#but then he was able to rework it later to help flesh out his setting and themes later on

[mythrianalpha]

Ya like, dinosaurs? Metaphorical monsters? Shining cities rotting at their cores? Cute robots? Apocalypses? Madness? How about animation and worldbuilding? Journals of daytrips and sketches? Do you delight in looking over concept art and research notes? Wanna see a man create an entire 3d sculpture just to make sure his designs look good before recreating them as models? I am shilling for Dead Sound! (not being paid and no one tell him about this post or I Will Combust)

The comic I’m currently binging reminded me of one of my favorite animations, and he deserves more fans. The main series are Dinosauria (4-10min animations, 23-35min ‘Making of’, Dino-based obvs, does not include Sharp Teeth animation/poetry), Autodale (beloved 50s-esque post-apocalypse dystopia, 3-19min animations [mostly 3-4], 10-34min [plus one 3min] ‘Making of’ videos), and Merry Madness (which led to this post) (two 4-4.5min animations, four 11-24min ‘Making of’ videos). He also has a bunch of one-shot style videos; I highly recommend Sharp Teeth (dinosaurs, poetry, circle of life theme, non-graphic hunt/kill by t-rex), White Walls (Lovecraftian, ye olde ‘content with blank walls until he peeks outside and Sees and goes mad locked in and trying to replicate the Outside’, very cool and makes me contemplate how something mundane could become alien and threatening), and Redone (cute dino robot is created, abandoned, and awakens to discover and explore its surroundings as an audio overlay of his creator’s research and design attempts plays.

While the animations are gorgeous, the Making of videos are definitely my favorite. The sheer amount of work and research and refining designs is amazing (and a good reality check when you find yourself getting impatient for new content). He’s also gone into things like burnout and feeling like he isn’t able to follow his own desires for projects, and how he has changed things up to help with those feelings. He’s a great inspiration for me, and an excellent source of videos for any vibes I typically want for chill viewing binges. Love it when creators’ enthusiasm for their projects is blatant and you can feel/see it even without their personal commentary. Years of content also means I can indulge in the guilty pleasure of watching his style change and grow (only guilty because most authors and artists I know would rather hide their old work, but I Love seeing that history. What focuses did you think were important at each stage? Can I see what other artists’ styles you played with while your skills grew? Did an attempt fail horrendously and the skill get put on the backburner? Have you returned to try again, or did another interesting route open up entirely new challenges? It’s amazing!).

Some themes that may cause issues (to my recollection of each series, any additions suggested can be added to the post):

Dinosauria: standard blood/violence for dinosaur interactions, special mention to Sharp Teeth which is separate but replaces blood with a T-rex hunting a baby triceratops (circle of life theme, predators aren’t necessarily evil, moral complexity at its simplest, etc)

Autodale: police state/brutality, laws enforced by robots (humanoid and otherwise), willing self-sacrifice/suicide (serving the community as the highest honor mixed with eugenics, everyone has basically the same exact life and expects to be killed once their kids are grown), being hunted (a woman tries to escape the walled city), bloody violence (both from monstrous characters and a noir detective), propaganda (television PSAs and cartoons mostly, the noir detective cyborg has a show and the bots have a toy line, heavy on encouraging obedience for the greater good, but usually shown as false quickly after)

Merry Madness: themes of depression, self-harm (sort of: active in that the metaphorical monster attacked her, passive in letting the wound be and finding comfort in the monster’s presence/being scared to change and get help), violence (humans attacking/murdering monsters), plant-based body horror (monsters again, but post-death), the encroachment of uniformity on society, feeling the death of an old age (hit kinda hard since I’ve watched my hometown decay in real time, and Rat’s sorrow is very comforting in the ‘my experience isn’t unique, someone out there gets it’ kind of way

#dead sound #animation #dinosaur animations #lovecraftian animations #making of videos #animation research #art journals #robot animation #hes got cyberpunk too #post-apocalypse animations #long post #youtube recs #i think my favorite making of is for 'dont feed the freaks' #an old drawing ended up being put on the backburner as an inspo #but then he was able to rework it later to help flesh out his setting and themes later on #also does a very nice job blurring the lines between monster and stranger #he does have some police brutality and willing self-sacrifice in Autodale (highest honor to serve the community meets eugenics style) #the villains for that setting are phenomenal with minor to severe body horror/mechanical corruption #dinosauria has standard blood/violence for dinosaurs #merry madness deals with themes of depression/self-harm (in a way) #a manifestation of a darkness humans fear takes on the role of mc's depression (again sort of) including the 'comfort in the familiar' #its two videos tackling an age of increasing sameness and lack of wonder while helping the creator work through some stuff #cw suicide mention #some of his monologues really resonate and the music is baller #gotta be one of if not my favorite beloved animators #turned my alerts on for this channel

[sirthisisa-wendys]

Blood and Water: Geto Suguru x Fem!Reader

synopsis: a monthly sibling dinner turns into a much more exciting tradition. Y'all know where I'm going with this.

wc: 2.4k

tw: NSFW (former step-siblings, unprotected sex)

masterlist

Your doorbell rings every first Saturday of the month at 7 pm.

Depending on their schedules, your siblings would show up one after the other or together, but either way, they would show up. Satoru, Shoko, and your step-brother, Suguru.

The tradition started right after your stepmother and father had divorced and moved to different places across the country, leaving you and your adult siblings scrambling for some way to reconnect and stay together.

Thus, Sibling Saturday is created, and you all bring a dish (or buy one, in Satoru's case) for the potluck where you sit around the table and talk about the events of the past month in great detail, often staying overnight due to the amount of wine and beer consumed.

This week, you're in the middle of cooking a pasta recipe you'd stumbled across when your doorbell rings. Admittedly, you'd gotten home late (because of a certain boss that asked you to come in on Saturdays to help rework the blueprints), but when you open the door, you're greeted by Shoko and Satoru, who smile widely and bombard you with compliments, as always.

"You look so good!" Satoru gushes as he enters the kitchen.

"I'm just wearing an apron and a dre--"

"But you're so pretty!" Shoko adds, beaming at you and squishing your cheeks. "What're you cooking this week?" Satoru places two different dishes on the table as you walk back over to the basil pesto pasta cooking on the stove. "Smells so good..."

You smile and stir the pot twice, then look back over at your sister and brother, who are placing the plates and silverware around the table. And for a brief moment, you feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the small family bonds that have maintained themselves, despite the hardships you've endured.

"Where's Suguru?" you inquire, and Shoko answers you quickly.

"Oh, he's at the studio today but he said he'd come right after he finished." The doorbell rings right at that moment, and you put your spoon down to attend to the guest, who is undoubtedly your former step-brother.

"Thought you might not make it," you tease, and the dark-haired man leans over to hug you as he chuckles, his long locks brushing your shoulder.

"Just finished up filming the special report," Suguru answers, squeezing your arm. "Had to refilm the last part of the report."

"And you're excited about it?" Shoko calls out from the dining room.

"Of course." Suguru walks into the kitchen, then peeks at your pasta before smiling back at you. "It's going to air in a week. My first special report, y'know?" You grin back at him and shift the pot off the stove before turning it off.

"We'll all get together and watch it when it airs," Satoru suggests, taking the lid off of his purchased cupcakes and reaching in for one, ignoring your disapproving look. "And make a celebration of it."

"I love that plan," Suguru murmurs, pushing his shirt sleeves up to his elbows before setting the beer and wine bottles on the table. "Thanks, you guys. Want anything to drink, Shoko?"

"Nah, I have to be at a birthday party in the early afternoon," she answers, waving her hand in the air.

"Satoru?" But Gojo already has a beer in his hand, so no further discussion is required on his part.

"I drove him here," Shoko begins, rolling her brown eyes and fiddling with her hair. "So it looks like I'll be driving back too."

Satoru groans, pulling the bottle away from his lips. "You roll the seat up too far. I couldn't drive even if I wanted to."

"Still on your 'no alcohol' thing?" your sister asks, and you nod. "Geez. Can't imagine it."

_____________________________________________________________

"I'll help you clean up," Suguru offers, a little unsteady on his feet.

"You don't have to," you retort, but he's is already gathering the dishes to put in the sink. Satoru leans back, his blue eyes staring at the ceiling as he groans loudly.

"Gonna feel this in the morning."

"Should get you home," Shoko mumbles and stands, the chair scraping against the floor. "Got a lot to do tomorrow." You say your goodbyes, making sure Shoko and Satoru get to their car safely, before closing the door and shifting back to Suguru.

"Staying the night?" you ask, moving to the sink and turning on the water.

"I think so," he begins, undoing the top button of his shirt. "Drank a lot." You shrug, not really having noticed him drinking at all, but sure that during your tale of your recent breakup, you had missed it.

"Go ahead and get comfortable," you encourage. "I'll finish cleaning up." Suguru flashes his winning smile at you and then departs, leaving you alone in the kitchen. About fifteen minutes later, you put the last dish on the rack, and then dump the dishwater into the sink. Mindlessly, you wipe the counter, then walk to your room as you remove your apron. You hear someone grunting softly, and assume that Suguru is having a hard time, so you backtrack to the guest room, where you see the guest bathroom light on.

"Y/n..." you catch, and you walk to the bathroom door, which is slightly cracked, and you look through it to see if Suguru is okay.

But you were wrong about him having a hard time.

Suguru is facing the mirror, jerking his thick cock repeatedly. "Oh, god..." he moans, his hair falling behind his face as he tilts his head back. "That pussy feels so fucking good."

You want to walk away to give him so privacy, but... you can't move. You're frozen in place as Suguru shoots his cum onto the counter, his mouth dropping open as he squeezes his eyes shut, the white fluid hitting the mirror a little while his cock throbs angrily. You swallow hard, watching him come down from his high in silence before his eyes flick up to the crack in the door.

And to your face.

With this, the spell cast over your feet is broken, and you walk away from the scene, hurrying to your room and shutting the door. You stand in your room, shocked and slightly unnerved by the sight. But it's only when you're showering that you realize there's a considerable amount of slick between your thighs.

_____________________________________________________________

Sleep is laced with dreams of Suguru plowing into you, his eyes holding you captive and fingers tugging on your nipples. You even cum a few times, but when you awake in the morning, you realize it was all a machination of your mind.

Groggily, you stumble out of bed and walk into the kitchen to make coffee and possibly eat something. But when you see Suguru standing in the kitchen in his pajamas, you flush a little. He notices you right away, smiling as he pours himself a cup of coffee.

"Morning," he chirps brightly, and you smile briefly before moving to get a mug from the cupboard. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah," you murmur quickly, avoiding looking at him as you make your own cup of coffee.

"Look, y/n... about last ni--"

"It's fine." You turn to the fridge, pulling out the milk and setting it on the counter as Suguru stands, setting the newspaper down.

"Actually," he begins. "It's not."

"No, really," you mutter, but your ex-stepbrother places a hand between you and your coffee, effectively blocking you from doing anything else.

"Y/n, I have to confess that I have feelings for you," Suguru mumbles, and you look up at him in confusion, searching his black eyes for some clarity. "I've had feelings for you for a long time. And I was thinking... we're not related by blood or by paper anymore. Is it possible for me to pursue you?" Your lips part, but no sound comes out of them. "I'll give you time to think about it, but--"

"You're a public figure, Su..." you offer, but he shrugs his broad shoulders.

"Not really a concern of mine."

"What about me? My job? What if they find out we used to be--"

"Used to be." The emphasis makes you pause. You turn to the sink, eyes downcast as your hands grip the polished edge of the counter. "Please," Suguru whispers, coming up behind you and sliding his fingers up your nightgown. "You're so perfect. So beautiful... Having you as my stepsister was amazing, but now..." He kisses the space below your earlobe, and you close your eyes, moaning loudly.

"Su," you start, but can't find any other words to say. Would you really be able to say no to yourself now, when for years you'd wanted nothing more than this very moment to happen?

"Your cooking is amazing... and you and that asshole finally broke up. Just let me make you feel good. Just one time," he breathes into your ear, and you shudder, the feeling working from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes. "And if you don't want it... say 'no' and I'm done. I'll never do it again." The fingers that are below your nightgown creep up to the waistband of your underwear, tugging at them suggestively.

"Okay," you breathe, and Suguru inhales deeply, pulling your panties down and letting them drop the floor. He doesn't speak as his fingers roam over your flesh, gripping certain areas with glee before he kneels, trapping your ass between his hands.

"Stay still for me, princess," he whispers before spreading your ass cheeks. "Such a pretty pussy." When Suguru's tongue hits your slick, you immediately raise up on your tiptoes, but his tongue chases your core, slipping across your clit and back up leisurely. You moan again, squeezing your eyes shut as he drives you insane.

"Suguru," you pant, and he hums, hand gripping your right ass cheek a little more. Your fingers reach behind you and grab onto his hair, pushing him into your cunt even more. Your legs begin to shake violently, knees hitting the cupboard below the sink, and Suguru hums again, tongue speeding its movements up. You finally give in to the building orgasm, letting go of his locks and gripping the sink as you buckle. Suguru continues to lap at you as you come down, slurping up your juices loudly before pulling back and licking his lips.

"So good," he murmurs, standing and pushing down his pants to reveal his twitching cock. You move to your knees immediately, taking his length in your hand and licking the tip gently. Su hisses, leaning against the chair behind him, and tilts his head to the side, watching you take the tip in your mouth and suck. You work half of his cock into your mouth before he reaches his hand down and tangles it through your hair. "No hands, princess."

You obey without question, and he bobs your head up and down for you, the head of his thick length hitting the back of your throat and making a clicking noise. "Good girl," Suguru groans, adding another hand to your hair. Tears begin to gather on your waterline as he fucks your mouth, and you swipe your tongue on the backside of his cock when you can to add to the pleasure, placing your hands on his thighs to stabilize yourself.

But Suguru pulls out of your mouth, a trail of saliva connecting his cock to your lower lip. "Stand up and bend over," he orders, and you do so, waiting patiently for him as he tugs at his length while watching you. With his foot, Suguru kicks your legs a little wider then steps between them, nudging the head of his cock against your pussy. "Yep, you're good and ready."

He pushes into you - or tries to, really - then pulls back, grunting. "Tight little thing you've got there," he mentions, spreading your cheeks with one hand. He rubs his cock up and down against your slit, trying again to slide into you, but finding too much resistance. "Arch your back." Your hips go a little higher, but Suguru finds his grip again, finally able to push himself into you a little. You hiss, feeling a sharp jolt of pain, but he pushes you back down with his broad hand.

"Oh, Suguru..." you whine, looking back. He swipes your hair away from your face, eyes meeting yours.

"Shh, shh... It's alright," he whispers, working himself into you with care, one hand on your hip and another resting on your shoulder. "Just relax." You groan again, tucking your head between your hands on the counter. After a few minutes, you release all of the tension in your lower body, and Suguru sighs, pushing into a little deeper. Immediately, his hips are able to connect with yours, and the sounds of your fucking echo in the kitchen.

"Fuck..." you moan, feeling his entire length shift in and out of you, hitting spots your ex couldn't explore. "Feels so fucking good."

"Yeah?" Su wonders, panting. "Such a good pussy. Never felt this perfect..." He speeds up a little, leaning over your back, and kissing your shoulder blade. "I can feel your cervix when we're like this." You groan loudly, tossing your head back. Suguru catches your neck with his hand, leaning your head back.

Your eyes cross, and he huffs a laugh, but your entire body is too full of him and thoughts of him to care.

"Please," you whisper, but you don't know what you're asking for, really. "Please." Suguru's eyebrows scrunch together, onyx eyes focusing on your expression.

"Oh, that's it," he hums. "Already cock-drunk, huh?" You try to nod, but all you can do is manage a strangled moan. A hand is lifted and smacks your ass as he continues fucking you, which is a welcome jolt of pain to add to the pleasure. Your former stepbrother eases his head back, observing the way his cock drives into your pussy. "You should see this... your pussy grips my cock so nicely, and you're creaming all over me."

"Oh, god..." you whine, keeling forward. "Suguru, make me cum."

"Say it again."

"Su, make me cum!" you cry out, shaking furiously.

"What's the magic word?" he pants.

"Please!" He reaches between your legs, rubbing your clit quickly. "Sugur---" You break off with a deep inhale, clenching around him fiercely. Suguru's breath hitches too as he spills his seed inside of you, hips slamming into your cunt three times before his hands slacken around your body. He hunches over you, cradling your body as his head rests on your back.

"That was better than I ever imagined," Suguru finally admits.

"Better than I dreamt last night, too." He laughs, fingers holding you tighter.

"Let me be your boyfriend, y/n."

"What's the magic word?" you shoot back, smiling.

"Please."

_____________________________________________________________

TAGLIST: @missbonekitty @wack0-genius @thankuary @r-i-m-f-009 @sunfloweroranges @leanne-tamashi @rein-icu @brownskinnedgirll @savantsoulfinder @chilledlucifer @kontentious @flare-on @meena-in-a-nutshell @falling-through-pages @naoyasdarling @vabybizzle

#geto suguru #geto suguru x reader #geto smut #jjk smut #jjk geto #jujutsu kaisen geto #jujutsu kaisen #getou suguru x reader #getou suguru

[pantheon-god-of-war]

I made a post on Twitter and learned that Pantheon x Aphelios is a genuine ship like Aphelios x Sett is? Honestly I only ever cared about 200 years when I kicked his face in while ulting bot. I think his story while tragic is very isolating. So I went back to read through the lore of his again to make sure I remembered everything correctly from the first time I read it back when he was released. 

Now bare in mind I do not ship bash, if you like the ship more power to you, I won’t discourage anyone from shipping what they like. It’s all fiction. That said I will analyze the two of them and see if I can find some common ground from the lore material we have. 

Aphelios and Alune were both children of the Lunari and were heralded to be these great children of destiny for the lunar faith. From a young age they had all this weight thrust upon them to defend the Lunari as fighter and seer. This supposed great destiny, while it turned out to be true is quite brainwashing for young children and incredibly manipulative. It is stated that Aphelios had a very strong and deep connection with his sister which in turn hurt him when she was not there since he likely felt isolated and had severe problems fitting in with others. Its a common phenomenon that certain individuals who have a singular best friend or sibling suffer immensely when that person leaves and they are left to deal with others, much like some of us have most fiends online these days and desperately wait for said friends to get on so they will have company. It even says that without Alune his faith wavered, clearly tying him immensely to her so much that there is a dependency on her closeness that correlates to his effectiveness in combat or even as a functioning human being as it is said that he lost his very purpose. It seems like while Alune firmly believes in the Moon Aphelios believes in her and whatever she stands for, so will he. I don’t want to say Moon Simp here because they are brother and sister but in essence he very much does what she commands, even in game. Its a very unhealthy sort of hyper dependency as without her he just falls apart. 

In this desperation he comes across noctum on a spiritual journey and consumes it only to later understand that he is to live as a conduit for Alunes magic. I like this excerpt out of his story because it highlights the duality and the tragedy of their relationship. 

Only now did they understand their destiny. Aphelios would hollow himself out with pain, but would become a conduit for the moon’s power. Alune would live alone, isolated in her fortress, but she would guide her brother, able to see through his eyes.

While it is tragic it really takes away from his own character. He has no real will of his own at this point, Alune is faithful to the moon and guides him in any way she sees fit as she is the seer, he is merely the earthly vessel for her actions that are in the best interests of the Lunari. 

With Aphelios previously already being quite anti social as he only focuses on Alune this connection should amp it up tenfold. Imagine having the only person you really care about in your head constantly talking to you and telling you what to do so long you are under the painful influence of a harmful substance. It makes him the epitome of a living tool, because he does not speak or feel and because he is hyper fixated on his sister. When you hollow your body out with a poison that numbs you to all sorts of feelings there is really little sense for physical companionship as you have numbed yourself to the point of not being able to speak, with constant pain coursing through you. That is without Aphelios innate antisocial behavior

All and all this paints Aphelios as a silent killer who works alone, gets his missions either from Alune exclusively, or convenes with Lunari elders on what targets need to be eliminated. He very much reminds me of Agent 47, take the job, maximum efficiency, get it done, get the next job. His destiny or purpose is to serve the Lunari and keep them safe and anything that keeps him from achieving his singular purpose is either an obstacle or not worth his time. 

Pantheon is a whole new problem in that he hates everyone on the mountain, to varying degrees but still. His one big defining trait is that he stands up to the gods, aspects and darkin. He renounces the power of the aspects and the gods dominion over Targon and will fight nearly anything to follow his belief. He threatens Aurelion Sol, fights Xerath and generally just howls at every aspect ascended, demi god, or darkin there is. When mom told Atreus to pick his battles he simply said “I’ll pick em all” and off he went kicking everyone ass. 

Pantheons place in Targon is very uncertain. I said this before when he got reworked that this stance against the gods will put him at odds with everyone on Targon. The Solari and Lunari believe in their respective gods, the Rakkor or Targonians all believe in either of those gods or worship other constellations since in Targon this ascended magic is something to aspire too. People look up to the stars, ask them for guidance, read their fate in the stars, trust them and even pilgrim from every corner of the earth to worship and marvel at the gods. Pantheon would be at odds with every single person and while he won’t slaughter everyone I think the canonical thing for Pantheon to do is just leave mount Targon and fight other gods OR actually challenge and kill Leona, Diana Taric and so on. Which would be a very dark but also very possible path. Kill the aspects to show the masses that their gods do not save them and demand exponentially more than they ever return. For that Pantheon would have to end the Lunari and Solari faith and completely reshape the way people on Targon think about the stars, and as much as I love Pantheon I do not see that as something possible, nor do I see him as the kind of man who would force anyone to agree with him. He carries his rage and resentment but he will not force it upon another, rather confront the person responsible and settle it with them (the gods). 

Now Pantheon did fight with the Ra’Horak in his fight against Xerath. Where it was actually the Ra’Horak fighting Xerath before Pantheon arrived. I am guessing that was because the first sun disc was constructed in Nerimazeth and the Solari desired it for some reason, but I am getting off track here. Pantheon helped the Solari warriors, which leads me to believe that perhaps he can exist on Targon in a way. But with the circumstances I think it was more him fighting against Xerath. Since that thing was clearly a godlike entity that he was all but ready to kill. The Solari just happen to be there and he decided to aid the mortals fighting against a god, that does not mean he agrees with their beliefs. 

Had Aphelios fought Xerath, would Pantheon have helped? Sure, probably. I think Pantheon would also help Leona and Diana against Aatrox if they needed his help again. It’s all a matter of hierarchy. Who is the greatest threat and who is a lesser one. So I could see them working together against a greater common foe for sure but more I think not. 

His quote to Aphelios is at first glance more positive, but considering all the underlying character traits I think it is a little darker than what it at first implies. Pantheon knows that it is human destiny to fight for survival and only those strong and brave enough do not shy away from the pain and anguish that decision costs. Pantheon understands Aphelios motivation, why he fights, that does not mean he supports it. 

To Pantheon, Aphelios is a man so zealous and devoted to the moon that he would willingly forsake his humanity, poison himself and suffer for eternity so that he could enact the will of the moon, a god. This is going to really set of Pantheon’s past when the god of war possessed his body, forced him into the back of his own mind only to do what he wanted with Atreus flesh. That is the exact breaking point on why Pantheon and Aphelios will hardly ever see eye to eye. One of them a devoted zealot, willing to surrender it all in service to the moon, the other a warrior who despises the gods and their machinations above all else having once been at the mercy of one of them. With Aphelios added antisocial character I really doubt they would ever exchange much words. Perhaps Pantheon extends an olive branch and tries to get Aphelios to live for himself. But Aphelios would refuse, if no one else could sway him from this singular purpose in life which he has grown up with since his birth, this random warrior won’t be able to sway him either and here the line from Pantheon comes back in as a sort of, “I understand and hail your conviction.” before the fight, where he respects the resolve, but not the reason for it. 

That’s why I don’t think they are quite shippable. The only two people I could really see Aphlios with is either Diana or Taric. Diana only if she embraces her role as leader of the Lunari where she comes to appreciate what Aphelios does for her people but is worried about his own mental health, from one antisocial who has grown above it to another. She could perhaps understand and through said knowledge know how to help him open himself up more. That is if she cared enough. Taric on the other hand would feel the damage and pain in Aphelios, and as all life should be beautiful so would he try to mend Aphelios. He clearly has the warmth, care, compassion, and patience to deal with someone as secluded as Aphelios, gently prying him open until he finally lets himself feel again and maybe finally finds someone who can help him open up to other Lunari and Targonians. Isolation is a terrible thing and it leaves horrible scars. I see only Taric in a position where he could mend those scars. Pantheon likely would not care, he is cold and angered himself, no mercy for the strong, as he says. That’s why I think they would clash or would just never get past the cold nodding before combat phase. 

This isn’t to bash any people who like the ship, I just thought id give my two cent on Pantheon x Aphelios and why it never occurred to me to ship these two. I get that emo x himbo is a thing, probably also why Aphelios x Sett is so loved, but from a lore and character standpoint I don’t really see it. 

This was a post I’ll link to twitter, but if you have input or a different opinion I am always open to discussion and new viewpoints. Go crazy! 

#Pantheon #Aphelios

[adamrevi3ws]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

As some may know, I managed to stumble upon the world premiere for Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings when visiting Hollywood Boulevard for the first time. A month later, I can finally confirm that the movie, while deeply flawed, is still a lot of good fun!

~~Mild plot spoilers entail ~~

Shang-Chi is yet another origin story, centering around a highly trained heir (and escapee) of the Ten Rings, the very same Chinese terrorist organization/criminal empire/ancient cult that inspired the terrorists that captured Iron Man. What entails is the title character’s journey to escape his father’s machinations while exploring his mysterious mother’s family history, all the while beating up (or getting beaten up by) nearly everyone along the way.

Like all the superhero films made by the house of mouse, Shang-Chi is just as formulaic as you’d expect. While I saw it in 2D, Disney’s generic structure for its MCU line sure as hell popped out of the screen. There are multiple scenes that feel directly ripped off from Black Widow and Black Panther, if not other MCU movies that haven’t come to mind. Car chase that alludes to the main villain? Check. Slowed down second act where more backstory and pathos is unraveled? Check. Final battle that overdoes it with ugly CGI? Check. It really feels like Disney just chooses between the same 2 or 3 storyboard plot structures for all of the 25 films they’ve released.

With that in mind, I think the fact that this film is just pure fun heavily distracts from its formulaic nature. The main highlight is its action, where, unlike Black Widow, Shang-Chi actually fulfills my hopes for this area. Much of this is due to its phenomenal kung-fu fight choreography and wuxia stylings, which really raise the bar for action and fight choreography in the MCU. As my fellow theatergoer put it: “They could’ve had fights like this in Black Panther but didn’t??” and I agree, the rest of the MCU pales in comparison. Shang-Chi in general feels like a MCU movie able to embrace the fun and comic booky nature of its source material, something that Iron Fist, the previous MCU kung fu adaptation completely failed the mark on. When it touches on MCU synergy it feels original and believable, rather than the “Tony Stark is singlehandedly involved in every villain’s backstory” formula. Additionally, Shang-Chi distinguishes itself from other Disney Marvel products in that its humor actually feels organic rather than tacked on, not disrupting any important moments. While leads Simu Liu and Awkwafina aren’t the most charismatic or convincing actors at times, they make up for it by absolutely nailing every punchline that comes up.

Speaking of acting, one of the biggest pulls to this film was the casting of acclaimed Hong Kong actor Tony Leung as its villain. While he delivers a solid performance as the main villain, Wenwu, I couldn’t help but notice how strange and contradictory his characterization felt, which kind of messed with the tone for me. In the early exposition, he’s set up as a devious thousand-year warlord, but when he finally appears in the present the film immediately starts portraying him as a very laid back albeit manipulative goofy dad that literally wears dad sandals to his evil schemes. While fleshing out a villain and giving him pathos is generally admirable, I think doing so heavily disrupted the stakes, tension, and comic book-y fun of the film. It’s always possible for a villain to have some type of compelling motivation while still being dastardly evil, or at the very least acting like a real antagonist. Instead, we get someone that fully sounds evil on paper but in practice is more of an important side character that the protagonist happens to disagree with. While this can easily be attributed to Disney’s poor writing and handling of its characters, they’ve already managed to solve this problem and do a far better job of balancing “evil” and “compelling” with villains such as The Vulture and Killmonger. I’m sure a good amount of people are fine with this, especially since Wenwu is in fact a combination of multiple racial stereotype villains and this could be seen as a complete reworking of the characters, but with this in mind I’d still prefer someone who’s a teensy bit more war criminal than wife guy.

As previously mentioned, the costume design was another disappointing point of this film and one of the few parts (other than Wenwu’s character) of the movie that didn’t fully indulge in comic book-y excess. Wenwu is a combination of a Bond villain and an evil wizard but sure as hell doesn’t dress like one, instead wearing hilariously drab suits or just a button up, and even his outfit in the final battle is an ugly and subdued black leather getup that looks more like he’s leading a swat team than an ancient organization composed of the greatest martial artists on earth. This lack of vision extends to the rest of the costumes too, as before the final battle the main characters are presented with “clothes were made out of dragon scales for special protection” like no dude they look like they were made out of plastic and rubber. Aside from the Disney+ shows, costume design has always been the MCU’s weakest link but I will continue to roast them until they decide to make something that doesn’t look like trash.

Shang-Chi feels like a far better return of the MCU to the big screen, but still has a few things that drag it down for me. I’m thinking I’ll give it a 7.2/10

#shang chi #marvel #mcu

[rocket-bear]

⭐star⭐ FOR THAT ONE ASK THING!

aaaah ty for asking!!! I’m just gonna take this opportunity to, ramble about a couple of different things so this is going to be real long I’m sorry,

First, two scenes from All-In:

When she tells him that Saikyoudai is her number one choice for university because it has the degree plans that best suit her hopes of double-majoring in child development and education, he ditches his other options and goes all-in on his own application. She’ll get in, he knows, and she does. The football team isn’t sterling– though the big fucking baldy is there, and that’s a mark in its favor– but he’s had experience with building a team from the ground up. He can make it work.

I’ve seen folks critique the idea that Mamori just follows Hiruma to Saikyoudai at the end of the series, and while there are DEF criticisms to be made about HiruMamo– tangent: I personally don’t know why I love it so much, because “male character treats everyone around him including his love interest with blatant disrespect bc the way he actually shows respect does not at all reflect anything that another human being would ever recognize” is like, usually VERY much not my jam, but meanwhile it somehow works for HiruMamo to the point that they’re one of my everlasting OTPs– to me, there’s no actual evidence that Hiruma picked Saikyoudai first (unless it’s in a guidebook or something?), so I wanted to push back on that assumption a little! Everyone that’s attending Saikyoudai is canonically very smart or very talented, so it makes just as much sense to me that they either landed on Saikyoudai together because it’s a great school, or that Mamori was actually the one to choose it and Hiruma followed her there. The only canon character on the Wizards before Hiruma joined was Banba, so while Banba is great, it’s not like the football team would have been a particular selling point for him. Hiruma’s a literal genius who could go to any school he wanted, so– yeah. Saikyoudai was Mamori’s pick, not his!

Next is the kiss scene! I’m not going to quote it because this post is already going to be long enough, but GOSH I have had that specific set-up for The Moment HiruMamo Happens in my brain literally since I was 13 but I just never actually took the time to write it into anything, and then abruptly last night it was just like, IT’S TIME. (The fact that it’s been in my mind for that long always makes me vaguely worried that it was something from another fic or a prompt that someone wrote over a decade ago and I’ve accidentally stolen it by thinking I came up with it myself so ANXIOUS BLANKET APOLOGIES, IN CASE THIS EVER HAPPENS, SOMETIMES YOU COME BACK TO A FANDOM OVER A DECADE LATER AND MEMORIES ARE HARD,)

But!!! In any case, whenever I think about HiruMamo finally happening, in my head it’s always Mamori that actually… not necessarily makes the first move, but actually approaches the conversation?? because Hiruma’s allergic to being actually, genuinely vulnerable, and jokey vaguely antagonistic flirting is one thing, but acknowledging that the Vibes are Real is a whole other thing and Mamori’s the one in that equation that’s emotionally mature enough to accept it. So in All-In, Mamori opens the door by just, legit inviting herself into Hiruma’s room, Hiruma does some flirting that could easily be brushed off if he was misreading things, and Mamori explicitly challenges him to DO IT YOU COWARD. One of my favorite dynamics for them!

FINALLY, from Kick Drum Heart– again, rather than quoting a scene I want to talk about a specific plot device, because if I let myself dig into scenes then we’re gonna be here all day. When I was first plotting KDH, the whole idea was really just Sena and Shin developing their relationship in college via Shin tutoring Sena, and I hadn’t planned for either Shin’s poetry plotline or the consistent presence of Panther in story with his mirroring romance plotline with Homer. I fleshed out Panther’s storyline because I just REALLY, REALLY wanted to include the detail of he and Sena casually hooking up in the US since it’s one of my favorite headcanons rofl, and so I wanted to expand his role to be more central to the narrative out of respect for his character and so that scene would feel more cohesive! And then for Shin’s poetry, I really wanted to find something that would allow me to explore the way ShinSena is mutually supportive, rather than limiting it to just Shin supporting/inspiring Sena. Modern fandom is MUCH better about this so shout-out to all the other wonderful writers still writing for ShinSena, but back in the day there was tendency to reduce Shin down to nothing more than Sena’s Hot Sexy Supportive Perfect Boyfriend, without really delving into the ways that Sena is also a hugely important positive influence on Shin’s life instead of it being a one-way street. (Like!!! Shin literally, canonically does not even enjoy football, the thing he devotes every single second of his time and energy to, until he loses to Sena!! Literally in canon this is true!!!!!! I HAVE A META POST IN THE WORKS ABOUT THIS,)

So, I wanted to think of something that Shin could be struggling with during the story that Sena could support him with the same way Shin was supporting him for biology. This was tricky, because Shin’s canonically a great student and Sena isn’t, so I had to think of something academic that A) Shin would struggle with in the first place, and B) Sena would actually be better at. I faffed around with ideas for a while but finally landed on literature/poetry while I was rewatching Chihayafuru for oh like the fifth time, due to the scene where Chihaya’s summer homework is to write some original poems and some of them are extremely silly (“I FEAST UPON A WHIRLWIND OF ICE CREAM…”) and some of them are accidental beautiful love poems about her love interest. I thought that would be perfect for Shin, who tends to approach things in overly clinical/literal terms and struggles to openly express his more positive feelings, and while Sena’s not a poetry buff, I figured he would at least be able to help Shin rework things to sound more expressive and less clinical! This in turn then set up the entire climax of the story with Shin sharing the theme of his poetry collection with Sena, so I’m soooo glad that I landed on that idea because it really made the whole story come together. (SO LIKE, EVERYONE SHOULD PAY RESPECTS AND GO WATCH CHIHAYAFURU, IT’S AN AMAZING SHOW)

Shin’s poems went through a lot of drafts of mostly small tweaks to change wording or slightly adjust a metaphor, but as a bonus, one that I didn’t end up using at all was [Bradycardia, / until you appear ahead. / My pulse comes alive.] I thought the idea of Shin trying to use the word “bradycardia” in a love poem was hysterical, but then the rest of it was like, actually deeply romantic, and too similar in theme to [Muscles atrophy. / You appear along with spring, / Promising new growth.], so I scrapped it.

my god that’s so much more than you asked for sorry about the wall of text BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY???????

#meta #kick drum heart #all-in #shin #hiruma #mamori #sena #sestet

[raggedyblue]

WILLIAM, Sherlock,Scott, OF BASKERVILLE

Accepting the fact that Sherlock BBC is, among other things, a summa and reworking of all (let's say many because all would be honestly impossible) the previous adaptations of Doyle's creature, we cannot ignore THE NAME OF THE ROSE. Defined here (x) brilliantly a medieval AU because in other way it really couldn’t be done, considering that being a novel it is indeed a work of fiction (fiction). Furthermore, we can’t ignore how Eco was a fan of the sleuth, he wrote also essays about him and also edited a collection of pieces by various authors about the deductive method of Sherlock Holmes. The book is  THE SIGN OF THREE, and this should already get  our attention and I think that the Moffits have paid some attention to the Italian scholar (the book is about logic and semiotics and that are not exactly my cup of tea, so I will avoid talking about it further so as not making  me more ridiculous than it normally does, but you have to know that it exists). This is to say that probably Eco himself wouldn’t be too offended by being placed among fan fiction writers. But even this in the end is totally irrelevant, because as he himself says, once a book is complete, the author disappears, and the relationship that is created is between the reader and the work. The reader is free and obliged to draw his interpretations.

Obviously THE NAME OF THE ROSE is much more than a medieval transposition of Sherlock Holmes, it is a treatise on theology, philosophy and semiotics. A compendium of medieval history and an allegory of Italy in the 1970s, a set of puzzles. The readings that can be made of the book are many and this was precisely the intention of the author.

But obviously what interests us is Sherlock Holmes (always).

The protagonist of the book is called Guglielmo/William of Baskerville. The names are important, and this is a lesson that the Moffits have learned well. Stat rosa pristina nomina, nomina nuda tenemus. We may never come to know the true essence of things, the truth maybe  is unknowable, but at least we have the names and possess their knowledge. William  (don’t ring a bell?) as  William of Ockham . There's a lot of Ockham in Holmes's method. Occam's Razor for which for the solution of a problem the simplest solution must be applied among the existing ones, it is easily applicable to the Holmesian method. Once the impossible has been eliminated (cut off like a razor) the improbable (the complicated, implausible and unlikely solutions), even if unlikely, what remains, must be the truth. And the search of truth is a constant throughout the book, the truth about the crimes of the Abbey, but above all about the Truth as an absolute concept. A truth that, as William says, is liberty (THOB), but which escapes to the point at the end we/Adso/William are doubting its existence as an absolute concept. The William in the book is blatantly Sherlockian. English in the first place, higher than the norm, but which appears even higher as he’s very thin. He has a sharp and slightly hooked nose, his face is elongated with an expression that is both acute and alert. Very agile, endowed with inexhaustible energy in moments of activity, which alternated with others of complete immobility. We see him several times completely lost in his thoughts, with his eyes closed and his mouth following inaudible speeches. He is described  as being able to remain completely still on his bed, with vacant and silent eyes for long periods. Who describes him to us wonders if by chance it was not possible that this state was induced by mysterious substances, and at least once we see Guglielmo chewing mysterious leaves that help him to think. Easily inclined to give up sleep and food if the case dictates.

He has an extraordinary delicacy of touch if necessary. He is a man capable of fantasizing about a future in which boats will be faster and will go without the strength of men or sailing, a world in which flying and submarine vehicles will exist, because the things that are not there yet are not said not there will be. I would venture, not even that much, and call him a man out of his time. 

A normally mild man, he can become brusque and often, to bring an interrogation to a successful end, he takes advantage of a moment of weakness for the interrogated. This is one of those traits that I don't remember being canonical but that we certainly see in Sherlock BBC.

At talking about him is his young disciple, his blogger scribe. All we know of William and the affairs of the Abbey we know thanks to a manuscript that speaks of a manuscript which is then the manuscript of William's disciple. How many holmesian pastiche use the expedient of the rediscovered manuscript? I lost the calculation. This young disciple is called wADSOn, he looks to his teacher with affection and unspeakable wonder, and with his observations that seem irrelevant leads  Guglielmo on the way to solution (light conductor). He admits that once his master gives an explanation of his deductions, everything seems so clear that he regrets not having understud it alone. The function of Aso from the poetic point of view is to put a distance between the author and what is narrated. It is not the author who writes the story, but a young Benedictine from the 1300s. The narrator is young and still unaware and amazed at the things of the world, so when he tells about them he doesn't do it in a didactic tone, but as if it were something new for he as it is for us. Adso records events without completely understanding them, and this helps the less educated reader (I believe 98%) to navigate between these complex pages. If there is something he doesn't understand, it is probably something that Adso did not understud before him. This kind of trick is the same one used by Doyle that through Watson allows us to understand how the mind of Holmes works, step by step. This does not mean that wADSOn is stupid, on the contrary, only that he is learning. It doesn't even seem a coincidence that William is a monk. A man who has chosen to dedicate himself to the intellect, repressing and suppressing everything that is carnal. Adso is young, still impulsive and inexperienced, and will yield to the temptations of the flesh (once only).

A curious feature of Guglielmo is that, having now at least fifty years and presumably being presbyopic, he uses glasses, an unusual object for the time. It could be nothing but I like to read it a reference to Doyle as an ophtalmologist. And in a narrative space  the glasses are lost and the monk finds himself unable to read. We can say that this is a moment in which he sees, but can't observe. William reads the signs of reality to look for possible truths. In the first moment when we meet him he deduces the existence of a horse from simple signs left in the woods, he is actually a detective. But in his life he was also an Inquisitor, a position he left. We see him in the book confronting an inquisitor Bernardo Gui and we see the difference in attitude. The inquisitor is more interested in punishing the defendants, while Guglielmo wants to discover the culprits, "unraveling a beautiful and tangled skein". The same attitude that we see in Holmes that always looks a little beyond what the police do  and absolute justice does has more value than secular justice. In his search for truth, Guglielmo says that no hypothesis, even if extraordinary, should be overlooked. He himself tells that he aligns many elements that apparently have no connection and makes assumptions about them. But to arrive at a solution, he has to pretend many hypotheses, some so absurd that he is ashamed to tell them. The elimination of the impossible by staging. This sounds a lot like MInd Theater, doesn't it? Among the other references to the Canon, the most obvious is the use of a burned plant that creates visions. There is also a moment in which Guglielmo states that God must be good if he generated nature. Holmes will instead say that nature, its beauty (a rose!) Is proof of the existence of God (BRUC). The story of the novel unfolds inside an Abbey on the top of a hill. Inside the walls, barely contained, overlooking the rocks there is a construction called the Aedificium. It is divided into three parts. There is the Kitchen, the Scriptorium and the Library. An absolutely symbolic place. The kitchen is the body, it satisfies the needs, it prepares food but it is also the place where a carnal congress is consumed (food / sex metaphor). The Scriptorium is the space of intellect, of knowledge. The Library instead is conceived as a labyrinth, a place where knowledge is kept, but at the same time it is made inaccessible. Something very similar to the unconscious, which in the BBC Sherlock we see buried under the ground, while here it stands out against the sky (like a plane maybe). The curious thing is the shape of the building, built on a rigid symbolic and mathematical basis, it looks like this:

We find a similar shape both in the Mind Palace (Moriarty's cell and probably operating theater) and in Baskerville.

In the Library the books that are the sum of human, licit and illicit knowledge are jealously guarded, in fact the librarian reserves the right to keep some of them hidden. A structure that seems very similar to the human psyche, to the eternal struggle between conscious and unconscious thought, between memories and removed that in BBC Sherlock seems to be recurrent. The relationship between master and disciple is among the most platonic and there seems to be no doubt in this regard. Adso loves Guglielmo, loves his intellect but also his features, he argues in the purest way (not that the admiration imbued with sexuality cannot be pure, this is a heavy Catholic heritage from which we have not yet freed ourselves, but it is a meta for another time), but also he need to clarify unnecessarily  the concept and in later life he will confess to let the gaze linger longer on the young novices.

Guglielmo on his part is never if not paternal regard to Adso. Their relationship, however, seems weaker than that between the two original characters that inspired them, but that was probably not the point of the novel. This doesn't mean that the issue of homosexuality is not treated. If we want we can also say that all the dead involved had had homosexual relations and all had somehow had had to do with a forbidden book. The story takes place inside a convent, the characters involved are all men, apart from an external exception, feminine, which will seduce Adso, even if this fact is susceptible to interpretative doubts. Being a faithful chronicle of the times, homosexual relations are doomed, but after all even heterosexual ones it's just condoned. We are talking about friars. But if heterosexual relations are tolerated, they are part of heterodoxy, homosexual ones are decidedly condemned, like heretics. It is no wonder that in so many heresies sodomy is an integral part. It falls within the fear and condemnation of the different, the different is a heretic, the homosexual is different, homosexuality is heresy. An easy syllogism. In the name of the Rose the feminine is ephemeral. There is this unique beautiful girl with whom Adso will be joining the same night he had previously had an apparently innocent encounter with a friar. We see she only for a fleeting moment. The feminine seems to be an allegory of all that is seductive. Devilishly seductive because we are among men for whom the pleasures of the flesh are a weakness. 

Friar Ubertino, the one with whom Adso meets before giving in to the girl's flattery, speaks with desire of the forms of the virgin Mary, but he does so by holding the young Adso to himself. Every time a friar, which will then be indulged in homosexual pleasures, is described to us,  a feminine characteristic is added to him. The feminine is not something that exists in this context, but desire, love, jealousy, in its best and worst aspects, yes. And all this is represented, but only allegorically by the feminine. Besides, Adso will tell about the girl that he didn't even know her name. One wonders if he didn't know it or maybe he just didn't dare to name it. The debate between orthodoxy and heresy runs through the whole book. It is a mainstay. And if under a pure textual meaning we can read an other, political, one (the Italian Brigate Rosse as heretics) a further level of reading is possible, halfway between the subtext and the surface. Then again the relationship between homosexuality and heresy. And heretics were burned. Adso tells that he experienced a state similar to ecstasy in witnessing the burning of an heretic, an ecstasy that reminds him the fleshly one that he will then experience firsthand. A connection that amazes the friar himself, but that tells us a lot about the real nature of what he lived.

Guglielmo's antagonist is an old blind man who will eventually lead to the destruction of the Library. Their relationship is love and hate, admiration and repulsion. Difficult not to see the Moriaty / Holmes relationship. Towards the end we see the same old man in the middle of the Library which is actually a labyrinth, a labyrinth that is described as a web. Throughout the book the two tease, provoke themselves, do a dance that has a lot of seduction. All caused by a book that the old man wanted to keep secret and when this was no longer possible the Library ended up on fire before the water managed to extinguish its flames. "Guglielmo wept". (water/emotions). The theme of the book is the  laughter. It refers to a hypothetical lost Aristotle's book concerning the Comedy. In short the meaning of the book is that laughter has its own dignity, its cognitive value. Comedy, the comedian, saying things differently, ridiculing them, forces us to look at them more carefully, and we end up seeing the hidden truth. At the same time, even the most fearful things, when turned into comedy, lose their terrifying power. Laughter free from fear (and it is the main reason why it is feared) The thought is immediately at every moment when John and Sherlock are represented as homosexuals in BBC Sherlock. These are always jokes, ridiculous moments. But as we are told in the fictitious book in The Name of the Rose, laughter conceals the truth. A book in a book that talks about books, because, it is repeated several times, all books speak of other books, each book is a reference to a previous book and from obvious books it is possible to arrive at occult books. As if to say that to understand a book it is enough to have another one. London AZ for Sherlock and our still unknown book. Unknown probably because not unique. A set of books (code booKs), but just because Sherlock Holmes has left the sphere of books and has expanded himself into other media. The Name of the Rose is a book about books, a complex labyrinth of intertextual quotations, but also a use manual of books. The books are something that involves the author and the text in the first place, but once it's finished,  the relationship is the one that is established between the reader and the text. And the texts are meant to be interpreted. "Books are not meant to be believed but to be subjected to investigation. In front of a book we must not ask ourselves what it says, but what it means ... the letter must be discussed even if the supersense remains good. " *I humbly apologize but I don't have a reference text in English, so this is a horrid, as usual for me, translation of the perfect Eco's Italian  (sooner or later I will learn English .... maybe when I won't lose so much time on a certain author ;-P) A licence for those like us who want to go beyond the visible, the admission that a text is more of what appears, which is susceptible to generate always different readings without ever running itself out completely. And this is true for some books more than for others, because in some the subtext presses towards the surface, barely contained by metaphors, mirrors and allegories. Since ancient times methods for expressing truth. Metaphors, puzzles, word games, which sometimes seem put in a text out of pure delight, often hide truths that want to be kept silent, for various reasons, to most people. A book on books that talk about books hidden in books, books that hide the truth under layers of words. A book about a medieval Sherlock Holmes and rarely the universe is so lazy.

@sarahthecoat @possiblyimbiassed @gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @sagestreet

#the name of the rose #sherlock reference #code books

[echoeternally]

BAF Postmortem ~ Characters

Protagonists! (The Main Couple)

My main couple that I wanted to be the focus of the story. It originally started with trying to figure out how to set these characters along to make them fun to follow, and gradually became a project on developing characters altogether!

Greninja

The first character that I had written for and planned on using, that’s Greninja.

Seems pretty typical for folks that want to write about their favorite “popularmons,” but this was back just after X and Y had been released; Greninja was doing well, but still wasn’t in the anime at the time (Ash-Greninja wasn’t even a daydream), and had just been tossed into the latest Super Smash Bros. games (For).

But hey, it was a Water type Pokémon, a Starter no less, and a ninja frog; I don’t think there was a way that I was avoiding using him. 

Since this was coming up after I had written for my Super Mario fanfic, I wanted a character that wasn’t quite as front and center as the main characters from that story, at least not to start with.

So, I went with a shy ninja fellow, one that was added to the roster for the king’s personal army. To fit with, well, internal monologues for readers to follow, he was kind of caught up in daydreaming and getting lost in thought when I originally wrote him.

Greninja was also a lot more awkward, having moments that he would kind of burst out and/or babble/ramble his thoughts and emotions a bit more impulsively than he does later on.

He joined them alongside his clansman, Accelgor, who I had been planning on having something of a close relationship with Greninja, but never really wrote it out for the starting concepts.

(I still haven’t quite flourished it yet, but at least they have more interactions than before!)

Through his knowing Accelgor, he gained interaction with Escavalier, who sought him out for advice on his wife.

Otherwise, he pretty much observed others and noted them, but didn’t really hold meaningful interactions with many. It was the kind of typical sort of feeling from a first person perspective, where the other characters just exist to fill holes, and you don’t really worry about their existence at all.

(Not that Greninja would help the audience really care about them, since he kind of just went about his own business. This wasn’t even based on his character; that’s just how the writing depicted him.)

This later developed as I wrote out the actual story, sharing his leading role with his love interest, Chesnaught. Greninja was still introspective, shy, and awkward, but gained a much-needed boost in elegance.

Whereas prior writing had focused on his odd qualities that set him apart from the cast, it was now reshaped to make him alluring instead, with an air of mystery that intrigued others to him, beyond his superior skill and speed as a fighter.

The main boon that Greninja gained was his interpersonal connections. To better balance him alongside Chesnaught, I wanted to give Greninja a rising scale of connections to other characters.

This is showcased when he starts picking up friends in the middle portions of the story, forming fast friends with others, but maintaining those friendships through interaction and support. Doing so balances him to Chesnaught’s connections with the other knights. These friends help Greninja explore his desires more through their encouragement.

Although he remains quick to romance and develops a weighty crush on Chesnaught, Greninja also doesn’t expect his affections returned, holding back on ever telling Chesnaught how he feels, and assuming his partner has no interest in him. In fact, he’s practically given up on the pursuit until another character convinces him to just plug away at life regardless.

It comes down to the point where he’s confessing his feelings not to find love, but just to be open. And that’s a middle ground he dances along oftentimes: contrary to some aspects of his personality, he’s not the type to his affections based on his romantic inclinations. However, he’s not eager to dump this side of him out where it’s not appropriate either.

By the story’s end, Greninja is still a shy and quieter type of character, but one that looks to grow honestly. His relationship, signaled by his silent acceptance of his boyfriend’s public declaration, is what becomes a driving factor for him to keep being true to himself, and to come out more with others.

Chesnaught

My second character written, originally serving as a love interest until I later upgraded his role to a lead protagonist with his eventual boyfriend.

Something gave me an inkling of a feeling that Chesnaught wasn’t going to be the most popular of the Starter trio. Just a hunch, I suppose. Personally, I enjoyed all three of the Kalos trio, and was a bit bothered by this idea.

So, knowing that Greninja was going to be the main character, the idea was to make Chesnaught his love interest, in hopes to appeal to the wider audience that might grow to like Chesnaught as well. (Ok, so I wasn’t completely oblivious to Greninja’s potential popularity.)

His original character acting only as a one-off story’s love interest, however, felt very bland. Chesnaught was fairly popular for the other characters, being more loved by his fellow knights over others, but he was generally liked by many overall. Cheery, easygoing, and attractive were pretty much his traits, which…made him feel a lot more like an object and a lot less like a character.

And that was the prompting factor that made me want to rework the story to improve him a lot more.

(Especially given that I had written another story that alternated between the two main protagonists, another couple, which was a lot more balanced.)

To do so as soon as possible, I wanted to write the first scene from his perspective. This helped give that initial push to not only begin developing Chesnaught, but also the world around him; even if it’s all new to the readers, Chesnaught could still make a reliable narrator to introduce the castle, the knights, and essentially the plot.

His personality was able to open up more flaws to flesh him out as well. Though he retained his positive characteristics, Chesnaught was also saddled with some flaws.

He was a bit more oblivious this time around, not catching onto Greninja’s feelings like he did in the concept. This tipped into his own awkward behaviors, increasing how relatable he’d end up as a character, since he didn’t quite pick up hints from the other characters.

Though he does eventually discover Greninja’s interest in him, it’s after other characters suggest it to him. To his credit, he’s not the type to fall at first blush either; though he’s attracted to Greninja, he doesn’t immediately act upon it, not looking to develop a love-at-first-sight type affair. Slow burn for Chesnaught’s less than stellar speed, I suppose.

Chesnaught also picked up some insecurity, with his popularity being less based on himself and more on maintaining projected norms around his knight comrades. He wasn’t comfortable with himself around them either, not to the same extent as before, until it’s finally revealed that none of them are aware of his romantic inclinations. (This also made it so that he would never be the first to reveal his budding romantic interest.)

By adding this, he was now less attached to his portion of characters that would take up his attention, as there was an unmentioned desire for him to get space, allowing readers to follow him for isolated instances, or to have one-on-one interactions.

But with these flaws, he was also able to gain a more dedicated focus on bettering himself, through improving his strength and interest in combat practices.

This in turn helped differentiate how each would tell the story to a degree, with Chesnaught’s segments focusing more on combative instances and less on descriptions. The world was new to Greninja, not him, but the battles were something he could pay attention to. He’s even perhaps a touch on the impulsive side here too.

In spite of these inclinations, he still remains open to suggestion, which allows the other characters to help him grow comfortable with his pursuing his interests. So when Greninja finally confessings his attraction, Chesnaught is immediate to reciprocate, deciding to break past his barriers to follow his heart.

Though he’s still working on this by story’s end, Chesnaught discovers Greninja’s desires to be open on multiple levels. This pushes him to his ending gamble, publicly revealing his love for Greninja. Its development is saved for later in the next story.

#baf postmortem #baf characters

[tessatechaitea]

Cerebus #2 (1978)

Is this the one where Cerebus becomes so obsessed with feeding coins into this devil thing to receive slips of paper with his future on them that he becomes unable to make any decisions at all?

Deni's essay on the inside cover of Issue #2 mostly just points out that comic books are weird and dumb and the fans are huge nerds. She ends it saying, "Comics is a crazy business, but you know something? I wouldn't want to be anyplace else. That is if I had a choice." Six years later, her choice was to get the fuck out of her marriage with Dave Sim. Although she still published comics at her new company Renegade Press. I'm not sure what she did after she closed up shop on that sometime around 1989, I think. Maybe she realized she did have a choice and somehow got the fuck away from comic books. I am not frantically trying to find her phone number on the Internet right now asking her how she did it. I'm too busy re-reading all of my old comic books, most of which I didn't even like the first time. Dave Sim's essay about Cerebus #2 printed in the Swords of Cerebus compilation is a bloodcurdling breath of honesty. Unless I meant refreshing? Is refreshing or bloodcurdling the description used to entice people to buy gum?

You should probably figure out how to enlarge this on whatever crutch of a device you're reading this on so that you can read it because it's entertaining.

As a reader, you instinctively realize that most artists hate drawing the boring stuff in the background. Those that fill the scene in with lots of nice little details are probably a joy to work with but they're also probably insane when you realize the deadlines they're under and they can't help drawing a fiddly little tea service on an antique hutch next to a couple of exotic potted plants. You know, things that will probably need to be drawn repeatedly across several panels from different angles! But what I hadn't really thought about was how the writer part of Dave Sim was initially so lazy about writing humorous stories and dialogue. When I think of Cerebus, it's the funny moments and hilarious character interactions which I think of first. Or maybe second. The first thing I think of is Sandman Roach sucking himself off with his weird Sandman mask. I guess the main thing I learned from Sim's introduction is that I'm not going to be reading a funny issue now. Not that the first issue was terribly funny. It was much like Sim writes in this one, really. The comedy comes across in the first few pages as the readers yuck it up over a tough aardvark chopping off hands and threatening bartenders (the bartender's line where he changes up his "I won't serve you. You're a...guest! And I serve guests at their table" was probably the best line of the first issue). The rest is so solidly Conan invading a wizard's tower that you're not expecting any jokes. Although Sim tries to lighten the mood by making the wizard a bit of a bumbling, aging middle-management type who just seems tired of having his work space invaded by thieves. The narrator opens this issue describing some of Cerebus's travels since the end of the last issue. In that blurb, we get the first hints of the geography of Estarcion.

At some point, we'll get a map. But it won't matter much since most of issues 26-110 or so take place in the city-state of Iest (hell, maybe 90% of Cerebus takes place in Iest up until Guys).

Do we ever find out any more about the Blood Wars? I don't think so. Remember, a lot of the early issues are setting a sword and sorcery mood. Sim will revisit some of the characters and places in these first 25 issues but only sparingly and usually in new contexts, thus making the overall story seem more layered and fully fleshed out than it initially was.

The first issue set the mood with Cerebus bouncing around on the back of a horse as he pulled into town; this one sets a slightly different tone.

Notice how Cerebus has two swords in this picture? I think Dave remembers that at some point in the future and comments (either through The Judge or through Sim's guest appearance itself) on how Cerebus losing one messes up his future or something. It's also possible I'm remembering that wrong! But I'm pretty sure we get a short history of Cerebus's accessories and their import (his helmet, the necklace, his swords). Cerebus is captured by the Boreleans who decide to sell him to a freak show in Gurann. I don't know where Gurann is. I also don't know where Borelea is. Or Tansubal. Or Estarcion. In response to the Chieftain's plans, Cerebus curses him in Paranian. I also don't know where Parania is. Cerebus's curse is "Comne ye tama stet fegria!" It translates roughly to "You can shove the freak show up your asshole." What I'm saying is that we all now sort of know the Paranian word for asshole. It's probably "fegria." Doing a Google search of the word "fegria" and "cerebus" resulted in a blog from 2017 which planned to do a critical review of every issue of Cerebus. It made it three issues. But in glancing over the blog, I noticed a quote that was footnoted as being by Tim Kreider in an essay from The Comic Journal #301. I fucking love Tim Kreider and now I need to get my hands on that issue. Anybody have a copy they want to send me?! Before Dave Sim gets to the part of the story without any jokes, he makes this classic joke when Cerebus battles to prove himself worthy of joining the Boreleans.

Ha ha! Look at how funny the little aardvark guy looks!

Two issues in and we already see how Dave is using the fantasy setting to satire real life. Previously, he showed how easily the powerful, entrenched wizard was defeated because he was just a blowhard hiding behind illusions which made him seem more powerful than he really was. Here, we see a couple of guys quickly reworking sacred traditions on the fly to cater to their current needs. Maybe they're just jokes but they tell the story of who this young Dave Sim probably was: an atheist with a mistrust of authority, status quo, and almost certainly mainstream comic book publishers. Just wait until that young Dave Sim suddenly isn't atheist any more and has decided he's the authority of everything! Boy do those issues suck dog turds that were turded out of dogs who sucked on dog turds. I'm specifically thinking about the Latter Days explication of Genesis as a story about a lying female god's power struggle with the real, upright male God. At least I think that's what was happening. I might have slept through 85% of time I was reading it. Cerebus wins the knife fight with an unorthodox yet apparently known well enough to be dreaded Earth Pig move.

So dreaded that I don't think Cerebus ever uses it again. Granted, his snout gets much shorter and less effective as the series goes on.

I'm sorry I scanned that panel because the really good joke comes immediately on the next page where the Chieftain is all, "You're from the South so you probably have a moral code against killing an unarmed combatant which means sacred tradition will..." at which point he's interrupted by Cerebus stabbing Klog in the face. Cerebus's moral and ethical code are pretty animalistic. Probably because he's an animal? Although you can't argue with some of his wisdom when he becomes Pope. I mean, "One less mouth to feed is one less mouth to feed," is some thoughtful shit, especially after you've just thrown a baby fifty yards. Cerebus spends two days marching with the Boreleans before the army is overrun by an army of ensorcelled men. Cerebus understands magic enough to completely mistrust it so instead of fighting, he slides down a snowy cliff to escape. That was the part of the story where Dave Sim's writing persona was all, "I can't be funny any more. Let's put Cerebus in a hole where he has to deal with something serious." So now it's basically a new story. If I remember the Conan books I read when I was younger, the narrative structure isn't too far off from those. The books just seemed like a bunch of scenes that didn't really have any plot thread connecting them. Probably because they were just a bunch of short stories from pulp magazines shoved together in book form. What? You expect me to actually do research on a memory from my past instead of just speculating?! How not lazy do you think I am?! As Cerebus wanders the dark caves under the ice, he remembers an old legend about The Eye of Terim guarded by the Demon Khem lying underground in Borelea. Could this be the place?! Could he be walking into deadly danger? Or extravagant riches?! Did Dave Sim forget that Tarim was spelled with an "a" which birthed Terim later because he wouldn't admit to a mistake? Did this duality of Tarim and Terim cause him to believe the religions of The People of the Book were infected with the same duality? And when did he decide the split was down gender lines?! That last question was a rhetorical question but also one that can be answered: he made that decision when he was interviewing mothers and daughters for his story "Mothers & Daughters." At that time, he realized women he didn't want to fuck were vapid and uninteresting. His conclusion was that this was an issue with women and not an issue of self. I guess his reasoning was "I don't want to fuck men but I find them interesting therefore women must not be interesting!" Don't worry! According to Dave, that's not a sexist conclusion. It's a completely rational one because he's a man and he came to it.

Cerebus climbing down a pillar of faces, descending deep into the Earth. Later, he'll do the exact opposite. I don't mean to suggest it means anything! It's just a nice callforward!

This is only the second issue and Dave is already using the comic medium for all its worth. The pillar remains static so he's able to split the image into panels which then allocate separate time intervals. You can tell he's a long time fan of comics. We learn that the Eye of Terim is the "most precious of the five spheres of the Gods." So now we know there are five spheres of the Gods. What are they for? Where are they? Will Cerebus pursue more of them? Or will he just be told about them later when he goes into outer space? Probably that last one. Cerebus does utter an oath to Tarim so Dave probably finally remembered how he originally spelled it but only after inking the previous pages. Remember the essay from last issue that you didn't read? He described his process of fully completing each page before moving on to the next one. So now he's got a problem! The better solution would probably be to fix the previous errors. But that's a solution that takes more work. An easier solution is to suddenly decide that there are two confusing Gods with pretty much the same name only they're pronounced differently. How are they pronounced? I don't fucking know. Comic books aren't audio! Look, I'm a cynical dick! It's entirely possible that Dave Sim had already decided that Terim was the name of God in the North and Tarim was the name of God in the South and that was what caused so much strife. I could give Dave the benefit of the doubt on this. I suppose I will although it's less fun to believe Dave knew what he was doing than to pretend he's made tons of stupid mistakes.

It turns out the Eye of Terim was actually a succubus trying to trap prey.

Maybe Dave Sim is a genius who, from Issue #2, was already working toward his "Mothers & Daughters" themes and his Tangent essay! Here we see a woman lying in wait to steal Cerebus's soul and tempt him from his righteous path of reason! I'd say this is technically the first female character in Cerebus and it's kind of ideologically on point with the rest of the series! Also, we learn aardvarks don't have souls. I think that's the really important bit. I can't leave this bit yet! Look at how the encounter is worded: "For the first time in centuries a prey has broken the succubus' spell -- has seen it in its original form." It's as if Dave is saying, "See? I'm the first guy to have noticed that these hot women aren't just hot women! They're traps! I mean Cerebus was the first to see it!" And as the succubus becomes unable to destroy Cerebus's mind and reason and rationality, it becomes desperate. It becomes emotional! It screams and rants and raves! Wow. I didn't think I'd have to deal with Dave Sim's philosophy about the Marxist/feminist/homosexual axis for at least another hundred and fifty issues! Maybe I should just pretend I'm reading too deeply into what's basically a Dungeons & Dragons encounter. Cerebus tumbles in the dark and awakens lying in the snow next to the Eye of Terim, now just a plain iron sphere. He notices he's amid the dead of the battle and realizes the ensorcelled men were victims of the succubus who have now been freed. I guess the succubus died when it tried to suck the soul of a soulless creature*. *Necromancer's Compendium. Page 63. Maybe this story was how Dave Sim eventually saw his magnum opus: he was Cerebus trying to free the minds of all the other men who were ensorcelled by women! You might not agree with his message but if he had it since Issue #2 and continued on to Issue #300, you can probably maybe say at least one small, positive word about his sticktoitiveness. That's a hard word to spell. I'm going to write and draw three hundred issues of a comic book about how difficult it was to spell that and then the trauma of knowing it was spelled right but Spellcheck insisting that it's not. I'm reading the bi-weekly version of Issue #2 so along with the Aardvark Comment letters page is this note from Dave:

So even when he was an atheist, he had the guilt of a religious person.

In one of Dave Sim's fake letters, he brings up how the plot of Issue #1 was quite similar to Robert E. Howard's Conan story, "Tower of the Elephant." So Dave Sim uses a fake name to call himself out on borrowing bits of a previous story? He also answers the accusation by saying, "Yeah, I read it a long time ago so I guess some of that stuff stuck in my head." I guess this is something Dave and I have in common: we often have lengthy conversations with pretend people about our flaws. Dave also asks himself why Cerebus always swears by Clovis. Apparently that was the pen name of his wife Deni's brother. Mystery solved! Hopefully in a future letter, Dave will explain why he has Terim and Tarim! Cerebus #2 Rating: B. Another solid B in that the art is still that of a somewhat better than amateur artist and the writing is consistent enough to be memorable in places and not Ann Nocenti confusing in all the others. Grade B praise indeed! My main feeling when rereading the early Cerebus stories from the first 25 issues is that I'm eagerly anticipating "High Society" and the introduction of The Regency Elf. I also look forward to the day Gerhard arrives and the backgrounds become gorgeous works of almost certainly intense labor.

#Cerebus #Dave Sim

[theolddarkmachine]

Kingdom- Chapter Three

Gajeel has had the dream about dying for the blue haired girl for as long as he can remember. Which is weird, since he’s never met anyone with blue hair in his life.

Levy has always loved myths and legends. So much so, in fact, that she was currently getting her master’s in mythological studies.

What neither of them realized was that they were living a legend all their own.

AKA the one with a knight, a princess, and a curse that keeps bringing them together just to pull them apart.

When I started this chapter, I kinda hated it. Like a lot. But then I decided to sit on it for a couple days and rework it later, and now I actually quite like it. So I hope you guys like it too! I’m also really trying to push myself to just do more with my writing. Don’t really know how to explain what I’m trying to do with my style other than MORE but hoping you won’t mind all too much if I try to push things. You may have also noticed that I posted a different fic on here the other day. As I said in my About Me when I made this blog, this may not necessarily always be a strictly Gajevy fic blog, and it was the time lol While I will be splitting my time between two fics now, know this one still has priority, because 1) That’s what y’all deserve and 2) A lot of research has to be done for the other one that needs more time and thus it cannot be updated as often. if any of yall know more about yakuza than google hit a girl up lmao ANYWAY, thanks for reading, as always <3

***************************************

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time Gajeel had found himself in front of a speeding vehicle. It was the first time he wasn’t the speeding vehicle’s target though, which he was going to chalk up as a win. At least, as much of a win as it could be given it would also most likely end with him splattered across the pavement. Time seemed to stand still as he felt himself wonder how in the hell he had ended up there, throwing himself in front of a vehicle to save a stranger.

He’d awakened that morning with the usual groan and the familiar dread that spread through his chest from his dream. The amount of time it felt he was in the darkness of death was growing each day, and along with it the sense of despair. If he didn’t quite know better, he’d wonder if at some point he’d stop waking from it at all. A strong hand rubbed across his face in an attempt to brush the sleep-- and melodramatic thoughts for that matter-- from his eyes. It was fruitless to try and stay in bed, a fact he knew all too well, and loathed with every fiber of his being, so he pushed himself out of the nest of blankets and pillows and headed to the bathroom. The light flickered to life and illuminated the small space of the cramped room, reflecting off the mirror.

His reflection stared back at him, only it wasn’t him.

In his place stood a faceless shadow of a man, with burning red eyes that struck a spike of fear through his heart. Adorned in black armor, Gajeel felt a sense a familiarity as he took in the intricately carved dragon that curved across the breast plate and fixed him with a matching, angry gaze. It’s scales were outlined with flecks of gold, giving it a near regal look. Scratches ran all along the armor, each telling a story that he was certain he knew, and yet couldn’t quite remember. He was paralyzed under the glare of the red eyes as the darkness that was cast across the specter's face started to twist and fade.

As it dissipated it first revealed a mouth that was twisted into an unimpressed scowl, wild black hair, and then a glint of metal studs that stood out against the tanned skin. It felt as an icy hand gripped his heart, knocking the wind out of his lungs when he realized that standing before him, was a different version of himself. The crimson glare softened in his other self’s eyes as they sized each other up. Something about the way his mirror self was looking at him made Gajeel’s blood run cold. What was this? Everything felt so foreign and yet, just on the outreaches of his subconscious it felt as if the answer was there plain as day. He hadn’t realized he’d reached his hand out to touch the specter until his fingertips brushed the cold, smooth metal of the armor.

A heavy weight settled in the silence of the bathroom as the walls started to fall away from around them, leaving them standing in inky darkness. Shadowy tendrils licked across their skin as if they were trying to find a way to latch onto them. Slowly, holding Gajeel’s attention, his copy looked down towards his chest. A bright light started to spill from one of the scars on the breastplate located just over his other self’s heart, pushing back the shadows that had started to descend on the armor. Gajeel’s stomach turned at the sharp stab of despair that filled his gut causing the acrid taste of bile to rise in his throat. It felt almost like the feeling of the dream, only magnified tenfold, and suddenly he felt as if he was suffocating. His arms started to burn where the shadows started to stain his skin ebony with their touch. Everything hurt so much, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to look away from his mirror self.

A small, sorrow filled smile tugged at the corners of the reflection’s mouth as he looked up at Gajeel.

“Save her.”

The hollow voice carried the words through the darkness and as quickly as it had appeared, the vision was gone. Air burst into his lungs as he choked on the bitter despair. Gajeel had never thought he’d be so happy to find himself on the floor of his bathroom before as he breathed heavily, hungry gasps pulling in as much air into his lungs as they could.

“Who is she?” He tried to scream out to the vision, only succeeding in a breathless gasp that reached no one. Angrily, he punched his hand into the old tile of the bathroom floor, enjoying the sharp tang of pain that buzzed across the skin of his knuckles. Gajeel stared down at the skin of the fist, almost certain he would see the stain from the black shadows scrawled across his skin. Nothing but his usual tan clung to his complexion and relief blossomed in his chest. His mind raced in an attempt to piece together what had just happened. The obvious explanation was that he had still been half asleep when he’d made his way to the bathroom and found himself in a waking dream. Yet, as he grabbed the edge of the counter and pulled himself off the ground and eyed the mirror, he couldn’t help but feel like it had been a little too real.

Gajeel stared into his reflection as if trying to pull any evidence of the vision into being. A pang of heat seared across the left side of his chest. Over his heart, stood a slightly darker strip of flesh that was about four inches long. He’d had the strange birthmark all his life, and had never paid it any mind, and it had never given him any cause to. Rubbing it gently, he tried to shake the vision of the light that poured from the copy’s armor from his mind. After a few moments, he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and let his hand drop from the mark. A dream. That’s all it was.

The lie tasted bitter on his tongue.

Save her. Those two words kept swirling around in his head as if to taunt him. He didn’t know who she was, and yet he couldn’t help but feel who ever she was, she was connected to the blue haired princess from the dream. If only his damn dreams weren’t so cryptic, maybe he could actually fulfill their wish of saving her. His head was throbbing by the time he was able to uproot himself from where he stood in front of his bathroom mirror. A quick glance at his phone showed that he’d somehow lost about three hours to the vision and the subsequent mental freakout that followed. The thought that he could lose so much time without realizing it set him on edge.

Save her.

In an attempt at restoring normalcy and easing the pain that pulsed through his skull, Gajeel got into the shower, turning the heat of the water as high as it would go so the burning sting of the water would replace the confused thoughts swirling through his mind. After the spray ran cold, he wrapped his fluffy grey towel around his waist and padded back into the living area of his apartment. The cool air from the air conditioning raised the hair on his arms, but it was a welcome distraction as he made his way to the kitchen in search of food. The disappointing sight of the butt ends of some bread, three ketchup packets and a questionable bottle of what was once a cherry coke greeted him and his growling stomach.

“Great,” he snarled at the remnants of food before he slammed the door shut. This was shaping up to be a fantastic morning. The lack of food and his ever rising irritation was how he found himself outside, black leather jacket clinging to his frame as he thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his ripped blue jeans. Cool air burnt his lungs that still ached from the earlier deprivation of oxygen. Outside of his apartment and in the hustle and bustle of the city, the vision seemed more like a distant memory than something that had happened just earlier that morning. It wasn’t distant enough to let him relax, but at least he no longer felt like he was being haunted by phantom crimson eyes and shadows. It hadn’t been until he’d turned toward the street to cross that the incident entirely slipped his mind, because there just on the other side of where he stood was a shock a all too familiar blue hair.

Save her.

The words were a bit louder as his gaze settled upon her. She was the blue haired princess. He hadn’t ever actually seen her face in his dreams, but he knew that shade of blue, and every part of his body screamed with recognition. His breath caught in his throat as she looked up, her honey colored gaze meeting his crimson one. A pink blush brushed across her cheeks as she tightened her grip on the book that she’d had in her arms pressed against her chest.

Save her. The copy’s echoed through his mind as he continued to stare, unable to tear his gaze from her. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. It almost looked as if light radiated from her as she stood there on the street corner, hair held back with a bright yellow scarf and in a knee length green peacoat. He watched her as the light changed, signaling pedestrians to cross. His eyes followed her as she looked down at the street as she stepped down from the ledge. A loud blare of a horn finally broke him of his trance, and made time stop. Her head snapped up to look in the direction of the blare coming from the delivery truck that was barreling down the street, straight towards her and the intersection. He watched as she froze, mouth falling open as she stared straight into the grill of the truck that would inevitably hit her if she didn’t move.

Save her.

The words were a booming cry as they ordered him into action. Gajeel hadn’t ever moved so quickly in his life. What had started as a grocery run was now ending with him chasing death in the form of a nondescript white delivery truck. Willing his feet to move him as fast as they could to close the distance between them, he felt her solid form hit his chest as he closed his arms around her and used the momentum to throw them both out of the way. The last thing he heard was a scream, and the blare of the truck horn.

***

All things considered, Levy thought being hit by a car would hurt more than it did. She’d noticed the vehicle racing towards her after it had already been too late, giving her just enough time to think about how Mirajane was going to kill her for getting one of her books destroyed. The blare of the horn deafened her and she screwed her eyes shut to the sound, the sight of the delivery truck’s grill burned into the back of her eyelids as the last thing she’d ever see. As she was hit, she felt a warmth encircle her as what felt like two arms wrapped around her waist. What should have felt like a violent and brutal twisting of bone and metal felt almost like the embrace of a lover. Her mind raced as it tried to catch up with what was happening. Maybe it’s shock, she thought to herself as she felt her back hit the ground. The breath in her lungs was pushed out violently with the force of the impact. At least that seemed about right for what was happening. A high pitched ringing filled her ears, almost drowning out the sound of the ragged breathing that was stirring the hair just at the shell of her right ear. Almost. Suddenly she was all too aware of the warm solid weight that was pressed against her chest, shoving the corners of the book she still clutched to her chest into her body. Her eyes shot open as she thrust her knee reflexively into the gut of the body that laid on top of her, capturing her between his body and the pavement. The motion was met with a loud and short grunt of pain as the man rolled off of her and onto the ground beside her.

“So that’s the thanks a guy gets, huh?” The stranger wheezed, staring up at the sky as his arms wrapped protectively around his middle. She felt her eyes widen as they traced his face, realizing that he was the man that had been across the street. Trying to stop from staring too long, she turned her attention to the scene around them. They were both laying safely on the sidewalk as curious bystanders started to gather around them to check on their wellbeing. Levy made note of the fact that the delivery truck seemed nowhere to be found.

“You alright?” His voice was still a bit breathless, but the stranger from across the street was now fixing his gaze on her once again. This close she could see that his eyes were endless pools of crimson. The metal in his eyebrow quirked in concern as she stared. Heat colored her cheeks as she hurriedly pushed herself up and set the book on her lap.

“I- I’m fine. Are you?” Levy’s voice sounded painfully squeaky, even to her own ears. Her heart was beating harder in her chest now than it had when she’d seen the vehicle baring down on her. Wait. “Did you- did you seriously just jump in front of a delivery truck?” Gleeful light danced in his eyes as the man also sat up, shooing away one particularly curious looking bystander that had gone to help him up.

“I think you technically jumped in front of it first,” he chuckled as he rubbed his ribcage. “I was fine until ya attacked me.” The smile that accompanied the statement made her mind run blank. Levy was certain she’d never seen this man before and yet something about the way he smiled at her felt like the most natural and familiar thing in the world. Something deep in her chest told her that she’d do anything to see him smile again.

“Why would you do that?” She heard herself ask, almost as shocked about the question as he seemed to be. A moment passed as he looked away from her.

“I don’t know.” It was almost a whisper, as if the answer wasn’t meant for her as the man questioned himself as to why he’d literally throw himself into traffic to save someone he didn’t know. As quickly as the confusion had crossed his face, it was gone as he looked back up at her as if he could pull the answer from her. The voices of the people surrounding them started to grow distant as they began to disperse after seeing that the couple was okay. The man started to standing, brushing the dirt from his jeans and making a low, disgruntled noise when he saw the scratches in the leather of his jacket from where his arms had dragged against the concrete. Levy watched as he shook his head and then held a hand out to her to help her stand. There was a beat before she took it, allowing herself to be pulled up from the ground. An electric shock shot up her arm from the touch, eliciting a gasp as goosebumps raced across her skin. His wide eyes said that the stranger had felt it as well. As soon as she was standing, he took his hand back, staring at it as he flexed his fingers and rubbed at the skin with his other hand.

This was the point where she would thank him for saving her, and he would say something lame like “You’re welcome” and then they would go their separate ways and never see each other again. That’s how it should go anyway, but her stomach flipped at the idea of letting him walk away. Something was so familiar about him. Being near him had felt like she’d found something she hadn’t even realized she’d lost, and the very idea of losing it again had her stomach in knots.

“What’s your name?” Levy’s voice wavered slightly as she fixed her honey gaze on him. He returned the gaze and the strange electrically charged air filled the space between them.

“Gajeel,” he answered simply after a moment of contemplation. Another piece seemed to fall into place in her mind, as her brain registered the name she’d never heard and yet made the blood in her veins sing. Levy pulled the book back up to her chest and hugged it to her chest again, using it as a shield as if to stop him from seeing the way her heart was hammering against her chest.

“Well, Gajeel, can I thank you with a cup of coffee?” The smile returned to his face at the question. It was another kickstart to her heart that rammed against her ribcage as she waited for his answer.

“Coffee sounds great.”

#gajevy #Gajeel X Levy #Gajeel Redfox #Levy McGarden #fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #kingdom #alternate universe #other tags that might be important lol #me: IM GONNA START WRITING LONGER CHAPTERS FOR KINGDOM! #also me: only makes 3k words T.T

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY A father and son go hunting in the mountains. Before they can begin hunting, which the son does not want to do anyway, they are killed by flying jellyfish-like creatures, which penetrate their skin with needle-tipped tentacles.

Some time later, four teenagers, Tom, Greg, Beth and Sandy, hike in the same area, ignoring the warnings of local truck stop owner Joe Taylor (Jack Palance). A group of Cub Scouts is also in the area; their leader (Larry Storch) is also killed by the alien creatures, while his troop runs into an unidentified humanoid and flee.

The teenagers set up camp at a lake, but after a few hours, Tom and Beth disappear. Sandy and Greg go looking for them and discover their bodies in an abandoned shack. They drive away in their van, while being attacked by one of the jellyfish which tries to get through the car’s windshield. After they get rid of it, they arrive at the truck stop. Greg tries to get help from the locals, but they do not believe him, except for Fred ‘Sarge’ Dobbs (Martin Landau), who is a mentally ill veteran. Meanwhile, Sandy encounters the humanoid and flees into the woods, where Joe Taylor finds and returns her to Greg.

While they discuss the situation, the sheriff arrives, but Sarge shoots him and begins to become more paranoid. Greg and Sandy leave with Taylor, who reveals he has been attacked by the humanoid before and secretly keeps the flying jellyfish as trophies. They search for the shack and once there, Taylor goes inside to only find the bodies of Tom, Beth and the cub scout leader. They discuss waiting for the creature when Taylor is attacked by another “jellyfish”. The young people run once again, leaving him behind as ordered. They stop a police car and get into the back seat, but find Sarge driving. He abducts them, believing them to be aliens. Greg plays along, telling the deranged man that an invasion force is on the way, thus distracting him enough to toss him aside, run away with Sandy and jump from a bridge.

They make it to a house where they find new clothing and try to relax. In the night, Sandy wakes up and goes looking for Greg, only to discover that he has been killed by the alien, who is still in the room. She flees to the basement and the creature is about to get her when Taylor arrives and saves her. On the way to the shack, he tells her about the creature: it is a tall extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) who hunts humans for sport to keep as trophies, using the living creatures as living weapons against its prey.

They wait at the shack to ambush the hunter with dynamite when Sarge shows up, almost spoiling their plan. He and Taylor fight, and Sandy is about to hit Sarge from behind when the alien arrives and kills Sarge. Taylor then shoots the creature, with little to no effect. Realizing the last chance of success, he lures it to the shack, which is then blown up by Sandy. She alone survives the horrible night.

DEVELOPMENT It was Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977) co-producer Mike McFarland who came up with the idea for Without Warning (originally titled Alien Encounter, and also released as It Came… Without Warning), Clark’s 1980 sci-fi/horror effort. In a theme later picked up by Predator, Without Warning’s bubbleheaded alien comes to Earth on what amounts to a hunting expedition. After the script spent years floating around Hollywood, Clark reworked it and helped get it into production.

“McFarland hired two teams of writers to flesh out his idea, and besides myself I had another writer, Curtis Burch, come in to help revise the script when I took over,” Clark recalls; neither he nor Burch, who served as an associate producer and the film’s editor, wound up taking credit for their rewrites. “Originally, the alien hunted with a bow and arrow. I wanted it to be a little more unusual than a weapon we could have here on Earth, so I came up with the flesh eating creatures that the alien flips like a Frisbee at its victims.”

BEHIND THE SCENES/ PRODUCTION Shot in California during December. Without Warning was filmed almost exclusively at night, which Clark feels “adds tremendously to a film’s atmosphere,” but also caused its share of problems. “At night it would get down to the low 30s. That’s cold for Southern California. The entire crew wore ski masks, and with the dark and the masks, I couldn’t tell one crew member from another. My cinematographer was Dean Cundey and let’s see, this was my seventh picture. When I wanted to talk to Dean Cundey, I would have to go up to each of them and say, ‘Dean? Are you Dean?’”

“This picture was made for $150,000, including $75,000 for Palance and Landau,” he reveals. “That left me with 75 grand to shoot the picture, edit, do the post production and everything else. So when I agreed to do it under those circumstances, I realized I had to make it in three weeks.

BEHIND THE SCENES/INTERVIEWS Besides offering the obligatory don’t go-near-the-woods warning, the forceful appearances of Palance and Landau serve notice that Without Warning isn’t just going to be a movie about kids in peril. Throughout, there’s a running tension between the young and old characters, and the film ends up being at least as much about the craggy old dudes as the naive, attractive youths. This young-vs.-old dynamic is brought home in a long and impressive scene fairly early in the movie, when two of the kids stumble into a country bar in their retreat from the alien’s flying weapons, finding not only Landau and Palance inside, but also such cinema vets as Sue Ane Langdon, Neville (Eaten Alive) Brand and Old Hollywood star Ralph (Food of the Gods) Meeker in his final role.

“I had used Jack Palance in a previous picture, Angels’ Brigade (1979) and I’d used Ralph Meeker before and worked with Neville on, I guess, two pictures previous to this,” recalls Clark. “I always like collaborating with professional people like them whenever I have a chance. The more experienced an actor is, the less you have to direct him, and I’m able to work quicker because they know what I’m trying to do. My experience with performers of that caliber is that they’re eager to help the director, and very, very good to work with.”

Brand had a not-unfounded reputation as a boozer and brawler, but according to Clark, by the time the two shared a set, Brand’s problems had ameliorated. “He was an absolute sweetheart to deal with,” Clark recalls. “You know, he was the second most decorated hero, behind Audie Murphy, of WWII. He’d had some really tough times, and he’d talk about the fact that he’d had problems drinking and what have you. But when I worked with him for the first time, in 1977, he was completely sober. In fact, in the scene in the bar in Without Warning, he said, ‘Greydon, I’ll do anything you want, but you know I can’t drink.’ And I said, ‘Neville, I never have alcohol on the set. This beer is apple juice with a little bit of spritz water in it to make it foam.’

“So he was wonderful. He was a terrific guy, and always on top of his game. Again, the experienced actors know that they have a job to do. They’ve done it many, many times, and they come prepared, and it’s easier for everybody on the set.”

Landau returns the compliment. “Greydon Clark knew right where we were going with that story before we ever started shooting,” the actor says. “Now, Jack and I might have taken things off in some unexpected directions, what with our tendency to ham it up, but we always had that anchorage that we could rely on.”

Landau and Palance, the two principal veterans in Without Warning’s cast, were hardly nursing-home geezers. Palance was barely past 60, and Landau had yet to turn 50. But careers age in Hollywood with unnatural speed, and at the time the picture was made, both found themselves down a few rungs from the place they had once stood on fame’s endless ladder.

“Yeah, I was one of those washed-up has-beens who found himself mired in a mess of low-budget horror movies and foreign-market exploitations for a long while there,” Palance told us, five years before his 1996 death. “Me and Martin Landau and Cameron Mitchell and Neville Brand and Ralph Meeker, and good old Larry Storch, in the case of Without Warning. But I loved the experience. Maybe not so much at the time, grateful though I was just to keep on working, but certainly in the bigger perspective of having a showy, aggressive role that somebody might notice and appreciate.

“The only direction for us from Without Warning was straight up!” he added with a chuckle. “But us old mavericks, Landau and me and the boys, knew the job was dangerous when we took it-acting, I mean, trying to get away with being movie stars in a land where talent is a disposable commodity—and a hot temper, like I used to have in the early days, was pure damned career suicide.”

Clark has similar praise for Landau whose Dobbs is ultimately revealed to be a shell-shocked wacko who believes the alien has somehow taken over the kids’ bodies, à la Invasion of the Body Snatchers—and the actor returns it. “Greydon Clark is a godsend,” says Landau. “He believed in me—not just in me, I mean, but in a lot of us aging near-burnouts who’d had our day in the fickle major leagues and he offered roles that were neither demeaning, like I’d seen happen to Lon Chaney Jr. with some of those low-budget guys, nor otherwise false. Just working actor stuff, meaty bits of business that allowed us to slice the ham as thick as we wanted. In fact, Francis Coppola told me that he had sought me out for Tucker [1988] in light of that over-the-top stuff I had done for Greydon Clark. It served notice that I still had the chops.”

“I’d like to tip my hat to Marty Landau,” Clark says. “We were on a very, very short schedule, so some days we had to work really long hours. When you’re at a location you only have for a single day, a 12-hour shoot is a short one. We had some 16-, 18-, even 20-hour days.

“This was the first film I’d done with him, and that night, when we were finishing with him, I had to say, ‘Marty, you’re scheduled to come back in about six hours. It’s relatively short, and I can have you out in a couple of hours, but because of scheduling problems, I need you in first thing. You know that I’m supposed to give you a 12-hour turnaround, according to the Screen Actors Guild, but I don’t have the budget to pay you the penalty that’s required by the guild.’ And Marty said, “No problem, Greydon. I’ll just come in and sign in at the regular time.’ ”

Clark pauses. “This is a guy who’d been around. I believe he told me his first film was North by Northwest (1959), Hitchcock’s film, and of course he’d done two or three television series. Again, I’ve been so lucky in my career that all the ‘name’ actors I’ve directed have been just remarkable, and very cooperative and helpful. I know Neville Brand and Palance had a reputation for being difficult, but I found just the opposite to be true. The picture I did with Jack before Without Warning, Angel’s Brigade, had a lot of very, very young people in it, inexperienced people, and he would work with them and rehearse with them, and showed a great deal of patience.”

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  SPECIAL EFFECTS

Seven-foot actor Kevin Peter Hall, who made a career of performing in monster suits, tallied his second film appearance as the barely glimpsed human-hunter. “McFarland had already contacted Rick Baker about creating the alien, and Rick had somehow found Kevin,” the director explains. Baker’s involvement ended when Clark took over the production, with Baker protégé and future Oscar-winner Greg Cannom ultimately responsible for the creature and its gruesome handiwork.

“As a producer/director, you’re responsible for everything, really, and I always like to blame somebody else if it doesn’t work and take the credit if it does,” he says with another laugh. “So I don’t want to use the word ‘created,’ but I came up with the idea for the little Frisbee creatures, in the scripting stage. The original concept was that the alien had come here and was hunting with a bow and arrow. That didn’t do it for me, so I was kicking around ideas of what I could do. I wanted to have a live creature that it hunted with, almost like sending dogs out, except that it would be a flying thing that he threw. So I started sketching one day what they might look like, and then I brought in my effects people, and we created this little guy with teeth, and hair around it, and tentacles and so forth, and I believe it works pretty well.”

RELEASE/DISTRIBUTION Selling the film to a distributor seemed easy at first, but quickly became complicated. “I made a U.S. distribution deal with American International Pictures (AIP) and within a few weeks of finalizing the deal, Filmways purchased AIP and announced they were not going to distribute any more of those AIP exploitation pictures,” Clark said. A potentially lucrative sale to cable-TV and to CBS, which premiered Without Warning on its Late Movie, depended on the film’s theatrical exposure. “I had to threaten them with a lawsuit to get Without Warning distributed,” Clark said. “They gave it a minimal release across the United States and the picture, much to their surprise, was well-received and did substantial box-office.” In some territories, the film was released as It Came Without Warning. Clark sees it differently. “Without Warning was released around the world in the spring of 1980 and received positive critical response and strong box-office,” he says.

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CAST/CREW Without Warning (1980) Directed by Greydon Clark Produced by Greydon Clark Tarah Nutter as Sandy Christopher S. Nelson as Greg Jack Palance as Joe Taylor Martin Landau as Fred ‘Sarge’ Dobbs Neville Brand as Leo Ralph Meeker as Dave Cameron Mitchell as Hunter Darby Hinton as Randy David Caruso as Tom Lynn Thell as Beth Sue Ane Langdon as Aggie Larry Storch as Cub Scout Leader Kevin Peter Hall as The Alien

Cinematography Dean Cundey

Makeup Department Greg Cannom … special makeup Alistair Mitchell … makeup artist

Music by Dan Wyman

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Fangoria#150 Fangoria#271

Without Warning (1980) Retrospective SUMMARY A father and son go hunting in the mountains. Before they can begin hunting, which the son does not want to do anyway, they are killed by flying jellyfish-like creatures, which penetrate their skin with needle-tipped tentacles.

#80sFilms #80sHORROR

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Beauty and the Beast, or, What Beats with Wood and Leaves

A Beauty and the Beast reworking, which is actually like 1/3 of a longer Beauty and the Beast reworking I think?

The was once a lonely merchant, who had three daughters. The first was clever, the second beautiful, and the third was both. But there were whispers around town, because some people swore that his last daughter had been born after his wife died, not before, and so she was a pariah around town.

Since the merchant was often gone and always, the eldest daughter took it upon herself to keep all his books, manage his inventory, and handle their finances. The second daughter, in hopes of marrying above her station and giving her family relief, learned the complex political games of the upper class and went to dances and balls. And the youngest daughter kept the house and raised their few animals and tended to her pride and joy, her rose garden. Her roses were the most beautiful in town, and it was from them, not her own looks, that gave her the nickname "Beauty".

One year a terrible cold snap went through the land out of season, killing not only Beauty's roses, but all of the flowers in the area. She became quite despondent, and when her father asked if she wanted anything from his latest trip, she asked only for a rose. (The second daughter asked for a new dress, since her nicest one was getting to the point where she could no longer keep the repairs invisible, and the eldest asked for a new set of inks, for she liked to draw in her spare time.)

The merchant went off to the glamourous capital city. He was able to find a dress easily, for he had done a favor for the dressmaker, and a fellow merchant who he had lent money to before gave him a steep discount on the inks, but the cold snap had hit here too, and nowhere could he find a single rose. After searching for a week and a day he finally gave up, resolving to make it up to his youngest in some way, and started the journey back home.

The weather was getting bad when he left and as he travelled on it only got worse until finally, when he was riding through the forest, it became a torrential downpour, and he was forced to look for shelter. He hoped to find a cave large enough to house him, his horses, and his wagon- perhaps, if he was amazingly lucky, a hunter’s cabin- but to his shock he pushed through the underbrush and came across a castle, beautiful and ornate but in quite a state of disrepair. He had never heard of a castle in the area, but he figured it looked old enough to be a remnant of some ancient lord, and in any case it certainly wasn't in use. He pushed the gate open and led his horses inside, and his fortunes compounded upon themselves for there, in the overgrown brambles, were roses- deepest red, purest pink, fieriest orange, palest white. His eyes alighted upon a yellow rose- Beauty's favorite color- and, carefully minding the thorns, he plucked it from the bush.

I'm sure you can guess what happens. A Beast, great and terrible, with tusks like a boar and claws like a wolf and eyes like a demon, roared out of the castle, calling him a thief and a trespasser, and demanded that the man become a prisoner of this castle forevermore. The merchant begged for a last chance to see his daughters and the Beast granted him this, but warned him that if he did not return in three days the Beast would track him like a bloodhound and kill him and his daughters. When Beauty heard, she felt so guilty that the night before her father left she slipped out of the house and returned to the Beast herself, demanding she be allowed to take his place. The Beast agreed, and when the father tried to find the castle again he found only a black rose on a stump.

The Beast gave her a wing of the castle to herself, and whatever books or clothes or food she desired, and a full fleet of invisible servants to serve her- but she could not stray beyond the castle walls. The servants were all kind, if quiet, and the Beast seemed to calm down, becoming distant instead of violent, but every day he asked her, "Will you marry me?"

Many times she considered saying yes. The servants certainly urged her too- in whispers they told her that she would be a princess, that she would be incredible, that he would take care of her for all her days. One night, while considering this proposition, she was wandering through the castle when she realized that her feet had taken her to the room below the Beast's balcony, and she could hear voices above.

"I'm sure it won't be long, dear," said a voice, like a mother and a monster all at once. "She's coming around to you, the servants say, and they will keep encouraging her. They want to be human again as much as you."

"I hope so," said the Beast. "Godmother, you have done all you can for me, but time is running out, and soon I will become a beast in mind as well as body."

"I'm certain," said the Fae. "Certain that she will be the one to break the curse."

Beauty fled before she heard anymore, rushing down mazes of crumbling stone corridors until she reached her room and pressed herself against the door, eyes wide, heart racing, mouth dry, and she stayed like that until morning.

She didn't know what to do now. She didn't know if the Beast truly loved her, or if he just saw her as a means to an end. She didn't know if he knew. And now that she knew, she could feel the cold necessity in the voices of the servants, the bitter honey when they said what a pair they would be, how treasured she would be, how good he was. Try as she might, she could not help but feel choked.

Ah, said a voice in her head, But see how well he's taken care of you! See how kindly he has treated you! Don't you owe it to him, to fall in love?

She wasn't sure, and that made her feel all the worse, like she couldn't make up her mind whether to be good or cruel. She wished above wishing that she had never asked for something as stupid and frivolous as a rose, and then wished even grander that she would stop being the type of person who would throw such kindness away, and most of all she wished that she could go home. Now, when the Beast asked if he could marry her, her throat turned to stone and her stomach to lead, and she could barely choke out, "Not yet."

But you must, said the voice. What kind of ungrateful woman would you be, otherwise?

As the year went on she could tell that everyone, especially the servants, were getting impatient. "When is she going to fall in love?" she heard them whispering, when they thought she was asleep. "He adores her, of course! Why can't she see that? Why would she be so cold! Is it possible she is a cruel woman?"

Beauty clutched at her stomach, and wondered if she loved the Beast. She wasn't sure she'd ever been in love before- all the men in the village seemed boring, and most avoided her regardless. She had barely had any friends, let alone loves, and her friendships were always with girls- summers spent under apple trees, hand in hand, a head leaned against another's chest- and her friends had all been married off and become too busy to spend time with her. She didn't hate the Beast's company- he was quiet, yes, and distant, but when he laughed it was genuine, and he had the same love of stories that she had, and often they went out and gardened together. But if her heart fluttered when he was around, it was out of anxiety, and her stomach had rocks, not butterflies.

She wondered if that made her evil. She wondered if that made her as much of a Beast as him.

Summer gave to Autumn gate to Winter gave to Spring again, and with the changing seasons the tension in the castle grew and grew. It was now nearly one year since she had arrived, and the servants now were all quite short with her- not cruel, but she could hear them whispering about her whenever she walked into a room. Nothing you don't deserve, said the voice, and Beauty hid her face and walked on. Now, when the Beast asked if she would marry him, it was with a total desperation, a pitiful kind of demand, like a child asking for a bite of bread. She no longer gave any sort of verbal response, just stared at her plate and chewed methodically, sipped methodically, eyes down, lips closed. She felt separate from herself, like things were becoming less and less real, like she was no longer made of flesh and blood but wood. She spent hours in the garden with no energy to work, just staring at the roses like a woman possessed. The Beast fretted that she was sick. She was sure that she was dying, and she deserved it.

She had thought that her birthday would pass without incident- after all, how could he know the day when she had never told him- but from the moment she woke up and a servant told her he would not be down for breakfast, she knew. He would throw her a surprise party- something romantic, at night, by candlelight, and he would ask her to marry him, and she would say yes. She would have to, after that, wouldn't she? She spent the whole day feeling more alive than she had in weeks- in terror, desperate horror down to her bones, as the day marched on and she knew that sooner or later it would happen. Once or twice, she considered going to his room and proposing to him right then- once or twice, she considered throwing herself from the tallest balcony. Instead she wandered the castle like a wraith, her face pale and thin, touching every wall and column like it would be her last time seeing them.

Indeed, at six pm one of the younger servants asked her to play with him in the old, abandoned ballroom, and she tried not to sigh as she said yes. As soon as she pushed open the door the room gleamed in candlelight, every inch of it polished and repaired and beautiful, and there was the Beast, his flesh constrained inside a suit in some imitation of the humanity he had lost. There was a dress for her as well, a dress fit for a princess, and a couple of the female servants whisked her away and changed her and all the time she felt colder and colder. He will ask, she told herself, And I will say yes. It's the least I can do.

When she was led out he swept her into a dance, and she followed mechanically, starting to slip away from herself again. She was so distant- bound in oak and elm and maple leaves and thousands upon thousands of roses- that she almost missed him saying it.

"-be my bride?"

She stopped. The world stopped. The ballroom fell into a growling silence, and she could not force her head to look up.

Yes. That's all you have to do. Say yes.

She remained silent.

Say yes, you cruel and wicked thing! Say yes, you ungrateful woman! Say yes, you monster, or else they will be cursed forever!

She could feel the stares of the servants even though she could not see their eyes. Her mouth was sewn shut, and her hands had gone numb. She heard a strange sound from above her, a bit of a huff, and fat teardrops fell to the ground.

"Why?" he asked. She clenched her dress so hard her knuckles turned white, and still could not say anything.

You will not marry him.

She bit her lip.

I will not marry him.

Her eyes, focused on the floor, shifted from brown to green, the new color spiraling out from her pupils and flooding her irises.

I will not.

Beneath her feet, the ground began to rumble, and the floor started to crack, and the servants started to scream. The Beast backed away, eyes wide and still filled with tears, and vines pushed through the marble and pushed through his legs. His mouth fell open in a scream and a wretched animal sound, alien from anything human, filled the room, and then was silences as roses started to pour from his mouth and burst from his eyes and his skin. The only sound then was a vague choking coming from all around her, from the Beast and the servants and her own wretched throat, and then she was alone in what might have been a forest, for all the trees and the ferns and the overflowing roses. The bodies were consumed by the growth.

She spent a long time standing there, her eyes refusing to look up, her body refusing to move. It might have been hours or days she stood there until finally her strength wore out, and she collapsed, and she slept.

When she woke light streamed through the windows and the gaps in the canopy. There were no signs of the cursed inhabitants of the castle- not even a smell, which she had perhaps expected. She felt numb in a different way now, like she was only a passenger in her body, and she watched as she stood and pushed open the door, which had been sewn shut by heavy vines that moved aside under her touch. She went to her rooms and packed a few of her favorite clothes, and then she went to the kitchens and packed some food fit for travelling, and then she headed out the heavy front doors and into the courtyard. Her- the Beast's- rose garden had once again been overgrown, and she plucked a white flower from the bush and kept it close to her chest, where its thorns did not prick her, and then she walked to the front gate, which was already ajar. She took a deep breath and felt a little more connected to herself, and then she swallowed, and she took a step forward and found that she could not.

She spent hours at that gate, pushing at the invisible wall before her in increasing frustration. As she threw her weight against it once more, there was a glow from behind her, and then a flash, and then a knife made of frozen light pressed to her neck.

You murderess!" cried the Fae, face contorted and snarling. "You witch! You wicked child, you creature! How dare you!"

'If you wish to kill me, than do it!" cried Beauty. "I will not stop you!"

The Fae pressed her knife even closer, so close that it pushed against the base of her neck and made her breath stop in her throat, but did not cut her. "As much as I wish I could- oh, as much as I could repay the insult, the injury!- I cannot touch you. Your mother is the Queen of the Unseelie Court, and even if you are nothing more than a changeling I cannot harm you for fear of her wrath! But my revenge is had already, through no action of my own. See how you are bound here, trapped in your prison, what might have been your home and your kingdom had you been less cruel! It does not matter to me how long you live, as long as you are bound to this place, you cursed thing! How fitting a fate, how beautiful a punishment! I hope you never die, so that you may spend every last day here, trapped, forgotten, alone!" With that she disappeared once more in a flash so bright that Beauty could not see for hours, so instead of moving Beauty sat there and wept.

She did much of that, in the time that followed, in between the rages and the numb silence. The first few times visitors found their way to her doorstep, she did not notice or care. She kept to her rooms, and they left soon enough. It might have been a decade or a century before one day she looked up from a book she had read a thousand times and heard sobbing from down below. She waited for it to stop but it did not, and eventually she closed the book, stood, and headed downstairs. A girl sat on the last step of the stairs, dress covered in filth and thorns, wailing, and try as she might Beauty could not remain unaffected.

"Why are you crying?" she asked, and the girl looked up and screamed, for Beauty was quite a sight. Her dress had gone to rags and she no longer wore shoes, so that her feet were calloused and filthy. Her hair was a mess of tangles and her frame was thin and gaunt, and her eyes were nothing natural. Beauty waited for her to stop, however, and eventually the girl stopped screaming and resumed her weeping.

"I am a maid, who fell in love with a lord!" she cried. "And he said that he loved me too, but I overheard him speak to his friend, and he said that he had no use for me, save one- in the bedroom!" Her body convulsed with her tears, and even Beauty's heart was moved. "I wish for revenge, but what can I do? I am just a commoner in his household, and he is nobility!"

The power came before the knowledge of it- all Beauty knew was that she wished to find a way to help this lovely young girl, with large eyes and soft hair, and her hand grew hot, and from it grew a red rose. She stared at it for a moment, but her heart- or something deeper, that beats with wood and leaves- told her its use.

"Place this underneath his pillow, and every night tear away one petal. As you do, he will fall more and more in love with you, and as his love grows his wealth, his power, his standing will diminish. By the time it ends he will be penniless and unknown, and devoted to you. What you do with him then is your wish."

The maid stared up at her, her sobs diminished, and wiped her eyes and her nose. "Miss," she said, politely, for Beauty did not look like much of a 'Miss', "Why are you doing this for me? And would you like something in return?"

Beauty paused, and thought. Finally she said, "A rose given for a rose received. Within the year, bring me back a rose- any one, any kind- and we will call it even. if you do not, the magic will disappear, and once again he will flourish, in his wealth and his cruelty."

The girl thanked her profusely and took the rose, and indeed within a month or two she returned with a deep pink rose and a beautiful smile, and told Beauty she kept sending the former lord on impossible tasks in order to win her love. From then on whenever a traveler found their way to her door she would greet them and, if they did not run at the sight of her, listen to their problems, and if she wished she would give them a rose- a rose to cure illness, a rose to bright wealth, a rose to make a beloved friend fall in love- and ask only for a rose in return. Some did not bring her back a rose, but many did, and she planted them in her garden and watched the spoils of her power take root.

She kept on like this for many years, and gained a reputation. If you flee into the woods, people would say, and find a stone path overgrown with weeds and moss, follow it, for at the end lies a castle and the Witch of the Woods. Do not flinch at her haggard appearance or her brusque manner, and be sure to bring her back a rose- or bring her a rose in advance, if you're practical- and she will solve your woes, if she think you worthy. The legend brought many more entitled, obnoxious visitors to her door, but she did not mind, for if they bothered her she would just leave, sometimes mid sentence, and wait for them to give up and wander back home. The ones she most liked to help were the young maidens, so soft and lost and beautiful, and every time one came for her help her heart sang.

One day she heard a clip clop of horse hooves in the courtyard, and she headed down to a most unusual sight. There was a woman there, with thin lips and black eyes, and a face that did not lend itself to smiling, dressed in strange travelling gear that she recognized from a lifetime ago, when her father would bring back goods from the East. Her black hair had been chopped short, as if she had take a knife to it, and there were large bags under her eyes. Strapped to the saddle behind her was a strangely wrapped package, about the size of a person, that Beauty could smell even from there- the smell of mice trapped in floorboards and birds caught by cats, the smell of a deer the wolves didn't quite finish, the smell that sometimes she imagined filled the ballroom and kept her up at night with only its ghost.

"They say you can do anything," said the woman on the horse, without any introduction. "Bring her back to life?"

Beauty looked at the lifeless form behind the woman, and then up to her face. "Who is she?"

"My sister, or step-sister. I helped kill her. Now I want to bring her back. Can you do it?"

Beauty was not entirely sure she could- she had done impossible things before, yes, but nothing quite like this. Finally she said, "Yes, but it will take more than usual. I will have to beg the assistance of my mother, and I will have to give something in return."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Then what do you want?"

Beauty paused for a second, as if hesitating, but spoke anyways. "You must stay here with me, as my servant. Your sister will walk free, and you will remain here."

"Deal," the woman said, without a second thought, and so Beauty met Juan.

#said the girl to the ghosts #writings #beauty and the beast

[lotrewrite]

Well, here’s my comments! Feel free to message me with any questions or for clarification of anything

Overall, this is really solid you guys. 

The biggest issue is just fleshing some of the episodes out a bit. Character arcs are nicely done and the character stuff is spread out surprisingly well. In general, I think there’s a little more focus on Mick and Len than the others, and Amaya could probably be given a slightly larger role, but overall I’m impressed. Writing a team and giving them all equal focus is really hard. I’m so excited this is already so good

(Also like three of these episodes are set in times/places related to special interests I’ve had over the years so if I start getting caught up in historical details that’s why)

I haven’t looked at other people’s feedback yet, cause I didn’t want to be influenced so sorry if I’m just repeating stuff

LOTREWRITE: Yay, more comments! Sorry about the delay in posting these, all!

Episode 1:

-          I love the opening sequence with Kendra A+

-          How has Nate’s pencil lasted so long? It has to be at least 20 years old, right? A pen might be more plausible but have the same basic narrative effect. If you’re keeping the dog tags bit from the original though it might be best to cut it the reference to it being from his grandfather entirely or have it be a replica or something. Best to focus on a single sentimental object.

-          The banter is flawless and in character. Nice!

-          Thawne’s explanation is a bit of an infodump. That’s gonna need to be reworked into more of a dialogue, at the very least. It would probably be better to show it somehow. Maybe show the Black Flash appearing a few seconds after Thawne leaves, then disappearing just as quickly? Darhk can research it on his own and then explain it to someone later, for those viewers who aren’t familiar with the concept from The Flash.

-          “Damien Darhk?” Stein asks. “As in –” “The man who murdered your sister,” Rip says. I assume we’re talking about Laurel, but this makes it sound like Darhk murdered Stein’s sister.

-          “I never did” Talk about OUCH. This is amazing.

Episode 2

-          Some clarification on when and where “the infirmary” is would be good, as well as what Jax and Stein’s history here is, but I figure that will be added as this is fleshed out

-          Same with “decision makers��

-          I vote yes on “not drinking and driving” quip that’s excellent

-          Bambi is adorable

-          Make sure when you’re researching the crusades to look at things from multiple perspectives. This seems like it could very easily fall into a very generic “Good Christians” vs “Evil non-Christians” crusade narrative and that’s… less than ideal. There was a lot of politics surrounding the crusades, even if you’re just focusing on the Christians. That might also help provide a motive for your dissenter? Someone who thinks these soldiers should be back at home looking after things there instead of invading a foreign nation to secure power and riches for the church? Someone who’s been convinced that the crusaders have no divine right to this land and that they should leave it to the people who actually live there? Could maybe be a place to start setting up some doing what’s “right” vs doing what’s supposed to happen conflict? This is obviously just an outline so maybe you’re already planning something like that but I figured I’d mention it

-          I’m a fan of Bambi not dying

-          I love Firestorm as an angel that’s an amazing idea in so many ways A++++

-          Mick roasting a T-Rex with his gun heck yeah

Episode 3:

-          I love Sara’s canary pendant

-          Continuity issue: in episode 1, Mick punches Rex and that’s about the extent of their interaction. Not much of a basis for the trust he seems to be showing in this ep.

LOTREWRITE: Possibly we could make it more explicit that Rex noticed that the bomb the JSA were tracking was discharged harmlessly after Mick said he went after it, thus the trust?

-          Yay for bi Sara!

-          The Sara and Amaya scene sounds like it’s gonna be so cute

-          Ray’s speech to Nate about heroism is really solid

-          I see now why it’s a pencil, but I’m still not loving the idea. Does it just magically never get not sharpened? Has Nate never noticed? Does he sharpen it and lose tiny fragments of the spear every time? Am I being too nitpicky?

-          Love the mention of non-fighting military personnel 

-          Mick is starting to feel like he’s taking over the story a little too much here maybe, especially considering that he’s been the most major character in the previous episodes as well, while Jax and Stein seem almost nonexistent. Nate could probably have a little more prominence given that this is his big reveal episode.

Episode 4

-          Might want to give a quick rundown of some basics about Chernobyl in the finished episode for audiences unfamiliar with the history. I had to look it up because I thought it happened years later and was very confused.

-          Give some reason for why Stein’s actions were changed from the original timeline. Is Darhk’s presence there already changing things?

-          What do you mean by Jax can “safely detonate” the bomb? Is there some reason he and Stein can’t Firestorm up and transfigure it? I don’t recall Jax being a particular expert in bombs previous to this.

-          The Stein and Clarissa storyline is very very good

-          Sara and Mick (not) talking about their shared grief Thank You

-          Sara seems rather quick to trust Eobard. She knows it’s a speedster who killed Rex, right? Nevermind. She still seems very quick to trust for a former assassin.

-          Maybe avoid Eobard villain monologuing? He has no reason to.

-          Doesn’t the Black Flash only come after the speedsters, not anyone whose death is changed by time travel? iirc, both Cisco and Barry’s mother were brought back to life by Barry changing the timeline at one time or another and neither were targeted. There may be extenuating circumstances I’m forgetting though…

-          Sara and Laurel’s storyline is really touching and sweet

-          LISA!!!!!!

Episode 5

-          I’m loving the mix of historically accurate costumes and especially Mick

-          Crew interacting with Vikings is great and in character

-          Jax and Gunlød’s relationship is really cute

-          The funeral for Len and the others they’ve lost is fantastic

Episode 6

-          Eobard and Darhk banter already sounds like it’s gonna be great

-          How’s Lisa getting in? nevermind, that’s answered

-          The image of Len doing anything “emphatically” is kinda cracking me up. A look or something would probably be more in character.

-          Vampiric octopuses omg please have a flashback here

-          Building of tension for the break-in is excellently done. A bit cliché, but in a good way.

-          Lisa’s fury is great.

Episode 7:

-          Oa?

-          Independence Day banter is really fun

-          Lisa/Cisco scene is YES

-          “justified” I see what you did there

Episode 8:

-          Remember to introduce Constantine etc to audiences who might not be familiar with them

-          Are you going to show Mick vanishing or just have him suddenly no longer be there? Related: does he leave and then get beaten up or get taken out while with the rest of them? Does the audience know he’s telling the truth or will there be some room for them to wonder?

-          HARLEY/IVY YESSSSS

-          I’m assuming Booster is Booster Gold, yes? Do we get him in this season?! Okay coming back, we don’t. It’s a nice shoutout for those who know, but the prominence it’s given implies it will be relevant.

-          Clarify who Resurrection Crusade are

Episode 9:

-          Sara’s disguise for the Christmas party isn’t specified

-          This might be an issue with the original version of the episode as well, but the colonies were in open rebellion against the British crown and GW probably wouldn’t expect honorable treatment or a prisoner exchange if captured. He was openly committing treason in the eyes of the British army.

-          Ray navigating with one boot is hilarious and wonderful

-          Would soldiers from the pre-telephone era be able to adjust well enough in one night to work with a comm? Guns they at least have experience with. Tiny devices that let them talk to each other through long distances might be a bit pushing it. Or I might be getting too nitpicky.

-          The whole massacre plot needs some work tbh. How does Jax and Amaya knocking out a total of three soldiers stop a full massacre? How many were there? How did the soldiers feel about it? Sneak attacks on innocent (white) civilians weren’t really a common part of warfare at the time. Some or all of the villagers would have supported the British or at least pretended to. Not to mention the British soldiers were probably occupying the nearest village. Village sounds really feudal I’m thinking town might be more appropriate okay I’m definitely getting too nitpicky

-          End scene is great

Episode 10:

-          Ray’s pirate persona is gold

-          Why do they ask Jax for his name first? (or do they?)

-          Foreshadowing Rip joining the other side? Neat

-          Looks like this just needs more details for the climactic battle then you’ll be good

Episode 11:

-          The opening is so good

-          Adorable engineering duo yes good

-          So does the Greenpeace member know about the explosion? How?

-          This episode feels a bit short? It’s focused on a single plot that gets resolved relatively straightforwardly. Maybe add subplot(s) and/or throw a wrench in things somewhere?

Episode 12:

-          A little hard to follow at first but I think it’s supposed to be

-          Does Mick say “who’s Grace?”? That seems to imply that he recognizes the other names.

-          This has the potential to be really creepy I like it

-          Can Rip be incorporated into this somehow? Or not necessarily be incorporated as the character, but at least mentioned? It feels relevant, since he had the closest relationship to Gideon

Episode 13:

-          Could Legion!Len’s reveal be moved? If he’s not heavily involved in the Legion’s main plot for this ep, the previous ep would probably work better with a single big reveal (that oculus!Len is not just a hallucination) rather than two back to back. There could be mentions of a new Legion member (Darhk and Eo discussing Legends in Argentina “We’ll let the new guy handle them,” following orders from him, etc), without Len being revealed until he’s revealed to the Legends, or the end of this episode.

-          Really good moral quandaries here.

-          You could probably do something with the fact that the team (presumably intentionally) imitates oppressive government agents to get away with kidnapping, even if it is for a good cause. That’s gotta make them uncomfortable. (Mick seems like he’d probably be the most chill with it, Jax seems like he’d be really uncomfortable, and I could see Stein going either way.)

-          Maybe include one or more OCs or historical figures in a major role to add a human element to the conflict

Episode 14:

-          How does Rip find out? Does he already know?

-          So is the thing on the throne not the spear piece?

-          Tudor jewelry would probably not involve wood. They were big on showy jewels and metals. Maybe it’s in a fancy locket and rumored to hold part of the cross or something? You could have Anne make some sort of joke about how it’s probably fake. Artifacts like that were very common and almost never what they claimed to be.

-          Henry’s feeling a little flat here, but that might just be the outline format

-          This is another one that could use a subplot or two

-          MICK BURNS DOWN THE GLOBE I LOVE IT

Episode 15:

-          I like the option of Hex reacting badly to Rip

-          Carter and Kendra cameo is really neat

-          Continuity error: Len leaves and then says something in scene 6

LOTREWRITE: Len probably shouldn't leave since he has a big leaving sequence in the next episode

-          Lots of good stuff here

-          Make sure Lily stuff lines up with the following episode

LOTREWRITE: Lily should probably show up and have the argument with Stein in this episode, since the next one is very crowded

Episode 16:

-          Make sure Lily stuff lines up with previous episode

-          Bart Allen is from around this time period too. Can he cameo somehow?

-          I love this entire concept

-          All the hostages taken are women. Is there specific reasoning behind this? If not, maybe reconsider hostage choices

-          So Lily is volunteering to be a hostage, not switch sides? That was a little unclear.

-          I love the Monty Python joke. But it might be a little too anvil-y? Maybe change the wording from “what is your favorite color?” to “pick a color”?

-          How are the trials being administered? Verbally with spoken answers? Touchscreen? Fancy buttons?

Episode 17:

-          Cameo suggestion: A young Selina Kyle. The joke is that the found family she’s talking about consists entirely of cats. This can either be revealed to Jax via innocuous comment that wouldn’t make sense if referring to a human (something about litter boxes?) or revealed to the audience later when she looks at a picture in her wallet or something.

-          I love Legion!Len being fed up this is a Good Scene

-          The Legends make him cake aww

-          That ending man

-          Another episode that could use a bit of fleshing out. A little focus on what the other Legends are doing specifically might be enough.

Episode 18:

-          Love the cold open

-          Kendra cameo!

-          Why would putting Ray in a toga convince the guard to let him pass?

-          I’d add a subplot or a lot more happening at the gladiator fight. Does Darhk attempt to cheat? How does Sara counter that? Is she tempted to kill him? Maybe she could have a scene before or after where she talks to someone about her past with the League of Assassins and how sometimes she still has to fight those instincts? Even though she saved Laurel, he still almost killed her and Laurel is still almost completely out of reach for Sara so there’s got to be some pent-up anger there.

Episode 19:

-          HI YES YOU’RE INCLUDING MORDRED LET ME LOVE YOU

-          I can tell that you know your Arthurian legend or at least did some research this makes me so happy the Camelot episode was disappointingly generic in the official season but this is so much better

-          MICK AND MORDRED TALKING ABOUT BEING TRUE TO YOURSELF I HAVE ASCENDED

-          Yeah sorry I should have more constructive criticism but my brain kinda just starts screaming in delight at any mention of Mordred so just know that you did a good and there aren’t any glaring plot inconsistencies

Episode 20:

-          Snart is totally dedicated to his theme enough to take Antarctica let’s be honest

-          I believe there was a reference in a much earlier episode to Harley and Ivy both not returning someone’s calls. Did Harley do something to get back into the Legion’s good graces or…?

-          Ted Kord :D

-          This just needs more detail, in non-Len-related scenes in particular, which will presumably come with the full thing

Episode 21:

-          How is Rip rescued?

-          How does Ray contact GL and SS? Also, being in space shouldn’t keep them from being influenced by timeline change, since they’d still be within the bounds of time

-          BATFAM!! (I was gonna say that it was surprising no one changed things to keep them from being vigilantes, but that could be because they have secret identities and none of the LoD knows who they are) (Also are you going to include Oracle? You might be able to tie her into Ray’s character arc, since she’s a superhero who not only doesn’t have powers, but is physically disabled.)

-          How are you showing the spear going “fuck this“?

-          Wait is the implication that pre-doomworld didn’t have Batman or was pre-Batman? Because the gameshow ep mentioned him in one of the trials

-          I’m not sure about Sara being the one to throw Mick out. She is a former assassin, and she gave spear pieces to Thawne to save her sister earlier in the season. Seems like she would be among the more lenient. There should at least be some clarification of why. Maybe she’s upset because she was forced back into being an assassin?

Episode 22:

-          “proper Time Master captain” ouch

-          Sara’s scene with Laurel is lovely

-          Why would Ray blow up if he touched the spear?

-          “He holds up Cisco’s communication device with the” Finish this sentence

-          LEN!!!

-          This is a good ending

#commentary #episode 1 #episode 2 #episode 3 #episode 4 #episode 5 #episode 6 #episode 7 #episode 8 #episode 9 #episode 10 #episode 11 #episode 12 #episode 13 #episode 14 #episode 15 #episode 16 #episode 17 #episode 18 #episode 19 #episode 20 #episode 21 #episode 22 #submission