#i might use a quote from a novel or two as well

[gemkun]

work for a few hours then i’m finally free ah ! i just wanna do something short and sweet today so like for a lyric starter ?

#* ✦ 𝐈. ❮ ooc ❯ ⸻ ❝ #i saw some people do this and as someone who listens to so much music i wanted to hop in #i might use a quote from a novel or two as well #i literally slept for 11 hours #specify muse or i’ll roulette you hehe #i’ll send these out after work

[dededaio]

The New Kirby Novel Announcement might hint at the future of the series?

...or as I also would like to call it, yet another installment in the "Klu puts on a tinfoil hat in desperate attempts to predict Kirby's future" series.

So you might've already heard about the announcement of the upcoming Kirby Light Novel in the March of 2024. It's title is "The Dream Onsen is a Good Hot Spring" and If you aren't familiar with it's plot yet, here's the full synopsis:

At first the story doesn't seem too remarkable, there are no promises for new high-stakes adventures on a different planet like in Dedede-focused novel "King Dedede's Great Escape Strategy" or shocking twists like in "Meta Knight and the Knight of Hades", but then it hits you. This novel will feature Elfilin and Daroach. A lot of people who learned of these news did instantly become excited, but not a lot of people seem to have realized just how bizarre this is.

If you aren't familiar too well with the novels in general, their utilization of the extended game cast is quite similar to the way mainline games handle them. As in, they rarely if ever appear if their names aren't "Kirby", "King Dedede", "Bandana Dee" or "Meta Knight". If novels could help it, they only use the main four and occasional recurring enemy/helper like Burning Leo or Chilly (and Chef Kawasaki as a bonus) as the supporting cast. And if the original story requires more important characters, instrumental in the narrative, Mie Takase, novels' author, tends to invent entirely new ones instead.

So far there were only 3 types of novels that primarily utilized game-exclusive characters. I myself sorted them out by type, this is not an official classification or anything. Here's a nifty chart:

Remixes, as I like to call them, are quote unquote "original stories" that feature game characters like Magolor, Taranza or Animal Buddies. But while most of the plot seems original, more often than not it seems as a re-imagining of the actual game plots. Kirby's Labyrinth Rescue is probably the most egregious example, as it's an unholy amalgamation of Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, Rainbow Curse and Amazing Mirror. While a lot of the story might be original, they are "based" on something from the games instead of being wholly original narratives.

AUs are interesting, because they do tend to have entirely new stories that utilize game characters, but this is only with an asterisk that they take place in entirely different world from the main novels/game-adjacent canon.

Adaptations speak for themselves. They might have an original character or two (mostly early on in novels' existence) but they are mostly 1:1 faithful adaptations with some omissions and additions that don't significantly alter the narrative (with sole exception of Planet Robobot's novelization letting President Haltmann live for some reason). Notable thing is, that in case of certain game-adaptations, like Merry Magoland or Kirby Fighters 2, mentions/appearances of extended game cast are omitted or heavily limited (In KF2 novel Magolor and Gooey don't appear or get mentioned at all, in Merry Magoland only Gooey is mentioned among masks of the characters that don't appear in the story in flesh).

As you can see, this newly announced novel doesn't fall under ANY of these categories. It's a brand new, seemingly slice-of-life-esque story, that just so happens to randomly include Daroach and Elfilin. This is highly unusual because novels rarely if ever take risks or go out of their comfort zone. They kind of established the rules and formulas of how they work for years now and it's been working out for them. So why anything would change now?

Well. Heh... What if this sudden change in direction is actually reflective of franchise-wide changes? Shinya Kumazaki talked about how Forgotten Land is going to be the beginning for "the new phase of Kirby". So far it's hard to tell what he actually meant by this. But I would argue that one of the aspects that could be true in this new "phase" is more frequent utilization of the extended Kirby cast.

Novels, in terms of franchise-wide hierarchy, some of the closest things to the actual games in terms of importance, mainly thanks to how much of a juggernaut in terms of sales they are within Japan. Across 10 years of their existence they managed to sell over 3 million copies of all books, which might not sound that impressive, until you realize that these are books for children that until recently were purely Japanese-exclusive endeavor.

These books are the only adaptations, to our knowledge anyway, that get special privileges from HAL themselves in terms of telling some plot and lore details that even fans aren't aware of. Shinya Kumazaki even directly supervised and helped to write one of the books (Return to Dream Land's novelization that came out in 2022). It doesn't mean that novels are canon, but it does mean that they tend to reflect the current status-quo of the series better than most other aspects outside of the games.

So this sudden inclusion of ensemble cast in a random story might signify HAL's willingness to do more with these characters. Elfilin alone wouldn't have been perhaps that surprising, as he was hinted to have more importance past his debut in how he passionately expressed that he wants to stay by Kirby's side forever, but Daroach's inclusion is puzzling because while he did appear in multiple games, he didn't get any merch or notable appearances lately.

Of course, this might mean absolutely nothing! But I feel like this is more notable than most people give it credit for. At worst, this means nothing except that novels will utilize game cast more frequently, which would be cool, at best, it means that HAL is opening up to the idea of returning past characters more frequently, which would be awesome. Let's wait and see, I suppose.

#kirby #kirby light novels #long post #klu.txt

[tilly-tilly-2827]

Little Bits of Crumbs

Reimagining An Offer from a Gentleman #5

Synopsis: Benedict Bridgerton doesn't know the definition of subtlety. Or how Eloise Bridgerton found out. Or how Violet Bridgerton always knew.

AO3 post from here!

It was a peaceful day at No.5. Eloise would have to admit that her life had become more quieter, with her two sisters respectively in their husbands’ houses, and her best friend gone on a tour of the continent with her brother. With Gregory off to Eaton and Hyacinth off to wherever she was, there was a calmness and solace in the No.5 she had never experienced ever since she was born.

She quietly watched her Mother and the maid swiftly mend away, her mother working on the tulip embroidery, the maid mending a pair of wool socks. Eloise had admired the nimbleness the new ladies maid she had on needlework. A skill she would never acquire, she thought bitterly to herself as she flipped the page of her book, a copy of Pride and Prejudice. “It’s a romance novel”, the other debutant had told her, but she rather enjoyed the witty sarcastic banter between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, rather than the romantic aspects of the story. Elizabeth was a character she would look up to, the wisest, the quickest, the most perspective…

“Good Afternoon, family.”

Eloise heard a small yelp from the corner of the room, followed by a small thump, a set of needle sticks, and a pair of dark blue socks dropped on the hems of the maid’s violet-colored skirts.

“Excuse me,” Eloise heard her say ever so faintly. “Slipped my hands.”

Eloise looked up from her book, almost rolling her eyes seeing her favorite brother skipping through the door of the drawing room with a bouquet in hand. Again in his best attire, the dark blue jacket, a navy golden botanical vest, and a shiny silver pin on his cravat, he might as well be dressed for a ball, rather than a casual stop to his mother’s home.

Although it was still Wednesday, it was the fourth time of the week she had seen him at No.5. He always seemed to be sketching in hallways and the corridors, saying the following quotes repeatedly; “No.5 has changed into the new source of my inspiration.” and “Well, this staircase is exceptionally well lit from the sunlight of this window, don’t you think so Eloise?”

It had been exactly three years since she had last seen Benedict even hold a sketchbook in his hands, and his fervent recurrence had been her constant puzzlement over the last few days.

“Flowers for you, Mother.”

“Why, thank you, Benedict.”

Placing a small peck on her cheeks, Benedict handed over the Bouquet to his mother; a bundle filled with wildflowers and Lilly of the Valleys. Her lips curling slightly, Violet passed the bouquet to the maid, asking her to set them up in the vase.

“Could you set them up by the window over here, Sophie?”

“Of course, Lady Bridgerton.” Eloise quietly observed her brother’s gaze nervously follow the bouquet, biting his lower lip as the maid left the room, almost as if he was worried that the flowers would explode into pieces.

Why would he be so nervous over a bouquet?

“Why are you here, Benedict?”

Eloise asked sharply, and Benedict snapped from his gaze.

“Splendid to see you too, dear sister.”

With his usual crooked smile returning to his face, Benedict flopped himself on the sofa next to her, taking a scone from a plate.

“Excellent view from here, isn’t it? And the weather! Splendid!”

“Benedict, it is pouring rain. Are you quite well?”

“Well, I have come to enjoy rain as well, sister.”

“Benedict, I truly cannot figure out why you have changed so.” Eloise closed her book, focusing on her brother, but she couldn’t help but notice that his brother’s gaze flickered too many times on the door.

“Last time you visited us, it was three weeks ago, and you hardly stayed an hour. And now you’ve come here three days in a row!”

“Is it a crime to pay a visit to my dear family?”

Eloise rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “Suddenly we are so dear to you? You’ve never shaved when you visit us.”

“I’ve learned the importance of hygiene, El.”

“When have you ever cared about hygiene?”

“Like I said, I’ve gained a new perspective in the countryside.” Benedict took a bite of the scone, flipping the crumbs off from his vest. “Perhaps you should visit the countryside as well, sister. Wonderful effects it brings, both physically and spiritually.”

With a slight tilt of her head, Eloise stared at her brother, noticing that she couldn’t exactly deny his words at all. For the past few years, Benedict was never without bags under his eyes, always with a faint smell of liquor and cigarettes, but now he looked quite healthy, almost like he was …glowing? Eloise squinted her eyes, wanting to see past her brother’s soul, but it was a useless endeavor; she could only blink at the gleam of his silver pin.

“Perhaps I should go to the countryside as well,” she muttered under her breath, but her mother heard her at the last second.

“We still have another month until the end of the season my dearest.”

“But I have already met all the men in London!” Eloise cries out.

“Perhaps she’ll have a better chance at finding a husband in the countryside Mother.” Benedict quipped from his seat, “I have heard that there are several eligible bachelors in the countryside as well…” But Benedict’s words trailed off in silence. As Eloise turned her head around, the maid was back in the room, the bouquet placed beautifully in the glass vase.

“Sophie!” Her mother’s voice was unusually high pitched.“ Could you put the vase over the window next to the table? The sunlight is best at that corner…”

“But Mother, there is no sunlight.”

“Well, yes, yes that is true,” Her mother replied, her hands fluttering around her face, “but I heard the weather would improve tomorrow. Sophie, would you ask Mrs. Wilson to prepare for tea?”

“Yes, Lady Bridgerton.”

The maid hurried out of the room again, and Eloise could swear she heard her mother give a soft sigh. Eloise twitched her fingers slightly, knowing that Sophie was doing her job rather perfectly, then what was her concern?

“Perhaps I should leave for a moment,” Benedict quietly rose from the seat, but her mother grasped his shoulders from the back of his seat rather firmly.

“No, you shall stay.”

“Mother,”

Eloise had to laugh, seeing her brother break out in a childish pout.

“I haven’t heard if you would be attending the Featherington Ball tonight, dearest. I’m sure I can introduce you to some debutants who are excellent at their art…”

“There is no need, Mother. I’m afraid I have other pressing matters to attend tonight.”

“And yet you are idling your time here,” Eloise quipped back, nudging Benedict’s ribs playfully. “Couldn’t you think of a better excuse?”

“Oh, are you going to give me a lecture on honesty, Eloise?” Eloise didn’t like the way his brother raised his eyebrows. “How about the time you said something about flower arrangement classes…”

“Children.” Their mother’s stern voice was enough to straighten up both of their backs and shut them up. Her mother sighed again, with her hands on her head, “How am I ever going to get you two married off…”

“I am sorry to be the cause of your headaches, Mother.” Benedict quietly said. “But I’m afraid that the tea is ready.”

The table was already set, the cups filled with steaming tea with fresh biscuits on the side. As Eloise took a sip from her cup, she noticed that it was already arranged to her preference, no sugar with milk.

“The cook just had them out of the oven,” The maid said with a soft smile, “Chocolate and Marmalade biscuits, my lady.”

“Thank you, Sophie. Could you take the mending up to my room, and also the vase…”

“Would you join us, Ms. Beckett?” Benedict interrupted her mother’s words, and she could see the maid’s eyes widen in… shock? But Benedict was already pouring tea into a cup, putting one lump of sugar with just a splash of milk. Placing two biscuits on the tea tray, Benedict almost shoved the cup in the maid’s hands, but the maid took a step back. Her face was almost white as a sheet, Eloise noticed.

“Thank you, Mr. Bridgerton.” Bobbing her head into a curtsy, the end of her voice quivered ever so slightly. “But I must take these upstairs…”

“Never mind the mending.” Her mother said softly. “ You can take your tea now, Sophie. How on earth would you ruin a perfectly nice cup of tea?”

As the maid timidly seated herself in the chair with a cup in her hand, Benedict continued to ramble on about the next art gallery he was planning to submit his paintings as her mother smiled gently over her cup of tea.

It was nice, Eloise thought, seeing his brother converse quite enthusiastically about his own pursuits. He had been quite moody lately, often slouching on his chair, and was more of a listener, rather than an active participant in the conversation. Really what has happened to him? Eloise couldn’t help but wonder…

“You have a crumb right there, Ms. Beckett.”

What jerked Eloise from her daze was his tone. It was his usual teasing tone, but much more softer than she had ever heard. She hadn’t noticed that her brother had left the sofa, but was leaning against the wall beside the chair in the corner of the room.

“Do I?”

Eloise noticed the maid’s cheeks turn crimson red, her gaze cast down to her shoes.

“Right there on the corner.”

“Right here?”

Sophie’s fingers softly reached her mouth, but her brother’s fingers were quicker, softly taking the crumb from the right corner of her lips.

“Right there,”

It was a small, quick gesture, Eloise knew, but she couldn’t help noticing that his fingers lingered a second longer on Sophie’s lips, his thumbs softly tracing the outline for just a second. Almost as if his fingers wanted to stay there an hour longer.

Eloise quickly averted her gaze, feeling the hotness rise to her cheeks as well. Why would she be embarrassed by that? Her brother was only doing it out of kindness, she had seen Anthony wipe Eddie’s mouth with his handkerchief after a meal. She had seen more intimate things, Anthony hardly couldn’t keep his hands off Kate, and so did Colin. The spouses were always wrapped around their husbands’ arms, and Eloise always winced as they would kiss passionately whatever the place was. Eloise never could understand why couples were so obsessed with kisses. What would be so good about placing lips together?

But Eloise had never felt more flustered than this moment, her brother’s fingers on Sophie’s lips, it was almost as if she had invaded a very private moment of the two.

Just taking some crumbs. Nothing scandalous about that is it? It was nothing intimate, it would mean nothing at all.

Eloise quickly looked around the room, somehow desperately wishing that she was the only one who had seen them. But when she gave a glance to her mother, she noticed that her mother was looking at the pair as well, but not with a look of concern or suspicion she had expected. Her gaze stayed on the two, but Eloise somehow knew that her gaze was cast oceans away, her blue eyes sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean. Was it happiness, or was it sadness? Eloise couldn’t clearly tell.

“Benedict.” Jumping up from the seat, her brother’s name slipped out from her lips. “Could you chaperone me to the Audrey House? I might have forgotten something there.”

Benedict looked back at her in puzzlement and mumbled something about wanting to sketch in the garden of No.5 but Eloise ignored his words.

“What have you forgotten? Couldn’t you ask someone to fetch it for you?”

“No,” Eloise said firmly. “I need them instantly, and I need you to come with me.” Almost forcefully grabbing her brother’s arms, Eloise dragged Benedict out of the drawing room.

It had been years since they last had a chat on the swings. Eloise knew, that they had to talk.

#benedict bridgerton #bridgerton #benophie #sophie beckett #an offer from a gentleman #benedict x sophie #benophie fics #bridgerton fanfiction

[angellayercake]

He is

Vampire Terzo x FReader | NSFW

Art by the wonderful @tasty-ribz

For @ghostchems on her birthday! To be a little bit soppy as much as I love ghost for being ghost it has also brought me some incredible friends. We bonded over loving terzo and love island and now you are my favourite person to scream about awful men with every day. I hope everyone is making you feel a special as Terzo would today because as far as we are concerned yours is the only important birthday happening this month 💜

Now a best selling author thanks to your experience at Crowley Manor you find yourself struggling to muster up inspiration for the sequel. Will returning to the place it all began help you? Or just confirm the none of it was real? A sequel to Cirice Warnings: blood, rough sex, hints of mind control, pinv sex, cunnilingus, lots of dust hehe

With a huff of frustration you scratch out the poor excuse for a sentence and drop your pen. There were more scribbles across the page then there were words and you needed a break or you might end up throwing your note pad across the room. Abandoning your desk you wander over to the window for a distraction from your writer's block. The evening was drawing in, street lights flickering on one by one as people hurried home from their day whether it be work or leisure it was still an unwelcome reminder of your lack of productivity. Turning from the view you scan across the room, your home office, hoping for something to spark your inspiration but your mind remains unhelpfully blank. You ponder just giving up for the day, shutting the door and giving yourself over to your evening but deadlines are approaching and there is still so much to do. With a reluctant determination, you turn to your inspiration board and will it to do its job. 

When you had decided to write a follow up to your best selling debut novel, you had carefully gathered all the things you knew you would need to refer to to build the story. There were your photographs from Crowley Manor, newspaper clippings about the house and the area, quotes and key plot points from the original story,  a couple of photos of bela lugosi, the closest you can find to how you remember him looking - although you have sketched what you recall of the facepaint he wore over the top with a marker - and in the centre, the note; the only thing you have that proves that it was real. Well, that and the two small scars on your neck. You rub your fingers over them absentmindedly as you try to remember anything more but even as the scars faded, so did your memories to the point where you are not entirely sure any of it was real. Reading over the words again. 

 A candle casting a faint glow

You and I see eye to eye

Can you hear the thunder?

How can you hear the thunder that's breaking?

Now there is nothing between us

From now our merge is eternal

Can't you see that you're lost?

Can't you see that you're lost without me?

-iii

You hum the tune to yourself, the melody you had only heard once and yet it plays through your dreams so frequently you have never been able to forget it, always accompanied by a dark shadow and the sense that you are being watched. Your experience at Crowley Manor - whether a true encounter with a dashing vampire or a figment of your imagination - had changed your life. You were a writer now; a successful published writer. Your vampire romance novel had been an instant best seller, ‘the mysterious vampire luring in unsuspecting victims until one stole his heart’ earned a loyal fanbase and quickly. In interview after interview you were asked if you had based him on someone real, probably assuming he was an older man you had a crush on, but you always answered no because how could you explain that he was a man you had most likely conjured up in a dream. 

But that had all brought you to where you were now; attempting to write the much anticipated sequel. The heroine of your story had left the manor in a similar way to you but after having spent much longer with her vampire lover, and as much as you wanted to see them reunited you were struggling to find the narrative. Unlike you she had been offered forever with him and had chosen to return to her normal life, so without a justified reason, why would she return? Your thought process hits a brick wall once again as you rub your tired eyes. There is only one thing left to try before you may be forced to give up. The familiar pull in your gut that you had been resisting since the day you left was finally winning. You had to go back. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gate is rusted and stiff, so you have to push hard to create enough space for you to slip through and even then you almost trip on the piles of rubbish littering the driveway. You step over the buckled historical society sign with a sigh - even they had given up on the place and for some time by the looks of things. Tall weeds were growing through the now sparse gravel, even more windows had been boarded up and there were layers of faded graffiti covering the front door. It is already ajar but you have to shove it open, pushing it past the built up leaves and dust trying to wedge it closed. Although the state of the outside had saddened you, it is the interior that makes your heart sink -  it was never nice to see a beautiful old house fall into ruin.

The floorboards still gave their familiar creak under your soft footsteps, but that was about the only similarity. The sconces, once filled with dripping candles were now empty and shrouded in cobwebs, and dust motes thick enough to choke you floated in what little beams of light that made it through the windows. Without the soft piano luring you further into the house you took your time to properly look around, cautiously walking through room after room. What little furniture that hadn’t been stolen or vandalised was covered in dust sheets. The shelving sits almost empty in every room; you pass only a few odd books and trinkets still in place but almost unrecognisable underneath all the grime. 

Towards the back of the house you come to what looks like a music room and a feeling of deja vu washes over you. The grand piano still dominates the room, but when you run your fingers across what little keys are left it only lets out reluctant, discordant notes as neglected and decaying as the rest of your surroundings. The fireplace is a yawning chasm on the back wall without the welcoming fire filling it, but you remember laying on the soft rug before it where he had given and taken unimaginable pleasure from you, well at least you thought. Because it was seeming more and more likely you had imagined it. You pull yourself from your thoughts and that is when the portrait catches your eye. How you never noticed it before you don’t understand, but it hangs perfectly above the mantel and crushes the last shreds of hope you were clinging onto. 

It is him. His distinctive face paint, his perfectly styled hair and his intense mismatched eyes. At least now you know what really happened on your last visit to this place. Before you had fallen asleep you must have seen this portrait on your last visit, striking as he was and then your mind had concocted the whole fantasy. You are not sure exactly what you had been expecting returning to Crowley Manor, but you couldn’t avoid the cutting disappointment that was slicing through you. All that was here was an empty old house and a painting of a man. With one last longing look you take your leave as you fight the knot of feelings solidifying in your chest. There was nothing else for you here. You reach the foyer where the light of dusk shines around the edges of the open door, illuminating your exit from this house and your return to reality, when you hear it… 

We're standing here by the abyss…

That voice. The words were different and even the tune was different, but that voice. There was nothing else it could be but him. The alluring sound drifts down from the upper floor to where you stand and you don’t even try to resist his siren call as your feet carry you towards the grand staircase.

And the world is in flames…

Your footprints disturb the thick layers of dust covering the once grand carpet that leads the way up, but you continue unconcerned by the trail you are leaving in your wake, your only thought finding your way to the source of that beautiful sound. 

Two star-crossed lovers reaching out…

It gets clearer as you reach the upper level, but you still haven't quite found him yet. Along the landing are multiple doors that you consider as you walk, but once your eyes land on the ornate double doors at the furthest end you know inherently; that is your destination.

To the beast with many names…

The floorboards creak as you get closer and closer even as you attempt to keep your steps measured and even, but if that didn’t give you away then you are sure your laboured breathing and thundering heartbeat would. 

He is. He's the shining and the light without whom I cannot see…

The singing stops when you reach the doors and with barely a brush of your fingertips,they swing open revealing only a dark room within. Your eyes struggle to adjust to the gloom, but even that doesn’t make you hesitate to enter. It is as abandoned as the rest of this cursed house. All the anticipation you had felt soured inside you and tears pricked at your eyes as you circled in the centre of the room taking in the dusty bed and empty fireplace. Your back is turned when a sudden bang startles you, the doors slamming shut. You cry out in fear, turning in an instant and rushing towards them. Pushing and pulling is futile and they will not budge. The knowledge that you are trapped fills you with a shiver as a chill falls over the room.   

“My little lamb returns,” he growls in your ear, appearing as if from nowhere. His arms box you in against the door, his white gloves the only part of him you can see. You try to turn, to see him but his body presses close, cold and unyielding as stone behind you. You should do something, anything but fear and lust paralyse you as they tear through you in equal measure.

“You are real,” you barely whisper before his fangs sink into your neck, the sharp shock of pain stealing your consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

When your eyes flutter open you find it hard to believe you are even in the same room. You are lying in the centre of a four poster bed, propped up against a mountain of airy pillows and as you shift the sheets feel unbelievably soft against your fingers. The heavy drapes are tied to the frame on one side giving you a clear view of the fireplace and the figure silhouetted against it. His back is to you, seemingly unaware that you are now awake so you take your time admiring him.

It is undoubtedly him. His hair is slicked back, familiar in both your memory and in his portrait you had not long discovered. This time he wears a white suit with gold trim that glimmers in the firelight and it is certainly one you have never seen before. He turns in your direction giving you a glimpse of his striking profile still covered in his unusual skull-like face paint. He clears his throat glancing at you and you realise he is also holding a book up to the fire light. Not just any book. That is your book. The one you had written about him. You sit bolt upright but a wave of dizziness stops you from acting any further. 

“His touch feels like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. It scares you how much you crave it; how much you want him to keep touching you and to never stop. Your heart feels like it’s beating out of your chest, despite the overwhelming feeling of comfort that has fallen over you.” He smirks as he reads your words back to you with an arrogance that can only come from knowing it was written about him. 

“How did you get that?” you hiss at him, the mortification you are experiencing seems to break some of the spell he has over you. He chuckles darkly in response, snapping the book shut and placing it on the nightstand so you can see the very suggestive illustration you had commissioned for the cover clearly.

“You have a way with words, agnellino.” He leans against the bedpost, running his eyes over you and watching how you react just to his presence. “Do you still crave my touch as much as you wrote?” His elongated teeth peek out of his mouth with how wide his smile is, clearly enjoying having this additional power over you. You almost miss not so long ago when you believed he had been a figment of your imagination. 

“It’s called creative licence,” you snap back breathlessly, trying your damnedest to keep your composure but you make the mistake of meeting his mismatched eyes and you are pulled under all over again. It’s like he can worm his way into your very soul and convince you of anything he desires.

“Why did you come back?” He looms over you at the end of the bed as he waits for you to answer him. As subtly as you can, you try to sit yourself up to make yourself feel less vulnerable but your limbs are weak and uncooperative.

“I’m writing again,” you start. It is the truth - or at least part of the truth - but you can tell he doesn't believe you, fixing you with his intense stare, waiting for you to be more forthcoming. “Last time I was here it was very… inspiring.”

“I see, I see.” He starts to pace next to the bed, giving you a reprieve and a chance to breathe but you sense it is by no means the end of your interrogation.  “Just ‘professional interest’ then?”

“Yes, that is all. I should go.” You try again to sit up and ease yourself off the bed but before your feet can touch the ground he kneels in front of you, blocking you from moving any further.

“Ah ah ah,” he scolds, wagging his finger at you like he was disciplining a wayward child. “You come into my home uninvited - again, I might add.” He leans close enough you can feel the cold radiating from him, his teeth bared threateningly. “I need the truth.” Fear makes you tense but somehow you know he would never really hurt you - at least not in a way you wouldn't enjoy. You start to think his irritation is more directed at your refusal to admit how much you want him rather than the fact you broke into his house. Again. 

“You lured me up here! You could have just let me leave.” That thought boosts your confidence just enough to push back. Just a little. He didn't have to reveal himself to you everytime you were here, and yet he did.

“No I couldn't, little lamb,” he whispers, a softness falling over his face. “I could never resist a chance to taste you again.” His attention drops to your feet, helping you out of your shoes before he stands again before you. “Tell me why you are really here.”  He had given you your chance to tell him of your own volition, but now you could feel his will influencing you and bringing forth the truth. He eases his jacket from his shoulders, leaving it on the floor where it falls. He makes quick work of his bow tie adding it to the pile of clothes at his feet. 

His cuff links go next, freeing him to turn up his sleeves and then his collar sliding one button free at a time until it hangs open. His toned chest is covered in thick dark hair and it's all you can do not to reach out and bury your fingers in it. Even without his vampiric lure, you would struggle to resist him. He crawls over you, forcing you to scoot back onto the bed to make room for him and you find yourself unable to speak as you get lost in his eyes.

“Tell me…” He is intoxicating and you find you no longer have the willpower to resist him. You had forgotten how powerful he was, his presence alone narrowing your mind until all you can think of is him. The words are on the tip of your tongue, but somehow they still won't come. 

“Why are you here agnellino, eh?” He holds himself over you, the only thing touching you are the open tails of his shirt, denying you any more until you obey him. “Did you miss me?”

“I wasn’t sure if you were real any more,” you admit reluctantly and his eyes alight at your delayed admission.

“Shall I remind you how real I am?” There is a voice in your mind somewhere telling you to say no, but with every other part of you screaming a resounding yes it is easy to tune out - though you still can’t quite bring yourself to say it. So you nod and he wastes no more time. His dexterous fingers make quick work of your trousers and your underwear, pulling them off you in one swift motion and then he is on you. His strong hand grasps your ankle, pulling you even closer so he can press his lips to your bare skin. 

He starts at the sole of your foot, lavishing you with open mouthed kisses and grazes of his dangerous teeth. He seeks out parts of your body you had never even known were sensitive before, whether it was his plush mouth sucking at them or tracing them with his tongue. The curve of your calf, the dip behind your knee and the crease of your inner thigh. His cool breath raises goosebumps across your skin and he chases them with his mouth, only pausing to suck on the beads of blood that bloom where he allows his fangs to nick your skin. The contrasts make you needy for more of his touch, the warm and the cold, the pleasure and the pain. When he eventually reaches your core he ceases all his teasing and devours you, his groans of pleasure vibrating through you as he laps at your entrance and sucks on your clit. 

“Every part of you tastes exquisite,” he moans again at your skin as he pulls at the hem of your shirt, allowing himself access to even more of your skin. Your bra is pulled roughly aside so he can latch onto your nipples one after the other. Losing himself in his lust, he pinches them roughly as his teeth make deliberate shallow slices in your cleavage. He suckles at them harshly, milking all the blood he can from such a surface cut. 

Eventually he reaches your neck pressing a deceptively gentle kiss to your scar from your last encounter before seeking out the fresher puncture wounds from earlier in the evening. He probes them harshly with his tongue disturbing the newly formed clots enabling him to drink freely from you until he is positively drunk on you. 

“You are so warm agnellino,” he moans, reluctantly pulling away from you only to tear off his loose shirt and rip off his trousers. He fits himself back on top of you, desperate to be as close as possible and ruts his aching length against your hip, his mouth latching back onto your neck. He rears back giving you the opportunity to see him for the hunger ridden monster he is, but it only makes you want him more. His face paint is smudged across his face, the once precise lines blurring and blending with what remains of your blood and your juices, and his eyes sparkle with something dangerous that you can't resist. With a snarl he forces your legs wide so he can see all of you, his fingers digging a bruising grip into your soft thighs.

“After tonight you will never again doubt my existence,” he growls as he fucks into you in one long, hard stroke. There is no waiting for you to grow accustomed to him filling you; he just takes you hard, pushing the air from your lungs every time he fills you. He is rough and demanding and you crave every part of this more animalistic side to him. Your blood loss and his body worship have pushed you outside your own body, the pleasure and the pain meeting and blending and pushing you into a euphoria you had never experienced before. 

Even as his control was slipping even further away, his cock aimed perfectly, fucking into you in exactly the right place over and over while the drag of him inside your tight heat forced sobs and gasps from both of you. In the state he had you, you knew you would do anything and everything he wanted and if you hadn’t been so light headed, you might have realised that that was exactly what he wanted. He grunts as he pulls you closer, angling your hips just so that he can fuck into you even deeper, your moans of satisfaction harmonising as somehow your pleasure grows stronger than you ever thought possible. 

“Has anyone fucked you like this since me, little lamb?” He is panting, hardly able to get his words out, somehow seeming more human even in the midst of his monstrous lust. 

“No,” you whine. There is no use denying it, because who could possibly compare to him?

“Bene,” he snarls, a possessive sneer crossing his face. “No one will ever, ever fuck you like me.’ You sob in agreement as the burn in your core grows, bringing you so close. Babbled nonsense falls from your lips. You can only hope he understands how little you need to push you over the edge. 

Thankfully something you said must have made sense, because in the next moment his thumb is stroking your clit in time with his ever more frantic thrusts and the wave of your climax begins to crash, sweeping you along in its powerful tide. Your vision greys at the edges and vaguely, somewhere amidst the buzz, you feel him reach his peak just behind you as his thrusts stutter before stilling as he fills you.

Inelegantly he pulls away, landing beside you on the bed. He pulls you to him stroking your hair and dotting your forehead with sweet kisses. Contentment surges through you as you rest against his chest, his lack of heartbeat barely registering. 

“You are so very sleepy, little lamb,” he breathes into your hair, and you can only spare a thought to agree as you succumb to the overwhelming pull of sleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cold and stale morning air lures you from your sleep this time, a much less pleasant awakening than your last. Your whole body aches as you shift and try to take in your surroundings. You are alone. The dawn light spilling through the drapes allows you to see, and the bedroom appears dusty and abandoned, not the cosy boudoir you had experienced last night. 

The dusty sheets cling to your clothes as you try to stand but every movement reveals a new bite mark or bruise until you are on your feet. The worst pain though, is the ache in your heart. This should have been expected and yet the fact that he isn't here hurts. Rather than satisfying you, this second encounter only made you yearn more for this terrible, mysterious man. Your only consolation was that now at least, you will have plenty more to write about. 

You don't try to call out to him, already knowing how futile that would be, so you look once more around the room, trying hard to commit it all to memory when the night stand catches your attention. A single white rose sits atop a folded piece of paper. You pick them both up, carefully making sure to avoid the sharp thorns and unfold the paper to see that unmistakable handwriting. 

We’re standing here by the abyss

And the world is in flames

Two star-crossed lovers reaching out

To the beast with many names 

He is

He’s the shining and the light without whom I cannot see

-iii

His words were cryptic as ever but you let it fill you with uncertain hope. Maybe you were the star-crossed lovers? Or maybe not. All you knew for now at least, was that you felt you were still at the very beginning of this story…

…and you couldn't wait to see where it would take you. 

[crowsource]

🐦‍⬛ 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐒 —quotes taken from the first novel in rebecca ross' letters of enchantment duology. some edits have been made to allow for rp purposes. feel free to adjust for pronouns/names/etc.

❝ It takes courage to let down your armor, to welcome people to see you as you are. ❞

❝ I can’t risk having people behold me as I truly am. ❞

❝ You will miss so much by being so guarded. ❞

❝ I don't think you realize how strong you are. ❞

❝ Sometimes strength isn't swords and steel and fire, as we are so often made to believe. Sometimes it's found in quiet, gentle places. ❞

❝ I hope you will find your place, wherever you are. ❞

❝ I think we all wear armor. I think those who don’t are fools, risking the pain of being wounded by the sharp edges of the world, over and over again. ❞

❝ I am coming to love him, in two different ways. Face to face, and word to word. ❞

❝ I am destined to always be at war within myself. ❞

❝ Your grief will never fully fade; it will always be with you--a shadow you carry in your soul--but it will become fainter as your life becomes brighter. ❞

❝ You are not alone. ❞

❝ I never told you that I love you. And I regret that, most of all. ❞

❝ That’s it. You’re doing great, ____. ❞

❝ I think there is a magical link between you and me. A bond that not even distance can break. ❞

❝ It’s not a crime to feel joy, even when things seem hopeless. ❞

❝ ____, look at me. You deserve all the happiness in the world. And I intend to see that you have it. ❞

❝ I don’t want to wake up when I’m seventy-four only to realize I haven’t lived. ❞

❝ I’m not going anywhere, unless you tell me to leave, and even then, we might need to negotiate. ❞

❝ I realize that people are just people, and they carry their own set of fears, dreams, desires, pains, and mistakes. ❞

❝ I can’t expect someone else to make me feel complete; I must find it on my own. ❞

❝ I pray that my days will be long at your side. ❞

❝ Let me fill and satisfy every longing in your soul. May your hand be in mine, by sun and by night. ❞

❝ Let our breaths twine and our blood become one, until our bones return to dust. Even then, may I find your soul still sworn to mine. ❞

❝ I’m not afraid to be alone, but I’m tired of being the one left behind. ❞

❝ I broke my engagement, quit my job, and traveled six hundred kilometers into war-torn land to be with you. ❞

❝ And yet I keep moving forward. On some days, I’m afraid, but most days, I simply want to achieve those things I dream of. ❞

❝ Let us make our names exactly what we want them to be. ❞

❝ How do you make your life your own and not feel guilt over it? ❞

❝ I am so afraid. And yet how I long to be vulnerable and brave when it comes to my own heart. ❞

❝ I grew something living in a season of death. ❞

❝ I don’t think you can even begin to understand what your words mean to me. ❞

❝ I want your hand to be in mine, no matter what comes. ❞

❝ You’re distracting me, ____. ❞

❝ Endings were often found in beginnings. ❞

❝ By law, we’re both legal adults who can drink and be formally charged for murder. ❞

❝ Be safe. Be well. I’ll write soon. ❞

#crowsource #rp meme #rp memes #rp prompt #rp prompts #sentence starters #rp sentence starters #roleplay prompt #rp starters #roleplay memes

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Analysing my favourite lines from Six of Crows chapter by chapter: Chapter 3

As before, if there are any famous/popular lines missing it’s not because I don’t like them it’s just because I have nothing more to add to the analyses/ideas already present about them in the fandom. And if there are quotes that I haven’t analysed that’s just because I wanted to include it as a favourite quote but didn’t have anything to say explanation-wise.

This is a long chapter, so I’ll see how this goes and maybe split it into two parts.

“It would have been easy to make peace. Kaz could have told Jesper that he knew he wasn’t dirty, reminded him that he'd trusted him enough to make him his only real second in a fight that could have gone badly wrong tonight."

- this is really important for me because it tells us so much about Kaz and Jesper’s relationship in so few words, as well as telling us about the characters individually as well. Kaz trusts Jesper but he can’t tell him that and keeps him at arms length: we understand that Kaz has intimacy and/or commitment issues in both platonic and romantic relationships (since at this point in time the nature of their relationship hasn’t been explored but is presented as platonic, and Kaz had not been specifically stated to have a romantic interest this early on we as the reader make early assumptions). The specificity of the verb “knew” is SO important to me as well, because we have just seen Kaz have Big Bolliger shot in the stomach on the suspicion he was dirty based on a hunch about him going to a different cafe for breakfast but he ‘knows’ with complete certainty that Jesper is absolutely trustworthy. So within barely a paragraph of Kaz’s first POV chapter we understand that Jesper, even if their relationship is complex or rocky, is incredibly important to him and that he has considerable faith in him. The choice to not “make peace”, however, even though “it would have been easy” tells us that Kaz either feels the active need to keep Jesper at a distance or is incapable of expressing the closeness he feels in their friendship. Obviously later we’re able to learn that these are both true in their own way, but the importance of it in this moment is that we are immediately tuned in to Kaz’s fear of emotional connection and invested in understanding why this is, or exactly what he struggled with. Six of Crows is a novel I’d consider to be well balanced between plot-driven and character-driven, but I definitely think that these opening chapters are very character driven so this kind of set up is what pulls us into the book and makes us desperate to keep reading.

“ ‘Another bribe?’

‘I’m a creature of habit’

‘Lucky for you, I am too’ ”

“If you couldn’t walk out by yourself through Ketterdam after dark, then you might as well hang a sign around your neck that read “soft” and lie down for a beating” - I don’t know that I can coherently explain this I just love it; the worldbuilding??? the start of this brilliant presentation of the city as effectively it’s own character, which is one of my favourite things Bardugo does in her descriptions of Ketterdam?? The character implications about Kaz??? The way it ties into his initial judgements of Wylan!???? Perfection

“He realised he felt… Saints, he almost felt hopeful. Maybe he should see a medik” - I just love this so much, it’s so funny and it’s so quintessentially Kaz, I absolutely adore it

“Usually, he liked the quiet. In fact, he would’ve happily sewn most people’s lips shut” - we should talk about this quote more as a fandom, you know, because it’s brilliant and it’s so funny and again it’s just so brilliantly Kaz in the opening pages of his perspective we get so much information about his worldview and understand him to be quite a humorous character despite the initial appearance of him from Inej’s POV. As the novels go on we see the others notice his jokes more often, but in that introductory chapter it was incredibly important that the reader received the same image of Kaz that the Black Tips did, so now we get to be introduced to the closest thing to a real version of Kaz. I think there’s still a prevalent understanding that we’re seeing a mask, but this feels more real than Dirtyhands does… if that makes sense? I could be rambling about nonsense

"He'd heard other members of the gang say she moved like a cat, but he suspected cats would sit attentively at her feet to learn her methods" - this is just such a brilliant description of what Inej can do, it gives us such a clear image without having to overexplain anything and it also introduces us to this idea of Kaz putting her on a pedestal.

' "And what god do you serve, then?"

"Whichever will grant me good fortune"

"I don't think gods work that way,"

"I don't think I care," '

"He didn't see her go, only sensed her absence" - I can't explain it but something about this is so achingly romantic to me.

"But the fact that she could simply erase herself bothered him. She didn't even have a scent. All people carried scents, and those scents told stories -" - It wasn't until someone asked me to make a post about this quote that I really thought about it and realised why it has always stuck out to me. You can see the post on my page if you're interested, but in essence I think it's really important that Kaz struggles with any sense of permanence, so the idea that the one person he cares about more than anything else in the world could vanish so completely, as though she never even existed in the first place, is genuinely frightening - especially to a boy who several times in these novels fears that he has begun to hallucinate. Kaz seems very aware that he's on the edge of something he identifies as going mad, and the concept of visual and auditory hallucinations - Jordie's voice in his head, the panic at thinking he must have hallucinated when he first sees a Tidemaker walk through a wall, the immediate fear of being attacked by a ghost, etc - is something that constantly chases him. Kaz has also spent the last 8 years of his life living in a world that continued on as though his brother never existed, the salt in the wound being that not even Rollins remembers them, so the awareness of that happening to Inej, someone he has come to care for in a way that is entirely new and incredibly overwhelming for him - "there would be no grand funerals for them, no marble markers to remember their names" "What will you leave behind, but corpses to be burned on the Reaper's Barge?" "Out to the Reaper's Barge for burning, like all paupers go" - is a deeply upsetting. This then becomes a parallel with Kaz specifically noting that he can smell soap on her in the Crooked Kingdom Bathroom Scene; in this moment she us cemented so strongly in view and becomes the tether between Kaz and his sanity by continuing to so obstinately exist in a world that doesn't seem to want her to.

"Ghosts, Kaz thought. A boy's fear, but it came with absolute surety. Jordie had come for his vengeance at last" - oh my goodness there's so much to unpack here. I have talked about this a bit before, I think it was in my (very long) post about the potential for Wylan and Kaz to become each other, but it is SO important to look at this quote and remember that when we first read it we haven't the faintest idea who Jordie is or what happened to him. With the ousting of Big Bolliger and all the talk about your gang being your family and that even if you're a liar and a thief, you don't lie to or steal from your own gang, my initial assumption upon reading this was that Jordie had once been in a gang with Kaz, one of them had betrayed the other, and it had ended with Kaz murdering him. But, of course, this is very far from the truth and this tells us so much heart-breaking information about the fact that Kaz blames himself for what happened to them. He wonders later what might have happened to them if he hadn't insisted they go and find the magician that was the first step leading them to Rollins and to Jordie's death, but we never get anything about Kaz blaming himself quite as outrightly as this, the rest of it is usually just implied. So why show us this now? I would argue because this is how Kaz genuinely feels and in the moment he thinks it he is too terrified, confused, and to some extent concerned for his sanity to push the feeling away. Everything we see beyond this point id the construct that he has convinced himself is how he feels: that it's Rollins' fault. Obviously Rollins is at least partially to blame for Jordie's death, but if I may quote myself from a previous post It's the city that kills him, Rollins is just the weapon it chooses. Jordie even says it himself - "The city's winning now, but you'll see who wins in the end". Kaz's genuine belief is that Jordie's death is his fault, but he is in far too fragile a mental state to cope with that truth (and when I say truth I mean the that it's the truth he believes that, not that it;s the truth it's his fualt because he was jsut a nine-year-old who wanted to see a magician that's a more than innocent act and, again, he was nine) so he instead exists within a façade that he has built for himself - even on top of the one he's built for everyone else. We also see a hatred of the feeling towards blaming Jordie later on in the novels, and this is incredibly important. It's almost as if the idea that it's his fault isn't even the truth, but that's a façade to overcome the ultimate horror of seeing Jordie as accountable for it all - "What do you think my forgiveness looks like Jordie?". But ultimately, this is still the warped view of the world instilled in Kaz and so many of the other citizens of Ketterdam, possibly Kerch as a whole, arguably placing the city and its infrastructure as the ultimate villain rather than the tools of it. (Wherein the tools are Rollins and Van Eck).

"The phantom was upon him, and he felt the sharp jab of a needle in his neck. A ghost with a syringe?" - This is just so funny I love it so much I think I've read SOC and CK near to twenty times each now and this still makes me laugh every damn time.

I'm going to split this into two parts from here because this is the splitting point in the chapter and this is already a pretty long post. Thanks so much for reading this, sorry it's been a while for me to post it. I'm loving this line-by-line analysis series already (I know this is only the second post but I'm still excited) but they do take a long time to put together, particularly because at this time I don't currently have an annotated version of either book. Although I am planning to buy fresh copies for the purposes of annotating them when I get the opportunity, I currently don't have my ideas recorded anywhere except this account so whenever I write a post I'm working entirely from memory beyond the actual quotes themselves (and sometimes including them too haha) or even coming up with new ideas as I write. Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have any questions please keep sending them in I know I haven't responded to any for a little while but I love getting them and I am working through my inbox, if a bit slowly :)

#grishaverse #leigh bardugo #six of crows #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #kanej #wesper #helnik #soc analysis #soc analyst #soc meta #six of crows analysis #fantasy book analysis #book analysis #chapter 3 #grisha #the grisha series #the grisha trilogy #sab #soc #ck

[alldaysarenights]

On Discworld…

…and the things I’ve learned so far.

I know, I’m late, but sometimes it’s fun to discover something on your own and in your time.

Recently, I’ve started reading the Discworld series, beginning with Rincewind. And there are so many tiny things I’ve discovered, I don’t even know where to start.

I’ll give D&D a go first. As a passionate player and also a I-once-ran-a-short-campaign DM, I couldn’t but notice all the references there to find, especially with Rincewind. Right now I’m 4 books into his story, barely at the beginning, yet I’ve laughed my a** off a few times. Always wondering what he took from a former campaign. Well, at first I wondered if Sir Pratchett actually played. The internet was quick to answer the question, yes, yes of course he did. Would have been more surprised, if he didn’t.

I discovered stuff about the gods playing dice and there are sorcerer, barbarians and the luggage, which slightly reminds me of a mimic. But I guess this beast came afterwards. I told the other players of my group, and they agreed on the resemblance. Now we definitely have the plan, to tame a mimic, lol.

I could quote you so much stuff, but I’d fancy you going on an adventure and see it for yourself. Read the books, assemble some good friends, and have some fun on a silly campaign. Not necessarily in this order.

Next thing that keeps popping up in my mind, while reading, is Good Omens. I came from the Neil Gaiman side, getting lured in by Morpheus, whom I met doing some research. My comic book dealer was happy to help. Naturally, there was a point where I did read Good Omens. And it was weird, this was Gaiman, but also not, and it was so funny. I knew one day I would have to read Discworld. Unfortunately, I was a bit discouraged by the massive amount of books. The problem sorted out itself, after a friend, I’ve talked to about it, enabled me to read them.

With it came a list in which order I should proceed, so I happily jumped in, secretly nurturing the idea of reading all the books within a year. If it works out, no idea, we’ll see. If so, I might write another article on the experience.

Anyway, the point is, knowing Good Omens well as for watching the series multiple times and doing the same to the book (reading actually), I couldn’t but notice some stuff that definitely came from Terry’s side. Like phrases, he kept using. I did read: “Not as such” as an answer more than once. No matter who said it, in my imagination it was Crowley for a split second.

The first book got me so confused, I completely forgot that this was Terry Pratchett. I caught myself thinking, I was reading Neil Gaiman. This set my brain on halt and the world stood for a second. Amazing what books can do to you.

I’ve realised Death and the horsemen and how they seem unable to start a proper apocalypse. Also, sometimes there were phrases sounding a lot like Agnes Nutter. As well as the tone it is written in, the tiny wordings you sometimes aren’t aware of as an author. And it led me to the conclusion, (of course there is no other evidence and I could be totally wrong), that Neil must have invested a lot of time in re-reading the Discworld or maybe already know them by heart. For some of the things I’ve realised definitely played a part in GO2.

It is amazing how much two people can morph into one, and yet there must be a lot of work behind the scenes. I for my part can only hope that my writing buddy and I can get to this point some day. At least I’ll have to convince him to write a full-grown novel together first.

So you might ask yourself, and I know because so did I, what’s the whole point of this article? Fair enough. I came to the conclusion, that fun expands with knowledge. And I know, my sense of fun probably differs from that of others a lot. But if you are able to grasp those tiny hints and hidden pleasures, it can make a story twice as joyful.

So go out there and consume all those stories. Not just by reading. Listen to people telling their stories, watch movies, series, anime. Maybe go to the opera or watch a play. Memorise a poem or play a game. Find the medium which suits you well but keep on searching, you’ll never know what you might learn from it and what pleasures and magic are hidden in those stories. Because our world is built, or maybe better, powered by storytelling.

#discworld #terry pratchett #neil gaiman #good omens #dnd #stories #storytelling

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Ryo’s Gun & Jane Austen

It’s hard to see, but in the OP Ryo’s gun (and it is Ryo’s gun, I made the mistake in a previous post of thinking it was Kazuki’s, whoops! But I have noted that correction in a reblog, so definitely check that out - I’ll link it below) has a quote on it from, what Google is telling me, is Jane Austen. The quote is:

I want nothing but death.

Those were her last words. 

Seeing those last words on Ryo’s gun in the OP with the current situation and the Episode 11 preview and everything - it can certainly seem scary. 

But, I’m going to focus a bit on Jane Austen as a writer, what her styles and themes are, and what that might mean for Buddy Daddies or how it might be reflected in Buddy Daddies. Since Kazuki’s VA did mention that we should think about what message the director is sending in this last act.

So, let’s take a look. I think the main two ways that Jane Austen’s style and themes can be seen in Buddy Daddies, is how her writing was considered realism and with a lot of emphasis being placed on “the everyday” that was accompanied by comedy:

Text: Jane Austen's (1775–1817) distinctive literary style relies on a combination of parody, burlesque, irony, free indirect speech and a degree of realism. She uses parody and burlesque for comic effect and to critique the portrayal of women in 18th-century sentimental and Gothic novels. Austen extends her critique by highlighting social hypocrisy through irony; she often creates an ironic tone through free indirect speech in which the thoughts and words of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator. The degree to which critics believe Austen's characters have psychological depth informs their views regarding her realism. While some scholars argue that Austen falls into a tradition of realism because of her finely executed portrayal of individual characters and her emphasis on "the everyday", others contend that her characters lack a depth of feeling compared with earlier works, and that this, combined with Austen's polemical tone, places her outside the realist tradition.

(From the Wikipedia Article on her style, which will be linked to below).

We see aspects of this with Buddy Daddies. In Episode 4 we have a critique being made about the ridiculous levels of paperwork and prep work that needs to go into sending a kid to daycare.

While we get depictions of everyday aspects like Kazuki cleaning or Rei and Miri playing games together. 

Another aspect of Jane Austen’s writing style is about character’s growing to become “better” and more moral versions of themselves.

Text:  Her plots are fundamentally about education; her heroines come to see themselves and their conduct more clearly, and become better, more moral people. While Austen steers clear of the formal moralizing common in early-19th-century literature, morality—characterized by manners, duty to society and religious seriousness—is a central theme of her works. Throughout her novels, serious reading is associated with intellectual and moral development.

We see that happening in Buddy Daddies as well, through scenes like Rei’s thoughts on how he just mindlessly killed in the past:

Or with the discussion and prevalence on change:

There are other elements and themes to her writing as well, like the focus on women, of course. But I don’t think we can really speak on that aspect too much until the series is said and done. 

Of course, the quote is likely also there due to Ryo’s curiosity with death, final words, and the reason for why humans exist. But, I would like to think that this quote wasn’t picked solely for that reason either.

Also, I’m not super well versed in Jane Austen stuff (I know some of my moots are though! Though I don’t know how versed they might be with Buddy Daddies), but if anyone who is more versed with her as a person and her works wants to chime in or add to this (or correct me on anything I may have gotten wrong!) please feel free to do so in a reblog, comment or even in the tags. I always love to see what others write or contribute to the conversation! <3

#Buddy Daddies #BD #Jane Austen #KazuRei #Kazuki Kurusu #Rei Suwa #Ryo Ogino #BD spoilers #Buddy Daddies spoilers #long post #image heavy post #meta post #analysis #themes

[bethanydelleman]

Manners (following from this post) in Jane Austen's novels. Definition:

"external behavior (especially polite behavior) in social intercourse," late 14c., plural of manner in a specific sense of "proper behavior, commendable habits of conduct" (c. 1300)... Earlier it meant "moral character"

Manners, and the lack of them, matter a lot in Jane Austen's low stakes world where a man's biggest flaw can be rudeness. Here are some quotes from Pride & Prejudice, rapid fire:

The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.

“He is just what a young-man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

"And so, you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his."

He was at the same time haughty, reserved, and fastidious; and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting. In that respect his friend had greatly the advantage. Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared; Darcy was continually giving offence.

The visit was returned in due form. Miss Bennet’s pleasing manners grew on the good-will of Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and though the mother was found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest.

since Jane united with great strength of feeling, a composure of temper and an uniform cheerfulness of manner

and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness

What can we draw from this? Like taste, manners seem to encompass both education and natural inclination/personality. Darcy and Bingley are both educated, but one has "happy" manners while the other's are "not inviting". Elizabeth's manners are not "fashionable", but may still be admired. Manners can be pleasing and draw one in, as we also see in Emma:

Emma was as much pleased with her manners as her person [Harriet], and quite determined to continue the acquaintance.

We also have Emma's very vague description of what makes manners "good":

In one respect, perhaps, Mr. Elton’s manners are superior to Mr. Knightley’s or Mr. Weston’s. They have more gentleness. They might be more safely held up as a pattern. There is an openness, a quickness, almost a bluntness in Mr. Weston, which every body likes in him, because there is so much good-humour with it—but that would not do to be copied. Neither would Mr. Knightley’s downright, decided, commanding sort of manner, though it suits him very well; his figure, and look, and situation in life seem to allow it; but if any young man were to set about copying him, he would not be sufferable. On the contrary, I think a young man might be very safely recommended to take Mr. Elton as a model. Mr. Elton is good-humoured, cheerful, obliging, and gentle. He seems to me to be grown particularly gentle of late.

Honestly, Emma seems to almost be using "manners" to justify who she likes, without any real consistency.

However, there do seem to be associated good qualities that make good manners as well, as we see with Lady Russell in Persuasion:

She was a benevolent, charitable, good woman, and capable of strong attachments, most correct in her conduct, strict in her notions of decorum, and with manners that were held a standard of good-breeding.

Another interesting quote:

Mrs Clay had freckles, and a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist, which he was continually making severe remarks upon, in her absence; but she was young, and certainly altogether well-looking, and possessed, in an acute mind and assiduous pleasing manners, infinitely more dangerous attractions than any merely personal might have been.

Anyway, I don't have an answer, but it was very fun to run around Jane Austen's novels looking at her references to both taste and manners. I think it's clear that education played a big part in both, that there are proper and improper manners & tastes. Manner and taste seem to both be influenced by fashion. There is a difference between natural and polished. They can be wrong or offensive.

I feel like someone could write an entire thesis about these two words!

#jane austen #question response #manners #word definitions #this is so big of a topic!

[alwayschasingrainbows]

I am a bit shy to post this poll, but also, very curious about your opinion, so here we go.

After reading the Finnish sequel to Emily of New Moon series, and comparing it to the later Anne books, another question came to my mind:

(the "Emilia Kent - Runotytön tarina jatkuu" by Satu Koskimies and Vilja-Tuulia Huotarinen spoilers under the cut - as well as the origins of this question and my own opinion):

Thank you all for voting!!! I really appreciate each one of your answers ❤.

The origins of the question (and spoilers of a Finnish sequel!) under the cut:

SPOILERS for Emily's sequel (my opinion is beneath the summary):

It was a quite important issue in the Finnish sequel. Emily was very apprehensive when it came to an eventual motherhood. It was stated multiple times that she had no maternal instinct whatsover (very Rilla-like). She didn't want to sacrifice her writing - and she felt that she would have to, if she had children. One of the things she was dealing with in this sequel was writer's block - she found it very difficult to write. Thankfully, she overcame the issue and wrote another novel, at the end of the story. Emily was not exactly against having children (more like, resigned "If they come, there is nothing to be done"), but she certainly was not excited about the idea, unlike Anne.

Emily went as far as telling an annoying reporter that she and her husband were NOT going to have any children. Teddy, on the other hand, was described as wanting a family (which, for a short time, was a bit of a sore issue between them).

Emilia Kent - Runotytön tarina jatkuu takes place during the first two (?) years of Emily and Teddy's marriage. They don't have any children during this time - yet the narrative suggests that Emily is pregnant during the last two chapters (nothing is said straight-forwardly, though).

END OF THE SPOILERS for Emily's sequel.

My opinion:

I personaly have trouble picturing these two as parents. They seem far too invested into their work to find time for their eventual children.

On the other hand, LMM herself wanted children - and it was quite difficult to prevent pregnancy at these times (not impossible, of course, but difficult). Usually, marriage meant having children.

Also... Rilla, who did not like babies, couldn't help loving little Jims. We learn from "The Blythes Are Quoted" that she and Ken had, indeed, become parents to young Gilbert Ford.

Rilla's maturation is partly described via taking care of her war baby - as if to say that even people who seemingly had no parental instinct, could grow to love a child (it is not exactly true in a real world, but LMM seems to use this trope rather often; Aunt Elizabeth with Juliet and Emily, Marilla with Anne and the twins, Andrew Stuart with Jane, etc).

Also, this paragraph from Emily's Quest suggests that Emily might have wanted children at the end of the story:

"Daff," she said, "there is an old fireplace in that house—with the ashes of a dead fire in it—a fireplace where pussies should bask and children dream. And that will never happen now, Daff, for Mabel Geordie doesn't like open fireplaces—dirty, dusty things—a Quebec heater is so much warmer and more economical."

Emily's dreams are connected to the Disappointed House - I always felt that she talked about her feelings there - but that is very far-stretched and the only thing that might suggest something.

So, if I were to answer my own question: I would probably say: either none, either 1 or 2. I definitely don't see her as having a big family.

I am very curious about your thoughts!!!! Sorry for the long post.

#lm montgomery #emily of new moon #poll #emily of new moon sequel #finnish sequel of emily of new moon

[emotionallychargedtowel]

the persistent and the cute

Over the last few days, there’s been a really interesting discussion in the comments of my reblog of the gifset @tinngun​ put together of the Utsukushii Kare season 2 finale kiss. I’m transplanting it here because 1) it seems like @tinngun​ could use a break from all those notifications and so forth 2) the conversation was totally getting buried and I think it might be interesting to folks who probably wouldn’t see it without it being brought back out into a main post. So, first, here’s a quick recap of what I posted when I reblogged the gifset post in the first place. Well, the part that’s pertinent to this conversation, at least. I commented on the tropeyness of the scene, including allusions to Hira and Kiyoi’s sexual relationship, which (from what I hear) gets quite a bit of time in the novels but by virtue of TV as a medium, is mostly not portrayed in the series. In other words, since this part of the relationship isn’t shown directly the vast majority of the time, it has to be sketched out through these allusions, including what I’d consider coded language. 

With regard to the coded terms, I brought up something @bookittyboop​ had mentioned to me previously, that “persistent” and “cute” have specific meanings in BL/yaoi/other related genres. Basically, someone labeled as “persistent” is more active/forceful sexually and someone labeled as “cute” is yielding/more passive, with these roles being mutually reinforcing (i.e. the more yielding the “cute” person is, the more forceful the “persistent” person becomes).

Then I talked about the way Hagiwara Riku’s voice shifts in the line, “Sorry, Kiyoi. I can’t wait any longer tonight.” I had checked out some clips of other roles of his and noticed that among other things, he really seems to use his voice to differentiate between characters. This helped me to notice how distinct his “can’t wait” voice was, and I thought this was probably a voice belonging to the “persistent” part of the character. And I was less sure about this, but I thought Yagi Yusei was playing into this as well by reacting to the voice by kind of melting/going all floppy in response to it (he’d been fairly swoony before that, but it definitely seemed to be going up a notch there).

Then @xnoel, perennial fountain of information, pointed me to this quote from an interview translation (highlighting added):

So yeah, this seems like confirmation! I mean, what else would Yagi be referring to when he talks about “Hira’s ‘dark’ side” than this authoritative husky whisper thing?

Then I got some really great comments which I’m going to share here with permission, in part because I asked if anyone could point me toward more information on the “persistent”/”cute” thing.

The ever-helpful @nieves-de-sugui​ said:

a little bit of translation notes for your analysis! Hira is saying, literally, "I can't hold back (anymore)" and it's a very tropey sentence to say in BL (and shoujo) right before getting it on.  It's also the main indicator of taking over/taking charge of the sexual encounter. There's a lot of one taking over and the other giving in. (I think there's a lot here about how Japanese people relate to sex and how it should be done).

(I said I’d run into this trope in Kdramas before as well.)

And then the kind and knowledgeable @bookittyboop​ pretty much took me to school on the whole persistent/cute dichotomy! They left comments in two clusters at different times so I’m putting a little dinkus (the line of asterisks or symbol that marks a transition between sections) in there to show where that was. Oh, and I took out some greetings/closings and stuff like that for flow purposes. Here we go:

The best source I can think of (because otherwise this is the kind of thing your get through osmosis once you've watched enough Japanese media) is @absolutebl's post [link added by me] on the whipping boy trope, though there is more to it. I would classify Hira as a whipping boy/attack dog/service top and Kiyoi as more of a kuudere than a tsundere as well as a spoiled prince/pampered princess.

Their characterization and dynamic (and derivatives) is a staple not only in bl but in Japanese media. You've got a male character (Hira) who is the unassuming or even the loser archetype but unearths or shows a "manly" and protective side in benefit of his loved ones (many times after his "cowardice" or "uselessness" has let them be hurt) and slowly makes something of himself.

Then you got a (normally female) character who is  a combination of cold and aloof (kuudere) or prickly and explosive (tsundere) but actually wants to be cherished and uses the gruff exterior as a way to protect herself from heartache/rejection.

The first archetype normally admires the second and wants to be at their service while the second sees the potential in them and the adoration makes them feel safe. In normal circumstances the first character has a submissive personality and the other a domineering one. The second character is also going to find emotional vulnerability extremely difficult to express. But in certain circumstances, there is a "mom friend hack" button.

* * *

When character 2 opens up/shows vulnerability, character 1 identifies a need in the other to be cared for and takes confidence from being  chosen to provide that. There's also gap moe (duality cuteness) and horny "I'm gonna worship you so good you will forget everything else,” "gotta get top marks at satisfying you," and "you're so cute I wanna eat you up" buttons.

The second character in turn feels attracted, safe and tethered by that show of confidence and let's themselves (their barriers) go more and more . Those energies feed into each other and that's how you get to our kiss scene. Sometimes(Kiyoi's case) they add coyness and shyness ("no, that's too much you beast") because God forbid the tsundere/kuudere lacks plausible deniability when they go back to their senses. (there's a "baby it's cold outside"element too)

This is where @absolutebl​ chimed in to say they thought @bookittyboop​ was doing “a GREAT job” with this explanation.

And I agreed, and thanked them for the time and effort involved in such a useful explanation, but asked about the “mom friend hack” because it was new to me. Here was their explanation:

The mom friend is the responsible, caring one, prepared for any eventuality. If you're a generally anxious person but also the mom friend, you've got a hack where you handily navigate  situations which would normally be embarrassing or anxiety-inducing if it's for your loved one's benefit.

For example:

-Buying condoms, pregnancy tests, emetics or other "embarrassing" stuff

-telling waitstaff they got an order wrong and to please change it

-asking a teacher to explain something again or revise an exam score

-giving a jerk a piece of your mind

Basically, you may not be able to stand for yourself or even make perfectly mundane, normal requests for your own sake, but the power of love lets you rationalize things, be brave, and do it for others.

I just realized I probably didn't clarify enough. Hira's thing is not exactly a "mom friend hack" but it's similar to it in the sense that "being needed" lets him overcome a mental block.

And they added, re: my theory about Kiyoi’s response to the Persistent Voice:

As for the kiss voice and Kiyoi's reaction, I too am convinced that was all on purpose. Bl drinks from yaoi manga, which has a treasure trove of visual cues and tropes. If there was a manga version, we'd probably have seen Hira suddenly get wolfy ears and shiny eyes + Kiyoi blushing like a maiden (maybe a fade to black with the dirtiest onomatopoeia known to man) to signal someone's getting railed within an inch of his life 😂. This is the real life equivalent.

So, yeah. Lots to think about here. I’m glad to know I seemed to be on the right track. It’s funny how there is so much material out there about some tropes and genre terms (googling seme and uke will get you more results than you know what to do with) while other tropes are harder to find anything about. (If only because of the vagaries of search terms, which might be a factor here.) If nothing else I’ll have this post to refer back to and I hope others will do the same if they find it at all useful.

Thanks again to @bookittyboop​ and @nieves-de-sugui​ for their thoughts! And to the illustrious @absolutebl​ for chiming in with praise (for @bookittyboop​) and confirmation.

postscript:

There are a couple of things I keep noticing about that kiss scene since this discussion that I wanted to point out. I guess the fact that, due to both of my reblogs, I had a gifset of the scene at the top of my profile for three days probably has something to do with it.

First, I hadn’t noticed how much Kiyoi really is slipping into a “cute” persona even before the Persistent Voice is used--just in response to Hira’s first kiss. His eyes get very soft and he does that affectionate head-bonk but the pièce de résistance, to my mind, is the rather childlike way he sticks out the end of his tongue. So, yeah. The first stage of cuteness comes before the Voice is even used.

Second, I hadn’t even reckoned with just how floppy Kiyoi gets after the Voice. He’s swaying around so much that Hira keeps having to grab him so he doesn’t just keel over. He’s gone almost boneless.

I guess it’s just really fascinating to me how this set of tropes can be so pervasive in one culture (or at least noteworthy chunks of it) and yet almost entirely novel to me. I mean, I was aware cultural differences existed, of course, but sometimes getting hit by the reality of them is still startling.

#utsukushii kare #utsukushii kare season 2 #utsukushii kare 2 #hira x kiyoi #persistent x cute trope #bl tropes

[liminalmemories21]

Fuck It Friday

tagged by @jesuisici33.

Apparently I'm just using this tag as a way to post outtakes.

This is a deleted/rewritten from Knave 2 that eventually became "Then - 7 Months Ago (August)". The two bear almost no resemblance to each other, but it was the same idea of TK's past coming back to haunt him. Also, I'm still kind of playing around with the idea of what exactly Carlos's colleagues think of him, and more specifically him and TK.

“Am I a problem for you?”  TK asks suddenly.

And it feels like such a non sequitur that he’s lost.  “What?”

“At the station, am I a problem for you?”

“What did this guy say to you?”

TK shrugs, “Nothing that wasn’t true, and that’s fine when it’s me.  My sins, my penance.”

“How very Catholic of you,” Carlos says dryly, on autopilot, trying to find the plot thread to this conversation.

TK smiles briefly, but the smile drops away again almost instantly.  "The guy who taught me how to grift, he told me once that you have to get out of the game as soon as you have something you aren’t willing to lose."

And he’s not following, and feels stupid.  TK gives him an unhappy look.  “I thought I’d done it right.  I got clean.  I got out.  But it’s always going to follow me around, I just don’t want it to follow you around too.”

He reaches out, and then stops just shy of touching TK, not sure if he’s welcome.  “I think I’m going to need an actual verb at some point.”

“I’ve heard people talking, at the station, when I drop something off, or if I meet you there.”

“Who?” he asks sharply.  “Garvey?  Because Garvey’s a dick to everyone who isn’t a middle aged white guy.”

TK frowns, “No, not Garvey, although that kind of proves my point.”

“TK seriously, can you start at the beginning and just keep going until the end so I can figure out what the hell is going on?”

TK looks up, startled.  “Shit.  I’ve never actually seen you lose your patience.”  He glances at his watch.  “That took what, eight months?  That has to be a record for me.”

He gives in to exasperation and worry and tugs TK over to the couch and pulls him down.  “TK.”

TK’s smile is brief and humorless.  “Massey - the guy on the our Board - he said he’d been talking about the program over dinner, mentioned my name.  Next day his brother-in-law stopped by his office with a bunch of stories about me - true stories as it happens, although I’m not sure he cared a lot about asking that question.  He said he’d brought it up with Tanya who was,” he makes air quotes, “‘woefully naive’, so it was his responsibility as a Board member to keep an eye on me.”  He waves a hand, “which, whatever, as long as he doesn’t try and get me fired I don’t actually care.”

“But?”

TK blows out a breath, “But then he mentioned you.  Said he’d heard that we were involved.  Said that was the kind of thing that didn’t reflect well on young detective,” he scowls, “dude seriously talked like he was an 80 year old out of Dickens’ novel.”  He flicks a glance at Carlos.  “He said, it was the kind of thing that made people think twice about coming for backup.”

Carlos takes a steadying breath.  “Okay, sweetheart, this is what’s been tying you up in knots?”  TK nods, frowning.  “I’m gay, Tejano, and a legacy hire.  People thought twice about coming for backup a long time before I started dating you.”

TK flashes him a wry smile.  “You’re saying I should get over myself?”

He snorts, “I’m saying that I know who to trust and who not to, and none of that is a calculus that’s changed in the last eight months.  And, even if it had, I still wouldn’t give you up for it.”

“I can’t be the reason you get hurt,” TK says seriously.

“Off the top of my head I can think of five people at the station you might have overheard saying shitty things about me.  They’ve been saying them since I got there.  I worked hard for my job, and I earned it whatever anyone else might think.  And, I’m not giving it up because someone who's living in a fantasy of the 1950s doesn't want me there, and I'm sure as hell not giving you up for them."

“How do you go to work every day if you think that?”

He looks at TK with a straight face, “Well it helps that I’m 99.9% sure that I’m having much better sex than they are.”

TK gapes at him for a moment, and then shoves him, hard and he topples back into the sofa cushions laughing.  “This is your idea of being comforting?”

He straightens up, and reaches for TK’s hand with less hesitation this time.  “I think I can’t change anyone’s opinion by willing it, all I can do is live up to my own expectations for myself and hope that they can respect that.  Giving up someone I love, because someone tells me to, I couldn’t respect myself if I did that, so how can I ask someone else to respect me?”

TK looks at him seriously.  “I think you’re giving other people too much credit, but it’s working in my favor so I’m not gonna argue too hard.”

tagging anyone who has outtakes they want to share, because like anyone who grew up with DVD blooper reels, I love me an extra.

#outtakes #knave-verse #tarlos #au #911 lonestar

[astrronomemes]

PERCY JACKSON AND THE TITAN'S CURSE: STARTERS

a collection of quotes, phrases, and sayings from the 2007 Rick Riordan novel, Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse. change & alter as needed.

"She's right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Do you have everything you need? Extra sweaters? You have my cell phone number?"

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

"My name's [name]. I'm going to take you out of here, get you somewhere safe."

"You are wanted alive, if possible. Otherwise, you would already be dead."

"We don't have any family. [Name] and I... we've got no one but each other."

"You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs."

"Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"

"I feel a haiku coming on."

"I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees."

"You've already got [name] on your bad side. You need another immortal enemy?"

"Smashing it would be good."

"Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"

"I apologized for the hole in his pants, but he still sent me packing."

"Do we get to kill the other team?"

"[Name], with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

"He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset."

"Your time will come. I'm convinced of that. There's no need to rush."

"[Name], as much as I want you to come home, as much as I want you to be safe, I want you to understand something. You need to do whatever you think you have to."

"I know one thing about you, [name]. Your heart is always in the right place. Listen to it."

"I'm telling you that I'll support you, even if what you decide to do is dangerous."

"Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you?"

"The prophecy says at least two of you will die. Perhaps I'll get lucky, and you'll be one of them."

"You know, you're never completely without friends."

"Do me a favor. Get out of my car."

"You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear through the search."

"So what's the story with you and [name]?"

"I hate this language. It changes too often."

"Of course I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"Oh, you even dream about her! That's so cute!"

"You're so cute! I wish all my daughters could break the heart of a boy as nice as you."

"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?"

"I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."

"If anything happens, give that to [name]. Tell him... tell him I'm sorry."

"There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it."

"Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?"

"How did you get that sword past security?"

"Why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I'm complaining."

"It's been nice adventuring with you guys."

"Oh, yeah, you look completely inconspicuous now."

"Um, maybe we could avoid talking about entrails, too."

"I won't leave you guys. We fight together."

"Long Island. It's this island. And it's... long."

"Tell [name]... tell her she still has a home here, will you? Remind her of that."

"It can be like old times -- the three of us, together, fighting for a better world."

"I did the stupidest thing in my life... which is saying a lot."

"You are brave beyond measure, my girl. You will do what is right."

"Please remember you always have a home with us. We will keep you safe."

"Wise counsel is not always popular, but I spoke the truth."

"I think I owe you a dance."

"Go away! I hate you! I wish you were dead!"

"Why are you saying that?! You want to be responsible for the whole world?!"

#rp meme #roleplay meme #rp starters #roleplay starters #dialogue prompts #rp prompts #roleplay prompts #rp memes #roleplay memes #sentence prompts #sentence memes #sentence starters

[steddiebang]

An Act of Grace

Author: @daysarestranger l Artist: @bienmoreau Posting on Friday, November 3

On the morning after Broughton Hall’s annual summer fête, the body of a local Baron’s son was found on the grounds of the estate, as lifeless and cold as the morning was warm. Having spent the summer together, member of the household staff Edward Munson was the first to be suspected. As for the Baron’s son, perhaps there was more to him than the Baron would have society believe.  Decades later, Max Mayfield comes across the murder of Steven Harrington while researching topics for the second season of her hit true crime podcast. Along with her some-time engineer and full-time ex-boyfriend, Lucas, Max uncovers a story of two people that, entwined in secrecy and truths left unspoken, reaches out across history.

Keep reading for a sneak preview!

Complete Transcript for the Undone Podcast, Season Two: An Act of Grace

This transcript is based on the Undone podcast produced by Glad-Well House and Mayclair Productions. Original audio files can be found on www.undone-podcast.com, Spotify, and other podcast distribution sites. 

Link Episode 1

Title The Past is a Foreign Country

Original Release Date October 2nd 2023

[Intro music begins; fades]

MAYFIELD, NARRATING: ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ You know the quote, right? You might not know where it’s from, but you’ve heard of it. Heard people repeat it, with a shrug, lamenting the unfathomable manner in which us human beings used to behave, how we treated each other, what we used to believe. As if we, now—the enlightened—would never tolerate such things. 

You and I know differently, of course. 

[Door opening]

DUSTIN HENDERSON: Max, hi. Come in, come in.

MAYFIELD: Hey, Dustin, thanks. How you doing?

[Chairs scraping against the floor, a mug being set down on a table]  

MAYFIELD: Oh, you’ve got a copy?

DUSTIN HENDERSON: ‘Course I do. A bunch. Everyone I know is getting one for Christmas.

MAYFIELD: You’ll be popular.

DUSTIN HENDERSON: [Snorting] Yeah. 

[Pages turning] 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: Here it is. [Clears throat] ‘I liked him, though. We all did … There was always something gentle about him.’ That’s nice, right? It’s what you’d want people to say about you.

MAYFIELD: Yeah. I guess you ’re right. That you were liked.

[Papers shuffling]  

MAYFIELD, NARRATING: It’s the opening line to a novel. The quote, that is. A good one, actually. ‘The Go-Between’, written by L.P. Hartley in nineteen fifty-three. I’ve always liked the book, not for the opener, but for the way it portrays how the passage of time distorts things. How one event can happen early on in your life, and you can know with such certainty how it went down, only to look  back on it ten, twenty, thirty years later and see something entirely different. 

[Door hinges squeaking open]  

MAYFIELD: You’ve left it in the attic? 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: I thought you were coming tomorrow! 

MAYFIELD: Don’t try to make it sound like I’m not organized, you’re the one who doesn’t know what day of the week it is. 

[Boxes shifting, being dragged across the floor]

DUSTIN HENDERSON: It’s one of these, I made sure … You know, I was always having a go at Mum for being such a hoarder, but apparently she was onto something. 

MAYFIELD: It’s the hoarders of this world that keep me in a job. 

[Some grunting, more shifting]

MAYFIELD, NARRATING: The case I’ve been investigating for the past six months started in nineteen-twelve. Or, I suppose it started before that, but nineteen-twelve is when it really gets interesting.

The same year that Captain Scott and his expedition were beaten to the South Pole, all of them perishing on the return journey. The year that the Titanic struck an ice-berg in the middle of the Atlantic and sank, killing fifteen-hundred people. And the same year W.C. Handy published ‘Memphis Blues’, which went down in history as the first ever blues song. 

On June ninth, nineteen-twelve, after the small village of Deeping Saint David’s annual summer festival, the son of the local Baron dies in the grounds of the family’s estate.

Steven Harrington’s body is discovered not long afterwards, and he is pronounced dead by a local doctor. His parents, Lord and Lady Avondale, immediately suspect foul play. The police are brought in to investigate and an arrest is made. Even with a cast of potential ne'er-do-wells, there was only ever one suspect pursued.  

[Footsteps, something heavy being set on the ground] 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: Let me give it a wipe.

[Blowing breath]

MAYFIELD: You got it? Oh, yeah,  you’re right. I can’t believe the paintwork is still so good. It must be a hundred years’ old. 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: One hundred and eleven years, three months and sixteen days. The date was written on the back. 

MAYFIELD: [Whistle] It’s good, though. It looks just like the picture I saw. 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: I said it did! That’s an aristocratic jawline if ever I saw one. 

MAYFIELD: He was honorable. Like, officially.

DUSTIN HENDERSON: The Honorable Mister Steven Harrington. Does kind of have a ring to it I suppose. 

MAYFIELD: Yeah. Handsome bastard.

[Laughter]

MAYFIELD, NARRATING: Six months ago, I hadn’t heard of Steven Harrington, or Eddie Munson. I didn’t have any reason to, to be fair. It’s not a particularly well-known case, even locally. There are a handful of books that cover the key points in the local library, a few of the volunteers at the Harringtons’ ancestral home—now a bustling attraction for weekenders and families alike—know the reported account. Even fewer question it. Because why would they? Edward Munson was a thief who stole from the estate, killed Harrington when he was interrupted, and made off with the money. He was found by police the next morning, arrested, and made a full confession. 

A straight-forward case, all tied up in a neat bow. What is there to question?

[Two sets of footsteps walking on gravel]

MAYFIELD: Have you visited yet?

DUSTIN HENDERSON: Broughton? No, not yet. Mum’s talked about going, but they want to make it a group thing, so, organizing, you know. 

MAYFIELD: You sound dubious. 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: No. Not for me. I don’t know what she’ll make of it, though. What if it just bums her out?

MAYFIELD: It won’t. I don’t think it will, at least. I think it’ll be cathartic. Enlightening. 

DUSTIN HENDERSON: Well, you would say that. You’ve got a podcast to sell. 

MAYFIELD: Hey! 

[The thud of an object hitting its target]

DUSTIN HENDERSON: Ow!

[Outro music begins]

MAYFIELD, NARRATING: Except the money is never found. Except the precise cause of Steven Harrington’s death is shrouded in mystery. Except, for such a high-profile victim, the story is buried in the back pages of the local newspapers. 

It’s almost as if someone were trying to hide something. And nobody seems to have found that odd. 

Until now. 

[Music swells]

MAYFIELD, NARRATING: From Glad-Well House and Mayclair Productions, this is Undone, season two, An Act of Grace. I’m Max Mayfield. Let’s get into it. 

[Music swells; fades]

#steddiebang23 #steddiebang23 upcoming projects

[harrywavycurly]

Hey Sarah! Love your work💕 can I ask for fiancé Eddie and the reader talking wedding stuff? Thank you in advance!!

Hiii babes!!! Awe you’re so sweet! I loved doing this, kinda made it where you’re a bit overwhelmed and also just random fluff so I hope you enjoy it!🥹💖

-this is you and fiancé Eddie from the texting series-

*You’re overwhelmed but have no fear your fiancé Eddie is here also you drop his petname in public*

“Gold or white?” “Uhh whatever you like baby.” “Eddie…just pick gold or white?” “It’s a tablecloth they both look nice…for tablecloths.” “I can’t do this.” “Can’t do what?” “This! I can’t pick everything myself it’s too much I just…I need your help so please just pick gold or white?” “I’m sorry sweetheart. I uh..let’s see…yeah I like the white it will look nice.” “Thank you.”

“Those look pretty. Is this for like the center of the table?” “Yes these are the centerpieces. You said you liked white flowers with some greenery since we are getting married at Lover’s Lake it’ll help bring it all together.” “I did say that huh? I am good at this whole wedding planing thing.” “Yup your new title is Eddie Munson the wedding planner.” “Has a nice ring to it. But what do you think? Are you happy with them?” “I love them. I think it’s going to be so pretty.” “You want candles on the tables as well right?” “Yes the fake ones. I don’t need Dustin or Lucas setting anything on fire.” “Smart choice.”

“Are you done with your vows?” “What vows?” “Eddie…our wedding vows.” “We have to come up with our own?” “You told me you wanted to write them? Have you not started?” “I thought we like get told what to say to each other?” “If that’s what you want that’s fine we don’t need to write our own vows if you don’t want to.” “No no I can write my own. Just know my goal is to make you ugly cry.” “Same.” “Wait what? Did you say same?” “Yes. You’re totally going to cry when I read mine to you.” “You’re done with yours?” “Yes. I’ve been done for a few weeks.” “Overachiever…” “I might have even snuck in a lord of the rings quote.” “You’re fucking with me.” “You’ll just have to wait and find out.” “If you talk Tolkien to me on our wedding day I won’t survive.” “You’ll be fine…where are you going?” “I’ve got work to do…who’s that author that writes those sexy time books you read? I can’t find that one about Drake on your shelf” “Edward Munson you can not quote a romance novel in your wedding vows.” “Says who?”

“Baby please don’t make me try another one.” “This is the last one and I think it’s the winner.” “Baby…we have tried six different cakes and I’m going to be honest they are all starting to taste the same.” “Please honeybuns just one more bite.” “God you just haaddd to call me that didn’t you?” “Pleaseeee.” “You’re not playing fair baby….fine this is the last one or I will literally explode.” “Have…have you been eating the whole slice for every flavor?” “Uh..yes?” “Eddie! You just need to take a bite not eat the whole slice.” “You tell me this now? After I’ve eaten six pieces of cake…” “I’m sorry…but what did you think of the last one?” “I liked it. I agree it’s the winner.” “Did we just pick a wedding cake?” “I think…yeah I think we did.” “Holy shit.” “I think by the time our wedding rolls around I’ll finally be able to look at cake and not feel sick.” “I’m sorry…I should’ve told you about the one bite rule.” “You’re so lucky I’m madly in love with you.”

“What’s got you so tense princess?” “Marrying you.” “Oh yeah? Marrying me is making you tense?” “Yes it’s stressful and you know I hold my stress in my shoulders.” “Let’s see what I can do about that okay?” “Ohh how many guests did we agree on? Twenty?” “Do we need guests? We could make it a private ceremony and just have it be the two of us…how’s that feel baby?” “Feels good…your hands are a little cold. But really Eddie was it twenty or twenty five?” “Sorry sweetheart let me just warm them up really quick…uh I’d say start at twenty and the max is twenty five? Neither of us has a lot of family to invite it’s mainly friends.” “You have magic hands has anyone ever told you that?” “Just you princess. What’s next on the list hmm? Let’s keep going. “Uh is Dustin your best man?” “No, he was an option but I uh…I asked Wayne.” “Did he tell you no because he’s my man of honor?” “He did tell me you had asked him first but uh…yeah he said yes. He’s just happy to be included really.��� “As if he had a choice. He’s standing beside us when we get married even if he doesn’t want to.” “Pretty sure that’s why he made it easy and just said yes.” “The two of you are going to be blubbering messes.” “Hey! The Munson men are just emotional okay? We can’t help it.”

#texting eddie munson #fiancé eddie munson #eddie munson request #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x fem!reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader fluff #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson concept #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson drabble #Eddie Munson #my little dungeon master baby

[howlingday]

My idea for a DEATH BATTLE!

I'm submitting it here because I think more people will see it. I'll post it on my own blog later.

August 16, 2023

Azula vs. Cinder Fall (Avatar vs. RWBY)

Avatar's sadistic princess confronts RWBY's Fall Maiden in this cruel flame fight!

Azula: Avatar's power-hungry prodigious Princess of the Fire Nation.

Cinder Fall: RWBY's scorching Fall Maiden.

Wiz: Fire is the element of power and passion, caressing us with warmth and light...

Boomstick: ..but these psychotic ladies have burned so much and yet can't satisfy their thirst for might. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.

Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.

PREFACE:

I get that Cinder isn't popular but please don't give me heat. If this is already a popular matchup, please don't gut me, I came up with this MU the same day the day before Stitch vs Rocket Raccoon was released. I don't follow the VS. community outside of DB! I did this because I had an idea, I thought others should hear it, and I thought it would be novel since Avatar is one of, if not the biggest, pieces of animation to influence RWBY. There's no thumbnail and I don't go into as much detail as in an actual episode, this is just my idea.

My format: I'll explain why I want this battle to happen as well as the possible connections, the art style, and how the battle could go down. Since I don't do VS. stuff, I won't give calcs.

WHY:

Connections: megalomaniacal prokinetics. One is born into royalty and power, a princess to a lord, and set to inherit the throne. She is a prodigy, a strategist, and a careful planner. However, she is an excellent manipulator, sadistic and cruel. The other was born a street rat that was abused and had to claw her way to power, eventually selling part of her humanity. She is impulsive despite initially giving the impression of being a femme fatale mastermind. She loses battle after battle, starting conflicts in the name of her thirst for power and might until she is put in her place by her associate. Both eventually suffer a major loss (Azula on the day of Sozin's Comet and Cinder to Ruby during the Fall of Beacon) that exemplify the downfall of their characters. Both are traumatized due to family (Azula being traumatized because she thought her mother didn't love her and her father's expectations and Cinder because of Madame and her daughters abusing her and Rhodes being willing to fight her). Both contributed to the downfall of meaningful landmarks (the Earth Kingdom coup and the Fall of Beacon) after infiltrating the locations with disguises (Cinder as a Kyoshi Warrior and Cinder as a Haven Academy student). They have connections to speeches of power, which I will elaborate on with my...

Personal reasons:

I admit that I want these two to get their teeth kicked in, but there is a bigger reason why I am "pitching" this MU: the character interactions. Recall this quote from Azula: "You were born with nothing, so you've had to struggle, and connive, and claw your way to power. But true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with. The fact is, they don't know which one of us is going to be sitting on that throne, and which one is going to be bowing down." Then, there's Arthur Watts's famous monologue to Cinder: "Oh, of course you are! Because that's just what you do, isn't it? And how has that worked out for you? You stormed into Fria's room, thinking you can take on Ironwood's top fighter and war machine. But you couldn't. And that machine became the Winter Maiden. Oh, and let's not forget your deal with Raven Branwen. Get all your enemies in one place so you'd have a shot at revenge. If only someone could have warned you against such a miserable idea. Oh wait, I did! But you pushed ahead and you lost it, when all you had to do was your job! You think you're entitled to everything just because you've suffered, but suffering isn't enough! You can't just be strong, you have to be smart! You can't just be deserving, you have to be worthy! But all you have ever been, is a bloody migraine!" which leads to Cinder crying. THIS is the big reason why I want these 2 to fight. Azula is a good reader of people, so she'll have no problem dissecting Cinder's megalomania, and imagine Cinder's reaction when she is exposed by Azula. Cinder struts around like a big shot, but Watts revealed that she is not only not what she thinks she is, but idiotic and entitled, undeserving of her power, so being toyed by Azula could lead to a meltdown. Regarding their abilities, Azula's blue flames and lightning would be a great contrast to Cinder's red and orange flames and glass manipulation. There's the possibility of a close-quarters fight due to Azula's martial arts training and Cinder's blade training. There's also the possibility of aerial combat due to Cinder's flaming flight.

THE FIGHT ITSELF:

Art and animation:

The dream is that it'll be a hand-drawn fight, but it'll realistically be a sprite battle (all Avatar fights have been w/ sprites) or 3D (all RWBY battles have been in 3D). Going with the infamy of both characters (at least Cinder's), I don't think they'll pour a lot of resources into the project, so I'm guessing sprites. Sozin's Comet will NOT be a factor in this fight.

Possible setup:

(Think Ganondorf vs Dracula) Cinder, being the power-hungry hothead that she is, storms into the throne room with a flare. Azula is unphased, lounging on her throne casually like in the Day of Black Sun, though she was not expecting a challenger. However, she sees something in the one-eyed woman. Azula smirks; she knows what kind of person is confronting her, and she's ready to have fun. It's almost as if Long Feng was an insecure firebender.

"I'm here to claim what is mine." (Like in volume 8's "Take what is mine.")

They banter, Azula being the narcissist that she is, provokes Cinder into attacking her. Azula catches the attack, and Cinder starts to lose her cool.

FIGHT!

So, they fight. Notable highlights:

1. There's fire everywhere, but Azula notices that her opponent isn't a good martial artist after a close spar, but she is proficient with blades, and they're made of glass, too. She's never seen this kind of firebending.

2. Trying to keep her distance, Cinder launches fireballs, summons explosions from the ground, shoots arrows from Midnight (that's right, I'm bringing this relic back), and launches small glass projectiles.

3. Azula catches Cinder off guard with lightning.

4. At one point, the two cause a giant explosion (I'm sorry for reusing this so much), with Cinder soaring to avoid the blast. Azula doesn't come out unscathed.

5. Azula knows what she has to do though, and she smirks. Her opponent may be floating above her, but she is beneath the Princess. Azula pulls a Long Feng, exposing Cinder's insecurities, the fruitlessness in Cinder's pursuit of power, the missing eye, and how shoddily she fights, and Cinder breaks down, shouting and charging headfirst at her enemy. She lost to Little Red, Raven Branwen, and even Watts; she won't lose to this prissy girl.

6. Azula, smugly manipulates her opponent: "I know why you fight. You fight for power, for strength, for superiority. Admirable though your efforts may be, it's meaningless. Your eyes alone reveal your story: a powerless runt pushed around and abused, even betrayed. You killed almost all that stood in your path until you lost your eye and your arm. You willingly sacrificed yourself for power, but you fight so poorly, and it didn't get you anything except misery and defeat."

7. The battle ends with Cinder shooting Azula and using Scorching Caress like she did with Pyhrra, leading to her crying like with Watts or Azula using lightning to shock Cinder to death like she would've done to Zuko.

Azula is the smarter of the two, is the superior martial artist, and has the faster attack in lightning manipulation, but Cinder has greater mobility with her flight and if scaled to Emerald and Mercury like in Blake vs Mikasa, she's capable of dodging lightning, can likely end the fight with Scorching Caress, and theoretically won't run out of weapons since as long as there's dirt, she can turn it into glass. Azula is at the risk of a mental breakdown and Cinder is prone to manipulation and has underestimated her opponents.

Ending puns:

"Azula simply made Cinder fall."

"Azula got flamed, and got her glass kicked."

Possible track names:

"Fallen Hot Megalomania"

The names would be in reference to Cinder's last name, the idea that both have fallen from grace or power and their unending drive for power.

It would take elements and cues from Cinder's theme from Vol. 8 and the final fight between Zuko and Azula.

THANK YOU AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS!

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

Wow... Just... WOW!

I've honestly considered these two in a fight, and honestly, I'm still not sure who would win.

Next Time on Death Battle...

VS

ROYAL FLAME

Princess Azula:

+ Master manipulator

+ Fire-bending prodigy

+ Skilled martial artist

+ Outwitted the entire Earth Kingdom

- Emotionally unsound

- Quick to anger

Cinder Fall:

+ Skilled in armed combat

+ Responsible for the destruction of Beacon, Haven, and Atlas

+ Effective airborne combatant

- Easily tricked

- Grimm arm cannot recover with aura

What do y'all think?

#submission #cinder fall #rwby cinder #princess azula #atla azula #death battle #ideas #not afraid #my submissions #my thoughts #atla #avatar the last airbender #rwby