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twistedwonderlandsimps · 2 years

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Addams!Yuu

I'm just here to mix-and-match different kinds of Yuus with different kinds of personalities to see what monstrosity I can make. That being said,,, Addams!Yuu brainrot!

Don’t be surprised. There’s always gonna be that obligatory Addams Family fusion AU in every fandom and if there’s not then that’s clearly already a sign for you, my dear reader, to start writing one.

Anyway, Addams!Yuu, who doesn’t know about the Addams Family? If you don’t then that must mean I’m ancient (which is fair) and that you should start with the Addams Family 1991 movie.

Addams!Yuu who has the standard issue dark sense of humor, fascination for the weird and macabre, the love for the dark colors that all Addams seem to have and values family a lot.

After Grim opens the coffin, sees Addams!Yuu in all their gothic glory, and then proceeding to threaten them, Addams!Yuu really just said:

“Oh, what bliss! To have slept like the dead, woke up suffocating, and greeted by such sweet words in such a finely made coffin. Is this what it’s like to be courted? What am I getting courted by? A depraved stalker? A monstrous beast? *gasp* Perhaps… a demented serial killer?” [cue Yuu swooning, dramatically holding a hand over their forehead and lightly fanning themselves with their other hand]

Anyway, they don’t ignore Grim for long. Not when Grim keeps threatening them and spewing out fire.

Addams!Yuu immediately became delighted with Grim because, duh, a monster??? Who breathes fire??? With a massive ego??? Threatening to burn them alive???

That’s like the equivalent of someone complimenting them… Maybe even borderline flirting with them.

Still Grim and Addams!Yuu click with each other straight away. Addams!Yuu doesn’t hold back when complimenting Grim, even if the way they compliment someone is weird, and Grim gets a huge ego boost.

These two are an iconic duo who just keep hyping and enabling each other.

“Great Grim, for such a terrifying creature such as yourself…surely you must have committed the most deplorable acts. Oh, you must tell me! How many buildings have you burned down? Were there people inside? How many survived? Oh, if only papà and mamà would let me do the same… They said I have to focus on school first and start small before I can put myself on the government watchlist. *sigh*”

Grim has no idea what Yuu’s saying but he does understand when he’s being complimented, his ego’s inflating and that’s all that really matters, honestly.

Anyway, since the two didn’t do a chase scene with Grim attempting to hurt Yuu (though Addams!Yuu would definitely appreciate this) since the two of them vibed immediately, it didn’t take long for Crowley to find them.

After being led to the Mirror Chambers, Yuu had to physically stop themselves from jumping in joy because:

“A cult! How chilling! I didn’t expect to be kidnapped by a cult! It’s been so long!”

And, “The last cult I joined didn’t seem to appreciate it when I sacrificed a goat on the altar. Apparently they weren’t actually a cult. The police were called and they ended up putting me in an asylum. T’was a lovely vacation.”

Crowley tried to tell Yuu that they weren’t a cult and that they were a well-known and respected establishment but Yuu ignored him (Ha! Get a taste of your own medicine, crowman!) in favor of admiring the surrounding aesthetics.

NRC is the perfect aesthetic for Addams!Yuu. In fact, the Addams Family would definitely love it.

But you know what they’d love more? Ramshackle Dorm as it is.

Forget renovating it and fixing it up to make it livable to the common person, Yuu’s an Addams! Yuu’s just going to make Ramshackle even more dangerous than it already is with its lack of maintenance.

Think spikes all around the property, deadly traps around every corner of the hallways, and maybe even a few sentient trees and carnivore plants here and there.

Where did Yuu even get those sentient floras? Shhhhh… They’re an Addams, don’t question it.

This version of Yuu… probably genuinely respects Crowley wholeheartedly. [The myuultiverse is quaking. A Yuu who actually considers Crowley a good guardian?]

Yuu at Crowley, somewhere in the future: “You are the most idle person anyone can ever hope to meet. A coward. Wastrel. Careless. Greedy and money-hungry… How admirable.”

Crowley’s constantly getting backhanded compliments and he can’t do anything about it because Yuu is an Addams and Addamses have a weird way of thinking.

As far as Addams!Yuu can tell, they’re completely normal and everyone else around them are weirdos but they’re too nice to say anything about it.

Now imagine putting Addams!Yuu and Kalim in the same room.

JK, the two may have different personalities but they’d probably be good friends… after some rocky situations here and there caused by some misunderstandings.

Yuu might think that Kalim’s being mean to them at first because the Scarabia Dorm Leader called them ‘nice and kind’ which, in Addams vocabulary, isn’t considered a compliment.

When Kalim learnt of this odd Addams culture, he tried to make an effort to speak words with negative connotations but he felt it was too mean so he just goes, “Yuu! You look nice! But… uh, in a dead way! And you’re fun and kind, but the opposite of that! Ahahaha!”

Kalim found a loophole and he’s going to take advantage of it. Yuu gets what he’s saying anyway so it all works out.

Anyway, overblots…

Yeah, you really think Yuu’s going to run away from it? Expect them to be watching from the sidelines (hecc, they might even actively head towards the overblot) and becoming Rook 2.0 with the way they compliment the overblotee.

Them just going:

“Ah, those strong emotions that you’ve withheld inside of you suddenly going off like an atomic bomb upon a dreary night sky. That rage in your expression, that despair in your eyes… You’ve forgotten your humanity and transformed yourself into a beast. How tragic, how beautiful. Tell me, how long have you been torturing yourself?”

Sevens forbid they actually meet Rook. Rook sees beauty in everything and he’s sharp so getting into Addams!Yuu’s grace alone by just words is as simple as taking candy from a baby.

I would type a dialogue with Rook and Addams!Yuu but I honestly don’t understand how Rook talks so just imagine it. Just Yuu and Rook continuously firing off compliments to each other until either one of them gets flustered to silence or the others pull the two away from each other.

Just imagine Rook sending a letter to Yuu via an arrow grazing their head and Yuu just swoons.

Out of everyone in NRC, I could see Rook being one of the three people who can immediately reel Yuu in with just their charms alone.

Anyway, Rook would probably fit in with the Addams.

Yuu could literally just introduce him to their family and they’d assume he was a very distant cousin with how he is.

Yuu asks Vil for poison now and again (no one’s brave enough to ask what they’re doing with it) and likes the way he’s obsessed with being the most beautiful person.

“Your ambition to become the most beautiful person to the point of insanity is admirable, Vil Schoenheit. How long can your sanity hold on, I wonder?”

Imagine Yuu seeing Neige LeBlanche and getting mental damage from how bright and cheerful he is.

Yuu being like ‘aight, bet’ when witnessing Vil overblot and then planning on poisoning Neige.

Aside from Pomefiore, Yuu also spends most of their time on Diasomnia.

Diasomnia is literally the second peak Addams aesthetic out of all the dormitories. First being Ramshackle, obviously.

I feel Malleus and Yuu would get along quite well. They’re both elegant and have that certain vibe to them.

Malleus could just talk about gargoyle structure and lore and Yuu would probably listen to him all the way and similarly, Yuu could talk about the witch hunts their ancestor used to have and Malleus would listen just as intently.

You know what… Lilia’s food is probably a delicacy to them.

That thing is a weapon of mass destruction and I refuse to believe that Addams!Yuu wouldn’t like it if a mere food can take down hundreds, if not thousands, of people when ingested.

Addams!Yuu also likes Silver because he ‘sleeps like the dead’. Though, his little critter friends should probably be wary about going near Yuu.

Oddly enough, I think Addams!Yuu would also like Sebek’s boisterous personality solely because of his passion and if it’s one thing I know about Addams, it’s that they’re passionate.

Sure, it may be passion about spreading Malleus’ name and glory all over the world like a missionary with a mission (duh), but it’s passion nevertheless.

Diasomnia aside, no one in Heartsalbyul asks for Yuu to help them with maintaining the plants because last time someone did, Yuu ended up cutting a good chunk of the roses off of the stems before they were stopped by both Ace and Deuce.

Of course Riddle got angry but after a few talks here and there and some communication (that’s character development) from both parties, Yuu realize that cutting the roses off of the bushes was a no-no and instead settles for painting the roses red when needed because it reminds them of the color of blood.

All in all Addams!Yuu would definitely fit right in with Night Raven College.

It has the aesthetics and no one there is overly cheerful or colorful so it’s the perfect place for an Addams to reside at.

The overblots are just everyday routine for Yuu and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

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artsyannierose · 7 months

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Nene’s Dead Corpse and her ghost bf

randomly made a crap ton more sense to me

why?

fricking school (screw school I hate you (no not rly I’m just stressed))

Anyway I’m a biomed class where unit 1 is studying medical investigations forensic science style

and one of the things is like, what happens to a person after the body has been dead for a while (post mortem or sum, see im learning :D)

Things like algor mortis, livor mortis, I’ve heard of. In fact I’ve even studied the clouding of the corneas before, but it never got to me till today

maybe it’s cause I cannot for the life of me study forensics without my wild imagination giving me nightmares or just panicking when I’m alone but aNyWays

I tend to imagine characters associated with death in these scenarios so I don’t lose it in class💀

*cough* Nene *cough cough*

So as I was taking notes on the slideshow, some of the images of clouded corneas reminded me strangely of something familiar, but at that point I couldn’t tell. There’s something haunting about the eyes (or maybe it’s just my over-analytical brain loving small details like this) they’re GORGEOUS

IDK THEYRE PRETTY

Maybe it’s ‘cause the true color of the iris is completely visible in all its glory, without the pupil obscuring it

(something like this?? A little vivid tho lol)

but like

there’s no

life

no reflection, no emotion…nothing (which is so hauntingly beautiful leave me alone I’m a sucker for this now)

it’s literally just an eye with nothing but color

and then it hit me…it’s exactly the look Nene had when Mirai fast-forwarded her time

you can see in the image it’s just her plain magenta eyes with a fuzzy de-saturated blob in the center…aka clouded corneas

And that honestly made me realize that in this scene she’s not—she’s not even unconscious

No she’s literally, physiologically dead

THAT IS A CORPSE HE IS HOLDING

she is literally a dead body this hits me so hard😭😭

and I can imagine algor mortis kicked in by then, her body was probably cold to the touch

so imagine how he felt, and I’m aware people have analyzed his emotions but just think about it

he’s always seen her so full of life and hope, and now all he has left is an empty shell of her, cold and dead with no life left inside

…just like him

the more I think about it Hanako is just an animated corpse

he has no reflection in his eyes most of the time because he is ✨dead✨

I mean Mei, Mitsuba, and Hanako don’t have a little white reflection dot like Nene and Kou

Or maybe I’m overthinking it and Nene’s eyes are just super reflective

even for someone who presumably took his own life, he probably never saw tsukasa’s body start postmortem and actually feel dead bc it looked extremely bloody ngl (I’m guessing he killed himself right after 💔)

and now he’s holding someone he cares about like this for the first time and I’ll bet that scarred him

and he figured out that never, never ever did he ever want to see his sweet assistant like this again, lifeless in his arms

and so after that, cue Hanako in his villain era who basically became a yandere the entire picture perfect lmao

and he was unbelievably adamant about it too

I mean honestly if I held anybody I knew lifeless like that I’d be scarred for life and crying for days

seeing the light drained from someone’s eyes is so interestingly sad to me

Look at the difference:

Happy

vs Sad/Determined

vs Depressed (ig??)

vs Dead

She still has so much emotion in her eyes

and then d e a d

literally looks like a porcelain doll

wait she looks so pale in the last image compared to the others now that I think about it

I love aidairo’s eye for detail it’s so fun to figure out

Well anyways thanks for coming to my Ted Talk essay atp-

IT’S PAST 1 AM AND I SHOULD BE STUDYING FOR SAID BIOMED CLASS AND HERE I AN GOING ON A TANGENT ABOUT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER’S EYES

send help

anyways excuse me while I grab a box of strawberries to munch on and cry my eyes out all over my homework before I sleep-

#hananene #tbhk #jshk #hanako kun #toilet bound hanako-kun #yashiro nene #tbhk manga spoilers #aidairo #my ramblings #my rambles #i literally have to wake up in 3 hours what am I doing #Yknow screw school Hananene is more important #i love angst #they’re so bittersweet #and beautiful

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redr0sewrites · 9 months

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hellooo i saw you were taking requests and i think you write for eris vanserra? i had this silly idea that you know how noisy and busybodies the inner circle are and maybe after eris is already high lord there is some sort of ball, and the ic sees some girl walking with him and stuff and they’re just like 🤨🤨🤨 snooping around and shit?? you know just banter like that, i have no idea if this makes sense for u😭😭😭 anyway take your time if u decide to write this and feel free to ignore this if u don’t want to !!! thank u in advance love u

AAA TYSM NONNIE THIS IS SUCH A CUTE REQ! I WILL TRY MY BEST LMAO HOPE U ENJOY!

CW: the IC being nosy, fluffinesssss!

this was bound to be a disaster. all eris knew was that having the inner circle at autumn could lead to a multitude of issues, all of which would fall directly on him. he expected them to irritate his father, or break off the alliance, or even damage property. what he did not expect however, was the patronizing questions about his mate.

the questions all started on the first night. there had been a welcoming banquet in their honor, and you were standing aside eris in all of your autumnal glory. your magnificent outfit was adorned with jewelry and charms of autumn with dark red details and a beautiful trim. you stood elegant and poised, yet uncharacteristically close to eris, who seemed to be enraptured by you.

"who are they?" mor asked, eyeing you in slight confusion.

"im not sure, but if i had to guess, theyre eris' lover, or at least something akin to that" replied azriel. he watched you and eris with an amused look on his face, and the rest of the inner circle did the same. after a while, they dispersed and began to mingle among the fellow guests, but some of their minds remained lingering on you and eris.

"eris!" rhysands elegant voice cut through you and your mates soft conversation. you watch as eris takes on the role of the high lords son, and don's the mask of stone he so often wore around fellow nobles of the court.

"rhysand. i certainly wasn't expecting you here." his eyes narrowed slightly, looking at rhys and feyre, who accompanied him, with a calculating stare. you smile warmly, from what eris has told you, the inner circle will be a crucial part in overthrowing beron.

"its a pleasure to be here. however, there is one thing i personally didnt expect" rhysands eyes slide to you, and you meet his gaze. feyres eyes glimmer knowingly, and she meets your smile with one of her own.

"who is your precious companion, eris?" your lovers eyes narrowed, and he said simply, "none of your business. i suggest you return to the party."

"how cruel. you know, its rude to dismiss your guests" rhysand said almost mockingly, and eris' jaw tightened.

"well, id rather not cause a scene. i guess they must he rather important to you if theyre here. i hope we meet you again, perhaps in a less formal setting" rhysand says to you. with a smirk and a wink in your direction, rhysand turned with feyre beside him and walked away. you looked over at eris, and you could practically see his jaw working itself.

"relax my love. they arent a threat." eris sighs, turning towards you. "hes so fucking irritating" eris mutters, and you cant help but giggle softly.

that night had been the first of four instances in which the inner circle had begun to question you and eris' relationships, and finally eris lost his temper. cassian had cornered him while eris had simply been walking to the library and had begun to interrogate him, and eris has snapped.

"they are my mate you intolerable jackass! can you please fucking leave me alone?" eris spat, fuming in irritation. cassian had burst out laughing, but quickly winnowed away when he noticed eris' murderous expression. angry, frustrated, and overall irritated eris stormed back to your shared courters. when eris recounted the incident to you, you couldnt help but laugh. eris begrudgingly joined you, and cheer filled the room. the inner circle was clearly interested in eris' personal life, and it was hilarious to you the lengths they would go to discover your relationship.

god im so sorry this sucks so bad ajaaaaa i cant write dialogue for my life i tried to make the reader as gender neutral as possible i hope you enjoy! i feel like this came out so shitty uurhehrhb im sorryyyyy

#eris vanserra x reader #eris vanserra acotar #pro eris vanserra #eris vanserra acosf #acosf eris vanserra #acosf eris #acotar eris #eris acotar #eris x reader #eris #eris x you

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house-of-mirrors · 6 months

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@awordbroken @thedeafprophet IT WHAT

i gotta psychoanalyze it now... Lady Macbeth....

Act 1 Scene 5 comes to mind first:

Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false And yet wouldst wrongly win.

Summary: Lady Macbeth has learned the witches have predicted Macbeth will be King of Scotland. She believes he has ambition but lacks ruthlessness to take the crown, that one must be willing to do unholy things to get what you want. Continuing--

Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry “Hold, hold!”

Summary: Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to remove her feminine kindness and replace it with cold, heartless ambition. One must be completely compassionless to rule. The last two lines particularly fascinate me in relation to Fires and the crimes against the stars.

And uh. Yeah the part. Fires talks about having been good at bearing children and. Yeah

Ahhhh but Fires you forget Act 5 Scene 1... Lady Macbeth gets what she wants, she gets all the power and glory, but the guilt of what she had to do to take the throne, and what she has to keep doing to maintain power, destroys her (I believe Fires knows, to some degree, that what it's doing is wrong, it gets all defensive when you bring up particularly nasty crimes in LF)

Why then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

[...]

To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.

[...]

DOCTOR Foul whisp’rings are abroad. Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. More needs she the divine than the physician. God, God forgive us all.

Or does Fires, deep down, know its trajectory of ambition and conquest will only end with it undone... yet it still continues to do so anyway because it doesn't understand how it could pursue any other ending... It's a tragedy? Always has been

(Folger Shakespeare Library Updated Edition of 2013 text used)

#i have an english minor and macbeth is one of my favs #shakespeare is my thing #lore discussion

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sanctaignorantia · 2 months

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Talking about things the trailers don't say, which means talking about the voices inside my head that won't shut up.🥸

It's going to be long, sorry...

When I watched the first trailer I first thought that this scene referred to a beach…

Well, it was all going wrong and the sixth extinction was the last, what if the beaches dried up? Anyway, what if this means by which people crossed over to the plane of the dead literally ceased to exist? Without water there's a big desert and nothing else. So that's what I thought, what we see is a beach, but whose beach? And then we had the coffin and the coffin is Higgs. But it didn't make much sense because Higgs would be trapped on Amelie's beach because of his fight with Sam, we heard the gunshot but we didn't see a body, where the fuck is Higgs Monaghan? Amelie kicked him off her beach, probably… BUT WHERE? If Higgs' beach is a vast expanse of sand, just a beach with no sea, then what the fuck?

Ok but I also thought of something else at the same time, like "why are they walking towards this portal?" - because it's definitely a portal and no one will tell me otherwise. And also an entrance to somewhere. These rock formations are definitely new material.

Do you remember the information we received from the Novelist's Son and the Spiritualist?

This is the part where I believe DS1 already contains a lot of spoilers about what will happen in DS2 VS what Kojima actually rewrote, I don't think he changed the basic constructions of the game but rather modified something here and there, when he says he "rewrote the story of the second game" I don't believe it's literally the whole story, you know?

Returning, the Spiritualist and the Novelist's Son give us information about portals and space/time travel and other forms of travel to the Beach.

I Saw Space in a Gourd (Novelist's Son)

Mr. Sam Bridges, Can I tell you a story about something that happened recently? I was preparing dinner when all of a sudden my beloved gourds popped into my head, and I just had to go take a look. Do you know what I found when I got there? The most marvelous specimen I ever laid eyes on! It was bigger than me, I swear! And while I was standing there, admiring it, I suddenly realized I was somewhere else. Inside of it! And I was a tiny baby! A tiny baby in a great big gourd world! I grew up there, became an adult, and eventually, gourd world had a Death Stranding of its own. So what did I do then? I shared gourds with all the people of gourd world, and they shut the BTs up inside them, and set them all on fire. Gourd world was safe, and I had saved it! But just as I was basking in the glory of it all, I woke to find myself back in the kitchen, and the pot boiling over! While I’d been living a whole other life in gourd world, only a few minutes had passed in this one! Sure, you could call it a daydream, but to me, it couldn’t have been more real. Has anything like that ever happened to you?

Prepper Interview: The Spiritualist

No one has been able to explain the Death Stranding, and I doubt that anyone ever will. Certainly not with science. Science is only suitable for observation. Measurement. "Objectivity." You can observe and measure as much as you like, but it will bring you no closer to an understanding. Sometimes, you need to expand your mind and open your heart. Seek the souls of the dead. Listen for the waves on the Beach... In antiquity, there were no barriers between the realms. People moved freely between the Earth, outer space, and the world of the dead. What are myths and legends if not records of these journeys? My research has only confirmed this. The pyramids of Egypt and Mesoamerica, the Nazcaan lines, Stonehenge—all gateways built by humans in order to access the Beach. Surely you can see that the wisdom of the ancients has never been more relevant?

I would count what the Spiritualist says as basically true because, let's see, it's the Spiritualist and DS is basically about that too. But looking at this arc and imagining a portal after all this information doesn't seem so absurd to me. And then you ask me why I quoted the Novelist's Son's email about the gourd?

Well, a chrysalis and a sarcophagus easily remind me of these gourds too and then we'd be talking about Higgs and Elle Fanning's new character and if both are connected, then portals and enclosures of this kind are no surprise.

We would still have Lou's pod as a form of communication, I don't know how these items work to talk to the dead, because I definitely use other means to talk to them, but they exist in various cultures, right? So we'd basically have 1) a means for time/space travel and the world of the living/dead like the coffin and the chrysalis and also 2) the pod as an item with which it's possible to communicate across planes. Who will know? I'm going to open Kojima's head and feed on his brains to find out.

The Spiritualist also tells us how the Egyptian artifact we gave her made her travel not only to the beach, but also into space, which reinforces her previous document. She also reassures us that the pyramids were portals. So let's assume that there are other ways to access the beach and that perhaps Higgs has discovered them or even knew about them (you handsome son of a bitch).

I would add the observation of rereading the information with the Evo-Devo Biologist because she says some things about tar as well and how it is used not only to search for things from the past but is also a means of creation, and we have exactly that about Chrysalis in trailer 2.

"Please understand, Sam... We never ment to string you along."

My brother in Christ, what's wrong with Fragile? She gives the mask Higgs wore to Sam in DS1 wanting him to tell everyone what happens when you wear a mask and we don't need to explain what that means, the lying, the hiding, the omission, Fragile was betrayed by someone she trusted and the first thing she does in DS2 is accept things from someone who is ANONYMOUS. Darling???

This may be a question of translation and the fact that I'm not fluent in English, but to me it clearly says that Sam has been tricked or Sam is feeling tricked or being tricked by them. What would Fragile and Drawbridge have to hide from Sam? That's not a good idea, not after all. Higgs knows things about Lou that Sam doesn't. Fragile with the Drawbridge calls Sam to help them and says it will help him and then there are more lies behind all this? More manipulation? More masks?

Let's go back two lines:

"If you wanna answers, you're gonna have to find 'em yourself. But.. The ones you do find-- well that pain you nurse… will only get worse. Sam the man, in the dark. About everything." (i can hear troy's voice echoing in my ear, ooooh)

I really hope Higgs is talking about the answers about Lou, because if it involves anything else with Fragile, Drawbridge and what else we'll have new, well… we're fucked. Higgs would come out as something like "I've at least always been honest with you, Sammy boy." *smiles like a crazy*

"Don't forget. Coming on this expedition was meant to help you to find the strenght to carry on. And you have. We all know you've got this. Now it's time to finish the journey, Sam."

I wonder why Kojima cut out these lines, Higgs implying that the answers will be painful and that only Sam can find them, which tells us that perhaps asking for or hoping for help is in vain. Then there's Fragile, confident that Sam at Drawbridge's side is exactly what Sam needs, but since when does Sam accept others telling him what he needs? Even Fragile? And why doesn't Fragile seem the least bit sad about Lou's death when in trailer 1 she basically witnesses the girl die? (I've already said something about Fragile taking care of Lou here.)

"I was there. I saw her home. And it was a hellhole."

If Sam is talking about the Chrysalis Girl, how on earth was this girl living alone in a hellish place? Was she inside the chrysalis when he arrived? Was the chrysalis her protection? Was this hellhole like this because of her? Did anyone ever ask the girl if she was a demon?

I recently read someone talking about how Higgs might be being manipulated, but what if Fragile is too and that's the lie she tells Sam? What if the person controlling Higgs is the same person manipulating Fragile?

#i wrote this yesterday and today it seems ridiculous #but i'm going to post it anyway because i got this idea out of my head #less stressed now #death stranding #death stranding 2 #fragile #sam porter bridges #lou #louise porter bridges #higgs monaghan #drawbridge #about-ds

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nogenrealldrama · 4 months

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Hi! Love the excerpts of your work that you've shared here. Do you have any advice for someone just starting to dip their toes into writing? Fanfic, or just generally? Thanks! :)

First of all thank you for reading and I'm so, so happy you liked my snippets :D

Second of all: Ummm giant disclaimer that I have almost nothing actually published to my name, so altogether I also consider myself a new writer. But I love to rant about writing anyway so here goes:

Don't listen too much to writing advice. When I first tried writing, I would spend way too much time on writing advice blogs. Many of them aren't that good, to be quite honest. And even for the good ones, there is such a thing as right advice given at the wrong time, or at the wrong place in your writing journey. If you're an overthinker, reading too much advice can make you start worrying about small things, and/or not have the confidence to try something wild but important on your own. Frankly, all it really comes down to is: 1) Having a vision, 2) Writing the vision down, 3) Noticing the ways your writing falls short of the vision, and 4) Tweaking things until they reach the level of imperfection you can personally live with. For me, writing advice is best searched for to apply to the specific issues I have in Steps 3 and 4. I apply any advice only in so far as it helps me get closer to the vision in my head. putting the rest under a cut because it got long - sorry!

2. Be uncompromising about writing things that bring you joy.

Kind of similar to #1, but it's doubly important when you're really just starting out. Or when you've been writing a while but always find it hard to begin. Double that importance again when what you're writing is fanfiction, because then you really have no genre definitions or deadlines or publishers or any other actual reason to compromise your vision. You already have some amazing ideas, and for each idea there is probably a feeling or a vibe or a message that you want to capture. Give yourself time to get lost in that feeling, to really indulge in it. And then write it down in its full glory, even the parts that might make you cringe a little from how dramatic or vulnerable they are. If there is a way to make your story more indulgent, do it. Because it will keep you writing. And if you really think it's too much, you can always edit stuff out before publication. You know, after you've actually written the story down. The thing that made me start writing in the first place was a giant longfic/possibly trilogy Canon Divergence rarepair plot idea that is still not finished, and on paper that's pretty much the last thing one should start their writing journey with. But if I stopped myself from writing that in favour of forcing out some oneshots, I never would've written anything at all. Give yourself permission to write exactly and only the ideas that make you excited to write.

3. Bonus advice that might or might not be useful to you, but it was ground-breaking in helping me write the way I want to write - in this excellent post, @little-hermit-crab56 makes a point that dialogue is a dance. I'd take it further/in a slightly different direction and say that storytelling as a whole is a dance. Juts like a dance, dialogue feels most dynamic when you allow it to go back and forth a little, to have short breaks and pauses here and there. I think the same can apply to an action sequence, or a bit of internal monologue, or an emotional trajectory of a whole scene. Just like a dance, it's less about the exact movements (e.g. describing precisely what happens in an action scene) and more about the rhythm of the back and forth (e.g. describing just enough to let the reader know that the protagonist is winning, but then - oh no! - the villain has the upper hand, but then the protagonist gets lucky and they're winning again). I swear that with enough skill to set up the right back-and-forth, even a character tying their shoelaces for a page and a half will feel dynamic. You can alter that rhythm, make it faster or slower, more dominated by "ups" or "downs", but even a little contrast can elevate a plot beat or an emotion more than I had initially thought possible. Of course, there is no need to simplify the "ups" to being good and "downs" to being bad - the back and the forth can both be morally grey or both similarly convenient/inconvenient to the protagonist. They just need to be meaningfully different. You can zoom this out even more and apply the back-and-forth to character arcs, or dynamics between characters, or entire plots. (The three act plot structure is, IMO, simply a choreography for a satisfying back-and-forth). In a longer work, you can have many "dancers" doing their own back-and-forth simultaneously, at multiple levels of the story structure. In a oneshot, you can have one or several backs-and-forths distilled to the most dramatic steps of the dance. In my experience, the whole thing gets quite addictive once you start seeing it.

#ah the irony of writing advice that advises you to disregard writing advice #ah the way how every time a writer gives this advice they must make a joke about how ironic it is #ah the way that writers make fun of other writers through the ever-escalating layers of excessively self-aware irony #i'll shut up now #I'm so sorry this ask got so long and lecture-like #hope some of it is helpful #asks #writing #writeblr #writing tips #writing advice #fanfiction

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swinging-stars-from-satellites · 15 days

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inkpot gods was literally on some spotify playlist I’d saved and I didn’t even realize it until I went to save the song (because it’s SUCH a good song) and I saw it was already in that playlist which is wild to me ANYWAY please I would love to hear about your riddle-master playlist !!

OKAY here ^^ is the playlist in all its glory it's a LOT of Florence + the Machine due to the fact that I heard Never Let You Go and went wait... that's THE most Raederlecore song I've ever heard in my life.... idk if I can adequately explain most of the songs on here but a lot of them are very much about Raederle and Morgon both having this fear or rejection of who/what they are and what they're destined for. some of them are kinda just there for vibes but I WILL say Hey Kid is on there very specifically for Lyra and Tristan's respective arcs, I talk most about Raederle (idk if you ever saw that one thing I wrote about her lol I think about her a LOT) but Tristan has always stuck out to me as just being..., she's such a younger sister. she almost reminds me of my younger sister. the opening scene of the first book being this domestic scene between siblings means so much to me. and the way Morgon is at heart a brother... no matter what else he may be, he's still a brother, and that isn't about any binding magic or riddles. it's just who he is.

anyway yeah this playlist is something I have thought a lot about and put together over like a couple years so I'm pretty proud of it 😅 I hope you like it!!!!

#Lu rambles #asks #music #Riddle-Master #<3

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roadtophantom · 7 months

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Let your S(e)oul take you where you long to be (III) - Cho Seung-woo

(part three of my neverending travelogue, I thought I'll just write one but this already got long)

I think it didn't quite hit me that I was seeing Phantom even when I went in the theatre, likely because of travel adrenaline? I was still a bit dazed coming in and I didn't quite settle until the show started. But also it was so warm and tight that it's hard to get a semblance of personal space.

But it didn't take long because Charlotte Theatre is small and it kinda really wraps itself around the stage. At least that's how I felt.

Because when the overture started and the sparks came off, I was sucked right in.

But listen. Hearing the organ played in person and watching the chandelier make its steady ascent, coming from a lockdown of 3 or so years after fighting tooth and nail to be on that seat, were enough to reduce me to actual tears.

I was sobbing behind my face mask — a souvenir from the pandemic that is sadly here to stay— as reality finally hit me that I managed to live to see another Phantom show when such a possibility didn't exist then, and it's as real as the chandelier looming large before my very eyes.

Second was seeing the proscenium in its fullest glory. Unfortunately, 2delier and the stripped down World Tour revival stage cannot possibly hold a candle to the magnificence of a complete replica set. I haven't seen this setup since 10 years ago in Singapore (not counting HK coz that was an arena and it's a bit different).

I'm reviewing both performances at once because I saw them in 24 hours and it will help me make (healthy) comparisons.

But I think I want to write about the Korean production as a whole first. I've read that it took a while for the local production to mount another POTO KR because of the scale and the demands of the show and the producers want to get everything perfect.

And I think they really did, or at least one that approaches sheer excellence in acting, singing, dancing, all that.

The ballerinas are in step with each other, the cast harmonizes so beautifully even in Prima Donna which tends to go messy and overwhelming...As a full company they are undefeatable.

And I've seen some of the most heartrending performances and heard the most exquisite voices in these two shows.

During my week in Seoul, I managed to catch a movie on cable TV led by Cho Seung-woo called Inside Men and he played this prosecutor who is smart, ambitious, and hellbent for justice. He was all suits, yanked neckties, and cigarettes. A cool hero you wanna root for. And in the first movie I've seen of him (The Classic), he plays a young Romeo with such pure ideals on love and friendship, again a good guy you can't help but love and feel hurt for.

The Phantoms - Cho Seung-woo

Those are barely a scratch on the surface of the veteran actor's stellar filmography and theatre work. His versatility is undisputed, and he's played everything from Hedwig to Sweeney Todd until he finally took on the challenge as the Phantom, which is still so mindblowing to me.

There was no hint of swagger, coolness, or goodness in Cho Seung-woo's Phantom. He is basically the anti-cute Phantom. This is the sewer rat, the stone gargoyle on the roof, the cantankerous old neighbor you don't wanna deal with. He made that especially clear from the mirror scene, as he openly sneered at Raoul's attempts at Christine.

The Phantoms I've seen would try to play up being angel, ghost or even just try to present themselves as an educated gentleman forced under very unfortunate circumstances, but Cho Seung-woo's Phantom is well frankly, truly what you'd expect of a creature living in an underground lake. He isn't shy or afraid to be menacing because that's...what's on the script anyway, right?

With one caveat, he can't bear to be ugly in front of Christine who is his weakness from the very beginning.

His Music of the Night gives a sneak peek of the kind of desolation and yearning he feels for her. He also peppers his performances throughout with whispers of "Christine" (even after MOTN) which I realized is his desperate plea of help.

Cho Phantom loses his temper quite easily, he's delighted like Rumpelstiltskin dancing around the fire when he plays tricks at Carlotta, unafraid to play up his monster persona to get his way. But this evil facade falls in front of Christine. Of course he tries to put up that mean act, but eventually he is just this awkward teenage boy with a first-ever crush. He is so hyperaware of his appearance in front of her. He practically worships her.

So imagine in PONR, he groans at Christine's advances and in AIAOY reprise he is almost on his knees begging her to please take pity and accept him.

In Final Lair, he recoils after Christine kisses him in a 'Why would you do that to yourself? Why touch a cursed creature like me with your perfect being? Please don't corrupt yourself' way. And when she goes back to return the ring, he really tried to wipe his hands on his pants, fix himself because he had to at least try to be less horrible as he already is in front of his idol.

As a singer, CSW can carry the notes, but he is not the best singer, not in front of actual tenors in the cast.

Yet his nuanced acting, the level of sensitivity and hyper-awareness he has, the kind of vulnerability he exposes to Christine at Final Lair is one of a kind. You can see he dug into the psychology of the character, imagined how it was like living miserably like him and how it's like to lose everything when he lets Christine, his only source of light and happiness, go.

You feel a lot of things when he's on stage, I truly felt so sorry for him, because his Phantom was such that the world truly let him down. So many realizations you'll see of his character. I think his was the most humanistic rendition of the role I've seen so far. It's a solid performance, and I understand he likes to change the details up every show, no wonder his shows sell out so fast.

#cho seung woo #rtp goes to seoul #Phantom of the Opera #gonna do my best and write the rest and finish this whole thing 😭😭#but the words they are not quite wording

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ipsen · 5 months

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Off the Grid

For @chertpole for the @tgpairup event! I gave them some AriEto to chew on, and you can too! Enjoy the meal :]

Eto had never been one for nostalgia.

She had always been too busy, too focused on other things to look backwards. The past was a place of pain, of longing, and of what would never be again. It was not a source of strength, but evidence of weakness. Only by looking forward could she grab an inkling of the strength she sought.

And yet, the moment her feet touched mainland Tokyo, she went here: the old shrine where it all began.

It had long since fallen into disrepair; it was on no map in the first place, and no one who knew about it bothered to tell. She remembered being attracted to it for that very reason. After all, she was similarly discarded. With her mother dead, her father had seen fit to discard the very thing that reminded him of his failure, and a tool was no longer necessary when everything was fixed. In occupying it as a fellow forgotten one, they would remember each other.

It was stupid, really; places never remembered the people that trampled upon it, but foolish girls were wont to dream.

Eto traced the branch of one of the trees, which had grown tall and strong these past thirteen years. Its trunk was thick and sturdy, and it towered above her, when before it was but a mere sapling, under threat of being crushed on a whim. Not only that, but its roots had finally broken the stone before the shrine, the spot where her world finally began to turn.

Time really did fly; being here now, she almost remembered the scene like it was yesterday. Her, missing an arm and collapsed in a heap within her kakuja. The shrine, broken from the weight. And then, suddenly—

“You’re here.”

Eto looked up and, upon seeing who it was, smirked. There was only one person who could sneak up on her like that, and as the years went by, she minded it less and less.

Seeing him here, it almost made her think the past had caught up to her, but she knew that wasn’t true. There were little differences to this new old meeting that made it so. Stark white hair instead of a nightshade blue. Her own hair, grown into a wild mane. An eye that couldn’t see anything anymore, and hers that had to squint when reading text on a book.

“Kishou Arima,” she said with a mirthless giggle. “Come to bask in your glory days?”

“No,” he said simply, as flat as ever. “I was just on my way to the 23rd.”

It was a little frustrating, to be honest, how little she could get out of him, but at the same time, that veil— or rather, that wall— was a comfort. The idea that there would always be something she could never truly understand, that there would always be something more to discover— It kept her going on some days. It meant she could keep digging, keep searching, keep fighting, and there would still be more. The Sysyphian assurance of an expected, if infinite, battle.

“And you?” Arima brought Eto out of her thoughts. “Why?”

The nostalgic question made her scoff. There were many people who asked similar things, but he was the only one she answered. “You’re asking that now? Are you truly so—”

“I am,” he interrupted. “Why?”

His gaze was unwavering, but a trick of the light made her think that there was a twinkle to them. Maybe, deep down in his empty void for a soul, he was actually amused. She chuckled at the prospect, then decided to indulge it. “I’ve just come back from Rushima, and I got a call that my editor is being ‘interrogated’.”

“By who?”

“You know who.” She didn’t have to say the name. “He had that look, you know. Almost reminded me of you.”

Arima paused. “He’s begun reading your work again. They remind him of himself, it seems.”

“So I noticed. And you? What do you think of them?”

He shrugged. “They’re wordy.”

She rolled her eyes at that. He never was one to talk at length, even about books, which he supposedly liked. Even now, where the end for them was in sight, he did not waver in this.

“Anyway,” she shrugged, “cutting through here is faster to get to where he is.”

It was a lie, just like Arima’s reason. This place was far too out of the way to justify coming here, regardless of destination; that was why Eto had chosen it in the first place. However, neither of them called the other out; they knew without saying.

“You’ve made your decision, then?” she asked, as if she even needed to.

He nodded. “The raid’s set to happen soon, and Squad 0 will be guarding Cochlea.”

“I feel safer already.” She smiled, but it faded soon enough. “It will be difficult for him.”

“He’ll succeed,” Arima said, and he almost sounded reassuring. “I’ll make him.”

“So you will.” A chuckle. “You always were one to force things.”

“Better than never letting things happen at all.”

“Hmph.”

Forcing things— that was the way of the One-Eyed King. Forcing his way to the top, clambering over the corpses, and creating a living legend that ghouls all over Tokyo despaired over. To supplement it, Eto became the Owl, his shadow, to give humans a reason to cling to him and justify their needless killing. She ate and ate and ate, taking the corpses and creating a shawl with which to conceal herself.

However, the thing about despair was that hope could just as easily be born from it. Were someone to topple that legend and create something new of it, ghouls would suddenly have a shining beacon of hope to look toward, and they would finally be willing to fight for their existence, finally be willing to live and not just survive. Not only that, but the humans who killed ghouls would finally be forced to turn inward and face the truth of the matter: they were played for fools.

But the thing about toppling such a legend was that it required a sacrifice. One unique sacrifice, and that, in and of itself, almost made it precious.

Eto stared at the coveted object as he turned on his heel and walked away. The way he still refused to really and truly look at her, even after thirteen long years, told her that there was still something he wasn’t telling her, but she couldn’t tell what.

It didn’t matter, of course; things were only ever going to end this way. The two of them were only cracks in the shell, crumbling in on themselves so that the real king could crawl out to the other side. Neither of them were strong enough on their own, nor did they have the tools or background to see it through themselves.

Still, they would try, and someone else, someone better, that made up the best parts of them, could do it when they couldn’t. They could find someone like that, surely, and they had. A miracle, not lying on cold concrete, but shining and flying through the sky. As his predecessors fell into the abyss and closed their eyes to that sparkling beacon, they would go satisfied, knowing it wasn’t all for nothing.

Despite that, though, as Eto watched Arima, she wondered if things could be different. If he could find— or rather, if he could see a way where he didn’t choose death over the world. Where he survived, and continued the fight. Would that result in a better outcome? If the Reaper turned his blade on the strings keeping him down instead of going limp in their grasp, could things change?

… No. No, they couldn’t; he had come too far down his bloody path to try and pave a new one. Much like her, a bloody cannibal who couldn’t find the bottom of her own stomach, he had piled up a tower of corpses far too high to topple it over now. They were monsters, simple as that. They, who took lives on a whim, were not worthy of seeing the new world, nor should they be allowed to fight any longer than they had to. Death was just as much a part of life as living was, and so they would entrust their legacy to their successor— their better.

Their king.

Still, if death was to be their fate, she wanted to try something out. She wanted to leave nothing unsaid, and as much as she hated to admit it, this was one of them. With a step and a call, she spoke a single word:

“Kishou.”

He paused halfway down the road. She waited for a reaction, for anything, really. She didn’t fully understand why she wanted to say what she said; she just knew she had to say it before the coming end. It felt strange saying it, but it had to be said.

Perhaps a part of her wished for him to turn around, and in doing so, change his mind. Change his path. Because if he could, so could she. In saying his name, she was positing a question: could they defy the death that would inevitably catch up to them? Was there a world where miscreants like them could exist together?

A gust of wind blew through the area, and leftover dew on the tree leaves, like blood, slipped off and hit the ground. Eto stared at the white back of his coat as she waited. Always, she waited.

It felt a little ridiculous. What exactly was she waiting for, anyway? It wasn’t like changing what she called him would cause him to turn around and— and what? Smile at her? Touch her? Kiss her?

She frowned. That sort of thing wasn’t possible for people like them. They shouldn’t— they couldn’t seek something like that. There were always bigger, more important things than trash like them.

Eto wet her lips in the silence.

She wanted him to turn around. So, so badly. She wanted him to turn around and run back to her, enthusiasm, anticipation, and joy springing him forth instead of emptiness, anger, and despair. She wanted him to gather her into his arms and hold her like she was the world, like she was the only thing that mattered. She wanted to feel his lips on hers, desperate and longing for the touch of someone who knew his greatest secret, from someone he had bared his heart to, even if only slightly.

She could be that person. She could touch him like he wanted to, and he could do the same to her. They would fit quite well together, she imagined, like pieces of a broken puzzle. Two terrible souls who, at the bottom of the barrel, had found each other. It could work, if she were more delusional and presumptuous than she was.

Fortunately, her feet did not obey her misguided and silent desire; they stayed planted, waiting as they always did. Arima also seemed to remember himself, and continued walking as though she hadn’t said anything at all. All began to fit itself back together. He walked, she watched, until she was alone again.

With a practiced sigh, she shrugged off the heartache.

#tg #tokyo ghoul #eto yoshimura #kishou arima #arieto #tgpairup23

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thestalwartheart · 1 year

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Hi! Not sure if you're taking prompts, but I'd love to see a 00Q story that addresses the defibrillator screw-up in Casino Royale. Whenever I watch that scene, I think "That never would have happened with (Wishaw's) Q there."

Hi!

I love, love, love this idea. In fact, I love it so much I want to make a series about it, but for now we'll have to deal with a short.

I was lucky enough to watch Casino Royale in a cinema the other night, and whoa boy did I have feelings about it all. This little scene came straight into my brain. A lot goes unsaid here, and it's pre-relationship, but I hope you like it anyway!

Read it on AO3 or below 😊 Feedback is always dearly appreciated!

competence.

The personalised gun is a stroke of genius, but it’s only one stroke of genius. It’s not until a couple of months later that Bond is assured Q Branch is in good hands.

He’s in the garage, escorted by Tanner, who is immediately distracted by the prospect of inspecting a Triumph motorcycle. Bond wonders vaguely if he’s on the verge of a midlife crisis.

Around the room, mechanics and engineers move about with ant-like industriousness. They scurry under cars, motorcycles, and, most memorably, a jet-black speedboat that looks no less lethal for its compact size. The busyness of it all, however, is highly organised. There’s not a speck of dust in the air or on the floor. There are no superfluous conversations, either. Every word spoken in the room is about horsepower or weaponry or which wires need to be joined or cut. Otherwise, there is only silence — the peaceful kind that exists between people who feel a great sense of camaraderie with each other.

When Q walks in, the room loses a little bit of its air.

Not that Q notices. He smiles benignly, and a little distractedly, at the workers who greet him with a “Sir” and a nod of their heads. Not aware of his own status, then, surmises Bond. And it is his own, not the title’s. Bond’s seen enough people play at Quartermaster to know the difference between genuine respect from the Q Branch staff and a pale imitation of it.

He’s dressed in a navy corduroy suit today, paired with a similarly dark checked shirt and a maroon tie. Bond can tell by his collar that the outfit started out ironed, though it now has the creases of a day at work folded into it. Q would still get away with it if it weren’t for the hair, which looks as if it’s been tugged in a hundred different directions throughout the day. It's likely the result of paperwork or a meeting with accounting. In the few missions Bond's gone on with Q in his ear, he's learned Q never gets this riled by matters within his own department. Nor is he very intimidated by the dangers of the field.

Bond has the mad urge to tuck away one of Q's wayward curls behind his ear.

Q, entirely unaware of those thoughts, saves his most genuine smile for Bond. It’s not wide. It’s a short, sharp little thing, but like the jet-black speedboat, it’s no less impactful for its neatness.

“007. Lovely to see you.”

Q leads him over to a beautiful Aston Martin. It’s the car Bond’s eyes had first been drawn to, though it seemed understated at first glance, placed as it was in a room full of snazzy red coupes and deadly-looking Jeeps. Q’s face assumes a bit of smugness, as if he’d known from before he walked into the room where Bond’s attention would lie.

“Incredible, isn’t it?” remarks Q in that smooth, crisp voice of his. “I don’t just mean the car, though she is extraordinary. No, it never ceases to amaze me how much taxpayer money we pour down the drain for fifteen minutes of technological glory, only for it all to end up at the bottom of a river.”

Q looks over, briefly, at a car’s waterlogged skeleton. Formerly a sleek black Jaguar, and, if Bond remembers correctly — which he does — it was assigned to 009 a week ago.

Bond smiles. “Have some faith. I like to show them an hour, at the very least.”

“Yes, I’m sure that’s what you tell all of them.”

Q doesn’t give Bond the pleasure of answering back to that. Immediately, he launches into a monologue about technical specifications. Bond listens with interest — though he doesn’t show it — impressed at the safety improvements and the many tricks up the car’s sleeve, though he’s most impressed by the newness of the miniguns. Custom-ordered, apparently. Before this Q, there hadn’t been custom-built guns in Q Branch for over a decade.

There hadn’t been very much worth noting from Q Branch at all in that time.

It’s only when Q opens the car’s glovebox compartment to display a defibrillator that Bond feels anything other than a benign sort of satisfaction. An old spike of adrenaline moves up through his chest, the residual wisp of memory that has never really left him. Q must catch the look in his eye because he clears his throat and lets out a short, understanding little sigh.

“Ah, yes, we’ve made a few changes to the existing design.”

“I should hope so.”

Bond gets another smile for that, a somewhat regretful one, though Q was likely still in bloody high school during Bond’s last dance with an MI6-made defibrillator. While he’s taking the blasted thing out of its casing, Q explains the design changes.

“Permanently attached leads. See? No pulling them off.” Q tugs at one firmly more than once. It stays firmly in place. “The wires are reinforced to prevent any damage from…well, whatever you agents get up to. And there have been some software changes, too. I can see the charge and override the button from here. No need to press it yourself should you be…incapacitated.”

Bond nods, silent. Q continues.

“Along with the one in your car, there’s a smaller, more discrete model in your briefcase. The same design modifications have been made to it. Both have passed extensive user testing.”

His tone is verging dangerously close to pity, and Bond suddenly yearns for the snappish, arrogant man he’d met at the National Gallery.

“Don’t tell me you went into cardiac arrest just for me, Q.”

“You say that as if you don’t bring us all closer to a heart attack with every moment you’re out in the field.”

Banter aside, he goes on to assure Bond that along with testing in the lab, 003 had made use of the device last week and returned unscathed. With that, Bond thinks he’s clear of any coddling, but he’d forgotten one essential detail from his and Q’s first meeting and all their encounters since: as precocious and cocky as the new Quartermaster is, he’s also exceedingly kind. And rather astute, too, if not with people, then at least with the history of the job and the responsibilities it entails.

Q closes the car door with a snap and straightens up. “My job is to outfit you with the tools you need, Bond. I happen to think we’re rather good at it these days, but if there’s anything we haven’t thought of, any equipment you require—”

“An exploding pen?”

Q’s only response is a distinctly British kind of withering look.

“—that you deem necessary to ensure a safe return,” he pauses, his voice softening and his face twisting a little with the awkwardness of the conversation. “You need only ask.”

“Thank you, Q.”

“Well, good luck in the field. Do try to return the equipment in one piece.”

Bond steps forward, making sure to get just close enough to Q to fluster him. It works for a moment, though the boy recovers quickly. Perhaps he’s been here just long enough to have become immune to an agent’s charm.

“And what about us agents?” murmurs Bond. “Say it’s between me and the gun or the car. Should I not return in one piece?”

Q averts his eyes. He looks around the garage and squints briefly at the ceiling as if he’s looking straight through the concrete to the bureaucratic behemoth above. Then, over the top of his glasses, eyes sparkling with mischief, Q looks back at Bond and quips, “Are you not part of this agency’s equipment? I trust you can make the right call about which...assets…we consider more important.”

A month ago, Bond would have guessed at the gun and the car being more important to Q. Now, he’s not so sure.

“Stay safe, 007. I’ll look forward to seeing you upon your return.”

With that, he slips the car keys into Bond’s hand and walks away. Bond fiddles with them as he takes a second look at the car.

In it, there’s a palm-print encoded gun (version two, apparently), several miniguns, an oil slick, heat-seeking missiles, a poison-detection kit, and a defibrillator meant to properly stand up to the kinds of emergencies agents face in the field. All of that is cased a frame designed to withstand bullets, fire and water. The Noah’s ark of cars. Well, it would be if it weren’t also a harbinger of destruction.

It's fine work, certainly, but it isn't until Bond climbs into the vehicle and opens its accompanying mission envelope that he lets an unguarded smile free. Lying inconspicuously atop the paperwork is an Omega Seamaster with a note wrapped around its band.

For opening doors. If you find yourself really putting your back into it, try the alarm.

Yes, Bond thinks, as he makes use of the car’s small ashtray compartment to burn the note. Staying safe in the field might be a bit easier this time.

#00q #00q fic #my fic

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bloody-wonder · 4 months

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2023 reading wrap up

sort sort sort i love to arbitrarily sort😌📚

*i decided to get even more creative this time and named the tiers after different things from the books featured on this list. see explanation below🙃 **the following series i read in full are represented only by the first book: the aurelian cycle, the radiant emperor, the winnowing flame, sorcery of thorns, monk & robot, lilywhite boys

so in 2023 my reading was heavily curated: i challenged myself to finish at least 5 series i started a long time ago, to start at least 5 new ones, to read at least 10 classics, at least 5 dark academia books, at least 10 books not in english and to re-read at least 5 books i've been meaning to re-read for some time - and i did well at all of these challenges except for the last two (missed the goal by one book in each case). it's still difficult for me to find books in languages i can read other than english which i actually want to read as well as prioritizing re-reads over new exciting books😒🤷‍♀️

but overall i would say this was a good way to organize my reading year. i like planning, i like structure, i like crossing things off different lists so completing these challenges gave me a great sense of accomplishment. but more importantly, i feel like they achieved their respective purpose: i returned to stories i fell in love with years ago and finally followed some of those journeys to their end. i discovered new fun journeys - some of them so exciting i had to finish the series immediately and some that will last me for a few more years to come. i finally feel like i trained my classics brain muscle back to its glory days and i can't express how pleasantly surprised i am to see one of those dusty tomes i read by the dozen as a teen on my top 5 again. i rediscovered my love for dark academia. i did read books in different languages and some of them ended up quite high on my tier list as well.

at the same time i had plenty of opportunities left to mood-read. boy parts, my favorite book of the year, for example wasn't a part of any challenge. the same goes for semantic error which i picked up at random during the bl manhwa revival i experienced at the end of 2023. so my top tiers ended up being a mix of different genres, the new and the old series and books, the expected and the unexpected faves.

i wasn't trying to read a certain amount of books this year but surprisingly i managed to read even more than last year (when it comes to the page count). and as for the quality, i do have a better feeling than i had in 2022 too. while i didn't manage to regain the heights of literary enjoyment from the golden era of 2019-2021, i think i'm on my way there :)

here's another curious wrap up thingy @magpiefngrl tagged me in! very representative of my reading tastes, though i must say i have only 6 unread kj charles books left and i'm starting to get concerned about what i'm going to do when i inevitably gobble them up in 2024😬

what about you guys? please tell me about your reading year! you can do a tier list (if you're a virgo) or the my year in books overview (if you regularly update your goodreads) or just write a post, if you want to. or you can also ignore me and go have a fantastic year😉🍾🎉🎆🎄

@figuringthengsout @fugitoidkry @pinkasrenzo @fandomreferencepending @counterwiddershins @magpiefngrl @sugarbabywenkexing @weirdsociology @theodoradove @doh-rae-me @venndaai @sixappleseeds @oliviermiraarmstrongs @bookish-moony

goodreads │ old yearly wrap ups 2020 2021 2022

explanation of the tier titles under the cut (if you even care)

spermaceti is a precious substance derived from the head of the sperm whale that may or may not be the whale's sperm. these are the books i absolutely loved. the vibe is that scene from moby dick where they are all on deck slicking each other with spermaceti and chanting "sperm!🙌" (that's how i remember it anyways)

toy excavator is the source of his strongest positive feelings for the main character of semantic error chu sangwoo. these are the books that i loved too but not on the spermaceti level, you know. the vibe is that scene where sangwoo realizes he's in love with jaeyoung and is like,, damn. this feels exactly like that time they gifted me a toy excavator🤔😒 (he's autistic)

skyfish is the least cool type of dragon in the aurelian cycle. the hufflepuff dragon, if you will. but it's still a dragon so these were some good books i still enjoyed😌

defekta are sentient furniture in nino cipri's sci fi novella defekt. now, in this book the concept of defekta very much serves the purpose of questioning what things we see as defective and the ethics of of how we treat them. for the purposes of this tier list however defekta are the books which range from good to great but which at the same time have some big issue that made me want to throw them at a wall. that's why the radiant emperor is ranked twice lol it has to be on my top 5 bc i'm obsessed but also ragsghhjdsgjhjbbdsd

kerinne is a made up drink the characters of mca hogarth's cozy sci fi series the dreamhealers like to drink. in 2023 i found out that i am not immune to cozy sff but one genre-specific thing i will forever remain indifferent towards is foods & beverages - i don't care about them too much irl so when they're fictional i care even less. these are the books that were just whatever🤷‍♀️

holism is art's annoying coworker we're introduced to in system collapse. a totally overrated guy, just like these books🙄

green varnish is a resin-like substance a certain type of creature in the winnowing flame excretes after consuming everything it finds in its path so that entire towns together with their residents get entombed under it forever. it's also transparent so the areas attacked by these creatures basically turn into see-through graveyards brrrr. these were The Worst books i read in 2023😬

#book tag #putting boy parts into the spermaceti tier over moby dick & cackling maniacally #ugh both goodreads and tiermaker kept crashing on me but i persevered #also if you're one of my reader followers and you want to tell me about your reading year please consider yourself tagged!

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yourbodymyarchive · 6 months

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Jon Sims Spotify Playlist Explained

I was gonna make this post regardless of whether anyone even remotely interacted with prev. post but two (count 'em, 2) people said I should, so I am.

I'm explaining some (not all, there's too many songs for that) of my song choices for my Jon Sims music playlist that is focused on his narrative. This is gonna be long.

Let's start with the first song on the playlist, marking the beginning of Season 1 (I sectioned it into seasons, by the way.)

Season 1:

Swan Lake, Op. 20 Act 1: Introduction - No.1, Scene.Allegro giusto (A.K.A The Swan Lake introduction song).

I think that Jon's narrative and the Black Swan narrative are extremely similar. For those who haven't seen the movie Black Swan, the story is about a young woman, Nina, who becomes obsessed with perfecting the duality of portraying the White Swan and the Black Swan. She essentially destroys herself in pursuit of her darker side, a side that was brought out by her dance director. I think if you put Jon Sims in this situation, he would act the same as her. Both individuals are desperate to be seen as competent and perfect and there is something to be said about transformation and the pain of transforming yourself into a being that can no longer revert back to purity. There is only black, but there is also perfection.

Spellbound - Siouxsie and the Banshees

The lyrics, the goddamn lyrics. Just the entirety of the archives, they are all caught in the spell, the web of games, and the dance. They have to dance along or else they'll get hurt. I also think Siouxsie songs have a very TMA-esque sound to them in general, in that these songs could fit in my film adaptation of TMA (the one I'm making in my mind constantly).

Season 2:

Let It Happen - Tame Impala

Like I said, my mind has been conjuring up a TMA film adaptation since I first started listening and this song would definitely play in a scene with all the avatars speaking "let it happen" to Jon. I also love how the song talks about something trying to get out of the narrator's body, something that they can't fight against much longer, because it's closer and closer and it will get out. Jon Sims, as the closest thing to an important person, could be said to be the capsule for the Eye. And all of the other avatars know this, because they're the same, but Jon refuses to let it happen. He can't give up. He doesn't want to give in. Eventually, he does, but his struggle to maintain humanity causes him pain and suffering and a coma. Should've just let it happen, bud.

Boys Don't Cry - The Cure

Literally the most S2 Jon song. The narrator says he's gone too far, he's laughing at the hysterics, he's at a cliff's edge of emotions, and he wants other's forgiveness but it's far too late and he knows it's all gone to shit. Jon, at the height of his paranoia, knew it was wrong to stalk and interrogate and suspect nearly every single one of his friends, but forgiveness was never in the cards anyway, he knew that. He just needed to know he wasn't gonna fucking die. His friends and their emotions came second, and that's what tore them apart.

Season 3:

Your Body, My Temple - Will Wood (For Camp Here & There)

Not really a Jon song, so much as it is about Jon from Elias's POV. The song features a narrator who is viewing the object of their affection with religious fervor. They speak about how they'd die at the object's hands if only to have their name on their final breath. The main line as well, "your body, my temple," highlights how the narrator views the object as a holy spectacle, assigning divinity to them, even when it is not wanted. Elias certainly assigned godhood to Jon and his expression of love and admiration bordered on worship, or, arguably, was worship. After all, Jon was the harbinger of the new world. The man who brought in fear in all its glory and gave Elias his throne. Worthy of worship? I think so.

Cat People (Putting Out Fire) - David Bowie

S3 Jon was a man putting out fire with gasoline, no question about it. He went forward and met various dangerous avatars just for the chance at learning more and more about the new world he was wrapped up in. Some of these lyrics also scream Jon Sims. For example, "See these eyes so green / I can stare for a thousand years / Just be still with me / You wouldn't believe what I've been through." The narrator, additionally, sees himself as a monster of sorts, the kind that people look away from. There is a passion so fiery in his eyes that it makes them look red, and then people close the blinds on him. S3 was the season where Jon was just beginning to understand his abilities, and the people surrounding him hated them. It made him other. It made him something to be feared.

Season 4:

Chin Music For The Unsuspecting Hero - Foster The People

The opening lyrics to this are literally the most S4 Jon Sims lyrics I've ever heard in my entire miserable life. "Today I walked through the door and fell down on my floor / Got all of my papers out and read them." Which is then followed by the chorus, with another round of Jon lyrics: "Where are my friends now? / They're not around when I need them / I cannot pretend / Yeah, I find myself against all the odds again." The narrator follows up the first chorus with lyrics talking about how they have to wake up and go to work, get screamed at, go home to sleep, and scream at their god that they're doing what they can. This is just so S4 Jon moving through the motions like a ghost, wondering where his friends have gone, the people he could trust. They are all gone. He'll never see them again. He's all alone. Basira sees him as a weapon, Melanie is far too angry to be polite to anyone anymore, Daisy is a shell of herself, Tim is dead, Sasha is dead, and Martin might as well be dead. Tragic!

All I Think About Now - Pixies

Like the one above, but a bit less sad. Not really. This song is all about staying stuck in the past and wondering if going back to the beginning would allow the narrator to find another way. Reminiscing on the happier times, lamenting on how happiness is nonexistent now. Trying to thank the people from the past. Once again: tragic!

Season 5:

I start off S5 with a different season break song. The playlist is sectioned off with a different Swan Lake song. S5 starts with:

Starman - David Bowie

I've always imagined this as the outro song for 160. There is a starman (Eye) waiting in the sky and he would really love to meet Jon. This world is theirs now. They don't want it to end, not really. It's too beautiful.

Komm, Susser Tod - Arianne (For Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion)

Now. This is one of the most Jon Sims songs ever. The narrator is crushed to see that their actions have let so many people down, but they know that by killing themselves, or leaving forever, their world might turn out better. Of course, this isn't true. The world is ending either way. Regardless, they wish to go back in time and fix things, trust again, love again. Very MAG200. The world is tumbling down, returning to nothing, and the narrator believes it's all their fault. Their love is worth nothing. They have nothing in the world. Except, maybe, Jon had his own love that mattered most. It helped. A bit.

Gilded Lily - Cults

This is one of the last few songs and it hit me so hard the first time I heard it, honestly. The narrator knows it was, in some way, their fault for not seeing things as clearly as they should've. The chorus repeating "Haven't I given enough?" remains as one of my top Jon lyrics. He gave so much to stop these powers from spreading, from infecting other worlds with their fear and destruction. No one person should have to do that. He was young, really, in the grand scheme of things. There was no instruction manual.

There's also a line here that is very JonMartin: "Always the fool with the slowest heart / But I know you'll take me with you / We'll live in spaces between walls." I really do truly hope the narrative was kind to them and they're living somewhere else, living in spaces between walls.

Well. That's the end of that. I included the ending of Swan Lake as the final song to the playlist, because I am crazy about the parallels. Playlist attached now. Thank you if you've read this far. I ramble. I hope you liked the ramble.

#tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #ramblings of an eye worshipper #playlistttt #character playlist #i am addicted to playlists #j sims jonny boy the archivist #Spotify

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antialiasis · 5 months

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The Marvels

This movie had fun bits but was kind of forgettable and eh on the whole. However, it also featured one of the most blatant missed narrative opportunities I have ever seen, so here is a little rant about it.

So the film establishes early that Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) was devastated and in denial about losing Maria Rambeau, her best friend from her first movie, to cancer, and that she had neglected to come home to take care of Maria's daughter Monica Rambeau who got snapped in Infinity War and then traumatically returned five years later to find her mother dead.

Later, we establish that the reason she didn't return was largely because when she destroyed the AI that ran the Kree home planet Hala in (I think, I don't remember it super well) her own first movie, she inadvertently doomed the inhabitants of their planet to misery, and she had been stewing in guilt about how she ought to be fixing it somehow, without ever knowing how. The villain of the film is from Hala and ostensibly motivated by wanting to return it to its former glory by stealing other planets' atmosphere/water/sun.

To the extent that the movie has an emotional core or character arc, it's about Carol's guilt and loneliness and how Monica felt that Carol had failed her by not being there for her. When they're having their climactic fight with the villain at the end, Monica suggests that hey, Carol could totally just use her light-based power to revive Hala's sun. Carol says what, but I've never done anything like that, and Monica's like, well, I've done a lot of things I've never done before on this mission. Shortly afterwards, Monica sacrifices herself by going into a rift in spacetime in order to close it, and Carol is devastated when she realizes what she's doing, desperately flying after her and reaching out only for the rift in reality to close, leaving Carol floating in empty space, alone. Once again too late to be there for Monica.

Shortly afterwards we cut to Kamala Khan (who was also with them) coming home to Earth alone with tears in her eyes. She tells Nick Fury that they lost Monica, and that Carol went to fulfill a promise.

So now I think, ah. This is what this has all been about. This is the bit where we get the culmination of that emotional arc, right? Carol has once again lost everything and everyone, and she realizes she has this one way to finally atone for the mistake that has haunted her by trying to kickstart Hala's sun. Only, as we've established, she has never done anything like this. She would probably have no idea if she would make it out alive if she attempted this, but right now she's ready to attempt it anyway, because everyone's gone and Monica already died for this and she probably deserves it, right? We're going to have a climactic emotional scene for her, where she maybe has a final few seconds as she averts her eyes from the blinding light ahead to allow herself to grieve her friend and her daughter that she loved as her own. She's about to fly towards her final purpose believing she's probably not coming back, right? If she comes back it'll be after an intense scene of agonizing effort during which she'll need to find the resolve to move on despite everything, or else this is Carol's last movie, where we spend the film with her grappling with these inner demons and she perhaps manages to find some final peace in her last moments of sacrifice before we fade to white?

...No, what we get is a short CGI wide shot of her flying into a darkened sun, the sun brightening, and then her tiny form shoots back out at the top of it, just the same as before except maybe more glowy. Not a trace of emotion, effort or intensity in this scene whatsoever. Part of me is convinced surely they must have filmed it and then someone just decided to cut it because it didn't make her look cool enough, or something. Surely, surely, you wouldn't write the film with the active choice to make this moment so nothing.

Worse, with no emotional draw to the scene, it just leaves us with the hollow, aching sense of oh. So she could have just done that this whole time? All this guilt and all she had to do was just casually fly into the sun and out of it again which isn't even painful to her or anything? The only reason she hadn't done that already and saved these people untold suffering was that she just hadn't thought of it yet?

It wouldn't have been a great film even if it had pulled off that moment - the villain never quite landed, Kamala is fun and endearing but Carol is the only one of the three mains with any kind of arc going on and even in her case it's not super well developed. But I can so easily picture that scene as a genuinely strong and emotional moment that would have redeemed the film and made it worth it despite the rocky way it got there, and I'm very sad on behalf of everyone involved in it that somehow we got this nothingburger of a non-scene instead.

#marvel #movies #the marvels #carol danvers #ramble

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bigfeelingsdyke · 1 year

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a few notes on jess and roany in "glory road" :

when i first watched this episode i was impressed by the rather intense and kind of strange storyline for jess, especially considering it was only the second episode of the series! andy calls it like he sees it - and he's right - jess is very afraid of roany, so much so that he is willing to leave Sherman ranch peaceably (rather than say, physically fight roany to get him to leave) i think its quite interesting that the show allows jess to be "afraid" so early on (or at all, honestly) considering that he is, ostensibly, a fairly macho gunslinger-figure, and this is a western tv show made in the fifties (there is a bit of the 1950s "sad-boy" type à la james dean about jess, so perhaps the writers were tapping into that style of on-screen masculinity?)

anyway, we quickly learn exactly why jess is so afraid of roany - he is a reckless tyrant, extremely emotionally unstable, and prone to brutally violent outbursts - the show literally compares him to a rabid animal, seemingly docile one moment and vicious the next

but it's the tone of roany's interactions with jess that really get under my skin...there's a layer of uncomfortableness there that suggests jess is afraid of more than plain old physical violence from roany...

for instance, the bar scene - why have the writers phrased roany's threat in such a way? "almost anything" what, exactly, would jess be willing to do for roany to repay his debt? perform violent acts for him? fight or kill a man? or perhaps something else entirely, as the writers (and jess' stricken expression) seems to be insinuating here - something completely unmentionable

but just in case all that subtext wasn't unsettling enough, later in the episode roany even goes into jess' hotel room in the middle of the night to threaten him some more! jess is literally in bed, vulnerable, being coerced into doing something he doesn't want to do - going beyond the textual reasons for roany's late-night visit, the sexual overtones of this scene are pretty obvious (and again, placing jess in such a vulnerable position so early in the show is such a wildly interesting choice, i would love to know what influenced the writers to go this direction with his character)

+bonus for @harper-sherman, jess looking longingly at slim (and his lips) in the first pic :)

#oh my god it's been so long since I've written any kind of analysis my eyes are crossing slkfsldkskl #but i had to include the pic of jess looking dreamily at slim it was just too sweet<3 #laramie #jess harper #slim sherman

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alittlelessalone · 10 months

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Last night I wrote some soft qijiu for my really long fanfic (progress is happening. I’ll get enough written to start posting eventually!). Because this scene isn’t until part 5, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to share it now.

Giving full context is way too long and complex, but here’s the basic gist. While he was still a disciple, Shang Qinghua ended up saving Shen Jiu from the Qui’s and caused a lot of ripple effects. Now years later, Shen Yuan has just arrived (in his own body) and expects the world to still be like in PIDW. He and Binghe recently went on a mission that didn’t go super well (think the skinner demon beginner mission) and Shen Qingqui had to come and bail them out. This takes place later that evening.

Anyway, here it is! A warning for some light references to past child abuse (Shen Jiu’s) and scars.

Shen Qingqui sank into the mass of soft pillows and blankets. He let out a moan as his tired muscles all but melted into his mattress. To his side, a warm lump shifted slightly to better accommodate his sprawl.

“Who said you could move? Get back over here.” Shen Qingqui rolled over to face his husband and gave him a pointed scowl.

Qi-ge only laughed and obeyed, rolling back in closer so Shen Qingqui could nuzzle up against him. Qi-ge draped a gentle arm across his shoulder, pulling him even closer and rubbing circles against his back.

“Long day?” His fingers pressed into a tight spot between Shen Qingqui’s shoulder blades and Shen Qingqui let out a deep moan. Qi-ge sighed contently at the sound and pecked a chaste kiss on the top of his head.

Shen Qingqui pressed his face against Qi-ge’s chest and breathed in his comforting warmth. “That child is going to be the death of me. How can he be so talented and smart, but also so absurdly stupid?”

Qi-ge chuckled softly. “Ah yes. I heard Binghe and Shen Yuan ran into a little trouble today and that Ming Fan and Ning Yingying served as accomplices. There were apparently four rather contrite looking disciples kneeling in reflection in one of the meditation pavilions.”

Shen Qingqui sighed. “It’s always good seeing my disciples make new friends and Binghe seems particularly taken with young A-Yuan, but there’s a difference between showing off a little and being just plain dumb. Honestly, what was that child thinking today?”

Qi-ge let out another chuckle. “It sounds to me as though he simply wasn’t. But sometimes that’s just how children are. Not me of course, I was always a model of foresight and patience, but other, less rational and level headed children might behave that way from time to time.”

Shen Jiu pulled one of his arms from his comfortable embrace to reach around and smack Qi-ge none too lightly in the back of his head. It was probably a good thing for his husband that his fan was tucked safely away out of reach, but Qi-ge only laughed at the blow. He pressed another kiss to the top of Shen Qingqui’s head.

“Hopefully Binghe will reign himself in long before he reaches the levels of impetuous stupidity I did, but either way, I know you’ll be there to help steer him in the right path.”

“So long as he doesn’t send me to an early grave first,” Shen Qingqui groused. Qi-ge only kissed him again. “Naturally. But you know perfectly well that I’d never allow that.”

The pair lapsed back into a comfortable silence, filled only with the sounds of their slow and steady breaths. Beneath his head, Qi-ge’s chest rose and fell in a soothing rhythm. It was almost enough to lull Shen Qingqui to sleep, but his mind wasn’t ready to rest quite yet.

“Did you hear that Shen Yuan jumped between me and Binghe today?”

Qi-ge stiffened slightly. “I didn’t. What brought that on?”

Shen Qingqui closed his eyes and recalled Shen Yuan’s terrified face. He had tried so hard to mask it under a veil of bravado and defiance, but Shen Qingqui had lived too much of his life surrounded by frightened eyes to recognize them as anything less. The Qui manor in all its opulent glory had no shortage of mirrors and he was intimately familiar with his own.

“He was afraid I was going to hurt Binghe. He saw me angry and approaching him and assumed the worst.”

Qi-ge let out a long sigh. “Unfortunately that’s not completely uncommon for children either. It’s always sad to see it manifest though.” His fingers continued to trace soft lines along Shen Qingqui’s back, running over the long-since scabbed over whip scars. “At least he’s now in one of the best places he could be to start healing now.”

Shen Qingqui smiled at the thought. “Cang Qiong Mountain really is very good for that. I never imagined I could even start the process, let alone end up where I am now.” He tilted his head up to press a kiss against Qi-ge’s jaw.

Qi-ge leaned down and gently caught his lips in his own. The kiss was soft and short, but Qi-ge waited for Shen Qingqui to pull him back in with more force. Their tongues brushed, sending shivers down Shen Qingqui’s spine. No matter how many years passed, the taste of his husband still left him feeling tingly and warm.

Eventually they pulled apart once more, although Qi-ge kept their foreheads pressed together. “I’m so proud and happy for you, Xiao Jui. There’s nothing more beautiful in the world than seeing you filled with joy. But I wasn’t actually talking about our sect when I said he was in a good place. Our sect as a whole is wonderful, but it has nothing on him finding you.”

Shen Qingqui’s cheeks grew warm and he buried his face against Qi-ge’s chest once more. “Moron.” He smacked Qi-ge again. “When did you become so disgustingly sentimental?”

Qi-ge gently stroked one of his burning cheeks. “Probably the moment I realized I had someone precious to me whose side I never wanted to leave.”

“Moron.” With his face still pressed against Qi-ge’s chest, he didn’t bother rolling his eyes. Besides, Qi-ge would never buy the annoyance anyway.

“I hope you’re right though. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by wonderful, kind-hearted morons who were willing to stand by me even at my worst. I just want them to have at least that.”

Qi-ge chuckled once more. “Well, as long as our friends and I are around, you should have no shortage of morons. But I’m sure your disciples can all feel your love. And I know they’re all safe now.”

Shen Qingqui closed his eyes once more and let the weight of the world drift away against his husband’s chest. “I really do have the best morons anyone could possibly hope for. Now what are you still doing up at this hour? Honestly. Go to sleep already.”

Qi-ge wrapped his arms a little tighter around Shen Qingqui and rested his head against his. “Of course, my love. Silly me.”

#qijiu #original shen qingqiu #yue qingyuan #scum villian self saving system #svsss #fanfic snippet #they are soft and in love #and have talked about things #Shen Qingqui has chosen to reclaim Xiao Jiu #I swear this fic will be published one day #once I fully finish parts 1 and 2 #until then enjoy the soft love!

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grumpylia · 4 months

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omg i just read the 5th chapter of your fic and i wanted to say that i LOVE it!!!

So i saw your post abt it yesterday and started reading at like midnight and i can not get enough!! Good thing it's a tuesday so i didn't have to wait long for an update hh

I love the way you write katie and how she feels to me like a real person, i know you said that at first many people would think that she's an annoying bossy teenage girl, but also, i've been there!! i was also the teenage girl who hated the troublemakers and was scared of breaking the rules (except i couldn't yell at them)

This is just my personal opinion but her bonding moments with the apollo cabin were for sure my favourite scenes, i just love them in general and i get do excited seeing katie interact with one of them!! i'm trying not to spoil here for future readers but the beach scene was so immaculate and definitely in my top 3!! on the other hand, the infirmary scene,...

I know this story is like a tratie endgame, but at several moments i was sooo convinced that katie's gonna have a thing or a moment with someone (which proved *mostly* wrong hh) so i'm still waiting to see how this plays out

Back to me saying how real these relationships are, i love how you convey all these complexities and emotions between campers, while also not forgetting that they're still SOOO young and most of them immature and WILL get into petty fights, but even then, there's still this sense of unity between them, or a camaraderie built by their shared experience (and trauma lol)

i'm looking forward to seeing how the demeter arc is gonna play out, but also what happened after the bday party (again trying not to spoil) and how idk i'm feeling there is some tension and doubt abt some campers' loyalties and their behaviour (katie would kill me for that). I feel like you've been building up for them in the last chapter so i can't wait for everything to blow up in our faces!!

Anyways this is getting pretty, and i still have soooo many stuff i have not mentioned (the last chapter actually brought me to tears, both happy and sad, and i could not be more glad about it) so sorry for clogging up your inbox, but i'm like very insane abt your fic so i had to scream at you about it!!

oh my oh my i actually think this inbox has made my whole day!!!! ive said it before and ill say it again its so crazy to me that people read my silly little story and i love love love talking about it!! thank you for this!!

first of all, thank you for the love re katie! i was sooo worried at first that she would initially come off too unlikeable, but i have been there too and it was important for me to get annoying bossy girl representation (don't worry, i couldn't yell at the troublemakers either)

i also adore the apollo cabin and i promise there is more to come with the apollo kids! one apollo kid in particlar (not named for the Mystery, although it might be pretty obvious who) is about to become a lot more prominent in katie's life and he is genuinely one of my favourite characters in the whole fic so i am so excited to see what you think of him!! im so glad you liked the beach scene! it's also one of my favourite scenes and its so lovely to hear that it resonates!! the infirmary scene...unfortunatrly there might be more where that is coming from :'( the apollo cabin in the pjo series are so deeply tragic and so personal to me

for now my lips are locked on any other potential romances.... i will just say that although it is tratie endgame there will be lots of twists and turns in getting there....

im so glad that the relationships are coming through as authentic!! i've always been a more character/relationship driven writer and through the process of writing this fic these characters and their friendships and bonds have become so real to me and you liking the way i portray their relationships (in all their immature, petty, trauma bonded glory) genuinely means the world to me <33

LMAO katie would kill you for that but also i fullheartedly agree with you. at this point, tensions are high and there is still a Lot to come: at the end of the day, they're children tryint to deal with these incredibly adult things and the culmination of all this tension is almost inevitable at this point

thank you again for this lovely lovely message! i literally was grinning ear to ear reading it: it means so much to me!! thank you thank thank you!! <333

#pjo

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