#look at the RANGE of relationships explored in this anime though

[a-court-of-fics-and-errors]

Keep Moving Forwards, Part 8

Azriel x Reader Fic

Summary: After finally deciding to leave your abusive and manipulative mate for good, you find unexpected companionship with Azriel, the Shadowsinger of the Night Court. As you navigate the aftermath of your traumatic relationship, you struggle to understand where the mating bond went wrong and contemplate your path forward, vowing never to return to the past.

Find other parts here: Master List

To follow this fic, follow tag "Keep Moving Forwards Fic" or comment to be tagged in future parts.

Content Warning: This story contains depictions of extreme emotional manipulation and abuse, detailed descriptions of direct physical abuse, and scenes of men hunting women with implied sexual assault. Please read at your own risk.

Word Count: 4.2k

Author's Note: This is a multi-part series. Unlike my previous works, this fanfiction delves deeper than just fluff, exploring complex emotional landscapes. As I navigate this new writing journey, I kindly ask for gentle feedback. The topics addressed are profoundly impactful, touching many lives with diverse experiences. Please be gentle with yourselves and others. Healing is a journey, and everyone processes it differently. Be kind to yourself. Take what resonates, and leave what doesn’t.

Please continue reading, being aware of the above content warnings, ensuring you are in a healthy headspace. Give yourself time to process and be gentle with yourself.

The world spun around you in a blur of black and gray, and your stomach tossed, rolled, and turned as though you were on a sailing ship. You felt your body rip apart and come together over and over again, every inch of your skin momentarily existing independently from the rest. Your mind was awash, tumbling through space until you finally landed, leaning back on your forearms, on a cool marble floor. Once it felt as though your stomach had settled back into place, the reassuring hands that had grabbed you released their hold. You rolled to your side, placed your hands on either side of you, and emptied the contents of your stomach onto the black and gray floor. Your nose and throat burned as the stew from earlier came up, looking much the same as it had on the way down. Tears stung your eyes as you coughed and hacked.

“It’s okay,” a familiar voice reassured you. “Let it out.”

You continued to spit and hack, your hair falling into your face as sweat poured down your body. A hand came down to rest on your back, and without thinking, you quickly crawled away from it, a fearful whimper escaping you. You whipped your head back to see Azriel, crouching, his hands raised in a gesture of peace. It seemed that’s where his hands always went when you saw each other. Your legs weakly trailed behind you as you pulled yourself to the wall, clutching your knees to your chest. You wiped your mouth with your sleeve, pointed at him, words failing to leave your mouth before the tears overflowed again, and you sobbed out a wailing cry that echoed through the marble room.

Azriel merely looked at you, unsure of what to say as he tried to piece together what had happened. He inched closer to you, still crouched, as though you were a wounded animal who might lash out. “Y/N,” he whispered, extending a hand toward you. As he reached out, you curled tighter into yourself.

“Get away from me!” you screamed at him.

Azriel's hand retracted to his chest. You barely heard the sounds of doors opening and footsteps hurrying up the hallway. You buried your head in your knees, choking sobs making your pants damp and hot.

“What happened?” a female voice rang out, melodic and wavering with concern.

Azriel spoke, “I—” he started, but he was interrupted by a deeper male voice.

“Who’s that?” the voice asked.

Azriel paused, stammering a bit before light hands caressed your shoulder. “Hey,” a female voice cooed. You almost leaned into it but you swung your arm out pushing into the voice, pressing the figure behind you back.

Heavy footsteps rushed toward the female now sitting behind you, having fallen to the ground when you knocked her. As the footsteps approached, the female voice said, “No, it’s okay. I’m fine.”

A different male voice, slightly less deep than the first, spoke with cool collectedness, “Azriel, can you tell us what’s going on?”

Azriel, still stammering over his words, simply said, “She’s from Frostvale, she was attacked.”

Your sobs continued to rack your body, pain shooting through your left side.

The deeper voice replied, “Frostvale is under attack?”

“No,” Azriel replied, “Just her.”

There was a pause, filled only with the sound of your crying as you struggled to suck in suffocating breaths.

The female voice spoke again, “Leave us be. I’ve got her.”

Azriel seemed hesitant but was quickly silenced, and the three sets of heavy footsteps retreated, the doors shutting behind them.

The female remained with you, and you could hear the shift of her clothing as she shuffled herself in front of you. “Hey,” she whispered again. At her voice, you buried your head deeper into your arms.

“You’re safe,” she whispered. “No one is going to touch you or hurt you.”

After a moment of your continued silence, the female shifted a bit more, coming to rest her back against the wall a few feet from you. You must have sat in silence for fifteen minutes as you cried, the female content to be near you. Your sobs began to wane, turning into whimpers as the last bit of your energy seeped out through your tears. You finally found the strength to look up and take in the face of the fae female who had sat with you. Her skin was a soft cream color with light brown freckles dotting her nose and down to her full, pink lips. Her cheeks had a slight pinkish hue as if she had been out in the sun, and her blue-grey eyes softened as she looked at you. Her hair framed her face in soft brown waves, which she pushed behind her pointed ears as she took you in as well. You were sure you did not look nearly as clean or put together as she did.

“Hi,” she whispered, her voice a soft lilt. Your lip trembled slightly. “It’s okay,” she whispered again.

You looked at her, still trying to take her in. She wore only a dark blue sweater and a pair of black linen pants, her feet bare as she sat cross-legged against the wall, her head turned towards you. “You’re not alone,” she crooned.

You wanted to speak but felt the words get caught in your throat, stuck beneath the lump formed by your tears and sobs. The female looked at you, her eyes seemingly searching and digging through the sorrow in your own. “You’ve been through a lot,” she said finally.

You only nodded, feeling childish in front of her. Sensing your struggle to speak, she said, “You don’t have to say anything. I just want you to know you’re not alone.” She nodded to reassure you, and you nodded back. “My name,” she put her hand to her chest, “is Feyre.”

“You’re in Velaris, in a safe house, where no one can get to you.” She placed her hands on the wall as if to show its strength. “We have food and water,” she continued, “and beds. We have doors that lock, and showers, and no one will touch you or speak to you if you don’t want them to.” Her eyes, seemingly full of care and compassion, locked onto yours. “You can control what happens to you.”

With that last statement, more tears rolled from your eyes. Your fear was overtaken by incredible sorrow, and the sounds you emitted shifted from those of pain to those of profound sadness. “This moment won’t last forever,” Feyre continued. “These feelings are temporary.” Yet they felt as if they would consume you.

“Can I move closer?” Feyre asked, and you nodded slightly.

She shifted closer, close enough that your bloodied, mud-stained toes could brush against her pants as she looked ahead, away from you. “We can stay here as long as you like,” she noted.

You continued your quiet tears as she sat, not looking directly at you but occasionally glancing over. She placed her hand on the floor next to you, her clean skin a stark contrast to your dirtied hands. After a few moments, you reached out, your fingers barely touching hers. Feyre shifted her hand slightly closer, covering your hand with hers. Her touch was cool and seemed to center you. Your tears continued to fall as she lightly brushed her thumb over the back of your hand, your other arm still pressed to your forehead as you cried. Time passed, although you wouldn't have known it, and at some point, so overcome with exhaustion, you finally let sleep take over.

You didn’t even dream.

______________________________________________________________

When you awoke, your eyes burned and were puffy from sobbing, and your face felt sticky from dried tears and snot. You shifted your weight slightly, the bones in your rear sore from the hard floor. The hand that rested on top of yours shifted, and you looked up to see Feyre, still sitting next to you, her eyes shut and head resting against the wall. You swallowed and moved slightly, causing Feyre’s eyes to flutter open and turn to you. “Morning,” she noted.

You glanced around the hall, now illuminated with the soft morning light coming in from the arched windows on the other side. The sparkle within the grey lines of the marble crept through like fingers of a river, reflecting the soft pinks of sunrise.

“Morning,” you croaked back, your voice raw.

Feyre stretched, arching her back slightly, raising her hands above her head, and scrunching her nose before looking back at you. “Breakfast?” she asked.

Your stomach growled, although you felt no hunger. “Or would you like to stay here longer?” she inquired.

You considered it. You felt you deserved to shrivel up and rot here, condemning yourself to sore bones and joints, but your body ached for something softer. You shook your head no.

“Would you like to eat?” she asked. You shook your head no again.

“Would you like to go lie down?” she asked.

You nodded slightly. Feyre gave you a soft smile as she brought her hand back to yours. “Do you think you can stand?” she asked.

You nodded again as Feyre slowly stood, brushing down her pants. “Do you need help up?”

You pressed one hand onto the wall, the other into the floor, and pushed yourself upright. Your legs faltered slightly. In a moment, Feyre grasped your arm to catch you before you fell. “Steady,” she crooned. “One step at a time.” You nodded, your dirty hand smudging the white wall. “Can I put my arm around you?” she asked.

“There are a few rooms just through that door at the end of the hall with beds,” Feyre said. “If you need to stop, just let me know and we can take a break.” You nodded as she smiled slightly. The two of you took small steps forward, yours more of a shuffle than a step, until you were down the hall and through the dark wood doors at the end. The next hall was darker, with no windows, but the soft, plush carpeting was a welcome relief under your feet. Feyre guided you into a bedroom; with the curtains drawn, it was hard to make out anything. With sure footing, Feyre brought you to a bed, sitting you on the edge as she turned down the sheets, urging you to pull your feet in. The soft, clean, cool silk sheets met your legs as she pulled them up around you, your head coming to rest on a pillow of the same fabric. “Do you want me to stay?” she asked.

You shook your head no, though you secretly did. “I won’t be far,” Feyre noted. “If you need anything, just make any noise and I’ll be here.” You nodded, fighting down the growing tears again. “The door locks. Do you want me to lock it for you and leave you the key?” Feyre asked, and you shook your head no. You didn’t feel the need to protect yourself anymore. The worst had already been done.

“I’ll be right out there.” Feyre pointed, although the darkness of the room shrouded her gesture. Without saying anything else, you heard the soft patter of her bare feet as she exited the room, the door clicking shut behind her.

The darkness was a welcome comfort as you pulled the sheets tighter around yourself, silently hating the amount of dirt and filth you were bringing into the clean space. Your mind raced, though nothing specific played in it—just the sounds of Anthea’s echoing sobs, your own screams, the sound of a knife through flesh, and blood hitting the leaves on the forest floor. So much blood. How could one tiny female produce that much blood? You squeezed your eyes shut, a tear escaping. You shouldn’t be here, you thought. You left her behind. If you had forced Anthea to come with you, if you’d pulled her from the ground and made her run, she might still be alive. If you had just done more, been brave enough to fight back more, she would be here right now. You abandoned her. You should have brought her along in your escape. You left her, knowing the fear she had living deep inside her. You watched her hide the entire time you were there; you saw her scurry among the males with a hollow look in her eye, and you chose to leave without her. You were no better than the male who slaughtered her. Those thoughts continued to ring through your mind until a sly voice echoed within.

“Baby?!” the voice sounded, frantic and fearful—your mate. You clenched your eyes shut, trying to close down the bond, but your mind was too weak, and too many voices were taking up space to shut it. “Baby, are you okay?!”

You didn’t respond, only allowing him to continue his frantic panic. “I lost you. I couldn’t hear you, couldn’t even see the bond anymore. I thought you were dead. Are you alright? Where are you?” His words came in a jumble as though he was sending them as quickly as they came into his mind. “What happened?”

You didn’t respond.

“Baby, listen to me,” he said. “I love you. I miss you. I was so worried about you. I haven’t eaten or slept since I stopped feeling you.” He sounded as though he were crying, his concern apparently quite real. “I just—” he paused, “Please tell me where you are.” You let your eyes blink slowly as you listened to his pleas. “Just come home, baby.”

A pause, “I can feel how you hurt,” he said. “Something happened, and I know that you’re hurt. I can feel it.” He paused again, “Let me help you, baby. You don’t have to do this alone.” You continued to listen to his ramblings, his false promises mingling with your own internal monologue of self-hatred. “Don’t shut me out, my love,” he pleaded. “Please.” You couldn’t shut him out, even though you wanted to. 

His pleas, the sweetness of the fruit he offered, were tainted by the venom in his lips. It seemed a fitting punishment for the selfishness that had caused an innocent female to die. “Just come home,” he kept repeating over and over, but your thoughts of home were filled with nothing but bruises and bloodshed. You had no home. Not anymore. The only home you had was within your own skin, which was so bruised, so bloodied, and dirty that it mirrored the feelings you held within. It was a temple of destruction, used by others for their own needs—a body, a home for everyone you hated.

You swallowed, tears no longer wanting to flow as your mind continued to race. You fell in and out of weary sleep, his voice still crooning to you, beckoning you to give him a piece of where you were. Finally, you fell into a restless sleep, his voice an unwelcome lullaby.

______________________________________________________________

Flowers, a field of flowers, and the warmth of the sun kissing your cheeks as you wandered out of the treeline and into the expanse of summer colors. Purples of snowbells intermingled with the oranges of fire lilies, pinks of edelweiss, and the yellows of leopardsbane all swayed in the breeze as you walked barefoot, feeling the softness of the meadow grass under your feet. You tilted your face to the sky, basking in the afternoon heat, breathing in the fresh mountain air. Summer. Summer bliss.

You continued through the meadow, unsure of your destination, following paths made by the wildlife before you. The light linen, cream-colored dress you wore skirted down to your midcalf, its fabric soft against your skin, dancing in the wind. The air felt full, and each breath came easier than the last. As you reached the middle of the field, you saw your mate as he was when he was young, lying in the grass. His brown summer pants were tied loosely around his ankles, his feet also bare. The cream linen shirt he wore lay open on his chest, rising and falling in time with your own breaths. He sat up as you approached, curling one leg up to rest his chin on his knee.

“You’re so beautiful.”

He held his hand out to you, strong and powerful, and you took it. His warm, calloused fingers wrapped around yours as he brought your hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to the back of it.

“My love,” he whispered, placing another kiss on your skin, “my life,” he pulled you closer, running his hand up the length of your leg, lifting your dress as he scaled your soft, supple skin, “my mate,” he whispered as he exposed your thigh, pressing a tender kiss near your knee. You closed your eyes, your mouth opening slightly as you let out a breathy sigh. He pressed more soft kisses into your leg, pulling your foot to rest on his knee, his hands grazing over your skin. “Come here,” he whispered, his hands trailing up to your hips as you lowered yourself into his lap. You draped your arms around the back of his neck in a lazy hold as he pressed his forehead to yours, eyes meeting. The sun beat down on your hair, warming you, the soft breezes still pulling the flowers to and fro. He pressed his hand to your abdomen, his thumb tracing lines up and down as he kissed you softly, urging a gentle moan of delight from you. He tasted of sweet summer wine, and you craved another as you pulled him back in.

Your mate pulled back, your eyes still shut, mouth parted slightly as he grasped your face between his soft palms, his thumbs brushing your hair back from your face, blown in by the gentle summer wind. “Look at me, my love,” he urged. Your eyes fluttered open, and you saw his face, now more similar to the way he looked in the present, no longer the young male you had fallen in love with so many years ago. “We can make this right,” he urged. “We can spend our summers in the meadows; you can pick wildflowers and press them into books.” He looked deeply into your eyes as your stomach churned. “We can spend days at the river like we used to.” He released your face, placing one hand on your abdomen. “We can have a family.”

You pressed your forehead against his, whispering softly, “You can’t promise me that.”

He whispered back, “I can. I was scared, I made mistakes—”

“You can’t. You can’t do this, it’s not in you,” you whispered, shaking your head against his as you ran your thumbs over his hair. “You hurt me.”

“I know, baby,” his voice wavered with tears. “I know I did. And I can’t take that back. It kills me to know what I’ve done to you.”

“Don’t,” you whispered, “Don’t call me that.”

He sniffled as you continued to rub gentle circles over his hair. “You can’t do this anymore. You can’t pretend to care.”

“It’s not pretend,” he pulled back, his eyes red with tears. “I love you.”

You looked at him, your hands dropping to your lap. “You can love me and not care for me. Just as I can love you and despise you.”

His eyes grew heavy, darkening slightly. “You can’t say that.”

“You don’t get to control what I say.”

He looked into your eyes, his hand finding yours and pulling it to his heart. “My heart beats only for you, Y/N, just as yours for mine. We were blessed to find one another, to be mated. Do you know how rare that is?”

You gulped down tears, refusing to let them fall. “The Cauldron can be wrong. The Mother can be wrong.”

“How can you say that when so many go their entire lives without ever finding their mate? Spend centuries searching for them, never knowing their faces. We found each other.” He crooned, his hand pressing to your heart. “We belong to each other.”

You pushed back on him. “I am not your property.” You stood, smoothing down your dress. “I am not something to be used and discarded when you see fit just because of some predetermined destiny.” You threw down at him. He looked up at you, anger lining his eyes.

“You are my mate,” he said, calmly but losing his composure.

“I am no one’s.” You bit back. “If my mate is to be feared, to hurt me over and over, to strip me of everything I care about and everything I am, the Mother and the Cauldron can burn in hell.”

Your mate pushed himself upright, standing in front of you, his eyes narrowing. “Perhaps you are just poison to everyone you meet.” Your mouth opened slightly as storm clouds rolled in, shadows darkening. “Like that poor female you left to die.”

“You know nothing of that,” you said.

“Oh, but I do,” he continued. “When you let me back in, I sifted through your mind, your memories. Such a sad image, that poor girl. So young and skinny.”

“You don’t get to speak of her.”

“Then you shouldn’t have shared her with me.” He smiled. “That’s your problem. You think you can control everyone around you, and when you can’t, you run. You didn’t get your way with me, so you ran. You couldn’t convince this poor, innocent female to stand, so you ran, and she died for it.” You turned away, trying to walk away, but he gripped your arm. “You can’t run from this,” he said.

When you turned around, over his shoulder you saw the bloodied, battered body of Anthea standing in the shadows, her body red from head to toe and her head nearly severed from her neck, hanging to the side. “You can’t leave,” her mouth whispered from across the field. A scream caught in your throat, and before it could escape, your mate pulled you into himself. “You’re safe with me. You can make this right. Just tell me where you are.”

The storm clouds rolled in as you stared wide-eyed at that poor female across the meadow, stuck to the shadows of the treeline. The wind picked up, the colors of the flowers fading as the sun was overtaken by clouds. Your eyes never left Anthea, and in a crack of lightning, she was gone. The world seemed to boil around you as wind picked up and rain poured down on you and your mate. He held you, whispering softly, “Just show me.”

______________________________________________________________

You awoke in a dripping sweat and hurled yourself from the bed, your body aching as it collided with the floor with a thud. Vomit rose in your throat as you spotted a soft light coming from another room. Picking yourself up, you hurried over, opened the lid of the toilet, and released bile into it. With nothing in your stomach to vomit, you hacked, coughed, and spat. You closed the lid, sitting back and resting your head on the toilet as you tried to catch your breath, slamming down the bond. The sound of your heartbeat echoed in your ears.

“You okay?” The voice startled you. When you turned, Feyre was standing in the doorway, now dressed in a simple linen gown that ran to her knees, still barefoot.

You gulped back, your chest still heaving. “Yeah,” you said, “just nightmares.”

Feyre nodded slightly. “Can I bring you anything?”

You ran your hands over your eyes and face before declining.

Feyre hesitated slightly. “You need to eat something.”

“I’m fine,” you responded.

Feyre bit her lip. “From the contents of what came out of you, I would disagree.”

You turned to look over your shoulder at the empty bowl. “I’m fine, really. Just tired.”

Feyre crossed her arms, lightly rubbing them. “Azriel told me what happened.”

You crossed your arms, looking down. “It was a terrible thing, what happened to her.”

You only nodded, your eyes feeling as if they would overflow with tears. “And what happened to you,” she continued.

You wiped your eyes with your sleeve. “Nothing happened to me.”

Feyre leaned against the doorframe. “I don’t think that’s true.”

“I’m fine,” you bit back slightly, turning to her. “It’s not your problem.”

“You’re allowed to be angry. You’re allowed to feel that all of this is unfair.”

“It’s not—” you started and paused, “just—just stop. Please.” You pleaded.

Feyre nodded, sighing out. “If you want to wash up, the shower works. And I will bring up some fresh clothes for you.” Feyre turned, taking one more second to look at you before disappearing back into the dark room.

You took in your surroundings, a marble bathroom with columns in each corner. In front of you was a magnificent vanity with a small bundle of fae light at the top of the giant, curving mirrors, in front of each sink and basin. To your left, an open-air shower with intricate tile work swirling through the floor, and across from it, a large bathtub with columns lining the corners. The room itself was larger than your cabin’s living room and kitchen combined. You considered taking a shower, almost melting at the thought of the dirt and blood draining off you, cleaning the debris from the forest floor from your hair. And then you remembered how Anthea would never be clean again, would never feel the warmth of that water, and you pushed your own wants from your mind. You instead stood, walked back out into the room, and sat back on the bed, the darkness surrounding you as you stared into it.

Thanks again to those who have asked to be tagged in this fic:

@thatacotargirl @mcuamerica @lilah-asteria @florabelll @fightmedraco @marvelbros-oneshots @mariahoedt @quinzzelx @romantasyreader28 @minnieoo @mysteriouslydeafeningwerewolf @annabethgranger123 @krowiathemythologynerd @scatteredstardustt @romantacyreader28

[uplatterme]

a/n: im putting the warnings first this time because the writing style is a bit different. also, it really isn’t clear what actually happened to sohreh so this whole thing is just a fun interpretation is all.

cw: violence, murder, dark content (this is insane, like actually. please read with caution) | sub!zandik, zandik!dottore, gender-neutral terms and pronouns but reader has a cock, exhibitionism, semi-public sex

———

Journal Entry No. XX (Recorded on: ??-??-??)

—Written By: (Dastur Sohreh)

These reports seemed to have been stained heavily with bodily fluids. Certain words are unreadable.

—The team consisted of renowned students of the Akademiya, including; Sohreh, Zandik, XXXX, and XXXX. This team was led by Sage Shanarma and Senior ▇▇.

Each one had brought something new to the plate, despite not getting along at first due to different views on the decisions that the team followed. Notably, from Zandik, whose suggestions seemed to be far too dangerous to even try, that was immediately shut down without even a second thought.

However, Senior ▇▇ always heard him out and always stood by his side whenever there were arguments. Rumors spread throughout the team about their supposed relationship.

Being scholars of the Akademiya meant that we should always rely on facts rather than meaningless accusations. Once I told them of this, the gossip was never brought up.

▇▇ was kind to everyone, even to me. They would always assist me whenever I had trouble walking because of the heat.

I had an ominous feeling that someone was glaring at me from behind whenever I was helped, but when I turned around, there was no one but the forest itself.

Perhaps, it was just my anxiety acting up from feeling as if I wasn’t contributing much to the group. ▇▇ reassured me I was doing just fine.

—I trusted ▇▇’s words about Zandik. I once found myself exploring the jungle with him and even though the start of our expedition proved that we had nothing in common, he opened up interesting topics to discuss, ranging from plants and animals to the current evolution models.

I found myself being taken aback by him, the way he spoke showed off his clearly high intellect. His appearance is also quite attractive. I sometimes matched my gaze with him intentionally and he would return it with a smile that made my heart flutter.

Unfortunately, I grew distant from Senior as I relied on this information to them. They said encouraging words about Zandik and I’s relationship but their eyes looked saddened, almost empty the longer I observed them.

They never approached me after that and the only time they would talk to me is if I approached them first.

Maybe it was true that there was a past relationship between Zandik and Senior ▇▇? If there was, it didn’t seem to matter to Zandik anymore as he agreed when I suggested that we should go on a picnic tonight.

The picnic was lovely but I couldn’t get the feeling off my back that someone was watching us together.

———

The next writings are written with blood, the writing is shaky and incomprehensible as if it was written with pure desperation.

You let out an amused sigh, taking your pen out from the drawer under your stable.

“Such a shame, Sohreh. You didn’t even get to finish this note. Should I help you out?”

You tapped the pen on the table, wondering where to start.

———

You commended your patience at the time. Seeing Zandik with someone else and not doing anything about it? You honestly couldn’t believe it.

It was obvious that he didn’t like the attention he was receiving. That’s what you told yourself, at least. You couldn’t figure out what it was that he was using Sohreh for.

Then again, he was never the one to just simply spit out answers without a price.

There wasn’t exactly a label between you two. So perhaps you shouldn’t even be jealous to begin with. 

Oh, please.

The expedition was going far too smooth for your liking anyways.

The violent and loud mechanic noises rang in your ears. There were screams all coming from the team, wondering what it is that they should do.

Yet, out of all the horrified faces on each of them, one stood out.

A face of shock that soon turned into a gleeful one, excited for something new. Knowledge, that would soon quench his thirst at the moment.

He was truly an eccentric one. 

You smiled as he took a step forward, and eventually, those slow steps hastened, running to the ruin guard instead of backing away.

The scholar beside you, however, still hadn’t reacted. Sohreh’s shaking. The poor thing was terrified, legs giving up and failing to notice the ruin guard eyeing her way.

You could pull her away in time if you wanted to. There was enough time to keep her out of harm’s way.

If only she listened to those rumors.

The ruin guard had attacked Sohreh, her body flopping to the floor. The sound of bones breaking stood out from the screaming and metallic noises.

You clap your hands together, gaining the attention of everyone.

“Zandik’s trying to fix the problem right now. Everyone, focus on your surroundings, don’t make unnecessary movements that’ll trigger more reactions.” You directed, ignoring the groaning of the woman below your knees.

Suffice to say, each one was horrified. There were minor injuries that the others had gotten but nothing severe. You could see how grateful they were that they didn’t end up like Sohreh, who was now laying on the ground, in dire need of medical treatment.

In the end, these scholars only valued themselves.

“Senior? What should we do?” One of them had asked, bearing a pathetic look on their face, avoiding the gruesome state of the body placed on a picnic blanket that somebody had found.

“We will return at once.”

Zandik stepped in front of you, not agreeing with that choice.

“Should we not bring this machine back to the Akademiya? I can guarantee that this can prove to be useful in different ways! It’s the first we’ve seen of this kind.” He enthusiastically said.

The others did not appeal to that thought.

It seemed that these scholars did not value the life that was slowly withering away next to them, choosing to argue instead of seeking the medical attention that Sohreh clearly needed.

“Are you insane? That thing cannot be brought back to the Akademiya! It will spur chaos with the sages!”

“And you have seen my prowess, have you not? I was the only one with the slightest clue on how to keep it dormant while you stood there like cowards!” Zandik angrily shouted back, biting his teeth together.

This silenced the arguing. He was right and everyone knew that. Without his help, who knew what else could have happened instead?

You sighed at the useless bickering. The priorities of these people were laughable.

“We’ll have to hear from the Sages, Zandik,” You reassured.

“Meanwhile, as Sohreh cannot travel. I’m requesting everyone to seek help from the Akademiya, a healer preferably, or anyone that you could reach out to as quickly as you can.”

“Well, aren’t you just as mischievous as before?” Zandik stated, no longer keeping his thoughts as everyone besides you two had left to get assistance.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Is that how you want to take this conversation?” He huffed, walking towards you—no, walking towards Sohreh.

He examined her body, guts almost slipping out of her torso, her right leg dislocated. Her blood seeped to the picinic blanket that they had used during their date.

It was honestly a miracle that she was still breathing at this point.

And almost as if she could hear your thoughts. Sohreh’s eyes opened, directly facing Zandik.

“Z-Zandik?” She mustered out, coughing and spitting out blood from her throat.

“It’s alright, I’ve taken care of the ruin guard.”

“Of course, you would have… You’re the only capable one here.” She joked.

You stayed quiet, listening in on the conversation. You doubted she even knew that you were here.

“Are you…going to help me out?” She asked and Zandik only answered with that picture-perfect smile that he always wore when he wanted something.

The man fixed her hair, moving them away from her eyes.

“Show me.” He said.

“Wha—?!”

Zandik’s right hand went for her throat, pressing deep. Her vocal cords getting too damaged for her to even scream.

She flailed her arms around, trying to escape the scholar’s grip. Sohreh was confused by the man’s new behavior. She was mouthing out several words that fell silent.

Her reactions were quite beautiful. Sohreh had always been expressive, putting everything on her sleeve. It would make sense that he wanted a better view when he finally ended this whole thing.

It was then that she decided that she couldn’t escape from this man alone. She needed someone, anyone to help her. Her eyes scouted the empty forest when she saw a familiar hair color.

“S-Senior!” She choked out, her voice hoarse and ruined.

“Zandik.” Once he heard his name being called out, he stopped.

He stared at you, those eyes that only focused on him. Oh, how grateful he was that you two were the only ones here.

Zandik dropped the woman without a care, her whole body trembling from barely escaping death. She was glad that you had intervened before it was too late.

“You shouldn’t use your dainty hands for something like this, Zandik.” You cooed and got up from your seat, approaching him.

You took his hands, bringing them to your lips, kissing them softly.

Sohreh couldn’t believe what was happening right in front of her eyes. Dainty? He had almost killed her and yet you were treating him as if he was porcelain?

“I missed this. Don’t you also?” You tilted your head as you asked him, Zandik blushing deep from your affection.

“Of course.”

“Why don’t you prove it?”

Sohreh watched in pure agony, she could barely move and even if she did, she wouldn’t get far. The pain was too much to bear to even try. Her wounds grinded against the rocky and dirty ground whenever she breathed too hard.

She could hear her organs slushing as if they were jelly. She didn’t know if it was because the whole thing made her senses more aware or if it was like that in reality.

The worse part was that you and Zandik didn’t pay any attention to her. As if you two were already set that she would die in her state, as if she was a dying cockroach that lay beneath your feet.

“You don’t know how insufferable it was holding myself back, Zandik.” You said, trailing kisses on his chest.

“To think you’d be so touchy with someone else. You really are a slut, aren’t you?” You spat out before biting his skin, your teeth going so deep that blood dripped down to his stomach.

God, Zandik could have finished right then and there.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to.” He apologized, face pouting as he said.

You chuckled at his expression. “You liar, I know you liked the attention.”

“I only like attention when it’s coming from you.” He refuted, snugging his head to your chest.

“Yeah? How could I be sure about that?”

He unbuttoned his pants, showing off everything to you. “Look at what you’ve done. Already so wet for you. I’m your slut, not anybody else’s.”

“Ah, Zandik. You know just the right words to say.” You laughed.

He grinded himself on your leg, rubbing his groin as he stared into your eyes. Lewd noises slipped out of his throat, missing how you took care of him. You pat his head and immediately, you received a whimper from Zandik.

You enjoyed the noises that Zandik made, huffs and breaths of your name as he pleasured himself with your body, begging for more.

Unfortunately, that was hindered by a scream from Sohreh whose throat you were sure would render her to never speak again. Not that it mattered, since there was no way she would be coming out of this forest alive.

You held onto Zandik’s thigh, stilling him in disappointment. “As much as I do love hearing you scream for mercy, I’m busy right now.”

She glared at you, obviously wanting to curse you out.

“However, you do remember that we’re not the only ones in this forest. I hear tigers have pretty good hearing. Ah, but you probably already knew that, being a student of Amurta and all.”

Once you reminded her, you could see fear strike in her eyes. To think she would be afraid of tigers more than you. How stupid really.

Zandik placed his ass on your lap, wanting your eyes on him.

“Need you.” He said.

“I’m sure you can do it by yourself now, no?” You answered, a flustered Zandik coughed, remembering the last time he tried to ride you.

Carefully and slowly, Zandik placed the tip of your cock near his entrance. He grit his teeth together, already feeling your warmth inside him when you’re still not all the way in.

An idea formed in your head. 

“Love, can you face the other way?” You asked him.

Zandik couldn’t believe that you’d only tell him this right now when he’s almost done taking in your whole length. 

Well, he could, being mean to him was your forte and he enjoyed every part of it.

He rolled his eyes back from taking you out, feeling empty.

Zandik’s back is now faced against you. You could see his hole open up as he inserted your cock inside of him.

“I’m feeling nice, Sohreh. So, I’ll give you a lesson on how to properly use Zandik.”

Zandik bounced against your thighs, moaning each time he slapped skin with you. “Haah~” 

“I’ve rammed into him so many times and he’s still just as sensitive. Isn’t he great?”

Zandik whined in agreement, hearing you praise and show him off to someone else extremely turning him on.

Sohreh could only look in horror, seeing the man he admired of, moving like an animal in heat, desperate for his senior’s cock.

“See here, if you give him a slight spank.” You continued, slapping the side of his ass as gently as you were able to.

Zandik yelped, cum leaking out of his cock.

He faced down lower, gasping for air as he could feel another orgasm coming.

“P-Please–! Let me–ah!”! He pleaded your name asking for permission, which you were proud to give.

His entire body shuddered as he came, cum splattering everywhere, even to the half-dead person on the ground.

“You did so good, Zandik.”

“T-Thank you…!” He squeaked out.

Sohreh wanted to vomit, you two were insane. If the Akademiya had access to this information then—!

Her hands searched for the notepad in her pockets. With no other option, she used the blood leaking out excessively from her body.

“What are you doing?”

Sohreh tried to hide away the evidence but it was stolen quickly. 

“You really are amazing. To think you’re still alive right now, even when I purposely let you get hit by that ruin guard.”

She stared in confusion. This whole thing…was your fault?

“Oh, don’t blame this on me. You were the one who went after Zandik. I’d say this makes us even, doesn’t it?”

Your hand reached for her neck, matching the bruises that Zandik had left earlier.

You squeezed hard, Sohreh losing the strength to even fight back. 

Realizing that you had gone too far, you snapped out of your daze, quickly apologizing to Zandik.

“Sorry! Did you have business with her still?”

Zandik swallowed the lump in his throat, amazed at how your muscles flexed when you strangled the body.

He could feel himself getting hard again, everything you do really, sent a rushing thrill to his spine.

“C-Could you do that to me?”

You slammed yourself into Zandik’s walls, the scholar moaning in pleasure as his back laid down on the corpse which was now used as a cushion as he pleasantly received your thrusts.

The body turned into a mess as you continued pounding in him roughly and as quickly as you can, knowing that you two had only so much time before someone else got here.

“M-More! More!” Zandik begged, his head rolling back from the intense sensations.

“As you wish, love.”

[urlocalnonbinarybastardwrites]

Give me a description of your appearance, personality, hobbies, and what fandom you want and I’ll match you with a character in my fandom range!!!

ooo this is so cool! thank you btw!! uhh im an indian teenage (14-15 though i look younger) girl and she/her presenting. im very easy to tell im indian. i have brown/tan skin and dark brown eyes. i have black curly hair but the tips are dyed a dark red. my face shape is pretty sharp, heart shape i think?? and people say i look like a cartoon? i have bangs that curl and swoop across my face though they fall straight across my forhead when straightened. I'm very energetic and it shows. Im bouncy and fidgety and easily excitable. I'm very friendly and silly, and just chaotic in general. I'm an ENFP and fit like all the stereotypes and everything. Or if you know Owl House, I'm exactly like Luz Noceda. I care a lot about my friends but im not sure if i show it enough? i come off as a lot at first and am very awkward i like to read! and hang out with friends! adventures and exploring and doing things im not supposed to FIRE AND NATURE AND OOO ANIMALS i live and love adventure and will break the law with you i also like to write, though im not very good at it. I doodle sometimes for fun. Crafts are fun too! I bake when i have time but i mainly hang out with friends <33 Any character or fandom! this is just a really cool idea and seems fun! so thanks for seeing my super long ask ( i blabber a lot lolol) :DD

Your Fandom Ship: Leo Valdez (Heroes of Olympus)

Lucky mf

Explanation: first things first I think that he would love the way you look in your heart shaped face and would totally make some friendly jokes about it if you were comfortable with it and if you were insecure, he would stop doing that. He definitely makes jokes about how you’re the more attractive one in the relationship. You both are quite similar personality wise and I think he would complement each other really well because Leo is always cracking jokes. He’s a chaotic mess and he’s just full of so basically a background story is demigods in general are supposed to have ADHD and dyslexia, but even for a demigod, Leo is off the ADHD charts, you get the idea. (He built a freaking flying ship and used a Nintendo switch controller to control it) he’s also a bit of a dork and awkward at first or at times so I think you have that covered and he’s a son of a Hephaestus (the builder/forging God from Greek mythology) and he literally has fire powers so if you like fire, he’s your guy. I think he would totally sit down and write goofy things with you or sketch little doodles with you as he’s often sketching and his own notebook not drawings as much but more outlines for building things but good luck trying to bake with him because it’s just going to end up being a huge flour fight. 

[fowlfics]

This year's @fandomtrumpshate browsing period is open!

One Piece has 18 offerings from 13 creators! You can see all of them RIGHT HERE or have a look at the sparknotes below!

Bidding runs from 5th March 2024 8 am EST, to 9th March 2024 8pm EST. You can help raise money for non-profit organizations - you can see the full list of those HERE!

For One Piece fanfiction:

Less than 5k:

CaptainSupernoodle (@scribble-dee-doo) - Charity specified (Middle East Children's Alliance *, Never Again Action *, Any/all listed environmental orgs) • Up to M rating •

ShadowSpires (@shadow-spires)- Any Charity • Up to M rating • "For One Piece I'm currently only up to Zou, so I want to focus before that. My main ships are ZoLu, LawLu, and ZoSanLu, with a focus on devotion/loyalty."

Between 5-10k

ladybug114 - Any Charity • Up to T rating • "I can write for either the anime or live action, with the caveat that I've seen about 250 episodes of the anime. I won't write anything that ships Luffy with anyone. I won't write any sexual content."

altokiwi (@altokiwi) - Charity specified (Bellingcat *, Life After Hate, Middle East Children's Alliance *, Never Again Action *, Any/all listed environmental orgs) • Up to M rating • "for pairings, I'm more familiar with Zoro/Sanji, Nami/Vivi, though, I'm super down on writing for almost any f/f ship or rarepairs as well. For gen fics, I'm more familiar with the Strawhats, the Vinsmokes, the Revolutionary Army and the Marines."

juurensha (@juurensha) - Any Charity • Up to M rating • "Zoro/Sanji, Luffy/Law, Robin/Franky, Nami/Tashigi, Zeff/Garp, Crocodile/Mr. 1, Crocodile/Mihawk, Shanks/Mihawk, Yamato/Hiyori"

Emily Fowl (that's me!) - Any Charity • Up to E rating • "I love exploring the themes of brotherhood between Ace, Sabo and Luffy. Additionally, I like making Ace meet Roger and/or Rouge, having Sabo recover his memories early or stretching Luffy's luffiness to its absolute limit. Other characters I'd be happy to write about as the main characters of the fic are the Strawhats, Nika, Law & Rosi, the OG Hearts (Bepo, Shachi, Penguin), Dragon, Roger, Uta, Crocodile & others (feel free to ask!)"

Thursday - Any Charity • Up to E rating • "Especially interested in: poly ships, lgbtq+ characters and identities (especially trans and non-binary characters), found family (or just family) dynamics. i especially love to explore how relationships change and i'm a big fan of queerplatonic and just platonic relationships in general!! i love to include the hurt/comfort trope a lot. i also really love to world-build and i enjoy doing non-traditional things for a lot of different dynamics."

Between 10-20k

Trinipedia - Any Charity • Up to E rating • "Luffy/Zoro, Helmeppo/Koby, Sanji/Zoro, Mihawk/Zoro, Luffy/Sanji

For One Piece fanart:

facethestrange - Any Charity • Up to E rating • "I'm offering colored digital art. Anything between 1-4 characters in one picture. The scope and style is going to be similar to the art in my AO3 profile, no matter how high the winning bid is. (To see representative examples of what you'll be getting, please only look at works from the last 1-2 years - some older ones are a very different style and lower quality.)"

PYRZQXYL - Three offerings; Two are both Any Charity • Up to M rating • Unwilling to address: hard 'no full frontal' rule, erotica otherwise v. negotiable; One is Any Charity, Up to T rating • All are: "PORTRAITURE(S) (up to a triptych) // ILLUSTRATION (of a scene, up to three (3) characters), fanfiction scenes (w. & only w. author's blessing)"

Arandin (@arandin-art) - Any Charity • Up to T rating • "For a book cover with a fully illustrated background 10$ must be added to the minimum amount. Each additional characters represent 5$. My favorite pairings: LuSan, ZoSan or LawSan... But I'm open to your ideas nonetheless."

For One Piece fan labor:

ShadowSpires (also in Section 1) - BETA • Any Charity • Up to E rating • 10-20k range • "For One Piece I'm currently only up to Zou, so I want to focus before that. My main ships are ZoLu, LawLu, and ZoSanLu, with a focus on devotion/loyalty. Open to most other things, though, including Crew Feels!"

altokiwi (also in Section 1) - CULTURE PICKING, SPECIALIST EXPERTISE, TRANSLATION • Charity specified (Bellingcat *, Life After Hate, Middle East Children's Alliance *, Never Again Action *, Any/all listed environmental orgs) • Up to E rating • "Depends how much the bidder contributes.. For translation - 1k words per $4 bid. Expertise and Culture - 1k words per $2 bid. Fan labor details: Culture picking - Mexican culture (everyday life, food, language, etc) Specialist expertise - Medical equipment/devices (particularly in a clinical setting). Engineering in general. Translation - Spanish <-> English. If the text is not your own, please make sure you have the author's permission! (or public blank permission works too)"

For One Piece fan audio & video:

ShadowSpires (also in Sections 1 & 3) - PODFIC • Any Charity • Up to T rating • Less than 5k • "For One Piece I'm currently only up to Zou, so I want to focus before that. My main ships are ZoLu, LawLu, and ZoSanLu, with a focus on devotion/loyalty. Open to most other things, though, including Crew Feels!"

Alistair_Nightly - PODFIC • Any Charity • Up to E rating • "Depends how much the bidder contributes. $10 - up to 10k words; $5 per 1k words after that, capped at 50k words. Stuff I'm especially interested in working with: - Found family - Soulmates - Friends to Lovers / Enemies to Lovers - AUs / Cross-overs / Collabs - Non-hetero relationships (I'm especially indulgent of boy-love & bara, but all flavors are welcome. including hetero) - Adventure stories - Horror/Thriller/Slasher - While I love good mimetic fiction, I am especially fond of speculative fiction"

aaronantium - VIDEO • Any Charity • Up to E rating • "Video details: I will make a music video with a song of your choosing. It can be multi-character, focused on a single character, or a shipping vid. I'll do a minimum of 1 minute and a maximum of 5 minutes (I can do a section of larger songs, but five minutes is the max length for the final vid). [For] One Piece I'm good to work with either live action/animated or both, but if it is a ship vid I don't want to do anything that is incestuous or underaged."

If you're interested in bidding for a One Piece offering, but can't find something you'd like among the ones listed above, don't fret! Plenty of creators picked "any fandom" on their offerings!

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplaying Races 13: Strix

(art by Akerion on DeviantArt)

 We’re back with another special on the various playable ancestries/races in Pathfinder, and honestly, we’re actually running fairly low on those that we have not covered. Don’t fret though, that just means we’ll move on to their 2nd edition versions!

In any case, today we are tackling the strix, a species that have a long history that unfortunately has some relatively recent bad blood with humanity.

While not humanoid in form as they are in the game, the word strix was used to describe a mythological “bloodthirsty monster in bird form”, that flew with their heads low and the legs up high, blending in ideas of both bats and owls. Early references credit the strix with tormenting infants as night, while later versions had them outright killing and eating infants and adults alike.

Following that Greek origin and the general assumption that people have long made monsters out of ordinary nocturnal animals that didn’t want anything to do with them, we can see how Pathfinder’s strix starts to take shape, not just in form, but also in how they are treated.

 In Pathfinder, the strix (or itarii, to use the name they call themselves) are a people of humanoids most distinguished by their fully functional wings on their back. In the continent of Avistan, the only confirmed enclave of these avian beings is a jagged mountain range in Cheliax called the Devil’s Perch. However, their history goes back further than that.

Supposedly, the strix were created by syrinx owl-men of Arcadia to be their favored servants in their tyrannical empire that favors those that can fly and enslaves all others. However, while it is possible some strix still live under syrinx rule, this has not been explored yet. However, many clans of strix have left the syrinx behind, settling other parts of Arcadia, the shattered remains of Azlant, and indeed, the group that came to Devil’s Perch. (though they did not arrive their by choice, apparently being separated from their kin by a titanic storm.)

While we’ve only seen glimpses of the Arcadian and Azlanti strix, who do not harbor any ill-will towards humanity, the cause of which is well-deserved, though colored by how the strix view the world.

Indeed, the strix did at one point ally themselves with Aspex, the first king of Cheliax, who agreed to leave them to their devices. Later rulers would flaunt that agreement, and the strix, who mistakenly assume that humans are as tight-knit and singular as they are, believed they have been betrayed and that humans were untrustworthy as a rule.

This escalated as the strix began attacking Chelish pioneers and soldiers as invaders and villains, and the Chelish in kind fought back against these “savages”.

It may yet be possible to mend these relationships, especially if the strix got back in regular contact with their kin across the sea, who know no such hatred, but that remains to be seen.

 Superficially, strix resemble humans with their mammalian, primate-like traits, but the more one looks at them, the more clear they are clearly something different, and not just in the large wings that sprout from their backs. Strix stand about 6 feet tall on average, and their skin tones and plumage range from a dark blue-black to more human-like skin tones and lighter feathers as well. They have human-like hair, but long, pointed ears than hang out to the side at a slightly drooping angle, setting them apart from elven ears. Meanwhile, the eyes of a strix are large and seem pupiless due to the darkness of their large irises. What’s more, said eyes cannot rotate in their sockets, requiring the strix to move their heads to focus on individual details, giving them a distinctly bird-like manner as they take in their environment.Their bodies typically are lean with well-defined muscle, especially in the chest to help drive their flight. Finally, their feet sport powerful talons, and have a distinctly raptoral structure.

Itarii society is matriarchal and close-knit, with individual families or tribes living communally under the oldest and wisest female member, called a rokoa. The needs of the community outweigh the needs of the individual usually, and due to their small numbers in Avistan, the loss of even a single of their number is considered devastating. It is that tight-knit society that has kept them alive, but also what has led to so many misunderstandings with humans and other people, though obviously the blame still truly rests with the Chelish humans whose mistreatment and brutality led to their long-standing hatred.

 The strix are agile, but their insular nature means they aren’t exactly social outside their own kind.

While they are just as fast on land as humans, they really shine in the air, flying swiftly and with great agility.

True to the owls they were drawn from both conceptually and in regards to the syrinx, strix have powerful eyes capable of seeing in low to no light, and are especially perceptive in the dark.

Whether it is purely from viciousness or special training, strix often know the best way to strike true against human targets.

Their distrust of outsiders, particularly humans, also makes them suspicious of magic meant to deceive them.

 Of course, not all strix are from Devil’s Perch, and many others have differing traits beside. These might include practicing nonlethal combat so their own combat rarely leaves lasting harm on their kin or upon others they do not wish to kill, while others trade their night-sight to guard their people during the day. Some adopt a fierce demeanor to unnerve potential attackers, while others are especially agile and able to avoid attacks. Some are especially tough instead. And some, whether by deformity or injury, have weak wings, flying much slower and clumsier and ostracized by their kin. They make up for this by learning to better deal with outsiders, making them the envoys of the itarii people, albeit those strangely distant from their kin.

 With their aerial superiority and dex bonus, the most obvious class for the itarii to take is some sort of ranged martial class like fighter, ranger, bomb-focused alchemist, and the like. However, don’t underestimate the power of the Fly-by Attack feat, especially if you complement it with feats or abilities that let you deal some strong damage with a single attack, such as Vital Strike, cavalier challenge, investigator studied strike, the magus’s spellstrike, or certain bloodrager abilities. As far as casters go, they can easily take any Intelligence or Wisdom caster with no problem, but they suffer a bit in both social roles and Charisma-based spellcasting. However, this can be worked around, especially since they have the range to keep out of reach.

 That will do for today, but it’s interesting to see where strix came from in folklore and how it, however distantly, shaped their portrayal in the game.

[norirosewrites]

Horror Documentary Review: Sharksploitation

Subgenre: Documentary

Gore Level: None (though animal lovers might be upset by some of the footage)

Do you remember the first time you saw Jaws? I was eight years old, and I watched my mother’s VHS copy on the floor in our living room with a bowl of sour cream and onion potato chips and a bottle of lemonade. I couldn’t help feeling unsettled (who doesn’t feel at least a teeny bit apprehensive while watching Jaws?), but more than anything, I was fascinated by it. Maybe it was because my household also had a VHS of a Discovery Channel documentary about sharks and their importance in the oceanic ecosystem that I loved watching as a kid, so I already had a pretty solid appreciation and healthy respect for sharks. I went on to read the novel for a bit of light summer reading before my junior year of high school, and I agree with Speilberg wholeheartedly: in Peter Benchley’s version of the story, the shark should have won. (Seriously. All of the other characters in the book are terrible.) All that’s to say, I’ve always thought that sharks are pretty cool. You’ve got to respect a species older than the dinosaurs that have survived multiple mass extinction events. (One of my favorite memories from summer trips to Galveston growing up was seeing a little bonnethead hanging around one of the fishing piers looking for tasty morsels.) That being said, I’m not generally a fan of shark films. Almost all of them are piggybacks of Jaws with horribly written storylines and terrible CGI. (Laugh at the “cheesy” mechanical shark all you want, but no one will ever convince me that CGI is better than the craftsmanship that goes into making physical props and effects.) Shark documentaries, on the other hand, are always on my radar – no pun intended – and a documentary on the subject of sharks and film and sharks in film was a natural choice. Sharksploitation delivered on my expectations.

In A Nutshell:

Sharksploitation is an original documentary produced by Shudder and Sharksploitation, LLC, that follows the timeline of shark films from the early 20th century to the present and explores how the representation of sharks in cinema both reflects and influences their relationship with humanity. While Jaws is at the heart of the film, it features commentary on sharks in folklore, visual art, and film long predating the classic film, as well as contemporary depictions in the post-Jaws era, from experts ranging from filmmakers and marine biologists to actors and horror film historians, and Wendy Benchley, ocean conservationist and wife of Peter Benchley.

Sharksploitation begins by examining why so many people are drawn to shark movies and why sharksploitation films have such universal appeal that other exploitation genres don’t enjoy. Dr. Emily Zarka, professor and monster expert, defines sharksploitation as a genre that focuses on the idea of the “meta shark” – essentially, a monstrous, exaggerated idea of sharks with very little basis in actual reality. Roger Corman, producer of She Gods of Shark Reef (1958), Piranha (1978 – which, fun fact, was filmed here in Texas), and Sharktopus (2010), comments that people are drawn to shark movies because sharks are natural monsters, not fictional creations. As a land-lubber species, humans have a primal fear of being in the water and having something unseen grab hold of us. Sharks also contribute to thalassophobia – the fear of the ocean or large, deep bodies of water – to say nothing of the natural fear of being eaten alive. Mario Van Peebles, director of USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) and actor in Jaws: The Revenge (1987), sums it up: “[Sharksploitation] reminds us how frail and vulnerable we are, but ignites something in us on the adrenaline level that makes us feel alive.” This is likely a huge part of why Jaws was such a hit and continues to be exalted as a classic. While it was not the first film to feature undersea monsters (an early example is 1930’s The Sea Bat, which features a giant manta ray as the murderous marine star), it was the first to cast a shark in the villainous spotlight.

The film then explores how the image of sharks in media has evolved throughout human history. For centuries, sharks have been depicted as divine or ancestral spirits in the folklore of the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Africa, sometimes offering help and protection to humans and often having the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid form. (A well-known example is the Hawaiian myth of Nanaue.) Even early films featuring sharks didn’t always portray them as evil; in Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), the shark character is a god who protects the ocean (and also holds the distinction as the first rubber shark used in a film). These ancient folkloric tropes can still be seen today in films like Moana (2016) and Suicide Squad (2016). However, Dr. Zarka points out that when Western filmmakers began looking at sharks as cinematic exploration, they looked at real sharks rather than the rich body of folklore surrounding them.

Sharks began to be depicted in a more sinister light in the Enlightenment era of the eighteenth century. British artist J.M.W Truner painted them attacking African victims of the Zong massacre who were thrown or jumped from the ship (The Slave Ship, 1840), and the infamous oil painting Watson and the Shark (1778) by John Singleton Copley sensationalized the real-life story of an unfortunate cabin boy’s run-in with a shark in the waters near Havana, Cuba.

The 1916 Jersey Shore bull shark attacks lent credence to these unsettling depictions. Meanwhile, surfing was gaining popularity in Australia, inevitably leading to more human-shark interactions. World War II brought about the tragic USS Indianapolis incident. And during the filming of Shark! (1969), a stuntman who got too close to one of the real sharks in the water was killed on camera. In a tragic reversal, a shark was killed by the crew out of Blue Water, White Death (1971) out of fear and without provocation.

Peter Benchley wrote Jaws as “fiction based on fact” based on a story he heard about a fisherman who caught a 4,550 lb great white. At that time, the “rogue shark” theory – the idea that a shark who tastes human flesh will develop an appetite for it and stake its territory in waters where humans are known to participate in recreational activities – was popular among marine biologists. (The theory has since been discredited by most scientists, but it has contributed to controversial and largely ineffective shark control measures that have caused harm to shark populations around the world.) According to his wife, ocean conservationist Wendy Benchley, Peter did not subscribe to the theory, but director Stephen Spielberg DID run with it in the film adaptation.

Jaws was groundbreaking on multiple fronts. It was the first summer blockbuster, one of the first films to show trailers as TV commercials, and the first film to have promotional merchandise on a mass-market scale. Jaws was also unique in that it made the shark itself a character in the story. It not only kickstarted the modern sharksploitation genre, but it also influenced other “animal horror” films like Orca (1977) and Grizzly (1976). Unfortunately, marine biologists and conservationists knew it spelled disaster for real sharks. Fishermen and vigilantes took it upon themselves to kill sharks as a preventative measure, mistakenly believing they were making beaches and fishing grounds safer, and some species have never recovered from that era. Subsequent films like Shark’s Treasure (1975), Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976 – which, oddly enough, is about a man who discovers he is telepathic with sharks and attempts to save them), and Tintorera (1977) involved the brutal on-camera deaths of real sharks to get the desired shots.

Sharksploitation films died out a little in the 90s in favor of sci-fi flicks (including a personal favorite of mine, 1993’s Jurassic Park), but 1999’s Deep Blue Sea brought the genre back into the limelight by combining sharksploitation with actual science (at least, what was accepted science at the time). Open Water (2003), loosely based on the true story of Thomas and Eileen Lonergan, was a more realistic film that piggybacked on the found-footage style of the Blair Witch Project (1999). Dr. Zarka comments that more contemporary films like Sharktopus (2010), Sharknado (2013), Ghost Shark (2013), and The Meg (2018) show an interesting evolution of the genre: “It’s like sharks can get you anywhere – pools, sinks, buckets of water, even fire hydrants on the street.” Dr. Zarka believes these films also speak to our modern desire to reconnect with the supernatural; “The idea that scientists could somehow find an ancient creature like the megalodon hiding out there is terrifying but also thrilling.”

Unfortunately, profit sometimes often gets in the way of distinguishing sensationalized fiction from reality. Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week, once a celebrated educational program, broke the public trust in 2013 with the mockumentary Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, which falsely suggested that the extinct prehistoric shark could still be roaming the world’s oceans today. In Sharksploitation, marine biologist Vicky Vasquez discusses how this misleading programming, alongside other pseudo-documentaries such as Animal Planet’s Mermaids: The Body Found (2012), has damaged marine conservation efforts by directing public attention away from real oceanic conservation efforts in favor of fantasy.

The film wraps up by acknowledging that the impact of Jaws on human-shark relations was not all negative. The original sharksploitation blockbuster inspired many young fans to pursue careers in oceanography and marine conservation. While it may have made some viewers scared to step into a bubble-filled bathtub, let alone the ocean, Jaws remains a beloved film to this day and is still considered an important piece of cinematic history. “In a way,” Dr. Zarka states near the film's end, “campy sharksploitation has made sharks less scary because of their ridiculousness. If we approach it as fun and an exaggeration and not as reality, I think we can appreciate it.”

The WOW:

– Hands down, my favorite thing about this documentary was the way it traced the history of sharks in folklore, art, and film in almost a narrative arc. I haven’t seen many shark documentaries that acknowledge the important role of sharks in non-Western cultures. As someone passionate about folklore and mythology, I appreciated that this was addressed early in the film. Showing that sharks’ relationship with humanity has not always been negative was a thought-provoking and wise way to open the documentary.

– The vintage film and documentary footage were fun to watch and a great way to visualize the evolution of sharks in cinema. I think the commentators did a good job of making thoughtful comparisons between different films and film eras.

– What I appreciated the most about this documentary was that it featured a vast array of experts weighing in on the nature of sharksploitation. It may not seem like horror film historians, marine scientists, and action film actors have much in common, but I found each speaker had something insightful to share that contributed to the cross-disciplinary conversation. I was also pleased that Peter Benchley’s wife, Wendy Benchley, was given a spot in the film to speak about her late husband’s work as a writer and his subsequent career as a marine conservationist. I had always heard that Mr. Benchley later regretted writing Jaws due to the novel and film’s negative impact on sharks, and Wendy Benchley confirmed this to be true; before her husband died in 2006, he told her, “There’s no way I could write Jaws now.” The Meh:

– I don’t have too much in the way of criticism about Sharksploitation. If I had to offer one piece of critique, I would have liked to have heard more from the horror film historians featured in the film and their thoughts on how depictions of sharks in cinema might reflect the real-life social and political anxieties of the audience (one of my favorite topics to discuss concerning the horror genre, and especially now that eco-horror – which Jaws subsequent sharksploitation films could arguably fall under – is currently having a huge moment).

Final Thoughts:

If you’re a fan of Jaws, the horror genre, film history, or are interested in sharks in any capacity, I think you’ll enjoy Sharksploitation. It’s a well-made and fun documentary that will make you think differently about shark movies and why their appeal has endured for so long. And if somebody out there gets inspired to write a better screenplay than most of the shark films that have come out since Jaws – and bonus points if anyone is willing to build actual props for it – I will be the first one to buy tickets!

[discet]

So what's the trio like in the Scorched Earth AU?

Aw man, Im glad people enjoy the SE!AU Edit: Wow this post got long. Context for the AU

The trio in the au grew up in the small settlement of Old Saint. All are 15 (everyone is 2 years older in this AU.) Born within a season of each other, the girls I think were raised together probably from infancy.

Anne's parents ran the Inn/restaurant in town. They are good doting parents, though a little strict with Anne trying to keep her safe.

Sasha father was a woodsman while her mother raised some kind of chicken-adjacent animal. They weren't divorced but they reaaaaally should have been. Sasha has a reasonably

Marcy's father was a kind of town tinkerer: forging tools, fixing stuff, etc. Marcy's Mom was a trader, often doing circuits around the valley delivering some of the tools and inventions her husband makes. Very attentive to her education, but are often busy for most other things.

Timeline

Age 5: The three of them are fully conscious kids and are adorable little kiddos running around and being sweet.

Age 8: All learning bits and pieces from their parents trade. Anne learns to forage for spices and herbs in the forests around Old Saint and cook some of her family recipes. Sasha is taught how to identify tracks in the forest to avoid monsters and how to handle an axe. Marcy learning tinkering, math, and figures

Age 10: Starting to grow more independent and exploring the forests around Wartwood. The Trio sets up a kind of secret hideout in one of the natural caves a short distance out of town.

Age 11: One summer just before the summer melts the mountain pass Marcy's parents approach the Boonchuy's and ask if they can look after Marcy for the summer. They and a few other merchants from the valley have joined together to form a little caravan to head to a major settlement to trade outside of the valley they should be back before the winter. Marcy and Anne were of course on board, summer of sleepovers. The Boonchuy's are of course happy to look after her. Marcy gives her parents a big hug as they head off.

Age 12: The summer and fall pass by but they don't return. Then the valley gets cut off again and now Marcy is with them for the winter. But it's probably all right. They got waylaid or delayed... but then the summer comes again, the pass melts and Marcy's parents still haven't returned. So Marcy just... doesn't really leave and the Boonchuys carve out a little bit of their home for her to make her own. (They never get news of what happens, but some time during the road trip I think they find the remnants of the caravan, destroyed and looted). Marcy ends up starting to help out keeping the books and fixing up things around the Inn

Age 13: Sasha has had enough. Now an important detail for this AU, Sasha has pretty good relationships with her parents individually, but has been in a cooking pot of toxicity since she's been five. In the middle of two people she cares about as they snipe and hurt each other. She blows up at both of her parents just unloading years worth of repressed frustration with the both of them before storming out for the day. She goes and retrieves Anne and Marcy from the Boonchuy's and they all go off ranging for the day in the forest so she can just be somewhere else. Night comes and as the trio is finally deciding they should head back, they see a bright light coming from the town along with smoke rising.

It was the herons they're told, came in, wrecked a great deal of the town. They find Sasha's parents among the wreckage, and Sasha has to deal with the guilt that the last thing she said to her parents was that she "hated living in this house with you!"

With no other place to go, the Boonchuys of course step up and take Sasha in as well. Sasha helps out around the inn as a waitress on busy nights and provides meat for the kitchen thanks to her new obsession - monster hunting.

Sasha becomes possessed by the idea of killing the herons who killed her parents. Marcy and Anne narrowly convince her to not just storm straight into the valley to look for their nest. Eventually landing on the argument that she should work her way up so that when the time comes she'll be ready. Which is how Marcy and Anne get kind of dragged into her obsession and we get a bit of that toxic dynamic from canon. With Sasha pushing her friends into ever more dangerous situations and dismissing their concerns about them.

Age 15

Start of story. The trio have become pretty adept monster hunters in the intervening years. Marcy specializing in trapping and knowing the weaknesses of various creatures (many a late night in the archives equivalent to make sure they were prepared for anything they meet out there). Anne with her athleticism is on scouting duty and more often than not in charge of leading creatures into the ambush. Sasha of course is the muscle, dealing killing blows when the plan goes right and straight up fighting when things go wrong.

Bee and Oum are of course concerned about this new hobby, and not just for Anne's sake since they've come to see Sasha and Marcy as their own. But its hard for them to raise too much of a protest since by this point they've probably saved various folks around town and driven off some predators together. They're just relieved when the three of them come home at the end of the day.

Also just some quick outfit ideas.

Anne wears mostly lightweight clothing to stay agile on her feet, with a chitinous breastplate to keep her organs safe. Maybe a hunting spear to hold monsters at bay.

Marcy doesn't wear a lot of armor herself instead relying on mossy looking cloak to camouflaged her. Wields a heavy crossbow she fashioned for herself to aid a fight from afar.

Sasha wears armor Marcy fashioned for her of furs and chitin and wields with her father's woodcutting axe.

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Legend of Vox Machina: Into Rimecleft (2x06)

Eyyyyy we're splitting the party, this should be good.

Cons:

Okay. So. Keyleth encouraging Vax to talk to the Matron of Ravens... I get why they added this little detail in, but to be honest it's a characterization change I'm not sure about. Keyleth in the streams has always  been very dismissive or even distrustful of the gods. It feels weird that she should be the one to gently nudge Vax towards exploring that relationship. Maybe I'm misremembering and Keyleth says something to him in the stream too, it's hundreds of hours of gameplay and character choices aren't always 100% consistent, but this just rang false for me as a Keyleth moment.

Literally I have no other complaints though, this episode is perfect.

Pros:

I've been saying that all the episodes could use a couple more minutes of breathing room, and this episode really helped by having a section where everyone's just walking on their journey to meet the second sphinx, and they have a chance to chat, to catch up. The aforementioned Vax and Keyleth moment happens there, and we have Pike worrying about Grog, we have the ADORABLE moment of Percy giving Vex his coat... he's so smitten, I love it. It just really gave the group a chance to breathe and check in with each other before their next big moment of tension.

Grog's nightmare at the start of the episode was so intense, and was mirrored so beautifully by the agonizing ending where he stabs Pike with Craven Edge! This is changed in circumstances to how it happened on the stream, although something similar did occur, and it's so brutal to see it play out! Travis is killing it in the voice acting department. He really only offered comic relief last season, but now he gets to shine.

That goes double for Scanlan - see, when I started watching Critical Role during campaign one, my original favorites were, quite predictably, the twins and Percy. Percy's got that anime angst thing going on, and then pretty quickly so does Vax, after the Sunken Tomb incident. But as I kept watching, slowly emerging to the forefront of my "favorite characters" list was... Scanlan Shorthalt. It's partly the genius of Sam Riegel. He's such a charismatic man, he can take the jokey little gnome bard character and just shatter you to pieces with what happens next. And since watching this show, they have the time and space to set that up properly... hot damn, this is one of my absolute favorite episodes of the whole show thus far.

To start, we see that Scanlan does have people checking in on him, in their own way. He's not as completely isolated as he pretends to be, it's just that his humor is deflecting people from noticing his pain. Grog offers to carry him to warm him up, and yeah it's a comedy beat, and yeah Grog is manhandling him, but that's Grog's way of showing he cares, too. And Pike wants to talk to him about Grog, and yeah she tells him off for making a dumb joke, but she was looking for some sincere conversation from him, and he was the one who failed to give it.

Then we get Kamaljiori. This is a significant shift from how this encounter went down on the stream. I actually laughed out loud when the sphinx just introduced himself, because let's just say that's definitely not how it went the first time around! I love how Kamaljiori's trials are similar to Osysa's, in that they both involve touching on the insecurities of the party members: Vex doesn't have family who cares about her other than Vax, Grog needs to find where his strength comes from, etc., but it's also different. They're finding fun ways to mix up all the different combat scenarios from the show, what with this being a one-on-one test of strength that's ultimately won by emotional damage.

Fucking Scanlan, pulling out a pop ballad to wound Kamaljiori's heart... and it's honestly such a good song? Sam has such a good voice, damn! I actually got goosebumps. It's such a funny twist, and so heartfelt, and Scanlan actually finds a friend who understands him on an emotional level, who he can joke around with but who understands there's a heart under all that, and that he's having a hard time. It's so heartwarming for Scanlan to find this, and he even gets his own Vestige out of the deal! Mythcarver. I like how they've added in the twist about Mythcarver being tied to all the other Vestiges, so it can lead them to find the others as we go.

And then... just to pile on the angst... looks like with Ripley's assist, Umbrasyl has found Vox Machina. This was such an epic showdown, and again it's increasing the menace of these dragons. We just watched how Vox Machina couldn't get a hit in on this Sphinx, and now Umbrasyl is able to go toe to toe with him! I was genuinely moved by Scanlan and "Kammi" defending each other during the fight. This ancient powerful being risked his life to protect his new little friend. In fact, he lost his life, after thanking Scanlan for letting him see Osysa once more before the end. This totally broke my heart!

And while we're all being sad about this Sphinx dying, meanwhile Grog is losing his battle to control Craven Edge, as he ferociously tackles Umbrasyl single-handed. Keyleth is trying to get a plane shift spell going, Grog is covered in Umbrasyl's blood and won't stop attacking, Pike tries to stop him and... gets impaled for her trouble! Gasp!

I'm actually really excited to see the Fey Realm stuff play out and the Westruun story also take strides, while our party is split up. It feels like it's a good opportunity to mix things up, and honestly will build to a really satisfying reunion in a few episodes!

A couple small things to call out: the Vax and Percy tension is still there simmering in the background. He's short with Percy about reading the runes, then shoulder-checks him on his way to go face the Sphinx. I'm obsessed with guilt-ridden Percy trying to make nice with Vax and just getting nowhere... I hope we get some of that in the next batch of episodes. Keyleth has a moment where she's hesitant about trying an unfamiliar spell, and Vax calls her "Kiki" and encourages her to try, and she is quite calm and more self-assured than we'd normally see her as she agrees to try. I love this! She's growing into her confidence more and more! Grog's attempts to hide what's happening with Craven Edge are very suspicious but also very funny. This week, he claims he was talking to the trees, to throw Pike off the scent.

And that's it! I can't believe this show keeps making me wait after such tense moments. Pike is seriously injured, Grog is drowning in guilt, the group is separated... can't wait to see more next week!

10/10

[lastlycoris]

I spoke about the green sun earlier and how exposure to its light produces symptoms after three days. However, it's the plants that are the real danger. Luckily as non-combat personnel, I'm far in the backline, but I am in the world camp because of emergencies.

We found no signs of mammals or lizards in the area. I suspect it's because the plants wiped them out, and this may be a recent phenomenon. Part of my analysis is looking at the plants' means of parasitizing its victims - aka the unfortunate people who entered prior to the military and some military folk too.

Before I get into specific plants, let's talk about their generalities.

Most of the plants here are red; I'm assuming this aids in the absorption of the green sun's light. The mobile ones have a specialized vasculature system not unlike our blood vessels except in the plants case, it's like a hydraulic engine using differences in fluid pressure to generate explosively fast motion.

A number of plants have a rudimentary muscular system more meant for sustained motion. They are similar to slow-twitch muscles in animals. They don't seem to have nerve cells or any analogue. Neither do they seem intelligent. They just seem solely driven by the need to feed and reproduce.

I guess we can start with the trees. The trees seem to be a group of plants that have a symbiotic relationship with each other. Their trunks are all spaced apart approximately a third of a city block from each other and seem unwilling to grow closer to each other.

The trees have red leaves and have bark with a similar hardness to iron. It seems the excessive hardness is likely an evolutionary adaptation to the majority of insects flying in the air, which are pretty much horse-sized mosquitos. The mosquito's proboscis pierce through the bark and drink the sap within, and they make a quick escape before they get slapped to death by the vines hanging off the tree.

The vines that hang off the tree are dull gray and are thick as one's wrist. They're primarily called "the tentacles" at the base camp. These tentacles can move from tree to tree via the branches. A number of them are growing into the ground - which gets important later.

The ones that are in the air lash and entangle anything that is within reach, including the mosquitos. This is usually enough to slap them into the ground where it will wrap around it and grow tendrils into the insect to absorb their nutrients. It usually drags them towards the roots of the tree it is currently on, suggesting that it shares the nutrients with the tree.

In the case of animals like humans though, these secrete a neurotoxin that can cause swift paralyzation to skeletal muscle with the exception being the diaphragm. It wears off after several hours if the plant is not in contact with the victim. It too pulls the victim into a large underground chamber beneath the tree where it continues growing into them and treating them as soil to drain nutrients from. The few very dead victims that are recovered before the dissolving step, where the tree rains concentrated acid into the chamber, all show that the final cause of death is starvation. Judging by the nail growth at the time of death, they were kept alive between 1-2 months meaning the plant has some means to supply water and maybe nutrition, likely from the root system growing into them.

The vines are ambush predators. They grow underground and can hook together to increase their effective hunting range. Once it detects motion above it, its hydraulic-based locomotion kicks in and lashes and wraps around an appendage where the toxin quickly kicks in, and the vines drag the victim back underground for feeding. No wonder most of the non-plant things here have adapted to fly.

Having such a specialized neurotoxin and feeding method is practically proof that mammals existed here once. The question now is where did they all go?

Maybe we didn't explore far enough. It's a bit hard to go deeper when you're practically surrounded by murder forest.

I also have a bad feeling that this may not be evolution at work - and all this might be engineered instead.

[lagotu]

4: Former friend, and invitation

(OOC T/N: This is a google-translated-with-some-minor-editing of an isekai harem webnovel called 異世界召喚は二度目です/Summoned to Another World for a Second Time. I did this mostly because the anime had a very iddy scene, and a little because I found another person doing the same thing but making much worse translation decisions. My interest in this project wanes as my favorite characters are cast aside and it becomes more apparent that the only relationships explored are ones that involve Setsu, so Chapter 4 is as far as it will go. This will be the only translator's note, so enjoy!)

A/N: I'm posting two pieces today, please take a look at them first.

The day after, I skipped training and went to Yuuhi and the top students' training ground.

I peeked at them from behind a wall. Their training was on a completely different level than the one I was at.

There was flying magi, slashes that cut the wind, fists that broke the sound barrier.

The four people training were attacking in different ways. The final person is-

"Here, here! Make the intervals between your attacks shorter! You are part of a four person party, if you don't coordinate, you won't even be able to land a single blow on me!"

It was a handsome blonde man wearing the castle guard's armor. He's so handsome that ten out of ten people would recognize him, and he's a good match for Kouma.

"Wow, you've gotten better at handling yourself after five years, Grain."

The one training the four heroes is my former companion, Grain Harmony.

He's a skilled swordsman known as "Swordsman Grain". Five years ago, he looked like a naive boy, but now he's a fine young man. According to Elka, he even has a fan club that calls him Mr. Handsome.

Grain was able to easily handle the four heroes' attacks, but I was still honestly impressed by their powers.

Jiro, wild and a real good looker, coats his fists with magic to do close combat martial arts.

Mizuki, who has twin tails, wields a dagger and uses her speed to fight close up.

Class hero Kouma has a shining golden sword, and attacks with both fire magic and slashes from a medium range.

If you have a holy sword, you're definitely a hero.

The holy sword is a skill that anyone with the hero class can use, and the strength depends on the hero.

Kouma's sword is the Excalibur type, the most common type in the hero industry. Wielding it enables all sorts of skills: exorcism, light slash, body boost, and magic boost. It really is a hero's sword.

... I also have the hero class, so theoretically, I could also use that holy sword.

I mean, if you could call that piece of junk a holy sword, but...

As I looked into the distance, I heard a roar coming from Grain's training ground.

A huge fireball the size of a two-story house appeared.

The caster was my childhood friend Yuuhi. She seems like a powerful magician. The fact that she wasn't even winded after shooting that much magic proves her ability. She must have grown quite a bit.

However, it's still no match against Grain.

He cut through the flames without a single scorch mark.

The four of them were smiling bitterly, as if they expected this.

"That attack now wasn't bad. You're doing well. I'll leave it at that for today and get some rest," Grain said with a smile.

When the four of them heard that, they looked as if they were collapsing. It looked like he was fighting with a lot of concentration, and though there didn't seem to be physical injuries, his face looked strained.

"Wow, Grain-sensei, you're really strong..."

"That dagger won't even pierce me..."

Of course, it's not something you heroes can do anything about, even though you've only had your powers for about a week.

... Well, this is above standards for a week, but what's more, Grain is above standards.

"Yuu, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine! What about Kouma?"

"It's fine as long as Yuu is fine."

The two of them were talking to each other and drinking water brought by the castle maid.

Kouma's gaze was fixed on Yuuhi drinking water. I see, she's popular.

Oh, but you have to prioritize your own business over someone else's romance.

I wanted for Grain to walk a bit further and be more distanced from the four, and dashed at him with all my might.

"What? Guoh!?"

I snatched up Grain in an instant and carried him to a shady building.

"Huh? Where's Grain-sensei?"

"Did he go to the bathroom?"

"You're a weak child!! Where did you get this kind of power! What is this?"

When I dropped him off at the back of the warehouse, Grain immediately pulled out his sword.

Hmm, interesting.

I'll beckon you with my hand.

"Grrr!"

When I let go some murderer intent, Grain, covered in a cold sweat, brandished his sword and charged at me.

By applying a little murderous intent, you can create a situation where if you don't kill, you'll be killed. If you can ride it, you can bring it into battle without thinking like Grain does now.

This is a technique I devised to force a situation of self-defense.

Dodging his sword, I calmly observe.

He's raised his arms considerably. If I let my guard down, I'd probably be hit.

Well, that won't happen.

I timed it, and blocked Grain's sword with my bare hands, strengthened with magical power.

"What!?"

Ignoring his shock, I swung my legs around.

"It's about time I reminded you of fear..." I had an evil smile on my face as I kicked Grain in the crotch as hard as I could.

"Ah!"

A handsome guy holding his balls and collapsing. Looking good.

"This... this technique... oh, <Male Killer>... aghh..."

"Oh! Do you remember my kick?"

"No way... Setsu... nnngh..."

THUMP

"Ohh!? Don't faint!"

I shake Grain, who has fainted from the pain. My kick was that effective...

...

"What about the balls?"

"I'm safe."

"That's too bad, you pretended to be trying."

"No, thanks to you, I was able to accept you as Setsu-san right away."

Grain woke up a few minutes after he passed out. We were leaning against the wall of a building, talking.

"I never expected you to appear by summoning a hero..."

"I was surprised too. I was looking for a way to return back there, but I couldn't find it on my own. It was just a coincidence that I was summoned this time."

"In that case, let's be thankful for this coincidence. We were also researching ways to summon Setsu again at the castle..."

"Oh, I heard it from Elka."

"Oh! You've already met Elka."

It seems like these guys were trying pretty hard to bring me back. That feeling honestly made me happy.

“Have you met Tia yet?”

"No, not yet."

"In that case, please go see her today. She's still researching how to summon you."

"I see...Then I definitely need to let her know that I'm back."

"Yes, she'll be happy, I'm sure!"

Well, if you say that much, I'll go show my face today. I was actually thinking of doing it tomorrow.

"Then it's time to go- Ah, that's right. I'll probably be leaving here soon."

"Is that so," Grain says.

"? You're not surprised."

"Well, given you're Setsu, that's pretty predictable."

Why am I so easy to understand?

"I see...well, that's why I'm going to cross the continent and meet those guys."

"Oh! Everyone will be happy about that! And you're saying it will stop the war, right?"

"Is it that obvious...?"

It's easy to understand, so that's what Grain told me.

"Well, okay. I'll go then. It's nice to meet you, Grain."

"Welcome... it's good to see you back. I'm really happy, Setsu-san."

"Oh, see you then. On the mean time, please keep an eye on Sunset for me."

"? You mean Yuuhi?"

"Yeah. She's my childhood friend on the other side. She seems to be taking advantage of her position, but please keep an eye on her. If something happens to her, you'll be sentenced for the crime of murder again, right?"

"Huh!...I'll keep it in mind."

I remind myself again and say goodbye to Grainne.

It's nice to meet old friends again. Feelings and personalities that have been suppressed until now can be released.

I decided to return to the castle to meet my final companion, Tia.

...

I, Grain Armony, was excited to be reunited with Setsu for the first time in five years. After he disappeared, there was a hole in my heart from his departure.

The hole was filled and I returned to my dorm in a good mood for the first time in a while.

On the way, the three heroes I was entrusted with training. Jiro, Mizuki, and Kouma, ran up to me from the other side.

“Where did you go, teacher?”

“I looked for you!”

That's what Jiro and Mizuki say.

I remember that I suddenly disappeared and apologize properly.

"I'm sorry, but a friend suddenly came to visit and I was dealing with him."

There was something strange about thinking of Setsu and I as being friends, but when I think about it, I think that's the kind of relationship we always had.

"Old friends? What's the use of that?"

"We want to train a little more, could you please join us for a little while?"

Kouma's eyes were serious when he said that.

I took the afternoon off today because it was the final battle where I covered the basics, but judging by the way it was, I guess it wasn't enough.

"I don't mind. What about you, Yuuhi?"

After I agreed, I noticed that Yuuhi, who Setsu had told me to keep an eye on earlier, wasn't there.

“Ah, Yuu went to the castle because he had something to do, right?”

Judging from what Jiro said, it seemed like he had properly declined before heading over, so I was relieved.

"I see... then, let's continue with the training."

I visited the training ground again to fulfill their request.

―My groin still hurts a little.

...

"Hey Necro-yuki, where'd you go today?"

As I was going back to the castle, I was captured by some troublesome idiots. Seriously...

As I desperately hold back my sigh, Endo wraps his arms around my shoulders, as friendly as ever.

"Don't you think you're being lazy today? Are you going to be strict with yourself so that you won't misbehave again?"

Endo's grinning...and so is his entourage.

As I was desperately holding back my sigh-

“Wait a minute, Endo!!”

There was a voice that made us still.

When I turned my head towards the direction of the voice, I saw Yuuhi. She walks towards us, muttering that she has finally met her.

"H-Hanabashira!? Oh, what do you need from me?"

Endo is flustered by Yuuhi's beauty, but Yuuhi's face droops and she responds in a disgusted voice.

"Ah, nothing. I have something to do with Yuki. So, could you lend me Yuki for a little bit?"

"Ah...yeah."

At Yuhi's words, Endo just left... it was really pathetic.

"Thank you! Now, Yuki, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Ah……"

Yuuhi, who snatched me away from Endo and the others, takes my hand. I looked behind myself and saw that Endo and his friends' eyes were stained with hatred. It's amazing that humans can have expressions like that.

After getting far enough away from them, Yuhi let go of my hand and suddenly jumped into my chest.

"Yay! It's been a long time since I've seen Yuki!"

“Oh, hey.”

I am hugged tightly by Yuhi. Her large breasts hit my chest, changing their shape. Wow, this is amazing.

...

As expected, I sensed a problem and tried to pull him away, but...

"Just a little bit away..."

"Haa~ It's been a long time since I've seen Yuki-kun~"

She just relaxed and put all his weight on him! Hmm, my chest is so big! !

"I was worried, weren't you? Yuki-kun said you didn't have any magic power...I was wondering what's going on."

"Well... I'm managing somehow."

"...It seems so, I'm glad you're doing well..."

"...It seems like you were really worried about me. I'm a little sorry."

"That's right, Yuki-kun! Next time you take the day off, would you like to go to town with me?"

“Town?”

Speaking of town, I'm talking about Destinia's castle town. It's quite spacious and has enough interesting things to keep you from getting bored.

It seems that Yuhi came to visit me today in order to make this invitation.

"How about it?"

"Ah, if that's all, sure. You came all the way to invite me on your day off."

"Really!? Absolutely! Yay!"

Sunset leaves me and says hurray. I don't feel the slightest bit of regret that the warmth is gone, I do. Or do I??

After that, we made small talk and talked about our lives.

From what I've heard, it seems like Yuuhi and the others' training is pretty hard. Grain's training is efficient, but it's pretty tough...

After that, we made plans to meet up. I had something to do later.

"I'm glad you came to see me today! Yuki-kun, I was able to replenish Yuki-kun's energy!"

What's Yuki-kun energy?

“If you have any trouble, please definitely ask for help!! Don’t break your promise to go out!”

"Okay, okay, okay, okay."

See you then! I saw Yuuhi off as she ran away.

...Well, I can't leave this continent until I can at least see the city with Yuuhi...

Am I in trouble?

"..."

At this moment I realized that...

Endo, hidden in the shadows, was glaring at me.

[fluffyprincereviews]

Super Lesbian Animal RPG Review

Game: Super Lesbian Animal RPG Price: $14.99 Platform(s): Steam Genre: RPG Developer/Publisher: ponett

What do you get when you mix furries, lesbians, magic, and strange monster activity? You get an RPG with super lesbian animals. Perhaps you'd call it...Super Lesbian Animal RPG? A bit too on the nose? Yeah, honestly the name isn't the best. But hey, you know what you're going to get when you jump into the game. Should the name deter you from playing it (if you like/don't mind lesbian furries)? I'd honestly say no. But let's dive a bit deeper into the game.

Story

Super Lesbian Animal RPG stars the members of the newly formed guild, the Novas: Claire, Jodie, Allison, and Melody. They all have aspirations to make it big and get their name on the map. Or at least, Claire and Allison do. Jodie agrees to tag along to make sure things don't instantly combust thanks to Claire and Melody joins to support her girlfriend Allison. That's not to say that they're not all in though, because they are.

But what was supposed to be simple, happy times filled with adventure morphs into world threatening danger as strange monster activity is occurring near Greenridge. Something is brewing behind the scenes and it's up to the Novas to explore around and figure out what exactly is going on.

The general story beats of Super Lesbian Animal RPG are well put together, taking you from one location to the next in your investigation. As you explore around, the stakes and tensions within the group get higher. Relationships of both the romantic and friendship kind are tested and the way that the game portrays everyone's relationship with one another is well done. Sometimes there are moments of contention between friends and lovers, and Super Lesbian Animal RPG isn't afraid to show that.

Characters

Much like any LGBTQ+ friend group, almost everyone that the Novas are friendly with are a part of the community in some way. Perhaps for some people, it's too “in your face”. To me though, it's treated as just a normal way of life because, shocker, it is. These are queer relationships, and they’re all just trying to make it in life.

What's really enjoyable about the characters though is that the game will show them making mistakes. They aren't perfect angels, but also aren't absolute demons. Just like you and me, they're people who sometimes do things that hurt others people's feelings. While there are characters that I like more than others, I found myself rooting for each character during their own individual story lines.

Side Quests

There are a couple of side quests that you can pick up as you explore around Greenridge and its surrounding areas. There are also quite a few that show up later in the game before the final act as well. Among those side quests towards the end are dedicated quests for each of the girls. These quests offer not just character development and a deeper look into the relationships they have with other people, but also unique items and powerups that are extremely helpful for the final battles. So whether you're looking for one last power boost, or you want a bit more story before heading into the final battle, the side quests towards the end give both.  

Gameplay

Super Lesbian Animal RPG is...well...an RPG. A turn-based RPG, to be more specific. If you are familiar with popular RPG series like Earthbound, Undertale, or old-school Dragon Quest, battles take place in that format, with the enemy taking up the middle of the screen. You are able to see enemy icons on the map as you're adventuring around and can avoid battle if you want to. However, avoiding battle means avoiding experience that allows you to level up and thus, get stronger. As you level up, you'll learn new skills, ranging from AOEs to stronger skills.

Combat

Turns are taken starting with you and then moving onto the enemy. You are able to use a regular attack, a skill, guard, or use an item. If you have a spellbook attached as equipment, there are additional skills that you can use as well. Skills use MP or Star Power, so you'll want to keep a close eye on this bar as it doesn't regenerate without the use of an item or one of Melody's skills. In order to gain Star Power, you have to perform an action that is representative of the class the character you're using is. For example, Melody gains one Star Power if she uses a healing spell while Allison gains one if she attacks regularly. It is easy to figure out how to boost your Star Power and you'll want to take advantage of skills that make use of your Star Power, as they tend to be much more power than your base skills.

In terms of difficulty, Super Lesbian Animal RPG is a “by the books” RPG. As long as you are battling against enemies normally, you'll progress through the game without any issues. Even against boss characters, there isn't much difficulty to be had. That's not to say that bosses are easily sweeped (unless you're overleveling), because bosses can and will hit hard. But Melody makes it easy to manage your team's HP and MP, Claire, and Allison deal heavy damage using their respective attacks, and Jodie acts as your tank.

Puzzles and Exploration

In the beginning of the game, all you'll really have to explore is the town of Greenridge and the nearby forest area. But soon after, the game opens up and lets you go to different places all around the vicinity. Unfortunately, one thing that makes exploring a bit frustrating is that there isn't a map feature by default. Instead, you have to purchase maps as you get to different regions. This is pretty cumbersome and makes exploring around a pain, especially when wandering into a new region for the first time. Of course, the areas aren't so big that it's impossible to figure out where to go. But it takes something that is standard in most RPGs and just makes it more tiring.

During your exploration, there are also some puzzles, like ice sliding puzzles. Outside of a couple, most of the puzzles can easily be walked through. There were plenty of times where I would initially look at a puzzle and be worried about having to spend a couple of minutes figuring it out, only to accidentally slide into the solution.

Aesthetics and Music

If there is one thing that really stands out with Super Lesbian Animal RPG, it’s the fact that the art is very bright and vibrant. Given the title of the game and the promotional art, this shouldn't come as a surprise though. When surrounded by other RPG games that are dark and grisly (nothing against those games!), having something that is the exact opposite is a nice breath of fresh air.

The music is reminiscent of old RPG games, with lots of chiptune (and even some hints of guitar and piano when things get really intense). And just like the pixel art, the music is just as bright, and vibrant. There are quite a few catchy tunes to listen to and a nice variety between the super bright, face paced tracks and the more mellow beats.

Performance

In terms of performance, I'm not sure if this is exclusively a Steam Deck issue or an issue with the game in general, but I did find that as the text loads in (should you choose to have it all pop in at once rather than trickle in letter by letter) that the game freezes momentarily to catch up. It's nothing game breaking, but it is noticeable.

Experience on the Steam Deck

By default, the game controls aren't compatible with the Steam Deck and you'll need to either set up your own Community Controller Layout or use someone else's. Thankfully, someone had already created one that was ready to use and I found that those settings worked perfectly for me with the game.

Conclusion

Super Lesbian Animal RPG is both surprising and not. When it comes to the story and subject manner, it was obviously made with love and attention in mind. It is always nice to see a game with LGBTQ+ members being treated as people. They are simply existing in the world that they know, doing their best to survive in a world that demands money for rent and food.

But outside of the story and the characters, the gameplay is generally fun. The battles felt scaled in a way that made sense and I never felt the need to grind for additional experience. While it’s not changing anything in the RPG genre, it’s a nice palette cleanser and worth taking a deeper look into, should you be interested. 

Rating: 7/10

[strooples]

Some reviews on a handful of popular anime

This won’t be too in-depth, so basically a thoughts dump. But thinking about it, in terms of more popular anime + anime movies, I felt a bit let down seeing a few awhile back. My memories on each will vary in range, though it’s worth a shot to get down the mental notes I took.

In terms of anime, I wanted to talk about parts of “Komi Can’t Communicate” (which I was told beforehand was a story exploring a character with social anxiety) and “Horimiya”. Both did some funny things, both had new/refreshing takes. But likewise, both stories had other issues that made it a bit hard to generally enjoy. So, I’ll start with those 2.

1) Komi Can’t Communicate

In “Komi Can’t Communicate,” I felt kinda bugged how the MC was treated while Komi sort of rebounds on the impossibly-pretty-therefore-everyone-is-obsessed-with-her situation. Some of the classmates start off cold to Tadano (the MC) and very generously nice to Komi on very superficial standards. I guess I expected social anxiety to generally be explored in its alienating aspect over reverence. Though you could say that many of the classmates initially didn’t see Komi as an equal human being genuinely. The random instances of meanness towards the MC and superficial treatment towards Komi threw me off heavily because not being able to communicate to anyone and struggling to fit into a new, very judgmental schooling environment are some serious issues.

Komi and Tadano, the 2 main characters.

It was still pretty hard to see people so angry at the main character for existing, even some of the later friends of Komi. My SO who enjoyed the show more than me did tell me of Komi’s group of friends, only 1 has gone extremely far (like, beyond the brink of acceptable comedy) and even they have seen repercussions for harmful actions. But it feels weird to have things bounce back so lightly bc the ML ended up being the butt of jokes. At the same time, it’s hard to deny how the concept of a socially-phobic girl who struggles to talk and speak to those around her — yet being idolized by those same people as almost a status symbol over a human being — was still interesting overall. Also just the desire to make genuine friends, despite struggling with your anxieties around others.

Minus the yandere girl who takes things too far, there’s genuinely nice moments — Komi opening up, Komi’s wholesome family (+ etc.). And some genuinely funny characters/situations, like the blond guy (I forgot there names; it’s been awhile) who looks scary on the outside but is also nervous inwardly. Overall, it wasn’t my cup of tea even though it wasn’t bad??

2) Horimiya

*Okay, so technically I didn’t start with the anime. I read the manga but I admittedly do really like the author’s art style!

“Horimiya” also starts with a concept that could’ve been elaborated on and lead to interesting scenarios — mainly the 2 MC’s living somewhat of a different life outside of school than their schoolmates would expect. In that category, it’s sort of like a more recent rendition of a “Switch Girl”-esque romcom story. It starts with a refreshing confession that happens basically the beginning. No mishaps or drawn out tensions & dramas beforehand (which could be done well too in other stories but also super super common). However, after that the original concept of a double life gets thrown away and the story gets super super slice-of-lifey. Which isn’t bad in general (a lot of times the humor was fun). Though TBH it generally felt directionless after, and not in a relaxing way I expected from SOL but sorta just… hard to continue? I got a bit bored and struggled to keep reading.

I also had issues with some of the gags (like the girl-beating-up-the guy/basically-abusing-him-played-off-as-a-joke trope) and the relationship norms (just in general how jealousy and possessiveness seemed normalized/expected). The violence was a bit… much? The LGBT jokes like on same-sex relationships was too much also. And it was generally a bit buggy to see Miyamura constantly get physically punished by Hori for situations he didn’t understand/couldn’t have, or situations he was even right in.

The main focus/relationship was what stagnated the work. And already, it was unfortunately the relationship we were supposed to pay attention to most wasn’t ideal for Miyamura, had little chemistry (my subjective opinion here though), and sorta just dredged out. I’d much prefer a lot of the duller moments to be exchanged for other things. Some of my suggestions being on how they could’ve elaborated on characters like Shu’s sister, Sakura, Yanagi etc.

But I do feel one of the best strongpoints of the story was when Hori and Miyamura were at the Hori’s residence. The scenes were comforting and happy, seeing how the entire family and Miyamura spent time together and had dinners. I also ended up rooting for Sakura because of how grounded and down-to-earth she was. So the SOL moments in this wasn’t too bad of a thing, and there were decent aspects and a few likeable characters. It just wasn’t enough to make it great in particular.

Now, in terms of movies…..

…it’s got to be 2 that I watched awhile ago. A handful of things left me leaning towards feeling indifferent at the end of the day, and those were “A Silent Voice” and “Your Name.” Both had massive debates in online circles over which was the best anime movie of the year, but both fell a bit flat for me personally despite all the build-up. For “A Silent Voice” though, I do think the discussions it generated were pretty important because it resonated with a lot of people’s personal experiences (so it isn’t something I mean to discount & the themes it touched upon made it a bit more interesting).

3) A Silent Voice

I think “A Silent Voice” had a lot more that could be said of it, both good + unhelpful towards its prime topic of bullying. IMO, it’s interesting to have the main character be a former perpetrator-turned victim. I think we’re able to see a lot of nuance, namely how even the formerly-unsympathetic side can feel remorse, can grow up with low self-esteem, can even be a victim themselves. We see the situation flip, people change, and people with the capacity to want to be better. And we also see how fast a society/group of people are, in terms of ignoring the main problem to ostracize a scapegoat — while trying to shirk facing consequences or guilt of their own. It’s especially interesting & heart-wrenching that we go to see the life-long trauma inflicted to both Shoya and Shouko. All the while their other perpetrators are ignored (like Kazuki, who bullied both). We also see terrible people being terrible in different ways, from the more visibly terrible Ueno to the self-victimizing Kawai who will put on an innocent face — even tears — all while pretending she has no idea of horrible things she enabled/even partook in.

But where it goes very, very wrong is structuring it out to be a love story of a victim with her former bully. Though I liked the concept of the former bully try to make amends — genuinely feeling guilt and wanting to do better — writing it in that direction had very Stockholm Syndromey-vibes. They could’ve eventually become friends; they didn’t need to develop romantically and the situation honestly didn’t requisite such a relationship. You could argue that people do get Stockholm Syndrome and start feeling that way when given decent treatment by those who’ve formerly hurt them, but then it would’ve been written a bit differently. Like not really emphasizing romantic feelings, but rather a mix of situations and confusing problems, where a crush wasn’t centric to the themes presented.

The aforementioned friend group, strung together by the end of the movie. I think there was a few more but I don’t remember quite clearly?

The ending especially was very uncomfortable where Kawai was presented as a good person trying to pep-talk Shouko and all the main characters are in a now-formed friend group, sort of just mashing together. Ueno’s issues and callousness towards Shouko were never resolved, yet they were in there together. It was presented as a happy ending, but I think a lot of the characters fundamentally had issues (like did Shoya honestly feel good around all these people??? Did Kawai basically BS to look/feel like a good person while never owning up?? Is Shouko going to be re-traumatized around a horrible person like Ueno??).

All of the above combined made me leave the movie with general discomfort. Though at the time, I couldn’t put into words what was wrong? It took awhile for me to think the situation wasn’t that great for Shoya and Shouko, still.

Onto our last review dumping!

4) Your Name

“Your Name” is the last anime franchise I wanted to talk about, and I don’t deny the animation and art were pretty amazing! Like you could see the gruesome and tedious effort put into every little scene.

Seriously though, the picturesque backgrounds are where most Makoto Shinkai works shine! Though I didn’t love this movie as much as others did, it does really make me curious of his past & future works.

But as a story? I don’t think it had much depth. Which doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable, because it was still fun watching. It was just lackluster for a movie that wanted to build up the emotional aspects.

Of course, it has some good build-up and somewhat of an atmosphere for the deeper emotions in the world. There was also an underlying thread about traditions vs. the modern world, what is lost vs. what we must preserve. Personally, those messages don’t resonate with me but they are things can could be worked with and built up pretty well. We see it in how Mitsuha wants to move away from her slow, mostly-rural hometown to pursue a life in the more bustling, modern city of Tokyo. Her background? Living with her primary caretaker — her grandma, the main female figure of Mitsuha’s life. Her grandma wants her to partake in the spiritual traditions of their Shinto shrine, from shrine maiden rituals to watching the grandma sew on an old loom that’s now nothing more but a loss art. And then we get the strained family relationships: How her dad abandoned his duties to the shrine for a career in politics after their mother died, while Mitsuha (now older) generally resents/dislikes his presence as an uptight bureaucrat vying for his image. Deep down, she doesn��t feel either of their lifestyles are ideal. But like her father, wants to shed aside traditions for something more modern (such as a big city life). We end up with that dichotomy, which is a strong basis to begin with.

The Shinto shrine maiden ceremony.

So with all of that, we generally expect to have insight into the family life and background of Taki (the ML). But instead, besides his school friends and work crush, we don’t even hear or see much of his dad. His home life is left an absolute blank sheet, with his character staying incomplete. He’s a blank slate with nothing but a spot for the viewers to project themselves into. He has a job. He has an oddly specific hobby of drawing detailed pictures of lots of landscapes and structures. That second one is especially interesting — like wtf, he can draw complex structures by memory?? Yet it doesn’t get elaborated upon at all. Nothing does.

So the love story follows. There’s a lot of emotional scenes, body switches, disastrous current events, memories forgotten at the end of the day before they all meet up again. But nothing quite tied me to the ML nor even Mitsuha. I did feel invested in them meeting each other. Yet as people, I wasn’t quite invested in Taki nor fond of either. Which for a love story, is bad because you’d hope to see the other half being built up with solid background and characterizations. Leaving his life stories empty felt like it meant he was someone we could project ourselves into (and perhaps that was the purpose as is in many romance genre stories?) but it made it a lot weaker and less elaborated. Being a core, fundamental detail and all.

On my end conclusions:

I really thought each of these stories had more potential. Either to be in-depth, nuanced, interesting, or better-structured (and/or needing a few character reforms). Also, I fully see why someone would enjoy a large chunk of them or feel inspired by them. Sadly, each fell flat for me.

Though of the 4, I often think of “A Silent Voice” because regardless of its flaws, such a work is important at beginning a lot of discussions — such as the hardcore school bullying in Japan or bullying in general. And for “You Name,” it really introduced me to Makoto Shinkai works and a few of his other movies, so I don’t deny the talent behind his skills and creativity in a lot of instances. It was mainly those that stuck with me?

At the end of the day, I hope I elaborated my thoughts on what I found good in each and what made me not feel as invested in them! And of course, if you felt other things were done better or ended up liking them more, that’s valid too and up for discussion!!

[bigfootbeat]

Bigfoot and Bears

Experts and enthusiasts debate Bigfoot's relationship with bears. In North American wilderness stories, both animals are important. Many theories and stories explore their interactions and similarities, blurring the boundaries between myth, truth, and the natural world. People claim that Bigfoot resides in the woods of North America. People describe it as a large, ape-like creature with two legs. Sighting reports typically describe a tall, hairy figure who looks like a person, walks straight, and shows signs of intelligence. Even though there is a lot of mythology and testimony about Bigfoot, there is still not a lot of solid evidence to support its existence. This is why many consider Bigfoot to be a cryptid, suggesting its presence but lacking scientific proof.

On the other hand, we have frequently seen brown bears in these areas. There are different kinds of bears in North America, like the black bear, the grizzly bear, and the polar bear. Each one has its own habits and places to live. Bears are big, strong, and able to adapt to new situations. They often roam large areas in search of food. Their presence in the wild is well known and supported by a lot of biological and ecological studies. Because Bigfoot and bears inhabit some of the same areas, people naturally draw similarities and become confused. There have been numerous reports of bigfoot in bear-rich areas such as the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and some parts of Canada. This geographic overlap leads some skeptics to believe that a significant number of Bigfoot reports could simply be bears mistaking the creatures for them. Bears standing on their hind legs can resemble Bigfoot accounts when the forest is dense or there is little light. Meanwhile, Bigfoot believers say the two are very different. People often describe Bigfoot as walking and standing more akin to a human than a bear, which typically moves on all fours and only occasionally stands upright. Additionally, people claim that bigfoot exhibits distinct behaviors and appearances compared to bears. For instance, reports suggest that it possesses the ability to toss objects, produce intricate noises, and create large, human-like footprints. Numerous stories and tales also recount interactions between Bigfoot and bears. Some stories portray Bigfoot as a formidable creature capable of repelling or even engaging in physical combat with bears. Many of these stories emphasize Bigfoot's strength and intelligence, portraying it as the most formidable entity in the woods. Other stories say that bigfoot and bears live together in harmony, with neither species causing much trouble with the other. They both go about their daily lives with little contact. Cultural myths and symbols also reveal a connection between Bigfoot and bears. People from many different indigenous groups have long thought of bears as spiritual beings and strong totems that represent strength, courage, and introspection. In the same way, Bigfoot is an important figure in many Native American groups' myths. Many Native American groups often view him as a forest protector or a symbol of nature's wild spirit. The fact that these two characters show up together in cultural stories shows a deep respect for nature and its secrets. Scientists differ in their understanding of the relationship between bigfoot and bears. Some researchers view Bigfoot reports with greater skepticism, believing that people could mistake them for the creatures. Others view the connection from an ecological perspective, wondering how a big, elusive primate like Bigfoot could live with well-known top predators like bears. This line of research often looks into habitat, food sources, and territorial behavior to try to figure out how the cryptid's existence fits in with what we know about biology.

Documentaries, books, and movies often explore the connection between Bigfoot and bears in common culture. These images range from speculative and shocking to more realistic and in-depth, showing the wide range of opinions and interests people have about the subject. People have always been interested in both bigfoot and bears. This shows our natural curiosity about the unknown and wild and our desire to connect with nature. In the end, the link between Bigfoot and bears is still an intriguing mix of science, folklore, and speculation. It doesn't matter if you look at their stories through the lens of myth, misunderstood wildlife encounters, or the possibility of undiscovered species. They continue to intrigue and inspire us, keeping the mysteries of the wilderness alive in our minds.

[witchyligea]

Testing Astrology #3: Sagittarius in the 3rd House (Influenced by Jupiter and Pluto)

I will try to give explainations just to be more critical. And if can't then it means it's incorrect.

Sagittarius in the 3rd House

1.Philosophical Communication: You are likely to approach communication with a philosophical and open-minded attitude. You enjoy discussing big ideas, theories, and beliefs.

Honestly yes, I really do. I keep bugging my friends with random questions about god, euthanasia etc.✓

2.Love of Learning: There is a strong desire to learn and explore a wide range of subjects. You might be particularly interested in subjects related to travel, culture, philosophy, and higher education.

Yes, I want to study comperative literature for this. I need that accumulation of knowledge. ✓

3.Curiosity and Adventure: You have an adventurous mind and are curious about the world. You may enjoy traveling, both physically and mentally, to expand your horizons.

Yes, I do love seeing new places. I want to travel lots of countries. ✓

4.Optimistic and Enthusiastic: Your communication style is often optimistic and enthusiastic, and you enjoy inspiring others with your ideas and stories.

I can't agree on this one. People say I am depressing. X

Score: 3✓ 1X

Jupiter in the 3rd House

1.Expansive Communication: Your communication style is broad, generous, and optimistic. You enjoy sharing knowledge and can be an inspiring speaker or writer.

Yes, I love saying fun facts and writing.✓

2.Educational Pursuits: You have a strong passion for learning and may excel in educational environments. Teaching, writing, or any form of knowledge dissemination can be fulfilling for you.

Yes I keep trying to learn things right after I stop being exhausted from school. ✓

3.Positive Sibling Relationships: Relationships with siblings and close relatives are likely positive and supportive, with a shared love of learning and exploration.

They are very loving. It would be ungrateful to say otherwise, but it makes a lot more sense when I look at Pluto. ✓

4.Frequent Travel: You may have a love for travel, particularly short trips that allow you to explore new places and ideas.

Yes, I would definitely travel more often if I didn't hate car rides. ✓

Score: 4✓

Pluto in the 3rd House

1.Intense Communication: You approach communication with depth and intensity. You are not satisfied with superficial conversations and seek to uncover hidden truths.

Yes, this is why I love writing letters. If anyone wants to be online penpals dm me. ✓

2.Transformative Learning: Learning experiences can be profound and transformative. You may go through significant intellectual growth and changes in your perspective.

Exploring polytheism and witchcraft really did change my perspective on everything. Other than that my ideas do change over time like everyone else who isn't close minded af. ✓

3.Complex Sibling Relationships: Relationships with siblings and close relatives can be intense and sometimes challenging. Power dynamics may play a significant role in these interactions.

Unfortunately yes. I can't elaborate here on this one. It's too private. ✓

4.Interest in Hidden Knowledge: You are drawn to uncovering secrets and exploring taboo or mysterious subjects. Research and investigative work can be particularly appealing.

Yeah, that's why I'm into witchy shit and I keep asking weird questions about animals and death. ✓

Score: 4✓

I had never thought my birth chart would be quite accurate. Though it might be because these are too general. After I figure out my own chart I might try random ones in random houses to see if they fit.

link to my other posts on testing astrology

[1u11ablues]

Think With Your Heart, Feel With Your Brain(StuckyxOC)

Summary: Lilith packs for her stay.

WC: 1.8k+

Warning: Language. Just a lil' hint of M/M suggestive content(which will be explored in further chapters)

Chapter 3: Permission

As soon as she was done with her last slot of the week, she went home immediately to pack her stuff for her stay at the facility. Steve informed that someone will be there to assist her, but she didn't expect that person to arrive sooner than she thought. She barely had the time to locate her luggage before someone rang the bell. Bucky stood outside, hands in the pocket of his leather jacket, leaning on her door frame with a smirk on his face.

"Bucky? I thought Steve meant a staff member was coming or something." She stated, confused. Still, she invited him in and told him to make himself comfortable while she continued packing.

"I am a staff member. Plus, I volunteered. Do you need a hand with something?" He asks as he trailed her from the front door to her room before stopping just outside the bedroom doorway. 

Without looking at him, she answered, "No, I don't have that much to pack. I pretty much wear the same thing everyday so it's just grab and go."

In her periphery, Bucky leans over her door frame to look into her room, and she had the sense that he was trying to get a read on her. It was unsettling.

"Bucky…." she said, "I hate it when people watch over my shoulders like that. Please sit. Ask me your questions instead of assuming things."Because, good God, have people been doing that a lot. Always reading between her words, treating conversations like social warfare.

"Sorry, doll, just trying to see if your room could tell me more about you. You have a lot of interests." He muttered as he roamed her room. She had a bookshelf full of books on one side of the room, though books weren't the only thing she had on it. Random trinkets of a variety of interests she had fallen into were carefully arranged in some places; crochet animals, sketchbooks, art supplies and a lot of zombie-themed items.

'Yeah, I guess I do. I can't really help what my brain likes." She replied, zipping up her luggage and taking out a smaller carry on to bring some books for her stay. Maybe a sketchbook and some supplies, too. She doesn't know how long she'd be staying.

"Steve likes to draw as well. Maybe you guys can bond over that." Her head tilted at the surprising tidbit about Steve. Had she known that earlier, her views of him would probably be softer than it was. She does tend to make better connections with people who share her interest.

"That's cool," she acknowledged, "and what do you like?" It is common courtesy to ask what their interests are after she told them hers,right?  She read that somewhere before.

"Well, it's nothing like what you and Steve do, not the same level of artsy I guess, but I do like to take pictures once in a while."

"Oh, photography? It suits you. What do you normally shoot?" She loves photography too, not much in taking them, but they provided her with good references.

"Just nature. Buildings. Things I find pretty." He told her, voice quieter than normal, like he was trying to be humble. Maybe he is being humble. She felt it kind of endearing, actually. Passionate people are attractive to her. Almost all of her friends are people who had an obsession over very specific subjects, like role-playing and avians. 

"No people?" She asked, eager to know more about him.

His eyes went wide. 

"Uh, on special occasions." He replied.

 "I have taken several photos of Steve, but they were—how do I say it—unsavoury." 

For several minutes, her hands still as she tried to parse what he was trying to say. When she realised, he probably meant nude pictures, her eyes wide, mouth forming an 'o'. She doesn't judge what people do behind closed doors, but she never expected Bucky and Steve to have that kind of relationship.

"God, you probably think I'm some kind of creep now. I didn't—"

"No, I mean, as long as it's consensual, who am I to tell people what they could and couldn't enjoy?"

At her response, Bucky shuts his mouth mid sentence to recalibrate his next words.

"It's consensual, don't worry." He reassures her, raising his hands in a gesture to make his point clear. She smiled. Just a little quirk up on the corners of her mouth.

"Then that's okay. Are you—" she trailed off, not quite sure what to call whatever it is they had going on in between them. They seemed like friends the first time she met them, but maybe she's just bad at judging body language.

"Close friends, sometimes more." He explains, short. She assumed there was at least a deep emotional connection. While also fucking each other. 

While she'd never had someone to call her significant other, or at least a friend with benefit, she understands relationships can be complicated like that. So she won't press further.

"I'm done. Shall we go?"

***

The ride back to the facility was quiet. It seemed like Lilith was not much of a talker, though she didn't really give him the vibe of someone extremely shy, just a healthy amount of it. She was probably more comfortable with silence. So Bucky's approach was just to ask her questions and if she wanted to share more, then he'd let her. Either way, he won't force her into anything.

"How did you find out about your powers?" He questioned her.  She rarely mentioned it even in passing, which seemed weird to him considering it's the main reason she was there.

"As soon as I gained consciousness. So, when I was three?"

"That's a really young age to know you could do something like that. Surprised you handled it so well." And he checked—well, Steve did. Her records are clean. Not even mild destruction of property.

"I spent a lot of time at home. It helped." That makes sense.

"And what about school? I went through puberty a long time ago, but I know just how much hormones make us all wacky. Being a hormonal teen is one thing. Being hormonal and having superpowers…" is an entirely different category. There are hundreds of reports of telekinetic teens destroying buildings. And the stronger the power, the greater the destruction.

"Home-schooled through middle school, and I just kept to myself in high school."

It's really hard to gauge what she's feeling when she talks to him. She's not entirely expressive save for that smile she gave him earlier, one he will always cherish. Plus, her voice seemed a little…flat. Maybe he was being delusional when he thought she'd shown him interest before this. Shit. This was one of the biggest idiot moves—trying to befriend someone who doesn't want to be his friend. She's probably the way she is because of how she was raised, though, so maybe it'll be worth it to try just a little more to get her to break out of her shell.

"You don't talk much, huh?" He continued when they were stuck in a mini traffic jam.

"I don't. I like hearing you, though. Your…voice." 

Fuck. she was all cold before, then she said something like that, like it's something people just outwardly say in normal conversations. An in?

"Yeah?" he smirked, leaning back a little to face her slightly. "What do you like about it?"

She seemed to make a show of contemplating. It's almost always like this with her. She'd take a moment before answering, as if she was doing some tough mental maths.

"I like the little rasp when you end your sentences. It scratches my brain in a good way. You'd make a good audiobook narrator." His eyes squinted, trying to figure out if she was flirting or if it was just a genuine compliment.

"See, normally when women say things like that to me, they're flirting, but I can't tell that with you." The hands on her lap stirred, and Bucky was just now noting that she was rubbing her thumb repetitively like she's nervous of him. And not the good kind of nervous, either.

"Shit. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Next time I do that, you have permission to yell at me."

"Why would I do that?" She tilts her head as she asks him. Heaven above,  she's impenetrable.

"So I remember not to do it again? I think I've misread you from before, I thought you were interested in me," he explained, laughing at how silly this all is.

"I think you're very attractive." Lilith began, halting his laugh in its tracks. Her hands move in a rhythm, floating a piece of lint in between them using her powers. It's like he was whiplashed. From one emotion to another, with every word coming out of her mouth.

"I just don't know how to show my emotions well. I'm flattered you would want to flirt with me, but I don't think it should extend to more than that." 

"Can I ask why?" Bucky inquired, no longer able to rein in the string of curiosity. Lilith came into his life with the sole purpose of uncoiling it from its neatly arranged center.

"I'm…very hard to be with. I go days where I don't talk and days where I talk too much. And if I like something or someone, I latch into it like an obsession and forget that other people exist. Sometimes I hate being touched. Sometimes I require bone-crushing hugs. I don't want someone to think that they like me, only to find me too much to be with."

Too much. She said that she can be too much for someone. He emphatised to a certain degree, having suffered PTSD. But, more than anything, he wanted so much to be there for her and tell her that she would never be too much. He wished he was there to deal with the people who put these thoughts into her head.

"Lilith, I won't press if you don't want me to, but I don't flirt with someone I didn't already intend to make mine. And if someone's mine, I'll do whatever I can to keep them happy. If not talking for days makes them happy, then so be it. There are other ways to show someone you care besides words and physical touch."

She looked down again, picking at her finger, and Bucky wondered if he'd made his intentions too clear. God, he wants her. Want to learn everything he could about her. But he knows that what he feels is all too much too fast and that's not a good sign. He should talk to his therapist. The torrent of mixed feelings he's going through right now might be the very thing that spelled the end of whatever this is. Moderation. He needs to proceed with moderation.

"Okay then." Her words silenced his thoughts. He hated the way his cock jumped when she gave him that look she just did, like she's giving him a piece of her trust. "Go ahead, you have my permission to court me."

Chapter 2

AO3

[timeaftersometime]