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tartrazeen · 2 years

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Tartra's Head Canon (HC) for Why Nick Missed the Evac + Why Nick Got the Witch in Tartra's Other HC (Part 1)

Here's my disclaimer right at the start:

I hate when other people do this.

Angst is fine, drama is fine, but 99% of the time, I don't like people defaulting to this kind of extreme over and over again. It's cliché in an unfun way, and as much as I love saddling Nick with as much baggage as I can fit onto him (and then I build a little bridge for him to get over it and then I pile more baggage onto that bridge lol get wreckt), I never wanted to be the person that was like, "uwu this is sad, i'll toss this in for quick sad-points lol what canon."

So I understand if everyone's first reaction is, "Tartra, that's stupid. He would've said something during the game. You don't just casually put things like that in there. That's dark."

To which I say, "i know i know but hear me out - what if he does kinda allude to it in a way that is fake 'cause i just made it up for him, and we really lean into the part where he's the only character to be like 'I am intentionally not telling you a goddamn thing about me beyond my first name. Not for the sake of time or simplicity, but because eat my butt.' does that work for you?"

If it does, awesome - let's sad-party with Nick with a bit of a descriptive fic, and Part 2 will be here for where I get into some Nellis-related commentary.

If it doesn't, then no harm, no foul, and please note that I'm very much overhyping the whole thing anyway (probably) because uwu it's my HC and I want people to give me an A+ please if I'm gonna throw it onto the internet. Like Nick and the Hindenburg, my ego is a giant balloon that could burst into flames at the faintest whiff of, "This isn't my thing but you seem to like it so I hope it makes you happy <3" I need you on board or I can't have you on my theory-blimp.

If you're genuinely like, "Is it really so bad that you need all of this preamble in front of it?"

Well - valid point! Totally valid. I don't know everyone's limits, so I'm just trying to be a careful neighbour for you folks. It might turn out to be a done-to-death idea - who knows? I'll leave it up to everyone to judge.

But anyway tw: kid death

SETTING THE STAGE

From my last HC about which survivors got what Special Infected mutation, I said Nick was a Witch.

Let's put aside all the wonderfully self-indulgent magical zombie powers that that gives him and focus on the sad, angsty parts:

Special Infected get that mutation by being infected with the Green Flu and having the right kind of physiological conditions for it to change into that

The 'right conditions' for a Witch is - as I called it - the shock of grief

I didn't describe it very well because I wanted it to work as a little teaser for this, but essentially, it's that stomach-dropping, paralyzed-in-your-own-body fugue state a person can have after getting some disastrously terrible news.

Let me compare that against someone like Zoey: in the comics, she has the almost objectively most depressing backstory in the squad. Her mother turns and kills her father, and then she has to finish her father off.

I do not count that as the same reaction as this. What I counted it as was 'nausea' (I kept it simple; it's obviously more than that) so I could assign her the Spitter, because she grits her teeth and pulls the trigger. No fugue state.

However!

Later in the comics, Zoey finds out from a scientist that if she was immune or asymptomatic, she got that from her father (i.e. her father wouldn't have turned). She immediately reacts to that in what I would consider the shock-of-grief reaction I'm describing here: horror, guilt, extreme regret, and betrayal - by herself, maybe, by the world, by the zombies, I don't know. A lot of irrational and uncontrollable feelings rising up all at once to knock her down in that moment.

If that had been her 'point of infection' that I talked about it my last HC, then she would've been a Witch too. It didn't work out that way but it's what I'm going for here with Nick.

WHY NICK WAS IN GEORGIA

Canonically, he was dickin' around. He's there to gamble and incidentally gets trapped right as the zombies hit. So here are the key canon points I'm sticking with:

Nick is not from Georgia

Nick doesn't say where he's from

Nick moves around a lot

What it doesn't say is "Nick has no home anywhere." AND BOY OH BOY, that's a treat for me.

Without drowning you in even more HCs, the short version is that he's in Georgia for work (the HCs get into what constitutes work but we don't need that right now ok it's crime stuff it's fine). He has to travel to various places for work so that's not unusual, and there are enough breaks in the work itself that he's got a lot of time to sit around.

That's it. You're all caught up with what you need to know there. :)

THE KID THING

hahahaha ok let's do this

Nick, like I said, doesn't talk. If he's got some sketchy stuff happening, I get why he'd be a private person. If it's organized and sketchy, I can see why he'd be on guard against anyone wanting to know about him. Tons of room for revenge in that line of work.

If it's organized, sketchy, and part of the 'family business' (ok now ur caught up), then I vividly see him refusing to give his potentially recognizable surname (but why give his real first name? he's sad and distracted, moving on), as well as having been raised in an environment where if you're not in the family, you don't get know anything about the family. It's a standard precaution to keep people from extrapolating way too much information from seemingly innocuous details (e.g. why military family aren't supposed to talk about buying summer clothes or something in case the 'enemy' pieces together that a big operation is coming up that requires these families to move overseas).

So Nick, out of habit, doesn't ever stumble across the topic of kids.

There aren't any kids here, anyway. And with a deflective answer like, "Oh, I just go from place to place," there's no reason to think he'd be settled down enough somewhere to raise anybody. Also, Nick is an asshole, and although he has a kick-ass number of Tired Dad lines (shoutout to "Ellis, why don't you tell us about this on the helicopter?"), he has ten times as many "Nobody can take a joke anymore >:(" ones. He's impatient, he's mean, he snaps at everybody, and that's nowhere near the attitude you'd expect from a Good Dad.

To be clear: Nick is sad. He is going through some shit. But even if I give him a pass on that for lines like, "That's great, sweetie - is there a man up there we can talk to," I am not gonna go 'uwu he's actually very nice when there aren't zombies' when there are casual banter lines for him like, "Rochelle, do you want me to tattoo your boyfriend's name on your arm? I'll just write 'Greasy Pig', we all know who we're talking about." Excellent we're-gonna-be-like-brother-and-sister-but-also-if-you're-ever-dtf-let-me-know energy, but more than that, pure and simple oh-so-you're-just-normally-like-this-huh.

But, but, but.

I HC that he's actually a great dad, and given that his definition of banter is, "No, see, I'm being an asshole with you," I think the only piece that'd still need to fall into place is that his kids are kind of assholes too. In a cute way, like how we all think Nick's pretend-assholery is cute. Like - I'm 90% sure he'd have some strict "We don't say things like that" lines when his kids are being rude, but it's just that his definition is so mixed with, ":3 i mean i thought i was funny" that those lines are in completely different places than they should be. (But then you remember that it's Nick and you're like "oh! got it.")

I have other HCs for the kids but they're disgustingly sweet and domestic. You don't need them. And to show you how flexible I am with tossing ideas around on the specifics, I have separate head canons for when it's an older kid and a younger kid, when they're twins, and when they're triplets (lmaooooo three mini-nicks). These are the only consistent facts you're gonna need to know:

They live with him

When he's travelling, someone else in the family stays over

They know to call him when they have a problem, because worst-case scenario, he'll call someone else to go sort it out

No big deal. This is their system and they're used to it. Cell phones exist.

For maximum angst, I'm gonna go through the version with the older kid and the younger kid. They're both boys, one's 11 and one's 6, and they're way more interested in chirping their dad over having to go to Georgia (derogatory) than they are about the stuff around the Green Flu. After all, dad hates germs. If it was anything serious, he wouldn't go, so that means everything is fine.

Which I think is Good Dad behaviour! Just because you're abandoning your kids right before the apocalypse starts, it doesn't mean you have to get them worried or anything. Nick's keeping an ear out for the news back home. He checks in, shares the new bullshit about this state, makes sure they're not stressed, gives a pop quiz on what to do in an emergency, and reminds them that all they have to do is call if they need him but he'll be home in like a week or whatever. They have a few nights like that. Simple.

MOM

It's maybe night three when the 11-year-old mentions that kids at school said other states are evacuating.

Which is true. This really did start taking a turn - but it's like wildfires. The country's big. Just because one corner of it's burning, it doesn't mean the whole place is gonna go up.

"But yeah, people are stupid, so flying back's gonna be hell. I'll try to catch something earlier so I beat the rush," Nick says, being a Good Dad. "You freaking out?"

No, of course not. This is Nick's kid and he's totally cool with it. People are stupid, so even if nothing's going on, it just makes sense to come back earlier so it doesn't turn into a whole thing. There's nothing to freak out about.

"Your wife is, though," the 11-year-old casually explains. "She wants us to go to her place. Y'know - in case we do have to evacuate."

Nick, very much allowing the words "Ex-wife" to cancel out with "haha fuck her she's not getting on the plane," thereby choosing to say nothing towards correcting this child either way, simply replies with, "Oh?"

"She keeps calling and asking. Do we go?"

Nick, being a very Good Dad, says, "I mean, it's up to you. You two are the ones that'll have to stay with her."

"Her apartment's small."

"HAHAHAHA IT IS! IT'S SO SMALL," Nick doesn't say. He goes with, "Yeah, but you're not going to be there for long. Just until I get you."

"So you do want us to go."

Fuck. He hates this kid.

He loves this kid but he hates this kid, and he's not going to let a child twist his words around like this is amateur hour.

"Well, kiddo, if you're calling me to ask about it," he says, twisting it right the hell back, "then I want you to do whatever makes you comfortable. She can pick you up or you can stay. It's your choice."

"... She's going to keep bothering us until we do it."

"Okay. Then it sounds the same thing that I'm dealing with for flights. If it keeps her quiet, just head over there and let me know when you get in."

Deal. The family-approved version of 'Hey Dad, shit's getting scary and I'm kinda scared, what do we do' and 'oh fuck that's bad, go to your mom's place and use her body as a shield lol' concludes with everyone staying deliberately calm.

EVAC DAY

Nick's not scared, but he isn't exactly relaxed.

Normally he'd never touch the word 'scared' to test out where he is, but this is a special occasion. His morning after a last, decently fun night before he flew home early got interrupted by a change of plans: the evacs had started.

It wasn't everywhere yet. Some states were hit hard, but some were only being cleared as a buffer between them and the places that were still safe. That'd make getting back interesting, but as he managed to explain to his kids (thank Christ the little one got his early-bird gene), the only one who had to scramble right now was him. Georgia had hit the fan. He was calling to let them know he'd be heading to one of the evac sites, but in short, they might not hear from him for a while. Don't panic. Everyone was on the phone with everybody - he was lucky to get through at all.

Don't call him unless someone was dead or dying or if orders came for them to move, too.

He's fine.

He's going to be fine.

The bigger evac sites are the ones he expressly avoids. They're too central and easy for every local yokel to get to. He's not planning on dying anytime soon, but especially not because a crowd of them found out that Mee-maw didn't count as carry-on. So he picks one of the smaller evac sites. Those might leave later, but the evac crew would already need to be there to set up. Since a schedule would go out the window if something started getting worse, it put him first in a very short line with ample time to spare.

Theoretically.

Because in reality, good God, the place became the designated hot spot for Cletus and Company to bitch about fascist government intervention. Everyone and their tractor had crowded the lobby to scream at the front desk. By the time he noticed his phone going off in his pocket, he was twelve hillbillies deep, and had to fight through another wall of fourteen before he reached one of the conference rooms off to the side.

Not that he wasn't grateful for the reprieve, but he'd expressly told them not to call unless it was an emergency. Someone had better be dead or dying right now. The thought of having to track them down was giving him a headache.

It was the little one calling. He'd figured out that much while he was knocking his way through the crowd to get here, trying to shout over the noise to tell his son to wait a second.

He assumed it'd be easier to hear now that he was somewhere quiet. Instead, he just hears blather over the other end of the line.

"I need you to slow down," he says, juggling a lot of frustrations and Good Dad techniques. "Take a breath, focus on the biggest thing, and start from there."

The 6-year-old takes a breath, then goes right back into blather. The spike of annoyance Nick gets is tempered by the thought that maybe there's some new report, and gets uncoiled entirely when he remembers the 6-year-old's probably scared too.

It's not until he settles in at the conference table that an awkward pit builds in his stomach. If this was really the 6-year-old being scared, he figured the older one would be calling him demanding that he deal with it. That was how it worked: the 6-year-old liked answering the phone, but the 11-year-old was his 'Let's just call dad to figure it out' kid.

Blather, hiccups, crying - before he went any further, he paused and listened for more details. He did it for a living, so he might as well reap the benefits of it for himself.

The 6-year-old was slowing down, which was excellent. Slowing down meant shock and panic, not immediate danger. Something had happened, but the kid was just trying to wrap his head around putting it into words.

Weirdly quiet.

Not whispering - which was excellent for the same reasons - but notably hushed.

Nick's on the verge of piecing that together when the 6-year-old hiccups something about someone being dead.

Okay. Progress. Definitely validated the choice to call, but he's -

"... Okay." The 11-year-old. According to the 6-year-old, at least. Which - was odd, basically, because he was calling from inside - a bed, that's what it was. The 6-year-old sounded like he was under a bed. Stomach down probably, which would make him sound a little quieter, and being in a smaller space would dampen the acoustics and all of that. "So what do you mean 'he's dead'? What does 'dead' mean - 'hurt'?"

The 6-year-old very helpfully said he doesn't know.

"Well - did you see him? Hear him? I'm not there," Nick says. "If you ran, that's okay, but I need more than that."

The 11-year-old jumped out the window. From the fourth floor. Apparently.

"Where's your mom?" He's trying not to be mad. His voice is steady, but he knows this isn't a prank. Something has happened, and it's pretty bullshit that this is his source of information. "Is she inside?"

Yes, their mom was inside.

"Is she okay?"

She was crying. Of course.

"Great - that's as close to okay as she gets. I need you to put her on the phone."

The 6-year-old was scared. And hiccupping. And the only responsible person over there.

"I get it, buddy," Nick has to coax. "I know it's scary. It sounds bad. But we need an adult, and right now, the only one around is your mom. So I'm going to need you to be very brave and get the phone to her, okay?"

The kid's 6. It doesn't take much more than that to get him to agree. Nick hears the shuffling of him getting out from under the bed, opening the door, and heading over to what's probably the kitchen. It's a little more echo-y.

"Listen," Nick says when the kid stops and decides he doesn't want to do it anymore, "I'm gonna throw you the biggest party in the world when I'm back, but you've gotta make this happen first."

The 6-year-old doesn't want to. Nick's aggravation is rising.

"Is she there? Is she conscious? Is it just the two of you?"

Yesses for all of them - Nick's not sure he should've asked about that last one.

"Then you've got everything you need," he says. "Unless she's waving a knife around - is she doing that?"

No. Just crying.

"Okay." Fine. "Give her the phone."

"But -"

"I'm not asking. I'm telling you." Good Dad out. Tired Dad in. Something was wrong and he would very much like to get an answer now, please. "I'm not telling you again."

So the 6-year-old goes to give his mom the phone.

It's not that it happens fast. It's just that compared to how long Nick sits listening to the screams, the amount of time he listens to everything else is a lot longer. The crying, for one, takes its own eternity. It's loud. It's odd. He hasn't heard it before.

He assumes the silence from after his phone - or the phone at home, he's not sure which - has finally died takes the longest. He's not completely sure when that starts.

But he knows when it ends.

It ends because of the yelling outside, which just came out of fucking nowhere and very violently pissed him the fuck off.

Nick gets to the door and rips it open -

"Thank God," some girl says. "Someone else. Was there an evac here?"

The lobby's empty.

"Yeah. On the roof," Nick can hear himself say.

The lobby wasn't empty a second ago.

"We didn't miss it," the only hick left in sight chimes in, delighted. "C'mon - I told you we didn't miss it!"

"Son, we're not up there yet," the last one says. "There a reason you're not?"

... Oh! Him -

"Took the scenic route," Nick tells the guy. Black dude. Big, but already out of breath. "See you up there." Maybe. "Move."

The kid in his way jumps out of it - but then all three of them are immediately on his ass as he goes for the stairs.

He doesn't hate the cardio. At least it gives him something to focus on. He might get sweaty under his suit, though, and that'd be annoying.

He liked this suit.

God - there were a lot of stairs.

#l4d2 #l4d2 nick #sad times #my stuff #good job tartra

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blackbat05 · 3 years

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Nervous Butterflies

Bucky x Reader

A/N: I’m a HUGE Bucky fan so yes this has been a long time coming as I had this sitting in my drafts for a while! I think this headcanon is mostly inspired by what I was going through last week. I always like to think what my favorite characters would so in my situation even though it may not be comic/movie accurate but hey, that’s what writing is for right? Anyways hope you enjoyed it! Like and comment if you can!

Bucky’s a very observant person. He walks into the study room and sees that you are extremely quiet in front of your computer.

‘What’s on your mind?’ He places your favorite ginger tea on the coaster.

It took you a while to process his question. Your heart was beating faster than usual, you just had lunch but your stomach felt strangely hollow and your chest tightened at every thought that passed through your mind - oddly reminiscent to the main lead in a horror film preparing for a jump scare.

But you figured that it was best to get things of your chest least you turned into a walking zombie for the rest of the day.

‘You know how I’m taking this advanced counselling course at my workplace?’ He nods. ‘Well, I have to do a roleplay in tomorrow and I’m just anxious about messing up.’

As you take a sip of the warm tea, Bucky nods thoughtfully. Bucky was a man of few words, you learnt that from Sam, former colleague at the VA and now Captain America. When you first met the quiet man, he barely said more than ten words while the three of you were at a café in Brooklyn.

‘I know, it sounds stupid. This is my job so why am I feeling so nervous right?’ You chided yourself as you realized how ridiculous you must have sounded.

One thing about Bucky? He knew the right words to say the exact moment.

‘It means you’re human,’ he tells you. ‘Nerves will never leave us till the day we die. It’s up to us to deal with them. Some people deal with it better. Some people? Well… just look at Sam,’ he finishes adding his usual dry humor. ‘The point is, it’s good that you don’t want to make mistakes… but you will. Learning how to accept that fact is what makes you a better person.’

He offers to take your cup back to the kitchen, leaving you to mull over his advice for a while.

When he’s done, he drops by your room, telling you that he’s going for a night jog. ‘I’ll go slow,’ he promises, ‘and maybe we can have some pizza afterwards.’ You accept.

As you pound the pavement with your running shoes, you feel that every muscle in your body is working to pump the much need oxygen. But you feel alive.

You had your reservations running with a super soldier. Especially on a 5 mile run. No surprises there, Bucky kept his promise. He had paced you perfectly - not too slow, not too fast. You ran to keep yourself fit but it was never your cup of tea. There were always exceptions though, like today. You felt that your mind could wander around the never ending grassland that you set up in your mind.

While waiting at for your pizzas Sal’s diner, Bucky decides to start the conversation. ‘Feeling better?’

You were enjoying your coke that was just served, so you didn’t expect the conversation starter from him. Careful not to let the liquid go into the wrong pipe, you answer, ‘Yeah… much. Thanks Bucky.’

He pauses for a moment. This is so not like him, it’s more of Steve’s thing. But Steve isn’t here anymore.

‘Before you begin tomorrow, just take three deep breaths. I can’t guarantee you that you won’t be nervous anymore, but you’ll feel better. And when it’s all over, you realize that it was all ok. Take it from this 107 year old guy here.’

Bucky was right. If you took the time that you spent worrying about things, you could have probably done at least ten other things with that time. Life was unpredictable. There was no use worrying about not being able to control it.

After the quick heart to heart conversation, the two of you happily chomped down on your pepperoni pizzas to replace the calories that you had burned.

Arriving at the compound, you were about to split from Bucky as both your rooms were in different directions.

‘Hey Bucky,’ he turns back waiting for you to finish your sentence. ‘About today, thanks. I mean it. I think I’ll kill it tomorrow.’

In his usual fashion, he gives you a thumbs up before walking back to his room.

‘Let me know how it goes tomorrow! I’ll take you out for Japanese! I know a mean place.’

Yeah, your friendship with Bucky was starting to grow more and maybe, who knows?

A/N: I kinda dig the whole platonic relationships but I also love romantic ones! It’s just that I can’t help but to cringe whenever I write romance stuff so I guess that’ll be a challenge for me in the future! You writers who can write romance stuff so well, you have earned my respect too! Hope y’all enjoyed my first Bucky headcanon!

#Bucky Barnes #bucky x reader #bucky headcanon #sebastian stan

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randomsnakesimp · 3 years

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Okay. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take the leap and say: Phobos is the victim (sorta).

Quick disclaimer: I am going to abuse plot holes and cartoon logic for my cause in a very nitpicky way. If you dislike that, I can completely understand, and I hope this warning will save you a lot of reading.

Also, this won't go into just headcanon territory, I'll put those in a separate post. Everything here I'll try to keep based on actual information from the comics and what I made of them.

That said...

Let's take a look at this scene:

(for a quick translation of the important part, the mother says: "No, Phobos, Meridian is meant for your sister. That's the law. The crown is hers.)

What we can see here are a few very important things:

1. Phobos is at most 5 years older than Elyon.

2. The name "Phobos" is not an edgy nickname he gave himself. Five-year-olds don't go around calling themselves Phobos. So his parents, for some reason, gave him that name.

3. His mother is very adamant about him not even touching the crown and reminding him of his sisters' birthright.

So, after establishing what I would call more or less facts, what else can, relatively savely, be deduced here?

- Since Elyon never noticed anything weird about herself, she can't have aged slower than earth children. So neither can Phobos. This would mean that, as she was kidnapped after her mothers death as a baby, he would have been five. So, he either tried his best to rule at age five, or the council we see as Elyon rules stepped in for him for a while

- this would then mean two things: we need an explanation as to why Miriadel, Alborn and Galgheita fled explicitly from Phobos (I'll give my explanation a bit further down) and second, Phobos' reign of terror wasn't even thirteen years, and a lot of that time he was a child/teen and could not even have been mature enough to rule.

- This also means that Kandrakar pulled up the veil when Phobos was at most five, likely younger, and that the so called "Seal of Phobos" also existed at that time, as both the veil and the seal are seen in the flashback depicting Elyons abduction. For Kandrakar, this, too, I will try to explain soon, but as for the seal, I find it most plausible that the theory @ror-witch used in their fanfiction, of the seal being a royal heirloom and named after each ruler, is true.

- His and his mother's relationship was neither as bad as some assumptions go, but neither was it that good, probably, or at least it wasn't in his perception. See how his memory is of her cradling the baby the entire time and talking more about his sisters birthright than about what he has/can do? Yes, it's only a short memory, but I think it's clear that it's a summary of what he remembers of his mother.

- Phobos desire to rule Meridian does not stem from something deeply sinister, but rather from a childish spite. Five year old Phobos probably just wanted the crown cause it looked nice and shiny, and he was fabulous even back then, but after his mothers words, he sulked and decided to show her. That's his motivation.

So, now let's go a bit further and look at some other things we can deduce from the rest of the comics:

- Phobos has a huge dungeon, a wall of roses that turn people into more roses if they touch it and his plan for the annihilation of Meridian is "Well, Cedric and I hide in the castle and...we'll see". He hates the people of Meridian, but he doesn't seem to have it in him to directly attack anyone until Elyon is there and even here, when he has her knocked out in their duel or locked up as Endarno, he isn't unnecessarily cruel. He's not evil in nature, he's more of a very dangerous child throwing tantrums. ( Cedric is kinda similar, and they both start losing it toward the coronation, but I sincerely believe that before that, there would have been a chance for them to come around )

- The only person he ever tortures or even hurts directly is Cedric. Because one, he likes Cedric and so gets more extreme emotions around him, and two, Cedric never says anything, and just plays it of afterwards, so I don't know if he even fully realizes what he's doing, like a child hitting someone. If Cedric ever just said "Stop it, you're hurting me", Phobos would probably need an entire week to process that input.

- Phobos is VERY reclusive, and he doesn't want anyone to have even pictures of him, and while that could be a God complex, I get some highly insecure vibes out of it, in a vulnerable narcissist kinda way, in that he is massively overcompensating. I gotta admit, though, that I cannot put my finger on why, so maybe take this with a grain of salt and decide for yourself if you agree.

- Kandrakar never orders the guardians to help Meridian in any way, just to make sure nothing oozes out. They likely pulled up the veil for their own protection, so Phobos wouldn't be able to spread far enough to become a real danger, rather than to protect innocent people, as clearly the Meridian people mean shit to them

- while the guards are widely feared in Meridian, Cedric seems to be viewed as... not very frightening or important, as some random merchant feels comfortable clinging to his cape (and rightfully so, apparently, as Cedric just tells him to piss off and doesn't care any further). This further leads me to believe that Cedric is rather unhealthy devoted to Phobos and his tantrums while their shitty ass reign leaves a lot of free space for unsuited people to become guards and tyranize the people.

- the King and Queen seem to have died in rapid succession, and shortly after the scene shown above, yet she looks perfectly healthy in that scene.

Now, what do I make of all this?

I believe the line of events to be as follows:

I don't think Phobos traveling back in time is a viable theory for mainly two reasons: I think his mother would be less chill around him if she saw/heard about his reign herself, and I believe that it would have been mentioned somewhere along the way if that were the case. Instead, what I believe happened is that the oracle had a vague vision of Phobos nearly taking over Kandrakar. Deciding in their random mood swings that today was a day of action, they had the people of Meridian informed that the next male born to a queen would become a dangerous tyrant, pulled up a veil and set their guardians to make sure nothing oozed out.

The veil, of course, made the people of Meridian feel trapped and a horror of the unborn prince who would ruin their lives spread.

So, when Weira gave birth to that prince, a full blown panic spread, so much so that she, in a fit of hysterical emotion, named him after that boust of panic. Of course, people tried to kill the prince basically from the moment he was born, and he was met with barely concealed resentment.

Soon after, Weira and her husband died - whether they were killed, or fell ill, or died in an accident, I have no idea, but I wouldn't completely rule out an assassination either aimed at Phobos and accidentally hitting them or the strain making at least one of them fall terminally ill.

Either the people rioted and Phobos' magic panic reaction or the leftover loyal guard was enough to fight them back, or the people succumbed to their fate at this point, slumping into the state of despair seen throughout the comics. But in the end, five year old Phobos had to be handed the throne. I assume the council still had some say at this point, but he did manage to get all pictures of him destroyed - this order was likely due to the fact that they were mostly caricatures.

So he grew up with the very volatile combination of a shitton of power and no one able to tell him if he was being stupid on one hand, and feeling unloved and unwanted on the other. He withdrew, likely also due to countless assassination attempts or things he perceived as such, and went into a negative feedback loop of being unable to mature and take responsibility, therefore being a shit ruler, therefore being hated, therefore having no one to help him, therefore being unable to face and grow from his mistakes, rinse and repeat.

So, Meridian was plunged into chaos, yet he seemed fine more or less just sitting in the new playroom he made for himself in the gardens, sporadically giving out an order or two and having generally no idea about anything that didn't directly concern him.

Enter Elyon. Now, she send him of the rails, as she was a danger to his lifestyle AND a reminder of all the sentiments he'd be drowning in alcohol if he wasn't too much of a recluse and education denier to know of that option. He doesn't even try. He just lets Cedric, the one person he trusts, handle her, like everything else, and somewhat plays along sometimes, when he feels like it. This is where he passes the point of no return and starts actually trying to kill people, culminating in him creating an army to wipe out Meridian. I still believe that even at this point, in his head, what he's doing is just throwing a nice toy out the window just so his sister won't have it.

#w.i.t.c.h. comics #w.i.t.c.h.#w.i.t.c.h. theory #prince phobos #Kandrakar is a shitshow

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spongebob-connoisseur · 3 years

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Got any Spongebob hot takes? About a season, episode, character, etc?

You know, I'm pretty stuck on this. This has been sitting in my inbox for so long. Its so hard to remember these on the spot. I only remember when I'm talking about other stuff lol brainz werk in mysterious ways lol

But I'll still try!

- slappy is the best thing to ever exist.

- Squidabeth is the best thing to ever exist.

Okay before this turns into a brainrot list. Here's the actual hot takes!

-Nerd spongebob is superior sponge. I know later seasons focus more on him being more babyish/childish. But ehh I miss his more nerdier personality.

- I'm okay with the spinoffs. I get so tired always having to clarify on the spinoffs all the time. Jeez do your own research, I ain't magic or working inside with Nick (I wish) I'm tired. I have my concerns and issues otherwise but like if you want to watch it then do it. If you don't then just don't.

- man why did it take so long for Sandy to interact with the other female characters? Why did it take so long for any of the characters to interact? Its random but I was thinking about this a while ago. I get the show is Spongebob Squarepants. Everything is from his POV. But a lot of the female characters could use a little more development. I want an episode focused on Mrs. Puff outside of boating school. She's into metal. She's already cool. Pls let her become a rock star pls. Or just another Sandy/Karen episode because they're so cute together. Its so weird to think about all of them only begun to interact recently.

- I really want them to bring back Pearl being gifted at math!! So much story potential. I'll be honest, I don't like whenever shows got that stereotypical teenage girl character™ no reason but they get a little annoying if you leave it like that. Pearl was apparently supposed to be more apart of the main cast but didn't get used so often. Come on!! I wanna see her hang out with Squidina!! I really like Squidina.

- there's no such thing as a bad episode with The Flying Dutchman. Never. Even the worst ones are still amusing.

- Dutchy probably doesn't pay child support. I just wanted to say that xD

- there is no way Squishwart is heterosexual

- shows timeline is

- first episode any episode where Perch is orange, any episode where Perch is purple, 2nd movie, 1st movie.

Not a complete time line but ya kno. There's two timelines tho! Same as the first but kamp koral takes place in the beginning, then the patrick show. Then we start at the first episode. Then after that, the 3rd movie takes place between the 2nd and 1st movie.

Hope I didn't lost ya there.

- oh yeah! Perch's skin color probably changed with age. Some fishes change color with maturity! I headcanon orange being earlier, and purple being later.

I know you might point out the fish in Ripped Pants. He doesn't look much like Perch. Looks a lot older so I'm just gonna headcanon that it's Perch's dad.

- Kamp koral was kinda boring. The better episodes are when they focus on side characters or new characters. Idk its just not interesting when they focus it on the main cast. Excluding the one where Squidward and Patrick gets lost in the woods together. That was cute. Though my favorite episode is either the one with young Perch or the night cabin.

- season 1 is elite. It's my favorite season of all time. I could go on and on about what I love about this season but everything about it feels so wholesome yo.

- my favorite season amongst the modern era is probably 10? I know that's fan favorite of the modern era. I'd also say season 12 too. Which is an unpopular season due to the expressions but I find myself revisiting season 12 often. Its weird but fun to go back to every so often.

- a lot of spongebob has been ragged on unfairly. I know I always come for the middle seasons but even they are over hated. Its amusing tho how the middle seasons were so hated in the previous years. Nowadays they get more love because the kids who grew up with them has grown to appreciate them. Now its the modern seasons that get a lot of hate. Often times for just being different.

- ehh classic elites kinda ruin the show for me. I wouldn't say this is a be all end all. I still like the classic era and of course nothing can replace how witty and funny it was. But geez these people take it so seriously that it just sucks the fun out of it. Its fun to express your love for spongebob online but they always gotta rag on it and insult people who don't hate everything that came out after the movie. Its ironic considering I used to be a classic elitist. Every so often when I see them raging online, I'm like "jeez was that me?" It gets so exhausting to hate on the show. I also think its a little weird how they've martyred Hillenburg while also acting like the gods of justice by sending death threats to his colleagues and friends. Ehh they get pretty invasive at times. Its kinda uncomfortable.

- on that note. I also find it annoying how people are like "oh kids today will never know how good spongebob was!" Like the classic era doesn't constantly rerun on tv to this day. Jeez I was too young to even remember the classic era when it first began airing. Yet the classic era was what was on tv most of the time. Its like how adults assume kids don't know what vhs tapes/CDs are just because it isn't as popular as it used to. They don't magically disappear the moment something new comes out.

You know that reminds me, when I was a teen, I used to purposely act like I didn't know what some stuff were just to make adults feel like they're out of touch. "Facebook? what is that?" "Britney Spears? Never heard of her" it's so funny.

- Ngl I keep rewatching the Patrick show just to feel something

- mr. Krab's cheapiness went so out of control. Mans due for a spinoff just to rework his character so he can become tolerable again.

- from reading the spongeBob pitchbible and the mussel beach episode. My only thoughts were "spongebob has two hands, one for Sandy, one for Larry"

- the best episodes of Patrick is when he's being sweetly stupid. He's dumb but he knows and loves his friends. That's like the baseline for Patrick. He'd be terribly hurt if he upset them and he cares about them to the end of the earth. If you make patrick a jerk because he's stupid then you've failed to understand him.

- oh also, I'm pretty sure Bunny and Cecil are Pat's adoptive parents. Pat said in Home Sweet Pineapple that his parents kicked him out. I imagine when he did get kicked out, he wasn't prepared so he probably got adopted by the closest Sea Star family around. Thus the Patrick show was born! I already do find Pat's parents questionable. Like letting their daughter get lost like that, or mental training with a bell that managed to even have spongebob say they screwed Patrick up. Bunny and Cecil seem like healthier parents for pat. Plus he got another sister :)

- another thing, ehh Spongebob's parents and family in general are either questionable to outright awful. Man his uncle sherm really kicked out his own son??? captain blue couldn't listen to spange when he desperately needed help? Also spongebob's parents neither taking him seriously and seem to have their own issues too.

- on the note of poor family figures. I'm certain Mr. Krabs father Victor Krabs abandoned his family. Mr krabs grew up dirt poor with only his mother supporting him. I also assume Mr. Krab's other family is also kinda sucky since he didn't really introduce any of them to Pearl. Probably for a reason. Though his mom in the comics seems to have known about Pearl. She's probably the only krab in the family he really cares about.

- Sandy and Karen SHOULD get together. I don't make the rules 😤 😤

- patchy is good. I don't get why is he so hated. I also really like potty :)

- the 2nd movie is a comfort movie for me.

- they really brought the best music for the ScaredyPants episode. Also I find it kinda funny how they found such a hyper specific band for the show. The Ghastly Ones. A horror surf rock band. It fits too well and I like them enough to listen to their other songs just because.

- Ngl its satisfying when spongebob gets angry/frustrated. You dont see those emotions in him. Its either extreme joy or extreme sadness. It adds an interesting bit of nuance to his character.

And that's it! Or at least the only ones I can think of on the spot so uhh. Here ya go!

#Ask #spongebob #spongebob squarepants #sb #spongebon squarepants #the spongebob connoisseur #spongebob meme

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mxvladdy · 4 years

Text

Beelzebub- True Form

Three more boyos to go!

Next up: Leviathan

Beelzebub-

The embodiment of starvation. The sharp contrast between his healthy and fit forms is truly baffling.

Mouths are scattered all over his gangly form. It is the only human thing about him as he is faceless otherwise. When hunting they release a mist or plague of locusts depending if his hunger is physical or emotional

His hunting form is juvenile and frail. Naturally small and unassuming, it is perfect to lure his victims close and ensnare them forever. He attracts souls with an overwhelming hunger. It’s a lure filled with false promises of substances and warm. When close he latches on like a parasite and gorges until there is nothing left but an empty husk.

Once full his form shifts into something- greater- his small body growing and stretching. It’s somewhere along the lines of a human growth spurts, or puberty, but is done in moments. It’s uncomfortable for him; the rapid growth takes a lot out of him.

When fed he is larger, but still skeletal in form. It’s a permanent reminder of his new immortal purpose. His skin is like stone, hard and grey but translucent. It is stretched tight around his frame, like an artist canvas over his jet black bones. The texture of it emphasizes all the odd twists and turns of his bone structure and whatever else lies underneath his flesh.

Each raspy breath he draws from the many mouths scattered around his body rattle his disjointed skeleton. His bones clinking together with every exhale to create a truly chilling symphony.

When crazed with hunger he loses himself. In his younger years as a cardinal sin he was responsible for wiping out land masses and civilizations to try and dull the ache before his brothers could contain him.

His gluttony isn't only for physical sources of substances. Slabs of meat only go so far. He will latch on like a leech, to anything that radiates his current emotional cravings. Love? Happiness? Fear? He wants to experience it all. Filling and cramming every little space with whatever sensations he craves. Till the deadened feeling in his chest is a little less.

There was a time where he was very close with his brother sin greed. During their younger years as demons they would terrorize the mortal realm, a deadly duo. Both unable or unwilling to control their new urges.

He hates this existence. He’s empty and it drives him mad. Was he like this in heaven? Honestly, Beel can’t remember anymore. He doesn’t think so. He had his brothers and sister to keep him in order and a different name. At the time he was called Temperance, right? He thinks. It’s a bit foggy.

But what hurts him the most is that his family structure is fractured now. There is a hole where Lilith used to be, and no amount of souls or food will ever fill that.

When he met you it helped a little. But he has to be weary.

He has better control of his abilities now then a couple centuries ago so you don’t have to worry too much. He likes having you around. It fills part of the void that he’s been struggling with for so long. Being with you makes him feel like dirt has finally hit the bottom of what he thought was a vacuous void inside.

Sometimes his natural abilities seep out when he is hungry or frustrated from another family row. He gravitates towards you then, searching for that odd human comfort demons just don’t possess. He sips slowly on it; with your permission of course. Not the wisest idea- but an idea nonetheless.

Mini Fic

Sleepy Sloth Boi- Hey. Can you check up on Beel? He had a bit of a argument with Asmo today Sleepy Sloth Boi- Apparently he ate a homemade face goop? IDK, it’s stupid. Sleepy Sloth Boi- I would, but I’m stuck in a remedial class with Lucifer Sleepy Sloth Boi- I don’t know when I’ll be out- Ok! Is he in your room?- Sleepy Sloth Boi- No, at the gym. Asmo called him and chewed him out. Didn’t go well. Trainers called me. He busted up some equipment and might have eaten someone... They want him out. Oh... K I’ll head over now-

You frown down at your D.D.D and stuff it in your bag. This wasn’t the first time this had happened. You had heard stories of his terrible temper when hungry. Most of the time you have seen him just mope, huddled up in the kitchen eating his feelings. He was always open to talk though and you usually could convince him out of the kitchen so Lucifer didn’t have an aneurysm over a barren fridge.

The gym isn’t far from the house. A short tram ride and a walk down a couple of familiar streets. You have spent every Saturday morning with Beel there, spotting him. Not that you really could. With the amount of weights he was dead lifting, but he appreciated the company nonetheless. You ring up the front desk dashing across the street. It goes straight to voicemail. Crap it must be bad. You round the corner right before the gym and skid to a halt. Glass and metal litter the cobble street. The shards flicker off the lights of the street lamps drawing your eye to the sheer amount of damage around you. Some equipment even stuck out of the wall adjacent to you.

You make your way closer. “Human! Tis’ not the best time to be here. We are having a bit of an issue.” A terrified trainer scuttled towards you, mandible clicking in alarm. “You best turn back. We don’t need your body littering the streets too.” They wave a three fingered claw back up the street. On cue a weightlifting machine was launched through the remaining window exploding on impact with the road. A few more trainers run out after it, yelling and pushing at each other to get out of the way. A dark black mist bellows out after them.

Well shit.

“I’m actually here to try and help.” You smile down at the tiny demon trying to instill some false confidence in them. You think you could handle this. You didn’t want to call in the cavalry to get him. Knowing Beel, it would only trigger his guilty conscience. “If you could give me a moment.” Ignoring the little creature you creep forward, careful of the broken glass and praying that no more equipment got launched.

“Beel?” You call out peaking your head through the gaping hole on the side of the gym. "Hey, Belphie texted me. Wanna talk about it?” The inside of the gym was dark. Wires hung and sparked dangerously in front of you. A large burst pipe blocked most of your vision. “Beel?” You could hear his loud bone chilling breathing. He was close.

“Careful.” You jump swallowing the curse that threatened to slip out. Beelzebub emerged from the darkness at the back of the gym. His eyeless face locking onto you. “You are close to a line.” His many mouths move in unison. Some rumbling as he spoke, others just drawing in rasping wheezing breaths.

“Thanks.” You jump back onto the street. “You wanna come out? You look a bit cramped.” He was comically too large for the allotted space. His goliath sized body packed into a little sardine can. He rattles for a bit considering. You cock your head to the side looking at the empty street. “Plenty of room out here.” You wave at your sole spectator and give them a small thumbs up. They blink in horror over your shoulder. Eyes locked on the beast emerging.

“I’m sorry.” He drags himself out. Thick steel like claws causing the little trainer hiding behind you to whimper. Beel’s fingers dig into the stone and mortar. Oph- this was going to cost a bit to fix.

“It’s ok big guy-happens to the best of us.” You say casually. Once he was outside he shivers in the cool afternoon air. His bones creak as you approach him. “May I touch you?” You approach hand raised. He never cared if you touched him in his human form. It centered him a lot of the time. He enjoyed the feel of your soft and giving flesh against his smooth hard skin. But this form was slightly more dangerous for you well being.

Beel shakes his head at your movement melding back into the dark hole. His mouths open wide to release a plume of black smoke. The trainer cries out, scurrying back further down the street. You hold your ground however. Chin up definitely, unafraid at what you knew was coming. The thick black vapor coats your skin. It latches on to you and seeps through your pores. You feel him in the back of your mind running through your head, searching for something. You breathe slowly, letting him shuffle through your psyche.

You feel a flush of warmth, a near giddiness that brings an uncontrollable smile to your face before it is gone. Snuffled out like a candle in the wind. A slow chilling tingling begins in all of your extremities as he feeds off your emotions. He pulls at your center, eating away at your mental state. An odd empty ache blooms in your chest, you need to untangle yourself before he bled you dry.

He pulls back then, knowing when he has gone too far. The pallor of his skin is richer now. A darker grey than before. The waxing sheen gone and replaced with a deep purple hue underneath. His cobweb like veins thumping with life. “Thanks~” His rattles remerging onto the street. His oblong head nudges your shoulder, checking on you. You pat at it, careful of the mouths and razor sharp teeth.

“Of course; don’t mention it.” You turn on weak knees to the trainer. Looking at complete ease with the cardinal sin currently wrapping his many limbed and mouthed body around your comparatively tiny frame. “I guess this is not super common?” You ask, waving at the destruction. They shake their head.

“He-he ate Gordin.”

“Ah-ye. He does that. Sorry.” At a loss, they accept the sleek business card you thrust at them with your free hand. “Call Mr. Morningstar. He can work on the repair finances with the manager.”

“But Gordi-” You wince as the little demon’s mandibles tremble, voice getting frantic. Could demons shed tears? You were about to find out.

“Beel?” Cupping his large head you stare at him, eyes traveling over his face. His mouths snap shut, body turning smooth. The only movement from his was his hearts beating steady beneath his translucent skin. He stood still like a statue carved by a deranged artist. “Beel.” You say again more firmly. You step away from his hooked fingers. “Spit them out.”

He doesn’t move. His inner rattling becoming louder and more defensive.

You roll your eyes and look back exasperatedly with a shrug. The other demon stares speechless in terror. Or with the dawning realization of just how absurd this whole situation was. You turn back to Beel, fists balled on your hips. “If you don’t I guess I’m going to eat all these snacks I brought.” The death rattle stops. You could feel his full focus on you now aghast. “I’m serious. Mammon even went and bought those new limited release batwing chips too, extra spicy.”

He hacks suddenly, back arching like a cat as a large seam opens on his skin where his stomach (stomachs?) region was. A bulky demon covered in purple viscous sludge tumbles to the ground with a wet squelch. Their skin was a sickly color and their eyes wide in terror.

“Gordi!” The other trainer pushes past you and grabs at the trembling demon, pulling him away from the hungry mouths.

“Thanks, Beelzebub.” You walk him quickly down the abandoned streets once the two others had fled. He lopes behind you, gaunt body swaying in the light breeze. Once you hit the more crowded streets he moves closer to your back. Other demons on the street give you a wide berth, eyeing and swatting at a few straying arms or fingers that attempt to grab them or their things. You move quickly, hoping to avoid having to scold him again for eating more demons.

“I’m sorry.” Beel croaks once more when you finally come to a stop at an empty park bench. He sits next to it expectantly. The grass and foliage around him weathering and turning to dust at his touch. His arms subconsciously start stuffing the dried grass and flowers into his many mouths.

“It’s ok.” You repeat yourself coming to rest on the park bench. Without preamble you dump the contents of your bag onto the ground. He croons in delight at the mound of snacks being pushed to him. “Eat up. Take a breather and then we can talk. If you want.” With that he dives in.

Beel munches in silence, mismatched limbs unwrapping-or not- the treats and popping them into his little mouths. You watch for a bit before getting preoccupied with a book you borrowed from Satan. You don’t know how much time passes before a boney finger pokes at your forearm. The same arm then hovers by your nose offering you a pudding cup.

“Ah, thank you!” You close your book and take the flan pudding. He had finished most of the food and had calmed considerably. Most of the mouths have disappeared, closing as they were sated. He scoots closer, the oppressive neediness of his sin dulled to an almost non existent thumping in your stomach. Easy enough to ignore, especially now with a sweet treat boosting your mood. “Feeling any better?”

Beel grunts, scratching at his knobby spine. You watch him for a moment. Reading his emotions in this form was hard. Thankfully, you knew the reason for the outburst this time. First time you stumbled upon him like this had been an absolute circus. A terrifying, and destructive circus. He had been in full form that night. Locusts and clawed fingers moving in blurs, swiping at everything that came near. The younger brothers screaming at him over the sounds of breaking furniture and the buzz of insect wings. They dodged around his tantrum trying to calm him before Lucifer returned from a meeting.

“It’s a damned ice cream cup!” Satan roars, close to shifting himself. The tell tale heat of his body starting to radiate out and singe the carpet beneath his feet. Beel screeches back, flies and spittle spraying out over them. Asmo yelps and drags you out of the room with him.

“Ugh! The moment he gets all gross and buggy I’m out.” He shudders, locking the door on the apocalypse happening on the other side. “Hopefully Mammon can slow Lucifer down so they can neaten up.”

“Is he going to be ok?” You look back watching the solid door shudder under the weight of a body being thrown.

Asmodues sucks his teeth dismissively, bright nails clicking away at his phone. You glance at it seeing that he had messaged Mammon to bring some take out too. “Oh ye, this happens from time to time. He just has to let off some steam. Then we can stuff him with food and he’ll be right as rain. You want anything hun’?” You shake your head stunned by his carefree attitude as the house shook around them.

Beel had come to apologize for his behavior later that night. His human form a little banged up, but no worse for wear. You went out for ice cream in hopes to cheer him up. Offering an ear too if he needed an outsider's perspective. You were also curious about his true nature and had a thousand and one questions to ask. He was apprehensive at first. It was clearly a sore subject for him. But over time he opened up, speaking freely about his struggles and fears of destroying his family's already shaky foundation with his gluttony.

“Asmo is furious with me.” He sighs, bringing you back to the present. He rests his head on your shoulder, careful with his weight.

“He’ll get over it.” You stroke his cool skin tapping at a closed mouth. It opens and licks your finger. It was as close to a kiss as this form could get to. “It’s not like he can’t make more.” Beel huffs, rubbing his head into the soft fabric of your sweater.

“I am nothing but a burden to them aren’t I.”

“Never.” You don’t hesitate. He grumbles unconvinced. “Hey,” You nudge him off your shoulder to look at him. “Remember last Saturday? How you helped Levi get his limited edition statue?”

“I just stood in a line.” He pouts. “And I only did that because I ate his Ruri-chan mochi’s.” Oh- you didn’t know that part.

“Well, I still think you’re a good brother.” You cover. “ Tell me, would any of the others do the same? You beat yourself up over every little mistake. How many times has Asmo or Mammon swiped one of your snacks?” He hums contemplatively, nails clacking on the concrete.

“But I always lash out when they do that.” You nod kicking your feet up to lounge on the bench, back resting against his. Grabbing at a set of arms you wrap them around your waist playing with the fingers that weren’t razor sharp.

“Yes, and? Asmo just did too. Runs in the family by the looks of it.” You chuckle. “ So why should you be the only one not allowed to get upset? But next time call before rampaging through the city, K?” You smile up at his monstrous visage. He smiles back hesitantly before coming closer.

Beelzebub nips you gently with his primary mouth. Large fangs careful not to break the skin. A cute little display of gratitude. He tastes your sincerity on you. Sweet and smooth on his tongue. “Thanks,” He rumbles. Cradling you close, he rises to his full height. “I think I’m ready to head back now.”

You snuggle into his unyielding body checking your wrist watch. “Yeah big guy? Guess it is almost dinner time.”

He picks up the pace.

#Obey me beelzebub #obey me fandom #obey me headcanons

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reynie-muldoons · 3 years

Text

'The Art of Conveyance and Round-Trippery' Liveblog!

Sorry this is a few days late!! I moved across the country this weekend, we drove like 13 hours within 2 days and we did a lot of heavy lifting. I'm exhausted, but the boxes are slowly emptying and I've been wanting to watch this episode so gd bad, so LESGO

Over halfway through the season!!!! That's absolutely surreal

1:11 oooh they're getting their royal fitting

1:22 LMAOO WTF 😂😂 Princess Diaries vibes

1:42 ✨CONFIDENCE✨

1:52 Alfonse is a perfect name for that guy HAHA

2:05 Nathaniel, my guy, you've made some points

2:11 "do you feel your power?" POWER RANGERS, GO

2:24 no no hesitation just prolly thinkin bout how he was caught cheatin

2:39 "can you not allow yourselves luxury?" okay fr I feel that I get Nice Things Guilt(tm) too easily

2:52 dayummmm let's talk about Sticky being a hat stall between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, mans is brave as fuck under extreme pressure and loyal to the point of putting himself on the line

3:15 bro Sticky getting some recognition. Love to see it, he deserves it

3:19 "is that a coincidence? Or written in the stars?" IS DR. CURTAIN CATCHING ON THAT THEY KNEW EACH OTHER BEFORE OR LIKEEEE

3:49 WHAT WORD AROUND CAMPUS 😭😭😭 MY BOYS ARE NOT A MISTAKE HOW DARE YOU

4:09 why doess the action of Dr. Curtain putting the sash on them seem so nefarious

4:36 I dont really understand the whole pastel yellow, blue, and pink palette of the school but the boys both look pretty okay in their vest-sash getup

4:42 THE OPENINGGGGG. This shit slaps.

5:41 Kate and Constance look so fucking cute in that shot, dont ask me why but hnnggggg

5:54 sash rope 😂😭 kate, honey, that's a reach

6:09 it might feel buttery, but, my guy, it also looks buttery. It's literally the color of butter. Get yourself some crisco

6:24 I find it kinda interesting that they made up new riddles for the show, I'm almost positive that that one wasn't in the book. Correct me if I'm wrong though

7:03 "I'm not gonna apologize for knowing things" the sass. the ✨confidence✨. living for it

7:03 If they build on that it sets Sticky up really nicely for the arc in the second book where he starts to show off a little

7:15 tiny Constance who is constantly dressed in pink with cute little braids is the perfect medium for the most morbid comments 😂😂

7:55 Martina's hot in her uniform. Can't prove me wrong.

8:15 why does that make me sad 🥺 eat with your friendssss. iirc they only talked about eating at the Messenger table in the books

8:26 dipshits forgot their lunches. Seems Constance is holding the communal braincell atm

8:50 anyone have Guiness on speed dial? Reynie and Sticky have a submission for them

9:25 oh hello this was alluded to in the preview!!! Morse code is compromised, rip

10:05 so are Jackson and Jillson stuck with night guard duty all the time?? They've been outside at night a lot

10:18 ahhhhhh the little blinkie light, stopppp

10:25 MILLIGANNNNN!!!

10:25 so is this the point where he starts staying on the island with them????

10:39 so are they just like "fuck it we'll do it right before sundown" ???? Like Jackson and Jillson are still gonna be on the lookout, they aren't gonna chill just because it's not fully dark

10:50 did the kids.....just not tell them that Mr. Bloom was on the island 😂 nice oversight guys

11:05 MADGE TIME MADGE TIME

11:05 remind me to tell you guys a story about Madge, I may or may not have done something irl a few years ago that would make y'all proud 😂😂😂

11:16 idk why but it makes me so happy that they kept Madge as a peregrine falcon

11:37 Rhonda, my love, you have my heart in your hands

11:46 roll credits

12:05 THE HEAD SHAKE HAHAHAH

12:06 Awww man, I was so excited for Milligan to be on the island .-. He must have been scoping out the inlet

12:07 "they're quite regal" A. I read the subtitles as "legal" the first time and that's somehow really in character for him, and B. IS MILLIGAN GOING TO NAME HER???!? HER MAJESTY???? PLEASE I WOULD LOVE THAT SO MUCH

12:15 his grimace KILLS ME

12:17 the hard cut from Nicholas in a brown setting and brown suit to Nathaniel in a blue setting and blue suit was lowkey striking

12:36 are they looking up Morse code 😳 can you imagine if they wrote down the message and are now decoding it

12:41 omfg all that for a HAT 🙃 I feel stupid

12:51 two things: 1. Those walls are atrocious, and 2. Yeah, talk about Morse code in a louder voice Connie girl, you're just in a public hallway

13:03 I'm sorry but those orange pillar things are not the vibe

13:03 the golden gate bridge called, they want their arches back

13:10 please let Kate climb the tower before the end of season 1. please.

13:22 y'all are about to be flying something else 😎

13:33 cleansing breaths

13:47 OH HELLO MESSENGER DUTY ALREADY??

14:06 what the heck is that teal pole for 😭😭

14:12 blindfold timeeee

I'm so sorry but I'm exhausted, it's 11:30 pm on Sunday night right now, I'll finish this episode tomorrow morning after I get some sleepies

Good morningggg lesgetatit

14:50 "vomit of metal" ashhdjdjd

15:16 a wild Martina appears!

15:36 and if you folks look to your left, you'll see a wild Constance being the voice of reason once again

15:57 "lose the bucket" "I'm not gonna do that" HELL YEAH KATE

16:07 I get not having the bucket on the court lolol, I thought Martina was telling Kate to lose the bucket in general. Like, yeah, good luck convincing her to so that

16:35 show!Kate is much angrier than book!Kate and I'm still deciding how I feel about that. The Kate we've known from the books is a sunshine baby with looots of repressed trauma.

17:03 ......what is that. why is that.

17:11 WAIT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE REYNIE AHEHDJDJD

17:15 HI MADGE

17:41 the grand swell in the music makes me think it's going to go comically wrong

17:51 she's majestic because she's a queen 🥺

18:03 LMAO CALLED IT

18:14 Rhonda and Number Two getting at each other is such a sisterly thing to do 😂😂😂

18:37 ohhhhh? Someone's approaching? Miss Perumal perhaps????

18:45 YEAHHHHH BABY

18:50 PROTECTIVE MOM COMIN IN HOT!!!

19:22 THEYRE SO PRECIOUS 😭😭😭😭 I feel like I've been subconsciously starved for her and Mr. Benedict's interactions

19:36 died at that line in the one trailer

20:00 so Miss Perumal pulled a Sherlock Holmes. Love that for her

20:20 Cheri Tupintown??? Of all the aliases they could pick, Cheri Tupintown???

20:33 "Power in Truth Inc" that HAS to be something Rhonda came up with

21:01 you can literally watch Mr. Benedict realize that this is a woman not to be fucked with and he is CORRECT

21:23 "he's fine. Perfectly fine." At this, Mr. Benedict's pants caught aflame.

21:52 something about Constance sitting in on practice!!! It scratches an itch!!!!

22:19 "incorporate the helix. Live in the helix." Lord Helix is pleased with this offering.

22:26 so what I'm hearing is Kate is going to blow up on Constance for messing with the bucket

23:13 unrelated but Jillson'a shoes are cute

23:29 why does this room give off Johnny Depp's willy wonka vibes

24:13 that looks like a chair from a doctor's office waiting room 😭

25:29 they do be egg heads tho

26:02 baby girl, I have no idea why you're crying at weird art but let me dry your tears 🥺🥺

26:50 SHE FOUND ITTTT

27:27 okay Indiana Jones, go off

27:46 why did that kinda sound like Miss Perumal

28:43 the return of everyone's favorite, "enjoyable"

29:05 not that I'm not loving the ice breaker questions and the one-sided conversation, but I'm not loving it

29:22 oh so we're getting right into it aren't we

29:54 his eyes being open again makes this infinitely creepier

30:36 "where's your proof?" Miss Perumal doesnt fuck around!!!

31:29 you're telling me Constance has been there all day?? And Kate went to find her???? 🥺

31:58 oh so we're getting right to it then?? Kate addressing her independence and trust issues arc????

33:29 NEWS!!!!

33:49 CONSTANCE RIDING PIGGYBACK!!!!!!

34:04 okay, so they opened the murder hole, what are they gonna do now

34:59 Italian? 🤨 m'sir that is so fancy

34:59 fun story I learned Italian diction in college, so I know a little bit

35:16 "take your time" the whisperer says, immediately repeating the prompt to get the answer sooner

35:31 theeeeere it is

35:46 SOMETHING ABOUT THE WHISPERER SAYING "YOU ARE HOME" 😭😭😭 the show really played up the cult shit!!

36:02 Kate being protective of Constance 🥺

36:20 ohhh shit is it time for Connie girl to have double Reynie? Double Sticky?

36:36 STICKY

36:52 "what kind of nonsense?" HAVE THEY NOT ASKED THAT BEFORE THIS?????

37:14 "and your tiny brain can somehow pick it up!!" KATE STOP 😂😂😂

37:16 "I knew you had to be special in some way." WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

37:51 she's right, this is disregard for their safety. The show made Mr. Benedict and his team a lot more back-alley and dishonest, and Miss Perumal has every reason to be pissed

38:30 oh good they finally remembered he has narcolepsy

39:38 and the best mom award goes to:

40:38 I was gonna say that this hallway is how I imagined the KEEP in riddle of ages but then I remembered that (spoilers) the Institute is the KEEP

40:46 oh, hello propoganda

41:10 that's the other person Rhonda couldn't contact, along with Mr. Bloom. This has to be the brainsweeping process

41:22 yeppppp

41:44 this dark doctor's office theme gives me horror movie vibes

42:22 ohhhh, so that's how they replaced that scene where the four of them jump in a crate to hide and Sticky drops his glasses in the open

42:47 and so we've come to the part of the story where Sticky and Reynie become infinitely more conflicted

42:47 and since we've reached that point..... can we have the white knight scene? Pretty please? Please Disney I'm begging you-

43:12 so Reynie just figured that out without Constance? :/

44:03 love the manipulation

44:31 I'm sorry, the farm?

44:35 farm and forest????

45:16 "the Emergency has served its purpose" 😳 well okay then murder man

45:39 "one thought, one purpose" the hive mind rises once more

45:48 LOVE THE MANIPULATION

46:07 "what have you done to earn anyone's trust?" VALID

46:26 "please do!" WHY AM I EMOTIONAL

47:06 "we still have the falcon" that you do 😂

47:19 AYYY HERE WE GO!!! Time for Milligan to stay on the island??

47:49 ohhhh Constance, casual telepath strikes again

48:16 "stop it, Kate!" OOOOHHHHH

48:53 that line ("it would be nice to be unburdened") would be funny as shit if not for the fact that Constance is a telepath unbeknownst to herself and can both subconsciously perceive people's thoughts and hear the subliminal messages

49:20 HI MRS. PERUMAL!!!

49:25 wow, she's really going through with it 😳 not that I doubted her, but still, that's dedication

49:39 OH SHIT

50:17 oh, so he's an asshole to SQ too. Got it. Torches and pitchforks? Ready to kick his ass?

50:40 "for the moment, anyway" FUCKIN WHAT

This episode was really good!!! They covered a LOT. I hope Miss Perumal comes back to the group and talks about her findings, I hope Milligan goes to get the kids and they tell him no, and I hope they get that classic 4-person Society brainstorming and binding time that hits that sweet spot

#mbs disney+#mbs liveblog #the art of conveyance and round trippery #the mysterious benedict society #charity's talkies

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power-chords · 3 years

Text

Post-trip round-up, integration, thoughts (cut for length & some Heavy Shit)

WOW I needed that and I am so glad I realized I needed that. It has been well over ten years since I last took LSD, and my reluctance to indulge in psychedelics again was rooted in a long and complicated history that I don't really need to hash out here, but doing a mild dose of mushrooms last weekend gave me the confidence and conviction that I was ready.

Would it have been wiser to take a less bonkers dose for the first time in a decade plus? Probably! Do I regret a single moment of it? Not a whit! It's tough to overstate just how powerful, therapeutic, and restorative a good acid trip is, even an occasionally intense, uncomfortable one. I do not recommend eating multiple tabs of extremely good blotter on your first rodeo, but Adam's even more of a veteran psychonaut than I am, so I was 1000% well cared for, totally safe, and in a comfortable, familiar environment. In that setting, and in a positive frame of mind, acid is not going to throw anything at you that you are not equipped to handle. I would love to make this an annual or biannual thing.

The cool, funny, wacky delightful stuff:

Put it under my tongue at 10 AM-ish. Went to go listen to some music and doodle until it kicked in. I forgot that the come-up is like, do not make any fucking plans involving hand-eye coordination LMAO. I was trying to doodle Bowery Ballroom in an old sketchbook, and that devolved quickly. The markers were old so some of the caps were really stuck on there, and I wound up devolving into fits of laughter from the absurdity of pulling the caps off with my teeth.

Ink stains on my hands started writhing and trailing and were very cool. That was the first thing I noticed. I got very sad that I stopped drawing and making art, which was something I did all my life and almost went to school for but stopped doing as an adult. And then I realized I could start drawing again any time if I wanted to, and I didn't have to be GOOD at it or a proper artist for it to be worthwhile and fun. Felt immediately happy again.

Adam decided to watch Lethal Weapon???? I was like, Don't Like That. Even though he had headphones on and I couldn't hear anything. I am ambivalent about screens at best when I'm tripping, and at worst I don't even want to be in the same room with them. Guns and violence seemed comically, brutally stupid. Turned my back to the TV and continued drawing and writing until I could no longer hold a pen. Eventually Adam got on my wavelength and was like yeah, this is too much! (He took like, twice the dose that I did. I have no idea how he was even able to talk to me, but he managed!)

Felt the need to message Liana while peaking, picked up my phone, and saw that she had already sent me this:

I thought that was HILARIOUS (tbh it actually was, and it was not just the acid talking)

For the first few hours of teeth-grinding, reality-shearing intensity, Adam and I mostly lounged in bed with the shades pulled all the way up and the window open, cuddling and petting Ernie. Fantastic bonding experience for the whole fam.

Looking at every surface in the apartment became like looking at a stained glass ceiling, or an infinite mandala, or the muddied rainbows in oil-slicked puddles. It looked like Ernie's fur was breathing and someone had colored all over the white parts of him with a highlighter. Adam agreed with this assessment. Formica on the kitchen counters was bananas. So were the trees outside, rippling like celluloid and brighter green than I had ever seen them.

The two of us spent a good 15 minutes doubled over with laughter because Adam suggested a contraption for funneling Fancy Feast directly into Ernie's mouth, kind of like shotgunning a beer

Adam: "I can't believe I used to to this and get on the subway and try to do things with people." Me: "What? How did you even figure out how to get from Point A to Point B?" Adam: "I mean, we didn't, really. We usually got lost. It was fine, though." Truly, it's about the friends you make along the way!

The second half of the trip, when things are starting to mellow out a bit, is when you become a real rock star. I went outside for a walk around the neighborhood, and to sit in the park with my headphones on while watching kids play on the playground, and it was ECSTATIC. I was just overjoyed. My face still hurts from smiling.

Forgot that I needed money to realize my goal of obtaining a popsicle, so I had to detour back into the apartment and explain all of this to my husband before resuming the popsicle quest. He thought it was very funny, but sympathized.

Fresh air, popsicles and San Pellegrino on acid. On another level! 100/10.

Bathrooms still universally suck, LOL. -10/10. Not a fan of that bathroom while tripping face! Every time I had to pee it was like WELL here we go again into the Pink Squirming Hell Chamber (I am making this sound like more of a big deal than it actually was)

15 HOURS. 15 HOURS Jesus Christ lmao I did not stop seeing weird shit on screens and surfaces until like 1 AM. And even then, if I stared long enough, funky colors and patterns would re-emerge. It's a commitment. I feel happy and refreshed, but also totally exhausted. Definitely have to budget a full weekend of No Plans for any future trips.

The Heavy Shit:

There is some Cronenberg-level body horror right before the visuals get super rainbow-stained and stereotypically psychedelic, which sounds bad, but I promise it isn't. It's watching the veins pulse under your skin and change into very saturated colors, pores and hair and scars become very defined and wiggly, and as someone who has so much bodily anxiety related to my alopecia/IBS, it was weirdly... freeing? You get to experience all this stuff in an entirely new frame of mind, shedding judgment and old thought ruts. I remember thinking, "I do not need to feel shame about my body," and letting go of so much baggage.

At some point mid-afternoon I decided to retrieve my phone from the drawer again, and saw that I had a missed call and a voicemail from my dad. I decided to play it back, and he was just phoning to tell me that he was listening to a live version of "Sally Simpson" and Keith was doing this thing where he wasn't even touching the cymbals, and had I listened to that specific performance before and noticed the same thing, and wasn't he truly the greatest drummer that ever lived? "Anyway, no need to call me back, just wanted to let you know. I love my bubbie!" (His term of endearment for me.) And I went to go sit in bed and weep for a straight 15 minutes, the most cleansing, purging cry you could possibly imagine, while Adam hugged me and rubbed my back. I was overwhelmed, overcome by this feeling of cosmic Love and Connection with my family and my husband and all of my friends.

I had been sitting on and burying so much fear and distress from the past 18 months, the chronic, low-grade trauma that was worrying if COVID was going to kill my father, my best friend and closest confidante and the one person on earth who I feel truly Gets Me on a spiritual level, and all of that came out. Fully processed and released every ounce of grief. What replaced it was the absolute, unshakable faith that no matter what happens — including my greatest fear, which is inevitable, no matter how far off it may be — he will always be with me, and a part of me, in the music we both love, and I will never, ever lose that.

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ryuichirou · 3 years

Note

“Please, ask me about my favorite manga...”

Okay, then. What’s your favorite manga, Ryu-san? 👀

+Anonymous said:

What’re some of your favourite manga? :)

----------------------------------------------

I love you guys… :”3 You always make my dreams come true haha. I hope I’m not forgetting anything, these are the ones that come to mind first:

Shingeki no Kyojin by Isayama Hajime – the most obvious thing in the world lol Of course, it’s a very dear manga to us, but even if we forget all the sentimental value it has, it’s still an amazing manga both story-wise and art-wise. For some reason Isayama is still considered a bad artist, which is a shame, because not only has he gotten much better with time, he also does the thing that I love very much: he draws whatever he wants even if he isn’t sure how to draw it. The very first chapters are so bold in that regard. And the way Isayama draws expressions is amazing: he draws faces that I’ve never seen in any other manga.

Do I even need to talk about story and characters after all the meta posts we’ve written over the past year… And the fact that we haven’t gotten tired of it despite the fact that we’ve reread it 1000 times already is very telling. There’s just so much stuff going on, so many details and elements that you can miss when you read it for the first time… rereadability is one of the greatest things about SnK.

Litchi Hikari Club (and Bokura no Hikari Club) by Furuya Usamaru – another favourite of ours and an obsession of mine. I have volumes both in English and Russian, some Japanese magazines with chapters/mangaka’s art and artbooks… LHC is such a bleak story. It’s dark and messed-up just for the sake of being dark and messed-up, and I love it: it’s theatrical and morbid. It also manages to still be comedic and entertaining. Plus, the story behind the manga creation fascinates me (it was based on a stage play from an underground theatre ok I won’t go into details now lol), it’s like an entire phenomenon for me haha. I think this manga started my obsession with gakuran uniforms and student caps.

Uzumaki and Tomie by Ito Junji – I genuinely enjoy all of Junji Ito’s work whenever we reread them, but Uzumaki and Tomie are my faves. It’s very fun to watch how Ito-sensei takes one simple concept (spirals in “Uzumaki” and ehhh idk a beautiful but deadly girl in “Tomie”) and takes it further and further with every chapter, making it more and more creepy and grotesque. He’s extremely creative.

Berserk (Golden Age Arc) by Miura Kentarou – not to spit on everything that went before and after the Golden Age, but let’s be real: the Golden Age is special. The art of Berserk is absolutely stunning. It’s one of those mangas that belongs to museums honestly: every page is worth looking at for hours. The level of details and design of characters and the world… unreal.

The relationships between Guts and Griffith are also so beautifully written, we didn’t expect them to be this painful and deep. Talk about misunderstandings and breakups with consequences, geez. Griffith’s story build-up is just... amazing. The whole eclipse thing is wow, and the events that happen before it are as well. It’s like its own story within the whole story.

I also want to mention Maruo Suehiro, because he is another horror/guro author we like a lot, but I can’t pinpoint one manga of his that could count as a favourite just yet…

Hetalia by Himaruya Hidekaz – it’s stupid, it’s funny, it’s educational (in “it makes you interested in history and politics” way, not in the “it tells you what exactly happened” way). It doesn’t take itself seriously, it’s here to have fun and make its character as gay as possible, which I appreciate a lot. I feel like Hetalia influenced the way I draw comic strips and my humor in general. But maybe I’m just imagining it lol, it’s hard to tell at this point.

Gravitation by Murakami Maki – I’m forever obsessed with Gravi. Of course, a portion of it is just out of nostalgia, but we actually read the manga fully a couple of years ago, and god it was much better than we anticipated. It’s extremely stupid and fun (how many BL mangas have tom and jerry style slapstick comedy??), but at the same time sometimes the jokes are surprisingly clever. Nothing is too serious though, every character is a clown to some extent, and this is exactly why all of them are so fun to watch. The relationships are also… surprisingly well-written in my opinion.

It’s an old school BL, but I still think it’s a bit different from other BL mangas from 90s-early 00s… Also the fact that Murakami-sensei draws smutty doujins of her own manga under a different pseudonym is still the most awesome thing I’ve ever heard; I’ll forever respect her for that.

And ofc Yuki Eiri is a bottom for us, like... duh.

Otome no Teikoku by Kishi Torajirou – it just makes me a bit happier when I don’t want to think and just want to look at girls having crushes on each other. I usually hate yuri manga with school setting, but this one slaps me in the face with how good the cast is and how unusual some of the themes in it are for a yuri manga. I feel like the author actually wants his characters to be interesting and not just gushes over how pure and innocent they look when they hold hands, and it makes a huge difference.

#replies

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theamberwriter · 5 years

Text

Drawn to Love [Katsuki Bakugo]

[ONE]

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugo x Reader

Word Count: 2982

Warnings: Cursing

A/N: Lmfao, so - Lumix and Aurelius may or may not be from a comic of my own that I came up with ages ago! I’ve been having a lot of fun writing this! I hope you guys like this just as much as Drawn to You!

"Why don't we hang out in your dorm tonight?" Katsuki asked as the two of you walked back to the Heights Alliance. You panicked, there was a reason you hadn't let him in your room.

You smiled warily. "Why would you wanna do that -"

"I've never been in your dorm, first off. Second, my floor is getting too freaking noisy to study." He glared straight ahead, his grip on your hand tightening a little. He was right though. The people on his floor had been running amuck lately.

You groaned. "Fine."

"What? Got something you don't want me to see?" Katsuki teased. "Did you save one of those Papergos to sleep with at night?"

Your face grew hot as you remembered the incident a few months before that lead to your dating. "No! My room is, uh, just a little cramped. That's all."

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He wasn't buying it. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."

Your stomach twisted as you got closer to your room. He was going to think that you were weird. You just knew it. Your quirk was fun, what could you say? It brought you endless hours of entertainment.

"Uh," you stuttered, standing in front of your door. "Are you sure you don't want to -"

"You're not getting out of this, nerd." You could see the amusement in his eyes. No matter how he tried to hide it.

Your shoulders slumped. "Rude."

To say Katsuki was a little confused when you opened the door was an understatement. There was a lot going on at once. Lots of movements, noises, and colors. Shapes he recognized but were a little off. Mostly due to the materials they were made of.

Over the years, you'd drawn and brought to life many things. One of your passions was making pets and plants that didn't need upkeep. As Katsuki stepped in, a little paper dog and cat circled around his feet. Tiny creatures scurried and flew about the room. A colorful paper toucan was propped on a paper tree growing out of your wall. On the other side of the room, an owl hooted from a tree trunk jutting out.

Paper vines hung from your ceiling, clinging to the walls. All pulsing with life. Paper plants, which actually had color and scent, were growing in real pots. Some were even sentient, nudging your leg as you walked by. You patted them on the head. Your room was alive, basically.

"Uh, welcome to my dorm," you said, stretching out your arms. The owl flew out, landing lightly on your shoulder. "You see why I didn't want to hang out in here? I - uh - I got a little carried away -"

"This is amazing," you barely heard Katsuki muttered. You could see the slight freak out in his eyes as the toucan flew to him and landed in his hair. It nuzzled down, apparently not planning on moving anytime soon.

That's when your bathroom door slid open and out walked two people. An extremely tan boy with cinnamon red hair and facial stubble was talking to a pale girl whose purple hair dragged the floor behind her. "- No, you're an idiot, you can't just - [Name]! You're back!"

The girl flew over and wrapped you up in a hug. The owl hooted at her aggressively and went back to the hollow in the tree trunk. "[Name], you're back! You've been gone forever."

"What the f -" Katsuki started.

You grinned at him anxiously. "Aurelius, Lumix - I brought someone."

The girl, Lumix, dropped you and got in Katsuki's face. The toucan in his hair didn't even flinch. The guy, Aurelius, pulled her back by the shoulder. "Lumix, don't be rude."

You rushed over, grabbing Katsuki's arm. He looked ready to blow them up. "GUYS, this is my boyfriend, Katsuki Bakugo. Katsuki, meet Lumix and Aurelius. They're, uh, characters from my comic."

"AAAHHHH, FINALLY!!!" Lumix yelled. "You're a lot cuter in person."

"They're what?" Katsuki sounded angry and baffled at the same time. "You can bring people to life?"

"You know it!" Lumix cheered, spinning around in a circle. Katsuki realized then that she was in futuristic garb. Nothing like he'd ever seen.

"Uh, yeah," you laughed nervously, pushing him towards the far end of your room. "It's a war story about different countries. Each have a theme. These two are are sci-fi and steampunk. It's a whole - nerdy - thing. Uh, let's get to studying."

"Why are some things colored but some not?" Katsuki asked suddenly. And something dawned on him. Something that made his insides burn with guilt. He really could be dense. He had so many questions. About your quirk, about you, about everything.

"Wha -" you started, turning to find Katsuki's face scrunched in obvious annoyance. "Hey, 'Suki, you okay?"

Katsuki could act cool and hard all he wanted. But, and he found it weird and irritating, he'd already imagined his whole life with you. Even after only knowing you since the school year started. You'd really gotten under his skin and into his heart. Katsuki sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I just realized, after all this time, I don't actually know a damn thing about your quirk. Or about you, really."

You smiled and waved him off. "I'm nothing interesting. My quirk is stupid and full of rules and technicalities. It's all super boring -"

"I don't care how damn complicated it is," he started. Katsuki sat on your bed. Your heart ached. He really looked like he belonged there. Amongst all of your drawings, and the craziness that you could bring to life. You sat next to him. He turned your face to look at him. His eyes were very serious.

"I don't care how dumb you think it is. If we're doing this, being together, then I have to know. - I want to know. About this." He pointed to the toucan. Then to Lumix and Aurelius who were listening intently. "About these nerds. About you."

Your heart felt like it swelled. An overwhelming feeling of happiness overtaking you. But it was cut short as you watched in horror as he reached for the toucan. Your eyes grew wide as he tried to pull it out of his hair. "Wait - no! The toucan -"

But it was too late. Katsuki's gentleness disappeared as the bird chomped down on his finger. He immediately lit it on fire. Only realizing as ashes fluttered in front of his face what he'd done.

"Bites," you finished weakly. You barely held in your laugh.

"Oh, shit," Katsuki muttered, then louder, "Damn it! I didn't -"

You got off the bed. "It's fine. I can remake him."

You rummaged through your desk until you found your drawings box. You took out a binder and held it up to show him. "This is a comprehensive collection of everything I've brought to life. This is a technicality of my quirk. You can destroy what I've made, it will simply go back to being a drawing. However, if you destroy what it's drawn on -"

"Then it's gone forever," Aurelius stated dramatically.

You nodded, then flipped through the pages. "You can see these are all blank. - Except for this one, with the toucan."

"Are you sure that's a toucan?" Katsuki asked, squinting at the page. It was just a vague shape. You thumped him on the head with the binder. That earned you a small glare.

You rolled your eyes. "I was small when I drew him. We'd gone to the zoo and wanted to make one for me. It may not look like much, but I bring to life what's in my mind's eye. Watch."

You focused for a second. Thinking about how you wanted the toucan to appear this time. Then put your hand to the page. In a glow, the marker toucan peeled away from the paper as you lifted your hand. Bringing life was a bit more elaborate than just producing a building. The marker outline rose, rotating until the toucan was up and down.

The marker lines bent into a recognizable outline of the toucan. Then the outline started to expand like a bubble. Soon a white, 3D, paper bird floated there. Then the colors flooded in, like someone pouring paint. They were totally different than they'd been before. With a final flash of light, you could see the spark of life flood in.

You cupped your hands under the toucan to catch it. It plopped right into your waiting palms. Katsuki stared in amazement, not even trying to hide it this time. That's when the toucan turned to stare him in the eye.

"I must thank you," the toucan said. The color drained from your boyfriend's face. "If you had not blown me up, I may never have gotten the gift of speech. Also, thank you, [Name], for the new coloration. It's quite beautiful."

"Why thank you," you said, smiling. "Back on the tree, then?"

The bird nodded. "Yes, please, if you would."

You climbed on your bed to put the toucan back in his perch in the corner. You sat back beside Katsuki, who was weirdly silent. He looked disturbed.

"You okay?" you giggled. "Not used to the 'miracle of life'?"

He was silent for a long moment before asking, "That bird isn't going to hold a grudge, is it?"

"Sir Beaksaplenty?" You raised an eyebrow, smirking. "No. He's a very forgiving bird. I've destroyed himself by accident before. I just have to promise to bring him back better than the last. I'm thinking about giving him a top hat and monocle."

Katsuki eyed the bird's perch warily. "And he remembers everything?"

You nodded. "Only if I want him to."

Katsuki nodded, but you didn't think he was convinced. You were quiet as you watched him take in your abilities. You could see something flicker in his eyes. He kept looking around. His eyes going to where Aurelius and Lumix were arguing over a board game on the floor.

You took Katsuki's hand gently, giving him a smile. "I'm an open book. Ask me anything you want to."

He seemed to flip through a few ideas in his head. "You never answered my question before."

"About the colors? Well some I accidentally brought to life, like the Papergos. And some I was too tired that day to give color. If I don't have enough juice left or enough focus, they come out the same color as what they're drawn on." You shrugged. "Some I colored before bringing them to life. Like the flowers, I used scented marker so they'd have smell nice. Others, like Beaksaplenty, I had to concentrate. See the colors in my mind as I brought him to life."

"So far nothing you've told me has been complicated," Katsuki teased. "Can you bring something to life out of anything?"

You nodded. "Yep, I drew Lumix and Aurelius on chunks of wood meant for carving. Their bases are in this box." You pulled out two one-inch wooden cubes, showing your boyfriend their blank sides. "I keep everything in here for safekeeping. I don't think I could reproduce these two."

Lumix grinned. "We're one of a kind!"

"Do they just follow you everywhere?" Katsuki grunted, thinking about how this would affect your future living arrangements.

"I did try to leave them with my parents," you groaned, glaring them down. "But two someones decided to sneak into my suitcase."

Lumix pouted. "We didn't want to get left behind! School is much more fun than home!"

"How the hell you even fit in a suitcase?" Katsuki asked.

"Easy!" Lumix shrugged, shrinking down to the of a doll and then growing again. "We can shrink to the size of the object we're drawn on. And as big as we are in context. We can't grow any bigger than this. But we'll also never be the size of ants."

Katsuki looked at you. You shrugged, laughing, "I told you. Rules, technicalities."

"I guess I still have a lot to learn, huh?" he noted, mostly to himself.

You took his hand, interlacing your fingers. "It's nothing time won't fix. And we have all the time in the world."

Katsuki's heart fluttered at those words. Not that he'd ever admit to being soft. You two spent the night talking. He would ask you questions; when did you draw this? or how did you do that? or what was the biggest thing you made? His subtly slipping the more you talked. The closer the two of you got.

Before you knew it, it was late and dark out. The two of you wrapped up on your bed. He was thinking deeply about something, you could see it in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything. Aurelius and Lumix were passed out on the floor. Lumix had asked Katsuki a million questions of her own. She’d finally worn herself down.

“I’m sorry about them,” you said softly. “I should’ve told you. - But I was afraid.”

Katsuki grunted, looking at you out of the corner of his eye. “Afraid of what?”

You hesitated, playing with his shirt. Katsuki grabbed your hand and turned his head to look at you levelly. You sighed. “Of you. What you would think. How you would react. I was afraid that you would think I was weird. That you’d leave me because of ...all this.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. “You’re really an idiot sometimes. - Do you really think any of this would change my mind about you? You’re mine, damn it.”

“Katsuki…” you breathed. You lifted your head to look at him, his cheeks were pale pink.

“You have a damn cool quirk. You’re strong and use it well. All this is just like training,” he said, a bit softer. “There’s no point in being able to bring shit to life, if you don’t use it to make yourself happy every once in a while. - How many people can say they do what you do? I’m guessing not fucking any. Leaving someone for their quirk is damn stupid. Especially someone as amazing as you. So don’t be an idiot.”

Katsuki kissed your forehead, which sent a herd of butterflies teaming through your stomach. He yanked your head back down to his chest. Then he pulled you tightly against him. Your heart felt warm as you wrapped your arms around him. You wanted to be like this forever.

After a long while in silence, Katsuki spoke softly. “Why would I think your quirk was weird? I knew damn well what I was getting into. I wanted to be with you, even after you unleashed a bunch of mes into the dorms. - That paper runt was right. I was flattered that you’d drawn me.”

You played with his shirt again. You muttered sleepily. “Well - there have been a few times in the past that people haven’t reacted well to my quirk. They want me to draw them. Then bring them to life. But people never see themselves from the outside. They accused me of messing with them when I brought them to life. But I hadn’t. They just didn’t like themselves, and who they truly were from the outside. Mina loved the doppelganger I drew for her. That’s how we became friends in the last year of elementary school. In middle school, I hid my quirk. But, when someone asked me out, I always made something. The few that asked me out thought I was some sort of mad scientist. Saying they’d heard about me and the things I’d made before.

“So I was terrified for you to meet Lumix and Aurelius. I thought you were going to think I was some sort of freak. Assume I was doing something pervy. Or that I was so pathetic, that I had to create my friends. Or some sort of mad scientist, just like the others had called me. Or just - completely freak out about something else. I know those two can be a bit much to handle. And, sometimes, they’re very 2D. So you can tell they aren’t real. But I gave them the ability to learn and become more of themselves. Not just how I imagined them to be. I just laid the groundwork. They did everything else. They’re much more real now than they’d been when I made them. I love them like family, regardless. Even if it makes me Dr. Frankenstein.”

“You worry too much,” Katsuki stated. “And those people were idiots. What you do is fucking awesome. Raccoon eyes gets on my damn nerves. But I’m glad she stuck around.”

Your face filled with heat. Mina was the only one to ever call you awesome, or call your quirk cool. No one you were interested ever though what you could do was neat. Or they only thought it was a pathetic parlor trick. They never took your powers seriously. You grinned to yourself, thankful to the darkness. You were embarrassed, honestly. You silently chuckled in excitement.

“Also,” he added, sounding more asleep than awake. “Frankenstein would be a fucking cool hero name.”

Soft snores followed. Katsuki’s breathing evening out, his heartbeat slowing under your ear. You honestly felt so relieved. He was going to stick with you. Even after you’d accidentally brought a bunch of Papergos to life. Finally, someone who didn’t think you were a joke. Finally, someone you could actually invite into your paper world. Someone you could actually love. Someone who would love who and what you made, just like you did.

You gave Katsuki a light squeeze. Letting your mind wander. Playing around with ideas about raising children in your world of drawings. How Lumix and Aurelis would be as babysitters. How you all would be as a family. How Katsuki would handle an apartment with you. You could see it all. You fell asleep to a sweet, warm image in your mind that you hoped you could bring to life.

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omnipah · 3 years

Note

for that character ask meme: martin themagnusarchives and/or wei wuxian?

why not both??

Martin

First impression: That’s A Whole Baby

Impression now: Excluding the final 10eps? Love to see an adult who knows how to be kind despite everyone telling him it’s useless in the face of horrors beyond our comprehension, and who values bonds and communication and compassion in the little ways just as much as the big ways. Including the final 10eps? No Thank You.

Favorite moment: Well. I am aware that “I think our experiences have value, even if they disappear forever” is a very generic answer, but also all the times in s5 where he actually gets a chance to act on it. Also that one time when he yelled at Tim for being a prick and a hypocrite, I appreciate that.

Idea for a story: I assume ‘fix-it of the final 10eps’ doesn’t count. Same with ‘au where people listen to him when he says things nicely instead of him having to explode at them a season later’. I do always appreciate stories that are like ‘what if Martin was a Different Flavour of monsterkisser’, like that comic where Jon’s a selkie, but maybe something like that with an un-magnus-related meet-cute so that Everything Is Fine And Not Going To End The World.

Unpopular opinion: Is ‘fuck Web!Martin’ too generic?? Well, fuck Web!Martin and also any associated nonsense about him being manipulative. Also, him being nice doesn’t make him stupid or incompetent, and the fact that there are points at which he doesn’t take bullshit from people doesn’t make him secretly actually super mean, u guys are just bad at nuance and 3-dimensional characters.

Favorite relationship: Well. JonMartin is the obvious answer, but also That One Fluff Episode made me Big Sad that he never got to be friends with Tim properly, I think if things had been different they could have been good for each other.

Favorite headcanon: Him Trans

Wei Wuxian

First impression: Here is a Buffoon and a Troublemaker who is somehow canny enough to cause problems despite not knowing a single thing that is going on. Also, extremely pretty.

Impression now: Here is a Buffoon and a Troublemaker who has Too Much Love In His Goddamn Heart and needs someone to take care of him the way he insists on taking care of others. Also, extremely pretty.

Favorite moment: That thing he does where he sees Literally Anyone and goes ‘That’s My Friend Now’, except also does it in a way that lets them have boundaries and be slow to get to like him without making it seem like he’s all sad and rejected. Related, literally any scene with him and A Child. Notable example when he and Jin Ling are Male Bonding or whatever and he tells him to be a dipshit now to get it out of his system for when he can’t be a dipshit later. I respect that.

Idea for a story: Wen Qing never dies au where she comes and helps with shit post-resurrection, and he gets another friend from his childhood to Care Him, and she gets to not be dead and get the same second chance he does. Maybe she gets to be lesbians with MianMian and there are parallels with WangXian.

Unpopular opinion: If u think he was ever wrong about anything no u don’t <3 Jiang Cheng is an understandable and interesting character, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on and, for all the validity of his trauma, is still a prick.

Favorite relationship: WangXian, and also his friendships with Wen Ning and Wen Qing, and also his gaggle of adopted children.

Favorite headcanon: Him Also Trans. Also he has that nose-rubbing tic because it reminds him of when Yanli boops him and he loves her and it helps him think because it makes him feel safe when he imitates that.

#ask me #tma #the untamed #thanks for the ask!!#love to yell about The Lads

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caitlin666 · 4 years

Text

My (probably) Unpopular SGE Opinions

Ugh, I can feel the hate coming already. Please keep in mind that these are my opinions and EDUCATE (OR STATE YOUR OPINION) IN THE COMMENTS PEACEFULLY, DON’T ATTACK.

-Sophie isn’t a good role model

Oh my god, I can’t stress this enough. If you admire some parts of her, such as her style and her ambition, that’s perfectly fine, but to admire her as a whole is pretty stupid. Don’t get me wrong, she starts to pull herself together in TCY, but most people can admit that she is shallow, mean, manipulative, selfish and many other negative traits that aren’t admirable. Even her ambition can be shallow at times. In fact for most of the first book I saw her as pure comic relief until I realised there were more sides to her, and I do overall like her as a character, but not as a person.

-Soman isn’t a completely bad person

Yes, he has done some things which are pretty effed up, and I obviously DO NOT support him for what he did. But overall I don’t believe that he is a completely bad person, just someone who sometimes makes stupid/bad decisions and doesn’t properly think things through. Yet again, I DO NOT CONDONE SOME OF THE THINGS HE HAS DONE OR SAID.

-Agatha Doesn’t Deserve Hate!

I see so many people in this fandom hating on Agatha, and yet again, why? Some people call her boring, and while yes she was in some parts of TCY, he was hella interesting in TSY. SHE SET FIRE TO A CASTLE AND ATE A FAIRY AND A CATERPILLAR. She also was unafraid to make friends with Nevers and break Evergirl boundaries, which I find interesting and compelling. She’s a total badass and a smart and kind person and that’s the end of the story. Also why do people hate Agatha for her “Not Like Other Girls” mindset, which she eventually grows out of, whereas Hester has the exact same mindset which she doesn’t grow out of, and people pretty much call her a badass for it? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE PEOPLE. And don’t get me wrong, Hester IS a badass, but the hypocrisy in this case is so frustrating.

-While I do overall ship Tagatha, there were parts of the series where I thought Agatha deserved way better

She’s smart, funny, witty, kind, and while I am glad they ended up together, there were moments where I thought Agatha deserved better, especially in book one. This is nitpicky but sort of true. THANK GOD Tedros pulled himself together in book three and onwards (Aside from book four, yikes!) or otherwise I would still have the same opinion.

-The saying “One Ugly, One Beautiful” in book one is meant to be a paradox essentially

Think about it. Agatha isn’t pretty on the outside but has a beautiful heart. Sophie is stunning on the outside but has an ugly heart. That’s why I think this saying is so genius with the story, and yet so little fans pick up on it.

-So many background characters weren’t needed

Giselle, Flavia, Ava, Sahara, Beezle, Mona, Arachne, the first years in ACOT. Yes, they’re fun to make edits about, but what actual use did they have in the story aside from to make SGE seem bigger? Raven, Vex, and Brone are iconic though so I’m leaving them be LMAOO.

-Background characters needed to be developed

I honestly think this idea is slightly better. Adding depth to background characters (Such as Vex, Raven, Mona, and Arachne) would provide so much more possibilities to explore. So yeah, they should have either been taken out, or more depth should have been added to them.

-Tagatha was rushed

Especially in book one. They should have been fleshed out from an enemies to friends to lovers, instead of rushing it in book one! For example, it should have been Tedros is initially nice to Agatha (which is what happened), Agatha still hates him (which is what happened), Tedros initially calls her a witch for a few chapters but then realises she’s a pretty cool person and they both eventually decide to reluctantly make friends with each other before building up to a proper relationship. That would have worked way better because the way their relationship was actually portrayed I found to be extremely unrealistic.

-Most Evers who are supposed to be “good” aren’t very believable as good people, especially in Book One (yes they do develop, but still lol)

This one is nitpicky, but there were multiple times were I wanted to slap Evers in the face because of how rude they were! Instead, there could have been some moments here and there in book one where they actually nice? It would have made them so much more believe as Evers. If those Evers really existed and SGE was a standalone, it would honestly be on sight for some of them, I’m sorry.

- Oversexualization of characters

People only seem to just notice this now in Red School, but this was a common occurrence in the SGE books, especially with Sophie and Tedros. Go to exactly the middle of book one (and even other books in the series), read a few passages and tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.

-These books shouldn’t be for ages 8 and up

Enough said. I could only just stomach the content in this book at age eleven (and I had watched multiple horror movies at this point LOL so no, I’m not “weak”). Think about it, if this book was only told from Agatha’s point of view, the content would be extremely upsetting and borderline depressing (key word: borderline). I would personally make the age rating for these books 10-16 and not 8-14. Enough said. As said before, there is also oversexualization of characters (and many other things) that may upset younger readers.

Alright, that’s all! Yet again, please educate (or state your opinion) in the comments peacefully, don’t attack. Also keep in mind that these are just my personal opinions.

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thewebcomicsreview · 4 years

Note

So I've been following this one guy who gives really good writing advice, but lately he's been: telling people it's OK to skip the Intermission in Homestuck; defending bad writing as a "structural issue" (those poor writers, it's not their fault they've structured their story / writing process in a bad way); priding himself on making a half-assed "unfinished-on-purpose" comic review. This person was my main source of writing advice, so I don't know where to turn to. Any recommendations?

The only other webcomic review guys I’m aware of are the Bad Webcomics Wiki, but if you think I’m too nice on writers, they might be up your speed anyway and oh my god they just posted a review of a SpiderForest comic. Guess it’s time for

The Webcomic Review Reviews Webcomic Reviews

So, this is a review of a SpiderForest comic called “The Guide to a Healthy Relationship” which is a comic about LGBT people, and it’s being reviewed by the Bad Webcomics Wiki, so obviously there’s going to be a whole bunch of slurs, so consider that a content warning and I’m putting the rest of this behind a ReadMore

This is going to be slightly disjointed because the BWW review is disjointed, but I’ll do my best

We’re already in some factual trouble right on line one, since TGtaHR is a traditional webcomic and not a long-scroll mobile-friendly webtoon, nor is it hosted on webtoons.com. Is this nitpicky? Maybe a little, but we’re off to a poor start here.

This comic is just under 200 pages.

I feel like if you’re going to write a big thing attacking a webcomic’s story, you should try to have some kind of understanding of what that story is. I know what the story of Sinfest is, and Sinfest is a confusing nightmare.

Okay, so maybe the reason you think this story is bad is because it’s 2deep4u.

So, in the space of about twenty pages, we learn that Apollo had a friend named Julian who killed himself, and then we cut ahead to Julian drinking on the job, going to a party, taking drunks, and waking up naked in the bathtub covered in beer bottles, and the living room is full of too-hot-for-tumblr passed-out drunks. The Bad Webcomics Wiki calls this “Softcore porn that is never brought up again”, because the Bad Webcomics Wiki is written by high school dropouts for an audience they presume has never read the comic proper.

This debauchery is never brought up again because it’s not relevant to the plot, it’s relevant to the character. Apollo is fucked up because his friend killed himself when he was a teenager, and he deals with being fucked up by retreating into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That’s what’s being established here. Also being established if you’re paying attention: Apollo has scars on his chest.

In chapter 1, Apollo goes to a party, the entirety of which is dedicated to him walking around naked, and we get a bunch of obviously sexual shots of his dick, clearly catering to the author's gay fetish. His boss goes to his place to check on him, and it is revealed he is a hoarder. This never comes up again.

1. In this scene, there are two panels where you can see Apollo’s penis, one panel where you can see someone’s vomit-covered dick, and two panels where you can see a woman’s breasts. None of these panels of flacid dicks or sagging boobs are sexual, though. The dicks are unpowered, it doesn’t make a bit of difference guys, the balls are inert.

2. What the fuck is a “gay fetish” and how it different from just “being gay”.

3. I don’t know the author, even though we’re both in SpiderForest, so I don’t know where Dani The Carutor lies in the whole gender spectrum thingamabob, but I will note that “Dani” is usually short for Danielle. So maybe it’s not a safe assumption that the author is a man? I dunno. That’s just me, guessing people’s genders by screen name is hard, so I try not to lest I embarrass myself.

4.So, when you say Apollo is a “hoarder”, you link to a page showing his room is disgusting and covered in garbage

Is your takeaway from these panels....that Apollo is some kind of fanatic garbage collector? That his room is full of garbage because he actively works at having as much garbage as possible because he wants it?

There are a couple pages explaining Apollo's purple special snowflake eyes with some snowflake "disability".

Apollo has Ocular Albinism, which is a real condition that really exists, and really does give you purple eyes. It also gives you major vision problems, which are the context in which it gets brought up, because Apollo needs help crossing the road because he can’t see well enough in the light. So I don’t know what the scare quotes around “disability” are for. He can’t see. You could, if you were so inclined, connect this plot point with the way the chapter titles are named after mental conditions, and start to formulate some coherent critique with the seemingly cavalier way this comic uses disability, but that would require thought. It might even require research into difficult topics, because you’d ideally not want to make a fool of yourself talking about things you didn’t understand well enough to talk competently about.

Chapter 2 is the most pointless, as it is basically there to confirm what we already know so the author can insert a cringy buzzword (see image below)

Okay, so a couple of things

1. In what fucking universe is “tranny” an SJW buzzword? What the fuck are you even talking about?

2. Having the protagonist of your comic say someone is “smart, for a tranny” is like the least SJW thing you could possibly do.

3. Perhaps “Apollo is asking someone for help but casually insults her causing her to leave” is some kind of “character” moment? The author of this review is so /pol/-poisoned that they have no ability to understand “context” or “characterization” or basically any thing that exists.

4.Your list of the comic’s characters includes this bon mot:

So what the fuck? That’s so stupid I’d think it was an intentionally hypocritical joke if I had any reason to believe you were capable of it.

Chapter 3 is dedicated to revealing the boyfriend shit

I should point out that Apollo and Julian being boyfriends is something the BWW invented, the comic itself clearly states they were “best friends”, not boy friends. Couple of dudes being prudes.

Apollo believes that Julian faked his own death, which fucked up Apollo for years, and now that they’ve met each other Julian keeps ghosting him. Apollo’s motives for chasing Julian around are extremely clear.

That’s a scene transition, bay-bee!

Apollo finally gets ahold of Julian. Julian blows him off and Apollo gives up. There’s then a clear scene transition to Apollo, at a restaurant, talking about what we just saw. This is a perfectly clear scene transition, with a transitory panel and everything to indicate that this is the next day. It’s certainly more clear than Apollo waking up in jail in chapter 2 which you skipped over. Are you actually reading this comic at all?

You are such a fucking moron, holy shit.

Julian got beat up for being trans. It’s unclear if he’s actually trans or just a feminine-looking cis dude, but regardless it was bad enough to traumatize him and this all happened when he knew Apollo, who calls Julian his “best friend”, and says things like

There’s literally two dots here, and you’re unable to connect them. Galia even has the same hairstyle as Julian to make it visually obvious This Is What The Reference and you still missed it.

Julian and Apollo walk around the woods in their underwear for no reason whatsoever. Julian takes some drugs or something, and passes out?

Hm. Why does Julian go outside at night? I wonder if that’s explained in the comic?

Oh, I see. He went outside to smoke. But why did Apollo go outside at night?

Oh, he was looking out the window and saw Julian mysteriously go off into the woods. I guess that’s explained, too. I guess you just missed those pages

Julian takes some drugs or something, and passes out?

Huh, I wonder why Julian was asleep

Oh, he has Insomnia, so he took something called Halcion. I wonder what that is.

Oh, it’s a prescription insomnia medication. And you shouldn’t take alcohol with it, wow Julian is dealing with a super pushy alcoholic I should file that information away for later, like how knowing Wellbutrin’s side effects in teenagers were critical to understand Drop Out. Luckily webcomics are comics, on the web, and I can look this up!

He is then woken up by the fatty side character punching him. Somehow, Julian destroyed the kitchen, even though he was passed out - this is never explained, and makes no fucking sense

Sigh.

So, here are some hints as to what happened.

Julian has bruises all over his body, which you have consistently failed to notice.

Daniel, Julian’s friendly boyfriend, has like no negative reaction whatsoever to Brandon, some random dude, punching Julian in the fucking face

He even takes Brandon’s side and basically implants the idea that Julian did it into Julian’s head, and that last panel is rather threatening.

Julian took insomnia medicine, and fell asleep, and then got wrongfully blamed for destroying the kitchen by Daniel, who know’s that Julian was passed out and couldn’t have done it. Who actually did destroy the kitchen is a mystery, but Daniel is the most likely culprit.

it transitions into this trippy bullshit with blood, and body horror, and Julian's hair is suddenly short

It’s short because it’s a flashback to when he was a teenager, and he had short hair when he was a teenager so that literate people are able to understand this without getting confuzzled.

Apollo turning into Daniel in this trippy dream sequence is also pretty relevant!

Also, we have random nudity and sexualization of this sick person.

No, we have reveals that he’s in worse physical shape than we thought.

By the way, in your character list, you describe Daniel as

Daniel (Side Character): He may as well be a wall. This guy has no personality whatsoever. No quirks, no interests, no purpose outside of causing superficial melodrama.

If you’ve made it all the way to this point and not picked up on Daniel being an abusive boyfriend and the primary antagonist of the story, you may be beyond hope.

The rest of the chapter is Julian being angsty, and SO ILL while everyone talks about how weird he is

Again, that’s very clearly and obviously not actually what’s happening in the story.

What’s happening isn’t “Julian is sick lol”, it’s “Daniel is working to turn everyone against Julian”. That’s why he destroyed the kitchen and blamed Julian for it; to ensure that the other boys all thought Julian was a nutjob and thus keep them from reaching out to Julian and providing Julian with a guide to a healthy relationship instead of the abusive one he’s currently in. Your inability to read even slightly between the lines isn’t just distressing in terms of your inability to think critically about stories, it’s maybe worrisome re your ability to think about the real world, too. How are you this dense? It’s like watching Star Wars and not picking up that the empire and the rebellion don’t like each other. No wonder you’re confused!

Chapter 5 is still in the works. It jumps the shark right away with Apollo getting drunk and sleeping with Julian's boyfriend. The author makes Apollo the guilty party and not the boyfriend

The comic is fairly clear that Daniel is the bad guy

This webtoon is so convoluted there is no saving it at this point. Each chapter is titled after some mental illness such as 'Monophobia', 'Anxiety', 'Psychosis'. You think they would have some thematic meaning with each chapter being about one of those things. Nope, they're just titled like that to show how EDGY this webtoon is! You can taste the cringe. Julian's mental shit has no rhyme or reason - he will act sick when the plot calls for it, and if it has anything to do with the chapter's title, it is also crazy inaccurate.

The author of this review somehow managed to read the entirety of The Guide to a Healthy Relationship without picking up that Daniel was an abuser. The comic thus seems convoluted to him because he thinks all the things happening are random events without rhyme or reason because he has completely failed to notice the whole plot, which is not subtle. Just....fucking staggering incompetence, as a critic.

Guess you’re stuck with me, anon.

#Anonymous #The Guide to a Healthy Relationship #bad webcomics wiki #The webcomic review reviews webcomic reviews

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lukkerichardson-blog · 3 years

Text

Identity and Representation within ethnic minorities

Introduction:

Throughout this rich media essay I will be looking into the identity and representation of minority groups in TV and film. My case study will be “Get Out” which was written and directed by Jordan Peele.”Get Out” was a cultural landmark in cinema as it was one of the first horror films to feature a predominantly black cast and be written and directed by a black man. It also won several awards and received critical acclaim. The identity and representation of ethnic minorities has been an ever changing and evolving debate ever since the beginning of cinema. Directors like Jordan peele have strived to make change within the paradigm in regards to the way ethnic minorities are portrayed. This is evident in his 2017 film “Get Out” when the main character Chris Washington played by (Daniel kaluuya) Meets his white girlfriend (Rose armitage) played by (Allison Williams)’s family in suburban America and things get strange when Daniel kaluuyas character Chris finds out that his girlfriend Rose and her family have been secretly plotting to detain him and switch bodies with him because they believe that the black body is more superior to theirs. Jordan Peele wrote the story this was as a result of a belief that some people hold that white people are superior to black people. It is a reverse of eugenics, as in the film the grandfather (Gordon Greene) played by (John Wilmot) tells a story that Jesse Owens beat him in the 1936 olympics and therefore believes that black people are superior Jordan peele wrote the story like this so that it would show black people being the “superior” race which is a far cry to what most of history has been about.

Representation

“Get Out” is an interesting case study as it is a predominantly black cast, not only in terms of the writer and director Jordan Peele, but even the story is about black struggle and the objectification of black culture and identity, Jordan Peele tackles issues around the subject of racism. Since get out release audiences have seen a wider range of diversity both behind and infant of the camera. More black led projects have been headed; for example Peeles second directorial debut “US” and HBO’s “lovecraft, country” maybe these new releases have demonstrated that Hollywood is becoming more diverse and accepting of change. Representation within the genre of horror has improved dramatically. The TV and film industry has always been under fire because alot of people feel that the industry is not diverse enough, it has always casted white people in the industry instead of non white actors for years. You can see this in ever single aspect of production from the cast to the crew, you can also see it in the nominations for awards, and who wins them predominantly. Which is why “Get Out” was such a huge breath of fresh air. Although the representation of the black community has gotten better the path that has had to be taken there has been hard. Minority groups have been shown in a horrific way for hundreds of years. You can date it back hundreds of years to even when they were doing plays with packed out audiences using white actors to dress up in blackface to mock black people. They were painted with comically large mouths with huge red lips and large noses. They would even prance around the stage and intentionally use these characters to be the dumb stupid ones for comedic effect, in this time it was completely socially acceptable to do these things and was the norm. In Peter pan ( 1953 ) there is a part in the film with native Americans who are portrayed as villains and have skin that was very bright and red and are actually called “Red Skins”. The reason for this Is because Hollywood was controlled

by white people and all writers and directors of films at the time were all white, who were extremely proud of their country and thought that native Americans were villains. A genre that was popular at the time was westerns, which always featured white cowboys as heroes and native Americans as villains, even though the fact is, is that white people took over America from native Americans and slaughtered and stole from them. They were even portrayed as the villains up until extremely recently, in Twilight (2008) all the werwolves are portrayed as indigenous people and were all portrayed as uneducated.

Also another problem with representation within the film industry was the award ceremonies. In the nomination process it is still to this day mostly white actors and creatives that get nominated for awards. It even can be seen as recently as 2015 and 2016, where there was huge unrest and a big conversation was started on industry racism and systematic oppression. For 2 years straight every single actor that was nominated for best lead and supporting role were white. Take note that the last time something like this had happened was in 1998, so this did raise the question. Are we going back to old racist ways? Twitter exploded and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was trending for days. Because of this scandal alot of the worlds most famous actors and creatives boycotted the ceremony Spike lee took to instagram to announce that he and his wife could not attend because they “Cannot support it” Jada pinkest smith and will smith both said that they would not attend until the issue was resolved. But even when the most recent 2020 Oscar nominations were announced there was a huge backlash because yet again there was a huge obvious hole in the nominations, all best supporting actress role nominations were white. Alot of people believed that Lupita Nyong’os role in US, yet another Jordan Peele classic was definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination. However alot of the public and industry workers feel like she was robbed of this because of systematic oppression. Thankfully films with black cast and crew members have been gaining the attention and success they deserve. Black Panther (2018) now holds the record for highest grossing solo superhero film so far. In 2013 the first ever African American won best adapted screen play for 12 years a slave, his name was John Ridley. The best film 2019 was the “Green Book” which protagonist was mahershala Ali. Also in 2019 “Blackkklansman” won best adapted screenplay which was directed by Spike Lee who many people believe has been snubbed many times within the awards ceremony.

Identity

By now audiences know that Get out is more than your average horror film. Jordan Peele has expressed that Get Out portrays how racism feels to a black man. I agree with this and I also feel that Get Out portrays the complexities of racial identity. Get Out shows us that we still have a long road ahead when it comes to understanding each other. In Get Out all the black characters that’s bodies have been stolen go to a place called the sunken place where they float in an endless void, where the body is paralysed but the mind is completely conscious I think that this may be what Jordan Peele is talking about when he talks about what it feels like to be apart of a minority group. Maybe this is him trying to convey that black voices are not heard in Hollywood or in any walk of life at all, and that the void is like being black because it feels like there is nothing you can do. I also think that the sunken place would resonate with the black community as if you forget the hypnosis and body swapping, it is realistically a metaphor for how your identity can be lost

because people will solely judge you on race, it is also like you are being controlled and governed by someone who doesn’t really have your best interests at heart, and there isn’t anything you can do about it. Jordan Peele is half black and half white he explained in a 2012 interview that "Being of mixed background, we liken it to walking on a tightrope at different points in our lives. At certain points, it seems like we’re between two worlds, or we’re a part of two worlds, or we question where our world is.”

I also think another issue that we have today with identity when it comes to minority groups is, white washing. White washing is when an original source material, comic, book, film, tv show or any form of media is altered to cast a white character in place of one that is from a minority group. This is very harmful to culture and to basic morals in general as it snubs ethnic minorities of roles that resonate with them in place of a white person so that it can appeal to a more western society. whitewashing goes back to the early 1920’s which was a time where society was far less developed as it was today. There was hardly any equality in the 1920’s between races in America, or any part of the world for that matter. For example in 1915 a film was released called “The Birth of a Nation” directed by D.W Griffith, which by some was well regarded because of the technical cinematography. However he used white actors in black face to portray historical actions of the Klu Klux Klan. Because of this the film is widely recognised to be racist and is greatly criticised. Even up until today there have been so many film adaptations of other original source material from different cultures and created by minority groups that have been capitalised on by Hollywood to appeal to a wider audience, therefore being whitewashed. For example a Japanese Manga titled Death Note was adapted into an animation. Both the animation and the manga features an all asian cast. Hollywood noticed that this was an extremely popular anime series and therefore began production of their own live action version. This version replaced all Japanese characters with all white American ones. Compares to the original source material which is critically acclaimed this live adaptation was universally disliked. Some might say that this is because they have no idea of the source material and don’t understand it because they don’t resonate with it, maybe what makes these intellectual properties so good is because of the culture and the art style behind them. The whole of death note is extremely rooted in asian culture which is why the American version didn’t work. Another quick example of recent times is Johnny Depp in “The Lone Ranger”. He was cast as “Tonto” who is a native american character, obviously Johnny Depp is white. In annihilation Natalie portman and Jeniffer Jason Leigh play characters who in the novel are respectively asian and native american descent.

Finally I would say the history of cinema has been extremely controversial and the issue of diversity has been one if the biggest problems throughout. The lack of ethnic minorities in cinema is astonoshing at times, especially in the early days of cinema. Also the portrayal of minorities when they are casted in media is also extremely unfair, one sided and biased towards a racist agenda. Until this issue has been resolved we will not see minorities being depicted clearly and truthfully in any such forms of media. The small amount of minority directors, screen writers, and all other parts of the creative industry has caused an extremely unbalanced work place where white people will benefit, even if the character they are playing is not white. However even though we have seen an improvement in terms of this issue in some spaces. There still seems to be a lack of representation of non white creatives in the industry and award ceremonies.

Bibliography

Low, E. and Jackson, A., 2020. Black Representation In Hollywood: Is The Industry Finally Listening? - Variety. [online] Variety.com. Available at: <https://variety.com/2020/biz/ features/black-representation-hollywood-inclusion-diversity-entertainment-1234693219/>.

Bakare, L., 2020. Get Out: The Film That Dares To Reveal The Horror Of Liberal Racism In America. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/ feb/28/get-out-box-office-jordan-peele>.

Variety.com. 2020. Jordan Peele: How 'Get Out' Tackles Systemic Racism As Horror - Variety. [online] Available at: <https://variety.com/2017/film/news/jordan-peele-get-out- systemic-racism-1202604824/>.

Robinson, T., 2020. Get Out Review: A Ruthlessly Smart Racial Send-Up That's Also Terrifying. [online] The Verge. Available at: <https://www.theverge.com/ 2017/2/24/14724404/jordan-peele-get-out-movie-review-race-horror-film>.

Moore, S., 2020. The Oscars Mix-Up Matters Because This Night Was Always About Racial Bias | Suzanne Moore. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https:// www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/27/oscars-mix-up-matters-racial-bias>.

Hiatt, B. and Hiatt, B., 2020. The All-American Nightmares Of Jordan Peele. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: <https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/director- jordan-peele-new-movie-cover-story-782743/>.

Cara, M., 2020. ‘Get Out’ Shows How Being Defined By Your Race Puts Your Own Identity At Risk. [online] Bustle. Available at: <https://www.bustle.com/p/get-out-shows-how-being- defined-by-your-race-puts-your-own-identity-at-risk-41121> [Accessed 18 August 2020].

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chasseurdeloup-retired · 4 years

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Magical Moostery Tour || Regan, Nadia, Deirdre, Blanche, and Kaden

TIMING: A long ass time ago when Regan didn’t have wings PARTIES: @kadavernagh @harlowhaunted @deathduty @humanmoodring and @chasseurdeloup SUMMARY: Regan got the whole gang VIP tickets to Moosventures and Blanche was the tour guide. What could go wrong?

Bringing Kaden and Deirdre together, dragging Nadia out of the apartment and herself out of the morgue… well, okay, probably everything could go wrong. Regan had called ahead to specifically request Blanche for their VIP moose tour and, taking Kaden’s advice, she’d told them not to alert her to this. She wasn’t sure what to expect from a moose tour agency, but it wasn’t the moose heads hanging on the wall. Not that she minded, but there was something extremely morbid about that. And there were few things in life -- or death -- that Regan considered morbid. Maybe they were fake, but they looked real enough. She tapped Kaden on the shoulder and gestured toward one of the heads, making sure he saw it. After all, he liked skulls.

While they waited, Regan scanned the room. The place wasn’t crowded, though it was possible not everyone was there yet. How many people really wanted to go on a moose tour? A little over a dozen people, as it turned out. Two young couples, a family with kids, and some single nature-lovers all queued up impatiently as the tour company was… preparing the bus or something. “I’m sure Deirdre and Nadia will be here any minute! They wouldn’t want to miss this. Probably.”

Kaden hated waiting. They were a solid half hour early, too, at Regan's insistence. Only she hadn't told him they were getting there early. Had he known that he would have conveniently delayed picking her up as long as possible. He was leaned back in the chair, arms crossed, starting to doze off, when Regan nudged him and he jumped awake. He looked around for anything alarming, then followed her line of sight to the moose heads. His brow furrowed, they looked like moose heads. Weird to have before a moose tour, sure, but they seemed pretty standard. Wait, did she still think he was a game hunter? Right. Probably. Not like he exactly told her otherwise. He pulled his mouth into a half smile and nodded like they were great.

He sighed and checked the time on his phone. It had only been seven whole minutes. "I hope so." Well, at least Nadia. He was dreading having to sit around and play nice with Deirdre. Thank god he'd be able to distract himself by annoying hell out of Blanche. "It's still early. I'm sure they're on their way." He smiled at Regan as he leaned back again and put his arm around the back of her chair.

Nadia locked her truck and headed to the moose tour building. Honestly, not how she thought she was going to be spending her night, but it seemed like fun. She remembered that she’d told Regan that the moose tour seemed interesting when they first became friends, and, well, there was no sense in turning it down. She was running late from the time that Regan had given her, though. She quickly walked into the building and headed to where she saw Regan and Kaden seated. As she took a seat, she leaned over and murmured, “Sorry I’m…” she looked around at the lack of people and the fact that no one seemed to be getting ready to start, “late?”

There was nothing that sounded more idiotic to Deirdre than looking at living moose. Except, maybe, paying someone to help her look at living moose. The only benefit was seeing Regan, a gift of which she would never turn down, and then the possibility of potentially pushing Kaden into a comically large pile of moose excrement. If Kaden would die sometime during this venture, Deirdre would count this journey a victory, but she knew White Crest wouldn’t offer her even that one little thing. And then there was Nadia, Regan’s allotted human. If she was to die, Deirdre would count that a victory too, but the thought left her with an odd touch of sadness. She rationalized that as mourning the loss of the fun kind of criminal, a true tragedy in the monotony of the human world.

Deirdre pushed open the doors, appalled for a moment that there was no human to offer to do the manual labor for her. Her gaze snapped to the three people she was meant to meet; astonishing Regan in her adorable turtleneck glory, disgusting-waste-of-a-human Kaden….and Nadia. Or who Deirdre assumed was Nadia. Were she not focused on glaring at Kaden’s arm around Regan’s chair--familiar and crude--she would have enjoyed the company’s decorating choices. “This better be a-moose-ing,” she strode to them, haphazardly tossing off her notably unnecessary sunglasses. She was aiming for Kaden’s head, a task that proved harder to do when she was trying not to look like she wanted to impale him with an antler hat. Where her sunglasses actually landed was another story.

Stan was acting weird as they got the bus ready for the nights tour. He had taken care of the check in process, so Blanche hadn’t even seen the list of how big it was supposed to be. There were four V.I.P. seats, though, which meant there would be four people practically on top of her while she recited Moose factoids. She pushed her stupid headband of specialty pair of Moose Antler’s and put her magnetic gold name tag that said her name in a styled ‘Moosey’ font, and went to greet the patrons. She had gotten… sort of? Better at it, as time went on. She still didn’t have the pep in her step or passion for moose Pam or the new part-time tour guide named Martha did. “Hi everyone,” Blanche had started saying, adjusting the Mooseventure brand fleece jacket (available at the gift case for $24.99 in child and adult sizes). “W- unf.”

Deirdre’s sunglasses soared through the air, bouncing off Blanche’s face and falling onto her small box of mooseantlers. Blanche stopped, looked at the sunglasses, before looking up. Her worst nightmare were sitting right there in front of her. Oh no. She saw Deirdre first. Then Kaden. Nadia. Regan. Who she knew had four V.I.P. passes. Oh no. Absolutely not. Horror, rage, and embarrassment flashed across her reddening face. “Oh my god.” Why couldn’t her moose antler headband come with a mask? Actually, just let her wear a giant moose head like a mascot. Blanche shot a look at Regan, to her other patrons. And then, through her teeth, she started the welcome script.

“Welcome. Are you all ready to see some moose. I’m Blanche. Your tour guide for tonight. And. Your. Fellow. Moosenthusiast.” She, very stiffly, handed the cardboard box of moose antlers out. “We can’t get on the bus without the proper headgear. We wouldn’t want to scare the moose.” She shot her friends a look. “Mandatory.”

With Nadia and Deirdre finally showing up, the gang was all here. Almost. Regan’s eyes followed the pair of sunglasses that Dierdre whipped off her face, and nearly yelped when she saw Blanche on the other end of their trajectory. And -- oh no! They must’ve hit her face harder than it looked, because her cheeks were all red. Both of them, actually. That was strange. Regan winced in empathy and waggled her fingers in a shy wave. It was rude to interrupt her introduction spiel while she was working, right? But the deflated way Blanche spoke was almost depressing, and Regan had to wonder if something was wrong. And… why were they distributing styrofoam antlers? “I don’t need those,” she said, holding her head proudly, “I’m not a child.” But Blanche had used the word mandatory. And -- hey, why had she made eye contact when she said that? Did she already know Regan would protest? She sighed. “I’ll hold them. I’m not wearing them.” She sidled up next to Kaden and once Nadia and Deirdre had antlers in hand, the group was ushered onto a bus. Discrete from the outside, the inside was plastered in moose memorabilia. She looked down at her VIP ticket stub, which indicated that they had the frontmost seats for “best viewing”. Why did they even bother with stubs? It wasn’t like they could leave the bus, even if they wanted to… now there was a slightly terrifying thought. She glanced between Kaden, Deirdre, and Nadia as a decision cemented itself. “I think… Kaden, do you want to sit with Deirdre?”

Kaden was really hoping that Deirdre just wouldn't show up. He was so close to getting his wish, too. Then she walked in the door, flinging her sunglasses like some sort of over dramatic diva. Somehow she was worse in person. He didn't think it was possible. He sighed and shot her a look and almost missed seeing Blanche get decked by the sunglasses. Seeing the look of horror on her face was worth it, he had to admit. He had to bite back the laughter at her moose antlers and forced bullshit monologue. His smile faded a bit when she handed him his own set of moose antlers. He was pretty sure they weren't mandatory and this was her form of payback. "Come on, Regan, can't scare the moose," he said as he put his antlers on her head. If he was going to look stupid, he wasn't going to do it alone. He turned to Blanche before grabbing another set. "If I put these on, do I get to ask as many questions as I want?" he asked with a smirk. "There's just so much to learn about the moose. I've gotta know." Kaden was starting to think this might be fun after all. Then Regan had to suggest that. His face fell and he tried not to shoot Deirdre a glare. The word "No" didn't seem strong enough. But he was pretty sure he couldn't refuse. As much as he wanted to. "Do I-- Are you sure? I mean..."

Nadia frowned as she took the moose antlers, but she was more focused on trying to drown out all of the feelings going on around her. Between Blache’s embarrassment (poor girl; Nadia could only imagine that she hadn’t been expecting to see the four of them while she was working) and the animosity Kaden had coming off of him in waves, it was hard for her to think. And the source of his animosity… Nadia hadn’t really known what to think, meeting Deirdre. The other woman was just as loud in person as she was online. It was all a bit much. Nadia tried to focus on herself, on what she was feeling. She-- it was hard-- she hated the moose antlers. That’s what she was feeling, but she put them on and glanced up as Regan asked if Kaden and Deirdre wanted to sit together. No, that sounded like an awful idea, a really bad idea, but she couldn’t exactly blurt out that she could tell they hated each other just from feelings. She looked between the three of them, then looked at Blanche, then looked back. Nadia should’ve stayed home.

Deirdre didn’t mind the moose antlers. She could see the apprehension in her companions faces but she was of the (correct) belief that she looked good in anything. She took them with a smile, which widened at seeing Blanche at her other job and veered into a smirk at Regan’s suggestion. “I’d love to sit next to Kaden! We can get closer--in several ways.” She slipped the antlers on, trying to find Kaden’s gaze to shoot him a wink. Oh, he was right to hate her. But she reveled in that hate. She glanced over at Nadia, her frown died as she remembered one of their older conversations. With a cough she spoke generally to the air, “the humans are louder! If you focus on what isn’t--it’s less overwhelming.” Hopefully the small nugget of information could make up to Nadia about being stuck here. “Just something my grandmother said about….moose. That humans are louder than….them…” she coughed again, “anyway, don’t you mean it’s moose-datory?” Deirdre grinned, “lead on cadet.”

Blanche’s protest almost turned into gagging as Kaden stuck his moose antlers on Regan’s head. Ew. What the hell was that? Cursed. She glowered at Kaden, giving him the most withering stare “I’m here to answer all Moose questions, as your tour guide,” She said, through her teeth. She felt a little better when Regan suggested Kaden and Deirdre sit together, snorting under her breath as she began checking stuff off on her clip board. Nadia looked like she wanted out too. Same, Nadia, she thought. Blanche looked at Deirdre, and realized that maybe Deirdre should be the Moose themed tour-guide. “Moose-datory. What a great pun! Alright everyone, out this way, and up onto the bus!” Blanche was used to people herding. “Our for VIP members right up front! With me!” Oh god, with her. She would practically be on top of them. Noooo. “Antlers on, everyone, we’re almost ready to take off!”

Aside from the moose antlers that Kaden had stuck on her head, this was going… great! Regan’s heart soared. 5 friends, all in the same place, all enjoying the moose. Except Blanche, who didn’t look particularly happy… actually, now that she thought about it, Nadia looked pretty overwhelmed (maybe she was really excited about the moose?). Deirdre and Kaden seemed okay, though. She wondered if they’d have some moose bones to pass around on the bus, like a show and tell. Part of this was about education, after all, wasn’t it? That would cheer everyone up. They followed Blanche’s lead onto the bus, and Regan shuffled into the first available window seat, motioning for Nadia to join her. Meanwhile, Kaden and Deirdre took the next. There was a strange sharpness to both of their eyes. Was it a mistake to suggest this seating arrangement? She knew Deirdre and Kaden had their differences, but they both seemed eager to put it all behind them. Regan raised her hand, like this was a lecture. “I have a question about moose! What’s their most common cause of natural death? And do you have some moose bones, or maybe a nice intestine, to pass around for educational purposes? Sorry. That’s two questions.”

Kaden’s eyes narrowed at Deirdre’s fucking wink. He’d love nothing more than to just stab right then and there, be done with it. Never have to play nice with monsters again. Instead he forced a smile onto his face as he gestured for her to take the window seat before sitting next to her “Oh yeah, so much closer. After you.” He may or may not have “accidentally” stepped on her toes as he sat down in the seat beside her. “Sorry. I’m just so clumsy. What can you do?” He tried to bite back a smirk but it didn’t work. As fun as that was, he turned his attention back to Regan and her questions for Blanche. She’d mentioned she’d be bringing a list but that wasn’t exactly what he expected her to ask. Which really was his mistake, come to think of it. “Yeah, pipsqueak. Where’s the moose intestine? Stomach? You must have something.” Weird as the questions were, he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to badger Blanche. And hey, if he was annoying enough, maybe he’d get lucky and she’d kick him off the tour early.

This was going to be a long night, Nadia just knew it. Which, it was already a long night; it’d been a long night for awhile now. Still. For a second, she was confused as hell as to what Deirdre might mean, with humans being loud before oh. Nadia had forgotten she’d told the banshee that she was an empath; she sent Deirdre a grateful look. As she followed Regan to their seats, she tried to mostly just focus on Deirdre and a little on Regan, since they were apparently a bit more dulled (that explained a lot, actually). Still, it was hard, and dulled didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Deirdre and Kaden were antagonistic, Blanche was hella embarrassed, and Regan… was asking about moose intestines. Which, yeah, that was about right. Poor Blanche. “Maybe,” she said, hoping to help the younger woman, “Blanche will be taking questions towards the end? Don’t want to distract her from her spiel, you know?”

Deirdre gritted her teeth, trying her best not to stab Kaden right then and there for the simple act of stepping on her toes. Maybe she was clumsy too. Maybe a knife would just slip out of one of her dozen or so pockets and find its way into his---”Oh! Perfectly fine, Kady. Love the way you...walk.” Fates, she hated him. Thankfully, conversation about moose death and moose entrails was exactly the kind of distraction from murderous thoughts that she liked. Deirdre let out a soft chuckle at Nadia’s attempt at help. It was so cute. Unfortunately, Deirdre had no intentions of letting it work. “Entrails!” She shouted, which quickly turned into an enthusiastic chant. “Entrails! Entrails! Entrails! Moose entrails!” And who would blame her if one of her excited fist pumps hit Kaden? Or If she was shouting at him more than she was Blanche. Or if she leaned back and whispered “I love death” into his ear. “As VIP guests, we should get to have our question answered, shouldn’t we? And we should get to pass around entrails and bones and whatever else you have there, shouldn’t we?” There was a mutinous edge to her words.

At some point between being called a pipsqueak and Deirdre shouting and chanting about entrails, Blanche was pretty sure she blacked out because next thing she knew Stan was nudging her from the driver’s seat. He looked concerned. How dare he look concerned when he did this to her! This was his fault! Blanche ran her hands down her face, and craned her head to look at the other patrons on the bus, particularly the ones with children. Most of them looked mortified. Great. “Wolves,” Blanche finally answered through gritted teeth, looking at Regan. “Wolves are predators of Moose, though not usually in Maine. Coyotes, surprisingly, can also take a moose out. Common diseases include brain worm, which is usually fatal, winter ticks, which is fatal only when a moose is heavily ingested, and liver fluke, large flatworms that are usually found in white-tailed deer, but moose can get it too. Once again, it’s usually fatal if a moose is heavily infested.” Blanche rattled off the facts that she had memorized, before hearing the bus start and Stan taking off. She was supposed to be following a script, but she had a feeling that she wouldn’t get through half of it. “We do not have any entrails,” She shot a look at Deirdre and Kaden. “But we have antlers you can touch when we get back to the lobby. Any other questions before we continue?”

Other than the extremely disappointing lack of moose entrails available on the bus, this wasn’t a half-bad experience. Blanche’s ease of answering questions was impressive -- something Regan would commend her on later -- and even Kaden and Deirdre seemed to be getting along. Possibly? They were getting pretty close, physically. Unfortunately, Regan couldn’t say that Nadia was having a great time; the stress was plain on her face, even when the whole bus excitedly gathered around to get a good moose viewing angle. Wasn’t that supposed to be fun? She offered her hand to Nadia as an informative video about moose started playing on the screens around the bus. “The moose, the majestic hooved mammal of the north, can reach the size of…” Wasn’t this all information they were presented with anyways? Thud. The screen cut out. Just for a moment. Regan blinked. Thud thud. Again. The bus driver slammed to a stop, and did what no one wants to see their driver do: stand up. Regan gave Nadia a concerned glance and leaned forward, trying to see what was happening. Thud thud. Louder this time; the bus rocked. “Is this… part of the tour?”

The tour turned perfectly boring for a while. They asked Blanche questions; she answered. They looked at a moose; it was, in fact, a moose. There was a shitty video playing; it was-- Well he was going to say boring but then the power cut out and the bus started shaking. Maybe this wouldn’t be so boring after all. Kaden pushed his way around Deirdre to see out the window. He frankly didn’t care if she protested. Shit, didn’t see anything, must have been on the other side. “Excuse me, animal control, out of the way. Gotta see what’s going on here,” he said as he stood to get a better look out of the window on the other side of the bus, moving whoever he needed to out of his way. “Putain,” he grumbled as he saw the problem in question. There was no mistaking it. That was a fucking bies rocking the fucking bus. He grumbled to himself, “I thought we got rid of that shit, how is there another one?” He tried to start formulating a plan on how to deal with the monster without looking like a complete lunatic and all the sudden he felt a chill go past him all of the sudden. Weird. “Think you can cause a distraction while I take down a bies?” he leaned over and whispered to Nadia. “You know, unless you’ve got a better plan then by all means, now’s the time to share.”

Nadia was spending most of the first part of the tour trying not to get overwhelmed. Granted, most of the people on the tour just felt bored, but there were still more people in an enclosed space than she was used to. Bars were fine. She could drink; she could have space. This… reminded her of a field trip. She hated buses. Then, the power went out and the bus started shaking, and Nadia couldn’t see shit, but she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise in a way she was learning to associate with paranormal activity. Fuck. Ghost. Granny? No idea. As Kaden leaned over and whispered in her ear, it felt like it was closer. Not Granny? She couldn’t focus. It took her too long to figure out what he was saying. Making sure Regan wasn’t too busy paying attention to what was going on at the front of the bus, Nadia frantically whispered to Kaden, “The fuck is a bies?!?” She took a deep breath, trying to concentrate on Regan’s dulled concern. “Alright, shit. I can-- shit. Be careful?” She dropped her phone and kicked it toward the front of the bus. “Oh, shit!” There were children. She could feel paternal judgement coming from the back. “My phone! Hey, can anyone help me find my phone?!” She grabbed Regan’s hand and jerked her down. “Please help me find it!”

Deirdre was sure she’d fallen asleep during the tour. Or at least, she must have, because the last thing she remembered was trying to start a chant and now the bus was shaking. Which was, admittedly, the most interesting part of the tour. Then there was an elbow in her face and she groaned trying to get away from Kaden before she eventually crawled over him to tumble out into the space between the seating. To make matters worse, some thing had started spouting off in French and Deirdre’s salt packets had tumbled out of her pockets as she escaped Kaden. “I’m right here!” She hissed at him, “why are you asking Nadia when I’m right here!” Did he not know what bies were afraid of? Was he that bad of a hunter? She lifted her gaze up, looking at Blanche. She couldn’t scream while children were here, she couldn’t shatter glass where it could hurt them. The adults, she didn’t care so much about hurting. “Get me off this bus and I can deal with it a lot better than you can,” she hissed at Kaden again, before snapping her gaze up once more to gesture at Blanche. “We should all look for Nadia’s phone! Isn’t that right, tour...uh, leader? Shouldn’t we all be ducking and not looking out the window and really focused on Nadia’s phone?”

Blanche answered most questions they had through gritted teeth, happy to take a much needed break when the stupid video started playing. People love informational videos! Stan had said. But did they though? Blanche didn’t complain as she reached for her metal water bottle, taking aswig just as something slammed against the bus. Blanche jerked, before her head whipped to see Stan stand up. Blanche’s water bottle clanged loudly to the bus floor as the yelling in French started. Ah, there was Mrs. Langley. To make matters worse, her own ghost showed herself. Granny had appeared, probably having been following the damn bus from afar - ‘A magic moose is hitting the bus!’ Granny was yelling in her ear, Mrs. Langley was popping off at Kaden for being a dumb fucking hunter, the stupid, apparently magic moose was smacking the side of the bus, and Deirdre was speaking to her. Shit. “Everyone! Shut up!” Blanche hissed, loudly. Granny repeated Deirdre’s instructions instead of shutting up. “Wh- oh!” She hopped off her seat, people were worriedly trying to get a glimpse of the magic moose. “Everyone!” Blanche grabbed onto the back of the seat to keep herself from being thrown off balance. “Everyone! Can I have your attention please! We urge you not to panic and to let, uh, Animal Control take care of the situation! If we could all have you duck under your seats, please, and do not look out the windows, that, uhhh, would be great! Right Stan? Stan? Oh.” Stan looked a little green. Blanche turned her attention back to the group. “Everyone do it now! Right now!”

Kaden was thankful Nadia took direction well and started fumbling for her phone, taking Regan to the floor with her. Good. This was going to be way too much to explain. He was just about to leave the bus with his, uh, well, he had one smaller knife on him, when Deirdre snapped at him. “You? What are you going to d--” And then it hit him. Noise. Banshee. “Wait, won't that fucking burst our ear drums?” he whispered to her. It'd at least do a number on his. Merde. "Fine. Play along.” He pushed past people and carefully stepped over the ones rummaging on the floor to the door. “Animal control, both of us. We've got this. Just duck and, uh, cover your ears.” He gave Blanche a pointed look, hoping she followed what he was suggesting as he pushed the doors open and hopped out of the bus, assuming Deirdre was behind him. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a knife. Not really great, but it'd have to do. “Hey!” he shouted at the beast. He probably didn't need to, it had sure seen him. With a loud bellow, the bies reared up. Well shit, it looked angry. Really angry. And all of that anger seemed directed right at him as it charged straight at him. He ducked and rolled to the side. Into the bus tire. Which hurt, but not as much as those hooves. “You better work fast,” he grumbled in Deirdre’s general direction, knife in hand as he pushed himself off the ground. He had no idea if her plan would work and if the beast would run or not, so he figured it was best to be prepared. With the monster running the other way, Kaden sprinted towards it, hoping to catch it off guard, in the middle of changing direction. He reached the monster's flank and dug his knife it, pulling down hard, hoping to split a tendon or artery, fucking anything to slow it down, just in case they all had to run. He just hoped she'd fucking warn him when she planned on screaming. Yeah, alright, odds were she wouldn't. Putain. Who needed hearing anyway?

Following Kaden's lead had proved to be more degrading than Deirdre thought. There was nothing more humiliating than walking behind him, than walking behind any human, really. But such sacrifices had to be made for the greater good of...moose touring. The bies seemed occupied enough with Kaden though and for a moment, Deirdre considered just leaving him there. And considering it, she stood there doing nothing a beat longer than she probably should have. Then, she squared herself and opened her mouth to let out a scream, directed perfectly at the bies (though she gave no real attempt on trying to aim away from Kaden). The bies cried, its anger dissolved quickly into fear. Suddenly, aggressive posture diminished into panic. The once imposing creature appeared as a shell of itself, desperate for escape, but far too disoriented to find it. It thrashed, predictably, and Deirdre grinned imaging the trouble Kaden must have been going through trying to evade it. She could have screamed enough the first time to knock it out or chase it off...but she liked this better. Again, she let the animal and Kaden have their fun for a moment too long before she screamed once more, enough to finally cause the creature to flee in disarray. She turned to the bus, the windows were unshockingly intact—she was far too proud not to show off the aim she'd mastered. And then back to Kaden, smiling with the hope he'd understand her purposefully drawn out screams, "lovely weather we're having, isn't it?" Before finally she slipped back onto the bus before him, "now is this the part where we get to see the moose entrails?"

Blanche almost swore at Kaden as he ordered them all around and shot her a look, but there was a time to be defiant against authority and it wasn’t when she had a bus full of people that just wanted to see Moose. Mrs. Langley was off going on and on somewhere, all in french and Granny was hovering far too close for comfort, for once not saying anything, but anxious all the same. “You heard animal control!” Blanche bellowed, loudly. “Everyone duck and cover your ears. Now! You too, Stan!” One of the suburban mothers in the back tried to say something, but Blanche barked out another order before doing the same. Granny was busy trying to give her a play by play, but she could barely hear anything until finally it was over. Blanche slowly stood, pulling her hands away from her ears as Deirdre cheerfully got back onto the bus and asked her about moose entrails again. Blanche looked at her, before she peaked out the window to make sure the moose thing was gone and that Kaden’s dead body wasn’t just lying out there. She didn’t even want to know what kind of incident report she would have to fill out if someone died on a Mooseventure tour. Blanche ran a hand down her face, and went to jab Stan in the ribs. “Get it together!” She hissed, “I can’t drive the bus back!” Blanche looked at Deirdre, before putting on what she hoped was an award winning Tour Guide smile. “There will be no Moose Entrails on this tour! But, on our lovely drive back to the building, I can give you statistics about - uh - Moose and how they rarely show fear! Such as when the approach tourbuses full of people! Ha-ha.”

#chatzy #wickedswriting #writing #IT LIVES #magic moostery tour #nadia #humanmoodring #regan #kadavernagh #blanche #harlowhaunted #deirdre #deathduty

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