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onehundredandeleventropicalfish · 2 years

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getting emotional about the last issue of sandman again (cw for major comic spoilers, discussion of suicidal thoughts)

because like. so we learn pretty early on what dream's deal with shakespeare was, allowing him better access to his creative potential in return for two plays, and we know this because we get midsummer night's dream, which was commissioned by dream for the actual titania as a parting gift before the faeries left earth forever

but we don't learn the second play until right at the end, after dream is dead, after the funeral, after sunday mourning and exiles, both of which make really beautiful endings to the story in their own right

the second play is the tempest. and there's a lot of the play that neil gaiman quotes in this issue, but i'll focus on the specific two that shakespeare reads aloud

the first is our obvious one - prospero's address at his daughter's wedding.

Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air. And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

it's a beautiful passage, and exactly what to put at the end of this story - prospero is reminding everyone that stories are just stories, they aren't real and can't hurt anyone, but also they are the one thing that lives forever. humans are shaped and formed by our dreams, by our stories, we come from them, and in the end, we return to them.

now, prospero is the character we focus on in this issue. because there's a three-way parallel here between dream and prospero and shakespeare himself.

dream and shakespeare have both lost their sons, were both irreparably changed by that. both regret decisions they've made in their lives, and wish to leave the path they've found for themselves, but don't feel they can - their responsibilities are too great, they have no choice but to be what they were born to be. both wonder what might have happened in a world where things were different, but they know that could never have been

and prospero is the balm to that. prospero has made mistakes in his life, he's in several ways the antagonist of this story, but at the end, he gets to put it all aside. his daughter lives, and is happy. he gives up his magic - the source of his power, but also his suffering - and abandons his role, leaves the island he'd been ruling for decades. and this is his happy ending.

when shakespeare asks dream why this play, why he wanted that ending, instead of some great tragedy or drama, something more fit for a king, dream responds "because i will never leave my island."

and we see throughout the issue that that was personal to shakespeare too, it was a wish fullfilment for both of them.

but then we get to the epilogue, the second quote i'm focusing on. because shakespeare doesn't know how to end the play, until he has that conversation with dream.

this is the tempest's epilogue, in full:

Now my charms are all o'erthrown/And what strength I have’s mine own/Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true/I must be here confined by you/Or sent to Naples. Let me not/Since I have my dukedom got/And pardoned the deceiver, dwell/In this bare island by your spell/But release me from my bands/With the help of your good hands.

Gentle breath of yours my sails/Must fill, or else my project fails/Which was to please. Now I want/Spirits to enforce, art to enchant/And my ending is despair/Unless I be relieved by prayer/Which pierces so that it assaults/Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardoned be/Let your indulgence set me free.

like most shakespeare epilogues, it's a direct address to the audience, talking about the play. prospero is asking forgiveness from the audience for all he did wrong, but then reminding them that he's only human, don't we all want to be forgiven? and after all, all of this was just a story. he only wanted to create something for you. so applaud the ending, tell him it was worth it, and only with your permission can he finish the story, and finally leave.

and that's the thing, about dream's particular brand of suicidal thoughts. being dream of the endless has been weighing on him for centuries, if not millenia, he longs for an escape, but he knows he can't. when they see it's breaking him his siblings try and convince him to leave, like destruction did, but it's not in him to abandon the dreaming like that.

and that amount of responsibility, of staying alive because you owe it to other people - it's a relief, then, when a battle comes along that's too great for you to face, but there's also a lot of guilt in it. because he gave up. and he knows he did. letting the kindly ones win was the most selfish decision he's ever made

and you might say, well, he's dead, he doesn't have to face it, but that's not wholly true. because all three of the last issues deal with some version of dream after death.

there's the dream of him hob has in sunday mourning, which isn't the true dream, he's dead, except of course it is dream, because he was only ever made of dreams anyway, so does it really matter whether it's real or not?

in exiles the protagonist talks to both morpheus and daniel in the desert, and for dream this was two very different time periods, but to the man crossing the desert, they happened simultaneously, so if time can be warped like that in dreams, who's to say that the ripples of morpheus won't continue long into the future?

and then we have the tempest. dream has appeared after death as a dream, as a mirage, and finally, in perhaps his truest form, as a story.

when dream said he will never leave his island, shakespeare reminds him that all men can change. and this is the fatal flaw of dream - he doesn't see himself as a man, as a person, as anything but the entity which must fulfill his function. he tells shakespeare that men have stories, men change - he does not

and when we end this entire 75 issue run with the epilogue from the tempest, dream is prospero. even after death he's still reckoning with the guilt of making that decision. even now, he won't allow himself that freedom.

and that's the reminder, that all of this was just a story - dream's story. the reader is a character in sandman, all of this was created for us. did he manage to create something beautiful enough, despite the pain? can he be forgiven for the decisions he made along the way? if eventually he gave up, does that make all the time he fought so hard for meaningless?

and he can't be free of the story until we answer that all important question - was it worth it?

to which the answer can only be of course it was.

#you did good kiddo. take your rest. it's okay #interestingly enough the tempest isn't the only play that refers to the afterlife as a dream #hamlet does too (which you know is the piece inspired by shakespeare's dead son)#but that's just me and my shakespeare nerd #i've won literal monetary awards for my writing on shakespeare but here i am rereading sandman and crying #so you all get to cry too #neil gaiman you madman give me your writing talents #the sandman #sandman comic spoilers #dream of the endless #....it feels weird to tag shakespeare in this #wake #mine #meta #suicide tw

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seventeenlovesthree · 7 months

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SPOILER HEAVY REVIEW/FIRST IMPRESSIONS/META FOR DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02 THE BEGINNING MOVIE

So I had the privilege to watch the movie on release day and I have thoughts. Very unfiltered and out of order and knowing myself, my opinion will definitely change upon discussing, contextualizing and rewatching it, but... I need to get that first impression out of my system, maybe already link it with a few things we've previously known. So the following text will go through my experience in the cinema, the course of the entire movie and my personal opinions, so...

READ THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, BECAUSE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. LOTS OF THEM. ALL OF THEM.

(A/N: There will also be trigger warnings about child abuse and violence/gore/blood, so again, please be warned and read cautiously if you choose to do so.)

Alright, first of all, this was one of the special screening events all over Germany and, obviously, the majority of people who watched alongside my friend and me were nerds around my age. Those who used to watch the German dub back in the day - which was just a wonderful experience in general. The cinema wasn't completely sold out, but there were still lots of people! And I was there in my pseudo-Hikari costume nobody recognized, heh.

Before the screening, the event - hosted by KSM, who are responsible for the German dub - held a little trivia quiz! Which was pretty neat, they had questions like "What does Digimon stand for?", "What year did the plot of Digimon Adventure take place, when was 02?", "How many Tri movies are there?", "How many Digimon seasons exist in sum?", "What is te production company of Digimon called?", "What does the title of the first Tri movie - Saikai - mean in German?", "What is the first theme song called in Japanese?"

(The season number was a trick question since they said, including Tri as separate season may or may not count, but I had issues with this one too. And I had actually forgotten what "Saikai" meant...)

They handed out Blu-Ray copies of Kizuna for the right answers - and I actually won one by answering when the German dub of Adventure aired in Germany for the first time correctly. Good old 2000... I'll never forget that.

Then the movie started - I still don't really know how to go about this, so again, excuse the looseness of my rambling;

First of all, the German subs were okay, but once again a little loose and too quick/not accurate here and there. For example, when Tailmon audibly said "Hikari", the subs said "You are right". Not to mention that you HEARD them use the Japanese names, but the subs used their English dub names.

In the scene that was already shown to audiences last year, Takeru was talking about Koushirou not getting enough sleep and Hikari added that when she called Taichi, he scolded her since he was busy. The German subs outright skipped Hikari saying "Onii-chan", and made her just say "he". So... It sounded like she, too, was referring to Koushirou. Very weird...

Okay, to the stuff we haven't known yet!

If you asked me what this movie was about, I'd probably say: It's a story of child abuse and the consequences of miscommunication (and wishes). In several directions. And oh boy, the meta analysis to be written about this will take a while to conduct, because while the stuff appears to be "pretty on the nose" on surface level, it definitely CAN go deeper. The third theme of the movie is "the power of friendship" - and water is wet, obviously!

So we know about the giant Digiegg in the sky that has been floating there for a week. There is the message "Everyone should have friends and a Digimon partner" displayed on all kinds of screens. We see that Taichi and Koushirou are doing PR work while the 02 kids are hanging out in Daisuke's (employers') ramen restaurant until they see Rui on TV climbing Tokyo Tower, holding a Digivice. So they rush to save him as he falls - just to be greeted with annoyance and ignorance.

He tells them that he killed his own partner, that partnerships between humans and Digimon are a curse and should not exist. Miyako can't accept that and tells Hawkmon to stop him before he can leave.

So Rui goes: "Ah, how obedient. You are doing what you're told without questioning it and you probably like it that way."

We can tell - there is baggage there. Lots of baggage.

They later learn that the Digiegg may be Rui's partner after all - and since he claims that he climbed up there to talk to it, Daisuke is obviously super fired up ("You have balls, I like that", the cinema laughed out loud) and wants to help.

So of course he drags his boyfriend Jogress partner with him and they fly up there with Paildramon - just to get attacked by the egg and fall into a portal to travel back in time. What follows is them seeing Rui's backstory. And once they're back, he elaborates on it further.

At some point, my friend nudged me and asked me the following: "Do you also feel like you're watching Madoka Magica?"

Yes. Yes I did. 300%. I already assumed it'd be the case, since I initially thought Rui would be a time-jumping Homura and Ukkomon just another version of Kyubey. They even share lots of visual cues respectively, so it was not unlikely to happen, right?

... I was only half wrong there. Rui is not (intentionally) able to jump through time at this point. And it's actually not the kind of multiverse story I initially expected. (Even though there WILL be a change in the timeline, but we will get to that later.)

Ukkomon - is definitely Kyubey though. It appears in front of Rui on his 4th birthday. Which is on February 29 1996, meaning he is a leap year child. The Hikarigaoka incident took place a year prior - but he wasn't part of it.

TW Child Abuse

Rui lives in Hikarigaoka too. He's coming from an abusive household - his father is in a coma, and his mother may or may not have developed a bipolar disorder due to the stress, because she can be sweet one moment, and snaps completely the next, screams at him. Rui has marks of physical abuse all over his body and appears rather ruffled and malnourished... So when he accidentally wets himself on his birthday, his mother throws him out into the snowy cold of the night, half-dressed, to punish him. It's jarring to watch.

He wishes so badly for things to change. To have friends. To be protected from harm.

That's when a Digiegg appears in front of him - and Ukkomon hatches, asking about his wish and a digivice appears. He is, in this case, the first child to be partnered with a Digimon.

A Digimon that is capable of fulfilling wishes. Because it is connected with a godlike entity... Where have we heard THAT before...?

So what happens? Rui wished for friends. Rui wished for protection.

Suddenly, his mom starts being nice to him again. His dad wakes up from the coma. He has his Digimon by his side, who protects him from bullies and every type of harm. All Ukkomon says it wants is for Rui to be happy. To make him smile. To make sure to make him lots of friends who are just like him. That's all that matters to it, obediently following the initial idea, literally without questioning.

If you watched Madoka Magica (and also lots of other media that involve wish fulfillment, including Miraculous Ladybug), you know that there is always a price to be paid for wishes. And that you need to be VERY careful with how you word your wishes.

It all falls apart in 2003. What happens in 2003? Diablomon strikes back. Literally. The events are shown on television, we see Omegamon fighting Armageddomon - and Ukkomon explains to Rui how happy he can be that all these kids out there are fighting and willing to die for him specifically... Because... They became Chosen Children because of Rui's wish. Ukkomon enabled their partnerships to make "lots of friends who are just like you, having their own Digimon" - and Rui is horrified by the idea. It can be assumed that Ukkomon granted the "wish" in unity with Homeostasis (as deducted by Hikari at least and that will be relevant later on when we come to tying the lore together).

And then, in the next scene, you realize why Megumi Ogata voices Rui. The Shinji Ikari vibes are real with this one.

Ukkomon goes all "I would do everything for you to be happy" and we learn... That Rui's parents are already dead. They're just puppets Ukkomon has controlled to pretend a happy family life. It can be assumed that the same goes for the neighbour children who were seen during previous birthday scenes.

TW Violence/Gore/Blood

To say that the next scene is Ghost Game levels of gory and terrifying is an understatement. "I didn't know you took me to watch a horror movie", my friend says next to me. Rui ends up strangling his Digimon, trying to choke it to death, telling it that it completely misunderstood what he wanted, what he needed, what really makes him happy, that he never wanted any of this to happen. "This is not the happiness you wished for, Shinji-kun." When that doesn't work, he tries to smash his Digivice with a baseball bat... And loses his eye in the process. Fear not, Ukkomon pulls its own eye out to give it to Rui. More blood, more gore, body horror ensues as Ukkomon starts to melt away while crying in agony and disappears completely as Rui is surrounded by blood, the corpses of his parents and his own despair.

His narration ends there. All of that has happened years ago.

And I must say, I love Hikari. I really, really do. But in that moment, when she said "Poor Ukkomon, it just wanted you to be happy", I groaned. And heavily agreed with Rui when he replied "And that makes every action okay?!"

So again, one of the core messages of the movie is the subject of miscommunication. Rui says that there is no such thing as "unconditional bonds" and that "we can never fully understand each other". The Shinji Ikari vibes are SO strong with this one. The main conclusion the 02 group comes to is that they should have talked to each other better. That they should have talked about each other's intentions and needs, etc. And of course that IS a valuable lesson to take away from in every single way, but... Hikari's initial response felt so tone deaf to me in that moment. Of course she would empathize with the Digimon, but blaming the whole thing entirely on the abused kid not "communicating" properly with his partner after he finally experienced kindness and care after all the pain is just... Part of me wants to say "Yes, Hikari wouldn't want any Digimon to suffer, she hates injustice and condemns cruelty, we went through that with Ken's Digimon Kaiser arc", but the other part says "Hikari, do you remember the time you and your brother were traumatized because you two miscommunicated as literal children?! Taichi hurt you because he had good intentions, but you two didn't properly communicate - yet you never condemned him for that either, so I guess that's where it comes from and you haven't processed your own trauma yet after all." I am obviously not saying that she should condemn Taichi for what happened, but we also know that she idealizes him and that may have been her idealizing Ukkomon too. Hikari will be a kindergarten teacher, she will probably have to deal with other traumatized children in the future too, so... It's good that she contemplates her words as soon as Rui snaps at her, you can visibly see that she's thinking about it more closely. It's important to see the whole picture here - and that picture revolves around the circle of abuse. It's multi-faceted and it's important to address topics like that.

Then the egg hatches - and turns into a giant tentacle monster in the sky. But instead of Third Impact, it just created millions of Digieggs, to give each and every single human a Digimon partner. Because that was the initial wish, right...? To create more friends and give everyone a Digimon partner - just like the message on the screens says.

The kids start to panic, if that happens, it will cause lots of chaos all over the world, forcing partnerships to happen immorally like that, so they need to think quickly. Knowing that they need to stop it. Fight it. (Spoilers for Madoka Magica incoming here: In a way, Ukkomon's countless strings also reminded me of Kremhild Gretchen, the absurdly large witch form of Madoka that was so loaded with karma due to Homura's time traveling revolving around her that she turned out to be the most powerful, most devastating witch, nurtured by despair, capable of swallowing the entire planet, if not the entire galaxy...)

But... If Ukkomon is responsible for partnerships to be formed in the first place... Doesn't that mean that all ~60.000 partnerships that already exist will vanish too?

They discuss, they think about the consequences... And good old shoujo magical girl protagonist Daisuke Motomiya decides that partnerships aren't easily broken (*cries in Kizuna*), so they gotta go for it. The thing in the sky exists because of Rui's wish - so he is the only one who can solve this. Talk it out. Communicate it out.

And after some protagonist speeches and mutual encouragement, the Digimon all evolve up to their highest available level (meaning Imperialdramon, Shakkoumon and Silphymon - but they still had to show off Angewomon's new evolution animation prior to that, because DAMN) and rush to the place of the scene. Daisuke and Ken send Rui to fly into the egg in order to have a heart-to-heart, assuming that the Digimon evolved into this big tentacle monster in the first place because it just wanted to find a way to talk. (My friend interpreted this as some kind of Skullgreymon evolution, but I will get to that again in a sec!)

Thus he jumps in, travels back in time again, THIS TIME intentionally like the true Homura he was always meant to be - while Daiken act like a married couple wishing for their son to do his best.

If you know time travel stories, you also know that you're wise NOT to interact with what happened in the past. Ken even advises not to do that when they traveled back in time for the first time. But adult!Rui talks to his mother in the past, telling her that he knows she's got it hard - but that he wants her to listen to what her son has to say, because he really loves her. That makes the switch flip and she rushes to her neglected son to hug him... Hence causing the meeting between kid!Rui and Ukkomon to never happen. So Homura basically reached Madoka this time, huh.

Ukkomon still faces adult!Rui at the time and place they originally met - and Rui says he doesn't have anything to wish for anymore... Which Ukkomon at this point already knew. They have a light-hearted little exchange, talking about the things they actually didn't like about each other, finally being honest... And that they want to start over and meet again. "But for that, you need to let go of me now", Ukkomon says.

Rui travels back to the future and tells Daisuke and Ken that they still have to defeat the tentacle monster for the sake of a happy future. Of course they succeed, don't even need any new or special evolution or artifact to do that - and Ukkomon reverts back to a small egg in Rui's hands, ready to start over. With better communication this time, breaking the cycle of abuse once and for all.

And that's where it happens: The potential lore breaking - I mean, the whole thing is already confusing enough, which I will break down in a second, but...

Since the cause of the partnerships has now been taken out of the history books - the Digivices start to disappear.

All of them. Every single one on the entire planet. We see a BUNCH of international Chosen Children we've known from 02 before (including Wallace, Terriermon and Lopmon!) watching it happen with melancholic eyes. The Digivices slowly disintegrate into small light particles that float towards the sky... In the end, the kids reminisce about what the Digivices were there for in the first place, that they were a sign for the bond and connection between them and their Digimon - and that that may have been the case in the past, but that they're not needed anymore. That they don't need any device as proof for their connection. The bond between humans and Digimon can exist without having Digivices - at least from now on. So, in comparison to Kizuna, no partnership has "ended" this time.

Then a snowball fight happens between the 02 kids, their Digimon partners and Rui - initiated by Daisuke, who definitely intended to lighten the mood a little and cheer everyone up again. In the post credit scene, we see Rui fondly looking at the Digiegg in his hands.

The end.

... Wow.

Where to start, where to end. First of all, I NEEDED to check the Digimon Adventure novels again to see what exactly the Digivices were and how the process of "choosing the children" came to be. Excuse my rambling again, because I am still trying to figure out if all of this REALLY is lore-breaking or if there is a way to tie all of this together somehow.

So first of all - yes, Gennai did not know all about this, because apparently, a kid's wish caused all of this to get amplified. Homeostasis does not have a physical form, so it created its agents like Gennai - and PROBABLY Ukkomon too. Since we know the Digital World has "wish granting" abilities, I can accept there being a singular being that is capable of doing the same thing.

The question is - was the way the kids were utilized a happy accident too then? I'll try to interpret this as well as I can, but take all of this with a grain of salt, I may be completely wrong:

So to go in order: A Digiegg gets into the real world in 1995, and Homeostasis gets to scan Hikari, Taichi and the others, discovering the potential they have - since Hikari is the child that enables the hatched Botamon to evolve into Greymon super quickly, Hoemostasis sends Parrotmon to retrieve it. Afterwards, in 1996, a Digimon like Ukkomon "would appear who had special connections with [a child] in the real world" (just like the 5 we kinda thought were the original Chosen Children). And thus, through Rui's wish, the "partnership system" was founded. Basically, Ukkomon's wish fulfillment powers enabled a system based on the limitless potential (of wishes and the bond between humans and Digimon) that was deemed useful by Homeostasis for the sake of saving the worlds. A system that wasn't in place like this before, so Rui was basically some kind of "prototype" - as was Ukkomon, kinda testing the waters of partnerships in the first place. And through analyzing the other 8 kids in the meantime, their potential had been discovered, which is why THEY also had Crests created for themselves. Like Ukkomon said - they came into existence to "protect" him, so he wouldn't have to save the worlds himself.

Takeru was the one who went "Wait, that's different information from what we have gotten!?" when Rui explains the whole situation, but I guess it could kinda make sense like this. The initial idea was based on a wish to just create "humans with Digimon friends" - and Homeostasis discovered that there is a HUGE "potential" in those partnerships since Digimon were capable of evolving faster and higher. And that also kiiiiinda explains why Gennai wasn't ever fully able to explain all of this, since - it was just very hard to explain. "You were chosen, because a kid wished for it" wouldn't sound convincing to anyone upon hearing it for the first time, right? Especially considering how often that question came up in several characters throughout the series. Sora, Jyou, Ken, just for example... They had all asked the question "why were WE chosen?" in one context or another. And now I can't stop thinking about this:

And... Even though it wasn't directly stated or alluded to in the movie, it kiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda corresponds with the neglect theory too. Since - the moment Rui wanted to end the partnership, the Digivice malfunctioned and Ukkomon just disappeared. It didn't happen the same way as it did to Taichi, Yamato, Sora and Menoa - but in a way, the way Ukkomon appeared as a giant tentacle monster, YEARS after the departure from Rui, is somewhat reminiscent of Eosmon appearing as well. And to get back to my friend's idea - yes, that also means that Eosmon and Ukkomon's tentacle form are BASICALLY like Skullgreymon, the result of neglect and corruption in their human partners' hearts. The only difference here is that both Eosmon and Ukkomon had BONKERS abilities (that were both linked to Chosen Children specifically, one of them trapping their consciousnesses and turning those back into children, the other capable of creating partnerships in the first place), whereas Skullgreymon was just terrifying...

It also doesn't completely contradict Menoa's theory from Kizuna - since, again, in the end, that was just a theory. That children are chosen "because of their potential". This can be read in both ways: their potential for the sake of causing evolution for Digimon as well as their potential to be a friend to Rui. They couldn't possibly maintain that if they "lost their ways"... (By the way, we have also disproven that "becoming an adult" makes the bond vanish, because if that were the case, Jyou would have lost Gomamon YEARS ago. I stand with the neglect theory here.)

Does that make sense? I'm not entirely sure. But stating it like this satisfies my mind more than how it felt when I left the cinema. I just wish they used more analogies and visual cues (like the ring and wordings from Kizuna) to connect the dots a bit better, but maybe I overlooked a few things.

There were a few things that absolutely got me into overthinking mode, for lore or personal reasons, but I can at least accept this theory from a lore perspective.

(Edit: On a different note, I like the idea of treating Ukkomon like Menoa in the way of her being an unreliable narrator that led to the whole "adulthood vs. neglect theory" in the first place. So Ukkomon may actually NOT even be aware that Rui WASN'T the first Chosen Child because, either it really didn't know or was manipulated by Homeostasis to claim that it's true. The reasoning behind that could be interesting to look at too... Long story short: Never take anything in Digimon at face value!!!)

As for the personal things... I saw a comment on Twitter that basically went like "It tells you a lot that I didn't even have to name the 02 kids once in an overall review". Because... Yeah, the 02 kids in particular didn't actually do a lot. They DID build up on the positivity Daisuke had already spread since the end of 02, believing in their bonds and the power of friendship and everything. An interesting aspect was also asking the question of whether or not the Digimon are acting out of free will, or if they do things out of obedience like Rui said, implying that Ukkomon just assumed his desires and completely neglected itself in the process. Hawkmon confirms that he does things because he believes in them - he DOES act very obediently towards Miyako in the movie though. But my personal opinion is that it depends on the partners and the bond they have (compare that to Jyou and Gomamon and you get a very different picture - and even Hawkmon has the ability to scold Miyako, so it really depends).

But aside from that? There wasn't as much, despite a few neat little character moments that people may or may not like, depending on their stance on certain characters (and ships as well).

Daisuke will be Daisuke will be Daisuke. He's the (endearing!) simpleton shoujo magical girl protagonist with a good heart and literally nothing but Ramen on his mind. V-mon is the exact same, they share one braincell in the most endearing way possible, they even finish each other's sentences and didn't doubt their bond for a second. ("You wanna know what friendship is about? THAT is!", V-mon says while just shaking Daisuke's hand. They're adorkable.) The bickering with Miyako is a bit of a theme there - especially in ONE particular scene...

... And that is in a scene involving Ken. For Jogress reasons, obviously, Daisuke and Ken are framed together a lot - and in this moment, Ken compliments Daisuke on being so serious and focused as he affirms his trust in Rui... Only to have Miyako ask them why they're flirting rambling so much, to which Daisuke responds veeeery defensively. (Edit: I just learned that the Japanese version ACTUALLY said "flirting", so that makes it even better, they know exactly what they are doing.) That aside, Ken is rather torn about the whole situation, he occasionally looks very troubled when the subject of partnerships is mentioned - and while they don't draw any Kaiser parallels as I initially assumed, Wormmon at least mentions how he and Ken could put their divide aside through communication. Which was a nice touch. (Also, Wormmon blushing as Ken pets him like a cat in his arms is the cutest thing ever.) And then... There is also that theme about, aside from Daisuke, another person being in his sphere quite a lot...

... And that is Miyako. They have at least three scenes in which, mainly, Miyako is the one reassuring or teasing Ken in ways that CAN be read in a certain light, but they kept it VERY tame. Again, Ken is very often framed between her AND Daisuke (and there is a moment between Ken and Miyako where Daisuke literally walks out of the frame and if that isn't meta, I don't know what is and basically, I feel like they should just have made Daikenyako canon), but... If you know, you just know. Especially with her using somewhat ambiguous sentences like "Well, let's see what the future holds, together". (I already know that a certain artist on Twitter completely exploded over that scene. It was interesting though that she had gone back to "Ichijouji-kun", even though by the end of 02, she had called him "Ken-kun" already.) That aside - she is basically the tech support in this, also there to comment on Daisuke's brashness. (Also, her saying "Goodbye, trusty D3" really got me emotional, that was tough.) And her being tech support in place of Koushirou was important, because...

... It really wouldn't have fit to have Iori do that, in my opinion. Sure, he works with computers too, just like the others do - but the scene in which he types is basically just there, because the computer room they used as shelter is from his previous high school and a superior allowed him to use it, so he simply just opened the live stream of the floating digi egg. That aside, Iori is mainly voice of reason again, nothing too major. His best scene is probably the moment one of Daisuke's snowball hits him in the face - because that's where he gets FURIOUS, it's very nice.

Then there's Takeru - and he was probably my favourite character among the 02 kids in this movie. It was already noticeable in the drama readings during DigiFes, but his main role is to be self-aware and make snide comments about things like "Oh my God, we were fighting in the open, of COURSE the media/military/whoever would see that and find us, what did you expect?!". He does that twice. (Tailmon does it too, which is hilarious. Whereas Patamon is just an innocent bean. "Patamon, you have no idea what I just said, right? "No, Takeru!") He's also driving support, as we already saw in the preview - while Daiken are riding on Imperialdramon, he drives behind them with Hikari, Miyako and Iori in the car as well. I was a bit disappointed to not have him mention his brother when the subject of "losing partnerships" came up, because he was absolutely troubled about the idea of being the cause of +60.00 partnerships disappearing, so Iori had to tell him to be rational and not be selfish...

... On the other hand, Hikari didn't mention Taichi in this regard either. As mentioned previously, I tried to rationalize her comment on "Poor Ukkomon", relating it to her empathetic personality - it DOES makes sense for her to assume that Ukkomon only did what it thought was right, since they didn't communicate properly. She thoroughly trusts in that she and Tailmon would always make their bond work through communication. To be hopeful yet also confident about their bonds. And her reaction towards Rui committing perceived injustice towards Ukkomon makes sense in context of her personality, since she probably still hasn't fully processed her own experiences. It was just jarring that she wasn't able to empathize with Rui on that. Daisuke was more open towards lending Rui a helping hand there. And hey, that is a very Daisuke thing to do - just like he was the first to reach out to Ken (and Wallace too, once he noticed he needed help and support), he was the first to reach out to Rui too. Who may have acted cruelly towards his Digimon (and that is not to be excused), but that was literally the circle of abuse, applying directly what he had adapted from his own mother. Digimon wouldn't be Digimon without trauma after all... That aside, there was not a lot to say about Hikari. She got a shot with Takeru during the snowball fight (as Ken and Miyako did), but that was it.

Long story short - the movie was fine. Visually, animation and colouring were VERY nice to look at, maybe a bit confusing at times, but that's what rewatches are there for. The sound was pretty great, the horror aspects were insane, but very well done in my opinion. The pacing was... Alright, though I'm not sure why several of Rui's leap year birthdays were skipped and that Ukkomon didn't appear in the meantime after 2003, so it begs the question of why exactly the movie took place in 2012 and not before. We also didn't really see a lot of the communication processes between Rui and Ukkomon, it was just claimed that there was miscommunication, but we don't know what else they were talking about for Ukkomon to "misinterpret" Rui's wishes. And that's where it doesn't help that Ukkomon reminds me of Kyubey so much, because its expressions are hard to read too. It's also unclear if there was actually more abuse (verbally or non-verbally) going on in the back - but it's not unlikely that it has taken place after all. So yeah, for the sake of the length of the movie, that was a lot more simplified.

I also don't reeeeeally understand why they showed the full Paildramon evolution twice. (Again, they were self-aware to some degree, because Tailmon stated "Do they really have to draw that much attention to themselves already?")

It's kinda sad that they didn't get any new evolutions. The character beats could have been even stronger, the "friendship talk" is nothing we haven't heard before, so the bonds could have been empathized a little more clearly - but then again, there is only so much you can squeeze into 87 minutes. And you could still feel the sense of togetherness, so that is perfectly fine in the end. The lore aspect is still a little difficult to wrap my head around, but seeing how I've outlined it above, I can make it work. Definitely looking forward to the audio dramas that will drop in the upcoming weeks, because a.) they will apparently contextualize more (especially in regards to Rui and Ukkomon's relationship) and b.) might allow more character beats.

Unfortunately, they may not fix my biggest disappointment with this movie. I had already feared it, but still hoped they wouldn't actually do that...

The older kids got the Tri revenge treatment. Literally. The three-second-glimpse of Koushirou and Taichi is the only life sign we get from the six older kids. Koushirou gets at least mentioned two more times, but that's it. We don't see Yamato, Sora, Mimi and Jyou. Not even during the montages. Not even when all the Digivices disappear and they show all kinds of Chosen Children across the globe. Nothing. We have no idea if Tentomon, Palmon and Gomamon are still there or not. No cameo, nothing. And that really left me with a heartache at the end, because I hoped they may at least use a montage like they did with Kizuna in the credit scene. And now I am left here craving Koushirou fretting over his phones probably also not working anymore, so he has to figure out a solution for that, gaaaaah.

That last part really left a bitter taste in my mouth and kinda soured the experience of the movie, even if the audio drama centering around Takeru and Hikari (!) may also involve Taichi and Yamato, but... It was okay. For the time being, I did enjoy watching the movie and the experience in cinema was just amazing. It was just difficult to digest. Let's see when I'll get to rewatch it. And let's hope that there still will be more content about the entire group - even without them having their Digivices.

#personal #my two cents #meta #digimon adventure 02 the beginning spoilers #the beginning spoilers #digimon adventure 02 spoilers

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bonesandthebees · 2 months

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YESSS OH MY GOD PLEASE SCREAM AT ME I've read the entire thing but I don't remember where in the book each thing happens so I can't say shit yet out of fear of spoilers but I am SO READY to ramble with you once you're done AAAAA

-❄️

IM LOSING MY MINDDDD like I've hit the stage I hit when I was reading priory where I become so obsessed with the book I just want to read it all the time and it's all I can think about it's so so good

I'll talk a little bit about what's making me so insane the most below the cut - spoilers for a day of fallen night (prequel to the priory of the orange tree) below!

just. glorian and wulf. aaaaaa I love their relationship so much. I had a strange feeling wayyyy earlier in the book that something was going to happen and wulf might end up being the one to get glorian pregnant but just. they mean so much to me. their friendship is so sweet.

I'm just going so insane over glorian in general. she's a child!!! she's a 16-17 year old girl who is so scared but is so determined to be the best queen she can. her mother thought she wasn't enough and even though her mother isn't here to see her fulfill her duties she's so determined to be more than what her mother thought she would be. I seriously adore how samantha shannon wrote her. she genuinely feels so much like a teenage girl even as she gets more and more responsibilities settled on her shoulders.

and just. the way she's chained to her castle walls until she has a child. her body is an incubator and she can't defend her people the way she wants until her womb has served its purpose. she wants so badly to be more than a womb, she wants to be the shield for her people. she wants to be their protector. she wants to be their queen. but she can't do that until she continues this vicious cycle of the berethnet queens.

(also I just deeply appreciate how clear samantha shannon made it that glorian is aroace. I know she wrote tané as aroace in the first book which was great but it wasn't the kind of thing I could extrapolate from the text on my own. glorian's orientation never feels unnaturally slotted in it's just a part of who she is but it's very explicit at the same time. and I especially appreciate it since she does have sex! and she doesn't hate it, even joking with wulf like "oh how terrible we have to do this several times" but also knowing once she's pregnant she's never going to have sex again. like yes asexuals can have sex and even enjoy it and I just love the nuance glorian is given)

but man. glorian shieldheart. she's so young but she's doing such an amazing job as queen already and I'm so glad she had wulf and that he made sure she was comfortable and okay. I am terrified something is going to happen to wulf but if he survives the grief of ages I am so deeply hoping he gets assigned to stay in Inys serving glorian as a knight so he can watch his daughter grow up even if its from afar

also of course I love all the other characters too. I love dumai and nikeya's dynamic so much and I'm so obsessed with the two of them (I had first suspected maybe they were going to have something between them but I brushed it off and when I realized we were going that direction I literally cheered out loud). and tunuva... oh tunuva I love you. I want her to find wulf so badly. I'm also a bit pissed at esbar saying that tunuva doesn't feel the priory are enough, she's trying to find her SON!! I get you might not love your daughter more than any other priory sister esbar but tunuva loves both her children so deeply. I am very scared of what canthe/kalyba is up to. also when tunuva first told the story of how she lost her son to canthe I thought to myself "man wouldn't it be wild if that was wulf" and then I brushed it off bc I was like how would he get to inys. still don't know how he got there but I'm sure canthe had something to do with it.

just. aaaaaa. I'm losing my mind snowflake help

#ask #snowflake anon #a day of fallen night #roots of chaos

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jellojolteon · 10 months

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Thoughts on ml movie below the cut (not really looking for any response, just to drop my thoughts somewhere, but y'know standard spoiler warning too)

Really mixed bag? Like genuinely and truly. There were parts of it that made me laugh! The humor was genuinely fun and I loved the use of cuts! There were parts that were really great! And the visuals are unquestionably stunning.

I'll abstain from an opinion on the musical numbers since that isn't really my cup of tea and I can't judge em

And I'm willing to let rest that this is a retelling, and it's a cool take on the story in terms of what got brought back (mime guy from the pv??? Amazing so glad that got given a proper use) and even the characterizations are fine in my book, especially given limited runtime.

But I think that this movie (and this seems like a common problem in the show too, at least to the point through s3 where I had stopped watching) (and the marketing too tbh) is that it tries to do too much with too little substance. It spreads itself too thin. What even IS the theme here? Is it the love over death thing? Is it self-acceptance? So much was stuffed in that it was all tell and almost no show.

It pays lip service to the original idea of trying to put another Real Girl Superhero into the spotlight and simply by virtue of the mechanism that the agreste family plays in the story, aka them as the driving force of the plot, it's hard to handle it and have Marinette still be clearly the main character. In retrospect, there's almost a bitter irony to Adrien cockily proclaiming that he's the main hero and Marinette is the sidekick. I think if Marinette had really had her growth focused clearly in one direction it wouldn't have been so bad, but the multiple themes really eat away at forming a cohesive picture about her and her growth and cementing for the audience that she's the star. I guess the "she-hero" bit just bugs me an exceeding amount.

As a result of the allotment of character complexity, it almost feels like Gabriel is the most compelling character, even though he's still sort of flattened into a two-dimensional version of himself. He's an asshole to Adrien at the beginning, like pretty blatantly, and then explains away everything at the end and boosh suddenly everything is ok. I didn't even pick up that he had any sort of atonement or one-on-one time with the French judicial system, outside of the implication of him going to jail by trusting Nathalie with the secret of Emilie. So like. I guess the things that make Gabriel most compelling are his longer hair when he was younger and his absolute scuzzy gutter dad look lmfao.

(side note, part of me lived in fear of being spoiled of the parts of the show I haven't watched, but I guess if there were such spoilers I missed em. It just surprised me that they were willing to play their hand on Gabriel=Hawkmoth with so little fanfare, but then again maybe I shouldn't be asking so much when it was already all spread so thin)

So like

Yeah

It didn't necessarily have me staring raptly at the screen, but most of my gripes are of the same flavor that I have for the show anyway.

There were much worse uses of my afternoon 😂

#i think nino and alya and sabrina get the best shake outta this one #ml movie spoilers #ml #ml salt #(just in case!)#jello's word vomit #(maybe i shoulda dropped like 20 tags in to get this out of the search function)#(i really just want blog categorization)#please ignore this im sure my media literacy is so rusty it needs to be sandblasted

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nextinline-if · 2 years

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Long Anon Response - Spoilers Below

Okay, so, dear anon who sent the original message, I didn't want to wait to respond till Friday because you send the third message. And I understand you're reading other people's thoughts in response. Plus, I only shared a part of your previous message due to spoilers but I want to provide the full context as I think that's fairer. So, I'll respond under the cut to hide spoilers. This is VERY long! Some of the photos are long so you will probably need to click on them to view them properly - sorry!

MC's personality will be able to change more as the game progresses, because the player will have more control. But they are 21 years old, so they are somewhat fixed in that sense. They've already had some experiences.

Okay, so as for Anna, I think I've shared a few thoughts since you sent me this and the last thing I really want to add is that Anna is an important character, particularly when it comes to James. This is MC's story, but James is their twin and important to the story, too (he did abdicate after all).

Some people like Anna and others don't, which is fine. But I did write her the way I did for some reasons I can't reveal right now. Now, I've heard a few times that people don't like certain things she does, like going to F & Felix at the ball and that they would like more reactions after as well. That's acceptable and valid, and I can (and will) create some additional choices to give the player more control.

Yes, F did fuck off and more about that will be revealed in Chapter 2. Again, it is actually tied to the larger plot. I've already started writing the scene for it. Your feedback is not the first time I've heard that people want more reactions when meeting F. I actually made some changes before releasing the demo. However, I recognize that I do need to add some more there, such as reluctant, etc. And, that's on my to-do list.

As for Constantine's introduction and allowing him to call the MC by name, there's already a dynamic there of because of their positions. My goal was to make it more approachable because this is both a romance and friendship game. So, relationship building. Constantine has literally saved James' life multiple times and is his best friend, so I though it would be okay to try and level the playing field here. Then, at the ball, he does use formal titles in front of the Queen. Still, I understand your perspective and how it comes across.

I will say I somewhat disagree with your statement of "Suddenly getting mad." I thought that I included throughout the demo, MC's thoughts about people shutting them down and their frustrations. These thoughts were not always voiced, but were sprinkled in. However, I'm going to take a closer look and see if I can emphasize that more. Because the office scene is meant to be a build up to them standing up for themself.

I'm not changing the stuff with the Gods. My goal is not to give the player less if they don't pray. I'm an atheist so that would kind of ironic lol. MC will have opportunities to gain some of those attributes that they missed if they did not pray. I am sorry that it seems the player gets penalized for not praying but I'm happy with the direction of that portion of the game. I will keep your feedback in mind though because I don't want to accidentally create additional areas of the game where that feeling is present.

Yes, MC has been training for about 5 years at the compound, and there will be more about this in future chapters (2 and/or 3). They were training to be a well-rounded citizen of Castelon, not a Monarch. Does that mean they aren't prepared education wise? No. I'm going to do my best to make it so the next chapter gives a lot more choices and personality steering. However, and I've mentioned this in some places before, MC will not have a completely set personality. Like "just stoic" or "just XYZ." But I will do my best to give more control/options to the players.

If you felt that MC was a pawn, then you felt what I intended. I wanted them to feel like a pawn in the demo so that they can become a proper player at court in the future.

I didn't officially share Felix's letter because I'm thinking I will in the game.

I don't think you or anyone was trying to force me to make changes - so sorry if I seemed like I did. As I mentioned, I do try to please people and that's my own issue. Not yours. But it does carry over into my work because, obviously, I want people to like the game I'm putting out.

Yes, I did put work out there, so it's fine for you to share your opinion. And just as you share your opinion, other people will share their opinion based on whatever you said. All of that said, I'm fine with getting feedback. I believe that I can have an emotional response to something and still accept it and be willing to talk about it. Your feedback didn't upset me because it was critiquing my work, but because I consider myself a feminist and from what I read, it made me feel embarrassed about what I wrote. Again, that's not on you at all - my feelings BUT again, I think it's fine to have an emotional response to something. I am a person who feels a lot of things so that's how I work through it all.

Thanks for your sharing your thoughts - really! I do appreciate it and will be considering it as I work on the game.

On that note, my messages should be open. Or if it's more comfortable for you, my discord is: writingmysoul#6083 or my email is nextinlinegame [at] gmail.com. I'm willing to talk privately with you or anyone else. I hope I don't come across as unwilling to take feedback because I'm very happy to hear it.

#spoilers #anon reply #demo thoughts #feedback

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jayteacups · 5 days

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Hello!! I was wondering if you have any updates, leaks, or new ideas about your oc "Zheng Nüwa" or new ideas about your story 'The Creed of the Godless' in general. I absolutely LOVE your writing, and I'm delighted that there is Chinese representation. I also don't often come across AoT fanfics with an Asian oc, so it's nice to see one. Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a great day!! :))

Hi anon, so so sorry for the late response, been a little busy the last couple of days but I hope you're doing well!! 🫶🏼 Thank you for the ask and thank you so so much for reading my fics 🥹🥹 I also really wanted some Chinese representation, and I'm glad you're liking it!!

I do have a couple of updates actually!! (Uncharacteristic for me I know 😂 so savour it lolol)

The first update is that I've decided to change titles for this fic, which is now called 'Here's to the Damned'. This is the first time I'm revealing it!! I think HTTD suits what I have in mind for the story more, but I really do like Creed so I'm saving this title in case come up with any other WIPs that would suit that title.

The second update is that I recently made some cute picrews of Levi & Nüwa in case you missed it!! They're so 🥹🥹 I love them sm!

Aaaand I'll reveal a little bit of what I have planned! For context, this fic is going to cover pre-canon all the way to post-canon, and I plan to fill in some gaps that the main story didn't have an awful lot to cover. (There may be some canon divergence later on in the story, we'll see how I feel when I get to that point lol). Spoilers for my fic ahead!! Let's talk a bit of pre-canon, shall we? (This is long so the rest of this post is going under the cut!)

I believe I've mentioned it before but Nüwa and Levi are childhood best friends. Her parents ran the tavern that Kenny first took Levi to, and they quickly became friends. Kenny and the Zhengs were also business partners, as Nüwa's parents used their tavern as a cover for their more illicit dealings - mostly information, smuggling weapons, medical and non-medical supplies, stuff like that. They're separated for a while (won't spoil why for now) and reunite when they're adults. By this point in time, Nüwa's a bartender at another establishment and follows in her parents' footsteps as she's also an information broker/smuggler of sorts. Levi's been doing jobs with Furlan for a short while now, and when Levi and Nüwa reunite they're quick to form a business partnership and eventually they rekindle their friendship. Lots of awful, tragic things have happened to the both of them since they were separated as children, and neither of them trust very easily, so it's a slow process of re-learning their friendship. We know Levi just doesn't express himself easily and is a very guarded person, and Nüwa is more the type of person to hide what she truly feels behind a veneer of charisma. Girl's acting game is strong, but Levi's always had the skill of reading her like she's an open book. He makes her feel truly seen, understanding why she has done some of the more morally grey things she has and will do. She finds that unsettling, not used to being read so easily - but she learns to trust in him, seeing that he's still kind at heart and always dependable, that he's still selfless and empathetic and compassionate despite everything, she appreciates his honesty and bluntness (she of all people know how words can be fickle) and she sees that he is so much more than what people see him as. And in turn, he admires her indomitable spirit, her burning desire to make things better for the impoverished people of the Underground, the way she understands and accepts him for both his highest and lowest moments, and the ways she adapts and comes up with creative solutions to keep herself on top of the game, since she's not much of a direct physical brawler like he is. Eventually, the two develop this unspoken, unwavering devotion for one another.. and Levi starts to fall. You heard me, he falls first 😎😌 Nüwa's time is a fair bit later in the story hehehe. (Isabel is incredibly invested in their relationship and Furlan refuses to touch this situation with a ten-foot pole and has to restrain Isabel from meddling at all times.)

Nüwa leaves the Underground a couple of years before the events of ACWNR (that's a whole saga but that's not what I'm revealing today lol). Her main goal once she's up on the surface is to work her way up the social ladder - the more power and influence she has, the closer she gets to the crown, the closer she gets to finding out why her family - and the other minority bloodlines - were persecuted, and the closer she gets to making things better for the people of the Underground. At the beginning, Nüwa started by getting a job for a noble family, who once held great power in the royal court over a hundred years ago (👀) and they are now relatively low-ranking amongst the nobility. This family is desperate to hold onto what little power and influence that still remains, and are very, very desperate to get back what was once lost - which is why they resort to hiring a girl from the Underground with no formal qualifications, that's how desperate they are 😂 (The reasons for their fall from grace will get revealed in time!! But I don't want to spoil that just yet lol)

Nüwa and the male heir of this family, who's around the same age as her, strike up an alliance. (They're in their mid 20s at this point). He was actually the second son and was never groomed to be the heir, until his older brother's death a few years prior. So he never expected to have to one day take over his father's titles and all that. Also he's gay and closeted, so he and Nüwa strike a deal - they enter a lavender marriage. Nüwa is given free rein to do all the networking, politicking and business stuff behind the scenes, which will be easier now that she has an official noble title by marriage, and therefore she's got more influence - and legal protection (because girl is going to need it with the shit she gets up to on the regular lmao) - than before. Meanwhile, his parents will stop hounding him about getting married, he gets to keep living the spoiled-youngest-child care-free lifestyle that he's used to, and he is still free to stay with his male partner in secret. The issue of making an heir themselves is a bridge they will cross a little later haha but until then all is fine 😂 I promise he'll get a name eventually, I haven't quite landed on one that speaks to me just yet!

Now how does Levi feel about this? 👀 If Nüwa is already married, will she and Levi ever be able to confess to one another?? 👀 Will they get to be together out in the public??? 👀 Surely Nüwa's marriage of convenience can't last???? 👀 Is the Ackerzheng wedding Picrew actually going to happen then or is it just a dream?????? 👀 I can't give you much answers to those questions yet 😂 But I can tell you that I really don’t like miscommunication plots (so she's not keeping Levi in the dark about this don't worry!! though obviously this is way before Nüwa realises she has feelings for Levi lol), and I can also tell you that there's going to be some Ackerzheng secret relationship shenanigans later on, for a bit, because I lowkey love that trope hehehehe

Additionally, Nüwa's husband sets her up with a fellow university alumnus, Guinevere, who comes from new money and is a reporter for Berg Newspapers. Guin helps Nüwa get up to speed on the business/politics side of the nobility, and the two become good friends. It's always good to have a connection to the press lolol. At first, Guin strongly champions journalistic integrity - which will become a challenge because we know the government censors the news outlets. A lot of her arc will be her realising her naivety is at odds with the reality of things, and trying to find a balance between staying true to her vision whilst avoiding any trouble. She grows increasingly conflicted about this, especially when things come to a head with the First Restoration Expedition (where thousands of Wall Maria refugees were sent back out in what was basically a culling). Fun fact, Guinevere is the one reporting on the outcomes of Survey Corps expeditions, and therefore is in contact with Erwin a lot, and the two have some kind of intellectual rivalry back-and-forth nonsense going on where he's trying to get her to write about the Survey Corps in a more positive light, and she's just like... 'okay, make me', and he's like 'oh I do love a challenge'. 👀👀

Also, Nüwa's sister-in-law is married to a high-ranking clergyman in the Wall Religion. Their daughter, Odelia, runs away, sick of the restrictive lifestyle of nobility and traumatised by her father's toxic, abusive teachings. Odelia wants nothing more than to discover the world out there for herself, to know the truths of the world and to prove the Wall Religion wrong, and to have autonomy in her life the way her mother never could. She ends up enlisting in the 104th... and perhaps she clashes strongly with one of the other recruits whose ideology could not be further away from hers... and maybe this recruit is a particular boy who wants nothing more than to become an MP to live a cushy life in the Interior 👀👀 and maybe they will learn to grow and understand the other's perspectives 👀 and become friends as they learn to work together to get through the tragic events of the story 👀 and they accept the messier, selfish parts of each other and themselves because that's all part of being human 👀 and maybe amidst this mutual understanding they find love....... 👀 maybe............. 👀

Also also I will make a canon x oc sideblog soon, so stay tuned :))))

Thank you sm anon, have a lovely day!! <3

#mail for jay #oc lore drop!!!!#including a soft launch of two other ocs lol #and a fic title drop hehe #levi x oc #levi ackerman x oc #canon x oc #aot oc #snk oc #vesper zheng #zheng nüwa #ackerzheng

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monkey-network · 2 years

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Good Stuff: The Bad Guys

WARNING: *Spoilers*

Being Bad? Going Good? Both never felt this great.

I'll admit, it felt Dreamworks had a recent streak of underwhelming features following How to Train Your Dragon 3. Not all bad, but I don't believe Spirit Untamed was on anyone's minds last year. Then The Bad Guys swerved in and that hope is alive again. I won't beat around things, I've been anticipating this since the trailer hit and I haven't felt this way since Captain Underpants. So with all that said, is the Bad Guys good or did it turn out bad? Well, enough about Bad Guy

Let's run it back to The Good Guys club, so to speak

For an adaptation of the books, it is a mixed bag. They stick with mainly the first four books which are the most grounded; not kidding when I say this goes off the rails past that mark. They do Foxington better here than in the books; reminded me a lot of Barbara from the LEGO Batman movie. The Police Chief, voiced by Lois Griffin, is a welcome addition to the cast (y'know ACAB except Misty Luggens). The titular Bad Guys themselves are a hit and a miss. I liked that they were an already made team of thieves with a good rapport, but what's missing was their initial development from the books. You get why'd they would be a team, you love seeing them together, but it's not like Sly Cooper where, even in its beginning, you get to see the trio have their separate conversations or dynamics. Understandable because it's a movie, but still, the book did things better by having the bad guys not be as established a group and working from there. Then there's Professor Marmalade who is...yeah, spoilers ahead but...

"Okay, so now the tier list looks like this"

Didn't even need to see any spoilers, Marmalade was a predictable bad guy, there was nothing to throw me off that he would be the bad guy, I never took him seriously as a bad guy, and they don't really do anything outside make a rift between Wolf and Snake. The books did better but then again, the books go off the rails faster than this movie. Like why not make everyone except Mr. Wolf joke about him being the twist villain? It falls in line the writing of the books but doesn't take away from the scale of Marmalade's plan nor makes Mr. Wolf look that stupid. Basically do what Captain Underpants did with Professor Poopypants. They set up a better twist ending to make up for this, but the villain himself was boring, wack, and this honestly bogged the plot down to a more predictable outing. What definitely saves this from being bad though...

This movie is such a fucking vibe

Put an egg on this film because it'll sizzle and season itself with how much fun this overall is. The soundtrack fucking slaps. Every lackluster moment is picked up with three other great moments. The first ten minutes is one of the best openers in all of Dreamworks, Diane is a delight every time she's onscreen, I love that they subverted the notably cliched dance party finale, there's several moments that perfectly shows Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake at his best, the titular Bad Guys themselves are just an enjoyable gang regardless of my gripes. It's on par with the Captain Underpants film where it could not have a sequel film or series in its future and I wouldn't mind because it's satisfying enough whether or not you read the books. And the animation is wondrous, possessing an unique energy that's a good blend of Sony's fast pace stuff and Disney's more grounded stuff. Hate to say it, but it feels like a CG anime at points, there no other film like this. It's like if Lupin the 3rd (part 2 Lupin, at least) directed a Zootopia spin-off and you can see that jazzy and kinetic flair at its best.

And the art, people, is genuinely refreshing

The Bad Guys just fucks so hard. I have the feeling this'll be compared to Megamind, though if Megamind is the reserved but passionate older brother, Bad Guys is the middle sibling that's more lively but is responsible where it matters. It was a fresh movie from Dreamworks, one that builds & builds, ending with a breezy jovial feeling. It's not complex, but again, they make this such a vibe that it eradicated any doubt I could've had with this film. Screw it, I'm not rating this...

I'm just glad a movie like this exists. I’m glad this exists.

#the bad guys #the bad guys movie #tbg #tbg spoilers #dreamworks animation #dreamworks #reviews #animation #movies #Good Stuff #long post

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druigswhores · 3 years

Text

you’re alive in my head

summary: in which natasha no longer had to live in a world without you, there you were in her arms once again. but why can’t she remember your life before westview?

content warning: natasha romanoff x fem!reader, set after endgame, angst, mentions of death, trauma, their relationship ending on a bad note, trust issues & previous steve x nat, there is some hints to homophobia in this chapter :/ (WANDAVISION SPOILERS!)

note: sorry this chapter was late!! it’s 3.3k words and i got my friend to spell check and edit it, ty ashy ily <33

REQUESTS ARE OPEN! (lmk if you want anymore content like this!)

‘моя любовь’ = ‘my love’ in russian <3

‘принцесса’ = ‘princess’ (i used google translate so idk how accurate it is

SERIES MASTERLIST

PART THREE COMING SOON

Death.

It's a complicated thing; A theory.

Nobody knows what happens to you after you die. Nobody knows what happens to your soul after you die. We make things up to make ourselves feel better, and convince ourselves that our deceased loved ones are watching over us, all the while convincing others that our loved ones are in a better place now.

But in reality, those are just dreams dying to be true.

Natasha didn't know if you were dead or alive. She just knew your body turned into particles of dust, your soul disappeared along with the rest of you. She didn't want to believe that you were truly gone, so she spoke to you.

She spoke to you, thinking you were listening to her; believing you were listening to her and that you were still around.

It was almost as if she was speaking to your ghost, the mere presence of you that remained with her, the piece of you that was a part of her. It felt wrong being in the compound without you, she felt as though she was trapped; trapped with the many reminders of how she failed you. The walls were suffocating her. Every time she thought about what had happened it felt as though the rooms were becoming smaller. The large 'A' plastered around the compound taunting her, reminding her of what they lost. Of what she lost.

So she had to get away.

Natasha found herself taking trips to the beach, the one the two of you adored oh so much. She'd walk along the sand, the harsh wind blowing against her face. The air smelled of salt, and she'd take a deep breath in with a smile. She'd reminisce all the times the two of you managed to get away from the compound, how effortlessly gorgeous you'd look with the breeze blowing through your hair, your laughter sounding like a melody that Natasha now longed to hear once more.

If she stood really still, she could, once more, feel the warmth of your fingers dragging against her skin, gently tracing shapes onto her body. Her heart would ache whenever she'd turn to the side, finding that nobody was beside her.

She had to get used to living in a world without you.

"моя любовь..." She sighed, fumbling with a stone she'd picked up, before swinging her arm and throwing it into the rippling water. The temperature was dropping. Christmas coming closer and closer every day. Natasha wrapped her coat tighter around her body, staring at the waves in front of her, observing the way they'd hit the shore before pulling back into the ocean. In the distance, she could see boats, and although they were far away, she noticed how the water carried them; the movement of the ocean pushing the boat into the direction of the wind. "No sailors.." Natasha realized, her eyes following a lifeguard boat making its way to the empty boats, likely checking for any survivors.

Yet another reminder of how the Avengers had failed.

It's only been a couple of months since the battle yet the traces of you continued to fade away. The sweater that was once yours now clung to Natasha's body as she made her way back home.

She'd do anything to bring you back. She'd do anything to have you in her arms again, complaining about something you'd undoubtedly forget hours later. She missed the way you'd never share your snacks with anyone but her. The feeling of warmth that would blossom inside her when your eyes met in a crowded room. All the times when your knee would brush against hers during a meeting. She missed the way it felt to lay next to you. She missed forgetting the world with you.

God, she missed you so much.

But there she was. In the same room as you, years later, preparing breakfast. Her hair was coiled and pinned up, keeping it in place. Her dress fit her perfectly, the skirt swaying with her movements as she elegantly makes her way across the kitchen floor. Her every movement seemed like a performance; like she was the performer and you were the audience, watching her in awe. She was captivating in every possible way, her enchanting voice pulling you in like a siren.

"Good morning, honey! I've been up all morning making us a delightful breakfast." Natasha greeted you with a kiss on the cheek, her performance almost seeming comical. "Nat... it's just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." You pointed out, glancing over your shared kitchen, seeing the mess that was made. Somehow milk spilled all over the counters, dripping onto the ground, you immediately recognized the smell of burnt toast that hung in the air as you continued looking around.

"Peanut butter and jelly is your favourite, remember?" Natasha reminded you. Your eyes widened at the realization, thanking her. You helped her bring the food to the table, making a note to yourself to tidy up the kitchen before the dinner at Wanda and Vision's that the two of you were invited for.

But you couldn't recall Wanda telling you about the dinner?

"Are you okay, моя любовь?" She placed her hand above yours on the counter. The two of you sat in front of each other, your half-eaten breakfast resting between the two of you. "Of course, why wouldn't I be? I'm with my best girl." You smiled softly at her, and though your words said one thing, Natasha could easily recognise the distant look on your face as you stared off into space, lost in your own thoughts. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours принцесса?" She teased, squeezing your hand gently.

"What time are we supposed to be at Wanda's?" You asked her, snapping yourself out of the trance you were in. Natasha hesitated, eyebrows furrowed as she watched your every move. Something was bothering you. "We're going to Wanda's in the evening моя любовь, she asked us a while back if we could help out before the others arrived, remember?" Natasha stated as the two of you brought your plates to the sink, beginning to tidy up.

"I'm not sure how much help you'll be sweetheart." You teased, pointing at the mess that was created due to Natasha making breakfast. She feigned hurt in response, "Oh принцесса, you're breaking my heart!" She made her way around you, passing you the cutlery as you rinsed the plates. You chuckled softly at her playful behaviour. "I think we should stick with me making us breakfast so our kitchen doesn't end up getting flooded, wouldn't you agree?" You chuckled, as you made your way around the kitchen, the two of you tidying up the mess Natasha had created.

"If only we were a robot," Natasha sighed, wrapping her arms around you from behind. You leaned back into her, embracing the warmth which radiated from her body, "or had powers." This was a position you were so very used to. "If only," she responded playfully. You turn your head back at the grinning redhead, as she leaned in for a kiss, her eyes fluttering shut as she felt your lips meet.

"You know," Natasha started, "we do have some time to spare-" you then cut her off.

"I like the way you think, sweetheart," You smiled softly, turning in her arms before making your way to your shared bedroom. Natasha followed closely behind.

The two of you were dolled up, looking your best.

Your dress ended just below your knees, the skirt extenuating your hips; it swayed with every movement you made. The short sleeves of the dress looked as though they were about to fall off your shoulders. Natasha's dress, however, was much more slim fitting and hugged her hips perfectly before flowing down, much like a waterfall, making it harder to look at anything else but her.

"Do you think Wanda will get mad at us for arriving a bit later than expected?" You asked nervously, fumbling with your fingers as the two of you made your way down the path that led to Wanda and Vision's home. Natasha shuffled around balancing the tray of pastries you'd prepared in one hand while using her free hand to rub your back gently, comforting you, "I'm sure she won't mind, моя любовь," she reassured you. As you near the house you could hear mumbling from the inside; you heard three or more different voices.

"Is that- is Vision singing?" You asked worriedly, glancing at Natasha who was mirroring your reaction. She knocked on the door, and the singing inside had abruptly stopped. "Oh, that must be our other guests," You heard Vision exclaim, "perfect timing!" You could hear his footsteps gradually get closer. The door swung open and Vision gave a nervous smile, glancing down at the tray of food Natasha was holding before letting out a sigh of relief. He hugged the both of you before welcoming you into his home. He introduced you to Mr. Hart, Visions boss, and Mrs. Hart, his wife.

"Oh hello," Mrs. Hart greeted, "no need to be so formal tonight honey." she smiled at you, pushing away the hand you had extended for her to shake. Instead, she pulled you into a tight hug which quite honestly surprised you. You awkwardly pat the older yet noteably shorter woman on the back before pulling away to quickly greet her husband. He glanced at you and Natasha in confusion, opening his mouth to say something before getting interrupted. "Oh here, let me take that, Natasha. You stay here and I'll go get a plate to put these on." You glanced at everyone in the room, offering them a smile before making your way to the kitchen, Vision stopped you before you got to the door, extending his arm out.

"Thank you," he leaned down to whisper to you. You squeezed his arm in response. You weren't used to seeing Vision in this form. He looked human. You rushed into the kitchen, startling Wanda, "I've figured you needed help." You smiled sheepishly at her, placing the tray down onto the counter, taking in all the chaos that was going on in the kitchen. It reminded you of this morning.

"Well, this isn't the first chaotic kitchen I've walked into today," you teased, reaching out for a plate before neatly plating the pastries onto it. Wanda laughed nervously in response, as she flicked through the recipe cards, searching for the right one. You walked back into the living room, placing the plate onto the coffee table prompting Vision to jump up out of his seat and offer Mr. and Mrs. Hart an appetizer. Looking to Natasha, you gave her a wink before swiftly turning around, your dress swaying with your movements as you made your way back into the kitchen, missing the frown forming on Mr. Hart's face.

"Oh, what was I supposed to do next?" Wanda began rambling, "what was the main course again?"

Making your way to the recipe cards floating in the air you attempted to help her find the card with the right recipe, steak. You could hear Vision playing a song on the ukulele while Natasha unwillingly sang alongside him.

"That's not it" You sighed, sifting through the cards, "is this one steak?"

"Steak," Wanda started, "Diane!" she accidentally yells. Her eyes widened as she realized what she'd done. She looks to you with a frown. You just barely heard Vision respond with a, "yes dear?"

"This is going terribly," Wanda frowned, leaning her head upon your shoulder. You chuckled, rubbing her back gently before pulling her away, forcing her to look at you, "Hey, you can do this, okay? You're not alone," you reassured her, attempting to raise her spirits. She sighed in relief, repeating to herself ", "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this..."

Vision barged into the kitchen unexpectedly, his nerves radiating through room. Wanda panics, accidentally using her powers to throw the lobsters out of the window.

"How can I be of assistance." Vision asks, mirroring Wanda's expression.

"Well," Wanda started, "the chicken is no longer a chicken and the lobsters just flew the coop, so the steak is the last man standing," she explains, making her way around the kitchen. You held the recipe card in your hand, skimming the instructions, "it says here you could cut down the prep time with a meat tenderiser." You recited, looking at the couple once more. "Excellent plan! Where's the tenderiser?" Vision questions, ready to help in the kitchen.

"I'm looking at him," Wanda began, holding her hand out to pass the tenderiser to Vision. You pull her hand back before Vision reaches out for it. "No. What you need to do, Vision, is go entertain your guests. Have faith in your wife and I, okay?" You pushed him out of the kitchen, before turning around and clapping your hands.

"So, where were we?" You asked, hopefully.

After a stressful couple of minutes, a brief visit from a woman with a pineapple, and Natasha almost spilling water on her dress; dinner was served.

Well technically, breakfast was served.

The six of you sat around the dining table, nervously looking around. Mr. and Mrs. Hart looked at the food in confusion, staring at the cooked bacon and eggs paired with the red wine and chocolate covered strawberries.

"Breakfast for dinner?" Mr, Hart began, with obvious judgement written all over his face. "How very-" "European." Mrs. Hart cut him off, smiling reassuringly at the two of you.

"European?" You muttered, glancing at Wanda in confusion, who then motioned her hand in a 'I'll tell you later' sort of way. "Oh, let's have a toast!" Vision began, raising his glass up. All of you followed suite as Vision continued.

"To my lovely and talented wife," he gloated, unable to take his eyes off her.

"And to our esteemed guests," Wanda added. You didn't miss the wink she threw at you and Natasha, causing the two of you to stifle your laughs. Everyone clinked their glasses together and dug into their food. It wasn't long after when the questioning began.

"So, where did you move from?" Mrs. Hart began, "what brought you here? How long have you been married? And why don't you have children yet?" She interrogated Wanda and Vision, and you glanced over at Natasha, hesitantly, who shrugged in response before continuing to eat her food. Her eyes then met Mr. Hart's, who's eyebrows were furrowed at the interaction, waiting for his wife to finish speaking so he could say something. You didn't notice Wanda struggling to answer the questions being thrown, while Vision looked at Wanda desperately waiting for an answer. It was almost as if the two of them didn't know themselves.

You also failed to notice Wanda zoning out of the conversation, staring off into the distance as Mrs. Hart continued pestering her for answers. "And what about the two of you, huh? You two roommates?" Mr. Hart questioned, noticing how closely seated you were next to Natasha.

"Something like that," Natasha responded, biting back the smirk that was fighting it's way onto her lips.

"Two lovely women such as yourselves shouldn't struggle to find a man. Why don't the two of you have husbands yet?" Mr. Hart asked, leaning forward. You felt the hair in your arms rise as you realised where the conversation was leading. Glancing at Natasha nervously, you noticed how her fingers were clenched around her cutlery.

"We just prefer each other's company," you stated simply, shoving a forkful of eggs into your mouth to distract yourself.

"What do you mean? Are you- that's unnatural!" He ranted. You ignored him, noticing that Wanda was still trying to answer questions about her and Visions marriage.

"Yes, yes, we were married in," Wanda paused, getting lost in her thoughts. Mr. Hart continued his rant to you and Natasha as You, Vision and Natasha glanced at Wanda nervously.

"You're both women! That's wrong!" Mr Hart argues.

"Well, what's your story?" Mrs. Hart questions Wanda.

Mr. Hart began shouting, slamming his fist onto the table as Mrs. Hart continued to grill Wanda for answers. Wanda snaps back into reality due to a sudden, unexpected noise. She turned to face Mr. Hart who began to choking. You stared at Natasha, frightened and unsure as of what to do in this situation.

"Oh, Arthur, stop it!" Mrs. Hart laughed. She repeated the words 'stop it' over and over again, her tone gradually becoming more panicked as her husband continued to choke. His hand rested on his throat. Vision stared at Mr. Hart in an unsure manner, his hands resting against the table almost as if the were pinned against it. You only just noticed how Mrs. Hart turned to Wanda as she continued repeating those same words.

"Stop it," she pleaded, her voice shaking as she looked at Wanda, who was staring at Mr. Hart in shock. Mr. Hart fell off his chair and onto the ground as he continued to choke. You wanted to rush over and help him but it felt as though your hands were bound to the table and you couldn't move your legs. You were only able to watch as the man continued to choke while his wife chuckled.

"Stop it."

"Vision, help him," Wanda demanded. Vision rushed out of his seat and next to Mr. Hart, phasing his hand through his throat and removing a whole chocolate covered strawberry.

When did Mr. Hart pick up the strawberry? You thought to yourself.

"Let me help you up," Vision offers, helping Mr. Hart back to his feet. The atmosphere in the room had immediately changed, going back to exactly how it was before. It was almost as if a switch had been flipped and everyone forgot what was happening.

"Would you look at the time!" Mr. Hart exclaimed making his way to the door as his wife followed behind him.

"Well," Wanda started, "are you both alright?" she questioned nervously, as she stood up. "Yes, we better be going. We had such a lovely time!" Mrs. Hart reassured. The couple left the house very abruptly, mentioning something about a promotion before exiting the front door.

"Oh, we must be going as well!" Natasha exclaims, pushing herself up out of her seat before saying goodbye to the two. She hugged them both before making her way out of the door. You hugged Vision and thanked him for having you over before making your way to Wanda.

"Tonight was wonderful, Wanda," you reassured, pulling her into a hug. You felt her shoulders slacken in your arms, sighing softly as she returned your embrace before pulling away from you, her arms resting on your shoulders.

"Thank you, thank you for everything."

As the two of you made your way home, you couldn't help but let Mr. Hart's words play on repeat in your mind. You could tell Natasha knew what was bugging you as she squeezed your hand gently. The two of you continued to hold hands as you made your way home.

"I know we can't get married," you started, as you stood in your living room, staring at the woman who made you feel most at home. She nodded, waiting for you to continue as she rested her hand against your cheek, allowing her thumb to gently stroke your face.

"But I just want you to know that I'm here for you. For better or for worse. I never want to be apart from you," you chuckled softly, staring at her in awe, allowing your eyes to glance at her lips before you looked back into her eyes.

"I know, моя любовь. And I'd do anything for you," Natasha began.

"Even die for you."

natasha romanoff taglist: @blackxwidowsxwife @severepeanutartisanhands @madamevirgo @starsvck @umsolikeblog @baddecisions-png @yourmcu

all works: @teenwonder @amourtentiaa @husherstan @peggycarter-steverogers

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ibuki-loves-you · 3 years

Text

Killed for a Hopeful Future (Nagito Komaeda x Reader)

Warnings: Angst, mentions of suicide, domestic stuff, detailed descriptions of murder, mentions of v/mit, potential spoilers???

Mod Ibuki: Another piece me and @call-me-ko worked on together! Execution based off this fan-made one! I hope you enjoy!

Sobs were all that could be heard throughout the small cottage.

Heavy, distraught sobs.

Nagito sat in his bed, the bed Y/N often accompanied him in. Heavy sobs racked his body. He doesn't think he's cried this hard in his entire life.

His love, his world, was gone.

It was like they were taken right out from under him.

One gunshot wound to the chest and bruises around their neck. Their leg looked broken, probably from the fall.

Y/N's body was hung from the door of strawberry house and dropped all the way to grape house's floor. Blood was everywhere due to the gunshot wound.

When Nagito saw, he thought he was going to die himself. No one told him that they were the victim. They just said they didn't know who it was yet.

He didn't get to say goodbye

He didn't get to tell them that he loved them.

He didn't-

"Nagito!" Fuyuhiko yelled. Nagito swung his head around, glaring at him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Nagito stated. Fuyuhiko stayed quiet. "Simple question. Is it really that hard to answer?" He snapped. Fuyuhiko didn't say anything. Kazuichi shakily sighed. "W-We didn't want to make you panic."

Nagito scoffed. "A little late for that, isn't it?"

Nagito investigated your body himself. He didn't trust anyone. You were loved by everyone here, and yet you still died. It didn't add up.

Bing Bong Bing Bong

"Nagito... it's time for the trial." Hajime mumbled apologetically. Nagito nodded slowly.

"Give me a minute..." He responded. "Of course." Hajime said softly, moving to the elevator.

Nagito dropped to his knees in front of them. Tears started streaming down his face.

"Who did this? Angel...who did this to you?" He mumbled, stroking Y/N's head. "I promise...your killer will get what they deserve." Nagito placed a kiss on their forehead.

He began making his way towards the elevator.

Justice would be served

"The murder occurred at around 5:30 am." Hajime started.

"The murder weapon was a noose found at the scene, but they also had a wound in their chest. I think a gunshot. That could be the cause of death as well." Chiaki added.

"It was the cause of death." Nagito interrupted. "How else could they have fallen?"

"Fallen...?" Chiaki asked. Nagito scoffed.

"I'm not looking to play games this trial. I want to know the blackened as soon as I possibly can so let me tell you this so you can put everything together." Nagito said angrily.

"Strawberry house and grape house are connected. It's an elevator. Y/N died beforehand via gunshot. That means the killer went to the Final Dead Room. I would know because I went there. The elevator won't move if a living thing is detected. It moved because they were dead already. The killer tied a noose around their neck and tied the other end to the doorknob. Then, they activated the elevator. Eventually, Y/N would fall because that's how gravity works. Now, figure out who killed them." Nagito snapped. He explained the murder in perfect detail, no flaw.

With Nagito's explanation, soon enough they found the killer.

"Gundham...why did you do it?" Hajime asked, a solemn expression painted onto his features.

Gundham stood silent. After a moment, he took a breath.

"We had a plan." He muttered. "Please explain." Hajime requested, taking a few glances at a fuming Nagito.

"Y/N and I agreed that we would allow all of you to escape at the expense of our lives. I completed the Final Dead Room, and we planned the murder from there." Gundham started.

"We wanted you to survive. Y/N didn't go down without a fight, nor did I. I request you remember that." Gundham looked towards Nagito. He dug through his pocket and pulled out a key. He walked over to Nagito and held it out.

"It is the key to their cottage. I didn't know if you had one or not, either or I assumed they'd want you to have it." Nagito took the key silently.

"I don't expect forgiveness, nor do I want it. But one thing I want you all to carry from mine and Y/N's demise is that you must always fight. Do not go down without one."

With that, Gundham was dragged to his execution.

And that's how he ended up in his room clutching a piece of your clothing while he bawled his eyes out.

Bing Bong Bing Bong

"Please make your way to Jabberwock Park! Not attending will result in immediate death! See you soon! Puhuhuhuhu~"

Nagito looked at the monitor. Should he even attend? He didn't care whether he died or not.

After contemplation he decided to go. He dried his eyes and placed your belonging neatly on his bed. Nagito made his way out the door and to Jabberwock Park.

Upon arrival, everyone gave him pitied stares. He looked horrible, worse than he usually did, and he knew that.

"Are you alright?" Chiaki spoke. Nagito looked at her and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"No, not really. But you shouldn't worry! I'll be fine." That was a lie, even he didn't believe it.

"Allow me to introduce the new motive. Future visions!" Monokuma announced. Everyone rolled their eyes.

"We aren't gonna do that shit!" Fuyuhiko screamed. "Yeah, like we'd believe it!" Nekomaru hollered after. Nagito stayed silent.

Future visions? He didn't believe in any of that, but it's worth a look, right?

When everyone left Jabberwock Park, mainly out of anger towards Monokuma, Nagito looked at the vision motive.

A character select button appeared on a screen that seemingly came out of nowhere. He selected himself. A video began to load.

"Alright, let's go see baba." Nagito cooed. He took his daughter's hands and gently pulled her to her feet. The baby giggled in response.

"Ready? One step at a time." Nagito looked up at Y/N. They sat on the other side of the living room, smiling at the two. Nagito gave them a bright smile. With small steps of his own, he guided their daughter in Y/N's direction.

Their child shook their hands from Nagito's. Nagito let go and smiled, keeping close behind her.

Y/N opened their arms and their daughter stumbled into them. Nagito hurried over with a wide smile.

"You did it, baby! I'm so proud of you!" Nagito cheered. His daughter crawled out of Y/N's arms and into his. She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"And you say she isn't a daddy's girl." Y/N teased. Nagito smiled and kissed his daughter's cheek over and over, earning a giggle in response.

"Yeah, I guess I see where you're coming from." Nagito leaned forward and gave you a kiss.

"I love you, angel." "I love you too, Nagi."

Nagito stared at the screen with a mix of horror and awe. He moved his hands towards his pale face and rubbed his temples. He took his hand and selected Y/N’s character.

“Daddy! Higher!” His daughter giggled, gripping the chains of the swing. Nagito chuckled

“A little higher, okay?” Nagito compromised. She giggled and nodded. “Okay daddy!”

Y/N smiled from next to Nagito, watching as he booped her nose every time the swing came towards him.

“Baba! Look how high I’m going!” Their daughter called. Y/N giggled and nodded.

“I see! You’re almost as tall as me and daddy from up there!” Y/N said, a smile gracing their features. Nagito nodded in agreement, a huge smile on his face. He turned his head to face his lover.

“Look how happy she is.” He mumbled, chuckling everytime she giggled.

“Daddy keep pushing me!” She said when he stopped for a moment. Nagito laughed and continued pushing the swing.

“She really is such a happy kid.” Y/N smiled throughout their sentence. Nagito wrapped one arm around Y/N’s waist and used the other to push the swing.

That was his future? Or would’ve been?

Nagito put his forehead against the screen and started crying again.

He couldn’t help but feel selfish because he wanted that more than anything.

Soon enough his tears turned to crazed wheezes, laughter shaking his body.

Hope and despair mixed in his eyes once again. He had nothing to lose…

So why not get himself killed? Or better yet get them killed. It's all their fault after all, Y/N did nothing to them yet they had to die.

Bing Bong Bing Bong

“A body has been discovered! Please make your way to the warehouse on the fifth island!”

Everyone dropped what they were doing and made their way to the warehouse next to the factory while Nagito took his time. Everything went according to plan. Now all he had to do was wait. Whether he survived the trial or not didn’t matter much to him, since one way or another he would die.

Suicide or execution was the question now.

“The victim is Nekomaru Nidai, the Ultimate Team Manager. The murder weapon is unknown, but definitely a tool of some sorts as he was taken apart.” Hajime started.

“Trip wire was found at the scene.” Kazuichi added. “So we can assume that was definitely used, especially since he has scratched on his ankles. Well, as scratched as metal can be.”

“Killer probably pressed the power button after using the trip wire, right?” Fuyuhiko questioned. Hajime nodded. “Most likely.”

Sonia put a finger to her chin. “So what you are saying is the killer used tripwire, and then powered Nekomaru off?” Hajime nodded again.

“Who would want to kill Nekomaru? He was so kind to us all.” Akane muttered. “I can’t answer that, I wish I could. But for now all we can do is find his killer.” And with that the trial was officially underway.

“So this is how it happened.” Hajime started. “Nekomaru was lured to the factory’s warehouse by an anonymous letter. He assumed whoever it was he would be able to handle, so he expected a fight. What he didn’t expect was tripwire a few feet away from the door. With his height, I wouldn’t expect him to see it either. Nor would I expect it myself. After Nekomaru fell into the tripwire, his head slammed into the floor, causing him to be weakened for a moment. It may not have been a long moment, but it was enough for the killer to rush into action and press his power button on the back of his neck. When the power button was pressed and Nekomaru was officially powered off, the killer took him apart using a variety of tools found at the market. This explains the mess of oil we found. The killer scattered his parts all around the warehouse and factory, thus leading to us having to find the parts and put them together for investigation.”

Hajime turned to the podium across from his.

“Isn’t that right, Nagito Komaeda? The Ultimate Lucky Student…”

Nagito smiled that crazed grin of his. His eyes were swirling with hope and despair once again.

“Yep! You are absolutely right!” He laughed. Hajime winced while Akane banged on her podium in sheer anger.

“Why, Nagito?” Hajime asked. Nagito continued to laugh. “Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to die!” He said as if it was nothing. Akane growled. “So why didn’t you kill yourself!?” Nagito’s laughs died down, his emotions doing a complete 180.

“Because I wanted to kill you all as well.” He said simply. Everyone looked as if they’d seen a ghost.

“W-What?” Hajime whispered. “Did I stutter? You guys were the reason Y/N died! Y-You took them away from me!” Nagito screamed. He dropped to his knees behind his podium, sobs beginning to consume him once again.

“I-I could’ve had a life with them...We w-would’ve been happy a-and I w-would’ve had a d-daughter.” Nagito mumbled weakly. “I just want Y/N...I-I want to see Y/N. P-Please just kill me already.” He pleaded.

Everyone looked at him with a mixture of sadness, pity, and fear.

“Who am I to disobey?” Monokuma said. “W-Wait, we need to talk more! We have more questions, bastard!” Fuyuhiko cursed. Monokuma ignored him. Nagito continued sobbing and clutching his podium.

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s punishment time!”

Nagito was set up straight, strapped to a wheel similar to one you’d see on a gameshow. Every section other than him was either Monomi or Monokuma.

Monokuma spun the wheel, causing him to start spinning with it.

It landed on Monomi.

Monokuma spun the wheel again. A wave of nausea hitting Nagito like a truck as his head began pounding.

It landed on Monokuma.

The wheel was spun once again. Nagito laid cursing his luck as he began throwing up in his mouth from the constant motion sickness.

The torture continued for nearly 15 minutes. A vicious cycle of spinning and choking on his own vomit.

Monokuma spun one last time, the wheel finally landing on Nagito. He smiled, elated that the torture was finally over.

Before he could blink, copious amounts of spears fired towards him. Out of many, only three struck him.

Two in each of his legs, and one in his chest.

As he slowly bled to death, all he could think about was one thing.

He was going to see them again.

#danganronpa #danganronpa x reader #sdr2 #nagito komaeda x reader #nagito komaeda #mod ibuki writes!

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amaya-chwan · 3 years

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Therapy Game Restart Discussion: Who is Onodera?

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well~ ❤️💛💜 I've had a headscratcher of an ask/message regarding Onodera, so I figured I'll make it into one big post!

Before I begin this Q&A/discussion post (feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts), I have looked through past chapters to gather the information I will put into this post to support my predictions. Not all chapters are readily available for everyone at the moment as only one volume of TGR is out right now, so I shall put the chapter numbers for your future reference! ⚠️ Also, just a note! These opinions are my personal thoughts, conjectures, and opinions, so please don't think I am saying one idea or speculation is wrong--this is just how I see it, and of course I could very well be wrong! And I also am not fluent in Japanese, so I may have some translation errors!

⚠️ Also, a warning, this will be a long post! Keep reading if you're interested and please let me know your own thoughts!

First, in an earlier ask, I was directed to a translation group that said Onodera is a man. With the help of Google and Google Translate (because I don't understand/speak Spanish), I found that post (dated April this year) and the origin of the picture they used in that post. The image is from Hinohara-sensei's 13th August 2020 tweet here and is also below for reference:

Now, all I can remember from first seeing that image is "Woow, so pretty! A female character? A love rival? A threat? OH it's the infamous director they're all talking about???"

This image was released around the time chapter 8 was released, i.e. the first chapter we see Onodera in full.

Looking at the image again, I can see how Onodera could be seen as a female or a male. Onodera has long hair, yet no visible breasts. There is no evidence of an Adam's apple, but that could just be because of the turtleneck as part of their outfit. Furthermore, in chapter 13, we see a view of Onodera from behind. There are no "womanly curves" visible in this view of Onodera.

After searching some Japanese blogs, some fans also had the same thoughts: no breasts = possible male, the shape of the face etc. Here are the blogs I found: [1] [2] [3] but most of these are from around chapter 8.

Just about the breast argument: there are a lot of different shapes for breasts. I learnt that when working at a department store selling bras during university. It is possible that Onodera is really flat chested or just has very little breast tissue. Not sure if that's getting too technical now, ahah, but what I want to say is that the lack of breasts isn't a definite yes to Onodera being a man.

Hinohara-sensei also has not explicitly stated throughout TGR so far (ch1-13) that Onodera is male or female.

From chapters 8-12, Onodera is always referred to as 院長 (director) by Shizuma and the nurses at the clinic. No gender-specific pronouns have been used in the story nor by any characters to refer to Onodera when speaking so far (that I have read). So confirming Onodera's gender is just misleading at the present moment.

We do find out in chapter 9 that Onodera's first name is 昌 akira. Akira is a gender neutral name in Japan. It is often given to males, but it is not uncommon for females to have this name. Which, I think, is genius on Sensei's part. It leaves us all thinking!

Q: So Amaya-chwan, what do you think Onodera's gender is?

Just for me as I've been reading TGR the past 1.5 years, I see Onodera as a woman as I have been "encouraged" to see Onodera as one by the little subtleties in the story, and Minato sees Onodera as a female, so I probably am viewing Onodera in Minato's POV.

(Please keep reading on for more insights and answers to questions! Really, this post is long! 😅)

In chapter 9, Onodera's older brother, who is also Shizuma's university professor (and his last name is not Onodera), makes small talk with Shizuma regarding the staff at his placement:

Shizuma's professor says: By the way, Shizuma-kun, how've you been!? You haven't been bullied, have you!? // The female team here is scary, right~ You know, Nakajou-kun and I were in the same grade...

So here, I'm made to think Onodera's clinic is pretty much all female, including Onodera too.

Fun fact: His professor uses the suffix -kun for Nakajou-sensei, yet Nakajou-sensei is a female and -kun is commonly used for males these days. But, it is also used for females in very specific situations. I'm not too sure what the situations are, but I have heard them used for females before.

In the same chapter (9), while Shizuma is changing out of his scrubs in the men's locker (?) room, Onodera walks in. He is slightly flustered, and kindly reminds her that she's walked into the men's locker room. Her reaction is "Huh? Ahh..." So here, again, I am made to believe Onodera is female.

While no gender-specific pronouns have been used to address Onodera, Minato and Itsuki have referred to Onodera as a female in chapter 13.

The kanji for "female/woman" is 女. In these two images, Minato refers to Onodera as 上司の女 female superior, and from Minato's story, Itsuki hence calls her 職場の女の人 female from (Shizuma's) workplace. This is the only time Onodera has been referred to as a female.

⚠️ Just a note going forward in this discussion, I will now call Onodera "she/her" as that is what I believe Onodera's gender is at the present moment!

Now, I did get a second ask from an Anon! Here they are below with my responses:

This one is about what's behind Onodera. I think she's a pretty interesting character. I actually think she's a trans woman or a non-binary trans woman. Sensei has been dropping so many hints to that... The name her brother calls her might be her dead name. He complains about her hair and what their father would say. She's designed to have flat breasts, perhaps she's not under hormone therapy, perhaps her "trips" and "days off" have something to do with reassignment surgeries...

She most definitely is an interesting character. I wouldn't say Onodera being transgender is out of the realm of possibility because the story is still ongoing. But regarding her name, I don't know if I'd call it a dead name since it is gender neutral already. Perhaps the kanji for a male Akira name would be different to a female one though?

About the hair comment (ch10), I just thought it was unruly? I honestly didn't think too much of it! What I will add is that the kanji for hair (髪) is used, but the reading is あたま head. Not sure why just yet, so I'll just leave that here as some extra information for the moment.

Not sure what I really think about a) her flat-chestedness and b) her insanely long business trips yet! I figured a) might be a character design, and b) she really is a top-notch veterinarian so she's probably in high demand. But I could be completely off the mark!

Also, I don't know where to add this random bit in from the story, but in chapter 12, we find out that Onodera has been calling one of the staff the wrong name for more than 10 years now. Not sure if this new piece of info affects anything?

But again, that is a very interesting prediction/thought you have about Onodera, and I wouldn't say it's not possible!

She's kind of a female Minato, psychologicallly and in appearance, which brings some challenges. And one more thing that I think hints to that: "I'll make it so your body can never be satisfied by any woman", Minato says to Shizuma. As the last chapter leaves it at that, we don't know exactly what he is talking about. [spoiler?] I haven't seen the Japanese text yet to be sure if he's clear about topping Shizuma.

That was exactly my thought when she was first introduced! That's part of the reason why I think Minato sees her as a threat, especially when he saw her for the first time and was told she is a 美人beautiful person (both in chapter 12). She and Minato definitely share some characteristics, but I find she's a bit more socially-awkward than Minato given her background (Chapter 9 & 10).

For the dialogue, the Japanese lines and the most literal translations I can give are:

今から　静真くんを抱く From now, (I'll) hold/embrace you, Shizuma-kun.

どんな女に出会っても　絶対満足できない体にしてあげる No matter the women you encounter, I will make it so your body definitely cannot be satisfied (by any of them).

Hopefully we'll find out what Minato means by that exactly in the next chapter, which I hope comes to me this week!

But if that's what he's talking about, it's 1. poor Minato being transphobic (besides being biphobic towards his own boyfriend)* 2. poor Minato probably foreshadowing his own fall. If Onodera happens to be a woman with a d**k, she can do whatever Minato thinks a cis man only can do. That's not what will make Shizuma stay by his side. Shizuma will stay by his side because he loves Minato. And that's that. Debunks biphobic myths, debunks transphobic myths. *He's not a bad person, he's got issues

Okay, this is probably as straight-forward as I can say this, but I just want to say that I don't know enough about the issues faced by the LGBTQI+ community. My friends have kindly answered all my questions so far as I don't want to be ignorant or rude when learning more about my friends and the community. I don't want to give off the air that I'm assuming anything since I don't want any misunderstandings. And I am fully aware that I need to educate myself more regarding this!

So about Minato, I'm not completely sure what you mean by number 2. But he definitely has his share of trauma, insecurities, and fears regarding his relationship with Shizuma. Having Onodera as a threat in this story really helps drive Minato's growth. The story is titled Therapy Game Restart, so what I gather from the title is that Minato is going to face another fear/insecurity he has, something deeply-rooted in him, and it's going to get really heavy and complicated, but he will eventually get through it and it will help him heal and grow as a character, and hopefully strengthen his faith in his relationship with Shizuma.

So far, I believe this "fear" is carrying on from +Play More, that Shizuma can be whisked away by a female at any moment.

But yes, Minato has to realise for himself that his and Shizuma's love, relationship, and bond is strong enough for him to not worry about Shizuma leaving him so abruptly. He has to learn to trust in Shizuma more, and TGR is slowly revealing that, especially in chapter 13.

I'll stop here. I have already written long analyses on this series and I think about making them public at some point. But it would be nice to hear from you! Maybe I'm completely wrong in my interpretations! I'm really sorry for being so annoying and maybe using inappropriate language. I really didn't mean to bother you. But I never see anyone making these points. I just want to know if I'm thinking unreasonably...

I love reading different analyses, opinions, story predictions, the whole lot!! So please feel free to ask me or post your own ideas. It's always a welcome thing for me to discuss stories and learn new things! Don't be sorry that you're being a bother or annoying, because it's not a bother at all!

We're all allowed to have our own ideas and opinions about stories, and these ideas will change once something is canon in the story, and ultimately is something we will have to accept too.

So yeah, just my two cents. Thank you for being so patient with my response, dear Anon!

To anyone reading at this point, thank you for reading this far! ❤️💛💜

I shall see you in our next set of takeaways~ As always, stay safe and take care of yourselves and your loved ones! 💜

(2021-05-17: Speedy proofreading is done ahah! And yes, my brain is still so full of 山河令/Word of Honor right now, so I have been VERY distracted! Highly recommend this drama, guys! It's up for free on the official Youku Youtube page! Totally not an endorsement, but I love this drama! AHHHHH!! Gong Jun [Simon] be living on my mind rent free~)

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alsharira · 4 years

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MULAN (2020) review by yours truly.

"The girl became a soldier. The soldier became a leader. And the leader became a legend."

There will be some spoilers here, but I'll try not to reveal anything too big.

Overall :

I liked the movie, I thought the director & the actors did a good job. It had exciting fight scenes, GORGEOUS cinematography, comedic moments & a good story. Unsurprisingly to anyone who followed the making of this, it was very different to the animated original, which I didn't mind. It's aimed mostly at kids in the end (thu it had adult moments) and I can't wait to watch it with my younger siblings. I know that they'll be obsessed with it (they already love the animated version).

The fight scenes :

Possibly my favorite part after the cinematography/cgi (?). I don't know if Niki Caro directed those scenes or disney brought someone else to shoot them (like with the MCU) but i loved the Asian cinema influences. It's like a Chinese or Bollywood ridiculous (i say with love) fights with Hollywood flare to ground them a bit. It was great. I believed it whenever Mulan beat men twice her size, the movie makes sure to give an explanation & the choreography uses her size to her advantage which was nice.

Liu Yifei/a different mulan :

While I personally don't agree with chinese actress Liu Yifei's views on the Hong Kong situation (watch the movie on pirated websites like me if you don't want to support her) i enjoyed her portrayl of Hua Mulan. I actually was underwhelmed by LY performance at the beginning but she grew on me pretty quickly.

This Mulan is a pretty inspirational character, she's honorable, focused and smart. She faces many challenges but never gives up or reconsiders her values. Everyone tries to mold her into something she is not, but she sticks true to what she is.

"Being true to one's self" is actually the center theme of the movie, there's another character in the story who relates to what Mulan has gone through and I really enjoyed that new storyline.

The gang :

Mulan makes some pretty cute friendships in the army. They're responsible for 90% of the comedy in this movie lol. One of the guys is a character from the animated film reimagined differently but effectively.

I actually liked the new love interest, his description made him look like a fuckboi but he's actually a swell guy. also (kinda spoiler-y) it seemed like he liked Mulan way before realizing she’s a girl.

The villains :

when i heard they were adding a witch i was confused. Which was my mistake for not anticipating our lord and savior Gong Li to turn up the best performance & maybe best character in the movie. Won’t reveal much but I loved her scenes with Mulan.

Oh and the (not) Huns were good too.

Family :

Like the original, this whole story starts because of Mula'a love & devotion for her family (& home. chinese gov gonna love that). Her few scenes with her younger sister were cute but ofc her relationship with her father is what brought me to tears :(

Rushed :

My only grievance is that many (many) scenes felt really rushed. I wish it took more time to develop the story and characters. The scene were Mulan decides to leave for the war was especially too fast, it was done better in the animated film.

EDIT : since disney filmed this near muslim concentration camps in China, i say definitely watch illegally. Fuk u Mickey.

#Mulan #Mulan 2020 #Live action #Disney #Thoughts #Niki caro #Donnie yen had a small but important role #xian lang

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lovlydovlyjaycie · 3 years

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Ævi - Frontlines

Hey again! This will be a continued series. The first Ævi series is in my masterlist and is only four parts. This is going to be a ongoing series, so there is going to be a lot more of Ævi to come. :)

Summary: Y/n or also known as Ævi has lived through varies of world events. Now it is 1941, she has excepted that some things cannot be changed so Loki has convinced Y/n to go to New York and live a normal life, a life Y/n always wanted. Or as normal it can be, because new introductions lead to events that didn’t go down in the history books.

Characters: Bucky Barnes x reader, Steve Rogers, Peggy, Loki, OC Vera

Warnings: Fluff, Violence, Angst, Me being sad writing this, we’re officially in Captain America the First Avenger now… So I guess spoilers? :( :( :(

Note: Omg.. When I tell you I have been dreading writing this part.. But like actually dreading.. Before I started writing this series I wanted it to be no more than 8 parts.. That obviously didn't work out

When I am writing and particularly writing about Bucky and y/n meeting again or them just being in love I always listen to Pirates of the Caribbean to the theme or Will and Elizabeth and I thought it would be good to share that with you guys. To get in the feels. Right now it jumps from POTC One day and the last minute or so from Drink up me hearties yo ho. I know it is so random, but I cannot get it out of my head.

Series masterlist

Part 13

It took me a minute to get here, but I was now in the Swiss Alps. I got word that this would be the next place the Howling commandos would go to. They think I'm dead, rightfully so, I fell off a train. Thinking about falling off that train with Bucky hurt, like someone was squishing my heart and I couldn't breathe. How was I gonna explain all of this. I should be dead. What are they gonna think of me being here, but Bucky is not. I sighed and brushed away a tear I felt rolling down my cheek.

I came here to help Steve, so that's what I'm gonna do. Ignore the pain for a second and help out.

I was hiding between the trees with a good out look on the headquarters. Nothing was going on yet. I knew Steve was gonna come soon, I just don't know when. I would need to tell him the truth about me. He's gonna hate me. I couldn't safe his best friend, but I'm alive.

These are times I really wished I was not immortal. Even Loki and Thor are not. They aged since I've met them, but me I'm still the exact same as I first was when I touched the stone. That stupid Life stone, but all I've seen is death. Sometimes I wished I never followed that man that gave me the box or I just had never opened the box.

I sat down against a tree and sighed again. What if all of that never happened? I would be with my friends and family. I have not seen them in almost a thousand years. I am not sure if I even remember their faces. I know I look like my mom, but now I can't imagine what she looks like anymore. It is awful. I am not even sure if I would recognize my own mom if I walked past her.

And the worst part of it all, the most selfish part. It hasn't even happened yet. Nobody is worrying about me being gone. Nobody is looking for me. Nobody is sad that I'm gone. Nobody even knows that I'm gone. I got blasted to the past in 2010 and it's 1945 now. In the mean time I have lived for a thousand years, but no one knows, No one human.

I'm not even sure if I want to go back to Sweden in 2010. Because I know I am not the same person I once was. I know I am not the same person they saw on my last day with them. Maybe one day I will go back to them, but certainly not the same day I had left them.

I shook my head. This was absolutely ridiculous. Of all people why me? Why let me be the protector of Life, yet I am always surrounded by death. Maybe it was time to fully use the Life stone. It has been under a protection spell from Frigga for hundreds of years so I won't be a beacon of power that attracts the wrong people. But because of that spell I never really found out what I could do exactly with my power. Sure I am still strong and I can heal wounds, but what is the extend of my full power? What if I could've helped Bucky... "These Hydra people." I scoffed to myself. Another thing that made me angry. Hydra. Before I got zapped back in time I studied history and never once was there anything mentioned about Hydra. But why? They have done all these horrible things, yet I have never heard anybody say a word about it. How is that even possible..-

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud explosion. I looked up and saw Steve zoom by on his motorcycle. Immediately the bunker started blasting at Steve as soon as they saw him. I kept looking at Steve ready to jump in any moment, but he pressed a button on his motorcycle and made the canon of the bunker explode and he got in with ease.

Steve was doing an amazing job fighting everybody off. He made men go down with ease until he was outnumbered. "Shit." I muttered to myself. I made a move to stand up hand grabbed my shoulder. I swiftly turned around ready to hit whoever grabbed my shoulder, until I realized it was Peggy.

"Y/n?" She said with shock in her eyes. Behind her I could see the colonel and soldiers. This was part of the plan. "How.. How are you alive?" Peggy stammered. I wasn't sure if now was the right time to explain everything to them if they were in the middle of their plan. So I decided to leap forward and embrace her.

"I'll explain everything later, but right now tell me what to do." Peggy let go of me and started to quickly explain that they had caught Dr. Zola and he told them that they were going to drop bombs and we needed to prevent that from happening.

"Move out!" Colonel Philips yelled. He gave me a gun indicating I was gonna fight with them. I followed after them and left and right people were being shot at by Hydra and vaporizing into tin air. Peggy was running next to me. We were both trying to shoot anybody that was a threat and they were trying to shoot us. The closer we got the bigger of a target we were. One Hydra agent got a little too close to Peggy and tried to shoot her, but I quickly moved my arm in the way and my bracelets that covered my lower arms caught the blast. I quickly looked up at Peggy who was looking at me in utter shock. But I turned back to the Hydra agent and ran towards him. I leaped forward and kicked him in his chest, knocking him out.

Peggy came running next to me. "You'll explain later?" She said with a smirk. "I'll explain later." I told her as I grabbed the gun from the soldier.

We both ran inside the facility taking out other Hydra agents while also losing some of our soldiers. The Hydra agents that were blocking our way were almost taken out when one spoke up. "Cut of one head, two-.." And I shot him. "Sorry? What was that? You didn't finish." I said with a smirk.

"Alright this way y/n." Peggy told me. "No, you go. There are more of them here and I'll make sure nobody will surprise you from behind. Now go!" I yelled as I ran the other direction.

And on que more agents emerged. I shot at them and one by one they were all turning into dust. For a second I looked down at the gun. I was amazed that this gun was powered basically by a grain of sand that was from the Tesserect. Only gives me more reason to find the full Tesserect. I shook my thoughts away and started looking for it. The Tesserect might be in a lab and if that ugly red skull is there as well it would just be a bonus. As I started running I realized something.

"SHIT!" It's not gonna be in some lab. Hydra is gonna bomb cities in a plane. He and the Tesserect are on the Goddammed plane. "FUCK!" I yelled to myself as I turned around and started running into the direction Peggy went.

How could I not have thought of that? My mind is so distracted I need to focus. As I ran through the hall I saw soldiers laying on the ground. It pained my heart seeing them. But I will not let their lives be waisted. They can't win, Hydra can't win.

I ran though a big door and ended up in a enormous hallway. This is probably where the plane was, but it was gone. People were still fighting.

"Y/n?" I heard Gabe yell from behind me. I turned around and saw him fighting off a Hydra agent. I ran towards him and kicked the agent off and he slammed into the wall. I put my hand up for Gabe to grab and he did that. "I thought.. Steve and I both thought you and Buck-.." I looked down and shook my head.

"Your ok I see." He said as he gave me a quick hug.

"We still got some things to do. The hugging can wait." Colonel Phillips said as he stepped out of a car with Peggy. I let go of Gabe and walked over to Peggy following her. "Where's Steve? I thought he was gonna be with you." I asked her, my mind running with all the things that could have happened to him.

"He is on the plane. He is going to stop it." She told me while having a quick pace.

We all went to the control tower waiting for a response from Steve. It was all nerve wrecking. Steve was up against someone alone in a plane. And in the mean time more Hydra agents had showed up. Colonel Phillips had ordered the soldiers to fight them off while we waited for a response from Steve.

All the wile I could only think that we could not lose. So many people have lost their lives. Because of this stupid war, because of Hydra. So many innocents. They need to be avenged. And Steve has the power to do that. He needs to stop that plane and prevent more people from losing their lives.

"Come in this is Captain Rogers. Do you read me?" We heard over the radio. Peggy immediately went over to the speakers.

"Steve is that you? Are you alright?" Peggy asked in concern. "Peggy, Schmidt's dead!" Steve said over the coms. Relief washed over me. It is done then, we won.

"What about the plane?" Peggy asked Steve. "That's a bit tougher to explain." Steve answered back. There has got the be some place where he can safely land.

"Give me your coordinates, I'll give you a safe landing site." She pressed on. My heart was pounding. We won right? I was a bit unsure now. I didn't like the way this was going.

"That's not gonna be a safe landing, but I can try and force it down." Steve explained. Colonel Phillips tapped my shoulder and pointed to the door. I closed my eyes. I knew where this was going.

We walked out of the room and everything started to blur. We had to win. Steve coming back alive is us winning. We had to win. Everyone in the hall was quiet, besides the gunshots you could still hear from outside. I think we were all trying to listen to what the conversation was with Peggy and Steve.

In just three days time I can not lose.. I can not lose two people I care about. "Please live Steve." I whispered to myself as I looked down.

"This is my choice." I heard Steve say faintly over the coms. "No." I whispered as I shook my head. My heart was pounding so fast I could feel it in my ears. I felt so powerless. Please live. I thought to myself again and again. "Please live, you're a good man Steve." I said quietly to myself again. Anticipating what would come next.

I heard them talk about a dance. Scheduling a date.

"I'll show you how. Just be there." Peggy said her voice wavering.

"We'll have the band play something slow. I'd hate to step on your..." Silence.

I took a few steps back until I was leaning against the wall and closed my eyes for a second. We won, but what did we lose? I let out a wavering breath. I felt myself turn hot. Again I thought of why this was not in any of the history books. I never learned about Hydra, Captain America or the Howling commandos. Was this all for nothing.

My anger was boiling inside of me. All these lives lost.. and for what? I failed, I failed to do the one thing I was supposed to do.

Then something clicked in my mind. If all of this was not important enough to be written down and remembered in books, I'll make sure there is nothing to remember. I am going to kill all the Hydra agents, every last one of them.

I took a deep breath and stood up right and started to head towards the gunshots that were still going on outside.

"Where are you going Ironside?" Colonel Phillips asked.

"To do something I should've done right from the beginning." i yelled back as I went for the door.

As I came to the entrance our soldiers were taking cover. We had the facility. But the Hydra agents were still shooting trying to get through and there were a lot more than I initially expected.

"What are you doing here?! Take cover!" Gabe yelled from his hiding spot at me. I gave him one look before ignoring him and walking straight into the line of fire.

My hands started to glow and I put them in front of me to catch all the blasts that were coming my way. Their guns were strong but I was stronger. Soon everybody from Hydra was shooting at me while I still walked forward. I wanted to be far enough away from my soldiers.

"Y/n!" Gabe yelled after me.

The magic glow started to slowly surround me doing it's job of protecting me.

When I was far enough I closed my hands making fists. "You get what you deserve." I said quietly. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on my power. Where it was coming from and where I wanted it to go. I felt it the power all over my body, but it was the strongest by my heart. I felt it was contained, caged almost. I took a deep breath.

And in one swift motion I opened my hands and put my arms up to my side.

Gold and white glow blasted out and swirled all around me, it made me slowly float in the air. It became bigger and bigger quickly and as soon as it hit the agents it vaporized, leaving nothing behind. In seconds the Hydra agents the were attacking us were completely gone.

This power felt great. Finally it was being let out after so long. They were getting what they deserved. All of them.

"Y/N! Y/N!" I heard someone yelling from behind me. I turned around. It was Peggy with fear written all over her face.

...

1972

"Love, you are losing yourself with all this power. You need to control it or it will control you." Loki told me with seriousness in his eyes. "Look around you. Look what it is destroying." I looked up at him. His eyes looked full of sorrow. He was right.

I turned around. Kattegat. All the memories I had here. It was all gone now.

To be continued

Next: Ævi - The Battles That Are Fought

Let me know what you think :)

Sorry it took so long with this one, I had a busy few weeks :(

Let me know if you wanna be tagged!!

@darkdragonphoenix

@toribentleyva

@witchinpractice

@cat-astrophe4

@bluemoon-icecream

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captainlordauditor · 2 years

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For the fanfic end-of-the-year ask game: 3, 17, 21.

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

My favorite line is from a WiP that should be posted really soon:

His kiss is soft, and tastes like sweet honey and bright gold.

It was actually originally written as a segment of a poem, with slightly different phrasing. I knew when I originally wrote it that it would eventually get ported over and turned into a section of prose.

My favorite scene doubles as my favorite line that I've posted publicly, and that's the confrontation scene in The Righteous Side of Hell. I like this scene a lot for a number of reasons - the first is that it's got a lot of introspective, thought based writing, which is something I've been trying to get better at, and I think I have.

The other reason I really like this scene is that it's an unusual kind of scene. For one, it reflects sides of both characters that we don't get to see very often, either in canon or in fic. Jason's support of rehabilitation - true rehabilitation, not Arkham - is something that comes up frequently in Red Hood and the Outlaws but really doesn't get explored enough elsewhere. For Catalina's part it leans really hard into her humanity, into discussing the active choices that she makes, and some parts of canon that I think most people just don't know about.

It's also just... not the type of scene I feel like I see in general? Usually when you get this type of scene, a protagonist with an enemy on their knees ad a knife at their throat, you end up with the protagonist making the choice to NEVER KILL!, or maybe something about how the protagonist isn't built for killing. Not here - Jason has killed people, and he is going to kill again. So this fic goes in a different direction with that premise.

I'll spare you the spoilers (including my very favorite line from that fic, the last three lines), and just leave you with a second favorite line from it:

Justice, justice, you shall pursue.

What is justice?

Is it retribution? Is it death, delivered swiftly, to stop a monster from bringing more death into this world? Or death brought slowly, as befitting their crimes? Is it locking them up, throwing away the key, forcing them to find it on their own alone?

17. fics you’ll continue next year

Wellll most of my published fics are oneshots, and while I do want to eventually finish Pocket Full of Gold, it's not currently a priority. But! What I do want to do is continue writing the Earth 3 series I started last year. I've been working on a sequel since March, and it's shaping up.

21. most memorable comment/review

Absolutely, without a doubt, this one

Heteronym

This story was quite a compelling read!

The language you used really brought the atmosphere alive, so much that I could feel the cold seeping into my bones despite reading it at the height of summer. It was also such an interesting take on Earth-3, all the subtle hints of world-building you added really piqued my curiosity for more.

Another thing I really enjoyed is how you turned the classic horror plot on its head. I mean it in the sense as a lot of horror films may start with a loving young couple making out and end with a lonely, battered protagonist, but here it's completely reversed. It's almost as if Dick's grief, sense of devotion and longing are what brought Jason back to life.

Speaking of which, this line really struck me:

"It’s not death he’s afraid of. It is the crushing loneliness of defeat."

Not only did it give me a sense of how much being a Talon means to Dick, but of how responsible he feels for Jason's fate, which makes it all the more devastating.

You really struck a balance between gothic horror and young romance, and this is the sweetest graveyard sex that I've ever read. xD

Thank you so much for sharing this!

This comment made me pick up that sequel after three months of writers block! The same one I mentioned that's veeeeeeeeery close to being published, actually..... Really hoping I can squeeze it in by the end of the year!

#anonymousdandelion #asks #answers #fic writing #thank uuuuu #e427 3

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fluffyferalkacchan · 3 years

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Kacchan & Deku: Win to Save and Save to Win - A circular path of parallels (part 1)

Okay so it had probably already been talked to death by now, but i'd like to write a detailed list of how Midoriya and Bakugou's respective paths are and had always been paralleled since the beginning. And it's not just with the whole "save to win and win to save" thing, which is the most obvious textual part of it, but there are a lot of more subtle hints along the way too. I mean in nearly every single arcs, for each of Midoriya development, Bakugou had one too (albeit in a completely opposite direction).

This post is also partly in response to some anime-only fans who complained about Bakugou's development in the Joint Training Arc coming from the left field... Which actually isn't? Like Kirishima said it had never been as obvious before but there were definite hints about it and I'll try to show them as thoroughly as possible in this post.

Warning ! This post will be quite long and will contain Manga Spoilers up to chapter 317 in part 3!

¤ From the Pre-UA era To Deku vs Kacchan: their starting lines

(more under the cut)

When I said that the parallel started early, I really meant early. In fact, it started as early as the very first panel they were in.

I think it is very telling that the first time we saw them, Midoriya is trying to defend another kid, while Bakugou is seen using his quirk (and actually introducing the reader/viewer to the whole concept of quirk in the first place). It tells us right here, right then on the very first second, that Midoriya Izuku is physically weak but a savior at heart and Bakugou Katsuki has a strong quirk but is a bully asserting his dominance.

This of course led to diametrical beliefs on what a hero is and should be and we've got those two very iconic moments to illustrate:

And of course it reflected into their behaviors, even as kids.

What I find really interesting in the way those flashbacks were presented is that Midoriya's saving moment was told through Bakugou's POV, while Bakugou's winning side was seen through Midoriya's eyes.

Those moments were deemed important because they deeply impacted the witnessing party and not actually the "wining/saving" one.

(I think someone commented once that while the river scene was highly pivotal for Bakugou, Midoriya probably doesn't even remember it. And likewise Bakugou probably doesn't remember fighting and winning against some random older kids, but Midoriya definitively does. And I totally agree!)

At those moment both Bakugou and Midoriya saw in the other something that they were clearly lacking and their reactions to this realization were wildly different as well.

"He doesn't take himself into account, you know. Something doesn't feel right. It makes me wanna keep him at arm's length. Back then, I ignored my own weakness, so I ended up bullying him" - Bakugou Katsuki

"You who had so many things I didn't have... To me, you were an amazing person much closer than All Might! That's why I keep chasing after you!!" - Midoriya Izuku

Midoriya saw this amazing kid kicking ass with his strong quirks and his first reaction was admiration and wanting to get as close as possible to this person, because he was all too aware of his own weakness and shortcoming.

Bakugou saw this selfless kid trying to help him and displaying qualities that he didn't have and his first reaction was to lash out and push that kid as far away as possible because he didn't want to recognize his own weaknesses and shortcomings.

Which, you know, probably describes their entire childhood dynamics haha...

... and then the sludge villain happened.

And it brought with it the iconic "My legs moved on their own" and "Your eyes were begging for help" moments which we all know about of course, but this scene also had another more immediate parallel that I'd like to talk about.

Bakugou tried to fight the sludge villain on his own but ultimately failed to win.

Midoriya tried to rescue Bakugou on his own from the sludge villain but ultimately failed to save him.

The sludge villain was a reality check for both of them, in a "Nope kiddos, you might aspire to be heroes, but you still have a very long way to go. Here let's insert an All Might to show you just how far away your goal is," kind of way?

Anyway fast-forward 10 months of intense training to prepare for the UA entrance exam.... and really do I even have to mention this?

I mean the only way it could have been even more textually obvious is if Midoriya had been ranked sixth instead of seventh so that his name would be right next to Bakugou's... like there's even this panel explicitly pointing everything out.

So yeah... nothing to add there, *shrugs*

After that came the Quirk Assessment Test:

I'm going to come back to this later on in a more detailed way, but regarding their personal development; Midoriya's development is external while Bakugou's is internal. And I don't quite consider the quirk assessment test as "progress" for any of them yet because both of them sort of completely miss the point.

Aizawa told Midoriya "How can you save anyone if you can't move after one hit?" which had the underlying message of "It's not okay to hurt yourself"... But Midoriya totally went like, "Okay then I'll just hurt myself in a way in which I can still move afterward!" So yeah he is just sidestepping the problem here, but well there probably wasn't anything else he could do here.

As for Bakugou, he had always feel threatened by Midoriya's presence, but not in a fighting skills context. They are not really competing on the same field and it had never occurred to Bakugou that Midoriya could really beat him in a one-to-one fight.

As hilarious as the thought of Bakugou truly believing that somehow Deku had managed to take head on building-high robots quirkless is, I think what really happened is... Bakugou saw his own 0 rescue points and thought "Oh... so that's how Deku got in. Damn nerd probably went and save shitty extras left and right!". Which is a more realistic feat to manage quirkless. Anyway my point is, Bakugou realizing Midoriya isn't quirkless should have been a "Shit! He's leveling the field and standing on my playground now!" moment...

But no, what overpowered him here is the thought that the whole time Midoriya had been hiding his quirk from him and went like "What? Am I not good enough for you to use your quirk on me?! STOP LOOKING DOWN ON ME!!! EXPLAIN YOURSELF RIGHT THE FUCK NOW, SHITTY DEKU!!"

So yeah... kind of missing the point too.

Which is why the quirk assessment test wasn't really their starting point but more like them trying to look for it but missing it?

Speaking of starting lines... Let's move on to the Deku vs. Kacchan first round.

B"From watching the match, it appears Bakugou acted n to surpass Bakugou, All Might pointed that those were the first passionate emotions Midoriya had shown other than "I want to be a hero!". This was the very first moment where Midoriya's desire to win was stronger than his desire to save.

As for Bakugou, this was the moment where he truly he realized that Deku is a threat and not just through his natural heroic/saving disposition like before but on the battlefield which used to be 100% Bakugou's area of expertise. And if even with his non-existent control of quirk Deku had managed to win to such extent, what would happen when Deku managed to truly master his own quirk? Total defeat?! Bakugou is self-aware enough to realize that while his own fighting skills and quirk mastery could still progress, they were already near the top with a not wide enough margin for improvement.

This was the moment where Bakugou realized where he truly stood compared to everyone else around him and that if he wanted to reach the very top again, then only relying on his fighting skills and his quirk control would never be enough. This is what prompted out his feelings of "I have to change or I'll be left in the dust".

And since Deku went and encroached on Bakugou's playground and beat him in the process, there's no way in hell Mr Complete and Irrefutable Win over there wouldn't aim to do exactly the same at some point.

Anyway the two gifs above showed us their motivation to reach their respective Win/Save side of the spectrum, but they both have big issues they need to work on in order to do so.

"From watching the match, it appears Bakugou-san acted on his own because of an obviously personal grudge. As as All Might-sensei said previously, it is foolish to launch a large-scale attack indoors.

In the same way, taking into consideration the damage he received, Midoriya-san's plan was also rash." - Yaoyorozu Momo

Yaoyorozu's analysis was super spot on and hit straight where their weaknesses lie: Bakugou needs to stop acting on his own and learn to cooperate with/trust his teammates and Midoriya needs to stop hurting himself/self-sacrifice and learn to properly control his quirk.

Both of them also have these super heavy shackles that keep pulling them down and impeding their progress at every turn:

Bakugou's complex feelings and emotionally explosive baggage towards Midoriya that makes him go feral and irrational at the drop of a hat and clearly prevents him from properly considering Midoriya as the rival that would keep pulling him up

Midoriya's total and utter idolization of All Might that gives him a tendency to imitate his idol and clearly prevents him from properly realizing and unlocking the potential of his own quirk

And at that point, they clearly don't realize how cumbersome those shackles could be if left unaddressed too long.

Anyway... this episode/chapter was called "Bakugou Katsuki: Starting line", but I think it can be considered both their starting lines, because this is when they were made aware of what they are lacking and showed their resolve to change.

Midoriya's progress and development is intrinsically linked to his quirk mastery and fighting style, which are inherently physical skills (which is where Bakugou's excels in). It stands to reason then that his progress would therefore be very flashy, hard to miss, and highly praised due to the external aspect of his development.

On the other hand Bakugou's progress and development hinges on him properly getting in touch with his emotions and connecting to other people in healthy way, which are inherently inner-strength qualities (which Midoriya has no shortage of) . It stands to reason then that his progress would therefore be very subtle, mostly unnoticed, and hardly taken into account due to the internal aspect of his development. (Like it'd probably only takes him having a full meltdown or throwing himself in front of someone else for other people to notice how far he had gone!)

#bakudeku #bnha #bnha manga spoilers #kacchan & deku #meta #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #win to save save to win #all the parallels #bnha re watch

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internethorrorfan · 5 years

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Commentarypasta: A Meet I'll Never Forget (originally posted on Deviantart in 2017)

The creepypasta fandom is known being particularly cringeworthy. From all the terrible OCs out there to the lame music videos to the frankly pathetic film attempts to, of course, the fanfiction. So boils and ghouls, allow me to introduce you to something I like to call: Commentarypasta! In Commentarypasta I'll take a look at some of the worst stories the CP fandom has to offer in order to find one that's even remotely entertaining while I give my commentary on the . Most of them will come from Wattpad but this particular tale came to us from some site called Creepypasta.xyz. I've never heard of it either. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story... A Meet I'll Never Forget by Meganthekillerforever. CHAPTER 1: I was sitting in my room reading Creepypastas online. I'm sorry, who are you? Could we get some establishing please? I love all of the Creepypasta stories, including Jeff, Slendy, Slenderman doesn't have an official creepypasta since he wasn't created for creepypasta. Ticci Toby, and more. I was always bad at acting good. Spoilers: This fact is never mentioned again and has no relevance to anything at all. I hated my neighbors Why? For what reason? Who the hell are your neighbors and why should we care? We don't even know our protagonist's name and your telling us about her neighbors? and hoped Smile Dog would finish them off. You've never read Smile Dog have you? I was always sending a picture of him to them at night, but to my disappointment they called my parents the very next day. My parents didn’t care though, thank goodness for that, and my older brother just ignored me like most brothers do to their younger sisters. They didn’t care what I did. My father was a writer and my mom was an artist. My brother was already making plans to go to college. I'm sure all these things will be entirely relevant pieces of information that will pay off later in the story. One night I decided to go out into the woods to see if I could find Slenderman.( I know…childish right?) Well that was me always trying to prove that they were real. Now, time and time again I tried to see if Ben It's BEN. was real, but when I played Majora’s Mask nothing ever happened to me. That's because he only haunted (past tense) Jadusable's specific copy of Majora's Mask that he got from the Old Man. Jadusable put files from the cartridge into his computer allowing BEN to escape into it, and later Jadusable uploaded footage from the game onto Youtube which allowed BEN to escape into the internet. You must not have paid very close attention to these stories if you're getting all these things wrong. So, I figured that all the Creepypasta stories were fake. I still like to find out for myself though. As I went out the door, You were going out the door? Thanks for establishing that. Can we have some details to anything please? I called to my parents and told them I would be gone for a while. I heard my dad typing away on his typewriter and my mom getting extra paint from the storage closet. “Okay. Be back before breakfast.” “Okay Mom.” I rolled my eyes. We're a paragraph into this thing and I already want our main character to die. This doesn't bode well.

Since my mom is an artist, she always has some extra paint lying around. I grabbed some glow in the dark paint before I left and went outside. I gathered some rocks from the garden and a flashlight from the shed. I felt like someone was watching me, Thanks I thought we could use some more clichés. so I shone the flashlight in the darkest parts of the shed just to be sure. I grabbed the glow in the dark paint and started painting the rocks with it. When I was sure they were dry I gathered them in a bag and set off for the woods. Oh that's the pay off to her mom being an artist! So our still nameless protagonist could paint rocks with glow in the dark paint and light her lay through the woods. Or, you know, she could have only used the flashlight. As I made my way into the woods, I started setting down glow in the dark rocks. You've got a flashlight, you don't need the rocks. I continued to explore until I found a large flat rock that I made into a resting place. I was getting tired. "I'm so exhausted from all the nothing I've been doing!" “I guess there’s no harm in resting for a few minutes.” Just go home. As I started to doze off, a rustling noise woke me up. I darted straight up and looked at my watch. “Oh no! I was planning on being home an hour ago! I lost track of time!” Which is why you should have just gone home instead of randomly taking a nap on a rock. The rustling continued as I started back on the path of rocks. I started to grow fearful as the rustling noise got louder and closer. I always keep a pocket knife with me at all times. Why? I pulled it out and turned around ready to confront whoever it was, but when I turned around I found none other than Slenderman himself. As I stared, I found that there was someone behind him, no two people. A man in a white hoodie and a man in a black hoodie wearing a blue mask. So Slenderman gets no description but Jeff and Eyeless Jack do? Consistency: it's not a polite suggestion. I had come face to face with Slendy, Quit calling him Slendy. Jeff, and Eyeless Jack! I was so shocked that I was at a loss for words. That's it? She doesn't shiver, shake, try to run away, use the knife to defend herself or anything? She's just at a loss for words? Being at a loss for words is the reaction you get after reading fics like this, not after coming across several supposedly fictional monsters/killers. Finally after a while, Jeff spoke. “As you probably already know my name is Jeff, Jeff the Killer.” What person talks this way? "Oh hi my name is Martin, Martin the janitor. How are you?". I nodded, still not being able to say anything. “This here’s Slenderman and that’s Eyeless Jack.” I finally work up the nerve to speak. “W-what brings y-you to me?” That's your first response? Not asking "how are you real?" or better yet, running away in terror? This time Eyeless Jack speaks. “Well, we’ve been watching you for a while now.” Because....? “Why me?” Good question. “Slendy here thinks you’d make a good proxy. What has this girl possibly done to make Slenderman think she'd be a good proxy? Did she win him over with her amazing one of a kind ability to read horror stories on the internet? Me on the other hand thinks you look kinda weak. Jeff’s thinking the same thing.” “W-why would you want me? I’ve never killed anyone.” Every person that thinks creepypasta is just about killing people needs to be lobotomized. "Jeff spoke up. “Well, I guess that’s going to change tonight.” Jeff smiled wider than usual. As I just stood there dumbfounded Jeff started to lead me in a direction I knew well, back to my house. “You’re seriously not going to make me kill my family are you!?” No one's said anything remotely like that yet so unless nameless girl here can predict the future there's no way she could have known that they'll say that. Jeff started laughing. “You’ve read all of our stories haven’t you? How can creepypasta be a thing in this universe if all the popular creepypasta characters are real? They can't be fake and real at the same time. Well, in most of them our parents are either killed by us or something else. Spoilers: Jeff is the only character featured in this story that killed his parents. In order for you to become one of us, Creepypastas are stories not beings. Plus why do they want nameless protagonist to join them anyway? you have to get them outta the way.” Spoilers: Sally's in this story and Bloody Painter is mentioned. Both those characters have living parents. Is the author seriously under the impression that every creepypasta ever has dead parents in them? “And if I refuse?” “Well, now that you’ve seen us we’re probably going to kill you if you refuse.” Probably? “I-I’ll do it. WHAT?!? Are you kidding me? It takes that little to convince her to murder her family? Them saying they'd probably kill her instead? You wouldn't just straight up kill your parents with no second thoughts because someone said they'd kill you if you didn't. What about my brother?” “We kill him too of course! No witnesses.” He's not a witness if he doesn't see anything. I dread every step on the way back to my house. I enter the house silently, as to not alert them. I make my way into the kitchen and grab a steak knife. They're not around to see you do this. You could just warn them all and get the hell outta there. What happened to that knife you already had? My parents are usually in the study room working. I crept into the study hiding the knife behind my back. “Hey sweetie, back already?” "Hey sweetie, what is that knife shaped object you holding behind your back? You better not be trying to murder us again young lady!" I continued stepping closer gripping the knife hard behind my back. “Yep, I’m back.” Finally, when I was close enough to them I lunged at them with the knife and stabbed repeatedly. Because she'd definitely be able to do that with no effort at all. They twitched for a moment, but then they were still. I was wide eyed and gasping for breath when I finished. I heard clapping behind me. Jeff was standing there. “Very well done. Slendy didn’t even have to get into your mind like he did Toby.” “That…actually felt good. Yeah, let's do what the creepypasta fandom does best: glorify the murder of innocent people! What, you're not going to tell us about the "rush" you get from killing or how fun and exciting it is? What about my brother?” “I took care of him. I haven’t killed in a whole day and I was itching to kill someone.” I just watched my parent’s lifeless bodies for a while before Slenderman came to get me. This character has shown no previous signs of sociopathic personality disorder, psychopathy, psychosis, or any other mental disorder that might possibly make her Ok with killing people. She shouldn't be so nonchalant about everything. Since he didn’t have a face he didn’t talk much. I don't even need to point out why this line is moronic do I? Slenderman beckoned for me to follow. I followed him outside where Jeff and Eyeless Jack were waiting. “Well kid, welcome to the family.” CHAPTER 2: After I killed my family, After that minor insignificant easily forgotten event of stabbing my parents to death with a steak knife. Slendy teleported us to what looked like an old, run down mansion. I stared in disbelief at the beautiful mansion. The last sentence said it was old and run down. Now it's beautiful? OK then. “I thought the mansion was just a legend!” Jeff started speaking. “Nope, it’s real kid.” They led me into the mansion where the other pastas were waiting. What other pastas? You gonna tell us who they are? They all looked at me and stared. I started to get nervous with all the attention on me. A boy I knew to be Ben BEN's a statue in a video game, not a "boy". started asking questions. “Who’s that? Why have you brought a human here? Jeff is human. So are Bloody Painter, Hoodie and Masky, all of whom are mentioned later in the story (spoilers like you care at all). Does she like games?” Will this fandom ever realize Pasta Monsters is not an accurate representation of who BEN is? Seriously. Eyeless Jack interrupted his questions. “This is a new edition to the family. If you have any questions about her, ask her yourself.” They started crowding around me with questions. Because you're just so likable and interesting that of course these people would bombard you with questions the first second they lay eyes upon you. Thanks a lot EJ. I’m not the type of person who loves crowds. Your whole family was just murdered, two of them by your own hand, and a minute later you're in a mansion in the woods with a bunch of monsters, serial killers, supernatural beings and other horror characters you previously thought to be fictional. Stop acting like this is completely normal. “SIT DOWN AND RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION!” I was screaming at the top of my lungs. They all sat back down and raised their hands hesitantly. Because again, you're just so likable and interesting that they have no choice but to listen to someone they've never met before. “Ben.” “Do you like games?” “I love games Ben.” “How do you know my name?” I had forgotten to tell them that I’ve read all of their stories and seen pictures of them online. “Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I’ve read all of your stories.” Ha ha no you haven't. They were very surprised. To learn that people have written stories about them. I'd be surprised. Sally spoke up. “All of them?” I thought she was cute. It was hard to imagine an 8 year old girl as a killer. That's because she's not a killer. Good God people it takes five minutes to search up her old ref sheet with all her info on it. But to save anyone the trouble here it is: Sally - Official Profile. “Yes Sally, even yours.” I smiled at her. She smiled back at me. Because of course Sally and our protagonist instantly get attached to one another and become inseperable best friends/family figures to each other. How else are we going to lazily boost our protagonist's ego and get the reader to like her? “Yes, Offenderman.” Offenderman didn't say anything. Also why is a rapist part of the quote unquote "family"? Especially with Sally around. Offenderman smirked and pulled out a rose. “Would you like a rose?” He extended it out to me. “Nope.” “But, why!?” “Because like I just said, I’ve read all of your stories. I know what happens when you give a rose to someone.” Offenderman frowned and mumbled under his breath. The others laughed. “ The sex offender doesn't get to rape anyone today! So funny! Betcha Sally really got a kick outta that one! Okay who’s next?” “Ooh me! Me!” Jeff practically yelled. How does one "practically" yell something? I laughed at his persistence. “Yes, Jeff.” “Do you like knives? And what is your opinion on killing?” Not every creepypasta OC is a killer or needs to kill. Nobody died in Ben Drowned and there was never any danger of anyone dying. At least not from BEN physically killing them. “If I had to choose a weapon, I would definitely choose a knife. My second choice would be a pistol. As for killing, I don’t really mind it, especially when they deserve it.” Oh piss off. The only people you've killed are your parents who you only killed because this story is lazy and stupid. You are in absolutely no position whatsoever to be giving an opinon on murder or what your preferred weapons are. Hoodie seemed to be satisfied that my second option would be a pistol. You're dead Brian. “LJ.” LJ laughed and stood up. “Do you like candy?” I should have known that was coming. No you shouldn't have because Laughing Jack is capable of thinking about things that aren't candy. “Yes LJ, I love candy.” “Would you like some candy?” “No thank you. Polite pass.” LJ looked kind of hurt when I declined, but he tried to hide it with a smile. I felt bad for declining it, but I still didn’t fully trust them yet. I wanted to get to know them first before I accepted anything from them. You murdered your own parents in cold blood to join them. You don't get to be weary around them. I must have zoned out, Thinking about what? How uneventful everything is? because Jeff was waving his hand in front of my face trying to get my attention. “Hello? Anyone in there?” Oh! I’m sorry. I guess I just spaced out.” EJ decided that was enough questions. “Alright, I think that’s enough questions for today.” I was getting very tired. I yawned loudly and rubbed my eyes. Everyone turned to look at me. Everyone was wondering where I would sleep. Why does anyone care? Sally spoke up with excitement in her voice. Much like us, Sally knows absolutely nothing at all about our main character so she has no reason to give a damn about her at all. Sally's an attention seeking prankster who gets jealous easily and cries and throws tantrums every time she doesn't get her way. She'd be one of the people most against a new person, not most for. “She can sleep in my room! I have an extra bed in there.” Because as we all know, ghosts need to sleep. All the others agreed. Masky Hey Tim how's it goin'? Still not a creepypasta character? Sounds great. spoke up this time. “Yeah, just until we get a room fixed up for her.” Because Mary Sue sure does deserve a room all to herself. Why doesn't she share a room with Sally permanently? “Thank you Sally. I’m very grateful.” I was relieved somewhat, because I didn’t want to be rude. I still didn’t trust them yet. You already said that. I followed Sally to her room. Her door was decorated with bloody pink flowers. When we got inside the room, I saw that her walls were a pale pink with blood splatters. Because an 8 year old girl who likes stuffed animals, tea parties, cute things and stereotypical "girly" stuff would obviously decorate their room with blood splatters. You still sure you've read all their stories, miss Thekillerforever? Plus blood smells. Hanging on her walls were many drawn pictures of the Creepypasta family. WHAT CREEPYPASTA FAMILY?!? You've told us nothing about this supposed "family" or what characters are a part of it! We know Masky, Hoodie, Slenderman, Jeff, EJ, LJ, Sally, BEN, and Offenderman but that's because you just plopped them into this story with no set up at all! We don't know who's part of the family! Quit acting like we do! And where is Toby? This story's referenced him twice now and he hasn't shown up! She was a very good artist for an 8 year old. “You’re a very good artist. Those pictures are amazing!” I don't think many 8 year olds are"very good" artists. But this is a crepypasta fanfiction so Sally has to be portrayed as an absolutely perfect flawless shining paragon of humanity that always gets what she wants and is instantly loved by every life form on Earth because she's just so "cute". Our main character's already a Sue, we don't need you to change other people's characters into Sues too. Sally smiled at my words. “Thank you. I’m not as good as Bloody Painter Because she would obviously refer to Helen by his serial killer alias instead of his actual real name. though. He’s the best artist here. Here’s the bed you will be sleeping on. Why does Sally even have one bed, let alone two? I’m so happy to have someone sleeping in my room with me! The only one who comes over sometimes is Lazari.” Who I'm sure this author know nothing about. Given the track record so far I wouldn't be surprised if the author thought 8 year old Lazari murdered innocent people with knives for the lolz. I feel bad for Sally. It must get so lonely in here by herself. Out of these retarded Slender Mansion stories, THIS is the one that figures out a little kid living in a gigantic mansion with almost exclusively grown men would get lonely? “After my room is finished I could sleep over sometimes.” You're sleeping in her room now. What are you talking about? Sally smiled and looked at me with hope in her eyes. “Really?” YOU JUST MET THIS PERSON, YOU SHOULD NOT BE THIS ATTACHED! “Really.” “And will you play with me?” I smiled warmly at her. “Absolutely.” YOU JUST MET THIS PERSON SO YOU SHOULDN'T BE THIS ATTACHED EITHER! And if you two are this attached already, why not just share the room permanently? She jumped up and down with excitement. Can ghosts jump? “Yay! I can’t wait!” “Would you like me to tuck you in and read you a story Sally?” No she wouldn't like you to tuck her in because she's a ghost and ghosts can't sleep. Who said she wanted to go to bed anyway? “Yes please! I would like to listen to a story about your family if you don’t mind.” "You know, that family you murdered an hour ago with no remorse or guilt whatsoever?" “It’s fine. "I've already completely forgotten about stabbing them to death, almost like it was pointless or something!" I’ll tell you about the time we got a puppy.” Sally eagerly got into her bed. Which she probably doesn't need since she has no physical body. “I love puppies! They’re so cute.” This chapter started off with the line "after I killed my family". “One day I was sitting in my room playing with my dolls How old were you when this happened? Scratch that, how old are you now? and my parents were excited about something. I walked out of my room to my parents’ room You could have just said "I walked to my parent's room." because you already said you were in your room, we can tell that you walked out through context clues. to see what they were talking about. When I asked them, they both shouted that we were getting a puppy. I was so happy I ran around the house squealing with excitement. My parents would have straight up told me I wasn't getting anything if I kept running around the house squealing. My parents decided to let me pick the dog. I ran into the pet store checking out all of the dogs. I set my sights on the cutest chocolate brown puppy with short floppy ears. He had the most beautiful brown eyes. And he was just as sweet as can be. This is a fanfiction based off creepypasta, a genre of internet horror stories frequently about madness, tradgedy and the terrors of the unknown, and the second chapter is concluding...with our main character telling bedtime stories about cute puppies to a little girl. Wow. We decided from that day, to call him Brownie.” Where's Brownie now? Given the level of intelligence you've displayed in this I wouldn't be surprised if you ate him thinking he was an actual brownie. When I finished my story, That wasn't about your family at all. I looked over to find Sally fast asleep. I ask this question a lot regarding fanfictions with Sally in them but does this author even know Sally is a ghost? Or does she somehow think ghosts can sleep? If these stories ever offered an explanation as to how Sally can do these things that'd be fine. But they never do so it doesn't make any sense. I chuckled and got into my own bed. I had one last thought as I fell asleep, ‘I wonder what tomorrow will bring.’ Nothing because this story was deleted by the author. Thank God. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well that was dull and uneventful. This story's only two chapters long but those two chapters are some of the most boring things I've ever read in my life. Pretty much nothing at all happened in them other than our bland unnamed protagonist murdering her family for pretty much no reason, but that's almost immediately glossed over and swept under the rug to get to more pressing matters like telling bedtime stories about cute puppies. Our main character is such an obvious self insert Mary Sue and she doesn't even get the luxury of a name let alone a personality. The closest thing I got out of her character was stupidity but that's only because the writing was so botched it made her look like an airhead who was completely unaffected by everything around her. "A Meet I'll Never Forget" feels like it was written by a 10 year old due to the almost complete lack of detail to anything. As of this writing the story's been deleted so this is the only place to find it. So with this story out of the way join me next time for...something less boring and forgettable.

#old stuff from my deviantart

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