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flowerandblood · 5 months

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The Fall from the Heavens (4)

[ canon • Aemond x Strong • niece female ]

[ warnings: oral sex, smut, angst, arranged engagement, violence, swearing, humiliation, chauvinism ]

[ description: A cool distance turns into friendship and more when two children see that they can find refuge and understanding in each other. However, naïve dreams collide with the reality in which every event has consequences and what once could have been love becomes a dark, newly painful obsession. Angst, sexual tension, obsession, violence, madness, very dark Aemond. ]

The story in this series is an alternate reality from the oneshot Stay and love, leave and die, in which Aemond reads the letters his niece has sent to him over the years. They are the same characters and it shows what would have happened between them − I have changed the background story from their childhood slightly for the sake of the plot.

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

Next chapters: Masterlist

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That evening she could not sleep; she felt anxious, felt that danger lurked all around her, the darkness in her chamber full of chill and tension. She pressed her lips together lying under the thick furs, recalling for the hundredth time the expression on her uncle's face when he recognised her.

Terror, disbelief, rage, disgust.

She knew that she would be facing him in the throne room the next day anyway, that they would be forced to remind each other of their existence.

She sighed quietly, wondering if her letters had reached him at all.

What if his grandfather or his mother simply did not deliver them to him?

What if his rage was because he thought she had abandoned him?

She felt a quick pounding of her heart, a naïve hope, anything she could grab onto in a situation that seemed to her to have no way out.

She thought she had to visit him, she had to see him, speak to him, end this once and for all, explain to him how she felt, how sorry she was that it had all happened this way.

Just like when she was a child, she slipped out of her chamber, walking ahead in the torchlight. She remembered what time the guards on watch at his quarters exchanged and took the opportunity, with her heart pounding fast, to knock on his door.

She swallowed loudly, horrified to hear the cold, sure, rough come in and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She turned and saw his silhouette sitting by the fire, in his hand the dagger he was skilfully playing with between his fingers, his gaze fixed on her, his eye wide open as if he was anticipating this visit.

She didn't know what she should say, where to begin.

She wasn't sure if she was trembling so much from the cold or from fear.

She tried to repeat to herself that even though he looked different, the same man was sitting in front of her, the one who had stroked her hair all night as a child, soothing her this way when she couldn't fall asleep.

Grasping at these memories she finally choked out what she had come for.

"Did you received my letters?" She asked in trembling voice, trying to sound soft and calm, to be the opposite of his aggressive attitude, to make him understand that she was coming in peace.

She shuddered when she saw the dangerous glint in his eye, the dagger in his hand spun around its own axis and curled between his fingers again, an involuntary grimace appeared on his face that resembled a smile but showed that he was furious.

"Yes." He answered finally, and she drew in a loud breath, analysing his answer quickly in her head.

He had received her letters, all of them.

She could see it in his face.

Did he despise them? Did he throw them away? Did he burn them?

"Have you read them?" She asked, wrinkling her eyebrows in helplessness, feeling that this was one of the most important moments of her life.

She saw him settle more comfortably in his chair, lifting his chin high as he stabbed the blade of his knife into the armrest, running it over it, making shivers run through her.

She had the feeling that he had just imagined himself ripping her flesh this way.

"Yes, my Lady Strong. I have read them all. Many times, here, in this chair." He muttered, and she felt a jolt of heat, of disbelief, of both humiliation and desire at the same time, because here he was, just admitting that he'd read her letters more than once, yet he'd never written her back.

She thought it was all a punishment he was inflicting on her – even though he wanted her words, his reply would have shown that he had forgiven her, that he was seeking reconciliation, that he was weak.

It all suddenly became so clear to her that she felt lighter, understanding that there was no moment in which she could do anything more to change his mind, that exactly what was supposed to happen had happened.

She looked around his chamber and moved ahead, noticing that where there had been a small cupboard of books now stood three large, tall, oak bookcases filled to the brim with thick tomes.

"Does your mother-whore know you're here?" She heard his cold, indifferent voice and pressed her lips together at the thought that he was doing it on purpose, that he was aware of what would hurt her, that he knew her too well.

She felt a squeeze in her throat when she spotted the familiar name of the philosopher among his collection and stepped closer, pulling out the book she had borrowed from him when she dared to kiss him for the first time.

"My, as you put it, mother-whore, never knew when I visited you, uncle. I was very determined not to be caught." She said lowly, in a way tired of the fact that she seemed to be speaking to stone, a cold marble to which nothing could reach.

She heard him snort, clearly displeased that his question did not elicit the effect he would have expected from her.

"Do you often visit men like this?" He asked perfunctorily, as if there was an answer in his question, as if it was obvious that she was not waiting for him.

Something in the way he said it, in the superiority in his voice made her feel rage; she moved towards his chair and stood in front of him, looking at him with furrowed brows.

Who was he to speak to her this way?

She saw that he lifted his gaze to her, surprised, apparently completely not expecting her to dare come so close to him, the hand with his dagger froze in mid-motion.

"Have you no shame?" She asked with regret and disapproval. She saw that his nostrils quivered dangerously, his healthy eye turned black, his lips pressed into a thin line.

She knew he was about to say something, something that would make her hate him, make her unable to look at him, and she decided that she would be the first to express her opinion, her suffering.

"I don't know who you are, the man who sits now before me, but if there is even a fragment of the boy I was meant to marry in you, let that boy know that he was and will be the only one in my heart. He was my beloved friend and I failed him. It is hard to live with the thought that someone you loved so deeply has died in a way, but there is neither a grave to pray over nor any hope of peace for his soul. What I fear is that the boy I knew has disappeared among the darkness and is dying in it every day."

She muttered, and although she tried to hold them back, tears of helplessness and despair ran down her cheeks as the last sentence left her lips.

She had lost him, lost him forever, this boy who had soothed her fears, who she had looked up to with such pride and joy, who would never speak to her as this man did now.

It seemed to her that she had put him into a state of complete shock, as he looked at her with his mouth parted, his healthy eye wide open – he was breathing faster, completely frozen, as if he didn't know what to make of her words.

She couldn't believe how much he had changed, his white hair long and beautiful, partly tied back, his scar pale, hidden under a black eye patch, his jaw even more sharply defined, his chin pointed, his healthy eye gleamed in the firelight, his leather tunic and breeches framing his well-built body.

He was a handsome man.

She thought about Daemon's words, about how it was better to rip her heart out than to humiliate herself, but she thought she was unable to do that.

That she needed to feel his closeness this one last time.

It seemed to her that her body threw itself towards him on its own, climbing into his lap, pressing her face and hands against his tunic, his familiar warmth, his scent filled her nostrils.

She heard his dagger slide out of his hand straight onto the stone floor with the loud clang of steel.

For some reason, her body relaxed completely and she burst into sobs, as if those years of suffering and separation had poured out of her like a river; she began to babble and apologise to this little boy who certainly felt alone, who couldn't cope with what had happened and with what he had lost.

She shuddered and hopped up, feeling something hard throb between her thighs, then again and again – she looked at him in disbelief, his gaze terrified, his breath heavy.

She thought she was going to hear him say that she should leave, that she was humiliating herself, that he didn't want to know her, that she was pathetic, but he just stared at her, apparently unable to get a word out.

She looked at his lips – they seemed even fuller and softer to her than they were then and she wondered if they would be as pleasurable if she touched them.

Just this once.

"– can I kiss you? –" She asked so quietly that she herself barely heard the words leave her lips. She saw his pupil narrow, his nostrils twitching restlessly.

She felt a throbbing inside her, as well as in his breeches beneath her when he leaned in slightly, exactly as he had done then, wordlessly involuntarily betraying his will and she threw her hands over his shoulders, pressing her warm, thirsty lips to his in a sweet, loud kiss.

It seemed to her that their bodies were moving on their own, his hips rubbing his twitching erection against her from underneath making her feel something like warm tickling between her thighs.

One, slow, tentative kiss turned into a second, a third and a fourth, his hands suddenly on her body, clamping down on her hips and neck as if he wanted to make sure she didn't leave his side.

She shuddered, looking down at him with slightly parted lips, suppressing a moan when she felt his free hand slip shamelessly under the material of her nightgown and clamp down on her naked buttock, rubbing his hardness against her hidden womanhood with slow, uncertain rocking of his hips.

No one had ever touched her like this before, and she wondered if this was his first time, or if perhaps he had already tasted another woman's body, sinking inside the ladies of the court or the servants.

She felt an overpowering jealousy and pain at the thought, at the thought that he might have desired and taken another, and she thought that this night he would desire only her.

That she would spend the night with him and then leave, surrendering her fate to destiny.

"− uncle −" She mumbled, responding with movements of her hips to his treatments, feeling her insides begin to swell once she had decided what was going to happen.

He waved his hand into her hair and kissed her, greedily, aggressively, quickly, his slick tongue forced it's way deep into her throat.

It had nothing to do with what they had done as children – now their lips teased each other with a loud click of their saliva, his tongue trailing over her palate, licking her encouragingly, inviting her to let their tips touch.

They licked each other like this, panting and moaning into each other's mouths – she let him push her hips closer to him, rubbing his hard cock against her with increasingly intrusive, shameless movements as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his body.

Gods, he wanted this.

She shuddered when she felt his hand pull at the ties of her nightgown, in slow, gentle movement slipping it off her shoulders. He pulled away, panting loudly, to look at the sight of her bare chest, her plump little breasts; she gasped quietly and trembled when his fingers timidly run and squeezed one of them.

She felt something sticky run down her thighs onto the material of his breeches, felt the moisture between her legs.

"− uh − it tickles − here −" She mumbled helplessly, stroking his jaw with her thumb, not knowing completely what she should do next, somehow asking him to spare her the humiliation and take the initiative. She shuddered as his fingers ran over her lust-swollen, puffy lips.

"− it's understandable − you missed your uncle − hm? −" He asked softly, tenderly, startling her completely – she felt the muscles inside her clench around nothing at his words, the tension in her lower abdomen was unbearable.

She didn't know when he took her in his arms and stood up with her, when he laid her down on his bed; she watched as he took off his tunic, commanding her to lie on her back, and she obeyed him.

She squirmed in horror as he suddenly grabbed her thighs and spread them in front of him, lifting the material of her nightgown up, leaning his face between them.

"− Aemond − s-stop, uncle, what are you −" She mumbled in a trembling voice, trying to push him away, to protect herself; she tilted her head back with a sweet, surprised moan when she felt his rough tongue run over her puffy folds, licking what was leaking out of her.

"− o-oh, gods −" She mewled losing immediately the urge to interrupt him, laying obediently on her back and clasping her hands in his wonderfully soft white hair, pushing against him with her hips, listening to the sounds of sucking and licking, whimpering in front of him like a whore, understanding that it was obvious that he wanted to give her pleasure, that he wanted to satisfy her.

"− have you touched yourself here? −" He huffed with some kind of amusement and satisfaction, as if he had been dreaming of this moment all his life, of her at his mercy, with her thighs spread wide shamelessly in front of his face.

She swallowed loudly at the memory of the night she had sunk her hand into her heat seeking fulfilment, thinking of him, the way he looked now, the way he still desired her, and helplessly nodded her head.

She knew he would recognise immediately if she lied.

She heard him murmur with satisfaction at this information, as if he was perfectly aware, looking at what was happening to her now, who she was thinking of at the time.

She moaned in pleasure as his nose ran over her puffy bud hidden between her soft folds; she clenched her hands in his hair trying to push him away as he tightened his lips around it, licking and sucking it, making it almost painful. His hand reached for her mouth to silence her, but she clamped her fingers on his wrist, stopping him.

"− please, uncle, too much − too much −" She cried out pleadingly, trying to pull away from him, and breathed a sigh of relief when he released her from between his lips, looking at her in shock, apparently writing down in his mind that this place was extremely sensitive and delicate.

He hummed under his breath, returning to his earlier caresses, tentatively and slowly sliding his tongue into her tight, hot interior. She threw her head back, surprised at how pleasurable it was, her walls throbbing and clenching like crazy around nothing as he licked her shamelessly with a quiet, lewd clicks of his saliva and her moisture.

"− uncle − mghmm −" She babbled desperately, feeling something approaching, the tension and tickling in her lower abdomen unbearable, her hips rocking to the motion of his mouth.

She prayed shamelessly to the gods that he would just keep going.

"− it'll be wonderful to feel it clench around my fat cock one day − don't you think, sweet niece? −" He murmured between the flicks of his tongue, and she felt his words do something to her; she raised herself up on her elbow throwing her head back, feeling the wonderful, throbbing pleasure spill over her body in waves. She moaned some words, probably his name, feeling stunned and hot with fulfilment, her thighs trembling in his hands.

She fell on his cold bed, panting heavily, begging him to stop, but he made sure to lick her dry, as if he took unspeakable pleasure in her state and pleas.

He rose at last, breathing loudly, wiping his face, his eye wide open as if he couldn't believe what had just happened, with a quick, desperate movement he untied his breeches.

"Touch me." He muttered grabbing her hand; she squealed quietly when she saw for the first time what the erection of a man looked like. He tightened her fingers around its thick root, the tip of it pink and glistening, dripping from his own juices.

She breathed loudly, squeezing it with the kind of movements he was forcing on her with his palm, up and down, feeling it pulsing and twitching in her grasp, that it was swelling more and more, his breath erratic and heavy, full of desire.

"− fuck − fuck, come here −" He breathed out, grabbing her by her hair, pressing her lips to his in an aggressive, frantic, sticky kiss, tasting her own wetness on his palate, his hips rocking aggressively to the rhythm of her hand.

"− don't fucking stop − faster − fuck-fuck-fuck −" He hissed and groaned helplessly with some kind of immense relief, clenching his eye, his lips parted in pleasure; she squealed when she felt something wet spill out of him onto her nightgown, startling her completely.

He leaned in to kiss her, to reassure her.

"− easy, it's just me − shhh −" He whispered between one lazy, moist kiss of their lips and another, releasing her at last, her hand all sticky with his warm spend.

He ordered that nothing was to be wasted and that she was to lick it off, so she did so without a word of objection.

His seed was slightly salty and smelled like nothing she had felt before.

Like sin.

He watched her every move with satisfaction.

"− you are going to spend the night with me −" He commanded, and she nodded, not having the strength to oppose him or think about the consequences.

She didn't care.

"Mmm." He hummed contentedly, sighing quietly, pulling her by her arm along with him, laying down on his back, letting her embrace him.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she hugged her face to his chest, to where his heart was – his fingers began to stroke her hair, just as they had then, years ago.

He knew she loved it.

They lay in silence for a long time, their silhouettes surrounded only by the warm light of the fire burning in the distance.

"– I missed you –" She whispered at last and heard his hand freeze in stillness.

She was frightened that she had frustrated him and felt relieved when, a moment later, he placed a soft kiss on the top of her head, stroking her further with his warm palm.

It took a long time before he said anything, as if he needed to think it all over, to put it all back together in his head.

"Do you still wish to marry me?" He asked at last, apparently assuming that what the others were planning didn't matter and that he had to have a good understanding of what had happened between them, whether they wanted the same thing.

She lifted her head, looking at him already without fear – even though his gaze was cold and his face stern, she already knew what lurked underneath, that if he had built a wall around himself as a child, it was now a giant fortress separating him from everyone else that could not be taken by storm.

What they had done didn't change the fact that they still didn't know if they could trust each other.

"Yes." She whispered, tracing her fingers over the area underneath where his heart was beating. He looked at her for a moment, as if he wanted to make sure she was telling the truth, and then he grabbed her hand and lifted it to his lips, placing a warm, lingering kiss on it.

"− you have such big hands −" She whispered, looking in awe at the clearly defined lines of his veins. The inside of his palm was rough – she thought it was the fault of his daily holding of the sword.

"− they're not as delicate as yours − your skin feels like it's made of silk −" He murmured with some kind of admiration, gazing at the innocent play of their fingers brushing against each other in the air.

She felt a squeeze in her throat at the sight, the elation and pain, thinking of all the years she had dreamed of him coming back for her, of telling her that he still loved her. She felt involuntarily tears under her eyelids and pressed her lips together, trying to hold them back, however to no avail.

They flowed down her cheeks one by one, and she felt her chest begin to vibrate as did her breathing. He glanced at her, hearing this and they looked at each other for a moment in silence.

He lifted his free hand and with a slow, tender movement of his thumb rubbed the moisture from her warm skin.

"Don't cry. Come here." He said lowly, grabbing her waist and pulling her close, his hand slipped into her hair hiding her face in the hollow of his neck, her bare breasts pressed against his chest.

She breathed quietly, focusing on his wonderful, familiar scent and the embrace in which, even though she shouldn't, she felt safe.

It seemed so right.

"Tomorrow, Luke will lose his rights to Driftmark. Justice will be done, and I will announce that our betrothal was never officially called off. We will marry in the tradition of our ancestors, ending at last these years of misery." He said calmly, as if he thought it was the only sensible thing to do – his hand trailed involuntarily through her hair and down her bare shoulder, but his mind was far from her.

She swallowed loudly and tensed all over hearing his words, words concerning her younger brother's inheritance which, after all, Corlys had passed on to him, obviously aware that they bore his name but were not of his blood.

He felt her hesitation immediately and began to breathe louder, his fingers digging warningly into the soft skin of her arm.

"Say something." He muttered in an anxious, trembling voice, but she didn't know what she was supposed to answer, her heart pounding like mad, tears welling up again in the corners of her eyes.

She thought with horror that she had made the mistake of assuming that the fact that he could forgive her meant that he could also forgive Luke.

She had noticed it then, in the courtyard, seeing the way he looked at her brother, but she preferred to push it deep into her consciousness, to pretend that it would all be easily resolved, that they would live together in peace and prosperity.

"What will you do if he doesn't lose his rights to Driftmark?" She asked quietly, feeling her voice tremble with every word she spoke.

This time it was his body that tensed all over; she heard him draw in air loudly, his heart pounding like mad under her hand.

"Is your mother-whore plotting something again? Hm?" He growled, gripping her cheeks painfully tight in his hand, forcing her to look at him in a sharp, aggressive motion.

She felt that familiar terror again, fear at the sight of madness, darkness and hatred lurking in his gaze.

"– n-no, I swear –" She whimpered with difficulty. She saw him tighten his lips, his nostrils quivering restlessly in a quick, laboured breath, his eye opened wide.

"Is she the one who sent you to me? To soften me up, to fucking distract me, to divert my attention?" He hissed with growing anger and a note of desperation, a sense of betrayal that escaped his throat as his fingers dug warningly into her skin.

She thought he had completely lost his mind.

Seeing her state, the way she said the words, his grip on her face softened, his thumb ran tenderly over her soft, tear-wet skin.

"– no, Aemond, she wants me to marry someone else, she doesn't know I'm here –" She cried helplessly, recognising that he could do whatever he wanted with her, beat her or kill her.

Nothing could change the fact that she was heartbroken.

"No. No, don't cry. Don't cry, my love. Don't cry." He whispered drawing her to him again and she burst out into loud sobs, seeking comfort in his arms; he kissed the top of her head again and again repeating that he believed her, that he just had to be sure.

Whatever would happen, the boy she knew had never been violent towards her.

"I would never hurt you." He whispered, and her words burst out of her mouth before she had time to think them through, full of pain and disappointment.

"You have done it now and you will do it again." She muttered lifting herself up, putting the sleeves of her nightgown over her breasts, wanting to lift herself off his bed. His hand clamped on her arm stopped her – he raised himself up on his elbow with her, however this time he was careful with how much force he used.

"No. I didn't mean to. Gods, I swear." He muttered, gripping her cheek in his palm, clearly wanting her to look at him, but she shook her head.

"You desire me, but you're not in love with me. You abhor me and whenever you forget that I can give you pleasure, you will hurt me." She choked out between sobs, getting up from his bed; he got up behind her, catching her waist, hugging her back.

She felt his warm, shaky breath on her skin, his hands quivering, his face pressed against her neck.

How could she be so blind, to think that after all this time he would look upon her as an equal?

"I have waited for you for so many years. Don't leave, it won't happen again." He muttered in a trembling, pleading voice.

She knew it was a lie, that he was desperate now, that if only he could be sure she wouldn't escape him, he would do whatever he wanted with her.

"You're right to think I was never worthy of you. Forgive me that you had to endure such humiliation because of me for so many years." She choked out in pain, pulling herself out of his embrace, walking out of his chamber, startling his guards, not caring if they told the Queen of her visit or not.

She returned to her quarters and threw herself on her bed, quivering and sobbing with despair breaking her heart, realising with pain that there was never any hope for them.

He did not love her.

_____

Aemond Taglist:

(bold means I couldn't tag you)

@its-actually-minicika @notnormalthings-blog @nikstrange @zenka69 @bellaisasleep @k-y-r-a-1 @g-cf2020 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @iiamthehybrid @tinykryptonitewerewolf @namoreno @malfoytargaryen @qyburnsghost @aemondsdelight @persephonerinyes @fan-goddess @sweethoneyblossom1 @watercolorskyy @randomdragonfires @apollonshootafar @padfooteyes

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brawltogethernow · 9 months

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I dreamt the other night that there was an extremely mid live action Murderbot TV show adaptation. That's not my retroactive assessment in the daytime. In the dream I was like, "This has multiple very avoidable or outright comedic flaws. I am going to binge all of it." (I'm aware that this is very meta.)

It had a "life on a starship" structure in the style of Star Trek, though it may have technically been set on one of the satellites orbiting Preservation.

The core relationship was SecUnit and Mensah, which was executed with absolute sincerity that couldn't not be charming, and was also where a lot of the more narmish moments were centered.

SecUnit would hack devices by focusing on them, cuing the camera to zoom in on the relevant machine—then the zoom in would continue with a transition to aggressively average CGI of the inside of the machine, which would animate it...being hacked or whatever. I got the impression that happened at a pivotal moment at least once an episode.

Some of the canon characters were present and were well-cast and characterized. However, the "crew" had also been padded out with a handful of original side characters. There was a gruff ship's doctor type (more Kelso than Bones though), a cook SecUnit had an arbitrary rivalry with, and for some reason two teenage boys who were BFFs. The cook existed to facilitate interpersonal comedy, the teens to have sci-fi concepts explained to them, and the doctor to solve like a third of the one-off plotlines at the end of the episode once whatever emotional arc they'd been facilitating was concluded. The new characters were almost all played by white guys like after they cast the canon characters thoughtfully and considerately they ran out of energy/wanted to work in people who were already on the lot.

I dream-watched three random episodes, but unfortunately the only one I remember specifically is the last one, where the plot was Murderbot getting amnesia (because of sci-fi reasons) to back when the company owned it before it hacked itself. The emotional climax was it deciding to help Mensah even though it didn't remember their friendship, by disabling a machine that was harming her—which it did by triggering the hacking animation by slamming its hands against it several times. Like you do when you hack stuff. The amnesia was fixed after this by the medical doctor administering a liquid for it to drink that reportedly had nanomachines in it. I'm pretty sure the prop was one of those plastic cups dentists give you stuff to swish around your mouth in with water in it.

Murderbot was played by a tall and gloriously buff...enby woman...? I don't exactly recall. —Who in behind the scenes content had a startlingly sweet demeanor and higher vocal register than the character.

10/10 dream I am laughing my socks off. I miss the fake show.

#murderbot #the murderbot diaries

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iceinwhb · 28 days

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Me, and my opinion. Last post.

Ok, I am simply amazed that there are comments on whb. Ha. When they were complaining about Levi and his new card, I thought it was because of how childish and silly it had been. I didn't expect them to give him the real P solely because Mc was younger.

So, at some points, with some posts talking about it, I thought I was going to be really rude if I got into an argument, “over nothing”, but now that I'm justified...

1.- We are adults.

And as adults that we are, we don't get to invent, or assume. We resolve ourselves with facts, and with coldness. We do not launch stupid and unverifiable accusations. If we want to point out a fact, you must demonstrate that Leviathan, as a character, is a pedophile.

2.- Do I really have to explain it?

For the people who accuse Leviathan of being a pedophile, where the hell do they get that from? Are they guided only because they wear a uniform? Mc may very well be over the legal age of consent for sexual relations in any country, not only that, Mc's nationality is Korean. In South Korea, they enter college at between 18-19 and finish between 22-23. At no time was it specified that Mc went to high school, or anything like that. Another point, are they really going to discuss the age of Mc when Leviathan biblically exists since the beginning of creation? Really? I don't know if those people will feel better if Mc is at least five thousand years old.

If don't have enough…

Well, let's say Mc was 16-17. You, player, are between 19-30. Do you know what age the game is geared towards? +18 in case we forgot the LITTLE detail. What if they know that Mc is the player's representation? Idk what they want. Especially BECAUSE THEY ARE ADULTS who know how to tell the difference, separate fact from fiction, separate a game from real life. Leviathan is not out there on the loose, looking for 18-23 year old “babes”, my god. And no one who plays the game, is going after a minor just because Leviathan likes the Mc who is probably 20 YEARS OLD. And more, of course. The story is based ON A DREAM, MADE OF MAGIC. Where do they find sense for they to want to complain about it? At this point I am indeed laughing at how absurd it sounds, because that's what it is.

Last but not least.

Okay, let's ignore all of the above. If you don't like the game, because it has certain themes, stop playing, go to Play Store, and look for the thousands of Otome games you like so much. There are millions, even those that touch only a sexual plot. There are hundreds and hundreds of different games for all tastes, but don't ruin the experience for other players just because other people think Leviathan is a pedophile. The game is PB's, and they can do whatever they wants with it as they has always done.

Really is the last.

With this point, it is where we delve into the fact that PB never gently implies when they talk about abuse, nor do they leave it implicit. They never did, they never would, they know the topics they touch on, how they use them and they never romanticize them. We are all aware of when it happens, and we are consistent enough to know that it is wrong, and that we are not going to replicate it in our daily lives, nor idealize as if we were 13 years old.

So, person who thinks they saw the worst of the worst, and you expose it as if no one has three fingers in front to understand it, question it and know it's a game, you're not helping anyone. Those of us in fandom are not idiots to not know what we are consuming. We know what whb is, we are aware of the complicated issues, and no, we are not 14, much less 16, we can think for ourselves and know what is wrong. You don't have to stress what we already know, please. If you want to complain, don't make a pointless war out of the issue, show that you have reading comprehension and do it on a reasoned basis. (Although I don't promise that anyone is going to take any notice of you for it, because no matter what you say, I repeat, we know what we are consuming).

If someone has to send this to one of those who can't even research for a minute, do it. Because it is truly fucked up to be at the expense of a daily absurd complaint.

Clarification.

I am not implying that no one is complaining. In fact, we should understand, learn, and tolerate all opinions, but it's one thing to say that Leviathan is an unprecedented jerk, abuser, and manipulator (and I would totally agree with the point), and quite another to accuse him of seriousness, spread him thin, and have more people, who don't know about the subject, want to play along, to the point that they get to PB.

I knew that whb had the potential to grow

And reach the public, even the wrong audience. But for certain types of people to make such a big deal over a card, especially over something as trivial as the Leviathan card it's absurdly stupid.

My prediction of all this is that Pretty Busy is going to be criticized sooner or later. We accept it, but we know it's not going to come from fandom, because we're not teenagers with attention issues.

It looks like PB is going to have to post more warnings and cautions about its content and the kind of themes they can find in it even within the game itself. I, what I fear the most, is that they will end up censoring it. (Because it's not enough for X and Play to have it labeled as C content.)

#prettybusy what in “hell” is bad?#what in hell is bad #whb #whb leviathan #whb content #I bet my opinion will pass by but it never hurts to state the obvious.

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yesimwriting · 26 days

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how do you think the canon events of saltburn would’ve maybe played out a bit differently if lovie was there? do you think there’s a chance that it SOMEHOW could’ve prevented felix’s death and everything else from happening?? I’m just curious abt any thoughts you might have on this honestly

i've gotten versions of this question in my inbox before, and i even have some drabbles/general thoughts about this in my drafts

but bc i am writing/planning out a longer fic that will focus on the actual plot of saltburn more, questions like this are hard to answer without spoiling that,, but i feel like the way you worded this question makes it easier to give general thoughts on lovie's role in the plot

and bc most of lovie's influence on the plot comes from character dynamics, this is a bit of a character analysis on felix, oliver, and lovie and how they interact

this came out way longer than expected

lovie would be both a catalyst and an inhibitor to felix's death in oliver's eyes

felix and lovie are so close, so attached at the hip, oliver starts to view them as a single entity, a unit. this isn't an immediate thing, but the longer oliver's around them and the more desperate and delusional he becomes, the more their identities merge.

now, bc lovie's "value" comes from her proximity to felix, felix will always inherently be "more" to oliver. however, this intrinsic "more" quality that felix possesses is dangerous. it's part of the reason i think oliver kills felix. too much of a good thing--that's what felix is.

felix is so perfect, you let him consume your soul without even realizing it. even though lovie is great and a piece of felix, she's so much safer. because of this, her existence makes it easier for oliver to swallow the thought of turning on (and getting rid of) felix. because a more attainable, more manageable 'version' of him will still be around.

also oliver starts to want lovie more in certain ways because felix wants her. if he can get lovie (especially before felix), that makes him more like felix. it's part of the process of oliver shifting from wanting felix to wanting to be felix.

despite the fact that lovie makes the thought of letting go of felix more bearable, lovie's presence would also make it hard to get rid of felix.

logistically, they're rarely apart. it's hard to poison someone when there's always a witnesss. and, if oliver only wanted to kill one of them, poisoning wouldn't be as easy because lovie and felix share almost everything.

also, oliver is smart and selfish. he knows that killing one would devastate the other--they're a set. oliver doesn't want a depressed lovie, and he doesn't want a depressed felix. he knows that getting rid of one throws their entire dynamic and world out of balance. their grief and depression wouldn't be fleeting, it would be all consuming.

if lovie lost feix, or vice versa, they'd each be depressed in a way that takes all the fun out of it for oliver. if either of them is that heartbroken, it's harder to project any manic pixie dream girl fantasies onto them.

general notes on oliver's feelings for lovie and felix:

i think oliver would eventually grow fond of their group dynamic. not fond in a comfortable way, especially at first, because of how obsessive oliver's character is and because of how close lovie and felix are.

but with time, it's easier to feel secure in his place in their life. he starts to want them as a bonded pair. a big part of that definitely comes from his voyeuristic tendencies. it gets to the point where it's not always sexual. he likes watching them interact, watching them take care of each other because of the intimacy of it all. i could write a drabble focusing on oliver and voyeurism when it comes to lovie and felix to explain it more if anyone wants me to elaborate

also, because there's two of them and oliver manages to engrain himself into their dynamic (to a certain extent), his obsession becomes a little less overwhelming. don't get me wrong, he's still unhinged, but the ability to place all of that onto two people stabilizes him to an extent. there's a balance to it.

i think this 'balance' would make it more likely for felix and lovie to live, but i can also see oliver jumping to lock their relationship down by killing off everyone else in felix's family faster. especially if he felt like felix was starting to lose interest. the grief and solitude would make felix rely on oliver, and lovie would follow. it'd be just the three of them, just like oliver wanted.

a more canonical saltburn ending

as a final side note, i think even if everything worked out exactly the same, lovie is the most likely to live. if you think about it, oliver only killed off the cattons, which lovie isn’t. even though he views lovie as a part of felix, she'll always be the 'safer' version of him.

he'd keep her around as a sort of token, a reminder of that summer, the cattons, and most importantly felix. lovie's life and presence would become a memorial dedicated to felix in oliver's eyes.

however, oliver is impulsive and easily startled. if lovie found out that he killed felix (or anyone if we're going with the scenario that oliver decides to keep both felix and lovie and no one else), he'd probably get scared and impulsively kill lovie.

if lovie found out oliver lied, i think he'd try to manipulate her into keeping it a secret at first, but if she reacted the 'wrong' way he'd feel 'betrayed' enough to snap and kill her without thinking.

i can also see him trying to preemptively discredit her, maybe making felix think lovie has been using him, but i think he'd know it probably wouldn't work. lovie and felix are together constantly, in what moment would she have had the time to betray him 😭

#ask #saltburn x reader #saltburn imagine #bestfriend!felix #felix catton x reader #jacob elordi x reader #bestfriend!felix x reader

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splatsvilles-fashionista · 3 months

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So over the week I've been replaying Return of the Mammalians, because I haven't played it since the week Splatoon 3 launched and I wanted to see how I felt about it without the excitement of playing a brand new game clouding my critical judgement.

(spoilers for RotM below, just in case)

That said I didn't feel like it changed my opinion very much. RotM's biggest problem is that it feels like the developers thought of a couple of really cool ideas (The fakeout in the intro, Deep Cut being bosses, the lore in the Alterna Logs, the final fight against Mr. Grizz) and then put them all in the game without really trying to connect them all in a very tangible way, and as a result Alterna is a very nebulous space that doesn't make any sense from a narrative standpoint (if it was a human settlement why is it full machinery and tests only inklings and octolings can use? What even IS the treasure we assemble except "a tool that just happens to solve the current problem?) but only really exists for gameplay.

The story also suffers as a result of this, too. Narratively nothing really happens until the very end of the game, where we end up just kind of stumbling into Mr. Grizz's plot to fuzzify the world right as he puts it into motion. Octo Expansion got around this by using its lore snippets to give the supporting cast a story of their own that unfolded as you progressed through the game, and ultimately it's Agent 8's actions that push the story of OE forward. In RotM we just happen to be there when things happen.

But despite all of its problems RotM also just plays really well. The combination of OE-style shorter trial levels with Hero Mode-styled hub areas you have to explore for levels and secrets work really well together, and those hubs in particular are an absolute blast to dig around in for secrets and open up a little by little. Deep Cut are incredibly fun as ineffectual Team Rocket-esque villains, and the whole final fight against Mr. Grizz is really good, especially the music. I don't even think Calamari Inkantation is especially good by Splatoon standards, but 3MIX is genuinely just an astounding track.

But I think what ultimately makes me feel more positive than negative about RotM is that I think its' thematic undertones actually really work for me. Mr. Grizz's actual involvement in the story might have been mishandled but as a villain he works. I've already written about him a bunch so keep things brief Splatoon has always been about the dangers of clinging to the past, and Mr. Grizz pushes that idea to its limits, because he is the past. He is a relic of a lost age, and he is so desperate to return to the world he knows that he will burn the future and turn back time (metaphorically) to achieve it.

But there's also the Alterna Logs and the reveal that it was human dreams of seeing the sun that drove sealife onto dry land. I think there is a compelling argument to be made that they didn't need to explain any of that to begin with, but I also think the explanation works with everything the series has been setting up on a thematic level. Humanity is gone, and will never come back, but our dreams lived on in the minds of the inklings and the octolings (and the jellies, and everyone else), and while they didn't know why, they reached for the sun together, and by achieving humanity's dreams they earned the right to take our place.

TL;DR: RotM good actually

#splatoon 3 #return of the mammalians #return of the mammalians spoilers

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accidentalshifter · 3 months

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Writing fanfiction is a gateway to shifting, I swear!

Before working on "Dawn Misplaced," my Originals/TVD fanfiction project, I didn't dream of characters breaking the fourth wall or know it was possible to interact with them within my sleep... And I certainly didn't think it was real that another version of me could exist in a fictional world much less this Universe! OK I did. But, I figured there were huge margins of separation between me & myselves. And I figured that it was "more logical" to assume that what I was really doing was ✨️ using my imagination to combat a deep sense of inner loneliness ✨️ with extra steps involved. The dream worlds I'm used to exploring seemed way easier to explain. They were metaphors for psychological forces or archetypes in my psyche. Not real. Not truly.

That idea has recently changed. It's real. It's all real. At least, it's very real to me. Antis get fucked.

When Netflix (*hiss*) removed The Originals from their selection, I lost interest in writing Dawn Misplaced, tried to move onto another endeavor, and put vampires out of my head. Tried. Apparently, my imagination had other plans. I started having weird, vivid dreams of being a character within The Originals-verse. Despite resisting these dreams, they ramped up, becoming much stronger, until they were leaking over into my waking life as intrusive daydreams. Sometimes, they lasted for just a second. Other times? It felt like hours had gone by even though it'd only been minutes in my CR. These daydreams felt like tugs on my brain from somewhere I couldn't explain.

Who is tugging on the other side is still very much unknown. Maybe it's my DR-self? Idk.

Half a year has passed doing my damnest to deny the pull. After all, I had my own dreams to play in!! And the (theoretical) Mikaelsons have plenty of shifters on their payroll... Why the hell would they want one more shifter???

Especially someone like me:

✅️ 35 years old

✅️ no money

✅️ no prospects

✅️ a burden to my family

✅️ frightened

No accounting for their taste but six months and countless intrusive daydreams later and I am FED UP with taking a passive stance on this. I've decided to treat this like any other dream world I explore and get to the bottom of these tugs! And possibly fist fight the one who's responsible for them. Before I do that though, I want to make a list of all the "mini shifts" or intrusive dreams that I've had since this ordeal started. Thinking back on them, I can see a disconnect between the dreams I'd have when I was asleep vs. daydreams I have when I'm awake. Tw: this list of scenarios are NOT for those uncomfortable with violence, blood, death, or manipulation. My version of the Mikaelsons don't play nice in my dreams.

Asleep dreams: Seem to play out as if I'm in the body of a character within The Originals and important to the plot somehow.

Awake dreams: Seem to play out as if I'm an invisible ghost of my CR self just watching things unfold around me while being unable to communicate or be seen by anyone.

List of TVD/Original-verse Minishifts (Part 1)

⚜️ Walking down the main staircase of the Mikaelson mansion (the one way out in the country) while hearing arguing voices. I see Hayley first. She's eating a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios nonchalantly. Rebekah is on her phone, swipping left on an app. When I get half-way down the staircase, Elijah and Klaus (the ones who are arguing) stop their bickering to drag me into it. Elijah turns to me, asking: "You agree with me, don't you?". Klaus makes a sarcastic face & asks "Surely you won't agree with my *morally tiresome* older brother?" At this point, I become lucid inside the body of this person I'm in. I pause for a second before responding, "Uh, maybe, I don't know??". Elijah looks at me weirdly at that reply. [Asleep]

⚜️ I wake up in a bed I don't recognize. It's a four-poster bed, carved out of polished dark cherry wood. The sheets smell clean & feel good to the touch. Morning light is pouring through a window. It's warm on my skin. I'm groggy as the body I'm in slides out of bed & stumbles over to the window to peer out of it. I can see an apple orchard and a driveway running straight through it. I notice how red the apples are, fixating on that for whatever reason. As soon as I do, I hear a sort of wind noise. Like an errant breeze just ran through the room. Elijah's voice drifts into my ear but I don't catch what he said. My body turns to face him, I feel my mouth moving. I'm saying something. I can't hear what I'm saying, tho. [Asleep]

⚜️ Kieran is kneeling at the foot of the altar inside St. Anne's. The heavy smoke of bitter incense clouds the air, wreathing around the priest as he mutters prayer after prayer. I'm not inside a body this time. I'm nowhere. It's like I'm viewing this scene remotely in a 3rd person perspective. The candles burning at the memorial altar in the alcove flicker, their flame suddenly growing huge. Whispers are heard all around. I hear Father Kieran reply to them, "Yes, I understand." [Asleep]

⚜️ "Now, Elijah, we've tried mercy and peace and leniency, but these witches are officially out of control-" I hear Klaus ranting before I gain my senses. I'm back inside whoever it is I'm possessing (?) standing in the kitchen of the Mikaelson mansion while Elijah & Klaus are arguing. Again. Rebekah makes a snarky comment about Klaus and how his tolerance policy usually involves a dagger, so she's on the side of the witches. Klaus snarls, pulling up the long sleeves of his shirt to display his arm. It's covered in a weird tattoo that seems to be growing, crawling towards his chest, & neck. It almost looks alive. "We have to think about this sensibly, Niklaus," Elijah says. And Klaus, in turn, snaps that's it's a little hard to think about anything but dead witches with this curse on his arm. I begin to speak. But, I wake up in my CR a second later. [Asleep]

⚜️ Again, I'm walking down the staircase. It seems like that's where I become lucid in my dreams the most. The mansion is silent, too silent. Maybe everyone is gone?? The minute that thought crosses *my mind*, I sense the air shift and feel the body I'm possessing get slammed hard into a wall. Even in the dream, it hurts. I look up to see the livid, pissed-off face of Niklaus Mikaelson. The tattoo on his arm has progressed. I can see it peeking out from behind the material of his V-neck shirt, nearest towards his collar bone. He tips my chin up with one finger while his other hand pins me to the wall of a secluded hallway I've never seen before. "You...haven't been honest," Niklaus says to me in a voice that's nearly a seductive purr. Well, it would be if it weren't so bloody fucking terrifying. "You've been keeping a secret from me and Elijah..." The body I'm possessing is going crazy with panic and adrenaline. I can feel my (?) heart pounding. It's distracting me from focusing fully on Klaus & his paranoid rant. He seems to realize this, tightening his grip on me. His voice is a threatening snarl when he speaks now. "You think you can just run off to your little world any time you want, don't you?! I don't think you understand-" And to be real honest, I don't, because I immediately woke up in my CR before I let Klaus finish his rant. [Asleep]

#desired reality #shifters #shifting #shifting blog #tvd shifting #tvd universe #shifting community #shiftblr #shifting realities #shifting stories #reality shifting #tvd dr #shifting to tvd #reality shifter #shifting diary #reality shift #mini shift #shifting to tvd is great until you have to deal with Niklaus

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puzzleddonkey · 7 months

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Rabbid Lore Headcanon: Hopefully Close As Possible To Canon With Some Insane Reaches

Rabbids are an enigma, a majority of their lore being unclear or completely insane, very fitting with the lore of their home planet (Glade of Dreams) which is just as difficult to make sense of, their oddities being especially prominent in the environment their franchise has settled into (Earth). As completely random and inconsistent as the lore appears to be, I do think there's a good amount of consistency that can paint a decent picture of what is there to know about rabbids, their history, biology, psychology, sociology, so on and so forth. But that picture varies from person to person, so I'll just be sharing my picture based on what I've seen across all of rabbid media (adverts, games, cartoons, books, and merchandise). A lot of it is going to be speculation since despite all there is to work with, almost none is outright explained or clarified, and I doubt it ever will be. But despite that, I hope to make my headcanon as close to canon as possible, even if some assumptions of rabbid lore were plucked out of thin air. Each topic will be linked to separate posts, this post acting as an introduction and table of contents. As a heads up, this blog will be updated regularly and I may get explicit with descriptions, mind my shaky grammar my 3 rotted braincells are trying their best.

What Are Rabbids?

Rabbids are an advanced race of anthropomorphic rabbit-like creatures with an intense temperament, their screaming, violence, and red eyes being the traits they're especially known for. Their antagonistic schemes on the Glade and Earth are played out as an alien invasion on par with Mars Attacks and Killer Klowns of Outer Space (without the gore that is, the focus most of all being very crude humor and chaos. Though Ubisoft was once close to releasing a mature rabbids game with slasher elements, unfortunately it had been scrapped so there will no longer be Killer Rabbids From Outer Space. Even so, the concept art and teasers published are still spectacular). On the Glade, they were deformed critters who emerged from the earth with no warning, bearing alien-like weaponry intent on taking over the planet. On Earth, they've come from outer space, using similar methods with a very similar goal.

Why Are Rabbids On Earth?

While including Earth seems like a strange move, the Rayman franchise had already established not only the existence of Earth but the fact that Rayman seems to have some ties there as well. How? That's a whole different topic to dig through, but overall, rabbids targeting Earth is not too far-fetched, especially Rayman's involvement in trying to thwart their plots again after having stopped them from taking over the Glade (based on the events of Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Gameboy Advanced). This time, however, Rayman's efforts would be in vain, the rabbids successfully conquering the planet and making it their home. Surprisingly they wouldn't change a thing about the planet, having found the cultures so fascinating that they completely assimilated into them, their culture becoming that of human culture. Instead of taking humanity's place as dominant mammal, they've decided to coexist with them to humanity's dismay. While the human race as a whole was panicked at first by the sudden and violent takeover, they would be just as quick to adjust and eventually perceive rabbids as nothing more than a nuisance, just enough to create a whole new workforce, Rabbid Verminators, introduced in Rabbids Go Home, and the SGAII-RD (the Secret Government Agency for the Investigation of Intruders - Rabbid Division), introduced in the Rabbids Invasion Case Files books. Whether this startlingly quick shift is a result of human nature (getting bored with major events after enough time has passed), human governments being extremely efficient in convincing citizens that they're mere pests that are to be ignored (either from the purposeful spread of propaganda or because their incompetence in handling the invasion was in full display), Rayman having informed said governments how to stop the rabbid's attempt at further domination (based on the ending of Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 on the 3Ds), or all three is up to debate.

What Are The Rabbid's Origins?

Despite always being depicted as technologically advanced pests of rage and chaos, they weren't always that way, the earliest descriptions of their origins paint them as the exact opposite of what rabbids are now commonly known for. They used to be the most peaceful creatures of the glade, said to be so kind that other creatures of the Glade would take advantage of that, ridiculing them, bullying them, and borderline torturing them until they were driven insane (based on dialogue from Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Gameboy Advanced). It is believed that they all retreated underground, hiding and plotting throughout the events of Rayman 1 to 3. Only after they would ascend without warning, the Glade feeling the wrath of the rage that had skyrocketed their evolution from simple friendly rabbids, to erratic mutants of war, taking pleasure in the pain and violence that drove them mad to begin with. Beyond this dialogue, there aren't any more details given in regards to what role rabbids played before they snapped, it can be inferred that they were like the dodo birds of the Glade of Dreams, except instead of being driven to extinction from their complete lack of survival instincts and supposedly being quite delicious (the dodos that is), they were driven to complete and utter insanity for the fun of it, one can assume that it was extremely difficult to make a meal out of a rabbid, let alone killing them, that rediculous durability likely playing a part in their docile behavior, what is the use of survival instincts when almost nothing threaten your survuval? Due to their lack of defenses before their inevitable meltdown, their technology was likely not as developed compared to what modern rabbids have at their disposal, perhaps they barely had any tech at all, living as simple wild folk whose daily agendas consisted of sleeping, eating, playing games, dancing, breeding, and repeating to overpopulate regions and solidify their existences as pests.

Rabbid Biology?

Rabbid Psychology?

Rabbid Sociology?

Rabbid + Human Affairs?

#rabbids #rabbids invasion #raving rabbids #mario + rabbids #rabbids go home #mario rabbids sparks of hope #mario rabbids kingdom battle

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onomatopagu-et-cie · 1 year

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Some (too many) mental notes & questions about D. Gray-man!

(SPOILERS UP TO CH. 247 & sorry if the terms used are awkward esp. the localization of the manga, I read it in french!)

I recently re-read DGM as the new chapter came out. I stopped catching up after volume 22 years ago and I am so glad I re-read the series!

If it was already beautifully sad and cruel, the volumes 23 to 27 hooked me even more. Like other manga (eg. Witch Hat Atelier, Berserk), the panel composition was already beautiful in the previous volumes but I was fascinated through my reading. The attention given to hands in these volumes (like MHA) was mind-blowing!

The Allen-Kanda-Johnny-Link group (and now Tiedoll) works really well, I didn’t expect that at all! Oh, and the character development/decline of every character is great, especially Allen & Neah, Kanda & Link (and Cross and Road in those flashbacks?????).

DGM wouldn’t be DGM if the mysteries didn’t keep growing even more cryptic as the story unfolds, so I guess here are some notes and questions I’ll come back to one day to see if they are answered!

► Now that we know the D. in DGM stands for ‘Dear’ (I already sense the tragedy in the title for both Allen and Mana aaaaa), I don’t know if this was intentional, but Mana in front of the mirror strongly reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray, especially the end (I shouldn’t have read this scene late at night, I was spooked haha). The characters of Allen and Neah, shrouded in mystery, also encapture the elusive personality of Dorian Gray.

► Paying extra attention to all the parallels between the Ghost of Mater & the Artificial Exorcists Arcs was Pure Pain. I’m always amazed how far the details go and make (even more or a whole new) sense later on.

► Lenalee and Komui’s story touched me once more aaaaaa ► Miranda’s power is really cruel, I wish we could see more of her someday ;;

► Road used for super-human the word ‘choujin’, which also seems to refer to the concept of übermensch in japanese ie. the ideal superior man of the future who could rise above conventional Christian morality to create and impose his own values... NOW THAT IS INTERESTING.

Especially regarding Road and Cross meeting & Allen’s prophecy as the ‘Destroyer of Time’ (the fact he could ‘sense’ Lenalee’s dream and interact with it, Cross ‘death’ by Apocryphos hands, past!Allen’s mystery over his rejuvenated body, Apocryphos observation on ‘Allen’s’ long existence as a parasite, and so on …)?????????????

And could she have a link to Allen and Lenalee’s dream of the future?

► The overarching theme of humans, akuma, Noahs and even the Earl at God’s/The Heart’s mercy manifests in many little plot points eg. the Ghost of Mater (that could even foreshadow the whole Cross/Road meeting), Road dressing Lenalee as a doll, Lenalee and Miranda taking their suffering as the Innocence testing them, Link turned into a puppet, Crown Clown and so on …

► Could this be Campbell’s mansion Allen will visit in the next chapters… ?

► Reever’s devotion to Komui ;;;;;;;;

► Fascinating how everyone except Allen is at risk of becoming a Fallen One, despite everything he does ‘against’ the Order, God and the Innocence: it could be explained by the role he was given by the Heart now that we have a bigger picture And it is foreshadowed since the Suman Dark Arc:

-> When Allen says Suman betrayed ‘God’, the kanji for god is used (kami), but the furigana read as Innocence:

And Allen even says later the Innocence punishes sinners as God itself, devuring Suman from the inside like a worm ……….

-> While Komui says he has betrayed God and the furigana read as God this time:

I love the word plays in the original versions with the furigana (I wonder if this has a name?), another example:

The kanji for family, kazoku, is read as the english « home », which we always saw used to describe the Order as a comforting place to return to: the Order was never Suman’s home, he always longed for his family

► Will this ever be explained? That, and Cross's special bond to God or the Heart!

Also this????????

AND ALSO CROSS HATRED FOR TIMCAMPY???????????

► Could Cross be a Bookman?

Neah’s flashback mentioned an ‘excentric uncle’, so it could also be Cross, given how he remembers Mana’s smile from his childhood, I am Confused Or he could be their childhood friend, as his appearance in the flashbacks suggests he would've had the same age past!Allen, Neah and Mana would have, around 35yo? Idek anymore! Either way, he has an obvious hold over his age like past!Allen, maybe through magic or their nature?

Was the unknown language Bookman spoke when the Ark was disappearing in the sky the same Mana taught Allen? In Komui’s corner, we learn Bookman knew in advance they would synchronize with an Innocence when their mission began???????? Do they somehow have links to the Heart or Apocryphos? Are they from the doomed world Road told Cross, as some sort of witnesses of the Noah's struggles on behalf of God?

► Tyki’s nature is hinted at by Road even as early as ch. 93, and the confrontation with Neah in the volume 26 makes me really think he’s some sort of copy of him

► This panel is Pain:

► I love Lenalee and Lavi’s relationship so much!! Lavi’s arc was gripping, and took Lenalee’s words on the boat (‘am I still in this world?’) to a whole new context

► About Luberrier :

How in hell was he aware of the 14th without even Cross telling him? His dialogue with Zuu before saving Link strongly suggests he knew the 3rd gen. project would cause the Noah attack on the laboratory and the 14th awakening, isolating Allen, as though he made a deal with a Noah or sb else. The ch150 (Hevlaska and Luberrier’s past) is haunting me, I’m really curious to see where this is going!

► About Link : We know so little about his past, how he became a Crow, how his devotion was built by the Administration (Link’s flashback with Luberrier after recovering was scary, how easily he gave in & Luberrier’s whole behavior was ugh)! Komui’s corner mentions the two red dots on the Crow’s forehead are scars left by the operation that made them sorcerers against their will + Allen tried to touch it, which made him mad GAHHHHHH I NEED MORE CONTEXT

Ch247 hurts even more considering Neah used the same words as Allen to greet Link but rang false aaaaaaa

Link’s profile is cut from the Central Administration’s organization chart from volume 25 (when he admits feeling conflicted over Allen’s fate), before his profile was included in the same box:

Komui’s corner once mentioned comforting food thanks to the emotional value they hold eg. Allen and Cross’s porridge. Link says he had something similar so I wonder if this will ever be showed in the manga!

► About past!Allen: This might be a reach, but ch221’s flashback made me think Atuuda’s magic (its symbol in particular) can be linked to past!Allen with the whole spiral of life theory (+ the fact his body rejuvenated by some miracle):

There are also many parallels with other dynamics in the manga: -> Neah-Cross & Mana — he was set on eliminating anything else that draws near Mana, as a promise he made to Neah -> Luberrier-Link & Neah-Allen — Luberrier needs Link in order to protect and save them from anyone -> past!Allen & Neah — he promised Neah he would protect his memory from anyone (-> Kanda & Alma — he was the only one that could save Alma)

(I don’t want to think about Link potentially becoming another host for Neah, sacrificing himself for Allen for example aaaaaa)

I saw Hoshino’s sister loves Link’s character and what happens next to him will potentially be pure pain, I get her because his potential is skyrocketing and I’m definitely not ready aaaaaaaa

► What was even going on between Neah and past!Allen???????????????

► Allen’s past was really devastating. Mana’s words by the sunset ;;;;;

► In ch216, Cornelia’s wood destroys Timcampy in a similar way Red is bound eyes and ears from the scene when the Earl comes back in the circus in the recent chapters (with those little black hands)

► The parallels & oppositions btw Kanda & Link (the potential of the trio Kanda-Allen-Link!!!!!) : -> both presented in a negative light at the beginning -> both now deem themselves unworthy to be a part of Allen’s life: Kanda is glad Johnny is there to support him, Link says he will disappear from Allen’s life if he defeats the 14th (and also That Panel when he saw Allen come back to his senses and save Johnny). Both have feelings they suppress when it comes to Allen, in a stark contrast with Johnny’s honesty -> both were objects of experimentation/intensive training but Kanda feels no loyalty to the Order, while Link does strongly to Luberrier -> both wound up with a shortened lifespan they hide atm (Kanda as a Fallen One & Link with Atuuda) -> both were targeted by Apocryphos and had their memories rewritten -> Kanda wants to kill the 14th, Link is ordered to aid him -> hands shown as holding dominion over them both (the Innocence, Luberrier and the Heart)

► Predictions for the next chapters: Since Johnny is going along with Allen & Link, there’s a chance : 1) Link will drive Johnny away so Neah wakes up ; 2) Neah will do it since he sees everything through Allen’s eyes and even challenges Link’s ‘loyalty’ 1) would be logical as everyone in Allen’s group feared it while Allen accepted the risk but given the whole arc, Link seems VERY conflicted over the whole matter (and their shoujo-esque reunion damn, that and volume 25 whole vibes) Also Road seems to have led Allen to the mansion through his dream because she thought he was dangerous (????) AND a ‘bookman’ was there, so a lot will happen!

Have a nice week-end!

#dgm spoilers #dgm meta #d gray man #allen walker #yuu kanda #link howard #cross marian #yullen #linkllen

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ferventfox · 10 months

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Saw the Barbie movie and enjoyed it a lot.

Some people on the internet have charged it with being misandrist/man-hating/whatever word you want to use for it, and those people...are kind of correct. Sorry. (Spoilers for the Barbie movie btw)

The standard smug response is “omg sexist dudebros can’t stand that a movie is about women and they are too toxic to understand the message of the film and how it deals with the fact that patriarchy hurts men too.” And sure, it’s made explicit that being in charge and having the material trappings of patriarchal power does not make Ken happy on an existential level (because his real dream in life is to be a horse girl), but it’s not enough to cancel out that every single man in the film is portrayed as an incompetent moron. Stuff like “Men love explaining the Godfather and think playing the guitar is interesting and impressive to women” doesn’t bother me--these are jokes in a comedy film and the characters doing them are doll people who live on a plastic beach. But it’s not just the Kens that are stupid, the men from the real world are all stupid too. The husband of the America Ferrera character is essentially a real world Ken--there just to be there and someone neither the audience or the women in his life spare much of a thought for unless we are laughing at how ridiculous his existence is. The Barbie movie is only “not sexist” in that it’s not as bad as you might expect because the bar for these sorts of thing is so low it’s on the ground.

The messaging around the whole Ken takeover is extremely weird and confusing. As Ken observes, the real world is opposite from life in Barbieland; in Barbieland the Barbies are the patriarchs who occupy all the positions of power and Kens are the “women” in that they are second-class citizens whose lives and identities revolve around the Barbies because they’re not permitted to do anything fulfilling or interesting on their own. But when Ken turns Barbieland into Kendom, the plot seems to run on the assumption that the audience’s sympathies would naturally be with the Barbies fighting to restore the status quo and not with the Kens, who were an underclass until about a day ago. Yes the society they set up is bad--it’s just the reverse of the unfair system that existed before--but there is very little sense that the Barbies are getting a taste of their own medicine and instead the narrative is that it’s tragic that these strong women who have won Nobel prizes have to be nice and pay attention to the obviously stupid and boring Kens for even a day. The main character expresses that she feels bad for treating Ken poorly and this is shut down by another character (meant to be a real human woman from the real world) who basically says she shouldn’t feel bad because Ken stole her house and “brainwashed” her friends but isn’t it just one of the struggles of womanhood that we feel bad about how we treat shitty men~ .

Like, what? All the Kens were homeless before this! I liked the Barbie character and all, but obviously I’m going to feel more sympathy for the person whose example of how the real world made him feel like someone is that a woman found his existence worthwhile enough to ask him for the time than for someone whose arc is dealing with her life being less than perfect for the first time.The former is both very sad and just more like a real experience that most people would have--a lifelong sense of inadequacy rather than having an idyllic existence that went suddenly wrong--yet it’s Barbie who is framed as the relatable one because, I suppose, she is a woman.

I think the movie relies a little too much on this “sisterhood” idea that I’ve always hated. I’m sure I’m meant to be nodding my head at the little speech about the contradictory expectations placed on women and going “yes that’s just what it’s like!”...but I simply didn’t relate to it at all and was left thinking it was sort of a weak, lazy solution to a conflict that was already a bit contrived to begin with. That Barbies would be just as susceptible to rhetoric from some college freshman’s B+ women’s study’s paper as they were to instantly adopting patriarchal ideas actually makes sense, but I don’t think that’s the joke--we’re meant to find it profound. (The human characters in general are the weakest part of the movie. It feels almost like they are remnant of an earlier version of the story that got changed a lot, especially the Mattel executives).

At the end there is some lip service to things not just going back to the way they were, but a Ken cannot have a seat on the supreme court. The point of this, I think, is supposed to be that just like a company releasing toy that is a woman president isn’t going to solve gender inequality, neither is this one event going to immediately change Barbieland into an egalitarian utopia; real equality is hard to to achieve and is a slow process of incremental changes. This is good, but it’s undercut by the movie wanting to have it’s cake and eat it too by having all these girlboss scenes where the Barbies are taking back Barbieland and are clearly better and smarter than the Kens. We’re meant to see them talk about “keeping Barbieland Barbieland” and getting to reinstate “their” constitution (that 0 Kens get to vote on) and feel...good? Inspired?

I couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with how this plotline ended because the situation looks sort of grim.The only Barbie who is ever shown to have any empathy for a Ken leaves, and the Ken with the most personal development gives up leading anyone because it’s not his thing and cedes his leadership position to a Ken who doesn’t have the motivation not to build his life around Barbie that he does. I think I would’ve liked it more if Ken also left Barbieland. He had an existential crisis too; he was also effected enough by his experience that he was capable of tears. If Stereotypical Barbie doesn’t feel like Barbie anymore, does Stereotypical Ken really feel like Ken? After having to completely redefine his entire reason for existing? As it is, it almost feels like the film is saying that Ken is too simple to be irrevocably changed by what he’s been through, like only Barbie’s feelings are deep and meaningful. I just wanted a post-credits scene where he runs a horse ranch with Allan or something.

#I wrote this big long post that could easily be responded too with but Ken was the best part of the movie #he so was!#which is why I'm left vaguely disappointed

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deancasbigbang · 8 months

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Title: When Dreams Come True

Author: Avonlady

Artist: Dream Pencil

Rating: Explicit

Pairings: Castiel/Dean Winchester; Sam Winchester/Eileen Leahy; Apocalypse World Charlie/Stevie; Donna Hanscum/Jody Mills; Claire Novak/ Kaia Nieves

Length: 66156

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence; Mild Depressive Elements; Minor mention of Drinking as a coping mechanism

Tags: Canon Divergent; Angst and Fluff and Smut; Dean Winchester has a wing kink; Adoption; Plot Twist; Inappropriate Use of Grace; Dean Winchester Wears Panties; Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms; Bottom Dean/Top Castiel; Happy Ending

Posting Date: October 26, 2023

Summary: After Chuck is defeated, Jack forces Dean and Cas to finally admit their feelings to each other and gives Cas his wings back in the process. They end up getting their happily ever after while Sam settles down with Eileen. Ten years they spend together as a couple, hunting when they need to, but mostly living the domesticated life Dean always wanted and Castiel always wanted him to have. Unfortunately, it all comes crashing down one day when Castiel goes on a hunt and doesn’t make it home. Dean will do whatever it takes to get the love of his life back and ends up getting more than he bargained for when he finds him again. This fic is canon compliant through Season 14 and starts off during the Ouroboros episode S14E14, from there it becomes Canon divergent with some of the rest of Season 14 and Season 15 being the same, but slightly different. S15E20 doesn’t exist and there is an alternate storyline 10 years into the future.

Excerpt: The thing with Dean and Castiel now being boyfriends that Dean finds interesting is that nothing has really changed other than the fact that they kiss each other now. He and Castiel had basically been dating since the moment they met, but they were the only two that didn’t know about it. Sam isn’t even surprised when he finally makes it back to the bunker and catches them making out on the couch in the Dean cave while watching a movie. He just tells them to scoot over so he can join them. “What movie are we watching?” he asks. Dean looks over at his brother with the bitchiest bitch face to ever bitch. “What do you mean what movie are we watching? You’re not even going to comment on the fact that Cas and I were just playing tonsil hockey.” He holds his finger to Castiel’s mouth because he knows the angel is going to say something about tonsils having nothing to do with hockey. “Why would I say anything? You two can do what you like. I’m surprised this is the first time I’ve walked in on you two kissing though. I thought you just waited until you were alone in your bedroom or something. Just thought you were against PDA?” “We just started kissing today. Why would we have been kissing before?” “People who are in a relationship usually kiss. You mean you two haven’t kissed before today?” “We weren’t in a relationship before today.” Sam just stares at him for a minute as if he doesn’t understand what is going on and then the lightbulb over Dean’s head finally turns on. “Wait, you thought we were in a relationship?” “Well, yea, weren’t you?” “No.” “Oh, my mistake.” “How long ago did you think we started dating?” “I don’t know. Nobody can really put a date on it, but at least since Cas came back from being possessed by the Leviathans, some think before that.” “What do you mean nobody? Who else thought we were dating already?” Sam stares into space for a minute like he’s trying to calculate something in his head. “Pretty much everyone who knows the two of you.” “Unbelievable.” Dean storms out of the Dean cave and looks back when he notices that Castiel isn’t behind him, so he yells back as he’s walking. “Cas, are you coming?” He hears Castiel apologize to Sam for leaving so rudely. He would have to explain to Castiel that we don’t apologize to annoying little brothers when they are being annoying. Dean continues the walk to his room with Castiel on his heels. He waits for the two of them to get into the room and then he slams the door for good measure. He knows Sam probably didn’t hear it because the bunker is too big, and they are too far away, but it makes him feel better anyway.

DCBB 2023 Posting Schedule

#dcbb 2023 #fic preview #2023 promo #deancas #destiel

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blizzardstarx · 2 months

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Here is Queen Paradox of the ShapeWings! Also more information about the roleplay Pontalo was made in, and fun facts!

whoops i forgot the masterlist here it is

she kinda looks like Freedom…

I wanted to combine her original design, a fiery phoenix named Eternal Flame, into her colors, and the LeafWing greens. Also the pink is the exact pink Dolphin’s bioluminescent scales are.

Soooo for her entire backstory I gotta explain what the roleplay was about

The roleplay was called Creature School, about… creatures. At a school. Paradox, or Flame back then, had four forms (we could have up to four forms total): A fiery colored phoenix, a manticore, a wolf with wings, and a dragon that I forgot the description for, but it wasn’t a particular species.

In the earlier parts of the roleplay, like in the 260s (pages, each page had 10 forum posts, so this roleplay had around 8740 posts) the first instance of the Pontalonion dragons was the map. I think Eclipse was the first Pontalonian dragon I created, but Torrent was changed a shortly after to be first a reincarnation of King Tiger Shark, but then later, an actual HydroWing. Paradox discovers and remembers she’s a ShapeWing and the long lost queen when Eclipse gives her a scroll of the Pontalo tribes, and she hears it in her dreams of her memories of the Great ShapeWing Genocide. She is frightened of BloodWings, who are shortly introduced a couple of pages in the roleplay, the first BloodWing called Diabolos, who was a minor villain.

Torrent and Paradox had three eggs, (in the 300s) Shapeshifter, who mostly looked like a ShapeWing, Dolphin, who looks like a mix between a ShapeWing and HydroWing, and Seashell, who mostly looks like a HydroWing.

Another BloodWing named Abaddon, but not actually a BloodWing and is a seperate species in disguise, opens portals that allowed creatures from other universes to come. This was called the portal plot. It was around page 370-480. They had to stop him and shut the portals after returning the new people.

The school had been destroyed multiple times, (like three times, spread out in the 50s-200s) and the final school the ogs (they were students at the beginning) (Flame, Dagger, Misty, and Fang, which my three friends and I played) created and were the staff/administration, lots of our ocs attended. Paradox’s dragonets attended, too. There was a motto that all creatures were equal or something like that, bullying was not permitted.

The roleplay focused on a school plot on and off, but it was basically the insane adventures of the ogs and later other ocs. It was focused in the first 100-200s? and then in the 600s and mentioned sometimes

Knight the SwordWing was born in the 500s! He ran off from his adoptive parent who was played by one of my friends and wanted to prove to others? idk, but he had to fight off monsters sent from the Shadow Tribe that were designed to kill SwordWings for their defection. (SwordWings were actually supposed to be a Shadow Tribe defecting tribe, not BloodWings, but then I got the idea of them being former BloodWings.)

He found the ruins of the SwordWing kingdom and found his sister’s egg, protecting it from monsters.

The king of the SwordWings, Knight and Dauntless’s father, was named Sharp.

Dolphin was bullied by some SeaWings for looking weird, (page 670s) as HydroWings were thought to be extinct, and she fled school after Paradox stopped them and tried to comfort her, flying off to the ocean, and discovering the long lost HydroWings.

The Pontalonian dragons exist at the same time as the modern Pyrrhian and Pantalan dragons, but Pontalo was also there long before they were, before the Scorching. The other tribes barely know they exist, and only HydroWings were known to the Pyrrhian dragons, thought to be long gone.

ShapeWings are probably what Freedom was, or was descended from. Some ShapeWings probably traveled to Pyrrhia and Pantala and settled down there, eventually leading to the Scorching.

The roleplay was abandoned at page 874, everyone just stopped replying.

So, in short: Paradox was queen of the ShapeWings, then the genocide happened, she flees, gets amnesia after crashing on the roleplay’s land, and becomes a student, then staff, then gets a memory and reminder that she’s the ShapeWing queen. She stays on the land and slowly but surely repopulates the ShapeWings, but they all have HydroWing blood because of Torrent.

Fun facts now that I’ve reread parts of the roleplay:

The Great ShapeWing Genocide was called The Great Blood War

Eclipse was a SunWing-MoonWing hybrid, she got kicked out of her tribe and landed in Pyrrhia (where the roleplay was at in that part). She played a big role in a part of the roleplay, and she had an ex-mate named Cloud (An AirWing, which was probably my earlier version of a LightWing) who was an animus

MoonWings changed form under the full moon, their scale colors grew darker, and their spikes grew longer and sharper. Their bioluminescent scales were brighter. Also they did have a language with their bioluminescent scales, like Aquatic. However, they’re about blending into the shadows, and I removed the language because it would give them away.

there was a LightningWing named Thunder and one of my friends played a SunWing named Solar

Solar and Eclipse were supposed to get together but idk what happened to them

Eclipse is mentioned later in the roleplay and has Helios as a mate. I don’t know if it’s the same Eclipse though

Pontalo had some rules, animus dragons can only use their magic once, no hybrids, and… never show mercy to a tribe?? dumb rule but it was why the ShapeWings got wiped out but like these rules arent in place now. they suck

Torrent was supposed to be a SeaWing commander that got banished for a false accusation of “trying to kill the SeaWing queen” who was his sister, and the SeaWing king’s name was Lobster lmfao

also my friend had a few other dragon species?? RockWings, SilverWings, and TribeWings (who had three pairs of wings?). Huh. They were never mentioned again

There were supposed to be five Pontalo tribes, AirWings, MoonWings, SunWings, ThunderWings, and FireWings. ShapeWings were added later as an explanation to why Flame could change into a bunch of forms, not just those four main ones, and the genocide was setup for her backstory. HydroWings were just an ancient Pyrrhian tribe as setup for the SeaWings, but they were changed to Pontalonian somewhere in the roleplay.

the old Pontalo map looked like this

ThunderWings, now changed to LightningWings, had electric scales that could shock to the touch and were great swimmers. “They charge their scales by getting struck by lightning on their ‘lightning rod’ on their nose.” FireWings have flame scales and could scorch dragons with their touch.

SunWings were based on Heliolisk, they (were) small, had those frills on their necks, sluggish at night, and they get energy from the sun which charges up their scales. They could blast a beam of light from their mouths.

There was a tribe called the ColorWings, who were more like the RainWings and painted, which I combined into the original ShapeWings (that could only shapeshift) into the now ShapeWings.

For some reason Knight could like. Transform into his father?? Well, into the shape kinda?

In this roleplay and another roleplay I did two years ago, Knight and Dauntless can curl up into a spiky armored ball and roll at people as a form of attack. It’s funny, I’m making it canon.

There’s probably a lot of things I missed, but oh well, I don’t like rereading my roleplay stuff. It’s really bad.

@castiels-destiny

Edit:

#blizz's art #Pontalo!!!#wings of fire #wof #wings of fire au #wof au #wings of fire art #wof art #wings of fire oc #wof oc

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dollyyyhouse · 1 year

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

An AU where the demons involved in the exchange student program have always plotted to sacrifice the humans in the program.

This is an edit! I'm adding some content warning because I originally forgot to add some :}

CW: Mentions and descriptions of violence, mostly a horror AU!

Poor sleep habits were common, nothing unusual for people like yourself, but ever since your arrival in the Devildom; sleeping peacefully seemed like a thing of the past. You began to toss and turn in your sleep, night terrors of violent scenes, all of which involved YOU playing the poor and helpless victim flooded your dreams, and those few seconds you faded in and out of sleep— you could hear ghastly cries for help to YOU and ineligible mumbling in your ear. Perhaps it was your mind playing tricks on you?

No. You swore it wasn't, the Avatars of Hell even explained the story behind the House of Lamentation. The macabre and brutal murders that took place and how poltergeist roamed the halls in search of either revenge or rest— for all you knew, you might have stood in the exact same place as a victim during the attacks! Were the same entities that had died in the murders the ones whispering and crying out for help to you?

Some nights, all you could do was helplessly lay in your bed, praying for a sun that would never come out. Oh, how you wished to see the light of day during those lonely nights. All you could do was find beauty in the little things; and that's exactly what you did.

One evening, you confided in the second eldest brother, Mammon, about your fears of living in the house, along with your night terrors. "Huh? What are ya' yapping about, human?" Mammon looked at you in a funny way, as if you were some weirdo. "Uh, well, I don't know," you let out an awkward laugh, "I guess it's just my imagination that's making me feel uneasy. You did explain that all sorts of ghost and ghouls exist in the Devildom." The demon laughed, "Aha! The Great Mammon is always right!"

"I told ya', stop freaking out over no big deal, not like anything can hurt you with me watchin' over ya'!" Mammon slung his arm over your shoulder, keeping you close, almost too close. It was like he always wanted to have power over you. Even if he didn't boast about it outright— Mammon, along with all of his brothers and the others involved in the exchange student program, were one step ahead of you. "Those dumb little ghost can't do anything. All they do is whine and groan about the past, just don't talk to them. " Little by little, you tuned Mammon out. You originally didn't mean to, you had just fallen down a rabbit hole of thoughts. When you realized he was still complaining about 'this' and 'that', you just grew tired of listening to the greedy man speak.

You parted ways from the demon, using the excuse of wanting to wash up and have some alone time in the bathroom. Truth be told, Mammon's words didn't soothe you at all. His statement about how the ghost only ever "complain about the past" struck a nerve with you, how could they not? Majority of them died pitiful deaths and were cursed to roam a house with a tainted reputation.

So, here you were. Fresh out of the bath, brushing your teeth and planning on heading to bed soon after. You spit out the left over toothpaste, glancing at your reflection in the foggy mirror before looking down into the sink, you resumed brushing, catching another glimpse of yourself in the mirror. You spit again, in the upper corner of your eye, you see a young girl in a tattered and bloody nightgown, you go to grab a cup — wait what?

Flipping around, you see no one. "Holy shit.. I need to get a grip of myself!" You mumble. Turning back to the mirror, a message appeared to form in the foggy and damp mirror. "Run." You weren't sure if that was the message intended, the writing looked as if a child had written it in a rush. Deep down, you prayed it was just a young poltergeist playing tricks on you, maybe the kid had eavesdropped on your conversation with Mammon?

You discarded your towels on the bathroom counter, hurrying over to your closet to dig for pajamas before someone saw you naked. Once you grabbed a nightgown, you quickly threw it on and jumped into bed— hoping that you could fall asleep before the monsters came out to play.

It truly seemed like everyone and everything around you was always one step ahead of you. When you shifted in your bed, you were met with a pair of eyes only displaying a mortified expression. When you blinked, they were gone. Retreating under the blanket, you curled up and made sure the blanket was properly tucked underneath you and that not even a toe would be seen; only allowing a small pocket of air for your nose. "I feel too much like a scared child right now, damn it, it's so stuffy underneath this stupid blanket!" Shutting your eyes, a pout formed on your lips and your brows furrowed.

The security of the blanket seemed to help you, because just a few moments later, you were slowly falling into sleep, but conscious enough that even a creak of a door would alert you. Usually the night terrors would wait until you were in a deep sleep to begin; but this time they begun early.

Your thoughts were hazy, you could barely keep up with the dialogue running through your dream, but familiar figures lurked throughout the dream.

"Stop this! Please! I thought I could trust you!" Those words fell from your lips, only to fall upon deaf ears. Your body moved on it's own, as much as it possibly could with the ropes holding your body into the shape of a star. "Barbatos, is everyone ready to begin our precious exchange student's graduation ceremony?" A grand voice spoke, the owner of the voice was all too familiar, along with the name he mentioned. Nothing made sense, but neither did the 8 other hooded figures surrounding you. All of the demons began to chant an unknowing curse, the man who spoke first stood beside you, wielding a large knife. "No, no, no, no, no! Stop, I did everything I was supposed to! I thought you were meant to keep the human exchange student alive no matter what!—" In a swift motion, the tall figure stabbed you in the chest, twisting and forming a shape in your lower chest to upper gut.

And just like that, you woke up and recollected all the other scenes in your night terrors. All had similar dialogue and the same hooded figures, almost everything was the exact same, besides a few scenes where your restraints broke loose due to "your" thrashing. The nightmares weren't of you, instead, you were only a replacement for the past exchange student who suffered a fate you were soon also going to suffer.

The poltergeist around you were only trying to warn you. The demons you thought of as friends were the hooded figures of the dreams! How could you be so stupid to trust a demon, let alone 9 demons?! Your heart race increased, it seemed like at any moment your heart would just bounce out of your chest and run away!

It all made sense, the highest ranking demons of Devildom were always PLENTY of steps ahead of you. You didn't know when, but soon, you were going to be betrayed and slaughtered.

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murdock-and-the-sea · 11 months

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noctuary · henry x reader

noctuary (n.)

the record of a single night's events, thoughts, or dreams

summary: you're a young vampire, turned against your will and abandoned by your sire. henry has taken you in, and while you're thankful for his mentorship, there's a certain kind of tension building between the two of you

pairing: henry x reader

word count: 3.2k

warnings: 18+ ONLY MINORS DNI. swearing. mentions of blood (duh), one dead fox (sorry), horny vampires, smut, lots of biting (not sorry), kisses, sucking, marking, oral (f rec), filthy kiss, p in v, outdoor sex, you name it sugar

a/n: so I love different vampire myths/lore and obviously, I had to make up a few things for this fic to work. most of my inspiration came from the vampire: the masquerade ttrpg/video games series which I ADORE and uh, this was a lot of fun to write! so there's quite a bit of plot to this. ...oops? Also, some spoilers for the horribly dumb but still somehow entertaining movie that is eat locals.

Dividers by @firefly-graphics.

The world felt inky black under the thick canopy of the trees, broken occasionally by the moonlight shining through a few patches, but you found your way easily, your eyes adjusting to the dark. The air was warm, heavy and damp with summer and the scent of flowers and grass hanging all around.

You’ve been walking for an hour or two now, heading deeper into the woods to clear your thoughts. You weren’t sure if it was working.

But you needed a little space.

The past few months have been hard, to say the least. You remembered walking home late one night, lost in your thoughts - and then, your next memory was waking up on the side of an abandoned road, curled up in pain as your whole body was wrecked by cramps, shivers and the deepest, most ferocious hunger that you have ever felt in your life.

It was sheer luck that Henry and Sebastian found you, dragging you with them, fleeing the impending dawn as you fell in and out of consciousness, too weak to struggle.

You could still recall that hunger, fighting to take over you until you felt the metallic taste of blood pooling on your tongue - that sinister-sweet, dark pleasure filling you, a single drop falling from the corner of your mouth and the crimson shadow that Henry covered over his wrist.

Even though he wasn’t your sire, a bond formed between you two.

A strong one.

One that was hard to ignore, even now as you tried to get as far away from him as possible, making your way through the undergrowth.

It’s not that you weren’t thankful. Without their help, you surely wouldn’t have made it through that first night. But it was hard to take it all in. The fact that vampires exist felt like the plot to a terrible movie, and whether you liked it or not, it was your reality now.

It was demanding getting used to your new life, both physically and mentally. To control your hunger, no matter how strong ancient instincts were gnawing at your bones. To keep to the darkness.

To play by the rules.

The Council graciously spared your life under the sole condition that Henry was now responsible for you.

Teaching you. Guiding you. Guarding and providing for you until you’re fit to receive your own territory. And your own place among the new Eight.

And you were grateful for his mentorship, truly. But he was - how could you put it?

Overbearing.

Of course, there was much to learn - from the history of what you’ve become, to your new-found abilities, and Henry took his time explaining it all. But he was always with you, shadowing your every move. On some nights, he allowed you outside, teaching you how to feed, how to blend in with the shadows. But most of the time he saw it best if you stayed inside, where you could be kept safe despite you frequently voicing your disagreement.

It was patronizing, and it was driving you insane. The fact that he saved your life was already enough to make you feel indebted to him for eternity - even if you’ve thanked him numerous times, and he never mentioned or taunted you with it. But it was there, hanging thickly in the air between you.

Just a few days back, you were out hunting, crouching together in the shadows on the outskirts of the forest. Motionless, you waited for something, anything, to cross your path.

You swallowed thickly at the memory of Henry’s body pressed tightly to yours, his breath fanning your face. Vaguely, you were aware of him talking, the low whisper in your ear sending shivers through your very core.

Then, a low chuckle, a smirk on his face when he realized you didn’t hear a single word of what he was saying. Even as he scolded you, all you could think about was how fucking close his lips were to your skin; and you couldn’t decide whether you wanted to get closer or farther away from it.

Nevertheless, all that close proximity wasn’t doing you any favors. You felt tense, all your frustration pent-up and ready to burst. More and more often you caught yourself looking at Henry, your gaze lingering over him: his face, his lips, his beard, down his neck before you caught yourself and turned abruptly away.

You’d sit there, frozen in silent horror, begging all higher powers that this be no more than a passing infatuation.

If he noticed, he didn’t say anything. Yet sometimes, just sometimes, when you couldn’t bear it anymore and let your eyes wander to him again, you’d catch him staring right back at you. His expression unreadable, umber eyes darkening as he focused intently on you. Like a deer caught in the headlights, you’d gape back at him, fleeing the room with the lamest excuse tumbling out of your mouth.

Then, you’d close the door on yourself, laying in bed in the dark, thoughts racing as you wondered about the taste of his lips, or how that beard would feel against the soft skin of your thighs.

At sunset, Henry woke you from an uneasy sleep, to let you know he was going out for the night. Except this time, he wasn’t taking you along.

“Seba will keep you company.” he said, already halfway out the door when you snorted indignantly, muttering under your breath. He stopped, turning back slowly.

“What was that?” he asked, voice low and eyes flashing dangerously in the dusklight.

“Nothing.” you replied, and made sure it sounded as venomous as possible.

Henry took a step back into the room, towering over you.

“Good.” he said, and while he sounded calm, there was an underlying threat in his tone that made it crystal clear he was not up for your bullshit tonight. “I have something to take care of. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“You could take me with you.”

God, you sounded so pathetic.

“This doesn’t concern you.” he said, leaving no room for argument. In a second, he turned his back on you, a whisper of a pain making room in your chest at how easy it was for him to be so dismissive of you. A sharp contrast to the yearning that seemed to burn every inch of your being, and you had to bite your tongue to not beg him to stay.

He looked back from the doorway, giving you one last warning.

“I’d better find you here when I’m back.”

Fuck him.

He was barely out of the house and you managed to convince Sebastian that you felt tired and wanted to be alone. You hoped Henry wouldn’t bite his head off for being naive enough to believe that lie.

Just to be sure, you waited a little before climbing out the window and made your way towards the woods. The cool night air, and the hike through the forest helped take your mind off of things at least. Not completely, of course, but it was nice.

It felt of freedom, even if there was a life to the forest; one the daylight would never let you see. Several hedgehogs crossed your path, hurrying on their way and you scared off an owl when a twig snapped under your boots.

Eventually, you reached your destination - a small creek cutting the forest in two, opening up the night sky. There was much more light here - the full moon rising high, illuminating the trees and breaking into a myriad pieces on the surface of the water.

You sat down on the riverbank, taking it all in. The clouds were clearing in the gentle wind, revealing the stars to you. Absent-mindedly, you pick up a small stone and throw it in the water. The splash scares up some critter hiding at the other bank and the leaves rustle under its paws as it scurries away.

For a few minutes, you just sit there, listening to the trickle of the stream and the occasional cricket chirping in the distance.

And then, you sense him, his presence looming behind you.

You’re not sure how far he was following behind because god damn it, you didn’t notice a thing. In fact, you’re pretty certain you only noticed him now because the bastard let you and that realization stirs up some old anger in you.

“What do you want?” you spat, refusing to spare him even a glance as you threw another stone.

“‘S nice to see you, too.”

“Go away.”

Another splash. He doesn’t move a muscle, of course - you’re in no position to order him around. It reminds you that you have no say in this game, no power. Instead of bickering, he simply sits down next to you, much to your surprise.

“I found a dead fox in the bushes. Was that you?”

You turn to him with a cold glare. “I’m not proud of it, y’know.”

Henry just chuckled. “Yeah, you’ll get used to it.”

You couldn’t help it. You were hungry, and taking what you needed from humans was not something you were ready to do. Pretty sure it wasn’t something you’d ever be ready for. At least there was no judgment from Henry for that. He was a firm believer that even as a vampire, one could still have standards - something he encouraged while mentoring you, too.

His voice dropped lower.

“I just want you to understand-”

“It’s fine.” you interrupted, throwing yet another stone. The words were venom on your tongue, except this time, you didn’t mean it. It just hurt.

Henry scoffed. “Can you stop being a brat for five minutes?”

“You don’t have to explain. I don’t care.”

Splash.

“But I do.”

“Don’t.” You raised your hand, ready to hurl another rock when he caught your wrist.

He wasn’t causing you any pain, just held on firmly when you struggled. You expected him to get angry. To yell. But when you looked over, ready to stare him down, to bicker until fucking dawn; there was something else in his eyes instead. Something soft, and caring - and it scared you.

With a huff, you tore your hand from his grasp. But you shut up.

Henry took a deep, uneasy breath.

“It happened only a few months before we found you, when there were still Eight of us. We met one night, to discuss some official matters. It was supposed to go all smoothly, far enough from town at a rural farmhouse.”

He snorted at the memory. “You’d think a handful of ancient vampires would know better, but we weren’t careful enough. I guess the past centuries made us a little too comfortable. A group of soldiers overwhelmed us.”

An awkward silence settled slowly, causing you to swallow against a sudden dryness in your throat. Never in your wildest dreams could you guess that something like this was behind his caution and sheltering. There were precautions to being a vampire, sure and the rules and quotas were in place to protect you, but still.

“A lot of my friends were killed that night.” He continued. “Only three of us survived - and Seba.”

“That was the night you met Sebastian?” you asked, incredulous.

“Yeah.” Henry looked over to you with concern. “Did he tell you about all this?”

“Just mentioned something in passing, once. Then panicked and refused to say anything else when I tried asking about it.”

“That sounds like him alright, yeah.”

“But what happened exactly?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it just as quickly, shaking his head. “One night, I will tell you. But I can’t, not now.”

He shifted closer, leaning in; you could almost feel his skin touching yours. If you tilted your head, just slightly-

“I- I can’t let that happen again. I couldn’t bear it. I can’t.”

You could practically hear your heart breaking over the pleading in his voice. “Henry…”

And there it was again. That gaze that seemed to see right through all the walls you’ve built, baring all your deepest desires. He was so close, impossibly close, his breath on the air, a whisper like a breeze.

“I can’t lose you.”

You moved before you could think. Just an inch forward, pressing your lips over his. His breath hitched and you braced yourself for inevitable disappointment; for refusal. You weren’t ready for the soft moan in the back of his throat, giving himself to you.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this, îngeraș*.” he muttered before slipping his tongue into your mouth, and you didn’t even try to resist him, almost high on his taste.

Where you were desperate, needy and giving in, he was now intense; almost controlling as he took over, one hand slipping to the back of your neck, lowering, pushing you down until the scent of wildflowers erupted around you as you hit the ground, the starry skies embracing you from above.

Panting heavily, Henry pulled away briefly only to look at you, eyes glowing in the dark before he practically attacked your clothes, stripping you of your shirt, your own hands busy with his belt, tearing off his coat, getting rid of anything that could come in your way.

He looked absolutely gorgeous; better than anything you could have ever imagined: his body bathed in the moonlight, muscles glistening with sweat. Your eyes dropped to his neck, then lower, down his chest, following that sweet happy trail and you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself anymore, reaching out - only for him to catch your wrists again.

“Not yet,” he taunted, kissing the inside of your wrists half-apologetically. “I know you’ve been waiting for this, angel, but I’m gonna make you earn it.”

You choked on a sound, opening your mouth to protest but he interrupted you.

“That’s right,” he added, amusement evident in his voice at your shocked expression. “You think I couldn’t hear you? Panting and writhing and whispering my name in the other room as you touched yourself?”

You could feel heat creeping across your face, half in embarrassment, half in defiance as you tried to wrestle your hand free.

“Fuck, Henry, just let me touch you-”

“No.” He said firmly, grabbing your other wrist, pinning your hands above your head with ease as he laid above you, his face a mere inches from yours. “If I’m to claim you, right here, you’re gonna lay there and take what I’m giving you and you’re gonna be a good fucking girl and obey, you hear me. Can you do that, huh? Just once?”

You smirked. “Make me.”

The growl he let out was carnal, fangs flashing before he bit down on your neck. You moaned at the feeling of his teeth sinking into your flesh, just shy from breaking skin but enough to leave a deep mark, a final claim to make you his.

He grinded his hips against yours, his hard cock pressing to your thighs and you practically whimpered, wanting to feel him inside you.

“You’re mine.” he whispered, pressing kisses over his mark, “mine.”

Then, a trail of open mouthed kisses leading to your collarbone, your breasts, and he brought your hands down with his, fingers intertwined with yours to keep you in your place. You were a squirming, whimpering mess as he toyed with your nipples, fangs barely scraping your skin before he took them in his mouth, suckling on them, coaxing the most delicious sounds from you.

You clenched around nothing, needy and craving more as you tried to get some friction, grinding against him. One last lick, his eyes closed as he hummed in appreciation, his tongue slowly sliding over the soft skin of your breasts.

He was hunger itself, feral on the scent of your arousal as he slid lower, leaving small bites all over your stomach and sides, and you moaned louder and louder each time his fangs sinked into your flesh, practically crying with need.

And fuck, if it didn’t feel good to know you had this affect on him, the power to make him drop to his knees and worship every inch of your body with his mouth, his breath damp against your skin.

“Henry, please.”

One last bite, harder than the others, a low growl warning you to let him take what he needs, craves, wants. He squeezed your hands before finally letting go, laying flat on his stomach between your legs, eyes glowing with a fire like the stars above.

“Beautiful angel.” he said, arms wrapping around your thighs, holding you close, keeping you in place as he finally devoured you, dragging his tongue up between your folds, and you almost sobbed, lost in the pleasure.

Your hands scrambled until you found purchase in his hair, shamelessly guiding his movements as you rocked against him, your clit throbbing as he nipped and sucked on it. It felt like you could come any second, your whole body trembling with the force of it when he pulled away.

He wanted to give you more.

His beard was glistening with your arousal, and he made a half hearted attempt to wipe it away, only to reconsider, sucking his fingers greedily for every last drop. When he climbed over you, you couldn’t contain it anymore and reached out to cradle his face, pulling him in for a filthy kiss. He obliged happily, letting you get a taste of yourself.

He didn’t bother to warn you before he thrusted inside you, and fuck, it knocked the air right out of you, a choked sound in the back of your throat he swallowed readily. He filled you up completely, fitting so perfectly that there was no question he was made for you; born for you eons ago for this moment to make you lose yourself in him, his body, his yearning, his love.

He started rocking his hips, his eyes drawn to where your bodies met, watching his cock disappear in you, filling you with pleasure. He was drunk on your moans and the way his name hung on your lips, the way your hands looked for purchase so frantically, grabbing for his shoulders.

Panting, he picked up his pace, pounding into you harder, faster, deeper with each stroke, hissing, cursing softly under his breath when you dragged your nails down his back but fuck if he didn’t love it. It didn’t take long to get you close; the way you clenched around him, your eyes fluttering shut at the overwhelming feeling of your whole body overcome with pleasure drove him over the edge too, the two of you cumming together, the clearing next to the creek loud with your grunts and moans.

Henry barely kept himself from collapsing over you, too greedy to pull out just yet, and you didn’t mind. You were high on euphoria, dizzy with pleasure, your hands lazily caressing his skin.

“We have to go.” he eventually said, softly, in-between featherlight kisses that he peppered along your neck.

He was right, you had to get back before sunrise.

“I want to stay like this forever.” you replied, the words tumbling out of you before you even realized.

“Don’t worry,” Henry said, smirking. “The dawn will find you in my arms, draga mea*; but not here.”

*îngeraș [romanian]: little angel

*draga mea [romanian]: my darling

@itwasthereaminuteago @munsonownsmyass 😘

#henry #eat locals #henry eat locals #henry x reader #eat locals fic #eat locals fanfic #v's scribbles

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justalittlestarguy · 4 months

Text

Small Collection of Deltarune Musings

I see people constantly posting their Deltarune theories online so I decided to post mine in a corner of the internet.

Toby Fox & Deltarune's Origins

I feel like people when theorizing about Deltarune largely overlook how Deltarune came to be... it's enormously important to the timeline of events. We have to remember that Toby doesn't really compromise on ideas - I think it's a safe to assume that Deltarune of the past is largely still what Deltarune of now is.

Let's go over the facts real quick.

The idea for Deltarune came to Toby Fox in a dream he had in 2011 while he was at college. In the dream, he saw the ending to a video game and was determined to create it. Fox was also inspired by a collection of playing card designs posted on Tumblr by artist Kanotynes. Development of the game started in 2012, although it was abandoned before Fox created the first room.

(Source: Wikipedia page on Deltarune, cites a Nintendo article on Ch. 1)

We have to remember that Deltarune is the original. This is my core problem with people theorizing about Deltarune in the context of Undertale. While as an audience that is all we are privy to regarding Toby's world, we have to remember that Undertale came from Deltarune, not the other way around. If anything would refer to Undertale, that's either Toby messing with his audience or means something different in this context.

Deltarune is an AU to Undertale in one sense, but in many others, it's a prequel. I am in the full belief that Deltarune's events are before Undertale could ever happen. If Undertale and Deltarune were in the same universe, Undertale would 100% happen after it, but I don't think Toby was lying when he said that the events are largely unrelated.

In fact, I don't think Toby has ever once lied about his details about Deltarune. "They are connected in a sense" and "they are not in the same universe" can both be true at once. Toby is not even necessarily lying by omission, but moreso that as an audience we could not realistically grasp the timeline from a meta perspective. The only real outlier is "Deltarune is meant to be played by fans of Undertale" as expressly retroactive, and I think this is because Undertale fans will get something new out of his characters.

I think that the timeline largely explains a lot of factors that people theorize about and can't quite get to the bottom of, including...

W. D. Gaster

People talk about the fact that Gaster's fingerprints are all over Deltarune's narrative, and Andrew Cunningham went over all of Gaster's leitmotivic theories very well, better than I ever could. Like most Deltarune theorycrafting videos though, I got stuck on one line from the video, when talking about April 2012 (the song).

For April 2012... I don't know man. Even if Toby Fox crawled out from under my bed and handed me a ratified document professing that the quote here was 100% intentional, what would that really tell us beyond the fact that Gaster's theme has existed since at least 11 years ago? It would be interesting, sure, but not particularly insightful.

My liege Cunningham I must respectfully disagree. I believe that April 2012, if a real Gaster quote, actually tells us a lot about Gaster and why he's all over Deltarune. In terms of concrete information about plot details, the answer is small, but definitive. After all, Gaster escaping his confinement as "merely unused content that people love fan speculation over" would be quite interesting itself. We assume that he will show up, but aside from ANOTHER HIM, there's very little reason for him to.

...By the way, has anyone ever wondered why Gaster went unused in the first place?

I think people just think about it at the surface level. Gaster is unused, or died before the events of Undertale (or worse). He's got NPCs that refer to him in very vague ways, and he's a particularly hidden trinket of lore. When Toby anticipated people datamining the game, he didn't really hide his existence there all that much as some other things.

But if we remember that Deltarune was the original idea, that Undertale later springboarded off of, then I think that makes Gaster a lot more interesting. I don't think Gaster was EVER meant to be a part of Undertale's story in a major way. He's a Deltarune character that snuck his way into Undertale as an easter egg.

I do have a small shred of evidence to support this as well, with another character that gets explicitly mentioned in Undertale in a small capacity... Rudy, Noelle's father. ...At least in the alarm clock dialogue.

Rudy, similarly to Gaster, seemingly dies before the events of Undertale could ever take place, but still existed there. Largely, many of the characters are still the same or have counterparts in Undertale. Gaster being Ultra Hidden still had a presence there, and I think some of people's musings on connections to other characters have merit, but for the wrong reasons. (Being related to the skelebros with another font and Sans' machine are interesting notes, especially given that we haven't actually seen Papyrus in Deltarune yet...)

Chara & Deltarune's Release Schedule

I similarly think that Deltarune being a meta-prequel makes people talking about Chara also make sense. The idea of Chara and Kris being largely separate characters makes sense in a traditional story, and we largely lack evidence for it aside from a tease in Chapter 1. However, let's consider a new meta-detail: Deltarune's intentional release schedule.

When we played through Deltarune (known at the time as SURVEY_PROGRAM), we were left with two big twists. The first... the scene at the end where Kris seems to form a Chara-like grin with a knife, and throws our red heart into the birdcage. This is an obvious tease on Toby's part. There was little subtlety here, but it gave a lot of questions. The second is that THIS IS CHAPTER 1, not a demo.

Fast forward to the height of COVID, and Toby decides on a whim to release Chapter 2. This was...expressly NOT planned. Deltarune was meant to be in our hands in any close-to-complete form with the release of CHAPTER FIVE. So we are effectively given a peer into foreshadowing that wasn't even meant to be seen by us until we could continue further.

This is important because there are a few elements that Chapter 2 starts delivering upon but doesn't entirely go through with:

Kris as a "[Heart] on a [Chain]"

Anything involving the "Weird" route, straight up didn't exist in Ch. 1

A couple more Gaster-y details than Chapter 1

Spamton seemingly hints at the next few bosses

("WE DON'T NEED [Easels] OR [CRTs]"... seemingly implying our Ch. 3 Dark Crystal holder is a TV, and our Ch. 4 Dark Crystal holder is an easel [art related?])

("WE DON'T NEED ANY [Man, Woman, or Child] AT HALF PRICE" ...could mean a lot more, but seemingly refers to Chapter 5 in some way like the others, as he goes on about Mike afterwards.)

So what does all this mean for the Chara "reveal" at the end of Chapter 1? We were supposed to see it from the start, unlike Chapter 2, so where does that leave us?

Toby is intentionally setting an expectation.

I think Kris and Chara are related in more ways, but more explicitly, I think Kris' story is more pivotal to Undertale than one may think. We have to remember a few details about Chara.

1) Before Chara became everyone's favorite diagetic narrator, Chara was a kid who lived in a monster family. No more, no less. There's no reason to think Chara was insane before effectively escaping the narrative.

2) Chara still had a fascination with a few things in common with Kris. Knives and chocolate being a couple of them, and Asriel rounding it out. Asriel is Kris' big sibling, except a bit more literal this time compared to Chara.

3) Kris and Chara (as well as Frisk) are all intentionally non-binary or potentially agender altogether. Kris goes by they/them, and both Chara and Frisk never have explicit genders either, though that can be argued to be for other purposes such as character immersion (any/all).

4) Chara is a similarly deeply troubled individual as Kris, suffering from mental conditions that Toriel and Asgore are not very good at helping them get through. This leads to disastrous consequences when Chara takes their own life in Undertale.

So what does this mean for Kris?

I think many people assumed correctly when saying that Kris is Chara, but I believe it's more accurate to say that Kris IS Chara in Undertale, but with a new role.

Kris, Chara, and CONTROL.

We all understand at this point that Kris has a troubled relationship with autonomy, given that the player guides their actions during the plot of Deltarune. But if Kris is related to Chara, then we can ask a question - what do the two have in common?

Well for one thing, they both exercise a desire for control.

In a similar vein to Cunningham's video, I once watched a video talking about [Hyperlink Blocked] that was quite interesting, and I thought there was one theory as to what it was that doesn't get enough attention. (at around 50:50, I'm going to use some select quotes here)

Control Theory [...] Kris and Spamton both want control, and it makes sense that Spamton would offer this to Kris as a reward. [...] However, the one noticeable weak spot in this theory is in Snowgrave. You could argue that Kris is taking control of their life, but they are really not. If anything, they are robbing Noelle of her control, which isn't the same thing.

The line in question substituting Hyperlink Blocked in this context is:

"NO, I GET IT! IT'S YOU AND THAT [Hochi Mama]! YOU'VE BEEN [Making], HAVEN'T YOU! YOU'VE BEEN MAKING [Control]!! AND NOW THAT YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SUPPLY, YOU DON'T NEED ME!!!"

I respect Jabu's actual theory a lot on this one. [LOVE] in the context of Undertale makes a lot of sense and fills just about every quota. However, that's in the context of Undertale's terminology. We can't limit ourselves to just that. I don't think [LOVE] gets extra brownie points for just tying into Undertale, expressly for the reasons I've stated before. Deltarune's ideas came before Undertale's, and while some concepts are linked, they are not all the same. (See: the concept of a human SOUL and Determination not lining up either.)

Jabu has a point about Control, but only from a healthy mindset point of view. We have to consider the mindset and shoes of someone who lacks control.

Take... a controlling mother. One who lacks control over a lot of aspects of her life for one reason or another, and demands perfection from herself. One coping mechanism, no matter how wrong, is trying to seize the control over her sons. It's a way she can exercise having control over something in her life. It gives her room to have agency, even at the expense of her sons' agency. She could force her son to go to college, because she can't imagine any other path for him, and she never GAVE him a choice.

...Anyways.

This anecdotal example isn't just for shits and giggles. I really do want people to look in the shoes of someone who is deeply troubled by a lack of control and examine the Weird route with that in mind. Many people troubled by this go on to become manipulative people, or exercising their agency by using someone else's. In the weird route, Kris manipulating Noelle becomes his coping mechanism, and you enable their behavior with your actions.

So what does this mean for the normal route? Obviously it's at least a bit more healthy, and as a result I do expect (and look forward to) Kris butting heads with the player, not just as a way of coping or fighting back, but to wrestle control of the narrative for their own at some point. I don't think Kris becomes a villain in this context, but I do expect them to become an antagonist if the player is considered the protagonist.

All this lines up well for Kris, but then what is Chara? We know that Chara works through the player for the [Genocide] route in Undertale (its own "Weird" route) and that by the end Chara has taken full control away from the player. This is a Chara that never had the opportunity that Kris had to turn things around. This is a Chara fundamentally broken by their lack of control, and abuses it every chance they get once they do obtain it. And to top it all off, you hand it right to them at the end. They even exercise their control over the narrative with the creepy extra scene if you perform a Pacifist route on the same file as a Genocide route was previously completed.

...hey, isn't that similar to Kris' actions and Susie's actions that the player never has direct control over? Weird. Even expressly against the player's wishes too? Interesting.

Conclusion / TL;DR

The summation of my theorycrafting is built on the knowledge that Deltarune came first, and that Undertale builds off of this info, not the other way around. Many people theorycraft assuming the inverse relationship due to Undertale releasing first, but no one seems to ever step into the developer's shoes.

I believe this:

Kris and Chara ARE expressly related and not just for surface level observations - they both tell us something about **control**

Gaster is a Deltarune character that Toby knew would be important, but got scrapped for Undertale so it can tell its own story. He was left unused in Undertale because he was never meant to be an important part of it.

A lot of Chapter 2's foreshadowing is expressly information we are *not supposed to have* due to Deltarune's intended release schedule and for that reason is very volatile.

Deltarune is a meta-prequel to Undertale. Deltarune's ideas not only came first, but are the original, and if anything Undertale is a spiritual successor to what Deltarune will eventually become. As fucked up as that timing sounds.

Anyway like and subscribe for more stupidity

#undertale #deltarune #game development #analysis #theory

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discountalien-pancake · 2 months

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A League of Nobleman [sic] is compulsively watchable and also so unsettling, 9/10 ⭐️ would watch again

This kind of turned into an essay, so my non-spoilery thoughts are under the cut.

The Good:

Cinematography was unparalleled. Truly. I praised it before but I have to praise it again. The lighting choices were so good. The way they made the atmosphere early on feel so heavy and almost claustrophobic. Only a handful of scenes were too dark, but even then it didn’t totally detract from the storytelling. The way you couldn’t quite tell right away whether some scenes were dream sequences because of the lens work. The way characters were framed by doorways and windows and lighting and literal theatrical stages. I could go on all day.

And holy shit the acting. The performances are so good and the cinematography really allows every actor to shine. Chen Chou is played by the same actor who played Lan Jingyi in the Untamed and it’s like night and day. Don’t get me wrong, Jingyi was one of my favorite characters in The Untamed, but even though Chen Chou similarly is mostly comic relief in this, his performance feels more restrained, more believable, more rounded. Mental breakdowns in other cdramas often feel so artificial and over the top. In this show, even when the degree of madness starts to strain narrative believability and veer into melodrama, the way it’s portrayed is magnetic. And one of the characters spends 99% of their screentime just sitting and smiling sinisterly but it’s terrifying. Everyone in the show is terrified of them and when you see them and the way they carry themself and the way they speak, you completely understand.

The writing combined with the acting and cinematography makes you willing to suspend your disbelief. That seems like such a low bar, and yet. This show manages to balance the unbelievable magic and sorcery and mysticism with grounded, logical explanations but in such a way that the fantastical still works within this world. Is it magic? Is it trickery? Is it science? It ties in perfectly with the recurring theme of fake vs real.

Another point regarding the writing is that the characters skills don’t exist just to make them more attractive or badass. A lot of period cdramas have a habit of giving the main character some kind of Quirky Hobby at the beginning that is all but forgotten as the story progresses. Talents don’t actually matter to the plot, they’re only there to make the character talented. This show doesn’t do that!

Zhang Ping is a street vendor who makes noodles. The plot doesn’t have anything to do with food—it’s a detective drama with supernatural elements and an overarching conspiracy mystery. The street-vending doesn’t matter almost at all to the plot. But it matters to the storytelling. Hardly an episode goes by without Zhang Ping putting homemade food in front of someone he cares about. Food is how he shows affection. Tired? Sick? Depressed? He will make you food about it. Sometimes it’s played for laughs but there’s more than one scene where it’s a real punch in the feels.

Lan Jue can perfectly copy anyone’s handwriting. Forgery is one of the first ethically questionable things we see him do in the show, and in another show it might just be left at that. But in this one it is completely entangled with his backstory and motivations. It’s so well-integrated that you might not realize it right away when you get to the scene that explains how he came to have that skill. And it once again ties into the theme of real vs fake.

Every single character, no matter how minor, is treated with so much love and care by the storytelling. A lot of dramas treat minor characters as just plot devices. That’s not the case here. Every character has their own realistic motives and narrative continuity even if they’re only in one or two episodes. The show doesn’t just forget characters until they’re plot relevant (*cough*TheUntamed*cough*) and it doesn’t just senselessly slaughter all the characters for the melodrama (*cough*WordOfHonor*cough*). Characters who have a role to play in the overarching plot have frequent appearances and Do Things. They’re not just accessories to the main characters. No one feels like a caricature! Not even the silly bonkers old mentor figure who only shows up for like four episodes!

In terms of production value, the costumes were beautiful. They were not particularly elaborate or heavily embellished, but they felt so believable. The movement. The color symbolism. The literal physical weight of the clothes echoing the weight of their consciences. The fact that the extras were dressed with just as much care. You don’t get Main Character Costuming Syndrome with this show, which so many period cdramas are guilty of. I just love that they let the beautiful fabric and craftsmanship do the work. The textures are subdued but beautiful and there’s nothing that breaks immersion.

None of the props have that plasticky or Fake look. Weapons actually look like they’ll cut something! Gemstones don’t look like gumdrops (*cough*WhoRulesTheWorld*cough*)! And the masks! There are a number of masks in the show that are just so cool. The designs are sleek and simple and so aesthetic, none of that fancy filigree domino mask from Amazon crap that does literally nothing to hide the wearer’s identity. These masks completely obscure the actors’ faces, because they really don’t want you to know who is behind them. You can guess and you might even get it right but you won’t know until the characters reveal the truth.

And then there’s the books. Oh my god they must have spent so much of the props budget on all of the manuscripts and scrolls and books. The BINDINGS on them. Literally exquisite. Much of the plot has to do with the imperial examination system, either directly or tangentially, so they’ve got their noses in books and manuscripts for a significant portion of the show. The delicacy of the writing paper and the way it flutters on the desk when a breeze passes? The heft of the official documents? The way old, decaying manuscripts look brittle? The way Zhang Ping’s most beloved novels clearly look worn but are in such good condition despite how often he has read them?

Messy, grounded, weighty fight scenes. This show is fantasy, but it’s no xianxia or wuxia—if you want wirework you aren’t going to get it. There’s no fancy spinning just for the sake of spinning. Half of the fights end in the characters grappling or getting bashed in the head with a stick or rock. The fights are fights. They’re not there to be eye-candy. Everyone has a realistic level of ability and way of fighting that matches their personalities. The two scholars don’t just randomly have martial arts. Nobody is able to fly over a wall. There are no cheat codes. The fact that the physical limitations are so consistent actually makes the supernatural elements feel more real to me, in the sense that no matter what bonkers shit is happening in-universe, there must be a logical explanation. A lot of fantasy just handwaves things with “it’s magic!” And this show could easily have done that and made it work but it chose not to.

You don’t get those classic cdrama Hidden Villain shots from behind of the BBEG consulting with his cronies. You keep heading about the mastermind from the minor villains and victims, but the scope of knowledge is limited to what the characters themselves are able to learn or remember. Which means that when a character guesses something incorrectly, we’re on the same page and we’re not left banging our heads out of frustration that the answer is obviously something else.

Everything combined means the world and characters all feel so real. I hardly have to put in any effort to suspend my disbelief. So many shows do this smoke and mirrors routine of ‘we’re done with that now, don’t look too hard’ while this one feels like it’s almost daring me to look harder.

The Not Great:

I’ll be blunt, there is some pretty typical cdrama racism. It’s not a lot, but it’s there. The southern kingdom’s armies are depicted in a typical ‘savage’ aesthetic, though you really only see them in one episode and they’re fighting in a dense forest. There’s also the Hidden Ethnic Tribe With Mystic Powers, though this is not quite what it seems and I don’t hate it the way I do in some other shows/stories.

If a lack of female protagonists is a dealbreaker for you, you’re not going to like this. But if you gushed about The Untamed and complain about the lack of female characters in this I’m probably going to give you some bombastic side-eye. It’s a danmei and it’s going to be a long while before they fix the genre’s gender balance.

The editing. Specifically the censorship. A lot of the episodes are barely over 30 minutes long, including the ending credits. Most people speculate that it was in order to No Homo the two male leads, and this definitely did happen, but I think a bit of it was also political. Some of the messaging in the show is a little on the nose regarding corruption and a government’s responsibility towards its citizens. But yeah there’s like 10 minutes of material that got cut out of almost every episode. There’s literally like, 2 hours of missing footage. Which is Not Great! It doesn’t impact the plot, mostly, so you’ll still get a great story and sense-making progression. But it does really dampen the relationship development between the two leads. Even then, they did an amazing job with what screentime they were allowed. And there is a slightly bonkers re-dub in the last episode. I wouldn’t have necessarily realized it was a re-dubbed line if I hadn’t seen mention of it in another user’s post but it still sticks out as Very Weird in a show that until then was very coherently written. It’s very obvious in hindsight though, because they literally cut away in the middle of the character’s line delivery.

This show is based on a book that was not originally a danmei, and I don’t think it adheres to that book very closely (granted, I haven’t read it and won’t be reading it). But for some baffling reason they decided to keep two particular details the could have been cut without making any difference at all to the show itself. It almost feels like they’re just there to act as a No Homo. You’ll know them when you get to them, and trust me they won’t impact the show at all. You’ll just sort of. Be baffled.

The fucking English title.

The Neutral:

The genre of this is hard to pinpoint. I’ve definitely watched things like it before but if you asked me to name one I wouldn’t be able to tell you. It’s kind of horror, but also not. It’s definitely fantasy, but whether low or high is kind of impossible to say. I like that about it, but others might want something more clear-cut. I think that regardless of how it’s classified, the show did a great job of being what it is.

Culturally-specific references. The most important one in particular does get explained in-show, but if you’re not familiar with it, you won’t understand right away why everyone in the scene is so shocked. Name symbolism and poetry and calligraphy are among the other things that might go over your head, but generally speaking the show does a good job of explaining everything that is necessary for plot. Anything unexplained is just additional flavor.

In typical asian drama fashion, this show is a complete story in one season. It’s 29 episodes long and due to cutting is a bit abnormally short. I love the One Season, One Story format but for western audiences this might be a weird adjustment. It means the story has to have a clear ending in mind which keeps the pacing and plotting more coherent than in a lot of western shows that just limp their way to the finish line once funding runs out (*cough*SPN*cough*). Which isn’t to say that all one-season shows end well, but it i find it preferable to have an ending in sight. You’re less concerned about a show being canceled before the plot is resolved (*cough*Lockwood&Co*cough*).

It’s Very Polycule. There is no OTP. There is a slight rivalry and implied jealousy between Zhang Ping and one of Lan Jue’s other boyfriends, but he doesn’t have any such beef with Lan Jue’s other boyfriend and Lan Jue has no objection to Zhang Ping’s close friendships either. But even though I truly, wholeheartedly ship Zhang Ping and Lan Jue, I still enjoy the dynamics they have with other characters. I never felt annoyed at the supporting love interests for “getting in the way” because they…don’t. I can’t say much more without getting spoilery but there is only one vertex of the Love Shape who actually wants to interfere and get between the two leads. I found this to be very enjoyable but if you strongly desire a clear-cut OTP or enjoy dramatic jealousy/misunderstanding arcs, this probably isn’t for you. Yes, there is a midseason breakup, but it’s for other reasons.

Anyway I am now obsessed. I’m gonna wait a bit and rewatch to try and pick up on more of the moments that got cut subtle details.

#is there a coherent order to this review essay thing? no.#a league of nobleman

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