#regardless. they are done. i might change some of them later but for now. they are Done. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thevoidstaredback · 26 days

Note

So, I assume cores are like a ghosts version of autistic special interests, and assumedly not everyone becomes a ghost?

But what if Jack does, his core could be ghosts itself, and is one of the strongest fresh ghosts to be out there, one worthy of rivalling king Danny.

Oo! I like this. I haven't gotten too far into any world building, but let's see if we can do this some justice. I haven't ever written Jack, so this might be absolutely horrible. Also, most of my knowledge is purely fanon or what I made up on the fly.

Idk if this is what you wanted, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. <2

Jack Fenton had always loved ghosts. His parents read him ghost stories and myths and legends when he was growing up, his sister was very into the dark and macabre, and his brother even took him ghost hunting a few times!

Yes, the Nightingale family had been witch hunters, but an interest change came with the name change. It was a package deal, really. One that know one really registered until much later down the line.

At the end of his senior year, Jack meet Madeline. If you asked her, it was love at first sight. If you asked him, it was love at first fight.

Maddie, as she liked to be called, had been raised by her grandmother. The woman taught Maddie everything she knows about the supernatural, claiming to be a medium. No one ever believed her.

Jack had a friend throughout high school named Vlad. Vlad was, in every sense of the word, paranoid. He had measures against everything supernatural, metaphysical, real, ect. If you could think of it, he probably had something to counter it.

The three made quite the team in college. Maddie and Jack had applied to the same colleges, only going to the one that accepted them both. Vlad followed after them, saying that he didn't trust Jack to leave him on his own.

"Ridiculous!" Jack had whispered to Maddie, "He just doesn't like being alone."

Ghosts were the common interest between the three, having grow up around some kind of exposure, so when someone offhandedly mentions a theoretical way that a living being could enter the Realm of the Dead, well, they had to see if it was actually possible.

Which leads them to nearly twenty-three years later. Their research had gotten Vlad hospitalized, so he wasn't there to share in the success, but that hadn't stopped Jack and Maddie. They'd worked for years to build a portal into the Afterlife for the opportunity to study a real life ghost.

Their research, of course, had been shunned in many occult circles, but that's okay. Those guys were all quacks and crazies anyway. Who needs their approval?

Ghosts were the emotions of a formerly living being that had imprinted themselves on ectoplasm. The proof? There was a ghost attack on their college during their junior year. Everyone thought they had staged it because no one saw the ghost, but Jack, Maddie, and Vlad knew. They had gathered the small bit of glowing green goo to study it.

That glowing green goo had been what had powered up the portal when they got it build. They used it like a battery.

So why hadn't it worked?

Well, it worked eventually, but why had it taken nearly four hours after the initial activation of the portal?

Regardless, they had been right and now Amity Park was full of proof to prove themselves to everyone that had ever laughed at them! If only Vlad could've shared in the glorious moment. He's not dead! They just...lost contact shortly after Danny was born.

Jumping forward almost two decades, Jack and Maddie were sat down by their children, Jasmine and Danny. Apparently, Danny had been the one to activate the portal by dying. It was...a lot to process, but they were happy he had come to them, even if it had taken two years.

It made them rethink a lot of their thoughts over the years. But, you can't really teach an old dog new tricks, no matter how much you explain and demonstrate it.

They didn't hurt Danny! God, no. They'd already done that enough.

No, Jack and Maddie redoubled their efforts to study ghosts with the added intention of understanding them.

Everyone in Amity Park know that there's at least a 90% chance they'll become a ghost when they die. That is quickly lowered to a 50% chance when the understanding that intent matters in all situations, even death. Those who want to rest won't come back as a ghost. Those who have something to finish or do have a bigger chance of coming back. Maybe not with all their memories, but they might.

Maddie, when she died of a combination of radiation - because ectoplasm is barely radioactive, but consistent exposure for most of her life doomed her - and old age, wanted to rest. She had done enough in her life, so she was ready to leave it behind.

Jack, when he died of the same combination with the addition of pneumonia, wanted to be with Maddie. But he also wanted to finally finish what he and Maddie and Vlad had started all those years ago.

Upon his death, Jack remembered a conversation he'd had shortly after Danny had come clean about being Phantom.

"Dann-o?" Jack had asked one morning.

"Hey, dad," Danny had tried to smile, but he seemed so tired. He was always tired. Had he always been this tired? Was this a new thing? Jack was horrified that he didn't know.

Jack had sat down next to his son on the couch, not too close as to be imposing, but close enough to be comforting. "What's wrong?"

Danny took a very long time to answer, words seeming to fall apart in his mouth. "Are you and mom going to keep trying to capture ghosts?"

Jack blinked. Why wouldn't they? There was still so much to know! So many theories to prove or disprove! So much locked potential that no one was ever going to look into again simply because no one else thought it possible!

"I mean-" Danny scrunched his nose in thought, trying to piece the words together in a way that someone who couldn't read his thoughts or be in his head could understand. "You and mom have worked to study ghosts for basically your whole lives. But, now that you know I am one, are you going to stop? Like, are you going to stop hunting them - us - down? Are you guys going to keep trying to hurt us?"

Oh. Oh. He's- Danny, he's- he's worried that they'll hurt him? "Oh, Danny," he said, "It was never our intention to hurt you."

"But-!"

"But we can't just drop everything. We've been doing this our whole lives almost, like you said. What are we supposed to do if we stop it all?"

Danny didn't say anything. In fact, he looked devastated. Why..?

Oh. Oh.

"It's not like that!" Jack was quick to say, "We're-we're not going to hunt ghosts any longer. If anything, we'll probably just want to ask some questions? I don't really know. I'll have to talk to your mom about it some more, but- We don't want to hurt you, Danny. It was never our intention."

Danny had been very quiet and a bit distant for the rest of the week after that. Unless, he'd always been like that? But he opened back up a little while later.

Jack and Maddie had never really completed their research on ghosts, so it's no surprise that one of them would come back as the thing they spent their lives after. But now came the question of what Ghost!Jack's obsession is.

It's usually seen as insensitive to ask a ghost what their Obsession is. But, if you know what their Obsession is, most are beyond thrilled to share it with you, basically info dumping everything they know about the subject, sharing related items, and learning more with you. It's a fun experience for all involved, especially if two or more ghosts have the same or similar enough Obsessions.

Really, it shouldn't have been a surprise that Jack Fenton's Obsession was Ghosts, considering his life.

Once that was a widely known fact, though, some began to wonder what his core and powers would be. Aside from, of course, the basic power set that all ghosts get when they become a ghost.

Cores and powers go hand in hand with a ghost's Obsession. Sometimes they amplify one another, sometimes they compliment one another. Very rarely are they the same thing.

For example, King Phantom's core is ice, his Obsession is protection, and his powers relating to that of ice, mostly offensive and defensive focuses. Ember's core is fire, her Obsession music, and her powers are similar to those of the sirens of myths.

You get the idea.

Then again, the Fenton Family has never been normal, has it? Not even as far back as when they were the Nightingale Family.

King Phantom had figured out one day what his father's powers were, and, consequently, his strength. It was an accident, really! They hadn't seen each other in a while, and Jack's hugs were already monstrously strong before he'd become a ghost-

Who knew that ghosts could get shattered spines?

Jack Fenton, upon becoming the very thing he'd spend his life dedicated to, gained the ability to copy another ghost's power via manipulation of his core.

While most ghosts' cores were a single solid substance like ice or fire or shadows, Jack's core was ectoplasm. Able to change and adapt to his needs, not set in any one way.

Phantom was beyond glad his father, who became known as The Professor, was on his side.

Storyboard

#danny phantom #dp #writing #is this okay? is this what you wanted? do you like it?#obsessions #king danny phantom #ghost jack fenton #ghost cores #ghost powers #op phantom #op jack fenton #glad he's stopped trying to hunt ghosts #good parents jack and maddie #reveal gone right

41 notes · View notes

fozmeadows · 3 months

Note

hey. i think i'm going through a phase of self-hatred and… I don't know, of believing I'm not capable of anything. would you have any tips or books that approach this from an AFAB/trans perspective so I can cope? (it's not that I hate myself for being trans. I just have insecurities, anxieties and I don't know what to do to stop most things from seeming so discouraging, for lack of a better word.)

I'm sorry you're having a hard time! I don't have any book recommendations, and I'm not exactly an expert, but:

Where possible, try to focus on what you enjoy about the process of an action instead of worrying about the end result. A lot of anxiety comes from privileging a hypothetical future version of yourself ahead of the person you are in the moment, and while it's still good to have goals and aspirations for the future, that doesn't render your present self irrelevant, because that's who you have to be to achieve them.

To give a personal example: late last year, I was really disappointed with how little reading I'd managed to get done in 2023 particularly, but also over the pandemic. I'd bought all these awesome books that I really wanted to read, but I never seemed to get around to starting most of them, and meanwhile, I was spending hours of my life mindlessly doomscrolling Twitter and TikTok, which regardless of anything else is a really good way to depress yourself about the state of the world. So I sat down and thought about it, and I realized that the problem was how much pressure I was putting on myself about reading. I wanted so badly to finish books that I was psyching myself out of starting them in the first place, because each choice had to be Perfect, lest I pick the wrong book at the wrong time and waste twenty minutes or an hour or three reading something I might later set aside. And because I'd subconsciously set the stakes for starting a book so much higher than they needed to be, I'd end up dithering and scrolling social media to delay having to make a high-pressure choice at all.

In other words: I'd become so concerned about Future Foz's hypothetical dislike of a book I was yet to start reading that Present Foz would be scared to start it in the first place. I was forever privileging a version of myself that didn't exist and likely never would over the person I was now, and it was making me wildly unhappy, because it felt like I was failing at something I loved.

So my single New Years' Resolution became: to value myself and my time in the moment. If I catch myself scrolling for too long, I ask myself: is there literally anything else I'd rather be doing right now? Could I start a TV show, or a book, or a game, or write something, or message a friend, or have a bath? It doesn't matter if the activity goes anywhere long term; what matters is that I inevitably get more pleasure out of doing something than not. My time now matters, because I matter.

And suddenly, just from that one change? For the first time in I couldn't even say how long, I've read something every single day this year. In the whole of 2023, I read just 67 books; it's now the 30th of March 2024, and I've already finished 33. By giving myself permission to start things without the pressure to finish them, I'm suddenly finishing way more than when I was telling myself I had to finish everything, and I am vastly happier for it.

Is the world still a burning hellscape that daily makes me want to yeet a solid 80% of elected politicians globally into the sun? Yes. Am I still working on self-improvement in other areas of my life? Yes. Is it magically any easier being trans and queer in the current moment? No. But it helps to focus on who I am now, in this hour, in this minute, instead of worrying so much about whether some future version of me will think I spent this time badly that I don't use it for anything at all.

I don't know if this is helpful to your situation, and if it's not, I apologize for rambling. But it's a little change I've made lately that's helped me a lot, and I hope it might help you, too.

#foz answers things #self help #anxiety #self improvement #self care #reading

52 notes · View notes

archivalofsins · 6 months

Text

Mikoto's Advertising Secrets

So, today Star and I are going to talk about Double. Yep, it’s another team up to tackle one of the most difficult characters in Milgram. Today we’ll be discussing the Japanese and English lyrics of Double provided by the staff. Along with some fun facts and observations we’ve made from them.

Preface

This will be going over the use of (MeMe) in the official French and English translations of Double along with the use of and etymology of the term “Newborn”. Due to the focus on these phrases since the release of Double and how the fandom has treated official translations in the past… Star and I believed it only fair to give the same scrutiny given to past translations to Double. It cannot only be a mistranslation when it’s inconvenient to how one personally views the character then absolutely correct and unquestionable when the translation (regardless of how many creative liberties it takes) supports what one personally wants to believe.

If anyone has problems with having these topics scrutinized fully and objectively then this is not the post for them. If anyone is interested in finding out more about linguistics both English and Japanese, MeMe and Double parallels, and a lot of things about Mikoto Kayano then this post might be for you. The way I word things has always been incredibly direct and that won’t be changing over the course of this post.

This post wouldn't be possible without the discussions and help I received from not only @apatchworkstar but @tsuwmya and @doctorbunny.

With all that out of the way- Are you ready?

Okay, well let’s jump into it!

This may have spelling errors and may be edited at a later date to add more context. Just like Mikoto's song lol~

Hi, this is Star here- Starting off this post! Gunsli and I were discussing some of the information floating around about Mikoto- them with more people than me. I was mostly bitching discussing how I found it interesting that people were taking a step away from their habit of brutally eviscerating the official translations of songs to hyper focus on the wording of Double.

Now, Gunsli and myself have been very open about how we both believe the original lyrics and the translations both help add necessary context to all of the songs and that neither is less than the other. However, it is a bit… Irksome for people to just pick and choose what they consider a valid conversion of information. Especially since translating is already something that can be hard to carry nuance over. It also hasn’t escaped my notice what the official English translation is being used to support. Which is also aggravating, with everything else into consideration.

So, I took out my copy of Double and did what fans have been doing for most of trial two- looking at the Japanese lyrics within the cd pamphlet and comparing them to the translation. And boy was that interesting!

Don’t worry~

Mikoto is an honest man, guys~ Come on, would a guy with such tiredness in his eyes lie to us~?

…So, his song's translation has to be the pinnacle of accuracy; all with little to no artistic liberties taken, right? Well- no.

Literally, there wouldn’t be any point of making this as a post if it was.

(Gunsli: Don’t mind the underlined parts in the english lyrics for now. That comes in later.)

Firstly,

“I’m Double (MeMe)”

“Double” is the only line actually said in this statement. “(MeMe)” is never said within the lyrics of Double. However, given that it is in parentheses (something that is meant to add additional context to a statement), “(MeMe)” technically does not have to be said within the song in order to be put into the lyrics in this way. This isn’t a case of the english lyrics being inaccurate per se, but a case of the staff using english language and grammar in order to add context to what is being said. Something that’s not only done with the English translation, but the French one too.

So this is additional context; a rare treat for fans in the west! Now, when Gunsli and I were discussing Mikoto’s second trial CD cover-

Gunsli speculated that they added in (MeMe) to hammer in that there were, in fact, only two of them. Especially given how prevalent trikoto was/is as a theory. However, neither of us thought the staff would go so far as to just present this as something that had been said when it never was just to drive in the point further.

In every other instance during trial two when the prisoners have referenced their previous trial songs, it’s been verbally- i.e. within the lyrics themselves. Anyone can hear it, and the lines are noted in their cd pamphlets + the inside of the cd case, even if they aren’t translated as literally the lines that are said to be there are there.

Mikoto is the only one who’s official translated lyrics reference his first trial song without him verbally referencing it.

Making this a literal instance of, “He did not fucking say that.” Musical edition~

I guess you could say that Mikoto is the creme de la creme- or, to phrase it better an outlier even among other outliers. Which I find amusing as hell, considering how Mikoto is being treated in Milgram currently. Because, despite the fact that he does not verbally reference his previous song in any way throughout his trial two song, the staff still chose to frame it as though Mikoto had within these translations and visuals. Like how are you gonna call yourself an honest man, then be a bigger liar than Kazui Mukuhara! At least the text that comes up in Cat is actually sung by him!

But this is something that adeptly draws attention to Mikoto’s previously stated skills and hobbies-

Q.04 Are you picky when it comes to fashion?

Mikoto: Of course I am. Nobody would want to ask for anything from an unfashionable designer, right?

Q.07 What are your hobbies?

Mikoto: shopping / darts / photography / cycling

Q.08 What’s the most rewarding part of your current job?

Mikoto: I mean, it’s the top advertising agency in the industry? Anyone would be proud to be a part of it. I put a lot of work in just to get here, too.

Design, photography, and advertising. All things that require people to know, not only how to conduct and present themselves, but how to present others and concepts to people in a way that will be favorable and hopefully increase revenue and sales.

So, why wouldn’t Mikoto pull out all the stops to present himself in a way that would get him a more favorable response after the train wreck that was his first trial?

To be fair, when we were first discussing it, I didn’t really understand how tacking on (MeMe) after Double would make Mikoto look any better. Then Gunsli stated that outside of the meta viewpoint, we’d tackled already (which I had to bring to her attention)- That there was a second thing that made this translation decision interesting.

The fact that it served to connect Mikoto back to the song at all. As though Mikoto is trying to haphazardly put his name or presence on someone else’s work. Gunsli put it best,

“It’s a great visual example of Mikoto tacking himself onto John’s pain. Connecting himself to his suffering in order to justify his actions and avoid taking accountability. Really homing in on one of the core questions Milgram as a facility and project has continued to pose to those that participate in it- Is one’s anger justifiable when they are getting angry at something that did not happen to them. Or is it simply a case of know-it-alls not being able to mind their own business? Or in the words of Mikoto from MeMe, “This isn’t too much is it?”. At what point does defending another person become too much? Can it really be considered protecting yourself if the self you’re protecting is their own person in their own right? Or is this just a new layer of self-justification that Mikoto has created in order to downplay how much agency he had over the situation. “I’m probably not to blame, it’s probably nothing. I’m probably just having a bad dream, I need to wake up soon.”.”

“All I did was dream, and that’s what you found GUILTY?”

(Gunsli here- This line isn’t even the only one they do this with when it comes to the translations. They also do it again with the word us at the start of the Double. “Just the two of us, relieved, aren’t you? I’ll protect you (us).” Once again using parentheses to give further context or emphasize unstated things.)

Now, I’m gonna leave the second half of this to Gunsli-

Secondly,

"The “newborn” other you."

Gunsli here and-

Man, I really didn’t think we’d be taking the metaphorical as literal. Especially after all the fuss around the visuals of I Love You but- I guess things are only metaphorical or literal based on how convenient it is for things to be that in the moment. If we took every instance that the word baby is used in any song as literally as newborn is being taken here music would be rather complicated to say the least.

Yet, I guess since this is a Japanese phrase it’s a bit more specific than that. That this phrase is only applicable when discussing newly born beings and nothing else. Well, not exactly. Regardless of how specific a language is there are still instances where words and phrases will have different meanings based on the context they are said in. A good deal of people like to poke fun at English for being a mutt language and incredibly indirect, but every language has room for miscommunications or misunderstandings to occur.

Because every language is the sum of a culture's collective history. All languages are always building off of themselves and evolving and certain terms that meant one thing to the last generation can mean an entirely different thing to the next. This is true in the instance of not only the Japanese phrasing of this line but the English one as well.

So, let’s start with the English one.

“Me, the newborn other you, I’ll take it all on.”

Firstly, me in this instance is ore in Japanese. In the context of Milgram we know ore is used when John is referring to themselves. At least this is the pattern that has been presented. However, it is not always the case. Ore and boku can be used to refer to each of them respectively and collectively. However, for the sake of this example, let’s say it refers to John.

Me (John), the newborn-

Okay, we’ve gotten to the main offender in this sentence. Newborn. In English newborn is no longer contextually used to refer to a baby/infant or someone who was just born. Also, it never only referred to that to begin with and has not been colloquially used in this way for some time unless one is referring to someone they know very little about having a child.

For example,

“Where’s Janice from accounting? I haven’t seen her in a good while.” “Oh, you didn’t hear? She had a newborn. So, she’s on maternity leave.”

Even then this is still rather formal and outdated. An interaction like this is more likely to go.

“Where’s Janice from accounting? I haven’t seen her around in a while.” “Oh, you haven’t heard she just had a baby. She’s on maternity leave.”

Alright but they’re translating from Japanese to English and using baby or infant in the context of the sentence presented would be odd. Yeah, that’s right, it would be odd. That’s why in the beginning, I found it strange to even look into this line in this context as though it could in some way even tangentially be related to birth or children.

If it would be odd to add the word baby in this context, chances are that this probably has nothing to do with them or birth in the conventional organic sense of the word.

But born is in the word.

Okay, let’s do what we did with Neoplasm. Because, clearly the internet only taught some people one meaning of these words.

So, bear witness to this real quick-

Bear: To support or hold up.

Gif made by Star

Double: ““No, I need to do more…”, say what? You’re gonna break. Me, the newborn other you, I’ll take it all on.”

This is rather self-explanatory. To say that one will take it all on is to state their intentions to take on the burdens, issues, or stressors of another person or of a specific event. For example to take blame and face punishment for a crime one did not commit in order to protect another. Mikoto is also shown in Double using the bat for support.

Bear Down: Proceed forcefully toward.

Gif made by Star

While making the gifs Star pointed out that the word next to the three arrows pointing at the assailant here is "Savior" in sloppy English. This is emphasized by having "Save you" appear next to the figure as they continue to walk forward. Showing that (whichever one of them this is) believes themselves to be their savior and that what we see them doing here isn't an attack or them hunting the other down but them going to save the other. Adding more meaning behind these lines, "Cling to me, hoist me up as your “savior”, stand up and sing out your gratitude, that’d be good." - "Cling to me, hoist me up as your “savior”, stand up and sing out your gratitude, so why?"

Alright, all of that is very interesting Gunsli. However, bear is not the word that we’re here to discuss today. The word is “Newborn”. What possible bearing could this word have on that? That’s a good question. It just so happens that one of the root words of “Newborn” comes from bear.

Since the word comes from both New and Born.

New (Old English Niwian, Neowian)

Fourth Definition: Bring forth.

MeMe

“Why?”

““I” will save “me”.”

“Switch, shake up that brain.”

“Why am I here? It must be a mistake right? Take a good look at me until you find me.”

Double

“I’ve got you, leave it to me!”

““He’s a liar”, you said, and made me out to be a scoundrel, why?”

“Hey, I just wanted to save you, so why did it come to this? Cling to me, hoist me up as your “savior”, stand up and sing out your gratitude, so why. I don’t remember a thing, it couldn’t be helped, I’m DOUBLE (MeMe). I was having such a hard time, I was trying so hard.”

This is not self-explanatory. So, I’m going to take the time to explain what was going on in my mind when I decided to highlight these lyrics. I was interpreting bring forth in the context of switching. Mikoto is shown throughout MeMe to be looking for himself. Throughout the lyrics and the visuals. This is something reiterated through Double in a more chilling way. As it starts with what seems to be John being forced to the forefront due to Mikoto becoming too stressed. Something we see occur in Mikoto’s first and second voice dramas.

John even making it clear from the beginning that he’s not out because he wants to be yelling,

“AaaAAAGH! Fuck… Fuck… STOP PISSING ME OFF!” While audibly stomping around and possibly messing up his hair the same way we see him do in Double. Basically, throwing a tantrum.

Couple this with his first cover song expressly stating that feeling ashamed which can cause stress and anxiety will open a role for an idiot to play (something we’ll go into after this) gives us a good understanding of what occurred in response to Mikoto's verdict.

Something that if we didn’t catch onto John was more than happy to bluntly state to us in their second voice drama.

Neoplasm Voice Drama

“I (boku) might be trying to disappear.”

“Evidently, the time I (ore) have been fronting has been getting longer, so this “me” has been able to stabilize. Isn’t that the reason we can talk properly?”

The mental stress caused to Mikoto due to his previous verdict has led to him not being able to properly cope with the circumstances and drawing inward more as a result. Now fronting less and less as John (the one portrayed as being more used to stressful circumstances and better at holding things down) takes the forefront.

MeMe

“Hurting it, holding it down, it doesn’t change anything, does it?”

Double

““No, I need to do more…”, say what? You’re gonna break.”

Neoplasm Voice Drama

“Yeah. I… probably come out to ease the stress Boku experiences. The fact that I come out for longer just means that Boku is constantly under extreme stress.”

"The fact that you judged against forgiving Boku is causing a lot of stress.”

Depending on which of them has memories of the crime this could be a good thing.

"That’s why he’s entrusting me with his heart."

This leads well into the next definition-

Ninth Definition: Substitute.

Double: “Leave it to me.”- “I’ll take it all on.”-”Relieved, aren’t you?”-“I’ll protect you (us).”

These are again things I find self-explanatory, but I’ll explain for the sake of clarity. These are all things one says when taking on another’s responsibilities or substituting for them. Usually someone is given a substitute when they cannot fulfill their duties for one reason or another. How John describes the current circumstances in Neoplasm makes it sound as though he is substituting for Mikoto because as he said in his second cd trailer,

“I can’t take it anymore…”

Monopoisoner: “As for who is acting strangely, look here, it’s already been decided that I’m the normal one, OK?”- “Do you have a preference for plundering? Because what’s being stolen away right now is your life. “How’s this? How’s this? What do you think?” Even though the outcome was understood from the start… The foolish you is already done for “nothing to see here, move on, pay no heed”.”- ““Please, bring to an end this world today” but that hole opens up a role for me to play. “Please, feel ashamed of this self from today” but that hole opens up a role for an idiot to play.”

gif made by @apatchworkstar

“You’re overdoing it, you’re already broken. But if you persist, I guess it’s my job to keep things on an even keel. Me, the other you, I’ll take it all on.”

In my opinion the Milgram staff could not make it clearer who the actual killer is at this point outside of the third trial just blatantly telling us if Mikoto gets as cocky as Mu did in response to his Innocent verdict. (Remember those underlined parts from the beginning of this post? Yeah, that comes in now.)

Literally each time he says the other you in this song Me comes before it. Plus like Star established earlier the staff literally choose to shove (MeMe) in here when again it is not said to further highlight this more subtle aspect to oversea viewers.

They basically made it so if you line up every time this phrase is said you just get-

“Me, the newborn other you, I’ll take it all on.”

“Me, the other you, I’ll take it all on.”

The title of the first trial song and they only put this phrase in twice within the lyrics to give this effect. Like this isn’t even a stretch at this point. They’ve gone above and beyond to highlight that Mikoto did that shit but we’re focusing on “newborn” right now. Moment of appreciation for the best translated lyrics of trial two. Like honestly the amount of information they had to shove directly into this man's lyrics due to his rather disjointed mv (that they still managed to get a lot of information in as well by the way) and still managed to get in is impressive.

It’s actually jaw dropping when one takes the time to look into it.

So, now that we have a bit of the history of the word “Newborn” how does it apply to this sentence,

“Me, the newborn other you, I’ll take it all on.”

Well given the etymology of Newborn we’ve learned a few things. One of them being that newborn is not only used to refer to recently born things but newly discovered concepts. Yet to reduce my own point a great deal we only need one source and one source only Merriam-Webster. Well, that and an understanding of English grammar.

Are you getting it yet? Well, if not here’s an English refresher in a form most Milgram fans should be used to music-

Now, I'm assuming you’ve watched both of those great videos. So, how is “newborn” being used here exactly?

“Me, the newborn other you, I’ll take it all on.”

That’s right baby, that word is being used in its adjective form not its noun form. Newborn is being used to describe the Me in this sentence the newborn other you. That is what the pronoun me is being described as in this sentence. So, what does that mean folks? Well, it means that Me in this context is not a newborn individual but instead a recently born or born anew construct or in this case self. Definitively showcasing that the newborn being referred to here cannot and never could in this sentence be defined as a newborn individual. At least that would not be the only meaning in its adjective state.

There’s a difference between referring to a newborn and describing someone as a newborn. Be it oneself or another person. I know this is very confusing. I’m sorry and it doesn’t get any easier going into the Japanese. Something that even I am going to need help with and luckily can get help with.

That’s later though all one needs to know for now is yes, the adjective state of the word may be used to refer to things that are not infants or newly born. Think of it like the word discovered. You know in the sense that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. The word is kind of like that. Yeah, that’s the type of shit we’re getting into later. Yet, for now let’s keep things simple.

A better way to explain this is by showing the synonyms and example sentences for the adjective state of this word,

Know who the adjective form of newborn perfectly describes out of the two? Could it be the tired, bags under the eyes, lethargic John or Mikoto Hypnos’ favorite human?

Man, is it “I’ve slept for twelve restful hours” Mikoto or John the one displayed as being soooo tired he passes out on public transport. Literally one of the most dangerous things a person can do.

I wonder who it could be…

If only we had a clue or a hint? (Or a bed for John.)

Ah well too bad. There’s nothing like that… I guess we’ll never solve this conundrum. It’s not as though newborn can be used to describe someone who has been reinvigorated or has come across a new sense of purpose or direction. It’d be incredibly awkward if that were the case. Because even ignoring everything else that would be a very nice and subtle way, still open enough to be interpreted a myriad of ways, for this series to highlight even further that Mikoto did that shit without blatantly saying he did.

Luckily that English word only refers to organisms that have just been born and nothing else and no one will find any sources stating otherwise ever. So, it’s best to not look and we should all just do what Mikoto- I mean John said,

“Come to know me as an honest man, eat your words, gulp them down.”

Okay, but what about the Japanese lyrics?

“産声を上げたもうひとりの俺が、全部背負うから”/ Ubugoe wo ageta mou hitori no ore ga, zenbu seou kara.

One rough interpretation of the phrase in english could be,

“Born again, I (ore) alone will take responsibility for everything.”

So, why use newborn instead of born again?

As we discussed before, no language is that easy to grasp. There are multiple ways for various translators to interpret this phrase. Not all of them will give the same exact perspective on a phrase and their translations are prone to be influenced by not only their own personal experiences but their relationship with the work being translated. For example I had DoctorBunny help me out when it came to getting a grasp of the Japanese in this instance.

During the process he said this,

“Trust me this is a very newborn invoking line. It's a saying basically used synonymously with being born. A favourite of foetus musician Mao Sasagawa.”

However, the example he gave was musical. This isn’t problematic or anything but it’s kind of easy to form a rebuttal against it. Something I’ll illustrate now- while answering that question I posed earlier with this song.

Born again in the west has a very religious connotation and even though the word savior is used within Double the staff probably didn’t want to tie Mikoto’s character that heavily to religion. Because as Mikoto has stated repeatedly he views himself as his on “Savior” and-

Q.19 Do you believe god exists?

Mikoto: I don’t believe, no. I don’t feel so strongly that I’m gonna deny the possibility but- Like, what do I gain from believing?

Taking into consideration how synonymous with religion the term born again is and Mikoto’s characterization thus far, would it really be contextually appropriate for them to translate it in that way for a western audience?

Definitely not.

Especially considering the timing of his second song's release. Ya know- Being right after the most religiously involved character in the franchise. Those are the type of things a staff has to take into consideration when translating information into other languages for vastly different cultures. Again, the consideration and care put into the translation of Double in particular, is apparent in every line, every word said or not that they added in order to make sure regardless of the language one spoke everyone was getting not only a unique but as accurate as possible experience.

Personally, I believe that the effort put in in this instance should not only be respected but lauded. For now though let’s give the Japanese lyrics some much due attention. Because they are just as good.

Believe it or not that idiomatic expression is what led to this entire post. When I saw this I couldn’t help but think of a phrase in English that is the exact opposite of the one highlighted.

“This will never see the light of day.”

To see the light of day is a common phrase that on top of being another synonym for being born means, To come to existence or be made known.

It’s a rather colloquial way of describing something becoming known or one's desire to let something be known. Like in the example I previously provided. This is what caused the idiomatic definition to catch my interest.

So, what is an idiomatic expression, well it’s a colloquialism basically.

Idiomatic means to use, denote, or contain expressions that would be natural to native speakers. Meaning that to first see the light of day is a common way of using this expression to native-speakers.

Yet, the technical use of the word is still related to the first cry or children.

As a native English speaker when I say,

“Things I hope never see the light of day again.” “Man, I hope someone sheds light on your actions one day.”

I and other native English speakers know I am not hoping for someone to get a light and shine it on that person or their actions but instead I want what they’ve done to either be known or ignored. This song is a perfect example of the concept.

Now, what made this way of viewing the information even more interesting is how Mikoto’s second trial mv plays with light in general. Double does this through its day and night cycles. Unlike MeMe that takes place during the night only and displays Mikoto sleeping through the day in Double, we see John up during the day and taking a backseat at night.

As Mikoto is shown to literally be committing these attacks at night again through the dark lighting on his side of the train. The visuals go out of the way to show his side of the train remaining unlit while John’s has light during the very first attack.

Double quite literally doubles down on playing around with lighting as a visual storytelling method. Perfectly illustrating to us that there’s something Mikoto did that he never wants to let see the light of day. Yet, it does see the light of as you can see from above. What was once happening in the dark comes closer and closer to light until the two are basically overlapping.

As though looking in a mirror

Light becomes dark then Dark becomes light and eventually inevitably the two overlap-

As we see them face each other at the climax. One facing the reality of what they’ve done while the other isn’t even capable of facing themselves fully let alone their role in this.

“I’m probably not to blame, it’s probably nothing. I’m probably just having a bad dream, I need to wake up soon. Why am I here? It must be a mistake right? Take a good look at me. Until you find me- Why, hey why, I’m nowhere to be found.” - ““He’s a liar”, you said, and made me out to be a scoundrel, why? All I did was dream, so you find me INNOCENT, it’s that simple right? Come to know me as an honest man, eat your words, gulp them down.”

Then there’s these meanings for the phrase as well (which should seem pretty familiar after all this)

2. To be burdened with; to take responsibility for.

So, remember Bear? If not, here are some of the meanings for it applicable with this definition here.

Bear: To carry. To endure without resistance. To support, hold up. Carry a burden.

3. To have (something) in the background; to be in front of something.

Bear: Bring; bring forth.

With this we’ve gone full circle. Yet, that’s not the only interesting thing about this meaning. Applying the third meaning to Mikoto’s characters specifically could make this sentence a very artistic way of describing fronting. As we discussed before with Bear. (Can't believe I've got to quote myself from earlier in this post right now.)

“I was interpreting bring forth in the context of switching. Mikoto is shown throughout MeMe to be looking for himself. Throughout the lyrics and the visuals. This is something reiterated through Double in a more chilling way. As it starts with what seems to be John being forced to the forefront due to Mikoto becoming too stressed. Something we see occur in Mikoto’s first and second voice dramas.”

That’s it we’ve done it that’s everything that’s a full fucking language loop. So, hopefully from this we’ve all learned a bit more about not only Mikoto but language in general. My hope with this is that it gives people a newfound appreciation for not only linguistics but the tremendous effort the Milgram staff have put in over the course of trial two. Now, with all that out of the way. I can finally say (in my opinion)-

This case is closed.

Also, John in Double be like-

second gif edited by Star

Well, that's all if you made it through all of this congrats. Hopefully you've learned some new interesting things.

#milgram #mikoto kayano #kayano mikoto

82 notes · View notes

astroyongie · 3 months

Text

Le Serafim March Reading 2024

note: please take my words lightly

Chaewon

Love: Chaewon’s partner has cheated on her while they were overseas and because of that she has taken the decision of breaking up with them. she is still trying to forgive them for what they did while also dealing with the pain and the necktie impact it has on her self worth

Career: lately she has been a little reckless with her carer and she might have been doing things out of spite. She is also unfocused on her training which makes her managers scold her and that also adds to her impulsive actions. some fights can interrupt with her members because of that mood

Self: she knows she is in a bad period at the moment, she knows she has no luck and that things are happening way too fast. Chaewon is also clever enough to understand that she just needs time to find her tracks back to the healthy lifestyle

Sakura

Love: she is still single and she still has the people she sees whenever she feels like it. it's important to note that Sakura is someone that is praised and demanded either in the industry or outside the industry, she always has people confessing to her and thus hse has the power to do whatever she feels like.

Career: the career seems to be doing well regardless of everything. Again, she has so many powerful friends in the industry that help her on her path and clear things for her. So honestly Sakura is just able to do whatever she wants

Self: what's sad about Sakura is that she is so hollow. there’s literally nothing in her energy, she often gives the impression of being a completely eggshell which is honestly just so sad, so depressing, i don't have much to say other that this empty energy is all i got for her here

Yunjin

Love: In February she had been closer to someone and she might have tried to get into something official with thi sperosn but a huge argument between the two made her close all interest in this person. she is however quite angry with them for the things they have said to her

Career: Yunjin seems to be equally very angry about an opportunity that was taken away from her by her sponsor. she might have done something that enraged them (maybe some controversy or any rumor?) and because of that they have decided to remove one of her contracts

Self: lately she has been a little bit mischievous with some of the members and people around her. Yunjin needs to be careful if she doesn't want things to come bit her at her own game

Kazuha

Love: Kazuha found her love life taking a turn when the person she confessed to, went back asking her if she was interested to try it out afterall. It seems like she hasn't thought twice and accepted what makes her right now, dating this fellow co-worker.

Career: I don't have much details, but something has happened that left Kazuha shaken. whatever it has happened i feel uneasy to look into it further and all i can say is that it affected her and will affect her career

Self: she is trying to make progress within herself, prioritizing her physical health because she feels like ever since she has debuted her physical health has become more fragile and she wants to improve this

Eunchae

Love: again, Eunchae is still dating her partner that she was already dating later in summer 2023. nothing has changed and they are still happy with one another. i don't have much to say about it either

Career: If there's someone who’s lucky in what group is Eunchae, because the people she has with her in the industry are supporting her so much. all her fans can be happy because this girl will keep improving, will keep being someone people talk about and she will keep having image and having the spotlight on her

Self: lately she has been feeling a little sad a little nostalgic but that's because she wants to spend more time with her family and close friends and his unable to which of course, affects her health and her energy in general

#Le Serafim #Le Serafim astrology #Le Serafim tarot #Le Serafim reading #Le Serafim headcanons #Le Serafim imagines #Le Serafim scenarios #Le Serafim reactions

31 notes · View notes

sir-subpar · 8 months

Text

Blitzo

All right! Redesigned/reimagined Blitzo.

So, heres the thing, I don't hate his current design, but I don't love it either.

Under the cut I will talk more

Alright, Blitzo. Biy do I have some thoughts on Blitzo.

I do love the idea of a failed clown turning into an assassin. I love the idea of an assassin from hell slaughtering people that sinners pay him to. I like the idea that this is his way of proving others wrong and trying to redeem himself. Him not wanting to be a failure anymore is a decent idea for a character.

The issues I have:

His treatment towards other characters. I am not opposed to him being an asshole. I like characters who start off terrible but then become good people through consequences and change in Behavior. But blitz's Behavior doesn't actually change for the better in the show. It's more like everyone around him changes to justify everything that he does.

Stalking your employees? Barely addressed.

Setting your best friend on fire? And insulting and guilttripping said friend in a half-assed apology? Apparently good enough.

Stealing from your girlfriend? (I have thoughts on Verosika too, I'll get to her at some point). It brought up in maybe two conversations and never again.

My big issue here isn't so much that Blitz is a bad person as much as the fact that there's no consequences for him except for when the plot demands it. And then said consequences go away an episode later. Especially if we're meant to sympathize with him.

I hate this line. So much. This is one of those times where you can't really redeem a person. Not when they say something like this:

Anyway, back to the design.

Once again, like usual with Viv, there's too much red.

It's kind of easy to lose track of details in his design.

His feet are just really weird to me. Why are they shaped like shoes? His heels are really weird

As mentioned in some of my concept sketches, I feel like if he survived a fire that did *this* to fizz

It should have done more damage to Blitzo. Hence why I made him blind in one eye

I gave him fingers similar to his sister Barbie wire, it just looks better to me. And since they're twins I think it makes sense. Once again, I will do her design as well soon

I do keep his striped horns, as I feel like it makes sense for him to have them with the whole ex clown thing, but since a lot of the other characters aren't clown based they won't get the same stripes on their horns. I know Viv said that hell is like a circus, but it so rarely comes up outside of the jester designs that I decided to omit that in my rewrite

I really want to lean into the idea that he goes through change and improves his behavior bit by bit. With little hints of his soft side towards the beginning, that comes out more clearly as time goes on. Him learning something different from each character

He could learn to take accountability from fizz. Learn professionalism and good business practices from Moxxie. Learn boundaries from his daughter Loona. Etc.

I made him pink as I've heard a few ideas floating around that he might be part succubus or part lust imp and I think that fits him.

And finally... the elephant in the room. Where does Stolas come in?

Look. The way it's portrayed in the show, I don't like it. I liked Stoas better in the pilot. He was just a rich 1% who did what he wanted regardless of who it hurt. I like the idea of that for an antagonist. Blitzo uses him, he uses Blitzo. They both did things for selfish gains.

I also liked the idea that he would send IMP on hit jobs as well. That would have been really interesting to see in the show

I will discuss more about their Dynamic when I do stolas's design. I will give some quick bullet points for now

Blitzo and Stolas don't fall in love.

Stolas constantly holds the grimoire over Blitzo's head to get what he wants. He knows Blitzo's business and livelihood depends on it and he takes full advantage of it.

Blitzo doesn't want to be Shackled to the prince, but doesn't see any other options until Striker appears (again, I will explain that when I get to it).

He resents stolas (and himself) for being trapped in this arrangement

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss #blitzo #blitzø #helluva critical #helluva redesign #helluva rewrite #blitzo redesign

75 notes · View notes

golbrocklovely · 2 years

Text

we went mad // sam and colby

A/N: let me tell you a story of how this came to be. i obviously got the idea from the scream franchise, in particular scream 2 which is set at a college. so originally i wrote this in second person, but i felt like i had already written pretty much everything up until now in that pov, so i had to switch ALL of the writing i had done (which was most of it) over to first person. and then… i had to finish writing it. and that for some reason just took so long for me. i think part of the issue was that when i originally came up with the idea of this fic, i saw the ending, and that was it. i wanted the famous kitchen scene with billy, stu, and syd, but god… getting there was no cake walk. thank christ i'm done with this fic. it's definitely one of my longer ones. let me know what you think ! hope you enjoy :)

prompt: someone on campus is killing all of your ex-classmates. and you fear you're next. || college!sam and colby x reader

trigger warning: murders, slightly gore and blood mentions, cursing, college setting, parties, drinking, douchy/emotionless bf, mentions of hs bullying, surprise/rollercoaster ending

word count: 6582

~~~~~~~~

How could you have missed the signs? How could you not have known all this time?

~~~

Sam and Colby had talked about moving away from our hometown for years. They had major plans to move to L.A. and become big. But instead, they decided to go to our local state college with me, and half of our graduating class. And while I was confused by their choice, I was happy nonetheless. They were my best friends, and I was upset thinking that I wouldn’t see them anymore after graduation. But I understood why they wanted to get away in the first place: everyone at our school bullied them. The number of times Sam and Colby had been shoved into lockers, or had food thrown at them in the cafeteria, or were just badmouthed... let's just say that high school was nothing short of hell for them.

Freshman year of college, while stressful, was fantastic. We all lived on campus, our dorms across the street from one another. Hell, I could even see their dorm from my window. We took a lot of the same core classes together, always making sure to work on projects and help each other out. We hadn’t decided our majors yet and knew that this would be the only time we could be in the same classes together.

Things were good for a long time, all the way through the end of sophomore year. I was so excited to start the next half of college. It felt like the home stretch, even if we weren’t close to graduating yet.

But our relationship changed, our friendship drifted apart. By the start of junior year, we were no longer friends. And the major reason for it? I started dating someone from our old high school. I had met him at the end of sophomore year and dated him secretly during the summer. His name was Davis, and back in high school, he was popular. He got into this university on a sports scholarship. And you might be wondering, was Davis someone that bullied Sam and Colby? No, he wasn’t. But he was friends with those that did.

I didn’t know that until I was already dating Davis. It was hard to keep up with who did and didn’t bully Sam and Colby back in the day. I told Davis to apologize to Sam and Colby for what his friends did. At first he was a bit confused, but he did it regardless. Sure, it was at a party and he was kind of drunk. But it still counted… right? He later texted the guys about it and they said they accepted his apology.

However, they couldn’t forgive me for dating someone like that. So, our friendship just… died.

But even though I wasn’t their friend anymore, I still knew them pretty well. And the moment we were no longer friends, something felt… off about them. We still shared the occasional class, so I saw them every other day. They seemed darker, broodier. And only ever with one another. But that wasn't that unusual for them. They relied on one another a lot.

On a cool fall day, shocking news broke on campus: someone was killed right outside the dorms late last night. Classes were immediately cancelled. Everyone was on edge. The university did its best to calm the nerves of its students, siting that we were in a major city and cities tend to have random killings happen. Police stayed on campus for the next couple days, and partying was prohibited.

Of course, that didn't stop the frat houses from throwing "secret" keggers in their basements. I didn't really want to go, but Davis begged me to. That I should "live on the edge" since I was never really a go-getter. So I went, and I was surprised to see Colby at the party. I waved at him, but his eyes glared back, and then behind me. I turned to see Davis, my face immediately dropping. I didn't see Colby the rest of the night.

The next day, the police finally released the name of the person that was killed on campus. It was in fact a student, but that didn’t mean there was an issue on campus itself. Since we lived in the city, bad things were bound to happen to us too.

The name sounded familiar, and it finally clicked: it was someone from our graduating class. James Cooper. I didn’t know him all that well, but I was still sad to hear he was killed.

Davis sort of knew the guy too; he had been on the hockey team. They had gone to parties together before, but he wasn't close to him. It clicked for me even more when Davis mentioned the hockey team: that guy shoved Sam and Colby into lockers our freshman year to impress his friends. He was a major dick to them for a while, until finally getting onto the hockey team and just ignoring all classmates that were "underneath" him.

…Maybe karma actually did work.

Less than a week later, another person was killed. This time it was a girl. She was found just outside of the library in some bushes. I knew who she was, remembering her from high school. She was a cheerleader, both years ago and now. Lizzie Campbell.

This was all so weird to me. In the two years of being on campus, I had barely heard about any robberies or petty crimes happening, let alone two murders. And on top of that, two of my ex-classmates? Davis shrugged it off, saying it was just a coincidence. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of something not being right about all of this.

And as time went on, my suspicions became more of a premonition.

Two more students, back-to-back, were found. But what made it worse was this time one was in the dorms. And it was in my dorm too, two floors down. Security had everyone on that floor evacuate and go to other dorms for the time being. I, and many other students, didn’t feel safe in the building. I decided to stay over at Davis’ frat house.

They ended up throwing a last-minute party that weekend. I begged Davis to tell his brothers not to throw one, especially because of how insensitive it was and that they could be fined for it. He told me it was out of his hands, that he didn’t decide whether parties happened or not.

How could he be so blasé about these deaths, especially since he even knew these people?

This was a side to him I had never seen, and I didn’t like it one fucking bit. I couldn’t stay there that night, so I trudged back to my dorm room. On my way there, I ran into Sam.

It was awkward to say the least. We talked briefly, and I told him how I planned to stay in my dorm since I couldn’t stay at Davis’. Sam offered his and Colby’s dorm instead; that it was much safer than mine, especially since I would be alone.

Part of me didn’t want to go to their dorm, mostly because of everything going on between us. But he was right about it being safer, and I did miss them a lot.

I followed Sam back to his dorm. He informed me that Colby was out working on a project and wouldn’t be back until later. Their dorm was nice and spacious, the benefit of being an upperclassman. It was like a mini apartment in some ways. We relaxed in their living room area and chatted for a bit. Eventually, the topic of conversation fell onto the recent murders. Sam spoke of whispers around campus that the killer wore a mask shaped like a melted ghost’s face, that that was how he got in and out of the dorms. My skin crawled at the thought of seeing that mask and prayed that that wasn’t the case. The killer could be anyone on campus, just lurking in the shadows.

I had this urge inside of me to tell Sam my theory. I knew we weren’t close anymore, but I felt like he was the only one that would believe me.

I explained to him what I thought was happening: how all of the people that had been killed on campus were from our old high school. The killer was attacking those from our high school only, possibly hunting them down for some unknown reason. Sam questioned if that was true for the newer victims.

We looked up the email from the university, speaking on the recent victims. "The selfish murders of Christopher Smith and Sara Goodwin..." Chris was from my homeroom. He was on the swim team. He won tons of medals and was celebrated. And Sara… she had dated the quarterback sophomore year and was generally a popular person.

Oh god, I think I’m right.

Sam was surprised at how on point I seemed to be. It was a nice change of pace compared to being shrugged off by Davis. But he didn’t fully agree with my idea. He considered that maybe this was a huge coincidence, that maybe the killer wasn’t targeting our class, just the people that still hung out with one another. Maybe all the victims – Chris, Sara, Lizzie, and James – were all friends and the person that murdered them knew them all and was picking them off.

I snorted, "And what? They saw something they shouldn’t and now they're getting I Know What You Did Last Summer-ed?"

"That could be it." He replied.

I sassed. "You can't be serious, Sam."

But he was. He didn’t argue that he was right, just that if someone was attacking our graduating class, or our old high school, they would have to kill half the population of the university. So, it was unlikely that that was happening. Maybe Sam was right about that. Sure – there was definitely a connection. But it sounded more plausible that Sam was right on his part in some way.

Sam decided to call it night not too long after, stating he had early classes the next morning. I dozed off an hour after he went to bed, sleeping on their somewhat comfortable couch.

I jolted awake suddenly, the front door unlocking slowly. It opened, and Colby tip-toed in. His eyes locked with mine, and they widened.

“Hey…” He mumbled awkwardly.

He wondered what I was doing in their dorm, and I told him what happened with me and Sam. I asked him where he was all night, glancing at the neon red lights of the clock shining back 3:20 AM. Colby spoke of a crazy party at one of the frat houses.

But didn’t Sam say…? Whatever.

I nodded my head at him, yawning loudly. He smiled, said goodnight, and shuffled off to bed.

The news broke two hours later - another body was found. Michelle Robinson. And this time, it was right outside of Davis' frat. He even saw the killer, or who he thought it could have been. A guy dressed in all black with a cloak and a mask running away from the house. But no one saw the body until the morning.

The mask… just like Sam said.

Campus was immediately shut down, all classes resuming online. Absolutely NO parties. How could the university think people were going to be able to learn when there was a killer on the loose? It was insanity to me.

I was forced back into my dorm. Police raided every car and dorm on campus to find clues. They determined after a thorough search that the killer wasn’t a student, just someone that new the dorms well. No evidence was found linking a current student to the killings.

The day the police announced this, I got a very strange text.

UNKNOWN: if they only knew....

I didn’t know the number or what it possibly could have meant. I tried not to think about it, already too concerned with everything else going on. The next day, however, I got another text from the same number.

UNKNOWN: what's it like knowing that people are dying on campus but your bf is throwing another party??? it’s almost like he’s celebrating their deaths. you really know how to pick them

I responded with what the hell are you talking about? and who is this? but the number never replied back.

Were they telling the truth though? Was Davis really throwing another party? He couldn't be.

I went straight over to Davis’ frat house, and when I saw the brothers pulling a keg into the back of the house, I knew the unknown number was telling the truth.

I argued with Davis that night. How could he be throwing a party again after what just happened? He even saw the killer and he’s just… shrugging it off like it doesn’t matter. People he knew from school are dying and he doesn’t care. It was gross and concerning beyond belief.

He rolled his eyes, saying that he wasn’t close to any of the people that died, just that he knew them in passing. And they weren’t throwing a party, just a kick-back with the boys in the house.

“Oh okay, that makes it all better…” I spat sarcastically. “Even if that was just the case, how are you in a partying mood?”

He groaned, walking away from me. “Oh my God, Y/N, you’re such a buzzkill.”

That was enough to set me off. I broke up with him on spot, not listening to another word he had to say. I held back tears as I raced back to my dorm. That was the last night I saw Davis.

And it was also the last night of the murders. At least... for a while.

Three weeks went by. This had been the longest period without any murders. It seemed as if things might have been getting back to normal. Even the university was starting to act the same again. The university announced the soon-to-be-open dorm that was right down the street from mine. I was even excited to stay there next year; I was actually looking forward to it - to senior year. To the future.

After breaking up with Davis, I ended up becoming friends with Sam and Colby again. I told them what happened, and they graciously accepted me back with open arms. It was nice to be with them again, for life to feel somewhat normal once more. But I couldn’t lie: I missed Davis. I knew I shouldn’t have, his weird lack of empathy for what was happening was alarming, but maybe something was going on with him and that’s why he didn’t seem to care. Or maybe I was trying to give him brownie points when he didn’t deserve them. But I couldn’t help but miss him. Even if I knew what he did was fucked up to me, I still cared. I worried something could still happen to him.

The killings might have stopped, but that didn't mean I wasn’t still paying attention and on edge all the time. I think everyone on campus could feel there was still a chokehold in the air from the murderer.

I texted Davis after a month of nothing from him. I asked to meet up with him, but he never responded. My messages were going through, so he didn’t block me. Sam and Colby caught wind of my texting and were highly against it, especially when I said I planned to go to the frat and see him for myself. According to Colby, clearly Davis either needed space or just didn’t want to see me, so I should just stay away for a while. I considered what he said but decided to go anyway. I asked around at his frat house if anyone knew where he was, since I knew he wasn’t in class. His ‘brother’ Kevin replied that they hadn’t seen Davis in a long time. Like, almost a month.

...The last time I saw him as well.

My stomach twisted up in knots at the first thought I had.

Was he the killer?

There’s no way. I was with him when the first killings happened. Maybe he had an accomplice? No. No, Davis wouldn’t kill anybody, let alone people he knew from back in the day… right?

I can’t tell Sam and Colby, even though they know my theory about the killer hunting people from our graduating class. I don’t want to give them another reason to hate Davis. Not to mention, I must be wrong. There’s no way Davis killed all those people. It was just a coincidence that he left and the murders stopped.

Unless… the killer got him too.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. Maybe Davis left because of the killings. Maybe it was too much for him to bear. Maybe a family emergency happened. Maybe he couldn’t handle the classes. There could be a laundry list of reasons why he left.

My heart skipped a beat when my phone buzzed on my way back to my dorm. The number wasn’t the one I was hoping to see, and all the text did was make my thoughts spiral deeper.

UNKNOWN: do you miss me?

~~~

Our campus was known for its Halloween parties, and while I definitely wasn’t in a spooky mood, Sam and Colby begged me to come with them to a random frat’s party. Sam wanted to introduce me to his girlfriend and Colby didn’t want to be left alone when they would eventually disappear off. I agreed begrudgingly. I dressed up in my costume from last year, a witch, and Sam and Colby dressed up as Batman and Robin; and by dressed up I mean they just threw on a t-shirt with the symbol. Walking into the party, I felt my skin tingle with anxiety. The music was loud and there were so many people around in an array of different costumes. I glanced around, hoping to maybe see Davis, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Stop trying to look for him. He clearly left because he couldn’t handle the pressure anymore, whether from the murders or the workload.” Sam stated, pulling my attention away from the crowd.

“Maybe he couldn’t live without you so he left.” Colby joked.

“Either way, don’t waste your night looking for someone that’s gone.” Sam stood up pointing at me, “I’ll be right back, let me go find my girl.”

“Let’s see how long it takes him this time.” Colby rolled his eyes.

I stayed with Colby for a while, watching a table of zombies play beer pong. After two games had finally played out, I started looking around for Sam.

“Don’t bother. Sam has a tendency to disappear off with his girlfriend and only come back around super late. I don’t know, but sometimes I swear she’s not real.”

I questioned, “You’ve met her before, right?”

He shrugged. “Sorta. It was quick, and honestly, I was super drunk so it could have just been some random girl.”

“Sam wouldn’t lie about having a girlfriend.” I argued.

“Yeah because if he did, I’m gonna make fun of him so fucking much,” Colby chuckled. “I’m gonna go step outside and call him, see if he’s around here. If you want, go… mingle, until I get back.”

“Tell him to hurry back, with or without his girlfriend please.” I laughed, watching Colby smirk as he stepped outside.

I wandered around the party, running into some people from my English Lit class. We started taking shots and bitching about the professors giving us so much work during the murders.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it felt like it had been at least an hour, if not longer. I pulled out my phone, ready to text Colby where he went off to, and suddenly an urgent email went through. Everyone’s phones around me started blowing up as well, gasps and screams being let out as people read the message.

Three students were just found dead on campus. Police advised everyone to stay indoors and if they were out on the street not to walk home alone.

“Fuck this, I’m getting the hell out of here!” Someone yelled deep from within the party.

A major rush of people started going for the front door, making it impossible to leave. Mayhem was breaking out, people were crying, screaming, and begging to get out of the house as soon as possible. I rushed to the basement, knowing there was an exit there since all the frat houses were built with the same layout.

Fuck! Where was Sam and Colby?

A huge group of us ran back towards our dorms. I stayed with the group as long as I could until I was alone, running to my dorm.

“Y/N!” I heard Colby’s voice shout from across the courtyard.

I spun towards him, running up to him hastily. I fell into his arms, pulling him close.

My voice quivered. “Thank Christ you’re okay! Where’s Sam?”

“He’s with his girlfriend in her dorm. McFranklin Hall.” Colby informed.

“Oh thank god. Okay, let’s just get back to mine since it’s closer.” I urged.

We got into my building quickly, jumping into the elevator. I finally was able to catch my breath for a moment, my heart still pounding. “Where the hell were you all night?”

Colby furrowed his brows, confused. “I wasn’t gone that long, Y/N.”

“You said you were only going to go make a phone call.” I responded.

“Yeah I did, and then I guess I lost track of time.” He answered.

We walked out of the elevator and down to my dorm. “How the hell did you lose track of time?”

He huffed. “Can we just talk about this later?”

I shook my head, pulling my key out. “No let’s talk about this right-”

“Y/N?” He interjected.

“What?” I breathed, still looking at him.

“Did you leave your dorm unlocked?” He pointed.

My gaze fell upon my dorm. The door was open, but only a little. Like someone rushed to get out of it.

“Maybe we should head back to my dorm…” Colby backed up.

I stepped inside, pushing the door open all the way. “No I need to know what happen-”

I flicked on the lights and choked out a gasp.

My room was torn up, everything knocked over and on the floor. Someone ransacked it, looking for God knows what.

I shuddered, “W-who… did this?”

Colby bit his lip nervously. “I don’t know.”

“How did they even get in here? I locked my door, I know I did.” I dissented.

His face twisted in disgust, covering his nose. “What is that smell? I think it’s coming from behind the door…”

Colby pushed the door shut, jumping back as it slammed.

“Oh my god is that… blood?” He whispered.

#9 was smeared onto the door, still fresh from whoever broke in.

My mouth watered as nauseous rushed through me. “Nine… that was Davis’ jersey number.”

“Or… like how many victims there’s been.” Colby deadpanned.

My breathing labored at his tone. “There hasn’t been nine victims. The three tonight make it eight.”

Colby’s eyes were cold as he turned to me, “Well, then maybe you’r-”

A dark figure lurched out of my closet, grabbing Colby from behind. I screamed out, staring into the melted ghost face mask.

“Run Y/N! R-” Colby yelled, his breath hitching as the figure’s knife stabbed into his chest.

Pure adrenaline kicked through my veins as I bolted out of the building. I ran to the stairs, rushing down them as fast as I could. I wasn’t sure if the figure was behind me, but I knew I just needed to run. As I finally made it to the street, there were no cars around. It was late, already one AM. The police sirens and glow of their cars were so far away, possibly on the other side of campus.

I rushed down the street, praying to find a lone car or business open so I could call for help. But everything down the street was dark, deserted.

The only building that seemed to be open or have lights on was the new dorm. I raced around it, trying to find a single unlocked door. I found one towards the back of the building, an emergency exit that hadn’t been installed yet.

I needed to find a space to hide, knowing that once I felt safe, I could call for help. I didn’t want to run through the open lobby, so I kept going up the stairs to the second floor.

From down below me, the emergency exit busted open, the dark figure staring up at me as it raced up the stairs. My screams echoed off the walls of the staircase as I rushed through the second story door. I ran down the hallway, trying to find any room that was unlocked. The hallway was dark, only the occasional work light.

I could hear the slamming of the emergency door behind me. It was near; and getting closer. Fuck! I need to find somewhere to go. I just kept running, not knowing what else to do.

The building was almost in a circle shape, everything looping back around to one another. As I sprinted to the other emergency exit, the figure popped out, stopping me dead in my tracks.

How the fuck did he get over here?

I turned around, running back the way I came. As I got to an open living room area, the figure came down the hallway I was running towards. I spun around, gasping at the now two dark figures in front of me.

I backed up against the wall, the figures closing in. Tears clouded my vision as I stared at them, ready to die.

Suddenly they stopped, glancing at one another, and chuckling. Their laughs sounded familiar as they pulled off their masks.

“Sam…? Colby?” I sputtered.

Sam smiled. “In the flesh.”

“Surprise.” Colby smirked.

“W-Wha? What the- What the fuck?!” I screeched.

“What? Oh shit, did we scare you? Didn’t mean to do that.” Sam feigned concern.

Colby held back a laugh. “…Yeah, we’re only sort of lying about that.”

My body was frozen against the wall, “Is this some joke? A prank?”

“A prank? I think killing eight people is far past the point of a prank.” Sam glared.

“Our sense of humor isn’t that fucked up. What do you think we are, monsters?” Colby scowled, pointing his knife at me.

My stomach dropped as my heart raced faster. I could feel the color drain out of my face.

They killed everyone.

“No. No, y-you guys can’t be serious.” I cried.

“Oh, we’re dead serious. Why don’t you show her her prize, Colby?” Sam gestured.

“Sure. I’ll be right back.” Colby winked, backing away.

I moved forward as Colby turned the corner. Sam shoved me back against the wall, pulling out a gun from behind his back.

He pointed the gun at my chest. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

I whimpered. “Sam, why are you doing this?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll learn soon enough.” He grunted.

My eyes fell on Colby as he pulled Davis’ tied up body from around the corner. He was alive, but barely; blood soaked his clothes, and he looked dirty.

“Oh my God Davis!” I wailed, trying to run towards him.

Sam wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly against him. “Tsk tsk, Y/N. I told you not to move.”

“You’ve probably been wondering where he’s been. He’s been in here, just… chilling.” Colby snickered.

I shook my head, tears streaming down my cheeks. “No, no, no. This can’t be real. You guys-!”

Sam growled in my ear. “What?! We can’t be killers? Oh trust me, Y/N… we are.”

“And you know, all this happened… because of you.” Colby spun the knife in a small circle, until he rested it underneath my chin.

“Because of me?” I uttered.

“Yes. You see, that night you made Davis ‘apologize’, he didn’t actually do that. Maybe to you that’s what he said. But to us, he said something totally different.” Sam explained.

Colby mimicked Davis’ voice, “‘I remember you two dorks. Can’t believe Y/N has put up with you two losers for so long. My friends did nothing wrong in high school. You guys deserved every single thing that happened to you. I ain’t apologizing for shit.’”

“‘Honestly the shit they did was fucking hilarious. And if you’re not over it by now, that’s your fucking problem.’” Sam chimed in, doing the same voice.

“Well… now it seems like your problem too, Davis!” Colby cackled, kicking Davis in the stomach.

“‘You’re not gonna tell Y/N about this. She’s never gonna believe you anyway. I have her wrapped around my finger. She’s in love with me, so you might as well accept this as my apology.’” Sam quoted directly into my ear.

“Do you know how upsetting it was knowing he was right? You would have never believed us. Especially when he sent that dumb poor excuse of a text the next day claiming he was sorry.” Colby hissed.

“We would look like the bitter nerds that just couldn’t get over their dumb bully.” Sam replied.

“So you thought murdering our old classmates would make it better?!” I exclaimed.

“Every single one of them deserved it! They weren’t just our old classmates; they were the ones that bullied us!” Colby lurched at me, getting into my face.

My eyes widen at Colby’s words. He was right.

“The first one, James. That was my doing. Total accident, B-T-W. It was right after we stopped being friends, I was upset and we bumped into each other,” Sam recounted nonchalantly. “He recognized me from high school, and he called me his favorite name – you know, the old one he used to call me all the time back then. I blacked out, and when I came to, I had strangled him to death.”

“I killed Lizzie after seeing you at the party with Davis. You know, she was always so desperate, even back in high school. And she tried to get with me, and when I shot her down, she all of sudden remembered me. Started calling me a loser, and all this other stuff. It didn’t bother me at first, but then she brought up Madison and how she told everyone in school how bad I was our first time. So… I killed her.” Colby shrugged.

“We didn’t even know we had done these crimes until we both confessed to one another. And then from there, we just couldn’t stop.” Sam revealed, tightening his hold on me. “We basically went back and forth, one for one. Except Colby went a little rogue and killed… what was her name? Michelle. That night you were at our dorms. That… that one almost got us caught. Especially since you basically had pieced together that the killer was going after old classmates.”

“I’m sorry. What can I say, Michelle actually surprised me,” Colby chuckled darkly. “I was working on a project with her, we went to a party and… well, it doesn’t matter. Just know it was fun leaving her body outside of Davis’ frat. Too bad he saw me leaving. But that was when we realized Davis might actually be useful after all.”

“We got a burner phone, texted you once or twice, and things just fell into place. You broke up with him – because let’s be honest, we didn’t force him to throw parties after everyone’s deaths. That was all him. And his lack of caring? Also all him. So again, you really do know how to pick them,” Sam joked. “And once you guys were done-zo, we realized kidnapping him and making him disappear would make you question if he was the one who did it.”

“Plus, we had mid-terms.” Colby added.

“How did you keep him here for a month?” I questioned.

Sam scoffed. “A month? No, we only just kidnapped him. Who the hell told you he’s been gone for a month?”

“A brother at the frat.” I remarked.

“Yeah, no. He’s wrong. Prior to that, Davis was actually ignoring you though. He was pretty upset about you breaking up with him.” Sam related.

Colby stared down at Davis who shook with fear. “He didn’t expect it since you were so wrapped around his finger.”

“I just don’t get it. Why would you do this?” I choked.

“We wanted to forget high school, we really did. The plans we had for life outside of this state were just too big. So, we made them smaller, thought going to the same school as our best friend would be fine and sure, we’d have run ins with old high school assholes, but who cares? That was years ago. We’ve all moved on, right?” Colby huffed.

“The thing is, when you deal with people who peaked in high school… life doesn’t move on for them. Their glory days consisted of making our lives shit day in and day out. They get to go on and not have to relive the trauma. Hell, they didn’t even have to pay for what they did. And what about that is right?” Sam spun me around to face him, his eyes glaring into mine, “Why do they get to live when a part of me and him died back then?”

His cold stare left me speechless. “I-I –”

“And then… you go and date one of them?” Sam shook his head in disappointment. “Now that… that’s fucked up. Which is why you have to die too.”

“Wha? No, no. Sam, Colby, please!” I begged.

Colby grabbed my arm, both of them gripping onto me. “There’s no point in begging now. You chose your fate the moment you picked him over us!”

“Please don’t do this. Just let me go and I won’t tell anyone.” I pleaded, lying.

Sam cocked the gun. “Yeah, right. You have a good moral compass on you, I remember our philosophy class together.”

“Wait! Can I kill her?” Colby interrupted.

“What, no dude. I’m the one with the gun, let me do it.” Sam protested.

Colby frowned. “But that’s no fair, you killed more people than me.”

“No I didn’t. We killed the same amount. I made it even tonight.” Sam bickered.

“Yeah, well, if you kill her than it’s uneven.” Colby complained.

“Then you can kill Davis and that way it’s even.” Sam compromised.

Colby breathed. “Oh oka-”

I punched Colby right in the face, knocking him back into the wall. I kicked Sam hard in the dick. He groaned loudly, dropping to his knees. The gun flung away from him, next to Davis’ body. Colby’s hands were suddenly around my neck from behind, choking me. I fought against his hold, elbowing him hard in the chest. Sam recovered from my kick, jumping up and pushing me back into Colby’s hands. He held Colby’s knife up against my chest, ready to stab me.

A loud gunshot echoed off the walls of the dorm. I felt a sharp, agonizing pain in my side. My vision blurred from the pain and lack of oxygen, and suddenly all was dark. Quiet.

~~~

Y/N’s body dropped to the floor as Sam and Colby turned towards Davis, who somehow came loose from his binds.

The gun was in his hands, pointed at them.

“Holy fuck, you shot Y/N!” Colby boomed.

“No! No! Fuck! I meant to shoot you!” Davis stammered, pure shock coursing through him.

“Oh my god bro, you actually killed her?!” Sam laughed. “Wow… you made this so much easier for us.”

“Don’t you step any closer! I’ll fucking kill you too!” Davis turned towards Sam, his finger on the trigger.

“Gonna be hard to do that. There’s only one bullet in the chamber.” Sam stated.

Davis stared at the gun, trying to open it to see if Sam was telling the truth. Sam rushed up to him, stabbing him in the chest hard.

Sam blinked. “Just kidding.”

Davis’ body collapsed on the floor, and Sam bent down and stabbed him three more times, each with more fury than the next.

“Aw man… I thought I was gonna kill Davis.” Colby pouted.

“Shut up, Colby. Okay, we gotta make this look like we fought. Put your mask on him. I’ll take my cloak off and leave it next to him. Then we gotta make ourselves look… beaten.” Sam barked.

Colby nodded his head, taking his mask and placing it on Davis’ dead body. Sam tore his cloak off, leaving it next to Davis. The extra mask and cloak they discarded, leaving it in the room where Davis had been held captive. They made sure to clean up somewhat, wiping their fingerprints off of all weapons.

“Alright so… I think we should at least give each other a black eye. Maybe a couple slices too.” Sam dictated.

Colby agreed. “Okay, should I go-”

Sam punched Colby in the face, snorting after Colby winced and backed up.

“She already punched me bro! You didn’t have to do that!” Colby whined.

“Sorry. Go ahead, take it out on me.” Sam pulled his arms back, closing his eyes.

“Man, I don’t know. I’d hate to h-” Colby decked Sam across the face, his rings cutting up Sam’s bottom lip.

Sam winced. “Fuck! Okay! Shit. Alright, I’ll slice at you once, and you do the same.”

“Okay…” Colby mumbled.

Sam grabbed the knife, swiping at Colby’s abdomen.

“Ow! Fuck, that hurt.” Colby grimaced.

Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re such a baby.”

“Give me the knife. Tell me how it feels.” Colby yanked the knife out of his hand, jolting it into Sam’s side.

Sam grunted deeply, holding his wound. “Why don’t you cut a little deeper next time, Colby?”

“Sorry, are you okay?” Colby asked.

Sam pulled out his phone, “Yeah I’m fine. Alright, that’s enough. Time to call the police.”

“Dude…” Colby exhaled happily. “I can’t believe we’re getting away with this.”

“Justice is finally being served.” Sam grinned.

Sam called 911, giving an Oscar-worthy performance on the phone. He even shed real tears. The police were over in a flash. Sam and Colby limping down to the lobby of the empty dorm to meet them, for dramatic effect. They made sure to make themselves look exhausted from the crazy night they just endured. They told the police what happened – they saw the figure murder Sam’s girlfriend, one of the three that were killed tonight, and they followed him over to this building where they saw him dragging Y/N in. It was Davis, Y/N ex. He kidnapped her and killed her and tried to kill them as well. But they were able to fight him off and stab him.

They were escorted to the ambulance, a crowd of students lining up outside the building as they were being checked out.

Sam and Colby smiled at one another as they were loaded into the ambulance, needing to be fully checked out at the hospital.

A loud yell rang out as Y/N’s body was brought down on a stretcher. EMT’s surrounded her as they pulled her into a different ambulance.

“WAIT! She’s got a pulse!”

#sam and colby #sam golbach #colby brock #sam and colby fic #sam and colby fanfic #sam and colby fanfiction #sam and colby angst #sam golbach fanfic #sam golbach fic #sam golbach fanfiction #sam golbach angst #colby brock fic #colby brock fanfic #colby brock fanfiction #colby brock angst #sam and colby x reader #golbrocklovely's 13 nights of halloween

493 notes · View notes

scarecrowsbasementceiling · 2 years

Text

Slashers Getting You Pregnant

So apparently this wasn’t showing up on any tags or anything so I figured I’d repost, enjoy :)

Thomas Hewitt:

When you found out you were pregnant, you weren’t very scared of the family’s reaction. You knew they would be over the moon to find out a new member would be joining their family, well maybe not Hoyt but that didn’t matter much to you

You wanted to tell Thomas first before anyone else, you had thought about telling Luda Mae because it was your first pregnancy and you were scared of how it would go, what if something went wrong? How do people ensure their pregnancies are safe?

As much as that all mattered to you, you decided that regardless of all that. Thomas was the father and he deserved to know first, Luda would find out soon after and then you can have that conversation with her

You waited until later that night, after dinner was over and it was just you and Thomas in your shared bedroom, both of you settling down for the night.

Now Thomas was not completely ignorant to what was going on, he had noticed your morning sickness and other symptoms. Of course he didn’t know what it all meant, so he went to his mother for answers. When she mentioned pregnancy his eyes almost fell out of his head, sure he wanted a family of his own but he didn’t think it would come so soon.

With all of that information, it still was a surprise when you did tell him the news, it had only been a possibility before, but now it was real and actually happening. He might have a heart attack here and now. Excitement and happiness were rushing through both of you as he pulled you into his arms. Everything was going to be okay.

Luda Mae was over the moon at the news, she had her suspicions and she was damn glad to be right. A new member would be joining them in the next nine months!

Thomas will take any lesson he can from Luda Mae on how to be a good parent, he will do anything he can to make sure his child has a nice life. He knows how hard life can be for some people, and will make sure that nobody hurts his kid or does anything to make them feel less than they are. His child will forever be a star in his eyes.

RZ!Michael Myers:

Michael has thought before of having children, it stemmed from when he went away to the asylum and came to the realization that Boo wouldn’t be a baby anymore when he found her again. Maybe he could have a child one day to recreate the feeling that Boo gave him when he was little.

When you and him got together, the thought of children had already passed his mind and seemed impossible. He wouldn’t be a good father, growing up he had a horrible father and so far he hasn’t seen any other role model for a father figure. But with everything you’ve shown him throughout your relationship, maybe his view could change

When you discovered you were pregnant, horror went through you. Michael had never talked about kids before and with his tendencies, you didn’t have a single clue about how he felt about kids. You never dared bring it up because you figured he’d be against it. But now it seemed as though you had no choice but to find out how he felt about them now. Hopefully it won’t be too bad right?

Surprisingly enough you were correct in your thoughts. Although he wasn’t jumping for joy, he wasn’t angry either. He stood there in silence at the news, not knowing how to fully process it. He was going to be a father? A thought that was impossible to him was now happening, did he want it to though?

You were torn when he walked off suddenly, maybe he wasn’t as okay with it as you thought. But then again Michael has always been one to think on things by himself, so you let him think on it.

Michael came back later that night, his perspective on it decided. He would try his hand at being a father, maybe he could do it differently than it was done for him. And of course having you as the baby’s mother was a good thing too, he knew you were fit to be a mother and that gave him confidence

Trust that his child will be protected no matter what, nothing will happen to the boogeyman’s kid, anyone hurts them or does anything to make them upset? That’s their last move, nobody messes with Michael’s family.

Otis Driftwood

Otis? A father? Like that would ever happen. He’d never dare bring a child into this world, he had better things to do than that

He didn’t even think about relationships, he was the kind of guy to fuck and the leave them in the dust, dead or alive. But then you came along and had to shake everything up for him. That was a big enough change as is, like hell he’d want another shake up in the form of a kid

Well sucks to suck Otis cause now you’ve got a baby on the way. You told Baby and Mama before you told him, and they offered you nothing short of support. It made you feel a bit better about the pregnancy, but even they couldn’t sooth your feelings about how Otis would react, they didn’t really tell you much different than you already thought

But who knows, maybe he’d have a change of heart when he finds out. You ended up being a little right about that, he wasn’t as against it as you or himself originally thought. He was surprised to hear the news to say the least, and he needed time to process it all.

He won’t be as happy with it until the baby actually arrives sadly, it takes him that long to fully process that he is a father now. But once that baby does come? He’s fine to take up that mantle, he’ll show his baby the way of the world and shower them with all his creative ideals

The baby will definitely grow up to be creative like him, so be prepared for that. You’ll get plenty of artsy gifts, both macabre and tame. But living with the Fireflys for as long as you have, you see the beauty in the macabre and welcome it the same way they do

All in all, the baby will be loved by the entire family for sure, and it will grow up to be as crazy as them as it grows up. But you and Otis see nothing wrong with that at all

Billy Loomis

Billy is the king of mommy and daddy issues here, so his view on being a father is skewed as well. He’s both scared of being like his father and failing his kid and scared of you potentially walking out on him and his kid

Now it’s nothing personal against you, it’s just the fears he has because of his own parents. But trust he will love the kid

He would prefer to have a child later in life, so if it happens while he’s still in school it’s going to be very stressful for him. He's got other things to worry about, like school and killing people. He wouldn’t want his kid to know he was Ghostface, he might like killing with Stu but that doesn’t mean he wants his kid to do the same. He knows that he’s fucked up for killing, and if his kid does the same to him it means they’re fucked up and he failed them. He wants his kid to live as normal of a life as you two can give them

He might push for an abortion if you two are still in school for those reasons, but you decide to keep it and he supports that decision too. He might be upset for a bit and anxious but he knows he can do it and you’re the mother so you get final say. He’d never abandon his kid just because he’s in school so you don’t have to worry about him walking out on you

Stu would be stoked about it too, be ready for the best babysitter there is, he’s rich so just know you’ll never run out of stuff for the baby. Stu is determined to be uncle #1 and be the baby’s favorite person outside of the parents obviously

Billy would be determined to be the best father he can for his child, he’ll be there for every game, concert, doctor's appointment, anything the child has he’ll be there for it. He doesn’t want to make the same mistake his parents made, and that’s what drives him to do better and better with his family

Stu Macher

Stu is over the moon at the news of being a father, you don’t have to worry much about him not wanting to support the kid. He’s rich and had good parents, he knows what to do. He’s always been a party goer but he knew eventually he’d wanna settle down, and he wanted that with you

His parents taught him a bit about parenting, but he has no problem picking up parenting books to learn the rest with you. He will happily attend classes with you and help you with anything you need during the pregnancy. He’ll also be your number one cheerleader when you’re in the delivery room, much to your annoyance and joy. It's hard to enjoy it entirely when you’re in labor. Don’t worry he expected that too, he’s not hurt by any comments you make, you are about to push out a baby after all

He is willing to give up the mantle of Ghostface for your little one much to Billy’s dismay, but he understands that a child is a big deal so he’s not going to be too angry at Stu. He trusts him not to say a word and rat him out so everything’s good. You’re lucky he trusts you too, that had to be earned the second you started dating Stu, so good for you on that front

Stu is a big puppy at heart, he will melt the first time he holds his kid, he will do anything for them and will support them no matter what. If his kid wants to throw a party he’ll make sure it’s the best party anyone’s ever thrown, he totally wants his kid to outdo him, it’ll make him so proud

Stu has the capacity to be a great father, you won’t have to worry about him skipping out on anything, he might gag at the dirty diapers but if you need him to change one he absolutely will. Anything for his partner and kiddo.

#slashers x reader #Slashers #rz michael myers #rz michael myers x reader #michael myers x reader #Michael Myers #Stu Macher #stu macher x reader #billy loomis x reader #billy loomis #otis driftwood #otis driftwood x reader #thomas hewitt x reader #thomas hewitt

715 notes · View notes

luna-writes-stuff · 9 months

Note

Hi, could you please do something with Crowley and Cas helping a stressed reader? ♡

this is for the permanently stressed girlies (me)

——

Castiel

Regardless of what season Cas we are talking about, he is quick to adapt and learn. It is easy for him to notice and type of change in your mood and would probably notice the stress radiating off of you the moment you step into the room. He’d voice his observation quickly, something along the lines of ‘you’re stressed’. It’s not a question - it’s a statement. He wouldn’t know what to do with that information though. Depending on how you’d respond to his statement, he’d start some other form of contact. When you opt to ignore him, he’ll follow you around somewhat lost. He wants to help, but has no idea how. If your stress relies on simple chores, he’d probably do them for you. You wouldn’t even have to ask him. At the time you’re ready to work on them, he’d offer a casual ‘don’t worry, I already did that for you’. If you’re annoyed stressed and would give him some sort of snarky remark or a ‘not now, Cas’, he’d try to soothe you through words. He will, again, follow you around but ask what happened and see if there is anything he can do to calm you down for now. He’s been around humans for long enough to understand that stress is not a good motivator. Earlier seasons Cas would likely take you away to a place where you can’t work on the things plaguing your mind, if only for a short moment, whereas later seasons Cas would understand that more often than not a simple moment of silence covered in a hug or coffee (or tea) is enough to calm you down for the time being. Afterwards, he’d try to help you resolve certain matters if you allow him. If not, he’d be sure to offer you some solace after you’re done working.

——

Crowley

Crowley knows what it’s like to be busy like no other. As king of hell he has many duties to attend to, and therefor knows the name ‘stress’ all too well. He makes sure he has free time for you nonetheless. Unlike Cas, he might not immediately see the stress, but he notices something is wrong right away. After a few words or mumbles from you, he‘ll understand quickly. Unfortunately, he won’t always have time, which can suck, but he makes sure you’re reassured in one way or the other before he ultimately leaves again. If he’s busy, he’ll try to rationalise where the stress comes from and if the amount is justified for the chore. In times of stress, it can be difficult to calm down, but somehow he always manages to say just the right words. If there is nothing keeping him from you at the moment, he would make sure you have a short moment of rest and would try to prioritise matters with you. He’ll make sure you take enough breaks and will force you if you refuse to take any. During those forced breaks he’ll probably talk about his own day in a way to distract you from what you were doing. He knows you’re interested in whatever he’s doing and regardless of the stress you’re under, you’d always show interest in him. It’s one of the most natural ways of causing a distraction. You wouldn’t even notice the thirty minute talk, or the way your heartbeat slows just a little as he continues to rant over what has happened in hell this time.

#spn #supernatural #Castiel #castiel x reader #Crowley #spn crowley #crowley x reader #spn Crowley x reader

82 notes · View notes

thewritersaddictions · 1 year

Text

The Adults: Billy Hargrove- Swim Teach

Pairing: Swim Teacher!Billy Hargrove x Lifeguard!Fem!Reader

Pov: Billy

Warnings: Soft!Billy, Fluff, Summertime, accidental drowning, Kissing, not a predetermined relationship, Kids teasing Billy about his growing crush on the lifeguard.

Summary: Billy is a flirt at nature, so it’s hard for him to try and not use it while he sees you as the lifeguard at his new job.

A/n- Firefly-graphics for divders

WC- 2.3k

Stranger Things Master List // The Adults Master List

There are a few summer classes that I could have taught this year. Having lived in California for enough of my life to know the ocean like the back of my hand. How the waves clash hard and can sweep you off your feet if you aren’t careful.

I took a CPR class at my high school, and then another one at the pool. It ensured that I’d be able to safely rescue anyone who needed help. I was granted the job right on the spot. I can only assume the swim teacher there was either tired of doing both jobs as lifeguard and teacher, or they were simply not into the job they had signed up for during the summer months.

Regardless a week later, and right into the start of summer I got my job assignments. I was working with the kiddos. The small ones were almost tall enough to go down the big slide at the back of the pool, but not yet versed enough in saving themselves if nobody could get to them in time during a busy hot summer day at the pool.

I wouldn’t say that the first day was shitty, but the Hawkins weather was forever changing, and never wanted to stay warm enough so that once the little kiddos decided they were done with the swimming pool they might never come back in. “Come back into the pool.” I ushered tiny humans around the pool. Lunchtime had taken up longer than anticipated and the more the kids chose to not listen to me the harder it was for my anger to not boil over.

“Come on kids I know that you don't want the lifeguard to yell at you for running around the edge of the pool?” I questioned the gaggle of kids. In perfect unison, the heads turned and looked up toward the lifeguard chair. The umbrella gave shade to the person sitting up there, it’s a feline body Billy can tell almost automatically.

The voice only confirms it. “Yes, we wouldn’t want the big bad lifeguard to have to tell your parents you aren’t being good at the pool while they aren’t looking.” She says, her voice casting down through the empty pool. I shiver at her voice even though I’m in the water. The gaggle of children becomes more like a straight military line of children. “Yes, Ma’am.” They’d say as they pass her lifeguard post.

“Thank you” I mouthed up to her. I only saw the slight movement of her foot, but it was enough to pump me full of joy. The kids climbed back into the water. “Mr.Billy, what are we doing now?” One little girl asked me. Her hair had been put in pigtails but regardless of her mother's choice she had taken them out and now her hair was a mess.

“Well I say we fix your hair then we get into our next activity.” I saw them slowly walking over to her. The side of the pool that we were in was no deeper than my mid-calf. Water that I supposed the kids would have a good first day in. “Mr. Billy?” Another question from another kid. “Give me a moment so I can fix her hair and then you can ask me,” I said before returning my attention to her chlorine-coated hair. I cupped my hand into the water and soaked her hair once more. “What are you doing?” She asked in a voice so tiny against the large open body of chlorine water.

“Just making sure your mommy isn’t upset with me because I didn’t fix your hair,” I replied simply, and before I knew it I had tied her hair back up and we were on to our activity. “Okay kiddos, I want everyone to gather in a circle around me yeah.” I draw an imaginary circle around my body and they followed in perfect suit. “Today we are going to be playing with pool noodles. But there are some rules before you can get your fingers on one. Do you understand?” A simple yes or no question, with a simple yes or no answer, would have been perfect.

But children are rather cautious about everything. Whether that is curiosity or just the last nerve that they love to smother with unneeded attention. There was a little hum that made its way around the circle. My attention was drawn to the creaking of the old wood lifeguard post, the woman was leaving her post on the guard post. I couldn’t help but watch her move and walked down the concrete side of the pool. “Bye, Mr. Billy.” She said with a smoothness that nearly had me at the bottom of the pool.

The kids watched alongside me, and once she was gone I was still watching. “OOOO, Mr.Billy has a crush.” I heard one boy yell out, I rolled my eyes and turned looking at the circle around pointing and staring at me. “Come on kids, back to the lessons,” I said without even acknowledging the oohs, and ahhs happening all around me. I turned and grabbed a pool noddle from the side of the pool. “I want you guys to all grab one pool noodle from the edge of the pool and come back to our circle.”

There weren’t too many kids, just enough to have a little chaos. This went on for a few weeks. At least the first three weeks of the start of summer. The pool was starting to get overcrowded day by day. Regardless classes start at eight in the morning and lasted well through lunchtime. Most of the time was trying to help the kiddos keep their goggles on their faces without it hurting their faces or their hair. Week one was a blast for the kids and me, every day was a different lesson. Three weeks of flirting with her, purposely or maybe by accident. I’m not sure but every time she’d walk away from her post she’d turn and wave at me.

The growing tension between her and I grew rapidly. I watched as she swayed her hips with every step and never managed to let me see her eyes just puffy lips that looked so kissable. With these kids, there were certain things I had to do. Since they were around the ages of five and nine there was a lot of getting the kids accumulated to the water, and then we would be diving down underneath the water. The goggles were important in nearly everyday activities. One day after the kids had all been taken back by their parents and the pool items were put back I went on a search for the lifeguard.

We had all seen her, having her up there until well after lunch. I had never taken the chance to actually search after her. To find her and wonder where she went afterward. I grabbed my towel from the deck chair and made my way inside the building. It was small and, the showers weren’t running in the lady’s bathroom. I assumed that maybe she was in a different part of the pool. We had an indoor pool, but I guess I didn’t know that. I was always outside.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice the pool as my foot fell into the water and then my body was hitting the ice-cold water. I wasn’t floating. The fall had caused me to hit my head and everything was blurry in the cold water. I felt my feet hit the bottom of the pool, and my lungs filled with water as panic began to set into my body.

It wasn’t until I was being pulled, and tugged out of the water that the panic left my body, but still, I wasn’t able to open my eyes. The black sight of my eyes was all I could see. What I did know was that the soft touch of a woman was happening as I got dragged onto the concrete side.

A few pumps of my chest and nothing happened. A few more and still nothing, a soft graze of hair sprayed against my chest and neck. Then her lips were on mine, two fingers plugging my nose, causing me to cough up chlorine water.

My heart beat fast against my chest and I regained focus and air into my lungs. “Jesus.” That was my first word back to reality. Then I opened my eyes and then we stared at each other. Her eyes were beautiful in every single way, dark yet so bright as she looked down at me. “Billy?” She asked, music to my ears, I hummed. “Let’s get you to the nurse's office.” She said, reaching out a helping hand to help me get up off the cold floor. The towel that I had wrapped around my waist was floating in the water.

I went to grab it, but a soft hand wrapped around my own and dragged me away from the edge of the pool. “Someone else can get that Billy.” She spoke quietly. Her hat was gone, along with her shades. With her hand wrapped around mine, I followed closely behind her. I thought the minute that we got to the nurse's office that she’d drop me off and leave me there. I was wrong. She walked right in with me yet let go of my hand. “Thank you…” there was a little bit of silence.

I still didn’t know this beautiful woman's name, yet she knew mine. “Y/n, at your service.” With a wink, there was nobody in the office. We had been standing in the room for far too long. “Are you my savior and nurse?” I flirted with her, and she laughed and it sent a shiver down my spine. “Almost died and still a flirt?” She poked back. “Alway Y/n, always.” Y/n does a full check-up on me.

Y/n checks that the bump on my head isn’t grave and that my lungs don’t sound too bad. Considering I’m a smoker they already sound bad enough, but let’s not add anything else they don’t need. Her hands, Y/n’s delicate hand wraps around my wrist and gives my pulse a check. Two delicate fingers pressed into the pulse point of my wrist and we sat in comfortable silence. Y/n looks like she’s counting in her head, the number of beats my heart is doing in just one minute, but with her standing there right in front of me in all of her glory. My heart must be racing at this point.

My hair is wet and dripping cold droplets to the floor, and her red bathroom suit covers most of her body but gives something to the imagination. Curves that float down like a road it’s memorizing to watch as she moved effortlessly in the small exam room. Y/n fingers leave my wrist and I pout. When she turns back around she giggles at me. “What's wrong now?” Now it’s Y/n who’s being a flirt, and I just pout more. Letting my head fall forward. “Of is it your head? Do you need kisses to make it feel better, huh Billy?” I can’t help but moan and whine all at the same time. Sounds that never come out of me.

“Come here sweet boy, let me give you a kiss huh.” She moves me to my head like a rag doll. Controlling it in ways that only she can. I’m like playdoh in her hands and it makes everything else in the world disappear behind me. Y/n gives me a small quick kiss on my forehead. The place where it’s red and bumpy, but then she moves my head again. Now my head is sitting in her hand, her thumbs grazing carefully across my jaw and over my lips.

That’s all before she’s bending down and kissing me softly on the lisp for real this time. It’s not fast or because I’m about to die, it’s simply because she wants to kiss me. I love the way her lips feel up against mine. They’re soft, and plush as they met mine. Warm to the touch even though the pool house is cold and makes you shiver as you walk in. Her hands are on fire on my jaw and cheek, but there’s a sort of warmth that I’ve never felt before.

It’s the sort of warmth that when Y/n pulls away I want to pull her right back and I want more. I need more from her. “Did that fix your wounds Billy?” her voice is somehow deeper, lips redder than before, and eyes darker. I roll my tongue out over my lips and catch a taste of her. ‘I don’t know Y/n I might need a few more to really fix me up good and all.” I tease her with a wink.

She fawns and blush grows on the tips of her ears, and cheeks. “How about a date to start up your very strict health regimen.” She’s a flirt, and it drives me crazy. I hum in satisfaction. “When do you get off?” I ask her nerves growing into anticipation. Y/n looks over to the clock in the exam room. It’s been making a horrible ticking noise, but regardless of that, she looks back over at me. “Off in just a few. Say maybe twenty minutes.” “How about dinner tonight at the fancy place in town?” I suggest her eye light up, but then dim. “Are you sure?” She questions me.

“For my savior, anything will do. I’ll pick you up in say a few hours.” She writes her address down on a paper towel she pulls from the dispenser. With that, I get up from the chair and give her one last long kiss on her red and swollen lips, and when I leave the room I know she’s staring at me. Wishing that her shift was over rather than still having to work.

Completed on: 04/12/23

Posted on: 04/24/23

The Adults- @yourfavdummy

#billy hargrove x y/n #billy harringrove #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargove imagine #billy hargrove one shot #billy hargrove #billy hargrove x female reader #billy hargrove fanfiction #billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove fluff #billy hargrove blurb

101 notes · View notes

depravitymoon · 4 months

Note

hello! i was wondering... how do you think bucci gang/la squadra would approach darling's first time?

have a nice day!!!! > w <

The more simple answer is that they all will be as gentle as possible knowing darling's a virgin and will be more vanilla, holding off on the more freaky stuff for later.

The longer answer's below and some of them go into dub/non con and Dead Dove territory. I'm doing 14 characters, so I'm writing a paragraph each of varying lengths. I tried to make it gender neutral but some of it does imply AFAB Darling.

Since it's February now, this might as well be a Valentine's Day post:

Fugo

Consent? Yes

Risky Creampie? No.

It'll be his first time too, so he once it to be special too. He tries to be slow and gentle, but you're both virgins it's sloppy. You're even shocked at how sensual he is compared to his typically uptight neurotic self. In the end, he prematurely ejaculates and gets embarasseded about it. He promises the next time he'll do better.

Bruno

Consent? Dubious

Risky Creampie? Yes.

He'll manipulate you into love making with him if you wont do it willingly. Even if you don't want it, he'll be a romantic as possible with you. However, he will still attempt to baby trap you, even if it is your first time. Either no condom, a hole's in the condom, and/or he'll make sure your birth contol is ineffective. He'll promise you'll love it and the next 9 months.

Giorno

Consent? Optional

Risky Creampie? No.

Using GER, he could create some vines for bondage, overstimulating until you're drool in pleasure while he's fucking you. Praising you for being his good little Bambi. And when he's done, you'll be rewarded with treats and his love (if he's not too busy).

Trish

Consent? "Yes"

Risky Creampie? No.

Trish wants your consent. She knows how to manipulate a yes out of you if you're unsure. She'll have toys and strap-ons prepared. She's more experienced than she lets on, so she'll take the lead and let you lead another time.

Pesci

Consent? Yes

Risky Creampie? No

When you came to him and asked him to take your virginity, he also fainted. He's a virgin too and never thought he'd be so lucky to have you by his side. So scared of hurting you that he just lets you lead and get on top. Pesci prefers to keep it nice, gentle, and slow more than anyone else in Passione.

Prosciutto

Consent? Blackmail

Risky Creampie? No

Sleeping with him was part of the deal. With you being a virgin, it kind of complicated things, because he wants your first time with him to be memorable. He wines and dines you, he takes you on an adorable romantic date to make you comfortable, but keep in mind no is not an option. You should be grateful he's putting in the effort before becoming your first (and only).

Risotto

Consent? Doesn't care.

Risky cream pie? Has you on the pill if need be.

The capo is quite massive. You're hurting regardless, so he'll have you cocksleeved. You'll be speared on his cock for awhile so you'll get adjusted to it. He'll also do alot of foreplay prior to the cocksleeve, massaging your pussy, rubbing your clit, eating you out, etc.

Abbacchio

Consent? Drugs and alcholol

Risky cream pie? No.

He's not delusional. He knows you wouldn't want to fuck your kidnapper, so he got you something to loosen you up and to lighten the mood. He's most likely also drunk when you two are about to do it, because he didn't want his paranoia or conscious getting in the way.

Melone

Consent? Bitch, you thought!

Risky creampie? Yes.

You're more likely to wake up to Melone inside of you. If you're lucky and willing, he will be a sweet gentle accommodating lover. Safe sex is never an option. If you resist, he'll either have you tied up, drugged up, or have baby face hold you down. Careful, after the first time, he can be a selfish lover.

Mista

Consent? Optional

Risky cream pie? Maybe

Normally, Mista is rough, but learning you're a virgin changes things. He wasn't expecting it, honestly. This is a rare moment where Mista primarily focuses on pleasing you and overstimulating you. He'll still degrade you as his little slut, though. If you're a stand user, you might also hear the Sex Pistols whisper stuff in your ears. Take that as you will.

Narancia

Consent? Optional

Risky cream pie? Yes

If Narancia's forcing you, he wouldn't know it. It's surprise sex! He knows you'll be super nervous and panicked for the first time, but don't Nara got tips from Mista and Fugo! Don't worry about the knife in his hands, it's just to take your clothes off faster. He'll get you new ones, promise. Expect alot of eating out and overstimulation.

Illuso

Consent? Nope!

Risky Creampie? Nope!

You being a virgin just boosts his ego. You're his prisoner so he'll take everything from you, even your virginity. Sure he'll finger you to stretch you out, but he expects you to please him. He'll let you ride him at your own pace so you'll get use to his length. Be grateful, because he could always let Man In The Mirror take you without prep.

Formaggio

Consent? Nope!

Risky cream pie? Nope!

Formaggio got you through blackmail. He never expected someone with a hit out for them would be a virgin. He'll what Illuso does, but with the added bonus of shrinking himself so he can slowly get you use to his actual length. This better mean you'll show him some gratitude.

Ghiaccio

Consent? Kind of.

Risky cream pie? Nope!

Ghiaccio is the type od yandere to wear you down until you give into is request. He is shockingly gentle when sensual. Turns out he just wants you to be a sanctuary where he can express his vulnerability. He'll admit he's a virgin too because everyone pissed him off. Everyone except you, that is.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #la squadra #bucci gang #vento aureo #yandere #jjba #fugo #bruno buccellati #Giorno #Trish Una #Pesci #Prosciutto #Risotto #Risotto Nero #Abbacchio #melone #Mista #Narancia #ghiaccio

45 notes · View notes

time-to-write-and-suffer · 1 year

Text

why did I play wayhaven chronicles book 3

A list of grievances and observations as I played this heck of a game

Spoilers for all of it because I don't care and you shouldn't either

How is the writing getting worse. HOW IS THE WRITING GETTING WORSE. DON'T YOU HAVE EDITORS? BETA TESTERS? AUGH.

there's so much stage direction it's unbearable. people smile, smirk, chuckle, roll their eyes, shrug, scoff, groan, all of it, always, often for no reason, often to just fill word count, often so unnaturally it reads like they're all robots.

descriptions and dialogue are repetitive as fuck, and the prose quality is so poor. i feel like you could write a better game faster if you just had a better editor. or AN editor, really.

It really is a game that bit off more than it could chew so it didn't chew anything at all and just spit this back out.

I encountered like 3 major bugs in my first playthrough that would've broken the plot/game, if any choice actually mattered and the vampires didn't just swoop in to save my ass no matter what I did, so I guess no harm done ????

MAKE A SMALLER GAME THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY BOTHER TO PLOT OUT AND CODE

You can't keep bragging about how much you loooove adding variation when seemingly no or very few options actually impact anything

No seriously, the amount of times player agency is discarded just because nothing is allowed to matter is staggering (why couldn't the detective confess their love for Mason? well because it would change the dynamic uwu!)

Speaking of Mason, look how they slaughtered my boy!

I refuse to believe M is this fucking stupid, they clearly know enough about romance to realize that some other people might want more than they can offer (in fact they say this exact thing if you reject sex in book 2) so like ?? why wouldn't they be able to recognize or even entertain that that's what's going on? sorry i get not realizing initially but the longer it goes on the more annoying and less realistic it becomes

But that's a non-issue right? Because the romance develops in this book? Sure, it does, and that's one of the few good things about it, that there's visible romantic development with M at least, but it also just completely doesn't care how you approach the romance at all. If you try to approach M's romance as a slow burn, it's not taken into account. Because the game doesn't seem to track which kiss is actually your first, ANY of them could be, so they're all written as equally important, meaning none is allowed to be more important than the others

Same goes for the sex scenes. You're waiting until the best in-character moment to fuck M? Well fuck you. it'll be the same as any other. This was the first time? cool cool, the game doesn't care. headcanon your own emotional weight of the moment, asshole. first time my detective had sex with Mason was written with pretty much the same weight as any previous ones I read, and we didn't even get a morning-after scene when Mason ditches their ass. I'm sure your slow-burn, slow-to-trust, emotionally motivated detective is tottally chill with their lover leaving in the morning after they finally brought their guard down and let Mason in, right? no? well fuck you. it's a week later now and they have no comment to make.

"oh but it's sooo hard to code alll of these variations! you can't expect the writer to take your headcanons into account!" they're not headcanons. i can reject Mason's advances at every step of the way, but the game doesn't care about this beyond the next page where the rejection actually occurs. anything else plays out like it does regardless of whether it's your first time doing anything or not.

Here's a simple, cure-all solution to writing choices that are too complicated for you to handle: don't! just don't put them in if you don't honor them! DON'T FUCKING PUT THEM IN IF YOU DON'T HONOR THEM.

Speaking of fuck you, if you're playing as a nonbinary detective and you have sex with M? congrats on having ghost genitals. your "detailed" intimate scenes are so vague and noncommittal that it's difficult to tell who's doing what with what body part. it's all so vague and bland that there's really no point in picking the option at all. Pro tip, cissies: nonbinary people have genitals, too. I know! Wild, right?

What's funnier, you always get to pick if you "initiate" or not (I assume this is code for topping). But if you're NB, regardless of what you pick, you don't really find out what your character is doing, even though Mishka gave herself a perfect out to write player-based variation. Everyone's got holes, man. It's not that hard.

Basically the game insists you have sex with M ASAP because there's no material reason not to, but if you dare to be nonbinary and fuck M, good luck on figuring out that sex scene, bitch!

Rebecca is still getting so many excuses and second chances that it's getting genuinely triggering to read at times. Your character keeps having to confront her about their relationship and it's like it wants you to forgive her because it's #feelgood. Plus, if you decide not to work with her at one point, you get a shorter climax where you're a cringefail idiot who can't do anything right. If you work with her, everything works without a hitch and you get to waltz out being all cool and badass. huh? huh ? huh ???? i hope this is just something me and my pals who played this are missing and maybe there's more variation??? but man oh man the Rebecca stanning going on in the narrative is so uncomfortable :')

We really peaked with Falk. This new villain is barely a presence and doesn't even get named until like halfway into the story. We meet him once and then he's defeated.

Sin, who got a lot of hype and buildup ... is not of any consequence. He just leaves.

You don't even find out what his deal is if you go the combat training route. Oh you thought this was vital info that would be delivered to you regardless of your personal character choices? fuck you.

Addie, the face of the victims of these gruesome kidnappings? comes back at the end as a non-speaking character you never even talk to personally.

The whole entire kidnapping+human/supernatual trafficking thing is just so ... bad. It's all so poorly constructed and not thought-out at all. Why would you go here with your silly vampire detective romance? Who thought this was the place to do that?

The detective's emotional breakdown is triggered by a random nameless victim who never comes back into the story again

The detective's emotional breakdown involves them being naked in a shower with their LI. This is (in M's case, at least) never brought up again and barely has any impact on the romance (because you can avoid it, so it can't matter too much<3)

The blood drive that was set up as being a potential major issue and would maybe tie back into the alleged "main plot"? Easily avoided, explicitly in-universe boring, and literally of no consequence

After all this, after three books of being dumb as shit for no reason other than idk cringefail cheap angst? Mason confesses his love for the detective via a NEVER-HAVE-I-EVER DRINKING GAME.

NO REALLY. I'M FUCKING SERIOUS DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME I AM 100% TELLING YOU THE TRUTH RIGHT NOW

This is, of course, not touched upon at all and the detective (who, at this point, is pretty much aware they're in love with M) barely reacts at all

THE FAMOUSLY EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE HORNY SLUT CHARACTER, WHOSE REALIZATION SHOULD ALLOW FOR SO MUCH ANGST AND JOY IN ANY GOOD ROMANCE, CONFESSES THEIR LOVE VIA DRINKING GAME

honestly it wouldn't be so bad if it were acknowledged or discussed afterward or if it had any fucking effect on anything ever but it's barely even played as a joke so we can't have that! Why????

Because the book is over. if you're an M-mancer the book ends with a drinking game indirect love confession and you don't get to react to it at all

But here's a cheap stinger about the detective's relative who's totally evil and will totally be a main antagonist eventually!

did you have fun??? no?? well fuck you.

#twc spoilers #twc critical #shoutout to my lads in that one discord server for helping me compile this list #there was ... a lot

100 notes · View notes