#they also did not tell her she was going in for that interview oops

[the-physicality]

welcome to all star. i am officially *adding* my team USA hat to my team phoenix mercury hat

[lovelaetter]

https://youtu.be/T9uQzj1-I5k?si=tQzcmpNYzVy3cDQs i cant get over how good she looks lately but THIS interview i’m actually foaming at the mouth

aside from loving the concept of her being so open about past relationships…the sick part of me is obsessed with the idea of rosie being in a toxic relationship because it just fits her so well. i can imagine her in a situationship but not being able to detach because 1) she’s needy and attatched, and 2) gets fucked right so its worth it.

i just want her to cry and yell in my face, throwing stuff around, literally going batshit crazy just for her to come back in a week to say sorry with *that* look on her face to get her pussy stuffed, craving your fingers or getting dicked down (g!p) cause she “can’t do it herself.”

on-and-off relationships with her, being possessive and controlling over her when she’s in different cities - whether its for her little ysl shows, or music promotions, asking who she's with, adding in a certain comment about the skin she shows, acting like she hates it but deep down knows she loves being your fixation cuz it feeds her ego lol

loving being mean to her because she knows how to take it (and *other* things) and sometimes getting an earful back, just for both of you to end up in bed tearing each other apart. like, you getting upset about her writing a song in her album, calling you out subtly on your guys' relationship, fighting in the studio in front of her team, 'embarrassing' her just for kick everyone out so you can fuck right then and there because seeing you angry gets her feeling a way oops maybe i just like arguing - 🥀

😵‍💫😵‍💫

okay but what if: you also being someone in the industry, not necessarily a singer, could an actress, a director, a writer, just both sides being put out there by you and being equally messy, you know, equal rights and people love being nosy and everyone is like this is the worst relationship ever but the next day there’s an article saying how you got back together and people simply can’t be on anyone’s side, you both are the worst !!

look, i don’t have a thing for cheating, i hate it actually, awful thing, but it’s fitting here, let’s be real. her going full taylor swift and admitting on cheating on you on her album? exactly. the drama, just sitting in her room waiting for your call or worse, for you to bang at her door mad as fuck but instead you just text her like “okay girl i fucked someone too so what lol” BUT THE THING IS you are mad, yes, you cheated, but you ARE mad and playing it cool and now so is she and it triggers this week long ass fight that culminates in, not joking, weekend long sex, the type your agent calls you because you have schedule to follow and you pick it up just to tell them to fuck off, change of plans, more important things showed up— blondie on your door looking so pissed but also wearing the most “visiting my not-so-ex-girlfriend-we-complicated to scream some facts at her but also let her know i need to feel her deep inside me” outfit she could find. and the thing you said about controlling her? omg, doing it here, the subject the discussion you are having quickly changing once you take a proper look at whatever she’s wearing with a “and what the fuck is that?” and her being sooo entitled saying “well, i have places to be” and it’s like “you do?” “yeah” “yeah?” “uh-hm” until you are already too close to her and she has nowhere to run once your hands get on her like she’s a doll. you actually loved her outfit, she looks so hot as always, and deep down you know she did it just for you… but you simply wouldn’t let her win this game.

her people probably would think she is dead or something during all weekend unless they are smart enough to contact someone that works with you because she would tell her manager oh i’m visiting someone and just leave and they wouldn’t be able to reach her as the whole time her phone is inside her bag turned off and she’s busy laying belly down with her pretty face being into the pillows and spread out, moaning and crying out for you to (not) give her holes a break, pussy leaking around four fingers and pushing up every time you tease her little asshole.

sex so good it has you apologizing to each other by the end, hands between the other’s thighs, her mouth on your tits, awkwardly muttering “sorry” against your skin.

[altsunthinkable]

So I was telling my mother (who watches 911 but like in a normal general audience way) about the whole alive Bobby theory today. And in running it down for her, I finally settled on the things that make me most lean towards believing it.

1. Oliver sharing the "buried alive" script page. Now, I actually do think the script page was fake and posted as an April Fools joke (particularly because JLH also posted it but it wasn't legible enough so then Oliver did it too). BUT given that Oliver is aware how fans scrutinize his social media activities and he has outright said he didn't want fans to feel mislead if he "liked" Buddie stuff so he wasn't going to do it anymore... would he really go along with a joke saying Bobby was alive if that isn't going to end up being the case? It wouldn't seem to fit with the care he's shown towards fans' expectations in the past.

2. Oliver's post about Peter saying "we miss you at work with us every day" when we know for a fact he's been on set pretty much this whole time. Not "we will miss you." But something we know to actually be false because he hasn't been missing yet.

3. Oliver sharing then deleting the two photos of Brad Torrence just hours after the funeral scenes were shot downtown. It wasn't just one photo which could have been an accidental "oops I didn't mean to tap that one" share. It was two separate photos. We all thought it was odd at the time and wondered what it was about. But then someone (I'm sorry I don't remember who) pointed out what the suicidal Hotshots fan said in 8x08: "You're my comfort captain... You're killing off Captain Banner? You can't! ... Do you realize how many people would be devastated if you did that?" Brad dismisses it as 2 days on TMZ tops. The fan then quotes the inspirational speech from the end of Hotshots season 2 word for word and reiterates: "You can't kill off Captain Banner. He's what keeps the 119 fire family together."* And Brad decides he'll agree to have Banner live. And we see for a fact that he goes through with it.

4. Angela Bassett saying she found out when she got the script when Tim Minear said in an inteview that he called each cast member and told them, giving details about how they reacted (that it took 15 minutes to convince Aisha he wasn't joking).

5. Ryan not doing a goodbye post directed to Peter at all. Not even a photo of the two of them together. Just sharing a silly fan edit of Bobby with a pink bow on his head.

Those are the main offscreen things that have me 🤔🤨. On screen see also:

1. Chekov's rat. Why make a point of showing Chimney bringing it out of the lab when they didn't even acknowledge its existence while they were inside? And we had that post-episode still showing someone taking the rat away from Chim while he's in quarantine. That got cut from the episode but was apparently important enough to write and to shoot.

2. The awkward and otherwise unnecessary cut from Chimney on the phone with Maddie saying "he knew" to the 4 nameless faceless people in hazmat suits caring out the already closed body bag before panning to Bobby's helmet on the floor. It's awkward AF. If they wanted the helmet shot for emotional punch they could have gone just to it. Or panned across some of the blood Bobby had coughed up on the floor and then settled on the helmet. Or maybe even from Bobby's boots and legs from where he died knelt at that table to his helmet. The shot of the body bag being carried out by unknown people was completely out of place. Unless it's important that we know that.

3. The choice of Work Song. We know this show loves itself some on the nose musical choices. "No grave can hold my body down. I'll crawl home to her." There so many songs about death and loss they could have used to just as poignant an end. But this is what they picked.

---

*Tim has cited the Captain Banner stuff in interviews saying it was him choreographing his intentions to kill Bobby. But given Oliver's choice to share those pics when it was already clear fans had figured it out it was Bobby's funeral being filmed, I can just as easily see it being Tim feeling incredibly pleased with himself and clever that he told us exactly what was going to happen - Captain Banner Nash is going to live! My bet is he probably was bummed out some fans were on to him so quickly so he decided to mention it to try to again say "see, he's dead!" Ala "the body bag didn't convince you?" Which is also weird thing to say if that shot doesn't end up being important...

[stellarxdeath]

I've seen a handful of posts lately saying that the writers of IWTV have butchered Claudia's character and/or wrote her poorly, things of that ilk; lamenting how dirty she was done by the skill of the writers. Now that I'm all caught up and s2 is finished* [ sob ] I... Have some choice thoughts on this perspective.

Number one being that Claudia was explicitly doomed by the narrative the moment she'd been introduced to it. Her death is referenced but not outright stated initially, moreso implied, but the writing makes no mistake in telling us that Claudia, the Child Vampiress, will die. She's not potentially out there somewhere, she's not in hiding, she is dead, and she will never be able to tell us the whole of her truth beyond her diaries.

The second issue that the "IWTV Writers bad" crowd seems to forget is that, Even with the diaries, this is ultimately Louis' story, and the gaps in perspective are inevitably filled by him and eventually Armand, but never Claudia. She was disregarded because time and time again, Louis disregarded her for Lestat, and then for Armand; She was betrayed by the coven she professed her love for with a horrible, terrible, calculated eagerness because of Louis coming in and fucking with the coven dynamic; Regardless if that dynamic was healthy or not.

What Claudia and Louis had was precious, but it was also deeply, deeply flawed. He can effectively be blamed for her death, drawn all the way back to the riots incited by his choice to kill Fenwick; Was Louis justified in doing so? Yeah, abso-fucking-lutely, but this doesn't change the fact that his choices directly damned her to die.

Third is the claim that Claudia went from lethal and independent to desperate and weak? When? No?? Again I'm loosely paraphrasing some posts I've seen and attempting to take them in good faith; Claudia, from season one, was very interested in finding other Vampires, she was hellbent on it, and unfortunately it lead her to Bruce aka "The Motherfucker."

Her attempt to take Louis with her to Europe in s1 was in service of that goal. Claudia wanted to escape Lestat, she wanted to save Louis, and she wanted to find her people. She even tried to make her own Vampires despite being a fledgling! She has always wanted community, and I'd go as far as to say she was so strong because she could only rely on herself for so goddamn long, Louis being trapped under Lestat's thumb even after Lestat came crawling back in the later half of s1.

I understand that Claudia is a fan fave and people very rightly wished for her to live - the thing I have a gripe with is that some are taking this love for her and making it more important than the story itself. Interview With The Vampire is a tale of regret, trauma and abuse, a story of how memories are monsters and to be a Vampire is to be damned to the Odyssey of recollection, and if you don't survive, your memory will always inevitably be twisted over time. A life in eternity is a life full of pain.

The fact that people are so upset over the unfairness of her life is the intended effect; You are supposed to be upset that she is doomed, the writers of IWTV did a fucking fantastic job of making you feel that way - however, blaming the writers and crying "Bad writing" over the intended reaction feels just a tad silly to me.

As another post put it: Louis loved Claudia so much, but it was never enough. Everyone in Claudia's life except for Madeline betrayed her, her vampyric rebirth was the bandaid to a shitty vampyric marriage, she was denied her own life and Armand the Ancient fucking Coven Leader did nothing to save her; so much so that she was a goddamn Sacrifice so that Louis may live instead. Disregarded. Doomed. Damned. The injustice is meant to piss you off, I beg of those who think the Writers fucked up to simply sit with that feeling. Sit with the injustice. In the end, it's all any of us can do.

it was not finished oops* more opinions on the way

[coraxonxcall]

More to the story: Chapter 7: Trust Us With Your Safety

"Three."

The lights dimmed, casting the room in darkness only broken up by the dim floor lighting and the gentle glow of various the devices that lined the room.

"Two."

The subtle sounds of movement were heard as everyone shifted into place. Everything had to be perfect.

"One."

He would settle for nothing less.

"And we're live!"

"Good evening Hell, and welcome to our exclusive interview with none other than everyone's favorite Overlord: the big man himself, Vox!" Katie had nailed the introduction, she always did. She was a professional, after all- one of Vox's best anchors on staff.

"Happy to be here, Katie." He relaxed back in his chair, completely at ease with all of Hell watching him. He took a sip from his mug, locking eyes with the Sinner on the other side of the table. "It's always good to talk with Hell's most reliable news network."

"And we are just thrilled to have you!" Her smile widened. Not too wide, but enough for the sell.

"Th-" Tom started to speak from the seat beside Katie, but she kicked the chair with her foot, and it rolled out of the frame with a crash.

"Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to be here with us!" Katie finished Tom's line for him. She was always a bit of a diva, but their constant fighting was great for ratings. (In fact, the two were married just for the ratings. Killjoy and Trench: affairs, violence, and more drama than you can handle- it was great for Vox's celebrity drama show.)

"I always have time for the people. VoxTek cares, that's why you can put your trust in us!" The audience clapped on cue and Vox waved his hand as if embarrassed by the appreciation. "Thank you, thank you all, you're too kind." It was literally the least they could do. In fact, a few audience members seemed to be slacking on their enthusiasm. He might need to speak with Katie about that later.

"So, Vox," the applause quelled on cue. "With the last Extermination taking a rather surprising turn, what are your thoughts on the future between Heaven and Hell?" A perfectly curated question, no surprises. This was exactly what he needed after his afternoon. Having Alastor destroy his perfectly functioning drones was already enough of a hassle to last him a lifetime. The man had no respect for progress.

"I'm so glad you asked Katie," he took an easy stance, crossing one leg over the other. "Thanks to the VoxTek cameras, we were able to monitor all aspects of the battlefield. Our panel of analysts have been able to study the footage, over and over again to learn the subtle nuances of angelic fighting techniques." They also had the part where Alastor got his ass handed to him saved on multiple files, it was currently Vox's screensaver. "This is so our upcoming Angelic Security provides the most protection to you our beloved customers. That is why you can trust us with your safety." Smile, wink at the camera, use the trademarked line, this all came so naturally to him. Vox was more at home on the camera than he was off of it. That was why it had been so easy for him to establish a monopoly on the visual media of Hell. It was always important to control what was seen, image was everything.

"Amazing Vox!" Katie delivered her winning smile right into the camera. Her expression went serious as she looked back toward him. Right on cue. "And do you think another Extermination is coming?" Perfect. He brought up the product, now it was time to build the need- to rile the masses up.

"Of course I do. The Princess and her friend challenged Heaven directly. The Exterminations were bad before but think of what is going to happen now that we've fought back. I've talked to my good friend, King Morningstar, and he's telling me that- oops." A tactful sip from his mug, eyes flickering directly to the camera. He shifted in his seat. "Perhaps I'm saying too much." His smile widened a bit as he heard the nervous stirring in the crowd. Of course he hadn't actually talked to Lucifer. He barely knew the guy. Even before he had become a recluse, Vox dealt mostly with Lillith. She had been the voice that commanded Hell. Lucifer was... a hands-off kind of guy. That was respectable, for what it was. He could be as hands off as he wanted, it left room for Vox to step in.

"Ooooo, some special insider knowledge!" Katie covered her mouth with her hand. By this point, Tom had crawled his way back, dragging his chair with him. "Well, with all this unique insight, I certainly Trust VoxTek with my security needs. What about you, Tom?"

"Well, I-" Tom began to speak but Katie kicked his chair back again.

"Nobody gives a flying fuck! That's all the time we have today! Vox is a very busy Overlord, and he has so much more to do to keep us safe, happy, and on our way to a brighter future."

"A brighter future indeed, Katie. That's why you can trust us with everything you need." He delivered the slogan directly into the camera with a winning smile. A perfect interview to fix a crappy day. This was the sort of win he needed.

"Thank you again, Vox."

"You're welcome, Katie."

"And we've cut to commercials." The cameraman gave the signal and instantly Katie's smile dropped, she lit a cigarette, relaxing in her chair.

"Thank fuck." She looked over at Vox. Her demeanor changed to a more professional one, her back straight, legs crossed. "I hope that was up to your standards."

"Perfect. You'll see the results reflected in your paycheck." He knew she wouldn't be too abrasive with him. He was her boss after all. Katie would do anything to climb that corporate ladder so to him, she was a charming, friendly Sinner working desperately to maintain her relevance as VoxTek continued to evolve.

"You didn't let me do any of my lines!" Tom protested, fixing his hair and dusting off his suit. "I had half of those!"

"No one watches this station to stare at your shitty face, I promise." Katie didn't even turn to look at him. Tom scrambled to catch up to Vox who was already on his way out. (Katie was telling the truth in her news cast-for once- Vox was an incredibly busy man.)

"Vox, sir, you can't honestly think this is acceptable. I am just as important to the station as Katie!"

"People love the conflict between you two. So yes, you are important. You getting your ass handed to you is great for ratings. And ratings are..." Vox trailed off, leaving the rest of the sentence for Tom.

"Ratings are all that matters!" He sounded newly invigorated. Perhaps he hadn't realized how much their bickering kept them relevant. Or maybe he just needed some reminding.

"Exactly! Now get back to work." Vox waved him away. They both had other things to be doing and in order to assure the highest ratings Tom and Katie would need to be on screen. Their bickering turned to violence, and that violence kept the Sinners and Hellborns tuning back in.

He took his leave of the news station. He had no more business there, at this point he was just wasting time. He smiled, waving to the adoring public as he stepped outside. It was hard maintaining an image of perfection, but after Alastor's absence, Vox had found his climb to the top to be far easier. Of course, Alastor was back now (just remembering it put the Overlord in a sour mood) but that didn't matter. Vox had been growing in power while Alastor sat passively in the shadows... being... mysterious or whatever it was that that antlered freak did for fun.

"Vox! Did you really hear from Lucifer that Heaven is planning a retaliation?" There was a slew of reporters out front. Most were his plants, but there were one or two 'independent Jounalists' (mostly Hellborns) that wanted 'the truth'. It was obnoxious, to say the least. The truth was what Vox said it was. Nothing more, nothing less, and the sooner everyone realized that the better. The Vees had a near monopoly on the media (minus radio, of course, but no one listened to that old-timey shit), so Vox's word tended to spread far and fast.

"I'm not at liberty to say." He brought his finger against his screen to his lips. "But if I were you, I would be saving up for VoxTek Angelic Security once it gets released. And just a quick warning," he chuckled, putting both hands behind his back, giving his most charming smile to the captive audience, "it will be expensive."

"How expensive?" Another reporter asked.

"Still in the works, but you can't put a price on your safety, and we want only the highest quality technology protecting our customers. I wouldn't release anything I wouldn't use myself. That's how you know you can trust us with something so important as your very lives." Were those lives important? That varied depending on the Sinner and their respective contributions. But that was more of an insider knowledge sort of fact. It wasn't for the public.

"What do you think of DamnWay and their Anti-Angel Oil? Are you concerned about any competition?" It seemed the reporters were out in abundance today. There had been an absolutely massive event recently, he supposed, so it wasn't surprising, but it was a bit annoying.

"DamnWay is great if you're looking for hair care or kitchen aids, but we're talking about a matter of public safety." It took every fiber of Vox's being to not roll his eyes at the suggestion. "That is something that requires, finesse, innovation! Mary-Lu hasn't been here as long as I have." He had no idea how long she had been around, but no longer than Velvette from what he could tell. "When lives are on the line, experience matters. And no offense to Mary-Lu, but if an angel is close enough to smell an oil or however that's supposed to work- they're too fucking close for comfort. Am I right?" He laughed and his plants in the crowd began laughing as well, causing the outside reporters to laugh as a part of the crowd mentality. Worked every time. "Now I'm afraid that's all the time for questions I have today! I really must get back to work."

"Wait! Do you know when the security might be-"

"That's all the time we have." Vox's voice shifted, becoming more synthetic as he opened his left eye a little wider, the eye creating a spiral, spinning and reflecting into every eye that watched him. Ugh, it was tiring to use the ability- and it didn't work on everyone. Fortunately, most everyone in Pentagram City was a fucking idiot and therefore Vox could push their actions with the power of suggestion. Due to the energy it cost and the restrictions on who was affected, Vox didn't use this power constantly (he didn't have to, his natural charisma still carried him far). But on occasions, when he needed people to listen, he didn't mind controlling the situation. The swarm of reporters stared back, slack-jawed, eyes wide. "Thank you everyone and have a spectacular day!" And with that, Vox vanished in a bolt of electricity.

The benefit of his unique Sinner form was that Vox could travel through the television. Selling more TVs, thus, gave him nearly free reign of Hell. Very few beings had the power to keep his eyes out of their homes. And why would they want to? Knowing everything about everyone was the business of VoxTek. How could they sell perfectly curated products if they didn't have intimate knowledge of every conversation people had? It was really for their own good that Vox listened in. He made life easier, and sure that came at a price- but in his experience it was a price people were more than willing to pay.

He reappeared in his office, around him various screens displayed the Hellscape outside from the eyes of various drones that surveyed his domain. It was important to have eyes everywhere. Vox was a man who liked to be kept in the loop. When things went down in Hell, he had to be there to capitalize on them. VoxTek was a trusted name in Hell, and he had struggled endlessly to establish it as such. Had it become a point of obsession? Probably. But here the obsession was a survival mechanism. And it wasn't enough for Vox to survive he needed to thrive.

There was nothing of interest that seemed to be happening in Hell at the moment. Petty fights here and there, a few underlings scheming against their respective Overlords, but that was nothing new. (And they weren't his underlings, so it wasn't important. His workers would never be so bold as to think they could take on a corporation as massive as VoxTek.) His last time watching the screens had gotten him into a fight with Alastor, so he needed a palate cleanser. Watching some Hellish drama could do wonders for detoxing the mind.

Not his own trash TV shows, of course. He knew how all those ended. But he found that real life could truly be better than fiction (and could often inspire ideas for future projects). Before he got completely settled, he made himself a fresh cup of high-quality coffee (not the shit from the news station) and relaxed into his seat. He had done a lot today; he had earned a little break.

The wires connected into the back of his head, his screen flickering as all the information around him spilled directly into his mind. Nothing like some unbridled chaos to really get the creative juices flowing. Flights, breakups, robberies, homicides, scheming, scamming- it was an array of sights and sounds. Some of these would be great twists in Vox's many soap operas and reality TV shows (which were really just soap operas with different marketing).

He was in an almost meditative state as he made the affairs of Hell his business. However, there was a small staticky sound coming from one of the many monitors he was watching. Almost as if the signal were weakening, he would have missed it entirely if it hadn't been accompanied by a twinge of pain. Vox winced, forced to come back to his own reality as he disconnected the cables. This wasn't the first time this had happened, it was far from a frequent occurrence, but once in a while, one of Vox's stations would pick up on some sort of interference. It never lasted more than a second, but it always seemed to leave him with a bit of a headache.

He planned to blame Alastor for it, though he had no idea if he was involved or not. (Honestly, he doubted that motherfucker was really smart enough to know shit about television, so it probably wasn't him. But he was easy to blame, as he had such a blame-able face.)

"Look who's finally back to the real world with the rest of us."

Vox blinked for a moment; he had been so engrossed in his little watch party for one that he hadn't realized Velvette had come into his office. He shook himself, smile returning to his face. "Ah, good afternoon, Velvette, my dear."

"It's evening." She never was much for pleasantries. More recent Sinners had a toxic trait where they lacked any sense of cordiality. Yes, it was superficial and fake, but at least it gave the illusion of caring and that was an illusion VoxTek valued.

"Why, yes, it is! What can I do for you this fine evening?"

"This whole Angelic Security bullshit, am I going to have to dress my models up in fucking Exorcist costumes to advertise this? Because that sounds like a fucking PR nightmare." At least Velvette understood the image they were projecting. She had a point, one poorly cropped picture of a big-name model in an Exorcist outfit could look terrible.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, the security system is still in its early stages. I am sure we can rope unwittingly Sinners that aren't connected to us to model for it when the time comes."

"Shouldn't you be hurrying on that since your good pal, " she put the words in air quotes, "Lucifer, is predicting an oncoming onslaught of biblical proportion?"

"Oh please, you know I made that up." Vox scoffed. He didn't know why, but he was in a much poorer mood than before. He thought that interview had lifted his spirits, but maybe the stink of Alastor had just soured his whole fucking day. "I may not be friends with him, but I do keep a careful surveillance over his house from a safe distance. So, while we aren't friends necessarily, I do still learn from him."

"What do you learn?" Velvette took a seat on the edge of Vox's desk as he came to the realization his alone time was now over.

"Mostly that he has no life. I couldn't even watch him when Lillith was around. So, once she left, I thought: this will be great! I can get insight into the royal family! But honestly? He never leaves the house and pretty much the only one who goes in and out is some Hellborn who occasionally shoots out my drones if I get too close. I think he's on security."

"You think the King would have more security than just some random Hellborn." Velvette examined her nails for a moment before looking at the screen. "Who's that banging on the door then?" Vox looked up to see a stony, gray Sinner pounding on the mansion entrance. "That's Cain, he goes over sometimes. Not frequently, but he's about the only Sinner I have seen go in and out."

"Who the fuck is Cain? You say that like I should know." Velvette gave him an annoyed look.

"Cain, you know: Cain Organics? The guy who oversees all our fucking food? He's been down here since like the beginning of time or some shit. I know he's older than dirt."

"Oh, that's the food guy. Never seen him before. I thought he'd look more... plant like- less... gargoyle. Is he like... Cain, Cain? Like the guy from the old stories?" She tilted her head examining the figure on screen.

"I have always been under the impression that it was." Vox wasn't one hundred percent sure one way or the other. It wasn't like he had really had the chance to ask him in their brief interaction. Velvette seemed content with his reply as she looked at the screen in front of her.

"You know what? Not a bad ass on him."

"I mean, I've only met him once when Katie wanted to do an exposé on him. It was a fucking nightmare to even meet with him to ask for an interview and he shot us right down like a fucking prick. It's like he has no respect for the media." Vox took a sip from his coffee cup, it had already cooled, which was irritating. He saw Cain physically kick the door in, must be one if the benefits of being made of stone to be able to be a human battering ram. The doors shut again, leaving Vox staring at the closed, white, decorative doorway. "However, I guess you are right about his ass," he had gotten a pretty good look when Cain raised his leg to kick, "it's not bad."

"If you're talking about Cain from Cain Organics," Vox could hear Val's voice shouting from the distance, "his ass is a solid seven on a good day!"

"How did he even hear us?" Vox looked at Velvette who rolled her eyes.

"Talk about asses and you'll fucking summon him."

"Have you even met Cain!?" Vox shouted back. He was almost positive that of the three of them, he was the only one who had. He couldn't imagine a recluse like that would ever have needed Val's services.

"I know the ranking of every ass in Hell. It's a gift!" He shouted back from the other room. Velvette looked Vox dead in the eyes.

"This is a fucking set up, he's building this all up just so he can say that he has the best ass and we fucking fell for it."

"Fuck you're right." Before Vox could say anything else, he heard Val shout again:

"The number one ass in all of Hell is my own, of course~ That's how I make the big bucks~"

Both Vox and Velvette sighed in unison. Vox knew better than to take the bait, but he would blame the beginnings of a headache that were trying to take hold of him.

"Do you actually want to come in here and be a part of the conversation!? Or are we just going to keep shouting!?" Vox really didn't enjoy the yelling, especially right now.

"Keep yelling! I am already settled on the couch and I'm comfy!" Val's voice called back. Vox winced, rubbing the screen between his eyes. The shouting was really grating on him. Velvette must have noticed something in his expression because she was giving him a look.

"What..." Vox stared right back at her.

"Were you busy when I came in? I spoke to you a few times, but you said nothing."

"Maybe I was just ignoring you." He wasn't. He hadn't heard a fucking thing. His fingers drummed on the desk as he dealt with that aggravation welling up inside him. While he didn't particularly enjoy interruptions, Velvette hadn't necessarily done anything wrong.

"Wow, okay bitch." She crossed her legs. "Let's see how you like being put on ignore."

"You can't ignore me with a Vox Phone, it's actually impossible." Vox smirked at her. "Benefit of making them."

"Whatever, prick." Velvette rolled her eyes. "I would threaten to withdraw my support from the Vee's for your piss-poor attitude, but judging by the fact you look like utter shit right now, I am going to assume you're just lashing out because you ran into Alastor and now your day drinking again."

"It's evening." Vox reminded her of her own snide quip from earlier. "And this is coffee." He showed her the mug as if that proved anything. "And while I did have to interact with that fuck head, it was much earlier, and I didn't start drinking afterwards because I had actual important shit to do, and he was running errands like a fucking peasant." Velvette put a hand to Vox's back, patting him gently.

"Awwww, you're pissed he's still alive, aren't you?" She gently rubbed his back as Vox let out a sad little sigh.

"Yeeeeessssss..." he let his monitor shaped head flop onto Velvette for a moment. "It's not fair that fucking Exorcist leader should have slaughtered him, but he ran away like a fucking pussy, and he still has the balls to act all high and mighty about having been in the fight at all." The complaints began spilling out all at once. "And also, I have a headache."

"I'm surprised you can get headaches." She flicked the side of the monitor, "given you don't really have a head."

"I have a head." Vox lifted his head off of Velvette to give her an annoyed glare. "The monitor is my head. I still eat and drink with it. Just because it's not a traditional shape doesn't mean it's not my head and that I can't get the occasional headache."

"But you weren't day drinking?" Velvette raised an eyebrow.

"If Alastor is involved, he was probably day drinking!" Val's voice called from the other room. Damn that fucker had some good ass hearing when he wanted to. He was easily fifteen feet away with only a cracked office door to allow sound through, but he was picking up on every bit of the conversation. Whereas when Vox actually needed to talk to him about important branding opportunities, suddenly Val couldn't hear shit.

"Either be in the room and be a proper part of the conversation, or stay the fuck out of it, Val!" Vox really was on a short fuse today. "And for the last time, I haven't been drinking." Not for lack of desire, of course. But he needed to be at his best for the interview. Rigged or not, he was not taking any risks with VoxTek. "If you must know, I heard some of that annoying feedback again while I was plugged in."

"Maybe you just stood too close to the microphone!" Val shouted his suggestion and Vox cringed.

"That's not how it works, and you know it!"

"Feedback?" Velvette relaxed back a bit. "First I'm hearing of it."

"It isn't super frequent, but over the last few years sometimes my signals will get a little distorted and I'll get a second of unpleasant feedback. Usually I don't even notice it, but this time I was plugged in directly and it was so, so much worse."

"Because plugging in is definitely something that can be done with a regular human head." Velvette mused. Vox gave her a dirty look.

"This is my head. We have had this conversation many times."

"Maybe some of your technology is just wearing out! Maybe that's why you're getting feedback, it's old, just like you!" Val called helpfully. Vox put his head face down on the table. Why did he even bother?

"Oh look, mister Solid Seven Ass is on the move. And he's not alone." Velvette's comment drew Vox's attention back to the screen. Vox might have commented on her use of nicknames to a fellow Overlord but given how he was fairly certain Cain didn't know his name, he didn't feel all that obligated to defend him. Sure enough, Cain was walking outside, escorted by none other than the Devil himself. Making an appearance twice in so many days was unheard of for the petite, pale king. It was made all the more interesting by the fact that Lucifer transformed into a serpent to linger on Cain's shoulders. So, they didn't want to draw any attention.

"Well, isn't that intriguing... where are those two off to at this hour?" Vox leaned forward, watching the screen, bringing his cup to his lips.

"Maybe they're heading somewhere to go fuck!" Val's commentary was still far from helpful. Fucker couldn't even see the goddamn screen.

"Why would they leave the house to go fuck!? They can fuck indoors!" Vox didn't really know why he was humoring Val at this point. Though that would make a spicy story to spread... people loved when Lucifer himself was involved in scandal. He could put the idea away for later.

"Don't kink-shame!" Val shouted back.

"JUST COME IN HERE IF YOU WANT TO BE IN THE CONVERSATION VAL, I SWEAR TO THE FUCKING DEVIL HIMSELF!" Vox screamed the rebuttal so loudly that Velvette nearly fell off the table.

"No thanks! Too comfy!" Was all the reply he got. With support like this, it was a fucking wonder anything got done. Vox let out a sigh that was almost more of a quiet, frustrated scream as he turned back to the screen.

"Now where are those two headed?" Vox carefully maneuvered the drone to keep its distance until he was able to look at the next one. It was easy to map his path, it wasn't like Vox hadn't used his extensive spy network to follow people before. Hell, that's what it was there for!

"You think this might be actually like... important?" Velvette scooted closer to get a better look at the screen. "Val's stupidity aside, this is the King and the son of the fucker who killed us all. That seems a bit sus if you ask me." Vox's eyes widened a bit as the realization sunk in. Velvette had a point, a good one.

"Fuck, is it?" Vox tried to get a better view of the two. They were clearly arguing about something. There was a lot of background noise, so it was difficult to isolate Cain in particular. Lip reading was right out considering Cain constantly looked in different directions and Lucifer was a snake and didn't really have lips to read. "Where are you two going...?" They were winding through the crowd with purpose. This wasn't just some casual stroll. Vox could tell from Cain's body language that there was a specific destination in mind.

"Wait... I know where they're going..." Velvette leaned a little closer to the screen. "Fuck, those bitches are going to visit that old hag Carmilla! This is where I had to go because I drew the fucking short straw last time there was a meeting."

"Ah yes, I was told by Carmilla the meeting lasted all of five minutes, two of which were occupied by you singing a very catchy number in which you," Vox pulled his phone out to read Carmilla's text so he wouldn't leave anything out, "told her you thought she was hiding something, called Zestiel old, and told them both to get fucked." He looked back at Velvette who looked quite pleased with herself, before looking back at his phone. "You also threw a severed angel head directly at her."

"Damn straight, you should have seen the look on her wrinkled old face when I lobbed that bloody thing onto the table. Fucking speechless." She laughed, kicking her feet up playfully.

"That was a very important piece of evidence that was supposed to invoke a discussion about the future of the Exterminations." Vox looked back up from his phone. "It was not a way for you to sing an entire song calling the other Overlords senile geezers, no matter how true it is or how catchy the song was."

"It was pretty fucking catchy." Velvette protested. "And they were being paranoid pricks, so like, what was I supposed to do? They weren't going to step up and do anything unless I lit the fire underneath their wrinkly asses."

"Clearly, they are going to do something." Vox gestured to the screen where Cain was being led back by one of Carmilla's daughters. Great. Fucking fantastic. Now those two were completely out of Vox's reach. Carmilla was too damn sly to let Vox eavesdrop. "But now we're not invited to the meeting- probably because you burned a lot of bridges with that whole display. I understand that Carmilla, in particular, can be fucking frustrating as all get out. But you have to play the long game if you want to stay in the loop." Velvette glared at him.

"You thought it was pretty fucking hilarious when I told you about it right after it happened." She huffed. To be fair, Vox had gotten onto her a bit right after it had happened, but it was through laughter as he had to envision everyone just staring as Velvette completely derailed a meeting.

"Yes, but that was before I saw the King and fucking Cain going to some secret Overlord meeting without us."

"Why are you pissed? Cain doesn't go to those things at all. If you want to go to the super-secret club meeting so badly, then why don't you call up your best friend Lucifer and ask for an invite." Velvette met Vox's annoyed stare with a smarmy smirk of her own. "Oopsie~ Forgot you made that up."

"No, you didn't." Vox tapped his fingers against the desk again, making the drones circle Carmilla's building from a safe distance. He hated being on the outside like this. Not knowing something drove him fucking crazy. He made a living off of being on the inside. It was his business to know the business of everyone else.

Vox waited, and waited, and waited some more- his eyes never leaving the screens that displayed Carmilla's office building. If Lucifer left- even if he was as small as a bug, Vox would fucking see it. Velvette was on her phone, ignoring him after his outburst had clearly pissed her off. Vox's headache didn't feel any better either, which was only putting him in a worse mood.

One of the images flickered. Vox instantly was focused on that screen. He ran diagnostics on the drone in question. Nothing was wrong. Then why was it-

Before Vox could even finish his thought, the rest of the cameras began to flicker as if the feed was being interrupted. Not just the ones watching Carmilla's place either. All across the feed there was a brief little glitch. That horrible little feedback sound resonated for a split second, and everything was back to normal.

"Woah..." Velvette blinked, looking at the screens uncertainly. "The fuck was that? Was someone trying to screw over our signal?"

"Maybe Carmilla was onto us? Used some sort of jammer." Vox didn't know if that was even something Carmilla had access to, but he wouldn't put it past her. He knew she didn't approve of his constant surveillance. (Which was why he never asked). Great. Now he would need to work on ways for his tech to resist... whatever the fuck that was- and on top of all this shit- his headache was even worse.

"Oh, that's fucking rude." At least Velvette was on his side. "Oh look!" She grabbed Vox's shoulder. He was about to protest, given the fact that he was starting to get a migraine- but Velvette pointed to a figure on the screen that briefly made him forget all about the pain he was feeling.

"Where are you going, fucker?" Vox's eyes widened as he saw Lucifer, fully transformed, wings out- taking to the sky like a damn rocket. Vox was on him in a moment, following him through his extensive network of cameras- it looked like he was on his way back to the mansion- no more Cain. Where the fuck had he gone? Maybe Lucifer ditched him. He supposed it wasn't that important. Cain was definitely not as important of a target. Lucifer's trajectory seemed to change quite suddenly and he B-lined toward that fucking hotel.

"What's gotten into him?" Velvette, too, was intrigued by the sudden change. They both watched as Lucifer landed on the ground only to start messing with a body laid out in front of the hotel. He hadn't been poking at it for too long before the Princess and her guard dog showed up. "Oh, what happened to her highness? She looks like shit." He could tell Velvette was amused.

"I'm going to try and get sound." This looked important, judging by the expressions on the royals' faces. Vox was not about to miss some big update to Hell. He had to keep his distance, for one thing that fucking radio tower caused interference if he got too close, for another- he knew Lucifer would destroy his drones on sight, and Alastor had taken out enough drones for one day.

"Please do, this looks juicy." Velvette kept her eye on the screen as Vox began trying to filter out the surrounding noise and isolate Lucifer's voice. "Ooo~ Cain just showed up and he looks piiiiiiiiiised~." At least Velvette was giving him the play-by-play. Vox got a bit of sound. It wasn't much and was cutting in and out quite violently- but it was more than he had started with.

"B-dy of - dead dad- who-" Cain was cutting out immensely but Vox was getting the gist of what he said. ", M-rdered so - S-ners." Vox squinted at the screen as he saw Lucifer and Cain seemingly arguing about the body at Cain's feet. Had the body moved? Did it wake up?

"Why is that body in a different spot? What'd I miss?" Vox looked at Velvette for answers. Fortunately, she had been paying attention.

"Lucifer tried to hand it to Cain, and Cain fucking dropped him."

"Oh damn, sad I missed that." Vox could always watch it on his own later. That was the good thing about recording everything. "The sound sucks, but... did you hear Cain say: dead dad?" That much had his attention.

"Yep..." Velvette was thoroughly invested. At least Vox knew that when the real shit began, he would have Velvette right there with him to analyze how best they could utilize this to their own advantage.

"Oh shit, that's Adam." Valentino's voice shocked both of the other Vees as neither had heard him make his entrance. "I would recognize that ass anywhere." He squinted at the screen, long cigarette spilling pink smoke into Vox's office.

"First of all," Vox had to take a deep breath to ready himself for the breakdown of Val's comment. "How can you tell? You can't see his ass. He's face up. AND ALSO," he turned around to look at Val directly. "You can never see his ass because he's wearing a fucking dress when he comes to slaughter us!"

"It's a robe." Val corrected.

"Yeah, it's very clearly a robe, Vox, what the fuck?" Velvette was on Val's side, but that didn't account for the fact that the fucking main point had been completely missed. Vox brought his hand to his face.

"I don't care what it is! You can't see his ass in it!" He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. All the yelling was just going to make his head feel worse. "Forget it. Moot point. We heard Cain say it was his dad. So clearly that is the very same Adam who murdered the fuck out of Sinners like us."

"That, and you can clearly still see the halo. It's broken, but it's definitely there." Val tapped the screen with the end of his cigarette (it made Vox cringe to see him treating his screens like that. Couldn't Val show just a little bit of respect to the merchandise?) Vox looked where Val was pointing, and sure enough there was something broken and circular over the head of the unconscious body on the ground.

"See? Why didn't you start with that point?" Vox sighed. "That makes sense. We didn't need any of this fucking ass-nonsense." He watched the screen as Lucifer picked up the body on the ground. It seemed like they were going into the hotel. "Why do you think he's out like that?"

"I don't think they know." Velvette replied, leaning back once again as Lucifer, the Princess, Cain, and the others vanished inside. "Though it's fucking hard to tell because the sound is bloody awful." Vox gave her a dirty look.

"You try getting quality sound with the fucking radio tower close by! AND without getting close enough for Lucifer to notice we're fucking spying on him and destroying my very expensive drones."

"Pretty sure they said he's not waking up any time soon." Velvette just ignored his rant. "So, I guess the hotel is just going to be housing the man who fucking murdered us all. That's a good look."

"Yeah, you know how many Sinners would love to get their hands on the guy who led the Exterminations?" Vox sat back in his chair, keeping all his cameras focused on the hotel in question. He wasn't sure what to do with this new information. Adam was here in Hell, and he seemed to be weak. So why were they hiding him away at the hotel rather than making him publicly pay for his crimes? "Wonder what Lucifer has planned for him? Sure, seems like he's trying to keep this under wraps."

"I'd imagine he would. This would be a publicity nightmare if it got out." Velvette tilted her head to the side. Vox saw the windows in one of the top rooms close one by one. At least he could hazard a guess as to which room they were in.

"You know how many Sinners would flip their shit if they knew that fucker was down here?" Vox laughed to himself. "After everything he's done?" His fingers drummed on the table again. An idea was starting to spark to life in his brain. "Actually..." he looked at Velvette who seemed to be reading his mind.

"You have been looking for a way to test that stupid Angelic Security you promised." He could see the glint of her fangs in the light of the television screen.

"Well, it's not stupid, it's profitable. If they live, it works, if they die: they can't ask for their money back. So, it's kind of a win-win." Vox was focused on the new idea that was buzzing in his brain, but at the same time he wasn't about to let Velvette shit on what was a very good idea. "Also, it looks to me like Lucifer is pretty anal about keeping this guy locked away. Do you know what sort of leverage we could have if we got our hands on him?" The idea had been pinging around his brain since he first saw the unconscious body on the ground. Every time he tried to push it down, it wormed its way back into the forefront of his mind.

"I mean..." Val looked at the screen uncertainly. "I suppose that is a pretty big bargaining chip. But I am not sure how we're supposed to actually get him with the big guy just... hovering around like an unwanted pest." One of the drones caught the image of a parakeet flying out of the hotel. The Vee's exchanged looks. "Do think that was him?" Val put one hand on his hip, the other on Vox's desk as he leaned forward.

"That's definitely him." Velvette nodded. "It even kind of looks like him."

"Not gonna lie," Vox shrugged his shoulders, "I was expecting something more intimidating. But I guess he has to be subtle."

"I don't think a parakeet is very fucking subtle. But go off." Velvette turned back to the screen. "We following it?"

"Are we following... hah!" Vox repeated her question with a laugh. "Do you know me at all, Vel? Of course we are." A drone kept a close (but not too close) eye on the bird as it sped upward toward the bright light of Heaven in the sky. "Where the fuck is he going?"

"Heaven?" Valentino squinted at the screen, pushing his heart shaped glasses further up. (Vox had no idea how those even stayed on his face, since Val had no fucking nose. But he had tried questioning it once and Val's explanation was lack luster at best. Which was why Vox didn't even try to tell him that pushing the glasses closer to his eyes would do absolutely fucking nothing to improve his vision because he was wearing tinted glasses in a dark room while trying to look at a screen. Some fights just weren't worth starting.)

"You can't go that high. There's some kind of forcefield." Vox put both hands on his cup, elbows on the table as he leaned forward. "I have tried to send drones to spy on Heaven but there's like a massive, invisible wall."

"There's a fucking what?" Velvette turned to look at him.

"Yeah, if you try to fly up to Heaven you eventually just hit some kind of solid surface. It's like we have our own skybox." Vox saw Velvette staring at him and he took an indignant sip of the cold coffee. "What? You know I had to try."

"I guess I'm just surprised you thought that would work." She replied flatly.

"What the fuck is a Skybox?" Val interjected. Vox sighed; they were getting woefully off topic again. The point was to follow Lucifer, not debate what composed Hell's sky.

"Forget about the Skybox, just know the sky isn't infinite. It's solid." As if proving Vox's point, the parakeet on the screen turned back into Lucifer who began to put his hands along the invisible solid ceiling that separated Hell from the paradise above it. Vox gestured to the screen. "See?"

"Wait so if there is like a ceiling, then are we technically always in doors?" Valentino had a point. Vox had to stop for a moment, watching as Lucifer seemed to be searching for something in the unseen boundary.

"Fuck... maybe? I don't think so. I mean..." Vox had to think about it for a moment, but it didn't last as he saw a light appear in the otherwise dark sky. It wasn't super bright, or really noticeable, but he saw it wash over Lucifer's face before the Devil just disappeared. "..." The three Vees stared in silence for a moment before finally Vox spoke. "The fuck was that?"

"Did he just fucking leave? Can he do that?" Valentino looked completely floored by the revelation.

"It makes sense if he can, he is the King." Vox had to come to terms with the revelation as well. He had scanned that skybox over and over, he had never seen one of his drones just fucking vanish. But the idea that anyone could actually exit the massive black hole that was Hell was a bit hard to swallow.

"He is also recently single, so if he can leave, maybe he could take me too- if I play my cards right." Velvette put her hand to her chest, kicking her legs playfully. Vox had sincere doubts about her odds with Lucifer, considering the devil seemed about as social as a rock.

"I like your enthusiasm." Despite his doubts, he wasn't going to give Velvette an outright 'no' in case, by some unholy miracle, it did work. Then he could tell Velvette he knew it all along and utilize her perks.

"He obviously likes them tall, Sorry Vel." Valentino pushed his way in front of her with a flourish of his hand.

"I saw him first you bloody prick. So-" Velvette started to object.

"Can we focus less on Lucifer's marital status and more on the fact he literally just vanished." Vox gave them a flat expression.

"So, Lucifer is like... gone-gone? Well damn, that's a plot twist. Hopefully he's going to stay out for a bit. I hope that doesn't mean his daughter is in charge right now because she is the most annoying little insect." Val looked irritated at the memory. Vox didn't know the whole story (it involved Angel Dust, so he didn't really care. But he knew Val didn't care for the princess and also, she had set fire to an entire studio. Which, while impressive, was also quite expensive.)

"I don't think the Princess has that sort of power. Or if she does, she doesn't have the personality for it." Vox shifted the focus of the cameras back to the hotel in question. "And with Lucifer out of the way, that fucker who tried to kill us all is prime for the taking." Despite the revelation that Lucifer could actually leave, that figure on the ground was stuck in Vox's head. The idea to take him refused to be quelled no matter what else tried to take his focus.

"Except the fact that he is in a locked hotel with you-know-who, and also probably Cain, and little miss princess." Valentino didn't seem sold on the idea, which was annoying to say the least. The other frustrating factor was that Val actually had a point. There was no telling when the Devil would be back, and there were at least two Overlords and a Royal between them and the target.

"That sucks, because he would be such a good bargaining chip to get the Morningstars to owe us a favor." Velvette huffed. "But unless we're going to blow out a wall or something we might be stuck."

"It was a good idea though." Vox put his face in his hands. They watched the hotel in silence for a moment before seeing one of the other hotel residents running rapidly back to the building. It was one of Alastor's little henchmen, Vox knew she used to be an Overlord back in the day, not that they had ever really crossed paths, but Niffty had been in service to Alastor for the vast amount of the time Vox had known her. She seemed in a hurry, the other Sinners nowhere in sight (it was probably for the best, he didn't need Val going off on another raging rant- especially not in Vox's office.)

"Wonder what's got her going?" Velvette tilted her head to the side. Niffty hurried back into the hotel and vanished out of view.

"Dunno, maybe Alastor needed his fucking socks cleaned." Vox retorted; a bit annoyed his impromptu plan had been so easily thwarted. It was just so rare to have an opportunity to do anything while Lucifer was gone. Vox just felt like they were wasting it, sitting here staring at the hotel. "I like to think he has no idea how to do laundry. He just seems like the type."

"I mean I don't care one way or the other, but I'll say he can't because it'll make you feel better." Velvette patted Vox on the top of his head, careful not to knock off his hat. "And you seem like you need a win."

"I do." Vox huffed, stretching his arms out, resting his head on the desk, face first. "It's been a fucking day. And I still have that fucking headache." It hadn't really gotten any better, he had just distracted himself.

"Maybe you should go to tech support, see if they can fix that for you." Val put a hand on Vox's back.

"It's not a real TV- it's my fucking head!" Vox had just had this conversation with Velvette, he wasn't about to start it again with Val.

"Don't get so pissy, I'm just trying to help." Val scoffed.

"I think you're just being an ass because you had to get up to be a part of the conversation." Vox knew for a fact that Valentino had only gotten up because he and Velvette were talking about something interesting, and they weren't going to bring the screens over to him.

"I think you vastly underestimate just how comfy I was." Val retorted, bitterly. Vox glared at him.

"I didn't make you get up."

"Actually, you did." Val brought his cigarette to his lips, letting out an annoyed puff of smoke, crossing his arms. "Because it is very hard to unwind with you constantly shouting at me."

"I was only shouting because you kept shouting at us so you could be in the conversation!" Vox countered.

"BOYS!" Velvette interrupted before they could engage any further. "You're both pretty now shut the fuck up and look at this." She gestured to the screen where Vox could see Niffty opening the windows one by one, wiping them down with a cloth. He blinked at the scene before him.

"Is she fucking serious?" Vox looked to Velvette as if expecting her to have an explanation. Clearly, she didn't, but he was just in shock. Niffty just finished wiping the windows down and vanished back into the room. Vox carefully moved the drone so he could see into the room. The form of Adam was asleep on the bed, Niffty was wiping the floors. Once she was done, she gathered her supplies in a little basket, opening the door, and closing it again, leaving Adam in plain sight, windows open to the world. Well now this was just asking to happen. Vox couldn't deny temptation- if he could, he wouldn't have been in Hell.

"We could just send in some fucking expendables to go grab him. Worst case scenario and we get caught; we have plausible deniability." Velvette also seemed to notice the opportunity that had quite serendipitously fallen into their laps. Usually, he wouldn't be so quick to act, but this was a very narrow window of opportunity, and that idea just wouldn't leave his brain.

"Do it." Vox put his hand on the table. "If they die, that's a risk I'm willing to take."

"Look at you, taking a risk." Valentino smirked, taking another long drag from his cigarette. "I'll deploy the lowest earners." He stepped out to make the call leaving Vox and Velvette to keep eyes on the screen. Vox had a camera focused on the door at all times. He had to be absolutely sure they weren't going to get caught. Just because the King was out of Hell for the moment, didn't mean he wasn't coming right back.

He could see their employees scaling the building. He was poised, ready to call it off at the slightest hint of discovery. That hotel wasn't easy to penetrate at the best of times, and now they knew Cain was inside as well. It was almost suspicious how easily they were able to secure the unconscious body. It wasn't long at all before Vox, Valentino, and Velvette were staring down at the catatonic form of the man who led the armies against them, on the floor of Vox's office.

"That seemed... easy." Vox frowned as he waved away the employees who had actually done the deed in question.

"Why does he look like that?" Val nudged the man's face with his foot. He was odd looking, split down the middle in a black and white palette. It would have an interesting camera read; Vox would need to account for that if he was going to put Adam in the Angelic Security commercials. Watching the leader of Heaven's army get his ass handed to him on camera would be incredibly well received.

"Sinner form?" Vox shrugged. "Maybe he got kicked out of Heaven after he got his ass murdered. Maybe they're pissed he didn't finish off Alastor. I know I am." He wasn't too aware of the details surrounding the interactions between Heaven and Hell and how souls moved between the two. It was something he would need to learn before the inevitable takeover, but maybe that was just another use for Adam. "We should restrain him in case he wakes up. I don't want him breaking my shit."

"It didn't sound like they thought he was going to wake up from the shitty audio you got when he was talking to Cain." Velvette replied leaning to get a closer look at him.

"Still, I would rather not risk it." He was in Vox's space, after all. Everything in here was expensive and he already had to worry about Val going temperamental and breaking things. He really didn't need the extra cost.

"Easy enough." Val took handcuffs from his pocket and snapped them around Adam's wrists. Vox narrowed his eyes.

"I just hope those are clean." He snapped and wires came down from the ceiling, lifting Adam up and pulling him into the ceiling. Vox had to focus, using his abilities to move Adam from his office into a nice cell at the bottom of the building. It wasn't currently in use, but it was sturdy. Mostly, it was somewhere for the Vees to keep people of interest, or employees who didn't obey the rules. Hell was a lawless wasteland, VoxTek had fucking standards- and Vox held his people to them. It wasn't a particularly horrible room. It had a bed, bathroom, sink, and you could see one of VoxTek's most popular soap operas playing on the screen outside the bars. Vox watched on the camera as Adam was placed on the little bed, still out cold. Good. Vox could keep an eye on him while they discussed their next plan of action.

"Seems like overkill, but he's out of the way." Velvette watched the screen as Adam was put back down.

"So do we go straight to Lucifer and use him as leverage, use him for our own gain, or do we want to see how much Hell is willing to pay for his head?" Vox took his seat at his desk so he could keep an eye on the cameras and still talk with his fellow Overlords, "because I think Carmilla in particular would pay a lot."

"I doubt it. For an arms dealer she's kind of a fucking disappointment." Velvette took a seat, kicking her feet up onto the table.

"We don't know until we make an offer." Valentino was the last to sit.

"I still think he could be great leverage for Lucifer. He seemed really intent on keeping that guy locked tight." Vox remembered how... uneasy Lucifer had looked when he was examining Adam. It was hard to say how the public would react to finding out the Devil had him, and Lucifer's PR was already struggling.

"Then he'd know we took him." Val pointed out.

"We could always phrase it as: we saw a flaw in the Hotel's security and took matters into our own hands." Spinning a story was Vox's strong suit. "As concerned citizens, we couldn't risk such a dangerous individual out and about."

"Oh, that's actually good." Velvette sat up. Vox smirked. They were starting to get the beginnings of a plan. This was good. A flicker of light got his attention, he looked over to the screen where Adam was still lying peacefully. It seemed as if the TV had experienced some of that annoying interference (it was bad today, Vox really needed to go through and do a full system upgrade. This was bordering on ridiculous.)

"It's all about presentation. We can look good in the public eye, especially if he tries anything. How would that come across? The King of Hell attacks concerned citizens only trying to keep people safe. Even the Princess would have to take our side then. She's all about that protect the Sinners bullshit." Vox was, admittedly, proud of himself for these ideas.

"It's not bad." Val gave a nod. "I think we should still spitball a little more, but we have something good here. This has legs."

"I mean, if course it does. I thought of i-" Vox cut off mid-sentence as his eyes fell on Adam's cell only to see that Adam was now sitting directly upright. "Oh, he's... awake."

"Oh shit..." Velvette got to her feet, getting a closer look at the camera. "Should we talk to him."

"I've got this." Valentino was already on his feet. He reached past Vox to the button on his console. "This is the microphone for cell three, right?"

"Don't touch that." Vox tried to bat him away, but Val had him trapped.

"Hello fucker~" Val spoke into the mic, thankfully it was going to the correct cell- it would be super awkward if he had been talking to one of the empty ones. Adam's head moved, almost snapped, in the direction of the speaker. It was the first good look Vox had gotten at his eyes. One eye seemed to be entirely white, glowing, with an almost crazed shine over it. The other eye was entirely black with a golden flame to act as the pupil, though currently the light was very dull. "And welcome to Hell."

"Well, we know he can hear..." Vox watched the screen, Adam wasn't talking back. He seemed to be looking at the camera.

"Come on, say something." Val instructed. Adam didn't reply. He just kept staring into the camera, unblinking. His body slid off the bed, his head didn't really move, gaze completely locked on the camera. Adam's mouth moved, but the microphone didn't pick up his voice at all. Instead, the Vee's were met with a horrible, reverberating feedback from the microphones implanted in the room, the image went pixilated for a moment before clearing up.

"Cut the sound!" Vox pushed Val aside, knowing too well he was just going to wind up doing it himself. His head rang with that horrible sound, his headache worse than ever. The cacophony ceased, but there was no more sound coming from Adam's cell. He was looking toward the door, solid bars of Infernal and angelic steel kept Adam imprisoned like an animal in a cage.

"What the fuck was that?" Velvette was holding her head in her hands. From the looks of it, she and Val felt every bit as shitty as Vox. That high pitched sound hit like a bullet to the brain.

"Must have been something wrong with the recording devices in the walls. Maybe some kind of faulty wiring?" Vox knew, for a fact, that wiring was not responsible for that horrible ringing. But he had no idea what was, so he was grasping at straws.

"Whatever it was, you need to fix it. Send in some of your repair guys. I do not want to hear that awful shit again." Val instructed. Vox gave him an annoyed look.

"The sound is cut, we're fine. I am not losing any of my IT guys for something this fucking petty."

"It's not petty, that sound is awful." Val huffed. "I think it tried to give me a fucking migraine. Plus, it's not like they'll have to be that close to Adam, he's behind bars and in handcuffs. Is he still staring at the camera?" Vox didn't really need to look, he could feel those eyes boring into him, but he turned anyway to see the screen.

"Yeah."

"Fucking creepy, and I know creeps." Val made a face. Adam's head snapped to look at the exit. The bars were made of a mix of Infernal and Angelic steel- strong and durable, made to withstand all but the strongest Hell had to offer. He placed his hands on the bars, eyes still locked on the cameras. Slowly, he began to pull, the solid metal starting the bend in his grip, much to Vox's absolute horror.

"Oh fuck no." The wires came from the ceiling to restrain Adam. If he somehow broke the bars, Vox had no idea if there was enough angelic steel in the bars to make them viable extermination weapons. It wasn't worth the fucking risk. "We'll have to keep him fully restrained. The handcuffs don't seem to be cutting it." As if on cue, Adam snapped the handcuffs. His mouth curled into a snarl. On one side, Vox could see the sharp fangs, typical of a sinner, on the other he could see nothing but blinding white light. He bit into the wires restraining him. "Fuck that shit." More wires came down, going to wrap around Adam's neck, but before they could tighten, he opened his mouth wide, and a horrible scream reverberated through the room.

"FUCK VOX, I THOUGHT YOU SAID THE MIC WAS CUT!" Val covered his head, antennae going flat. Velvette was covering her ears. They both looked as nauseated as Vox felt. He was hunched over, eyes on the floor. He could feel the screen that made up his face flicker for a moment.

"It... it was..." Vox choked the words out as he tried to get his barring back. He winced, looking back up that the screen and- "Fuck!" He scrambled to his feet. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He felt his blood turn to ice as the camera panned around a now vacant room. Vox felt his breath hitch in his throat.

"Where the fuck is Adam?" Velvette was staring at the screen too now.

"I don't-" Vox stopped short.

One of the benefits of Vox's Sinner abilities, was that he was always sort of aware of where the technology around him was, and what it weas doing, it helped him make sure things were working when he wanted them to and to be sure they would break only when it would benefit him. So, Vox could, in some sense, feel Adam crawling through the ceiling, clawing his way through the machinery like some sort of wild animal. Vox tried to control the wires, tried to send the pulses of electricity into Adam, but it was much more difficult to catch a moving target he couldn't see.

"Do you have him?" Val was finally up, brushing himself off. "I told you; you should have sent I.T. down there. If I end up with a migraine because of-"

"Shut the fuck up Val, I'm trying to focus." Vox hissed.

"Shut up? Shut up!?" He puffed his chest out with indignation. "It was your stupid idea to bring this guy here!"

"Val. Shhhh." Vox winced. His head was pounding, Adam was squirming his way through very expensive wiring, having made his way into the walls. He seemed to be climbing- trying to escape the wires Vox sent to hold him.

"Do not shush me! There is a fucking feral Exterminator lodged in our fucking ceiling and- AH!"

"FUCK!" Vox jumped back. Val's ranting had him struggling to focus, and he had completely lost hold of Adam who had managed to climb through their walls all the way to Vox's office. He had launched from the walls so suddenly and with such ferocity, it took Vox and Velvette a moment to react. He was on Valentino like a rabid animal, tearing at the coat with his teeth and nails. Vox reacted in a matter of seconds. All the wires from the televisions intertwined into a large, thick wire that slammed into Adam's stomach, flinging him backward and pinning him against the wall. "Val," Vox moved toward Adam as he used his energy to hold the wire against him, sending electricity surging through it. "Are you okay?"

"He fucking bit me. God damn psycho!"

"The fuck is wrong with him?" Velvette was helping Val up as Vox kept Adam pinned in place.

"Not a goddamn clue." Vox could see the mix matched eyes were wild, watching them hungrily as Vox got close. Adam snarled and Vox forced the massive wire back into Adam's chest. He coughed a spray of golden blood onto Vox's screen. "Oh, did that hurt?" He sneered a bit. "Fucking good." More golden blood dribbled on the ground as Adam bared his teeth at Vox. Vox's eye widened, the hypnotic spiral starting to swirl. "Why don't you be a good little Exorcist and stay put- OH SHIT!" As Vox held Adam to the wall, two wings erupted from his back, causing the wire to slip and Adam lurched forward. So mind control was not going to work on Adam. Either his will was too strong or (given how he was acting) there was literally no mind to control.

"ENOUGH!" Velvette swiped her hand quickly and Adam's own robes moved backward under her control causing him to miss Vox and fly into the opposing wall. "Val, do the smoke thing."

"It'll be hard if his wings keep moving." Val moved his hand, and trails of pink smoke wafted toward Adam, but the white and black wings beat it back as Vox tried to use the wire to push him back again. "Can't you control them too!?"

"I manipulate clothing. Not wings!" With Velvet and Vox working together, they almost had Adam back against the wall.

"Aren't feathers clothing!?" Val demanded.

"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!" Velvette managed to hold to Adam long enough for Vox to pin him back to the wall, wings and all.

"Got him. Smoke, now." Vox ordered. This time as the pink smoke swirled toward Adam, it reached him, despite the Exorcist's best efforts. The spoke wrapped around his neck, his wrists, wafting under his nose. Adam's eyes rolled back for a moment and his head lulled. "Oh thank fuck." Vox took a deep breath.

"We need to lock him up somewhere... even more secure." Velvette sat on the edge of Vox's desk; legs crossed as she caught her breath. Adam's head lulled. He was breathing heavily as all three Vees tried to get themselves put back together.

"At least that smoke should calm him down for a few hours." Valentino was examining a rather nasty looking bite to his forearm. "I can't believe the fucker actually bit me. Usually, people have to pay for that shit."

"I just have to think of where he should be put." Vox spit out a bit of the golden blood that had gotten into his mouth. Adam made a noise and all three Vees looked instantly over in time to see him starting to stir.

"How is he up already!?" Valentino forced more smoke forward, but Adam's eyes were already opening. "No no no! Go the fuck back to sleep!"

"We have to take him back." Velvette got to her feet. "This is bloody mental. He has torn his way through our prison, your office, our fucking walls, Val," she gestured around her. "If Lucifer wants him so much, he can keep him."

"But if we give him up now, it feels like this is all for nothing..." Vox's protest was more a sunk-cost fallacy than a real argument.

"Think of it this way," Velvette put an arm around Vox. "You leave him with Alastor. And do you think that bitch-ass stands a chance against this guy?" Vox watched as Adam's wings started to pump again and he snarled.

"Fair point. Let's bring him back." Vox carefully manipulated the massive wire to completely wrap around him. Adam's teeth instantly sunk into the metal, trying to rip free, it would only be a matter of time before he succeeded. "More smoke Val! He's getting bitey again!"

"He is pretty resistant; I'll do what I can." The smoke wrapped itself around Adam's head and he lulled again. "We need to move him fast."

"Yeah, let's go." There was no way to avoid bringing him in person. Any lower employee would be torn to shreds. And Vox needed to drop this psychopath back off where he could go apeshit on Alastor.

"You two go, I'll watch the cameras to make sure we aren't caught." Velvette took a seat on Vox's chair.

"Are you shitting me?" Vox glared at her. Val mirrored the expression.

"Someone has to."

"Let's just hurry." Vox sighed. She had a point, and they didn't have the luxury of time to spend arguing.

Val and Vox carefully traversed their way back to the hotel, having to constantly reinforce Adam's bindings, unless they wanted to unleash him on an unsuspecting Hell. If things didn't progress as intended, that was a backup plan, but they also didn't want him hunting them back down.

Vox climbed up the window, Val hovering behind as the two of them hoisted Adam through, onto the floor. He thrashed and struggled against the metal bonds the entire way up. Vox was lucky to have avoided getting bitten himself.

"Did you two have fun?"

Vox froze. His head slowly turned to see Alastor sitting in the comfortable plush chair against the opposing wall, crocheting what looked to be the beginnings of a scarf, unphased by the writhing mass of rage on the ground. "You-" Vox wanted to scream, wanted to launch himself directly at the Overlord and strangle him. "You fucking KNEW!?"

"Of course. Who do you think had those windows opened for you?"

"Y-Y-you s-s-sunnova f-f-fuck wh-who-"

"Shhhh," Alastor put a finger to his lips, "Cain isn't too far outside, and if you make a lot of noise he'll come running in here and report this whole debacle right to Lucifer. He's on a short leash like that- but why am I explaining that to you? You know exactly what that's like, I'm sure."

"We should k-" Val began, but Alastor cleared his throat, putting the crochet down on the chair as he stood up.

"Do you really want to make this a scene?"

"W-won't you get in t-trouble too?"

"Why Vox!" Alastor's attempt at feigning ignorance was fucking laughable. "I was simply investigating some strange noises when I stumbled upon this wild plot!" He grinned so wide that his smile neatly cut his face in two. "And who do you think they're going to believe, hm?"

Fuck. He had them by the balls here. Vox was seething his head pounding but as Adam started to break free, he realized it was best to leave things as they were. Hopefully Alastor's overblown ego would fuck him over in the coming few minutes. (He also did NOT want to end up in a situation where he was at any risk of owing Alastor a favor.) "I c-can't W-wait for him t-to rip your f-f-fucking face off."

"Lovely seeing you too." Alastor gestured to the window, stopping for a moment as he seemed to notice the bite on Val's arm. "Oh, that does look nasty. You might need to clean that before it gets infected."

"Oh you little-"

"Val." Vox spoke quickly. Yes, he wanted to murder Alastor, but not if the king was going to hunt them down for this. He wasn't ready to take on Lucifer, yet. He could let Adam do the dirty deed (and he did seem to already almost be out) Vox wanted to get out quickly before the bloodshed could be pinned on him. "Bye fucker!" and with that, he and Val took their leave, heading back to clean up the mess Adam had made of Voxtek.

____________________________________________________________

Alastor watched as Vox and Val scurried out of the window like frightened animals. Adam escaped the restraints with ease and made a lunge at Alastor who caught him easily in the black tentacles, arms above his head, legs trapped in the wriggling darkness as he snarled and growled, glaring up at the Radio Demon.

"Well, you did quite a number, didn't you?" As Alastor kept Adam bound, he took the metal from Vox's wires, making it vanish as it was consumed by his dark shadows. He slowly went to each window, closing them, locking them back up one by one. It had been easy for him to message Niffty, have her come home and clean the newcomer's room. Oh, and to be sure and leave the windows open so all those cleaning chemicals could air out.

He had no idea if Adam was going to wake up with Vox, or not. But he was under the assumption he would. And he was right.

Not surprising.

"Good work today partner." He gave Adam a nod.

Alastor cleaned the droplets of blood off the floor, got rid of any trace Vox had been in at all. He stopped, looking at Adam who was watching him, eyes wide, staring at him- or really... more accurately... through him.

"Well, I'm going to go get your son. I will say, having met you both now, that apple did not fall far from the tree." He laughed slapping his knee. Adam growled at him. "What? You don't like apple jokes?"

He started to vanish into the shadows. "Everyone's a critic." And with that he released Adam's restraints. It was as if he was never there.

He reappeared. Cain was currently getting a drink from Husk (At Alastor's suggestion. Cain was shockingly easy to distract, Alastor had kept him roped in conversation for the entirety of Niffty's cleaning- as long as you kept Cain talking about himself, the man could rant.) Everyone was back from their little night out by now. Husk had wanted to turn in, but Alastor needed Cain to stay occupied, so while most of the others were in their rooms, Husk was making weird cocktails for another Overlord that he had once served alongside. (Presumably. Alastor didn't know how much Cain and Husk actually knew each other. But Cain was also dumb-at least that's what Alastor had gleaned from their needlessly long conversation when he had been distracting him. So even if they had a history, there was no guarantee Cain would remember it.)

"Cain! I think I heard a noise upstairs. We might need to check on Adam." As if on cue there was a loud BANG from above their heads. "I think he might be awake." Cain looked upset by the revelation.

"Fucking really?" He downed the entire drink in his hand. "Right. Smiles, with me, Cat in the Hat," he looked over at Husk, "tell Charlie to call her dad. I'm not dealing with bitch McGee for any longer than I have to."

"As you wish!" Alastor followed Cain up the stairs. Nothing was out of place- not a fucking trace of either of the unwanted guests from earlier. No one would have any idea what had transpired while Adam "slept".

And that was fine by Alastor.

What a perfect end to Alastor's day out.

[fasthqhana]

「 ₊ ☆ ﾟ jennie kim, she/her, cis women 」 INCOMING TEXT: omg hv u met HANA JUNG of the RODANI PROWLERS yet ? they’re one of the crew’s import models n actually go by DIMPLES. the twenty five y/o is typically seen hanging arnd 12welve. allegedly they’re frm new york, new york n hv been w/ the crew for TWO YEARS. wtvr. just watch out for them, k ? ttyl ! 「 ₊ ☆ﾟ sarah, 28, she/her, est 」

INTERVIEW

tell the story behind your alias.

"dimples," hana blushes at the mention of her alias. "my alias kind of fell into my lap," she adds on. "when i first started hanging around and getting to know the prowlers, some of the members first noticed my smile and well....dimples. i've been told it's one of my more notable features. is it the most badass nickname out there? no....but i like it."

is street racing a long term plan or a short lived hobby for you?

"when i first got involved with the prowlers, i wasn't sure if this was going to be anything super long term, no," hana replies in a truthful tone. "i haven't been doing this for too long either, only about two years," she adds on. "i first went into this to make some extra cash and make some new friends along the way. i haven't really given it too much thought on how long i plan on doing all of this, but i don't think i'll be stopping anytime soon either?"

do you ever have the urge to swap positions?

“i mean, i've always been a little curious what it feels like to be behind the wheel during a race, i won't lie. but, being one of the import models come more naturally to me. i might as well use my prior modeling experience to good use. plus, i don't think you want to see me behind the wheel. i grew up in new york, i never needed to get a license."

CHARACTERIZATION

character inspirations.

serena van der woodsen (gossip girl), cher horowitz (clueless), summer roberts (the oc)

playlist:

material girl - madonna

shut up and drive - rihanna

oops i did it again - britney spears

mini bio.

hana grew up living a very privileged and extravagant lifestyle in nyc, being the only child to a fashion designer and surgeon always getting what she wants and not being told no when she should!! (her life was always very much giving gossip girl)

since both of her parents were very committed to their craft and careers, hana was often left with her nannies but always being spoiled nevertheless.

she started her modeling career when she was young, starting off modeling her mothers clothing lines and eventually transitioning to bigger gigs. she didn’t really have to work hard to get gigs thanks to her family’s connections

moved from nyc to miami when she was twenty one after signing with a contract there and to also explore other career avenues.

she quickly discovered how lively the club scene is within miami and entered her partying phase a little too much. this caused her to ultimately be involved with the wrong kind of people and some tabloid magazines spreading un-true rumors of her being 'totally out of control' after a crazy night out

her modeling contract would be cut short and her parents were not happy with her....cutting her off for a bit as a result

her becoming an import model was sort of a random opportunity that fell into her lap??? she started seeing this guy she met who through myspace who was a racer with the rodani prowlers. she confided in him about her recent frustrations in her professional life due to being black listed with so many modeling agencies and he offered her a position as an import model if she promised him she wouldn’t tell anyone about the crew and their races.

she honestly didn't expect to really stick around with the prowlers for very long but she has been involved with them for two years now. her 'fall from grace' def humbled her a bit and lead to unexpected friendships with people she might have never thought she'd befriend.

she’s still struggling to get modeling gigs but thanks to her involvement with the prowlers, she's been able to bring some of the income that she's lost without her modeling gigs. she does have a decent social media presence on her myspace page and getting some brand deals through there.

other hc's / fun-facts.

when you first meet hana well....she can come off very materialistic and shallow due to her upbringing. she has always had a bubbly persona about her, being able to make conversation with just about anyone. a natural extrovert at heart, she has had to work on not sticking her foot in her mouth since living in miami.

she has a decent social media presence on her myspace page, constantly posting status updates and adding pics to her albums. her goal? she wants to become one of those iconic myspace influencers.

her aura is very much glittery pink....she adores anything pink lbr. she has a pink ipod nano and also a glittery pink bejeweled razr phone.

one of her dreams is to meet paris hilton and rave with her </3

LOVES reality tv shows and some of her favorites are the hills and laguna beach.

she also ADORES cheesy rom com's....if she's having a bad day she'll put on how to lose a guy in ten days or the notebook

honestly a bit of a hopeless romantic??? she hasn't been in a serious relationship in a MINUTE but she loves the idea of love

sweet over sour anyday...hana has a major sweet tooth! a mcdonald's m&m mcflurry hates to see her coming!!

she has a pet yorkie terrier named diamond that she loves to take with her everywhere adskjfj she is obsessed with her baby

unfortunately suffers from only child syndrome so she's working on not wanting to constantly be the center of attention attention ): this sometimes has gotten her into trouble....

wanted connections. ( some ideas can be found here )

roommates - perhaps one to two of them??? hana lives in a pretty nice apartment complex in downtown miami and i just invision the most girly pop apartment where the vibes are always #perf and just....girlhood

someone from the bois that has beef with her or with each another (bonus points if it's a fellow import model :))) )

the prowlers racer who she met that introduced her to the crew and got her a position as an import model

big brother/ little sister friendship

a prowlers racer who always allows her to be passenger princess during races <3

fake dating when my parents are in town so i can make myself look good

friends with benefits - current or former

former flings - hana is a hopeless romantic and a luvr girl so i feel like she always is involved with somebody.....even if it doesn't end well

a blind date from myspace that went TERRIBLY wrong

unlikely friends from either crew?? maybe secret friendships.....ooooh

PARTY / RAVE FRIENDS !!! people who she might have befriended when she was heavy in her party girl era when she first moved to miami

modeling industry connect/friends???

anything else tbh !! always down to brainstorm and think of plots !

[randomly-a-fan]

Moving On (Malon and Archie's story)

Archie

Archie has been studying for so long and been taking computer courses during the summer. He had no intention into being an Eater of Worlds like his father Pennywise, or a Sin Muncher like his mother Aquarius; still, he loved them both, and his little sister Kandy who is now six; the only change in her life, is that she rather be called Cadence, since she didn't like the name Kandy anymore, at least at her age. Archie has been making his own video games where the main character is the villain; so, he's turning Pennywise into a main game character and call the game: The Eater of Worlds.

However, in order to go to the Academy for Computer Tech and Game Designing, he needed to make his portfolio by making three main videos: Song Video, Game/Movie Intro and Special Effects.

***

Malon

Malon's desire is animals, especially to her Saint Bernard, Cocoa; who is now ten years old, which was an old age and Cocoa will soon pass, but she's still giving her dog a warm love and support. Malon decided to be a veterinarian and care for all sorts of animals, especially endangered ones. Malon is planning on attending University down at North Carolina where they take care of wild animals, which is a great place to start. But in order to attend that University, she needed to take a quiz and try to achieve her Scholarship in order to both get a dorm and school equipment. Malon is also planning on taking Cocoa, so she needed to find ways to have the airport allow Cocoa to travel.

MJ and Jason were proud that Malon is working very hard to pass her Education and study for her quiz, even though Jason secretly hoped that his daughter would fail, so she can always be close and be a family. MJ who has experienced grief for not getting into college due to her lack of secondary education, she wanted to encourage Malon to work super hard so she can achieve her goals, and not fall on the same route like her mother did.

***

In the past weeks, Archie has been working on his videos, he had his mom sing; since even though in her age, she still looks like she's in her late twenties and early thirties. Archie was not comfortable with her outfit choice, wearing a black leather bra and black leather shorts, he could see his mom's star tattoo above the crack of her butt. Still, he wanted to wow the academy once he adds the effects with fire, since the song that his mom is singing is Girl on Fire.

Archie felt sweaty by his mom's performance, in both amazement and almost a flirt, but he reminded himself that she's his mother, and is married to his dad.

***

Meanwhile, Malon is doing a ZOOM interview with the professors and the veterinarians at Duke University. Because she and her parents don't have WIFI, she'll have to do it at Eric's place, since he's got a laptop and a WIFI. Malon is very tired, but she's pushing herself to get through, through hell or high water.

Archie too has to work on the computer to add on the effects. But he had his own laptop from his sixteenth birthday, so he doesn't need to go to the library or to anybody's house. Archie has been looking at the screen and working on his editing for hours until Kandy-- Oops, I mean, Cadence came in. "Archie, mom said that you better not be too busy to have dinner." Cadence said. "I'll be down soon, I'm almost done." Archie said. Cadence crossed her arms. "Mommy says: Come down for dinner!" Cadence said in a firm tone. Archie has to obey and take a break from editing to have dinner with his family.

Eric got a call from Malon's mom, MJ, telling Eric that it's time for Malon to come home for dinner. "Malon is still doing a ZOOM Meeting, she should be done soon... I can let Malon stay for dinner if that's okay with you and Jason." Eric offered. MJ had no choice but to agree, since she wanted Malon to achieve her goals, at least she'll get food in her tummy, thanks to Eric.

***

It was a busy day and night, but once Malon and Archie both completely finished their exams and portfolios, they have the time to spend time together until they get their results. Malon and Archie met at the dock of Camp Crystal Lake. "Hey Archie!" Malon waved. Archie rushed over to greet with Malon. "Hi Malon... So, how's the ZOOM Meeting?" Archie asked. Malon sighed. "Tiring, I swear I have to put tape on my eyelids." Malon laughed a little. "How's your video portfolio?" Malon asked Archie. "It's a real killer, but I say it's worth it... Even though my mom really disturbs me with her bare midriff outfit." Archie shivered in disgust.

Both Malon and Archie share a laugh as they look out beyond the lake. "You think we'll get into the Secondary Education?" Malon asked. "Oh I have a hunch that you will; you're pretty smart when it comes to animals." Archie complimented. "Maybe, but you're pretty clever when it comes to Computer Techs. The idea of making a video game, starring your dad, it's going to be sick." Malon stated.

Archie chuckled before he wrapped his arm around her waist. Only until him and Malon heard Jason going Chi chi chi Ah ah ah. So, they both look back and see Jason standing in the shadows tilting his head to the side. "Daddy!" Malon said in a strict tone. Jason pointed at his hand before shaking his head. Archie read his mind and nodded. "Oh, he doesn't want me to wrap my arm around your waist." Archie said before he lets go. Malon rolled her eyes. "That's my dad for yeh, he wouldn't let any boy touch me." Malon commented before they both waved at Jason.

[blowflyfag]

Pro Wrestling Illustrated: August 1993

PRESS conference

MISSY HYATT

Every issue, reporters from PRO WRESTLING ILLUSTRATED will participate in an incisive press conference with a top wrestling star. The questions will be demanding. And the answers will reveal the innermost thoughts of the giants of the sport.

BEAUTIFUL BLONDE. WRESTLER. Manager. Columnist. TV commentator. Model. Dizzy blonde. All of those descriptions fit Missy Hyatt, who has made WCW a considerably more attractive and amusing place since her arrival in the federation several years ago.

In 1991, she engaged in a feud with Paul E. Dangerously, humiliating her WCW co-commentator. Her war with Madusa turned into a beauty contest, and when that happened Missy won in a landslide. The fans said so!

Her monthly column in WCW Magazine is one of the strangest things you’ll ever read. It’s sort of like Larry King meets Kelly Bundy. In one recent column, Missy wrote about hair care, the rising price of stamps, and came with this Berraesque brainstorm: “It’s  only a man’s world for the men, right? For you and me, it’s a woman’s world!” Indeed!

Besides penning columns, Missy also makes headlines. It appears that she is angling to manage Ric Flair. During one recent incident, Larry Zbyszko interviewed Missy outside of Flair’s dressing room. When Flair’s bodyguards intervened, The Barbarian ran out to protect Missy, who had been managing him. Missy showed her gratitude by dumping Barbarian.

Hyatt spoke with Senior Editor Bill Apter, Senior Writer Dave Rosenbaum, and Editor-in-Chief Craig Peters proper to a WCW TV taping at Atlanta’s Center Stage Theater. She entered the room wearing a low-cut white tank top and a pair of black pumps, getting the interview off to a rousing start!

[When Missy Hyatt attempted to speak with Ric Flair upon his arrival at SuperBrawl III, WCW security quickly ushered her away. Hyatt has been pursuing Flair ever since, with considerably more success. She says she believes she’d make a great manager for the “Nature Boy.”]

MISSY HYATT: Welcome, boys. Now what can i tell y’all?

DAVE ROSENBAUM: Oops, I think i just dropped my pen, Missy, could you get that for me?

HYATT: Why, certainly. Anything I can do for a fellow journalist.

CRAIG PETERS: That was immature, Dave.

ROSENBAUM: What? All i did was drop my pen by mistake.

PETERS: Yeah, right, by mistake. And your eyes almost popped out of your head by mistake when Missy bent over to pick it up.

HYATT: Now, stop arguing, boys, and let’s just sit around here and talk. I think we’re going to have a nice afternoon. Shall we order lunch? BILL APTER: I’m on a diet.

HYATT: Well, why is that, Bill? You look just yummy!

ROSENBAUM: Listen to her talk. This is the woman who thought Jason Hervy was a hot mass of flesh.

HYATT: Now let’s not talk about Jason. This interview is about me, isn’t it? Let’s talk about me!

[“Men think they run the show, but women like me have every right to our place in this world.”]

PETERS: Yeah, let’s talk about Missy. And while were at it, Missy, let’s talk about Ric Flair.

HYATT: I’d love to talk about Ric Flair, but he doesn’t seem to have much time for little ol’ me these days.

APTER: I wonder why.

ROSENBAUM: Maybe it’s because he’s seen what happens to every other man who associates with Missy. Listen, no offense, Missy. You’re beautiful and all, but you’re not exactly the most patient and loyal woman in the world.

HYATT: That’s now a very nice thing to say, Dave. I’m loyal to all my men when they’re around, and I’m loyal to other men when they’re gone.

ROSENBAUM: Exactly

HYATT: But I stand by my men all the time. 

PETERS: Like you did with Barbarian/ I mean, they guy lost one match to Paul Orndorff and you just walked away from ringside. How could you do that? Didn't you have a contract?

HYATT: There was no contract and I left because I realized how much work Barbarian needs before he’s ready to become a champion and before he’s ready for me. You know, Not just anyone can be with me. I just decided we’re better off without each other. 

ROSENBAUM: It sounds like you just didn’t like losing.

HYATT: Well, of course not. Who likes losing? It’s a lot worse than winning.

APTER: Well said Missy.

ROSENBAUM: Oops! There goes that pen again.

PETERS: Pick it up yourself, Dave.

ROSENBAUM: I was just trying to do you guys a favor. 

APTER: Don’t bother.

ROSENBAUM: Missy, I was just wondering, where you do buy your clothes?

[In her role as commentator, Hyatt doesn’t shy from controversy, she seeks it out.]

HYATT: Why, only in the finest shops, Dave, but I don’t think it would be fair to say where I buy my clothes or who does my hair or who does my nails. They’re my own little secrets.

PETERS: I think we’d better get this interview back on track. Let’s get back to Ric Flair.

HYATT: I don’t see what the big fuss is all about. I just want to talk to Ric in confidence, but for some reason he won’t talk to me. He keeps sending his big, burly bodyguards after me. I’m just doing my job!

APTER: Is that all? Don’t you want to manage Flair?

HYATT: Maybe, maybe not. Under the right terms, I’d manage almost anybody.

ROSENBAUM: Anybody?

HYATT: Well, not anybody. But everybody knows that Ric Flair is a seven time NWA and WCW World champion and one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t try to find out when he pans to return to the ring, and I’d just be cheating myself if i didn’t explore the possibilities. 

[Missy was excited when Sting arrived at Clash of the Champions XX on his Harley. She is equally excited about her status as “First Lady of WCW,” confident she has succeeded in the male-dominated world of pro wrestling.]

PETERS: But there could be something else, couldn’t there

HYATT: I have no idea what you mean.

ROSENBAUM: I think he wants to know if you’re hot for Flair’s body. 

PETER: Very tactful, Rosenbaum.

HYATT: No, I am not hot for Ric Flair’s body, but I appreciate that he is one of the greatest athletes this sport has ever seen. And he’s got a great personality.

APTER: He has a huge ego!

Rosenbaum: so did all of her other men. Then she brings them down to size.

HYATT: Am i being interviewed here or are you boys just gonna argue amongst yourselves? I’ll leave if you want me to.

PETERS (loudly): No! No! Don’t leave! We want to ask you about your column in WCW Magazine. 

HYATT: Why, you’re the editor, Craig!

ROSENBAUM: He knows that, but i guess he wants to know where you come up with the ideas for your column.

HYATT: I just take whatever pops into my head and write it down on paper.

PETERS: That’s what I thought. Have you ever read Larry King’s column in USA Today?

HYATT: You should know that, Craig. I said it was required reading in one of my columns.

PETERS: Oh, that’s right. Now i remember. I almost fell off my seat when I read it.

APTER: Do you think Larry King is imitating you?

HYATT: We both have our own styles.

ROSENBAUM: Excuse me? Did i just hear you say, “We both have our own styles”?

HYATT: That’s right.

ROSEBAUM: Unbelievable. 

HYATT: Why, thank you very much.

APTER: Did you really write, “It’s only a man’s world for men?”

PETERS: Yes, she did.

HYATT: Yes, I did, and I think it makes perfect sense. Men think they run the show, but women like me have every right to our place in this world. If you ask me, Ric flair thinks women are his personal play things, be he doesn’t realize what a woman can do for his career. The right woman could keep him going.

ROSENBAUM: And are you the right woman? HYATT: I’m the right woman for only the right man.

APTER: On that note…

PETERS: Good idea, Bill. Thank you for your time, Missy.

HYATT: Is that all? Well, you’re very welcome. Now have a good day.

ROSENBAUM: Oops, there goes my pen again…

[Whether as a manger, commentator, valet, or even wrestler, Missy remains one of the most popular personalities in WCW, as these autograph seekers would attest.]

[mydaroga]

Fest for Beatles Fans 2024 Write-Up

In case anyone wants to know what goes on at these things, I can at least give you a run-down of what I did at this one, though as always there was far more going down than any one person could see. I tend to favor panels and discussions over bands, so I am sure I missed a lot of great music. Because the bands were great.

It was held this year at the TWA Hotel, which is part of JFK International Airport and has retained a lot of the features of when it used to be a terminal. I posted photos of it last year when I was there on a layover, and I still love it to death. They did NOT let me ride on the baggage thingy though. In addition, I was unable to secure a room at the hotel, though if they hold it here again I will be snagging one because, like I said, the place is bonkers.

Friday

I entered my cross-stitch in the art contest, because why not? While there ran into several people whom I had met last August at the Fest in Chicago.

Beatles Biography panel with Vivek Tiwary (The Fifth Beatle graphic novel) and Madeline Bocaro (In Your Mind - The Infinite Universe of Yoko Ono). Vivek comes off very passionate and sweet, very respectful of Brian Epstein and cognizant of the importance of telling his story right. Bocaro is also very passionate, but I'm afraid some of us present her personal Ono pendulum has swung too far to admit any human fault in her subject. I later bought the Brian book, but not the Ono.

First Generation Fan Panel was mostly Leslie Healy recounting her adventures, which are legion: she was at the Ed Sullivan dress rehearsal, and at Shea Stadium, and she's *also* the one who got that audio at Paul's house when she visited all four Beatles in 1967. Also, she had a Bearded Collie, which I also had growing up, so that gave me a thrill.

I entered the 60s dress up contest -- second time as Twiggy was the charm, and I won! And then there was a lot of dancing. Gogo boots, ironically, not so much made for such activities.

Saturday

Chatted with some folks because it was more interesting that listening to the speakers, oops. The guy from the Ranking the Beatles podcast is lovely and we've already been in touch since. Also Terry Crain who wrote a great coffee table book about NEMS Beatles merch, which I bought last year.

Went to the dealer's room and bought silly buttons, like TO HELL WITH THE 'BEATLES' and I ❤️ PAUL. There were butcher covers and all that jazz, and horrid dolls, and all the lovely awful things, none of which I could ever afford. But I can buy buttons!

Lovely friends entered the talent contest and proceeded to the finals, and they kicked so much ass and I am so proud of them.

Academic panel with Ken Womack, Christine Feldmman-Barrett, and Andy Nichols was pretty good, a lot of talk about how subsequent generations get hooked and sort of the state of Beatles fandom/academia today. Which feels fairly positive, in the sense that all present felt there is more respect now than there was--though still room to improve on that score.

As a side note, all of my interactions with Womack convince me he's a great guy, very passionate in his love for the Beatles and very devoted not only to doing this right but in elevating lesser-heard voices. He's a very likable man.

Speaking of, next he interviewed Laurie Kaye, who did the radio interview with John on his last day. Her story was very moving.

Tried to dance again this evening after the talent show but unlike the previous night, everyone thought we were weird and stared forbiddingly at us from their seated positions.

But my PAUL IS DEAD / IF YOU WANT IT / HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM JOHN & YOKO shirt was a hit. Finally.

Sunday

Saw Jude Southerland-Kessler talk about the "birth of the beatles" but sadly it was NOT about the tv film of the same name. So I went to chat with Adrian Sinclair and Allen Kozinn instead, which they later tweeted about.

Beatlemania in the 21st Century panel was about, well, what it says. Next was Women's History of the Beatles which was also interesting and involved various writers, teachers, fans, podcasters, etc. I got to meet Erika from BC the Beatles which was very cool.

Then came the Laurence Juber and Steve Holley panel which I have mentioned elsewhere.

Jenny Boyd talked about fashion and the Apple Boutique, hosted by a lady who wrote a book about Beatles and fashion I would like to read.

Fantastic band with great additional harmonies, which I knew who they were.

I did not win the art contest. I did get a participation ribbon. I'm not even a millennial.

We then found a quiet place to chat, of which which the hotel had many, and then I needed to go to bed so I could be bad in like five hours for my flight.

I've probably forgotten lots of things but that is the general run down. There was also a video room, two stages for bands, more art, authors and guests at tables all weekend, and Mickey Dolenz, whom I did not meet but it's cool he was there.

[adachimoe]

Yukiko as a vehicle for Persona 4's slapstick humor

I talked about this a bit in the post about Yukiko's "cluelessness", but Yukiko doesn't take well to dirty talk. This is likely a result of her being objectified by every other person in town and also whatever customers say to her at the ryokan. In fact, her saying that they've had gross customers at the ryokan after her TV interview and her Midnight Channel "show" aired might imply that some of them only came to the ryokan to see her.

It's only after her experience in the TV world that we see her try and stand up for herself, but it's continuously presented as a form of dumb anime slapstick comedy with her misinterpreting what the guys are saying as being dirty talk. This is why the game shows her slapping Yosuke when he asks for "private lessons", why she doesn't give Yosuke her phone # after Chie mentions that Yosuke calls at night to tell sex jokes, why she pushes Kanji into the water after she sees his nose bleeding, and also why she slaps Kanji when she misinterprets him as saying "Did you show everyone [your tiddies]?" (*)

While this is played off as anime slapstick comedy, the place where it comes from is really not funny at all IMO. She constantly goes, "Oops, my hand slipped" after these moments, like it's an automatically activated self-defense mechanism. And I think it's self-explanatory as to why: You can tell just from what we're shown in the beginning of the game that she has grown up as some kind of small time celebrity in town with dudes harassing her and saying stuff to her. Like, the game is very blatant about showing you that.

What people have said/done to her has had an effect on her. It's big enough that she starts physically lashing out in retaliation as a means to stand up for herself, which one might want to take a step further and use to assume that people have gotten physical with her or touched her inappropriately in the past. But even though I say this, I also find it all a bit cringe. Because while it is part of her character, what the player sees in the game is that "Yukiko was harassed while growing up" is being used by the writers as a vehicle to help deliver the aforementioned anime slapstick humor moments.

Like, what got me thinking about this is how Katsura Hashino talked about his contribution to the camping trip part in his Persona Club interview. And the two brain cells I have left are split between, "Really? That's her catharsis for that part of her backstory?" and, "If Atlus is going embrace stupid anime tropes, then I hope she gets to continue beating up dudes as a little treat; you go queen". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(*) This isn't really the point of this post, but uhh I guess I do need to note that this line was completely different in English.

The term "coming out" does exist in Japanese as the wasei-eigo phrase "coming out" (カミングアウト). But during this scene, Kanji is not saying カミングアウト. He says "lay bare" or "expose", so Yukiko is misinterpreting it as being a double entendre for "get naked" which is why she slaps him.

[pebblysand]

Hi Jo,

Huge fan of your work and I hope you’re enjoying the holidays, I was wondering if the Dursley’s will ever show up in Castles?

Canonically Harry and Dudley send each other Christmas cards and Harry even visits with the kids, so I was wondering if that is something will see happen or if you have your own thoughts on what if anything happens between Harry and the Dursley’s.

hi anon! this is such a great question and one i've dreaded one of you would ask for a while, now. 😅

long story short: this is one of my plot holes. oops. basically, what happened (which you probably can guess from the text if you squint) is that originally, dudley was supposed to make a "comeback" in act 2 (chapters 8-15). i laid all the ground work for it in act 1, with the interview that harry gives and giulia telling harry to send the magazine to the dursleys, etc. at the time, i had this story in my head of dudley replying to harry's letter and them just - i wouldn't say reconnecting, that would be a bit much, but harry sort of growing and forgiving and dudley growing and apologising. your classic dudley redemption story (which i love, by the way).

except, chapter 8 happened. and, following, every non-essential plotline just got pushed back to ... later. i don't regret it, i think committing to chapter 8 was one of the best decisions i made, but ginny/amycus was So Big and So Important that understandably, if you add the "wizarding admin" plotline of the trials + mia, etc. there just wasn't material space to add stuff about dudley. my chapters are already long enough as is. and, i do remember that i tried multiple times to make space for it, but it also just wouldn't work within the general themes that were being explored in that arc. it's hard to explain but: you know how the writing in castles sort of "spirals"? well, i couldn't find a free space within that spiral to hook the dudley story in a way that stuck.

when i got to chapter 17 last spring, i was like: here, this is my moment! 🤣. because, let's be honest, not much happens in chapter 17 (which is on purpose, i mean, that chapter is just #vibes) but then i wrote it and i finished it and it was 17,000 words already and fuck. now, you may have noticed that i did try. there's a moment where harry and ginny are talking about how dudley once tried to drown him in the toilet and this happens:

It gets easier, being with her, after a while. Being vulnerable around her. Letting her see him the way she’s let him see her. She’s not the only one with secrets in her closet. ‘I reckon Fred and George tried to throw Percy down the loo once,’ she pushes, gently. It’s a funny story. Harry smiles at it when he looks up to the ceiling. Thinks of stupid, childhood games and the way Molly probably ran upstairs to yell at them at the top of her lungs.  ‘It wasn’t like that,’ he speaks.  ‘I didn’t think it was.’ He breathes in. Out. Traces a line down her arm with his fingers. He thinks of things he’d rather not remember. ‘Not now,’ he whispers.  She smiles, nods. Slowly and quietly moves to sit on top of him, straddling him. She lowers herself down for a kiss, her palms on either side of his face. His hands settle at her hips; he feels the heat of her against his belly again. ‘Okay,’ she just says. ‘“Not now,” doesn’t mean “never,” though, yeah?’ He smiles against her lips. Pulls her so close. ‘’Kay.’

you have no idea how many times i re-wrote that scene, trying to see if i was going to take that conversation further. but, honestly, it didn't feel right to do so. again, something wasn't working. so, i pushed it again, except chapter 18 was already "full" with the abortion story, chapter 19 was full for Obvious Reasons, and now... here we fucking are 🤣.

where i'm at now: full-disclosure, i lied when i said i wasn't writing before january. i couldn't stay away. so, yes, chapter 20 is on the way. having said that, i have been struggling a lot with it, so it probably won't be released soon anyway.

but one of things i have been struggling with, actually, is this. to me, it feels very natural to bring up the topic of dudley/the dursleys as harry is having children of his own. but i think one of the things i'm struggling with is also: what i want to do with this, exactly.

because, tbh, my take on this in castles has kind of changed, over the two years that it's taken me to get to this point. i'm going to correct one thing and say that the fact that dudley and harry are on christmas-card terms isn't canon-canon, it's post-DH JKR canon, which in my opinion isn't "hard" canon. i see the stuff that she's said after the release of the books on a "keep what you like, toss what you don't like," sort of policy. i've taken a lot of stuff from it (harry becoming an auror, etc.), and even took stuff from cursed child (albus being sorted into slytherin) but i don't consider myself bound by it.

and, idk. i think part of me now feels like this could be one of the topics in castles that remain a bit "unresolved". a lot of subplots will have tight bows wrapped around them, but i wonder if the topic of the dursleys could just be: harry deciding that actually, some things are unforgivable, and that, while he doesn't necessarily hold a grudge, he also doesn't want to give them the time of day in his life. the kind of thing where he'd meet dudley at the pub once, and decide that objectively, his life is better without these people in it. he doesn't owe them anything. so, that's what i'm kind of toying with at the moment.

it is proving hard to write, though. mostly because of bigger issues i'm currently having with chapter 20, but what i do know is that this does have a time constraint attached to it. if i can't fit something in chapter 20 or 21, this will stay unresolved. 22, 23 and 24 are frankly too packed for me to include anything else.

so, i suppose, stay tuned. you were right to ask, it's one of the very few (maybe the only?) castles plot points that i'm still undecided about! 😱

[gontagokuhara]

uhhh got any cursed camp facts? (pranks that went wrong, cryptic izuru, nagito dealing with the kids?)

hi anon! you sent me this ask in september 2019. this is me answering now in february 2024. oops! and well, not actually — everything below the cut was written also in 2019. why did i not post it? im actually not sure because when i refound it today it made me giggle. so i’m leaving it untouched as i left it because 1) it still bangs, and 2) it’s all still fun pointy objects lore that i think illustrates how deeply i’ve thought about the silliest aspects of this fic…….and for how long.

so here we go. KRAKEN RELEASED!!!

YESSSS OMG I LOVE THIS ASK!!!!! theres so many im thinking wont have a place actually in the fic so getting to expand on them is :D

a few months before kaito ends up at camp (~a year before shuuichi shows up at camp) the full year kids are tasked by a weary nagito and hajime to find a group project to work on together so theyll get along and stay out of the counselors hair. someone jokingly suggests making a documentary about life at camp, and the two counselors tell them to do whatever they want, and get them a camera to use.

of course, kokichi decides to ignore the thing about staying out of their hair, and thus ‘nagitoe toemaeda: the curse of camp hopes peak’ is born.

clownery of the highest degree ensues. they harass nagito with the camera, not telling him what it is theyre filming; when izuru happens to stumble in while theyre filming, they spend a whole day getting footage of him that they can later on mess with; it’s a fucking shit show and the finished product is 70 minutes of pure garbage but none of them can think about it too hard or theyll die laughing

the feature runs as a found-footage and interview based horror movie; people descibing the fearsome toemaeda, intercut with creeper shots of nagito just doing camp business, intercut with footage of izuru picking fights with nagito and being ‘killed’, intercut with bad dubbing by kokichi over clips of nagito speaking. even hajime ends up in the film, reading a script from somewhere just out of frame and commenting intermittenly about how dumb this whole thing is

the watching party is a massive success. everyone is rolling from how stupid and hilarious the whole thing is. nagito doesnt leave his office for three days afterwards, traumatized by the yells of “here comes toemaeda!” whenever he shows his face.

+

kaede first meets izuru when she is twelve, several months into living at camp. she has had no prior knowledge on him because nagito does his very best to keep him away from the campers, but he cant be everywhere at once, and kaede finds him in the kitchen one day while looking for a snack

she doesn’t quite know how to react, so she just goes about her business, thinking maybe he’s somebody’s weird parent, or something. but when nagito shows up out of nowhere, and the situation turns tense, she becomes frightened.

as it turns out.....nagito and izuru aren’t real big fans of each other. an uncomfortable staring contest turns into an argument that turns into an all out fight, and kaede, only knowing nagito as a pseudo-weird-parent-figure who she cares about pretty much more than anybody in the world, starts crying and trying to get izuru away from him

thinking in 12 year old girl terms, she starts throwing things. the first thing to actually hit izuru is a box of saltines. he goes very, very still after he’s hit, and kaede thinks he’s going to hurt her.

he stoops down, picks up the box, and rummages around. pulls out a saltine. eats it, slowly, nagito breathing heavily a few feet away. eats another one. looks between nagito, and kaede, and nagito again, before slowly stealing out of the room, box in hand.

kaede has found a way to placate him. nagito always makes sure to stock up on saltines after that.

[monstermaster13]

Corey and Oats in..

The Best Retro Adventure Ever

Corey and Oats went on many adventures together and they often planned on going on different ones with their friends but some adventures got scrapped…the original adventure plan for this particular tale was that the duo was to go to Armageddon but another one came alone that was even better.

It was a local expo themed around retro pop culture and they just had to go and see it, and luckily they would get that chance. One morning, specifically the morning of Sunday November 24th, 2024 - they all got up and got ready for the day. After having breakfast they got dressed and all got ready, it was a bit rushed but it was totally worth it.

They all hopped in the floating car which took them all the way to Wairau, and when the floating car stopped - they arrived at the stadium and got in line, they had some cute little donuts for morning tea as they waited in line.

Corey and Oats smiled as did Piff and Aiyido, they all got excited as they entered the stadium and got special bracelets to wear when they walked in, they made their way through the doors and began their exploration. They saw all sorts of comics and magazines on the ‘Iron Age’ comics booth and they saw a table with Care Bear collectibles next to it.

“Wow, this is fantastic.”

“Yeah, let’s look around.”

All of them walked around and they saw another table, this time it was a table of children’s books from a vendor known as Double Rainbow and they looked at the books and they saw one that reminded them of Belinda, after that they all came to a table of sorts that had all sorts of toys. Mel saw a table which had statues and masks including one that looked like the one from the comic and movie ‘The Mask’, she posed with the mask and put it on, as she did she spun around and transformed - but unlike how the Mask is in the Vyond universe she was not evil or scary.

That is where Piff saw the most beautiful fish he had ever seen, this fish had green and orange skin and kissable lips and she was making the cutest sounds, and Mel bought the new fish - adopting her in the process. ‘Hello new fish. I am Piff, tell me..are you a single fishy? Do you need a fish to do affairs with?’ ‘Oh, Piff.’ ‘What?’ ‘She is new, you cannot just rush her into having an affair with her.’

‘Oh oops, sorry.’ Piff chuckled to himself as he blushed, they all looked around and saw all sorts of toys and Mel lit up when she saw a figure of Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz. ‘It’s Dan! Ooooh yes, Eukie will love this.’

Mel thought to herself she would have loved to have him..if he didn’t cost so much, and she explained how she wanted to have all sorts of Aykroyd related things and how she had been searching for every Dan Aykroyd video interview ever. ‘If only that Johnny Carson Tonight Show episode was not so hard to find.’ ‘Or that Jay Leno interview.’ ‘Yeah, Gettyimages has proof all these episodes were made and taped. So why doesn’t someone on Youtube or Internet Archive just post them all?’

They all looked around and Oats smiled as he saw some MLP plushes and lots of books, games, cards and home video releases. He also saw a table with plush toys including an adorable plush mogwai. ‘Look, mommy. A mogwai.’ ‘Like in the movie.’

Mel picked up the mogwai, it looked like Gizmo only his fur was black and white…’Oh I know that one, that is Stripe.’ ‘Isn’t he the bad guy in the first movie?’ ‘Yes. He is.’

She picked him up and bought him, adding him to her findings as they walked around, she saw a ton of WWE wrestler figures and she recognized all of them. Including some of the older ones. ‘I didn’t know you knew so much about wrestling.’ Belinda exclaimed. ‘I watched WWE back in England.’ Mel responded.

They smiled and they spotted some Star Wars cosplayers, Corey and Oats floated over to them and posed for a photo as R2D2 rolled in, beeping and communicating with the duo. Astro the alien jumped out and greeted him. ‘Greetings, droid friend. I am an alien from another planet but I have come here to make friends.’

Aiyido and Astro posed with R2D2 and then posed with a Boba Fett cosplayer and they all saw some Doctor Who toys including a plush dalek, Mel giggled when she saw that. They looked around and they saw a Jack Sparrow cosplayer, he squatted down and posed with Mel and the duo.

They were all super happy and an hour later they all headed out, Piff flirted with the new fish who looked at him and giggled…’Ooh, she likes me.’ ‘Oh Piff, you playboy.’ ‘You know it.’ They all had some paninis for lunch and Mel even shared a dish that was some eggs and chips with Belinda.

When they were finished they hopped back into the floating car and headed home, when they all arrived back at Nile Road they all relaxed and had afternoon tea as the new fish swam around and played with the others. Anglo had been taking good care of Mel’s clown-fish hat Clovis and he handed the fish-hat over to Mel who put it on as she sat down. ‘So new fishy, do you have a name yet?’ The fish thought and thought about her name and finally she came up with one she liked…’Tangie, Tanji. Yes, I would like to be called Tangie.’

‘Welcome to the family, Tangie. I see you have met Piff.’ ‘Yes, Piff is quite the pufferfish, are all pufferfish of his species this flirty or is it just him?’ ‘I think you will find all male pufferfish are very expressive when it comes to flirting, but Piff is a real playboy when it comes to his own style of doing it.’ ‘Oh.’

‘Oh yes, and I cannot wait for us to have bathtub affairs together.’ Piff quipped. ‘Hang on there, Piffy. Tangie is new, please be gentle with her.’ ‘I will, don’t you worry.’ ‘And you better behave, Piff.’

‘You can count on me to behave.’ They all waited for dinner and had some delicious food for dinner and after dinner Piff treated Tangie and the others to a fishing trip, after their fishing trip was over they all relaxed and emailed Jill about their adventure (which they had fun doing).

They had a karaoke session and when it was over they walked into the bedroom to get ready, Corey put on his bat pajamas as Oats put on his pink night-gown. Piff put on a red sleeping kimono while Tangie put on a green nightdress with a coral print on it.

In the bathroom they brushed their teeth and afterwards they all hurried back into the bedroom, they picked out friends to snuggle up with and even Stripe cuddled up to them as they all thanked Mel for their adventure.

They all said their goodnights before Piff turned off the lights and they drifted off to sleep, having sweet dreams as they did so. As they had sweet dreams they thought all about the things they had seen on their adventure and their new friends.

Piff dreamed a romantic dream about dating Tangie and they even were sharing seaweed chips and dancing together, and they sat in a bathtub together and had quite the affair, ‘Of course this is a dream but still…a fish can dream. Can’t he?’ Piff commented.

And thus their adventure for the day had come to an end but more are coming up so stay tuned.

[thesketchyheartist]

04/11

Eden of the East (EP 1, 3, 4, 5)

They used flip phones. It's pretty high tech given how they have (I think) an AI program, but it's not a touch screen.

Also, the fact that Akira probably used to help the unemployed citizens re-enter society, given how a stranger comes up to him and thanks him, and at the end of episode 5, he looks like he wants to help Saki's job hunting.

On one hand, it seemed like he was willing to do what he thinks is necessary to help revive the non-workers. He might have been unconventional though with the naked photos. I think he wiped his memories because he does not understand them as regular people as a secret agent. By wiping his memories he can become closer to people and realize what he really wants to do deep down. Or, it's something dumb like he saw the new tech and he or the universe accidentally hit the "delete" button in his head and now he's empty.

On the other hand, his determination pre-memory wipe might have caused a mental spiral that made him crazy. Sending 20K NEETs to Dubai to fix them up might have been with good intentions but his spiraling made him realize he was becoming less human, and he wanted to change himself before he did something reckless. Yet, even after becoming a new person, he starts giving off Kira and Death Note vibes with the limited power of his money.

But it is ironic to show Saki's job hunting struggles still match today's Gen Z job hunting, especially if you add on that COVID was not even a thought when this show was aired. The fact that even with connections/referrals, Saki knows she did not get the job when the interviewer comments about "youngsters," and she is aware that despite the expectations to carry the future, it is more of a power struggle to basic human decency when she got food poured on her.

Also, the lady in periwinkle blue is very suspicious. It's obvious she is one of the now 11 Seleco, but she is more than some model celebrity. With how she has young men lined up in front of her telling them to go on a diet as "advice", and how she was walking to Saki's friend when he was drunk tells me she is very much a loan shark and/or groomer. Not to mention, waking up in your undergarments and going to the bathroom to see a naked dead body and just asking your AI to "clean it up" because you "oops" and killed someone? And she was so calm like she knows it's happened often enough that it doesn't faze her anymore. Either it's a dissociative identity or something related to memory wipe because she clearly is not very kind-hearted towards the organization's goals.

Akira reminds me of Haru/Natsu/Shiki in a way I can't describe.

-04/11/24

[aelsie]

Alright everyone, about this Darklina deleted scene. In a Newsweek interview Ben says,

But he is able to make her understand it in his last moments as he grabs her wrist and he feeds his power into her, so she has both.

At first, I was like—WHAT WHY DELETE NO! MORE DARKLINA! More emotional Darkling! More scenes to show he cares about her!

Then I decided maybe it’s better this way? I wonder if they decided that it would be better that she gained those powers because she used merzost (obv), because she, and no one else, did something that caused her to take a step towards the dark side, if you will. This makes her path even more similar to the Darkling. It makes everything Aleksander said even more correct. That she IN TIME (very short time apparently) will also make the same decisions as him. That everything he’s been telling her had truth in it after all. And she grows to understand and empathize with him more.

We all know that he cares for her and wants her protected anyway, in his own twisted way just from the other scenes between them. He already expressed “let me be your monster” and “let me carry the hatred in this world” which is probably to ensure that she has an equal and a balance. So maybe, they said, yes let’s make the darkness come because of HER decision and no one else’s.

Now, they could decide to reveal otherwise. They could be like oop it’s because The Darkling gave it to her. She can take it as aw hubby cares even from the grave, he wanted me to be protected-ish(?) the only way to beat your enemy is to become them maybe? And take the darkness in? Or she could react with anger and blame him for leaving the darkness with her. Seeing how she’s been so self righteous this whole time, which sounds more Alina to you?

So maybe it’s better this way, because then sunshine has no one to blame but herself. Doesn’t look like she’s particularly upset about it so far though.

Anyway, so many possibilities! I love it! I’m ready for season 3! And I better get my Darklina angst!

Pictured here: Wife mourns husband’s death. (Even if she did kill him. She summoned (literally) him. Some wives keep their husband’s stuff, some go to their favorite places. Alina said—to hell with that—I may have killed you but *WHOOSH* CUT! I know you’ll always be with me in spirit *proceeds to smile with glee*)

[sassycordy]

What is the sga debacle?? Did he do something specific?? I only know that he also made the shows Dark Matter and Utopia Falls which both have diversity and representation so that makes me hopeful for the same treatment in a new stargate series.

hi! whew im so sorry im just getting to this lmfao. truthfully ive been rly busy and this is such a serious topic that i wanted to make sure i chose my words carefully and laid everything out in the best way possible. 

disclaimer section! im not the best person to speak on this topic ahha. I just got into the fandom last year and it was only a few months ago that i started to hear some of these issues that existed previously (so if any veteran stargate fans wanna hop in on this and explain things in greater detail, please do)! also this is not a call out post or canceling thing. this is simply a hey-these-things-happened-and-maybe-we-should-be-careful-with-who-we-interact-with-and-trust type thing. anyways without further ado, here’s some of the sketchy shit that went down behind the scenes of stargate atlantis! (all sources are posted in the comment/replies btw)

> let’s start with the decision to kill off carson beckett because thats where the first weird comment pops up. now a lot of people claim that this was a move made by writers & producers to shake up the show and “make the actors feel less secure.” i’ve never been able to find that direct quote although ive heard people say that someone openly admitted it on the audio commentary/bonus features on the atlantis dvds soo take that however you like aha.

> after the sudden exit of paul mcgillion, tori higginson left the show a few episodes later anddddd ok this is where things escalate. this is an interview she gave where she openly talks about everything that went on behind the scenes. but to summarize, the writers ignored all of her input and refused to grow the character further when she had clearly outgrown the “Hammond” role. joseph mallozzi states in his blog post that brad wright himself was very fond and loved the weir character and he claims that the decision to write her out was because of “just simple logic.”(1) however, torri tells a different story. (2) 

“Honestly? I found that quite shitty, to be honest (laughs).Oops. But I found out, because I kept going to them, I kept going up to them saying ‘I have a feeling my character, you’re not doing anything with me, and you guys have me for six years and I don’t want to, you know, be here not doing anything. Let me know what’s going on.’ And they kept saying “no, no, no, it’s great. We love you. We love you. Things can be great.’ And I said ‘well, if that’s the case, can we do something with her’ and they kept reassuring me that nothing - and the very last day of filming season three, as I finished filming the last scene on the last day I was called up to the office and was told that my character was going to become recurring if I chose to be. So, I thought that was not very, um, dignified, way to deal with it, and I was a bit surprised. So I was—so my reaction was one of yeah, I was a little bit surprised. I was a little bit upset by how it was dealt with. But I wasn’t upset at the decision because I understood it. I kept going to them saying ‘I get, I get what’s going to happen, just give me some notice so I can pack my apartment and move back to L.A. Really. So I wasn’t upset with the decision. I was upset with how it was handled.”

she was led on and told her role would be reduced after the filming of season three which is uh. absolutely insane to think about considering she’s the main female lead of the show. And this is just my personal opinion but i think its interesting timing that as soon as brad stepped down, joseph mallozzi and his writing partner, paul mullie got rid of her. It’s also pretty telling that there was some bad blood behind the scenes because she didn’t even reprise her character in season five for the ghost in the machine aka the episode where they “kill elizabeth” off. although i do wanna mention that since then, jm has posted that he believes elizabeth would actually still be alive today and is just in stasis somewhere waiting to be found …which is nice. i guess. maybe they shouldn’t have fired her in the first place but hey whatever. 

and to end the torri section, here’s another quote that i think is the real reason she was let go from atlantis.

Question: And now Amanda Tapping seems to be doing exactly the same… just filing an episode. Torri said “Well, no. I understand that it’s a club, and you know, some people.. .you know. I think they didn’t like me constantly rapping on the doors saying ‘excuse me, why aren’t there any women writers or any women producers on the show?’ I think it bothered them. And so, Amanda, bless her, just had a kid so... bless her, man, she needs that gig more than [me]… you know what I mean? So I have no issues with any of them. I understand how it works. It is a bit of a political game and… I’m not very good at politics (laughs). I’m like Weir. I just want to act.”

> now this is where the joe flanigan of it all starts to come in. he’s been vocal about defending torri higginson and openly saying how bad of a decision it was to kill her off. (3) and his interview with dial the gate was enlightening on a few topics. (4)

his character didn’t get a backstory until season 3. tptb literally told him, “john likes ferris wheels” and called it a day. which is actually mind boggling. they gave him nothing to work with and somehow he turned it into gold. 

he’s also said many times and in different interviews how terrible it was that the writers carried over from sg1. the cast would pitch ideas but would be shut down because they would sound “too much like an sg1 ep” which is ridiculous considering how many atlantis scripts are just a rip off of sg1 eps anyways.

> and finally the whole whispers debacle. now i don’t really know a lot about this, so I'll just link the tumblr post that first brought this to my attention! (5) there’s also the whole “the writers stopped taking notes from the cast after season 3 and specifically started to shun joe out”  thing (which is very obvious in seasons 4 and 5) so i’ll also link another great tumblr post because they explain it so much better than i can. (6)

> there’s also the fact that once it became clear that universe was not doing well, both bw and jm turned and blamed it on atlantis and even sg1 fans.

“I don’t think if we, for any reason, go away, it is an issue necessarily of the quality of the product that we’ve been making. I think getting moved on the schedule has hurt us. And the fact that some of the fans that liked SG-1 and Atlantis were so angry that they have deliberately hurt us, which is unfortunate.” (7) Brad Wright. 

Jaso967060 writes: “Heck I think alot of people from “that other site” could be won back if some changes are made. (Finding out the Destinys Mission and the crew working together more instead of tearing each other down…and having more action…changes like that.)” 

Answer: Disagree. Given that their deluded mission statement is to see SGU cancelled in order to pave the way for an SGA return, I doubt that very much. (8) Joseph Mallozzi

this post is getting too long so i won’t go into the whole “stargate atlantis viewers were not the right demographic the writers wanted” thing. because yes this may have been said by one of the writers (i don’t have a source but so many people bring it up and it makes sense considering the type of show universe is). also joe flanigan talked about how the writers and producers disrespected atlantis fans and he sorta mentions this quote too so im gonna link it. (9) also i would just like to say huge shoutout to joe for not caring to be diplomatic lol. 

but yea. please take this post however you would like. all of this happened years and years ago so one can only hope people have learned from their mistakes. and if a fourth stargate show is ever made, I just pray they'll finally have women and poc writers/producers/directors as main contributors. also joseph mallozzi has done so many interviews with dial of the gate in recent years, so i would check those out if anyone would like to hear his current thoughts on stargate. (if you do, please message me because i would love to know if he acknowledges any of these topics ahah). 

and to end this lovely post, let's reminisce on that one time joe flanigan called the writers of atlantis “rodney mckays” <3

“Because the writers are all McKays – they are the collective Rodney McKay. It’s a whole load of little McKays running round up there in the offices.” (10)

so sorry this took a million years to respond to ahha. and i may have gotten a bit sidetracked but i hope i answered your question !!