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#finally his sister and parents are correctly linked

sol-emers · 1 year

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Hello! Thanks for joining us for the next part of Twylas story. Parts from here on out will start getting longer- gladly.

This story is also on Wattpad and you can find that, a tag list, and a master list is on the pinned post on my account. First two parts are linked below. I make all the gifs except for the one on part one so pls don't steal <33 - wren

Witching Hour

Summary: Twyla Addams and her twin gets sent off to Nevermore school of the supernatural and anything weird- they get exposed to new secrets, a mystery, and budding friendships, and romances.

Warning: murder, torture, kissing, mental illnesses

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TWYLA THOUGHT she'd learned what torture was a long time ago.

She's not so sure now.

Sitting in a car next to her sister, a frown evident on her face as she watched the trees go by. Waiting for the ridiculous song playing and her parents' affection to just be over.

Though she was afraid she'd never see the day that happened.

As it shows her parents adored each other.

Sometimes a blessing, most times a curse. They were always all over each other.

Plus, Twyla didn't like cars.

She'd much prefer to be on a train or better yet in her shadows, knowing both options would get her to the school much faster.

Which would only give her more time to scope out the area and start planning her escape plan.

She and Wednesday had no intention of staying for very long.

Her parents ended the song with a long kiss that both girls watched with disgust in their minds but her face kept as dead and straight as ever.

Their mother, Morticia had looked at them both and only sighed. Her shoulders dropped as she spoke,

"Loves', how long do you intend on giving us the cold shoulder?"

The two girls sighed in unison turning to look at each other before Wednesday sighed once more before turning to look at their family's driver and close friend.

"Lurch. Please remind our parents that were no longer on speaking terms."

Twyla turned last second as well, catching her brother's eyes.

"and remind them it'll stay that way until they let us leave the misfit school." she huffed before turning back to the two distraught parents.

"Well I promise you my little vipers, you will love Nevermore."

Turning to his wife,

"won't they Tish?"

He attempted to guarantee. Though Morticia only agreed with the statement.

Nodding her head. "Of course. It's the perfect school for them."

"Why? Because it was the perfect school for you?"

Wednesday said back.

Twyla, looked back at the window as she spoke to her mother as well.

"We have no interest in living up to the family name- better yet your name. Being captain of a stupid fencing team, winning a stupid trophy

That no one is going to care about in two years. Queen of a prom im not going to show up at, a president of the seance society."

"I merely meant that finally, you will be among peers who understand you. Maybe you'll even make some friends," she said, smirking teasingly obviously hinting at boys (or girls).

"Nevermore is like no other boarding school. It's a magical place," he swore, turning to his wife.

"It's where I met your mother. And we fell in love." he practically whispered to her before Wednesday cut in.

"you guys are making us nauseous. And not in a good way, you know how Twyla gets in cars."

Their mother only scoffed looking at the two before settling her eyes on Twyla, considering it was her plan.

"Darlings, we aren't the ones who got you expelled. That boy's family was going to file attempted murder charges. How would that have looked on your record?"

Twyla paled more at the embarrassing thought.

"Just lovely- everyone would know we failed to execute it correctly," she replied sarcastically, looking back at the window annoyed with Dalton for putting her in this situation in the first place.

Pressing charges- please, she did him and womankind a favor.

No mother should have to be stuck raising his mini douchebags.

Her mother just hummed at her. Nodding get head slightly as a silent, 'im right, again.'

They passed another old car as they rode away toward the school.

Then once they got to Nevermore, passing the creepy gate that practically labeled the school as haunted on its own.

Her mother looked out the window and smiled eerily.

"at least it's turning into a beautiful day."

Thunder rumbled out almost immediately after she said so, Twyla begrudgingly agreed nodding her head slightly in agreement, loving the stormy weather.

Getting out was like a workout on Twylas' legs. She usually never had to sit for that long.

And once she was out, she was off to the principles office.

One minute in and she knew she wouldn't like her. Far too smiley and fake for her taste.

"Wednesday and Twyla are certainly unique names. I'm guessing it's the day and time you two were born on?"

"Our birthday is Friday the thirteenth." Wednesday deadpanned.

Their mother stepped in, trying to control the situation.

"Wednesday's name comes from a line from my favorite nursery rhyme, 'Wednesday's child is full of woe' then Twyla's name is from the word twilight. Though she was named after my late sister."

Weems just smiled and took it in stride, "you always had such a unique perspective on the world, Morticia."

"hmm"

"Did your mother tell you we were roommates back in the day?" she continued.

"and you graduated, still with the ability to smile like a granny." Twyla started with a fake impressed voice.

Wednesday finished, as she always did. Leaning back in her seat, "impressive."

Weems looked down, taking a breath before continuing. "well you two certainly have had a very interesting educational journey. Eight schools in five years." She sounded astonished.

"They haven't built one strong enough to hold us."

Twyla leaned forward taking candy from the principles jar while speaking, "we're sure this place won't be any different."

Their father cut in, trying to save the conversation with the smiley principal.

"What I believe our daughter is trying to say, is that she greatly appreciates the opportunity."

Greatly appreciates the opportunity- my ass.

What a bunch of bullshit.

"Nevermore doesn't usually accept students mid-term, but given the girls perfect grades. And your family's long history with the school, I've spoken to the board and we've made an exception."

Wooooow lucky us.

"um, Larissa what about their um- therapy sessions. The court ordered them."

Larissa just nodded and leaned forward. "well, the school has a relationship with a therapist in Jericho who can meet

twice a week."

"did you hear that my little storm clouds? Your in excellent hands."

"maybe. If she survives the first ten minutes then we might have a shot."

Maybe when Twyla was tired she was more rude? Or that could've just been the Santa-looking woman in the seat across from her.

The principal just looked down and continued, Twyla assumed she got a lot of this- considering she was the principal of a school of literal 'outcasts'.

"I've assigned you two to your mothers' old dorm. Ophelia hall. Wednesday you will have a roommate so please play nice. And Twyla I've been told you do well alone. In the dark. So I've assigned you to a single room at the end of the hall."

Morticia smiled and gasped with reminisce in her eyes, turning to look at her daughters- Twyla being closer to her.

"refresh my memory. Ophelia is the one who kills herself after being driven mad by her family. Is that correct?"

It was silent a moment before Twyla turned to her sister and nodded curtly almost smiling at the irony her parents were just placed with.

"shall we go meet your new roommate?"

Thanks for reading! Any comments are appreciated and if y'all have any ideas for the story or thoughts I am not opposed to hearing them :)

Also note that at any given point of the series Twyla will always be wearing black gloves unless it's mentioned she's not.

Twyla's face claim is Cindy Kimberly. She is who will show up in all my gifs and who is on the cover of the story on wattpad, though you all may imagine her as you wish.

Taglist: @itscheybaby

Part one, two:

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copiousloverofcopia · 6 months

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🦇💗Today is a very special day, my ghestie @sistersaccharine birthday! 💗🦇

I am honored that she chose to be my friend Holiday commission letter from Papa Iv to her OC Saccharine on her birthday!

She said it was ok to share with you all so here is the full commission including the letter and the special designs I do for it!

I am so glad you liked it ghestie and happy birthday Sister!

Mia Principessa,

Though it has only been a few hours since I left you, sleeping so soundly in our shared bed, I already miss you. Today, along with all those who live within the Abbey, we shall celebrate your birthday. The ghouls and siblings alike, singing your praises and showering you with gifts fit for Lucifer himself. They have all been working, along with the girls, so hard to make this day as perfect as you.

Primo has assured me that nothing but his most impressive blossoms will grace the tables and Secondo has agreed to help the ghouls with the entertainment. Even Rain and Sunshine have been working together on a piece of music written just for you…but don’t let them know I told you… I will never hear the end of it.

Even Terzo is planning something special for you. Along with the help of Nova and the rest of the ghoulettes. I can only imagine what they have come up with. I too have something I am dying to show you. Something I picked out many months ago in preparations for today.

I cannot wait to see the beautiful smile on your face and the glow in your cheeks when you see it. The moment I saw it I knew it was absolutely perfect for you—just like you. You know cara you are so very much loved and appreciated here. Truly a Sister that is cherished by her fellow siblings and the Ministry as a whole.

Oh my sweet cara…I am forever grateful for this day and in truth for your parents. Had it not been for their love and the blessed events of this day some years ago, I would have never met the love of my life. I owe my happiness, my life, and my everything to them—to you amore.

I cannot wait to show you the lemon cheesecake cake that Gnocchi, Rigatoni, and myself managed to bake for you. It took particularly an eternity for me to figure out how to do a water bath correctly. I am not proud to admit that I went through quite a few tries before I finally got it. Aether must be sick after eating all the rubbery custard mistakes I made. If I am being honest, the Abbey chef may never allow me back in the kitchen again after this with all the mess we made. Even so, it was all worth it for you. I am looking forward to hearing what you think when you taste it. Though I must admit that I prefer the way you taste above all else.

I long to hold you, to kiss you, to take you back to our bed so that I may worship you as the goddess you are. But for now we must wait, allow the others to have had their chance to celebrate you. Afterward, however, you shall be all mine once again. A moment for which I will be counting every second until. Happy Birthday my beautiful Saccharine. See you tonight in the Great Hall my love. Until then…

Your loving Husband,

-C

**if you would like your own, please see the link below or my pinned post for my commission info!**

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justablah56 · 5 months

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oh god hi. gothweebcleats here again. i’m finally catching up to the new episodes (still only on 47!! i’m dragging my partner through them) but dear god

(also using canon pronouns rn im a lil put of it LAWL) (also also warning possible sad ahead)

honestly i loved LOVED!!! freddie whipping out taylor’s emotions in hell or high father. like. yeah taylor’s a good fun kid he takes very little seriously and he likes himself and that makes for a charismatic sorta dude that seems like he doesn’t really think much. but god no this kid since day one has been wanting his dad he’s so curious he can barely contain it ‘there’s an empty spot waiting for you where are you�� he loves his mom so so much and she will never be a replacement she will never fill that hole. dad where are you. dad there you are and my first impression of you is terrifying. all i hear is fighting and my friend and i need to be safe we need to get out. my friend left himself behind for you and youre telling me to leave him forever? dude that sucks. no wonder you werent around. i wish i didn’t remember you anymore and that there was a different you here taking care of me

and also thinking abt lincoln. link who loves his dads more than anything. link who thinks knows how important his dads are to his wellbeing, that he wont be safe if his dads arent there. link who grew up and learned his fathers were people too. link growing up and seeing his dad’s mistake firsthand link growing up and seeing that he has to fix his dad’s problem. link knowing his dad cares for him link knowing his dad doesn’t care for him correctly (don’t get me started on grant) link knowing his dad will always love him link knowing his dad will never love him enough.

ykw we’re gonna do the other two as well (as i get closer to current episodes i get Immensely Sadder)

terri marlowe grows up without a dad (there’s an empty spot in my brain; i don’t remember anything before first grade…). a man comes by when she’s 12 and asks for money (we have the same nose (?!) ). her mom yells him out of the house (she never yells, what’s going on??) and they leave the state three weeks later (mom where are we going? … mom??). scary starts at a new middle school somewhere in california (i grew up in illinois). she joins the soccer team (they’re nice enough). her mom gets a boyfriend (ew) and apparently he has the same name as her (double ew!!!). scary wakes up the next morning clinging to a man she doesn’t remember for the sake of hurting a man right in front of her (i want to be mean). she does not spit vitriol during dinner (this chicken is gross..) and she does not warm up to him (i won’t not ever never ever no no no) and he looks like he wants a hug but he goes for a high five instead. scary marlowe has to take a second as her boundaries are respected. scary marlowe hates terry stampler jr with a passion that will never end.

okay so i gotta be real. i’m not.. the biggest oak family fan. henry was my least favorite of the dads and if i look at normal too hard he’ll start looking back and then my eyes will fall out of my head as i try to avoid looking in a mirror. however. normal growing up and his parents (and their friends) liking his sister more. not loving never loving ‘we love you both equally!’ but. normal starts liking citrus candy because his sister doesn’t and that’s all she leaves in the bags that marco brings. normal wearing hero’s hand-me-downs. normal’s mother giving hero the first cookie from the batch every time (even though they aren’t very good anyways). normal’s dad spends, like, every afternoon with hero but it’s totally, like, okay and cool, like, i have homework to do anyways, like, by the time they get back i’ll be snoozing from how hard i was hitting the books haha. normal assuring his parents to put hero first because they will anyways and at least then he doesn’t feel bad about it because now they don’t feel bad about it and see everyone is happy!!! see everyone is having a good time!!! everything is fine nothing is wrong nothing ever will be my parents love me and that’s all that matters

okay i need to finish my partner’s christmas present now i took a break to do this and it’s been. a Hot second. hope u r having a nice weekend aether :) happy holigays

ough oguh ough absolutely eating this up btwwww OK BUT YEAH . taylor in that episode man ,,,, hurt me so much ,,.,..,.,. him just being sad and showing even just a bit of vulnerability and that no , it's not all ok . *I'm* not all ok . ough sobs about Taylor Swift (not that one) forever and ever he is everything to meeee

and linc :( Linc realizing his dependency on his dad's and their failures in raising him ,,,, her realizing that they aren't perfect , they're actually both super fucked up , and as much as they tried not to , they fucked him up too . man ....

waough scary ,, , your whole little analysis here is sososo important to me bcs ough yeah :( scary not knowing her dad as anything other than the one thing that can make her mom yell , and yet attaching to him over Terry . dismissing it bcs cmon he couldn't've been that bad , he must've just had a bad day . I must be remembering it wrong . but really she's just afraid that Terry could be just like him - anyways ,,,. scary makes me so 💥💥💥💥

normal ,, but that's so real like Henry is probably my least favorite of the dads and then normal ,, I cannot look upon him , he is too just like me fr fr /neg . but yeah :( him being upset about being the second choice so he starts to convince himself it's because he wants hero to be the first choice . that it's fine , he likes being second anyways . hes happy to take heros leftover candies , they're his favorites anyways . oh yeah hero can go out with Dad and uncle lark , he has homework he has to be doing anyways . ough normal ,,,,

anywayssss hope you were able to finish your partners present !! hope your weekend was also v good and I wish you happy holigays :3

#gothweebcleats not so anon #gothweebcleats anon #i think that's the tag i changed you to shsjndnd #maybe .#idk .#maybe youre just gothweebcleats anon still who knows

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fiveflatcutie · 1 year

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Irreplaceable | Chapter 1

chapter 01 | dark skies with black over blue (2.1k words)

AFF link: https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1534162/2/i-dark-skies-with-black

Today's Hyunseo's third death anniversary.

For Dasom, it still feels like yesterday when she received a call from a very frantic mother of hers. She can never forget that specific moment when the bomb was suddenly dropped on her.

"Eomma?" Dasom tentatively speaks on the phone, her eyes not able to stop in one place since she's still trying her best to calm down her nerves as she's about to step onto the podium to deliver a presentation in front of the whole batch.

She puts the phone away from her ear, double-checking if she read the caller's name correctly since no one is speaking on the other line. Seeing that it is indeed her mother, Dasom asks again. "Eomma, what's wrong? What happened?"

A choked sob can be heard, making Dasom's heart beat faster than it already is. "Dasom-ah.."

"Eomma," now she's scared. She has no idea what to expect from her mother's mouth. "Breathe." She hears her mother doing what she just said, "Okay. Now, tell me slowly what just happened?"

Dasom immediately regrets answering her mother's phone call right before her name gets called in front.

"It's your sister, Dasom. She's got a malignant brain tumor and is currently admitted since she fainted at work."

Before arriving at their agreed meeting place, Dasom made sure to pass by a nearby flower shop to buy her sister's favorite flowers, daisies. Hyunseo would have turned thirty this year so Dasom makes sure to buy thirty daisies for her. She's already late, to be honest. But that doesn't deter her from still going out of the way to buy the said flowers.

That's why Dasom just chose not to mind the glare she was receiving from her brother-in-law, Baekhyun, when she finally arrives after fifteen minutes of being late.

"You're late," displeasure is evident in Baekhyun's voice when he acknowledged Dasom's presence.

"Sorry," she responds, "I had to buy these," she then shows the bouquet of daisies she brought. Dasom didn't miss the flick of understanding in Baekhyun's eyes upon the sight of the fresh flowers.

It was Dasom's mom who spoke next. "They're beautiful, Som."

"She'll love them." Dasom's dad comes close to grip Dasom's shoulder, his eyes glistening with unshed tears, overwhelmed by her younger daughter's thoughtful gesture.

The heartwarming moment of the family is disrupted by Baekhyun's piercing voice, "It's turning dark already, we should go there before it rains."

Dasom wanted to say something since it was pretty obvious that Baekhyun's rude interruption is on purpose but she refrained from doing so before she does something she'll surely regret afterward. She needs to be understanding since Baekhyun has barely recovered from the sudden loss of his wife.

Since Hyunseo died, Dasom's parents treated Baekhyun like their own son and took the liberty to babysit their only granddaughter, Dahyun. They wanted to help lessen the burden on Baekhyun's shoulders since his workload is piling up given his recent promotion as the Chief Operating Officer and Creative Co-Director of a multinational fashion company.

Of course, Dasom also played her part as a helpful in-law. Whenever she's free or if her academic load was not that heavy, she always spends time with her niece since it also serves as a time of relaxation for her. It then becomes inevitable for Dahyun to grow closer to Dasom as time goes by.

Upon entering Baekhyun's car, she notices the absence of her beloved niece. "Where's Dahyun?"

"I left her at my mom's," Baekhyun promptly replies, his eyes still on the road since he's in charge of driving them to Hyunseo's resting place.

"Why didn't you let her join us today? Unnie would've loved to see her daughter."

Dasom notices the way Baekhyun tightened his grip on the steering wheel. There's nothing wrong with her question anyway, right? But then again, why has Baekhyun not turned sensitive whenever she mentions her sister to him?

"She's way too young for this," Baekhyun explains.

Dasom is unsatisfied with his reason. She believes that a child can never be too young to be brought to their parent's resting place. It is their right to know about this mere fact and she detests how Baekhyun's sheltering Dahyun too much. Sooner or later, she's sure that the poor child will begin to think how unfair it is for her father to filter the truth about the death of her matter. And Dasom never wants that to happen, at all.

"But she deserves to know," Dasom argues, "I doubt you have already brought Dahyun to the columbarium to meet her mother. Right?"

The car stops in the presence of a red traffic light, giving a chance for the tension to grow inside the car, making the two elders nervous for the heated discussion that's about to begin between their only living daughter and their son-in-law.

"Baekhyun, will it be fine if I fetch Dahyun later so she can spend the night at our place? I promise to get her home safely tomorrow afternoon." It was Dasom's mom who spoke, attempting to change the topic so as to prevent more arguments from popping up.

Baekhyun's and Dasom's eyes connected through the rearview mirror, making the former subtly frown at their sudden interaction. Dasom quickly avoids his gaze, placing her elbow on the car's window sill and watching the view outside. She hears Baekhyun's response: "Of course, eomma. I'm sure Dahyun will love that too."

That's probably the only thing Dasom will ever agree with Baekhyun— whenever they get to take care of his charming daughter, they're certain how happy she genuinely gets in the company of her grandparents and her pretty aunt.

Since Hyunseo died, Dasom has actually taken quite a liking on Baekhyun's daughter since she has always been fond of taking care of kids. She adores Dahyun's innocence and easygoing personality, something that was once hers but got lost when she finally stepped into the real world.

A very sad truth.

"We're here," Baekhyun's announcement effectively pulls Dasom out of her mind. Looking beside her, she gives a weak smile to her mom, whose eyes have already turned glossy as soon as the car stopped.

Since Hyunseo's death, her parents have been unable to regularly visit her resting place since they got caught up with matters at work. Even though they wanted to drop by for a moment, their work schedules render them unable to do so since the bank has been experiencing a bit of turmoil for quite some time now. Therefore, Dasom understands the burst of emotions that her mother must be feeling at the moment. Her father, on the other hand, has always been adept at masking his emotions effectively after sitting through countless hours of board meetings that require him to navigate the ruthless ways of the major shareholders.

Their footsteps echoed as they entered the columbarium. There weren't a lot of people inside, probably because of the fact that the work day is still isn't over yet.

Dasom lets her mom cling to her arm as they walk towards Hyunseo's spot, with Baekhyun and her dad leading the way.

She lets her eyes travel around the many epitaphs placed on the third floor, wondering about the causes of their deaths and how the loved ones that they left behind were able to cope up with the grief brought upon by their passing.

Even though it's been three years, Dasom is aware that none of them have completely moved on from Hyunseo's untimely death.

Looking back, her sister's words to her on her wedding day made sense. Hyunseo already knew what was happening to her. Instead of spending her last days in the hospital, she decided to take the risk by enjoying it with the love of her life and experiencing genuine happiness with the family she made with Baekhyun. Until now, Dasom can't help but wonder if Hyunseo will be able to live longer if she didn't push through with the marriage and just decided to battle her sickness. But then again, if that's what she did, she'd probably die with regrets— something that Dasom never wanted for her sister.

"Hyunseo, honey, how are you?" Hearing her dad talk to her sister's smiling photograph prompted a tsunami of emotions to overwhelm Dasom. If it wasn't for her mom clinging to her arm, she'd probably be crying her eyes out by now.

She sneaks a glance in the direction of where Baekhyun is standing beside her dad. As expected, his face was void of any emotions and he looks like a robot awaiting to be controlled for his next moves.

Dasom remembers hating Baekhyun for not doing anything to force her sister to undergo treatments before her condition got worse. She hated him even more when he didn't bother to shed a single tear throughout Hyunseo's wake. And she hated him the most when Baekhyun just left his wife's funeral, leaving a two-year-old Dahyun crying loudly for her late mother, off to somewhere else.

She honestly thought that Baekhyun did not care at all.

Who in their right mind would leave their only child alone in a moment of grieving? Only him. But then again, Dasom hasn't met a lot of widowed men aside from Baekhyun so she realized then that she judged him way too early.

So seeing him look so emotionless right now doesn't make her hate him. Instead, it makes her pity him.

They all have their own ways of grieving— it's just that Baekhyun's way is not the stereotypical way of grieving commonly accepted by society.

After her parents talked with Hyunseo and Dasom placing the bouquet of daisies she bought, she motions for her parents to leave first so that they can give way for Baekhyun to have a short moment with his wife.

When they exited the place, Dasom received quite an outrageous question from her dad, causing her to raise her voice at him much to her mom's displeasure. "What?!"

"Dasom, that's disrespectful to your father. Apologize to him this instant."

Dasom purses her lips, admitting to her mistake. "I'm sorry, appa."

Lowering her head, Dasom hears her dad release a short laugh, "It's fine, darling. I'm sure you were surprised by my question earlier that's why you reacted that way."

Of course, which person would not find it weird if your parent suddenly started asking you about how you view your brother-in-law as a man?

With their five-year age gap, Dasom has always looked up to Baekhyun as an older brother she acquired through her sister's marriage. It's a given that their cat-dog relationship ensued because of how much they want to get Hyunseo's attention to theirs, but more than that relationship? Just attempting to think beyond that line is already making Dasom have goosebumps all over her body.

Although, she must admit that she did find Baekhyun quite attractive when her sister first introduced him to the family. But even though she developed a tiny crush on him, Dasom brushed it away immediately since she doesn't want to stand in the way of her sister's happiness. She can never do that to Hyunseo. She loves her sister too much to harbor romantic feelings for the guy she likes.

"Why are you suddenly asking me such a question, appa?"

For the first time after a long while, Dasom didn't like the way her dad smiles. It's as if he's trying to tell her something that she ought to know but is just holding himself back for some unknown reasons.

That's why she can't refrain from asking, "Appa, what's wrong?" Dasom turns to her mother, "Are you guys not telling me something?"

Her mom places a gentle hand on her arm, squeezing it with a soft smile. "You'll know about it soon, Som. But for now, I want you to promise us something."

A promise? "What promise?"

Dasom watches as her father takes hold of her free hand. "No matter what happens, you won't blame us. You can hate us for whatever reason but you must never blame us, or even disown us as your parents. Understood?"

Suddenly, she feels as if she's back again five years ago inside Hyunseo's waiting room, with an hour left to spare before the wedding ceremony starts.

This conversation feels too familiar for her liking.

It's as if people asking her to promise something is foresight for the universe taking them away from her in a blink of an eye.

She doesn't want to answer.

She's afraid that if she will, then something bad will happen to her parents. She barely recovered from her sister's death even though it's been three years already, how so if the time will come when both her parents will be taken away from her especially when she's not that ready to let go of them yet? This cannot happen.

But she can't disappoint them.

Dasom connects her eyes with her mom's expecting ones, making her chest ache just thinking about her parents' possible reactions if she doesn't agree to whatever it is they're pertaining to.

"Okay."

A/N:

If you reached ‘til the end, thank you very much! Feel free to reach out to me through my Curious Cat account or just send me a message here so I’d know your reactions! See you next week!

#baekhyun #byun baekhyun #exo #exo baekhyun #baekhyun x you #baekhyun x reader #baekhyun x oc #baekhyun fanfic

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curlyswirlyhypnosis · 3 months

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DnD backstory time! Another short little memory prior to campaign start. I realized as I was writing these, that I'll have to go back and edit his journal entries because they do not match up! It did take me a while to figure him out though so it was bound to happen.

Link to the previous ones: Memory #2 Memory #1 The End is Where We Begin

Anyway, here's Memory #3:

Elowyn patrolled the edges of the glade, and supervised the small fey children playing in the distance. Lighthoof's face was full of joy. Especially because he only needed to wear the horn braces in the evenings now, per physician orders. He was eagerly jumping and evading all those around him. Sunbeam, Skiphoof, Pebble, and Fern gaining upon him. Elowyn had not felt so relaxed in a while. Nature was beautiful, calm, and peaceful for once.

A forest nymph, only a few years older than the rest of the children walked up to Elowyn.

"My love," Elowyn asked, "What brings you out here? I thought you would be preparing for your classes."

"I wanted to come check on him too." she said, "That's what a good big sister should do right?"

Elowyn smiled at Honeymead. Another kind loving soul so similar to Kah'Ja.

"At least I can see that some of the bruises really are accidents. He does make jumping and those other movements look so effortless. At least when he lands correctly." Elowyn winced as Lighthoof rolled in the dirt from a bad landing. Skip and Sunny finally catching him.

"He and Skip were always butting heads." Honey said with a giggle, "But it's been a lot easier since last week. I guess scolding him actually worked."

Elowyn stifled a laugh. Lighthoof mentioned that the only reason Skiphoof was upset was because Honey was nice to him. Once Skip understood that Honey was nice to Light because he was her adopted brother, the animosity instantly disappeared. Light didn't get it, but was happy to have a friend.

"As long as he's not coming home with bloody noses anymore, I'll be happy." Elowyn said.

The children sat in a circle, talking and laughing. Lighthoof looked up and waved at Elowyn and Honeymead.

"Looks like he saw us." Honey said, "Guess I should say hi before going back to classes."

Elowyn smiled as the children continued to run around after Honey waved her goodbyes. The Western Glades were part of Lord Dahm's domain. Elowyn wondered how their old brother-in-arms was doing. The war, the terrible nightmares, everything that Elowyn gave up was worth this peaceful moment.

Elowyn listened to the breeze, felt the ground beneath their feet. No threats, no ill intents. Just loving parents coming for their children. Time for dinner.

Lighthoof remained sitting as his friends left one by one. He waved bye to them and soon it was just Elowyn and Light left in the fields. Elowyn saw he was doodling with a stick in the dirt as they walked closer.

"Ready for dinner?" Elowyn asked. Light stood up. When did he grow taller? He was going to be a handsome man one day. One day too soon.

"I'll be going to classes with Honey pretty soon huh?" He asked.

"Pretty soon." Elowyn confirmed. They knew he had something else to ask. The wind said so. But Elowyn waited. They never wanted to push Light into something uncomfortable. He already had to deal with so much.

"Elowyn, where are my parents?" he asked, "How did you find me? And I don't mean those silly stories about bursting out of a flower, or floating down from a mountain in an enchanted basket, or fighting a monster to save me."

"You didn't like it when I said you were from an old wart I cut off my finger." Elowyn teased. The frown on Light's face remained. He stood up and they started walking together towards the house.

"I love you Elowyn, you know I do. I just-," Lighthoof sighed, "Sometimes I notice how different I am and it- it hurts."

He wrapped his arms around himself, like he was stopping himself from falling apart. Elowyn wrapped their arm around Lighthoof, continuing to walk down the familiar path to their home. They were always so surprised by his vulnerability. No matter how much they scolded him, to protect his big heart, he wasn't going to hold back with them. Maybe Elowyn would be able to teach him how to use his mask wisely when they were finally able to live together. Soon. As soon as the paperwork was processed. As soon as the time requirement for living in the court was met.

"I'm only going to say this once, Light." Elowyn started, "and I won't repeat it or acknowledge it if you ever ask again so pay attention."

It was hard not to tell him the truth, and maybe he needed it. Maybe Elowyn needed it. Especially because of the whispers. Elowyn wasn't going to ignore them this time.

Lighthoof's gaze was wide-eyed, and shocked. Was Elowyn really going to tell him something?

"You were given to me by a very dear friend of mine." Elowyn quietly spoke, even the wind dared not move, "She said that I was to love and protect you. I said I would until the end of time." The physical markings of the deal made seemed to glitter as Elowyn spoke their words.

"Other than that, I'm the only parent you have and I'm not planning on going anywhere any time soon." Elowyn planted a kiss upon his head. He leaned into Elowyn a bit as they continued walking.

"You're the best, Elowyn." he said.

"I know." they said with a smile.

#writing #dnd backstory #dnd character

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geminai-rambling-trinkets · 11 months

Text

ANOTHER MHA AU IDEA!

ANOTHER MHA RANT WITH ME COKO! >:D

Currently stressed though, so, this is me getting that stress out! Apologies in advance!

I have yet to find a name that fits this AU so for now it's nameless but here is what you need to know about it! :D

Not me forgetting my warnings for y'all.

⚠️⚠️⚠️ WARNING: MENTIONS OF TOXIC ENVIRONMENTS! ⚠️⚠️⚠️

Anyways, this AU is quite old - like perhaps at least, three years old? Four or five if I remember correctly? It was one of my first AUs and it has gone through so much editing/recreations to get to the point where I'm satisfied.

(I FORGOT TO WRITE THAT IT WAS INSPIRED BY THIS WATTPAD FANFICTION WHERE SHINSOU BECAME IZUKU'S YOUNGER BROTHER. LITERALLY! HE WAS YOUNGER THAN IZUKU! I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAME!)

Edit: I found it! It's called "With Love, Comes the Pain by Kirityu_Ryukaro" in Wattpad!

The link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/198360554-with-love-comes-the-pain

I read a fanfic and wrote down the title of this AU which was 'Broken but Not Lost' and boom! Something clicked and I thought and thought till the AU was completed! Well, maybe just the plot points but hey! Here is what I have!

PLOT POINTS -

Izuku is much, MUCH, older in this AU, somewhere between mid-to-early thirties.

Currently 11 for me, Izuku is 34 in this AU!

Izuku 'adopts' Shinsou when he was 15-17 years old.

Once again, I had to go through my notes and get a stable answer he was 25 while Hitoshi was 6! A 19-year difference if you want to know!

Also, he didn't legally adopt Shinsou, he asked if he wanted to come with him after Shinsou admitted to his "not so safe" environment that made Izuku boil with rage.

It would take 2 years before Shinsou asked Izuku to take him away from his group home. Where Izuku informed Shinsou "No" before asking again if he really wanted to; there's a reason why he asked that >:).

Izuku comes from a traditional family which led to a whole lot of problems that ended with Izuku running away when he was around 17.

Izuku hates his father.

Izuku 'loved' his mother and little sister, yes, you read it right, Izuku had a little sister in this AU!

It sounds like the usual, Izuku had a... shitty father and only had a tiny support system with only his mother and little sister but hear me out! A subtle theme this story has is generational trauma which is- a lot to unfold.

Generational Trauma or Intergenerational Trauma, in the shortest term, is trauma passed through the generations. The best example I can give is Enchanto.

I.E) A family member went through something traumatic experience and left those wounds unable to heal properly.

Subconsciously or consciously, it varies between family members, they project that trauma to their children, and those children, who learned it from their parents, projected that to their (grand)children.

It's just a cycle of broken people and open wounds being passed down from one generation to the next.

Why do I mention this? Izuku's father also faced the same type of... pressure that he gave to Izuku and it took so many years for the man to realize that.

Another subtle yet major theme(s?) is processing grief/mourning/overcoming grief because Izuku may care for his mother, he, however, adored his little sister.

His little sister was born sickly and it only got worse as she aged. The illness took her life when she was 13 years old while Izuku was 15. His mother a year afterward also passed away when he was 16, leaving Izuku and his father left of the Akatani family.

Izuku's father ended up in prison at some point in Izuku's life and he remains to be in jail for life. (Not that he cared, mind you, Izuku hates his father, and just because he's in jail won't change that fact.)

Izuku does have a quirk! It's a copy quirk!

This quirk idea came from this fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32035747/chapters/79355059

Called "Mimicry by Monkeygirl77

The quirk is called "Final Stage" which is an emitter type of quirk that resides in the eyes. Whenever the user looks at someone he can "copy" the quirk of someone. What I took from the fanfiction was that as soon as the quirk is copied it permanently stays with the user. The downside to this is that it can't be turned off which is why the user must always cover their eyes unless they want to copy another quirk.

It's even worse when he's in a crowd; it can cause sensory overload because of the number of quirks that are present in a crowd.

Shinsou is an orphan. I have no backstory for him yet it has been a while since I thought of this AU so it'll take a while!

Shinsou has - a lot of issues - the main being: trust, abandonment, and confidence issues.

Shinsou and Izuku are known as a vigilante duo; yes I stand for vigilante Shinsou and Izuku! But this time a father-son vigilante duo!

Izuku has been an active vigilante for 14 years now!

He started when he was 20!

He started as a person helping out shady people, that turned into a hacker, and soon a vigilante.

Shinsou started when he was at least 11 because it took a lot of convincing for Izuku to even agree to train Shinsou.

Izuku just wishes for Shinsou to live a happy, calm life but if being a vigilante and probably a hero is what Shinsou wants? He'll try his darn best to make it happen.

Izuku has been avoiding arrest for a long time now!

Izuku and his father will meet again but in a more fair environment. If you know what I mean.

I think that's all I have for now? I'm trying to remember it all but my brain sucks, so, I'll talk more next time! I have no theme song or name for this AU so bare with me with this. :')

THANK YOU FOR READING SEE YA! (also have a steady rest of your day!) -coko out.

#izuku midoriya #older izuku midoriya #parental figures #surprise adoption #shinsou hitoshi #mha au #my hero acedamia #boku no hero academia #found family #coko is back from the void

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anime-nymph · 2 years

Text

About this collab

↳ There are many reasons I’m putting this collab together. I hit another milestone (4.7k), I’m taking a hiatus soon so I can comfortably work on my many upcoming series, I want more spicy series to read... the list goes on. Please take a look below!

Theme — Series

↳ Writers: Have you had a series idea waiting in the wings that you need an excuse to finally begin, or are you already writing a series? Maybe you even started one a ways back and took a break, but you think it’s time to pick it up again. Well alright then.

Rules

i. You must of course be 18+ to participate and your age must be easily visible somewhere on your blog.

ii. As my blog is 18+ with a majority focus on N-SFW/DC content in what I write and read, I am limiting entries to those categories.

With that said, nothing is off limits (except the obvious no pedophilia/bestiality) but you must make sure everything is tagged correctly!

iii. One entry per person/blog.

iv. Preferred Fandoms are AoT, BNHA, HQ, and JJK, but if you have an idea or existing series for another fandom, I will include an “Others” category.

v. Art/Fanart is still acceptable if that's your creation of choice! Just like any other series, if you have or are planning 3 parts or more, you're welcome to join.

vi. There will be no limit on character entries, so whoever you want to write for is accessible!

vii. To enter, send in an ask with the below included. Please state writing or art!

Fandom

Character x [type]!reader (OC's welcome!)

Genre (n-sfw/dc)

Main theme(s)

And (if you have it) a title & short summary/synopsis, if not a TBA will be noted. Try to keep it in the 100 word range.

viii. Upcoming and ongoing series only!

ix. Reblog the collab post after acceptance!

x. Since series are a little more in depth, if at any point you need to change or add any details to the masterlist, just dm me and I'll be happy to do so!

xi. The whole series does not need to be completed before tagging the collab! A single chapter submission is enough!

xii. There is no due date! But for those of you who need structure, let's say June 31st. Simply tag me in your first/next work and use #onceuponatimecollab in the tags.

▪︎ Submissions will be linked over the series title which will be bolded ▪︎ If you have/will have a masterlist, those will be linked and clearly indicated if you would like ▪︎

AoT

↳ @erenyaygirl writing ▪︎ Eren x f!reader ▪︎ One Day the Only Butterflies Left ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ apocalypse, themes of life and death ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Year: 2,854. Following the destruction of the walls, (833) years and after this present day. At the precipice of autumn, y/n sets out on a seasonal foraging and fishing trip only to get lost. Their predicament does not go unnoticed by the local mountain spirit.

↳ @tinydiors writing ▪︎ Levi x f!reader; Zeke x f!reader ▪︎ Strangers Stay Buried ▪︎ nsfw/dc ▪︎ undercover, enemies to lovers, romance, betrayal ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ After four of the nine titans were sent to paradis, the island of the devils, and never returned, commander magath decides to send you, one of their highest ranking strategists and researchers, to infiltrate the scouts regiment and eldian forces to uncover the truth behind their motives. Hellbent on taking down king fritz' reign of terror, you have no trouble infiltrating their military, their homes, their lives to bring an end to the titans, once and for all. But you never expected one dark haired man, armed with two blades at his sides, to make your job so difficult, nor to steal your heart.

BNHA

↳ @anime-nymph writing ▪︎ Pro Hero!Bakugou x f!reader ▪︎ Guilty as Charged ▪︎ nsfw/dc ▪︎ unplanned romance, angst, manipulation/betrayal ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Your life has never been easy. After the death of your parents, you’ve been left to take care of your little sister all on your own. You did everything in your power to protect her. There's nothing easy about being a kid, and nothing harder than keeping a couple of kids off the streets. There were things you had to do, things you had to sacrifice. Some things you wish you could take back. Years down the road, your sister is grown up and starting college. Many things are different now, but one thing will never change: you’re still going to do whatever you can to keep her safe, to make sure she lives the happy life she deserves. But when the demons you sold your soul to come back and threaten to destroy the one thing you wish to protect, will you remain the victim? Or become the villain in order to keep her safe?

↳ @tomurasprincess writing ▪︎ Shigaraki x f!reader ▪︎ Kalopsia ▪︎ nsfw/dc ▪︎ Stockholm, Pregnancy ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Kalopsia [kā lō p sēa] Noun: Delusion where things appear more beautiful than they really are.

↳ @meiansmistress writing ▪︎ Ceo!Meian x f!reader ▪︎ TBA ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ dom/sub dynamics ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ 50 Shades retelling

↳ @tetsurousharlot writing ▪︎ Kuroo x f!reader; Daishou x f!reader ▪︎ Playing Fiction ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ angst, romance and betrayal ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Falling in love with an older man wasn’t always the easiest option so when you sense things aren’t working out in your favor, you stray to another; but your heart still isn’t satisfied. It knows who it belongs to. Whether you call it fate or destiny—the universe steps in with a tiny miracle to save the relationship you were always meant to be in.

↳ @sweetsbysatori writing ▪︎ Kageyama x reader ▪︎ Kageyama Tobio vs the World ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ love octagram ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Everyone's got baggage—hell, so does Kageyama. But when your evil exes come marching back into your life, Tobio is forced to fight and defeat them all if he wants to continue to date you. (Based on Scott Pilgrim)

↳ @mxonigirimiya writing ▪︎ Kuroo x Black!f!reader ▪︎ Title TBA ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ themes TBA ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Sugar daddy au

JJK

↳ @tetsukentona writing ▪︎ Nanami x f!reader ▪︎ No Body, No Crime ▪︎ nsfw/dc ▪︎ Detective/PI AU, Crime, Suspense, Slowburn, angst ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Kento Nanami’s a renowned private investigator in Japan, who’s known to deal with cases that deal with paranormal activity or what’s known to him as “cursed energy.” When Ijichi, the assistant manager of his PI firm gets a call to look into another case, Kento recognizes that this case was earlier declared an open-and-shut case by (F/N) (L/N), another renowned PI who was known to have solved cases within days of receiving them. Initially irked with her methods of solving the cases, especially since she’s not like him, he decides that he has to approach her for help, else this will remain a cold case yet to be solved. As time passes by, secrets slowly unravel, the distance between them decreases, and the outcome would come out as a surprise to them. (Based on a Taylor Swift Song with the same name.)

↳ @touyasghosty writing ▪︎ Toji x f!reader ▪︎ Atlantis ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ forbidden love, angst ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ You've always been warned not to go messing with the gods. You had always listened until you came face to face with the God of carnal love.

↳ @oneoftheextras writing ▪︎ Toji x f!reader ▪︎ Saints and Sinners ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ assassin au, slowburn, violence ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ You accept a job from your employer: kill the black haired man with the blue eyes. But when his dad discovers that your plan to take out his son, your new job is to evade the elder Fushiguro as best you can to survive, but he’s as persistent as you are stubborn.

OTHERS

↳ @kxkyuu writing ▪︎ KNY ▪︎ Kyoujuro Rengoku x f!reader ▪︎ Deadly Games We Play ▪︎ nsfw/dc ▪︎ mafia, assassin, seduction ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ You are a top assassin, the best of your class. Skilled with all types of blades and poision, you're hired by Muzan to kill the Rengoku Mafia Family. You target the oldest son, Rengoku Kyoujuro, not knowing that he is the Boss. However after a failed attempt, Kyoujuro takes a liking to you. Thus the game begins to see if you can kill him before he seduces you. Who will win?

↳ @cherrykamado writing ▪︎ KNY ▪︎ Tanjiro Kamado x reader ▪︎ Sweet Like Honey ▪︎ nsfw/dc ▪︎ yandere themes, toxic behavior/relationships ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ "It’s your smell — your honey-like smell. Intoxicating from beginning to end, the first time he breathes it in, he can’t help but get addicted. And now, he doesn’t just yearn for your sweet scent — he craves for you."

↳ @tsukishimas-shortcake writing ▪︎ Tokyo Rev ▪︎ Draken x f!reader ▪︎ Ticket to Happiness ▪︎ nsfw ▪︎ prostitution, violence, angst ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Walking through the Tokyo red light district at night was anything but peaceful. Fake laughs from working women and salary men chasing pleasure fill the air, along with cigarette smoke that covers the street like a thick fog covers a lake. It may seem relatively harmless for those just passing through, but if you look past the groups of men stumbling out of the bar, the women waving goodbye to the men they’ve entertained for hours while wearing a fraudulent smile, girls handing out fliers to come “eat” at their establishment, you realize patrons getting beaten in back alleys due to late payments on their loans or leaving a visible bruise on a working woman, drug deals, and the like. But you can pay your way out of any pain and suffering you may have to go through here because everything has a price, including the people. Men can be sold for many services, most of which revolve around violence or “protection”, and women can be sold for one thing and one thing only: sex.

↳ @bajiyaki writing ▪︎ Tokyo Rev ▪︎ Mikey x f!reader ▪︎ Your Faithless Love's the Only Hoax I Believe In ▪︎ dc/nsfw ▪︎ themes TBA ▪︎ Masterlist

▪︎ Mikey was never the overprotective type. He was the baby. The ray of sunshine. He was someone that needed to be taken care of, not the other way around. But after losing so many of his family members and friends, he’s tired of losing people. So when a sudden step-sister emerges from the shadows to watch over his sick grandpa, Mikey vows to do anything to make sure you stay in his life forever.

#onceuponatimecollab #aot x reader #bnha x reader #hq x reader #jjk x reader #attack on titan x reader #my hero academia x reader #haikyuu x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #trying this again

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awkwardspontaneity · 3 years

Note

Hello. This is my first request for the Legend of Zelda, so I do not know how to write it correctly. I don't speak English and I'm writing this in a translator, so there may be mistakes here, sorry. In general, I want to see how the reader will react to the fact that Revali, Link and Sidon cheated on her. (something made me feel sad) Thank you in advance ╹▽╹

I'm so sorry something happened to upset you. If it's along the lines of this request give me a name😤👊 anyways thank you so much for requesting!! This ended up being so much longer than I intended but I'm pretty happy with it. I hope this is what you're looking for!

✨ requests are open✨

Warning: angst, cheating

Revali🐦

I think with his prickly nature not a lot of people would stick around long enough to get to know how much he cares

But some bitch saw how much he was training to perfect his powers to help Hyrule and couldn't resist

It started off as bringing him lunches and heat pads after a long day of training and then it escalated

They would wrap his wings up and suddenly he was letting them fix his braids. He never saw it as much more than a fan helping him out but you saw differently

It ended up in a big fight when you finally brought up how Revali was allowing this fan to hang off of him like they were his partner not you. You brought up excellent points like how he took such a long time to even trust you with braiding his hair and that he could at least let them know he's in a relationship.

Revali got upset (probably cuz ur right and he can't admit it) and snapped that at least they appreciated him

Yeah bad move. You walked out and bird brain left to train away the pain

You came across his first and decided to head to the shooting range with some peace snacks but what do you find?

You walk up the slope towards the archery range, a container of Revali's favourite snacks in hand. As you approach you see something sitting inside the hut and assume it's him. Sterling your breath you walk into the hut and what you find takes your breath away- not in the good way either. Revali sat there with his wings wrapped around them, too caught up on their liplock to notice you standing there.

CRASH

The container hits the ground with a shatter, ruining their little scene.

"Y/n-"

"Don't even try it." You wish your voice didn't sound as broken. No matter how much your heart squeezed in pain from the betrayal, you wanted to come off so much different- angrier. Because you were angry. "Just because we have an argument does not give you the right to run off with your new friend."

Revali flinches at the word and you feel a sick glimmer of satisfaction. He opens his mouth to protest, ignoring your glare. "I-I'm sorry." Your glare darkens and he immediately flounders for the right words. "You accused me of something I didn't do-"

Yeah, not the right words. You wish you could do something, anything to hurt him like he hurt you. But you had to be the bigger person no matter how much you wanted to snap that precious bow of his in half.

"I accused you, not have you permission."

"We can work through this, together" his wing reached out to you, but you recoiled to fast.

"We're not together." You walked towards the entrance "I hope it was worth it."

Link 🗡️

Link is a closed off person. Sure he has people worship him for his title as the hero of Hyrule, but he would never let that get to his head. You could tell this boy he's amazing and it still wouldn't get through his insecurities

Maybe it's cruel but, that almost reassured you he would never break your heart like that. You felt secure in your relationship

That's why it was so shocking when you found out he had fallen for Zelda.

It wasn't meant to ever be more than knight and princess. And you never should have found out.

You were walking towards the stables of your party was staying at. It was supposed to be a simple trip to complete some research out in the plains. Of course your trip was ambushed by an energetic princess who begged to come along for research purposes. You couldn't complain because the addition of the princess also came with your boyfriend Link.

Now you were looking for him outside the small ranch. You fully expected him to be caring for Epona like he always did after a long trip. His love for his horse was something you had always loved about him. The way he would stay later than everyone else to make sure she was okay. It had made stables kind of your spot. Hanging out at the end of a long day to talk and spend time together while caring for your steeds.

Maybe that was why your heart felt so utterly shattered when you did find him, standing next to the stable, with the princess in his arms. Maybe you could have fooled yourself into believing he was being friendly if he hadn't pressed a long loving kiss to her forehead followed by both her cheeks, chuckling softly as she giggled.

You knew they had always been close. I mean they spent all their time together. You'd just never thought that Link would do something like this to you.

You walked away from the stables fighting backs the tears in your eyes. It was only when you found you had walked into an older area, a spare shack outside, that you finally let the tears fall. Your heart twisted in pain as sobs tore from your throat.

Why hasn't you seen this? Why weren't you enough?

------

Your research trip was almost over. You had gone back late into the night to find Link on the edge of his bed head in his hands. He had shot up to demand where you had been when you finally walked in and although he looked like he wanted to argue, he accepted that you had been organizing your research supplies and notes in quiet.

That had been 3 days ago. You had spent the research trip sticking close to your colleagues, poring over each plant and testing their uses. The princess was too distracted with her own interests to really notice how you shied away from her presence. Link had though. And he was about done with you brushing him off in favour of your work. You both were busy so not having time was nothing new. But this was different. You couldn't meet his eyes and he had caught you staring at him and Zelda as if you were about to cry before. He was at a loss and now he needed to figure things out for himself.

However he wasn't quite ready for the answer.

"I saw you and Zelda together."

His throat closed up. He wanted to say so many things. How sorry he was. How he wished he could have told you himself. How he wished he could hold you and forget how complicated things were.

"it's okay." Now that, he wasn't expecting. "I thought I could be mad at you. Both of you. But I guess... It just makes sense." You sniffled softly. You really didn't want to do this. You hated that it had to be you who gave up. But we're you really going to fight? No. As much as it tore your heart into pieces, you would stand aside for them. "I wish that things hadn't changed but, clearly you don't feel the same anymore and I don't want to hold you back. I love you. So much. But I don't deserve this, and I won't put either of us through the trouble. I hope you two are happy together Link."

As you walked towards your friends to head home Link felt his heart clench. You deserved so much better.

Sidon🦈

You were a princess from another kingdom, betrothed to Prince Sidon of the Zora. We all know how these things go, neither of you were all that fond of the idea but you would go through with it. For your kingdoms

You tried to be as understanding as possible of the situations, knowing that the prince was just as trapped as you were. So you played along with your parents wishes.

You two went on dates and spent time together, getting closer and closer until finally you kissed him.

Things were great. You were planning your wedding and enjoying the time you spent with your fiance as you prepared for your future

It wasn't until a few days before the wedding when you were trying on your dress that things fell apart.

Your dressmaker had been in a bad mood, grumbling as they worked and even sticking you with needles a few times. You would have brushed it off as a bad day if not for the facts that they seemed so unapologetic.

You finally brought it up, softly asking if there was something wrong and if you could help. They snapped, going off about how you were ruining the princes life and that he didn't love you and was only marrying you for his kingdom and that he deserved to be happy.

They realized their mistake and left quickly, leaving you alone in your wedding dress with shocked tears slipping down your face.

You later made you way to Sidons office, hoping to clear some things up and maybe seek comfort from the one you loved.

What you didn't expect was to find him already comforting someone. Your dressmaker.

You watched as he whispered sweet nothings and reassurances to them. It was when he said no matter what they were the one that he loved when you broke away.

You stood in your room, packed bags beside you. You knew there were better ways to deal with this. You knew that your kingdom was counting on you and thus marriage. You just couldn't go through with it. Not anymore.

"Y/n?"

You sound around to find the Zora princess standing in your doorway. Mipha had become a close friend in your time in the Zora domain, even feeling like family as you worked closely planning the wedding. She had once told you that you were everything she could hope for in a sister and wife for her brother. You guessed it didn't matter in the end.

Finally you choked out pained words "I can't... I just... I can't do this anymore."

"If you are feeling nervous, I can assure you my brother would never hurt you."

This made you laugh. It was cold, similar to the ice creeping into your veins. "He would. And he did." You cut off Mipha's confusion, wringing a hand through your hair, "Sidon is in love with someone else. I made every effort to work through this engagement despite our... rocky beginning. But he didn't choose me back. He never wanted me, and I won't ruin his chance to be happy."

The room was silent after your outburst. You only noticed the tears when your friend wiped them from your eyes. She offered you a small smile, sharing the pain you felt. She was losing you and still understood it was best for you. You needed to move on and save yourself from a life of pain. A life of being chosen second.

"I hope one day we can meet again, sister."

You let out a choked mix of a son and laugh. Hugging the princess before you grabbed your bags and walked out the door, out of the kingdom that stole your heart and crushed it in its hands.

"I love you, always."

#loz x reader #loz link x reader #botw link x reader #legend of zelda link x reader #breath of the wild link x reader #link x reader #botw revali x reader #breath of the wild revali x reader #botw sidon x reader #breath of the wild sidon x reader #sidon x reader #revali x reader #asks #awkward responses #angst #cheating #botw x reader

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rein4r1 · 2 years

Text

All Over Again: Chapter Four

Reincarnation AU

Pairing(s): Eren x Female!Reader, Jean x Reader

Content and Warnings: AOT Manga Spoilers, Angst, Mentions of Depression, Mentions of Past Deaths, Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, Attachment Issues, Commitment Issues, Family Issues, Use of Alcohol, Mentions of Drugs. Reader has issues.

Wc: 4k

Previous Chapter Series Masterlist Next Chapter

You never took yourself as someone who believed in second chances and second lives, but it only took one encounter with a man whom you swore you never knew but felt familiar to shake the gravity of your existence.

“If there’s a next life, I will find you and love you correctly.”

He looks at you with eyes that burn full of hope and longing that you almost believe that he was in love.

“I finally found you.”

Chapter Summary

You started spending more time with Eren, making you more conscious to your self-destructive behavior.

There’s always a first for everything: your first walk, your first speech, and your first birthday.

As much as you want to change everything on your boorish and hellish routine of simply existing, you were reluctant to try new things.

Which is why you can’t help but wonder what kind of demon possessed you to be here inside Eren’s dorm room.

After all, the only time you were in someone’s dorm room (other than Connie’s) was to engage in sexual activities, then dip when it’s done.

“Armin has this CD case full of Disney movies,” Eren says enthusiastically.

You sighed, “Eren, why are you watching movies with me? How about Armin? Where is he anyway?”

“Well, Armin’s at the café downtown doing research with his groupmates.”

You were becoming warier of Eren. Wanting to hang out with you when there’s plenty of people to-

“I don’t wanna sound like a bitch.” I do sound like a bitch “but don’t you have other friends?”

Eren was taken aback. Of course, he wants to hang out with you. He even wants to do it every day.

“Well I do but-“

“Then why me?” You inquired.

“I mean- other than Armin, you’re one of the few people I know,” Eren answered.

“I thought you had friends?”

“Yeah but- I want to hang out with you.”

“Why?”

“Because-“ I want to spend every moment with you he wants to say out loud. “-Because you’re one of the few people I could stand.”

He chuckled, “and you accepted my invite, didn’t you? Says a lot about you, no?”

Because a demon possessed me to be here. “No reason, just bored. Plus, classes were canceled. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Eren takes out the cd for Mulan from the cd case. Kneeling in front of the player to put the cd in.

You know you don’t usually hang out with guys other than Connie (and Jean). There’s just something about Eren that you can’t quite explain. God, you were even disappointed that day when you had brunch because Eren and Armin had to go.

Eren really is a fucking enigma.

Besides, after meeting him, your dreams became clearer. If you hang out more with him, maybe you could find answers regarding your dreams.

Speaking of dreams, you had one last night. It was with a guy, although his face was a bit blurry, you could see that he had blond hair.

You were sitting down on a bench, looking at the sky where big walls can’t reach. The boy beside you was clutching a book on his chest.

A book that’s something about the sea.

“If your grandfather didn’t pick me up the day when they held my parents’ funeral. I probably would be living my whole life jumping from one relative’s house to another.” You smiled fondly at the boy.

“If my grandfather didn’t pick you up, I probably wouldn’t gain an annoying but loving sister.” He said with the biggest grin.

“You promise that we’d go to that ‘sea.’” You stuck your pinky out.

“Yes, it’s a promise.” He links his pinky to yours, bonding the promise.

“-You know people would argue that it’s better to watch on Netflix because it’s convenient” Eren stands up to face you. “-but cds are just really nostalgic, no?”

Eren sat down beside you. He noticed the small smile on your face. He calls out your name, but your mind seems to be absent as if you’re thinking something else.

“Something on your mind?” He asks.

“A-ah, I apologize I was just-“

Eren chuckles, “don’t worry, there’s nothing you should be sorry about.”

He handed you the popcorn and leaned back down on the couch, placing his arms behind his head.

“Shall we start the movie?”

You couldn’t believe this. Minutes into the movie, you were singing Li Shang’s I’ll Make a Man Out of You.

“I swear to god, this song reeks of misogyny, but it’s just so fucking catchy.” You said while laughing.

“Between the two of us, you were belting the loudest.” Eren teased.

“I did not belt the loudest!” You rolled your eyes then playfully punched his shoulder.

As the movie continues, you unconsciously place your head on his shoulder while munching on the half bowl of popcorn (It’s not even half anymore because of how much Eren keeps on taking from the bowl every second.)

Eren can’t help but find you cute whenever you gasp during the scene where the Hans had invaded the Forbidden Palace. He also can't help but stare at how your lips open and close at every bite of the popcorn. He knows he shouldn’t have thoughts like this, but he just wants to take that fucking bowl away and kiss you like the world’s going to end tomorrow.

“By the way Eren, after this movie, what are we gonna watch next?” You looked up from him while putting the popcorn to your mouth.

“U-uh well, what do you want to watch?” He turns away, trying to distract himself from the dirty thoughts of you.

“You were the one who invited me. Anything as long as it isn’t fucking Ariel.”

You watched a couple more movies after, from Disney to Studio Ghibli. The both of you laughing at funny scenes and crying at sad scenes.

“Look at you; you’re crying.” He coos.

“No I’m not.” You fake in surprise, “It’s you who’s crying.”

Eren only laughed when he saw you humphing while your lips turn to a pout.

How cute.

The both of you didn’t notice the sun setting, completely focused on your movie marathon, while the both of you are cuddled together in a blanket Eren found in his drawers.

The two continued to watch together, discussing their analysis after, then watching another film. It wasn’t until they heard the door opening that they soon realized that it was getting dark.

“Eren, I brought some-“ Armin looks at the two of you from the back of the couch. He noticed how Eren’s left arm was positioned at the back of the couch as if he were wrapping his arm around your shoulder. He also saw how your head rests on top of Eren’s shoulder, your whole body attached to his side.

“Ehem,” Armin faked cough as you and Eren turned to see Armin with a bag of take out dinner.

“Hey Armin, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Yeah I don’t but-“ Armin looks at his watch, “-it’s already 9 in the evening.”

“What?!” You panicked, standing up from the couch, making the blanket fall to the floor.

“Shit!” You cursed, worried about walking along the dim area to your dorm.

Eren, who noticed your panicking state, grabbed your hand.

“If you’re worried, I can walk you home.” He says, hoping that you’ll accept his proposition. He’s worried that you’ll go home with no one to accompany you.

“Well Eren, if you may.” You murmured.

The both of you took your time while walking to your dorm. Asking him questions like how he met Armin, and why he transferred unis.

Because you’re here, he wants to answer. “I don’t know. I think my old uni wasn’t a match for me.” I want to be where you are.

Eren notices you shivering as the cold breeze of the night hits your skin.

“Are you cold?” He asks.

“I mean, yeah- but my dorm’s not that far anyway I can manage.” You answer him with a forced smile. But Eren wasted no time in removing his black hoodie, offering it for you to wear.

You stared at him for a bit, contemplating whether to accept the article of clothing, but you felt the blow of wind getting colder.

“How about you? Won’t you get cold?” You asked, but Eren only smiled.

“As long as you feel war, then I don’t mind.” You reluctantly took his hoodie, muttering a thank you to his generosity.

You can’t help but feel disappointed having to cut the conversation short when you reach the entrance to your dorm.

“I guess this is where we part.” You said with a hint of disappointment. As you were walking towards your dorm building, you turned around to see Eren standing on the pavement.

“Eren!” You called out. “I had fun today!”

“I did too!” He answers back with a huge grin on his face. But he can’t feel sad that the day’s ending, going back to his dorm without you by his side.

They say there’s always a first for everything, so when you were lying on your bed with your phone in hand texting a certain brunette. You can’t help but think that trying new things isn’t a bad idea.

You: I had so much fun today :>

You: I don’t mind if we hang out again Eren.

Eren: Well what do you want to do next sweetheart? :)

You and Eren slowly started to hang out more, frequent walks to campus, getting coffee together, scheduling movie marathons during Saturdays, and sharing lunch at the campus cafeteria (with the inclusion of your friends).

Needless to say, spending time with Eren has been incorporated to your routine.

Of course, a part of you always tells you that you're only doing this to learn more about the secrets of your dreams. Because the more time you spend with Eren, the more your dreams make sense. And the more your dreams make sense, the more you feel the "realness" of the emotions you have in them.

It's like a story long forgotten by time and space.

The latest dream had given you a clue about the guy who frequents your dream.

You were near a harbor, in a busy street full of vendors and the people were lively. You were talking to the brunette guy you always see in your dreams with an ice cream in hand.

"This tastes really good! I wish we had these in Paradis."

"Marleyans get to eat everything they can put their hands on." He said with a straight face. "While the Eldians in the Interment Zone rarely get to eat what the Marleyans normally have."

You sense there's something wrong.

"Are you okay E-"

"E, his name starts with the letter E." You mumbled to yourself.

"Are you saying something?" Connie asks, passing the blunt to you. You took the blunt and smoked from it.

You were currently in Connie's dorm, together with Sasha and Ymir, with whom you share smoking sessions.

"Guess she's thinking about Eren." Sasha teased.

"Does this mean Miss I'm-scared-of-commitment is finally settling down?" Ymir asks with a fake gasp.

You rolled your eyes, "can't we just say that I finally have a new friend?"

"Please, you hate people." Sasha giggles, the high evident on her demeanor.

"Just say he's having an effect on you and go," Connie says as he leans back on the couch.

"Fuck off." You retorted, feeling the weed kicking in.

"God, this weed's making me horny. Maybe I should call her," Ymir said. "And maybe you should call him."

"Who?" You ask, smoking the blunt once more before passing it to Sasha.

"You know one of your boy toys, or maybe Er-“

"Who asked?" You poked your tongue out while Ymir gave you the finger.

"Nah, don't wanna think about sex right now. Too high." You leaned your head on Sasha's shoulders as her arms wrap around you. You heard a notification on your phone, but before you could check it, Connie snatched it away from you.

"Wanna come with me tomorrow?" Connie reads, "it's from your boyfriend."

You quickly snatched your phone away from Connie's hands, "motherfucker, Eren's not my boyfriend."

"You sound so incredibly in denial that it's kinda sus at this point." Connie teased. "He even calls you sweetheart."

"Shut the fuck up Baldie. You call me and Sasha that all the time!"

"But it's purely platonic." He says in defense.

"Wonder where he's taking you though." Ymir smirked

"So are you gonna go tomorrow?" Sasha asked.

"I'll answer him tomorrow when I'm sober." You answered.

The four of you continued to smoke together until Ymir got a text from her girlfriend, prompting her to leave. You and Sasha already planned to stay the night in Connie's dorm since it was a busy week and you couldn't find time to hang out.

It was already 12 in the morning, with Connie passed out on the Couch. You and Sasha were feeling drowsy. However, both of you find it hard to sleep.

You rummaged through Connie's fridge and found beer, tossing a can to Sasha. You sat down next to Sasha on the floor.

You felt like something was changing in your life. Probably it's because of Eren; maybe it's because of your dreams. But you knew there was more than that. And you think about Jean, and you feel guilty. Lately, you've been spending less time with him, seeing him only once in two weeks rather than twice in one week.

"Is there something wrong?" Sasha asked.

"Am I a bad person?" You ask, not looking at Sasha while you sip the contents from the can. Putting your head on her shoulder.

Sasha is not a stupid person, at least that's what most people don't know. In fact, she's an emotionally intelligent person that she immediately catches on when something is wrong, either with you, Connie, or any other person.

"What made you thin that?" She strokes your head, comforting you with her touch.

"I just- I feel like I'm a bad person. The more I spend more time with Eren, the more I think about – 'Oh, I wonder what this person would think when he realizes how mentally fucked I am in the head'" You smile bitterly.

"He's- he's nice you know, at least to me. I've been judgmental my whole life that whenever I meet someone new, my defense mechanism acts up. Because my head doesn't process things normally, so I immediately assume people have bad intentions." You continued.

Sasha kept quiet, giving you her full attention. Letting you speak what's on your mind. She knows how much emotions you're bottling up, and she's happy that you're opening up to her rather than keeping everything to yourself.

"And I'm supposed to know better. What if Eren's only like this in the beginning. What if one day, he doesn't want to be friends with me anymore. I don't want to be alone anymore Sash." Sasha's eyes meet yours. She placed her palm on you cheeks, you feel her thumb wipe the stray tear away.

You think about Jean, and the feeling of guilt floods in. You knew, you knew Jean thinks you as more than someone who warms his bed. His lingering touches that attempts to give you comfort, his affectionate gaze, and his pleading eyes whenever you leave.

You knew, and yet you continue to use him. You knew, and yet you continue to show him mixed signals, giving him this false sense of hope. Hope that you'd be his someday.

But you know, that's never going to happen. Because whatever you do, and no matter how much you try, you can't seem to like him like he wants you to.

And yet, you're scared. That if you tell him what you feel, and how much you want to run to his embrace and apologize for everything you've done, he'd leave. You're scared that if he leaves, you'd lose the closest thing to intimacy.

Sure, you can have sex with other people. But, sex with Jean gives you consolation of having someone to embrace you despite knowing your flaws.

And you feel guilty, making you sick to your stomach. It makes you so sick that you can't even look him in the eye after sex, that you resort to leaving him after having your fill.

It's messed up, and he deserves better.

I hope he gets to have what he deserves soon. Someone that doesn't self-destruct and affects those who's around her.

"Sasha I just- don't like anything about me."

You woke up the next day on Connie's bed with Sasha hugging you by your side. Feeling fucked from the weed you took the last night.

You grabbed your phone from the nightstand and saw a text from Connie saying, "Saw my girls on the floor. As a Chad, I'm obligated to put my favorite girls on the bed." You playfully rolled your eyes at his message.

You looked at the time and saw that it was already past noon.

Shit

You quickly texted Eren.

You: Sorry we've been at Connie's since last night.

You: is ur offer still up? L

Seen

Oh no, is he made that you left him on read yesterday?

God if only I weren't smoking weed.

Eren: don't worry sweetheart :)

Eren: Connie told me yesterday. See u in an hour.

You carefully shook Sasha to wake her up, but to no avail, she only snored. So you slowly took her arm around your waist and rested it on a pillow. You left a note for Sasha before going back to your dorm to get ready.

You and Eren decided to meet at the parking lot near campus. An hour later, you see him leaning on his car, mindlessly scrolling on his phone.

"Hey!" You called out. Eren looks up from his phone and smiles. "I'm sorry, did you wait too long?"

"No, don't worry, I just got here." The truth is, he's been here for over an hour, obviously too excited.

He opened the door to the passenger seat. "My lady." He says in a British accent, making you laugh at his act.

"Why, thank you sir." You joke back before getting into his car, him following after.

"So, where are you taking me?" You ask.

"You'll see." He says, not willing to spoil his surprise. You put your seatbelt on while Eren was starting the engine.

"Just know, the scenery's nice when the sun's setting."

He offers you the aux, giving you full custody on choosing the music for the whole ride. You chose a song from Cigarettes After Sex.

One of the biggest irony in your life is liking a band that sings songs about romance and sappy shit you claim to not like. While you express your disgust at the idea of settling down, you know you listen to love songs in the middle of the night where nobody sees.

Because as much as you feel like love is the most diabolical thing known to man, deep down, you know you want to experience a love that doesn't need to be painful. Love that doesn't require you to go greatest lengths and trials for love to prevail.

You someday want to experience a healthy kind of love that is quiet but gentle and full of assurance.

But of course, your trauma and issues have taken a lot of place in your heart for you to realize that love is something you crave.

For now, you relish on the sound of the music and the comforting silence that Eren is willing to give you. You lean your head on the window, quietly observing the view of the moving buildings.

Eren feels like you had a rough night. When he sees you at the parking lot, he notices the faint-looking puffs on your eyes. He wanted to ask what made you cry. Because for you, he's willing to carry everything. Because for you, he's willing to fight the demons that terrorize you.

He's willing to die for you. Just say the word, and he'll sacrifice himself for your peace and happiness.

But he keeps quiet. He doesn't pry. Eren would like to believe that he knows you the best. So he'll wait for you to open up to him, just like you did before.

So he gives you the peace that you need for the whole ride.

He hopes that his surprise will earn him a smile on your face.

Three hours later you finally arrive at the destination, not expecting that Eren would bring you here.

"The beach." You gasp. Clearly a beach you've never been to before.

"Do you like it?" Eren asks, looking at you expectantly.8

You look at him with a beautiful smile on your face. "Like it? Eren, I love it."

"Well, I have this whole picnic set I borrowed from Armin. Thought the beach would be the best place to have a picnic while we watch the sunset." Eren gets out of the driver's seat, once again opening your door before moving to the trunk to get the picnic set.

"You should've told me that you prepared for a picnic so I could have at least helped with the food.

"Don't worry sweetheart. I like doing things for you." He said, making you confused.

"Why?" You asked. Why is Eren willing to do so much for you?

"Because it's you." He muttered, making you even more confused. Then you remember what he said when the both of you first met.

"I finally found you." You never knew what he meant by this, but you never asked.

After setting up your picnic on the sand, the two of you spent time together eating, talking, and laughing.

And your hand unconsciously placed above his.

"-and Baldie had to run around the Frat House naked." You told Eren. Recalling the story of one Connie's shenanigans.

"And he was drunk?" He asks while laughing.

"And he was drunk!" You repeated, your laughter getting louder.

As the laughter died down, the two of you looked at each other. Staring and admiring each other's eyes in silence.

"Thank you for bringing me here." You whispered.

"Anything for you." He says.

The both of you felt it, the need to place your lips to each other's. But as your face gets closer to his, your lips just inches apart, you accidentally hit the basket with your knee, startling the both of you.

You pull your face away from his, feeling the rise of heat on your cheeks.

"W-well I think the sun's setting" You stuttered.

"Y-yeah" He stammers.

You look at the sunset, admiring the sun's orange hues as it slowly introduces the night.

"It's beautiful." You said, your eyes fixed the horizon.

"It is. It is really beautiful." Eren mutters.

You turn to him, seeing that his eyes are fixed on you.

An hour after the sunset, Eren took you back to your dorm. You slept the whole ride home with Eren glancing at you constantly, checking to see if you're comfortable.

And when the stop light's red, he softly kisses your temple, making sure that you don't wake up.

When you reach your dorm, Eren gently shaking your shoulder to wake you up. But seeing that you only shifted from one side to another, there's only one thing he can think of.

Eren wasted no time in opening the door, hooking his arms on your back and under your legs. Making sure your head doesn't hit the headboard.

Standing in front of your dorm, he (somehow) manages to knock on the door. He hears Sasha from the other side of the door, grumbling on something.

"I told you to bring yo-"Sasha is greeted at the sight of you in Eren's arms.

"Do you know where her room is?"

"Uhh eh- follow me." Sasha promptly leads Eren to your room. He gently and carefully placed you on your bed. He can't fight the blush forming on his face as he studies your sleeping face, completely in the arms of Morpheus.

Eren contemplates for a bit before deciding to place a kiss on your forehead, followed by a whisper of goodnight.

As he went out, he thanks Sasha before heading back to his dorm.

Eren is definitely going to have a good sleep tonight. His dreams filled with you.

Taglist: @heizenka

#eren x reader #eren yeager x reader #eren x you #jean x reader #aot #snk #aot x reader #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #eren yeager

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elivanah-writes · 3 years

Text

Gift of the gods

pairing: Paul Lahote x female!pagan!reader

Sum: what if the gods did granted readers wish?

warnings: a smal bit of smut please skip that if you’re under 18!

masterlist

It was almost twilight when y/n arrived at la push beach with her small backpack, it had been years since the last time that she had been here but it still felt like coming home. She quickly kicked out her shoes so she could feel the earth beneath her bare feet as she walked to what used to be her secret spot. It was a place close to the shoreline that was kept hidden by some bushes and a few trees. If you’d be walking on the beach you’d never see it if someone was sitting there, and that was what she was looking for. She didn’t want people to see what she was about to do, this was something for herself, something she did every time she traveled.

Once she had reached the spot she drops down to her knees in the sand and starts to unpack the five candles and matches that were in the backpack. Colored ribbons decorated four of the candles, she picked up the one with the yellow ribbon and placed it in the east, the one with the red she placed in the south, blue in the west, and green in the north so the four candles formed a circle around her. As she took the matches in her hand she took the time to clear her mind as best as she could so her mind was only in that moment when she started to light each candle. By then the sun was set but it wasn’t completely dark yet, ‘the perfect time’ she thought to herself as she started to cast her protective circle.

“I call the Guardian of the east and the element of air to watch over this sacred circle”

“I call the Guardian of the south and the element of fire to watch over this sacred circle.”

“I call the Guardian of the west and the element of water to watch over this sacred circle.”

“I call the Guardian of the north and the element of earth to watch over this sacred circle.”

With every sentence she spoke she visualized a physical circle forming around her.

Unknown to her there were more than just the element guardians watching her. Hidden behind the treeline 2 wolves were watching the scene unfold curious about what was happening. “she looks familiar” Jared said through the mind link to Paul. “Nah, doesn’t seem familiar to me. Should we report this to Sam? We don’t know what she’s up to.” Paul responded. “I don’t see harm in the girl, but it might be a good idea to keep an eye on her as long as she’s on that beach.”

So the two kept watching the girl in silence.

Y/n took a deep breath before lighting the last plain white candle and placed it in front of her and started to focus on opening her mind as she spoke.

“God and Goddess, grant me the power of water to accept with ease and grace what I cannot change. grant me the power of fire for the energy of courage to change the things I can. Grant me the power of air for the ability to know the difference, and grant me the power earth for the strength to continue my path.”

After a moment of meditation with her eyes closed, she could feel how her mind eased with the peace she needed.

Suddenly a branch snapped behind her, making her eyes shot open. When she looked over her shoulder in the direction the sound came from she was stunned, two large wolves were looking straight at her. One was dark brown and as soon as the animal had noticed her looking back at them he stepped back disappearing behind the treeline. The other was dark silver like and stared deeply back at her without moving, it’s brown eyes looking so human that she started to doubt if what she was seeing was real. It got so intense that she had to look away at some point but the moment she looked back the wolf was gone. y/n shrugged and blew out the candle in front of her, it was time to go. She thanked the guardians and sent them back on their way before blowing out the rest of the candles and packed everything back into her backpack.

--------------- 18+ SMUT

“Oh baby, that’s it” his deep voice moaned, his warm soft hands guided the movement of her hips while she was on top of him. She could feel him pulsing inside of her, she could feel every vein that ran through his hard cock with every move of her hips. She had never felt this good, this complete and safe. His moans only added up to her arousal and made her in turn also moan out loud every time her clit made contact with his pubic bone. “Yes my love let me hear that beautiful voice of yours.” he practically growled before he lifted her off his lap and turned them so y/n was laying on her back with the brown eyed man on top of her looking at her lovingly.

“I love you, y/n”

Next thing she knew he was thrusting back inside of her while he kissed her passionately.

Her lover held himself up with one hand next to her head while as other hand found it’s place on her clit, rubbing the little bundle of nerves in sync with the movements of his own hips.

Y/n was a moaning mess at the mercy of her lover that brought her closer and closer to the peak of pleasure. But just before she could fall over the edge and have the most earth-shattering orgasm she was sure she would have a voice called out to her.

---------- end smut

“Wake up sleepyhead! The sunlight is here to greet the day!”

Y/n’s eyes shot open while she groaned. It was just a dream, there was no hot brown eyed man that was making her feel good.

“What do you want Kim, it’s way too early” y/n groaned as she saw her usual shy friend standing in the door opening. Y/n wasn’t a morning person especially after a dream like that.

“Oh, you grumpy cat” Kim chuckled, “Come on, we need to leave soon or there won’t be much breakfast left at Emily’s. And the guys are dying to meet you.”

That’s right, she almost forgot. When a week ago Y/n arrived at her friends’ place Kim was so happy to see her that they had spent most of that time together, catching up on everything that had happened since the last time Y/n was here.

Y/n had spent most of her youth here in La Push, growing up as a foster kid in Kim’s family until another family adopted her at the age of 15. Kim had always been more like a sister to her so even after she had left with her adoptive family she had kept in touch with Kim and her parents.

Now after a week full of quality time and their favorite things done it was time to meet Kim’s boyfriend and his friends in real life. She had already heard a lot about Jared, even before the two got together. Kim was so in love with him that sometimes y/n had to butt in if she wanted to say something. But Y/n was happy that her friend had found someone that treated her right.

“Okay give me a minute to get ready,” Y/n said as she literally rolled out of bed and got up.

Fifteen minutes later y/n was dressed and ready to go. Kim had said that Emily’s place wasn’t that far so they decided to walk the short distance.

“Y/n, I was wondering. So every time you travel or do something important you do that ritual to ask the gods for strength and balance right?” Kim suddenly started knowing about her pagan believes.

“Yeah, why?”

“What if the gods grant your wish? But what if they grant it in the form of a person, like a soulmate?”

Y/n didn’t expect that to be her question because it wasn’t something she had thought of before.

“I don’t know Kim, for me, it’s more something like inner strength. You know. It’s something I want to for myself but hey I’m never turning down a gift from the gods. Especially if that gift is in the form of a hot guy made just for me.” she laughed.

They could hear the laughs of multiple people coming from the little but beautiful house that stood in the middle of an open field surrounded by trees. But the moment the girls started to walk closer to the house the laughing stopped, the sliding door opened and before she knew it Kim was lifted off her feet and spun around in the arms of who she recognized as Kim’s boyfriend Jared.

“Hey, you must be Y/n, Kim has told us a lot about you.” Jared smiled at her once he had placed Kim back onto her own feet, but still kept his arm around her waist.

“Yeah I am, it’s nice to finally meet you. Kim hasn’t shut up about you.” she chuckled making Jared and Kim chuckle too.

“Well come on in, breakfast is served” a sweet voice called out from the small porch.

“Wellcome Y/n I’m Emily”

She thanked her for the invitation before following the small group inside where the kitchen table was already filled with food and a bunch of guys sitting around it.

“Hey, guy!” Kim greeted the guys around the table with a smile before pointing at me.

“This is my sister Y/n, Y/n meet Sam, Jacob, Embry, Quil, Leah, Seth.” Every time Kim said a name a hand shot up with a short “hey” or “hello”. They all seemed like the nice and fun people Kim described them as but wasn’t there supposed to be another guy? If she remembered correctly a guy named Paul was missing from the group but she didn’t press that thought, because soon she was lead to a chair at the table and almost everyone started to fill their plates with food. She had just started to fill her plate too when she heard a voice call out from another room in the house.

“Leave some food for me, you animals!” followed by a warm laugh and footsteps coming closer until a large form filled the door opening on her left. He had broad shoulders, short dark hair, and the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen. He hadn’t noticed her yet so she took the opportunity to really look at him, those eyes seemed familiar, he seemed familiar. She had seen him before. His whole being, even his voice made her heart jump in her chest. Then he turned his head and looked straight at her, it seemed like his eyes lighted up in that same recognition, his smile got wider than it already was.

“Hey, you must be Y/n. I’m Paul.” He greeted her before he took a seat on the other side of the table right in front of her.

Then she knew where she knew him from, Paul was the guy from in her dreams. She quickly averted her eyes, afraid he’d notice that she had been staring at him. She quickly looked around her to see if someone had noticed but everyone was having their own conversation, that was until her eyes met those of a smirking Kim. Of course, she had noticed, when Kim winked at her their conversation from earlier sprung in her mind. What if the gods did had granted her wish? Because she was almost sure she had even saw those same eyes a week ago when she was in the middle of her prayer. Could it be that Paul was her gift from the gods, her soulmate?

tags:

@its-la-push @ghostmistwalker @bisexualcrazybeans

#paul lahote #paul lahote x reader #paul lahote smut #paul lahote fanfiction #pagan reader #alex meraz #twilight #kim #jared cameron #embry call #sam uley #quil ateara #seth clearwater #leah clearwater #jacob black #paul x reader #paul lahote x y/n

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bioodorange · 3 years

Text

||How I See The Pastas||

This was originally supposed to be how they looked but I decided to go for mental aspect and explain why as well PLEASE like, reblog and share your thoughts on this in the comments or inbox

Below the desciptions are images i’ve compiled and some art (if you know the creator please tell me so i can credit them) for a visual

dont forget to like reblog and share your thoughts with me, I spent a few days on this so i’d appreciate this

Jeff the Killer

So lets start with the obvious- jeffs pasty white toothpaste lookin skin

But realistically he wouldn’t be completely covered in scars

It would be blotchy, with pink fleshy patches among the burns

He most likely has contracture scars, third degree burns that turn the skin a pale white and tighten the skin

This explains his gaunt features and skin color

Now we have to take into account the vodka that was splashed on him, he’d probably have worse burns there with exposed flesh and damaged nerves

This would result in gnarly exposed skin, a damaged scalp and maybe damage to his teeth and eyes

Realistically, Jeff wouldnt have burned off his eyelids that alone would have resulted in blindness and death

Than his smile, his signatuure mark would probably be more of a gangly bloody scar mess

Pastas heal faster and aren’t really human, he’d have to recut his smile pretty frequently making it pretty jacket up because ltes be honest hes far from clean

ANd than his hait being chard black is very unlikely because as nasty as he is he s h o w e r s

not very frequnetly given his living situation and untreated burns but people can figure out how to wash hait and not much else

also i think its funny he’d shower with a plastic bag on his face to avoid getting soap in his nasty infected scars-

His hair would probably be dry and cut unevenly, more of a dark brown color with blonde undertones

Not to mention his burned scalp, hair probably wouldn’t grow there so he’d have a cool unintentional side shave

Jeff would also be a tall individual, he cant really eat, snacking on things from his victims homes giving him a more skeletal build

His personality and mindest is about as pretty as his face- but he most likely has a very screwed up headspace

Lacking in self care, maturity and sanity its fair to say he’d be a brash and violent person

Fun Fact: While researching this I learned that some versions of the joker had facial scars in the shape of a smile

Ticci Toby

So tobys age, unlike a lot of pastas, is pretty well agreed on, 19

So unlike when he was first a proxy toby most likely has stronger facial features and facial hair

Because shaving and hygiene isn’t first priority for pastas (gross-)

He stands around 5′7 and has grayish skin

Toby i feel is picky about foods, not only is it hard for him to eat its hard for him to keep food down

He’s malnourished explaining his thin figure and grayish skin

His hait is dark brown and a curlish mess, unkempt but short so it doesn’t get in his way

I’ve always seen him with a small gap in his teeth, because I can

And since toby can’t feel shit I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to eat rocks simply because he fuckin could

So some chipped teeth that are a bit uneven

Along with his CIPA and not eating enough Toby would bruise easily and have lots of scars, from things like cutting his finger on accident or getting mauled by a racoon

I wouldn’t be surpised if some of his joints were a bit screwed up, because whenever theyd beak or fracture he wouldn’t notice, this would probably happen a lot causing them to not heal correctly

One of tobys habits is nailbiting but he cant te;; when too far is too far

His fingers may be abit odd looking, knobby and discolored nails because of how exetreme his habit is

Would most likely have bandages around his fingers frequently to prevent the habit

So theres a lot of debate about tobys cheek was it the CIPA or the car accident, I beileve the accident because his other cheek is completely fine, theres damage from the OUTSIDE to inside and considering his sister died in the accident its unlikely he survived unscathed

Fun Fact: only a small handful of people have ever been diagnosed with CIPA, less than 500 (documented) cases around the world

Bloody Painter

So Helen is often seen as quiet emo painter boy

but uh no <3

Personaly i beileve he suffers from narcisistic personality disorder, exetreme importance and that he is always victorious and gets what he wants

This sporuts from the constant heavy invalidation from classmates, toxic friends and neglect from his parents

He doesn’t hang out with people because he doesn’’t lie them its because they never let him in the past and he beileves he’s better than them

But this also links to deep rooted insecurity and social anxiety/being inept completely

Him being nice is basically so you like him, he wants validation amd admiration not love

Unlike the other pastas he’d be a more clean well kept one a helthy figure and some tattoos bevause he can

I beileve he lives in socity, finding hus victims in girls and men alike who fall for his charm

he uses hhis skill and ordinary appearance to blend in on the streets

From his behavior helen most likely keeps his hair a bit shorter and clean

He always looks his best

Has chapped, and picked at lips because of his anxieties

Aswell as his breakdowns- his identity is completely in his head, he is very unsure of who he is and takes the delusions in his mind as reality

Unrelated but paino fingers-

And finally in order for his art to be as perfect and amazing as him, he has to be apart of it

Thus using his own blood in his pieces and the body parts of those he admires

Covers his scars with clean bandgaes

But his paintings turn brown and dry out, he’s always in need of a new medium

Is most likely anemic from all the blood he looses and has a paler skintone

Clockwork

ahh yes finally someone who knows what self care is-

helen, i love you buddy but you need to stop

But anyway natalie has a stronger, athletic build

She often chases her victims and gets in altercations, relying on strength most of the time

on that same note, this would defintelty cause many scars on natalie

Wether it was a bite mark or scars from a kitchen knife, shes got lots of scars

A few even on her face

Now, for the clock in her eye that thing is like holding her skull together at this point, realistically

She is probably delicate and cares for it becaise 1) it hurts 2) if it gets screwed up that could cause a lot of problems

natalie would be a smart person, I wouldn’t be surprused if she had a few other stray stitches or bandgaes wrapped around a fresh wound

For more visual-ish things uh m u l l e t (credit: @cum-looking-sock-mf in a chat like 4 months ago)

She has one, fight me on it

but also thick and curlish hair so I also riase you

Undershave

just y e s

I can also see her getting tattoos over certain scars on her arm, just to make them look not so ugly

I feel like clockwork wishes things worked out better

Wishes for another chance but knows she’ll never get one

Thus her taking goof care of herself

Natalie throws herseld into her “work”, keeping her body in shape and killing people

Its a way to avoid her life and that it is- a huge, sad mess

Shes an outgoing impulsive individual, confident but questions her actions

She’s also unstable- protective and loyal but explosive and strong

Jane the Killer

Jane is the final one, im sorry I couldn’t do more theres a photo limit and I wanna bash my head into the wall

Now a main different between her and jeff is she had surgery and lie treatment

Janes skin is still greatly scarred but it is greatly healed

She takes care of it and had skin grafts

Her face is disfigured, a scarred smile and burns around

But unlike Jeff she doesn’t recarve the cut so its a cleaner line and a lot healthier

Janes hair took a rather long time to grow back, but it did!

She has a slightly long pixie cut a bit choppy but she doesn’t mind

Her wife definetely cuts it for her and you can fight me over that

I can see Jane having a lot of facial trauma, scars around her nose and cheeks

She was young when she started killing and went for the over the person, pin them down kill which didn’t work out

She switched to a silenced pistol after awhile, you know like a smart person

Janes arms and legs are in alright condition where most of the burn trauma is on her back

She has a leaner but healthy figure but like boobs-

Like clockwork and Helen she takes care of herself

She doesn’t kill as frequently, going after a few of jeffs victims before him and is of course, actively hunting him down

Her eyes are a pale green and she wears makeip to fill in her eyebrows because those bitches take a long time to grow back

fun fact: jeff has no eyebrows, fight me

#jeff the Killer #creepypasta #creepypasta headcanons #slenderverse #slenderverse headcanons #jeff the killer head canons #ticci toby headcanons #ticci toby #bloodypainter #bloodypainter headcanons #clockwork headcanons #clockwork #jane the everlasting head canons #jane the everlasting #jane the killer #jane the killer headcanons

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my-mt-heart · 3 years

Note

A bothersome comment I saw about Daryl having a child with Leah/Connie but raising it with Carol. So Daryl will finally have a kid of his own and Carol will get the family she wants.

This is irksome. I am not policing anyone's thoughts/theories. It's just....where are the clues pointing to Daryl having a child with Leah? Even if she miscarried where are the signs? And a child with Connie? It's implausible to even think after they reunite that they are going to share a passionate hug and kiss. So a baby is out of the question. We have to draw the line somewhere.

The whole Leah with a baby bothers me. She is a mercenary. They have religious cult thing going on. She is in the wrong line of work to have a kid. I believe that is why she had an adopted son. And why is the dynamic between Daryl and Leah not understood? What they had was never meant to last. Neither one of them were able to grow roots with each other because the circumstances of their relationship and who these characters really are would not allow it. Glenn and Maggie as well as Rick and Michonne were 100% intentional with having children, because they wanted a future with each other in that way. Daryl and Carol also want a future with each other (running away into spinoff land). Leah and Daryl were always a dead end relationship. There is no child. And personally the kind of woman Leah is, I don't think she would be comfortable having a child with Daryl even though they keep trying to push that "Leah still cares for him". Like...she's never actually shown it. Carol, on the other hand....

Sorry for my word vomit. It's just I can't believe some viewers miss the emotional impact the Caryl story and the Daryl and Carol characters are being written to convey. But what are you thoughts?

Well, first, let me just say I take no issue with Leah being a mom. She is a mom. She had a son who we can infer she loved very much even though they weren’t biologically linked. If I remember correctly, in Find Me she said he was her “sister’s” son, as in one of the other mercenaries. So I don’t think their line of work or even Leah’s character now (which is most likely stemming from the grief of losing her son), automatically makes her an unfit parent.

But I totally hear your frustrations where Daryl is concerned. Why does he have to have a biological kid? When in the entire history of the show has he himself ever expressed interest in having one? Not every character needs a blood legacy. If all he wants to do is travel cross country with Carol, let's be happy he's getting the chance to do that and stop trying to push our own (frankly problematic) values on him.

I don’t think we need to worry about any Dixon bio babies with Leah and Connie given where we are in the story and where we know we’re headed. If Daryl had a kid, he wouldn’t just leave them behind. And I don’t think taking them along so he can raise them with Carol is an option either. I get the impression Carol is trying to find happiness in a way that doesn’t involve motherhood. Like Lydia said, she’s capable of being something else.

#caryl #twd

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ayuuria · 3 years

Text

Yashahime Translation: Animage December 2020 Issue (Part 1)

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

This month’s Animage article was quite loaded with 6 pages of content. It consisted of an illustration with Kohaku and Hisui (2 pages), an interview with Kimura Ryōhei and Urao Takehiro (2 pages), and an interview with Uru (2 pages). That being said, this translation has been split into two parts.

Part 1: Interview with Kimura Ryōhei and Urao Takehiro Part 2: Interview with Uru

Click Here to read Part 2

The Demon Slayers Have Arrived!

While butting heads with each other, the strength of unity between Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha slowly increases. Watching over and supporting those three girls are the uncle and nephew demon slayer combo.

Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha return to the feudal era from the modern Reiwa era. Lately, they have been slaying more demons together. In episode 5, they defeated one of the “Four Perils”, Tōkotsu; in episode 6, they subdued the demon cats nesting in the old temple. Each has a different goal: Towa’s is to break the spell of the “Dream Butterfly” cast upon Setsuna, Setsuna’s is to fulfill her duties as a demon slayer, and Moroha’s is to defeat demon bounties in order to pay off her debt. However, from spending time together, their teamwork seems to be slowly improving.

Supporting the girls’ efforts are demon slayers Kohaku and Hisui. The two of them show concern for Towa and the others by doing things like taking care of Towa who came from the modern era or providing hints to Setsuna on demon subjugation. Especially Kohaku who has relations with their parents in that he joined forces with them to defeat Naraku. Given that, that could be more reason why he pays attention to the girls. Starting from the reason why the Tree of Ages requested the three girls to “Defeat Kirinmaru and Sesshōmaru” to the existence of Rin sleeping within the Tree of Ages, the circumstances surrounding the three girls is full of mystery. Surely Kohaku and Hisui’s existence will become of help to the girls as they overcome trials.

(Character Bios)

Kohaku When he was a boy, it was said that he “Wasn’t suited to be demon slayer” but now he serves as the head of the clan. He was the one who accepted Setsuna as a demon slayer.

Hisui Miroku and Sango’s child and a demon slayer who fights with Hiraikotsu as his weapon. He did not know Setsuna was a half-demon until he was told by Kaede in episode 3.

Higurashi Towa In order to free her younger sister, Setsuna, from the spell of the Dream Butterfly, she returns to the feudal era. Due to having lived in the modern era for so long, she is somewhat hesitant about fighting demons.

Setsuna A demon slayer who had her sleep and childhood memories stolen by the Dream Butterfly. While she pushes away her elder sister, Towa, who for some reason involves herself with her, she also seems to be concerned for her (Towa).

Moroha In order to repay her debt, she bounty hunts. When she puts on rouge, she becomes “The Country Destroying Beniyasha” and displays unparalleled strength but she falls asleep less than a minute later.

Miroku A monk who previously traveled with Inuyasha. Defeating Naraku, the Wind Tunnel in his right hand disappeared. After the battle, he married Sango and became the father to three children which includes Hisui.

Sango Kohaku’s older demon slayer sister. She previously traveled with Inuyasha and her weapon at the time was Hiraikotsu. She had three children with Miroku: Kin’u, Gyokuto, and Hisui.

That Kohaku Became a Dignified Adult

The Role of Kohaku: Kimura Ryōhei “Kohaku is a character that also appeared in “Inuyasha” but he matured well. When one’s impression of him changes this much, I don’t have to keep Akko-san (Yajima Akiko who voiced Kohaku in his boyhood) in mind so he’s easier to play which is nice. As of now, he has the impression of an adult who doesn’t get into a tight spot or loses composure. They handle him with dignity so I think I can play him without worry.“ (translator’s note: Not sure if I translated that last sentence correctly…)

Kohaku During His Boyhood

Sango’s younger brother. He lost his life to Naraku’s trap but was revived with the power of the Shikon Jewel shard. At first, he was being controlled by Naraku but he regained his memories later on.

Kohaku and Sesshōmaru’s relationship

In the story of “Inuyasha”, Kohaku was always in danger of demons targeting the Shikon Jewel shard. At one point, Sesshōmaru saves Kohaku who had been captured by Byakuya of the Mirage and afterwards, Kohaku accompanies Sesshōmaru on his travels. Normally Sesshōmaru does not get close to others but he did not object to Kohaku travelling with him. It could be that to Sesshōmaru, Kohaku was someone that he could allow to stay near him.

What Did He Inherit from His Father, Miroku?

The Role of Hisui: Urao Takehiro “While Hisui is a little older than Setsuna and the others, he has quite a calm impression. It’s just that he is still young, so he has an unknowing and inexperienced side to him. His uncle is teaching him in that regard. I think Hisui’s strong personality resembles his mother, Sango. The lecherous side of his father, Miroku, hasn’t appeared in Hisui yet so I wonder what I’ll do if he has that kind of a side to him (laughs).”

The Reliable Uncle and the Inexperienced Nephew

— From the start, what sort of impression did you have of the work, “Inuyasha”?

Urao: I’m definitely part of the “Inuyasha” generation. I think I was in upper elementary school when “Inuyasha” started broadcasting. I really liked it and I would watch it every week while eating dinner. The first CD I ever bought with my own allowance was V6’s “CHANGE THE WORLD, Inuyasha first opening song” too.

Kimura: I think I was in high school at the time, so I was right on the cusp of the age for watching anime on a daily basis. I felt it was about time I moved on. It’s just that in regard to “Inuyasha”, it left the impression that it was a work that could be enjoyed not just by kids but also by high schoolers and older. In addition to it being the work of Takahashi Rumiko-san, the creator of my absolute favorite “Ranma ½”, I was working in the industry at the time but I enjoyed it as a viewer.

— Which character left an impression on you?

Urao: My favorite was Shippō. In any case, he’s cute. At the time, I was a real scaredy cat so whenever the demon battles began, I would always look away from the screen (laughs). Within that, Shippō was a comforting existence. I also liked the romantic comedy, so I enjoyed watching the exchanges between Miroku and Sango.

Kimura: The one who left an impression on me was Naraku. At a glance, he didn’t really feel like a final boss. When you look at Sesshōmaru, you know “This guy is strong”. But with Naraku, it’s like “Is this guy strong? What?!”. He could probably win in a fist fight but that air that he has of not allowing you to punch him is something I actually found creepy.

— The current work continues the world of “Inuyasha” but apparently, you were offered the role rather than auditioning for it.

Urao: I was extremely happy. I knew the work, “Hanyō no Yashahime” was being created before it was discussed with me so I was looking forward to it as a regular viewer. It was then that I was asked to play Hisui and I was really surprised and honored.

Kimura: I didn’t know that they were moving forward with this work so I was all the more surprised (laughs). It’s not often that you get to be involved in an anime that you watched as an average viewer during your childhood, so I was happy. I had a connection with Rumiko-san from a previous work called “Kyōkai no RINNE” so I’m thankful that I get to have another connection via this work of completely different nature. If I had to say, though they’re the same in that they’re works by Rumiko-san, “Ranma ½” and “Kyōkai no RINNE” left a strong comedic impression. However, I was very excited to take part in the fantasy adventure world that is “Inuyasha”.

— How did you feel about the concept of “Continuing the world of “Inuyasha”, drawing the story of the next generation”

Kimura: Continuing a great work is exceedingly difficult so I don’t think it’s something that should be done at a moment’s notice. It’s just that “Inuyasha” was a big hit work that was drawn by the famous artist, Takahashi Rumiko. It was watched by many and loved for a long time. If the staff who created a work of that level decided to do a continuation, there’s no way they could create something half-hearted. Upon receiving talks, I just reminded myself to that level on my own and thought “It will definitely be okay!”

Urao: The generation that watched “Inuyasha” in real time are now adults and there are some that have children. That’s why I think “Hanyō no Yashahime” is a work that can be enjoyed by two generations. Adults can watch a new story together with the kids while explaining to them “”Inuyasha” was this kind of story”. I’m hoping I will be able to assist that kind of work. Actually when episode 1 aired, my high school senpai contacted me saying “I’m about to watch it with my son”.

— That’s a wonderful story. When playing the roles of Kohaku and Hisui, do you keep in mind Kohaku’s boyhood days in “Inuyasha” or Miroku and Sango who are Hisui’s parents?

Kimura: Actually, I don’t keep that in mind one bit.

— I see.

Kimura: For example, even if I were to keep Akko-san (Yajima Akiko who voiced Kohaku in his boyhood) in mind, if asked if I could come near that, the answer would be no (translator’s note: not too sure I got the translation of this sentence right). It’s just that when I was told that Akko-san said “Oh my~ he’s become a fine man”, I was relieved. I’m glad she didn’t think “Tsk!” (laughs).

Urao: I completely mindful of that! Especially in episode 2 when shouting while throwing Hirakotsu; I recorded the voice of Kuwashima Hōko-san (the role of Sango) saying “Hiraikotsu” and the whole time I was riding the train, I listened to it and did image training.

Kimura: I see. It certainly is something like a signature move.

Urao: First, I thought I needed viewers to acknowledge “Hirakotsu!”. Also, since the image of Miroku being able to calmly assess and explain the situation was strong, I’m really conscious of that in explanation scenes. I rewatched the anime and researched the way he spoke.

Kimura: There’s a lot of scenes where Kohaku and Hisui give explanations on demons while splitting lines (amongst themselves).

Urao: Indeed.

Kimura: Kohaku and Hisui probably meet up beforehand. Something like “I’ll explain up to here” (laughs).

Urao: Responding “Then I’ll explain the next (part)” is something they might be doing (laughs).

— How do you view each other’s characters?

Urao: Kohaku has always been a person who’s known that he was being manipulated and yet still moved in secret; but I also got the impression that he had a strong heart. It means that Ryōhei-san is playing someone like him and it’s really reassuring. As an average viewer of “Inuyasha”, I’m deeply moved that “He’s become a reliable man!” and as Hisui, I feel that “He’s a reliable uncle.” Calling him “Uncle Kohaku” felt kind of fresh (laughs).

Kimura: The impression I got from Hisui was “He’s a good young man.” Although I can say the same for the main three and not just Hisui. At the beginning, I wondered how Kohaku and Hisui would balance out but thanks to the scenario, lines, and Urao’s acting, it became “While he’s gaining experience as a demon slayer, there’s still a part of him that’s inexperienced.” That’s why I was able to grasp the balance between the two naturally instead of being strangely conscious of it. I became convinced of this in episode 2 in their first appearance scene.

He Can’t Use Any Other Weapon? Hisui Is Still in the Midst of Growing (as a demon slayer).

— Next, please tell us your impressions of Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha.

Urao: Even though they were raised in the feudal era, all of them have some “modern era girl” touch to them. Like the chattering ambiance (laughs). Also, I think each of them has an aspect that they inherited from their parents. Setsuna is the daughter of Sesshōmaru; you can feel that Moroha is Inuyasha’s daughter; Towa’s easygoing aspect gives you the sense that she was raised by Sōta.

Kimura: In a sense, Towa is the hardest to grasp. I think that gives her that protagonist feel.

— You feel she is hard to grasp?

Kimura: She’s full of energy and has an overflowing sense of justice but she has moments where you don’t know what she’s thinking. There, other characters and the readers get tied up… I think you see that a lot in protagonists of thrilling shōnen manga. I think Towa has that sort of precarious aspect. Heck, a modern middle schooler going back to the feudal era; that’s when you think something’s wrong with them (laughs). However, the story won’t progress if you don’t have that and it’s because they’re like that that they can remain the protagonist. Setsuna is cool and of few words but it’s easy to see what she’s thinking. I think the energetic Moroha is the easiest to understand.

Urao: My favorite of the three is Moroha. I can really feel that she inherited Inuyasha’s blood. Like how she’s a little hasty and the way she talks.

Kimura: The way Moroha’s voice actress, Tadokoro-san (Azusa), skillfully plays her is nice. Listening to her talk at a nice tempo feels good. Also, the voice actress for Setsuna, Komatsu-san (Mikako) is able to properly incorporate a sense of inexperience to a character that is prone to appearing boorish; I thought that’s her for yah. With this work, this is my first time working with Matsumoto-san (Sara) who plays the role of Towa and she’s good at acting! During today’s test recording when she said the line “Setsuna!” she got directed once, but the “Setsuna” in the actual recording came out sounding good like bam! I feel something like a synergy effect as the three work each other up which I think is splendid. It seems that the three cast members get along really well too.

Urao: The three of them act wonderfully don’t they. Just, I wonder why Setsuna is somewhat cold towards Hisui (laughs). As of now, Hisui calls Setsuna’s name the most but she looks away from him a lot… I hope they can close the distance between them moving forward!

— Kohaku and Hisui’s role is sort of like a guardian to Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha right.

Kimura: That’s right. It’s like the two of us are watching over the three girls.

Urao: We are sending them to slay demons after all. Hisui should’ve gone with them (laughs).

— In episode 5, due to Hiraikotsu not being effective on the demon they were taking on, Hisui had to stay behind.

Kimura: You know, Hisui is a pro so make him be able to use other weapons! What is he going to do when he doesn’t have Hiraikotsu on hand! (laughs)

Urao: You’re right (laughs). He might get more from here on. He is in the middle of growing (as a demon slayer)!

— Hisui’s development from here on is something to look forward to (laughs). Today (at time of the interview) is right after the televising of episode 1 but Urao-san was posting live on social media. You reacted to the line “Don’t cry Hisui~”

Urao: That’s the line that Hisui’s older twin sisters (Kin’u and Gyokuto) said. Hisui was still a cute baby!

Kimura: They seem strong if they fight as twins. I wonder when the grown-up sisters will show up. Could it be that they’re part of the demon slayer team?

Urao: I’m sure they will make an appearance. The content within episode 1 made “Inuyasha” fans very happy. You could feel the “Inuyasha”-ism everywhere. For example, the program sponsor background image, heads mercilessly flying off, and the background music that makes you go “When this music plays, the demon can be defeated”; everything was nostalgic.

— Yasumura Makoto’s role as Miroku was a topic of discussion as well.

Urao: I was moved. He played the role he inherited from Tsujitani Kōji-san (played the role of Miroku in “Inuyasha”) with great respect. He made me think it was actually Miroku and as his son, I got fired up even more.

— Lastly, please give us your thoughts on the illustration of Kohaku and Hisui published in this month’s issue.

Kimura: Both of them look so reliable!

Urao: Yeah, they look cool. When I see them like this, they really look alike. Uncle Kohaku has a big scar on his nose but I wonder if the one who gave him that scar will make an appearance in the future? The freckles he had as a kid are gone too which is impressionable.

— In the future, is there a situation you would like to see in a copyright image?

Kimura: This is a staple but Kohaku and Hisui in swimsuits?

Urao: (laughs) For me, I want to see the whole family lined up. Like a family photo with the parents, Hisui, the older sisters, and Uncle Kohaku.

Kimura: I like that! The family getting together doesn’t seem like something we’ll get to see much in the actual show. Also, I might want to see the two’s desperate expression. As of now, Kohaku and the others have an air of composure about them; it would be nice to see their forms in action. I’m sure something like a strong enemy will appear and the figures of them fighting valiantly will be drawn in the show. However, there are three protagonists, so our turn probably won’t be for a while (laughs).

Which scene up to episode 6 left an impression on you?

Kimura: Mistress Three Eyes that Nabatame-san (Hitomi) played was scary. She was a formidable foe. She looked just like the demon that first appeared in “Inuyasha”; it was amusing that they continued that.

Urao: Apparently, she’s the grandchild of Mistress Centipede.

Kimura: That confirms a second and third generation. The part where “That thing also had children!” is surprising too though (laughs).

Urao: For me, it had to be the scene where Hisui and Kohaku make their first appearance that left an impression. To think the day would come where I could ride Kirara and throw Hiraikotsu… I was deeply moved like we’ve crossed over eras.

Kimura: Even if you encounter a wonderful new work, it’s not often that you get to experience the same things the people playing the characters in the wonderful preexisting work felt.

Which character are you curious about?

Urao: Kirinmaru who has that mastermind aura. How is he going to move from here on?... There’s a person named Kirin Osamu-sensei in the modern era too so I’m curious as to the relationship between that.

Kimura: There’s no way that that’s the only screen time Hosoya-san (Yoshimasa who plays Kirinmaru) is getting. There’s this feeling of expectation that he will appear again.

Urao: Yeah

Kimura: Not only is there a chance that his existence is connected to the feudal era, but maybe there’s a possibility that he’s actually someone’s descendant? Well, we know absolutely nothing about the scenario ahead so we can just say whatever about the (plot) progression from here on (laughs).

#Yashahime #Hanyou no Yashahime #Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon #translation

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scotrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (The Comic)

Hello, Hello, Hello scottaholics! And what a beautiful day it is: After decades lost in the lost woods, at least it had that catchy tune to keep it company, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: The Game is FINALLY back and performing for you on all platforms!

Even Stadia, the platform most likely to disappear like this game did for a while! Cheap shots at the stadia aside as a huge fan of the franchise as a whole and of this game who played it back on the 360, and had since sold said 360 so I had no way to get it back or ever play the dlc packs. Seriously who didn’t want to play wallace but never got to? Everyone, everyone is the answer. But with those the entirety of what I consider to be the main cast is playable, it has online so you can beat up hipsters, guys in costumes and robots with your friends, it’s a good damn feeling. And since i’m in a celebratory mood, naturally i’m also feeling like a review. And since it just so happens the next volume up in my look at the comics is Vs the World, seriously I planned this review for this month without thinking to have it come out on the same day as the game until a week or two in, I felt there was no better way to celebrate the biggest day for Scott Pilgrim fans in some time.. and for Brian Lee O Malley as he’ll stop getting twitter asks about it. So with all the exposition taken care of LAST TIME, and the link right there if your curious, we can jump right in. On with the show!

After our opening titles, and yes this comic has opening titles, with Ramona sitting solmely in the rain.

And Scott caught in the title. The rain shot is real pretty by the way. But yeah once we get past those we’re taken back 7 years ago. Finn found out his father was an asshole, and voiced by Stephen Root so hey you take the good with the bad, Steven just learned the horrifying truth about Gem Monsters, Guardians of the Galaxy saved the MCU and I was trying to find work after college.. wait... sorry sorry that was 7 years ago from THIS year. The comic came out in 2005, though the comic takes place on a sliding timescale where only like 2 years pass so I dunno when this is. Let’s just say 98. Okay so 1998: Bill Cllinton’s sex scandal breaks, and puts way too much of hte blame on the young intern whose life came to be defined by one stupid mistake she made with a man who was way older and should’ve known better, the tide of the Monday Night War turned in favor of the WWF as Stone Cold Steve Austin became a household name, and it was an utterly standup year for video game relaases with Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, StarCraft, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, WWF: War Zone, Pokemon Stadium, Spyro The Dragon, Pokemon Yellow, WarioLand 2, Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Pokemon: Trading Card Game and Sonic Adventure. It’s like someone took a good chunk of my childhood and squeezed it into one year holy shit, I did not expect this when looking up what came out in 98.

And while the movie pool wasn't’ quite this amazing, we still had The Wedding Singer, The Big Lebowski, the dude abides, Batman and Mr Freeze: SubZero, The Truman Show, Mulan, the good one not the one made near concetration camps that makes her into a demigod, Saving Private Ryan, Blade, Simon Birch, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Rushmore, Bride of Chucky, HalloweenTown, Plesantville, and the Prince of Egypt. And in music Weird Al changed from his first signature look to his second, getting Lasik and growing out his hair. Seirously had no idea that was this year. Good to know. Also Elton John got his knighthood. Super shooters. I could go on with 1998 triva for days but I cannot go on for 8 weeks so let’s get to the point here.. during alllla this Scott Pilgrim, age 16, was starting St. John’s Catholic School and a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble. . by threatning to beat him up for no real reason. A fight insues and we cut to the principal’s office as Scott’s still a minor and not allowed to get into death fights just yet under the people’s freedom of choices and voices act.

It’s here he meets Lisa Miler, a peppy and sarcastic blonde, who’s intrigued by the fact Scott somehow got beat up after being here just 15 minutes and wants to be friends. Naturally for scott next we see him he’s busy playing video games, and annoyed someone else is around and wondering who this person whose now in his basement is. God no wonder teenage me related to him. So for the next few pages we see their friendship in time lapse: Lisa joins him at lunch, then geninely wonders since Scott’s Untentionally a dick if he hates her.. it’s part of why I think Scott has some form of autisim. And not just because I tend to belivie a character is on the spectrum all the damn time, it’s because of the way he acts: while he is nice and charming at times.. he also clearly has trouble relating to people or realizing how his actions effect them and as seen here in a younger form can often be compeltely distanced from normal social queues, not getting how his actions might be seen until Lisa outright talks to him about it. I mean.. it’s not a huge stretch, and it dosen’t mean he’s nto responsible for his own actions, but it does EXPLAIN a lot of them better: why he just sorta forgets about Knives post-ramona but at the same time still cares enough he dosen’t want to hurt her despite you know, that ship sailing just by having moved on.

But now the two are friends and his parents, who we meet for the first time and sister inquire about her being his girlfirned.. and by next jumpcut his parents apparently don’t want him hanging out with girls? What exactly the fuck? Also they mention Laurence, Scott’s brother whose missing for most of the books and has no real payoff for not being around. Next cut we get KIM!

Thank you Prissy. And she’s.. not all that different, assuming, correctly that their partner project, how she meets scott will just result in her doing all the work.. which not only is how these things usually went when I was in high school a decade later, but reminds me of the time me and my friends curtis and justin were put on a project and when asked who the alied powers were, guessed “Germany?”.... you can understand my fear. And also Curtis punching him for getting nothing done.. and not hard or brutally mind you just once quick in the gut and with full warning. Ah... the adaquate old days.

So back to Lisa as, since Scott’s Mom has a guitar.. a fact I.. never honestly thought about. Seriously I never realized her children, since the Bass Scott has for most of the books is Laurence’s, getting into music was probably due to her. Also Lisa makes her case for WHY be a band: the school has a regular event called Lunchapalooza, where everyone goes to and since by teen logic, just being in a band is automiacally cool, she figures they can jump from not QUITE being in any cliques to being super cool. Which honestly yeah... while I didn’t know any bands in high school, the fact one of my friends, ironically named Scott, was a DJ automatically made him pretty damn cool once he got past his awkard phase. I never got past mine but somehow was loved by all except that one douchey kid in our group who mocked me for naming my Luxray kim, assuming it was based on Kim possible and not Kim Pine... though frankly how that’s an insult when Kim Possible was a fucking awesome show and character is beyond me but he was just 17 and also a douchebag, it didn’t have to make since it just had to piss off the easily pissed off kid with aspergers. So Scott poses how they can be a band with just their guitars and Lisa concedes drums WOULD help.. I mean it’s what MADE Shallow Gravy.

So while Kim wonders if Scott is dating Lisa, because teenagers don’t really get girls and boys can be friends without wanting to be together, though not often as teenage boy brains can be rather stupid and horny... can confrim from personal experince. So it becomes clear Scott has a thing for Kim, and when Scott tries broaching it with Lisa she dosen’t take it well and he backpedals to asking her to be her drummer and plans to monday, proving Scott has somehow not gotten better at reading women, or anyone after 7 years. Can relate.

So yeah he decides to ask Monday, same day as their presentation.. and thankfully missed the bus as he arrives to find the Benvy Tech boys came in, took everyone out and abducted Kim. Because yeah, just in case you were wondering Scott’s life was always like this.. or was it? Questions for later. So one Canadian Version of River City Ransom later, Scott’s made his way to simon... who, since most of you have probably seen the movie or art of the movie.. looks an AWFUL lot like Gideon. Hrmmm. Simon is naturally the final boss here and wonders if this is the best St. Joels can muster. Scott quips back as only Scott can.

So cue an unsuprisingly awesome actoin sequence. IT’s part of why I love these color editions: While they already LOOKED thoroughly fantastic the added colors really help the series shonen manga meets old school video game vibe REALLY fucking pop. So Simon pleads mercy which like Scott delivering a good quip.. should’ve really been a red flag to younger me and is foreshadowing for later in case I was too subtle. He then does what any noble hero would do.. kicks simon into the sunset, tells Kim how he feels and asks her to play drums. They then make out. Awwww.

Lisa suprisingly takes it well as the next montage shows.. granted we’ll learn in Feburary she wasn’t QUITE as over scott as it seemed, but the three, along with a friend of Lisa’s whose name I forgot and who DOSEN’T come back so I’m not going to bother learning, form their own friend group, Scott and Kim get an A, and Scott, Kim and Lisa’s band is dubbed sonic and knuckles, which is an objectively awesome band name. Something the series really does great: Video Game Based Band Names. Crash and the Boys, Sex Bomb-Omb, Clash at the Demonhead... we need more bands like this in the real world dammit. So then they play their big game, the two loose their vrigniity.. and then Kim asks scott “your moving to tornoto?” And.. for now.. that’s that.

While the framing of that will be VERY important in the last volume, as notice how KIM’S the one who brings it up and it’s not explicitly stated scott actually told her, this flasback is great. While it does contribute to the volume’s drifty pacing, more on that as we go, it brilliantly sets up a LOT of stuff for later, paticuarlly Lisa who I assumed wouldn’t be back and younger me’s jaw fucking DROPPED when she popped up in Volume 4. Granted i’m spoiling that suprise for you now but odds are most of you reading this have either alreaddy read these or were probably wondering if the girl from the animated short ever had any actual relevance in the books. So yes, yes she does. She’s also the pink haired girl you see pop up in the game in the background, as a nod to O’Malley’s comic strip style which had her and Kim as the leads. Also yeah for fans of the game or movie or even the comics who were unaware.. this prologue got an animated adaption on adult swim to promote the movie. Naturally Micheal Cera and Allison Pill reprised their roles as Scott and Kim, with Mae Whitman voicing lisa.. and honestly being perfect for the roll, and Jason Schrwartzman voicing Simon naturally. While the animation is slightly limited, it still looks decent and expertly translates O’Malley’s art, while sliming things down slightly where needed to fit a short, and the anmation takes a huge bump for the fight scene which like the comic is short but awesome. While it has no real bearing on the film as Kim’s former relationship with Scott never really comes up or has any impact, as the Film while good was based primarily on volumes 1-3 with small pieces of 4 (paticuarlly the iconic “Lesbians gag”), with Wright working off outlines and drafts of 5 and 6, so the last half hour or so is mostly Wright’s invention.

Not a bad thing as it’s still awesome and not o’malley’s fault but it means kim dosen’t get to do much, and is a big reason why I want an adaptation on netflix or hbo max. While i’d still want changes both because there’s no sense doing an adaptation if your not going to make some tweaks of your own and because it’d be intresting to update the series to modern day, both in societal conventions and so everyone stops saying the r word. Seirously the most telling sign of the series age is that word showing up quite a bit during the first half of the series. Point is there is merit in doing another remix of the story and doing a longer form one so we can get more of the characters, as well as flesh out ones like Steven, Neil (Who was done WAY better in the movie adaptation thanks to the wonderful Johnny Simmons), and Stacey who got the shaft in the books. Again, not slagging off the movie, it’s really great. Just saying there’s always room for more Scott Pilgrim content and we all know it.

We’ll get back to the comic proper, and the present day of 2005, after the cut.

So the story proper opens with Scott dreaming of playing video games... because of course he is with Ramona walking in. and finding it charmingly pathetic but wanting her boyfriend to you know, get out of bed. It’s 11:30. So with Scott’s ass out of bed, we find Scott, Age 23 idiot with a heart of gold and Wallace, 25 king of all gays, on the bus as they talk it getting warmer and Lucas Lee, movie star and jason lee stand in coming to town to film a movie.. and Scott being Scott gets him confused for Luke WIlson. He’s also seen Bottle Rocket which.. good on him. Seriously while not wes anderson’s best film, those were made long afte this comic was published, it’s still a damn good one.. where was his career at this point... looking it up life aquatic was his most recent films and is still one of my favorites. So yeah he was in a good place career wise.

Scott proudly talks about having Ramona over in a couple days so she can see his place and meet Wallace. But as explained by Wallace for those of us just tuning in, he already met her last volume. You know during that time Stacey thought she could magically make her date not be attracted to someone else.. and yes even almost a month later not letting that one go. Stacey should know better. Not saying i’ts right Wallace keeps poaching her boyfriends, but she still shoudlnt’ try and force a relationship with a guy or even finish a date with one who makes out with someone else, regardless of gender, mid date. She deserves better. In general not just in this one scenario but we’ll get to that.

Point is while Scott, as usual, is a bit pissy about this Wallace.. has no time for that and issues an ultimatium

And he’s not bluffing, as he fully intends to tell Ramona the minute she walks in the door if he dosen’t break up with Knives. It really shows Wallace off at his best and why he’s Scott’s closest friend: Kim and Stephen do care about him but Kim both has a LOT of unresolved issues and sexual tension with him and keeps eveyrbody including Scott at arm’s length. And Stephen.. while he will OCASIONALLY call Scott out mostly just enables him, either ignoring his college buddy’s shittier behavior or playing along with it and backing him up when Kim rightfully calls him on being a dickhead. While both love their friend they just aren’t the best at dealing with his shit or getting why he does the things he does good and bad. Wallace on the other hand geninely likes Scott. He’ll lock him out of the house and tell him to sleep elsewhere so he can bang one out, he’ll not wear pants if he dosen’t have to and he’ll certainly hit on Scott just to get a rise out of him, phrasing.. but he also genuinely cares for the guy’s well being. He lets him sleep in their house basically rent free since scott has no money, buys most of their stuff, and is, as we’ll see in this one, the ONLY one of his friends to take an active part in the fight against the exes, training Scott and researching his opponents when he can get info. He won’t baby Scott as seen here, but he will help him, and he will be the harsh voice of reason his friend needs. And he did TRY doing a softer approach last time, simply telling scott to break up with his fake high school girlfriend. Scott had every chance to dump Knives during the last third of the first book.. it’s just a combination of both Knives and Ramona being in the same place and Scott getting panicky meant he balked. He NEEDS to be pushed into leaving Knives or he’s not gonna. And he also gets it’s not just Scott being a shifty coward: Scott DOES like Knives.. he just found someone who actually challenges him, intrests him and connects with him on his level, versus someone who worships and adores him like a puppy who just happens to be skilled with knives. The relationship with Knives. was an ego boost, an unequal paring that gave Scott the illusion of moving on from Envy. Ramona is him ACTUALLY moving on and given how badly Envy fucked him up, which comes into play in this book and the next, Wallace recognizes that Scott does need her... but this relationship can’t go anywhere if Scott is seeing someone else, and they both know it. Wallace is just the one who’s willing to do something about it to force scott to do something about it. He’s doing this for Knives too: it’s very clear he cares about the girl, was against this from the start, and knew this was going to end in pain and the faster Scott rips off the Band-Aid the faster she can move on to someone closer to her age and far more equal to her. Scott.. takes this about how you’d expect, even calling Double Standard, as Wallace does sleep around.. and while Wallace will be a homewrecker to Stacey.. otherwise it’s not remotley the same. Wallace does his sleeping around either casually or when he does get a partner, with their consent from what we can tell. He never cheats or anything, he just likes to bone. So yeah Scott doesn’t have a leg to stand on and acts accordingly.

One of my faviorite gags in the series and one that’s etched in my head for keeps. So with a justified Ultimatium over his head Scott calls knives to hang out. Knives.. shows off that as adorable and trusting as she is.. she’s also kind of creepy and shows up just outside the phone booth he’s calling her from. So the two go to a record store and Knives tries to get Scott into Clash at the Demonhead, her faviorite band. But since i’ts you know, headlined by Scott’s ex as we’ll find out, he’s not into it. But before that can get awkward.. it gets awkward in another way as Knives invites Scott to dinner at her parents place. Which is an objectively bad idea even before you get into the fact Scott wants a way out and as Volume 4 will show us her dad is both not happy with the idea of her dating a white guy and willing to use a katana to prevent it so he dodged a bullet there. Scott TRIES weasling out of it, but his “I’m too old for you” thing falsls on deaf ears.. and actually explains why she thinks this is normal: her parents are 9 years apart. of course obviously two consenting adults with a decade between them is a mite bit diffrent than 5 years between a teenager whose taking this way too seriously and a grown man whose taking this not seroiusly at all and dosen’t get how effed up this is. But Knives is too naive to get that, and papers over any possible concerns about her parents not wanting her to date a white guy with i’m in love. Seeing that he has no EASY way out of this, as he shouldn’t, Scott just rips off the band aid and bluntly breaks up with her, saying it’s not going to work out. Knives.. is clealry devistatd. To her this was a serious relationship.. and Scott realized that too late.. and thankfully while he didn’t break up with her in the best way, at all, simply syaing i’ts not going to work out and confirming to her he means it, it’s clear from his face this hurts to do and he knows he’s REALLY hurting her and REALLY shoudlnt’ of dated her to begin with. IT’s why Scott dating a teenager dosen’t make him a morally rephrenisvie monster: because he was genuinely intrested, didn’t use her sexually, and there are tangible consequences for his actions. Knives just dosen’t disappear neatly into the sunset so he can be with ramona. The rest of the series covers her emotoinal recovery from being with Scott, and how she very horribly handles it and that’s why this plotline works at all: she’s not some act one contrivance to be thrown away, sh’es a human being, and more than that a young woman who got hurt REALLY bad and got way too in over her head with someone who just..wasn’t the one fo rher no matter how much she can’t admit that.

We also get one of my faviorite sets of pages as Scott relfects on things and the sheer devistation on Knives face, which credit to a series that even at this early point loves it’s big bold facial expressions.. her’s being more subded just makes it sting MORE.

This bit to me is vital to keeping Scott sympathetic and to his character. We see he really does regret what happened, dosen’t know how to process it and genuinely feels awful. As I said instead of some exgerated face that would still hurt him.. her face is quiet, clearly unable to process this and clealry lost and hurt.. and that hurts more than any fuck your or sobs he was probably expecting. Just her clearly not getting WHY he’s doing this or why he hurt her, and he KNOWS why he just knows telling her the truth would hurt her even more. But.. as he thinks.. his thoughts move to something else.. and the WHY of why he did this.

He did it for Ramona. Wallace was as harsh as he was right: he needed a clean slate to actually give this relationship a shot and the smile comes off less as him being a calous dick whose just happy to move on, I mean he is a little, but more jus tsomeone READY to finally move on. He found the right person, he let the wrong one go if clumsily.. he has a future to look forward to and he can smile about that.

Granted he’s still his usual unteitonally callous self and his way of telling his friends he and knives broke up is to casually say so and say “dont’ worry you’ll meet my new girlfriend soon.” Their reaction.. is my own.

Look just because Scott is a nuanced douchebag dosne’t stop him from being a Douchebag. It just means he isn’t intolerable to watch and you actually care about him growing as a human being is all.

So with that out of the way, it’s date night and Ramona is coming over.. also Scott is considering calling her Ramy which no. I'm genuinely in favor of a pet name that’s just a variant on someone’s name but a bit cute, as it’s just the right level of obnoxious, but no, just no Scott. No. Ramona enters, meets Wallace again and sits down while Scott tries to shoo him out.. because turnabout is fair play bitch. They also see Ramona’s new hair as she dyes it something new for the first time, in this case a very lovely two tone, the purple from last volume but with a darker purple bellow it. I honestly wish she went for multiple colors in her hair again, but likely didn’t since the book was originally in black and white... which still dosent’ make sense as it would’ve been EASIER that way. Regardless Wallace makes himself scarce proving that he’s more than willing to be equal in terms of one of them spending the ngiht elsewhere. What a guy.

Ramona finds out a few things about Scott: That his apartment is VERY small, just one room with a bed, a cabinet, a small kitchen and a bathroom, which despite what scott says I REALLY dont’ count as another room. Just common sense. She also learns that he can COOK. Yeah while you’d expect Scott to just get a wad of “I did the ultimatum thing okay now gimme” money and buy dinner but no.. he made the whole thing himself from his own recipe. And once we cut to them eating on the floor.. turns out yeah he not only can cook but is REALLY good at it. She wishes there was a table which, small as the place is.. fair point. I mean at least get some tv trays. You have chairs. Or at least the easy chair. You can get nice padded folding chairs so you have a second chair guys. I know your poor but come on. Also Scott leanrs bread makes you fat. Good stuff. Also Scott freaks out when , while making out with Ramona in bed later, she mentions his hair’s getting kinda long and could use a cut... which turns out to be a thing for him. He isn’t an ass about it he just panics a bit because he’s partially convinced his last relationship’s nightmarish breakup was because of a bad haircut he got. As we’ll see next week, that’s a no but as someone whose a touch neroutic myself I get blaming a larger issue on something trivial.

So we then get to the next chapter where it’s KIM’S turn to have a dream.. and the only time we see someone else's dreams. Honestly.. I really would’ve liked if it was a recurring device, even have Ramona pop into other people’s Not used ALL the time but I could easily see it being used with Knives to convey her obsession with Scott and her pain or kim again to help move her plots along or Wallace because I want to know what’s going on in his head. It must be a maze of male gentalia and fine liquor the likes of which has never been seen. It’s scotts funeral as Simon killed him and Scott’s corpse wonders if she dreams about this a lot.

So we see her get ready and wake up her roomate Sarah whose a bitch. And as we’ll see in one of the backups, so’s the rest of her roommates. So drifting into work. Hollie is a character I really liked... the past tense will be explained later. And the first scene is probably why as her and Kim banter effortlessly, with Kim suggesting maybe she was a happy kid... only to admit quickly no she wasn’t, she was pretty withdrawn and then pretty angsty over someasshole who will be named Scott. “Your a holy terror kim, and i’m glad your on your side”> It’s a short scene but the kind this series excells at: just realistic, fun little exchanges bursting with character. I also GENUINELY wish we got more of this kind of thing, as only Knives really gets these kind of scenes to herself for the most part. There ARE scenes without Scott, but not enough like this that just give us as look into what his friends lives are like during the moments they aren’t putting up with his dumbassery or watching him engage in mortal combat. It’s why i’ve been hoping a spinoff will happen even though it likely won’t SOON. I’m sure O’Malley will return to this world some day, but between Snotgirl and Wicked World, which will come out when it’s ready but should be good.. he’s just really busy. But i’d love to see more of Kim.. or Wallace or Knives. The latter two are a no brainer: Knives is the tritagonist of the books, and it’d be intresting to see what she’d be like 5 years at the book, at the same age and stage in life as Scott. And with Wallace it’s because we really DON’T see his friend circle, life or what goes on with him. We hear him talk about a new boyfriend, who we don’t meet until near the end of the series, though you can see him in stage 3 of hte game if your curious, we see him with some random friends in volume 4, but we really don’t KNOW what hyjinks and lojinks wallace gets up to. He’s pretty isoalted from the rest of the main cast, something I hope an adaptation could fix as while realistic i’td be curious to see what his relationship with Kim or Steven would be like. Just food for thought.

Point is this was a good scene. But as is typical for Kim’s life just when she has some serenity her ex crashes back in. In this case Scott needs to rent some movies, kim works at a rental store and god teenage me really wanted a clerks style spinoff.. but enough spinoff talk. Scott asks kim to bororw them, of course and explains he’s training for his fight with Lucas.. which Kim reacts to finding out her second best friend is in a series of death matches.

She has understandable questions such as how the hell doe she know that and is he stalking Lucas and just hoping he’s an ex.. which let’s face it would be a very scott move. But nope Wallace told him, likely learning in an interview he dated Ramona or is coming for scott because he knows everything. We also get one of my faviorite exchanges when Kim wonders why Wallace and Scott are roomates.. a valid question he deflects by saying i’ts a long story.

Also yeah, as much as casting Micheal Cera backfired for the movie.. that panel there proves there wasn’t another choice at the time. When you want a loveable, somewhat douchey, but also somewhat innocent and oblivious slacker.. who you gonna call. Also before we move on.. Kim.. how are you this suprised. You were there for the fight with Matthew. And Ramona giving out the exposition on why he’s there.. and you even did that whole weird space channel 5 thing no one ever did agian and to this day I will never understand what O’Malley was going for and only know the refrence by hearing that’s what it was. Point is you shouldn’t be this suprised. Anyways we next cut to Ramona and Stacey, as Ramona enters her workplace, second cup, and they talk and Scott’s spider sense goes off...

I mean it’s just a bad feeling but still.. weird. WE’ll get back to that later. Scott is in the middle of his training.. and I love the mentor side of Wallace and feel it didn’t get used enough as the series went on. As said before he cares about Scott, so he serves as his Shounen Mentor and a great one: he’s stern and makes Scott work, but he also gets his student and what Scott needs to work. I just wish he’d taught Scott some actual combat, but as we see Wallace’s combat skills boil down to yelling useless info from the sidelines.. I mean he can be useful, we’ll see that next week, it’s just he’s not an action guy. But spirtually he’s the guy scott needs to kick his ass into shape. That being said his “training” consists of watching Lucas’ movies, playing tony hawk and when Scott wants to play more Tony Hawk, having Scott do pushups while Wallace plays Tony Hawk. Before we turn... there is an elephant in the room I just gotta shoo out: Lucas.. is easily the worst setup of the 6 exes. Patel SEEMINGLY comes out of nowhere but his letter and email hint SOMETHING is coming up, and his flashy dynamic entry intro is damn cool and is what turns the series on it’s head, from an indie comic about a guy getting it together.. to that but with huge shonen dustups with epic visuals. Todd is introduced masterfully here, and is a presence from the start of volume 3 as a result, Roxie gets a slight tease in the free comic book day issue, and her not attacking for two months not only sets up tension but allowed for a red herring.. im’ not only hiding that the fourth ex is a she because anyone whose seen the movie or played the game knows the fourth ex is a woman. The cat’s out of the bag, no sense hiding it. The Kentangis show up pretty early on and Gideon is hinted at and built up, as this towering, mysterious figure, his relationship with Ramona, who he is, why he set up the league, and just how fucking strong he is is all obscured, with his only four apperances simply teasing the big final showdown and giving him that much more mysitque.

Lucas.. is just sorta intorduced like “Hey I gotta fight this guy”. There’s just.. nothing. Scott’s just gotta fight him because he’s next up and Wallace knows that because plot convience. It’s VERY lackluster given what comes before.. and frankly while I like Lucas, he’s the weakest plot and character wise. HE’s not even really EVIL, just a sellout and is more doing this because he has to I guess, and likely because of stuff we find out in Book 6 but sssssshhhhh. We’ll get more into that when the fight happens but it’s one of the books weakest points. The evil ex.. just feels like an afterthrought again despite there being no reason to. Thankfully this would never happen again as I said, but it dosen’t make this any less frustrating.

So we cut to Sex Bomb-Omb practice, and after that we get more tease for Clash at Demonhead. And Stephen.. is cool with them and entirely happy one of them made it, while Scott is understandably pisssed off about it and not happy one of his best friends is you know, promoting the band of his ex who broke his heart and as we’ll get more into next time, said rising career is what tore them apart. So yeah Stephen’s a dickhead, and I was wrong last time that he got better. He really.. dosen’t. He gets less CREEPY.. but out of the main 6 characters he’s the weakest: he dosen’t have much of an arc, does some very questionable shit in the second half, and his being around means we have to suffer through Julie. I’ll tear into him more on a case by case basis but for once Scott’s not overreacting. While Kim does nothing she also has no idea just HOW bad things were and Scott won’t tell her. Stephen was there the whole fucking time. He just saw Scott’s rebound with a teenager. He knows he was kind of messed up after this. Dosen’t justfiy knives but still he looses the moral high ground he tries to have at times.

So while Scott shops a song for Ramona to her, Knives calls Scott’s place clearly setting up another suprise apperance. Wallace.. figures out what sh’es doing quick and simply gives her a stern “You have to go” And to me it’s not him being a dick.. he’s both trying to save her from seeing Scott with Ramona and fucking her up worse... and is looking out for her. She needs to move on and moving up to stalking Scott’s not going to help that. Scott dosen’t WANT her anymore, and while he handled it bad, Wallace gets she needs to see that. Granted he could’ve you know explained it to her and tried talking, but as i’ve said he’s not a perfect person and he was also on a time table to get her out of there in case Scott you know, showed up with his new girlfriend and made things a billion times worse. And the two are indeed headed to his place to watch one of Lucas’ movies, and part of that weak setup is that Ramona.. just has no connection with him. It was high school. Scott also pretends he dosent’ remember his. You are a lying liar sir stop that. So they watch the film together hanging out, and it’s.. really bad. The good one was rented out. I miss rental stores.. a magical time. I mean i’ts better now, streaming means 80% of movies are avaliable if you have a bunch of services and even if you just have netflix or hulu or hbo max, you still get a pretty decent selection each month. Plus digital rentals are super easy. Do miss redbox though. I mean it’s still there I’m just warry of something that relies so heavily on touching things in a state with a lot of trump morons. You CAN get Covid twice and I don’t wanna. Also we get some dated Dialouge as Scott commenting on Lucas being hot, he is good taste Scott, is given a “good job convincing me your not gay”. He and ramona end up having sex though so .. yay? I dunno. The series has a really weird thing about not getting bisexuals exist and as someone whose bi, and really against bi errasure it bothers me, it bothers me a lot. Though given O’Malley apparently has not only far more queer rep in snotgirl but a bisexual lead, he’s clearly learned so i’m not going to drag him too hard on this. It was the early 2000′s. People were pretty damn stupid about this. Creators have gottten MUCH more important issues much worse.

So the next morning, Scott gets a call from his well meaning but ditzy mom, and reacts like you’d expect. His parents are in Europe to keep them out of the action and what not. Though apparently according to the last book his mom did read volume 3 at least. Or Wallace told her about the relevant bit. You make the call.

So i’ts Ramona’s turn to meet Sex Bomb-Omb. The group hang out and discuss Gordon Downie.

Look I don’t know indie bands. I have no idea who the tragically hip are I just know the name is really hipstery. We also get the recipe for Vegan Shepards Pie. None of them are vegan they just wanted to try it and I.. really want to make this some time. Just to see if it’s any good. But yeah it’s in general a fun casual scene, as Kim reveals she and Scott dated, just to break the tension, and Scott tries out Rammy but quickly backpedals. Just fun slice of life stuff. Oh and Knives is watching them from the window and takes Scott dating someone else as well as you’d expect.

So she gets some hair bleach to do some highlights and calls her friend Tamara over. We met her last volume as she dragged her along to the show, but it’s here we really get to know what she’s like.. i.e. the sane one in the duo, rightfully pointing out Scott’s not that great. Also Knive’s points out ramona’s “fat”, which is thankfully portrayed as petty sniping as while Ramona does have some curves it’s you know.. not remotely a bad thing and the kind of thing a teenage girl would harp on. Still she’s just in STEPS from this happening.

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But yeah.. it’s clear here Knives has some underlying issues to address and really needs therapy not to go after her ex’s current girlfriend with knives. I mean it’s in the name but still. Then again volume 4 has her dad going around with a katana or something like it wanting to murder her daughter’s older ex boyfriend he dosen’t realize is ex so it’s clear her whole FAMILY needs some therapy. But this does round her out and show there’s more to her.. a pretty violent and obessive side sure, but it shows she wasn’t just some one dimensional ego boost for scott but a person. One whose just as flawed as the rest of the cast.. but more sympatheic because they’ve all got about 6 or 7 years on her and at this age that’s a lifetime. And while Scott DID set this off by dating her which was objecitvely a bad idea... the rest of this isn’t remotely on him. He handled things BAD.... but all he wanted was for both of them to move on. Knives.. simply can’t admit Scott is not a nice person, was probably two timing her as Tamara points out, which as we know he 100% was, and is not some perfect guy she can’t replace: like Knives.. he’s just a person with faults and she’s too blind to see that.

So before we can get to the crazy stalker ninja fight, let’s instead get to Scott and Ramona hanging out where we meet Gideon, Ramona’s Cat who i’ll call Cat Gideon, both because I love steven unvierse and because it’s less confusing. This is a pretty slight scene as Ramona admits not a lot happened with Lucas and Scott’s apartment is a hole.. which yeah, yeah it is. Also she DEFINTLY dind’t cheat on him with any cocky pretty boys. Which would come off worse if it wasn’t for the pact Ramona was clearly doing it out of regret and Scott just liked like 50 pages ago about rembering his exes when one of them is his second best friend.. which neither would admit but you know it’s true. Stephen is third where he belongs.

So next morning it’s fight time, and Scott is glad wallace is going with him. It’s awkard going to fights alone. Which leaves me to wonder if before this comic Scott just.. fought random guys letterkenny style. Like they’d call up, schedule it and then he and one or more of his friends would go beat up a guy. It’s just.. hilarious knowing that this kind of thing is common in canda minus the ki attacks , flash effects, wizards, vegan psycics, ninjas, and roboticists. But damn I now want a scott pilgrimized letterkenny now more than ever. You know you do too don’t deny it. I”d love to see the hard right jay fight but iwth a loud “KO!” when he gets his ass knocked out. Also Casa Loma is a very real, very cool Toronto location, as I never realized as a kid, to the point that the lucas fight was filmed there for the movie.

So Scott approaches Lucas a bit star struck and upon finding out scott is.. punches him out as seen in the header image and throws him into a tower. When Scott regains conciousness, Kim and Neil have arrived and Lucas calls a time out. And it’s here we get to, while being the weakest of the 7, why I like Lucas.. he’s actually a pretty nice guy. At WORST he sold out. But the two have a pretty nice conversation over ritz and baby carrots, with it turning out, unsuprisingly Ramona did cheat on him with a cocky pretty boy, and while like Ramona he’s clearly moved on, it still hurts a bit and understandably so. He also warns scott while she might seem nice i’ts an act.

I mean it isn’t ALL an act, but she does have a tedency to put up walls and act pretty badly as we’re slowly finding out.. though given Scott does the exact same it only means.. she’s human. She’s not MUCH higher above him in terms of morality and this is where we get our first peaks into the fact the series isn’t just about Scott’s development but hers. But it’s understandably absent from volumes 1 and 2 since we need to know her first, and this volume is about getting to know her a bit and get a feel for who she is, something I ddin’t really get a grip on as a teen, but do now. We see more of who she is good and bad as the walls go down. She’s more SURFACE LEVEL functional than scott, but beneath it has a lot of the same exact issues. Lucas and Scott continue to GENUINELY bond, as Scott genuinely thinks the guy is talented and Lucas want’s an Oscar this year.. maybe not for the current film which is a romantic comedy with a teen star but hey, stars have done far worse in their Oscar years. I mean at least he’s not making a comedy about himself in a fat suit domestically abusing himself in a wig while he also plays an asian sterotype. He explains he almost didn’t get into the league but felt too important to ramona’s past.. plus he looks cool. Plus they let Patel in despite barely being in a relationship with her and being kind of a tool so they kinda had to let the handsome affiable movie star in. Scott wonders “wait league” and Lucas is understandably frustrated to find out Patel just sent a letter Scott didn’t read.. and at Matthew let’s be clear. I mean.. Gideon has to have known Scott wouldn’t read that since he’s been in his head. We’ll get to that in part 6. Point is they formed a league, hence why their organized enough to come after him like this and Scott understandably glares at Wallace for you know, having him play tony hawk and watch movies yet missing the fucking obvious clue they were all working together and they were only coming at him one at a time by choice.

Lucas offers to just.. take a bribe and SAY Scott beat him, Scott calls him a sellout jokingly and Lucas proves that while not AS bad as the rest of the League, he’s still a dick by telling him to kiss ramona’s sweet ass goodbye pilgrim. Okay either he’s seen her since high school or he’s fondly remembering a high schooler’s ass. Neither one is nice to think about. But Scott gets out of his ass beating by pointing out a ramp, real thing too used for the movie, and asking him to skate down it. Lucas says i’ts impossible, and Scott just whistles. So Lucas tries skating the impossible and dies via velocity. Yes really. Scott collects his change and gets a gift, a mytryil skateboard he.. can’t use because he dosen’t have a proficency for it and bemoans not picking it up in 5th grade. Also he didn’t get his autograph. He does get some coins though so neat. Yeah I mentioend Lucas was the least of the exes and I stand by it: He’s an intresting character, not a GREAT person but clearly a charming and nice enough guy who likely offered the bribe not because he’sd a sell out but because he genuinely liked scott, and is easily the best adjusted of the exes. But obviously a near non existant setup and a really hilarious and unsastifying finish just.. don’t really feel sastsifying. I mean i’t slampshaded, but after all the build up of her having 7 evil exes, the next one is just..filler. Not BAD, but not really anything special and giving Scott a an early pokemon victory, but unlike ash having done nothing to really DESERVE it. Thankfully both adaptations so far VASTLY improved on this. While Lucas is still affiable in the movie he’s also smarmy, if on better terms with Ramona, saying “he seems nice” after the tower throw and throwing in some stunt doubles. His fight goes from one of the least satisfying and weakst of the series, to easily one of the best of the movie. We’ll talk about that more there but obvious Chris Evans version is far superior, keeping the good traits while giving us an intresting fight.. and still keeping the skateboard death because it’s fucking hilarious and the movie improves on THAT too by having scott give flat wows as he slowly dies. The game likewise keeps teh skateboard death, if shortening it, and the skateboard, and while not changing his apperance does make him a hell of a tough boss. Took three tries and some online grinding to take him out. Still a hell of a fight. Point is while I genuinely like Lucas story wise.. this just dosen’t work for me and is pretty damn weak, even if it gives us some godo character insight we could’ve got that, and a fight and still had the finish we did.

That being said.. we DO get a fight instead, likely why the Lucas fight was so truncated. Next chapter and that evening or the next day or whatever, we pan over the real life tornto refrence library. It is a VERY nice touch thatt the comic and it’s adpations use either real places in toronto or reasonable subsittues. While not canadian myself I love the place and hope to visit Tornoto some day when the world isn’t a living nightmare and it’s really nice that like New York for Marvel, Brian Lee O malley really makes the city feel integral to the comic, like it’s own character. But Knives is ominously perched above. At second cup Scott is horrified to find Julie. Seconded. Julie takes the moment to give out to scott about him dating Ramona despite telling him no. Okay...

Yeah as you can probably guess I don’t like Julie. She’s not a good character. The movie did her better, with the bleeping gag and aubrey plaza’s performance, but in the comic.. she’s just the worst. She sucks bad. If she were an ice cream flavor she’d be pralines and dick. While she’s fine on OCCASION, and actually works in the next volume, outside of that she just gets more unplesant, more unlikeable, more bitchy, more unfathomabbly assholish every. damn. volume. I”ll give out about that a bit then too but I have to put up with her for the entire damn comic. Now her being bitchy to Scott is fair to a point: Scott is a mess, and she’s loyal to Envy in the breakup, and Scott’s own friends drag him on a daily basis. The problems are that she’s like that to EVERYONE, even Knives who isn’t about to stab her much as i’d like that. She’s unberable to Stephen whose tolerance for her is unfathomable, though the ending bits of volume 6 show maybe he just has terrble taste. She’s just a throughly unplesant, social climbing bitch who thinks she’s better than everyone. And it sticks out badly against the main cast; Scott is very bad with women and relating to people, but is also nice, charming and most of the damage he does is not intetional. Ramona puts up walls to keep others out but is also a responsible adult and often cuts through Scott, and at times others, internal bullshit. Wallace is an alcholic, but still a very responsible, very loveable guy who clearly cares about scott and supports him finacially and emotionally. Kim is VERY emotionally distant, very misntrhopic.. but also a good person who as we see as the series goes, has an inner light to her and often drags on Scott because she’s been putting up with his shit the longest and WANTS him to be better. Knives is an obessive and violent stalker.. who was also deeply hurt by an older man, dosen’t GET that her realtionship with scott was wrong and uneven, and is clearly not emtoinallyr eady for the deep feelings she’s having. And Stephen.. well he’s a talented guitarist but also enables scott and julie. Especially him enabling Julie.

Point is their all pretty well rounded, llikeable characters with flaws. Julie.. is just an ass. And this scene demonstrates that with flying colors. While Scott does ignore her because he’s too worried about his sister and girlfriend becoming friends, understandably given Stacey knows all his dark secrets, Julie spends two pages giving out and treating scott like some bad guy for persuing Ramona against her orders. And i’m going to break down why.. this dosen’t work.. on any level for her. 1) Ramona is not Julie’s property. She’s a big girl with her own free will. They aren’t even remotely close: Julie met her only barely before Scott, and given the dream thing probably not even that. And you could say Julie is just looking out for her... she dosen’t know Ramona well enough to KNOW if Ramona is still smarting over Gideon. She probably was.. but she readily, once the awkwardness passed, went out with scott and dove right into the relationship. While there’s still some scars as we’ll see.. she CHOOSE to move on and that’s her choice. If she wasn’t ready, she woudl’ve turned him down or broke it off by now realizing it was a mistake. 2) Scott has no reason to listen to her. She hates his ass, somewhat justifably but still, she hates him and has been against him since fucking colllege. She took his exes side in the breakup despite Envy still being partly in the wrong but paints him as some abusive dickhead and not just an insesntive dickhead. To him he’s just some villian she needs to reign in for her cool friend who wants nothing to do with her and grows to justifably hate her over time. Scott and Julie TOLERATE each other. They are not friend,s they do not like each other and never will. They are around each other because of Stephen. That is it. If Kim , Wallace or Stephen had asked, or at least made him wait for kinves. he probablyw ould’ve or at least considered it since while they take the piss out of him, they genuinely care about him and actually have shown they care about something other than themselves! Speaking of which the cou de gras 3) She’s a selifsh bitch: She is NEVER not in any volume seen as out for anyone but herself, and thus scott has no reason to trust her judgement. She berates Stephen, him and anyone who will listen, is only so loyal to envy because she’s famous, and as I said treats EVERYONE like dogshit. And given Scott is still a very flawed guy.. it takes a LOT for him to be so right and he runs out screaming when Julie mentions her.

So back at the library, Ramona brought Stacey along because the place is a maze. Scott calls Stephen and calls julie evil.. which given the last two paragrahs. Yeah. She is. She really is. But that goes nowhere as he dosen’t have Stacey’s number. He also thinks Julie was responsible for this which while she’s very much not.. would it REALLY be that suprising that if Julie were there she would’ve introdcued the two and set up their little hangout just to piss scott off? God I’m so sick of talking about her.

So the two after dropping off Ramona’s package decide to hang out a bit.. not long as Ramona’s got shit to do, but hey I agree with her logic i’m curious about this palce too. But before they can go up an elevator Ramona spots incoming.. and thus we get the fight of the volume. Though given the next one has two climatctic fights and one or two before that, they easily could’ve had both.. this is still the highlight of the volume. So Ramona snaps off a railing and before Stacey can give out about that she finds out WHY as Knives attacks with a pair of sais. And O’Malley did his homework as while you’d THINK it was just another dumb white person mistake.. O’Malley is asian, thoughw ether he’s candaian korean or canadian chineses, as his last name is korean but he has a large chinese cast in this very comic that might come from experince, I do not know and if you do know tell me. I’d like to refer to him properly as I don’t LIKE lumping all asian cultures into one basket. But not only that he did his home work, as Sai’s, while popularized in Okinawa Japan, were also used in other countries. I bring this up since I assumed it was just a simple mistake even knowing Brian was mixed-race, and was plesantly suprised to fine that know, I was the moron. And i’m fine with admitting that.

So we get a damn good fight.. and Knives figures out Scott WAS cheating on her. Granted she assumes so due to seeing Ramona at the refrence Library, before he actually cheated and clearly blames Ramona for it, but still, it fucking hurts. Plus while her attacking Ramona, who initally assumes she’s gideon’s doing, which.. yeah sending a teenage assasian just to mess with her head does sound like him. So while Stacey does complain “ramona you can’t just tear out art objects” to which I say... yeah high, Stacey? NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW SCOTT’S EX IS TRYING TO KILL HER. SHE’S DEFENDING HERSELF. So we get one hell of a fight. It not only shows off that Ramona is one hell of a fighter herself, as is knives, but just how immature knives is, resorting to constnat fat jokes and taunts showing just how immature she is.. and unlike volume one where it was endearing and we just saw how sweet she was here it just comes off as mean, bitter, and uncomfortable. But again part of the series biggest charm is the main cast are all well fleshed out and throughly human. She’s doint this because she dosen’t know better and was raised in a house where, again as volume 4 will bear out, finding out her dad is going after scott with a samurai sword just warrants a “dad’s are so weird aren’t they” my point is her frame of refrence is a mite skewed. Plus this is a world where everyone but Stacey just calmly accepts big shonen fights break out, so it’s not that unsuaul to want to settle things with a fight and while i’ve joked about her killing Ramona we genuinely don’t know that was the goal> Could’ve been, easily given murder is peachy in this setting and just leads to a respawn according to O’Malley and would’ve just sent ramona back to her apartment. But I genuinely don’t think she has it in her to do it and while she could’ve planend to, she never would’ve. Plus Ramona easily leads the fight as while Knives uses hit and run tactics and tries make her follow.. Ramona is more annoyed than anything as she has shit to do. Knives only gets one hit in and while i’ts a pretty nasty scratch on the cheek, if thankfully not scarring.. Ramona shrugs it off when she brags about it and easily takes knives down with a potted tree. Knives runs and while she tells herself it’s to fight another day.. its really because her opponent was WAY stronger and way more ready for something like this than she probably planned on. She did defintely want a fight, she just wasn’t prepared to be outmatched so handily. It’s also a nice parallel to last book’s fight: Like with Scott and Matthew, while the fight SEEMS pretty even, in reality our hero/heroine was alwasy teh one in control and easily took care of the less experinced and less ready upstart, who likely wasn’t expecting a fair fight much less to loose.

So Ramona and Stacey wisely get out while Stacey explains Knives is indeed Scott’s ex, though is unaware of the cheating thing. Speaking of Scott he’s playing sonic and knuckles, and in fact kept wallace on the line before just to get advice because of course he did hence why stacey didn’t get through to him, but gets a call... from Envy.

This is easily the second best sequence in the boook, which was lovingly and wonderfully adapted to film and as a result I cannot read it without hearing Brie Larson’s voice for Envy , a nice mixture of seduction and condescension. It’s CLEARLY painful fo rhim, and we do get some things established as Envy toys with him, that it’s been about a year and that she left him for a cocky pretty boy, familiar.. and while Scott claims to not know what he looks like.. given Todd is clearly on her band cover... it’s not exactly hard to put two and two together. So after some awkard catchup and Scott telling her about ramona against his will, we get to the reason she’s here with Scott understanndbly being supscious and calling her a user.. which while Envy denys.. she ends up admitting to. She’s coming to town as estalbished and her opening act backed out, and since Scott has a band, and one that 2/3 of which she knows, she wants them to open for her. Scott naturally isn’t too intrested and thinks it’s just pity. The sequence. is masterful, using a watchmen style 9 by 9 panel layout and intercutting scott’s pained reactions and clear lack of comfort with flashes of envy on her side.. never showing her proper, but showing his memories or what he’s seen in magazines. It’s really striking and really sells the sheer discomfort Scott’s going through. So soon after Wallace gets home.. and finds Scott, drained and miserable on the floor, not even responsive. And this really is the scene that shows me that Wallace cares for the guy and cements that asshole he may be, he loves his buddy. He goes through possible scenarios that fit scott: Food poisoning, finding out Wallace saved over his final fantasy save (though he rules it out as last time that happened he was crying), that ramona dumped him.. before Scott let’s out a pathetic and miserable “Ennnnnvvv”. Wallace , who was at ground zero for that relationship as we’ll find out, realizes this and lets out a little shit, unsure how to help and pissed off at that bitch for once again hurting him like this. As I said it shows how Wallace knows scott in and out and loves him dearly.. and how he knwos about this paticuarly heartbreak better than anyone but Scott and Envy themselves. IT’s just a really tearjerking scene, as we get a sense of WHY scott spiraled into an ego boost of a relationship: His last one REALLY tore him in half, and he’s still not completely healed from the emtional bisection.

So Scott gets more bad news next chapter as Stacey tells him about the fight and he’s worried he’s going to loose ramona on top of this. I mean he desrves it.. .but it’s clear she’s the best thing to happen to him after a really rough year of denial and poor decisionss and loosing her will likely only make him WORSE. He also breaks the bad news, to him at least to the band about the gig. Stephen, being kind of a dick who while understandbly excited about a big gig fails to see his friend REALLY isn’t happy about this nor remembers you know, that the person offering this tore his heart out indiana jones style and while they should take the gig despite the risks, it’s too big an opportunity not to, he should be fucking senstive about this. Kim however... has a suprising and heartbreaking reactoin to this. Which is spread over a few panels but i’m gonna string into one image for convince sake.

Just.. DAMN. I honeslty missed this both as a teenager and as an adult when I read through the books last time but holy shit is this a heartbreaking little moment, even more with the development she gets in later books. Keep in mind, over two books so far, Kim.. really hasn’t shown a lot of emtion. The most upset she’s gotten was getting a bit pissed about another a girl drummer. The only other time we’ve seen her sad was at 17 when Scott left. Her only emotions that we could see were angry and surly. But here? She’s genuinely upset and we see her walls break down for the very first time.. and it’s with the clear indication she NEVER really got over Scott. She never got proper closure and while she hasn’t let it so.. it’s been VERY clear she's been grossly uncomfortable with how he just likes to brush off their history, something that very clearly still bothers her and understandably so: 6 years , while a lot of time, still really isn’t long enough to just .. FORGET your first boyfriend , how he made you feel or the fact he took your virginity and you took his. Stuff like that sticks with you.. I’m ony assuming on the virginity thing but my point remains: To Scott it’s SEEMINGLY nothing, when really he’s probably just trying to brush it off because he dosen’t like dealing with things and given how Kim is wrongly assumed she can’t feel pain. I mean to anyone else i’d be a fair assumption and even i’m not convinced if she touched a hot stove she’d burn, but that’s phsysical this is emotional. DIffrent playing fields. Point is Scott’s kind of a dick and not having ANY closure for anything, Kim is still smarting from him leaving as much as Scott is smarting from Envy dumping him. And it somehow gets MORE painful.... which should’ve been the tagline for Bojack Horseman now I think about it but yeah: her line is what cuts me up the most “I saw her on the cover of Now. She’s pretty”. It’s a little line, it’s easy to see why I missed it .. but the subtext really stings. It’s that despite being VERY pretty, I had a crush on her as a kid and I still do now.. Kim just can’t help but compare herself to someone whose now a glamrous rock star. Their equally attractive but all Kim can see is ANOTHER person who Scott cared about more than her. Which seems petty but again he just.. abnadoned her. His moving wasn’t his choice but his not telling her as was framed earlier sure as hell was. And then just.. look at the next people he dates: A glamorous rock star (She wasn’t at the time but that’s for next week), a much younger girl who can’t possible challenge him, and an ultra cool american. To her.. it must feel like he just looks right through her to every other person intersted in him and never even consdered her as a person anymore. I mean.. jesus christ that hurts.. and makes me hate Stephen more since you know he dosen’t notice any of this.. though at least unlike with Scott it’s a bit more understandable because Kim’s so unflappable and he’s already ignoring very obvious and transparent emotional pain why shouldn’t this be any diffrent. So yeah no one’s happy about this, and that ends up including Stephen as he’s so insecure about his band’s talent he’s pretty sure they suck when their probably at least adaquate.

So while Scott dosen’t say anything, it’s clear he’s at least consdiering the offer as when we next see him he and ramona are heading to Envy’s show. And honestly it’s just a really sweet scene as Ramona asks about envy and the two banter and hold hands. A really nice palletee clensar since hte last few pages were like I was the one lucas socked in the gut. Also she assures him she dosen’t hate him, and asks about how the breakup happened, turning down any offers to hear the good times. It was new years eve one year ago, and he mentions it was over her leaving to meet some guy named Todd.. and Ramona finds the story familiar but brushes off Scott wondering if her todd and Envy’s todd wer ethe same guy as a douchey joke. When prying about what happened otherwise, Scott admits it was all a blur.. Ramona isn’t ahppy with the answer.. but it’s nto like it’s that unresonable: he was in deep with Envy, and the breakup was damn bad to the point it took a year for him to recover and end up in the relationship he is now and the one before this was clearly a cry for help. It also helps reinfroce just how much Wallace was there for him and probably WHY Wallace hates Envy so much. They probably live together simply because Scott needed a place after college, was in zero condition to get a job or do anything given his zombie like state.. and Wallace just had him move into his bed, platonically and into his place. It’s probably why while Wallace will complain ocasoinally he isn’t that on scott to find a job. He dosen’t need a paying roomate, they do fine just on his sallary and he has a steady, secure job in some sort of calling office, probably working in medical stuff like my mom. He needs his friend to be safe and happy, then he can get on his ass about being functional, as he is in present day. If nothing else this volume made me realize just how good a person Wallace is. The one thing he CAN remember, to Ramona’s disbelif is a restraunt opening up, the job story he hinted at last volume: basically it was a fancy tex mex place called, and this is one of the best restraunt naems in the history of fiction brace yourself: The Gilded Palace of Flying Burritos. Naturally, as would I as I love tex mex and that name, Scott loved the place, ate there most of the week and like me with some places I liked waited impatietly to get a job. He did and they were even super generous as the food was FREE. Which is a euphoric feeling I relate to, though I also liked any discounts I got. seriously when I worked at Bagel and Bagel a good chunk of my paycheck was eating there for dirt cheap every shift. I miss that place so much. Like even after I left there I still like a good bagel sandwitch. And it wasn’t covid or anything it was just low staffed and slowly coming apart due to a lack of a solid manager after Crystal, the manager who hired me, transfered to a store closer to her home, which I do not blame her for.

Point is I get it even if Ramona thinks this is all made up. Anyways at Lee’s Place, based on the real life Leo’s place, everyone’s gussied up: Steven got an awful haircut and Kim...

But no time to dwell on how great kim’s..everything is.. who DID Neil bring to the concert?

While Kim is VERY much enjoying this, everyone else is a bit freaked with Ramona getting assurance her and Scott dated breifly, with Kim quipping her and neil will probably date even breiflyer, and Stephen.. freaking out, wondering if she seduced him, and asking if they should take him out back and kick his ass..

Just..... that’s a lot of douche to unpack and this review has been VERY long and suprisingly hard already.. but fuck it, we don’t have much left to go let’s do this. Okay one did she seduce him.. I mean I GUESS, but really let’s be clear here: Neil is a horny, lonely, monosolobic 19 year old who lives with his sister’s college friend and whose life revovles around said guys band. Knives is adorable. She likely barely had to flirt with him to get him to say yes .As someone who was a lonely 19 year old doofus, I guarantee no matter the red flags I probably woudl’ve said yes provided she was 18 instead of 17, despite the abudant red flags such as neil vaugely looking like scott, neil being the one single man within scott’s circle to get her way back in, as Knives hasn’t realized she’s bi yet or given how much she looked up to Kim, she probably WOULD’VE gone for it. As would any sane person, which neither knives nor I entirley are. So she didnt’ so much seduce him as offer him a girlfriend he didn’t have and him being too intrested in having a sweet, caring girl on his arm to see the giant army of adrestian soldiers needed to carry all the red flags this presents.

And as for “do we need to kick his ass. “ Stephen.. did you kick SCOTT’S ass? No, you fucking abetted him and only stepped in for the good girl thing. You did NOTHING to stop his relationship with knives or tell him he was screwing up or look out for that girl’s well being. This will bite him in the ass even harder in volume 5, but even now it just makes him look REALLY fucking bad that, even if he probably dosen’t mean it, that’s at all on the table. Also.. Neil, unlike scott is doing slightly less wrong. While he is 20 to her 17, three years.. it’s HALF of what Scott and her’s age diffrence is, and far more equal in power structure. It’s still not.. GREAT, but my point is you did NOTHING when Scott did this, for far flimiser and less forgiavble reasons.. but when NEIL, whose been nothing but weirdly loyal to you dates her, you want to kick someone’s ass. I mean yes he’s being stupid: in a clear role reversal of the Scott and Knives situation, it’s obvious just from her expression that KNVIES is the one in control here, and the one using someone to ease her own pain. Granted it’s wrong, if not as wrong as Scott should techincally know better and Knives very clearly dosen’t, as well as get into a show of her faviorite band. Is what she’s doing wrong.. yeah... while she can’t see it again it’s what Scott did just not QUITE as fucked up due to not being AS embalanced. Should neil probably be dating her after scott did ? No. But should you be threatning him and not scott for you know, setting all this in motion? No. Jesus christ you suck Steven.

Thankfully while Scott presumibly calms Stephen down, Kim spots Hollie and her roomate Joseph, who will be suprisingly important. He’s very gay, very quite, very bearded and is only hear because the bass player is hot and when prodded on it....

Well said. Also I read that with John Heder’s voice fo rsome reason.. don’t know why, his career ended as quickly as it began because he REALLY did not pick his films well. He saw that he was going to be in a film with David Spade and Rob Schinder and didn’t fire his agent for suggesting it. Meanwhile Scott and Ramona run into Sandra and Monique, Scott’s old classmates who just sorta.. show up every so oftne, often backing up Julie because every Alpha Bitch needs a posse. As Boscha has proven once you loose your posse you loose your bitchy powers. They also ask if Scott and Ramona are an item which leads to a fantagious visual gag.

Also Stephen awkardly talks to the new couple, about how much Knives loves the band, and because why start reading the room now just sorta.. CASUALLY slips in the fact he knows her is because she and scott dated.

Granted Knives action this book really EARNED her that curveball.. but still, it’s transparently clear she’s both not over Scott and Neil’s a placebo, and that she loves the band... how the fuck did you get through college, much less get two loyalish friends Steve.

Kim tries to hide when she runs into Sarah whose with.. someon O Malley does not know, literally captioning it “I don’t know htis girl”. Fucking love that gag even if SOMEHOW kim is the roomate they all hate. Despite hte fact as the side story will bare out, her roommates are all pretty obnoxious, so i’ts probably because she’s the only sane person in that group and their VERY lucky kim just dind’t set the place on fire on her way out and let god do what he should’ve a long time ago. Also we meet Lynette, the band’s drummer who smokes “She must be evil” “Still hot though”... both accurate. Also Luke wilson is there.. no really. Just holy shit that’s awesome. Okay so with all of that out of the way, it’s time for the show. So after a full volume’s build up , and a really cool build up in the page before we finally properly meet clash at the demonhead, and miss envy adams.

Heck of a reveal and not the only one as ramona realized what the audience probably already guessed....

Dun dun dun! And since I don’t like leaving a cliffhanger dangling lest I have to... we’ll be getting to this next week.. what you thought i’d say right now or tommorow? This was a lot. But no i’m not leaving you too long. Next week, Evil Ex Crossover! Ramona and Wallace become BFF’s! We learn what the deal with Scott and Envy is! Scott faces the Ken to his Ryu! And Wallace gets a boyfriend. All this and more next week. for now...

Final Thoughts: This one.. was a VERY rough one to review and it ties back to this volume’s biggest problem: it is not paced very well. Like the series as a whole it has a pretty easy going, slice of life pace. The only ones without this kind of easy pacing are 3 and 6, and even 3 has some slice of life bits, their just both more focused due to the events going on. This one... well....

Pretty much. While this one has very important stuff going on, Scott and ramona getting closer, ramona getting more fleshed out, Wallace showing how deep his character is, Kim also getting fleshed out quite a bit, Knives showing off her crazy side, setting up the next volume, the second ex fight.. it’s all just kinda.. jumbled together. It’s not really until the knives fight onward the book takes on some really solid pacing and really gets going.It’s not a BAD book: ther’es some REALLY good character stuff as I dug into.. but the pacing is just really loose and without the Evil Ex fight as an anchor and with ramona and scott just sorta.. getting to know one another, in both biblical and non biblical senses, it dosen’t have either of the series main narrative thrusts. Even the knvies subplot really amoutns to nothing for now, as Ramona dosen’t find out Scott’s a cheater, and only distrusts knives now. That’s about it. It does improve on book one in characterization, with eveyrone being MUCH cleearer in terms of who they are and settling into their iconic selves nicely. Wallace’s more selfless and protective side pops up, Ramona starts to show mroe of her personality good and bad, Scott’s better traits are mixed a bit mor eeven with the douche ones, Knive’s far more unstable and violet stalker side emerges, and Stephen.. well fuck him, point is things are coming together.. but O’Malley still isn’t quite at peak power yet. Not bad and still worth a read like last time, just a bit uneeven is all. That being said... if you want O’Malley at his peak.. well then come back next week. Until then i’ll be doing my usual buisness of reviewing birds, refrencing simpsons and letterkenny, and putting my eyes back in after kim’s look up there. For now the sun’s setting and i’m out of here.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #ramona flowers #kim pine #stephen stiles #wallace wells #envy adams #lucas lee #oni press #Brian Lee O'malley #knives chau #neil nordgraf

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aspoonofsugar · 4 years

Text

The Way Back Home

Lila’s shoes are always red, just like the Handler’s. It is a nice bit of foreshadowing and symbolism that links the two characters.

At the same time, this detail reminds me of The Wizard of Oz (the movie). I don’t think that this is a planned reference, but I think some aspects of the story fit with The Umbrella Academy and especially with season 2.

REGINALD AND THE HANDLER: THE WIZARD AND THE WITCH

Five is ironically both proud and ashamed of this talent. This duality aka his wish to be a hero and his pride as a killer are well conveyed by his relationship with both his father and the Handler.

As stated in this meta, the Handler and Reginald embody two different tendencies of Five, aka his pride as an assassin and his wish to be a hero. These two things are opposite, so one would think the same about the two people connected to them. In a sense, this is true. As a matter of fact the Handler and Reginald’s objectives are at odds. On one hand the Handler does not really care about the world. On the other hand Reginald wants to save it.

Because of this, it might seem that the Handler is the Big Bad, while Reginald is the Big Good. However, it is clear since season 1 that this is not the case. In particular, it is true that the Handler is a villain, just like the Wicked Witch of the West. Still, this does not make Reginald a hero, just like the Wizard of Oz is an ambiguous character in the original story.

In short, the Handler is a completely negative character, while Reginald is a more complex one. She serves as the main enemy this season, but he is the character the protagonists need to face to complete their journeys. This is why the Handler works as a foil to Reginald. In this way, she underlines his negative traits:

Both Reginald and the Handler pursue kids because of their extraordinary abilities and abuse them trying to mold them in who they want. Not only that, but in the end they both discard these children to take in “better ones”:

That said, the reason why the Handler and Reginald abandon their respective kids is the opposite.

On one hand the Handler dicards Lila because she turned out different from her.

The Handler is unable to love, while Lila is mainly motivated by love. She tries her best to be an assassin out of love for the Handler. She falls for Diego and refuses to kill him. Finally, she wants to kill Five to avenge her parents. For better or worse, Lila is always motivated by love and this is precisely why the Handler can’t keep using her forever:

On the other hand Reginald refuses his children because they share his own flaws:

Reginald: “Despite years of training and weeks of preparations, you allowed Number Six to die on this mission”.

This is pretty clear in the scene above. There Reginald blames the kids for Ben’s death, but fails to recognize his own role in it. Reginald keeps telling his children to take responsibility. They should take responsibility for their powers, for their lives, for the world. However, he himself is a character, who always fails to recognize his own mistakes. Similarly, the things he criticizes his children for are usually traits he himself has.

Let’s consider this:

In a maybe simplicistic way, I am going to divide the siblings (minus Ben) in two groups:

a) Five, Luther and Diego want to be heroes, so they tend to be focused on saving the world.

b) Vanya, Allison and Klaus want to have fulfilling personal lives, so they tend to be focused on their relationships.

Some of Reginald’s children are focused on their mission of saving the world, while others simply want a fulfilling personal life.

Reginald fails at both things in ways that are incredibly similar to his kids.

On one hand Reginald, like his kids, is a failure hero. Just like Diego, he wants to save JFK, but fails. However, he is in a much better position to save the President than Diego and he is even warned by his children, who literally come from the future. Still, Reginald is too focused on antagonizing them and this leads to JFK’s death.

Similarly, he has trouble with a romantic partner just like Vanya, Allison and Klaus. Moreover, he eventually breaks up with Grace because he is not honest with her. This is exactly the same problem Vanya and Allison have.

Still, the two sisters in the end tell the truth to their partners and mendle their relationships.

Reginald instead refuses to open up to Grace and loses her.

In short, Reginald is a failure like his kids and he is even worse than them because he is less open to learn from his mistakes.

This is why in season 1, he ends up being involved with the apocalypse in all the ways the Umbrella Academy is.

Firstly, his mistreatement of Vanya and his cruelty to Harold Jenkins are among the factors that lead to the apocalypse. In short, Reginald is the heart of the dysfunctionality of the family and it is this dysfunctionality that leads to the end of the world.

Secondly, he deep down has the same delusion his sons have. He believes that to save the world it is necessary for the group to be together. However, him actually bringing the siblings together is what kickstarts the whole chain of events of season one. This is not to say that the siblings should be apart. In general, if they wanna grow as people they all need to solve their family issues. However, Reginald, like Five and Luther, is not being honest with himself. As far as we know, there is no logical reason as to why the Umbrella Academy should save the world. Still, there are plenty of emotional reasons as for why the characters want to bring the group back together.

In a sense, Reginald is probably the same. He too wants to bring the family back and for them to be heroes (so that he can succeed through them). However, instead of simply trying to reconnect with his kids, he chooses to kill himself.

This solution is a highly traumatic and manipulative one and it ties with Reginald not really wanting to put in the emotional work to make things better between him and his children. He gives them a trauma and leaves a bunch of secrets and of things unsolved.

In short, Reginald keeps reprimanding his children, but he fails to see how the flaws he points out are flaws he himself has. Differently, whenever one of the kids tries to call him out, he is ready to dismiss them.

In conclusion, Reginald, just like the Wizard of Oz, is looked up by the protagonists as the person that can fix everything. He can fix both them and their situation. The truth is that Reginald is just a normal person, who is even more flawed than his kids.

This is why he gives Five the same answer about the Apocalypse as the Handler:

It is not really because Reginald is not interested in saving the world, but because symbolically he can’t and his flaw is that he thinks he can. His kids should be more objective about what kind of person Reginald is and see him not as a hero or a villain, but as a human, who is greatly flawed to boot.

THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO BECOME WHO YOU WANT TO BE

To summarize, the season starts with a blue vortex taking the siblings to a far away world.

In order to go back home, they have to face a Wicked Witch:

And they seek help from an ambiguous Wizard, that is actually a person from another world:

However, this Wizard can’t really help them and the most he can do is to highlight that they already have within themselves the means to reach their objectives:

Reginald: “You only scratched the surface of what you were truly capable of. If only you had focused”.

Klaus: “Wait, wait, wait. What…What potential?”

Reginald: “Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities. Start small. Seconds, not decades.”

As you can see, there are some similarities (very loose ones) with the Wizard of Oz basic story-line.

What is interesting is especially the last part. Reginald manages to be useful to his kids in mostly two occasions. He manages to make Klaus realize he has more potential than what he thinks. And he manages to make Five think about the way he has been using his power.

Both times, the characters are able to unlock new powers in the finale because of their father’s words and they use these new abilities to save their siblings:

The siblings unlocking new abilities is important because their powers symbolize both their flaws and the way to overcome them. I have analyzed each sibling here and in many cases I have shown how their powers are symbolic.

Here, I will make a quick summary and highlight that the siblings’ powers represent both their problems and their solutions in ways that are often ironic.

1) Luther’s power is superstrength. However, this power contrasts with his sensitive personality:

In order to grow Luther must become a “stronger person”, not in the sense that he must be physically strong, but in the sense that he must be stronger psychologically.

Moreover, he has gorilla DNA, but, especially in season 1, he wants to act as a superhuman. The truth is that he is neither a monster nor a superhuman, but just a person and he should accept it.

2) Diego’s power is trajectory manipulation. Despite this, he is not really able to change his own trajectory to one different from the one Reginald chose for him:

3) Allison’s power is that she can turn lies and illusions into reality. Her voice can literally control others. Despite this, she often finds herself losing it and she does not realize that it could actually change the world for the better, if she learnt to use it correctly:

4) Klaus’s power is that he can communicate with the deads. Despite this, he is scared of death and does not accept it:

He is annoyed by his siblings not listening to him. but he himself does not listen to the voices of the ghosts, who would like to convey a message to the livings. He prefers to use drugs to keep them at bay.

He is literally a medium, someone who should create links between people, but he refuses this role. He isolates himself from the major conflicts and refuses to involve Ben in the family conversations.

5) Five’s power is that he can control space-time. Despite this, he has never enough time:

Five (every two seconds): “We have no time for this!”

This is a recurring motif in Five’s story. Not only does he always have no time to stop the apocalypse, but he is also the one, who has spent the least amount of time with his family. Moreover, he is the one, who has “lived” the least, despite being the oldest.

This is why him rewinding time at the end of season 2 is important:

Reginald: “ So much can change in a matter of seconds. One can overthrow and empire. One can fall in love. An acorn doesn’t become an oak overnight. “

It is because is focus is switching on the idea that a bunch of seconds matter and that it is small moments that are important in one’s life.

6) Ben’s power is to be a portal for a monster. Ironically, he is actually the one, who more openly conveys the feelings of love for his siblings. He is the one, who comforts Vanya this season and he generally works as the heart of the family in everyone’s memory. It is possible more focus on him will make a more in depth analysis possible, but as for now this contrast between his personality and his power is the only thing we have.

7) Vanya’s power is that she can convert sounds into energy. It is also clear that her powers are strictly connected to her emotions. Despite this, she usually represses her feelings:

This repression is symbolically conveyed with her always ending up imprisoned somewhere:

The physical prisons she finds herself in are nothing more than representations of her constricted mental state. It also ties with the paradox that she always ends up victimized despite being the strongest among her siblings.

In short, the siblings’ arcs are conveyed also with them learning to control their powers better because their powers are nothing, but underdeveloped parts of their personalities. If they were to better understand themselves they would be able to perfectly control their abilities.

They are like the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. They are all searching for things they already have. It is just that they fail to notice and search them outside themselves.

It is because of this ignorance that they lose against Lila.

LILA: A CHILD AWAY FROM HOME

Lila is just another version of The Umbrella Academy kids:

She is them and who they could have become. This is why her power lets her copy theirs.

Hopefully, Lila will be back and we will be given more insight on what her power means for her character. For example, @hamliet suggested that Lila does not really know who she is and this is why she copies others. This reading fits and will probably be explored more in future seasons.

However, it is clear that the choice of Lila’s power has mostly to do with the Hargreeves’ siblings.

She copies their powers because she is them. After all, she is one of the children born the 1st of October 1989 and was stolen and trained by an abusive parent. Moreover, she foils each sibling in a specific way and her fights (or lack of a fight) with them say how.

First of all, she copies Vanya’s power and uses them to create a barrier and to destroy the farm with an energy wave:

She is emotionally distancing herself from them (creating a barrier) and lashing out on them (energy wave). She is acting on her negative feelings toward them and attacking them. This is precisely what Vanya does at the end of season 1. If Vanya is the angry child they have to fight and to save in season 1, then Lila is the lost and angry child they have to confront in season 2. If Vanya has been hurt by her family, then Lila has been hurt by Five. Both characters have their reasons to be angry and even if these reasons do not justify their actions, they need to be aknowledged.

Then Lila confronts Luther and copies his superstrength. While they are fighting she mocks him in this way:

It is ironic that she says so because what makes she and Luther similar is that they both lack self-esteem. They both feel that they are not enough and want to prove to their parent their value. This is why Lila shows jealousy over her mother’s treatment of Five, for example:

Both Luther and Lila must overcome their parent’s shadow and start living for themselves, so that they can figure out who they are.

At this point, Lila faces Allison and she is able to take Allison’s breath away thanks to a “rumor”:

It is an occurrence of Allison losing her voice (a recurring motif in her arc). Why does Lila manage to steal it? It is because Lila is a liar, just like Allison herself:

Lila too builds her major relationships on lies. On one hand she is on the receiving hand of this by the Handler:

On the other hand she lies to Diego:

Lila and Allison are two people so scared that they won’t be loved if they are their true selves that they have the tendency to lie to both themselves and others.

Finally, Lila finds Five aka his major target and they start fighting each other. The truth is that Five dislikes Lila because she represents everything he dislikes about himself. Not only she is an assassin of the Commission like Five used to be, but he has unknowingly done to her what the Handler did to him:

Lila is the direct consequence of Five’s violence. Moreover, she is also the character that challenges Five’s pride the most directly:

Five has tied his identity with his talent as a killer, but Lila is clearly as skilled as him, if not more, and they are able to go toe to toe. Of course, the thing is mutual. Lila too is proud of her talent and wants to prove herself. This is one of the reasons she dislikes Five since the beginning.

Both Lila and Five are victims of a system that has manipulated them and tied who they are to killing. They should both overcome this imposed identity and let go of a pride that is negative for them.

At this point, Diego and the others come. This scene is symbolic of the whole family facing another version of itself. What is more, they attempt to do what they did not in season 1 with Vanya. Instead of trying to kill Lila, they try to reconcile with her and to have her join their family:

In particular, Diego is the one, who does so and it is because Lila represents a positive quality in his case. She represents Diego’s potential to “change trajectory” and they manage to influence each other positively. It is not by chance that when Diego arrives Lila is holding a knife aka his signature weapon. That knife is supposed to hurt Diego and his family, but he manages to change its trajectory:

This is because both Lila and Diego are two characters, who are clearly able to change and improve. Lila, like Diego in season 1, is obsessed with revenge, but is able to let go because of a loved one. In other words, Diego teaches Lila what he had learnt from Patch.

However, in the end Lila does not join the family (at least for now) and runs away. Why is that so thematically? Moreover, what about Klaus? Why did she not face him?

She does not face Klaus because she is unable to face her own grief, just like Klaus runs away from his own. Ironically, Klaus’s power is the one that could let Lila contact her dead parents and find closure. However, the two do not meet and Lila’s story in season 2 ends with more grief:

Sure, the Handler never cared about Lila, but she was still her adoptive mother and Lila will have to process her loss. It is the same for Klaus, who will have to process his unsolved feelings for Ben:

Both characters have to process loss and grief (let’s think that Klaus’s focus this season was mostly about accepting Dave’s death), but they struggle to do so. This is why they are similar and this is also why they do not face each other. It is because they are both running away. Klaus runs away from his power and from its potential for catharsis and reconciliation. Lila too runs away and it is actually the last thing she does on-screen. She runs away in time to avoid facing the pain and conflict she has in front of her.

In a sense, she is following in The Umbrella Academy’s footsteps. They ended season 1 time-travelling to escape the apocalypse, while Lila ends season 2 time-travelling to escape her ghosts and contradictions.

The question then is if she will manage to go back home. It won’t be easy because as Allison says in the last episode:

Allison: “I wish I could tell you it’s gonna be easier from here, but it’s not. It’s going to get worse before it gets better (...) before we fins the right way home.”

This is true for the Hargreeves as well. They might have managed to leave Dallas, but they are still far away from home:

Just like Dorothy initially loses her chance to leave Oz with the Wizard, they are still stranded. That said, they just have to remember that the means to find their place in the world is something they have within themselves. They just have to realize it.

#tua #tua meta #the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy meta #hargreeves siblings #lila pitts #reginald hargreeves #the handler #my meta

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