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#supernatural elements/characters fit in nicely

gimmethatagustd · 1 year

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what the fire gave us (1) | jjk

You were born with a Gift that the world wanted to turn into a weapon. All Jungkook wanted to do was show you that you could find love, even in the dark.

🔥 pairing: shadow elemental!jungkook x water elemental!(f)reader

🔥 part of a spring offering collab

🔥 wc/date: 9.7k | june 2023

🔥 warnings: major character death (doesn't occur until part 2 but i'm being nice by warning you now; not jk or reader), minor character death, referenced past murder, smut (doesn't occur until part 2), unrequited love (not between reader & jk), reference to human experimentation (nothing is described in detail), persecution of supernatural people, mentions past war, blood, injuries/violence, they all definitely have ptsd, jungkook is a precious baby boy but he'll also kick your ass, JESSI !!!!!! JESSI STANS RISE UP !! JESSI IS THE COMEDIC RELIEF !!! (at least, i find her funny)

🔥 notes: PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THE WARNINGS. there is heavy angst, particularly in part 2. i hope that you enjoy this story, even with its cuts and bruises. think of it as stranger things meets avatar the last airbender 😂

🔥 more notes: i was supposed to finish this fic in may lmfao but y'all should know by now that there's no point in trusting me to do what i'm supposed to do. i'm sorry but i will probably never change 😭 ANYWAY. this fic is gonna be over 20k, so i decided to upload it in two parts in an attempt to maintain my sanity cuz this website is trash about handling long posts. i'm almost done with part 2, so it should be uploaded within a week (i swear to GOD i mean it). also, if you follow me on AO3 you'll see that i'm posting this fic in multiple chapters. that's cuz i like the formatting of AO3 chapters better than tumblr. the formatting fits the story better, too.

🔥 main masterlist / part two

🔥 what was jai listening to? cyberpunk - ateez

moodboard credit: @btscontentenjoyer

3 MONTHS

Lookout duty is hard on you. When it’s your turn to camp out on the roof and watch for potential threats, you complain that staying awake all night is hard. Most of the other runaways are night owls, but you aren’t. You need your beauty sleep, you joke. You can’t get comfortable on the roof, even if there’s a flat landing with pillows and blankets to keep you warm.

These are a few of your excuses, but you can’t bring yourself to tell the others the truth: you are scared.

It’s close to midnight when you hear the creak of the trapdoor opening. The likelihood of it being anyone other than the group of Gifted runaways you live with is low, but you can’t trust that the impossible wouldn’t happen. You’ve seen the impossible happen far too often.

Hopping down from the old milk crate you’d been sitting on, you crouch behind a giant bean bag with your bow and arrow ready. The harness you wear strapped around your torso holds your spare arrows. It digs hard enough into your shoulder that you form blisters if you don’t wear a thick enough shirt.

The fluffy pink hair poking out of the trapdoor makes you sigh in relief.

“Hey, kid,” the pink-haired man whispers.

He gently closes the trapdoor and walks with a hunched back toward you, careful not to expose too much of his body beyond the roof’s railing. The abandoned warehouse you live in is on the city's outskirts, with nothing for miles but empty concrete parking lots and overgrown plots of land.

Still, you never know who might be out there. Although the Red Pins have only inflicted pain from within their research facilities, all the runaway Gifteds know that the government employs more than one type of evil to hunt them down.

You try not to think about them, those scientists in long white coats that fall to their thighs and blood-red nametags pinned to their labels with names you often see painted on the walls of your nightmares. Lately, the frequency of the nightmares has lessened. It doesn’t feel like it, though, when you often wake in the middle of the night to your friends screaming in their sleep while they suffer through their own trauma. You wish the knowledge that the pain of being government lab rats is something you all share could be comforting. But, instead, it only makes you hurt more.

“Yoongi,” you huff, returning to your perch on the milk crate. Now your hands are all sweaty. “You should be sleeping.”

“Hi, Yoongi; nice to see you too! Thanks for coming to hang out with me!” Yoongi mocks your voice, clearly stating what he thinks you should have said. “Oh, no problem, Y/N. I just wanted to see how you were doing and hang out with my favorite kiddo.”

You scrunch your nose at kiddo.

“I’m not a kid.”

Yoongi leans over to rub his knuckles into your head. “Nah, you definitely are.”

Despite the lack of lighting outside, Yoongi practically glows. That’s always how it is with fire elementals. It’s like they absorb all the light and let it buzz inside them. Like fireflies, you’d once told Yoongi. He hadn’t found it cute to be compared to a bug.

“If I’m a firefly, then you’re a fucking fish,” he’d teased. You’d promptly summoned water from a nearby puddle to throw in his face.

For as long as you can remember, that’s how it has been between the two of you: fire and water. A push and pull. So different that you need each other to be whole.

You watch Yoongi get comfortable in the bean bag, his skinny limbs spreading like a starfish and his eyes lifting to the sky. In quiet moments like this, you would give anything to hold him. And not out of fear like you had when the scary men came to take you away from your parents. And not out of anger like you had to when you stopped him from blowing up the research facility they’d held you in.

No, you want to hold him and for it to be gentle, soft, and peaceful.

Like now, when the world is silent except for the crickets calling to each other in the weeds and the rustle of wind in the trees.

But he thinks you’re just a kid.

You’re not that much younger than him. But, if you put in the effort to look at your relationship objectively, you’d see that Yoongi’s paternal nature comes out with you and the other runaway Gifteds. He cares for you as an older brother would.

It’s not enough for you, though. It will never be enough.

“Is everyone else asleep?” You rest your elbows on your knees and hold your chin in your hand. When you speak, you look out at the empty field.

“Hobi sneezed and blasted a hole through the bathroom wall,” Yoongi says with a low chuckle. “So me and Joon found some supplies to patch it up the best we could. I think they’re all asleep now, though.”

“How is it Hobi’s the one breaking shit and Namjoon’s fixing it?” You press your hand against your mouth to muffle the ugly snort bursting from you. There’s very little to find funny in this life, so you cherish how your chest burns with fond warmth.

“The world’s all backwards.” Yoongi’s gummy smile lights up the night and tears into your heart.

The two of you fall silent once again. Moving slowly, you reach out to hook your pinky finger with Yoongi’s, a small smile forming when you feel his pinky wrap tightly around yours.

“Where are we gonna go, Yoong?”

He watches you with eyes heavy with sleep, determined to stay up with you even though he doesn’t need to. Initially, you thought it was because he wanted to keep you company. Now, you often wonder if it’s because Yoongi is afraid to sleep, too. He never speaks about his experience at the Labs; the other runaways have learned the hard way not to ask. Singed eyebrows don’t look good on anyone.

“I don’t know.”

You already knew this would be the answer, but it scares you anyway. Yoongi always knows everything.

Yoongi lets go of your hand to sit up in the bean bag.

“Hey, kid,” he whispers. He gently presses his palm to your jaw, cupping your face. You hope he doesn’t hear your breath hitch in your throat. “As long as we’re together, you don’t gotta worry about anything, okay?”

You stare at him for a long time, searching the bags under his eyes and the worry lines on his forehead.

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

3 MONTHS, 1 WEEK

There’s a stream that cuts through the overgrown fields behind the warehouse. It’s man-made, flowing from a sewer tunnel beneath the cracked parking lot - and likely from somewhere else, perhaps connected to a lake beyond the woods at the property's edge. The separation between industrialization and the natural world of the unknown hurts your heart. You’d never felt longing until you found yourself inside a cage of cinderblock walls and concrete floors.

A rope of water whips across your face, drawing you from your thoughts of the woods. It’s muddy and makes your skin and clothes smell sour.

Though the air is still crisp and bites at the tip of your nose, spring came early this year. It takes minimal effort for Namjoon to draw more water from the soiled stream as it’s not frozen over like it should be. With a flick of his wrist, another rope of water hits you, this time across your chest.

“Aghh!”

“Pay attention.”

You lift your arm in enough time to block his next assault. The liquid rope freezes in the air before shattering into a thousand glimmering pieces, scattering jagged ice across the pale yellow grass.

“I’m tired of this, Grandpa.”

Namjoon rolls his eyes at the pop culture reference; you’re pleased he understood. Posed to speak, mouth already opening, he barely gets a sound out before another voice bellows across the field.

“WELL, THAT’S TOO DAMN BAD!”

Hoseok isn’t afraid to be loud. He smiles, all teeth and pink tongue, and throws his head back as he cackles. Everywhere he goes, he carries the smell of spring with him - cherry blossoms and morning dew that makes newly-grown pieces of grass stick wet against ankles.

You close your eyes and let spring overpower the sour smell of sewer water Namjoon has thrown at you for the past hour. It lets you forget how your skin aches with welts and bruises.

As Hoseok bounds toward you and Namjoon, a dark tornado spins beside him. When he gets closer, you can see Hoseok occasionally blowing a small gust of air toward the tornado. It appears to be made of smoke, a gradient of grays and blacks.

“Look at this,” your friend announces with a mischievous grin. “Me and JK learned a new trick.”

With a quick snap of Hoseok’s fingers, you and Namjoon watch in patient silence as the tornado begins to slow its speed. Almost gently, the smoke curls tighter and tighter until the darkness turns into a solid mass.

Jungkook stumbles a few times as he attempts to get his footing. His limbs continue to propel his body into a small spin.

Hoseok quickly reaches out to grab the younger man. Secure hands squeeze his shoulders, and then it’s only Jungkook’s head lolling about.

“Cool, right?” Jungkook’s voice is gruff, but his lips curl into a weak smile.

Namjoon lets out a long sigh. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”

Although Namjoon is right, Jungkook does look like the effort of his little party trick took a toll on his body; you can’t help but match his smile. Especially when his eyes flick toward yours. You told his gaze for half a second before Jungkook quickly looks away. His cheeks flush pink, but you’re sure it’s from the exertion of all that spinning.

“I think it’s really cool,” you praise the two while elbowing Namjoon in the ribs. With a grumble, your sparring partner returns to his previous stance a few feet away.

“We should go again. Just for a little while longer.”

Every muscle in your body feels stiff when you turn away from Hoseok and Jungkook.

“I hurt all over, Joonie.”

“Let her rest!” Hoseok adds to your whining. “All we ever do is practice fighting.”

“Sparring.”

Hoseok waves a dismissive hand at the younger man. “Whatever you want to call it. I find it to be fri-”

You stifle a laugh by pressing the back of your hand to your mouth as Hoseok is tackled to the ground by Jungkook. The two men roll around, all arms and legs, kicking up dead grass and dirt. A lot of howling and teasing laughter rings through the open air.

It isn’t until Jungkook is launched into the sky by a gust of wind you know comes from Hoseok, and lands roughly on his back, that the playful fight ceases. How Jungkook lands knocks all the air out of his chest, but he laughs once his lungs start working again.

“Ridiculous, all of you.” Hoseok brushes grass from his clothes. It’s futile; they’re dirty and ragged anyway. Try as you and Namjoon might to use your Gifts to clean the clothes; water does little when there’s no soap.

“I let you win,” Jungkook teases.

Still, he stands a bit further from Hoseok than he had previously. Not far enough for anyone to notice, aside from you. You notice although you don’t mean to. It’s hard not to when Jungkook keeps stealing glances, only to look away when you try to return his gaze.

“You did not.”

“Did, too.” His insistence makes you giggle.

“And how did that work out for you? Hmm? How does your back feel? I know you landed on that rock.”

“I-It, it doesn’t hurt.” Jungkook glances your way. His cheeks are still pink. “Would take more than that to hurt me.”

“Jungkook is impossible to beat.”

You startle at the gentle voice, spinning on your heels to see Yoongi approaching the group. He’s got a leather satchel strapped across his chest and resting at his hip. It bulges with what you assume are plants and fruits scavenged from the woods.

“Boy Scouts” is what Yoongi offered when you asked how he knew so much about surviving in nature. It was peculiar; nothing about Yoongi seemed like the type. He’s tougher, more steel than wood or earth. A bulletproof shield, you think. Broad and strong.

“Impossible?”

Your question is meant to be a tease, but Yoongi’s face remains stoic. Such a severe look only reveals itself when he assumes his position as your misfit group’s leader. It would be extremely attractive if it didn’t scare you.

“How can you fight shadows?” Yoongi deadpans. He stares into your eyes long enough to make your face feel hot, but you don’t look away.

“I…”

Yoongi hums at your lack of an answer. Suddenly, you feel unbelievably small.

“It’s not impossible,” Jungkook whispers. His head hangs low, long bangs hiding his face. The rest of his hair is tied into a bun at the nape of his neck. “I’m just as beatable as you, hyung.”

Something about Yoongi’s expression softens at the honorific. Formalities died long ago, along with many other traditions that once made Korea what it was. So many things died during the war - tangible and cultural - lives and ways of being. Now, the Republic is something you know your friends no longer recognize. Although it is not your home country, your heart aches for what it once was - something you will never have the privilege to experience because you arrived during the Restoration of the Republic - a fallacy of an era since the country was never restored to how it was.

That may be best. It is easier to mourn the loss of something you never knew.

In moments like this, you feel terribly inadequate - when you speak with broken Korean or struggle to understand the foreign politics behind why Gifteds are hunted, no matter how many times Namjoon patiently attempts to teach you. All you know is that, at least here, to be Gifted is not a death sentence, per se. Other countries’ governments have been far less lenient with their mutant population.

You’re simply seen as a science experiment to be tested on, poked and prodded, pushed until you’re driven mad, and then warped into whatever shape the government has the need for.

“You have no match,” Yoongi smiles softly at Jungkook with a shake of his head. “I do.”

Holding out his hand, a small flame appears in the center of Yoongi’s palm. It floats just above the skin, though he isn’t burned. You’ve seen Yoongi summon fire a million times from the heat of the air around him, and he never ceases to amaze you.

With a nod in Namjoon’s direction, Yoongi waits for a small rope of dirty water to splash against his hand. Namjoon is much kinder in his attack against Yoongi, only summoning enough water to extinguish the flame.

“Water will always win against me,” Yoongi admits. This time, he holds your gaze when he speaks. “It is my match.”

You feel something stir in your belly that migrates up your chest until it eventually threatens to suffocate you, nearly getting lodged in your throat.

“You would do well to continue sparring with Namjoon,” he says after a moment before turning to Hoseok and Jungkook, who have otherwise been silent.

It’s an order, even if Yoongi is gentle with his words.

With a sigh, you turn back to Namjoon. It’s difficult to stamp down the heat Yoongi always manages to trigger inside of you. You would compare him to fire even if it didn’t already run in his veins.

Drawing from the murky stream, you weave a ball of water between your palms.

“Let’s go again.”

While you spar with Namjoon, Yoongi leads Hoseok and Jungkook to the other end of the field.

You and Namjoon spar as though you are dancing. It’s a push and pull, your rhythms falling into harmony, even when one of you performs a surprise attack or a new move that hasn’t been practiced before. Perhaps it is because you both fight with water. There is a fluidity to it that the others don’t possess.

Occasionally, your eyes stray to where Yoongi, Hoseok, and Jungkook have begun to spar. The three men do not dance. Instead, they are a fury of elements intertwining in chaos. The wind snuffs fire, Yoongi and Hoseok blasting each other incessantly. Shadows allow Jungkook to disappear before being hit by an attack, only to reappear right behind his opponent to go in for the kill.

And it would be a kill if this was real. You know Jungkook keeps a rather terrifying knife strapped to his thigh. You all carry weapons, though you don’t really need them. Even Jungkook, with a Gift that’s misunderstood and exceptionally rare, is never found without his weapon.

Out of all the Gifteds you’ve met on your way to safety, you have never encountered another who can manipulate shadows. So, there is truth to Yoongi’s statement.

Jungkook is terrifying, even with the wide, starry eyes he always seems to stare at you with. He’s quiet and shy, typically sticking to Hoseok. You assume it’s likely because you found the two of them together. Both were kept in the same room at the research facility in Busan. As unassuming as Jungkook may be, you’ve seen him manipulate shadows to wrap around a Red Pin’s neck. Those shadows twisted and tightened until the man crumpled.

You didn’t need to have the Gift of blood manipulation to know when his heart stopped.

It was one of the scariest moments of your life, even beyond the suffering you’d endured having lived in the research facilities since you were a teen. Before then, you’d never seen someone die. Even when Yoongi and Namjoon helped you escape, they shielded you from the worst of it. It wasn’t until the three of you came upon the newest facility that such horrors were unleashed.

Jungkook hates himself for it. You know he does; you typically make your bed beside his, and he cries in his sleep. Self-defense protects the body in the moment, but harms the mind and heart long-term.

You probably would have done the same.

For as tragic as his story is - or what little you know of it - Jungkook has an undeniably beautiful soul. Those horrors have yet to turn him cruel or his heart black. Even when he spars, you can tell that he’s being gentle. He holds back and doesn’t reach his full potential out of fear of hurting others, you’re sure. You can see it in how he bounces on the balls of his feet to keep his movements light and how his back muscles ripple beneath his shirt as it clings to his skin. A bead of sweat runs along his neck, over the vein that bulges from his exerting effort.

Something prickles under your skin. When you look up, it’s into those wide eyes full of galaxies you’ll never understand, are somehow okay with not understanding if it means you can continue to gaze upon them.

A small smile pulls the corners of Jungkook’s mouth up. His expression is short-lived, though, quickly falling as a bright orange flame licks at his ankles.

“Don’t let my words get to your head, Jeon,” Yoongi teases. “Impossible to beat, but easy to hurt.”

This time, you catch Yoongi’s eye. You duck your head when he winks at you, just in time to block another blast of water from Namjoon.

“Why is everyone so off today?” Namjoon grumbles to himself. You haven’t managed to successfully hit him even once.

“I’m tired,” you whine again, dropping a ball of water to the ground. Dead grass quickly soaks it up once it splashes. “We should check on Jessi.”

Your group's sixth and final member is tucked away in the corner of the warehouse on the top floor. It’s dark up there, though Yoongi’s everlasting fire, paired with the windows Jessi managed to open, gives enough light for her to work.

She has black grease smudged on her left cheek and across her forehead. Her long, thick hair is tied back into a ponytail, though strands have fallen out to frame her face. When you step closer, you hear her muttering, but you can’t make out what she’s saying. It’s not for you. She speaks, facing the black box placed in front of where she kneels on the floor. The floor can’t feel good on her knees with its bits of broken concrete and dirt. Everything hurts in this life; it hardly matters as long as you’re here and not there.

“This piece of shit,” Jessi hisses, running her hands across her face. It smears more grease onto her skin, but she doesn’t care.

“Not working?”

“Beep beep boop beeping all over the fucking place, then static. White noise and shit. Like it’s telling me to fuck off even though I’m the one fixing it.”

You hum, crouching down to stare at the box. It’s an old radio meant to transport messages back and forth. Perhaps left behind by the military after it had occupied this land while it bulldozed the vigilantes seeking to save Gifteds from the fate you all ended up sharing anyway.

Jessi tweaks a few exposed wires. Every time they spark, you flinch. Mini white lightning, it’s deadly for anyone but Jessi. She grumbles and continues her work with deft fingers calloused from toiling away at the stupid thing for months.

“I’m normally so fucking good at this, I swear to God.”

Frustration colors her tone, even if her expression and cursing didn’t already give her feelings away.

You don’t doubt her, though, and you tell her as much. Still, you know firsthand that it sucks when your powers don’t work how you want them to. As a technopath, fixing the radio should be easy work for her.

“There must be something wrong with it… Maybe the Red Pins did something to it?”

You don’t know anything about technology. Even with the phone you’d stolen off one of the Red Pins, all you’d gotten to do was look at TikTok and try to find out where your parents were before Yoongi made you destroy the device. The government had ways to track you. Technology was as much your friend as a stranger on the street.

With a sigh, Jessi leans back until she’s sitting flat on the grimy floor.

“Maybe? Fuck if I know. I think I’m getting close, though. I’m getting some frequency when I concentrate really hard, but I wanna fix it so it’ll work even without me.”

Your friend whispers the end of her statement. It goes without saying; each one of you knows the fragility of life on the run.

“Thank you for working so hard.” Even in the dim lighting, you can see her watery eyes shine. It hurts your heart, but all you can offer is a light squeeze of her shoulder.

Jessi shrugs. “It’s as much for me as it is for you.”

You watch her stand and brush the dirt from her butt, her joints cracking from sitting down too long. When you first joined this mutant crew, you would have followed behind Jessi to comfort her. But, after months of running and fighting, you’ve learned that sometimes solitude is the best healing method.

4 MONTHS, 2 DAYS

“What makes you think you’re ready? That any of us are ready?”

Yoongi watches you with catlike eyes from where he sits at the kitchen table. The chairs circled around the battered wooden table are mismatched and in varying stages of deterioration from being abandoned for so long. The one Yoongi sits in is metal, and he leans on its two back legs, his right foot pressed to the floor to keep himself steady and his arms crossed against his chest.

Although Yoongi isn’t raising his voice - he never does - you still feel like you’re being scolded.

“I know we are,” you challenge him. Your voice is steady even as your fingers tremble. To stop them from shaking, you squeeze your hands into a fist, nails biting at the skin of your palms.

You should sit down, but holding your energy in is hard. Instead, you pace the kitchen while Yoongi’s cat eyes and Jessi’s wide ones follow you. You feel like a lion looping its cage, the desire to run restricted and confined.

“How?”

“We can’t stay here, Yoong! We can’t. I can’t.”

The front legs of Yoongi’s chair slam into the concrete floor. He allows the momentum to pull him forward, landing his elbows on the table’s surface.

Looking at Yoongi hurts. You can tell from his face that the next thing he says won’t be pleasant. His lips are pressed into a fine line that curves downward slightly. It’s cute how he can pull off a straight-lipped frown, but not when it’s directed at you.

It’s been at least an hour of back and forth between the three of you. Jessi tapped out a long time ago, resolved to watch the tennis match of an argument between you and Yoongi rather than exert energy on a fight she isn’t committed to. Yoongi and Jessi have the final say in all group decisions as the group's elders. It’s another reminder of how you think Yoongi sees you as someone to take care of rather than an equal.

“Have you ever killed someone before, Y/N?”

You pause your pacing to stand in front of the table. Yoongi is an exceptional cook, managing to create delicious meals out of what little you all have to work with from the forest. But now, at this moment, you feel like you’re going to be sick from the food churning in your stomach.

“No.”

“No,” Yoongi repeats. He speaks slowly, like he’s mulling your answer over, letting it twist around his tongue until he’s satisfied enough with its taste to swallow it down.

Leaning forward, Yoongi presses his palms against the table’s surface. He spreads his fingers and stares at them. The two of you seem to trace over the scars that line his skin, little nicks, and slices that healed light pink or blazing white. You’ve never seen Yoongi naked, but you have seen a good expanse of his body when you’ve used your Gift to help the others get clean. From what you’ve seen, you know Yoongi’s entire body is littered with battle scars.

“I have,” he admits what you already knew, and the gravelly sound of his voice makes you shudder. “Jungkook has.”

You wince at the mention of the younger man, but Yoongi doesn’t give you a chance to speak.

“Do you want to ask him what it’s like to squeeze the life out of another man? He may have done it with shadows, but I guarantee he still felt it in his hands.”

Yoongi lifts his eyes to yours when the first tear rolls down your cheek. Concern wrinkles his forehead.

“Yoongi,” you start, but the pink-haired man shakes his head.

“I don’t mean to upset you, kiddo.” The pet name twists your gut tighter with frustration - even though Yoongi’s voice is filled with gentle adoration when he calls out to you. “But I’ll be damned if I let us walk into that forest without knowing where we’re going or whose claws we’re running into. The Gifted Commune is, at best, a rumor. At worst - a trap.”

You want to tell him that falling for a rumor or getting caught by the government is better than sitting in a concrete cage. The prospect of finding a community of other Gifted runaways who have managed to create a society safe from the evils you’ve grown up with means more to you than the fear of the unknown.

There’s no use, though. Jessi is nodding along to Yoongi’s words; the blank expression she wears when she’s upset already masks her face.

“I will not put you in a situation where you must kill or be killed, Y/N. I won’t fucking do it.” Yoongi clears his throat suddenly, and he looks away from you. You’re unsure, but think he might be blinking back unshed tears.

You’re still pissed, but now your anger is mixed quite prettily with debilitating guilt. You’ve never seen Yoongi cry, and you realize with a sinking feeling that you really don’t want to.

“It’s too fucking risky,” Jessi finally speaks. She presses her fingers against her forehead, massaging it slowly as she, too, looks for words. “The radio is almost fixed; I can feel that it’s close. Then we will have a clearer line of communication with the Commune. It doesn’t guarantee anything, obviously, but it’s better than going in without fucking knowing anything.”

There’s nothing else to say. Yoongi doesn’t look at you or Jessi, instead staring at something in the opposite corner of the room.

Jessi gives you what you think is a smile laced with pity - or at least an apology.

How can everyone be so content to stay in the warehouse? You’re a bunch of sitting ducks, hiding out in the same location for months, practically waiting for the government to send their agents to either corral you into laboratories again or exterminate you. You don’t understand how becoming a moving target is a bad thing.

But, ultimately, you don’t understand why Yoongi can’t just trust you.

With a frustrated huff, you twist around to hurry out of the kitchen. As you cross the threshold, Namjoon appears in the doorway.

“Oh, I need to ask you-”

You don’t mean to shove Namjoon with your shoulder as hard as you do, but you don’t have the patience to comply with whatever he expects you to do for him. Probably more sparring and training.

On the one hand, sharing your identity as a water elemental with someone else in the group is an affirming experience. On the other, it’s infuriating because Namjoon sees your potential and pushes you toward it - even when you fight against him.

Namjoon sputters something, and you hear Jessi convince him to drop it. Whatever else they have to say is lost on you; you’re no longer interested in entertaining the conversations of the “leaders” of the group. Part of you wants to find Hoseok or Jungkook to force them to commiserate with you, but something about dumping your sludge of emotions onto them feels wrong.

So you do what you’ve always done best: you repress.

It isn’t until a few hours later when you’re lounging on your makeshift bed with the only tattered book you kept from your facility (Fahrenheit 451, how fitting), that you give yourself over to the gnawing need to interact with other humans.

Jungkook bounces on the balls of his feet, items that you can’t make out pressed against his chest.

“Will you cut my hair for me, noona?”

The out-of-use honorific flusters you, making your face burn under Jungkook’s attentive gaze.

“You don’t have to be so formal with me,” you insist, embarrassment ravaging your twisted stomach and fluttering chest. Something about the attention Jungkook gives you makes you feel nervous and giddy.

“It’s not very formal, really. It’s… respectful? I just… You are, it means,” Jungkook lets out a huff. He blows his bangs out of his face as his cheeks turn pink. “You are special to me.”

You duck your head, shocked by Jungkook’s honesty. It warms you in a way you’re not sure you understand, letting the feeling sit inside your chest rather than exploring it any further.

“Where I come from, we don’t have words like that.”

Jungkook gives you a shrug. Neither of you mentions that in Korea, those words don’t really exist anymore, either.

“But, okay,” you relent softly.

Jungkook stands beside the mess of blankets that make up your bed, holding a pair of scissors and electric clippers Jessi enhanced to operate on their own. Jungkook nicked them from a Red Pin on their way out of the research facility he’d grown up in. Hairstyling tools didn’t seem high on your list of items to steal, but they’d come in handy. Like now, with Jungkook’s bangs falling entirely into his eyes and his hair sweeping across his shoulders.

The pout Jungkook wears lessens slightly. He holds out the tools with an expectant look on his face. It’s cute how his bottom lip juts out, pink and chapped from nervously chewing on it. You’d overheard Namjoon scolding him for something earlier that morning before you went outside to patrol the grounds with Hoseok and Jessi.

Taking the items from Jungkook, you lead him out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. The lights sputter briefly before they fully brighten the small room. Jessi was excited to learn that her Gift extended to electricity as a whole, not just that within technology like computers and radios. With all your Gifts combined, the warehouse is liveable, almost comfortable.

Jungkook sits on the closed lid of the toilet, making you tower over him. He parts his legs slightly so you can stand between them as you run your fingers through his hair.

You spread your fingers and sweep his bangs up, exposing his forehead. It opens up his face more and makes him look older. Jungkook is handsome; there’s no denying that. You’re sure in another life, he could have been a regular college kid with a sweet girlfriend and a bright future.

“What would you like me to do?”

“Hmm?” Jungkook hums with his eyes closed, and his head tilted back slightly.

You don’t miss how he leans into your touch, completely pliable in your hands, as you massage his scalp and continue to play with his hair. It’s thick and soft, even without the proper haircare products to maintain the health of the follicles.

“How do you want me to cut it, silly?”

You reach for the hairbrush you keep tucked away in the bathroom cabinet. It takes a few more moments of silence while you brush out Jungkook’s waves before he finally speaks.

“Short. Cut it all off, please? It’s too hard to take care of now, and it gets in my face.”

“Don’t get mad at me if it comes out bad.”

Jungkook lets out a frustrated sound. “You always do a great job. You gave Yoongi hyung an undercut. It looks so good!”

At the mention of Yoongi, you feel your heart drop. Somehow you know Jungkook is here to make you feel better even if he hasn’t said anything about the argument, and he’s the one seeking your help, not the other way around. He’s a distraction - one you wonder if Yoongi sent himself.

It isn’t that Yoongi won’t apologize; you just never give him a chance to before you run off to lick your wounds on your own.

It’s the healing quality of solitude, you think as you prepare to cut Jungkook’s hair. However, this time, you’re not alone.

You can’t help but smile when Jungkook starts singing a song of his own creation as chunks of his hair fall to the floor. His song drowns out the static that buzzes in your brain like the fuzziness Jessi’s broken radio emits when anyone but her fiddles with it.

“This way,” you speak softly, not wanting to disrupt his singing as you press your fingertips against his jaw and under his chin to lift his face toward you. Your finger presses against the little mole just below Jungkook’s bottom lip. The angle gives you a better view of your work so far.

A small smile flickers on Jungkook’s face as though he’s trying to keep it down, but the corners of his mouth won’t listen to him.

“It feels nice. We don’t touch.”

You hum and nod your head, but Jungkook’s eyes are still closed. It’s true; kind touches are rare. Hoseok is really the only one who gives out hugs. Everything is tough all the time. There’s little room for gentleness, even amongst friends.

So you understand when Jungkook’s smile wins out, and he finally surrenders to the happiness your light touches along his jaw bring him.

4 MONTHS, 5 DAYS

It takes Yoongi three days to apologize.

Perhaps you should have apologized first, but you struggle to see how you could have done anything that warrants an apology. Yes, you feel bad for upsetting Yoongi, but his attitude toward you lately has rubbed you the wrong way.

During the three days it takes him to apologize to you, he seems to do his best to avoid you.

On the days you’re assigned to go on patrol with Yoongi, Jungkook accompanies you instead. You don’t mind having Jungkook by your side, you discover, even though you’re upset that Yoongi is behaving so childishly.

Neither Jungkook nor Yoongi talks much, but you learn that their silence feels different. Whereas Yoongi’s silence stems from feeling confident and content with not needing to fill the air with incessant babbling, Jungkook’s silence is awkward and heavy. He fiddles with the loose strings of his shirt, his reddened cuticles, and everything else. You don’t mind the awkwardness, though. It’s nice to comb through the woods with someone as powerful as Jungkook; you know there’s nothing to fear with him around.

The only weapon Jungkook carries is the knife strapped to his thigh. You, on the other hand, stay heavily armed. Your fingers tighten around your bow. When you twist your torso, the harness that holds your arrows digs into your shoulder. You also have a knife, though you are honestly afraid of close combat. A gun would be even better, but ammo is difficult to come by. It’s easier to collect your arrows after you’ve shot them, although you haven’t needed to yet. Since finding refuge at the warehouse, no one has discovered your group.

Apparently, all your friends are willing to keep testing fate. You aren’t interested in pushing your luck. Jungkook doesn’t comment on the group’s plans for moving forward - or lack thereof. Something tells you that he’ll do whatever Yoongi and Jessi tell him to do.

Still, going on patrol with Jungkook does a decent job of preventing your thoughts from straying toward your argument with Yoongi. Your hands brushed together a few times as you walked side by side, and you could practically feel Jungkook’s brain shortcircuit from the contact.

Part of you thinks he has a crush on you, but the more logical part of you knows he’s probably shy. The kid has gone through a lot in life. Not everything is always about you; you try to remind yourself. Yoongi doesn’t even want you. Why would Jungkook?

On the third day, bright doe eyes don’t greet you at the edge of the woods, just as the sun is kissing the sky for the first time. Instead, sharp cat eyes hold your gaze when you lightly jog over.

“Good morning, kiddo.”

Yoongi wears dark shorts with tattered edges cut from a pair of old jeans and a plain t-shirt the color of the forest in spring. It’s not warm enough to wear what he’s wearing, but fire elementals run hot like you run cold.

“Hi,” you say, voice a bit stunted as you hold your jacket tighter to your body.

You’ve foregone your bow and arrows today; you may or may not have snapped your bow in a fit of frustration that may or may not have anything to do with Yoongi ignoring you at dinner the night before. A knife and your Gift will have to do, but you feel it is enough. Namjoon insists on learning how to use your Gifts and weapons in tandem. For double the defense, or so he says.

Carrying a knife seems ridiculous when you know how to choke someone with their own spit without touching them.

Once you’re within arm’s reach, Yoongi offers his hand to you. He holds it as though he’s going in for a handshake. Yellow-orange fire licks at his palm and swirls in tendrils around his fingers and wrist.

After a few seconds of silence, he makes a slight grunting sound and wiggles his fingers, beckoning you.

It’s impossible not to cave. A prickly feeling tingles down your arm, beginning somewhere in your chest and eventually settling in your fingertips. A tiny hurricane of water stolen from the moisture in the air circles around your hand just as the fire does Yoongi’s.

He lets out a pleased sound when your palms glide across each other. You hook your thumbs together, using the momentum to spin your hands around until your fingers are interlaced and pressed into your palms. You both squeeze your hands once, twice, three times in a heartbeat before pulling away. By the end, the fire and water have disappeared.

When you meet Yoongi’s eyes, the warmth of the fire in his palm has transferred to his gaze. There is an apology in how you release each other’s hands. The handshake holds secret words of friendship and reassurance between you.

The two of you stand in silence for a bit until Yoongi tilts his head in the direction of the woods. You nod in response and follow Yoongi along one of the many patrol paths your group has established.

There’s never anything in the woods besides small animals like squirrels and rabbits, but everyone feels better knowing there is a consistent patrol of the area, just in case.

“So,” When you look at Yoongi, his lips twist into a light smirk you absolutely do not like. “You and Jungkook.”

“Me and Jungkook what?”

Yoongi shrugs. “Just seems like you two been hanging out a lot.”

“Yeah, because you were fucking ignoring me all week.”

His smirk drops into a stern frown, but Yoongi continues following the path. He walks slightly ahead of you with his hands clasped behind his back. It feels like he’s taking a leisurely stroll through a garden rather than going on patrol in the woods for government assassins.

“It was immature and irresponsible of me, and I’m sorry for that.”

Forgiving Yoongi is too easy. It’s the way the morning sun shines through the canopy of trees above you, casting streaks of light against his fading pink hair. The way he carries himself with confidence is gentle and comforting rather than arrogant or misplaced. It’s how he looks at you; you know he would do anything for you.

“It’s okay,” you finally concede. You scramble a bit to fall in line with Yoongi again. “I was being dramatic.”

“Life is one big drama, isn’t it?” Yoongi muses with a chuckle. It’s a question he doesn’t expect an answer to, which is good, considering you’ve got something else buzzing around in your head.

Well, fuck it. You’re just gonna say it.

Heart pounding, you eventually find it in you to say, “I still think you’re wrong.”

After a moment, Yoongi hums in acknowledgment of your admission but doesn’t offer anything else. It’s better than nothing, so you tell yourself to be content with all that he offers.

“Anyway…” You don’t want to drop the subject, but Yoongi’s question is nagging in the back of your brain now - a nagging question you now have a gnawing desire to know the meaning behind. “Me and Jungkook can hang out without it meaning-”

Before you can finish your statement, Yoongi slaps his hand against your mouth. The calluses on his palms are rough against your chapped lips, and his skin is sweaty. His free arm comes around to the front of your chest near your collarbones. He draws you against his chest so tightly you can’t move.

“Don’t talk.” His breath is hot against your face, and his voice is almost indiscernible.

You give a tiny nod before locking your body completely still. You hold your breath, straining to hear what Yoongi might hear or see what he might see. There’s nothing, just the usual sound of life in the woods - birds chirping, small animals scurrying in the brush. You don’t see anything either.

You can only focus on the frantic pounding of your heart and the calm beat of Yoongi’s against your back. How he can be so relaxed when he thinks there might be danger in the woods that you can’t even see is unreal.

Slowly, Yoongi takes a step back away from you. He holds a finger to his lips and silently mouths for you to stay where you are. Everything inside you screams to disobey as you watch Yoongi disappear further into the woods, the thick trees swallowing him whole.

But you don’t. You stay put, fear rooting you to the ground even though your body desperately wants to follow.

What lies beyond the thicket of trees? What is dangerous enough that Yoongi wants you to stay put but not so dangerous that he believes he can take it on alone?

Just when your resolve is about to crumble, something catches your attention out of the corner of your eye. Barely breathing, you turn your head to watch a dark spot glide across the forest floor. It’s two-dimensional, not an object but a presence creeping along the ground.

Suddenly, the spot grows. It spreads, turning its shape from a flat, uneven circle to a thing with tendrils sticking out of it, each new tendril moving independently. You gasp when one of the tendrils creeps up your leg. Despite being two-dimensional, you can feel the darkness. It’s firm and cold, like a snake slithering up your body.

Every inch of you trembles as the strange darkness slowly spreads across your body. You squeeze your eyes and hold your breath. Perhaps this is the thing that Yoongi saw, a phantom stalking the trees. But now you’re left behind to be absorbed into its darkness, eaten alive.

You’re startled when the cold disappears; instead, strong arms pull you against a firm chest. Warmth envelopes you, and when you open your eyes, you see familiar ones looking back at you.

“I got you,” Jungkook murmurs. He has you tucked under his chin, and he tilts his head down when he speaks to you. You shiver as his lips lightly brush against your forehead.

“Where did you-”

“Shhh.”

Jungkook’s heart isn’t steady like Yoongi’s had been. On the contrary, it’s beating rather furiously. You can hear him attempting to regulate his emotions, taking in mindful breaths and exhaling in a way that tickles your skin.

You don’t know how long you stand there pulled against Jungkook’s chest. After a while, your breathing matches his until you fall into a gentle rhythm that makes you sleepy. The adrenaline is making you crash, your body hardly strong enough to hold yourself up after panicking so severely - still panicking. Luckily, when you lean into Jungkook, his hold on you tightens.

In another situation, pressing your fronts together would have flooded your body with heat. You can feel all of Jungkook like this, from the bulging muscles of his chest to his thigh pressed slightly between your legs from how he holds you up. But fear of the unknown and Jungkook’s clearly distressed state prevent those other thoughts from materializing.

Jungkook’s body doesn’t relax until Yoongi appears around the corner of a large tree. He keeps his arms wrapped around you, and for a second, Yoongi looks around at the clearing you're in as though he can’t see you.

It isn’t until Jungkook lets go of you that recognition flashes in Yoongi’s eyes.

“There you are,” Yoongi murmurs to the two of you. He looks like he rolled around on the ground, little pieces of leaves and sticks caught in his hair and stuck to his clothes. His left knee is bleeding from a few superficial scrapes.

“What the fuck happened to you?”

Yoongi looks at Jungkook before he answers your question, which irritates you. “I tripped when I rushed in, but it was nothing. Just a large fox I heard making noise back there.”

A fox is likely the largest animal in the woods, with no bears or wolves in the area. Still, you don’t trust Yoongi. You can pick up on the charred smell coming off of him. He smells like a barbecue, which means only one thing…

“Have you been practicing turning yourself invisible?”

Jungkook ducks his head down but no longer has long bangs to hide his face. It takes a second for your brain to process Yoongi’s question - and the change in the topic - but Jungkook is already answering him by the time you figure it out.

“It’s not really invisibility,” he says softly. “It’s more like… an illusion.”

Yoongi hums and motions for the two of you to start walking. You’re returning to the warehouse, you realize, even though you only just started the patrol route.

“Yeah, I can… adjust the lighting, I guess? To make it seem like you can’t see me. Or, us, this time.”

Jungkook gives you a small smile when you whip around to look at him.

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Yeah,” Jungkook repeats. He draws his bottom lip between his teeth and wiggles it like he has more to say but doesn’t want to let it out just yet.

The three of you walk in silence until you reach the warehouse. When Yoongi walks ahead of you, you can tell he’s limping, even as he does his best to walk normally.

“He’s okay.”

Jungkook stands beside you in the field behind the warehouse, watching Yoongi reach the backdoor.

“He’s bleeding.”

Jungkook’s ears are pink when he responds, “He’ll be okay.”

“He’s lying to us.”

Jungkook absentmindedly runs his fingers along his bottom lip. It droops as he speaks through a pout. “Maybe. But I trust him, even if he is.”

It’s a strange thing to trust someone who is lying.

All you can do is nod. All you can do is accept that the people around you are doing what’s right because, aside from them, there is no one and nothing you can trust in the world.

As you approach the warehouse, Jungkook curls his fingers around your wrist to stop you. He watches you with the same wide-eyed look he gives everyone, though something about this time feels different. His expression is more open and vulnerable. He looks at you like he’s waiting for you to hurt him.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” he apologizes softly.

“But you didn’t?”

Your eyebrows crease your forehead, trying to recall what you may have done to make Jungkook feel like you feared him. Sure, his sudden appearance in the woods was startling, but he’d brought you a feeling of comfort and safety - not fear.

Jungkook doesn’t correct you. Instead, he lets go of your wrist as shame warms his cheeks, but he doesn’t look away from you. The timidness is still there. You can see it in how he chews on his bottom lip. Still, his eyes take on a more guarded, hardened expression for a split second, and then…

He’s gone.

“What the fuck?” You mutter to yourself.

Now that you’ve seen the darkness before, your eyes quickly notice the spot on the ground that creeps and grows into odd shapes, slinking along the grass before taking form up your legs, curling around your arms.

It’s Jungkook. You knew it in the woods, somewhere deep down. Your fear for Yoongi’s safety - and your own - prevented you from processing the situation. But now, as the darkness envelopes you again, you know what to expect when you close your eyes and open them to see Jungkook’s broad chest as he crushes you against him.

“You never showed me before.”

Maybe it’s weird that you’re still clinging to each other, but Jungkook is warm and solid, and his heartbeat guides yours into a slower rhythm.

“That’s because it’s creepy.”

“Well, I think it’s cool. Even though, yeah, you kinda scared the shit outta me.”

Jungkook lets out an embarrassed whine and squeezes you tighter. You knew he could command shadows but hadn’t realized he could become one or move within them. Sure, the tornado trick he’d done a few times with Hoseok had been cool, but you’d always thought he was merely swirling the darkness around himself. You hadn’t realized he was the darkness.

Honestly, it made him all the more terrifying and equally as endearing.

“I just had this… feeling something bad was happening…” Jungkook whispers into your hair. “I needed to check.”

“Good thing it was only a fox.”

Jungkook nods in agreement; you know he believes it more than you do.

“I’m just happy you’re safe.” You can feel his cheek press against the top of your head for a moment before he finally releases you.

There’s a feeling there as Jungkook leads you to the warehouse. He laces his fingers with yours, and you can’t help but hear Yoongi’s question on a loop in your head.

You and Jungkook?

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS

“What if they think we’re the feds and feed us false information?”

“We’re too stupid to be the feds. It would be obvious.”

“I don’t know… we all escaped the government, so they must be pretty stupid.”

“What if they’re the feds?”

“Shit, I never thought about that.”

“They’re not the fucking feds.”

“How do you know that?!”

“Can all of you please just shut the fuck up?”

The six of you crowd around the radio on the kitchen table. Jessi shows you how to operate it, which flip to switch to activate the microphone, and how to adjust the volume. You’re all muted for now. When Hoseok goes to flip the switch, Jessi smacks his hand out of the way.

“Listen to me,” she says sternly, turning in her seat to get a good look at all of you. “No one talks.”

“But-”

“No one talks.”

Five heads nod at her command, including Yoongi, which feels very satisfying to you for some reason.

Details of the Gifted Commune somewhere beyond the woods traveled by word of mouth. Coordinates and radio frequencies were exchanged in hushed tones between the Gifteds who dared dream of a life beyond the Labs. You’re sad to admit that you were never one of those Gifteds. It wasn’t until Yoongi helped you escape that you even realized escaping was an option, so brainwashed into thinking the Labs were all you had. You were in a new country, stumbling through an unfamiliar language, taken from your family. Sure, you’d learned enough to get by over time - but missing your adolescent years made you feel hopeless.

Jessi is the only one who had communicated with the Commune leaders in the past when she and another Gifted managed to break into a control room in the Labs she came from.

That’s why she’s the one to speak into the radio that you find operates much like a long-distance walkie-talkie. You’re glad it’s not you. She introduces herself, her whereabouts, and her credentials with an even voice you know you could never replicate.

Despite the distrust you’re all afraid of, Jessi’s previous connection to the Commune makes it easy for her to request to speak to the Commune leader, a healer named Kim Taehyung.

Sitting with your fingers gripping the edge of the table so tightly your knuckles are beginning to ache, you lean forward as though you can get closer to the gentle voice that floats from the radio’s speakers.

Taehyung doesn’t sound anything like you’d imagined, though you aren’t sure what you were expecting, to be honest. Maybe someone with a rougher voice made harsh by the trials of life as a fugitive of the Republic. Instead, he’s soft as he asks Jessi how many there are of you and what your coordinates are. This man, already larger than life even though none of you knows what he looks like, is patient as he gives Jessi instructions on how to reach the Commune.

“I can assure you,” Taehyung speaks, and you don’t know what he’s about to say, but you find yourself already believing him, “You will be safe here. It won’t be a short trip.” That makes your gut twist, but you focus on his following words. “But there are abandoned shelters along the route to find refuge in. The nights get terribly cold.”

Namjoon scribbles some notes down on a worn piece of paper. It’s been written on and erased to add more notes over the months you’ve been at the warehouse since there are only a few pieces of paper between the six of you. There’s a small hole in the middle of the page where someone erased too hard - or too many times, you suppose.

“Thank you, Taehyung-ssi.”

The line is quiet for a moment. Jessi’s gaze shoots up to glare at Jungkook’s interruption, but Taehyung speaks before she can chastise the younger man.

“Anything for my dongsaeng,” the man on the other side of the radio states.

You don’t know him, so there is no way to tell if the subtle lilt to his voice indicates affection, but it seems like it as the two men use polite terms no one ever uses anymore. It’s old-fashioned and reminiscent of a time lost to all of you.

Jessi steers the conversation back to planning the group’s journey to the Commune. Excitement makes you jittery as you skip out of the kitchen, the men - aside from Yoongi - following after you. The boring stuff is what follows, and you’re all content to let the leaders discuss that stuff.

“Do you think we’ll be able to do it?” Hoseok clasps his hands together, occasionally squeezing them. When he speaks, he keeps his eyes on the closed kitchen door.

Namjoon shrugs at the same time you respond, “We have to.”

PART ONE - PART TWO

do not copy, repost, modify, or translate any of my work

#jungkook x reader #bts fanfic #bts x reader #jungkook fanfic #jungkook angst #jungkook smut #jungkook fluff #bts angst #bts fluff #bts smut #jai writes #gimmethatagustd #a spring offering collab #wtfgu

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theresattrpgforthat · 1 month

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Any games about cross-country racing or just racing in general? I've had this setting with this grand race for riders of fantasy creatures and its rough trying to find a game that fits it.

THEME: Racing Games.

Hello friend, so I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that I found a number of racing games! The bad news is that all of the games I found are built with the expectation that you are racing machines, not creatures. I don’t think that makes these games completely non-viable, but pretty much all of them will probably need a little bit of re-wording or hacking in order to become games about racing living things.

SUPERSTARS Racing Icons, by Tristan B Willis.

The air screams around your helmet as you hurtle past the final turn and towards the finish line. Your best friend looks to make a pass that could take both of you out. Do you play it safe and risk losing, or play for glory and risk everything?

Welcome to Superstars: Racing Icons.

Trophies are nice, but racing careers are short and you’re here to build something that lasts. Is that a rabid group of loyal fans who follow your every move? A list of sponsors willing to keep you comfortable long after your racing days? Or just one meaningful connection with a teammate, a rival, a friend, a lover?

The designers expect you to translate this game into a setting that works for you, but plenty of the language expects elements like sponsors, a PR team, and vehicle terminology. The game is GM-less and comes with a menu of backgrounds, which define your character’s narrative role in the race.

Because Superstars is a Firebrands game, instead of freeform play the group instead moves through a series of scenes, embodied through various mini-games. This means that this game is well-built for telling some kinds of stories, but not others. Much of the game is about the tension between the riders; the races are simply methods through which you can explore that tension.

If you want a game that is focused on the spectacle of the race as much as it is on the race itself, you might want to take a look at Superstars: Racing Icons.

Speedway Showdown, by Bammax Games.

Speedway Showdown is an ultralight, GMless minigame for two players that aims to quench your need for speed! Built on Cezar Capacle's Push SRD, Speedway Showdown begs you to put the pedal to the metal and take risks to walk away with the glory. Take a single turn on the tracks and reap a lone victory, or form your own circuit with your friends and race for the top of the ranks!

This is a business card rpg, so it’s very simple and therefore probably pretty easy to hack. Instead of damage to your car, your creature might get wounded or spooked, and you can replace mechanical benefits to reasons why your creature might suddenly get a boost of speed. This is also GM-less, so everyone can throw their hat in the ring for the title!

The game is probably going to be over pretty quickly, since there’s not much to it, so this would be a good set of rules to couch within a larger game.

Ghost Kart Racers, by kumada1.

Lord Aoyama was your master. He wronged you and killed you, but in doing so he made two mistakes.

He angered your spirit.

And he left an unsecured motor-kart in his stable.

Ghost Kart Racing is a 20 page supernatural racing trpg in which you shred rubber, use power-ups, and unhinge your entire face to devour the man who wronged you.

This is a multiplayer game that relies on different sided dice to represent your Kart (or perhaps, in your case, your Steed). You take turns flicking your dice towards a finish line, with the goal of hitting it exactly, with falling short being considered just as bad as overshooting. The game also comes with extras for customizing your racers, creating custom tracks, and adding Charms that change how your vehicles work.

I think the rules for this game can definitely be separated from the story that the designer has introduced, and the idea of having different steeds with different strengths may make sense if each racer is riding a different creatures. You could re-tool the charms into abilities that different fantasy creatures might have, such as a glowing body part or the ability to jump over low obstacles. The game also has optional skills that represent your character’s abilities outside of racing, which you could change to reflect what your characters might need to be good at when they’re not out on the race track.

Dirt Eaters and Grid Beef, by e.a.

DIRT EATERS is a dice game where players compete to see who can get the best score driving their cars through dangerous tracks! Players build the tracks through dice rolls, ranking each sector on a scale from 1-5. Rolling six sided dice, players have to get a number of successes equal to the difficulty of each sector to score a point. The more dice you use, the harder you're driving, and the more damage your car takes! Replenish your dice by 'repairing' your car between stages. It's a game of resource management, strategy, and a little bit of luck!

GRID BEEF is a roleplaying game about racing. In this game, players will be racing cars against one another in a series of events across the world. In between races, they'll form friendships, clash with bitter rivals, and be submerged in the world of politics and drama that comes with racing at a world championship level. Sometimes, the biggest drama happens off the track!

Both of these games follow the same core mechanic, in which a number of d6’s are rolled and the results over a certain number are counted as successes. While DIRT EATERS focuses on damage and hazards, GRID BEEF is more about the relationships between the racers, and how you interact with people affect your performance on the track. I think the core rules can work on their own, and the outside elements are examples on what can affect the race depending on what is important to you. In both cases, there’s probably a good amount of hacking and home-brew that you’ll have to do, but the benefit of looking at both of these is that you can see examples of how the core game can be re-tooled to focus on elements that matter to you.

Love by the Quarter Mile, by Dice Monkey.

Rev your engine and prepare to fire the NOS. In Love by the Quarter-Mile, you play as a street racer trying to make it while fighting for family. This one-page tabletop RPG is quick and dirty, providing you with everything you need to use to play games in the same vein as Fast and Furious and Gone in 60 Seconds.

This is another short game that I think can be very easily hacked to turn this game into a game about racing animals, rather than racing cars. You can replace the car tags with animal tags to differentiate the creatures that you are riding. However, being fast isn’t the only asset you have here - the game is also about fighting and personal relationships. You can fight rivals or other characters, and the rules are loose enough that you could use fists, or weapons that match your setting. You can also have arguments that can tax your emotions, so if there are personal stakes in the competition, you can enjoy some hair-raising drama in between each race.

Also Check Out

Gravity RIP, by lukewestaway.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #racing

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alicepao13 · 1 month

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Hudson and Rex S06E15

So, as I’m sure a lot of people have already figured out, we just watched the intended season finale. CityTV, you better hope I never get to cross that ocean. I mean, every season finale aside from the two where Peter Mitchell was in charge (coincidence?) were run of the mill episodes which could have fit anywhere in the season. Maybe it will be fitting for this season to start and end with viewers wondering what they watched. But I’m getting ahead of myself here and I might be wrong. Let’s focus on 15 which may very well be the best episode of the season for me, probably tied with S06E04.

The spoiled scene with Charlie and Sarah’s mentioned anniversary. Rex totally wants to stay with Jesse after their “celebration”. I’m trying to figure whether Jesse is pretending to be naive or is actually being naive about it. Or if the whole response is the writers being unable to outright say that Charlie and Sarah really spent their anniversary having sex all night.

Speaking of, two years, Charlie Hudson? What are you waiting for, an epiphany to hit you in the head? Oh, wait.

What do you mean, we didn’t save the day? There’s a dead woman? Huh?

Nice bomb explosion by the way.

“My bosses are gonna hate this but tell me more”. lol Jesse

How did we end up as security detail for the woman who might become prime minister?

Look, I like when there’s a case where they’re toying with supernatural elements. That’s why I loved Castle so much. And Jesse is always eager to believe. Charlie on the other hand looks like he’s got tons to say on the subject. Rex too. Apparently he doesn’t believe in time travel either.

Any so called time traveler should come back to the present with the numbers for the lottery. That would be ample proof for me :P

Can I say how much I like the camera work on this one? Good directing by John Vatcher.

Rex is getting so many pats in this episode. Deserved.

This campaign manager is on par with the Veep campaign managers. And by that I mean he’s ruthless and self-centered and I want to punch him.

That food now possibly has dog hair in it.

I come from a country where it’s pretty normal to put a musical montage right in the middle of an episode (even a dance number), so I’m not going to say anything about the needless song.

Thunk! There goes Charlie. Again. I’ll spare y’all the concussion speech. Besides, time moves in mysterious ways in this show, maybe it’s already been six months since episode 11.

Seriously, why do you tell Rex to chase a lead if you can’t survive being ten feet away from him?

I can’t remember the last time any of my shows put a bomb vest on one of the main characters. The latest that I remember was FBI but it was on a minor character. That had been a great episode too.

I haven’t yet decided whether that bomb vest looks too amateurish. To be fair, given who the culprit was, it shouldn’t look professional.

Sarah finding Charlie as he has a bomb vest on is like, the best thing that has happened lately on this show. Her look. His look as he realizes that he’s got his entire family now in this (and the mantra of no, no, no that must be playing in his head, I’m filling the blanks, don’t mind me). The slight zooming in of the camera in both of their shots, denoting the direness of the situation.

I was almost waiting for Charlie to say “this isn’t as enjoyable as it was last night” as Sarah was touching him while she’s checking the bomb vest. It writes itself, come on.

In my last review post I wrote that I was hoping the earphones would serve for Charlie to call Sarah and tell her goodbye or something like that. This certainly exceeded my expectations.

We’re a bit late for love confessions under duress but when Charlie was asked about whether Sarah was his wife and he replied “Not yet”, that was a nice moment. At least we know where his head is at.

Their silent communication. They’re so in sync.

Elsewhere, Joe and Jesse are quietly trying to figure out a way to save innocent people and somehow not get their friend blown up.

Superintendent Joe Donovan making airplane noises. I laughed so much.

They are holding hands as they’re walking to their doom! Oh, by the way, interesting music choice. I wonder if it’s score created for the show or non-original music. I’ve certainly not heard it before on the show.

Goodbye kiss! I love it here. And look at the shot of Charlie and Rex leaving as Sarah is staying behind.

Me: no way it’s the convict. Five minutes later: it’s the fucking convict!!! Ten minutes later: it’s not the convict???

Ha, Charlie using the mute button which is pretty convenient but almost no one uses on calls.

Okay, they fooled me with the bomber. But the takedown went pretty much as I expected. Nice communication with Rex through hand signals, again. Although the detonator flying off the lady’s hand… anything could have happened.

Rex’s influence to the system will be more K9s lol. They may also have ensured unlimited funding for the SJPD.

Can the time traveling guy tell us if Charlie is going to propose anytime soon? Or is the “not yet” considered a non-proposal proposal?

This is the first time I’m hearing about the so called Alice in wonderland syndrome.

“Everybody needs a Rex”. Ah, yes. Our catchphrase.

Charlie, put the phone down. When is that man clocking out? Who’s going to make sure Rex is getting adequate rest? I need to talk to his superior. Joe!

Well, I kept saying that I wanted Charlie and Sarah to be in danger again together since they hadn’t after they had become a couple, and I got my wish, thank you, show. We could have had an aftermath scene with them but I’m not going to complain about it in an otherwise good episode.

Promo: I’m beyond frustrated that they keep shuffling the episodes and they wouldn’t even give it a rest when they got the season finale or the 100th episode on their hands. Today’s (yesterday’s) episode would have been a better 100th episode than The Rookie’s for sure (which is embarrassing for The Rookie). But instead we get to watch it as episode 99 and have a run of the mill case for the 100th, which, unless it ends up in a huge celebration scene, is going to fall flat. We basically end off exactly as we started, expect I now know this is 100% CityTV’s fault.

Speaking of, is CityTV even going to acknowledge that it’s the 100th episode? Is anyone? I’m obviously not expecting the magnitude of promotion ABC gave The Rookie or 911 this season (and that was a lot) but something that shows they’re not completely neglecting Hudson and Rex. It doesn’t seem like we’re getting renewal news anytime soon, so I’d settle for them celebrating the episodes they already filmed. There are quite a few production companies involved too, this does not only fall on CityTV. If Shaftesbury wants to celebrate this milestone, I won’t say no.

#hudson and rex

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madwheelerz · 1 year

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Manifestation Theory

Overview

So, essentially, I think a lot of the events in Stranger Things are DnD manifestations, specifically Mike’s manifestations. There are a lot of small things throughout the series that indicate Mike is in some way connected to the upside-down and my conclusion is that Mike is basically creating a story. I think we’re essentially watching Mike’s campaign come to life with the main characters being Will and the party.

Why Mike?

Why Mike? Throughout the series a lot of the supernatural elements tent to steer clear of Mike. If Will and El are the main targets, then why leave Mike behind? Mike is constantly figuring out what the upside-down plans thus showing a firm understanding of the way that the upside-down works. How does he understand the upside-down so well? He’s almost always reaching the right conclusions both about the upside-down and El’s powers.

Mike is also the Dungeon Master, and his basement is where a lot of foreshadowing happens. Throughout Stranger Things the roles that the characters have in DnD carry a lot of importance throughout the show. Lucas is a ranger and as such we see him using long range weapons a lot. Dustin is a barb and saves everyone with a song in season three. Even El and Max who don’t technically have roles fit into what they are assigned.

Max deems herself a zoomer and then proceeds to hijack a car to get herself and the party where they need to go. El is deemed a mage because of her telepathic abilities, but it also serves as a nice hint towards El’s struggle with being defined as a monster. From what I know a mage is a npc character, however, which also interesting.

Mike and Will are tricky. Will is either a cleric or wizard and it seems like he might fill both roles in the show considering that he is heavily implied to have powers and as of season four we do see him offering a lot of emotional support to Mike. Mike, on the other hand, has been described as both a paladin and the DM, but has also been stated to be a cleric in outside source materials. This indicates that Mike has three roles in the show.

Currently we’ve only really seen Mike offering support to El and Will throughout the show and thus fulfilling the role of the cleric. There do seem to be hints that we will see Mike being a paladin in season five. Mike’s role of DM is a constant in the show. Mike is the leader and he’s the one that normally makes campaigns. Mike is apart of every DnD game and there are only four in the show. Mike has been the DM for two of those four campaigns and three of the campaigns took place in his basement.

Will is the only one who doesn’t take on the persona of the villain while doing his campaign, but instead just acts as a narrator. I do also want to point out that both Mike and Eddie do attempt to embody the persona of the villains in their campaigns. This might be one huge ‘sadistic’ campaign that Mike is running without realizing it. Mike has also been contacted to frogs via insults and Dustin mistaking Dart for a Pollywog is important enough to be the episode title.

There is also this interesting parallel.

Joyce is told multiple times that it could all be in her head.

El in this scenario is a character within the game. She isn’t real. There are a few suspicious lines throughout the series that allude to people potentially not being real. El is associated with Mike’s toys despite her lack of interest in them and it’s interesting because it’s not like Mike isn’t aware of El’s disinterest, but it does recontextualize Max saying that Mike didn’t “own” El. It does also beg the question of Mike being the one to refer to El as “Eleven” the most often and others only doing so in his presence. When El appears it’s also with the exact powers needed to accomplish Mike’s goal of ‘finding Will’. She’s able to locate people and open gates.

Eleven is treated almost as El’s full name, but very rarely do people call her by her number. Mike is the one who does so the most. Mike also gives El his watch in episode three and she doesn’t return it until episode seven. If the watches are representing time, then Mike essentially gave El ‘time’. During the argument where Max says that Mike doesn’t own El there is an emphasis placed on El being her own person and capable of making her own decisions.

This also brings into question the whole “she was born special and maybe I was the first to realize” thing because this statement doesn’t make sense unless something else is going on there. There is also El’s independence bringing her farther away from Mike as she tries to settle into having a real family of her own. Mike leads the boys to look for Will, but instead they find El. El begins to substitute in Will’s role until Will is recovered. This is why she disappears.

El completes her duty, she defeats the Demogorgon and has successfully helped the boys find Will. Will is in good hands and alive so El disappears, but Mike is still clinging to the idea of her because El is now one of the most important people to him. We also have Mike fully believing that the El he sees in s2 up until Punk! El era is all in his head, but what if she was. What if Mike was so sure that El wasn’t there because she is a product of his mind.

Max’s claim that Mike doesn’t own El. Dustin looks at Mike and El while saying Mental. Lucas implies that El escaped from pennhurst.

Also, while the image is here, I will point out that big black shape in the background that looks like a bunch of tentacles wrapped together. I’ve seen it behind Mike’s head a few times so do with that what you will.

Holly’s Role

So, what role does Holly play in this? Holly from what I gathered is her family’s observer. She watches as her family interacts and takes note of any tension that happens. If Mike is doing this even subconsciously it’s possible that Holly will be one of the first people to notice. Holly is also going to be old enough to be able to participate in the plot next season so she’ll be in a position to create that link between what is happening and what it might mean for her family.

Karen

What could Karen have to do with this? Well, if Mike is capable of creating monsters, creatures, and potentially people Karen most likely knows unless it’s an entirely new ordeal. Imagine if sending El to see his mom would’ve solved everything way back then. In the same season that Karen is trying to get closer to Mike she is finally taking notice of the things happening due to the upside-down.

Another thing is the more prominent the supernatural elements become the less we are allowed to access what Mike is really thinking and how he feels. Obviously, every season the threat is becoming more dangerous, but we are also watching Mike become more closed off every season.

Mike & Chrissy

Mike and Chrissy share a lot of parallels, but what I wanted to talk about is Chrissy’s death and how it’s tied to Mike. Before episode one of season 4 really kicks off Mike is giving a curfew of nine. When Chrissy dies, she is with Eddie and its night implying that the Hellfire campaign had already ended. What does Mike going home mean? It means California.

When Mike gets off the plane to go in Lenora we know that he is acting weird. He’s acting this way because he’s conforming. In the video store when the news anchor announces Chrissy’s death there is a sign next the TV that says, ‘due date’ and ‘9pm’. The news channel is also channel 9.

So, what does all this mean? Forced conformity is killing the kids, but specifically Mike’s forced conformity. The episode two summary of season four also links these events. “A plane brings Mike to California – and a dead body brings Hawkins to a halt.”

Focus Shifting

Every season, except for season four, Mike is always focused on the main victim. In seasons one and two Will is the main victim and for the most part who Mike is focused on. In season three he is focused on El and pushing Will to the background. El becomes the main target whereas the supernatural elements seem to almost skate by Will, or maybe there are some moments here and there, but nothing prominent.

In season four everything is a lot more condensed. Mike conforms = someone dies. His monologue is linked to Max’s death. His trip to California is linked to Chrissy’s death. His fight with the wonder twins happens in the same episode as Fred’s death. Him making up with Will happens in the same episode that Max escapes Vecna. Then we have Patrick. Who is targeted suddenly and seemingly at random. About as sudden as a random, but necessary trip to some Mormons?

Mike & Max s2x09 vs s4x04

Now for more regarding Max’s escape in “Dear Billy” and Mike in “The Gate”. We all know this

infamous parallel. Something to consider here is that Mike and Max were grouped with the same people, Dustin, Lucas, and Steve except in the case of “Dear Billy” Mike is in California and as such not there, unless of course he is in a sense either by having manifested Vecna or through the angelic imagery. Here are some things from Mike that might be suspicious. There’s also a better look at the spiral that I was talking about earlier.

Vale of Shadows

Then we have the vale of shadows which is the original name for the upside-down.

As Dustin continues to describe the place it slowly pans away from Lucas in the shot leaving Dustin, who is narrating, and Mike. Mike also has a song called “The Vale of Shadows” in his playlist which is interesting considering as far as we know he’s never been to the upside-down or to the vale of shadows.

Conclusion

So, what exactly do I think is happening? I thinking we’re watching Mike essentially have emotional breakdowns via supernatural forces. His fears are being reflected back via monsters. This might be why Mike’s POV is so hidden from the viewer because the supernatural forces are now acting as that perspective. As I’ve mentioned before as these forces become stronger Mike’s perspective becomes more hidden.

This also leans into the lack of Mike being targeted and interacting with the upside-down creatures until the final season because unless there was some sort of tie there it’s weird. This also does beg the question of the Demogorgon lifecycle sheet, if true, though because it would imply that every Demogorgon originated from Mike in a sense. This would also explain Mike being so heavily associated with blue despite that being a bad color.

tagging: @booksandpaperss, @boysdontcryboycry, @heroesbyler, @brionysea

#byler #manifestation theory #it's hereeeeeeeee #this might have more since there is more to say #but for now this is what i've got #this does make me wonder though #bc all that stuff about el being mike's long lost 'sister' from the upside-down #and mike basically wanting that connection that he used to have with the girls in his life

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luckychild · 27 days

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howd u come up with hiruko's character design :)

Most of the design was inspired by the mythological figure I based him on. I just tailored elements of his real-world history so they fit into the larger tapestry of LC and its themes.

Hiruko (AKA Ebisu) is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. As a consequence of originating in Japan, he is the only one who doesn't have any Buddhist/Taoist influence. I gave him pink hair as a nod to Japanese cherry blossoms and his purely Japanese origin. The symbolic meaning of cherry blossoms in Japan ties into Hiruko's history and motivations nicely.

One of his many names is "the laughing god," which is why I nearly always depict him smiling and laughing.

I dressed him in traditional Japanese fashion because of his connection to ancient Japanese history.

Because he's known as the god of fishermen, I gave him a fishing hook earring hanging from a thread of fishing line. Given his connection to the Fates and their weaving within the context of LC, I liked the inclusion of thread in his character design. It was a way to marry his design with the item(s) he stole from the Fates. Webs/weaving/thread/tapestry are a big part of his role in LC, and it's one of the motifs I lean on when writing about him.

Since he is both the god of fisherman AND luck, I dressed him in red, which is known as an auspicious or lucky color in many East Asian cultures. It's also a color very commonly found in Shinto temples and is said to scare away evil spirits, so I thought he'd wear that color to try and signal to whoever saw him that he's a "good guy" and not a villain.

But that's also why I gave him blue eyes. In kabuki theater, blue is the color of villainous characters as well as the supernatural world, so they're a clue about his role in the story. Ocean blue eyes also connect back to the "god of fishermen" origin. Blue denoting the supernatural has some plot relevance as well.

Aaaand I guess the last notable trait I gave him was initial appearance of a child. This was partially inspired by Koenma, of course, who can change between a childish and adult appearance at will. A huge part of the Ebisu legend involves him being abandoned as a child, and I wanted a direct callout to that history from his first appearance. (I also think he took that form so people would underestimate him.)

That's the bulk of it, I think. Basically all of the most important bits come right out of Japanese culture and Hiruko/Ebisu's history.

Thanks for asking!

#luckychildfanfic #yu yu hakusho fanfiction #yyh fanfiction #hiruko #starcharterfanfic

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tgammsideblog · 1 year

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Tgamm S1 11-A ¨Ice Princess¨ episode analysis

The Mcgees find out about the Brighton urban legend, the ¨Ice Princess¨: An ice skater ghost that every four years covers the entire city in a blizzard while she repeats her routine over and over. The Mcgees try to find a way to persuade her into stopping the blizzard...

¨Ice Princess¨ is an episode that surprised me the first time i watched it. It has multiple elements that makes it a great episode. It’s able to tell a sweet story about people finding their passion again for something they used to love doing, all in eleven minutes.

One thing that separates Tgamm from other animated shows is how ghosts are potrayed. They aren’t exactly ¨naturally evil¨ as more it’s something that some ghost choose to be. They have their own personalities and backstories and are treated as supernatural beings that happen to be connected to the human realm. More often than not, in the series, ghosts are lost souls who need help or had an ¨unfinished business¨ from their human lives. This was the case with Howlin Harriet, who only was looking for her missing toe.

In this episode the main antagonist is a ghost who has been tormenting herself because of the public humiliation she went through after she failed at doing a ice skating move when she was still alive. Sonia was a well known ice skater in Brighton that, after her mistake in the Winter Games, it is hinted that she left the sport, something she loved doing. Every four years, as a ghost, she returns to Brighton and tries repeating the same routine she failed at doing, covering the city in a blizzard during the process. She can’t find a way to rest from that mistake that has been haunting her even in her afterlife.

I like how the Mcgees try talking to her and find a way to help her with her problem. It’s a unique approach to ghost antagonists that i don’t see that much in other shows and i appreciate the series doing this. I also find interesting that Molly isn’t the one that helps Sonia, it’s Pete because he has a talent for ice skating.

Another aspect i really liked from this episode is that Pete gets some charcater development. It’s revealed that in his youth he used to an ice skater and, much like Sonia, he went through a similar humiliating situation that made him stop skating. Because of this, he relates to the Ice Princess story and offers himself to do ice skating with her. In addition to this, it’s hinted that Pete’s older siblings used to mock him when he was a kid, something that gives context for his current insecurities and it gets later explored in the ¨Twin Trouble¨.

This way ¨Ice Princess¨ tackles the theme of people who dedicate themselves to sports or art becoming obsessed with doing everything perfect that they forget to have fun. They feel so pressured in doing things just right that they start to loose their passion for the sport, in this case. After Sonia and Pete skate together and still fail in their routine, they both realize that they don’t have to be perfect and recover that joy in ice skating they lost many years ago.

In smaller note, Scratch gets a bit of extra development in the sense he starts to notice that he is really into ice skating. He enjoys seeing Pete and Sonia practicing their routine and later asks Pete to show him some of his movies. I think it’s a nice addition to his character and it is sweet to see him joining Pete near the end of the story.

On last point, the song sequence is well animated and it fits nicely the theme. It has this sports movie song vibes that manages to be quite emotional. It does a good job at showing how the characters feel at the moment. The whole musical scene is one of my favourites from this half of the season.

In conclusion, ¨Ice Princess¨ is great episode that delivers a good message about passion in sports and manages to to tell an interesting story about a secondary character in a short time. It also gives some development for Pete’s character, which it is appreciated. Overall, a solid episode.

#The Ghost And Molly McGee #tgamm #tgamm ice princess #Tgamm episode analysis #pete mcgee #tgamm sonia #tgamm season 1

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elliepassmore · 7 months

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Such Sharp Teeth review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: werewolves, supernatural, feminist stories, spooky stories

I bought this one kind of on a whim, but I'm glad I did. It's been a while since I've had a good supernatural read and this one checked the boxes and was funny. I said it was a feminist story, but I don't know if it really fits in that category. It does deal with things like sexual assault/harassment and how women are often not believed, even by those closest to them, but it's not a story about those things. They just come up sometimes.

Rory is not a character I particularly relate to (first off, she lives in NYC, blech), but I enjoyed having her as the narrator. She's got a good sense of humor and it's clear she really cares for and is close to her sister. All things considered, she handles turning into a werewolf fairly well. I mean, sure, she's upset and confused, but once she accepts that something is off, she immediately takes steps to accommodate for it. I do think Rory needs a therapist, though not for the reason Scarlett thinks she does, especially in regard to some of her avoidant behaviors.

Scarlett is a bit hard to get a read on. By Rory's own admission, her sister keeps things very close to her chest, but there was definitely an interesting dynamic going on there. For one, Scarlett doesn't seem particularly thrilled to be pregnant, though she also doesn't seem to hate it. When things are going smoothly, Scarlett seems pretty fun and I enjoyed her relationships with Rory and Ash. At the same time, she also has somewhat of a blocker when it comes to believing her sister, even when the proof is in front of her, which (along with some of her reactions) I didn't love.

Ian is really the only other character who gets a decent amount of page time. He seems pretty chill and is able to take a lot of things in stride. He and Rory knew each other as kids, and from Rory's memories and how Ian is on-page, it's clear he's grown a lot and and has come into himself. I appreciated how well he was able to handle various behaviors and how understanding he was about things both supernatural and not.

I thought the werewolf stuff was pretty interesting and I like Harrison's take on it. All the traditional elements of lycanthropy are there, including it being spread via bite, and it was definitely a nice change of pace to see that represented as opposed to the more popular controlled change and lycanthropy through genetics/birth. There are definitely some elements that are a bit gruesome, like Rory's wound after she gets bit, but by and large it's pretty gore-free. I do have some questions about the silver blood. Like...is it just during certain times of the month? How are werewolves supposed to get medical treatment if their blood isn't red (they heal quickly, so do they even need medical treatment? Do they get sick?)? Is period blood now silver too? Many questions that I definitely don't need to get answered but that did cross my mind, lol.

This is a pretty quick read despite it being a full length novel and it's the perfect book for going into fall and spooky season. I definitely enjoyed it and recommend it if you're looking for a nice light supernatural read.

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howtofightwrite · 2 years

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What about the werewolf vampire hybrid?

What about them? Aside from the part where they don't exist.

So, here's the hard part, vampires and werewolves are both based on creatures from folklore. However, when I say, “based on,” that's a lot like a, “based on a true story,” label. The modern incarnations are, exactly that, “modern.”

There's no real folklore for cursed individuals who transform into man-wolf hybrids under the full moon, and inflict their curse on others. That werewolf started in 20thCentury Hollywood.

There's no real folklore for erudite nocturnal fanged predators, that started with Bram Stoker's novel.

In both cases, there's a lot to be said for the creativity that resulted in those critters becoming so influential that most don't realize how little actual history exists for them.

In the case of werewolves, one major element from folklore were magic practitioners who would temporarily use magic to transform themselves into wolves (or other animals.) Sometimes this would be the result of an infernal pact, though it wasn't always a product of infernalism. This is an ability demonstrated by Dracula in Stoker's novel, so in that sense, the prototype literary vampire already was a werewolf.

A surviving example of traditional werewolves can be found in Navajo culture today. The skinwalker is a witch or sorcerer who practices magic maliciously (and in secret.) They're not “evil spirits,” they're people who place hexes and curses on others, and (if you believe the stories) transform into animals (mostly coyotes), through the use of magic. They don't curse you to become a skinwalker, that's a family tradition, they'll curse you with ill health, misfortune, or similar things.

There are plenty of mythical examples of individuals being transformed into animals as a result of a curse. (The examples that are coming to mind right now are mostly Greek and Polynesian, for whatever reason. The Hellenic world was reallyfond of this concept.)

But, as for the Hollywood werewolf? There's not much that predates 1935. There's nothing wrong with this per se, it's simply a modern creation, and one that fits nicely into very basic human fears. It does co-opt some existing folklore, but it's more of an amalgamation of unrelated myths with large sections created out of whole-cloth.

Put another way, the modern werewolf has about as much grounding in folklore as Highlander'sImmortals.

Similarly, Bram Stoker basically invented the modern vampire. There are a lot of myths and folklore that can be generally categorized as vampires, and the concept (if not the word) has been around for a long time to explain that corpses are kinda weird. But, a lot of the rules and vulnerabilities are original to the novel Dracula.

So what do I think about vampire werewolf hybrids? It depends on your setting. I don't have any particularly strong feelings on the subject in a vacuum. In settings where vampires have the ability to transform into animals on their own, it's somewhat redundant, unless your werewolves are also supernaturally empowered in other ways.

They're both fun monsters, and can be useful in a variety of horror fiction. That their historical basis is an utter fabrication is irrelevant.

In some worlds you can have vampire werewolf hybrids, in other settings you can't.

Now, one thing I'm not a fan of is making a character, “special,” for the sole purpose of justifying their presence as the protagonist. If they are the only vampire/werewolf hybrid that has ever existed, “why?” (To be clear, I'm not opposed to one off monsters, but the whole, “half-vampire, half-werewolf, half- Gallagher fan,” doesn't really work for me.)

Beyond that, it's up to you. If you're working with a setting that doesn't allow those kinds of hybrids, then don't use them. If you're working with a setting that does, then it's up to you if you want to use them.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get early access to new posts, and direct access to us through Discord. If you'd like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

#Starke answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

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davidfarland · 1 year

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Why Conflict Drives Story (by Jerry Jenkins)

Life without conflict equals bliss.

My wife and I have been married more than half a century. We’re not only lovers, but we’re also friends. We like each other and look forward to reconnecting every day.

Naturally we don’t agree on everything, but if a disagreement becomes testy, we actually compete to see who can be the first to clear the air.

That’s a beautiful way to live and love—in harmony.

Like most people, in daily life, I try to avoid conflict. I hate confrontation. I like to get along with people, and as a person of faith, I also try to follow the biblical admonition to “be at peace with all” and to consider others better than myself.

And so I repeat, life without conflict equals bliss.

Hearing about a wonderful marriage like Dianna’s and mine may warm your heart, but would you want to read about it?

Not for long, I’m guessing.

I’m also an author, and I know for a fact that a story without conflict bores.

Readers love conflict.

It keeps them on the edge of their seats.

Conflict serves as the engine of fiction. The more the better.

That doesn’t mean you need a world war or even hand-to-hand battles — unless they fit.

Sarcasm, passive-aggressive comments, or personal betrayal can work just as well.

Many different types of conflict can spice up your story.

Any time your story stalls, just inject conflict and watch it come to life.

So the next time your story stalls or seems to fall flat, you may find characters who are agreeing on most everything. Boring!

Have one of them say something nice and cordial, like, “Nice day, isn’t it?”

Then have the other say, “Oh, sure, you’d say that.”

The original character—and your reader—will likely recoil and wonder, Where in the world did that come from?

Pick up the dialogue from there and discover what the problem is. That’s conflict. That creates tension. And that results in page turning.

How to Best Use Conflict

The two types of conflict — internal and external — are self-explanatory.

Internal conflict is a battle with one’s own demons and sense of self-worth.

External conflict is the obstacle or challenge your character faces — what he or she wants or needs, the stakes, and what stands in the way.

Internal and external conflicts naturally often influence each other.

For example, if a mountain climber’s best friend dies in an avalanche (external event), he may struggle to climb again himself.

5 Types of Conflict

1. Man vs. Self: An external event may cause the conflict, but the battle is within.

2. Man vs. Man: The classic Hero vs. Villain.

3. Man vs. Nature: A struggle to survive a hostile or dystopian environment, the elements, animals, or a cataclysm.

4. Man vs. Society: Your protagonist may battle the government, society, authority, or a special interest faction.

5. Man vs. Supernatural: Popular in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, your characters may face aliens, werewolves, zombies, or wizards.

How to Create Believable Conflict

If success comes too easily for your main character, readers will not be satisfied. Avoid this by asking yourself:

1. What does my protagonist want more than anything?

Make sure the stakes are high enough to carry an entire novel. If your character desperately wants a promotion and doesn’t get it, that can be interesting, but it won’t likely carry a book-length story.

But if he must find a job or lose his house, and perhaps his wife, that’s big.

2. What or who stands in the way?

Loads of obstacles should make success seem almost impossible. Mega-bestselling novelist Dean Koontz advises that everything your character does to try to alleviate his obstacles should make them only worse.

His only caveat is that every escalating challenge should be plausible and not the result of bad luck or coincidence.

3. What personal flaws in my character make success difficult?

Readers can’t relate to perfection. Weaknesses create internal and external conflict and make your character identifiable and accessible to the reader.

4. What internal struggles need to be overcome?

Is he facing fear, battling depression, trying to conquer self-doubt?

5. How will your main character ultimately win?

What will lead to a satisfying conclusion? How will your character grow? What will he learn? This is the way to build in takeaway value for your reader.

Don’t Fear Conflict

Some writers are so averse to personal conflict that they avoid writing about it too. Trust me, that may well serve as the death knell to your publishing prospects.

Anytime your story stalls or feels flat, a lack of conflict is usually the culprit.

An injection of conflict builds the tension needed to keep your readers turning the pages.

About Jerry Jenkins

Jerry Jenkins has been steeped in the craft of writing for more than 40 years. With 21 New York Times bestsellers, over 200 books, and over 73 million copies sold, he has become one of the most commercially successful writers of our time. Jerry’s from-the-trenches perspective on how to achieve success is quite the opposite of a conventional approach. He espouses working fiercely and with discipline and leaving the results to the marketplace.

Visit his website for writing tips, guides, and courses at JerryJenkins.com.

And check out his blog post, “Internal and External Conflict: Tips for Creating Unforgettable Characters” to learn more about conflict.

#writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writeblr #conflict

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pb-dot · 11 months

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Why do I never rewatch Last Night In Soho?

Edgar Wright's Last Night In Soho is a strange movie for me. I enjoy a lot of the things it does, the otherworldly sleaze of the lighting, talented actors playing smart characters trying to figure out a mystery, truly jaw-dropping in-camera tricks to portray the impossible, and a saucy twist. It's the kind of movie I'd watch time and time again but somehow, I just can't make myself do it. More musings and Last Night in Soho spoilers under the cut.

Part of it, I suspect, is that Thomasin McKenzie is just too damn good at her job as the protagonist Eloise. She's instantly likable and does the naive enthusiasm of the young and ambitious with such intensity that I find myself entirely unwilling to, as it were, "put her through" the entire cavalcade of fear, humiliation, and doubt of her own sanity that is to follow by actually watching it play out.

It's odd because usually I watch horror movies for that specific niche. I love seeing characters going through fear, pain, and adversity and emerging stronger on the other side. The ghosties, ghoulies, and assorted monsters help to make the scenario sufficiently fictional-feeling, granted, but I get a similar rise from "man against nature/elements"-movies such as Fall.

It could easily be because the main source of horror actually is not the ghosts nor the time-traveling body swapping that lands Eloise in the increasingly unenviable nights of Anna Taylor-Joys fallen starlet Sandie, but rather how incredibly grim the lives of the two women get as the story churns along. Sandie finds herself forced into steadily more degrading sex work, and there are no ghosts or curses in play. The world has just historically been shitty to women, and although Eloise doesn't suffer from the same, she is still belittled, frequently harassed, and gaslit by her supernatural connection and the martial world both.

What really gets to me, I think, is that in the end, Eloise learns that her assumption that Sandie eventually got murdered was faulty and that she instead murdered her pimp boyfriend and several former clients, if not assaulters is the right term here. Not to go all #girlboss here, but frankly, who could blame Sandie? I'm not saying the girl deserves a medal, but surely Sandie is not a villain for this?

It is somewhat ambiguous whether the movie agrees with my take at all, seeing as Eloise's landlady, secretly an older Sandie all along, drugs Eloise and plans to kill her to ensure her crimes stay hidden. It's not an unrealistic reaction to learn your 60's crime spree has been discovered, granted, but it also makes the climax a bit of a bummer.

Eloise and Sandie are in such a powerful position to understand each other at this point. Sandie has been young, beautiful, and hopeful in a hostile city, and Eloise has literally been Sandie. I don't know what sort of peaceful compromise can be reached in this situation but attempted murder and accidental arson seems like a worst-case scenario. The movie to its credit seems to agree that this is a tragic one, but I'll argue that it's not a good tragedy if it isn't inevitable.

The movie does end on a happy note, but it doesn't quite fit, mostly because it didn't seem entirely connected with the rest of the story thematically. It's great that Eloise is doing better, of course, I could watch that girl succeed all day, but it hasn't really been the type of experience she has been having. She has withstood the world revealing itself to be a colder, eviler place than she thought, but she has reached no meaningful synthesis between this fact and her natural optimism. Things just working out for her right now, despite experiencing a small lifetime's worth of trauma and indignities. I guess it's nice if you can get it, but it doesn't feel true to me.

I don't really like to nitpick movies like this, especially movies that I like the vast majority of, but the ending in Last Night In Soho doesn't work for me, and it's probably because of this I haven't gotten around to rewatching it. I feel like there's a version of the movie, at least of the script, out there that I could really enjoy, and that's ever so slightly maddening.

#last night in soho #movies #horror movie #Edgar Wright #Thomazin McKensie #Anna Taylor Joy #gripes #mental health #cw sex work

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itsmemateinnit · 10 months

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Whitechapel series 4 press pack

Hannah Walters is DC Megan Riley

Tell us about the new series?

I think it’s getting darker. We get the opportunity to explore supernatural elements more deeply in this series, especially the psychological aspects of fear, which I think didn’t feature quite as much in previous series and is more prevalent now.

Can you tell us what’s happening with DC Riley?

It’s a very interesting series for my character. She’s established herself now in the team, she’s become a little bit more glam which is nice. I think she’s more relaxed and happy with her environment, but she has a lot going on, each character has their own demon and Riley’s demon is clear from the on-set.

Can you tell us more about what that demon is?

For Riley, her first job, first and foremost is her family so that comes in to play quite a lot. She starts to question her loyalty to the police force and her loyalty to her family and weighing the pros and cons. Riley likes the normality of home and the craziness and darkness that she is subjected to at work. I think she begins not be able to separate the two and begins to question her ability as a parent and what she’s putting herself through.

How does this series fare in terms of scare factor, in relation to the others?

I think it’s a lot more frightening than previous series. Steve Pemberton, for one of the nicest people you’ve ever met in your life he’s got the darkest mind! His story is disturbing, it’s pretty damn gruesome.

Are you squeamish? How did you deal with the gore in this series?

I’m not very good with the physical imagery when it comes to horror films. I don’t mind the jumpy parts, it’s more the disturbing images – the face at the window or whatever it is. Even if there are fifteen people around and cameras it still sticks with me. There are some scenes from the first story where there was a body burnt at the stake - that really stuck with me. You go back to feeling a bit childlike with the more spiritual elements – you think it’s going to come true and mess with you!

What was it like coming in on series three?

It was tricky coming in because it was an established series with established characters, plus the fact I’m a girl, but as soon as I got here it was like a little family and I’m the Mum.

How was your audition?

I had to go through a series of auditions. My final one involved me sitting in a room with Ben and Sam just to improvise. They were supposed to make me feel really uncomfortable, but what the producers wanted was for me to make them feel uncomfortable – I didn’t know that. By the end they were literally like two little shy boys, that’s when I knew I had the job.

Do you enjoy playing DC Riley?

It’s great to play a nice, normal-ish character and to play a very naturalistic character. I played Trudy in This Is England who was completely different, so it’s good to play a character that keeps her clothes on! It is very nice as an actress to play both sides of the spectrum and I enjoy them both equally.

What is it like being the only woman in the team?

It’s fine because Riley is so maternal. She’s maternal at home but she’s also maternal with all the boys – she’s the big sister and the mother in the group. Riley and Miles are close, we established the back story that Miles has watched Riley come up through the ranks. That’s why Miles brings her in, because he thinks she’s got the skills, the bolshiness and the right mind to fit in with the team and not be intimidated by the men.

How do you balance work and family in your own life?

I made a decision not to work until both my children were in full time education. I’m a great believer in making sure you’re there in those first formative years because so much happens and it’s so important in my eyes. When they were in school I was delighted and felt like a normal person again! They can’t watch me and they can’t watch Steve (my husband) in anything! Although Steve did do CBeebies Bedtime Hour just so that the kids could see him on TV. There’s nothing they can watch – murderer, psychopath, woman who takes her kit off – it’s not conducive to a child’s upbringing is it!

My son shouted in Legoland the other day “My mum’s a police officer” when someone was kicking off and I didn’t say anything. I’ve tried to steal my police officer badge! I just want to be able to skip the queue at Tesco’s!

What makes Whitechapel different from other police shows?

Police dramas are so popular but Whitechapel has an edge because it’s dark. It’s about the atmosphere, the lighting, the aesthetics, it all comes together and works so well. It’s also pretty damn frightening and we like to be frightened, as much as people say they don’t like it and don’t watch it, they still do – they watch it like me with a pillow in front of my face and one eye open!

What is morale like on set?

What’s amazing is how quick you all click and become a family. You spend twelve hours a day with each other, so you get on each others nerves, you make each other laugh, we have a moan – it’s a proper family and thank goodness because you’d be a bit lost if you didn’t have that camaraderie.

We joke all the time. Ben is the biggest wind up merchant. If you were at school he’d be the kid you’d always get sent out of class with. The other day I went to go out of my dressing room and there was a carpet against my door, an entire carpet blocking my exit! So Ben’s the joker, Steve’s the giggler. You’ve got to keep the banter going but obviously at the right times.

#whitechapel #whitechapel itv #text

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insurrection-if · 2 years

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If I may ask what are some of ur favourite names? And what's ur favourite genre to read/write? I would also love to hear more about your brainstorming and outlining process when it comes to ideas/characters? You've built such an amazing world with such deep characters. I'm just fascinated by your big brain. Great work!! 💗💗💗

(づ•ω•)づ♥ I'm so unspeakably flattered!! Thank you so much for your curiosity, interest, and kindness - this message was so nice to see in my inbox! My response is so long, apologies in advance(!), so I've broken it into parts!

Part One: Names

Aha, my favorite names in-game or for people in general? （；^ω^） In general, my favorite names off very the top of my head would be: Damian, Ignacio, Antonio, Dmitri, Roman, Stepka, Maria, Dolores, and Diana. In-game, my favorite names would be: Elouan, Imka, Falda, Elov, and Leysa!

In my writing process for original characters, I typically choose names after the character's ancestry / region of origin / background has been established. I research baby names based on nationality / region / ethnicity and take into consideration the meaning of the name (hopefully across multiple websites), its sound / pronunciation (to see if its fitting to the image of them in my head), the likelihood of the parents / guardians of the character choosing that name, and how realistically I can buy someone having that name if I were to meet them in the street (rather than something that clashes or jumbles as a 100% fictional moniker when paired with their surname).

Then, the hardest part for me and the true test for its finalization, I look up the numerology of the given name and its breakdown to see if it reflects the character I've imagined them to be - just to reassure myself the vibes are truly right, haha! Some names in Insurrection might not have the most fitting numerologies anymore for certain characters as they subtly morph over time (unless I were to take the time to verify them all again) but they're all established enough to be sticking as the final names. Honestly, I'll have characters nameless for the longest time as I draft everything else about them, haha!

Part Two: Genre

When it comes to reading, I adore fiction so much! Particularly, I find myself drawn to fantasy and westerns as a whole, though general mythology readings are always captivating to me! (I was obsessed with Greek mythology in elementary school, haha!) In college, I developed a deep love for modernism as well - I could read and analyze modernist literature endlessly, I loved it so much! I like romances as well, though rather sparingly outside indulgent fanfiction. If it's romance novels, I tend to prefer historical settings with a deep consideration to the cultural / societal / psychological constraints on the relationship and complex interpersonal relationships to add some drama atop it all. I also love court intrigue in general, especially if it has romance threaded through, haha!

As for writing, well . . . I always hate my writing! My online fanfictions (drafted, shared, or simply brainstormed) all pertained to romance (reader-inserts too, don't shame me!) with not a one spared from a love triangle at minimum, haha! I am terrible at identifying the genres for my ideas, but my absolute favorite concepts all carry an element of the supernatural or fantasy, maybe mythological too - either to maximum extremes or subtle nuances.

Part Three: Brainstorms and Outlines

My brainstorms are somewhat different for every project, though a running trend tends to be a song acting at the center-point / anchor for the overall feel / a climatic moment / general idea that inspires me.

I can name these songs across three different (favorite) fanfiction concepts of mine: L.V.S. Your Lady Waits by Shayfer James (climatic moment), Wooden Heart by Elvis Presley (an overall feel), and Säkkijärven Polkka + Dark-Eyed Cossack Girl (combined for a general idea).

If you can identify my fanfictions based on that . . . Please keep them secret, haha! 人 ´∀｀)

For original fiction ideas it’s the same: If Only by The Kooks (for a general feel of In Blind Reverence), Old Yellow Bricks by Arctic Monkeys (for the protagonist and world atmosphere vibes of Bird Caught in Wires), my beloved Roma Fade by Andrew Bird (for my even more beloved "Faith & Beauty" - bleh placeholder name - for the general intrigue and corruption of the romances). Works like Hunters (image origin), This World Was Never Ours (image origin), Retribution (personal doodle inspired), and Insurrection (fandom origin) are outliers to this general music cornerstone to the core thought.

Though, in its current edition, Saints at the Gates by The Golden Dogs might be serviceable for a centerpoint as it’s easy for me to imagine the characters and events in relation to the MC almost like a theme song, haha! (　´∀｀)b

Character creation varies as well across works. For "Faith & Beauty", characters are largely influenced by spirit animals (or, more so, the values associated with them and their relation / embracement / challenge of those values) and a specific art-style. In Blind Reverence has characters that largely originated from Pinterest images of a similar aesthetic / design which I projected "personality vibes" and backgrounds onto before then further them fleshing out in relation to the Seven Sins and Heavenly Virtues as the basis.

Insurrection characters, however, started in the framework of a fandom before being essentially melted down and reforged anew - some much more drastically than others. The Superhuman AU they ended up in allowed me to retain numerous elements of their original designs and then toy with essentially throwing them a new world.

Music is often key to characters for me, especially with Insurrection. Many of their dynamics or changes came because I would be daydreaming in the car as a song played and my youthful mind wanted to make a "music video" out of it. I'd consider what character(s) best fit the song, create some scenario / relationship / trait to go along with it and voila!

For Example: In early character development, essentially his conceptualization, I attached Uriel to Puttin on the Ritz as sung by Rufus Wainwright. It inspired his fixation on status—his deep need to be accepted into some sense of social standing, particularly a class of people perceived greater, finer, or lording over others. He has a desire for flashiness and elegance, extravagance and understated refinement. Appearance is crucial to him; wanting both to comply with and blend into the ideal image of high class while also wanting to be striking enough to be distinct from all the rest. He wants live seamless among the upper echelon yet cannot help but always feel like the outside observer simply mimicking and commentating upon what he can never be apart of. He's also a bit of a showman, trying to appear suave and familiar while catching the eyes and ears of all those around. So, yeah, my brainstorms are sometimes like that.

If I want to imagine a younger Elouan, I listen to This Charming Man by The Smiths, Blue Diamonds by The Long Winters, Atomized by machinegum, or Rue Saint-Vincent by Yves Montand. If I’m imagining the antics of Fyodor, Anatoly, Panya, and Gabriel all together then I do so while listening to Hard Bass. For Niccolò, I used to listen to a lot of jazz and (electro) swing. And if I want to imagine all the HAWKS in a more casual setting, vibing and socializing and dancing, its always to the sound of either Soda City Funk by Tim Legend or the Dancing in the Moonlight Remix by Johnny Lectro (and original track by King Harvest), haha!

Oftentimes, I become so distracted by the daydream in association to the song that I forget I’m listening to music entirely as just let my mind wander around the vibes set in place or an idea I stumbled on during the process . . . And then I have to restart the song because I didn’t actually get to enjoy it, haha! ₍₍ ◝(・ω・)◟ ⁾⁾

My general rule when it comes to character writing, however, has become background, background, background! I remember my constant fascination with the parents of characters as a kid, always wondering how someone went from a child to something like a General, Assassin, or anything. This might have originated from two things about me:

1) I tend to have this constant, persistent thought towards all real-world and historical individuals: "That person was a baby once." I watch a documentary on some notorious criminal or leader or icon and I think, "Someone had to feed them, change them, and teach them how to speak. Enough basics to keep them alive, and their treatment towards that life in their care affected them long-term."

2) I like to consider nature vs. nurture, which perhaps explains my love for modernism, haha! I consider the innate core of the character, how they might act or think or desire at their roots, and then I try to filter it through what I've laid out from their background (which sometimes might not bear any affect at all) to see if the end result changes.

When it comes time to really flesh a character out, I like to backtrack to childhood. Who are their parents / guardians?: personality-wise, occupation, lifestyle (financial or aesthetic, in their past and present), their relationship to one another, their presence / absence, parent-figure or blood relative, what were their circumstances pre-, during, and post-birth, etc. How would those parents raise their child (expectations, discipline, attitude towards parenthood, etc.) and how might that style of parenting mesh with the childhood personality I imagine the character to have? It's not all so detailed as an entire biography, but the general beats / feel / lessons are there.

The end point is already known to me as I undergo this process, yet it can be reformed or altered as I connect the dots from A to B. This helps me to better "walk in their shoes" as I try to consider what they might feel, perceive, know, or do, though I'm no omniscient being that'll always have my bases covered, haha!

For other WIPs, I haven't delved all that deep for every character's roots and detailed origins, but I still try to conceptualize the most recent and impactful years of their life to sense what they cling to, desire, claim, feel, perceive, etc. It sharpens their image more from a blob to an outline in my mind to do so, though I still like to have a few "blob" characters to make versatile in my daydreams - leaving room for them to morph or split or meld over time. (Like how Anatoly and Dearil are split from a "blob" character!)

Insurrection characters predominately originated as fandom OCs, which makes them unique compared to all my other original characters (outside fanfiction). This influenced some aspects of their foundation: social hierarchy, their gift type (to an extent), and relationships to one another (factions, friendships, romances). They've all changed plenty since then though, so their fandom roots might not be so obvious anymore.

Originally as well, the HAWKS had not been the protagonists. The original protagonists had been: Spoiler Character, Kyle Kelly, Marcus Fan, Irene Loveridge, Aisling "Abigail" Ryan, and Benoni "Viorel" Briedis. Yet, upon switching to interactive storytelling, I felt it railroaded the MC's ideological range on the Gifted to band with this unit . . . and it would be difficult to introduce all the other characters at this point in the timeline as well. (That point being when this particular ensemble is formed.) Not to mention that I struggled to conceptualize them as serviceable ROs. Then it became a crossroads on which faction to make the new protagonist ensemble: CARDINALS or HAWKS.

Since the HAWKS could include an MC of any ideology due to the forced nature of their recruitment, they won out, haha! Minor characters (outside Sigmund) suddenly became protagonists, and it was quite the transition and what had once been distinctive but minimal characters needed the depth and draw to create an appealing ensemble. So it simply became a task of fleshing out those backgrounds based on what had already been asserted about them, scrapping and reviving elements from their original conception and dynamics while seeking out songs that struck me as suitable for their brainstorm sessions.

Its also just a lot of loose associative thinking in the early days, "trying on" this event or that occupation to see what's most appealing to me. Some characters have had countless "wardrobe changes", and others simply had a "hat quickly stuck on their head" as they walked out the door with their first outfit, haha! Then comes the fun part of seeing how they all might then interact as an ensemble.

Or, well, sometimes a character is simply born from a role in relation to another that expands without my notice until I can't shake them loose, haha! (´∀｀)

TLDR: My brainstorm and outlines for characters are largely determined by whatever music I happen to be listening too and my fascination with childhood influences.

#author

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mogwai-movie-house · 1 year

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Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (TV Series, 2022)

This horror anthology series was, as a whole, considerably better than I’d expected, though it never really approaches the highs of the best episodes of, say, Black Mirror or Inside No. 9. Still far better than that catastrophically awful “reboot” of The Twilight Zone, though. Here’s my episode-by-episode review of the first season:

1. Lot 36

“An army veteran buys storage locker contents to pay off debts, but buys more than he bargained for when he purchases a lot owned by a strange old man”.

Tim Blake Nelson, in the lead, is very good, but none of the other characters really stand out, and the ending is rushed and over almost as soon as it begins. The shoehorned-in racial politics that awkwardly bookend the episode play no meaningful part in the greater story, and the final pay-off, in which a Mexican immigrant he ignored earlier lets him die, actually works against the intended message of the the tale, in that it seems to be telling us that causing the death of other people is justified, if they ever inconvenienced you.

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

2. Graveyard Rats

“A grave robber eyes the riches of a wealthy new arrival to the cemetery, but must survive a maze of tunnels -- and an army of rodents -- to secure them.”

Fairly weak stuff, mostly filler, with no interesting or memorable characters to speak of, and the steampunk supernatural elements are little more than del-Toro-by-the-numbers.

★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

3. The Autopsy

“A seasoned sheriff investigates a dead body in the woods and calls on an old pal, a medical examiner, to help piece together a series of chilling events.”

Easily the best episode. Glynn Turman is splendid in a likeable and nuanced performance as the aging small town sheriff confronting something beyond his ken, and F. Murray Abraham as his old and dying coroner friend drafted in to help him get to the bottom of a bizarre series of murders. It’s kind of like the entire first season of True Detective in a single episode, but with an alien.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

4. The Outside

“Longing to fit in at work, awkward Stacey begins to use a popular lotion that causes an alarming reaction, while an unnerving transformation takes shape. “

The other notably good episode of the series, mostly a satirical attack on the modern world of shallow surfaces, the “beauty” industry, and the lengths people will go to fit into a fantasy ideal. Kate Micucci is good throughout, and the whole thing has a Stepford Wives/Invasion of The Body Snatchers-kind of vibe to it that keeps one watching, although the story drags a lot and could have been told much better in half the time.

★★★★★★★½☆☆

5. Pickman’s Model

“Art student Will meets introvert Richard, whose terrifying works of art begin to have a deeply disturbing effect on Will's sense of reality. “

One of a couple of episodes based on Lovecraft stories, this one has nice setting and period detail, with some solid creepy moments here and there, but the characters are shallow and underdeveloped, the monster - when it finally appears - is just a boring dollop of CGI, and Crispin Glover wins the award for the stupidest accent of the year.

★★★★★★½☆☆☆

6. Dreams In The Witch House

“ Years after his twin sister's death, a researcher ventures Into a dark, mysterious realm with the aid of a special drug, determined to bring her back. “

By far the worst of the series, this one’s just a muddled mess, with very amateurish acting and forced diversity entirely out of place for the period in which it was set. I’ve still no idea why there was a rat with a human face.

★★★½☆☆☆☆☆☆

7. The Viewing

“ A wealthy recluse hosts four accomplished guests at his stylish mansion for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but their intrigue soon turns into terror. “

Visually this is amazing, and the first two-third have great atmosphere, with lots of small moments building tension. Peter Weller is a towering presence, and effortlessly dominates every scene he is in. Unfortunately, it all leads-up to nothing; the ending carries no dramatic weight, there’s an entirely unexplained monster of some entirely uninteresting sort, and then the final scene just peters out and grinds to a halt. A great pity.

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

8. The Murmuring

“Mourning a major loss, ornithologists Nancy and Edgar flock to a secluded home to study birds, but the house's history reveals heartbreak and horror. “

This is the smallest, quietest and most emotional of the stories, and Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln give fine performances as a married couple trying to distract themselves from the death of their child by losing themselves in their shared work. The rest of the episodes would have greatly benefited from this level of characterization, and the premise reminded me of Don’t Look Now in a number of places. Once again though, the ending is weak and derivative and nothing you haven’t seen many times before. Still definitely worth a watch.

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

#guillermo del toro #cabinet of curiosities #reviews

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brightbeautifulthings · 1 month

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Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton

"'Helplessness in the face of tragedy is hard for people like us,' Jake said. I looked at him. 'People like us?' 'People of action, warriors. Our weapons protect us and those we care for; when our skills fail us and we lose lives, it is hard. It erodes some of our sense of self.'"

Year Read: 2024

Rating: 4/5

About: There are overall spoilers for the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series ahead. Tough as nails vampire slayer Anita Blake's wedding to the king of American vampires, Jean-Claude, is fast approaching, but so are the threats against their people. A killer targeting vampires by exposing them to sunlight while they rest may have bigger designs, and family issues, wedding fittings, and date night are interrupted by an ancient evil come to take Jean-Claude's seat of power for itself. Trigger warnings: death, fire, mental health issues abound, jealousy/possessiveness and toxic relationships (countered). NSFW content.

Thoughts: This late in the series, the books are kind of hit or miss, but I liked Smolder a bit more than the last few in the series. While it's smaller in size, it does still fall into some of the pacing and irrelevancy problems of having so. many. damn. characters, but I'm accepting that as a matter of course at this point. Toward the end, it literally takes characters several chapters just to change locations because every time they turn a corner, a new character has to shovel sixteen emotional issues before they can pass. With this many partners in the polycule, I think they need weekly meetings just so everyone can air their grievances at a convenient time instead of, you know, in the middle of a crisis.

It does seem like there are genuine efforts to balance character development with plot here though. Anita is introduced to a new supernatural murder case that, while small in scope in this particular crime scene, is set up to potentially take a larger role on the future. There's also a Big Bad introduced that, miraculously, isn't resolved and defeated in three pages. I don't think we've had a villain span more than one book since the Mother of all Darkness, and I'm really excited to see this play out in more depth. It plays on some fun mythology elements and is scary enough to catch even Edward's interest. There's not a lot of closure on either of those threads, but there's some nice thematic closure on some of the character development, so the book doesn't feel as unfinished as it might have otherwise.

#book review #laurell k. hamilton #anita blake: vampire hunter #smolder #4/5 #rating: 4/5 #2024 #para #paranormal #paranormal romance #adult fiction

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whatsonmedia · 3 months

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Music Monday: Latest Tracks of This Week!

Join us as we delve into the freshest tunes handpicked for you by Music Editor Adam Humphries. From captivating melodies to energetic beats, these latest tracks are sure to kickstart your week with a musical bang! Now Streaming! Bedsit Poets release third album 'All Roads Lead Me Back'! For me, this probably the first album I've heard from Bedsit Poets but even I have to admit that I am actually quite fond of it. A couple of the things I enjoy about it is the female vocals that accompany the acoustics and that the music goes at a steady pace... Listen https://open.spotify.com/album/2K6cA7CDRG1OGutvV9z8pX?si=r69FnGT6SUWTG6-SuJa6SQ Watch Bedsit Poets perform 'My Precious Dear' live from The Bowery Electric, NYC! ... and here they are putting on a great performance, live in concert, playing one of their latest tracks My Precious Dear at New York's infamous music venue, The Bowery Electric in front of their adoring fans. Never let it be said that they don't know how to put on a great show Watch https://youtu.be/TKXdAazYNIs Radical diz qo visuals for Mieko Shimizu's 'My Tentacles'! Quite an impressive and certainly not something from the regular. I like that Mieko has used outside the box type thinking for this video, it fits in with her style of creativity. I have always admired Mieko for her ability to mix both music and art so I can happily say this grew on me. Watch https://youtu.be/7wfKLlGWrhU?si=YcnhpE4HtuQbz6WB SOHODOLLS return with ferocious new single 'What Kinda Love'! As someone who has long admired the sounds of SOHODOLLS I am always open to what their next musical offering is. What Kinda Love is an appetizing fusion of rock & roll and punk in that is has the 50's rockabilly sound to it yet has the punk 'I don't care' attitude attached. Enjoying it https://open.spotify.com/track/0amk8syvt6Fazi4cY14soP?si=762d69ca321848a3 YOVA - Release Supernatural "Maybe" Video || Second Album 'Dreamcatchers' - out now Quite a nice video and has a sort of magical element to it in that YOVA walks around the woodland areas. YOVA adds nature along with references to mythical forces and pulls it off. I like how she's got a younger female character in the video, a bit like a symbolic reference of YOVA's looking back on her innocence in youth. WATCH ON YOUTUBE HERE https://youtu.be/o1F-LkN8LNM?si=pNTmO32g6vew3glp 'DREAMCATCHERS' OUT NOW - 1 MARCH 2024 - ORDER HERE PLUS LONDON LAUNCH SHOW @ THE TROUBADOUR EARLS COURT - 12 MARCH TICKETS Read the full article

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