#welcome to what is effectively how my first drafts turn out lol
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“My queen,” spoke the Mirror on the Wall, as Ophelia spun about her room. A deep purple gown adorned her body, decorated with gold embroidery and silver furs at the cuffs and hem, fiery red hair still loose and flowing with curls.
Ophelia pretended she did not hear the mirror - it had once been a prized companion when she fit the parameters it liked, as the fairest in the land. But these days, when it spoke, it spoke of her age. That she had not married, that she had not had children of her own, and yet, though the clock still stretched over a decade in front of her for these pursuits, the Mirror spoke as if she were half a century older than what was true.
”My queen,” repeated the Mirror on the Wall. “I must have your ear. It is vital information about the kingdom,”
At this, Ophelia wanted to continue to dance around her room - no partner or orchestra save for the songs in her mind. But she caught a glimpse out the window - flumes of smoke rising above the Baker’s beloved home and shop. She righted herself, and sat down at the vanity, beginning to fix her hair up into its appropriate style.
“You intend to have that baker imprisoned for his carelessness about the town’s safety, yes?” The mirror suggested.
“Hardly. I’m sure it was an accident. Were there any casualties?” Ophelia asked.
The mirror went silent.
“Were there any casualties?” Ophelia repeated.
“... No, my queen. The baker caught the flames in the early morning and alerted the town. They put it out using water from the nearby river,”
“Then there is no reason to punish the poor man.” Ophelia spoke.
“Perhaps. But his oldest daughter is only 14...”
Ophelia placed the pins she was using to secure her hair down. “Do not start down that path today. I’m not in the mood for it.”
“Perhaps. But whether or not I am silent, your youth is fleeting - it has already fled.”
“I am twenty-five in four months,” Ophelia scowled.
“Precisely. And when you make that face, I can see the beginnings of crow’s feet in your eyes, my queen.”
Ophelia rolled her eyes. “My mother was a powerful woman well into her 50s.”
“And yet, she is dead now, my queen.”
Ophelia resumed taming her hair, finally gathering it in place to secure the cap over it.
“Ask me the question,” the mirror chided.
“No.”
“Do you fear the answer?”
“I know what you’ll answer.”
“The fairest of all is Snow White. In the bloom of her youth - she celebrated her 16th birthday today,” the mirror said.
“I do not care about her.” Ophelia draped her veil, securing her crown over it.
“If you could have her youth, would you? A chance to redo the last 9 years?”
Ophelia stood up from the vanity - half in a mind to toss it from the window to the grounds below. The threat of 7 years of bad luck was all that had kept her from doing it prior.
“... I have made the choices I have. I must speak to the baker.”
“You can have it back, you know. I hear what they whisper about you, Ophelia - a queen with no husband, with no heir. What happens to the kingdom should you fall? You would leave in the hands of your rivals?”
Ophelia turned around, lending the mirror her ears again.
“Have a huntsman kill the girl and bring you her heart. Dine upon it, and it shall take a decade from you.”
“You’d have me murder a defenseless girl?”
“In the name of youth, we all must make sacrifices. Whether that is our own or someone else’s. This girl is, of course, a threat to your throne, too.”
Ophelia paused for a moment, her hands gesturing to the scrolls. The sacrifice of one for many...
... and just as quickly, she withdrew her hand.
“... I’m youthful, still. And even if I were not, it would not be a vice.” Ophelia walked towards the mirror, wrapping her hands around its sides. “You want me to murder for my own benefit.”
“Is that not what all royalty, including yourself, have done? You waged war on the western border.”
“A defense against an invasion,” Ophelia said.
“Perhaps. But you still killed for your own benefit.”
“Where the alternative was letting my people die.”
“And it is the same now.”
“Foul thing,” Ophelia hissed, ripping it off the vanity. “You do nothing but spur poisons into my ear!”
“I give you the truth. Once, you valued this - now, your age gives way to pride!”
“My age gives way to your true intent - you only enjoy the final stages of one’s childhood! I’ll send you to Hell!”
Ophelia strode towards her window, opening it up - and at the same time, the door to her own chamber unlocked. And yet, she did not notice, so focused on the vile instrument in her hands.
She only noticed once a pair of pinpricks found their way into her neck - she found raven black locks covering the identity of her assailant. The mirror fell from her hands, cracking, but not shattering.
Ophelia began to feel faint - she could feel whatever had attacked her draining her of blood. She couldn’t move or call for help, only watch in anguish as colour drained from her hands, from her body, as the ivory veil she wore became stained in crimson.
The assailant eventually let go, allowing Ophelia to finally fall to the floor, and get the only good look at her attacker. Her fading mind recalled the poem the mirror had recited on the first night it had told her she was no longer the fairest.
Lips red as a rose,
Hair black as the night.
A pale, beautiful face,
the young maiden, Snow White.
There was no doubt in Ophelia’s mind - it was her. Snow White had wiped the blood from her lips on Ophelia’s veil, and yet, her lips still shone ruby red. Raven hair hung in ringlets, and the girl was pale as moonlight - too pale, save for the sudden rush of blood at her cheeks.
As Snow White raised her hand towards Ophelia, she noticed another thing - a marking on the palm. But not one from any nearby kingdoms - in time. Snow White bore a tattooed criminal marking from the old republic of Rome - almost 800 years into the past. These markings were only taught of in the most scholarly of books - a farmer’s daughter would’ve never learned of such things.
Ophelia couldn’t dwell upon it. Snow White’s hand dug its way into Ophelia’s chest, pushing past her ribs, until Ophelia felt, in the throes of her absolute agony, Snow White’s hand close around her heart. Within seconds, it was carelessly ripped from her chest, dyeing Ophelia’s dress, her floor, her skin, and her soul in blood.
The last thing Ophelia saw was Snow White picking up the mirror and leaving, both it and Ophelia’s heart in hand.
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The Gift
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: JJ x fem!reader
Words: 2.4k+
Summary: You didn’t know what to expect when JJ said she had a gift for you. But it definitely wasn’t that...
Genre: Smut. Literally pure smut. I need to go to like horny jail for this...
Warnings: Top!JJ, bottom!reader, use of pet names, fingering (r receiving), strap-on (r receiving), a little bit of uhhhh roughness. Let me know if I forgot something.
A/N: So I actually had some of this sitting as a random WIP in my drafts and I kinda just made a fic out of it. This is probably the spiciest thing I’ve ever written and unfortunately I have something spicier sitting in my drafts... How have I become a smut writer oh my god lol
Anywayssss, it’s for the anon that said it’s their birthday. You’re welcome. ;)
You weren’t really one to celebrate your birthday, but when you had a girlfriend who insisted on making your day special you could hardly refuse. It was the first birthday you were to spend with JJ and she was excited to go all out. The both of you just hit the sixth month mark of being a couple too, so JJ knew you enough to plan the perfect evening. Though, for a moment in the upcoming weeks to your birthday you were starting to get a little scared she’d throw a huge party with all the team. You weren’t one for parties.
Luckily, that was far from the case. Instead, it was a quiet, intimate evening with the woman you loved. She took you to your favorite restaurant, shared a lovely bottle of wine with your favorite food, and ate the most decadent dessert you’d ever had. It truly was the perfect evening and it just showed you how well JJ already knew you. When dinner was over, she had taken you back to her place where she said she had gifts waiting for you. You had really insisted on letting her know gifts weren’t necessary. She paid for your dinner after all, and honestly that was enough for you. But it’s JJ, she went all out with everything for you. Constantly sweeping you off your feet.
The first gift took your breath away. It was a gorgeous necklace with a small topaz pendant and it definitely didn’t look cheap.
JJ couldn’t wait to see you wear it. She stepped behind you and gently brushed your hair away from the nape of your neck before clasping the necklace on.
“There’s one more,” JJ murmured into your ear as she stood behind you. Her hands lingered on your neck and the way you felt her hot breath on the shell of your ear made you shiver.
“One more?” You cleared your throat to try to compose yourself, hoping JJ wouldn’t notice the effect she had on you.
“Mhm.” She slid her hand into your own and began to turn and tug you with her. “It’s in the bedroom…”
Your curiosity definitely peaked at that. When you reached the bedroom you saw a small box sitting on the bed, waiting to be opened. JJ let go of your hand once you reached the bed and looked at you anxiously as you picked up the box. You had a few guesses as to what it was, obviously you had a feeling it was a gift that was meant for only your eyes. Why else would it be in the bedroom? But you were eager to find out so you tore it open as fast as you could.
What you saw inside made you freeze. You placed it back on the bed and all you could do was stare at it. Any thoughts had left your mind the moment you saw it.
You had a couple guesses before you knew what it was, but none of them was this. Honestly, you expected lingerie, cute new underwear JJ wanted to see you in, or even possibly a vibrator to try with her. What you didn’t expect to see in the box was a rather large strap-on.
Not that you thought something like that was even unusual. It’s just that JJ knew you’ve never used one before. Only ever having had fingers inside you. So, to get a gift like this… well, you weren’t expecting to try something new on your birthday. You weren’t opposed either, immediately picturing what JJ would look like with the harness strapped to her waist.
“That’s more a gift for you than a gift for me” you chuckled nervously as you continued to stare down at the box. After all, she’s the one who’s been hinting for weeks that she wants to fuck you with one. Not that you weren’t curious to try, you were. But you were also perfectly satisfied with the blonde’s long, skillful fingers.
“You won’t be saying that when I give you the best few orgasms of your life.” You just rolled your eyes. Sometimes she could be so fucking smug.
“Best few, huh?”
“Oh, definitely.” She gave you a cocky grin. “I’m not going to want to stop at just one.”
You looked down at the toy laying in front of you and weighed your options. She really wanted to fuck you like this and you really wanted to give her everything she could possibly want, but you’ve never used a strap-on before. You were trying to mentally compare the size of the toy to the size of three of her fingers inside you. Usually she fucks you with two, only using three occasionally when she wants to test your limits. You could barely take three, but you’d be lying if you said the feeling of being filled like that wasn’t absolutely addicting.
“JJ…” you trail off. “It looks kind of big.”
“You can take it.” Her voice lowered when she said that. You looked back up at her to see her eyes had darkened and the smugness that was there before was totally gone. The look she had now was already making you wet. You couldn’t help but squeeze your thighs together and just hope she wouldn’t notice.
Hesitantly, you took the toy from where it lay in its open package and examined it closer. Yeah, it’s definitely fucking big. JJ was watching you like a hawk the entire time, her hunger for you growing just watching you hold it in your hands. Tons of absolutely filthy scenarios ran through her mind as she watched you. There were so many ways she could fuck you with it, and she was going to carry out every single one.
“So…” JJ trailed off, eager for a response.
“Okay,” you relented, still eying the toy. “But go slow, okay?”
“Of course.” JJ honestly didn’t know if she could go slow with how excited she was, but she knew it was a must for you. She’d definitely try.
……………………………………..
Watching JJ put the harness on had you both nervous and excited. You were not expecting your reaction to seeing her wearing it, but honestly it was short circuiting your brain. Currently sitting on the edge of the bed totally naked, you couldn’t help but squirm in anticipation for what’s to come. You also couldn’t stop yourself from pressing your thighs together so you could feel less exposed.
JJ walked over to the bed, her hands placed on either of your knees.
“You look so beautiful like this, baby,” she whispered, her hands nudging your legs back open.
All you could do was sit and watch her as she looked you up and down. Her hands went from your knees to brush up the insides of your thighs. When she reached between your legs, you both shuddered as she cupped you and felt how wet you already were.
Suddenly, JJ’s hand reached up to your shoulders and with a gentle push, you found yourself on your back. She crawled onto the bed after you, her knees placed on either side of your waist to balance herself. JJ stared at you like that for a moment. You underneath her, your legs parted, your chest already rising and falling rapidly in nervousness and excitement for what was to come, your cheeks slightly flushed. She loved seeing you like this, but she knew she was going to love the sight of you absolutely ruined by her even more. And that’s when she dove in.
Any hint of hesitation from her was completely gone. She had leaned down, with one hand cupping your chin, the other grabbing at your thigh to spread you open more as she kissed you. When her lips pressed to yours, she wasted no time in invading your mouth with her tongue and you couldn’t help the soft gasp you let out against her lips. If the kiss wasn’t already making you squirm, it didn’t help that you could also feel the toy resting on your thigh. You were still nervous about the size, but you also were getting desperate to feel her inside you.
The hand that was on your thigh returned to between your legs, her fingers running teasingly through your folds. She had barely touched you and yet you were already struggling to keep yourself still at the feeling of her fingers brushing over your clit. What shocked you was when, without warning, she easily slid two fingers into. You moaned against her mouth and your hands went to grip onto her shoulders.
Her fingers moved in and out of you at a slow pace and she finally broke the kiss. You couldn’t catch your breath though, as her lips immediately attached to your neck. When you felt her fingers begin to spread inside you, you couldn’t help but wince slightly. Still not quite used to the feeling.
“You’re doing so good,” JJ groaned against your neck. “Almost ready for me.”
Your hips began to move with her fingers after adjusting to the feeling. You knew, with the way she was touching you and the way her mouth was all over you, you were already building up to your orgasm. JJ knew as well and when she pulled her fingers out of you, you couldn’t stop the whine of protest.
“Shh, baby,” JJ cooed as her hand went to the toy, rubbing the wetness on her fingers all over it. “The first time you cum tonight will be on my cock.” JJ had never talked to you like that before, but it absolutely floored you. You felt her line up the toy to your entrance and held your breath the moment she started to slowly move her hips and slide it in. Immediately, you felt the burn of it stretching your walls. You gritted your teeth when she had it fully inside you.
“You have to breathe, princess,” JJ said, her hips still as she waited for you to adjust. Taking a deep breath at her words, you nodded your head and then she started to draw her hips back, before thrusting them forward hard.
You cried out when you felt her set a fast pace almost immediately. What the fuck happened to going slow? JJ had promised that, but seeing you like that, a whimpering mess being absolutely stretched out by the slightly too big faux cock that she purposely chose. It was too much for her. She couldn’t hold back, fucking into you with utter desperation, letting her lust for you cloud her every thought and take over her entire body. You thought you’d break, but only for a moment. Then you got used to the feeling and fuck did it feel so good.
Your hands flew to JJ’s hips and you moved your own to match each thrust. Her lips moved down to your chest and when she took your nipple into her mouth, tugging it slightly with her teeth, and paired it with a particularly rough move of her hips, you couldn’t stop yourself from crying out. She was grunting and panting on top of you, the force of her hips pressing into yours and the way her hands were gripping at your thighs to keep you wide open for her would surely leave marks. You honestly did not care at this point. This feeling was addicting, to be absolutely filled by her while her hands and mouth were touching every inch of you. Your eyes rolled back and your head fell limp as she sped up. You didn’t even know she had this kind of strength in her, but she was feeling almost as good as you were. The base of the harness pressing against her clit in just the right way mixed with the combination of hearing you moan for her was bringing her close to the edge, and she wanted to fall apart with you.
“You feel so good,” JJ groaned as she felt your body tremble beneath her. “So fucking good, princess.”
All you could do was moan her name in response as she began to fuck into you with all of her might. Moving her hands to the backs of your legs, she bent your knees upwards until they were pressing against your chest. This gave her the perfect opportunity to fuck you deeper and harder and with each thrust you felt your walls tighten around her cock. You were seconds away from coming and she was too.
“F-Fuck, JJ, I’m so close,” you cried out.
“I know, baby,” She grunted as her movement became more erratic. “I am too. Just hold on a little more.”
JJ rutted into you with desperation, her rhythm lost as she chased her own orgasm. You were struggling to hold on, yours quickly approaching with each time you felt JJ slam inside you.
“I can’t, I-”
“Shh, I want us to cum together,” JJ pleaded. Your nails dug into her skin as she moved roughly inside you. Your entire body was shaking and to stop yourself from constantly crying out, your teeth sank into JJ’s shoulder as she kept fucking into you. The feeling of your nails and teeth digging painfully into her skin is what sent JJ.
“Now,” JJ groaned. “Come for me now.”
You both came together, you muffling your moans into JJ’s shoulder and her moving her cock inside you sloppily until you both came down. She stayed inside you when her body collapsed on top of you and you shuddered at the feeling of the toy moving slightly inside you.
“See,” JJ said between taking deep breaths. “It’s not just a gift for me.”
“Shut up,” you chuckled. Even with both of you absolutely spent, she still found a way to be smug.
JJ grinned before kissing your lips. When you tried to deepen it though, she pulled back. Her grin grew wider and before you knew it she had flipped you so that you were now forced to sit on top of her, the toy still buried deep inside you.
“What the-” your sentence was cut off by JJ’s hips thrusting up into you with force, turning your protests into a moan.
“I believe,” JJ’s hands grabbed your waist as she sat up, rolling her hips up to move her cock inside you. “I said best few orgasms of your life.”
And fuck did she mean it. As the night stretched on and JJ continued to turn you into a moaning mess, you completely took back what you said about the gift. This was definitely a gift for you, and she proved it over and over again.
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I don’t know about you guys but I am BURNING to just talk about what Tae Su-Mi said. They really made her ableist. Talking about “treatment” for Autism. I had actually written this out before but I was yelling in all caps and then I lost the draft. Probably for the better, as I’ve cooled down now.
I want allistics (non-autistics) to KNOW what this implies, and how I as an autistic person understood it . She suggested treatment for Youngwoo as if autism is an affliction. I’m here to tell you guys, it is not INHERENTLY an affliction. This is relative to each person and how being Autistic effects our daily lives. And you wanna know what “therapy” for autism looks like. It’s ABA. Applied Behavioral Analysis. With discretion, I want people to look up some of the ABA horror stories out there. Not all, but just some. Just to get an idea of how horrible it is. It tries to force the Autism out of the person.
It tries to make us have forceful eye contact, suppress stimming, reprimanding odd social behaviors such as the ones Youngwoo has. It’s hurtful, and it puts an autistic in a corner and says, “Don’t be yourself. That’s shameful. If you behave openly autistic, that is BAD. And if you allow yourself to be this way, you won’t be useful to society.” That’s how I and many Autistics see it. That shit called “ABA” is incredibly damaging mentally. You’re being restrained and forced to act “normal” and in turn, will likely lose touch with who you are. It can be painful for an autistic to force themselves to suppress their behaviors. It’s very sad to see that she even suggested that. It makes her ableist. Trust me, any informed autistic will tell you they despise ABA and anything that’s affiliated with it.
I’m disappointed that this is what they had her character do. These kinds of Autism-centric therapies try to “fix” the autistic person. But we DON’T need to be fixed. We need acceptance, we need accommodations. But we do NOT need to be fixed. This isn’t to discredit other therapies that actually help autistics. Maybe food sensitivity therapy or teaching ways of expression. You guys remember in the first episode, Youngwoo had a chart of her dads expression with labels underneath. Things like THAT can be helpful. Just wanted to make that clear so no one fights in a comment about those kinda things.
At the end of the day, for her character, I don’t think they reinforced her being a bad mom. Did WYW’s dad say anything about that? I personally noted that he didn’t, he was just upset at her thinking he broke his promise. Accusing him of what he had accused CEO Han of. And he was incredibly upset at her saying WYW needed professional help. I was happy with him for saying that. He has SOME right to be angry. Youngwoo is just fine where she is, and she already decided she won’t work for her biological mom.
I wish we got more backstory on Su-mi, see her side of dealing with the pregnancy. I’m waiting on it a bit. I won’t like her for her ableism, but I’ll remain reasonable about the possibilities of her perspective during the pregnancy.
Overall, these episode left me with intense and heavy emotions. Luckily I had a therapy appointment right after, so I let off some steam about other more pressing things on my mind. That helped me relax lol.
Thanks for reading my post! I’m welcoming discussion in the comments about this! If you say something that sounds ableist, I will respectfully call you out. I won’t get aggressive so don’t worry, but I will explain any ableism in your comment calmly and in an informative way.
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are you still taking requests for dvd commentary of a fic scene? could you do apias chapter 19, the opening scene with jiraiya, oro and the sandaime?
oh yeah, ofc sure!!
[quickly takes off my kinnporsche hat and puts on my naruto one]
under the cut so i don't bore people with my rambling, haha.
Orochimaru’s lip curls as he props himself up languidly on one of Sensei’s couches. “Welcome home Jiraiya,” he says, voice smooth and mocking. “Done with your penance already?”
So, like, this first line was one of the very first things I had written for this chapter. In fact, this entire first scene had been sitting in my drafts since before I wrote chapter 18. I rewrote the entire scene, like, five times before I finished the chapter, getting all my ducks in a row.
This is actually referencing something that we'll find out a bit more about later on. I have in-depth plans regarding what the sannin got up to during the war, and how everything ended up fracturing. (Basically, Jiraiya was involved in something a little fucked up during the war, that he sort of blames himself for. There were originally going to be way more references to this throughout the chapter, but they got cut for flow reasons.)
The job of this scene is to establish the byplay between Jiraiya, Orochimaru and the Sandaime, and sort of set-up the state of their relationship. (Which comes back again at the end of the chapter.)
“I’d gathered,” Orochimaru says flatly. “We’re one person short for a Team Hiruzen reunion.”
[...]
Sensei reacts with the same nonchalance that he’s always carried when faced with Orochimaru’s spite. “That is, in fact, the issue,” he says.
So here we have a cornerstone of the Orochimaru and Sandaime dynamic: Orochimaru snipes, and the Sandaime doesn't react at all. There was actually a line from earlier in the scene that got cut that might explain this better -- Jiraiya says, "The only way to survive Orochimaru's brutal words is to hide the fact that he's ever managed to draw blood at all." Or something to that tune. Essentially, this is a powerplay from Hiruzen -- Orochimaru can't do much more than say mean things, because Hiruzen is Hokage, and so Hiruzen is just pretending that those mean things don't effect him at all.
Sensei taps his pipe against the edge of his desk, flecks of smouldering ash falling down onto the floor. His movements are measured, slow and relaxed. A powerplay, of sorts – he knows he can afford to make you wait.
This is one of my favourite lines in the chapter, lol. It's so fun to write this scene from Jiraiya's POV as opposed to Orochimaru, because Jiraiya is very neutral about all the ways the Sandaime uses to display his power and subtly keep them in line, but you just know that internally, Orochimaru is fucking fuming.
It's an impression that matched with what he read of her sealing style – concise, elegant, and subtly brilliant. Never a wasted stroke.
Compared with Jiraiya’s haphazard scrawling, the difference was stark.
So, this bit here is referring to Mito, and her sealing style. It exists to establish that Jiraiya did not learn his sealing technique from Mito -- he's mostly self-taught -- and establish this idea that your sealing technique reflects your personality. (In a following chapter, we get to have Jiraiya's perspective on Minato's sealing technique, so we've got to lay the groundwork here.)
The other bit of groundwork laid here is the idea that Mito didn't have all that much interest in Jiraiya's fuuinjutsu. This hasn't been revealed yet, because it turns out the scene I'm thinking of is at the start of ch 21 not 20, but whatever. I do what I want. On the topic of Minato, someone says, "Look, Minato I get. He’s not your average floater genin. Heck, Mito-sensei even sort of likes him." Mito-sensei likes Minato, and she likes how Minato writes seals -- there's a reason Minato was there when she had her stroke.
On the outside, it’s a simple request. From their view within, Jiraiya knows it’s anything but. “I…” he starts. “There are some contacts, I could lean on, who might have some ideas. She won’t have left Fire Country, not with the price on her head after the war. And, well, with her habits, there should be some sort of trail I can follow.” He inhales. “When do you want me to leave?”
Orochimaru says nothing. They both know it has to be him.
So, obviously, this is referencing the complicated relationship between Orochimaru and Tsunade, that we get a bit more context for later on in the chapter:
Anyone else would probably believe him. But Jiraiya had been there, the day they put Nawaki to rest. He’d been there when Orochimaru had put his head on the floor, and begged Tsunade for forgiveness. He’d been the one to pick Orochimaru up off the floor when Tsunade slapped him so hard his left eye swelled shut.
Tsunade and Orochimaru have a grudge between them that Orochimaru acknowledges was his fault (lowkey a huge deal given Orochimaru's... everything), involves Nawaki (Tsunade's dead little brother), and is so awful that Tsunade slapped him when he tried to apologise. Oh, and it has something to do with why Orochimaru doesn't want to be a jounin-sensei. Hmm. Wonder what could be going on there. Truly, a mystery for the ages.
Sensei takes in another deep inhale from his pipe. “That,” he says, “is where things get a little complicated.”
So, this is the last line of the scene, and things deliberately cut off there so that I didn't have to explain all the wild political scheming going on. We obviously get one puzzle piece for this with Jiraiya and Orochimaru at the bar:
Orochimaru doesn’t do anything as plebian as flinch. He pours himself another cup of sake. “Jounin-sensei get to pick their teams. I presume Sensei is extending you the same courtesy?”
“Yeah,” Jiraiya says.
And then another bit at the end of the chapter:
“We are not broke – yet. On the second matter, I have been very reliably informed that the daimyo will not support another war,” Sensei says calmly.
But there's a lot more going on than just that. One of the things about Sarutobi Hiruzen, and writing him in this fic, is that he has schemes within schemes. You see this very much this chapter -- he lets Jiraiya and Orochimaru in on something, and then lets Jiraiya in on another, later, secretly. The way I write Hiruzen is as a dyed-in-the-wool politician. He's clever and he's scheming. Jiraiya, at least, is convinced of his sensei's benevolence beneath that -- he still has faith. Orochimaru is somewhat more disillusioned.
Some more general things to with this scene:
We start the chapter off in Jiraiya's POV, because it's important that the readers get a feel for what he's like, how his brain works, before we see Megumi's POV on him next chapter -- and as such, can choose how much of what she sees to believe.
I wanted Jiraiya to feel like a plausible spymaster, without making him cold and manipulative. He's genial, and friendly, and he gets on with people and even builds genuine relationships with them -- but he's also got a head for secrets, and he ferrets them out with relative ease.
Orochimaru is the kind of person who would orchestrate a six-month long seduction of someone to get access to an office to steal a file. Jiraiya is the kind of person who'd just have a mate who could slip it to him. Friends in every city, essentially.
So, like, one of the things this chapter is how much are the characters saying? What aren't they saying and why? Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Hiruzen all wear masks for different purposes. Jiraiya's interesting, because what he hides first and foremost is his intelligence. You see it a little, at the end of the chapter -- the mask comes off. Jiraiya lays his cards on the table for his teacher.
Basically, when you chose that scene for the commentary, my brain went, huh. yeah. okay. i see why.
There's a lot going on with Jiraiya this chapter. But, in the interests of not spoiling the entire arc, I'm trying to be as general as possible here. Let's just say there was a lot of set-up here.
#asked and answered#i don't know how helpful this is going to be lol#so much of the stuff that goes unsaid in this scene goes unsaid bc of spoilers#this arc is kind of a transition arc where minato starts to become more circumspect on like#an international and political level#in the uchiha azusa arc you see minato find out shit abt clan politics and then immediately go#''okay. time to put this in a box and not touch it.''#i'm very excited for minato and jiraiya to like. become mentor and student.#very much a case of unstoppable social skills meets immovable social awkwardness#forgot to add fic tags whoops#fic: apias
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I could post regular Narnia headcanons...
Or I could post the continuation of this post and go into depth about how Eustace and Caspian are affected by deity Narnia. Welcome back to Inhuman Narnia 101 and it turned out just as long as the first one so buckle up.
Check out this post by @dorianviolet for another awesome version of Inhuman AU Caspian
Warnings for slight body horror mentions including blood magic stuff, slight religious themes and theological discussion towards the end.
Before anything: This AU directly contradicts canon a lot. I don't care, that's why it's called an AU. Some of it is deliberate, some of it is accidental. I haven't read the books in a number of years, so this is all based on the movies and general information I've picked up from fanfic and tumblr. Discussion on this post is welcomed, criticism and arguments are not. Thank you.
First off, here is the link to an exploration of Dragoning, the Eustace-centric fic I wrote about this. I refer to it repeatedly in this post so if you want the full thing, there it is.
Second, let's get into this. So in my last post, I talked a lot about Narnia, her general existence in this AU, and her motivations as a character. She wants the people in her world to be a part of her, and no one else. Some of this is a conscious choice, and some of it isn't. Eustace's changes throughout his time in VOTDT are definitely not purposeful. It was his greed that drove him to the treasure, it was his own "curse" in becoming a dragon. That was not Narnia reaching out to him and purposefully trying to mold him to her world. As such, he takes on more of an observing role.
Eustace doesn't ever actually directly address his cousins on the subject of their inhumanity, in this fic or in any other I write. He simply sees it, notes it happening, and moves on. Even in the sections in my fics where the subject of inhumanity in general is brought up between Eustace and one of his cousins, it's always about Caspian, the greater Narnian world, or himself.
"Eustace asks why, and Lucy answers. Narnia changes people, she says. It happens to everyone, but the closer you are to her Heart, the greater it is. I don't know where Dragons are. Perhaps closer than we realized. It's exhilarating, isn't it? Aslan will return us to normal though, at the end of our journey." - AEOD
I don't know why, but I don't like the idea of Eustace trying to directly address the Pevensie brand of inhumanity. That line above takes place after his UnDragoning, after the way he sees things has changed, and I see it as him asking what exactly has changed, you know, why are Dragons different than boys?
That brings me to how Eustace himself changes. Now, if he hadn't gone and turned into a Dragon, I imagine Narnia wouldn't have taken much note of him. He's a random human, stuck-up, not at all in line for ruling her lands, and just kind of exists without much else going on. She still would have affected him a little, as she does to all humans in her world but it would have been almost entirely spiritual with no physical changes. And then we got the greatest fuck around and find out scene ever. He becomes a Dragon.
I love dragons, always have, I have a very deep spiritual connection to these creatures, and as such, I have gone all out on worldbuilding for Narnian Dragons. Again, the quote from AEOD, "...the closer you are to her Heart, the greater it is. I don't know where Dragons are. Perhaps closer than we realized." In the Inhuman AU, Dragons were the first creatures Narnia (the deity) and Aslan made when they created Narnia (the world). They just really liked the dragon shape from other worlds and thought, "Hey wouldn't it be cool if our world was populated by these big fire-breathing lizards?" Now I don't actually remember how often Dragons are mentioned and/or featured in the books so I'm going with my idea that Dragons are a somewhat rare but not extinct species. They have to be created through magical means, often through physical transformation of people or objects, though there are a few known cases of natural-born Narnian Dragons. Eustace's creation was the curse on the treasure, though I don't see his Dragoning as a curse itself. As in, the curse isn't in the being a Dragon, it's in how the Dragon was created. So, Eustace experiences this accidental change into a creature that's closer to Narnia's Heart than pretty much any other being in Narnia. They were her first creations, forged from the fire in the Stars, and they are the closest to her magic. And that gets her attention.
Now, if you went and read AEOD, you'll have noticed that one of Eustace's biggest changes (aside from the obvious physical ones) is his vision. This is just a natural thing for Dragons, they are far more in tune with magic and the earth and everything than everyone else, but Narnia's special interest in him definitely amplifies the hell out of his magic sense.
"The people here say dragons see the oddest of things, and he has to assume it's a hallucination....He refuses to give into its whims, reminds himself it's just his imagination. Until Reepicheep comments on it." - AEOD. Following this quote, Reepicheep mentions to Lucy that her inhumanity is returning faster than Edmund's and Eustace has a total panic attack at the idea that what he's seeing is real. He sees what everyone else does, Lucy's stained fingers and Edmund's ability to manipulate words, but he also notices stuff no one else does like the stars in Edmund's throat and the echoes that follow Lucy's words. This is further cemented after his UnDragoning, where the extra stuff he perceived has vanished. Now the general idea in this AU is that the closer to Narnia's Heart you are, the more you know and perceive. Everyone can see some of the more obvious inhuman aspects of the Pevensies, but there are things that only Dragons, druids, Stars, and some other magic folk really close to Narnia's Heart see. I'm not going to get into an exact chart of what certain characters can and cannot see because that can change over time and such and I'd rather leave it mostly up to personal interpretation on what other characters do and do not perceive about the Pevensies and other such inhuman characters.
(Side note—I had to pause in the writing of this post here to go to my second meeting for an autism assessment and I think if I just showed the doctor my notes app and the inhuman/dark fantasy narnia tag on my blog, I'd get the diagnosis instantly lol)
So anyways, Narnia senses Eustace becoming a Dragon and is like "Ooohoo what's this?" and starts sort of digging into him in the same way she does to her Kings and Queens. This triggers his already enhanced perception of Narnia (the world) to get even stronger, and this is when he starts seeing stuff like people's souls, Caspian's second heart (more on that soon), and looking at Lucy/Edmund/Lilliandil becomes almost painful because Narnia's magic is so bright in them. Aslan then UnDragons him, which Narnia really doesn't like btw, and Eustace is back to being a fairly average human.
This is where stuff established in AEOD ends.
Now I have so many ideas and half finished fanfics written out in my notes app about Eustace, UnDragoning, and inhumanity and it would be impossible to cover them all here, so I'm just going to go with the highlights. One of my favorite ones is the idea that after Eustace's UnDragoning, he still feels very connected to being a dragon. He's had this taste of pure inhumanity, and something like that doesn't just leave a person. There's a fic I read once long before I was fully invested in this fandom about Eustace and draconity that I will never stop thinking about and was actually the reason I started considering Eustace and Narnian Dragons in this AU. One of the really important things to note is that once a Dragon is created, they can never be uncreated. They can be UnDragoned, where their physical form is returned to whatever it was before their Dragoning (a rock, a talisman, a faun, etc) but their soul has changed on a fundamental level to that of a Dragon. Now for Eustace in my Inhuman AU, this manifests spiritually as a deep longing to return to being a Dragon. Physically, he experiences fun side effects like increased heat tolerance, nails that grow faster than normal, and because Narnia likes to meddle, a single ridge of scales along his spine. In some versions of my drafts, he stays at the end of VOTDT and experiences a slow Dragoning because Narnia's influence on him is that strong, other versions he stays but never quite returns to the Dragon he was before, and in yet other versions, he returns to England and loses that connection enough that physically, he will never be a Dragon again. As I said, Narnia is fascinated by him, she's never really had a human Dragon before, but he is still just a random guy who happens to be related to the Pevensies and as such, she doesn't invest as much time or magic into his inhumanity.
So that's Eustace. This is already such a long post but I promised to talk about both him and Caspian so here we go.
Now, in my last post I talked a bit about how Narnia (the deity) affects the other humans in Narnia (the world) to an extent, but it's nowhere near the amount she does to her Kings and Queens, and also this diminishes more and more the farther you get from Narnia (the country). Telmar is fairly close to Narnia (the country) but as we see in PC, a lot of Narnia's magic and spirit has been diminished by the time Caspian is born. Up until the awakening of the land during the battle, Caspian is essentially 100% human. However, this changes very quickly.
It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment Caspian becomes a King of Narnia. Is it when he refuses to kill Miraz? Is it when Aslan tells him he's one? Is it during his actual coronation? Yes, yes, and yes. I try not to pin it down to an exact moment. By the end of PC though, he's definitely noticing some changes in himself. I have an unpublished part 2 to an exploration of Inhumanity (my only other actually posted fic on this stuff) that I swear I will clean up and get posted soon that goes into further detail on the changes he's noticing at the end of AEOI. Some of the big ones include a second golden heart, seeing some of the life magic in the world around him, and a golden glow on his palms. He also slowly develops the ability to heal, though it's not always consistent. Magic takes practice, lots and lots of practice. In pt 2, the glow on his palms has gotten so bright and also spread around his head like a halo, and Lucy shows him how to conceal it so he's not impossible to look at, but because of Magic™ there's still a dusting of golden powdery stuff across his skin. His blood turns golden because Ben Barnes + golden blood is such pretty imagery, and like the others, it gets sucked down and absorbed into Narnia's Heart when he bleeds in battle. Also when I say he's got a second heart I mean he's got a second fucking heart. Ribcage shift and all. (His appearance doesn't actually change, it's more like a pocket dimension thing going on inside him, but he sure as hell can feel it happening). Having Narnia as a patron goddess just means you have to put up with a second puberty sometimes lol.
Anyways, there's a line in AEOI that I feel explains this stuff really well. "He cannot truly protect the land without becoming a part of it himself." Narnia changes her Kings and Queens because she wants them to be a part of her. Aslan doesn't really see these changes as necessary (in canon, a world without deity Narnia, they don't happen), and if the storyline we pick is the one that's the constant cycle of humanity and inhumanity, it's sort of a push and pull between them. Aslan wants the Pevensies, and by proxy anyone else who rules Narnia or experiences these changes, to keep their humanity, to stay as they were Created by him. Narnia, however, wants them to be as much a part of her as she is of them. It's very clear in both the books and the movies that Narnia (the world) is where these characters belong. In the end, they all come home to her (yes, Susan too because fuck Mr. Clive Staples Lewis). Caspian being anything less than fully inhuman is something she cannot handle. She is constantly having to recreate the Pevensies, reestablish her hold on them, only to have them return to England and become mostly human again. Caspian cannot be taken away from her, he is in this world by birth and she is going to do everything she can to shape him into the ruler he needs to be.
Once again, I would like to state that Aslan and Narnia are not opposing sides of good and evil. Gods cannot be defined by human standards, and to think either Narnia or Aslan completely in the right or wrong in this AU would be, well, an interesting standpoint, but really not the one I'm going for here. I'm not going to say it's a misinterpretation, I am very open to hearing people's thoughts on this AU, and everyone's going to see things differently. Just, please reread what I've written about them before you start making that argument.
Anyways, that wraps this post up because I have spent the better part of the past 6 hours writing this. I spent way more time on Eustace than I intended but it's just so fascinating to think about inhumanity from his perspective considering he's the only one in canon that actually was (briefly) inhuman. Again, if you got this far, congratulations! If you use any of my ideas mentioned here, please tag me, I am so starved for inhuman Narnia content lol.
#inhuman/dark fantasy narnia#caspian x#prince caspian#the pevensies#eustace scrubb#the chronicles of narnia#narnia headcanons#rambles of a hyperfixating kai
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Badass || Bill Denbrough x Reader
Day 2 of Fictober
Pairing: Bill Denbrough x [gn] Reader
Requested: how about you do a bill x reader where the reader is a badass but still in the losers club???? just came up with it!!! btw love ya work and love ya!!!!
A//n: Aw thank you so much! That’s so sweet of you. Love you too darling, hope you like it 💛💛💛 and thanks for being so patient like the rest y'all 😘 [also i am in no way a badass so I’m sorry, I tried lol] edit: OKAY IM ACTUALLY SO PROUD OF THIS, HOLY CRAP?? And again, i finished and pressed saved draft 30 SECONDS before midnight, so fight me this counts lol i just had to set up the title and tags and stuff on my computer before posting. anyways, thanks for waiting for this request, i hope you enjoy this, like i said, im actually surprised at how proud of this one i am!
Fictober Prompt: “that’s the easy part”
Warnings: Blood
“ROCK WAR~!”
The next thing you knew, rocks were soaring across the stream straight for your head. Luckily for your skull, your reflexes were faster than you remembered and you managed to duck before a giant stone could knock you out.
And yet you still heard a thump?
You peek out from behind your arms, looking behind you to see Richie laying flat on his ass, his glasses askew. You winced before you caught sight of a giant rock near his foot and quickly made a grab for it.
Your glare stretches across the stream, settling on the leader of the bigoted pack. You kissed the rock as you met his eye, a devilish smirk stretching across your face as you wound up. Bowers was scrambling for ammo but you had already released. The rock found its target with a satisfying ‘thunk’ leaving Bowers on his ass clutching his bleeding nose. He pulls his hand away, gaping at the overwhelming amount of blood that had already painted his hand before locking eyes with you.
“KISS MY ASS, HENRY!” You hollered with a triumphant smile. “YOU TWISTED FUCK!”
“What the fuck?” Belch and Victor began scrambling back, looking around desperately for rocks of their own.
The Losers spared wide eyed glances your direction as they unleashed a storm of rocks on the now deeply unsettled Bowers gang. Bill was the only one who hesitated, his wide blue eyes frozen on you when you turned to give him a smirk. You had been looking for ammo and it seemed he had the perfect one. You cocked a brow, your devilish smirk still dominating your face as you gestured to the stone in his hand.
“You gonna use that, Billy Boy?”
You threw a few quick glances across the barrens making sure your weren’t gonna get hit. Luckily morale seemed to be growing scarce over there.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t completely gone.
“Ow,” Bill hissed, right hand clutching his left shoulder. “F-f-uck.”
Your head whipped around on your shoulders again to see Victor Criss’s upper lip twitching into a satisfied smile as he looked at Bill. You returned your attention to your boyfriend and the rock he held out for you.
“Let me,” you seethed.
You snatched the rock up, stomping forward with a wild glare in your eyes that was enough to intimidate the bleach blonde. Victor was already on his heels and running, but you weren’t letting him get away that easy. You threw with all your might and watched with pride as it soared through the air and hit him directly on the spine that was poking through his back. He cried out in pain as he fell to the ground, his chin meeting the very rock bed that fueled the fight.
“EAT SHIT,” You spit. “YOU LACKEY ASS FUCK!”
~~~~
“Turn it off!” Beverly cried. “TURN IT OFF!”
The projector in Bill’s garage had quickly turned into It’s stage as It put on a horrific display for you and the rest of your friends. What was just once pictures of Derry, suddenly turned into pictures of Bill’s family - you missed Georgie terribly, having grown so close with him the year before he died when you and Bill first got together. And now you were all staring death in the eyes as It manipulated the very air in the room around you. Every click of the projector put you on edge, the stroking effect and of course the child eating clown tormenting you all.
It was hard to process your own thoughts as they were quickly drowning in everyone’s screams and your own fears. You clutched Bill tightly to your side, your arms linked and your fingers stitched together. Everything was moving so incredibly fast it was near impossible to process until you realized you weren’t holding Bill’s hand anymore.
“Y-Y/n!” He cried, tugging at the back of your shirt before it slips from his grip. “Y/N!”
Mike had already unplugged the projector, that much you knew. But you were fucking desperate. You lunged for the projector, gripping it tightly as you held it high above your head. With a guttural scream, you threw it as hard as you possibly could into the cement floor. It broke instantly into several unidentifiable pieces, the room now completely dark and eerily silent.
Heaving, you finally look up to meet your friends faces. Each of them were gaping at you, an expression they seemed to always be wearing around you.
“Well,” you say finally. “I think it’s safe to say we found It.”
~~~~
“How hard is it,” you seethed, your voice growing in volume. “to NOT wander off? In a FUCKING HAUNTED HOUSE?!”
You took all your anger and fear out on the door Richie was being held in. Your elbows were practically glued to the surface while your fists and forearms repeatedly pounded on the door. First Eddie, now Richie. You swear, these idiots had to me smarter than this.
“Richie!” Bill joined your side, pounding on the door that had closed all on its own.
“RICHARD!” You pounded on the door again, your anger turning to pure fear that was now stinging your throat and eyes as tears began to well. “This is not fucking funny, open the goddamn door asshole!”
Your hand wraps around the doorknob again, and you shake the handle, jostling it around in hopes something will cave. When the door flew open, you didn’t know whether to chalk it up to luck, skill, or it was all still part of It’s torment but you didn’t care. Richie was alive, and tumbled into your and Bill’s grip.
“Richie!” You hugged the boy tightly, then pulled away with your signature glare. “WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!?”
“N-n-no t-time,” Bill says, looking between you and Richie with determination in his eyes. “L-let’s get outta here.”
A muted thump answered before you could. You, Richie and Bill all looked to the source of the noise to see the moth-eaten mattress from earlier was now shifting by itself. It looked as if it was filled with jumping beans. A melon sized lump grew in the center before the fabric split to reveal the disheveled and muddied up head of your friend.
He smiles at your twisted expressions. “Wanna play loogie?”
Your reflexes are faster than your thought process and you run forward. Just as a strange black goo starts to spill from fake Eddie’s mouth, your leg was swinging through the air. Your left foot connected with the left side of his jaw, narrowly missing the sizzling black ink and Eddie’s head popped off his body as you put it across the room.
It sails through the air, his greasy hair catching several cobwebs as it spins. Specks of the goo go flying landing on the walls and ceiling before the small head collides with a disturbing ‘thunk’.
“What the fuck?!”
“Holy shit,”
Eddie’s head lands in the far corner of the room where it rolls back and forth on his right ear before settling. He was groaning as if all the spinning had made him dizzy. The ooze of black goo came out even faster as if he were ralphing, and it was now pooling across the floor and inching towards their feed.
“Oh, that’s fucking GROSS!” Richie looks quickly to you. “And now you made him angry!”
“At least I did something!”
“Guys,” Bill pleads. “C-come on,”
The pool of black tar is spreading fast and you and Richie don’t have to think twice to listen to Bill. You all turn on your heel, only to find three doors instead of one.
Very Scary, Scary, and Not Scary At All.
Not Scary At All was the winner, Bill and Richie quickly decide. And despite your protest that it was all clearly a trick and the doors were misnomers, they opened the Not Scary At All.
“Where’s My Shoe?”
The light was turned on to reveal the severed body of Betty Ripsom and you had promptly decided you had had more than enough.
“WHERE THE FUCK WERE HER LEGS?!” Richie cried.
“I’ve got a guess but I’m not sticking around to find out.” You growled.
You cast a glance behind you to see the tar had eaten up most of the floor, giving you little room to do what you wanted. Luckily, you didn’t need much. You took a few steps back and looked at the door in the center, your eyes settling deep into the crimson letters spelling “scary.” You were certainly glad you realized when you did that unlike the door that held Richie hostage, this one could easily be broken down from where you stood.
You sighed. “I have to do everything.”
~~~~
“WELCOME TO THE LOSERS CLUB, ASSHOLE!”
Richie’s bat swung through the air and knocked the clown back. Pennywise quickly recovered and lunged for the nearest target with a disgusting growl. You quickly scrambled for a weapon as Mike stepped up to bat. He threw the fence iron rod at the monster but it was stopped midair when It’s jaw unhinged and out came several charred arms holding it in place. More and more reached out from inside It’s throat and made a grab at Mike who was fighting back the force of all the arms.
You never happier to have been too slow to save your friend when you saw Stanley pick up one of several spare iron rods off the ground. With a brave determination, he launched forward with a fierce battle cry as his torch came down on the branch of arms that now recoiled, saving Mike. It stumbled back, the charred arms slinking back into its mouth and disappearing and Pennywise stumbles again when Richie kicks It forward and away from him. Unfortunately that brought It right to Stanley.
“Stan, watch out!” Bill cries from your side.
But it’s too late, It’s head had already changed to the same horribly contorted lady that had you had already found attacking your friend. Only this time it was still wearing It’s clown suit, and it was racing straight for Stan.
“Stan!” You cried, already running forward after him only to stop second later.
Yet again Stanley roared, striking the clown across the face with the most furious look you had ever seen on him. Despite the horrifying circumstances, you were quite proud. You quickly fell back into line, ready to fight with the others and you smiled yet again when Mike followed up Stan’s strike with a devastating blow of his own.
The small moment of victory was soon cut short - a pattern you were currently getting used to - when a pair of red tentacles-turned-crab-claws pulled Mike to the ground.
“Mike!” Eddie shrieked.
Mike was able to barrel roll to safety as as It advanced on him. The end of each gigantic claw striking the earth and narrowly missing him and you and your friends quickly followed not knowing what to do. You couldn’t watch it anymore, and you hated yourself for what you were about to do but you knew you would simply never forgive yourself if you lost Mike, or any of your friends.
For what Bill wished was the first time of the summer, he felt you leave his side as you charged headlong into danger. Another guttural scream left you as you hurled yourself onto It’s back, your iron spike in front of It’s neck, both hands on either side of the rod and you pulled as hard as you could.
Pennywise’s disturbing, maniacal laughter grew even scarier, something you didn’t think was possible as he began to suffocate. You let yourself drop back down to the ground, your grip still tight on your weapon as you used your position to pull It down to the ground. It was still laughing through chocked breathes but it had done what you hoped, and stopped, Mike had gotten to safety with the Losers.
And for one glorious moment you felt indestructible. Until you saw it shift before you’re very eyes and your eyes widened, as did the eyes of your friends and Bill. It’s complete figure changed, starting with It’s head. You and the Losers no longer saw a painted lady, a mummy, a horrible memory, an abusive father, or even a late little brother. But they saw you, their friend Y/n, cowering and crying under the iron rod that pinned you to the ground by the neck.
“Please,” It whimpered, bottom lip quivering horribly. “Please don’t. I don’t wanna die.”
The real you was staring at the sight of yourself, the real fake you that you always tried so hard to push down. You knew it was Pennywise, but it was enough to make you choke completely. You were always so confident, and you were good at sticking up for yourself and the rest of the Losers. At least that’s all they ever saw, that’s all you ever let them see. Deep down you were terrified, and much more than that you were terrified that your own fear would get in the way of protecting your loved ones.
Like now.
“Y/n?” Bill’s soft voice called out to you, breaking you from your spell.
You look down at your blubbering face, tears streaking down your cheeks as you begged yourself for mercy. Several pleas leaving your lips when finally you pulled the rod back. Your eyelids flicker open, gazing back up at you and watch your every move cowering.
“Y/n?” Ben asks.
You don’t answer, you just straighten, your demon double cowering beneath you and it only angers you more to know none of this is It’s own fear. It was yours. It was mocking you.
Which was pretty stupid, considering you still had the spike.
You bare your teeth as you summon your strength, throwing the end of the spike into the ground, going right through your throat.
~~~~
You watched with head on Bill’s shoulder as another drop of blood from your palm fell onto the grass. You were trying to think about anything but the pain, and with everything you had faced this summer, you certainly had the pick of the litter.
“It feels different now,” you say, voice quiet. “And not just cause It’s gone, ya know?”
You even hate to let yourself believe that, but for the sake of your sanity and the chance of every getting another night’s sleep you’d have to believe it. And knowing Bill as long as you did, you know he felt it too.
You pick your head up off his shoulder and look to his gaze break away from the hills in the distance to meet your eyes. For a moment he doesn’t say anything, and you know for sure he’s thinking it too. Beverly was leaving for Portland, Stan said he heard whispers from his parents that they might be moving and that was all on top of the heavy weight of your guys’ trauma that had already begun to drain everyone.
“A-a-at least we-we’ve got each o-other,”
You smiled, nudging his shoulder with your own.
“Big sap,” you chuckled.
He smiled a little, enjoying the small moment between the two of you. But it disappears when his mind returns to image that had been replaying in his mind nonstop since Neibolt. The image of your cowering form that bothered you so much. He had never seen you - the real you, that was being confronted, that is - so distraught. He gulps, gathering his strength.
“W-what made you s-see that?” He asks.
You don’t answer for a long moment, and Bill fears he’s upset you. Or confused you, but he doubts that is the case. Finally, you look up at him, and lick your lips nervously.
“I’m scared Bill,” you croaked, heart pounding wildly at the admission. “I’m always worrying about you, I’m always worrying about Richie, Mike, Eddie, Stanley, Bev, and Ben. I’m always worried something is going to happen. I’m always scared something’s gonna happen to the ones I love, and I get scared that I’m not gonna be enough to protect them.”
You take a deep breath, swallowing all the air you lost in your unintentional rant. Somewhere during your confession, your gaze broke away from Bill’s gaze and now here you were afraid to even look him in the eye.
There’s another silence that Bill finally ends after a small thoughtful moment.
“It’s okay to be scared, Y/n,” he says, pulling your eyes to him. “I-I-It’s part of being h-human.”
You bite the inside of your cheek, trying your best to banish the image of your cowardly form from your mind. Suddenly the sting of your cut didn’t hurt so bad.
You looked back into Bill’s soft eyes, and shrugged.
“I know, but it doesn’t make me feel too great either.”
He nudged you again with a charming smile.
“Well, y-you’re still a badass. Y-You’re always s-standing up for us,”
You chuckled weakly, sending him a smirk.
“That’s the easy part,” you say. “It’s looking out for myself that’s harder.”
“T-t-tell ya what?” You raise a brow at his sudden demeanor. “I’ll be t-the b-b-badass lookin out for you,”
You laughed, leaning in and giving him a lingering kiss that turned his cheeks absolutely scarlet.
You smiled when you saw this. “Thanks Billy Boy. Appreciate it. But I’d still like to work on myself a bit, ya know?”
He smiles again, this time triumphantly. “Deal.”
#bill denbrough x reader#bill denbrough imagine#bill denbrough one shot#fictober20#fictober 2020#fictober#fictober day 2#bill denbrough#jaeden lieberher#jaeden martell#reader insert#x reader#losers x reader#losers imagine#it 2017#fic
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❝ comfortable ❞ l.mk
synopsis → “oh, i’m mark. mark lee.” he gives her a lop-sided grin, reminding you of a high school boy. the kind you would have a crush on.
word count → 3k
a/n → instead of admitting to the fact that this has been in my drafts since october what if i just said i was watching superm interviews and got inspired.. would anyone believe that??? anyway superm on the ellen show was a fever dream lol
your leg bounces nervously as your makeup artist touches up your look and you stare at the tv screen in anticipation. you were finally making your television debut. you knew you were blessed for the wonderful opportunity, especially for how new you were to the music industry.
you had started like nearly every other artist; posting covers on youtube. these were well received and gained a good amount of views and likes but your career really took off when you began creating original content. every time you would release a single, it would make it on the trending page thanks to your growing fanbase and exposure to the general public, who seemed to like you. soon enough, requests to interview you whether it be on radio, tv, or magazines were high and, thanks to your managers, you found yourself in los angeles, backstage in a studio, waiting for the ellen degeneres to introduce you to her live audience and thousands of viewers at home.
“don’t move so much, miss l/n,” the woman trying to apply your highlighter comments. “you’re smudging your makeup.”
you force yourself to sit still as you apologize. “sorry. pre-show jitters.”
the woman smiles, emphatically. “i understand, sweetheart. i would be nervous too.”
you’re quiet for a moment, debating if you should continue conversing with her. “can i be honest?”
she hums as she dabs a beauty blender into your cheek. “go ahead.”
“i am so nervous that i’ll mess up or say something stupid. the only thing close to an interview i’ve ever done was a q&a on my youtube channel. and at least i could edit stuff out then.” you huff. “if i make some kind of mistake on my tv debut, my career will be over before it even started.”
“well, think of it this way,” she says. “you went from a moderately popular youtube channel to the ellen show. that doesn’t happen for no reason. there are people out there who really admire you.”
you chuckle in disbelief. “it’s crazy to think about people actually wanting to see me. i still can't believe it.”
she giggles, softly. “they know there's something worth seeing.” at seeing your small smile, almost as if you were barely realizing your own star status, she laughs. “you seriously gotta wake up, girl. you’re famous!”
you smile at her, finding humor in her words. “thanks for the wake up call.”
you both direct your attention to the tv placed backstage that broadcasted what was happening on stage. you listen in to ellen’s monologue as she tells jokes and addresses current topics. before long, there’s a knock on the doorframe. you half expect a staff member to let you know that you’ll be on soon but instead you hear a quiet, “hello?”
you and your makeup artist both turn to the boy standing in the doorway. he's wearing a black jacket paired with dark, ripped jeans held up by a belt. he goes to bow, then remembers that korean etiquette does not apply and decides to wave as a greeting instead. you reciprocate the gesture. he stands with only one foot inside the room, almost as if he’s too polite to enter without being given the okay.
“did they send you to get your makeup done?” the woman who had done yours says.
he nods. “they said something about concealer and bb cream, i think?”
she smiles. “yeah, it’s basic stuff. come on in. what’s your name, dear?”
“oh, i’m mark. mark lee.” he gives her a lop-sided grin, reminding you of a high school boy. the kind you would have a crush on.
“well, mark lee, i’m lily. i’ll be doing your makeup, making sure you look pretty for the cameras.” she motions to you. “i'm just about done here so i’ll be right with you.”
“okay, thank you.” he shuffles in, his eyes glued to you and you hold his stare. he nods, a wordless greeting as he settles in next to you. in return, you throw up a peace sign and he smiles at your casual behavior.
“you know what? somebody used all the setting spray. i’ll be right back, i’m just going to steal some from my co-workers.” with that, lily darts out of the room.
it’s pure silence between the two of you until you spark conversation. “i didn't get to introduce myself but i'm y/n.”
“i know,” he responds, quickly. “i'm kind of a fan, actually. i mean, it’s practically impossible to not be. you’re all over the place. especially with the new single you dropped... which is a bop, by the way.”
you smile at his simply-worded praise. it was a nice switch up from the professional reviews you received from critics. “that’s so cute. i’m honored.” you miss the way mark’s ears turn slightly pink at your words. “but enough about me, what do you do, mark?”
“oh, me? i’m in the k-pop scene.”
you hum. “that’s a good genre to be in. which group?”
“right now i’m promoting with superm, it’s kind of like a side project. but originally, i’m in a band called nct.”
you lean forward at hearing the familiar name. “nct? as in, nct 127?”
mark’s eyes light up. “yeah! you know us?”
you nod, enthusiastically. “oh my god, yes! you collabed with ava, right?”
“we sure did. are you guys close?”
“i help her write lyrics sometimes.” you lower your voice down to a whisper for dramatic effect. “i wrote the chorus to ‘sweet but psycho’.”
the way mark’s jaw drops is almost comedic. “no way! that song got her famous, dude!” his lips curve into a playful smirk. “just because of that i’m gonna have to get you in the studio.”
you return the mischievous look. “is that a promise?”
“i’m back!” lily announces, giving mark no time to respond. she gives no warning as she spritzs you with the bottle she had gone to retrieve.
you cough, choking on the mist. “no heads up?”
“sorry, dear. you’re on in two minutes, no time to waste.”
you feel a chill go up your spine. it was finally time.
mark nudges your arm. “you okay?”
“a little nervous.” that proves to be the biggest understatement of all time because in reality your heart is doing somersaults.
“hey.” you stare at him, his brown eyes boring into you. “you’ll be fine. there’s nothing to worry about. you got this!”
you smile at his words of encouragement. he cared about you and you find that your heart is pounding for an entirely different reason now.
“i'll be here to cheer you on while you’re out there and i’ll be back when you’re done to tell you how amazing you did, okay?”
you nod.
“now get out there!”
“well, we have a great show for y’all today,” ellen says, clasping her hands together, having just finished her monologue. “i mean, it’s always great but the exciting thing is we have two musical guests today.”
the audience that cheered wildly is shown on screen. you almost forget about the knot in your stomach when you see some people in the crowd wearing shirts with the cover art and quoted lyrics of your last single.
“i see you guys are ready so, without further ado... let’s get started. our first guest is a soloist who has made quite a big name for herself in such a short period of time. she currently has three singles on the billboard charts, her most recent music video is number one trending on youtube, and she has a new ep coming out soon. here for her television debut, please welcome y/n l/n.”
you walk out from behind the stage, a huge smile on your face. the crowd screams and you wave to them until your hands become too occupied hugging the hostess who greets you with open arms and a proud smile. once the hype dies down and your entrance music fades out, you take a seat, opposite of ellen.
“how have you been y/n?”
“amazing,” you respond, letting your hands fall neatly in your lap.
“and why is that?”
you sigh, wistfully. “everything has been going so well for me lately. i mean, i feel like all these doors are opening up for me all of a sudden. i think i finally made it.”
“you’re just barely realizing that?” ellen exclaims.
you laugh, along with the audience. “kind of, yeah. it just all happened so fast.”
“is there an experience that comes to mind where you finally realized how famous you are?”
you try to think for a few moments before your eyes light up. “okay so, i was at a mcdonald’s like, last month and i went through the drive thru and ordered some nuggets and fries. so, i pull up to the window to pay and it’s around 2 a.m. so the cashier guy is super out of it, like he’s not even paying attention to me. finally, he goes to grab my card and he gets a good look at me and just freezes. like, full on shuts down. so i ask him if he’s okay and he nods so i try to hand him my card again but he goes, ‘no, you’re famous, you don’t have to pay’. and in that moment i just knew.”
“hold on, pause,” ellen announces, dramatically. “you’re telling me that you have been nominated as artist of the year, gained over ten million followers on social media and made your national television debut but the thing that really made you say ‘wow, i’m famous’ was a couple of chicken nuggets?”
“ellen, c’mon,” you begin, seriously. “it was a twenty piece.”
“oh, well, that changes everything,” she says, playing along with you, as the audience erupts into laughter.
the rest of the interview goes smoothly, running on jokes and sarcastic energy. you discuss your young age (thus resulting in some of your baby pictures finally being revealed to the world), millennial culture (the crowd went wild when you explained terms such as netflix and chill to ellen who claimed she didn’t understand yet her sly smirk said otherwise) and your upcoming ep (that you would be giving a sneak peek of later on in the show).
you continue chatting once the commercial break is announced and ellen showers you with praises, commenting how young talent never failed to amaze her, although it did make her feel old. you get to thank the hostess and tell her how much you appreciated her sweet words and the opportunity she had given you before the crew is dragging you backstage so you can prep for your upcoming performance.
you’re greeted by a “that was awesome!” and a high five one you get backstage.
you flash mark a full smile. “couldn’t have done it without my hype man.”
just then lily walks in to touch up your makeup.
“and my hype woman!”
she just rolls her eyes and chuckles as she reapplies gloss to your lips.
“seriously though, y/n. why did you have to be so perfect? the bar is all the way up here now.” to emphasize his point, mark raises his arm as high as it will go.
“hey, i only tried hard because you’re up next. you’re a hard act to beat, mark lee. i mean, you’re charismatic, charming, witty; basically every talk show host’s dream.”
he scoffs yet you see how he avoids your gaze, your compliments obviously flattering him to the extreme.
a staff member walks by, cutting your conversation short. “y/n, you’re back on in one. superm is on right after.”
you and mark turn back to each other, speaking the same two words at the same time.
“good luck.”
ellen introduces you again, only this time you hold a guitar and stand in front of a microphone once you’re back on the stage. you perform a never before heard song but judging by the roaring applause and standing ovation you receive by the end of it, it’s another successful hit.
you bask in the amazing response and then you’re ushered backstage for the last time. you catch sight of the staff placing more seats on the stage as you exit and you smile eagerly, knowing exactly what’s to come. you search the hallways for your new friend, hoping you can catch him before the show goes back on air. you’re almost about to give up when you hear your name being called.
you lock eyes with mark who stands a couple feet away, barely hidden from the audience’s view. even from where you stand you can tell he has a nervous smile on his face. you jog towards him and to your surprise, he envelops your figure without a second thought. in return, you tentatively wrap your arms around him.
“great job,” he murmurs, breath fanning your ear. “i really did cheer you on.”
“i’ll make sure to do the same.” you hesitantly pull away from his embrace, holding him at an arm’s length away. “go get ‘em.”
he gives you a determined nod and you watch him rush on stage, the audience’s wild cheering increasing. their energy didn’t fade once throughout the interview and just as you had suspected, mark was doing wonderfully. he clearly thrived in interviews; his awkward, boyish nature enchanting everyone in the studio, yourself included.
ellen crosses her legs and clears her throat. “so, i have to ask you something, you know, for the fans.”
the group leaned forward in anticipation, awaiting her next words.
“are any of you dating?”
the crowd released noises of amusement at hearing the very personal question. you can’t help but feel intrigued although you knew ellen has always been quite the invasive person. you watched as the seven boys looked around at each other, unsure what to say but before their silence can become suspiciously long, mark ends up taking the question.
“why are you always so curious about this, though?” he blurts.
the audience absolutely eats up his response, cheering at his bluntness. even you find it humorous, shoulders shaking with a chuckle. that’s definitely gonna become a meme, you think.
“it’s my job!” counters ellen. “why are you so defensive?”
the crowd is very responsive to ellen’s rebuttal, ‘ooh’ing in amusement.
mark’s silence only pushes the hostess to continue teasing him.
“does it maybe have anything to do with y/n?”
your smile drops. had she seen you two? you’re not sure why you feel so exposed; after all, you had just been talking.
ellen’s lips adorn a sly smile at mark’s stunned reaction. “you seemed to be getting very comfortable with each other backstage.”
the black haired male stumbles over his words before he gets a semi-coherent sentence out. “we just, um—we just met.”
“oh really? you two looked like you had known each other forever.”
mark chuckles breathlessly, eyes glued to his lap, obviously at a loss for words. ellen stares at him expectantly so he mutters, “i like making friends.”
ellen, the audience, and even some of the band members laugh at his response.
“well, i’m sure there’s a lot of fans out there that wish they were your ‘friend’.” her tone makes it clear she doesn’t buy his excuse but she prods him no further, instead turning to stare into the main camera. “when we get back superm will be performing their title track ‘jopping’. during the commercial break, please feel free to place your bets as to how long mark and y/n will remain ‘friends’.”
the camera pans to mark for a couple seconds; his ears are bright red and his cheeks are dusted light pink, his makeup doing nothing to help hide the blush. his eyes dart around, anxiously and then they cut to commercials.
you shake your head, smiling at the entire situation and just how big of a dork mark was.
you attentively watch superm’s two performances, eyes mostly glued to a certain rapper. you sit patiently in the makeup room, waiting for mark to return backstage so you can congratulate him but he never appears. you try to conceal your disappointment, even when lily enters the room, smiling brightly.
“well, the show’s over, doll.” she removes her makeup stained apron and glances at you as she places it on a nearby rack. “hey, why the long face?”
you stare at your reflection in the mirror, no longer bothering to hide your pout now that your frustration had been made known.
“you did great, if that’s what you’re worried about. just ask mark.”
“he left,” you mumble. “i thought i’d be able to catch him before he left and we could… i don’t know, talk a bit more? i just really—” you trail off.
“like him?” lily suggests, too loudly for your liking.
your head snaps towards her, eyes wide, only confirming your feelings.
“don’t worry, dear, you can say it. i won’t tell ellen,” she jokes.
you sigh and slump down in your seat. “yeah. i like him.”
“well, then, i have good news for you.”
you half-heartedly hum, allowing her to continue.
she waves a piece of crumpled paper in front of your face. you grab it from her, staring at it curiously.
“what’s this?”
she nods her head at it, encouraging you to find out for yourself. “open it and see.”
you obey, unfolding the tiny item. your eyes struggle to read the words inside but if you squint, they become clearer.
please call, me i would love to become closer ‘friends’.
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
it’s mark btw :)
you can’t contain your smile at the cute little note.
“he’s adorable,” you say, mostly to yourself but lily audibly agrees.
“he ran into me as he was leaving and begged me to deliver that message to you. which reminds me, i’m supposed to let you know that he wishes he could have stuck around but his schedule is ‘crazy tight’ so he had to ‘dip’. his words not mine.”
you nod, grin widening. “thanks, lily.”
“my pleasure. nothing like young love.”
you give her a glare although it’s all but threatening.
she folds her arms, teasingly. “so, are you going to give him a call or what?”
you’re sure she sees the phone in your hand and the way your fingers press the numbers on the keypad, excitedly but nevertheless, you decide to answer.
“i’d be crazy not to.”
#mark#mark lee#nct#nct 127#superm#mark nct#mark x reader#mark lee x reader#mark imagines#mark imagine#mark lee imagine#mark lee imagines#mark fluff#mark lee fluff#nct fluff#nct scenarios#superm x reader#mark angst#superm imagines#lucas fluff#ten fluff#taeyong fluff#superm scenarios#mark lee scenarios#mark lee angst#nct angst#nct 127 scenarios#mark blurbs#mark lee blurbs#mark drabbles
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my super-specific Sonic Adventure 1&2 remake wishlist!
welcome back to another episode of me blasting out Sonic drafts I was too scared to post years ago! rev up those light speed shoes cus this is gonna be a long one!
first off shit I’d want in general
retranslated dialogue thats truer to the Japanese originals' tone and keeps the intended subtext
but with the most iconic English lines left in ("Get a load of THIS", "I'll slam dunk it in there"). The Faker scene can stay unchanged, interruption and all
small additions to cutscenes to help explain Little Things people have debated for decades (like whether G.U.N. framed Sonic to cover up Shadow's existence or if that’s just a legitimate plot hole)
all the MIDI cutscene songs redone with real instruments and/or an orchestra! all the other songs are already perfect and Should Not Be Touched
make the Emerald radar beep in time to the level music so it’s less annoying
okay, time for a spicy one: voice acting. hoo boy
Getting the entire original cast probably isn’t possible (for studio and contract reasons, not just Tails’s growing up and Eggman’s dying), and I feel the series’ current cast is just so different in tone and direction that they’d clash with the Adventure era. (will make an exception for Mike Pollock tho, he’s said some iconic Adventure lines already and I loved his take on them!)
So my preference? A compromise: a separate voice cast comprised of whichever OG’s are still game and soundalikes for the rest, complete with an actual kid as Tails. Too good to be true? Probably, but whatever it’s my wishlist
lighting and other subtle effects based on the Dreamcast originals (long story short a lot of these got broken from the GameCube ports onward, there’s video comparisons)
textures remade from scratch cus as much as i love that they used their field trip photos, it probably wouldnt fly today lol
new character models based on Adventure-era promotional artwork! after these games, the characters' proportions shifted over time, giving the impression that they've grown up a little since. it's a very subtle difference, but its enough that just using the now-standard Modern Sonic models would look kinda off
said models shouldn't change between games. like if youre playing SA1 and switch to SA2, the only thing that should change about Sonic is his shoes (before upgrades of course)
speaking of upgrades, an option to remove them visually would be nice, they can get kinda distracting during cutscenes
Unleashed-style redesigns of all the humans!! my heart yearns for it!!!
an option to turn off the Ball of Light/Omochao
the SA2B multiplayer mode but with the SA1-exclusive characters added maybe?
every DLC thing ever reinstated! the extra Kart Races and special Chao as unlockables, maybe the holiday stuff can show up at wintertime NiGHTS style? the Nike one might not be possible tho
Super Sonic/Shadow in normal levels as an unlockable like the Lord intended
Very Important: the game must be revealed with Eggman “hacking” the screens at a public Sega presentation, followed by a trailer that starts with this scene in modern CGI. It’s the hypest way I can think of to do it, and also people could slap A Certain Meme onto it as soon as humanly possible
absolute balls-off-the-walls ad campaign that targets the following demographics: 20-smthns who grew up with a Dreamcast/GameCube, ska enthusiasts, & the entire state of California. more on that here
SA1
fix Big’s fishing. idk how, i haven’t played enough fishing games to know what constitutes a good one, but there’s gotta be something they can do
replace the A-B-C level goals with the 5-missions-each system from SA2 cus it allows for more variety
use the ranking system from SA2 too cus it got used in every game made since anyway
use Generations’s Perfect Chaos design since that’s how he was meant to look in the first place
maybe go the extra mile and add hints of the dark blue armor to his earlier forms too?
finish the unused Sky Chase Dragon and make it a bonus boss maybe??
have Tails look away if Sonic uses the shower in Casinopolis, I know it’s a tiny thing but it always bothered me
make the CD flashback actually look more like CD cus i had no clue that's what it was when i first played it lmao
also make Tails' flashback to when he met Sonic more obviously set in Sonic 2, like Emerald Hill or smthn. this cutscene means a lot to me but its so obvious they just used Mystic Ruins as the bg hfbfv
just. make it more obvious that the Classic games happened? cus that's kinda important to understanding these ones
just generally do better visual storytelling now that the original game's limited animation engine isn't an issue lol
SA2
nerf the Artificial Chaos pretty fcking please
an option to turn off certain upgrades functionally as well as visually? ngl this is for the Magic Hands. to the one person who actually uses them: i’m so sorry but they’re just not popular
either replace the beeping noise Tails/Eggman’s mech makes while targeting with something more subtle or just remove it altogether
get rid of that stream that can sweep you away in the Biolizard fight, like good god it’s hard enough without it
remove that... unfortunate hand motion Sonic and Shadow make when they go Super. you know the one
make an achievement/trophy for waiting till the last minute to beat Finalhazard, so more people can hear that one Shadow line. like that shit should be required reading but i didn't know about it for a criminally long time
this as an unlockable, it’s truly criminal that it never left Japan
redo the Green Hill remix so it actually fits the rest of the game lmfao? something like this
Chao stuff gets its own segment because of course it does
all six Chao Gardens connected by a single Chao World lobby that's accessible from both games!
new unique themes for the SA1 gardens? there’s nothing wrong with the original, but it’d be weird if they all shared a song and the SA2 ones didn’t. the old one can go to the Station Square one
add the Chao Key to the SA1 levels for quicker access like in SA2
new behaviors for Chao to learn, new hats and accessories, new toys, new race courses, maybe new breeds?? new Chao stuff in general!!
make it so animals don’t walk into the garden entrances!! you don't know true pain if you've never tried picking one up, accidentally left the garden, went back in, and the animal was gone
swap out SA1′s racing mechanics with SA2′s. keep the “alternate paths based on stats” thing tho
imagine if you will.... an 8-player online Chao race. imagine the chaos (pun completely intended)
a brand new minigame to join the legendary likes of Racing and Karate! personally id love one based on Chao In Space. like your Chao has to beat the others in a dogfight and its stats determine its ship's stats and weapons
an optional mobile app that combines the VMU’s Chao Adventures and the GBA’s Tiny Chao Garden! maybe with some extra Pokemon Go-ish features??
that’s all i got.... Good God i love these two games. of course they’re not spotless, i just made a long list of issues i have with them. but they’re still important cornerstones of the series in many ways, and it’d be nice to see them remade so people can remember why :’)
months-later edit: added more ideas
#sonic the hedgehog#sonic adventure#sonic adventure 2#sonic adventure dx#sonic adventure 2 battle#sonic adventure 2: battle#sth#me talking#long#sa1#sa2#sonic adventure remakes
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college boyfriend!markhyuk au series: III (donghyuk's pathway)
a universe in which roommates!markhyuk meet each other's s/o in class
markhyuk are roommates, my/n and dy/n are roommates, mark and dy/n take classes together and so do donghyuk and my/n — how will their fates intertwine?
genre: fluff
pairings: mark+my/n (fem), donghyuk+dy/n (fem), platonic!mark+dy/n, platonic!donghyuk+my/n
format: dotpoint AU
universe: non idol, college bf
warning: some swearing
masterlist
or click here to meet your soulmate, eng lit!mark!
II ⇤ | III | ⇥ IV
III: 별빛이 내린다 샤라랄라랄라라 (2+2=4)
the meeting of two souls: donghyuk & dy/n
welcome! back and to the next part
in which things actually happen! yay
so. up until this point
it’s been quite obvious i hope
that this is the one where The Soulmates Meet™
and this one right here is the one where donghyuk meets his future wifenew best (not) friend
dammit this is a set plot with SET relationships
yeah
major spoilers for future parts but hey :) y’all know it i know it let’s just.
let’s get to it!!
that day you accidentally sleep in after a late night and walk into your lecture looking pretty trashier than you would normally a few weeks into the first sem and you’re already tired it’s okay bby aww
and mark suggests skipping the next lecture and going for coffee instead
you’re like ok lmfao free coffee for me yay thanks marcus i owe you one
and to make up for the lecture he suggests he join you and your roommate with his own roommate in the library later that day to study the material you’d missed out on
so you’re like sweet study group hell yeah and apparently his roommate is also in biomed like your roommate? hey they might get along pretty well it’d be nice to have roommates in the same faculty hey
little do you know you little cutie you uwu
mark takes you to a cafe to buy you your favourite drink and a croissant bc you skipped breakfast again and he cares about his friends ok plus he was eyeing that donut next to the savoury menu in the glass cabinet and he would have felt bad if he got something to eat and you didn’t
you sit down, sipping your drink at the window seats and wishing your fatigue away
laughing with mark about what you slept so late for
my/n had been ranting about her love life again or perhaps lack thereof,,
don’t worry tho
after you’d gotten her to sleep, you’d gotten major feels for an essay question that you’d been tasked with due in a week but you hadn’t touched it until last night
staring at the prompt for at least half an hour trying to get your head around it and wondering what the hell you’d write about
but like they say
starting is half of it
so when you start spinning your words and getting into the writing mood
you accidentally wrote an entire draft without realising
albeit being full of loose ends and points you need to refine, etc., it was a decent body of work that you’d tackle for a few more nights before turning in
a skeleton, you’d called it
“a skeleton?”
“yeah. next thing i need to do is.. flesh it out”
“.. literally”
cue mark’s small pause
/inhale/
/MANIACAL LAUGHTER/
you know how mark’s laugh is very how do i put this into words hm dictated
you can HEAR each HA and they’re separate syllables yet sometimes they can vary in tone and length right it’s usually the more consistent HAs before he kinda loses it and starts throwing himself around
it was that laugh
honestly man finds everything funny his laughing threshold seems so low
and no matter how unfunny you are he WILL laugh at anything you say
and you’ve been doing it a lot lately
you could say literally any random thing and he’d already be ready to laugh (see Figure 1.1)
Figure 1.1
you: /snort/
mark, already giggling: “what”
you, still sniggering: /touches his elbow/ “arm knee”
mark: /inhale/ gotta live and breathe that oxygen
mark: HAHAHAHAhahAhaHAHAhahAhHa (decrescendo.. cRESCENDO)
^ that but looped, with intermittent slaps to your arm
anyways you never fail to make him fall out of his chair in laughter
but enough of that. dy/n is donghyuk’s y/n for a REASON ahEM
so after you finish up your breakfast at the cafe you go back to your dorm to take a power nap and recharge before your library session you were going to stay awake but mark forces you to take a nap and you’re like bro you just fed me caffeine now you want me to sleep??
then he tells you he ordered your drink decaf
you turn to him real slow
“.. you sick traitor. how dare you besmirch my name so. you scorn my forefathers and our dependence on the holy bean’s juices. betrayal runs rampant in your soul and mine stands at the mercy of your choices, them informed by the devil himself”
mark: /shrug/ “placebo effect yeet. hey, it worked for a bit. now you should really go home and get your sleep”
and he drags you back to your dorm and waves you off before going to his next class
you’re lowkey grateful for it tho when you take a shower and collapse onto your bed, falling asleep in what you think could be half the time you usually take
dreaming about losing your airpods and mark yelling at you to be more careful and then you two fighting bc you’d just lost your $300 bean sprouts but you could have sworn he took them
then police sirens went off out of nowhere and both of you were being arrested for assault and thievery
why you were the one being arrested, you had no idea but it’s a dream nothing follows the guidelines of hard reality anyway
just as you’re about to be handcuffed, you think to yourself, nope. i have a library session to attend. ain’t nobody got time for this shit
and you just
wake up
but the sirens are still continuing?? so you’re like ? is my building surrounded
they’ve come for me
even though you haven’t exactly broken any laws or have you
and you realise it was the alarm you’d set in time to get ready for your library session
so you grab your stuff and leave for the library, double checking with your roommate over text to make sure she was on her way
her lab class was taking longer than usual so she tells you she’ll be 10 or so minutes late
so you tell her you’ll be saving a seat for her and call mark to let him know you’re on your way to the library
“oh i’m already here lol. alright, i’m waiting for you outside”
and sure enough, you see him leaning on the wall of the entrance, eyes on his phone
you consider calling out to him but before you actually do, he glances up and spots you walking over tf do you have psychic spatial awareness mark
smiles and takes his corded earphones out
“you seriously need to upgrade those”
“they work fine”
“nop i’m getting you airpods for your birthday”
“dUdE thEy’RE tOo ExPEnSiVe. nO dUDE NoO”
“nOP. i’m GOING to buy you EXPENSIVE BEAN SPROUTS for your LIFE DEBUT ANNIVERSARY and you CAN’T STOP ME”
at this point i should just put /MANIACAL LAUGHTER/ and you should know what laugh i’m referring to
/MARK LEE’S MANIACAL LAUGHTER/
/MLML/ for short
nvm it’s fine it’s kinda fun to type /MANIACAL LAUGHTER/
literally mark laughs in bolded italics i’m just sad i can’t underline it on tumblr unless it’s a link lmfao
n e ways
i digress
you shush him because you’re about to walk into the library
“qUIET DOWN marcus” turn that sh down for quiet new dawn
the library is almost full for the day but after a minute or two scouring the building you find an empty four seater in the middle of nowhere it’s CRAZY you can NEVER find a MIRACLE like this life couldn’t get better
i’m sorry
you speed walk to claim it even though there was no one else in your vicinity to threaten your territory
mark laughs at you trying to get to the table as fast as you could without all out running
getting out your things, you send a photo of your seat to your roommate and tell mark to send it to his roommate as well so they know where to find you
you start watching the lecture online while taking notes and since you’re not in the lecture theatre you can talk more audibly with mark not that you don’t talk in the actual lecture too,,
maybe you do text a lot,,, during class
mark usually says things like “.. implications of what now?? interpretation of huh?” to which you reply “i want cheese when i get home”
and he has to stifle his laughter while you keep your straight face and continue writing your notes he admires this ability ngl
and so while you’re watching it on your computer
you can say things like “fuck. i want pickles”
and mark will /throw himself back/ and cackle and probably say some shit like “DIDN’T YOU HATE PICKLES??” between his giggles
and you’re like “yeah. fuck pickles but like. fuck. pickles”
he almost falls off his chair at this point
but when he balances himself again he spots someone down the corridor and wave them over
“oii! over here dude”
you turn to glance at them to expect his roommate, but you see your own roommate talking to someone and wave her over as well
“heYY my/n”
you see the other person turn to your roommate and tell her something, , then she says something back
which is apparently shocking to them, because he glances over at mark and then at you
and then he looks again when your roommate points straight at you
to which you’re like ?? hi? y u look me
and then they both start laughing
you wonder if they were laughing at you or smth until mark’s like “tf is that idiot doing”
and u look at him like ? what idiot
“that idiot. the idiot roommate i told u about. the one who called u a homewrecker”
and you’re like
wait
[info clog]
wait
[error]
“wait”
“what”
“that’s your roommate?” u point at the boy next to my/n, who r both still laughing at something going all “wOW r u KIDDING” he has a loud voice
and mark’s like “? yeah”
and you go
“.. the girl next to him is my roommate”
mark: “wait what”
that’s what she said
at that point they’ve made their way over to the table, still trying to hold in their laughter
you start to introduce your roommate to mark, who’s still confused by the situation
you: “mark, this is my/n, my/n this is mark”
my/n: “nice to see you again mark”
you: “wait. again?”
mark: “yeah we’ve met. hi my/n”
you: “what”
mark: “yeah”
my/n: “yeah”
his roommate: “yeah”
you:
you: “i feeling like i’m missing something here”
turns out
surprise surprise
that one friend that my/n had made in her biology class was mark’s roommate oh my god they were roommates
whose name, you are told, is lee donghyuk
magical moment
us watching: heh 🤤
u can’t help but do a lil body scan from head to toe bc he a fine piece of cake we all know that
honey skin, oversized white t shirt, black pants, sneakers and lighter brown hair that looks fluffy the type of fluffy that makes u wanna touch it
yes he’s good looking. yes
yaaaaas
then mark tells him your name
“she’s the one i said reminded me of you”
“r u talking abt me behind my back marcus??”
donghyuk laughs and holds out a hand for you to shake
“what kinda coincidence is this?? i adopt your roommate, you’re dealing with mine”
“oh you’re gonna have to get in line to adopt her, i’m her legal guardian, sorry donghyuk”
to which he goes
“lmfao then we’ll both be her parents”
“k but i’ll keep her on the weekends. you see her on the weekdays”
then he wipes his smile off his face and he’s like “who said we’re split”
mark and my/n are doing the /MANIACAL LAUGHTER/ at this point
mark: “so ,, seriously what are the chances”
you: “this quartet,, it’s fate guys it’s fate there’s no way about it”
yes it is. yes. it is
even that four seater table was free because of fate
donghyuk: “this calls for drinks later. we all free? no 9am classes tmr?”
my/n: “we have a physics prac at 8:30 dingus”
donghyuk: “ah shit”
you barely got any notes for that lecture for at least an hour because you end up talking altogether throughout the session but once you remember you’re in a library to study you request a ceasefire and agree to study for a bit which,, you gotta admit ,, isn’t really productive because you’re so excited to meet someone new
but the best part about the day was when you notice how many times mark is glancing at your roommate while she’s reviewing her notes, completely oblivious
donghyuk complains that he’s hungry after another hour or two and you suggest you all have dinner together
donghyuk leans back in his chair in a stretch, his jumper lifting up a little over his jeans and showing a bit of his belly “ah i’m craving chinese”
you perk up, “mE TOO”
so you all go to your favourite chinese place just outside campus where you find out that mark and my/n have the same taste and so do you and donghyuk
he points and u and goes “oH?”
“jjAMPPONG? U TOO?”
“the ONLY DISH EVER”
mark and my/n: jjajang is fine : )
you and donghyuk: “JJAMPPONG IS SUPERIOR”
give him a bro five with the shoulder bump and everything
the boys walk you and my/n back to your dorm afterwards
donghyuk and my/n end up walking in a pair and mark walks alongside you
mark mentions how it’d be fun if you made a group chat together
you: “do it”
“i don’t have your roommate’s number tho”
you’re smiling wickedly at his reaction “?? ASK HER FOR IT”
“dude what?? no u make one and i’ll add donghyuk to it”
“bRO JUST ASK”
“wHAT NO U DO IT THEN”
so u go
bet
and you call out the two biomed kids walking in front of you
“hey donghyuk! give me your number i’ll make a group chat”
“sure lol” and you open up a new contact to let him type his number into your phone
he saves his name as hot boi hyuk ✌🏻
which you just leave bc you’re busy making the group chat
mark is still astounded that you asked donghyuk for his number so easily
you: hi hello good day
my/n 🌸: yeetus meetus
hot boi hyuk ✌🏻: bow before me
you: here before me lie the beginnings of a new era
you: one born from blood and stone
my/n 🌸: tf is she saying
hot boi hyuk ✌🏻: idk but lets go with it
you: together we rise from the rubble and sort through the debris
hot boi hyuk ✌🏻: yas queen
my/n 🌸: i hate this gc already
you: and we WILL REBUILD THIS EMPIRE
read by marcus the fool 🤡 at 8:21 pm
safe to say you stay up for a good while talking on that group chat while mark just sits idle,,
you honestly don’t know if he’s consciously reading or not maybe he just left his phone on the chat
and thus our quartet is complete,,
and they all lived
happily ever after
but this isn’t the ending tho is it
wink wonk /waggles eyebrows/
this is but the epilogue to the prologue
that doesn’t make sense but n e ways
our quartet has not yet become two pairings
y’all just don’t know what the future has in store for you :)
click here to meet your soulmate, eng lit!mark!
II ⇤ | III | ⇥ IV
taglist: @lavellanfriendliness
shoot me an ask if you’d like to be tagged in future parts!
#dreamwritersnet#kwritersworldnet#neowriters#nct au#nct 127 au#nct dream au#markhyuck#markhyuck au#markhyuck x reader#mark x reader#haechan x reader#donghyuck x reader#mark au#haechan au#donghyuck au#nct college#nct college au#eng lit mark#paediatrics haechan
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Liar Revealed! A Bug’s Life Essay
A Bug’s Life is my favourite Pixar movie and thus, it turns out I have a lot of thoughts about it. In this case, what was originally my interpretation soley in response to points I’ve seen raised on YouTube and TV Tropes has spun off into this mega essay.... all focused on a single scene.
But hey, it works with one of the film’s main messages; that something big grows out of a small idea!
The scene is the most notorious in the movie, at least from what I’ve seen, and I’m inclined to agree it’s the weakest part of this giant clock. But why is it like that and how could it have been handled better?
As I’ve said, this is actually my favourite (albeit not what I consider their very best) of Pixar’s output, and I wouldn’t have been able to go into such depth without a huge amount of love for the finished product, flawed as it may be.
It’s also possible I’ll write a more generalised thing on what I love about the film in the future, but I won’t promise anything o7;; 🐜
The Lie is ...laid
Actually, I should talk about two scenes. First is where the Lie is established:
After the humourous mutual misunderstanding between the Circus Bugs and Flik, the former are quite horrified to discover they’re expected to fight the Grasshoppers off themselves instead of putting on a show. Ahh, that old classic~
But no, they want out and Flik, who has just been informed by them during the welcoming shindig, is understandably rattled and despairing over this addition to his list of failures. He says the fallout will not only brand him, but his hypothetical grandchildren as a Terrible Loser and even says he’s as good as dead as soon as the other ants find out. Owch.
Before things get too heavy, the focus shifts around until The Bird becomes the main immediate threat. The whole Bird scene leads the ants to become convinced the Circus Bugs are really amazing warriors and, as this is the first time in what could be years that they have a crowd cheering for them it’s the success and Flik’s later idea to make a Giant Mech in the shape of a Bird instead of planning any actual combat that convinces them to play along.
So, that’s the lie set up and solidified. Now for the eventual fallout:
During a fun party after the Bird has been built, an ominous force arrives... PT Flea, the Jerkass ringmaster who had fired the Circus Bugs. This local bug promptly ruins everything by literally shining a light on the Circus Bugs and their nature as such, and then Flik is accidentally outed as the Guy Who Thought Up The Bird.
The Liar Revealed Trope
I would link the TV Tropes article here, but as tungle doesn’t like external sites I’ll just quote the more relevant parts from it:
“Liar Revealed in the Internal Reveal of The Lie, the facade maintained by a protagonist which provides the primary dramatic tension for the plot. This usually sets up the third act where the protagonists are forced to deal with the consequences of the lie on top of any external threats.
There are a few usual ways this ends up. If the lie was for selfish reasons, the protagonist will doubtless face the wrath of those he lied to, but along the way end up having a change of conscience, and try to redeem themselves through good acts and An Aesop about "what really matters". If the lie was well-intentioned, the protagonist may still find that others turn their backs on him, but go on to carry through with what they said they'd do anyway, proving themselves a hero after all.
It's worth noting that this trope is particularly easy and common to misuse, either in the tendency of the protagonist to Maintain the Lie for reasons that make no sense except for dramatic tension or of the deceived to turn against the protagonist for the deception in spite of other considerations that should by all rights absolve him.”
And in the folder there’s a specific entry for this film:
A Bug's Life has Flik supposedly finding "warrior bugs" to save his colony after misconstruing a situation. When he realizes his mistake (that they're circus performers rather than trained warriors), he's forced to keep the lie going in order to not cause panic among the other ants. Once the colony finds out, it inevitably results in one of the most painfully Played Straight examples of this trope in animation history...
As you can see there, the dislike for this scene has seeped into the entry. Of course, TV Tropes is pretty informal and I like that, but it’s telling that this is a general perception.
Continue reading below the Cut! ✂
What I don’t like
So, I think my main issue with the scene boils down to... it’s very nebulous and unclear as to what’s so bad about Flik lying. Between the Council, the Queen and Atta, there seems to be a jumbled, confusing motive traffic jam that somehow results in what TV Tropes refers to the Liar Reveal Trope being played “Painfully Straight”.
But uhh, what’s the problem? Yes, Flik lied, but we know that wasn’t something he’d planned on doing, it was his attempt at damage control. The other ants don’t know that part, but still, what are they objecting to, specifically? That the Circus bugs are Circus bugs? That the Bird Plan was Flik’s? That.... lying is treated at an absolute moral failing regardless of the circumstances??
The council dudes are like: “OH WHAAAAT, the defence plan was by Clowns??” [No, it was Flik] “OH WHAAAT, we don’t have our mafia money prepared what if Hopper finds out we nearly sicced a fake bird on him!?”
The part about objecting to Clowns drafting the defence plans is actually the more reasonable explanation, but I guess they presumed warriors habitually made Decoy Bird plans instead of fighting themselves? There’s already a hole in their objections but it only gets worse.
The Queen is like: “Wow Flik evidently you’re a self serving prick. Anyway the best thing to do is pretend this never happened and no we’re not going to tell Hopper.”
Why the fuck would that happen? ‘Oh sorry Hopper we got sidetracked doing a ...thing... so we’re still picking your food no please don’t break my legs’
But also, why THE FUCK is this the plan? Some ruler you are, you old prune. ‘We have the bird all made and ready to go but oops the idea came from a DIRTY LIAR so we’re going to return to the doomed harvesting racket even though we’ve been set an outrageous amount and we can’t possibly hope to catch up and even if we had been picking the food the entire time it was established earlier on we won’t have time for our supplies on top of all that.’
Fucking.... astonishing lack of logic. YOU MORONS HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, GO WITH THE BIRD! Flik himself says something to a similar effect lol
But noooooo, his arguably selfish lie [which is more Omitting the truth once he knew it, really] has forever doomed everything, apparently. Honestly it comes across more like they just hate Flik and see anything he invents as doomed to fail, so the second the truth emerges that he spearheaded the Mech Bird they dismiss it as a lost cause. Even though everyone worked together to build it, and Flik’s inventions weren’t the issue but him being awkward and clumsy. But seeing how Flik’s mere presence in his first scene seemed to drive the Council members into a quivering fury, it really does feel like their objections are from them refusing to give him a chance.
And then there’s Princess Atta. Hoo Boy.
In this scene, she comes off as being ridiculously vindictive, petty and hypocritical. This applies to the Council too, but it’s more galling coming from Atta as by now she’s realised that Flik gets a lot of flak [yay wordplay] from the others and she had resolved to give him more credit. BUT OOPS, that didn’t last!
She takes the Lying thing so personally, acting like he was cheating on her or something. “You lied to MeEeEee” well golly gee whiz, was there any particular reason why he would tell you the truth? Other than his rather obvious crush on you, that is? Cause that would still be a weird reason, seeing how the ‘lie’ was after he’d finally got a bit of decent treatment from the others, why would he wanna upset the apple cart?
He probably feared coming out and confessing to Atta [or anyone else] that they’d lose all faith in him and scrap a valid plan that was the only way out of the grasshopper racket mess. Which would be a bit silly and probably the result of someone with low self esteem and confidence issues overthinking the situation but it’s Exactly what actually happens!
It wasn’t a personal slight against you, Princess! To quote Helen Parr: THIS IS NOT! ABOUT! YOU!!
And wooow, you must be awfully chilly up there on your high horse, Miss “Lied to Flik to get rid of him earlier in the film”! Did you ever feel like fessing up? Like ‘hmm I’ve grown much fonder of this doofus, maybe I should be honest with him before engaging with some more light flirting’ ? Maybe if you had, he woulda been honest in return!
I don’t even see why she and the Council bothered lying about their Snipe Hunt ploy, seeing how now they act like he crossed a moral event horizon. Why even bother making a phoney baloney decoy idea to get him away, when they clearly dislike him enough to play the Brutally Honest card without fretting over his feelings. They coulda just ordered him to stay in a corner away from interfering but instead they’re willing to risk his life on a wild goose chase.
...And she then Banishes him! For what?? Lying? About what, the circus bugs or the bird plan? Both?? It really feels like her taking undue personal offence and the Council hating him and the Queen being old and senile.
So yeah, wow, this scene has what I think is the Unintended side effect of making me hate the stupid jerkface Ant colony as every named ant in it except for Dot fucking suck and throw Flik under a bus the second they deem him to be untrustworthy. In spite of, like, that the plan itself was solid and that the Circus Bugs have all been proven to be Good Eggs. They don’t give him a chance to explain and made their own bed to lie in, so I feel dark joy and satisfaction when the grasshoppers do arrive and kick them around some more.
Wow gee, if only you dumb ass ants had some sort of already made contraption to fall back on?
Why is it like this?
I can only make guesses here, be warned!
From what I’ve gathered of an older version of the story, mostly via Wikipedia, I kinda feel like the exposing would have fit that take better. In the beta version of the story, instead of Flik the lead would have been “Red”, who was a red ant and circus bug from the start. The first draft Circus lot woulda been out to scam the ants initially and I guess would have grown genuine fondness with time. The idea of an outsider flim flamming his way into the good books and later being exposed makes the overblown outrage a lot more understandable. But that’s my hypothesis for the direction they ultimately didn’t go in. Also look at how Red looks like a fuckboi here:
But in the final version, Red doesn’t exist! Flik is a part of the colony from the get go, but also apart from it cause no one likes him as, again, his ideas were good but poorly executed and he seemed to be a hindrance. But the ants should at least see that Flik is genuine in his attempts, that he’s trying his best and they should maybe cut him some slack.
The way the ants have their knickers in a twist doesn’t gel so well with the “Well meaning screwup” angle, especially compared to a possible “Opportunistic so-and-so who doesn’t have real attachments to the colony” route.
Also it may be worth noting up there where I put a TV Tropes excerpt, I bolded the relevant half of the run down, but it seems the other half applies much more to this first draft. Interesting...
So I don’t know, but I got the idea that the scene in the movie is basically a holdover from earlier that didn’t get sufficiently updated. The Liar Revealed Scene is the first thing I’d change if I were rewriting the script, and I might go back and change it again after other parts had been redone too, cause the story needs to flow from point A to point B etc. smoothly or else viewers will get annoyed and point it out in Youtube videos or overly long tumblr text posts.
How could it be fixed?
I’m not saying I’m sitting on the perfect idea of a rewrite. But the main thing is what I already touched on, the jarring disconnect between what happens and how the stupid ants respond.
Like, Atta’s sudden grabbing of the Jerkass and Idiot Balls in this scene. Wouldn’t it have been better if she was instead unsure and conflicted? She had lied to Flik earlier and, unlike the Council, was shown to actually realise Flik Has Feelings Too and apologised for the general lack of faith. She didn’t come clean about the Snipe Hunt Lie, so that could be weighing on her during this scene, maybe she would have been the only Council member to Not want to kick him out but felt pressured into it and hasn’t got into the groove of being the Future Queen enough to pull rank and talk them down from being hate filled twats. Maybe someone will mention the flirting that had been happening as muddying her judgement?
That’s my main idea, compare that with her barging in and taking undue personal offence and shooing him off. She’s supposed to feel like she’s doomed to fail too, so her facing a moral dilemma and falling on the wrong side of the fence could tie into that! (To be honest, her arc is kinda undercooked so hey, I’m killing two birds with one stone here!)
Flik being banished at all is a casualty of The Narrative, that he and the Circus Bugs have gotta go away temporarily for the finale to be cooler and more exciting. It’s a Necessary Weasel of writing and you’ll find them in every story ever made. Sometimes things have gotta happen cause Story Structure. The trick is having them more organic and concealed.
So yeah, have the Old Fogeys be in the wrong [which is so far unchanged] but also the majority of the ‘voting’. Make it difficult for Atta to choose between loyalty to the colony as a whole and her sense of duty versus trusting in Flik, who she now knows to always have his heart in the right place. She comes close to standing up for him and herself, but ultimately falters and gets pressured into the call made in the movie. She’s still ultimately responsible as leaders are, but in a much more sympathetic way.
Summation
This got way longer than I had initially imagined, and that’s even after I cut stuff in the editing process! Let’s quickly review the three main points I’m trying to make.
The Issue with the scene - A big song and dance is made over The Lie, but no reason why it’s such a terrible thing is offered. A perfectly sound plan is dismissed nonsensically.
Suspected reasoning for the writing - The tone matches a potential alternate story much better, where someone would have lied for self serving purposes instead of for the greater good.
A suggestion for a rewrite - Make it much more nuanced and fitting the character arcs. Give the characters a reason to react the way they do and have different responses per person. If the ants are going to drop the Bird plan, at least offer a more viable alternate route than going back to what wasn’t working before.
Does it really matter?
Well, I don’t expect a 22 year old film to suddenly get a rewrite, no. And I maintain that it’s a real gem which deserves much higher praise with the other Good Pixars instead of being so constantly overlooked.
Part of what spurred me to think about the scene and what I’d alter is seeing it referred to as ‘Kinda Bad’ in a youtube video that was talking about another Liar Reveal scene in another movie, and that is a bad take, but the point about how clunky this part is isn’t wrong. I don’t want people to dismiss the whole, beautiful image cause one section of it doesn’t vibe!
It doesn’t ruin the picture, but when people have something negative to say it’s this which is the magnet. And I’m kinda guilty of doing the same thing here, haha. But I wanted to really dissect and examine it, to figure out why it’s like that and to guess how simple it may be to rework. It’s bittersweet, but there ain’t such a thing as a perfect movie.
This has been fun for me to go into though, and it’s nice to get thoughts out from just swirling around inside my head, so even if barely anyone sees and makes it through this whole dissertation, I’m glad I wrote it out. It’s a funny way to derive enjoyment from the bumpy part of a beloved movie, but hey, I’ll take it~
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what the hell should i title these things? lol
@artistefish THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE ;ADJFLAJFIA;
two sketches to go along with it; i’m thinking this one is sort of like a rough draft to this one (the first two pics anyway lol)
originally i was gonna wait to post them until i had all of them written up, but i changed my mind because one i’m impatient, and two, i have no idea how long that will take lol so i’ll post them they’re completed.
a little note: i’m giving the characters their own personality quirks so they won’t be acting exactly like the characters in the movie. for example, i’m having Kagome be a bit more fiery tempered than Evy is and it shows in her mannerisms. i am, however, still following the dialogue.
[ i ] [ ii ]
Cairo Prison, 1926
“Come, come! Step over the threshold. Welcome to Cairo Prison, my humble home.”
The man that led them inside was stout, a bit on the short side, and with an unusually pale face despite no doubt spending most of his time under the hot desert sun. The dark markings on his face, a loud and deliberate boast to his status as the warden, had the side effect of making it look as if he had perpetual raccoon eyes. The white bandana wrapped around his head was dusty and sweat stained while the rest of his garb remained neat and relatively clean.
Clinging to her brother’s arm, Kagome Higurashi was severely beginning to doubt the sincerity of his words, and what he said next only confirmed he suspicions.
“You told me you got it on a dig down in Thebes,” Kagome hissed, warily looking around at all the prison workers as they followed the warden deeper into the prison.
“Yeah, well, I was mistaken,” Miroku returned, looking five times more uncomfortable than his sister, and if Kagome didn’t know any better she’d say he even looked a little nervous.
“You lied to me.”
“I lie to everybody. What makes you so special?”
“I am your sister,” she reminded him, as if that would make him feel even an ounce of guilt.
It didn’t. “Yes, well, that just makes you more gullible.”
“Miroku, you stole it from a drunk at the local casbah!” she heatedly reprimanded, sounding truly appalled to be related to such a deplorable character.
“Picked his pocket, actually,” Miroku corrected, sounding a bit harried and then suddenly he was swinging her around, urging her back toward the entrance. “So I don’t think it’s a very good—”
“Miroku, will you stop being so ridiculous,” Kagome huffed, pulling on his arm and forcibly turning them back around to cross the remaining distance to where the warden waited for them before briskly asking, “Now what exactly is this man in prison for?”
Leaning casually against the steel bars that made up the cell, the warden grunted and relayed, “This I did not know, but when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself.”
Kagome blinked. “And what did he say?”
At this, Mukotsu the warden adapted a rather exasperated look as he pointed a finger in the air.
“He said he was just looking for a good time.” He turned his hand in a careless gesture and the door to the cell banged open.
With wide eyes Kagome watched as two armed men roughly dragged the prisoner into the cell, slamming him against the cold steel of the bars separating them, and Kagome gasped. One of the guards punched him in the back and with a grunt the prisoner sank to his knees, teeth bared in a grimace, and though unkempt, shaggy silver hair fell messily into his face from the rough treatment, it did nothing to retract from the absolute brilliant gold of his eyes as they bore into her own.
Slightly shaken, Kagome asked a little breathlessly, “This is—this is the man you stole it from?”
Looking like he’d rather be anywhere else but there, Miroku grinned a little awkwardly and revealed, “Yes, exactly, so why don’t we just go sniff out a spot of tiffin—”
“Who are you?” came a flippant male voice and the siblings both turned their attention toward the scruffy looking man behind the bars.
Appearing bored, Inuyasha slid his hands down the bars and flicked his golden gaze to Kagome, a sardonic twist to his mouth that might have been a smile.
“And who’s the broad?”
Aghast, Kagome echoed incredulously, “Broad?” Her brows snapped low over her eyes in indignation; however before she could give him a piece of her mind, her dear brother spoke up so she simply narrowed her eyes in affront.
“Well,” Miroku began, taking a step forward, “I—I’m just a local sort of missionary chap, spreading the good word and all that.” He offered what he hoped was a charming grin and reached back to tug Kagome forward. “But this is my sister, Kagome.”
“How do you do,” Kagome greeted softly, still a bit wary, but willing to overlook his initial rudeness. After all, he was behind bars; she supposed his temperament was justified.
The golden-eyed inmate frowned as he blatantly looked her up and down.
“Yeah, well,” he snorted, unimpressed. “Guess she’s not a total loss.”
While Miroku gaped at the man’s audacity, Kagome’s brows snapped low over her eyes and she stepped forward, glaring at the man as she said in aghast, “I beg your pardon?”
The prisoner looked completely unapologetic as he merely raised an eyebrow at her, but before anymore words – or insults – could be exchanged, the prison warden started shouting in an unfamiliar language before releasing a curse.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” he said distractedly and walked off, his face screwed into a displeased frown.
Seizing their chance, Miroku stepped in close to his sister and whispered, “Ask him about the box.”
The face she gave him suggested he should be the one doing the asking, but nevertheless she obliged and once more faced the man behind bars.
“Ah, we have found—” Kagome frowned again. “Hello. Excuse me.”
A white fear flicked before he slowly turned his head and golden eyes were trained on her once more, looking bored.
“We both found your…your puzzle box,” she continued, offering a small smile. “And we’ve come to ask you about it.”
Beside her Miroku silently nodded, attempting to look serious.
The man considered them both for a moment before saying bluntly, “No.”
The siblings both blinked.
“No,” Kagome echoed, smile gone.
“No,” Inuyasha repeated, shaking his head, and the look he leveled them with was deadpan. “You came to ask me about Hamunaptra.”
Alarmed, Miroku started shushing him and frantically looked around to see if they’d been overheard. The startled look on Kagome’s face gave way to dubious confusion, then cautious hope.
“How—how do you know that the box pertains to Hamunaptra?” she breathed, leaning in a bit closer for fear of eavesdroppers.
The silver-haired hanyou rolled his eyes. “Because that’s where I was when I found it,” he drawled, pegging them both with another look that loosely translated to duh. “I was there.”
Miroku narrowed his eyes in suspicion and knelt down to be eye-level with him, unwilling to let he or his sister be fooled by this prison rat. He had been drunk when he’d stolen the box, after all. There was no telling what sort of tales the man would weave to ensure his freedom.
“But how do we know that’s not a load of…of pig’s wallow?” he asked.
Amber eyes took him in and then narrowed as a frown knit his brown.
“You know,” Inuyasha rumbled, bringing up a clawed hand and pointing at him. “Do I know you?”
While Kagome inwardly snorted, Miroku chuckled nervously and said, “No, no, no, no. I’ve just got—you know, one of those faces—”
“Casbah!” the inmate growled, abruptly thrusting a fist through the bars and landing a solid punch to the English dandy’s face.
Miroku landed on the unforgiving grounded with a pained groan while the guards reprimanded the prisoner with a hard blow to his back and then again to his side. He grunted and hissed through his teeth but other than pegging them both with a harsh glare he didn’t retaliate.
Kagome barely spared her brother a glance as she carelessly stepped over his prone form and approached the man, thinking that they just might have found their ticket to the mythical city and the hope was obvious on her face.
“You were actually at Hamunaptra?” she asked, eyes wide as she stared into twin pools of melted honey, daring him to lie to her.
The grin that surfaced on his face was slow and devilish. “Yeah,” he rumbled. “I was there.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You swear?”
“Every damn day,” he said, smirking.
Kagome huffed. “No, I didn’t mean that—”
“I know what you meant,” he interrupted her, any amusement gone from his face now. “I was there. Seti’s place. City of the Dead.” He shook his hands in exaggeration, cocking a brow at her.
Trying to contain her excitement, Kagome bit her lip and then ventured, “C-could—could you tell me how to get there?” Dark eyes locked with burnished amber, pleading, hoping.
Inuyasha’s eyes widened and he blinked slowly at her as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, clearly stunned.
There was more shouting in that unfamiliar language, sounding a bit closer, and looking over her shoulder, Kagome bit her lip and brought her hat down to give them a bit of privacy as she leaned closer. The intensity in those golden eyes of his had butterflies erupting in her stomach but she paid them no mind.
“I mean…the exact location,” she murmured, holding her breath.
Those honeyed eyes went hooded as he drawled, “You wanna know?”
“Well—well, yes,” Kagome answered, nodding as she bent closer.
“Do you really wanna know?” he asked in an octave lower, and when she once more gave the affirmative, Inuyasha crooked her finger in a bid for her to come closer. She did, putting her face inches away from the bars, her eyes locked on his.
There was a pregnant pause as is gaze bore into her own, and then without warning Inuyasha grasped her chin through the bars, tugged her forward, and slammed his mouth onto hers. It was rough and careless, his lips dry against her own, and yet Kagome still felt his kiss all the way to the tip of her toes. She whimpered, her body frozen, unable to pull away.
But then it ended as quickly as it had begun and he tore his mouth away from hers.
“Then get me the hell outta here,” he growled right before the prison guards fell on him, delivering harsh blows and Kagome stumbled back with a gasp, watching in stunned silence as he attempted to fight back but to no avail.
“Do it, wench,” Inuyasha growled at her and then he was being dragged away but he wasn’t making it easy, struggling, kicking out his feet and twisting his upper body to jostle their grip on him. He endured their blows with gnashed teeth and pissed off growls, but he kept his gaze zeroed in on her until the door was slammed shut, separating them once more.
Kagome could do nothing but stare after him, mouth parted, eyes wide, and face flushed. But then evidently her senses came back to her and she gasped, gesturing to the door.
“Where are they taking him?” she demanded a little breathlessly, heart still racing in her chest.
“To be hanged,” Mukotsu answered, appearing beside her and giving her a rather dry look. “Apparently he had a very good time.”
#inuyasha mummy au#inuyasha#kagome#miroku#mukotsu#inukag#artistefish#oneshot#keizfanfiction#fanfiction#GOD THIS IS SO FUN LOL
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THURSDAY OCTOBER 8, one of the longest running television shows of our time begins airing the final episodes of it’s final season. Guys, Supernatural is 15. FIFTEEN. It can practically drive a car now. As one friend put it, “that show had a Quinceañera.” And if you don’t know how significant that is, think of the last show you know of that made it to season 10. Take your time, I’ll wait.
Whoever I stole this birthday invite from, they are probably older than this show.
I started watching Supernatural in 2008. I was 19, I had just begun my journey towards Over-Worked, Under-Slept Millennial, and my best friend recommended it. I can’t really remember how the conversation went, but I’m sure at some point it was “It’s scary, and it’s got these two brothers, I’ll send you a link!” cuz we were trash and we were broke and Netflix...existed? Hulu existed, but not in the way that either of those sites work now, so we watched by...ahem...other means. It is probably why my first laptop stopped working after 3 semesters of college.
And damn, I was hooked. I don’t do scary movies and honestly, I was legit creeped out by a lot of these episodes, but it had two hot dudes who took down a monster every week and then (the real kicker) had a bigger, season-long mystery they were trying to solve. And occasionally, they got punched in their big dumb beautiful faces. If I had known what a kink was at the time, I would have said that someone was reading my dream diary.
Over the next 12 years - Let me say that again for those of you in the back - TWELVE YEARS - I had an on-again-off-again relationship with the Winchesters. It was pretty hot and heavy in the beginning. I was jumping on the back of this 67 Chevy Impala 3 years in, so I had three seasons that I bought on DVD that I binged and was caught up with season 4 by the time the midseason started to air in late January of 2009. I was introducing all my friends to Supernatural, I made several people watch the entire first disc of season 1 with me, irregardless of whether they’d asked or not. Things started to cool down towards the end of season 4 as life started picking up and I know...I caught...the tail end of season 5? I think? I distinctly remember the final scene of the final episode, but honestly, I can’t remember how much of that season I actually watched.
At that point, I considered Supernatural to be a weird pseudoaddiction. I’d be clean for a while, years even, and then Netflix caught up with consumers and I could binge whole seasons in a weekend. It’d be, oh, I could just watch an episode. Just one episode. Maybe two. And then the weekend is gone in a blaze of classic rock and rock salt and I’m left with something like but not necessarily a hangover where my feelings live. I think I did this for seasons 6 through, like, 8? Eventually, Netflix stopped putting it at the top of my dashboard and it was easier to avoid. And I said to myself, well, when they finally get to the last season, THEN I’ll go on one last run, one last big score, and watch the whole series again in one go.
But the seasons kept coming?? And they?? Didn’t stop?? Guys, I don’t know how many of you care about this but, Friends, one of the most popular sitcoms of all time that defined an entire generation had ten seasons. TEN. Supernatural is ending with fifteen! For an industry where most shows don’t make it past a pilot, let alone a season 1, this is INSANE.
But now it’s ending. Even though a pandemic halted production just two episodes away from the finale, Supernatural is finally outta cassette tapes. The Wayward Sons may finally (??) be laying their wearied heads to rest (?? lol, I know).
And frankly, 2020’s been a real sh*tshow so I thought “Why not?”
And if I’m doing this and I’m not interacting with anyone on a human level, I might as well chronicle this epic dive into a time capsule of television because frankly, what the hell else am I doing?
Cuz that’s what this is guys. 15 years in TV time is multiple lifespans. Shows are born, grow into something Emmy-worthy, and die in less time than Supernatural has been on the air. You know what else aired their pilot episode in 2005? The American version of The Office. You know when The Office ended? 2013.
So let’s talk about pilots because that in and of itself may be a thing of the past not too far from now.
Guys, I love pilots. I will probably say this a lot over the next, uhhhh...many months, but I love pilots and I love season ones, especially for a sci-fi and fantasy shows because that’s where your characters are at their most vulnerable, their most unsure. The writers and producers are really digging around, trying to figure out what the groundwork for this world is and there’s something so exciting about exploring it with them, as an audience.
Pilot’s are great, pilots on spec are even better, and that’s a lot of what the Supernatural Pilot feels like. It’s got a real indie/guerilla-style horror movie vibe, like the crew scraped together just enough cash for that one special effect scene but had to skimp out on a lot of the other production stuff, and still managed to turn something around that is totally, 100% watchable and somehow more charming than if they’d had the budget to make something really polished? Go watch Night of the Living Dead (1968) and tell me that movie would have been better if they’d had a bigger budget. You could, but I won’t agree.
Ok so a quick break down of technical terms. A television pilot is basically the first episode of a TV show. Well, that’s not exactly true. A pilot is kind of like making a sample or a blueprint of your show that you hand over to the television networks and say, here! This is what my TV show will look like. Will you pay me money to continue making it? And the networks (think ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and The CW - remember, this is Network, not cable) will spend January through April of every year reviewing pilots and deciding if they want to pay you money to make more episodes. Well, every year except 2020. See: sh*tshow. Sometimes the network comes to you with an idea, or maybe, you’ve pitched your script/show to some executives and they buy in for that first pilot episode to see where things will go. Neither of these scenarios are a sure thing, and pilot season is always rife with will-they-won’t-they tension. In fact, if you’re working on the show, there’s a real possibility that pilot will get re-shot after studio notes, you’ll lose your job to someone the studio liked better, and then the show still may not get picked up. A pilot shot on spec is in even more of a limbo scenario because nobody asked for this! And just to follow through on Pilot Season - after the networks decide to buy your pilot, they then air the pilot at Upfronts (usually in May) where their many ad companies decide if they will pay money to air their ads during those shows. This is where we get things like prime time and key demographics - if you thought TV was all about the art, you are very wrong. TV, like most other industries, is still a business that’s about making money.
Back to the Supernatural pilot. Now, from my research, series creator Eric Kripke had been working on the concept for 10 years. He was big into classic rock, big into urban legends and big into cowboys and all those things get married ever so neatly in this show. A lot of his initial ideas remain unchanged, at least for the first season - he wants two brothers, traveling across the country, facing off with America’s Spookiest Myths and legends. A lot of it did change. I honestly feel like I remember reading an early draft of the pilot where Sam and Dean are cowboys? But I’m also pretty sure I’m imaging that. What I’m not imagining is this ridiculous early draft where John’s been locked in an insane asylum, dies before the first episode starts, and Sam’s been living with an aunt and uncle his whole life and knows nothing. They still use something close enough to the La Llorona legend as the catalyst for the episode, but a lot of other things are changed. This is not the Sam and Dean we come to know and love. This is also a good example of when you SHOULD listen to notes, because this draft was rewritten after executive producer McG and his Wonderland Sound and Vision production company signed on, but before they actually shot the script.
Now from what I’ve read, the WB picked the show up for (4) episodes initially, and ultimately picked it up for a full season of (22) episodes. This was, at the time, a pretty standard season and a pretty standard way to get it. They had a better deal than The Office, anyway, which only got picked up for (6) episodes in their first season, then got picked up four episodes at a time for season 2.
Now let’s go over that paragraph one more time and talk about what a hecking DINOSAUR this show is -
FIRST off - Supernatural premiered on THE WB. It PREDATES The CW!!
Man guys, you remember they had a frog as a mascot? Oof, that would not work today.
Secondly, it got 22 EPISODES. We’ll get into this some more when we talk about that evil bugs filler ep, but think about how many episodes were in the last show that you binged on Netflix? 8? Maybe 10?
Welcome to the exciting world of GRAPHS brought to you buy https://www.theringer.com/tv/2017/8/4/16094348/inefficiency-week-mourning-the-lost-long-tv-season
OH! And SPEAKING of Netflix and streaming services like them, they’re kind of killing pilot season AND upfronts. They pick up shows when they want to. They “air” them when they feel like. There are no ads because you pay for that content on a monthly basis and also they don’t even have commercial breaks. I am slowly seeing the passage of time in one (1) episode of television and I think I’ve aged 100 years.
Here is just one of MANY articles about the death of Pilot Season
Finally, and most importantly, this show got a better deal than The Office. And that show was an NBC primetime show.
This show was nominated for 193 awards and won 50. And it ended when my nephew was still in kindergarten. He’s gonna be in high school next year.
So what about this Supernatural Pilot? Was it any good? Honestly, I’m gonna say yeah. This is some very solid Hero’s Journey here. I think the only weird thing about it is that Sam is our Hero, our point of contact character that gets us into this world. And I only say that because I’ll be real up front and say that I’m a Dean girl through and through. I don’t hate Sam, but because we live in a world where we have to choose, it’s Dean 4Eva.
From that early script draft, we learn the plan was for Sam to be in the dark and essentially be our audience stand in so that Dean can explain all the backstory. I think the decision to make John Winchester raise his kids as a weird fringe paramilitary outfit and establish Sam as the brother that tried to get away is a good one. It’s a very “Arrive Late” (or if you’re fancy, in media res,) sort of attitude and it works and you’ve already started building in the Atonement with the Father. There’s still some pretty excellent exposition dialogue, but what are ya gonna do. Sam, did you really need to explain to Dean that your collective father “raised you like warriors”? Or that you “kill everything we CAN find?” It’s fine. You’re beautiful and I love you. But also, he knows all that.
You have the Call to Adventure - Dean showing up and saying “Dad hasn’t been home in a few days.” You have the refusal of the call (“He’ll sleep it off”). You have your supernatural aid (hah!) giving Sam a push out the door - that’s Dean. You have your famous line that I quoted along with the TV - Dad’s on a hunting trip. And he hasn’t been home in a few days.
The dead mom backstory seems pretty on the nose, but the “burned on the ceiling” concept was new and unique enough that I was intrigued to find out more. Listen, I’ve already admitted I don’t watch a lot of horror so if this has been done before, don’t @ me.
La Llorona or Woman in White or Weeping Woman was a new trope to me at the time, so it too seemed fresh. I see that myth show up in a lot more Supernatural-type shows now, but in 2008, at 19, I was like, oh this is different. Not to mention - this definitely leaned in to the horror aspect. I know I’m a baby, but it aired at 9pm, which is the more adult side of Prime Time, so the WB thought it was too spooky for kids who had early bedtimes. So there.
I HATE when they do this cuz it freaks me out EVERY TIME and THAT’S NOT EVEN HOW THESE MIRRORS WORK??? SHE’S NOT EVEN IN THE BACK SEAT IN THIS SHOT!
And then at the END, when Sam STILL refuses the call to adventure, you have the real Crossing of the Threshold - Jess is ALSO stuck on the ceiling, dead, and on fire. Spoiler alert, but they had to fridge her early to make the rest of the season work and so it shouldn’t be a big surprise. Sam’s all in and we get 21 more episodes of him and Dean and that car.
Is it technically fridging if she’s lit on fire?
And let’s talk about Jess for a second cuz actress Adrianne Palicki is giving a LOT more in this performance than a fridged girlfriend should be required to. She’s likeable, she’s down to earth, she’s crushing it and and all this with only, like, two scenes of dialogue. I say this even though we meet her in a slutty nurse costume - COME on WB.
WB what the hell is this wardrobe. What the HELL is THIS.
In fact, all of the extras in this show are crushing it? Louis is instantly likeable and he disappears after his first scene, never to grace our TV’s again. And these extras in the town in Jericho, California - I kind of love them. As CW (or I guess, WB) as Jessica is, these extras look like they found them at the local highschool and I LOVE THEM FOR IT. They probably came to set already in makeup and wardrobe! They POSSIBLY brought their own jewelry! They’re weirdos and they are GREAT. I’m pretty sure this will NEVER happen again on this show because once the $$ came in, so did the more polished-looking one-off characters.
Lookit these magnificent goth weirdos! And great news, both these actresses have very full, non-goth careers after this.
Also, heckin’ Joseph Welch is just crushing it. This man has NOTHING CW about him and that’s maybe why I like him so much? Everything about the scene with him and Sam is pretty heartbreaking, from his rundown car graveyard to his rundown physique with his rundown accent to the fact that we never actually see his face. Seriously, really LOOK at this scene - WHAT is going on with this cinematography? Is this a reference to something? It’s SO bleached out and SO stark and WHAT is going on???
WHAT is this lighting? And also this guy was played by Steve Railsback was on X-Files!
You can’t talk about Supernatural without talking about the chemistry between Sam and Dean and that’s probably the real hook here? I mean a) very beautiful. I will probably talk about this a lot. Let’s call it what it is here, they’re beefcakes and they’re made for me and people like me. It is weird that this show is so macho but their primary audience was mostly there for the babes. And by babes I mean Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. And b) they REALLY sell the whole brothers thing. They’re both from Austin, TX which feels like a weird coincidence. They were both already on WB shows before this one, also a weird coincidence. And they just click. They just do. It’s impressive, and occasionally creepy when we start to get into the Wincest of it all, but lets not talk about that.
Oh, and the MUSIC! The music just makes it. If you don’t believe me, watch the Netflix version of the first season and then find yourself a DVD version. See, TV shows need to acquire a license to play popular music during the show. Nowadays, the CW actually tags their songs in the episode so you can find and presumably buy it later, but they still have to pay royalties for using those pop songs. When Netflix acquired Supernatural, they did NOT acquire the licensing to use the classic rock songs from ACDC, Metallica, etc. and so you’re left with some pretty bland and generic production music that’s something like but not necessarily Back in Black. More like, Back in...Grey? This pun didn't work how I wanted it to.
And the show just...doesn’t work? Like, who knew BACKINBLAAAAACK! Was so instrumental to whether I thought this was quality programming or not. Side note - it ruins my favorite piece of dialogue of maybe the entire series -
Sam: I swear, man, you gotta update your cassette tape collection.
Dean: Why?
Sam: Well, for one, they're cassette tapes.
Do the young people even know what a cassette tape is? I AM the CRYPTKEEPER.
So yeah, you got a lot of ingredients to make something pretty great. Did we know then that it would launch a juggernaut of a television program that would still be on the air in the Year of Our Reckoning, 2020? I was a big fan of Firefly, so I was 99.99% sure this show was gonna get canceled at any second. In fact, I was thrilled, in 2008, to find there were two more seasons after the one I was currently watching. Of course, season 3 aired around the time of the great Writer’s Strike of ‘07, where nothing looked good and few programs survived, but we’ll get there.
In a final, kind of spooky, almost premonition-type decision the WB actually decided to air this pilot episode a whole week early on Yahoo!. Yeah, you remember Yahoo!, right? The search engine that briefly tried to have its own original streaming content and then we all abandoned it in favor of the monster that is Google? Yeah. This episode premiered online. I haven’t done enough research, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this was probably one of the first ever TV shows to start on the internet? Weird to think that was a novel and innovative concept at one time.
So this is it. This is the end of the era. Are we gonna get any more shows that last as long as this one did? Who knows. Are we as a culture gonna care at that point? I don’t know. Our TV habits have changed so much in the last few years that it’s hard to say how we’ll watch TV in the future. But credit where it’s due, boys. Nice huntin’.
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The Roman Word for Love // IV
Bucky Barnes x Reader
Summary: where you had bruises, cuts, and scars your soulmate got flowers. everyone is born with one soulmate. bucky barnes lived long enough to have two.
Word Count: 2000+
Rating/Warnings: language, like one word
a/n: THIS CHAPTER KICKED MY ASS. i gots the writer's block and at the same time, i had so many things i wanted to write but didn't have the creativity handy to do so, hence why this one took at DANG long. anyways here we go! special thanks to @bipcoin for reading through all my terrible drafts and to @speedypan for giving me the push i needed to get this edited. also im not including trwfl iii.5 in the the series, im choosing to ignore it lol
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The warm afternoon breeze was exactly what he needed. Alone on the far end of the wrap around porch, away from the lively bustle, Bucky pressed his fingers to his temples, hoping to will away the budding migraine that loomed over him. They had been with him since he could remember, the single thing the young girl genius couldn't help him with.
Next to him on the porch swing, a full paper plate messily put together and carefully delivered by little Morgan. She had brought it to him telling him, with the speech impediment characteristic of a five-year-old, to eat so he would get big and strong. What a sweet kid.
Relaxing his shoulders and straightening his back, Bucky forced himself to sit up. He needed to salvage the rest of this day. Celebrate with his family, what he had left of it. To eat.
He picked himself up and trudged inside to wash his hands.
The house was quiet, serene like the surroundings it also called home. Soaping up his hands he took care to carefully clean around his marks as if the act of washing had any effect on their appearance or lack thereof. His mind wandered where it always went these days, between wanting to know who you were and insisting he wasn't prepared for an interaction like that. Constantly battling between longing and avoidance.
In search of a towel to dry his hands, Bucky looked over to the fridge. Taller than he, every spare inch covered in hand-drawn pictures, the preferred medium crayon and the occasional watercolor. His lips curled into a relaxed grin as he laid eyes on the newest one, the one Morgan had run around showing them earlier that day. He easily recognized all the stick figure rendering of friends and of himself; she'd told them it was a picture of her family.
-💮-
You heard the laughing first. The lively noises warmed you in the crisp forest wind. A soft smile graced your face as you paced closer, excitement overpowering the nervousness, the crunching of leaves announcing your footfalls.
It was Steve's birthday and to be honest, you weren't ready to meet his friends.
The hand-written invitation lead you to a get together not too far outside of the city at a homey lakeside cabin.
In the distance, you could see children running around the picturesque grounds, giggles and gleeful exclamations in their wake. Closer to the house, adults huddled together at a picnic table.
The sight of them filled you with your own unique mix of emotions. On one hand, you were excited to meet his friends, on the other you were a regular person meeting what basically amounted to superheroes.
A shout of your name pulled you from your trance.
It was Steve, a blindingly bright smile on his face as he made his way towards you, jolting you out of your wallowing. He only started wearing it recently, a smile almost uncharacteristically lighthearted for someone with his experiences. It was a welcomed change to the sullen demeanor you had known him for.
"Sorry I'm late, I got lost," you revealed as he released you from his warm hello embrace.
After sharing a laugh at your comical struggle to find the hidden cabin, Steve took your hand in his, guiding you from the far end of the grounds behind the house to the lakeside pair of large picnic tables.
At its benches sat a little less than a dozen adults, all of whom who had had their eyes on you since Steve had jogged in your direction. His reassuring hold on your hand kept you grounded as they wrapped in hello hugs and firm handshakes, barely giving you time to process their individual introductions. Your mind relaxed at their warm reception, realizing how frivolous your worries were. Steve was amazing, it was to be expected that the company he kept was just as such.
After a long dinner filled with lively conversation, the sun slowly began its journey west, the summer air cooling steadily.
You had been engaged in an intense game of tag with them, or rather chase the adult after the littlest of the children had decided to team up to take you down, realizing your much larger form granted you an advantage.
"You got me!" You exclaimed from the grass covered ground, having tripped over a protruding tree root in an attempt to evade them.
After gleefully recounting to you how they had managed to take you down, the children did their best to help you up, the sweethearts they were.
Brushing off stray leaves, you stood and fixed yourself. As you did, little fingers gripped your right arm, stopping you from wiping the remaining dirt from your legs.
"Oh no!"
Pepper's daughter, Morgan, knitted her tiny eyebrows together, the pained expression on her sweet face concerning you more than the wide bleeding scrape she had spotted near your elbow. She was an observant one.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked carefully looking over your arm in his hands. The others had gathered to see it after Morgans exclamation reached their ears, attracting the attention of concerned parents and, of course, Steve.
You scoffed at his question.
"I've heard stories of you jumping out of buildings. Of the two of us, I am not the person to worry about."
He looked to you, amused by your rebuttal, you weren't wrong.
You met his gaze, soft and compassionate. Before your cheeks could turn pink, you averted your eyes, pulling yourself away from his touch. He was so cute, but you wouldn't let yourself get too comfortable.
"I'll be okay. Just need to clean it."
He was ready to escort you toward the house, worried you'd find a way to get into more trouble in the time it took you to get there. Before he could offer, you spoke, a chuckle in your tone.
"Don't worry about me, Steve. I'll be back before it's time to cut the cake."
Defeated, Steve reminded you where the first aid kit was and walked back to the picnic tables with the children, reassuring them that you would be okay. He knew you could take care of yourself but that was just how he was. It was in his nature.
Quickly made your way towards the cabin and ascended the steps, covering the unsightly wound with your free hand. Immediately, you made way to the sink. In the warm flow you gently picked the dirt from your gash, carefully cleansing and gingerly dabbing away any extra moisture after shutting off the faucet.
Your expression twisted as you viewed you clean but open wound. You would probably need the first aid kit after all.
Up down left right. To no avail, you sorted through the kitchen cabinets, annoyed you had forgotten where it was after having guaranteed that you had done the opposite.
"It's in the cabinet above the fridge."
You let out a short startled cry, whipping around in the voice's direction. Another of Steve's guests leaned against the center island, eating, eyes turned to you. You were sure had seen him earlier that day, but had only exchanged a distant hello wave.
"Sorry." The voice was apologetic, upturned and soft despite the low register.
"No, you're okay." You chuckled to yourself as your heartbeat settled back down, offering him a smile of forgiveness as you resumed your search taking his advice.
You moved to the aforementioned cabinet, barely managing to brush the high shelf where it sat, prominently displayed, to your annoyance.
"If you don't mind me asking what are you doing cooped up in here?" You asked, back turned to him. Your futile attempts to grab the kit pushing it further out of your limited reach.
"Wasn't feeling too great." He chuckled at your periodic hops, then moved in your direction.
"Let me help."
You stepped to the side as he tapped your shoulder. Easily, he reached above and retrieved the hefty clear plastic box. Setting it down silently on the granite countertop he released the latches, opening it up and gathering the required materials for your level of hurt.
You marveled at the spread as he retrieved the supplies. A wide variety of bandages, ointments, and medicines packed together. It made sense. Not only was the home rather far from the nearest hospital, but it was also where the highest concentration of gifted individuals tended to gather.
"Sit."
You obeyed the gentle request.
After assuring you that his hands were clean, he began work on your scrape; you sat at a bar stool. Eyes as clear and blue as the July sky regarded you with concern. Focused he cleansed the area with an alcohol pad, deep voice soothing you through the sting, then administered an antibiotic ointment. You had only known him for a few moments, but you trusted him, felt comfortable, at ease.
You kept your eyes trained on his features as he finished. Deep brunette locks carefully tucked behind his ears, brushing his broad shoulders, a full beard perfectly framing his face. He wore dark colors which seemed to make him seem even more imposing despite his gentle manner. Dark jeans paired with dark boots, a lightweight henley rolled at the elbows. A black and gold mechanical left arm.
Ah.
A peaceful smile found a home on your lips as the gears spun in your brain, piecing together the identity of your attendant. You'd heard stories of him from Steve, childhood tales of misadventures, how Steve worried about his fellow centurion, what he had overcome. Bucky Barnes.
The creaking of wooden boards and the approaching sounds of lively banter caught your attention as his fingertips gingerly smoothed on a large flesh-colored bandage.
"Oh, hey," Bucky looked to you as you spoke gesturing to the door as a crowd began leaking into the area where you and he stood, "I guess it's time to cut the cake."
-💮-
Despite everything, Steve knew he was one lucky son of a bitch.
He blew out the three lopsidedly placed candles on the top of his cake, his friends and family holding the final note of the celebratory birthday tune as he did. After passing around the generous slices, Steve had taken a seat at the empty picnic table. In the foreground, everyone spread out on the vast grounds awaiting evening fireworks. Clint and Scott skipping rocks with some of the others. Pepper with the Queens kid and his aunt.
His eyes searched for Bucky. A sense of contentedness and peace settled in him as he spotted his oldest friend talking with Sam and you. It had taken him by surprise, seeing you and them in the company of one another, but he welcomed it. It was delighted surprise, reminding him of how Bucky had grown in the time since the battle. Bucky was less closed off and more importantly, he had found a place and a people with whom he could feel safe. Everything wasn't perfect but things were getting better.
Steve watched as you passed out sparklers to the group and chuckled as you lit one almost too close to your face frightening yourself in the process, eliciting a collective laughed from all present. He took a content sip of beer as you and Wanda handed out the small fireworks, being sure teach the little ones to be careful with them. His heart warmed as you walked up to Bucky offering him to light his sparkler.
He never would have seen it if you hadn't been standing so close. He never would have noticed if Bucky hadn't turned away and definitely wouldn't have noticed if Steve had not already had knowledge of all the flowers his friend had found all over his skin. Bucky came to him with every new one.
But he did see it. On the back of Bucky's arm, a new one, in the exact place where a bandage covered your injury from earlier that day.
A smile tugged at the corners of Steve's lips.
How interesting.
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When Anna Left
ok so... I'm so nervous to post this??? ew. This whole ass fic has been sitting in my drafts for almost a year so I just hope you guys like it ): obvi theres more than one chapter lol but don’t be shy to let me know if its EVEN WORTH a read or if its ~garbage~ my ego and feelings shall not be effected thx
One
There was always that feeling, something between bittersweet and complete tranquility, that would settle over him at the end of a tour. There wasn’t much else in the world that could put a smile on his face comparable to the one he’d get up on a stage, gallivanting around with a mic in his hand as people quite literally screamed his name.
No piece of clothing fit him better than a custom made outfit, ones that had flares at the bottom of the pants, or glitter embodied on the entirety of the shirt. Maybe frills, sometimes, or a nice sheer blouse that gave a sultry display of the ink etched into his torso.
At times, he’d think about how nobody loved him quite as much as the sea of fans, some crying while others mouthed along to songs that he had just put so much of himself into. He’d always said that touring was the best bit, his favorite aspect of what he does. Something about being on a stage, in front of thousands who were there just to see him, it was electrifying. He was grateful for sure, endlessly grateful, and he’d constantly ask himself how it could possibly get any better than this.
Then, he’d come home. And he’d realize that, walking into the quiet lull of an empty flat, that a little blissful silence was one of the things that could get him to smile. When he’d drop his bags, lazily hurling them beside the door before assuring he’d tend to them later, he’d head towards his bedroom. He was ready to trade in his black skinnies for a pair of joggers, ready to toe off his boots and face plant onto the made up bed. When he’d given up the jeans in exchange for some loungewear, he’d realize that maybe comfy clothes fit him better than any designer dress pant.
Getting too comfy wasn’t in the cards for him, not now at least. He knew Anne was going to pop in, probably any second now, and she’d take one look at the bare fridge and empty cabinets before toting him off to Waitrose. But he did allow himself to plop down in the living room, nestling himself into the comfort of his favorite spot on the sectional. He knew in a few days, he’d be bored. Time off was good, he’d have to remind himself of that every now and again, remembering all the mindless hair tugging and droopy eyelids after a long night of writers block or a grueling travel schedule.
A sweet knock would carry through the flat, telling him that his time to sit and laze around was up. With his socks sliding against the hardwood of the first level hallway, and his eyes lazily glazing over the few paintings or framed photos he had hung on the walls, he made way to the front door. It was Anne, he was sure of it. Gemma too, maybe, if she had found a little time to come and welcome him home.
“Hi mumma.” His tone was silvery, out of sheer enjoyment and comfort to have a familiar face around.
A wide, eye twinkling smile came from her, inviting herself in. She was quick to cup a hand to his jawline, fingers resting on his cheek before she smothered it with sweet and fluttery kisses. His face scrunched up, a smirk dancing on his lips because it didn’t matter to her that he was 28 now, he’d always be the baby and she’d carry on treating him that way for as long as she lived.
“Cleanest I’d ever seen it.” She chuckled, traipsing further down the hallway.
“Give it time, yeah?” He teased, “Only been home fo’ a few hours, if that.”
She sent him a couple tsks, scolding him because she knew once he really got settled in, things would go haywire and this place would turn upside down. She’d joke with him about the last time she’d visited, before he was whisked away to tour, how the place was a frantic mess. Articles of clothing were draped on the backs of the couch, dishes in the sink had been carelessly piled atop one another, and she hadn’t even dared take a look in his room. He wasn’t usually messy like that, in fact, he tended to be very neat and tidy. Liked to keep things in order. She had placed the fault at his work ethic, how he had most likely devoted any (if not all) time to finishing up an album, or spending perhaps too much time tucked away in a sound booth with a journal and a pen glued to his hand.
On her way to the kitchen, in between some other pointless banter, he followed behind her as she very seriously expressed to him that it was important he kept things, at least, a little clean. ‘A clean home equals a clear mind’ she reminded him, and he wouldn’t come with a rebuttal, just an inaudible chuckle and an affirmative nod of the head. His assumption was right, about her poking her head into the cabinet, and the fridge there after. A smirk would tug at the corner of his mouth when she’d get a glimpse at the empty shelves in the refrigerator, a soft gasp slipping from her mouth.
“Well,” she sighed, hurriedly closing the fridge doors, “some groceries might be in order, yeah?”
He shrugged, which earned another tsk, before she encouraged him to slip on a pair of shoes so they could head off to the market. And she’d be trailing behind him now, scuffling her heeled shoes along the floor as he went to the front closet to fish out a pair of sneakers. On their way out of the door, keys jingling in his hand as he locked the front door behind him, he’d hear her poking around. She tried to be subtle, doing her best to be as quiet as possible, but the clinking of the weather-washed metal made it nearly impossible. Her head was dipped a little, hair covering the side of her face as she poked her fingers through his mailbox.
“See you haven’t been through your mail yet.” She mentioned casually, a little matter-of-factly as well, as the pair strolled down the block.
“Got a phone,” he let out a breathy chuckle, dangling his phone inches from her face, “important stuff gets t’me right here.”
With a raised brow, peeking over her shoulder at him as they rounded the corner of the street, she’d nod her head in defeat. She was being a little mischievous, it was blatantly obvious to him. She was never one to be nosey, go poking through his mail like that. She never had really ‘poked’ through any of his things really, not much when he was a child and definitely not as an adult. If she needed to know something, wanted to know something, she’d simply ask. And each time she did, he’d be willing to meet her with a plausible explanation or answer. That’s excluding all the times he had gotten into trouble, or got caught keeping secrets, as a kid. Then’d she’d go on and rumble through his things, unwarranted and unexplained with the right to do so.
Walking into Waitrose, after Anne had scooped up a shopping basket and asked Harry to do the same, they’d have to put groceries on hold each time someone would ask for a photo or say hello. He never really minded, not too much at least, and neither did Anne. And when a fan would saunter off, clutching their phone and withholding a scream, Harry refocused his attention back to his mother.
They were on the bread aisle now, as she analyzed a few of the shelves before tossing an item or two into her basket. And as she did that, he tried to muster up some good reason as to why she had just been elbow deep in his mailbox. She hadn’t brought it up since they had gotten here, and neither did he, because actually he was hoping she’d say something about it. Of course, she didn’t, which is why he was wondering now. Mail, of all things, when she knew he had an email synced up to his phone, as well as texts and all the other ways people could get in touch with him.
“Wanted t’ask yeh something,” she started, tossing a bag of grapes into his basket.
“Shoulda said tha’ before y’went digging through m’mail,” he smirked, nudging her with his elbow as they made way down a new aisle, “but ask away.”
She sent him a stern look, initially unamused at his joke. She was his mum still, even though he was all grown up and independent. And if she wanted to look for something in specific that was most likely in his mailbox, than why couldn’t she. But looking at his face, a toothy grin with eyes that just made her heart happy and proud, she’d involuntarily crack a smile.
“Was looking for something,” she clued him in, switching the weighed down basket onto the opposite arm, “wanted to see if yeh got an invitation.”
“Ooooo, an invitiation,” he’d sing mockingly, a lighthearted joke, “to wha’?”
“Just,” she was being very vague, “to a wedding.”
“Whose wedding?” His eyebrow was cocked, a little puzzled because he was sure he didn’t know anyone that would be inviting him to a wedding.
Her body got the slightest bit tense, her back straightening a little as she brought a hand to the strand of hair dangling beside her eye. She was quick to tuck it behind her ear, briefly pursing her lips together as she faced the fresh produce section. Maybe it was a bad idea to have brought it up. She hadn’t in a while, she had been sure to be careful not bring it up for so long that she had never mentioned it much at all anymore. Anne knew that regardless of the time that had gone on, it was still maybe a tad bit too touchy for him to talk about.
“A friend of mine,” she answered, cooly and nonchalant, “her daughter.”
“S’nice,” he nodded his head, reaching for a tin of cookies now, “do I know her?”
“Think so,” she hummed, “yeah.”
“So yeh gonna make me guess or are yeh gonna just tell me?” He joked, raising his brows at his mum as she gnawed at the inside of her cheek.
“S”uh,” she was tripping over words a little, “Christine.”
“Christine..” His words trailed, fishing for a last name.
Anne swallowed, “Aldridge.”
She didn’t know whether or not she should turn around and look at him, or keep his back to him like she was doing. He let out a short exhale of breath, sighing a little loudly, and then she’d turn to face him because she didn’t mean to drop a bomb on him like that so subtly and calmly. She knew it’d be a bit of a shocker to him, getting an invite to a wedding he was sure he wasn’t wanted at. Maybe not by Christine, since she had kindly extended an olive branch to him out of the blue, but by a sibling of hers. A sibling of hers that he hadn’t seen in a long while, so he wasn’t sure the kind of atmosphere he’d be walking into if he had the balls to show up.
Anne had known about the wedding for weeks, known about the invitation that had been sitting untouched and unacknowledged in Harry’s mailbox equally as long. Unbeknownst to him, she kept in touch with Lorraine all these years, as they had remained very good friends after the turmoil between their kids. They’d phone each other now and again, send messages via Facebook or any other social media site they were linked on. It was never a conversation with too much depth, just friendly banter. She’d never told him, in fear that he’d get a little upset, and maybe rightfully so. It’s how she had gotten an invite to the wedding, Gemma as well because Lorraine had a soft spot for her and so did Christine. But she meddled, Lorraine, she was a horrible meddler which is probably how Harry ended up with a wedding invitation that was more than likely beginning to collect dust while it sat stuffed in a little box outside his flat.
“Gem and I’re going, could tag along with us.” She shrugged, eyes doe-like and innocent.
“Musta sent the invitation to the wrong Harry.” He chuckled lowly, though his expression was still a little thrown and blank.
“ ‘Course not, love.” Anne frowned, pinching his cheek endearingly, “Lorraine asked specifically for yeh, wants yeh t’come. Christine, too.”
“Dunno,” he shrugged, shifting awkwardly behind his mum on the checkout line, “don’t- gotta think ‘bout tha’ one.”
Anne nodded understandingly, because she knew very well that it was a bit of a hard pill to swallow. She had no intention of pressuring him into going, because she’d feel awful if she ended up getting him to do something he wasn’t quite comfortable doing. The idea of going, seeing her in real life after being restricted to subtle thoughts or daydreams of her, made him jumpy and he could feel that uneasy feeling washing over him. Anne knew that bringing it up would send him into a bit of tizzy, which is why she didn’t do it over the phone or through a text. In person was best, she thought, as good as it could possibly get.
The duo endured the stroll back to his flat, bags filled with snacks and such, and they swayed in their arms with each step. Anne was doing her best to redirect the conversation, grappling to keep the thought put of Harry’s head because she didn’t need him to say anything for her to know it was consuming him. His demeanor had faltered, attitude a little glummer as he closed a part of him off to her. If he thought he’d go him and relax, he was painfully wrong, because now he was getting fidgety and uncomfortable.
Unlocking the door, a frown on Anne’s face as she silently stood behind him, he’d shove the thing right open before heading way towards the kitchen. The only noise between them was the chafing of the bags against one another, the sound of plastic rubbing together. Anne unloaded them onto the counter top, settling them there before digging through them to help pack everything away.
“S’everything?” She exhaled, hands placed on her hips in search of a filled grocery bag.
“Mhm.” He hummed boringly, pouring himself a glass of water.
He was lost in thought, and instead of badgering and pestering him to get him to open up a little, she thought it best to leave him be for a bit while he gathered himself. So that’s what she did, she gathered up her purse, then made way to grab her shoes by the front door. And she’d mumble something to him about popping into Gemma’s before her journey back to Cheshire, the zipper going up on her boot making a slight hissing sound. Harry’d bid his goodbye with a warm hug, pressing a kiss to her cheek before she wandered out and off to her car.
And now that he was by himself, watching as Anne pulled off and drove out of eyeshot, he’d b line it to the mailbox. Now it was him who was elbow deep in the mailbox, grabbing a fistful of all the untouched envelopes and what he assumed to be a few bills he needed to tend to.
He’d wait until he got inside to sift through the mail, to go looking for the invitation that was making his head spin. Carelessly hurling it onto the counter, the paper tumbling on top one another, he ran a hand through his hair before he got to work. His tongue darted out as he focused, wetting his bottom lip before it retreated back into his mouth.
At first he skipped right over it. Maybe because it wasn’t as big as the others, or it got stuck to the back of one of the small manilla packages that held one of his late night impulsive amazon orders. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t seen it at first, but he didn’t.
It wasn’t until he dropped the little package on the floor, landing right on his foot with a little thud. And he couldn’t even give himself the time to wonder what the fuck was inside of it, what he had ordered that’d be so heavy but in such small packaging, because he’d see a small pink envelope wobbling at the end of the counter.
He was quick to grab at it, whisking the thing into his grip. Only a moment was permitted for him to take a look at the front, his name and address clearly written out in script with black ink. Then he was practically tearing the thing apart, his ring finger gliding through the folds to get it open. Slipping out the invite, the floral themed card with a baby pink background, he flipped it over to read the writing.
“Unbelievable..” He grumbled quietly to himself, eyes scanning over the writing once or twice to be sure he read it right.
One week. Of course Anne had been convenient and vague enough to have forgotten to mention that he only had a few days to come up with a final answer.
June 30th, he’d read it again just to be completely sure, like he hadn’t already read it four times before. His thumb lazily ran over the upper half of the invite, where her last name was written in an iridescent gold.
At first, as he stared down at the thick card, he was ready to phone his mother and confirm his attendance. Then reality began to settle in, as well as common sense. Flashbacks came back in waves from years ago, and the uncomfortable memory of how things had left off wasn’t too far behind.
#harry one shots#harry blurbs#harry imagines#harry styles one shots#harry styles blurbs#harry styles imagines#harry smut#harry fluff#dad!harry#dom!harry#sub!harry#harry writing#harry writings#harry concept#harry concepts#harry blurb#harry styles blurb#harry imagine#harry styles imagine#harry styles concepts#harry styles concept#harry styles one shot#harry styles#harry#harry icons#harry icon#harry styles icons#harry styles icon#harry fic#harry fanfic
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GOTHAM
insanely rambley HUGE spoiler-ridden seasons 1-4 thoughts under cut
FIRST OFF LET ME TELL YOU I GOT CHILLS
Secondly, let’s think back to how I felt about season one. A little loose in the narrative, not so much weaving threads as having threads, ones that you keep expecting to pull tight but more often than not just get dropped for other, shinier threads. All leading to a surprisingly effective character-driven season finale that hopes to prove to you that a few meandering plot points can still add to a sum greater than the parts.
(Oswald goes from umbrella boy to King of Gotham, Bruce Wayne starts at the site of his parents’ murder and ends up taking his first steps into the Batcave, Jim enters as this black-and-white idealist and winds learning from a mob boss that even good men sometimes get their hands dirty to get the job done. A socially awkward unrecognized genius has a psychic break, leading ultimately to the fall of Edward Nygma and the rise of the Riddler.)
Season two is a blur. A period of transition from Jim “Good Cop” Gordon Fistfighting Corruption into... Gotham City: Arkham Asylum’s Backyard. Think how much season one was about only Fish Mooney vs Falcone vs the GCPD and Cobblepot doublecrossing everyone he meets, and how much seasons two and three and four were about the Riddler and Valeska and Tetch and Ra’s al Ghul (and Valeska). We have the bring-everyone-back-to-life at Indian Hill period to thank for the sudden left turn into the Strange.
WHICH IS NOT A COMPLAINT.
There are so many types of Batman stories, and there’s a time and a place for both Joe Chill and Killer Croc. Gotham started in one and always knew it was headed for the other.
And B.D. Wong as Strange is a DELIGHT and I really appreciated his dynamic with Miss Peabody. Speaking of, the bomb defusing scene was a real gem omg lololol give the woman some damn water already.
At the same time, the Fish storyline was like WHOA what EVEN is haPPENINg at any given moment. And it ultimately didn’t amount to much? There’s so much waffling between the surviving gang camps where everyone’s either got a kill-on-sight order or a owed-life-debt to each other and the pendulum swings back and forth so quickly it’s not really worth holding onto how anyone feels about anyone else. That dead/MIA character will come back or the rivalry will be revived or the long-held grudge will be recalled if and when that plot point is going to be drafted, but other than that everyone’s friends and that’s ok.
And like. Ivy??? Ivy Pepper??????? Why is that ride so wild??? There is no cause and effect, only next next next. It’s insane. Maybe watching this all at once rather than over the course of four years lends a different perspective, but holy cow. Such a ballsy way to do whatever with a character you never had a plan for.
Which brings us to Barbara Kean?! Season one she was there because they knew she was a Mythos Character but then they were like, wait, whateven is she for though? Which is a fair question, since having her be the Little Lady Trophy Fiance meant she was a boring and needless character wasting space, not standing on her own and hardly informing Jim’s character either. So what to do, what to do. How about we kidnap her, put her through some insanely cruel physical and psychological abuse, make her a psycho-revenge-bride, put her in a coma, have her come back as a 100% Arkham Villain, give her a hench(wo)man, have the henchman KILL HER, have Ra’s al Ghul waltz up out of literally nowhere and say “lol, borrow this arcane mojo for a minute, I’ll want it back later or will I” and now she’s a kingpin of Gotham’s underworld with her own mini League of Assassin?!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like. Even if they never had a plan going into it, I’m pretty okay with most of what they came up with. Better than the lil wifey hanging out at home and having one passing remark about curating a gallery that we never saw and was never mentioned again.
Better off a once-crazy, once-dead mafiosa than the less inspired handling of Miss Kringle. I won’t even get into that trainwreck I-only-exist-to-validate-manpain-of-my-murderer wait I said I wasn’t going to get into it.
So Nygma! Like I said when I got started with the show, the season one Edward Nygma was crafted as this painfully unsympathetic offbeat loser and I think they fully succeeded with that characterization. The emergence of the Riddler persona was a welcome change, an upgrade, a spit-shine into something clean cut and confident and stylish. But I like that, compared to the Penguin, the posterchild for evil-psychotic-villain!Protaganist, for example, they held on to a lot of Nygma’s unlikeablilty in that he’s still an ass, even more of an insufferable egoist, and SO CRAZY he can’t even read himself (which was a big thing about the character before he split in half, so in itself that’s pretty great).
I don’t know. Maybe you like him and I’m supposed to like him. I think he’s exactly what he ought to be, and while I'd never want to see him marched off a peer with a bullet in his back, I’m more than happy to see his fellow villain-Protagonists knock him around once in a while. Penguin and Mooney and now Lee (?!) and Zsasz even are the kind of villan!Protagonist you really root for. But if it’s any one of them vs. the Riddler, they’re definitely not going to lose. Nygma’s like in his own category of villain!Protagonist Antagonist.
Of course, the post-Arkham-proto-Riddler who was running Oswald’s mayoral campaign, now HOT DAMN that was a storyline I could get behind. I almost actually believed they were going to do something great in the Nygmobblepot arena and that was a magical moment. I think the resulting blood feud, as painful of a 360 as they come, was a sounder storytelling decision and more in line with the show’s Schroedinger’s Frenemies mentality.
And his season four storyline with the Ed Nygma persona challenging the Riddler was a nice full circle. Sort of closing the gap between this raging banana nutball and the razor-sharp criminal mastermind he could be if tried. Not SUPER THRILLED with his creeping on Lee but, with all due respect, that’s par for the character so again I say I don’t think I’m meant to like him??
I just spent half this rant on the Riddler so I guess they’re doing something right.
Ok so Cameron Monaghan’s VALESKA TWINS. Let’s get right into it, shall we.
Holy smokes they did everything right on this one. Loved the Primal Fear treatment of his introduction, and the way this random circus kid just so happens to start displaying jokey traits that astute viewers will start to suspect that this could be the big bad we’ve all been waiting for --
and then they kill him.
WOW
I was so ready for this kid to grow up to be the Joker, and they rip that dream away and replace it with an idea that anyone can grow up to be the Joker, and damn if that isn’t the nicest treatment of the character’s fractured and obfuscated origin story. But. THEN!
THEY BRING HIM BACK and it’s everything you wanted him to be. He’s just so good. There’s just the right amount of (IMO, anyway) Hamill-homage in what is otherwise a fully imagined Character who is instantly recognizable as one of many iterations but at the same time outclasses them all. The high-level narrative and dialogue stuff, the stuff they create for him to do, I mean, is all great. And then Monaghan brings this manic A++ game to the table and blows it out of the water. Best Joker performance? Arguably so, especially when you consider
JEREMIAH VELASKA because this kid can’t stop having stellar Joker performances. He’s like, two and a half, three of the best Joker performances on the books. Jeremiah’s distinct visual style, the characterization, AGAIN with the obfuscated we-are-legion origin story hocow. NO COMPLAINTS HERE.
Anyway so if that’s what we get in return for sending Fish Mooney through a narrative meat grinder, then I guess it’s an even trade.
Pengiun. What to say about Penguin. I loved what they gave him in season two, a ton of character stuff because his plot stuff of rags to riches had played itself out. I felt real bad for his mom, but I really liked that he went and made himself mayor, and even while his story arcs tend to go riches to rags and back again, it’s never not a pleasure watching him claw his way up to where he thinks he ought to be.
For the most part they do a good job stringing together these different Protagonist story-groups, keeping in mind that most of these groups serve mainly as antagonists amongst themselves (when they’re not being buddy-buddy to serve some winding end). So when you get the villain!Antagonists you can really tell the difference. I got a little yawny while we were setting up Fries, and by the time we finally locked Tetch up for good I was very grateful. These will never be main characters and the show knows it and wants you to know it, too. So while they’re the main on-screen villain, it can get a little stale because the same effort isn’t being put into their lasting appeal.
Um. Jim Gordon. Another thing I liked about season four was a strong return to GCPD bidniss. Season two there was a lot of GCPD, but with Captain Barnes and the strike force and Galavan, so it was a completely different narrative animal than what Gordon was throwing down with in season one. Then Gordon goes to prison and after that he doesn’t go back to GCPD until well into season three, and by then the story’s about Mario and Tetch and Lee and omg I forgot about Valerie Vale until this very moment whoops.
As was hinted in the season one finale, Jim Gordon went on a very twisty path through the mud before he figured himself out again. Killing Galavan was like WHAT JIMBOY and that wasn’t even the worst of it. What I liked most about his stint as a PI was the character’s eventual acceptance that the law isn’t the be all and end all of righteousness, and that there are other means available when enforcing peace and justice. Not necessarily by killing every evil mayor you come across with your own two hands, but the eye-opening to the virtues of vigilantism is super important when you realize he’s going to be Batman’s main ally down the line and this time in his life is going to be what ultimately allows the future police commissioner to legitimize this kind of shadowy ninja behavior.
Anyway, in season four, Jim kind of comes back to roost at the GCPD, and finally ousting Bullock as Captain was rough but obviously warranted, and with only one season left that was a good time to do it. Harper was a nice addition and I’d like to see more of her as a standalone character. (Similarly, Fox has fit in nicely with the cops, but I’m not overly hankering to see more of his day to day antics.)
What was my real point? I really liked the Gordon vs the GCPD dynamics of season one, and while obviously that’s not a story you can tell forever, it did inform the sense that the police force is a living entity that can serve you very well if it trusts you, but before that can happen you really have to jump on its back and break its will LOL.
Also, remember Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent? Yeah, I don’t either.
SO BRUCE WAYNE, MY FRIENDS.
Gotham is my very most favorite Bruce Wayne story, and much as Batman: TAS is my forever-reference for most Batmany things, Gotham is going to be my heart-canon for Bruce Wayne origins.
It’s one thing to say, “ok so this rich kid watches his parents get murdered in an alley, and from this moment on he vows to do something about it and makes himself a master detective/martial artist who puts on a mask and a cape and runs around at night smashing thugs’ heads in for justice” like it’s a foregone conclusion, a straight-forward A-to-B process, and a wholly other thing to show us, step by step, how he learns to become the thing we all know he’s going to become.
In season one he was this quiet, morose but driven child who didn’t know what to do with this crisis he’d been handed. He’s a kid who sits in a pool with his whole clothes on, trying to hold his breath for as long as possible because he has no idea how else to become better prepared for handling his issues. But he has Selina and he has Alfred and he has Fox and he has Jim Gordon, and he will have the Court of Owls and the Valeskas and Ra’s al Ghul who will all play a part in handing him pieces of himself until he has a full set.
He started with this strong sense of right and wrong, a deeply seated desire to put his talents and his money to some sort of use, an earnest diligence towards bettering himself in all ways, and little by little he gets shown just how much of a fragile and defenseless baby he is. That time Alfred accidentally-on-purpose clobbered him in the eye -- that was the moment Bruce found out they’d all been pulling their punches with him and that he still had so so so far to go.
Of course, at the particular moment, he was going through a well-earned rebel without a cause phase (which will do him well when he calls on those behaviors for the benefit of a wider audience), so I don’t think that realization hit him at the time. BUT I NOTICED. Sure he’s got a bulletproof suit and he can look Jim Gordon straight in the eye now and he can fling himself off rooftops like a champ (and when Alfred gave him the keys to the Batmobile I cried a little), but he’s no Batman. Not yet. Not quite yet.
But you can see without a shadow of a doubt that he’s gonna be! Instead of this “Bruce Wayne woke up as Batman” story, we get a look at all the day by day choices and experiences that inform, shape, and depend on Bruce Wayne’s core identity and the way that they will collectively create Batman.
Now, David Mazouz may not have the character acting chops of a Pinkett-Smith or a Taylor or a Monaghan, and he may not be as comfortable living in a everyday character like Pertwee and Logue do so effortlessly, but there’s a steeliness a Bruce Wayne should have, a hauntedness, an idealistness, that Mazouz emotes in spades. Sometimes his Bruce Wayne does a stunt or pulls a pose that Mazouz KNOWS is Batman territory, and while his awareness of “I’m doing a cool thing look at me doing it” is a little distracting--it’s also SUPER EFFECTIVE and I fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
I’ve always been one of those fans who’s way more interested in the lives and characters of the secret identities (compared to the heroics of the super identities) so hot diggity dog is this the show for me. All Bruce Wayne all the time. When we he does put on the mask, it’s all the more powerful for knowing who exactly is wearing it and what’s driving him to do these borderline insane things.
Not 100% sold on Ra’s’ “I saw this in a dream” strong-arm prophecy, feeling like it steps on four years of Bruce Wayne’s self-determination. Not 100% on how they introduced him and his aims and his baffling reincarnation(s). But I am 100% on the pronunciation of “Ra’s” because I’m aware that Kevin Conroy et al figured it out somewhere between TAS and Arkham Asylum, but it’s something that they never quite got in Arrow. (Oliver consistently uses “raysh” but everyone else is a grab bag between that and “rawz”.)
For that matter, David Mazouz consistently pronounces Ra’s with two syllables, so there’s also that. Wait, hold on. In Gotham they also draw a hard line between Ra’s al Ghul, the man, and “the demon’s head,” some sort of mystical power of time travel and flashlightiness. Give one point to Arrow for not being that bizarre.
Long story short, the shot at the finale where Gordon’s waiting on the GCPD rooftop with the spot light and Bruce Wayne stalks up behind him was BEAUTIFUL. (They also did the thing some episodes earlier where Bruce peaces out on Gordon when Gordon’s mid-sentence with his back turned and I laughed a lot)
Looking forward to their take on No Man’s Land. Here’s a short story for you at the end of this long story:
One time I was reading No Man’s Land volume by volume from the library. It was tough because I checked the first time and they had the full set, but then you never knew that the next one was going to be available when you went in for it.
So I get out of the car one day and look there’s a quarter on the ground. Neat. It’s mine now!
Going into the library, there was a cart of used books for sale by the door. 25 cents each. Hell, I’ve got a quarter now, let’s see what they got.
What they got is the No Man’s Land novelization. For 25 cents, or, in my case, free.
So I read that instead, and turned out I liked it way better than the source comics. I have a hard time reading comics? I tend to not look at the pictures, and certain art styles aren’t my jam. Also when it comes to narrative capabilities, there are different tools and effects inherent to each form, and I appreciated the literary treatment and the internal voice it brought to the table that the comics couldn’t.
Also the author said in the note that his method was to sit down and jam out minimum 2000 words a day and that’s still a feat I admire.
Anyway, that’s my long winded take on Gotham. Not perfection, but certainly a respectable and authoritative representation of a subject matter we all know and love. I give it my second favorite Batman portrayal (behind Kevin Conroy and above Adam West) and my absolute favorite live-action Bruce Wayne, hands down.
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(this has been sitting in my drafts for TEN MILLION YEARS and by that i mean its been sitting in my drafts for.............................. holy shit, like, three or even four years almost?????? oh, and this fic is based on some point in the main story where Belanus asks if you wanna help out with the shadow knight stuff i guess lol)
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--- the effect of causality ---
“I...” You dwell upon your dream, and what it means - what it held, and what it foretold. The conclusion comes immediately, but not the answer.
You’ve always been a bit of a coward, despite your goodness.
(Yes and no are branching pathways, and things change from their onset.)
.
.
Merrilee is quiet as the doors of the church close behind you, their long creaking silenced with a soft thud. Your eyes glance out to the city centre just ahead, bustling with the sounds of activity - though nearer to the church, people are scare and peace reigns. If you think hard enough, you could pretend that the entire area is devoid of people, including yourself.
“Was that really what you wanted to do?” Your Eidolon eventually asks, before you even manage to take your first step down the marble stairs. You turn and blink at her, seeing a neutral expression; it’s hard to read, which from a person like her is surprising. But something tells you that this is how she truly is. Who she can be, if she so wished.
It’s almost something to envy, but you don’t realise it. So your eyes just glance down at your boots, worn from fighting and travelling, puzzled in a sense. “I don’t know if thinking on it would have been helpful.”
“Because it seemed urgent?” she offers, quizzical. “You could have told him. He would have understood your feelings.”
Would he, really?
You don’t say anything in response, instead just taking a deep breath, your first step forward made.
.
For a while, you’re a little clueless as you wander around Navea. Your thoughts are blank for the most part, sometimes colored with guilt and disappointment and imaginary scenarios with imaginary thoughts of their own - but something in you, a small part of you, feels utterly stone dead to everything. Cold and aloof, not quite relieved but not quite unhappy either.
Unsettled is probably the best way to describe it all. The future is more uncertain than you’ve ever seen it to be - your dream, its ending, the path leading there...
It’s still open-ended. Whether that scripted story will play out, it’s still not certain or uncertain. Things have changed, but the extent of the change hasn’t been determined yet.
Your steps, unconsciously, quicken.
.
The dream doesn’t stop coming.
It just changes, a little.
Instead of a brutal but quick end, burning in the flames - that man grabs you by the throat, lifting you up oh so easily, a look of grim satisfaction on his face.
“You’re not fighting at your best,” he tells you, calmly. “And yet, you try to go against me. For what?”
Because I don’t have a choice?
“You don’t sincerely believe in the Church’s beliefs, do you?” He stares straight at you, digging into your eyes for something worthwhile. Eventually, he shakes his head, not disappointed in what he’s seeing, but... “No, you do believe in it. You value goodness and love. But like any human... you’re human.”
His hands crush your throat like paper, at this point. But you don’t die immediately - no, you writhe on the burning carpet, smoke and air both struggling to be breathed, as you hear his last words, spoken so softly, you can’t mistake it for anything but kindness.
“And we all have our flaws.”
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You don’t return to Port Skandia, knowing that you won’t be welcomed back with Merrilee in tow, though they’d be understanding regardless. But with no further plans, you simply drift along the continent, taking up odd jobs here and there, often doing bodyguard work with travelling merchants. You find working with merchants can be a bit exasperating, as exciting as it can also be---it’s travelling the world, after all.
With time, however, you find your movements restricted - the on-going war with the Shadow Knight has led to large scores of areas being taken, to refugees flooding the safest areas there can be. Navea’s templars are becoming a common sight day by day, as they try to enforce a sense of peace and order among anxious society.
Inevitably, you have to give up your travelling, as templars block off trade routes and restrict access to some. Merchants have to become specialised ones to be able to enter the now-many war zones and occupied regions, where the fighting is beyond a believable scale - and for these merchants, with privilege, they are already given excellent protection.
“You could apply to be one of the Church-issued bodyguards,” Merrilee mentions, once, sometime ago.
“I could,” you do agree. “But...”
The Eidolon tilts her head, absolutely curious. “But what?”
You give a half-hearted, half-defeated shrug, sighing. You don’t want to tell her that you don’t want to be affiliated with the church. You don’t want to tell her why you don’t want to be a part of it either. Reinhardt is right, truly - humans are flawed one way or another, and for all the goodness and potential you seem to have, your own flaw is crippling and oh-so clear.
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You end up settling in Helonia, after a while. Skandia’s just a day or two’s walk away, which curbs your homesickness if you ever feel it. But you don’t end up visiting home much regardless, since you’re often busy as a town guard for Helonia - the people remember you very well, which means being smothered with both affections and requests that you can’t really say no to.
But perhaps that’s a good thing. You don’t think of much else besides how busy you are, as a result - the dreams and their meanings and their worth remain a forgotten topic until you’re deep in your sleep, relieving a death that almost feels boring by this point. But knowing how you feel on the subject, even partly, ensures that you try your best to never think about it anyway.
So your routine is simple and repetitive to the point forgetfulness: wake up, patrol the town, get breakfast, help people throughout the day, get lunch and some grocery shopping done in-between it all, patrol the nearby areas, get dinner, and then go to sleep. The days are almost relaxing in a sense, despite increasing news of the demons’ invasion and fearful rumors that randomly spread from gossip.
You’re content enough like this though. You’re content until the templars show up, declaring a state of emergency as demon rifts are randomly opening throughout the continent, and the coast won’t be immune to it.
You really can’t avoid meeting the church, can you.
.
Thankfully, none of the templars stationed in Helonia are the ones you know - templars like Alex are experienced and highly ranked, so they’re in different areas, where the fighting is on a dangerously hostile scale. That doesn’t mean you end up being friendly to the comparatively inexperienced and low-ranked ones here - you cooperate, professionally, but you personally do not come to know them.
As they’ve said, demon rifts do inevitably appear in the region. The templars are dispatched in small teams to take care of them - knights and mages, in their steel armor and white velvet respectively. You had the opportunity to see them in action, with a rift close to town, and you deem them to be good at what they’re here to do. That much you will say. Their teamwork, on the other hand...
It’s not bad, but personal matters do sometimes take centre stage. At least, for one instance you did watch, it was.
You could intervene and resolve the issue, if you so wished. But after a while of quiet debates, you ultimately don’t. And whatever the matter was between those templars, it had also gotten resolved in its own way, somehow. It’s not something worth thinking about for too long, but you do end up wondering a little - maybe, if you do try to at least be on a friendly-enough note with them...
No. No, absolutely not! You can’t.
Something in you---something kinder, related and unrelated to the dream, lashes out at the idea of getting to know them. It’s dangerous - not for you, but for their sake, somehow.
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The waves swim across your bare feet, as you walk along the beach. Night’s a beautiful time in Helonia, you’ve learnt - the stars are bright and marvelous to behold. The way the cosmos colors itself with twinkling fragments of stardust makes you see it as a sort of artful masterpiece. You’d hate to see it ruined by war and demons, so for now, you appreciate it as much as you can.
When you’re going to die someday, young and pitiful and pathetic, you end up appreciating a lot of pretty things in life.
“---And fighting valiantly onto death, too, is artful.”
You halt in your tracks, finding a woman in steel-blue armor, flashes of flowing white dotting the blue. You know that voice, despite having not seen her ever since you said no to the bishop, refusing to help, refusing to meet the dream and what it held.
“...Sigrun,” you end up blurting out a little dumbly, watching her float down to the ground, feet merely grazing the sand.
“Greetings, my Envoy,” she replies, curtly.
“What are you...?” You blink at her, mouth running halfway through, still trying to grasp words. You had assumed that she had left you - finding your lack of love for the heroic choice to be dull. But then again, with that same assumption, you’ve never tried to call her back. You thought it would be wrong to summon her again, seeing right in a thought to leave.
“I am here to see how well you are faring with your decision,” she says, with an elegant sort of grace - it might be a little rude, but you didn’t think she was capable of that grace. “Do you still hold true to what you have said, that day?”
“I...” You just look at the waves washing over the sand, foam trailing across your toes as they recede. You’re not sure if saying yes would be honest or lying. It feels like a half-truth, in a sense. “I would have helped people, if I said yes.”
“You are also helping people, even now.”
“I am.” You nod, a little shyly. “I am, but---if I said yes, I would have to fight that man... The Shadow Knight.”
Sigrun tilts her head by the slightest. Looking for something. “Are you... perhaps, afraid of him?”
“...Maybe?” You sigh. Maybe you’re scared of him. Maybe you’re more scared of what he’d do to you, than the man himself. His prowess is dangerous, but the results of it against you....
“As strong as he is claimed to be, he is just a human,” the Eidolon ends up replying in a confident way, her head held high and proud. The confidence of a higher being who sees death and defeat, but never once experiences it. Your heart feels tinted with green. “You may also be human, but that merely makes you his equal. He can be defeated.”
Can---but will he be...?
“And so, even I can be defeated,” you softly say, turning to watch the horizon.
.
Though the link is never severed, you never see Sigrun again - not for a long, long time afterwards.
#aura kingdom#fanfic#i think i never posted this thing for so long bc i wanted to continue it#but man did the place i stop at seem good enough#I AM A SUUUUUCKER FOR THE DEPRESSSSSSING#this kinda feels like an AU-ish thing for my envoy oc but whatever lol
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