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#Also really loved the tone!!! The story really relied a bit on the use of negative space in both sound and pacing and i enjoyed that alot
autumn-may · 4 months
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Mostly spoiler free summary of my viewing experience
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weirdkpopgirl · 1 month
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Stealing Kisses | Dream Reaction #14
Reaction: When their gf steals a kiss from them
Genre: Fluff, slight angst in some
Warnings: insecure thoughts, kinda suggestive, light making out in Jaemin's, kissing (obviously lol)
Word Count: ~3.1k
Author's Note: This idea came to me last week I think, and I thought it'd be fun to write. I think you guys like this type of stuff too lol. It was also nice to write something sweet and fluffy, a break from my recent stuff. Hope you all like it and thank you for reading ^ ^
P.S. I'm currently have a few fics I'm working on. But I'm going to try writing some shorter stories for the members and group things to fill up my second masterlist.
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mark
The two of you were lying side by side on his bed, your gazes fixed on the ceiling. Mark was sharing his late-night thoughts, and you were listening attentively. Nights like these were a regular occurrence, mostly because Mark often had something weighing on his mind. Though it was usually just him recounting his busy day, tonight things seemed to carry a more serious tone.
“Sometimes, I’m just really not satisfied with myself,” he admitted, running a hand through his hair. “Like so many people are relying on me— with the company, 127 and Dream. Then there are the fans too, I don’t want to fail them. But no matter how much time and energy I put in, it’s not enough.”
You carefully processed your boyfriend’s concerns, trying to put yourself in his shoes. It was so easy to say he was just overthinking and shouldn’t worry so much. Yet you couldn’t bring yourself to do so, given that you faced similar struggles. Those dismissive words weren’t what either of you needed to hear. Mark was undoubtedly the most hardworking person you knew, but you understood all too well the feeling of never quite doing enough.
Before speaking this time, you opted for a different approach of consolation. You shifted around to gently place your hand on his cheek, guiding his gaze towards you. With closed eyes, you leaned in to kiss him softly. Your lips moved slowly against his, hoping he could feel the comfort of your touch. Soon enough, Mark’s hand rested comfortably on your back, reciprocating the affection.
You stifled a light giggle as you pulled away, catching his slightly confused expression. Offering a small smile you used your thumb to caress his cheek reassuringly.
“You’re doing great, Mark,” you whispered sincerely. “You might not think so at times, but I’m always so proud of you.”
And it was those words that caused water to gloss over Mark’s eyes. Then he was pulling you into a much-needed embrace, holding you tightly in his arms. You could feel the warmth of his smile as he mumbled, “Babe, I love you so much.”
Though you didn’t necessarily need to return the words for him to understand, you still said you loved him too. He deserved it, after all. He deserved every bit of love, understanding, and support. And you were more than willing to give it to him, wholeheartedly.
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renjun 
You emerged from the kitchen, holding a plate of freshly cut mango in your hand. Renjun was sitting at the table, fully absorbed in the watercolor painting in front of him. Seeing him use the paint set you got for his birthday brought a smile to your face. He was so engrossed in the activity that he almost didn’t hear you sit in the empty chair beside him.
Renjun momentarily glanced up from his artwork to greet you. “Hey.”
“Hey,” you replied quietly, carefully placing the plate of fruit on the table. The two of you shared a smile before his attention was on painting again.
For a moment, you paused to admire the way his focused expression softened his features, making him even more endearing in your eyes. You always found joy in watching your boyfriend immerse himself in the things he loved. Renjun consistently poured his heart and soul into everything he did, and that dedication was one of the many reasons your relationship flourished so beautifully. 
After a few minutes passed by of you silently observing the boy, you leaned into place a quick kiss on his cheek. His eyes widened in surprise, and a faint blush followed. 
“What was that for?” he asked, voice laced with curiosity.
You simply shrugged in response before confessing, “Just thought you looked cute.”
Renjun’s soft chuckle was like honey for your ears, and you couldn’t suppress a smile. “Oh is that so?” he teased, amusement twinkling in his eyes even as his gaze softened when he looked at you.
Now it was your turn to feel shy, heat naturally rushing to your face. Without a word, you reached for a slice of mango and lifted it to Renjun’s lips, quietly offering the yellow piece of fruit to him. Lucky for you, his eyes sparkled with fondness as he accepted the treat. 
However, he didn’t waste the chance to quickly steal a kiss from your lips, before taking a bite. Your eyes mirrored the surprise he had experienced earlier, and Renjun laughed now the tables had been turned. He savored the sweetness of the mango, just as he savored the sweet moment shared between the two of you.
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jeno 
You weren’t exactly expecting to return home to Jeno sprawled across your sofa. It was late at night, and you technically should have been back in your apartment much earlier. However, you got caught up in helping your friend rehearse for an audition and lost track of time. If you had known your boyfriend would be coming, you definitely would’ve gone home sooner.
 After quietly removing your shoes and shedding off your jacket, you carefully crossed the room to check the man resting on the couch. He looked so peaceful with his eyes blissfully shut and the pillow he held close to his chest. Yet, you couldn’t help but frown, thinking about how he must’ve been exhausted from work. While he never complained, you usually saw through his facade.
With a barely audible sigh, you fetched a cozy blanket to drape over him and tucked it snugly around his sleeping form. Leaning down, your lips pressed to his forehead and let your lips linger for a moment before pulling away. You straightened up, ready to start your nightly routine before heading to bed yourself. However, you froze when a warm hand tugged at your wrist. 
“Don’t go,” he murmured, almost sounding like a child begging his mom not to leave. 
The unexpected sound of his voice made your heart skip a beat. “Sorry for waking you up,” you apologized sheepishly, turning back to see him.
He shifted over a bit to give you some space, and you sat down beside him. Without thinking, your hand subconsciously moved to stroke his hair gently. He hummed at the sensation, appreciating any sort of affection from you.
“Don’t apologize. I liked it,” he said softly, leaning further into your touch. “Do you always kiss me when I’m asleep?”
“Sometimes,” you admitted quietly, feeling a blush creeping up your cheeks.
A small pout formed on his lips in response. “You should just kiss me when I’m awake so I can give you one back.”
His words would’ve sounded playful if they hadn’t been spoken in such a sulky tone. But of course, you sort of expected this reaction from Jeno. Chuckling softly, your embarrassment gradually began to melt away.
Moving your hand to caress his face, you casually said, “Well you can give me one now if you’d like.”
With your permission, Jeno happily sat up to pull you closer for a kiss that made your head spin. Nonetheless, it was a tender moment that left you both with silly smiles as you parted. Afterward, you took his hand in yours and suggested you both move to the bedroom so he could sleep more comfortably.
Later, as you cuddled up together in bed, Jeno smiled to himself as he felt a rush of love he felt for you. Even though it was past one a.m., he still found himself falling for you all over again.
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haechan 
To say the least, Haechan was a little restless just chilling in his apartment with you. Usually, he liked being at home, especially with your company. But the original plan for today was to have a lovely date at Han River, which was forfeited due to the ongoing thunderstorm outside. He regretted not looking at the weather forecast beforehand.
So to cure his self-proclaimed “boredom,” Haechan proposed the idea of playing the pepero game. At first, you tried to decline, knowing that you’d be signing up for endless teasing and blushing on your part. That didn’t sound very fun to you.
“Oh come on, babe!” he pleaded, shaking the pepero box. “I won’t be annoying this time, promise.”
Knowing he was going to keep whining until you agreed, you reluctantly set aside the book you were using to ignore him. “Ugh, fine. But just this once!” you conceded, holding your pointer finger up as a warning.
Haechan grinned triumphantly as he tore open the bag inside the box to retrieve a Pepero stick. He moved to where you were sitting on the couch and lifted the chocolate-covered treat to your lips, gesturing to open it. With a resigned sigh, you reluctantly complied and took the stick with your teeth. Haechan took hold of the other end, his eyes already sparkling with mischief.
As the two of you started nibbling, Haechan promptly contradicted his earlier promise of not being annoying. His eyes sparkled with mischief when you hesitated after he took the next bite, leaving only a few centimeters left. No matter how often you had been in close proximity with your boyfriend, there was something uniquely captivating about the way his warm tan skin was adorned with scattered moles, and how you could get lost in his deep brown eyes. Seeing those features up close always stirred a weirdly fluttery sensation in your heart.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting shy already, (Y/n),” he teased, his words slightly muffled by the long biscuit between his teeth. You merely glared at him in response, unwilling to admit how easily you were influenced by him.
To rebel, you decided to make a bold move of your own this time. Despite your racing heart, you seized the opportunity and bit the remaining piece, but not without planting a swift kiss on his lips. Haechan froze for a moment as you pulled away. A laugh escaped when you saw that he was too stunned to speak. Well, that was one way to shut him up.
Feigning innocence, you asked, “That’s what you wanted, am I wrong?”
It didn’t take long for a grin to spread across the boy’s lips. The initial shock of your unexpected move kiss was replaced by a look of impressed amusement. In the next moment, his right arm encircled your waist, drawing you close once more. You didn’t even have time to blush before his lips began to explore every exposed inch of your skin.
“You’re so bad for me,” he murmured between kisses, his fingers tangling your hair. “But I love it.”
You giggled, surrendering to the warmth of his affection. Maybe you’d be more inclined to indulge in games with Haechan now, knowing they’d end up like this.
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jaemin
In the solace of his apartment, Jaemin observed you interact with his cats in the living room. Usually, he’d be cooing and snapping a hundred pictures of you and his children. However, he wasn’t very amused at the moment.
Na Jaemin never thought he’d be jealous of his babies until he saw Luke rubbing against your leg and hopping into your lap. Your giggly response and the way you tenderly stroked your fingers through the feline’s soft white hair, certainly didn’t make him feel any better. Although he loved his pets dearly, seeing them snuggle up to you so easily made him feel a bit envious. 
“Hmmph, it seems like you’ve become more fond of Luke than your own boyfriend,” he scoffed, not even bothering to hide it. 
You looked up, noticing how he was resting his head in the palm of his hand, his elbow propped on the couch’s armrest. His body language fully displayed his discontent, and you tried not to laugh. Rolling your eyes, you returned Luke to his siblings and tugged the collar of Jaemin’s hoodie to pull him in for a sweet kiss. 
Any negative feelings dissipated instantly as his heart fluttered at the touch of your lips against his. Warmth spread through him like wildfire. But before he could reciprocate the kiss, you pulled away with a playful glint in your eyes.
“Does that make you happy?” you teased, gently pushing him back to give yourself some space.
Adoration shined over Jaemin’s eyes as he grinned. “Hm, I think another one would make me even happier,” he said, his voice husky with desire.
Before you could even respond this time, Jaemin was already leaning in to capture your lips in a passionate kiss that sent sparks flying between you. One of his hands rested on the nape of your neck, allowing him to press his lips harder against yours, while the other was placed firmly on your waist. Though you were initially caught off guard by the sudden intensity of the kiss, you decided to enjoy this moment of intimacy.
As you melted into each other’s arms, Jaemin was reminded once again of just how amazing it felt to be loved by you. Honestly, if he could have one wish, he’d probably wish to kiss you forever.
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chenle 
The steaming pot of oxtail soup stared up at you, and you lowered the heat to let it simmer some more. It was your first time cooking the Chinese soup. But recalling how your mom used to make it when you were younger, figuring it on your own hadn’t been too difficult. Although you were mostly confident in your culinary skills, you still wanted to be sure.
“Lele, can you come here for a sec?” you called out to your boyfriend who was probably playing some mobile game in the living room. 
You could hear rustling sounds, and soon the sound of slippers padding against the wooden floor reached your ears.  “Smells good babe,” he said, shuffling over to your side. 
Something about seeing Chenle waddle into the kitchen, wearing a black sweatshirt with the hood over his messy hair, made your heart strangely beat faster. But instead of ignoring that feeling like you usually did, you decided to act on it this time.
After dipping a spoon in the red broth, you raised the utensil to his mouth. “Taste it for me.”
Chenle complied, allowing you to feed him some of the soup. You tried to suppress a laugh as a smug yet impressed expression appeared on his face. However, before he could give you his feedback, you swiftly leaned in to give him a peck. 
The male froze for a moment at your actions. You chuckled softly and hugged his waist, as your cheeks flushed with embarrassment. His eyes widened in surprise before the corner of his lips curled into a smirk. A part of him wanted to tease you for stepping out of your shy image, but he also found himself enjoying it a little too much. 
“Did you like it?” you asked, glancing up at him innocently.
Chenle’s cocky grin widened as he leaned in closer. His eyes twinkled with mischief, as he used his pointer finger to gently tilt your chin upward. “Wait, let me taste it again to just be sure,” he teased.
It didn’t take much for you to understand that he was not talking about the food. You simply smiled as his lips brushed against yours before he went all in. Shivers danced down your spine as you melted into the electrifying kiss. By the time you finally pulled apart, Chenle was smiling like an idiot.
“Hm, that was delicious,” he breathed, earning a playful smack on the shoulder from you. Even though you had started it, his comment was unnecessary in your opinion. Was he trying to kill you?
Trying to recover from your now flustered state, you returned your attention to the brewing pot on the stove. Chenle’s laugh rang through your ears, and then he was squeezing you into a backhug. It was those types of moments that reassured you that being with Chenle could never be boring.
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jisung 
Amidst the dark sky, the street lamps cast a soft, golden glow as you walked back to your apartment. Jisung strolled beside you, holding your hand securely. Occasionally, you smiled to yourself, thinking about how tonight had been another lovely date, filled with laughter, shared stories, and stolen glances that spoke volumes without a single word.
As you neared your apartment building, you felt Jisung’s fingers intertwined with yours tighten. A sense of reluctance washed over him, realizing that he wasn’t ready to say goodbye tonight yet. Your presence always brought Jisung a sense of warmth that made him the happiest when you were together. He wanted to experience that just a little while longer.
Pausing in front of your door, your eyes widened when you were pulled into a tight embrace. Jisung seemed clingier than usual this evening, but you honestly couldn’t complain. You returned the hug by wrapping your arms around his waist and letting your nose press against the oversized hoodie he was wearing. The scent of the perfume Renjun recently bought for him filled your senses. It wasn’t bad, you thought to yourself.
“I miss you already,” Jisung murmured, his chin relaxing against your head. 
The soft longing in his voice left your heart melting. These were the types of words you expected to read in texts from Jisung. So hearing them in person was even more touching. A smile tugged on your lips and you pulled away slightly to glance around, ensuring there were no cameras around. Once you confirmed there were no prying eyes that might stir trouble for either of you, you reached up on your tiptoes and pressed a quick but passionate kiss to Jisung’s lips.
He blinked in surprise, heat immediately rushing to his cheeks as the unexpected affection registered through his mind. Any kiss from you always made his heart flutter and left him wearing a shy smile. Nonetheless, witnessing the fondness in your eyes as you were blushing too was irresistible for Jisung.
Chuckling he moved his hand to gently pat your head. “Cute.”
You blushed a little at his words and squeezed in one last hug before he reluctantly released you to head inside. 
“I love you, Ji,” you said quietly, glancing back one last time to ensure he heard you. He exhaled shakily and said he loved you more.
There was an unspoken sadness shared between you, both feeling the weight of the parting. The two of you were uncertain of when or where you’d meet again. However, you found comfort in the knowledge that the love you had with Jisung was too strong to let too much time pass without seeing each other. In the meantime, you would cherish those precious memories together.
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previous masterlist -> new masterlist
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hyuuukais · 5 months
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.・゜-: ✧ :- FICTIONAL REALITY .・゜-: ✧ :-
pairing • bang chan x fem reader
synopsis • fiction or reality? y/n preferred the former, escaping into another world, escaping her problems. so what happens when reality takes that away from her; wiping her own story-in-progress off both her laptop and beloved usb? and what happens when she opens the door in the middle of a crisis to none other then the love interest of her novel... and he's holding her usb?
warnings • general, talk abt yn's past abusive relationship, idk exactly how to tag this but um like wires going into ppl
MASTERLIST | PREVIOUS | NEXT
CHAPTER TEN • INTO THE DARK (1.8k)
Minho helps you feed the stray cat. It runs up to him, rubbing against his leg affectionately, ignoring you completely. Placing the dish down, you look around at the surrounding woods. You had to go a bit deeper into them than usual to find the cat, which tends to reside near the tree line. It was getting colder, and the lack of light in the woods wasn't helping.
"Here, take this." Minho takes his sweater off and hands it to you, leaving him in just a t-shirt. Goosebumps immediately grew over his arms. "You're shivering."
Shaking your head, you pick up the now empty food dish. "No, you're cold too. We'll be back soon anyway."
He stares at you, hand outstretched, but eventually gives up. "Suit yourself."
-
Back at the house, you turn the heat up before settling in the living room. Minho had gone to shower, leaving you alone in your thoughts.
Did the universe expect you to go back to your old apartment, or was Yeonjun supposed to be coming here? There was no way for either of you to contact each other and even if there was, you didn't know if you could. You'd been forcing yourself to feel okay about potentially seeing him again and everything that's been leading up to it, but honestly, you were far from okay. The visions had scared you. The feeling of his hands on you again, the look in his eyes, his words...
"You okay?" The sound of someone else speaking breaks you out of your trance, and you turn your head toward Minho. He's leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and head tilted forward with raised eyebrows covered slightly by his still wet hair.
...he looks really good.
"Yeah, just... thinking," you fake a small smile. "Have you had any of these visions? Or dreams?"
"No," he shakes his head.
"Oh."
Thinking about Chan and Jeongin, you wonder about this. Of course, Jeongin had only gotten anything because you asked him for it, but then he also already knew about Chan. What else was he not telling you? Maybe you should try to contact him, the warning about Mrs. Yang had frightened you.
Pushing off the wall, Minho takes a seat next to you, placing a hand on your knee. "You know you can talk to me."
"Can I?" Your voice breaks, embarrassing you. "A year can change so much. What if- what if we can't be what we used to be? I used to rely on you so much, but now I can barely look at your face without being reminded of everything that went down."
Taking in your words, Minho moves his hand off your knee and into your palm, interlocking your fingers. "Then we become something new. May I remind you I still don't know exactly what went down? That was all Yeji."
"She... never told you?"
"Nope," he sighs heavily. "Never thought I'd admit this, but I practically begged her to tell me what happened to you and where you were. All I knew was that Yeonjun was furious, although he didn't show it outright. He stuck to playing the part of the worried-sick-fiance." Minho scowls, using a mocking tone. "'My poor Y/n, wherever could she be! By the way, this totally wasn't my fault, I couldn't even hurt a fly much less my beautiful soon-to-be wife!'"
You giggle a bit at his impression and he smiles, watching your face light up. Making you laugh felt like a reward.
"He was so full of shit. I don't get why you stayed with him."
Just like that, your laughter stops.
"Haven't we been over this?" You steal your hand back, using it to rub your forehead.
"I just don't understand-"
"Yeah, and you probably never fucking will!" You sit up, legs swinging off the couch out of frustration. "If I broke up with him, we wouldn't be having this conversation. If I broke up with him, you wouldn't have been attending my wedding, you would have attended my funeral."
The words linger in between you, stinging Minho like a slap to the face. Of course he knew the relationship was toxic, but never did he think it would have come to that. If he did, he'd be behind bars right now. Fuck the USB, fuck Chan, fuck the universe. He's never letting you anywhere near Yeonjun again. As long as you're safe, who cares what it costs? The world could be burning to an ash and all Minho would want to do was get you off planet Earth, even if he couldn't come with.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know," he says finally, slowly, carefully.
"Nobody did," you look away from him, down at the floor. There are miles and miles between you then and you now, the person he knew and what she was willing to say. "Except Yeji."
Yeji.
"Min, I wanna try something. Get off the couch." You start stretching out before he can respond, reaching over to grab your long forgotten headphones off the coffee table.
"What's your idea?" He takes a seat in the chair beside you.
"So when Jeongin went into that little psychic trance of his, he closed his eyes I'm guessing to help him envision his surroundings and focus better-" You adjust yourself better, sitting the headphones above your ears. "-obviously I'm not him and don't have the same abilities, but what if I try to remember the place it took me to? The headphones aren't necessary, but they're noise cancelling so I thought it might help."
Minho looks like he wants to protest, but holds back any thoughts.
"If I get into enough of a relaxed state," you continue when he says nothing. "Maybe I'll find it. It might be the only way to save Chan." You take a deep breath. "And Yeji."
"You really think Yeji is a part of this too?"
"Well it had her there and could mimic her voice, so yeah." You roll your eyes.
Leaning back in the chair, Minho rolls his eyes even more dramatically at you. "It could just be able to do that."
"There's only one way to find out."
And with that, you put on the headphones.
Immediately the world around you is muffled, no longer able to hear Minho shifting in the chair or the wind whistling through the old bones of the house. Outside, the sun has already begun to come down, soon it will be dark. With your eyes closed and hearing limited, your other senses come in stronger. You can smell your shampoo wafting off Minho, feel the bumps form on your skin as the chill sets in.
Still too early to turn on the heat, you think.
Trying to clear your mind, you focus on your breathing. In, out. In, out. In, out. Breaths become deeper, heartrate slowing. At one point, your mind wanders to thoughts of Chan. What's he doing right now? Is he alright? Why hasn't he texted you? When will you get the opportunity to correct your missed kiss-
Hey brain, you think, focus on the mission, you already know you're not emotionally available enough for someone like him, so stop it.
Back to your breathing.
Enough time passes to have you considering this isn't going to work. Why did you think it would in the first place? You said it yourself, you don't have 'abilities' like Jeongin does. Never have, never will. And besides, even if it did work, what would you do? You can't force this thing to give you information; it has the upper hand and knows it does.
"Okay, screw this," you open your eyes, but all you see is black.
It worked. But now what?
"Hello?" You call out, voice echoing. "Um, anyone home?"
Not that this place felt very... homey.
You begin to walk, eyes adjusting. Looking down, you realize you're walking in water just like Jeongin mentioned, but it just barely covers your toes. Reaching to the right, your hand finds a wall close to you. The left side is the same; you're in some kind of corridor. Walking further, your left hand grazes a dip in the wall; no, a door. You squint, noticing a few more doors on either side further down before they're consumed again by the darkness.
Wrapping your cold fingers around the knob, you push. The door is stiff and hard to open, taking a few full-body pushes before you can squeeze inside. Air races past, through your hair and the door. Inside, the walls curve to a circle, a very dim white light coming up from the edges of the water. In the middle, you spot what looks like a dentist's chair turned away from you. The top of someone's head pokes out the top, wires hanging down from the ceiling- or lack thereof, when you look up, it never seems to end- and down to their body.
Slowly, you approach the chair, gasping when you see who it is.
"Oh, Chan," you whisper, tears brimming. There are deep circles under his eyes, and the wires appear to go into his neck harshly, all red and swollen around where they enter. His lips are chapped, skin nearing translucent.
Touching his skin, it's colder than your fingers and a bit rough. His mouth is parted ever so slightly, breathing shallowly. He's dressed in all white; a t-shirt tucked into smooth pants. It's weird seeing him like this.
But you know you can't stay. This isn't why you're here.
Moving on from Chan's room, you open each door as you go, starting with the one directly across from his. You barely recognize the girl in the chair as you've only met on a few occasions; Lily.
In the next few rooms, you find a mix of people you do and don't recognize, Jeongin and Yeji being some of them. Resisting the urge to stay by their sides is difficult, you need to keep going, find the thing keeping them all here. Finally, you reach the end, the last door.
The door stretches its way into the never-ending ceiling, the knob particularly stubborn. This room is bigger than the others have been, and you spot two chairs facing each other in the dim lighting. Inside are you and your ex, Yeonjun.
"What the actual fuck," you breathe, trying to control the rising panic in your throat.
Just like the others, you both have wires connecting into your necks and look physically unwell. The only difference is that you're together, and there's another line stuck into your forearms, connecting you.
You start to have the feeling you need to leave. Now.
And that's when you hear it; distant whispering growing louder and louder, chanting the same sentence over and over again.
"You're not supposed to be in here."
notes • i honestly didn't think i'd get this done today but had a sudden burst of writing energy!! things are getting funky for sure hehehehe
taglist • @yongbbokkie @chaeryred @tenebrisirae @toplinelix @chansdoll @amaranth-writing @3rachachoo @linosjureumi @thebrownemo @tfshouldidohere @channie-143 @frogieeheart @kangaracharacha @skzswife
TAGLIST CLOSED ^^^blue means i can't tag you
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wanderinghedgehog · 1 month
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As a film nerd, I think it’d be a fun idea to look at Les Mis 1978 from a filmmaking perspective rather than a Les Misérables perspective.
It’s so painfully obvious that this is a TV movie. But there are plenty of things that really make it feel very cheap. The one I notice the most is the score. It’s incredibly repetitive and distractingly prominent. The composition itself has a lot of potential, but it’s so misused, you get sick of it very fast. By 1978, those very dramatic, nearly overpowering tracks start to feel a little dated. My main suggestion would be to simply lower the volume. But if you’d rather keep the dramatic music as is, I might suggest adding in subtler background music to some of the surrounding scenes so that the main tracks feel less jarring.
Another thing I noticed is the camerawork. Essentially, it doesn’t match the tone of the scenes. Every now and then, they pull it together and get a well paced section, but they otherwise default to the camerawork they would use for a more subdued, conversational scene. The shots themselves don’t often convey much emotion and rely a bit too heavily on the actors. There is a scene that stood out to me as being better shot than most of the others: Fantine’s death/the confrontation. While Fantine’s death itself was a bit awkward, the rest of the scene was framed in a way that added to the tense atmosphere instead of just hoping Anthony Perkins could salvage another blank slate of a shot. Everything about the scene feels cramped, even claustrophobic, in a very appropriate way that I rather like.
There is also the problem of the script. Plenty of the lines it takes from the novel and those lines are generally pretty good. But I’m never going to pretend a TV movie script was gonna outdo Hugo’s prose, so I guess there’s not much there worth commenting on… Except the sacred promise thing. That was funny.
There’s an interesting thing with this movie’s style that makes me think it simply got lucky when it chose Les Mis as its subject. It’s a story that is simultaneously tense and quiet. Much of it is very contemplative and focuses on small details and brief conversations. For a movie that clearly likes to take its time with random shit, it sure chose the right novel to adapt.
Anyway, I rather like being pretentious every now and then. I love this movie regardless of its ridiculousness.
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STORY TIME:
Y/N, Toto's wife of 3 years, comes to visit him at the ____ GP. (they have an age gap)
Toto hates to show any kind of PDA and non of them are really active on social media. AND this means that nobody knows to who he is married too.
Sadly people are known to be mean and disrespectful to others who they actually dont know. *cought Horner*🤫
And Toto the gentelman he is, shows Y/N that everything they said about her are false accusations. 😉🥵
Cold Coffee | Toto Wolff x Reader
Summary: After an unfortunate run in with Christian Horner, you and Toto spend some private time together to disprove Horner’s words.
Warnings: 18+, oral (m receiving), praise?, biggest warning is that Christian H*rner is in it
Words: 1.1k
a/n: I put a slightly different spin on this than requested but hopefully you still like it ☺️
Toto had invited you to the Canadian Grand Prix with him which despite you both having been married for almost 2 years, was rare. He liked to keep you out of the spotlight so he could have a private personal life and you didn’t mind at all. You weren’t the most confident so the thought of having cameras in your face all the time and people speculating about your relationship didn’t appeal to you. Toto had given you a Mercedes pass so that you could get around the paddock but you had taken your wedding and engagement rings off and gone for a fairly plain black outfit with a Mercedes polo so you looked more like a staff member than Toto’s wife.
When you and Toto were in private, he was incredibly affectionate, always holding your hand, placing a hand on your back, kissing you but in public he was more cautious. Neither of you really used social media except for some very small scale private accounts that only your immediate family followed. You were also quite a bit younger than Toto so all in all, you didn’t think anyone would notice who you were.
You wondered around the paddock, taking in the atmosphere, it was all still quite exciting to you as you didn’t come very often. As you walked back into the Mercedes building you accidentally knocked shoulders with none other than Christian Horner who had been in Toto’s office to discuss the regulation changes over the porpoising.
“I’m sorry,” you apologised politely for bumping into him.
Christian looked you up and down, taking in the Mercedes polo shirt and pass, looking as if he was trying to place who you were.
“Just be more careful in future,” he responded sharply.
You knew Toto wasn’t fond of Horner and his tone towards you made it very clear why.
“Hang on, didn’t I ask you for a coffee when I came in?”
You looked at him blankly, he had clearly mistaken you for someone else, obviously not having cared enough to remember anyone’s face.
“Well I thought Mercedes normally employed slightly more hardworking people, no wonder the team is struggling at the moment if they’re relying on people like you.”
You could only assume the meeting hadn’t gone his way, surely people weren’t generally this rude. You look up, still so taken aback that you don’t know what to say. Your eyes meet Toto’s who is now stood a few steps behind Christian.
“Christian, I see you’ve met my wife,” Toto sounds angry.
His words only add to your shock, having both been so careful to not let people know who you were and then he has just announced it to someone very untrustworthy. Horner’s face dropped, realising how unpopular he would have just made himself by insulting Toto’s wife.
You composed yourself enough to extend your hand for a hand shake, “nice to meet you.”
He shook your hand and weakly excused himself from the building and walked quickly back out into the paddock. Toto slid his arm around you and placed a kiss to your forehead.
“Are you okay my love?”
You nod quickly, “I can see why you never liked him.”
Toto laughs at your words and leads you back to his office so you can have some more privacy. You walk in and sit yourself at his desk chair, spinning round in it. Toto wouldn’t normally let anyone do that but it was you and he thought you looked hot sat at the desk. He sits himself down on the edge of the desk facing you and pulls you towards him using the arms of the chair.
He places a firm but loving kiss to your lips that you immediately return.
“Ignore Christian, he is a prick,” Toto sounds angry still but then his tone softens, “your face is unforgettable,” he places gentle kisses on your forehead, your cheeks, your nose and then your lips again.
You liked this protective side of Toto, you didn’t get to see it very often as you led such private lives but the way he had introduced you as his wife in such a commanding way had you weak at the knees.
“How private is your office?” you ask, suggestively running a hand up Toto’s muscular thigh.
It didn’t take much for Toto to get the hint as he reached for a controller that lowered blinds on all the windows.
“Let me show you how hardworking I can be,” you winked at him. With him on the desk and you in the chair, your head was perfectly in line with his lap.
Toto groaned at your words as you undid his belt buckle and zipper, palming him through the fabric of his boxers. You pull down the waistband, exposing his hardened cock to you. You push Toto’s thighs further apart so you can situate yourself comfortably between his legs. You take the tip of him into your mouth, sucking gently on it, making Toto’s breath catch in his throat.
Your tongue gathers up the salty pre-cum and smears it up and down his length as you lick from base to tip, holding his cock steady with your hand. You move your head down, taking about half of him into your mouth before moving back up to the head again.
“Hard workers don’t tease Schatz,” Toto warns as his hand settles itself on the back of your head, gently guiding you down his length.
Your nose brushes up against his pubic bone and you desperately focus on breathing and not gagging as he hits the back of your throat. His hand helps you set a pace as you move your mouth up and down his cock.
You can see the muscles in his abdomen tightening as he uses his free hand to grip the edge of the desk.
A string of mumbled profanities leave Toto’s lips as you continue your movements, your hands steadying yourself on his thighs.
“How could anyone forget a face that looks so pretty with a mouthful of cock,” Toto groans, taking in the sight beneath him.
You moan at Toto’s words, the vibrations against his dick have the muscles in his thighs contracting under your hands.
“I’m close,” he warns and you hum in response to signal that it’s okay for him to cum in your mouth.
Soon enough you feel his hot cum painting the back of your throat as you swallow it down, taking in his expression. His head is tilted back and lips parted as he breathes heavily, holding your head down.
You lick him clean and release him from your mouth with a ‘pop’. You smile up at your husband, pleased you can still make him feel this good.
Toto takes a couple more moments to regain his composure.
“You would certainly be employee of the month after that if you worked here.”
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thepictureofjune · 28 days
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Nolin: an argument between lovers
— the frustration of an unloved boy is met with the refusal of the loved one and somewhere along the lines it all goes wrong
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Regina Spektor sings her song in two very different voices and tones, forming perhaps two different identities. Which leads us to the second interpretation: this is the story of Nolin told from both sides.
The other interpretation of this song and the scenes found here
The song starts in a high whispery kind of voice, almost like the singer is about to choke up on her own words. It also starts off like a story, like we are about to hear the story of someone. And we do, we hear the story of Nolin. Noah never saw Colin coming, never saw it coming that Colin would help him with Freddie, that they would form a bond that relies on trust and friendship. He never saw it coming that he would enjoy Colins presence as much as he did, that the two could do literally nothing together and still have fun. Noah never saw Colin coming. 
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The second verse is sung lower, clearer. Because Colin is standing at the door, in the midst of saying goodbye to all his friends and he has to assure himself of something. He convinces himself it’s alright that Noah isn’t coming. It’s alright that Noah didn’t even say goodbye. It’s alright that Noah doesn’t love him. 
Noah sits on the bed after having been literally insulted and put in his place by Joel and he comes to the realization that his pride won’t let him say goodbye. It’s his pride that’s got the best of him, that keeps him on that bed, that keeps him from saying goodbye. And pride is a sin and it’s Noah's biggest one. He stuffs himself with that sin because it is easier to accept than humiliation. Pride is easier to deal with than the fact that it’s his fault that Colin is leaving, so he chokes up on it. He has no choice but to choke up on his sins. (“Hey open wide, here comes original sin.”) 
And now Colin stands at the gate and Noah really isn’t coming and he has to assure himself a second time that it’s alright yet it’s harder this time around. Because with each step he takes it becomes more real that Noah isn’t coming and even when his name is called, Colin has to assure himself that it’s alright that Joel was his final goodbye and not Noah. 
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Because no one’s got it all and Colin apparently isn’t allowed to have love. As the voice gets louder in the repetition of “No one’s got it all”, Colin also grows more frustrated at the thought because he was so sure that Noah liked him back, that there was something between them and that Noah was worth staying for. Only to, in the end, realize that Noah just wasn’t something that Colin could ever have. And he just has to be alright with that. 
Colins probable frustration connects with the harsh accusations of the song that follow. “Power to the people we don’t want it, we want pleasure.” Because screw Colin for thinking Noah could want something that would mean fighting for. Noah isn’t down for complicated, he isn’t down for something as messy as love. He simply wants to enjoy things and be carefree. 
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Because Noah would rather let himself be destroyed by what he has grown up with, (“And the TVs try to r*pe us and I guess they’re succeeding.”) than actually experience things for himself, actually experience love for himself. Noah would rather have his past and all of his bad experiences take advantage of his mind than open himself up to the possibility that it could be any different. We see this when one single call from his father destroys something Noah was very happily and passionately working on. And no matter how many times Colin confesses his feelings to Noah and tells him about love, Noah ignores it. He thinks it’s a done deal, a finished topic after having been addressed once already. (“Now we’re going to these meetings, but we’re not doin’ any meetin’.”) 
But Colin sees through Noah, at least a little bit. No matter how much Noah pretends he doesn’t like Colin and he doesn’t want love, Colin has seen the way Noah looks at him. No matter how many times Noah tries to stick to his cold rude attitude, Colin knows him, knows about Freddie and the passion Noah has for making movies. Colin knows that this rude heartless boy isn’t all Noah is. (“And we’re trying to be faithful, but we’re cheatin’, cheatin’, cheatin’.”)
While Colin accuses him of running from his past, Noah fights back because he doesn’t need Colin, he doesn’t want Colin and he, least of all, wants his love. (“I’m the hero of the story, don’t need to be saved.”) So what does it matter to Noah if Colin leaves? What would change? Noah is fine without Colin, can function without him and definitely doesn’t need Colin to fix whatever he thinks might be broken inside him. It’s whatever. He doesn’t need Colin to love him. 
But then, we’re back at the start and Noah realizes that despite everything, he never saw it coming that Colin would leave and that Colin leaving would make him realize that maybe, after everything, he wanted Colin to love him and he wanted Colin to save him. Because, as Noah had said, many times before, Colin was the best part.
But, Noah supposes, no one can have it all. 
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conclusion: wow these boys are really sad!
Couldn’t have written this without having found this analysis of the song first.
I only reapplied as much as I could to Nolin and why the SE Team could have possibly picked this exact song as the Nolin goodbye song. 
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feraliminal · 2 months
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Actual episode 70 discussion before I vanish back into the aether to do coursework:
Obligatory meta bit: I’m in the process of reading Interaction Ritual Chains for a draft thesis chapter (which I need to be writing now) and just happened to be halfway through reading the section on remote/virtual rituals when the episode dropped. The book includes stuff like sports events and concerts as rituals, defined as community-building events where people share an experience and get meaningful symbols and stories out of it. But it has a whole section on why this needs to be in-person. I’ve never really done live premieres before because my fandoms tended to be old, but I’ve now got participation observation data to disprove that - it’s definitely a shared experience for the fan community, and we have plenty of stories. Fandom is folk culture!
The appearance of cam-ghosts and Plunger’s interaction with the secret agent was very cool as I love the “sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from the supernatural” trope. The camghosts could have been hallucinations, but there was one peeking around a corner much earlier in the episode. I suspect that there’s some kind of remote connection/Alliance network going on (they’re able to share and broadcast footage, after all, even if they need to use tablets for long range comms), so these could be virtual encounters through the secret agent hacking or otherwise accessing Plunger’s brain - like he’s able to get into the skibidi computer to taunt the scientist. But why (other than exposition and dramatic effect)? Is he trolling because their death is part of his scheme (likely imho), or is he just an incorrigible dick who can’t say “good job” without being sinister?
Transmission error/recording error: is the secret agent signal jamming? And what was that stealth mode? Is it related to the secret agent and the camghosts? Probably.
Unless our two ex-main characters are fixed or downloaded (which I doubt but I did notice that the the tagline was “someone”, which is usually singular), ST is doing Anyone Can Die. If this was being approached as a lolrandom meme thing, that wouldn’t be surprising, and that has been the tone of much of the series so far. However, it’s ascended to the point that there’s an actual Skibidi Toilet store. The longevity of comparable meme horror/sci-fi series has seemed to rely on people getting attached to iconic characters, so I wonder if there’s a plan for avoiding Too Bleak, Stopped Caring? My guess is having the elites and titans consistent throughout the plot, but DFB may also be an incorrigible dick and kill everyone. I am a sucker for dramatic deaths though, so I can probably put up with it (just about, did that speaker squeak as they were dying? Oh no ;_;).
On the subject of trolls, one way of interpreting Titan Speaker putting out the fire before completely flattening the scientist was that they wanted to kill them themself, another interpretation was that they were fucking with the scientist by pretending they’d show mercy. Either way, A+++ revenge!
Polycephaly is also super interesting as they don’t really seem to be the TV equivalent of the others factions’ big combat units. There’s only one of them, they can fuck around with teleportation-stuff (nanites? weird science particles?) and swap out their extra bits. They might have a role that’s unique to the TV faction, I already wondered if it’s something like managing TV communications or information flows, and now I think that could include something to do with teleportation too. Maybe running the teleportation-navigation software? In the Dune series, there’s heavily mutated Guild Navigators who guide faster-than-light spaceships and to make sure no one crashes into a planet, and Warhammer 40k has a similar Navigator role to guide space traffic through the Warp using psychic beacons.
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ripeteeth · 2 months
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Writing Patterns
Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern! Tagged by @perverse-idyll, thanks for tagging me! This is really interesting, especially as I’ve been playing with my writing style and changing it up lately.
1. “A long cloak of night has fallen across the bed.” [Milk Teeth, MDZS, Jiang Yanli/Jiang Cheng. If I’m ENTIRELY honest, this is an inside joke with myself, as an old livejournal friend once described Snape by saying “pick up your long cloak of darkness and get to therapy”, which is a statement I think describes Jiang Cheng quite well.
2. “The trouble with stories is that they don’t always line up quite right.” [Over My Dead Body, MDZS, Wangxian, WIP. I like to bullshit about storytelling and story structure. There’s something fascinating about the interplay of author and reader, and of reminding the reader that they are sitting down to a story. There’s a special charm when the author editorializes and goes off on tangents - such as Victor Hugo in Les Mis - and while I am no Victor Hugo, it IS extremely fun to do.]
3. “‘Please,’ you say, and he likes it when you say it.” [empty, save you and i, Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley. I just love the cadence of this and the way it establishes the close, confessional second person POV.]
4. “Naked, wrapped in silk, and turned away on his side.” [say it like you mean it (with your fists for once), Kinnporsche, Gun/Vegas. Does the lyric “why is the bedroom so cold / you’ve turned away on your side” from Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart haunt you like it does me? I like how this established the feeling of isolation and loneliness.]
5. “This is how it goes.” [Zoetrope, MDZS, songxuexiao. Again with the storytelling.]
6. “The day he meets them is a red-sky day.” [blood, bones, and butter, MDZS, songxuexiao. Red sky at warning, sailors take warning! How else should you introduce my babygirl Xue Yang? I’m realizing a lot of my lines have tucked-in references, allusions, and inside jokes with myself.]
7. “Spring is pale in Revachol.” [Revachol Calling, Disco Elysium, Harry/Kim, WIP. Honestly, I don’t like this line and if I ever rewrite it, I hope to have something that fits better. This doesn’t grab in the way a DE fic should grab the reader. God, this WIP haunts me. Someday I WILL finish it, but it’s been three years since I’ve played the game and I absolutely need to play it again to get a feel for the voices.]
8. “The walk home is lonely.” [long slow love song, TGCF, fengqing, WIP. I really like short first sentences, huh? I suppose this is just brief scene-setting. Mu Qing seems like a guy who takes a lot to open up, so a short opening line suits him.]
9. “He wonders how he’ll die.” [impact, Beyond Evil, lee dongsik/han juwon. I’m proud of this one. I feel like this sets the tone and grabs attention. It’s just a short fic inspired by J.G. Ballard’s Crash, so I can’t think of a better way to begin.]
10. “When Kinn had been a boy, he’d had an old tomcat that liked to sleep in his bed.” [shotgunning, Kinnporsche, vegas/kinn/porsche, WIP. Introduces this as a Kinn character piece.]
Bonus from unposted Frankensmut: “One should not travel these woods alone; the Wild Hunt is strong here, and all are prey.” [Introduction to Natural Philosophy, Frankenstein, The Creature/Victor Frankenstein, WIP. An opening line that promises you that the hunter WILL get his prey. I promise you this.]
What I’m really learning here is that 1. I need to work on finishing my goddamn wips, and 2. wow I really rely on passive voice to open. Huh. Are there any other patterns? Maybe some authorial direction to remind the reader of the story structure. I’ve also got a bit of a penchant for short opening sentences followed by paragraphs that either elaborate on it or negate it, usually heavier in length and description as a counterbalance. Like adding acid to balance fat or sugar. Truthfully, I’ve kinda grown bored with my typical writing style, which is partly why I haven’t posted much fic lately. Art is all about pushing yourself and trying new things and innovating. I’m dead sick of writing present-tense third person limited and am vibing with first and second-person POV, which aren’t fan favorites for fic. I’d also LOVE to try something much more zoomed out, like omniscient third-person.
This was fun! Tagging @brawlite-archive, @iodhadh, @jaggededges123, @rcmclachlan, @weatheredlaw, and @darcylindbergh if you’re vibing, and anyone else who’s interested!
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For those of you who are like me and are sad that Dracula Daily has concluded for the year and are looking for more Dracula to fill the void: I present to you Dracula: the original living vampire
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This adaptation of the classic we have come to know and love is probably the WORST I’ve ever seen! It’s so bad that I thought about turning it off multiple times but was so bad that I needed to know what happened.
So first things first. This takes place 100 years after the original story and by original story, I mean the one they made up for this. So a rich nobleman’s wife dies on the day of their wedding and he goes on a killing spree of all the women in the town that looks like her (redheads)
Now 100 years later the killings have started again and it’s up to Detective Amelia Van Helsing (yup Van Helsing is a woman and a detective in this) to solve the case.
So here’s the cast
Amelia Van Helsing - Detective/skeptic/redhead
Renfield - police captain/Amelia’s boss
Jonathan Harker - chemist/occultist
John Seward - police mortician/lab assistant
Mina Murray - solicitor/Amelia’s girlfriend
Dracula - British nobleman/secret vampire
So there is no timeline in this and the visual clues are all over the place.
It takes place in a gothic style town and everything is grey or black or brown.
All the women are wearing mid calf skirts but modern jewelry (Mina spends most of the movie in a see through nightgown with a big modern watch on her wrist)
They have telephones and lamps but also rely on candles and lanterns a lot
No one blinks an eye at a lady detective or the fact that the two women are living openly gay so it’s pretty progressive
They are able to run blood testing and can separate different things from blood samples
All the photos are sepia toned and look like long exposure from when cameras were invented
The only sign we see outside is in French despite everyone speaking with terrible British accent’s including Dracula
Also they live in the shadow of a gothic castle which turns out to be Dracula’s
So while Amelia is investigating the murders of all these redheads and worrying that she’s next, Mina is Dracula’s solicitor and is showing him houses around the area. It turns out that she is also a secret redhead who dyes her hair blonde because she used to get teased. So she gets targeted instead of Amelia and turns out to be the exact double of Dracula’s wife who died.
After Mina gets taken, Amelia and Jonathan go to the hotel where Dracula is staying: Hotel Carmilla. And they walk into a room to find that Dracula has turned a bunch of redheads into vampires and they are just in this room draining guys of blood and the only sound is really loud slurping. Oh man, it was so loud and ridiculous and amazing.
They kill all the vampire brides and all the guys they were draining who may have also been vampires…. It’s unclear.
Amelia gets bit by Dracula but doesn’t consume any of his blood.
Mina does the whole “if you let her go I will stay with you by choice” monologue and then stabs Dracula in the heart and her and Amelia tackle him and knock him into a sun beam. It’s nice to finally see Mina get a bit of agency
It ends with Amelia safe at home and turning into a vampire with absolutely no emotion
All in all a terrible and hilarious movie. I don’t know if I recommend it but I needed to share it with everyone else.
If you’re looking for a good Dracula movie, I suggest The Invitation. Both of these movies are on Prime
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gorgeousgalatea · 3 months
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You know what I'm trying to finally write again and anywhere is a good place to start so here are some bite sized reviews of my bite sized YA binge (including two other books I read a few weeks earlier):
The Narrow, by Kate Alice Marshall: This was a book I borrowed after skimming it with a strong impression I would enjoy it, and thankfully I was right! The main character is the daughter of two well off but neglectful parents who spend way more time on her deeply troubled brother, to the point where she doesn't find out they forgot to pay for her final year at boarding school until she's already arrived. Fortunately the wealthy parent of a sickly student is willing to cover her tuition, as long as she rooms with and takes care of that student for the year. Pity she's pretty sure she's the reason that student is sick. Oh, and their dorm room is haunted as hell.
The Narrows deals a lot with the subject of abuse--both romantic and familial--while couching it in an atmospheric ghost story. I liked the tone and the characters, and one thing I really enjoyed is that it used its first person narrative to paint a very familiar romantic fiction picture of the main character having no one else to relate to or rely on other than their new love interest who is ~the only one who understands them~, and deliberately made that the product of her own insecurities. The ghost and possession element also explored sense of self and identity in a way that pinged pretty hard with my ozqrow days. Bittersweet ending, but would recommend for anyone into sapphic ghost stories.
Before the Devil Knows You're Here, by Autumn Krause: Ehh this was the mediocre apple story. I loved the summary--the main character's struggling single father passes away suddenly, and before she even has time to mourn, the monster her father has been warning her about her entire life shows up on their doorstep to steal away her brother as well, so she sets out to find the monster and save her brother. I dunno, the problem could be me, that summary had me expecting Guillermo del Toro style Labyrinth--which I am now realizing someone could say "don't you just mean Pan's Labyrinth" and no, I mean the relationship with maturity and sexual awakening where the monstrous is outwardly monstrous--and that's...really not what it was at all. It was "what if Johnny Appleseed made a deal with the devil," which kudos, I have not seen before, but wasn't really into in its execution. I do appreciate a heroine with guile, though, and she does have that.
I Fed Her to the Beast and the Beast Was Me, by Jamison Shea: The premise of this one is pretty straightforward--a talented black ballet student makes a deal with a dark entity to have the opportunity to actually make it into the prestigious Parisian ballet troupe she's been chasing after her whole life, and discovers that being part of a cult with monstrous powers is actually less toxic than being a girl of color in the Parisian professional ballet scene. I really liked this one, it wasn't afraid to have its leading lady be monstrous and cruel and wrong, and it also made it clear which parts of her mindset were just the product of spending so long in a cut-throat industry that spent every moment rejecting her. The ending was a bit too neat for me, but overall the atmosphere was great. Genuinely almost anything with a title like that is probably something I'll end up enjoying lmao
What Stalks Among Us, by Sarah Hollowell: Two best friends get stuck in an evil corn maze! This wasn't my favorite, but I still enjoyed it a lot; the main character's habit of self-censoring even among friends was very resonant with me. The story hits the ground running and has good momentum on exploring the mystery of the maze and how it came to be. The nature of the maze is ultimately rooted in [womp womp] trauma, so that's a major element of the story, and unfortunately there is greater focus on the main character's trauma with her best friend supporting her, but I guess that's to be expected in a first person narrative. It still is ultimately about their friendship! Which is portrayed as valuable as is without developing into anything else.
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, by Andrew Joseph White: Ultimately the most brutal of the books but I think that was what I liked about it. The main character is a trans boy in an 1882 London where mediums are a hot commodity but the women are only prized as potential baby makers for male mediums. The main character is caught trying to escape his conservative family and inevitable impending marriage, and sent to a corrective boarding school designed to turn mentally unwell spiritually sensitive women into demure brides. This boarding school is run about the way you would expect, and most of the story is the main character realizing just how bad it is and figuring out what can be done to escape. The exactly one way he's gotten lucky is that he and his future betrothed turn out to be t4t and are really quite cute together, but the main character is an aspiring surgeon and that means the story is not afraid to get visceral. Which really elevated the tone; there's room for a sequel in the ending to this one that I wouldn't mind reading.
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ilovedthestars · 11 months
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Mal, aspec icon, and also reasons why I love Widdershins in general
So, as a birthday present to myself I recently bought physical copies of all ten currently available volumes of the webcomic Widdershins, and I’m currently rereading all of them from the beginning, and I’m just. Having emotions about it!! This post is part Widdershins propaganda (go read it) and part rambley thought dump on the parts I'm excited about on my reread. (I’ll try to stay away from major spoilers, but read at your own risk.)
A vague bit of context for anyone who knows nothing about Widdershins: Historical fantasy, set mostly in Victorian* England, centered on the fictional English town of Widdershins, which is the location of a magical “anchor” which is a source/amplifier of magic. Magical practitioners are called wizards (regardless of gender—witches also exist but are a very different thing) and the magic system revolves around summoning “spirits” of various emotions, and using/making deals with said spirits to imbue objects with magical properties. The tone is pretty light and adventure-y, and very fun. Every arc jumps back and forth between a few different sets of characters, but their paths all eventually cross.
(*technically slightly pre-Victorian. The ongoing and final installment is set during/around Victoria’s coronation. There’s also flashbacks, visits to other locales, and a Time Travel Episode)
The character I remember getting most attached to when I first read Widdershins, and the one I’m currently having the most emotions about on my reread, is Mal (aka O’Malley). First of all, I completely forgot that he’s canonically ace (and maybe aro)??** His significant relationships throughout his arcs are all close friends with found family vibes—when we first meet them, he and his longtime friend Wolfe have been traveling around Europe together for years, on what money they can earn from Wolfe’s busking (he plays violin) and Mal’s somewhat cheating at cards. Wolfe is an optimistic, calm and gentle person, and he clearly brings out the best in the very grumpy and abrasive Mal. They rely on each other, make sacrifices for each other, and generally have just such a lovely relationship--one thing I find particularly sweet is that it’s shown multiple times that listening to Wolfe’s violin playing helps Mal relax and makes him happy.
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Pictured: Mal suggesting that Wolfe pacify a huge spirit of sadness by playing his violin, because "It works for me" 🥺 (In case my image turns out bad, here's a link to the actual comic page--I'm just excited about my physical copies!)
I’ve rambled before about “love as in significance” and how my favorite fictional relationships are ones where two characters are deeply important to each other, in a non-romantic and/or ambiguous way. To me Wolfe and Mal are a perfect example of that kind of deep friendship, effectively a life partnership, with no romance.
(**Widdershins also has multiple gay/lesbian characters, some of whom get romance arcs, and at least one canonically trans person. In Victorian England. There’s also a fair amount of non-white characters. I cannot stress enough how much this is just Not A Thing within the story. I believe the in-universe justification is that random magic ability evened the scales, and things like oppression and colonialism never got as bad as they did in our world. What it works out to is fun escapist adventures where homophobia and racism aren’t obstacles to the diverse cast, which is exactly my type of story. It’s definitely not trying to be historically accurate, but doesn’t get bogged down in modern labels, either.)
Mal also has a really satisfying character arc going on. He can see magical spirits, including the ones around people, and read their emotions—this is not a normal thing within this magical universe, and he mostly considers it a burden/annoyance, as it makes people (especially crowds) overwhelming. It turns out to be a whole thing, which I won’t spoil, but in my reread I just finished book 7, curtain call, which is the conclusion to the first big arc of Widdershins and includes a really cool flashback scene into Mal’s past. He’s got a whole thing going on where he makes some new friends, and eventually decides to stop running away from things. It’s really hard to talk about without spoiling, so I’ll just say that he’s still my favorite character and his arc is very strong.
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Pictured: What it looks like when Mal sees spirits, and also another example of him being comforted by his friend's music. (Here's a link to the actual comic page)
Mal (and Wolfe) star in chapters 2 and 5, and feature prominently among a larger rotation of characters in chapters 7 and 9. The various chapters/books rotate through different sets of characters, but they're all lovable and you'll get attached to new characters quickly. Some other really fun characters from various Widdershins stories include:
Harriet “Harry” Barber, a bounty hunter who tracks down magical artifacts with the help of her magic-sniffing dog Gren (who she may or may not have stolen from the police)
Sidney Malik, who is cursed with accidental kleptomania (other people’s things just appear in his pockets, and he feels very bad about it). He got kicked out of wizard university for said kleptomania and is now pursuing his true passion of being a stage magician
Verity Cunningham, inventor slash bounty hunter slash Harry’s former-partner-turned-rival, and the greatest bounty hunter who ever lived, if she says so herself (which she will, loudly)
Lei Feng, who I can’t actually say anything about because all the coolest things about her are spoilers, but trust me she goes through some fun twists (she’s a magician’s assistant/inventor)
Alexa King, a baker with green hair who is going to Widdershins to win a baking competition in the year 2013, and if you’re wondering what this has to do with Victorian England and if it involves time travel shenanigans, yes, yes it does
Harry and Sid are the stars of the first chapter, and they're very close seconds to Mal in terms of my favorite cast members. If I have made this webcomic sound cool enough that you want to try it, please go check out their super fun story.
(P.S. A note about romance, since this post is partially about aspec things and i'm addressing it to my very aro corner of tumblr. Some of the chapters/characters in Widdershins have romance subplots, which never take up too much space in the story and are very well written in my opinion. I am someone who is super picky about romance in books, and I've rooted for every single romantic relationship in the comic--they're very sweet, and all built around two people who get along and are important to each other, as the friendships are. No forced romance or painful amatonormativity here.)
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kolbisneat · 5 months
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MONTHLY MEDIA: November 2023
Ooooooh it's getting cold and snowy out here in Ontario! Perfect weather to stay in, curl up, and read/watch/play something.
……….FILM……….
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Bottoms (2023) The heightened reality could've been made apparent a little sooner but other than that, no notes. Weird and fun in a way I haven't seen in a while. Big fan.
How The West Was Fun (1994) It took me about 1 hour and 10 minutes to get into this but it finishes strong. And so many great jackets! Ugh I love a good belt buckle.
……….TELEVISION……….
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The Crown (Episode 6.01 to 6.02) Okay this is my first dip into the series but having lived (just barely) through a lot of this, I feel like I got caught up fairly quickly. Really feels like the focus is on Diana instead of the Queen, yeah?
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Episode 1.01 to 1.06) Not what I was expecting and really refreshing for it! The animation varies wildly from episode to episode and I assume it's intentional buuuut sometimes it doesn't quite work for me. If I finish it and enjoy it enough to warrant a rewatch, I'll definitely try it with the Japanese dub.
……….YOUTUBE……….
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Mosa Lina by Caleb Gamman This looks like a fun game and, more importantly, the video is a thoughtful divergence into the topic of "genre". Gonna be thinking about the ideas in here for a while. VIDEO
This Woman Deconstructs 100-Year-Old Books To Restore Them | Obsessed | WIRED by WIRED I could watch book restoration all day and I hope this becomes an ongoing series or she starts her own channel. VIDEO
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7 Deadly Art Sins by CJ the X Vital watching for any creative type. Don't compare yourself to others (different from learning from others), don't hesitate starting that project you have in mind, and don't be afraid to create stuff you don't like cause it's an opportunity to reflect and grow and move towards making something you do like. Also promise me you won't call it content. VIDEO
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Chicago Doesn’t Own Its Own Streets | Climate Town by Climate Town If you ever hear a city councilor mention selling public infrastructure to a private company, send them this link or vote them out. VIDEO
……….READING……….
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A Few Fiends To Tea by Virginia Coffman (Complete) Picked this up secondhand for the cover (obviously) and the promise of a dying man using his remaining time to enact some vigilante justice on serial killers. Pulpy fun, right? Well it mostly reads like a mid century romance with a few interesting exchanges peppered throughout. Oh well.
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Silver Surfer by Slott & Allred Omnibus by Dan Slott and Michael Allred (Complete) This is what comics can be. Funny, sad, silly, and sincere, all while telling superhero stories that don't exclusively rely on punching to solve conflict. This reads like the best of Doctor Who and I love it all the more.
Delicious in Dungeon Volume 1 by Ryoko Kui (Complete) It seeeeeeeeems like the series is wrapping up so while I wait for the final volume's release I figured I'd start a reread. Knowing where it's going it's fun to see how established the setting and characters are right out of the gate. Just so great and I can't recommend it enough.
……….AUDIO……….
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Wag the Doug (Podcast) This is for a very specific audience (folks living in Ontario, Canada that are invested in provincial politics) but if you're a part of that demographic then it's a great way to loosely keep up with what's going on.
……….GAMING……….
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Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 Crew is infiltrating a funeral where they know Princess Ozma will be attending. I think their plan is still stuff from the coat check but maybe they'll change course along the way. Never know what I'm going to get with this crew.
Wonderland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) Got to run this quite a bit this month and testing is going well! Similar tone but very different sort of play from Oz and Neverland and I feel like that's a good thing.
And that’s it. See you in December!
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mymarifae · 1 year
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the issue of killing off characters in stories is interesting because like..... it’s not necessary, but i can’t call it unnecessary either. if you’re writing a story with very high stakes and lots of dangerous situations, it only makes sense for a couple of characters to end up dying. but it also might make your message more profound if no one dies.
you should never rely on character death to spur on another character’s development, but it can be a powerful tool. if it’s in line with your story’s tone and themes.
using death as a means to wrap up a character’s arc will usually come off as lazy and will alienate your audience. but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to pull off. there are circumstances where it’s an appropriate route to take, like giving a really awful villain their karmic punishment - but death can serve as a satisfying end to a good character’s arc as well.
it’s just one of those things that you really have to think about. like, is this character’s death actually necessary? am i using this for shock value? (hint: never fall back on killing off important characters for shock value or plot twists. be more creative than that. [although it can be used effectively in some genres. namely horror.]) am i using the death of a loved one in lieu of thinking of a more interesting motivation to give this character? am i killing this guy off because i need them out of the picture for the plot to progress? am i sure there’s no other way i can nudge them out of the main story for a bit? (i would ask you to really revise your story and your characters if the presence of one completely impedes the plot’s progression.) is any of this appropriate to the tone and themes i have established thus far? if not, is it appropriate to drastically change the tone of my story via character death? (hint: look back at the first hint. the answer is Probably Not. there are other ways to shift from a lighter tone to a darker one. and those other ways will probably leave more of an impact on your audience than a random character dying.)
just think critically about all the possible avenues your story can take... write a dozen versions of the same plot if you have to (you will have to btw i promise). and don’t let anyone tell you “kill your darlings” means something it doesn’t 👍🏾
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video-gh0st · 9 months
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So back in June I watched all the Ghostbusters films cause it was the anniversary of the original movie and I thought I'd do a quick bullet point review since it's been a bit since I watched them all together.
Ghostbusters (1984)
It's still a classic. Has memorable moments that will live on.
Fun scenes. Going after Slimer is always silly and chaotic.
Peter Venkman is a rough. I actually had a person tell me that Venkman is the reason why they never watched the first movie, and I don't blame them.
Wish there was a bit more build up to the confrontation with Gozer. Would be neat if they kept uncovering clues rather than just the moment they figured it out in the jail cell.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
I don't know why people dunk on this movie, it's great!
You can tell the cast and crew are having more fun and things are a bit more fleshed out.
Venkman actually has some good character growth and is not a total creep!
I actually like the build up to the climax on this one. Throughout the movie, there's a focus on the slime buildup in the city and the flow of the story feels good.
Some fun light scares.
I kinda don't like the whole "the ghosts just stop showing up" thing. It's a trope specifically for this franchise that's not really explained. Just "yeah nothing happened between the movies and people think, we're frauds again! Gotta do it all over again!"
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
This movie gets a lot of undeserved hate thrown towards it for being the female lead reboot. A bunch of misogynist trolls threw a fit and never gave it a shot the moment it was announced.
The cast was great tbh. Everyone seemed to gel with one another.
Chris Hemsworth plays a himbo and we see him with his shirt off.
I really like the main antagonist in this movie. I think his character could have been fleshed out a bit more, but still fun idea.
The gear looks really cool in this movie.
Some scenes do keep going a bit too long and has like not good Saturday Night Live skit energy. I think they relied a bit too much on improv.
How the fuck is Chris Hemsworth the funniest motherfucker alive and why is he so cute?
There's a teeny tiny bit a queerness in this story, but I also feel like there's themes of found family going on here too and I like that.
Chris Hemsworth plays a himbo and we see him with his shirt off.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Trailers do this movie a disservice by making it feel like it's going for a Stranger Things feel, kinda relying a bit too much on nostalgia or even doing the "wow kids these days." It just felt like they didn't have any confidence on the movie itself when marketing this tbh.
The tone is a bit more serious, but honestly I'm fine with it. Still has some funny moments, but it's leaning more into the horror part a bit more.
Watching Phoebe learn more about her grandfather is honestly fun. And this movie does a great job with handing things off to a new generation in a way that doesn't feel like it's disingenuous.
Literally cried at the end. Honestly that ending felt wonderful and it felt like a good tribute to Harold Ramis.
I don't know why, but my first watch of this last year wasn't as good as the second watch this year. I don't know what happened. But I remember the first time I watched this and felt like it was just ok but not my favorite. Maybe it was just a bit of frustration that the sequel to Answer the Call got cancelled before it could even get into full production.
I appreciate the movie using some practical effects. There are just certain elements that you can't mess with in Ghostbusters movie and they nailed it.
Muncher is my least favorite ghost tbh. Idk, there are people who love Muncher and I do like the tardigrade inspired design, but idk, they didn't appeal to me like the other ghosts did.
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waywardsalt · 13 days
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on my knees gripping my head hnngggg i thought abt bellumbeck too hard
tag ramblings are fun and on brand but i have too many disorganized thoughts and tags are limiting.
anyways thinking too hard abt him is an extremely good and fun thing but i cannot draw the way i wish and can't really put my thoughts into fic form so this is very much going to be a fun ramble.
bellumbeck drives me insane we all know this. he showed up in my dream last night as of writing this sentence so he is on my mind, which is surprising bc fictional stuff doesn't usually show up coherently in my dreams but there it was.
it's so incredibly fun to think about bellumbeck. he's such a black sheep of a loz final boss, there really isnt another loz final boss like him in concept or even in 1:1 tone imo. it's so fun to take bellumbeck incredibly darkly seriously.
to be fair bellumbeck is kind of objectively a fairly dark and disturbing final boss on a conceptual level, and it's not really out of nowhere since phantom hourglass has at least a little darkness running through it even if the general tone of the game doesn't really acknowledge or take advantage of it. but if you think about it hard enough even without getting into post-game speculation in regards to what happens with linebeck, bellumbeck is kind of a dark boss and it's great. full on screen demonic possession of a major character with most of the cast incapacitated and link isolated with no escape on the ruins of the ghost ship that started everything and facing a boss that is constantly facing him and both someone he's been with the whole adventure and also the creature that's captured his friends and killed who knows how many people.
it's so oooouuuugghhhh it's so much fun to think about bellumbeck even though it's such a short encounter. it's so... the mystery around bellum, the way linebeck is built up throughout the game and saves link directly before getting possessed, the fucking on-screen vaguely violent possession (i am forever obsessed with the way bellum grabs and tugs on his arms), the way ciela is captured early into the fight, too, the first companion character you meet and, if you had her equipped, it leaves you without a fairy that follows your cursor around for the first time all game, it's very... congrats you and your friends are at rock bottom! good luck getting everyone out of there alive!!!!
of course it's not quite that because this game is geared a bit more towards younger players, but still keeps those streaks of darkness and complexity just simply because they're inevitable parts of this story and it's characters. bellumbeck. i'm talking about bellumbeck. what a soulsborne-ass final boss, huh?
there's only so much a ds game can do in terms of boss animations, but i think a lot about more complicated movements and animations for bellumbeck, so, so much character can be communicated through a boss's animations. in my mind, i enjoy bellumbeck movements with an emphasis on puppet-like flourishes and mannerisms, and an emphasis on weight with how he fights. these two go very well together, and its something i love imagining.
with the latter, an emphasis on weight, would ideally focus on the sword (and im a fan of it being this huge greatsword, reading berserk got me around to liking it because you can do that really well) and how it has to be used one-handed, with bellumbeck leveraging his own weight against it and taking advantage of momentum to use it especially effectively to turn link into a little green and red smear on the wood. attacks blending into each other as he builds up momentum, and using that weight primarily against link, who is a small opponent who relies on rolling around and can’t really stack up at all in terms of brute force.
i imagine this kind of physicality and movement would lend itself very well to bellumbeck also having more puppet-like movements, being a little too tugged-along by his attacks but still retaining his footing, his free arm being just a little too limp a little too often, and his leaning away from his sword side, likely with the intention to properly balance himself out, looks off with how his head lolls unnaturally to that side. the puppetry effect lessens as the fight wears on and bellum gets the hang of the body he’s using, but never actually goes away since he’s not looking to act properly human anyways.
just like... movement flourishes and details that could add a whole lot to the overall experience of bellumbeck that i think about often.
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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Review
Based on what bits I had gleaned from pop culture, I had expected this book to be very different than it was. I was expecting it to be simple. I was expecting it to really try to be scary. Possibly good if you're into monster stories, maybe some content to make you sad, but really not much to make you think.
What I got was very different. On scary, it's a terrifying situation, but the book is honestly more of a tragedy than a horror. I didn't come away from it scared, I came away from it more contemplative (and pondering happy aus).
For my thoughts without spoilers, this book was better than I had thought it would be. I'm generally not into horror, but it's a compelling story. It's pretty easy to read. If you have any amount of interest in reading the book I suggest you do so. The one thing I will warn you about is that Victor (the main character) gets into a relationship with his cousin/adoptive sibling (so a bit of incest tones).
some advice if you haven't read the book 1. don't rely on (or honestly even read or watch) a summary before checking out the book. everyone who's read it has certain opinions about the characters (I'm mainly talking Victor Frankenstein, but this applies to the other characters too) and I think the experience is better if you don't have your opinion on the characters influenced by others beforehand. 2. be prepared for it take awhile to get to the monster stuff. 3. there are 2 versions of Frankenstein (story is basically the same, but the later publication was heavily edited) it was first published in 1818, and an edited version was published in 1831. The later one tends to be the more popular one. If you want to read the original version, you may have to specify like "frankenstein 1818"
My thoughts with some spoilers are under the cut. I strongly recommend you do not read anything under the cut unless you have read the entire book already.
Characters
Victor Frankenstein
A self-centered asshole with no regard for consequences. I applaud Mary Shelley for being able to get me invested in Victor's life. I do not usually get invested in asshole protagonists. I generally want my protagonist to be a good person, but Victor Frankenstein is not a good person.
However, he is interesting and honestly, pretty understandable. He's not the most relatable protagonist in that he's far more privileged than the vast majority of people (he's part of a wealthy and very accepting of him family, he's extremely scientifically intelligent) though there were a couple of moments where I found him to be a relatable character.
I understood why he was making terrible decisions, but I still wanted to slap him.
the Creature
I was kind of surprised about his character. He's beautiful and intelligent, which I did not expect when I started the book. While he's sympathetic, he very much is a monster. I did feel sorry for him, but also he's a murderer and he knows murder is wrong, so it's not like he's really someone to root for.
Henry Clerval
best boy, he deserved better
Elizabeth
Was she even really a character? Ok, I didn't really care about her. Her death was sad I guess, but I wasn't really sad about her dying so much as annoyed at Victor for not thinking of someone other than himself for two seconds. She seems to exist to show us what the Frankenstein's are like (only willing to adopt her because she's blonde) and to be murdered to hurt Victor. She is Victor's canon love interest, but she didn't really have chemistry with him. Normally I don't really do the 'going for non-canon gay couple over canon straight couple' thing fandom likes to do, but in this case there is actually more chemistry between Victor and Henry than there is between Victor and Elizabeth. Plus Victor and Henry aren't related and weren't raised as siblings so...
We don't really get Elizabeth's thoughts on her relationship with Victor, which is basically her entire character once she's been taken in by the Frankenstein's, and what little we do get I'm not sure can be entirely trusted.
Non character stuff
I was slightly annoyed at how long it took to get through Robert Walton's section at the beginning. I don't dislike him, but I knew this wasn't his story so I spent chunk of his part thinking 'get to the story already!' I get what Shelley was doing, though I think that part could have been a little shorter.
Aside from that, I don't have any complaints. The book is really good. I felt for both Victor and the creature. While I'm not gonna want to read it all the time, I do think I will revisit this book more than once.
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