#with no rhyme or reason other than it's what moves the plot forward

[probablygayattorneys]

make me choose: Apollo justice or luke triton? (@chaterbox1237)

"You're a defense attorney. You're supposed to believe him even when he lies. That's what Daddy told me."

"I'm going to pretend you misheard him. Every time."

[that-ari-blogger]

Ascension (Whatever It Takes)

Let’s talk about active and reactive characters, and what that tells us about a given story.

Whatever It Takes sets up Vaggie and Carmilla as… foils? Parallels? Opposites? The series is open ended in this field, it gives us archetypes, and invites us to draw our own conclusions.

As such, these two are protectors, but the way they go about it is both similar and wildly different. It’s complicated.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (Hazbin Hotel, Castaway)

The difference between an active and a reactive character is in the name. An active character takes actions and pushes the plot forward to further their own goals, while a reactive character responds to others and acts in accordance with that.

For example, Zestial is a fundamentally reactive character. He responds to the floor shifting underneath him in the previous song with damage control.

He watched the person who is ostensibly closest to him get undermined, so he tries to pick her up. In that way, he’s a pretty decent friend. He offers aid when she’s feeling low, and whatever he gets out of it, the man’s primary goal here is to help.

“What weighs on your soul, old friend? I explore you to share the load.”

At this point, I feel the need to explain my bias towards this character. Zestial is one of my favourite individuals presented in Hazbin Hotel, and it’s not because he’s benevolent, or powerful, or composed. It’s not because of his design, or his writing. It’s because I am weak, and his voice is smoother than the ocean at night. I don’t have to explain myself further.

Zestial is also reacting to the power dynamic being presented by the Vees. They didn’t do any damage, but Velvette felt comfortable making threats, and was utterly unintimidated by Carmilla, so Zestial feels like he needs to start moving his pieces to counteract that.

“If it was thou who slew the angel, why not let your fear be known?”

Essentially, Zestial needs to get himself and his friend back on top, and back to being untouchable. He wants to go back to not having to act at all.

But a side note here, notice how the rhyming scheme in this section is slanted, that’s because rhyming wasn’t always a thing in English poetry. It was ported over from other languages as previous poetry conventions were focused on the musicality and other elements of the words.

It doesn’t map out exactly, rhyming grew to popularity during the medieval times, and judging by Zestial’s dialect, that’s where I’d put him historically. But it does convey a sense of age to his words that adds gravitas to what he is saying.

When Carmilla starts singing, the music itself backs off to a quet guitar. She’s being vulnerable, rather than all powerful, and that contrasts with Zestial to exacerbate their differences. Zestial’s oomph makes Carmilla seem smaller, and Carmilla’s pensiveness amplifies Zestial in return.

As an example of an active character, Charlie and Velvette are fundamentally active characters whose actions make up the majority of the plot. Charlie pursues her dream, makes bargains, offers forgiveness, and Velvette… well she has one song, but Carmilla and Zestial’s actions are in direct response to that song’s ambition.

However, here’s the kicker. In my opinion, there is no such thing as active and passive characters. It’s a gradient.

The classification exists for a reason, it helps audiences understand, but in practice, nobody exists only on one side of the equation. Being reactive is a biproduct of existing in relation to other stuff. Chuck Noland, from Castaway, despite being the only character on screen for most of the movie, reacts to his environment and to his situation like a human being. Even if a character chooses to ignore their surroundings, that’s still a reaction to something. The decision to do nothing is still a decision

On the other end of the spectrum, all characters are active, because otherwise they aren’t characters. Being active is simply the practice of doing things. In the first Ranger’s Apprentice book, Baron Arald and Sir Rodney are generally pretty reactive characters, but their choice to challenge the Kalkara is an active decision.

In that sense, Zestial is a character who leans towards reactivity, but is still motivated to take action when threatened.

For the sake of visualisation. I have a graph.

We can start by putting Zestial and Charlie on opposite ends and filling in from there. I would say Husk is pretty reactive as a character, usually acting in response to Angel or Alastor, while Velvette is active in terms of antagonism, but she reacts to the death of the angel. Vox responds to Alastor by taking action, Adam responds to the death of the angel with violence, etc. Eventually, our graph looks a bit like this:

Now, you may notice that there is a gap in the middle. Despite all appearances, I am analysing Whatever it Takes, so guess which two characters go there.

This was actually a pretty difficult choice, and it comes down to my grievances with this episode, and my critique of the show as a whole.

I laid this out in more detail in the previous post but suffice to say that Hazbin Hotel is too short, and that hinders episode three because the series doesn’t have enough time to capitalize on anything that is set up here.

Carmilla suffers enormously because of this, because the dynamic with Vaggie doesn’t go anywhere (other than Out For Love, but we will get there when we get there), and she doesn’t have much screen time beyond this, so we don’t really know where she sits on the scale.

The song that I have been dancing around sets up a place in the centre of the graph and makes them parallels because they fit in the same slot here, but then Carmilla isn’t in the rest of the series much, so she ends up falling further towards the reactive end of the scale.

The reactiveness itself isn't what I have an issue with, its the inconsistency.

Once again, I blame this on management not understanding their own product, but it’s important to understand how that has affected the end result.

So, the key metaphor established in this song is that of the keeper and armour. The protector and the guardian, and that is what sets up their place on the scale.

Armour isn’t a character, and even in terms of what it does, it’s not a particularly proactive item. You can’t hit someone with a helmet unless you really want to, and even then, it's going to be less effective than most of your other options. But what armour does do, is get in the way.

Armour interposes itself between you and danger, sacrificing its own wellbeing for yours. It’s a guardian, a protector.

Vaggie is positioning herself as a someone who will do whatever it takes to save those she cares about. She is the knight who will stand in the darkness and ward it off to protect the light. She is not a disgrace. She is vengeance. She is the night. She is... Batman!

I’m humanising an inanimate object here, because Vaggie is doing the complete opposite. For Vaggie, love is putting her partner above herself, to the point of self-sacrifice. It means that she is willing to let go of her will to live to get in the way of any danger coming towards Charlie. She is dehumanising herself and saying that her desires are forfeit for Charlie’s dream.

“I’ll be your armour, Do whatever it takes, I’ll make the mistakes I’ll spend my life being your partner”.

Now, Charlie has done absolutely nothing to persuade Vaggie of this. She has been supportive, if a little headstrong. Vaggie has reacted to Charlie putting herself in danger and decided that was how she was needed.

There is one scene that I’ve seen pointed to as Charlie re-enforcing Vaggie’s attempt at self-sacrifice, that being the training scene. But that’s just asking for help, that’s not manipulation, that’s shared responsibilities on a task. That’s teamwork.

Yes, Charlie is oblivious to this side of Vaggie’s motivation, but that’s because Vaggie hasn’t told her about it. Vaggie vents on an abandoned boat, alone, singing to herself. Charlie doesn't know that because Vaggie is convinced that if she is vulnerable, she won't be useful.

So, if it isn’t Charlie who told Vaggie that her individuality is worth sacrificing, I wonder who did. Maybe a military leader of some kind who values subservience above all else. Maybe someone who surrounds themselves with masks so that they don’t have to realise that people are individuals. I wonder who that points to.

Carmilla, meanwhile, positions herself as a keeper of secrets, a profession and a type of action she can take. She sets herself up as responding to news and stamping it out, taking action to hide things.

“I always thought that I would keep blood off my face, But when that thing attacked, I had to act To cross that line and keep them safe.”

I want to restate that Carmilla is a hypocrite. She makes weapons and is convinced that her wealth will protect her from the consequences. Or rather, she was a hypocrite.

It took an angel rocking up out of the blue and nearly killing one of Carmilla’s children to jumpstart her character development. Just like Zestial, she was bulletproof, except that she had people she cared about.

The angel made Carmilla think. Her wealth didn’t protect her, the weapons did nothing to stop the assailant, and the violent response to a violent problem only brought about more issues. There might be a war on the horizon within hell, and both sides will have weaponry given to them by Carmilla. If the war starts, both she and her daughter will be killed, and it doesn't matter which side by, they will die at the hands of weapons she made.

As a response, Carmilla takes action, trying to recover her safety by keeping the secret of her vulnerability. She’s still not a good character, but she’s had her security compromised, and that’s a start.

Which brings me to the parallel between Carmilla and Vaggie, and I think that it is limited, but important to note. Both are protector characters; both respond to danger and take action. But that serves to show their differences even more. Vaggie is self-sacrificial and openly vulnerable so that her ward doesn’t have to be, and Carmilla is closed off and defensive all the time.

This is reflected in their music. One of my favourite parts of Hazbin Hotel is the fact that whenever they sing duets or even chorus pieces, its never everyone singing the same set of notes in their own register. In this case Vaggie’s music is more floaty, and according to Musescore, in a different key to Carmilla, who is dynamic, but grounded.

Zestial's design strength comes back here. He has too many eyes and a mouth that's a weird shape. What expression is this? What emotion? Is he confused? Disappointed? What's going on? Having a manipulator character have a mask is good, but making their entire face an unreadable blank slate is even better.

But the difference is also conveyed by their actions. Carmilla is static while she explains herself to Zestial. She is focused on the people she is protecting and the person whom asking for help from.

Vaggie’s section doesn’t really show Charlie at all, except through the geography. Vaggie is constantly climbing when she sings, constantly rising, as if her love lifts her and brings her up from rock bottom. Even though she’s not dancing, the choreography is telling a story.

When the camera shows her face, she is always looking upwards. Charlie has given her hope.

Final Thoughts

Episode three’s problems aren’t its own fault. The episode is setting up elements that never arrived, and that causes it to feel bloated.

I actually like this song, although for a while I couldn’t articulate why. I like to listen to it, but as far as analysis went, I was at a loss. This post has taken me the longest that any has in a while. But I ended up with something, so I’m happy.

But, from the series’ weakest episode, to its strongest. Next week we start episode four, talking about Poison, and… oh boy that one’s going to be a lot.

Previous - Next

[historyhermann]

Webcomics Focus: "Not So Shoujo Love Story"

Not So Shoujo Love Story tells the story of a girl whose "perfect love story" is derailed when a popular girl confesses her love to her.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog, and Wayback Machine. This was the tenth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on October 27, 2021. Also, this post has been slightly changed from the original.

Curryuku's comedic Not So Shojo Love Story is the story of Rei Chan, a super fan of shoujo manga, who wants Hansum Ochinchin, a pretty boy in the Koko High School, to be her boyfriend. However, this goal becomes more distant when Hanna Schulerin, a girl who became popular due to so-called "dumb reasons," declares that she loves Rei, catching Rei off guard. As the story moves forward, she begins to figure out her feelings toward Hanna, while Hanna's feelings become that much more clear.

Rei begins by facing a set of bullies with rhyming names (Pam, Bam, Jam, and Ham), whom she attacks after they ruin her manga. Hanna tells her to stay away from Hansum, but when Rei tells Hanna she is pretty, it sets in motion a series of events which disrupt Rei's objective. And her "love story" becomes something entirely different than what she had imagined, and continues to face challenges along the way.

Meanwhile, Hanna, who is junior council president of the student council committee, struggles with her popularity, something she want so escape, trying to figure out how to have a health relationship with people, and Hansum has a secret which no one expects.

Hanna hugs Rei in the first episode

Not So Shoujo Love Story has compelling characters and storytelling. It pulled me in from the beginning and has kept me engaged throughout! There's Susan, a friend of Hanna and "rival" to Rei in terms of affection toward Hanna, who Rei labels "Hanna Dumbass" in her phone, and the dads of Rei and Hanna. The love stories of Hanna and Rei merge into one, whether Rei likes it or not, with Rei remembering back to when she met Hansum and was smitten with him after he called her hair style "pretty," but is heartbroken when he doesn't remember their first meeting.

At first, Rei is skeptical of Hanna calling her a "normie" and even wants time apart from her after the bullies try and pull them both apart. But, as the plot continues, she comes around to her and changes as a person. There's even funny anime references, like characters holding bread in their mouths, and the heroine tropes in manga.

The webcomic, which has more than 59 episodes and hundreds of thousands of subscribers, is written and illustrated by Curryuku. Aria Villafranca edits the webcomic, while Elliot and Alza also assist. Not So Shoujo Love Story is a reboot, as the original was on WebToon Canvas for 33 episodes. Curryuku, known as Curry for short, is a freelance artist and illustration who enjoys drawing yuri / girl's love stories such as this webcomic. I hope she continues to draw and create in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead!

Not So Shoujo Love Story reminds me of the beautiful animation and art in Kageki Shoujo! or the scenes in Cardcaptor Sakura, both of which are just as colorful and full of life as this webcomic. There is even a whole episode where Rei imagines herself as her dog, Taro, making me think of the episode of Cardcaptor Sakura where Sakura is shrunk down to small size, having to face insects and other animals which are "monsters," or another where she is trapped in a world resembling Alice in Wonderland.

Hanna tells Rei she likes her in the third episode

Not So Shoujo Love Story is available to read on WebToon as a WebToon Original.

You can find Curryuku on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, and Soundcloud. The webcomic can be supported on Patreon.

© 2021-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[villains4hire]

is there a muse that you wish gets more attention? / which muse is the trickiest to get into character for? / which muse is the most fun to write for?

//Hm, as much as I love Ash for most conditions and is highly sought out? I wish she got more open ships (For Void Verse, not 'Always Been You') like my other characters, especially Vaggie who got a lot/approached for out the gate- someone with a similar body-type if not less thick than her then sharing traits of 'why' people like Vaggie? I guess it hits a little close to home, as I was in a similar mental state of being child-like for various reasons/or how and why but I won't get into personal baggage, but in the past half decade? More or less became better adjusted and mature, so I can't really blame people either for not even wanting to ship with her future variant when she's better, as it's not, something commonly seen? So I don't take it personally, even if it stings a little at times for a few reasons I've gotten. As it's mostly just bc of how weird they got with her in canon rather than me writing her how she should've been probably going that route. As I want to be open of how they handled Ash rather than hide it, etc, as more probably would be willing then? I can't in good mind do that tho.

//Then maybe just Zeena I want to give more attention for anyone recent.

-

//I would say the trickiest to get into character for is the lack of character for the following: Vaggie, Stella, Grunty. Why? Because they have no real characterization other than surface personalities. Then Grunty more or less is an overpowered character that rhymes and can't really make friends that easily, let alone have interactions not confined to plots, schemes and then traversing her worlds or just silliness. Anything I have trouble with is pretty much moving forward while trying to maintain some sort of energy, image for a canon character. An oc is easy, a canon character with little to nothing on them is not, esp if you want to keep a certain energy to them when characterizing them.

As Ash for example, you could probably question why I'm so lax with altering her/adding things to her? Well, Olan intended for there to be more animal aliens and her race was clearly lizard/snake ppl things fed to a giant snake god creature, then Fox's race was intended to a dog alien race. Then the potential for her Invictus, personality, proper motivations stated and the fact that Olan was more or less held by the neck? Ash while not as characterized, has so much in canon or what could be implied/done for a backstory/recharacterization that maintains her feeling to work with rather than me just creating canon that matches the themes, universe, humor or comedic feeling such as with Vaggie or Stella, to whom I get compliments on for both p frequently, but Vaggie has been someone I've had to try and really break in bc of that reason. She's a blank slate basically which will change, but for now yeah.

-

Then here's the following I have the most fun with: Ash, Betilla, Vaggie, Zeena, Chalice, Lapis, Madeline, Julie, and Scarlet. Hm, I wonder what's similar between all these characters other than Chalice being a literal cup? Short cute/hot bastard in some way or another or Gremlin or a combo of both at some point. Or a jackass milf, granted Betilla is both my most wicked but also most good character with the karmic personification thing.

[cryptidnearby]

Rewatching Naruto has me thinking a lot about how much I relate to Rock Lee. But first, there be triggering things under the cut. Don't mind me, I'm just being vulnerable on main again.

My boy is a physical bean, he's very in his body and it shows by his focus on his body throughout the series.

So when he gets injured at the Chunin exams, when he finds out that he is disabled and that his body is broken, his reaction feels so emotionally real to me.

I know the pacing for this show is trash (going back in time always disappoints) but they really took their time with Rock and how he processed what happened.

There are a lot of times I have to remind myself that these characters are just children, and Rock is among them, and he's facing a very adult decision that will inevitably decide the course his life takes.

It's reasonable to be scared of that.

I don't think I have any dreams that I'm willing to die for, but when my accident happened and disabled me, there was a lot that I wasn't prepared for. In fact, it took me a while to even accept that it happened, there was no rhyme or reason, I wasn't chosen and I wasn't being punished.

He also unpacks these feelings in the show. Grief is weird, and this show handles it in spades. It's not always the best example, but so much of how these characters cope with it is their own. It's toxic and messy and doesn't always make sense.

Losing your body is a good reason to mourn. I couldn't help but feel empathy for Rock when they told him he could never be a ninja because of what happened to his spine. I suppose that the goal of all the focus on these characters is to cause the viewer to empathize with them. The pain twists my heart in a way I wasn't prepared for.

To be fair, the episodes I'm on now are where he's facing the choice to have surgery. The procedure only has a 50/50 chance of success, the other 50 claims his life. I don't yet know what choice he makes but I have an idea that it's going to be the one that moves his plot forward.

I have more reasons to live than I do to die, so a 50/50 gamble isn't likely for me, but I know for others that choice isn't so simple. No amount of surgery will make me not disabled, but the one coming up is intended to at least make me feel better. I find myself reading stories from survivors and how much of an improvement it made in their lives and I want that. My surgery has a high rate of success, which makes that benefit worth it

I gave some thought to the hypothetical.

That if my surgery was the same as Rock's and had only a 50% chance of success, if the benefits would still outweigh the risks. How many nights could I go to bed afraid that I would die in my sleep before it was worth the coin flip? I've had a lot of surgeries in my life. I've been very lucky with anesthesia and very unlucky with abdominal procedures. My body makes a very aggressive version of peritonitis. Very rarely have I gone to the hospital and being kept overnight for observation turns into 60 miserable days of tubes in my nose and hanging off of my torso to drain the infection.

I told my surgeon I regretted that he saved my life and he said "Well it's too late for that now isn't it? You don't have another choice now, you have to get better." And over time, I did.

The process hurt. I had nurses who didn't believe I was triggered when I told them. I had people erasing my pronouns and my pain.

I sat on the edge of my bed screaming as the next person came in to shove a tube in my nose, when I asked them "What do we do if we can't get this to work?" they replied, "Then someone else comes in to try again." There was no end. Either it worked, or we tried again. The sensation is hard to describe.

So much about it all is hard to describe without it hurting someone else.

And here's Rock Lee, screaming to his teacher "Tell me what to do, please." Because he needs answers. Needs to not be the one responsible for this but something has to be responsible for it. Something to blame, someone to reap revenge on for doing this.

But there isn't. It just is and statistically, the longer someone lives, the more likely they are to become disabled.

Once again though I am at a loss for how to end this, so I'll leave with this simple sentiment: Pain has range.

[luffles424]

Lucidity (9)

☼ Pairing: BTS x reader (this chap is Namjoon x reader)

☼ Genre: vampire!BTS, succubus!reader, smut, fluff, angst

☼ Count: 6.3K

☼ Warnings: 18+, teasing, biting, minorish blood play (it’s a vampire fic so like, there’s some feeding), some dom/sub themes, unprotected, light choking, creampie, referenced kidnapping, captivity, implied attacks, minor character death (nothing in detail)

☼ Summary: You’ve spent years jumping from country to country, starting countless new lives. Crafting new lives is as easy as breathing for you, lies flowing easily and people are charmed with a simple bat of your eyes. When you meet a witch who offers the idea of opening a supernatural club, using your powers combined with hers to ensure safety to those who enter, you decide to join her in an adventure that is entirely new to you. But your new life in Seoul is drastically changed when you’re forced to face something you’ve spent centuries hiding from. But just because you might be running for your life again doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun along the way, right?

☼ a/n: Surprise~~ The truth is finally here! Hope you enjoy and that it was worth the wait! While the truth is out, there’s still a long way for everyone to go! And be sure to heed the warnings! This chapter is pretty heavy. My ask box is always open ~ 💙💙💙💙

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

You groan, stretching out on the silky bedding. The room is warm, summer light casting rays across the room where someone left the window cracked to keep you cool. You pause and listen for a moment, but there’s no sound of movement around the house signifying anyone else is home. Namjoon and Jaeho must have gone to the village for a while. 

You kick your leg out from beneath the sheet that covers you, hoping to cool yourself just slightly from the heat that settles over you. You sort of wish one of them was home right now, just for some company. You all had been working so much lately that you hadn’t seen much of them other than occasional meals. You can’t even remember the last time the three of you fell into bed together at night and woke up together. You’ve all been so busy lately. 

Sighing, you stretch out again and breath in deep to catch their scents. At least you have a small piece of them. You don’t think you’ll ever be able to repay Jaeho for all that he’s done for you. You’ll spend the rest of your life repaying him for the chance he took on you. You had been forcibly turned and abandoned with no knowledge of what you suddenly were. Your memories of the specific encounter have always been hazy. You just remember coming to and having the sudden, insatiable craving for sex. 

Jaeho took you in months after you were turned, when you were aimlessly roaming and feeding. There had been no rhyme or reason to what you did, you simply functioned off instinct, moving around through a confused, lustful haze. You don’t even know if you had killed anyone. At the time, you simply didn’t care. The changes had muddled your mind so much that you lost yourself for a while. Jaeho had found you in an alley about to drain someone completely. 

He taught you control, and in all honestly probably kept you from getting yourself killed too. You weren’t exactly subtle in your feeding, you at least knew that much. Sometimes, when you traveled with him later, you’d hear rumors from years ago. Of a woman or attacks or strange instances that sound eerily like you and your actions. It really would’ve only been a matter of time before someone caught wind, connected them, and hunted you down. He had done the same for Namjoon, you found out later. He’d been turned, either on accident or maliciously, and abandoned. Namjoon had held out for weeks, hunger slowly growing as he struggled against his new instincts to hurt those around him. Jaeho found him on the edge of going feral and helped him.

When they’d found you, they brought you back to the modest place the two had been staying at and you all had talked. He explained what they were, how he’d been around for a few centuries, the few years Namjoon had now been with him. He extended the same offer to you, to stay and learn control with others who knew the struggle of a never ending thirst. He knew some about your kind, enough to teach you about yourself and how to handle your new powers. It had been the first time you’d heard what you were, succubus. 

You would’ve assumed that once your powers were well and truly under control that the three of you would go your separate ways. Or at least that Jaeho would send you on your way, confident that you wouldn’t leave a trail of bodies behind you anymore. That maybe Jaeho only saw you as someone to help out before letting you go to feel better about himself. But a couple decades later and you’re still all together, closer than ever. The relationship developed slowly over the years. All three of you danced a little awkwardly around each other. Products of a time where monogamy was most well known and the concept of three people together and happy seemed so foreign to you all. 

One balmy night in Paris, when you’d come back from work, you found the two of them sprawled in just their underwear. All the windows were thrown open and a gentle breeze ruffled the curtains, casting shifting patterns of moonlight across their skin. And it struck you like a bolt of lightning in that moment, heart warmed by the sight that welcomed home. The sight that you were always so excited to come home to. A sight that you realized that you wanted to come home to forever.

“I love you.”

You had blurted it out. You don’t know if you had startled yourself more with the sudden admission or them. They both stared at you with wide eyes before exchanging a quick glance. Jaeho had tentatively, and nervously, something you had never seen from him before, asked who you were talking to. You would have thought it would’ve been hard to answer. Which one did you mean. But it was the easiest thing in the world to say as you looked from Jaeho to Namjoon and said ‘both.’

Their faces had remained nerve-wrackingly blank for long moments. Before Jaeho broke out into a wide relieved smile. 

“Oh thank god. I thought I would have to be the one to bring it up first.”

Namjoon’s shock and confusion lasted a little longer. First directed at you then towards Jaeho’s admission. Even without Namjoon’s answer, you felt giddy and excited. Both of you turned expectantly towards Namjoon, who seemed to flounder under the sudden attention. 

Jaeho was quick to intercede. “It’s okay if you need time or don’t feel the same, Joonie.”

Namjoon blinked a few times before quickly shaking his head. “No, I- I’m just surprised. I promise. This is… amazing.”

His soft confession was enough to finally propel you forward, tugging him up and into a feverish kiss. One that Jaeho interrupted to steal a searing kiss of his own before planting the same on Namjoon. After, the three of you had fallen into bed together and haven’t separated since, with exception of occasional trips. But those never last long for any of you. You always end up missing the others too much to stay away for long. And for all the fun there is in the world, there’s nothing better than being in their arms. 

Maybe you should suggest a small vacation soon, you’re fairly certain there’s some anniversary coming up. And your small little plot of farmland will survive a few days without the three of you around. Long enough for a quick trip somewhere. You wish you could go back to Paris. But that would take too long to travel. It’d have to be somewhere a little closer. 

The rustling of grass filters in through the window, signaling someone’s approach. You think about getting up to greet them, but decide that you’d rather try to get them to join you in bed. You’ve missed them too much to let the opportunity to get to be close with them for a little while go. The door is opened and closed and you can hear them shuffling around beyond the partition. The movements are too soft to pick out who it is, but after a moment, Namjoon’s warm scent spreads through the house.

“Joonie…” you croon. 

There’s a pause and then a chuckle and the footsteps come closer. “Is there a particular reason you are still in bed and naked, love?”

You reach a hand out towards him. “In the hope that one of my beautiful men will decide to join me again. I miss you both.”

A smile tugs at his lips, cheeks dimpling. He tugs his hair free of it’s tie, silky strands falling to his shoulders as he gives them a quick ruffle. You know you’ve already won with that action, even if he’ll pretend to think about it. He’s not going to leave until you’re happy and satisfied. “Is that so?” 

The ties of his belt are undone and he lets his top fall open. Your eyes trace over the newly revealed skin, tongue darting out to lick your lips. His skin is more tan than you last remember, leaving him practically glowing golden in the sunlight.

“Have you been working outside without a shirt lately?” you murmur. 

He hums, shrugging the shirt from his shoulders and letting it pool on the ground at his feet. “There is a lot of work to do around here.”

“Are you saying I don’t do any work around here?”

He chuckles. “I think you do the most work, love.”

He hooks his thumbs in the waistband of his pants, tugging them down his legs and leaving him bare before you. You hungrily drink him in. Now that he’s able to stay out in the sunlight longer, his skin is finally starting to return to the golden of when you met, losing some of the paleness that came from his new sensitivity to sunlight. The years spent tending the fields around your little home has left him built, so much so that you're positive that even without the vampire strength that he’d be able to lift you easily. The idea makes you squirm.

Beckoning him once more, you slide the thin sheet from your body, shameless in your nudity before him. His gaze flickers across the expanse of your form before taking a step closer and stretching out beside you. Propping his head up on a hand, he uses his free hand to trace idle patterns along the soft skin of your stomach. His cool touch leaves goosebumps in their wake. 

“Well, love, now that you have me back in bed, what are your grand plans?”

Shifting onto your side, you press yourself closer until you’re pressed against him, finger tips ghosting up his arm. “I’m certain we can think of something to occupy ourselves with, Joonie.”

He chuckles, the sound deep and warm enough that you want to do nothing more than bask in it forever. His hand cups your cheek gently and you lean into the touch a moment before turning your head just enough to press a kiss to his palm. “You’re insatiable,” he murmurs, trying to sound like he’s reprimanding but his tone oozes nothing but fondness. 

Humming, you thread your fingers through his hair. “You don’t seem to particularly mind, though.”

“Brat,” he murmurs, before pressing his lips to yours. 

You smirk into the kiss though it’s short lived as Namjoon’s hand slides off your cheek to grip the back of your neck possessively, guiding you into a deeper kiss. Moaning when he nips your lip before slipping his tongue into your mouth, you feel your pussy clench at the sting and let your hands drift from his chest down to his half hard cock where it presses to your thigh. You wrap your hand around the already hefty girth even when he’s only half hard and you get a grunt in response. Giving him a few slow pumps, you revel in the feeling of him firming up in your grip, the physical proof of the effect you have on him. Decades later and you still love the feel of them hardening with just a few strokes. 

You could do that with anyone, but there’s something special about Namjoon and Jaeho. The bond you all share makes moments like these so much more than just sex or feeding. There’s a delight in the fact that time has left them just as in love with you as you still are with them. Love so deeply rooted that you don’t think it could ever be removed. 

Namjoon’s lips reverently trail along your jaw. “You’re in your head. All that work to get me here and you’re just going to imagine something else?” His tone is lighthearted and teasing as he ends his question with a nip to your neck. 

“There exists nothing I’d rather imagine than to be here with you. And oh,” you grin, looking pointedly to where you’re pressed together, “will you look at that. I’m right here with you.”

“I know someone who would perhaps have an objection to that.”

Leaning in, you steal a quick kiss. “It’s what he gets for leaving the bed.”

Namjoon chases your lips when you go to pull away. “Someone should do some real work around here.” 

He continues pressing forward once your lips reconnect, forcing you onto your back and he shifts to pin you to the bed with his hips, hard cock pressing delightfully against you. Grinding your hips up into his, you let your legs wrap around his waist to keep him close. His cock slides through your wet folds, creating the perfect rub of friction to your clit that makes your toes curl. 

“Joonie…” you whine as his lips trail down to your neck. 

“I don’t know if you’ve earned anything yet, love,” he coos, fangs grazing across your skin, a shock of adrenaline racing through you at the teasing promise of being bitten.

They’ve fed from you countless times, but time does nothing to lessen the excitement that comes from the promise of the pleasure that will course through your veins as they feed from you. The first time either of them had fed from you, Jaeho had you sat on Namjoon’s cock. And you had cum almost the second Jaeho’s fangs pierced the skin of your neck. The euphoria that flooded your body had been almost overwhelming and when you had come back to yourself, Namjoon had been squirming beneath you, whining to Jaeho about how tightly your pussy can clamped around him while Jaeho had fed. Jaeho had merely laughed before lifting you easily and helping you ride Namjoon until he came as well. Not that it took long after the way your pussy had been convulsing around him. Now you’ve grown a little addicted to the feeling of being fed from by them, especially when all three of you are together. 

Thrusting lazily against you, Namjoon pulls you back to the present, giving you only just enough pressure to your clit to leave you aching for more, squirming as much as you can with your hips pinned down by his. His teeth nip at your skin, the sting sending a jolt through your body, dragging a whine from your throat. 

“Please…”

Namjoon makes a thoughtful noise, though he seems far more preoccupied with your neck to truly be thinking about your pleas. You wonder when he last fed. It’s been a while since he’s fed from you, so you know that he must have gone out to feed from a human. But with the way all your schedules have been lately, you don’t know exactly when that was. The way he’s interested in your neck though says that it’s maybe been a while since he’s fed. Or, you think with a small thrill, maybe he has just missed feeding from you.  

You know you could easily overpower him. While in normal circumstances his strength far outweighs yours, this is your domain. And the lust slowly clouding the room means that it would be nothing to flip you both and simply take what you want. Something that he most certainly knows after being with you for so long. 

But there’s something to the surrender, the implicit trust you put in him. In each other. Namjoon lifts his head and his eyes shine with happiness. Ducking down, he presses a soft kiss to your lips. Then he presses a second kiss, far more urgent and needy. It consumes you as he grinds against you, thick cock rubbing perfectly against your aching clit.

You whine against his lips, drawing a deep chuckle from him. “Tell me what you want, love,” he murmurs.

You nip at his bottom lip with a small grin. “Just you.”

Fingers digging into your hips, he adjusts you slightly so his cock just presses against your entrance. “Who would’ve thought that the sex demon would be so soft, hm?”

Before you can retort, he pulls you in, cock sinking deliciously into you. You moan as he presses in fully to the hilt, letting you sit there full of him until you start squirming, wanting him to move.

He chuckles again. “So needy, love.”

His hips draw away, until just the tip remains before he thrusts back in. The force jostles you up the bed, pulling a gasp from you and he sets a slow, almost lazy rhythm. You sink into the feeling, reveling in the drag of his cock against your walls. There’s a level of care and calculation to his movements and anticipation builds in you as you wait for his next move, pleasure slowly building in your belly. His fangs drag teasingly against the thin skin of your pulse point and your pulse races at the promise of a bite. 

Teeth digging in gently, nowhere near hard enough to pierce your skin, you whine, trying to push up into the easy pressure against your throat. Namjoon’s hand finds your throat, fingers fitting right under your jaw and forcing your head back and fully exposing your throat to him. The hint of danger sends a thrill through your body and your pussy clenches around his cock. 

His tongue traces the path of your racing pulse until his lips bump his fingers. “So, so needy. And yet, you won’t just ask for what you want.” He tuts, plush lips pressing to your jaw above his fingers. “Tell me what you want or you won’t get it.”

You huff and his hand tightens marginally around your throat, cutting your theatrics off immediately. “Want you to feed. Haven’t had it in so long…”

His smile presses to your neck. “Only you would miss having a vampire drink from you, love.”

A breathy laugh leaves you. “Cause I know how good it feels. It’s so good.”

He hums, tongue laving over your pulse for a moment before his fangs are sinking into your flesh. There’s a split second of pain, twin points of burning that is washed away by euphoria as the venom sinks into your veins. Your limbs tingle and every place that his hands touch feels electric. Drinking deeply, his hips stutter to a stop, leaving you impaled on his cock as he feeds. 

In your distracted state, you don’t notice his fingers moving until they find your clit, circling the bundle with practiced ease. Pleasure burns through you, bright and hot as his fingers move and your hips move in an attempt to get more sensation, to get him to fuck you hard and fast and add even more pleasure for the greedy, hungry pit of lust growing within you. 

He pulls away slightly, dark eyes staring at the bite before he’s diving back down to lick up the blood that oozes from the wounds. His hips twitch and you know that’s he’s just barely holding onto his restraint. You sink your fingers into his soft hair, tugging the long strands and pulling a growl from deep in his chest. 

“Fuck me. Joonie, please…”

Everything freezes for a moment and then Namjoon jerks into motion, thrusts picking up pace rapidly, almost frenzied as his lips find yours for a messy, uncoordinated kiss. He fucks you hard and fast, desperate in a way you both need. You’ve missed them both so much. 

Pleasure builds quickly in your belly and you let it crest with a sigh. Shuddering, your pussy clenches around his cock as you cum, venom heighting all sensation to the point that you feel high. Namjoon’s hips stutter slightly from the sudden clench. A handful of thrusts later, just as you start to tip into oversensitivity, he cums with a groan, leaving you sated and full.

His forehead rests against your shoulder for a moment before he pulls out and flops down beside you, pulling you close to cuddle. 

“Love you…” he murmurs, lips brushing your skin.

Letting your fingers comb through his hair, you hum with happiness. There’s nowhere you’d rather be. “Love you too.”

Namjoon can hear the pacing before he even enters the house. Opening the door reveals the same thing he’s come home to for the past three days, Jaeho pacing around the small common space, completely lost in thought. He wonders if Jaeho even attended to his chores today, or if he’s been here since this morning when Namjoon left. He had at least managed to get Jaeho to sleep a little, if a little fitfully. Being wrapped up in Namjoon’s arms had seemed to help at least a little bit. 

“Jae,” he calls softly.

There’s no response initially, Jaeho looking up a handful of seconds after Namjoon has said his name, like there’s a delay in processing what’s happening around him. Worry creases his face and Namjoon steps forward to wrap his arms around the other. 

“She’ll be back. You know she always comes back,” he murmurs soothingly. He’s said it more times than he can count in the last three days. Namjoon doesn’t want to think about how he’s saying it as much to reassure Jaeho as he is to reassure himself.

The conversation the two of you had before he returned to work two weeks ago plays on a never ending loop. Wondering if there’s some hidden meaning or clue that he missed. He’d asked what your plans were for the rest of the day and you detailed that you were hungry and that there had been a werewolf that had been coming into the tea house and seemed interested. So you were going to flirt a little and see where it led. 

 Namjoon had never imagined that he would be here. Laying in bed, idly tracing patterns on his partners skin as she detailed her plans to go sleep with someone else. He would expect jealousy, or maybe even anger. And the jealousy had certainly been there in the beginning. But Jaeho and you had never ending patience with him. Helped him talk through his emotions and get to where he is now. Because he knows there’s nothing to be jealous of. That while you flit off every so often to sleep with some people and feed, that at the end of the day, you’ll always end up back here with them. Because it’s them that you love and they’re home. 

There’s nothing in Namjoon’s recollection of the conversation that reveals any hidden meaning or agenda. You had talked as if you’d be back within a day at most, like you were just heading out for a quick bite to eat and then you’d be back. 

Namjoon tries to bury the worry that bubbles up that maybe he missed something or that something’s happened. Jaeho is worrying more than enough for both of them right now and at least one of them needs to remain strong and level-headed. 

Chewing his lip for a moment, Jaeho thinks his words over carefully. “I know that. But she never disappears without telling us for more than a couple of days. It’s already been almost two weeks. She would’ve told us if she was going for a while.”

Humming, Namjoon gives him another squeeze. That was another thing he was trying to not think about. Had you told him that you’d be away for a while and he just didn’t remember and now Jaeho was worrying for nothing? But if he told Jaeho that you had said that when you didn’t and you really were in trouble? Namjoon doesn’t know if he’d be able to live with that. “You know how werewolves are. She probably just got caught up and forgot. She hasn’t been with one in a while. They’re a lot and she can feed from them a lot. Probably just drinking her fill.”

Jaeho sighs, sagging slightly in Namjoon’s arms. The words seem to sooth him, at least for the moment and that’s the best that Namjoon can ask for right now. “I guess… I just don’t have a good feeling about this.”

Namjoon presses a kiss to his head. “Don’t worry. She loves us both. She’ll be back before we know it.” Pulling away, Namjoon gives him a reassuring smile, gently tugging him back towards the bed. “In the meantime, I know just how to help you relax.”

You don’t know how long you’ve been here. Time has blurred into a long stretch of aching hunger, made more acute with every attempt you make to escape. None have been successful. You don’t even really know where you are. The last thing you fully remember is spending time with the werewolf you met at the tea house. You’d spent a couple of days with him, days full of fun and left you full and sated. You had been planning to go back to Jaeho and Namjoon the next morning. But someone clearly had other plans. 

Waking up in a dark, cold gray cellar had certainly been a surprise after falling asleep in bed warmed by a werewolf. As had the ache in your head and blood matted in your hair, though the blood certainly explained the headache. More surprising than just being in the cellar was finally taking notice of the bars separating you from a large portion of the cellar and confining you to one little corner. There’s nothing in the little cell with you. With no windows, there’s no way to tell how long you’ve been down here either or even what time it currently is. The cellar is sparsely filled too, a few boxes scattered around, but it seems abandoned. You’d tried yelling yourself hoarse the first few days after awakening, but either no one was around or the stone the cellar was built from kept your shouts from reaching anyone. 

Which has led to your current predicament. You know at least a few weeks have passed. The slowly growing hunger is proof enough of that. The growing hunger has also meant that you’ve slowly begun to lose yourself. You’ve been having moments where you’ve blacked out, where you know you’ve been conscious but you don’t recall a thing that happened. One time you came to, to find your hands slick with blood and the sting of cuts on your fingertips. After taking a moment to get your bearings again, you found blood on the bars where you assume you had tried to break your way out even if you don’t remember those actions. 

The length of time they last seems to be growing longer and you don’t know whether it comforts you to know that it will be over soon or feel guilt wrenching heartache that your last moments are here, alone and that Namjoon and Jaeho will never know what happened. 

As your periods of lucidity begin to lessen and you find yourself spending those brief moments as yourself thinking of Jaeho and Namjoon. You miss them so much. Want their comforting scents here with you, to fall asleep in their arms on soft bedding instead of being alone on a cold, stone floor. 

You wonder if they’re worried or looking for you. They knew you’d gone to meet someone, assuming Namjoon told Jaeho about your plans. Would they think something happened to you? Or would they just assume you had left for a while, even if you hadn’t told them that you planned to leave for a while. It’s something that you haven’t done since the beginning of your relationship. Back when you all were still figuring out how the three of you worked and you were a little more easily spooked by what you felt. And even back then, you never disappeared for long, always drawn back to them no matter what. 

It’s during one of these periods of consciousness that something changes. A door opens and you see a sliver of light, that given however long you’ve been in the dark, is nearly blinding for a moment, forcing your eyes to squeeze closed. Then someone descends the stairs, a lantern in one hand, casting a warm glow about the cellar that is still almost too bright considering the dark you've sat in until now. The scent hits you a moment after her appearance. Werewolf. 

Your stomach clenches painfully, hunger gnawing at you with the tease of possible food before you. You find yourself getting to your feet and approaching the bars without much thought, so fast that you stumble but you’re too focused to pay it any mind. In fact, you’re so focused that the bars startle you slightly when you bump into them.

The woman laughs cruelly when she sees that. “Forgot the bars again, whore?”

Again? Has she been down here before? Your mind reels, scraping together every brief memory from recently to see if you can recount someone coming down here. Your mind comes to only darkness. You suppose that it is possible that she came down before given the moments you’ve been losing. But that just becomes even more disconcerting because she’s been coming down here while you starve? While you’ve been struggling to get free? Fingers curling around the bars, you open your mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, throat rough from disuse. 

Clearing your throat, you try again. “Who…”

The woman scoffs and you have no idea if it’s because you’ve had this conversation before or if she just seemingly dislikes you that you addressing her directly is disgusting to her. “Are we really doing this whole thing again? How you seduce anyone when you’re this stupid, is beyond me.” The lantern is set on the ground as the woman takes a seat on a small stool set before the bars. “My name is Talia. I don’t think I need to tell you that I’m a werewolf.”

“Why…”

She laughs again. “Because you slept with my mate.”

Mate? You’ve only slept with one werewolf recently. And he was certainly unmated. No marks and no mating scent. Mated werewolves carried a certain scent, a slight undertone of their mates scent that is with them always. Is that who she means? You’d discussed other current partners while you were together and he hadn’t mentioned a mate. He mentioned a guy, a werewolf from another pack that he was interested in. Was debating whether he should court him or not. You had given him some advice and he seemed genuinely happy to receive it, glowing when you asked about the other werewolf and he began to gush about how they met. 

“What are you talking about?” you croak. Everything is confusing and that combined with your hunger is making your head throb, making it even harder to focus on the harsh words she spits at you.

Tutting, she shakes her head, like she’s chiding a child. “You spent all that time with him and you’ve forgotten him?”

“I… I don’t understand… I’ve only slept with one werewolf. And he wasn’t mated.”

“You know nothing of mates.” There’s a wildness in her eyes that has you shrinking away from the bars. With it comes the dawning realization that she is the reason you’re locked up down here. 

Tears gather in your eyes, frustration, anger, and grief almost so overwhelming that it feels like you’re choking. “Why are you doing this? Please, let me go.”

“That’s most certainly not going to happen. Not yet anyway. I have plans for you. You ruin my life, I ruin yours,” she cackles.

And then she’s picking up the lantern and leaving as you shout behind her. For her to stop, to let you go, for anyone to help you. The silence sets in as the cellar door is slammed shut behind, disturbed only by your broken sobs. 

“I’m going to find her.”

Namjoon looks up from the paper he’s going over, brow furrowed at Jaeho. “What?”

“It’s been a month, Joonie. I’m worried. I’m going to find her.” He adjusts a bag slung over his shoulder, face determined.

Namjoon starts to stand. “I’ll come with.”

Jaeho shakes his head. “No, someone should stay here. In case she comes back. Someone should be here for her. I’ll check in with you every couple of days.”

Namjoon nods reluctantly, moving closer to him. “Be safe,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to his lips. 

Three days later, Namjoon catches wind of a werewolf pack that’s going to take care of a feral vampire that’s attacking a nearby village. There’s only one other vampire in the area. Namjoon’s stomach sinks and he goes to the village without a second thought.

You blink, consciousness coming back to you slowly. You notice several things that don’t immediately fully process with you. First, you’re outside. It’s night, but the buildings around you are ablaze, casting everything in bright light. Second, you are, bizarrely, no longer starving, instead a hollow fullness settles in your bones. Almost more off putting than the hunger. Third, and this one takes the longest to register because it seems so unreal, Talia stands before you. And with a growing sense of dread as you fully take in the scene, holds a struggling Jaeho by the throat. 

You take a step closer and can see her grip tighten so you stop, going so far as to take a step back in the hopes that she loosens her grip on him. Jaeho thrashes and when you call out his name, all you get in response is a hiss. Is he… feral?

Flashes of memories hit you, things that make your stomach turn. It all seems like a nightmare. You have a vague awareness of completely losing yourself, Jaeho finding you. Or was he led to you? Of you… feeding from him as he fought to subdue you. When you look at your arms, you see scratches and bruises that confirm your memories to be true, that you attacked him. That you did this to him. Squeezing your eyes shut, you force the memories away before focusing on Talia again.

“Let him go.” Your voice breaks.

She gives you a cruel, condescending smile. “I don’t think so. There’s a feral vampire causing havoc, as the resident pack, we have to take care of it.”

Tears spill down your cheek as you shake your head. You have to fix this. It isn’t his fault. He just needs to feed a little and he’ll be fine. If she just gives him to you, then you can fix this. You both can go back to Namjoon and everything will be okay. “No no no. Please. Don’t do this. Give him to me. I can make him better. Please, this is just an accident.”

Humming thoughtfully for a moment, she makes eye contact with a grin. “No.”

Then she rips Jaeho’s throat out. You scream, dropping to your knees as he gurgles for a moment before slowly sinking to the ground. All you can focus on is the blood slowly seeping into the ground. You feel cold even with the heat of the blaze surrounding you. Talia drops the mess in her hand and glances behind her. 

Burying your face in your hands, you sob, feeling the loss of Jaeho tear through your chest as viscerally as a dagger. You ache. How are you going to tell Namjoon? There’s no way to explain this. Jaeho should’ve let you go after he taught you control. Maybe he shouldn’t even have bothered to stop you that night he found you. He should’ve just left you to hunters. 

This is all your fault.

You hear voices murmuring, one calm and collected and the other frantic, and when you finally manage to drag your gaze up what feels like an eternity later, you see Namjoon standing over Jaeho’s body, face twisted with anguish. Talia’s nowhere to be seen. He drops to his knees, hands hovering like if he doesn’t touch then it’s not real. Staggering to your feet, you cross the short distance, stopping just short of them when Namjoon’s head jerks up to meet you with a hard look. It’s enough to break your heart all over again.

“How could you do this?”

His words are ice and you have no idea how to respond. You have no answer. How could you, you haven’t even been conscious. Your lust clouded your judgement and now you’ve hurt the people you loved the most. “J-joonie-”

“Don’t call me that. You don’t get to call me that anymore. How could you do this? After everything he’s done for you?” His voice raises in pitch as tears begin to fall down his cheeks. “He did everything for you. For us. How could you?”

The silence after his shouting is deafening. It would almost be easier if he kept yelling. At least then you wouldn’t have to hear the way your thoughts swirl with ‘it’s your fault he’s dead.’ 

What are you supposed to say to him anyway? There’s no apology in the world that could ever bring Jaeho back. Namjoon’s right. Jaeho did everything for you. And now he’s dead.

“I’m sorry…” The words feel like ash on your tongue. Wholly inadequate but you have to say something. You and Namjoon can still continue on. You can bring Jaeho’s memory with you. You don’t all have to lose everything. 

Namjoon laughs bitterly. “You’re sorry?” He sounds incredulous and shakes his head. “Just leave. I can’t…” His breath stutters and his gaze drops to the ground. “Please just go. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

You want to argue. Bring up the idea that you don’t have to lose each other too. That Jaeho wouldn’t want you to separate just because he’s gone. But you have a feeling that he won’t be receptive to that. And as much as it pains you to leave them both. You don’t want to cause Namjoon more hurt than you already have. The kindest thing you can do now is simply honor his request. 

So you leave. Vowing to yourself that you’ll never let someone close again. You don’t think your heart could handle more loss. You bring nothing but pain to others.

[ducknotinarow]

[I WATCH AVENGERS ASSEMBLE FOR THE PLOT]

"Seventy years Captain!" Dracula exclaimed, keeping Steve pinned to the concrete floor, "I have waited seventy years to have you; do you really think I'm foolish enough to wait a moment longer?"

Course not; he's done his time. Barring his fang, he gives a soft hiss,

"Now hold still my Captain; I won't bite too hard."

| Muse interactions [Thats a bald-faced lie uwu] Some reunions from Steves's past were met with a lot of mixed emotions. Finding himself in a whole new world almost was bad enough and yet somehow a lot of his past seemed to have followed him or in the case of him and Dracula waited for him. But seem patience is not something a near-immortal being truly knew or well Drac at least didn't have an ounce of it when it came to Steve.

It felt like the full force of a semi had lunched itself right at Steve, with the force Dracula had nearly thrown himself at the soldier. Back met cold concrete knocked the air right out from him as his head lurched forward. Needing to expel the air right out of his lungs as he gasps harshly after. Left to lower his head back to the ground, Drac was refuse to move once they had Steve right where they deemed him to need to be. Taking all in Steve in the least set his hands flat and firmly against Drac's shoulders. Just enough to keep them back a little. "Seventy years Captain!"

Was all they soon yelled out to Steve, as they in turn kept Steve down on the ground, even if Steve struggled to try and get free the hold Drac had on him was clearly strong than Steve's struggle to break out of it. Even if it wasn't so much the intent Steve was having at the moment, in the least he needed them to just fucking calm down.

"For crying out loud Drac just wait for a second and-" "I have waited seventy years to have you; do you really think I'm foolish enough to wait a moment longer?"

Alright then seemed reason was not an option at the moment. Seeing how Drac wasn't even giving Steve a moment to speak to try and wind them down. He realized it had been a long time since he last likes them have a taste and sure those vampire cravings must be a pain and killer to handle and deal with. How was Steve meant to get back in touch with them though? It wasn't all that easy to get into thier so-called kingdom of eternal darkness as they may think after all. Eyes widen just a bit when seeing Drac bare his fangs at Steve a hiss escaping them, as they were winning out in thier struggle. He could feel Drac's body pressing down on to himself as they lowered further in to get close to his neck.

"Drac-" Steve tried to interject with

"Now hold still my Captain; I won't bite too hard."

Steve didn't buy that for one second he knew Drac clearly had hit their limit here and no matter what they were going to take what they wanted from Steve. Bodies press up against each other, the loud hissing from above him was all just drawing out any rhyme or reasons to the soldier's own mind. The grip on Drac's shoulders was slipping as they were nearly crushing down on Steve, bodies glued to one another.

"If you would just wait a bit more you could have me a bit more personally now would you just relax, it's not like I asked to frozen away for seventy years, unlike you running off and breaking an old alliance to work along with him."

Steve went on to say, now was maybe not the time to be picking this fight with Drac but it was why he was keeping this reunion from going how Drac maybe preferred it to go down. And in part Steve as well. If Steve had it his way this reunion would have been far nicer and less Drac trying to devour him as if they were mere seconds from dying sure. Gripping onto thier shoulders and gritting his teeth Steve leaned his head back and threw it forward slamming his forehead into Dracs. Recoiling from the pain a second as he struggles to open his eyes seeing nothing but stars. "if you would relax I might actually let you, idiot!" Steve slightly fixed them with a glare in turn "You act like you were the only one who was stuck waiting. I didn't plan to go down on the ice that day or leave you behind like I had. I didn't even think I'd make it out alive! much less get to see you again only to find out your off teaming up with skull now? the reason I was frozen away for all that time?!" but now was when Steve picked to have this fight. "So if you want so much as even a drop of blood you better start talking, kind of vampires or not I'm not letting you have a single taste till then got it?" though the threat may be a bit on the empty side considering thier current predicament.

Left to just stare at them fangs bared, and a clear hunger lying in thier red eyes. Hands let go of thier shoulders and were fast to take the sides of their face, yanking them down. Drac wanted blood, Steve wanted a fight but instead, he could feel teeth cut his lip as he captured Darculs mouth into a long-awaited kiss. It had been so long since he had this feeling against his own lips. Thier cold flesh messes with his warm ones. Even with the trickling of blood mixing into it thanks to someone going a tad early on thier own end. Finally letting it break once he found himself gasping for breath. He didn't let go of thier face though, simply held them there in place as he panted softly trying to catch his breath best he could.

"I'm still mad, but I've missed you Drac."

[honorable-wanderings]

Word of Honor - Episode 2 Part 1 - Stalking, but in like. A  sexy way

(Sorry! For some reason the “readmore” isn’t working right!)

WE JOIN OUR “HEROES”....

exactly where we left them.

ZZS looks confused, offended, and slightly intrigued by the new person added into Smash Bros.

Look at him. Tryin to be all cool. Make a good first impression.

----------

I’m not really sure what kind of a power move it is wrapping up her whip and pulling her closer in a chastising way in front of the man you have already decided to try to seduce but it is a power move none the less.

And it seems to be working! :o

----------

There’s more pouting in this show than I originally anticipated.

“A-Xiang, stop attacking random people on the street. At least wait until your martial arts don’t suck ass first.”

----------

And so the dance begins.

Look at that smirk. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

---------

Waste not your honored thanks on me, kind gentleman. I am but a lowly drunkard lying dirty and prone on the street. The error, therefore, must have been my own!

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

I got my eyes on you!!!!

To quote a kind young lady that I met quite recently. “I don’t give a FUCK”

----------

Oh wait, you’re still here?

----------

Best boy alert is going crazy!!!

We may have just met ChenLing, but I would die for him. That also seems to be the general consensus with the other characters as well.

----------

“It is dangerous outside the town walls, so I cannot allow a child like you to... ...A sword? My apologies, sir. It was wrong of me to treat you like a child. “

What? That’s not what he said?

----------

“Are you injured or ill?”

*looks into the camera like it’s the office*

----------

ZZS out here looking like a tragic renaissance painting.

“Young master can we go now? He smells D:”

“Sure just a sec! Let me just leave him my house keys!!”

“What??? Nooooo”

“What was that phrase I learned today? I don’t give a fuck?”

(On a side note I am trying to learn French atm and deadass almost wrote “fraise” instead of “phrase” even though it means “strawberry” and doesn’t have anything to do with the conversation at hand.)

----------

I came out here to enjoy the sun and some peace and quiet and some good alcohol. The peace and quiet is gone. And so is the sun. Now this dickwad’s saying I might be bad because I dress like shit? I was the nicest dressed royal assassin ever and now that I’m a hobo I’ve never been more upstanding! I haven’t even killed a single person in like a year and a half (other than myself).

At least I still have you, alcohol.

----------

Meanwhile back with these two,

A-Xiang is still mad that she lost a random fight she picked with someone who looked like a pushover.

More pouting ensues

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

“Get good”

Master KeXing reveals he knows more than he revealed to know previously when he was pretending not to know what he has now revealed he knows.

A-Xiang wants to know if he’s making shit up again.

-----------

The plot is driven forward by the playful rhyming chants of children. Honestly that’s top tier horror movie quality plot beat right there. Add a sense of foreboding to your story even though we’re still in ‘lighthearted silly time”

Good job!

----------

Zhou Zishu wonders, surely not for the last time, why everyone in the martial arts world can’t just calm the fuck down.

----------

ZZS then decides that after being accosted by random people on the street while he was snoozing and minding his own damn business that that seems like a lot of fun and decides to accost some random person on the street who was snoozing and minding their own business.

---------

Why doesn’t anyone ever believe that I’m fucking loaded? I’ve got like 2 years left and I’m gonna blow my life’s savings before I go muthafucka. You want 3 mace of silver for a half-mile boat ride? Done motherfucker did I stutter?

----------

“Hello. I’m totally not stalking you. :D”

----------

“You wanna ride my boat? ;)” he asks, shouting it across the river so that he could be heard. “What?” Zhou Zishu replies, not able to understand him over the babbling of the water.

“I said! Do! You! Want! To! Ride! My! Boat? Winky Face!”

“Did you just say “winky face??”

“Yeah I was worried you couldn’t see it from there!”

----------

Somehow today has turned out much more interesting than I had anticipatd

----------

“We’ll meet again if fated!”

“Challenge accepted”

----------

Yes I am only keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t fuck with my plans. And that is the only reason. Yes. that’s why I’m going to follow him. Just this. Only that. No other reason.

----------

This place is pretty! I think this would be a great place to die!

Hun, you still have a couple years. You can always come back to die here later but like chilling in a field of flowering trees for 2 years will kinda lose its novelty if you don’t do other things too.

----------

GIVE ME YO’ FUCKIN’ MONEY!!

----------

You said I’ve already ridden and dashed so what’s the point in my paying you now? Toodles!

-----------

This place is pretty but I love how people never walk anywhere. Like the trees would look prettier if you were in them you know.

----------

HOly fuck! Being rude as shit is so fun! How have I never tried this before? 

----------

Uh.. question: How did this get here? It’s clearly dry docked but it’s no where near the water. Why is it here???

Ah well. It’s free real estate

----------

WHY IS THE RUM GONE?

----------

Do I have “attack me” written on my face or something? For the love of fuck! I’m not drunk enough for this!

----------

“Meh”

“Meh? I think not good sir.”

----------

Would you believe that this wasn’t even rehearsed?

-----------

For someone who does not want people to see his chest, this is certainly a lot of chest exposed???

----------

Not sure that’s how fans work, but hell maybe I’ve just been using ‘em wrong all this time

Holy fuck is it heat seeking???

----------

Surprise!!!

-----------

Pff. Okay. Like I will ALWAYS love it when some not sharp object flies into something and sticks like it’s made of razor sharp blades. And I know TECHNICALLY it’s possible - what with a tornado being able to slam a single piece of straw through cinder block. But it will always make me smile.

(And while that is a smile at how ridiculous it is, it is with 100% legit affection and charm. I legit love it)

Just. “Thunk”

----------

Who is attacking me? Were they sent by the prince? Do they know who I am? Do I need to get serious?

Oh... It’s just that random guy again.

Well that’s okay then.

--------

I apologize for once again attacking you randomly and completely unprovoked in the middle of nowhere. My bad.

----------

“My footwork has godlike elegance huh? You shoulda seen me when I wasn’t dying.”

----------

I came here to check out dat ass again and I was not disappointed. ;)

----------

Don’t stand so- Don’t stand so- Don’t stand so close to me ♪

----------

“Why don’t we drink on my boat?“ “I don’t want to sleep with you!“ “Yet ;)”

----------

Why the fuck are you following me? Just say what you want from me already!

Bitch you invited me

-------

“He’s so good at kissing ass”

Oh just you wait.

--------

Still gonna stalk you btw! ♥♥♥

[shini--chan]

Allies or axis who are having (feeling and) war against the country (reader) . During the fight they hurt the reader and finding out that she is a Girl! How would they react because they thought that she was a he for years?

Yandere Axis

Germany

Inwardly, Ludwig would scowl the moment he’d discover that morsel of information. Outwardly, he’d only show the slightest sign of shock. It would mean he’d have to redesign all of those thorough plans he had for you, not to mention completely restyle the room he’d want to share for you.

It would be such a shame to him that he would have only found out about your actual identity hours after he had injured you, thank to one of his loyal spies that would have infiltrated your army and be prowling around your encampments. In hindsight, it would have been far more lucrative to double his efforts to capture you. Because now, with you wounded, he wouldn’t have chance to see you again in a long time.

Germany would ingrain in his men not to go around carelessly butchering and raping women and keep a closer eye on them to prevent such barbarities more than before. While the chance would be slim that you’d somehow be abused by his men, Ludwig wouldn’t be taking any risks. You are his, even if you wouldn’t accept the roll as of the present. This war would just be a means of teaching you a few valuable lessons.

Japan

The moment Kiku would make the deciding move to uncover the truth about you would be followed by a few instances of stupor. In order to escape, you’d have to use this very narrow window of time to scamper off. Although, in the long run there wouldn’t be much difference no matter what pathway you’d choose. The sadistic grin on his face that would inevitably follow would be just as chilling from a distance as it would be up close.

Your story would remind him of his own legends of women stepping on the battlefield to fight for their domain. Mentally, he would find himself comparing them to you. History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. Would your courage measure up to Tomoe Gozen? Would you turn out to just as brazen as Hangaku Gozen? Japan would all the keener on testing your limits.

Although he might elect other tactics to capture you. Seeing that you’d disguised yourself as a woman, it would mean that your own forces would most likely be unaware of your identity. Japan would ensure that your secret would reach people outside of your circle of confidents. After a humiliating process of examining you to check on the enemy’s claims, you’d be dishonourably discharged. Whether it would be because you’re a woman or because you’d lied your way into the army, the result would be the same. It would end in you being found be Japan, ready to sweep you away in your moment of weakness.

Prussia

Like his brother, Gilbert would have the truth delivered to him hours later, probably because you had been injured in one of the air-raids he had conducted. It would leave him spluttering, completely confused with him hastily going over memories at light-speed. Prussia prides himself in having fully control over most situations and the fact that you’re not a woman would mean that something vital about you would have completely escaped him. That wouldn’t sit well with him and would lead to a meticulous introspection to ensure that this mistake wouldn’t have been any sign of him growing senile.

He would be very angry with you for shamelessly lying to him and once he’d finally have you all to himself he would go out of his way to carry out a punishment you’d never forget. The nuances of his feelings would change slightly, because loving a man is different than loving a woman. And because he would have learned something entirely new and fundamental about you.

Don’t think that he’d be laxer on you just because you belong to the opposite sex. The enemy is the enemy and the worst thing one could do would be to underestimate them because of some ludicrous, narrow-minded notions. Such things cause people to lose wars. He’d be just as harsh to you as before.

The matter would inflame a whole new sort of curiosity in Prussia. He’d observe you more sharply than ever before. What other secrets would you be hiding. Had he missed something that was also essential? It would become a whole new game for Gilbert, to test your mettle and explore your character.

Romano

He would probably find out after taking a pot-shot at you from where he’d be lurking in the shadows, a sniper rifle at hand. Romano would have been waiting for the moment where he could finally capture you. Having waited until you where all alone, he wouldn’t have to worry about others interfering with what would commence. He would just have to spirit you away before you’d regenerate and wake up from the bullet to your heart. Needless to say, he wouldn’t be all sunshine and joy when he’d find out what you are. Being left out on secrets is painful and his obsession with you would only amplify that pain.

Once you’d wake up at his mercy, he’d have a stern word or two with you. Although, now that he’d know that you’re actually a woman, he’d be more mannered than usual. Even before he would have cussed less around you than by other men. Now he would be the epitome of gentlemanly charm, despite having you in chains.

Very firmly he’d be of the position that his lover doesn’t belong on the battlefield. Your protests would fall on deaf ears in his case and you being a woman would only be a reaffirmation to him that you shouldn’t fight. Additionally, he’d also use the chance to persuade you into remaining at his side. Lovino would point out that while he accepted who you are without any conditions, you had to hide a big part of your identity from your own people. So, why not stay with him, eh?

Veneziano

The news would send Veneziano in a fit of childish rage. You shouldn’t keep secrets from him! You shouldn’t be on the battlefield to begin with! You should be with him, under his control, under his jurisdiction. To him, it would be another heresy committed against him.

After a lot of tears and some tantrums and even feelings of remorse for having injured you, he would begin to plot how he could use this new-found information to his advantage. He would take to deducing other things about your personality and would build his plan on top of them, even if his presumptions would be false.

Feliciano would act upon his ideas that because you had chosen the battlefield rather than electing to pulling strings from the shadows, that you’d be a straight-forward person that could be ruthless but preferred direct confrontation over subversion. To him, you wouldn’t be so skilled at politicking and kingmaking as the ladies of court, unlike him.

Out of that reason, he would take the war to a setting that he is more familiar with: the negotiation table. Italy would use his silver tongue and skills at manipulation to ensnare you. Meanwhile, he go ahead to humiliate you in front of your countrymen, spilling your secrets and crying that war is no place for a woman. Whether or not his antics would be genuine or not is a whole other question entirely.

[cycat4077]

Stuck-On Cheese

Summary: Sometimes “the best intentions are fraught with disappointment.” Set during summer 2016 (S17). Pairing: Sonny x Reader Warnings: ANGST. Relationship troubles. Couple’s fight. Telling the squad. A cuss or two. Words: 1844  AO3: here

Part 9 of the Changes verse - but it can be read as a one-shot too.

A/N: I really, really like this one. I honestly felt that this plot was necessary to progress their relationship. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you like reading it too :)

Sonny’s gonna love this! There’s an extra little bounce in your step as the thought runs through your mind.

Entering the squad room again feels so nostalgic. It’s where you met Sonny, and for that, it will always hold a special place in your heart.

Carefully clutched in your arms is the purpose for your visit – a bag of Tupperware housing a steaming slice of Mama Carisi's lasagna. What's special about this particular batch however, is that you made it.

After Sonny phoned you earlier in the day saying he wouldn't make it home for dinner, you called up Mrs. Carisi and she gladly dictated her infamous lasagna recipe to you. You thought making one of his favorites, complete with delivery, would be the perfect surprise!

Marching towards Sonny’s desk, you greet all the familiar faces. Despite not having seen them in a year, Sonny’s incessant stories made you feel as though you had been around every day since you left.

“Hi, Fin! Hey, Amanda! How’s Jesse?” you rhyme, cheerfully. But instead of having your friendly addresses returned, you’re met with puzzled looks on confused faces.

Then you see Olivia. She emerges from her office to lean against the doorframe, surveying the bullpen and your arrival.

“Uhh…nice to see you…?” stammers Rollins from where she sits at her desk. But you can tell from her inflection that she doesn’t understand what’s going on.

Your voice grows meek. “Is Sonny here? I…brought him supper.” You turn to glance at each and every face that surrounds you, yet all turn up with blank stares.

The world starts to spin. Your throat tightens. Your stomach churns. You feel the thud of your pulse hammering in your ears.

Does no one know? Did he not tell them that we’re together? It’ll be a year in November!

Rollins’ voice slices through the silence. “We figured Carisi was dating someone but we just didn’t know who. It makes sense that it’s you though since you seemed to hit it off pretty well.”

You can barely make out Fin's retort through the ringing in your ears, but the words I told you so and, pay up, Amanda come across loud and clear.

Your body draws itself close in attempts to make yourself small. You wish you were anywhere but here. This revelation feels like a huge slap – except your face doesn’t sting, your heart does.

Why wouldn’t he tell them? You question yourself. Why? Why? Why?!

Lieutenant Benson repeats her words, dragging you back to reality. “He's in an interview right now,” she gestures to the two-way mirror behind her, “but I can get him for you if you’d like.”

Your brow furrows. The Lieutenant’s voice is laced with…with…pity! While you whole-heartedly respect her, you hate being pitied.

“No…No,” you say firmly. Everything is a daze. Anger bubbles up inside you.

You toss the lasagna on Sonny’s desk a little too forcefully, mumbling out a good to see everyone again, before turning on your heels to leave.

It’s surprising that you’re able to make it to the subway since your vision is blurred by tears. You try your hardest not to let them fall, dabbing the corner of your eye with your pinky to soak them up. It feels as though you are on autopilot, somehow getting off at the right stop and making your way back home – well, Sonny’s apartment, you suppose.

You enter, lock the door and fly past the kitchen. The supper dishes sit abandoned in the sink, cheese hardening on the casserole. But none of this even crosses your mind as you head straight for your bed.

The tears now flow freely, doubt preying on your mind like a raven plucking at roadkill.

All this time and not even one mention of me?  Sonny had been so excited to introduce me to his family…All the ‘I love yous’. Is it because he’s afraid of moving too fast?

Time slips away while you drown in your thoughts and so, when Sonny’s keys jingle in the door, it causes you to startle. That sound once filled you with excitement and would lead you to greet him with a giant hug and sloppy kiss. Tonight though, you have no will to move. Your body feels heavy, yet hollow and you shrink under the covers, pulling your knees to your chest.

You hear a clunking noise belonging to Sonny setting down his things and locking away his gun. Your heart rate picks up. You wish he would just leave you alone, but of course you know that won’t happen.

Your intuition is confirmed by the shuffle of feet crossing the apartment, drawing near to the bedroom door. The nob twists and the door creaks open. Refusing to look, you shut your eyes tight, awaiting the inevitable.

"Doll?" the familiar voice says. A few seconds pass before you feel the foot of the bed dip. Sonny softly speaks your name.

This time you cautiously look over. Your eyes are puffy and your face is tear streaked. You shift in place, sitting up ever so slightly to face him.

Sonny's features are wrought with distress. He hates seeing you like this. "Don't cry, please," he begs.

But instead, you snap. "Don't cry?! Why? Is it normal for someone's boyfriend to keep their relationship a secret for almost a year?" Sonny opens his mouth to speak but you talk over him, emotion pouring out. "You spend most of your life with these people; people who are so important to you, yet don't even think to mention the person you 'love'." Immediately you know that the air quotes are a low blow. Sonny winces. "What, keep me a secret in case things don't work out? Or…or maybe you just enjoy living a double life!"

"No!" Sonny protests, his voice tainted with frustration. "That's not it at all!"

"Then what is it, Sonny?!" Your anger is at full peak. "I told you about my insecurities. I told you that I've been led on before and just how much it hurt me. If what we are is just some trial period, I need to know. I...I can't waste time loving someone if they don't love me back. I just can't. Not again." Defeated, you let the tears flow, unable to control them.

"Doll," he urges. "I love you. I truly ‘n honestly do. More than anythin’ in this world! I meant everythin’ I said to you before. You're the one person who I can be myself around ‘n who loves me for everythin’ I am. You're the most important person in my life ‘n it's for that very reason why I haven't told people at work about you!" Your face crinkles in confusion. "We see some pretty fucked up cases." His language shocks you. “Yates, for example. Psychopath. We're their enemies, ‘n because they're so…so...so fucked up in the head," he raises his voice, "they'll stop at nothin’ sometimes. Hell, even Lieu got kidnapped ‘n tortured a few years ago! One little vulnerability,” Sonny snaps his fingers, “’n they've got their in. A way to manipulate ‘n get revenge. And I can't have you be my collateral." Desperation rinses away the anger in his voice as he sits there on the edge of the bed before you.

You stare in shock as he exposes his greatest vulnerability. His blue eyes are pleading, needing you to understand. "If there's no trace of you at work, then no one can ever harm you. No one can ever take you away from me. Please understand that."

This is all so sudden and confusing and, despite his rationalizing, it irritates you. “I don't want to be protected from you, Sonny!” you argue. “I know your job has risks. You've accepted them and by being with you, so have I. Liv and Amanda and Fin are all so important to you, so why keep me from them? I can't live like that. What if, God forbid, something did happen to you?” your voice strains. “How would I know? Second- or third-hand news from one of the other Carisis? How do you think that makes me feel? Maybe I am insecure about whether or not I deserve love, but I've gone all-in when it comes to loving you. I need to know you've done the same."

Sonny groans in frustration. "I have! A long time ago ‘n I've neva looked back. I wanna share all the good things with the squad ‘n tell them how in love I am. I wanna tell ‘em everythin’ about you. I want your picture on my desk, on my phone, in my wallet. But I'm scared. Hidin’ you has been the only way I can make sure I don't lose you. But...but if you want...if you're okay with the risk...Okay.” Sonny exhales. “I don't wanna push you away. I need you more than you could ever know.”

His words go straight to your heart. “I don't want to fight, Sonny,” you concede. “I just felt so...humiliated when I walked in there today and no one knew why. Like I was some cheap, secret fling."

Sonny hangs his head, voice growing soft. “I'm sorry. I shoulda told you about them not knowing. I shoulda told you why. I just didn't think. Please,” he looks at you with those big blue eyes, “I don't wanna fight either. Will you be able to forgive me? Is this somethin’ we can overcome?” You can see how scared he is. His jaw flexes and he swallows nervously. Sonny truly is worried that he’s created a rift between you that's too great to mend.

But you nod out a ‘yes’ because you love him and he loves you. His intentions were in the right place even if he didn't think about how it could affect you. The blame however, is neither all his to own. You instantly jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst. It’s a trait you've always hated yourself for, having gotten the best of you too many times in the past.

“I’m sorry too,” you admit, trying to convey your sincerity.

Offering you a gentle smile, Sonny inches closer on the bed, opening his arms. You shift forward and he wraps you in a warm embrace. This is where you belong.

Fresh tears escape your eyes and dampen Sonny's shirt. He tilts back to look at you, blue eyes soft and loving. You reach up, caressing the side of his face and he leans into your touch. Slowly Sonny bends his head and kisses you, lips offering silent apologies. And in your kiss is forgiveness.

When you part, a sniffle escapes you. "I've gotta go and wash those dishes, otherwise the cheese will never come off."

Sonny lets out a lighthearted laugh. "C'mon, doll. I'll help you." He then stands, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows.

The evening passes with the sound of clinking dishes and sloshing water filling the tiny kitchen as the two of you work in tandem to wash away what remains of the stuck-on cheese.

---

Feedback is loved! And let me know if you wanna be tagged :-)

Part 10 here

[thegayhimbo]

I saw your reblog about Alcide, if you don't mind answering what are your personal thoughts on him?

Hi there. Sorry for the wait on this. I actually thought this was going to be a simple answer, but I realize there's a lot I wanted to say about the character in relation to how the fandom perceives him as opposed to how he actually comes off onscreen.

When I first saw the show, my feelings about Alcide ranged from okay at best to indifferent at worst. I didn't hate him, but I didn't care for him. He wasn't my favorite character on the show, and I found most of his story (and the werewolf plots) to be boring. I was actually surprised when I came online and found out he had a following with certain fans.

Upon rewatch, I'm still mostly indifferent to Alcide, but I lean a little more towards mildly disliking him now. And a lot of that has to do with how the fandom (especially people on Reddit) treat him vs how he actually comes across in the books and on the show.

I’ll start off by saying that I never liked Alcide in the books. He was an asshole, and most of the time he used Sookie to advance his position in the werewolf pack. What little relationship he had with Sookie felt one-sided on his part. It also doesn’t help that he unfairly blamed Sookie for stuff that was out of her control (like the death of Debbie in the books or the death of his father.) His attraction to Debbie in the books is also something that doesn’t reflect well on him. Contrary to the show’s portrayal, Debbie in the books was written as a one-dimensional psychopath with a jealous streak and no redeeming qualities. She’s basically a cartoon villain with no depth to her. The result is it’s hard to understand why Alcide got into a relationship with her in the first place, and it makes it look like he was just thinking with his dick. In other words, Book Alcide was nothing to brag about.

As for the show, like I said, I’m mostly apathetic to Alcide’s character (with a few exceptions that I will talk about in a minute) and I thought he was pointless. I know he was suppose to be a vehicle to introduce Sookie to the world of werewolves, but the way that was executed didn’t work. Common consensus in the fandom seems to be that the werewolf plots in both the books and the show were tedious and forgettable. It’s ironic because I know there are Alcide fans out there, but whenever I’ve asked them about what they thought of the werewolf stories, their responses range from “I don’t remember them” to “They were bad.” A lot of fans didn’t care for them. They could have been cut from the show without affecting the main story. That’s a problem because Alcide was usually involved in those stories, and the result is it was hard to care about him because of how non-compelling they were.

As for the character himself, I wasn’t impressed with him for a number of reasons.

First, there’s his relationship with women. I didn’t pick up on this the first time, but a rewatch has shown me how sexist Alcide came off during certain moments on the show. Case in point: His relationship with Debbie. One of the big conflicts between Alcide and Debbie on the show is that they both wanted different things. Alcide didn’t want kids and was fine not being in a werewolf pack. Debbie was the opposite where she did want kids and wanted to be a part of a community. Nothing wrong with that, but it was pretty clear from the get-go that this relationship was never going to work out. The problem though is that Alcide never seemed to recognize that, and kept trying to force Debbie to be something she didn’t want to be: A housewife who didn’t have kids, who was isolated except for her and Alcide, and who spoke softly and cooked meals for him. Basically the opposite of what Debbie was. And yes, I get that Debbie had a lot of problems and made really poor choices, but Alcide’s method of imposing his idea of what she should be was not the way to have handled that. It doesn’t help that he didn’t really seem to care about what she wanted because he thought he knew what was best for her. Like I said, that’s pretty sexist on his part.

And then there’s Sookie and how she factored into Alcide’s relationship with Debbie in seasons 3-4. I find it telling that when it comes to how this situation was handled, fans are eager to blame Sookie and Debbie for the whole mess that resulted in Alcide abjuring Debbie and Debbie getting killed by Sookie, but people rarely call out Alcide for his part in all of this. Personally though, I think Alcide bears some of the blame here for what happened.

Something that’s been pointed out is that during seasons 3-4, Alcide has only known Sookie for a brief period of time. Season 3 for instance takes place over the course of 9-10 days whereas season 4 takes place over 10 days (October 21st-October 31st). That’s about 2-3 weeks at best. And yet, despite only knowing Sookie for about a week in season 3, and despite having been in love with Debbie for a number of years, he’s already pining for Sookie:

Now maybe you could argue that he saw Sookie as a replacement in season 3 because his relationship with Debbie deteriorated and he was heartbroken. However, that excuse doesn’t hold up in season 4 when he’s supposed to have repaired his relationship with Debbie during the year Sookie was gone in faerie-land, and yet he’s still lusting for Sookie despite only knowing her for a short period of time.

It’s so telling to me that only a few days after Debbie’s death in season 5, Alcide tries to have sex with Sookie when they’re both drunk, and he tells Sookie “I’ve waited so long for this.” It really puts his relationship with Debbie in a negative light, and calls into question whether he actually loved her at all.

I’m not saying that Debbie was blameless in this, and it doesn’t excuse her cheating on Alcide with Marcus or trying to kill Sookie, but it’s not like she didn’t notice Alcide was eyeing Sookie for some time. This was a woman who had hitched her sobriety onto Alcide and felt isolated and alone, and the man she was depending on was emotionally cheating on her. And rather than owning up to that, Alcide tries to gaslight Debbie into thinking she’s crazy and it’s all in her head. He literally says that to her when they’re in bed together, and it’s nasty.

What’s frustrating is this usually gets overlooked in the fandom when people talk about Alcide’s character, and he’s usually referred to in a sympathetic light whereas Debbie is blamed for being an unstable, violent whack-job whereas Sookie is blamed for being a house-wrecker, even though she was in a relationship with Eric at the time.

This is also one of the reasons I never liked Sookie/Alcide as a pairing, and why them getting together at the end of season 6 felt forced: Putting aside how their only sexual interaction up to that point was Alcide trying to have sex with Sookie one night when they were drunk and Sookie vomiting all over him, it was basically Sookie getting pigeon-hold into the role of domestic housewife for Alcide. And I’m sorry, but I find it unbelievable that they were together for 6 months and Sookie never once picked up on any unkind or dirty thoughts from Alcide during the time they were together until the season 7 premiere when that suddenly was a problem.

But even putting aside his relationships with Sookie and Debbie, the biggest problem I have with Alcide is he’s not a compelling character. He’s a character whose motivations and personality change when the plot demands it, and most of the time the writers didn’t know what to do with him and just stuck him in different stories with no rhyme or reason. It doesn’t help that he has no character development during his time on the show. There is no difference between the Alcide we meet in season 3 and the one we end up with in season 7. The result is I don’t care about him.

It’s funny because I’ve seen plenty of fans project these kind of criticisms onto Jason, but I actually think they apply more to Alcide than they do to Jason.

Jason actually had character development. He learned to become more responsible and be someone others could depend on. He began to move away from his womanizing behavior in the later seasons and eventually settled down and had a family. He re-evaluated his stance on supernaturals, and actually became an ally for them in several ways. There is a big difference between the person he was in season 1 and the man he became by season 7. If people missed that, or chose to ignore it, that’s on them, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Alcide on the other hand..............what was his character development? How did he grow as a person? What did he learn from his relationships with Debbie or Sookie or Rikki? Or even from the whole werewolf pack nonsense? Cause I’m drawing a blank here. Was it suppose to be that pack life wasn’t for Alcide because it would turn him into a power-hungry asshole? I never got the impression that was a problem for him in the early seasons, and it was a contrived conflict that was manufactured for season 6. The show never did a good job fleshing out what his arc was suppose to be.

Also, say what you will about Jason’s stories, but at least they were memorable: Amy and Jason’s relationship. The Fellowship of the Sun. The werepanthers. Becoming a cop with Andy. His relationship with Jessica. His hunt for Warlow. I would also argue that each of these stories added something to Jason’s character, and helped him grow as a person. Alcide’s arc on the other hand.......................not so much. When I was rewatching, I had to take notes just to remember what was going on with the werewolves, and even when I was rewatching, I felt the overwhelming urge to hit the fast-forward button. That is how boring those scenes were. It says something that even Alcide wasn’t able to carry them.

TL;DR: I’m apathetic to Alcide (with a few moments where I find him unlikable), and I don’t think he was a good character. The werewolf plots were tedious at best and irritating at worst, and Alcide’s arc on the show wasn’t compelling or interesting. I don’t hate him the same way I hate characters like Bill, Hoyt, and Violet, but I don’t like him either.

[ichika27]

The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

--

Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

--

Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well. 

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

FINALLY FINISHED NARUTO AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Honestly, and this might sound harsh, but I think I give the series overall a 6/10. Being generous, I’d say it’s maybe a 7/10, but I’m deducting one point because I’m almost positive the only reason I’d rate it that high is because despite all it’s flaws, after watching 720 episodes across two series and 10 movies, you’re just going to be attached to the characters and show regardless of how you feel about it.

I know it’s super popular, or was anyways, and I can absolutely see why, but there were just too many issues that bothered me personally. It’s frustrating because I want to like it, I really do. There’s so many elements at work here that are so just perfectly me that it’s almost weird that I don’t like it, but I don’t. Obviously I liked it enough to spend hours upon hours watching it, but I think I just kept expecting it to get better at some point, and that point never happened.

More about my issues with it below...

I don’t know how to frame this (I never do) so it’s mostly just off the cuff.

I’ll start with the easily dismissible criticisms, the movies. Obviously all but one of the movies are non-canon (and I’ll get to the canon one shortly...), and they’re made by other studios so it’s not entirely fair to criticize the series based on them. I’m far too used to this weird format from Pokemon and their non-canon movies, so it wasn’t a huge deal to me. I will say that, much like the Pokemon films, almost all of the Naruto films followed the same exact format: Naruto goes to a location we’ve never heard of before and will never hear of again and is forced to protect someone abrasive and annoying until the enemy is defeated and they become BFFs that we’ll never see or hear from again.

I’d say, in order from best to worst:

Road to Ninja - Naruto the Movie

Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie - Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie

Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Blood Prison

The Last: Naruto the Movie

Yes, you read that right. The one canonical movie I put in dead last. Originally I thought that position was reserved for Blood Prison, which offended me because of just how utterly contrived the plot was and how out of character everyone needed to act to get it moving. But somehow, The Last took last place because of just how bad of a movie it was that for some reason has the audacity to be canon. And look, I know why it’s canon. It’s where Naruto and Hinata ‘officially’ get together and it ‘explains’ some missing plot elements from the series (more on that...), so of course it’s canon.

But come the fuck on, the last movie in the franchise, the one canonical movie, the one that may or may not take place after the Great Shinobi War, I.E. the big final battle of the series, has Naruto going into the fucking hollow earth through a cave portal that takes him to the moon, which is falling because the man on the moon is an incel and hates earth? What kind of methamphetamines were the writers on for that one. The Hinata and Naruto bits were fine, but holy fuck was that plot bad. They may as well have put Naruto in a spaceship and sent him to Mars to fight Martian Shinobi, I mean if we’ve already crossed the line, why not run a marathon beyond it.

The movie was meant to explain away a one-off line made in the series, that admittedly I did sit and ponder whether or not they’d ever explain it, about the Sage of Six Path’s brother, Homura, who went to go live on the moon after they defeated their mother Kaguya. It was mentioned so briefly and only once that I thought for sure it wasn’t ever going to be brought up again. I also wondered where Byakugan came from since we’d gotten an explanation for Sharingan and Rennigan during the series, but never for Byakugan. I actually don’t mind the explanation that it came from Homura’s bloodline, I think that tracks well enough. The man on the moon bit was...odd, but when I thought of how strong Homura was, I didn’t think much of it. I actually thought he somehow was going to still be alive and he’d come down to earth after they defeated Kaguya, but that never happened.

Here’s the rub though, and one of my issues with the series as a whole, which is that the show seemed to keep writing itself into these weird corners where they’d be forced to do something completely nonsensical, purely because they were the ones who wrote them into those corners. It would’ve been simpler to just say all visual jutsu was derived from Kaguya’s power, or the Homura died so there’s no man on the moon, or that Tsunade died so Kekashi needs to become Hokage, etc. They didn’t have to write themselves into these scenarios, but they did anyway and the end result was them having to write complete and utter nonsense to rationalize why they did it in the first place.

Kekashi becoming Hokage doesn’t really make any sense, like at all. They literally bisected Tsunade during the war but willed her back to life when they could’ve just as easily killed her then and there since she’s largely irrelevant to the rest of the series after the war, and then it would’ve made more sense why Kekashi, the man who on numerous occasions said he didn’t want to be Hokage, would then be forced to become Hokage as he’d be the next strongest (eligible) shinobi after Tsunade. I feel like it was all meant to be a payoff to Obito’s dying words to Kekashi which told him to become Hokage, which even then I found myself asking why the fuck would he say that? Kekashi almost was Hokage once before and was so relieved when Tsunade woke up from her coma so he wouldn’t have to.

Also can we talk about how bad that final episode was? I mean don’t get me wrong, it was cutesy as fuck and actually brought a tear to my eye (when Naruto asked Iruka to be his dad I fucking lost it, I won’t lie), but they cut it off before the wedding? Before the aftermath? Before he becomes Hokage? Like I understand Boruto exists, but I don’t feel like that’s a justifiable excuse for ending your long-running series on merely the assumption that he’ll become Hokage in the future. Maybe if the show was a whole 500 episodes shorter I’d be comfortable with it ending on a vague, yet hopeful ending, but when I’ve spent fuck knows how many hours on this series you bet your ass I’m expecting some mother fucking payoff.

Also do not even get me started on Sasuke. What. The. Fuck?!?!? My guy literally just sends a note via carrier pigeon to the wedding? That’s it? Did I just fucking hallucinate the last 720 episodes or wasn’t Sasuke supposed to be like the second main character??? The absolute absurdity.

This isn’t even much of a comparison because it’s so much shorter than Naruto, but it’s all I got in the moment, but imagine if at the end of Return of the Jedi, Han Solo just decides to fucking dip. He’s just not there. He and Chewie hopped into the Millennium Falcon the moment the Death Star was destroyed and just dipped. No longer in the movie, just gone. Didn’t say anything to Luke or Leia, just up and left. That would be insane.

It’s even more offensive knowing him and Sakura end of together. My. Fucking. Gods. This has been the relationship I’d been dreading since the start when it became abundantly clear they weren’t doing even the barest minimum to actually establish a relationship between them. As it is, when I watched The Last, I thought to myself: “Well, Naruto and Hinata’s relationship hasn’t been the most well-developed relationship I’ve seen, but it’s still leagues better than whatever hatchet job they’re going to pull to convince me Sasuke and Sakura end up together”. We didn’t even get the hatchet job. That’s just how little of a shit they gave. They did not even bother pretending to give any explanation as to how I’m supposed to believe they end up together. I’m quite literally just supposed to believe it because I know it will happen. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, it’s just something that is and therefor I must accept it. Absolutely ridiculous. As it stands, the show gave us more reasons why Sakura and Lee should end up together than they did for her and Sasuke. Fuck, I’d even buy Sakura and Inu before I’d buy Sakura and Sasuke.

I could go on, I really could, but it’s late and I’m just looking forward to putting this behind me. At some point, probably not too soon, I will watch Boruto. As it is, my watch schedule is pretty thoroughly booked up for a while. I can’t foresee myself ever watching this again. I know I sound harsh on it, but I wanna reemphasize that I want to like this show. It’s not a show I think is bad period, it’s a good show I think was just done rather poorly. It all felt very off-the-cuff, much like this shitty review. I don’t know what the manga-to-adaptation pipeline looked like when the show was live, but clearly something got fucked up somewhere.  This really feels like the Fullmetal Alchemist to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and I can’t help but want Naruto to get the Brotherhood treatment...if such a treatment even exists.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Watching Snyderverse Part 3 - Zack Snyder’s Justice League

After BvS, I was honestly not particularly looking forward to Justice League. For me, it was obvious that Snyder’s versions of these characters and his overall doom and gloom approach was not something I was particularly enjoying despite some promising elements in both MoS and BvS. Then we saw exactly how JL production went down. Despite the happy face they tried to paint, the fact that there was going to be a 2 hour mandate, the fact that Whedon basically reshot a bunch of Snyder’s film with the film being a mishmash of two directors who couldn’t be any more different in their sensibilities, and that that the actors, specifically Ben Affleck, looked like they couldn’t wait to be done with this movie and this role, made it obvious that the movie wasn’t going to turn out well. So my expectations were rock bottom for the theatrical cut. As it happens, that was a good thing. The theatrical cut of JL is a thoroughly unremarkable movie. I don’t abhor it but it is so obviously a patchwork job and a studio mandated film that there is no passion or vision in the movie at all. I mean, I didn’t like BvS much at all, but there was a vision there. Theatrical cut of JL seemed like a film that felt like WB just felt they had to put out there and then move on. And then years later, we get Zack Snyder’s full version of Justice League. I watched it in one sitting, which was maybe a mistake because it is heavy viewing for 4 hours. Without a doubt it is a better movie than the theatrical cut. Its a little tough to judge this film because this is no way a movie that would have been released theatrically. But its also impossible to judge on what it may have been if it was edited down to a 3 hour length. So best to just judge it on its own merits.

Firstly, the positives. This is definitely a more coherent and clear movie. The plot is not rushed and every sequence, be it a character moment or an action sequence, is fully realized without any weird edits. The film does have some more humor than the previous two Snyder films. Mainly courtesy of Ezra Miller and Jeremy Irons. And the humor is not awkward like in the theatrical cut. Ezra Miller in particular benefits from that because some of his cringey lines from the theatrical edition are cut. The special effects are largely impressive and definitely an improvement over the theatrical edition. On a character level, definitely Cyborg gets the most benefit out of all the characters. As we get a full and thorough backstory for him. We get insight into his relationship with both his parents. Steppenwolf also gets significantly more screen time and his motivations are definitely more clearly defined in the movie than in the theatrical. Miller and Momoa also get some more scenes to flesh out their individual characters. What does surprise me is that the film contains a lot of scenes which are essentially just alternate versions of scenes from the theatrical cut. The film isn’t radically different from the theatrical version, but the scenes included in this version feel a little more real. Like a scene with the entire League discussing Superman’s return in the theatrical cut made it obvious that the actors weren’t in the same room together, whereas the original scene in this movie has them clearly in the same physical space. The Superman scenes are also infinitely better without the CGI upper lip. Thankfully, Snyder doesn’t do what he did with the previous two movies and gives some breathing room between action sequences. Probably a bit too much time, but that’s better than no time at all. the tunnel action sequence and the climax set piece is definitely pretty cool. Flash actually having an active role in the climax was a big improvement. My favorite action sequence is still the Superman vs the League because it shows just how powerful Superman can be. Also, the color palette is a lot more consistent and better than the weird bright and red color palette that is used in the theatrical cut.

When it comes down to the performances from the cast, nobody really stands out. They are all fine, but unlike in BvS, where Affleck stood out. Everybody here is just motoring along. In the theatrical cut, Affleck looked completely checked out. I was hoping the original cut would beef up his performance. While it is slightly better, he’s still just a bit too restrained in the role and doesn’t leave the type of impression he left in BvS. Everyone is at their most dour self. Gal Gadot’s WW is more serious and therefore does not get to show her more radiant side in Patty Jenkins’ movies, Momoa is also similarly more dour and serious and not quite as fun as he was in Aquaman. Ray Fisher is decent but its a role that requires him to be very robotic for large chunks of the film. So its a little difficult to assess his performance. Cavill is in far too little of the movie to give much of a performance. He’s perfectly fine in the handful of scenes he has. Miller is probably the best of the lot, even though he’s still more Peter Parker than Barry Allen. Some of the supporting cast actually fare a little better. Irons is a delight whenever he’s on screen and Affleck is also at his best when they have scenes together. That dynamic works. Joe Morton is surprisingly affecting as Silas Stone, as is Billy Crudup in his brief scenes as Henry Allen. Its always nice to see more of Willem Dafoe, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, and JK Simmons. Simmons as Gordon was great casting and its a pity we won’t get to see more of him in that role. Amber Heard for some perplexing reason has a British accent in this film as Mera. Given Dafoe and Momoa both speak in their normal voices, that must have been a choice. It did feel a bit funny. Jared Leto and Jesse Eisenberg are back as Joker and Lex and neither of them particularly improve on their performances. I mean, they have a scene each so its no harm done, but the Joker scene particularly drags on for too long. Amy Adams has a small role and she does manage to make to get some emotion out of a handful of scenes.

The film has more than its fair share of issues. Firstly, it is just way, way too long. The pacing is glacially slow at times. And I mean that in the most literal manner. There is so much slow mo in this movie, its crazy. I swear, if you removed the slow motion, you might lose 20 minutes of the run time. Snyder is clearly in desperate need of an editor here. The film has the exact opposite problem of the theatrical cut. Whereas in the theatrical cut, it always felt that every scene was just edited a little too short, in this movie there are scenes that are going on for far too long. There are some very strange edits. Like an entire scene where women in the village are singing hyms when Arthur leaves and smelling his clothes. There is a meet cute between Iris and Barry which is completely unnecessary and is frankly slightly creepy where Barry is caressing her face while she is in the process of being thrown out of her car. Some music choices in these scenes are also a little bizarre. Everything involving the Martian Manhunter is not necessary. I mean, his involvement in a crucial Martha and Lois scene actually takes away from the emotion of that moment. And then he has a very tacked on final scene which is kind of awkward. The Knightmare scene also drags for a bit too long, especially given they are supposed to be in danger while being out in the open. We still have no more clarity as to why Bruce is having these visions. The slow pace does make things boring at times as well. While I am glad that Cyborg’s backstory gets beefed up, there is a bit too much of Cyborg being angry at his father. After a while, it gets monotonous. The film takes too long to get the team together and the first JL action sequence doesn’t happen until over 2 hours into the movie. The film should have spent a bit more time with the team interacting with one another. That’s what made the Avengers movies work and some of the best parts of this movie are also the team together. There are some Snyder tone deaf moments as per usual. While WW’s entry action sequence is very cool, I do find it funny that they have her comforting a girl and the girl wanting to be just like her after she basically obliterates the terrorist into dust. Given her abilities shown in that sequence, there is no reason she wouldn’t have been able to disable him. But instead she just obliterates him. Its all very Snyder. I do also have to wonder about that sequence. I still don’t get exactly how terrorists feel that blowing up a few city blocks will bring down the modern age. I thought this was a weird Whedon thing but it turns out to be a weird Snyder thing. Also, for all the hype about the black suit Superman, its really nothing more than an aesthetic choice for no rhyme or reason. I honestly prefer the Blue and Red if the black suit doesn’t have a point, like the restorative factor from the comics. Also, for all the blame people put on Whedon about the skimpy outfits on Amazons and the weird backside shots of WW, turns out they were all Snyder. There are a few select things that the Whedon cut did slightly better. For example, there is no real major debate or conflict within the team other than minor objections from Arthur over the implications of using the mother box to bring back Superman. Also, a sequence in the theatrical cut where Bruce admits that Clark was more human that he was, is a better version of a similar scene in this movie. Also, while not perfectly executed, the theatrical cut did acknowledge that Bruce was a human fighting amongst superpowered individuals. Also, most importantly, while Steppenwolf is an improvement over the theatrical cut, this is still a movie where the plot involves a villain trying to find three boxes. Steppenwolf is still pretty boring and the main story is not interesting at all. The Darkseid angle of this story is also overhyped since he’s barely in the film. 

In the end, it feels that there is a pretty decent 3 hour movie hidden in an ok but dragged out 4 hour film. I’m glad the Snyder fans got to see it. I have had my issues with Snyder’s vision. While I feel he has grand ambitions and a sense of scale and scope, he hasn’t really got the sense of story and script to really make it work to a degree where the audience at large would appreciate it. I have seen his old storyboards and read his recent interviews about what he was going to do. It sounds very grand and very cool, but with a big potential of being a gigantic mess. Who knows what will happen in the future but at least it right now seems that they are moving on from Snyder’s vision. For this film, I am right now landing at about a 6/10, which is the highest mark out of all the Snyder DC movies. I’ve only watched it once and watching it again is a big endeavor so I won’t do it anytime soon, but maybe revisiting it will make me either like it more or less.

[comfy-whumpee]

The Water

“Fucking rich piece of shit,” Lauritz snapped, as Rain tried to wipe their eyes and stop the tears. “I should cut you up and leave you to fucking die, your parents are being such bastards. But I’ve got someone better now, haven’t I?”

Rain shook their head. Their voice croaked as it came out. “Please... Don’t.”

They tried to move forwards, to beseech him with their physical presence, but he moved away and the chain around their ankle pulled taught and hard against them.

“Please,” they said again. “L...Lau...”

His hand smacked across their face. “You don’t say my fucking name!” he screamed suddenly, spit flying across the space and the smell of alcohol stale in the air between them. “Every time you say my fucking name I cut her again, you know that you, little shit. I’m going to go do it now, aren’t I? Even though you want my attention. Fucking jealous, because it was just us two, huh?”

No. No, that wasn’t why. It wasn’t, no matter how many times he said it, no matter how many times he insisted that Rain wanted attention wanted his knife wanted him to look at them and nobody else. It wasn’t true. It was only – it only looked like it was true, because they were trying to protect Kala, trying to stop him.

Because Kala had come, and tried to rescue them, and failed, and now she was chained up in the other room.

And Rain could kneel and plead and say pretty words and offer their skin to be cut open, but Lauritz had his eyes on their weakness and he wasn’t giving it up. Every time they tried to get him to cut them, he laughed, kicked them, grabbed their hair, and threw them aside. Bruises and cuts were all they got, and the real injuries were for the meddling bitch. For Kala, who had tried to save them, and failed so, so miserably.

“Fucking family always kept you safe, didn’t they?” he asked, but it was a rhetorical question as he strode out of the room. He didn’t bother to close the door to Rain’s room as he entered Kala’s and they heard the muffled cry of her being roused with a hard boot. “Wake up, bitch!” he shouted. “Yeah, you! Your little friend in there asked me to cut you so they could get some rest. You happy? That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

Kala groaned. Something was happening, they didn’t know what. He never let her speak, always gagged her when she wasn’t being forced to eat and drink water. He didn’t want her words, he said. He wanted her to fucking bleed for thinking she could interfere with his work.

“You fucking earned this,” he said. “You earned it and they asked for it. Shut up! Take it and shut up.”

Rain tried not to imagine the knife moving and the skin opening and the blood pouring out. They had heard enough to know that Kala was being hurt far, far worse than them.

“Yeah, there you go. Not so fucking proud now, are you?” Lauritz’s heavy footsteps came back towards Rain’s room and they straightened, folding their hands on their lap. “I’m going to play with your friend and you’re going to sit there and shut the fuck up, or I’ll come back and cut you up again and beat them worse.”

Kala moaned something that sounded very much like don’t.

“Fuck you too.” The door slammed. Lauritz was back in the room and Rain was alone with him again.

Always the worst times.

They pulled back against the wall, folding their knees to their chest. Lauritz stared down at them and then scoffed, pulling out his knife. It was already smeared with Kala’s blood.

He moved forwards. He grabbed the chain and unlocked it from the radiator. He cuffed Rain’s other ankle to it instead.

“Up,” he said, voice flat. “Walk. You know where.”

Heart sinking, Rain obeyed. They knew where. Down the hall, up the stairs, and into the bathroom. Drop to their knees next to the bathtub.

It was already filled with water. It had been for days.

He stood directly in front of Rain and gestured sharply with one hand. They turned, shuffling on their knees until they faced the water.

Two hands came to rest around their head, fingers at their temples, with a slight squeeze in their hair.

“What’s my name?” he asked, deadly quiet,

Rain almost didn’t answer. Almost. But it wasn’t safe. “Lauritz,” they whispered, as soft as they could.

The hands on their head shoved forwards and down, and Rain’s face was forced under the water until cold liquid pooled around their eyes and nose, flooded into their mouth until they managed to close it tight. They held their breath. Lauritz jerked them up again, and water ran down their cheeks and out of their hair. They spat out the water, breathed in, out, then in.

“What’s my name?”

Out, then in. “Lauritz.”

Another slam down into the bath, water splashing both of them, cold droplets settling over their skin. They shivered, but Lauritz didn’t care, held them there until their heart was pounding. They tried not to move, tried not to even think, until they could breathe again.

Out, in, out, in, water running down their neck. “What’s my fucking name?”

Out, in, out, “L-Lauritz, please—”

In, and water surged up to meet them, neck starting to ache from being yanked around, and the heartbeat pounded back into their head as their lungs began to tighten and protest the exertion. They were held for longer this time, long enough that they twisted, trying not to fight, but Lauritz didn’t care, never cared.

Up, out in out in out in, dripping and crying, “Please, Lauritz, please, please—”

Water in their eyes and nose and mouth and hair and mouth and they jerked, unable to catch their breath, chest burning like a slowly stoking fire, and Lauritz fisted their hair tight and held them as they started to move, trying to pull away, trying to pull back and rear out of the water before they couldn’t—

Air, out in out in out in out in, “Say it! Say it, little shit!”

“L-Lauritz, Laur-ritz—”

In their eyes and nose and mouth and throat and down as they lurched, tried to breathe and found only more liquid, tried to cough and found only more liquid, bubbles rushing and heart pounding so fast.

When he yanked them up again they could only cough water and try to get air in past the trickle in their lungs, burning on the way up, hot tears cutting through the coldness in their cheeks. “Pl-hhc, pl’s,” they choked out, feeling his hands tighten again. “L-L’rtz.”

He let them go and they fell halfway over the back, shoulders rising and chest buckling as they hacked up what water remained with awful rasping coughs. Hands shaking, they rubbed their face and grabbed their hair, trying to breathe while caught between choking and sobbing.

There was no rhyme or reason. He had no purpose. There was nothing to gain from torturing them but he did it anyway and they just had to endure, until he got tired and stopped and dragged them back down to the back room with the boarded window, and chained their ankle, and left them there.

Rain never ran a bath again. Never went swimming again. Never recovered.

They woke hyperventilating and trying to choke out his name, night after night. Say his name, beg him, plead and please his sadism and maybe he would let them stop.

In the dreams, he never let them stop.

-

Dinner was good. Fuck, dinner was really good. “I didn’t know you could cook.”

Lauritz was sitting at the table, which was really damn weird, but somehow Kala had stopped minding it so much. It was like he wasn’t really the bastard she knew. Just some weirdo with the same face, and the same – the same voice, and the same dress sense, after they’d picked clothes out from Rain’s wardrobe.

Similar, but not the same. Innocent, somehow. Weird and...really weird.

“I... didn’t either,” Lauritz said with a nervous smile. She got the sense he still wasn’t really sure what he’d done.

Rain nodded in agreement as they ate, quieter today. They’d been quiet ever since she’d asked about their parents. There was definitely something going on, and she knew they felt at fault.

But that didn’t matter so much right now. They were sitting at the table, the windows were open, the sea breeze flew in and lightened the air in the room until it smelt fresh and lively. It was going to be a good evening. “Wanna go to the beach after eating?”

Rain glanced up, surprised. They hadn’t taken Lauritz out of the house at all, and she was bringing it up so casually. She smiled at them. “I mean it.”

They looked at Lauritz. Together, they waited for him to put together his replies. He was always slow.

“A beach... Um, has sand, right? And water?”

Jesus fuck. He still knew so little about the world, despite their efforts. Well, Rain and the television’s efforts.

“Yeah,” Kala said. “Except ours has rocks instead of sand. Do you want to?”

If he didn’t, they couldn’t. That’s just how it was. They couldn’t leave him alone. He didn’t know anything about safety and Kala for one still wasn’t convinced there was an elaborate plot at work here.

But he nodded. “I would... I would like to,” he said.

“Alright. Rain?”

They nodded. They ate more. They were still quiet, but maybe getting them to the beach would get them out of their head.

It was settled. They ate, they dressed warm, and Lauritz looked really, really odd in Kala’s big black coat. But he got cold easily, they’d discovered. The day they’d given him a blanket, he’d never dropped it again.

The walk to the beach was a mere ten minutes, but the whole time, Lauritz looked like he was about to burst into song. His eyes were bright and wide, and he looked at everything. Everything. As Rain and Kala walked down the edge of the road, trying to keep him in front of them and in sight, he stopped, paused, turned his head, got distracted – everything from a leaf on the road to a flower bud in a bush caught his eye. He came to a full stop when the breeze blew and ruffled his hair. The birds overhead made his head turn, and Kala saw his face slack in childlike wonder when they passed above them.

“He’s weird,” she whispered. It was the only word she really had left for the situation.

“He’s never seen them in real life,” Rain whispered back, which was true, she supposed. He’d only seen things through a screen, and only in passing. But he had loved the nature documentary. David Attenborough had told him so much about salamanders, Rain had to break his heart by explaining they weren’t in this country.

And then they’d had to explain what a country was.

It had involved an atlas and a lot of educational YouTube.

Kala had never wanted children and she wanted an ex-criminal amnesiac man-child even less. But life threw you curveballs.

When they finally reached the shore, things were a little steadier. Lauritz was starting to adapt, and no longer stopping to examine every twig and blade of grass. Rain seemed to perk up as well, eyes focused on the ocean waves. Kala wasn’t mad about the beach, but she’d agreed to live here for Rain’s sake. They needed the quiet, and the sea.

They peeled away from her, walking at an angle directly to the water. They could stand there for an hour or more, she knew, especially when there was a lot on their mind. She looked instead for Lauritz, and blinked.

He wasn’t looking at the sea, or the sky, or the distant horizon. He was looking at Rain, and there was something in his expression, some kind of... Thoughtfulness. Recognition, maybe.

A second later, he saw Kala looking, and glanced down.

Fuck. She approached him, dragging her feet. She was going to have to deal with this, wasn’t she? If he had some kind of fucking crush on her raincloud...

But when she arrived at Lauritz’s side, he looked at her with a distant frown and guilty pout. It was unnerving to see on his pinched face.

“What?” she asked. She didn’t mean for it to sound annoyed, but it was. And she was.

“Did I...?” He broke off, looking again at Rain by the water.

Yes, probably. “Did you what?”

“Drown them,” he whispered, as though he was scared of the words. “I-I remember, I... They were over the water, white water, and I... I pushed them in.”

Cold rushed up Kala’s skin, standing her hairs on end like a static shock. Her Rain, waterlogged, crying weakly on the floor of an ugly, dirty bathroom, begging Lauritz to stop, the only time she ever heard them say his name... In their own parents’ house two weeks after they were rescued, at the sight of the bath Kala had run for them to try and look after them.

They hadn’t bathed since. Showers only, showers and the occasional foot bath in a half-filled sink.

“You did,” she said, and this time her voice was dark and crackling and she knew she sounded furious, and she was. “You drowned them every single fucking week. You would scream at them so loud I could hear it from downstairs. They had to say your name, over and over, and every time you would drown them until they couldn’t get the sounds out anymore.”

She looked at him, and he stared back, frozen as though he were a prey animal in her sights. Which he... He was.

“You want to know why they can’t say your name? It’s because of the drowning. And the cutting. Every time they said it, even half of it, even the start of it by the end, you would cut me up, and then you would drag them into your bathroom and drown them until they couldn’t breathe, let alone speak.”

He swallowed, pale throat bobbing. The sound of the ocean crashed against them, but Kala didn’t break his gaze. He didn’t speak. She probably would have punched him if he did.

“They stopped speaking altogether. It was nearly three days before they said a word to me after we were saved from you. They couldn’t name you. They could barely write it, their hand shook so much. It was only because I’d heard part of your name that we could put it together. And yet they never found you. Funny, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t. He didn’t even twitch. He was perfectly still.

“They couldn’t get you. You were never caught, never punished. No justice.” She looked away suddenly at Rain, who was watching the water with the wind in their ears and safe, safe and free and able to speak. “And then three years later, when we’ve scraped and struggled to put our lives back together, you turn up at our door begging the way they begged you. How could they turn you away?”

Lauritz looked down, when she looked back. He shrank, shoulders curled, hands lacing together. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“They’re kind. They try not to be, they’ve been hurt so badly, but they are. They’re kind even to you, who doesn’t – who will never deserve it.”

He nodded.

“If you hurt them,” she said softly. “If you hurt them ever, I will kill you. You know I mean it, don’t you?”

He nodded again. He was shaking, or maybe shivering in the evening chill.

“They didn’t want to turn you in, because they know you were sent here for a reason. They keep you with us because they need to work out what’s going on. Never mistake it for affection.”

In the corner of her eye, she saw Rain turn. Rain was always in the corner of her eye. They headed back towards them, the tip of their nose and the tops of their ears reddened by the wind. They weren’t smiling, but their face had relaxed and softened.

“Remember. You have a lot to make up for. Work hard.”

Lauritz shivered again. “Yes,” he whispered.

Rain arrived, and Kala’s face melted into a small smile, and she agreed easily to their suggestion to search for sea glass together.

[thewhizzyhead]

you very much Should Keep going (if you’d like) I’m reading your tags like 👀👀👀 I wanna know More!!!

dude believe me i only just thought up 90% 9f this while doing my math homework last night so yea this is very barebones and this is very very new have very little to offer but um imma try to explain a bit more fjdjdc SO ANYWAYS GRADE 11

Warning: this is very long and I am very sorry aaAAAA also i only just thought of this last night and a while ago while attending class so um yea it's chaotic.

the songs i've mentioned so far in the tag ramble aren't um consecutive so yeah there are a lot of blank spaces in between fjsjsj and yea I haven't figured out the other leads and their arcs yet (probably 5-6 leads). for now um the planned songs feature 3 of the leads:

Kate - basically answers the question of What If Eva Sanchez Was The Protagonist and What If Eva Sanchez Saw The Hell That Is Don't Even (in this show, this song is called "Anakpota?" or "The Fuck?"); she's a transferee and is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new school environment; her reasons for transferring run a bit deeper than just "humanities is a lot more interesting than stem or business shits"; i guess her main character themes are burnout, the want for childlike wonder again and overcoming the fear that comes with chasing what you really want and no i am definitely not self projecting what are you guys talking about smh rhhdhs /hj (altho i admit that this is loosely based on my own experience with deciding to transfer schools) and yea she's a very closeted lesbian that slowly starts to comes out to others and to herself more throughout the course of the show. and also she gets a girlfriend YAY

Noel - rn i don't have that much planned out for him cause u know barebones plot but so far um i guess he's the chill dude, overall good guy, rantaro amami from danganronpa v3 vibes, and he's initially framed as the "love interest" for Kate esp in the song "Ikaw Ba Ay..." or "Are You..." (i wanted that to be a play on the typical Filipino Teen Hetero Romance CAUSE THAT SHIT IS IN EVERYWHERE JFJSJD I AM GONNA MAKE A WHOLEASS RANT ON THAT SOON AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME) but surprise motherfucker BOTH OF THEM ARE GAY AND BOTH BOND OVER IT AND BECOME BEST FRIENDS YAY WOOOO i kinda want him to be like the typical "Filipino Teen Heartthrob" star student with the twist being that he's gay and not make that a throwaway joke cause um yea that's a throwaway joke here that someone who is real catch for the heteros but is actually gay is "sayang" or "worthless" here.

Ella - ngl she is probably gonna end up as the main lead here fjdjd i'd say she has riley+chess vibes aka The School's Hotshot Achiever and Student Leader That Is Very Intimidating But Is Actually Really Freaking Kind and i guess with a dash of Kate Dalton-ish snark. Like i said the plot is barebones rn so i dunno anything but i do imagine them being the one that drives the plot forward due to her outspokenness. I also imagine her to be the one (along with Noel) that makes Kate a lil bit more comfortable with her sexuality and yup you guessed it Ella is gay too (bi to be specific oh and she uses she/they pronouns) and altho still a bit closeted, they're a bit more comfy with it. also they become Kate's gf yay!

those are the leads that i have kinda planned out so far but yea i still gotta expound kna lot of atuff and make up more leads for this but then again i just started conceptualizing this last night so ANYWAYS HERE ARE THE OTHERS SONGS THAT I LITERALLY JUST THOUGHT UP LAST NIGHT (aside from the ones already mentioned)

+ "Nakakapanibago" or "Well This Is New" - Ella and Kate work together on a school project aaand gay panic ensues. both of them take turns in addressing the audience and panicking over each other in um er an "Oh My God She's Very Fucking Cute What The Fuck" way. it kinda has What Is This Feeling from Wicked vibes if you remove the aggression and antagonization jdjsd and i kinda emphasize on how overwhelmed they are cause for Kate, everything - from the school to the subjects to the people - is new and her attraction to Ella is like a cherry bomb on top of a chaos cake while for Ella, who has studied in the school since kindergarten which is why nothing about the school fazes her anymore, Kate is a literal breath of fresh air and the spontaneity scares them and excites them at the same time. The number is comedic (and is chance for me to add a shit ton of wordplay cause yAY WORDPLAY) but i guess also hints at their fears which will definitely come into play later.

+ "Mabuting Laban" or "Good Fight" - a group number led by Ella, this is the first song in the musical that isn't mostly comedic. like um the musical so far (before this song) is mostly somewhat of a parody-just-for-laughs-don't-take-this-seriously piece but with this, the show finally hints to something a lot more serious and insightful. so basically ella tells kate (this scene comes right after the Nakakapanibago sequence) that they have noticed that the latter is um very very shocked at the blatant show of LGBTQ+ stuff. Kate mentions that altho many students have since then spoke up for LGBTQ+ acceptance, things were a lot more conservative back in her former school (once again wooo definitely not self projection /hj) so like seeing all this is very new to her. Ella then mentions that things weren't always like that - a lot of fighting had to be done in order to get to that point. and because most of the students already were branded with a rebellious reputation (for a lot of delinquent behavior), they really didn't give a fuck anymore if they were being controversial or not. What mattered was that they would make the school environment a lot more welcoming for themselves and for others. That sentiment is also shared by other leads singing along as they go out of their way to ensure a much better environment for everyone (in terms of lgbtq+ rights, undoing the stigmatization of mental health matters, student activism yadda yadda)

(oh and also this kinda serves as something that bridges the prejudices between the two schools since Ella's school is famous for a lot of student delinquency while Kate's former school is famous for being known as the "Best School In The Region With The Best Students" (which is why Ella understands why the students in Kate's school are a bit more hesitant to speak up because Kate's former schoolmates got way too much to lose) and the rivalry those schools have with each other cause students from ella's school think those from kate's school are pompous little shits while those from kate's school think that ella's schoolmates are delinquents and yes this is commentary on the dynamic my former school'scstudents and my current school's students share) (i should probably give this its own song)

+ "Ayoko" or " I Don't Want It" - (this does not come right after Mabuting Laban fjsjd i honestly dunno where to put this) this comes right after a conversation regarding her reputation in her former school and yea this is Kate poking fun at the "I Want" song musical trope. Like um she addresses the audience saying something along the lines of "oooohh wow complicated backstory exposition! you are probably expecting a song rn ala "How Far I'll Go" from Moana but guess what bitches fuck you all cause i'm gonna sing a song about the things I don't want just to fucking annoy you." it starts off as incredibly satirical and um Kate Dalton-vibes all throughout the scene with lots of pettiness which will then gradually transition to her singing about how she threw all the opportunities presented to her by the former school just because she really didn't want to do them and was tired of saying "yes" just to be enough for them. She then starts singing about her taking control of her own narrative by finally leaving the school. She still laments about those lost opportunities and admits that she still kinda wants to pursue those, but if she has to sacrifice rest for greatness, then she doesn't want it. The song ends with a verse akin to most I Want songs as she finally admits what she really wants the most: rest and wonder.

also here's a verse i made up just a while ago

Diyos ko, sabihin mo, ano pa ang kailangan kong gawin/upang mabawi ang mga ninakaw sa akin/upang maibalik ang pag-asang nawala/upang sa wakas ako'y makakapagpahinga/sapagkat hindi na ako nagnanais ng kadakilaan/ang hinihingi ko lamang ay ang aking kabataan

translation (i'll try my best to make it rhyme): My God, tell me, what else do i have to do/so I can take back all that they have taken from me/so that I can bring back the hope I've long so been deprived of/so that for once in my life, I'll be able to breathe/ cause I no longer want all the greatness that you say I could've had/ I only want to wonder, I only want my childhood back

+ "Halos Lagi Nalang"or "Almost Always The Same" - if this sounds familiar yes i rambled about this before gjdjdjd I started conceptualizing this song even before i even started conceptualizing the musical. So yea this is in Act 2 the song starts with mentioning the exhaustion that comes with being an LGBTQ+ teen in the philippines cause yup same old conservative religious bullshit same old same old shit and despite many a lot of people advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, nothing ever changes around here because well conservative religious bullshit. so yea this is kind of an extension of "Good Fight" but make it more about the burnout felt by a lot of teens that want something better than whatever we have right now. Then it will also apply to the other causes that the leads fight for (activism,destigmatization of mental health stuffs, etc). I'd say it's a combination of Before the Breakdown + Move On musically speaking (yea PMA has influenced me by a LOT). eventually this becomes one of the star numbers fo the show cause yea all the leads will do a shit ton of singing and harmonizing (but for here i'd say Noel and Kate have a tiny bit more of the spotlight since for now they are the ones with the very LGBTQ+ based plotlines). I really REEAAALLY want this song to work aaaa i've been playing around with the melody a lot recently and if i can't write the whole musical, then i'll be content with at the very least writing this song

+ "Try Lang Natin" or "Let's Try It Out" - this is a very barebones sequence atm but basically it's a scene where both Kate and Ella come to terms with their fears related to uncertainty and go "fuck it we don't know jackshit about the future anyway so why not ondulge a bit and ejoy what we have today" and decide to start going out with each other YAYYYYY and also this is like one of the few scenes here were Ella is much more visibly nervous compared to everyone else in the scene so yay for helping each other come to terms with their own vulnerabilities WOOOOO (also paige i remember you saying once that kate and eva could've had a Forever reprise duet right? And correct me if i'm wrong but i think u said it could be about eva assuring kate that she won't go anywhere? WELP I'M STEALING THAT JFJSJJDF /lh /hj AND YUP KATE AND ELLA ARE BASICALLY UM KINDA KATEVA IF YOU SQUINT SO THANK YOU PAIGE FOR THAT IDEAAAA)

AND THAT'S IT SO FAR WOO THIS TOOK ME 5 HOURS TO TYPE IT ALL OUT FJDJSJFF i'm kinda impressed with this ngl considering that i literally started making this up last night and i hope that i can make something out of it woo

And if you guys somehow reached the end of the post and have read every single thing, I'm sending you a lot of hugs and a lot of milkshakes