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#take the character that exists and make a new story. and don’t try and change the core character cause you don’t like him?

yoonia · 1 month

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Ever A Never After — story masterpost

⟶ Title | Ever a Never After (adaptation from Enchanted movie) ⟶ Summary | Growing up in the fairy tale land, your whole life seems to have been written perfectly in the books, with the picturesque life and the Prince Charming that you can see yourself having your happily ever after with. But your entire world turns upside down when you are suddenly sent into a whole new world, a different kind of universe where happily ever after doesn’t exist. Thrust into a new challenge and shown a new side of life, you find yourself standing in a crossroad. When the moment arises, would you find your way back home to your true love, or is the universe trying to show you that sometimes happy endings don’t have to be written so perfectly?

⟶ Pairings | Jungkook x female reader; Seokjin x female reader ⟶ Genre | Strangers to lovers!au, Fairy tale retelling!au, Angst, Smut ⟶ Ratings & Warnings | +18 / M for Mature; specific warnings will be added accordingly on each published chapters ⟶ Status / Current word count / Total word count | ONGOING; latest update: Ever A Never After: Act 1 (May 21st, 2024) - 19,688 words of n/a words ⟶ Main Masterlist | Mailbox | Feedback | Ko-fi | Music companion ⟶ Cross-posted in AO3 and Wattpad

⟶ Special Taglist: Ever A Never After

⟶ Story Note | Written in 2nd person POV (in case you’re new to my writing, I don’t use ‘y/n’ coding as all of my lead characters are considered as OCs). In place of the coding, you’ll find a blank space as her name. Please also note that our main character/reader insert for this story has her own nickname that will be used in the scenes. While the story is adapted from the movie, Enchanted, with some characters and places that were mentioned in the movie added into this story, I will be adding changes in the story settings, characters’ names and background stories to fit the plot. That being said, as someone who has never set foot in the land of America, forgive me if there are some inaccuracies in the details that are being added here. I hope that doesn’t change your reading experience with the story.

⟶ Chapters

⇢ Act One. Andalasia, The Maiden, and The Dream Prince [“It’s you. The boy I saw in my dreams.” “It’s me. Your Prince Charming.” | Word count: 19,688 words | Chapter Teaser]

⇢ Act Two. The Alter World and The Saviour [“I need to find my way back to the castle.” “What castle?” “Why, of course, I’m talking about Andalasia.” “Huh, right. Why don’t I just call you an Uber?” | Word count: — | Chapter Teaser]

⇢ Act Three. Fairy Tales and Bittersweet Endings [“You forgot to say the part where you lived happily ever after.” “Happily ever after? That thing doesn’t exist, not in the real world.” | Word count: — | Chapter Teaser]

⇢ Act Four. The Ball for The Kings and Queens and Dragons [“There is a ball for the Queen and Kings at the start of spring. Shall we go together?” “As your Prince Charming, I’ll be happy to escort you.” | Word count: — | Chapter Teaser]

⇢ Act Five. Prince Charming and a Happily Never After [“Look at how the tables have turned, as now I have in my hand the Prince who is supposed to protect the princess.” “Come along now, dear. You wouldn’t want to miss the ending.” | Word count: — | Chapter Teaser]

⟶ Fic talk & references

⇢ image reference

⇢ readers feedback & discussions

⟶ Patreon specials

⇢ visual inspiration board

⇢ fic commentary (coming soon)

⟶ Author’s Note | Originally commissioned by @pinkbtsarmy | It’s finally here! I’m so sorry for taking so long with this one. Thank you so much for commissioning me and for your endless support. As mentioned in our last talk, there will be some changes from the original prompt/details that I’ve made to make the story work better, but I hope you’ll be able to enjoy it still. I have decided to release this one as a mini-series to present the timeline more appropriately and make the storyline work. Have fun reading!

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route-to-eutopia-if · 7 months

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Route to Eutopia - New WIP IF

DEMO(28K) I CHARACTER DOSSIERS I PLAYLIST (TBA)

You have one year left to live.

But are you afraid of dying? Probably not. Since you don’t even know how to live your life. You have been hidden away from public eye since young. And the only friend you have is an Alter, humanoid species born to only serve other people and nothing else. Alters live so ‘people like you’ could live.

That makes the two of you. Alive. But never here. Never lived.

If opportunities arise, would you take a chance to change it? Only you can answer.

In a world where feeling nothing at all is better than letting your emotions rule over you, your choice to break those rules and make a change will paint a new shade of history that no one ever could.

Hidden behind shut doors to live your quiet life as a secret child of Bastien Palmer, Sole Leader of Eutopia paradise, you never experience anything except for repeating the same old routine your entire life. You are the existence which should not be known, not just for the reason that you are the byproduct of your father and his secret lover. But also because of your frightening ‘Alter-like’ eye color, most of it is silver like any Stargaze–but nevertheless… tinted shamefully by crimson streaks.

You are told to stay away from public eyes for the sake of Palmer’s reputation in which you feel obliged to. However, your life of peaceful solitude will never be the same again after tonight…

Route to Eutopia is a violent dystopian loosely-conceptual interactive story where you are a bystander surrounded by The Chosen One of your own choice. You are to designate whether this story will head towards the direction of mutual peace between Alters– a human-like species believed to be plagued by uncured disease since birth– and Stargazers —a group of survivors whose ancestors once lived on a faraway planet before an inevitable disaster occurred and forced them to flee into another dimension, or towards a doom fate that cannot be reversible.

To be noted; RtE is a heavily-relationship based game (not necessarily in platonic/romantic sense) each of your interactions with any character will determine the tone and purpose of their motivation. Any choice you have chosen, make sure to embrace the consequences of your action at your own expense.

With that being said, it is also worth mentioning that you don’t need to engage into a romance or specific relationship with any character to complete the story.

RtE also rated 18+ for strong language, suggestive contents, disturbing topics such as racism, sexism, discrimination against queer people, explicit descriptions of violence, murders, drug use and sexual behaviors of certain characters with optional intercourse scenes.

Setting

RtE takes place in a post-apocalypse society where the concept of time is lost and any history known was only speculations at best and rumour at worst. Trying to maintain their sense of utopia, Stargazers built and operated their space colony as a temporary base for self-preservation (in which only fews know details about) called ‘Eutopia’.

In this dystopian paradise people’s sole purpose of living was fixated on surviving. And in order to do that, the whole population creates a solid ground rule not to let themselves ‘feel’ about other emotions that do not serve for public favors. Hence, you will be challenged to adapt to several situations and handpick the best flavor of your actions based on the emotions you have learnt or developed from your surroundings.

Who do you play as?

For now, you will be playing as a secret child of Bastien Palmer, the leader of Stargazers who already has a wife and two other perfect children, your younger sister and brother. Ones you have never interacted with nor you ever get the chance to.

MCs subjectively considered a white sheet which you can paint anything on by your preferences. Explore the world full of colorful emotions or bottomless pit of numbness by your own choices.

But remember, Eutopia is a place where everything goes according to one simple rule ‘To survive’ hence the marriage between a man and woman will be set as the norm and only truth, and someone who will state otherwise must face and suffer the ugliness of social standards accordingly. However, I do not encourage any transphobic/homophobic behavior of the characters in this story. Please kindly be assured of that.

There might be a chance where you can start off as other characters, that is, however, still a subject-to-change matter as of now.

Introduction to the Chosen Ones [ ROs]

**Please be aware of mild spoilers below**

Vegaris (M/F) 19 Star-crossed lovers or Nemesis route, The Rebel.

They would do anything to survive, even if it means to betray the only person who trusts them deeply… like you.

Vegaris is an Alter who has so many sides hidden behind closed doors. Unpredictable, cunning, hot and cold are the words that describe them best. Due to their traumatic childhood (much like other Alters on Eutopia), they have a deep-root hatred for Stargazers. Although they were brought in by your family and treated almost the same as one of your father’s own kids. They still witness the unfairness of being an Alter in society and never afraid to point the wrong in other people’s doings.

Their usual mask, however, is one where you cannot crack open that easily. They always remain calm and composed in front of you, and only show their fangs when circumstances arise.

Dana/Darren Regency (M/F) 22 Childhood friends, Forbidden route, The Face.

For a person who seems to be easy to read as much as an open-book, they sure talk with silence better than with their own voice.

A poster girl/boy for Regency Academy. Your former childhood friend (for some unknown reason, they're trying their hardest to avoid you) and an only child to the Head of Deans at Regency, Sandalphon. They are the precise image of how one should raise a Stargazer. Being a honor student. A model citizen. And a perfect ideal partner. They are assigned to be married with the most capable genetic-wise fiancé. As popular as they appear to be to the public, their private life (as private as it can be) is still a gigantic loophole for most imprudent reporters trying to catch even just a glimpse.

It seems like what they are trying to avoid is not just you, but the entirety of Eutopia.

Sandalphon Regency (M/F) 40 Age-difference, Single-parent route, The Pacifist.

Do you believe in something just because it's true, or it becomes the truth only when you believe in it?

Sandalphon is the most powerful influence among the deans of Regency. A group of people that has control over governing matters even beyond that of Bastien Palmer, the President. For Sandal, they are anything and everything people could ever ask for in a Regency. Kind, generous, well-versed with every branch of knowledge in the universe. Never wrong in anything. And never judge anyone based on their bias.

If only people knew the truth, they’d probably beg to differ.

Maybe they are just good at hiding beneath that gentle facade, maybe a calculated mind with strings to pull works best with neutral suggestions... who knows?

One more hidden character will be revealed in the demo, Into the Madness route, The Savior.

[ Classified info. ]

**There will be two sub ROs and flings to be introduced later in the story.**

More info will be announced.

Demo 1st update : 24/01/2024 Chapter 1 (28k codes excluded)

Datalog is completed roughly til the end of the story. Coding and polishing will certainly take time. Any more updates will be announced solely on this blog.

Reblogging is appreciated. Thank you!

#if wip #interactive fiction #cog #choice of games #hosted games #if demo #interactive game #if game #dystopia #cyberpunk #space opera #interactive novel #choicescript #dashingdon

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byoldervine · 5 months

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How To Start Writing A Book (So Says This Idiot)

I’ve been working on my queer superhero fantasy novel Byoldervine for a few years now, but it’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve really dedicated myself to my writing. Now I’ve gone from a fun few concepts to nearly 50K words and counting. So I figured I’d share my process to get here

1. Figure out your barebones concept

Before you can begin writing, you obviously need to know what you’re writing. At this point in time it can literally just be something like “A group of friends go on a quest through a magical fantasy world and meet loads of mythical creatures along the way”, it doesn’t even necessarily need a plot intact. You can be as vague or as specific as you like here, you just need that general idea

2. Figure out your characters

Your characters are the driving forces behind all internal conflict in your story and give your story heart; if you can pick between expanding your plot and expanding your characters, pick the characters. Start figuring out at very least the need-to-know aspects about your characters, such as their motivations and what’s holding them back from achieving them. We can flesh them out more and more as we go

3. Create the main external conflict

Often this takes the form of the main antagonist, but it can be literally anything from a curse the main character is trying to overcome, a series of misunderstandings, a goal they just don’t have the skills to achieve on their own, etc. What’s the thing that’s causing our main character problems they need to overcome?

4. Work out the beginning and end of your story

Where do you want your story to end? Do you want your characters to be living a life of peace and glory as revered heroes after they defeat the villain? Do you want them to be able to return to the life they once had with new friends and stronger powers than ever before? Do you want them to fail and experience the tragedy of their loss? Well if that’s where you want to end, they can’t have all that at the very start of the story, so that’s something that needs to change during the story. Congratulations, you just created a plot point!

5. Use your plot points to create a general plan

Now that you’ve got some ideas of what you want/need to happen during the story, you can make a timeline of these plot points. Say something like “Inciting incident, MC leaves village” or “MC trapped by BBEG” or “MC gains new weapon” or something like that. At this point things are a bit less vague because now you’re starting to see how the plot can go. Don’t forget to add things that the characters would go for, too, even if it’s not plot-relevant

6. Plotting

You’re ready to start plotting by now. For every chapter, write down a general objective of what needs to be achieved within this chapter. Each of these needs to be followed with bullet points of different, smaller plot points within the chapter to achieve this objective. This part I enjoy doing alongside actually writing so I can update it as I go, I’ll usually plot about five chapters ahead and then get to writing until I’ve used them all up

By this point, you’re ready to write! Best of luck and remember that it’s only a first chapter, all it needs to do is exist!

#writing #writers #bookblr #writeblr #book #original #writer #writing advice #how to write #writing tips #writing tips and tricks #on writing #writing ideas

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yuurei20 · 6 months

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(This was originally an ask received through Twitter)

"Back in GloMas (on JP), I think I remember there being a lot of madness surrounding Idia being close to Yuu. I think it’s because he referred to them as ‘Yuu’ rather than ‘Yuu-shi’, but I still don’t quite get it??"

Yes! Honorifics as a whole have already discussed more in-depth here, but Idia does drop his honorific for the prefect once in Glorious Masquerade.

Quick overview for those who may not know: when you don’t use an honorific with someone (-chan / -kun / -sama / etc), this is called yobisute (呼び捨て), written with the kanji for “to call” and “to throw away,” and the word might just not exist in English. It means “to refer to someone without an honorific."

Twst uses honorifics (and yobisute) to track the evolving relationships between the characters.

Deuce, for example, has a line about how he used to yobisute his teachers (i.e. he refused to add “-sensei” to their names) in middle school. To compensate for his past rudeness, Deuce now refers to every single upperclassman by “lastname-senpai.”

There is even a cute scene during New Year’s where Deuce greets Jamil by calling him Viper-senpai, but after Jamil feeds him an egg salad sandwich he changes—just once—to Jamil-senpai.

Epel is another character whose use of honorifics is significant: Epel is under order from Vil to always use honorifics with everyone. During Book 5 we see him using “-kun” with Deuce, up until Deuce refuses to let Epel fight the bullies trying to steal their blastcycle.

Deuce says that he is the one who took Epel out of the school and so he will be taking responsibility for his actions, and we get Epel’s first “Deuce” yobisute.

Cater might be the character who weaponizes honorifics the most.

He seems to be using honorifics as an over-familiarity-buffer-zone, as he is actively trying to avoid becoming too close to those around him (re: “Cay-Cay doesn’t really do long-term friends or found family").

There is one exception to Cater’s rule of honorifics: Trey.

During Book 1 Cater refers to him as “Trey-kun” for the majority of the story, until Riddle’s overblot makes things serious enough for him to drop it and call him “Trey” (even during these scenes, however, he keeps his honorifics for others).

The novel even comments on this directly, saying, "Usually, Cater does not ever yobisute anyone. When he calls to Trey, he always adds ‘kun’ to his name. This is probably one of his skills as a good-natured person. When Cater uses Trey’s name like this, it is only when he is really serious. Only when it is important."

This is all to say that, depending upon the character, yobisute can be a huge deal. It isn’t a black-and-white rule, of course—it varies by each character and their personality.

Kalim, for example, refers to everyone with yobisute, possibly because his status back home meant that he was simply never taught to defer to anyone, and/or because he legitimately considers himself to be close, personal friends with everyone he meets.

Idia is one of those characters like Cater and Deuce for whom yobisute is a big deal. There is exactly one person he refers to without any form of honorific, and that person is Ortho. Much like how he uses his tablet to avoid talking to people face-to-face, he is possibly, intentionally keeping up an over-familiarity-wall like Cater.

The English-language adaptation has translated his honorific of “-shi” as “Mr.,” but it’s actually gender-neutral, which may be why the English-language game’s continuity is so inconsistent, and why the moment of Idia referring to the prefect without an honorific did not make it to EN: while the honorific disappears and reappears in English, he actually uses it to refer to the prefect in Book 6, and it is otherwise in 100% of all of Idia’s dialogue in the original game.

With one exception: Glorious Masquerade.

This is why JP lost its collective mind when it happened (the fan-art is delightful, like this short comic of the characters pointing at Idia and chanting "yobisute"), because it was something Idia had never done before and has never done again, and it was with the prefect!

(This was revealed to be a proof-reading error that was corrected in the 2023 re-release, with "-shi" added to the prefect's name in Idia's dialogue.)

Yobisute is usually very significant in the game, like during Book 6 where Azul, who uses the “-san” honorific with literally everyone except Jade and Floyd, uses yobisute with Riddle when he is in danger, and when Riddle uses it with Leona just before his overblot in Book 2.

Which means it will be interesting to see if Idia is going to continue with this yobisute-ing of the prefect outside of Glorious Masquerade! (which would be great for confirmation that it wasn't just a proof-reading error ww)

#twstask #twisted wonderland #twstlanguage #Idia Shroud

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lains-reality · 10 months

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I sincerely apologise for writing this. i feel really conflicted right now. I have been getting suicidal thoughts lately because of my circumstances. Sometime I feel like I don’t even want to exist. I came to non-duality from loa. I spent 3 years trying to “manifest” a peaceful life. Trying to escape from my circumstances and wake up to a completely different life.

I make myself promises to like “manifest my desired life my the end this month” or “to stop making the same mistake” but I end up breaking them. I felt like I over consumed alot and now I don’t know where to begin or what to detach from. I tell myself that I’ll throw my phone aside and start applying but then I get caught up in my problems again and it’s just a cycle on repeat.

I have to say I’m quite ashamed of myself. Not being able to accomplish anything in my life and disappointing those around me despite knowing the law of assumption and now non-duality.

This is probably the most stupidest thing I have ever asked but could you simply non-duality in a a few sentences? I feel like I have come to the point where I can’t even trust myself to stop over consuming and wishing for change. Thank you.

you might benefit from this and this.

i really would like you to read this!

the body-mind, the "I" you think you are, i'll call them sam!

give up trying to manifest. give up trying to change the world with sam's thoughts and feelings, its torture.

here's the main point:

simple mindfulness is what gurus have asked of us. not convincing, denial or forcing. its observing.

observe the habit of 'you'. you take the "I" to be the body-mind, sam. sam is a habit, and is sustained through attachment and aversions. drop them.

all you need to fix is your wrong identification. let go of sam and all their stories.

if you find yourself forcing, suppressing, or trying to get rid of sam (something that you don't do), then remember this: god is already perfect. the answer is to surrender.

there's no image or role to maintain. you can just be.

here's a more in depth reminder.

there's so many words for Self: Absolute Perfection, Bliss, Infinite Being, Supreme Reality. i want you to remember I AM. I AM is complete and whole, alone. its just beingness. just as it is. before the world and sam, you are conscious. before wanting, you are conscious.

nondualism's goal is letting go of all the concepts that stop you from seeing Self.

the body-mind is a thought. its an idea. you are already detached from sam. but you don't see it bcs you are identified with them right now. you are attached to your character, and we want to release all those attachments.

"the identity is a shadow. it is not us. analyze your mind briefly, and you will find that is nothing but a byproduct of societal conditioning, peer opinions, books, movies, whatever content you've most willingly consumed." - luvcompass

the mind is just a bunch of thoughts, feelings and memories. are you a thought? are you a story? are you a memory? are you a feeling?

sam is. but you are not sam.

sam doesn't want sam and all the stories anymore (likely because you think you are stuck as sam). but sam never was. sam is an idea, a story. they are a thought in the mind. because you are identified as sam, you see sam. without your awareness on sam, sam wouldn't be.

Unless they understand who they really are, that Vanessa (sam) is a habit and nothing more - that nothing has existence outside of awareness, including her, that awareness assigns reality and is the only reality - they're always going to struggle to control something and get frustrated they don't see what they think they're aware of. What you're aware of is what you're being. You can't be aware of being something new while also being Vanessa. [source]

The ego is an activity, its not innate, its FORMED.

"Ego (sam) is not an entity. It is an activity. It is an optional activity of identifying itself with a fragment that Consciousness is free to make or not, from moment to moment." [source]

and by habit of taking the "I" to be sam, it continues.

focus on respond vs react. start catching yourself out when you say 'i am ...', start asking questions to yourself abt who 'i' is. start watching your thoughts. learn how to feel your emotions when they come up, don't run away from them or they will continue to come up until you deal with it. this is a process of allowing.

"I make myself promises to like “manifest my desired life my the end this month” or “to stop making the same mistake” but I end up breaking them."

i want you to accept now. you are sam, so you see sam. stop chasing a future that will never come. there's only ever the present moment.

To be identified to your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions. — Eckhart Tolle

what would happen if you stopped using the past as a reference? what would happen if you stopped projecting past stories into the future? what would happen if you stopped thinking of a tomorrow?

"i felt like I over consumed alot and now I don’t know where to begin or what to detach from."

start with "who am i?". anything you can outgrow? not you. anything you can observe ? not you. in the absense of it, you don't disappear? not you. it changes and you don't disappear? not you.

how do you know you are sam except by your belief that you are sam?

"I have to say I’m quite ashamed of myself. Not being able to accomplish anything in my life and disappointing those around me despite knowing the law of assumption and now non-duality."

read this. also, there are no others. you are seeing yourSelf play out.

let go of the shame, regret and guilt. read the linked post, and watch the source from the first quote, it'll help. i also want you to watch this.

give yourself compassion. give yourself space to grow. sam is a random person just like anybody else, so why chastise them for stuff that just happens?

sam cannot do anything in the first place. (what is sam gonna do to change the infinte? why would the infinite need changing anyway?)

you are putting pressure on sam to change the world, but really Self orchestrates all. sam is just another creation of Self. this entire world is Self's expression. give up intellectualising what sam did, maybe it has nothing to do with you and it just happened?

sam is not a problem or mistake!

sam is already part of infinity and exists whether sam likes it or not. you are unconditionally accepted already as perfection or else you wouldn't be here.

“All you need is already within you, only you must approach your self with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors.” - nisargadatta maharaj

i'm sorry i wrote too much, but i hope this helps! please be safe!

#lainsmail #i think this is my best work? lol #it took so long to write

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tjalexandernyc · 7 months

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Say hello to Triple Sec, out June 4, 2024 from Simon & Schuster! (Art by Petra Braun.)

It’s queer! It’s poly! It’s cocktails!!! Official synopsis below the cut.

A jaded bartender is wooed by a charmingly quirky couple in this fresh and sizzling polyamorous rom-com, set in the exclusive world of high-end cocktail bars—from the acclaimed author of the “tender, decadent, and sparklingly funny” (Lana Harper, New York Times bestselling author) Chef’s Choice. As a bartender at Terror & Virtue, a swanky New York City cocktail lounge known for its romantic atmosphere and Insta-worthy drinks, Mel has witnessed plenty of disastrous dates. That, coupled with her own romantic life being in shambles, has Mel convinced love doesn’t exist. Everything changes when Bebe walks into the bar. She’s beautiful, funny, knows her whiskeys—and is happily married to her partner, Kade. Mel’s resigned to forget the whole thing, but Bebe makes her a unique offer: since she and Kade have an open marriage, she’s interested in taking Mel on a date. What starts as a fun romp turns into a burgeoning relationship, and soon Mel is trying all sorts of things she’d been avoiding, from grand romantic gestures to steamy exploits. Mel even gets the self-confidence to enter a cocktail competition that would make her dream of opening her own bar a reality. In the chaotic whirl of all these new experiences, Mel realizes there might be a spark between her and Kade, too. As Bebe, Kade, and Mel explore their connections, Mel begins to think that real love might be more expansive than she ever thought possible. With TJ Alexander’s signature “witty and insightful voice, complex characters, and full-throated celebration of the joy of queer community” (Ava Wilder, author of How to Fake It in Hollywood), Triple Sec is a passionate, thirst-quenching love story that will have you asking for another round…or three.

You know the drill, folks!! I am asking/begging you to please spread the word and help me out. This book is a VERY different kind of romance and I am desperate for it to find its audience. Here are some ways you can help me:

Pre-order. I know, I know, June 4 is forever away but it really is the biggest thing. Pre-ordering is a gift to yourself and to authors who would really like to hit some kind of bestseller list some day. If you don’t want to pre-order now, consider putting a note in your calendar to buy it on June 4?

Add the book to your GoodReads or Storygraph TBR.

Share my pinned posts on Instagram or tumblr.

Tell your local bookstore or library (or both!) to stock this book.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Next round’s on me.

#my books #queer books #queer romance #f/f/nb #polyamory #poly romance #poly rep #tj alexander #romance novels #romcom

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stoat-party · 2 months

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Evaluating Which Details Pose Continuity Issues (yeah, it’s long, sorry)

I’m being relentlessly annoyed by (some) people mad at the show and by (some) people mad at people mad at the show, so let’s clear up where the issues are and aren’t so we’re not just talking over each other here.

Destroying the Strip

Obviously not a retcon. Retcons refer to previously-established events. Some people might have their own problems with it (I definitely saw it cited as evidence of a coordinated attack on New Vegas), but it presents no continuity problems.

2. What exactly is a vial?

I don’t think this changed ghoul lore. They can still go 200+ years without turning, or they can start turning as soon as they get ghoulified. There’s just a new plot element where they can stave off the effects of going feral for awhile if they take this mysterious drug - without the drug, the rules are still the same. The story was NOT clear on this, and it confused me, but if ghouls need drugs to stay sane, Oswald, Dean, Billy, etc. could not exist even if there’s a massive industry in vials of goop that’s never been mentioned before.

3. It took Vault-Tec decades to build all the vaults.

This is something I worried about because there couldn’t have been much time between the boardroom scene and the bombs falling (Janey doesn't age). But I think it makes sense if you assume the vaults were already built and they filled them with experiments afterward. It does leave the problem that some vaults were unfinished but Vault-Tec also dropped the bombs - why would they do that before finishing their vaults? It’s possible that they planned to drop them but got beat to the punch, or any number of other explanations. Clear retcon but not a huge plot hole.

4. House is worse than Caesar all of a sudden?

This one’s a private gripe of mine because House and Sinclair were not originally written to be Actual Sadists Who Hate Humanity. There’s also House’s mastermind prepper attitude toward the apocalypse, which doesn’t indicate that he had a hand in orchestrating it. While the change doesn’t conflict with the text as far as I know, it really changes the flavor of the game, but not as much as:

5. The Fall of Shady Sands

Let’s say that this happened after the first battle of Hoover Dam, so no continuity issues with their ability to win that. (That’s probably why they set it in 2277, so the NCR would have almost four years to recover before NV. As if Caesar wouldn’t have taken half of their land by then, even with his armies crushed, but ok fine he’s going through a divorce, he’s busy right now.)

But are you telling me that a country can lose a massive city containing much of its infrastructure, most of its central government, and ~5% of its population and still be trying to manifest destiny four years later with no mention of it?

Losing the Divide as a travel route almost crippled the NCR in the Mojave for awhile. Now, not only have they lost the Divide and their capital city, but one of their other biggest cities, the Boneyard, is abandoned and inhabited by an apparently-unaffiliated town. (Yeah, Los Angeles is big, but we don’t see any NCR or Followers despite three main characters traveling through it.) Even if there were still people there during New Vegas, how is the NCR still conducting a campaign in the east?

Also, who is Muldover and what’s her position? Why does she have raiders at her disposal? Is that really supposed to be what remains of the government? I get that some of this will be resolved later, but short of complete societal collapse, there’s no explanation.

We don’t see any of this in New Vegas. The president (who was in office in 2277) is still alive. No one mentions losing family in the explosion. Caesar, Ulysses, and House, along with the many other characters who complain about the NCR’s weakness and instability, don’t bring it up. People even mention the politicians in Shady Sands specifically. PEOPLE ARE MAKING JOKES ABOUT WANTING A NUCLEAR WINTER-

Now there’s a saving interpretation going around that “the fall of Shady Sands - 2277” refers to a metaphorical fall, and the explosion was later. I’ll accept this if I have to, but don’t pretend it’s not a strained reading. Every entry on the board is dated. Why would you date an amorphous event and not date the city exploding?

The explosion was nineteen years ago, and it had to be that early because Lucy and Norm don’t remember living there. (Not clear how old they are but probably in their early-mid 20’s.) The earliest you could place the event without it making no sense is late 2282, because with the time skips in DLC, the events of New Vegas are about a year long. Maybe you could put a gap between Lucy returning to the vault and the actual destruction, but not a five-year one. And if it was in 2282, Max would still be a teenager.

There are legitimate concerns here. Between House and the NCR, the show changes a lot about the main conflict of New Vegas. It’s not just side details.

Not telling you how to feel! Just don’t pretend nothing poses any problems and people are crazy for being concerned. I think the vibe right now is to dismiss me as a hater, but I hope you can see I’ve tried to make it all work. Continuity is really important in a multi-decade story, especially to writers.

I will be appeased by a respectful and thought-out New Vegas remake that preserves as much of the original continuity as possible and is also really good and costs $4. Thanks in advance Bethesda.

Edit:

6. Tatoes in the vaults

TATOES IN THE VAULTSSSS? THIS IS MASSIVE DISRESPECT TO THE LORE. EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS DESTROYED. UNFORGIVABLE.

(but yeah there shouldn’t be tatoes in a vault that hasn’t opened)(maybe norm and lucy had seeds in their pockets when they came back, sure)

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rcksmith · 2 years

Text

All versions of you — Five Hargreeves

You can find the 3 request here: anonymous 1, anonymous 2, anonymous 3.

Resume: Years on The Commission made Five Hargreeves commit horrible atrocities, massacring his humanity and robbing his chances to belong to somewhere. Somewhere stable. But all the torture they put on his soul every day, was all worth when he found in that agency the one thing he knew he would love irrevocably until the end of time: You. But all that love hadn't been able to stop the separation when he returned to his family, when the breakup was inevitable and took the last spark of happiness from him. Forever. Surviving the end of the 1960s world, and finally accepting that a reality where the Sparrow Academy existed was better than messing up the timeline all over again, Five was prepared to find everything in that chaotic place, except the one thing that could bring him to his knees: You.

And like Ben Hargreeves, you didn't remember any Five.

Angst Prompts:

8. “Why can’t you just look at me for one god damn second!”

10. “don’t touch me!”

13. “we can’t go back in time, so stop trying to reverse what you said.”

17. “stop making empty promises!”

Fluff Prompts:

28. “You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?” “Not.”

33. “I’ve waited for this moment for a long time.”

39. “You’re more than that.”

51. “I promised to love you forever.”

Smut Prompts:

19. “You’d better be quiet or everyone’s going to know what a naughty little slut you are.

27. “Can you help me with this zipper?”

75. “Tell me what you like.”

Couple: Five Hargreeves /Fem!Reader.

Warnings: arguing, swearing, mention of murder/blood, A LOT OF ANGST, fluff, smut, dirty talk

Word count:

A/N: Spoiler from season 3. I changed some details of this season too, but just to make sense of the story.

Because I have a lot of requests in my box, I compile 3 orders that are similar and put together, but I took care to added all the elements that were asked for individually, and made sure that all ideas were respected and written down.

We not tolerate any pedophilia here !! I write about Five with their 20s. I write the same about the characters of Harry Potter, MHA and others fandoms.

English is not my first language, so I so sorry if have a mistake.

Requests are OPEN. Love you ❤️

——–

There was a kind of evil joke that ruled the lives of Five Hargreeves, from their birth until now, 28 years later. He didn't believe in God, fate or luck, but the cosmic irony of his life was too palpable for him to totally rule out higher beings involvement. Beings whose greatest delight seemed to be seeing pain strike Five's Egyptian blue eyes.

His soul has always been constantly tortured. The relentless search for Reginald's approval and validation, the excruciating loneliness of the apocalypse, the longing for his family - or just the voice of an acquaintance - the brutal slaughter he had to commit to The Commission every day. Every day.

Five Hargreeves had known the pain, the deprivation, the loneliness, and the weight on his shoulders for all the lives he had taken. He knew by heart the bitter, pungent taste of blood on the roof of his mouth, the feeling of self-revulsion, the Herculaneum effort he had to make every day to push his traumas, fears and despairs into the dungeon of his soul to the very depths that he could.

That was all he knew. Until you.

Until you show up on that Commission as his sidekick. Just a girl to take care of his paperwork while he was in the field. Killing.

Five shouldn't have felt a new kind of shiver run through his body when he saw you. He shouldn't have wondered if you weren't the most beautiful woman to ever step foot in that universe. He shouldn't have been fascinated by the way sunlight streamed through the window and bathed your skin.

But in that moment, insane moment, Five Hargreeves understood Icarus' fascination with the Sun.

Nothing could unsettle Five's good mood whenever you were together. Not even when he met your hot temper, your sharp tongue, mocking gaze, your strong, almost aggressive personality. While The Handler thought you were brash and difficult, Hargreeves thought you were wonderful. Perfect. He knew very well how to mask the turmoil inside him, so well that you accused him several times of being rude, surly and mean to you. But, even so, didn't go unnoticed to anyone the way that him smiling more easely for you.

Very quickly, Five knew that, like everyone who had a weakness, you would always be his. As long life coursed through his veins.

Hargreeves knew almost every possible human sensation, but the way he felt when you kissed him for the first, was superb, overwhelming. In that instant, as his hands tangled in your hair and his mouth melted into yours, Five knew that his soul would forever be yours. Always yours. He silently ask that you belonged to him, because he belonged to you forever. Until the end of times.

"You're everything to me." Those were yours words when you two slept together for the first time. And as much as Five was embargoed with too many new emotions to be able to utter a single sentence ,he pressed his lips to yours and begged whatever deity there was - for the first time - that he could convey in that kiss everything he felt for you.

You were the point of salvation in the raging, evil sea that was Hargreeves' life.

Time passed and Five kept you like a promise, an unspoken prayer to a God he didn't even believe in. He branded your name into his soul like a red-hot iron and silently swore eternal love to you each time his long, thin fingers brushed your soft skin. He worshiped you in secret and admired your beauty out of the corner of his eye. Like a nicotine addict, Five consumed you, filled his lungs with your heavenly scent and held his breath until his brain felt the effects of the addiction. Not even Reginald could explain why you made the ocean waves of Five calm like a prayer mass. You promised eternal peace with just one look and Hargreeves wanted to confess all his sins just so he could enter your gates of paradise after death.

Would it be a crime for a murderer to want redemption so badly? Would there be a timeline where he could follow you to the last of days? A reality where he wasn't haunted by the constant feeling that the villain couldn't wish for a happy ending. Not when he's already taken away so many other people's happy endings.

Was it a crime that he didn't want to smear blood your cheek whenever he touched that spot? Because no matter how many times Five washed himself, the red liquid from his victims would always be there. Invisible, but there. Always.

And, just as he knew what a evil joke his life was, the gods showed once again that their fun was to see him suffer.

“What's this, Five?” You asked him one night, holding an open notebook full of notes.

His notebook. With his notes of the calculations that he was trying to get right to get back to his home. To his family.

You felt a hurricane of emotions that clouded your senses, a mixture of sensations that made your ground shake.

You know that Five always wanted to come home, he's told you that himself several times. It wasn't a closely guarded secret and you shouldn't be feeling so...betrayed. It was petty and selfish not to want him to leave. It was wrong to wish you were enough, to make up for the absence of an entire family. You were aware that a relationship was not enough to have a full, completely happy life. And from the bottom of your heart, you really wanted Five to be able to return to his family. Everyone deserves a family. And you couldn't, and wouldn't, take that away from him.

But… but you wanted to be more than a consequence of his plan. Just a person he'd met in the midst of his mission to go away. You wish Five would see you as a life partner. You didn't want him to give up on his family, but to take you away with him if that was the case.

But Five Hargreeves wouldn't take you along whit him. It was always in his eyes whenever his family got into the subject, you just misled yourself into thinking that the time you two spent together might change his mind. Make him want you for the rest of his life. You didn't want him to give up his true life to stay and remain with you, but you would give up to yours to follow him to hell. If he asked. If he wanted you.

But the way Five Hargreeves looked at you in that moment, made it clear to you that he would never see you the way you saw him.

And it tore you apart.

You were too smart a person to know that his silence was an answer. “How close are you to coming home?” was just the only thing that came out of your mouth.

"Very close.''

His voice was like desert sand, and a part of you died in that hour.

“And you didn't bother to tell me that?''

This time Five frowned. "Why should I?"

Laughter escaped yours lips as an incredulous, mocking sound, and the hurt part of you began to turn to anger.

“Do you really think it's okay to come into my life and leave whenever you want? Without even telling me what hell is going on.”

“You always knew I would come back to 2019”

“Yes but…'' but I didn't think it would be so soon. but I thought that when the day came you would want me by your side. but I wanted you to stay.

In a perfect world, Five would have told you he wouldn't take you with him because the calculations were uncertain, dangerous, fatal. Not even a genius like him could accurately hit all the math that was required, the difference was that he was aware of and accepted the consequences of his near-fatal mission. Dying or getting lost in time trying to get back to his family has always been a very high probability, one that Hargreeves couldn't, and wouldn't, involve you.

Maybe that was love. The absurd desire, almost torn apart, of wishing with all his soul to stay with you until the end of time. But to give it up without hesitation when it came to your well being. Five Hargreeves might be a murderer, a monster and an executioner, but he would never put you in the crossfire just for his selfish desire to have you forever. And he couldn't give up his family too.

The evil joke that was his life once again found a new way to make him bleed. This time, in a way he never thought possible, in such excruciating pain that there, looking into the deep hurt in the eyes that meant the reason he was still breathing, Five was sure he would never be happy again. Not completely. Not fully.

He found love where he shouldn't have found it. And those months of paradise were paid for with his soul.

Five couldn't look at you anymore, and the sound of your angry voice at him was drowned out by the pain that welled up in his chest and spread through every part of his body.

“Why can’t you just look at me for one god damn second?!”

He wanted. He wished he could look at you one more time and not feel that horrible pain. But Five knew that if he did that, he would see not only the reason his heart kept beating, bu also that he was hurting the one person he swore to protect. He wasn't strong enough for it.

But, the truth was Five Hargreeves couldn't protect you from himself. From the chaos and hell that followed him wherever he went. He couldn't protect you from the death trail he left behind. But he could protect you from the mess he was. And that's what he was doing.

"Things shouldn't have gotten this far." He didn't recognize his own voice.

That was no lie. He shouldn't have loved you with every cell in his body. He shouldn't have found heaven in you when he was always destined for hell. He should have been honorable and let you go when he first realized that you would be the spin of his world. He should have loved you from afar, in secret. However, like the cretin he knew he was, Five gave in to his soul's pleas. He gave in to the overwhelming desire to kiss you. Once again. One more. And when he realized, his naked body was already wrapped around yours several times, mixing sounds of sin and ecstasy, as he drowned in your body his heart condemned to be forever yours.

"Are you telling me you're sorry for us?" The pain and anger in your voice was too much for him to handle.

As Five got up from the chair he was sitting in, your eyes burned with a fire of irritation and smoldering hurt.

How could he?

“You know that's not what I meant.''

Fucking lier.

“But it sounded just like that to me.” You hit back, as you always did with him. “You can barely face me and the only thing I hear you say is that we shouldn't go that far. What kind of sick game is this? Do you wear me for months and then discard me as if I am a piece that is no longer useful to you?”

Emotions overflowed your body in the form of tears. Fights with Five were always exhausting, he never let you in on his deepest emotions and constantly say something that tore at your heart. Several times you've wondered why you stayed by his side when it was clear Five didn't think twice about hurting you with something cruel. Why were you mad that he didn't want you on his side in another timeline? When it was clear that not even in this timeline he felt much appreciation for you.

Because you love him with every breath.

“I didn’t call you useless to me.”

"Sure. Because I give you good sex when you need to vent.” Your voice shook with crying.

"Y/n, that's not what I meant..."

“I know what you mean, Hargreeves.” This time he looked at you, but only for seconds. "It means I'm good enough for you to fuck me over at the end of the day, but not good enough to want to be with me in other ways."

That was a slap in his face. How could you think like that?

Five Hargreeves forgot that only him was aware of the visceral magnitude of his feelings for you. He forgot that his inability to express what he felt in words was much loud, because while he burned in a blazing fire of love and passion inside, on the outside he only let on a firm frown, a crooked smile and a longer look in your direction.

Five never said he loved you. And the lack of communication was fatal.

To you, who didn't know Five's real feelings, it seemed very clear from his actions that he didn't love you.

"Isn't that what I..."

But you had reached your limit. There was a limit of rejection you could take.“We can’t go back in time, so stop trying to reverse what you said.”

That had been the mother of all ironies. Because he could go back in time. But apparently not enough to show you that, all these months, you've been the reason his heart is still beating.

Five approached you, almost as a side effect, but you nipped the action in the bud. “Don't Touch Me.”

"You know I didn't mean to hurt you in any way, I promised myself that I wouldn't.”

“So stop making empty promises!” You left his house, and Five didn't stop you.

When the sound of the front door echoed off the walls, all hope of happiness was gone along with you.

The next day, Five come back to his home, his family, and he used the consolation that you would be safe on the Commission. Protected from the ongoing chaos that he was.

And it hurt like he'd lost the best of him.

------

Luther had the romantic heart and common sense of a banana. He took risks and changed his world in the name of love, happiness, passion. Every cell in his body pulsed with romanticism and the joy he felt in being in love clouded his rationality.

There was hardly a shred of discernment in that gigantic body when love was involved in the equation. And maybe that's why he'd been oblivious to the subtle signs that timeline was giving him when he'd been kidnapped by Sparrow Academy, and Sloane had introduced him to her best friend. All Luther could see was Sloane next to a girl who seemed to do her a lot of good, a good friend. And anyone who made that beautiful smile appear on the face of the woman he was in love with was already his best friend too.

Luther didn't realize the air sounded different. That the world seemed to hold its breath, as if it had just watched a plot unfold. He didn't feel any of it, because Luther wasn't sensitive to the little hints life gave him.

“This is Y/n.” Sloane smiled once more as you sat next to her at the gigantic breakfast table.

If Number One had been more attentive to the details around you, he would have noticed that something deep in your eyes looked familiar. But he wasn't the most attentive of the world.

The conversation took place calmly, as normal as circumstances allowed. Luther knew that to the people of that reality, the Sparrow Academy were a good, friendly, heroic bunch. Maybe his crush on one of the members was compromising his judgment, but Luther started to think that maybe his siblings only hated them for meeting under those circumstances. Perhaps, in another reality, they would all have gotten along and found something in common. Just like you were doing, sitting there while talking to everyone.

Apparently, you were a person dear to that family. Ben seemed to smile a lot more at you and Fei seemed less scary around you.

“So how did you two meet?” 'Luther asked you, as he stuffed a whole piece of toast into his mouth.

“She's Sloane's childhood friend.'' Fei said, saving you from answering by having your mouth full.

You smiled at Luther and nodded.

“Our childhood friend.” Ben corrected, and the whole family rolled their eyes.

“He's not always this grumpy.'' You told Luther as you gulped down your food, the kind, bright smile not leaving your aura.

“Only 99% of the time’’ Sloane joked and you both laughed.

The end of that interaction was given when Ben stood up and asked for everyone but Sloane to be in the living room. Leaving the two lovers alone, Ben asked you to accompany Luther back to his family when he left. Just to make sure he wasn't up to something or lying.

You would accompany the guy, but only to make sure that Fei's crows didn't do anything bad or that Alphonso didn't pick on him, but you wouldn't come back with information about the Hargreeves.

The dynamics of Sparrow's with you has always been very present in everyday life, for many years. And as much as Ben was extremely manipulative and the other siblings had their equally thorny flaws, over time you came to learn how to deal with each one, what each one was capable of doing.

"Whatever." Ben rolled his eyes, and was already turning to leave when he turned a few inches back in your direction ''But be careful." and he left.

When night had fallen and Luther was allowed to leave, you said you would accompany him to his destination. You didn't make up lies or half-truths, you said what Ben had asked you to do and your reasons for doing so. You weren't interested in the war between the two families, only your friend's happiness. And if being with Luther made her happy, you wouldn't be the one to get in the way.

The journey was smooth. Hargreeves asked almost everything he could about Sloane. And you helped by telling him the things she liked, what she didn't, her favorite foods and ways to win her heart. You always thought love suited Sloane, and you would do what you could to help a man who seemed genuinely interested in making her the happiest woman alive. She deserved it.

Luther entered the huge hotel first, carrying the gift bag Ben had given him. You should have stopped there and walked away, you had already completed what you came to do, you had already arrived at your destination. But something, an energy that raised the hairs on the back of your neck, urged you to enter that hotel with Luther, just one more step...

The air suddenly changed as you followed Luther toward a huddle of voices, and the closer you got, the more your heart raced, like a ticking time bomb. The hotel's mood turned red and rosy, as if the lights of the world were dimming, and there was something lyrical about the way the air swirled around you.

----

Five Hargreeves was tired. Tired of apocalypses, exhausted from having to save world after world, win fight after fight. It was as if he was constantly putting off the inevitable, pushing himself to the limit, using energy he didn't even have anymore.

He really needed that retirement that only lasted a few minutes. Five wanted to see the world, visit new places, but not for him…

“One day we could take a vacation.” You said one day, lying inside Five's arms, both bodies naked.

He frowned at your comment, and you didn't even have to look at him to know that was the expression he was making.

“I always wanted to see the world.” You explained. “But… I don't know, it's one of those things in life that we keep putting off, blaming work, tiredness… loneliness.”

"Where would you like to go?"

"All the places." You laughed. “To know even the stupidest things, like… how to know the biggest ball of twine in the world”

And this time he laughed too.

Five wanted to see the world, visit new places, but not for him, for you.

Maybe that's why Five was so angry with Klaus when he learned that they hadn't traveled for a vacation. Maybe that's why he nearly killed them both in a car accident to see that twine. Because…maybe if he did the things you wanted to do, he would feel closer to you once again. Maybe.

If he could just imagine your snarky comments, your boisterous presence, he could feel alive once more.

But he had stopped in front of that stupid ball of twine. Giant and perfectly round. He waited for some revelation, some sensation…but nothing came. And that was another evil joke in his life, tearing apart another piece of his soul shards. Nothing could replace you. Hargreeves returned to the hotel feeling worse than when he left, with a new end of the world knocking at the door, with more family dramas to resolve.

However, this time, something was very different.

He sought within himself that survival instinct, that will to fight, to stop another apocalypse, to see another tomorrow. Only to find nothing. Only for the answer come at him like a big void.

And he thought 'why?'. Every time they tried to save the world, something worse happened. And now that he'd had a taste of what a calm, normal life would be like, without you, Five found no motivation to keep fighting.

He was still alive, but he had left his heart two timelines ago.

“I'm back.” Luther's voice trumped Alison's talking to Viktor, and Five remembered thinking when Luther had left.

But that didn't matter. And he began to wonder which things still mattered.

His hearing picked up Luther's conversations with the other siblings, but his brain wasn't processing anything. With his back to Number One, Five had his direction towards Klaus, more specifically to the whiskey glass in his hands.

He really should get fucking drunk...

“Sorry about the Sparrows, they really go overboard sometimes.''

That's when the Earth's rotation stopped. The world stunned in slow motion as every hair on Five's body stood on end. The completely stunned silence in his mind lasted only seconds, interrupted when his soul screamed so loudly that Five was stunned. The chords of the music of fate grew more agitated by the minute, like a premonition of the climax.

Five Hargreeves knew that voice better than he knew himself.

His body abruptly swung toward Luther, startling the other brothers beside him, drawing all attention his way. Klaus frowned as Diego followed the same action.

That's when his eyes focused on you. The symphony of fate reached its climax and was like an atomic explosion.

And, after a fucking long time, his heart beat frantically, alive.

His jaw dropped open, his eyes widened in an explosion of emotions and sensations. The glass Five was holding tumbled to the floor, shattering on a splash of glass and splattering the expensive alcohol all over the floor. There was some exclamation from someone, but Five didn't hear. He wouldn't have heard anything but you.

Holy damn shit.

His pulse raced wildly through his veins, heightening all his senses and turning life back on in his body that had been operating in automatic mode for far too long. It was like finally being able to breathe. Like hot coffee after ages of braving the excruciating cold. Suddenly, the world had color again, life flowed through his body and his soul thanked on its knees to gods that did not exist for seeing you once again.

If this was a hallucination, another evil joke, Five didn't know how he was going to recover from it. Perhaps he would never recover. His body moved, his powers being completely forgotten as he advanced towards you. Step by step. Everyone looked at Five in bewilderment, but he could only see that you were as beautiful as the day he lost you.

So are this how the devotees felt when they arrived at the gates of heaven? So this are like to come back to life?

Five stopped in front of you, his hands shaking and his heart pounding in his chest, as if it desperately wanted to get out of his chest to find yours. To touch you. He didn't notice your confused look, didn't notice that his own eyes were watering. Five Hargreeves just felt you.Totally.

“Y/n?” His voice was a thread of sound. Trembled, broken, conveying so much pain and despair. There was so much emotion in a single name that Klaus felt himself holding his breath and squeezing Diego's arm.

Five's feelings, always so well hidden and buried in the graveyard of his being, now consumed the entire hotel. Filling every floor, hallway and room with an intensity no one knew he carried. This wasn't Number Five meeting an old friend. This was a man finding the reason his life made sense again.

"Do you know my name?" Your voice swamped Five with more emotions, taking their structures brick by brick.

In other circumstances, he might be sad that you don't remember him. Perhaps, the fact that the moments you two spent together only exist in Five's mind forever now, will be cut him deeply. But none of that was important. None of that mattered.

You were there. Live. Standing in front of him as wonderfully breathtaking as the first time he saw you.

Hargreeves gave a broken, shaky smile, stretching his fingers toward your cheek, completely losing his breath as him brushed against your skin once more. It was like coming home.

“I know everything about you." He whispered, his thumb running down your cheek as the tears in his eyes welled up.

You didn't move, you didn't reject him, you didn't yell at him. Not like you used to. You just looked at him with a look that made his world spin again, a look with amnesia but that let him see your soul. And was the same one he fell in love with.

Holy shit.

"Okay, I'm not understanding anything that's going on here." Luther gestured with his index finger at the two, with the others nodding. “Do you know him, Y/n?”

Your eyes didn't leave Five's, absorbing all the emotions that blue sea revealed to you. You thought you had seen the love, the devotion, the passion. You thought the way Sloane looked at Luther was a look of love.

You have never been so wrongly deceived.

That was a look of love. That which was eternal devotion.

Five Hargreeves didn't look at you like you were a pretty girl, not like his were in love. He looked at you like you were the only thing that kept him alive. And that tore you apart. Because whoever that handsome man was thinking he found, it wasn't you. You didn't remember him, and you sure as hell wouldn't forget a face like his.

"I think you got confused." You said it in a whisper, as if speaking softly would change the truth, would make him keep touching you in that…careful way.

Your head instinctively leaned into his hand, as if already knew the way.

Five smiled again, his whole body burning in the heat of a thousand suns. "I would never get confused." The certainty in his voice took your breath away. "Not with you."

You could hear the rumble of his heart, and you could see that yours was beating the same tune, the same waltz. None of this situation made any sense, and you knew you had a million questions to ask later. Later. Not now, not when he was looking at you and touching you like this.

Reality could wait.

----

Five Hargreeves wouldn't let you leave his side after that day. It doesn't matter if you had things to do, places to go. That apocalypse was tearing people apart and he couldn't even think straight about the possibility that you were one of them.

It was unacceptable.

You had the answers to your questions, and Five gave you all of his time, explaining any questions, giving you his full attention. Treating you like you're the reason that he still standing.

The end of the world was knocking at the door and, looking at you once more, Five was sure that he wouldn't spend the precious time he still had chasing solutions or doing elaborate equations. He wouldn't waste his last days focusing on saving the world, on escaping to another reality. Not again.

He learned his lesson the first time. He understood that the priority should never have been going back to 2019, or keeping you away. His priority should always have been to stay by your side until the end of time. And that's what he was going to do.

"So I'm a version of your true love?" You said, sitting on the edge of a bed in one of the hotel rooms.

“You’re more than that.” he assured you with a firmness that took your breath away, looking at you with all the honesty in the world.

The smile you gave made Five smile too.

“Shouldn't you be trying to stop the apocalypse? Your sister seems to really want to change reality.”

Hargreeves shook his head. “I won't leave you. Never. Not again.”

Your heart was pounding, your hands were shaking, and there was something about Five that made you feel like he was something you'd found after many years of searching, even if you hadn't realized it. You didn't feel the urge to say you weren't the same person he fell in love with, to argue about it. Not. The end of time was coming and you just…wanted to spend the rest of them in his arms.

Someone's arms that your heart cried out never to leave.

And just like in past reality - even if you didn't know it - you would follow Five Hargreeves to hell if he asked you to.

And, this time, he asked.

"You can kiss me?" Your voice came out as a whisper, and you thought you saw him catch his breath.

Five didn't wait for a new invitation. He didn't wait for any more signs. His warm hands cupped your cheeks, his body leaned into yours and his mouth finally, finally, captured yours.

It was like living a miracle.

Hargreeves kissed you like you were the only thing that mattered in the world. He kissed you like sky was going to collapse tomorrow and hell was finally coming for him. His tongue curled around yours in a sensual, needy waltz as their hearts beat in time and their souls touched once more.

“I’ve waited for this moment for a long time.” His voice sighed against your swollen lips, still sensitive from the kisses.

Your hands came up to Five's shoulders and tangled in the dark hair at the back of his neck, sinking your mouth once more to his, as if it was impossible to stay away now that you tasted him. The environment took on a more reddish air, smelling of passion and need, the air had a tone of paradise and all of this was felt by both of you. The mouths now danced with more precision, the hands roamed the bodies and the troubled feelings clouded the reality outside that room.

But if Luther and Sloane were getting married, why couldn't you and Five get lost in the same seething madness?

It was the end of the world. And you would spend together.

His body pressed against you, and the heat of his ample chest on youe sensitive breasts made a heavy sigh escape your lips.

"You don't know how much I missed your sounds." His voice was muffled by the kisses that trailed down your neck, marking your sensitive skin with red prints and burning desires.

You didn't notice when you pushed his suit off his long arms, or when you helped him with his tie. When you found yourself, that maddening body was on top of you, glued to you, running his hands down your thighs as he drowned his mouth on your lips. The body-to-body contact was too much, too much for the arousal that was rising to alarming levels, too much for the sensuality the climate adopted. His fingers gripped you with possession, and you knew you'd find a print of his fingerprints as he gripped your thighs more tightly.

The hem of your blue dress had already bunched up around your waist, and you shifted your hips toward his pelvis, earning a loud groan in return and a hard bite to your bottom lip. His shirt was the third piece of clothing to get out of the way, and the sight of Five unbuttoning the white fabric was a show that made your pussy ache with desire.

You needed him. Just like he needed you.

“Can you help me with this zipper?”

Five flashed a sly smile that accentuated his dangerous features, giving you one last hard kiss as he knelt between your legs. His long hands flipped you onto your stomach in just one motion, pulling your hips up and pressing the cock covered in your soaked panties, drawing a loud groan from you as he pulled the zipper down your back. The piece of black fabric and the bra dropped to the floor along with the other pieces, and Five turned you onto your back once more as he returned with the deep kisses.

There was an endless list of positions he wanted to fuck you in, but right here, in this moment, Hargreeves just wanted full skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest, mouth-to-mouth contact as he entered you. Five needed to make sure, once again, that you weren't just a figment of his imagination. And physically feeling you, completely, was the only thing that partially soothed him.

He lowered his pants and underwear just enough for his cock to pop out. Thick, bloated and needy. Your panties were pushed to the side, and Five couldn't wait another single second to fully enter you.

“Fucking hell” It was his groan against your mouth, as your drenched walls sobbed around him.

"You are too big." You whimpered in a whiny voice, your hips working to swallow him and trying to pull away at the same time.

“But you take so well.” His voice was broken, and Five bit your shoulder as he reached your end, slamming into the mouth of your cervix and drawing a loud groan from you.

Your head fell back, your nails dug into his back and your legs spread even wider in a pathetic attempt to swallow him without squeezing too hard.

“Tell me what you like.” It was a mixture of request and order, a sentence lost in half sentences.

"I like. I like it, I like it.” You repeated frantically, afraid he would stop.

“Thank God” was the only whisper you heard before he pulled most of his cock out and slammed into you harder. Again. And again. "Your pussy won't let go of me." he moaned against your skin. “God, you're still fucking perfect.”

You wish you had said something too, something that showed you were loving it as much as he did, something that expressed that he was perfect too, something that said you wanted him to be yours forever. But you couldn't, because Five picked up the pace and he beat relentlessly at that point that made you scream out loud. His long arms encircled your waist while your around his neck. There wasn't a single piece of skin that wasn't touching, and the only distance between the two of you was his cock moving in and out of your weeping pussy.

His name took the form of loud screams and moans, with the sound of bodies colliding and spreading across the hotel.

“You’d better be quiet or everyone’s going to know what a naughty little slut you are.”

If you weren't already on edge, that dirty phrase would have done the job. You came in a burst of color, and your sensitivity was assailed by the hot, thick jets of cum that Hargreeves filled your pussy shortly thereafter. His cum continued for a few more seconds, and you felt your womb starting to fill with all the white load.

“Holy shit.” Five bit your neck, tightening his arms around you and pushing his cock even deeper, trying to force his way through whatever barrier was holding him back.

His new moan came breathy and hoarse, and you whimpered that he was still trying to push himself as deep inside you as possible, as if he wanted to mark any part of you as his. He seemed to want to make sure his cum had entered your womb, because his movements continued to try to push the white load even deeper. You brought him into a broken kiss, panting and slow, following his movements with your hips and holding back from giving him everything he wanted.

The breaths of two of you were starting to calm down, but your firm grip on Five's body made it clear that you didn't want him to leave you. And he wouldn't, even if the world ended now.

‘'How did I think I could live without you?'’ His confession made you laugh, your hands caressing the back of his neck as you sought his lips for another kiss.

“You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?” you said.

His eyes met yours, and the topic was no longer about sex or desire or need.

It was about staying. Together.

“Not.” This time, Five wouldn't abandon you. He would do it differently this time.

And he was thinking about that when he running his hand over your sweaty face, looked at you deeply as he said. “I promised to love you forever.” he never told you he loved you in the past, and this time he wouldn't make the same mistakes.

Five Hargreeves would stand by you until the end of time. Because forever is his whenever he is whit you.

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zsakuva · 2 months

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How do you come up with so many intricate plots and characters? They seem so… human? I’m very surprised you don’t read much! I guess what I’m asking is, what’s your creative process? Do you take inspiration from aspects of yourself, or is it more of a form of escapism? When you write your plots, do you imagine yourself as the character, the audience, or both?

Another thing that truly amazes me and makes your channel stand out a lot is the way you give the listener a voice. It feels like each listener is so different and unique, and *actually* interacts with the character. It also feels like you’re never spoon feeding us information? All the questions do get answered, but it’s different style imo. Usually, in most ASMR RPs I’ve heard, the speaker will repeat what you said verbatim, (eg. “You think XXX?”, or “You want me to XXX?”), and the frequency at which these types of phrases are used makes it *seem* like a RP. Of course, it’s a challenging medium - the audience needs to know whats going on somehow, but you manage to achieve the same in a much more subtle way. It makes me wonder how long you spend planning out your content haha.

Final question, do you prefer to type or handwrite your plans, scripts, etc? I’ve always preferred planning on paper, even though it’s a bit impractical haha. Also, would you mind showing us your handwriting? I think it says a lot about a person! There’s the stereotype that people usually have a certain handwriting that corresponds to their major/occupation, and if I remember correctly, I think you studied film? I’m just curious hehe. No pressure, of course!

Sorry for sending you an essay, I hope you have a restful and comfy Friday!

Thank you!

Honestly, I don't know how I do it myself considering my memory is absolute shit! Though I don't read much, I learn about characters through other mediums such as television shows and movies. I'll try and break this down for ease of reading!

~My Creative Process~

When making a character or series, it all depends on where my initial inspiration began. For example, with Niall, I wanted to create an M4M series exploring a character who carries trauma of being forcibly outed, betrayed by someone he confided in, and how those events affected him through his adult life. The core of Niall's story was confronting fears that manifested due to the Listener's actions in school, and finding that there was a way to heal, albeit slowly, and a hope to love despite external animosity. Niall exists because I wanted to tell a particular story.

With Zaros, he first came about because of The Noble Trials plot. I knew that he would be different from other characters, so I'm using this series as a means of testing my skill with a new editing style, story format, and new world setting. Although it's more work, I have the most fun with The Noble Trials and making its lore (though I'm always a sucker for that)!

I go into creating characters with the belief that they are all extremely flawed. Whether that be by nature or nurture, there will inevitably be some slew of events in their pasts that shaped the way they act in the current timeline. This also extends to the Listeners so they aren't rigid, boring, and an empty shell. Characters can clash, but they can also change with and for each other. A good example is Isaac's story. He was scarred by his past, and was willing to confine Pickle in the house if it meant not losing someone he cared for again. Pickle was also scarred with abandonment and instability, wondering if they would ever find a home. Isaac gave them a place to belong, and Pickle gave him consolation and courage to face the unknown.

When I write, the character's actions must reflect the backstory in which they were crafted, so I always need to dive into their heads.

~Listener Dialogue~

This requires much more thought to make interactions seem authentic, but there's a fine line between repeating words verbatim and not alluding to any sort of context. I dislike repeating the Listener's words so I try to indirectly insinuate what they were saying whenever possible. If I can do so with SFX alone, that's a bonus! But when scenes contain heavy dialogue, it can be difficult to get the message across without being heavy-handed with repetition, unless that's the purpose of a specific moment.

~Handwriting vs Typing~

I always handwrite my outlines! On some occasions, I can start and finish a script without the help of one, but my workflow tends to include writing an outline of some kind, and it has to be done on paper! I feel like the ideas manifest quicker that way.

However, I always type my scripts. It's much easier to edit, share with other voice actors, and there's a level of professionalism in formatting that motivates me to write more!

Here is an example of my writing. This screenshot was part of a Twitch stream!

#zsakuva #sakuverse #audio roleplay #boyfriend audios

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tatertotcosmonaut · 5 days

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A really common take is that JJK is a story about the good guys never winning, about good people (or people trying to be good) failing no matter what— and Imma be real, I kinda disagree with this take!

Obviously you can interpret this story however you want and I see how people would come to that conclusion. But I don’t think Gege is passively nihilistic, or making a story like that. I think that Gege is just someone who is pretty critical of modern society and has just personified those critiques in the form of curses and a grimey setting.

Heavy stories or dark stories like JJK kinda fall prone to this “ah it’s just a nihilistic all hope is lost” story viewpoint, and while that can be true sometimes these stories usually are about holding onto hope, brutal but steady change, inner or societal reflection, fostering new generations, or persevering through it. Horrible things happen in these manga, at times it really does seem like a pointless endeavor— but there are always characters that move forward and hold onto hope. Always a flourishing forest after the large fire.

And I think JJK is definitely one of these stories, a story where after that storm there will be new life afterwards. Not everyone will be alive, but it will be bittersweet.

Gege is an author that has never really been afraid to critique Japanese society. Maki and Mai and the result of the Ze’nin are critiques of sexism and heavy traditionalism. Toji, Maki, and Mechmaru could definitely be seen as a critique on ableism and how disabled people are treated in society. Nanami is a critique on the brutal work system in Japan. Higuruma is a critique on the justice system in Japan. Hell, a lot of our main characters are the social outcasts of society (due to physical traits or just philosophical outlooks). And the recent critiques of racism, especially anti-blackness, in Japanese society with Miguel.

The higher ups of the Jujutsu Society are definitely a way of dissecting the disconnect older politicians or generations often have with younger generations, passing laws that will not better future generations and being stuck in conservative ways (hell Gojo blatantly calls them idiot conservatives).

Suguru Geto is an example of how lost youth without any support systems can get lost in the cracks. He gets so consumed by his depression, the tragedy he witnessed around him, and his anger that no one is doing anything about the fact that youth are dying that he turns to cults and extremist ideology.

While these events seem fantastical due to the existence of curses and people causing city wide destruction via cool martial arts combat, these situations of societal collapse and failing do indeed happen, and are happening and becoming worse at an alarming rate.

Even the nature of curses themselves can be seen as a personification of the anxiety and fears literally consuming and killing humanity, most notably the younger generation. Snuffing out hopes, or any motivation that the world will become better. Curses are literal manifestations of people’s fears and negative emotions, whose strength depends on the amount of fear humanity has of the concept. This literal and emotional consumption of the youth is even seen in the entities from the Heian Era.

Tengen, Kenjaku, and Sukuna all continue to live depending on the body of someone else, erasing who this person was and would have been. Tengen needs plasma star vessels so she does not evolve beyond the form she has now, Kenjaku puts their brain in the body of another, Sukuna needs a vessel to consume his fingers and when they do he immediately subjugates their soul.

All of this to say, I don’t think that JJK is a story about good people failing. It’s about society failing good people, it’s about broken customs and rules sucking the youth out of younger generations, it’s about cycles that need to be broken that CAN be broken. It’s about society that continues to slap bandaids on a knife wound and doesn’t address the fact that it’s still slowly bleeding out—

Yuki was on the right track, finding a way to nip the problem at the root. But look at how she was treated by others, about the rumors that spread of her. She was seen as useless, a dead weight, chasing after naive endeavors. But why is it naive? Shouldn’t resources also be spent on finding a way to stop the problem at the root? Or is the power, the control, the prestige (in the eyes of the higher ups and big three clans) of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer too much to lose if they were able to find a way to stop curses at the root?

This is not a hopeless world. Gojo tried to not make it such a hopeless world, Nanami bet on the future and admitted that was odd for him, love still exists even if it can hurt. People are able to overcome their demons, Maki did, Takaba did. While Maki’s development wasn’t one without hardship, without loss, she quite literally struck down most of the Zenin in her anger and a grief, a final wish from Mai to "destroy everything sister". Everything that abused them, everyone so stuck in their ways, everything that made the Zenin a bloated snake of corruption eating its own tail. And when Naoya came back she struck him down once again, with some struggle, but she overcame a past demon with help from two random ass guys that just happened to be there and happened to be nice enough to want to help.

Maki didn't lose her drive or her will, she didn't "become another Toji" that lost faith in the world and started drifting around with no meaning or consumed with apathy. She still loves her friends, she still cares for them, she still fights for them and goes through hardship for them.

There is still community in this world. There is still love, even if it hurts and it's love that makes us flawed. There's still a chance and a choice to hope and bet on the future. A better future in this world is worth fighting for, SHOULD be fought for. It is just unfortunate now that the youth themselves have to do it alone now.

There’s an interesting meta aspect to this, to the way readers have let the hopelessness convince them that there can be no happy ending. No one will come back to life, the ending will be bittersweet, there will be more death- but that does not mean it is the end. Maybe we, like Yuuji, have become jaded. Maybe we have also let this pain convince us that all the characters are destined to be is cogs in a machine. If that was the case, even if Sukuna were to die— if the characters were to fulfill their role as cogs and kill the evil of all evil— it would all be for naught. The cycle would still continue churning and churning.

Systems can be changed, one just has to have the stubbornness to change it. Yuuji just has to realize that once again.

————

Articles to read down below about the issues I mentioned in my yapfest:

Youth Issues in Japan:

- https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/120/827/240/118342/Japan-s-Younger-Generations-Look-for-a-New-Way-of

- https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00800/

- https://www.npr.org/2021/10/29/1050620562/low-turnout-among-young-voters-in-japan-may-mean-the-ruling-party-stays-in-power

Work Culture in Japan:

- https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/karoshi-deep-look-japans-unforgiving-working-culture

Radicalization into Extremist Ideals:

- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sdr.1749#:~:text=The%20root%20of%20violent%20radicalization,72). (Root Causes of Radicalization: the Terror Contagion Hypothesis)

- https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/why-south-korea-s-young-men-are-turning-conservative.amp

- https://nuts2406.medium.com/why-we-should-worry-about-the-growing-radicalization-of-young-men-8cd6babb8bb8

Cults:

-https://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1905&context=honors_theses#:~:text=In%20contrast%2C%20cult%20leaders%20develop,disorder%20(Goldberg%2C%20n.d). (The Making of Cults: The Factors that Contribute to Membership and the Leaders’ Influence).

- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8234595/#:~:text=These%20variables%20include%20(a)%20generalized,abuse%20or%20neglect%2C%20(f)

Japanese Court System:

- https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/05/25/japans-hostage-justice-system/denial-bail-coerced-confessions-and-lack-access

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #itadori yuuji #itadori yuji #geto suguru #gojo satoru #ryomen sukuna #jjk spoilers #faust.speaks #yuuji itadori #yuji itadori

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pjoneedstherapy · 1 year

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I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter complaining about NeverAfter to the point of hating on the players which is bizarre in its own right, but someone asked why the characters were motivated to fight the princesses and saying it felt low stakes because they couldn’t die… my guy are we watching the same show??

THEY LOSE EVERYTHING OF THEY CANT PULL THIS OFF!

you can only enter your Twice Upon A Time if you have been made aware of the greater world. The Fairies want to take away free will and force everything to go back to the way it was. No one would be able to go against them ever again because they won’t know better. The princesses want to fully destroy the book using the ink and everything else with it. They said that they can’t have a part in the new land that would come after because their trauma would make them write their stories in reaction to their past lives rather than in indifference to their past lives. The stepmother wants something similar, so in both cases everyones lives would be erased, without guarantee that they would even exist in the new world.

Why are the intrepid heroes fighting to save the universe? Because they live in it and are the only people aware enough to try and stop it! They don’t know what comes next, but they aren’t fighting to make a new world, they’re fighting to not nuke the current one.

As for how they make the world better…

As he died in “No Place for Princes and Princesses” Mother Goose said that he believes the world they live in can be better which is why he left home to begin with. His motivation hasn’t changed from the start, and he has legit never done anything with the book that would imply that he wanted control or power. (He always asks everyone what they want when the person they’re going to put in the book isn’t able to speak for themselves, i.e. Candlewick, and he actively keeps other people from going into the book if he thinks there’s a different way, i.e. the Itsy Bitsy Spider) He’s not gonna force people to live the life he wants by writing it in the book, he’s gonna give them control over their own lives using him as a tool to get it. (I have a feeling that when he dies Jack will pick up his work and keep helping people but that’s just my opinion)

I see no reason for the cast or Brennan to get hate. Is this a huge season that might have benefitted by having ten more episodes? Yes!Did it meet your expectations for what horror should be? Maybe not. But don’t dumb down the characters and the choices they made. Each of the characters gave up something that they needed for their Happily Ever After, but they’re selfless enough to not want to ruin the possibility of change for the rest of the world (unlike the princesses and the Stepmother)

TLDR: (JUMP SCARE CHRIS PRATT)

#dimension 20 #neverafter #neverafter dimension 20 #brennan lee mulligan #neverafter spoilers #lou wilson #dnd #d20 spoilers #emily axford #pinnochio #ally beardsley #twitter #d20 Twitter #analysis #text

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best-underrated-anime · 2 months

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Best Underrated Anime Group A Round 4: To Your Eternity vs Shadows House

#A7: To Your Eternity (Fumetsu no Anata e)

Immortal being learns what it’s like to be human

#A5: Shadows House

Two girls unravel mysteries surrounding an isolated manor

Details and poll under the cut!

#A7: To Your Eternity (Fumetsu no Anata e)

youtube

Summary:

An Orb, known only as It, is cast to Earth to be observed from afar. Capable of changing forms from beings whose reflections It captures, It first becomes a rock and then, due to the rising temperature, moss.

It does not move until one snowy day, a wolf at death’s door barely crosses by. When It takes the animal’s form, It attains awareness of its consciousness and starts to wander with an unclear destination in mind. Soon, It comes across the wolf’s master—a young boy waiting for his tribe to return from a paradise abundant with fish and fruit in the south. Although the boy is lonely, he still hopes those whom he holds dear in his memories have not forgotten him and that he will reunite with them one day.

The boy wants to explore new surroundings and decides to abandon his home with It to find the paradise using the traces his tribe left behind. However, with a heavily injured body and no sight of his elder comrades, what will become of the boy?

Propaganda:

I don’t think I’ve ever watched an anime that has meant so much. It’s/Fushi’s journey from being born as nothing and without emotions, to becoming a genuine, real person who loves and cries is so special to me. The constant war he’s in between being too human and being not human at all is written so well—for him to love so much it hurts, leading him to isolate himself for years on end, for him to want to make friends, to love, but too afraid of them leaving and eventually dying to meet anyone new. For him to get so detached from life and death and the cycle it perpetuates that he loses understanding of why human life is so special—why should he save people, if they will die anyway? Why should he save them, if he can just bring them back to life, if he can just become them? The constant cycle of him learning to love again, and learning to treasure life again, only to lose it once he’s experienced death in a new and agonizing way. It’s about love, and it’s about humanity. Always.

Trigger Warnings: Animal Cruelty/Death, Child Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Racism, Rape/Non-Con, Self-Harm, Suicide

All TW’s apply to the protagonists, except child abuse and the racism. The world itself has hints of racism/discrimination throughout the anime, and not directly towards the protagonist. As for the rape, an antagonist attempts to rape the protagonist. There is a ton of self harm (protagonist and side characters) and blood as there is a lot of wars also happening in the anime

#A5: Shadows House

youtube

Summary:

The Shadows, characterized by their pitch-black appearance and tendency to emit soot when agitated, are a family of nobles who reside in a colossal manor deep within the mountains far from other humans. When a Shadow child is nearly of-age, they are assigned a Living Doll who acts not only as their attendant but also as their second half—the faces they could have had if not for their complexion.

Emilico is a cheerful, newly created Doll who serves a rather soft-spoken master named Kate. Despite their difference in personalities, Emilico does what she can to carry out the needs of her master. As she learns more about her role and duty, Emilico begins to meet her fellow Dolls and their respective masters and comes to know more about the purpose of her existence.

"Do not fret over trivial matters," says one of the rules by which all Dolls must abide. But how could the ever-curious Emilico do so in the face of the deep secrets that the Shadows House holds?

Propaganda:

The atmosphere of the manor is probably the most effective aspects of the story, creating a feeling of isolation and worry as Kate and Emilico try to survive in the mansion. The show starts off pretty subtle, but as it progresses it becomes more and more strange and off-putting. This series is an incredibly interesting, layered mystery, and the horror elements are excellently done.

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form with your revisions, and I’ll consider adapting those changes.

New: Starting round 5, screenshots will be included in the poll post. You can submit screenshots through the form linked above, or through here, via ask or dm.

Guidelines in submitting screenshots:

No NSFW or spoilery images.

Pick some good images please. Don’t send any blurry or pixelated ones.

You may send up to 9 screenshots, but not all may be used.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 4 #tournament polls #group a #to your eternity #fumetsu no anata e #shadows house

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tangerinecherrygal · 14 days

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Thoughts on Bridgerton S3 so far.

Under the cut for the sake of my poor moots and for spoilers. And first and foremost, I am a hater, so I will have some complaints but most are positive.

Positives:

Developing Cressida’s character. I’ve wanted this since I started watching with season 2. I love that she isn’t a cardboard cutout mean girl bc she gets shat on (deservedly sometimes) a lot by the main characters. Also I’m not sure which way they want to go with her character but I don’t think she needs any kind of redemption, maybe just a softening of her character.

Disabled visibility. It’s very clunky, but it is a step in the right direction.Period pieces tend to be worse than other types of shows and movies at erasing disabled people. It’s easy to forget that disabled people did exist and were apart of society. I can’t speak much to how they were treated, but this is bridgerton so it is very possible to portray them in ways that are realistic to the more modern experience of, say, being in a wheelchair.

Portia Featherington. Send tweet.

Benedict being a fun little guy.

Sibling dynamics of the bridgertons are really sweet to see and always make me smile.

Penelope serving cunt, intellect and agency.

Thr Mondrich family being on screen more. I’d love a side show on them like Queen Charlotte. Their relationship is so sweet and I am observing 👀 with upmost respect.

I do like Colin’s new look buuut… we will come back to this.

Francesca’s new actress is so talented. The shy girl rep that I need. She looks a lot like Phoebe and fits in perfectly.

The other stuff (and how i would change it)

Penelope’s makeover seemed rushed. I think her transformation should’ve been gradual as she gains confidence. Almost like Kate’s last season. She starts to reflect her confidence e gains throughout the season and i’m thinking that a fanfic may be brewing oh no.

Colin’s makeover is needed bc they had to downplay the actors beauty in earlier seasons. But I don’t see him as a devilishly handsome rake all of a sudden. Luke Newton has a kind and approachable (kind of baby) face and I think that they should play on that. A pretty kind of handsome instead of trying to immitate the more masculine look that they used for anthony. I know it’s because he is putting on a performance but I think they could have gona another way. His look in season 2 is great in my opinion, maybe if his clothing was more relaxed but he kept the same hair then it would be perfect.

They’re trying to convince us that he’s suave and smooth with the ladies but it’s not consistent with his character

The threesome scenes? Not a hundred percent sure who that was for. Sapphics let me know if you appreciated those scenes because I know they weren’t doing that for their famously large straight male audience. I also saw someone say it reduces the sex workers to props but in context that kind of works into the story so idk.

Colin went from being lost at the end of last season to gaining a sense of identity that isn’t implied to be an act.

Lots of side stories make it seem messy and wastes time that can go into understanding Francesca, Penelope, and Colin. Instead of focusing on stories like Lady Bridgerton’s romantic story they really should make a QS 2 where they can explore the older cast of characters.

Paaaaacinnng. Everything is happening so fast and the side stories mean that Polin doesn’t even make much sense to me. I don’t feel any chemistry. I’m not going to count how long they’ve been on screen together this season, but it’s not enough for me to believe that Colin finally sees Pen in a romantic way. The helping Pen find a husband quest lasted for a second and immediately he realises his feelings. I just don’t buy it. I almost want to cut away to horny ass Kanthony to see actual chemistry.

if anybody reads this and has their own takes pls comment. I love talking about the show and hearing what other people thought.

#if you see a spelling or grammatical error no you didnt #I’m happy with it so far #a bit disappointed #but we still have four episodes to go #so i’m optimistic #bridgerton #polin #will mondrich #penelope featherington #bridgerton season 3 #bridgerton spoilers #alice mondrich #lady bridgerton #francesca bridgerton #bridgerton s3

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mxmorel · 5 months

Text

on messy redemption arcs (specifically todd brotzman's) and why i think they're a good thing

sharing the following thing i wrote in the dghda server re: todd's character growth in s2 upon the request of another server member!

for context, this is regarding a conversation that sprung up in the dghda server about some people viewing Todd as manipulative/uncaring towards Dirk, vs other people who saw his arc in s2 through a different lens. to be clear, despite various disagreements, the conversation was positive and everyone was respectful which was really nice, considering how bad discourse can get sometimes. but anyway i came in late to the conversation and this was my contribution - clearly, i fall in camp 2:

[About Todd's ups and downs in S2:] growth isn't linear and people can take steps forward and then fall back, but what matters ultimately to me is that they keep trying to take those steps forward even when they make mistakes and I think Todd does do that.

He's spent so much of his life in a prison of his own making, lying to everyone and digging a hole so deep he didn't think he could ever get out of it. And I think he did always care about Amanda at the very least but he did this HUGE fuckup and covering that up led to this avalanche of horrible decisions and now he has to own up to his shit and learn how to care about people again without hiding from his actions.

He definitely gets tunnel vision about Amanda, and I think that makes sense. He’s so desperate to “fix” things and a big part of his story in season 2 is learning that, like Amanda said, some things you can’t just FIX. Sometimes you just have to pick up the pieces you have left and do your best to make something good with them.

Additionally [in regards to previous comments made about Todd ignoring/not caring about the trauma Dirk suffered in his second bout in Blackwing], he doesn’t know the extent of what happened in Blacking, not yet. And he’s taken several steps back by centering all his focus on finding Dirk - Dirk who has always seemed so optimistic and enthusiastic - to “fix” things (because he hasn’t learned his lesson about fixing things yet). And he doesn’t know how to reconcile the Dirk he knew before with the things that this new stint in Blackwing has changed about Dirk.

I don’t think Todd is malicious or not caring about Dirk - I think he has done so much self isolation over the years that he is unused to knowing how to identify what’s going on with other people/doesn’t know how to handle things. He does try to uplift Dirk, even if he doesn’t always do it in the right way, but that doesn’t make him cruel or manipulative. It makes him a human person who is also struggling to learn how to exist in community with others.

I think there’s also something to be said for the black and white ways we can view fictional characters who react to situations in ways that create defensiveness in us based on our own experiences/our own traumas. I think processing that through fiction is such a powerful tool but it can also put blinders on us and view some characters as wholly good “perfect cinnamon rolls” and other characters as “horrible manipulators”, when really, both types of characters have strengths and flaws, and neither exists purely on one end of the spectrum or the other.

tl;dr redemption arcs can and should be messy sometimes because people are messy. none of these characters are inherently good or inherently bad and i think that's what makes them all such compelling characters.

#dghda meta #??#is this meta? i don't know i've never written meta before #i'm not one of the smart meta writing fandom members lmao i'm just a guy with a lot of feelings #i'm hobbs if he wasn't a cop #dghda #todd brotzman #dirk gently #this is missing some context of specific posts from other server members that i was referring to / addressing but i made some edits for tha #op - who me?#media: dghda #char: todd

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kwyw · 6 months

Note

Hey “Karlie Kloss is married” Anon:

You are aware that in 2023, the LGBTQIA community is still fighting for basic human rights, no?

You are aware that in 2023, people are banning FICTIONAL books because of the mere mention of LGBTQIA characters, right? What about the banning of drag shows? “Don’t Say Gay” in Florida?

Read the room, a book or maybe watch/read the news. The LGBTQIA community exists and will continue to exist regardless of the treatment they receive from those who claim to “not judge people for who they love because love is love” when it’s convenient for them and who misquote & misinterpret Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words on the one day out of the year they try to show they don’t discriminate against people in any way, shape or form.

However, it’s people with mindsets like yours who will always force the LGBTQIA+ community to continue the fight for equality, even in 2023!

Lavender marriages exist. People aren’t making this up or pulling it from the depths of their asses. If it were so easy to “just come out”, people would more frequently because that would mean people truly don’t care.

People lose jobs for being gay. They’re turned away from restaurants. Refused wedding cakes. Overlooked for promotions when they’re more than qualified or deserving. Denied the opportunity to buy a house or adopt a child. Called mentally ill or pedophiles. Physically attacked. Harassed. Murdered. All because of who they lay beside at night.

Just because Taylor is a billionaire doesn’t mean people wouldn’t treat her differently if she ever (allegedly) came out and the same for Karlie (allegedly). She would lose fans. Her albums may not sell as much. Venues may not want her to perform there to avoid protesters. People may stop buying a company’s products if she endorses them. Look at Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney.

Because for some reason, some people in society think money loses it’s value if someone’s sexual orientation isn’t the same as theirs, but guess what:

Money is still green and it’s still paper, whether it comes from a gay person hands or not. That same green paper is what people want others to spend to support *them* and *their* business. You want it as a reward for your hard work at your job. You accept it as a gift. If you found $50 outside of a gay bar, you’re gonna pick it up because it’s $50 on the ground, right?

People will accept cash, card, credit, Apple Pay, etc., but won’t accept other people based on their race, sexuality, etc.

Crazy world we live in.

It’s not even easy for people to become billionaires, much less come out of the closet because in either scenario, they could lose everything.

Why do you think Scott Swift and that other guy were so against her speaking about politics? Ask yourself why you’re so triggered at the possibility that Taylor and Karlie could be or are (allegedly) gay?

Why do you think Josh (allegedly) takes Karlie on the majority of his business trips? His own family refused to acknowledge her for years. Josh himself referred to his friend Mikey (also married with two kids) as their roommate. Have you seen his past birthday tributes to Mikey compared to Karlie’s?

At the end of the day, people in some industries have to present themselves a certain way to be successful. It’s like code switching. You have to change or suppress things about yourself to appease other people.

Also, Karlie *has* actively dropped Easter eggs (hello, cardigan/folklore!). You probably just don’t like the messenger. For example:

Her using Labyrinth’s music in her IG stories just for Labyrinth to be a song on midnights?

Her own sister, Kimby, saying “la la la la” on twitter, just for Karlie to pop up at the LA show.

Taylor said in MA that she and her partner decided together they wanted their relationship to be private.

Wouldn’t you say that fits Taylor/Karlie? Because when you don’t see two people associating as much publicly as they used to, you automatically assume something happened or that they aren’t friends…right? Because that’s what everyone assumed until Karlie showed up at the rep tour and the eras tour.

#all of this #freaking exactly

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