#tldr: being an immortal is boring

[taihua]

tgcf=bad writing (based on that reblog THIS ISNT HATE IM JUST GENUINELY CURIOUS I REALLY LOVE U)

Allow me to elaborate! It's my favorite book so I say this with all the love in my heart for the story and characters, but--

She needed an editor: there are large sections of the book that could have been cut without changing the plot. Like Hua Cheng trying on different outfits during the Brocade Immortal arc... I know fans like this scene, but it's obvious word-padding that doesn't contribute to the story or even contribute anything significant to Hualian's relationship development. See also the endless chapters leading up to Mount Tonglu. Bloated cast and characters not contributing anything significant (why were Banyue and Pei Xiu there except to address the fact that MXTX forgot about them after book 1???) and honestly, there's a lot of boring filler around this point in the novel. Reduce and cut.

Another thing that needed editing: loose ends not being tied up. The Brocade Immortal arc is a disaster, difficult to follow, and has no lasting impact besides Ling Wen being in jail for maybe two pages. It's never explained who created Cuocuo and why and Mu Qing's involvement is handwaved even though his explanation doesn't make sense. Xie Lian puts Banyue in a jar and forgets about her for an entire arc.

The descriptions are severely lacking compared to other danmei novels. I'm not a fan of 2ha but I'm reading it anyway because I love the way the author describes the scenery, the food, the clothes, the architecture... Thousand Autumns also has some of the most beautiful passages describing the cultivation techniques. I'm sure some of this has to do with the translation teams, but TGCF also doesn't really give much to work with? The descriptions of the Ghost City are good, but the rest of the book is just kind of like. "Xie Lian was in a room. He looked around and there was a table." versus other writers who are giving us sentences like "The celadon tea set gave an aroma of jasmine where it sat on top of the mahogany table and when he picked up the teacup, it was cool against his palm." Good descriptive writing engages five senses and I don't feel that TGCF does that successfully. What do we know about heaven except that the palaces are golden?

Anyway, what she does do successfully is making an interesting world with memorable characters, even if most of them don't get the attention they deserve, and she's great with dialogue and humor. Plus the romance is good; it's not rushed and it's believable that Hualian like each other (which you'd think would be a given in romance novels, but some of the ones I've been reading lately don't bother to establish that lmao).

tldr version: too many words that aren't giving us the right info :,I

[cilil]

I have a lore question🤔 I’m not too familiar with the stories outside of the Silmarillion (like HoME or LaCE) so I remember seeing your post about Manwë not talking to mortals awhile back and I tried googling more info on that recently but failed😂 so I was wondering is there any more details on what that’s about? Like was that ever elaborated on? Or was there more context to it? Was it because he thought men were too similar to Melkor? (I feel I read something like that somewhere?) And if it’s not really elaborated on at all, what’s your theories on why he did that and what’s your opinion of it? (Actually I’m curious about that either way, I enjoy reading your opinions and thoughts😅) anyways, thank you in advance!❤️

Why does Manwë Súlimo not talk to mortals? - Ainur Answers

Ah yes, that fun little tidbit. I took a while to hopefully dig everything up that I need to answer your questions, hope that's alright🖤

(Obligatory disclaimer, tldr and conclusion at the end.)

So I took the detail/claim that Manwë doesn't talk to mortals from this little poem (emphasis mine):

Will thou learn the lore / that was long secret of the Five that came / from a far country? One only returned. / Others never again under Men's dominion / Middle-earth shall seek until Dagor Dagorath / and the Doom cometh. How hast thou heard it: / the hidden counsel of the Lord of the West / in the land of Aman? The long roads are lost / that led thither, and to mortal Men / Manwë speaks not. From the West-that-was / a wind bore it to the sleeper's ear, / in the silences under night-shadow, / when news is brought from lands forgotten / and lost ages over seas of years / to the searching thought. Not all are forgotten / by the Elder King. Sauron he saw / at a slow menace ….

The poem is from Unfinished Tales, Part Four, II. The Istari (for those curious to read more, a PDF should be available for free online). As the title of this particular text hints, it mainly focuses on the Istari, both on them as a group and on Olórin/Gandalf in particular. This is also where you can find the outline of a mini story showing how Olórin was chosen as a member of the order by Manwë.

Furthermore, the text mentions that the "Faithful" of that time believed the wizard known as Gandalf may actually be Manwë himself, as a sort of final appearance before he withdraws to Taniquetil until the end days. While certainly a cool theory and material for a fun AU, we know this is incorrect and Gandalf's true identity is the Maia previously known as Olórin. As the text itself points out, it wouldn't make much sense for Manwë to send Eönwë to overthrow Melkor, but then try to stop Mairon himself.

(I could talk about all the info a bit more and might in the future, but I'm going to stick to the Manwë-related questions for now.)

As for mortals sharing similarities with Melkor, you are correct, there is this line in the Silmarillion:

Yet the Elves believe that Men are often a grief to Manwë, who knows most of the mind of Ilúvatar; for it seems to the Elves that Men resemble Melkor most of all the Ainur, although he has ever feared and hated them, even those that served him.

While I think there is some truth to this statement, I would exercise caution here because even the narrator points out that this is a belief held by the Elves and not explicitly stated or confirmed by Manwë himself.

To tie this line and the one from the poem together, what I take from it is that Manwë doesn't understand mortals and is aware of that fact. As an immortal spirit, the mortal incarnate experience is foreign to him, and as a being incapable of comprehending evil, certain impulses and parts of the human nature are also strange and incomprehensible to him.

Let's put ourselves in Manwë's shoes for a moment and review what he's observed in regards to humanity over the ages.

So there were these short-lived, fragile, mortal humanoid creatures whose fëar are only guests in Arda and go beyond the circles of the world when they die. He wanted to help them, but didn't know how, so for the moment he hoped the Sun and Moon and Ulmo sending them messages through the water (yes, Manwë knew of this and supported it) would suffice. The mortals didn't understand those messages, but at least loved the waters and befriended Elves who taught them how to navigate life in Arda.

Eru spoke to the mortals as well, more directly even, which Manwë may or may not have been aware of, but then Melkor came along. He convinced the mortals to turn away from Eru, worship him as their God and commit evil deeds in his name, which resulted in Eru abandoning them and cursing them (Garden of Eden kind of narrative). Still, Ulmo continued to occasionally help out and kept telling everyone that "the Children are good, actually".

This turned out to be at least partially true when those mortals who freed themselves of Melkor's influence fought alongside Eönwë in the War of Wrath and Manwë (alongside the other Valar) granted them blessings, gave them Númenor and had Eönwë teach them for a time. Valinor continued to maintain friendly relations with Númenor until the Númenóreans started to become jealous and hostile. Things further escalated as Mairon came along and dragged them right back into Melkor worship. When Númenor attacked Valinor, the Valar - though most likely Manwë himself - appealed to Eru because he isn't allowed to harm the Children and doesn't want to, but had to protect his kingdom. Númenor was destroyed, and humanity once again disgraced.

This is roughly where Manwë is at by the time he chooses Olórin to join the Istari, and I believe this context puts everything into perspective. Manwë has now learned that even just his indirect interactions with humanity - through Eönwë and Ulmo - have in the end turned out badly and his mere presence in the distance/knowledge of him and his kingdom have caused much strife and evil to happen. Eru moving Valinor to a different dimension was probably also a more than clear hint.

Manwë still believes that mortals can be good. If he didn't he wouldn't have sent Olórin, disciple of Nienna, whose purpose and key ability is to inspire others to become better versions of themselves; he would have either sent no one at all or someone like Eönwë who quickly takes care of the problem and possibly destroys another landmass or two in the process. But Manwë believes in them and he wants to help, while also doing his best to avoid causing another "Númenor incident", so he chooses the subtle route of the Istari and otherwise stays where he is.

~

Tldr: Manwë doesn't communicate directly with mortals. This is most likely because he took a hint from the "Númenor incident" and Eru's will, but he still felt the need to help them and did it via the Istari mission. It's not done out of malice or arrogance.

Now, I want to be very clear and add the obligatory disclaimer that I'm NOT trying to argue this is the one perfect solution and Manwë made no mistakes ever, that is never my intention with these posts. What I do think, however, is that looking at it from his perspective provides a whole different context to a simple statement like "Manwë doesn't talk to mortals" which on its own makes the entire situation sound way more antagonistic than it is. Furthermore, I personally would say that the conclusion he drew, while we may object to certain aspects of it depending on our personal stances, isn't completely senseless or unreasonable. It does make sense.

[megabuild]

what is aoyuer? is that an acronym for something?

okay so i meant to make a big doc explaining what aoyuer is like months ago but then i started working on different projects and put it on the back burner.. and then i got ill and now i don't have much time to work on stuff at all. but not having the doc sucks and means anything i ever say about it is very confusing. so i'm so sorry anon for using your ask as an excuse to just dump as much aoyuer lore as i can without reasonably spoiling it but also thanks for reminding me that i have a lot of followers here who have never heard of it. a sobering thought

tldr; aoyuer (as of yet untitled empires rewrite) (sorry bree) is my au rewrite of empires smp that aims to connect seasons 1 and 2 as well as after life, new life, and a bunch more inbetween, with a major focus on pixlriffs' story. it also ties up a lot of loose ends and is generally darker and more adult-aimed than the original series. technically that's all you need to know but here's the no spoilers plot rundown for those interested

so aoyuer is built up of ~7 arcs but only 4 of them are like Super important

arc 0: this is just afterlife smp and a ton of early worldbuilding, the crash of the great stags, etc; what's most important from this is that oli exists and has for thousands of years, probably

arc 1: empires season 1! set in the 1500s, the world is going through a sort of renaissance period with massive technological advancements. pixlriffs the copper king (cprk) is working a boring little library job and spending most of his time kicking himself and being mad he hasn't done anything with his life (he is only like 30 but the idea of feeling old and unaccomplished even when you're young is a major theme for arc 1). enter fwhip! who is his annoying ex-roommate ex-bestie ex-boyfriend from university that left him on pretty bad terms. he has a way more accomplished job and as part of that he has been allowed to head The Empires Project which is a major journey intended to further some distant colonies while also investigating the land they're on. the land has some weiiird properties which fwhip thinks could be harnessed to create functional immortality (which was the subject of pix's thesis). he wants pix to come with him and investigate. pix feels weird about it but agrees to come along and be the "emperor" for the desert colony while he does his research... and then things get fucked up and scary! its a high fantasy that switches between a metaphorical dissection of their horrid will they won't they relationship and both of their issues aaand a more Literal dissection of the land and things living in it. including people and animals. at times. and also involves pix accidentally awakening a curse for a billion million years which sets the rest of aoyuer in motion.

arc 1.5 is sort of Not important but iwlike it a lot. there's not much to be said for it without major spoilers but it's set a little bit after arc 1 and comprises of fwhip being very upset about how his stupid project fell apart and trying to write up an Official Report on why everything fell apart while also coming to terms with him being the worst guy to ever have lived or something. much of aoyuer is like thinly veiled metaphors for mental illness but this one is just about mental illness

arc 2 sends us years forward into season 2 in the 1800s and our protagonist is professor pixelle riffs, lorekeeper (lrkp) who leaves his job as an archaeology lecturer to go and study the ancient capital and The Machiiine. because the machine set up WAY too much cool stuff to just ignore. sculk infection/possession is a big part of this arc. however while he's doing all this he meets oli! remember him? who has crash landed in S2 (basically the same way he did in canon) and is now regularly butting heads with pix. they eventually become friends and then umm something more :3 a lot of this remains the same as canon except the sculk arc gets a proper conclusion and ties into the ghost stuff. it ends with oli's finale where he still fakes his death (the goblin stuff is going to be changed but it's up in the air right now) and pix is devastated but pretty certain there's something not quite right so he picks greggory up and goes off in search of his lame ass boyfriend.

arc 2.5 actually takes place mid arc 2 because it's the hermpires crossover, which is less different dimensions and more different times (hermitcraft is our present and the rift facilitates time travel). when pixelle the archaeologist steps through the rift it causes serious time fuckery and so he sort of gets. forcefully ejected from his body and becomes a ghost possessing pixl riffs of the hermitcraft recap (rcp) who stumbles out of the rift very tired and very confused! there's a lot of fun mistaken identity stuff between him and oli and this is generally the most like. comedic and casual of the arcs though it still has some sweet moments.

arc 3 is just new life smp. where pixelle finally ends up in nl, finds that his lame ass boyfriend is still alive, and has relationship drama with him Except on top of that the land that new life is set on has similar properties to the land from arc 1 (functional immortality except it has some different effects, aka. going through drastic physical changes every time you "die") and so pixelle starts investigating that and maybe finds out that his whole life and his ancestors and descendants lives might be caught up in a time loop because of the copper king. forever and ever. this hasn't got much for it because i was going to work from new life canon as a base but then both pix and oli stopped playing on it LMFOHALDH but anyway.

aaand arc 4! final arc! which is set in the present right after pixl (the recap one) returns home from the hermitpires crossover. except the weird ghost voice of his ancestor in his head.. isn't going away? or rather its been replaced by a different one who is sending him on The Heros Journey. along with zloy and lyarrah and modern fwhip. this is basically the long awaited Conclusion to the curse that the copper king put in place and a lot of bullshit happens that icant really explain but it ties up all the loose ends and is generally just pix consistently having the worst time. hes the only pix who goes through hell without bringing it upon himself like he was just born.

and um. that's aoyuer! obviously there's more for all the arcs and i am happy to answer Basically any questions even though i get a little nervous sharing stuff about it because im shy. But iwhope thag explains at least a bit for everyone. My dream is to write this all into various fanfics but that looks kinda unlikely rn but it means a lot to me and you can kinda safely assume if I'm ever talking about or drawing empires there's a 99% chance it's actually aoyuer because I forget canon exists .AOYUER WORLDWIDE

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

What do you think of people hcing darkling as a girl dad? Do you see him be a father ever? Like if things with Alina had worked out do you think they would've had a child. For some reason it's very hard for me to imagine book darkling as a father, show darkling on the other hand definitely has dad energy.

Yeah my stance on this is:

I’ve talked about this a little bit before here and here, but tldr I think he’d be too wary of the threat and weakness any potential child would pose for him. A child can die, can be held hostage, can be a liability, can emotionally compromise him. He hates emotions! And also if they’re another immortal Grisha then they could very well be a future enemy that he’s created for himself.

Meanwhile imo, physically looking like he’s ambiguously just out of his teens for multiple centuries, and also being stuck with his mother— who very much treats him like a child— for all that time, emotionally defines him too strongly as a son. I don’t think it would even really occur to him to want to be a parent.

And yeah show!Darkling would be absolutely disgusting about wanting a sappy little nuclear family and the Ravkan equivalent of a white picket fence. But also I do not acknowledge him, he’s boring as fuck.

[nerice]

Hello hello on this fine day I want to ask what the seed in the seed arc stand for? A literal botanical seed? A seed more in a metaphorical way? A third more sinister thing?

lore ask anon i love u like the sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here are terrible answers bc it is for the most part the last option with a little of the former two mixed in !

for context the term usually turns up in the following situations > - seed arc (post lhnh travel arc for sky(+jack)) - seed kids (blood-related children of soulless. put a pin in this) - seed mode (their inevitable end) all of these are meta terms and not used in canon bc [seed] terminology goes back to outdated lore (pre-2015 moon system overhaul) where soulless immortality worked via "influence rules" essentially them being untethered from time meant the exact opposite where they'd fade away unless they anchored themselves into existence by influencing it. & it just so happened that everyone's least favourite oc of mine (hot minute since i last posted so yeah this is abt gray. yes we are skirting rabbit territory here. knife emoji locked and loaded) anwy his chosen method of influence accumulation was via "seeds of immortality" aka. lab-grow some landmine children and yeet them thru time portals so when they cause calamity all up and down reality it quadrubillions ur power.

now forget everything i just said bc this was pre black swan era where gray was a much more one-note machiavellian villain type guy. impossible that he used to be even more boring than he is now <3

anwy that's where the basic wording comes from, and in broad strokes it's still the same concept but the particulars have changed !! without getting into stupid soul birth rules the tldr is. after he accidentally gets stuck with a daughter, hold for [🐇], gray realizes that for the time he is linked to a mortal btwn incubation nd blossoming of a soul, it acts as a fairly reliable pain relief. nowhere near the levels of linnea's cold touch cure, but after losing her he has to make do, bandaid on a bullet wound etc. so he whores around a bunch and gets stuck with children he has no use for (hold for. 🐇) and disposes of them via time portal. the funniest thing is that he has no idea what happens to soulless halfbreeds after this.

what happens to soulless halfbreeds is this: any child of a mortal and a soulless will inevitably die when their moon blood eats thru their soul. for 99.9% of seed kids this happens around the time they come of age (20 yrs) with the one notable exception ofc being sky bc her birth mother was a descendant & having some of reina's spark in her translates to the bastard strength i am insane abt for the rest of my life, slightly more resistance to soulless blood (despite all the. 💉🐇🩹 yknow) so her total time wld have been at least a century, if not centuries, if she had not burned thru most of her soul to keep leah alive to see dream game. :) [i am exited from this line of thought]

INCOHERENT SORRY. wheres the road where's the point. this is a vry freeform answer my apologies OTL

it's not a botanical seed but it is very much a family lineage seed. soulless lineage, to the detriment of all involved. the main, named oc corners it touches are [ofc sky 💚] and also nashua in white crown. half-siblings the two of them, though never meet :3c & then there is ofc, seed arc; the terrible, terrible interlude. the decades after lhnh wherein sky grows into her own as she travels the world, and inevitably runs into children & young adults who carry a hint of night traces. who sometimes look a little too familiar. who are afflicted with an obstinate patch of bruises somewhere on their body, a condition she knows all too well. & who, without fail, die in agony the moment they reach adulthood. bc here is the last terrible detail,

seed kids don't simply die. they turn soulless for a short period of time when the invisible moon floods their body. congrats you have won a moon worth of pain !!!!! unspeakable agony in every nerve and cell !!! not quite soulless enough to bear it, but not quite mortal enough to die a quick death from it. some seed kids bloom into light illusion powers, some even unlock a little temporal distortion, but none of them are in a mental state where they can harness those abilities for anything more than extreme local destruction of everything and everyone around them before they burn out. so before long seed arc becomes about sky putting her unfortunate half-siblings out of their misery before they can hurt their own loved ones. killing children goes over so well for her psyche too <33

& ofc ofc. thanks to all of this. even way past adulthood as she is, sky knows she'll end up like all the others sooner or later. and given her unholy strength stat, she will cause [kyubei voice] unprecedented amounts of suffering. damage beyond belief with nobody short of a true ruler able to kill her. considering her overall resilience so far she might not even burn out naturally but continue to wreak havoc, turn into mindless killing machine. some might even call that modus 殺戮人形 >:)

[wellwrittenevilbitch]

Submitting Belial, from Granblue Fantasy!

He's an antagonist, fallen angel, described in game as "The Worst of the Worst". He's a pervert lustful man who only talks in innuendos and started about two apocalypses to get the attention of his creator, Lucilius, for whom he has romantic feelings for. He also got the angel he was created with, Lucifer, to be murdered so he could behead him, and use his corpses to sew Lucilius's head on it to bring him back to life. He also mentions an awful lot in front of Lucifer's (sort of) boyfriend, Sandalphon, that he has every intention to fuck that corpse (and also while blaming Sandalphon fully for the murder he himself orchestrated, by saying that Lucifer wouldn't have died if he wasn't trying to protect an unconscious Sandalphon). He also has a knack for manipulation, has infiltrated MC's dreams pretending to help them to try to mindcontrol them into killing their soulmates, or has pretended helping us by giving us a ship riddled with explosives. He does a lot of chaotic things just because things going well are boring to him. yet despite his long list of unredeemable crimes and the unredeemable evil nature of that guy, he comes from a very understandable place. As a fallen angel, he is a Primal Beasts, as per the game's lore, which means he's an immortal creature who was programmed with a purpose and an impulse to fulfill this purpose even if it's something he would develop to dislike. And while some primals can break free from their purposes, Belial always saw himself as limited by it, and he doesn't want to change that. He keeps that limitation because it is how his creator made him and he wants to honor his creator, whom he loves more than anything, so much. Yet his creator has always belittled him and insulted him, all while constantly praising Lucifer instead, which had Belial develop a huge inferiority complex and hatred for Lucifer despite Lucifer genuinely caring about him. Lucilius only ever replied with violence to Belial's affections which eventually is an explanation as to why Belial interprets violence as the ultimate showcase of love and sexuality -- yet when Lucilius is violent toward him, Belial tends to genuinely be taken aback for a minute before resigning himself to it. After Lucilius officially died and before Belial brought him back to life after getting Lucifer killed, Belial spent 2k years on the run laying low with mortals. In a rant near the end of his storyarc, where he pretends to kill himself, he mentions just how primal beasts are cursed by their immortality as it means they are doomed to never find anyone who would understand them, or if they do, they'd die eventually and leave them alone, which also justify why he cannot move on and keeps holding on to Lucilius. Belial showed affection to one angel otherwise, and it's Sariel, a primal beast who hated his purpose more than anything and just wanted to be left alone. For some reasons (likely, kinship?) Belial felt bad for Sariel's situation and eventually found a way out for him -- which resulted in Sariel becoming devoted to Belial. Not wanting Sariel to waste himself on someone like him, Belial pushed him away by tearing his wings apart and mocking him, only for us to learn afterward that by tearing his wings apart, Belial saved Sariel's life, and that nowadays Belial had been watching over Sariel silently to make sure he's okay.

tldr, All in all Belial comes off as rather tragic to me. He's been dealt bad cards from the start, and then he chooses to become even worse at every opportunity he could have had to become better. Any nice sides about him are buried through layers of self loathing and self destruction that destroys everyone around him at the same time. He has no intention to getting better because the euphoria he feels being able to love his creator is everything he needs in his life, and if he has to make himself worse for it, then so be it. And at this point he's too far gone anyway, he enjoys the chaos too much and made it too much of his personality for him to ever be able to reflect on his issues. He's fantastically written and there's even more i would read deeper into his character about, but i'm sticking to the facts to make my point for now.

In! Update:They were already in so you can submit another character if you want

[thedumestflower]

(DONT READ THIS ITS BAD)Boyfreinds webcomic criticism/rant

TLDR; boyfriends webtoon is lame and mid because its kinda icky and the writing sucks

Okay so yall hae heard about the boyfriends webtoon comic, and imma talk about why i personally dislike it

(DISCLAIMER: I MEAN NO HATE TO THIS WEBCOMIC OF ITS FANS, IF YOU LIKE IT , THAT VALID, IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, THATS ALSO VALID)

okay so the first main reason to why i dont like this webcomic is that, its well... icky,, niot exactly cringe (i mean yeah it is a little bit "cringe" but i think it just aged poorly, with it being made in early 2020) , but just, a little gross to me. Like the whole thing where the character nerd acts innocent but is actually a pervert, also the fact that hes 19 with the others are like, 20 and older, idk man just feels kind gross. also the fact that the charater goth keeps getting s3xualized even though hes asexual, with things like suggestive scenes to an actual fucking nsfw comic with him and nerd with, holy shit dude, the creator has stated hes a huge flirt but dosent like the s3x, but like, bro??????thats kinda gross to me to see a asexual character that keeps getting sexualized, and yeah asexual ppl can have the s3x but , it still rubs me the wrong way.

and the second reason i dont like this is because its fucking boring as sin to me. OK , ok , hear me out, webcomic being simply not my cup of tea isnt the only reason i think its mid, i also think the writing could be alot better, let me explain.

So the comic, the very beginning of the comic , it just starts out , literally with prep saying (im gonna be paraphrasing here for comedy but you get the pitcure) "omg im so over being single i want boyfren" and goth being like " haha, im gonna get boyfren befor you with my epic gamer rizz" and the nerd just fucking trips and falls, right infront of them, goth helps him up and they talk and make plans for shit. Now, notice how we get no fucking introduction? i mean, we get character cards for them but i think if you can do basic writing, and a simple, "oh im prep and im goth and we go 2 collage , and prep is singl and pathetic , but incredibly oblivious to goth crushing on him for like fuckn whatever years hes been doing this shit" ,like bro its that fucking simple, without setting up a basic background , we have no clue who these characters are and why we should care about them, we jut know that goth get bitches and prep doesn't(at the beginning of the series).

I also feel like more time should have been spent on the boys individual relationships BEFORE they become a official couple and not after , and to the comics credit, they kind do, but they fail to make me care because , again, no character introductions except for those character cards, witch don't really do much for the reader expect give us there name, age, and majors, witch also could have been told to us, along with more infromation about the character like, basic backstory and scene with a simple character introduction at the beginning.

Another problem within this problem is the characters themselves, you see, my problem is that they're stereotypes, witch, isn't bad, as long as its done well. But the creator doesn't do anything really interesting with them, no subversions of expectations , hell, its hard to even call them true to their original stereotypes, yeah prep is enough like a prep and sure i guess jock is enough like a jock, but goth isnt really even,, goth like, i mean character design wise, (im not a big fan of the gothy character stereotype where their just , edgey and shit) , i mean , if you go on Pinterest and type in "gothic aesthetic" you'd get somthing alot more like fancy suits and dresses and abandoned churches, not my immortal draco malfoy.(im sorry ill never make that joke ever again) . also the fact the nerd isnt even that much of a nerd, where the epic gamer shit, where the dnd handbooks, where the info dumping about your favorite obscure pieces of media? the most nerd shit that hes into is problem k-pop, or animal crossing, which, honestly to me, isnt really nerdy , . fucking hell, i mean jock isnt even a fucking himbo, like THE DUMB JOCK STERYOTYPE IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE THATS SUCH A MISSED OPPERTUNITY. So for me, either go big or go home

haha so yeah, thats why i dont like this webcomic, and my criticisms, if you agree with me, thats fine, if you dont agree with me and just want your silly brainrot pastel gays, thats also fine, i dont realy care if you like the webcomic or not.

But if you wish the boyfriends webcomic did something more interesting and cool with theyre characters and wish for a more "dramatic" story, with cool character designs and interesting and dynamics and also was made by someone who shouldn't really be making romance media and is not qualified to do this because they are aro ace but is really into shipping culture, well i do have an idea for a remake of it with all the things listed above, i might make a askblog for it teehee,

well thanks for reading and wasting your fuckn time on this earth

[lady-of-the-spirit]

What do you think would be the most interesting, like, Parent Trap style crossover for your OCs?

Ryoko and Joan! Two immortals with wildly different approaches to dealing with it and wildly different personalities.

Joan ends up paired with Ten (Ryoko's traveling companion/friend (it depends on who you ask)) as they just. try to figure out what the hell is going on. Joan knows magic as far as immortality goes. Ten knows magic as far as making gods and just general mild magic and stuff. But world traveling? Absolutely no experience. The benefit of her being in his world is that they can actually research magic further and find answers to their situation. As they do so, Joan gets to know Ten. She and Ten have similar enough personalities that it works pretty well. She's quiet, but once she gets through that and opens up, they're both sharing a lot about themselves because Ten makes it easy to talk to him. Ten is very eager to have a reason to infodump everything he knows about the history of their world to her, and learn about her own experiences in her own world. ("You were alone for centuries? Okay I think you and Ryoko would have a lot to talk about.")

Ryoko with the Old Guard would be... something. Once the situation is explained and it's agreed that she'll hang out with the Guard until it's fixed, she's a very noticeable presence in their space. Her awkwardness and normal stoic energy comes across as a deep dark glare and a tense vibe, and whether or not she means it to be it's kinda scary. Once they figure out that she's just awkward and quiet they approach her a little more like Nicky and Andy (both of them also awkward and/or quiet and a little intense about it). She and Andy will chat with each other about what it's like to be ancient and having seen it all, though. They're all swapping war stories with each other. Ryoko is going to be a bad influence on Nile and that's facts (Nicky does not approve, Booker and Andy (also bad influences) thinks it's hilarious). Someone teaches Ryoko how to use a modern day gun and she thinks it's a boring weapon and they all get into an argument about the pros/cons of guns vs older weaponry. ("It's too easy." "It's not easy, you have to think about so many different things as you're shooting and maintaining your gun!") She and Andy definitely get into a fight just to see who will win, and it comes to a draw.

tldr: Joan and Ten are chilling, having fun history conversations. Ryoko and the Old Guard are going back and forth between trauma-dumping and fighting each other for fun.

[mceefrankee]

Renfield Review.

A cacophony of horror that might be too much for some audiences but just enough for die hard Dracula fans

Renfield was good, it was basically the movie kick ass with dracula elements in it. I didn't watch any trailers so I was pleasantly surprised. I wish Nic Cage came out more but when he was on screen it was fangtastic lol He was definitely the right choice for the role. He brings all the eccentric and weirdo vibes an immortal blood sucker should have. Sexy and creepy, perfect casting. It's almost a shame because he completely overshadows everyone else. Nicholas hoult did a good job carrying the film, he definitely has that everyman energy who you wouldn't expect to fuck shit up. Reminiscent of films like kick ass, and upgrade, I actually got zombieland vibes from this. Similar humor and tone. I thought he fit the role well but I think any other British dude would've worked. Andrew Garfield would've been amazing at this actually. Awkafina, I love you girl but literally anyone could have been in this role too. She is spunky, she's got moxy, she's funny but shes just fine. Not a very memorable performance which is not really her fault, I didn't walk into this expecting any Oscar winning performances. Overall the acting was adequate, you won't get bored watching any of these guys I promise. Maybe I'm being a little dramatic but that's how I felt.

I feel like if this came out right after Kick-Ass it would've enjoyed a far greater audience and more people would be into the tone it has to offer. However, today I could see why this movie is a little polarizing. Some of the writing feels outdated, like that Jennifer Lawrence film that's coming out or that hangover 3 film but with women. A lot of people are gonna like it, like myself, but I think a lot of people might walk out feeling confused about what exactly this movie was trying to be. It's funny but not haha funny, it's scary but not heart attack scary. It has a romance but it doesn't compel me. It's an action film but it doesn't compete with the monster known as John Wick which is currently dominating the box office. Again, I liked this movie but it wants to do too much at once. A longer run time might have helped that but then you risk boring the audience. It's tricky, I feel it barely held together as it is and quite frankly can't think of too many ways to change this film, aside from more Dracula.

I thought an interesting idea was Dracula as a mob boss which barley gets explored but it was cool nonetheless. Very gorey, but it fit the tone. Renfield needed more development, I would've liked to see a bit more of his back story and more of him being a pathetic freak but it was fiiiinnnne. At 1 and a half hours I would've appreciated a longer run time, I was down for 2 hours of this but I can see why it was kept short. Very snappy pacing, very light hearted, the sentimental bits just didn't land at all lol but I understand that it just didn't fit the tone. Wonderful practical effects, CGI was ok, get ready for mortal Kombat levels of violence. Pretty cool cinematography, the colors and overall aesthetic, wardrobe, OMG I was in love, this is the kinda stuff I wanna draw. Neon lighting, fashionable clothing, the creepy production design. I don't want to say this film is all style and no substance. The story works fine, the heartless dracula gets a servant, the servant grows a heart, shenanigans ensue. It's serviceable, no glaring plot holes, i barley cared for the titular character or the main cast, Dracula really steals the show and that's forgivable, I mean it's Nicholas fucking Cage lol the rest of the performances are perfectly fiinnne.

TLDR: Renfield is an enjoyable movie, really cool fight scenes, humor that borders on immature and edgy, nice aesthetic if you're into goth stuff and neon lighting. Very violent. Not a very compelling character study but it is worth experiencing all the bloody horror on a big screen. If you're looking for a Dracula movie this will scratch the itch but simultaneously make you want to seek out other vampire flicks. I was left wanting more but considering this movie is named after the servant and not the dark lord himself, I suppose I was a little at fault for not tempering my expectations.

I would say check it out while it's in theaters if you like Dracula but definitely throw it on for this Halloween when it's available at home.

I know my followers aren't used to this kinda post, but fuck it we ball.

[jaskiersvalley]

Immortals

A @sugar-and-spice-witcher-bingo fill. Special shout out to @chubbykatsudon for bouncing ideas around.

Prompt: Meet Ugly Title (optional): Immortals Relationships (romantic/platonic/etc):  Geralt/Jaskier Rating:  M (for (not permanent) murder) Content Warnings: Murder attempts of immortal friends for the sake of entertainment. Summary: Sometimes living forever is just boring. There’s nothing to do except literally kill time.

Being an immortal was boring. The middle ages had been especially dull and Vesemir had encouraged them to play knights in shining armour. It had been fun at the time but, on reflection, it was probably just Vesemir trying to get his idiots out of his hair for a bit. Then humanity seemed to decide it had had enough of stagnating and began to invent things. Fun things. Like the toaster. Lambert picked up on of the first models and took it home with glee, presenting it to Eskel.

“New bath water heater,” he said.

All too trusting and happy, Eskel took it, deciding that taking a bath was exactly what he needed to do to relax. From the armchair Vesemir watched him go with a soft sigh and turned back to his knitting. Not half an hour later the lights in the house started flickering and there was a noise from the bathroom while Lambert cackled. As the fuses blew in the house, Vesemir gave Lambert a flat, unamused stare and continued to knit in the dark. Thankfully, Geralt was as dutiful as ever and turned the lights back on while Eskel emerged from the bathroom looking a little frazzled.

“Spicy water,” he announced and shook his head, spraying water from his hair in all directions. While Lambert cackled, Vesemir tutted.

It went on like that, new inventions and new ways to kill each other. Or rather, not kill each other because they just never died. Not even a stilling of the heart and no breathing, only to dramatically come back to life. That would have been fun at least. Alas, they just endured whatever time threw at them with as much or as little grace as they had.

It was rare to find someone like them but rumour had it that there was another. And he was having a grand old time with the modern phenomenon of global fame. Jaskier was irritating(ly pretty) if anyone asked Geralt. But nobody really wanted or needed his opinion so he stayed quiet. Another immortal friend was always a nice idea so they went to his concerts, listened to his music and reached out to get to know him. Their first meeting was looming, they’d been exchanging messages, chatting but not actually met in the flesh. Still, they all wanted to make a good impression so there was a lot of preparation going on to look their best.

“What’s that?” Geralt asked as Lambert and Eskel were leaning over a new contraption.

“It’s a new tanning device,” Eskel declared, pushing the microwave towards him. “You’re so pale, we figured you’d want to look a little more healthy when meeting Jaskier.”

Lambert’s smile held nothing but cheerful malice. “I accidentally broke it a bit. What you have to do is plug it in, put your head in the machine and push with a fork on the latch. Set the timer to how long you want to be in there toasting for.”

Suspicious but not knowing any better, Geralt did as told. Behind him the other two were snickering, probably because it was such a stupid machine. All it did was hum and whirr noisily while forcing Geralt into a strange position, bent over the kitchen counter with his head in the opening. Once the machine dinged, he pulled out and looked at the other two.

“Well?” There was no change and Geralt grumbled. “Useless machine. At least it hums more in tune that Jaskier.”

With that, he wandered off, feeling quite warm but otherwise no different to usual.

“At least he looked like an idiot,” Eskel sighed. “That will have to be consolation enough.”

For a first meeting, they had grand plans. It had been a while since they pranked Vesemir so the idea was slowly blossoming. To make sure Jaskier was the kind of person they’d want to maintain a friendship with (no matter how pretty he was), they decided to rope him into it too. It was a very simple plan involving some nuts, a revolving door and an umbrella. As long as Jaskier brought the umbrella and played along, they were going to be golden.

The big meeting was approaching. Vesemir had asked his idiots to be on best behaviour and extracted false promises from them. They were to meet in a bar with private booths, able to get to know each other in a neutral but not public setting. After all, wherever Jaskier went, he got mobbed by fans.

As they walked into the booth, Lambert grinned at the sight of the umbrella. This was going to be perfect. Filing in, they sat on the semi-circle of the bench. Geralt got ushered in next to Jaskier followed quickly by Lambert and Eskel. It left Vesemir on Jaskier’s other side which was just fine. Perfect even for the greatest prank. There was a bowl of peanuts on the table and, as introductions were being made (with Geralt being impressively lacking on the verboseness, too struck down by how much better Jaskier looked in real life), Vesemir munched away on a couple.

All chatter came to a sudden stop and Eskel swung his legs off Lambert’s lap when Vesemir choked on a peanut. That wasn’t part of the plan. The coughing wouldn’t stop and then the hand waving started so Jaskier thumped him on the back to no avail. Rather dramatically, Vesemir tried to get up and collapsed.

Lambert brayed with laughter. “How fucking undignified.”

They waited for Vesemir to pick himself up. Or even move. The longer he was on the floor unmoving, the more awkward the silence got.

“Get up old man,” Lambert huffed.

Eskel tried to be a bit more gentle. “Vesemir?”

There was no response. Eskel made a move to get up but Jaskier beat him to it, crouching by Vesemir. A hand on his pulse then a listen to his chest. Slowly, Jaskier looked up at the three.

“He’s dead.”

“He can’t be,” Geralt replied hoarsely. “We don’t die.”

“No pulse. No breathing. No response.” Jaskier gave Vesemir an experimental poke in the cheek. “Seems pretty dead to me.”

Eskel’s quiet “oh shit” was the start of the panicked rushing to Vesemir’s side and trying to rouse him. There were three very panicked adopted sons around him while Jaskier took a step back and watched.

“This can’t be!” Lambert’s protests were weak. “He can’t be dead.”

His eyes were tearing up a little as Eskel pulled Vesemir up and cradled the limp body against his chest. “Please wake up?”

Jaskier couldn’t help but think they were like children. However, Geralt sat back and he peered at Vesemir’s face.

“Um. Do the dead smile?”

That was all it took and Vesemir burst out into a roaring laugh doubled over. Each time he looked up, he started laughing again and Jaskier snickered along too.

“What?” Geralt looked dumbfounded.

It was Eskel who pursed his lips and looked between Jaskier and Vesemir. “I think we’ve been had. And we have a traitor in our midst.”

In two short steps Geralt had Jaskier pinned against the wall. “You two faced scoundrel. I bite my thumb at you!”

Delighted, Jaskier just grinned as Geralt carried on. “Damn you. Go out with me.”

Lambert wolf-whistled as Jaskier leaned in to kiss Geralt into silence.

“Welcome to the family.”

[mejomonster]

I just thought about writing a self insert (shocking I know) where xiaoge falls in love with the narrator despite the narrator being an ordinary Everyday person stand in, despite xiaoge being cool and mysterious and immortal and distant and on edge

And then I was like oh. Oh that's just dmbj book 1. That's just wu xie.

Wu xie is just the everyday man stand in who's kind of nice when pushed but also kind of selfish, wants adventure cause he's heard about it but has no practical experience and got a fairly ordinary college degree, who GETS to go on an adventure and like. After the experiences he does shape up into a much more specific kind of person that doesn't map to the Everyday person. But back in Book 1, drama 1, time raiders start etc, he's ur general ordinary kinda nice kinda bored college grad civilian with family problems who loves thrills but is not equipped to actually deal with them.

And xiaoge still fell in love with that so. (Ahshdj arguable that in rhe books it was slower, but I'd also argue by book 2 and the old man xiaoge thing, xiaoge reallt wanted to compliment him and befriend him and get close so book 1 experiences made an impression on xiaoge, although drama 1 its sped up and more obvious how much meeting wu xie made him curious of someone treating him normal and having faith in him and in awe of him and assuming the good in him etc). I would also argue early wu xie is very much npss insert almost, with npss old cool emo friend self insert who was supposed to map onto a girl love interest equivalent in Candle in the Tomb. So like wu xie/xiaoge that early (as a fanfic of candle in the tomb) were very much a ship idea, with wu xie as the writer self insert slash representation of the candle in the tomb main character slash a bit more individualized to Not be full on npss (which is why I think maybe writer npss named San Xing npss after his pen name instead of wu xie), which makes wu xie sort of the dmbj reader Representation to replace the candle in the tomb main character. Tldr wu xie was designed to be an ordinary person representation (at first) and to click with xiaoge (though in what capacity I'm unsure because some was probably just mapping to citt and eventually iron triangle was the direction npss took).

REAL tldr: if I wanted to write what I feel like writing lol it would just be a pingxie fic. Any scenario where not yet tomb raiders Wu Xie meets xiaoge, pretty much fulfills the setup I was interested in ToT which is xiaoge feeling oddly recognized by a regular person and connecting (which drama 1 sure liked playing with)

[oatsynalliums]

Arctic.

(TLDR; Geno caught dinner and reaper warned him of a war draft,which geno didnt take too kindly.)

It was cold,but that was to be expected so far up here.

It was around midday up in the arctic,which was just the right time for Reaper to drop in on his favourite immortal,knowing that the other would welcome him in.

The other at the moment was doing some hunting,blending in very well with the heavy blizzard as he wore exclusively white,the only thing giving him away amongst the snow was the scarlet red scarf that he always bore around his neck.

As he fired his last bullet,he hit his target and his dinner for the night,Reaper landed himself on the barrel of the gun that his favourite was using.

“Have you heard?”

“Have I heard what,Crow?”

“There is war raging farther down,They will be sending someone up to try to get us to join their fight,my friend”

The ivory male waved his gun,causing the other to fly off and back up into the air,putting his gun back on his waist line and on the hook on his belt and opening his coat to allow the crow to nestle against his side.

As he closed his coat he walked over to his now lifeless meal,he knelt down and made sure it was no longer breathing,before grabbing it by the antlers and dragging it back to his cabin,as of which the two have been sharing.

It took around 23 minutes for the ivory male to arrive back at the cabin with his catch of the day,setting the reindeer down to unlock the side house and get the lights on,going and setting up a hanging rack along with setting up some other things to help prepare their dinner.

Said male then drug the reindeer into the side house,sawing its limbs off along with stripping it of its hide before hanging it up on the rack,before going back into the main house and setting his now sleeping partner on the couch.

He went and hung up his coat and set his boots by the side door,once he was all ready to be in the house he walked back to the couch and sat down,looking over to admire the pearly blue tint on his partner's feathers.

—---

It was cold,but that was to be expected.

The natural sounds of the wind rushing and wolves howling could be heard as the rest of the night fell silent,the blizzard had grown more violent as the moon came out.

Reaper was now all properly nestled in bed,comfortably all tucked in with a warm blanket,the light having been dimmed and being all full up with dinner.

The ivory male watched his partner sleep from his once laying position,having sat up to put his boots back on.

After kissing his lover's forehead and closing the bedroom door,the male went and put his heavily insulated coat back on,buttoning and strapping it closed,grabbing an axe from near the fireplace.

Once he was ready,the ivory male headed back outside,walking wayward and into the messenger's path.

Once the messenger,a former dog monster,spotted the ivory male they hurried to meet up with him.

“Sir geno,y-’’,the dog monster didn't get to finish their sentence,nor even get halfway through talking,before the back end of genos axe smacked them back and onto the ground.

Geno moved in a shamble and stood over the monster he just knocked over.

“A little birdy told me….”,geno moved his axe back into a swinging position.

“That you are not welcome here.”,the ivory male swung his axe.

The ivory male blends in very well amongst the raging blizzard,the only thing giving him away was the glare from the metal of his now bloodied axe.

[junicai]

Aria at Award Shows

Iconic Outfits

2020 AAAs NCT Daesang Award  

Peoples’ jaws dropped when they saw Aria sidle up alongside the other 23 boys, strolling out like she owned the building. The heels gave her enough height to be nearly level with Renjun - something she wouldn’t let the boy forget - her hair dyed back to a natural black like it had been during NCT2020 promotions. It was rare that Aria didn’t look slightly apprehensive about stepping out onto a red carpet, but the confidence was rolling off her in waves. As she walked, the slit in the dress seemed to keep on going, trailing up her leg and changing the otherwise classy dress into something that left the innocent bystanders in the first row suffering from a high chance of a heart attack.

tldr; Aria’s hot and people are Noticing.

2019 Show Champion NCT 127 ‘Superhuman’ 

NCT’s second win with Superhuman left a huge divide in nctzens; a rift between those who were ot21 stans and ot22 stans (sans and plus Aria). Up until then, there had been rumors around whether Aria was to leave NCT now that there was a new girl group supposedly debuting under SM. Their management team had refrained from publishing a response - but that only lead fans to create their own speculations and theories. This outfit played perfectly into the growing rumor; with the large circular pendant on Aria’s bracelet having two chrysanthemums etched into the gold. The flower symbolized happy endings and goodbyes, with nctzens taking this as the proof that Aria was truly set to leave NCT in the coming months. 

tldr; nctzens need to learn how to Chill.

2017 M! Countdown NCT 127 ‘Cherry Bomb’

Unfortunately, this era was the cause of a lot of strife for Arizens; the stylists either hit it out of the park and Aria was drop dead stunning - or she ended up looking a little like a bratz doll a toddler had gotten their hands on. Unfortunately for Aria, their first win with ‘Cherry Bomb’ left pictures of her in a plastic, obviously dyed blue skirt and cherry pink hair to match immortalized on the internet forever. 

tldr; arizens hoped that her stylist got fired after this era. the plastic skirt wasn't the worst thing they'd done.

Other Iconic Outfits

Seating Arrangements

Depending on the venue, idols are normally sat on straight rows of chairs and benches, or at round tables. Given the choice, Aria would always prefer to sit at one of the tables, as not only does it give her a chance to not have to worry about her legs being seen while being covered by the tablecloth - if there is one - but it lets her keep everyone sitting near her in her direct line of vision. 

However, should she have to sit in one of the main rows, she’ll normally end up squished beside one of three boys - Donghyuck, Yuta and/or Renjun. Should one of those three be unaviliable, Doyoung and Jeno are usually quick enough to fill in the empty space. 

Donghyuck would always be her first choice, was it not for the boy’s incessant energy that sometimes left her nerves fried before their performance. Most days she adored the company - adored him and his efforts to get her mind off their impending songs with various games and ways to pass the time (they're not allowed play footsie anymore though, because Aria stomped on his foot with her heel once) - but other days she just needed someone to hold her hand and say nothing. That’s where Yuta and Renjun come in.

As Aria’s found out over the years, for all the man’s tactile affection and loud displays of love, Yuta’s highly perceptive to when she needs some silent comfort. Now, she’s not sure if he’s that perceptive to everyone or just her - but either way she’s not complaining. 

With Dream, Renjun is the one she’ll sit with and doodle on the white napkins that are laid out on the table for lord knows what reason. After being bored out of their minds for their first few award shows, Renjun had snuck two black ballpoint pens into the venue in the inside of his red suit jacket. The drawings had become somewhat a tradition, and the best doodle normally is uploaded to bubble shortly after the show has ended. 

All in all, Aria’s normally quite content to sit in the centre of the large group of boys - split over several rows or tables, boisterous and bubbly with energy. The only real downside to it all is the lack of blankets available to protect her modesty once she is seated. 

Most venues split the idols fairly evenly between the boy and girl groups - with blankets being allocated especially for the seating of girl groups. This meant, unfortunately, that when NCT files into their seats and sits down, there is rarely something in the close vicinity that Aria can borrow quickly without causing a fuss.

Sometimes she gets lucky - other female idols might spot her and are normally kind enough to hand over one of their cushions or blankets, content to share with their neighboring member. Occasionally though, Aria has no such luck and is left to either pull down her dress multiple times per minute to cover the prickly feeling over the tops of her legs when she felt like eyes were boring into her, or wait for some kind of break so she could go find a spare covering.

Aria supposed after the third time something like that had happened, her members were getting fed up with it all. 

At first it was their plan B: should some type of cover-up not be available in their immediate vicinity, Johnny or Lucas or Jaehyun - once, even Dejun - or another member who ran hot near-constantly would shrug off their jacket and fold it over Aria’s legs, pulling it up and then lifting her hands to place them in her lap to hold their jacket there. 

Eventually it became their plan A however, now commonplace for Aria to go looking for the member who was wearing multiple layers and who wouldn’t suffer from the loss of their outermost one.  

Iconic Moments 

Twitter: [180821] and people rly say nct doesn’t care abt aria :/

Red carpets were always something to dread, in Aria’s eyes.

The cameras flashing bright enough to blind you, and the knowledge that if she stumbled or - god forbid - fell it would be immortalized forever on Koreaboo’s newest blog post. 

However the worst bit, was always the footwear. High, stiletto heels that left her teetering around on nothing more than her tippy-toes, precariously balanced as she made her way up and down stairs, over carpet and tiled flooring alike. 

Aria was used to wearing heels, but the one’s she performed in were usually fitted with various types of ankle support and a thick heel to give her balance. Wobbling around on a heel the same width of a piece of uncooked spaghetti was not something she’d willingly choose. 

Not to mention the blisters. 

Designer shoes were gifted to the company on a regular basis - shipped over just in time for Aria to slip into the pair before stepping out of the van into the sea of bright flashes and reporters. It always seemed like designers were too pre-occupied with making a shoe look good rather than making them actually wearable. 

The first time Aria had been gifted a set of heels - early 2018 - she made the mistake of assuming that they would be in similar comfort as her performance heels. 

Two hours later and with a wad of bloody tissue stuffed into the back of them, Aria had learnt her lesson. 

From then on, it was commonplace for Aria to bandage her heels before she went out to shows - not quite as heavily as she normally would for a performance, but just enough to stop the skin splitting under the constant abrasion. 

She’d only been caught out badly once - but it was all caught on camera by a fan sitting close by, and spread over twitter like wildfire. 

Aria had limped her way back over to where NCT 127 was sitting, lips pressed together in a tight line and hands clenched in the tight material of the leather trousers she had been given to wear. The trousers stopped a few inches above her ankles, so the red mess of her heels was clearly visible as she hobbled over and sat down with a thud onto the seat. 

Donghyuck placed a hand on Aria’s shoulder, leaning in so that he could see her face behind the curtain of hair that she had let fall to hide her tear-filled eyes from him. 

“Riri?” Donghyuck whispered to her, thumb beginning to rub soothing circles into her arm. “Hey, Riri? What’s going on?” 

Aria only shook her head, gesturing to the pair of torturous heels on her feet.

Donghyuck inhaled sharply when he saw the blood trailing up her leg and soaking into the back of the heel. He turned to his side to elbow Doyoung, grabbing his attention.

“Hyung. Hyung.” He hissed, Doyoung turning around with an over-exaggerated sigh. 

“No, Hyuck, I told you I’m not going to-” Doyoung cut himself off upon seeing Aria’s pain-filled face. “Aria? What’s wrong? What’s happened?” 

Donghyuck slid off his seat onto the ground despite Aria’s protests that the floor wasn’t clean, get up, and explained what had happened to his hyung. Sliding her heel off as slowly as he could to not pull at the skin more, he muttered apologizes to Aria as she inhaled a shaky breath before exhaling it on a small, wet cry. 

“Hyung, did you bring anything for Taeyong-hyung’s shoulder that we could use?” 

“Yeah, yeah I did give me two seconds.” Doyoung bent into the small bag that he had tucked underneath the seat, pulling out a length of bandage that was stowed away in the outermost pocket. 

Donghyuck took it from Doyoung’s hands with a small ‘thank you’, moving to kneel back down in front of Aria and taking her ankle back into his lap.

“Hyuck, no I got it, c’mon the ground isn’t clean-” 

He silenced her with a look. Aria settled back into her chair - defeated - and Donghyuck wrapped the bandage around her heel as quickly but as painlessly as he could manage. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Twitter: [190323] HSHS ARIA IS A CARAT WE’VE WON LADIES N GENTS

Maybe Aria should have been paying more attention to the camera that was slowly panning around the idols, projecting their faces up onto a large screen beside the stage, but she was too engrossed in the current group’s performance. 

“그렇다고 네 맘이 작다는 게 아냐,” Swaying gently side to side and mouthing along to the lyrics, Aria was happy enough to smile along to the song and move her hands in a small mimickery of the choreography she’d taught herself off the group’s dance practice video she’d watched only a few dozen times. 

It wasn’t until Mark poked her in the side that Aria broke out from her own little bubble, twisting her head to look back at him and then up at the screen when he pointed. 

There, her face, staring back at her from the big screen was enough to make her mouth drop open a little bit and her eyes widen. She clapped a hand to her mouth before turning to hide her face in Jaehyun’s shoulder, shaking with embarassed laughter. 

Aria could hear Taeyong’s teasing laugh in return, before a hand came and ruffled the hair on top of her head, that she swatted away.

--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Twitter: [170911] lmao same aria

Aria knew she was there. 

She knew that she was sitting right there and that she was in one of those really skimpy dresses stylists loved to put girls in because apparently female idols don’t deserve modesty and Aria knew that she had a blanket for once and she should share it but oh my god.

It was Chungha.

Aria was going to pass out. 

Taking side glances every few seconds only confirmed the fact that Chungha was pulling down her dress to cover as much of her legs as possible, tucking her ankles together and underneath the seat.

Ok.

Ok, she could do this. 

Aria took a steeling breath, before shifting on her seat to face Chungha on more of a diagonal. She lifted her hand before lowering it slighly, looking away. 

Should she- no ok she’s doing this. 

Without giving herself time to talk herself out of it, Aria moved to rest her hand on Chungha’s arm. The older woman jerked slightly - startled - and Aria was quick to apologize. 

There was no audio in the video uploaded - the original poster having been too far away to capture much - but the two women talked for a moment before Chungha pointed to the blanket and then herself.

Aria nodded emphatically, and Chungha’s face crumpled into something fond, bowing her head in thanks before they unfolded the blanket another time and Chungha scooted an inch closer to Aria so they’d both fit. 

Chungha sent Aria another grateful smile before refocusing on the performances - apparently not noticing, or perhaps choosing not to comment on the rather obvious red tinge that the younger idol’s cheeks had taken on.

[wickedpact]

You can't just drop that "I read Forces Multiplied" bomb on us and not give a ten page written reaction.

[cracks knuckles] if u insist

nicky cant drive hc: destroyed. rip. also i loved how andy and nile stole those sports cars and were being badass and driving off the bridge & meanwhile joe and nicky were just absolutely vibing in the van

'heres the thing about power: people who have it think they deserve it' [shot of police car] i see u greg

5 whole panels being dedicated to booker not being able to unlock his door. booker not even seeing noriko sitting RIGHT THERE in the window at first. incredible

noriko being 24/7 horny was surprising. like wow all of the stuff i saw she did out of context was 100% equally horny in context as it was out of context. love that for her

i didnt think the 'andy + slavery' thing was handled as badly as everyone made it out to be when telling me about it. tho from the way it was talked about i had kind of figured the conflict between andy and nile re: slavery would be really racially charged (esp considering nile is a black american and would obvs have Thoughts on the subject in that regard) but like,, done in a cringey 'a-white-guy-obviously-wrote-it' kind of way? but it wasnt that. i mean. it makes sense that andy would be implicit in slavery through the years

i mean, like she says, is that not what people just did to each other in the aftermath of battles for thousands of years? and i really like how its pointed out that it was what she was raised with (in the beginning when you see her put shackles on that guy after the battle) but she also accepts responsibility for it and acknowledges that it was wrong and not just 'what people did'.

i like how from her expressions you can kind of tell baby andy knew it was off but she sets those feelings aside bc she felt angry. it explains how she felt but didnt make her out to be blameless in it. plus i mean. i dont know, the fact that andy was involved in a lot of morally shady stuff for 7000 years is not that wild for me. if you live that long youre just Going to be involved in some shit, and she didnt even have other immortals with her as positive community influences, she literally just did whatever the fuck she wanted for thousands of years

'i was worshipped as a god once' i mean, yeah no shit she wouldve been involved in some seriously fucked up stuff, gods were fucking scary back in the day

tldr it could use some polish but it wasnt that bad

tho everything people said about moose being boring was unfortunately a little true. sorry king i tried to be interested in you

joe and nicky writing verbal fanfiction about nile and moose was iconic. 'you seeing that?' 'i am definitely seeing that'

it was also extremely funny bc that was like 60% of their contribution to the whole comic, besides kidnapping copley. they came, they wrote some fanfic, they left. kings. at least in tog1 they had an excuse to be useless bc they got kidnapped

joe just found out his old friend who he thought was dead is alive (and also probably wants to murder them) and instead of investigating with andy he stopped to help nile up. champ.

nicky shooting noriko through andy was cool. rip to the concept since it wont happen in tog2

wanna see mr ejiofor deliver this line

on that note imo copley was. weirdly enough, more interesting in fm than in tog1. to me at least. the fact that andy let him live and he was so haunted by what had happened that he came back and sought them out despite knowing they would likely kill him for it bc he wanted to not only make up for what hed done but also to tell them what theyd done for the world was admittedly more interesting than andy just kind of drafting him to the cause and him going 'okie'

i like how nicky was drawn in this one. in opening fire he looks like a blob man but in fm he looks more like a very nice grampa with a very good dye job

'theres no pain like a broken heart' andy 🥺

noriko implying andy's never drowned. .. .idk about that one, she musta drowned sometime

joe and nicky came, they waxed poetic about nile's love life, they waxed poetic about grog, and then they left.

sports bras being a reason humanity is good. i mean..... okay, yeah.

i mean. wild but you cant exactly tell her shes wrong

i liked how noriko telling andy that their purpose is to make people suffer coincides with joe and nicky finding out that they actually did good all those years

joenicky in opening fire: jail for booker jail for booker for 100 years

joenicky when copley tells them he knows where booker is: WE'LL KILL YOU WHERE IS HE

joenicky when copley comes back: if your vibes come off as even remotely rancid we Will destroy you

joenicky 2 minutes later when copley helped them find booker: he made up some ground :)))) <3 lov you j cops

theyre forgiving af

moose: how old are you?? a hundred??? a thousand???

nile [vine voice]: I M 2 7 ?

alright andy you got me there

joe texts like my aunt

i dont know why noriko drowning andy in that car tickled me. Bad And Naughty Andromaches Get Put In The Pear Wiggler To Atone For Their Crimes.

the drowning sequence was cool

copley trying to talk to andy while she was like o_o at him was great

ive hit the picture limit but id seen that panel where nicky goes 'forgive me' as he kills a guy out of context and it was HILARIOUSLY anticlimactic for me to discover that there was literally no context to it. nicky just apologizes to random people he kills. i thought that guy was someone he knew or something. nope its just Some Guy that nicky didnt know from adam

nile's complaint that andy was especially brutal to the guys on the boat... i mean. . , how exactly does one kill a man with an axe and not be brutal about it?

it was funny how noriko kissed andy and the only people who seemed surprised by that were nile and also andy

nicky and joe's complete non-reaction to finding out noriko is alive And Evil Now is endlesly funny. they just left her on that boat and neither cared. i get book and nile not caring but joe and nicky knew her, and they just have 0 input on the subject of what to do with her

pinstripe suit guy!

joe and nicky and booker packing up and leaving with nile

andy blowing up at nile was A Moment tho

i dont know, i get why people didnt like the ending but its. .. . it makes more sense in the comicverse. bc the squad doesnt really. .. interact outside of jobs? i mean, think of the moon landing story in ttt. that was booker and joe and nicky doing a job and andy only showed up a for a couple minutes after it was done. or the brunch in the first issue of opening fire. the squad arent as tight in the comic, and andy often seems to do her own thing outside of work, so andy saying 'i dont want to do work anymore' and the squad being like 'alright bye then' makes more sense in this universe than the movie one

also i feel like greg was Trying to set up a thing where nile becomes the Leader of The Squad after andy dies but like. its not very well done since. . . i mean, nile hasnt spoken to booker since opening fire, (and she only knew him A Day). and shes known joe and nicky all that time, but there isnt really anything that indicates that they have any relationship at all, much less one that's grown. in all the comicverse the only time nile and nicky speak is in FM, and in that scene nicky tells nile about noriko. nile goes from someone who needs to be set aside to have background knowledge explained to her to being the Leader of the group with nothing in between. it kind of... comes out of nowhere.

on the other hand tho... i felt really bad for andy thru the whole thing. well, i always felt bad for andy, but in this one she seemed so miserable, especially since it really felt like none of the others actually.... cared about her. when noriko came back no one asked andy how she was doing (big question ik, but it wouldve showed they cared at least), nobody ever expressed any concern for her, no one even really seemed to want to be around her. in opening fire everyone was more distant than in the movie of course, but there were little moments where she would joke with joe, or nicky would try and comfort her, or stuff like that, but in FM it really felt like they just didnt really care about her. & in opening fire it felt a lot like andy's relationship with nile breathed some new life into her, but in FM it felt like all they did was argue. i get theyre not *as* close in the comics but it really felt like the only person who cared about andy at all was noriko (which was probably also how andy felt) but it just seemed to come out of nowhere. honestly i was reading and i was honestly agreeing with andy that she might just be better off if she did just die. opening fire, on the other hand, never make me feel that way

tho everyone made it sound like when the squad split up it was one of those cursed 'the found family leaves each other at the end of the journey' tropes. but guys i mean,,, this is the second installment out of three. that isnt the End. theyll come back in the third one and Dramatically Reunite to fight some baddies (probably those 'others' noriko mentioned). im guessing yitzhak fits into that too somehow.

anyways it wasnt That Bad but it made me kind of sad and the only Sweet Found Family vibes in it were when they saved booker. also they shouldve beefed up that nilemoose romance, it underwhelmed me. 6.5/10

i also ABSOLUTELY understand all of greg's comments about how you couldnt make FM directly into a movie, he always said that it had no plot and. i get it now. it really didnt have a plot sdfghjkl

[little-a-twilight-as-a-treat]

Volturi Sexuality

I was listening to an interview with Harvey Guillen from WWDITS and he was talking about how all the vampires in the show are some level of queer. The reasoning was something about having no more fear of what the world would think of them because they were powerful immortal vampires, and after being alive for hundreds of years they would explore queerness because immortality can be boring. (This wasn't the exact quote, if it sounds bad its my fault I promise)

This got me thinking about other Vamps, specifically Twilight vamps. More specifically the Volturi. I don't think the Volturi would be a bunch of uptight heterosexual monogamists. Do I believe they have a primary "mate"? Yes, I do. But tbh I think the volturi would realistically be all about pleasure, not limiting themselves, at least not in their own home. Perhaps they keep the facade to the vampire world, but being the ruler of all vampires I don't see why they would. I think there are orgies and lots of trading partners, three ways. Maybe its even cult like/Aro uses the sex as a power thing, being the leader? Also you can't tell me Carlisle didn't partake in this during his stay. This would also put them more at odds with the hetero/monogamist Cullen family.

TLDR: I think the Volturi are actually pretty queer and have orgies and do not limit their pleasure.

I myself am queer so please don't think this is trying to invalidate anyone's sexuality in any way.

[ontheblock]

Oh wow that's super interesting! Uhm, if you don't mind of course, i'd like to give my take on Boruto Oro? Listen at this point canon is practically ignoring him, the only times he comes back on screen is when Mitsuki has a problem, however from what I have watched Orochimaru went from being a major villain, to an antagonist to... "Hey, this guy is pretty much immortal now and too much trouble for us to deal with so let's just stay out of his business and they'll stay out of ours", i don't know how far you got into Boruto but in some episodes he appears in it seems they're still pretty powerful, i think you can still find clips on YouTube of him legit turning a woman into atoms without even moving (plus the fight he had afterwards were it's shown he can regenerate limbs), and in the novel they wrote about Mitsuki it's shown that's he's still not above using problematic methods to get what he wants (what with Oro erasing Mitsuki's memory everytime he made the choice he didn't want, even if the choice he wanted was for his son to be more 'independent' it's still a pretty suspicious course of action to take). So really, i think it's a case of bad writing and not really knowing what to do with their character anymore, they had something laid out with them, they're in domicile jail being constantly watched, but they're powerful enough to the point where you KNOW he could get out and he just doesn't want to, so really i don't know why Orochimaru isn't used as much as he used to anymore??? They have a perfect opportunity to have a morally gray character (not that he already wasn't) who would only work with others if there's something to gain, if there's personal benefit. Plus i think he looks classier for some reason, he doesn't look as much like a basement dweller anymore (even if that was sexy as fuck)

tldr he could be such a good character in boruto but the writers don't know what the fuck to do with him so it's better to just. stay in hc realm unfortunately 😩😩😭😭😭

i could open so many boruto rants bc i absolutely hate what they did to the franchise after shippuden. i always suspected a 2nd gen kind of thing but they really ruined it for me personally. but that’s a different rant lmao-

honestly, i don’t plan on ever fully watching boruto. i‘ve seen episodes, i‘ve seen separate scenes that interested me and i read about it and talk to fans to stay updated on the plot. i‘m not shitting on boruto, i just don’t enjoy the whole futuristics and i hate how they grew bored of their villains. i get it, orochimaru has been the og since naruto classic but they nerfed him so badly. yeah, he‘s stronger than ever and he‘s a better parent than sasuke and naruto to some degree (in my eyes at least) but they basically had a character with all the potential and just stopped?? it just seems sloppy to me. like he‘s been the villain for too long, get rid of him.

i also lowkey don’t like how they did kabuto. to me his whole character was about an identity crisis. as a spy he never got to be an individual and only took on identities. but ig it makes more sense than orochimaru‘s nerf lol.

at first i was like "so when is oro gonna betray the village again?" until i realised that’s not what they planned for him. i could even see him pull a kakuzu by stealing classified information and just fucking of, maybe being chased down by his son‘s, make it their own arc. ig we can only speculate how things could’ve gone if orochimaru stayed true to his twisted persona (as they literally stated in naruto lol) since they will leave oro in the category of "can destroy the whole village but had a change of heart and started being interested in humanity.. somehow" which is unfortunate. like you said, he‘s still willing to use unorthodox methods so he just chose this life in the village and even established otogakure again.

basically, boruto isn’t canon to me, shippuden‘s end is partially canon lol. i do really like his design in boruto tho <3 i prefer the og look but it’s pretty. i like that they kept the androgynous vibe. (you can also write better angst with pre 4th war oro hehehehe)