#cats isn't a show that cares about its plot

[kiwi-smoothi]

Hey.

Jekyll and Hyde is not about a DID system (it's about duality of mankind and repression)

Grizabella was not shunned from the jellicle cats because she was a sex worker (We don't know why she was shunned because it's not important. Also she's a cat, how the fuck is she a sex worker when she's a cat. Promiscuity is not an issue for the clan regardless.)

Victor Frankenstein is not at fault for his monster leaving. (He stood in his back garden for six hours waiting for the sun to rise before going for a walk. When he got back to his house the monster had left)

There are multiple interpretations of text and stories. However there's also times where the text blatantly spells out what it's try to say. Or it doesn't. And you end up with a cat who maybe did sex work and I have no idea how.

#I'll be a Frankenstein apologist til the day I die #i don't care how sympathetic the monster is #he kills too many people for me to hold thay sympathy for long #Edward Hyde killed one person after that person got in his face yelling #he existed for at least a year and a half before killing a single person #and after he did he was so disturbed with himself #he didnt use the elixir for months. #someone please explain to me how Grizabella was a sex worker #when we see the cats acting in promiscuity the entire musical #Its not that she has extra food #some of these cats have homes and are fed regularly #grizabellas poem in the collection is about a sex worker #however that doesn't mean grizabella is a sex worker #because shes a cat #how the fuck is the cat a sex worker #cats isn't a show that cares about its plot #it's a show that cares about its music and dancing #we don't get all the details to the cats because its not important for us to know #but we also know the cats to exaggerate and lie in their songs #do you really think Macavity broke every human law? #or that jennyanydots really teaches rats to dance? #or rhat there was a great dog war? #they exaggerate because theyre telling songs #for a play. #But like #maybe grizabella never eas accepted into the clan #or maybe shes the mother of macavity and they were shunned together #maybe a lot of things #also Jekyll and Hyde are physical different #like incredibly so

[serene-destruction]

Oh! Listen I love Husk and I need him to have more love! Maybe a Fem!Reader x Husk x Angel. Angel Dust and Reader would be a qpr quite obviously, just besties who want to give love to a grumpy cat. Other than that I give you creative freedom!

The first request! Just for future reference, my stories are gender neutral unless otherwise plot relevant. Anyways, enjoy!

I Could Get Used To You

(GN) Reader x Husker x (Queer Platonic)Angel Dust

TW: drunkenness, vague mentions of past trauma.

Work count: 5.6k

Summary: Life in hell isn't an easy one, but it's a lot easier to get through it when you find people to care about.

You and Angel had known of each other for quite some time, given that he had often attended the bar you worked at in his early years in hell. Despite how aggressively flirtatious he was you didn't mind him as much as some of the other regulars. He at least had the restraint to make those comments in between sets or after the show. You spent the first few months mostly ignoring him, as you did with all the other patrons. That became harder, though, when he had decided to see you after the show.

“Heya sweetheart!” he called out to you as you left the bar. You rolled your eyes and held your coat a little tighter, hoping that hiding your body might get him to leave you the hell alone. You had a rough night filled with drunken idiots disrupting your show with their shameless attempts to touch you and you certainly didn't need his comments to top it all off.

“Say what you want then leave me the hell alone” you nearly growled out your words. It was hard to stay composed after having spent hours keeping that fake smile for the crowd.

“Woah! Got it, bad night” he held his hands up in a show of surrender.

“Just wanna talk” he explained, his smile a little less cocky than when he made his usual comments at the bar. Truthfully it had caught you a little off guard, considering how you had ascribed total arrogant confidence to him. So you let out a sigh, motioning him to walk with you. You just simply didn't feel like arguing and you were pretty confident that he was mostly talk. Something you could easily placate until you made it back home.

“Just to be clear, if you lay a single one of those hands on me I'm cutting all of them off” you warn and he flashes a bright, teasing smile.

“Kinky~” his voice was sing-songy as he spoke. You crossed your arms, glared, and hoped he got the point.

“Right, right. I won't touch ya” he agreed and you were able to grow a little more comfortable. Still, you remained on guard.

“Names Angel by the way” he sounded so sure of himself as he spoke, a set of hands held on his hips in a show of confidence. He had only just started his career back then, his fame in its early stages. It wasn't a surprise when you didn't recognize it.

“Y/n. Though I'm sure you already knew that” your words held an edge, your tense posture clear. But he simply nodded along.

“Yeah. Still a nice name though” his smile widened a little and, despite the minor disdain you had started with, you could see him already growing on you.

“Right…any particular reason you decided to talk to me tonight of all nights? I've seen you around the bar for a while now” you questioned him, rather curious about why exactly now of all times he wanted to suddenly meet you.

“I just wanted to let ya know you did good tonight. I get how much of a bummer pricks messin’ with your show can be.” the genuine compliment surprised you so much that you're silent for a moment. A moment too long apparently as he speaks again.

“If it means anything it was one’a my favorites so far” At that you turned and searched for some sort of humor in his eyes, maybe something that said he was lying. But when there wasn't anything you finally returned his smile with a weary one.

“Glad you enjoyed it” you took the compliment, though you still didn’t fully believe that he was being truthful. It was rare someone ever complimented you to start with, but you had yet to have someone do so without an ulterior motive.

“And y’know, that happens again tomorrow and I'll personally knock ‘em around for you, yeah?” his smile turned into a grin and you couldn't help the short laugh that left at his expression.

“If you feel so inclined. Though if anyone asks, I told you to leave the poor sods alone” you tried to make it clear that you definitely weren't supposed to be harming the clientele with how dramatic the last part of the sentence was. Luckily he seemed to get the point.

“Course. They've been gettin’ on my nerves anyway” you couldn't help but agree.

The two of you continue on with your conversation, getting to know a bit about each other's lives on the short walk. Despite his behavior at the bar, he was actually surprisingly personable one-on-one. He had a kind of natural charisma with a bit of faint genuine kindness. It was, frankly, one of the better conversations you had since you fell into hell. But all good things always come to an end. This time it was because you stopped your feet outside your residence.

“It was nice getting to actually meet you Angel” he stopped with you and you could have sworn you caught the faintest glimpse of his smile falling.

“It was nice meetin’ you too. You workin’ tomorrow?” His question surprises you a bit, but you answer anyway.

“When am I not working” you rolled your eyes, your exhaustion now easy to see. His look turned sympathetic.

“If that ain't the truth. See you tomorrow then?” He begins to walk away but stays turned to you for a response with his hand held in a finger gun motion. You can't help the bit of genuine smile that peeks through.

“As always” you answer before finally tucking into your apartment building.

You and Angel only got closer over the coming years. He would walk you home from your shows from time to time and you would entertain him with whatever story you had of the nights when he was too busy to show up. You too bonded over work and he even offered to be a dancer a few times just to rake in some more attention and get you enough to finally move up from that shit hole. But you always kindly refused, not looking for the increasing fame he carried with him.

Eventually you two even started hanging out in other places. Granted they were always other run-down shit holes given he didn't particularly want the paparazzi and fans that came from his job, but you two always seemed to make the most of it, keeping your friendship on the down low.

Until, one night, he stopped showing up.

You had become increasingly concerned after a month of him just up and disappearing. You were worried something had happened or maybe that his psychotic boss was pulling away even more of his already limited freedom. But then he showed up after one of your shows, face guilt-ridden when you went near frantic.

You were already yelling out question after question at him. Where has he gone? Was he okay? Did something happen? He had to calm you down before explaining that he had moved. You were so incredibly proud knowing that he was finally removing even just a part of himself from the work that had begun to be his entire life, though you were still a bit upset that he hadn't told you sooner.

But then he made you an offer you weren't expecting.

“You know, the hotel has an open doors rule and uh…well I was hopin’ you might…”

“Join you?” You finish the sentence for him. He turned to you with a look more nervous than you've ever seen from him.

“Look I know the place ain't exactly the best- the whole redemption thing’s a joke- but y'know I think you could get a job down there! Get away from all…all of this. Plus, y’know, I'd get to see you more often and-”

“Sounds like a plan” you stop his rambling with your answer and he turns to you with an almost bewildered look.

“Really? You sure?” He couldn't believe you would agree so quickly. You laughed at that.

“A chance to leave this shitty life behind and live with my best friend? Why would I say no? Especially if you like the place enough to recommend it” You lightheartedly shoved him and he almost gleamed with joy, his prior nervousness nothing but a thought now.

“Well shit. I thought I was gonna have ta try a lot harder than that. Had a whole pitch and everything!” he spoke with a laugh and you couldn't help but join in the joy.

You had to say the first few months at the hotel had been rough. For one, your boss didn't like the idea of you quitting very much. You were half the reason he made any money to begin with and he wasn't about to let you go so easily. So for a while you had been harassed and once nearly even killed before Alastor went and ‘dealt with this little problem of yours’. Though you suspected it was only because your boss had sent people to attack the hotel itself and less that he cared about you in any capacity.

You had managed to get a job at the hotel like Angel had said, though you felt more like a resident since there weren't ever enough people to warrant a show. But it had been more than once you were able to lift spirits with a performance, so you did still get paid. It was nice not having to work as much.

Though you would have to say, out of all the other strange people and events here, the bartender was the one that caught your eye the most. A right asshole he was, but there was still a charm he had. You two mostly only had some idle chit-chat, but Angel seemed to be getting pretty close to him, especially after he had one of his rougher nights that you hadn't been around for. Which meant you talked to the cat demon more. Never really one on one, but still you grew to see why your friend seemed so comfortable around him. He was easy to talk to. You mostly saw him as a friend of a friend though. Maybe even a good acquaintance if you wanted to push it.

But then there was that night…

Two in the morning and you still couldn't get a single wink of sleep. Tossing and turning and general frustration simply wouldn't allow you.

You couldn't get it out of your head. It had been so long since the memories had been allowed to invade your mind like they did tonight. Your skin crawled as if it wanted to escape you and if you could you would let it. You felt utterly trapped as it clung to you. Like the only escape from it was to dissolve into nothing.

You knew why the memories had come back swinging, all too aware that it was such a stupid thing to have opened that old wound. All Charlie had done was pull you to the new activity she was so excited to share. But her hands dragged you and made it impossible to pull away and when you made it to that room all the eyes fell on you. It was horrifyingly familiar in a way that it shouldn't have been. You had wanted to disappear right then.

Yet you didn't speak up and instead let her do as she pleased, knowing that it was such a mundane thing that you shouldn't have let upset you like it did. You felt childish at having let the event ruin your night, at letting the entire situation dig itself into old scars. But still, you just couldn't stop the dread it built within you. You couldn't stop that clawing feeling of trying to escape your own body. Of escaping the phantom feeling of drag and pull and the expecting eyes that felt almost as if they'd burn you alive.

It didn't take long before the feeling began to sting your eyes with tears. It was at that point you knew there would be no sleeping tonight. So you finally gave up trying, sitting up in your bed as you wiped away the tears that hadn't been given the chance to fall. You quickly composed yourself, as you were just so great at doing by this point, and tossed on a warm robe before leaving your room. You glance at Angel's door when you do.

You contemplate for a brief moment if you should wake him, though you quickly decide against it. He was tired enough as it was with the shit he had to deal with on the daily, he didn't need you keeping him up on top of that. So you turned down the hall, making sure to remain quiet so as not to disturb anyone.

You needed a distraction, something to get your mind off everything. To numb that horrible feeling. You find that nothing calls your name quite like the sound of a drink and so you navigate the many halls until you find yourself at the hotel bar.

As you suspected, the place was barren and silent. You have no problem getting behind the bar and making your own drink as it most certainly wasn't your first time. You note that you should probably try to keep the place tidy while you're at it, but decide that you'll do so after you enjoy the sweet relief at the bottom of a glass.

And, for a few short moments, you do. The warm, burning feeling spreads through your chest and purges the shivers right on out of you. But it doesn't last after the drink is finished and the silence truly sets in. So you pour yourself another, trying to chase any semblance of peace.

“Can't sleep?” A voice asks from behind you, nearly scaring you off of the barstool as you whip around to see who it was. You're surprised to see Husk of all people, even more surprised to see something that might resemble concern show on him. But you soon calm, giving a nod to him before turning back around.

“Nope…you too?” You ask, catching him rounding his way to the other side of the bar as you do.

“I prefer nights. A lot more peaceful, especially in this place” you acknowledge his comment with a hum before turning back to nursing your drink.

There is a silence between the two of you for a good few minutes. He cleans around for a while and you try to let your emotions leave you with every sip. It isn't long before you poor a third and you try to ignore the fact that this isn't helping.

It's when you go to pour your fourth drink that he stops what he's doing. You try to ignore him and whatever he's deciding to do with his time, but it becomes harder when he leans on the bar in front of you.

“That’s not gonna help you” He states plainly, your eyes turning to glance at him. There's a brief moment where you attempt to pull your facade back up. Where you try to tug your lips into a smile and choke out any words that would deter his potential questions. But it is exhausting and you are already beyond tired. So instead you hang your head.

“I know…was just hoping I'd be wrong” your words are quiet and mumbled, a far cry from your usually quite loud and charismatic self. It makes your insides twist to have let yourself be seen like this.

“Do you wanna talk about why you're up so late?” His question makes you swallow thickly, hands gripping tighter on the glass in your hand. Another few moments of silence pass that seem almost like an eternity under his stare. It takes a while for you to find any words in this state.

“It’s not worth your time” you manage the sentence, eyes fixated on the honey color of your chosen liquor. You hear him sigh, taking a step back as he pours his own drink.

“I'm the one who's askin’. If I waste my time that's my own damn fault” you don't like how hard it is for you to find the meaning in his tone. You can't tell if he's being dismissive or trying to comfort you. So you settled on answering with silence once more. You hear him sigh before he rounds the bar again.

“Look, tell me or don't tell me, but I at least want to hear you say something” this time you do hear an attempt to be genuine. He takes a seat beside you and you finally turn to look at him again. His eyes expect nothing, a rare sight for you. It's…comforting. You aren't sure if it was you or the alcohol talking, but you could have even been able to delude yourself into thinking that he cared. You look away again when you feel that false comfort begins to wrap you. You find your tongue beginning to slip.

“I…” you start and suddenly it's like your insides churn. You put nearly everything into stopping the pull of tears.

“It's just a bad night for me, is all. I…I’m not really used to this” you finally let the words fall and you can't bring yourself to look at him. You don't want to know how he's reacting to your words. You don't want to see just how little he actually cares.

“Used to what, exactly?” he pries further, asking for more. The flood gates were already open and there was no use in trying to shut them now.

“The way everyone is just so comfortable with each other- the way that I almost feel comfortable. It was easy with Angel; both of us in the same shit situation with no one else to lean on but each other. But nobody needs something from me here, nobody's trying to take anything- they don't want anything! And it- I just-...” your hands shake, your breath becoming unsteady. It's been so long since you felt this pathetic.

“I don't think I'm supposed to be here” you admit as your voice wavers. You try to steady your breath and calm yourself. It wasn't safe to be this vulnerable, it was stupid.

“I get it” his words stop your thoughts immediately. You're left reeling from the whiplash and expecting that he must have grown a second head that speaks only lies. But it's just him as he stares down at his now half-empty drink, no second head in sight. There's a look of contemplation on his face that you can see even as he keeps his eyes on the glass. A moment later he speaks again.

“When you've spent so long getting used to people treating you like shit it can be hard to accept when someone doesn't. Makes it feel like they're lyin’, like they're just waitin’ for the moment to hurt you the worst” his words quickly hit a deep part of you, knocking at known insecurities you had long since buried as deep as you could.

“Makes you paranoid too, always checking your back for snakes. Gets harder to believe anyone; harder to care about anyone a lot of the time. And so you stop caring, and suddenly it stops hurting as much” his continued words only dug deeper, tugging away at your walls like they were wet paper. When his eyes finally meet yours again you are surprised to see them soften. There isn't pity in them, nor a look that makes you feel as childish as you felt before talking to him. Instead, you are met with a knowing stare, one that says he understands this feeling all too well.

“But the thing is that doesn't mean you feel any better. Makes the suffering pointless if you don't try to let the good in too. You gotta make it mean something” he doesn't look away from you as he says those words and you can't bring yourself to turn away either. You don't want to. Because he's saying everything you needed to hear and you can't find any reason not to trust that he doesn't know exactly how this feels. That he isn't speaking directly from the heart. Your dread turns to a sinking sort of comfort. The kind only broken people could give when they reach out and pull each other from the dark. It's the most seen you've ever felt.

You feel the tears finally well in your eyes but you can't help but smile at him, a sad laugh escaping you.

“Of all the people I expected to give me a pep talk I gotta say, you weren't even on the list” you finally speak again and there is no hiding that he's hit something deep within you.

“Of all the fucked up people here, I didn't expect you would need anyone to talk to” He offers the same smile as he hand you a napkin. You take it without complaint and quickly calm your tears with deep breaths, wiping away the strays that fell. There's a short moment of silence, but it doesn't feel as suffocating anymore. In fact you almost feel a strange comfort in it now that it doesn't feel so empty. Still, you knew you should probably say something.

“You know, uh…” you break the silence as you once again turn to your drink, this time far less focused on ignoring him as much as you were trying to compose yourself enough to speak. At the very least you're able to steady your voice.

“Angel and I were going to head out tomorrow. I don't think he'd mind if you came…if you're free, of course” you invited him but didn't catch the way his smile widened at the request.

“I can't guarantee anything, but I’m not declining” his maybe is better than a no, so you don't particularly mind his answer. In fact you can feel your own smile soften at it.

Since then the three of you have been near inseparable. At any given part of the day at least two of you are off doing something with each other. It's nice, you think, to have people this close to you, to have a reason to care again. The three of you look out for each other and It's the closest you've ever gotten to stability in your life. At this point, you don't think you'd trade it for anything.

Which is why when you start to develop feelings for Husk, you are utterly horrified.

You know him and Angel have…something going on. You know they're not together as you know you would have been the first to know, but you've also never seen Angel smile the way he does when he's around the winged demon. You would say the same for Husk, but you've caught him sending the same soft smile to you once or twice and you honestly can't tell if it's your lovestruck daze or if those smiles are what you think they are.

Your emotions are a spiraling mess within you. You care so much for both of them. You'd live through a thousand hells if it meant you'd have them around. The absolute last thing you want is to fuck this up.

So you choose to say nothing. You bottle your feelings and throw them in the garbage. As far as you were concerned being in their afterlives at all was good enough. You wouldn't risk it.

However, it became hard during nights like these. When you all were giddy off alcohol, conversation flowing through wide smiles and every touch as gentle as it could ever be. It was the definition of home, a place where you were the most comfortable you could possibly be. Your tongue loose and your actions anything but hidden. Your care poured from you openly and only so much could be blamed on the alcohol.

“I fucking love you guys” the words fell shamelessly from you. Granted you were pretty fucked up by this point as you tried to keep up with them, but it wasn't more than you could reasonably handle without blacking out. They both turned to you, inebriated smiles sending themselves your way.

“Love you too, sweetheart” Angel returned, one of his hands patting your head, a wider smile spreading on your face as he did. You leaned against the bar, your head propped up by one of your hands as you turned to Husk. You just barely notice the way he leaned ever so slightly closer. But he says nothing and you can't help but feel like you deserve at least an acknowledgement of your words from him.

“I'd be happy to show you if you don't believe me” the words slipped and once more you didn't notice what you were saying. You do, however, catch his eyes widen, pupils dilating a bit. When he continues to say nothing you roll your eyes and pull back just slightly. You don't catch the way he almost follows you before he pulls himself back, nor the stare Angel is giving from beside you.

“One of these days I'll get you to say it back” you speak before downing yet another shot. You miss the quick glance they give to each other.

“It’s getting late. We should probably head to bed” Angel suggests as he stands.

“Really?” You whine mostly to yourself.

“You two go ahead. I have to clean up anyway” Husk gives his excuse and you groan but ultimately agree to the end of your night. You take one of Angel's hands as the both of you begin your stumble down the halls. The two of you are a giggling mess against each other, nearly falling about twenty separate times, but you do eventually make it to your room. You quickly notice that he hesitates on his goodbyes though.

“Hey uh, can we…talk?” He asks and, though you are a bit surprised it doesn't show.

“Of course!” You agree, opening your door and allowing him inside your room. You make it to your bed where you both quickly sit, unable to stand unsupported for long.

“What's up?” You ask, bleary eyes turning to him. You have to admit you're a little worried, but you hope that whatever he wants to talk about isn't too serious.

“You and Husk are gettin’ pretty close” his words don't strike you at first, so you give him a smile.

“Yeah. Same for you” you comment and watch a wave of confusion hit him.

“What?” He seems to almost not Believe the words that have left you and it takes you a moment to realize why.

“Oh come on Angel, don't tell me you haven't noticed how he looks at you! With that little smile of his- and don't you think I've missed you staring either! You two are absolutely thirsty for each other” Your voice is louder than you notice. When he quickly tries to quiet you down you fall back onto your bed with a laugh, trying to escape his hands. He continues to reach out anyway and so you pull him down with you, eventually sending the both of you into another giggle fit.

“Could say the same for you” Angel speaks through his laugh, though there is a hesitance to it. You can't hide the way the implication catches you.

“You think so?” You ask cautiously, almost worried as you turn to look at him, his body beside yours.

“Yeah…Yeah I do” he replies just as slowly, the air in the room becoming tense in the sudden silence. It was a longer silence than you would have liked, both of you turning your eyes to the ceiling in contemplation of the words you both had spoken.

After a moment Angel sits up a bit, just enough to lean his head against his hand and look down at you.

“I love him. Like a whole fuckin’ lot and…I love you too. You’re the best friend I could’a eva asked for in this shithole” he admits and you can't tear your eyes from him. He, however, can't bear to look at you.

“And I was hopin', maybe, if you'd like ta…well if you'd wanna share him with me. If he even does feel that way about us” the words leave his lips ever so carefully and you can't help the wide smile that breaks across your face, all your previous worry disappearing. You reach a gentle hand out, his eyes finally turning back to yours when it lands on his face.

“I'd love that” you let the words leave and watch as he lights up, smile soft and worry dissipating by the second. Then suddenly an idea pops into your head, a mischievous smile crawling to your lips.

“Oh no, I know that look. What are you plannin’?” He asks, amusement overtaking any attempts to look worried. You quickly sat up, pulling him along with you.

“Well Mr. Grouchy Pants likes to walk by my door whenever he needs extra cleaning rags and personally I think he should be going to bed” you explain as you stand on still shaky legs. Angel doesn't seem to catch on for a moment before suddenly realizing what you mean.

“You ain't gonna do that” Angel says oh so confidently. He must have failed to account for how much bolder you are when drunk, because you most definitely plan to. In fact you hear stumbling feet making their way right about now. So you open the door, catching the attention of a certain winged cat almost immediately.

“Still working?” you ask. He has to blink a few times to catch up with the situation and you know then that drank a bit more after you guys left.

“Yeah” he answers simply. A moment later Angel is behind you, peaking out as well. He leans two arms against you for balance and Husk gives both of you a look.

“You ain't makin’ it down the hall like that. You look like you're about ta pass out” Angel points out and Husk turns back to him, almost offended.

“I'm not that drunk, sweetheart” the nickname catches you off guard and Husk seems just as surprised at what just came out of his own mouth.

“Oh? We’re doing pet names now kitty?” you tease a little and he looks utterly floored by the nickname. It sends a grin across Angel's face.

“Yeah kitten, since when did that happen?” Angel's voice is even more teasing than yours and Husk seems completely out of his depth. Every word he tries to speak dies before it leaves his lips. Eventually, he tips his hat down and tries to leave.

“I gotta go to bed-” before he gets too far you manage to snag one of his suspender straps, gently pulling him back a bit. He follows, knowing he would probably fall if he didn't.

“You should stay with us for the night” you offer and watch as his eyes shoot wider than you've ever seen them. He goes to speak but you cut him off before he can say a word.

“Mind out of the gutter. We’re just going to sleep’” you clarify and hear Angel whine a bit. You quickly nudge him and he stops, accepting that there would be nothing else tonight. But, while Husk's face seems a little less horrified, he still hesitates.

“Please?” You ask in as sweet a tone as you can manage. You watch as he uses the last of his resolve to attempt to answer no, but when Angel leans down near you and offers the same pleading look, he simply can't.

“Fine” he mumbles out with his arms crossed. Without a word you tug him inside, the door shutting as the three of you stumble your way back. Each one of you managed to bump or knock the others at least once as you all did your best to make it into bed.

At some point you and Angel are on the bed and Husk is still hesitating to follow. He's only allowed a moment before Angel reaches out and pulls him, his body landing heavily on the two of you with the strings of curses that follow. You all struggled to find your spots, moving and squirming to get comfortable. Your blankets are tossed and tugged to cover the three of you until, finally, you all seem to all be covered. It's then that idle talk arrives, slurred attempts at conversation that distract long enough for you all to get comfortable.

It wasn't a surprise Husk ended up in the middle, the two of you shamelessly cuddling up to him on either side. He's a bit tense for a while, but when he does allow himself to calm down and relax he is a purring mess; a sound that is only intensified when you absentmindedly pet the fluff on his head. Eventually all of you become quiet, eyes heavy with a need for sleep and the most comfortable you all have ever been. It's during this, moments away from drifting off, that husk manages two words.

“Love you” he slurs out, but to who neither you are Angel are sure. So instead you take it as a sentiment meant for both of you. You lay a soft kiss against his head before snuggling closer and Angel does the same.

You could definitely get used to this.

#hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel husk #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel angel dust x reader #angel dust x reader #angel dust #husker #husker x reader #hazbin hotel x you #hazbin hotel husker #hazbin hotel gender neutral reader #angel dusk & reader

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Hello 👋

How do you feel about the basilisk from "HP and the Chamber of Secrets"? How do you like the book? What do you think of the theory that the Chamber of Secrets is something like the Temple of Salazar with columns and a huge statue?

The Basilisk

That ain't no basilisk son.

JKR does this a lot, pretty much with every magic creature she's got in her arsenal, but the basilisk might be the most egregious that was also extremely plot relevant.

A basilisk isn't a snake.

It's a rooster, dragon, fuck off lizard, toad thing, with maybe, maaaaaaybe, a hint of snake. It's king of snakes for... reasons.. but it's usually not just a big snake. I have never, in any other media, seen it not looking like some ridiculous rooster lizard/just be a big fuck off snake.

Then we have the movie where it's... an eel?

It's one of the funniest things in the franchise to me.

As for it knowing who to eat and who not to eat... I personally smell that it was carefully directed towards/coincidence helped out in it picking the right victims.

I do not trust in the ability of a basilisk to know the difference between Muggle-born and anyone else/care about the difference when it's been starving in a gutter for who knows how long.

Otherwise I have 0 thoughts on the thing.

The Book

The book was... the thing about HP, especially as I'm now going back to reread them, is it's not good. Now, to my hazy recollection, books 1-3 were worlds better than books 4-7 where JKR a) tried to get very serious b) the plot started falling apart as we had overarching mysteries/events that were supposed to last multiple novels.

What I'm getting at is Chamber of Secrets was one of the better books in the series but it still suffers what most HP books suffer from.

The mystery isn't all that good or presented well, as it's not something you can actually figure out, but it's engaging enough compared to some of the other mysteries of the series that it at least keeps you going.

Most of the book is filler nonsense we actually don't care about and no, Harry, I don't care about Quidditch and I never will so quit spending multiple chapters on your stupid games and I don't care that your school rival Draco is now Seeker too but we're made sure to know he's complete shit compared to you.

We also get the start of... house elves...

Its strengths are typical Harry Potter strength: the shenanigans the gang gets into are hilarious and insane (not limited to Hermione accidentally turning herself into a cat only to almost immediately after be petrified, Harry and Ron trying and failing to impersonate Crabbe and Goyle because they know nothing about them and then learning that 'oh, it wasn't actually Darco :/', Ginny going mad offscreen somewhere and nobody giving a flying fuck, Hagrid's desperate plea for his innocence 'follow the spiders boys' in which he nearly gets two schoolchildren eaten for which he would be imprisoned in Azkaban for that crime and had they been eaten he would not have been exonerated from his current crime, Dumbledore somehow arguing that the ghost of the Dark Lord was possessing a little girl and that's how the Chamber of Secrets got open and therefore Hagrid's not guilty and... winning? Off screen? Dumbledore still not getting sacked, ever, etc.), the magic we get is typical Harry Potter magic and is delightful, fun, and insane (we get Polyjuice and that debacle, evil haunted diaries, flying cars, and more), Dobby showing up just to wreck shit then leave multiple times in the book, and it's just the fun madness people love and are nostalgic about in HP.

My Theory on the Chamber of Secrets

I'm even more heretical, I don't think it's real/I don't think Salazar built it, I don't even think the founders are real.

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter headcanon #the chamber of secrets #meta #headcanon #opinion #everythingnot65

[bunnakit]

what shows are you currently watching? (shows that are airing weekly rn, no older shows)

for each one, list two things that you love about them and one thing you would like to see in future episodes!

ohohoo what a treat (finally getting to some of your amazing prompts anon, i assume its the same person but i apologize if im wrong)

Bake Me Please - I absolutely love the aesthetics of this show. They show off some of the most beautiful cakes and pastries and it's just gorgeous. I also love the way each person in the show is broken in one way or another; generational trauma, childhood trauma, dreams that feel out of reach, etc.

After my rant today I think we all know the one thing I want, NEED, to see is Shin apologize to Peach. I cannot stand the idea of Peach bearing all the emotional work for this relationship.

Cherry Magic 30 - So I'm coming at this from a place of knowing nothing about the originals. I'm really enjoying Karan just in general, his thoughtfulness, his care, all of it. He reminds me of a quote from episode 3 of The Last of Us: "Paying attention to things is how we show love." I'm also really enjoying the importance the show is putting on consent as well as Achi's care to make sure he isn't taking advantage.

I'm really going into this right now with no opinions, no theories, I'm just along for the ride. I hope we see some more cat thoughts, I guess.

Cooking Crush - I really wasn't sure if I was going to stick this one out. It's a little too goofy for my tastes but OffGun's chemistry is doing a lot of heavy lifting for me, so that's one of the things I'm enjoying. I'm also enjoying the playfulness of Ten and Prem and this cute courtship they have going on.

I hope Fire's mom explodes.

Last Twilight - You guys have seen my meta posts. I could wax poetic about this show all day long. Thus far I ADORE how they're treating Day's disability and showing how important him maintaining his agency is. I'm also really enjoying Mhok's perspective as a caretaker and the way he adapts and learns every day. I've been both - I'm currently disabled and I was a caretaker for five years. This show is so near and dear to my heart already.

I really hope we see what the hell is going on between Night and Day. Like, we have to, right?

Pit Babe - I'm an omegaverse bitch. I'm sorry, it's my guilty pleasure. One of the first things I do when I get the brainrot for something is go see if there are any good omegaverse fics (I'm very picky, we don't like misogyny or thinly veiled transphobia in this house, no thanks.) I'm enjoying seeing the worldbuilding of this show so far as well as each of the characters and their personalities. Everyone, even North and Sonic, feel like fully fleshed out people and I'm very much enjoying that.

I hope Way explodes - No, I hope we see them build more on the omegaverse aspect of things. I wanna see a man get pregnant. I also want to see a woman, just one woman, just a single one. Where are the women?

Playboyy - BOY HOWDY. Listen, I'm mostly watching this to avoid FOMO. I'm asexual, the sex is doing nothing for me really. The wet noises make me scream and throw my headphones off. I AM enjoying the mystery aspect of the plot a lot, I'm very curious where that is going. I'm also very much enjoying the exploration of different sexualities, like the hints that Soong and Zouey might be demisexual.

Obviously I want to know what the fuck happened to Nant, but I also just want to see more Prom. Also wanna see Aob become soft for Puen.

The Sign - My absolute beloved. I'm obsessed, I'm going to be obsessed forever I fear. The mythology is just fucking superb, the yearning is incredible, the action is great, the friendships phenomenal. I could go on and on about everything I love about this show. It's everything to me and I know I'm going to be a WRECK when it inevitably ends.

I can't wait for Phaya and Tharn to fuck, sure, but I can't wait for them to be in love. I can't wait to see them hold each other gently, look for reassurances in each other, and I hope they each regain at least some memories of their past selves and maybe how much they loved each other.

#anon my beloved #thank you so much for always giving me these delicious treats #bake me please #bake me please the series #cherry magic th #cooking crush #cooking crush the series #last twilight #last twilight the series #playboyy the series #pit babe the series #the sign #the sign the series #bunn asks

[romanceclub-lovers]

Romance Club news recap...

Song of the Crimson Nile

Agnia

I really like these two pieces of art with Agnia and in general, I’m glad that we’ve finally passed the stage of the plot where she’s just a “trader”, because her character and potential can only be fully expressed when she’s in her real role - a foreign killer, a cat walking on her own.

I wanted to show this moment in a skirmish with Amen in the hunters’ house, where she not only isn't afraid of him, but also acts as an equal, says what she'd like to do and where, in her opinion, he was mistaken. Despite the fact that she is currently collaborating with the hunters, she is not part of them or their subordinate, and therefore is not obliged to obey anyone. This is its advantage, one might say.

Well, since it’s going, according to the classics, I’ll attach one of its first sketches... I don’t remember what and why is indicated there in brackets, it will remain a mystery (other sketches also have this, and I also don’t remember why)

✨ Source: A. Remy telegram.

✨Art : Jenny Skog & seumpgerla

Titian

Fan fact about Titian: initially, when I introduced him into the story, I thought that he would hit on Eva (just like that, without developing into anything and a branch), after all, he clearly liked her in the temple corridor.

But then I realized that he was too good for that, because not everyone would like that, and I didn’t want to turn the players’ anger on Titian. I already saw how happy he is in theory with Herse, and therefore I saved his passion for her as a result, he actually turned out to be one of the main shippers among the characters of the country hahaha.

Art credit: t.melkkennani_art

In any case, he and Eva have mutual human sympathy for each other, I decided to turn it into good friendship :)

My sister swears every time and suffers that there is no branch with him, 0% condemnation, I myself would like to, but this is unnecessary...

✨ Source: A. Remy telegram

✨ Art : kkennaniart & enetriss

W: Time Catcher

Nova

📣 Warning, spoilers for W: Time Catcher ⚠️

My unreliable narrator, spy, treacherous traitor, lost girl - Nova.

This move within the framework of a visual novel seemed like a big risk. I had no idea how I would hide the real past and the motivations of the main character, whom the readers play as. I thought for a long time... and decided that since I killed the favorites in Theodora, why not have some fun here.

It's great that our attentive fandom smelled something amiss and followed the trail of clues and hints that appeared already from the first chapter. It was very interesting to read your theories, rubbing my hands together in anticipation of discovery. And it is no less interesting to see now such different opinions about Nova - someone instantly hated her, someone reacted with sympathy; some want to quickly defect to the Burning Union, others dream of completing the mission on the side of the cardinal...

I can't spoil it, but I will say one thing: your choices will, of course, affect the ending, so be careful ;)

✨Source: Arina telegram

✨Art: artaioru

Hell and High Water

📣Message from Yim author of the short story Hell and High Water.

⚠️ Hell and High Water is going on hiatus.

Hello everyone,

This is a difficult announcement for me to make. Hell and High Water will be going on hiatus. I hope that it will be a short one, and I also acknowledge that the in-story timing is absolutely awful. I'm very sorry to be pausing the story at this particular moment.

As for the reasons, the short answer is that it's necessary for my own mental health and well-being. I took a look, and since I started working on HHW, I've been involved in 18 other RC stories, whether that meant helping with preproduction, providing feedback on chapters, or performing proofreading passes. At the moment, I'm working on 9, and that's in addition to responsibilities and contributions that go beyond individual stories.

The fact that I had too much on my plate was an issue that had been identified as a concern last year, and I was already working with management to fix it. I'd hoped that the transition would be invisible to all of you, but here I am making this announcement. Simply put, it was a very challenging winter, and something had to give. CW Pet Death: I've talked about Ruvi, the best little fish in the world, in previous posts, so I'm including an update about him here. He was my constant companion through a lot of difficult times, and he sadly passed away in September after a long struggle with tumors. Losing him, along with an unplanned move and other stressors have made the last several months particularly difficult.

The bad news is that HHW is going on hiatus. The good news is that this hiatus is part of fixing a workload issue that will allow me, in time, to have a better work-life balance and give HHW the attention it deserves. I appreciate your understanding and patience, and I can also relate if you're frustrated or upset - it's an unfortunate situation. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I'm looking forward to getting back to writing HHW from a better place in the near future. Please take care of yourselves out there.

✨Source: Yim fan-run subreddit

#romance club #romance club game #rc writers #song of the crimson nile #w time catcher #hell and high water #rc scn #rc wtc #rc hhw

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: Dofus Heroes - Kerubim Tome 1 (part 1)

You can find this comic's physical version on Ankama's site, webtoon version on Allskreen, and Free Scans on various file-hosting websites that shall not be named.

Quick disclaimer: While I will be including french screenshots here, because it is a language that uses the latin alphabet, and everyone has that on their keyboards, all ready to type up in DeepL and Google translators — what I will actually be reading is a new fan translation in my native language, which does not use latin alphabet.

Time to quickly switch between two tabs because nobody has translated this comic into English. Yaay...

This comic has, as my fellow crepinjurgenology studies colleague @dullard put it, "thin god Ecaflip jumpscare"

Ecaflip looks a lot like Ush here, and I think it's way too malevolent. Part of the fun of him to me, is that he is an Evil Fucking Cat that looks like a cute cat. It makes his despicable actions more funny & interesting.

...Anyway, this comic came out during the run of the show, in 2013, and its sheer existence, — including its negative portrayal of ecaflip, its inclusion of blood and Kerubim's 20 mental illnesses, — is a direct confirmation of the show being an unreliable narrator story. (Though, we've been knew.)

This comic's most important function for this blog is that it will provide us with a well-needed glimpse at what Kerubim's adventures are like when he isn't retelling them to a 7-year-old child whose respect and approval he desperately craves.

The second Kerubim is fatally wounded, he gives up. Yet, Ecaflip saves him, without using one of his nine lives, just as he did in the Wheel of Destiny article.

I suppose it's one of his trump cards, isn't it?

But I am more interested in how at peace Kerubim is with death... It does make sense for Kerubim to hide some rather morbid feelings about his life behind his cheery facade, doesn't it?

It must be tiring. Losing your family, being a god's plaything, losing your brother, feeling like you have to constantly play the role of the cool womanizing warrior, and never unpacking your emotions about any of it. Death would feel like a relief from such weight.

Which makes Ecaflip's grip on his life feel more malicious.

I know, chances are, this comic, as well as most of the show, were made well before Kerubim's demigod status was thought of as a plot-point.

But even in terms of him being a demigod... I think that death would seem relaxing, despite its temporary nature, wouldn't it?

One of the main things of this whole comic is that Kerubim gets amnesia.

Harry Du Bois-ass character. Not only is he mentally ill, divorced, and has 20 layers of sad backstory, but also he got amnesia. God bless.

Yeah, this comic is more realistic and gritty than the show, but the cartoon shenanigans are still real. Thank god.

There's a reason why I think that a big part of Kerubim's character is his experiences with loneliness and isolation, and the way it makes him crave being loved and cared for, as well as how it makes him act out to get attention and popularity.

It's telling that while completely amnesiac, he identifies immediately with a small kitten, whom he immediately assumes is a "he" and "an orphan", and wants to take care of it.

It may seem like an innocuous moment at first, but "he is all alone" will become a reoccurring motif for Kerubim's mental state and subconscious in this comic, and it is the comic where we get the Orphan Kerubim reveal.

I already discussed the fact that I think Kerubim kept and adopted Joris due to Atcham-related guilt earlier on the blog, but I will take this moment to voice 2 other reasons:

Kerubim identifies with orphans and children easily. He would never leave Joris alone after looking at him and thinking "You're all alone. Like I was."

The idea of having a child would be very pleasant to someone as lonely as him. He struggles a lot with wanting to act in a way that will make people like him, and children are, by nature, inclined to like their parents even if they're complete losers.

Btw, if you follow my main, @joris-jurgen , you probably know that I headcanon Kerubim as having comorbid HPD and BPD. Because it fits. And because personality disorders are usually the result of insane levels of childhood trauma. And... my experience running this blog has so far not swayed me from this opinion in any way. This little paragraph was your Armchair Fictional Psychology Corner. This man can fit a lot of sadness and wanting to be loved in him.

Ecaflips confirmed to, just like real cats, have very good night vision.

...Aaand now I'm thinking about cute scenarios of Kerubim, Atcham, and Joris travelling at night, or navigating their home in the darkness.

(Because Joris doesn't have human eyes, as we've seen from the movie. And considering the way Grougaloragran's eyes reflect light in the Oropo ova, chances are, dragon eyes glow in the dark, the same way cats do. Which brings me to the point that, Joris's dragon-ish eyes would probably glow in the dark. Like a cat. Yeah, I am very sane, and should not be sedated in any way, readers.)

Crocosec has always wanted to have a butcher's shop and feed people with delicious food...

Ah, I don't know why, but my silly little detail-noticing from the first eps, where I pointed out that he has a meat shop, paying off? It makes me feel fuzzy. It's nice to know that the person who wrote this comic cared enough, and that it's something that was put in here with intent.

Anyway, I am about to be very normal about the next few pages.

*jumpscaring you by including a screenshot from the high-quality scanlation I am reading. Because this moment would be too blurry if I didn't.

He isn't even playing with any other kids... This is going to kill me, and not in a fun way.

The translation I am reading interprets the last line as "I would return to..." but it seems a bit wrong to me, especially considering my own research on language sentence-comparing sites.

What Kerubim pretty much says here, is that, he'd like to become a huppermage, and use magic to bring back his parents, sisters, and brothers.

While one could interpret that as Kerubim being lonely while being raised in an orphanage all his life without a family, I have a couple of counterpoints:

He calls the kitten "orphaned" specifically, which implies that there were parents, and that they aren't there anymore.

If it were just a family he wanted, he wouldn't be as specific as to say "sisters and brothers," besides just "parents," which leads me to assume that Kerubim means specific people he used to know (before they died).

3. Atcham is a Crepin too, as was revealed in the Dofus Movie. Logically speaking, if they were both given to the temple after being born, (and as we know, Atcham was at the temple, because Bashi knew him, according to Wheel of Destiny #8) they probably wouldn't have surnames, especially the same one.

4. Kerubim's unfunny joke about being the last in his family.

5. Wakfu: One More Gate's shopkeep being an ancestor of the Crepin family implies that Crepins are a real family that existed, and that, perhaps, Kerubim's affinity for selling stuff has to do with his early upbringing, before he was orphaned.

6. In the Dofus manga, Atcham says that a sword he owned, which was stolen from him, has been "passed in his family for generations", which yet again, points to them having a family to begin with.

All of this to say... What I think happened was far more devastating.

He had sisters and brothers, and two parents — it doesn't matter if the Crepin family was an adoptive one, or if it was made up of their biological mother, her husband, and half-siblings. Because they're all dead, and that's just... horrible.

A whole family, at the very least 6 people (if we assume that by "sisters and brothers", he means just two sisters and two brothers), wiped out.

...Oh, and one last thing.

7. I think that, as an adult, Kerubim did put some research into dark magic, with a hope of bringing his family back.

Just as he said he would.

....Though, as always, that might just be me reading too much into things. ╮(￣ ▽ ￣)╭

These aren't the tears of an orphan who wishes he had a family. These are tears of grief of a child who used to have one.

And Ecaflip, his biological father and God, is taunting him about it.

...I would speak on my deeplore conspiracy theory that perhaps Ecaflip himself is to blame for whatever happened to Kerubim and Atcham's family, — to get Kerubim, or both of them, isolated, and under his thumb, — but perhaps it's just me being actually clinically insane.

#heroes comic #ro liveblogs dofus #dofus #wakfu #krosmoz #kerubim crepin #atcham crepin

[ilikekidsshows]

What do you mean Adrien need more respect can you elaborate more because it wasn't the only time I see you said it

The way I see it, 'Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir' made a mistake in the very way the show is designed: they constructed a setting where everything hints at Adrien being a main character or at least a secodary character, but he's actually not. The show basically lies to the viewer about what to expect when it comes to Adrien's character. And I tend to have a pretty big beef with shows that lie to me.

The show is called "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir", Adrien's father is the literal main villain of the series, all the minor villains have a personal connection with him and his family has a long history with the Miraculous items. Meanwhile Marinette is just some girl from a bakery next to the school he goes to. The show's very story engine, the construct that creates the stories told in it, puts a lot of weight on stuff connected to Adrien when it comes to the superhero action, while Marinette's story engine connection are her feelings for Adrien, which generate the romantic comedy plots.

All the lore in Miraculous revolves around Adrien. You'd think that this would mean that Adrien would have a vital role in uncovering this lore as Marinette is the one who saves the day. You'd think Adrien's nearest and dearest being villains would be delved into some more since it's such a recurring thing. But none of this happens. Instead the show goes out of its way to make sure that anything that should be about Adrien and how he feels about it, is made to be about Marinette and how she feels about it.

Adrien discovers the Miraculous grimoire in his home, but the episode goes out of its way to make sure Marinette gets her hands on it and is the one who gets to meet Fu and become his student, while Adrien is left out on the lurch. Marinette is the one with an arc of realizing just how evil Gabriel is as she grows past her idolization of him, which might be building up to her being the one of the heroes who figures out he's Hawkmoth first. Marinette is also the one invested in Chloé's failed attempt at becoming a hero, while Adrien's feelings on Queen Bee are never brought up.

Season four ruined Adrien's relationships with every single character who isn't Marinette or Plagg and I think the only reason Plagg was spared is because they literally can't remove that relationship from the show. 'Rocketeer' exists solely so that Adrien won't tell Nino about him being Cat Noir, so that Adrien doesn't get a confidant like Marinette gets in Alya. This makes it so that Adrien will have less screen time to talk about his duties and life. The point is to make sure Marinette has more screen time.

The fallout of Marinette and Luka's relationship ending is depicted from Marinette's perspective, to show how she's getting by after the breakup. The fallout of Adrien and Kagami's relationship ending is depicted from Marinette's perspective as well, to show how she's feeling about Adrien and Kagami breaking up. We still don't have a single scene of Adrien and Kagami discussing their failed relationship outside of the breakup scene, which they absolutely had to include. The writers don't actually want to write about Adrigami, it only existed to make Marinette angst for the dramatic season three finale.

The way Nino and Kagami get removed from Adrien's support network is solely because the writers don't want to write about Adrien's relationships. They only care about writing about Marinette. I'm not saying this lightly. This is a consistent pattern in the show. The same happens in any situation where Adrien has a strong emotional response to something, and the writers sideline Adrien's emotions by having Marinette be even more upset by it or by giving Marinette something worse to deal with.

In the New York Special, Adrien kills someone and quits. This grief is sidelined in the narrative to focus on Marinette having an emotional breakdown about not being there to help Paris and then later angsting about Adrien quitting. The matter is resolved not by dealing with Adrien's grief, but by him coming back for Marinette's sake. The Cat Blanc timeline is not important for Adrien's character, despite the point of Akumatization being character development, it only exists so that Marinette can be upset about it. We know this because Adrien never finds out about it, while Marinette gets nightmares about it. In season four, Adrien gets pushed aside by Marinette constantly, and he is understandably hurt by this and quits. The episode then has him "learn" that Marinette needs his emotional support so much that he should come back and cater to her needs and ignore his own. In 'Destruction', Adrien once again Cataclysms someone, and once again the writers shoehorn in Marinette being upset about not being able to fix it. The best Adrien can manage on his emotions being taken into account by the writers is a few seconds of getting equal screentime with Marinette's.

The season four finale is what makes this writing bias obvious when the part in the story where Adrien was logically supposed to discover just how much Marinette had been keeping from him gets pushed aside by Marinette having an emotional breakdown about Félix tricking her and stealing all the Miraculous. The writers' priorities seem to be that Adrien's feelings on anything don't matter, only Marinette's. Whenever Adrien is justified in being hurt, the writers hurt Marinette worse so that they can ignore him and focus on Marinette instead. They also constantly keep information from him that the other characters should be giving him while not calling out these characters for keeping very important information from him. The important thing about said information control is that it’s always information that Adrien would do something about or have strong feelings about. It’s another sign that the writers don’t want to write about Adrien.

(This paragraph has been edited for more accurate information on the episode ‘Emotion’. The previous misinformation got mixed up because of a spoiler so now this post is accurate and spoiler-free.) The season four finale pivoted Félix into the role of the primary villain in Miraculous after Gabriel. However, in season five, Marinette gets top billing in the episode where he is convinced of the error of his ways, not his cousin Adrien, who Félix has wronged in every single one of his appearances and whose feelings about that this episode is supposed to address. The writers only allow Adrien to have his say once he’s been missing for most of the episode/Marinette has had enough screen time. The sidelining of Adrien and Félix interactions in favor of Marinette content is more on the whole "not allowing Adrien relationships outside of Marinette" thing they've been pushing since season four. Any relationship Adrien has only gets the minimum possible amount of screen time. It’s also part of a different pattern of Marinette and her feelings still getting focus in episodes that should be about Adrien, his family and his feelings, since we also had the episode with the anniversary of Adrien’s mother’s death have another confession attempt from Marinette and ‘Gabriel Agreste’ shoehorned in an entire Marinette subplot. The only time this series had a genuine Adrien-focused episode was when he and Kagami broke up, which I already stated was something the writers just couldn’t resonably exclude. 4% of this show’s episodes deal with things to do with Adrien, but only 1/4 out of those episodes puts focus on Adrien over Marinette.

Mariette’s romantic relationships in this show are really lopsided as well. We all know that it's a gender role cliche for women to always do the emotional labor in a relationship and to offer comfort, but Miraculous "solves" this one-sidedness by reversing it. Marinette's love interests are her biggest emotional support. Every finale has either Adrien or Luka swooping in to comfort her while she's having an emotional breakdown. Even Cat Walker is presented as a romantic option through having him swear emotional labor to Ladybug. Meanwhile Marinette never has to comfort her love interests because they're very skilled at hiding their emotions. This might be another symptom of the writers just not wanting to focus on characters other than Marinette, but I have seen that even progressive people in terms of women's issues tend to balk at the idea of men seeking out emotional support and comfort. Marinette and Luka breaking up the instant Luka needed more emotionally from Marinette does lean towards this former bias since Luka is allowed to have emotional needs as long as he doesn't ask Marinette to help with them. But, regardless of the reason for it, the end result is that Marinette's love interests are more emotional support dispensers than equal partners. The writers don't want Marinette to have boyfriends, they want her to have servants who cater to her needs, because she’s the main character and her boyfriend is her prize that she wins in the end.

This show has no respect for Adrien as a character. It seemed like he was set up as the secondary main character, only for him to be consistently treated as nothing more than Marinette's love interest. The writers only write as much about him as they absolutely have to. The fact that Adrien is also an abuse victim whose story is strictly about how little control he has of his life makes this all even worse, because the writers are actively removing any control he might have on the narrative as well. They're not doing this for the sake of theming, because then they would focus on his feelings about this. It's all for the sake of not having anything derail from their singular main lead. Adrien is a prop for Marinette, not his own character. And I’m too invested in Adrien’s character to be cool with this.

The thing about any of this is that if it was just any one of these matters alone, or even just a few of them, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Nothing is perfect, after all. But it’s this much stuff, and I’m sure this isn’t even all of it. It’s not only a consistent pattern, it’s a constant pattern, and it’s made me lose my patience with this show. It’s obvious these problems aren’t going to be mitigated, because they aren’t problems, it seems to all be on purpose because it keeps getting worse. Maybe it’s backlash at those Toxic Adrien Stans who want Adrien to be the main character in Marinette's place, so the writers diminish his role to drive home the point that he’s supposed to be Marinette’s support and will never usurp her role. The reasons don’t matter, all that matters is that the end result is my favorite character being treated like garbage.

#ml salt #this is basically me explaining why I'm done with the show #I still have some analysis posts I've already written that I plan to post but then I'm moving on to SPOP #I love Marinette but she alone can't keep me invested in this show #I was in it for them both from the start

[featherdawn]

overall thoughts on the book: it was mid at best. frustrating at worst.

things I liked:

- sunbeam. I love u sunbeam my girlie my sweet cheese. I don't even have much to say I just. really like reading about her

- splashtail. he's trying so hard and barely succeeding. he reads like he's so out of his depth. it's so funny. he's intimidating, I guess, in that he killed harelight without hesitation or remorse, but like. he should've killed wasp too if they really wanted me to fear him. this is all going to crumble beneath his feet just u watch

- podlight. it was also kinda funny to see him be a massive cunt to frostpaw, in a fucked up kinda way. evil medicine cat if u squint

- the way it feels like the plot is moving. we saw frostpaw gather support and evidence of splashtails bullshit. it's an incredibly low bar but this is warrior cats

- breezepelts tiny tiny appearance in the beginning

- appleshine and woodsong being cunts. I support women's wrongs

- Squirrelstar. I love u bbg

- edit: oh my god I forgot curlfeather in the prologue. she's so good. i love u queen u are so right about everything.

things I didn't like:

- motives for driving splashtail out. I do not care that he doesn't respect starclan, starclan has given me no reason to respect them either. I care that he is willing to kill his clanmates.

- nightheart. he's not as bad as he used to be in terms of the misogyny and such, but now that his arc is over its clear how fucking useless his pov is to this arc. we gain nothing from it. not only in this book, either; the whole arc. he's an accessory to sunbeam and frostpaw in my mind, and it doesn't help that only 1 chapter involves something that neither of them could witness. get him outta here

- the unwillingness to fight. this is WARRIOR CATS god damn it! I didn't come here for this "I don't wanna spill blood :(" bullshit! if this was the first arc splashtail would've been ripped a new asshole by now!!!

- the unwillingness of the authors to kill. I've mentioned already wasp should've died; we gain nothing from him living. he leaves anyway. use this to show splashtails brutality! have whoever bring his body back as a warning! there was no reason to keep him alive. also leafkit could've died but that one I'm more indifferent to.

- how the berryheart plot line progressed. it felt forgotten about in the second half, only to come back full swing. she's suddenly riverclans deputy??? huh??? why are u there berryheart this isn't like you

- I have an incling fear they're setting up nightheart to be deputy and I do not like it. it should be sunbeam. not just bc I like her but bc she shows more signs of leadership; 2 of her tasks involved leading, the way she went in for leafkit, the way that she will do what's right regardless of the morals (yes, I know they say nightheart will do that too, but recently he only seems to do it when someone else is already doing it too. accessory character.) at the very least she should've gotten to be a mentor. grr

#warrior cats #warrior cats spoilers #wind spoilers

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent, Day 1: Abu Dhabi

With thanks to @madenthusiasms for bringing the idea of doing a big Cabin Pressure advent relisten to my attention... I'm doing a big Cabin Pressure advent relisten!

No idea if I'll be doing one of these for all of them, but I listened to Abu Dhabi in its entirety (I sometimes just skip around for the "why do airplanes fly" bits) for the first time in a VERY long time, and I had enough thoughts that I did want to share them-

One of my first thoughts: it is still (or rather already!) very funny, but the rhythms are, as Stanley Meadows might say, slightly off- I can't quite decide if it’s JF still getting used to the rhythms of the show or the actors getting used to the rhythms of his writing, and it isn't exactly obtrusive or anything, but it doesn't quite feel there yet, though it does feel very very very close.

The characters don't feel quite lived in yet (which makes sense, they aren't!), and though JF is very good at doing the setup gradually, it definitely feels a bit more obtrusive than it does in later episodes, for obvious reasons. To me, I was surprised to realize that the main character who felt exactly right from the get go is Carolyn- Stephanie Cole got the rhythms straightaway and her dynamic with everyone else is instantly understood.

The other characters... I don't really know. Now that I reflect a few hours later, I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I think the nastiness:niceness quotient might not have been fully balanced yet. Carolyn was fine (with one slight exception I'll mention below) because we KNOW she's kind of nasty and she stays that way, unrepentantly, longer than the rest of them- Martin and Douglas yoyo back and forth between being bitter/petty and relatively collegial in a way that is funny but isn't AS funny as their more "love to hate each other" dynamic ends up being later, and doesn't feel as natural (Douglas saving Martin's bacon with the match-lighting was a wonderful plotting moment but from their acrimony the rest of the episode you'd think he'd be happy to let Martin drown). Arthur I think felt basically like authentic Arthur, just a bit undercooked.

On a related note, this is the only episode (as far as I can remember- maybe I’ll realize that there is another one on relisten) that shows Carolyn and Arthur at home together- which I think it was a wise move to get rid of. Carolyn's nastiness at work is funny, and while sometimes it applies to Arthur it's usually less than she'd direct toward Martin and Douglas, and the whole four-of-them dynamic helps temper it. It's a bit less funny when it's just the two of them at home- she's not AWFUL but I definitely had a moment or two where I was like "poor Arthur" which, really, should not be happening on this show lol.

Some other early installment weirdness:

Martin and Douglas seem equally good at Brians of Britain, with Arthur being the only dunce. Is this the last time that Martin is any good at a game on the show?!

Benedict Cumberbatch sounds positively funereal doing those credits... I did a double take to make sure it was him.

This is a broader one, but JF pointed this out in a Farewell Bear Fact- that the conflict is really between the characters rather than the characters against something external. You can tell from the pacing- the story arc in the episode is really the power struggle between Martin and Douglas, with the actual events (the diversion, the cat, etc) more being the grist for that mill. I like the approach of the later series better- "how do these people deal with this thing" rather than "what is a plot that allows us to see this one core character thing"- if only because it generally leads to better story pacing, but this is fun too. (I do have to say, I love how the episode is about the power struggle between Martin and Douglas, with Carolyn proving herself the alpha dog, but at the end of the day it's Arthur, the only person who doesn't care, who makes the final decision about the cat.)

On a different note- I'm wondering if there was a conscious parallel between Arthur volunteering to take the front seat in the car and both Martin and Douglas turning him down and, in Zurich Part 2, Arthur volunteering to sit in the back of the truck and being turned down by the two of them (plus Teresa)? Seems like a stretch, but still, it happened twice in a 27 episode show, so maybe it's something.

Anyway, let's see if I remember/want to continue this tomorrow, when Boston is on the agenda- an episode I probably haven't listened to in even longer than it's been since I listened to Abu Dhabi! (I'm... not the biggest fan of Boston or Cremona, but after that it'll be smooth sailing for a while.)

Abu Dhabi was a great episode to revisit- definitely in the lower 50% of my ranking, but more because there are so many even greater episodes coming later. I should add it to my rotation a bit more frequently.

#cabin pressure #abu dhabi #cabin pressure advent #cabin pressure advent 2023 #john finnemore

[itsclydebitches]

Saw your ask about Curious Cat and it made me think about how some of the new characters we get introduced (Leo, Cordovin, Ace Ops, Curious Cat) or the old characters coming back (Ironwood) are villains.

I know this isn't a huge number and we get introduced with allies as well, but outside of Maria in Vol 6, characters like Pietro, Terra, Saphron and Happy Huntresses (ouside of Robyn) don't that much screentime as the characters who get revealed as villains later on. (Ok, this one isn't a really strong point as characters screentime has to do with their relevence to the plot)

I didn't mind with Leo being a enemy for the main characaters, because it showcased Salem's influance and how through fear she can back you into a corner, until there's nothing left for to do, outside of doing what she wants or dying.

But unlike with Ace Ops, Ironwood & Curious Cat, I don't feel frustration about him being a villain, because by the time we get to Vol 7-9, the main villains are pretty much established and introduced. And with that, I end up wanting to see more of them and how they will impact the plot.

So, why are we shoving characters like Ironwood, Ace Ops & Curious Cat into the villains territory, taking up the screentime, when we already have villains who could use more screentime to get fleshed out or maybe fleshed out a villain who is planned to have a redemption and join the good guys side???

I already got tired from that fight Cordovin had with our main ones and the last thing I needed in the later volumes was yet another interesting, new character be against Team RWBYJNR + Oscar & Qrow.

With the themes of trust and working together and the whole task GoL & GoD left Ozma with, you would assume they would be making allies, while also being careful so that another Leo incident wouldn't happen. But, nope. Nothing like that at all.

And if you think about, Volumes 6-9 follow pretty much the same formula Volume 5 had with it's new characters - character gets introduced and at some point are against our main characters.

I'm not saying it's a bad if it happens in the story, but this trope not only takes away the attention & a chance to get fleshed out from the main villains, but it's been present in this story for so long that it becomes dull and predictable.

If we ever get Volume 10, I might as well assume there will be a new character, who will later on betray the main ones.

Also with Curious Cat, it's kind of weird how Curious Cat is the main villain in this volume, while Neo, a villain since the early days has less than 15 minutes of screentime in Vol 9 and gets lesser punishment than Curious Cat.

Obviously every Volume needs its own selection of antagonists/villains for the heroes to face as they make their way towards Salem. So you're right, the problem is absolutely that RWBY keeps introducing new ones instead of utilizing what they already have, not that we have a large cast of antagonists at all. I know it's been said a million times before, but having the group face off against the Ace Ops and Ironwood while Salem and her henchmen are right there, just waiting around off screen, is really the epitome of this problem.

A sub-issue specific to RWBY is how continually adding in opponents also messes with the supposed importance of the shows allusions. Lionheart is based off a character who realizes he had courage all along. Ironwood is based off a character who realizes he had a heart all along. Curious is based off a character who is often annoying, baffling, and slightly creepy, but ultimately a neutral/benevolent party. Some of the others are a bit more complicated—Robyn becomes an ally even if it was A Choice to start things off with the group against the Robin Hood figure and, frankly, she doesn't do anything for the poor; RWBY at least tried to impart a moral message about friendship with the Ace Ops, similar to an Aesops fable, even if it crashed and burned—but the only allusion I'd say truly works is Cordovin, an antagonist based on a character who, when faced with a difficult situation (how do you feed this many kids?) responds with cruelty and violence ("whip" them and send them to bed without bread).

A story is a series of choices and each choice should have a reason attached, even if—like the early days of RWBY—the reason is just, "It looks awesome." However, more often than not I ask myself, "Why?" of RWBY. Why introduce more villains when you already have a whole collection that needs development? Why take all these good or neutral inspirations and make them Evil™ when so much else rides on playing your allusions straight? Why when you have problems like, "Our main girls aren't getting enough focus" is the response "So we'll toss in Jaune, and Neo, but Neo won't be the biggest threat that's the Jabberwalker, no wait never mind they're already dead, Neo is the threat, except when the Volume's villain is actually the Cat and the group's focus is on the handful of one-episode side-characters instead"?

When talking about the cast bloat I've seen a couple of people say, particularly in regards to Volume 9, that RWBY had to populate this new world, but no. They actually didn't. Not to this extent, anyway. As I've mentioned before, I've been working my way through Demon Slayer, a series that actually knows how to manage its characters. The structure of Protagonist + Two Secondary BFFs + One Hashira is more than enough for each arc, especially when the focus needs to remain on Tanjiro. So the story introduces one or two new characters that serve very specific purposes—usually providing the heroes with information about the latest demon mystery—and they get an equally small number of details that add a spark of personality... but they're left as mostly flat, background characters; providing depth to the new location without detracting from the main cast. The bulk of our time goes towards a) introducing the arc's villain, b) developing the Hashira, and c) developing the trio + Nezuko. At 11-ish episodes (roughly Volume 9's runtime) that's more than enough to juggle. If RWBY were writing it though each arc would have a slew of new characters facing off against the heroes while the main antagonist just kinda hangs around off-screen and the fandom keeps asking, "What happened to those other twenty beloved characters that were just left behind and forgotten?"

I'm not saying anime as a whole doesn't have a problem with character bloat, but at least most of the overwhelmingly large casts I've encountered maintain that structure, deliberately, of moving swiftly through a new collection of characters to show off their unique powers and personalities. RWBY tries to integrate the newcomers too deeply into an already full story, these newcomers frequently fill roles that should be going to established characters, and frankly.... the newcomers aren't very interesting. When I meet New Character #89164 in most anime I can at least look forward to that over-the-top personality and crazy cool ability; their very existence is entertaining. RWBY is like, "Here's a useless talking mouse we're going to kill." :/

#rwde #rwby #mymetas #long post

[oraculate]

whops im a little late sorry but here i (dove, s/h, certified hag) am and more importantly, here's ko lijae, your local fuckin weirdo. surprise surprise though, she's not just a pill popping drunk, she's also impulsive to a fault, an adrenaline junkie with a death wish, and an obsessive nightmare. she's giving oracle at delphi, or she would be if you romanticized it, but it's kind of hard to romanticize someone who very clearly does not have their life even close to together and is letting that show in a way that distinctly bucks social norms. but hey, who has time for social norms when you're touched by the gods, amirite? i'm more than thrilled to be here, haven't written in a hot minute so be gentle, but her pages are here: profile / bio / connections and there's a little bit more under the cut, msg for discord!

i'm not sure what to put that isn't already on the pages so here's a little mindless rambling for you in case something resonates.

ko lijae has premonitions, visions, etc.

her family is historically shamanic and has been for centuries, passed down from woman to woman as is oft the case.

now, granted, they're lowkey scammers so at least in very recent memory "real" visions and so forth are not a thing.

not to mention traditionally in muism shamans are more focused on connection to the spirit world/those who have passed so she's not exactly on brand religiously....

so needless to say the thought process in the ko household was 'yikes'.

and if it had been truly just an expression of mental health concerns she'd have been fucked because if there's one thing the ko family does not believe in its talk therapy or mood stabilizers etc.

as a kid she found a certain idea of solace in the idea that she was probably just experiencing sinbyeong or 'shamanic sickness' (recognized as a culture bound syndrome in the DMCA) that many soon-to-be shamans go through before they are fully initiated, often that are accompanied by reported auditory and visual hallucinations.

at this point in her life she's not sure she buys into the shaman thing fully, she's come to acknowledge her grandmother as a fake, but she also grapples with the idea that there's definitely something going on with her and it's certainly not purely based on mental unrest (though she's more than happy to admit there's a deal of that going on at this point) so a part of her at least wants to attribute it to something somewhat explainable, and figures it must have some kind of genetic component that could be related to how her family ended up shamans in the first place.

in the evolutionary game of fight or flight lijae has chosen a resounding: both. she'll fight you and she'll run from herself.

a lot of that running is done via chemicals of whatever type she can get her hands on, resulting in a chain smoking habit and alcoholism.

she has an exceptionally devil may care attitude, sharp tongue (mostly at her own expense) and a deep and feral loyalty to the few people who stick by her.

honestly she gives feral cat energy, like she might gnaw her paw off if she got caught in a trap and god help you if you corner her, but if you hang around patiently enough maybe eventually she'll come around. but she's got fleas and half an ear is missing and there's scars all around her muzzle so is it worth the time? maybe not.

anyway if you've got any sort of ideas about how this weirdo might be able to round out a plot for you either with or without the inclusion of her '''''gifts''''' i'm all ears!

#LJ / plot #eldrtch:int.

[deathfavor]

@ashrifts said: "3, 2, 1..." for hanma i GUESS 🙄

Send "3,2,1..." for a new years kiss from my muse

Hanma makes no effort to disguise the fact that he's mainly here for the booze and food over anything else. Which, by all signs that he's seen, seems to be acceptable enough. The fact Hanma has bothered to show up at ALL is more surprising than anything else ; he's a man who ultimately obeys himself before anyone else. Even Tetta Kisaki cannot wrangle him into obedience. Hanma just happens to find his plots fun most of the time. His obedience is contractual to his interest. This event just happens to hold the promise that something funny might happen. Alcohol plus guys who like to right tends to make for an interesting combination.

Although, for how tall he is and the presence he carries, no one can seem to quite pin down the moment the reaper had appeared at the new years eve party decked out in leather and paired with a wolfish grin. Few really care anyways.

So he enjoys the drinks and food, and flashes a particularly sly grin and mocking wink when he catches Ran's scowl across the room at one point in the night just because he knows it'll rile up the older Haitani. It's quickly forgotten though and perhaps it's one last blessing from the old year that Hanma doesn't decide to cross the room to directly antagonize Ran as a source of entertainment. He lets him be and minds his own business.

Or maybe it's one last elaborate trap of the year.

Time stretches and melts together, and before Hanma knows it, the final seconds of the year are approaching. He has no particularly interest in participating in the silly traditions. He'd one it before, but there's little interest. At least, not until he sees who exactly has ended up right next to him. And then his mouth parts into a hyena grin. Well now, this was too good of an opportunity to waste.

Punishment reaches out, draping across Ran's shoulder as he turns his attention solely onto Ran. " Well fancy that ~ Christmas time and New Years? That's seeming like a bit more than chance, Ran. " Hanma draws out, leaning down a bit more to be closer to the other man's level by his ear. " What was that you said? Using holidays as excuses? If you wanted a kiss, you could just say so. "

The countdown strikes 10, but Hanma withdraws is arm, fingertips ghosting cross Ran's spine as he lets his hand fall away. It's rather deceptive, because it seems like Hanma is going to let Ran escape from the moment. It's nothing more than cruel offering, like a cat lifting its paw to let the mouse see freedom but not quite letting go. Because moments later, the same hand comes by to cup under Ran's jaw, fingers holding him captive.

The countdown hits one and Hanma bends to crush their lips together. Yet for as carefree as he makes it seem, there's nothing careless about, nothing clumsy or awkward or off the mark about it. He grins against Ran's softer lips, careless to the cheers that erupt around them as the new year is rung in. The final and first moments belong to the reaper, and that cannot be changed. It might not matter in the grand scheme of everything. Neither he nor Ran view such acts with childish, romanticized sentimentality as far as he's aware. But that doesn't crush the smug streak of satisfaction.

There is the temptation to turn this into a fight in its own right - of lips and teeth and blood that colors their lips. But he withholds ( this time ) from that particular path , though that by no means is to say that its soft or sweet. It isn't. Hanma kisses with command, Sin sneaking to rest a hand against his waist. His tongue slides along Ran's lip, swiping away any traces of alcohol and pressing his lips open. ( It's almost disappoint he doesn't need to pull those handy braids to make it easier. )

Could Ran bite his tongue? Yeah. And he wouldn't put it past him either. But such risks have never dissuaded Hanma and they should both know it won't dissuade Hanma. If anything, the violence will only have him more active. Ran got to have his fun, now it's Hanma's turn as he deepens the kiss further, till his head feels fuzzy and he pulls away with a grin.

" Happy New Years, Ran ~ "

But that isn't quite where Hanma leaves it. Because he knows damn well Ran likes to have the last say or spit out a barbed comment. He expects it, and when Ran goes to say something, Hanma utilizes his height and forcefully pulls Ran forward against him to seal their lips together a second time that night. This one is a little rougher, a tease of teeth and demand before he pulls back. For a moment he holds Ran still in his hand, licking his own lips before he lets go of Ran with a Cheshire cat smile.

" There you go Ran ~ " Hanma coos, voice rich with satisfaction. "Now you're the only one hiding kisses behind holidays. "

#ashrifts #2 for 1 moment deal #Hanma's SO SMUG #who's the coward hiding behind holidays now? #not him! <3 #᛭ — [IC] death follows in the wake of the reaper [SHUJI HANMA]

[glaivenoct]

Hi :) Trick or treat! 🎃🍬

Ask Box Trick or Treat - Fic Edition

Hi there!! Happy hallow and thank you for sending one ^.^

I think I'm going to go with a fic idea for this one! It's not necessarily a new one, but it's one I definitely haven't ever mentioned on the tumblr side. ...I think?

The NyxNoct Furbabies --

I've been on the NyxNoct train since 2017, and in all the years I've spent gushing over these two, I've never been one to care for the idea of giving them kids, even just on their own as individuals or with other ships (if anyone out there likes playing around with those ideas, defos more power to ya, I'm not knocking it <3). At some point in one of my jobs I had a coworker who kept asking me really annoying/invasive questions about me having kids, and I decided I was going to project said annoyance onto NyxNoct. Particularly with Noctis, being an heir to the throne and all, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets asked shit like this all the time. And if I was ever going to indulge in the notion of giving Nyx and Noct kids - it was going to be of the fur variety.

So meet the NyxNoct kids!

Top Right: Nyx's baby, Rogue Bottom Right: Noct's baby, Reed

There isn't necessarily a set story/plot. If anything, this would probably just be a series of silly fluffy one-shots from different scenarios I've rambled into the twitter void over the years. Here's some basics tho!

Reed comes first. Noctis comes across him during one of the adoption events he's volunteering at - except there's no record whatsoever of this little black kitten being a part of the shelter's potential adoptees - all of their kittens are accounted for. He happens to be a random stray nearby, and he seems to be hungry. Noctis, being Noctis, buys a snack and shares with the little guy. He then proceeds to follow Noctis around everywhere. Later that night, when Noct goes to Nyx's place and shows up with the kitten cradled in his arms, Nyx just sighs and says "I knew this was going to happen one day."

Rogue doesn't come along until a few months later. Nyx happens to come across her on his walk home from late night watch duty. It's raining and he finds her as a puppy left in a box by a dumpster in an alleyway. The nearest animal shelter is a bit out of the way, so of course all Nyx can do is wrap the pup up in his coat and take her to Noct's place. Initially, Nyx will have no intentions whatsoever to keep the pup, but very quickly she worms her fluffy way into his heart and he decides he's not going to give her up.

REED: A fluffy black cat with bright blue eyes. Nyx says he looks just like his dad.

Noctis breaks the news to Regis with no context and just "You're a Grandpa now."

Regis is one of Reed's favorite people

Reed's favorite spot to sleep is the crook of Noct's neck. It always looks like he's wearing a scarf of fluff.

Reed and Nyx have a very playful "love-hate" relationship. Nyx often calls him "furball" and swears Reed is plotting against him. (He's fond of him tho, he really is)

Reed's 2nd favorite spot to sleep and/or perch is literally Nyx's butt. Noct thinks it's the funniest thing ever.

When Rogue comes into the picture, Reed seems to be indifferent towards her as playful as she is, but in a couple weeks he is actually very protective and snuggly with her at times. They become two furry partners in crime.

ROGUE: A fluffy australian shepherd with black, gray, white and caramel tones in her coat. Noct thinks its cute that she snores softly just like her dad.

Nyx heavily claims in the beginning that he is Not a Dog Dad, then proceeds to call Rogue "baby girl" when she trots happily towards him.

Rogue becomes the unofficial "glaive mascot" and will accompany Nyx to trainings. She gets lots of love and attention here.

Rogue loves to play fetch, but she has a particular version of fetch she plays with Nyx at times - which is essentially her running towards and jumping on him whenever he warps.

Rogue loves taking morning walks or runs with Nyx in the mornings.

She absolutely throws herself over Nyx and Noctis while they're cuddling because, hello, she would like attention too pls and thank.

Rogue has that younger sibling energy with Reed where she constantly pesters him while he's minding his own business. Reed will act annoyed, but then later that night he will sleep on top of her.

OTHER THINGS:

It doesn't become uncommon to see the royal furbabies around the Citadel, either both with Noct or Rogue with Nyx.

Regis happily refers to both as his grandkids and they are always welcomed to join for lunches/dinners.

Reed has sat in on council meetings. Noct says he's an official council member and his input is very valued.

Prompto is their biggest photographer and Noctis demands every picture.

When Nyx is outside the wall or even stuck on duty or training recruits, nothing makes his day more than getting spammed pics/selfies of Noct with the furbabies.

Rogue & Reed are Nyx's lockscreen, his homescreen is Noct smiling and hugging Rogue while Reed lounges in his lap. Alternatively, Noct's lockscreen is Rogue & Reed together. His homescreen is Nyx, lying face down on the floor. Rogue is standing on one side of him, staring down with clear concern like "dad are u ok? are u alive? dad? dad pls". Meanwhile, Reed is perched on Nyx's butt and staring directly at the camera. The context of the photo? Don't ask, just know it's one of Noct's favorite pics and Nyx hates him for it.

There are also nights where they all fall asleep together in a big cuddle pile. Nyx laying on his back while Noct curls up at his side, Reed curled into the crook of Noct's neck and Rogue at Nyx's side with her head on his belly. They are one happy little family <3

Sorry this one got a little lengthy!

#fic asks #nyxnoct #nyxnoct furbabies

[semper-legens]

37. Starter Villain, by John Scalzi

Owned: No, library Page count: 262 My summary: Charlie is a substitute teacher. Recently divorced, no money, and his only companion is his cat. When his estranged billionaire uncle dies, it's barely on his radar. Until, that is, he gets a mysterious request to attend his uncle's funeral, and assassins show up to stab his corpse. Now he's embroiled in the world of villainy, and there's no going back. Not while the dolphins are striking, at least... My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

I can't actually remember why I reserved this book. I think it was something I saw online and thought could be fun - a story about a man who suddenly inherits his reclusive uncle's business, only to find out that said uncle was a villain by trade and owns a volcano lair on a private island. What's not to love there? This kind of genre isn't usually my bag, but I came away from this book more enamoured than I thought I was going to be. Sentient cats, unionised dolphins, the secret lives of the wealthy and evil…there was a lot going on here, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Our protagonist is Charlie, a thirty two year old admitted loser working as a substitute teacher after a divorce and falling out of his career as a business journalist. He's affable, snarky, largely in over his head, but warm-hearted and very likeable. Sure, he's a bit of a standard protagonist for this sort of genre, but when he starts actively taking charge and making decisions towards the midpoint of the book, he shows a lot of vibrancy and wit. And he's got his human sides, too. He's genuinely caring to Hera, his cat, he makes concessions to the striking dolphins that get them to listen to him and the company, and he cares about human life and about the downtrodden underclass. When he's in a burning hotel, he goes back for Hera. When confronted with the idea of killing a CIA agent, he's vehemently against it. And when the time comes for a supervillain showdown, he's careful to evacuate the civilians and minimise damage as much as he can. He cares, and that endeared me to him.

So yeah, about those cats and dolphins and such. The worldbuilding for this book is very much James Bond levels of villainy. Charlie's uncle engineered cats and dolphins with a human level of intelligence to use as spies and agents. The reality of this is that they're still treated like animals, which is unfair and unethical for a sapient species, and the book doesn't shy away from that! What was interesting was that, for all the book uses Bond gadgets and similar such nonsense, it was all in a realistic enough way that I could totally buy that this is just what rich men do behind the scenes. Are you telling me that you can't see Elon Musk with a Bond villain business and a volcano island? Exactly.

The plot in and of itself…like I said, this genre isn't really my thing, but it kept me engaged throughout. There's conspiracies within conspiracies regarding the secret league of villains that Charlie's uncle belonged to, and he's been thrust in at the deep end. The various villains are broke and need access to a cache of stolen artworks Charlie's uncle had on the island - Charlie's happy to give them over, as they were stolen by the Nazis and he wants nothing to do with them, but he has to outmaneuver the others who definitely want him dead over it. While also, you know, not enabling horrible rich men any more than they already are. In the words of the prophets, the plot starts coming and it doesn't stop coming, but I think that's to the book's benefit - keeps the action going and keeps the tension very well, while also managing to have enough downtime to properly humanise and characterise its characters. I had fun, and I'd definitely recommend it!

Next up, something from real life - a defector's tale.

#Starter Villain #John Scalzi #bookblr #book blog #book blogger #4

[koreanpepamadrigal]

hi y'all! happy opening 🎉 as a housewarming gift, i (yun, 20+, s/h) bring what the cat dragged in: miss KYUNG SEOYOUNG, your friendly neighbour grad student ta who you see more than the actual professor.

more under the cut, with both ims & discord available for plotting upon request! like this 4 plotting, and i'll come say hi! ♡

pre-sua: much like her parents, she stays unregistered. they're living a nice cushy life parading as humans, and they want the same for seoyoung. tell her to keep her mutation a secret, and she'll do fine.

and yk what, they're right! she's living the life! gets into her dream university after she graduates from high school, and even manages to date a nice guy!

and well…. attitudes towards mutants are changing. she lets him in on her little m-word secret, and everything's peachy keen- till she gets an internship and he doesn't.

that's when he lets slip to their school that she's a big bad. she's kicked out of the university, the government's on her ass, and it's on top of the news cycle for a week.

she spins it as best as she can; a dumb, silly girl who was of course getting around to registering when questioned by the relevant authorities--- it's not her fault she found out during finals season! there's interest in the case, and she capitalises off it in hopes the attention will mean lesser repercussions. she's just a girl who wanted to live a quiet normal life like everyone else, ok? :(

girlbossed, gaslit and gatekept (from university)

goes to show that dating men is probably the worst thing you can do to yourself

'lying is ok if it gets you what you want' - seoyoung, probably

anyway, sua opens its doors shortly after, and she gets back on track! she's more than happy to take the patch rash in exchange for a degree, thanks.

currently, she's pursuing a phd in one of sua's labs and regretting it... she's determined to stick it out, though, simply out of spite. her advisor may be the worst person to walk the face of the earth, but seoyoung's absolutely not giving her the satisfaction of quitting

for plotting's sake, i'll keep the classes she tas for pretty vague-- if they take a science class/lab, let's gaurrr. staff shortages also have her covering for unrelated classes, so it's really a toss-up re: whether she actually knows the content or not.

if u've read this far... send me a welcome msg w/ a science class ur muse would take and we can figure it out from there... i'll even throw in a funny seoyoung-esque email reply... ooo u wanna message me so bad 🌀🌀🌀

emails students back at 5am. uses emojis and thinks ‘😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭❓❓❓❓❓’ constitutes a proper reply. has fucky signoffs- if you ask her a dumb question, expect a: Why?, Kyung Seoyoung

serious serious ‘Sent from my iPhone’ energy

please don’t talk to her, she has no self control and will talk to you for 4h instead of getting work done.

is also a ra at yellow hall. if it comes down to the resident vs her free housing? she's picking the housing every time. doesn't care that much, though. just don't fuck around during her rounds and she'll close an eye to whatever.

takes weather-related requests and charges an arm and leg for it. if you want your first date to be sunny, be prepared to cough up for it per hour.

always tired, but also always awake.

will never miss an offer to drink and bitch about her advisor, and is quite possibly landsliding towards alcoholism.

connection ideas: late 20s and up squad... / undergrads who love her as a ta / undergrads who hate her as a ta / yellow hall residents / someone who pissed her off and is now being rained on 24/7 / someone who really wants x weather but isn't willing to/can't cough up the $$ to make it happen... they WILL be bothering her for it tho!

#nm:intro

[yusuke-of-valla]

From the perspective of Persona 5 Royal as a standalone story I'm not necessarily against the ambiguity of what exactly happened with Akechi. I actually like it, there's lots of room for interpretation! The Third Semester had a sort of dream logic to it which fit well with how the cognitive world was bleeding into reality. I like the idea of Akechi being a sort of Schrödinger's cat. Is that actually Akechi or just Joker's mind playing tricks on him? If he survived, how? Was that Akechi or was it not? Will Joker and Akechi ever meet again or will they simply remain individuals who changed each other forever only for their paths never to cross again, with Joker forever unsure of Akechi's survival or even what happened to the boy he cared about enough to change reality? The open-endedness of Akechi's story as it relates to Joker isn't bad to me.

However it does cause a lot of problems for any Persona 5 game that happens afterward the 3rd semester which by its nature needs to have a canon answer to all of this if they want to bring back popular character Akechi (which is probably why Strikers apparently takes place in the timeline of the OG Persona 5 and not Royale). And the similarly "are they actually brought back to life or merely mental constructs?" question that the other back-from-the-dead loved ones in the 3rd semester raise are far easier to brush aside since their status as dead is never in question with incentive to bring them back for a later instalment of the series. I personally don't have much faith in Atlus explaining it in a compelling way that makes sense though.

Honestly, if you ask me everyone acts like Akechi is dead because Joker believes it. His wish is predicated on the belief that Akechi IS dead which is the information Maruki is acting on and the world then shapes itself to accommodate and with his memories so fuzzy, why should Akechi believe any different? Not to mention how Akechi's cognition of himself and the world might also have an impact on the evidence, Maruki's own perception, and his conclusions. But the choice still matters because Joker and Akechi were willing to make that choice even if it resulted in Akechi being dead, not necessarily that it ends with Akechi dead.

Yeah, basically. As a stand-alone story it's fine, and my issue with Akechi's death being a cop out is more along the lines of "by the fucking FOURTH fake out death (fifth if you count Joker's), it starts getting really annoying" than it being bad conceptually

But the problem is it's part of a series that has Spin-off games that continue the story, and like they should have known people would expect a follow up come Royal.

So really they shot themselves in the foot with that final cutscene because while I do find it annoying that people will go "where's Akechi?!" At every new thing, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to, you know, expect the very deliberate dangling plot thread to get addressed? From a very deliberate standpoint, why would you show him the way you did if it isn't supposed to be a sequel hook (because yeah the blocking of that shot is very deliberate "hey look at this")

It's not like this was originally gonna be stand alone story and then it got unexpectedly popular so you made a sequel, and now have to answer a question so plot can happen

Idk maybe it annoys me so much because to me at least it's SO blatantly stringing fans along I'm kind of offended on principle. Like you made your bed fucking lie in it, don't dance around it like cowards

#this is probably another case of alto can't turn off writer brain so I'm more interested in the decisions the authors make than this being #a coherent thing in and of itself #alto replies #persona 5 critical