#like... overtake the plot in an obnoxious way.

[lesliemeyers]

the milfs... i support women's wrongs...

[istoleyoursk1n]

How would the companions react to a Tiefling!Tav who, after the first meeting with everyone's favorite cambion, reveals that Raphael is their father?

•❅───────────✧❅✦❅✧───────────❅•

How would they react to a Tiefling!Tav who’s actually the child of Raphael

(Note that their kind of written in a way where in this is how I think they might initially react to such a confession. If you want one where the Tav don't associate themselves at all with Raphael or even despises their father then do tell me cause they’d have an entirely different reaction.)

.

.

: ̗̀➛ ASTARION

“Let’s get this straight, Shadowheart’s a Sharran, Gale is a ticking time bomb, Wyll has ties with a literal devil, and by the gods- you're a damn child of one! Are there any other secrets I should know about in this bloody party?!”

Genuinely shocked at first but perhaps he should have seen it coming knowing that everyone in their weirdo batch always seems to be hiding some dark secret.

Would have probably assumed that you must have the same demonic abilities as your father! Why exhaust everyone when you exist? Can't you just ‘mAgiC’ the enemies away?

No, it doesn't work like that? Well shit.

Truth be told, he isn't actually bothered by it. As long as you are on his side and you aren't planning on burning him to a crisp then why should he care that your father’s Raphael?

Just as long as you aren't as obnoxiously theatrical as the damn bastard. His patience is always being tested each time that damn devil talks in rhymes.

Perhaps he may even ask for your assistance rather than Raphael’s in regards to his scars as he’d trust you over that man any day.

He doesn't even have to make some sketchy deal with you. You’re just a kind enough soul to offer your aid despite how darkened your heart may or may not be.

Though truly, he would never judge you for being affiliated with such a man. Whether you want to associate yourself with your father or not is entirely up to you, he’d support you either way.

: ̗̀➛ GALE

“You?! The child of Raphael?! Why, I never thought such a histrionic fiend would even consider having an offspring. No offense to you, of course. Besides, I’m certain you’re better than that conniving devil if I do say so myself.”

Utterly baffled.

He knew that Tiefling’s had ancestral origins leading all the way to devils but he never thought that it was inherently possible for a tiefling in this day and age to be a child of one!

Good luck because this man now has hundreds of different questions, half of which you probably don't know the answer too either.

Though he will be a tad bit skeptical of you for a while, especially if he doesn't know you all too well. Being associated with the devil is a big deal and who knows what type of cunning scheme you may be plotting.

Soon enough, his own growing curiosity will overtake his skepticism. He’d rather understand and learn more about you then completely shun you away.

“How did you come to be?” or “What are the various powers you have inherited?” are some of the many questions he’d be throwing at you. Note that some anatomical questions may grow a tad bit awkward if you don't tell him.

He’d grow far more enamored by you the more he gets to learn about you and devil culture as darkening as such knowledge could be. Suddenly he has one person who could tell him all about the hells!

He’d have a newfound understanding of devils and people of your kind, his heart no longer caring any form of judgment towards you as long as you prove to be kind at heart.

: ̗̀➛ WYLL

“By balduran’s bones, you’re a devil?! One of them?! I should have seen this sooner. All this time I’ve been traveling with one of their children?! And to think I’ve let my blade go unsheathed around you.”

Unfortunately, the most distrustful one amongst the party the moment he finds out.

He's already having such a hard time with Mizora on his shoulder, what more if another devil joins the damn party? But to be fair, he’s been proven wrong time and time again.

Even so, you can tell that he's been avoiding you. Keeping his distance as he tries to process such information.

He doesn't even know how he can bring himself to trust you after what he's been through. He doesn't want to find himself being used as nothing more than a devil’s dog once more.

But after what happened to Karlach and soon enough his own transformation, he slowly begins to open himself up again. Albeit he is still quite wary.

It’ll start with him first asking others about you, trying to get a gist of whether or not you seem like a trustworthy person before finally confronting you with both a proper conversation and surprisingly an apology.

The world seems to be changing around him and if either of you is ever going to overcome this whole tadpole mess together then he should be able to place his past mindset aside in favor of forging stronger bonds.

Besides, who better than to help him overcome his own mild dysphoria with his new-found devil traits than a half-devil themselves?

: ̗̀➛ KARLACH

“He’s your dad?! Fucking hell, out of all the damned people that could have been your pops it just had to be that bloody bastard. Please tell me if you’re not like that pompous motherfucker? I like you too much to hate you.”

She’s surprised and confused. It's honestly just a mess for her.

She wants to distrust you for being the child of a devil seeing as she's been tormented by them for such a long time but at the same time- you’re a friend.

She can't just cast aside everything you two built up together despite knowing this information.

Yet still, it's hard for her. Every time she sees you, she’ll think about those dreadful moments she’s spent in Avernus, fighting in the front lines of the blood wars against her will.

But she needs to be the bigger person. She can't immediately associate you with those heartless fiends who forced her to do terrible things. If anything she wants to believe you aren't like that at all.

She’ll give you a chance despite her reluctance, doing her damn best to not shun you despite how your mere presence does trigger some things for her.

Regardless, she moves on from her weariness soon enough in favor of treating you like an actual friend. A friend whom she wishes to make happy memories with.

Perhaps both of you are just misunderstood in your own ways, and if that's the case then she’d be more than willing to support you and cheer you on whenever the hell she can.

: ̗̀➛ SHADOWHEART

“And just when I thought this ‘unique’ little group of ours couldn't get more interesting. The child of a devil? I can't help but wonder what more you could be hiding. After all, apparently, this entire camp is known for locking away such sensitive little secrets.”

Startled but intrigued.

It seems that everyone in this damnable group has some sort of hidden secret. Though, she wouldn't have expected this.

You can tell she's weary around you now but she hardly brings it up. Why would she when the very words she speaks could be used against her?

She's already having a hard time trusting people, what more if the person she was slowly beginning to trust was in fact the child of a devil?

It's like starting all the way back at square one again, except at least you both know some information about each other.

She’d be trying to balance out the both good and bad about you in her head. Thinking of that one time you saved her but also the fact that you may just be doing that to manipulate her later on.

Her mind is utterly in shambles right now but perhaps remaining distant and reserved won't get you both anywhere. Even she can understand that she’d rather see you as an asset than a disturbance.

I’d like to believe that in the end, she does eventually move past her distrust against you. Especially after everything you've done for her. She welcomes your demonic origins with a smile and even teases you about it a little by asking to make a deal or two.

: ̗̀➛ LAE’ZEL

“Chk. I will not be so foolish again to ever give an ounce of my time to your kind. You should have fled whilst you had the chance less you truly wish for my blade to dig right into your flesh.”

She just flat-out doesn't trust you. She even says it to your face.

She hardly even knew much about Tiefling's but knowing that you're a child of a devil? Now she just has more of a reason to not put her faith in you.

Probably even suggested eradicating you before you turned your back on everyone.

From what knowledge she has gathered, she sees devils as condescending, evil, manipulative, and cunning in both words and actions. She could only assume that such traits would pass on to their offspring.

It would take a lot for her to ever trust you again after that, if she even trusted you to begin with. She hasn't slept easy since.

Perhaps she even went to Karlach for assistance as to how one could possibly kill a child of a devil but surprisingly enough, Karlach wasn't on board with it.

If you can prove yourself once again to be worthy of her respect and trust, then she’ll finally begin to treat you with reverence.

Being more than what devils were made out to be and rising up as a far more honorable warrior than most would be just enough to finally get her back on your good side.

: ̗̀➛ HALSIN

“That was quite the surprise. The child of Raphael himself in our midst and yet you appear to be no more than another one of the tiefling refugees. I truly hope that you aren't as sinister as most devils tend to be. I’d hate to see such a vibrant flower wilt from its own corruption.”

He’d be just as startled as the rest but he’s lived too long to start judging people by their origins.

He hasn't quite met someone, particularly of your kind (being that of a devil’s child.) but perhaps he has encountered people similar to such.

His weariness would hardly last seeing as he’d rather understand you as a person before immediately jumping to conclusions.

Besides, he doubts he’d be foolish enough to be led on by a devil, especially with the amount of experience he has. He’ll put his morality above his skepticism but know that once you show the few signs of true betrayal then he will act accordingly.

Nevertheless, he's actually the one who's trying to get others to understand you, even vouching for you at times when others are against you.

Who you are related to by blood should not define who you truly are as a person, devil or not. It's simply up to you to decide whether or not you want to be associated with such a diabolical lineage.

Regardless, he’d do his best not the judge you. He’ll see you as just another Tiefling more so than the child of a literal devil.

If the looming reminder of being the child of such a devil ever haunts you or disturbs you too badly, he’d always be there to be a shoulder to lean on. You’ll always be accepted by him.

•❅───────────✧❅✦❅✧───────────❅•

[saijspellhart]

Sokka’s sexism was not an important growing point for his character - an Essay

I’ve seen all the discourse online about people up in arms about the toning back of Sokka’s sexism in the Netflix ATLA. (Almost everyone I have spoken to have brought it up as a reason to hate the Netflix ATLA) I think that anger is knee jerk, and misguided. It never mattered WHAT the Netflix adaptation was changing, people were always going to be angry about it. They could have announced Momo is a girl now, and people would have raged. Momo being a girl would have changed NOTHING about the series, but people would have been outraged.

Just like I believe Sokka being sexist or not being sexist really changes nothing in the scope of the story, themes, and is not the character growth people claim it to be. Hear me out. Let’s break it down and think about it in terms of themes and character development and how it affects the entire plot.

Sokka is introduced as being cartoonishly sexist in the very first episode of ATLA. As a device simply to make Katara rage. He keeps this trait for a grand total of 3 episodes until episode four when a girl whoops his ass and his sexism is cured forever onward. In the span of a 30 minute episode Sokka’s sexism was given a what for and through that he was transformed into a better man?

Imagine if Zuko’s mental and emotional journey had been solved in a 30 min episode, and wasn’t a lessen he had to repeatedly fail and try and fail and try time and time again. Imagine if Katara’s waterbending journey, or obnoxious controlling nature was just solved in a 30 min episode and not something she struggled with and fought for the entire series.

But let’s say his sexism is super important as everyone claims. Let’s explore it.

When is it challenged ever again in the entire series?

When Sokka leads the invasion on the Fire Nation, there aren’t a bunch of women in that army. He leads an army of men.

When Sokka needs to find a sword master to teach him the art of sword play, it’s a man. He never needed to overcome sexism to accept a non-traditional master.

Nearly all women, sans Toph and Katara, that have any long lasting influential moments in Sokka’s character development are women he has a romance with. Woman whose motivations and agency rely on a man.

The Kyoshi warriors that kicked his ass? What of them? Sokka has to rescue Suki from prison. It’s not tackling some gender equality issue. Suki is a woman in distress and Sokka is the man who comes to rescue her. (Cute and romantic, but hardly tackling a gender cliche.)

Do the Kyoshi warriors ever engage in any actual battle that matters to the plot and win? Not really. Instead the important role of the Kyoshi warriors is to be nurturing to Appa while he’s lost. A traditionally female role. And to provide a way for Azula to overtake Bah Sing Sei. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the girls, but the show never again utilized them in a way that challenged sexism.)

Sokka didn’t need to overcome sexism to respect Azula. Azula commanded and earned all the respect she needed. Sokka didn’t need to overcome sexism to respect Toph. Toph earned his respect by kicking the ass of everyone around him.

At no point in the rest of ATLA was Sokka’s sexism ever challenged after episode 4. It never helped him become a better leader because he never had to lead women whose respect he needed to earn. It never helped him develop his warrior skills. It didn’t affect the plot and his growth as a character any farther than getting a hilarious butt whooping in the fourth episode.

Sokka overcoming sexism wasn’t well written, it was a GAG. A goof. Ha ha funny, man got his butt beat by women and was forever cured.

If we really think about it seriously, as character growth, people who have had sexism so rooted into their beliefs don’t just overcome it because one woman broke the status quo and kicked their ass. That’s lazy writing. It was lazy in the cartoon and it would have been extra lazy in a show that had even less time to explore the issue.

Sexism, if they REALLY wanted to tackle it as a serious issue, should have been a problem Sokka had to challenge several times, and have his preconceived notions proven wrong and dismantled. It should have made him a better leader, or a more respectful fighter.

Instead it’s treated like a joke.

The Netflix ATLA decided to tone it back with Sokka, because from a writing standpoint it made more sense thematically for Katara to challenge sexism with the Northernn water tribe. They didn’t have the time or the budget to poorly tackle the issue of sexism twice, so they focused tackling the issue where it mattered to the plot and where it mattered to KATARA’s character journey more.

I’m tired of people screaming how much they loved his sexism and how the Netflix adaptation is rotten without his sexism. It’s not a lack of media literacy that it was cut. It was media literacy that led to it being cut. A writer recognized when the message was important and when it wasn’t.

That’s all I got to say. You don’t have to agree with me. But these were my thoughts on the matter.

[cinemorg]

Barbie (2023)

This movie has made like half a billion dollars in its first week so odds are good that you've seen it, but in case you haven’t seen it, let’s get the plot synopsis out of the way (SPOILERS):

Margot Robbie plays Stereotypical Barbie, the tall blonde pretty skinny Barbie in a world of other Barbies who are slightly different (most notably Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon)). Ryan Gosling plays Ken, surrounded by a few other Kens led by Simu Liu, and Allan (Michael Cera), a perpetually uncomfortable friend of Ken’s who seems to love the man deeply while also being very annoyed by him much of the time (don’t say Greta Gerwig knows nothing about male friendships).

During a girls’ night dance party, Stereotypical Barbie starts to have some unexpected and unprecedented thoughts about death, and wakes up the next morning to find that nothing in her home in Barbie Land is working the way it should. She seeks counsel from Weird Barbie, who tells her that she needs to go to the real world and find the girl her doll avatar belongs to and get her to stop thinking about stuff. That’s Gloria (America Ferrera), a somewhat timid woman with a murky career at Mattel and a caustic teenage daughter named Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). So Barbie sets out to find Gloria, while Ken tags along and discovers the wonders of patriarchy. After a lot of zaniness, confusion, and pictures of horses, Stereotypical Barbie exiles herself from Barbie Land and joins forces with Gloria and Sasha to visit a gynecologist.

I debated with myself for a little while whether to try to approach this movie, because although I really enjoyed it, it’s very obviously not made for me and there’s no way I can understand it in the way someone who grew up playing with Barbie can understand it. It’s a story about what it means to grow out of the childish fantasies represented by Barbie and all of her friends and professions, and begin to confront the reality that there is no valid culturally approved femininity (or masculinity) to grow into anymore, which is a difficult situation that the Barbie concept simultaneously encourages, laments, ignores, and helped to create. I can speak to Ken’s bullshit here, but to some extent the interplay between Stereotypical Barbie, Gloria, Sasha, the CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell), Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), and the world at large is unknowable to me because they are based on experiences and fantasies I’ve never had, stories about myself I’ve never been told. But in the end I decided I wanted to try, because the discourse around this thing has become so muddy and stupid it’s threatening to overtake the merit of the film itself, which is a real shame.

Obviously there is nothing to the right-wing idea that the movie is too feminist or anti-man, and those criticisms can be dismissed without a second thought. Right-wing commentators like to pretend that they’ve never actually met a man in real life, but the rest of us have, and we know that most men would, if given the opportunity, be absolutely thrilled to take up residence in a big stupid mansion and call it the Mojo Dojo Casa House. Every cis-het man wants to wear obnoxious clothes, sing songs with his friends, and cry. Not up for debate, sorry. As for the too-feminist angle, the primary goal of the women in this story seems to be to feel like they’re not doing everything wrong every minute of every day. If you oppose that, get fucked!

I’ve also seen a lot of pretzel-knot-logic thinkpieces and social media posts deliberating with excruciating self-consciousness whether Barbie is feminist enough, whether it’s too capitalist, whether it really understands itself. This is third-wave feminism masquerading as something modern in a time when even fourth-wave feminism is sunsetting. All of these concerns come second, and a distant second at that, to whether it’s a fun, clever movie that you can have a good time watching with your friends and helps you feel good about yourself. We don’t have time anymore for tedious, labored games of “Should I Be Enjoying This?”

More about that: Greta Gerwig’s real triumph here is not that she managed to get Mattel to produce a movie that’s openly critical of its product (while also selling it), or that she created something that can be easily imagined to be infuriating to bigots, or even just that she made a lot of money for a lot of people; it’s that she managed to use a plastic fantasy land to make an engaging movie about the lived experiences of multiple generations of American women where everyone is kind of stupid and cringe in equal measure, but each character comes out looking like some kind of hero if you think about them for long enough. That’s the triumph because that’s real life.

There’s an effort here to release us from the prison of constantly asking ourselves whether we are feminist enough, or too capitalist, or if we understand ourselves, by more or less taking the position that to an extent these questions are nonsensical to ask about your personal experience as someone who is growing and developing in a world that you didn’t create and can’t control. I’m sure there are plenty of Mattel products floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. You probably also played with a Weird Barbie when you were a kid. These things aren’t really spiritually related, and shouldn’t be. When Gloria, someone who lives an unremarkable life but spends her free time drawing pictures of Crippling Shame Barbie, delivers her tired (though still not wrong) speech about the contradictory expectations put on women in American society and then gets brutally shot down trying to pitch an “Ordinary Barbie” to the Mattel CEO, that’s not supposed to be the moment that ties the whole film’s message together; that’s a woman who has yet to learn that there can be no ordinary Barbie because there are no ordinary women. She is still growing, as is her daughter, as is Barbie, as are we all, and all this bone-headed discussion about whether Greta Gerwig has accomplished these granular yet amorphous feminist-labeled goals only serves to suppress that realistic and compassionate ideal in favor of yet another set of impossible-to-meet standards.

That said, I want to bring this back to Barbie visiting her gynecologist for the first time. Gerwig herself has said in interviews that her own memories of feeling ashamed of her body inspired her to include that scene, because she wanted girls in the audience to see Barbie happily taking care of herself and know that it wasn’t something that needed to be hidden. It also seems to be an important line in that much is made earlier in the movie of Barbie having no vagina (in one scene she says plainly to a group of wolf-whistling construction workers, “You should know that I don’t have a vagina.”), but here she is confirming that not only does she have one now that she’s transitioned to the real world, she has a human one that needs maintenance. She is real now. She is herself, whatever that might be. And as intent as some seem to be on robbing this movie of its authenticity, the singular characteristic of Gerwig’s Barbie that shines through is that for all of its silliness, it’s a genuine film with genuine heart, and that’s what it wants for its audience. Be genuine people, or do the best you can. Forget the rest.

P.S. I know I’m ignoring Ken’s storyline, which is a huge part of the movie. Suffice to say that Ken’s self-worth is completely tied up in getting a woman’s attention, and when that doesn’t work he tries to heal his wounds by fully investing in patriarchy, which also doesn’t work. So then he has to try getting a life. Tale as old as time.

[oblivious-nuisance]

— 𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝

ft. bokuto kōtarō

a/n: or that one in which bokuto fucks you senseless after a match. this was supposed to be a piece for his birthday, but my schedule and lazy ass teamed up for a pretty writer's block sesh. to make up for it tho this is like 2.5k words. porn with almost nonexistent plot bc i love and missed y'all <33 not proofread bc it's too long :(

warnings: smut, fem!reader, risky locker room sex, so much foreplay jesus, virgin!reader, size kink, praise kink (so so much), slight breeding kink :), daddy kink, bo is actually very soft

"i— bokuto, sir— ah!"

"you really wanna get caught, don't you sweetie?" he breathes heavily from his place on the floor, with your legs thrown over his sturdy shoulders. he licks his lips before diving right back in, his tongue darting back in between your folds to toy with your clit, eliciting another high pitched moan from you.

"and please— mmm, fuck, you're gushing— please call me kōtarō, you're makin' me sound old and saggy."

"if that's the case," you say in-between pants, "then prove me that you're not that old and saggy." you taunt playfully, courage overtaking your body for a brief moment before you feel a thick, wet finger tease at your hole, your entire resovle crumbling just as fast as it built itself up.

if you knew that coming all the way down from the bleachers to wish the athlete a happy birthday would've landed you in this position (with the man's head buried in your heat), you would have thought twice about your speech.

or your hair.

or your obnoxiously short skirt.

or, most importantly, the fact that you are still a virgin.

the feeling of a slicked digit sliding into you brings you back to the present and you try to cover up the whimper that you let out as he pumps it in, your walls pulsing mesmerizigly around him.

"you were saying?"

it's his turn to grin as he tries to nestle another finger inside, facing a little bit of resistance as he presses up, searching for that spot that makes you breathless and stretching you out in the process.

only he faces something he wasn't expecting.

"k-kōtarō, wait!"

he looks up to see your flushed cheeks, your open mouth and bleary eyes, and then he realises.

oh.

bokuto tries to hide his grin but fails as he tenderly pulls his fingers out of you, patting your cunt with contentment as he gets back up and traps you between him and the locker that you've been leaning on for the past half an hour or so. his eyes are wide and his hair disheveled, but the words that come out of his mouth are gentle.

"you feeling good?"

"i, uhm. yeah." you reply, breathlessly.

his tone soothes you greatly, making you subconsciously lean into him, his warm hands caressing your shoulders, fingers reaching for your chin and lifting it up so that now you're looking him in the eye.

"nothing hurts?"

"nothing hurts."

"good." he looks down sheepishly and then back up again and he swallows heavily.

"may i— may we keep going?"

"please." you whine and nod shyly and he laughs, kissing your cheek once, twice, before sliding down to mouth at your jaw, hands gripping your waist tightly as his lips make their way down your throat, nipping at the skin, littering marks all over the surface.

you're moaning softly through it all, nails digging into the skin of his biceps at the forgein feeling of his wet mouth, that has now migrated to your collarbones and chest, his attention moving to your breasts.

"lemme take this— off." bokuto grunts as he accidentally pops a few buttons while trying to take your blouse off, granting him enough access to your black bralette.

"nice." he whispers, more to himself, as he slides the lacey garment down, instantly attaching his mouth to one of your nipples and you squeal.

"you that sensitive, huh?" he cocks his head to the side, nipple still in his mouth and you urge yourself to turn away in order to hide your face, that has heated up at the sight.

"shut up..." you say, with a pout.

a dangerous glint takes over bokuto's eyes as he detaches his mouth from your breast and leans close to your face, his warm breath on your skin making you shiver.

"big words for a big girl, hm?" he chuckles close to your ear, nipping at your earlobe afterwards just to see you crumble in his grasp. "well, there's only one way to find out." he says as he goes to slide down his shorts along with his boxers, and your lungs stop working from the sheer sight that you're presented with.

his shaft is nothing to fucking sneeze at, the skin a beautiful blush compared to the rest of his body, the fat pink head turning purple with how hard he is. the veins are prominent and he's leaking so, so much precum that your mouth waters, his ripe, fat balls hanging heavily, no doubt full to the brim and longing to be taken care of.

and he's, he's so—

"big." you breathe out and quickly slap a hand over your mouth, blushing furiously because no, you did not just say that out loud.

bokuto laughs at your reaction, and before you can hide your face in embarrassment, he leans over to kiss the tip of your nose playfully.

"no need to worry about it, i'm used to that reaction." he smiles and then his expression turns into a pout just as quickly when he notices your pale face.

"what's wrong? oh, you thinkin' it won't fit?" you nod, because even looking at the sheer size of him made your feet feel like jelly. "it'll fit just fine, i'll make it fit. but i also need you to stand still and take it like a good girl. think you can do that, princess?"

"yes, daddy." you glup, answering without thinking too much about it, but judging by his expression, the man is more than pleased with your response as he preps you one more time before lining himself up.

"atta girl." he groans deeply against your shoulder as he starts pushing in at an agonizingly slow pace, doing his best to hold back so that he doesn't hurt you.

you claw at his back in search for support because there's so much of him to take, you're not even sure he's gonna fit. the lower half of your body feels weird, pain clouding your mind momentarily as the breath gets knocked out of your lungs, legs shaking and chest heaving and god, it really feels like he's splitting you in half.

"hey, relax, relax..." he soothes as he kisses your shoulder, warm palm caressing the back of your thigh. but you notice the strain in his tone, how hard he's leaning on the door behind you. you notice the way he pants and how his brows are furrowed, sweat beads gracing his forehead, and you realise just how much he's urging himself not to thrust up and ruin you right now.

"y-you like this, daddy? like how i feel?" you moan, accommodating to his size and grith, even daring to wiggle your hips a little, making you both whimper.

"baby, d-don't go around saying stuff like that, i—" he halts, breathing heavily.

"you?"

"i won't be able to control myself, fuck." he curses as you tighten at the thought of him just letting go and making you cry on his cock.

"but i want you to fuck me. i want you to fuck me real good." you say and he looks up, only to see your innocent gaze, your warm cheeks, your twinkling eyes and your pretty mouth open, huffing small breaths.

and just like that, he's gone.

"alright, okay, fuck fuck fuck—" he pants as he hooks his hands underneath your thighs and hoists you up, using the locker door behind you as support. you squeal and wrap your legs around his middle, bokuto taking that as the green light to start pounding you.

"the way you deserve, baby."

your chests are pressed up against each other, your hardened nipples grazing his skin and making him suck on your neck a little harder as the sound of skin slapping echoes in the empty room.

his thrusts are strong and desperate, his big hands gripping the soft flesh of your thighs hard enough to leave bruieses, and praises never stop leaving his mouth. choruses of "yes, baby, just like that." and "you're so tight, so fucking tight."

the fat tip of his cock is reaching places inside your body that you weren't even aware of until now, breathy moans coming out of your mouth almost by instinct as your gummy walls pulse around his thick length, your sticky arousal surely making a mess of you both.

"look at her, greedy pussy's sucking me right back in." he gasps as his gaze settles on where your bodies connect, a mixture of both yours and his juices smeared on your thighs and his pelvis.

you try to avoid his gaze, slightly embarrassed by how forward he is with his praising, and also because of how it spurrs you on even more.

he tsk's and brings a hand to your face, grabbing your cheeks and squeezing, turning your head back to look at him, his golden eyes wide with lust and want, something carnal laying behind the bright irises.

"i want you to look at me while i'm gonna be fucking load after load into you, or you're just gonna sit back and take it, you got it?"

"y-yes daddy."

"that's my girl." he giggles and kisses your cheek, picking up his pace once again, fucking you with earnest, the promise of his cum painting your insides never leaving your mind as you marvel in the sudden softness of the atmosphere, anticipation burning in your chest.

as he repositions you and throws your legs over his elbows, the angle changes and you shudder and scream, because somehow he's reaching even deeper than before, and you feel yourself becoming lightheaded with pleasure as your orgasm is quickly approaching.

"daddy, i— fuck, right there! fuck, fuck, fuck."

"good girl, good fucking girl— fuck me, you're tightening. you like being praised, huh?" he gasps, not being able to take his eyes off of you.

your eyes are almost crossing, mouth agape and pink tongue lolling out slightly, drool gracing your lips and the corners of your mouth, sweat glistening on your tense neck and collarbones, his eyes falling to your exposed chest, flushed breasts bouncing in time with his strong thrusts. drifting lower, he marvels on the way your cunt is stretched out by his thick length, a white ring of cream gracing the base, some of it already leaking towards his ripe balls.

"i'm gonna cum, i'm gonna cum, fuck." he moans, loud and clear and guttural, and that is all it takes to send you over the edge.

a scream rips out of your chest as you cum, your tight cunt spasming and squeezing around bokuto, who in turn follows suit, painting your inner walls milky white.

bokuto doesn't pull out instantly, opting to gently put you back down on the ground and rest his sweaty forehead on your shoulder as the both of you come down from your combined highs.

at some point you can feel his cock, now soft, slipping out of you, some of his cum along with it.

he pays no mind to it for a moment as he starts trailing kisses along your shoulder and neck, his mouth reaching yours and melting into a soft, but strong kiss, warm hands massaging your waist comfortingly.

"all good, princess?"

you can't help but blush at the nickname, wondering half-heartedly if it's going to settle on his lips from now on.

"i, uhm. yeah. that was—"

"—quite entertaining, if i do say so myself."

you shriek and try to hide behind bokuto's big figure, because the voice that you just heard belongs to someone who hasn't been in the room until now.

three sets of eyes are looking at the two of you from the open door, gazing at your vulnerable state.

the realisation hits you hard as a truck: you forgot to lock the door, too busy with trying to devour each other after you first stepped in the locker room.

you're sure that you're blushing furiously, your cheeks burning with embarassment because oh my god, the three of them caught us—

"well," hinata sighs. "you're quite the sight."

you look trully wrecked, hair disheveled and wild, neck covered in bruises and breasts still out, your skirt ruined, cum oozing down your thigh and panties around your sock clad ankle.

sakusa's expression is blank, a hint of curiosity hidden behind his gaze. his arms are crossed as he's leaning against the doorway, not missing the way you glup as you stare at his bulging muscles. hinata is cracking his fingers, a glint of determination present in his eyes, following your every movement and reaction.

atsumu, bold as per usual, makes his way towards you. he licks his lips and his eyes sparkle dangerously as he nods at the white trail on the inside of your thigh, grinning mischievously.

"ya better not let any of that go ta waste." he says as he reaches out, a lithe finger picking up bokuto's cum and bringing it back into your twitching hole, the squelching sound that your pussy made as it slid in spurring him on even more.

you can only sigh and nod, breath quickening because of his movements, hearing when the door creaks shut, but failing to notice the other three men eyeing you hungrily. sakusa's hands twitch and hinata's eyes widen, bokuto's cock steadily hardening yet again at the sight.

you close your eyes in pleasure, atsumu's fingers speeding up their pace, and your mind can only wonder about what lays before you as you can hear three other pairs of footsteps making their way towards you.

©oblivious-nuisance - all rights reserved

no translations, edits, copying, reposting etc.

[yellowhearther0]

okok spoilers for the aurora cycle series and a causal disclaimer that i haven't finished book 3 (and its been at least a couple months since i've read the first two books so if im remembering stuff incorrectly in spots then uhhh WHOOPS)

there are about 3 romance plots in the books between the main charcacters (theres 7 mcs.. at least at the start LMAO) and of the three romance plots only ONE is decent enough where it doesnt ruin anything- probably because its not rlly put into action outside of obnoxious flirting (but everyone in the crew obnoxiously flirts with each other so its fine) until the end of the 2nd book/3rd book so its whatevs

(I'm adding a cut here bc it gets pretty long and i don't wanna overtake the dash but give this a read? maybe?)

THE OTHER TWO ROMANCE PLOTS THOUGH

they very early on introduce romantic tension between cat and tyler in the most unnecessary way possible? their reasoning for why they dont get together is. very odd to the least? (it's like 'im leader of the squad and ur under my leadership so we CANT be together' maybe its about the power imbalance? but also they're literally childhood friends) but before anything happens cat fuxking dies so its just this weird plothole that occasion gets dragged back up as a sort of angst point for tyler? but theres no POINT to their whole 'i like u but we cant be together but also i dont like cuz ur my bff' thing bc u could do the EXACT SAME THING with no romance plot whatsoever!! its so annoying like the easiest fix is to just. get rid of the romance plot! BOOM

And then. kal and aurora. kal and FUCKING AURORA

i have so much pent up rage abt their relationship bc its so FAKE and just lazy fucking writing all around. HONESTLY their relationship is the reason why i started this rant in the first place!

whats even worse is that they had potential to have an interesting dynamic that lead to them being a couple but NOOOOO kal has the 'magical soulmate bond uwu 🥺🥺' with aurora for whatever reason and pushes her away bc of it bc he doesnt wanna make he uncomfortable (which was fine and i didnt mind) and then he finally tells her and OH WOW AURORA SUDDENLY HAS FEELING FOR HIM EVEN THOUGH IT WAS NEVER BROUGHT UP OR EVEN REALLY IMPLIED B4 THE GOT TOGETHER (<- my issue with their relationship) like yes aurora had shown (non-romantic) interest in kal BECAUSE he pushed her away and she didn't know why but it was never implied that she actually like. LIKED him outside of the occasional pointing out that he was attractive (which again is a commonplace for ALL the characters to do so it didn't really hold much weight)

so, because the writers so desperately need it i have! 3 solutions to this trash of a romance plot!

also before i start just as an overall statement: I WANT THEM TO INTRODUCE THE PULL/SOULMATE BOND THING EARLIER!!!!!!

ANYWAYS

a) aka the easy way out: get rid of the damn 'pull' or soulmate bond or whatever. if ur gonna get them together at least do it naturally if ur gonna be lazy about it

b) the gay canon divergent option: keep the pull but have him become attracted to TYLER instead- i only say this because they genuinely do have the chemistry and not just bc i want it to be gay LMAO. it can be enemies to lovers where while the kiss they have (yes they kiss. it's not romantic or anything and done more-so to cover up what they're ACTUALLY doing but yeah.) is still the turning point in their friendship it also introduces the idea of kal having feelings for tyler via the pull and tyler having feelings for kal just in general.

and c) the canon compliant option: again, keep the pull and keep everything the same BUT when kal tells auri about the pull and tells her that she doesn't have to reciprocate she agrees saying that SHE DOES NOT HOLD ROMANTIC FEELINGS FOR HIM but! that she would be willing to like. help him out. it can then either become a qpr instead OR later on down the line they could get together in a /r relationship BUT it'd have to be like. at the end of book 2 or maybe even of book 3

but like yeah. romance in the aurora cycle could've deffo been written better thats for sure

[joheun-saram]

“If this movie is scary, I’m breaking up with you.” (jhs)

Summary- Hoseok loses a bet and now has to endure watching your favourite horror movie.

word count- 1.3k

pairing- boyfriend!Hoseok x Reader

rating- PG-13

genre- fluff

warnings- none! just eluding to smut

a.n- Part of my drabbles for @btsholidaybingo​, ticking off the horror movies tile! Let me know if you know which movie they’re watching - this is definitely one of my favourite movies haha. I’ll be posting these every week or so as I get them done. Check out the other drabbles here :)

As always feedback appreciated. Send me an ask! 💌

-

Your apartment was completely dark, curtains drawn to keep any light out as you sat on the couch cuddling your boyfriend. The only light came from the screen of the obscenely large television hung on the wall opposite you and ominous music filled the room. Unlike most Halloween nights Hoseok and you had spent together, you were both dressed in sweats, your head on his shoulder as he draped his arm around you, eyes fixated on the movie playing on the screen. For once you were kind of glad Halloween fell on a weekday, so you could save your costumes and shenanigans for later in the week and just relax.

“I swear to god Y/N if this movie is scary, I’m breaking up with you.” He says jumping as the title of the movie comes up, his arm around you tightening tenfold and his head tensing where it rests on top of yours.

“It’s not scary, it’s meant to be like a conspiracy thriller type. Relax babe,” you say almost absent-mindedly as you watch the group of friends in the movie load up their car to embark on their vacation to a cabin in the woods. You pull the blanket over the two of you, gently squeezing Hoseok’s thigh comfortingly. You knew your boyfriend was a big baby when it came to horror movies so you hoped this little white lie would calm him down. It works for all of three scenes before Hoseok moves his arm from around you flailing and covering his eyes.

“Oh my god! Why are they going in the basement? PEOPLE DIE IN THE BASEMENT!” He says as he watches the film through the cracks in his fingers. 

“Relax, I’ve seen it before it’s not scary.” You lean into him as you soothingly rub his back, trying to hide the smile that overtakes your features.

“If you’ve seen it before, why are we watching it?” Hoseok is half looking at the screen and half at you. Even though he’s scared shitless, he would be lying if he wasn’t intrigued by the film on the screen. He would never admit it to you of course, but he was invested in the plot, waiting to see which monsters the group would unleash onto themselves.

“Because you lost the bet and you said I could pick whatever.” You say smugly as you sit up straighter to reach for the bowl of candy on your coffee table. Hoseok and you had moved into this apartment last month, taking the first big step in your relationship, and while celebrating your house warming, you had made a friendly bet. A bet to see if one of your friends would throw up if you provided all the drinks you could. Hoseok being the ever optimistic and trusting friend insisted that your friends would never go that wild in your new home, but you knew your friends and won the bet when Jimin vomited in the plant that he had brought as a present for the two of you earlier that evening. 

“I hate you so much. ARE THOSE PSYCHO ZOMBIES?!” He jumped, pulling his feet onto the couch and hugging his knees as the family of zombie murderers on the screen started to unleash hell on the group of unsuspecting college students. You couldn’t hold it in anymore and laughed at your boyfriend quivering next to you as you bit into your snickers bar, ignoring the glare he threw at you.

“Everyone’s dying. Why is everyone dying? We aren’t even half way through!” He yelled at the screen as yet another character met their gruesome demise. You had to admit it, when you first planned to show Hoseok this movie, you didn’t think it would be this fun. You loved watching him squirm and yell. What did that say about you, you thought smiling as you watched his face turn pale at the events taking place on the television.

“DID THAT UNICORN JUST MURDER THE GUY?! That’s it. I’m done.” He paused the movie, fixing you with a glare. This was your favourite scene. Just watching a magical happy creature stab someone made you laugh. In your opinion this movie was more of a comedy than horror.

“Babe it’s almost -”

“No, don't babe me. This is so scary, we’re breaking up.” Hoseok folded his arms on his chest as he looked at you, shaking his head.

“Sure I guess if you want. You can leave, I’ll drop off your stuff tomorrow.” You sighed mockingly, diving into the bowl for another mini candy bar.

“What? You’re gonna show me that horror movie and then kick me out?!” He yelled in disbelief, grabbing your shoulder to shake you dramatically.

“You’re the one who wants to break up.” You shrugged the best you could still locked in his iron grip, trying extremely hard to school your face into a neutral expression.

“You’re cruel. So cruel.” He pulled you closer, nuzzling his face in your neck as his arms tightened around your waist. You could feel his pout against your neck as he whined.

“I’m cruel? You just broke up with me!” You gasp dramatically as you playfully smack his shoulder.

“Baby you know I would never break up with you.” He starts kissing your neck as he leans over you making you lie against the couch, his hands reaching under your sweater to feel the soft skin of your stomach.

“You’re just saying that because you’re too scared to sleep by yourself tonight.” You try to ignore the effect his kisses have against your neck as you try not to moan at his ministrations. Damn, he really knows how to work you.

“Tonight and every night. My hero Y/N please protect me!” He sits up on his elbows to capture your face between his hands and rain kisses on your face, making sure they are obnoxiously loud as you groan at the affection.

“You are so annoying, get off me!” You push him off as he clings on to you, trying not to laugh as you almost fall off the couch in an effort to sit up.

“Nah-uh! I love you and I’ll never stop smothering you with my love!” He pulls you into his lap, arms around your waist as he nuzzles his face into your hair kissing wherever his lips land, finally breaking your facade as you burst out in giggles. 

“Pay attention to the ending, it’s good!” Whining, you unpause the film, the sounds of the characters screaming bloody murder filling the room.

“Nah… wanna pay attention to you instead.” Hoseok’s voice is low as his actions turn more purposeful, his lips sucking on your neck leaving behind pink spots that he soothes with his tongue. You moan as you feel one of his hands travel from your waist to under your waistband, teasing you while he nips your ear.

“But it’s my favourite movie!”

“Fine, baby.” He relents, pulling his hand out of your pants as he rests his chin on your shoulder to watch the end of the movie, getting more disappointed as the main characters decide to end the world. “Wait so the whole world ends? This is your favourite movie? You are so depressing, jesus!”

“Rude! You don’t see me complaining about watching Step Up like a million times!” You huff as you cross your arms.

“Correction. It’s Step Up 2, actually.” He smirks as you roll your eyes at him, before picking you up, making you yelp and wrap your arms around his neck as he carries you to the bedroom. Laying you on the bed he kisses you deeply, as you pull him impossibly close, relishing his lips - a taste you will never get tired of. “Now I think it’s time for my reward for putting up with that awful movie.”

[mudwingpropaganda]

Arc 2 Timeline Rewritten

I’ve been thinking about my headcanons and I’ve been seriously struggling to get across the plot points that I want to happen within my headcanons. So I decided the best way to figure out what was important for the sequence of events was to just smash arc 2 on the ground and rebuild from the shards. 

From now on, I think I’ll be referring to this when working on my own characters (or my headcanons)! It’s not the most eloquent, but this is how I’ll be reasoning the events of the books. 

Arc 1 is valid. All arc 1 needs is more foreshadowing for Thorn and a little less forced love interests. Anyway, feel free to absorb by “ideal timeline” if you so desire.

The Second Brightest Night takes place. 

(I have my own handful of headcanons about my take on the Second Brightest Night and less magical ending for that night, but lets sum it up by saying that Burn dies via the snakes, unfortunately, Blister is killed by Thorn, and Blaze suffers substantial injuries but survives and goes missing after Thorn ascends to the throne.)

AT LEAST a year or two passes as the RainWing Queendom is focused upon, until Jade Mountain is founded. 

Queen Glory requested her siblings’ attention to help set up the tribe before jumping into their next war reparation project. This included the punishment of NightWing criminals, the state of the ex-experiment RainWings, and the customs that were lost when Queen Grandeur gave up on her bloodline and the title was shared between multiple dragonesses. Handsome, especially, assists in this restoration of culture and stability. Ex-Princess Greatness tries to give Glory her tribe’s history and customs, but ultimately gives up her title and acts as a figurehead to reach her subjects.

Jade Mountain is formed at least 2 or 3 years after the end of the war.

As a resolution of treaties, the Dragonets convinced the queens to enroll students in their peace building project, Jade Mountain Academy. Sunny already had the favor of Moorhen and Thorn, Tsunami took a little convincing of Coral, knowing she could bring in her siblings, Glory had the authority of her own two tribes, Clay reached out to Peril and Queen Ruby, and it took a little extra effort of reaching out to Queen Glacier. But after her approval was given, the school could finally take full initiative. 

The opening of the school was met with the ominous reappearance of Queen Scarlet. This caused unrest and disaster within the first month of school.

As a result of her disturbance, students who had previously been optimistic about the school’s opening were now uneasy. The attempted assassination of Princess Icicle’s life, the death of multiple students on Sora’s hands, and thicker tension in the air of the school. The disappearance of the entire Jade Winglet lead the school to be temporarily shut down. Classes were suspended and students were asked to stay in their rooms or go home. (This is saying that Jade Mountain was equipped as an escape for those in bad home situations. Though. Not very successful as an escape, per say.)

Scarlet’s antagonism opens the arc, introducing her “alliance” with Chameleon. 

Both by terrorizing Princess Icicle to do her bidding or tricking Peril into coming back to her clutches, the terrible things Scarlet did in her reign comes to light, namely the kidnapping of Prince Hailstorm and the mental deception of Princess Tourmaline/Ruby. Chameleon acts as a servant of her, facading as Soar for a majority of the time, acting as Peril’s technical father. Though, it’s obvious that while he serves her, he has not necessarily dedicated his life to her. Chameleon disappears for the sake of Peril’s resolution to wrap up Scarlet’s tyranny. But Chameleon’s near murder of Kinkajou sets up more antagonism on his part.

Chameleon generally becomes the main focus of antagonism for the rest of the arc. He causes the team to split up so Winter could do some soul searching and Kinkajou could coma, I guess.

After the Jade Winglet physically joins Peril and Turtle to resolve Scarlet’s arc, Chameleon is now gone of a powerful ally. He attempts to pick the group apart. Conflict between Winter, Moon, and Qibli, over the injuries of Kinkajou, and the spite between Peril and Winter, leading to Winter having his side trip to the IceWing kingdom with Hailstorm, where no one else could follow him. The Jade Winglet hangs out in Possibility, I guess, I’m still working out the details.

When trouble stirs in Possibility, Qibli accidentally pulls the group into SandWing trouble, revealing the alliance between Vulture and Onyx, as well as Chameleon disguising under their ranks.

Vulture and Onyx begin to be relevant. This was set up and foreshadowed, of course, but I’m not writing these books. Onyx was a dragon who went missing when things started going awry at Jade Mountain, as she decided playing into Sunny’s favor to get close to Thorn wouldn’t work. As Qibli hints at knowing something about the danger encroaching on Possibility, he flees to warn Thorn, but gets caught up in his past. He’s fully aware how to get himself out of these situations, but now he needs to protect the Jade Winglet from the likes of his family.

Onyx and Vulture’s plot relates, once again, to the thrones that were shifted by the Dragonets’ meddling, as Onyx tries to take the throne from Thorn.

Onyx has a more valuable role in this rewritten timeline. Her opinion on royalty isn’t disregarded, and her father legitimately shows remorse for his daughter rather than??? his girlfriend Thorn (which doesn’t happen in my headcanonverse). The concept of a fourth heir to the throne seemed like it would be such a significant plot point for Tui. Darkstalker took over that. In this version, Onyx is an important character, with Vulture pulling the strings, promising she has a chance at the throne. His point being: if a criminal can take the throne based on a child’s word and a magical necklace, another criminal can work for the throne based on his wit and his access to a true blood heir to the throne. 

After the royalty plotlines are addressed, Chameleon is separated from his allies by the Jade Winglet once again.

Thorn eventually wards off Vulture and Onyx, with the somewhat support of her subjects, but the event left the SandWing queendom uneasy, as it still has work to be done. Thorn loses the Scorpion Den to the two of them, leaving Chameleon identified again. After being separated from his allies, once again, Chameleon becomes more focused in his vengeful plots against these children, but he does have his own points, especially in relevance to Kinkajou’s abuse she faced against the NightWings experimenting on her. When all else fails, he resorts back to the scroll itself.

As a final grasp for power, Chameleon attempts to become the previous owner of the scroll, leading to the storyline of Darkstalker. 

Chameleon attempts to create a charm that will turn him into the true owner of the scroll. So Chameleon destroys the scroll in the process, as Darkstalker overtakes Chameleon’s body and, instead of it being a mask, similar to his disguises, Darkstalker is capable of using his magic to use Chameleon as a vessel as a whole. Jade Mountain begins to collapse with his old body’s sudden disappearance. And Darkstalker plot happens! 

Darkstalker is still bent on revenge and restoring his kingdom’s former glory, but more in the sense of a more magically manipulative kind... the idea of magically changing people’s minds and changing people as a whole as he sees fit is focused upon

The twisted scene like Fierceteeth being turned into Clearsight has much more gravity. And directly affects our protagonists. While yes, a plague begins to wipe out the IceWings, and Queens and influential individuals are simply made to accept Darkstalker as a king, Darkstalker also realizes that the best way to get his friends - and enemies - back is molding them from the closest things to them. Moonwatcher being Clearsight, the two of them being striking similar in appearance and mannerisms, Turtle being Fathom, a timid descendent of another SeaWing animus who was afraid of his powers, Winter being Queen Diamond, someone he could kill, over and over, just as his mother was. Kinkajou? Oh, she’s irrelevant. Peril would have to be taken care of. But Qibli’s a wise one, thoughtful, and craved for validation. Perhaps he could help him perfect the spell.

This makes the story moving forward less about MAGIC as a whole and more of the concept of forcing dragons to do things against their will. (Which leads into the Pantala arc but first...)

Darkstalker is defeated, of course, after hinting about the existence of Pantala, and causing a “glitch” in magic system which has caused a lull in enchantments and animus dragons.

After a few obnoxious monologues, a bit of trickery and secret exchanging on Qibli and Kinkajou’s parts, and the sibling drama of animus SeaWing royal siblings, the free Jade Winglet (including Peril) was able to kill Darkstalker, who’s weight on the magic continuism caused magic to “break” momentarily in the Wings of Fire continuum, (just for Pantala’s conflict to be wrapped up without cheat codes). The residue of magic is left on the world, which accidentally manifests into a whole new dragonet. Peacemaker. (I’ll elaborate on my ideas for Peacemaker one day but... as much as I HATE the resolution of Darkstalker getting once another second chance, I love the idea of a whole separate identity facing the consequences for another’s evil. I’ll figure it out later.)

The students will resume classes again. Maybe Stonemover becomes useful to attempt to help out with the consequences of Darkstalker. The NightWings begin grappling with Glory’s rule, even more than usual, after the progress that they made. Pantala’s arc will be moreso about the fallout of Darkstalker, the accidental marks that Clearsight made, and the longlasting magical residue of Fathom. But those are ideas for later posts. 

[edwardslostalchemy]

Have you guys seen the Turkish series Kizim? I've never seen a show or series or soap opera that is so....neatly made. Like everything interconnects so nicely and storylines that close don't just let the story rest because a new problem arises before the end of the previous problem. And I've not cared about characters the way I care about them. Like even the villain has me worried. The tables are turned several times. Its dramatic, but not obnoxiously so. It has romantic subplots, but they don't overtake the main plot. I am fully convinced one of the characters is either ace aro or demi. I just think it's such a great series. Like I highly recommend it.

[tazzytypes]

Apocalypse: Sanctuary - Chapter 1

EDIT (6/10/2020): I know this is unprofessional as hell, but I added more because the ending didn’t sit right with me. Was too excited too hurry up and post and forgot there was a reason I plotted things out in a certain way. Hope you all can forgive me.

Finally! Chapter 1! I hope you guys enjoy it. I loved reading your comments and every kudos made me more excited to keep writing. Also, I apologize for the weird spacing throughout the post. I had to copy it from scrivener to AO3 to here and it just made things messy, but it’s 1AM rn and I’m tired.

Read on AO3 or Fanfiction.net! 

click here for: Prologue |

Emily shifted in her seat, head rebelling after spending a week in the dim light of candles which cast everything in an orange hue and made the shadows dance on the walls. Even her large circular glasses did nothing to ease her sight… it was a wonder she wasn’t already legally blind. Either way, she had the mother of all headaches. 

 The constant fires always left E uncomfortably hot and the layers upon layers they were forced to dress didn’t help. First thing the wardens did when they arrived was strip her down and burn every shred of fabric… her favorite shirt nothing but ash. Clothing standards were non-negotiable. Evening wear on the left side of the armoire. Don’t mistake it for your daily clothes or you won’t receive dinner. Cocktails before-hand at 6:30 sharp. Lucky for Emily, she was always early for everything and had yet to find out what the punishment was for that particular faux-pas. She wished nothing but to grab the t-shirt and shorts she had arrived in just to find some relief.

  “Be careful what you wish for,”  Her mother had always told her. 

 At first, she had been relieved when the others arrived. Now she had to wonder if she would have been better off on her own… the supplies she had counted in storage would certainly have lasted longer. Small little cubes with all the nutrients they needed. They probably would have been better with non-perishables, but she doubted the wardens would risk a venture outside to hunt for some… not like they would be able to eat it, anyway.

 Another stabbing pain pulsed at her temples, hands going to smooth it out as she listened to the chattering around her that sounded more like white noise than coherent sentences. Waiting out the apocalypse in solidarity would have driven her insane, humans being the social creatures they were. However, she doubted any of them would survive the end of the world with their sanity intact. 

 Not that one could guess it was the end of the world by the conversations of her fellow residents, most of them rich and most of the snobby. Gallant and Coco were thick as thieves… their personalities almost comically matching that of Regina George from Mean Girls. Evie, Gallant’s washed-up film star of a grandmother was almost repulsively republican — so homophobic and racist that most of the residents hoped she’d have a heart attack and die. The Stevens, a mother and son pair along with the son’s boyfriend, were tolerable. Andre liked to throw shade, but he was balanced by his witty counterpart, Stu. 

 She couldn’t help but smile to herself as she thought of their earlier conversation.

   “It’s like Satan’s Spotify playlist,” Stu had joked in response to Gallants endless complaining, making Andre nearly choke on the water he had been drinking. 

  “For the amount of times I’ve been told I’m in league with the devil, I’d have expected him to have better taste.” Emily had joked in return. 

Stu laughed and Andre only sighed, “don’t even get me started on the clothes.”

  “Well at least you don’t have to wear a corset,” Coco had snipped, hand going up to pat at her hair in an attempt to keep it in place.

  Emily tugged at her own, something poking her in her stomach, “These are not historically accurate.”

  “Let me guess,” Stu said, gesturing to her glasses, “history major?”

  “Insomniac.”

  The pounding returned to her head and she leaned on the table, pressing at her temples with the hope of some relief. Maybe she could ask a Grey to get her some ice… she doubted Venable had a stash of ibuprofen in the reserves. 

 It had been 14 days since they had gotten here. 3 of which she had spent on her own, wandering the halls with a candelabra like a damsel from a Victorian novel. She tugged at the high collar of her shirt. Whoever designed this hole in the ground was determined to have them living in a corset-laced wet dream. 

 “Are you okay?” The girl beside her asked, a gentle hand placed on Emily’s arm. She had just arrived at the outpost, 2 weeks after the bombs dropped, with a boy around the same age. They had barely been able to introduce themselves before Venable cut in, ringing a bell obnoxiously to usher them to dinner. 

 The few words the pair had said still haunted her. 

   “It’s all gone,” The brown-haired boy had told them at Gallant’s insistence, lips pressed into a thin line as he tried not the let the emotions that came with those words to overwhelm him.

  “Everything,” The girl echoed, voice hollow.

  Gallant fell back as if he had been shot, panic threatening to overtake his lungs after it was done squeezing the life out of his heart.

  “What…” Emily had stuttered out, trying to calm herself, “What did it look like?”

  Andre’s voice had cracked and spat out like venom, “who cares about what it looks like?”

  Stu had placed a hand on his lover's shoulder. His brows were furrowed and there was a slight shake that came over his body. Andre curled into him, Stu wrapping his arms around him as if he could somehow shield the man from the world. 

  Her anxiety spread through her like a wildfire, the attempted facade of strength cracking, “It matters because it could tell us how fucked we are!” 

  “We’re well past fucked!” Coco had snapped.

  The girl with ebony hair focused on Emily, eyes welling with emotion she all too well understood. 

  “No sun…” She said, forcing the words from her mouth, “just green… smog.”

  “Does that mean anything to you?” Stu had asked her, eyes betraying his own fears.

  “Hiroshima happened in the… 50s? Chernobyl happened in the 80s,” Emily began to say, too in her thoughts to notice the side-eyed stares of her companions, “and that was still radioactive before it was radioactive… again.”

  The comment seemed to stir something in the new girl’s head, “I heard about that… people were able to take trips last year… once in a lifetime opportunity.”

  Coco scoffed, “so is dying.”

  “Wait, so like… this can go away?” Gallant asked.

  The girl looked to Emily, “People were living on Hiroshima before all this.”

  “Possibly,” Emily mused, “Then again, we’d have to multiply that incident by… well, a lot.”

  “We’d have to find out where and how many bombs were dropped.” The girl added, “as well as the area affected by it.”

  Coco frowned, still more focused on her hair than the literal end of the world, “could you stop talking like that? You’re seriously freaking me out.”

  “We’re all freaking out,” Dinah snipped.

  “Just tired,” Emily reassured the girl, leaning back in her chair. She realized she had yet to ask the girl her name, but the Grey’s entered with their meal before she could — one Grey for each purple at the table. The large black plates were almost amusingly large in comparison to the singular small cube that sat at its center. 

 A full table-set was spread out before them, silver soup spoons, teaspoons, knives, and a salad fork mocking them every day. They stood out against the dark wood and reminded them that they were doomed to a life of tasteless jello for the rest of their lives. Emily finally understood how her pets felt, fed the same food day in and day out… at least she had bothered to change up the flavor. Her body rebelled against her after the third day, gagging whenever she brought the cube anywhere near her mouth. A few days of starvation quickly rectified the situation and greatly amused her jailer who was all too happy to put the food back from whence it came.

 Venable chose the seating arrangements, naturally. Emily was sat beside the two new arrivals, positioned as far from the woman as possible. It was an arrangement neither of them minded. Emily didn’t hold her tongue in moments such as these and she didn’t like placing her wellbeing in the hands of another. Venable expected complete and total control over her residents, enforcing strict standards of order that were almost as tight as her hair, tightly pulled together in a double french twist at the back of her head. Emily was the stray hair that wouldn’t lay flat no matter what she did. 

 The new arrivals stared at their plates as the Greys placed the cubes before them, sending each other confused glances and waiting to see what the rest of them did. It hardly looked appetizing, brown and having a texture reminiscent of a health-nut’s chia-seed protein bar.

Emily poked at her own food for good measure, feeling her throat clench at the mere thought of eating again. It didn’t listen no matter how many times she tried to reason with it. You’d think the body would behave and finally realize that this was as good as things would get.

 Gallant turned towards the girl to his left, “Don’t be too disappointed.”

 “Darling,” Evie sighed from the other side of the table, spreading a napkin across her lap, “You don’t know what disappointment is until you’ve slept with Yul Brynner.”

 The mere thought of the old woman having sex was enough to make Emily’s lips curl in disgust… maybe she didn’t need to eat after all. For once Dinah was amused by the old crone, chuckling as she cut apart her cube like it was a five-course meal instead of the science project of Elon Musk. 

 “I want to die,” She could hear Gallant mutter a few seats over, head in his hands as he contemplated his decision to bring his nana along on whatever this adventure was. 

 Dinah was quick to explain the cubes to the new pair, “The cube on your plate contains every vitamin our body needs…”

 Across from Emily, Coco ungracefully shoved the entire cube into her mouth with one fell swoop, cheeks puffing out. Dinah continued to speak, pretending to have not seen Coco, words coming out rushed, “…or so they tell us.”

 “Whether or not it aids in our caloric intake is up in the air,” Emily added, following the woman’s lead and gently cutting into the cube. 

 “The fewer calories the better!” Evie proclaimed from down the table, waving her fork in the air to accentuate her statement.

 “Until you become a skeleton.”

 Emily had learned from Dinah’s example to take small bites, savor it. She hoped it would fool her body into thinking it was eating more. Either way, her stomach still growled and she was grateful to her handler for taking her to Chick-Fil-A on their way to the Outpost. The mere thought of that last meal made her mouth water.

 Coco’s silverware clattered onto her plate as she closed her eyes and whined, “I’m still hungry… I am so tired of the hunger.”

 A fist to the table made Emily jump, dropping her own silverware in turn. The girl next to her looked to the other residents as Coco stood up abruptly, letting her chair screech against the floor as it was thrown back. She looked to Emily and all she could do was offer a half-hearted shrug that said,  “same shit as usual.”

 … God, she missed John Mulaney. 

 “Fuck! This! Bullshit!” Coco continued, “With all the thought that went into this they don’t have a  single  bag of  Pirate’s Booty  in the pantry?”

 Evie sat back as if watching a soap opera while the rest of the residents braced themselves for another tantrum. Coco raved on, unaware of the sudden looming figures coming up behind her, “For a hundred  million   dollars a ticket, I expect goddamn Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen cooking us   real  food!”

 Then she stopped, a tap of a cane on the floor signaling the arrival of Venable, Miss Mead on her heels like an obedient dog. They braced themselves for another, self riotous lecture on appreciating what they had as if none of them mourned for what was. Slowly, head bowed and aware of her impending doom, Coco turned. 

 The slap rang in everyone’s ears, causing a collective gasp to fill the room. The brown-haired boy beside Coco caught her as she fell back, her hand going instantly to her cheek. As she stood once more she took it away and examined it. Emily could see the barest hint of blood on the blonde’s fingers. A growl threatened to rise in her throat and her lips curled in a disgusted snarl.

 It was hard to keep calm as she addressed the woman donned in black, “we’re all adults here. We can use our words… I hope. At least  some  of us have mastered that much.”

 Venable turned to her. The black-haired girl beside her shifted uncomfortably. One could cut the tension between the two women with a knife. 

 Finally, Venable pulled her eyes away and turned her focus to the spoiled girl before her, her hand resting back on the cane she always carried, “Let me be very clear so there will be no misunderstanding. We have enough nutrition to last for the next   18 months  and if our situation doesn’t improve, you can count on less and less.”

 Slowly, Coco sat. Shaking hands pulled away from her cheek as she reached for the chair. She was so scared that her movements were stiff. Yes, she had been yelled at before. God knows she was a stubborn woman with a temper, but no one had ever slapped her before.

 Venable retreated into the only exit of the room, slithering back into the shadows. Venable’s tone bordered on the overly-theatric, playing the part of a woman burdened by knowledge she dare not speak lest it disrupts the peace. 

 “You could have told us that from the very beginning.” Emily blurted out.

 The woman didn’t even bother to look at her as her lips curled into a mocking smile. When she finally turned to Emily, her tone was thick with condescension, “and cause  unnecessary  panic?”

 “You know what they say about communication and relationships.” 

 “ Situation ?” Gallant asked, waving a hand to get their attention, “What is our   situation ?”

 Miss Mead looked to her boss whose face glimmered with uncertainty and surprise, but only for a moment. Venable was debating whether or not to tell the truth or keep them in the constant state of unknowing, easy to control. If she were still in college, Emily could have written an essay on the ways Venable reminded her of the worst sort of people in their history books. 

 “We had a perimeter alert this morning,” She finally told them, less than pleased with the fact the words were leaving her mouth at all, “Something penetrated the grounds. It was a carrier pigeon delivering a message from our benefactors.”

 Coco gasped, “Wait! A pigeon! Can we eat it?”

 Emily sighed and leaned on the table, resisting the urge to hand her head in her hands. This place was going to be migraine city the moment she tapered off her medication.

 Miss Mead’s tone echoed her feelings, brows scrunching at the pure idiocy of the question.

 “It was  contaminated   by the   fallout .”

 Her response didn’t phase Evie, who made it abundantly clear she had never made a meal for herself in her entire life, “Can we  boil  it?”

 Venable reached into her pockets and pulled out a small sliver of paper and began to read, “There are no more governments. Only rotting mounds of corpses, too many to bury.”

 Emily’s hands fell to her lap and curled into fists until she could feel her fingernails embed themselves into the flesh of her palms. All she could hear were the voice-mails, each and every last plead for life. She could still hear her brother’s voice, cracking in a way she hadn’t heard since their grandmother’s funeral. It was etched into her brain to the last breath. To his last breath, he took his role as an older sibling seriously, trying to soothe her fears instead of his own.

   “I don’t want to die. God, I don’t want to—”

  Venable continued reading, “Starving people kill for a piece of bread.”

   “I love you… I… You were… are a good sister.”

  “Three outposts have been overrun.” Venable’s voice droned on, voice cracking ever slightly as she reached the end of the letter, “We are the last vestiges of civilized life on the planet.”

   “I… I know you would have made a difference… I wish I could have seen the life you would have created.”

  Venable looked to them all as she read the last line, “be vigilant.”

 Emily was pulled from her thoughts by a squeeze to her hand, instinctively pulling it back until she realized a hand covering her own. When Emily met the ebony-haired girl’s gaze she offered a reassuring smile, Emily nodded in a small message of thanks before brushing away the single tear which had begun to roll down her cheeks. 

 “Everything we know is gone,” Mead summarized, eyes blank. It was nice to see that even the Warden and Venable felt fear. Made them feel… human.

 “In  two     weeks ?”, Andre shook his head, staring blankly at his hands, “That’s all it took?”

 In a rare show of empathy, Gallant reached out and squeezed the man’s hands. Emily noted the way Stu watched the interaction, eyes watching the hands as if it were a snake slithering in his direction.

 “They made you think the system was a rock,” Mead explained, standing at attention with her hands locked together in front of her, “It was a water balloon. One prick of the needle and —”

 She made a popping noise, “that’s all it took.”

 It wasn’t as if Emily was surprised. One of the first things she learned in a college psychology class was that the only reason the world didn’t fall into chaos was due to people putting faith in a system that would protect them… conventional. The bombs had scattered them, left them weak to the chaos that ensued. It reminded her of the way roaches scattered when sprayed with Raid. Lawlessness was the antithesis of reason, mob mentality was evidence enough of that. It was textbook horror.

 “We will only survive if we follow the rules,” Venable emphasized.

 Emily scoffed. Some of Venable’s rules she understood while others were a blatant overreaching of power. She could understand the “no sex” rule to a degree. Copulation could result in the creation of new life which they had no means to sustain, but even the Victorians had condoms and you couldn’t walk into a 7-Eleven without finding a rack of Plan B. Not to mention half the residents were gay which made her rules pointless. 

 “Rules are the basis of order,” Venable said, clearly addressing her despite staring at the wall above them, “unless you find yourself to be above the rules? Too   special  for them to apply?”

 She hadn’t a moment to voice her thoughts, quickly distracted by the army of wardens that quickly began to fill the room. They all watched with bated breath as The Fist bent down to whisper in Mead’s ear, her lip twitching and eyes flitting to the ground as she gave the other woman her full attention.

 “There’s a problem.”

 Those 3 words were enough to break Venable’s gloating, head snapping to the side like Coco’s had a moment ago. They all watched the pair, unsure of who to keep a better watch on — Venable or Mead.

 “We’ve detected a spike in the background radiation, centered in this room,” Mead informed her boss.

 Gallant was quick to point fingers to the new pair, whatever empathy he had shown with Andre gone like the wind as he moved from them as if they had the plague, “It’s them! They just came from the outside!”

 “No!” The girl exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously and sitting forward in her chair, knuckles white around the wooden arms, “No! We were checked when we got here! We’re clean!”

 She looked to Emily for aid, brown eyes wide and pupils dilated. Her eyes glimmered with confusion and panic, searching for an unspoken question. Emily’s brows knitted and she bit her lip, eyes flickering between the girl before her and the wardens preparing a device that looked like a microphone attached to a larger box.

 “No,” the boy echoed, “we went through decontamination.”

 His eyes also went to Emily as he continued to speak, begging for her to understand, “we were cleared.”

 Emily opened her mouth but could find nothing to reassure them. Mead addressed the room before Emily could utter a word. “Place your hands on the table… and don’t.  Move .”

 Shaking her head at the girl, Emily did as she was told. This hadn’t happened before. She didn’t know what to expect. As the device clicked from her left, she edged her pinky towards her knife. It wasn’t sharp. It didn’t have to be sharp to cut through jello. With enough pressure, it could cut through skin. The rest of the room faded away as she kept her eyes on The Fists' hands, a second device in her hands as well. Emily’s heart hammered with each step closer.

 “Radioactive contamination,” Mead spoke, devices crinkling like static as they hovered over each person, “is a grave risk to our  entire  community.”

 The Fist, a giant of a woman with blonde hair pulled back from her face, towered above Emily when she was standing. Sitting down made her feel like a child in the presence of a giant. She held her breath as she felt the device get closer, clicking sounds falling silent as soon as it came above her hand. The Fist repeated the motion a few times more, making Emily’s heart go haywire in her chest, before moving on to the new arrival next to her, the clicking resuming once more.

 “The clean rule is there to protect all of us,” Mead continued, now going over the boy who sat stiff as a board, eyes following the woman’s every move, “A  single stray gamma particle can cause skin lesions. Your DNA breaks apart, your body disintegrates. You’ll   wish  you died in the blast.”

 The residents weren’t sure what to make of her speech. It wasn’t as if any of them graduated with a degree in radiology. They had learned it in high-school, sure, but that was ages ago… before there was colored TV for some of them. 

 “But someone here decided,” Mead went on, circling the table for a second round of testing, “that their  individual needs  were more important.”

 Emily tensed once more as the stick was waved around her, Mead pausing momentarily to look down at the box she held in her hand to see if it had somehow turned off. Finding nothing, she continued. “Someone went outside. Touched something  dirty .”

 The room was holding their breaths. They all knew they were innocent, but didn’t trust their companions as far as they could throw them. Their gaze followed the device, then to the person next to them, then to the person in front of them. They searched for a sign of guilt. It was easier to point fingers when someone looked shifty. 

 “Makes me sick to think that this person,” Mead spit as she made it to gallant, “to risk contaminating all—”

 A wild crackling filled the room. They all jumped in their seats, eyes focusing on the hairdresser. Emily’s heart leapt into her throat, paralyzed as the vultures began circling, donned in leather and stronger than any of them could hope to be.

 “No,” The man said after a moment, shaking his finger as he looked to the Wardens, “nononono. That’s a mistake because the  only  thing I’ve touched is Coco’s hair.”

 The Fist stood over Coco and shook her head. Mead gave the final order, voice lacking any pity, “she’s clean. You’re dirty.

 The wardens grabbed at Gallant, claws latching onto him as he began to struggle.

 “No!” He cried, “this is impossible! That machine is wrong!”

 Fingers dug into his shoulder and Gallant cried out in pain, dragged to his feet and across the floor. The warden closest to him placed him in a choke-hold, Gallant letting out a fearful sob as he clawed at the man’s arm. Evie stood, chair screeching across the floor as she reached out towards her grandson with trembling hands.

 “This is outrageous! Stop! Please, stop! Bring him back!”

 Coco gasped and let out a cry, hands moving to cover her face as her eyes welled with tears. The girl beside Emily looked between herself and the boy in front of her, chest rising and falling rapidly as she began to hyperventilate.

 Gallant scream pierced the air, “Evie!”

 The crackling filled the room once more. In their panic, they had failed to realize Mead making her way towards Andre and Stu. The couple could only stare at each other, the seconds dragging on like hours.

 “No way!” Stu chanted, refusing to look away from Andre, “No! No way!”

 “No,” Andre sobbed, reaching out towards the man and trying to pry him from the grasp of the warden pulling him away. He was thrown away with a shove.

 “Get your hands off me!” Stu screamed, another warden now going to carry him by his feet.

 Mead’s voice rang out from the chaos, followed swiftly by the marching of footsteps.

 “Take them to the decontamination room!”

 They could hear the groans of their fellow residents echoing down the hall. The sounds resonated long after the steel doors had closed.

Emily reached out for the hand of the girl next to her. Her face was frozen in a gasp, eyes wide with terror. Her hand rested on hers which still sat on the table. She squeezed back and held on for dear life.

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

  For once the saloon was quiet. Evie had gone to bed. Emily currently sat next to a crying Andre, Dinah opposite her. He hadn’t been able to stop crying since dinner, now unable to do more than hiccup.

 “How could he have been contaminated,” He sobbed, a horrible epiphany crossing his mind as he turned to Emily, “do you think they—?

 Emily gave him a look, “Did you forget Gallant’s little hand-squeeze during dinner? He was coming on to you, not Stu.”

 Andre had a fleeting smile before anxiety overtook him once more.

 “What we need to do now,” Dinah said, running a hand up and down her son’s back, “is make sure Stu comes back safe.”

 Her words were less than comforting, Andre shoving away her arm and staring at her with an emotion Emily couldn’t quite place… somewhere between distress and anger.

 “Why wouldn’t he be safe?” he demanded, looking to the brunette when his mother offered no response. Emily opened her mouth, hoping something would pop into her head, but she was at a loss for words. She couldn’t reassure him of anything. It would be a lie.

 The man scoffed, stepping back and shaking his head, “I can’t believe you.”

 He turned on his heels, breath hitching once more as another fit of sobs threatened to take over him. Why Stu? Why not them? Of all the residents Stu was the least deserving of—

 Emily rose, hand held out to stop him, “Andre—”

 A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. Dinah took a step around her, hand trailing down her purple-clothed arm until she held her hand, the other coming to rest on top of it.

 “Let me talk to him,” the woman tried to reassure, the events clearly have shaken her as much as Stu. 

 Emily pressed her lips together and nodded, pulling back and watching the woman hurry towards her son, heels clicking down the hall. The door clanged shut behind her and silence filled the room.

 … but only for a moment.

 “What’s going to happen to me if they find out Gallant is —” Coco started to ramble, “I mean I  was  the only reason he was here in the first place.”

 “You were clean,” The brown-haired boy pointed out, face twisting in confusion.

 “Well, I know that!” Coco exclaimed, turning on the couch to face him, “but who’s to say there won’t be a  second investigation. I mean there had to be a   reason   they were tainted.”

 She went quiet for a moment, hands held out in front of her as if she was having a revelation, “oh my gosh! If they kill Gallant who’s going to do my hair?”

 Emily sighed and sat next to the new girl who was wringing her hands and staring into the fire. 

 “I never did ask your names,” Emily noted, looking to the girl and the boy.

 “Timothy,” He said with a nod of his head.

 The girl was pulled from her thoughts, turning from the fire and to the people behind her, “Emily.”

 Emily chuckled, “You’re joking.”

 “What?”

 “It’s the end of the world and I can’ escape the fate of having a basic girl name.”

 A smile curled at the other Emily’s lips, then a laugh, “really?”

 Emily extended a hand, “Hi, Emily. I’m Emily.”

 “There’s two of you now?” Coco groaned.

 “I was named after my grandmother,” The other Emily said, taking her hand and giving it a shake, “you?”

 “My parents looked in a baby book and picked a ‘less common’ girl name. 21 years later and there’s at least three Emily’s in each one of my classes.” 

 “God, this is going to be confusing,” Coco sighed, pressing her fingers to her nose in a praying motion, “Oh! I know! Emily 1 and Emily 2… no... That’s too wordy.”

 “Middle names?” Timothy asked.

 “No way in hell,” The two replied.

 “I can always go by ‘Em’,” she said, “god knows I’m used to it by now.”

 “M?” Coco asked, “that’s original.”

 “Well, we can’t all be named after a brand of cereal.”

 “I was named after Coco Chanel!” she snapped, turning to Timothy with crocodile tears, “You get it, right?”

 “…yeah?” he answered, an eyebrow quirking up in confusion, “The clothing brand.”

 He looked to the two Emily’s as he spoke like he was part of some hidden camera show. The two could only laugh and shake their heads as he was quickly rounded into another one of Coco’s monologues.

 “My parents named me Coco because they knew I was destined to make it big. So it was only natural that I…”

 Timothy looked ready to face nuclear winter. His guilt over the previous dinner altercations made him feel guilty for wanting to run away, but the boy always had a hard time saying, “no.” The Emily’s watched on, sparing him pity-filled glances when he looked to them for help.

 “So did you pay your way in here or are you here for your  superior  genetics?” Emily asked. 

 “Genetics,” Emily… Em replied, “I was supposed to be on the east coast but someone paid for me to be transported all the way out here.”

 “Who?”

 She shrugged, “no idea. Some rich snob wanted their dog to go with them… at least that’s what Venable tells me.”

 “I’d hardly call her a  trustful  resource.”

 Em laughed, “That we can agree on.”

 “How long do you think we’ll be here?”

 “More than we have rations for,” Em sighed, reaching for a glass of water, “Fallout could last up to five years and we’ve talked about Chernobyl… but nothing on this scale has ever been recorded.”

 Emily stared blankly ahead and nodded, trying to recall all she had learned about the matter in school, “we could be here for 30 years… maybe more.”

 “Sorry,” Em offered, “anyone here can tell you — I’m not one to speak to for optimism or reassurance.”

 “No,” The other girl shook her head, “I’d rather blatant honestly than pretty lies.”

 “If we had anything more than water I’d toast to that.”

 Emily laughed and shook her head. She reached for a glass of her own and held it up.

 ���Let’s toast anyway.”

 Em smiled and leaned her glass forward, a dull clinking sound filling the air. 

 “What were you doing?” Em asked, leaning back and taking a sip of water, “before the bombs hit?”

 “Protesting. It sounds minuscule now… climate change, minimum wage.”

 “Everything is minuscule in the presence of death.”

 “Poetic.”

 “I sure hope so,” Em jested, “or all the money I wasted on an English Major was worthless.”

 Emily laughed, “Is that what you were doing before the bomb’s dropped?”

 “Nah… I was at home… enjoying summer. I was working on our campus’ literary magazine and selling art prints online as a side-hustle.”

 Em shook her head, silence sitting for a moment before Emily spoke.

 “I don’t know what to do with myself now.”

 “I don’t think any of us do, but at least we’re not alone.”

 “I wouldn’t call this particularly good company,” Emily admitted.

 “It’s not,” Em blatantly admitted, earning a short laugh from her companion, “but you and timothy seem alright.”

 “And you?”

 “Well…” Em said, side eying Coco who was still avidly speaking without a sign of ever stopping, “I’m no influencer.”

 Emily snorted and shook her head, “that may be for the best.”

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

“All I’m saying is Stu was boring and using up our food, and that lesions won’t work with my complexion.”

Em rolled her eyes and looked to Emily who once again sat beside her as Coco’s tirade went on. The blond-haired woman once again was patting at her hair like she was on the red carpet. They looked to Timothy across from them who just sat looking blankly ahead of him. Em smiled at shook her head, not able to blame the man for pretending he was anywhere else but here. If not for the mandatory cocktail hour and communal meals, Em would have stayed as far away from the others as possible.

Days had passed since Gallant and Stu had been forced into decontamination. Gallant refused to speak of the incident and… well… they knew where it got Stu. One would have liked to have said that Coco had shown some respect for the deceased, but the farthest she got was initial shock followed by contempt towards their fallen comrade.

“Fuck you,” Andre spat, murder in his eyes, “I hope they come for you next.”

“If they don’t,” Em noted, Coco’s eyes glaring into her own, “I will.”

She gaped at her, nose curling as her expression turned into one of disgust, “Is that a threat?”

“A promise.”

Emily gave her a look like a mother trying to get their child to behave among strangers.

It’s not worth it!” She hissed under her breath. Em was far too annoyed to pay her any mind. She could forgive selfishness and vanity, but her complete lack of sympathy for those in pain? It didn’t matter if it was genuine. All she had to do was shut up, give Andre space to grieve. 

Lucky for Coco, their jail-keepers arrived at the table before Em could follow out her threat. Venable’s cane sounded like the tik of a clock with each step she took, reminding the brunette of a horror story her friends and herself would tell around Halloween. 

“Nobody is coming for anyone,” Mead told them as they both rounded the table to their respective seats at the head of the table, “unless you break the rules.”

She looked to Em, “which includes murder.”

Em paused as she took a sip of water, raising a brow at Coco, “I never said anything about murder.”

The older woman looked into her lap and shook her head, trying to hide the amused smile threatening to show on her face. Coco scoffed.

“This is harassment!”

“This is a difficult time for everyone,” Venable spoke, failing to address Coco’s claims, “as a small consolation, we have a special treat.”

Em could smell the food before she could see it, the salt and the meat, she could taste it in her mouth without even touching it. She felt like a dog, smelling things with such detail she had never been able to notice before. It was incredible what desperation could do to the body. The whole table buzzed with excitement, grins brightening faces and hands going to silverware before the food could be set on the table.

Emily was unable to hide her shock, “no cubes tonight?”

Venable’s lips curled into a smile, the expression doing nothing to ease the woman’s continuously angry expression, “enjoy the bonne bouche.”

Bowls clinked together, the Greys hurrying to place food on the table. 

“Don’t get used to it.”

“Yes,” Emily sighed beside her, looking over to Em with an expression of relieved joy. 

The brunette didn’t care. If she was being honest, she hadn’t exactly paid much attention to the woman’s words after she saw the soup on the food trolley. It was much like a cat seeing a bird at the window, green eyes widening and pupils dilating as if Em had found her true love. While her companions were much more graceful, at least attempting some decorum, Em quickly dug into the meal.

Her mother used to chide her for this as a child, sitting next to her brother at the dinner table and seeing who could finish first. She couldn't explain to the woman that she had to eat fast or else her brother would steal her dessert. Such things didn’t make sense to an adult, but a child’s reasoning was elaborate and honest. For a life so short, every little detail mattered.

Usually, she wasn’t a fan of stew. Something about the floating meat and murky broth didn’t sit right with her. Now she wondered why she didn’t enjoy the delicacy more often. The meat fell apart like well-buttered bread in her mouth, the broth warmed her from the inside out. She could feel it burning down her throat like a shot of Bourbon, somewhat painful but none the less satisfying. 

“You think bribing us with a hot meal’s just gonna’ to make everything okay?” Andre asked, voice sore with grief. A white handkerchief flourished with the wave of his hand. It had been somewhere on his person since Stu was pronounced dead. Em was too caught up in her hunger to realize the weight of his words or the sudden stillness of the girl beside her, an unspoken conversation between herself and Timothy. She would take the bribe happily if it meant being spared from the tasteless cube she had become accustomed to. It wouldn’t win her over, but only a fool refused something readily given with no strings attached.

By the time Emily swatted at Em’s arm the brunette had already finished most of the stew, the bottom of her bowl visible through the broth. She sent Emily an irritated glare, gesturing with her hands as she swallowed her last bite.

“What?” she hissed.

Emily only rose her brows and sent a pointed glance towards Timothy. Turning towards him she was meant with an equally suspicious gaze and a shake of the head. With a sigh, she sat back in her chair, looking between the two and waiting for an explanation. 

“I think my mouth just had an orgasm,” Coco moaned with a full mouth, quickly shoving more food into her mouth in fear it would turn out to be a cruel mirage. Em looked at her and embarrassment made her flush a pale pink. Is that what she had looked like?

“Andre,” Venable sighed, settling in her seat and arranging her silverware before she took a single bite, “We’re not trying to bribe anyone, but there is something we all need to understand.”

With a thud of her cane on the floor, the residents turned to her like raccoons being caught in a garbage can. Em prepared herself for a show of saintly-hood the uptight woman so adored.

“There is no ‘us’ and ‘them,’ We are in this together,” Venable proclaimed, “No individual is greater than the group. We did what we had to do. This is, quite simply, a tragedy.”

Em held her tongue for once. While Stu and herself hadn’t been close, she respected him more than she respected most of her fellow purples. The old world may have died, but the power games still presided — a strongman was still a strongman even when draped in fine clothes and laced in a corset. 

It wasn’t as if any of them were paying her any mind, too enthralled in the smell of salt and meat like Hansel and Gretal in the witch’s house. Dinah sighed as she took another bite.

“Where have you been hiding the meat?” 

Venable’s pause waved over Em like a bucket of cold water, the slight twitch of her lip as she looked down at her plate louder and more illuminating than any sermon she had given them. “We have resources… for special occasions.”

Em could only stare at her as she ate, trying to work at the puzzle which was Miss Venable. There were moments where she swore the woman showed regret or perhaps anxiety, but they were small and fleeting. Everyone had a tell, even the most stoic of society. Em just couldn’t figure it out and it drove her up a wall. It felt like she was staring at a brick wall, waiting for it to crumble.

Gallant pulled something out from his mouth, cringing as his teeth dig into something hard. It was white and square, but he couldn’t tell what it was? Gristle? Bone? 

“I’ve never tasted anything like it.” He murmured, examining the object further as he twisted it in the light.

“It’s chicken,” Mead told him a bit too insistently. 

“That’s not a chicken bone,” Timothy spoke, looking from his untouched bowl to the object the hairdresser was holding. His lips pressed into a thin line. Venable took a spoonful to her lips, then another, and then another.

Andre spoke from the other end of the table, voice wavering as he stared at yet another hard piece which had made his teeth hurt, “tell me this doesn’t look like a finger.”

Em looked to her plate, stomach twisting as she poked at the remains of her meal. A piece of white glimmered to the surface. Damning polite behavior, she reached in with her hand and pulled it out. Her mind went blank as she stared at it, rectangular with two prongs reaching outward from the body. It was a tooth. There was no doubt. Chicken didn’t have teeth. A frog gathered at the back of her throat, threatening to leap from her mouth.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” Andre sputtered out, breath coming out in wheezing gasps as he flew back from the table shrieking, “The stew is Stu!”

The table erupted in panic. Gallant spit out whatever was in his mouth, leaving a dripping dark stain on the tablecloth. Andre wailed and Coco shrieked to a Grey named Mallory to make her throw up. Em could only stare at the near-empty bowl in front of her, the reality not quite sitting with her. Morbid questions filled her mind. It had tasted like… she didn’t know what it tasted like other than meat. Salty, maybe? Sweet? 

A firm hand squeezed her own, Emily once again there to pull her from a spiral. 

“You didn’t know.”

Amongst the screaming, the gagging, and the retching Venable sat, unmoved by the fires of fear rising around her. She didn’t smile, didn’t frown, didn’t show any reaction at all.

“For heaven’s sake,” she spoke with the same amount of annoyance she always addressed them with, a touch of boredom in her tone “Don’t be ridiculous. There are lines which can never be crossed.”

Something was glinting in Venable’s eyes, something that Em had seen many times before but could never properly place. The woman looked to Mead, “not eating people is off the first rank.”

Em’s voice sounded hollow as it left her, “Yet it is always the first taboo to be broken among the desperate.”

The thought of cannibalism wasn’t what alarmed Em. Cannibalism was deeply ingrained in human history — from burial rituals to a final stand against starvation. No. What frightened her was realizing she would do it again in an instant if it meant her survival. A fire burned in her as she looked to Venable, sitting there with a smug glow of victory. She had hated Venable before, but this made her blood boil at the sight of her. A revelation she did not want had been forced upon her and Venable’s eyes glinted as they met her own. 

Her message was clear: Don’t rebel or you’ll be next.

[daisycandothings]

A twilight movie review, yes I know I am a decade late.

Hello, this is a review of the twilight movies. 

Okay now that nobody is reading this anymore, I have a note on how this will be formatted. Basically, I will have five sections where I go through and review each movie, and then I will have another section at the end where I look at the series as a whole.

I would also like to say that these are not good movies. Everyone here knows that. There is a lot of negative criticism out there and chances are, I agree with basically all of it. However, I do not want to say the same shit that everybody already says, that would be boring. People do not watch these movies because they are masterpieces of cinema, we watch them because it is fun to sit down with your family/friends and laugh when Jacob says “I am hotter than you” with a straight face. What I’m trying to say is I will not be analysing these academically so much as talking about what I enjoyed/didn’t enjoy about the surface level experience of watching them. Comparing these films to actually good masterful movies is like comparing kids playing floor hockey in gym class to olympic figure skaters. Like they just do not belong on the same scale

I really do want to take a look at these films on their own without the influence of the books messing with my opinion of them. 

Also, there will be spelling AND grammatical errors, I promise. 

Twilight the First One:

Good things:

This might be my favorite on its own. I just think the plot is probably the most exciting and it has the best split of drama, vampire bullshit, and fighting. I like the vampire family, I think they’re funny, and I actually genuinely think the baseball scene is a clever concept that is executed well. That scene, Anna Kendrick, and the dad are the high points of this movie, but Anna Kendrick and the dad are basically the high points of every movie they’re in, so I think I’ll speak on them later. 

Also I really like the soundtrack of this movie. To be fair I only remember two songs (what do you think, I was taking notes? I’m not a nerd) but those two songs were cool. The pieces in question were the electric guitar thing during the baseball scene and the lovely piano song™ . God do I fucking love that piano piece, I think there will definitely be a paragraph dedicated to that one song, you’re welcome. 

I like the hinting at the werewolf stuff in this movie.

Neutral:

The color saturation/tone (I don’t know movie words) were different in this movie. It’s like bluer. I don’t really know how I feel about it, its just kind of jarring to have this really blue movie and then move on to the next on and it’s normal idk.

Bad:

My biggest criticism is with the main characters. Like Bella and Edward have no chemistry, dude, I cannot name a thing that they bond over. Really their relationship only works because they are both hot, and the movie is relying on that in order to get the viewer to feel compelled by it, and I mean I guess it worked? I mean, I spent way more time wondering what Robert Pattinson’s hair product budget was than considering the fact that neither character had a substantial personality. 

I also have this weird issue with the pacing, maybe I’m an idiot and this is wrong, but it really seemed like Bella transferred at the beginning of the year. Then she meets everyone and like 30 minutes later we’re talking about prom? A spring event? And then the rest seems to take place over the span of like 2 weeks. Its just hard to tell how much time is passing at some points and I’m not a huge fan of that. 

“I like watching you sleep”

The effects are not good, but I don’t give that much of a shit, I just wish they’d been more obnoxious with the glitter. I’m not entirely sure I would have noticed if I lived in that world

I think that’s all I have to say here

Twilight New Moon

Good: 

Jacob is the best main character in this movie. He has personality traits, and his wolf transformation plot would be good if he weren’t such an asshole about it all the time. To be fair though, I have never been through such a transformation, so I can’t really judge. That said, I do like the scene where he freaks out at Mikey (that one blonde kid who decides to be a part of the series every once in a while).

Also there is some genuinely funny shit in here? Like, even moments that the movie actually intended to be funny. That guy, Harry, who hangs out with Charlie? He has some really great moments. Also the theater scene where Bella is sitting between Jake and Mike, and they both have their hand out hoping that Bella will hold it? That is just really funny. There’s obv more, but these are some highlights

Yes Jacob, please take off your shirt in order to dab the blood off Bella’s face. That seems like the best course of action to me. God the weird shit he does is really funny.

Bad:

Charlie’s friends keep dying, and his daughter is shitty and that makes me sad

The characters continue to have very little...well… character, not to mention actual development. I shouldn’t have to explain why that is a huge issue, especially for a movie that is primarily character driven. 

THIS MOVIE IS SO LONG. there were moments when I would just take a sec and be like. What is happening? What is this movie? What story is even being told here? God when is this going to be oveeeerrrrrrrrrr?

I’ve said a lot less here, but this is undoubtedly worse than the last one. 

Twilight Eclipse

Good:

The plot is built up a lot better in this one compared to the last two. In the last two, the main conflict wouldn’t even be fully introduced until like half an hour before the end of the movie. There was just a bunch of time that went by very slowly where basically nothing happened, and then all of a sudden there has to be a climax so the actual rising action takes place over a ten minute period, That's just weak writing, and this movie does not have that problem. 

I like the depth that we are given to the other members of the vampire family members. That said, Jasper was a confederate soldier, and you can not convince me that he isn’t racist.  

I think the scene where Edward and Jacob see eye to eye for a bit is pretty good if you disregard the fact that they really talk about Bella like an object. Like they spend so much time in this series just being NEEDLESSLY rude and mean; like you guys couldn’t even pretend not to hate each other for half a second? For real? Anyway, this scene kind of has them getting along and having a constructive conversation and I liked that. 

“Let’s face it. I am hotter than you” 

Neutral:

The plot is definitely more exciting in this one, but Victoria’s plan seems needlessly complex.

Are there other werewolves, or are the ones in forks just all of them? Like there seems to be this giant vampire government that spans the whole world, but the werewolves just have like ten kids in forks?

Bad:

I get that you all are natural enemies, and you are in love with the same girl, but god you guys don’t have to be such assholes to each other. 

Viewers are CONSTANTLY reminded that Edward just wants to protect Bella and that Jacob might be a better fit because she wouldn’t have to change. Like really hon? You’ve said this shit twelve times, but please go ahead and tell me again.

I know I was laughing about it before, but Jacob, can you please put a shirt on, it’s snowing.

The ring that Edward gives Bella is terrible, I would not wear it. 

Why did the cullens just let the volturi kill that girl? They shouldn’t have. 

*Sigh* and now we are at the really bad thing that I really didn’t like. TW for sexual assault. There is a scene where Jacob basically tells Bella that he kNoWS she likes him. She actively says that she DOES NOT, and then Jacob kisses her. THAT WASN’T CONSENSUAL. THAT WAS SEXUAL ASSAULT, BUDDY. Some people might say that she did actually want it, but if you look at her face during that kiss, she really doesn’t seem okay with it; in addition, she punches him after. BUT WHETHER OR NOT SHE WANTED IT DOESN’T MATTER!!!! SHE SAID NO!!!!

Then this yucky shit happens again, when Jacob finds out Edward and Bella are engaged, and Bella feels the need to kiss Jacob so he doesn’t do anything stupid. That is bad for obvious reasons. It is very frustrating because if it weren’t for these events, I would totally be team Jacob. 

Also I get you guys both love her, but I challenge you to tell me exactly what you love about her. 

Twilight Breaking Dawn Part One

Good:

This movie is fucking hilarious and amazing. I have watched all of the movies up until this point, and maybe it’s just the fact that this is my first time watching it, but this might overtake the first one. It’s great, I love it. 

As I mentioned, this movie is very funny, there are a lot of really good moments, Charlie and Anna Kendrick’s wedding speeches are amazing and I love them. There are a bunch of other ones that I cannot remember at the moment, but I promise it is great. 

 I also loved when Rosili (I’m sure I spelled that wrong) had to cut Bella open, and then she really wants to eat her blood. Very fun and also amazing for raising tension. 

I like that this movie is not pretending to be an action film. All of the other ones are mostly drama with a pretty shitty action plotline grafted over it. That does not happen here. It is literally just a romance movie that uses vampirism and werewolfery as an added layer of drama. The other movies do this, but they also have those bad action plotlines, so it feels like they are lying to me about being monster fighting movies when they are really just romance dramas. This movie KNOWS that it is just a romance drama and it owns it and I think that is cool.

I really liked the thing where we got those close up shots of bella’s blood vessels becoming vampire-y and stuff, I thought it was fun. Also when bella is having that dream about her wedding and everything is white and red and they end up on a pile of bodies? I cannot explain why, but I thought that looked really cool and it was kind of chilling which was the desired effect.

Seth and Leah, need I say more?

Lovely piano song ™ is BACK!!!

Neutral:

*sigh* Jacob. I have a strange relationship with Jacob. He constantly goes from being very cool to being very terrible. I will talk about this more later, but in this movie it was especially prevalent. He would say unnecessary, mean shit about the Cullens, and I would be like “god when did you become such an asshole?” and then he would leave because he didn't want to watch Bella destroy herself and I would be like “when did you get coOL?” and then he would tell Edward how much he wanted to kill him and I would be like “jesus, when did you become such an asshole?” and then he would distract the wolves so the Cullens could hunt and then I would be like “Yo dude, when did you get coooool again?” and then I would remember that he kissed Bella without consent and just……

There was a similar thing with Sam because at the beginning he was like, “the Cullens are fine,stop being such a little bitch about it, Jacob.” And then later on, he’s like “nvm we gonna kill this baby”

I know these are actually just character inconsistencies, but I’m not putting them in the bad section, no I will not be taking criticism.

Bad:

I wish they had told us more about stuff. Like they didn’t really explain why Jacob was so obnoxiously against them fucking. And Bella says it’s impossible for Edward to get her pregnant but umm how? Why? If that is the case, please explain to me why he is able to get her pregnant. Like this was the entire plot of the movie, and there was very little actual explanation which is annoying. I would like to understand the crux of your story, thanks. 

There was that thing where that woman from Argentina like, knew that Bella was carrying a demon baby. I feel like that is kind of painting woc as being mystical, and hey, that’s not great.

Jacob imprinting on a literal baby yes I know it is more complex than that, but still, come on stephanie. 

“EJ for Edward Jacob if it’s a boy” EWWWWWWWNODONOTNAMEYOURCHILDTHAT!

“Reneesme if it’s a girl” that’s good by comparison, but you set a super fucking low bar, my guy 

The wolf talking was uhh, pretty terrible. No thank you, sir. 

GIVE ME MORE CHARLIE!!!! WHERE IS OUR KING???!!! WHY ISN’T HE ON MY SCREEN?!!!

Twilight Breaking Dawn Part Two

Good: 

this movie is also a lot of fun. I liked meeting all the vampires from across the world, and I did like the plot more or less. I thought that it was exciting enough, and I have no issue with them splitting it into two movies, I actually liked it. There were two distinct plots with distinct tones, so I thought they were justified in the split.

I liked the opening montage. I thought their use of white and red (just as they did in part one) was very cool and chilling. In addition, the shot where Bella opens her eyes and adjusts to seeing in a vampire-y way is really cool. Like it makes me get why people like this franchise, like it’s cool!

Jacob is fucking awesome in this movie; basically because he isn’t attracted to Bella anymore, and so he is no longer attracted to Bella, so he isn’t constantly whiny and mean. I liked that he made up with Sam, and I do think the movie did a good job making the imprinting thing not weird. Jacob is just cool here. I REALLY liked that everyone was like “we gotta pretend Bella is dead” and he was like “no fuck that, charlie knows I’m a werewolf, and he’s on his way over to see her.” He is just constantly doing the right thing, and I love it. 

Lovely piano song™  

The fight scene at the end was fun to watch. It was by no means a masterful spectacle of choreography, but I liked it anyway. 

RAMI MALEK IS THE AVATAR?!!! I FUCKING LOVE IT!

Bad:

There were some moments where things were not explained all the way like there was this part where Jacob comments that more wolves are turning than before, and I was kinda like “wait what why” and then it is just not mentioned again. And I feel like there were a couple other moments like this that just felt like they were trying to say something from the book and then just didn’t have time to expand on it. Maybe I just missed something.

What made Alice think that only Bella would be smart enough to go to the book that the page is from? That was my first thought when she left that note.

The movie made it seem like the volturi really just wanted a reason to fight with them, and only Aro seeing himself get killed was able to deter him. But um… why? Why do the volturi give a shit about fighting the Cullens? Also I was a little annoyed with the final battle like for real dude? The ‘it was all in his head’ trope? Fuck that, if you are going to kill a bunch of good characters, at least commit to it yaknow?

I’m also not a fan of what they did with Alice. She just became a device to solve all of the problems. Like she leaves for the whole movie, comes back and fixes everything? That’s not good writing, mate. 

I wish that they told Charlie things. Like I wish he was in the loop. Speaking of.... GIVE ME MORE CHARLIE AND ANNA KENDRICK. SHE WAS NOT IN THIS MOVIE AT ALL!! FUCK THAT, HER CHARACTER IS GREAT. AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT, MORE LEAH AND SETH, TOO!!

As a series

Yes, watching these movies is so much fun despite all the dumb shit. In fact, it might even be because of the dumb shit. I would just like to make it very clear that I legitimately loved watching them, and I really liked writing about them as well. I say this because there have been (and there will be more) harsh criticisms.

This part will mostly be me venting.

Edward and Bella are both very bland, and Jacob is for sure, the most interesting of the main cast. 

Okay I don’t wanna spend too much time on this one, but Edward is 109 and Bella is like 17 when they meet. I don’t have to explain why that is kinda messed up. 

I really really wish that there had been more Carlysl (another spelling mistake I am sure), Emmet, and Alice. I liked them both a lot, and we don’t really get to learn about their backstories. There is also supposed to be this friendship between Bella and Alice, but I wish that had been fleshed out a lot more. I would have liked to see more bro time between them. 

I also wish there was more Seth and Leah. And let's throw in Charlie and Anna Kendrick for that matter. 

Not a fan of the way that threat of sexual violence is used with Bella in the first two, TW for minor discussion of that here. In the first one Bella runs into some guys who harass her, and Edward saves her. The thing is, he only knew it was happening because he was following her, and I’m not a fan of the narrative that perpetuates. In the next one, she actively seeks out a dangerous situation with a man, so that Edward might come save her, no thanks.

Green screens are used, and they are not always very good.

There are moments throughout the series where you are like “oh yeah, that is definitely a direct quote from the books” like when Jacob says “stop looking at me like that” “like what” “like I’m your favorite person in the world” like okay bro turn down the emo.

 Okay and now the most important thing, the lovely piano song ™. This is going to be the longest paragraph about it because this is possibly the most missed opportunity in the entire franchise (yes this is the type of person that I am). If you aren’t sure, the song in question is the one from the Ed/Bella relationship montage in the first movie, where Edward actually plays it on the piano. As I’m sure I’ve said, this piece of music is FUCKING AMAZING. Like it makes me actually quite emotional, and its association with the movies makes me feel more strongly about them. That is where the missed opportunity comes in because IT IS NOT IN NEW MOON OR ECLIPSE. Perhaps I just missed it, but I was making an active attempt to find it. It would have been ridiculously cool if they had used this song as Bella and Edward’s love theme. It would have been super cool if they had gradually added instruments throughout the series, making the piece grow and change, just like their love. It would have been so cool if they had added a counter-melody when Reneesme was born to symbolize the addition to their family. It would have been so cool if the closing shot was Bella and Edward in the field, and the original piano solo plays to remind us of the foundation of their love (and the series); cut to black and then the song plays through the credits for the main cast. God that would have been so cool, I get emotional just thinking about it. Instead, it is just a song they play sometimes when they want us to feel something. It works like that, but it isn’t as cool as it really could have been, which makes me sad. 

Alright that’s it everyone, holy shit that was a lot. I am going to give you two ratings. On a scale of 1-10, how good is the series? not better than a three. But MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, on a scale of 1-10, how enjoyable are they to watch? At least a seven. 

If you read all of this you are great, thank you for dealing with me for this long, I did spend hours on this. 

[peachywise]

nullify part 4

an umbrella academy fanfiction // klaus hargreeves x reader

- part iv: the revealing file || part i ⋆ part ii ⋆ part iii ⋆ part v ⋆ part vi ⋆ more parts to be released

- synopsis: You had wanted to forget about the fire. Forget all of it. But then you were presented with a file on your life, given to you by a kid who knows all too well its contents. Looks like you were intertwined in something much bigger than you had ever expected all along, and you're only going to get intertwined even more. 

- notes: so sorry this update took a while! i'm in my last few weeks of my university semester, and i'm busy with final essays. i'll try and get the next update out sometime next week but it could take a bit longer. however, I'll be back to a better and faster posting schedule in april. anyways this chapter is pretty five interaction heavy instead of Klaus, but i had to cut this one in half as it was getting too long, so they'll be more in the next part!! heavy trigger warning for mentions of abuse and fire. 

link on a03 

___________________________

“That was a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

Letting out a loud scream at Five’s sudden appearance in front of you, surrounded in that ethereal blue haze, you decided he was the one being a dramatic little shit head. Even more so when he quickly went up on his toes and slapped his hand over your mouth to smother your voice before you could keep screaming and swear at him. You quickly jerked away, still reeling from the comment about the fire he had made only seconds before inside the apartment.

“Back the hell off or I’ll punt you down the hallway,” you threatened, flattening yourself against the wall beside the door, heart erratically pounding as you tried to calm your anxiety and the aggression fighting its way up.

“Calm down and just hear what I have to say.”

Calm down? Oh, he did not just fucking tell you to calm down.

“Hey hey hey, where are you going?” Klaus suddenly burst out from the now open apartment door, eyes flashing one side to the next until they landed on you. His taller figure stepped in front of you and he reached a hand out, placing it in a soothing gesture on your arm. His face was downturned in what looked like genuine concern. It was actually kind of nice of him, up until he said soothingly, “take a breather and calm down for a sec, yeah?”

You had to resist the unbelievable urge to stomp on his foot and then kick him in the nuts.

Closing your eyes and inhaling a deep breath through your nose, you whispered in reply so quietly through gritted teeth, “back away before I rip Five’s hand off and shove it up your—”

“Everything okay out here?”

Turning your attention to the large, blonde man taking up the entire frame of the doorway, you let out your held breath and opened your eyes. Five did as well, just as Klaus dropped his hand to his side, his eyes still never leaving you.

Your heart rate and initial anger had started to simmer down a bit at the continual tug and pull of the situations you kept finding yourself in, enough so that your curiosity of everything was starting to take hold once more. But you were still reluctant to step back into that apartment. Your trust was wary, at least in the case of some of them. Right now, you only trusted Klaus. He had been a loud and obnoxious pain in the ass, but hell, he hadn’t tried to hide anything from you and had basically answered most of what you assumed he could. If anything, he had overshared. You wished you could forget the story he had told you on your walk over here. He had way too vividly description how once on impulse he had bitten into a live koi fish he saw in a pond in order to ward off a loan shark across the way coming to collect money. What was worse, it actually worked. At least until they sent another guy a half an hour later.

“Go back inside, Luther. You to Klaus,” Five directed.

Turning your attention back to the toddler in command as he spoke, you quickly shifted your gaze back towards Klaus as he inevitably went to argue, stepping towards his brother with an exasperated look on his face. You reached out to gently grab his shirt. “Just go inside.” You needed to figure out how exactly Five knew about the fire, and just how extensively the details he knew went. It wasn’t exactly information you wanted out in the open, and though you trusted the curly haired brother the most in the family to an extent, it still wasn’t enough. No matter who you had trusted in your life, it had never been enough to openly discuss what had happened.

Klaus snapped his mouth closed in an uncertain grimace, his unnaturally comforting green eyes flickering as he tried to read your suddenly emotionless expression. You released some of the tension in your shoulders and heaved a breath. “Seriously, It’s fine. But if you hear glass shattering just know I’ve thrown him out the window.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

Bending to the side to look at Five who stood directly behind Klaus, you raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Come here then, preppy.”

Five crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, glancing down the hall at nowhere in particular. Clearly, his patience was running thin. Good.

Luther didn’t even bother to stick around and watch the show, unlike the unmistakably entertained Klaus. He just wordlessly turned back around into the apartment, leaving the door wide open for Klaus to follow.

“Okay, fine. Just don’t tell them all the fun bits without us, brother dear. It’ll be too priceless to miss.” Klaus settled on saying, departing back into the apartment, flashing his cheeky grin as he did.

You turned towards Five once you heard the familiar click of the closed door, grabbing his arm as you tugged him further away from the door in case there were any eavesdroppers. “You shouldn’t know about the fire. The entire story didn’t even hit the news.”

He shrugged your grip away easily. “And who do you think covered it up?” He bit back, a pressing look in his eyes.

What exactly was he implying? The little dude was kind of freaky—less of a kid than what he looked like— but he would have been the exact same age as you when it happened. Ten. As capable as he seemed now, you highly doubted he could have been able to suppress what had happened in the media. Allison possibly could have with her powers, but even then, there were so many people coming and going throughout that morning that you would have caught sight of her. The Umbrella Academy wasn’t even in the same city as you, for Christ's sake.

“Are you implying that it was covered up, or that somehow you had something to do with it?”

You could have been wrong, but a sort of half satisfied tick tugged his lips up the tiniest bit. But instead of a reply, he vanished again in a blink of an eye. You were really starting to hate his power. Letting out an aggravated huff, you twisted around slightly as if somehow you would find him dramatically down the hall, but he was back in a literal flash in under ten seconds, except this time he had a file in hand. He handed it to you, stating, “I found this in Hargreeve’s office. Read for yourself.”

And with that little cryptic introduction, you gave a speculative glance before gently taking it into your own hands, slight hesitance overtaking you as you flipped it open.

You didn’t know what you were expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this.

The first thing that caught your attention was a picture of you at twelve years old, miserable in an oversized black hoodie, paperclipped to a copy of one of the social service identification documents used by your old foster caseworker. Once you flipped that over, you found and skimmed through written reports, Reginald’s familiar insignia watermarked at the top. In them detailed everything; everything you knew, everything you had assumed, every plot hole in your entire story.

Reginald had known where you were this whole time. He’d kept a watchful eye on you, and you had no doubt he had similar files on all the other babies he had never been able to get his hand on. One of the reports detailed the first time your force field had popped up. You were in kindergarten and some kid had been chasing you with those barely sharp baby scissor that couldn't even cut through shitty quality construction paper. In your instinctual fear, the blue bubble surrounded you and five-year-old Jimmy bounced right off of it, tumbling two feet away, landing on his wrist and snapping the bone.

No one had seen, other than the teacher who had immediately looked terrified and sent you to the office, rushing you there herself. When she dropped you off, the counselor intervened and talked to you, and by the next day, your teacher had basically all but ignored the fact it had ever happened. The kid’s broken wrist was simply explained away as him tripping on the floor. No one would believe a five-year old’s account of what had actually happened anyway.

The councilor, as detailed by Hargreeves, was an onlooker hired by him to keep tabs on you if anything like this had ever happened and to make it go away. It seemed there had always been someone hired in your school to do just that. To watch. To report. Intervene when necessary.

Then there was the report on the fire. It described how your mom had gotten up in the middle of the night to go to your room, leaving your dad asleep in his own bed. It continued to detail how she poured gasoline from your doorway to your bed, striking a match and dropping it so the flame would trail up towards you. Police documented pictures were attached of your black and charred bedroom, all your childhood objects nothing more than undistinguishable ash. They never did find your dads body in there, but from how everything had been destroyed, you had no doubt he was simply mixed into all the rubble and debris that had once made up their entire family home which crumbled in a single, terrible night.

The police report detailed all of this as well, in addition to your mother’s capture and arrest, which he somehow managed to get a copy of for his invasive file. But it lacked the details Hargreeves inevitably figured out. How could a child survive such a destructive event? You had walked out with nothing more than a severe burn mark on your leg, while your father who tried to rescue you instead of getting out had literally been caught in the crossfire. They had interviewed you, but you kept quiet. But Reginald knew it was your force field. He wrote about how he paid off multiple people to cover this up and make it seem as if it had never happened. Not for your sake, however. It was just so you would never come across someone who wanted to use your powers against his children. Like Five, he speculated that the force field could extend far past what you had always thought. It could render all his ‘projects’ useless. And he couldn't have that.

You closed the file without looking at the other pictures and papers littered within it. You couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. It would have just detailed every other moment in your life like a statistical, emotionless biography.

“I’m sorry about your father,” Five spoke, breaking through your reeling thoughts. You tried to stop the bile rising to the back of your throat.

“Who else has seen this?” You whispered, clutching it tightly to your chest as you met his eyes.

“Just me, as far as I know.”

You nodded your head, taking a second the inhale and exhale and suppress it all as you had most of your life. You slipped the file into your bag, stating without room for argument, “I’m keeping this.”

He tilted his head in affirmation, replying, “I expected as much.” Quiet again, you took just a bit longer to try and collect your emotions, turning your face away to look anywhere except the kid who knew more about you than anyone else. It was unnerving. Even more so as he actually seemed at least a bit sincere when he continued with, “I am sorry. But what we need you for, it’s more than this. More than all of us. I had to look at every single option wherever I could, and right now, you’re that option.”

You could take some solace in that. Five, you had come to figure out, was all business. He had a scientific mind, looking at everything as steps to get to a singular goal. He wouldn’t do anything malicious or invasive for fun. Well, at least he wouldn’t unless it got him to whatever goal he had in mind.

“You keep this to yourself, and I’ll listen to whatever plan you have in mind.”

Maybe you would regret it, maybe you wouldn’t. But the Hargreeve’s were clearly desperate for something—for help. You could respect that.

“I also won’t toss you out the window no matter what it is.”

That got a smile out of the little bugger, and an affirmative agreement of, “deal.”

Pushing yourself slightly from where you had withdrawn against the wall, you started to make your way back to the apartment, Five keeping stride beside you. Just as you were about to open the door, he asked, “so, are you going to tell me why you brought a clock with you as a weapon?”

“Nope.”

Five laughed. The bastard actually laughed at something you said. A small, breathy one that really was only a quiet huff presented with a smile, but it was a laugh nonetheless. “Alright then.”

Well, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

Then you walked into the living area and immediately realized that it was actually going to be far worse than just ‘bad’.  

“Are you wearing a G-string?”

Holding his pants in his hand, with what looked like coffee or tea dripping from them and on to the plush white carpet, Klaus turned towards you from where he had previously been glaring at an equally as annoyed looking Luther, a sly smile morphing his face instead. Slightly popping his hip coquettishly, he replied in a faux sultry tone, “why yes, I am. You like? 

You shrugged, dropping your bag into the couch, already becoming desensitized to his odd and unexplainable behaviors. “Honestly, I’m just happy to know you wear anything under those pants at all.”

[joeys-piano]

8, 14, 19 and 23 for the fic reader asks? You don't have to do them all if you don't want to, those just ahsjdj stood out to me

TL;DR --> Joey is kind of a picky fic reader and it’s most likely influenced by the fact that he’s also a writer.

Fanfic Reader Asks

8. Are there any genres that you tend to avoid? Romance, which is seems weird because most fanfic either has romance as a prevalent part of the story or as it its subplot. If it’s a light-hearted story or if the romance is not a major part of the fic and doesn’t overtake the plot, I don’t mind it too much. I guess a better way to phrase it is that I prefer soft or subtle romance when I’m reading. Not a big fan of romantic swells, the back and forth of whats and ifs, and huge gestures of romantic declaration. It just...it just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth because it’s kind of obnoxious to read.

These genres tend to apply more to original works, but I also tend to avoid Young Adult and even New Adult or just Adult genres in general. Each of those genres has little things that are my pet peeve. Even if the plot and story sounds amazing, sometimes the execution leaves a lot to be desired^^

Back to the fanfic side, the only other genre i can think of that I avoid is high-fantasy. Fantasy crossovers, I’m pretty chill with since I’m either familiar with the crossover or the fantasy aspects are pretty light. High-fantasy is like giving me a gallon of water when all I asked for was a cup. Not my area of interest; although, I do make an exception for mythology and folklore.

14. What kind of plot line are you always here for? I’m always down for a good revenge plot. Between friends, between rivals, between colleagues, even between people that share an intimate connection with another. There’s something about going through the though-process of someone enacting the revenge, what spurred them to do this, and what they’re trying to gain at the end. Do they or don’t they accomplish their goal?

I probably already know the answer, but I still want to read how it’s meticulously done.

19. Have you ever stopped reading a fic? Why or why not? There’s two major reasons why I stop reading a fic.

Formatting: GIANT blocks of text, or someone accidentally posted their fic onto the HTML interface instead of the Rich Text interface

Writing Quality (purely subjective): Sometimes I have to “nope” out of a fic because either the style or the quality isn’t my taste.

Now when I say quality, grammatical or spelling errors are fine. Sometimes us writers don’t catch those things while editing, that’s perfectly fine and understandable. When I mean writing quality, it more or less describes the style of how the story is written. I’m most talking about little technical things that effect the reading experience, like sentence variation or how the writer makes use of descriptions or word choice or how they choose to convey certain things.

Indirectly but more or less equal, writing quality can also be tied with characterization, story progression, what the writer chooses to leave out, what the writer chooses to emphasize on, and things of that nature. Sometimes, I’ve had to “nope” fics because they would emphasize this one set of details that makes reading the story very uncomfortable. Other times, I’ve had to “nope” fics because the writer glossed over a very important thing/issue/what-have-you that conflicted me personally or if it’s a mature/explicit fic, morally.

23. What do you wish more fic authors would do? Fanfic summaries don’t need to be elaborate because AO3′s summary box has an immovable character limit that irks me sometimes, but I would like to read a little longer or a little more thorough summaries while browsing through fics. I know that writing summaries is hard and not everyone has time to do it. But as a reader and even my writer-self slips in for this opinion, I get a little disappointed when I see bare, sometimes hastily written summaries.

I don’t have a lot of time to read fanfics anymore so I like to look for ones that genuinely catch my eye. Reading fic summaries helps me narrow things down but nowadays, it’s gotten pretty difficult to find stories that interest me. All the perfect tags could be there and the title looks really nice, but sometimes the summary is what makes me avoid stories. And it’s kind of sad because a bare summary could be holding me back from reading a really cool, awesome, or funny story that makes my day.

So this is my wish for fic authors. If you’re taking the time to write your story and editing/betaing/polishing it to the best of your ability, please don’t neglect your summary. Your summary is as important as your actual story. If you’re willing to take your time while writing, please extend that same, courteous respect to your summary.

[murasaki-murasame]

I’ve got a whole lot of feelings about :re episode 18, so I guess I’m gonna talk about them now, lol.

Spoilers under the cut, including spoilers for the whole manga.

In a lot of ways this didn’t pan out exactly as I expected, but I still really liked it, and I still think they’re doing a great job of tightening up the source material.

Funnily enough this didn’t actually extend as far into the story as I thought it would. I figured it’d end with Mutsuki showing up at the cafe, but I guess that’s gonna happen at the start of the next episode.

I also expected them to have Furuta officially become the CCG head before the clown siege started, but I like how they did it here. They made it pretty clear that he was still pretty much the CCG head during the whole clown siege, and they didn’t put a whole lot of emphasis on Matsuri being the temporary head.

And on the note of Matsuri, while on the one hand I’m slightly sad that they’re giving him a lot less screen-time and focus, I think it’s ultimately for the best, since I just don’t like a lot of how Ishida handled him by this point in the manga. Mostly in terms of making his entire character revolve around an obnoxious ‘lol he’s gay’ joke, which the anime has basically avoided thus far.

I actually quite like how they handled the scenes with him in this episode, though, with the whole recurring visual metaphor of him getting beaten at chess by Furuta. It’s a really effective way to spell out what’s going on, and how much Furuta is taking over the show.

As I expected, the clown siege worked totally fine as a single episode, since the anime cut out the CCG lab raid so they could focus just on the clown stuff. It goes by pretty fast when it’s not broken up by other stuff. They did remove some scenes from it, particularly with Mutsuki, but I’ll talk about Mutsuki a bit later in this post.

Like how episode 17 focused entirely on the ghouls, this episode focused entirely on the CCG, which I think also works really well. It helps make the story feel a lot more focused and straightforward, compared to how the manga spliced all of this stuff together a lot more haphazardly. It’s one of the things I’ve been really liking about the pacing of s2 in general thus far. Starting from the Cochlea/Rushima arc was where the manga started getting noticeably more erratic and all over the place in terms of it’s pacing, and you could see how Ishida was struggling to juggle an ever-expanding list of plot points and characters, so I like how this season has been consistently rearranging and tweaking things so that it focuses more on one thing at a time.

And going along with the focus on the CCG, they kept a lot of nice character moments with the different CCG people, which was nice. Like Ui reminiscing about the people he’s lost thus far, or Shinsanpei visiting Kiyoko in the hospital, or Suzuya getting thrown off by watching Uta disguise himself as Shinohara. There’s a lot of nice stuff in this episode.

I think it also worked pretty well to have Urie fight Donato alone, since their whole fight was always just about the two of them. I’ve always liked Urie’s character development in general, so I’m glad the anime handled this whole part well. Especially with how they made it clear how much he resents Kaneki for abandoning the CCG, even though he’s mostly avoided talking about it thus far.

I remember not liking the clown siege arc much at all in the manga, but I really enjoyed it here. Probably because they cut out a lot of the obnoxious parts and restructured things so that this whole arc was a lot more focused and to-the-point. The actual base concept of Furuta overtaking the CCG and watching as the clowns engineer terrorist attacks across Tokyo is really good, and feels suitably dramatic here, but I think it was just sorta clumsy and bogged down by awkward execution in the manga. And on the topic of really awful scenes from this part in the manga that they thankfully cut, I should talk about Mutsuki for a bit here.

I still kinda wish that the anime had entirely avoided taking Mutsuki down this whole direction, but thus far they’re doing a much more pleasant job of it than the manga did. They’re at least making it a lot more clear that he’s just a victim in all of this who’s not being given the help he needs, and they’ve largely cut out the gross shock value-y scenes with him that were basically just designed to make you try and hate him as much as possible. Particularly, in this episode, they cut out the scene where he fights Uta, and hoo boy am I glad about that, because that was very possibly the single worst scene with Mutsuki that Ishida ever wrote. It worked a lot more elegantly to basically shift some of the details from that scene to the short flashback of him killing Torso.

And on that whole note, I’m glad that they didn’t actually do much with flashing back to the Torso stuff. They still didn’t show any of Torso’s backstory, or Mutsuki’s backstory, and they didn’t go into any real detail about how Mutsuki killed him. Which is all nice. I was afraid that they’d squander the subtlety and delicacy they displayed earlier in the season when they basically entirely skipped over the whole subplot with him and Torso, but this is still consistent with that. And they managed to spell it out to the audience once and for all that Mutsuki is biologically female without being TOO shitty about it. Part of me still doesn’t like it because it was part of the whole scene with Uta, but I honestly feel like the whole ‘I’m embarrassingly such a woman’ line works fine even with Mutsuki being trans. At least in the context of the anime, it mostly just comes across as self-deprecation without being an overblown ‘hurr durr he’s a GIIIRL’ twist. It’s not perfect, but thus far I think they’ve done a much better job of respecting his dignity as a character.

I also really like the change they made with how, in the anime, Mutsuki spends most of this episode hospitalized. It makes sense, since in this version of events Urie actually found him in Torso’s cave and so the CCG would be more aware that he should spend some time in the hospital to recover, whereas it was more of a complete secret in the manga and so they just immediately put him back to work. For one thing, it further emphasizes the fact that Mutsuki is a victim in all of this, and him talking to himself in the hospital was a nice way to present the ‘reveal’ of his crush on Kaneki in a largely sympathetic way. That scene also did a nice job of showing how, like Urie, Mutsuki has his own share of resentment toward Kaneki for what he’s done, though in Mutsuki’s case it’s more that he wishes that Kaneki could have saved him from what happened with Torso. I’m pretty sure that the scene with Mutsuki thinking that Kaneki had arrived at the cave only to realize that it’s actually Urie was original to the anime, and oh man it hurt to watch. In a good way, of course.

It’s also worth noting that since Mutsuki spent this whole episode hospitalized, the anime also nicely avoided the really awkward plot point of how, in the manga, Mutsuki started basically becoming a serial killer after the Rushima arc, and at the start of the Goat arc Saiko tries to confront him about how he has the smell of human blood on him. I never really liked how that whole plot point, and that specific scene, where handled in the manga, so I’m glad that the anime just avoided it entirely.

The anime also made another nice decision in having Furuta visit Mutsuki in the hospital. We don’t see the conversation happen, but it’s clear enough that he talked to Mutsuki about assigning him as the leader of the Oggai, and probably about how Furuta wants to kill Kaneki. It’s a neat way of setting up the stuff we’ll get into in the next episode, and it goes even further to make it clear that Mutsuki is an exploited victim in all of this. This whole detail also seems to be replacing the plot point from the manga where Furuta manipulates Ui into basically becoming his lackey by dangling the prospect of resurrecting Hairu over him, and I think it’s a very good change. That whole plot point never really went anywhere in the manga anyway, and to be honest Ui was always too minor of a character to really care that much about his issues, so it works better to replace it with Furuta similarly manipulating a character who we as the audience care a lot more about, and who’s also more plot important.

And on the whole note of Furuta making Mutsuki into the leader of the Oggai, I think they handled that in a more understandable and clear way than the manga did. It was a really nice detail to have Mutsuki on stage with the Oggai as they decapitate all those Clowns.

I guess that leaves us with the preview for episode 19. To be blunt, I still kinda wish that the anime wouldn’t go down the Tou/ken route, especially with how they’ve handled them thus far, but oh well, I guess they will. I have a feeling that I’m probably gonna be more OK with it than a lot of actual fans of the ship, though, since at this rate it’s definitely gonna feel rushed, and we’re probably not gonna see the whole sex scene and stuff to the degree people want.

Other than that, it looks like the next episode will also include the stuff with Yoriko and Kuroiwa getting married, which is honestly a bit surprising. I thought they might just entirely cut that out, but I guess not. It makes sense that they’d push it to the next episode, since they really seem to be focusing on the topic of romantic relationships in it. Especially since it also looks like they’re going to include the scene where Akira leaves Goat with Amon and the two of them kiss for the first time. One way or another, it definitely looks like the anime’s going to continue rearranging things so that they focus on one topic at a time, lol.

It also looks like we’re obviously gonna get the whole scene where Mutsuki attacks the cafe. And overall, I’m expecting that it’ll basically cover up to when the CCG attacks the 24th ward, but at this point I’m not entirely sure. They might end up spreading the rest of the whole Goat arc across the next three episodes.

Overall, I still think the anime is really good, and they’re continuing to improve upon the flaws of the manga a whole lot. They’re ironically being a bit more faithful to it than I would want them to be, but at the very least they’re doing a much better job of telling the same sort of story that the manga tried to.

[merlinsmushrooms]

Coffee and Tea

{{Because I need more Cedlock in my life. This is an unedited first draft. The finalized version will be uploaded to A03 at a later date~ Wordcount: 2680 Rating: T  tw: alcohol }} --- These visitations were a pleasantry that Cedric found himself growing rather fond of over the months.

 While he indeed missed the company of the other sorcerer, Greylock couldn't stay huddled up in his tower for much longer than he had. Instead, they had conspired to have him live in Dunwiddie in secrecy under a new name— a plot that seemed to be working quite well for the wizard. While he was infamous amongst the royals and wizarding community, the peasants of the village had no idea who he was; nor would any of the guards that were stationed there.

Friendship was still a rather new concept for him, and when the other had requested that they keep in touch upon his leaving, Cedric knew it was right to say yes. Actually visiting, however, was a bit of a complicated affair. Sneaking Greylock inside his workshop from the outside was something that'd be hard to keep unnoticed - his father seemed keen to keep an eye on him from that blasted painting - and sneaking in and out of the castle to go into town himself was something that'd be deemed suspicious by Roland. The sour feelings from his attempt at tyranny still lingered in the minds of many in the castle, and thus he wasn't allowed to leave without supervision. Luckily for him, Princess Sofia seemed more than willing to be his chauffeur.

The child had fallen asleep what felt like hours ago, and Greylock himself had allowed the child to rest in his bed while the two of them caught up on how life had been since their parting. Tea and coffee weren't typically something shared in the early hours of the morning, but it had become a tradition for them to converse over their favorite drinks. Sleep be damned; this was the only time they had to mingle.

It seemed that things were going well for his friend; the shop he had opened had gotten enough attention for him to live comfortably, nobody had drawn any suspicions towards his sudden appearance, and apparently the village children had grown rather fond of him; most likely because he still couldn't drop the entertainer act despite his apparent resentment towards his prior position as a royal jester. While normally he would find the other's bragging to be obnoxious, he was charmed knowing that he had played a part in Grey's success. Perhaps these warm feelings were precisely the sort of thing that Sofia had lectured him about? The goodness in being kind to others? Whatever it was he was more than happy to indulge.

The conversation would shift towards him as Greylock questioned him about his own progress, but all he could muster was a shrug as he responded with a hushed tone. 

"It's the same as always, I suppose." 

"Still locked up in your tower, eh? Depressing. You really should at least try to get out more often."

"You mean like this?"

It seemed that he was the entertainer for once and his companion would chuckle quietly, dropping a couple more cubes of sugar into his coffee before he'd take another sip. Silence would overtake them for a moment before Greylock would speak up once more.

"I worry about you, you know. We always used to joke that you were a hermit, but being forced to be one? You think Roland will ever loosen the reins, so to speak?"

A depressing sentiment. It was unlikely that Roland - and several of the others - would ever come to trust him again after his attempted treason. Still, looking upon Greylock and reflecting upon the situation as a whole, he knew that he was lucky. He could have been banished for his actions, or be suffering the same fate as his friend— hunted by his home kingdom with a warrant for execution. For that he was grateful, but he still couldn’t help but feel unsettled by the uncertainty of it all. 

“Probably not,” he would state with a deep sigh, “but at least I’m not you.” 

It had taken some time to adjust, but he had grown accustomed to teasing the other wizard back, and he never did seem to take offense to his jabs— no matter how low they were. It was revenge for all the years of mockery and tomfoolery Greylock had subjected him to. The mischievous mage always seemed to crack a smile whenever he was teased, and despite how horrible his words could have come across, the other responded with the same delight in his voice as always.

“Oh, you devil, you. You’ll never let me live this down, will you?” “Of course not.” Their smiles were mutual it seemed. There was a sort of melancholy despite the charm of their conversation. The Princess had pointed out several times that they seemed like such great friends despite what appeared to be a rivalry before, and he couldn’t help but wonder how things might have been if events hadn’t transpired as they had. If Grimtrix hadn’t intervened, would these evenings not be happening? Or would they have played out in a similar fashion if either of them had reached out despite their professions? Would this still be happening if the two of them had succeeded in their former goals? Such troubling thoughts were not anything that needed to be dwelled on, yet they still plagued him. 

Standing suddenly, Greylock would take his cup with him to peer into the fireplace with a solemn expression that seemed as if it were stolen from his own somber demeanor. It was unfitting and a tad unnerving, but he couldn’t question him. Ever since his escape, Greylock had been acting a tad odd. Granted, he had never gotten to know the normally peppy sorcerer closely before needing to nurse him back to health in secrecy, but during that time he had learned that the other had been hiding so much pain from him. The expression weighting him was similar to that of the one he made when he confessed that they were far more alike than either of them had realized back then. Was he still languishing? A mystery considering he had admitted he held no adoration of anybody back in Rudistan as well, nor did he wish to return home. 

Cedric would bide his time for the other to do whatever it was he needed in silence, continuing to sip on his tea as he dwelled upon his own thoughts. The close distance was something he would have wanted himself. If there was something on Greylock’s mind he would give him ample space to deal with it in his own way. This was exactly what the princess has said friends were for, and he was more than happy to be of at least some use to somebody.  

It would take a long moment, but eventually, Greylock would take what appeared to be a final drink from his cup before turning and placing it back on the table. Curiously, he would sit beside Cedric on the chaise rather than back in the armchair across from him, hunched over still in some sort of contemplative thought; his brow furrowing as he clasped his hands together with a deep breath. 

Cedric couldn’t help but cock a brow at the other’s eccentric behavior, but he would still remain quiet yet observant. Eventually, Greylock would finally inquire with a whisper, 

“How many times have I thanked you?” 

Relieved over how silly of a question it was, Cedric couldn’t help but sigh into a soft laughter, “Does it matter?” 

“Not particularly, no…” 

Patience had never been one of Cedric’s virtues and the obvious procrastination Greylock was presenting was slightly grating— especially when he tended to be incredibly blunt after such pauses. Still, he would hold his tongue and any expression he could possibly make. He had to try and be courteous due to the other’s trauma,  but even then he knew he should at least attempt to spur him forwards. If they truly were as similar as they joked it would be what was needed. 

“Perhaps you should use your words to tell me what does matter then?” 

A similar statement to one given to him as a teenager. It seemed the bit of nostalgia tickled the other’s fancy, and despite his uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm, he would smile once more to break his usual appearance. 

“Cedric, words don’t work very well with you.” he would giggle in a manner that seemed most awkward for one his age. 

What exactly was that supposed to mean? With a cocked brow, Cedric couldn’t help but question his motives. “What are you ramblings about?” 

“The fact that if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. As I said, words don’t work very well with you. Never have. Never will. You’re stubborn and won’t believe the truth even if it’s blatant and in your face.” 

The hell was he going on about? Had he mixed his coffee with a little sudden extra, or was he being cryptic for the sake of his usual impish antics? Whatever it was he wouldn’t bite his tongue; if they were friends he could put up with a blatant admittance of annoyance. 

“The hell you going on about now?” 

“You.” 

“That much was obvious.”

An exchange of non-malicious glares would indicate to him that they were both feeling some semblance of annoyance. It wasn’t the first time that such a trade was made, and Cedric had learned over the months that when such an occurrence happened it was either one or the other that’d need to coax the why out. It seemed that it was his turn this time. 

“Tell me.” 

“I can’t.” 

“You can’t tell me what?” 

“It.” 

“Oh come on now, you’re acting like me.” 

Another bout of laughter before the tension grew thick once again. 

“I suppose I am. Although, that gives me an idea.” Greylock would begin once more with a slight hum to his voice, “You seem to believe things once they actually happen, right?” “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, you drunkard.” 

A coy smirk formed upon Grey’s lips as he glanced back at his cup, shrugging just once as the smirk melted back into his usual sheepish grin. It seemed that he had called it; the other sorcerer was at least slightly tipsy on his own accord. Whatever it was he was trying to talk about was something he was struggling with, and it seemed like this was the only way he could get the more troublesome things off his mind. Still, he worried; normally he at least still made some semblance of sense even during these sort of talks. “Out with it.” Cedric would demand with a combination of slight amusement dashed with a touch of annoyance. 

There would be no words— only a touch. Grey’s hands would gently brush against his cheek before lifting his gaze into his own. For some reason, Cedric’s stomach churned and every muscle in his body froze stiff. It was the moment the other leaned forwards that he knew what was about to happen, and even then he was rendered motionless; taking the kiss with a sharp breath, unable to react despite his befuddlement. Despite his surprise, he would melt under it and eventually fall into it. Greylock was right; he wouldn’t believe him if, and he still didn’t, but he’d take this for now. There was no way of understanding what his friend was thinking. 

As Grey pulled away, Cedric felt himself yearning for more. That twisting sensation in his gut, that shiver that enveloped every part of him, and that awkward taste of the cinnamon coffee cake that they had been snacking on prior to putting the princess to bed. What was this feeling? And what was Greylock’s game? He wasn’t drunk enough to be making ridiculously hasty decisions, yet he needed to dilute his senses just enough to do that. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t joking for once. But why him? 

He wouldn’t question him; he was still rendered utterly speechless by Grey’s actions. Greylock too would remain silent, squirming awkwardly in place as he averted his gaze seemingly in regret. Whatever had just transpired was something that seemed to leave the both of them a mess, and the quiet that overtook them seemed to grasp them for what felt like an eternity. It wasn’t until Cedric’s own courage finally managed to muster that the conversation would continue.

“...are you...”

He couldn’t even finish his question before Greylock would interject. “Yes.” 

Cocking his head, Cedric would shake off some of his anxiety in order to reach out to his friend; it was obvious he was distressed and couldn’t think coherently. It was like looking into a mirror of the past, and because of that, he felt a sort of confidence he never expected from himself as he wrapped an arm around the trembling man. “It’s okay. I, er…”

“I read the books you kept in your room while I was recovering in your tower. I assumed. I shouldn’t have. I’m so terribly sorry.”

His books? Those old steamy romance novels that he had been hoarding since his teens? Greylock read those?! He couldn’t blame him for snooping through those kinds of belongings - there certainly wasn’t anything else to do while bed-bound for weeks - but he couldn’t help but flush a million shades of red as he froze once more. What an absolutely embarrassing way for somebody to find out about a preference after so many years. Shaking his head in an attempt to regain his composure, Cedric would sigh as he gripped onto the couch with his free hand, struggling to look at the other as he confessed. “You assume correctly, and it’s fine…” he would begin before sighing once more to keep himself steady, “I...rather liked it? Nobody’s ever…” 

“Kissed you before?” “...Yes.” 

In an instant the heavy atmosphere of awkwardness dissipated; the laughter escaping Greylock was heavy and borderline hysterical. 

“I knew it! I called it!  Oh, my heavens.” “Oh, hush it, you! You’ll wake the Princess!” 

Wiping tears of what was hopefully joy from his eyes, Greylock would sink his head into Cedric’s chest as he muffled his cackles into his heart, a hand slipping over his own gloved one as a similar warmth from before lumped up in his throat. This touch was so different; so soft despite the heckling that Greylock normally pestered him with, and as his fingers entwined and laced into his own, Cedric couldn’t help but pull him closer to him in what felt like an instinctual urge despite his confusion; he wanted this. 

“You’re such an idiot, Cedric. I guess that’s why I love you.” 

Love.

There was that word. He had only heard it a few times before throughout his life. Of course, his family had told him that they loved him many years ago. Now it was only his mother that still reminded him that she indeed did love him. And then there was Princess Sofia; a child so pure and innocent she could perhaps love anybody she decided might have a chance of being good. But this? This was something different to either of those instances. If Greylock truly meant what he had just said, it was a different kind of love. Something a bit more than friendship, and something a bit different than what his own family would feel. It was the sort of thing he had dreamed of but knew he would never attain for himself. Who could love somebody like him?

...Greylock, apparently.   

As his mind raced to sort out the array of thoughts that tore through his conscious, he could feel that same raw emotion from before shudder through his body once more as Grey’s lips met his own again. And this time he’d return it despite his inexperience.

Somebody loved him. And while he didn’t quite understand what it was he was feeling in this moment, he’d embrace it— because whatever it was, he was happy in a way he never imagined possible. 

[zdbztumble]

I HAVE WATCHED THEM ALL!

And ranked them all, from favorite to least! (Three guesses as to what’s #1, given what 97% of the content on this blog is concerned with.)

1. Revelation Lugia: At no point was there any competition for the top slot. Crisp art direction, an appropriately epic scale to the design and the staging of action, a gorgeous musical score (the dub surpassed the original on this point IMO), the best editing and pacing out of any of these movies, and a well-constructed plot that’s simple without being simplistic all speak well for it. But the real selling point for this film is the character work. The CotDs are engaging and play a vital role in the plot without overtaking it. This is the TRio’s finest hour to date IMO. Tracey may be along for the ride (as he often was in the show), but Misty enjoys the best role a travelling companion has gotten to date, and Ash is saddled with his greatest challenge ever (to my knowledge, anyway; I’ve got a hell of a lot of episodes to go in catching up on the series, but it’s hard to top “save the world by yourself because Prophecy.”) And this and the next entry on this list are the only two films where I felt that Ash (and Misty, in this case), more than just experiencing another adventure, actually grew as characters. Not that Johto or the later series built on that growth, but in this show, I’ll take what I can get.

...And, yeah, the pokeshipping doesn’t hurt its rating either.

2. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew: Again, it’s all about the character work here. This is the only other time that Ash seemed to grow, through his relationship with Lucario and his discovery of his Aura (and, in a way, it’s more of a shame that the show never built on this than it is that they never built on Ash and Misty’s growth after Lugia, when you consider that the staff wrote themselves a golden opportunity to do so in DP!) His “this time, it’s personal” goal of saving Pikachu and the parallels between himself and Sir Aaron also serve to enrich his role in a way most of the other pokefilms don’t even attempt. Lucario is the most compelling and dimensional of the movie-featured Pokemon since Mewtwo. Mew is absolutely adorable. The art direction is beautiful, and it’s scope and ambition are appropriate for the high fantasy subject matter. It loses points for some awkward pacing in the front half (the dance is so slow!) and a ridiculous lack of pathos shown when the whole human cast (temporarily) dies, but it makes up a lot of those points with its gutsy ending. No contrived out for the heroic sacrifice this time!

3. Spell of the Unown: So glad I decided to give this film a re-watch. Having an innocent and traumatized little girl, or her feelings of loss and loneliness to be more specific, be the antagonist, is an amazing move by the staff, and it works so well. The threat that those feelings pose to Ash and friends when given immense power is very tangible, though the full impact of that threat takes a while to become apparent. Giving Ash a personal stake in the adventure is very welcome, both travelling companions get decent roles, Charizard’s return is spectacular, and there is some delightfully off-beat and experimental work done in the production design. With the possible exception of Mewtwo Strikes Back, this film has the most ambition and daring of any of them. An uneven pace at the start and a questionable final fight can’t take away the fact that this movie is just cool.

4. Pokemon 4Ever: Possibly the most impressive art direction out of any of the movies; the forest feels huge, and old, and real, just in one look. The Miyazaki-esque look is appropriate for the “destruction of nature” plot, the consequences of which are plainly felt. The time travel aspect is intriguing and not confusing, and Sam is the real hero of the human cast. It tries to give the TRio a real reason to be in the movie, though it’s less successful on that front than Lugia. Drawbacks include a lag in the pace toward the middle, a contrived resurrection, a waste of the travelling companions even by pokefilm standards, and the sidelining of Ash himself.

5. Hoopa and the Clash of Ages: The most threadbare plot out of any of these movies, no real role for the companions or even Ash, and some of the dullest CotDs out there can’t change the fact this is just such a fun movie. Every ten-year old’s dream of an epic inter-gen smash-fest gets thrown on-screen, and even if it doesn’t crank things up to 11, it’s still extremely entertaining. Easily the best thing about XY/Z that I’ve seen so far.

6. Jirachi Wish Maker: An extremely choppy pace and story elements that don’t belong are a serious handicap. But this film not only gives a traveling companion an arc, but makes Max’s friendship with Jirachi the main focus. The damage done to that arc by the plot’s flaws doesn’t erase its charms. And Ash, put into a supporting role, excels in the part, much moreso than in many of these movies where he stays on the sidelines for much of the running time before abruptly becoming the hero.

7. White: Victini and Zekrom/Black: Victini and Rashiram: The “villain’s” actions are poorly motivated and the CotDs are forgettable. But Victini is just so damn cute, and its bond with Ash is so endearing. Those two things elevate the film, and give Ash one of his more dramatically satisfying stints as a glorified plot device. The gimmick of these films, however, feels like a waste.

8. Mewtwo Strikes Back: Compared to my childhood memories of it, this is a very uneven film. The travelling companions have nothing to do, the CotDs are forgettable, the TRio set the “why are we even here” trend up early, the film loses a lot of juice once the battle of clones vs. originals starts (mostly due to sluggish pacing on the fight), and the means of Ash’s revival is infuriatingly dumb. But for the first (and, as far as they knew at the time, only) movie of a kids’ cartoon meant to sell video games, it’s shocking to me how dark they went with this film. Mewtwo is a wonderfully grey character, and his origins and struggles render the first half of the film one of the best sequences in the whole franchise. The idea of prejudice and fighting for superiority as a basis for the conflict is solid in theory if a bit heavy-handed in execution. If Ash and friends (mostly friends) don’t get a lot to do once they reach the island, their journey to it is a fun adventure. And there’s a delightfully twisted horror film look to the production design. For a first outing, this was a very risky film, and even if doesn’t fully work, I think it’s a more impressive effort than most of the pokefilms because of that.

9. Rise of Darkrai: On a technical level, Darkrai has a more even script, and a more consistently solid execution of that script IMO, than Mewtwo. It’s the best of the Sinnoh trilogy by a wide margin. The CotDs (well, Alberto at least) are fun and Darkrai is an effective featured Pokemon. But the problems of the Sinnoh trilogy, while not as pronounced here, are still at hand: a light tone that leaves the Legendaries feeling less impressive than their predecessors, a rather episodic layout to the plot that kills a sense of scale, sluggish pacing and a sense of padding, no real role for the travelling companions, and Ash being a glorified deus ex machina.

10. Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice: Technical proficiency, a cinematic scale, decent dub work, and excellent use of the travelling companions argue in favor of this one being higher on the list. Arguments against that include this film featuring some of the more poorly-designed Pokemon around, a severe lack of tension and stakes in the plot, and a disappointing role for Ash. Ultimately, it just didn’t grip me the way the films immediately above it did.

11. Arceus and the Jewel of Life: Out of all the Sinnoh trilogy, this one felt the least padded, and helped clear up some of the murky plot mess of the earlier entries. The CotDs are serviceable if a little on the dull side. And this final chapter of the trilogy does aim the highest in its scope and scale, even if it doesn’t reach its goals. But Arceus’s terrible voice in the dub, and his rush to apocalyptic judgement, really hurt the character. And the main cast is worse off here than in the other entries, as Dawn ends up as sidelined as Brock in the finale.

12. Giratina and the Sky Warrior: You can give the film this - Shaymin is a well-developed character. She’s a little shit, but she’s a fleshed-out little shit. And Giratina was the most impressively presented of the Sinnoh Legendaries. But the human villain here is very dull, and Shaymin’s obnoxiousness makes it damn near impossible to get invested in her conflict or to buy her eventual friendship with Ash. On the plus side, wonderful art direction and animation.

13. Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea: This film gets off to a strong start and gives us one of the best CotDs, but it’s overlong, stalls in the middle, and its focus on the main plot comes at the expense of May’s arc with Manaphy. It also has the most maddening plot resolution out of any of them (that’s right - it’s even worse than the magic tears from Mewtwo.)

14. I Choose You!: It earns points for shaking up the routine, giving Ash an arc, and doing a superb job at retelling his first meeting with Pikachu, but its meandering middle, superfluous story turns, and some forced character work bog it down. You can give it this - it was a better anniversary show than “Mastermind of the Mirage Pokemon.”

15. Pokemon Heroes: Possibly the most frustrating of these movies to date for me, because there were a lot of elements - the setting, the mythological background, the Dragon-types - that I really liked. It’s easily one of the most beautiful of the movies, and there was a lot of potential in the plot. But most of that potential was untapped, the elements never gelled, and I was often bored watching it. When I wasn’t bored, I was frustrated and questioning - see my “review” for the whole list. And this may be the worst film on the matter of sidelining the travelling companions.

16. Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction: The charms of the titular character and some brief impressive work with the travelling companions can’t make up for an overstuffed, meandering plot full of easy fixes and an abrupt shift in focus during the last third.

17. Zoroark - Master of Illusions: Very similar situation to Diancie - a wonderful story between the titular Pokemon and Zorua can’t overcome a crowded plot that’s saddled with a weak, scene-hogging villain and terrible pacing.

18. Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel: My biggest problem with this one is that there just wasn’t much about it that was unique. Its many flaws are the same ones that plague at least half these flicks. Its good points are the same sort of good points as in the other movies. Its art direction is pleasant but nothing that wasn’t tried before. It’s just...dull.

19. Genesect and the Legend Awakened: These last two are the only ones I wouldn’t hesitate to say were bad. A fundamental weakness in the plot caused by making the titular Pokemon so unsympathetic, the poor handling of Mewtwo’s return, an unremarkable set of roles for the main cast, uneven animation, and a general feeling of laziness all conspire against a decent premise.

20. Destiny Deoxys - Awkward alien subject matter, lack of a clear emotional core, and the worst padding out of any of these flicks all leave it dead on arrival IMO.