#also I think I'm forgetting some monster or myth I love

[madschiavelique]

𝐆𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐧!𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐀𝐔

This au was first talked about on 04/11/2023 with my amazing bestie @sunflowersandsapphires and I thought it could be cute to share these thoughts !! (I'm gonna post several AUs ideas we had and discussed on throughout the months because DAMN the thoughts are delicious)

please note that english is not my first language and that there might be some little grammar mistakes here and there !

word count : 2,2k

We’re all familiar from up close or far of the myth of Medusa, also known as one of the gorgons. People often tend to forget that there were 3 gorgons on this myth : Medusa (of course), but also her sisters Euryale and Stheno. 

To give you a bit of a refresh on the myth of Medusa – just from memories okay, the versions of each myth vary in mythology and this is the one i remember best – she was in love with Poseidon and the god decided at one point to bring her to one of Athena’s temples so that they could make love there, her two sisters helping her getting in. 

The two lovers were taken during the act by Athena herself who cursed the 3 women by making them gorgons, creatures with snake hair (and body too I believe) that could turn to stone anyone that made the mistake of looking at them in the eyes.

So my mind went like “huh, wait a minute you’d have to be able to see to actually turn to stone right ? So what would happen if-” and it all clicked.

I think somehow Athena’s magic on the gorgons would make them prone to often get reached by men that are ill-intended. So who knows, what if reader is one of the gorgon sisters, hum ? 

What if men in the past have tried to come and attack you, what if men in the past successfully killed your two sisters and that you’re now all alone ? What if you lost faith in the possibility of anyone being nice to you, or of anyone not considering you as the monster that you are ?

You lived bitterly, secluded in an area people never walked by in fear of getting attacked by you. You're just so used to people coming to you with the intention of killing you that you expect everything to be a threat. You know better than to be afraid, your powers serve you well enough that you don't have to live in fear.

Until one day, Matt gets lost. He’s never passed through that area before, and the surroundings are so different to his sensitivity. There’s a certain presence, an aura that makes his senses blurry as he walks hesitantly.

Of course, you notice his presence. You’re used to living underground, and the vibrations his footsteps and his stick send through the earth are enough for you to come to the surface. You get out, ready to fight, ready to stare, ready to kill.

He hears you, turning around and simply asking “Hello ?”

But ironically, you’re the one to freeze this time : he is looking in the void, and the usual signs of petrification are not lining up on his body. You frown, and the gut wrenching feeling of fear takes you as much as the weight lifting sensation of relief.

Maybe your powers aren’t working anymore, maybe this is your last moments of torment, maybe you will join your sisters in Hell, maybe you’ll die and get humiliated once more. 

But maybe you’re finally free from your curse, maybe only the snakes remain on your head but you can’t turn anyone to statues anymore : maybe you can finally get out of this situation where you’re all alone.

You just want to make sure though, so you step forward a bit, not entirely in case he tries to attack you by surprise, and ask “Why have you come here ?”

He tilts his head towards the sound of your voice, a curious gleam passing his eyes as his eyes won’t settle on you.

“I’m lost.” he answers.

Now you scoff, thinking it’s another trick to make you fall. You’ve had wise men trying to kill you in the past, using their wits to trap you in enigmas or other stupidities that would bring your downfall. 

“I don’t fall for tricks and traps,” you say as you step closer to him.

He doesn’t seem to step back, nor does he seem afraid, not in the slightest. You tilt your head a bit until your eyes bore into his, making sure your gaze is aligned with his own.

He frowns, tilting his own head to the side, “Tricks and traps ?”

Your eyes go wide and your shoulders fall as the realisation hits you : he’s blind.

The fear dissipates, but gives its place to disappointment. Of course your curse is not lifted, of course the possibility of you going back to a semi-normal life is purely impossible. You step back, looking at him as if discovering him for a second time.

“You’re not here to kill me ?” you question as you cross your arms over your chest.

He’s the one to scoff now, placing both of his hands on his stick.

“Kill you ? Why would I do such a thing ?”

There’s genuine confusion in his tone, but you’re not ready to let your guard down about all of this.

“Don’t play ignorant, you know why.”

“I assure you I don’t.” he answers. 

Now you’re both confused.

You are mostly because it’s the first time your powers don’t act on someone, as well as the first time someone isn’t here to kill you nor is aware of your existence.

As for him, he’d just arrived here because he had lost his way, and now here he was in front of a woman that was claiming he was here to kill her. So who could she be that people came so often here with that purpose only ? 

There was something different about you, your smell indicated a strong presence of wet stone, but of something much different. Something that smelled like warm sand, like diluted metal, like scales of snakes. He wondered if perhaps you had one on you, or if the area had plenty of them he had to beware of.

You couldn’t tell if he knew of the legends, for who knows : maybe your sister’s tale had gone forgotten. If he was aware of your story however, he looked like someone pretty calm about it, which made the word ‘unusual’ turn into a euphemism for your situation.

“You’re simply lost ?” you end up interrogating.

“I never used this passageway before,” he conceded, “I wanted to use it as a shortcut, but I’ve never gone this far away from the places I know by heart.”

You continued looking at him. He was well built, enough that his physique could be considered as one of the many heroes that had tried harming you. Yet the more you looked at him, the less the thought of him being here to cause you pain and kill you faded. He only had a bag, and his walking stick. 

Your silence perplexed him.

“Why would people want to kill you ?” he asked again, pulling you back from your reverie.

The question made you feel weird, because it seemed like such an evidence to you that seeing an alternative to this interrogation seemed impossible on the spot. Why would they not want to kill you ? They had plenty of reasons anyway.

“Doesn’t matter,” you answered on the spot as this being somehow the only thing your could provide as an answer.

“I think it does,” he interjected, and your parted your lips.

In all these years of being a gorgon, never had your had much of a conversation like so. He surely didn’t care about your life, and maybe was this another ruse to lure you in and make you easier to kill.

Guessing how answering these questions wasn’t one of your fortes, he sighed.

“Could you help me find my way back, please ?”

You’re hesitant on the case of his demand. Every man before him had wronged you, had turned against you to try and bring some glory to their pathetically short lives while you remained eternal and undefeated. 

What if it was another trick by Athena ? What if this was her final resort to bring glory to humans ?

And in any case, men had taken away your sisters, how could you not be angry at them and not wish to help them ? 

But this one… He seemed kind, disinterested in any kind of glory in any shape or form, just a blind man lost in your woods.

Not daring to be closer to him or even touching him in case this could ease your way into death, you grabbed the foot of his stick and rose back up.

“Hold on to it,” you mumbled as you started walking towards the next path.

You turned a second to him, a grin plastered on his face. Not a vicious one, to your relief, but a grateful smile.

“Why’s a lady like you all by herself on this desertic passage ?” he questioned, walking at your pace as he tried to make sure by waving his arm in front of him that he wouldn’t be hitting anything.

You weren’t here to make friends with men, but you hadn’t talked to anyone in a while. The sight of him having so much trouble directing himself because of your gauche handling of his stick sent you a wave of pity. You dropped the wood, and he stopped, surprised.

“Already there ?” he asked in surprise.

But you came to him, taking his hand and have it circle your arm so that he could still use his stick.

“Thank you,” he softly smiled as you both started walking again, your mind trying to chase away the way his arm against yours felt. “So, why are you all alone in here ?”

“Because bad men chased me until there was no place other than there for me to live,” which wasn’t far off the mark.

“Exiled ?” he interrogated.

“Feared.” you breathed.

“How could you be feared ?” the question rang wrong to him.

“How could I not,” you almost laugh as your free hand comes to caress the neck of a snake.

“I don’t find you terrifying,” his lips came to form an inverted smile as he rose his eyebrows.

“It’s because you are safe from my unwanted danger.” 

“Am I holding the hand of the most dangerous person to ever be ?” he laughed, the lack of seriousness in his tone making the situation all the more ironic for you.

“You just might,” you answered, a bit less tense than you were seconds ago.

“Well, it pleases me,” he admitted and you stiffened.

Trying to play it cool and not get nervous that this could be your last conversation ever, you asked : 

“To be in danger ?”

His head turned to yours, his gaze still lost somewhere you could never be in.

“To be in good company.”

Your walk with him came to an end, and Matt had by now remembered the way to get to the path. He wished you goodbyes, and you came back to your cave thinking how much of a strange situation it had been. 

He hadn’t tried to kill you on the way, but maybe had an acolyte of some sort of his placed a trap in your cave. You meticulously made your way back to your place, but nothing different was to be found.

What an odd encounter.

And thus he came a second time to you.

“I’ve lost my way again,” he had explained.

“Have you got the memory of a goldfish ?”

But nevertheless, you had accompanied him back again, and had chatted again, and waved goodbyes again.

But still, he kept getting lost, and kept coming back to you for your guidance. 

You had the full conviction by now that he had the worst sense of orientation a man could have ever gotten.

And he had the full conviction that you were not a monster, so he pretended to not know his way although he now knew it by heart just to have an excuse to meet you again and talk to you.

“Seems like I really can’t remember my way anymore.”

“Matt, you always come to me with the exact same path, you know that right-”

“Really can’t remember it anymore, such a shame, looks like you’ll once again have to accompany me.

“It’s the second time you’ve come to see me today.”

Of course he tries to play it off and placing this on his atrocious sense of orientation, but there are some moments where he accidentally lets the cover slip.

“It’s near a huge rock.” you explain again.

“You mean the one shaped like a heart that is about 300 steps from here ?”

“Yes exact- wait a minute, if you know the placement so well, how come you always get lost ?”

“...”

“...?”

“Amnesia has taken me, what were we talking about ?”

“Matt you’ve gotten ‘amnesia’ three times this week. You need to speak to someone about that.

“You shouldn’t worry. Actually I feel like I have most of my sense in your presence lately, your company cures me of my own obliviousness-” he says as he trips over a rock immediately.

And you’re quite oblivious to this, but also the more you understand about this, the least do you complain about it. 

Maybe loneliness started slipping away from you after all.

(I could continue on this au but I have WAY too many others in mind that I want to put out there !!! I'd love to see any of the thoughts you'd have on this au besties <33)

#mads' thoughts ⟢ ݁ ˖‧˚₊ ☁︎ #mads' aus ⟢ ݁ ˖‧˚₊ ☁︎ #mads rambles ⟢ ݁ ˖‧˚₊ ☁︎ #matt murdock x reader #matt murdock x you #matt murdock x y/n #matt murdock x fem!reader #matt murdock x female reader #matt murdock imagine #matt murdock one shot #matt murdock au #matt murdock fic #matt murdock fanfic #matt murdock fanfiction #matt murdock #daredevil #daredevil x reader

[rphelperblog]

Kingdom of the Wicked Book Quote rp meme- part one

“Love is the most powerful magic. Above all else, remember that. It will always guide you where you need to go.”

“love and hate are both rooted in passion- strange how that line becomes blurred over time.”

“Tell me you hate me, that I am your worst enemy. Better yet, tell me you don't want to kiss me.”

“acta non verba; actions, not words”

“A woman with a little power was terrifying to some.”

“Bravery might be the absence of fear in most cases, but it also seemed a little like acting foolishly for a good cause.”

“Life often deals you a hand you didn't choose. It's how you end up playing it to your advantage that counts.”

“The stars are out and they’re falling like feathers”

“I wanted to kiss him. Possibly break a bottle and stab him first. But then definitely kiss him.”

“As a witch, I really needed to stop thinking some creatures were mere myths and legends.”

“I believe I’m powerful, therefore I am.”

“There was something about him that came across as lethally angelic. But if he ever had a halo, it was broken now.”

“Magic was life and life was made by making love and feeling good and our bodies constantly tried to remind us to live.”

“Every tall tale was rooted in truth.”

“I will not appear weak for you to maintain strength.”

“A true leader delegates. Just as your're doing now. Never doubt your courage.”

“Life often deals you a hand you didn’t choose.”

“For the living embodiment of sin, you aren't very sinful.”

“I always knew you. And always will. Your soul calls to mine. It’s a feeling of coming home. Of peace. No magic can duplicate it.”

“Stories make everything possible.”

“Every tall tale was rooted in truth.”

“Fear made monsters of men.”

“Assumptions are the death of truth.”

“Why is it whenever a man throws a tantrum a woman is blamed for his poor behavior?”

“Astra inclinant, sed non obligant; The stars incline us, they do not bind us”

“Real life certainly wasn't anything close to a romance novel, but there was still a small part of the old me left that hoped for a happy ending”

“What if I'm the villain? One who's so vicious, so terrible, I was punished to forget?”

“A phoenix rises from the ashes for a reason. Your world must be destroyed for you to rise anew. And rise you shall. Just as they feared you would.”

“I do not wish to taint my body with the foulness of human food,"

"But desserts are acceptable.”

“Your pride didn't appear in that bone circle the night you spilled blood and summoned me. It was your wrath. Your fury.”

“Forging a bond made from love is as dangerous as those made through hate.”

“At times my simmering rage was the only indication I was alive.”

“Man had a funny way of blaming the devil for things he didn’t like.”

“It was strange that we were called evil when humans were the ones who enjoyed watching us burn.”

“His annoyance joined mine in unholy matrimony.”

“Why do villains always wear black?”

“Of course. There is nothing more dangerous than a woman who owns who she is and apologizes to no one.”

“Love and hate are both rooted in passion.”

“Find forgiveness and acceptance in your heart, or darkness will seep in and destroy you.”

“You are not his intended.You are mine.”

“I hoped the kingdom of the wicked was ready for a vengeful queen.”

“One day you might beg me to kiss you.”

“Names have power. Titles are a show of power.”

“Never forget: forging a bond made from love is as dangerous as those made though hate.”

“Live long enough to hate me for this”

“Young women died. Life resumed. Such was the way of the world, at least according to men.”

“He was death and rage and fire and anyone stupid enough to forget that would be consumed by his inferno.”

“In the end, the monster we feared didn’t come from Hell. He came from privilege.”

“Only you can decide how to move forward”

“Someone’s cocky.”

“Instead of being ruled by fear, I could become fearless.”

“I am your favorite sin.”

“The stars incline us; they do not bind us.“

“Your heart will conquer darkness. Trust in that.”

“You always have the power of choice, even when those choices seem limited. Never forget that.”

“Others would always be out there, trying to knock me down, to tell me who I was or who they thought I should be. People carved words into weapons often, but they only had power if I listened to them instead of trusting in myself.”

“One day you'll call me Death.For now, Wrath will do.”

A good book was its own brand of magic, one I could safely indulge in without fear of getting caught by those who hunted. I loved escaping from reality, especially during times of trouble. Stories made everything possible.”

“Fate may deal it's hand, try encouraging our path or intervene, but we are ultimately free to choose our own destiny. Never doubt that.”

“Perhaps we’ve finally found your Achilles’ heel, your majesty.”

“It’s a game of scopa, not a battle between life and death. Are you always this dramatic?”

“Pretend there's no curse. No magical betrothal. Or romantic urges created by our bond. Would you choose me? To reign beside you. To be your queen. Your friend. Your confidant. Your lover... If I am still yours, I would tell you that you are mine. That I am choosing you as my husband. There is no one I'd rather confront my demons with, no soul I'd travel through Hell with. And no one else I want standing beside me.”

“This was not the kind of prince written about in fairy tales. There was no golden crown sitting atop his dark head, or promises of safety waiting in his sculpted, tattooed arms. He was death and rage and fire and anyone stupid enough to forget that would be consumed by his inferno.”

“I don’t know how you’ve fooled humanity for so long, but it’s as Envy said. You are the most skilled liar of all. Samael.”

#open to all #open to anyone #open rp #ask meme #rp meme #open meme #open to anybody #roleplay meme #ask prompt #memes #kingdom of the wicked #quote roleplay meme #book quote meme #book rp #book rp meme #open starter

[pangolinheart]

I was tagged by @irisopranta so here's a little trivia!

Share your wallpaper: It's... just the default MSI wallpaper (I have commitment issues lol.) I could probably use a screenshot or a commission of a suitable dimensions, but meeehhhhh.

My mobile wallpaper is this Dragon Age Tarot-style commission from @needapotion

I've been thinking about changing it, but I'm not sure to what.

The last song you listened to: The Sharpest Lives by My Chemical Romance (I mostly listen to music while driving. Shockingly this song is not on any of my many playlists)

Currently reading: Uuuuhhhh I don't read as much as I should, but when I do I've been bouncing between: The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack by Nate Crowley, which I really enjoy but have been trying to finish for like a year and half (it's not long i'm just lazy). An inventive nautical zombie romp with a dash of social commentary.

Asian Ghost Short Stories: An Anthology of New and Classic Tales. The intersection of folklore, horror, and culture was the topic of both of my undergrad senior papers, though they mostly focused on Japan. I've already read most of the traditional Japanese stories in this book, but I don't know very much about ghosts in other Asian Countries, so it's been an interesting read! I was also drawn to it because it contains translations of new short horror stories by unpublished Asian authors. The Black Bestiary: A Phantasmagoria of Monsters and Myths from the Phillipines by Budjette Tan (Author), David Hontiveros, Kajo Baldisimo (Illustrator), and Bow Guerrero  (Illustrator). See above. This book is really interesting, because it's an illustrated compedium of myths and monsters, but the entries are written from the perspective of modern-day monster hunters recording their experiences in a journal. Apparently it's a sequel to a book called The Lost Journal of Alejandro Pardo, which I'll have to pick up sometime. The art is very cool. One of the illustrators, Kajo Baldisimo, is the main illustrator of a comic series called Trese that semi-recently received an animated adaptation with audio available in both English and Tagalog. I've been meaning to consume both of these at some point as well.

Last Movie: Uuuuuhhhhhh.... I'm not much of a movie person, so I don't really remember, but I guess maybe Dune?

Craving: Curry and rice (I'll make some the next time everyone else is out of the house >_>)

What are you wearing right now? Black leggings and a sweatshirt with the word "Catnip" over a collage of images of cats and slogans like "Cheap Thrills" in the style of an old-school Reefer Madness poster.

How tall are you: 5'4 (164.56 cm) (People always say "I thought you were taller!" Including someone i worked with in-person for more than a month-and-a-half.)

Piercings: Just the boring regular ear piercings.

Tattoos: None, sadly. See: fear of commitment

Glasses? Contacts? Neither.

Last drink: Ice water (I'm trying to drink more water, but I'd rather gargle metal shavings than drink room-temperature water.)

Last show: Hmm this one was also a while ago. I think it was Dragon Age: Absolution.

Last thing you ate: Pork roast (bleh) and potatoes for dinner.

Favorite color: This is a cop-out but I like lots of colors. I guess maybe green, orange or red? But I also like white, black, most shades of blue (navy can get fucked), purple, yellow, pink, silver/gray, etc.

Current obsession: FFXIV

Unrelated obsession: Dice! I love hand-made ttrpg dice sets! They're so pretty and unique! Sadly, not playing in any actual games has not put a damper on my bankruptcy-inducing dice habit.

Any pets: Two cats (Hansel and Gretel) and a dog (Isabella).

Do you have a crush on anyone? Nah.

Favorite fictional character: This one is really hard... There are probably so many I'm forgetting. The Justice of Toren/Breq from the Imperial Radch series, Matthew Swift from the Matthew Swift series, Alistair from DA:O, Anders, Fenris, and Isabela from DA2. Garrus from Mass Effect. Esteem from FFXIV, Alisaie from FFXIV (though I also really like Haurchefant, Y'shtola, Hilda, Ysayle, and Fordola.)

Honorable mentions to the characters I used to have keychains of on my pen case (I would try to encourage shier, nerdier students to talk to me by watching/playing things that were popular with high schoolers and putting my favorite character from the media on my pen case, which students would get very excited about): Chuuya from Bungo Stray Dogs, Childe from Genshin Impact, and Cu Chulainn from various Fate-related media.

The last place you traveled: Uhhhh I guess my last major trip was to... here (America)! My last "vacation" was to Sapporo (that was right before the pandemic.) I do occasionally take shorter day trips to towns around my area, but the furthest afield I've been recently is Grand Marais in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I will be in Las Vegas for the FFXIV Fan Expo this summer though!

Tagging: I think everyone I interact with has already been tagged in this, but if you haven't done it and want to here is your unofficial tag!

#rambling #about auggie

[keanthegooseman]

The Song of Achilles | Book Review

Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Fantasy

Author: Madeline Miller

Publication Date: September 20, 2011

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone."

A modern retelling of Homer's Iliad, focusing on the perspective of Patroclus. The story begins with Patroclus' exile, his meeting of Achilles, their training with Chiron, and eventually the Trojan War. The book expands on a relatively minor, yet significant figure in Greek myth.

I am a BIG fan of Greek mythology. I was first introduced to it by playing God of War and reading Percy Jackson and The Olympians. They got me interested in all the different stories it had to offer, including the story of Achilles and the Trojan War. So when I first heard of this book, I immediately knew that I just had to get a hold of a copy. Come Christmas time, I received some Christmas money(yay!), and I went to buy it the first chance I got.

Let me just say, I LOVE LOVE LOVED it! I was on the verge of tears by the time I finished reading. I never knew that Greek myth could be so sorrowful and tear jerking, but this book proved to be so! Heart wrenching in the best of ways, The Song of Achilles shows an unseen, more personal side of the classic myth it's based on. Full of drama, tender moments, and tragedy, I'd be surprised if any reader didn't feel like choking up from the emotion. And even with all the additions Madeline Miller added in order to write this book the way it is, I'm glad that the story is faithful to the source material, and any additions or changes that weren't in the Iliad didn't feel like fanfiction. 

Focusing on Patroclus was a very interesting choice. To be honest, I barely remembered Patroclus in the myths, all I remembered was his death pushing Achilles to fight again. But you know what, Miller was able to pick out the few details about him in the myths, and was able to create a likable, and compelling character from literary scraps. I also enjoyed Miller's portrayal of Achilles. I always found him to be prideful, and someone whose anger got the better of him. Yet, Miller was able to paint a more sympathetic picture of Achilles, who was still very much the best of the Greeks, but had a human element to him that wasn't really present/apparent in the myths.

The interactions between Patroclus and Achilles were filled to the BRIM with sexual tension. Literally every time Patroclus sees Achilles he always thinks about how hot he is or how much he wants to hold his hand (im joking on that part). Also, to state the obvious, Patroclus and Achilles are both men, but whenever there is a romantic moment between the two, you kind of forget that and all you see are two people in love, which I think is great writing. There's also a couple of scenes that are pretty erotic, so if you're into that, go ham.

The Song of Achilles is an amazing retelling of the Trojan War for modern audiences, and is a great way for people not familiar with Greek mythology to get immersed in it. Ignoring all the stuff about myth, Patroclus and Achilles' romance makes this a worthwhile read for those not interested in the gods and monsters aspects. Definitely a must-read for anyone looking for LGBTQ+ romances as well.

p.s. - this is technically the first yaoi book ive ever read 

#books #reading #booklr #book review #bookblr #book blog #book recs #fantasy #historical fiction #romance novels #greek mythology #trojan war #madeline miller #the song of achilles #kdgoose #lgbtq

[josnhoes]

Question, what on earth would a monster au hades look like? They be god! How monster? Sincerely, a wolf. (Ps, I think it's kinda funny how you can just tell it's me even when I forget to say it's me.

I have only guessed when it's you when you don't sign I was ready to be wrong lol.

A monster Hades au would likely be a complete au. As in they were never gods but only monsters. Maybe they could be folklore gods because they aren't human and people tend to either fear or worship things and beings they don't understand.

I wouldn't give set monsters so people can request what monsters they want. But I also have some ideas for a default monsters. The classic gods being the first of what ever monster they are.

Nyx and her children (Thanatos, Hypnos, the fates) would be vampires. With Chaos being the first, though Chaos spawned themselves and they are a hybrid of werewolves and vampires.

Hades and Zagreus I'm considering either werewolves ,Wraiths, or Ifrits. Zagreus would be half since I kinda wanna make Persephone human unless requested elsewise.

The fury sisters are technically monsters but I'd shift them a little bit to be Harpies.

Dusa is also a monster by default but easily could be made into a Naga or and Eye of the Beholder.

Achilles could be a somesort of elf. I haven't decides what kind but likely wood elf. Patroclus would be a changeling who grew up as a human hence his attitude.

Theseus I'm on the fence on for a variety of reasons, first is a human because well I don't like him much. But I also could see a Peacock harpy..but the fury sisters would already be harpies. And because of his myth I could also see him being some kind of liontaur or griffin.

Asterius is already a minotaur and I kinda don't want to change that because I love seeing a minotaur get love. Though he *could* if I had to change his species be an orc.

#wolfanon

[sweetspecterz]

Your drawing of Spooker popped up in my feed again, so now I have to ask if you have any interpretation or headcanon about him

-Dehliman

I don't have a lot unfortunately! I've been working on him and Chris in bits and pieces when I get ideas, but I will share some of what I have even if it's mostly little fun facts! This is mostly just stuff I'm more sure about. Spooker comes from a really sweet and loving family that constantly reinforced that he could do or be whatever he wanted in life as long as he wasn't hurting anyone. He also sort of grew up loving myths and legends, leaving Chris as the only odd one out of the 4 of them that didn't live and breath the idea of the supernatural from early on in life. While he grew up around hearing about ghosts, ghouls and monsters and loving the idea of them, fiction could never prepare him for the experience of the real thing and the emotions it brings. That surprisingly did not turn him away from it whatsoever. As for some fun facts or just things I don't think I'd be able to give further explanation on?? Spooks is transmasc, on the autism spectrum, and might be a bit colorblind. Also really bad acne that he has the means to treat but is bad at routines and sticking to consistent skincare would really benefit him but will he do it? No, he forgets or doesn't feel like it. He likes to joke around a lot and a big goal of his is just to make people laugh and make them happy, even if it's just for a minute or two. It's like his form of affection, honestly. Apart from randomly and aggressively hugging people-

Over all really, he's trying his best.

#taleblr #fred spooker #i dont have a lot for him i am so sorry lol #i love him so much though #what a guy

[midwrites]

Would you ever write a fic about your favorite mythological or folklore creature? (And or kid fic!)

Gosh, this is such an interesting question.

Ok, so for the first bit re:fic about my fave mythological/folklore creature, Imma go ahead and say yes-ish? Like my favourite mythological creature ever have always been dragons and being into Dragon Age lately has really made it easy for me to go absolutely crazy including them in stuff -sends a little kiss the Iron Bull’s way, my number one validator-. 

Other folklore creature I really love, which is also already ingrained into horror and pop-culture in general, are werewolves, and I’m currently working on a fic with some of that 👀👀.

But, one of my all-time fave folklore myths is La Santa Compaña, which I don’t think would translate well into fic form. For a brief explanation, La Santa Compaña is basically a regional variation of the Wild Hunt myth present in the North of Spain and Portugal, and consists of a deadly procession formed by the spirits of the deceased lead by a living person, who cannot see those they are leading, their primary mission being to visit those who are about to die or to announce death in a certain location, you can read more about it here! I think that it would fit a story with very heavy rural horror elements or themes, but as it is, I really don’t know how I’d get it done.

As for lighter topics, re:kidfic, I have to confess that I am not a huge fan of the genre :,D However, I am a huge fan of found family, and dynamics like the one Bull has with the Chargers make me curl into a ball and gently weep out of sheer joy, so I don’t completely discard working on fics exploring those kind of relationships. Tangled Up in Red  is the closest I’m ever going to get to writing kidfic at the moment I’m afraid—which came out of my sheer necessity to explore a certain set of issues, so you never know.

Let’s play writers would you ever

#answered #redxluna #don't get me wrong I will read almost absolutely anything featuring characters/pairings I like if I enjoy how it's written #so that's why I never say no to writing X or Y #also I think I'm forgetting some monster or myth I love #because most of my faves are not well known outside of Europe #or Celtic adjacent cultures #so I feel like I will be loading the dishwasher in half an hour and suddenly remember

[thekillingmoonmoon]

Hello Moon, how’s it going? Hopefully you’re having a good day :)

I’m in the middle of my usual fanfic brainrot - and as I was trying to figure out this steamy Toji fanfic I’ve been wanting to write for ages (with no success, unfortunately) I thought of how its dynamics/tropes could fit well in a mythology AU ..

Saying “Mythology” had me instantly thinking of you, and that’s why I came here - I wanted to ask you: have you ever thought of writing mythology AU fanfics? I’m curious about your view of them, if you want to share it! :)

I personally have always refrained from seriously giving it a try: I don’t want to portray myths & themes in a misleading way, but at the same time I would also like to keep some of the exceptionally crude themes out of my works .. I also don’t want to mess too much with characterisations, so yeah - in fear of making a disaster I simply never wrote a real story down. Nevertheless, I have to admit there are scenarios/parallels that sound very interesting ..

What about you? What do you think of the matter?

I hope to hear from you soon, but meanwhile have a nice day! <3

okay okay, time to crack my knuckles!

I love the idea of mythology AUs. I really really do. I love mythology, and I love seeing what other people do with myths and how they integrate mythology into writing

I think that the joy in an AU is how dynamic and variable the changes can be - An AU can be simple: what if so-so stayed alive? (Toji, my beloved), what if these characters actually got together? (ChosoYuki, my beloved) or you can change the entire universe - you can make a JJK fic in a curse-free world, or Tokyo Revengers as a sports AU (someone please do this, I just don't know enough about sports) and sometimes, you can change a character - like, what if Mikey went to therapy for his "dark impulses"?

Mythology AUs can do all of that. Say I want to write a Greek Mythology AU about JJK - if I cast Gojo as Zeus, I don't necessarily have to make Gojo into a horrible person that does horrible things (Zeus is very much not my favourite god) but I can use some of the aspects of Zeus to re-characterise Gojo. Maybe Gojo won't be as awful to women as Zeus is, but he'll have lightning powers and have many lovers.

I actually really want to write Mythology AUs or Fairy Tale AUs but I'm scared that people won't enjoy it because they know the ending? like they know the prince will save the day or the distressed nymph will become a tree (Apollo, you bastard) and that's why I'm wary of those sort of AUs.

One solution is to just borrow elements from mythology, maybe a power or two, or maybe an aesthetic feel (I try this, sometimes). You can also always turn the myth on its head. Have the princess save the hero, or the monster be the better person. Revisionism is a very strong movement at the moment (especially in my field, my bookshelf is full of retellings of classic novels)

It's a lot of fun, and no interpretation of a character is wrong. If I think Toji enjoys honey whiskey on the rocks and is the human embodiment of regret, then that's correct for my version of Toji, and I'm allowed to write him like that. The rest is confetti. Write the character you want, in the story you want, with the ending you want. forget the rest. if you enjoyed writing your piece, people will enjoy reading your piece.

Why do I feel like I was giving a sermon? I hope it doesn't feel like I was sermonising >_<

Anyway, I had a good day today and i might finish it off by writing or planning for my future fics I might actually add a mythology AU to my list of ideas :]

all of the looooove to yoooou <3

🐰🌙

#🐰🌙: sweet sam #the sweeeetesst of sams

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hi!! Its heathen!! I think I found the book that your title is referencing at my local bookstore, and it actually looks pretty interesting! 'Here, there be dragons' by James A. Owen, right?

It was kinda funny to go in there and see some books that I liked (The wheel of time series, I deifnitly reccomend it) and then see a book and was internally like 'Oh!! Quil!! I know someone who I could possibly call a dragon if they would like!!'

heathen! hello! I actually didn't know there was a book series with that title! Though I do completely understand why you would make that connection, as I have been very vocal about my love of dragons for a while! I mean I love monsters in general, but dragons are a kind of monster and I adore them!

the quote "because here there be dragons" is actually centuries old, and the myth is that old mapmakers would write this phrase (specifically "here be dragons") on parts of maps that were uncharted. I don't think any map has actually been found with this phrase (I think a globe was, though!), but it's really intriguing and cool to conceptualize. Kind of like how they would draw the Kraken and other monsters in the ocean for a similar reason to indicate danger! I am not an expert so don't quote me on all this btw, I just think it's fun and have a casual knowledge (partially form my dad who was a sailor in the coast guard).

however, while the quote in relation to maps and danger is really cool, that's not actually why I chose it! I first heard the quote (well, not the first time, but the first time I heard it and it really stuck with me) was in the last season of Black Sails, which is my favorite show of all time (I'm really picky about shows). One of the main characters, Captain Flint, says the line in a really emotion scene in the last season and I remember watching it and just going oh shit, and I haven't been able to forget it since. Here's a link to a gifset of the scene, and it's not the exact same as I have it in my bio but I seriously cannot recommend Black Sails enough. For so many reasons. The plot, the queer characters, the fact that the story literally wouldn't exist if it weren't for queer love, the politics, the way there's so many main characters and everything they do contradicts each others and is so true to themselves. Nothing will ever top it for me and all other shows have been ruined for me since because nothing will ever life up to the chokehold Black Sails had on me. It is a complex and darker story, so be cautious with it! But oh fuck I have never loved a show more.

Before I get completely distracted I will return to your point! It's so cool that you saw a book and thought of me! it didn't even occur to me that I exist to you guys outside of when we interact on tumblr, despite me mentioning several people I've talked to online when speaking to people irl. Also you saying you'd call me a dragon if I like reminds me of a specific interaction Meg and I had where they told me I was like the fandom librarian because I answered so many questions!! (here's the link!) I mentioned having a little dragon in my library, but I'd love to be the dragon too! I'd seriously leave behind this humanoid form if given the chance, and dragons are excellent!

maybe I'll check out that book though, just to see what it's about considering it's stolen my blog title! I say as though I was capable of complex thought in 2006.

#I want to rewatch the show now #seriously no other has ever had such a grip on me #my dad and I watched it together #and we watched every episode once #except for this one specific episode that had us so astonished and was so good we had to watch it twice #just to experience it again #gah!! i wish I could forget it all just to experience it for the first time #there are so many queer characters #and it's just casual #like they just are queer and it's normal #I always joked that you could never be mad about the queer relationships ending badly because so did the straight ones #no one got a happy ending #well #a few people did!! #kind of!! #not to spoil it #but thats one of the darker things about it #aeruagjn its so good #i want to rewatch it so badly #random #quil's queries #heathen nonsie

[well-shit-im-a-morosexual-now]

Time to talk about Lillith :)

So her being MC's ancestor in the story was... A bad choice, in my opinion.

And I don't hate that she was the one who revived MC, quite the opposite, that was a fine move. I like to think that it was to show that MC had a connection to all the siblings, dead or alive, hate or love. It's just...

Why are they (technically) related? What was the purpose?

That could sound mean, but if some of your playbase could call incest and (possibly) have a leg to stand on, it's a bit... Much, let's say. But, either way, there is an alternative that I like. (And one I made up, but that's besides the point.)

I like the idea that Diavolo lied to the brothers to keep the peace. To me, it makes sense, because:

He needs to keep the peace between the three realms, and y'know, one of the humans dying kind of prevents that. So, why not lie to them to make sure this never happens again?

It would also get to a quick resolution for the brothers, since I'm pretty sure that Belph was about to kill MC... Again.

Sadly, I only have two reasons, but you're smart, you can probably expand upon this.

Anyway, this might be a bit sloppy, but I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say.

Your Anonymous Color Coder,

Lesson 42 Anon

(P.S. I have issues with Lesson 16, 17, and 18. I say this just in case I want to rant about it. :)

So initially I wasn't the biggest fan of them being related, though when they first started hinting at a connection between Lilith and MC I had a "OH GOD. OH DAMN. PLEASE DON'T BE LILITH'S REINCARNATION" moment so finding out MC was just a distant relative was a relief but not one I was necessarily happy with? Because of all the "Is this technically incest!?" feelings I had at the time.

But it did grow on me? I think all the human au's I had roaming free in my head helped me get over it? When writing or thinking up human Aus I try to make them as close to the Canon situation as possible so it'd be:

The brothers and Lilith all living in a foster home with only Lucifer and Satan being blood related, but they all see each other as a found family. MC would be a distant (and I mean distant enough it equals to the thousands of years that separate Canon MC and Lilith) cousin who they don't even find out is related to Lilith until much later (after Lilith either leaves and joins a more permanent family or....well dies I guess).

The way I see it, it'd be the same as a group of "we're so close we see each other as siblings" friends wanting to date the distant/estranged relative of one of the group members.

So yeah, now I see the whole Lilith, MC, brothers thing as "Incest if I'm willing to reach so far my arm tears straight outta my socket" so yeah.

Though obviously it's completely valid if people are still uncomfortable with it.

ANXUSJWMNZRATQVX8 Belphie would have totally murdered MC if they didn't bring up the whole Lilith thing! And I'm so upset they all just get over it? Like damn I love Belphie no lie, but are we just gonna gloss over the fact that he was 110% okay with the genocide of the entire human race???????

I also have this headcanon that MC has chronic pain that flares up on and off after Belphie murdered them, cause remember how the ghost of the fortune teller,Gisella (?), on the train said you never forget the feeling of dying and MC had a pretty violent death so.....

I also HC that there are days, specially when the pain is bad, where they can't stand to be near Belphie and that while he was initially upset by this and was persistent about still being with them by around mid S2 or S3 he's learnt to identify those days and understand why MC can't even look at him then and he makes himself scarce and sleeps away the day in an out of the way dark, corner probably with Beel around for emotional support because honestly those days would hurt him as much as MC.

I like that in the Canon storyline that none of the brothers were 100% okay with Belphie right after Lesson 16 and how they went out of their way, more so than usual, to make sure MC wasn't alone with him? I maybe reading into that too much but I liked it..

And I mean generally MC's a very calm, collected, headstrong and stubborn character so as frustrating as it is I understand why they would want to help Belphie get along with the others again. "I died for this shit, so I might as well see it through" kinda mentality

I didn't initially like the two timelines cause it made me really sad imagining the one MC left behind and to ease that angst I always imagined since MC changed the past their original timeline -the future timeline- got erased with a new future unfolding. but someone on tumblr posted a headcanon with evidence on why they thought Barbatos joined the two timelines together so that they live with the extra day of memories and experiences that came from the original timeline AND I JUMPED THE HELL ON THAT BOAT & actually recently wrote something about it. Here have the link and some shameless self promotion cause I'm an attention whore:

Deadlines

"When Mammon meets his soulmate he's going to punch them in the face. It doesn't matter if he'll only find out who exactly his soulmate is when one of them is on their deathbed. He's still going to punch them."

Um anyway that's all my thoughts on 16, 17 & 18 (I think. There might be more that I can't remember at the moment tbh) and since I rambled to you about it you are now contractually obligated to rant to me about yours. Sorry, those are the rules🤷🏽

About the thing you said about Diavolo and his reasons I honestly have nothing else to add, I mean the reasons you gave make total sense and I'm okay with just what the canon gave too so

It wasn't sloppy at all! My rambles are always too long and all over the place!

Edit: I forgot! As to why they were related, yeah I don't think it was completely necessary but still I can see reasons behind it?

1. As a way to make MC other. A devilgram and a little line in S3 makes it seem like MC is neither angel, demon OR human. I HC that Lilith died right as she was changing from angel to demon making her one of a kind and that pure "Fallen Angel" magic came with her when she was reincarnated and then was passed down to MC.

2. How lilith's known as the mother of monsters in some myths and how MC is related to them... I just think it's neat. Plus MC has an insane amount of raw power - truly a monster in their own right

3. It's closure for the brothers. They never got to see Lililth as a human, never got to see her grow up, fall in love, start her own family. The last they saw her she was in pain and dying. They don't get to see if she was happy. MC's the closest proof they have to that. That she found love and had a family and was happy

4. It's closure for lilith. Just the fact that her spirit passed down from descendent to descendent along with her magic till she could see her brothers again just to see if they were happy and to tell them she had lived a long happy life. I don't know I'm really happy she was able to do that

5. The brothers find similarities between Lilith and MC but they're rare and 6 of the 7 brothers already liked MC before they found out about MC being her descendent. And even Belohie starts to like them as their own person. Just I always worry that they like MC just because of the connection between them and Lilith and that they see MC as a replacement but then U remember their Canon interactions and it feels like the brothers actually forget about that connection. MC is Lilith's legacy, they're living proof that you can be born in one world but find your true home in another, but they're not defined by Lilith. They're their own person. Even their magic is their own considering Lilith used the last of hers when she helped them in Lesson 15/16

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me! #shall we date? obey me! #swd obey me #asks #answers #my headcanons #my theories #obey me lilith #obey me belphie #swd lilith #swd belphie #om! belphie #obey me belohegor #om! belphegor #swd belohegor

[certifiedmoth]

I need little bub, I'm a bit sad... Like, the meeting with Reader (even if he was one), how Duncan was a bit scared to tell her he was a single dad, the first time lil bub called her "mom", the first nightmare, the first fight with his daddy.... please anything, please...

Single Dad!Duncan x Fem!Reader

Notes: Here are some headcanons for what’s mentioned above ^^^ (also, I’m sorry you’re sad - I hope this cheers you up!)

Word Count: 1.6 K

___

Duncan telling you:

I think although Duncan would keep his life private from the world, for the most part, it would be common knowledge around the office that he had a child. Nobody knew how old his kid was or even what their name was, they only knew that a child existed (or did they? It was becoming something of a myth around the office). Having worked at the foundation, which is how you met Duncan, you had heard the rumors about this child, but as you and Duncan had gotten to know each other better, you doubted if the rumors were even true, since he never brought it up. However, towards the end of your first date, after a bottle of wine and lots of laughter and opening up to each other, he approached you about the subject.

“Y/N, there’s something I want to tell you… But I’m not sure how,” he’d glance at you nervously, only feeling more confident when you reached over, grabbed his hand gently and gave him a soft smile, encouraging him to continue. “I have a son.” Your eyes would widen a bit, not out of fear or shock, but just a general feeling of warmth that he would share something like that with you. You thought his feelings for you, that he had confessed only earlier in the night, were heartwarming, but him revealing to you that he was a single father, really showed you just how serious those feelings were. It was a special moment for both of you.

First meeting with Y/N:

After a couple months or so of dating, Duncan would bring up the subject about you possibly meeting his son, “Y/N, you know how invested I am in this relationship and I think it’s ready for us to take the next step, so with that said… Do you think you’d want to meet my little one?” You’d be over the moon ecstatic for him finally asking. Truth be told, you had wanted to meet the cute lil baby you had seen in just about every picture of Duncan’s camera roll.

You had gone over with him one afternoon, an hour or so before his nanny were to arrive and send you both off to your dinner reservation. Duncan greeted you at the door with a warm smile. He had been ready to introduce you to this part of his life for a long time, but he didn’t want to scare you away. He kissed your cheek tenderly and walked you over to his son’s nursery, asking you about how your day was and telling you how happy he felt that you were finally going to meet his lil bub (the first time you had actually heard the cute nickname). He opened the door slowly and quietly, the room fairly dark as light shades of purple and blue danced across his room from the dinosaur lamp in the corner. The first thing you noticed was a little head peeking through the crib as the baby inside clumsily stood up on his feet, holding onto the bars of his crib for balance. Once he saw Duncan, a big smile appeared on his face and he started babbling, clearly happy to see his daddy. Duncan picked him up and held him close to his chest, smiling at you as he finally felt his two worlds coming together.

You spent the next hour, sitting on the soft carpet of his son’s room, playing with different toys and reading books to him. At first, he had been shy and clung to his papa, wrinkling the nice shirt he had put on for your dinner date, which caused a small smile to form on your lips. But after a while, he was obsessed with you. Duncan’s heart swelled in his chest, as he sat back and watched the sight of his son cradled in your arms, looking up at you with love and wonder as you read his favorite book to him, in a soft, soothing voice. It was something Duncan would never forget.

The first time he called Y/N mom:

After even a couple more months of dating, you and Duncan had gotten into a nice little routine. You weren’t living with him yet but you always stayed over and spent as much time with him and his little one as possible.

His son was now saying a few words - he knew the words dada, no, bye-bye, hi, and kitty (the name of his favorite stuffed animal that he’d yell while he was playing with it), but it came as a complete shock when one day you were all in the kitchen, Duncan making breakfast and you feeding bub his own as he babbled different words at you both, he had pointed to you and said “mama”. The soft song Duncan had been whistling stopped immediately as he turned to his son, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, spatula still in his hand as he processed what his son had just said. You, on the other hand, couldn’t contain the smile and noise of utter excitement and disbelief as the little one in front of you looked into your eyes and said it again.

You turned to Duncan, the huge smile you wore fading as you saw the look on his face. “I’m sorry, I-I didn’t know he would say that. I don’t want you to feel like I’m crossing boundaries-“ You were cut off suddenly by Duncan pulling you into his arms, holding your face softly and kissing you passionately. “I love you so much,” he’d whisper against your lips, resting his forehead against yours as a soft laugh escaped him. “And I can’t tell you how amazing it makes me feel about how excited you are to hear him call you that.”

First nightmare:

I think this would happen when bub was a little older, perhaps around 3 or 4? You had already moved in and life was sweet for the family at the Shepherd residence. Well, that was until you and Duncan woke up in the middle of the night, startled in bed, as you heard the loud cries of your little one in his room, just down the hall. Duncan rushed out of bed and down the hall, in only his sweats, and you closely followed behind. When you entered the room, Duncan was holding his son close to his bare chest, softly swaying him back and forth as he whispered in his ear that he would be okay.

“What happened?” You spoke softly as you approached them, placing your hand on your little one’s back, gently rubbing circles to soothe him.

“He said he had a bad dream about a monster chasing him,” Duncan’s voice was raspy and still heavy with sleep, although now showed a bit of alertness. Duncan rocked his son back and forth, while looking up, trying to blink away the tears forming in his own eyes as he started sniffling.

“Here, let me,” you offered, noticing how choked up Duncan was getting. You took the now much calmer toddler in your arms and gave him a small smile. “You know, mommy and daddy have bad dreams, too, but it’s okay, because we know they’re not real. Do you know the monster in your dream isn’t real? He can’t hurt you, baby.”

“He…He can’t?” His sniffly voice whispered as he looked up at you.

“Of course not. You are so much stronger than that monster, he could never hurt you,” he gave you a little smile as his tears stopped. “Plus, daddy and mommy would never let anything happen to you. Now, what do you say you sleep in our big bed tonight, hm?”

He nodded sleepily, hugging your chest, as you looked over at Duncan who was still sniffling. You leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking back to your room, your little one already falling asleep in your arms.

Duncan watched as you placed him in the middle of the bed, curling up next to him and placing soft kisses to his hair. He clung to your shirt and drifted off to sleep in the safety of your arms. You felt Duncan get into bed and wrap his arms around you both, exhaling a shaky breath.

“He’s never had a nightmare before.” He nuzzled you both closer to him, “I hate not being able to protect him from everything.”

“Duncan, you are the best father who does everything in your power to give your son the life he deserves, including protecting him to the best of your abilities. Cut yourself some slack, baby. He has a father who loves him more than anything, he’ll be okay,” you reached over, gently stroking his cheek as you heard a content sigh leave his lips.

“Thank you, baby.”

First fight with his daddy:

I think the first fight would also happen when bub was a toddler (terrible twos and all that fun stuff). I don’t think it necessarily would be a fight, more so as a meltdown of sorts, but it would still hurt Duncan’s heart to see his little bub so upset with him. He’d be sulking around while his son was in timeout and you’d just assure him that he was young and this was normal for him to act out occasionally.

“I know, but I can’t stand the idea of him being mad at me. That shit fucking hurts, Y/N,” he’d rub his eyes, sighing. “What happened to my little baby that I used to cradle in my arms? Now, he’s a toddler who’s throwing his book at me. Soon, he’s going to be a teenager and god… I can’t stand feeling this way.”

You’d walk over to him and wrap your arms around his waist, nuzzling into his warmth, “It’ll be okay, baby. Trust me. Your son loves you more than anything, that will never, ever change.”

#duncan shepherd #duncan shepherd headcanons #duncan shepherd blurb #duncan shepherd imagine #cody fern #single dad!duncan #house of cards #asks #anon

[smileyoongle]

Come Back Home (A Kim Taehyung Mafia AU) // Part 4

I'm back to give you an update on your favourite angsty fic with an angsty chapter. This chapter is probably not that interesting but it is interesting. Just saying, it's gonna be a rollercoaster from now. So let's get it?!

Summary: You were dead. Or at least that's what Kim Taehyung thought. But love never dies. A myth, yes. And maybe that's why when he finds out that you are alive, he may have already lost you.

Pairing: Mafia!Taehyung×Reader

Your head rested on the window of Yoona's car, the urge to just close your eyes and fall asleep growing more and more unbearable. But you couldn't. Or at least you didn't want to.

That man's face kept flashing in your mind and you couldn't forget the adoration and longing with which he looked at you. Moreover, the warmth that had spread in your chest was very suspicious to you. It became obvious that you knew him and you definitely had a deep relationship with him.

You glanced at Yoona, wondering if you should ask her everything. But she didn't seem very fond of that ethereal man. She seemed to hate him.

"Who was he?" You blurted out, frowning as the words left your mouth before you could even contemplate them. Yoona glanced at you with a frown before turning her eyes back to the road.

"Who do you mean?" She asked.

You shivered a little, pushing yourself further into the leather seat for any kind of warmth. But you were wrong. It was cooler than you expected. With a hiss, you turned the AC vent away from you and settled back comfortably.

"The man you were talking to. Who was he? What's his name? Does he know me?" You bombarded her with your questions. But it wasn't your fault that your stupid brain seemed to be having problems with its memory file.

Yoona tensed in her seat, gulping as she cleared her throat and tried to focus on driving. She didn't expect you to ask her many questions yet. Especially not about him. She was pretty mad at you for even going to him but it wasn't your fault. You were a saint who saw the good in everyone.

Clearly, Castillo hadn't done a very good job at trying to make you forget who you are.

Yoona gritted her teeth and mentally slapped herself for even thinking that. No. She absolutely hated everything that you had to go through. And Taehyung was the only one to be blamed. Unfortunately, she knew you loved Taehyung a lot. That's right.

Loved.

"His name is Kim Taehyung. A mafia leader. He sells drugs, owns a number of clubs around the country and kills people who meddle in his affairs. He simply saved you." Yoona stated, feeling satisfied with her words. It's not like she was lying to you anyway. One way or another, you were gonna find out everything. So why not now?

Your eyes widened and you immediately felt scared.

Mafia leader?

Kills people?

"And no, he doesn't know you."

Yoona's words left you a little bruised. You didn't know why but you felt bad. Bad that he didn't know you.

No, Y/N. Get yourself together. He's bad news.

You told yourself, taking in a deep breath to keep yourself calm and composed. If anything, you should have been feeling grateful that you were away from him. He was dangerous and it was a miracle that you had been saved. Your face pulled into a scowl as you remembered the small letter you had given him. You were so embarrassed. He must be laughing at you.

With a sigh, you crossed your arms and closed your eyes, willing yourself to sleep until you reached your destination.

💔🖤💔🖤

The whiskey burned Taehyung's throat but he poured himself another glass. If he was going to get you back, then he had to learn to live without you. And that could only happen if he was drunk and lost in his dreams. The piece of paper lay in front of him on the black table, the words constantly making Taehyung's heart jump with joy.

"And what would Y/N say if she saw you getting wasted like this?" A voice said from behind him. Taehyung rolled his eyes and turned around, glaring at Hoseok who was also glaring at him. With a small smirk, Taehyung brought the filled glass to his lips and downed the liquid in one go, his eyes never moving away from Hoseok's face. It was clearly a challenge.

"She won't say anything cause she isn't here." Taehyung shrugged, placing the glass on the table with a little too much force.

Everyone was aware of how you hated it when Taehyung consumed alcohol. He was an addict before you had come into his life. You had truly saved him from becoming a monster and everyone was grateful to you for that. But now, Hoseok couldn't help but worry. You weren't here anymore and Taehyung was definitely gonna lose his mind if you didn't come back.

Hoseok sighed and shook his head, taking a step forward to place his hand on Taehyung's shoulder.

"Tae, you cannot do this. You know she'll be back soon. She remembers you. Why else would she give you that?" Hoseok nudged his chin towards the paper on the table. Taehyung glanced at it over his shoulder before turning back to Hoseok.

"I'm not doing what you think I'm doing. It's just a one time thing. I know she'll be back. Don't worry about me." Taehyung stated with a frown and removed Hoseok's hand from his shoulder.

Without a word, he grabbed the bottle of liquor and the letter before heading towards his study. Hoseok could only hope that Taehyung wasn't going to spiral down. Afterall, a broken heart can only get you so far.

💔🖤💔🖤

You cautiously stepped inside the decent sized house, your eyes wandering around it's interiors in curiosity. You had been here before but things had definitely changed a lot.

Yoona placed your bag on the floor before closing the door behind her. She smiled and placed a hand on your shoulder.

"Welcome home!" She sang, making you smile. The warmth of the house was nice. It made you feel good. You glanced at the staircase on hearing the sound of footsteps, your eyes narrowing as you guessed who it could be.

You knew him since you knew Yoona. You got along with him pretty well from what you remembered. But you weren't so sure anymore.

"And here he is!" Yoona exclaimed as soon as her brother's face came into view. You gave him a small smile while he grinned at you.

"Finally! I was waiting for so long." He said and pulled you into a hug. You chuckled and hugged him back, relishing in his soft hold.

"Minho. It's good to see you again!" You replied, pulling away after patting his back gently. Looking closely, you could tell he had become much more handsome since you last saw him. His brown hair was slightly tousled, which somehow didn't make him look bad. His green eyes sparkled as his pink lips pulled into a big smile. This was the person who you once adored.

"Let's get you settled in. And then you can spend time with your boyfriend."

You immediately turned your face to look at Yoona.

Boyfriend?

"What?" You asked, amused at the whole situation. In return, Yoona winced and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. She didn't know if she should do this to you but you needed to be saved. Yoona only wanted you to be happy. And she could ensure that only if you stayed with her.

"Sorry. I should've said this in a better way. But yeah. Minho and you have been dating for years now."

Suddenly, a piercing pain shot through your head. You screamed and fell to the floor, clutching your hair as tears formed in your eyes. You gasped as your lungs felt like they were being constricted. All the noise faded into a buzz and white dots danced across your vision. You placed your hands on the floor to steady yourself. You could feel someone's hands around you but the pain in your head intensified. Your body felt like it was on fire and you couldn't fight it anymore. With another gasp, you closed your eyes and your body went limp.

Taglist: @min-t-posts @annoyinglyunabashedangel @bringitseijoh @kpopgirlbtssvt @unppleased @shadowstark @bangtanniexxx @wendyiiwl @imlostindarkness @bvbsins @jazzytfw @lovestrucked-again @hopetookmysoul @angelwolfexorcist @taes-strawberry @ireallylikefoodandyoutube @annoyingpessimist @hajimaoppaa @atwoodscott @kawaiimusiccollection @byeolizzie @sleepysavya @somewhereinthestarss

So you can see I'm having trouble tagging some people 😭

Tumblr is always so salty. Anyway, tell me if you wanna be tagged? And also, sorry for the short chapter. I'll give you a longer one next time! Bye!!

-XX

#bts #bts mafia au #bts mafia imagine #bts mafia reaction #bts angst #bts army #kpop #bts imagines #bts reactions #bts request #bts v #bts taehyung #mafia au #kim taehyung #taehyung×reader #mafia leader kim taehyung #mafia bts #mafia bts imagines #bts jungkook #bts jimin #bts jin #bts au #smileyoongle #bts namjoon #bts yoongi #bts hoseok #kpop roleplay #mafia taehyung fanfic #come back home #i love this fic a lot

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Lost Harp of Mervana!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Colleen Evanson

Storyboard by: Vincent Aparo, Kristen Gish, Victoria Harris

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

I am being trustworthy with this one.

In the season opener, Huey managed to find a diary filled with the missing treasures Isabella Finch couldn't find, and with the help of her wisdom, he's going to guide the rest of the family to find each one of them. Scrooge lets the others know that this search for an item in Isabella Finch's journal of lost treasures is specifically Huey's quest. This is supposed to be Huey's season, after all; one was about Dewey's quest to find his mother, two was about Louie's quest for more money, and three is all about Huey trying to follow in the footsteps of Finch; the Uncle Scrooge of even Uncle Scrooge as revealed in that episode. No relation.

This episode specifically has him do a speech on the titular Lost Harp of Mervana, Mervana being a place that was lost to the sea, much like Atlantis. He's doing a really good job at being an adventurer already, as he's even mimicking Scrooge's long-winded monologues, as much as Scrooge doesn't like it when people call them that.

Even Scrooge can’t help himself with his love of long winded explanations of lost items and joins in on the description, giving details about how the people of Mervana were legendary creatures that were half fish and half man, and could walk on land and swim in water. They try to make him look like a crazy old man along with his crazy young nephew, even if this is pretty normal for him. It’s pretty normal for Huey too, to be honest; the only thing unusual is that it’s not the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook he’s reading from.

Webby is far more intrigued by the mere mention of half man, half fish creatures, even if the creature he was holding a picture of didn’t look anything like the kind of creatures Webby was thinking of. She can't wait to see them on this new adventure!

Louie doesn’t exactly have a positive outlook on this adventure, though, as he immediately assumes whatever they find is going to attempt to kill them in some way. Seinfeld always finds a girlfriend he’ll eventually disgust, the Three’s Company will always find a misunderstanding, and Huey Dewey and Louie will eventually end up in some sort of mysterious or historic peril.

Louie even pulls out a running tally of all the times each of them were offered as a sacrifice. Dewey’s especially proud of his record, as his tallies go far below everyone else's. He's the wacky one, and he's going to remain the wacky one throughout this episode. In fact, while some episodes, everyone has a role. The important ones are that Louie is the skeptic who always thinks the worst of the situation, while Webby is the positive thinker who thinks nothing can possibly go wrong. This may be one of the rare moments where Webby is clearly in the wrong, as I can't imagine anything otherwise would lead to a good episode.

Eventually, Webby gets the chance to say the M word that Huey and Scrooge specifically avoided, as a bunch of them swim on by. Even Louie appears to be impressed; it isn’t every day where someone sees a mermaid swim with such grace. While Zeus is more like the original myths, these are indeed Disneyfied mermaids: half duck, half fish, and no willingness to drag people into the ocean to drown them. We already had the Kelpies for that.

Not impressed at all is Della, who decides to activate the torpedoes, because she has ichthyophobia. I am not aware if they ever brought up her hatred of sealife before; it seems like something she would have forgotten after being stranded on a rock that almost definitely doesn’t have them. Those torpedoes aren’t even mentioned again; it’s just a way for them to have a cold open and to reinforce how much Della hates them fishies.

But hey, it's a cold open to the full opening this time. Hooray, I thought we would never see it this season. It's here we find out all the Della scenes are in the shortened version; they didn't bother adding her in any of the other shots. Is it a sign that this is going to be a rarity?

The two introduce themselves as Aletheia and Vero. They’re all about truth, and, as they hint in their introductions, their names even mean truth in Greek and Latin, respectively. They also describe Mervana as a place without suffering, a place where one can find their inner truth, and a place where material belongings can be gotten rid of in the name of peaceful harmony. Scrooge isn’t too happy about any of those aspects, and that’s going to be a theme in this episode.

Not everyone shares Scrooge's lack of enthuiasm, though Louie has good reason to believe otherwise. Meeting all of these mermaids in this cave between the deep blue sea and their destination is basically her dream for Webby, and one of the first lines she says while exploring this new place cements it.

Webby: Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?

No, not in a sing-songy way, though I'm sure most would read it that way. That reference was almost as blatant as that "rescued" pun from the previous episode.

As they reach Mervana in their quest to make their collection a little more complete, Aletheia decides to tell the visitors the story of how Mervana ended up under the sea, as shown with a stone wall with pictures on it. Generations ago, these mermaids used to spend time equally between the land and the sea, until King Honestus, another mermaid named after a word for truth, decided the troubles of the land were too much for his people. He left to find his own truth, only to never return. According to legend, he became one with the ocean. The mermaids of Mervana continue their quest to find their inner truth in honor of him, in the hopes that one day, he will return. Not sure where becoming “one with the ocean” would mean he could return, but it's the legend they believe in anyway.

Louie expresses his opinion on this story in the most subtle way possible.

Louie: Something’s fishy here.

Surprised that line didn't come sooner, to be honest. Webby tries to convince him that this must be his dream world because everything is free, but he responds that it’s too perfect. Forget all of the trust, he assumes that King is going to come back to eat him, and they don’t know anything about a harp. Mrs. Beakley drowns out Louie with some bongo playing, telling him that the mermaids are harmless. Webby knows this must be proof: there's no way her Granny would ever lie.

Louie offers a different sort of proof: a cave behind a waterfall saying “do not enter.” Of course, they don't obey that; Louie definitely needs to find out if those mermaids are mermurderers, and Webby follows to find out how wrong he must be to come up with such a pun.

There is a B plot here: the rest of the family are going to join in on the truth searching, starting with an arts and crafts session where they make fins that represent their inner truth. Huey tries to convince Scrooge that joining in on that would lead to the mermaids letting out their secrets, including one about that Harp, and he reluctantly agrees. Scrooge tries to do this with the least effort possible, clearly showing how little he wants to participate. It ties in pretty well with the A plot, as people may look for clues for either Louie or Webby's interpretation on what these mermaids are really up to. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle, or maybe it's somewhere completely different.

How are the kids doing on that cave trip? Well, they did hear some mysterious singing that implied that some girl is "fibbing, fibbing, fibbing", which must mean there's something weird and mysterious.

While that may have been something related to the harp, the weird and mysterious something turned out to be a giant fish monster. If one looks closely, they can see that the monster wears a crown, giving some credence to Louie's theory that the king is just going to return to have duck soup, but neither Louie nor Webby can pay attention long enough to notice it.

Thankfully, they're saved by Mrs. Beakley, who managed to go from the bongo corner of Mervana to deep within a cave with a giant monster without them noticing. I'm sure "because she's Mrs. Beakley" is a good enough excuse.

Webby desperately tries to hang on to her belief that the mermaids aren’t people with gills that want to kill, saying that they must be thinking that they’re telling the truth, but they just don’t know. Her 100% positivity clashes with Louie’s 100% negativity, and that’s the crux of the A plot. It may seem like we would have Mrs. Beakley as the mediator, but she tells Webby that this is definitely some sort of mixup and that the mermaids are definitely people to be trusted.

Or, maybe not, as, once she tells Webby to take the lead, she picks up Louie and tells him she doesn't trust the mermaids either, while Louie raises his hands with victory. She says this for reasons she doesn’t really reveal, though it wouldn’t be a stretch if it was similar to Louie’s. Her conflict is that she doesn’t want her granddaughter to know about any of this suspicion, because this would completely ruin her positive attitude. I would assume any unknown danger that she just decided to let her granddaughter deal with by herself would ruin it, but maybe she's just that trusting of her abilities.

While the kids are having a cave story, the fin story is going about what one would expect. Dewey paints Hot Rod flames on his, Huey draws the Junior Woodchuck logo, and Scrooge just has a dollar sign clearly scribbled in a few seconds. He really wants to get to that harp, but until Scrooge can find his true self, the mermaids won't give them the knowledge they seek. The A plot's about Louie and Webby, and the B plot is mostly about Scrooge, and Huey, who was the focus in the intro, is just kind of there for the rest of the episode. In his own season!

There is one thing unexpected: Donald Duck, of all people, managed to find his peaceful soul with his rainbow colored fins and meditative pose, which impresses Aletheia and Vero. While this would be far from his inner truth, this does make sense: as this is a place without suffering, this can certainly change Donald Duck's way of life, who’s life was always followed by his bad luck. If one ever wanted to hear Donald Duck say "namaste," this is their episode.

Dewey wants to use his Hot Rod Fins to let his mother know that fish are totally awesome. Unfortunately, this does not do anything to cure his mother's hatred and/or disgust of fish. Dewey showing off his fin like Homer Simpson showing off his new chainsaw and hockey mask isn’t helping anyone, though we don't get to see her reaction beyond her gagging at the sight of one of her sons with those disgusting fish fins. This C plot honestly doesn’t need much discussion because it doesn’t really heed it. This is not to say it won't converge with the others, but, one will see.

Getting back to a plot that matters, after climbing a bunch of stairs, as Louie complained about the lack of escalators in these ancient place, Louie, Webby, and Mrs. Beakley go to the room that happens to have what they were looking for...

...the Lost Harp of Mervana, who was under a blanket. It is suggested that other people have tried to find out, but couldn't get past that giant monster. The harp is actually part mermaid, part person, part harp, which really makes Webby happy. As a person, she can talk and sing, as it turns out that she was the one who was mysteriously chanting "fibbing, fibbing, fibbing" this whole time. She never gets to play herself, though.

The Harp of Mervana seems to involuntarily sing if someone is "corr-eeeeect" or if they're "fibbing, fibbing, fibbing", and this is shown with her singing "corr-eeeeect" when Louie talks about how those stairs were a mess. There’s a subtle hint already of how this could play out just with that stairs quip; while the stairs were a mess that needed to be repaired, Louie was just saying that because he doesn’t like climbing so many stairs. With this ability to show the truth, Webby can finally prove to her housemate and Granny that there's nothing sinister under the sea.

Of course, the harp tells them that wouldn't be the truth if there was nothing sinister under the sea. They ask what the real story is, and she decides not to tell them. See, since she's a harp, she's going to sing it instead.

We know this is the real story because this is told via flashback rather than via a stone wall. To make a long story short, Mervana sank because he simply decided the sea was way less of a bummer than having to repair what’s on the land. Namely, the decaying tower. This led to the buildings sinking, and the mermaids decided to stay in the sea for the rest of their lives.

This turns out to be a bad thing, because their ability to turn their legs into fins has a horrible side effect if prolonged for too long. This is connected to that monster from earlier. I debated whether I should spoil this plot point, since the monster's design does hint at it to the point where it's kind of obvious with that 4-shot up there, but Louie treats the revelation as a complete surprise, so I'll try to be slightly vague about it. I'm not saying I'm going to hide it well.

Mrs. Beakley tries to comfort her granddaughter, who is starting to lose her positive attitude with all of this knowledge, but having a living lie detector in the room helps about as much as Dewey talking like a maniac in that previous scene. Honestly, even the show forgets about that scene; Dewey just appears in Mervana the next time we get back to it. Anyway, she tries to tell Webby some comforting lies, like...

Mrs. Beakley: I believe there's a little good in everyone...

Harp of Mervana: She's fibbing, fibbing, fibbing!

Mrs. Beakley: I believe people are trying to be good...

Harp of Mervana: She's fibbing, fibbing, fibbing!

Is she saying that everyone having a little good in them is a fib, or that Mrs. Beakley doesn’t actually believe that everyone has a little bit of good in them? Maybe I’m overthinking it, as it is probably the latter, but I do like how it could be the former, too.

But enough granddaughter-grandmother talk about the morality of telling comforting lies, Louie says that they need to get the Harp back to the Mervanans, or they will die. To Louie's dismay, the Harp finds no fib in that claim.

Let's let a short cutback to the C-plot hint towards why that would be, where Della decides that, because she's Della Duck and nothing should stop her so easily. Unfortunately, that crowned monster happened to be swimming nearby, showing that he has escaped the cave. I guess that monster must have known a shortcut past Mervana.

With either interpretation of the harp's claim that Mrs. Beakley was fibbing about people being trustworthy, Mrs. Beakley was lying to her granddaughter. Her positive attitude is gone, and she has to be dragged down by Louie. Mrs. Beakley grabs the harp, and rather easily too, to the surprise of even the harp.

Harp of Mervana: You’re very strong!

Mrs. Beakley: ...correct!

Nice reversal, though I can see that Mrs. Beakley is above mimicking her “corr-eeeect!”

This all leads to a climactic showdown between the monster and Clan McDuck, as the mermaid's spirit is broken merely by the former's presence. That leads to about a minute of moping until Louie convinces them to fight back by "embracing their inner truth". Even he seems to fight back against this by uttering an "ugh" before that line. This also convinces Webby, too; I'm glad that plot is resolved in a relatively decent matter.

There's some pretty neat scenes with this encounter, though I feel like they do skip around a bit. Donald Duck is convinced to drop his relaxation act so he can fight this monster in his usual way, and the next scene has him cowering with the others with no real connection. While I won't say what this monster is, though I can imagine anyone could guess, I will say who deals the final blow to this monster.

...Della, who suddenly decided to get out of the submarine and swim all the way to this beach! See, those scenes where she had a fear of fish had a point after all: it's to show that she can get over her fear of fish. Not sure if I could say she got over her hatred; she is delighted with kicking this monster she knew nothing about.

Of course, there's more to it than that, but I got to leave something out. Watch the episode to find out, but I will say it is a satisfying ending.

How does it stack up?

The episode itself does have some interesting twists and turns, but I wouldn't say it's among the series' best. All in all, it's pretty good. I'll give this one a 4.

Next, Louie's about to start a scheme. Oh, and Daisy Duck’s there, too.

← Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice! 🦆 Louie's Eleven! →

#fpb dt 2017 #ducktales 2017 #ducktales #disney

[taule]

Hope you feel better 😊. I wanted to ask what your favorite music and novels are. And of course films, besides LOTR lol. I'm actually excited about The Green Knight movie. I saw the trailer and got excited. I've always been in love with Arthurian novels and poems. I hope this year has great movies and shows with better endings. I'm tired of redemption = death and just death for shock value. Here's to hoping.. - Mel

Thank you. I am starting to feel better. Sorry for the late reply though. I guess it would have taken me some time to answer this even without the other things. 

I am also supremely tired of seeing things which are made by entitled, unoriginal and uninspired creators such as D&D and JJ Abrams. I’m tired of all this subverting expectations crap and these men trying to pass their own lack of imagination off as giving the audience something “new”. Nobody asked for this shit. Myths that are as old as humanity itself don’t need some asshat trying to “reinvent” it for the modern audience when said myth speaks to something at the core of human psychology and has survived “modern times” intact for the past 5000 years. 

Uh. Anyway. Things I like…

I have to say, I’m an inconsistent, but methodical reader. I find that even the reading I do for myself is often research-like. Such as me having read everything ever written about Maul that has been published by any entity associated with Lucasfilm or going through any and all mentions of orcs ever published relating to Tolkien.

I am trying to read more novels but somehow still end up reading non-fiction most of the time (if you want my recommendations, that will be a different list). And the fiction I do read outside of Tolkien isn’t necessarily novels. More and more I feel like it isn’t always being published on paper that gives something legitimacy. So honestly the fiction I’ve enjoyed most in the past couple of years is found on AO3. I’ve also consistently liked Murakami. Especially his short stories.

Currently on my reading list: more non-fiction, all of The History of Middle-Earth by Christopher Tolkien (parts of which I’ve already read), more Tolkien (mostly rereading), Dune by Frank Herbert, more fics. I’m also on the lookout for good Monster Romance books. Especially ones in which the ‘monster’ doesn’t turn into a prince. 

As for films I hold dear to my heart… like with books, there’s LOTR and Harry Potter of course. And this might be an unpopular opinion, but I also like The Hobbit. There is a lot that could have been different, but I can accept it for what it is. And it also gave me Azog so…

Reading The Hobbit in English especially made me realize how difficult it is to turn into a coherent film. One major complaint is that it’s not enough material to turn into more than one film, much less 3. But if you look at how it’s written it skips over a lot. Now they’re here, and now they’re there. But you can’t make a decent film cutting from one scene to another one which might be days, if not weeks or months apart. And most people seem to forget that most dwarves have literally no dialogue. Ah, sorry for the tangent.

So, films… The Great Beauty, The Shape of Water, Hero (2002), Perfume, Cidade de Deus, Pan’s Labyrinth, Amelie, Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, Moonlight, Life of Pi. To name a few. I also unironically like The Mummy. I think there’s a pattern there. There’s a lot of films and it would be a long list to just name recommendations, but I think what is important to me is the trace they leave behind when I’m done watching. 

I think the music question is the hardest to answer. My taste is at the same time wide-ranging but very specific. There are things I always come back to and then stuff that holds my attention for a short while. I think it’s easier to just make a playlist, which I think I will do. 

#maeself #personal

[klimp42]

Final Fantasy 8: An Amazing Story Hidden Behind Weird Mechanics

So it should be said that there is one thing that I love and that is some good narrative in gaming. I love it, give me a game with a good narrative and at least decent gameplay and I am in there, and a good narrative doesn't mean oscar level writing because I love Deadly Premonition, a notoriously weird game, but a golden game in my heart. Its story is weird and unique and at times outright strange, but it's endearing and I love how wild the story gets as it goes on. Now why am I talking about this? Why it's because of my lovely new bad gameplay good narrative obsession, Final Fantasy 8. That's right, gamer boys and girls we are going back to another old game, and that's because I just played it, and the remastered just got announced at E3 this year.

Alright so if you know nothing about the Final Fantasy series, let alone the 8th installment, let me help you out. Final Fantasy is an old franchise, it started in 1987 and got its name because the original name Fighting Fantasy was taken by a board game in the states, the myth of it being called Final Fantasy because it was a last ditch effort to make a successful game is just that, a myth. The game is prolific, being one of the granddaddy's of the JRPG genre and helping bring that good ol fashion turn based combat system popular in tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)  to videogames. Final Fantasy 1 is a classic of gaming and also is kind of like D&D, you have classes similar to the previously mentioned board game; Warrior, Monk, Thief, Paladin; with a few of its own unique classes; Red mage, Black mage and White mage. The games story was very simple, worlds ending, killing these fiends and go back in time and stop Chaos from doing this over again, also at some point the game explains that you are from another universe and that's why you just start outside the beginning kingdom, Final Fantasy stories like to be a little wild at times.

Like D&D you gained levels in this game by fighting monsters, getting stronger with each fight and eventually being strong enough to be able to face the final boss on even grounds, or maybe a little above them if you grind out yourself to max level. This system, if you are into the RPG genre, is incredibly rewarding as you get to see your team of lowly nothings evolve into masters of combat who can slay gods. The best part, to me at least, is going back to the starting area or an area that gave you trouble and stomping on those monsters who thought they were so cool 20 levels ago. Now in Final Fantasy series this system is in most of them, fight monsters, get exp, level up and your stats go up with it, the special cases are Final Fantasy 2,6,8 and 10, and of these the worst offenders of weird leveling are 2, 6 and 8. That's right, I said it, 6 has a weird leveling system with level not raising stats and needing summons equipped to level stats, I personally don't believe that it deserves its spot as one of the best Final Fantasys but that is an article for another time. I could explain why each is weird and 10 is fun and different in a good way, but forget all that and let's get into the focus of this piece, Final Fantasy 8.

Now even though it is my new obsession in good story bad gameplay, my fascination for this game goes way back to when I was a 3 year old with a pizza hut demo disc. Yeah you bet that was a thing, you would order a large pizza and it would come with a playstation demo disc that had a couple of games, but the only one that mattered to little old me was the demo for Final Fantasy 8, or that game with the guy with the cool sword and big water snake, as I was 3 and couldn't read that well. Seriously, if you have played a Final Fantasy game before you would know that you can use summons by clicking the tab they are in and then selecting the one you want, well ol kid me thought it was random as I was just picking things at random. So what I am saying is, I have always had a special place for this game in my heart, so there might be a bit of bias.

So I spent some time flip flopping over what I wanted to discuss and explain first, story or gameplay, on the one hand I wanted you to know what FF8 had to offer narratively, but on the other hand I feel I should let you guys know what you're getting into when you play this. So I decided to compliment sandwich this one, but like a subway compliment sandwich where the teenager who doesn't really want to work there barely tries to cut your bread so the top part is like really thin. So thin that what I am going to give you is this, FF8 is a great story of a young man learning to overcome his own weaknesses to understand that strength can be found in companions, listen I know that sounds cliche but I need more space to talk about the amazing character development and got to tell you about this bad gameplay.

So remember when I said that old Final Fantasy's had a nice leveling system based on fighting enemies, getting exp and raising stats? Throw it all out the window, because like I told you earlier FF8 is one of the weird ones. So for some reason FF8 has a whole system based around equipping "Guardian Forces" (summons) and then through this unlocking the ability to junction (equip) magic to your stats; like strength, magic, hp and the other classics; while also being able to junction magic to element and status attack and defense, allowing you to be able to either protect or do damage based on said elements and statuses. Now you might be thinking how does this work, because magic is usually used based on magic points (mp) well there is no mp in FF8. This is due to the narrative stating that it is very rare for people to do raw magic instead they need to draw magic from nature and creatures/people and use it that way. This means that in FF8 magic is a finite resource and instead of regaining mp you have to spend time drawing magic that is randomized to be either 2 or 12 magic, so it can take awhile. If this sounds a bit weird and confusing, don't worry it kind of is, there are tutorials to explain it, but man is it a weird system. So why is this all necessary? Well unlike other Final Fantasy's, in FF8 leveling raises your stats by the littlest amount, so to be able to do decent damage and also defend against it you need to junction magic. Also to make things even worse, leveling can be a problem as monsters level with you, so if an enemy is tough for you at level 20, raising your level to 30 won't help you as they will be doing more damage and have more health. The game does try to offset this by making it so if an enemy had fire to be drawn at lvl 10, at lvl 30 they would have fira to be drawn, which would make it so that you can junction a more powerful magic and do more damage. FF8 also gives you the option to just cast magic instead of drawing it from enemies, and can be useful since most bosses have healing magic to draw from them meaning you can go in without a huge stock of cure's.

Alright so we have a confusing system with a bad mechanic of monsters getting stronger with you as you level, is that all that is weird? Nope. So remember the guardian forces I mentioned earlier? Well they are necessary to be able to junction spells to stats and make your party stronger, but there are a limited number of them and that usually means only three of the six party members will have guardian forces so you can make a decent party for fighting. The problem is that the game likes to switch around who is playable a lot, and while it is fun and interesting in the narrative, it sucks gameplay wise. The game does make it easy by letting you be able to switch who has what guardian forces in a menu, but it gets tedious after the 15th time you have to do it and especially when the game switches between two perspectives like 4 times in 30 minutes. Also sometimes you have dream sequences where you play as another team and when you come back to your main party everyone but Squall, the main character, has everything unequipped, so you have to go back and re-junction everything and it's just a waste of time. Listen I could keep going on the weird aspects of this game, but I don't want it to take up this whole article and we got cool card games to talk about.

FF8 does a lot of things in a weird and bad way, but that doesn't mean it doesn't do things really really right, and thats with Triple Triad baby! Triple Triad is the super fun card game that exist within FF8, a game so good that you can also play it in FF14. The game is easy to get into and can get pretty hard with each area of the game map have unique rules, yet you can game the system by going to areas and abolishing rules and bring rules from other regions to new regions. Well except for one region, it is the king of rules, no exceptions! The fun of this game is not just showing the npc's of FF8 why you are the Yugi Muto of Triple Triad, you see you can learn an ability to turn cards you win from Triple Triad into items, which in turn can be turned into spells, powerful spells, I'm talking spells you are not meant to gain until like lvl 45 or 50. This means that if you want to you can spend time in the starting area at lvl 7 and leave a powerhouse that level thanks to Triple Triad. But there is a problem, this method is not quick, it takes hours to do this and also to even be able to get the ability to do this you will need to get AP for your Guardian Forces, which means either fighting fights normally or carding enemies which kills them but doesn' give exp, it can only be done at low health so be careful not to accidentally kill them.

So I have given a decent way to have fun but let me give you guys, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy FF8's gameplay, cheats. That's right a game that's so weird that the PC port has cheats that you can add to your save. I'm not talking about the normal ones we saw when FF7 and FF9 were ported to modern consoles, like the ability to turn off encounters and have it so you don't lose health in combat and do max 9999 damage. I am talking about the ability to modify a save file so you start with most low and mid level magic at full stock on all characters, and let me tell you it is a blessing. On PC it also allows you to at anytime raise all magic stocks to 100 and max level Guardian Forces, and let me tell you guys if you don't have the patience for the grind or want to try and just enjoy the story I highly suggest using these cheats, it makes things so much easier and I hope that the FF8 port coming to console has these cheats too. Also I should let you guys know I didn't immediately use these cheats, I tried to play it legit about three different times and every time the grind burnt me out, honestly if it wasn't for these cheats I would never had enjoyed FF8's amazing story. Speaking of amazing stories, let's finish off this subway compliment sandwich and talk about the good stuff.

So let me give you guys the easy lore of this world, on this planet, there are two types of people, normal people and sorceress, sorceresses can use magic naturally and a lot of them use this power for world domination especially the last sorceress, Adel, who was in charge of the country of Esthar and almost succeeded, due to this the Gardens were created by a man named Cid with the sole purpose to be able to kill sorceress should one like Adel show up again. The thing is one will show up and I don't mean because of plots need for a main antagonist, I mean because a sorceress can not die until she passes her powers to another female. Our story follows the character of Squall Lionheart, a quiet and distant youth who wants nothing more than to be able to prove that he is strong enough to be on his own, so badly that he actively shuts out other people who try to get close to him. Our boy here is a SeeD candidate in Balamb Garden, which means he is close to graduating and being basically a mercenary for the Garden until the need to fight a Sorceress arrives. And from there that's how the story grows, you have a cast of characters that join over time each interesting in their own right, helping as you deal with a looming sorceresses threat. Sounds pretty standard right? Well let's be real even something standard can be handled masterfully and that is exactly what FF8 does. Before I get into that there are two more characters I need to talk about. Laguna Loire, a soldier of the Galbadian army, who Squall keeps having vivid dreams about, through these dreams you see piece by piece of what he went through and how these events shaped him and the world around him and also how he is connected to Squall. There is also Rinoa Heartilly, a young girl who wishes to free the city of Timber from Galabadian control and in the process acts as the catalyst to what motivates Squall to change, all do to a chance meeting. When you look at the plot of FF8 it is abit generic what with stopping a Sorceress from creating her perfect utopia and most characters, outside of the ones mentioned above, get little depth to them, but what makes this story so engaging and interesting is Squall.

You see Squall starts off as a character who I can say I was disappointed in and didn't really like, a character I had adored since I was a kid due to my memories with that demo. He is angsty, off putting and really annoying, hell it feels like half of Squalls Dialogue is "...", but the thing is, that's the point. Squall is like that because he is afraid of trusting people again, fearing that if he does he will get hurt again and abandoned like he was as a child, so he puts on this cold front to make it easier for him, he doesn't have to worry if people like and rely on him if he is cold and indifferent, they would all just hate him. It is through this premise and his chance meeting with Rinoa that we see how Squall grows and changes, a man who I started off hating and grew to love and it's because it feels natural. Squall isn't cold because he thinks its cool or because he knows he is better than everyone else, he is a kid, a sad kid who went through heartbreak way to young and is afraid to love someone again. He is thrust into a dangerous world and has to come to terms that his lifestyle will not work for him, that he needs and wants to rely on others and he can't just keep ignoring a part of himself. Through the course of FF8 you see a quiet kid with a broken heart, overcome himself and become a real hero and use his new strength to make sure he can protect those close to him as well as himself.

And now we reach a bit of a problem, I would love to explain more, I want to explain why certain scenes moved me so much and why Squall's journey brought me to tears, but then I would need to spoil parts of the story, and that is the last thing I want to do. This is a Final Fantasy story that has incredible character development and I want people to be able to experience it themselves, to see what makes it great. I should also at least mention that the story is not without faults and tropes with Rinoa starting off being your typical manic pixie dream girl and if Squall really wanted to be alone he would have left SeeD after completing his training, and of course the other characters are not given as much screen time as Squall and Rinoa. However, tropes are not always bad and can still have depth, and by the end of the story I would say that Rinoa sheds the trope but it is on the nose in the beginning.

I left a lot of stuff out and with the HD remaster coming out sometime this year I think that if this article intrigued you, pick up a copy and experience it yourself. Experience a masterpiece of character growth that I believe is held back by clunky gameplay choices. I sincerely hope if you do decide to pick up this title that you enjoy Squall's story as much as I did.

#final fantasy #final fantasy viii #final fantasy 8 #final fantasy 8 hd #final fantasy 8 remaster #squall #squall leonhart #rinoa #rinoa heartilly #laguna #laguna loire #article #look at at #discussion

[salvatoreschool]

Mini Klaus? Legacies Season 2 Should Show Hope's 'Darker Side,' Star Says

Danielle Rose Russell debuted as Hope Mikaelson on The Originals before leading the spinoff Legacies. While on The Originals, young Hope bonded with and then lost her parents, Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) and Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), who were both first introduced on The Vampire Diaries. Russell was just at The CW's upfronts promoting Legacies Season 2, which will premiere this fall. She shared her hopes for Hope, who sacrificed herself in the Malivore pit in the Season 1 finale, with everyone back at the Salvatore School forgetting she exits.

“I think that Season 2 will definitely explore Hope's absence in this world and the impact that she does have. I'd really love to explore her darker side a bit after jumping into Malivore. I'm sure it's taken some sort of effect on her mental psyche”.

Oooh dark Hope could be fun Hope -- like father like daughter? The characters with a bit of a darker edge do tend to have more fun, just ask Klaus, but also Damon Salvatore and Katherine Pierce of The Vampire Diaries. If Hope were a phoenix we could call Season 2 her Dark Phoenix storyline, like the X-Men movie, but Landon is the phoenix on this show.

As Danielle Rose Russell told TV Guide, jumping into Malivore must've affected Hope's mental state, and she'd like to see more of how Hope handles traumatic situations. This is a young woman who has faced a lot of trauma in her life, even if we've only seen glimpses of how she's handled the deaths of Hayley and Klaus (not to mention others in her Originals family).

“Because after the death of her parents, we kind of did a time jump, and we didn't really see that process [of how she handles trauma], and I'd love to see that process explored a little bit more”

Legacies Season 1 did give Hope a chance to ask the Necromancer about her father Klaus, giving fans an update on his status in the afterlife. We learned that he never regretted his decision but he will also never find peace until she does. Hope was shown suffering some guilt after the death of her mother Hayley in the final season of The Originals, but most of Legacies has focused on present-day problems at the school.

The amazing alternate universe Episode 10 did show us two versions of Hope that might fit perfectly with showing her darker side. We had the bloodthirsty vampire Hope...

... and the badass team leader Hope..

Both of those Hopes were a bit different from our usual Hope Mikaelson. It could be fun for Danielle Rose Russell to get to show even more of her range with a Dark Hope, similar to The Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev with Katherine being so different from Elena.

Danielle Rose Russell said she's also looking forward to seeing how the Legacies Season 1 finale twist impacts Hope and Landon (Aria Shahghasemi), since she did this for love of him and wanting to save everyone.

Klaus and Hayley would be so proud of the hero Hope has become. But even heroes have darker sides. Hope came out of her tough shell in Season 1 and made real friends, including finding love with Landon. Now she has to get back home to the school, and that's part of her job in Season 2.

During upfronts, The CW posted a full synopsis for Legacies, including some notes on Hope trying to find her way back to the Salvatore School in Season 2:

“Set in the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted, Legacies tells the story of the next generation of supernatural beings as they learn what it means to be special in a world that may never understand.

Typically a school for vampires like MG (Quincy Fouse), werewolves like Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith) and witches like twins Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) and Josie Saltzman (Kaylee Bryant), the kids and their beloved headmaster Dr. Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) were stunned to come face to face with a series of monsters and creatures they had only ever heard of in myth and lore. A dragon. A gargoyle. The Headless Horseman. The evil behind the real-life resurrection of these formerly fictional beings proved to have a horrifying connection to the school’s newest student, Landon Kirby (Aria Shahghasemi.).

This led his first and only love Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell), the school’s shining star, to sacrifice her place at the school — and in the world — to protect Landon from a terrible fate. The new season will show us a world without Hope Mikaelson and all the chaos that goes along with it. All the while, Hope will be trying to find her way back to the school she has learned to call home and the friends she has learned to love like family. It will be filled with new monsters and more romantic and emotional surprises than ever”.

Bring it on! The Vampire Diaries Universe ruler Julie Plec previously tweeted that the writers would start working on Legacies Season 2 in early June and start filming in July for the show's premiere this fall.

The CW just confirmed that Legacies Season 2 will still air Thursdays at 9 p.m., starting in October, but there's no set date attached at this point. Stay tuned, and cross your fingers that your favorite characters return and get great storylines in the 2019-2020 season.

#Legacies #HopeMikaelson #DanielleRoseRussell #Tribrid #LizzieSaltzman #JosieSaltzman #LandonKirby #AlaricSaltzman #RafaelWaithe #MG #KalusMikaelson #HayleyMarshall #FreyaMikaelson #RebekahMikaelson #MarcelGerard #ElijahMikaelson #KolMikaelson #NewOrleans #MysticFalls #SalvatoreSchool #LegaciesSeason2 #TheCW