after it. And yet, Village having been intended as the penultimate episode 5 is further evidenced by the original trailer for it, in which a character states that the story takes place on the 28th of November. This line is dubbed over in the final episode and subsequent trailers to instead say the 21st:

Why is this line important enough to dub? Because that's meant to line up with the air date of the episode. Episode 4 aired on the 21st and 5 on the 28th. But something happened in post production, and now it's episode 4 on the 21st instead (⁵):

So if none of these episodes were moved around but it does seem like Village was meant to be episode 5, where and what is the original episode 4?

I have a theory.

Flux has a recurring subplot involving two side characters, a married couple (Bel and Vinder) who have been separated by the titular disaster and are traveling the universe to reunite with each other. This story is told through segments sprinkled throughout the episodes. These have a different writing style (including a diary-esque narration only present in these scenes) and an internally consistent visual style that looks somewhat different to the other parts of the season.

Village of the Angels, for instance, is a moody, dark episode set in a village in the 1960s:

However, Bel and Vinder's segments in the episode have a somewhat different look:

On top of this, they never intersect with the episode's A plot (literally or in any clear thematic way), and the majority of these segments piece together into one single scene that seems to have been cut up.

So, what I think is that the bel and vinder scenes across the middle of the season were originally a single full story, an episode 4 that took a breather from the main plot and characters to follow the lives of these two side characters; the differing visual and writing style is due to it originally having been filmed separately and with a somewhat different artistic intent. I believe Chris Chibnall's cowriting credit on Angels exists because these specific scenes are from a script he wrote, but that otherwise the Angel script can be credited solely to Maxine Alderton by normal cowriting standards.

"But wait," you might say, "I thought there were already 6 episodes that are all plot relevant? If no episodes existing right now can be cut, how could this 7th episode exist?"

Remember this tidbit:

The adventures in question comprise a large amount of the next episode (Episode 5: Survivors of the Flux), nearly 20 minutes of a 50ish minute runtime (and frankly, much of the rest of the episode is somewhat fluffy build up that feels like it's taking advantage of an extended runtime). A version without this added plot would, in my opinion, only warrant one final episode rather than two.

I think the showrunner, still scrambling to finish scripts as the episodes were being filmed, and making a snap decision to include a new major subplot (⁶), wrote a finale script so long and with so many plot threads that the only way to keep all this material of was to split it into two episodes, 5 and 6. And because they only could only make 6, he had to get rid of one of the previous 5 episodes - the already scripted and filmed ones - to make room for this new episode 5. A tough order when it's a plot-heavy miniseries... if not for episode 4 being a standalone divergence from the main plot about the lives of two side characters, one that could, in theory, be cut up and dispersed throughout the season without continuity issues for the main story.

(Some notes and clarifications under the cut)

(1) some sources initially reported the episode count as 8; this wasn't inaccurate - the 2022 new years/easter special were part of the episode order. Flux itself was always meant to be 6 episodes long. (2) A few of the production issues include: - episodes filming without a second draft:

- the fx team that had been on the show since 2005 abruptly leaving midseason (because they "didn't feel like part of the team anymore") and returning as soon as the creative team changed, including the head of the studio implying they weren't properly credited (mild vfx body horror warning in link):

- people working on additional projects such as books not receiving clear information on the characters they were assigned to write:

- and likely a director who was put on hold due to a script being rewritten:

Among other things I can't directly cite at the moment, including vfx artists having to do whole episodes solo in crunch time and writers not being told their work was massively overhauled until it aired due to major changes being extremely late in production.

While I don't wish to pontificate too much here and many of these things are pretty normal by themselves, I do think it could paint a picture of a production where an episode well into filming may genuinely be cut on a whim and without consideration for the crew, artists, etc. working on the show. (3) This reddit post comes from a leaker who was known to be consistently accurate. (4) Gallifrey One does not allow filming of panels. I know Kevin's livetweets of panels to be accurate. (5) It's very, very unlikely the entire season was moved back a week, as the premier is a Halloween special that was certainly always intended to air on Oct. 31st. (6) I don't wish to insinuate Chris Chibnall is, throughout his career, an inherently poor showrunner, but I do think that maybe his jump from police procedural - a genre that doesn't involve quite as much concept art, vfx work, marketing, convention panels, set building, episodic storytelling, and keeping in touch with expanded universe producers - to flagship science fiction adventure show may have contributed to some of these issues, especially when he was already in the mindset that things could be changed on a whim (perhaps not such a major issue when it's broadchurch and no new sets need be built)

(source) Basically I don't really think this is "the showrunner's fault" or anything; more that a perfect storm of a showrunner who was habitually late on scripts, used to writing lowkey cop dramas, covid, an entirely serialized season, etc. may have led to these issues

[thehyperfixationcorner]

Phineas and Ferb S1 observations (after rewatching for the every episode review video):

Isabella doesn't appear nearly as much as I thought she would! In fact, she really only has one and a half focus eps (even one good scared not really about her). As an Isabella enjoyer, I was kinda disappointed, but it did improve by the end so I assume S2 does the legwork.

Baljeet and Buford also appeared less, though that definitely improved by the end too!

Phineas was way more likable than I remembered! Not that I disliked him, but I found him boring as a kid. Now I see the appeal. He's such a nice, kind kid! Plus super autistic we love it 🥰

First seasons usually feel like they take time to find their footing, but I'd say the show was pretty good from the getgo! Barely a rough patch! Very impressive!

In fact, there was ONE episode I found kinda mid. Not even bad. Just mid. ONE. ONE! YOU KNOW HOW IMPOSSIBLE THAT IS???

I was surprised by how many specials there were early on! Usually a show like this waiys for a second season, or at least does only one! Phineas and Ferb did 5 (It’s About Time, Dude We're Getting the Band Back Together, One Good Scare, Phineas and Ferb Get Busted and Out to Launch)! To use an apt comparison, Spongebob had 5 specials (Christmas Who, Party Pooper Pants, Ugh, Lost Ep, Have You Seen this Snail) by Season 4! The confidence is astounding (and fair, since every special got a pretty high ranking!)

The A and B plots have yet to intersect like I expected! Good idea, though, sets things up first before breaking

Insane how many iconic songs and eps have already happened, I'm shocked at how many top tier ones there are that will seemingly be ranked low by the iconic eps of future seasons! There could genuinely be episodes at 70th or 80th place that I adore!

Perry got more emotive and interesting as time passed

Only two episodes showed other agents!

Vanessa really doesn't appear that much huh

You can see how Norm was a one episode gag that slowly turned into a brilliant running bit XD

Candace joined in or had a whole different motivation or only got into the busting at the very end way more than I expected too, which I'm happy about but still, wow!

I thought it would take a bit for Candace to be written really well. Scratch that. She's now one of my all time favourite fictional characters and we're only at S1

Stacy. That is all.

[skz317cb97]

Reading Romance

Hyunjin x Thick female reader

Word count: 4.2K

Synopsis: While hanging out and reading with your best friend Hyunjin he catches a glimpse at what you're book is about and wants to know more.

A/N: Number 5! Only 3 left to go and I have at least an idea of what the rest will be! I hope you like this one, if you do please reblog, like, comment, hit up my ask box, I always get great feedback with these so I really appreciate it! As usual warnings and smut below the cut.

Warnings: 18+ONLY MDNI! Cursing/strong language, light bondage, pet names (darling, beautiful etc), slight Hyunjin dom/MC sub dynamic (kinda sorta not really), oral (m&f receiving), deep throating/face fucking, multiple orgasms/overstimulation, use of the color system (never yellow or red), squirting, tearing up during sex(?), cum play/cum eating, unprotected piv sex (please use condoms), cream pie. I think that's everything but if I ever miss anything please let me know and I'll add it asap!

One of the reasons Hyunjin was your best friend was your mutual ability to be completely fine sitting silent in a room together. Whether you were reading, painting, even watching tv, whatever, the two of you were content just existing in the same space and called it hanging out. Today Hyunjin came over to your place for the two of you to do some painting in your studio and you had for about an hour or so. Now the two of you were sitting on your couch reading together quietly.  

Hyunjin’s book was a series of short stories that intersected into each other and all tied together in the end. You were reading a book one of the girls from your book club had recommended to you on the low. It was... spicy... and normally not a book you’d be reading around anyone, let alone Hyunjin, but it really had a great plot and you were hooked so you were reading a smutty book, sitting with your insanely gorgeous best friend. Needless to say when it came upon a sex scene you started blushing and couldn’t help but look up at Hyunjin and imagine if you were in that scenario. It would never happen in a million years but a big girl could dream.  

In reality, guys that were that beautiful didn’t go for the chubby art chick. Hyunjin was a sweet guy and a good friend so you shouldn’t be picturing him in any scenarios, yet your eyes would scan the sultry words on your page and then drift up to the man frowning at the book in front of him. You jumped a little focusing on your book again when Hyunjin closed his. 

“This book is boring, predictable. What are you reading?” You almost choked when he asked but rebounded quickly. 

“Oh! Uh... umm... a romance.” Hyunjin nodded. 

“Let me take a look.” You scoffed, trying to be nonchalant, but you could feel your ears starting to burn.  

“I’m reading it right now Hyunjin.” He mimicked you. 

“I’m reading it right now muhmuhmuh, mark your page and let me look at it for a second. If I like it I can just download it on my phone and read it.” You shook your head. 

“No like I said it’s a romance, you won’t like it.” Hyunjin held out his hand. 

“Do you remember who you’re talking to darling? I AM romance, now let me see.” 

“No.” No reason given this time, just no. Hyunjin was very curious now. 

“No?” You shook your head again. Hyunjin nodded. 

“Okay fine.” You relaxed a bit and Hyunjin lunged for the book in your hand snatching it away. 

“HYUNJIN! DON’T!” He held you back with one of his long arms as he opened your book and started reading. Unfortunately, he landed on the page you had been reading and one of the more risqué parts of the book. 

“Philippe grabbed his throbbing member!? And shoved it in again, gagging Krista with his hard thrusts to the back of her throat?! What the hell y/n you’re sitting here reading porn?!” You snatched the book back angry he’d taken it instead of listening to you. 

“It’s not porn, it’s a romance novel and I told you not to read it!” You got up and started storming off towards your room mad and Hyunjin followed. 

“Oh come on! I’m just teasing, don’t get mad.” You turned back towards him. 

“I asked you not to and you did anyway. It’s embarrassing Hyunjin okay?” He walked up to you. 

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, so there’s dirty words in your book, so what, I guarantee I watch porn way worse than any smutty book you’ve got.” You rolled your eyes shaking your head, going to walk off again. 

“That’s not the point...” Hyunjin followed grabbing your wrist and stopping you. 

“Well then what is it? Are you embarrassed because you were watching me?” Your jaw dropped. 

“Is that it? Because if it is... I mean don’t be. If I had a dollar for every time I imagined fucking you I’d be rich.” You tossed the book on one of the tables. 

“Hyunjin! I... what?” It took a second for your brain to catch up and register what he said. 

“Did you just say...” Hyunjin waited for you to finish your question and then finished it for you. 

“I imagined fucking you? Is that really surprising?” You stood there dumbfounded. 

“Uh... well... I mean... yea it kind of is. You mean you think of me and you like...” Hyunjin nodded finishing your sentence again. 

“Having sex together? Yea. Why wouldn’t I? You’re funny, smart, talented, sexy...” 

“I’m fat.” Hyunjin’s eyes narrowed at you. 

“That doesn’t make any of the other things I said about you untrue. So what if you’re bigger. Only a vain troglodyte would care about something so trivial and stupid.” You stood there utterly speechless and then something clicked for Hyunjin. 

“Did.... did you think I wouldn’t want to be with you because you’re bigger?” He sounded genuinely hurt. 

“Is that how I come off?” It wasn’t, you didn’t want him to think that. 

“No! No Jinnie that’s not how you come off. That...that’s just me projecting my shitty body image onto you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.” Hyunjin had always been nothing but sweet to you and if you hadn’t been so in your head about images and what people thought you’d have noticed that Hyunjin’s interest in you wasn’t purely as friends. You weren’t sure how you didn’t realize with how comfortable you both always were with each other. There was a reason for that, a mutual unspoken affection. 

“You don’t have to apologize y/n. You’ve grown up in a world telling you that you’re not pretty if you’re not skinny. I understand but I want you to know that’s not how I feel. I think you’re beautiful.” You didn’t know what to say. You stood there, Hyunjin still holding onto your arm. He took a step closer and you could hear your heartbeat in your ears. The hand grasping your wrist let go. He caressed your face and cupped your cheek.  

“I’m gonna kiss you now...” You nodded and as he leaned in closer you closed your eyes. When you felt warm full lips pressed against yours sweetly, your hands came up and rested on Hyunjin’s chest and his other hand found your soft hip pulling you closer. He pulled away and ran his thumb over the apple of your cheek as he looked at you. You grasped his shirt and pulled him in for another kiss. Lips parting tongues teasing. You only pulled away once you both were breathless. Hyunjin bit at his pouty bottom lip, catching his breath, wrapping both arms around you, and resting his head against yours. He got a smirk on his face. 

“So what were you reading in that book that had you staring at me like that hmm?” You started blushing and shook your head. 

“Oh come on I already read about Phillipe’s throbbing member how much worse can it get.”  

“It gets worse trust me.” Hyunjin’s smile grew wider and he wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Well worse is better, let me take another look.” He went to grab the book off the table and you picked it up quickly. 

“Hyunjin...no...” He laughed softly. It was cute how shy you were being suddenly. Usually you were confident and spoke your mind around him easily. He wasn’t really used to this timid side. 

“Come on... show me what you were reading when you kept looking at me.” You stood there frozen with the book in hand. There was absolutely no way you could show him that part. Phillipe was a French masseuse and before grabbing his ‘throbbing member’ that Krista was gagging on, he had tied her to his massage table with silk ropes. You had looked up when you read it initially, looking at Hyunjin’s hands, imagining his long deft fingers tying knots around your wrists and ankles. 

“Look I won’t take it this time, just show me... or... read it to me?” He cocked his perfect eyebrow at you. That was diffidently not happening. 

“Fine I’ll show you... but...” Hyunjin tucked your hair behind your ear. 

“I’m not gonna judge you darling...” He leaned in by your ear. 

“I just want to know what sets your body on fire...” He kissed your neck those insanely soft lips of his pressed against your skin. 

“then dumb gasoline on it and give it to you.” He gently grabbed hold of your wrist again and pulled you to your own bedroom, where you had been storming off to in the first place. He let go of you when you walked through the door and made his way over to your bed, sitting on the edge of it. You hesitated. Was this really happening? Were you really about to sit on your bed with Hyunjin and show him the smut you were eye fucking him to? He pat the spot across from him on the bed. 

“Do you want to sit down?” You nodded walking over and sitting across from him on your bed, book still in hand. He scooched a little closer so that he could see over your shoulder a bit. You turned your head looking at him nervously. He kissed your shoulder and smiled at you. 

“It’s okay. I promise.” You gave him a little nod and started thumbing through the pages looking for where you were at. When you found it you held it open for Hyunjin to read. 

“This was the page I opened it to.” You nodded and he scanned through the type, getting closer to you, his warm breath fanning against your neck. His breathing hitched when he saw what you had been reading. 

“Is it the ropes darling? Hmm...” His lips were ghosting your skin but not touching. 

“Do you want me to tie you up? Make you cum?” Your breathing was coming out more labored and your skin was completely flushed. You looked over your shoulder at him again and shook your head softly. He tilted your head and started kissing down your neck and shoulder, pulling the straps of the tank top and bra you were wearing down. His arms wrapped around you from behind as he groped your soft body and he nibbled and kissed your neck. You leaned your head back against his shoulder giving him better access to you. Hyunjin moved from behind you and laid you back on the bed before getting on top of you, propping himself up, looking down at you. 

“I’m going to undress you and kiss all of my favorite parts of your gorgeous body, then I'm gonna go into your closet and grab four of your silk scarves and I’m going to tie you up and make you cum again, and again and again...” He started kissing down your neck to your chest between each word. He lifted your shirt up and over your head and grabbed your full breasts before burying his face between them licking and kissing the soft skin. Your fingers combed through Hyunjin’s hair and you held on as he continued kissing down your tummy, then tugging at your pants sitting back and pulling them off, tossing them aside.  

He climbed between your legs and kissed the insides of your thighs, gently dragging his teeth across them. He kissed his way back up your body stopping at your tits again, pulling your bra down and sucking on one nipple and then the other. Hyunjin was pleased to see your bra opened from the front. He unhooked it and pulled the straps down and off of you. He kissed his way up further, his full lips overtaking yours in another heated kiss. His hands running up and down your plush body, memorizing every curve. Hyunjin hooked his fingers into the sides of your panties and pulled them down, you lifted your full ass up as he continued dragging them down and off. He sat back on his knees and took in every last inch of your plump frame. 

“God I wish you saw what I see...” Your felt your heart go soft. 

“Hyunjin...” Your eyes were glassy as tears started to rim them. 

“I really do darling, you’d never doubt how beautiful you were ever again if you saw what I see every time I look at you.” He hovered over you and kissed you sweetly, your hands sliding up his shoulders and neck, toying with the pieces of his long hair that had fallen from his ponytail. He sat back up peeling his own shirt off. 

“Get comfy gorgeous, I’ll be right back.” Hyunjin disappeared into your closet and reemerged with scarves thrown over one of his shoulders. He lost the pants and boxers on the way back over to you and when you saw him standing naked by the bed, you thought your heart was going to pound out of your chest. 

“That book has bondage, does it mention safe words?” You nodded. 

“Yes Jinnie.” It had; Phillipe had told Krista about the stoplight system. 

“And what did they teach you darling?”  

“Green is good, yellow is slow down, red means stop.” He shook his head smiling. 

“That’s my good girl.” You flushed when he said that, then he crawled back onto the bed by you. 

“Hands please.” You gave him your hands and he kissed the back of each before he gently tied your wrists together. With another scarf looped through your arms now joined at the wrist Hyunjin secured your hands above your head and to the headboard of your bed. He lightly ran his fingertips down your body and you softly pulled at the restraints needy for his touch goosebumps erupting all over your body. 

“Comfortable? Too tight?” You shook your head no. 

“They feel okay, not too tight.” Hyunjin gripped one of your ankles and kissed it before he started tying another one of the scarves around it. He tied the other end to one post of your footboard and walked around to the other side and gave the other ankle the same treatment. A sweet kiss and then tied to the opposite post, spreading your thick thighs for him and exposing your glistening cunt. He immediately started stroking his cock once you were laid out in the vulnerable position. 

“You look good enough to eat beautiful.” Hyunjin crawled up on the bed again and took his place between your legs that were held open for him. His face hovered over your clenching pussy, his warm breath teasing you, his full lips ghosting, you were ready to scream for him right as Hyunjin ran his tongue through your folds. 

“Fuck you’re delicious.” Hyunjin spread your plump pussy lips apart and latched onto your clit, licking and slurping on you, collecting your arousal on his tongue and savoring the taste of you. You could feel your high approaching and Hyunjin could tell. He slid two fingers inside your wet hole and pumped them in and out as he sucked and hummed against your clit. White hot pleasure electrocuted you from head to toe when Hyunjin made you cum, you pulled tightly at the straps around your wrists. 

“Jinnie! Fuck! Oh god!” He stopped feasting on you but kept his fingers curling inside you. You tried to close your legs feeling the pin pricks of overstimulation, but couldn’t while Hyunjin started fingering you harder again. 

“Ji-Jinnie I... I can’t...” He cooed at you and slowed down a little. 

“Color?”  

“Green.” He smiled. 

“Good girl, you can and you will.” He started fingering you harder again then spit on your clit and started eating you out again as well, unrelenting between his plump lips and expert tongue. It wasn’t long before your body tensed and pulled against your restraints as you came on Hyunjin’s tongue and fingers again. Again he didn’t slow down, not even the kitten licking your clit, he didn’t stop. 

“Hy-Hyunjin! FuckFuckFUCK! It’s too much!” Your legs were shaking, he stopped slurping at you but still kept his fingers lodged deep in your pussy constantly rubbing against that soft spot that sent more jolts of electricity through your body. He spit on your clit again only this time his other hand started teasing your clit, spreading his saliva around the buzzing bundle of nerves.  

“Do you know what else I notice in that little page you showed me darling?” You were panting sweat beading on your temples, you shook your head and couldn’t control the level of your voice. 

“What!? God what tell me fuck!” Hyunjin smiled and played with your pussy more making you writhe under his touch. 

“After Phillipe had Krista tied down and before he was chocking her with his cock...” You had almost forgot and only now, Hyunjin bringing it up, reminded you. 

“He finger fucked Krista until he made her squirt.” Your eyes rolled up in your head, again you tried to close your legs but it was futile as long as they were tied to the bannisters. Hyunjin started eating your pussy again, starved, ravenous, and you came again, and again, and again. After every orgasm Hyunjin would part from your cunt long enough to ask your color. As soon as he heard green you were getting licked and fingered into another orgasm, and another and another and another. He pulled away again panting like a mad man. 

“Fuck you taste so fucking delicious, such a good girl; I could eat you for fucking hours... color?” You were sweaty and trembling, your whole body was on fire. You only pulled at your restraints now when another orgasm tore through you. 

“G-gre- green.” Hyunjin spit on his fingers and rubbed four of them firmly across your sensitive clit as he pumped his long fingers into you as deep as he could, hard. You felt it, you were going to cum harder than you ever had. It felt funny. 

“Hy-Hyunjinnie I’m... I think I’m...OHHHHH! FUCK!” You started squirting on Hyunjin and still he didn’t relent, he rubbed your pussy and pumped his fingers in and out as your juices squirted and leaked out of you. Your arms pulled tight at the scarves, your back arching, legs twisting, shaking and still unable to close no matter how hard you tried. Hyunjin slowed down and pulled his fingers out of you, your cum still trickling out after. He softly rubbed your whole pussy which made you jump and jolt from the oversensitivity. 

“God that was so fucking sexy!” You laid there limp, panting, and he started licking your cum from your body. 

“Was it?” You asked genuinely. Hyunjin climbed up your thick, cum slicked, body and kissed you with his lips, puffier than usual after eating you out for so long. 

“Mhmm. Almost came on myself a few times but when you squirt for me... well... let's just say it’s not just your cum on these sheets.” You managed to open your eyes and smile. You loved the idea of Hyunjin being so turned on eating you out, making you squirt, that he came untouched. Hyunjin reached up and untied the scarf that was holding your joined wrists to the headboard and you could finally bring your arms down but they were still tied together. Hyunjin knelt by you stroking his cock that was already hard again. He leaned down close to your face as he kept tugging on himself. He whispered in your ear. 

“Can I fuck your face like Phillipe did to Krista too?” He absolutely could after what he’d just put your body through. You nodded. 

“Yes, fuck my face Jinnie.” He crawled and knelt over your head a knee on each side straddling you. He held up his cock, jerking off, his balls hovering over your mouth. You started tonguing them as Hyunjin stroked his dick, when you sucked one into your mouth and gently suckled at it Hyunjin moaned and it made you gush. You sucked on his other one and then licked his balls until he couldn’t take it anymore. 

“Open up darling.” You opened your mouth and Hyunjin hovered over you sliding his cock in between your lips. You stuck your tongue out as he pushed in deeper allowing him further into your mouth, the tip of his dick prodding your throat. 

“FFffffuck! Good girl. Are... are you r-ready?” You hummed around his cock and he felt it vibrate through his whole body. He propped himself up over you, gripping the headboard with two hands and started thrusting into your mouth deeper. You gagged and choked on his dick and he pulled out spit connected to your lips and his cock. You took a couple of deep breaths and Hyunjin thrusted back into your mouth bottoming out in the back of your throat again. This time when you choked he didn’t pull out, he thrusted deeper and harder into your throat. He felt a strong gag on the tip of his cock and pulled out, you gasping for air. 

“Color?”  

“Green.” You choked out before he shoved his cock back into your mouth fucking it hard and deep again. He braced against the headboard with one hand and held the back of your head with the other, pushing you down on his dick, making you swallow all of him, giving you a few more deep thrusts and pulling out again. You had tears in your eyes drool running down your chin. 

“Color?” 

“Green now choke me with your cock Jinnie.” He rubbed his tip against your face slapping your lips with it before thrusting in and fucking your throat mercilessly. The gagging, choking and squelching of his cock punishing your throat filled the room. Your tied hands started playing with his balls and Hyunjin was ready to blow. 

“FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK OHHHH BEAUTIFUL FUCK!!! Can I cum down your throat hmm? Gonna be a good girl and choke down my cum?” You hummed around his cock hard and He gripped the back of your head again pushing you down as he came in your mouth, his seed flooding and dripping down your chin. 

“Fuck! Oh fuck oh god damn! Swallow it!” You swallowed what you could and Hyunjin pulled his softening cock from your mouth. You took big, deep breaths, licking your lips and savoring the taste of him. When Hyunjin’s wits were back about him he untied your wrists, and then untied each of your legs from the bed posts. Massaging each one of them, softly kissing them each again. You could finally relax all your limbs and you laid there completely fucked out. Hyunjin kissed your shoulder and neck then your lips, his taste lingering on your tongue. He was stroking his cock again as the two of you softly made out for a bit, catching your breath. Just enjoying each other’s lips and taste.  

“God I want to fuck you so bad, I want your arms and soft legs wrapped around me and I want to lose myself inside you.” He kissed you and you could feel his hard cock prodding at your pussy. You wrapped your arms around him. Nuzzled against his nose and place soft chaste kisses to his lips, over and over. Hyunjin jumped when you first grabbed his cock, not expecting it with how tenderly you were kissing him. You lined him up with your warm cunt and slid the tip of him into you. Hyunjin’s forehead fell against yours and he moaned as he pushed deeper into you. 

“Feels so good Hyunjin-ah, don’t stop.” He bit his lips and shook his head no, sweat already forming on his brow. He continued to slide into you until your hips were pressed together. You wrapped your thick thighs around Hyunjin, your arms gripping him close to you, no possible way there was any space left between the two of you. Hyunjin propped up on his elbows, held your face, his forehead pressed to yours again as he rocked his hips into you, slow deep grinding, both of you kissing and consuming the other’s moans and soft pants. 

“You’re so beautiful, god you feel so good, so soft everywhere, fuck, I love you y/n I love you.” You were coming, tears of pleasure in your eyes as Hyunjin kissed you tenderly.  

“Hyun- I-I love y-you.” When Hyunjin felt your walls fluttering around his cock he pushed deep inside you slower. 

“C-can I cum inside you?” You held onto him tightly with your arms and legs still and nodded, kissing him as his speed picked up again. The soft moans that came from Hyunjin as his orgasm approached made you want it all the more. 

“Please Hyunjin-ah, cum inside me.” His hips started to lose rhythm. 

“Please.” You whispered in a soft moan against his lips and Hyunjin came. He pushed deep into you and stilled as his cock twitched and filled you with his big warm load. Hyunjin collapsed on you filling you, softening inside you, his cum dripping out of your sensitive hole. Both of your sweaty bodies completely spent. Hyunjin finally managed to stop crushing you and lay next to you. The two of you laid there quietly, catching your breath until you finally broke the silence. 

“We need to shower and clean up Jinnie.” He hummed nodding and started to get up. 

“I know...” He sat up on the edge of the bed and looked back at you with his eyebrow cocked and a smirk plastered on his face. 

@acciocriativity @caroline-ds-world @chansynie @ughbehavior @jquellen27 @jisuperboard @fixation-dump @lachinitaaaaa @rinrinndou @bangchans-angel @laylasbunbunny @owo-manii-uwu @armystay89 @b00dyguts @purplenimsicle @caticorn61 @lauraneuuh @channieandhisgoonsquad @minnysproutgriffinteddy @svintsandghosts @the-sweetest-rose @alice05280 @3rachasninja @m0ri-apeuda @eastleighsblog @linoification @mlink64

“Then we need to finish reading that book.”

Please do not repost or translate any of my works. My blog and stories are NSFW and 18+ ONLY! Minors, ageless, and blank blogs will be blocked!

[miquellaluciscaelum]

A bunch of brainworms about dlc. Speculations, theories, my personal opinion, which I think I will stick to until the release of dlc.

Miquella.

(1) The main plot is that we go after Miquella. It is not yet very clear for what purpose and who sent us there, but judging by the voice at the end, it could be Ranni or Melina, or even Miquella himself. Voice is quite feminine.

(2) Miquella is likely to be our companion, as Melina was, or we will follow some messages from him, maybe meet his followers who will guide us, since the announcement says that we will be "guided by Miquella" and "meet others who follow in miquella footsteps".

(3) I'm not sure if we will have the opportunity to fight with him or not, but the last scene where we see the first shot of him where he's literally SHINING, can be both the ending cutscene of the dlc and the beginning of the bossfight.

(4) It's likely he will look the same with his first concept art appearence, because the hairstyle with braids and his skin, they are very similar.

(5) If this tree in the Shadow realm is the Crucible of life that I explain below in my theory, it is quite possible that Miquella came to this world for obtaining its power or something like that, it is also quite possible that he goes there because he knows that Marika has hidden something in this world, something very important.

(6) Overall, Miquella's trip to these lands seems like a pretty desperate move to me. He literally commits a very terrible sin by "divesting himself of his flesh, his strength, his lineage. Of all thing Golden". It sounds like he finally broke all his connection with the golden order and his family, including his blood connection with MALENIA that sounds crazy, and he also renounces his power, as I understand, magical and which is hidden in his blood. In my head, it looks very similar to what Ranni did, killing her body and moving her soul into a doll. It's just that Miquella killed his body or left it and moved his mind into this hidden world with the help of the power of sleep and dreams. I repeat, it seems to me some kind of desperate last step, perhaps he felt that his transformation was interrupted by Mogh and was no longer possible to complete because of his poisoned body, maybe he felt that his tree had died or something like that.

(7) Most likely, based on the words that Miquella is "awaits the return of his promised Lord", he cannot leave this realm on his own, either because he is captured by someone, maybe Messmer, either because his initial plan failed and he simply does not have enough power to return. So he's waiting for the promised lord. Here we have at least two options:

- This opens for us consort ending, but with Miquella, he will essentially be an alternative for Ranni, because he is also an Empyrean just with other purposes. And can replace Marika as a vessel of the Elden ring like Ranni. This is also supported by rumor that From software wanted to make another extra ending - the Age of Abundance, but either they cut it out at the end, or maybe abandoned the idea.

- I also saw the option that it could be Godwin as promised Lord, to whom Miquella could bring the true death, it can be the reason why he came to this world initially.

World.

(1) We are going into the world of shadows and it seems that this is not Miquella's dream or the Erdtree afterlife or something else, as many assumed earlier, but some kind of hidden realm that is not accessible to ordinary people and may be either under the map, or as some people suggest, either be at the intersection of all towers where we activated great runes, behind a large cloud on the map.

(2) Very important, some kind there once was Marika in this shadow realm, as mentioned in the summary of the game's plot in the announcement: " a place obscured by the Erdtree where the goddess Marika first set foot". Perhaps this world was her home before she became a goddess, or she ruled these lands before they were hidden, apparently during some kind of war: "a land purge in an unsung battle". It was quite possible that it was the war with giants, given some of the symbols hinting at it in Messmer + flame magic.

(3) Looking at the baldachin over the tree and keeping in mind its similarity to Marika's chambers in the capital before Morgott, I think that perhaps Marika herself made these lands forbidden or closed from others with this baldachin barrier, so the theory that Messmer may be an unwanted or forgotten demigod-child of Marika, left in this shadow world, as Marika's dark secret, has some basis. This is also hinted at a special dungeon in Leamgrave, Impaled Catacombs, thanks super lore guys in twitter!

(4) Speaking of the secrets of Marika, the tree at the center of this realm. I have a lot of thoughts about this. It may be wild, but I assume that this could be the Crucible of life or what's left of it. That golden liquid that flows down is the power of the Crucible that goes out into the world. In the Lands between, due to the overwhelming influence of the Erdtree and the Golden order, its power is almost not felt, and can only manifests itself in the birth of Omen children, but in THIS world, the world of shadows, we see signs of the influence of the Crucible: horns, spells and etc in almost all creatures. Thus, Marika could lock the tree in a separate dimension, hoping that it would soon die on its own and its influence would finally dry up, but it is still alive. Or, of course, it can simply be a reflection of the Erdtree in the dark world, if we consider the theory that the world of shadows is a reflection of the real world. I definitely don't think it's Miquella's tree, because it has absolutely no reason to be one.

(5) I also want to note the time in this story, chronology is quite a mess in Elden ring in principle, but according the trailer, a significant place in this shadow world is occupied by some faction associated with Saint Trina, and therefore with Miquella. That suggests that either Miquella came to this world quite a long time ago to be able to organize and build his own order or something like that, either time goes faster there than in the main game, which is quite interesting.

(6) Speaking of factions in this world, there are at least a few: the faction of Saint Trina (we saw a knight who fought with some kind of sleepy magic, although it could be a gravity spell because of lightning🤔) but there were lilies on his armor🤷), we also saw someone very similar to a Carian woman in a room similar to Raya Lucaria, more than that there are architectural elements of the Carian architecture and the architecture of Sellia, which means Kariya faction. Almost forgot, we also can see Moon in one shot.

Perhaps Messmer has his own faction, most likely ruling in this dimension. And also there are some coincidences in how the branch that the elderly man pulls out of his body looks, with the shape of candlesticks that some enemies fight with and the symbol on the black knight in the form of a pointed branch or rune. These all symbols are black and golden. Probably this is some kind of pro-erdtree faction, followers of the Great order and Marika. The color scheme echoes Marika and Maliket at least. From the voice lines we can assume that in this shadow realm there are followers or Erdtree faithful and those who opposite them, perhaps it can be even active conflict in present time and wars in the past.

Messmer.

I see for myself two working variants of his origin:

(1) Marika and Radagon. Since he has a rather distinctive appearance, the theory of butterflies in the game, where the smoldering butterflies actually refer to him, and not to Melina; more than that when he addresses to his mother and talks about Lordship, I don't think anyone other than Marika has the authority to make a man the Elden Lord; and in the scene with him, there is a statue of a woman with a child behind his back, the woman is difficult to see, but by the location of the bracelets on her arm, you can compare her with the statues of Marika in the main game;

(2) Gloam-eyed queen. The portrait of a woman with an elderly man refers to this, the woman in the picture with dark hair, she holds her hand on her stomach as if she is pregnant; Messmer has some similarities with the "children" of Gloam-eyed queen - the apostles; he uses a very strange black and red flame.

(3) The theories that Messmer is some part of Miquella or he himself look strange to me, considering that we have known for a long time from the main game that there was some other child of Marika that we don't know about, we just used to think this was Melina. According to the announcements, although indirectly, we can assume that this shadow world and Messmer existed for a long time, perhaps even before the birth of Miquella and Malenia, probably Messmer was exiled there for blasphemy or something like that.

(4) l also don't think Messmer is Miquella's son or Mogh and Miquella somehow had a child together. I think all the influence of Mogh in this dlc will be directly related to his influence on Miquella. I don't think he's affected the world around him, everything that happens in this world, I think should be the influence of the Crucible of life and Messmer directly, perhaps some other forces, but not Mogh.

I'm sorry all of this is such a mess, like in my head after trailer. I'd be glad to see your comment and theories too, maybe you can challenge some of my theories, it gives them extra development and I could add something later. So thank you for attention.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Korea drops my favorite cameo ever & gives KISSES

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized sorta by favs in each category.

Sept 2023 Wk 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 4 of 12 - Well that’s one way to find out if he’s gay, see how he reacts to reading a het sex scene out loud. Yai is flirting so hard it’s like he knows everything. 

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - Oh no! I love them. Also cohabitation trope! Also ALL the other ones: hair dry, meet in childhood... GMMTV going no frills with this one.

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - Zo’s drama over Pat helping Joke flirt seems awfully manufactured. I’m losing faith in this show. Could GMMTV PLEASE hand JoongDunk a decent script? 

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 5 of 10 - Sand & Ray are the only interesting couple, and I’m pretty much only watching for them. They gonna go south fast, tho, and they're already ruined by persistent singing. Ooo. When Sand said Top "stole his ex" did he mean Boston? How gay. 

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 2 of 8 - The pronoun conversation had a bonkers translation but I enjoyed the actuality of it. The reasons for Yi's trickery are very convoluted soap opera. But I suppose that is the amnesia trope for you. 

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 10 of 12 - Boys. We discussed this already. No sex in onsens! I found this one dull, until the end when LLS showed up. Happy to just have him in everything. Thank you Thailand. Looks like it is a classic ep 11 DOOM next week. Who cares? 

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 1-2 of 10 eps - The usual Thai pulp claptrap this time a reunion romances in and around a convenience store between a boy who recently quit his job and his former bestie who is now a doctor. Mostly not great acting, plot, or production but the sound is okay and no bad effects or singing (so far), so that’s something. The gay brothers have a fun relationship. It’s vampy and campy but fun. I like it but not sure anyone else would.

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 4 of 10 - The date was cute but I still don’t like the lead or the premise (we moved into Cyrano de Bergerac territory). It’s moving slowly but it seems like we might be over the crush/stalker part of the narrative, so that’s a relief. 

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I just can’t. The sound is too weird. With punch down humor and other issues incoming I may DNF this. You’ve been warned. This ep we got to see LLS with his shirt off. Did anything else happen? 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thur Viki) ep 8fin - No wonder he is everyone’s favorite hyung, boy can read the room like no one else. I love that we got to see exactly how clingy and demanding Choi Jun was always going to be. Only Lee Jun is easy-going enough to put up with him. Also I’ve never watched a KBL with more innuendo. For Korea this was… raunchy. I gotta say had Laws of Attraction not come along, Simon might have been my favorite character of 2023.

Final thoughts on Jun and Jun:

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Others boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and descent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. With tons of rewatch potential (especially the last few eps), my only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else. A solid 9/10 from me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I like that Korea is trying high heat, but Taiwan and Thailand are leaps and bounds better at it.

Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) eps 9-10fin -

Omg they so cute as flirty bf. Eeeeeeee! CAMEO!!!!! My fav guest couple ever! So exciting!!!! I love that they intersected with MY Strongberry couple (Private Lessons). I’m not used to this but Holy innuendo Korea, what with Jun & Jun and now this show? It’s a bit much for my gay little heart. The final episode was entirely unnecessary, but it was fun to see them being all domestic and stuff. Maru with his dumb lettuce leaves was hilarious. I feel like I need to rewatch this one to really understand it properly, so I will likely do that soon.

Summary of Love Class 2:

3 couples form within a semester of university: 1. a hyung romance reunion of exes, one of whom has a dangerous past, 2. a friends to lovers romance, and 3. a mature student and TA one night stand + complexities (many aspects of which had me laughing). I enjoyed the characters and dialogue of this show immensely. It was a little bit more breezy and friendly than I was expecting after the first installment, Love Class. I’m not entirely sure Korea can handle multiple couples like this because it definitely felt disjointed, especially the 3rd more mature couple (also my favorite) who probably should’ve had their own series. But it was definitely fun and something different from Korea. 8/10 RECOMMENDED

Also, Korea tried to give us higher heat... that was... interesting. I mean, you tried hon...?

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 4 of 13(?) - Everyone is a sad sack this ep. Ooooo. Teach/student my favorite. We never get this one. It’s messy. I’m not sure if there is a plot. I’m not sure they’re sure if there is a plot. But I am still enjoying it.

Why R U? (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - Why is the Fighter character always so frustrating regardless of name or country? Ji Oh stalking his crush via IG is so relatable. He’s very first crush awkward, unsure, and sweet. They also gave a nice kiss - I love the backpack drop (kiss version of a mic drop?) I still hold that if you haven’t seen the original this might not make much sense. But I am enjoying it. 

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 4 of 8 - Oh goody, another JBL where we have to pay attention solely to what they do and not what they say. 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - Big fat sigh. 

It's Airing But...

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 3 of 24 eps - I couldn't get hold of it and I'm not mad. I'm putting it on hold until distribution gets sorted, or icky get their shizz in order (like that'll happen).

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting

9/15 You Are Mine (Taiwan Gaga) Secretary has to deal with grumpy boss.

9/15 Bump Up Business AKA Bump Up Project (Korea movie) suspected cinema release? I don't know much about what's going on. Last status update. Love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency. Kpop boy group OnlyOneOf has signed up to star in this idol-based BL (based on a webtoon). They’ve been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV series in this post. It’s from Idol Romance who will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You).

Still To Come In September

9/26 I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be. No matter how hard they try, their hearts cannot reach each other.

9/27 Absolute Zero (Thai iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally bring us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from them, so I'm on my guard.

9/27 Bon Appetit (Korea iQIYI) - from 2022, 8 eps from GoGo Studio, romance between an office worker who lives off junk food and the man next door who cooks well.

9/? Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam YouTube?)

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I love him. And I love his version of this character better than Jimmy's.

I also love it when a show gets meta. (Both Why R U? Korea) Why they didn't just go for YRU? the world may never know.)

(Last week) 

[andy-wm]

When Love Reveals Itself

The intersection of public and private in life and art.

A few years ago I watched Her Private Life, a k-drama starring Park Min-young and Kim Jae-wook, both of whom I love seeing on-screen, and ONE (Jung Jae-won) who is adorably cute in this series.

If you haven't seen it, here's a synopsis...

It's ostensibly about an art gallery curator - Doekmi - and her relationship with Ryan, the newly appointed director of the gallery (a position she deserved but of course didn't get). That part of narrative is a highly satisfying but predictable rom-com.

Doekmi is also a secret fangirl, and tries desperately (hilariously) to hide this side of her life, but that doesn't work out. I love the way this is dealt with and the understanding of the complexities of fan culture shown by the writers and cast. It's very relatable.

But maybe most importantly, this was one of the first k-dramas I watched that had an overtly queer narrative strand. I wont spoil anything but Ryan (Kim Jae-wook) is an absolute fucking legend in his efforts to be an LGBTQIA+ ally, even if he gets EVERYTHING wrong.

So how does this relate to our photo of Jimin, knee deep in water and smiling like this?

Episode 5 of Her Private Life has one of the most poignant scenes I've ever watched in a k-drama.

The scene isn't part of a major plot point but there are SPOILERS here.

The scene centres on an unpublished self-portrait taken by (deceased) renowned photographer-Yoon who was famous for his landscape photography. The portrait was his final photograph, taken just before he died.

The portrait was gifted to a reclusive writer who was lifelong friends with photographer-Yoon. He owns the rights to the photo, and he won't release it for publication.

The portrait in question

Deokmi and Ryan are trying to convince the writer to allow the portrait to be displayed in an upcoming exhibition of work by photographer Yoon. The writer adamantly refuses.

Why?

Yoon is looking at someone he loves.

As Deokmi observes, the portrait shows Yoon smiling not at the camera, but at someone in front of the camera.

He is looking at someone he loves.

For the writer, the portrait reveals too much. It exposes photographer-Yoon's feelings for the person in front of the camera, who is of course the writer himself. The writer knew of Yoon's feelings for him but could never acknowledge them while his friend was alive.

Lets go back to the photo of Jimin.

Something that really struck me about this photo of Jimin is the context of it. It was during the LGO MV shooting. He was splashing Jin and laughing, creating a small, happy moment for the music video (for us).

But covid was rife and the world was at a standstill. Jimin was personally and privately devastated during this time*. It was part of the MV brief, I'm sure, to show that you could still find joy in simple things but we know he himself was not happy.

So the happiness we see in those images is not his personal happiness. Even though he does genuinely look like hes having fun, that happiness is manufactured for us.

And then he looks up at the photographer and this we get this poignant, beautiful smile. Open, unguarded, and holding nothing back, his expression is so soft, so genuinely glad to see the person behind the camera.

He is looking at someone he loves and who he knows loves him in return.

"I see you, and everything is better. The sun comes out because you’re here with me," It says.

There's a stillness in this image, as though Jimin -singled out - stopped what he was doing to look back at the photographer, shutting out all the activity surrounding the two of them and stealing a quiet moment with that person.

And that stolen moment would have remained secret and private forever, had the photographer not shared this photo.

But they did.

The photographer gave it to us.

Was this just for aesthetic reasons?

I don't believe so.

Of course, it is a beautiful portrait of Jimin. Aesthetically and emotively it's a striking photograph, but there must me HUNDREDS of beautiful photos of Jimin. The photographer could have chosen ANY of them. But they chose this one.

Now we have this moment on record.

We get to see Jimin feeling this love. We see him the way the photographer sees him. And yes, we know who he is looking at.

We know who was behind the camera.... because the photograher shared this with us too.

Jungkook makes sure we know who took that photograph.

His Private Life becomes Art

In the drama series, the writer relents and takes Doekmi and Ryan upstairs to show them a locked room. It is full of photographs of himself, taken by photographer-Yoon over many years. In all of the pictures, he looks happy. Deokmi describes it as 'a love letter to the writer, from Photographer Yoon'.

The writer admits that he is ashamed that he never acknowledged Yoon's feelings. He didn't dislike them but he didn't have the courage to respond to them, which is why he can't release the portrait now. He can't reveal to the world how Yoon felt, when its too late to tell him that he knew, and that he didn't reject that love.

Ryan looks around at all the photos and says "Did you really ignore his heart? This smile does not look like it. You did not know your own heart, but photographer Yoon could have known it. As a photographer, how could he not notice it. He knew."

Their Private Life becomes public

That photo of Jimin is everywhere. Jungkook made sure of that.

The reticence of the two men in Her Private Life is nowhere to be found here.

Jungkook took this photo of the man he loves and one look at Jimin's face tells us that love is returned.

Just like photographer Yoon, Jungkook saw it and he knew we would all see it too.

But instead of hiding the picture in a locked room for decades, Jungkook published it in the most public forum imaginable. He put it into the music video for Life Goes On.

He consciously chose for us to see that photo.

Don't forget, he was the director of that music video too...

That private stolen moment, full of love and fondness, shows Jimin at his softest and his most vulnerable.

And maybe that's a side of Jimin only Jungkook sees. Maybe Jungkook wants us to know the Jimin HE knows. The open, unguarded Jimin who wears his heart on his sleeve the way Jungkook does. The most authentic, unafraid, beautiful Jimin.

The Jimin he loves the most.

💛💜

°~☆~°

*He told us in his Vlives, he told us in his album, he told us in his interviews. It was a hard, hard time for him.

[technicallyverycowboy]

playboyy: no fags, no femmes

okay, so. playboyy meta. thanks to @lugarn, @chaos0pikachu, and @cryptidafter for talking all this out with me <3

i originally started this post with "not to be that guy," but honestly, i do want to be that guy. because so much of the critique and analysis of playboyy i'm seeing is a) grounded in a lack of knowledge about queer history and aesthetics and b) veers unintentionally but wildly into unexamined homophobia.

so, given i'm going to reference susan sontag's notes on camp several times, i've decided i might as well go full queer studies major about it and copy the list style she uses. (i would highly recommend reading notes on camp. it is academic and somewhat dense, but it's a tame 13 pages)

1. so many people are confidently asserting that playboyy is not camp, regardless of what the creatives behind the show think. to which i have to ask: how are you defining camp? what things are campy to y'all?

2. the personal definition of camp that i arrived at after writing a bunch of papers about it is two-fold: camp is exaggeration, treating things that are serious casually and treating things that are casual seriously. camp is about an aesthetic of inhabiting a role, where something is a little bit off or being something that it's not meant to be.

and to be clear, this is a wildly incomplete and simplified definition, because one of the points of camp is that it's a vibe, not something concrete. It’s also something that shifts over time the relationship between queerness and society changes.

2a. camp often intersects and overlaps with surrealism, like in rocky horror picture show. very often media that is campy exits the mundane world and enters a heightened world of exaggeration and stylization. 

3. so, is playboyy campy? i sure as hell think it is. i think lugarn and chaos0pikachu both made really good points about the campiness of playboyy and it being specifically sexwork camp. (both replies are at that link.)

4. a brief list of things that specifically resonated as campy to me: first throwing american dollars in the pool for soong to catch, zouey's fantasy of feeling up teena in art class, every single element of nant's room (especially the projected images), captain's sports plot that involved zero doing the sport and 100% fucking and fantasy, the softly romantic framing of nuth and phob's sex scenes, jump's pleather tank top & coverall combination, prom wearing assless chaps to a rooftop party at 2:30 in the afternoon, the entire concept of investigating a disappearance via a themed party... i could go on and on, but i said this was brief.

5. i think the actual problem a lot of people have with playboyy is that it doesn't care about straight people.

6. what i mean by that is that playboyy is not a universal story. you could not plug different characters with different sexualities into the plot and preserve the essence of the story. the gayness of the characters is integral to the plot. the sex work is integral to the plot. this is not a world where homophobia doesn't exist and being gay is just like being straight.

7. additionally, these characters are all performing gender in a specifically queer way. they are femmes and fags, they are obvious, they are clockable, they're visible. when nice gays talk about the people who are giving gays a bad reputation and making it harder for everyone (to assimilate into heteropatriarchy) they're talking about playboyy gays.

8. comparing playboyy to only friends is low hanging fruit at this point, but i would argue that the reason boston stood out in that cast and was so viciously punished by the ending is because he was a fag stuck in a nice gays narrative.

9. and this is where the fandom homophobia comes in. so, so many people describe these characters and chaotic and messy, watchable as incoherent and vaguely amusing from a distance, but without real substance. the resulting narrative is often that no one could take their characters or their stories seriously or resonate with them.

10. again, why? why was ray and sand's high and low, blow up fights, calling each other whores relatable but soong and first's miscommunications about what they mean to each other unbelievable chaos? why is white taking black's place an acceptable plot point, but nont pretending to be nant is absurd?

11. most bls do not deal with flamboyance except in limited capacities by comedic side characters. flamboyance is a baseline trait for most of the playboyy characters. so if they feel too much, too loud, too out there, consider asking yourself why they do.

12. to a large extent, i think a lot of the criticism of playboyy is rooted in a bad faith refusal to engage with the show beyond a surface level pearl clutching about the sexual content. the unspoken belief here being that sex scenes are inherently vulgar distractions. they can't be integral to characters or their relationships. they can't be vital pieces of a narrative.

to which i say, there are nine thousand other BLs out there where the kissing is chaste and sex scenes are ~tastefully abstracted shots of shoulder blades and hands. watch those instead.

13. if you decide you want to watch it anyway, take a couple minutes to examine what parts of the show make you uncomfortable and why. and to be clear, i think there’s a lot of value in watching things that make you uncomfortable; media is often one of the best ways to dip into interrogating your emotional responses from a safe distance. 

but don’t use discomfort to dismiss the possibility that there’s meaningful artistic and stylistic choices made to serve a meaningful narrative. take a second to sit with your reactions and ask yourself where it’s coming from. 

[dingodad]

ok so throw out all of my prior speculation as to what was going to happen in that chapter lol. it was so short.. combined with how short chapter 4 was (and the fact that this one doesn't even get its own chapter number) i'm inclined to think they were supposed to be one chapter with davepeta and jasprose maybe being some comic relief after the heavier vriska content? but they got split when the comic made the switch to bimonthly. which i noticed with a couple of the updates prior to page 666 and was confirmed for me in the commentary.

hopefully this means the next one will be back to a certain length, but even knowing now that there's only actually one full chapter left has completely thrown all my expectations for how this arc was going to pace itself out. they ended this one on a really good note, leading us to expect that the next chapter will be set 4 years later (though there's still a part of me prepared to be psyched out and the reveal will be like. 400 years.) but the framing of it would seem to suggest vriska hasn't exactly spent those 4+ years chilling with the sprites and becoming a better person... like i suspected, we get a direct allusion to vriska's addictive relationship with 8-balls, suggesting she's not in a good place at all.

talking so much about fefeta yesterday led me for a brief second to suspect that she was the one calling davepeta (and davepeta didn't want to answer because they fucking hate talking with their alternate selves LOL) but instead we get a direct parallel between jasprose and davepeta which i somehow had not picked up on until the story pointed it out to me. alluding to the "bonus side-story set in the universe of another comic entirely" as if it's another extra-canonical pocket dimension like the Plot Point was really clever. so for the time being fefeta's role still hasn't been revealed, but considering all the talk about jane leading up to (and within) page 666 this added parallel seems to make it more and more plausible that vriska and jane's arcs are poised to intersect at some point...

i think previously i had been pretty sold on vriska's therapy arc being mostly straightforward with only minor setbacks, and i was entertaining the possibility that vriska would emerge WORSE from the plot point purely for my own hypothetical amusement... but after this one it truly does feel like it's up in the air. the 8-ball on chapter 5 only looks MORE ominous now if vriska has just spent 4 years getting worse rather than getting better. can you really just snap your fingers and reverse 4 years of downward spiralling in a single chapter of a visual novel...

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about pacing and how it's why I became a Byler.

If Mike and El were endgame, the pacing of season 4 would be....weird.

Normally conflict and confrontation is climactic, ESPECIALLY simultaneous conflict that "all crashes down on you". That's built up separately as A and B plots that intersect, this point of intersection being Mike.

Which is why I was so surprised when Will and Mike fought and had to pause it and go, "wait, what's happening?" Before that point I was worried that the season conflict was veering towards pitting Will and El against each other over Mike based on the tension at the rink - I naturally assumed that it was setting up the season arc with the current events that would continue until a 3rd act payoff, but it wasn't.

Will calls Mike out immediately and El calls him out the next day. Leaving the rest of the season empty. It's why Mike's final speech doesn't work. The plot was not maintained. It was a setup and payoff much like the painting, which I forgot about by the time he pulled it out might I add. We do not follow either Mike nor El's point of views on this plot, with only one even ACKNOWLEDGING it.

It doesn't. Make. Sense. At least not for my original prediction. Which is why I paused it, and thought:

If Will is calling Mike out now that means he won't ignore him for the rest of the season. Then what will the central conflict be? Will has said what he needs to say. Mike clearly has not, though, so this is more of a setup for him, but a setup for what? Will has nowhere to go from here because he has already reached the peak of this arc, demonstrating the vulnerability self-assuredness required for this honestly AND there is nothing for him as a person to follow this up with. The ball is in Mike's court to apologize. So the ball is in Mike's court for this plotline, this scene is an inciting incident for Mike, but for what? In this scene, he contrasts Will's honesty by being closed off and defensive, so his arc is to truth, but what truth? What secret would be threatened by Will's accusations of- OHHHHHHHHHHH

Will got too close, Mike got defensive, and his season arc is gaining the courage and vulnerability to explain himself. Got it. (We're not done)

2 episodes later: he apologizes and explains with vulnerability - WHAT? Okay, but he still hasn't told him how he feels so they're just pacing it differently, we mentally adjust. He is building up to telling him no longer with the stakes of his relationship to Will but rather the urgency of owing El an explanation/decision by the time he sees her again, one which he would likely tell Will first. The stakes are the commitment and pain he causes the longer he stalls. He needs to confess by the time he sees her again. Yes. He seems to be slowly working it out, coming back to the "why" repeatedly, and Will is giving him coded words - not enough to be a confession from Will and he has already demonstrated his honesty (the van scene is really just an inciting incident for the Jonathan coming out scene as far as Will's plot goes) - that he's reacting to and are perfect to be the tipping point for his motivation. And he's looking between El and Will with a strange expression. And he's......(I kinda just sat confused for a while until I got to the end and realized it was supposed to be a cliffhanger for the first time and also that there was a season 5, at which point I sat further before understanding that this was a multi-season arc because season 4 had themes of subverted happy endings into tragedy)

I had to adjust it with little tweaks throughout but only ever in pacing, never in event. But if I got it 2 hours into a 13 hour season, I'm sure they'll catch up in the next 8.

[only-by-the-stars]

Fic Promo: Song of a Champion

Now that @spacelemon has put up that amazing promo vid of the Mipha's Grace mod, it feels like a good time to do a little self-promo of my own, for something that I promise is related (otherwise I wouldn't be mentioning the vid; I am doing so in hopes of helping to get more eyeballs on it): a fic I've been writing since 2022, that is both inspired by and based on the mod. I've been lucky enough to have been allowed to play early versions of it, and was inspired to write a fic that retells BOTW with Mipha as the lead, taking cues from many plot points and armor redesigns present in the mod. If that's not enough to entice you, then please read on for my list of things that you might enjoy about this fic!

It's about Mipha Judging by the results of my poll, a lot of you like reading about Mipha! I've written a LOT about her over the past few years, but this is my most in-depth exploration of her yet. It's entirely centered on her, delving deep into her thoughts and feelings and exploring the myriad aspects of her personality as we follow her journey. Instead of Link waking up on the Great Plateau without his memories and being handed the responsibility of saving Hyrule, it's Mipha who must walk this path; unlike in the base game, she's not a fridged love interest for Link to be sad about, she's an active heroine in her own right with a monumental task ahead of her from the moment she wakes up, not to mention a lot of questions. How did she get there? Can she do this? What--and who--has she forgotten in her century-long slumber? How will she find her way in this strange new world she awakens to? What kind of bonds will she forge with the people she meets along her way? All these and more are tackled in great depth as she goes on her adventure, setting out with, initially, little more than her own courage, determination, and compassion. I've been told by many people that I write their favorite Mipha, and though this isn't my first time giving her a starring role, I fully believe this is my best character work for her so far. I've given her so much to do and act on and react to, exploring her rich inner life and personality and character FAR beyond just shipping stuff, and developed a lot of really fun friendships for her and gone heavy on her familial relationships as well. There is miphlink, but it's only one aspect, and Mipha herself is the shining star at the heart of everything.

2. It takes inspiration from Wind Waker Mainly, the concept of a character who is not the chosen one stepping up and proving themselves worthy and going on to save Hyrule. If you, like me, enjoyed that aspect of Wind Waker, then you'll like this story!

3. It plays with the lore in fun ways Do you like the older bits of lore from pre-Skyward Sword games? Like the Golden Goddesses and other deities? Then you'll like the bits of it I've weaved in!

4. It treats the NPCs with care, love, and nuance One of the things I'm proudest of about this story, that I've gotten praise from others for, is how the various NPCs are written. I've treated them all like people in their own right, who all have their own rich inner lives, schedules, interests, priorities, and feelings that don't revolve around the protagonist. Mipha befriends most of them, yes, but that's because she treats them with compassion and kindness too. Nobody is shallow here, I've gone to great pains to illustrate a world filled with people all living their own lives that intersect with Mipha's journey in various ways, and allowed people to just be human and make mistakes and have doubts but ultimately just be people. There's a lot of emphasis on Mipha's relationships with her family, and I've certainly won praise for my depiction of these dynamics, but also a ton of friendships being formed and explored, and people have told me that I made certain characters interesting and likable to them where the game failed to do so.

5. It has awesome fight scenes BOTW is a game with a lot of combat, so anyone novelizing it better be good at writing that kind of scene. Fortunately, I am! This is an action-packed story, not just for its own sake, but to show the dangerous world Mipha is traveling through and the challenges she has to face as she ventures into each Divine Beast and cleanses them of their respective Blights. I write really fast-paced action that also shows the characters' mindsets while fighting, and strikes a balance between showing off their strengths and that they're up to the challenge, while also respecting their opponents and demonstrating why the Champions of a hundred years ago fell to these things, why NPCs fear certain monsters. And speaking of respecting opponents, I've taken stuff from Age of Calamity as well as some of my own inventions, to beef up the boss fights, a certain area, and make every Divine Beast threatening (we all know how scary Medoh wasn't in-game).

6. It has beautiful prose/descriptions But you don't have to just take my word for it! Here's a sample from the rough draft of chapter 42!

Shards of light drifted across her floor, leaves caught in the current of clouds flowing over the moon. Mipha took a moment to watch them before closing the door behind herself. The water in her sleeping pool murmured a melody of rest and relaxation after a long day, calling her to it, but she ignored it for now. She’d done all her preparations for tomorrow, downed a warm elixir crafted from a few hearty lizards, and now only one thing remained to do before going to bed. It wasn’t a need, as the other tasks had been, but a want. Nothing wrong with that. She crossed the room to the old chest that lay tucked beneath her window, opening the lid with a whining creak from the aged hinges. A folded length of fabric the color of spilt starlight lay atop the item she sought; Mipha moved it aside. Her breath catching, she withdrew the armor beneath and held it up to the softly swaying illumination of the moon outside and the luminous stone lamps within.

All in all, I think this fic is some of my best work, and shouldn't be missed if you're a Mipha fan like I am (she is my favorite Zora, so if it's okay I'd like to use this as a belated submission for that Zora May prompt). She truly is the star of the show, with so much to offer as a lead character, moving through a world treated with depth and care. If you're in the market for a BOTW retelling that does something different, something no other retelling has done, and does it really well, then give it a chance! You can read it here on AO3. :3

[thatfoxnamedfinley]

To Erase the Past aka Words of Radiance thoughts

Why yes, I was awake until 5:00AM finishing this book, thank you for asking and understanding

Why no, I'm not okay

I'm so proud of Shallan

I'm so disappointed in Moash

I'm so thankful for Kaladin

I'm so triggered by Tangerine (I know this isn't his name but that's what I'm calling him, throw him into the pile with Capsule)

I've become a Dalinar apologist

YOU KNOW THE DRILL

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Lets GOOOOOooOOOOoooOooooooOOOOo

So last night, I'm whooping and hollering. Sweating. Fist pumping. Being trampled by the last sequences in the book. It's 3:00AM. My roommate who fell asleep downstairs finally makes it up to his room. He looks into my room, eyebrow raised.

Him: I could hear you downstairs.

Me: Okay?

Him: ......it was bad

Me: ...

That is a quick summary of my thoughts of this book. I feel like between these two books I've read like 2 trilogies.

BITCH I KNEW JASNAH WASN'T DEAD, I FUCKING KNEW IT. I EVEN SLAMMED THE BOOK SHUT AND STOOD UP LIKE "I BET YOUR ASS SHE IS IN SHADESMAR SOMEHOW"

*sits down and takes a deep breath*

So apparently Shadesmar is the mythological kingdom of the spren

PATTERN IS AMAZING, I loved him. Ok ok ok when he was first introduced and Shallan and Jasnah were like "damn I'm kinda disappointed." and Jasnah was like "He's a little..."

and Shallan was like *nods sadly* "He's a little retarded?" and Pattern is like spinning in circles in the corner of the room and trying to get up walls but keeps like, slowly sliding down

I almost spat my water out

ok ok so Kaladin is a Surgebinder, Shallan a Lightweaver, Dalinar a Bondsmith and Renarin (wtf this kid is so weird bro) is a...Truthwatcher

Ok I'm sorry, let me consult my notes because my mind is ALL OVER THE PLACE

Very early the glyphs appeared and honestly, we all knew it was the Everstorm. Dalinar FINALLY knowing he wasn't crazy was just so good. There was a moment after the first set appeared and Dalinar is listening to the people in the room. His inner dialogue is to have a straight back and head up despite his exhaustion. Telling himself to be in control. And I'm like DAMN this man really is a leader amongst men. The way he carries himself is just so GENERAL like and so so good!

Even though Dalinar apparently had the fewest pages dedicated to him this book, it really felt like he was looming over the story with how much of this seems to center around him (uniting Alethkar) and how many of the character's POV's intersect with what he doing.

Jasnah? Thinks Dalinar may be one of the best men she has ever known. Syl? Loves Dalinar and thinks he's a good man. Kaladin? Has several moments when he realizes that yes, Dalinar IS a good man and he MUST live. Hell, he was almost part of a plot to kill the king because he and that crew he met were like "Bro, Dalinar should be the king. We all know it." And at first Kaladin was like WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE WE CANT KILL THE KING WERE PROTECTING HIM WTF ARE YOU- wait...Dalinar the king instead?

Kaladin was like

Sadeas was such a bitter ex boyfriend. When he asked his wife to activate all her spies to find something to hurt Dalinar with I'm like BRO WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING DAMAGE DUDE. Admitting to himself that even if Dalinar was the Blackthorn and was still the conquering warlord, he'd kill him regardless because he wanted to be at the top was telling because I was really wondering if he'd ever admit it.

((Adolin sniping tf outta him was so fucking satisfying. Holy SHIT))

Shallan. Ooooouuu girlie! GIRLIE!!! The CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!!! I liked her in book 1 despite many people saying she was a weakness in the book because Dalinar and Shallan were just much more INTERESTING than her POV. Brandon Sanderson said "lol ok BET" and look what we got. A cesspit of trauma and growth. The goal? To find Urithiru because it holds secrets of the Voidbringers. Oh, and marry Adolin. Oh, and infiltrate the Ghost Bloods. Oh, AND SAVE THE ENTIRE WORLD NO FUCKING PROBLEM

HOLYYY FUCKKKKK THE REVELATION THAT SHE KILLED HER MOTHER HOLY ACTUAL FUCKKK!! Her dad was PROTECTING HER by making everyone think he did it! I sat back in my chair like yo WTF Shallan. You murked your mom AND your dad. Holy fuck. And I guess her mom tried to kill her because she said Shallan was "one of them" and had powers at a younger age? When we meet Pattern, this isn't the first time Shallan has. Hints to it but Shallan's brain just

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETT

dissociation

The flashbacks were so good. Seeing her brothers (RIP to Heleran, Balat is NUTS he abuses animals and pulls legs off crabs). Her father was horrible. Being surrounded by all the constant yelling, the fear. Being put in her corner and not speaking. Her humor helping her brothers. Despite how afraid she is, it is SHE that holds the family together. It was SHE who got her gambling brother free, who made her brothers laugh.

OOOOO When she was about to join the caravans, there was a line she said...

"What would you do, Vathah," Shallan said in a loud voice, "to erase the past?"

And it's pitch black and you hear the screams of the caravans being attacked by bandits and she's standing on the sand and she's Lightweaving an illusion that she's a QUEEN and her hair is blowing around her and now KNOWING her past I'm like holy FUCK that was so GOOD!!!!

(I was also like holy fuck THERE's Gaz!)

oMg when Jasnah was "assassinated" I did indeed gasp. When Shallan watched the guy stab her in the chest with a knife I was like NO FUCKING WAY BITCH but Sanderson was clever. By NOT having her in the rest of the book and bringing her back in the EPILOGUE it didn't feel like we were cheated. Because Jasnah's death was a huge motivator to Shallan and a catalyst to her change in the book.

yo Shallan is so smart. This bitch infiltrated the Ghostbloods with ALMOST ease because of her abilities. WHEN SHE WENT TO THE HERALD AND AMARAM WAS THERE AND SHALLAN WAS IN THE CORNER like

I'm like this bitch is about to be a fucking PROBLEM

watch for that dark haired cunt in a rimmed hat

rumor has it her name is Veil

ok random gear switch

Sadeas CASUALLY talking about killing Dalinar and Elhokar? BRO what is your DAMAGE???? I get that Alethi are super ambitious and war driven but WTF Sadeas

OOOOOOMGGGGGG

WHEN SZETH CAME BITCH

OOOOMMMMFFGGG I SCREAMED

The chapter was entitled The One Who Hates

like excuse me bitch?

One of my bookmarked notes in my audiobook is "No spren guides him. WHAT????? HOW SWAY????"

We learn later on the nature of his blade but STILL. In the moment I was freaking out. Kaladin has that dream and knew something was wrong. He and Adolin and Dalinar are f.i.g.h.t.i.n.g. f.o.r t.h.e.i.r l.i.v.e.s and Szeth is flying around, sending Adolin flying up to the ceiling and he cuts Kaladin's arm and it goes grey and I'm just reading this chapter

UNSTABLE

UNWELL

My heart was beating so fucking fast. Dalinar is like

"YOU TOOK MY BROTHER FROM ME. YOU WILL NOT TAKE THE KING, YOU WILL NOT TAKE THE ONLY THING OF HIM I HAVE LEFT"

And Szeth is like

"I'm not here for him, Highprince. I'm here for you." Then Dalinar CATCHES the Shardblade in his bare fucking hands and Kaladin and Szeth fall midair from the window and then Szeth flees after Kaladin heals and shows his powers and I'm SHOUTING at the spine of the book

(Adolin sitting outside his father's room the rest of that night because he was scared Szeth would come back to kill his father was just...UGH I LOVE the relationship Adolin and Dalinar have. Adolin idolizes his father so MUCH)

and and and

that part with Shallan (I am so frazzled I'm so sorry I've barely had any sleep and this book HAUNTS me do you understand it HAUNTS me...I had a dream last night about this book)

"Can't run, can't run, can't run....

FIGHT."

And she attacks Tyn and kills her with a SHARDBLADE

Oh I'm sorry? Hello? WHAT???? WTFFF BITCH???

A SHARDBLADDDEEEEEEEE????!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!? I just got goosies again bitch omg I'm actually panting hold on give me a moment

ok sidenote but The Stormfather is kind of a dick???? And to be fair, I'm going to assume after as many Desolations as there were that the spren are tired of helping humanity maybe and that's what Stormfather is talking about. Like "bro this is not my first, second, third or even eightieth rodeo. everytime it's the same and SOMEHOW humanity still finds new and clever ways to disappoint me. So...HELP YOU? lmfao" And I know we'll learn more about it so I'm willing to accept that thought process for now but at the end when he's talking to Dalinar (EXCUSE ME IS THE STORMFATHER DALINAR'S *SPREN* NOW???????????) I was like this Stormfather is a little bit of a bitch. This was my INITIAL reading because my adrenaline was still through the roof after

KALADIN FOUGHT SZETH AND SHALLAN TELEPORTED THE ARMY TO URITHIRU

but after thinking about it I was like yeah no I get it. He's seen this movie in theaters so many times and has to pretend to be excited but he really is just pissed his friends keep forcing him to come

Sebarial and Wit were iconic. Their insults were so fucking good. During the end when they were all making their way to the Oathgate and Sebarial was drunk and Palona was reading a book and Dalinar was like ????

AMARAM GOT PUT IN HIS PLACE bye bitch

Aladar, Roion (r.i.p you cowardly prince, you actually did us a solid in the end, and I underestimated both you and your kin. salute) and Sebarial joining him to form a force of 30k against the Parshendi that were SINGING THEIR LITTLE HEARTS OUT for the apocalypse

KALADIN REALIZING THAT ELOKHAR WAS DALINAR'S TIEN ARRGgggggg *squeezes stress ball*

Then Syl. My glorious Syl.

"YOUT WILL MATTERS NOT!" Syl shouted. "YOU CANNOT HOLD ME BACK IF HE SPEAKS THE WORDS! KALADIN! SAY THEM!"

BITCHHHHH I was *unhinged* Then Kaladin lit up like a fucking Christmas tree

I am so disappointed in Moash. I want to say I get it but like...MOASH. REALLY? After all that? After being Kaladin's friend and OH YOU KNOW him giving you a Shardblade and Plate because he trusted you and now we're here

Though he did get 1/18th of a brownie point for not letting anyone else touch Kaladin. Then he lost 1,476,998 brownie points for punching Kaladin so hard that his ribs broke INWARD. "Oops I hit him harder than I meant to." Are you fucking kidding me Moash. Are you? Because you're an EMBARRASSMENT. I hope when we see him next it's ON SITE. Count your fucking days, bro

So...Szeth's weapon was an Honorblade, a weapon of the Heralds....? And two of them are back? The one that Amaram snatched up (Herald of War) and the one that saved Szeth (Herald of Justice). They are returning. So now Szeth is just a normal human being with a normal life...? I'm very VERY interested in Szeth's development and where he goes. I want him on our side so bad and idk how tf Brandon Sanderson plans to do it but I just need it to happen

Adolin murdering Sadeas was SO satisfying. Sadeas going on and on and ON. That isn't it SO CONVENENIENT that the head of Dalinar's guard and Adolin's betrothed are both Radiants and that Dalinar has an ulterior motive. And Adolin is like WHY SADEAS? WHY are you like this. What is your damage? And Sadeas is like WELL if Dalinar stays alive then I can't be more powerful, so lololololol

And Adolin is like

OMG I FORGOT tO MENTION ADOLIN's DUEL

amazing. so good. captivating. unexpected. Adolin grappling from behind and they won!

"Dalinar growled softly. It was a sound Kaladin had never heard from him, The growl of a beast on a chain. It surprised him. " ooohhh?????

And no one standing to help and Kaladin like "literally hold my beer" then when he asked for his boon I was like welp FUCK here we go

Then he was thrown in jail and I was like YUP that tracks

I absolutely LOVED his book. Truly. I liked it better than the first if that's even possible. It made me appreciate book 1 even more because of the world building and set up.

side notes from my audiobook bookmarks:

Kaladin mentions Dalinar's eyes a lot mmmhmmmm

"Dalinar Kholin slowly stood up. He moved like a rolling boulder. Inevitable, implacable." oh. OH?

PATTERN CAN READ DAWNCHANT what a g

"I wouldn't want you to go flying off on me. You know, flying off in an angry tirade." Wit is a legend, I love that he seems to be all knowing and everywhere he needs to be for certain characters. WHO/WHAT IS HE?

Renarin is...I don't have words. What in Damnation are you doing, man? Because he's llike WERE ALL GUNNA DIE WERE ALL GUNNA DIE then they don't so like...how reliable are his Truthwatching abilities?

Shallan and Kaladin EYEBALLING EACH OTHER????? Thinking about each other????? HMMMMMMM???

"He danced with the slayer of kings" HOLLLLYYY FUCK IM *UNHINGED* RN DALINAR YOU ARE TRULY A GOAT AMONGST GOATS <- actually quote from my bookmark

Gallant not fleeing the battlefield is actually iconic

Shallan and Dalinar looking out below and people teleporting to their location and saying "Life before Death, Radiant" is, I fear, legendary

Ok phew I'm so tired from this post, I needed to spit my thoughts out before reading book 3 (which is apparently about Dalinar and I am already such a Dalinar apologist that I can't WAIT)

ok bye *snooze*

OH!! AND TANGERINE BEING EItHER RETARDED OR A GENIUS ON ANY GIVEN DAY bro WHAT and THAT is what you're going off of? THAT is why you're assassinating everyone???? Bro you are FUCKED

[wolfgirl-sister]

A lot of times, I have people ask me for recommendations for incest media, or just don't know where to start, so without further ado:

Cocteau Azaka's Incest Reading List!

Books

Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block

Incest Rating: 9.5/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Drama, Tragedy, Coming of Age

Overall Rating: 9/10

Wasteland is a beautifully written, albeit heartbreaking, book about love, loss, and growing up as an outsider. The book utilizes multiple points of view, signified by changes in font and narrative distance, to paint the picture of three teens in 1980s SoCal who are looking for answers. The first time I read this book, I finished it in tears and immediately read it a second time, just because I wanted more of it.

Hale by K Webster

Incest Rating: 9/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Drama

Overall Rating: 5/10

Hale is... Not a great book. The characters are so painfully cishet and neurotypical that, while they're ostensibly fleshed out, they're so perfectly, stereotypically normal that I legitimately felt alienated. I suppose the point is that it's not always the fucked up people who can be in a forbidden relationship, that even the girl next door can fall in love with her brother, but in execution the only reason the characters weren't boring is that they wrapped around to being fascinating if only because this was what being "normal" is like.

Overall quality aside, the romance itself is not only convincing, but spectacular. It's a poignant depiction of the line between siblings and lovers blurring until it's inevitably crossed, and it has an explicitly happy ending— a rarity in incest media.

Love's Forbidden Flower, by Diane Rinella

Incest Rating: 6/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Will They Won't They, Explicit

Genre: Romance, Drama

Overall Rating: 4/10

To be blunt, this book was a letdown. I appreciate what the author was going for, and I felt that it did achieve that, somewhat?

But I could not stand the characters, particularly the secondary love interest that's introduced after the main character is let down by her brother time and time again. The reason why this book is on here at all is the end of the second act/early parts of the third, where the protagonist's brother is redeemed and they finally are together, even if it's only temporary when they find that they're not able to withstand the challenges of a socially unacceptable relationship. Rinella wrote a fascinating turn in the plot with a bravery not usually becoming of Western authors of the genre, and for that I applaud her.

Kara no Kyoukai: Records in Oblivion by Kinoko Nasu

Incest rating: 6/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Unrequited, but Explicit, Sub-plot

Genre: Urban fantasy, neo-noir

Overall rating: 7/10

Obviously, I have a fondness for Kara no Kyoukai, and for Azaka specifically, but I'll admit that this isn't the most incestuous book on the list. It does have some payoff with a platonic date at the end, but primarily it's on this list because it does a good job of exploring Azaka's feelings and not invalidating them or downplaying them. I would recommend reading the KnK books prior to this one first, or else you'll most likely be hopelessly lost.

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Incest Rating: 4/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Questionably Requited? Auxillary to the Plot

Genre: Chuck Palahniuk, Drama

Overall Rating: 8/10

Like most of Palahniuk's works, Invisible Monsters is about fucked up people doing fucked up things, driven by self-destruction until they enter todestrieb. As usual, it's fucking glorious.

Invisible Monsters focuses on themes of beauty, identity, attention, disability, and the way that all of these intersect with womanhood. It's not for readers who are squeamish about depictions of transphobia or a narrator who is somewhat transphobic herself, but if you're able to stomach it I highly recommend it.

If you're reading it just for the incest, you'll probably be disappointed, but if you want a fantastic book with some small amount of explicit incest feelings, I would say go for it.

Not Forever, but For Now by Chuck Palahniuk

I'm putting this on the list because though I haven't read it yet, I know that it's explicitly incestuous. I cannot promise that the incest is good, I can't even promise that the book is good, but I can assure you that those brothers are fucking.

Manga

Sayuri-San no Imouto wa Tenshi

Incest Rating: 10/10

Incest Type: Explicit, Sisters, Focal Point

Genre: Yuri, Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy

Overall Rating: 9/10

This manga is very short, but focuses on the day to day life of a young woman and her estranged, sickly younger sister, who re-enters her life suddenly with a halo and wings that only the protagonist and her friend can see.

It's an extremely sweet, funny and lighthearted manga that is nonetheless deeply touching.

Citrus

Incest Rating: 5/10

Incest Type: Step-Sisters, Focal Point, Explicit

Genre: Yuri, Romance, Drama, Gyaru

Overall Rating: 6/10

Citrus is the queen of sister yuri, earning the rare privilege of an anime adaptation, which in this genre is rare! However, just because Citrus is queen does not make it the best, not even by a long shot. The plot is extremely melodramatic, the kisses questionably consensual for most of the first acts, and with the strict uniform standards, a lot of the tertiary characters can be difficult to discern in black and white. It has it's redeeming qualities, but mostly I've found that it's over-hyped.

I Met My Sister On A Dating Site

Incest Rating: 7/10

Incest Type: Sisters, Focal Point, Explicit

Genre: Yuri, Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance

Overall Rating: 7/10

This is a really cute and short manga with a great premise, but honestly it's very lacking in substance. That's okay though, because it does exactly what it sets out to do: be something short and sweet that ends with sisters dating.

Oshi no Ko

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Twins, Explicit, Ostensibly Requited? Sub plot

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Revenge, Idols

Overall Rating: 8/10

I've written my thoughts on Oshi no Ko elsewhere, but to keep this brief, this is a fantastic series, and reading/watching it was the time of my life. The art is glamorous and over the top, with visibly heightened emotions that really sell the drama of it all.

We've only just started to get to the incest as of this chapter being written, but Ruby's reaction to her brother are so endearing that I'm preemptively rating it very highly

Koi no Kaze

Incest Rating: 7/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Slice of Life

Overall Rating: 6/10

I don't have too much to say about this one— it's your basic, straightforward sibling love story played straight, with not too many twists or turns. I do appreciate that it includes an outing scene, so I'm rating it a bit higher, but it also hits on public acceptance, which for some people is a really important part of the fantasy.

1 x 1/2

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Mother/Daughter, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Drama, Yuri

Overall Rating: */10

Taiyaki, the mangaka who created 1 x 1/2, is in my opinion one of the greatest mother/daughter writers and artists out there. 1 x 1/2 is a complicated work to judge as an English speaker because what's currently on Mangadex is an excellent fan translation of an unfinished, no longer canon first draft. This is phenomenal, and does a great job of everything it sets out to do, until it ends very suddenly. When Taiyaki restarted 1 x 1/2, she partnered with an (incredibly mid) translation partner called Yuri Hub, which means that her work can no longer be fan translated, and the translation published is pretty clearly machine-based. It's honestly very disappointing, as I would love to have a proper translation of the new 1 x 1/2.

Visual Novels

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Siblings (Explicit? Implicit? Somewhat unrequited?), Parent/Child (Explicit)

Genre: Fantasy Mecha, Action, Drama, Samurai

Overall Rating: 9/10

Muramasa is an epic, and I don't know how to impress the drama of the fight scenes throughout, and the way that they combine real swordplay theory with imagined mecha combat, crossed with samurai tropes. It can be really difficult to get through, as the game is not even in the slightest for the squeamish. There's a lot of rape, both implied and explicit, however the antagonist's motivation is that she wants to ascend to godhood so that she's no longer bound by the rules of morality and therefore can marry her father. Additionally, her relationship with her brother is extremely sexually charged, and their fight scenes often involve comparisons to sex.

This is one of the best mecha VNs ever written, with a truly fantastic ending.

Tsukihime

Incest Rating: 7/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point (of one route)

Genre: Action, Urban Fantasy, Horror

Overall Rating: 7/10

This game is a touchy subject for me. I've had the misfortune of playing Tsukihime after having it hyped up for literal years, so it not measuring up to that hype is less a statement on my objective assessment of the VN, and more a statement on how beloved it is.

Having said that, the Akiha route is fantastic. I'm not sure that I have much to say on the subject that hasn't already been said, but believe you me, Tsukihime is worth playing.

Love Ribbon

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Sisters, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Slice of Life, Drama, Romance, Comedy, Yuri

Overall Rating: 6/10

Love Ribbon is a short, sweet VN that's a really solid 6/10 and is worth the $15 it costs to support an indie dev. It focuses on two sisters who were raised apart, and only meet when they share an apartment to attend a prestigious high school. The romance is cute, the plot is uncomplicated, and there are only two routes, but there's a long epilogue where they're explicitly dating and ostensibly get symbolically married. If you have unresolved daddy issues that you can't touch for fear of untangling something massive, this is a great read because so do those girls.

Thank you for reading, I hope that this list helps people!

[paladinbaby]

i feel like it’s potentially relevant i keep track of these all in a discord channel called nettle spiralling. family portrait of nettle nolastname

@july-19th-club / my nieces is probably the reincarnation of shirley jackson, cj hauser with notes / all about love, bell hooks / where angels fear to tread, e m forster / antichrist, the 1975 / elisabeth hewer / haunted epistemologies, laura westengard / letters to a young poet, rainer maria rilke / sam sifton / the anthropocene reviewed, john green

[Image Description: Ten pictures of text.

1: “simply cannot resist what i call the little mermaid or the tin man or the pinocchio plot, the one about a character who is either inhuman or human but outside in some way, constantly searching for whatever it is that they consider to be the quintessential proof of humanity, preoccupied by it so deeply that they fail to realise the proof is in the act and fact of the search itself”

2: “”What does it mean for the structure of your life to feel menacing? To be imprisoned within it? To feel like it might kill you?”

Haunting is an act of care, care is an act of haunting. Haunting is formed between the trauma, mothers inflict on their daughters.”

3: “We can never go back. I know that now. We can go for-ward. We can find the love our hearts long for, but not until we let go grief about the love we lost long ago, when we were little and had no voice to speak the heart’s longing.” The first three sentences are highlighted in red.”

4: “I seem fated to pass through the world without colliding with it or moving it - and I’m sure I can’t tell you whether the fate’s good or evil. I don’t die - I don’t fall in love. And if other people die or fall in love they always do it when I’m just not there.”

5: “And I swear there's a ghost on this island / And his hands, all covered in blood / And my wife inquired of understanding / But of course, my dear, you can't

She said, How can I relate to somebody who doesn't speak?/ I feel like I'm just treading water

Is it the same for you? / Is it the same for you?”

6: “I want to be eaten alive. I want / to feel wanted.”

7: “cultural anxieties and desires, allowing”for a whole range of specific monstrosities to coalesce in the same form.” The excesses of monstrosity and the hybridity of the living dead help visualize naturalized oppressive structures, making those structures uncanny and therefore intervening in the architecture of oppression. Both haunting and sadomasochism appear in queer thought as expressions of queer temporality that expose a particular type of traumatic temporality. Haunting manifests the swirl-ing, fractured, intersecting temporality of ongoing low-level trauma, not just a single event popping through into the present but a disorienting and overwhelming storm of traumatic intrusion.

The traumatic gothic shadow cast on queer theory is not always made explicit however.” The initial sentence fragment and queer temporality are highlighted in blue. The penultimate sentence is highlighted in purple.

8: “You must realise that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hands and will not let you fall.”

9: “Above all, cook for someone else. Take a moment to prepare food not simply because you’re hungry, but because cooking is an act that makes others feel better. And making the lives of others better is why we are here.”

10: A photo of a page of a book, some lines are highlighted in yellow throughout. “would like that, to show it your belly. There’s something deep within me, something intensely fragile, that is terrified of turning itself to the world.

I’m scared to even write this down, because I worry that having confessed this fragility, you now know where to punch. I know that if I’m hit where I am earnest, I will never recover.

It can sometimes feel like loving the beauty that surrounds us is somehow disrespectful to the many horrors that also surround us. But mostly, I think I’m just scared that if I show the world my belly it will devour me. And so I wear the armor of cynicism, and hide behind the great walls of irony, and only glimpse beauty with my back turned to it, through the Claude glass.

But I want to be earnest, even if it’s embarrassing.”

End ID.]

[writingquestionsanswered]

Ambitions Story with Multiple POVs

Anonymous asked: I am trying to write a dark fantasy/cosmic horror story with a pseudo-anthology structure that is sort of like that parable about the blind men all feeling different parts of an elephant and thinking its a totally different creature. There are multiple POV characters (about 5-7) each are from very different walks of life, who the story cuts between as they all independently investigate supernatural stuff going on, each unaware of eachother and only getting a small slice of the mystery, while the reader who can see the whole picture that starts to form is able to put the pieces together to figure out what is really going on, as well as see how the actions of one character causes ripples that effect the others. I am struggling to: work out pacing of the individual revelations, avoid a gigantic cast that the reader can't keep straight (each POV character has their own supporting characters), make sure the individual stories connect (even if the characters themselves never realize it, etc.) How do I go about making this structure manageable without having to compromise on it too much?

[Ask edited for length]

I would suggest plotting out each of these POVs as though they were different stories. Then, create a timeline document and plot the major points of each plotline to see places where things might intersect. You could potentially have some of these characters cross paths--and even work together in some ways--without ever knowing the bigger connection.

As for the cast--not all of these characters need to have giant support casts. You could have a POV character who is working with one other person, for example. Or--let's say all of your POV characters are race car drivers, and they all have a pit crew, manager, etc. Consider the fact that you don't necessarily want 6 POVs telling different bus similar stories in a similar way... if all six of your POV characters are trying to make it to a particular championship race (is that even a thing?) and hopefully win the prize, you don't want to tell that same story six times following six different people. So, maybe one POV would be an old, legendary driver. One POV would be a young, green and untested driver. One POV would be the spouse of one of the drivers. One POV would be the manager of one of the drivers. One POV would be a pit crew member of one of the drivers. And, of course, these paths would all converge at the championship race. So, that way, instead of getting driver one's journey to the championship, driver two's journey to the championship, driver three's journey to the championship... all of which are going to look more or less the same, now you're getting these vastly different perspectives. Because the spouse of a driver can still tell the story of the driver's journey to the championship, but it's a different view of the story than the driver themselves, so it makes things more interesting. This also helps cut down on supporting cast, or at the very least creates variation so your reader doesn't have to remember six different drivers, six different managers, six different pit crews, six different spouses/significant others, etc.

I hope that helps!

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[beevean]

Who's the protagonist of NFCV and who's the main villain?

No seriously think about it

Because Isaac, as favored as he is, only becomes a big player in S3, and his story ends halfway through S4, with him not really participating in the ending

At the same time Death also only came into the field in S3 and he was also pretty forced

Well... in theory the protagonist should be Trevor Belmont, and Sypha and Alucard should be the deuteragonists.

But this is a huge issue with the show: while S1 and S2 tell a coherent story, flawed but nevertheless with a clear beginning, progression and end, S3 and S4 completely lose focus.

What is the plot of the show, in its entirety? You can't say that it's about the gang stopping Dracula, because that only covers until S2. What does that make S3 and S4? They're almost like the epilogue, since a lot of the mini-plotlines are related to Dracula's death: Trepha have to deal with Dracula cultists + Death attempting to bring the man back, Alucard has to deal with his grief and loneliness, Isaac has to deal with being left alone to fend for himself in the human world, and the Styria vampires want to take advantage of the unrest left by Dracula to strike (and yes, they are the protagonists of that storyline, because as I've said multiple times Hector has stopped being a character with his own objective and growth). But... the epilogue is longer than the main story, at this point.

Fine, then. Let's treat S3 and S4 as their own thing. What are those seasons about? What is the macroplot told through all those little subplots? How do you summarize it without having to split it? I can't. I can find something resembling an unifying theme, which is the consequences of Dracula's death, but this is not a story, it's an anthology, each with their own arc villain. And that's not even mentioning the sheer disparity in screentime, quality, and relevance to the plot: Isaac is the most active agent in the ensemble of S3, and he's given all the love and development usually reserved to a protagonist, but by S4 his only role is pushing Carmilla into suicide and he's then unceremoniously dropped out of the story once he has served that purpose. On the opposite side of the coin, Trepha do literally nothing worth talking about, their screentime is completely wasted because the agent that matters is St. Germain, but Trevor is at the very last minute kicked back into the role of the protagonist for the sake of the final boss, a final boss that doesn't even have thematic relevance in the story, because there is no story in the first place! Death is the final antagonist because he's cool, but he might as well be replaced by Sala since they want the same thing anyway!

It's also worth pointing out how this microsplitting kills the pacing like nothing else, because if S2 had 8 episodes to tell 2 plotlines, the Hero and the Dark stories if you will (and the Hero story was a complete waste of time to boot), S3 has 10 episodes to tell 5 plotlines - Trepha, Alucard, Isaac, Styria, and St. Germain who is doing his own thing separately from Trepha! And somehow it still feels like nothing happened! And do I need to remind you how rushed S4 is, how eager it is to drop plot points?

And all of this is not even mentioning how most of the plotlines don't even intersect. As pointed out by many people, Trephacard don't even know about the existence of Hector, Isaac and the Styria vampires. Those are completely parallel plotlines. One effect of this is, of course, that it's hard to take Carmilla seriously as a menace, when the alleged protagonists don't even know that there was an mad vampire woman on the loose who planned to conquer the world. Another is that, well, it contributes to the lack of a macroplot. Hector and Isaac did their own thing, and their stories converged into the climax of the Styria story, but the Styria story has absolutely no impact on the other characters - and yet the Styria story is by far the most fleshed out and interesting, because the protagonists, the trio always promoted as being the center stage of the show, did absolutely nothing of value except killing Dracula: their stories were over by S2, but they still ate screentime.

NFCV has no real story. It has one short story that is a vague adaptation of Dracula's Curse that is concluded midway through, and then a lot of meandering. I suppose one could say that its strong suit is its character development, but... well. You can imagine I have a lot to say about that :P