#props to the people who saw it and said ‘i like that hes evil’ i respect you so much

[radioroxx]

not that i mind fandom discourse too much (its natural, it happens) but even if we assume that it WAS gregory in the elevator, and he did kill her, betray her etc. never have i ever seen so much hatred towards a villain character before. its so… unnecessarily aggressive.

i think you guys just hate kids tbh

[themarkofoxin]

every time i think about dan and phil becoming the internet’s go-to example of the Dangers of Shipping Real People it makes me so exhausted. for their entire fourteen year career together they have encouraged people to write fic about them and draw fanart and generally “be creative” as they always phrase it. dan specifically, outside of 2012/2013 when he was aggressive towards fans pestering him about it, at one point said he likes reading fic and that he’s often surprised about how good they can be. hell, they wrote fanfic of themselves in their own published book and hired a popular fanartist to illustrate a manga of them.

and then dan came out. and in his video he mentioned how stressful it was to suddenly blow up and have a bunch of people speculating about his relationship, and how it triggered him due to his trauma from being heavily bullied in school. and then followed up the segment talking about how past that point the fans’ support was actually very healing for him, and hearing people tell him that he had helped them be comfortable with who they were without him even being out was one of the things that made him confident in coming out in the first place.

but the people who write angry posts about the evils of rpf or whatever don’t care about dan and phil’s actual opinions. they saw or heard about how annoying the fans were, heard along a thousand-step telephone game that dan and phil hate their fans, and have now christened them the platonic ideal of creators whose lives were ruined because of shippers. it’s ridiculous. it’s unfounded. and it’s disrespectful to the actual existence of the people they’re propping up to support their argument

[imgae-insertshockedgasps-16]

okay i've seen a few Just Some Guy!danny aus and they've consumed my brain so here you go, it's under the cut, you're welcome and thank you (ps it also combines part of a prompty type thing i saw the other day, props if you know it)

Danny was not entirely sure how he got here.

He was just walking along, bopping to some great interdimensional tunes, eating his tuna fish sandwich - with ectoplasm and pickles, of course - when KABLOW there's this big ole tightie-whities-on-the-outside wearing guy.

Now, Danny's not great at keeping up with the times, but he's pretty sure this is that Superman dude.

Said SuperDude was staring at his headphones and making vague "hey take them out pls so can converse" gestures, so naturally Danny pops the Interdimensional Walkman out of his chest to pause his wicked music, and then puts the whole kit and kaboodle back behind his rib cage.

"What's up? Did you need help or something? I mean, I'm pretty solidly retired but I guess if it's super important I can-"

SuperGuy abruptly stopped staring and started speaking, "Uh- no, no, thank you. Although I'm sure you could be helpful if I did need you! But, ah, well, was that a Walkman?"

Ohhhhh, Danny totally gets it now.

"Oh, dude, I gotchu. You want me to hook you up, right? Don't even worry about it, I know a guy who'll give you one a these babies for free! You're Kryptonian, right? Yeah, I totally get it, you wanna listen to some music from your home planet, no problemo my newly-minted friend, give me, like, ten seconds-"

And so Danny tore open a neat little portal and stuck his head through it, asking Technus to pretty please give him another Interdimensional Walkman, no he didn't even break this one-! He ran into a Kryptonian who heard him rockin out and wanted to know where he got the beats, and he'd told them that he could hook them up! C'mon Technus, you can't let them down! They're all lonely! They want to learn about their culture!

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

Clark has no idea what's happening.

He had been searching for this ear-splitting, headache-inducing noise, and had come across a guy dancing down the sidewalk.

Not unusual, right?

Except that the terrible noise was coming from this man's - kid's?? He can't quite tell how old he is - headphones!

Of course, he didn't want to be rude, so he politely gestured for the man to remove the headphones. The man then proceeded to reach into his chest and pull out some kind of - Walkman?? Do people still use Walkmans?

Clark was naturally concerned, so he activated a spot of x-ray vision, just to see what's going on in there, and was promptly horrified.

This man was using his chest cavity as a storage compartment!

Two wallets, a key ring, a lunch box, some sort of odd thermos, bits and bobs of random parts and tools were all tangled around - and occasionally in - this guy's organs!

Suddenly, Clark realized that he'd been staring for a while, and the man was now talking. Something about coming out of retirement to help, oh dear, Ma would knock him around the head if he kept being so rude, "Uh- no, no, thank you. Although I'm sure you could be helpful if I did need you! But, ah, well, was that a Walkman?"

And now he was speaking rapidly, something about music from Krypton? Clark's pretty sure that not a whole lot survived the explosion, and he'd be pretty surprised if this guy just happened to have-

A vaguely Lazarus colored portal??

What in the world-

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

"Thanks Technus! You're the best! I owe you one non evil scheme related favour!"

Danny zips up the portal and turns around, fiddling with the tapes and Walkman in his hands as he goes.

"Here you go! I wasn't entirely sure what genre you'd want, I don't really listen to a whole lot of Kryptonian stuff to be honest, it's usually too heavy on the vocal for me- not that vocals aren't great! But I want a whole band experience, yaknow? I'm not really looking for individual singers. Anyway, I just had him go for a couple songs of each major genre, but if you want something different you can totally-"

"Wait, hold on, you're telling me that there's Kryptonian music on those tapes? Playable by that Walkman?"

"Uh, well, yeah. Isn't that why you tracked me down? And, technically, I mean, they're ectoplasmic tapes and an Interdimensional Walkman, so. Hey, did you know that kryptonite is actually super-condensed ectoplasm? And since it's filled with the anguish and suffering and fear and whatnot of your entire home planet dying, it only negatively affects your species! Pretty cool right? Oh, shit, was that insensitive, I really didn't mean to be, I just thought that maybe you'd want to- ACK!"

Danny was not expecting SuperMuscles to get so close. He thrust out the IW and tapes and dropped them into SuperFellow's hands, "Listen, I gotta run. I'm supposed to be at a o-chem study group right now and they're totally gonna be pissed. Hit me up if you want a different tape."

And the proceeded to run in the opposite direction, duck into an alley and turn invisible, and fly over to the cafe his study group was in.

"Listen, I know I'm late but you'll never believe why-"

[twilightprince101]

Let's be careful before labeling Wally or Home as "The Villain" of Welcome Home

Or anyone for that matter imo

Listen, I can completely understand why people would go to that conclusion. "So Below" and the eerie vibe that Wally gives off in his obsession don't exactly give either a flattering light (I know there are also the art pieces on Clown's personal blog, but I'm not counting anything that hasn't been officially released yet)

But whenever someone labels a character who is acting weird as "the villain," it puts a bad taste in my mouth. At the end of the day, characters in fiction are real people with motivations, so labeling one as "evil" or "the villain" can sometimes erase that complexity. And after the most recent update, we know that Wally has A Lot of very, very complicated feelings about the situation.

Before I get into that though, I wanna point out something that Clown himself has said describes the brand of horror that "Welcome Home" gives off to themselves personally. Click here for the link to the post.

Before I get into that though, I wanna point out something that Clown himself has said describes the brand of horror that "Welcome Home" gives off to themselves personally. Click here for the link to the post.

"My home doesn't feel like home anymore."

That line sticks to me pretty hard. There's a pervasive feeling of unfamiliarity, unreality, that exists in the core of the story itself.

I think we see, firsthand, Wally experiencing this in the latest updates. In all of the hidden Bug/Answer secret videos, we see a familiar pattern. We get some sort of scene of two other characters talking, a scene in whatever universe they call home, until at the very end one of the characters addresses Wally (who was apparently there the whole time) and the video glitches out.

A key part that not a lot of people seem to realize though is that these videos are from Wally's perspective. See the above picture with Wally's hands. In every scene, Wally is present and was supposedly taking part in an activity (in the above one, helping Poppy with knitting), before the video started playing.

Whenever I saw these videos I had that same feeling that something felt. Different. The interactions felt like scenes you would see in the animated/cartoony aesthetic we'd see from the various art pieces, it doesn't feel like it's "on set/TV" to me. They're moreso just intimate glimpses into their lives. But they're shot in the real world, and that feels. Wrong.

This is very likely the same feeling that Wally's having in that moment. "My home doesn't FEEL like home." It's like he's disassociating, having a brief episode of that unreality feeling. Those bouts of strangeness don't go away until, like clockwork, someone says his name and the video ends, snapping him out of it.

Do other people in the neighborhood also feel the same way? Maybe, but we don't know. What we do know is that Wally, whether or not he tries to explain this to others, feels isolated by this sensation. "My neighbors are only neighborly until they know I'm different in a way they can see."

The only other person he likely shares this feeling with? I'd take a guess that it's Home. Nearly every time Home has been featured, Wally has been there, close. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only physical puppets/props we’ve seen of the cast are Wally and Home.

According to this post by @eldritchravens, Home is the only other person who talks directly to Us, the viewers. That's probably why they're so close, because they're the only ones who can truly confide in each other about this.

"So does that mean Home is manipulating Wally?"

Again, I really don't think that's the case. I don't wanna call people villains quite yet. Besides, we see (or well, hear) Home and Barnaby have a conversation together, and from how Barnaby reacts it's fairly casual.

This shared feeling is likely why Wally is so obsessed with us, including the Restoration Employee. They seem to be sharing a similar sensation to Wally's bouts of unreality, in the fact that it seems they're the ONLY one who doesn't remember Welcome Home being a thing. They seem to be one of the few things that Wally (and maybe even Home) consider to be "Real." Hence their obsession with "seeing" us.

"Isn't this Wally or Home manipulating the Employee though?"

Maybe, I don't know. We don't really know much of what's going on right now, we're only getting glimpses. For all we know this could be a side-effect of Wally/Home trying to reach out. For the time being though, I want to keep my own expectations in check. I'm choosing not to label Wally, Home, The Restoration Team or anyone as a "villain" until something definitive comes up.

It is very, very likely that Wally is going to be doing something more dangerous later down the line (or maybe even is doing so now). But if he's doing anything, I get the feeling it's more out of desperation. He wants something to quell this feeling inside of him, this pervasive sense of unreality, and to connect with something he feels is "real." And, for better or for worse, that thing is us.

This whole thing isn't to bash on people for speculation or theorycrafting, I personally think speculation is very healthy! But it's still important to remember what the core of this story is going to be. We're only seeing the very start of the story right now, and we don't know what'll happen down the line. It's useful to keep that core idea at the center of our speculation so we can have reasonable expectations going forward.

As for me? This doesn't feel like a story with villains. I don't think he'll pull a Monika from DDLC and start gaining a kill count, but if something does happen to the rest of the cast, my money is that it'll happen completely by accident, and he'll regret it. Hard.

[the-quiet-youve-been-longing-for]

Okay time for another small (I hope) analysis on IWTV, mainly the way it's written and its place on current television. I'll try my best to format this so it's not ramblings all over, I promise.

IWTV and plot points

I watched a good amount of television in my time, and one thing I noticed here is the fact that it doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't tell you "hey, this thing x is important, now we will tell again why x is important, now here see x being used, the important thing we talked about so far, did you remember, audience?".

Let's take as an example the "don't drink the blood of the living" thing. It's said to a young Louis (telling also to the audience in the 2nd episode how vampirism in this setting works) and then every time it's brought up it's indirectly (Lestat spitting out the sick man's blood, we see Claudia buying Laudanum and we know what it will be used for, but they don't tell us "Hey, Claudia is planning to poison someone so that Lestat drinks it, because remember audience, dead blood kills them"). Sometimes not only it doesn't hold your hand, but shoves you in a different direction, especially in S2. It contradicts himself, backtracks and then it's up to you to spot it.

For example, attentive viewers may have noticed that Sam was in 2 places at once in the trial, one episode before the actual reveal. It isn't a gotcha they came up with in the finale to give more gravitas to the revelation. When they tell us Lestat mass manipulated the audience, it makes sense for the storyline too because we already saw him do that with the soldiers, we have a previous example to refer to, Armand never used that particular power.

In a time where we see so many social media adopt the "short videos" gimmick, like reels and shorts etc, having a piece of media that references back in this way is super refreshing.

2. Character complexity

Complex characters are the backbone of this show. It's easy to place a character in a box and leave them there. You see it with the stereotype of the villain, the best friend, the hero. Some tv shows may have the character shift into a different box, but it's almost never permanent (think of the times where a hero gets corrupted by the Evil Power, but then reverts back to their hero status after Defeating the Evil Power because they remembered the Power of Friendship).

We have Louis, well meaning vampire who is capable of horrible deeds when pushed to the brink. Lestat, who feels so much to the point it hurts the people around him. Armand, whose trauma and fear bring out the need to control, but at the same time he needs to do that without actually controlling. They are all these things at the same time, and it's impossible to see them in a black and white perspective.

3. Details

A line almost always has its parallels to another line in the show, gazes always mean something, props are detailed and shown (I made a post looking at Daniel's notes in 2x05, which were shown for a second only, but you can also think about Claudia's diaries, all handwritten, or the astonishing amount of folders that were in Daniels computer from the Talamasca. That is all prop work done to be shown for a few seconds at most).

4. Analysis

This is more of a fandom thing than the show itself, but I was suprised by the amount of deep analysis that people here on Tumblr did (but also on other social media). Long essays on the meaning of a scene, or on the many many topics the show brings to light (the fallacy of memory, the impact of trauma, the meaning of free will and agency).

Similarly lots of people said that the show brought them back the urge to start creating, whether it's gifs, video essays, edits, fanart, fics, what have you. I started going back to Tumblr after years (last time I was here was during S4 of Sherlock).

And I feel like this is only possible if you give your audience something to work with, something to talk about and to dissect, rather than simple "entertainment".

5. Final thoughts

Of course, this isn't to say IWTV is error free, all perfect, without flaws. Nor is it the only one that has had this amount of labor and impact. But it's still miles ahead from most media we have available at the moment in my opinion, and I really hope its success brings other showrunners or directors to want to try and dare, to trust in their audience, to avoid shortcuts and to pour love in their creation.

If you got this far, I just want to thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings again! Have a cute Louis as a reward, and see you next time :)

[paperdice]

Hey can I request a headcannon of the ancient Heroes feelings towards a new hero with the powers of all might

(sorry if I'm sending this a second time my brain couldn't remember if I sent it the first time or not)

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬

"The people, the heroes, even the villains, I stand to set fire in their hearts."

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• And here he thought hes heard some of the most incredible abilities, hearing stories of a new hero arising. Or that's what the cookies referred to them from pure vanilla cookies longshot memories.

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• hes heard of the growing of this hero, even meeting cookies that had been saved by said hero throughout the years. Every story seems to out do the last, one amazing save to another. Such inspirations.

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• He always smiled when hearing of this hero, to know there's a cookie out there with immense strength doing good with their heart of gold. He wondered if he would ever cross paths with this hero..

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• When he saw it first hand his eyes widened. A cookie was holding off a strong opponent that was attempting to attack innocent cookies, for "fun". He saw the hero throw one punch, one punch sent off strong wind behind the opponent causing all kinds of cracks on the dented ground.

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• Some pieces of the ground broke up and went straight flying in the air, yet by a mere second the opponent dodged it. pure vanilla was awestruck, calmly closing his eyes once again smiling that there was no need for worries. Not when this cookie is around.

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• He always gave props to the cookie, asking softhearted questions on how their dough can handle all that strength! Their powers were just like the gems but you know, with no gem!

he gave a quiet soft laugh at his own question, "please do tell me of your travels, i've heard of many wonderful stories with you in the center of it."

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• Though he does admire their powers he does have to tell himself to look out if they're going to throw any attacks, just so he can try can hold steady through the massive air waves and intense rumbling of the ground. Holding his hat and staff at the same time makes it a bit more difficult.

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• Sometimes the rumbling reminds pure vanilla of his youthful days, when dark cacao cookie would strike on the darkness of evil, thunder causing the floor to shake in fear. He's used to trying to stand still but this power was something he's never been around before, so he's still getting a hang of it!

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• He often asks to do checks up on the hero though, he can't help but worry if it's too much for their dough, what if they crack? no matter how many times he gets the same answer that they're fine, he will always ask about their well being.

⋆｡˚♡•ᴗ• pure vanilla is always left impressed when it comes to the hero, he feels a soften pride for them. Their determination for the greater good reminds him of himself in the past a lot.

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° That new hero got hollyberry cookies attention real fast! She heard of a few stories here and there during her own travels, a hero with crazy strength and never stepping down no matter what. How she would love to see that up close!

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° The woah in her face when she heard of the crazy stories of the hero's wins, she gets a good laugh every time! Such a large reputation of someone who's just growing! A cookie that can gain such a title all around must be no exaggeration!!

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° One day while making her way through what she assumed to be a left village she noticed how the grounds grumble was only getting stronger and louder the closer she got from the cause. A cookie up against a gloomy group of what seemed about 10 cookies!

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° The cookie that was all up against the group was also protecting a mother and her children. Naturally hollyberry cookie jumped in to help, what she didn't know was that the cookie was protecting the village by taking down the group so they don't disturb them anymore. (so it wasn't an abandoned village ohhhh)

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° She also didn't know that she just bumped into the growing big hero! All the talk she heard was flooding her mind when she saw the scene before her, she knew it! It was that new hero no doubt! She smiled widely and laughed

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° Sparring is a must! She wants to know just how much power is up their sleeve when up against her shield! The pretty colors that are created when gem and fist collide, the powerful throw back she gets from impact always gets her festive.

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° Poor wildberry cookie, his protests always gets watered down so he has to constantly keep an eye out. Sometimes hollyberry tells wildberry to give it try so he see what she sees but he prefers not.

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° Talks over food and drinks is a must! She wishes to hear about the hero's travels as well, she even mentions some of the stories shes heard in the past so she can get confirmation that it's true. and when it is...

a roar of humored laughter filled the room. "that one was one of my favorites you know? I'm glad to know it's true! tell me, what did the cookie say back after the whole ordeal!" she smiled and patted the heros back.

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° Hollyberry loves to team up with the hero and give them small humble advice since they're so looked up upon, the way she started out in the beginning too.

⋆˚ ౨ৎ ˙˖° She stills goes out too likewise the hero but she likes to write letters to them, letters of how shes been doing and how have they been doing. Sometimes she writes out a story of the hero she was told about from cookies, along with her personal thoughts on it (laughter and jokes) and asked if it's true! She just can't get enough of the bright cookie.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ Unlike hollyberry cookie and pure vanilla cookie, he never heard of a up coming hero. After all, he did spend many years within his kingdom isolated from any outsider.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ But when he finally went out and continued his life, reuniting with his old friends, he did overhear hollyberry being surprised that pure vanilla had met a mutual cookie. She laughed and lightheartedly joked about the cookies personality to pure vanilla while he softly smiled and nodded in agreement.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ Over the time he spent in the village (while gingerbrave could gather up his friends to his side for help) he did hear stories of a hero that often visited. Praises of admiration and hope over this cookie.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ One night he settling down to rest for the upcoming busy day, till he heard pleas, cookies yelling and warning others. A flood. This had never happened before usually when it rained heavily the water would just go down stream but at the exit of the kingdom. It was bordered up with fallen boulders, stopping the water.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ Dark cacao struggled to even get to the wall of massive rocks, the water was aggressive and flowing with complete madness. It was at dangerous levels but he needed to strike down the rocks so the flood could end, while he was barely making it there he swung his sword but before he struck he saw a cookie jump in out of nowhere. punching the middle of the wall and ending the flood.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ This old man is left with a strong first impression by this hero, no wonder there was all kinds of talk, that was nothing hes ever seen. At least naturally, the cookie had no weapon and didn't use any kind of magic, that was all fist.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ Dark cacao cookie leaves soft spoken compliments to the hero, but questioned of their intentions. What was in their heart truly, what were their morals, praises doesn't always speak the truth of a cookie.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ Though that's what he thought during the first appearance n all, now he knows that the hero has no ill-hearted ends to them. He enjoys the comfort of their flowering words, the roots speak volumes and the petals are beautiful, or in easier words they're just a very solace cookie.

"you have a strong will with no welcome to falter, do you not fear to hesitate?" he looked at the cookie with the same stoic face he always has on, they looked back and smiled, as if he asked a foolish question.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ He looks at the upcoming hero with a light of hope, for them to never let their guard down, to never let any poisoned words affect them. He's pleased to know that they'll be fighting on the right side together.

˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡⟢ dark cacao cookie had put faith in this new hero (whether he knows it or not) that they'll carry the weight on their shoulders with nothing distracting them, no evil to creep its way up to their heart, and turn it black. No, he knows that'll never happen.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Ohohoho of course shes heard of this upcoming hero! what can she say? Once word goes around about a cookie it's only fair that the divine radiance would be one of the holders in this word.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Just like hollyberry cookie she was interested in this impending hero, how could she not after all of what she's heard? Powers unlike any other, she wished to meet this popularized hero.

ִ ࣪𖤐 With the help of hollyberry cookie, she did! Nothing big of an impression, the two heroes met she wanted to know everything! It was a rather "friendly possessive command" that she gave to the hero.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Due to how they met this also meant she couldn't see their powers in action and since the hero didn't feel like showing at the moment was appropriate, she was a little salty and doubtful.

ִ ࣪𖤐 But the wait was worth it, to see such a puny cookie take so many hits and throw so many insane counterattacks, their strength being unraveled right in front of her eyes. That cookie never backed down, and neither did golden cheese cookies support.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Talk about the favoritism treatment! Nobody knows exactly how the hero got to golden cheese cookies soft spot hell some didn't even know she can put her pride down for a favorite but they did and now here she is speaking greatly of them.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Spoils the hero with cheese and looks to them as if they're some kind of descendant or student under her wing. She too takes pride in them, she gives off the rich aunt that loves her nephews/nieces way more than her own sister.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Loves to mess about and joke with the hero, teasing about their abilities and sometimes joke that they should be by her side. Of course she knows its not going to happen but she insists that they'll live a life of luxury and safety once darkness falls.

ִ ࣪𖤐 Just like all the others she felt nostalgia being around them, that could be one of the reasons shes grown to like them. Such a promising symbol of peace hope, for all cookies to see that there's still hope.

"hoho now don't get ahead of yourself hero, don't think you'll reach limits further than me!" she laughs with a confident smile.

ִ ࣪𖤐 From a hero to another, she has their back, she doesn't say it aloud but the hero knows that she's always open to come and talk to with any trouble.

quick important note on white lily cookies portion, i never really got around to her story when her update came out, I was busy and the only reason I went in game was for the grind. So due to lack of knowledge I'll get straight to what she would think of the hero. deep apologies! </3

⋆˚✿˖° The heros abilities and powers were just, astonishing. She was deeply amazed and left curious, she wanted to know more, not in a high urgent "I wanna know now" kinda way. In a "please tell me as much as you like in detail" kinda way.

⋆˚✿˖° She's such a sweetheart, listening so intently to the stories and the heros personal thoughts. She told her own stories and from then on white lily cookie somewhat looked up on them.

⋆˚✿˖° She supported them to the best she could, after battles (if she was there anyways) she'd always try to make hero feel comfortable. She's more of an older friend type than the infamous ancient hero by their side.

⋆˚✿˖° She does worry for their well being, she knows first hand its not exactly the safest path to take. And she was in a group! yet here's the solo hero taking everything on their own.

⋆˚✿˖° Because of this she admires their bravery and love for the greater good deeply. She has high hopes for this hero with no doubt that anything can seem to bring them down.

"I'll be right here if you need me, hero." she smiled with a tinted blush on her cheeks.

Sorry it took a whole day to respond, I tried to squeeze this in with the time I had, I hope you enjoyed it!! <333

[ladyloveandjustice]

After watching Episode 13 of the anime, I begun to wish we'd seen Marcille waking up and her reaction to the decision to go back to the surface. So I wrote it.

---

Empty Arms

Marcille could feel Falin's warmth against her, her flushed skin, her heartbeat, her whispery breath tickling Marcille's face. She ran her fingers through Falin's fluffy hair, soft as downy feathers. She could always feel Falin's magic when she did that, mysterious and as infinite as the sky. She already smelled like Falin again, the sharp scent of new soil and fresh fruit. There was no trace of the bubblng blood and dragon viscera Marcille had dragged onto her bones. Falin was whole, Falin was safe. Marcille sank into sleep, feeling complete at last.

And then she woke up to find there was nothing but cold air. Her arms were empty. She looked frantically for Falin, but all she could see was him, his terrible violet eyes. Mine, he said.

Marcille's eyes snapped open. She tasted the rancid medicine in her mouth, and she saw Laios sitting solemnly by her side, and she knew it hadn't been a dream. It was all real. She coughed out some gunk, and tried to sit up. The edges of her vision blurred and the world tilted. Ah, right. No mana.

"Hey," Laios held her shoulders to steady her. "Are you okay?"

Of course she wasn't okay, but she nodded curtly.

"We're going back to the surface, so you'll be able to recharge your mana soon."

That was the last thing she'd expected him to say. "What? No. we're not. We have to go after Falin right now."

"In your condition?"

"We'll find another spirit to eat. I'll be fine." Marcille forced herself up on shaky legs, shrugging off Laios' hands. Senshi and Chilchuck were here too, watching her warily.

"Marcile, no. I wanted to as well, I get it, but Chilchuck convinced me, We need to get supplies, we need to tell people that's going on and get help, that's the only way we'll have a chance of saving Falin."

"Chilchuck," Marcille snorted. Of course Mr. Paid Up Front wanted them to run and leave Falin behind

"What was that?" Chilchuck snapped.

Marcille ignored him."We can't go back. It'll be too late. What he was doing to her, it was magic I'd never seen before, I won't waste another second, you don't know what he's capable of, but I felt it, I felt his magic, I felt his hold on her!" She was babbling, she knew, but she didn't care. She took a shaky step forward, the world spinning. "If you won't go, I'll go by myself."

"Marcille!" Laios' eyes widened in shock. He was used to her following his lead in the end, trusting his call. Even with resurrecting Falin, she'd included him, asked him if it was okay. But that was because she'd known he'd say yes. She'd known that just like her, he'd do anything for Falin, break any law, take any risk. At least that's what she'd thought. If he'd said no back then, she would have done it anyway, and since he was saying no now, she'd do what she had to.

Marcille fell to her knees, legs too weak to continue on. Propping herself up on her elbows, she began to crawled toward the door, dirty stone staining her sleeves.

"See! I told you! I told you!" Chilchuck said to Senshi, but the dwarf was watching her with sorrowful eyes. "Lass, you're only hurting yourself."

Laios crouched down and grabbed Marcille's arm. "We will save Falin, but we can't do that if we die. We need to take care of each other too. You didn't see it, but Chilchuck was crying, Marcille! He was crying and begging us not to die!"

Chilchuck swore at Laios in his own language. "Listen, you--"

"He was not," Marcille muttered. Chilchuck had probably never cried in his life.

"I was not!" Chilchuck agreed. "That doesn't count as crying!"

"He was! He bared his soul because he cares abut us!" Laios continued doggedly.

"He cares about you and Senshi, maybe. I'm just a dark elf who does evil magic and causes trouble," Marcille snapped.

"For the love of-- are trying to make me apologize to you by pretending to go insane again?" Chilchuck pointed at her accusingly. "Well, it's not working this time!"

Marcille shook her head and jerked her arm out of Laios's grip. She inched forward again.

"He said he's taking care of three people, so that obviously includes you! Chilchuck, she really doesn't believe it. You need to cry for her too. Dig up those emotions again." Laios was waving his arms around frantically.

"No way!"

"Then at least tell her you care about her and don't want her to die!"

Marcille was at the door. She reached for the handle and pulled herself up with a groan.

"Ugh, fine! Marcille, I care about you and don't want you to die!"

The sincere distress in his voice stopped her. She'd never heard him talk like that before. She hesitated, her lip trembling. "None of you understand. It was my fault. I should have known something was wrong. Her magic felt different, like there was heat to it, like it was reaching out in all directions..."

Marcille remembered Falin holding her hand in the bath, the strange, brief surge of excitement that raced through her , and then feeling her magic so intense, so wrong, so overwhelming...but she'd just ignored it.

Her fingers slipped off the doorknob and she fell. Laios grabbed her. Even Chilchuck and Senshi rushed forward. "It wasn't your fault. We were all there, and we all couldn't stop it. From what I hear, you're the only reason we even survived to fight another day." Laios said. Chilchuck and Senshi nodded.

Tears bubbled out of her eyes. "I held her. She was right there and I held her. She was finally with us again! It's not fair."

"I know," Laios said, leading her back to her mat. "And we're going to find her and hold her again. I'm never letting go. And I know you won't either."

"We're here to help ya, whatever comes," Senshi said.

Marcille curled in her mat, tears nearly blinding her "Okay, okay."

A few seconds passed and then..."That was pretty dramatic."

The orc woman, who seemed to have been waiting at the window, came through the door. Marcille covered her mouth defensively.

The orc sneered at her. "You look so pathetic." But her expression softened. "Your loyalty is surprising, though. I've never seen an elf care so much about anyone besides themself, much less someone of another race. Didn't think it was possible. You should listen to your friends, you're too weak to do much right now."

She turned to Laios. "You'll be leaving soon then?"

"Yes, thanks for everything."

Since Marcille couldn't walk, Laios had to carry her piggyback. Completely humiliating, especially in front of the orcs, as they said their goodbyes. A few.chuckled at her, but the leader simply looked at her and said, "I hope you find your wife, long-ears."

"My-my what?" Marcille sputtered,

"Mate? Lover? I don't know what terms you elves use. Hope you find her."

"I--!"

"Let's go!" Chilchuck groaned.

She did not want to interrogate the rush of joy she felt at the orc calling Falin her lover. All that mattered was that she get better, and bring Falin back.She tightened her fingers against Laios' shoulders. She would do that as many times as it took. No matter who she had defeat or what taboo she had to destroy.

But...she thought, as Laios steadily carried her, as Senshi and Chilchuck walked beside them...at least she wouldn't have to do it alone.

[totallyjustabunchofhocuspocus]

Fic preview

A preview of chapter 37 of Come Away, O Human Child

His new friend is a sprite he finds out, a few days after he helps it find the nest some others have built back in a patch of blackberry bushes a little ways away from his back yard. He’s not really sure how he feels about that—sprites aren’t supposed to be very friendly. That’s what he’s seen in cartoons and commercials and the safety lessons he has at school sometimes. Sprites are always mean and nasty in the TV shows, and the park ranger that came to his school at the beginning of the year to talk about lesser fae and magical creatures and how they should talk to them and treat them had a whole big lesson about sprites.

They’re dangerous. Not evil, Ranger Tammy was careful to say. But they don’t like humans very much—don’t even like other lesser fae and creatures that much—and they can play mean tricks on people. Sometimes they even steal people! Little kids, mostly, and he kind of got the feeling that the grownups all meant something else besides “steal” when they were talking about people who had disappeared when they messed around with sprites.

He'd been a little afraid when his new friend called itself a sprite, remembering how worried and angry the wisps had been when it first showed up. He’d stayed away from the woods behind their house, sticking to the front yard, playing with the wisps that always hung out in the trees on their street.

Wisps got bored quickly, though, no matter how much they liked him, and they couldn’t really talk to him. Same with the garden elves. The house across the street had a family of brownies that worked for them, but he hardly ever saw them outside. Maddie was so busy with school…she even had driving school, now! And his parents…

He’s lonely. Sometimes he feels like he’s always going to be lonely, no matter how many people are around him.

So when the sprite appears a few days after he first meets it, looking out at him from the bushes beside their driveway, he doesn’t go back inside. The wisps have lost interest in him for now, and there are no garden elves or other creatures around to talk to.

Ranger Tammy had said sprites weren’t evil…they were dangerous the same way a wild animal was dangerous. But this one hadn’t hurt him. None of the others in the nest he’d found had hurt him. Magical creatures always like him—even the ones that don’t have much to do with humans always like him.

He’s so lonely.

“Hi,” he says, looking around to see if anyone is watching him before crawling under the branches of the large bush, giggling when the leaves tickle his face.

The sprite hops backwards a few times, its wings flapping with a soft sound before settling in close to its back. It watches him without speaking, the ruby-red eyes glowing softly in the shadows. “Hello again,” it says, tapping its claws on the ground.

“Are you having a good time with your friends?” he asks, curling up to sit criss-cross-applesauce. The sprite tilts its head, frowning, before it flashes its teeth at him.

“Ah. Good time, yes. Letting me stay. It has been…a long time since I had a nest.”

“Oh. Didn’t your mom and dad have one?” He props his chin up in his hands, always curious about magical creatures and lesser fae.

The sprite snorts, a sound that might be a laugh hissing out between its teeth. “They did. Gone now. Cadre gone. Nest gone. For a long time. This cadre needs more members to grow strong. Convenient.” It looks off to the side, its wings drooping. “Nice,” it says softly.

“What’s a ca…dre?” he asks, stumbling over the new word. The sprite looks up at him, its tongue flicking out.

“Hmm. What we call ourselves when we are together. Used to be many. Hundreds. Thousands. Cadres are smaller now. Scattered.”

“Oh, like a family?” He perks up, thinking how nice it would be to have hundreds of people to come home to.

“Human word. But not wrong.” The sprite digs its claws into the dirt again, then takes a few slow hops toward him. It sniffs him, its wings flapping, and he almost wants to reach out and pet it. That would be really rude, though.

“Do you want to play with me?” he asks instead, hoping that the sprite actually wants to hang out for a little bit.

The sprite goes still, its tongue flicking out over its sharp, sharp teeth. “Play what?” it says in a curious voice, blinking up at him.

He shrugs. “I dunno…hide and seek?”

The sprite freezes again, before throwing its head back and letting out a wheezing laugh. “Hide and seek,” it repeats, its wings shaking. “Easy as that?” It takes a few more hops, backwards this time, and then narrows its glowing eyes at him. “Perhaps a trade…you hide. If I find, you answer a question.” It smiles at him again, that toothy grin that isn’t quite nice, but doesn’t make him feel scared. Still, he chews on his lip for a minute, thinking carefully.

It's not ever a good idea to trade anything with a creature or lesser fae. Most of them are perfectly safe, of course, but you can never be a hundred percent sure that you’re not dealing with one of the ones that want to trick you into giving away more than you think you are. He’s only six, but he knows that the right answer is ‘no, thank you, I don’t want to trade.’ But he also knows that most people don’t get along with creatures and lesser fae the way he does. He doesn’t really understand why, but he just knows, deep down in his bones, that magical creatures won’t ever hurt him.

“What kind of question?” he asks, still thinking.

The sprite’s sharp smile doesn’t fade. For a moment, it almost looks proud. “Would like to know you better. Your magic is very bright—would like to see how you use it. I will not harm you here, Evan Buckley. Give you my word.”

He is a lonely little boy, and he has never had to worry around a magical creature. It does not occur to him to question how the sprite knows his name, when names are so incredibly important in the world of magic. Nor does he notice the very specific phrasing in the sprite’s promise not to harm him. He grins at the sprite and scrambles out from under the bush.

“Count to twenty!” he shrieks and goes racing for the back yard.

*

The sprite plays with him almost every day for weeks and weeks. Hide and seek, tag, I Spy…it even tries to kick a soccer ball around with him, though that doesn’t exactly end well. Eventually, some of the other sprites from the nest start joining in their games, mostly younger ones. Well. He thinks they’re younger than his friend. They’re smaller and their wings aren’t quite as veiny and covered in scars. They don’t really talk to him, but their smiles are a little nicer than his friend’s. It’s really nice, knowing that there’s going to be somebody waiting to play with him as soon as he gets home from school every day.

His friend keeps up their deal at first—every time it finds him, or tags him, or beats him at any of their other games, it asks him questions about himself. It really does seem to be curious about his magic—how he casts different spells, what he can do without a spell, how strong his magic is. It watches him perform all sorts of magic, and that is also nice. Mom and Dad mostly try to get him to hide how strong his magic is, and while Maddie never tells him to hide, she also doesn’t really encourage him to use it outside of the house. He likes having someone who wants to see everything he can do. Eventually, though, his friend seems to run out of questions, and for a few days he’s afraid the sprites will stop playing with him.

His friend keeps showing up, though, always waiting for him somewhere out of the way and hidden while he puts his backpack up in his room and wanders into the kitchen to find whatever snack Maddie has left for him. Sometimes the sprite has to stay away while he greets the wisps and other creatures that are never far from his house…the wisps especially do not like the sprites. He feels a little bad about it, actually, and wishes all of them could get along together. Still, it’s not like the wisps are staying away from him—and he has so much fun with the sprites.

Everything is going fine. He’s even thinking about asking the sprites if he can introduce Maddie to them. He thinks Maddie would like to see how many new friends he’s made, and a part of him kind of hopes that if she knows how much fun he has with them, she’d like to join in. Maddie has been so busy lately—driver’s ed, and drama club, and studying, and hanging out with her friends at school. She still has time for him. Maddie will always have time for him—he knows that the same way he knows that he’s always safe around magical creatures. It’s something he knows all the way down to his bones, knows it so well that it’s a part of him. He’ll always have Maddie. Just…he doesn’t have her as much as he used to.

He is trying to think of the best way to ask his friend if he can bring Maddie the next time they meet up when he hears a strange shrieking sound. He freezes, looking wildly around the woods. They’re unusually empty for this time of day—usually the wisps and elementals that live in the trees and bushes around their house are waiting for him to come out and play when he gets back from school. But he doesn’t even see any birds or butterflies. His heart starts to speed up as the air splits with another awful shriek, and the air grows thick with magic. He almost turns around and runs back to the house…but the sounds are coming from the direction of the sprites’ nest.

His friend said the nest was expecting a clutch of eggs to hatch any day now—almost twenty of them. He’s not really sure, but the way his friend talks he kind of thinks that babies don’t happen very often for sprites, and even when they do, there aren’t usually so many. His friend and the others have been really nervous for the past few days as the eggs get closer and closer to hatching. They won’t tell him exactly why, but his friend said hatching time could be dangerous for the nest.

He bites his lip and starts forward, picking his way through the bushes and branches, following the tiny path that leads to the big tangle of bramble and thorns that the sprites live in. The feel of magic in the air gets thicker and thicker, so much that he can almost taste it on his tongue, feel it sliding down his throat. It’s wilder magic than he’s used to, feels older somehow. When he breaks through to the clearing the sprites built their nest in, he gasps, his eyes going wide and round.

The sprite nest—usually dry and dead-looking—is lit up from inside. The bright glow of magic, the same deep red as the sprites’ eyes, makes it look like the nest is burning. It’s kind of pretty, but also kind of scary looking, and he freezes again, just staring. He doesn’t know quite how many sprites live in the nest, but it looks like most of them are whirling through the air around it. Small bursts of red fly from their hands every few seconds, raining down on the sprite nest and making it glow brighter. The shrieking is coming from inside the nest, wild yelps and shouts that sound like something is being attacked. Several of them are scattered on the ground around the nest, panting hard, their wings flapping weakly as they try to get back up.

It takes a moment, but some of the sprites finally notice him. A few dart towards him, making the same shrieking noise he can hear inside the nest, shooing him away before wheeling off to rejoin the cloud of sprites whipping through the air. He takes a few stumbling steps backwards, almost turns to run again, when his friend suddenly swoops down out of the sky to land on the ground in front of him.

“You shouldn’t be here! It’s dangerous!” it hisses, and he’s almost too scared to notice that it sounds different than it usually does—clearer, more like a person. All the sprites talk to him in short, broken sentences, kind of like the garden elves. He stares at his friend in shock.

“What’s happening?” he squeaks, his eyes flying back to the cloud of sprites as the shrieks get louder. His friend takes a few quick hops back towards the nest, its wings flapping.

“The eggs are hatching,” it mumbles, and he thinks it looks…worried. Maybe even scared. “The young ones feed on the cadre’s magic when they hatch. Makes them strong, helps them grow.” It takes a few more steps towards the nest, shaking its head. “Cadre’s too small for all the hatchlings. There should be others around to help.” Its wings slump down. “Too few nests in the area…no help, most of the hatchlings will die.” His friend sounds so sad as it speaks, and he can’t help but think of the times it’s talked about how things used to be for sprites—how big their “cadres” would get, how many nests would be spread all over the place.

The sprites have been so excited to have such a big clutch of eggs, but now he understands why they’ve been so nervous, too. It sounds like most of the baby sprites aren’t going to make it. He looks around as a few more sprites drop to the ground, now realizing they must be exhausted from trying to feed all the babies. He doesn’t know if sprites can get backlash shock or anything, but it looks like they’re wearing themselves out trying to help the eggs hatch.

His magic itches under his skin, a strange feeling shivering through him. Weirdly, he feels like someone is laughing at him. The way Maddie does when he says or does something she thinks is cute—so fond and warm that he doesn’t even mind that she’s laughing at him.

He can do it if he likes; it’s his choice.

He doesn’t know where the thought comes from…or why it suddenly feels like he has permission for something. But he finds himself taking a slow step towards his friend.

“Can I help?” he asks, shrinking back when his friend whirls around on him. He licks his lips and tries to make his voice sound tougher. More sure. “I want to help. I have lots of magic! I can…I think I can…” He holds his hand out, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to push his magic towards the nest, tries to make it into a ball of power like the sprites are all throwing. When he opens his eyes again, there’s a small, wavery orb of gold light floating over his palm. His friend stares at it with wide eyes.

“You would…share?” it asks, creeping closer to him. It sounds shocked, like it can’t even understand why he would say something like that. That makes him even sadder.

“Yeah,” he says, holding his hand out. He tries to concentrate really hard, tries to pull more magic into the little ball, make it bigger. Like it always does, his magic seems to realize what he wants to do and he feels a surge of power as the ball grows brighter. Stronger. His friend blinks, looking back between him and the nest a few times, as though it’s checking to see if they are being watched. Then it leaps up into the air, fluttering around him before landing on his shoulder.

“Yes. Yes…please,” it says, its claws digging into his shirt, its wings brushing against the side of his face. It makes a strange sound, almost like a bird call, and a bunch of the sprites in the air turn to look at them. “The nest,” his friend whispers. “Just guide your power to the nest—the others will do the rest.”

[pruneunfair]

Characters I hate the most in remarried empress

5:Heinrey

A lot of people dislike him now for being a cruel bastard to the point of torturing foreign nobles just so he can favor his wife. While that is messed up I'll take that over his constant "UwU my queen~" persona that he displays 90% of the time because at least the former is the remnants of his inital personality. It goes from kind of funny to straight up cringey, I do not see what Navier likes so much about his puppy guise, he's so low because to be fair, he was introduced as a scumbag (kind of), he just spends so much time simping that it's basically tossed to the side

4:Lebetti

I know a lot of fans say Lebetti is young and can learn better, she's 17 sure but it took her entire family being executed just so she'd be inclined to care about Ian. She's basically a mini me of Lotteshu and when's she not doing that, she's another blind Navier worshipper who is used for as a stand in for the reader, I don't know how fans didn't realize their stand in is a slave owner but I digress. The only reason she's at number 4 is that while I do find messed up she gets to raise Rashtas child and likely feed a biased view of her to Ian, if she really wanted to be evil, she would've let Ian become a slave for his mother's crimes so I guess there's that.

3:Kaufman

Jesus christ this man is a walking, talking manifestation of second ML syndrome. He's essentially a plot device for no other purpose other than propping up Navier as so beautiful that multiple royal guys want her and so shit can go down , And of course the obvious slipping love potions in others for no other reason then "the plot calls for it", he doesn't even face the consequences. He's fucking creepy as well since he's STILL in love with Navier even after she's married and pregnant GET OVER IT MAN! In the end he just gets with Charlotte (Kosairs ex fiancé) so writting wise: his whole "nice guy" problems can be solved

2:Alan

I really just have a personal vendetta against the whole Rimwell family. The moment I lost all hope in remarried empress is when I was expected to sympathize with a rapist. The narrative wants readers to believe Alan was wronged even though he was the one to participate in keeping Ian away from Rashta until she got rich, even though it was HIM who decided to abandon Rashta after she wanted to run away with him. Yeah he's a good father so what? Wow! A dad actually raising his kid how amazing, it's almost like that's called the bare minimum. The moment he tried to say that Ian deserved to be treated like a prince because he was Rashtas son is when the comments finally saw him for what he was, he makes up for all this by getting executed in the end

1:Laura

Your probably wondering out of all these scumbags, why is a random side character on top? Well, the characters below at some point had personality traits that made then complex characters in the past or they did something to make up a little for it making them a tiny bit more tolerable. Laura however has never once shown any signs of any other personality other than "Your majesty! Your so wonderful and the best! That slave needs to know its place around you!" At least all Naviers other ladies in waiting have some sort of gimmick to them or in rare cases they have other stories going on with just them. Laura's gimmick is that she is willing to hit a slave for Navier even if said slave made a genuine mistake and isn't used to palace intrigue. Her face pisses me off everytime I look at it and everytime she speaks it's never anything besides love for the leads and hatred for anyone against Navier. she needs to get off her glazing and go back to bullying Cinderella with her evil stepsister design she's got.

Anyway let me know if there's any other manhwa/comic to rant about because I'm sure everyone's probably tired of me bitching about remarried empress

[asksythe]

Hua Cheng’s Design

Source: 孤世中逢影 Gu Shi Zhong Feng Ying (weibo) on Hua Cheng’s design as based on Miao ethnic group culture - with snippets from a Chinese Documentary on Miao Ethnic People and an interview with Shi sifu, one of the last traditional Miao silversmiths - Sina TV.

 Translator: Sythe / NPD Khanh

Hua Cheng’s character design. As we all know, the image of Hua Cheng was established based on the Miao ethnic group, so let's see the specific origin of things on Hua Cheng’s person.

1. Red umbrella:

The red umbrella in Miao culture is one of the indispensable props at marriage and celebrations. The red umbrella symbolizes great auspiciousness as one’s desires, numerous children and grandchildren, sheltering from the wind and rain, exorcising evil spirits, and shielding people from disasters. All of these together are a perfect fit to represent the blessings of the heavens (Tian Guan Ci Fu, the name of the novel) with no taboos or misfortunes.

At the same time, in the opening episode of Tian Guan Ci Fu, Xie Lian mistook Hua Cheng for a bridegroom ghost. The situation fits perfectly like a miracle as a red umbrella is required for a wedding. 

2. Silver butterfly, maple leaves.

The Miao people have long had an ancient song, "Feng Mu Ge" (Song of the Maple Tree), to praise the beauty of life. The Miao people also consider butterflies as the ancestral mother, who can bless the village to be peaceful, the children to thrive, and the nation to flourish.

Maple leaves and butterflies represent rebirth, and reincarnation. These motifs can be seen in the culture of the Miao people everywhere, from clothes to jewelry to household decorations. The most famous is the Hong He area, located in an autonomous district of the Miao ethnic group in Yunnan. Whether it is nature or people, maple leaves and butterflies are popular, cherished symbols.

ps. The butterfly decoration that the author saw while traveling in Yunnan is also an inspiration.

"When I was traveling in Yunnan, there was a butterfly decoration in front of the hotel elevator,” Mo Xiang looked at it and thought. After a while, she said proudly, "He will raise a kaleidoscope of butterflies." (From MXTX Author’s Notes and Interview) 

3. Silver Jewelry

This goes without saying much, silverware is an important component of Miao culture, "the more beautiful, the better;” "Miao people’s iconic silver jewelry is used to pray for peace and as a token of love or a proposal of marriage.” Speaking of which, Hua Cheng’s character design is based on ethnic Miao people. Of course, the same jewelry is used. The inheritor of the art of Miao silversmithing, Shi sifu, also said, Hua Cheng is steeped in Miao Guang symbolism and aesthetics.

4. Other

If you read the novel, it’s not difficult to figure out:

Huacheng used a red umbrella because when he was young and weak and had nothing. Xie Lian gave him a red umbrella to shield him from the wind and rain.

Hua Cheng uses corral beads because this is one of Xie Lien's lost earrings. In Taoism, coral represents the heart. Taking this into account, Xie Lian in the book had two corral earrings. The implication of this symbolism then becomes quite enticing. 

Hua Cheng strung the red string of fated love because, during the Gentle Fragrance part of the book, Xie Lian gently cut a hair strand and gifted it to him. In our country's traditional culture, tying your hair together represents binding marriage. The red line represents your destined intertwined path.

From the beginning to the end, the author demonstrated the changes in Hua Cheng. "Become a better, stronger person because of him, for him". All of Hua Cheng’s character progressions developed according to the plot, gradually revealing layers of meaning, and not built by forced intention. Therefore, in successfully portraying such a character, the author moved the reader’s heart and created a miracle. 

A Love that is unchanged even in the face of death. 

[missadmyre]

LUSTROUS RED

With the world of yokai clashing in to Randy's work, it was no wonder that the First Ninja would assign him to disperse the evil operations being done on a famous red light district just near Norrisville. Will he be able to defeat the dangerous yokais swarming the district or will he question the past of First Ninja?

TW. Sexual harrassment, sexual assault, suggestive themes, shitty photo quality, swearing.

———

Puhh...

Puhpuhh...

Puh...

The sounds of fists hitting a makeshift dummy was heard throughout the garage, the rays of the sun slipping through the slits of the garage door, shining the teen who had sweat rolling down every part of his torso.

Randy punched the makeshift dummy again, testing his strength and stamina to better improve his performance. With Saturday rolling around the corner, he thought a good training in the morning would be a great idea.

With the last punch thrown out, he stopped and panted, sweat rolling down his forehead. He took a look at the discarded t-shirt on the bench near him, he touched his glistening torso and felt all his hardworked muscles bumping his palm.

He exhaled, "That... was good enough." He dragged his shirtless self to the bench and took a sip on his water bottle. While on the course of his action, he saw the Nomicon glowing brightly in the corner of his eye.

He took the bottle off his lips and grabbed the Nomicon, opening it as he was shloomped inside. The fall into the Nomicon wasn't surprising to Randy who had experienced it, he landed perfectly on the paper floor as the world began to shift.

He was suddenly in a forest carved in origami and ancient Japanese stage props, he marched forward to see if this was another of Nomi's test. To his surprise, he saw the First Ninja sitting on a rock near a waterfall, seemingly waiting for him.

"I see that you've answered my call." First said as Randy scoffed "Well yeah, wouldn't want the Nomicon to have an explosive reaction you know?". First didn't show any emotions as he shrugged the joke.

"Hm, I take that you haven't seen the recent spike of crimes in the ghostly side of yokai?" First asked, setting a foot on his lap and hands covering his mouth. Randy raised an eyebrow as he put a hand on his chin.

"The ghost town of Ishigano has a reputation to be one of the most lustrous red light districts back then, it still holds that reputation until today but it is now also known for its sex trafficking.

It seems as though their targets are humans, luring them into the town and forcefully transforming them into ghosts. As the Ninja, the task is to save the people stuck there." Randy frowned slightly at the given task before him.

"I see, but like where is this Ishigano town you're talking about?" First then illustrated a map drawn with neon markers. He pointed it at the northern side of Oklahoma, quite near to Norrisville.

Randy sighed in relief, at least it saves some transportation money. "I'll see to it that you'll be able to dissipate those evil spirits, lest you want them to target more innocents." First looked at him with a commanding voice. "Oh don't worry, I got this." Randy said with a cocky tone, he bowed and was kicked off of the Nomicon.

When he was back in reality, he found himself lying on the cold concrete floor, strings of light hitting his face gently. He blinked a couple of times before standing up, still holding the Nomicon. He brushed himself up, grabbing his t-shirt and threw the water bottle in a traschcan.

Randy headed to his room, fixing his bag as he stuffed things he would need the most during his trip to said Ishigano town; extra clothes in case of his current one being ripped, bandages and painkillers, money, the Nomicon and of course his mask.

He saw his phone sitting on his bed, he checked it and decided to spend the morning texting with Danny and Jake. By the time midday hits, he dressed up and hung out with Howard as they walked through the Norrisville streets, eating their lunch at Greg's FoodHole.

"And then I smashed that Autotromaton and it was like 500 points! Can you believe that Cunningham, it's like a secret boss that I can't believe no one has noticed."

"Yeah, but I think it's because of your build, like it's very overpowered!"

"Of course Cunningham, that's what being on the grind's like." Howard replied as he prouded himself for beating a secret boss in Grave Punchers, Randy applauded him.

"Hey Howard, what's the time right now?"

Howard looked at him, confused as he checked his phone, "About 4:47, why?". Randy raised his eyebrows slightly, "Ah shoob, I have to go, Nomi needs me. Bye Howard!". They said their goodbyes as Randy ran back home.

He walked to his room and grabbed his bag, carefully sneaking past his mother who is sleeping on the couch. He stuck a note on the table telling his leave as he went out. The teen then sprinted towards the bus station and managed to grab a seat, hugging his bag as the wheels began to roll.

---

The ride to the town of Ishigano was unexpected to say the least, Randy dropped himself off to a forest in the middle of nowhere, confused as he was actually expecting a town. He trudged through the dirty forest, staying on high alert since it looked like a place Catfish Booray would live in.

A few minutes in, Randy found a path leading someplace, he decided to follow it but not before he transformed himself into the Ninja. When the transformation was done, he jumped from tree to tree, following the dirt path as it led him to a wondrous plain.

The grassy plain had emphasized the blooming flowers and many more plant life, leaving him at awe. The admiration would soon fade as he saw a cliff marking the end of the path. He walked towards it and found an abandoned town that, while surrounded by a giant wall, was filled with buildings with intricate Japanese designs, a surely fitting style for a proud red light district if it weren't for the fact that no one seems to live in it.

He felt sad at the sight, if only it wasn't abandoned then it would feel like a tourist attraction site. He sighed, he then saw the sun beginning to set as it hides behind the tall mountains. He was about to go down to the town when suddenly the lanterns of the town lit up, lights inside the buildings started to burn bright as the dawn hit.

He stopped himself and hid on the cliff, observing the town. Shadowy figures began to fade in as they became more and more translucent, various yokais and ghosts coexisting as night transitioned in. He was shocked at the scene, it literally is a ghost town.

While stalking the town, he saw ghosts and yokais smuggling in humans into brothels, their wails faintly reaching Randy's ears as he felt bad for what they would go through. He was about to go in and kick ass when the Nomicon glowed, "What is it now Nomi, kinda busy saving some people."

He opened the book as he shloomped in, landing on a wooden floor in a room that seems to resemble a dressing room from ancient Japan, the room being filled with women. His attention was grabbed when a doodle ninja had snuck into the room and crossdressed themselves up more lavishly than the other women. When the doodle ninja got out of the room, evil yokais swarmed up to them because of their attention seeking outfit.

As a hand of the doodle ninja tried to get out of the pile of yokais, a text appeared on top of it,

A mask is worn for -> !¡DECEPTION¡!, not for ××ATTENTION××

Randy read and tried to comprehend, "Got it Nomi." The yokais raised their eyebrows, not believing that he was able to understand the meaning for once. "Oh come on I'm not that stupid, it just means that I don't have to grab the attention of the yokais." The yokais sighed in relief.

"So would a performer be a good disguise or?..."

The yokais facepalmed as they lunged at him, waking up Randy from his shloomp in the Nomicon. He stood up and studied the town of Ishigano one more time before sliding down the valley, climbing up the guarding wall and scanning the area.

He knew that going in with his suit on would alert the yokais, yet his normal clothes would stand out, seeing that almost all of them wore clothes that doesn't fit the modern era. While thinking, he saw some clothes hung up on a wire on a nearby brothel, he grabbed the opportunity to get his disguise as he snatched the kinagashi.

He removes the mask and wears it, finding it's size suitable for his body. With some geta he found from an alley and his socks he wore practically everyday, he wore his sling bag and continues his goal to save the souls trapped in the town.

As he walks out to the main street, he sees all kinds of sellers trying their best to get spirits' attention, girl workers trying to woo potential customers into their brothels and lots of shadowy figures walking through the crowded street, trying to find ways to pleasure themselves in the district.

Randy watched in awe, but his task was still in mind. He walked through the streets, sensing the distressed cries of countless souls begging for freedom. He frowned, feeling pity as he tried to find ways to free them without being caught. Along with the cries, he also heard phrases of "It smells like human?" and "Is there a human here?". Shit. He had to move now to avoid suspicion.

---

Elsewhere in the pleasure district, a man had his six eyes glowing bright red, delighted by an interesting sight in play. The darkness of his office made the man look threatening, his figure taller than anyone in the district. His smirk playful as he licked his lips, "I see that a beetle had come into my web, what do you think would happen, Haigoru-chan?".

A figure stepped out of the shadow, a child with a fire red kimono and decorated with beautiful accessories came to the man's call. The light from the burning lanterns of the district had shone on her, revealing a white mask resembling an ichimatsu doll's face. She bowed, a sign of respect she held for the man.

"He would end up as a plaything for the strong, they always would." The man could feel her sadistic smile through the answer, even if she couldn't show it. Satisfied with her answer, he stalked through the window again and watched the human try to fit in the crowd. "Well then, let's see if he's anything special."

---

"This is hopeless." Randy thought, sliding from crowd to crowd as the streets began to cramp. He tried to get inside the brothels but their entrance fee was worth more than the money he brought. It was getting overwhelming so he entered through the  dark alleyway, not wanting his heightened senses to overreact.

He calmed himself down, he sighed and looked back at the crowd before him. "What do I do? There's too much happening in this town." He paced back and forth trying to plan something when he suddenly hear the sound of someone crying.

He glanced at a brothel to his right, suspecting that that's where the source of the sound was. It felt human, that cry, he knows that it's someone suffering, a victim of the sweet poisonous nectar that is this district. With his motivation igniting, he went to the back of the brothel, finding the window that houses the cries.

He climbed up the brothel, careful in trying to be as discreet as possible as he finally reached the window. He opened it and was greeted by a pristine hallway, the wooden floor so clean he can see his reflection on it. He went inside and snuck into the room where he heard the cries.

---

A girl, no more than a teen was sobbing in her room, even with the combined efforts of her kamuros comforting her, she still couldn't believe that she is now able to engage in sex work.

"Don't cry girl, be happy you even got a position most if not ALL of the girls in this district would gloat about."

"Be proud? Be proud?! What the FUCK would I be proud of selling my body to some rich asshole?! Is this what I'm WORTH?! S-some... d-doll that—!" The girl cried and cried as her kamuros put their heads beside her, hugging her.

She sniffled, "No... No we'll— I'll protect you girls, I-I won't... let them d-do this to you, I won't." She wiped off her tears. She looked at the two girls sitting beside her, their eyes trying to see if she was okay.

She sighed, she, them, all of them were victims of this horrible situation, they were all kidnapped and sold off to this rancid town, all just to be given off to some rich guy like disposable toys. But she had hope, that she and the others would get out, that they would be free once more.

She shooked her head, her ceremony would soon begin and she had to dress up. As she stood up, she heard the wooden floors creaking, noticing that none of her kamuros even moved, she started to worry about the strange sound. "But that woman wouldn't come in here until later..." She whispered.

Her door was slammed open as she turned around, to her surprise it was a person dressed in clad black suit, glowing red lines stretching from head to toe, their scarf being a highlight to their clothing. She was about to scream when he covered her mouth.

One of her kamuros tried to protect her from the strange man, punching him while the other kamuro tried to push him off of her. "Hey— HEY! Listen, I'm trying to help!". She took a great look at him, she widened her eyes, "Ninja?!".

The kamuros ceased their actions as she stepped away from the Ninja, one of them went up to him and asked "Ninja, will you save us?", trying find relief in the situation. "Yep, I was sent here after hearing some shoobed up human trafficking business being held down here." The Ninja answered, making her fall on her knees, thanking him as her kamuros sat down with her too.

"B-but, how will you save us, there's too many bad guys in this town?" A kamuro asked. Randy thought about it, taking a glance at the beautiful kimono hung up on a wall near him, he asked "what's up with that attention-seeking kimono over there? Is there an occasion or something?". The girl figured out what he was talking about.

"I'll be brought to a rich man's house tonight, I would perform there before giving my body to him but... I don't want to." Her gaze was fixed on the floor as he hummed, "I understand... Do you have any contact with other brothels before? I mean, do you know any more people who was kidnapped here with you?".

The girl nodded as a small smile formed on his face, "How about I take your place? I'll let you carry my plan for your escape while I keep the bad guys from messing with you?". The girl's eyes gleamed with hope, "Yes, yes I'll help you, thank you so much!".

"Then, here's the plan..."

---

A goldfish yokai yarite walked a fast pace towards a decorated door, it's design ornate that it looked like it belonged to a palace. She sighed sharply before banging on the door,

Bang bang bang

"Yukawa-chan your procession is about to start, are you done yet?!"

Two kamuros put together golden kanzashis on their oiran's lustrous black nihongami wig, to which was styled in Nageshimada. Their robes adding elegance as a manaita obi was tied to their waist. Not wanting to keep their yarite waiting, they exited their room.

"Now then, let's see what you're worth." The yarite smirked as she led her prized oiran to the sultry streets of Ishigano.

---

Cheerful music filled the atmosphere as the crowd began to gather on the main street, they watched as an oiran, whose beauty could be compared to a goddess, had shown herself for the entire town to see.

Her grace was flaunted as she looked at them with utmost playfulness, her smile making the hearts of men beat. Yujos stared at her with awe and jealousy as their clients had also joined in on the gaze. It was there that the legendary "River's Grace" that had come to parade in the filthy streets of Ishigano.

It was said that she had been blessed with the talent of dancing, able to flow with the winds as her body swayed like a river. All those who saw her perform kept begging for more, spending their fortune as they asked for more.

Randy tried to uphold the girl's reputation as he tries to copy the movements she taught him for the procession. He took the girl's place as he distracted the spirits, garnering their attention and let her and the others escape the cruel district. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under the crushing gaze of everyone, as if they stare at him like a delicate display.

"No wonder she hates this." He thought to himself as he put his foot out of his kimono, swinging it on the ground as his koma-geta screeched. As he marched through the procession, a mysterious figure watched from the roof, his long hair flowing with the wind as his eyes glowed dimly.

He took a peek, it was a male jorogumo yokai that was taller than him, his figure radiating seductiveness and domination as he caught the stares of everyone in the crowd. His six eyes observing them, his two other eyes and his mouth covered by a veil. He walked up to Randy and lifted a hand of his, placing a kiss on it as Randy stared in disbelief.

"It seems as though the Hinimasho House flaunts their greatest treasure, you'd make a fine woman." The jorogumo said as Randy fought his hardest not to look uncomfortable.

---

The person watching him from the rooftop observed him, his golden yellow eyes scan the scene that was happening before him. The "oiran" looked a lot like him. He thought as memories of a certain ninja began to unfold, their memories of fighting together, relaxing at each other's presence, holding conversations with one another.

He was snapped back to reality when the procession continued, "Damn insect, good for you to back off." The man sneered, his shining green hair flipping off as he followed the "oiran", stalking them.

---

As Randy was starting to feel like backing out, he finally saw the palace that he was sold to. He gulped, he doesn't know what to do when he gets inside, his mind started to form escape plans as his feet walked by itself. His imagination diminished when he faced the huge gate, it opened as he was let in.

The garden was exceptionally beautiful, tendered with care as different kinds of flowers and trees bloom in every corner, the sight calmed the teen's nerves as he now faced the door leading to his client. He went inside and was greeted with ornate decor, along with servants bowing down on him, one of them led him to the room where his client is.

Smoke poured out of the room as he saw his client, a large grotesque yokai with only one eye, his fangs pierced out of his mouth as his surprisingly well-built body hunched back, his arms placed on his knees and his legs crossed. A detail the teen noticed is that there are two yujos sitting near the yokai, looking intoxicated as the yokai blew smoke right in front of their faces, becoming more intoxicated and turned on.

Randy forcefully tried to not scrunch his nose at the scene, the smoke spread everywhere in the room yet he didn't feel any intoxication from it, he thanked the drug resistance excercises the Nomicon taught him. Then, the yokai spoke, "Hello my dear, it's a blessing to have the "River's Grace" be mine for tonight, I'm Tanzashi Yokiwo but for this night, call me Zashi-sama."

Randy's mind raced for a response, "I'm honoured that I had... the chance to pleasure the... master of the Tanzashi family...". Zashi let out a powerful laugh as he launched his head back, Randy forced a small chuckle before stiffening up his resolve.

Looking around the room, there were more windows than he expected, or maybe they're doors, it confused him but he'll think about it later. The two yujos looked like they were forced into this as one of them gave Zashi a lap dance while shaking, the other tried to pry off of him but he kept a firm grip on her shoulders, quieting her rebellion.

He felt pity on the poor women, if only there were something to keep the smoke out. Suddenly, the  Nomicon's neon arrows pointed at one of those windows, he opened a window, letting out most of the smoke as Zashi questioned his actions. "Ah it's because... well the moon is a better scenery to... y'know...". Randy answered, earning a playful smirk from the yokai.

The yokai stood up as he put a finger on his chin, lifting his face up to see the yokai face to face, "Quite an eager one, aren't you?". The teen shuddered at his intention as he looks away, disgusted at the thought. It seems as though he isn't the only one disgusted at the yokai, the figure with green highlighted hair looked as though he was about to vomit at the sight.

The figure thought for a second, "Wouldn't hurt to help his mentee, won't it? oh what a favor I'm doing for him." He jumped down from the tree he was stalking on as he slithered into the shadows, entering the house to help the poor ninja.

"Haha, y-you flatter me Zashi-sama but first, I'll perform the... shamisen, perhaps humor you before I'm yours tonight." Randy said, gritting his teeth at the last part. The yokai quirked his eyebrows, "Oh, but where's you shamisen?". Randy pretended to look around to find his "missing shamisen", which he certainly doesn't have.

"Oh my, I think i must've left it back at my quarters, do you know where I can fetch a shamisen?" He covers his mouth with his sleeve as he looked away shyly. "I'll get my servants to get a shamisen for you. Hey you! Get the-". Randy cut him off, "Oh but I insist, I- uhh... it would be nice to have a servant to accompany me on getting a shamisen, it would also be a great opportunity to explore the house of Master Tanzashi."

His hope to get away from the yokai was answered as the yokai agreed to have a servant accompany him to get his shamisen. With a thankful smile, he walked out as fast as he can out of the room as a servant accompanied him, though as they began to walk together, he noticed the strange aura that surrounds the servant. When he got a glimpse at who he is walking with, the servant greeted him with a mischievous smile.

This made Randy very wary that he slipped out a knife hidden under the manaita obi and pointed it at the man with a swift swing. "Who are you?" He threatened but it only made the servant chuckle, "Chase Young, pleased to meet you." The servant who introduced himself as Chase put down his knife with only a finger, though Randy's stance didn't change.

"You seem to be on a mission, ninja? I suppose the both of us have the same intention of assassinating that thing?" Chase asked, making Randy widen his eyes as the servant knew who he was. He changed his posture again and hid his knife once he saw a few other spirits pass by, the both of them continuing their walk so as to not be suspicious.

"I plan to shut this entire district down and free all the poor souls trapped in here, killing that shoob was a part of it."

He tried to make a stern face as he greeted the other servants with a quaint smile, trying very hard not to break his facade. "Quite a far-fetched dream my dear ninja, even if you did manage to shut this district down, he would still have another one to operate. And once you destroy that too, he'll just rebuild this district and it'll be a cycle." Chase whispered, earning silence then a click on the tongue by the "oiran" beside him.

They stopped at a room that is filled with, what they theorized, was heirlooms and... bingo! Wine. It seems that both of them shared the same idea as the teen grabbed the largest one in the stack, he was about to grab a drug from under the covers of his chest when the servant reached out his hand, offering something like a drug to him.

"Mortal drugs don't affect yokais like him, use this and he'll fall down instantly." He said, Randy murmuring thanks as he grabbed it and popped it in the wine. The wine lightens its colors a bit as he closed off the wine bottle. As they walk back, the teen suddenly remembered what Chase had told him. He?

"Who's he you were talking about earlier? Is he—" They had reached the dreaded room, before he could enter, Chase stuck out a smirk "You'll know him when you meet him." And with that, he was back at the room. As he entered...

Oh... What the fuck?

What was displayed in front of him was... obscene for better wording. The yokai had a yujo placed on his lap as he played with her boobs, the other yujo had been rubbing her boobs on his arm. Randy blushed at the lewdness presented to him, "No white makeup will be able to hide my embarrassment if this continues to happen." He thought to himself.

Though, as he observed further, the yujos were tearing up at what they were doing, clearly uncomfortable but was unable to stop the actions of their master, their abuser.

Randy, with seethed anger, gritted his teeth as he approached the yokai who was filled with uncontrollable lust. Once the yokai had seen the "oiran", he shoved the drugged yujos away from him as he puts his hand on the other's waist. They sat down as the "oiran" kneeled in front of him, with a bottle of wine in his hand, the woman of his fantasy commanded "Open your fucking mouth."

The yokai, filled with ecstasy, had obliged as he opened his mouth, chugging the wine as he threw the wine out of his way. Both his hands grabbed the collar of the kimono, he laughed, all his fortune that he had saved, all he worked for, was all to be spent on the oiran in front of him.

The very first day he set eyes on her, he fell in love, he courted her with gifts and tried to woo her, now that she was within her grasp, he couldn't control himself. As he tore off the kimono, he began to fantasize what he would do to her, to make her moan and bitch out as he break her, to hear her scream his name and to mark her his. Oh, my love, here I come. He then tore off the under kimono and saw... a flat chest.

He looked at the oiran and before he could even process, pushed him down as he felt as though he couldn't move. He then saw the oiran's wig fall out of their face as they wipe out their makeup, it was a man. That fact broke him as he screamed in anger.

Randy was annoyed at how much the yokai screamed, he grabbed the knife and plunged it deep on his jugular, the screaming stopped as he killed the yokai. The other two yujos shook in terror as they saw the man who had been assaulting them killed by the oiran.

The killer began to approach them as they sat in the corner hugging each other, "Look, girls listen, I'm going to get you out of here. Do any of you know who Yukawa is? Y'know, the actual Yukawa?" The killer asked, the both of them shocked at what he had said. One of the yujos nodded their head, confirming that they do know her.

"Great! Listen, you see that window I opened, go out there and go to the abandoned brothel located at the back of the Yuhido brothel near the entrance of this shoobed up district, you'll be able to meet up with Yukawa and the others there. Now go, my sand ninjas will protect you."

He directed as he pulled out two sand ninjas from the ground out of the window with an incantation. Amazed by the man's abilities, they decided to trust him as they jumped out the window, thanking him for their freedom as they followed the sand ninjas, leaving Randy in the room.

He cracked his neck as he took a peek out of the room, he saw a bunch of Zashi's subordinates and fighters gathering, he snatched his head back to the room as he started to get ready for the fight. He was about to get the mask out from the collar of his kimono when his enemies began pouring into the room. With no choice, he removed some articles of clothing that restricted him to fight and grabbed a katana displayed on a wall.

All the yokais lunged at him as they tried to pierce him with their weapons, he dodged as he swung the blade on one of them, slashing off their neck as they choked on their own blood. He then plunged his katana on another yokai deep on their chest, pushing them off and getting ready to kill the others.

He used his heightened hearing as he dodged an attack for his head, he quickly crouched and swung out his leg, knocking some of his attackers down as he stood up to stab most of them. While distracted, one of them managed to grab his head as they forcefully slammed him onto the wall. With the world spinning, he tried to focus on the upcoming attacks his enemies would bring.

Randy closed his eyes and let his nose and ears sense his surroundings, he then pinpointed the enemies around him as he slashed his katana through them, stabbing them and mostly being docile, dodging and killing them next. When he heard the last of his attackers fall, he opened his eyes to see what he had done to them.

He hadn't noticed that he was out of the room and was now standing in what seems to be a living room. Blood was splattered everywhere as bodies were littered throughout the entire room. He panted at the exhaustion brought on to him, he was about to sit down on one of the couch when he heard a rumble on the ground, as if there were tons of footsteps raining down on them.

He sighed as he put on the mask, transforming him into the Ninja. He ran out of the estate as he jumped from roof to roof to avoid attention, he looked at the horde of yokais panicking at the news of what happened to the master of Tanzashi. He clicked his tongue at the sight as he moved, not wanting to be caught.

---

The male jorogumo heard the news, his smile malicious as his nerves began to excite. Haigoru had been sent to get in his way, her skills useful to toy with the Ninja. "Sensei." A young male's voice echoed throughout the room, the jorogumo glanced at the skilled hatamoto before turning back to stare at the window.

The winds blew as the moon shined brightly, the night still on going. "Haishin, be ready to fight when Haiguro falls back, the Ninja's strength is still unmeasured. Hide in the shadows and watch the fight, don't step in until you know she's too weak to fight." The male jorogumo ordered as the young samurai bowed, leaving with all his weapons in place.

He soon heard his subordinate jump from roof to roof, he smirked, thinking patting them on their heads regardless if they lose or win the fight. "What a fine boy, so protective of her." He whispered as the moon shine touched half of his entire body, revealing the golden patterns on his poncho.

---

The streets were a mess, the defenseless yokais run about as the other yokais chose to fight the Ninja who had infiltrated the town. The Ninja had managed to free most of the victims and had let Yukawa take care of them as they escaped. The others, he couldn't find them, wishing them peace as he readied his katana.

He swung and swung as the horde kept coming, blood from both the Ninja and the yokais had been smeared all throughout the place. When the horde calmed down just a little to give him room to breathe, he jumped up to the roof as he rained them down with kunais and air fists. Screams from fallen yokais emerged through the streets of Ishigano as they are hit with poison, most of them melted as the others had their bodies stiffened so much they couldn't move. Haigoru saw the mess with a clear view, she held disdain for the Ninja, "Our clients, that rat-shit imbecile." She whispered with anger as she felt Haishin walking behind her.

"You have no need to stand there, go and toy with him." He said with an unbothered tone, he was met with an emotionless face, "Gladly." She said as she leaped out of the roof she was standing on, leaving the young samurai to watch over her.

Randy slumped over some wall on the alley as he stopped some major bleeding on his right arm, tying it up with cloth. He regretted getting the attention on him, he sighed. A shadow formed in front of him, he looked to see a young girl, dressed like the other women he saved standing there, her face unrecognizable and holding a fan tight. He walked up to her and kneeled down, clearly she's stressed with what's happening in here.

"Hey kid, you alright? Listen, follow me and I'll show you the way—" he was surprised to find the fan had a blade on it as he very narrowly dodged the weapon, jumping back to stand up and finally seeing the little girl clearly. Her face is emotionless as her eyes were pure black, her cheeks shined like porcelain though something tells him the girl is feeling more than what her face shows.

"You're the Ninja? How foolish can you be to not see my true form? Pathetic." The girl's voice, although still young was forcefully deepened, trying to be intimidating as she still held the fan, pointing it at him.

Suddenly, she bursted into a sprint as she held on to her bloodthirst as her motivation. She quickly was able to slash his leg with a shallow cut as he kicked her on the stomach, launching her up but was able to stick on the wall. He looked up as he threw a kunai at her, dodging it as she dislodged from the wall, "Ninja Cold Ball!" He threw a cold ball on where she would land, causing her to slip.

Faced with humiliation, her face cracked as he lunged at him again, this time grabbing his collar as they were launched out of the alley, crashing onto a brothel as the lights flickered due to the impact. The crash left a huge rubble on the floor as Randy stood up to find the little girl.

He saw her fan thrown at him as he moved to left, but to his surprise, it opened and also swung to the left. He bowed his head down just in time as the fan managed to hit some hair in his scalp, it retreated out of the brothel as it entered the hole in the wall they created.

Randy stood up and ran out of the ruined brothel, spotting the little girl as he threw an explosive ball on her. It exploded as part of a building turned to bits and pieces. Smokes clouded the area as he launched himself out of the alleyway, landing on a roof. He then heard the girl shriek as she threw herself at him again, this time with more rage.

She stabbed his shoulder as he punched her face, hearing it crack as he stumbled back. She stood still as she touched her face, feeling the cracks he caused, she clenched her fists, "You fucking bitch!!" The little girl screamed.

Randy was about to block her attack when he sensed something running behind him, he jumped as high as he could and saw another figure the same size as the little girl. The figure looked at him, letting him see the painted makeup usually seen on Kabuki actors, also a kid. He looked like a samurai with his attire, their face forever angry as he covered his head with a kasa hat.

Randy sensed foreboding danger with the two kids together, as though someone more powerful is protecting the both of them. "Need a hand?" A voice he's all too familiar with was heard from behind his back. He spun around and saw a tall figure with flowing green hair and dressed in some ancient Chinese armor that he knew from when he and Jake were studying Chinese history.

"And you're?" Randy asked, earning a chuckle from the figure, "Chase Young. Pleased to meet you, ninja." The two kid warriors stood in shock, feeling great power presented in front of them. The Ninja agreed for the temporary alliance as they stood against the two kid warriors.

The atmosphere soon changed when the male jorogumo stood behind the two kid warriors. "Hmm, it's been long since you and I finally meet, Chase." The jorogumo chuckled with a deep tone of voice. "Oh how long was it? 800 years? Honestly would've thought you've gained wrinkles but I suppose I'd have heard your scream of vanity if that were to happen, isn't that right? Rokumeyoku-san." Chase mocked, a frown forming on the jorogumo's face.

Randy wasn't sure what to do, his enemies were bad news, even his ally is bad news. He feels as though that, even if they win this battle, he's sure that something bad is gonna happen to him afterwards. He thinks of breaking the little reunion but he knew that it's rude. "Think, think! How do you get yourself out from this." He thought to himself, then he remembered the Nomicon's lesson earlier on.

A mask is worn for -> !¡DECEPTION¡!, not for ××ATTENTION××

He grabbed a smokebomb and stared at it for while, figuring out how to get out once he had done this action.

He then felt the atmosphere change again, he saw Rokumeyoku charging towards them. "Smokebomb!" He shouted as he threw the smokebomb on the ground, smoke spreading out as he hid his presence, using his scarf as he swung out of the battlefield. Once the smoke cleared out, Chase saw his partner leave, his chance to meet him slipped out of his hands. He dodged the obvious attack of the six-eyed yokai as his subordinates fought alongside him.

"You're gonna pay for that..."

Chase growled as he used his martial arts, throwing in punches and kicks, making them pay for letting him miss his chance to see him.

Randy finally saw the entrance of this damned district, he leaped out and met with Yukawa on the road getting the victims in a truck big enough to store them in. Another yujo named Hifanyi manned another truck and had the other ladies in there. "Thank cheese you're safe." He sighed in relief as Yukawa placed a hand on his shoulder, "No, thank you. You've saved us from this hellish place and gave us hope in escaping." He saw the women smiling dearly at him, he shot a smile back as some of them looked away, feeling flustered.

"Well, as much as we wanted to celebrate, it's best that we go now, we can't stay here. Goodbye, Ninja." Yukawa said as the Ninja nodded, Yukawa went to the truck and drove away along with Hifanyi. He was alone in the forest, he shivered when he felt Chase's presence behind him. He turned around and saw him standing on the top of a tree, the moon shining on his back.

"I didn't think you'd chicken out of our fight, Ninja?" He said, poison laced in his words. "No, of course not, I had to make sure the victims were safe." Randy answered, Chase laughed, "Sure you did. Though I appreciate weakening one of his subordinates, made the fight less troublesome."

Randy stared at him with a scared expression, "You killed them?". "Ha! If only, six-eyes managed to get them out before I caved both their faces in. How great would it be though if I did?" He was right about his feeling, this guy's way more dangerous than the jorogumo.

"Thanks for... handling the fight." Randy bowed to show some respect. He looked up, Chase had his arms crossed. "Hmm fine, I suppose I should thank you for l gave me a worthy opponent to stretch my muscles with." He hummed, cocking his head to the left.

Randy, seeing as how relaxed Chase is, turned around and was about to leave when,

"Just say hi to the First Ninja for me."

"Wait WHAT—" Randy twisted his head to Chase's direction but found him gone. He looked everywhere but the man was nowhere to be found. He sighed, he should report this event to First Ninja once he was back at home.

"Ninja Comet Sprint!" He chanted as he sprinted out of the forest and into the road, heading back to Norrisville. As the sun began to peak from the mountains, Chase watched the Ninja run on the road.

"How foolish, leading me right to your humble home."

He let out a smirk, following the Ninja.

"First Ninja, oh how I've missed you."

[cringefaecompilation]

been thinking about how essek is only ever said to be a person of color (using the forgotten realms drow lore that cr retconned explicitly because of its violent racism) by white fans as a gotcha whenever anybody complains about him getting fandom preferential treatment and how he gets defended from literally any criticism. like he is a white man. you see him as a white man nine times out of ten.

and i know it's only for a gotcha because i've seen how the fandom treats actual poc. how gilmore is mocked for being part of "yaoi" with vax and said to not actually contribute to the narrative outside gay shipping. how beau was and in some cases still is put down to prop up caleb. how people violently bash veth and widobrave. how dorian is whitewashed into being a generic Fantasy British prince because people only recall the silken squall through a game of telephone from fanfic. how fy'ra, opal, and nydas are completely ignored by fandom. how laerynn is treated as the most evil and irredeemable member of the ring of brass. how people accuse deanna of being emotionally abusive to an actual GOD. how people see bor'dor as pure manipulative evil from day one (when previously they saw him as an "innocent golden retriever boyfriend" before the reveal) and conveniently forget that prism, laudna and orym pitied him and wished things were different.

hell i think a lot of people even contribute to dorian's whitewashing by treating d/orym as shado/wgast 2. but it's worse when he's expected to be the caretaker and emotional support for every single white character the authors like (magical indian stereotype much?) as opposed to essek who's either treated as a person on the same level as caleb or elevated.

[liknws]

[ 002 ] confidential (don't tell jisung).

⎯⎯ PAIRING: lee minho x reader/oc ⎯⎯ TAGS: enemies with serious tension, childhood friends to enemies, revenge eras, college au, angst, bad humor bc i'm not as funny as i think i am, misunderstandings, unrequited feelings ⎯⎯ RATING: 18+, mature ⎯⎯ WARNINGS: so much swearing, drinking, everyone is an asshole this time (except mae she is baby), suggestive but non explicit themes ⎯⎯ WORD COUNT: 4k (4,378)

⎯⎯ SUMMARY: karma (kar·ma) defined as "(in hinduism and buddhism) the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences". you've always been a big believer in karma and the universe, knowing that eventually all energy is returned. so when your life is ruined by someone you used to call your best friend, you wonder why karma is taking it's sweet time in retaliating against him. what hurts more is your university won't punish something based on hearsay and so it's up to you to find the proof that lee minho is an evil mastermind and get his ass removed from school for good.

[ masterlist ]

“You should have seen them! It’s like they were two different people.” Chan is used to Minho’s personality switch when he’s dancing, when he’s in his element, having been around Minho for years since he started taking it seriously. He wasn’t prepared to see you though, to see how different you are when you’re in that world too. He thought you looked otherworldly, it truly astounded him to watch you the other week in the studio.

“As if there wasn’t a single thing wrong between them?” Hyunjin leans on the counter, palms flat against the smooth quartz of the serving bar. Chris leans against the other side, though his back is to his friend. It’s not uncommon for one or more of the boys to visit Hyunjin while he works and despite the basic war that propped up last winter, the cafe has always been a neutral ground. Even Minho and you can respect that, though that usually meant if you two were in at the same time that you would sit at different tables on complete opposites of the cafe. Chan considers that a small victory.

“So Mae and I made a bet.” He looks a little too pleased and that makes Hyunjin slightly nervous. “Don’t look at me like that, you’ll like this.” Chan turns to lean into Hyunjin, voice dropping to a whisper to explain the bet. “It’s confidential so—”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t tell Jisung, I know.”

・❥・

You’re exhausted and you feel like everything aches. Even your teeth hurt but that could be from clenching them in anger everytime you so much as glance at Minho. “He has to be doing this on purpose,” you grunt out while dropping into the empty spot in the little corner table your friend is currently occupying. Mae doesn't need to ask who you’re talking about, there’s only one person that brings this kind of frustration out of you.

“You two share a major, I’m sure he’s not doing it on purpose,” Mae retorts while sliding your iced latte in front of you. “Don’t.” She puts a finger on your lips to silence your immediate argument, shaking her head. “I know you two hate each other but this is a new year, you’re doing better than you have been in months. Don’t let him ruin it- you’re better than him. He isn’t worth the energy or anger this year. Just- just pretend he doesn’t exist.”

You hate that she has a point, a great one at that. Somehow it was just easier to hold onto the hate, the anger, than try to let it go. You’re not sure if you can ever really let it go. Holding the anger is a reminder that he’s no longer your best friend, he isn’t the same boy you would run around the neighborhood with.

He’s certainly not the same boy you gave your first kiss to that winter before you were moving. You didn’t know it at the time that you were leaving, otherwise you never would have done it. He never said it but you saw the hurt in his eyes the day you told him you were moving to Scotland to be with your mom’s family. He didn’t think you saw him after you walked away but you’d turned back to say something else and just watched as pre-teen Minho walked home with his shoulders slumped and throwing the small crumpled note into the brush.

You went back for that note after he was out of sight. His confession. You keep it in a journal, pressed between the pages of your own words of love for him that he never got to know. You carried his silent confession with you for years, regret hanging on your shoulders like a cape. He was the brave one, he was going to tell you the secrets of his heart. You had blurted the move out before he could, fearful of the change in your friendship and hurting him. You’d done it anyway but at least this was something he could heal from, that he could patch up and carry on once it was over. You couldn’t live with yourself if you’d hurt him any other way.

“You’re right,” you grumble, head falling forward until your forehead is pressed onto the tabletop. “But why would he suddenly be interested in taking a classical ballet class? It’s like he’s trying to purposely insert himself into my life. You don’t see me signing up for his stupid hip-hop classes.”

“He is a performance major. He has to take introductory level classes to other styles as part of his degree.” Of course Mae has a logical explanation for him invading your sanctuary. Her next words make you lift your head in a glare. “Don’t you have to take a hip hop introduction for your choreography requirements?” At the look she laughs, reaching over to pat your arm reassuringly and slide the untouched drink closer to you. “Drink the coffee. You’ll feel better.”

“You’re not you when you’re uncaffeinated.” Lucy’s comment from behind the counter brings you all to giggles, effectively lifting your mood with the joke. She stands as close as she can while working but the busy time has set in now that classes have started to end for the week.

You don’t notice, or you prefer not to pay attention, to the larger group of boys looking in your direction. Most of them look on with indifference, a few smiling as they watch your mood become better. One, however, scowls in your direction.

“Stare any harder, Min, and you’re going to set them on fire.” Jisung elbows his friend in the ribs, laughing. The others chuckle as well, adding in their own comments about how Minho is glaring at your table. It snaps him from his glare, turning the annoyance to his best friend before sitting back in his seat silently. “What’s up?” The younger questions with concern, leaning in a little to Minho.

“Nothing, ‘is fine,” he mumbles, though refusing to look at Jisung is a solid tell that he’s hiding something. Chan looks over and catches eyes with Minho, sharing another look of concern. “Seriously, nothing’s up.”

“He’s mad because the intro class he has this semester is the one that they’re the TA of.” Felix is quick to fill in the others, having been on the receiving end of Minho’s frustration and near begging to have Felix be the TA instead of you. “He’s mad that neither Hyun nor I are TA’s this semester. Sorry,” he continues, meeting Minho’s eyes with an apologetic smile. “But we have too much this year to fit it in.”

“Can’t you drop the class and get another one next semester?”

“No.” The one word answer is full of every range of anger and annoyance he could feel in the moment. “The ballet intro class is only done this semester and there’s only one. If I didn’t need the classical credit I would bail.”

“That’s rough buddy.” Changbin claps Minho on the shoulder with a laugh, earning chuckles from the rest of them. “Who knows, maybe this is a blessing?”

“Wait,” Jeongin interjects, leaning forward to wave his hand to catch everyone’s attention. “Who are they and why does Minho hate them?”

“Oh right, you weren’t around for all of this,” Hyunjin says. He leans back, throwing an arm over the youngest’s shoulders and pointing at the table where you sit with your friends. “Those four. Mae and Cherry are in the dance department with us. The other two are Cherry’s best friends.”

Your ears start burning and lifting your head, you catch Hyunjin pointing at you. Sending him a confused look before flipping him off, you don’t pay it much more attention. Had it been anyone else at the table you might have broken the unspoken treaty but Hyunjin is … well Hyunjin and gets a pass.

“Chan, Minho, and Cherry used to be best friends. Grew up together,” Changbin adds. “They both had feelings for them.” The protest from the mentioned two is immediate, sugar packets being thrown at Changbin. “They keep denying it but we all know it’s true.” He jumps up with a laugh, skirting around Chan’s lunge at him. His words are punctuated with laughter as Chan chases after him out of the cafe.

You’re trying to hide your smile behind your coffee at the sight, swatting at Mae when she dares tease you about watching.

“Chan’s thing was when they were kids and back in first year. Don’t tell him I said that.” Hyunjin is quick to continue after the other two have departed, rapidly adding the details before either of them return. Minho is glaring at him but the look is ignored.

“Did they go to a different high school?” Jeongin asks, still completely lost on the reason for the animosity between the groups.

“Sort of. They moved overseas with their family before the start of middle school. Came back to go to university.” Jeongin nods along with what Hyunjin is saying, eyes wide as he takes in all the information. “We don’t actually know why they started hating Minho? But it was right away. They reconnected with Chan first and he was talking all these great things about them and it was before Min decided to add a second major so the first year they weren’t really seeing each other- you following so far, baby bread?”

“They hate me because they’re a stuck up bitch who can’t take a joke. Even with surgery to remove the stick up their ass, they’d still be a bitch.” Minho jumps in with a glare at Hyunjin. “Maybe if they would loosen up, have a little fun, they wouldn’t be such an insufferable person. We were only friends because our mom’s forced us to hang out as kids. They liked Chan and chased after us everywhere, it was so annoying. I was glad when they moved.”

What Minho fails to notice is the look of horror on everyone’s face at the end of his speech. The look of horror because you’ve come to a stop behind him and heard most of what he had to say. Only when you lean down next to Minho, putting yourself between Seungmin and him does he realize what’s happened.

“Don’t forget to add that he pimped me out to a senior in the music department last year. Convinced this guy I would sleep with him on the first date and even paid him to take me on a date. After that though, this is Min’s favorite part so pay attention, guys from every department started trying to get me to sleep with them. Lots of great stories started popping up about me around campus about how good of a fuck I am and that Minho is willing to pay anyone to sleep with me because I’m too pathetic for a date of my own. The harassment was so bad that I took time off school so I could go at least one day without some guy on campus trying to touch something he shouldn’t. Can’t forget your favorite part, can we Min?” You pat his shoulder with a bit too much force as you stand up. Turning to Jeongin, the one face you’re not familiar with, you give a chilling smile. The others have gone silent.

You don’t glance back at Minho so you don’t see how his ears turn red and the slight flush to his cheeks. Your eyes never leave Hyunjin and Jeongin, though that chilling smile has warmed up a little. “If you’re going to tell the story, present all the facts. I might be a bitch but it’s only because Minho is the biggest fucking cocksucker I’ve had the absolute displeasure of ever knowing.” A glance at the table before you raise your hand, fingers wiggling in a wave. “See you around.”

Bumping into Chan and Changbin as you turn around tells you that they were there for it, having come back inside to watch your little scene with their friends. Chan’s hands come up in a show of innocence, backing away as if you’re likely to attack him next. Mae mouths her apologies to the rest of them, shooting a look around at the eight sets of eyes that watch as you calmly storm from the cafe.

Everyone settles back into their seat, a tense silence washing over everyone as if waiting to see what happens next. Minho breaks the silence by laughing, shaking his head in disbelief. “Total fucking bitch.” His exit is quick, shoving his chair back as his backpack is slung over one shoulder. Jisung is quick to follow after him, hoping to calm down Minho. “See you guys at the party later,” he says as he departs, Jisung on his tail out of the cafe.

“So there’s a bet going on.” Hyunjin barely waits for the door of the cafe to close behind the parting two before spilling the whole idea. Huddled together, he shares the details of the bet with a smile. Soon the look is mirrored on everyone’s face as Chan fills in the details that Hyunjin missed or forgot. Soon enough cash is being slapped on the table’s surface as they all want in on this bet.

“Add me to that,” Lucy adds, her hand slapping to the top of the pile with a grin. “Elsie wants in on it too. She’ll get her money to Hyunjin next shift— Don’t look at me like that Chris. Your group isn’t as quiet as you think you are.” She departs back to work with a laugh. There are shared looks of mischief as each person starts thinking of ways to win the bet.

・❥・

Of course winning the bet for Lucy or Mae meant getting you out of the house. Elsie had declined on pretense of an early shift at the cafe so you’re left at the whims of your other two best friends. Both link arms with you, each on either side, standing in front of the house that seems to vibrate with the music. Every color of lights spill from the open windows, carrying with it the sound of deep bass of your favorite songs.

“Guys- no. Seriously, I was fine with a party but not one on the Row. You promised.” Your protest is ignored, both pulling you by the arm in an attempt to get you into the house.

“It’s the end of Rush Week. You know these are the only parties worth going to.” Lucy tugs harder on your arm, making you stumble a little. You’re grateful that you at least won against the wearing of high heels and instead have your favorite sneakers on.

“Why do I feel like you’re setting me up to get into something tonight? Or is this some weird way of getting Mae and Felix to finally get together? Don’t give me that look, you two are the least subtle people ever. Seriously just kiss him already, you two would be fucking cute together.”

Lucy is laughing, though still tugging on your arm. Mae’s given up in her flustered state. One down.

“Don’t get me started on you and Hyunjin, Lu.” She stops, mouth gaping. Mae’s the one giggling now.

“You promised that was a secret!”

“And you promised no parties with the Greeks. Looks like we’re both assholes now.” They both drop your arms, Lucy glaring at you while Mae hits you with puppy dog eyes. Somehow, in a way you don’t understand, the combination of both those looks does you in. “Fine! Fine,” you relent. “I’m leaving at the first sight of Mean Hoe. Deal?” You’ll take the excited squeals as confirmation to your deal.

That’s how you find yourself a few drinks deep and dancing in the middle of a makeshift dance floor. Someone’s hands are on your waist and you’re too drunk to care about who they are, or that they’re traveling a little too far down your hips. You’re barely aware of the way the person’s fingers are trailing the inside of your thighs, trying to brush against the more sensitive areas of your body. You are aware when that person is shoved hard away from you, making you whip around in confusion and surprise.

The sight of the stranger being shoved again has you jumping forward, grabbing hold of the assailant’s wrist and pulling him off the other. “What the fuck— Minho?” Now you have to be really drunk because why is Minho shoving some guy off you? “What are you doing?” He doesn’t answer, instead shifting out of your hold on his wrist and grabbing yours instead. You’re drunk and easy to overpower, using that to his advantage as he all but drags you to the upstairs.

“What was that?” Are the first words he flings at you, once you’re shoved into a dark room. The lights from the hallway are gone once the door is closed. You’re backing away from him until you feel a sink at your back.

“Never seen someone having fun before Minho? Weren’t you the one saying earlier today that I need to have fun? What the fuck is your problem?” The darkness is settled between you and the only light comes from under the door, not nearly enough to see him. You can only hear him step closer, and can only feel him reach for you again. There isn’t enough room for you to maneuver out of his hold, stuck as one hand grips your upper arm and the other settles on your cheek.

“Are you okay?” The question startles you, the softness in his voice bringing back a familiar fondness you once had for him. You remember the last time he touched you like this, when you had tried to teach him how to ice skate and ended up being the one to fall into the snowbank because you thought you could skate backwards. He’d helped you up then and looked you over to make sure you were okay. That had been the winter you kissed him, you’d been thinking of ways to do it for weeks and the need to do it had gotten so strong and he was so close.

“Blossom, are you okay?” The nickname makes you shiver and brings you from the memory. He’s the only one to ever call you that. Where Chan claims the name Cherry comes from your love of all things cherry flavored, it really comes from the spring that you and Minho went to see the Cherry Blossoms in Japan with your families. You don’t know why he started the name but all you cared about is how happy it made you.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m alright.” There’s barely any space between you two. The sounds of the party remain muffled to the other side of the door so both of you have dropped to whispering to each other. You still can’t see him, despite the time to let your eyes adjust, but that doesn’t bother you. You’re almost scared to see how he looks, almost knowing those brown eyes would be full of emotions you haven’t seen in him in so long. Not directed at you, at least.

“What are you doing?” He whispers still, his hold on you tightening just a little as he presses closer to you. Your hands come up to his chest but instead of pushing him off, you curl your fingers into the soft fabric of his shirt. “Why are you here?” He feels impossibly close, your bodies pressed together, chests rising and falling together. His forehead touched to your’s has the breath stuck in your throat.

“Having fun,” you reply finally. With him so close you can almost see his features. You swear you can see him look down at your lips after you’re done talking, that his nose brushes against yours and your breath is stuck again. The hand on your arm slides up, cupping the back of your neck so gently. This must be a dream, you reason. Minho would never be this soft with you, not really.

“That’s fun for you?” His tone lacks its usual venom, filled instead with confusion. As if he can’t believe that you would be pressing yourself against a stranger while drunk at a college party.

“It’s fun for you,” is your retort, trying to push yourself back into bantering with him but the words feel wrong. “Why can’t dancing with someone be fun for me?” He doesn’t answer right away and you’re about to shove him off you finally when his lips brush over yours. Not really a kiss, more like a ghost of a touch before his lips press to your forehead. You freeze.

“Because it wasn’t me, that’s why.” Words are muttered against your skin where his lips don’t leave your forehead. He presses another kiss before letting go and leaving the bathroom all before you have a chance to even take your next shuddering breath. What just happened?

・❥・

Saturday mornings after parties are always the same, all four of you stumbling to the living room for coffee and gossip. Elsie left for work too early but left you three with freshly made coffee on a timer. You had attempted to avoid the sacred roommate ritual with claims of needing to get more practice before your performance and left that morning with a promise that you’re okay and that all that happened with Minho had been a fight. You rush out too quickly for either one to argue to which you’re thankful. At least their hangovers have made them a little less invasive for now.

Lying feels awful, a growing weight in your stomach as if you swallowed stones and they keep multiplying each time you lie to your roommates. At least you don’t lie about wanting more practice. The whole dance department is having their showcase for Director Yun on Monday after classes are finished and you’re nervous. You’re debating just reusing your final dance and tweaking it instead.

Despite coming to work on your routine, your mind is only able to focus on the party last night. After Minho had left the bathroom you’d stayed there, sitting on the edge of the tub with your thoughts. The same thoughts that have you messing up your footwork and missing the timing of the routine. Confusion hangs on every thought: confusion from his actions, confusion on what he said, confusion on your own feelings.

You feel like you’ve been flung back in time to the winter before everything was hard, to a time when being around Minho made your heart race and left you with thoughts of the future with him. A future where you two were with each other always.

You’re just standing in the middle of the studio, your music having come to a stop minutes ago. The silence isn’t even noticed, you’re just staring at yourself in the mirrors across from you. Why you? Why of all people did he need to torture you? What about you wasn’t enough, maybe even good enough, that he would treat you so different from all the others on campus.

You’ve seen it since first year, the way he jumps from relationship to relationship as if playing hopscotch. Never staying still long enough to form any real bonds and only ever long enough to sleep with them a few times. Always a beautiful girl, always someone who hangs on his every word and jumps to please his every wish. He never used to be that guy- or so you assume. Maybe he was always going to be this guy but you hadn’t been around when his interest in the physical things became more important. You were thousands of miles away.

You weren’t the one to judge him, you had just wanted to catch up with your first friend. The person who shared all the same childhood memories. But when he ‘forgot’ who you were until Chan prompted him and then said he only ever hung out with you because of your families? You’re not sure what heartbreak felt like then but you’re almost positive that was your first heartbreak.

From that moment you did what you could to avoid him, pretty easily in the first few months of first year since he wasn’t in the dance department yet. He was so different from the Minho you remembered, you just couldn’t believe that the kind hearted boy who saved the neighborhood cats with you and held your hand during thunderstorms is the same man now.

Your breaking point came near the end of the year. Not quite finals season but everyone had agreed to start getting together early in order to study together for the general classes you all shared. The group at the time was Chan, Changbing, Hyunjin, Minho, Mae, and yourself. Lucy and Elsie would pop in for moral support when working but the core became the six of you. The cafe becomes a second home to all of you during studying sessions.

You remember the point in which the tense animosity became a full on war between friends. Minho, on the far side of the table, sat bragging too loudly about his latest date. Short tempered as always, but irritated and wearing thin from the long studying hours, you snapped at him. You’d asked him what was wrong with him, what deranged alien species decided to body-swap with him.

He had laughed and just shrugged. “She threw herself at me. She knew what she was getting into when she asked to hang out.” The casual way in which he said it, disregarding the girl’s emotions, sets you off. You don’t remember half the names you call him, some of them flung his way in Gaelic because you’re so flustered you can’t think of translations in your head before your mouth is calling him anything you can.

The things said that night were some of the worst things you two have ever said to each other. So why had last night been a different Minho? Why had your soft best friend cornered you in that bathroom and almost kissed you? And why are you upset that he didn’t?

[writer-kad]

Resident Evil 2 R actor AU!

This is an idea that's been rattling in my head for like a month so here it is!

The actor's for Claire and Leon met in 6th grade when they saw a DvD of the original resident evil 2 at a sleepover and have been best friends and roomates ever since

Due to contract reasons they didnt know that they were playing the roles until they met on set.

As a suprise all living actors from the original Resident Evil 2 were on set with zombie makeup and played various zombies

The actor who played Mr.X accidentaly punched Leon in the face and knocked him out, this caused the movie to be delayed by a week

Ada wongs actress pretended not to understand english when she first met the rest of the cast.

Sherry's actor is a huge horror nerd and actually asked the director if she could keep a prop from the film, the director said no but Mr.X's actor gave her his hat after filming wrapped.

Every member of the cast that met Mr.X's actor thought he was the sweetest man they ever met

The actor for William Birkin is actually Sherry's actresses brother, no he isn't 36 he's 29 he just looks really old dw about it.

Claire and Ada's actors started dating soon after production ended with help from Leon's actor.

Due to the 5th Devil may cry sequel being shot at Capcom studio's at the same time, the actor for dante accidently walked onto set and was extremely confused at the scenery change.

Afterwards Mr.X who was a fan of the DMC movies got and autograph of Dante.

Claire's jacket mysteriously disappeared after shooting, it is rumored that Claire had stolen it from set, when asked about it at the oscars she said "Well i definitley didn't steal it and even if i did steal it's not like they were going to use it again." She then opened her purse to reveal what seemed to be the jacket.

Mr.X visited Leon in the hospital after knocking him out and gave him a baloon and a get well soon card that stated that he put freshly baked brownies that will help with the pain in his fridge. No one knows how he got in, as Claire was having ice cream with Sherry as a bonding excersise.

During the racoon city scenes, most of the zombies were just people livng in the area.

During the Ben Bertolucci scene, they didn't know when Mr.X was going to the burst through the wall, the original script for that scene was 2 pages long, and they just had to keep going until Mr.X broke the wall.

After Breaking the wall the cast realized that that was a REAL WALL and not a prop one and Mr.X had broken several bones.

Some of the most famous bloopers from the film was Ada saying "Well this wasnt the penetration i was looking for" after stabing the pipe in her leg.

When asked how her character survived Ada said "Man I dunno, just blame Wesker"

Marvin's actor actually interned during the filming of the orignal movie

The actor for Cheif Irons constantly made sure if Sherry was ok after various scenes

Claire's actress said that Sherry was one of the most professional child actors she'd worked with.

Mabey i'll make more stuff with RE2 like interviews and stuff or move on to 7

[adreamingofguns]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: tell me what you love about Saw

Takes your hands. We are going on a journey. I'm probably doing the reverse unpopular opinion thing wrong but ❤️ it's 5 am by me. we deal.

Personally I like that some of the traps are done with practical effects, much to the detriment of the VERY ENTHUSIASTIC cast who are surprisingly chill with almost drowning IRL and/or having to suffer through wearing 30+ lbs of jagged steel while having the flu and/or actually being stuck in the shackle prop because there was a malfunction while everybody else goes for lunch and/or requesting real glass for the stunt scenes and insisting on throwing real punches in the stunt fights because they're a masochistic freak of an actor (the masochism isn't the bad part, the EVERYTHING ELSE about him sucks) Some of the worst traps and effects are when they use cgi. Looks bad, tom.

I also appreciate that the through-line of the movie is not only justice (and the malformations of it) but also love. Love is what drives the characters to do what they do!! At least three of the apprentices/jigsawers do what they do because they are doing it for love of another person!! And not even romantic love for most of them. I love that the fandom has led me to more friendships and sparked more creativity in me that was lacking for a while. I love that the cast list is just random b-c list actors and also Greg Bryk is there and every time I see him I get jumpscared. I love that it gave me an idea for a tattoo (original idea do not steal!!!) where it'll say "do you like how brutality feels?" but in the shape of a spiral and I kinda wanna get it on the inside of my forearm.

As the adage goes, one must cultivate their online experience because there are some WEIRD ASS headcanons out there. That being said, I love and appreciate the people who are normal about the fat characters. I love that people banded together against an artist who was very adamant and weird about drawing fat characters (which there are a few) like twinks. I wish they kept that energy going. I LOVE that seeing a specific fat character and the way he's built/the way people draw him voluptuously (😂) gives me so much gender euphoria. I love when people acknowledge this character as an erudite and well-dressed man with an art degree and a secret passion for home remodeling (this is canon) who also happens to be a fat man. Like fat people are real three dimensional human beings or something. He's also super deranged and mows down like 70+ people at once in a spree that ends in him stuck and trapped, possibly killed and possibly just held captive by a cunty evil doctor in the basement of his own home like how in the Sims game where you make somebody live in the basement and paint constantly so you can make money selling the paintings.

I love how a few months ago on Twitter the fandom came together to mourn as the bot that goes through the script line by line came to a particularly devastating part and that stupid image of the cat puppet from the OLD Dr Who

(this image) was the only thing keeping me sane while I was in the trenches of crying in school over stupid bullshit.

I did my final in my religion in film class about Saw and used the following image. My professor and classmates were wowed.

Sadly the accompanying paper sucked major ass (I wrote it in the span of an hour and it's ADHD core topic jumping like HELL) but it got me an A and the respect of my asshole professor 😂

I ALSO LOVE HOW SAW FANDOM POSTS KEEP ESCAPING CONTAINMENT AND GETTING POPULAR AMONG THE GENERAL NON-SAW FANS LIKE THAT 50 GUNS AND VIBRATOR IN THE CAR CUP HOLDER DASH THING MEME THATS A SAW POST

I kinda rambled a bit sorry 😂 here's a gif of Peepaw Jigsaw himself zooted off his ass and staring at a fishtank in his ex-boyfriend's office.

[cyberphuck]

More rad canes (my balance has been getting worse and worse, so I have to look I to getting a "walking" cane; I already have a "standing" cane for home):

This one's slightly more discreet, it's a serious contender.

However the list of "people who got this also bought" is... slightly crazed insurrectionist-y:

And a helpful review from this guy who clearly thinks he's some kind of legendary warrior and absolutely listens to Joe Rogan:

... moving on

Neat prop cane with "working" steam engine, they do stress that it's a working steam engine, which does not seem like something you want to put your hand on

Find your way out of the woods while looking stylish!

Spyglass cane-- there were no reviews on this one, but I saw a similar one a few months ago and the reviews said the spyglass was fake and didn't spy :(

Super nice elephant cane, an old guy in the comments (he helpfully clarified he was 78) swore that he'd "done his research" and "looked into it" and that this cane that costs like 80 bucks is "rare and endangered Brazilian rosewood" which is illegal to own without a certificate that it was harvested legally and sustainably

Kaz Brekker cosplay cane, which I got kind of excited about until I saw the reviews that it was cheap garbage

And finally, a "why have you done this, why did you create me only to doom me to an agonizing existence as a horrible two-headed saddle monster, please, please find an ounce of mercy in your evil heart and kill me to relieve of this burden of suffering" cane. Very unique and beautiful!

I don't need a cane quite yet, maybe not for another year or so (fingers crossed). Hopefully by then I can get the same kind of taser came that got that one MAGA guy put in prison.