#man this series was a bizarre mess

[schrijverr]

It Just Hits Different When It’s Batman

5 times a League member heard Batman use slang + 1 time they knew where the fuck he got it from.

This fic is based off this post by @wednesday-if-it-was-tuesday bc it was just too good! Hope you don't mind :D

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: none

~~~~~

1. Flash

Barry is pretty sure he has to get his hearing checked as he speeds through a city, trying to find a series of bombs, courtesy of a new alliance of villains. He and Batman are on bomb duty, thus sharing a private com line as to not distract the others or be distracted as they coordinate.

However, Barry is very much distracted by his own partner in this whole mess, because unless he’s gotten a few too many hits to the head in recent years, he’s pretty sure Batman just reported: “The bombs look like yassified thermos flasks.”

“What?” Barry chokes, nearly tripping over his own feet as he does.

Batman doesn’t seem to notice, instead explaining the bomb, not his wording: “The casing looks to be made from plastic, likely to escape Superman’s notice. Start checking water pipes, I found this one near a toilet. I’ll report again once I figure out how to disarm it.”

Okay, questing his sanity later, finding bombs, now.

So he zooms off again, having to agree with the fact that the bomb does look like a yassified thermos flask. He wonders if he can use that in his report or if Batman will scold him for language. He has worked with the man for long enough that he knows Batman isn’t above hypocrisy.

Then he wonders again if he even heard it right. In the heat of battle, the brain sometimes does weird things, especially when someone thinks at the speed of light. Or faster.

He’ll put it out of his mind for now, maybe tell Hal about it just so he’ll have someone to share the bizarre experience with.

Clark probably has a thesaurus, he should probably also find a synonym for yassified. Does a thesaurus have slang too?

2. Green Lantern

It’s true that Barry had told him about Spooky saying yassified in that one battle, but Hal hadn’t truly believed that Bats was capable of something like that. I mean, look at him. The guy might be a weirdo who dresses up as a Bat, but he’s not a weirdo who says shit like yassified.

However, at the moment it is starting to look more and more likely. Fuck, Barry is gonna give him so much crap for not believing him.

The moment in question is Batman working with him on the stealth mission. It’s one for the Green Lantern Corps, so Batman is doing him a favor. Though Hal is starting to wish that he hadn’t done him that favor, because Batman has just said: “It looks like Luthor is being thristy for Superman again. For someone who hates the guy, he sure wants his attention a lot. That’s Kryptonian honing device.”

Hal doesn’t react, still thinking about the fact that he’s just heard Luthor, thirsty and Superman in one sentence. In Batman’s voice no less.

“What?” he says.

“A Kryptonian honing device,” Batman repeats, sounding as if he thinks Hal is stupid, not uncommon. “So he can hone in on Superman, find him. Something we need to do something about.”

Hal decides to take the smart way out and lets the whole thing drop in favor of focusing on the mission. He’s not just telling Barry, but Ollie about this as well.

3. Cyborg

Being in the Justice League isn’t much different than being on the Teen Titans. Like right now, being in a building that could explode at any moment unless he hacks into the system and stops that from happening.

Ah, good old life-threatening pressure.

Batman is fighting some of the goons in the background. They’re on their own here, with the others fighting through an army outside to get to them. But it’s mostly up to them. Batman yells: “Cyborg, status.”

“I’m getting through, but something is bugging me about this whole thing,” Victor calls back. “I think there is someone I’m missing that will allow me to crack this.”

There are a few grunts in the background as Batman fights on, while Victor starts to scan through everyone who worked for the organization, trying to find the missing link.

He is interrupted by Batman, who says: “I took a tour here once. There was an intern, Kyle Paulson, he was kind of sus. Look him up.”

For a second, Victor is thrown by the sus in that sentence, but he quickly focuses back on what’s important. Indeed finding Kyle to be the missing link that gets him to disarm the bomb. While Batman is taking out the last of the bad guys.

In fact, the whole thing slips his mind until he’s writing his mission report, going through the footage to get accurate information in there. Then he pauses again, before dismissing it. Those who trained under Batman are always prepared, maybe it’s not slang but shorthand to be useful in the moment. Or he’s trying to include him, sweet, though unnecessary.

Victor puts it out of his mind.

4. Green Arrow

Ollie doesn’t believe Barry or Hal for a second. Like, really? Batman using slang that the sidekicks are using?

Sure, Nightwing sometimes uses some here and there, but Red Robin is always very professional and Robin is closer to a Shakespearean actor than a TikTok teen. There isn’t anyone else he could have gotten it from and it doesn’t make sense with his whole ‘I am the Night’-persona.

Victor suggested it was to make the newbies more comfortable when he overheard them talking, but that’s even more ridiculous in Ollie’s opinion.

So, he’s not at all in the slightest prepared for Batman’s reaction when he shows him the new arrows he developed. Because Batman’s reaction is: “Hm, serves cunt.”

“Excuse me, what?” Ollie says, his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull.

Batman just stares at him, then in a confused sort of voice goes: “You know, it slays? It’s, you know, good? Positive.”

“Huh, what? No, I- I know what that means. How the fuck do you know?” Ollie splutters.

“I’m Batman,” is all he says. Then he walks away and leaves Ollie to stand there, still frozen in time, because what the hell was that? Batman can’t just do that, can he? That’s illegal. How does he even know that?

What Ollie doesn’t know, is that this was a calculated move. Bruce had overheard the three talking as well and decided to have a little fun. All the times before, it just slipped out in the heat of battle, but this one was purposeful.

Bruce knows Ollie would know what it meant, because billionaires Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen have done TikTok trends in the past and try to keep up to date, despite their age. Not that Ollie knows it’s him under there.

And last gala, he left Bruce for the wolves – Vicky Vale – so now Bruce is dealing psychological damage to him as petty revenge.

5. Superman (and Practically the Entire League)

They’re in a meeting with most of the Justice League members that are present on earth at the moment. It’s not often they hold such meetings, since they are a little overwhelming and tend to drag on more than be productive.

However, Clark thinks it’s important to ensure there are avenues through which ever member can state their piece and be heard. So, here they are again.

Booster Gold is complaining about always being on the sidelines and never in the heat of the action, even though he’s a great hero. He’s claiming that there is a bias against younger heroes, despite the fact that the ‘old guard’ will have to give it up eventually.

Apparently, Batman has had enough, because he gets up and snaps: “We don’t have bias based on age, we have one based off skill. Maybe if you stopped abandoning your post and being someone reliable, you might get put out in the field more often. Now stop being salty about it.”

It’s silent.

Clark is scrambling his brain, to figure out the meaning. As a journalist he tries to stay up to date on current language use, however, the only person he’s heard use that word is Jon. The boy never explained, but Clark guessed what it means. Doesn’t explain why Batman knows it.

Then the silence gets broken by a snort, everyone’s head whipping towards the source. It’s Nightwing, a newer addition and one affiliated with Batman himself. The only one there brave enough to laugh at Batman, mirthfully asking: “Did you actually say salty?”

There is no change on Batman’s face, but as a longtime friend, Clark knows he isn’t emotionless. Indeed, when he listens close, he can hear the blood rush to his face, blush hidden by the cowl.

“That was not the point of the sentence, Nightwing,” Batman counters, the name a little bit pointed on is tongue.

“Okay, okay,” Nightwing grins easily, showing his hands in surrender, an act which is made null by him adding: “Just pointing out that this is an official meeting. You’re on the record and you know I’m reporting this to the others.”

Red Robin and Robin, Clark fills in mentally, the other two known associates. Everyone already guessed that Nightwing must be close to them as well, since the younger two are closer to being Batman’s children. Now that is confirmed.

“Thank you for reminding me,” Batman says tersely, before quickly pivoting to the next point on the agenda. No one calls him out for it.

However, just because no one calls him out on it, doesn’t mean they drop it. In the weeks after the incident, whispers make their way through the halls of the Watchtower as people speculate why or how Batman came to use the word salty and how out of character it is.

Clark can hear the gossip all over the Watchtower and he’s sure Batman is aware of it too, because some brave souls have asked about. Especially when some of the others talked about the incident not being the first one.

Batman hasn’t replied yet to any of the questions or rumors. Clark thinks he likes the mystery and chaos, likes that they don’t know why the hell he sometimes lets slang slip. Even Nightwing has been seemingly silenced, never commenting with a sort of professional ease at evasion.

Nightwing is the only clue they have, along with Robin and Red Robin, but none of them seem like the culprit.

It just doesn’t make sense and Clark can’t help but have his reporter brain itch.

+1. The Batfamily

There is going to be an attack somewhere in a major city in America tonight. They cannot figure out where, so there is a nation wide stake out at all the important places. Nearly the entire Justice League has been pulled out for it and even then they don’t have enough.

Batman insists on having a skeleton crew remain on the Watchtower in case the threat turns out to be a distraction. And when it is protested, he pulls out an army of associates none of them have ever heard about to fill out the last gaps in their observational net.

The sudden introduction of about six new Gotham vigilantes, which have apparently been operating inside the city as well as outside of it, would have been the main shock if it weren’t for how they are on coms.

Red Robin and Nightwing are known as professionals like Batman, while Robin isn’t a known entity in missions, though those who have met him, know him to be serious. However, with the introduction of the others all of that professionalism melts away.

It starts about 45 minuted into their mission when Spoiler’s voice suddenly crackles over the coms: “I fucking hate stake outs, they’re so boring.”

“I know right, my ass is starting to hurt,” Red Robin – to everyone’s surprise – replies.

“No chatter on the coms,” Batman dutifully reproaches like he always does, but he sounds less stern this time. It’s as if he knows they won’t listen, but says it because it’s his role to do so.

Red Hood ignores Batman completely, idly commenting: “I don’t know, stake outs always hit different for me.”

“That’s just because you’re boring AF,” Spoiler says, an eyeroll practically audible.

“Oi, take that back,” Red Hood says, offended. “I didn’t die to have you slander my name like that!”

This is horrifying news for most of the other people stuck on the coms, however, there is a cacophony of annoyed groans as well. Why anyone would be so blasé about someone mentioning their death, they don’t know.

Until, Robin says: “Cease mentioning your death as excuse. It’s unbecoming to be so reliant on one measly event. You’re not the only one who has died, don’t be – what was it? – ah, yes, don’t be basic, Hood.”

“Yeah, Hood, don’t be salty just because you’re becoming a boring old man,” Red Robin pipes up, sounding smug. That solves the salty mystery.

“Shut up, Replacement,” Red Hood huffs. “I can talk about my death as much as I want to and you can’t stop me.”

“Hood, please, stop talking about your death, you’re going to make B sad,” Nightwing suddenly interjects, stopping the conversation before it can get out of hand.

Those with super hearing will hear Barry mutter in a shocked manner: “Is he talking about Batman?” But he is overshadowed by most of the newly introduced (and already) known Bat-associates booing loudly.

“Don’t be a fucking suck up, Dick” Spoiler hollers, only those in the know picking up on the fact it’s his name. It’s the only time Batman won’t correct them, because not everyone will know it’s a name unless it’s pointed out.

“Periodt,” the quiet voice of Black Bat supports Spoiler.

“Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about, BB,” Spoiler cheers when she hears the other girl.

“That was the correct usage?” Black Bat asks.

“It was, well done,” Oracle’s kind voice comes over the coms, from where she is in her lair helping with coordination.

After that it all quiets down again for about half an hour, then Bluebird breaks the quiet again, complaining: “I can’t believe I had to stay behind in Gotham of all places.”

“You live there. Willingly,” Signal answers. “And I had to stay behind too, you know.”

“They’re sleeping on us, Signal, be upset with me,” Bluebird exclaims, indignantly.

“Okay, but tea though,” Spoiler says, most of the Justice League listening in are starting to learn she likes stirring the pot a little.

“Don’t be a simp, Spoils,” Red Robin says.

“Oh, look who’s talking about being a simp,” Red Hood snorts loudly. “I observed you, loser boy, you’re the simp.”

“It’s not as much of the serve you think it is to admit to stalking me,” Red Robin deadpans.

“RR, not to be that bitch, but you’re the OG stalker, maybe- maybe don’t do that,” Nightwing says cautiously, which is apparently funny enough that multiple people start laughing.

Meanwhile Red Robin complains: “Stop laughing at me, when I did it was totally different, I didn’t plan on killing any of you.” Which is mildly disturbing

“Oi, I never planned to actually kill you-kill you either,” Red Hood protests, even more disturbing. The Justice League is starting to wonder why Batman works with the man.

“Stop with the chatter,” Batman interjects again, before it can go further. “It’s not just us on the com lines now. At least try to be professional.”

And much to the horror of the League, who could never imagine doing such a thing, Batman gets booed. Again. This time directly.

Then to add to the horror, Batman doesn’t explode in anger, like everyone would have imagined, instead he just sighs. Defeated. Batman is like a cockroach, he doesn’t get defeated. However, these kids are managing.

Batman remains defeated too, because the Gotham vigilantes continue to idly chat all throughout the next hour. They are definitely bat associated, because they never reveal any information that could be tied to their civilian identity. Instead discussing other missions, general news, funny things they saw on patrol and personal grievances with the others on the line.

If this is what Batman deals with on the day to day, some are starting to see why he would prefer the heroes of the Justice League to keep their mouths shut on missions unless it’s important.

Most try to tune it out and focus on their own stake out, though the voices keep them awake. But they notice when Spoiler’s voice suddenly becomes serious as she reports: “Sus individuals moving towards the Mayor’s office.”

“Received, getting visual on your location,” Oracle’s voice replies, also snapped back into professionalism.

Spoiler reports their appearances and currently location, until Oracle has them, running a check on them, before confirming they have a criminal record and might be thugs for hire. Spoiler says: “I am going to move in.”

Batman says: “Do not engage, Spoiler, they could be a decoy. Try and get more information first.”

“Alright, alright,” Spoiler huffs. Then adds petulantly: “I’m not gonna do it, I was just thinking about it.”

Which sounds pretty reasonable for most listening in, who aren’t of the right age group to know the meme. Batman, however, does know, because he’s been subjected to it multiple times. So, he yells: “Spoiler, no!” startling some members.

A second later, there are sounds of a fight and Spoiler gleefully saying: “I did it.”

Batman lets out a frustrated growl, but Spoiler pays it no mind and she can’t truly get chewed out, because more and more start to report suspicious individuals moving in on the targets they’re watching.

Within minutes of it starting, Nightwing reports: “They’re decoys with targets. Not the main attack, but will do damage if they succeed.”

“Everyone make sure to take out the decoys,” Batman says. “Those without decoys, keep your eyes peeled, you might be at the real target.”

“Done with my targets, moving to help the others now,” Nightwing reports seriously, before he adds: “And can I just say that I’m the GOAT. Dibs on cookies for finishing first.”

“Okay, shade much,” Bluebird says.

“Don’t be arrogant, it’s unbecoming,” Robin retorts as well.

“Yeah, stop flexing,” Spoiler adds. “I’ve wrapped up too, by the way. You’re not special.”

“Let me have this,” Nightwing complains. “You already took all my shit, let me be cool. You all used to think I was cool.”

“Yeah, used to,” Red Hood scoffs. “Then we all realized you’re a looser.”

“Ha, get wrecked,” Red Robin snorts.

“Baby bird, wasn’t I your favorite?” Nightwing asks hurt, though over the top enough to show he is faking it.

“No, sadly, that was Hood,” Red Robin replies, sounding a little like he’s grimacing.

“No cap?” Red Hood asks, surprised.

“No cap,” Red Robin confirms.

“Now I feel kind of bad for you,” Red Hood says, before some bullets are fired. “Wrapped up here, moving to help.”

Red Robin seems glad to not have to reply and none of the other Gothamites do either. With what the League has heard so far, they’re also kind of happy the topic is being dropped, unsure what to think.

Batman’s associates are among the first ones cleaning up, however, soon others are joining them and the true battles grounds – yes, there are multiple targets, these people are organized (Batman will likely obsess until he has tracked down their organization afterwards) – are discovered and heroes move in to fight them.

Throughout the battle, everyone catches snippets of this strange, newly introduced group. A group, who works well together, like an oiled machine, yet obviously made up of highly competent parts that can act on their own as well.

Like Black Bat calling out: “Red Hood, yeet,” before those fighting alongside them see Red Hood boost her into the air, so she can come flying at the terrorists.

But they also make comments about the people they’re fighting and the others that are fighting alongside them.

Signal calling out: “Bluebird is pulling some sick ass moves. Another one for her on the slay-board, Oracle.”

Or Spoiler commenting: “Okay, not to be like that or whatever, but these terrorists are kind of looking snatched.”

To which Batman sighs: “Spoiler, please, no chatter,” in a vain attempt to get them under control.

“What?” Spoiler says. “I can appreciate when they’ve at least tried to pull a fit instead of that usual para-military, ninja type BS.”

“Go off,” Black Bat pipes up again and Spoiler cheers while Batman drops it. Defeated again.

They also check in on each other, with Red Robin hissing in pain, which is immediately followed by Nightwing going: “RR, you good, fam?”

“Gucci,” Red Robin replies. “Just low-key got stabbed.”

“There’s nothing low-key about getting stabbed!” Nightwing exclaims, getting called a hypocrite by many people, while Batman is already calling for Oracle to get a visual and for a medic to head Red Robin’s way.

By the time the battle is over, the Justice League understands how different the team is that Batman usually works with. If they were surrounded by heroes who talked like that continuously, they would have probably picked up some things here and there too.

Still, it fucking weird when Batman checks over his horde, before declaring: “You were all lit out there,” causing multiple of the kids around him to groan loudly, with Bluebird calling Batman a boomer.

Clark, however, sees a small uptick in Batman’s mouth. And in that moment, he knows Batman is doing it on purpose, that he’s enjoying it. That he’s fucking with them. He doesn’t know what to do with that, nor does he think that anyone will believe it. So, he decides to share the amusement and drop it.

They’re never going to figure out Batman.

~~

A/N:

This work is going to get dated so so so fast lmao, but it’s fun rn (if ur commenting in the future, welcome to outdated slang vibes from someone who wasn’t that up to date with current slang when writing it, bc im secretly a grandpa).

Hopefully I didn’t overdo it to an unrealistic degree, but if I did, such is the story that was being told oops

Also this whole fic is just an excuse for me to write batfam banter bc I love it lmao

I didn’t include Batwing, Batwoman and Flamebird here, sorry, but writing the batfam is always so hard bc there are so many characters T-T

[saccharinescorpion]

4 Things You Can Try Now That You’ve Read THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

(technically 5 things)

Mabel - a podcast by Becca De La Rosa and Maybell Marten.

Anna Limón is a home help worker currently looking after the elderly Sally Martin. When Sally has a bizarre and frightening reaction to a box of letters Anna finds in her attic one day, Anna attempts to seek answers by contacting Sally’s only known living relative: Mabel Martin.

“A podcast about ghosts, family secrets, strange houses, and missed connections,” Mabel is a story that is difficult to describe, but one of the most important points is that the vast majority of it is an epistolary narrative between Anna and Mabel, just like how This Is How You Lose The Time War is an epistolary narrative between Red and Blue. It also has a very distinct writing style- dramatic, flowery, and a little bit intimidating. However, if you loved the writing style of TIHYLTTW, I personally think that Mabel is a perfect match for you.

And I’m not just saying that because Mabel is a story about two extremely overdramatic women who are somehow both frighteningly caustic yet almost adorably useless.

The Honey Month - a book by Amal El-Mohtar 

I certainly hope I don’t have to tell you this, but Amal El-Mohtar is one of the authors of This Is How You Lose The Time War, and The Honey Month is a short book she wrote several years ago.

The Honey Month is almost more of an experiment than a book- in its introduction, a friend of El-Mohtar explains how she sent her several small samples of honey, leading El-Mohtar to use the gift as in a unique way. For one February, every day she used a different vial of honey as inspiration for a small piece of writing.

The Honey Month contains 28 short pieces of writing, poetry, prose, and some things in between. It’s a small book full of things with big impact, and contains the lyrical yet meaty writing I enjoyed from El-Mohtar in TIHYLTTW.

Otherside Picnic (裏世界ピクニック) - A series of novels by Iori Miyazawa (illustrated by Shirakaba)

College sophomore Sorawo Kamikoshi longs to find an escape from other people, and in trying to find it discovers the Otherside, a strangely beautiful yet unfathomably dangerous parallel world inhabited by the-once-fictional creatures she knows from net lore. She also meets Toriko Nishina, another young woman with a knowledge of firearms and a desire to find her missing mentor. Together, these two girls explore the Otherside and find themselves changing little by little, both due to their adventures, but also due to their relationship with each other.

If you know me you probably aren’t surprised at this reccomendation. Otherside Picnic is a truly odd beast- it’s sci-fi, it’s horror, it’s comedy, it’s yuri. It’s about trauma, it’s about Japanese creepypasta, it’s about useless lesbians, and it’s about how the scariest thing of all is being vulnerable with another human being. I think fans of  This Is How You Lose The Time War  will enjoy it- Otherside Picnic’s writing style will likely feel almost spartan compared to TIHYLTTW, but in my opinion there’s a similar level of poetry in it. There’s also a similar level of women who are “badass” yet kind of messes. You’ve heard of “Enemies to Lovers,” get ready for “Accomplices to Lovers”!

(there’s also a manga adaptation by Eita Mizuno, as well as an anime adaptation directed by Takuya Sato)

The Handmaiden (아가씨) - a movie directed by Park Chan-wook (written by Park and Chung Seo-kyung, based on the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters)

In Japan-occupied Korea, the pickpocket Sook-hee is recruited by a con-man to aide him in his scam of a Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko. While the con-man poses as “Count Fujiwara” and woos Hideko, Sook-hee will play the part of her maid and subtly push the heiress towards him. But as time passes, Sook-hee begins to realize there are things occuring in the mansion that are even more sinister than her and the Count’s scheme, and there is much, much more to Hideko than meets the eye.

This is a list of recommendations for “people who have finished “This Is How You Lose The Time War,” but I try to recommend The Handmaiden to as many people as I possibly can. I’ve described it in the past as the cinematic equivalent of running a marathon: with a 144 minute runtime full of gorgeous direction and set design, dark machinations, twisted yet romantic writing, often troubling themes, and so, so many plot twists, it’s a movie that nearly feels like too much of a good thing. But for fans of TIHYLTTW, I’m sure what will intrigue you most is the relationship between the two main characters, one so complicated that “Enemies to Lovers” can’t hope to capture the roiling feelings of pity, guilt, hatred, desire, annoyance, sympathy, and everything in between. 

It’s also just really hot.

The Handmaiden is a movie that is best enjoyed going in knowing as little as possible. That said, it is also a story with dark and often upsetting themes that are absolutely crucial to its narrative. If you are concerned about that statement,  I reccomend looking at the movies’ entry on DoesTheDogDie, which I have looked at and found to be a pretty comprehesive list of content warnings that can be examined in a way that doesn’t spoil the twists of the story.

Fingersmith - a novel by Sarah Waters

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I swear I’m going to get around to it!! I can’t technically recommend the book that inspired The Handmaiden since I haven’t read it yet, but I have at least one friend whose opinion I trust who sings its praises, so it’s good enough for me. Besides, if the recent popularity of This Is How You Lose The Time War has showed us anything, it’s that people constantly crave stories about complicated women, so it certainly can’t hurt, right?

[anti-kawaii-daily]

Anti-Kawaii Character Archetypes You'll Probably See Here Part 1

Yandere: Arguably the most well-known "Anti-Kawaii" character archetype in pop culture. The word "Yandere" is a portmanteau of the Japanese word yanderu or 病やんでる in the original kanji (which is another way to say that you or someone is mentally sick, not to be confused with Menhera), and the word deredere or デレデレ in it's original kanji (this word basically means "lovey-dovey").

This archetype consists of character who when they fall in love with someone, they fall harder than most normal people. By that I mean that they obsess over their love interest in ways ranging from mildly unhealthy all the way to destructive to themselves or others. The most known type of Yandere is the type that hurts or kills anyone who may try to "take" the love interest away from them, but Yandere behavior is more of a spectrum than a one-size-fits-all type of situation. And despite most people associating this archetype with unstable, knife wielding, boy-crazy girls, Yanderes can be of any gender identity and sexual orientation.

Here is an example of some characters that fit into this archetype:

Left to Right: Yuno Gasai (Future Diary), Kotonoha Katsura (School Days), Himiko Toga (My Hero Academia), Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction) and Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash (DC Comics)

Yangire: Other than the Yandere archetype mentioned above, whenever someone thinks of crazy and violent characters in Japanese media, they tend to refer to the Yangire archetype. The word is a portmanteau of the word yanderu or 病やんでる but unlike the archetype above, the "dere" is replaced by the word gire or ギレ in kanji and gire basically means "to snap".

This archetype consists of a character who may be a decent or maybe even a nice person, but if they were to snap in a mental breakdown, then they get very aggressive, violent, dangerous and unpredictable. There are commonly two types of Yangire characters: they either A, have a split personality or any other mental illness that makes them act violent; or B, they just happen to be cruel and deranged people. But occasionally there are characters who are a mix of both. What truly separates Yangires from Yanderes is that Yanderes tend to do messed up things out of love, while Yangires do messed up things because they can.

Here is an example of some characters that fit into this archetype:

Left to right: Kurumi Tokisaki (Date A Live), Rena Ryugu (Higurashi: When They Cry), Yoshikage Kira (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure), The Postal Dude (Postal series), and Agatha Trunchbull (Matilda)

Dorodere: A lesser known "Anti-Kawaii" character archetype, this term's name is a mixture of the word "dorodoro" (ドロドロ in the original kanji) which translates as muddled or confused, and the word deredere or デレデレ.

This is a character archetype that refers to characters who are mentally disturbed, or has lots of bad feelings (such as grudges or resentment) towards people like their loved ones, but they hide all of that behind a sweet and friendly façade. In western countries this archetype was misunderstood as describing a character that has violent thoughts but who doesn't act on them, but Doroderes while mostly malicious, they can reach a level of violence similar to a Yandere or a Yangire once their true nature is revealed. In most cases there are two types of a Dorodere; type 1 Doroderes have the character genuinely liking their love interest/best friend and type 2 Doroderes who feel a mixture of love and hatred. What separates these two types is that with type 1 characters their "doro" side is hidden by the "dere" side, while with type 2 characters their "doro" side has a small amount of "dere" in there.

Here is an example of some characters that fit into this archetype:

Left to right: Luca Trulyworth (Air Tonelico), Nagito Komaeda (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair), Makima (Chainsaw Man), Billy Loomis (Scream) and The Other Mother (Coraline)

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Favorite New Manga and Graphic Novels I Read in 2023

It's time to take a look at the comics and manga I read this year! I read  a whopping 78 manga and graphic novels in all. Here's a link to my Goodreads year in books (the manga is at the beginning, the novels start with Siren Queen) and my storygraph wrap up.

I also read 36 novels! If you want to see my favorites, check out my reviews here!

And finally, I've got the continuing manga series I've enjoyed this year here, so check that post out too!

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

This is a tale about a first-generation Vietnamese-American boy struggling with coming out to his mother. He connects with his mother through fairytales-- she uses them to express her journey as an immigrant, and he uses them to explore his queerness and identity as a Vietnamese kid growing up in America. It's an absolutely gorgeous book full of Trung Le Nguyen's signature stunning art. The fantastical, ethereal fairy tales are weaved beautifully into the lives of the characters. The book explores how fairy tales can form connection, can express culture, can tap deeply into something real and true, and can offer tragedy and catharsis. The protagonist uses fairy tales to write his own story, and the ending is lovely and moving.

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan

You may know Mark Russell from his darker, socially aware re-imagining of the Flintstones, which made quite a splash on Tumblr with this post. Well, I had pleasure of meeting him at a local convention, and I finally got his comic re-imagining of Snagglepuss, also of Hanna-Barbera. He re-imagines the titular pink puma as a closeted gay playwright in the 50's dealing with McCarthyism. It's as wild as it sounds,but also really digs into the politics of the time, the struggle of standing against oppression and how art fights through suppression and censorship. It's tragic, hopeful, poignant and full of historical references. I enjoyed it ! Definitely be cautious if you're deeply disturbed by homophobia and suicide.

The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren

A story about a teenage boy, Yoshiki, who realizes that his best friend and crush Hikaru has died and been replaced by a strange eldritch being who is imitating him. But, missing his loved one and desperate to cling to any piece of him, Yoshiki decides to keep on having a relationship with this mysterious entity. This book's horror is visceral and sublime, especially the bizarre, creepy, beautiful body horror involving the being who replaced Hikaru. It's an exploration of anxieties involving grief, relationships, and sexuality that hits just right, and the atmosphere layered with dread is top notch. I love me some messed up relationships and unknowable queer monsters, and this book delivers.

Chainsaw Man, Look Back and Goodbye Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Chainsaw Man needs no introduction, but I did end up really enjoying the story of the doggy-devil boy hunting other devils. It got so tragic and intense at the end, with lots of great surreal horror imagery and darkly funny moments. I'm impressed it went so hard, though the random powers that kept piling up made what was happening hard to follow at times, especially in fights. I'm also enjoying the current weird arc starring a class-A disaster girl and the demon sharing her body.

Look Back

I really do enjoy how Fuijimoto writes messy pre-teen/teenage girls. They ring so true. The manga follows the fraught friendship between two girls as they create manga, exploring the struggle of art mixing with real relationships, and how someone keeps creating after tragedy. It's a little hard to follow at times (especially since I have to differentiate the leads based on hairstyle), but it's a good read.

Goodbye Eri

Probably my least favorite of the three, but it's a fun read- a weird ride that examines the thin line between fiction and reality in art and makes good use of Fujimoto's cinephile background and signature gaslight gatekeep girlboss characters.

Is Love the Answer? by Uta Isaki

The story follows a teenage girl, Chika, who has always struggled with not being attracted to anyone. When Chika enters college, she meets queer people all across the spectrum of asexuality, and starts exploring her own identity. As an ace, this is the best story about asexuality that I've read. It was a nuanced look at asexuality and queerness and all the variations. Chika's journey and how she found her community was moving and poignant. It's a honest, moving look at relationships and identity, and how complicated and hard to define both of those things can be. I loved the moments of Chika imagining herself as an alien to explore and cope, and how she bonded with people through magical girl shows and other geekery. My favorite new manga of the year, it really connected with me!

The Girl that Can’t Get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi

Oh girl, I've been there. This is a fun autobiographical comic about a butch4butch lesbian's struggles finding a partner in a word that favors butch/femme, and it's just an honest look at the messiness of loneliness and relationships. I also appreciate that crushing on Haruka in Sailor Moon and becoming a HaruMichi stan was the beginning the author's queer awakening because uh...same! She has taste, and is truly relatable.

Qualia the Purple: The Complete Manga Collection by Hisamitsu Ueo and Shirou Tsunashima

See my review of the light novel here for my general thoughts on the story, since it's adapted pretty faithfully. I do think the manga is overall the best experience though, because the illustrations break up the detailed explanations of quantum mechanics a bit, and it includes a bit of extra content that fleshes things out, especially withthe ending.

The Single Life: 60 year old lesbian who is single and living alone by Akiko Morishima

Just like it says on the tin, this focuses on a 60-year-old single lesbian. And definitely the shortest thing on here, since only one 30 page chapter is out.  It's a grounded story about a woman looking back on her journey to finding her identity, touching on sexism in the workplace and other challenges. It paints a portrait of a proudly gay elder who's still perfectly content being single and feels fulfilled by the life she had rather than regretting past relationships. I definitely want to see more.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm by Hiromu Arakawa

Arakawa's latest, the story is about a boy who lives in a small village with his little sister is imprisoned and has to carry out a mysterious duty...but then the village is attacked, supernatural daemons awaken, and everything he knows might be wrong. I'm enjoying this fun romp so far! It delivers an really nice plot twist right out the gate (and an excellent subversion of the usual shonen "must-protect-my-saintly-sister" narratives). It boasts Arakawa's usual fun cast and interesting world (and cool ladies). There's some slight tone and pacing issues in the first part- there's so much time spent explaining mechanics the lead doesn't really get to react to his life turning upside down. But it starts smoothing out by the second volume. I'm excited to see what's next!

Superman: Space Age by Mark Russell and Michael Allred

This is a retelling of Superman set throughout the late fifties to early eighties that has Superman interact with the political and social upheaval of the time and question his own role in things. It explored the Superman mythos through a lot of cool new angles, and has a good Lois (why yes she would break Watergate) which is how I always measure a Superman adaptation. My one complaint is, while I liked some of the things it did with Batman, the ending with the Joker was pretty weak. The ending of the overall comic will also be bizarre for anyone not uses to how weird comics can get, but I think I dug it.

#DRCL by Shin'ichi Sakamoto

A manga retelling of Dracula that focuses on Mina as the protagonist and imagines the characters at an English prep school. It adds a lot of  diversity to the characters  and has exquisite, evocative art. I'm curious where it will go and what it  intends to do with all it's changes (especially Lucy), because right now it's mostly vibes and creepiness and the direction isn't clear.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Loser Round 6: Damian Wayne (DC) vs. Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls)

Propaganda below the cut

Damian Wayne (9-14):

Damian is a kid who was raised as an assassin and because of that when he first appears he has some really messed up ideas of how to prove himself to his father by being aggressive with the criminals they capture and attacking his brother. Because of this people act like he is the most evil character ever and refuse to give him any grace. They make him out to be this awful irredeemable monster who just wants to kill his brother and hurt people. If the fandom isn’t making his out to be The Worst(tm) then they are ignoring his existence all-together. He is a really interesting character who has done some not so great things but he’s grown and learned a lot through various character arcs (as much of an arc as a comic book character can have) and he deserves to be acknowledged for himself and not just as a villain so that people can woobify his brother.

——

HES JUST A LITTLE BABY GUY!!!!! Little baby man raised as an assassin and learning how to be a real person <3. But because he was kind of a dick and also a little stabby early-on, especially to the fandom's main "so sad uwu depressed baby" blorbo (and also he's not white), people treat him like he's satan incarnate

Mabel Pines (12):

I literally saw a tiktok today about how Mabel is a bad person. She’s 12! Like yes, she has made some mistakes and bad choices, but so has everyone else. And I never see any of the other characters in the show criticized the way she is. Everyone in the show has made mistakes (Grunkle Stan commits crimes practically every episode ffs) but because Mabel is a 12 year old girl and acts like it, she gets the most hate. Mabel deserves to be loved 🩷

----

girl gets so much flack for being... immature and kind of selfish at age 12? like she had whole video essays made on why she is a horrible person who deserves punishment. god forbid girls be silly

----

!!! Spoilers for Gravity Falls last 5 episodes !!!

This has gone down a lot but when the Weirdmaggedon arc was happening, the finale of the series, a big part of the fandom started hating Mabel because she accidentally caused the Weirdmaggedon (basically an apocalypse + bizarre shit like the water tower becoming an eight-legged monster with a giant mouth).

For context, in the episode that starts this arc, "Dipper and Mabel vs The Future", Mabel is really excited to the end of their summer vacation at Grunkle Stan's house, since it will be her and Dipper's 13th birthday and they will enter high school (her idea of high school of course coming from teen movies). But then this whole idea starts to shatter when Wendy tells her that high school isn't like a Disney musical, but it's okay, she will get through this since she will be with Dipper, her twin brother...

Except, that Dipper receives an invitation by Grunkle Stan's scientist brother Ford to become his apprentice after summer ends, staying in Gravity Falls, without Mabel. When she discovers it, she gets really mad at him and in a fit of rage, she accidentally picks Dipper's bag instead of hers and runs off to the woods.

When she gets there, Blendin, a time-travelling friend of theirs finds her and tells her that he has a way of making her brother stay with her, and make the summer take a little more to end, and that he just needed a little thing that Dipper has in his bag. That thing is a dimensional rift that Dipper and Ford contained to not cause the Weirdmaggedon, but Mabel didn't knew about that and gives it to Blendin. Blendin then breaks it and it's revealed that Bill Cipher was controlling Blendin to get the rift and release the Weirdmaggedon. He then traps Mabel in a bubble, starting the final arc of the series.

So, a few episodes later, that bubble she's in is revealed to be a world of fantasy that she controls, and that she didn't want to leave that world, as she was scared of growing up etc.

Context given, A LOT OF PEOPLE HATED HER FOR THIS. Suddenly people started seeing Mabel as just a selfish girl who wanted things only her way, when she was only a 12-year-old scared of growing up without her twin brother (they do end up going back together at the end but still).

The worst part is that apparently the people behind it took note of this, and on the comics that where released after the finale, she is a selfish spoiled brat. I haven't read the comics though so I'm going off what some people said about it.

[fountainpenguin]

Rewatching "Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker" and:

- Why are these unsupervised children playing so close to the road at school? Where are the teachers?

- Why is Geraldine across the road? Not only are they unsupervised, and not only does Dad roll on his skateboard into the street, but she's ?? already outside school property? Geraldine, you are a future principal- You don't have time to goof.

- I still love Dad's incredibly deep-seeded hatred for Dinkleberg even when he was 10. That seems to be his signature trait as a child (i.e. Denzel isn't slightly surprised when Dad growls about hating Dinkleberg and even offers to help Dad stare angrily at him).

- Timmy's Dad calling everyone except Dinkleberg by their full names is very funny (Denzel Crocker in his youth, then he grows up to address Doug Dimmadome, Flappy Bob, and Ed Leadly in full... I don't think he's called Dinkleberg "Sheldon" in his life).

- I know Dad's arc later in the series leans into "Hating Crocker because he thinks he's gorgeous and wants to steal his wife" -> "Starts calling him progressively worse names like Mr. Crawlspace and Mr. Crayons" and I just think that's very fitting for his character. If he respects you, you get full name treatment. If he despises you, your name gets stepped on.

- I still think it's funny that in "Fairly Odd Pet," when the running gag was everyone having a pet, Crocker has a parrot... and Cosmo and Wanda were in parrot disguise as his fairies.

- What is it about being around Crocker kids that makes Cosmo want to blab? Man really saw Kevin in "Chip Off the Old Crock" and went "I vaguely remember him! I trust him." lol.

- There are a lot of messed-up things about what Jorgen does to Denzel, but blasting him with magic multiple times to the point it screws with his body, not just his mind, was pretty dang bad.

- I wonder if Mr. Birkenbake remembers running Crocker across town. I feel like he has to? Awkward co-workers... Then you get to "Genie Meanie Miney Mo" and they still hate each other, with Crocker actively bothering him for no reason. lol.

Also jumped over to "Father Time" for more Dad as a kid and it's so bizarre that Pappy(?) makes his son sleep outside?? what's up with that.

Also the 12-year mandatory scholarship to dictator school for failing to win a race at age 10 is, like... an insane premise. Why did he get kidnapped as a child and thrown in a truck (in that alt timeline)? Were those people hanging around in the 1970s bothering other kids? Bizarre cover for your kidnapping scheme. sldkfj.

[dramalets]

2024 Watch List pt2

Mr Unlucky has no choice but to kiss - Very, very cute and silly without being slapstick. This gets a bit lost in its own soup and after about episode 4 it drags some. Also just a bizarre and somewhat anticlimactic ending. The leads are lovely though and they do work well together. 3/5 (22/2/24)

What did you eat yesterday S1 - Just perfect. Watching Shiro & Kenji grow together over the episodes is a treat. This is as warm and tender as it is brilliantly observed and funny. A true must watch. 5/5 (24/2/24)

The Sign - This just got lost in itself. It had moments of absolute perfection but there were, for me, too many threads it didn’t tie up. Personally I liked this show the most in its procedural show parts and less in its fantasy elements, where I feel it had the most work to do. This isn’t one I’ll rewatch but I did enjoy the journey. 3/5 (25/2/24)

If it’s with you - Lovely is the best word for this. Just a little warm hug of a thing. A sweet story of first love. 4/5 (26/2/24)

I became the main role of a BL drama - Very soft and silly. Not much happens but the leads are lovely and fun to watch. Would kind of love a spin off about the managers if I’m honest. Zero complaints. Just a cute, easy, quick watch. 3/5 (27/2/24)

Kabe Koji - Very enjoyable. Absolutely loved the manga come to life concept of this one. It was super fun to look at. Personally, I think this could have done with maybe 1 or 2 more episodes. Neither character felt as explored as I would have liked. A nice watch nonetheless :) 3/5 (27/2/24)

The Man who defies the world of BL s1 & 2 - This is so unbelievably funny and well observed. Atsuhiro is a master at comedic faces and they never feel slapstick or overdone. Loved every silly second. 4/5 (28/2/24)

Candy Colour Paradox - This isn’t the best acted thing and the chemistry is only so-so it also really starts to drag in places. (Inserting Izuka Kenta into a multiple episode arc was a choice because he’s incredible and it only serves to highlight the so-so of the leads.) Having said all these things it still has a charm and I still enjoyed watching it. Just perhaps not one I’ll be itching to rewatch or suggest to friends. 3/5 (28/2/24)

Perfect Propose - A sweet six episode watch that’s really all about being human. Kai has to realise that being part of peoples lives is both terrifying but necessary and Hiro must learn to value the role he plays in the world. Just a gorgeous little watch. 4/5 (1/3/24)

Kei x Yaku - Is this a BL? Not really? It’s more like gay romance is heavily inferred but here is a messed up, lovely little found family so enjoy that. This is so much fun and I can’t rec it highly enough. Very much just tune in and have fun. 4/5 (1/3/24)

Cherry Magic - Zero notes. Absolute perfection. TayNew supremacy. 5/5 (2/3/24)

My Personal Weatherman - Just bored me honestly. It’s not bad but it’s not as good as some make it out to be. I think if I’d watched this before the novelist I might have liked it more? Not something I’ll reach for again. 3/5 (3/3/24)

My Beautiful Man s1&2 - This is very Japanese and, on paper, should not have worked for me at all. In practice tho? I loved this. I understand the reasons this is controversial but I also think if you go into this without any of the disk horse you’ll just see it for what it is; a love story between two broken boys with piss poor communication skills and self esteem issues. 4/5 (5/3/24)

My Beautiful Man Eternal - This movie is the third part of the beautiful man series. I genuinely think you could skip s2 and go straight in for this. It delivers what I would have wanted, but was impossible to give in four episodes, from s2. We see Hira and Kiyoi’s growth as individuals and also together and we finish with them as equals, with Kiyoi speaking to his king Hira. Beautifully shot, excellently acted. Will watch again. 5/5 (6/3/24)

[missacidburn928s-heathenhideaway]

If You Want To Taste The Universe. Just Kiss her... (Affinity Series)

Alpha!Bucky x Sweet Little Omega!POC!Reader

Wordcount: 2920

Summary:

This was certainly not how you imagined meeting your boyfriend's best friend. You left a lasting impression, that’s for sure.

Warnings:

Meet-Cute, Fluff and Smut, smut and humor, Shameless Smut, Accidental Voyeurism, Alpha/Omega, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Bucky Barnes, Alpha Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers is a Tease, Porn With Plot

Notes:

Let's take a glimpse into the beginning of you and Bucky. Happy reading Heathens!

Bannner by @cafekitsune Divider by @firefly-graphics

It’s been one hell of a day so far. Work has been hectic. Which would be fine, if it weren’t for the fact that the A/C conked out and it was hotter than Hades’ hair out today. Thank the goddess below that it was time for lunch.

Your normally greedy appetite was considerably minimal this afternoon, as it was just too hot to have an overly full belly. So instead of a hearty sandwich from your favorite food truck in the park nearby, you’ve opted for an ice-cold Hawaiian Ice from the food cart instead.

As you’re grabbing your favorite mid-day snack a Dachshund rushes between your legs, quickly followed by a Corgi and a sizable Pitbull. Before you know it you’re tangled up in various dog leads. 

You look up to find a young dog walker apologizing profusely but not bothering to help you with the mess she created. You don’t want to yell at the poor girl for her lack of assistance. That might just scare the clearly excited dogs. Making your predicament all the more complicated to get out of.

Unbeknownst to you, this bizarre encounter has been witnessed by a man passing by. Seeing the clear agitation on your face he proceeds to walk over. “I’m sorry but can I help you out? I watched the whole thing go down and you look like you could use a hand.”

“Please. I’m trying to remain calm to not freak the dogs out more. With my luck I’ll end up face first on the concrete.” You nervously laugh.

“Hang tight. I’ll get you untangled in no time.” With that the stranger in leather got to work. Before long you were set free and the dog walker with her calvary of canines were back on track for their next adventure.

“Thank you so much for your help. Who knows how long I would have been stuck like that.”

“It was nothing, really. Glad I could help.” He gives you a bashful smile. It’s the first time you get a good look at his face and holy shit is this man f-i-n-e, FINE.

“Let me buy you a cone to thank you. It’s such a hot day and you're in leather. It’s the least I could do.”

“The heat doesn’t bother me. I welcome it, actually. So a cone isn’t necessary. But I wouldn’t mind getting your number. You know so I could check in and make sure you made it through the day unscathed.”

A devastating smile adorns his face. Making his steel gray eyes sparkle in the sunlight.

“Very smooth. Mr. Tall, dark and handsome.” You chuckle.

He laughs back and holds his gloved hand out. “James Barnes but you can call me Bucky.”

You place your hand in his and tell him your name.

“Beautiful name. I wasn’t kidding about that number. If it’ll make you feel better I can give you mine instead. That way the ball is in your court. What do you say?”

“That sounds agreeable. You were my knight in leather armor after all.”

You reach into your bag, retrieving your phone and place it in his large palm. You watch with rapt attention as he places his number in your contacts. He doesn’t even try to be slick and text himself so that he can have yours.

When he steps forward to slip it back into your purse you can’t help but take in the amazing scent of sandalwood, whiskey and honey wafting off of him. 

“I won’t keep you. I’m sure you have someplace to be.” He goes to turn the way he originally came. “I hope the rest of your day is as bright as your smile.” With that parting remark he sets off into the park.

Something inside you is pulling you to chase after him. You fight the urge, telling yourself that you need to get back to work. Instead you grab a new cone. While waiting on your flavors to be added to the icy treat you find the courage to go ahead and text him now. What harm could it do?

O: Hi! You just saved me from a tangle of dog leads. I have procured a new cone of shaved ice and am heading back to work. Thank you again for the assist. Please do let me know how I can repay you. Bucky: And here I thought it’d be a couple of days before I heard from you. Color me pleasantly surprised. As I said before, it really was nothing. But if it means so much for you to “repay me”. How about you let me take you out to dinner tomorrow? Make sure you get a proper meal. O: Wow you really are bold aren't you? B: To be honest I’m not normally this upfront. There is just something about you. And I want to find out more. So what do you say my damsel in distress? I know this great little place in Brooklyn. O: Would this be a date? Or just a consolation prize for being chivalrous? B: I would like it to be a date but I’m not going to assume. O: Can I meet you there? You know, just in case I need to make a clean getaway? B: Fine by me. Although I’m hoping you won’t need to. O: Looks like you got yourself a date. B: Great! I’ll send you the address. See you tomorrow at 7pm little Omega. O: How do you know if I’m an Omega or not? B: Doll, you weren’t the only one sneaking a sniff when I went to put your phone away. That honey sweet scent of yours is unforgettable. O: You caught me smelling you! B: Relax. I just admitted to doing it too. I kind of like that you couldn’t help yourself. O: I’d be embarrassed but you smelled too good to resist. I better get back to work before they notice I’ve been on my lunch too long. B: Alright. Have a good rest of your day little Omega. I’ll see you tomorrow.  O: Thanks again for saving me. B: Anytime, doll. Anytime.

That dinner turned into talking until the restaurant closed and continuing your night wandering Brooklyn with the infamous Winter Soldier. How you missed that your savior was an Avenger is beyond you but it’s of no matter now. Bucky, Super Soldier or not, has been a pretty great guy to you so far.

Not to mention that you’ve only been dating a couple weeks and the sexual tension between you is through the roof. It’s certainly looking for an escape. When he asked if you wanted to keep it simple today by just coming over to cook and watch a movie you jumped at the chance. 

Now here you were riding him on the couch. Your skirt pulled up to your waist, and your bralette pulled down enough to expose your tits. Allowing for Bucky to feast on them. Marking you up as you have a hold of his hair. He’s shirtless. His pants and boxer briefs pulled down to his calves as you let your natural impulses guide you.

Your head is tossed back as you lose yourself to the feeling of being so full when you hear a voice speak up behind you.

“You look a bit tied up, want me to come back later?” 

Shocked by the deep timbre that can only be Bucky’s roommate, your hips grind to a halt. “I thought you said no one was gonna be home for another two hours?” You demand of the alpha below you.

“Fucking hell, Stevie. Didn’t you have a briefing and paperwork that needed to be finished today?”

“Decided to come home and do the paperwork here in comfort in the office. I didn't know you had company, or I would have stayed at the compound.” His eyes travel the bits of you that are exposed as he gets a whiff of your intoxicating scent. “Hi. I’m Steve Rogers.”

“I’d shake your hand but I'm a little preoccupied. Nice to meet you, Steve. Wish it was under different circumstances. Mind heading to your office now so we can finish what we started. You caught us right when it was getting good.”

Your response shocks him. “Oh she’s fucking perfect for you Buck. Let me know when it’s safe to come back out. We can order a late dinner and have a proper introduction.” With a sly smile he gives you another once over and heads off down the hallway.

With slow, controlled movements, you give your hips a cursory grind. A moan escapes both of your throats as the coarse hair along his pelvis stimulates your clit. Making your walls involuntarily squeeze tight around him.

You place Bucky’s hands back on your hips as you start a languorous pace. Completely giving yourself over to the sensations of lazy first-time sex. It doesn’t always have to be, tear your clothes off crazy the first time.

It may have started that way, but this lazy sensory overloaded romp is hitting all the spots you didn’t know needed scratched. You look down at the broad, thick body of the Alpha below you. Your fingers dancing along all the ridges and grooves of sculpted muscle as you take what you need from him. His crystal blues stare back at you with such adoration that you almost lose your breath.

Rising from the cushions supporting his back, Bucky pulls you in closer. His metal arm feels cool against the heated flesh along your spine. Your chests, pressed tight, rise and fall together. Your hands roaming freely, seeking new skin to touch and tease. Your lips and tongues becoming acquainted with each other once more.

You have no idea how long you remain locked in this tight sensual embrace of flesh and lust before the telltale signs of an impending orgasm creep up on you.

“Close.” You whimper into the crook of his neck. Arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. “Alpha, I’m so close.”

You feel as his hands glide themselves down to the meat of your hips. With a grip that is both demanding but soft he increases the speed at which you are riding him. “That’s it Omega. Little pussy is gripping me so tight. Go ahead and let go. Drench my cock so I can finally give you my knot."

He teases your mating gland with his tongue. Making everything start to get fuzzy in your brain. "Gonna stuff you so full there's no way you won’t make a mess on my lap. You'll be leaking me all night.”

The combination of friction against your swollen clit, mixed with Bucky's filthy words whispered in your ear and the sensation of his lips leaving open mouthed kisses along your overheated skin is the perfect catalyst for you to succumb to the mind-numbing full body orgasm that has been building for some time now.

You toss your head back and release a moan worthy of a porn star. Eyes closed, you ride each wave of your orgasm as they ebb and flow. A cacophony of swears and whimpers, accompanied by your Alpha's name, expel themselves from your now hoarse throat.

Allowing your body to guide you, your lips find the space along the juncture between your Alphas throat and shoulder. You don’t want to bite down. It's far too early in the relationship for that kind of claim. Instead you proceed to suck. Leaving a purplish hickey behind.

The feel of your luscious mouth clamping down on his flesh is the thing that pushes him over the edge. With a deep growl, he trusts upward and impales you on his now swollen knot. Making sure to leave a hickey of his own against your mating gland.

Your sensitive channel can feel each twitch of his cock as he spills inside of you. Filling you to the brim and then some, just like he promised.

With eyes glazed over, you both revel in the post orgasmic bliss. As you lay your head against his shoulder you can't help but to run your fingers along his scruffy jaw as you admire the Alpha that has quickly become very important to you.

“Can I borrow some sweats? I don’t need to worry about first impressions anymore. I think my naked ass left one I won’t be able to top anyway. So I’d like to comfortable at least for my second impression.”

Bucky chuckles and then gives your ass a squeeze. “This ass left a lasting impression on me too. But the thought of you wearing my clothes, making em smell all sweet like you, yeah that’s happening. In fact, I’m tempted to tease you all night so your slick soaks the fabric.”

He bites his lip and you can feel his softened cock begin to twitch.

“Uh, uh, Alpha. Don’t go getting yourself all excited again. We’ve already made Steve stay locked away in the office long enough. I’m not running the risk of him disliking me because you can’t control yourself and make him feel like a guest in his own home.” You chastise him.

“See that right there. Thinking about my best friend’s needs and opinion. That’s one of the things that makes so sweet. It helps even out all that sass.” He swats your ass as you stare at him mouth agape.

“You’ll pay for that later.” Your eyes go all doe eyed and soft as you whisper, “Sarg.”

“Fuck.” He whispers before taking a calming breath. “Let’s go grab you something comfy from my room.”

He lifts you up as if you weigh nothing and makes his way down the hall. Stopping at the cracked office door. “Get out of those stuffy work clothes Cap and throw on something more comfortable. We’ll meet you in the kitchen in 5 and sort out dinner.”

“Aye, Aye, Sargent.” Steve responds. Making you giggle against Bucky’s neck.

“Damnit Stevie. Don’t make this weird.” He sighs. “See you in 5.”

“So, Bucky’s damsel in distress is finally here in the flesh.” Steve gives a wicked smile.

“I told you not to make it weird, pal.” Bucky shakes his head.

You laugh it off. “He’s not making it weird. Why deny what he saw. It’s not his fault he walked in on what he did. We could have easily been in the safety of your room earlier.”

“You sure about that Omega. If I remember correctly. You couldn’t keep your hands to yourself the whole ride over here. You were perfuming so much my car is going to be smelling like sweet little omega for weeks.” He teases his tongue along his bottom lip. “I’m surprised we even made it into the house at all. I would have gladly taken you once we parked in the garage.”

He is really trying to get you flustered in front of his best friend. Little does he know you thrive off of this type of give and take. Not much can embarrass you. Not after the hardships life has thrown your way.

“So that’s why the garage smelled so damn good when I got out the car. Had to readjust my slacks before I could walk inside.” Steve says nonchalantly before taking a bite of his Chinese food.

“Are you telling me, my scent made America’s Golden Boy aroused? That’s dangerous Steven. Might give a woman a big head.” You tease.

“Wouldn’t be the only one.” He mumbles.

“Watch it punk. You already got an eye full you didn’t deserve.” Bucky declares.

“And what a sight it was.” He gets this dopey look in his eyes.

You just laugh at his antics. Who knew Captain America could be such a goofy little perv. It’s refreshing honestly. You two are going to get along great.

“Pardon my boldness. And please correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like you may need to get laid Captain.”

You watch his eyes slightly dilate when you say his title before he swallows and speaks. “That’s an understatement. But it’s not as easy as you may think. I could go find a little omega to sate my need for a night but I’m not really looking for that. I want more than just a warm place to stuff my knot. Plus it’s hard to tell who’s giving me attention because they actually like me. And who is only giving it to me to just check a box off their bucket list.”

“That sounds rather lonely. Good thing I’m around now. I can help you vet out the bad ones and help you find the good ones with potential.” You shyly smile. “If that’s okay with you of course. I don’t want to impose. I just started dating Bucky but you’re his best friend and roommate. You deserve all the good things, just like he does. A man like you shouldn’t feel like he is forced to be alone.”

“Thanks, Doll. I appreciate it and I would love your help. Although you are dating Bucky so I’m not quite sure your head is screwed on right. But I’ll take the risk.” He states with a beaming smile.

“You fucking little dick.” Bucky grits out as you can’t contain your laughter.

“Now Bucky, you know there’s nothing small about me. Not anymore at least. Everything finally matches up.” He says with a wink.

Holy shit! Has Steven Grant Rogers been packing even before the serum. That explains a lot.

[it-happened-one-fic]

Hours in the Moonlight: Persevering Afterlight - 9. Tougher Than You Seemed

Summary: It was high time that you confronted Leona, and even after having time to brace yourself, you still found yourself caught off-guard as Leona met you evenly, leaving you with only one option. To offer him a deal.

Series Type: Gender-neutral reader/ Vampire AU/ series/ romantic/ angst/ angst with comfort/ fluff/ sfw/ platonic interactions too!

Trigger Warning: Vampire

Word Count: 1816

Hours in the Moonlight Master-List

I glanced over at Ruggie slightly, and he nodded his head in silence before pushing open the door to Leona’s room. He called out to the other man, but didn’t follow me as I walked in. And almost as soon as I’d entered, bright green eyes already had me pointed, almost rooting me to the spot with a single glance.

Leona sat up lethargically, his tail swishing through the air as he yawned, perfectly displaying his large fangs before he stared at me in undisguised disinterest as the door clicked shut behind me, “Got rid of your boss’s lackey, did you?”

He blinked at me lazily as I nodded, not entirely sure of how to start now that I was here. So instead, I just answered his question, “He wanted a report, but someone will be back in just a few days.”

He let out an unimpressed sound that was a bizarre cross between a grunt and a hum, “No surprise there.” 

I watched as he looked listlessly out the window, like none of this had anything to do with him. But as my gaze tracked his motions, I frowned slightly. Pondering the man in front of me before I continued, “They’re just going to keep coming until they’re satisfied with what I’ve found here.”

His ears twitched at my words, but there was no other motion from him as he responded in a nonchalant tone, “Then I guess you’d better get everything figured out then.”

I felt my frown deepen at his words. They were a not-so-subtle signal that he did not care about how things panned out for me. And in many rights, I couldn’t blame him. After all, none of this was really his mess, and he hardly knew me.

But his indifference also wasn't something I couldn’t accept. Because even if my situation didn't mean a thing to him, I needed his help if I was going to accomplish what Crowley wanted and to protect those important to me.

I stepped closer, subtly pushing him to listen as I spoke, “You have an interest in what’s going on with the vampires. Why not help figure all of this out?”

He turned, looking my way with a snort before he spoke, a grin curving across his face as his gaze collided with mine in a perfectly unforgiving fashion, “And what makes you think I have any interest in that?”

I listened silently as he continued from his reclined, utterly relaxed position. Doing my best not to grimace even as his words rang true, “I’m not the leader of this clan. My brother is. All I have to do is make sure everything doesn’t crumble to dust while he’s away.”

I stared him down, my hands clenching slightly as I stood firm while he smirked back at me. And I had to hand it to him. He was a good actor. 

If it weren’t for the fact that he’d intervened when I’d fought that vampire, like he wanted to save him, then I would have genuinely believed he didn’t care. After all, what he said was true. Nothing about this situation was in any way his to handle.

Though it had only been a few days, ever since I’d come to Savanaclaw Clan, I’d hardly seen him, and he really hadn’t seemed to care at all. But there was what Ruggie had told me when he’d led me here just moments ago.

“You don’t want to get on his bad side, Y/n. He’s been having Jack and me look out for you to keep you safe.”

At first I hadn’t believed the young man, but then I’d gotten to thinking about it. The way the vampires in the hallways eyed me with more than just curious interest or hostility. Because there was always that gleam in their eye. Like they saw something truly intriguing and perhaps even tempting.

And then there was the way I’d felt like I was being watched in the hallways, but could never find anyone staring at me.

Those things, paired with Ruggie’s words, were a reminder that I wasn’t just the vampire hunter. I was also a human that vampires seemed to find either appetizing or attractive. 

The difference wasn’t entirely clear, but based on past experience, something told me it wasn’t the latter. And in a clan, surrounded by vampires who would probably win in a fight despite all the training Rook had given me, the weapons strapped to my person, and Vil’s necklace hanging around my throat, it wasn’t a good thing to be appetizing.

I swallowed as I continued to hold Leona’s gaze, not backing down now that I’d chosen this fight, “On the night of my debut, you didn’t want me to kill that vampire.” 

My assertion caused the man to go still, a frown appearing on his face as I found myself stepping forward. Pushing whatever advantage it was that I may or may not have. No matter how slight it might be.

Because whether I felt uncomfortable or not, and whether this would be difficult or not, Crewel was right. I needed Leona on my side if I was going to get anywhere with this investigation of the Savannaclaw clan.

I was only sorry that I hadn’t started pushing for this sooner. Especially since I had no clue as to how to go about winning Leona’s trust.

“You tried to talk to him first. Like you wanted to help him,” I continued, praying that my evaluation of Leona’s actions from that night was right. But it really had seemed like that was the case. Like he’d wanted to bring that vampire back from the brink.

All smugness had completely faded from Leona's face as he held my stare, and he didn’t even move when he responded, “Even if that is the case, what good would helping you do for me?”

His tone was flat, unhesitating, and like a death nail in my plan. “I-” I faltered, grimacing slightly as I realized exactly how right he was as he stood.

And he walked towards me. Prowling forwards, as if he’d sensed the weakness in my argument the very instant he’d touched upon it.

“You’ve been hiding behind others all this time, Herbivore, and, from what I’ve seen, you barely have the skills to make it as a vampire hunter. Why would I pick an herbivore like you, who's been hiding behind a vampire all this time, as an ally?”

He was right in front of me now, mere inches away, and I felt myself go still at his words as I realized, with startling clarity, that he wasn’t talking about me letting Jack and Ruggie shield me from the Savanaclaw clan or even my using Crowley or my status as a vampire hunter for protection.

No, he was talking about Vil.

“You… You knew about Vil?” My voice was infinitely quiet as I faltered at the realization, but the possibilities frightened me. Because if he knew about Vil, how long had the clans known about me? 

I’d known Vil was shielding me from a good number of vampires when he’d declared my apartment was part of his turf, but had that number included the clans, of all things?

Surprise briefly danced through his too-bright green eyes before Leona grinned. Not the usual smirk that I’d already grown used to. No, it was a wide grin, filled with incredulous amusement. Like I’d just said the last thing he’d ever expected.

“We’ve known that Vil was keeping a pet long before you ever decided to become the Hunter. How could we not when your mere scent had vampires scurrying around like flies after fruit?”

I let myself take a single step backwards as I faltered once more under the weight of this revelation.

I’d thought only Crowley had known the specifics of my presence, but there were others?

“How long?” My voice was surprisingly firm as I met Leona’s gaze once more and his eyebrows lifted slightly.

But he just answered me, “Shortly before Halloween, two years ago.”

I looked away from him again as my brain raced to put together the details. Halloween, two years ago. That was when Rook had ensured me and Vil had met.

Had he known? Was that why he’d introduced us?

I distantly recalled Rook's words, my mind spiraling at the possibilities as they rang in my mind like a harsh echo, “Because you needed more protection than I could offer and he needed a friend.”

More protection than he could offer…. The Savanaclaw Clan on its own was huge; I couldn’t imagine the number of vampires that populated all of the clans. It had to be immense and easily more than Rook could have handled on his own.

I swallowed under Leona’s stare. It was a gaze that reminded me of the night I debuted. Weighing, judging, but patient.

But I met his green-eyed stare once more. Determination welling up within me as I realized exactly how long I’d been being protected without even realizing how much danger I’d been in. 

I would have to talk to both Vil and Rook about this, but I had something else to do first. I still had to win over Leona.

Turnabout's fair-play, and it was past time for me to start taking care of those who’d been protecting me for so long. Even if it meant having to solve a mystery that even those who were in charge of an entire district of vampires didn’t know the answer too.

“You asked what good me helping you would be. I may not be the best at the job, but I am still the vampire hunter and in charge of this area because of Crowley.” Leona’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t interrupt as I continued. Offering him the only thing I could.

“I won’t ‘handle’ any of your clan’s vampires before you have a chance to try and help them or do whatever it was you were trying to do that night. And when I figure this entire mess out, you’ll be one of the first to know.”

He crossed his arms, looking fairly unimpressed as I prayed that he’d accept. I knew it wasn’t a good deal, but it was all I had.

“And then? If you get all of the cause of the insanity figured out? What will you do then?” His words surprised me. But it was then I understood.

All this time, he’d been measuring me. Deciding how worthwhile I really was.

I held his stare as I answered, “Then I end it. I’ll eradicate the source if that’s what it takes.”

A grin stretched across his face, his canines, larger than those that Vil had, glinting in the moonlight that shone through the window as his eyes practically glowed in the darkness, “Perhaps you’re tougher than you seemed.”

If you would like to read more:

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[lordkingsmith]

Six for Six

Making a little bit of a tag game I thought might be fun. Movies, tv shows and even commercials are a big part of modern life. Sometimes it’s not even the full piece it’s just a specific moment in it so impactful to you this moment rewrote your brain. so; choose six moments in movies, shows, and/or commercials that deeply impacted you and influenced how you write or make art and then tag six people :)

If you can’t find the moment on YouTube no worries, just list where it comes from, describe it, and briefly explain how it impacted you

1. https://youtu.be/7DXJcB0Y4L4?si=H5TVapOBuM_009-5

The whole mini series turned movie is bizarre but this part is the only part like this. Probably for budget reasons. The song is amazing and the visuals are gorgeous. As a kid I’d watch this show over and over mainly just for this part. Miranda dancing a demonic sea dragon into oblivion while mermaids sing. Also; “how can I give a gift to someone who already has so many of her own” like. Hello??? It’s surreal and weird and fun, and I loved it so so much. I think this was where I started really becoming obsessed with matching a song to a person and imagining very small people up against weird and impossible odds

2. https://youtu.be/PqLy1tgyphw?si=vsARUV0uGCSPmlNC

Specifically the voice over and the ending, where the guy is dragged into the trench below. The whole commercial is a vibe but the stomach drop I had when I first saw this commercial’s ending-it was so good? The best shiver I swear. I’ve been trying to cause that same amount of excited dread in myself since lol

3. https://youtu.be/ECsfniZRdBc?feature=shared

Eris’ game from Sinbad. I wasn’t down bad for her, it was more like I was in awe for how…correctly they got “chaos” for her goddess self. Every detail of her is perfection for it. And the game is so perfectly encapsulating everything she is, and everything Sinbad is. Him making her give him his word is the smartest thing he could have ever done and I love it. I wanna write a villain even a quarter as amazing as her, one day

4. https://youtu.be/8rl3CeVtFSE?si=qSH0_qqvoNsmInhE

Scooby Doo cyber chase is the most trippy movie for me and I love it so much? But this? This I think about once a month lol. I don’t know how to incorporate the vibes from this scene alone but man do I keep trying

5. https://youtu.be/7bfDd3iW6lY?si=AkBz-_1mAQi9tY0b

Cyberchase’s twist where Hacker, the generally inept villain, was actually 3 steps ahead of them up till this point and not only made Motherboard sick but also tricked them into thinking the thing that would replace her with himself was the cure? Messed me up as a kid. First time I’d ever seen a villain winning. It doesn’t last long but man. It still happened! Villains should win sometimes, and idiot villains should be smart sometimes too. Just adds to the story over all

6. https://youtu.be/LXIlThWdz-Q?si=LPJMORNDBwdvAu22

For non Americans, this was on our Public Broadcasting System channel, aka PBS. It was aimed at seven to twelve year olds. This was the first time a lot of kids saw a main character die. It’s also why I believe kids are more capable of handling heavy concepts than most people now think. Crying because a character died is good, actually. Helps people safely confront the concept of death and grief. Was controversial even then but highly influential to the ones who saw it

And I’m tagging; @uccelletto-di-kokuyo @queerlilchinchin @shepardsherd @watermeezer @augment-techs @skyland2703 and if anyone else would like to go for it :)

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Character ask game: you know I gotta go Integra and/or Alucard lmao

okay let’s go with integra!

favorite thing about them: love a character with an intense worldview dichotomy! the fact that integra hunts all vampires but then she has the emotional support pet vampire at home. love a built in existential crisis like that.

least favorite thing about them: uhhh I guess she’s just not very fleshed out in canon? I’m pretty unsatisfied with the ending where she’s made such a monumental choice to dissolve hellsing but we don’t see how she arrived at it because of the fucking time skip. likewise I dislike that she’s still even talking about alucard and walter that far ahead? idk I would like for her to have moved on after *thirty years* but also if she hasn’t then I want to see why? what’s going on with her emotionally?

favorite line: “you cut his head off? is that all?” is very fun in its smugness. also in gonzo when she tells alucard “you don’t make decisions” like. lmao.

brOTP: …walter? there aren’t enough characters in this series

OTP: alutegra baybey! we love to see a twisted mess of power imbalances. the way deep seated resentments and genuine emotional investment can coexist. chivalric devotion turned obsessive and suffocating. the moral quandary of like. what does it mean to be loved, above all else, by a genuinely sadistic, awful, bloodthirsty monster? someone who represents everything she hates but is the only person she can depend on? someone her family, who she is so very proud of, has done unspeakable things to— but perhaps for a good purpose and with cause? what does it mean to even consider returning those feelings? love a morally and philosophically messy ship! like he is her dog on a leash and they are inevitably going to destroy each other one day but in the mean time they’re going to bicker like an old married couple.

nOTP: I guess the major? I’ve seen that sometimes and I do not like it!

random headcanon: I think she’s very bad at technology (while alucard is very good at it)

unpopular opinion: my girl would have the most rancid politics known to man!! I feel like fanon leaning towards her being bizarrely progressive and like. she runs a paramilitary organization for the british monarchy. she’s part of a *feudal* style secret government. I don’t want to hear a single word she has to say about imperialism, the british empire specifically, or anyone’s human rights

song I associate with them: many songs bc I have many hellsing playlists lol. but one is haunted houses by emma ruth rundle

[ladyloveandjustice]

Summer 2023 Anime Overview: Undead Murder Farce and My Happy Marriage

Undead Murder Farce

Premise: Our story takes place in Victorian times/the Meji Era. Tsugaru is a half-oni (demon) and half human as a result of a mysterious man doing horrible experimentation on him. He’s approached by Aya Rindo, an immortal woman who has been reduced to a head (transported in a birdcage by her combat-saavy maid Shizuku) because the same man beheaded her and stole her body. They agree to team up to find the man and hopefully get Aya’s body back. As they look for the man, they travel Europe and to solve mysteries related to monsters and inhumans.

Undead Murder Farce was definitely my show of the summer season. It’s a fun mystery series starring three asshole weirdo protagonists, it’s bursting with monsters and demons and bizarre people, full of references to Victorian literature and rakugo and all kinds of nerdy stuff, it’s got stylish, slick direction from Mamoru Hatekayama (you know him from Kaguya: Love is War, and Rakugo Shinju) and it’s really gay.

The trio of Aya, Tsugaru, and Shizuku all have really have a snarky comfortable friend dynamic and their banter as they solve vampire murder mysteries, try to outsmart Arsene Lupin and a gang of Victorian literary monsters, and investigate a werewolf village and it makes for an entertaining watch. Aya will never stop making stupid jokes about how she’s just a head in a cage, and we love her for it.

The “let’s stuff in every Victorian public domain character we can” arc is where the show really starts to shine (though unlike some others, I do still really like the vampire murder mystery arc a lot—I just love the idea of a vampire murder mystery, and we really get a good feel for the cast. It’s definitely the weakest arc of the series, though). UDM gets to whip out all its literary nerd credentials. The case involves: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Arsene Lupin, The Phantom of the Opera, Carmilla, Frankenstein’s Monster, Aleister Crowley, Phileas Fogg and two surprise characters.

And yes, they remember that Carmilla is gay, which automatically puts in above 99.9% adaptations of the character. They do make her older and WAY more of a sexpot than the novel version, which, eh,  but she’s 100% the ultra-campy Blueprint Problematic Lesbian Vampire she deserves to be. Like in the novel, she exclusively feeds on and seduces women and she gets into a deeply sapphic rivalry with Shizuku, who she tries to subdue and toy with using her vampire powers. (As you can expect from the character, there is the assault stuff that comes with that territory, though they don’t go too far with it, she kisses Shizuku's neck and messes up her shirt a bit).

But also, we find out Shizuku is used to making love with someone who has “centuries” on Carmilla and is “far more experienced ”, which can only be Aya. This is further confirmed when Shizuku shows jealousy over Tsugaru and Aya’s transactional kiss in the next arc and Tsugaru has to reassure her. And then Shizuku just CONTINUES to stumble into sapphic situations. She gets surrounded by naked ladies and bonds with them like twice in the last arc. It’s great. Everyone thought it might be be Aya/Tsugaru at the beginning, but turns out UDM is For the Gays and it straightbaited you. Amazing.

It's not just Carmilla that UDM shows off its nerd (and gay) credentials with—there’s the interesting choice to make the Phantom of Persian descent, which is clever as a reference to the Phantom’s time in Persia in the original novel AND adds an extra layer to the “unfairly treated as an outcast” element of the character. (Lupin and the Phantom also team up in the story and give off such strong gay energy (Lupin especially) that a lot of people ship them). And like in the novel, Frankenstein’s Monster is smart and even functions as the more level-headed one in the villain gang.

All of that stuff is catnip to me, but the best part of UDM is following it’s convoluted mysteries and seeing Aya strut her stuff figuring the them out while everyone gets in cool fights. It’s very good at what it does, and it’s a fun romp with some interesting themes about being on the margins of society and what makes an outcast simmering underneath. I had a great time with it, and I’m aching to see more of these scrappy misfits and their adventures. If you’re here for a campy but intelligent mystery series about lovable weirdos with a side order of gay, absolutely check this one out!

My Happy Marriage

Premise: Miyo was born without supernatural talents despite her father's expectations, and after her mother passes away, her father and stepfamily treat her abusively and use her as a servant. Miyo's family sticks her with an arranged marriage to Kiyoka Kudou, a man with a reputation for being cold and cruel. However, she quickly finds he’s not what he seems, and she slowly begins to gain confidence in herself.

My Happy Marriage is a straightforward Cinderella story, but one that actually focuses on the psychological effects of being abused and the slow recovery and healing journey of its protagonist. Even if she's not with her abusive family anymore, Miyo still has completely shit self esteem and even just running into her Evil Stepsister ™ in the street sends her reeling back to where she started, consumed by fear and sadness. The story is about her finding a place where she’s loved and supported, and slowly gaining confidence, and her and her husband learning to communicate. She’s still shy, domestic, and very devoted to being proper for her husband throughout, and sometimes needs help, but her learning to let herself be loved and learning to find her own strength and power is the focus of the story. It shows how many obstacles you have to bravely face just to move forward after trauma. And in the end, Miyo finds her own way to save the day. I think that’s really valuable.

Though, like in the original Cinderella story, there is the issue of the pure, domestic woman being contrasted with evil, conniving, social climbing women (though at least there’s no “and they’re also ugly” thing going, and they have her dad be shitty too). It wasn’t bothering me too much--even the ‘training to be a proper wife’ stuff Miyo decides to do since it wasn't out of place in the Meiji era setting-- until Miyo met her sister-in-law. Sis is a divorced woman and a little more “modern” and forward than Miyo and I was excited at first, because hey, a woman in this story who doesn’t fit either the ‘demure’ or ‘evil’ archetypes. But then it turned out her tragic backstory was that she’s a shitty cook and therefore failed to be a proper woman for her husband’s family and her in-laws drove her to divorce, which she 100% blames herself and her lack of domestic skil and 'unwillingness to compromise" with her mean in-laws for. She’s not challenged on this attitude at all. I can easily see a future plotline where she reunites with her ex-husband and he reveals he didn’t mind the cooking or something, but as it stands, it’s pretty disheartening and I don't see why it was a thing.

Still, Miyo’s arc is cathartic and well done, and the animation absolutely beautiful throughout. It’s nice seeing a story focusing on recovery that focuses on the small triumphs that come with learning to see your own value after being told you’re worthless. The supernatural element is a fun touch. It’s already been renewed for a second season and I’m definitely here for the rest.

[randomfoggytiger]

Inbox being weird again, had to repost (sorry, anon!)

What are your thoughts on IWTB? It’s now on hulu and I am like 15 minutes in to a rewatch (I’ve watched FtF a truly offensive number of times but have only seen this once, when it first came out) and am absolutely incensed already. I’m having trouble making sense of their characters, they seem so OOC to me — even with the understanding that they are (possibly both) depressed and life on the run has really jaded and hardened them. Also its so weird to me that Amanda Peet reaches out to touch Mulders cheek bc he cut himself shaving? Just bizarre behavior all around!

It is a truly bizarre movie. I've not seen it; but I have done extensive research on it, if that makes sense. I think it can be summed up by this one Tumblr post I saw (and lost, someone help me find it!) that noted Mulder requested a helicopter for himself and Scully to, essentially, walk a few street blocks to the next location. Because CC wanted a helicopter in his movie and he was going to get it, somehow, someway.

Below is a tragically long post filled with article links for more enjoyment~.

(**Note**: Will edit this post later, brb.)

TLDR: A movie/tv series worth its salt is well-written, end of story. It doesn't matter how excellent or in-character the themes or motifs or etc. are if the characters are badly written or act out-of-turn. You cannot have a god-tier theme about fighting back the Darkness and seeking for the Truth if at every opportunity the characters themselves reject the message continually in ways that make no sense, especially when they have a history of stellar characterization and well-thought-out opinions and actions. This movie is a prime example of that.

There are numerous blogs here that have already (rightfully) griped about IWTB, so I won't go into plot nonsense or whatnot. But I DO have interviews that show how roughshod the movie making process was before it even hit theatres, so....

I first heard about IWTB's flaws peripherally through this article (that trashes the Revival, highly recommend. Written by a CC fan, too, so it's not a bash-sesh against the Creator.) It spoke endearingly-ish about IWTB, believing it to be more in-character than the Revival (yup.... unfortunately.) Then I started perusing fan opinions... and everyone pretty much agreed it was awful in most parts and shippy in others.

TBH, shippy doesn't mean squat to me. Maybe it's how I'm wired, but I was drawn to The X-Files because the romance is so unspoken with very light kisses. I 100% get Chris Carter's restraint perspective; but I also get the fans' perspective, that it's gone too far to ignore or take back. An example: the movie sets up a "gasp, really??" mystery that Scully is a doctor with a life separate from Mulder, driving over to him to try to get him involved in the FBI manhunt. It's taken back almost immediately when Mulder later springs up beside her in bed, but it's those little touches that start to confuse the message. And then throw in Scully insisting Mulder join the chase while Gillian Anderson acted her completely opposite to what she was saying and you start to see the mess unravel. Then Mulder tosses aside his loyalty to Scully-- something that is KEY to his character, having formerly left his life's work for her and even left his newborn son when she told him to-- to chase the very monsters she begged him to chase but is now begging him not to. There is no reason given other than "It's who I am", which is NOT who Mulder is: he is a man willing to sacrifice who he is and what makes him tick over and over for Scully's sake. This not only breaks his character in-movie, it nullifies all his actions and choices in the original series, stripping them of their consequences and weight.

The movie, I believe, was supposed to be about Mulder and Scully scrabbling against the Darkness while also lost in confusion: they're together but Scully feels threatened by Agent Whitney, Mulder no's the case before getting wrapped up into it, Scully supports then withdraws her support (and LEAVES??), both rely on the word of a pedophile priest (a similar alliance to Luthor Lee Boggs but creepier and less redeemable... and even Boggs wasn't redeemed), and finally Scully casts aside her doubts to get back in the saddle and save Mulder. It seems a compelling story, no? ...No.

An example of the "confusion" theme of the plot: When Mulder meets up with the other agents to discuss terms (I suppose), the camera briefly pans to random people walking past him in the hallway-- one of them is the actress who played his little sister in the OG series; and the camera makes it a point for Mulder to notice that fact... but so briefly and quickly it never made an impression on him permanently, a.k.a. a seeming callback. BUT when Scully yells at him (before? after? I dunno) about always looking for his sister, this is the scene that was supposed to back her up? In which case: dude, we all saw the Samantha Agent. She did, indeed, look like Samantha; and she had NOTHING to do with this case. The only explanation Scully had for her tasteless remark was that she thought Mulder was full-on delusional or so stubborn he was projecting his own demons onto this case. Y'know... the case he didn't want and only got more involved in to SAVE LIVES. In which case, it doesn't fit with the themes of the movie at all: Mulder was right here, Scully was wrong; but the movie stated that SCULLY was right, or at least half-right, and Mulder was at least half-wrong. It's all nonsense.

The dialogue is atrocious. Absolutely appalling. Which makes sense to an extent: CC and Spotnitz had this movie written out right after the series ended as an attempt to gain back the studio's attention. No such luck; and when FOX was finally interested to make more money, the script notes were accidentally lost; so CC and Frank blitzkrieged up a final draft in just a few weeks (very not good.) This and this article breaks down how Spotnitz (in his own words) watched CC battle FOX from the sidelines for the movie, then scramble with him to complete a draft in time for filming; and it explains (but doesn't justify) the stilted dialogue, horrendous pacing issues, and disjointed theme. To summarize:

""Frank Spotnitz: ...The pressure in television is incredible because you’ve got to keep coming up with another script, another script, another script. The movie was completely different. We started work on the story in 2003, and then got derailed for four years by deal-making and the threat of a lawsuit. Then when we returned to it in 2007, we’d lost our notes.

Lost your notes?

Frank Spotnitz: We’d put them on note cards to pitch the studio, and we couldn’t locate them. At first, we were very unhappy, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. We remembered what the case was about, but the emotional beats, the personal beats between Mulder and Scully, we had to start from scratch, and we had changed."" 

Frank Spotnitz claims it was effortless to get back in their characters' heads; and, while that may be true, it was certainly not effortless to put them down on paper.

The messaging of the movie was so confusing that Mark Snow, the composer, didn't read all of it correctly (which is important for the person composing the score for each scene):

""Now the plot of I Want To Believe has characteristically remained a secret – I don’t suppose you can tell us anything about what we can expect from this film?

Well the interesting part was, when I read the script the first thing I got out of it was deep, dark complexity and I spoke to Chris Carter afterwards and he said ‘what do you think?’, I said ‘man, it’s so complex and dark and mysterious’, and he said ‘and it’s a love story with religious overtones…’ Okay! He said ‘just keep that in mind’ and you know I re-read it and I got what he meant, and then seeing the movie I certainly got what he meant. Besides the Mulder and Scully relationship there are some other very very emotional, intimate if you would, moments there that do add spiritual and religious weight to it...."" 

This article does well at picking apart the claims (some ludicrous) for and against the movie But, for time's sake, let's skip to the summary of the very sloppy (and downright goofy) climax of the movie:

""The biggest shortcoming may be that the case is solved by both Mulder and Scully independently and simultaneously, and thanks to coincidences on both their behalf. Mulder’s investigative skills lead him to the villain thanks to a simple visit to a local store; stem cell research for organ transplants and for curing Christian allow the two storylines to cross, but Scully having a revelation by finding the villain’s research on the internet through a non-related search draws the odds extremely. There is little actual investigation and the case is wrapped up too quickly. All those are little things — but they pile up to too much.""

Both the actors had "notes" and "questions" (read here) about their characters when they first got the script, with Gillian Anderson admitting how hard it was to find her character (post here)--

""Gillian Anderson: I had a similar experience. This feels so weird. Summertime. I didn’t have all the running around that David had to do, but I did have my own unfortunate beginning which was starting with one of the most difficult scenes for Scully in the film where it’s later on in the script and she goes through a range of emotions in confronting Billy Connolly’s  character. I just had a really time for those first couple of days that that scene was. I had a really hard time just finding her, finding her voice. I think I must’ve gone through ten other characters in the process of trying to get to her when I had assumed that I would be able to show up on the first day and it would just be there. It wasn’t until I think day three when we got to work together, not just necessarily in a familiar environment which it really wasn’t, but in the environment of each other and the relationship and that it kind of felt natural and familiar and I felt like I’d landed this time."" --

but it was David Duchovny who was surprisingly the most honest to the press about his (measured) thoughts, as he's usually the most reticent. He always wanted to do a movie series, liking the scope and freedom it would give him with acting and scheduling; but he mentioned, once or twice, that he wished IWTB had been a bigger action film in the vein of FTF. Further, he admits to an interviewer about his thoughts and his (slight) dissatisfaction with Mulder's out-of-character element here:

""Since The X-Files: I Want to Believe may not have been the huge blockbuster that everyone was hoping for, we’d like to know: What is your own measure of success for the movie?

Duchovny: I guess it’s always the first time I see the movie. What’s my feeling when I come out? I always felt like the subject matter of this particular movie was limiting. It was dark, and it wasn’t going....

I’ve only seen it one time, and I was sitting in Chris’ editing room. I watched it on a little screen. I guess I missed the chance to see it on the big screen, and that’s too bad, but when I left that initial screening at Chris’ house, the film was pretty much almost done except for some special effects. I just felt like it was really strong and kind of a strangely moving piece of work. Still dark, and still, I thought, limited, but the way that the movie performed did not surprise me so much, and I think that if we do get a chance to do another one … what I always really liked about the show was that it had a dark vision, but at the heart of it being driven by Mulder was this real optimism or wonder or sense of belief, and then it would kind of open out. Most of the best shows that we did would open out into real wonder at the end, if only because you didn’t have an answer, which was the mystery of it, but the wonder.

Mulder’s quest, to me, is a very positive one. If we get a chance to do another one, I think because in this movie Mulder kept getting reinvigorated, Mulder was in a down place for much of this film; he wasn’t driving the way he drives, the way he drove everything before that. In a way, the nature of how we had to get back into the show, which was to take the guy out of his job, also deprived the movie of some optimism and wonder and enlightenment that occurs when you’ve got this unhinged guy trying to prove wonderful crazy things.""

And while DD defended IWTB's box office failings as having to compete against Batman, one of the previous articles I linked had the savvy to tackle that reason and debunk it:

""The defenders of IWTB will endlessly complain about the budget (but look at what a feast Darren Aronofsky did with $35 million: “The Fountain” (2006)), the fact that it’s low-key ‘intellectual’ and not blockbuster-like (so is “There Will Be Blood” (2007), $25 million, and countless other generally agreed upon masterpieces), the lousy promotion (but look at what good word of mouth can do with a movie few believed in in the beginning: “The Matrix” (1999), $65 million), the unforseen success of “The Dark Knight” as competition (hardly an argument) or trends in selfish cinema critics (as if a bad reception is the sole result of a conspiracy).

However what will remain in history is not the whys and hows but the what: the final product itself. And the truth is that if IWTB featured characters other than Mulder and Scully, this would be a not very memorable movie.""

Needless to say: the entire movie's a mess, and it's down to the roots. While beautiful visually and musically-- all the reviews and cast and crew had nothing to say against that-- the characters and the script and the plot were a horrible mishmash that highlighted its weaknesses and smashed down its strengths.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ramble; and sorry if this didn't do what you needed! But you did inspire me to find all the old angry IWTB discussions/posts on Tumblr (archive hopping, heheheh) and put them all in one place. So, look forward to that sometime in the future, I suppose~!

Disclaimers: I do not like canon after S8; and that's only because they get a happy ending and, even though it has garbage canon decisions, the characters were able to save most of it and forget the rest. But I will treat IWTB as its own thing devoid of my personal opinion.

[matt-imagines-popcorn]

Hello! How are you doing? May I please have some HC's for Vega and a female reader who Vega sees as perfect in every aspect, so he admires from afar until he musters up the courage to ask her on a date? If you're uncomfortable with this request, you can just ignore it! No pressure!

I’m doing alright!!! Schools kicking my ass but that's nothing new! And I hope you don’t mind me taking longer on this! Vega is like, one of my top five favorites in the series and I accidentally went ham on this. So I guess you're getting a little treat to your request! I hope that's alright :]

Warnings; Stalking,

Vega with a crush + First Date HCs [Fem! Reader]

As you can imagine, it's pretty rare for Vega to like-like someone. Sure, he can admit when one’s looks are above average, but he never had a crush on someone. In his eyes, no woman nor man could even hold a candle to beauty - his perfection. Never had he experienced that soft warmth that runs through one's body when they're in love - never had that wondrous feeling of pure delight when that one, special person walks past them. Not until he saw her.

You never thought of yourself as anything special, just someone trying to make a living. But to Vega - you’re flawless. Every little thing you did made his throat go dry. If he was ever so lucky to be in a conversation with you he gets so excited! On the outside he seems to be fine - even able to shoot back some flirtatious comments - but on the inside, he can feel his heart pounding - practically begging to be closer with you - to call you his. He hates the feeling. He was supposed to leave you a flustered mess, not the other way! It just leaves him wanting more.

Soon, seeing you occasionally wasn’t enough to fill his hunger - he wanted to follow you around, watching what makes you click. The more he watched you - the more he found himself longing to be with you. Every time he saw you smile Vega could only wish to be the reason for your smile one day. Even a small giggle from you was enough to fully intoxicated him - and may God show mercy on any poor souls that dared cause even an ounce of stress on you.

You may not have noticed your obsessive stalker right away but you noticed right away that your world had changed - it became weirdly nicer toward you. It started small at first. Roses left in your mailboxes (Perhaps a kind neighbor had given it to you?), your favorite treats in stock at the store - little things like that. It became weird when rude customers at work would either disappear forever or come back a few days later begging for forgiveness at your feet. Then it becomes downright bizarre when you find items you swore you never bought around your own home. The shampoo you should’ve run out of two weeks ago, your snacks never doubting down in volume (actually, it seems to only be growing unless it's just a trick of the eye). Were you going crazy? Did you buy these and forgot you did? Or was it something more sinister?

The day Vega finally mustered up the courage (not that he needed the courage, he argues, he was just trying to figure out your personality before he confessed to you is all … Liar) and asked you out. It was the first in a long time he felt nervous - at least in this kind of situation. The so-called butterflies happily fluttered around in his chest as he asked for a simple date. (Well … would you?)

Perhaps you caught instantly he wasn’t all he seems out to be. Sure he was charming in a way but you can definitely tell something was off about him. Plus you only talked to him once or twice before, clearly not enough for you to decide to go out with him. Vega, as he took your rejection in pride out in public, was devastated you - a being of perfection and beauty that rivals his own - rejected him. Sure, Cammy and Chun-Li have both denied his advances but that is because of their stupid morals. You, unlike those two, have no idea of the blood he spilled and you still said no …

Now, I see it going in two different ways. One way is that he believes you're playing hard to get. So he ignores you for a time before going back to obsessing over you. Then repeat the cycle till you finally admit you love him. The other way - he just makes your life a living hell before disappearing from it forever. Just so he doesn’t leave completely empty-handed. Either way, it's a nightmare.

Or perhaps you found yourself deeply enchanted with the man. For the few times the two of you talked, he made up for making each conversation memorable. Possibly, you noticed that it wasn’t a good idea to tease his wrath by rejecting him … Either one, you accepted his confession. How great! Cause he already set up a date at a lovely fancy restaurant not too far away later that week! He already knows it won’t affect your schedule so it’ll be perfect!

The night of the date, you’ll find a gorgeous dress/suit that you had no idea of buying hanging in your closet. A gift from a friend maybe? Either way, it was too lovely not to wear! Vega upon picking you up immediately notices the outfit you wore - the one he picked out for you and a sense of pride ran through him.

The date itself - from start to finish - was great! Sure a fancy dinner date was a bit cliche but Vega didn’t mind, you surely didn’t. He loved hearing you talk more about yourself. He may already know a few things about you such as your family or work - but it's so much better hearing it coming from you! He actually gets a bit nervous when you ask questions about his own life. He’ll rather not tell you of his upbringing, or his work. But it all worked out as he tells you about his bullfighting lifestyle - which you thankfully found interesting.

Overall, the date was a success! He even walked you home, as a gentleman would. Continuing to sing his affection till he dropped you off, telling you of his plans for your next date. You couldn’t wait.

[thenaturalfriends]

Random s17 e01 thoughts

K so I did not wait until tomorrow like a good boy after all. Spoilers.

What an excellent opening, with Greg calling himself a sassy queen and then a perfectly silly prize task. Joanne was robbed. I died laughing at John's.

The house is GORGEOUS and I want to catalogue ALL THE THINGS in it.

First impressions:

Joanne: immediately adore her and her big, big energy that always seems on the verge of spilling over into chaos.

John: I've been bingeing John content in preparation and got exactly what I expected from him. Early favourite from me to win the series and also to be People's Champion of my Heart.

Nick: what a hilarious little hobbit of a man. So quick and sweet and with great timing.

Sophie: a mess and a fun mess. Immediately and clearly out of the running.

Steve: I hate him (affectionate?). He's too polished and overdoes everything. I am a super cheerful fan and I love everyone always. I have only actively disliked one (1) contestant in 17 series (Bridget Christie). Steve might be the second. We'll see if he grows on me and if I get less annoyed by the relentless smug dad jokes.

The egg task had me literally gasping in suspense at Nick's attempt. Steve losing at the last minute made me warm up to him just slightly.

The painting task was bizarre and fun. I'm disappointed the teams seem so happy together... so far. I wish we had been told the answers to the questions: shortest wiki, most followers, etc. Like that Alex managed to work his good buddy John's biggest career accomplishment into a task.

The gorilla task was fun, what a shame three of them were just actually good at it. Whichever Andy is the director clearly had piles of fun flexing with artsy shots from the location tasks. What a pretty episode.

The live task! YES! Is this the first one they've stolen from Taskmaster Australia? I know they poach from NZ. Loved this on TM AU, loved it again here. Loved John deliberately not committing to a body shape off the bat--him being immediately strategic about it bodes well for him in the series, I think. Also when Alex yelled at them to put their markers down John shot him A LOOK that was so funny.

I'm glad to have seen this today so tomorrow I can just obsess about the Lucy & Sam pod.

[warningsine]

The first crime scene in the new season of “True Detective” isn’t that of the seven gnarled, naked bodies we see piled on top of one another in the snow at the end of Episode 1, but of a more mundane violence. A woman tries to flee her physically abusive boyfriend, and he tracks her down at work. This time, he gets walloped, with a metal bucket, by his girlfriend’s co-worker, an older woman. The blow leaves his face a gory mess. The officer who arrives to escort the man off the premises, Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), asks the girlfriend whether she’ll press charges against her ex; the trooper doesn’t offer him the same choice before putting him in cuffs. The local chief of police, Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), isn’t exactly complimentary when she later says that Navarro’s “got this thing about women who get hurt.” The arrest feels righteous, but the stench of the man’s menace lingers. Tidy endings are hard to come by, especially once blood has been spilled.

There’s a refusal to separate or elevate sensational brutality from the everyday sort in this latest installment of the HBO anthology drama—a feminist revision of a series best known for its macho poetry and its ogling eye. The show’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, had his mostly male investigators contend with child murderers and pedophile rings; the QAnon-esque luridness of those crimes haunted the grizzled detectives for decades thereafter. The writer-director Issa López, who has taken over from Pizzolatto as showrunner, moves the action from sunbaked states to the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, where, as of mid-December, daylight won’t return for several weeks. The uninterrupted Arctic dark lends the season its subtitle, “Night Country,” as well as its wintry, edge-of-civilization atmospherics. Watching the six-part season from under a blanket in California, I couldn’t get warm.

The dead men who form the chilly, Boschian tableau at the pilot’s conclusion are (or were) scientists at a research station on the outskirts of Ennis. With unknown funders and an improbable mission, the facility was shrouded in mystery even before its occupants turned up on the ice with their faces literally frozen in horror. But Navarro is hopeful that their bizarre fate will offer some clues in a homicide case that she and Danvers worked on years earlier—the unsolved murder of a Native woman named Annie Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen), who agitated against the mine that the town relies on for most of its jobs—when Annie’s severed tongue materializes, without explanation, in the scientists’ mess hall.

Here, the “True Detective” formula kicks in: Danvers and Navarro reunite as partners despite their mutual suspicion, and their rocky history eventually threatens their credibility on the new case. Conspiracies, hostile forces, and occult flourishes abound. The universe of the show is one in which the police—even the brilliant ones—are always failing. Danvers has long since reconciled herself to that reality: of the earlier cold case, she says, “This one was never gonna be solved. Ennis killed Annie.” She’s an outsider, unmoved by Navarro’s insistence that a white murder victim wouldn’t have been so readily forgotten. Nor is she particularly sensitive toward her stepdaughter, Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc), whose newfound embrace of political activism—and of her Native heritage—she considers a needlessly risky attempt at teen-age rebellion. In Danvers’s view, there’s no ridding the world, or even her own squad, of shit-heels and malefactors; there’s only limiting the damage.

Whereas Pizzolatto’s iteration of the show had few female characters of substance, the new season delights in the complexities of its women protagonists. The chief’s no-nonsense veneer allows her to insult her subordinates, including her shiftless deputy Hank (John Hawkes), without it feeling all that personal. But she’s got a maternal side—one that she indulges with Hank’s son, Peter (Finn Bennett), a junior officer—as well as a penchant for affairs with married men that’s made her persona non grata among many women in town.

Foster has spent much of the past decade and a half behind the camera, as a director, but she’s lost none of the cerebral confidence that has underpinned her distinctive sex appeal. It’s no shock that she’s compulsively watchable. It is a pleasant surprise that her nearly unknown co-star is just as compelling, with a refreshingly naturalistic screen presence. Reis, a professional boxer turned actor with cheek piercings where her dimples might be, looks so solid from the neck down that her body is like one long, taut muscle, but her character has a habit of picking fights she’s unlikely to win. Navarro’s volatility masks deep-seated vulnerabilities. Her unstable mother died before sharing Navarro’s Inupiaq name with her, leaving her painfully disconnected from her culture. She lives in fear that her sister, Julia (Aka Niviâna), who’s already been institutionalized once, may slip through the cracks if she continues to resist treatment—and that Julia isn’t the only member of the family who inherited their mother’s hallucinations. Not everyone finds the apparitions the siblings struggle to shake off so unnatural. “Ennis is where the fabric of all things is coming apart at the seams,” Navarro’s friend Rose (Fiona Shaw) says; she routinely sees her deceased lover roaming the tundra. “This is Ennis, man,” another character says simply. “You see people who are gone sometimes. It’s a long fucking night. Even the dead get bored.”

In the prestige-TV era, the police procedural has grasped for cachet through social critique (“The Wire”) or cool vibes (“Fargo”). Some achieve both—“Top of the Lake” is an easy example—but, in less adept hands, the former can feel like homework and the latter a shallow exercise in style. (In the most recent season of “Fargo,” self-serious kitsch and punishing sincerity layered irritation on irritation.) Pizzolatto’s “True Detective,” which last aired five years ago, ran largely on vibes, too, and when sleaze and nihilism couldn’t sustain its overcomplicated plotting, the mysteries sagged.

López has accomplished the uncommon feat of resuscitating a franchise that didn’t deserve saving. She first broke out with “Tigers Are Not Afraid,” a 2017 film that blended human horrors and magical realism, and her season of “True Detective” pulls off the same balancing act. Although Danvers, like the show’s original protagonist (played by Matthew McConaughey), obsesses over “asking the right questions,” López isn’t always interested in furnishing answers, and the series mostly benefits from her willingness to dwell in ambiguity. Are Julia’s visions a by-product of schizophrenia, as her doctors suggest, or rooted in spiritual truth? The matter is never fully litigated. López’s dialogue is more pedestrian than her predecessor’s, but she has an instinct for imagery that’s both genuinely frightening and strangely inviting, amplifying the scripts’ thematic heft. “Night Country” plays with the gendered expectations behind certain TV-cop tropes: it’s Danvers, not Hank, who models self-destructive workaholism for Peter, downing vodka alone and poring over case files before pulling him away from his family on Christmas Eve. The season is similarly probing about the moral authority that can be reflexively assigned to women over men in our fantasies of female vengeance for male aggression. Through it all, meditations on the unknowability of the cosmos are offset by close observations of relationships—however contingent or dysfunctional they may be. By grounding her supernatural whodunnit in more intimate, interpersonal dramas, López transforms “True Detective” from a lot of mystical mumbling into a show with something to say. ♦