#(and we haven’t had any songs that fit in his arc either)

[stone-stars]

a while ago i saw a post by @sideblogdotjpeg about how the cycles in c3 seem a lot more personal/familial. and i kind of went insane in the tags at the time and i’ve been thinking about it a lot since because like…

you have the heroic cycles that the band of boobs parallel/break on this large scale. the idea of these broken trios of adventurers is there throughout the campaign, but they really start to engage with it towards the end— with the divine hearts, and thiala, and the wheel of suffering/wheel of joy idea. the thing hardwon says as he takes the divine heart, that no matter what anybody chooses from then on it’s with love in their hearts, i feel is very relevant to how they break the cycle. they love each other, and they choose over and over to hold each other tighter rather than be driven apart.

and on the other hand, you have duck team’s refusal of fate vs their family’s resignation to it. look at swag working with mothership, oliana’s contrition, and the stuff that is currently ongoing with gowan. you know— sol is a version of swag who fully rejected mothership and found his friends instead. callie refused to be a part of her family’s business, and her love for the wild and the serpents is giving the world a chance. calder, when he makes the deal with ultrus, telling callie and sol that he trusts them to save him. and now calder is refusing to sit back and let gowan handle things in the ice knife.

it's not that duck team aren't trying to save the world. they are. and it's not that the boobs didn't have a personal connection to the cycles they were breaking. they did. but it's like... well... how do i put this into words. right--

the song melora's boon plays when the boobs arrive at the heart of the world and speak to melora. when she talks to beverly about duty, shows him the places he faltered and how at the last second, he gets back up. (later, when they face thiala, bev doesn't go unconscious once. at one point, he's the only one standing.) for sol, this is the song that plays when he expresses his fear of going down again. when he admits to callie that he's scared of the day that she and calder are down and he's the one that needs to stand up alone. when callie says she's not afraid of that day, and sol finds himself empowered by the mushroom in his chest. the moment that sets up sol's long death monk ability, where he's able to refuse to go down and keep on fighting.

melora’s boon is also the song that plays for moonshine’s boon at the heart of the world. there are actually two songs in this scene, hardwon’s is different, and the transition back happens when melora says there’s a part of herself that moonshine hasn’t embraced. when she speaks to moonshine leading her people to a better future like an alpha wolf leading her pack. for callie, it plays when she tells hardwon and sol that she’s a liability and she needs to change— to embrace winter— in order to get calder back, even as they reassure her that she doesn’t. it also plays when callie asks the others to help her protect honeysuckle while he’s weakened. when they promise to lead honeysuckle home and free him from his connections to gromdal.

the writing on the wall plays when the boobs reach the court of gods. there's the wall of prayers there, and they hear the prayers of the people of bahumia, reaching out to them. prayers of protection-- for and by them. prayers that put the future of bahumia in their hands. for callie, this is the song that plays when she sees aryox's carving of her reaching the cave. when she realizes her mother acted the way she did because she could see what was coming in the future. when she realizes her mother was leaving the world in her hands.

the songs that the boobs first encounter at the end— when they’re basically demigods stepping up to face thiala— return for duck team in these personal moments. when sol finds the strength to refuse death. when callie talks about embracing winter, her mother’s season, something she eventually finds strength in, to save her friend. when callie asks the others to help honeysuckle, one of the serpents that she’s promised to protect partially due to the harm her family caused to the wild. and when callie realizes her mother saw the future and acted as she did because of it, pushing callie to walk the path she’s walking now.

anyway. this was a post about naddpod music.

#naddpod #ba2mia #naddmusic tag #sorry to leave calder out his story is too ongoing to fit yet #(and we haven’t had any songs that fit in his arc either) #if we get a late stage bahumia song during this arc #for calder and gowan im gonna fucking. die. #truly just going insane over here anyway #like obviously on a meta level the reason the songs were never used for the bob #before the endgame is bc they weren’t written yet #but like. when you start to think about it #it kind of fits that it happens like this #there’s also more examples like i just want to know you’re taken care of #which is used in c1e91 for moonshine and paw paw’s convo #being used for callie and foster in ep10 #of c3 #specifically in the context of callie’s love and her fear of loving big #(contrasted against moonshine resigning herself to hell and her fear of that future) #anyway if i keep talking abt this i’ll explode so #enjoy? i guess? #hanbles

[sage-nebula]

The World Ends With Three — Character Concept

Since it came out that the protagonists of the first two games are based on the “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil”, many of us in the fandom have been speculating on the protagonist of the third game, and how they might fit into it with something that covers their eyes to complete the trinity. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, and so I went ahead and created a concept for a protagonist for a potential third game.

Meet Kyoko Kondo ( 近藤 恭子 Kondo Kyoko)

(Image created using this picrew, albeit with some color alterations in Pixlr.)

The kanji chosen for “Kyoko” mean “respectful; reverent” and “child”, while the kanji for Kondo mean “near; early; tantamount” and “wisteria”. So, respectful child of wisteria (flowers/trees). This name isn’t too obviously connected to music and sound, however, I was inspired to use the name Kyoko because of the Japanese word kyoku, which means “composition; piece of music; song.” Her family name, meanwhile, was borrowed from Kondo Koji, who is a music composer who composes music for video games. Given that Neku also shares his family name with a video game music composer (Sakuraba Motoi), I figured it was appropriate.

As for what her deal is . . .

Kyoko is a 19 year old former university student currently living in Shibuya, Japan. She’s a former university student because she recently dropped out due to struggling in her classes. See, Kyoko’s deal is that she doesn’t deal with problems or struggles; when something gets too hard, challenging, or stressful, she drops it and bails. Symbolically, she always wears rose-colored sunglasses, because she pretends like everything is fine and everything will work out while being willfully blind to any struggles or issues she has, choosing instead to pretend they don’t exist. Hence, see no evil. (Or in modern meme terms, “I pretend I do not see it.”) She has been able to get away with this because she has financially secure parents who are willingly to financially support her regardless of what she does, as well as a network of friends and online supporters that she can also go to for backup. So when the game starts, Kyoko is both out of school and out of work, living in an apartment paid for by her parents, basically coasting and surfing through life without any real ambition or desire to try to succeed on her own.

So obviously, when she’s killed and finds herself in the Reaper’s Game, she’s forced to come face to face with reality real quick . . . even though she still does her very best not to for a while. She’s stubborn, you see. She doesn’t want to accept hard realities, figures there has to be an easy way out. But her entry fee is her memory and ability to contact everyone who would have helped her in the past, as well as their memories of her, meaning that even if she could find some way to get in contact with them, she can’t. Meanwhile, other Players in the Game aren’t exactly going to be okay with her coasting through and not helping on missions or wanting to run from every single Noise fight, and the Reapers won’t take it easy on her, either. So while she at first refuses to believe she’s dead and has to play the Game, and then accepts that she’s dead but STILL doesn’t want to play, she eventually has to learn to face reality even when it’s unpleasant and actually put in effort to solve her struggles and pull her weight.

Design-wise, I picked clothes closest to Jupiter of the Monkey that I could, in terms of design and color. Her jacket would absolutely be Jupiter of the Monkey, as well as her pants and shoes; the undershirt might be Gatto Nero or Tigre Punks. 

Anyway, obviously it’s unrealistic that we could ever expect a female protagonist (much less one who is nearly an adult), but I had fun designing Kyoko anyway! She starts out stubborn, somewhat selfish, lazy, and unmotivated, but ends determined, generous, proactive, and motivated. It’d be a full character arc and one that I imagine would be nice to see play out, if only because it’s always nice to see characters who you want to get their shit together actually, you know, get it together.

#the world ends with you #neo: the world ends with you #character concept #kondo kyoko #twewy oc #Kyoko: [tries mission & doesn't know how to solve it immediately] ''Well that's all I've got lol I'm done'' #Kyoko's Partner: ??? ''are you fucking with me rn???'' #it'd be a wild time

[firelxdykatara]

I really like hearing your thoughts on ships, so I was just wondering what you thought about the episode 'Seeing Red' from Buffy as a Spuffy shipper. I love the ship too and remember being so uncomfortable watching that episode. It felt like it came out of no where while I was marathoning the show

Ok so, I’ve been sitting with this for a while (my inbox is telling me it’s been 10 days......time plz stop moving without me noticing), mostly because it’s... a really Touchy topic, for a lot of (very obvious, to anyone familiar with the episode or the arc) reasons.

CW for discussion of attempted sexual assault and rape ahead. (I’m gonna talk a bit about Willow too.)

First of all, I wanna state that I understand why Seeing Red was a ‘point of no return’ for many people. There are a lot of people for whom sexual assault/rape is The Thing they simply cannot get past and they could never see Spike or Spuffy the same again, and that’s valid and understandable. For me, personally, I don’t consider it any more or less reprehensible than murder or anything else vampires and demons get up to in the show because they’re monsters and very specifically Not Human, but at the same time it felt gratuitous and unnecessary (like the writers were trying to remind us Spike was really evil right before he went to get his soul back of his own accord, and I’ll talk a bit more about that later), and the episode itself is difficult to watch. (Also because it includes Tara’s death, which wrecks me to this day.)

It’s also been a very long time since I’ve seen the episode in question, mostly because I haven’t done a full rewatch in years, and when I do watch Buffy it’s either starting from the beginning and then losing track of where i was and starting over again, or else jumping to random episodes throughout the show which I enjoy and watching those by themselves (and Seeing Red is very much not on that list lol). So I rewatched it just to refresh my memory and....god there are a lot of other reasons I don’t care for this episode. (Xander was exceptionally horrific to Buffy re: finding out she was sleeping with Spike. Gods I dislike him more and more the older I get.)

In general, it’s just a really hard episode to watch. (And I’ll never forgive Joss for finally putting Amber Benson in the opening credits, only to kill her that same episode.) There’s a lot of ugliness, and the Trio are among the worst villains in the show--not in terms of how they’re written (they feel kind of terrifyingly realistic, although they also seem kind of exceptionally meta in light of how much has come out in the last decade about Joss Whedon’s own attitudes and behavior and treatment of women), but because every other big bad with very few exceptions has the excuse of being a soulless vampire or a demon or a hellgod or some other monster that can’t really help the fact that they were made that way. The Trio are just normal dudes who think they’re entitled to women and money and power and are willing to do absolutely anything to get all three, proving that maybe it isn’t really the presence or absence of a soul that actually makes humans, like, humane.

But that’s me side-tracking. As far as Spuffy goes, yeah, this episode is pretty brutal. There’s no mincing words here--Spike attempted to rape Buffy, and he only stopped and had his ‘oh my god, what have I done’ realization after she managed to kick him off. If she hadn’t, he probably wouldn’t have stopped. And I can almost understand it, from a writing perspective--how do you make a soulless vampire realize that he’s truly a monster and, further, how do you finally get him to want to change that? Make him cross a line he never had before. Except... that really wasn’t necessary. Not for his character arc, nor for his relationship with Buffy, and a part of me thinks that it was really intennded to just drive home the message that Spike was a monster, and that Buffy could never really love him, and the easiest way to communicate that was sexual violence, something that the show never really had its vampires engage in previously. So it would be a shock to the audience, it would throw Spike’s motives into question when he went to get his soul back, and it would make his presence in season 7 a constant question, plus provide a reason for Buffy not to trust him.

I think all of this could have been achieved without the sexual violence. I think the scene was largely done for shock value--again, to douse the audience with ice water and remind them that Spike, no matter how chummy he’d seemed with the Scoobies since getting chipped and eventually working with them, was still a monster. But we really didn’t need that reminder, and I think it would’ve made more sense for him to simply attempt to kill her--still a betrayal, still shocking, still something that could spur him into the actions he would take afterwards (going to get his soul restored), but without the exceedingly uncomfortable attempted rape scene in a season where there had already been serious issues with consent.

I’m talking, specifically, about Willow.

There’s something interesting I’ve noticed in fandom, and it’s that people really don’t seem to want to talk about or acknowledge the fact that Willow raped Tara. Maybe because it was via magic, rather than violence--or because it was never really called what it actually was in the narrative, or because they’re The Gay Ship of btvs, I don’t know. But she did--when she spelled Tara to forget about their serious fight which had been building for weeks, and then went to bed with her. And then explicitly had sex with her the next day. It’s part of why I’ve always had a complicated relationship with “Under Your Spell”--I love the song, but it’s also literally spelling out the fact that Tara’s mind had been violated by the woman she loved and she could not consent to sex while under the spell.

So that moment was already toeing the line in terms of consent and at least Tara was able to talk about how Willow violated her mind and how that made her feel (in song, at that), but Seeing Red was like a slap in the face. Where Willow’s magic addiction and willingness to cross those lines had been building for more than a year, Spike attempting to rape Buffy came out of nowhere. This isn’t a show that explored any really complicated relationship between vampires and consent (in The Vampire Diaries, for example, vampires have an ability called compulsion and compelling humans that they then have sex with is pretty normal and no one really blinks about it, human or vampire; it’s definitely still rape, but it’s not treated as anything particularly beyond the pale, because they’re vampires who can control the minds of their prey and don’t tend to consider the feelings of their food sources to be of any real importance), and while the vampires are hot and have sex, there’s never been any indication that they sexually assault humans in addition to feeding on them.

I think that specific scene in Seeing Red is the hardest to watch in the entire show. There’s really nothing like it in any other episode or with any other villain, and it has a tendency to sit in the back of the mind and sour feelings about Spike and Spuffy because it’s genuinely difficult to forget. I’m not sure if the intention was really to turn people off Spuffy (especially since he got his soul and came back in season 7 and Buffy forgave him and fell in love with him), but that was certainly the effect it had on a lot of people.

For me, personally, like I’ve said I don’t like the scene and I don’t think it was necessary, which is why I tend to ignore it as much as possible when I’m thinking about Spike and Buffy and their relationship. It’s a thing I know that happened, but I also know that I don’t think it was particularly fitting from a character perspective, and that makes it easy for me to file it away as sloppy writing and generally OOC, and move on. Again, I can definitely understand why some people can’t or don’t want to do that, but I also know that a lot of people continue to love Spike and Spuffy and I don’t think I’m alone in considering that moment to be OOC for him and generally try to ignore it in my meta and other analysis of the show.

#spuffy #buffy summers #spike #seeing red cw #btvs #btvs meta #spuffy meta #seeing red meta #asked #Anonymous

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Why You Should Watch SKET Dance

Why You Should Watch SKET Dance

If I were to tell you what I took away from SKET Dance from old lessons to new, I would say that it said something along the lines of this:

“You are not the mistakes you made in the past. You are not defined the person you were before. If anything, the past is something that you cannot change, but you can surpass those regrets and try to change for the better. Trauma is something that cannot be left behind, but it can get better, especially when you are surrounded by the right people and support. Helping people doesn’t always change the world, but it can change the world of that person and maybe even yours.”

That cheesy quote took a while to write (so did this whole post), but that’s because I wanted to get it right. I wasn’t even sure where to start with this post of sorts.

I will warn ahead of time that if you aren’t familiar with anime, SKET Dance might be an overreach. It does have some references that are niche, and it has a lot of “manzai” (tsukkomi/boke) jokes with tons of mentions. There is fanservice, but no more than you’d see in some of the other series that were released under Shonen Jump. Sometimes the humour and everything can be a little cringy, but I think that’s a given with the fact that you are watching anime.

(This is spoiler-free, gluten-free, no trans fat, and took me too much time.)

Story

I get that it’s like Gintama, but I wouldn’t say it’s a “poor man’s Gintama”. Instead, take it for what it is. It’s like comparing a younger sibling to the older sibling. You’re not letting SketDan shine on its own, and it deserves to.

SketDan has a really simplistic story. It’s about a school club that wants to help people. There is no big war, massive battles, or over-the-top villain that needs to be crushed. I can’t say that it’s episodic, but it definitely leans towards the more “slice-of-life” approach. It has its own arcs that come one after another in good bits and pieces. This series balances itself so well with its drama and comedy. The backstories were done so well, and they didn’t even get to all of them! In fact, one of the best ones was left just in the manga.

The story is made by the characters. It doesn’t rely on the environment or the world around them. Instead, the world to them are the people they are surrounded by. No aliens, samurai, ninjas, or great big event, it’s just them, their high school, and their unconventional club.

Characters

This has got to go down as one of the best ensemble trios in anime. All of them do get their time to develop, and they balance each other out so well. You’d think these characters were friends for their entire lives. I can’t even say who’s the best because I think they’re all the best!

Bossun is a sensitive guy who’s insecure about being the main character of this series (yes, he does mention that). He doesn’t have any spectacular “Shonen Jump” skills. He has no “bankai”, “rasengan”, or “Kamehameha”. He has a hat and goggles. His power is concentration. These are completely valid reasons to be worried about your character status because, on the surface, Bossun sounds downright pathetic (and he knows it). But through the story, you get to see why he’s actually one of the best main characters out there (even if the cast doesn’t want to acknowledge it).

Himeko is one of the coolest characters in this series. I haven’t seen a weapon of that kind… ever. She isn’t afraid to slap the stuff out of anyone and will do anything for a friend. I don’t want to get into her character too much due to spoilers, but it’s revealed early on that she is quite legendary. She’s quite important for the humour of this story. It’s often brought up that she’s the “tsukkomi” (the one who responds to the “boke” stupid).

Last but not least of the great trio, we have Switch. This is probably the character I was most blindsided by. Even though I knew his backstory beforehand (nobody stops me from clicking from “show spoiler” button, it’s quite a problem). He’s the local otaku and database. And he’s probably the most observant. Even though he never “talks”, he’s one of the funniest characters in the series even when he isn’t in the limelight. I legally cannot dig into more about his character due to spoilers. You really need to see it for yourself.

The supporting cast is nothing to put aside either. A lot of them become more and more important as time passes, and the roles they play soon play right into the main plot of the story. We’ve got someone who speaks in “yabasu”, a ghostly occult member, a samurai, a captain, a tsundere, a visual kei star who doesn’t speak in any actual language, a 1.8m tall woman who can literally murder you with a slap, a voice actress idol movie star, and a teacher who makes drugs and bombs. That doesn’t even touch on the student counsel. Anyways, discovering these characters is part of the charm.

Art

There are too many good faces in this anime. While the art isn’t always consistent, it’s never “bad”.

The faces in this anime are on-par with other comedy anime. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Music

*downloads all the music*

I’m going to pretend like I haven’t listened to some of these on repeat since I finished the anime. Not all anime will literally have a designated band that are made after the characters. That was a really nice touch. There are a ton of special insert songs that go with certain arcs too.

SKET Dance is like any other anime in a way. It benefits from having a good OST. A good OST will add to the story. It will add to the anime, and it will convey all the right feelings. It helps with the comedy, the drama, and the random “what am I watching” moments.

Seiyuu

I wanted to save this category for last. This anime actually changed the way that I look at all the main seiyuu of this anime. It’s not that often that the Vomics (voice acted comics) have the same cast as the anime. They fit their characters so well, and I really can’t express that enough. I associate their voices with their character. It’s like how you can look at a picture of your favourite character and remember exactly what they sound like (or maybe that’s just me).

I haven’t actually heard a lot of lead roles by Hiroyuki Yoshino because he has such a uniquely odd voice. I think the last anime I watched where he actually played the protagonist was Kekkaishi which was quite a while ago. He did well for that role too. Another anime where he played one of the main characters was in Hai to Gensou no Grimgar which didn’t have a very enjoyable cast compared to other anime including SKET Dance (but still worth checking out if you like tamer isekai). I’ve also seen him play a suave character, but I actually skipped most of his lines going, “Not this again.” Present Mic is a character that he seems to be popular for, but those specific niche characters didn’t give him nearly the range that Bossun did. From the moments we were laughing with him and at him to the serious moments that really made me go quiet, it felt like he was truly the character.

Ryouko Shiraishi is such an underrated seiyuu. She admits that she doesn’t have a very cutesy voice, and due to that, the number of female characters she can play goes down, but I wouldn’t dismiss how great she is. For one, she’s really good at the Kansai dialect. Second, she plays a lot of younger male characters. She makes Himeko really cute but also really tough and spunky. She carries a lot of the humour as the reactor “tsukkomi”. And if you’ve watched Demon Slayer, she plays one of the demons and is so good at it. I really like her unique voice because it deviates from the norm just like Himeko’s character.

Gintoki—I mean Tomokazu Sugita is great as Switch, and even though sometimes we forget that he’s a legitimate voice actor who can actually voice act and not just scream on command. Of course, he’s funny. That goes without saying. Almost all of his well-known characters are known for being funny. Even the guy in real life is really funny. I’m not sure how much explanation would be needed for him.

Summary

Overall, I had such a good time with this anime. It made me laugh, feel the feels, and really smile (I mean the type that people really ask you what the heck you’re watching because you’re smiling like you just watched someone you hate fall down the stairs). It reminded me of what I liked from comedy anime, but it also reminded me what I like about anime that take it to basics with just its characters. Actions and battles are good once in a while, but the characters are the heart, soul, and being of this anime. If you’re looking for a good laugh or smile with a ton of gags and jokes with a great ensemble cast, look no further! SKET Dance is here!

I’m going to recommend this anime to anyone who has read this, @azroazizah​, @brettyblease​, @tsukiomoon​, and anyone else who likes those Shonen Jump shenanigans.

P.S. It is totally worth picking up the manga after watching the anime.

#sket dance #anime recommendation

[pekorosu]

just a lil “if ash lived” headcanon that i need to unload somewhere bc i've been holding it in for a long time

- set within the manga ‘verse

- takes place when ash and eiji are in their early 30s... so around the mid 1990s?

- i don’t get the weird animanga trope where older = longer hair, so they’re gonna look the same... maybe with slightly shorter hair bc they get regular haircuts now 

- (note: i've always interpreted long-haired eiji as symbolic of the fact that he couldn't move on from ash’s death)

- ash and eiji will continue living in the states, idk if still in NYC or somewhere else. they’ll move around a lot though.

- ash will mostly remain underground as he had to fake his death after lao’s stab, but he does it in a "hiding in plain sight" kind of way. only a handful of people know he’s still alive.  

- ash spends most of his time on the computer, mostly coding, hacking, being a nerd, among other fun stuff.

- he also takes on “jobs” anonymously, and occasionally from max (who’s still into investigative journalism) when he needs info that can only be obtained through Dubious Means.

- i also like to think that ash's a bit of a hacker robin hood lol. but he isn’t doing it purely out of the goodness of his heart, as part of it is a subconscious need to atone for his “sins” and cleanse the gnawing and persistent feeling of shame that gets amplified when he’s around eiji.

- also whatever he’s up to these days would ofc still be Highly Dangerous and Illegal, but it keeps him busy and would sate the part of him that’s still hungry for adrenaline without him having to engage in stuff like active bloodshed or substance abuse. basically that’s how i imagine he’d try to cope with life the only way he knows.

- eiji continues to do photography and other part time gigs bc he does not like the idea of mooching off ash forever, and he slowly makes a name for himself.

- ash and eiji live together but they are NOT together in a romantic sense... not yet >:)

- therefore eiji will probably date other people in the meantime, which gets a little troublesome bc it's not like he can bring them home to where his secret Very Important Friend is secretly hiding.

- ash will maybe have one-night stands every now and then. or not. idk. this isn’t a very important detail.

- anyway there will be lots of clueless but mutual pining :)

- ash especially, is of the opinion that they should start living separately bc someone will eventually track him down, maybe someone who has a past or present grudge on him. combined with his current activities, it’s only a matter of time before eiji would unwittingly get dragged into his problems again.

- eiji is v adamantly against that plan bc he's sorta developed a debilitating sense of paranoia that ash might just get killed somewhere while he’s not looking. not that ash isn’t paranoid either, but his insecurities often tip the scale over to “eiji is safer away from me” than “with me”.

- basically they’re doing their whole “stay. no, leave. no, stay” dance all over again, but like, dragged out over MANY YEARS.

- you thought eiji’s letter would’ve cleared up any crossed wires? 

- HELL NO

- like yea, there was probably a beautiful honeymoon period of about a year or two after they reunited, before their respective trauma and issues started creeping in and fucking things up again.

- esp on ash’s end, i think he’d engage in a lot of self-sabotage. and eiji is only human, he has his own limits and baggage too.

- there will be a government conspiracy plotline but on a smaller scale compared to canon that i am unfortunately not knowledgeable enough to worldbuild on, but it will probably have something to do with cybercrime/cyberterrorism/stuff like that bc it needs to tie in with ash's hacking shenanigans.

- i've heard that sing ends up becoming some sorta political big shot in yasha? idk, i haven't read it myself, but since china’s rising status was mentioned in GoL i imagine the plot should relate to that somehow.

- therefore sing would also get to be in this story! 

- i guess this means yut-lung would come into the picture at some point as well, and it would be a good opportunity for a redemption arc but i haven’t given it much of a thought bc i’m indifferent to his character orz SORRY.

- look i can’t do plot, but i am basically envisioning a political thriller with a side of slow burn romance (wait, you mean like a rehash of canon?)

- i’m thinking max is the one who kicks off the story by bringing something fishy to ash, and they just end up uncovering more and more and MORE stuff as they keep going.

- so for like 80% of the story, ash and eiji will be separated bc ash will be busy spying or infiltrating something... and being at the center of Plot Things, while max and eiji will be more on the outside dealing with the journalist side of things. i’m fond of max-ash interactions but i’m also REALLY CURIOUS about max-eiji’s dynamic :D

- meanwhile sing will be like, half in and half out i imagine. he's versatile like that lol

- ...i did NOT mean that in a dirty way

- anyway, this will provide ash and eiji ample space to work out their issues separately, as i think living in close quarters for so many years has actually been aggravating them. ofc those issues don’t get 100% resolved by the end, but some time apart from each other to cool off and spend with other people should provide a bit of perspective.

- i want ash to make some NEW FRIENDS (!!!) that are on the same wavelength as him bc there’s only so much that he can tell eiji and i’m sure he gets rather lonely, so there will be OCs that he will meet in the middle of Plot Things.

- ash will get trapped at some point. preferably with sing so they can have a much needed heart-to-heart talk. they’ll have a lot to hash out, ranging from the events in BF, shorter’s and lao’s death, all the way to ash’s love life. 

- btw i like the idea of eiji and sing being close drinking buddies who confide in one another but ash is kinda, justalittle, not very happy about that LOL 

- i mean, it's not like eiji can confide in ash when ash is the topic at hand, ya get me? as for sing, he’s similar to ash in the sense that they live dangerous lives, so i imagine he just finds it nice to be able to hang out with someone mundane like eiji every now and then.

- not to say that ash and sing aren’t talking to each other at all, but i think they’d have a bit of a rift between them. sing probably does feel some resentment, both at ash for killing lao AND at himself bc he knows deep down that given a choice, he would’ve saved ash over his own brother. ash can sense that tortured vibe, so eiji’s like their middle man. AND THAT’S WHY THEY NEED A HEART-TO-HEART TALK

- (SIDE NOTE: i want akira to have a role in this too. i actually have a separate headcanon that happens prior to this story... kinda like an alternate GoL? 

akira goes to the states to visit eiji, but ash is also there, yeah? akira and ash start out sorta prickly with each other bc ash is all weird and standoffish and always cooped up in his room. she probably mistook him as a jobless model mooching off eiji at first since 1) eiji and ibe have never spoken about him back in japan (cuz he’s supposed to be dead), 2) why would eiji be living with some random hot guy? unless they met during one of his photography gigs? right??? 

and then she ends up witnessing them in the middle of a tiff, which makes her not like ash even more bc HOW DARE HE YELL AT POOR OKUMURA-SAN??? UNGRATEFUL JERK!!!

but over the course of her visit, she snoops around learns a bit about their history and gathers hints as to why their r’ship is kinda strained. also ash and akira somehow end up bonding (reluctantly) over their emotional insecurities and part on a friendly rivalry to win over eiji’s affections (which eiji is completely oblivious to. also akira may have been 100% serious but ash was just jokingly playing along with her (OR WAS HE???)). anyway long story short, ash teaches akira some cool tech/IT stuff along the way so that leads to her gaining an interest in the field. 

she won’t be able to do much in this story, but a minor role would be cool :)

 ^ a lighthearted gyoza-making scene amid all the angst)

- (SIDE NOTE #2: i ALSO want cain to feature in this, but bc canon provided very little bg info on him it’s hard for me to figure out where he’d fit. but i suppose that’s precisely why it would be great to include him, since i can just make up my own backstory! lol. for now, i think he should be connected to one of the new OCs to make him more central to the plot. or heck, he can be involved himself! ...yeah, i’m just salty about how cain was treated more like a convenient plot device compared to the other major side characters. we barely know anything about him even though he was one of ash’s most trusted allies. #caindeservedbetter2k20)

- anyway, back to the main story. ash (and his new "friends") barely escape where they’re held hostage. ash would be rusty with combat now as he’s spent the past few years doing only stealth work and being rather sedentary. 

- so there’ll be lotsa old man!ash jokes like them poking fun at him whenever he complains about his back hehe

- when they finally emerge outside they find themselves in the middle of nowhere! they then hijack a passing pickup truck and do a roadtrip back to civilisation. ROAD TRIP FTW

- at this point, quite some time has already passed and ash even has a fuzzy beard and mane and all. he’s standing at the back of the truck with a small smile on his face and the wind blowing in his hair, thinking GONNA GO BACK AND SEE EIJI, MISS HIM LOADS, HELL YEA 

- (bonus: this song and this scene is the catalyst for this entire headcanon btw)

(drew this about a year ago. i was trying to imitate the manga’s art style... and the ash i had in my mind was a little different. i’m too lazy to redraw, but he’s fuzzier now okay! MORE FUZZ! like an actual freakin LION!)

- meanwhile, eiji and max will get into some deep shit around this point? 

- eiji in the pic above was me imagining that the Bad Guys had tossed some damning evidence (eg. severed body part?) on the ground like “ash’s dead/ash’s in a lot of danger now so hand over all the info u have”

- and eiji and max are like. SHOOKETH

- this would be the 3rd time ash has “died” after all, and as they say... 3rd time's the charm...

- eiji almost gives in, but then max spits in their face like fuck no and then... yeah. they get beat up and taken away or something lol

- EDIT: hmm... what if the Bad Guy is someone IN the government, and he uses his power to get eiji and max arrested for aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive (ash). and then ash has to rescue them... JAILBREAK STYLE

- also it might be cool to introduce ash's mom somewhere in this story... maybe SHE'S the villain! mwahaha *drama intensifies*

- anyways they will get saved by ash and gang bc that’s just the way things go, BUT! only on the condition they already made it out at least 80% of the way bc GODDAMN IT👏LET👏EIJI👏BE👏BADASS👏FOR👏ONCE👏 

- (that is, after he overcomes the initial shock of ash possibly being dead again... again...... again............)

- there will ofc be moments of “oh my god, you’re okay” "i thought i lost you...!"

- something like this, because one can never have enough cheesy reunion scenes

- this will eventually lead to REVELATIONS (of the romantic kind, yes) 

- buuuut they will never say "i love you" directly to each other bc ash is too emotionally constipated and eiji is too japanese. it's okay, they will communicate it through heated stares 👀

- i would love for there to be a scene where they have to be separated again for Plot Reasons and ash sorta hesitantly goes all "...will you wait for me?" as a direct parallel to canon!eiji's "i'll be waiting" and it’s like,

- FINALLY! 

- FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! ash has finally allowed himself to ask for this, to let himself want it! 

- and eiji would be like OF COURSE I WILL YOU BIG DUMMY, ALWAYS AND FOREVER

- but i think it'd be hilarious if eiji pops up while ash's in the middle of the final showdown and ash's like WTF I TOLD YOU TO WAIT FOR ME and eiji's like I WAS WORRIED OKAY YOU WERE TAKING SO LONG

- idk how this is supposed to end...

- oh wait! since the plot is government-related, maybe Someone will be able to pull strings to wipe out ash’s criminal record (past and present) and give him a brand new 100% legal identity, as thanks for his efforts? or maybe ash (or sing) just does it himself somewhere along the way LOL. anyway, he’ll be able to start over with a fresh clean slate and finally work on recovery FOR REAL NOW. yes this is a happy ending AND it didn’t require him to go to japan /flips off canon

- ...i realise it’s never going to be that simple but W H A T E V E R

- (also they probably will visit japan in the future with that shiny new passport... gotta meet the in-laws and all y’know)

- who do i gotta pay to write this cheesy self-indulgent fic for me

#since tumblr is for talking to myself that is exactly what im gonna do now #a very long self-indulgent post // #banana fish

[aeide-thea]

This is a gentle request for any Geraskier fics you want to rec, because the number of them in the tag is a bit overwhelming but I KNOW there are gems in there 👀

i’m pretty sure i’ve reblogged things in the past! but it’s true that i haven’t done that in any systematic way, so—let’s see. under the cut are 20-ish recs alphabetized by author, which seemed like a good way of avoiding having to make any hierarchical declarations:

o, empathy by almostnectarine/@nectarine-pit: bodyswap! i forgot how much i loved this fic. geralt and jaskier walk a mile in each other’s shoes, and learn to appreciate each other better; this is keenly observed and thought-through, and frequently extremely funny. a thoroughgoing delight.

Jaskier pulled a face and swiveled the straps such that both swords almost fell from their scabbards at once, ruining the moment. “Geralt,” he said, “this leather itches. You’ve lived five lifetimes—” “Not that old,” said Geralt, in protest, and then, considering: “Maybe three.” “—and you never once thought, hm— oh, I see why you do that all the time, it is quite fun, isn’t it— hm, maybe I’ll add a little padding?!” His mimicry of Geralt’s tone was very good, although perhaps it was cheating, when the voice was already the same.

public displays of affection by autoschediastic/@bluesoaring: geralt and jaskier go to a sex party! (not to be confused with the other fic by sospes in which geralt and jaskier go to a sex party, which is also excellent.) if that wasn’t enough of a sell, well, you confuse me, but—the flavor of the power dynamic here is a little complex and unusual in a way i enjoyed, plus frankly the description of geralt stripped down for this party is really, uh. really A Lot. i admit to being biased in favor of sex party stories in general but this one is definitely a keeper.

to you always, also by autoschediastic/@bluesoaring: in which geralt is a demanding, insatiable bottom. ...honestly, this fic has significantly more emotional weight to it than that description might suggest, but i still stand by it. also the initial setup is just really funny to me, because jaskier getting hilariously outraged by geralt’s sheer infuriating geralt-ness is, like, my fave flavor of jaskier. (that’s a lie, every flavor of jaskier is my favorite flavor of jaskier, but i do really delight in this one.)

@blossomsinthemist’s mixing memory and desire series (wip) is basically my favorite thing ever, like, just truly perfectly crafted to please me personally. it’s h/c, and just astonishingly luxuriant and languorous and lovely—or, okay, let me actually just quote a comment i left on an early chapter:

this is just so exquisitely tender and molasses-lovely-sweet so far, my god the glimpses we get dimly through geralt’s hazy bemused perception of what jaskier’s feeling are so heart-clenchingly poignant—and then of course the glimpses of what geralt himself is feeling for jaskier without understanding it, this stunned rapt gratitude for everything jaskier is doing but also everything jaskier is, the lovely gentle sturdy solicitous gift he is & keeps making of himself to geralt, who would probably call it undeserved except that of course we can see precisely what in geralt has tugged this tenderness from jaskier, this terrible aching wounded gallantry that’s so astonished to meet with respite…

the meet death sitting (wip) series by @bomberqueen17 is my other favorite thing—much plottier than the previous, with a much wider cast of characters, and while i’m ultimately in it for the geralt/jaskier and therefore being strung along in exquisite agony while all sorts of plot things get in the way of any real resolution of that, it’s honestly worth it; what you lose in immediate gratification you gain in, like, a sense that this story inhabits a real, full world, with real events that aren’t just arranged to suit our heroes’ convenience. if i could only get you to read two things it would be this series and the previous one: between them they have my heart. anyway i guess i may as well quote myself again:

it’s the rich realistic interweaving of things that’s so remarkable here, how the absolute throat-thickening aches run abruptly up against the entirely mundane and all of it has to be coped with, because that’s life, and this story has life within it, in a realer way than probably anything else in the fandom, maybe anything else i’ve read in a long time. and of course a large part of me is so, so desperate for geralt and jaskier to finally come back together, with enough time and space to settle into a mutual secure tenderness instead of the current wordless, longing, poised-always-to-spring-away-like-deer-in-a-forest situation; but the story is coaxing me into a more adult patience, an appreciation for the smaller quieter incidental pleasures that aren’t the one subsuming great love, and then also teaching me to live with the wounds one inevitably acquired along the way, the pull and ache of those that makes the whole thing real, not a shining fantasy but a homely pie with a rich satisfying filling, savory and bolstering.

my body bruises at your touch by @brawlite: jaskier gets tied up by geralt as bait for the monster of the week, and discovers he likes it quite a bit. smut (and then aftercare) ensues.

demand an encore (wip) by emamel/@theaceace: jaskier is a witcher of the viper school, or used to be. he doesn’t remember it, but geralt does.

it’s been a while since i read this, but the way the layers slowly start fitting together is really satisfying: all the joy of what i think the kids call ‘identity porn,’ with the twist that here, it’s geralt who knows both identities, and jaskier who’s still in ignorance. ugh, i want chapter 3 now.

musica universalis by flirtygaybrit is bookverse and clearly so—it’s not romantic, but there’s a particular ambiguous flavor of solicitous tenderness that elevates this ‘friendly drunken hookup’ scenario to something memorable for me.

of cherries and dandelions by heyriel: in which a still-virginal jaskier bites off more than he can chew, and tries to disguise it until he can’t anymore. as i said to the author:

this is lovely and realistic in its navigation of, like, trying to Be Cool and the ways that can sometimes get you in trouble as a young sexplorer—geralt is so good to jaskier here and i’m having feelings about it!

also geralt uses a dildo on jaskier, which was not a thing i’d known i wanted before reading this, but it turns out i’m very decidedly here for it! i haven’t seen a ton of sex toys in geraskier fic and this story makes me wish there were more.

gentle-sharp and strange by lisztful has some excellent touch-starved pining geralt, also a performatively public bath scene with very satisfactory sexual tension, also an Ancient Tradition which is maybe the thing i remember most about this fic.

i know that you would want it (if i could sink my teeth into you) by objectlesson is... look, there’s an actual emotional arc to this story, but really what i always remember about it is that it’s got the most overwhelmingly visceral rimming scene i’ve maybe ever read? it’s a lot, it’s a gift, go read it.

@pasdecoeur has several stories that are very funny with some very piercingly erotic moments! briefly sketched in some ways and more pining than porny but no less effective for it.

benefits by @shastafirecracker is a pwp story in which jaskier is first surprised to find geralt wants him to top, and then determined to give geralt the best dicking he’s ever had. jaskier’s inner dialogue in this one is really fun; geralt’s exterior dialogue is true to the show in that it’s minimal but nonetheless includes a bad pun. :)

even a small love by shecrows/@leighway is like. you think you know how things are going to go, and then jaskier balks and it abruptly swerves sideways and develops a whole plot, and then comes back around to where it started, but deeper and better. don’t you love how you can summarize a fic without saying anything meaningful or even helpful about it? anyway: read this one.

snowmelt by silklace/@silkcoeur is a/b/o and somehow both extremely hilarious and extremely hot in full measure. the banter is a fucking delight but so are the tension/sex/feelings.

It wasn’t until they were well on the road away from town that it really hit him, though possibly he should have been paying attention to the way the backs of his knees had started sweating the minute he’d seen Geralt walking towards him outside of Yennefer’s manor, or to the way his throat had gone hot and dry despite the taste of sweetness still on the back of his teeth from the wine skin he’d pilfered from her pantry on his way out. In his defense, he’d still been recovering from spending the prior evening steadfastly spitting his insides up onto his outsides. Also, he tended to always get a little sweaty around Geralt, a fact they were both apparently extremely united in assiduously pretending was not happening.

the sevenfold path by star_flaming/@europeansdomusicalsbetter: in which jaskier is demonstrably extremely well educated, and geralt has feelings about it. (i also have feelings about it, but mine are in my pants.)

you are in my blood by @suzukiblu​: au where jaskier is a bruxa. this alters his character significantly—hard to be too skittish about bloodletting when you’re a vampire!—but the story’s so engaging you probably won’t care? plus, uh, hot. :)

Jaskier’s just debating how much trouble he’s actually in when Geralt, marvelously, talks them out of it. After that, well... Jaskier still wants to eat him very badly, but he supposes it’d be a bit ungrateful of him. Geralt isn’t very impressed with the song he writes for him, unfortunately—which, rude—but doesn’t try to run off and leave him either, so.. Well, Jaskier’s a bit smitten. A delicious-smelling witcher who can talk his way out of being murdered is very impressive. And he always has wanted a pet.

taran (@iamtaran)’s manhandling without plot series has no sex but lots of violent, compellingly visceral hijinks and i like to think of it as preslash. three times geralt hauls jaskier out of trouble.

Jaskier is flat on his back with his chemise rucked up to his armpits, salve burning on his bruised ribs, breathing hard; he is drunk, but not nearly as drunk as he was when he threw that first punch; Geralt is stupidly strong and has him pinned beneath one hand and the sheer girth of his own hips, looking grumpy and short on patience, and under everything—the aromatic menthol and chamomile smell of the salve, the aching of his cheek and lip, the relief of seeing Geralt just as upright and uninjured as he had been when he left, Jaskier is… He had thought he was furious. He still is, somewhat. Like… like a seed is a flower. It was, at first, before it became something else. And given enough time it might become such again. It is what it is in the meantime, however. Fury. Seeds.

last but not least, @toyhto​ has a bunch of fics that crack me the fuck up: geralt is unbelievably oblivious to his own emotions even as he acts on them, and it’s just—it’s so, so funny. also sometimes quite sweet, and sometimes quite painful! there’s a particular air of, i don’t know, almost see-spot-run impenetrability to the writing here that lends itself perfectly to the thing the stories are doing, where geralt is just operating totally on a surface level and, like, feelings are moving in the deep but he can’t quite see them...

...and that’s all for now! more to come later, maybe; but this seems like plenty for a first pass, and anyway i’m blurbed out.

#the witcher #geraskier #fic #recs

[gumnut-logic]

We’ll be Home For Christmas 4.4

Title: We’ll be home for Christmas

Day Four – Five Billionaires and No Wives – Part 4 Prologue | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4

Author: Gumnut

23 - 29 Apr 2020

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: The boys can’t fly home for Christmas, so they have to find another way.

Word count: 2999

Spoilers & warnings: language and so, so much fluff. Science!Gordon. Artist!Virgil, Minor various ships, mostly background.

Timeline: Christmas Season 3, I have also kinda ignored the main storyline of Season 3. The boys needed a break, so I gave them one. Post season 3B, before Season 3C cos we haven’t seen it yet.

Author’s note: For @scattergraph​​. This is my 2019 TAG Secret Santa fic :D

I’m nervous about this one. I’m chewing nails. Also it is very late and I haven’t reread it as much as I probably should. Aaaargh! I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Many thanks to @scribbles97​​ and @onereyofstarlight​​ for reading through, fielding my many wibblies with this bit, and for all their wonderful support.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

The world tipped up and Gordon found himself airborne. It was only lifelong training that saw him in diving form by the time he hit the water.

The various squawks and splashes of tumbled brothers told him that he needed to run more water drills.

Fully dressed, Gordon slid through the water as easily as ever, shedding his momentum and twisting towards the surface. A gasp of air, an image of their upturned boat and a disappearing humpback fluke. He immediately made to locate four brothers.

John appeared first, elegant as ever, but with floppy red hair in his eyes. Scott followed, his expression a mix of worry and anger. A moment later Alan popped up spitting salt water. Of all the brothers, the youngest was the least fish.

There was no sign of Virgil.

Shit.

John was deploying his tablet in seconds. Gordon swam towards the upturned boat, worried that his brother might be trapped under it. “Virgil?”

A deep vibration in the water. Song thrumming from far below.

“She’s surfacing again!” It was Scott, hastily backing away from a shadow rearing up from the depths. Gordon’s eyes widened. Too close. Too close!

But there was no sudden eruption and breach.

The massive whale slowed her approach allowing her head to gently break the surface in an arc.

Virgil lay limp on his belly draped over her rostrum.

Oh, shit.

-o-o-o-

Virgil Tracy was not a fish. He much preferred his feet on dry land. That said, he could swim well. Swimming was great training and an all-over fitness tool. Not to mention that he had to be qualified for underwater rescue as much as his brothers, even if not perhaps as much as Gordon. His brother had taken him down into the depths of the Tracy Island caldera and amongst the amazing wildlife there. He had painted scenes of the coral and the sharks and the fish. He really enjoyed it.

But he was not a natural.

If Gordon had seen how he hit the water with a god-awful slap, he would be training his ass in that caldera for all time to come. The seawater that ended up in his throat and mouth wasn’t much fun either. his orientation was blown for a few crucial moments until he began to sink.

It was then he discovered that his post-operative body did not appreciate the movements required to push himself towards the light now far above. His lungs hated him, desperate to expel the water contaminated air irritating them.

If that wasn’t enough to contend with, the water around him suddenly vibrated with query, with rhythm, with song.

It swamped his senses. The light above dazzled with it. Every muscle in his shoulders and arms desperately tried to climb the water column, but the possibility that this time the strength he so often relied on might not be enough crept into his mind and somewhere deep in his gut true fear began to brew.

Not enough.

A nudge from below, a spike in that intense query and the huge humpback whale came up underneath him. He found himself clinging to her head, soft skin, barnacles and all.

He closed his eyes as her song enveloped him.

-o-o-o-

“Virgil!”

The body under him flinched and he was shaken gently.

It forced his eyes open and sunlight hit his retinas. His lungs noted that he was no longer surrounded by water and promptly puked up what they had been trying to get rid of and Virgil found himself wracked by coughing spasms.

His abdomen decided this wasn’t appreciated in the slightest and yelled at him appropriately.

“Virgil.” Gordon’s voice was much quieter and between coughs he caught a glimpse of his little brother cautiously approaching. A struggle to calm his diaphragm and he caught sight of three more brothers, all with worried eyes.

The mother humpback hummed into his chest and lowered Virgil just a little as if to offer him to Gordon.

The aquanaut slipped alongside and laid a gentle hand on her head, muttering soft words.

She answered with a rumble and a purr.

Virgil found himself smiling with no idea why.

“Virg, you okay?” Gordon reached out and touched his arm.

He grunted. “My appendix hates me.” He let his head drop gently down onto wet and cool skin.

“You don’t have an appendix.”

“That’s probably why it hates me.” His eyes closed. Her voice was so lulling, he could just lose himself in the sound.

“No sleeping on the whale, Virgil. You gonna come down from there?”

He didn’t answer immediately. To be honest he was quite happy exactly where he was. It was odd. It was weird. But he felt perfectly safe lying there, her voice lulling him.

“Virgil, I said no sleeping.” The hand on his arm squeezed.

“Not sleeping.” He wasn’t, really. “Listening.” Feeling. Absorbing. Trying to understand. He hummed deep in his throat, interweaving a harmony with her voice. It was surprisingly comforting.

A click and a groan, the mother tossed her head just slightly, her voice sparking in query again.

Gordon backed off a little. “Virgil, I’d be much more comfortable if you came down from there.”

Virgil let out a breath and his fingers slid over the soft skin cushioning his head. He stroked gently and she rumbled at him.

He hummed in reply.

Her voice wove around his. He half felt, half heard her, rhythm dancing about his body and mind. Rising in crescendo and dipping into depths that spoke of oceans vast and deeper.

It was such a high, such an intricate duet of incomprehensible melody. He sung without thought, giving what little his voice could provide and she compensated, vibrating through him with such an upwelling of astonishment and amazement.

He let go.

-o-o-o-

Scott stared as Virgil lay prone on a whale’s head and crooned some strange song that obviously meant something to him, but nothing to Scott. Every muscle in his body was strung for action, to swim over there and grab Virgil and pull him to safety.

The only thing holding him back was a pair of turquoise eyes.

John had swum over to Scott as Gordon made his way over to Virgil and placed himself in a position to stop Scott from doing exactly what they both knew Scott wanted to do.

“Gordon’s got this.” The words were quiet, barely heard above the lap of water against his collar bone, but they might as well have been a slap in the face.

This was Gordon’s realm, not his. Gordon knew these creatures, he knew the ocean. Gordon would protect Virgil.

Virgil was singing to a whale.

It was ridiculous. It was dangerous. The humpback was many times the size of both his brothers combined and could hurt or injure them at will.

Turquoise continued to stare at him.

Scott let out a non-committal grunt that if examined closer could easily be interpreted as one of distress.

Gordon was talking quietly to the whale, to Virgil, but the engineer was ignoring him as if he was caught in some kind of thrall.

God, he hated this.

Alan swam in closer and Scott was instinctively grateful.

“What’s going on?” His voice was as worried as Scott felt.

Exhaled over the dip and swell of the ocean. “Hell, if I know.”

-o-o-o-

Gordon stared at Virgil as he sang. Deep, ever so deep at the edge of his range, only to spike to a higher register. He lay, eyes closed, on the mother whale’s rostrum, body lax, but diaphragm working hard.

Concerned for his brother’s medical condition, Gordon opened his mouth to interrupt.

A nudge and a cool, wet body came up under his right arm.

He startled and spun. Several gasps from his brothers and Gordon came face to face with the young calf they had saved the day before.

He could feel the vibrations in the water and the echo of Virgil’s odd singing, but amongst it, he also heard the mutter of the little one as she nudged his hand again.

Jaw dropping, Gordon reached out and lay his hand on her rostrum.

She bounced her head lightly, nudging him further and he made his way down her side until he reached her eye. She rumbled at him.

“Hey, sweetheart. How are you feeling?” He reached out and gently touched her eye ridge just as he had the day before.

She clicked at him, deepening his touch by leaning into his hand.

A purr vibrated between his fingers.

The purr was echoed by the mother whale and she moved slightly taking Virgil with her.

Hurriedly, Gordon reached over and re-connected with Mamma whale. He ended up with one hand on the calf and one on her mother. “Hey, guys, you’ve got my brother. No running off with him, okay? We kinda need him.”

The calf snorted.

Virgil burst out laughing.

Startled, Gordon looked back at his brother and found him grinning, eyes still closed as if reacting to an unheard joke.

“What are you guys doing to Virgil?” He muttered it, aware of the audience to this little concert. Scott, no doubt was going into meltdown. While Sam was probably foaming at the bit, desperate to jump in the water and join in.

But no one was moving, thank god.

Gordon ran scenarios through his head, listing off everything he knew about these beautiful creatures and attempting to work out what exactly they wanted with his brother. Ultimately trying to work out whether he should intervene or not.

But then the decision was taken from him.

The music stopped. Its absence was abrupt and disturbing. Water and wind dominated the soundscape by themselves for several moments.

Virgil still had his eyes closed, a slight frown on his face.

“Virgil, you with me bro?”

It took a moment and Virgil’s brow crumpled just a touch more. “I’m good.” Barely heard above the water and the calf who started a repetitive click now that Mamma had fallen silent.

Mamma whale clicked back and suddenly turned in the water, her huge body creating a wake of bubbles around Gordon and sweeping him up.

Virgil yelped and fell off her rostrum with an awkward splash.

That was all it took for everything to start moving again. Gordon dove to where his brother had fallen and, with a grab, caught Virgil’s shirt and dragged him back to the surface.

“Virgil? You okay?”

A splutter and a mumbled something followed by yet more coughing was answer enough for Gordon. “Okay, this little sea venture is over, bro. Back onto a boat for you.” He shifted his heavy brother into a rescue hold and began swimming him back to Sam and Mel’s boat.

There was a protest from Virgil, but it was small. It was obvious a lot had been taken out of the man and for once in his life, he relaxed and let Gordon take control.

That was even more disconcerting.

Of course, ‘relaxed’ was the direct opposite of what Scott was feeling at that very moment and he narrowed in on both brothers almost immediately.

“Virgil?”

“Scott, can I get him aboard the boat before you rip his head off?”

That earned Gordon a blue-eyed glare for the record books.

“Hey, he’s half drowned. Give the guy a break. Hell, give me a break, he’s heavy.”

That, of course, prompted Virgil to protest that he could swim himself.

“You, shut up. You want to sing with whales, you’re on my turf, bro. You do what I say.” A snort. “My ocean, my rules.”

Virgil groaned, but he grudgingly relaxed back into Gordon’s hold again.

With another glare at Scott, Gordon resumed swimming towards Sam and Mel.

He wasn’t surprised in the slightest when his brothers followed.

Both Mel and Sam were ready to help him when he made it to the boat. Virgil muttered something about being sick of having to be manhandled in and out of boats, but Gordon ignored him.

He didn’t ignore the groan from his brother as he was dragged into the boat or the fact he curled into a ball the moment he was gently lowered to lie down. Gordon resisted the urge to jump up into the boat with him. Of course, Scott threw himself out of the water and as soon as he possibly could, clambering aboard and kneeling beside Virgil.

Gordon turned back to their upturned boat. Mamma whale and calf were still hovering not far away and he wondered what their intentions were.

Maybe Virgil knew.

The thought was just out there.

Both whales exhaled in a fountain of wet spray.

Gordon blinked saltwater from his eyes. “John, you wanna give me a hand?”

The astronaut was giving Alan a leg up into the boat, but turned and nodded.

A sigh. Turn over the boat, find what luggage they could, get Virgil aboard A Little Lightning…

And go home.

Mamma whale slapped her fluke and a spray of water was carried across them all.

-o-o-o-

Virgil was exhausted and he had no idea why.

Sure, his abdomen hurt, but he was held down by a whole-body lethargy, as if contact with the whales had drained all the energy from his limbs.

“Virgil? You with me?”

The plastic beneath his cheek was cold, wet and smelled of the sea. Scott was a vibrating presence beside him and Virgil knew he had screwed up again. “I’m sorry.” He tried to wrap himself tighter, his arms pulling on each other as if he was cold, even though he wasn’t.

“Are you okay?”

A cough burnt the back of his throat and his voice was hoarse as a result. “’M fine.”

“Bullshit.”

A survival blanket appeared out of nowhere and Scott draped it around Virgil, tucking it into corners. Something soft was placed under his head.

“I’m fine.”

Exasperation. “Okay. Whatever. I’m not, so just lie there for me, please.”

Virgil grunted, but forced his eyes to focus on his brother. Scott’s hair was plastered to his scalp making him look young and vulnerable. His eyebrows were a worried line that crumpled in the centre. His usual blue shirt was plastered to his chest.

Virgil’s eyes closed without permission.

She whispered to him through the bottom of the boat. A soft hum barely felt and he found himself smiling again. His brothers’ voices were a pleasant background concert to her voice and that of her daughter.

He became vaguely aware that Gordon had righted the other boat and was now working out how to retrieve their luggage.

The world faded a moment there.

“Back away, John!” Gordon’s voice was sharp with command and it carried firmly across the water. “She’s moving! Sam, move the boat!”

An outboard engine started up and it jarred him, roaring out the gentle song. He pushed himself up, the survival blanket falling to his waist. “No! No, engine!”

Sam wasn’t Gordon and didn’t automatically obey a Virgil order. The inflatable headed away from Gordon and the other boat.

“Turn off the engine, Sam!” He yelled and his throat complained, but Mel took the cue, her eyes darting between Virgil and Scott.

“Sam, do as he says.”

The man frowned, but the engine died.

The sudden silence was profound.

John climbed out of the water and into the other boat beside Gordon, now several dozen metres in the distance.

Virgil could feel the thrum of the mother whale in the pads of his fingers and the palm of his hand splayed across the plastic bottom of the boat.

But he couldn’t see them anywhere.

He sat up taller. Where were they?

John yelled something and Virgil could see him reach for his comms…

Mother whale broke the surface of the water between the two boats.

At speed.

A good two thirds of her body shot vertically into the air. Virgil’s eyes widened as her size became immediately apparent as the swath of white and grey skin passed above him. For a handful of moments, she loomed over them, her body arching into a graceful arc.

Time hung.

Virgil’s heart missed a beat.

With a sonic yell, she flung herself onto her back, sending half the ocean into the air in her place.

Virgil blinked as water hit his face, the boat was tossed and his brothers were yelling. He blinked again, holding on tight to the seat beside him.

It was a simple goodbye.

He let out a breath as water ran down his face. The ocean calmed; the boat lulled back to the gentle sway of the swell.

The song was fading. They were leaving.

“Virgil?”

Another blink and he attempted to focus on his brother.

A sigh at the concern in those blue eyes. “Please don’t ask me if I’m okay.”

Scott folded down beside him in the cramped space between the seats. His hair was still in his eyes and he looked as bedraggled as Virgil felt. “What do you want me to say?”

“Nothing.” But he let his head drop to Scott’s shoulder. “They’re leaving.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t know, I just do.” The song had already faded to almost nothing. God, he was tired.

An arm snaked around his back and pulled the blanket up around him again before wrapping around his shoulder as Scott drew him in. “You know what?”

“What?” His eyes were drifting closed again.

“You’re hard work.”

Virgil snorted, the echo of the accusation he had lobbed at his brother only a few days earlier thrown back him.

“Yeah, well, I learnt from the best.”

Scott sighed. “I guess I’ll have to kick your ass later.”

“I’m sure you will.” But his brother only pulled him closer, there may have even been a kiss in his hair.

The lap of water, his brothers’ voices, the rhythm of Scott’s breathing and heartbeat.

Warmth, song and memory.

Virgil drifted off to sleep.

-o-o-o-

End Day Four, Part Four

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #Virgil Tracy #Scott Tracy #Gordon Tracy #kermadec fic #humpback whales

[thelogicalghost]

Thoughts on “Heathers”

For various reasons I’ve recently both watched Heathers the movie and listened to the soundtrack of Heathers the Musical (and saw some blurry clips of in-between-song parts) and the contrast between them is, to me, fascinating.

I’m going to try to keep this vague in case I inspire anyone else to go watch either; the movie’s currently on Hulu (though I’ve seen it on Netflix so I suspect it comes and goes on both) and several artists have made unbelievably amazing animatics for the soundtrack on Youtube (in particular szin, whose Hamilton animatics are DIVINE, did a few for Heathers). The quick primer: the movie came out in 1989 while the musical went through several years of progress before hitting Off-Broadway in 2014. The musical keeps the movie’s 1989 setting, but since the movie took pains to keep itself from being dated, both manage to feel current and relevant.

It’s actually easier, I think, to explain the movie contrasted to the musical, rather than the other way around. The musical makes many small but time-saving cuts to make the story and characters fit more easily into the molds required for a mainstream musical. The protagonist is instantly relatable to anyone who disliked high school: she’s an intelligent, hopeful teenager at the mercy of puberty and her peers. She has a compelling arc with several musical motifs that show her change through the show. Several other minor characters get their own solo songs and minor arcs, making the cast feel like tangible people, but the focus is on the protagonist’s decisions, her peers’ reactions, and the consequences that ensue.

The movie is far more complex. There are some ... interesting choice of writing, directing, and cinematography that, while often startling, are almost always emotionally impactful. It’s not afraid to leave us in awkward silence or linger on seemingly unimportant moments. The movie lets people and things and moments exist and shows them to us as they are, which results in something that feels more genuine. The protagonist doesn’t feel quite so relatable initially, as we first see her having pretty much surrendered to a system she knows is toxic. The antagonist doesn’t really get any redemption in the end. It’s much less clean and clear-cut. Where the musical’s protagonist is a victim of systemic toxicity, someone who we see has a conscience that leads her to resist and then fight against those systems, the movie’s protagonist is a product of those systems who has to fight her own indoctrination and wins by rejecting those systems entirely. The latter is, to me, ultimately more compelling. (Though this is not to diminish the strength of the former, especially in this day and age: any narrative that ends with the protagonist leading their peers to reject systemic toxicity gets a gold star in my book.)

[[[[[[SPOILER WARNING, SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN EITHER - The biggest moment that proves to me that the movie is more compelling is during the scene that, in the musical, is covered by the reprise of “Dead Girl Walking.” In the musical the return of that song is obviously supposed to highlight how she’s grown and how her priorities have changed, but the more I thought about it, the less that moment worked for me. Musical!Veronica never truly wanted to hurt anyone beyond a harmless prank. Even writing the note to Martha in the beginning made her feel guilty. Her bravery was also shown right from the beginning in “Beautiful.” She may have faltered and kept secrets but she was always going to try to stop J.D. Meanwhile, Movie!Veronica was indoctrinated. She didn’t like what J.D. was doing, but saving Heather from suicide was the first real sign of active resistance against the events unfolding around her. Hell, when they wake up after the “double suicide,” Veronica’s first instinct is to hurt herself, which is a clear sign that she feels so helpless to do anything about the emotional turmoil inside her all she can do is try to lessen that turmoil and/or punish herself. Movie!Veronica in scene 1 would have stayed home and watched the school explode from a distance. It took growth and change to give her the confidence, ability, and strength to stop J.D., not because she cared so much about the school, but because she was rejecting both the school hierarchy and his war against it. Her freedom, at the end, is from both. OKAY SPOILERS ARE OVER NOW THANK YOU]]]]]

It’s also notable in this kind of story that the heightened suspension of disbelief that comes with a musical actually detracts from the reality of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I love musicals. Some of the songs on this soundtrack hit me pretty hard in the feels. (What do the kids say these days? It ‘slaps’?) But musicals have an inherent suspension of disbelief because we’re aware that, to some extent, what we’re seeing isn’t actually happening. The entire high school senior class isn’t actually singing in perfect harmony. That gives us a layer of separation from the events of the story. Sometimes that’s good. For Heathers, I think it keeps the viewer safe from the ugliness and discomfort that’s intended to be conveyed in the movie. (Unfortunately the movie itself sometimes breaks that immersion with a few effects and props that feel a bit comedic, especially to modern viewers used to more realistic effects. But it’s only a few moments that mostly get obscured by quick cuts and good makeup work.)

I will also freely admit that the movie suffers for its artistic intent. The tropes and arcs that make mainstream narratives work are mainstream for a reason. The movie is also trying to deconstruct high school movie tropes, some of which no longer exist, and there are definitely cast members who are less convincing than others, and cuts that made me pause and rewind to figure out what had just happened. It’s definitely not perfect. The musical gets to update not only by cutting some weird dated plot points but also by eliminating a few moments that might make a modern audience say “yikes.” (Am I doing the slang right? I’m over thirty, go easy on me.)

I guess my conclusion to all of this is to say: I think both versions have merit. I think if you enjoy one, you should check out the other, because I think their messages seem similar but work very differently. Most of all, I think it’s an interesting look at how almost the exact same story can feel drastically different having been converted to a different medium, changing in ways that can’t simply be summarized as “better” or “worse.”

(Also the movie has young Winona Rider and Christian Slater, so. Uh. Yeah. If you just want to see some unfairly gorgeous people, go watch the movie.)

((Also also the tv series is TERRIBLE do not watch))

#heathers #thoughts #movie vs musical #media is message #more of my weird analyses

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Why don’t you like Only Us?

lmao Only Us exasperates me on like several levels at once......

i mean there’s plenty of stuff in deh that i’m just like. “i don’t particularly feel the need to experience this again” like, naturally i care most about the jared and alana content, so already a song with neither of them in it is at a disadvantage with me, which is yeah most of the songs but that’s deh canon for you. my favorite parts are the non-hansen non-murphy characters!! epic for me

meanwhile from like a Story standpoint the writing for zoe and evan’s relationship is like, baffling lmao, and i think both Love Songs (if i could tell her & only us) exemplify how it is a mess.......like, why does “if i could tell her” Not tell us why evan likes zoe???? it’d be great if we could find out, since we already have found out he’s never talked to her. is it just that she Seems Nice. b/c like, sure, except that here we have a whole song to explain to us in greater detail why evan is so set on being in love with zoe and pinning all his hopes on her, but he just kind of lists off random surface-level stuff which doesn’t actually tell us anything either about her or, you know, Why Evan Likes Her? we’re just skipping to like, “oh see he Pays Attention, that proves he likes her” like okay whatever but WHY lmfao please......and yknow not to mention that this is all stuff that we can understand as both “something evan noticed about zoe b/c of crushing on her” and “something zoe might think was an observation coming from her brother” like.......bit underwhelming here, and really the most interesting Interaction zoe and evan have is where zoe says the wild shit about how evan is a Fool to want to be financially secure and evan is “rude” in response and she’s like yeah you don’t have to be polite all the time, and then this potential avenue of connection of them both feeling Obligated to Act Nice is pretty much just dropped and their relationship just becomes based on “you’re nice” again and like, is Nothing lmao.........why

and slam dunking on “if i could tell her” also there b/c Only Us is similar in that like, oh here’s the other Love Song but now it’s zoe’s turn to tell us why she likes evan!!!!! except she pointedly Does Not like *why* are either of you At All invested in this relationship lmaooo i s2g........like, just writing in “wow i like you so much” is not really compelling and like. i would be fine with this just being some nice, enjoyable high school dating experience where they Don’t really have any big reason to be together beyond “well, you’re pretty nice,” except there’s the problems that a) between So Much Time and focus being put into this Relationship, and zoe’s character pretty much becoming “evan’s nice gf” for all of act 2 and not much else about any other aspect of her experience, and the fact that the whole finale to resolve the show and its themes (?? what are those) and evan’s arc (?? what is that) is zoe Forgiving him and saying “Everyone Needed [what he did] For Something” like....did they??? did You???? did jared, did alana.........and also then telling us that she wishes she could’ve dated evan still if things had been normal like???? whyyyyyyyyyyyyy. and why would zoe feel the need to tell him this. seems 2 be justifying evan’s crush and pinning-of-hopes re: her, and by extension justifying this whole Relationship being given soooo much focus b/c even if there’s meant to be some Ambiguity in what we, the audience, might be intended to take away from it, like, clearly this relationship is justified as being Vital and the show treating it as such. which wouldn’t quite fit if it Was just like “oh shrug yeah i mean dating you was alright but nbd” like, it Must be meant to be some whole ~signficant connection~ between them. buuut there’s no actual sign of that lol. and the other problem is b) it also can’t just be a Fun, Casual High School Romance b/c at no point do they really seem to enjoy being together lmao or comfortable in each other’s presence. even their Joking Around for 2 seconds at the start of the “only us” scene feels to me more like nervous joking to cut the tension lmao...

like it does not count to have evan be like “i like zoe” and never actually give us reason why and have zoe take the other love song like “i like you also” but not tell us Why and expect us to like, just take a wild guess at the Supposed Depth of this relationship and what constitutes it or be at all invested. and i mean, evan’s holding zoe at arm’s length b/c there’s this inherent amount of lying he has to do constantly, and why would zoe be like “wow this relationship is great, i’m getting so much out of it” like, have they had conversations?? have they Enjoyed being in each other’s presence and like had genuine fun Being Themselves??? “only us” really does just feel like this cop out both in terms of Why zoe likes him and Why zoe feels like this relationship *isn’t* completely entangled with evan’s supposed relationship with connor. in that it explains neither, just has the character Say that is how she feels. like, we have ALL of evan’s interactions with zoe being dependent on connor, and the whole Initial love song is zoe paying attention b/c Supposedly evan is telling her stuff about what connor thought about her, and then zoe deciding she Does want to kiss evan actually is via disappear and ywbf and everyone’s reaction to evan’s speech supposedly about connor and her dad acquiescing to the fact he has emotions about his dead son thanks to everyone’s reaction to evan’s speech / tcp........like, this relationship is clearly contingent on stuff re: connor, and zoe apparently changing her mind and wanting to be with him is Because of everything re: connor, but then like, just b/c she says in Only Us that she Doesn’t want it all to be about connor doesn’t change all of that......like, yeah, it can be true that she wants this relationship to be separate from anything re: connor, but just having her Say That does nothing to convince me that oh yeah they have this whole Romance that really *is* separate from connor, like?? where??? we haven’t seen it. and when zoe says at the end that she wishes she could’ve dated evan minus [everything that actually happened], again: why!!!!! what *was* your Relationship-Minus-Connor. here it Supposedly is in “only us,” except that the tl;dr of it is just them insisting they totally have a relationship which involves Them and Nothing Else and i do not buy it just b/c they’re saying it??? i mean, for a start, they’re just Hypothesizing it. “what if it’s us & only us” etc etc “we could Try that” like, fuck around and find out, pretty literally i guess??? lmfaoo god.........

like, there’s some space between “hey maybe the Entire Solution to your being Anxious about this relationship isn’t a handy list of things i like about you” and “i shouldn’t tell you anything i like about you” like, sure there’s something that maybe works in like, why don’t you just Assume i like you instead of assuming i Don’t until Proven Otherwise, but again she can get that across And tell him (and like, more importantly, us the audience) why she likes him......and she can give some of those reasons why she likes him Without it being just a list of traits or things she’s noticed a la “if i could tell her” lmao like, describe him broadly!!! talk about One Nice Experience you shared!!!! we have noooo info about why evan likes zoe or why zoe likes evan. we just know that they’re Nice Teens (or teens who feel obligated to act nice all the time) and they are saying “I Like You” to each other. why does this relationship feel so necessary and Good to zoe even after she found out he was lying, and was she having such a great time beforehand??? you can find lots of nice boys you can kiss if that’s what you’re after, like, neither love song tells us Anything about why this particular relationship is so important and good or like, has any substance at all

and additionally you Know i’m your one-stop shop for Hot Takes About Any Number Of Concepts Re: Romance(tm) Which I Think Are Bullshit Slash Hate lmfao and one of those is tying whatever notion of the Ideal Romantic Relationship to that like, isolating the partners, like oh they’re your whole world now and the relationship’s defined by the fact that you don’t need about anybody or anything else and/or don’t care about anything/anyone else even nearly as much and wouldn’t it be Great if nothing else existed but you and your partner and this relationship........like sure it’s one thing for evan and zoe to be like “hey epic some Alone Time where larry isn’t trying to share metaphors about sports equipment” or whatever. but like, okay sure @ the start of things where the focus is more on like “hmm weird that everything about our relationship is so tied to connor, what if we just sort of say it’s starting for real Now unrelated to all that, even though we even have to talk about it to do so” but then you get towards the end and oh we also want the whole world to be irrelevant to us. and absolutely everything except each other / It Is Only Us(tm) like.........again sure if you look at this Immediate Moment where they wanna make out and fade to black, whatever. but this moment is also supposed to be this second start to the relationship, at least sorta reestablishing it, so natch it’s sort of like....about More than this particular moment. the zoevan brand ethos is This??? where your relationship is defined by like, needing or Wanting to be [just the two of you] like, well it can’t always be, so what are you gonna do about that?? and if your Best Times Together in that ideal state of isolation is like, hey now let’s make out, okay, again there are many decently nice people out there to kiss

and there sure seems to be Some awareness that this isn’t ideal thanks to how the immediate next scene is alana going like “um what the fuck, evan” and evan taking out the stress of Having Problems on jared...........aaaand yet i’m not so sure this is like, “oh, the Only Us brand of approach of just wanting and trying to ignore The Rest Of The World wasn’t so ideal after all” but rather just like. Wow How Tragic that they couldn’t truly keep the rest of the world at bay and now reality is intruding on their perfect relationship :( which would suuuure seem to fit with the mystifying sentiment zoe expresses in the finale of like, oh i wish i could’ve dated you Normally w/o [how the entire course of their relationship played out] like. oh Only Us really WAS ideal, that’s the epitome of / the Core of all the great parts of their relationship which was obviously great, and if only everything re: tcp and connor wasn’t the way that it was, they would’ve just been able to forget obligations w/o someone being like “the hell” and hold hands and kiss without people talking about it or anyone feeling bitterly rejected........like, idk, would they Really have dated if the entire plot hadn’t happened as it did??? evan was never talking to zoe, and we don’t know why he liked her so much in the first place, and apparently zoe’s perception of evan was “sort of a loser” like, okay. and when they Are together thanks to tcp-related stuff, we get no more information about why they might like each other. that one potentially engaging thread of “we both feel obligated to put on these fronts of Constant Niceness” existed for like 3 seconds and then they just start being constantly nice around each other, great lol. like again, this doesn’t seem so much of like “oh, these teens just having a chill time dating maybe have this simplistic / offbase ideas about relationships” as much as like the show justifies Only Us and all the sentiments therein.........like yeah wow if Only it could’ve been only them and the rest of the world could’ve stayed out of it!!! everything would’ve been perfect!! b/c we tell you so

not to mention all the like Official covers of Only Us which areout of the specific context in which it’s placed in the show, which sure only emphasizes like “hey these sentiments can be and should be taken straightforwardly” and i’m like, get tf away from me with this lmfao i am So uninterested. a romantic relationship should do the Opposite of shrink / restrict your world or suddenly make all other relationships less important, much less like, require those things, and also the nuclear family model is a scam pushed by capitalism to cut off people’s support networks / isolate them lmao But Really It Is, social isolation is Not romantic or anything else that is ever positive. and it’d be Whatever if it truly was applied to that very specific moment of “boy it sure is Only Us in this room, :eyes emoji:” buuut it’s not, and it’d be Whatever if evan and zoe’s relationship was Meant to be sort of a misguided mess all around lmao Or just more superficial and casually enjoyable than meant as anything ~deep and Real(tm)~ buuuut it is not........i think canon does sure allow for the fact that things are messy for sure but i think it also definitely wants you to think that like. oh this Relationship was truly great and things were all good in its Core (jk, what core), it’s just that tragically all those complications with connor / tcp got too in the way........yet it was so Essential and ultimately positive that this relationship happen for both of us...........like, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy lmaoooooo @ deh WHAT are your themes, What are either of these character’s arcs meant to be!!!!!!! idk zoe and evan's relationship more felt bizarrely like these two teens were Settling for white picket fence ideals of “well you’re nice and i’m nice and we could kind of tensely continue to be nice indefinitely” like, do you guys even like each other that much, do you Know each other at all, do either of you truly Enjoy being in this relationship??? and then meanwhile you get all the bizarreness re: larry and cynthia’s relationship and how it doesn’t actually improve but uhhh they’re going on dates and they’re not divorced so hey, i’m sure that’s good, you definitely helped them through Mystery Reasons...........and idk it seems like the idea of the Journey that zoe takes is that like, oh it’s Bad that this nice girl has to be mad, somehow dating evan will fix that and she won’t be mad, since being mad can never be a good thing, and Not being mad is always an improvement. like, why is she this cool with evan in the finale. why does she want to tell him she (and everyone) Needed what happened and that she wishes she could date him. deh is of the Mystery genre actually, and so much of it remains unsolved

also Only Us just gets fairly boring like 3 listens in i think. like can we literally pick up the pace a little. up the tempo. get it over with faster. i don’t even know at this point b/c i just choose not to listen to it ever lmfao every time the deh twitter tries to tell me about a cover it’s transphobic b/c i hate it. but i’d put up with it if i didn’t hate the ideas in it meant as ~romance~ and if any of this was tempered by evan and zoe’s relationship being written better and/or Not trying to be wrangled as like, “This Is Good Actually even if some parts aren’t perfect, the point is that evan was right to pin all his hopes on zoe, who’s needed in this show to validate his existence in the finale” like. what is this. and again, capitalism is bad and the nuclear family is Not the base unit of society, and what’s the deal with deh being like “well, as long as larry and cynthia don’t get divorced, right???? we don’t need to know that their relationship actually improved and that cynthia’s at all happier / feels like she has more of an identity or that larry has more fundamental respect for cynthia or thinks he’s not Automatically / Always Right just b/c his life has been fine.....they’re going on dates and aren’t divorced so that’s their Improved Ending!!” like, what’s up with that, right. the relationships that matter are Familial ones and dating the nice girl who has a juxtaposable family, and the other relationships, i.e. with jared and with alana, can evaporate into the ether and maybe get damnatio memoriae’d for as much as their existence plays into the finale. disappear.mp3. i have absolutely zero motivation to experience Only Us again ever lmao and in fact i guess i have negative motivation b/c i Want to avoid it and will take active steps in the sense of like “oh i’m watching deh? let me just skip past all these parts i don’t need to see again, including only us” like. i’m good

tl;dr  it annoys me & i do not think it works from Any structural standpoint

#deh #Anonymous

[xueyangs-pinky-finger]

👀👀 maybe I'm someone else though

I'm so so so so sorry about that mess up! I turned anon on but then had to put down my phone for a bit and when I got back, it has switched back to non-anon and I didn't notice until right after I hit Send. But wow, your detective work!!!

The sheer CHAOTIC GREMLIN ENERGY of Too Many Spirits!!! This has become my Saturday comfort watch.

Ohh yes I was just recently talking about Ye Ben with someone and yesss it plays in alllll the saddest scenes: after lotus pier is murdered, the nightless city cliff, the golden core reveal, when song lan is walking away on his own after the yi city story... Just hearing the music now is enough to make me want to cry.

Ooh the good place AU sounds so interesting! And it would fit them so well: xue yang as Eleanor, starting out not so good but growing as a person as he receives love and support... I can't wait to see your fanvid!

I don't write fics. I tried when I was in school but it makes me cringe whenever I think about it 😅. And no, I haven't tried any other work by mxtx although I keep hearing so much about them! Maybe I'll give tgcf a try once my work schedule gets a bit less crazy...

What was your favourite storyline in mdzs/cql? (If it was the xue yang storyline, then second favourite? 😝) And your least favourite? A storyline which you wish you could rewrite/would happen differently? And finally, a cql storyline that you liked which wasn't in mdzs, and vice versa?

-🎵🦄

i hope you don’t feel bad about it bc it’s rly fine!! if anything, i was just amused, self-satisfied since i guessed correctly (even tho that was rly just dumb luck 😝), and happy it was you ^^

omg, i know, i watch it w/ my mom and sister and they love it too. also i’m pretty sure shane reached his final form when he started cosplaying as krampus aldfk.

yesss, ye ben always gives me goosebumps!! also i just realized ren sheng is the one that plays during the rain scene, so now that one has more of an effect on me as well :’(

thanks; i can’t wait either, lmao. it took me 2 hours to edit a mere 20 second segment and now i’m rly sympathizing with youtubers who spend full days every week just editing—

same, same, like we just gonna leave that shit in the past… 🙈 occasionally i still get emails from ao3 saying someone left kudos on one of my fics and i’m just like oh god no why alskdf.

i rly enjoyed tgcf! hualian are rly… it’s like you don’t even have to worry about censorship with them bc you simply Cannot; their every interaction is flirtatious asdklf. they differ from wangxian in that way, bc i feel like they both were aware of their feelings for each other earlier~ so it’s fun bc it’s something different :)) (also the bamboo hat rain scene was rly… that shit kinda hit hard, ngl. life b like that~) aw sorry you’re so busy :((

low-key the answer’s probably yi cheng arc for the first three questions 🙃 it’s fave bc we finally see more of xue yang, and i’d loved him since that very first scene of him in ep 3~ also i was sure he rly did care about xxc and it proved me right, and i loved seeing that other side of him… but least fave bc his and xxc’s demises quickly follow 😔 if i could, i would give them a reincarnation sequel series where they get a happy ending :’) low-key while i was reading tgcf i liked to pretend hualian were xuexiao reincarnated bc i felt like there were a lot of parallels there

other than that, tho… lsz being a-yuan for fave? he’s one of my favorite characters, and bc i was a big dummy on my first viewing, i did not see them being the same person coming at all 🤦🏻‍♀️ the reunion w/ him and wn and him and wwx made me teary (i didn’t full-on cry at all on my first viewing of cql, tho i have done so many times since aha); it was just rly touching and i loved that they were each other’s happy endings~ also, the yiling laozu… painful as it is, it’s also just So Good… xz rly flexed them acting skills, and i love all the tea wwx spills during that final confrontation 👌 the cloud recesses shenanigans are also iconic ofc… the golden core reveal and overall change in behavior of lwj after wwx comes back... mastermind nhs taking everyone (including me) for a fool... idk there’s so many wbu 😅

idk about the cql v. mdzs storyline q bc i haven’t read that much of mdzs and i haven’t noticed that many differences? so i’ll have to get back to you on that ^^ oh, i believe cql added the bit about drunk lwj with the roosters? so that was pretty great haha. & i appreciate mdzs xue yang bc we get the full context of his background story~

#mdzsnetcc

[thorne93]

Unforeseen Chasm (Part 38)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.

Word Count:4262

Warnings: Language,shirtless Loki, self deprecation, teasing, Smut!!!! just kidding but there is some implied

song for this part:Better- Betty Who, Graveyard- Halsey

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shannon had got you situated in her old room on her old floor with Lucky laying on the bed with you, keeping you company. You assured Shannon you were okay for the thirtieth time before she finally left. You tapped into her speaker system and played some good heartbreak songs while crying all night. Would things ever be right with you and Loki? Were things over between you two? Did he no longer trust you? Were you really turning into someone who could say what you said to him? 

You didn’t know, you didn’t have the answers. All you knew was you had heart wrenching songs, a sweet canine companion, and a pillow to cry into, and for now, that’s all you needed. 

The following morning, you woke up with puffy eyes but you wanted to try and see what Loki was up to. Did he care that you weren’t there? Did he even notice your absence? 

You ordered JARVIS to pull up the security feed to the cell and you watched it for thirty minutes. Loki hadn’t woken yet, which was a bit unusual, but you remained watching. Finally, he began stirring. It was odd, even though you were still upset, seeing him shirtless still sent a pool of heat to your core as he lied in black satin sheets.

When he came all the way to, he looked over and noticed you weren’t in the bed. He felt your spot on the bed and must’ve felt that it was cold. He glanced at the open bathroom door then and noticed you weren’t in there either. Quickly, he raced out to the common living area, clad in nothing but pajama bottoms. He checked the kitchen counter and stainless steel fridge for a note, when he failed to find one, he checked the glass coffee table, not finding one there either. Next, he ran into your office -- nothing. 

He stepped into back into the main area, the realization hitting him that you didn’t stay in the cell. With a slight flicker of his hand, a clone of himself appeared. 

“She’s left, that’s not shocking,” the clone mocked. 

“Shut up,” he ordered. 

“If you didn’t want me to talk, why did you conjure me?” the clone demanded. 

“Why isn’t she here?” he asked, ignoring the snarky replica.

“Because you keep pushing her away. Before, when she was imprisoned in here, because of you, I might add, she couldn’t get away. You pissed her off and she was forced to sleep here, to stay here. Now, she can leave whenever you decide to hurt her.”

“Hurt her? She’s working with that maniac that nearly killed me,” he argued with himself. 

“You mean the world renowned physicist that you set off? The one that was doing his job? He’s no different than Shannon, Stark, or the soldier… The only difference is, Banner has the power to beat you.” 

“She should’ve known this would hurt me… She did it on purpose.”

“Yes, because the first thing prisoners do when their released is ask for more security while they’re in the outside world,” the clone remarked with an eyeroll. “Face the facts. You’ve hurt her by acting like a fool, so she left.”

“I didn’t mean to react that way. I just… She’s going to forget about me. She’s going to go back to doing what she loves, she’ll be surrounded by all those heroes and one day, she’s going to wake up, look at me, and regret the moment she ever said yes to me…” 

“And you’re going to decide all of that for her? You’re just going to assume that she’s going to do that? After everything she’s done for you, and with you? You think spending some time with the heroes will suddenly make her hate you?” 

“Well no, but--”

“But what? If you’re so scared of losing her, you need to start acting like you want to keep her, rather than finding ways to figure out how she might leave you. But that didn’t occur to you, did it? Because you’re used to running, to trickery, to betrayal… You can’t fathom the thought that she could possibly love you unconditionally, for you.”

“How could she? She said it herself. I’m a monster,” Loki suddenly responded, a sad smile on his face as he played with the palm of his hand. His nervous habit. 

“Did she? Or was she simply pointing out your flawed prejudice against Dr. Banner? Seems to me you’re finding all these excuses not to realize it’s your fault she’s left. But that’s familiar, isn’t it? It’s Odin’s fault you had a melt down. It’s Thor’s fault you didn’t earn the crown. It’s Thanos’ fault your mother died alone. But who is really at the center of all of these problems?”

“I’ve accepted the fact that I’m the problem when it comes to my family,” Loki nearly growled at himself.

“Then you need to accept the fact that you’re the problem when it comes to you and Y/N, as well. Last I checked, she came back to you, back to a cell that marked her wrongful imprisonment, just to spend the night with you, just to show you that you weren’t alone, as she’s done time and time again…”

“Well what do I do? I can’t exactly call her,” he muttered. 

“You hope she decides to give you another chance,” the clone informed. “But then again, maybe if you lose her, you’ll finally realize you need to take responsibility for the pain you cause people…” 

With another flicker, the clone was gone and the door to your room was being opened as Shannon entered with a tray full of delicious smelling food.

“Good morning,” she greeted sweetly, putting the tray on the desk, glancing to the monitors. “Whatcha up to?” 

You went to look at her, but realized you were crying, so you wiped your face quickly with your sleeve. “Uh, just watching Loki…” you informed. 

She sat in the spare office chair and looked at you for a moment. “Another fight, hmm?” 

You didn’t tell her last night why you weren’t staying down there, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out why you weren’t sleeping with your boyfriend. 

Nodding, you ran the security footage back to when you got to the cell, letting her watch the scene in its entirety. 

“Oh, Y/N, I didn’t think he would take it like that. If you want, I can have it so that you work with me more than with him?” She walked over to you sitting down by your feet. “Is there anything you want to talk about, we haven’t had much of a girls talk in well forever.” She reached for your hand hoping to be of some sort of consolation. 

You shook your head. “No, no. I’m excited to work with Bruce. If Loki’s gonna get mad every time I go work with someone that he pissed off… well he’s going to be in for a rude awakening,” you said with a laugh. “We pissed of a lot of people here in New York. I want to do this. I want to work with Bruce. He’s just going to have to be okay with that.”

“Well yeah but if it’s uncomfortable I’d rather you tell me right away.” She moved to sit cross legged in front of you munching on mango. “Anyways let everything out Y/N/N, I’m sure there’s a lot you’d like to get out.” She patted your leg.

“Working with Bruce is fine. No offense, but he’s better at physics than you,” you teased with a wink. “I think I’ll like it. But… just… Loki and his temper. It’s awful. I mean, he gets so mad at the smallest things and twists my words. It’s infuriating. And I don’t know if it’s just being in prison, or if it’s the brainwashing. I barely knew him before we dove off that bridge, so I have nothing to compare it to. Thor told me that he never got mad, he got even. But it just seems like no matter what I do, it isn’t right. If I stay, he’s accusing me of deceiving him and lying to him about wanting to stay. If I leave, he sees it as a threat of me leaving and never coming back. There’s no winning…” You took a deep breath and looked at her. “Do you ever have problems like that with Tony? Where the problem just seems to go around and around and you can never fix it?” you asked as you grabbed an orange and started to peel it. 

“Kinda. It mostly revolves with him and the arc reactor, he just won’t stop messing with it. He took it out a few months ago and I had to shove it back into him or else he would have gone into a coma. We got into it because I told him to leave it alone and he threw it at me saying that it’s the same when I mess with my powers. I’ve been trying to see how I can get the empath powers out of me but still nothing. I’ve been running so many tests that my arm looks like I’m a junkie.” She lifts her sleeve to show you.

You leaned forward, taking her arm in your hand, staring at it. “Jesus, Shannon. Does he know?”

“He may have caught me taking some blood samples… I was trying to see if there was any of it laced in there. My blood feels like it boils when I get hooked on someone’s anger.” She popped a piece of fruit into her mouth.

You couldn’t help but slightly laugh, no humor there. “That’s how I feel when anyone mentions Loki negatively.” Your hands sparked purple. “That was Thanos’s doing. To keep me pissed off.. What an ingenious way to do that. To take the love I have for someone, and twist it into a weapon.” You shook your head at the cruelty of it. “I remember when I used to want to have powers like you,” you remembered, somewhat fondly. “I used to pray I could be cool, and have all these mutant abilities. I mean, your powers let you get to know Xavier and all of the X-Men…”

“Well yeah but it’s not like all the mutations I have are good… in the time you were gone I went on missions with the team and I robbed the bad guys of their powers and I still have them. I’ve just chosen not to use them, even though they tend to take control of me.” She looked back at you. “Your powers are all yours because your Asgardian, mine came about because of a flaw in my experiment.” 

“You’ll figure out how to get the bad ones out,” you assured. “If anyone can do it, it’s you… and maybe Charles,” you said with a laugh. “Maybe you should give him a call and see if he and Jean could maybe put you under and… I don’t know, perhaps extract the parts of you that take on the mutations. I’m not a molecular biologist, that isn’t my field, but I imagine it’s like finding a cancerous tumor. Find the thing that’s out of order in the DNA and fix it.”

“Yeah I think I will but for now there’s other things to worry about. Like planning this wedding, making sure you're okay and situated. Keeping Tony out of trouble.” She giggled, remembering something. “I have to tell you last year I caught him making blueprints for a female Iron Man suit. It’s a lot more form fitting than his from the looks of it. I think he’s trying to make it for me because I keep taking one of his, but the thing is I don’t want my own suit. I told him he doesn’t need to make it but he still did.”

You shook your head. “Men. They have trouble listening, don’t they? Why don’t you want a suit of your own? I think it would be kinda cute if you two flew around in matching suits. I mean, I upgraded my wardrobe when Loki and I got together,” you reminded, thinking back fondly to the black and green hooded robe you used to wear. 

“I mean yeah it would be cute but then that would also means having to take the role as Iron Woman if people were to see me in the suit. It’s challenge enough being a part of the Avengers but it's a whole other thing being a figure I’m not. You two look good together in those colors.” She was remembering the cloak from the time you’d had come back.

“Thanks. Loki could look good in a burlap sack,” you remarked with a faint laugh, reaching for a piece of toast. “What if you are Iron Woman, though? I’ve seen the way the Avengers practically adore you. Tony, Bruce, and Steve are all willing to bend over backwards for you. Nat and you are practically best friends. Would it really be that far of a stretch to say you could fulfill the role of being Iron Woman? You’re intelligent, gifted, talented, sweet…”

“Aww, Y/N/N, as much as I appreciate the compliment, that’s not who I want to be. It would feel like the Red Room all over again. As much as it would be cool to fight in the suit, I’d rather be in the lab or helping the team find the bad guys and put a stop to them. To tell you the truth I’ve never had to enter a fight… well besides the one we had but that’s been about it. All my missions have been me controlling the villain while the team does everything else. And yeah I get along with them but it’s not the same. I was just a regular person before Stark Industry before the Red Room.” She looked at Lucky seeing him eye a piece of toast. She stole a piece from you to give to her.

“I get that. You don’t want your identity to be on the battlefield. In Asgard that’s nearly all there was. To be revered as amazing, you had to be battle worthy. It’s why Thor was so beloved. Other than that, there were the farmers, the medicine people, and the scientists. So when I learned that if I wanted Odin to like me, I needed to train, I was scared. I mean, you know how skilled I am with weapons -- I suck!” You laughed. “And now I suddenly had to wield a sword and a shield and powers… Thankfully, I was trained by the best of the best. If you don’t want to do that, then don’t. I bet Tony was just building it to say, if and when you’re ready, it’s there.” 

“Yeah I guess you’re right, things have been different lately. Fury has been asking that I be brought on missions more often. But aside from that, tell me what was it like spending time with Loki when you were in Asgard. I never got to hear about you two going swimming,” she asked you, wanting to hear about it.

Immediately, your cheeks blazed. You slightly pushed her, laughing. “Of course you’d ask about that, perv!” you teased, eyeing her. She began laughing heartily. “Um… Let me see… God that was so long ago. Well I remember being really fucking nervous, are you kidding me? Loki was… god the most handsome man I’d ever seen, and the most well read, and he carried himself like… well, like royalty. Everything about him was intimidating as hell. But he seemed to be warming up to me at that point. He had already spent nearly every day training me in swordsmanship. I will say it was really weird seeing Loki in his battle attire every day which covers him from the neck down, to nothing but swimming shorts. Hell, it was weird for me to go from the swathy robes and gowns to a two piece bathing suit. I felt like melting into oblivion,” you stated, remembering that night. You were extremely nervous that night you would make a fool of yourself. “I thought that night was my one and only chance to kind of win him over, you know? Impress him with my knowledge and grace. You know, basically flirt, that one thing I can’t do. I mean, you remember my track record with guys...” 

Shannon couldn’t help but giggle at seeing how red you’d gotten, thinking about how she was the same way with Tony. “That’s adorable, Y/N, but I mean look at you, you’re with him. Yeah there are some tough times but damn I see the love you have for him is greater than anything else. I can see how happy he makes you.” She smiled sincerely at you.

You nodded slowly. “Yeah, he really does. I mean, every guy I ever dated before doesn’t even compare to him. Sure, he makes me crazy but…” You laughed slightly. “What about you? How does it feel to be engaged? To Tony Stark, no less. You’re gonna be married to him! That’s so wild!” 

Now it’s her turn to blush, she never really thought much about it. “It still feels like a dream some days, you know how much I’ve always liked him and then he asked me out and things have been great. There have been a few bad moments but I still can’t believe it. I always dreamed of getting married to him but now that it’s come true I have no idea what to feel.” She twisted the ring on her finger as she smiled at you.

You watched her in in awe, grinning at her, and thinking to yourself. “That must be an amazing feeling, I’m sure. To know that he wants to spend the rest of his life with you. That he thought about it for hours on end, searched for the perfect ring, waited for the perfect moment… He really does love you. I can tell… mainly because he’s constantly threatening me if I hurt you again,” you half-joked. Thoughts of marriage and wedding began dancing in your head, but you tried to push them down. 

“Well that's a thing we kind of clash on he still believes you could…well that doesn’t matter. I never would have guessed that he would want me to be in his life forever. But tell me what.. or more like why Loki? I mean out of all the Asgardians, why him? I mean yeah he’s charming and good looking what caught your eye?” She went to changing the subject trying to keep you happy. 

“Why Loki? Hmm… That’s… a good question. I guess… I saw a tortured soul. I saw someone who just wanted to be seen and loved for who he truly was. I saw myself in him, as he was adopted. I saw myself in him when I would catch him reading in the library at late hours. I watched how performing magic with his mom made him tremendously happy. He’s witty, and clever, in ways I’ve never seen in any one. And I don’t mean all the mean ways, like betrayal. For instance, a lot of people see him as a trickster, a prankster, right? Well, some might say he’s being childish, silly, or even mean. He once turned bread on a table into snakes at a royal dinner. All he did was smirk and sip his wine as a few of the women screamed and jumped back. But what I saw, was that Thor loves snakes and he took one and kept it as a pet for a few days before releasing it into the wild. Odin even smirked ever so slightly at the gag. While some people see his antics as mean, I could see they were the actions of a man who only wanted to make people around him laugh. He also used to do tricks for the local children. That’s why he resorts to humor and mockery in desperate situations. He uses the gifts he was taught. Thor had his looks, braun, and charm to go on. I could tell Loki had to work twice as hard with nearly everyone he encountered to get the same respect. So he resorted to the only ways he knew how.” You smiled for a moment, recalling all the wonderful times you had on Asgard with Loki, observing him, watching him. “His taste in poetry always left me stunned. He knew I loved art so he showed me around the art hall in Asgard and we both loved the same pieces… It was as if the fates designed it. Not to mention us almost growing up together… Can you imagine? God. What a weird life that would be.”

The entire time you spoke Shannon was so struck with how different the Loki you spoke of sounds compared to what she’d seen. Granted, it wasn’t a good part of him, but it did give light to a different side of him. “I wished I’d been there to see it all, it sounds to me like you two are a perfect match. To hear you tell me about the times on Asgard with him and how happy you sound makes it worthwhile.” At that point, Shannon had cleared the bed of breakfast and she was lying on the bed sideways. “If it's not too much to ask, can you tell me about what made you jump after him during his fight with Thor? I don’t want to overstep any boundaries.” 

You shook your head. “It’s no problem at all… I… um… Our time together on Asgard was precious. I can honestly say he and I grew almost as close in two months as you and I did in our ten years together. We spent nearly every waking moment together. If Loki wasn’t training me, we were reading, exploring the palace, he was taking me into the woods, we were riding horseback. He helped try and find all the knowledge about my birth parents he could… I mean, I’ve been in love before, you know that,” you said, gesturing at her as she nodded, recalling two men you had been pretty close with. “But Loki, the love I feel for him it completely swept me up. It’s that sort of dizzying, intoxicating love that you’d do anything for, you know? When I saw him fall into that abyss… Nothing else was on my mind but life without him, and suddenly that became unbearable, so I jumped. I didn’t think about Earth, Asgard, my parents, you, Lucky… Any of it. I knew that if Loki died, I would die with him. So I thought I might as well join him. I thought maybe somehow if I jumped with him, he wouldn’t be alone. He’d felt so alone all his life, I couldn’t imagine him dying alone too. I also somewhat hoped that he’d survive the fall, and I would be with him then too.” 

“I’ve never heard you talk like this, Y/N but I can understand what you mean. If it’d been me and Tony, I would have done the same, granted almost did when he’d been taken hostage and had his own weapons turned on him.” She seemed to go to a dark moment in the past, but fazed out of it. “I’m just glad to know you’re alive and you're here with me now. That’s all that matters now.” She hugged your leg to reassure herself. 

The rest of the day, the two of you spent chatting, positive things mainly, until you had to report for work and Shannon had a mountain of paperwork to get through for Tony and herself. When you were finished with your work, you decided to go see Loki, hoping he’d cooled down and thought about what he had said and done. 

The familiar whoosh of the doors alerted Loki of your presence, he watched as you walked inside the room. He wondered if you would join him in the cell. Without hesitation, you walked over to the cell doors and put your hand on the scanner, it granting you access. 

You knew that if you stood outside and talked to him, it would be this division between you two. It would symbolize how you felt like he was a prisoner and you were a civilian, free to live. Standing outside and talking to him would mean that you felt you belonged out there and he belonged in there, but you were here to show him there was no divide, there was no separation. You were his and you would follow him anywhere, be with him anywhere. 

“Loki,” you said, ready to duke out another fight but he simply stood from his place on the couch and held up a hand. 

“Y/N, I’m sorry, can you forgive me? I behaved like an idiot and I’m truly sorry.”

You stuttered nothing, incoherently for a second before you finally said, “Uh, yes, I forgive you. But wha--”

Before you could say anything else he was to you in a second, his mouth colliding with yours, his fingers tangling in your hair. “I vow to be the man you deserve,” he suddenly breathed in between kisses, barely giving you time to breathe before he suddenly picked you up and carried you to your bedroom, the fight utterly forgotten.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tag List: @essie1876​ @magpiegirl80​ @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked​ @iamwarrenspeace​ @marvel-imagines-yes-please​ @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification​ @thejemersoninferno​ @rda1989​ @munlis​ @thefridgeismybestie​​ @bubblyanarocks3​​ @igiveupicantthinkofausername​​ @kaliforniacoastalteens​ @feelmyroarrrr​​ @kaelingoat​ @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo​​ @damalseer​​ @heyitscam99​​ @yknott81​​ @sorryimacrapwriter​​ @glitterquadricorn​​ @xxqueenofisolationxx @little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama @bittersweetunicorm​​ @alyssaj23​​ @sea040561​​ @princess76179​​ @thisismysecrethappyplace​​ @sarahp879​​ @malfoysqueen14​​ @ellallheart​​ @breezy1415​​ @marvelmayo​​ @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @cocosierra94 @hardcollectionworldtrash @capsmuscles @marvelloushamilton @paintballkid711​

Loki: @lostinspace33​​ @ultrarebelheart​​ @lenawiinchester​​ @esoltis280​​ @tngrayson​​ @wangdeasang​​ @harrymewmew @jayfantasyatyourservice​​

UC: @lokis-high-priestess​

@pandacookieowo​

#unforeseen chasm #loki x reader #loki fic #Loki Laufeyson #tony stark x ofc #tony stark #tony stark fic #mentions of thor #mentions of odin

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

So, hey, a while ago I came up with this ask game about songs I associate with Arthurian characters. I had a lot of fun with that, but really wanted it to be more streamlined, so I came up with this solution - a list of Arthurian characters and the songs I associate with them.

Now, before we get into the list proper, I need to establish some things, the main one being that these song choices are primarily based on my interpretations of the characters, which is going to become extremely relevant with a few key choices that deviate completely from the normal story. Also, as an inevitable follow-through of this, these songs are entirely subject to my musical tastes, so if you're wondering why most of this list is either Heather Dale, Miracle of Sound or Jeff and Casey Lee Williams that's why. Finally, obviously not every Arthurian character is on this list - with some of the big-name ones like Merlin that's because I couldn't come up with a song choice, with others it's because I haven't fully come up with my version of them and as a result I'm still figuring them out.

With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this list!

King Arthur – Kingsword by Heather Dale

Kinda an obvious one - it's literally about Arthur - but I really like it and think it fits well with my version of Arthur, especially the last line of the chorus, 'A boy's hand will grasp it/A man's raise it high' - a major plot point of The Boy King is that Arthur has to grow up incredibly fast after the Sword in the Stone, and this song reflects that.

Guinevere – As I Am by Heather Dale

Again, another obvious one. This song brings into focus one major aspect of the Arthur/Guinevere relationship I play up - it's as much about their ideals as their attraction. Guinevere marries Arthur because she believes in his vision for Britain, and Arthur relies on Guinevere a lot for moral support. This is their greatest strength together, but it's also their greatest weakness - Arthur will later place faith in Guinevere's understanding of his vision where he shouldn't, and that will be the thing that turns Guinevere to Lancelot.

Morgan le Fay – Divide & Armed and Ready by Casey Lee Williams

Moving on to my favourite character in Arthuriana, Morgan gets two songs because... I wanted to give Morgan two songs. No, really it's because Morgan is complicated, and the two songs present her two moods more or less throughout her story - either vengefully, apocalyptically angry, or just righteously angry. That's my favourite thing about Morgan's story - she has a redemption arc, to be sure, but at no point during it does she accept that her motivation was wrong - Uther and Merlin deserved what she wanted to give them, her sin was in taking her anger out on people that had nothing to do with her revenge. So, whilst it's not as simple as a black and white 'Divide is Morgan pre-redemption, Armed and Ready is Morgan post', there is a sense that Armed and Ready is Morgan at her calmest. Also, because visually Morgan takes a lot of cues from the Trollhunters version of her, I've had a lot of fun with the 'I am the Golden One' line.

Morgause – Mordred’s Lullaby by Heather Dale

Yet another easy one - some might think it works better for Mordred, but I have other ideas for him. Not really much else to say - it's Morgause at her most evil, going places even Morgan won't - note how Divide calls out using children as weapons, whereas Lullaby goes 'yeah, I'm doing that Count of Monte Christo shit'.

Mordred – Mordred’s Song by Blind Guardian

Because edgelord Mordred gets edgelord rock song. Mordred is interesting, because I really don’t like the ‘born pure evil’ idea of Mordred, and as such his story is much more of a tragedy than even Arthur - a man who makes what he feels are the best decisions with what he has to work with, who slowly comes to the realisation that he's the villain of this story. Hence, a song that refers to his acts of evil as 'No one asked if I want this/If I like this'.

Nimue – Indomitable by Casey Lee Williams

This one was tough to keep in - whilst I'm absolutely certain that it fits my version of Nimue, the song itself is deeply personal for the people who made it, about an actual tragedy that happened to them, and I'm deeply uncomfortable saying that 'actually it's about this'. So, provided we're all aware that this is, more than any other song on the list, me twisting the original intent to fit my own idea, this is perfect for Nimue, particularly Nimue immediately after imprisoning Merlin and taking over his role as The Light Mage, the Big Good of the magical world. Her story’s pretty interesting, but the theme of trying to fill shoes that are way to big for you and eventually realising you can’t and the best you can do is try your best and do your own thing is prevalent and reflected perfectly by this song.

Lancelot – C’est Moi by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner/Bad Luck Charm by Jeff Williams

Like Morgan, Lancelot gets two songs, but unlike Morgan there is an absolutely sharp divide between these two. To use a Fate reference as shorthand, C'est Moi is Lancelot as a Saber, whilst Bad Luck Charm is Lancelot as Beserker. C'est Moi is kinda the perfect song for Lancelot for most of the story - oozing self-confidence, probably too smug for his own good but exactly the right level of smug where you're not sure if you want to punch him or kiss him, it's great for Lancelot. Bad Luck Charm, on the other hand, is basically what's playing on a loop in Lancelot's head as soon as he gets caught with Guinevere, especially given he survives Camlann. Countless dead, two civil wars ripping the country apart, his friends either killed at his hands or cursing his name, his king and queen in a place he cannot get to, and all the while he's left to wander the world knowing that it's all his fault.

Gawain – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Heather Dale

Not really much to say about this one - it's definitely influenced my interpretation of Gawain as the Pagan Knight to Lancelot's Christian Knight, and a lot of the events the song describes are what happens when the Green Knight comes to play, but all in all its just a really good song.

Kay – True and Destined Prince by Heather Dale

Being the deuteragonist of the Boy King, Kay is someone I've put a lot of thought into, and this song is definitely a part of my writers playlist I keep listening to to get into the Kay mood. In particular the key defining factor of Kay is loyalty - particularly to Arthur the person, because obviously anyone trying to hurt his little brother is getting smacked. Kay is basically the Leo McGarry to Arthur's Jed Bartlet if that makes any sense, helping to make Arthur's dreams a reality, and there's also the factor that Kay and Arthur always consider one another brothers, which the song definitely reflects.

Bedivere – I Follow My King by Heather Dale

You may notice that this song is basically the same thematically as Kay's song. This is because Kay and Bedivere are a healthy couple that communicate their feelings with one another and come to reasonable compromises, so obviously their attitudes towards certain things are very similar. But talking about Bedivere in particular, this song works better for him than Kay because of one key aspect about Bedivere - whereas Gawain swears allegiance to Arthur for initially very mercenary ideals, and Lancelot swears to Arthur because of Arthur's reputation, Bedivere swears to Arthur because he's experienced Arthur growing up, he's seen the kind of man he's grown into, and he knows that Arthur's going to be a great king. Also the song works better for Bedivere because if Arthur tried pulling the shit the subject of this song does on Kay he's get locked in his room until he learnt not to be an idiot.

Ragnelle – Force of Nature by Miracle of Sound

Tbh it's mainly here for the line 'They rant of redemption/As I leave them long behind' which is peak Ragnelle energy - Ragnelle doesn't care about your feelings or what you think about her, she's doing her own thing and she demands you take her seriously. Aside from that, Ragnelle in my version has a faintly Fae connection to the Otherworld, and even if I go with the idea of her dying (I'm still undecided on that) it's more than likely that she ends up in some other place where her and Gawain can spend their days, so there's a particular melancholy to the lines 'I can hear the worlds unseen/I can hear them call to me'.

Galahad – A Thousand Eyes by Miracle of Sound

This definitely doesn't seem like a song that fits Galahad, does it? It's certainly not the one I picked when I did the original format of this list, so what gives? Well, more than maybe any other song on this list, this one is influenced by my specific version of Galahad, and that is influenced by my specific version of the Grail Quest, which I only codified a few months ago - namely, by saying 'fuck it' and making it a horror story. I'm not kidding. There's a lot of complexity in this interpretation, and I'd love to go more in depth about it at a later date, but for now know that my Galahad isn't a clumsy Jesus stand-in, he's more like a Lovecraft protagonist briefly brushing against things beyond mortal ken before being consumed by them, and as such I could think of no better song than this one.

Gareth – Touch the Sky by Casey Lee Williams

Now, as with Galahad there are certain key things you need to know about my version of Gareth before the song makes sense. Unlike Galahad, this one is very simple: the boy is trans. Absolutely, unambiguously trans. His story is explicitly trans, he's explicitly trans, and as I've been reliabily informed by certain people this song has a lot of Good Trans Vibes, which I can definitely see. Honestly Gareth's story is another one I could probably talk about for a while, especially because I'm really unsure about certain bits of it, being cis and very wary of screwing up trans rep, but for now I'll leave it at this song being perfect for Gareth in Camelot, finally able to be himself and not Morgause junior - because if you expected Morgause to be a good mum you need to listen to Mordred’s Lullaby again.

Ywain – Stay By My Side by Miracle of Sound

Cute friendship song for the boy with the lioness companion, not much more to say about it. There is a search for identity element in both Journey and Ywain's story, in Ywain's case being a search for his own meaning outside of his family, but mainly its a cute soft song for a cute soft lion boy.

Dinadan – Knights of the Round Table by Monty Python

Because what else would it be?

Uther – Lionize by Jeff Williams

Asshole attracts asshole, and Uther's just enough of a dick that Adam's particular brand of 'everyone who isn't like me is weak and cowardly and only I can see what's necessary to save us all, you'll see I'm right in the end'. Also, you may notice there's no Merlin song here, and whilst that's partially because I don't know a song that could explain my complicated feelings towards Merlin, this song also tells you everything you need to know about Merlin, because if Merlin can look at someone who's got this in their heads and think he's a perfect candidate for the throne then maybe Morgan has a point after all.

Igraine – The Best I Can by Miracle of Sound

Igraine might have one of the most complicated backstories in The Boy King, involving mermaids, Mirror Universe Wonder Woman and the plot of ICO, but none of that is strictly speaking relevant to the story as is told. Basically, Igraine has been through a lot, and this song is about her trying to prepare all her children for the cruel world out there, and also knowing that she can't. It's kind of a downer to end on, but hey it's Arthurian Legend - it's all a downer.

#arthurian legend #arthuriana #arthurian mythology #arthurian literature #king arthur #arthur pendragon #guinevere #morgan le fay #morgause #mordred #nimue #sir lancelot #sir gawain #sir kay #sir bedivere #ragnelle #sir galahad #sir gareth #sir ywain #sir dinadan #uther pendragon #igraine #heather dale #miracle of sound #jeff williams #casey lee williams

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Oct 26)

Recently Completed!

Tokyo Godfathers

Score: 10/10

There’s a reason why I gave this such a rare high rating. When I was watching it, I was internally like, “*excitement noises* I have not been this excited over an anime in such a long time, let alone for an anime movie. EVERYONE SHUT UP SO I CAN WATCH THIS EVEN IF I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE SAYING.”

It’s not often that you come across really good movies, let alone masterpieces like this movie. The art is so good, the story made me feel like it was Christmas in October, and the characters really made me connect. 

I know the subtitles used a whole lot of gay slurs and things like that, but Hana (the trans character in this tale) is treated well if we get past that huge hurdle. She truly owns up to herself. She doesn’t care what she’s called. She gets mad at people who misgender her. She gets mad if she’s forced to go to a men’s facility. She wants people to call her “an old hag” rather than “an old coot”. She just wants to be a mother even if she isn’t “biologically a woman” who can bear children. So when she comes across this kid, she thinks, “I will finally be a mother!” These are issues that real people face. These are issues that cisgendered people take for granted.

Madhouse really knocked it out of the park. Satoshi Kon is one of the biggest creators and directors in anime history. He’s known for horror and psychological works like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Millennium Actress. I never expected him to be this good at making a movie that could move my soul like this. The characters were so far from perfect, yet I wanted the best for each of them. The way it handled everything was masterful. The dialogue worked so well and was witty, the voice actors (despite the main three not being in anything else for the most part) were so good at giving life to their characters, and the art blew me away in 2019 even though this was released in 2003. The only thing I didn’t quite like as much was the score during some parts of the movie, but it was subjectively good and just wasn’t to my taste (the Noragami soundtrack wasn’t a fav of mine either). 

Just... watch the movie. If you can watch it around Christmas. It’s good for you.

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Score: 7.4/10 

Yes, I binge-watched all 39 episodes in two days, what’s it to ya?! In reality, I just boosted the speed of the video.

Me throughout this show: Why do you all have triangle heads? What’s with that?

Okay, it’s the art style, and a lot of shoujo anime go with the concept that it looks good. Once you get over the art hurdle making me believe this was created in the early 2000s despite it being 3 years younger than Tokyo Godfathers, this turns out to be a really nice show. I just can’t believe they’re BOTH from Madhouse. 

Remember Snow White with the Red Hair? Remember Akatsuki no Yona? If you liked those shows, you’re going to like this one... except it relies more on the political plot. It’s mostly about a woman wanting to pursue her dreams of being a politician in a male-dominated world. She’s entasked with helping this mess of a king to get his act together, and as much as I can try to prove that it’s surprisingly progressive (given the art and genre), I think that’d be spoiling it a little. The only character that actually bothered me was the prince who was voiced by Tomokazu Seki who honestly was a bit annoying and sounded so fake for me. However, this anime made me appreciate Hikaru Midorikawa’s voice as well as Houko Kuwashima who I’ve only heard voicing dead moms and only a few good characters here and there. Seriously, both of their voices are great. Toshiyuki Morikawa sounds good too, but we already knew that. I don’t like the OP or ED (or a whole lot of the music), but that’s the case for a lot of these 2005-era anime. Just like a lot of the anime on MAL, I do think this is an underrated show, but it does have its pitfalls if you’re just craving for a quick shoujo without any politics.

Full Metal Panic: Second Raid

Score: 7/10

I binge-watched this entire season while my parents were out for dinner and something else. It only took me a couple of hours because I boosted the speed.

I wanted to get a gif specifically from this season, so this one will have to do. So much wasted potential will this character (who’s one of two twins). I know they were trying to play the whole “twincest” thing, but I’m personally not a fan. They provided some cool fight scenes even at a certain cringe cost. The fact that Kyoto Animation animated this bumped the art from a 3 to an 8. It’s crazy how much the quality jumped after a new studio took over. Unfortunately, they didn’t take care of the next season. I know the main ship in the series is pretty clear, but this season made it closer to canon (too bad it took around 13 years to make the next season).

Kara no Kyoukai (movies: 5, 6, 7)

Score:  Part Five: 7.5/10 Part Six: 5.8/10 Part Seven: 8.2/10

Not gonna lie, I watched the first four movies over a year ago and retained nothing. I had to read the Wikia to assist me and to begin with, I watched this to get into the “Type-Moon” universe (which consists of this and the Fate nonsense stuff), Yuki Kajiura’s score, and Maaya Sakamoto and Kenichi Suzumura voicing a couple. The score would probably change if I’d watched them regularly, but I digress because I watched movies 5-7 in one afternoon. Ufotable was pretty good at animating this and the voice acting worked really well. Yuki Kajiura’s music didn’t hit well at first when I was first watching the first few movies over a year ago because it wasn’t what I envisioned the score being, but once you get into the mood and mindset, it adds so much to the story. Although, I still really didn’t like part six. I thought it was a complete flop because I just want to get rid of anyone who believes i*cest is an okay thing. This isn’t Alabama. Go home. Not else to say here because this took so much commitment that I doubt anyone would watch it.

Paranoia Agent

Score: 8.6/10

With spoopy month coming to a close (already?!) I watched this anime earlier this month, but I forgot to write about it. That’s partly because there’s so much to unpack here. This was a thriller, psychological, horror anime by Satoshi Kon. That’s right, the first anime above was also done with him in the director’s seat. This anime was smart. There’s a reason why Robin Williams likes it! It was scary in the best of ways. It revealed a part of society that we see all the time but don’t talk about (especially in Japanese society where emotions are better kept concealed). Just the opening alone made me feel uneasy. The OP and ED were simplistic yet worked. I binge-watched the whole series because it was that gripping. 

It was a little confusing at times, but that’s also because that’s just a common thing with horror anime. That suspense keeps us going. It keeps us on the edge of our seats. Who’s going to be the next victim of Shounen Bat? Episode 8 came out of nowhere for me, and I liked it. There were several scenes that sent shivers down my spine in the best way possible. It isn’t always “scary”, but it gives suspense.

Aoi Bungaku

This one is going to be reviewed a little differently. Since it has specific arcs, I’m going to review them as such!

Ningen Shikkaku: 8.2/10

We start off with a bang. Osamu Dazai was a man of suffering. This story really shows that. In this story, we see a man who’s desperate to know what makes him human. We see this through the eyes of a fictional character, but I personally view this as a semi-autobiography.

The art was chilling. The voice acting from Masato Sakai was surprisingly good. A lot of the time, voice acting from live-action actors just aren’t that great. Every time you think this character will get back on his feet, he falls deeper and deeper. It truly did make me wonder what made me human.

Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita: 3.9/10

That moment when the only thing that saves this arc is Nana Mizuki’s singing. Seriously, her jazz songs were awesome. Can’t say that about the rest. I mean, the art is good, but it’s Madhouse so most of their stuff is already good. The story wasn’t that original. Mind you, this was probably during a period where foreign influence was strong, and I haven’t read the original story, but... this is basically Salome (the opera) with some differences. Both have a crazy woman with a fixation over lifeless decapitated heads. Both have men that are captivated with her beauty so they give her what she wants because of that reason alone, they both murder religious people (monk/shrine maiden and a prophet), and both eventually realize that women can be crazy when they demand a lifeless head because you know, that’s just a red flag. Above all, it suffers from tonal shifts. You can’t have a woman turning moe then demand you bring her another head to play with. You can’t have Masato Sakai playing another main character that doesn’t fit him! Seriously, he doesn’t have the voice of a brute and just couldn’t do it. Overall, this arc was a mess, and I’m glad it was one of the shorter ones.

Kokoro: 7.6/10

This looked like a masterpiece compared to the last arc. I haven’t read Kokoro, but this made me go, “Huh, I don’t remember this happening.” That’s because they chose a certain part of the book (near the end apparently) and just went off that and created its own anime-original episode. Despite that, it was pretty good! There were some screaming discrepancies which did hurt its impression (because it made it feel out of place to the point where even I, as an uneducated anime viewer, could clearly see).

(I think this is from Kokoro but I might be wrong)

Hashire, Melos!: 8.9/10

Would you look at that? It’s the best arc of the series. Hashire, Melos was great. It had me going from beginning to end, and it’s the only arc that doesn’t have Masato Sakai playing the lead character. The art, the pacing, the storytelling, the story, the sound, the voice acting, and the art direction complemented each other so well. It made me far more interested in the original. 

The Spider’s Thread: 6.6/10

If you look really close, you’ll notice that the creator of Bleach took over character design for this! It was okay. I found that it was a little cliche and lacklustre. Mamo is around so much that you probably have to do more than that to keep my attention, and this had the art going for it too. It just wasn’t that interesting. A heartless murderer is sent to hell after being executed. Moral of the story: Don’t be an asshole. Alright. Nice. I do understand that Ryuunosuke Akutagawa was one of the main establishers of the whole “Japanese Short Story” thing, but after seeing it so many times, I just didn’t get that same chill.

Hell Screen: 6.9/10 

Another Akutagawa short story! This one had far more of an impact because this one hit closer to Akutagawa’s heart. Knowing the history of this piece of writing, you can see his desperation to stay relevant and true to his craft. It’s about a painter who wants to paint the town but finds out the city isn’t the bright light he sees in his mind. Everything goes ablaze. The art for this is stunning. I probably would’ve enjoyed this story more if it was placed in the middle of the series run rather than being the last story. 

Recently Started

Africa no Salaryman

The animation for this is terrible. There is no way around it. However, at least it’s funny. Still, close to being on the chopping block. It has the papa lion who’s played by Akio Ohtsuka, the straight-man middle lizard played by Kenjirou Tsuda, and the scumbag toucan played by Hiro Shimono. Yes, they all play Hero Academia villains. The jokes are pretty good for me.

Given

Oh, would you look at that? It’s a music anime. *inhales* Music anime is a double-edged sword for me. I like having music interpreted and portrayed through one of my favourite mediums, but I don’t like them playing off music as some sort of easy gimmick and a joke. It’s like a shonen montage. “Let’s just have this guy train for two minutes and become a demigod”. But when you put an instrument into someone’s hand and demand the same, it sends me to another plane of angriness.  So far, the romance is kind of cute... but Mafuyu kind of annoys me since his role in the BL dynamic is so clear just by his voice. Same with Uchida. You can only play so many thugs a season. Kyou? Good. Chika? Good. This guy? Good, but don’t do them all back-to-back! I don’t like the BL dynamic being so basic. However, my mind can be changed if done right.

Shinsekai Yori

Very interesting premise, their eyes are cute, and I’m a sucker for these so I’m gonna stick with it.

#dino watches anime #given #shinsekai yori #aoi bungaku #dazai osamu #natsume souseki #akutagawa ryuunosuke #ango sakaguchi #full metal panic #kara no kyoukai #saiunkoku monogatari #tokyo godfathers

[stetervault]

Has there been a "Stiles rescues Peter" rec list yet? I'm looking for anything from monster of the week to Eichen House to the Wild Hunt. The idea that I've already read them all is too terrible to contemplate. (Thanks for running an amazing blog!

Not specifically as far as I can remember. But it’s always a genre I can get behind :) Here are some I think fit that category, either as the whole fic or part of it. And thanks for following my blog!

A Moment, Then Silence by Therapeutic_Steter

anonymous asked: Stiles takes care of a heavy injured Peter, who has permanent damage since then. The pack doesn’t care, but Derek and Cora realise that he is family.

Scale Tales by Therapeutic_Steter

Connected drabbles revolving around Dragon!Stiles and his werewolf Mate, Peter.

Rhythm of the War Drums by HyperLittleNori (Shiguresan) (this one’s more them taking care of each other and saving each other)

The foreboding song of the drums rumbled through the stands above, made his heart, his blood pound with their increasing rhythm. He’d seen this so many times now, heard the sickening, morbid excitement of the rabble. He readied himself for the carnage, but even nearly a year after he’d first stood in this spot, it still filled him with dread.

As always, he watched the sandy arena through the barred steel gates. They vibrated with the movement, with the almost deafening sounds of the crowd and the drums. A sea of guards stood at his back, but they were not there for him…

Hooverville by twothumbsandnostakeincanon (somanyofthekids)

Town to town, train to train, tent to tent.

By 1932, the dust had begun to blow and the jobs were gone.

Anonymity was a byproduct of looking for work, which made it both necessary and convenient.

Stiles had enough secrets of his own to know to look the other way when he saw something that shouldn’t be possible.

The ghost of a tail giving enough balance to disembark a moving train.

Near silent Latin whispered on the edge of a tent encampment.

A flash of burning eyes.

He had more than enough to worry about without adding the oddities of others, and besides- having unusually sharp teeth certainly didn’t make a man worse than the ones running from the wife and kids they couldn’t feed.

So Stiles kept his observations to himself. He kept his everything to himself.

Until he met a man. One with eyes so blue they seemed to glow- and then they did.

Stiles tried to look away, but for the first time he was stopped.

“Don’t be like that sweetheart. Aren’t you curious?”

If I Could Kiss You Again by Triangulum

“Summer plans?” Peter asks, eyes on where Isaac is now trying to inch along the ceiling beam toward the wall where he can slide down a pipe.

“Leaving for Stanford in September. Saving the world and working in between now and then,” Stiles says. “Why, gonna miss me?”

“Considering I’ll be left alone with Derek? Yes,” Peter says.

“You’ll have Cora,” Stiles says. “And Isaac will be here to make up a few high school credits.”

There’s a shriek and a thud as Isaac loses his grip, falling on top of Erica and Boyd, sending them all to the ground in a heap.

“Yes,” Peter says flatly. “Thank god for that.”

OR

Five times Stiles kisses Peter and one time Peter kisses him.

Stravinsky by rightsidethru

Duke Orsino:If music be the food of love, play on,Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,The appetite may sicken, and so die.

Twelfth Night; Act 1, scene 1, 1–3

Wolf Within by wynnebat

Instead of convincing Scott to regain his humanity by killing the Alpha, Derek offers another possible solution.

Fashion. Police. by Bunnywest

In which Stiles is a cop with an interest in menswear, Peter’s the owner of a menswear store with a definite interest in Stiles, and why is there always some maniac running around throwing tins of red paint and making death threats?

Fashion, baby.

Under the Songbird’s Wing by mia6363

Captivity easily destroys the will of escape. It can break the fiercest of animal. It can strip the most regal man and woman down to nothing but animal needs.

Captivity can, if met with unwavering determination, shape a person into something unimaginable.

Stiles is sixteen when he’s captured. Stiles’s first thought is, “I won’t die here.”

The Promises Of Yesterday, The Pledges Of Tomorrow by ShippersList

Stiles is a kid with serious concentration issues and definitely not a guide—let alone a guide strong enough to calm down a feral Sentinel wolf. It’s just not possible.

Keep You (Safe) Within my Shadow by lavenderlotion

Stiles has never been scared of the dark. The shadows are his friends.

Dance Under the Moonlight by Therapeutic_Steter

Anonymous asked: Fae!Stiles saving Peter from Pack’s stupidity and washing his hands of them. Please?

Through Space and Time by MaroonDragon

When Stiles pulls the body of Peter Hale into his ship, he doesn’t expect him to be alive. He also doesn’t realise he might have gotten more than he bargained for.

Promises We Never Made by Green

Peter runs off to wreak havoc without telling Stiles where he’s going. Then Stiles has to rescue him.

Rainwater, Morning Dew, Ozone. by lavenderlotion

When Peter is kidnapped, Stiles is left to come to the rescue.

Peter ends up hard.

Fear (Doesn’t Mean I Can’t Fight) by azerblazer

Peter is the damsel in distress, the Sheriff is the hostage, random unnamed hunters are the bad guys.

Stiles has a bat, a hoodie and a willingness to do anything to protect those he’s loyal to.

Bring it on.

Bone Rot by neglectedtuesday

Stiles watches Peter from across the room, although he feels like he shouldn’t. Like he shouldn’t try to insert himself, even by proxy, into the moments Peter is experiencing. Autumn spills into the living room through the open doors, lighting Peter from behind. He is bathed in soft light and Stiles lingers in the shadows, ignoring the symbolism of that. He’s bored of all the different metaphors for longing.

Slice by syriala

Blood magic was dangerous magic, but Stiles’ teacher was one of the best, and Stiles wasn’t too worried that it wouldn’t work out. It would cost him, dearly even if his teacher was to be believed, but Stiles had learned all about the sacrifices for this and he couldn’t care less.

Not This Again by RebaK1tten

There’s a rumor that the last episode of the show will have Peter getting killed, again. Perhaps to give him a redemption arc or something.

So this is a fix it fic. I decided Stiles has finished one year of college. And Peter’s back again!

Cleanse My Soul by Mysenia

cywscross asked: “We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain?” + Steter? Thanks:)

Call My Name by KouriArashi

After moving to Beacon Hills, Stiles starts having recurring dreams of a man in some kind of prison, who needs his help. Things get so bad that he ends up in Eichen House, where he finds out that the man is real.

Shelter by ShippersList (more hurt/comfort than straight-up saving Peter)

A magical attack leaves Peter vulnerable and in agony, and it reminds him way too much of his time in a coma.

love me lights out by veterization

Stiles and Peter get snowed in together. (Or: what happens when you accept phone calls from people you haven’t spoken to in over five years.)

labyrinth by sinequanon

Stiles prefers goblins to werewolves. Except maybe Peter.

Til Death by Bunnywest

“How long do we have to find him someone?” Stiles asks.“Two weeks,” says Derek, eyebrows pulling down even further. The fierceness of his expression tells Stiles just how concerned he is.“He marries, or he goes to the camps. And you know what your father told us,” Scott reminds her.The camps……aren’t camps.Peter either finds a wife, or he dies.

Bigfoot Told Me You Were Coming by twothumbsandnostakeincanon (somanyofthekids)  (Stetopher)

Peter and Chris are on the run when they stumble across Stiles’ home in the woods.

You Got Me Now by syriala

Stiles stormed into the warehouse, eyes roaming around, desperate to find Peter. The pack was close behind Stiles, but he didn’t pay them any mind when his eyes fell on Peter.

He was on the floor, not even shackled, like someone had just discarded him without a second thought.

Peter was naked except for his pants, and Stiles could see the wounds that marred his skin. He decided not to think about why they weren’t healed.

Bittersweet Creek by Guede

When Stiles finally steps off the westward trail to California, he’s the last of his pack. He starts building a den, but then he finds a dying man next to a burnt-down house and it turns out he’s not really much of a settler, after all.

The Alpha by Therapeutic_Steter

An Alpha always protects what’s theirs.

…..

“Has anyone seen Peter?” Stiles asked at the next Pack meeting, trying to play his concern off as his typical curiosity. It wasn’t like he and Peter had been trying to keep…whatever it was that was developing between them a secret, but most of the Pack was notoriously self-absorbed and hadn’t noticed yet. As it stood, Stiles was only sure that Lydia and Derek knew about it; Lydia because she put it together and warned Peter off hurting Stiles and Derek because he came back to the loft to find them snuggled on the couch looking through an old tome and he’d also warned Peter about hurting Stiles.

Why did they not think Stiles could hurt Peter? Stiles could totally hurt him. If he wanted. Which he didn’t, but that was beside the point.

Let Me Run Away With You by Whispering_Sumire (Steterek)

“So,” Peter says, after an hour or so of driving in tense silence, “I assume we’re going back to your beloved Beacon Hills?”

“No,” Stiles tells him, without even looking up from the restorative paste he’s administering to Derek’s wounds. And isn’t that surprising?

“No?”

“I took the GPS out of Roscoe and I hacked into some of your accounts to get him travel-ready. I don’t care where we go Peter, but I don’t want to go back to Beacon Hills,” there’s a desperation in his voice that makes Peter’s skin crawl, though he has no idea why, “please.”

“Okay,” Peter agrees softly.

[Or: The one where Stiles is in a very bad place, and Peter and Derek manage to unwittingly save him from himself while he saves them from themselves.]

Hostile Takeover by kiranightshade

Alternate season 4 where Peter gains a new roommate in Eichen…for about five minutes. Then all hell breaks loose.

For Great Justice! by Green

Stiles is a vengeance demon, drawn to Peter just as he’s waking from his catatonia.

“Whoever did this? We will make those fuckers suffer. I promise you.”

Enemy Action by pprfaith

Once is chance, twice is coincidence and three times is far too many bodies on the ground.

Whiskey is My Kind of Lullaby by taylorpotato

Peter is a simple saloon owner on one of the outer planets between the Aaru Belt and the Olympus Galaxy. He’s done with trouble. Done with adventure. So fucking done with rustlers. That is, until a cute young outlaw named Stiles wanders into his bar. Peter has this problem where he can’t seem to resist charming narcissists (perhaps because they remind him of himself). And when said narcissists turn his life upside-down, the worst part is he’s not even that upset about it.

#teen wolf #steter #fanfic rec #bamf stiles #hurt peter #awyeahitssam #ask #rec list

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 39 Analysis

This chapter immediately got off to a good start. With the return of Roland to the series the tone immediately takes a more energetic, urgent vibe. We also see that Noé has a pretty good understanding of Vanitas’s feelings both about Roland and hugs:

In other words, Vanitas can’t stand either and Noé is willing to be the body shield for the occasion. Probably doesn’t hurt that Noé likes both Roland and hugs, so it’s not like he’s making a huge sacrifice here....

Regardless, his efforts are for naught! Roland shields them both from the chasseur ships and we get an interesting tidbit as well:

They were heading to Saugues? I’ll admit I have no first-hand knowledge of France, so if anyone knows better please let me know, but looking at a modern map indicates Saugues is quite a bit further away than Gévaudan! From Paris to Saugues is 533 km while Paris to Gévaudan is 575 km. All this time, I was assuming they were heading for Gévaudan but Roland is making it sound like they ended up at Gévaudan purely by accident.

Chapter 24 never outright said where they were going, just that they were going somewhere. Gano was supposed to meet up with Astolfo, but so far we haven’t seen this Gano whatsoever.

So, Roland might be lying and I wouldn’t put it past him. Maybe they were heading for Gévaudan but he doesn’t want Noé or Vanitas to know that just yet. But he might also be telling the truth, which raises three interesting questions: Where is Gano? Why were they heading to Saugues? What was the incident in Carcassonne? Also, if you’re wondering (like I was), Carcassonne isn’t exactly close to Gévaudan either; it’s 301 km away. 8D Regardless of whatever else we learn in this chapter, we know the chasseurs are used to long-distance assignments all over France. I suppose this makes sense; they seem to have a limited amount of paladins and they’re keeping tabs on the whole country.

Getting back to Roland, he has immediately made himself Noé and Vanitas’s co-conspirator and I love it.

Noé looks slightly enchanted, which fits in with his general attitude twoard Roland at all times and Vanitas looks like his soul might depart from his body at any moment, which is also consistent to his reactions toward Roland. XD

What’s really great is the reason Roland gives them for why he’s helping them in the first place:

This is... technically not a lie, but Roland is omitting a lot of the truth here as well. Roland does like Noé, there’s no doubt about that, but a big part of why he’s helping them is because he no longer fully trusts the Church. He suspects they’re hiding something and he’s entirely correct. He’s been researching the Beast of Gévaudan since volume 5, chapter 22.

Even then he wasn’t seeking out banned books. He’s toeing the line remarkably well. Furthermore, the fact he isn’t telling this to Noé or Vanitas shows he still has enough loyalty to the Church that he isn’t about to voice his criticisms to outsiders; he wants to learn the truth of it for himself.

All of this is in interesting contrast to his namesake. The Roland from “The Song of Roland” never questioned the Church, his Christian morals, or whether their foe was someone they should defeat. He was a stalwart warrior who was loyal to an extreme. This Roland is loyal but he has no problem asking questions or adjusting his belief system.

Noé doesn’t suspect he’s not being given the whole truth, however, and confesses he likes Roland as well. I double checked the Japanese for this and they’re both using “suki” to describe their affection. With the reactions on display I had almost wondered if they were using “daisuki.” XD If they had, it would have been essentially a love confession and the ship would have been sailing freely, but as it is it’s a little toned down. This has done nothing to appease Vanitas, however:

Vanitas’s anger could be for two separate things (or both!): 

1) He can’t stand Roland, so the insinuation that Noé’s little declaration somehow counts for him as well is disgusting.

2) Noé is getting along with Roland exceedingly well. Arguably better than he gets along with Vanitas and he’s focusing all his attention on him, forgetting why they’re there in the first place. In other words, he’s a little jealous. He can’t exactly go around saying that--it would hardly fit his character--so he just gives Roland something to do. An important something, there’s no question that it needs to be done, but it’s also something that will keep Roland away from both him and Noé for a while.

Noé’s strong reaction to Roland’s declaration as well as the one back in the catacombs where Roland announced they were friends indicates to me that Noé is kind of lonely. That isn’t surprising; he only ever really had two friends and one of them died a few years back. Teacher only visited sporadically from what we’ve seen and Dominique is restrained in her affection in the present, which is understandable. She can’t let Noé how she feels, so she can hardly go around announcing something like this in the way Roland can. Of course, Vanitas can’t really be described as affectionate at all. 

Noé is pretty open with how he feels about people, so Roland is probably a nice change of pace and probably the only person being as open and forthright as Noé wishes everyone would be. Granted, as I just pointed out, a lot of Roland’s openness is a facade, but Noé doesn’t know that....

We also get to see Roland and Olivier in action at last!

Furthermore, we got to see Olivier’s weapon, which seems unnecessarily violent in my opinion. XD A sword and a chainsaw? Sounds excruciating... And apparently he’s quite vicious with it. I laughed pretty hard at how the villagers were initially cheering him on without abandon, but the more he fought the wolves the more their cheers started to die down as they realized this guy might be a little unhinged. 

That one guy became physically ill...

It’s also confirmed that Olivier’s weapon shares the same name, Hauteclaire, as his namesake in “The Song of Roland,” too. According to the edition I have on hand, Hauteclaire means “Highbright” while Durandal (Roland’s weapon) might mean “Enduring.”

As for the mysterious Gano, I haven’t yet seen a name that looks like his in the poem. Maybe it’s a nickname? If so, I wonder if he might be Ganelon. In that case, his weapon would be Murgleys, which the translation thinks may mean “Death brand.” If he does ever show up, I think we may find him the most fearsome paladin yet.

Olivier and Roland are each leading their own teams (team 6 for Roland, team 3 for Olivier) and we finally get to see how these two interact during battle and it’s exactly what I hoped for: Olivier is barely tolerating his nonsense, and Roland is getting his way through sheer force of will alone. In this regard, they’re definitely like their counterparts but the main difference is that they’re both leaders here as opposed to Olivier working for Roland. Granted, he seems to give in to what Roland wants regardless, so...

But Olivier is no fool. He sorts out why Roland is making such bizarre requests.

He knows that the only people to get Roland to change the way he does everything, to make him rethink his belief system, is Noé (and kind of Vanitas). He kind of looks worried; he knows Roland is pushing things with the Church, but there’s nothing he can do to stop him.

For all of Olivier’s worries though, Roland will do his job. He will wipe out all the vampires if he has to.

It’s all too easy to forget how dangerous Roland actually is but let’s not forget that while Astolfo called him a “buffoon of a man” this was the image he had of Roland when he thought of him:

He’s looking down on him with a face of stern judgment. That’s not a man to be messed with. Makes me wonder how Astolfo and Roland actually get along...

As it is, Noé only has the barest inkling of Roland’s true nature himself. But this scene makes one thing very clear: Roland is restraining himself. He has no doubt he could kill Chloé and quite likely Jean-Jacques if he needed to. It would be fascinating to see him and Jeanne fight each other. They’re each absurdly powerful but they each restrain themselves for personal reasons. If they ever did have a confrontation where neither was hindered, I honestly don’t know who would win. On the flipside, imagine if they teamed up? My goodness...

This monster kind of reminds me of Prédateur in the catacombs arc. It’s misshapen and grotesque. I suppose it must be a result of Chloé losing control of her power? I’m looking forward to seeing how he and Olivier sort it out.

This chapter we also finally got some insight on Jeanne as well. Honestly, I really thought this arc would be focusing a lot more on Jeanne than it actually did, so I’m glad we’re finally getting back to her.

Jeanne was knocked out along with nearly everyone else who was too close to Chloé, including Astolfo, Dante, and Marco (Astolfo’s assistant). She’s lost in a memory, and it’s a memory that is very interesting:

She’s surrounded by water and she’s being approached by a man with a candle, telling her she’s a doll who must obey without question.

To me, it looks very much like she’s in a tank, much like whoever this individual is:

Both Jeanne and the girl (?) in the tank have something to do with Ruthven as well. Furthermore, both of them react to Charlatan, which I’ll get back to in just a second.

There’s a theory that’s gone around that the Jeanne we know might be a clone and I’m really starting to wonder if that might be the case. Look at this flashback of her parents, for example:

The way this is set up is confusing. At first I thought the two individuals in the first panel were her parents but they kind of look like chasseurs, don’t they? Furthermore, they ask her if she’s alone and if she’s all right. After that we cut immediately to the second panel, which we know for a fact is a conversation between her parents and Ruthven, and it’s shown they’re not her biological parents.

If the two in the first panel are chasseurs, I think it’s safe to say she was probably in one of those tanks in the catacombs at some point and that she’s some kind of experiment, possibly of Dr. Moreau’s or simply of the Church/Ruthven more generally. Either way, not a good thing.

When her parents betray the vampires, she’s the one who’s punished, which is just absurd and heartbreaking.

This goes a long way toward explaining why Jeanne is so hesitant on occasion. She knows the price of doing things according to her own will: someone else will die in her place.

I think for the first time we’re actually seeing what she and Vanitas have in common. Neither of them were allowed much agency in their youth, both were treated as subhuman/vampire, and both are try to rectify the mistakes of their past. They differ in how they want to accomplish that, however. For Jeanne, she’s decided that the only way to sort through the horrors of her past is to obey and cut off any sense of individuality she might have. Vanitas is inflicting his opinions on the world at large and is trying to separate himself from other individuals by denying them any agency.

But this chapter we see them both go the opposite direction. Jeanne was reiterating to herself that she cannot be a person--she must be a tool. There’s no point trying to save Chloé--she’s beyond that point and Vanitas and Noé can’t hope to get there in time. But then:

 Vanitas extends a helping hand to Jeanne. A real helping hand, for once, free of any demand or manipulation. He tells her it isn’t too late to help Chloé; something can still be done.

What follows is something I find fascinating:

They’re having a genuine, honest discussion of how Jeanne sees things and we see how low Jeanne’s self-esteem is. She can’t even allow herself to hope for something, to wish for a different path in life. And for once, Vanitas actually seems understanding. I think he’s been here before; he knows what it’s like to have no hope for a better future, to accept a fate of darkness.

And when he was at his lowest, ready to give up utterly, someone helped him see another way of doing things. It almost doesn’t need to be pointed out, this chapter already does, but that person was Noé.

Vanitas is offering hope in the only way he knows how and is it any surprise that when he’s at his most genuine, his most caring, he’s imitating Noé? That doesn’t mean he’s being false here, quite the opposite, but it indicates Noé is the only example he has to go off of, the only person who has ever given him this kind care, and now he’s offering it to Jeanne in turn.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this is the first time Vanitas and Jeanne have felt genuine or romantic and it’s fascinating to witness. A lot of people would argue that the scene in the cabin was romantic; it was framed to look like a kiss after all! But to me that was more about Jeanne asserting herself; it didn’t further their relationship in a romantic sense. But this? A genuine exchange of feelings and a real offer to help her for once? That speaks greater volumes of how they’re both changing their perspectives of each other far more than what came before.

Even though Vanitas is offering to help Jeanne, she still can only bear to ask him to help Chloé out loud. She asks him to help her inwardly, but they’re still not at the point where she feels she can ask him to help her specifically.

Will they ever have a real, proper romance? I don’t know. When Jeanne reveals she does, in fact, care about whether Vanitas lives or dies, he returns to his usual playful, carefree demeanor. In other words, the act he always puts on when he’s around Jeanne. After all, he has no interest in Jeanne actually loving him. He still doesn’t want that. It raises the question of what it is he does want from her, especially as their relationship continues to change the further into the series we get.

Hmm, will Vanitas or Jeanne die first? That’s the big question, isn’t it? Vanitas is trying to fulfill a broken promise to Misha through Jeanne but we don’t know what that promise was exactly. We can guess it was similar to the promise he made Jeanne, though.

If the salvation Misha needed was death, if the salvation Jeanne needs is the same, than it would really be in Vanitas’s own best interest not to grow too attached to her. We already know Vanitas is actually pretty bad at not getting attached to people though (just look at Noé and then also consider how similar Noé and Jeanne are personality-wise), so he may be in more trouble than he realizes.

If Vanitas dies before her he would, in essence, be breaking his promise once more, something he refuses to do. And we can tell this is something that’s definitely on his mind, because this is what he says to Noé shortly after.

Honestly, this is Noé’s fault. It’s only because of Noé that Vanitas keeps growing attached to people, keeps caring strongly enough to risk everything to help them. Noé is the one that keeps forcing him to change his views and to do things he’d never do normally.

Now he’s made a promise he knows he might not be able to keep, and that’s helping Chloé but if she hurts anyone in Gévaudan, there’s nothing he can do. They can’t take out all the chasseurs and Roland made it clear that he would do what he must. They have a very limited time frame to work with now and Vanitas has promised Jeanne he would save Chloé, all because he’d been in Jeanne’s position once before and when he had been, Noé helped. Now he’s essentially trying to be Noé but he doesn’t have the boundless confidence that things will work out the way Noé does. He knows this is foolhardy and has a very strong possibility for failure.

Despite being in the same room, Noé appears not to have heard any of Vanitas’s exchange with Jeanne. It looks like he was checking on other people in the room, but honestly... How does he keep missing all of this?

I really can’t wait for the next chapter; I’m curious to see how things are resolved and who takes part in what. There are a lot of ways this could go now and I hesitate to speculate. I will say that if Vanitas accomplishes what he promised Jeanne then I think they will grow closer whether he wants it or not. If he fails... I don’t know what that will do to their relationship. They won’t be completely divided; they have a deal of sorts. But their relationship would be a great deal more frayed than it was before.

Last but not least, I mentioned that both Jeanne and the girl in the tank react to Charlatan. It’s a small thing, but when Naenia’s name was mentioned, the girl’s hand twitched with recognition. Furthermore, Jeanne was actually approached by Charlatan:

Charlatan is replaced by Ruthven. To me, it seems very likely that Ruthven and Charlatan are not only working for one another but very closely linked. There was some proof beforehand that Ruthven might be a curse bearer but maybe it’s more than that. Maybe he’s spreading the curse himself in Charlatan’s stead. Furthermore, Ruthven is linked both to Jeanne, that girl in the tank, and Naenia. It’s looking immensely suspicious, but I feel like it’s relatively safe to say Jeanne is a curse bearer. Of course, if that’s the case, it means Noé is also a curse bearer and that’s going to cause some trouble later on.

Also, Jeanne used to be a bourreau for the whole senate. She was only permitted to continue because of Ruthven’s interventions. Despite how his treatment of her has been iffy at best, it’s no wonder she is loyal to him.

#vanitas no carte #vnc spoilers #Bemused's post #long post

[razberryyum]

The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 3 (spoilers for everything)

(covers some of MDZS chap 13 and erm...that’s it. They mostly go rogue for this ep*)

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

(a 🐰 is earned every time there is a WangXian scene or even when they’re just thinking of each other...some scenes deserve more than one 🐰...don’t worry about it, it’s not an exact science 🐰🐰🐰)

Really, bless Team CQL for transforming what was only an anecdote in the novel into one of the most beautiful scenes in the show.  The first time Wei Ying and Lan Zhan first crossed swords played out like a moonlite, rooftop ballet and it is completely breath-taking and romantic and perfect. What makes this scene even more meaningful to me now is the added sense of poignancy of knowing that they will never be able to spar like that again due to Wei Wuxian’s diminished abilities in his Mo Xuanyu form. Although, even before his rebirth they wouldn’t have been able to repeat this dance since Wei Ying's extraordinary swordsmanship had already gone away with his golden core.  It's yet another reminder of not only how much he’s lost, but also how great a sacrifice he made for Jiang Cheng. Just thinking about that is enough to make my heart ache like crazy all over again over how much Wei Ying loves his bro and how much he went through for him without JC even knowing it for such a long time.    

But back to happier thoughts, what I also loved about this scene is just how downright adorable Wei Ying was being. Actually, he really was being a total mischievous cutie during most of his time at Cloud Recesses, which makes sense since this is the Wei Wuxian that was still brimming with boyish charm and innocence as his life still hadn’t been touched by heartbreak and tragedy yet. That reminds me of another reason why I am so impressed with Xiao Zhan as an actor is because he basically had to portray three different roles in The Untamed—as the youthful, wide-eyed Wei Ying, followed by the more bitter and mature Yiling Patriarch, and then finally the carefree yet jaded Mo Xuanyu—and he performed each persona with equal aplomb while injecting noticeable differences in each phase of WWX’s life as exemplified by alterations in his posture, expressions and even the way he says his lines. I'm not familiar with what acting awards are available in China’s entertainment industry, but I hope he receives some sort of award recognition for his work. He definitely deserves some nominations at least.  

That is not to say that Wang Yibo was being a slouch either; even though I had my doubts about him initially, I do still recognize that playing a stoic character is not an easy task since he had to find creative ways to avoid falling into dullness. A good deal of microexpressing is involved that can be difficult for an unseasoned and non-professionally trained actor, but WYB definitely lived up to the challenge as the show progressed. But because WWX is the more blatantly dynamic character, one’s attention is naturally drawn to him, even I was more focused on him at first, so I ended up neglecting what was going on with WYB’s Lan Zhan. It was only after revisiting this episode that I was truly able to appreciate the subtlety of performance.  

While it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to resist Wei Ying’s charms, I do believe Lan Zhan was indeed mostly irritated by him during their initial interactions. At the same time, however, he also clearly noticed that there was more to WWX than meets the eye since he was definitely intelligent (after all, he correctly deduced, twice, what was going on with the injured cultivator Lan Zhan brought back) and he was also quite skilled since their sword fight ended at a draw. But because Lan Zhan had years of propriety instilled in him by Uncle Lan, his automatic reaction to someone who was as unruly as Wei Ying had to be instant disapproval and annoyance. The irony of that is most likely because Wei Ying was such an annoyance to Lan Zhan that he couldn’t help but constantly notice him as a result, as one would do with an eyesore, so even from the first moment they met, his attention was already captured. It’s not the most positive way to start a relationship to be sure, but obviously it worked out for the best in the long run, especially once Lan Zhan got to know Wei Ying better and that animosity turned into something more affectionate.

Big Brother Appreciation Time

There are many reasons to love big bro Lan Xichen—he is such a sweet, caring, gentle, considerate, and loving soul who is also a skilled and talented cultivator—the least of which is his intent on playing matchmaker between his little brother and WWX right from the start. I loved that he noticed something in Wei Ying immediately and realized he would be a good person for LWJ to have in his life. Bless him for being so observant and intelligent.  

Random Bits of Randomness

If Lan Qiren knew that this rude, improper kid would one day be the person to “corrupt” his beloved nephew and steal his pure, innocent heart, he probably would’ve spit up all the blood in his body and dropped dead right then and there. I will always laugh at just how offended he looked when Wei Ying dared to rest Suibian on his desk, as if he had dumped dog shit in front of him instead. 

I just wanted to commend Mian Mian’s fellow sect-mate on the left there who, even though she was not complimented on her good looks or even given a second glance by WWX, still generously talked Mian Mian into allowing the Jiangs to stay at the hotel. I thought she deserved some credit for her nice gesture.

Not having read the novel yet when I first watched this episode, I was actually shocked at the reveal that Shijie was engaged to Jin Zixuan because I would never have thought they had that relationship from this scene. I know JZX didn’t really have any intention of honoring that arranged marriage at this point in the story, but the rudeness he allowed his servant to get away with was still unbelievable. I mean, seriously what the hell, she was still his fiancee, he hadn’t broken off the engagement yet, how DARE he allow that nobody back there address Shijie and his potential future in-laws in such a rude way. The fact that he actually kicked them out of the hotel was also shocking because it felt completely unnecessary. I really didn't like JZX because of this moment and that sentiment stayed with me for quite some time. What made the scene sadder is Shijie obviously was crushing on him and for the longest time I couldn’t understand why because I thought she totally could do better AND deserved better. I can’t say that I ever learned to love JZX, but I definitely don’t dislike him anymore.

Though I’ve been pretty critical of the CGI in The Untamed for the first two episodes, I do want to point out that not all of it is horrible: I was actually impressed with how both Cloud Recesses and Nightless City looked, even though I think their design for Nightless City was rather off the mark since it no longer suited its name. Since they were going to go with the dark theme and make the Wen Sect as blatantly villainous as possible, the production team should’ve just changed Nightless City’s name to Forever Night City (“長夜城”). Personally, I would’ve preferred it more if they had just stuck with the design of the Wen sect’s residence and uniforms as they were described in the novel (which was beautifully brought to life in the donghua) since I liked how deceptively righteous the Wens seemed. In CQL, they were so obviously the bad guys that they bordered on being cartoonish, especially Wen Ruohan (portrayed by Xiu Qing). Man, his performance simply was NOT working for me AT ALL. Even his make-up was a mess...looked like it was melting off of him all the time. In contrast, I thought Wen Chao (portrayed by He Peng) was bit much at first too, but then eventually I started to appreciate the actor’s performance, especially during his last scenes where he actually made me feel bad for his character because he was so convincingly pathetic. WRH never won me over and I was really relieved when he finally died. I actually thought they gave the actor too many scenes already leading up to his death. Felt like a lot of unnecessary filler to stretch out the episodes.  

Xue Yang is absolutely evil and horrible and psychotic and a total mass murderer and villain, but dammit, as soon as he showed up, I couldn’t help but immediately take a liking to him, and it’s all the actor’s fault. I have never seen Wang Haoxuan in any other show before...then again, I think he’s only been in two other shows prior to The Untamed, both of which I haven’t watched...but much like with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, I think the show struck gold by casting him as Xue Yang. In addition to making his character difficult to hate, he has also made him so interesting and magnetic that I couldn’t wait to see him pop up again. I am so glad that Team CQL altered the Yi City arc so that we were introduced to Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan sooner than in the novel. Not only did it allow us to become acquainted with the characters early on so that by the time Yi City rolled around, everything that happened in that arc would be even more emotionally effective because we were already invested in them, but we also got Xue Yang sooner and more often, and for that I am thankful. I already liked him before I read the novel so by the time I came across his character in the book, all I could imagine was Wang Haoxuan. He completely fit the image of Xue Yang for me. I don’t know if I would feel the same way had I read the novel first before watching the show, but I would probably still like Wang Haoxuan’s portrayal.  I know there have been criticisms that he is overacting, but for me, everything he did worked. It worked so much that I wish things had been different with his character, that Xue Yang wasn’t the monster that he is and committed all those atrocities that he did. I mean, he’s literally worse than Charles Manson. And yet, I still like him; I can’t help it, he’s just so much fun to watch. His eyes freaking sparkles. How am I supposed to resist that?? Look, there are times in a person’s life where one must make certain decisions that are undoubtedly not wise ones, but one still must stick with them because that’s the choice that was made.  Liking Xue Yang is definitely one of those decisions for me and I’ll just have to live with it.  

**I didn’t want to put this right at top since they would be unavoidable spoilers, but Shijie, Wen Qing and Wen Ning never attended the studies at Cloud Recesses. I’m really happy for that change in the drama, especially since we got to know Shijie more.  As mentioned above, the early introduction of Xue Yang and the yin metals was also a deviation from the novel.  

Questions TBD:

I had questions regarding the whole yin metal drama, but I have a feeling it’s only because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to that part of the story every time I watched these earlier episodes. I tend to zone out when we dropped in on WRH because I just find him so ridiculous and his whole set up in his fortress ridiculous too. Those zombie/ghost puppet dudes are just silly and I think it's kind of hilarious that WRH would just have his precious yin metal floating in the main hall like that for everyone to see. He has a cool throne, I’ll give him that, but otherwise, I really just can’t with him.  On this rewatch this time around though, I am going to really force myself to pay closer attention to WRH and yin metal stuff so that I can finally make sense of it all, or at least know for sure that it was never meant to make sense because they actually botched that whole storyline.

Overall Episode Rating: 8 Lil Apples out of 10

#The Untamed #陈情令 #spoilers #WangXian #Untamed Rewatch #Mo Dao Zu Shi #CQL #MDZS #魔道祖师 #Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Wei Ying Wei Wuxian #Lan Zhan Lan Wangji #Xiao Zhan #Wang Yibo #Lan Xichen #Xue Yang #Wang Haoxuan #Jiang Yanli #Jin Zixuan #Wen Ruohan #Wen Chao