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angelictrl · 3 years

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hihi wifey, im feeling kinda anxious/sad in general so can i request just have satan + asmo being jealous tysm ❤️❤️❤️

JEALOUS SATAN & ASMO.

a/n ;; sorry that this is late and i apologize if this is sucky ! head’s been empty but i’m trying desperately not to get writer’s block </3 also, asmodeus’ part got longer than expected, oops.

cw ;; threats, insecurities, hurt-ish/comfort. satan is a moody baby and asmodeus appreciation/supremacy. not proof-read. that’s all, really, besides some cranky demons.

# satan. ``

@ others making him jealous . . .

whoever has the audacity to go and make the literal avatar of wrath jealous definitely has a death wish. whether or not some random demon who was getting too touchy, flirting, or taking up your time and attention with or without knowing that you were his partner, he’d still get pissed.

however, he has two reactions: either, 1. he storms up to them and puts them in their place/threatens them before pulling you away if he hasn’t destroyed something, or 2. he’s just on the verge ... sitting there, peeking over a book with a menacing aura as he glares at everyone like a cat, ready to claw someone in the corner.

satan trusts you, so if he goes with the latter, he’ll be silently raging internally while he waits for you to tell them you have a boyfriend and decline their advances. if they continue to push you when you already told them no, that’s when blondie here will snap and go with reaction 1.

“oi, just what do you think you’re doing ? my s/o already said no, you pitiful creature(s). quit gawking at them before i forcefully make you. understand?”

@ brothers making him jealous . . .

on the other hand, if it’s one of his brothers hogging all of your attention, he gets more petty than anything, really. the threats are still there, though. and especially if it’s lucifer who’s stealing you away ... yikes, everyone in HoL will know his change in mood as he’s been on lucifer’s ass more than usual with his pranks and curses.

satan will be visibly annoyed and give each and every one of you the cold shoulder by locking himself in his room more often than not (leviathan the hermit, who ?) to get lost in his books until he gets reassurance and affection from you.

he’s not really insecure, but more lost and confused than anything. he’s the brother that’s pretty much the odd one out, though none of them treat him differently, and he’s always had an issue with feeling enmeshed to lucifer.

even when he knows he’s his own person, he was created from a quite literal ungodly amount of rage and wrath. it’s all he’s known before you came along into his life. so surely ... you’ll excuse him for looking like a kicked puppy as he tries to sort through these new feelings, right ?

right, because you’re already there holding his hand in reassurance. that same rough hand that’s tortured and destroyed so many things is being held by someone so fragile ... someone who’s looked death in the eye ... someone who makes him feel like he’s something more than just a monster.

you truly were just like that main character in one of his books ... you were the beauty to his beast. or, properly phrased, you brought out the beauty in his beast.

# asmodeus. ``

@ others making him jealous . . .

‘oh, honey, you look like rumpelstiltskin, yet you still think you can compare to me ?‘ pretty much his thought process right there.

no but really, asmo may be sweet and the most gentle out of the brothers right next to beel, but he’s still an avatar of a sin. there’s no doubt that the lot of demons there in the devildom would be intimidated by asmodeus in the competition for your love - and honestly, who could blame them ?

most of them who don’t live under a rock would already know that you two are in a relationship with how much asmo posts about you, so it would take some serious devotion from any demon who dares to have the gall to compete with him - whether or not they view you as a fling - and asmodeus will not hesitate to get petty.

you’re going to need to reassure your demon boyfriend here that you only have eyes for him before he exposes the second half of deep, dark secrets this other person/people have on the internet ^^;;

@ brothers making him jealous . . .

he’d still think of himself as somewhat superior and cuter, but he’d tone things down. he wouldn’t ruin his brothers’ lives like how he would be willing to do so with strangers.

regardless of whether or not it’s a stranger, friend, or brother of his, in the end, asmo will be extra touchy and will spoil you with more spa dates and trips to majolish than usual. this is mostly because he doesn’t want you to notice his recent gloomy change in mood as he’s stuck on the thought of ‘what if’ had you really left him for someone else.

those intrusive thoughts just keep on swarming through his head ... so what better than to try to get back into routine with daily life ? he just hopes you haven’t taken notice, but unfortunately for him, you have.

you’ve noticed his slightly disheveled hair and outfit along with the mountain of clothes and makeup piling up in his room and his vanity. plus, let’s not begin to even mention the excessive amount of concealer he’s been wasting to try and hide his eyebags.

things finally begin to progress in the communication area when you sit him down and confront him one night while everyone’s asleep. though, getting him to work through the root of his charismatic-party-animal mask proves to be quite difficult.

“dear, it’s adorable how you care so much for me, but you’re really going to get wrinkles this way. here, come a little closer and let me do your skincare first, then we’ll chat ... c’mon ~ i said closer, hon. i don’t bite ... well, unless you want me to ~”

“asmo, baby ...” you cut him off for the nth time that night as he tried to change the subject again, watching the demon with champagne-colored hair who flung himself at you again glance at you with his cheeky smile faltering for a split second before he quickly regained his composure, but it wasn’t anything that you couldn’t catch onto. “please, stop changing the topic. i’ve come to talk to you ... the real you. no spontaneous activities, no makeovers, just you.”

asmodeus’ face paled ever so slightly and his eye twitched as he thought of playing dumb, but you were just so sincere. he couldn’t even manage out a ‘whatever do you mean ?’ before laughing in disbelief while turning the other way. “this - this is the real ..... the real ... me ... i have no clue what you’re talking about ...” he choked out while tears glossed over his eyes, his back turned to you.

in his theatrics and dramatic antics, he’d fake cry occasionally, but to truly feel such strong, negative emotions especially towards himself as he cried ... it was ugly. he was ugly. and now, surely if you saw his face, you’d leave him too. for he was such a shallow, ugly, good-for-nothing demon. no matter how much he polished his attitude to be sassy and charismatic or tried on the latest trending outfits and makeup, there was always this feeling of emptiness left in him. not like the black hole everyone called beel’s stomach, but this void left in his heart, this hurting in his chest that wouldn’t go away when the afterglow of each party and hookup arrived, this longing for warmth - not even just physically - for someone to hold him like he did for his brothers on their lonesome nights when they remembered the past.

the avatar of lust was knocked out of his thoughts by a pained noise, confusion written on his face before he realized it was himself. he was sobbing into your chest as you held him close, your fingers delicately carding through his tousled hair. ugly. he thought each sorrowful noise that came out of him was ugly, and he couldn’t help but chant sorry’s your way through tears. he didn’t know when you had came closer once more to hold him, but he buried his face into your shirt and finally let loose the flood of his emotions clinging desperately to you.

“p-please ... don’t go away too, s/o. you’re the true jewel of the devildom, my dear. you’re so much more beautiful than i’ll ever be ... and i ... i don’t mean that just by l-looks ... please ... i love you so much ...”

obey me masterlist.

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pretoriafics · 3 years

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If I wasn’t a goddamn werewolf - Pt. 5

Seems like the supernatural world finally came closer enough to Daniel. Now, you finally can feel in your bones what Derek felt with you before that night at his loft. Word count: 3.828 (I KNOWW, I'm sorry. I thought it would be shorter than this lol) Pairings: Reader x Derek Contain: Some angst, some fluff, Original characters (Daniel, your boyfriend) Warnings: English is not my main language <3; Inappropriate language TEEN WOLF MASTERLIST PART 1 | PART 6

Things were gradually straightening out for you. Despite had forgotten the birthday of your boyfriend, you made him believe that you don't! You were just planning a surprise. Things worked so well that Dan even let you at the Hales house that morning. Of course, Derek hated seeing you with Dan. However, he tried to tolerate it. You were moving on, and maybe he should try to do the same. After all, you hated him.

You were better off with each passing day when it came to self-defense, and you were better and better in the little surprise tests the Hale's gave you to test your skills. However, that didn't mean you were ready for real action.

But they were including you in this gradually.

Since you were introduced to the pack, you always went to the Hale house after work. That day had been no different, except for one little task: Talia had asked you to look for information about an old bestiary. At that moment, you were doing an initial search on the internet. You were sat on the couch, with your laptop on your lap. Derek, Talia, and Laura were planning something about a "Kanima".

The noise of your cell phone echoed through the room, and you picked it up off the table. The number was unknown. Finding the call a little bit odd, you put the laptop in the space next to you and answered the call.

"Hello, Ms. (Y/N)? I'm Sheriff Stilinski. I got your number from Stiles."

The fact that Sheriff is calling you already made your bones freeze inside your body. The Hale looked at you, finding it as odd as you thought.

"Hi, Mr. Stilinski. Did something happen?"

"Actually, yes. I'm here in front of Joey's bar."

Your heart hammered against your chest. You knew Joey! Daniel was going there that night because they are friends. You took a deep breath, trying to contain your nervousness and letting Noah finish talking.

"You should know that we are facing some problems in the city, with these animal attacks. Apparently, there was one more attack, and it was here at the bar. We found your boyfriend here, but don't worry, he is alive and well."

This time, your heart missed a beat. My God, Dan had been in danger! An indescribable feeling of panic washed over you, and you could already feel a cry rising up your throat. Your eyes were already stung with tears, and you got up from the couch. Your voice was already starting to wave.

"...He was attacked? What happened? How is he?"

The Hale approached you, not just with concern but because they knew that the attack was directly linked to the creature they were looking for at the time.

"Don't worry. He's fine. Daniel had some minor injuries. He's waiting for the rest of the authorities, and he'll be going home soon."

"Okay, I-" You tried to take a deep breath, but it was a little too late to stay calm "I'm coming, okay? I'm coming."

You hung up the call, trembling. Your vision became blurred, and you didn't know if it was because of tears in your eyes or because of that strange lack of control within you.

"Hey, hey, listen to me!" You heard Derek's voice. Your chest rose and fell, and you looked at random spots in the room "I want you to breathe, okay? If you lose control, it will be worse. Try to think of something that will prevent your wolf from taking control over you. "

Laura and Talia looked at you with concern while talking about something to each other that you can't pay attention to. Your eyes are run from the girls to Derek, who was looking at you with concern. You didn't answer him.

"(Y/N)!" He called, holding your face with both hands now. His eyes locked with yours. "Focus."

You felt a wave of feelings storming inside your chest, stirred like the sea in a violent storm, sinking all your rationality. The first feeling was fear. Daniel could have died that night, and all because of the supernatural. Then came the blame. You were lying to him every day because you didn't love him. Maybe he was attacked just because of you. After all, you were part of the supernatural now.

But Derek's voice managed to call you to rationality, and you saw that you needed to take control.

With the tears streaming down your face and your eyes focused on his, you took a deep breath. And again, fear overwhelmed you. You were so close to losing control! What if one day you lost and killed Dan? What if you hurt anyone else? A father? A mother? A child? What if you became the new person responsible for a corpse trail through the city because you failed to take control of your wolf?

And surprisingly, your breathing was slowing down. Your vision seemed a little clearer, and now you were able to pay a little more attention to the sounds around you.

"Scott is there." You heard Laura say to Talia, cell phone in hand. She had just made a call "He said Daniel took control of the situation. He said he locked some people in one of the rooms and tried to distract Kanima. Daniel was completely crazy, but he was brave."

Your hands were still a little shaky, but only from your cry. Seeing that you had regained control of yourself, Derek let out a long sigh. With his thumb, he wiped the tear trail from your face. His touch caused the air to disappear from your lungs.

"What did you thought about?" He asked in a calm voice.

You took a deep breath, seeking strength to speak. Tired of restraining yourself, you threw your arms over Derek's shoulders and hugged him for comfort. Without hesitation, he wrapped his arms around your waist, returning the hug.

"I just don't want to hurt anyone."

Fear. That was your anchor.

"You won't. I will not let this happens."

And there he was: Comforting the woman he loved by being concerned about another man. Not that he thought you were wrong, of course. Derek could understand the reasons for your concern. However, he couldn't help feeling jealous. He was trying to contain himself at that moment. After all, you needed him.

Your voice was choked and low by your cry.

"Can you take me there? I need to know if he's okay."

The alpha's heart cracked. In addition to hating seeing you that way, he hated the idea of taking you into the arms of another man even more. However, if that was going to let you okay he would do it. Upset, Derek let out a long sigh.

"Ok."

He moves away from you. His face, once with a soft and protective expression, was cold and even a little annoyed. Without saying anything else, he walked to the entrance hall. He takes the Camaro keys from the table and goes outside. You were in too much tension to notice the sudden change in his expressions, so you just took your coat on the couch and followed him. Talia grimaced and looked at Laura, who raised her eyebrows. It was as if she had read her mom's thoughts.

"I have a hunch what you're thinking about."

"I'm thinking that hug was too good to be true."

Laura compresses her lips, holding a chuckle.

"If Derek finds out that you've been gossiping about his life..."

Talia shrugged.

"It's what people do most within this pack, and it's my right as a mother to gossip about my son's life."

Your feelings were too stormy for you to be able to have a conversation. Derek was not much different because of his jealousy. So Laura was only able to talk to her mother in the car. Still, the only matter she could talk to was about Kanima. She was afraid to mention Dan's name, or Derek could kill everyone in the car just by hitting it in a tree for his jealousy.

Your heart almost jumped out of your chest when you started to approach the bar. A body was being carried in a black bag, on a stretcher. The lights of the vehicles could be seen from a considerable distance, and authorities were constantly moving. When you jumped out of the car, desperate to see how Dan was, Derek had barely stopped the car. He let out a low growl as he saw you run towards the silhouette of a man sitting in an ambulance.

The Hale got out of the car, already watching Scott and Stiles walking in wide steps in their direction. Trying to focus on something other than the whole situation with you, Derek crossed his arms.

"How many victims?"

"Two." Scott replied promptly. "Some people managed to escape, and others did not."

It was Stiles' turn to inform the Hale of the situation.

"There were in total 12 people who failed to escape. All of them were saved thanks to Superman over there."

Stiles indicated Dan with a nod, causing the family to look at him. Dan was hugging you with a smile on his face. He was trying to calm you down. It was clear from the way he was sliding his hand down your back.

Derek heard his mother ask Scott and Stiles something, but he paid no attention to the question. He could only pay attention to you in your stupid, perfect boyfriend's arms. You looked at Dan, and he put his hand on your face.

"I know it was risky, my love. I know. But I needed to do something. I'm fine, see? Everything it's fine."

"Are you really okay?"

"I swear. I'm just going to need to do a check-up. It's just to be sure."

You let out a long sigh and nodded, and Dan smiled at you. With his hand still on your face, he gave you a soft, loving kiss that you returned. The surrounding doctors almost devoured Dan with their eyes. However, you were the only one to get his full attention.

And yet, that didn't stop you from wanting to be in the arms of another man.

That scene was driving Derek crazy. Holy crap! Why couldn't that perfect idiot keep his hands on himself? Why did he have to be irritatingly touching you? He wasn't even supposed to put his hands on you! Derek was the one who was supposed to be touching you in his place and being the only one who could kiss you. Daniel was an intruder. He was not welcome. In fact, Derek could rip his hands off just because he was touching you.

Oh, how many forms of homicide were there? Derek was betting that there were infinite forms and that just being a little creative was enough. If he wanted to kill Daniel, Derek was sure that creativity would not lack.

"Hey, Romeo!"

Laura's voice pushes him out of his reveries, and he looked at his sister as if he had come out of a trance. In fact, Talia, Scott, and Stiles were looking at him, too. They looked a little scared.

"...What?"

She raised her eyebrows, speaking as if it were obvious.

"You are snarling."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, idiot, you are. And you're going to get attention from everyone."

Talia took a step towards Derek, her eyebrows slightly raised.

"Why don't you wait in the car? We get the information and take a look around."

Derek hesitated, contracting his lips. Then he let out a long sigh in acceptance. In silence and anger, he walked over to the Camaro, got into the vehicle, and closed the door. The quartet looked at each other, and Stiles started walking towards the passenger door of the Camaro.

"I had an idea! You can investigate. I have something that will solve his sour grape."

Scott frowned and tried to object.

"Uuh, Stiles, I think you'd better leave him-"

"I'll be right back!"

Stiles got into the Camaro, sitting in the passenger seat. My Godness. Derek was already starting to get a little more annoyed.

"Hey, what's up, Derek? It's so crazy this whole Kanima story! So crazy..."

Derek remained with his eyes focused outside, unmoved by Stiles' advances. If he pretends that Stilinski wasn't there, maybe he will go away.

"Uh..." With the silence, Stiles cleared his throat and continued talking "You know, I downloaded a really cool app where there are lots of girls. The name is Tinder. Have you heard about it?"

That was definitely the last thing Derek needed now. Annoyed, he sent a mortal glare to Stiles. Derek was not the type of man who needed help with women, especially if it came from a stupid teenager. Stiles swallowed hard with Derek's gaze, but he doesn't give up.

"Er..." He took the cell phone out of his pocket, putting it on the app. Then he showed Derek a red-haired girl "This one has tattoos. And she's a doctor! I think a doctor would be useful in the pack. And she's hot."

"Stiles, get the fuck out of my car."

Derek looked at Stiles with an almost murderous look. Slightly frightened, Stiles swallowed hard and put the phone back in his pocket.

"Err... I think I better go help the guys, so... I'll keep you aware of clues!"

Stiles forced a smile, and he didn't take long to get out of the car, leaving Derek finally alone with his thoughts.

You had just said goodbye to Daniel in the hospital lobby. He had gone home and alone, at your insistence. You just wanted him to rest, but it wasn't just that: You wanted to be alone. Although it was almost 3 AM, you don't feel a drop of sleep. You were relieved, of course. Daniel had not been seriously injured, but he still needed to make some bandages. He would be back the next day for detailed medical examinations. However, your feelings were still mixed up inside your chest, especially now.

What if you indirectly had put Daniel in danger? Was that your fault? Maybe it would be better if you move away from him, so he would stay safe, and you would stop lying to him.

The point was that thought reminded you of the words Derek said to you in your first training.

During all this time, I was trying to keep you safe.

I didn’t want you to come to me again because it was dangerous. I really needed you to hate me. You would be safe that way.

You felt your heart crush inside your chest, under the weight of remembering what had happened that day. Not only did you yell at him, but you avoided him categorically. In the last few days, the contact between you two has evolved during the training. However, it was still weak. The peak of contact between you had happened that same night when you gave him the first hug in ages.

You found yourself in the same situation that Derek was with you before everything collapsed. Now, you had ruined everything between you.

You went outside to the hospital door and sat on the steps at the entrance. Then, you took your cell phone out of your pocket and looked at your contact list, looking for someone to give you a ride. Should you call Laura? Or should you call Derek? It was pretty evident that you wanted to call Derek, but would it be appropriate? You were barely talking to him, even with the advances in your relationship. Confused, you let out a long sigh. You then remembered Talia's words just a few days ago.

Be honest with you.

You would not be honest with yourself if you called Laura, would you? Of course not. She was not your first option.

Damn it. You called Derek. He didn't take long to answer.

"(Y/N), hi."

You hesitated before finally saying something in a low, tired voice.

"Hi, I'm sorry to call you this hour. Did I wake you up?"

"No. Actually, I haven't slept yet."

You let out a long sigh.

"It's just that Dan just got out of the hospital, and I asked him to go home and rest. I needed a ride, but only if it isn't going to bother you."

"It won't. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Ok, thanks."

You hung up the call and curled up in your thin coat. It was a bit of a cold night, and you've never been so tired. In fact, you were so tired that you couldn't even feel nervous about Derek's arrival in a few minutes. With your mind already a little more empty, you brought your knees close to your chest and rested your arms on it. You lowered your head, resting your forehead on your forearms. You stayed like that for a few minutes until you felt something heavy and warm over you.

"Come on. I will take you home."

You looked up and saw Derek crouching in front of you. He had put his own jacket over you to keep you warm. Without saying a single word, you stood up and accompanied him to the car. You were silent and huddled inside Derek's jacket for most of the ride. Apathetic, it did not take long for your mind to return to the thoughts of before. Derek just wanted to keep you safe all that time! Of course, if you were away from him, you would consequently be away from the whole supernatural world.

Okay, but what should you do now? What was the next step? Would you do anything? Or would you leave things exactly as they were now?

These were the questions that involved your thoughts until you finally arrived in front of your home. Derek stopped the car and looked at you.

"Try to rest. It was a tough night."

You just nodded. As you unlocked the belt, you felt your heart beat faster and faster with anxiety. It was time to make a decision. Your voice came out wavering.

"I will, but not now. In fact, I was going to ask if you can come in."

Derek blinked his green eyes consecutively. He was not waiting for that request.

"Of course."

You left the Camaro and walked to the front door. As both of you entered, it was the turn of Derek's heart to hammer inside his chest. He remembered every minute with you inside that house. It wasn't just the memories that were making him anxious. In fact, he had no idea why you asked him to come in. You sat on the couch, and he sat next to you.

"Well, I..." You started to speak with your eyes down, still not quite sure what to say. "I wanted to apologize to you. I haven't been the best company for you."

Derek looked at you with a twinge of surprise. He wasn't expecting that. In fact, he didn't think you should apologize. You had done nothing but try to protect yourself.

"The one who should apologize is me, (Y/N). You didn't do anything. You were just trying to protect yourself. I don't judge you."

"You already did it" You replied in a low voice. Embarrassed, you looked away at the fuzzy carpet in the living room "and I just yelled at you." You looked up into his green eyes "You know when you said that about trying to keep me safe, were you really serious?"

And for the first time after all that time, Derek felt a thread of hope. With his heart warm inside his chest, he nodded. There was nothing he wanted more than to have you back.

"I didn't want you to get hurt. With me, you would be exposed. I would never have forgiven myself if something has happened to you, but well..." He let out a long sigh of frustration "I didn't count on Peter."

"Why did you never tell me the truth about you?"

"That would also leave you exposed. Between seeing you in danger and seeing you with someone else, I would rather let you go with someone else. Actually, I still prefer it, but now I think it doesn't make that much difference. You are now part of the thing I'd tried to push you away from."

Oh. You felt your face burn, and a slight and unconscious smile was born on your lips as you looked down. You were missing words. In fact, you didn't know that Derek was able to give you up to save you from something.

Derek almost melted with pure love when he saw your reaction. He was happy that both of you were having that conversation. In fact, since you were making things clear, he approached you and took your hand. Your heart started to beat faster at his touch, and you looked at him again. The butterflies were already churning in your stomach.

"And since I'm being honest with you now..." He continued talking, without taking his eyes off yours "You were stunning in that dress when you went to the loft that night. I almost postponed the plans to get away from you. And whenever I see Daniel touching you, I just want to punch him in the face."

You let a low chuckle escape between your lips, feeling your face burn even more. That conversation had yielded much more than you expected.

"Dan is a nice guy. Don't be mean."

"I can't help it when I see him touching my girl."

The air seemed to disappear from your lungs when you heard his words, and you gave him a wide smile. Derek rolled his eyes without stopping talking.

"I mean, come on. Daniel looks like an older version of Jackson."

"No, he doesn't! Jackson is an idiot."

"Daniel is a different kind of idiot."

It was your turn to roll your eyes.

"Are you jealous?"

"Yeah, I'm jealous, damn it. You shouldn't be with him."

You smiled at him, with your eyes emanating pure love. He returned the smile, with his eyes emanating pure love as well. In fact, both of you didn't need words to say that you loved each other. Your eyes were already doing all the work.

"Okay. I agree with you."

You couldn't help yourself: Without hesitation and focused on that one instant, you leaned over him and kissed him. Derek pulled you onto his lap, returning the kiss intensely. While holding your face with both hands and kissing you, he could only think about how much he wanted that kiss again. Kissing you at that moment was like the first time he tasted your lips. It was magical, and it was so right. It was where he was supposed to be.

It was where he wanted to be for the rest of his life.

TAGLIST: @teen-wolf-obsessed4life

#teen wolf imagine #teen wolf imagines #teen wolf fanfics #teen wolf fics #teen wolf fanfic #derek hale imagine #derek hale imagines #derek hale x reader #derek hale fanfics #derek hale x you #derek hale x y/n #derek hale angst

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swan2swan · 3 years

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So, where do we go from here?

Camp Cretaceous Season 4 Prediction (LONG):

As much as I’ve argued that we need to stay on Isla Nublar the whole time, turning right back around after that final sendoff would be too much of a forced “Return to Status Quo” for a story that has propelled itself forward so much. The kids did it. They won. They got off the island. I feel like we've explored almost everything we needed to (what's left? The bamboo forests? The gardens?), and though we never saw Triceratops or Stygimolochs or got chased by Gallimimus, we can't just go back after everything's increased. The only Big Challenge remaining on the island is the volcano, and that's six months out.

But the story’s nowhere near done, because we have four major plot threads that need to be addressed before the show ends:

1. Most immediately, we have the dinosaur in the closet. Is it a baby Scorpios? Blue? A Monolophosaurus? A Dilophosaurus? A baby Ouranosaurus? A baby Baryonyx? Jeanie? We don’t know, but odds are that it’s going to throw a wrench into the kids’ plans to return home.

2. The state of Sammy's family and the ranch are still in flux; what will happen to them? Did they get all the money they needed from lawsuits? Does Mantah Corp have dirt on them? Are they going to try to interfere with Sammy because she Knows Too Much? They were set up as villains for a reason.

3. Darius and Kenji's strained relationship is a setup for future conflict.

4. We need to see Bumpy again. This isn't something that “needs” to come up, but the fact is that she's one of the main characters—bringing her back is essential to the story's quality, and we're not missing that thread. She either needs to get off the island, or we need to see that she lives afterwards.

Considering all of these things, I can rule out a lot of options: we're not getting chased right back by the Mosasaurus, and the creature in the ship isn't just going to wreck the engines and send them back. They're less than a hundred miles off of Costa Rica, so even if they're cruising at a cautious ten miles an hour, they should be able to see the shore within twenty-four hours, which means we're not going on an island-hopping adventure, either. You need dinosaurs, too, so nothing generic will happen.

Thus we can consider:

1: The kids are on the mainland of Costa Rica, and lost in the jungle or mountains. Just because they found their way back to mainland doesn't mean that they're going to find a port, and if their stowaway or the Mosasaurus causes problems, they can crash easily. If it's a Scorpios Rex baby, they'll have to hunt it and capture/kill it to finish their mission from this season. The problem with this option is that it just retreads the threat from the last season, which is boring; if it's a Monolophosaurus (or two), then it might not even impact things...so, I don't think the “kids in the jungle” plot is going to stick. I give this one a “D”.

2: The kids run into a patrol vessel before landing. Isla Nublar is under quarantine. While they're on the boat, their rescuers/captors unleash the creature (which could be Scorpios!), and now there's a tight opening adventure on the boat. Thrilling, but not much of a big season if it's just a navy vessel...which leads me to:

3: This is the only way I think we go back to Nublar, and that is if they meet up with a patrol boat, and then the creature in the hold (a small Scorpios???) rampages through the ship. They put it down, but the noise attracts the Mosasaurus, which wrecks the boat and puts them right back on Nublar—separated and with a bunch of adults alongside them. With a cast of much-more-plot-vulnerable adults to care about now (perhaps including Roxie, who joined the crew?), the stakes are higher and the kids are guides—maybe even separated at different points on the island. Not a big fan of this idea, though—again, it's retreading, and the number of excuses for “military-trained adults can't radio for help” is slim. So, I give it an “F”. But let's refine it a little further:

4: The kids get picked up by a patrol boat that is actually working for Mantah Corp—and they discover the dinosaur that has snuck aboard. Seeing an opportunity, Mantah Corp excitedly takes the kids to their secret base...on Isla Sorna. Though the dinosaurs on the island are mostly extinct and sick from disease, the abandoned island was perfect for a field laboratory. Specimens to study, buildings that already existed, a quarantine keeping prying eyes away...there's a whole organization here now. The kids escape from captivity (as they do) and find themselves wandering around a new island with new dangers: all around them are long-decayed skeletons of dinosaurs from the past, and hunting them are bizarre creations from Mantah Corp's labs. It's an island of ghosts now, and the kids need to escape...and perhaps, when they do, they find that they only have enough fuel to make it to one place: and it's the place they never thought they'd return to.

This plot covers pretty much every base—the stowaway, Mantah Corp, the relationships, and a chance to return to Bumpy—and gives them a proper, probable reason to go to Isla Sorna that isn't “Fate decided that it would be fun if they went to a different island”. I give this one “B-to-A” probability.

However...

There is one other major option:

Three. Year. Timeskip.

There are only two things holding me back from leaning into this: one is that it would deny us the sight of the kids reuniting with their families. We need that. We need some sort of triumphant return home. The other, simpler, more obvious problem is the monster in the hold; that kind of cliffhanger seems like it should come up. Obviously both of these problems can be solved via flashbacks, or a prologue, but...the need for new models and such would be an issue, because “budget” has always been a thing.

The other major problem, obviously, is the fact that the kids would need a reason to come back together. Maybe they all gather together for an anniversary and a dinosaur attacks them; maybe they're all being interviewed; but a far more interesting, compelling, and obvious motivation would be this:

Bumpy is alive and in danger.

Thus, all six kids (well...at least two would be adults now...) go running off to find and rescue Bumpy. They're bold and independent, rebellious and reckless: they each go to save their dinosaur friend, and they end up running into each other and ultimately facing Mantah Corp, who is one of the major power players in the prelude to Dominion.

This one has the ultimate story potential, in my opinon. You have Kenji and Darius meeting again with death glares because they left on poor terms. Ben has adjusted. Yaz and Sammy have had three years of yearning, notes, and problems (or maybe Sammy vanished...). And Brooklynn has had to forge a completely new life for herself, because she can't deal with internet fame anymore—everyone asking her about the island wherever she goes was just too much.

It directly sets the stage for Dominion, allowing glimpses of the world as it will be in the movie. Maybe the kids set more dinosaurs loose from Mantah Corp's (land-based in this one) laboratories as they free Bumpy. Maybe they become renegades and outlaws—forced to live in the wilds of California, Nevada, or Mexico. They're no longer looking for rescue, but for refuge. Maybe Claire has a sanctuary, a real one, that they have to get to. This would make it a full-scale adventure in a world filled with dinosaurs. Whatever they brought back with them is out there, too...and perhaps an old, scarred nemesis they never thought they would see again.

The biggest drawback to this is that the show hasn’t been running long enough for kids who started it to connect with the grown-up forms of the characters, but also...at the same time...it could work? I dunno, I give it “B” probability, A+ potential.

Other thoughts that could work in any of these:

Roxie is working for Mantah Corp. She's unemployed, combat ready, and bitter at InGen...also, she'd look great in a uniform.

Brand is involved in any mainland shenanigans.

Dodgson. Dodgson. Can we get Dodgson here?

#jurassic world #camp cretaceous #camp cretaceous spoilers #camp cretaceous season 4 #mantah corp #look you don't give an organization that cool of a name without making them the focus #but I feel strongly like it's going to be the 'captured by mantah corp' option #gives the highest stakes #and a secret lab on sorna gets them there #because let's be real: them accidentally going to sorna would be stupid #it's not going to happen #BUT #if they're TAKEN there?#sure wonderful do it that's great #love it #but also you really can't have Sorna be what it was or the enitre lore of the Jurassic World franchise goes up in smoke #but also by GOING to Sorna #you can EXPLAIN IT for everyone #hence why I think this is the plan #but again: they're NOT JUST GOING TO CRASH THERE #that would be stupid and even if it happens I am GOING TO KEEP SAYING THAT #jw:cc

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zehecatl · 3 years

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rec post for @f-eef that got too long for its own good, and is now just. a general rec post i guess

(as of writing, today is the steam summer sale! writing this before that goes live, so no guarantee everything on here is on sale, but! most of these are older games, so it’s likely. keep them in mind~)

- Iconoclasts my absolute favourite game, ever (along with OFF, but shh), if you check out one game from this list, let it be this one. it’s a genuinely almost flawless package, with gorgeous pixel art, fun gameplay, a really good story, and a cast of characters i just. adore. it’s so so so good, and three years later, i’m still not over it

- The Binding of Isaac so there’s this genre called roguelikes, wherein the whole gimmick is that, when you die, you gotta start from the Very Beginning; and the ‘point’ is getting better and better at the game, until you win! it’s super easy to just, play a few runs (they generally don’t last that long!), and then go on with your day, so it’s a really fun game to just waste time in, if you just wanna chill with some game. and, in my personal opinion, Isaac is the best roguelike game, with so much stuff to unlock, a whole slew of items to play with, and so much content it’s kind of unreal. i definitely think the DLCs are worth picking up, but it’s mostly for more content than like. actually being necessary

- Terraria it’s minecraft, but 2D. unlike MC, it’s got a bit of guidance, which i personally prefer, with bosses to fight and such. an absolutely BLAST with other people too

- A Hat in Time a 3D platformer, ala Mario, that’s just. super charming. it’s also really fun to play. i haven’t actually played the DLC’s, since i played it way back, but i’ve heard good things about Nyakuza Metro, which does look super slick, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- Slime Rancher you are a slime rancher. you ranch slimes. it’s honestly just wholesome as hell, and just exudes happy vibes. mostly for running around and collecting slimes, ngl

- The Messenger really funky retro game, wherein you play a ninja on a mission. it’s primary draw is definitely in its gameplay, but there’s a surprising amount of story for this kind of genre? i honestly really just like this one. it’s neat

- Underhero you play as a cute minion, who kind of like. managed to kill the hero. and whoops, guess you’re doing his job now? it’s got that undertale vibe, though i’d say it’s less polished than it. HOWEVER, it’s absolutely lovely and it’s climax is REALLY good

- Hatoful Boyfriend bird dating sim. trust me. the ‘secret’ finale route is just. *chef’s kiss* fantastic

- Night in the Woods if you don’t mind having a very poignant sad time, oh my god, i could not recommend NITW more. it perfectly captures that period when you’re done with school, and suddenly your whole life is stretching before you, and you feel so so fucking lost, and overwhelmed and pained with it. it’s just. so good. a sadness worth experiencing

- Shovel Knight another retro game! this one is, pretty much, the king of the genre, and for very good reasons. the first one (shovel of hope) doesn’t have much story, but the latter ones really add on it. they’re honestly just, really solid games! with funky knight characters!!!

- Hyper Light Drifter man, it’s just a masterpiece. everything about it is perfect. it’s been like, five years, and it’s still one of the very best indie games

- Tell Me Why it’s currently free for june! and it’s a story game! plus, if you like the genre, the devs got the ‘Life Is Strange’ serie(s) to delve into!

- Cat Quest honestly, i just really like this little game. the gameplay is SO much fun, and everything else is just. really charming :’)

- Yoku’s Island Express metroidvania, where you play as a dung-beetle post officer, and the gimmick is that it’s pinball-y! it’s really fun, and very cute and just an all around good time :)

- Owlboy you play as an owl boy! named Otus! and you can fly around, and there’s GORGEOUS pixel graphics, and a neat story, and just. the BEST cast of characters. it’s delightful

- Yuppie Psycho + Count Lucanor just gonna bundle these two together, because they’re both REALLY GOOD. YP is the newer one, and is therefore probably ‘the better one’, but i like them both a ton! they’re 2D horror, but i wouldn’t say they’re that spooky? though that might just be because they’re pixel games! you explore spooky place, and weird stuff happens around you. just a really fun time :)

- Angels of Death my FAVOURITE rpgmaker game, it’s main draw is, a 100%, the main characters and the relationship that develops between them. i just love it a whole lot, and it’s got that lil’ tinge of horror that i, personally, fucking adore. there’s actually an anime based on this, but i haven’t seen it myself!

- Celeste curve ball! it’s a 2D platformer! it’s really good, got a ton of accessibility features, and has like. the tightest gameplay- and, on top of that, surprisingly emotional story!

- Bastion putting Bastion here, because it’s actually the only one i’ve properly played, but you could probably buy any of the Supergiant Games, and come out satisfied. Bastion is the oldest of the bunch, and is definitely a bit less polished for it, but i personally adore it; the gameplay probably hasn’t aged that well, but i think the story and presentation more than makes up for it

- The Darkside Detective funny point and click adventure, with great wit, and a pair of characters i kind of simply adore. it’s main draw is definitely its humour

- Littlewood very wholesome and chill farming game, that feels more like an RPG than something like stardew valley- i’d not recommend it over SV, but if you want more of SV, Littlewood might scratch that itch!

- Pony Island + The Hex absolutely adore both of these, though if i had to rec only one, it’d probably be Pony Island? they’ve both got that undertale-off vibe, though Pony Island definitely leans harder into it. very interesting plays, both of them

- Oxenfree another horror-ish game! primarily story-focused, but oh boy, what a story! i’m a BIG fan of this game, and the sequel was recently announced too! definitely worth a look if you like ghost shenanigans

- Creature in the Well wasn’t a 100% sure if i should rec this, but beside the finale boss, i really enjoyed my time with this! it’s this weird pinball inspired hack and slash, with some amazing vibes

- Kindergarten 1 + 2 they’re just fun little games okay. the 2nd is much more fleshed out, but the 1st one is really fun too

- the Henry Stickmin collection I JUST... LIKE THESE GAMES A LOT... i think you can find the old versions somewhere on the internet, if you wanna check them out first? idk, they’re fun!

- LIMBO + INSIDE personally, i like INSIDE more, but both of these are classics, and also they’re made by a danish team, and i like them a WHOLE LOT

- The Final Station i could not tell you why i like this game as much as i do, but oh my god. i love this game? it’s got a dying world, neat pixel graphics, big zombie apocalypse vibes, and a weird little story

- Year Walk i love Year Walk :)

- Smile For Me if you liked undertale’s lovely cast of characters, oh boy, you’d likely LOVE this game! it’s really, really, fantastic, and the epilogue (not in the actual game lol) hit me right in the feels

- Pikuniku just a fun little game! there’s not really much there, in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a wonderful little play, one of those games that just sets out to give you a good time, and absolutely success. i like it a lot :’)

- A Short Hike wonderful game, where it’s more about exploring the island than actively finishing the game. it’s real wonderful

- ULTRAKILL ANOTHER CURVEBALL! no idea if you like FPS, but oh my god. ULTRAKILL is so fucking good. just an absolute blast to play. there’s a demo to check out, and i’d definitely recommend it, because if it’s a genre you might like, you’ll love this one (OH also it’s in early access, which means it’s not finished yet! personally, i don’t mind that, especially considering this is more gameplay focused, but ya’ know!)

- My Friend Pedro it’s honestly just really fun to play, and sometimes i still think about the implied lore, and go all !!!!

- Little Misfortune another point and click! this one is pretty short, and is set within the same universe as their other game, Fran Bow, which is much bigger, but idk. i like this one. it’s dark cute

- This Strange Realm of Mine i honestly dunno how to explain this one, because it’s kind of weird and a bit odd, but i really like it, in all its weird poetic glory. it’s neat!

- Donut County you’re a terrible racoon who’s ruined the whole city with holes. it’s great and i love it

- OneShot another ‘gives me undertale vibes’, though this one was in development before UT, if i recall correctly! it’s so good, and it’s got some fantastic meta bits, and i love Niko. i love Niko so much

- Inmost gorgeous vaguely spooky game with a neat story... my favourite genre

- Sayonara Wild Hearts i’d call this more of a spectacle than anything else, but oh my god. what a spectacle it is! the OST is amazing, everything about it just hits right, and even if you suck at the gameplay (which i did), it really doesn’t matter, in my opinion? it’s just great all around!

#ze.txt #the sale likely just went live so #steam sale #hope there's something here to your taste feef!#i honestly haven't been playing any 'real' games in. A WHILE? so all of these are older-ish #and there's a bunch of good new games out there!#but here's my little rec post of older games :')#that i have. actually played #i think inmost is the only one i never finished? plus TECHNICALLY oneshot since it got a BIG update after i played it but shhhh #also TECHNICALLY also ultrakill but that's in ea so it doesn't count okay #i just love ultrakill so much. i had to rec it. I HAD TO #also keep in mind some of these probably require a mouse!! i know ultrakill DEF does #but you might have one?? i usually play on my big pc so i. would not know #oh also DST does have a single player version which is very good also

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langernameohnebedeutung · 3 years

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I’m probably parrotting to the wrong choir here, but at least part of the truth about liking villains vs. condemning villains is...I don’t consume villain content in order to find healthy coping strategies and genuine life advice. I don’t look for healthy coping strategies in sci-fi films and fantasy books or on ao3 in the first place, because 99% of all that input is not produced by people that a) intent or b) are qualified to give meaningful life advice.

Sometimes things we read or watch can be detrimental to our mental health or can make us happier or mean a lot to us. And that is also why it is important to tag, warn, and summarise content: So that people can avoid things that are bad for them and find things that comfort them. But what popular fiction never is, is a clear, intentional, professional, and universal guide.

We already talked about how even the most horrible people will read novels where they resemble the bad guys and identify with the good guys instead rather than reflecting their own behaviour. That is, because narratives need stakes. The hero needs to be David, not Goliath. And we too see ourselves as Goliath, in our lives. Because there are always things that are bigger than us. And because we know that David will win.

But sometimes...sometimes it is quite nice to feel like the giant. Especially when we’re used to feeling small.

Sure “I like this villain because villains get to do things we want to but can’t” might seem like a tiny brained answer, but if you expand a little, there is truth to it: Sometimes I want to see someone go bloody ape-shit in response to trauma, injustice, being underestimated or forgotten. Sometimes I want to see someone just care about themselves and burn the whole place down and look fabulous doing it, because I know, that in real-life, very often it is sympathy and empathy holding me back for even insisting on minor and very rational things, simply because I don’t want to be a burden on others and because I prioritise other people very highly. There is catharsis in that; in seeing someone getting it out of their system in the most violent way possible just like there is catharsis in going for a run or punching the hell out of a punching bag when you’re frustrated even though you would never chase down and beat up a person.

Because even when see characters standing up for themselves - think of the infamous internet rage over Captain Marvel stealing that bike from the dude that harassed her – their actions are usually centred around punishing the culprit, not the emotions of the party that was wronged. But people got angry. Not because she stole a car, or because she stole it from a men even – but because her acting in response to sexual harassment connected the scene with deep roots of social context and political opinions and expectations.

And, despite hundreds, maybe thousands of films in existence where a white male protagonist steals a car or bike or anything else to save the day, she is read as a villain here simply for doing the rational thing. Much less could she have killed him and burnt down his house, because she is a hero and it doesn’t serve the plot and that would not be the thing a hero does.

A villain burning the whole joint down because someone looked at them funny is acting selfishly, self-centred. But what are you going to do, call them a villain? Duh. Complain about how what they’re doing is wrong? Well, yes.

The lane of their actions is not narrowed by the actions of the culprit on the one side (heroes have to react appropriately and proportionally) and the expectations of the good-guy on the other (they have to act in accordance with forwarding the plot). Which means putting up with an asshole sidekick or apologising if they undergo character development that makes them a ‘better’ person and requires them to forgive someone). You might have your odd Logan who will throw a punch when he’s pissed – but here we already venture into the territory of an anti-hero.

And personally, our anger, our disappointment, all that will always be much more contained than any fictional space - by our financial situation, the people we depend on, our job, our studies, or family, our social circle. We live in a web of social expectations that we depend on every moment of our life.

Fiction itself also exists in a web of social context: What influence does it have on the audience? Will it sell? What implications does it have? How does it present its characters? Who is the author and what do they stand for? - but the fictional space, aka the world constructed in a novel, is wholly separate:

If I write a novel where I state that every Canadian person likes the colour blue and wears funny hats, then this is true in the universe of that novel, no matter what any Canadian reader might feel about it. This means two things:

1. As writers, producers, and even as producers of fan-content, we have to be critical about what we put into the world, because by creating a fictional space, we create characters who cannot stand up against the things we say about them or make them do. Just like the superheroine in the skimpy outfit who gets her powers through the sun shining down on her nipples cannot have an authentic discussion about her body. And when young girls read our comic and see that all the male heroes are clothed and the heroine isn’t, then we are the one that came up with the sunshine-nipples.

2. Our very own, personal interpretation of the novel – even our own - and the way we relate to it is our own. The feelings we project on the characters are individual, personal, and shaped by us.

And yes, villains usually see their comeuppance. And the thing is, many people argue here: “Well, it’s okay if the villain does x, as long as they’re punished for it.” But...that’s a difficult subject. A piece of fiction can condemn the actions of the villain without seeing them lose – the challenge to the writer is to still form a satisfying narrative, because the villain winning is the ‘likely’-seeming thing that every narrative subverts when the hero levels up and returns with her new friends to kick the villain’s ass. But even if you sympathise with the villain, seeing them win would still be an unsatisfying narrative, most of the time.

Because the whole point of an actual evil villain - and sympathising with an actual villain - is that what they’re doing is unjust. Malicious. Selfish. And projecting your desire to strike back or stand up on a villain and seeking catharsis through seeing them go wild and tear down the city needs the pushback. For them burning down the house to be satisfying, you need to see the house burn. For them to blow up the house of parliament to be satisfying – you must see the explosion.

And watching them lose provides the ultimate, necessary gravitas. Watching Team Rocket fly off with Pikachu and live happily ever after on Team Rocket money would not be satisfying. Watching our super-villain burn the world to a crisp with their death-laser would not be satisfying if they just end up getting their rocket and flying off while drinking space-mojitos.

Whether they end up being redeemed or not: The initial moment that someone fights back and defeats them at the height of their immorality and prevents the suffering of innocents is the moment that their willingness and readiness to commit violence is put to the test.

We know the hero goes through a journey of their own - one that requires sacrifice and steels their commitment until they are ready to take on the villain. And knowing that someone is willing to make sacrifices to be able to take the villain down is the ultimate acknowledgement of the transgressive act the villain committed. Without it, it would be empty. Like watching someone punch the air.

But the truth is also that when you recreate the fictional space in another, secondary space – fanfiction, fan content, fanart – you decide what to focus on. Like, we all enjoy hurt/comfort stories, but they have a different intention than something focussed on action or the growth of the hero – because that requires for us to see the villain go down. The focus is no longer the transgressive acts of the villain – but to lay bare the pain that caused them. It is no longer about beating them down for the sake of justice.

Like, when I make a post about Frankenstein’s monster living happily ever after and people tell me that hey, the monster killed a lot of people - then we have a different premise. Because me not adding a line about the evil things the monster did to my post was based on the premise that you knew that random tumblr user langernameohnebedeutung does not condone the crime of murder because she posts about a 200-year-old book. And the #fact that my point doesn’t construct an ending where the monster stands in front of a judge and is sentenced to a certain time in jail or punished by a more heroic person is because I have daddy issues and seeing a giant creature go on a rampage through Europe to get back at its asshole Dad in a way I never could makes me quite happy the novel focussing on its acts of violence already did this and my post clearly had a different intention.

#long post #fandom

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ser-rctslcyer · 3 years

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Sweet Home (2020)

First of all this is going to major major spoilers from the show, so don’t read if you are still trying to finish!!!

I’d like to start off by saying that this is my opinion, thoughts and feelings about the show(I watched all of it). I will be comparing events in both the Webtoon comic and the Netflix TV series. Also again it’s been awhile since I have read the Webtoon from beginning to end so sorry if there’s some misinformation (apologies if any of the names are spelled wrong or out of order too, I using the wiki page to write out the characters name from the show as they changed names a bit) but here we go.

(1) Pacing Issues

I’d like to start off and say the show has a lot of pacing issues. Throughout the show there are a lot of events that happen so quickly and sometimes bizarrely. From the transformations, to the introduction of characters, and the movement of the plot. One of the odd things that stood out was the bizarre news broadcast which was showcasing weird and scary visuals, as it explained the ‘rules of monsterization’ (you think that for global news that big, you wouldn’t want to cause global panic, but insist on showing the visuals that would put even more anxieties in the people at that time. Also why didn’t they cut it off when the dude first started having a nosebleed).

Next I know Hyun was only supposed to be there for a week before everything started going down, but literally it just felt like a day. It didn’t seem to establish enough of his situation for the audience. I understand that adaptations like this are made for the niche audience of those who have either watched/read the original source material, however everyone should strive to have a story for anyone to view that they could understand and follow. It feels like immediately we get into the craziness that is thrusted upon all of the characters.

Another thing that threw me for a loop was the way the ‘Blind Monster’ quickly transformed, it was just so fast. One moment he is the random human and then the next he’s standing up full monster. I think it would’ve been way cooler to see him transform fully, which I think would have been the first (full) transformation to see on screen. It’s one of the coolest monsters in the comic AND IT GETS PUNKED SO QUICKLY IN THE SHOW!!!

I get making the montage when Hyun met Du-sik, and how he went there to get his weapon made but it felt weird that they quickly figured out that they could use the phones to detect the monsters. It seemed so very rushed, and again one of the many things that probably would give the audience whiplash. Then when he meets up with Ji-su(Ji-soo) and Jay-hun did he teach them that the phones can work to detect monsters??? I mean they talked to each other all of two seconds before going back out to save the kids.

Hyun also went so quickly into his madness phases (his alter)? I swear they just really threw that in there so early by episode 2-3 . It seemed so random again as there wasn’t really much build up to show his ‘desires’ side. It was so abrupt especially because they hadn’t ‘laid out’ Hyun’s character yet, enough to introduce his alter ego fully like that. It didn’t really showcase Hyun’s struggle a lot to defy the his alter; mainly seemed like they used the alter to explain why Hyun is the way he is, which happens in the comic but again the show just kind of makes it feel like the alter is sorta just there to give us more exposition.

There’s a lot more pacing issues which I could get into but I think that would make this entirely much longer than it has to be.

(2) Continuity Issues

There’s also a ton of issues with continuity of the story too. The first glaring one that comes to mind is this both the power issue and the no internet service. In the show it establishes toward the end of episode one that there is no service, as the big group is on the first floor wondering why they are locked into the building. That’s at episode 1, which then in episode 2 opens up to Hyun still playing games on his computer, the group watching the news broadcast and Hyuk reading the initial first article about the outbreak being a ‘curse’. Now I’m not a tech savvy person, but when there’s no service, I’m pretty sure you aren’t able to do any of those things. Then when the Netflix original character, Seo Yi-Kyung, the ex firefighter/special forces decides to send a picture of the dead guy’s body to his family when there is no service; how is that possible? (Also was I the only one who found that to be completely odd and mean, as she saw a picture of his family? I understand it set us up for her story and how she’s trying to uncover secrets from her long lost fiance but it seems out of pocket as well as a dick move.) But that again loops back to the point that there is no service in this place, it’s been said many times so it just irks me more because that is such a big glaring issue, which should’ve been caught by someone reading the script.

Then there is when the power goes out. It shows Hyuk at the cameras when the powers go out and the cameras all shut off. But when he comes back to the camera with Seo Yi-Kyung, the camera’s are back on. Is it possible for them to be running on a separate generator, perhaps. However they showed the cameras going so then again, I can’t believe that there is a separate generator because again they showed them all shutting off; so again another continuity error. During that same scene I also could have sworn the lady also was looking at the cameras and saw the monster on screen, but apparently not because as she returns she punches Hyuk in the chest. I thought it was really weird because again he pointed and even showed which camera it was where she had to turn the power back on, yet she didn’t see the monster at all? Not only that too but I thought too she knew the risk she would be taking, as they were unaware of what other monsters could be in the building, however I guess not since she came back so defensively.

Another issue I have is the strength of Protein. Protein is first shown in episode 3 when Hyun has gone to rescue the kids and bring them back to Dusik’s room. Hyun begins to have a nosebleed and then his alter comes to him in his head and he tells the kids to go on without him. They run into Protein who if I remember correctly knocked Hyun through the door. As Hyun is still dazed and the kids are dragging him away, Protein takes about 5+ hits… to break through a wall. This giant hulking mass of a monster, takes more than 5 hits to finally bust through a wall, does that seem right to you? The later when he fights [the lady who lost her baby] and when he pouches her, it almost feels like a push with how far she flies, even though he reared up for that punch. Anyway later on in episode 8 I believe, when Protein comes back, he quickly demolishes their armored car, so much that it looks nearly if not just like a pile of scrap. One could argue that yes, when he comes back and attacks the group, he’s supposed to be in his ‘rage mode’ of sorts, so that could be what makes him stronger. However he’s a towering hulking monster, seems to not do that much damage, to both the surroundings around him and then to the few people he smacked around. It just seems weird how he had different strengths each time he appeared. I know again that sometimes adaptations do tend to nerf characters, however I found it weird how they seemingly tried to do that in the show. I was sure that Jae Heon’s sword wasn’t able to slice Protein at all in the comic (or maybe he was in his rage mode at that point) either way though the nerfing of Protein’s character seemed to flip flop from whatever they seemed fit.

(3) Monsters

Which this can lead into the monsters. Now each monster in Sweet Home has different power sets and abilities than the other, however one consistent thing in the comic at least is that most of them are actually pretty sturdy and tough for the group to beat. A lot of the monsters, it takes time, effort, and a lot of learning for the group to figure out how to kill them.

Let’s start off with the Tongue Monster. The Tongue monster is one of the first ones the group initially encounters; its terrifyingly tall stature is already unsettling enough, there’s the gaping hole of a mouth with a powerful tongue. Now the effects that for the opening of the mouth were a little wonky, but something I could look past. However my main problem was that this monster single handedly got the most kills in the show out of all the other monsters. In fact he was the only monster to get kills, which is very disappointing to see when you have all these cool monsters that could have different and interesting kills. (I’m not counting Mr. Kim and Jay hun’s death simply because that was a self sacrifice on Jay hun’s part. Nor am I counting any of Jung Wooi-myung kills because he was a half monster also he didn’t go full monster to kill anyone). In the comic, the Tongue monster had gotten 2 kills which one of those happened to be another monster (Mr. Kim).

Eyeball monster was alright, and did what it needed to do.

The Blind monster, who is for a doubt, one of the most terrifying and troublesome monsters in the comic. Like both in the show and the comic, he originally attacks Ji-su first, but then Jayhun comes and saves her by slicing off it’s head. The two leave think it was dead but that’s when the true terror starts as he was monsterized enough to survive it’s head being cut in half but unable to regenerate its head fully. Since it fully relies on sound, it makes it more deadly as it shoots out branch-like tendrils with great speed. This is deadly for the group as they have to make sure they travel quietly as possible to avoid being killed by the agonized creature. I did enjoy how the show included when Hyun first opened his door to it being right there, as that was a very suspenseful moment, and showed us another big threat that the people in this apartment building would face. The Blind monster is only around for 23 chapters in the comic which is roughly he’s in there for about 16.43% of the story (not including the flashback in the later chapters). While that number is small to you, the Blind monster is one of the iconic monsters as well as one that sets an even bigger tone for the dire situation the characters are in. He didn’t feel like much of a threat in the show, as I think also in episode 3 he gets killed by Protein after their ‘cheesy’ fight. In the comic, the Blind monster only killed one human (shown in a flashback as it was the slime monster’s mother) and was killed by Eun Lee. I will say he was one of the better looking monsters in the show and I give props for both the practical effects and special effects they used to create him.

The one I hate the absolute most is, Speed monster. His design was awful to me and sort of out of all the designs in the show he was the most out of place for me and just weird. He served his purpose though, the design they did for the show makes him comical rather than scary. In the comics, he does kill one in a flashback and then is killed by Hyun Cha.

Reach monster is another one I think the show did really well, design wise. However the narration when reading the guys journal to figure out why he had become a monster was a good idea how the execution of it seemed so jarring as we were already moving back to the characters of that scene and ultimately doesn’t get the audience to really get invested into the thought that anyone could turn into a monster over seemingly any desire.

Protein or the Steroid monster is another great and iconic monster from the comic, which in the show he seemed much less of a big deal than in the comic. The continuity with his strength seems to vary all throughout the show. He takes 5 hits to break one measly apartment wall, 1 attack to almost demolish a car (which I think he just smacked away because it didn’t seem like he rushed it), and he ended up getting crushed to death by on-fire debris. The strength and speed of Protein is what makes him another big problem for the group yet in the show, they sort of deal with him quickly. In the comic, Protein kills the Tongue monster in a fit of rage and also Seop Ahn (Seob An) who he crushes his skull with one singular punch. He’s later killed by the criminals that invade the apartment as they ram him with a bus and then eventually set him on fire. Protein was seemingly lack-luster in the show and honestly wasn’t as terrifying as I thought a 10 foot monster should be.

Mr. Kim (Security Guard) is another monster that comes back out of nowhere in the show to kill Jae-heon (Jayhun). I found it weird that they didn’t show Mr. Kim, as in the comic he’s seen a couple times wandering before it comes to the other realization that he’s in fact a monster. Also in the comic, Mr. Kim is a strong and sturdy monster, his thirst for vengeance against the tenants whom some harassed him make him out to be a very tough monster for the group to beat. When he starts rampaging to kill the other survivors it is Jayhun who rushes to try to stop him by tackling him however he’s unable to move him. Mr. Kim threw him to the ground and then stomped on Hayhun’s head, crushing his skull. It takes the Tongue monster for Mr. Kim to finally be weakened enough for them to kill him. Jayhun’s death impacts the group but also mainly impacts Ji-su and Hyun both, however in the show they don’t really show it changing Hyun. I do appreciate the different take of this in the show, in fact I think that is one of the best scenes in the show. I also think Ji-su’s pain and anguish after was really well done. I’m fine with the debuffing of Mr. Kim but I do kind of wish he played a bit of a bigger part.

The live actions’ original creepy crawly monster I thought was a pretty decent design although some of the cgi for it is a bit of an eye twitch but again I can look past it. The monster itself resembled a spider, it uses webbing to capture and hold it’s victims.

The Slime monster I think was also another monster I like how the show did. It served its purpose well, and helped a bit show how some of the monsters aren’t necessarily as evil as the survivors may think.

Seok Kim monsterization form was awful, he just looked like a giant walking talking hairball. At first I didn’t know who it was, and I found it stupid Sun Ahn (Seon Ahn) knew it was him; like how do you tell from underneath all that hair? I’m glad they kept it the same and had his wife kill him. Also wish they showed more of him losing his mind and talking to his alter, as in the show he really turned out of nowhere, kinda odd.

(4) Military Subplot

I hate the military subplot, it’s such a stupid and overused trope especially with adaptions like this and honestly in never really works for it. The whole thing with the military knowing about this monsterization process before the initial outbreak and them trying to weaponize the ‘special infectees’ just really bogs down the story in my opinion. One of the reasons why I love and adore the comic is because it’s about a group of strangers, who don’t really know each other, trying to work together as a unit to survive. They have to learn how to use the materials around them and each other to fight off the monsters. Which they do in the show but when the show’s ‘criminals’ show up and they all have guns, it gets boring for me there (I’ll go into them later). The military subplot I know is setting the series up for a second season and probably will introduce other elements as well but ultimately it takes away what the comic had originally built; the suspenseful tension of being trapped in a building with people who could easily turn on you or turn into a monster and kill you.

(5)Characters and Relationships

Now let’s talk about characters and relationships. Brace yourself, this is going to be a long ride.

Hyun

Hyun was honestly I think is the worst adapted character in the show. The show felt like it dumbed down his character greatly. He’s the main character of the comics but the show treats him like a side character, especially at the beginning of it, as it tries to push some of the other character’s narratives first. From a creator’s standpoint I think it was a poor decision because I didn’t build up the same attachment to him when I had read the comic; most of the time he was on screen I completely didn’t care. The way the show portrays him is almost delicate since he’s pretty socially inept but the show makes him feel boring and plain by this fact. In no way am I saying he was a happier more confident person in the comic but the comic had clearly shown his character development and how his growing confidence pushed him to be a better person. The show however speeds past this process which again gives the audience no emotional attachment to the character. If there had been more scenes with him and his internal struggle, that were fleshed out it would have changed his character development immensely.

Because of how the show did him, he also ends up not making friends with some of the group members as he did in the comic, Ji-su being another one of the things that irked me about the show. Hyun’s and Ji-su’s growing relationship in the comic is a big reason for his character development. Ji-su pushes Hyun socially but also Hyun finds strength to stay human as long as possible and help others. Not to mention Ji-su is one of the few that actually cared for him when everyone was against him. In the show they barely have any interaction and Ji-su acts way more defensively around Hyun. I found it so awkward when Hyun lost control to kill the other half monster and Dusik, and she was talking about how she was glad Hyun wouldn’t have to remember all of that. I know the show was trying to show her caring side for him but ultimately it’s lost to me because they never built up a relationship between the two of them. Jayhun and Ji-su’s relationship completely overshadows anything they had tried to do with Ji-su and Hyun. Hyun and Eun’s relationship in the show is kind of mediocre and I don’t really care for it since Eun’s character is very annoying to me throughout most of the show. Hyun’s closest relationship in the show was with Du-sik and even still they didn’t really build up the relationship that much. They had a couple scenes here and there but they never really showed that connection that the two of them built in the comic.

Hyun’s quick flip into madness or his alter happened relatively fast and also it didn’t seem like he was fighting internally with himself much; again something I wish they went more in depth with, showing how strong Hyun’s character really is. Even with the flashbacks to his past, that they only used for a couple of episodes, they didn’t still do much to grow his character.

The show makes him a total blank slate and a completely flat character throughout the show. He never grows to really be much of a character and is definitely a weak spot in the show.

Ji-su

Ji-su gets a decent amount of focus and attention in the show but her character does seem to be different than her comic counterpart. I think they did a good job on showing the relationship between Jae-heon and Ji-su. I think they capitalized really well on showing that working relationship. I wished they showed more of the growing relationship rather than kinda taking Ji-su out of the game with both her having her first nosebleed and then having her bursting appendix problem. Which I don’t understand why they didn’t have her get hurt in the garage raid like in the comic? They could’ve kept the reasons the same to have the group attempt to go outside but instead they took her out, just to get the group to go out? I get maybe they were trying to ground the show in a bit more of reality by trying to show how no matter what situation anything is truly possible. Still however it kinda suck not seeing Ji-su in action

Another part I didn’t understand is Ji-su’s reaction to people around her turning into a monster. When Jae-heon and her come to Hyun’s rescue and find out he’s becoming a monster, she becomes aggro and tells Hyun that she’ll kill him. However later with Im Myung Sook (the lady with the dead baby girl) who she goes to check on after she watched her attack Protein, she seems so worried. Then when she sees the claws, she goes back to being aggressive and defensive towards her becoming a monster. It seemed odd to me because why was she so harsh with Hyun but then acts worried for a lady she’s seen get tossed by a giant monster? Did she really not think that she wasn’t becoming a monster after that? Those small little character decisions really threw me for a loop because I couldn’t wrap my head around how any other person who acts these two distinct ways to both people they don’t really know. Again I wish they also tried to pursue that relationship with her and Hyun. Overall her character is done pretty well in the show, I still enjoyed her character.

Jae-heon (Jayhun)

The show I think pretty much nails most of Jae-heon’s character. I think they honestly did a great job of adapting his character. Jae-heon’s character is definitely my second favorite, as I liked the way they built him up in the story. I did enjoy the way they killed him off the show, that noble sacrifice was very well suited for him.

Lee Eun-Hyeok(Hyuk)

Hyuk is the most comic accurate character for me and definitely was my favorite from the show. I think they did a great job establishing the coldness of his character but also growing to show his true caring side. One thing I don’t understand was the fact he decided to stay behind. I understand he was going back to see first if he could convince Hyun to go with the group but also that he was turning into a monster. The rest of the group knows Ji-su was becoming a monster, why did he not just go with them as well? I didn’t see the point of letting himself get crushed by rubble whenever the group is also escaping with another person who is turning. I know this is probably to set up Eun’s sort ‘redemption’ arc in the next season and also maybe he could potentially return if they decide to bring him back. Overall I think that they did his character justice for the most part of the show, he was really well done.

Lee Eun-Yu(Eun) Eun is a completely different character than her comic counterpart. She’s a total asshole throughout most of the show up until the last 2-3 episodes though until she finally decides to show an ounce of human emotion. Honestly I have no clue why they changed her character, it seemed like such a weird thing to do for this adaptation. Her character also stays pretty flat too which is seemingly funny because when she tries to do nice things, like comfort Ji-su after Jae-heon’s death, and explain her story of how she’s trying to repay her brother, it all fails to make me want to care for her. She was so aggressive from the jump and insanely rude to everyone. Usually the ‘take no shit’ kind of characters I do tend to enjoy, if done right they can be both badass, hilarious, and one of the greatest characters in any series. In this case however I just wanted her to stop being an ass to everyone. In the last few episodes, I see how they were really trying to show the change that was going to happen to her character but at that moment I couldn’t bring myself to even try to care really for her character. She’s definitely one of the worst adapted characters in the show.

Wook

Wook I feel is an entirely different mess than Eun. I get changing things to make certain, not as fleshed out characters who are prominent in series have more importance but honestly I found it interesting they made Wook one of those, because he has a perfectly fine backstory in the comic. In the show they call him a ‘gangster’ a lot (which happens in the comic) but unlike the comic they never state that he’s an ex-police officer. It seems that in the show he’s sort of like a private detective (if you wanna call it that). The show makes him seem like this cool and collected tough loner who kinda just takes everyone else’s orders. In the comic he’s more of a secondary leader for the group which would have been a good element to see in the show is him and Hyeok butting heads. His character seems almost pointless, as he’s really only there to also do the ‘heavy lifting’ (missions) with Hyun. His character was another sort of 180 from his comic counterpart. I found his character to mainly be comical because he was unbothered by everything; he just didn’t give a fuck.

Seo Yi-Kyung

I’m probably going to be the only one that says this but I did not care nor like her character. It’s because I hate the military subplot to this story and since that’s mainly where her story lies, I can’t honestly bring myself to like her. She’s too plot convenient and honestly I’m still trying to figure out what she’s going to gain when she finds her fiancé she knows was turning into a monster and apparently ‘changed’. I understand it’s probably closure but to go as far to sell out a child who you barely even know, to people you barely even know in hopes of maybe finding your fiancé, to only be again sad when you discover you aren’t going to be able to save him as he’s already a monster, I just don’t get it. It’s a very weak plot line in my opinion and again wish they didn’t add the military subplot. Her character too is another flat character, as she doesn’t go through much change only in changing her mind about selling out Hyun to the military when she realizes that it’s essentially not worth it.

Criminals The criminals are just basic, on their very copy pasted stereotypical villain shit that we must ‘kill all monsters’ but oops we accidentally invited a half monster into our group. They annoyed the shit out of me and angered me even more as they somehow collectively got more kills than the monsters in this show.

Jung Wooi-myung (the other half monster)

So from what I could tell Jung Wooi-myung is like this leech monster that didn’t die when Hyun stabbed him with his arm wing. He also probably infected Wook’s body in the end. He plays the generic role of convincing Hyun to join his side since people won’t ever accept monsters which is true. Ultimately didn’t even care for him.

(6) Hyun’s Monster Transformation

This needed to be its own category for the simple fact that the whole scene sequence was utterly atrocious. For starters why did there need to be a mini eclipse for Hyun to transform ONE arm into this barbed spiked wing? That seemed to be thrown in for aesthetic purposes more so than having an actual reason behind it, as this was something that did not happen in the comics. Hyun’s arms transformation just seemed so bizarre. I would have been perfectly fine if the show black veins rushing through his body and him being stronger because of it, sort of like how the comic does it. However this one arm wing just seems completely dumb to me. Why would you make it a barbed wing? Why not at that point do a blade arm or like something that’s also better at bludgeoning monsters with?

(7) Final Consensus

I had initially come into watching Sweet Home with low expectations as time has taught me before that things I want that get live action adaptations may not always be that good. I set the bar low in hopes that the show would do something ultimately to get me happy and excited for watching it. Sweet home never hit that spot for me though. As I was watching I began noticing how the pacing seemed to just go out of it’s way on some points and there were continuity errors staring me right in my face. The story didn’t captivate me like the comic did, not even in the slightest. I spent most of my time watching, laughing because of the absurdities and then pondering why certain events had gone down the way the show did them. I understand that with adaptations things may change but I feel like with the adaptation with Sweet Home it changed too many key elements of the main story that were important for making the story what it is. My rating for Sweet Home is a 1/10. This definitely is not something I would watch again.

#sweet home #sweet home netflix #just my opinion #there's more i could touch on but i seriously didn't want to write any more

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maribatshipper · 3 years

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Trollhunting Lantern Chapter 1

A/N: This was written down long before Wizards, about two/three years ago, so this is an alternate universe.

“It’s Marnie & Campo, on River 94.9! We play the best music mix from the 80s till now!”

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The song “Hungry Like The Wolf” starts playing as two strange figures fight in the early morning light. Technically, morning shadows. They don’t touch the light.

“Yield, Trollhunter Jim!” One of the figures exclaims.

This figure is terrifyingly tall, has glowing yellow eyes, and a crimson coloured armour all around him, only revealing the glowing eyes. He has a long sword in his right hand the same colour as his armour.

The other figure, who has now been identified as Jim, replies, “A Trollhunter never yields, Venjo! I’d rather die!”

Jim is a tall creature that looks like he was once human. He has teeth pointing out of his bottom jaw, blue skin, horns on the top of his head, messy black hair, blue eyes, and red/black armour on with a sword made of the same material as his armour.

A human female with brown hair, a white streak and hairclips in her hair, reddish-brown eyes and purple armour jumps into the fray.

“& I’ll kill you if you kill him!” She exclaims.

Venjo smirks, “Terms accepted Trollhunter. Flesh-bag! This is not your battle!”

Jim smirks, “I can take him, Claire. Get out of here. Stay with Blinky.”

Claire smirks, “And let you have all the fun?’

Venjo jumps at Claire, who dodges and slams into him with her armour.

She smirks, “I gotta thank Merlin for the armour.”

Jim scoffs, “You’ve already thanked him a dozen times!”

Venjo slams into Jim, causing Jim to come dangerously close to the sunlight.

“Master Jim! Careful!” Another male voice calls.

Jim jumps away from the sunlight and slams into Venjo. Venjo gets thrown across the ground. Jim holds his sword towards Venjo.

“Your reign of terror will soon be over, Venjo!” Jim frowns.

The sunlight touches Jim’s armour, causing it to burn. Jim panics, & Venjo takes this opportunity to kick him in the face. Jim flies away, close to another beam of sunlight, with his sword in the sun. Venjo gets up, ready to run into Jim. Jim reaches into the sunlight to grab his sword, burning his hand. Claire keeps Venjo occupied while Jim shakes the sparks off his hand. Venjo hits Claire away, into the sun, which doesn’t affect her has much as it does the other two creatures.

“There is nowhere left for you to run, Trollhunter! Give me the Amulet!” Venjo yells.

Jim looks towards the circle on his chest. He jumps up a tree, trying to get away from Venjo for a short while. But every now and then, the branches snap underneath his weight. Jim stops and looks around for Venjo, when Venjo hits him from behind.

“OW! That was worse than your breath!” Jim groans.

Claire jumps on the branches too; her weight being supported more than Jim’s and Venjo’s. Venjo pushes Jim close to the end of the trees, where the sun is shining.

“It ends here, Trollhunter. It’s either me or the sun. Either way, you’re doomed.” Venjo laughs.

Claire hits Venjo away from Jim, who is burning.

“Doesn’t matter. The Amulet will find a champion. That Trollhunter will stop you and your schemes.” Jim groans.

Claire gasps as she realises what he’s saying.

“JIM! NO!” She screams as he jumps into the sun.

As he burns, he turns to stone. He smashes as soon as he hits the ground. Claire runs towards Jim’s remains.

“No! No, Jim, no.” Claire cries.

***

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An alarm goes off at 7:00 playing “Eye of The Tiger”. A girl climbs out of bed. She has brown, curly hair, blue shining eyes, and looks like she’s only 13. She sings along to the song as she gets changed. She slides to the kitchen and cooks herself some scrambled eggs. She sets the table for the rest of her family, with six plates on the table, at six chairs, then she removes a plate. She puts milk, Milo Cereal, oats, and Rice Bubbles on the table. She continues to sing. Her family comes out with a smile on their faces.

“Face to face, out in the heat

Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry

They stack the odds 'till we take to the street

For the kill with the skill to survive!”

A boy slightly taller comes out and yells, “Shut up, Scarlett!”

The girl now identified as Scarlett ignores him.

“It's the eye of the tiger, it's the dream of the fight

Risin' up to the challenge of our rival

And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night

And he's watchin' us all with the eye of the tiger!”

The boy yells, “If you don’t shut up, Scarlett, you’re gonna regret it.”

Scarlett stops, then looks at him.

“You know, if you had taste, and were a proper brother, Nick, you would be encouraging me, not patronising me for being happy. I have every right to be happy. You, Nicholas, should be happy too. But you have no idea what it’s like to be happy anymore. You don’t even know what it’s like to work at Maccas! I had to slave over a grill, a HOT grill, & clean it while it was still on!” Scarlett frowns.

The boy now identified as Nicholas smirks, “How many jobs have you had?” thinking he has the upper hand.

Scarlett retorts, “How many jobs have you kept for more than a month?”

Nicholas stumbles, and two young girls laugh.

“Thank you, little sisters. Now I must be off, to my ACTUAL and real job. Unlike your big brother here, who, A, I didn’t put a plate out for, because he needs to learn to do things himself, and B, is a freeloader.” Scarlett smirks.

Scarlett walks out the door with a satisfied smirk. She grabs her bike and sees someone.

“Hey Greeny!” Scarlett exclaims.

A girl with short red hair, a yellow shirt, blue eyes, and a few bruises rides up and sighs, “What did I say about calling me that? I’m trying to keep my secret, and if you blurt that all over town, they’ll figure it out.”

Scarlett giggles, “No one’s gonna find out, Bracha. When someone calls someone else a Greeny, they think the person is either a vegetarian or a person who cares too much for the environment. Not…”

Scarlett points to a little green ring on Bracha’s right hand.

“I get it. I just don’t like it. What if there are other people who know about them?” Bracha asks.

Scarlett sighs, “It’s fine, Bracha. Talking about Extra-terrestrial’s is all the rage now. People are even going to storm Area 51 according to the internet. They won’t find anything. It’s all been moved to Area 49b.”

Bracha asks, “What makes you say that?”

Scarlett giggles, “It’s what my Arcadian friend Eli told me before he told me that he had to study abroad in Cantaloupia.”

Bracha asks, “Cantaloupia?”

Scarlett giggles, “I believe he actually meant he was visiting an alien planet to be the human ambassador or something. Speaking of, have you visited any new planets?”

Bracha smirks, “Akaridian-5. The species there are made pretty much entirely of energy, and their hearts they call “Cores”, and if someone dies, as long as their core is intact, they can come back to life through regeneration chambers. Or that’s what I gathered from the peace treaty. Queen Aja seems to be a wonderful queen. She recognised me as being human though.”

Scarlett asks, “Are they blue?”

Bracha falls off the bike in surprise.

“How did you know?” She asks.

Scarlett hops off her bike to help Bracha up.

“I’ll show you later. Let’s just say, Eli knows two. He was surprised I was actually sixteen. He swore I was alien.” Scarlett replies.

“Scarlett...”

Scarlett stiffens.

“Did you hear that?” Scarlett asks.

Bracha shakes her head.

“Scarlett...”

Scarlett notices a few rocks. She points to the rocks and sneaks over, as if a snake were going to jump out.

“Scarlett!”

Scarlett gasps, “Rocks are saying my name. If I get a ring from digging in that, and it’s green, I’m requesting to be on your team.”

Bracha makes sure no one is around and whispers, “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power, Green Lantern’s light.”

A green costume forms around Bracha, and a mask appears over her face. She thrusts her ring towards the pile of rocks and what appears to be a laser goes over them.

“I’m getting an energy reading, but it��s not a Lantern energy. It’s something else. It registered the stones as k-spar.” Bracha frowns.

Scarlett turns and sighs, “Take that off. Someone could see you.”

Scarlett picks up a rock to show a glowing blue object.

“An amulet?” Bracha asks.

Scarlett sighs, “I thought it would be a ring. I was hoping. So I could hang out with you more often.”

Bracha’s green outfit disappears. Scarlett looks up and sees something white in the trees, then it disappears.

“Ever get that feeling you’re being watched, but you find no proof of it?” Scarlett asks.

Bracha nods.

“Let’s go. I’m gonna be late for work. Besides, if something does happen, I’m sure we can fight them off. Or you can.” Scarlett jokes.

The girls hop back on their bikes and ride off.

Meanwhile, above in the trees, a creature with blue skin and six eyes gasps.

“It chose a female human?” He asks.

Claire sighs, “I’ll keep an eye on the green girl. You keep an eye on the new Trollhunter. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be like Jim’s time as Trollhunter.”

***

Scarlett smiles, “Will that be all for today, Ma’am?”

A woman replies, “That’ll be all honey. Too much damage to my account.”

Scarlett giggles and receives the payment. As the woman leaves, someone pats Scarlett on the back.

“Well done, kid.” A guy smiles.

Scarlett replies, “Well, like you said, Jack, at Macca’s, we strive to put a smile on every seat. Correct?”

Jack smirks, “Good job. You going soon?”

Scarlett sighs, “I gotta do some mopping, but I’ll go after that. Red bucket for customer space. Right?”

Jack smiles, “Right again, Scarlett. I’m going on break. Seeya tomorrow?”

Scarlett replies, “Sure Jack.”

Scarlett washes her hands and gets the mop. She mops the customer’s area, and a familiar figure comes up behind her.

“Anything interesting happening in there?” Bracha smirks.

Scarlett rolls her eyes, “Nothing really. I barely even know anyone outside of work. They are all old enough to be my cousins!”

Bracha smirks, “That’s rich. You have, like, fifty cousins. Half of them are much older than you. And they are on your mother’s side. I haven’t even met your father’s side.”

Scarlett smirks, “You & I both, kiddo.”

Bracha frowns, “I hate that nickname.”

Scarlett giggles, “I call everyone that looks young kiddo. Especially if they are younger than me. Like you.”

Bracha sighs, “Alright, Alright. But I still don’t like the name.”

Scarlett rolls her eyes and sighs.

“I’m done my mopping. I have other work to do. Seeya later, Greeny.” Scarlett smirks.

Bracha sighs, “Don’t call me that.”

Scarlett walks away and notices a young girl sitting down with a white stripe in her hair. It reminds her of Disney’s Princess Anna. Scarlett continues walking into the staff only area. She goes into the staff break room, where her workmates are having fun on their breaks.

“Is she still following you around, Scarlett?” A girl with blonde hair asks.

“She’s my friend. I’ve told her she can stay around as long as she doesn’t come into the staff area and doesn’t pick any fights. Besides, it’s safer when I ride home.” Scarlett replies.

A tall guy sighs, “Well, it’s none of my business, but a girl seems to have taken an interest in the two of you.”

Scarlett sighs, “Who, Caillou?”

Caillou replies, “A customer. Her name is Claire. She’s got a white stripe in her hair.”

Scarlett frowns, thinking.

“Could she know? No, she couldn’t know. Or maybe she does know Bracha’s Identity. Maybe that’s why she was looking at us.”

Scarlett sighs & realises her shift is almost up.

“Got to go, guys!” She smiles.

“Seeya later, Strange Scarlett.” Everyone smiles.

Scarlett laughs as she goes & grabs her bag. She shoves a jumper on so people know not to go to her for food now. She signs out & walks into the customer area.

“Scarlett! You ready to go?” Bracha calls.

Scarlett sighs, “Sure.”

***

Scarlett frowns, deep in thought while riding.

“You okay, Scarlett?” Bracha asks.

Scarlett answers, “Yeah... I’m fine. It’s actually about a customer. I’ve been told she took an interest in us. She had a white stripe in her hair. Funny thing, I could’ve sworn I saw her in the forest, but no one was there.”

Bracha stares at her ring.

“Well, maybe the ring went haywire and didn’t see her.” Bracha suggests.

Scarlett smiles, “Well, we gotta split now. Seeya, Bracha. Good luck with the GLs.”

Bracha smiles, “Call me if that thing does anything.”

The girls split up and go to their separate houses. Scarlett opens the door and walks in.

“Hey, Scarlett!” Her father smiles.

“Hi Dad! How were the busses in Brisbane today? Anything special?” Scarlett asks.

Her father says, “Just your normal day. There were a few grumpy customers. I met a weird old man. I think he was at a costume party. He had armour on.”

Nicholas comes in and says, “Hi, Michael.”

Scarlett gasps, “That’s Dad to you!”

Michael sighs, “I’ll deal with it, Scarlett. How about you tell your mother about your day?”

Scarlett smirks. She knows not to get her Dad angry. She walks into the loungeroom.

“Hi Mum. How was Joshua today? Did he give you a hard time?” Scarlett asks.

Her Mum says, “Not really. He was actually quiet today. And you know that’s hard for your brother.”

Scarlett nods.

“Hey, Heather, where are the Wasabi nuts?” Michael asks.

“In the pantry!” Heather answers.

“I’m gonna put my stuff away.” Scarlett smiles.

“Alright honey. Your dad and I have to visit someone. Can you take care of your sisters tonight?” Heather asks.

Scarlett answers, “Sure Mum. As long as Face-ache is gone before you go.”

She walks to the room she shares with her sisters.

“Scarlett’s home!” The youngest exclaims.

“Hi, girls. Oriel, did anything happen today?” Scarlett asks.

The girl with sandy blonde wavy hair replies, “Sophie wanted to hang out. But since Nicko’s here...”

The girl with straight brown hair growls, “I really want to-”

Scarlett sighs, “Crystal, I know what you want to do, but it’s not that simple. If he hurts you again, do all you can to fight back. Just use a broom to whack him. By the way, I’m in charge tonight.”

Crystal frowns.

“Ring-ring-ring, Ring-ring-aling. Ring-ring-ring, ring-ring-aling. Get your phone! When someone calls. Get your phone!”

Scarlett answers the phone.

“Hello.”

“Has it done anything yet?” Bracha’s voice asks.

Scarlett sighs, “Nope. Nothing yet.”

Bracha asks, “You’ll tell me when it does something, right?”

Scarlett giggles, “Yes. Should I Pinkie Promise to ease your worries?”

Bracha sighs, “Alright.”

Scarlett rolls her eyes, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, Stick a cupcake in my eye I will tell you when it does something.”

Bracha giggles, “Thanks. I’ll ask tomorrow. Got to report in for the corps.”

Scarlett smiles, “Got it, Bracha. TTYL!”

Bracha hangs up.

“She still a Lantern?” Oriel whispers.

Scarlett’s sisters are the only other people that know about Bracha’s secret.

“Of course. It’s rare to be fired from her job. She’s still one of them.” Scarlett smiles.

“Girls!” Heather calls.

All the girls run towards their Mum.

“It’s time for us to go. Scarlett, you’re in charge while we’re gone.” Heather smiles.

Crystal hugs Mum & Dad first and gives them both a goodbye kiss. Oriel gives them a goodbye hug.

“What? No kiss?” Michael asks.

Oriel exclaims, “Yukky!”

Everyone giggles. Scarlett gives them a hug & a kiss.

“Seeya later guys.” Scarlett smiles.

Michael and Heather walk out the door. Scarlett’s sisters almost immediately run to the TV. Scarlett pulls the Amulet out of her pocket.

“What exactly are you?” Scarlett whispers.

Suddenly, all the girls hear a crash in the basement. They see Joshua is sitting on the couch. Crystal and Scarlett grab brooms and Oriel stays with Joshua. Scarlett opens the door and walks down with a torch in her mouth. Crystal stays behind in case something comes up behind Scarlett. Scarlett holds her broom like one would a katana.

“I hope it’s not snakes.” She mumbles.

She goes over to a pile of boxes and looks behind it. She notices strange footprints on the floor. Meanwhile, something comes up behind her.

“Lady Scarlett!” It exclaims.

Scarlett turns as fast as she can and whacks the creature with the broom. She now sees it has six eyes.

“Ow… Master Jim wasn’t so violent on his first encounter.” It comments.

Crystal comes down and goes to hit it when Scarlett grabs Crystal’s broom.

“Before we start attacking, and sorry, it was instinct, what are you?” Scarlett frowns.

The creature smiles, “I am Blinky. A troll. And you, Lady Scarlett, are the Trollhunter.”

Scarlett and Crystal exchange glances, look back at “Blinky”, then laugh. Blinky frowns in confusion.

“Sorry, Blinky. We just had to get that out of our system.” Scarlett smiles.

Crystal grips the broom again and goes to hit Blinky. Blinky winces when Scarlett grabs the broom, again.

“As you can see, Crystal’s prone to hit things that she doesn’t understand. I have adapted after living with her for thirteen years. Now, better explanation please before she hits me.” Scarlett asks in a deadpan voice.

“You have to fight evil trolls.” Blinky replies.

Crystal seems happy with this answer, then runs upstairs.

Scarlett sighs, “I’ll grab a mattress.”

She pulls a mattress out from behind some other boxes and puts it near the stairs as Crystal pulls Oriel and Joshua downstairs. Joshua acts like nothing’s different, and Oriel screams, promptly fainting on the mattress.

“You need to go before my parents get home. Either that, or get another beating, only from my mother. GET!” Scarlett orders.

Blinky leaves.

***

Scarlett throws water on Oriel, and Oriel gasps.

“What was that for?” Oriel coughs.

Scarlett replies, “Simple. You fainted after seeing a troll. Crystal’s fault. She showed him to you. If I end up hanging out with him, getting rid of evil trolls, you two have to cover for me. Especially you, Crystal.”

A knock is heard upstairs.

“Mum and Dad!” Crystal gasps.

Scarlett orders, “Not a word. Oriel, shower.”

They run upstairs. Scarlett prays it’s not Nicholas. Oriel runs to the bathroom and the others finish running to the door. They open the curtain to see-

“Nicholas. I jinxed it!” Scarlett mumbles.

They open the door and scowl.

“What are you doing here, you monster? Didn’t Dad tell you that if you’re not back before Eight, don’t come back at all?” Scarlett asks.

Crystal growls in a growl that sounds like a lion’s growl.

Nicholas scoffs, “You’re not Dad.”

Scarlett feels her face go red in anger when suddenly, Crystal jumps on Nicholas and pulls his hair out, little bit at a time. Scarlett stares in shock when Oriel comes down, shower finished, and stares, slack-jawed.

“Is Crystal…?” She asks.

Scarlett nods, “Uh huh.”

Oriel pulls Scarlett’s phone out and records the ordeal.

“This is going to be awesome.” Oriel smiles.

“What is going on here?” everyone hears a voice asks.

Oriel stops the recording and hides the phone while Heather and Michael stare at Crystal and a boy that looks like a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing.

“What did you just do?” Heather freaks out.

Michael just stares in shock.

“Uh… Mum, Dad, He had it coming for eight years. She’s done enough for both of us.” Scarlett sighs.

She pulls Crystal away from Nicholas and takes both of the girls to their bedroom, and collapses on the floor.

“This day went from normal to the craziest day I’ve ever had in my sixteen years of living. And I bet this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

***

Nicholas comes back from the hospital, with his face and left arm in a cast. Heather walks upstairs and sits on the bed.

“I’m very disappointed in you girls.” Heather sighs.

Crystal frowns, “I’m sorry Mum. But he deserved it after all that he did to us!”

Scarlett keeps quiet, feeling ashamed.

“I know, but it wasn’t right. I know you have… issues, honey, but you should not do it. Scarlett, I know you were in shock, but please, take her off next time.” Heather frowns.

Scarlett nods. She walks over to the window and stares out.

“I understand Mum.” Scarlett frowns.

“I hope you all will be more responsible in the future.” Heather sighs as she walks out.

Oriel facepalms, “I can’t believe we let this happen.”

Crystal frowns, “Not my fault. He had it coming for years!”

Scarlett just continues staring out the window, a blue glow emanating from the amulet she now has in her hand.

“We have bigger fish to fry now. Like what showed up in our basement.” Scarlett whispers.

The girls stare at Scarlett.

“So, what do we do, Trollhunter?” Crystal smirks.

Scarlett giggles. It’s funny how her family can be upset and angry one second, then can be happy as Larry the next.

“Well, first, I need to find out more about this thing. It seems to be connected to Blinky. I have a plan.” Scarlett smiles.

Oriel frowns, “What are you doing?”

Scarlett whips out the phone.

“Hi, you’ve reached Bracha. Unfortunately, I am unavailable at the moment, but I will call you back as soon as I can. *Beep*”

“Hey, Bracha. Big news. I have to tell you something in person. One question I have to ask though. Ever heard of a Trollhunter?” Scarlett says into the answering machine.

***

Scarlett looks at her glow-in-the-dark watch and sneaks out the window. She looks at her sisters as they put pillows under her blanket. Scarlett gives them a thumbs up and walks as far as she can down her yard. Living in the middle of nowhere gives you a fairly big property to live in. She stops near the dam. She never goes this far from fear of snakes. Especially at night. She looks at the Amulet, which is glowing blue. A language comes up, which Scarlett finds familiar. Maybe Japanese or Chinese. It changes to another language, and another, then English.

“For the Glory of Merlin, Daylight is Mine to command.” Scarlett reads.

A few blue lights start going into the left side of her chest, and she floats into the air. Armour appears around her, which is slightly bigger than herself. The Amulet is right where the blue lights went. The armour glows blue, then changes its size so it fits perfectly.

“Awesome. Now my sisters will want one.” Scarlett laughs.

She holds out her hand and as another blue light goes into her hand, putting a sword in her hand, only slightly bigger than she can hold. It drops to the ground, making her groan in pain.

“I hope it works for this sword too.” Scarlett sighs.

The sword slightly shrinks to fit Scarlett’s muscles.

“Much better. So this is what that guy meant.” Scarlett giggles.

She waves the sword around and gets it stuck in a tree. She relaxes, then the armour and sword disappear, and the amulet falls onto the ground.

#Trollhunters #Green Lantern #Tales of Arcadia #DC #Crossovers #OC insert

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taizi · 4 years

Note

In the mood for natsume protection squad so would it be possible to get something like natori somehow gets an s/o and they think it’s a good idea to criticize or make fun of natsume (out of ignorance or malice idk) and natori just... basically dumps them on the spot (bonus points for nyanko-sensei looking on approvingly)

Shuuichi’s publicist is getting braver by the day. Locking him out of his own phone and refusing to give it back until he agreed to her terms was a stroke of brilliance, and when he stops being annoyed about it, Shuuichi will tell her so.

“You do pretty things on camera, I keep you popular,” Haya says in a severe tone, holding his phone away from him at arms length. “You are going to go on a nice lunch date with your costar, and you’re going to smile for the paps, and it probably won’t kill you to act like you’re having a good time.”

Shuuichi gets it. The resulting interview will make for a nice TV spot, guaranteed to stir up more interest in the upcoming movie. But–

“I’m expecting company today.” He gives her his most apologetic smile. “I’ve had this afternoon free on the schedule for weeks. We’ll have to work something else out.”

“No need!” Haya says brightly. “If you leave right now, you’ll return just in time to greet them. I already have a car waiting outside.”

Oh, she is good. Shuuichi can hardly believe this is the same wide-eyed, stammering creature he first met two years ago.

“Fine,” he snaps. The PA who was approaching cautiously with his coat stops dead at his tone, and Shuuichi rearranges his scowl into an easy smile. “Of course. Thank you for your hard work.”

His cheerful tone promises retribution. Haya eyes him warily as he puts a hand out, and places his phone in his palm with the exacting precision of someone mincing around a landmine.

The date is fine. Seijun smiles prettily when he joins her at a corner table in a nearby bistro and pretends not to notice the cameras outside. They both know why they’re actually there together, and they don’t have terribly much in common, but they’ve filmed together for the last two months. That’s enough material for an hour of decent conversation, and if Seijun’s eyes linger on his hands, or if she leans in a bit more than necessary to share a piece of gossip, it’s easy for Shuuichi to ignore.

Entertainment tabloids like to speculate on why he’s single; a rich, successful actor who’s built a successful career out of romance films ought to have an easy time of finding a date. There are internet forums and blogs dedicated to the discussion. Fans he’s met clamor that Natori Shuuichi is a gentleman, he just hasn’t met the right person yet; critics have their own unflattering theories, that start somewhere around a secret addiction and spiral out into dangerous ties to the yakuza.

It’s true that Shuuichi likes to flirt, and he likes to act the gentleman, and he likes that he can control the tide of conversation or the focus of a room with charisma and a handsome smile. Shuuichi can hold someone in front of a camera, can kiss someone if it’s in a script, and he can make it look so moving that the audience is moved to tears.

But romance is an act, and the concept of investing in it honestly makes his stomach turn.

It doesn’t make sense not to ride back to the studio together. Seijun keeps Shuuichi’s hand for a moment too long when he helps her out of the car, and he smiles through it without missing a beat, because that’s just the job sometimes.

And then Hiiragi touches his shoulder, and Shuuichi glances up in time to see a group of high school students come around the corner, laughing with a friendly PA only slightly older than they are who must have been conned into giving them a tour.

Nishimura and Taki are in the lead, all but bouncing on their feet and talking over one another in their enthusiasm. Nishimura turns around to walk backwards for a few steps, saying something to Natsume that makes him roll his eyes. Tanuma is holding Madara in his ugly cat form, and Kitamoto and Adachi are trailing alongside him at the end of the group; three boys and a spirit cat who all look as though they’d rather be anywhere else.

Shuuichi feels himself grin. Next to him, Seijun makes a quiet sound of unpleasant surprise.

“I know that boy,” she says, smoothing out her perfect blouse. “The odd one.”

It’s the worst descriptor in the world. At a casual glance, there’s nothing odd about any of them. Tanuma is rather tall for his age, and Nishimura is energetic, and Adachi’s buzzed head only takes Shuuichi aback because his hair had been bleached blond and long enough for a ponytail the last time Shuuichi had seen him, but those things don’t exactly jump out. They’re a perfectly ordinary-looking group of teenagers.

Somehow, regardless, Shuuichi knows she’s talking about Natsume.

“He’s a distant cousin, I think,” Seijun says, leaning in unnecessarily, the way she did at the restaurant. “He stayed with my mother and I for about a month once, back when he was in grade school. You wouldn’t believe how strange he is.”

Shuuichi hasn’t been spotted yet. He offers Seijun a smile, doesn’t move closer but orients his body language to give her the illusion of his full attention.

“Tell me,” he says, in the tone of a co-conspirator.

She does. She spares no details. Actors are horrible gossips, it comes with the territory, and this story is one she must have told a dozen times before, at little coffee dates and family events.

Hiiragi’s mask is pointed towards Seijun, the shiki’s stillness giving nothing away, but Shuuichi thinks he knows her pretty well. He thinks she’s as angry as he is, watching Seijun laugh at the peculiar mannerisms of a child who was already a vagrant at nine years old, homeless and often afraid and terribly alone.

And then the PA catches sight of Shuuichi, and says something to the kids that make them glance in his direction. Their faces light up, and they wave and call hello, and Natsume gets shoved and jostled to the front of the group, obviously appointed the famous actor liaison.

His step falters when he recognizes Shuuichi’s companion. He seems to get smaller, his eyes dropping to a safer middle ground. Seijun looks as though she has no idea what to do with his unexpected company.

Shuuichi smiles through it, because that’s the job sometimes. He balls up his anger into something small and tight and holds it in a fist where it can’t get away.

“Natsume, it’s so good to see you!” he says gladly, taking the boy by the shoulders and giving him a playful shake. “Sorry I was late to greet you, and after I finally got you to agree to come visit me. PR can be such a hassle, so I had to endure a lunch together with my coworker here this afternoon. I suppose it was fitting,” Shuuichi goes on, glancing brightly at Seijun, “since I probably won’t be seeing very much of her anymore. We filmed our final scene together just yesterday, so there’s no real reason to keep her around, is there?”

Seijun’s eyes are wide in a pale face. She doesn’t say a word, but bows quickly and makes a quick escape. Humiliated, probably. Good.

“That wasn’t very kind of you,” Natsume says quietly.

“No, it wasn’t,” Shuuichi replies. His expression warms into something real, and he puts a hand on Natsume’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Help me plot revenge for my publicist instead. I might ask Urihime to haunt her for a few days, what do you think?”

“What? That’s a horrible idea. Whatever she did to you, you probably deserved it. Leave her alone.”

But he’s smiling again by the time his friends catch up, and really, that was the whole point

#natsume yuujinchou #natsuyuu #natori shuuichi #natsume takashi #my writing #prompt #anonymous #natsuyuu fic #tbh my natori is aro/ace ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#i havent written his pov in an age i need to get back into the swing of things

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echoeternally · 4 years

Text

Mario Thread Opinions

I saw something making rounds on Twitter featuring Mario characters, so, I wanted to respond to that, but without flooding the timeline.

So, I’ll put them here instead! ...And I’ll try to keep thoughts short...

... ... ...

Original Tweeted Characters

Mario: He’s such a cheerful and happy protagonist! I don’t get why people ever have strong dislikes for him. He’s full of energy and normally kindness. Maybe they think that’s bland, but I’ve been following Mario’s journeys since I was very young, so he’ll always be a great protagonist for me.

Toadette: She’s so energetic and sweet! She’s come such a long way since her debut from Mario Kart: Double Dash, and currently, Toadette seems to be a regular mainstay for the franchise. You’re doing amazing, sweetie! Keep going!

Dry Bones: One of the cutest zombies and/or reanimated dead characters that I can think of. While a tricky enemy to handle, I still enjoy seeing them. Plus, they’re welcome additions to spin-off games like almost always!

Shy Guy: The beeeeest! Shy Guy is the cutest little enemy, and I love how they get included into various roles as either friend or foe. I think I’m always happy to see Shy Guy around in some way!

Pink Gold Peach: Peach deserves a cool power-up form! While I wish she had it outside of spin-off titles, I think it’s a cute concept regardless. (Though, I get the disappointment when she shows up.) People mention “rose gold” as a title instead, and I think I agree with that, but also, alliteration.

Peachette: (deep, heavy sigh) You could have been so fun conceptually...the potential for future uses that could be dramatic with bait-and-switches for Peach. But...marred by Internet memes...also, not a fan that Toadette gets replaced on-screen by Peach in the first place, so, yeah.

King Boo: This dude has so many change-ups in how he appears. I kind of love him as both a Mario enemy and a Luigi’s Mansion main boss. He makes a good adversary for Luigi, so, I hope he sticks around to spook the cast! Love his laugh too, lol.

Daisy: She deserves so much love and attention, and I don’t understand why the developers at Nintendo have kept her locked behind spin-off titles for so long. I feel like that could change going forward, so I’m hoping that she becomes even more awesome and help save the day in future adventures!

Peach: Arguably the most iconic damsel in modern media, though I wish we could let her evolve past that. Peach is strong in her own right, so let’s see her headline a franchise and save the day herself! She doesn’t get opportunity to do that enough. She can be more than just Mario’s plot device. Anyway, she’s great, and I wish she would get more respect from Nintendo. She could make the Disney princesses shudder if given the chance.

Yoshi: Quite possibly the cutest steed known to pop culture! He’s so sweet and precious, like, I feel as though no one can help but love Yoshi. Anytime he pops in and the moment immediately improves!

Luigi: As a younger sibling myself, I totally can relate to Luigi easily. He’s the best deuteragonist that Mario could ask for! His fans can sometimes be a little much, but I can understand the enthusiasm! Luigi’s a good boy. Nintendo should dunk on him less though; he’s proven well enough.

Hammer Bro: Bah, an enemy that always keeps me wary! Probably one of the biggest common enemies that is practically guaranteed to be at least a light challenge. As they appear in more spin-off games, I like their energy and excitement more. They’re fun dudes!

The Koopalings: No clue how they were kept dormant for so many years, because they provide so much flavor to the series! Then again, it’s painful to see any of them separated from one another, and including seven characters can be a challenge. Overall, I love them, and they make great opponents and even additions to rosters! Best generals, I think.

Kamek: I know that the name isn’t supposed to be significant, but he ended up being so. And I really wish we would get a version of Kamek that stands out from the other Magikoopa! His role seems too important to be neglected as often as it can be. Definitely the coolest standalone enemy on Bowser’s minion roster, and I hope they keep helping this one stand out more in the future!

Waluigi: He’s pretty funny, and he can sucker a few laughs out of me time and again. I think that he’s underrated by the Mario franchise itself, and that he should appear more often or join Wario for his franchise. His loudest fans are definitely a bit too rambunctious. Still, he’s been around for 20 years, and I do agree that he probably deserves better.

Rosalina: Definitely a cool character that I really hope we keep in rotation. She should be used for more than just spin-off shenanigans without question, so I hope that we see her more as time goes on. (She almost joined Odyssey in a cool appearance!) Anyway, I love her motherly and calm yet elegant nature, and the lore that she gave to Super Mario Galaxy as well. Luma princess!

Bowser: As Mario is one of my favorite protagonists, Bowser would be one of my favorite antagonists! Though, I do wish he’d get a break. He’s a fun character without always being evil. We should give other villains a chance to go crazy and let Bowser do something else, either helping Mario or just living life without being the big bad. He’s sometimes more interesting being just a dad above all else!

Piranha Plant: Plant gang rise up! Not going to lie, one of the most iconic Mario enemies to appear, and yet, I feel like they’ve been slept on until their recent inclusions in games as playable characters, most especially in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Great surprise trap enemies too. Overall, love these chompy dudes! ...Except when they chomp me, that is, ha!

Metal Mario: Probably one of Mario’s coolest power-up forms! He’s appeared in several spin-offs as a playable character, starting with Mario Golf for the N64, if I’m not mistaken. While I prefer him as a power-up, he’s a fun concept to see turn up every so often.

Whomp King: An iconic opponent in Super Mario 64, and one that I’m surprised to see turn up every so often! Yet, I’m also surprised that we don’t see him more often as well. It’s odd, but then again, Whomps can be underutilized. I like him though!

Wario: Greedy guy supreme! Wario is perhaps the grossest Mario character, but also one of the funniest. He’s usually a welcome addition to the rosters that he joins, so, I like to see him around too. His laugh is hilarious and definitely one of the more recognizable out there!

Dry Bowser: Bowser’s reanimated corpse! Originally a cool concept and perhaps even a surprising one! Since I like Dry Bones, I tend to like this dude, even when he’s not exactly Bowser himself sometimes, since that happens. Either way, cool and creepy, so totally a unique flavor!

Pom Pom: Honestly, not an addition that I ever expected, but totally welcomed alongside Boom Boom’s return to the franchise. I love her shuriken attacks and ninja theme, because I’m a sucker for that. And more female creature features are always welcome to roster! Not every lady needs to be a princess, after all.

King Bob-omb: I love him! He’s arguably my favorite boss from Super Mario 64, and I’m so happy that he’s been popping up more frequently. He’s finally playable for the first time in Mario Kart: Tour, so I hope he appears as such in future titles! His mustache deserves greatness!

Toad: I have literally always had a huge soft-spot for the Mushroom Kingdom citizens. Also, I feel like Toad should be recognized as an individual as much as Yoshi is! He’s cheerful, helpful, sweet, and usually so helpful! Plus, I totally crush it when I use him in Mario Kart, lol. One of my favorites as well, and I consider him as part of the core cast!

Bob-omb: Who knew living explosives could be so...cute? I can’t deny that I delight in seeing them, even though they usually terrorize me whenever they’re around. Totally love to see them included, as they’re great inclusions.

Boo: Spooky time! I love seeing Boo, they’re fun. Also, horrifying to face off against, since they’re not usually the easiest to defeat. They’re cute though, and I love to listen to their cackles and trills! Also wonderful inclusions, both in the main Super Mario games and hilariously so in Luigi’s Mansion. (I love their titles and names in those games!)

Bowser Jr.: While his existence should raise questions, mostly concerning how, I tend to hand wave that as easily as Nintendo does. I love that Bowser has a bratty kid, it’s so entertaining to me! And it’s precious, because I really enjoy seeing Bowser having a soft spot for his son. Junior himself is enjoyable to see too, because he’s a pint-sized enemy with lots of personality!

Pauline: That’s my girl! That’s my girl right there, whoo! I’m so deliriously happy that she’s returned in the greatest form, from nameless damsel to major city mayor! And now she’s regularly included for Mario franchise casts by the fans and the developers. She deserves it, and I hope we continue to see Pauline appear all the time in the future! Get it, One-Up Girl!

Baby Daisy: A cute baby bean, and a logical companion for Baby Peach! Not usually a character that I favor, but I don’t mind her. The scariest kiddo on the racetrack, that I’ve learned.

Petey Piranha: It makes sense that the Piranha Plants have a boss leader, since Bowser is that for the Koopas, and then we have such for Bob-ombs, Whomps, Boos, and the others. Anyway, the sludge stuff is gross, but I do love to see Petey! He’s actually sort of cute with his little utters of “yay!” in spin-offs. Plus, he’s usually a fun flavor of boss to battle!

Lakitu: Honestly, I forget that these dudes are supposed to be bad guys; they’re usually so friendly and helpful! And I think I prefer them that way overall. But, they do make challenging opponents when they’re not helpers, so that is fun to see from time to time. Totally a great mainstay to the roster either way!

Baby Rosalina: Like, I do get the idea of her, but at the same time, she’s more or less a walking contradiction, more than Bowser Jr. or the other babies by far. She is cute though, and I guess we’re not meant to think about it.

Koopa Troopa: Basically Bowser’s equivalent to Toad, and I don’t think that’s a comparison that’s addressed often enough. Like, they’d be great to make Bowser’s forces more sympathetic. Anyway, I like them as enemies, though I tend to see them as helpers fairly often too, since that’s how they’ve appeared over the years. Totally a great mainstay!

Boomerang Bro: As if their hammer throwing cousins weren’t bad enough, we get these dudes to battle from time to time. They’re tricky but cool variations on classic opponents. And I think I enjoy seeing them when we have big cast herds for the spin-off Mario titles.

Bullet Bill: Fear. These guys just come flying out of cannons and my instinct just shifts into fight-or-flight. I love them appearing, but I’m always wary of the challenges they normally present. Also, similar to Bob-omb with the whole, “who knew living artillery could be cute?” Because I know it’s Mario, but geez.

Baby Luigi: The baby bro! He’s a fun alternate option for Baby Mario to rescue, and cute to see included from time to time in spin-off titles. Though, I think his best appearance was Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

Banzai Bill: The developers went, “Hey, know what’s scary than a big bullet chasing you down? How about a MEGA DEATH BULLET that destroys everything in its wake? Let’s even give it a creepy slasher-grinning face!” And nobody really questioned that. Utterly horrifying to battle (or just run from), but cool conceptually, so I like the enemy inclusion.

Buzzy Beetle: They’re such lowkey baddies that I actually love. Like, there’s even a sinister hint to them with the glowing red eyes and everything! Totally underrated as opponents, and I enjoy their appearances whenever they’re around.

Baby Mario: The leader of the bunch, and you know him...wait a minute. Anyway, he’s a fun character concept, and I like the idea of exploring characters at different points of their lives! It’s cute to see Mario was thrown into heroics since basically birth, and Baby Mario’s usually entertaining to see around, even though we should really question the lacking moral/ethic decisions of letting babies drive go-karts and playing sports.

Goomba: The number one low-level grunt of all-time! At least, I think so. They’re such fun enemies to see included almost all of the time. It’s fun how they’re normally super easy to fight, but can be surprising challenges in various appearances too. Simple conceptually, yet really diverse in use! Overall, one of the best baddies out there!

Thwomp: Floating death trap extraordinaire! These dudes are utterly terrifying to be anywhere near, most especially under. I tend to remember them for the blocky blue forms used during the N64 era, but I think that’s the less iconic form. Still, they’re great trap enemies for sure, with a great slamming grunt to boot!

Captain Toad: While I’m not entirely sure if he’s meant to be separate from the Toad we know, I treat him that way. Plus, it’s fun to have a light-hearted version of Wario’s treasure hunter role used, and one that actually provides aid to Mario on his adventures! Plus, a hero in his own right. A great character indeed!

Wiggler: Instead of chanting “don’t be suspicious,” it’s “don’t wake the wormy” for me. This crazy caterpillar is full of anxiety inducing moments for sure, but on the cuter side too. Also, shout-out to the Flutter form! Anyway, they make a fun enemy, and it’s fun when they go from passive to aggressive!

Cheep Chomp: I really can’t deny that I’m surprised that this was included for an opinion list. Anyway, bigger and scarier fish enemies are always a good fright to include, so, why not? I like the purple version too.

Baby Peach: The original baby princess, which is weird to mention, given that I never expected more than one to appear or matter. Anyway, she’s a cute companion for Baby Mario and has her own baby princess posse, so...yeah.

Boom Boom: These dudes were always such cool enemies in Super Mario Bros. 3, so I’m really glad they came back into newer games! I love seeing them appear more in spin-offs lately too, they’re entertaining options to shuffle in with the cast now and again. Fun to face off against too; normally easy, but can be tougher too!

Cheep Cheep: Fishy! It’s weird how they can be so cute, and yet they’re so dangerous, since one bite cuts you down to size. But yeah, I like them as basic aquatic enemies!

Blooper: These troublesome dudes...they can chase you, tentacle smack you, and ink you in the face! That last one never used to be a problem in kart racing, but they totally improved over the years. Good enemy. But, also? A really, really cute spin-off character! I kind of love seeing them appear in other titles as playable characters. Especially in Mario Tennis Aces. Their voices are so cute!

Whomp: Really weird to see them included so far from their king. But anyway! Cool enemies, totally underrated compared to their Thwomp cousins, and I like to see them turn up now and again. They make fun guards, most commonly utilized in the Mario Party series. They’re fun enemies and deserve more love!

Additional Characters That I Like Too

Birdo: The disrespect at people never including my girl...shameful! Anyway, I love Birdo a lot. She’s pretty cute and should totally be included way more often than she is. And she pairs so nicely with Yoshi, that’s so perfect! Plus, she’s probably the earliest trans character that I was ever introduced to, and/or consciously aware of. Anyway, I love her, so there.

Toadsworth: Why does he get so neglected over the years? I thought he was a great inclusion for Peach’s staff, and yet, he’s diminishing so frequently over the years for some reason. Anyway, he was a very entertaining character, made a great equivalent to Kamek, and I wish he’d be used more frequently.

Donkey Kong: Not going to lie, I tend to not include him in Mario cast calls a lot too, since he just feels comparatively detached to other characters. That’s so weird for someone that basically helped kick off Nintendo’s main franchise. Anyway, I love him a lot, even if I don’t show it much. He’s a cool kong, and doesn’t need to be the king to prove it!

Chain Chomp: The bark and chain rattle of sheer terror. I love these guys though! They’re so cute! And dangerous. But cute! Whether being used as a baby’s weapon of mass destruction in racing, or as another avid tennis player, Chain Chomps are just delightful to have around.

Wart: Yeah, not really expected to be included. But, I like Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2, and he’s basically my new character to campaign for since Pauline made it back from the yester-years already. Wart has great potential to be an alternative to Bowser, or even just a fun character to include, so, I hope that we see him come back to the Mario franchise in the future some day!

Nabbit: This pesky thief actually stands out well enough to me, probably because he’s included as a playable pick in the New Super Mario Bros. games from time to time. Anyway, an oddball of sorts, but pretty cute to see pop up from time to time! Maybe he’ll be kept in rotation for future spin-offs...we’ll see!

Monty Mole: Perhaps a more forgettable enemy, but I think they’re entertaining and rather unique ground enemies! Also, I enjoy their Rocky Wrench cousins. But yeah, I felt these dudes deserved a special mention too!

Diddy Kong: Although I typically don’t consider Diddy a Mario character, he’s appeared so often enough that he should be. I like him as Donkey Kong’s go-to partner, and he’s fairly cute too!

Tatanga: Look, if Wart doesn’t work out, then I’m rallying behind Super Mario Land’s Tatanga. Plus, if we get more Daisy, we might as well get an enemy to go along with, or rather against, her. Who better than this little dude? ...Though, I kind of like the bulky version from the comics more. Then again, it’s less expected for a tiny guy to be a main bad guy, so, he’d work either way. Another fun alternate for Bowser, so he can have a break, and Mario gets more enemies!

Fire Bro: I saw the Boomerang Bro and was kind of expecting this dude to show up too. Normally easier to handle than their weapon tossing cousins, at least for me, but they’re challenging enough too. Another fun variation inclusion for big roster herds.

Spike: You know, I recall the Paper Mario version known as Clubba best. But anyway, I like these dudes, and I’m enjoying seeing them appear more often in newer spin-off titles. They’re cute! And they provide strong diversity for Bowser’s usual forces.

Luma: How did we not see these little fellows in the main set? They’re so adorable, I love seeing them all the time now! Definitely one of the coolest races to come from the Mario games, totally fitting for the franchise, and I love seeing them appear basically whenever they do. They’re so cute!

Rex: The retro Super Mario World enemy that’s rather squishy and most commonly forgotten. I think they work nicely as an evil equivalent to Yoshi, at least in appearance. It’s honestly strange that they’re so underrated and underutilized by the franchise; they’re pretty cool!

Ninji: Little ninja-like minions from Super Mario Bros. 2 that appear sparingly across the Mario series. Another enemy that I feel is super underrated and totally has potential for inclusion in spin-off games or just as a more frequent opponent like Rexes should be.

Koopa Paratroopa: Kind of included with Koopa Troopa above, but I like to see Paratroopa distinguished, since they normally tend to be, even among flying enemies. Plus, they’re common inclusions to the Mario spin-off titles, so it’s weird to pass over them. Anyway, I like these winged menaces too!

Professor E. Gadd: Speaking of underused characters and E. Gadd should totally pop up there. I like that he’s a Luigi’s Mansion mainstay, but I miss the days where he was slowly branching out in other titles, perhaps most notably in the Mario & Luigi series, but he’s also the reason that Mario had FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine! I wonder why he’s not included more frequently; even if not playable, he makes sense just being used in some capacity.

Spiny: Lakitu’s little monsters that rain terror from the skies and onto the ground! Perhaps one of tougher baddies to battle with, but I like to see them, since they’re pretty iconic. Even without being Lakitu’s minions, they’re still plenty tough for Mario to battle against. Plus, they’re kind of cute? We should see a blue variation some day though, so that way we all know who to hammer on for all of those Mario Kart horror stories...

Cappy: Since this is being posted on the 3rd anniversary for Super Mario Odyssey, I’ll give him an additional inclusion. After all, Cappy is probably one of Mario’s best companions for a 3-D Mario title to ever be included, easily surpassing FLUDD and Baby Luma / Co-Star Luma. I hope he’s not left to be forgotten as the years go by, because he had plenty of personality and flavor that really made the adventure even more entertaining, and a great concept to engage with the game play, so, here’s to Cappy!

... ... ...

Phew. Anyway, these are just some thoughts on Mario franchise characters! There sure are a lot of them, huh? Probably too many to count if we really dig through the series, that’s for sure!

That’s all from me though, at least for this. Thank you for reading!

#super mario bros #super mario #characters #opinions #twitter

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dualumina · 4 years

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Day 1: 3rd of August (Monday) Who are you? What’s your Zexal story?

Ohhhh… fine I’ll cave. I might lose followers for this, but whatever. Easy come, easy go, I guess. (checks count for future reference: 34 👀💦)

I don’t know what the general mentality of tumblr is concerning this subject but… sigh, here goes nothing. This is going to be a long post.

MENTAL HEALTH-RELATED TRIGGER WARNINGS AHEAD

I learned early on that my imagination was the safest place I could be in, and for a time, the only environment I had any semblance of control over.

As I hit my adolescence, I realized that the environment around me was worse than I’d initially feared. On my own, I knew I wouldn’t make it, so in the only place of safety I’d known all my life, I sought help. Wished for it, dearly. In any shape or form.

It took some time, but, help did come.

At first, I would dream of them. Always a boy around my age, always different in appearance, but every time, they were familiar to me. Their mannerisms, their personality. I didn’t know anyone in my waking life like this person; they were unique, despite having no appearance, or name, to call their own.

These dreams of the two of us together would consist of us doing incredible things, sometimes dangerous and exciting, other times calm and serene.

I looked forward to these dreams, considering the alternative was… the nightmares.

Always myself, alone, chased like someone’s prey, with no one to help. Constantly… struggling to stay afloat.

The dreams gave me life, and hope, while the nightmares would take those same things away. It was always a gamble when I closed my eyes, but, my curiosity to know more about the dream boy made me willing to place down my bets.

At some point, I started writing my own stories, putting my imagination into a physical form. I’d been drawing since as long as I could remember, but this was my first time putting a story to the drawings.

I soon realized that my stories contained interactions between characters, and while I could imagine the grandest mountains or the tiniest insects, my ability to imagine connections between others was lacking. My solution to the problem ended up being to treat the interactions between characters like actors rehearsing a scene together.

I would play one character, and… someone… played the other character.

It’s odd I never put much thought into this.

Years went by, many stories were written, many more never made it onto paper, but one thing was certain; I became very good at these “practice conversations”.

It’s now 2013, and after graduating high school, I experienced my second depression. My best friend was growing distant, I could tell it was only a matter of time before the “end” in “friendship” was fulfilled, and I wasn’t looking forward to going to the local college in the slightest. I had no idea where my future was going.

In my daze, I happened to notice a familiar name in the list of shows airing during that time; Yugioh. I remembered once watching DM and GX excitedly before, though never had much interest in 5D’s. Zexal it was called, might as well see if it’s any decent.

Hearing this protagonist’s voice was akin to listening to a blender for no reason, but at least he was interesting to watch. That blue character beside the new “Yu” though… why is his crotch glowing like that? Apart from the holy crotch… “he” does look cool, and he seems to have an interesting story to him. I’ll probably tune in again if I happen to see it in the channel listings.

I didn’t see many episodes of Zexal around this time, maybe five at max. I could tell that the dubbers had butchered this poor show, but it wasn’t until later that’d I’d feel compelled to seek out the sub.

This is where I suspect I may lose followers.

Considering the entertainment in my small town was limited, and I had essentially lost the one person I’d normally hung out with, the internet became my new pastime.

And by accident, I was introduced to the concept of tulpas.

I’d consider myself a nerd for psychology and other things involving the brain, so upon my discovery of this concept I did a bit of reading on the subject. “Mental companions with their own autonomy” as the subreddit described them. Neat.

I had no interest in trying to make one for myself.

But suddenly, I had one.

It didn’t help that this tulpa decided to assume the form of Yubel in that moment. Suffice to say I was convinced my imagination had finally gone off the rails and was trying to trick me into thinking I had one of these tulpa things.

I tried ignoring them. That failed, as they were exceptionally chatty, and curious as to why they were suddenly there. I should mention, that this occurred around midday, so my hope that they’d go away after I went to sleep was still several hours away.

Suffice to say, after I woke up the first time, I realized they weren’t going away.

Time went by, and they’d dropped the Yubel form, which certainly helped in getting me to stop thinking that there was a chance that they were actually a demon. Now I had a new problem.

They’d chosen Astral’s form.

By this point I had no idea what to call them. Astral? Yubel? Tulpa? They didn’t like any of those names. Oh, apparently they’re a he, alright sure, I guess.

“So what name do you want then?”

He thought for a moment, before this naked-blue-floaty-elf-creature-living-in-my-imagination responded very matter of factly with, “Clay.”

That certainly wasn’t a name I would have chosen for such a being, but that was one of the things that helped convince me that perhaps this… entity, does have thoughts that are separate from my own.

This tulpa territory was very unfamiliar to me, as it would be several years before the realization would dawn that the dream boy, the other “actor”, and Clay were one and the same. At the time, I hesitantly trusted him, but the depression kept me doubting this “stranger”. I asked him at one point if I could put him through a few “tests” just to see how much Clay was both apart of and distinct from my imagination.

At first the tests were simple, like what happened if I pictured a rain cloud above Clay, would he get wet? (he did) Several similar, harmless, tests occurred. However, I was getting frustrated; Clay’s reactions were ones that I’d expect. Part of the purpose of these tests was to determine just how autonomous Clay actually was, or if he truly was just my puppet on strings.

I proceeded to do something I’d immediately regret;

Imagining a handgun into my “mental self’s” hand, and I shot a bullet towards Clay.

Either he dodged it or I intentionally missed. It’s been too many years to remember for sure. Probably a mix of both.

The reaction I witnessed from Clay that day cut straight to my core. The poor guy was in tears, scared out of his mind, and questioning why I’d do something like that in stuttered words.

I learned three things in that moment:

1. If I ever set my mind to it, I had the capacity to kill Clay.

2. Despite his appearance, Clay possessed real human emotions.

3. I could never bring myself to try and kill Clay.

After apologizing repeatedly and consoling him to the best of my ability, I made a promise to him that is now quite literally tattooed on my skin; I will not kill you, and I will not kill myself, for my death is your murder.

This promise, and my inability to bring myself to harm another sentient creature, would be the same thing that prevented me from doing several irrevocable acts. If I harmed myself, I was harming Clay, and I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

While I could draw Clay to help with visualizing him, I quickly found that I needed some sort of reference to improve. Just some sort of a base so I knew which elements to add to make my drawings more “Clay-like”. Eventually the obvious answer came; I needed to watch Zexal, or more specifically, I needed to watch Astral.

Clay originally looked identical to Astral, but with time he modified his appearance to be something unique to him, even if one could still see the Astral inspiration behind it.

In a truly “chicken or the egg” situation, as I watched Zexal I saw similarities in the relationship between Astral & Yuma and Clay & myself. It wasn’t long before my interest in keyshipping spawned due to both the warm fuzzy feelings I’d get for being reminded of the person who’s supported me for 7 years (and counting), and from the memories of such a wholesome (and potentially gay) partnership in an overall compelling shonen story.

An older photo, but still one of the better ones I’ve done of the guy. Like the shapeshifter that he is, both the wings and tail can appear and disappear as he pleases. Generally, Clay keeps them both hidden for convenience.

Seeing as it is a side view, I’ll clarify that all of Astral’s markings and piercings are GONE, the sort of exception being the “fake eyebrow” markings which Clay did keep (which are indeed markings rather than actual eyebrows).

And no, none of Clay’s appearance I have direct influence over. At one point I implored him to wear clothes, which Clay did try doing briefly. …That didn’t last long though.

@zexalmonth

#zexal month

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romancandlemagazine · 4 years

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An Interview with John Lurie

Whilst most humanoids struggle to master even one useful skill in life, John Lurie is one of those adept rapscallions who can seemingly turn their hand to pretty much anything — from acting to angling.

This knack has led to a fairly stacked C.V. which involves such notable achievements as forming a rule-flouting jazz band called The Lounge Lizards, appearing in films like Down by Law, Paris, Texas and Wild at Heart and showing his paintings in exhibitions all over the planet.

And if all that wasn’t enough, he’s also hosted his own fishing show, and, with the help of Dennis Hopper, once came particularly close to snagging the elusive giant squid.

Here’s what he had to say about fishing, New York in the '70s and the importance of humour in the world...

First question… your television programme Fishing with John is mint. How did that come about?

I was threatening to do it for a long time, but wasn’t really serious. I would go fishing with Willem and we would video tape it. I flew out one New Year’s Eve to play with Tom Waits and the next day we went and fished with Stephen Torton video taping it.

This woman, Debra Brown, saw the tapes, home movies actually, and brought them to a Japanese company that was looking to get involved in things in New York.

She came back to me and said they wanted to make a pilot. I believe my response was, "Are you kidding?"

When you watch a film or television program, you only see the end result. What was it like filming that thing? Were there any mad struggles?

If you see something good, you can just assume there were mad struggles. If you see something bad, you can assume that people were too lazy to take on the mad struggles.

If I am flicking through the channels looking for a movie, I can tell you in five seconds if a movie is going to be any good by the sound of the door closing or the light or the music or whatever.

Why do you think people love fishing so much?

First off, so we can go to these beautiful places and pretend to be doing something. We wouldn’t go if there were nothing to do. And there is that visceral thing. A big fish on the line is like that exhilarating sports thing, like hitting a baseball perfectly or shooting a basket and the net just goes swish.

And then there is that thing of the world of mystery, right next to the world we are living in. What is in there? We are only going to be aware of what is there with a hook and a nylon string.

So of course we have to drag this amazing creature out of the water and kill it because human beings are pretty much ridiculous. The last bit is not why we love fishing, it’s just an observation.

I’d say it’s a pretty sharp observation. Did you ever face anger from the fishing community due to the lack of more conventional fishing?

Yes.

Why isn’t more television like Fishing with John? I hear we’re supposedly in the age of ‘peak TV’ or whatever, but why is there so much boring stuff out there?

The great thing about this, and a big shout out to Kenji Okabe from Telecom Japan, was they left me alone. I am fairly certain that the reason Breaking Bad was so great was because they left Vince Gilligan alone.

With most projects there are all these people meddling with what you do, to ruin it. The Gatekeepers. It is almost like there is a conspiracy to maintain mediocrity.

Going back a bit now, am I right in saying you’re from Minneapolis originally. What were you into as a child?

At first, dinosaurs and archeology. Then reptiles, particularly snakes after we moved to New Orleans. I was going to open my own snake farm. Then I was pretty sure one day, I would play center field for the Yankees.

An attainable dream. You moved to New York in the late 70s, and not long after, you started The Lounge Lizards. It seems like New York at that time is glamourized a bit now, but what was it like for you? What food did you eat? Where did you go at night? What streets were good to walk down? What did it smell like?

I was trying to remember the food I ate back then and couldn’t remember. I was pretty broke most of the time. They used to serve hors d’oevres at gallery openings and cheese became a large part of my regular diet.

Almost every night, or maybe not even “almost” — more like every night — we went to the Mudd Club. More than what streets were “good” to walk down, I can tell you which streets were bad to go down. I lived on East Third St across from the Men’s Shelter, so my block smelled of rotting garbage and urine.

What are some bits that people don’t talk about from that time? What sucked about back then?

It went fairly quickly from people having more relentless fun than any period in human history to a fairly grim time, a year or two later. There was the beginning of AIDs. I had many friends who were dying or horrifyingly sick. People were getting strung out. There were many deaths. Car accidents. People fell out of windows.

Also, with the artistic promise that was there, the output is disappointing. I suppose the wildness led to a lack of discipline and the work wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been.

I might be wrong, but it seems like at that time people just did what they felt like doing… people made films, music or anything else, with no regard for budget. I suppose for example, you made a film called Men in Orbit in your apartment for $500. Where did this freedom come from?

The freedom came from a ferocious demand to have that freedom at any cost. But it is odd or sad, because the more talented of those people seem to have gone unknown and the people who are now household names are, mostly, the ones who played the game by the rules from the beginning.

Do you think people nowadays get too hung up on money? Or perhaps too hung up on success?

I think people nowadays for the most part are quite lost and afraid. So they do whatever they think they must do to have a successful career, even if it means that they are making shit — and it usually does mean they are making shit.

The Lounge Lizard’s album, Voice of Chunk is an amazing record. What sort of stuff were you listening to when you made that? And who is Bob the Bob?

The listening came from earlier in my life. Evan and I would devour everything. From Stravinsky to Monk to Little Walter to Coltrane to Tibetan music to Ellington to Dolphy to Pigmy music (you get the idea).

Later, when working on my own stuff, I stopped listening to pretty much everything. Though when I was in Morocco doing Last Temptation, I played a lot with Gnawa musicians that shifted me a bit. And around that time Evan discovered Piazzolla.

Bob the Bob is Kazu from Blonde Redhead. That is her mouth on the cover of the record. I still call her Bob.

You’re a prolific painter. Are there certain things that you notice recurring in your paintings?

I live on a small Caribbean island. There are flowers everywhere. I don’t like to think that they influence what I paint but they do. Fucking flowers.

A lot of people paint when they’re young, then stop. Why do you think that is? How come you didn’t stop?

The best paintings I have seen in the last 30 years or so are the ones taped to refrigerators. I don’t know why people stop painting or when they don't stop, why the painting gets so stiff.

I am sure my mother, who painted herself and taught art in Liverpool where the Beatles went, but not at the same time, had something to do with me keeping a freedom in my work. To not be afraid of that childlike dream thing.

Though it has been suggested that it may be time for me to get in touch with my “inner adult.”

How do you know when a painting is finished?

I ask Nesrin. If she says it is finished, I know it isn’t.

You seem like a pretty funny guy. Do you think humour is sometimes underrated? Do people take stuff too seriously sometime?

I think humor is immensely important. I think humor can shift society’s consciousness in a better way than almost anything else. So from Shakespeare to Mark Twain to Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor and many more - these people shifted things for the better.

Do you know who was president when Mark Twain was at his peak? Benjamin Harrison. Who the fuck was Benjamin Harrison?

What are your thoughts on the internet? It seems like it’s a big thing these days.

I get so disappointed with people because I feel like social media could be an enormously positive thing for the world. And I certainly don’t mean to exclude humor, just I have heard enough fart jokes for one lifetime…

Something that bothers me quite a bit, is a star athlete gets hurt and then the response on places like twitter is close to joy. What kind of bitterness about your own life would make you behave like that?

You’ve just recently released a new Marvin Pontiac album after 17 years. This one is called The Asylum Tapes, and was reportedly made on a four track recorder in a mental institution. Back story aside, what made you want to make an album again?

I have Advanced Lyme, so I was unable to play anything for a long time. Actually because of what was happening to me neurologically, I couldn’t even hear music for the first few years — it was more like fingernails on a blackboard.

As I slowly got better, I was able to play guitar and harmonica again, though playing saxophone would seem to be done for me in this life.

But I am very proud of this album and hope people get a chance to hear it. I made it to cheer people up.

Are people still confused about who Marvin Pontiac is?

I suppose so. He is a character I created to make this music. I suppose that is bad marketing, but fuck it.

Would the album be different if it was a John Lurie album? Do you feel like you can get away with more stuff as Marvin Pontiac? Or maybe what I mean is, is it easier to say some things as Marvin Pontiac?

Yes, absolutely. Marvin gives me a certain freedom. I doubt I would put out a record where I sing about a bear saying, “Smell my sandwich.” But I’m happy that I get a chance to do that.

The lyrics are pretty straight up and direct. Do you sit and stew on songs and ideas for long, or do you just get it out?

Often they just come straight up. Like 'My Bear To Cross' I pretty much just came up with it live in the studio. Some took quite a while. And there are a couple where I never found the right lyrics to finish off a song and put them aside.

Okay, last question… do you think a lot of stuff is too over-thought and over-prepared? Does thinking sometimes get in the way?

Let me think about that.

#John Lurie #Lounge Lizards #New York #Jazz #Interviews

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loretranscripts · 4 years

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Lore Episode 130: In Plain Sight (Transcript) - 25th November 2019

tw: none

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

In early winter of 1822, Captain Samuel Barrett Edes became a hero. He was sailing in the south-east Pacific when he and his crew encountered a Dutch ship that was in trouble. Edes managed to save every single one of the Dutch soldiers, and then headed for the city of Batavia, known today as Jakarta, to drop them off and see if a reward could be collected. While he waited, he did some shopping. Now, Edes wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but he owned a small portion of the ship he sailed and of course, he was expecting a handsome reward for his heroic efforts. With this in mind, he kept an eye open for something unusual and conversation-worthy to take home, and that’s when he saw it. It was a mummified mermaid. It was over two feet long, had the curved tail one might find on a fish, but the upper body of something much more human in shape. It was brown from the preservation process, wrinkled with age and entirely addictive to look at, and Captain Edes knew instantly that he had to own it. In late January of 1822, he did something bold. He sold the ship he did not fully own and used the proceeds to buy the mermaid. Then he found transportation back to London and put the odd creature on display, because just about everyone who saw it believed that it was real.

Of course, there were those who could see through the hoax. Captain Edes had been fooled by a clever craftsman who had sewn the torso of an orangutan onto the lower half of a large salmon. Elements were added to the face and hands to give it a more humanlike appearance, but those with training in natural science and anatomy could spot the hidden clues that gave it all away. That didn’t matter to most people, though. The idea that mermaids could be real had been around for centuries, so when something as powerful as a mummified specimen floated into their world, they were blind to its flaws and impossibility. They wanted to believe, deep down inside, that the hybrids of folklore actually existed. Today, we know a lot more about our world than we used to, but if we were to go back in time and live through a less learned age, we would be amazed at the stories that await us, tales of creatures that sit at the very edge of our imagination, living things that defy logic, and monsters that inspire wonder. Our hearts want to believe while our minds are ready to move on. Instead, what we tend to feel is a mixture of deep curiosity and primal fear, and if the tales from the past are any indication, there’s a good reason why. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

When we talk about the natural world, the very first thing we need to do is gain some perspective. Today, we live in a technologically rich society. We carry supercomputers in our pockets that are more powerful than the ones that sent the first humans to the moon. We can walk past an intriguing part of our neighbourhood, pull out our phones and look at a satellite map or do a search for more information. We’re still hungry people, curious and drawn to unanswered questions, but rather than starving in a house with little food, we feast each day on a never-ending buffet of answers and information. Today, if you want to know something, chances are good you can learn about it in an instant, but hundreds of years ago, that was an impossibility. Not that people didn’t try, though. 2000 years ago, a Roman named Gaius Plinius Secundus attempted to gather everything knowable into one place, and he did an admirable job considering the world he lived in. Gaius was born into a wealthy Roman family in the year 24AD and followed a path of privilege all the way to the top. He was well educated, well connected, and when he entered the Roman military, he quickly rose to the second highest level possible – the equestrian order. Once out of the military, he served as a lawyer, before being assigned various governorships around the empire, and towards the end of his life, he had the privilege to serve as advisor to two different emperors. Today, we know him as Pliny the Elder, but in his day, Gaius was a success story.

Looking back, his biggest legacy was his 37 volume collection of knowledge called Natural History. It was possibly the world’s first encyclopaedia, gathering everything known about a whole array of subjects, from farming and botany to geography and anthropology, but the most influential contribution, filling up volumes seven through 11, were his writings on zoology, the study of all living creatures. But here’s the thing – Pliny the Elder, like everyone else in his society, lacked the proper tools to dig deep and apply hard science to every creature he wrote about. He also lacked the ability to travel and see each animal he described, so he relied heavily on others, like Aristotle’s Historia Animalium and the writings of Eratosthenes and Hipparchus, and that meant his collection was less than perfect. How so? Well, his work on zoology included such amazing animals as dragons, mermen, and even something called a blemmyae, a race of hairy, human-like beings who literally had no head on their shoulders, with eyes and a mouth right in the middle of their chest. Pliny was thorough, for sure, but not very discerning with his source material.

But what his work did do was give birth to something a lot of people have heard of, a type of book known as a bestiary. It took a while for their availability to spread, but by the early middle ages, bestiaries were a common enough resource. They were, at the basic level, books about known animals, typically with colourful drawings to help the reader visualise the specific details of each entry, and over the centuries, some editions became more popular than others. One of the most famous is the Aberdeen Bestiary, an illuminated manuscript that dates back to the 12th century. Aside from being a beautiful example of medieval artwork – and I mean that, you should seriously do an internet search for sample pages – the Aberdeen Bestiary is also a powerful example of just how popular these books really were. It’s filled with images of all sorts of animals, along with rocks, fish, trees and even worms, and a lot of the entries in the manuscript include notes about the nature of the thing in question, making it a valuable reference tool for any budding naturalist. But these bestiaries did more than that – they inspired the popular culture of their day.

England’s King John, who reigned from 1177 to 1216 was said to have a copy of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History in his personal collection, and John’s son and successor, King Henry III, even used images from it to decorate one of the chambers at Westminster. As their popularity spread, more and more writers got in on the tradition. The Norman poet Philip de Thaun wrote a bestiary about a generation after William the Conqueror invaded England, and it became a gift for King Henry II’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Even Leonardo da Vinci made one. It seems if you were an intelligent person in the middle ages or the Renaissance, making your own bestiary was practically a rite of passage – and let’s be honest, colourful manuscripts filled with unbelievable creatures and animals that defied logic couldn’t not be popular. Humans have this innate desire to look at curious things. We’ve always been rubberneckers, straining to take a long, hard look at things that sit outside our normal experience, and the spread of bestiaries is proof of that. But those ancient books and manuscripts also teach us something else about ourselves. Human beings are creative creatures. When faced with a mysterious gap in our knowledge, we’re more likely to invent something to plug the hole than to leave the question unanswered – and what we’ve come up with is equal parts entertaining and downright terrifying.

I mentioned earlier how the internet and the accessibility of powerful devices has given us an edge over our predecessors, and in a lot of ways that’s true. Yes, we have access to a huge majority of our collective knowledge, but not all of it. In fact, there are still things we don’t know. For example, scientists today believe that there are roughly 8.7 million animal species on this planet, and yet 86% of the ones that would live on land still haven’t been discovered or studied, and it’s even worse inside our oceans, where over 90% of life is still a mystery to us. We know a lot, yes, but our world is massive and diverse, and that makes the learning process slow and tedious. Some animals are also a bit harder to track down, they’re less abundant or more shy, and so it’s made studying them more of a challenge. A good example is the platypus. For a very long time, scientists thought the descriptions of it were nothing more than a hoax. I mean, it was rumoured in 1799 to be a hybrid of a duck and a water rat, part mammal and part bird, with venomous spurs that could kill a dog, and while we’ve learnt more about them over the years, the platypus is still an allusive creature. A recent documentarian was able to get what he considered to be a goldmine of actual footage of the animal, amounting to about 30 seconds, and when only half a minute of film is something to celebrate, you know the animal is hard to study.

Of course, while we’re searching for new species, the ones we do know about are slowly dying off, which doesn’t help. Some estimates place the number of species on the edge of extinction at around 20,000, and more get added to that list all the time. For the medieval writers of bestiaries, this would be their worst nightmare. All those creatures belong in their books, and yet they keep slipping away. But at the same time, not being able to see an animal never really stopped those ancient writers from including it in their catalogue of life on earth. In fact, there are a lot of entries that would cause most people to scratch their heads, because while, yes, we’ve grown in our understanding of the world around us, these bestiaries serve as a time capsule of our gullibility. As far back as Pliny the Elder’s collection on natural history, we can see those less believable creatures pop up. He once wrote that thousands of sea-nymphs known as neriads had washed up on the shores of what is modern day France, and that they looked just like the nymphs of the land, except that they were covered in fish scales. He also wrote about that fiery bird of legend known as the phoenix, which was known to burst into flames before re-emerging from its own ashes. And of course, I’ve already mentioned his fascination with mermen and blemmyae. It seems that Pliny the Elder had an obsession with gathering all known creatures, whether or not he had witnessed them with his own eyes.

Other historians added their own contributions to those mystical lists as well, and if I ran through it for you now, it would sound like a recap of the Harry Potter series. Hippos and elephants shared the same space as hippogriffs and mandrakes. There were dragons and tritons, giants and sea monsters. Honestly, it sometimes seemed that if a young child could draw a picture of it, that was good enough to get it included. Of course, some creatures were more popular than others, and that popularity varied from culture to culture. In Europe, one of the most talked about creatures of all was also one of the smallest, but don’t let its size fool you, because there was nothing safe about the basilisk. Our old friend, Pliny the Elder, wrote about it 2000 years ago, describing it as a serpent with legs that was no larger than a foot in length. But what it lacked in size, it more than made up for with attitude and special features. A basilisk was said to stand tall on its back legs and had a crown-like plume on top of its head. And they were dangerous, too – according to the stories, basilisks were so poisonous that even looking at them could get you killed. Other creatures avoided the like the plague, and wherever they chose to make their nests, the plant life would die and wither away. One description I read said that if a man on horseback stabbed the basilisk with a spear, the poison was so powerful that it could climb up the spear, kill the man, and then kill the horse as well.

Of course, when something is that powerful and deadly, it eventually becomes the centrepiece of tales of valour. It’s said that Alexander the Great once killed a basilisk, and like many of the other legends about him, he did it in a way that proved not just his might but also his intelligence. It’s said that he polished his shield until it was like a mirror, and then approached the creature holding it outward. When the basilisk saw its own reflection, it fell victim to its poisonous gaze and instantly dropped dead. We can find images of the basilisk in just about every bestiary in existence, most of which look like a cross between a snake and a rooster. There’s a statue of one in Vienna, commemorating an 11th century hunt, and there’s even a church in Sweden with a carved relief showing St. Michael stabbing one with a spear. So popular was this creature that people sold powders that they claimed to be ground-up basilisk, something that most people purchased for use in alchemy, but more than a few used as an antidote to poison. Everywhere you look through the middle ages and earlier, the basilisk is waiting to rear its poisonous little head. You can see society’s attraction to it in their folklore and superstition, a mixture of fear and fascination, of wonder and disgust. For centuries, it popped up in stories whispered all around Europe, like a well-loved character in a popular book series. But if one account is any indication, it might not be a work of fiction after all.

The people of Warsaw had a problem on their hands. They were two decades into a new political structure known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and while it gave a lot of freedom to the wealthy and elite, it left the lower class in a constant state of fear and oppression. Life in the city was challenging for many people, but that was the new normal. In 1587, though, something happened to put the people of Warsaw on edge. Livestock in the area around an old, ruined building had begun to turn up dead. Even a few of the neighbouring residents had been found poisoned in their beds, washing over the community with a wave of grief and loss. And in the midst of all that confusion and pain, two of the neighbourhood children disappeared. Well, disappeared might not be the right word for it. Folks had seen the two young girls playing near the ruins, they had watched them laugh and skip and revel in the freedom and joy that came with childhood, most likely muttering quiet prayers that it would last as long as possible. The neighbours knew what sort of hard life awaited those girls once they were old enough to work and carry their own weight. Their joy must have been bittersweet.

And then someone watched them step inside the ruins. That was the first reason to worry. Folks avoided the ruins for a good reason – it was dark and dangerous, and the cellar beneath it had been a den for all sorts of animals. So, whoever it was that watched them disappear into the shadows most likely headed over to warn the girls’ parents. When everyone arrived at the ruins to call them out, though, they were no longer visible. While there was a good chance they had simply moved on to a new playground, someone decided to peer inside the dark cellar, and there, laying on the broken stone floor, were the sleeping forms of both girls. So, one of the older women stepped inside to wake them. A moment later, though, she collapsed into a heap beside the girls, sending the growing crowd into a panic. They didn’t know what was causing the people inside the cellar to lose consciousness, but they knew there was something dangerous about the dark space, so they sent for a fire hook – a long pole with a metal hook on the end – and then reached in and pulled each body out into the light. All three of them were dead, and not just dead – they were bloated and dark, as if they’d been dead for days. Most frightening of all, though, was that their eyes seemed to be protruding from their sockets. No one could be sure, but it almost looked as if they’d been frightened to death.

Wanting answers, they sent for Benedictus, the king’s very own physician. If anyone would have the skill to identify the danger, it would be him. And, sure enough, after taking a long look at the trio of bodies, he brought them a definitive answer. All of them had been killed by a basilisk. In an instant, the atmosphere around the old ruins changed. Newcomers came to watch, while leaders gathered to form a plan. Something had to be done, and just like the stories all of them had grown up with, it seemed that a basilisk hunt was in order, but the trouble was no one wanted to risk their lives by entering the cellar to kill it – not even Benedictus, who seemed to know the most about the creature. But they had an idea. A group of leaders from the community quickly headed to the local jail, where two men awaited execution for various capital crimes. Each man was given the same offer: come kill the basilisk, and you will receive a full pardon and your freedom as a reward. It seemed like an easy choice, too – inside jail, there was no chance of survival. Outside, though, there was at least the possibility they might survive. It made sense to everyone.

The first criminal declined the offer, but the other one, a man named Johann Faurer, agreed to help. He was escorted from the jail to the old ruins, where Benedictus awaited him with tools and instructions. The townsfolk had quickly gathered dozens of small mirrors and sewn them onto a pair of leather pants and a coat. I imagine Johann gave the old physician a sideways glance at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, but at the same time, he would have known the folklore just as well as everyone else. Alexander the Great had defeated a basilisk using a mirror-like shield, so why would it not work for him? With a crowd of over 2000 witnesses watching, Johann began to carefully walk into the ruins, where he entered the cellar. He had a long rake in one hand and a torch in the other, to light his way, and as soon as he stepped into the darkness below, he cried out that he could see it – a long, serpent-like tail, with a head that resembled that of a rooster, right down to the crown-like plumage. Benedictus called out instructions to the man. “Grab it with the rake,” he told him, “and then carry it out here into the light.” Johann shouted back that he understood, and the entire crowd began to shift and rumble. If a basilisk was going to be dragged out of the ruins, no one wanted to be around to see it, so they all ran for cover and hid their eyes. When Johann emerged, he held the writhing creature by the neck in one of his gloved hands. They daylight somehow made it weaker, and that gave Benedictus the courage to step closer and examine it. It looked exactly like the bestiaries of old had taught him – the body of a snake, four long legs and a head that looks very much like a rooster.

But sadly, this is where the account of the basilisk hunt ends. Whoever had been recording the events had most likely been in the crowd, and when Johann had begun to emerge from the cellar, they had followed the crowd into hiding, which leaves the ending a bit of a mystery. Who killed the creature, when all was said and done, and how did they do it, knowing the risks the old legends spoke of? What we do know is this: the Warsaw basilisk hunt of 1587 was the last time the creature was reported anywhere in Europe. Maybe it had been the last of its kind, and its death marked its extinction, or perhaps the few that survived had a knack for staying out of sight – like the platypus of Australia. Either way, all that was left from that moment on were legends and stories. Like so many creatures that have once walked the earth, the basilisk – if it was ever real to begin with – has slipped into the shadows of the past, and it’s never been seen again.

There really is something delightful about the bestiaries of old. Their colourful pages and evocative descriptions were beyond sensational. In a world without television, radio or easily accessible works of fiction, those catalogues of natural history were the closest most people could get to travelling the world. Of course, the things most authors chose to include in their bestiaries would probably never make the cut in our modern times. After all, headless tribesmen with eyes on their chests, unicorns and sea nymphs all feel more like characters in a fantasy novel than entries in a study on the world’s flora and fauna. And yet some of those expectations have been broken over the years. For centuries, sailors told stories about the kraken, enormous sea creatures that could reach out and drag an entire ship underwater with its long tentacles. King Sverre of Norway recorded its description way back in 1180, and for hundreds of years people claimed to spot them in the waters of the ocean. Then, in 1853, the carcass of a giant squid washed up on a Danish beach, giving the legend new life. Over the century and a half since then, scientists have determined that there is indeed a giant sea creature that fits the ancient descriptions – give or take a few sinking ships, of course – and while they’ve been challenging to catch on film, we now know they exist. And those mermaids of old might have roots in actual animals as well. Many scientists and scholars now believe that old reports of mermaids could very well be mistaken sightings of an aquatic mammal known as the manatee. As is so often the case, our misunderstandings had given birth to frightening legends, only to have science bring a bit of clarity to the tale. Sometimes the monsters of the ancient world turn out to be real, and sometimes legends inspire new discoveries.

In the part of the world that stretches from Mexico to South America, scientists have been familiar for over a century with a lizard from the iguana family. It’s not the largest reptile around, but it can grow to around 2ft in length, and it can run at amazing speeds. Some scientists refer to it as the Jesus Christ Lizard because of its strange ability to run across the surface of water. But its most common name is based on other features, like its tendency to run on two legs and its serpent-like body – a body that’s topped with a head and plumes reminiscent of a crown or a rooster, which is why its name is both logical and a bit of a throwback. They call it the basilisk.

There’s something enticing about the mysteries that fill the gaps in our knowledge of the world around us. Looking back at the bestiaries of the middle ages, its clear humans have had a lot of fun filling those holes, and the creativity of the past has continued to inspire stories today. But there’s one more creature I want to tell you about. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to learn all about it.

[Sponsor break from Bombas, Casper and Fracture]

They had fallen in love, and it was something that would change their destiny forever. At least, that’s how the legend tells it. Long ago, a young man lived on a small island surrounded by deep blue seas, and in the process of hunting one day, he encountered a beautiful young woman. But the hunter quickly learned that there was more to her than he could see with his eyes. The woman, it turns out, was a fairy. In fact, she was well known to the locals there, who referred to her as the Dragon Princess. Despite their differences – him, a normal human being, and her, a magical fairy – the two of them fell in love and were soon married, and that helps this tale become on of those happily ever after stories that we all love so much. The couple went on to have twins, a boy and a girl, and just like their parents, they were an odd pair. The boy was just like his father, a human with no magical powers of his own, while the girl took after her mother, and because of that, both parents decided that the children should be raised in separate places to help them fully become who they were meant to be.

According to the legend, it was many years later when the son was out hunting, just as his father had taught him. He was creeping through the forest, his spear balanced in one hand, when he spotted a deer. He quickly threw the weapon, which found its target, and a heartbeat later the young man was carefully making his way over to collect his prize, and that’s when the dragon stepped out of the trees. It was enormous and frightening, and it clearly wanted to take the deer that he had just killed. The young hunter spoke to it, begging it to leave his future meal alone, but the creature ignored him and proceeded to move toward the deer, so he lifted another spear and got ready to take aim at the dragon. Suddenly, a figure stepped out of the shadows of the forest and stopped him. It was his mother, the fairy princess, who he had not seen since his childhood, and as she approached him, she spoke a word of warning. “Do not throw that spear”, she told him, “for that is no ordinary dragon. That is your sister.” Instead, she taught him to live in harmony with his sister, and according to the legend, that fateful meeting set the destiny of their entire community on a new path. Even today, if you were to visit the place where they lived, the people there would tell you that they are descended from dragons, illustrating how that harmony has continued.

And of course, this story is just one of many tales about dragons that fill the pages of folklore. In fact, most of us would be hard pressed to find a creature mentioned more often than those magical beasts, from the 11th century legend of King George and the Dragon to the fantasy novels and television shows of our modern world. They really do seem to be the king of monsters. Dragons are also one of those nearly universal creatures. It seems just about every culture around the world has had some version of them in their folklore. The ancient Egyptian god of chaos was Apophis, represented as a giant serpent. The Babylonians had their own god of chaos called Tiemat, and in Arcadian mythology there were not one but three dragons on display. Norse mythology features a giant serpent who gnaws at the roots of the world tree. In Ukrainian folklore, there is a dragon with three heads, while images of dragons can be found all over medieval heraldry. And of course, few cultures on earth hold as tightly to their dragon mythology as the Chinese, who have been decorating objects with images of the creature at least as far back as the Neolithic period, and we could speculate why, I’m sure. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how the accidental discovery of dinosaur bones might spark fear and wonder in the minds of humans thousands of years ago. The places where stories of dragons are most common are also places where such fossils have been uncovered, so it does make sense.

So, when Europeans arrived on an island in the Flores Sea, just south of Indonesia, they probably didn’t think twice about the local stories about dragons. In fact, those tales were probably a bit old hat, as they say. Dragons lived in caves, breathed fire, were vicious killers and could fly when necessary – nothing about all of that was new. What was new, though, were the things they saw there. On an island surrounded by deep, blue sea, an island full of people who believed they were descended from dragons, mind you, they discovered a creature that brought all of their legends to life. It lived in the caves along the shore, it was an enormous killer, and it sometimes even followed its prey up into the trees. It ticked all the boxes. These were 300lb serpent-like monsters that could bring down a half-tonne water buffalo. When they licked the air with their bright red tongue, it looked as if they were spitting fire, and they even dug into the graves of the dead looking for treasure. Of course, that treasure was always food, not gold. And they’re still there, crawling across the sandy beaches of the island, living in harmony, more or less, with the people who still call the place their home. They might not have wings or piles of golden treasure to curl up on, but they are the largest lizard on earth, measuring in at over 10ft in length, and they’re deadly. Sometimes the tales of the past stay shrouded in mystery, and other times we manage to crack the riddle and shed new light on the shadows that once frightened us. This living, flesh and blood dragon seems to offer a fresh answer to an ancient question, however incomplete it might be, but at least we now know that there really is one place in the world where that old cartographer warning is actually true: Here, on Komodo Island at least, there be dragons.

[Closing Statements]

#lore podcast #podcast transcripts #aaron mahnke #basilisks #dragons #bestiaries #cryptozoology #europe #poland #130 #transcripts

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all-good-things-dot-dot-dot · 4 years

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All Good Things… I’m A Weirdo, And That’s Okay. (Part One, Possibly…)

3rd June 2020

Hello Chaps and Chapettes.

I am what is known affectionately and sometimes ridiculed, as a furry. To those who don’t know what that is, it means that I am part of a community that roleplays online, and often offline, as an animal. This can come in many forms, from your average animals that walk on two legs, to more commonly known furries who walk around on two legs with forms not too dissimilar from what you see in Disney films like Robin Hood and more recently, Zootopia.

(Photo: Walt Disney Studios)

Some people, including a few I know and call friends, dress up as their fursona - that means, the persona they take on when they are being a furry. Most that I know personally, like myself, keep it to a past-time that they spend online. They’ll chat normally about a vast range of things, from what is going on in the real world, films, music, life, ETC. However, they’ll do this behind a pseudonym, the name or character they go by in the community, and everyone (who has the desire to roleplay with them) will refer to them by that character’s name and species.

Here’s my example - I’ve been known in certain communities as Dusk, a black panther. I have had numerous backstories for my character, but lately, I stick with a basic ‘he’s a panther and is from England,’ and riff on whatever else anyone wants to know about him. This is probably because I have grown as close to Dusk as I have to my own life, to the point where there’s no difference between him and me, apart from he has a pretty sweet tail and is a hell of a lot cuter.

This is one example I can give of how weird a person I really am. Some, even the friend or relatives of mine that others would consider weird enough, don’t know this story about me unless they’re reading it now. If they are - hello! Love you lots, thanks for reading this confession, please don’t send me to the funny farm. I’d prefer a funny zoo…

So, why? Why do I have this segment of my life that is important to me? Why, now I’m an adult, have I not stopped enjoying logging onto a chatroom and having people call me Dusk, or lately Scaramouche? And why have I invented these personas for myself?

I’ll start with those first two questions and answer them together, if I may. This isn’t something that started overnight. When I first began to join online communities at around fifteen or sixteen, it was to help aid two things. The first was my writing. I’d heard that people would create text-based roleplays which was essentially like writing an ongoing story where you tell the story from a personal character. I thought this would help improve my book writing abilities immensely.

(Photo: Underworld (2003) Lakeshore Entertainment )

The second reason was that a girl I really, really, really fancied at the time told me about it, and invited me to do it with her (the roleplaying online, nothing else… ). So I went along to do that thing boys do - try and impress the person they fancy. The roleplay was about vampires and lycans (werewolves) because that was a big interest for this girl and myself (Anne Rice & ‘Underworld’ was preferred rather than Stephenie Meyer - Sorry Edward/ Jacob fans). I created a character called Dusk’eth, who was a werewolf, a total ‘Mary-Sue’ (a generic character who is perfect at everything) who tried to woo this girl on my behalf while she played as a vampire.

This worked about as well as you can expect, by which I mean, it didn’t. After a few roleplays, ‘Dusk’eth’ seemed to wander off to find other things on the internet, sort of like Wreck-It Ralph, and discovered a place that when by the name of ‘Gaia Online’ which was a community with cutesy little avatars and a lot more people to chat to.

At the same time that I became more involved in this community, I went on a trip to Tenerife, where I visited the Loro Parque zoo. There, I became fascinated by a Black Panther who seemed to watch me and only me the entire time that I walked by its pen. It was more than likely wishing I was in its pen so that it could have me for lunch and I wish this story was about a free animal, not one in a cage, but nonetheless it has an impact on me. This was where Dusk’eth started to change from a werewolf to a guy who could become a cat.

It was after this that I met other people who discussed with me what furries were and introduced me to the places on the internet where they would meet. When friends and this girl I had liked at school moved on, these people stayed and remembered my name, what was going on in my life, and held an interest that didn’t invade or ruin how I wanted to live. Eventually, Dusk settled on being a panther full time and still has many of the friends he met in those early days as close to him as they are to me, no matter where in the world they are.

(Artwork ‘Dusk’ by Nateday, https://www.furaffinity.net/user/nateday )

And that goes some way to answering those first two questions - I still do it, because the people I befriended behind the animals they pretend to be remain good friends. They’ve been there for me in the highs, they’ve helped me through the lows, they’ve cried and cheered with me and I with them. It seems strange to those outside the furry universe, but that’s okay because to us, it makes sense.

So, that last question, why do I still identify as Dusk, and why did I create Scaramouche too? Well, Dusk went through that part of my life with me and as I say, I put so much of me in him that he really hasn’t felt like a non-existent creature. You may have heard other writers say that about their characters.

Scaramouche, on the other hand, is me. However, that is just a name. Not a character, just a persona to give me an extra boost of confidence when I do anything, like this right now. I can best describe it as a uniform, I know I can be a certain way when I’m Scaramouche that I cannot be when I’m Matt. I guess that’s why Elton John and Lady Gaga must feel when they step into their names too.

There are so many more things that make me completely bizarre, like the fact I’m a Brony (a guy who likes My Little Pony) or that I believe I see dead people… sort of. But for now, I will close by explaining why it is okay, for me at least.

Everybody has a quirk. You may not think it, but you do. It might be something disgusting, something embarrassing, something sexual, something strange, or something most in your country think is acceptable but other people from other countries would consider it strange. Everyone is a little odd and it is fine so long as it isn’t hurting anybody. You can think I’m a weirdo and that’s not a problem either.

I know I am and I’m happy with it.

All good things,

Love, Scaramouche.

P.S. In the end we all do weird things, and if you don’t think you do, ask yourselves if you can remember which part of the chicken that egg you ate came from. Yeah?

#blog #nateday #furry #fursona #be yourself #be weird #be fun #funny #strange #different

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feelingsdusk-writes · 5 years

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Fides

I was going to wait a bit more for this one, but since it's my birthday, y'all get an unbirthday present today... or birthday present, if you're a 26th of April baby like me lol.

Also, in case you're wondering, for now I'll only be posting this here and my AO3 will come later.

Cheers!

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Chapter 2

They don’t trust each other.

The fairies are wary of Stiles and Stiles is wary of them. It’s understandable, though, in both cases. Although the fairies have been watching Stiles since they came, they’ve only seen him when he stays in his room, which means that about seventy percent of that time he has been asleep. And now they find themselves dependent on him, which means that a complete stranger holds the security of their livelihood, and isn’t that a terrifying thought? And for his part, Stiles knows them even less and he knows they’ve already seen him naked and asleep. Some would think that the second is nothing compared to the first, but it’s not. He’d take being naked and awake in the presence of a possible hostile over vulnerable and unconscious every day. Not that he thinks of them as hostiles, but desperate people can do a lot of things they’d normally be against doing to survive.

In short, they’re at an impasse.

"Um," he starts awkwardly. "Apart from dishes and glasses, what else do you need?" He's not trying to butter them up. If anything it should be other way around. But someone has to take the first step and Stiles figures that the survivors of a massacre aren't going to be the ones to do it. "I still have fabrics if you need clothes too?"

"That- That would be- Yes, please, if it's not too much trouble," a girl answers. Stiles doesn't know her name yet and she hasn't volunteered it.

"I can make blankets and easy stuff," he admits sheepishly, "but if you want anything more complicated... I think I can make dresses and all that, but don't expect them to be too, you know, high quality."

"Oh, that's- We will manage, thank you," she replies, trying avoid pulling at her threadbare clothes self-consciously.

"But you can have the fabrics and make something else yourself if you want? I have a lot."

"That would be wonderful!" she answers, clearly brightening.

God, he's such a softie, dammit.

So Stiles makes more cutlery and the like with the remaining polymer clay and they drop some pearls of wisdom about what being a spark entails. He sews some fabrics to use as blankets so that they don’t have to share and they talk about some other creatures that Stiles thought a fantasy but aren’t. He sews some clothes rudimentarily because they still don’t have needles and they share a little bit more about the supernatural world. Then, he shapes some wood into tiny itsy bitsy needles and cuts the fabrics as they ask him to, and they explain about fairy society specifically.

And that’s that.

Getting any kind of cooperation out of them is like pulling teeth and Stiles is pretty frustrated by now. Don’t get him wrong, he gets it, he really does. Besides what they told him when he found them, they haven’t talked about what happened to their colony and the circumstances that brought them to his terrarium, but he doesn’t have to be a genius to know that the whole thing has marked them, that they are traumatized by what happened. Putting himself in their shoes, Stiles knows he would be as distrustful and closed off as they are.

Knowing or understanding that doesn’t make it any less frustrating, though.

Because everything he has found on the Internet is pure bullshit. Because supposedly he has a lot of power at his fingertips and he can’t try it. Because there’s a whole new fascinating world that he’s taken a peek at and then it has closed on him. But above all, because there are hostiles in that world that are capable of destroying a whole fairy colony, bypassing all the security measures (magical or not) that he’s sure they had, and he can’t prepare in case they come at him searching for the survivors.

And he hates that so, so much.

But he isn’t sure about how to proceed in this situation because he feels that whatever the outcome of his approach is, it’s going to be bad. His approach right now is working to some degree, but if the threat is real, it’s nowhere near enough to be of any use, because if they attacked today, he’d be useless. If he kicks them out (and mind you, that’s not a possibility, he’s not that cold-hearted), not only is there no guarantee that the hostiles won’t show up anyway, but he’ll lose the only connection and source of knowledge of the supernatural that he has. Now, if he explains to them why he wants the knowledge, he may spook them into leaving, getting the same results as if he kicked them out. Then again, it could convince them to talk to Stiles, but, being honest, he doesn’t like the odds at all, because in that aspect they’re like Stiles, whom doesn’t like to be dependent on anyone and normally doesn’t ask for help unless there’s no other way.

So yeah, it’s a stalemate alright, because they don’t trust each other and none of them want to make the first step (help with utensils and clothes non withstanding). So it’s been nearly a month since Stiles found the fairies in his terrarium and they haven’t moved a single step further from just cordial interactions. And all those have been initiated by Stiles…

… which is why he’s so surprised when he finds six of them waiting for him just as he opens the door of the house, coming home late after Track practice. Up until now he hasn’t even seen them leave his room and they choose to do that on the one out of the five total times a year that his dad comes to pick him up.

The word flail doesn’t even begin to describe what he does when he notices them and he realizes that his dad is only a couple of steps behind. He recovers quickly and gestures frantically in the direction of his room, only breathing normally when they disappear upstairs, his dad being none the wiser.

“So,” his dad starts just as Stiles starts climbing the stairs to get to his room as fast as he can without being suspicious. “I had an interesting conversation today.”

Stiles knows that tone of voice. Although it’s not outwardly noticeable, he instantly checks mentally what he may have done and gotten caught for. He’s been too busy trying to subtly convince the fairies to talk to him and after his retaliation of last month the twins haven’t dared to mess with him, so nothing comes to mind. Still, in these cases the best defense is silence and a poker face, so he only turns to look at his dad with a neutral expression, like he always does in all of their conversations lately.

His dad’s serious expression turns severe. “Come here and sit,” he orders and it takes all Stiles’ willpower to keep his stance as he approaches the chair his dad has just pointed at. “Last chance to come clean, son,” the man warns as he also takes a seat.

Stiles suddenly adds two and two. When he finished practice today, on his way to the changing rooms, he saw his dad’s patrol car already parked from the hall window, but he never actually saw his dad inside or near it. He was actually waiting by Stiles’ locked bike by the time he finished showering and everything, about fifteen minutes later. It doesn’t take much to deduce, seeing the current situation, that it probably means that he was in a meeting with his teacher or with the principal. Maybe even both. Which means he was probably summoned.

Which means he probably (most likely) wouldn’t have come to pick him up if he hadn’t been called.

There are lots of probably’s in his guesswork but Stiles has good instincts and he’s rarely wrong about these kinds of things. The ratio up to date is that one out fifty he’s wrong, so he feels justified when anger starts to bubble under the surface. Especially so when he goes over the small talk his dad had been trying to make on the way back home and he finds lots of hinting that he had taken as a joke or he had just plain missed.

“Are you sure this is the way you wanna go, son?” his dad insists, expression even more pinched, as if he’s exhausted.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he answers firmly. And for the life of him, he doesn’t. If his dad had asked this same exact question about a month ago, he would have had about three different answers for it just at the top of his head: hacking into a senior’s PC to plant a virus because he had nearly pushed Stiles down the stairs as a joke; anonymously tipping the police into finding the steroids that same senior’s best friend still kept in his locker because he hadn’t distributed them yet; and turning on the megaphone just as the math teacher was making out with the vice principal (both of them are (maybe now were is the correct word to use?) married) just because he felt like it and because Mr. Jones’ wife is a sweetheart and Stiles really likes her, and, most importantly, he heard them talking about having a baby, and that’s… nope. He isn’t even counting what he did to the twins because he just had to lead Mr. Andrews in the right direction and the rest came by itself. But all this happened nearly a month ago, which leaves him at a total loss about what his father is talking about.

“Stiles,” his dad warns, “this is not a joke.”

“What do you want me to say?” he finally snaps, his anger at the whole situation mounting. It adds to the worry he feels about the fairies, because if they sought him out and risked being found out, whatever their problem is, it must be serious. And he’s stuck here with his father without knowing what hell is happening, both with his dad and with the fairies. He sure isn’t a happy camper right now. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about!”

His dad then tries that stern no nonsense look that used to make him crack and had him confessing in no time when he was little, and Stiles tries to reign in his temper. It’s difficult because apart from the worry and the anger, his resentment is starting to build up again, no matter how much he tries to quell it (because this is his dad and he still loves him no matter what). And the hurt, oh, the hurt. It stings so bad that this is the most time they’ve spent together these last three months and it’s because his dad has made time in his busy schedule to scold him and probably punish him. Stiles won a track competition three weeks ago and the most he got was a phone call that evening and a celebratory brownie in a paper bag waiting for him the next morning on the kitchen table. In his more uncharitable moments, Stiles thinks that it was Anderson who reminded his father about the competition.

His dad sighs and then proceeds to pull out two carefully folded papers to place them in front of Stiles. They are exams. Specifically, one of them is the copy of the Science exam he took this Monday and the other is Mathew Collins’ exam. Also known as twin number one to Stiles. The answers are, if not completely, nearly the same. Stiles instantly sees where all this is going. He doesn’t know how they managed it and he doesn’t care. Stiles is going to counter back so brutally that the mere thought of going against him is going to make both twins piss themselves in fear. At the very least.

Internally, he’s seething. Externally, he’s so cool that he might as well be ice. His voice is level when he speaks. “Are you accusing me of cheating?”

“How else would you call this, Stiles?”

“How about him copying me? I don’t know, seeing that my grades are always among the best of my class?”

“Stiles, don’t make things worse,” his dad interrupts him, anger and disappointment seeping into his voice, and Stiles clenches his jaw. “I asked Mr. Andrews and he said that the kid was a little ahead of you and he would have caught him if he turned continuously to copy from you to this extent. The only answer is that you copied from him then, and I want to know why would you do this when you normally have good grades on your own.”

“I haven’t cheated.”

“Stiles…”

“I haven’t cheated,” he cuts in, deeply offended and hurt by his dad’s refusal to believe him. He picks up his bag and takes out his Science textbook, throwing it angrily to the kitchen table. “Ask me anything.”

“Stiles, you’re just making things worse for…”

“Anything,” he cuts in again. “I know the whole damn book, not just what we’ve seen so far. Ask away.”

His dad’s phone interrupts the silent battle of wills that proceeds Stiles’ affirmation. When the man comes back from where he had gone to ensure his privacy, so does his disappointed look. Stiles wants to rage but before he can get a word out, his dad raises a hand, stopping him.

“This matter is not closed. We’ll talk again tomorrow after school. I talked to Mr. Andrews and agreed that you’ll go an hour early tomorrow and you’ll retake the exam. You should be happy I convinced him to leave this out of your record because this was a first incident. Take the chance and study.”

“I don’t need to because I didn’t cheat!”

The sheriff sighs long-suffering as he goes to the entrance. “Study, Stiles. We’ll talk about your punishment tomorrow.”

“I didn’t cheat, dad!” Stiles shouts frustrated just as the door closes behind his dad.

He’s going to make them regret ever crossing Stiles. They want war? Okay, war is what they’re going to get. And he’ll take no prisoners. Stiles takes a deep breath because he's so angry he's shaking. But first, the fairies.

“We’re alone,” he says through gritted teeth as he opens the door of his room, and almost all the fairies leave the terrarium instantly, coming to meet him.

“They’re gone!” Eglantine cries as soon as she’s nearly in his face, making him recoil startled. Lorelle comes near, placing a calming hand on her shoulder and the woman tries to compose herself. Aelfdene joins them, throwing a grim look at him that makes clear how little he likes having to come to him for help. Stiles instantly tenses because if both Lorelle and Aelfdene, the only remaining elders, seek him out, it means that the matter is really serious and they have exhausted any other means at their disposal.

“Odette and Ehaldun have disappeared,” Lorelle informs him, her throaty voice dark.

Stiles blanches. Odette is the kid that interrogated him that very first day about where had all the hair gone. She comes almost every day to look at his textbooks while he does his homework but never talks to him because her mother (Eglantine) told him to not to talk to strangers (or non fairies for that matter). When she’s curious about something she asks her brother in a raised voice so that Stiles hears it too, hoping that he’ll explain without having to break the rules of not talking to him. Stiles finds it funny but Ehaldun doesn’t. But she’s his little sister and it’s his job to protect her even though she kicked that cockroach when he was afraid the other day, and… And at that the little boy cut himself, noticing he was talking to Stiles when his mother had told him not to. Stiles still snorts when he remembers that. They’re both funny.

And now they’re missing and Stiles doesn’t understand how, because he left the windows and doors closed this morning before leaving, just like they asked him to. Moreover, his dad left before him and according to the fairies he hasn’t been back throughout the day, so the doors and windows remained like he left them. And he doubts the kids left the room by themselves. Oren says that it took three of them to open the door to his room to search for them and that they only did it just in case there’s any little hole that leads to the rest of the house that they don’t know about.

Stiles doesn’t bother asking them stupid questions like if they they’re sure. Of course they are, they wouldn’t have come to him if they could solve this themselves. Which means that they have already searched the whole house for them multiple times already and found nothing. So either they’re asleep, unconscious, or not in the house. And Stiles is completely sure about that, because he also knows that if they were in the room (or in the house, for that matter) they would have come out already and not let their mother suffer this way.

”When and where was the last time you saw them?” he asks instead.

Some saw them by the waterfall, others in the big house where he keeps his picture… Depending on the person, it changes, but it’s Aelfwine’s answer the one that catches his attention. ”Before you left, I think, because they were over your bag.”

”My school bag?”

When he nods, he frowns. After a second of consideration, he turns to go back downstairs to pick it up from where he left it at the kitchen. It’s a long shot but it doesn’t hurt to check it out. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise him if he found out that Odette had tried to peek inside and that Ehaldun had followed her just to not leave her alone. If that’s what happened, they’ve probably spent the whole day in his bag.

He brings it up to his room and, when he calls for them and they don’t answer, he starts to empty it just in case. When he finishes doing that, he even turns it around to shake it. Nothing.

Eglantine shakes trying to control herself and Stiles winces in sympathy, not knowing what else he can do. It just doesn’t make sense. Eglantine says that they barely know any magic because they’re still too young. And they are, because in human years Odette is five years old, and Ehaldun is just a year older.

“Maybe,” Stiles bites his lips, “they went outside.”

“They know not to!” Eglantine cries out, hugging herself to control her shaking hands.

“I know,” Stiles says, voice soft, “but we don’t lose anything just checking the backyard just in case.”

“Time, that’s what we lose,” she bites out. “Time. And they may already be…”

“No,” a man Stiles doesn’t know the name of cuts in. “Don’t even think that.”

“But…” Sobs start to make her whole body shake and the man and another woman hug her tightly.

“I’m gonna check outside,” Stiles says pained and Aelfdene nods.

Aelfwine and his partner, Beriadan, join him in the search but keep themselves in the pocket of his hoodie to avoid being seen. They check the whole yard, both in the back and in the front of the house and nothing. It doesn’t take them more than ten minutes because there’s only grass and one lonely tree.

He goes back to his room and he almost winces when the desperate hope in Eglantine’s face vanishes at his shake of the head.

“Don’t you have any tracking magic?” he asks awkwardly after a moment of silence. “Because the only option here… is…” He stops himself to think. What are the odds of that happening? What if they did get inside the bag but didn’t stay in when it stopped moving? He always bikes his way to the school like a madman because he normally leaves the house late and he has to sprint there… Which means that they could be at his school. He shudders. If he’s right and they are there, unless they stayed put and didn’t move from any of the five different classrooms he had class in today, they could be anywhere in that enormous building.

“What? What option?” Eglantine asks desperate.

“If they got into my bag, maybe they’re at my school,” Stiles finishes, pursing his lips. “It’s a long shot, but it’s not like we have other options.”

“I’m coming with you,” she says, echoed by many others.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. If I get caught, they’ll ask me to empty my pockets. At most I can bring one of you with me, just in case the kids don’t answer to me because I’m not a fairy or whatever, but even that is a bad idea.”

“I’ll go. They’re my children. I’ll go.”

“Eglantine,” Lorelle starts firmly, only to be cut off by her.

“They’re my children.”

“Ok,” Stiles says coming forward to stand2 right in front of her. “But I want your word that you’ll stay put and do what I say. If I have to run the hell out of there to not get caught…”

“I won’t give up,” she states stubbornly.

“And I’m not telling you to. I’m telling you that I don’t want to have to search for you too when I enter back in from a different window because you didn’t stay in my pocket like I told you to. And think about this, if I get caught I can’t search anymore and you won’t know how to get back here even if you finally find them.”

Stiles can see her taking a deep breath, trying to steel her nerves. Was his own mom like this? Fragile yet diamond hard at the same time? If she hadn’t gotten sick and was alive right now, would she have believed Stiles? Would have his dad? He shakes his head chasing the thought away and goes to his closet to change his clothes into darker colored ones.

It occurs to him that now is not the best time to break into the school with his father so angry. Part of him is screaming that if he gets caught it will solidify and somehow prove right the idea that he cheated on his exam, which makes this whole venture stupid and foolhardy. Another part of him, the one that’s bitter and furious and hurt, thinks that if he’s going to get punished anyway, it’s better if he gives his dad a real reason to do it.

“I’ll do what you say, I give you my word,” Eglantine says finally, cutting his train of thought and he nods in response.

He picks up his phone, putting it on silent (he’s not getting caught for something as stupid as his phone ringing when he’s hiding) and then makes an inviting gesture pointing to the hood. When she looks hesitant, he explains.

“It’s better if you hide inside the hood on the trip to the school. I may hurt you if you go in my pocket while I’m biking there. Besides, if I get caught they may not think to check in the hood. Or at least at first, which will give you time to slip into a sleeve or something like that while they check my pockets.“ As she flies to get into the hood, he takes out his secondary phone (the avenger, he calls it, because it’s the one he normally uses to get revenge because, well, his dad’s the sheriff and he’s not stupid, and since he took it from a bully that was too ashamed to admit that a scrawny little kid taught him a lesson, if someone ever manages to trace it, it will lead them straight to him, not Stiles, which is definitely a plus) from a box inside a drawer and shows it to the rest of the fairies. “Here,” he says as he turns it on. “If the kids come back before we do or if you hear my dad coming, text me. If we find them, I’ll text you too. I’ll show you how. It’s easy.”

He takes five minutes to explain to them how to unlock the phone and how to send and read texts. He leaves three drafts (Dad is home, Kids came back and Danger) to make it easier for them. Just in case he shows them how the calls work too, but advises them to just call him if it’s an emergency or they may get caught. When he’s sure they get it, he hides the phone inside the biggest ewok house, where his mom’s picture still is. Before going to get his bike, he leaves the window almost unlocked so that the fairies can finish opening it with just a push, in case he needs to come in through it.

It’s going to be a long night, that’s for sure.

It’s very dark and pretty chilly when he exits the house. He takes the shortest route he can take to school. It’s not the safest but he has to sacrifice that in favor of saving time. Taking this route means that he won’t be spotted by patrol cars either, so that’s definitely a plus. When he’s a block over before reaching the school, he stops and hides the bike. He doesn’t lock it, just in case he needs to beat a hasty retreat. It’s a risk, because the bike may not be there when he comes back but it’s a risk he’s willing to take.

”Ok, plan of attack,” he murmurs as he creeps sneakily to the school. “There are two buildings of three floors each connected by a large hallway on the second floor. We’ll go around both of them until we find an unlocked window. Whichever is the building that we enter, we check it floor by floor before going to the other building. The problem here is that we can cross paths with them without even noticing… Do you have any way to mark each floor so that the kids will know we’re searching for them and can come to us?”

”I can place a communication rune that relays the message that only fairies can hear, but it takes time that we may not have,” she answers.

”And if you place it someplace where the sound carries? Because there’s a staircase that connects the three floors on each building…”

”That would work.”

”That’s the plan, then. Here’s to hoping that we don’t get caught,” he sighs as he walks briskly.

When he reaches the school, the first thing he does before he starts to circle it, is to check the parking lot for cars. There are two where he expected to be only one (the security guard’s), which means that he has to watch out for two or more people. Awesome.

(Not.)

He sighs but he starts circling the nearest of the two different buildings that constitute his school, hoping to find an unlocked window anyway. The first he finds is a bust, because when he climbs onto the windowsill he finds that the reason why the window is not locked is because it’s stuck. And Stiles may be small for his age, but there’s no way he can slip through that tiny space. Also, he’s not even going to try because if he got stuck it would be a disaster. And he can’t afford making a racket trying to open it either.

“Eglantine,” he murmurs and she appears over his shoulder almost instantly, “try to open the lock of the other window.”

She nods in response and flies into the room. She has toned down the glow of her wings all she could but he can still see her when she’s trying to open the lock. As it is, a firefly is way brighter than her right now, but he’s going to have to watch out for that. It could be worse, he thinks as he waits for her. When Eglantine returns defeated he’s not even surprised, because he knows from experience that those windows are pretty hard to unlock. Still, it was worth a try.

He continues going around the building until he finds another unlocked window. When he tries to widen the gap it emits a creak that has his heart nearly jumping out of his throat. He makes a sprint until he can hide under a bush and waits with bated breath and a thundering heart. Damn the stupid and old as dinosaurs building! Do they not grease the damn windows??? What the hell!

Ten minutes and no hellfire or damnation later, he dares to leave his refuge to creep around in search for an opened window that leaves a gap big enough for him to get through and doesn’t emit beyond the grave sounds while he’s doing so. And dammit, the list of prerequisites keeps growing, but if this keeps going like this that’s going to be the least of his worries because he’s going to die from a heart attack. And he hasn’t even entered the building yet.

(There’s a reason why he doesn’t like Silent Hill, dammit.)

He takes a deep breath and steels himself when he finds another unlocked window. Third time is a charm, indeed. It creaks a little when he pushes it to widen the gap, but he figures this is the best he’s going to get, so he bears with it and suffers through the nearly five minutes it takes him to open it enough to be able to get in. He waits in silence, trying to hear through the thundering of his heart if someone has noticed the noise and has come to investigate. When nothing happens, he climbs inside what looks like a small audiovisual room.

The room is locked, so he’s going to have to put his lockpicking skills to test. But the thing is that there are no windows besides the one he climbed through, which means that he can’t check if someone is coming. Which is bad, very, very bad.

“Eglantine,” he calls her again and points at a the slightly bigger gap between the door and the wall, just at the corner. “Do you think you can go through that?“

“If I squeeze I think I could…”

“Careful with the wings,” he warns her. “If you can’t I’ll think of another way, ok?”

Stiles is starting to respect her quite a bit. She’s terrified, he can tell, but not for herself, for her children. Even so, besides the completely understandable meltdown from before, she’s holding it together admirably.

She squeezes trough the gap, belly up so that her wings don’t get scratched by the door and then she disappears. He waits for a minute before he starts picking the lock and he waits another minute after he’s done. When nothing happens, he calls her softly so that she doesn’t get caught by the door if she’s attempting to cross back and then carefully opens the door. She flies up to hide in his hood again when he’s closing the door after him so that it doesn’t raise any suspicions.

Stiles crosses the hallway as noiselessly as he can. He has put on the softest sneakers that he has just for that, but he’s seriously considering taking them off and just keeping the socks on, because every single little noise sounds like a bang to his ears. Thinking logically, he knows that it’s not like that, that it’s just his own senses that are heightened. But if that happens to him, it surely happens to the guard too. He doubts for a moment but he decides to keep them on, just in case he has to run to escape.

They comb through the first floor, calling softly to Odette and Ehaldun inside each room and closet that they find. On the ones locked, Stiles either waits, hidden as well as he can, as Eglantine slips inside through a crack, or he picks the lock when she can’t. He waits with his heart in his throat while she places the rune on the second floor (we’re searching for you in this building, come to the second floor and don’t leave, it says according to Eglantine). The search is slow, tortuous and nerve-wracking, and the fact that they still haven’t seen hide nor hair of the security guard is driving them up a wall, but, floor after floor, they persevere.

It takes them an hour and a half to clear the first building and he has to wait again for her to change the message on the rune before they proceed to the second one. This one is actually where Stiles’ classrooms are, but since they were going to check the whole school anyway, it was better to have a method to it, to avoid having the children slip through a crack unnoticed. They go back to the second floor, nerves wracked by the long staircase, no matter that Eglantine looks out all ways before they brave each stretch.

Stiles bites his lip as he eyes the long hallway that connects both buildings. It’s pretty long and there’s just one small teachers' room right in the middle along two big doors to the outside and a lot of windows. To make matters worse, Stiles would bet his own life that the room is locked, which officially makes this a nightmare worse than all the staircases combined. And that’s without taking into account that they have to check that room too.

They decide that Eglantine is going to check that room to see if there’s a crack where she can slip through. If there is, she’ll look inside and then, if the kids aren’t there, she’ll go to the end of the hallway to signal to Stiles if the coast is clear. The can’t do it any other way, because as it is, with so many windows and doors along the hallway, Stiles is going to have to crawl his way to the end of it and also pray to any deity listening that no one is looking when he’s passing the doors.

He has a sudden desire to bang his head to a premature death when he sees her check the whole door and then fly lower and stick to the opposite wall to come back undetected. Fuck his life. He doesn’t need her to tell him that there’s no crack to slip through and, by the time she’s halfway, he’s crawling towards her, signaling that he wants her on the lookout at the end of the hallway. Eglantine gets it and turns around, flying as fast as she can.

He reaches the door, heart in his throat, and then nearly dies from terror when one of the tools slips through his fingers and nearly meets the floor. He grabs it just in time but his hands shake from adrenaline when he tries to open the lock, and it takes him almost five minutes to finally succeed. The door creaks ominously when he pushes it a bit and he wants to die. Eglantine starts to flutter and flying back up the hallway on the corner of his eyes and he calls to the kids urgently before closing the door half a minute later, wincing at another creak it emits as he does so. He pulls off his sneakers before sprinting down the hall, grabbing Eglantine as he passes her, and then hides inside the last audiovisual room he lockpicked into.

Heart thundering and trying to contain his harsh breath, he waits hidden behind the big furniture thingie that holds the oldest TV Stiles has ever seen. About a minute later, he sees the light of the guard’s flashlight coming from under the door. He nods to Eglantine as it starts to diminish and she goes to look to signal to Stiles when to leave the room. Meanwhile, Stiles tries to control his breathing, his hands clenching around his sneakers. This is nothing compared to track, he can take much more that this actually… but then again, in track there’s no security guard jumping at you like a zombie to eat your flesh… Ok, maybe he’s exaggerating a bit.

He puts on the sneakers again before she gives him the coast clear sign, and then starts crawling down the hallway. She places the rune again to warn her kids to not leave the building, to let them know they’re still looking for them and the rest is the same message as before.

They start clearing the second floor. Stiles is still wary because there were two damn cars in the parking lot and they’ve only encountered the security guard. To make matters worse, this building’s structure is much more complicated than the other because it doesn’t have the gym and the pool attached to it. It starts like a normal hallway, then it turns into a rectangle with both classrooms on the outside and at the center of it, and then it turns back into a normal hallway again. And if that’s not sufficiently terrifying, there are stairs both at the beginning and at the end of it.

They clear the first couple of rooms easily, but before they can go on they notice a light coming from one of the classrooms from inside the rectangle. They creep near to take a peek inside but before they can even try it, the one-sided conversation taking place inside reaches them. It doesn’t take him much to realize that it’s a phone call, because they never hear a second voice, and what they hear is inconspicuous enough, but something about it chills Stiles to the bone. Maybe it’s because he’s pretty on edge after all the night’s happenings, and that’s what's making him suspicious but he won't risk it.

He tiptoes to the opposite hallway inside the rectangle to take a peek from there without being noticed. It’s difficult to see through an entire classroom but he recognizes her, he’s seen that teacher around. If he recalls well, she’s new this year and teaches gym to a grade below him, but he can’t recall her name. As he guessed, she’s on the phone, but that's not what catches his attention. She has a box in front of her. It’s colorful and has more pink glitter than actual paint, that he can see. It looks like the art project of a first grader and he doesn’t know what a gym teacher could be doing with that, but again, that’s not what catches his attention the most. She keeps touching it as she talks about taking care of something, then she stops, stays silent for minute or so, and then she taps her fingers on it pretty harshly.

Stiles can recognize a scare tactic when he sees one.

And it’s obvious that Eglantine can too, because he barely manages to catch her before she bolts. He brings the struggling fairy up to his eye level and he mouthes that she gave her word. She stills and throws such a desperate look to Stiles that his heart almost breaks. He shakes his head because if she was a normal teacher, he would just let himself be caught, giving Eglantine enough time to rescue the kids. But with a person that talks so casually about killing children you can’t use a tactic like that, it will get you killed because it’s obvious she won’t care that he’s just a twelve-year-old. Especially since there are no witnesses.

Stiles rakes his mind for an idea but he doesn’t know what to do. They have to be sneaky about it and quick and they don’t have time to plan. Stiles hates it but they're going to have to wing it and do a classic, which means that they’re going to have to create a diversion and run for it. At least they’re lucky and the window is open. Even if it’s a second floor that’s better than nothing.

He steels himself for the umpteenth time and starts crawling to the other end of the hallway. They’re right in the middle of it when they hear the guard coming back from upstairs. When the man has gotten to the second floor, Stiles doesn’t know, but he curses under his breath, takes his sneakers off again and tries to hurry without making a single noise. Just as he sprints and reaches the stairs of the other end, the guard starts going to the lighted classroom.

Stiles eyes the teachers' room in front of him and nearly cheers when he sees that they’ve left the printer on. He runs downstairs, through the entire floor and upstairs again in record time. The guard is talking to that teacher, perfect. He then takes out his phone, accesses the printer and just lets it go until it either runs out of paper or ink, whichever happens first.

The guard jerks, surprised, and it’s no wonder, because even Stiles can hear the startled shout that comes from the teachers' room from where he is. He nearly cries with relief when the teacher follows the guard, and as they go, he starts tiptoeing towards the classroom. He hides for a moment, crouching in front of the classroom on the center. He peeks in as he hears the guard unlock the teachers' room and enter with an exclamation. For a moment he thinks that he hears more than two voices, but the moment she follows the guard in, he doesn’t care.

He sprints inside the classroom, looks inside the box to see if both children are there, then grabs the box itself and peeks outside to see if he can just run the hell out of here. She’s just exiting the teachers room and he jerks back. He goes to the window, gets out through it and prays that he doesn’t die, because this is nothing like climbing a tree.

There’s a gutter to the left and he just hopes that it can hold his weight. He opens the box, takes both children out to place them in his hood beside their mother and then throws the box and his sneakerd to the ground. He then grabs the gutter with his hands covered by the hoodie’s sleeves and lets himself slide down, holding for dear life because his socks make it so that he can’t control the fall. Everything is trembling by the time he touches the ground but he forces himself to grab the box too because he wasn’t thinking when he grabbed it and there’s no way he’s leaving something that has not only his fingerprints but the print of his whole hand, and then he keeps running.

Not even when he finally reaches his bike does he stop to put the sneakers back on. He just makes sure that Eglantine and the kids are still holding on before speeding the hell out of there.

Stiles doesn’t really stop until he’s back to his room. While the fairies rejoice, he just sits on his bed, trying to get his whole body to stop trembling from the fear and the adrenaline. And just as he’s getting the hang of it, his dad’s cruiser pulls into the drive again. He shoots into action, taking his clothes off as fast as he can, making them a ball and hiding them in his closet along with the glittery box. When he turns to search for his pajamas, he finds that the fairies are holding them out for him mid-air. He doesn’t even question it and just grabs them to put them on. He doesn’t even bother turning off the lights because his dad will have seen them on already and it would look more suspicious to turn them off. He’s going to get scolded for being up this late anyway, he’s not going to add another count for trying to cover it too. By the time his dad comes in, he’s in bed with a book in his hands and the fairies are nowhere in sight.

He ignores his dad pointedly until the man comes near the bed to let the Science textbook that Stiles left exactly where he threw it on the kitchen table hours ago, fall onto the sheets. Stiles doesn’t lift his eyes from the book, doesn’t look at him even when the sheriff takes the book from his hands and pointedly turns off the lights.

“I didn’t cheat,” Stiles says simply into the darkness and receives no answer.

(Kicking the textbook to the floor doesn’t make him feel any better.)

---

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