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twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

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TWD 11x06: On the Inside - Analysis

Okay, how did everyone like this episode? I loved it! It might be my favorite episode of the season so far. Partly because of all the horror movie vibes and jump scares. I thought that was delightful. And Lauren Ridloff did an amazing job. But more than that, it's because of all the symbolism and what I think this represents. Seriously, I think I might have like fifty-six theories come out of this one episode, LOL. Not brand-new theories, but just connecting symbols in a way I haven't before. For now, let's talk about the broad arcs here and what they mean.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 11x06. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Basically, we’re following two storylines in this episode. The first is Connie and Virgil. The second is Daryl, Leah, and the Reapers. I suppose you could call Kelly and Carol looking for Connie a third story line, but given that they're searching for Connie, it's really just a subplot of Connie's arc.

Connie and Virgil:

There are a lot of people saying that they might be setting Connie and Virgil up as romantic partners. I think that's probably the case, for a lot of reasons. They were very purposely put together in this house. After the episode, Angela Kang talked about how Virgil basically had to suppress part of his heart in order to get through the death of his family. That's why he seemed a little bit villainous when we first met him with Michonne.

Actually, we're seeing a major theme here that we've seen with other characters. Near the end of the episode, Virgil tells Connie, "I lost myself for a long time." It's very reminiscent of what Michonne said to Carl in 4x14. It's a theme we see where the character goes through some kind of trauma, and the aftermath of that trauma is very much a PTSD thing. They lose themselves to insanity for short time, but then someone is able to bring them back. We see this with many characters over the years. And this is something they're doing with Virgil. So this was Virgil kind of coming back to reality. Michonne gave him the chance to come back first, but he also says that her giving him that second chance led him to Connie and he sees that as Providence.

So basically, A.K. is saying that Virgil lost a big chunk of his heart when his family died, but he's rediscovering it here with Connie. And that's very important. I can't imagine them saying that, or him having this kind of arc, if there isn’t going to be a romance between them. Which, for the record, I think is cute. I totally ship it. (Totally objective over here. As always, of course. ;-))

But the big question is, what does this foreshadow? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

I think this is a foreshadow of Beth and Daryl. I'm sure you're shocked to your toenails. I'll give you a moment to recover. Good? Okay.

A lot of us got Alone vibes from this episode. Just the two of them in house together. The undercurrent of possible romance between them. There's even a hug at one point.

Actually, the white, plantation style house with the white pillars immediately struck a cord with me. Back when they were filming the missing scenes from S5, they filmed in a house just like this one. it wasn’t the “white cabin” as we always refer to the house Emily was seen going into. But it was next door to that one and had a sign up about not mowing the lawn because it would be used for filming.

I don’t know if this is actually the same house, but I’m willing to bet that this will end up having parallels to something we see when we finally get those missing scenes.

Once they get inside the house, we see Connie holding the door shut against walkers. It's very reminiscent of Daryl doing that at the funeral home in Alone.

The thing is, I don't even think callbacks to Alone are the big cheese. (For the record, we also saw them around Kelly, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

Because more than being a call back, this is a foreshadow. It represents some time in the future when Beth and Daryl will be together inside the CRM and trying to escape. Remember that “No Exit” sign in Beth’s cell?

We have a situation here where Connie and Virgil are trying to get out and there's literally no exit. All the doors are locked, they’re being trapped everywhere they go, they get separated. Even when Connie is in the wall, looking at Virgil, she wants to warn him of things, but she has no way to get into the room with him. There's literally no exit for her.

There are so many parallels to Beth and Daryl.

They emphasize the fact that Connie is lost. After getting out of the cave and walking around for walkers for so long, she clearly lost her bearings and doesn't know where she is or which way to go to get to Alexandria. It puts me in mind of the scene from 6x10, where Carl was talking to Judith and said if she was ever LOST and needed to find her way HOME, she should use the North Star. This is another way in which Connie is being paralleled to Beth. She's lost and needs to find her way home.

Virgil talks about wanting to get Connie HOME. To get her back to her family (which just so happens to be her sister). Of course there's the undercurrent of romance.

I also couldn't help but notice outlets throughout the episode. This house is very dilapidated and dirty. There's grime and rust and darkness everywhere. But we can very clearly see the outlets on the walls, as though they’re brand-new. I believe that's to draw our attention to them. Outlets suggest power, which suggests lamps or batteries.

Remember how I said that the whole battery theory is about resources and that it indicates the CRM? This is why I think this house represents the CRM. And I'm not at all saying that at some point, we’ll see Beth and Daryl running through a house together, as Connie and Virgil do here, trying to escape some threat. I think this represents a much bigger arc of them being inside the CRM and trying to get out. It will probably span a lot of episodes, maybe even multiple seasons.

At one point, we see a red coda pendant hanging in the window behind Virgil. Remember that, via the Matrix theory, red represents the outside world that TF is currently unaware of, and of course Coda suggests Beth. That’s a big part of the evidence for this template being a foreshadow of Beth and Daryl.

I’ll go over all the background details tomorrow, but pretty much every detail I found suggests what I've laid out here. I'm going to do completely separate post on the awake/asleep theme as well as the mailbox theme. That one stemmed from last week's episode (11x05), but I haven't gotten a chance to post it yet. And of course we saw the mailbox feature prominently in this episode as well.

We also have a situation where Virgil basically tells Connie to go on without him and that it’s very important to him that she gets home. And then he gets stabbed, and she not only saves him, but pulls him out of the house. We’ve always said that we think there will be a time when Beth will save Daryl. I think this is a foreshadow of it.

I think we'll have a situation (again, much bigger than what we see here in the single episode) where Daryl will be willing to sacrifice himself, his life, to get Beth back to Maggie. Of course she's not going to allow him to do that, but he'll probably be hurt very badly.

(And for the record, I think we've seen foreshadows of this and other arcs. Daryl getting hurt when fighting Alpha was probably a foreshadow of the same thing. I'm sure we could identify others.) I think he will be hurt and Beth will save him, and that will happen as they’re figuring out how to get out of the CRM.

To touch on Kelly’s side of things, we see her find a camp that Virgil and Connie had previously been at. She finds Connie’s stuff there, and the orange backpack that Virgil must have left behind. The thing that jumped out at me here is that, in the foreground, we saw ropes around the camp with cans attached as an alert system.

That was featured very prominently in Alone, both because Daryl set up something like that at the funeral home and also because the other half of that episode was about Maggie/Sasha/Bob and they did the same thing in their camp. So again, major callbacks to Alone, and to what this is probably foreshadowing.

But my favorite thing about this was connections that I made. Things that kind of confirm events we’ve suspected in 4B, but have never been able to prove. Let me explain.

First, there’s the reunion between Connie and Kelly. And this really jumped out at me. Not only because it's two sisters reuniting, but because of the way it was shown.

When approaching Connie, Kelly is crying and says, "I'm sorry." And that's out of character or out of place in any way. She’s sorry that for what happened to Connie and that it took them so long to find her. All that is completely understandable. But at the same time, Kelly has no reason to feel bad about what happened to Connie. It wasn't her fault, and she's been a dutiful sister looking for her intensively ever since.

But I think the “I'm sorry” will make a lot more sense if we hear Maggie saying it to Beth, given everything that's happened, and especially what happened in S5. I mean, Beth did get left behind.

The other thing is that when they see each other and then hug, the background music almost sounds angelic, like a choir. I mean, they really wanted this to be a big deal, the reunion between these two sisters. And not that the Kelly and Connie's reunion isn't a big deal. It's very sweet, but I feel like this a foreshadow something much bigger. And what other reunion between sisters could qualify for something like that except Maggie and Beth, who didn't get the reunion in season five?

We’ve always said that Connie was a proxy for Beth, and that the cave-in, followed by her being missing was a parallel to Beth’s arc. So, this arc ending in Connie finding someone she’ll eventually have a romance with and then finding her sister is makes me very hopeful for what we'll see when Beth returns.

I have to say that this is kind of a relief to me. Because of Daryl's line back in Still about how, "you ain't never going to see Maggie again," I’ve gone back and forth about whether Beth and Maggie will actually get a reunion. Yes, there are plenty of ways to explain away that line, and I don't disagree with any of them. But I’ve still been really back-and-forth about whether this is going to happen. After seeing Connie and Kelly really reunite, I have no doubt that eventually will see a Beth/Maggie reunion. Yay!

Next, is the fact that Virgil and Connie talk about how the people living in this house lured them into a trap.

This is talked about very much anymore, but was always but what happened in Alone was always so wonky to me. I know it was supposed to be, but the whole thing felt like it was orchestrated somehow. I mean, what happened to the dog? We hear barking, but we didn't actually see the dog again, because when Daryl open the door all the walkers were on the porch. But how did that many walkers get up to the porch without them hearing it?

When Beth and Daryl sat in the kitchen staring at each other, they heard the cans rattle and then at the dog bark. I think that the idea was that Daryl thought it was the dog moving the cans and that's why he was going to open the door and get it to come in. He didn't understand that there were walkers there. But why didn't they hear the walkers? More importantly, why would that many walkers go up to the door if they couldn't see any humans on the inside? It's completely weird behavior for walkers. And then when Beth leaves the house, she just happens to be picked up by a car?

Like I said, I just always felt like the whole thing was really orchestrated, but even at Grady, we were never told that it was. Gorman suggested to Beth that they happened upon her accidentally. Of course, Gorman is the opposite of trustworthy, but we also understand better now the way that these episodes are often approached. We sometimes see things from one character's point of view over another. Clearly, Slabtown was seen from Beth’s point of view, so if she couldn't see the truth about what happened, that's why we couldn’t neither.

My point is, in this episode, Virgil says that he and Connie were herded there like prey. These feral people apparently went to the camp (Kelly says the left in a hurry and something was very wrong, and I think she's right. Given that Virgil and Connie left all their stuff behind; Connie would not have left behind her slingshot on purpose). Which means the creatures came to their camp, scared them away, chase them toward the house, herding them that way, in order to eat them.

Now, I'm not saying that's specifically what happened in Alone, but I think it kind of proves that what happened was an orchestrated trap that was set up to capture Beth.

And we do get the sense from what Noah told her that Grady purposely left the strong behind and took the weak. So, I'm not sure if Beth and Daryl were actually herded toward the funeral home. From what we saw, it really was more like they happened upon it. But I'm wondering if once there, someone observed them, or observed them approaching, and decided that they would be optimal targets. Given that Beth was injured (which they would have known if they saw Daryl giving her the piggy back) obviously it would always be her that was taken, while Daryl—obviously the more survival-oriented of the two—would be left behind.

And I love this connection because it proves (as far as we can prove theories 😉) that there are things they haven’t shown us, not just in S5 with the missing 17 days, but reaching all the way back to S4.

The other thing that's just kind of cool to consider is that, as I said before, the other half of the episode was about Maggie/Sasha/Bob, right? There are a lot of things that their sequence foreshadows as well. And in the episode, Maggie is specifically looking for Glenn, not Beth. However, given that this episode with Connie and Virgil also featured Kelly, Connie’s sister, looking for her, it just doesn't seem like it could possibly be a coincidence that the other half of Alone was Maggie searching for someone. What I’m saying is that both Alone and this episode, 11x06, foreshadow what will happen when Maggie and Beth reunite. I'm sure I could go into the details of Alone find a lot of connections, but I don't have time to do that right now. Maybe during the hiatus. Maybe. ;-).

Daryl and Leah:

Okay, I guess we need to talk about Daryl and Leah’s part of this episode as well. I don't have as much say about the symbolism for them. This is really more about where this is going.

Daryl tortures Frost, which I'm sure some people are going to have a problem with. But A.K. said that this is really about Daryl wanting to stay on the inside with the Reapers. As I said after ep 4, Frost is smart and he understands what Daryl is doing. A.K. said he did exactly what Daryl wanted to do him to do here. Daryl wanted him to give them a basic location but not an exact one. In other words, to tell them the neighborhood but not the exact house. And that's exactly what Frost did. Angela says Daryl did this because he was trying to save Frost’s life. Unfortunately, by the end of the episode, we see that didn't work out so well. But he was attempting to save him.

You have to watch the details closely to pick this up, but the first house that Daryl, Leah, and Carver go to is not the house Maggie is in. That's why Daryl says they should stick around and look around for things, because he knew Maggie wasn't there and wanted to give her time to escape. But the second house we see them go into is where Maggie and co are hiding under the floorboards.

At first, it seems to be empty, but when Daryl comes downstairs, he sees the place where they might be hiding and slides the rug over it. In the end, Carver sees it and checks, but Maggie and the others have already made their escape.

I had to stop and think about that for a minute. Since Beth wore yellow and we think yellow equals life and escape, I would have thought the yellow house would be where Maggie and the others were hiding and then escaped from. That would've made more logical sense. But actually, the yellow house was a decoy.

It gave me a whole new insight into the meaning behind the color yellow in TWD universe.

I still think yellow represents escape, among other things. But it also represents looking for someone in the wrong place. Even if you think about Rick’s mini death fake out in 7x12, there was probably only 12 feet between where Michonne thought he was (right side of the screen being eaten by walkers) and where he actually was (left side of the screen coming out of the yellow carnival car) but still, she was looking for him in the wrong place and assumed he was dead because of it.

I also thought of the Glenn situation in S4. Maggie looked for him on the school bus (yellow). And in both cases, it was because that’s where Rick/Glenn were last seen, but what was UNSEEN was how they ESCAPED. So, TF was looking for them in the wrong place.

And I’m sure something similar will happen with Beth during the missing 17 days. It doesn’t really change what we believe happened with Beth, but it makes me want to re-examine every yellow reference we’ve ever seen on the show, which is probably hundreds by now, lol.

At one point, Carver is coming down the stairs and Daryl runs over to him and starts talking really fast. He says that they (Maggie’s group) will not to come back here, that it wouldn’t be smart, etc. The first time I watched it, I remember thinking that Daryl was being really obvious. It made him seem nervous and like he was hiding something. And he probably was somewhat nervous. The reason he ran over Carver right then, is because he didn't want Carver to see the hiding place where Maggie and the others were (because Daryl himself noticed it when he was coming down the stairs).

But the other thing to remember is that Daryl knows Maggie and the others are down there. He was using this to give them information. He talks about how the Reapers have walls and weapons, twenty people inside their town, etc. That is also him getting Maggie information so she would know what they're up against. It was actually very smart on his part, even if it kind of tipped Carver off.

By the end, they returned to Pope and find that Frost is dead. I thought it was super weird and creepy that Pope started laughing when Carver said they had lost Maggie's group. That's very out of character for him. Angela Kang said Pope was purposely playing mind games to make Daryl and Leah paranoid, but even so. That laugh was just maniacal.

So, not sure exactly where this is going, or what Pope's plans are. He kind of suggests that maybe Frost turned on Daryl and sold him out before he died. I doubt that's true, but Pope also strikes me as the kind of guy who, if he's decided Daryl is an enemy, doesn't actually need proof of it. So, we'll just have to see where this goes.

Okay, that's it for today. I'll do details tomorrow. How did you all like the episode?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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dex-xe · 3 years

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Ghosts watch the Euros?

Am I about to write 1000 words of cringe about dead fictional characters watching a football tournament?? yes I am and I'm thrilled!! XD

This primarily focusses on Pat btw but most of the ghosts feature a bit too.

So basically Alison didn’t really care that much about the Euros before they started, Mike however was decently optimistic regarding Engliand’s chances but isn’t the world’s biggest sport fan. But one evening they’re all watching TV and stuff and then there’s one of those animated ads that play before any major sports competition starts and Pat sees it and gets incredibly excited.

He hasn’t been able to watch a major football tournatment (live) since he was alive because Heather never had sport on at all. He begs Alison that he gets control of the TV during England matches and after using the whole “pleasseeeee I’m no trouble, I don’t usually ask for much!” Alison agrees to adjust the TV rota, much to the others ghosts disgust (the Captain is peeved about his afternoon day time TV History Channel documentaries being overwritten, and Fanny’s evening period dramas often get pushed aside but Alison eventually manages to use the Sky Box to rearrange everything for them).

For most of the group stages it’s just Pat watching, Mike will occassionally sit in but is genrally on his phone. Julian will also offer the occassional comment which Pat just rolls his eyes at and tells him to go back to his computer games. Also Pat is amazed just quite how young the team is but I digress.

So once it becomes apparent that England are doing surprisingly well (and Mike’s mates stop talking about anything else at the pub) Mike starts paying attention and by extension Alison sits in bringing multiple ghosts in her wake.

Kitty doesn’t like the idea of competition much and just wants people to have fun, she gets upset when people get kicked out but congratulats them for doing their very best. Thomas however, stands behind the sofa muttering about how it’s a barbaric sport and the lowest form of entertainment (“Polo!! Now that takes real skill!!)

The Captain wasn’t much of a football fan in life (cricket was much more his bag) but he’ll gladly sit and enjoy some friendly competition, anything he can get these days to be proud of his country. Robin doesn’t understand organised competition much but he quite like the idea of playing a game like that, he kinda misses running around and burning of energy, physical performance was super important for hunting when he was alive.

Anyway, once England makes it into the quarters (and Mike claims to have been totally invested from the beginning) Mike and Alison both start to get more and more involved, they decide to buy England flags and bunting to put across the front of the house - much to the Captain’s pleasure cause it reminds him a bit of VE Day.

Alison does actually manage to convince everyone to gather round for the final - even Fanny who literally couldn’t care less is overwhelmed with patriotism and hovers in a nearby armchair. Pat parks himself on the floor right in front of the TV so he can hear the commentary even when the others are rambling on about their analysis of the game (their analysis is incredibly poor given they’ve been dead for centuries - Kitty announces that the strikers should “use thier hips more” and no one is quite sure what that means but Thomas does suggest sending correspondence to Southgate to give him that advice.)

Anyway (I keep going off on tangents) the final obviously begins with England scoring mad quick which erupts the TV room into cheers. Mike jumps up to celebrate and puts his foot into where Pat is also sat cheering - Alison has to catch him around the waist to pull him back towards the sofa to stop Pat from gagging.

Pat then starts going on about how, with a start like that, there’s no way England can lose now. Julian rains on his parade very quickly and tells him worse things have happened and Alison jokes about what a show off Julian will be if he’s right and England lose… (Julian is obviously incredibly patriotic and wants England to win but he wants to be right much more).

Thomas quickly begins to think of himself as an expert at this “pauper’s sport” and starts to shout the generic “I know nothing about football but don’t want people to question me” phrases (“they had better begin playing it forward more, they shan’t achieve anything with cowardice like this!!)

They remain kinda optimistic going into the second half apart from Pat who is potentially the only one who recognises England slolwy losing control - but, much like with his scouts, his puts on his usual optimistic front to stop the team from becoming deflated (the team can’t hear him becuase a) he’s not at Wembley and b) he’s been dead four decades but it’s just his natural reaction).

As soon as Italy score, that’s when the deflation starts to set in. They all become slightly quieter until England start mounting an attack and then the shouting begins again.

Pat tries to explain the concept of extra time to the others but few understand and begin suggesting their own tie break ideas. Kitty suggests a draw would be better, everybody wins. Fanny suggests someone should concede (she doesn;t specifiy who but it’s very much implied). Robin’s idea is to continue with extra time then release a bear onto the pitch at a random point “for the drama” (I would watch that though).

But no, Pat and Mike are both very quiet throughout extra time. Thomas is thrilled because he believes Southgate has listened to his ongoing generic advice to “bring on Grealish” - realistically he’s peeved Love Island isn’t on, he likes to make fun of it and announce repeatedly how “the modern world has no concept of love!!”

Once it gets to penalties Kitty is off. She can’t stand the tension and covers her eyes to avoid having to watch somebody lose in this way. Mary sits beside her on the sofa petting her hair like “ooh cry not, ’tis but a game child” which really doesn’t help the mood. After every single shot, there’s just a little burst of gasps and strangled noises from everyone except Pat who is just waiting and praying that his first tournament in 40 years is going to be a dramatic win.

When England (spoilers from over a month ago) lose, silence falls across the room before Julian finally breaks it: “I don’t mean to say I told you so but…” he is interrupted VERY quickly by shouting from everyone else. Eyes quickly fall on Pat who hasn’t said anything since the penalties began, he hadn;t even turned to look at anyone else yet. He slowly stood up and said with a very fake smile “well it was a deserved win… if you’ll excuse me” and then he fazes through the wall behind him never to be seen again.

“Julian, that really was uncalled for,” Alison tells him. Pat seems normal for the next few days but most people can tell he’s very disappointed, especially as Mike has to get the ladder out again to do the really sad “flag taking down ceremony” everyone did the day after.

Pat’s finally brought out of his slump by Kitty who asks him what he would do if his scouts failed at something - he says he’d tell them they did really well for trying their best and give them some tips to improve. “Exactly,” Kitty says. “You’d still be proud of what they achieved, right?” All the ghosts are pretty excited by the prospect of a world cup next year.

So there we go,, cheers for the ask!! I apologise for this being cringe as fuck and I really hope it gets to the right people XD I’m having a day of trying to finish as many projects as I can over the next few days before series 3 so I can essentially start afresh after the new episodes are out - I know I’m going to have a lot of ideas and inspiration.

#bbc ghosts #max's ghost post

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blackjack-15 · 3 years

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No, the Creature’s name is Fraulein’s Monster — Thoughts on: The Captive Curse (CAP)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT, SAW

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraphs above, along with my list of previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: CAP, mentions of SAW, mentions of ASH.

The Intro:

The obvious Frankenstein reference in the title of this meta is the only one I make in the whole meta, I swear. It was a mistake to make the monster look like Frankenstein’s Monster, but I’m not gonna drag you guys or the meta down with that.

We’re professionals here.

This is a game with rather big shoes to fill, to be honest — it’s our first game in Germany, comes right after a very well-received “haunting” game and has shades of being a “haunting” game itself, its (small bit of) marketing played off Grimm’s Tales, and Savannah’s comment about staying in a castle where she discovered that the real monster was human cruelty is directly pointing towards it. CAP and its story could have crumpled under the weight of high expectations like MED, MID, and (in a slightly more controversial opinion) SEA did, but instead it did the opposite: in nearly every way, it improved on the Faerietale Formula that SAW inspired, and added to it.

Rather than a spooky haunted faerietale with a Hidden Villain, we have instead a monster — out in the open, even — as our main villain. The difference between ghosts and monsters isn’t really important in, say, a “Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark” or “Goosebumps” book, but it’s fairly important in a mystery, and even more in a Nancy Drew mystery.

As I’ve said a few dozen times in this series — and if you’re not tired of it yet, you will be soon — ghosts are a Reality in the Nancy Drew universe; they exist, they cause trouble, and they sometimes even help the living (or at least coexist with the living).

Monsters, on the other hand, never really exist — not banshees, not werewolves, not malicious wolves with opposable thumbs and the ability to cook poisoned foods, and certainly not monsters that in no way resemble the main villain from a Universal classic horror flick. Monster in the Nancy Drew universe is a Title, not a type of creature. Whenever there’s a monster on the loose, it’s a sure sign that there’s a bitter individual somewhere looking to hurt someone — usually for a personal grudge.

Which, as it happens, is exactly what happened here.

We’re still firmly in a Faerietale game — the ‘Nancy’ games start with ASH — but I do think it’s important to note here that the girls in this game (the victims of the monster, Renate, Anja) are all shadows of Nancy. The previous victims, sharing the designation of the Girl in the Dress with Nancy, are shadows of what could happen to Nancy if she doesn’t change the fate that’s been designated for her — down to the red hair of the original Girl.

Renate is a type of detective, trying to solve the mystery of the tragedies that strike the castle through the actions of the past. And Anja — well, let’s just say that Anja and Nancy have a lot more between then than the first glance might show.

The two women are foiled, especially with their love lives. Nancy’s dating a good man — despite the obvious, glaring problems in the relationship — and so their argument (and her own selfish behavior) isn’t the end of the world, nor the end of the relationship. They stop, they assess, and — with a little help from Anja — Nancy’s determined to try a little harder, leading us straight into ASH. The big thesis statement of the game is delivered, like last game, by our villain — “There’s nothing like love to bring order to a scattered world”. Anja gives Nancy good advice: communicate, and work for what you want.

Anja, however, was not dating a good man; she encouraged him, much like Ned does with Nancy, to be better, to try harder, to really reach for what he could be — only to be cast aside as soon as all the hard work that she had put in to supporting him led to good results. Her world was not scattered before — but after Markus, there was nothing that could put it back together again.

There’s nothing like love, indeed, but when it’s the wrong kind of person…well, the message that Anja took out of it was that somebody, somewhere, should care about her. And if they weren’t going to…well, a tragedy necessitates the force of Fate, and we know what Renate says about fate:

“Fate has a habit of digging in its claws when tempted.”

The last thing I want to touch on in this introduction — which I realize is a bit heavy on themes, but so is the game — is the importance of Titles within this game. The Bürgermeister, The Castellan, The Monster, The Girl in the Dress — this game operates a lot on character tropes, like any self-respecting faerietale, and the titles go a long way to showing who each character is. Karl feels dwarfed and inadequate next to his title; Anja wanted hers so badly that she was willing to lie; the title of Monster strikes fear into the heart of the vast majority of our cast.

And the Girl? The Girl in the Dress is a symbol of helpless fate, a sacrifice to propel the narrative forward. Remember what Renate tells Nancy? “The monster, he is here for you.”

Tellingly, it’s Nancy’s changing of what exactly it means to be The Girl in the Dress that allows our faerietale to meet with a happy ending, rather than a tragedy (the ending normally brought about by Fate, in Renate’s words). In keeping the title but changing the scope of the title, Nancy figuratively beats the Monster, and saves the memory all the Girls that came before.

The Title:

The Captive Curse is, as far as titles go, a masterclass. Nearly all the titles of the 20+ numbers are fabulous, but CAP’s title is a shining star even among them. Let’s talk about the important word in the title — “Captive”.

There are a lot of things that are “captive” in this game. We have the captives of the monster, to start off with, but there’s a lot more where that came from. The residents of the Castle and the castle’s town are also captive — they’re held captive by fear, as evidenced by the doors that refuse to open even when Nancy begs them to.

Shrugging off the idea of keeping this meta even a little bit spoiler-free, I’d also add that Markus is a sort of captive of Anja — there under false pretenses, drawing a web around him to finish him off — and equally that Anja is a captive of Markus’ — the shadow of her dick ex-boyfriend hanging over her dream job, watching him profit off of being a truly terrible person.

Renate and Nancy get in on the action, too. Renate is a captive of guilt, returning to the castle to try to prevent further deaths, haunted by her sister’s early death. She’s also a storyteller — a profession famed for having a “captive audience”. Lastly, Nancy is forced into the costume rather than her own clothes — a captive of the tale that’s being spun by our major players.

The Faerietale

In SAW’s faerietale, Nancy was the visiting prince, the Knight in Shining Armor to look after and save the kingdom. In CAP’s faerietale, however, her role gets changed around — not the least of which because we discover what an actual Knight in Shining Armor really is, courtesy of Renate:

“A knight in shining armor never did nothing for nobody. He never fought. A knight in dented, scraped armor - now that’s what you want.”

This isn’t the cynical take that some might spin it into — the Nancy Drew universe is not and has never been a Nolan-style grimdark-fest, skeptical of any good deed or honest inclination — but instead a declaration that it’s what people do that makes them heroes, that makes them good, that makes them who they are, not what they are (or what they seem to be).

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, in a game exploring what good a Knight in Shining Armor might be, that the series’ resident Knight appears within the context of his fight with Nancy.

Ned in the video games series is the closest to a Knight that we really get; he doesn’t make mistakes, he’s always patient and kind and understanding, and helps out the best he can without being actually on the scene. In other words, his armor has no dents, nor scrapes, not so much by his choice (excepting possibly CRY), but by Nancy’s. By constantly leaving him behind, she’s cast in him his role as Knight in Shining Armor — but, as Renate points out, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Ned has the potential to be and do more — as ASH will show us.

And yes, there’s someone in the series that fits the knight in dented, scraped armor, but this is not the time for a Francy meta. If ever there is a time for Francy meta.

The biggest thing that changes from SAW to CAP is that Nancy’s learned from last time, and starts trying to figure out the faerietale she’s in the minute it starts in earnest. When she hears Renate’s tale, she’s sure she’s figured it out — guessing it was about Renate’s sister — but we’re shown that her perception is a little off (as the girl was Renate, not her sister). This shifting up of the roles is crucial thematically to our ending, where Nancy gleefully assumes the role of the Girl in the Dress as the hero of the piece, rather than the victim that the Girl had always been.

What Nancy happens upon here I’ll cheerfully call the Power of the Storyteller. All faerietales shift and change depending on who’s telling the story — look at the thousands of versions of Cinderella had all over the world, all too old to just be a knockoff of their geographical neighbor’s story or (yes, I’ve heard this) based off the Disney property.

With Anja telling the story for the majority of the game, it’s a tale about how sometimes the “monster” (and her version of a monster, specifically) wins — and how sometimes they deserve to win, to perpetuate the faerietale as it always has been; as Renate reminds us, “when death goes to take a ride, he follows the road that serves him best.” In Anja’s mind, there must always be a Monster, and there must always be a Girl in the Dress. With Nancy taking over the story, however, it’s about how the victim doesn’t have to be the victim, and that they have the power to assume their own destiny.

In other words, they’re playing out the central conflict that Renate outlines in her first discussion with Nancy: “If our time together is a comedy, then I was brought here by coincidence. If our time is a tragedy, then it must be fate.”

Coincidence and fate are also, coincidentally (heh) the driving forces in a faerietale — except that fate is also a driving force for romance. And because romance is our Chief Concern in CAP’s story, a lot of the story is about fighting against fate. In the end, it’s a coincidence that Nancy arrives, but Anja tries to spin it into fate by making her the Girl in the Dress. It’s only when Nancy takes charge, not letting fate have its say, that she arrives at the ending and is able to best Anja.

One of the great questions that this faerietale presents is about the Monster is whether or not it ever existed. In a Faerietale, the Monster nearly always exists in some form or another, needing to be drawn out and killed by our hero(es) before the day can be saved.

Indeed, in Anja’s modern-day retelling of the faerietale, the monster doesn’t exist — at least, not in its Monstrous form. In her story, Markus is the monster, and she must put on the guise of a monster in order to defeat him — in other words, if a monster is going to win, it’s going to be her.

To quote Ned’s astute observation, “[Castle Finster] has too many monsters.”

But it’s Savannah’s words that we should look to, as she’s a Storyteller just as much as Renate is. Savannah, heavily implied to be speaking of Castle Finster, says that the monster she found wasn’t a ghost — it was human cruelty that made the castle and its history so terrifying.

So we’re faced with the question: did the monster ever exist, or was it solely bad people, stealing cattle and sheep and young girls away for their own wicked purposes? Was there truly an amorphous being roaming the countryside, or was it just a clever way to shift blame from those who would do evil unto others? Remember what Renate tells us about monsters:

“The worst monsters are self-made. They are people like you and me, but they have taken a terrible turn. They let everything awful, everything sad, take up all the breathing room in their hearts, until all they know is revenge.”

The answer I would give is that, for this faerietale, it doesn’t matter if the Monster is real or not. The concern is not the nature of the monster, it’s the people’s reaction to the idea of a monster, real or imagined, that sets off our faerietale and provides the stakes. The fear is real and palpable, and the ends of our villain, while understandable and perhaps even praiseworthy, require some downright dastardly means.

The Mystery:

We open first on a look back at a young girl in an Era Past being captured by an unseen monster in the woods near a castle…only to have Nancy drive up on the Castle Finster itself in the modern day. Nancy’s been called in by the owner of the castle, Markus, who wants any troubles with the legendary monster cleaned up before he and his Rich Investor Friends arrive.

Rather than a welcoming piece of history, Nancy is greeted with a scared, unwelcoming town, the fear of the monster looming large and cutting deep — and that’s before the Curse itself turns its eyes on Nancy, forcing her to play along as the Girl in the Red Dress, the favored victim of the monster. Those in the castle are kinder than those outside of it, but there’s still the sneaking suspicion that someone is up to no good, using the guise of the monster to wreak a little havoc of their own invention — and time is running out before the monster claims yet another victim…

As far as the mystery goes…I don’t like to use words like “spectacular” because let’s face it, every game has its holes, but honestly CAP’s mystery is pretty spectacular. Attention-catching, a bit sad, a bit horrific, and loaded with faerietale tropes, subversions, and themes — there’s honestly just not much wrong here, especially given the limitations of, well, making a Nancy Drew game in the first place. The writing does a masterful job at hinting at horrors that, given the rating, they can’t say out loud, while still telling a fully cohesive story that even the young players will be able to grab at and understand (if not to quite the same extent)

The Suspects:

The game begins with Lukas Mittelmeier, so perhaps we should too. Lukas is the rather precocious son of the head of security of Castle Finster, as well as being Anja’s nephew. Bright, mischievous, and a huge fan of games and pranks, Lukas makes the castle a little more interesting — as well as making Karl’s life a bit more hellish.

Unlike another youth living in a castle (coughJanecough), Lukas is bright enough to be a competent culprit…he just isn’t malicious enough. Sure, he’ll play dress-up, spook Karl a bit, and stall Nancy outside the gates of the castle, but that’s really as far as he goes. He would have been an especially poor culprit, thematically speaking, and so it’s a good thing that the game never really attempts to lead you there. Even his dressing up as the monster is more meant to lull the player (and Nancy) into letting down their guard so that the real monster is a bit scarier.

Next up is the Bürgermeister and bad-luck-magnet himself, Karl Weschler. Having encountered his doppelganger as a small child, Karl has expected — and received — bad luck for the rest of his life, and lives in fear of being the cause of unhappiness to those around him. He’s also a board game enthusiast, having developed the (incredibly fun, it should be noted) board game Raid! and enlists Nancy to help him polish it while she solves the “huge monster problem” that Markus hired her for.

As a culprit, Karl would have been interesting, but thematically a little off. It would have had to be a situation where enough bad things happened around him at the castle to make him want to shift the blame, dressing up as the monster in order to throw the punishment off of himself and onto a nebulous force. An interesting plot to be sure, but not one that fits the more sinister nature of the game.

Our charming castellan and cunning culprit, Anja Mittelmeier is next on the docket. Incredibly good at her job, polished, polite, and fiendishly dedicated, Anja keeps the castle in good running order, gives Nancy advice, and is a doting aunt — all while secretly sabotaging Markus by acting as the monster.

I have a lot to say about how good a character Anja is — which I’ll cover more in the next section — but she’s also the perfect villain. All the information you need to figure out who she is happens to be presented to Nancy pretty quickly, but none of it is in the proper context to make it obvious. Even her line — “there’s nothing like love to bring order to a scattered world” — is sweet and romantic at the time, and rather chilling and menacing when you have the whole context of exactly what Anja is doing to ‘bring order to a scattered world’.

It seems only fitting that after Anja should come Markus Boehm, the owner of the castle and the ex-boyfriend that Anja is working for revenge against. Markus is snappish, short-tempered, obnoxious about his money, and rather boorish — though he has some of the funniest lines in any Nancy Drew game — and is guilty of a lot, though not of haunting his own castle.

Casting Markus as the villain would have made this game an entirely different faerietale, one that would have necessitated Anja becoming The Girl in the Dress rather than Nancy. It might have been a more stereotypical Nancy Drew story, but it also would have been weaker – after all, a lot of the horror in this faerietale comes from the curse having its eyes firmly on Nancy, rather than on her watching it unfold.

Finally, our most divisive character is probably Renate Stoller, a cake-loving storyteller bound to Castle Finster by a mixture of fate and history. Personally speaking, I’m a total fan of Renate; she has a lot of freedom to liken the situation to stories and to spell out the fact that all stories are ambiguous without being morally relativist or faux-deep.

As a villain, Renate would have been interesting — set to haunt the castle that has haunted her for so long and caused her pain — but it would have removed the Storyteller archetype from the game, causing the player (and Nancy) to doubt everything she’s said, which would have been a shame.

The Favorite:

There’s a lot to love in CAP, both big and small, so I’ll try to tackle this section with some sort of organization, rather than just gushing from point to random point.

My favorite moment in the game is (in a stunning change from 90% of Nancy Drew Games) tied between the beginning and the final confrontation. The old-time film style beginning (a great example of a “cold open” of a type of horror totally distinct from SAW’s brand of horror) through Nancy’s first discussion with Karl is tightly paced and incredibly well done, introducing our main problems, a few characters, and how Nancy is stepping into this faerietale that’s been all but prepared for her. Special shout out to Karl’s “huge monster problem” dialogue, and Lukas’ getting caught at the castle’s gates — just some really great, distinct character writing that we normally don’t get this soon into a game.

The confrontation, which is normally somewhat cheesy, sometimes awful, and nearly always ill-supported (HAU being the best/worst example of this) in a Nancy Drew game, here instead shows off Nancy’s quick thinking and almost triumphant, smug nature when she figures it all out and traps the villain. The games coming up, as I’ve mentioned above, I refer to as “the Nancy games”, as they give us a lot of insight into who Nancy Drew actually is, aside from an amateur/burgeoning professional detective, but SAW and (to a larger extent) CAP really start giving us peeks at Nancy’s character — not as an infallible main character, but as a girl with an actual personality.

My favorite puzzle in the game — and I realize that it barely counts — is quite honestly Raid. Normally, the games that HER comes up with as minigames within their games are lackluster at best and criminally annoying at worst, but Raid (along with the games in ASH which are particularly enjoyable) is fabulous; it gives us more of that faerietale vibe that the game runs on, brings in Germany’s well-deserved reputation of being the King of Board Games, and actually contains a few moments of good characterization for Karl as well.

And I’m a sucker for getting to create your own card for the game. That’s just stupid cool.

One of the things that CAP does particularly well is its characters, so let’s talk a bit about them here.

Renate, a common favorite, mostly lives up to her hype, due to her storyteller’s dialogue, status as a Sage (slightly different from the usual Sage in a Nancy Drew game, due to her backstory), and intense relatability with falling asleep after eating cake.

Lukas is one of the few child characters in the ND games that actually feels like a child, so he gets points there automatically, even without noting how charming he is. Having Nancy talk to him under the table is also gold, even with the sense that she’s just humoring him, and having him dress up as a monster in a fake out that fools nobody (and even better, is not meant from a writing standpoint to fool anyone) feels perfectly in character for a relatively unsupervised rapscallion like Lukas.

Last on the favorite character list is Anja, a character done To Perfection. It breaks my heart sometimes that she’s the villain, but her character also wouldn’t be complete without being the villain — nor would I love her so much. Anja is patient, loving, a great aunt, friendly, gregarious — and a villain. Her line when she’s talking to Nancy about how she was honest and worked hard every day, and no one cared hits me every time. Anja’s a perfect example of a character who is intensely sympathetic and quite relatable without ever having the thought that her scheme involving Nancy was even a little bit okay. She’s a villain that I’d love to have come back, whether as a villain again or as a begrudging helper.

Finally, let’s get down to the miscellany.

The dialogue in CAP is pitch-perfect, from the distinct way of talking that each suspect has, to Markus’ insults, to the one-off phone call with the pamphlet company. The game in part is so fun because the dialogue is so fun, walking the line between faerietale-style narration (Anja, Renate) and almost Buffy-speak modernity (Karl, Lukas, Markus).

The last thing I want to touch on it — yes, you knew it was coming — the fight between Ned and Nancy. Yes, I’m a Francy shipper, and I do love that Frank is the one Nancy turns to for help with the fight, but that’s not what this part is about.

First off, I love that problems that would /necessarily/ come up in a relationship like Ned and Nancy’s are brought up here; Nancy’s constant jet-setting, while a common side effect of the job she does, is also something that would cause tension — especially considering that Nancy doesn’t really tell him when she sets off for another state/country at a moment’s notice.

A thing that has become Increasingly obvious over the entire series is that Nancy is, let’s face it, not gonna win any awards for Girlfriend of the Year, and in fact might win the opposite award. Ned is constantly giving her attention, validation, helping out when she calls him, and is understanding when she cancels; for her to not give the same amount of care to him (in different ways, as everyone needs different things, of course) becomes more and more glaring as time goes on.

My firm stance on being a bit anti-Nedcy comes from the belief that Ned deserves to get as much out of a relationship as he puts in, and Nancy, as the person she is and even as the best person that she can be, just can’t provide that. Their needs as people are just too different for a relationship to be fair for either person – and, as this game demonstrates, though Ned has the shorter end of the stick, it’s not fair for either one of them.

The Un-Favorite:

There’s not a lot that goes into this section, to be perfectly honest.

The forest is probably my least favorite section of the game — the part that I consider before starting a new game over — but besides tweaking it slightly to help navigation not be quite so frustrating (see below), even the forest is a pretty good puzzle.

The bag puzzle — especially if you, like me, forget every time that you can rotate the objects in Renate’s purse — is the only other annoyance in the game, and ranks as my least favorite puzzle over the forest simply for the fact that you can use a walkthrough to navigate the forest, while you can’t use a walkthrough to do the bag puzzle for you.

Other than that, CAP is just a wholly solid game — no least favorite dialogue, no awkward moment, no point where I turn down my brightness to make it seem like This Isn’t Happening.

The Fix:

So how would I fix The Captive Curse?

Honestly, the first and only change I would make is to fix the forest just slightly. I get that it’s a puzzle, but it’s not quite visually distinct enough to make it feasible for a lot of players to learn how to navigate. To fix this, I wouldn’t take out the forest, I would just make each piece of it a little more visually distinct, with more markers so that players couldn’t lose their place as easily.

There’s nothing other than that worth fixing. Even my dislike of the bag puzzle isn’t strong enough to suggest scrapping it, and it’s a type of puzzle that many people like and are quite good at — not to mention the fact that it’s not at all gamebreaking in its difficulty.

The Captive Curse is often sort of a “top middle” or just “middle” ranking for a lot of players due to the fact that it’s not quite as showy as a lot of “favorite” games, and thus can get lost in the fandom shuffle. But looking at it as both pieces and as a whole proves that this game is one of the most solid in the series sporting a great mystery, fantastic characters, and more than a little faerietale wisdom to carry to the next story.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #CAP #the captive curse #nancy drew meta #my meta #video games #long post

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xserpx · 4 years

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Battle Ground Thoughts

Major spoilers below.

The Good

I really enjoyed the last part of the fight with Ethniu. Hendrick's sacrifice was well done, and the Marcone reveal was fantastic. The action was really great, although it did get too much at times, especially the beginning of the fight with Ethniu where it’s more like reading a shonen manga, lots of huge ‘final’ attacks and mist clearing as they wait for the blood spray before someone pulls a trap card. Still pretty likeable.

Marcone as a Knight of the Blackened Denarius is intriguing. My one caveat is that I think it diminishes his post-Small Favor achievements quite a bit, knowing he had access to all that power. It makes sense, especially considering just how much Marcone was able to get done, but yeah, I liked this little twist. Marcone is probably the main reason I would keep reading the books, as things stand.

I like the fact Harry's finally been kicked off the White Council, as he should be. I'm not sure why this is controversial, though. He’s clearly broken several laws, and tbh I was kind of surprised they kept him on after becoming the Winter Knight, like... conflicted interests, much?

Drakul and the Blampires were cool. Wouldn't mind seeing them again.

The Bad

Justine's reveal, while interesting bc omg Outsiders infesting the characters we love, it also absolutely terrifies me in terms of what it actually means for Thomas/Justine both in the future and in the past. A future that might not even happen, now. And considering how long it's been since she was infected, it's entirely possible a lot of Justine's feelings have been manufactured as well. One of the things at the top of my Do Not Want list was Justine or the baby getting hurt, and now we’re here.

I'm severely disinterested in Harry/Lara. I have no idea where it's going, but it's boring at best. Maybe Jim Butcher has an idea for it that doesn’t result in me rolling my eyes, but I’m not feeling charitable today.

Ivy and Harry never got a proper conversation. Also why tf was Ivy dressed in a school uniform for that fight? Unless she's a sailor senshi or something, it just doesn't make sense. Plus she should be in her mid-late teens by now, ffs, not her early teens.

We're still drawing out the Starborn mystery? Ugh, ok.

Michael's cursing out the White Council for kicking Harry off the team... Completely OOC, sorry, I hated it. Michael is a great character because he doesn't swear as a matter of principle. If he had to start swearing, that was a bad hill to choose.

The way the morality of the White Council flip flops depending on Dresden's mood is getting annoying. At the meeting at the end, he says the Council is the biggest defender of humanity, and that he's clearly sitting at the monsters' table, but they're also supposed to be the enemy for treating him as such? Ebenezar and some of the Seniors are douchebags, for sure - especially Eb as it's personal - but Carlos and the rest are solid good guys trying to do their best. After everything that's happened, Harry shouldn't be so freaking bitter. He’s a monster now. Either own it, or make different choices. Also Carlos should’ve told him what Molly did to him. I hate that this hasn’t been addressed and that Carlos just looks like a suspicious bastard when he’s actually sustained life-changing injuries and trauma. Communication generally between Harry and the White Council needs to start happening like yesterday.

Butters needs to just go away, please. Give me a break from this shithead. He's had a few months of training and can keep up with literally everyone. He gets all these Crowning Moments of Awesome, but he never suffers for it, and at this point I'm genuinely wondering whether he'll ever suffer any consequences whatsoever. Also he constantly outshines Sanya, who is ostensibly better qualified, and the Sword of Hope should have been the stronger of the two in that last fight. I’m sick of hearing how great Butters is, and being expected to laugh at all his dumb, nerdy references.

Harry barely thinks about Thomas when he considers his recent losses. Sure Thomas is still alive, but barely, with no guarantees he'll survive or that he'll come back the same person. Harry should be grieving for him as much as he's grieving for Karrin at this point. I also wanted there to be more reason behind Thomas's actions, some sort of conspiracy within the White Court, but there wasn't. It's bad enough being anxious for Thomas, but being anxious for his whole goddamn family is just way too much, ffs.

The Ugly

I mean, I've told people: if I'd tried to imagine a worst case scenario for Karrin Murphy's death, it would have been better than the ending we got. It's worse than James Norrington dying at the hands of Bootstrap Bill. It's worse than Superman's dad dying while trying to save the dog. She shouldn't have died at all, period, but if she absolutely had to go, there is no fucking way in HELL that that was the best way for it to happen. Whether she comes back or not, there is no way to justify that scene. Gard saying she saved everyone by defending Dresden might be a satisfying Watsonian explanation for some, but of all the times, of all the places, of all the ways, and of all the people... JB picked the absolute worst possible combination. Absolute. Garbage. It's not that he can't write decent sacrifices. Hendrick's death was superb! So why the FUCK couldn't Murph get the same treatment? Why the FUCK was she killed off so FUCKING pointlessly? This isn't a real life story. This isn't some hyperrealistic, anyone can die, Game of Thrones type bullshit, where you can just kill off the second main character as shock value and have it be valuable to a bigger theme. This is the Dresden Files, a fucking series where all the women are Playboy models, and there's a middle-aged dweeby guy in sports goggles riding a skateboard and wielding a lightsaber and facing off with a Titan after just a few months of training, and having threesomes with bisexual women half his age, one of whom wears a fucking Avengers t-shirt to bed. It's a fanservice show. So it is not too much to ask for the main female character to be given the kind of death she actually deserves, let alone that she be allowed to live long enough to enjoy a relationship that's been so fantastically built up over 15+ books. (Query: was any of her family at her funeral? Audiobooks make searching hard, and I can’t find out if that was mentioned.) It's not unfair to hate the FUCK out of JB for pulling such a horrible, awful, LAZY move. I didn’t cry when it happened. I actually laughed quite a bit, maniacally, because it was that much of a train wreck. I'm not crying now, either. I'm just so, so tired. RIP Murph.

Granted, I haven't had to wait for a Dresden Files book like this before. Skin Game had a very neat ending, whereas this asks way, way, way more questions than it answers, which is probably more par for the course in this series? But now my two favourite characters are out of the field and may never come back, and I'm just so fucking tired and disappointed, and tired of being disappointed. I don't know whether it's worth staying invested in the vague hope Jim Butcher will start giving a shit about anyone other than Butters, but I can't see the next book being much good when Thomas and Karrin won't be there. When Karrin may never be there again. When I don't even know if the next book will show up, or if there'll be another hiatus resulting in a mediocre story.

I'm predicting that there'll be a Murph-centric short story in the near future that'll probably be a "gotcha!" to all the fans like me who fucking hate how BG turned out. Either it'll finish her off entirely or hint at a resurrection, which may or may not come. Either way, it won't justify her death. It won't make this better.

If I wasn’t as invested in Karrin, I’d like this book more. I can understand if people like it, and there are definitely some good things about it, but it’s hard to appreciate those bits when there’s such a massive pile of stinking shit sitting smack bang in the middle.

#dresden files #battle ground #battle ground spoilers

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miss-tc-nova · 4 years

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A SOLDER’s Memories - Cloud Strife x Fem!Reader Pt 3

I’m gonna have to put this series on hold for now. I just wanted the first 3 chapters out because I am happy with them. But I’ve hit a bit of a road block with where I’m going from here. I’m sure once I listen to more P!ATD I’ll come back an attempt to work more of it but for now, on hold. Thank you.

WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR FF7 AND POTENTIALLY THE FF7R SERIES! Thank you.

A Favor Owed

Being in this relationship feels like being on cloud nine; no pun intended. I couldn’t be happier, though Zack does give us hell sometimes. Sephiroth has also taken note of the relationship and warned me of Shinra’s policy on retirees. He doesn’t do much more than that though; even if I’m sometimes a handful, I’m well on the fast track to being First Class. I’m sure the disappearance of his two friends did not help either; it’s made him rather sullen as of late.

My poor chocobo steps off the back of the truck, holding his head. I push my water into his hands and join my mentor in greeting our guide. She’s a feisty thing and not very impressed by us, by that I mean Zack, and she seems to be looking for someone among us. With instructions of meeting in front of the inn at dawn, we’re given permission to explore the little town of Nibelheim.

“Come on, you,” I hum, grabbing Cloud’s wrist and pulling him along. “A walk will do you good.”

It’s a quiet little place, only known for the reactor waiting at the top of Mt. Nibel. It makes a lot of sense that someone like Cloud would come from a place like this. It’s nice.

“So this is where country bumpkins come from,” I hum. “You must know everyone, huh?”

“Shh! I don’t want anyone to know,” he hisses. When I give him a look of skepticism he goes on. “I left telling everyone I would get into SOLDIER…but I didn’t.”

“Ah, I see.” I push his helmet up enough to see his eyes. “That’s not really anything to be ashamed about.”

Cloud pulls his helmet back down. “Still.”

“Alright,” I sigh. “So what should we see first?”

“Actually, there is one person I need to go see,” he hums, suddenly getting timid. “You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to.”

I smile. “You know I’d rather spend time with you than do anything else.”

The infantryman nods and leads the way to a little house with a nice little yard and a little fence; exactly what I would imagine of a small town home. Cloud gives a sharp knock and a woman with pale blonde hair and unmistakable eyes answers the door.

“Can I help you?”

Cloud finally removes his helmet. “Hi mom.”

The woman’s face instantly lights up and she wraps her arms around him. I can’t help smiling as I watch them reunite.

“Come in! Come in!” She quickly ushers us into her home that matches the same coziness as the rest of the village. “You must be one of Cloud’s colleagues,” she says, closing the door behind me. “It’s nice to meet you.”

I hold my hand out, planning to make this as professional as I feel Cloud will feel comfortable with. “Yes ma’am. I’m _____. Your son and I work together frequently.”

She takes my hand in both of hers. “Thank you for keeping an eye on him.”

“No problem. He keeps me out of trouble too.”

From there, Cloud explains to his mother that he didn’t make it into SOLDIER. Relief washes over me when she reassures him that she’s proud all the same. I make myself comfortable, watching a family catch up and reminisce, something I never had. It makes me wonder if I can have that someday, if maybe one day, I can join them.

It gets late and we inevitably must bid his mother goodbye. At the inn, I give the infantryman a goodnight kiss and turn in for the night.

The next day is eventful, chaotic even. In the morning, Cloud’s late and we almost leave without him. The rope bridge breaks with us on it and we lose the other infantryman. Zack and I enter a mako reactor for the first time, finding tons of pods filled mutated people and we learn some of the dark secrets of Shinra and our own existences. Genesis, a rogue SOLDIER falling apart, antagonizes Sephiroth about his mother before asking for his help. When Sephiroth refuses and leaves in a panic, Genesis follows leaving Zack and I to fight the mako infused monsters. When we don’t find either of them, we have to take Tifa and an unconscious Cloud back to the town. I didn’t know that a single day could turn my world upside down so quickly, making me question what I’ve been doing with my life, the people I’ve saved, the work I’ve done, the pride I had in being SOLDIER. In reality, I could’ve been just another monster, one of those that Zack and I had struck down today, maybe I already was.

Thankfully, Cloud wakes up without any repercussions, though he quickly takes note of my sour mood. I try not to let it get to me but with my mentor AWOL in some mansion and my whole reality put into question, I just can’t help it. My boyfriend tries to make me feel better but I just can’t shake it and I feel bad for making him worry. I refuse to tell him what I learned though; I’m afraid. If I feel this strongly about what I’ve learned and who I am, I’m absolutely terrified of what he might think of me.

Cloud returns to the inn just as I’m pulling my boots on. “Where are you going so late?”

“I need some air,” I reply, not even looking. Boots tied, I start for the door only for the infantryman to block my path.

“Would you please just tell me what’s wrong?” he begs. He’s been begging for a while now and it breaks my heart.

I jam my hands in my pockets. “It’s nothing you need to worry about, okay? Just…Leave it alone.”

I leave him standing there and make my way out into town to wander. I’m not even sure where I’m going, letting my feet just take me away. It comes as a surprise to find myself in front of the little home my boyfriend had grown up in. Before I can even question myself, I knock on the door. In the next few seconds, I contemplate running away, but the door opens before I can make a decision.

She’s confused but not angry. “Hello dear. Do you need something?” I hesitate. “You look pale. Is something wrong?”

“I…” The tears break through and everything I’ve been holding in begins to overwhelm me. The sweet woman pulls me inside and sits me down.

“What’s wrong, darling? You can tell me.”

I try to pull myself together; it’s a shoddy attempt. “I…I love Cloud.” Her eyes widen. “I love everything about him and I want to be with him forever!” My hands grip at my hair. “But how can I let him spend his life with a monster?!”

And from there, I confess all of the fears that have haunted me since we arrived. She learns about my relationship with her son, what happened in the reactor, that my mentor is probably losing his mind, and sees the darkest despair in me. Yet she just listens, listens as I bawl my confessions to her.

“What if he gets hurt because of me?” I sniffle, nearly cried out.

Her hand rests atop mine. “Were you planning to hurt him before?”

“No. Never,” I blurt out.

A smile plays across her lips. “Then I don’t think you have anything to worry about, dear.”

“But-But you’re his mother. Aren’t you worried something will happen to him by being associated with a SOLDIER?”

“From what Cloud tells me, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him.” That strikes confusion in me. “And from all your exciting adventures, especially from this, I’ve learned that you must care about him too much to let something happen to him. I’m so very grateful that Cloud has someone as strong as you to look after him.”

“You’re not…mad me?”

“I’m not. I can’t say that I agree with everything going on, but you and Cloud must make your own choices. And for you to have enough courage to come to a mother and confess all these fears, I don’t believe you’re a monster at all. Only humans worry about hurting others.”

My tears return, though they’re born of relief instead of the fear of earlier. Cloud’s mother embraces me, having rescued me from the chaos I’d fallen in.

I thank the woman and apologize profusely for the late visit and uncontrollable sobbing. She assures me multiple times that it’s alright, sending me on my way in a far better mood than I’d arrived in.

My reprieve dies out when I see the smoke rising in the sky, followed by an orange glow growing among the houses. Taking off, I find the burning house, and the man I’ve looked up to for years.

“Sephiroth!” I call, racing towards him. “We have to get in there! We have to save-”

I’m cut off with a fist to the chest that sends me flying back. Gasping for air, I struggle to my feet. His eyes are cold, empty. He has no intention of saving anyone; he’s the cause of this.

“No…What are you doing?!” I scream. I thought I was done crying. “You’re a hero! How could you do this to people that trust you to save them?!”

“Because I could be more than a hero. I could be a god.”

He’s gone. This is no longer my mentor, my friend. I draw my weapons. There’s no way in hell I’m going to beat him, but letting him go freely about murdering others is not an option. For everything I’m worth, I do nothing against him. I’m slashed down at every point, bleeding through my shredded uniform. That I’m still standing is a sheer miracle and I’ll use it to stop him, if only to stall him.

“Sephiroth!”

My heart stops along with time. It’s him; he’s racing towards us with fury across his face. Then he’s gone, or rather, everything goes dark when I collide with a building.

~~~~~

The pain is awful and only getting worse. I’m becoming very aware of just how beaten I am. Then I become aware of the heat; the fire engulfing the village. Nibelheim has been doomed.

He catches my eye. Off in the distance, Cloud is fleeing the burning town, heading for the reactor.

No! No, he can’t! He doesn’t stand a chance!

Against my protesting muscles, I stand and stagger out of town after him. It’s a long, difficult trek to the reactor, but every second that passes is a second that I could lose the person most important to me and that drives me forward.

Outside the tower lies several men, all dead. Most of them consist of Shinra employees; it’s bitter to lose coworkers, but a relief that none of them are Cloud. Shouting from inside urges me on. I freeze, my blood running cold. Tifa is out cold on the floor and so is my best friend, Zack.

The shout tears me away from my friend. Cloud is running at Sephiroth, holding Zack’s Buster Sword. My feet carry me after him without hesitation. I was never going to make it in time; Sephiroth throws the man into the room behind him.

I throw a khopesh, looping the chain around his blade and earning his attention.

“So you’re still alive,” he drawls.

“How could you?” I snarl. “After everything, everything you taught me! This is not what a hero does!” A jerk of his weapon pulls me in and frees the sword. With his lightning reflexes, he’s already swinging at me. I just manage to throw the blade still in my hand up to block his attack. “You told me that we were supposed to save people! No matter what our past was like, we fought so others could have a better future!” I shove his sword aside and swipe. “WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT?!”

Brushing off my attack, his word flashes again, slashing across my arm. “I suppose it’s easy to believe that nonsense when you’re human.”

Once again, I face off with my teacher and come up short. At least this time, I’m fueled by anger and adrenaline of saving someone important to me; I avoid more attacks. This draws out the battle unfortunately, and he’s better than I am.

“I trusted you! You were my mentor!” I scream. “You were family! I loved you!”

“You were mistaken.” His cold words are accompanied by blinding pain across the chest. The blow sends me into the back room, rolling me right off the walkway. It’s a miracle that I manage to grab onto the side before plummeting into the mako below.

“You know, I had high hopes for you. You’re a great SOLDIER, my successor. Just another unfortunate event to add to your life, isn’t it.”

My hand, the one injured by him, loses its grasp. I’m hanging here on the edge of life here, five fingers preventing me from drowning in mako; despite that, I glare at him. “I’m nothing like you!”

His dead gaze never falters. “No. You’re not.”

His sword is poised to deal the final blow. I stare him down, bearing my fury even in my dying moments.

The sickening sound of steel sliding through flesh reaches my ears but I’m not in pain, nor am I falling to my death. Looking up brings my heart to a halt. Cloud is hanging from the sword.

“NOOO!”

Sephiroth appears very displeased with the surprise. “Don’t test me.”

To my astonishment, and the villain’s as well, Cloud begins to drag himself along the blade towards his attacker.

“No…Impossible!”

With fire in his eyes, Cloud gives a determined look as he grips the sword and plants his feet back on the walkway. With his entire body, he turns, flinging the madman into the wall and sending him into the pit below.

I heave a sigh of relief. It then becomes clear just how battered I am. I attempt to regain my grip on the walkway, but the blood-coated hand slips. A few more failed attempts and I find myself starting to lose grip in my other hand. Everything is going cold and numb; the control I have over my own hand begins waning. Against my will, my hand let’s go.

The fall doesn’t last as a grip snatches my wrist. The fire hasn’t died in his eyes, but he’s clearly exhausted. “You’re not going anywhere,” he heaves.

When the boy attempts pulling me up, he instead slips a bit further over the edge and the futility of my hope begins to sink in. I’m not meant to survive this; this is the end for me. Even as I come to terms with my end, there’s no way I’m going to bring him down with me. I can’t let her faith in me be overshadowed by my selfishness.

“Cloud, you have to let go,” I rasp, the tears threatening to blur him from sight.

“No.” He winces, muscles shaking to keep a hold on me.

“It’s okay. You did it. You were amazing,” I try to soothe, smiling in spite of the tears. “Good enough to be in SOLDIER I’d say.”

“Just shut up! I’ll get you out of here!” This attempt to pull me to safety results in my arm slipping a little from his grasp. “You…You can’t leave me!”

“Sorry,” I say, my voice just short of breaking.

“We made a deal!” he growls. “You owe me! No exceptions!”

I’m afraid of the favor he wants; he’s right as the winner of the race yet I’m terrified he’s asking the impossible of me.

“I’m sorry. I can’t do much from here,” I breathe.

“You can’t die. You have to live,” he grimaces, tears dripping onto my face. “So we can grow up and get married. And be happy together! You cannot die! YOU OWE ME! NO EXCEPTIONS!” Cloud’s ceased struggling, leaving the two of us dangling there, reduced to tears. “I love you.”

My heart breaks; even so, I’m so happy. The future ahead of us had never been certain; our jobs always came with this risk so I never thought as far ahead as he had. I barely thought about dating, let alone marriage and sharing an entire life together, but Cloud had. He truly loved me enough to think that we could have that happily ever after.

“I love you too.”

That’s it. My fingers slip from his and I plummet towards the pool of mako below. The last thing I see is Cloud, reaching out for me with a face full of fear and sorrow, getting further away.

~~~~~

I’m cold and my body aches yet feels strangely heavy and light at the same time. I’ve never felt my eyelids so heavy, just wanting to continue sleeping forever.

Orange scenery flickers through my mind; bodies scattered about, and Cloud jolts my mind back to reality. Eyes snap open to find myself floating in green liquid attached to wires and tubes. Beyond my container are people in white coats. Pounding on the glass, I gain their attention and they scatter about, freeing me.

Then I learn the terrible truth of what happened: I’m the sole survivor of the Nibelheim incident.

#cloud strife #cloud x reader #cloud strife x reader #ffvii cloud #fem!reader

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curanonemu · 4 years

Text

ateez soulmates au | kim hongjoong

✧ Matching Marks AU ✧

💖💙 Happy Birthday to one (1) beautiful human who does Things to my heart. 💙💖

• tags: hongjoong's pov, slightly art au, sappy!joong, kid-to-adult-fic (is that a tag), cute kids in love, wingman!yunho, spoilers re: seonghwa, fluff, i promise this is not angst, happy ending :D

• word count: 2,950

I hope you guys like thisss! 💖

Hongjoong is four years old when he gets a scratch on his left leg. It's a little above the knee, and he has no recollection of getting hurt anywhere. It just stings a bit, all of a sudden, having drawn his attention, and he complains about it to his mother.

She writes it off as Hongjoong being careless, while he frowns and asserts, in all of his tiny glory: "I'm very careful, Ma!" She hums, the amusement clear in her eyes, her tone of voice all too obvious, "Sure, maybe whatever hurt you was careless." After much grumbling, Hongjoong has to accept her deduction.

He's ten years old, sitting in class and gripping his pen as he listens intently to his teacher, and all of a sudden the pen slips out of his grasp, which is way too wet. He looks down, and what else should he see but a deep gash on his fingers, blood dripping. It doesn't even hurt, but he supposes that that has to do with the intensity of the wound, and not lack thereof. It takes all of his effort to not freak out, externally at least. The teacher sends him to the nurse's office, and the nurse believes that he's a fool despite Hongjoong's insistence that no, he did not slice his hand anywhere against anything sharp 'accidentally.'

Fingers wrapped up and mind buzzing, he returns home glum that day. Why does he keep getting hurt? It's usually some harmless bruises that he doesn't need to worry about, but when he's literally bleeding without a cause, it upsets him.

He's always been careful so that he doesn't get hurt. The scar from six years ago still remains, a thin white line that serves as a reminder of his alleged carelessness.

His mother ends up answering his questions that day. Hongjoong's father seems strictly against the idea, claiming he's too young to know, but it makes him all the more inclined to want to know. So his mother ends up telling him in secret, about how he gets hurt, how someone else is responsible for it. She tells him about soulmates, and he takes it all in, wide-eyed.

She tells him everyone has a different kind of connection, and when he asks what kind she and his dad have, she just smiles secretively.

Hongjoong happens to share a physical link with his soulmate, and whatever marks they get, appear on him too. And they hurt.

He spends the next three years resenting his soulmate, and each time he sports a new bruise, he wonders why he's meant to be with someone so clumsy.

He's thirteen when he twists his ankle while walking, and crashes straight into a rock, the sole of his shoe coming right off, and his heel bleeding. With the pain and the mess comes a rush of something he can't recognise. It feels the slightest bit like guilt, but why in the world? Is he guilty that he hurt the poor rock? He doesn't dwell on it, because his foot hurts too much.

He understands soon enough when his mother makes an off-hand comment about his soulmate's condition. It feels like he's been doused with cold water. How could he forget that someone out there in the world is also suffering with him? Never mind the times he suffered because of them.

Actually, they've always suffered together. He's been hurt because of his soulmate, but right now they're also hurt because of him. He's hurt the person he's meant to give his heart to, in this world. And it makes him feel terrible. No one would want to hurt people for no reason, especially someone precious, so why has Hongjoong always assumed his soulmate is a no-good hooligan?

He spends the next few days doing his best to recover, making sure not to exert himself or jostle his foot any more than necessary.

Yunho makes jokes about Hongjoong's solemate, but even that's not enough to get him to kick his friend.

The only thing that makes the whole ordeal relatively better (read: less embarrassing) is the cast around the new kid's foot. Hongjoong's not the only one with a hurt foot, and even though the other person is not his classmate, it makes everything better.

He hears through classmates that his nameless saviour was on the stairs when they got hurt, and it makes him regret his baseless resentment for his soulmate even more. How could he have blamed them all those years? Getting hurt is inevitable.

Hongjoong ends up leaving a note for the kid in the next class, after much difficulty and a great deal of asking around (read: whining at Yunho till his friend rolled his eyes and found out through his countless contacts). 'I hope it heals soon,' the note says, and he deliberately does not leave a name. It's the least he can do.

A few days later, when he's getting his bandages removed, the doctor peels away the material only for a smiley face to greet everyone. The doctor is surprised and slightly disapproving, but then Hongjoong's mother clears up the misunderstanding; he's not responsible for drawing that. Hongjoong tries not to let his face burn, but it's a lost cause, truthfully.

He comes home and spends a while staring at the doodle on his ankle.

Then, picking up a pen and hoping he's not being absolutely stupid, he uncaps it and sets it to the face, widening the smile slightly. He's being stupid, isn't he? He groans and is about to rub it off completely when he sees something else.

Flowers on his shin. Yeah, he's definitely not responsible for those and they sure weren't there an hour back. He adds a few leaves, watches as loopy tendrils appear on his skin before his eyes, and then he finishes the piece off with a few stray four-point sparkles.

It seems like injuries aren't the only thing he can share with his soulmate.

If he wears the longest pair of socks he has, the next day, then no one needs to know.

They fall into a routine after that. Hongjoong does his best not to get hurt, other than the rare loss of coordination that makes him bang his head down on his table when he drifts off while staying up late, studying. His soulmate cools off on their love for getting hurt too.

Sometimes Hongjoong will spy random bruises cropping up on his skin, but there's none of his old irritation; there's just exasperation and a hint of amusement, concern as well. He'll draw all sorts of things around those bruises- spirals, geometric shapes, even flowers which seem to be his soulmate's go-to. And the person on the other end will add to his doodles.

He ends up way too attached to that habit. And he ends up way too good at art.

In high school, he starts painting his little finger's nail, and he's slightly surprised when his soulmate doesn't do anything to that. He wonders if the polish doesn't show up on their nail. But he doesn't dwell long on that. There's plenty of things he hopes they aren't experiencing at the same time as him. Like staying up till two in the night, crying over his curriculum.

He graduates, and things go smoothly as he starts college, with his part-time job on the side.

He meets new people; Yunho introduces him to his other friend, and Seonghwa is too popular but Hongjoong might just secretly consider him his best friend, despite the short time they've known each other. He's upright, responsible, slightly cocky but also a major dork, judging by the way he's obsessed with the word on his body. He all but freaks out when Hongjoong jokes about having the right words for him, but then the latter assures him that they're not soulmates by any chance, and Seonghwa huffs and ignores him for approximately ten minutes before Yunho calls him an idiot and they're all dissolving into laughter.

Some people also make passes at Hongjoong, strangers he meets from Yunho's large circle of friends, and he's forever surprised that they want to date him when he doesn't even spend enough time socialising. Studying music and art doesn't really give him a lot of time to hang out with people.

He's also more than a little faithful to his soulmate, but he'll never admit that to anyone. It's bad enough that Yunho told Seonghwa about Hongjoong's solemate, he'll never tell anyone that he also has a raging crush on his other half.

Towards the end of the semester, he's busy preparing for exams, and his brain seems fried from days of continuous studying when he decides to take a break, stretching and trying to work out the tension in his back. That's when he sees the digits on his wrist.

His lips part, mouth opening till he stares at his wrist in surprise, almost akin to wonder. And then his brain catches up. Someone's got close enough to his soulmate to leave their phone number on their wrist, and they let them. And that number is also adorning Hongjoong's wrist, just like any other mark that he's shared with his soulmate.

Uh oh.

He rubs at his wrist, satisfied when the ink smudges, and he spends all of his fifteen-minutes-long break cleaning his skin, till it's spotless again. If it's a little red from all the rubbing, he hopes his soulmate's skin isn't suffering.

The next day, he has to go through the same ordeal.

Another day passes, and the same thing happens.

And another.

Hongjoong's at his wit's end. It's all getting increasingly frivolous, first bows and then stars and then hearts decorating the same number, and it makes him nauseous.

He also needs to study so he won't fail, and it's not helping that his soulmate has a new sweetheart that they seem all too happy about.

He's lacking sleep, he doesn't remember when he last ate, and instead of music notes he only remembers those ten stupid digits that keep haunting him.

In a second, he makes a decision that he would most definitely not make, were he in his right mind.

Hongjoong rubs off the digits again, too calm. Then he picks up the fanciest pen he owns, the one he bought specifically with his soulmate in mind but never used, and he writes a different sequence of numbers on his wrist.

He shouldn't get in the way of his soulmate's happiness. He will definitely regret it the next day, he's sure of it.

But he can't bring himself to regret putting his own phone number on his skin.

His phone rings, and he jolts, the gravity of the situation creeping up on him a little. He's such a bad person.

It's late at night, so it can't be anyone other than Yunho or Seonghwa, the latter possibly hoping to catch him awake and scold him for it. Hongjoong answers without looking, happy to have any sort of interaction.

"Hmm?" He hums, dragging out the sound into a sigh, and raises an eyebrow as he hears laughter on the other end.

"Kim Hongjoong?"

He shifts a bit, back straightening, "Yeah, that's me..." Seonghwa appears in his mind, tutting at him for not looking at the caller's number.

"Oh, good!" The person on the other end brightens up significantly, before they laugh again and say, "I've been waiting for days, I thought you'd never get around to it. Honestly, the way you've been removing all traces of my number made me think you'd never talk."

Hongjoong's eyes widen, and he's suddenly too awake and alert. "W-who are you?" He asks, hoping they don't catch his stuttering through the line.

"Ah, I, uh..." the person suddenly trails off. Hongjoong is getting increasingly confused and more than a little suspicious, and he wants answers now.

"I..." they start again and Hongjoong's ear perks up. "Just hear me out, maybe?" He hums in response, and hears them inhale before they launch off into a long-winded explanation. "I put my number there because I wanted you to call. But you never did. You just kept wiping it off and I kept trying and I thought you didn't care."

"But you've also always drawn really pretty things for me, and you've been so kind throughout my life, and the way you write your alphabets is so cute that I- sorry, you don't need to know."

"I want to." He cuts them off, head still trying to wrap itself around the absurdity and the near impossibility of the situation, despite hearing and comprehending every word.

"Y-you have good artistic skills. I like your art." They say, and Hongjoong can imagine that they're red, because he feels the telltale tingle in his face too.

"You're my soulmate." He says it more as a statement than a question, and gets affirmation from the person on the other side.

"How do you know my name?"

"You're... not easy to miss. And I realised some time back that you're the same person who left me that note, because of your handwriting."

What note? Hongjoong asks as much.

"The one you wrote when you hurt your foot." They say, and the anxiousness is dripping from their words. Hongjoong almost feels bad, but one thing still doesn't make sense.

"That doesn't really answer my question, you know. How did you call while knowing I'm Hongjoong? You'd only know if you've seen my number before. How can I believe that you're my soulmate?"

He hears another inhale, and he waits for them to steel their nerves before they blurt out something that makes his mental faculties halt for a moment.

"Yunhogaveittome."

"Yunho?" He asks, incredulous as anything. What does Yunho have to do with this?

"Do I really have to tell you everything?" The question ends as a whine, and despite Hongjoong's brain screaming that that's cute, he powers on to his goal. "Everything. Tell me."

"Fine. He gave it to me in school because he found out I had a stupidly big crush on you. I'd liked you ever since someone told me that you left me that note which you thought you were super sneaky about. The one where you told me you hoped my foot healed soon."

Oh.

"But I never did anything despite having your number. And I also felt bad because my soulmate was so cool and kind and great. I didn't want to pursue someone else when my soulmate was drawing me stars and swirls and putting up with my clumsy self."

Oh.

"Then I realised that you had similar handwriting to that of my soulmate and I really hoped that you were the same people, but I chalked it up to wishful thinking. It was just a coincidence that you were hurt at the same time, right?"

The pieces are slowly falling into place, and Hongjoong blinks as his head spins a bit.

"I decided to delete your number and forget you, because it was getting too dangerous. But then- then!" The person's voice gets animated, "I decided to share my own number with my soulmate, because I wanted to see what they'd do."

"And they rubbed it off." Hongjoong supplies, ever-so-helpful and receives enthusiastic agreement.

"Exactly! They kept rubbing it off even though I hoped and hoped that they'd call."

"They thought it belonged to someone who was wooing you." He mumbles, his voice faint to his own ears.

"O-oh. I- no." Laughter; laughter that makes Hongjoong's ears burn, makes him run a hand through his hair anxiously. "Definitely not. I already told you I decided not to pursue anyone. Kim Hongjoong was already a guilty pleasure." The last two words are whispered into the line, and he squeezes his eyes shut.

"What did you think when you got theirs?" He asks, voice trembling slightly. It's because he's cold and tired, definitely, not because he's warm and embarrassed and slightly giddy.

"I was surprised. I couldn't tell what was happening. On one hand, I thought it was my soulmate's. On the other, I recognised it and thought the world was playing a trick on me. For a second I even thought Yunho could be it, and he'd made a fool out of me but then I called and you answered and who wouldn't recognise your voice?"

"What about my voice?" He asks, and he's not disappointed when he hears the shy but excited response of how he sounds really distinct and pleasing to the ear and other admissions that make Hongjoong's lips twitch up in a grin.

He picks up the same pen, writing out under his number one last thing that he needs answered. Make it two things.

'Why are you so clumsy? Why do I love you despite that?'

"Excuse me?! Sorry that I bruise easily! And I'm sorry that I'm still so adorable and adorable. Let me remind you, my foot hurt pretty badly when you hurt yours! It hurt enough that I fell down the stairs. You're lucky I was at the second to last step, or you'd be so much worse! Ungrateful." Hongjoong's shoulders shake as he stifles his laughter, hearing you huff indignantly.

He sighs, shutting his eyes and allowing a smile to spread over his face as he listens to your voice.

Ah.

It's the person he's been going back and forth with for so long, the person whose life has affected his so much. He's talking to the person for whom he draws leaves and flowers and writes sappy lyrics.

It's the person he's been waiting for, all these years.

It's his soulmate.

It's you.

(Thank you so much for reading.♡ I hope you all enjoyed it. You can find the rest of this series under my '#ateez soulmates' tag! ♡♡)

#ateez #ateez imagines #kim hongjoong #kim hongjoong x reader #ateez x reader #kim hongjoong imagines #ateez soulmates #ateez scenarios #cura writes

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honeylikewords · 5 years

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Santi, kids, go.

for a second when i read this i didn’t remember the context of my own post and had a legitimate heart attack thinking ‘oh god is someone asking me something gross???’ and my heart rate jumped and my vision went blurry but then i remembered my post and also that i have one hell of an anxiety disorder so ghdkghdgk ANYWAY

WHO’S READY FOR SOME GOOD OL’ FASHIONED “K GOES ON A RANT ABOUT A MOVIE” LONG-FORM POSTING? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN HERE!

So, to make this legible, I’m going to, from here on out, use proper punctuation, capitalization, spelling, et cetera. I also should clarify that this post is largely only going to make sense if you’ve already seen Triple Frontier (now on Netflix!), so I suggest you go see that before you read this, if you’re interested in fully understanding what I’m talking about. I’ll include screenshots from the film for image reference, too, with specific points I’m talking about, but the weight of these scenes will work better if you’ve seen it actually in action. Oh, and this contains definite spoilers for the film, so if you wanted to watch it un-spoiled, better skip this post or watch the movie first and come back later.

Anyway, with all that preliminary stuff outta the way, let’s do a Classic K-Grade Deep Dive(TM).

This is Santiago “Pope” Garcia. He’s the protagonist of the J.C. Chandor Netflix film, Triple Frontier. Santiago is an ex-Army soldier working in Colombia as part of a task force within the local government to find (and kill) the head of the largest drug cartel in the area, Gabriel Martin Lorea. His story and personality are the center of the film; he’s the first character we really meet in a longer, more personal sense, the first personality we get to know, the first empathy point and anchor for the audience. All the lives of other characters in the film are viewed through his lens, and he is the real heart and soul of the film.

As such, it’s an interesting note to see how often Santiago (whose name I’ll shorten here to Santi) is paired, on-screen and thematically, with children in the film. For example, within the first few minutes of the movie and his own introduction to the audience, he’s shown fist-bumping local children as he walks with armed officers to a selected point to begin a raid on a drug operation.

(This one’s a little hard to see, sorry!)

That decision is just so fascinating to me, especially when you think about the fact that every action shown on screen is an intentional choice. This is an intentional display: they, the filmmakers, want us to see Santi interacting with children. They want us to know he’s friendly with them, kind to them, empathetic to them. This empathy with and love for children that Santi has is frequently contrasted against his fellow teammates throughout the rest of the film, and is therefore, in my opinion, a clear directorial and acted choice to show us Santi’s true stances and heart, the core of his character: a loving, good man who cares for others, and very specifically for children and those he believes most need his protection and help.

Of course, this shows up later in the film in many different ways-- from Santi protecting Yovanna, his informant within Lorea’s group, and her brother, to Santi’s desire to free Colombia from corruption and help its people rise to greater, healthier heights-- but it remains the same idea: Santiago cares about people, and specifically those he feels need a little extra protection.

But what we’re specifically talking about here is how Santi is repeatedly shown interacting with or framed against children. So, on with the list of examples.

The next instance of Santi with children is when we see Santi interacting with Tom (”Redfly”)’s daughter, Tess. Tess greets him familiarly and by his first name, meaning that she not only knows him, but knows him well. Santi is shown smiling wide, his voice warm and loud as he greets her.

Immediately after this comment about Tess, we get a tracking shot of a young child at a sports meet (which appears to be baseball). The shot is framed to match Santi’s gazing out the window, meaning Santi is the one seeing this child.

I argue that the framing of this is nostalgic or longing, probably because I think part of Santi’s arc is about his longing to leave his life behind and move on to something better. I think, for Santi, part of that is family. Family is a major thematic element of the film, and I like to imagine that this scene and its framing is meant to put us in the mind of Santi as he wonders about what it would be like to be a father with a child at one of these sports events, what it would be like to have something normal like Tom has. Santi wants a family, and all the family he has in his life anymore are the men who comprised his team, before, which is why he reunites them for the action of the film. He wants a family. I sincerely believe that. He just doesn’t know how to find one that’s anything next to normal, yet.

At any rate, the next example follows shortly after the previous one, as Tom begins talking about the details of the case Santi is offering him. Santi turns over his shoulder to check the backseat where Tess is sitting, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of her overhearing something like this. I don’t think he’s worried about the potential security risk so much as he’s worried about the idea of a child hearing her father talk about something violent and scary.

Here’s the over the shoulder glance; I mean, that just reads “concerned father” to me, you know?

Anyway, the next scene immediately follows, with Santi talking candidly with Tess in the car while Tom is in the gas station. Tess asks him about if he’s trying to get Tom to work again, and Santi tries, at first, to be playful, hoping to relax her, but when she seems serious, he gets serious and kindly concerned, too.

He asks if she thinks her mom would still let Tom go, clearly trying to engage her and target what she’s concerned about. Hell, he’s even being empathetic to the idea that even though Tom and his wife are divorced, his ex-wife may still have a stake in and concern about Tom’s welfare. Santi clearly cares about Tom’s home life, and about the wellbeing of this child.

It’s interesting, too, because Santi appears to have more dialogue and time together with Tess than even her father does, in terms of on-screen time. Again, the film is showing us Santi and children for a reason: he listens, he cares, he sees them.

This one’s blurry but I just thought I’d include the fact that Santi specifically says goodbye to Tess when he could easily have ignored her and just hopped out. He’s a sweetie.

The next scene doesn’t happen for a while, but when the team crashes their helicopter into the fields of a remote village, Santi is instantly hesitant to draw his weapon on the crowd that gathers around them. He does not fire, even when the situation grows more tense; his other teammates are the ones to open fire. In the crowd we can see a young, teenaged boy (who later returns to get revenge on Tom, who initiated the firing on the crowd), and a very young girl, who manages to survive.

Santi is the one shown speaking to the village leader. Santi is the one who takes the initiative to go to that man and give him several million dollars in damages and express his sorrow for this loss. He specifically asks that the money be given to the families of those who were killed. Specifically. Again, Santi is not only shown to be empathetic to the lives of others, but specifically to the children, too.

Interestingly, in the scene where the camera sits in the viewpoint of Tom as he walks to where Santi is (as Santi is talking with and giving the money to the leader of the village), it is specified in the audio description that a baby is crying.

Again, a framing of Santiago and children. It’s a little loose, but I feel like there’s intentionality in that; there had to be a decision to lay that audio in, a decision to incorporate the sounds of an anxious child with Santi’s attempts to fix the problem.

Later, when this teenaged boy from the village tracks the team to get revenge on Tom, who opened fire, it’s noted that Santi is not the one being shot at. Tom is. Again, this reinforces to the audience that Santi is not only not the villain, but someone who even children who don’t know him will respect and understand will not hurt them.

After Tom is killed by this same boy, Santi goes through an intense bout of rage as Benny reports that Lorea’s men have gathered a child army to try and capture the team. For a moment, Santi snaps and yells that they’ll “go through them”, suggesting that they kill whoever stands in their way to bring Tom’s body home, but he quickly shuts himself down and turns away, immediately becoming apologetic and rescinding his comment, knowing full well that he didn’t mean it. It later becomes clear that he was entirely sincere in this apology, because when they encounter the child soldiers, Santi refuses to do them any harm, and, in fact, helps the first one they meet, and refuses to allow his teammates to shoot them or hurt them.

The first child soldier they meet is a young boy, and whereas his teammates draw guns on the young boy, Santi is quick to yell at everyone to calm down and holsters his own weapon, putting his hands out in a show of defense.

He speaks to the boy in Spanish, showing that he is colloquial and personable with the boy. He’s trying to relate to him, calm him.

When Fish suggests he’s going to shoot, Santi raises his voice in a clear, anxious yell to tell him not to. He’s trying, desperately, to protect this boy.

The boy then calls for backup, and the team ties him up to steal his car. However, Santi lags behind to give the boy a stack of hundred dollar bills:

And advice:

And then cuts his ties loose and lets him go. He is STILL trying to protect this boy! Even after, when Fish yells at Santi for giving the kid money and berates him for not killing the boy, Santi yells back that they are not to kill anyone.

Next, the backup that the boy called for arrives, and, lo and behold, it’s also all teens and children. Santi is perched in the back of the truck with a perfect vantage point to shoot and kill all of them in the car that has chased them, but he pauses, clearly unwilling, and then, instead, fires warning shots at their engine, incapacitating the car but not hurting a single soul inside.

There are several back and forth shots between Santi’s face and the teens (too many for me to cap, frankly), and these serve to once again reinforce to us, the audience, just how deep Santi’s empathy runs.

More cars follow, and Fish yells at Santi to “shoot the driver”:

But Santi won’t do it. Again, he only damages the cars, shooting out their tires. Again and again, throughout the scene, Fish yells at Santi to kill these kids, even as Santi blows out tires and new cars show up.

But he won’t.

Once again, Santi aims for the tires. And he succeeds in only damaging the car, not the passengers.

Finally, as the film closes, Santi’s parting words with the last teammate he says goodbye to, William, are about Tom’s family, and specifically his daughters.

Again, he’s worried about the children. He always is. Santi’s concern for children is such a major part of his character presence, it’s almost impossible to miss!

So.

Why would I make this excruciatingly long post that required me to minute-by-minute revisit the movie and look for individual frames to show Santi interacting with or thinking about kids? Well, here are some reasons.

1. It’s always important to recognize recurrent themes, images, motifs, et cetera in films, and especially how they tie with characters. These choices are often intentional and left there by the artists making the film so that audiences, whether cognizant or subconsciously, can pick up on this information and see how it reflects on the character. Here, we learn that Santi is good with, friendly to, empathetic with, and protective of children. That shows us a good, heroic man, and someone the audience is meant to support, even when the chips are down. From an analytical standpoint, it’s good to be aware of this so you can better dissect and understand what a story is trying to tell you.

2. You all know I’m a softie who cares a lot about kids and I want the male characters I love or form affinities with to have similar attributes. This is a nice, big reference post for me to validate my stance on believing that Santi not only loves kids, but would be great working with them and being a father in his own right. Because I’m a sap.

3. I think it’s important to find examples of compassionate, caring male characters, especially men of color. I’ve seen a lot of disparaging comments made about Santi in the Triple Frontier tag, usually in order to bolster the image of his white teammates. And I wanted this to be a kind of definitive masterpost, if only for myself, about the fact that Santi is not only a good man, but oftentimes the better man out of all of them. So could y’all stop being racist against the POC characters in this film, please, could y’all sTOP-

4. Narratively, it gives us a better insight into what this movie is actually about. Because, quite frankly? It’s not a heist movie. I don’t think it was ever intended to be. A heist movie is something like Ocean’s Eleven, where the heist itself is almost a character. In this, the heist is background noise to the story that’s really being told; this movie is a story about people, and specifically one man, looking to make their lives better, and a story about families, bonds, personal connections. Now, I agree, the movie had some issues, absolutely, but I think that looking at this story as being Santi’s search for connections, for a family, really sheds light on how a lot of this movie works, and why it is the way that it is. By looking at his relationship with children and his personal arc with that, we’re informed about what he values, and the importance that he places on other lives. The movie turns from a “kickass action heist” into a more contemplative, thoughtful film about the cost of violence and selfishness, the loss we experience when we think only of ourselves, the real value of life and connection and love, in all its many forms. Familial, protective bonds are at the forefront of the piece, and recognizing that makes this movie make a whole lot more sense.

5. Men who are good with kids are hot. Which is also the point I made in 2., but it’s my post and I get to say what I want, goddamnit!

Anyway. I could go on for hours about ways we could interpret this or how it’s a valuable asset of the film, but I want to leave it up to every person to make their own decisions about it. I just wanted to be the one to point it out, since I think it’s a heavily glossed-over part of the story, and a very ignored part of Santi’s character and his story arc.

Also, let Santi be a dad 2kforever. Just sayin’.

That about concludes this post! If anyone wants to hear more about it or probe on the topic some more, I have lots more thoughts and opinions to share. Even if the movie is a little, shall we say, rocky in places, Santi and his story still hold a huge place in my heart, and I think a lot of this movie is actually really well done. J.C. Chandor really let Oscar shine, and I’m very moved by the work he, specifically, did in the film. Yay, Santi!

#long post #triple frontier #santiago garcia #i am incredibly valid and yes i am posting this at 2 am but god gave me a mission #gif warning #guns /#violence /#death mention /#lmk if this needs any other tags #drugs mention /#Anonymous

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breezy-cheezy · 5 years

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Ok. Ok...I finally finished Nier: Automata. I like to go looking for fanart too, but it’s...difficult for this fandom because....mainly it’s alot of er....very revealing drawings of 2B. I get it, but I get very tired of that stuff real quick...I like the wholesome stuff, cute fluff, the like, so if anyone knows where I can find that/good nier: automata fanart/gif blogs, I’d love to hear!

But yeah more thoughts since the last part of the game just cranks everything up to an 11 and tbh I’m really emotional (MAJOR SPOILERS BTW. It’s an...older game now but I still feel like I should warn...)

- Ok I thought the beginning of route D/C was cool if surprisingly difficult?? Playing as 2B running around in full armor and I seem to be more fragile actually?? Hrm.

- I did NOT expect 2B to be killed so soon. Like. Wat. I knew it was coming but not THEN. And A2 taking mercy on her and finishing her off (when we found out she’s witnessed comrades suffering this same virus before it makes even more sense) was actually...that made a big impact on me. I liked A2 right off the batt. I love that her arc is to learn to care again. Not just about androids, but the world, and how beautiful it is...just...after all her trauma and such I just think her story arc is lovely.

- I do question how she ran around in clothing scraps for years but I mean. You do you sweetie.

- 2B’s soft “Nines...” as she notices him watching her die I DIE, I missed her so muuuuch...

- Devola and Popola are apparently characters from a previous Nier game and gosh dang I love these disaster twins. They deserve so much better...thank you for looking out for 9S you two ;~;

- I realize 9S actually has alot of Moms and I think it’s hilarious (Devola and Popola, Anemone, 2B, A2, O210, HIS OWN POD ) but also really cute!

- Watching sweet 9S slowly but surely descend into madness and rage just...pained me. I mean I feel that is how you do that kind of character development, it...worked, but oh my GOSH that boy was a mess by the end ;;A;; screaming, crying, killing...his voice actor is super good. I had to remind myself this angry boy is same voice of sweet little Mob X’’’D But just all his “nothing matters anymore, I’ll kill you all” lines sounded so painful and angry and insane all at once and just A+++ choice of voice actor yall. Having to kill O210 was just...noooo isn’t he suffering enough?? Isn’t she???? BWEH

- I realize alot of the side quests about revenge were foreshadowing this character arc and this also pains me.

- A2′s banter with 2B’s pod was beautiful and I couldn’t get enough of it, especially his not so subtle jabs at her inability to comprehend things/calling her stupid basically X’’’’’’’’’D

- Also A2 interacting with the machines at Pascal’s village gave me life and light in these dark times. The kids call her big sis!!! She helps build them a slide!!! My heart!! ;;7;;

- Also just...everything that happened to that village...ugh. Why. WHY.

Me: Things are sad now but hey at least we still have Pascal’s happy peace village!

Game: *for some reason, half of the machines in the village get infected by the network and start eating each other, everything’s in flames, there seem to be no survivors*

Me: Aaaaaaaa at least...Pascal lives? With the children?? They’re safe, right?

Game: *Yeah but now an army of infected machines are coming your way and you have to fight them off with a previously pacifist robot Pascal*

Me: Ok...ok did that. It was pretty cool. But knowing this game the kids are going to be dead upon return huh...the machines went around and got to them...*trying to prepare*

Game: *they indeed died, but it was actually suicide because they were overcome by fear, which fear is a concept Pascal taught them, and now he hates himself and wants you to kill him too or erase his memories*

Me: ...............frick. *just walks away*

- I COULDN’T DO IT I just walked away I feel like that’s the most chance for hope DX what the heck Yoko Taro do you LIKE suffering??

- Just everything up to the ending was super cool and pretty dang epic. I was confused on lore points, but hoo boy the full revelation on project YorHa is just awful and I can’t blame 9S for going totally ballistic after finding out...

- Red girl. Super creepy. Jackass’s report on her after completing the game?? Hilarious.

- Might I say, Jackass is a hilarious, great side character, and she was totally immune to all the tragedy and just wanted to teach others how to make bombs X’’’’’D Her name alone had me busting out laughing, what a gal

- I like Ending C better than D...but the bit about the ark was interestinggg...I love confirmation that Adam is taking care of his little brother in the datascape at least ;;v;; Eve deserves it...

- A2′s “I’m coming, everyone” as she falls to her death WEEEEEHHHHHHH

- Ok but the game makers put so much heart into this game. Ending E???? Was really hard to get. But it was so COOL. It took the whole nihilistic “nothing matters anymore” theme and turns it right on it’s head, as it puts you in this little mini game against the credits of the game...a FIGHT for a better ending. And I finally stopped being dumb and turned on the network and it got BETTER??? Quotes from other players encouraging me and uplifting...apparently the actual 2B and 9S voice actors data are in there too and they helped out and iasiuwruyguyerge the fourth wall is so broken but dang I love it...getting help from past players was amazing.....

- ALSO THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD IS SUCH A GOOD SONGGGGG and that it uses ALL versions/languages of the song all in once scene PLUS a chorus in the back if you accept help from others...chills. Like. I was trying so hard not to cry it was AMAZING, I love music and it was GRAND

- The E ending was very open ended but also super hopeful and I love the pods for helping us and I hope these children can live on and be happy now...I will draw that fanart for sure.

- Needless to say I hate sad endings, I hate that people think they’re cool and progressive because for me they’re just depressing. I literally leave media feeling empty and near depressed after those. So the fact this game GIVES you the option to press on and try to bring some light and happiness back just really, really touched my heart...I really appreciate how it was done.

Also I didn’t sacrifice my save data because I’m terrible I’m sorry my brother’s file is still on here he would KILL ME

So I’m super grateful to my friend Ana for introducing this masterpiece to me. What a GOOD GAME. A little wierd, a little quirky, very sad, but a good message at the end...I loved this journey. Super unique to anything else I’ve played. Now I’ll have alot more free time back since I finally finished this off too X’’’’D but hey, I’m happy with it!!

I also wanna go lore diving but I am very...emotionally exhausted and should do that Later >v>;;;;;

#breezy babbles #breezy plays nier #nier automata #meta #lots of opinions #for the void #there are probably some more side quests I could take down #but overall I feel fulfilled #apparently this is the happiest end Yoko Taro has ever written #so I'm...very hesitant to go poking my nose into the older games X'D #also those graphics...hhhhhh #there are other games I'd like to play on my list #I'll probably youtube key scenes #but I need a break #more drawing/sketch dumps in the near future I hope!!!#now gonna sleep #gnight #(Oh yeah also just finished the Dragon Prince and season 3 when)

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kinixuki · 6 years

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Answers for the “Questions about creating your ocs” thing, as a read more because it got REALLY LONG. There’s some AU rambling too because why not. The first time a character gets mentioned their name should be a link to their tumblr tag, just to keep track of who’s who because there’s a lot of them :v

1. What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)?

Kal – Kal came from a dream I had, he was an angry guy with muscles and 0 chill (this never really changed), I think the first conscious thing I did myself was trying to make a small backstory for the dream because I felt pretty strongly about it. I tried to get the look down at the same time but my drawing skills were terrible at that time, so the backstory got more attention. And then it turned into Fisher along with some other dreams I had!

Umbrella – Umbrella is originally from a dream as well, a different one but it had Kal in it too, so it tried to fit it into the story.

Shetla – she happened when I started writing shamans (which had no plan at all at first), I needed someone who would talk with Kwiri so I made her

Oqooto – Oqooto was born as random fish kid for a small comic, so they got a bit of backstory and appearance for the comic. I liked what came out of it and kept thinking about them :>

2. Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind?

Moru – I want to say Ishke, but other than trying to not have them look too similar not really. Maybe Yixi the bird, Moru used to have a hood with a nest, now she has falconry equipment.

3. How did you choose their name?

Kal – playing with random letters, after he was nameless for a year or two. I think I first wrote it down into a German textbook when I was bored during a class :v His name is also one of the Czech words for mud, which I didn’t realize for a while, but it fits sort of.

Umbrella – in the dream he came from he was basically a ghost that came out of an umbrella, so he got to keep it, both as an object and as a name, because it sounded silly and he’s weird. It’s more of a nickname in the actual story, he so old that no one remembers his name and telling people would spoil the fun for him, and because he always carries the umbrella with him it’s how a lot of people refer to him.

Teeku – playing with random letters again. I think his name just popped into my head when I was writing and was like “hey, this shaman guy needs a name”. I wish this happened more often, I’m terrible with making names :l

Bronze – I had hard time understanding how naming characters with actual words one can understand works, so I tried it myself with Bronze. I don’t remember why I picked that anymore, but it had something to do with him being Fisher and Narya being gold in my head.

Oqooto – I think I saw something close to that in random word generator? It looked super weird, but also felt like an instant fit after like a year of not knowing what name I want.

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts?

Oqooto – it’s mostly based on the comic idea I had – a kid living in marshes that goes fishing, then I expanded from that. It’s technically part of Ishke’s world, but I haven’t really connected those two yet. There’s a lot of spirits in that world though, so after a bit Oqooto turned into something that’s closer to a shaman/medium than just a fish kid.

5. Is there any significance behind their hair color?

Narya – for a long time there wasn‘t, other than me thinking it’s nice, but now it’s an ethnicity thing along with the ashy skin color. I’ve been playing with the idea of that being the sign of a pureblood Fisher, but it makes some story mess with how easily they would be identifiable in the city. So it might be more general group of people, but still with them being known for their Fishers being crazy good. Bronze is another of those people, but not really directly related to Narya, despite the appearance. Most of them live in the forests outside of the city.

9. Are they based off of you, in some way?

Kwiri – ummmm yes a bit…. I started writing his story as an angsty teen with zero friends, and having a character dealing with similar problems felt nice because hey, finally a friend. It wasn’t really a conscious thing like “it’s me, but in another world”, just a character I wanted to understand and write well. After a while of writing I was probably more based off him than the other way around to be honest. For some reason Kwiri is also pretty close to how I look irl though, which wasn’t intentional at all xD

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible to that person?

Moru – I wanted her and Ishke to have fun together, so they’re both kinda rebellious, but Moru is still there to explain all the human and social stuff to Ishke. She doesn’t understand much either, but almost anything is better at it than Ishke. And she gets to learn about spirits/forest from him!

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)?

Kal – other than waiting few years for a name he’s tricky to draw for me, first he was the muscle guy when I didn’t know how to draw muscles at all, now it’s drawing him properly during fights and all the cool action scenes. He’s surprisingly easy to write to though.

Umbrella –having him not turn the entire plot upside down. I changed the entire thing at least three times because of him, he’s always been one of the major characters but having him fit into the story in a way that worked well was hard. He’s hard to write as well, it’s easy to get carried away and turn him into the carefully planning villain stereotype because most of his role in the story is watching from behind the scenes, but he’s supposed to be super chaotic. Well thought out plans are literally the last thing he would do.

Moru – I am. Really bad. With female characters. Guys? Cool. Nbs? Super cool. Girls??? Seriously I made her to have a girl character I would be comfortable with, it’s still not 100% it and I still don’t know what to do with her, so probably that. She needed over 5 years for a name too.

13. How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all?

Shamans – I wrote down a short story about how some late story events turned out differently and keep thinking about a lot of what ifs. Then I have a lot of things from when Teeku was younger figured out, some of them are important, some of them are just fun to think about, most of them don’t get enough space in the actual story though.

Then there’s several AUs, including one where Teeku is a grumpy farmer with an old smelly tractor and a straw hat. Kirta hates him there because of the hat, he’s a rich farm guy and has been looking for The Perfect Straw Hat™ for months. When he finally saw it across the street and fell in love, Teeku came and bought the first straw hat he saw, which was this one. There’s also a modern AU where Teeku owns a tearoom and his visitors are my and Sari’s characters from the other stories. There’s a lot of fun stuff happening there and it has quite a bit of stuff thought out, I wanted to draw some of it during the summer but didn’t get to it D:

Bronze – I have a ton of stuff from when Bronze was younger and didn’t live in the city, but that’s deep in the spoiler territory. In the tearoom AU he lives in Umbrella’s flat and works in his sushi restaurant, but kind of wishes he didn’t, especially when Umbrella (who despite owning the flat doesn’t really live there) decides to visit, eat every single thing in the fridge and then talk about all sorts of vaguely illegal stuff Bronze doesn’t really want to hear about before leaving again.

14. If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?

Isidor (the grandmaster of the Order who has no tag atm) – he’s elegant as heck, and his behavior is kinda human but also not really, he’s young for what he is but he doesn’t age/die naturally and is already older than normal humans get, so he’s pretty detached.

15. What is something about your OC can make you laugh?

Siva – okay so. At one point a friend asked what kind of food they eat in the Fisher universe. Part of the reply was that they also probably have some of the food we have here, like schnitzel. And the friend asked something like “so there’s gonna be someone coming to Siva and asking ‘Hey Siva, do you want some more schnitzel?’”. It’s Siva’s fave food now, because he’s a super srs person and this totally doesn’t sound super silly.

ALSO THE TEAROOM AU, Siva is a head doctor of a local hospital and Narya is a student with training there and Siva overseeing it. They don’t really like each other, it’s the same as the canon story. They both visit Teeku’s tearoom though, Narya because he either has a part time job there few days a month or just uses that as a study place, and Siva because he’s a tea connoisseur and Teeku’s tearoom is the best tearoom in the city when it comes to tea quality, but there aren’t many visitors because Teeku is super grumpy.

So Narya and Siva sometimes meet there. Siva comes in a pretty bad mood, because “this one student was supposed to do all this work at night and he didn’t and just kept talking back, I need some good tea to drink”. 5 mins later, Narya comes late for his shift, because “this one idiot doctor wanted me to do all this stuff at night, can you even believe it what a jerk, I didn’t even sleep”, and he gets to make Siva’s tea without knowing who is it for and then he brings it to him and they’re both like “YOUUUU”

Minghe – the main idea of his story is that he got stuck with exactly that one person he can’t stand at all (Sheon) and is forced to cooperate. It’s the sad kind of funny.

16. What is something about your OC can make you cry?

Siva – @sariannearies saying bad things about him and wishing terrible things to happen to him >:

Minghe – the fact that I still don’t have a single colored artwork with him except one speedpaint. He’s one of my faves D:

17. Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

Kwiri – I’ve been rewriting his story for years and deleting thing I didn’t like, so not really?

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

Kal – he really really REALLY hates Siva, the doctor. It’s mutual, but Siva is way better at hiding it, though he sometimes “accidentally” forgets to give Kal painkillers and so on. Sometimes Kal regrets that he wasn’t successful with what he tried to do at the end of Roommates.

Bronze – he’s super obsessed with being independent, but because of that he ended up as the opposite and it took him forever to realize. With no real way out \o/

Moru – she likes birds. That was unexpected, right?

#REALLY REALLY LONG #i need to draw more things so i can write more things #oc talk is my fave thing #oc ask meme #should i tag the chars here

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silverfacedherald · 6 years

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Last week, I went to Dan and Phil’s Interactive Introverts show with my sister and our friend. I was excited, not even fully processing it until I was in my seat. I was expecting to feel uplifted, light-hearted, and (in a way) fulfilled after the show.

I’ve been watching Dan and Phil for 2 years now, and while that isn’t a very long time, I (in an unromantic way) fell in love with both of them. This may be cliché, but all I want is to get coffee with them and ultimately be their friend. Of course, I knew I wouldn’t get that experience in the least at Interactive Introverts, but I was excited nonetheless.

This experience was even more meaningful to my friend (who had introduced my sister and I to Dan and Phil) because she has been watching them for 5 years now. Throughout these 5 years, Dan and Phil have gotten her through many tough times and close calls.

I entered the theatre excited; ready to laugh, cheer, and cry. I left the theatre disappointed in both the phandom, the producers/agents of the show, and the fact that Dan and Phil allowed certain themes in their show to be there (not “getting serious” with the crowd and telling them to stop).

Now, if you haven’t seen Interactive Introverts and plan to, there will be spoilers to follow (though if you have triggers, I implore you to continue reading so you will be prepared when going to the show).

Now, I know the experience varies from show to show, audience to audience, but the atmosphere of the show and the audience that I was a part of was not healthy and honestly triggering for several reasons.

Sexualization of Dan

Of course, we all know and love Dan being his innuendo-self and there were a couple light-hearted jokes, but the audience took it to another level. Innuendos are funny to a point. There is a line between light-hearted yet cringy innuendos and sexualization. If a woman was in Dan’s place, it would be called sexist and harmful; but of course as a white cis male, he’s supposed to be fine. He wasn’t. It is not. Sexualization can happen to anyone and it happened to Dan in Interactive Introverts whenever he would bend over/turn around, use phrasing that in any way could be about sex, and as he was taking the white jumpsuit off after he got of “the wheel”. Whenever Dan would do or say something that would hint sex, screaming would ensue. As the show continued, Dan looked more and more awkward and honestly anxious. I found myself watching Dan’s body language than what was actually happening on the stage. This behavior from the crowd was not only negative for Dan, but also for those in the audience who have been sexualized (or worse). My friend who I went with had a hard time watching the majority of the show, almost leaving and instead calming herself by looking at the theatre itself and no longer focusing on the two men who have helped her through depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. The sexual jokes were not the only part that was triggering for her, but also the simulation section of the show. In this simulation, the crowd chose between two options for Dan and Phil’s simulation-self and then saw the consequences. During Dan’s turn, a furry ended up taking him into a cave and made them have sex, and the next morning Dan found himself in a five-way polygamous marriage. This isn’t funny, this isn’t consensual. This majorly triggered my friend, who was raped as a minor. All of this together, is not light-hearted innuendo by any means. It is toxic sexualization and direct references of non-con.

Susan

So Dan and Phil said that they would love to meet with us all individually, but since that isn’t possible, they decided we should all be called Susan and be of one mind. At first it was light-hearted and fun, us all clapping at the same time, ect, but they kept drawing it out and referring to it/us/Susan to the point that I got highly uncomfortable. Dan and Phil are usually big on individualism and free-thinking, and “Susan” did not reflect those values at all. Cult jokes only go so far, and as someone who was raised in one and got sucked into another for a couple years as a teen, “Susan” quickly lost my appeal. Like I said before, at first it was fun, the reference was funny, but I, we, are not some thing to be named and treated as some hive-mind. That is not a message which needs to be laughed at and desensitised, especially in the political climate that we are in today.

Dan or Phil?

A little before the intermission, Dan and Phil said that one of them would be sacrificed based on who we like better: Dan or Phil. This question seems to be a move that PR/marketing would make, to figure out who to make more merch for, or to overall showcase more on social media. I think this is especially harmful to Phil (though Dan ended up being “sacrificed”/on the wheel for the show I went to) who is greatly underrated.

Overall desensitisation

By allowing Dan to be sexualized, making non-con seem like a funny situation, choosing between two best friends, and erasing individualism for fun, this desensitizes people from multiple underlying issues that haunts society: sexualization of all people, regardless of gender, race, or age; pitting one person against the other for popularity; the fact that not saying “no” does not equate to saying “yes”; and erasure of individualism/a hindrance of personal diversity through attempting to group everyone together in multiple social situations.

This is a problem and no one (of what I have seen) is talking about it.

Now, saying all this doesn’t mean that I personally hated the show and regret going, but this needs to be discussed. I felt bad for the parents who were there with their impressionable tweens/teens, and I hope they realize what happened is not a reflection of who Dan and Phil are, because it definitely isn’t.

I cried at the end when Dan played the piano while they were both singing. I cried not only because a) for a second there I was scared I payed $90 to see a dog video as the finale, b) Dan and Phil both have really nice singing voices and when they have a duet it’s beautiful, (c Dan playing the piano all around the world (what about that isn’t an amazing experience for him and a triumph over his childhood nightmare of a piano teacher?), but I was also crying because d) I wanted the atmosphere that had come over the theatre the instant the piano came on stage to be the atmosphere for the entirety of the show.

In short, I greatly want to support Dan and Phil, and I was glad to do so through going to Interactive Introverts and buying merch. But I do not support several of the themes that were displayed as funny, when in fact they were triggering and do harm to society. I hope this problem with Interactive Introverts doesn’t get swept under the rug, but instead is called out by Dan and Phil at least once. I love these two men and I hope the best for them, but the reason for that is because of their values and what they teach their audience. Hopefully the future contains the content that’s in their livestreams and videos, and not what I witnessed for the majority of Interactive Introverts.

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bronzeprincess2015 · 4 years

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Sherlock Episode 4x03 'The Final Problem' Review (Spoiler Alert)

You know, on its own, 'The Final Problem' would make a decent psychological horror film. As an episode of Sherlock, however, it's absolutely ridiculous. In no particular order:

1) I went to YouTube to scan through a few comments regarding other reviews of this episode, and it seems that many of the reviewers didn't really pay attention to the explanations provided in the show itself. Shame on them.

2) A truly disturbing number of people (not to mention every single character in the show) seem to be content with forgiving Eurus for everything she did. This includes kidnapping Victor Trevor, a young boy (when she herself was little, and how the hell did she pull THAT off?), and abondoning him alone in a well where he presumably died of starvation weeks later. From what I can tell, she wasn't crazy; from an early age, she displayed signs of being a sociopath/psychopath (cutting herself to see what her muscles looked like underneath her skin, drawing creepy images of violence, and, of course, the aforementioned murder, for which she never displayed any hint of remorse). Also, a genuinely crazy person is incapable of intelligent planning (more on the absurdity of THAT later), and that was DEFINITELY not the case here. Simply put, she's a monster; lock her in a cell, throw away the key, and forget she even exists.

3) Are we really expected to believe that Mycroft Holmes, who is supposed to be smarter than Sherlock, was stupid enough to let Eurus meet Jim Moriarty for ANY reason and for ANY length of time, and unsupervised? The makers of the show have really dumbed down the two brothers. It's embarrassing.

4) Either way, five minutes was not NEARLY enough time for Eurus and Moriarty to plan what they did. It would take more like five hours, minimum.

5a) Eurus's plan was FAR too complicated to be realistic or even remotely believable. The way they explained her taking over the island (brainwashing people just by TALKING to them) made her sound like a supervillain out of a damn comic book. Utterly ridiculous.

5b) The plan relied on a metric fuck-ton of things she had no way of knowing would be the case: none of the three main men (Sherlock, John, and Mycroft) being killed or injured (which was a very real possibility for each of them) in those five years, or even when she blew up Baker Street*; Mary's not being a factor for whatever reason; plus at least a hundred other things that I can't be bothered to think about right now. There are really no words to describe how unbelievable the entire plot was.

*(Speaking of which, the standoff portion of that scene was fucking EPIC. The actual explosion? Not so much. Come on; a show THIS popular should be able to afford much better special effects. The ones shown were abysmal.)

6) Actual deductions (you know, that thing that Sherlock is famous for?) were almost an afterthought. There weren't that many, and the ones that did happen were too rushed to be fully appreciated. What happened to the floating text that was slow and easy to read? I realize that they were in a hurry, but come on.

7) The bait and switch with the little girl on the plane was lazy writing. So was the rushed ending, and the brush off that was John being shot at the end of the previous episode. (Why the hell would Eurus tranquilize him just to let him go? And what was the point of stalking him on the bus?) It would have been better if someone actually HAD been in peril.

8) The brothers should have known that the governor's wife was doomed when said governor shot himself; Eurus was very clear that either Mycroft or John was supposed to kill him. (Speaking of which, I'm disappointed that John didn't go through with it.) I also thought it was strange that nobody bothered to question if she was being truthful*; was Eurus EVER going to let the wife go? In hindsight, I doubt it.

*Even after being tricked by her multiple times, they STILL don't think to wonder what she plans to do with them, or with anyone else who may also be involved. I was expecting them to question whether she ever intended for ANY of them to make it off that island alive, but nope.

9) There's no way Sherlock wouldn't have noticed the lack of glass. And yes, it's been pointed out that Eurus's "look at me" remarks were to make sure he WOULDN'T notice said lack of glass, but I call bullshit; Sherlock Holmes is fully capable of noticing multiple things simultaneously. If nothing else, the fact that she wanted his eyes only on her should have been a dead give away that she was hiding something. And this is the same man who out-smarted the great Jim Moriarty*? More lazy writing.

*Speaking of which: I used to scoff at the absurdity of the Lazarus plan, and basically all of Reichenbach. Now... well, I STILL scoff at it, but this is much worse.

10) How did Eurus transport them from the island to the burned down house so quickly? Like I stated earlier, the ending felt very rushed.

11) Was Mycroft also tranquilized? If so, why wasn't it shown? If not, then what the hell happened? And why didn't she kill him? Are we supposed to believe that his being her brother was enough to prevent her from murdering him? (If so, that's bullshit.) After the relocation, Mycroft was all but forgotten, which, after his being on par with the main duo in both screentime and overall importance for a considerable stretch of the episode, was quite jarring.

12) At no point during the previous episode and the majority of this one was Eurus shown to have any redeeming qualities (I've already listed many of the horrible things she did, and I'm not repeating myself). And yet, when Sherlock bursts into her room, she turns out to be nothing more than a scared, lonely little girl who just wanted her favorite brother (poor Mycroft) to play with her? Frankly, I thought she was faking. Also, it was MUCH too easy for Sherlock to convince her to help him save John (while simultaneously acting as though Eurus wasn't the person who was trying to kill him in the first place). The entire ending felt almost like an afterthought.

13) A relatively minor one in the grand scheme of things, but much of the series made a point of showing John to be Sherlock's first and only friend. And then, in the twelfth proper episode, it's (in this respect) almost casually revealed that no, Sherlock's first best friend was Victor Trevor, someone who was never previously mentioned (for obvious reasons, but still). I admit, I didn't care for that at all.

14) Sian Brooke was brilliant, especially when Eurus was being... anything other than a crying little girl.

15) What the hell was the deal with Molly Hooper? Why was THAT the thing that made Sherlock snap? It's been hinted (and I use that word because it's Sherlock, and, like John said, he's a liar, so who knows if he was telling the truth before) that he DOES actually care for her (to an extent), but his losing it and destroying the casket caught me off guard. Also, the montage at the end had a blink-and-you-miss-it moment of Molly at Baker Street acting as though nothing had happened. What gives?!

16) The scene where Sherlock and John troll Mycroft is humorous, though I thought the blood coming out of the painting was a bit much. Then again, this IS Sherlock we're talking about...

#sherlock series 4 #The Final Problem #Review

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dragonandtiger · 7 years

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Undertale - Risen Child - 06

Spoiler warning for Undertale True Pacifist, Neutral, and No Mercy endings.

Frisk couldn’t help but marvel at how different the trip to Snowdin felt when she wasn’t constantly battling for her life. While her countless resets had boiled each fight down to a science, it was still a stressful affair where one wrong move could result in her death. However, with Toriel by her side, no one dared attack the human child again.

But it wasn’t just Toriel - Frisk had the entire canine sentry squad as her escort. After picking up Greater Dog with very little fuss and a large amount of pettings, the human child was soon completely surrounded by bodyguards - with the strongest of them all standing directly beside her, holding her hand.

Jerry never tried to make a second attempt, nor did any of the denizens of Snowdin that traveled the woods. Gawks and stares accompanied Frisk, safe in her protective bubble, as she was guided through the snowy landscape towards the town proper.

As Toriel carefully escorted Frisk over the bridge, the human child glanced upwards instinctively for signs of Papyrus’ ultimate puzzle - the one he never used on her, regardless of who was the dominant force in her body during that particular run through the underground.

It’s kind of sad, Frisk thought. I didn’t really get to play with Papyrus at all. We would’ve been doing his puzzles by now. Even though she already knew how to solve the puzzles, spending time with Papyrus and Sans was always fun.

A glint caught Frisk’s eye at the end of the bridge, reminding her of a crucial detail that had slipped her mind in all the excitement. She ran ahead of the others, heedless of Toriel’s startled cry, to kneel down in front of the hidden camera embedded into the side of the faux wooden bridge. “Alphys, if you’re watching right now, please tell all the monsters to evacuate to someplace safe. There’s someone dangerous underground who wants to kill everyone!”

There was no response, not that Frisk expected any. Hopefully Alphys was monitoring them at that moment and not getting distracted by Mettaton, or anime, or shitposting online, or…

Frisk sighed and shook her head as she returned to her feet. At least they could get Snowdin evacuated once they got there.

“Please don’t run off on your own like that, my child,” Toriel said a little breathlessly once she caught up to Frisk. After what happened the last time the little human ran off alone, she was relieved to see no threat. “What were you doing there?”

Frisk pointed at the small circle of glass framed by metal that rested in the shadow between two rocks painted to look like wooden boards. “That’s one of Alphys’ hidden cameras. She’s the head scientist for Dad, and she’s always been the one who evacuates monsters all over the underground in case of emergency.”

A small chill ran up Frisk’s spine as she finished speaking. She knew that simple fact that Alphys prevented Chara from killing every single monster personally had been a point of irritation for the fallen child. That made Alphys a major target as well, not just for being one of Frisk’s closest friends.

“We…” Frisk felt her mouth go dry. “We should hurry to Snowdin.” They had to get ahead of Chara before someone else was attacked.

Toriel made a quizzical sound as she looked into the camera, then furrowed her brow. “What an… odd place for a camera. Are there many of these?” After speaking, she paused as realization dawned upon her. “...Ah. I suppose she uses these to help ‘hunt for humans’.” Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the dog sentries out of the corners of her eyes. “Am I correct?”

The blank look worn by Doggo and the rest of the canines did little to soothe Toriel’s irritation. The dogs looked at each other and then at their surroundings, failing to spot any cameras on a painted canyon. The boss monster let out a heavy sigh before she straightened up. “I see.”

“There’s cameras all the way from the ruins to the castle,” Frisk said as she took Toriel’s hand and gently urged her mother and the others to keep moving.

“And I suppose that idiot allowed her to do it,” Toriel said, stiffly.

Frisk bit back the urge to sigh. It was always sad to see the progress Toriel and Asgore made to reconcile on the surface erased once they returned to the underground. “D… Asgore took her on as royal scientist when she told him she created an artificial soul.” She paused for a moment, considering her words. “He told me, a long time after the barrier broke, before the timeline reset again to this, that he was hoping she could create artificial human souls so he wouldn’t have to kill anymore humans to break the barrier.”

Toriel went quiet for several moments, her expression once again becoming unreadable. But then, just as quickly as before, the look of steel returned. “And yet, for all his wishes, six children were still killed… and he still attempted to kill you.”

Frisk didn’t have a response for that. Her first thought was to recall how Asgore had succeeded in killing her more times than she could count, but there was no way in hell she would ever let Toriel know.

Just like she would never tell how many times Toriel unintentionally burned her to death.

The rest of the trip to Snowdin was made in awkward silence. With Toriel unwilling to relent and Frisk unable to argue, the subject was instead left to linger over the group to the point that even the clueless canines noticed it and could only look at each other in discomfort.

Frisk was more than a little relieved to see Snowdin in the distance, its quaint little buildings and happy decorations a welcome distraction. Of course, that relief was short-lived when she noticed right away that the citizens of the town were still very much present; they hadn’t been evacuated, and appeared to be going about their daily routines without a care in the world.

That fact alone made Frisk very uncomfortable and concerned above all else. It meant that Alphys hadn’t responded to her message, though it didn’t give any indication as to why. There were several options - she hadn’t been paying attention, she didn’t trust Frisk’s warning, or she was unable to do anything. While the first two could easily be rectified, the human child couldn’t entirely put her faith in the hope that either was the case.

Chara wouldn’t allow it.

At the very least, Frisk thought, Alphys can’t be dead… yet. Chara wouldn’t just kill her and be done with it. Not after everything. She wouldn’t go through all this trouble of letting me have control back unless she still planned on making me watch her kill everyone I love.

It was hard to imagine that Chara could have made such quick progress all the way to Hotland, especially when she had just attacked Papyrus outside the ruins. There was no one else who could have done it - the only possible culprit was Chara.

Of course, there was no way to know how long Frisk had been unconscious, and how long Chara had to prepare. The fact that Chara had somehow separated herself from Frisk in and of itself was unimaginable and downright terrifying. There was no telling what the other human could do at this point.

“It doesn’t appear that this Alphys heeded your warning,” Toriel said, drawing Frisk’s attention back to her. “No one has been evacuated.”

Frisk stared up at Toriel, inexplicably off balance. The fact that she had the ability to tell others about what was going on in this part of the timeline was surreal as it was, but for people to actually believe her… it filled her with all sorts of intense emotions.

“Perhaps she simply didn’t know whether or not she could trust you,” Toriel said as she glanced to Frisk. “After all, she would not recognize you at this time, would she? She must have been quite surprised to hear you address her by name.”

Frisk sighed as she rubbed her head, willing to disorientation to disappear; she couldn’t let herself be thrown by such drastic differences to the timeline. “I was hoping that by using her name she’d take me seriously, or at least let D… Asgore know. I think he knows about the resets like Sans does, so he might’ve told everyone to evacuate. Or maybe they would’ve panicked at a human knowing too much?” She trailed off on an awkward note, knowing she was grasping at straws.

Frisk’s eyes drifted away from her mother to the snow crunching beneath her feet as her steps slowed. “Honestly… I’m not used to being able to tell all of you anything about what’s going on. I’m not sure how much I should say without… making you all afraid of me.” The memory of the look Sans gave her sent a chill through her body that had nothing to do with the cold. “Or hate me.”

Toriel made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat as she looked down at Frisk. “Well, it would seem that everyone’s already worked themselves in a tizzy over you as it is, so you really can’t blame yourself over that, my child. Even if I find it very strange and confusing, I also can not deny… that I feel as though known you for years. I see no reason not to trust you, and even less reason to fear you.”

Tears pricked behind Frisk’s eyes as Toriel’s words grasped tightly at her heart. Moved by the sudden surge of emotion, she threw her arms around her mother’s side and buried her face in the queen’s dress. Words failed her, so she merely embraced her mother’s side.

“Nice to see a human showing some love instead of LOVE,” Sans said, his abrupt appearance startling both Toriel and Frisk out of the hug. “Heh, don’t let me interrupt. I’d rather watch a human hug a monster than stab ‘em. Right, old lady?”

Toriel fixed Sans with a pointed stare. “Indeed. Perhaps monsters could learn from Frisk, present company included.”

Sans chuckled as he gave a casual shrug. “Hey, who am I to complain about being in good company? How about we all catch a bite at Grillby’s while we wait for my bro to get back? I don’t think we need any sentries keeping watch when the human is right here with us.”

Doggo looked over at Toriel, trying to hide how eager he was for a break from all the strangeness. “The food here is good, Your Majesty. The royal guard can attest to that.” The other dogs in his squad made barks or nods of approval.

Toriel’s initial response was to agree but instead she paused. While it was true that Frisk was not a threat, the human child had insisted that there was another that was. And the fact that this other human had attacked the skeleton brothers was the entire reason the one before her showed so much hostility towards Frisk in the first place. It was a threat that she could not ignore, even if she had no physical evidence to support it. The old queen considered her options before she turned to Frisk. “...Perhaps we should order the evacuation instead, and not wait for this ‘Alphys’.”

Sans glanced at Frisk. “You talked to Alphys, huh?”

Frisk could see right through Sans’ casual question. “Though the cameras, but if she was watching at the time, I don’t think she listened when I asked her to evacuate the monsters.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Sans said with a shrug. “I doubt someone like the royal scientist would be interested in taking orders from a random human anyway. Maybe all she needs is to get the order directly from royalty, like, say, the queen.”

Toriel was silent for several moments, before she gave a nod. “Perhaps that is precisely what I should do.”

“Great,” Sans said, his grin widening. “How about I show you the way to the lab while the dog squad here get some treats with the human. They could teach them how to play poker while you go save the underground from the human who wants everyone dead.”

Toriel’s mouth stretched into a thin line. “Thank you for your suggestion, but I believe I will keep the human child with me-”

A terrible scream cut off the queen, though it was a fair distance away. The familiarity of it hit Sans with a terrible sense of déjà vu that had him turn a glowing eye towards the child directly in front of him then in the opposite direction where Papyrus’ scream came from. He disappeared just as the others started moving.

Frisk didn’t hesitate to run, despite what happened the last time Papyrus screamed. Dread overflowed her rapidly beating heart as she reached the border of Snowdin and Waterfall. She expected the worst, a repeat of earlier, but it wasn’t Papyrus on the ground bleeding dust.

It was Undyne.

The heavy armor Undyne wore looked as though it had been thrown into a thresher while she was still wearing it, gashes mangled inward and twisting her limbs until she lay helpless on the ground, hissing through her sharp teeth. Her helmet was gone, crushed by her side and exposing her face covered in cuts, but her gaze wasn’t on her ruined armor or her own wounds. Her attacker stood only a few steps away, facing not her, but Papyrus.

“Chara!” Frisk shouted as she charged at the other human child, only to freeze in her tracks when she saw Chara held a knife, the knife right at Papyrus’ neck. This wasn’t the toy weapon from the ruins - no other knife had the same glow or blood red shadows that constantly rippled and danced across the surface of the blade.

Chara turned to face Frisk, a sadistic smirk spread across her face. At the sight of the other human, her smile grew impossibly wide, showing off her white teeth and glowing red eyes. There was something off about her, her body swaying slightly - jerking involuntarily in ways muscles didn’t move - even as the human child held her ground with her knife a breath away from the skeleton’s neck bone. However, before Frisk could even properly reflect on the unnatural twitching, Chara’s spoke, her words echoing as if it were a chorus of voices rather than her own.

“YoU aLWayS weRe So pREdicTAble, pARTner.”

“Hold it right there, human,” Sans said, startling Frisk. Frisk had been so focused on Undyne and Papyrus she failed to notice his presence. She noticed too how his eye glowed and his hand was extended towards Chara, but nothing was happening save for a bead of sweat forming on his brow. His magic grasped for Chara’s soul, but he could no more grasp it than take hold of the ocean.

In spite of the obvious strain on his face and the sweat beading his brow, Sans tried to sound casual, failing to hide his fear. “Hey, uh, I don’t know what you think you’re gonna accomplish by swinging that thing at my brother all the time, but I promise you, if you don’t put that knife away, you’re going to have a bad time.”

“S-Sans, wait,” Papyrus said, his voice shaking. “I’m sure we can simply talk with this human, just like we did with Frisk, and-”

Papyrus never got to finish his statement, as the knife sliced his neckbone neatly in half, causing his head to fall from his body as it went limp and burst into a cloud of dust. All the while, Chara fixed her gaze firmly on Frisk, her expression never wavering.

Sans’ eyes went dark as, for all his words, the fight left him completely.

“No!” Frisk shrieked as she watched in horror as Papyrus turned to dust.

“What is going on!?” Toriel demanded as she hurried to the scene, having lagged behind the others as the dog sentries followed her. “What is the meaning-” All at once, the wind was knocked out her as her eyes settling on the twisted human before her and recognition hit her harder than any attack. She stumbled to a stop, her expression going blank as her hands fell limply to her sides. “C… Chara?”

“P… Papyrus…!” Undyne gasped, her crushed armor making every breath labored. “Damn you…!”

“S-stand back, your majesty!” Doggo shouted as the guards moved between their queen and this newest threat, all drawing their weapons.

Chara didn’t acknowledge her mother at all, nor any of the other monsters. She kept her gaze firmly on Frisk, a haunting giggle escaping her. Even the humorous sound was distorted, more so than normal, but the feelings behind them were unmistakable.

“I-it’s fine!” Papyrus said even as his head too began to crumble away. “It’s fine, I-I am sure we can still-”

With a sick crunch, Chara stomped on Papyrus’ skull, which crumbled as dust coated her foot.

Frisk’s gaze fell to the dusty orange scarf fluttering in the breeze and the merciless heel grinding it into the snow. There was no question what she needed to do.

Frisk reset.

---

Before, in the void, Frisk would easily find her save file - a nice and neat font framed in a box hanging in the air. However, as the human child appeared in the blackness of the abyss this time, something was undeniably different. Instead of Chara’s sick representation of a videogame that Frisk had become so familiar with, she instead found nearly a dozen stars - the same golden stars that allowed her to save.

“What is this?” Frisk asked aloud, instinctively expecting to hear Chara respond with some sort of sarcastic or sadistic explanation. Only silence answered her, and even the abyss seemed to swallow her voice almost immediately.

A sickening sense of trepidation weighed down Frisk’s steps as she approached the nearest star. The game had changed and she had no choice but to play.

With determination in her heart, Frisk touched the star and the abyss fell away.

Frisk found herself back at the Ruins, standing before the small mound of ground she regarded as Flowey’s hill. It was disorienting to appear someplace that wasn’t one of her usual save points, particularly one that suggested that she was going to have to confront Flowey again. She fully expected him to pop up out of the ground any second now and taunt her for Papyrus’ death, but he never appeared.

His absence set Frisk on edge, but she couldn’t let it keep her still. As she stepped cautiously forward, her mind raced to figure out how to stop Chara and save everyone when something was amiss with her power to reset.

A single step was all Frisk took into the staircase entryway before she froze dead in her tracks. Upon the blood red pile of leaves was an all too familiar regal purple gown covered in dust.

“Boy howdy, ain’t that a shame?” a familiar voice chirped, seconds before Flowey appeared from beneath the ground to stand beside Frisk. “Getting cut down so ruthlessly like that…” He turned to grin at Frisk, even as the human didn’t look at him. “If only you hadn’t been standing around stupidly, you might have been able to save her.”

Frisk twitched at the cruel barb. Of course Flowey would show up to twist the knife; the only question was when his words would strike. It was pointless to ask him if he cared at all about Toriel’s murder. “Asriel-”

“Aw, you’re still trying to call for him?” Flowey asked as his face warped into a horrifying visage of teeth. “Hate to break it to you, but Asriel’s been dead for a long, long, long time.” In an instant his face turned cartoonishly adorable as he winked. “It’s just little ole me, Flowey.”

Frisk had to pause to take a deep, shuddering breath to calm herself, but her fingers still curled into fists. “Don’t you remember me at all?”

Flowey stared hard at Frisk for several moments before he tilted his head, sticking his tongue out. “Oh, sure I remember you! You’re the idiot who just let someone die~!”

Frisk closed her eyes so that she wouldn’t have to stare at that mocking face out of her peripheral vision. “Just what is it about being on the surface that takes away your memories when we come back?” she muttered more to herself than Flowey, as she knew any answer he gave her would coated in poisonous thorns with nothing of substance at its core.

Flowey barely got a chance to let out a syllable before Frisk turned to him, her brown eyes blazing with determination.

“Even if you forget me a million times, I’ll still save you every time, Asriel!” Frisk shouted. “Even if this cycle goes on forever, I’ll never stop fighting to bring us all to the surface again. I promise.”

Flowey hesitated, taken aback by Frisk’s words. He was quiet for a moment before he gave a derisive snort. “You’re such an idiot.” With that, he disappeared into the ground from whence he came, cutting off any opportunity Frisk had to reply.

Frisk stared at the empty ground covered in dust and leaves as a shuddering breath escaped her. She turned to Toriel’s gown, her gaze lingering on the dust covered gash, always in the same spot.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Frisk said. For once she was able to say the words aloud after Toriel died instead of only thinking them in a torturous silence.

After wiping the dampness from her eyes, Frisk reset and returned to the abyss.

The next star Frisk touched created a cruel transition not unlike her battles with Omega Flowey. In one instant she stood in blackness and the next she found herself suspended by cold magic seizing her soul, staring down into Sans’ pitch black eye sockets in the snowy woods.

“That’s a weird expression you’ve got there,” Sans noted, his dark eyes scrutinizing the human scathingly. “You’ve got the face of someone who’s been through this before.”

Though initially disoriented, Frisk immediately realized where this reset loaded her and instinctively looked past Sans to see Papyrus sprawled out on the ground, alive, but not yet completely healed.

“N-nevermind that!” Frisk sputtered as she tried to get her bearings in spite of Sans’ dark expression. “I’m not the one who hurt Papyrus! Chara was, and if we don’t work together to defend each other, she’s going to kill him again!”

“‘Again’?” Sans repeated darkly. As deep as his anger was, the shift in the human’s attitude was enough to give him pause. She seemed sincere in her fear, but it was clear that the emotion wasn’t directed at him.

Frisk unsuccessfully suppressed a grimace at how suspicious one word could be, but forced herself to accept Sans’ anger towards her the same as choking down awful medicine. “The timeline keeps repeating because of a human called Chara. She wants to kill everyone, and she won’t stop until she does!”

“That a fact?” Sans said slowly as he assessed Frisk’s words and body language.

“YeS, THat iS a FAct.”

There was no chance for Sans or Frisk to react to the distorted voice beyond a flinch and a glowing eye when the knife streaked past Frisk’s face, carving a notch into her ear and cutting away strands of hair in its deadly path. However, it was clear she was never the target, as the blade buried itself to the hilt into Sans’ left eye socket, extinguishing the dual colored glow as the tip burst through the back of his skull with a spray of dust and bone shards.

Sans didn’t even have the chance to cry out, but Frisk saw a glimpse of his remaining eye carrying shock before he burst to dust. His magic died a second later, dropping Frisk roughly to the ground in a cloud of dust and heavy clothing.

“S-Sans?” Papyrus asked weakly, his disoriented mind grasping to understand what had just transpired. It took him a moment to register the sight before him, tiny fragments of his own brother’s corpse disappearing in the wind and snow, before shock and horror became clear on his face. “Sans-!?”

Another giggle escaped Chara, but her entertainment was not Papyrus’ shock and horror. The sight of Frisk covered in dust was what made her smile widen and twist into a wicked curve of white teeth.

Frisk coughed up the dust and felt like she was going to vomit from knowing what she had breathed in. She sat up, trying to get away from the dust that stuck to her with the melting snow as a black pit of hatred bubbled up inside of her. “Stop it. Just stop it, Chara! You’ve already killed everyone hundreds of times! Thousands! What more do you want?!”

Chara didn’t respond verbally, instead holding Frisk’s gaze as she moved her arm about to point the knife at Papyrus, even as the injured skeleton struggled to get to his feet.

That gesture said it all; Frisk reset before Chara could have the pleasure of murdering Papyrus once again.

Chara’s smirking face disappeared into the darkness as Frisk returned to the abyss, where the twinkling stars awaited her.

Again and again and again Frisk used different stars to load another save, but it all led to death. Doggo was sliced across the eyes as they arrived at his station. Lesser Dog was decapitated while Frisk had her hand on his head. Dogamy and Dogressa’s entrance repeated twice for Chara to kill one then the other with stabs to the chest and back respectively so that each of them could see their lover die. Even Greater Dog had the knife driven into his head before his initial emergence from his hiding spot in the snow.

Each moment was like a stab in to Frisk’s own heart, inflicting an injury that followed her through each reset. It made her dread each one, knowing what was about to happen even as she desperately fought against it. So when the scenery once again changed to the familiar field of flowers where she had first fallen, she instantly leapt to her feet and rushed forward into the darkened cavern to reach Toriel before she had to watch her mother die again.

Frisk found herself immediately greeted by the familiar scene of Flowey on his hill, waiting for her as he always did after every full reset that brought her back to the very beginning.

“Howdy!” Flowey said, with great - and completely false - cheer. “I’m Flowey! Flowey the Flower-”

“Asriel!” Frisk shouted, skidding to a halt just short of the homicidal flower. “Stop it! You don’t have to keep watching people die to feel anything! You don’t have to hurt anyone anymore!”

A slash of the knife ended Flowey’s mockery, carving a jagged cut between his eyes. His entire body twitched, sounds of confusion eeking from his mouth as he belatedly registered the pain, before a cruel heel slammed into the divide, roughly tearing the flower in half through sheer blunt force.

Chara ground her heel into the remnants of Flowey seconds before he burst into dust, her eyes still focused exclusively on Frisk. Her twisted smirk taunted her ‘partner’ as her eyes reflected not only amusement in its crimson surface but defiance - daring Frisk to stop her.

Anger and frustration bubbled over inside of Frisk and she barely managed the willpower needed to fight the urge to lunge at Chara and throttle the demon, screaming and crying. She knew all too well that violence was not the answer.

Unfortunately, when it came to Chara, neither was mercy.

“I’m going to stop you, Chara,” Frisk promised with roughly hewn words ground out between clenched teeth.

Chara’s only response was a giggle, her lips curling up in a sneer.

There was nothing more for Frisk to say before she reset once more.

As the world came into focus, Frisk found herself in the chilly yet familiar surroundings of Snowdin. The disorientation lasted only a second before she realized that Toriel was standing beside her, holding her hand tightly as she glared at the shrugging skeleton in front of them.

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Sans said. “I doubt someone like the royal scientist would be interested in taking orders from a random human anyway. Maybe all she needs is to get the order directly from royalty, like, say, the queen.”

Toriel’s expression remained just as hard as the last time as she met Sans’ casual barb with suspicious disapproval before she gave a nod. “Perhaps that is precisely what I should do.”

Frisk jerked as she immediately recognized the scenario, and realized what was about to happen next.

“Great,” Sans said, seemingly unperturbed by his queen’s disapproval as his grin widened. “How about I show you-”

Frisk took off, releasing Toriel’s hand. She heard her mother call after her, and glimpsed at Sans’ startled face when she ran past him, but she only shouted. “Chara’s after Papyrus and Undyne!”

There was no time for further explanation. Frisk tore through the town, jumping over presents in the square and dodging past monsters milling about as they stared after in confusion. Only her instincts brought her to a halt once she reached outside of town when a blur of motion and the familiar sound of something sharp cutting through air was the only warning she got before a spear of magic landed in front of her. She barely had a moment to focus on the weapon as she skidded a few extra inches across the snowy ground before she was forced to dodge an entire volley of magical spears.

The black armored profile of Undyne immediately greeted Frisk, her red ponytail sticking out the back like a tassel as she held another spear at the ready, crouched and obviously hostile. She didn’t have to do more than point as her magic created countless jutting spears beneath the human’s surprisingly nimble feet.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait!” came Papyrus’ panicked cries, drawing attention to him as he waved his hands. “There’s been a mistaaaake! That’s the good human!”

Although Frisk was relieved that Undyne wasn’t injured and Papyrus wasn’t dying, she couldn’t give it more than a passing thought before she was forced to jump and run from the magic erupting from the ground and trying to skewer her.

Through the frightening visage of her helmet, Undyne’s voice came with a metallic echo that made her sound grave. “There’s no such thing as a good human, Papyrus. Go home and let me take care of this.”

It was Undyne’s turn to be blindsided this time. A burst of fire flew right by Frisk with deadly accuracy before slamming into the fish woman. It was not the tame sort that Toriel had used against Frisk, but a roaring inferno that promised only pain as it began to melt the armor.

Toriel stood beside Frisk in an instant as the human panted for breath, the boss monster’s fist clenched as it was engulfed in flames. Her eyes seemed to blaze as well as they glared down at the downed Undyne. “You will take care of nothing.”

Undyne let out a groan as her now warped helmet fell off, but she recovered quickly with sharp teeth curving into an almost manic smile. “Oh hell, yeah! And here I thought this fight would be be bor…” She paused as she took another look at Toriel. “Wait, you’re not a human.” Confusion immediately switched to anger as she jumped to her feet. “What’re you doing!? Go home! Don’t you know there’s a couple of dangerous humans running around!?”

Toriel gave a sweeping gesture of her hand, and a burst of fire surged out around her and Frisk. The snow immediately melted, turning into steam, as a ring of fire danced in an obvious threat. “The only dangerous one I see is you.”

Frisk attempted to step forward to get between Toriel and Undyne in case the captain of the guard decided to attack anyway, but the flames provided a barrier that was impossible for her to cross.

The unpleasant heat from the flames made Undyne wary, but she would not give a single inch. She directed the point of her spear directly at Toriel’s face. “Look, I don’t know who you are and what you think you’re doing with that human, but you’re standing in the way of everyone’s hopes and dreams!”

“Waaaaait!” Papyrus shouted again as he hurried over to the armored leader of the Royal Knights. “Undyne, that’s the queen! You can’t fight the queen! That would be...” The skeleton man’s jaw dropped as he clasped his hands to either side of his face. “Very bad!”

“I don’t care if she’s King Asgore!” Undyne snapped. “No one is gonna stop me from…” She paused for a moment to shift her gaze from Papyrus to Toriel and back. “Wait, did you say the queen? The queen? The one who ran off to the ruins forever ago and never came back?”

Toriel’s eyes narrowed. “Who I am does not matter. I will not allow you - or that fool you call a king - to harm my child.”

Undyne outright gawked at Toriel. “Your child? That’s a human!”

“My child,” Toriel repeated, her tone as dangerous as a knife.

Undyne let out a frustrated grunt. “Okay, look, lost queen, adoptive mother, I don’t care! We need seven human souls to break the barrier!” She directed the point of her spear to Frisk. “And that human right there is the last one we need! I’m not about to let anyone get in the way of our freedom.”

“You ‘do not care’?” Toriel asked as she held her hand out towards Undyne, a warning of what was to come if she so much as sneezed in Frisk’s direction. “You ‘do not care’ that you are killing innocent children?”

Undyne let out a snort of laughter. “Right. ‘Innocent’. Like the ‘innocent’ child that nearly killed Papyrus?”

“A-ah, but… they didn’t!” Papyrus said as he raised his fist triumphantly. “As you can see, the great Papyrus is still very much alive, so that does not count!”

“Or ‘innocent’ like the humans that trapped us down here?” Undyne pressed, as though Papyrus hadn’t interrupted. “Or the humans that keep falling down here killing monsters until only King Asgore can put a stop to them?”

“The other humans killed monsters?” Frisk whispered, shocked. Admittedly, she tried not to think of what happened to the six souls who had fallen before her, but the fact that the other humans chose to kill was as surprising as it was completely, tragically heartbreaking.

Not everyone had the determination to refuse to kill anyone.

“You say that as if the humans were not attacked first,” Toriel retorted, with surprising venom in her voice. “You attack those terrified children, then blame them when they defend themselves! Had you not instigated violence from the start, there would have been no bloodshed!” She net out a snort. “But clearly, that does not matter to you. You simply intend to twist the situation in order to defend yourselves - defend Asgore - even as it turns the Royal knights into nothing but murderers... child killers.” She then clenched her hand, the flames flickering about it as they glowed white. “And I suppose the ‘irony’ that you are proving the human’s fear of us to be well founded would be lost on the likes of you.”

Undyne let out a derisive snort, her eye narrowing. “Heh. Figures the queen that ran away and hid for a century instead of standing up for her people would become a human-loving traitor! I’ll bet you armed the humans yourself hoping they’d kill King Asgore so you could take over, you coward!”

Things were spiraling out of control; Frisk she needed to diffuse it somehow, even if she knew that no mere words would ever convince Undyne to trust her. Only actions might prevent her friends from hurting each other and she could only think of one act that might make Undyne pause “H-hold it!” she shouted, raising her hands into the air, palms open. “We don’t need to fight. I’ll give myself up without a fight. You can take me as your prisoner to King Asgo-”

“You will do no such thing,” Toriel said as she moved in front of Frisk, without looking back at her. “I will not allow him - or anyone else - to kill yet another child! Let alone for such a foolish act of suicide!”

Frisk cringed at her failure even as she felt a swell of love for her mother’s fierce protectiveness of her.

“I never planned on taking prisoners anyway,” Undyne snarled as she held her spear in both hands, bouncing on her heels in anticipation of a fight. “Now go back to your hiding place! You heard the human - hand them over so I can bring their soul to King Asgore and finally break the barrier!”

“If you wish to fight, then so be it!” Toriel said, raising her voice as the fire intensified about her, further melting the snow and depriving Snowdin of its namesake as browned blades of grass and dirt appeared beneath the smoldering steam. The citizens who had dared to gather at the edge of town to gawk were quick to scamper from heat as suffocating as the mounting tension. Even the canine royal guard cowered far behind their furious queen, not daring to step between her and their leader. “Let us see how a bullying coward such as you fairs against a true opponent!”

Undyne laughed as she readied her spear. “Fine with me! I’m tired of talking anyway!”

Toriel narrowed her eyes. “As am I.” Without waiting for a response, she threw her hands up and sent another blast of fire at Undyne, blowing her backwards as the very ground itself turned to ash around her.

“This is bad, this is very bad!” Papyrus sputtered as he clasped both his hands over the top of his head. “What am I supposed to do?” He then whirled to his brother, desperate. “Sans! What am I supposed to do!?”

Sans didn’t reply or even seemed to be paying attention. His eyes were closed, his breathing even with his head bowed. At first, Papyrus assumed he was in deep contemplation, but a gentle snore dispelled the illusion.

Papyrus jerked before he grabbed his brother by the collar of the dirty blue hoodie to shake him violently. “Sans! How can you sleep at a time like this?!”

Sans opened an eye with a startled snort, but quickly recovered with an easy smile. “Sorry, bro. All this excitement just wore me out, I guess.”

“You… you lazy good for nothing!” Papyrus snapped before he released his brother and turned back to the fight. Even the other members of the royal guards cowered away from the fight, uncertain and a little afraid to choose between their captain and the queen. “I… it seems that I, the great Papyrus, will be left to… to deal with this situation myself!”

The skeleton’s pomp and posturing would have had more impact, if he hadn’t immediately cringed back with a yelp from a burst of fire as it detonated nearby - though thankfully not near enough to do more than send his scarf fluttering in the aftershock.

“You go, bro,” Sans said placidly. He knew Undyne would never hurt Papyrus and given what he knew of Toriel, the queen would never forgive herself for harming someone as sweet and innocent as Papyrus.

Sans knew he wouldn’t.

Wreathed by flames, Frisk could only watch helplessly as Toriel and Undyne threw magical attacks at one another. There was no turn-based system to slow either of them down now that the facade of a videogame was gone, and the rate of attacks were dizzying. Any spears that came her way or tried to come up from the ground were instantly burned away by fire before she could even dodge. Even as Toriel created a mesmerizing display of complicated dancing flames, she still managed a perfect protection of the human child everyone wanted dead.

It was all too clear to Frisk how much Toriel held back during every battle between them, and even Asgore’s patterns paled in comparison. Her mother showed unimaginable power and control, which had never been more apparent than when Toriel had tried to discourage Frisk from her quest. Despite the constant hail of flames, it was only when Chara usurped control during moments that Frisk dropped her guard and threw them both into the flames to die that she was ever in any true danger.

And often those moments were meant not to torment Frisk, but Toriel herself - to shatter her confidence in her self-control, and make her kill the child she tried so hard to protect. The flames didn’t hurt nearly so much as the look of pure shock and horror Toriel had worn each time she saw Frisk die by her magic.

While Undyne had, in previous resets, exiled the queen back to the ruins during her particularly gruesome failed runs, it was made all the more clear to Frisk that Toriel had gone willingly, without any sort of resistance. She had lacked the motivation - the determination - to keep fighting. But now, that those powers were in full force and aimed at Undyne with intent to save. Toriel was not holding back and fully in her element; she was not resigned or succumbing to nihilism. Her determination glistened in her eyes and the flames she summoned effortlessly with each gesture, focused wholeheartedly in protecting Frisk from the attacker before her.

Undyne may as well have been trying to stab the fire itself, for all the good it did her. Every spear she launched exploded upon collision with fireballs and though she used all her training with Asgore to prepare her for such patterns of attack, there were too many - a hell of flames coming at her on all sides that scorched her armor and skin, regardless of her strength and determination to fight.

Undyne tried to close the distance between them in an effort to physically assault the queen when it was clear distance attacks would fail, but the large boss monster was surprisingly quick to bring up a wall of flames, forcing Undyne to retreat before she ran headlong into it.

It became all the more clear that she was not fighting a monster, but a force of nature itself.

It was too much for Undyne and she knew it, but sheer stubborn pride kept her climbing back to her feet even as the heat seeped into her armor and turned it into an oven that baked her. Even as her back bowed from pain, body smoking, and her movements turned into a crawl, she refused to stay down. “I won’t… give up… on everyone’s dreams!”

A single ball of flame, less deadly than the others, smacked Undyne in the head like a newspaper swatting a dog that piddled on the carpet, and she fell backward.

Frisk felt her heart twist for Undyne, and she tugged on her mother’s robe. “Mom, that’s enough! Please. Undyne isn’t a bad person… I’ve made friends with her too… before time reset.”

Toriel paused at that, though her expression remained serious. However, even as she kept her deadly gaze on the fallen fish warrior, she lowered her hand to take Frisk’s in her own and give the child’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Leave. Now.”

Undyne let out a hiss as she struggled in the heat as flames surrounded her with menacing promise. She couldn’t speak, but the murderous glare in her eye conveyed her feelings far better than any word could. It was only when the magical fire backed away enough for the air to cool around her that she could return to her feet, unsteady and weak. She shrugged off Papyrus when he offered a helping hand, but muttered a short word of thanks when he healed her wounds.

Toriel met Undyne’s glare with one of her own, neither wavering nor flinching. “And tell Asgore that I am coming for him.”

There were no further words exchanged, just the sound of metal clanking against scorched ground as Undyne turned and stiffly walked away.

Although her life had been spared, Frisk still felt a surge of fear as she watched Undyne leave. “Undyne!” she shouted, causing the captain to halt, but not turn around. “Be careful. There’s another human who is trying to kill monsters, so please warn everyone to take shelter and to not fight her - they won’t be able to beat her, and she won’t show them any mercy!”

A lone eye glared at Frisk from over Undyne’s shoulder, but only for a moment before the captain left. Although there were no words spoken, the look spoke volumes of a hatred of humankind that seeped deep into the underground from wrongs made centuries past, and a cry for justice and revenge that would not end with this defeat.

Toriel breathed heavily through her nose in a sigh. “I am sure she did not believe that you, in fact, are not the human to fear… but I suppose it does not matter. The results will still be the same.”

Frisk nodded ever so slightly as she watched the flames surrounding them wink out one by one. As long as everyone lived and reached the surface, the monsters could think whatever they wanted of her.

No matter the cost she paid in the end, Frisk would save everyone and stop Chara for good.

#Risen Child #Undertale #Frisk #Toriel #Sans #Papyrus #Undyne #Chara #Flowey

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ethnictits-blog · 7 years

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Okay. Best Spider-Man movie and general Spider-Man to date. I have a lot of notes on the symbolism and modern parallels and relevance to our generation and how Marvel and the super hero genre in general is evolving dramatically on their stance of heroism, and what Spider-Man represents versus what he represented particularly in the original Spider-Man films, and evidence of evolving values. OKAY. Going down a list here (Spoilers of course)

1. First we need to talk about what Spider-Man represents. Spider-Man particularly as Tobey Maguire, represents America. Not American ideals like Cap, but America. He's a working class citizen who's constantly working jobs, who's aunt is struggling to make ends meet, he can't pay rent, etc. This Spider-Man, is a figure for young millennials but optimistic young millennial. He's less concerned with money (tho it's still a part of life), and he's more concerned about trying to find his place in the world. In the beginning he's taking video diaries of his time in Cap Civil War, and afterwards he's trying as optimistically as he can to get Tony to use him in the Avengers. He texts Happy and calls him everyday, he drops out of stuff so he can be ready for Stark to use him, and it never happens. He faces that crisis that many adults and children face where children feel like adults aren't listening to them but they're still trying to prove their best to the adults. A problem for millennials today is that we started out more optimistic about our futures, and then we grew disillusioned and cynical with the world. Parker is the early young generation of millennials, and while he's still a positive person by the end, he too has a sense of disillusionment primarily with himself and what the real world demands of him but I'll elaborate on that later.

2. MJ's character is an example of the cynicism we have now reached. She acts like she doesn't care about much, she reads about human rights, and points out cynically that the Washington monument was made by slaves, she draws people's despair and puts herself in situations to see it even if it's sarcastic. She's the disillusioned millennial but deep down she wants the world to be a better place. While Peter finds himself at the mercy of adult demands, she operate outside of everything, even proving an adult wrong and recognizing no real authority as assertion of this disillusionment.

3. Now that we've established what their roles indicate, let's talk about the grander scheme of things and why those roles are important: The Superhero genre. Superhero films have been around forever but they are the dominant genre of our gen right now. However, this genre has evolved with the gen to align with our own villains. Earlier MCU films used to be much simpler. We all know the Superhero origin formula. But now we've reached a point where our heroes have become morally questionable, more introspective about their roles as heroes, and gradually, have become to an extent unwitting villains. We were initially told that heroes were what we needed, that no matter the consequences, we should root for them. On closer inspection however, when we actually look at those consequences, our heroes aren't all that heroic. Tony, a rich billionaire playboy philanthropist, has always had his past consequences haunt him, but other than that we don't really see those consequences with supers in general. What we see in Civil War is the full fruition of these consequences and of course, the government gets involved. Regardless if you're team Cap or team IM, it's clear that the balance between accountability and control is difficult to balance. Everything has a chain reaction domino effect. Then our own heroes are fighting each other, morals and ethics are called into major question, and in the end things are unstable and the government takes control. This doesn't even just apply to Marvel, but D.C. As well. Superman is put on trial and we have to ask "how is he supposed to answer for the damage?" People want to root for our heroes and say the government sucks, but the exact same thing would happen in real life and we'd have to find some way to cope with something with potential for destruction. Even when our heroes have good intentions, they don't always know what's best. Age of Ultron being an example. Wanda and Pietro's resentment. The overall point is that we can't ever fully trust our heroes like we used to. They're human (mostly), and like humans are subject to flaws and bad decisions. In Spider-Man, this theme is further emphasized and continued when we see that our villain stems from being a disgruntled worker who was shoved out from a job given to him by the avengers by Stark approved government departments. Tossed out and feeling betrayed, these villains decide to "change with the times". This (paraphrased) phrase is constantly emphasized, reason being that being a simple working human doesn't really cut it anymore. If they want to get anywhere, they have to claw and fight and they do so through villainy (and resentment for capitalism which I'll further at some other point).

4. This leads as an example of the next change in the Superhero genre: The Rise of the antihero/villain. Over the years, we as an audience have grown to sympathize more with the antihero and villains of our cinema. It used to be primarily because they're more humanly relatable and badass than uber moral-driven idealists, but even that's changed. Because our moral guides have been humanized so what's the issue? The issue is that they're hypocritical. They claim to be good people who save lives, but a good majority of the villains we've had in the last few years, are BECAUSE of said heroes. Villains and anti heroes are given a more understandable and complex background that we can identify with more because not only are they more interesting but they're a result of many outside influences pressing on them. Sure they have the choice to be better, but its easy to see how easy it is to fall into that resentment of life, especially when they have no heroes. As a result, we have Deadpool, Suicide Squad (which had much more potential appeal) but Harley Quinn especially, Loki, Punisher, Jessica Jones (a defender who saves people yes, but she strays far more from the hero archetype, having at least to start with more anti hero tendencies), Wanda the villain turned hero, we have Baron Zemo, even Ultron is sympathetic (especially towards his end, but maybe it's just me). All of these have been a far more recurring breed that we can't help but at least appreciate, especially when they cynically mock everything

5. Likewise in Spider-Man, our villain isn't some super powered mwahahaha, type guy. He's a working blue collar guy with a family who feels betrayed by America's idols. Not only that, he's Spidey's love interest's father. Not only was this a surprise, but this had the effect of humanizing him dramatically. He doesn't cackle in his lair, he absolutely loves his wife and daughter and taking care of them as best as he can. He just stopped doing it honestly because he wanted to bite back at the people who shoved him down. He isn't fueled by evil, he's fueled by resentment of the callousness of the "big people" who screw people like him and his family over.

6. What's interesting about his role as a family man though is that it's an exceptional example of duality that is present throughout the entire film and even the franchise in general. In him we have our villain and our family man, in Stark we have a rich arrogant man harboring deep seated insecurities and PTSD, and a confident "Hero" in a suit. Cap is a war veteran trying to figure his life out, and also a symbolic hero of patriotism. And all of them are reduced to simple roles. Cap gains the courage to leave his dual role because he doesn't want to be defined and ruled by it anymore. Peter on the other hand, wants to establish his one true role. He has a secret double life, but he ALWAYS prioritizes his role as a hero over everything else. He even says he doesn't want to continue high school or go to college because Spider-Man is what he wants to be. This doesn't really work for heroes OR villains though. A piece of your other half will always bleed into the other and it's difficult to come to terms with both. Stark embraces both sides but it doesn't stop them from conflicting. Peter has to learn to find balance.

7. And to a degree he does. At the very least he learns to appreciate what a normal life has in store. But even if he doesn't have it quite keyed in, it reminds us of an EXTREMELY important detail that this movie emphasized over and over again: He is a KID. This was my absolute favorite aspect of Homecoming. We've always held our heroes to certain expectations, but Peter? He's 15. He's a 15 year old kid who can do amazing things but he can't take on the world and he won't know how to do everything. He spends a good portion of the movie trying so so hard to be the best he can be, but he's not there. And that's OKAY. Because he's so young. We absolutely see scenes of weakness that we don't normally see. We see the fears and anxieties of a young guy trying to save the world without all the angst. He climbs the Washington monument and he's terrified because he's never climbed that high before. He trips and falls and he can't interrogate, and he isn't the best fighter. And a perfect scene I loved was when he's under a collapsed building, he takes his mask off and he screams agonizing screams for help, for anyone to help him. And even beyond that are even more agonizing screams because he pushes himself to the limit, thinking that that's what it means to be hero and it's further reminded that's he's incredibly young.

8. Going back to that cry for help though, I found it quite interesting how he has this moment of clarity that he has to be the one to save himself. No one else is coming. And I realized, Peter has spent the entire film begging for help. He wants so badly for Tony to put him on the avengers, to be a mentor for him, and to have his back. He calls Happy and Tony and tries to desperately to let them know when he thinks something's wrong and he could use help. And after he steals Flash's car he asks his friend to call Happy. But each and every time, no one is there to help. Because no one listens to him. Tony says "of course I listen, why do you think the FBI were there?" But Tony never bothers to communicate with Peter or tell him how to handle the situation other than than telling Peter to stay out of the way. In the end, no one (aside from Ned), is really there for Peter and certainly not to save him when he needs it. Even when Stark pulls him out of the lake he completely discredits Peter's abilities. He also blames Peter for essentially everything ever after the ferry incident. Without Ned, Peter probably would've lost it having no one there with him, even if it was minor support. All this makes that moment of clarity under the collapse so crucial. Because that's the moment he has to be a hero for himself.

9. In being a hero by and for himself, Peter is pushed to his limits over and over again. And by the end, when he's offered to be an avenger, he rejects it, opting to remain at a lower level. I loved this because it's a moment where Peter realizes that he's not ready to take on the world. So many young protagonists don't have the option to step back down. When they do, they get the pushy encouragement talk. But In both Moana and Homecoming, our protagonists decide their limits for themselves and where they want push themselves. It's a lesson that isn't taught enough. It's okay not being able to take it all the way, and I hope that this also becomes a more popular trope. While we want our heroes to succeed it isn't always realistic, especially for youngsters.

10. Now, considering their age, the millennial roles, the self-saving moments, and decision making independent from authority influences, something I also noticed, is that while the younger people are constantly discredited, they're right. The Villain confronts Peter at the end saying "you don't understand the world and blah blah blah" but for Peter, it doesn't matter that he doesn't understand the world, because he knows when something is wrong. Same with Michelle, she doesn't know everything, she's young, but she sees what's wrong with the world whether or not she understands it. This is a common millennial grievance. We're always faced with you don't understand this, but we always say "that doesn't make it right though", which I found interesting.

Anyway I had more notes like how the film addresses capitalism, elaborating on why I had hoped Peter would have this moment of disillusionment at the end with his heroes (but no he stays relatively perky and approval-seeking), how amazing Peter was in regards to his aunt (he didn't take shit from anyone concerning his aunt, even Stark he was visibly upset and uncomfortable with objectifying his aunt), the way that the movie included not only more prominent POC roles but also addressed human rights which most hero films avoid directly addressing. But I've been typing for like an hour so XDD Someone else please tackle those, especially concerning the POC roles because I’m only half latinx and half white so I bet given my lack of personal experience, I missed important aspects of that inclusion.

#spider-man: homecoming #spiderman #marvel cinematic universe #tom holland

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