#this whole video is revealing unfortunate things about me

[l8tof1]

dude: give a shoutout to halle [berry]!

lewis: what’s up, halle!

lewis: how you doing? *giggles*

#why’s he doing all that sksksk #did i even hear it correctly #i’m distracted. #this whole video is revealing unfortunate things about me #i despise guns as much as anyone but…. HIS COMPETENCE #that hand eye coordination 🤌 #lewis hamilton #tw gun #tw rifle #<- ig??

[reverie-starlight]

{PR DAY ~ sakusa kiyoomi}

MSBY manager!reader my beloved <3

it’s PR Day for the jackals and you, their manager, have the day off. so why is your boyfriend trying so hard to convince you to go with him?

gn!reader, fluff, an attempt at humor, atsumu slander (as much as it pains me, it comes with the territory of writing a fic like this 😔) suggestive in some parts. not nsfw at all, but explicit language is used and one conversation surrounds that topic, so read at your own risk <3 also, intentional tense-switch in the beginning!!! and just like the first part, it’s not explicitly mentioned, but reader and atsumu have known each other since high school.

part 1 of the mini-series

managing MSBY came with its ups and downs.

on one hand, you wouldn’t have met your boyfriend if it weren’t for this job. and you've never laughed as hard as you have been these past three years with coworkers before meeting the current core line up of the jackals.

but on the other? you had three massive fully grown children under your care. four, technically, if they managed to annoy sakusa enough that he stoops to their level of childishness.

which was unfortunately very often.

…

nearly every week.

…

fine, basically everyday.

and ever since your relationship was revealed to the team nearly a year ago, the “trouble trio” had been behaving exactly like you expected them to. the whole team was slightly insufferable about it, sure, but atsumu, hinata and bokuto really took it too the next level.

so obviously you really valued your days off.

and today was the first day off you’ve had in months. you refused to take off days during the busiest weeks of the season, but today was a PR day.

interviews, promotional videos for the official social media accounts, a livestream or two- all things you were more than happy to leave in the hands of the team’s PR and social media managers.

the birds were singing, the sunlight was streaming through the bedroom window and a cool breeze could be felt against your skin. the day was calm and you were so excited to relax and do all the things you had planned.

but of course, your hopes are just that.

you see your boyfriend standing in the doorway of your bedroom, looking like he wants to say something. your heart lurches into your throat.

“soooo,” he starts, not looking directly at you as he moves to the bed and looks at his laid out clothes. you’re already shaking your head before he can say anything else. he ignores this and proceeds to betray you. “if you wanted to tag along today, you could or whatever.”

he’s shameless. he knows how much you’ve been looking forward to today.

“kiyoomi. love of my life. my darling. what the fuck?”

he lets out a snort and looks down at you semi-pleadingly- a rare sight. “I’ll buy you coffee on the way there.”

oh, he’s bargaining? you smirk. “aww, baby,” you stand up and make your way over to him, dramatically twirling and falling back into him with the back of your hand touching your forehead and the other pressed to your chest. “you just can’t bear to be apart from me, can you?”

the pleading look in his eye fades and he gives you a disgusted look you know he doesn’t mean. his arms stay wrapped around you so you don’t fall. “you wish.”

you shrug and move back to your chair, finishing up your morning routine. “hmm I guess I’ll stay here then.”

you enjoy the silence for a moment before he sighs. “fine, two coffees.”

a loud laugh leaves your mouth when he says that. your boyfriend would never put this performance on for anyone else. it was as close to begging as you’d ever get from sakusa kiyoomi.

you shake your head and sigh. “my love, you know I’ve been looking forward to my day off for so long. why are you so insistent about me going with you?”

suddenly he’s behind your chair and leaning down so his breath tickles your ear. “coffee and lunch and maybe when we get back I could be convinced to try that thing you were talking about…” the words are backed up by a kiss to your jaw and some pointed eye contact through the mirror.

you widen your eyes and search his expression for any trace of a lie.

none.

you cannot believe you’re letting him convince you into this, but the offer is far too good to pass up.

you pretend to mull it over, then meet his eyes in the mirror again. “make sure the trouble trio don’t try to coerce me into working and we have a deal.”

“well of course, I was going to yell at them if they tried anything like that anyway.”

“perfect, then let’s seal it with a kiss.”

“only a kiss, baby, I feel your hands wandering.” he pecks your lips quickly and pulls away before you can deepen it.

you pout. “can you blame me? you’ve got me all excited now.”

he shakes his head fondly and straightens up, moving to put the shirt his stylist had insisted upon for the upcoming interviews. you had to hand it to her- she knew exactly what she was doing.

you watch him with hawk eyes and he just turns his head to look at you in amusement. “stop staring at me and get ready, you perv, we have to leave soon.”

as soon as you step into the building where all the other jackals are, you’re bombarded with confused greetings.

“hey, I thought it was your day off?”

“ayy, manager’s here! good to see ya.”

“what are you doing here? you weren’t scheduled for today, were you?”

you sigh and sip your coffee, letting go of sakusa’s hand as you speak to the coach. “no, I wasn’t. I was kidnapped and brought here by one of your wing spikers.”

he chuckles and glances over at your boyfriend, who is looking up at the ceiling and avoiding eye contact. “I see. well, if anyone tries to get you to work today, just let me know and I’ll help sakusa put them in their places.”

you smile kindly. “thank you, sir, I appreciate it.”

as soon as he walks away, you’re surrounded by the three people you wanted to see least today.

a long sigh leaves your lips as atsumu, hinata and bokuto stare at you in wonder.

“just get it over with,” you grumble.

“how much do ya wanna bet he promised something outrageous?” atsumu.

“what, like an all expenses paid vacation?” hinata.

“no, it’s omi-omi, it wouldn’t make sense for him to take time off in the middle of game season.”

you roll your eyes at their back and forth and glance over at the man in question, who appears to be glowering. you can almost picture the scowl underneath his mask. “you’re all idiots,” he states.

“hey! I haven’t even said anything yet!” bokuto protests.

“yes, but I can practically hear the gears in your brain grinding.”

“I’ll bet it’s a sex thing,” atsumu interrupts just as bokuto is about to defend himself.

you all freeze and stare at him.

your boyfriend, deadly calm, says “miya, I will skin you alive.”

the blonde, who absolutely loves getting a rise out of sakusa, just smirks. “oh, so I’m right then?” he turns to you and slings an arm over your shoulder. “tell me, dear manager, what exactly did he have to agree to in order to get ya to show up on your day off?”

you flick his forehead and shake your head disapprovingly. “none of your business, you freak. just 'cause your dating life isn’t going too well right now doesn’t mean you can pry into mine. download tinder or something if you’re that bored.”

bokuto and hinata snicker at that, but straighten up quickly when he shoots them a glare. suddenly, meian stalks up behind the three of them and clears his throat.

“if you’re all done terrorizing our manager, our social media team is ready for us now. hurry up.” he nods at you with an apologetic smile and drags atsumu away from you. “sakusa, you too. we’ve been waiting for a while now.”

as soon as his teammates walk away and he’s sure they’re not watching him, he slumps a bit and you notice the tips of his ears have gone red. you smile at him in amusement and pat his cheek, the action only slightly awkward due to his mask.

“aw lighten up, kiyoomi, I’m used to dealing with atsumu by now. just ignore him, he wouldn’t dream of bringing that up again if he knows what’s good for him.”

he sighs and drops his shoulders, relief washing over him now that he knows you’re not regretting your decision to come with him. he slips off his mask and presses a quick kiss to your lips. “alright. I love you, just enjoy the show.”

you take his mask and walk with him to the rest of the group so that they can start with the promotional videos.

it’s fun to watch, honestly, because the team’s dynamic does work well for the cameras. they’re not even playing anything up.

you sit through the promo videos they need to film for upcoming games, the silly one-off fluff questions and the fan asks for their instagram page before they’re allowed a break.

sakusa stalks over to you with a small scowl and you smile. “you’re doing great, handsome.”

his expression softens a bit and he offers you a kiss on the forehead. “thank you, darling. care for some lunch?”

you nod and pull him out the door before a certain trio can invite themselves to the impromptu lunch date.

you walk in comfortable silence towards the building’s food court before something pops into your mind. “kiyoomi, you never answered my question from earlier.”

he hums in acknowledgment. “and what might that be?”

“why were you so insistent on me joining you today?”

he doesn’t answer for a moment, but you wait patiently. you know he’s not ignoring you.

finally he sighs and squeezes your hand. “I feel like we haven’t been spending much time together lately outside of work… and I was hoping that by bringing you with me today we’d be able to have at least some time together…” his voice is low, but he’s not shy about it.

you fiddle with the chain around your neck, one he bought for you a while back. "that's very sweet of you, kiyo."

"and..." he hesitates a bit, but you squeeze his hand in return to encourage him. "I feel more relaxed in front of the cameras when you're there."

you melt a little bit. "I'm happy I make you feel that way, kiyoomi. thank you for kidnapping me on my day off, I suppose."

he snorts and you smile. you're about to lean in to pull his mask down for a kiss, but you're interrupted. of course.

"hey, hey, hey! there you guys are! we saw you leaving so figured we'd get lunch with you!"

you honestly don't think you could ever be mad at bokuto, but he is seriously testing your patience right now. not far behind him are atsumu and hinata, one looking smug and the other a bit sheepish. one of them probably brought up your departure to bokuto, either on purpose or accidentally you'd never know.

you sigh and pat sakusa on the back. "yeah, come on. you're all paying for your own, though."

you both ignore the whines of the fully grown children behind you and continue walking hand in hand.

~~~~

BONUS:

"so this question is directed at sakusa..." atsumu reads the question silently and the team watches as he holds back a laugh.

you watch as your boyfriend narrows his eyes at the blonde in front of him and you sigh. things had been going so well up until now.

it’s past lunch break now, and their social media manager had just given them a box full of printed out tweets with fan questions to answer. she snickers to herself as if she knows which question it is and looks pointedly at you from behind the phone she’s recording on.

you blink in confusion, but everything is made clear when atsumu opens his mouth again.

“omi-omi, user @/kiyosdear wants to know if you’re single, or if you’re in need of a dog, because they’re more than willing to bark.”

the social media manager giggles, as does the rest of the team. you feel your eye twitch a bit, but you’re easily able to shove down any possession you feel in the moment.

it’s obviously impossible to ignore so many people vying for his attention all the time, but sometimes it could be a little funny to see how flustered your boyfriend could become from the unwanted attention.

you smile at the small scowl that forms. “no thank you. I’d want nothing less.”

atsumu snorts at his curt answer and hands the box to him. sakusa picks out a question and reads it to himself before blushing furiously and turning his face away from the camera. you watch curiously as meian looks over his shoulder to see what could have garnered that reaction from him and his eyes trail to you amusedly.

the social media manager looks like she’s having a field day, zooming in on sakusa’s red face for a moment. it’s not often something flusters him that badly after all. she’ll milk it for all it’s worth.

the captain pries the paper out of your boyfriend’s hand and reads it out loud.

“@/msby_luvr asks, yo @/sakusakiyoomi, is your team's manager single? totally unrelated, @/msbymanager, are you free on thursday?"”

it’s not exactly a secret to the public that there’s something going on between you two, they just don’t know what that something is.

of course neither of you ever confirm or deny anything, but you imagine being asked outright like that is what caught him off guard.

the camera cuts to you, “offstage” laughing at the question and shaking your head a little in amusement.

or maybe he’s not shy, but rather jealous?

that’s kind of sweet.

regardless, you speak up for him, knowing he wouldn't answer. "I am not single, but thanks for asking."

the camera pans back to the team, just in time to catch the tail end of atsumu clapping your boyfriend on the shoulder.

sakusa gives you a small smile, clearly relieved you took over for him, and goes back to focusing on the interview.

hinata, the poor thing, reads the next question. “oh boy… @/msbymanager asks, sakusa and atsumu rivals to lovers arc when?”

you cackle as both men whip their heads in your direction, betrayal and incredulity on their faces.

raising your hands, you said to them “in my defence, I was still miffed about being dragged here on my day off when I sent it in!”

atsumu loudly refuted the question and the jeers from his teammates, but that was all drowned out by the look your boyfriend sent your way.

you sighed. you were really in for it later.

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

I’ll 100% be doing more MSBY manager!reader. and I’ll do more PR scenarios as well, bc as much fun as this was to write, it didn’t have as much as I wanted to include. but I’ll have to do more research. thank you for reading!! and happy birthday sakusa <3

tags: @dira333 (ty for inspiring me to turn it into a mini-series) @emmyrosee (Ik you love Sakusa and you wanted the WIP for this a long time ago)

#sakusa x reader #sakusa kiyoomi x reader #sakusa x reader fluff #sakusa kiyoomi x reader fluff #sakusa kiyoomi fluff #haikyu x reader #hq fluff #haikyuu x gender neutral reader

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SEMI FINALS

*NOTE; propaganda is out of order due to the post length!

Eugenides Propaganda:

the entire plot hinges on a detail he lets the reader (and every other character) assume is true. I don't want to spoil it because it's a really fun reveal but he is lying from the first second he appears on the page and you can't trust him to tell the full truth about ANYTHING related to himself and his goals. he mostly does it to keep his advantage and not have other characters be suspicious of him but it's just so fun when you realise he's been lying the whole time

Kim Dokja Propaganda:

I haven't read orv but he's fucking gotta be from what I've osmosised

He tries to remove his emotions out of the narrative soooo much, literally the most repressed guy ever. Okay so for context orv is about how this guy, Kim Dokja, has been the only reader of an obscure post-apocalyptic webnovel for years and the novel suddenly becomes reality. And at first you'll probably get the weird impression that his behavior is pretty strange for, you know, a literal apocalypse happening in his world - like yes, he is concerned with survival but he doesn't seem all that scared and he kinda treats it like a video game where he has to grind to make himself stronger and he also treats his companions like a party in an rpg. Then there's also the way he approaches the protagonist of the webnovel, from the start he just kind of describes him as a ruthless psychopath and jerk that is unfortunately a pretty useful ally. And also there's the fact that he carefully omits any mention of his past and when somebody asks if he's worried about his family when the apocalypse starts he just kinda... brushes it off? Anyway so yeah, this bastard is definitely traumatized, although I don't know how much of spoiler territory that would be, considering the fact that literally when he first reveals his trauma he's also unreliable about it. And turns out he does indeed, care A LOT about this world and the people around him. Because well, he kinda didn't care to mention that this webnovel that has become reality was like... literally his whole world before it literally became his whole world. Like, it was the only thing keeping him going for 10+ years and the protagonist that he likes to call a stupid jerk was his comfort character who he pretended to be when he felt like he couldn't handle something in his life by being himself. The protagonist is also canonically the person he loves the most according to a prophecy and he literally can't fathom the thought of him dying, even the timeline versions of him that directly oppose him. And I haven't even mentioned the Fourth Wall yet but I feel like this propaganda is a little long already

misreading the intentions of his companion (yoo joonghyuk) so many time.

YOU DON'T UNDERSTANDDD DOKJA IS SUCH A UNRELIABLE NARRATORRRRRR GOD I COULD WRITE AN ESSAY BUT I KNOW YOU LOVE DOKJA TOO BUT OMG HE'S JUST SO AAAAAAAAAAAH

Rest of Propaganda under cut!

he is the worst like actually. he starts the story talking about how normal and average he is. he is not. he is constantly mischaracterizing his friends and he's so good at lying to the readers that you don't even realize it at first. almost every single time he cries we have to be told by other characters because he never says it himself. there is literally a scene where his narration says "i wasn't crying" and then the in-universe entity that narrates the actions of people (orv is really weird and meta) says that he was, in fact, crying. honestly genuinely anything he says about himself (or doesn't say) cannot be trusted. he is just so frustrating. he drives me mad. i love him dearly. but he drives me so mad.

Dictionary definition of unreliable narrator. Does not tell the reader anything and then things happen and he's like oh yeah btw there was also this and this earlier but i just didn't feel like mentioning it. There's even a thing called the "Fourth Wall" that is able to see through kdj's bs so occasionally you get gems like,

Kim Dokja: I didn't cry

The Fourth Wall: [Kim Dokja was crying]

Imagine being so unreliable as a narrator you need a more powerful narrator to call out the actual narrator.

^ same submission, just spacing it out

This goes into spoiler territory, but; Kim Dokja is in possession of a skill called the Fourth Wall, which on the surface seems like it appears because he read the book that reverse-isekai’d into his own. However, as the story goes on it becomes clear that it’s pretty much a souped up version of his pre-existing dissociation. You cannot trust him to be honest about his feelings, his past traumas or his feelings about his past traumas, not to mention his tendency to just outright omit information that only gets revealed later on either when it becomes relevant or when an outsider POV reveals what’s actually happening.

Exhibit A: he says (in 1st person POV) that he’s not crying. The Fourth Wall immediately contradicts this (as it is literally words of the novel) by saying (in 3rd person POV) ‘Kim Dokja was crying’.

Exhibit B: Fails to mention entire actions when it shows him emotionally honest even in the slightest; we had to read from another character entirely when Kim Dokja was being physically affectionate with his companion. It’s so bad that there’s this entire paragraph about Kim Dokja describing himself hiding his eyes in his hands in jerky, weirdly specific detail and just AVOIDING EVERY WORD THAT MIGHT SHOW HE’S CRYING. The brilliance of ORV is that when you re-read the entire thing you get hints that ‘yes, this WAS hinted at the entire time’ but you have to dig it out of Kim Dokja’s repressed, depressed self-hating internal dialogue with your own two hands.

^ same submission, spacing it out (i really should've done this earlier.)

i am a simple man (not a man). i see a tumblr text post with the words “unreliable narrator in it”. i read nothing else. i reblog & tag #kim dokja okay but in all seriousness i’m just going with the musty basic example: so there’s this moment where he sacrifices himself to save this guy. as he lays on the ground bleeding out, he says “hey, you don’t like me, right? you should kill me to get some money” the guy says “no kim dokja i cant do that (going through the five stages of grief except there’s only one and it’s anger)” the constellations (twitch viewers irl) are like omg he (the guy) doesn’t want to kill his companion (kim dokja) and shower him (the guy) with money kim dokja: oh, he’s not killing me for the money. smart!

as i quote a brilliant youtube video (all of omniscient reader’s viewpoint in 6 minutes) “yoo joonghyuk sees kim dokja as a c_____”

yoo joonghyuk: companion

kim dokja: cunt

^ same submission, once again. spacing it out.

Hides his true feelings, tells the readers what he thinks is convenient for the plot and that his own personal feelings don’t matter or are not so significant. Has unreliable thoughts abt his companion and is a liar. And is also an omniscient reader.

Kim Dokja always perceived his companions in this like nonchalant way like “oh yeah we get along but really we’re just fighting to survive (apocalypse setting) it doesn’t run that deep” when they all do genuinely care for him and he does in turn. He just, doesn’t think of it as an equal relationship? Dokja’ll sacrifice a lot for them but will get seriously flabbergasted if they do the same thing, so fricking problematic. Not to mention Yoo Joonghyuk, his “Life and Death Companion” (read: husband). Kim Dokja always seems to think that Joonghyuk has it out for him, which is kinda true, but he is literally blind to the fact that he’s attached to him. Like, it’s so obvious??? Also they have hella sexual tension but that’s another thing entirely

se get some many pov changes where kdj in his pov just assumed things based on what he knew the characters would do. however because of his interference the characters have changed and he wouldn’t know that if it hit him in the face

He's an unreliable narrator because he lies to himself and thus the audience. He literally rewrote his own childhood core memory. If someone says, "this guy is my friend!" He will go through so many hoola hoops in his mind just to rationalize it. Because he fundamentally believe that no one could love him and even if they did they couldn't know him and he's just gonna hurt them. He cries sometimes in canon but a lot of those times it's not even mentioned as crying he's that unreliable of a narrator. No joke, one time this guys he has a gay thing with called him his "companion" to someone who had just killed him (long story) and this bitch thought "oh wow he's doing it for the coins (another long story) he's so smart i wish I'd thought to that. He's terrible. He literally has an exchange with something called the Fourth Wall (an even longer story) where it said "you're crying" and he said "no I'm not" but he was crying. He makes me insane because the reader is supposed to project onto him. He made me see how much of an unreliable narrator I WAS. ORV is just like that tho.

#kim dokja #kdj #orv #omniscient readers viewpoint #once again #if kdj gets this poll blacklisted again im blowing him up #eugenides #the queens thief #queens thief #unreliable narrators battle #unreliable narrators #polls #semi finals

[zedleaked]

What is your opinion on drv3 chapter 2... or just kirumi and ryoma's story/dynamic?

[Lyrics from: 'Julie vs. Robot Julie' by ARTHUR]

I'm probably biased but OUGHGHFGH CHAPTER 2........

It's a running thing with me but I tend to really like the chapter 2s in each game,,, probably cause they involve characters I like [i.e: Mondo, Chihiro, Fuyuhiko, Ryoma, etc.]

[read more if you want to read my rant bc I wrote more than I usually do]

From the very start Ryoma was really interesting to me, especially in chapter one when he offered himself as a sacrifice to stop the time limit,, It was nice to see him slowly get better and try to find a reason to live... but uh... we eventually get to see what happens...

Kirumi on the other hand didn't really catch my eye as much, well I mean her design goes hard but for me, she faded into the background a lot...

Also holy shit this chapter probably has one of the best body discoveries in the series. The chill I felt when Ryoma's body just fucking appeared in the piranha tank and seeing it shortly get torn apart really made an impression on me. It was obvious that something was going to go wrong during the magic show but that was still so shocking to me. Out of all the games, V3 is definitely the one that made me audibly go: "NO!💥💥💥!!!!!" the most

It kinda makes me wish that Himiko and Ryoma had more of a connection before his death or at least had Himiko acknowledge his death more... not only did someone die in her show that was supposed to distract everyone from the killing,, but it was someone who was actually pretty nice to her... But also to be fair Himiko represses her grief a lot, only really letting it out during chapter 3. I dunno I just want the depressed mage and the depressed tennis pro to be besties, is that too much to wish for? <//3

The trial was pretty alright,, to be honest, I was a little annoyed at Himiko for still sticking to her magic shtick even after someone fucking died but I think that was made up for when Kirumi got accused. Oh boy, I said Kirumi didn't catch my attention earlier but this trial made me like her so much. The manipulative shit she says during the trial activated my brain cells, she was willing to deceive the people she'd been surviving with to try and essentially save the country...

It feels like a more personal version of the trolley cart problem: Would you fight alongside these 13 people you've gotten to know and survive with, with the slim chance that you might escape? Or would you take the risk and purposely kill all of them to fulfill your duty and save a whole country? It's debatable if what Kirumi did was really 'selfless' or not. It made her really interesting to me.

And finally... oh my god, Ryoma, man.... The reveal that his motive video was empty and that he had no one to live for broke my heart so badly <//3 poor guy has gone through too much. The fact that he gave up like that, offering himself up to Kirumi is so... RGHARGHR!!!! 💥💥💥,, PLEASE.........

Even though I really wanted Ryoma to survive, I thought that chapter 2 was a depressing but fitting end for him. Like it really sucks bad that he wasn't able to find a reason to live but not everyone can have a good ending unfortunately... I just want to grab him and shake him around GRUGAHRGHH 💥💥💥

so uh in short: me likey chapter 2 I go insane every time I think about it.................

#ask #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #v3 #ryoma hoshi #kirumi tojo #Zed's art

[retrieve-the-kraken]

I don’t know if someone has already said this, but to me sending Wilhelm to Hillerska was never about him adopting the right routines or learning responsibilities. And it wasn’t, like the Queen said, about keeping him from scandalous situations or making sure that they don’t arise. Sure, maybe it was a part of it, but not the only reason. Ultimately, it was about keeping Wilhelm a secret.

Tucked away in the middle of nowhere in a boarding school where the press can’t catch a whiff of anything, and it can’t damage the image of the monarchy. What happens in Hillerska stays in Hillerska, and the Queen knows this very well, having attended there. She talks about going to wild parties at the Palace and being aware of the culture of drinking and drugs and sex and partying, because it’s encouraged. It is an environment that fosters secrecy, that enables bad behavior and keeping it under wraps, it is part of the code, both the Royal code and the Hillerska code.

So Wilhelm could do whatever he wanted over there, he could be as wild as he had been before, he could do anything, hook up with anyone, the important thing was that it would stay out of the news, out of the public eye.

Except that it didn’t.

(It was a particularly big deal that the video, “the truth”, was revealed by August, one of the strongest advocates for the secrecy code, the one that claims that they could kill someone and get away with it… so for him to break the code of secrecy is brutal… but it’s worth pointing out that he only did it after Wilhelm broke the code himself, when he revealed in front of the members of the secret Society that August had financial problems. An eye for an eye…)

So maybe the whole commotion regarding the video being public wasn’t so much about Wilhelm being queer, although it probably was in part, but mostly it was about him being queer on a video spread all over the internet. It was about how public it got, how very un-secret it became.

And the only way that the Royal Court resolves to fix this secret coming out is to cover it with more lies. The show itself opens with a lie, when Wilhelm has to give a statement saying that he’s willingly going to Hillerska, and the season ends with him lying about being in the video, hiding his own identity, having to pretend that August wasn’t behind everything, and having to hide his relationship with Simon. Then season 2 is about him dealing with the aftermath of all of that, with complying with the secrecy, being offered new ways to stay secret (Nils and his invitation to Verbier, to hook up with men that will be discreet, etc).

Wilhelm is never really okay with secrecy, he is an advocate for privacy. He doesn’t want to say anything but he doesn’t want to hide either. He is not ashamed of his sexuality, but he is worried about how it reflects on the monarchy, on his family, his brother, and he is stressed about having to maintain appearances, having to hide his anxiety, having to be a public figure, having to be basically perfect, or at least perceived as perfect.

Wilhelm is very aware and a victim of the toxic masculinity around him, and it makes me wonder where he gets it from: from little things like when he looks annoyed when August talks about getting with Felice before she develops self-esteem (to which, to my dismay, Erik did laugh) or being affectionate with his brother or being a perfect gentleman when Felice kissed him and when she apologized for kissing him, to bigger things like being close friends with Felice and refusing to participate in “on the table” and of course, revealing his relationship with Simon on national television.

(Wilhelm does, unfortunately, play into the toxic masculinity a lot this season, because that is what often happens in toxic environments, in masculine competitive culture. You have to “play the game” if you want to survive, and Wilhelm sees that the only way to get revenge on August is to play the same game: playing with power, taking away power, being dominant when he wants to get into the party and when he dismantles the seniority hierarchy in the dining hall, when he challenges August knowing that he has him “by the balls”, cheating during training, lying to Alexander… and ultimately pointing a gun at August. All of these things are enabled by the environment of Hillerska, and they work for a while, but they definitely don’t work with Simon. What ultimately helps Wilhelm get Simon back is showing all the non-toxic qualities that he already possessed: being kind, being honest, owning up to his mistakes, being patient, giving him space, letting him go, even if it hurts like hell… It’s obvious that Wilhelm is not perfect, but fortunately Wilhelm never aims for perfect, he aims for good.)

(It’s worth mentioning that, as a monarch and as a former student of Hillerska, Kristina was probably a victim and a perpetrator of the same toxic masculinity, competitive culture, because as a woman in a male dominated world, she probably also felt that she had to play the game. She continues to enable this culture by maintaining the secrecy code, to her own detriment and the detriment of her son, but she probably knows no other way. But we’ve already talked at length about this. EDIT: I forgot to add that I think that’s part of the reason why she looks so disconcerted and tense when Wilhelm says what he says during his speech, because she’s scared, because she’s aware that it’s a toxic man’s world out there, and it’s particularly harsh and toxic for anyone who doesn’t fit into the masculinity role, that means women like her, queers like Wilhelm, and minorities like Simon… )

Simon also likes his privacy, he doesn’t need to be public with Wilhelm, until the whole thing comes out, and Wilhelm is forced to lie. Then of course he feels awful, like he’s some dirty little secret. He doesn’t understand that that’s just how Hillerska works, how the monarchy works, that is the secrecy code, and he doesn’t understand the pressure that Wilhelm is under to continue to uphold that code. That is until he has a secret of his own to hide, the drugs he stole from his father, and that he has to protect himself and his family. When he finally understands that the secrecy is a monster that he will never defeat, he realizes that maybe it’s not worth fighting it anymore, the important thing is to be with Wilhelm, to be able to love him, no matter what, even if it has to be in secret. As long as there are no more secrets between them.

And that’s when it hits Wilhelm. The moment that Simon tells him that he’s okay with being a secret, is the moment that Wilhelm realizes that he is not okay with that, that he doesn’t want any more secrets at all. He realizes that he will always be trapped in one lie after the other, always be a victim of the secrecy code, unless he puts a stop to it.

So he tells the truth. The ultimate truth. “It was me in the video. Me and Simon. I lied because it was private. But it’s me.” In one single moment the video goes from a raunchy sex tape to a horrible violation of privacy, he condemns the “unknown” perpetrator of this violation, he makes it seem that it was his choice to lie and absolves the Monarchy from having forced him to lie, he advocates for privacy, he regains control of the narrative for himself and for Simon, he condemns secrecy, and he sets himself free.

The truth will always set you free.

Or at least we hope.

#young royals #young royals analysis #young royals thoughts #young royals s2 spoilers #young royals season 2 #yr s2 spoilers #prince wilhelm

[baby-alien11]

Could you do a headcanon with Ethan Landry and Carpenter!reader (I love love ur fics btw)

hiii, thank you so much for the love

I hope you like how I interpretate your idea, for this I wanted to do it with gf ethan because when you sent the idea my mind started to flow with reader reaction during the act three

credits to CZsWorld and his video of 156 Things You Missed on Scream VI because it helped me to write a part of the shrine

being a Carpenter and dating Ethan Landry

Since your older sister left the house due to a fight with your mom, you and Tara stayed together

Due to Tara being the oldest by a year, she was the one that took care of you when your mom was on a work trip

Like the one that changed everyone lives with the return of ghostface

That night while you and Tara were preparing dinner, she answered a call that seemed innocent and some prank at the beggining, but the moment it turned threatening, Tara instructed you to run towards the second floor and call the police

Even if you wanted to stay with her, she was quick to push you to the second floor

While you were in there calling the police, you cried hearing how your sister was being attacked, finally getting down the moment you heard the police on the first floor

During the whole night at the hospital, you spend it answering the police questions and waiting in Tara's room unable to sleep

The arrive of Sam along with her boyfriend was a relief to you because having your older sister meant someone to take care of both of you

But the killings didn't stopped, ending in loosing Wes, sheriff Judy and Dewey; and you, Tara and Richie were attacked at the hospital, leaving you with a medium scar in your thigh and a small one in your back

Deciding that leaving the city was the best for yours and Tara security, Sam took the decision to move to Modesto where she and Richie lived

Unfortunately, Tara didn't had her inhaler with her and the replace was at Amber's house

Hell broke in there because of the reveal of Amber as the murder when she shot Liv on the head, and then Richie when he stabbed Sam

So, after a long night that ended up in you, Sam, Tara, Chad, Mindy and Sidney and Gale, the OG's, injured, the killing spree was over

Since your mom ignored Sam after she told you and Tara the truth about her biological father, you felt bad for her because she did everything to protect both of you

So you started to hang out more with her to recover the lost time

After Tara and the twins finished high school, they decided to go to Blackmore University in New York, along with you since you mannaged to finish your last year online

Sam also went with the four of you to keep an eye on both of you, which Tara didn't like

While Tara decided that the best way to cope with the situation was forgetting what happened and try to live her life as a normal young adult, you got closer to Sam because you felt safe with her

Renting an apartment close to the university, the three of you manage to get a roommate named Quinn to share the costs of living there, who was the daughter of a detective

Meanwhile, Chad and Mindy stayed in the dorms

That's how you and Ethan met

He was a little shy and quiet, and that's what you liked of him, also how he was sweet, nice and caring with you

So, after three months of knowing each other, you and Ethan started a relationship

But before he had a small interrogative by Sam, Tara, Mindy and Chad

Ethan was basically the perfect boyfriend

He listen to everything you said, took notice of small mannerisms you use to do, remember everything you liked, help you with your homework or school projects, almost every morning got your favourite drink from your favourite cafeteria or your favourite snacks, give you gifts on random days

Taking you to dates to dinner, to the movies, to the theater, etc

You trusted him enough to tell him what happened last year

When Halloween was around the corner and a frathernity was organizing a party where all the friend group planned to go, Sam didn't let you and Tara go

"What about we stay in your department or in my dorm and have a movie night?", Ethan suggested while walking around campus

"Oh, we're going to that party", you exclaimed

"I thought Sam forbidden you and Tara to go to the party"

"She did, but she also has her therapy session that night, so we are going to scape the apartment, and Quinn already said she will cover us, anyway, what are you going to use as a costume?"

"I was thinking about the cardboard knight costume of Murder Party"

"Sounds interesting! I might be using something similar so that way we can be complementing each other"

"I like that idea", Ethan smiled leaning over to give you a kiss that you acepted with a smile

After an emergency go out shopping with Tara, both of you got your costumes

The night of the party, the moment Sam anounced she was going, you and Tara were getting ready to leave for the party

While Tara dressed as a pirate, you chose to be a princess, with your outfit that consisted in a short pink dress with silver platform ankle boots and a tiara with your hair in small waves

A few minutes after Sam left the building, you and Tara practically run towards the campus which wasn't so far

Arriving at the frat house, you were quick to glue to Ethan and Chad while Tara stayed with her friends but still been supervised by Mindy and Anika

Things were normal for a few hours, except for the people dressed as ghostface, until Tara got into little trouble

"Hey, big guy, you're needed", Anika called, "You too little Carpenter"

Knowing it was about Tara, all of you ran towards the stairs where a drunk Tara was going to the second floor with a random guy

"Hey partner!", Chad called getting their attention, "Tara's good down here"

"Sorry, bro, I didn't catch that", the random guy said

"Yeah, you did", Chad laughed sarcastically

"Tara, what if we go to get some shots", you tried to convince her to stay, "A fun contest between sisters"

"Chad, Y/N, it's fine", Tara said getting down from some stairs, "I want to"

"No, you don't", you continue to try, "Just stay here with us, please"

"Yeah, see, Chad?", the creepy guy intervined, "She wants to, Y/N can come too, to have more fun"

"Don't talk to her", Ethan intervined steping closer to you

Taking Tara by the arm with strength causing her to fall at what Chad was quick to pull him to the first floor and start a small fight, while you kneeled next to Tara to help her

Things started to get violent, until Sam arrived tasing the creepy guy in the balls leaving him in the floor, but Tara wasn't happy to see her sister there, so she was quick to leave the party with Sam and the rest of you following close

"Tara, will you stop?", Sam demanded walking behind her

"I cannot believe you did that! You embarrased me", Tara yelled

"That guy was a dick", Sam yelled in response, "He was gonna take advantage of you"

"So?"

"You did not say that!", you intervined getting closer to them

"So?"

"If I want to hook up with an asshole, that's my decision! It's my decision", Tara exclaimed, "It's not about you! You're out of mine and Y/N lives for five years, and then you can't leave us alone for five minutes"

"Hey! I'm happy to have Sam around us", you said standing by their side

"Because you're not dealing with what happened to us, Y/N has gone with me sometimes with my therapist to talk about it, have you even gone to see the counselor once?"

"No, I'm not going to"

"Why not?", Sam asked

"Because I'm uninterested in living in the past like you are"

"What's that supposed to mean?", Sam questioned a little shocked

"Guys, come on", Chad tried to stop the discussion but it didn't work

"It means I'm not gonna let what happened to us for three days define the rest of my life", Tara explained

"So you're just gonna pretend it never happened", Sam concluded

"What are you doing here, Sam? In New York", Tara sighed, "You're working two shitty jobs to help with rent, whatever, but what's your plan? I know what I'm gonna do, okay? Because I'm gonna keep going to college, I'm gonna get my degree, and I'm gonna live my life"

"I was the one who told Sam about our plans to move here", you revealed surprising her, "And convinced her to come with us"

"Why did you do that?", Tara questioned

"Because I feel safer with her around", you exclaimed

"Are you fucking serious?", Tara yelled, "She is here breathing in our necks because of you?"

"Exactly", you responded in the same way, "You're welcome"

"I'm just trying to look out for you", Sam spoke looking at the both of you

"I know you are", Tara sighed more calmed, "You can't do it for the rest of my life, though, you have to let me go, you have to let us go"

But before Sam could say anything, a group of random girls throw a drink towards her accusing her to be a murderer

Arriving at the apartment Tara was quick to enter her room while you did the same to change into your pajamas that consisted in an oversized shirt and biker shorts and to return to the living room where the rest was and sit with Ethan in the one-person couch

Watching the news, they anounced that there was a multiple murder that night alerting everyone because ghostsface masks were involved

Of course the instant reaction of Sam towards that was to you and Tara to pack your things to move, but of course both of you refused

Getting a call from detective Bailey, Sam started to make her way to the police station, at what you and Tara decided to follow her

But Ghostface apeared threatening to kill the three of you, ending up in a tense scene in the bodega close to the apartment, fortunately getting alive from there

So, after being in the police station all night, meeting Kirby Reed and knowing by Gale that Sidney decided to not intervined and go away, which the three of you understand

After changing clothes and being a little more calmed and reuniting with the others, all of you decided to have a little reunion to discuss the situation

"Okay, nerds, listen up!", Mindy started with her monologue, "As terrifying as this all is, I’m actually glad I get a chance to redeem myself for not calling the killers last time, the way I see it, someone is out making a sequel to the requel?"

"What's a requel?", Anika asked

"You'are beautiful sweetie, let's hold questions to the end", Mindy responded

"Stab 1 took place in Woodsboro, Stab 2 took place in college", Sam reminded

"So the killer is trying to copy the movies?", Tara suggested

"That is one posibility", Mindy nodded, "Heroes now in college, check, suspicious new characters brought into to add to the suspect list and our body count, check, check and check"

"I don't like this", Ethan murmured at what you sitting by his side took his hand in yours

"But it can't be just about Stab 2"

"Why not?", Tara frowned at Mindy comment

"It make sense if this just a sequel, but we are not in a sequel, because no one does sequels anymore, we're in a franchise!", Mindy exclaimed, "And there are certain rules to in a continuing franchise, rule one: everything is bigger than last time, bigger budget, bigger cast, bigger body count, longer chasings, shoot outs, beheadings, you've got to duplicate everything to make people keep coming back; rule two: whatever happen last time expect the opposite, franchises only survive by suberting expectations, if the killers last time were whiny snowflake film nerds with Letterboxd accounts instead of personalities, you can bet the opposite will be though here; and rule three: no one is safe, legacy characters are expandable at this point, usually brought back only to be killed of in some cheap bit of nostalgia, it's not looking too good for Gale and Kirby, and that's not even the worst part"

"This is the part were she tells us the worst part", Chad said writting in his notebook

"The worst part is franchises are just continuing episodic stallments designed to boost an IP, which means, main characters are completely expandable too, Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, Ellen Ripley, Sally Hardessy, Jigsaw, Tony Stark, James Bond, even Luke Skywalker, all died so their franchises could live on, that means it's not just us friend group, any of us could go at anytime, specially Sam, Tara and Y/N"

"Wait, wait, wait", Ethan spoke, "Any of us? Am I in the friend group?Am I like one of the targets? Am I gonna die a virgin?"

"You're not a virgin", you exclaimed turning to look him while frowning, "And we both know it"

"That was a weird and gross overshare", Mindy interrupted, "But that bring us to our current suspects, Ethan, the shy dorky guy who no one suspects because he's so shy and dorky"

"Wait, why am I on the suspect list? Because I randomly Chad's roommate and Y/N and I are dating?"

"Rommate lotteries can be juked, you could've fix it to be next to us, and that also applies to your relationship with Y/N; Quinn, the slutty roommate, a horror movie classic"

"Sex positive, but, thank you?"

"Hmm, how did you come up to live with Sam, Tara and Y/N?", Mindy asked

"I answered their add online"

"Okay, say no more, you already implicated yourself enough"

"It was an anonymous add, Mindy", Tara said, "And you know we vetted her, plus her dad is a cop"

"And that makes her more likely that she is the killer, because having a cop dad is a great cover, you don't remeber how this movies work, Tara?!

"Is she always like this?", Quinn asked at what Sam nodded

"And finally, Anika, never trust the love interest, that also goes to you, Y/N"

For the rest of the day, all of you tried to stay together or in pairs, untill the night were everyone will be having a sleepover at the appartment, but Ethan couldn't go because he had econ that night

Things started normal at first, until Danny, the cute neighboor and Sam's boyfriend airdroped a photo in which the scene of Quinn being stabbed by ghostface in her room followed by screams and hits inside her room, and then a creepy silence was enough to run towards her door

Hell was released when the dead body of Quinn was thrown out of the room towards the group landing on Anika

In a reflex move, Chad took Tara's hand who took you by your arm dragging the three of you to the entrance door to scape, but leaving the rest inside, but relazing that the rest were still inside the three of you tried to enter again but all of your keys were inside

The next morning, Ethan arrived at the scene instantly being interrogated by Chad about where he was last night, at what he said that he was at econ, just what he told you the day before

After everyone was more calmed, Gale lead the group to a old theater that now was a shrine dedicated to ghostface and the Stab franchise, from some posters to all of the ghostface robes, everything was there, except the masks

Coming out with a plan to catch ghostface in broad daylight and in a public space, you along with your sisters put yourselves as the bait while the others wait in the van where Kirby will be tracking the origin of the call

Unfortunately, the call was track down in the same appartment building where Gale lives, making the three of you to "steal" Wayne's police car and drive towards there, arriving when she was laying on the floor with life threatening injuries but alive

Another plan was made: catching ghostface in the shrine and traveling in group

Arriving at the subway, and due to the crowd station because of Halloween, the group got separated in two, with you, Sam, Tara, Chad and Danny in a train, and Mindy and Ethan waiting for the next one

Being the first ones to arrive at the shrine and leaving Danny outside, Tara and Chad went to the snack bar, while you stayed with Sam, trying to contact Ethan or Mindy but none of them responded

Being there, you just took a seat in the steps of the stage watching how Sam took the old knife that once belonged to her father

"Should I grab a knife too?", you asked getting her attention

"Only for security", Sam nodded

Walking a little, you watched the collection until you stopped in front of a display where a draw of Richie's death was along with a knife covered in blood, so you opened it to take the knife and hide it in the back of your jeans

Things went down quickly when Sam recieved a call from detective Bailey warning about Kirby being ghostface due to being to affected by the Woodsboro 2011 masacre

Running to get Chad and Tara, they informed that ghostface was there and where attacked by him, so a persecution in the whole theater started, realizing that they were two of them when Chad was stabbed multiple times by them leaving him in the floor

Keeping running and dragging Tara, the three of you returned to the central part of the shrine only to being circled by the two ghostface at what Sam took some brick from the floor to defend yourselves

But the son-to-be fight was interrupted by a injured but alive Kirby who started shooting at the masked killers

When detective Bailey arrived, in a unexpected move, he shot Kirby while the two ghostfaces

"Great job, both of you", Wayne praised his two partners leaving the three of you shocked

"You?", Tara asked in shock

"Yeah, of course me", Wayne responded, "Frankly, I expected more from the three of you after what you did to us"

"What do you mean, 'us'?", Tara asked again

The moment you saw the face of one of the ghostface you felt like something broke inside of you, most exactly your heart

Sensing how you must be feeling, Sam was quick to hold one of your hands

"Mindy was right", Ethan laughed, "It was easy to juke the roommate lottery, all I had to do to meet you was room with a conceited, condescending alpha literally named Chad, fuck it felt good to kill him! And Y/n, you were never part of the plan, but we kinda connected, so being in a relationship with you was even better for this"

"Fuck you", was the only thing that was able to come out of your mouth at that moment

"This was your grandmother's, Sam", Ethan continued pointing at the mask, "Nancy Loomis, really runs in the fucking family, doesn't it? Speaking of family...wait for it, my name's not Ethan Landry, is it, dad?"

"Well, that explains why I never met your parents", you commented with your arms crossed, "Wait a second, if you are father and son, that means Quinn was also part of your family, and most probably knew the twisted plan, and she was "killed" last night, or it was all fake, am I right?"

"I told you she has a great mind", Ethan murmured to his father while the other ghostface took their mask out

"Hey, roomies", Quinn sing softly, "You didn't see that coming, did you?"

"Yeah, because you died!", Tara exclaimed

"Kind of didn't, though", Quinn said, "It was a good way to get off the suspect list, stab Gale Weathers, stab Mindy on the train, that sort of things"

"Yep, and I just made sure I was first on the scene so I could switch her body out with a fresh one", Wayne explained like it was a normal thing, "Little fake blood, a prosthetic, you'd be amazed at what a grieving father can get away with"

"I got Stu Macher's mask", Quinn spoke now being at one side behind some displays, "He was my favorite"

"Nice, that's number three", Wayne continued refering to the masks, That's two, which leaves your father's, this is what we've been counting down to, Sam, I'm gonna need you to put it on"

"Fuck you!", Sam yelled throwing the mask away

That action made Ethan slash Sam's arm scaring you and Tara more

"What? What is this? You did this as a family?", Sam interrogated

"Hell yeah, bitch!", Quinn screamed getting closer to the three of you, "You should know better than anyone"

"They're still not getting it", Ethan giggled

"I don't know what you believe, but I didn't commit those murders in Woodsboro", Sam said with desesperation, "It wasn't me!"

"We know that", Wayne spoke again, "Of course you didn't, you think this is based on some bullshit conspiracy theory? Come on, who do you think started the rumors about you in first place?"

"Do you know how easy it was to turn Sam from the hero of Woodsboro into the villain?", Quinn mocked, "How easy it is to convice the world to believe the worst in people rather than the best?"

"Because it's not enough to just kill someone these days", Ethan continued, "You have to assassinate their character first, so when dad here "discovers" your horribly mutilated bodies posed with Sam wearing her father's mask, he'll say some poor bastard read on the internet that you're the real ghostface and took matters into their own deluded hands"

"Exactly! That's why it's the perfect alibi", Wayne exclaimed, "All the best lies are based on the truth, and you're a killer, just like your father"

"No, I'm not!", Sam denied

"Yes, you are, you motherfucker!", Quinn yelled, "You killed our brother!"

"What are you talking about?", Sam questioned

"You said your brother died in a car accident", Tara reminded

"No, no no, you sweet, dumb thing", Ethan spoke again, "He died in Woodsboro at the hands of your bitch sister"

"Wait a second", you said finally realizing everything, "Curly and kinda light hair, light colored eyes, Richie was your son and sibling"

"Yeah", Wayne nodded

Slightly turning around, Sam recieved a quick stab near her chest by Ethan, which made the three of you to try to scape but again you were circled

"Now! It wasn't until I saw that photograph of what you'd actually done to him that I knew, that I knew you had to fucking die! You had to be punished! Along with anyone else who stands in our way", Wayne continued to yell

"There she is", Quinn murmured with her knife against Sam's throat noticing the look in her eyes, "There's the fucking killer"

"Great parenting job, by the way", Tara commented at what you snorted

"Shut your whore fucking mouth!", Quinn screamed pushing the three of you to the center of the space

"Have I been a perfect dad? No", Wayne proceeded, "Have I maybe overindulged Richie's love of these little movies? Yeah, maybe, for me, they're just a little dark, but...Richie really loved them, he loved them! He even made a few of his own"

In the screen on the scenary, one of Richie's home made movies was playing while Wayne started to climb the stairs

"There's a very special bond between a father and his first son"

Hearing that phrase, you turn your head to look at your psycho boyfriend with pity at what he shared a look with you that demostrated a little bit of pain, but he hide it quickly pointing his knife at you, making you return your attention to the stage

"Which is why I helped him build this collection"

"This was all his?", Sam asked

"Yes, he's a very passionate collector, and he inspired others, we had to kill those two wannabe film students because, well, we had to do kill you first, Sam, I put the theater in their name, then good old detective Bailey would've just stumble on it, but I didn't have to because, by golly, that Gale Weathers is one hell of a journalist, I built a tribute to my son, which is why this is where you have to die, Sam, surrounded by the things he loved the most"

"What happens next? After you're done with us you just disappear?"

"No! We got to hurry over the hospital and make sure Mindy and Gale don't pull through, because everybody dies, Sam! Everyone who had anything to do with the death of my son suffers and dies, now put on the mask"

"He was so pathetic", Sam sighed

"That's not true", Wayne suttered

"Yeah, your son, he was a man-baby who made his girlfriend do all the killing"

"He was a strong, virile young man", Wayne insisted slightly trembling

"He was a limp-dick little fuck who cried before I slit his throat"

With that last phrase, hell got loose because Quinn angry for hearing those words of her late brother loose control running towards the three of you which caused to you and Tara to hit her with the blocks, running towards a stairs thanks to a distraction by a very alive Kirby who shoot at Wayne

Stopping for a second, you turn to look at Sam stabbing Ethan repeatedly in the chest and shoulder, before following Tara on the stairs to the second floor, at what you were quick to grab your knife from your jeans

Once Sam was by your side, the three of you started to walk in the little to no space being careful to not fall

Until a bullet hit where you were passing, causing you to almost fall if it wasn't for your sisters holding your hands

"Guys, I'm sliping", you said with desesperation

"We got you", Tara tried to reassure you

"It's okay", Sam continued

But even with both strenghts combined you were still sliping because the blood on their hands, even worse when Ethan was under you waving his knife at your feet

"Come here so we can play like we like to, Y/N", Ethan mocked

"Fucking psycho!", you yelled, "And I'm breaking up with you!"

"Fuck you! You guys are so fucked now"

Noticing how Quinn with her face all bloody and a few teeths gone was aproaching the three of you, Tara was quick to give a solution

"Sam, we have to let her go"

"No", Sam denied

"Sam, please", you pleaded understanding the plan, "It's the only way, please, let me go"

"We have to let her go"

Trusting in both of you and making sure you got your knife in your hand, Sam and Tara let go your hands to take care of Quinn

Falling to the first floor, you landed in front of Ethan who was quick to stab you in the stomach

"Gotcha!", Ethan smiled with pure evil

Taking advantage of his open mouth to return the stab in his throat leaving him surprised by that action, but still looking you in the eyes

"At least you won't die a virgin, my love", you said in a low voice twisting the knife, "By the way, this is the knife that killed your brother"

With that last sentence you pulled the knife feeling the blood combined with saliva splashed in your face and upper body from your psycho now ex boyfriend at the same time his body fell on the ground

Almost a few seconds later of your first kill, a gunshot along with screams sounded on the shrine, next to the scene of Sam and Wayne falling into a glass display

Thankfuly you and Tara managed to wake her up and make a plan to finish the situation

So while Sam will be using her father's robe and mask to kill him, you and Tara will be doing an old fashioned ghostface call from her phone

Fortunately, Wayne fell into the trap, ending in Sam stabing him multiple times, finishing him with a stab on the eye

After a jumpscare of Ethan which ended in Kirby trowing a TV in his head to kill him, Danny arriving with the police and the core five reunited and alive, hell was over

#baby alien creations #baby alien requests #scream #ethan landry fic #ethan landry x fem!reader #ethan landry imagine #ethan landry x reader #jack champion scream #scream franchise #sam carpenter #tara carpenter #ethan landry x carpenter! reader

[notbecauseofvictories]

Halloween Week of Horror (Games)

It's that time of year, and as someone who (a) loves horror, but (b) hasn't had much of an appetite lately for full-length horror films, I've been struggling to find a way to embrace spooky season. Then I hit on it---text-based games!

Even I, a known video game hater, love a good text-based game. Half poetry, half clicking, and all artistry, they're one of the great, underdiscussed treasures of the modern internet. Therefore, come join me for a week of indie horror "games" about haunted houses, ghosts, secrets kept, and also Mary Toft.

My list of games is cribbed from this post and this post.

DAY 1: childhood homes (and why we hate them), vacant, i am still here, flesh, blood, & concrete, domvs

childhood homes (and why we hate them) 

after a decade, you return home

Starting with this particular game was ingenious---it plays to exactly my weaknesses: poetry, unreliable narrators, unhappy families, and the house as locus of memory/witness to horror/horror in itself.

That being said, I feel like this would reward subsequent walkthroughs even more. I took it too quickly, wanted to rush to the end when there’s too much ambiguity for that. Did Lottie kill her father? Is the house still whole and there, even after all these years, or is that a fever dream? How long was her returning? Is she there still? (....and given the mention of the house being a “second son” are we meant to understand that Lottie is trans?) I also played “my brother; the parasite” from this same creator, and would say it's even better---that kind of identity/body horror ambiguity, wrapped up in twisted maybe-love, maybe-hate, is very much my speed.

SPOOKY LEVEL: 6/10, though it's largely uncanny and reality-bending rather than actively frightening

OVERALL GRADE: A-

vacant 

Film a ghost-hunting show.

Of all the games on this list, this one felt the most lived in, the most normal-devolving-into-horror. The set-up is reasonably familiar: you are a camera woman hired at the last minute to help a ghost-hunter with her local shoot. You meet her out in what seems to be the middle of nowhere, explore an abandoned hotel that was home to some weird stuff (cults, mysterious disappearances, more than one death), crack some sarcastic jokes---

Unfortunately, it gets even weirder at that point.

Despite getting tripped up on some of the mechanics (it took me too long to figure out that there was another room on the main level) this ended up being haunting, resisting easy answers. The sudden randomness of the violence bursts through, and the ending in particular is sharp, lovely, and even more unsettling.

SPOOKY LEVEL: 4/10, aside from some sudden noises (things breaking, etc.) the horror is largely atmospheric

OVERALL GRADE: B

i am still here 

a short, unconventional ghost story and vignette reflecting on the end of a long lockdown.

Unlike some of the other entries on this list, this is not a horror game at all. Perhaps a little uncanny, since it's just you---a purple thing on a screen---wandering around a pandemic-emptied Melbourne, musing about the way the world has changed. Still, as someone who did live through lockdown, it was surprising affective.

Brief, but moving. When the screen fades to teal blue, and it’s just the ambient noise of a small pond? That was lovely.

SPOOKY LEVEL: 0/10

OVERALL GRADE: B

flesh, blood, & concrete

you find yourself in a vast, empty apartment complex.

I have gone back and forth on this one. On one hand, the central story is affective---the main character's car runs out of gas in an unnamed town, in the middle of a snow storm; she finds help in a strange apartment complex, seemingly abandoned except for a lone girl, and her "parents." The more you explore the complex, the more you reveal about the woman's intentions, and the more uncanny, unworldly, the scenery becomes.

(I would have given anything to “see” the scenes of destruction, decay and otherworldliness in full color---even in 24-bit, they were lovely.)

On the other hand, the concept and the worldbuilding had such potential that the "frame" story (a little boy, sent out to play in the snow) and the ending came as something of a let-down? Or...maybe not the ending itself (a melancholy, depressed woman driving off into the snow and being swallowed alive by meat that is love---that's a good story) but the framing device made no sense. And why could you collect items if the aim is to surrender to that powerful, overall lure?

Still, I think the replay value here would be immense. Scrolling through the comments afterwards, there are a lot of people who got very different endings, so it's a game that rewards that exploratory path.

SPOOKY LEVEL: 6/10, and mostly for body horror (meat/blood) and uncanny worldbuilding

OVERALL GRADE: B+

domvs 

a gothic mystery game in which you rely on your environment to uncover the truth.

A lovely little story, where you play madlibs and discover why an unnamed hero chose to sell their soul to the devil—and the thing it makes them into, the tragedy that finds them regardless. One of the shorter entries on this list, and less a game than wandering through an abandoned house to admire its poetry.

Also, I loved the Latin. More games should incorporate Latin.

SPOOKY LEVEL: 2/10

OVERALL GRADE: B

#gameify horror #the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind

[repairgirl]

14. happy birthday, repair boy

word count: 2.6k

t/w: cursing, lots of angst

You put the last of the decorations up, taking a breath of relief for the first time in forever. The gang had offered to set up early with you, and of course, being the wonderful mom and hostess she is, Sally Jackson was more than eager to help around and lend her house as the party spot. Orange and black streamers and balloons hung from the ceiling, both of Leo’s favorite colors. The blue cake Percy had made was the centerpiece of the perfectly made table, with “Happy Birthday Repair Boy” in Piper’s messy handwriting written on it. Everything was perfect, except for one thing— your rocky “friendship” with Leo.

“How much longer till he’s here?” Piper asked. “He just thinks you guys are having a boys' game night, right?”

Percy nodded. “He’s only expecting Jason, Frank, and I. I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

“Ten minutes,” Jason chimed in. “He just texted the group chat.”

“Ten minutes,” you repeated, mumbling under your breath. Ten minutes to pull yourself together, act normal, and put on a face for everyone.

The only person who seemed to notice your anxiety was Annabeth.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, resting a hand on your back and leading you over to where Percy was sitting on the couch.

“I’m fine. Just worried,” you sighed. “How are we supposed to be normal in front of fifty people when we can’t even be normal when we’re alone?”

“I promise it will be okay,” she reassured. “You don’t have to put on a face for me, or anyone. Speak your truth, and if things get too hard, we can just escape to Percy’s room. Right, Percy?”

Percy grinned. “Of course, y/n. And if he does something to hurt you again, I’ll drown him next time he takes a bath.”

Annabeth smacked him. “Don’t say that!”

You smiled for the first time since getting to the party. “Thanks, Mom and Dad.”

Percy ruffled your hair, and Annabeth wrapped you in a side hug. “Of course, babe.”

Just then, a ring was heard at the doorbell.

“Quick, everyone hide!” Piper yelled. People scrambled, and Sally hit the lights as she opened the door for Leo.

“Um, hello?” he said, walking into the apartment.

“SURPRISE!” everyone shouted at once, turning the lights on to reveal the amazing setup. “Happy birthday, Leo!”

Leo put his hands to his heart dramatically. “Wow, all of this, just for little old me?”

“Unfortunately, we do care about you,” Frank replied, rolling his eyes. Hazel just giggled.

“Of course you do, of course you do,” Leo encouraged. “And who is responsible for all of this?”

Annabeth pushed you towards him. “Y/n is. She planned the whole thing and decorated the whole place. We just assisted.”

You stuck your tongue out back at her. “Give yourself and Percy some credit, Wise Girl. It wasn’t all me.”

“Wow, really?” Leo said, taking a step towards you, and looking you in the eyes for the first time in what felt like ages. “Thank you, y/n. I mean really, thank you. This is incredible.”

You smiled and wrapped him in a hug, finally feeling okay. His warm embrace brought a familiar red blush to your face, an embrace you haven’t felt in so long. A wash of relief filled your body and you never wanted to let go.

Leo pulled away and locked eyes with you. “I’m sorry for being weird. There’s just been so much stuff going on, and I’ve been really confused about my feelings lately, and I’m working on building a new project, which is stressing me out, and—”

Cutting him off, you hugged him again, wrapping your arms around his neck and burying your head in his shoulder, nearly knocking him over.

“Shut up, repair boy. It’s okay.”

“It’s okay?”

“Yeah.”

“And we’re okay?”

“Yeah.”

He wrapped his arms around your waist, and everyone cheered.

“Fucking FINALLY!” Piper yelled. “Now, let’s get this party started!”

Being in a whole new headspace, the party was a blast. Piper blared Top 40’s hits and set up pong in the kitchen while the boys really did play video games in the Percy’s room. In addition to the seven, Nico, Will, and Rachel, just about everyone showed up. Reyna, Thalia, Nyssa, Connor, Travis, and even Grover made a surprise guest appearance from his world environmentalist tour. Percy was thrilled and tackled him in a hug upon his arrival (Sally, unphased, knew all along).

The night got even better when you were sitting on the couch, absentmindedly scrolling through TikTok when Leo joined you, plopping right next to you.

“Hey mamacita,” he said, casually putting his arm around you and filling you with that oh-so-familiar butterfly feeling. Everything was finally as it should be. But surely, things couldn’t be that easy. Could they?

You smiled, your nose crinkling. “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, just the fact that my best friend in the whole world hasn’t personally wished me a happy birthday yet. I am eighteen now, you know. Can do legal adult things like…uh… sending you to jail for this.”

You playfully punched him in the arm. “Eighteen is when you can go to jail, not send people to jail, you dork. And, I planned and threw this whole thing, just for you. Is that not ‘happy birthday’ enough?”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Nuh-uh. Not until I explicitly hear it from you and you only.”

“Happy birthday, drama queen,” you replied, smiling. “But if you had been patient enough to wait, you would have heard me say it upon giving you your gift.”

His ears immediately perked up. “Gift?”

“Yes, stupid.”

He inched closer to you, his face a mere inches from yours. “Why can’t I have it now?”

You pushed him away by the chest, giggling. Doing that delicate dance of friends-but-not, just like you used to.

“You are literally two years old. I’m giving it to you along with everyone else, later. Promise it’s worth it.”

He sighed, defeated. “Whatever you say.”

Just then, you heard a noise behind you.

“Psst!”

You glanced around, seeing where it came from. Across the room was Piper, frantically gesturing for you to go over to her. You rolled your eyes in fake annoyance.

“Looks like I’m being paged. Catch you later, repair boy,” you said, heading over to her. “Hey, Pipes. What’s up?”

She linked her arm with yours. “Come play pong with the girls and me.”

She led you over to the pong table, where Annabeth and Hazel were already set up.

“Us versus them,” Piper explained. “First to get plastered beyond comprehension wins.”

You grinned. “I’m in.”

The game started, with Hazel missing and Annabeth landing her ball perfectly in you and Piper’s cup, pumping her fist in the air. The game progressed, and after ten minutes or so, everyone was just tipsy enough to be giggly and bad at the game. But for the group of girls that consisted of your best friends, something seemed off.

“We’re awfully quiet,” you retorted. “What, am I in trouble or something?”

Hazel sighed, putting both of her hands on the table in a serious manner and locking eyes with you. “Y/N. You know we love you very much, right?”

Almost immediately, you sobered up. “Oh god. This isn’t an intervention, is it?”

“No, no, no!” Annabeth clarified. “Nothing like that. It’s just, um,”

“Were you really planning on forgiving him that quickly?” Piper blurted.

You threw your hands up in frustration. “I thought you guys were JUST telling me to try and move on and not let things get to me!”

“We were!” Hazel replied. “It’s just that things just seemed to happen a little quick. That’s all.”

She came over to put a hand on your shoulder. “We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Girls, I am TOTALLY fine,” you insisted. “I’m not falling again. We’re just friends. Like we used to be.”

Annabeth and Hazel exchanged nervous glances, but Piper seemed satisfied with that answer. She squeezed your hand.

“Okay, babes. Whatever you say.”

Just then, Percy walked over from his bedroom where the boys were playing Mario Kart, Jason, Nico, Will, Leo, Grover, and the Stolls trailing behind him like baby ducklings. He clapped his hands obnoxiously. “Presents time! Circle ‘round.”

You and the girls giggled as you walked over, making a circle on the fuzzy blue rug in the living room like you were all in elementary school again. Everyone grabbed their gifts and got situated, Leo squishing on one side of you and Piper on the other.

Leo rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “It’s about time! I want Y/N’s first,” he stated.

“No way,” Piper retorted. “Save the best for last.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I hate you.”

“I hate you back.”

The night progressed as Leo opened gifts from everyone, perfectly reflecting their friendships. Percy got him a waterproof pocket multi-tool, Piper got him a shirt with a ‘your mom’ joke on it (which Leo loved and laughed hysterically at, don’t worry), Annabeth got him a giant architect’s book of blueprints for projects they could work on together, Frank got him mints that supposedly lower your voice (no surprise there), and so on. Finally, it was your turn.

You were feeling a thousand different emotions— anxiety, excitement, nervousness, anticipation, fear, and so many more. Trying not to let any of these emotions show, you handed him your bag, drunkenly rambling about the present inside.

“So, I know I’m not as good at making things as you, but I really did try, and you might think it’s stupid, and—”

He cut you off, flashing that warm smile that made the butterflies in your stomach flutter every time. “Y’n. I’m sure it’s perfect. Nothing to worry about.”

Your shoulders sagged and you sighed in relief, but the relief was only temporary. Right as his hand was on the first bit of wrapping paper, ready to grab and open it, a ring was heard at the door.

Percy frowned, getting up to answer it. “We weren’t expecting anyone else. Give me a second,” he said.

Before opening the door he glanced in the peephole, and upon lifting his head away from the door, he looked sick. His face was almost as green as Poseidon’s seaweed castle.

Anxiously, he waved Annabeth over. She peered into the peephole the same way he did, looking equally as nauseous afterward.

The two whisper-shouted nervously, causing you to hear mumbles of “What the hell are we supposed to do?”, and, “We can’t just leave her there, can we?”

Piper and Annabeth locked eyes, and you could tell a silent understanding passed between them. You felt like everyone in the room knew who was at the door except for you.

Annabeth sighed. “Just open it, Percy. What else can we do?”

Nothing on earth could have prepared you for who was at the door. There she was, wearing a beautiful white gown that was way too dressy for the event, her silky caramel hair pulled back into a braided bun. And worst of all, she was carrying the perfect gift: a stuffed animal replica of Festus. Why hadn’t you thought of that?

All of your worst insecurities encapsulated into a single person: Calypso.

Your jaw dropped to the floor.

Before anyone could say anything, she made her grand entrance.

“Surprise! I’ve come to celebrate my favorite boy’s birthday!” she shouted.

Leo immediately shot up. “Calypso, w-what are you doing here?”

She smiled an evil smirk. “I told you I’d be in town, didn’t I? How could I resist saying hi to you? I just want to make up, repair boy!”

“How’d you know where we were?” Percy growled.

She batted her eyelashes, attempting to put a spell on him. It didn’t work. “Don’t you remember, Perce? Me and you, we used to have a thing. Back in the day. Before she came along,” she sneered, giving Annabeth a nasty look.

Percy had to physically restrain her. “Oh, it is on.”

“Calypso, no one wants you here,” Frank chimed in. “Just leave.”

You stood up, fuming and gaining a sense of self-respect for the first time since she arrived.

“Are we sure no one wants her here?” you said, stepping towards Leo, ready to let everything loose you had been holding in for the past few weeks.

Hazel tugged at your shirt, looking up at you anxiously. “Y/N, you’re drunk. Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

You pushed her hand away. “No, Hazel. I need to do this.”

Leo nervously glanced at you. “What do you mean, y/n?” he said, stuttering his words.

“Clearly, you’d want her here at least a little bit, considering you’ve been talking to her and entertaining her behind my back. For weeks, now.”

Everyone gasped, and Piper’s hand loudly flew over her mouth.

“How did you know that?” Leo asked, inching away from you.

You stepped closer to him. “Oh, so it is true. So even when I’ve done everything for you, done nothing but be there and support you always, and take you back a million times, you’d still choose her over me? Really?”

“Y/N, it’s not like that, really, I promise, I told her no, it’s—”

“Oh, and I can’t forget,” you said, glancing at Percy and Annabeth, “I had to find out from other people. Friends who actually care about me. Since my so-called best friend couldn’t be bothered to.”

Leo’s eyes widened. “Percy? Really? C’mon, man!”

Percy put his hands up in defense. “If two of my friends are fighting, I’m always going to be on the side of the friend that’s being less shitty.”

Annabeth nodded in agreement. “And for all of the emotional damage you’ve caused her, it’s pretty clear to see who’s the shitty one.”

Leo put his head in his hands. From the doorway, Calypso giggled, enjoying all the chaos she had just caused. You had forgotten she was even there.

You walked over to her. “And don’t even get me started on you,” you growled. “Do you really think you can just march back into his life like no time has passed? Where were you when he was crying to us every day of spring break, heartbroken over your sorry ass? And now you show your face for the first time in months on his fucking birthday? Has anyone ever told you no in your entire life?”

Her face turned pale, but her fear was only temporary, and she regained her arrogant confidence within a matter of seconds.

“Of course I can do whatever I want,” she claimed. “And I’ll prove it right now. So Leo, do us a favor and make this easy for all of us and choose, in front of everyone: me, or her?”

It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. No one dared make a noise, for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

Leo’s eyes darted between the two of you, unable to say a word. “I—”

“Save it,” you said, grabbing your bag and the gift with it and getting ready to go. “I’m done hearing your sorry excuses. Because right now, Leo Valdez, you and I are done.”

With that, you ran out the door and into the apartment hallway, ignoring Piper, Hazel, and Annabeth’s cries asking you to wait. You blared music in your ears, muting your notifications getting on the nearest train, and doing whatever possible to get home as quickly as possible. As soon as you were in your cozy apartment, you collapsed on your bed, alone for the first time in forever.

And then you cried.

yours truly || leo valdez x fem!reader smau

a/n: and there it is!! i know this chapter is lowkey corny and SO cinematic but I couldn’t help doing so for the big buildup. i hope you enjoy!!!

masterlist < previous > next

leo taglist: @slytherindaughterofposeidon0​ @persephil​ @mmmelanie-blog1​ @blue-violin​ @goldengoddess​ @dee-zbignuts​ @animes-trash​ @vintagebitc @nottherealslimshady​ @vermilioneyess​

yours truly taglist: @itsnottilly​ @togethcr @katrin-okay​ @officialfictionalwreck​ @sunshineandshadowss​ @the-swageyama-tobiyolo​ @lilredpanda29​ @goldengoddess​ @dee-zbignuts​ @animes-trash​ @toffytastee @marshmallow12435​ @dont-get-upset​ @cellias​ @breadbrobin​ @didi073 @haox​ @broadwayismydrug​ @burrito-fight​

#hoo smau #hoo #pjo hoo toa #hoo imagine #oneshot #heroes of olympus #heroes of olympus smau #percy jackson #percy jackson smau #Leo Valdez #leo valdez smut #leo valdez x reader #leo valdez angst #leo valdez x you #riordanverse #piper mclean #annabeth chase #pjo smau #pjo social media au #pjo #frank zhang #hazel levesque #will solace #nico di angelo

[csuitebitches]

Hi! You're amazing and your page is amazing. I'm a girl who's really interested in growing and building my life. My mental illness has taken so much from me, so I feel I am starting life over this year like a little baby while everyone else is an adult. I often feel VERY insecure around friends who are normal and have achieved so much and have not made the many mistakes that I have.

I now have been isolating myself because I usually feel so ashamed of myself when I'm with them. I barely have any cooking skills as a female, I've never held a real job, I never network or connect with anyone, I have felt so miserable with a scowl on my face everyday, and I barely know what I'm doing with my life now in college.

As I am now working on my character flaws, how do I still feel I am loveable to my friends, stop pushing everyone away, and stop feeling like hiding when I'm with them?

everyone was once in your shoes. Were your friends born with their job? Were they born accomplished? Was Gordon Ramsey born with a knife in his hands? Have you seen the video of him crying because of his mentor Marco Pierre White?

Ive lightly burned my fingers, my food, set off the university dorm fire alarm because of my initial cooking skills. I’ve melted a spatula. I’ve burned countless toasts, broken glass bottles, had a whole bug infestation because I forgot to close the fridge tightly when I left uni for summer. Then I learned. I watched more YouTube videos. I practiced cooking. I can objectively say I cook better than my mom today because I made the effort to learn.

A master was also an amateur once.

“I never network with anyone” it’s good that you can admit the things you need to work on. The way you address problems like this is:

a) are there networking opportunities near you?

b) can you look up conferences and opportunities near you?

you assume that your friends have not made as many mistakes as you have. Do you go on a radio show and tell the whole world about every mistake you’ve made in your life? Even with close friends, one does not always reveal every single thing or sometimes, doesn’t feel the need to.

your journey is your own. The exam paper of your life does not have the same answers that your friends have written.

you’re not going to magically wake up accomplished, you’re going have to work towards it. And the best part is, you’re in college! That’s such a great stepping stone because you’re in an environment that’s programmed to help you grow if you can use your cards right.

can you join any extra curricular clubs or activities? Or ask your professors or the counsellor for internship opportunities? Can you organise an event like a bake sale or something for the local charity? Can you take up volunteering opportunities?

your insecurities are holding you back. You’re not any less lovable than the friends and family in your life. You have control over your own life. When you choose to actively put yourself out there, start socialising, engaging with people - which can be difficult for some people but always rewarding - you’ll start seeing change.

unfortunately the world doesn’t revolve around us. If you’re unhappy with how things are, the remote control of your life is in your hands.

you’re already working on yourself which is great. That means you have the intrinsic motivation to do something. It’s time to stop moaning and whining and start creating a plan of action.

tackle things one thing at a time. Don’t start with 10 things.

From your message it seems like:

You need help with adulting - cooking.

job - ask your college counsellor/ professor of your favourite subject for internship opportunity, on campus or off campus.

purpose -find a hobby, sport, volunteering cause, something that you like that you actually enjoy.

look at these three problems in the best positive light. It means you get to learn all these things you didn’t know! It means you’ll be able to meet new people who could become really good connections!

make your life simple. Progress doesn’t mean going from burning the kitchen down to cooking a three course meal. It means taking one week to learn how to fry an egg. It makes taking a week to learn how to make a decent pancake or some rice. It means screwing up 10 times and then finally getting it right on the 11th.

allow yourself to make mistakes. Acknowledge to yourself about them and move on.

Do not let your shame hold you back from living your life. We torture ourselves in imagination more than we actually suffer in real life.

I’ve felt embarrassed countless times in my life. I’ve slipped up, messed up, forgotten things, done what I wasn’t supposed to, held my tears back, been scolded, full blown cried, scribbled aggressively in my diary, ranted to my mom, had dramatic fights with my imaginary boss in the shower, woken up late, screwed up royally in important meetings. These are not original experiences. These are universal experiences. Anyone who is telling you that they have never felt this is a dirty liar.

I wouldn’t exchange those mistakes for the world.

How do you think I’m able to give you advice on this if I didn’t go through those similar experiences?

If you want to make changes in your life that badly, start today. Set three simple goals that are achievable. Set deadlines. Be your own parent. Get your life together.

#Q/a #you’ve got this

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 1/16/2024

did not commit fratricide this week but it got a little close there

listening

spotify tried to rec me some electro remix of this Eartha Kitt song i did NOT care for but i did enjoy the original Mink Schmink (YouTube). very similar to last year’s favorite Peel Me A Grape by Anita O’Day. this is a particular kind of oldies #girlboss song that i am super weak to

i also have an entire album to rec! spotify recced me a movie soundtrack by this artist and i went to check out their latest work. a very pleasant outer space themed saxophone-forward experience to enjoy while trying out a very slow video game! the opening track Chaldene will let you know pretty fast if you’ll like the whole album. bouncy, in the ways that saxophones are. very cowboy bebop soundtrack adjacent? i have a data entry playlist with many instrumental albums of long pieces for when i need really consistent vibes or vibes that change very slowly and this is going to be such a good addition

reading

feeling a little bit grim about the state of the world and long-tail reporting/continuity of knowledge, partially bc some friends got fired from the games industry and are throwing in the towel (do not blame them at ALL, also now this means i don't know anyone in the industry with more than three years of experience under their belt) and partially feeling a little bit grim bc i read an article FOREVER ago from the old motherboard team at VICE about how locations were being harvested from various religious and health apps, and FINALLY that data broker is starting to see some real consequences. the ONLY reason this reporter is still following this story/is still a reporter is bc after VICE summarily fired like half the site last year, he went off and started his own site.

grim! grim article, grim context, grim all around.

watching

i would love for my best friend's son to become obsessed with a different movie than pixar's elemental. but if this is the price of having an only semi-interrupted conversation with his mom then so be it.

playing

“sail forth” by developer Quantum Astrophysicists Guild and published by Festive Vector (pair of really killer names there) is the free epic game this week. i spent a reasonably okay hour with it but do not plan to continue further. the opening area has some problems that do not interest me in whatever this game does in the next area. tldr: the actual sailing part is fun, which is good bc it's a sailing game, but there isn't enough to Do in this adventure/exploration game and it's all really far apart.

it has a particular sensibility married with its art style that makes me say “cozy game” (derogatory). your main character is named captain toot. everyone has funky sentence structure liberally sprinkled with nautical terms that come off vaguely nonsensical instead of piratical. there are a lot of almost-kennings like “deepblue” “moontiders” “fishfolk”. things of this nature. while i do love a kenning i don’t have a lot of patience for this. which is unfortunate bc this game tested my patience in several ways.

the actual Sailing part is the best part of the game. there's some very fun weather-- i have seen light and heavy fog, light and heavy rain, and a full on thunderstorm. the fact that sailing is the best part of the game would be good except everything is VERY far apart, and while the call of a blank horizon is super important in an oceangoing game (i think) when it becomes more fun to just fast travel everywhere instead of sailing the long way, i think that’s where you have to refine some things in your game. this is less of an open world and more little pockets of things in between a truly ridiculous amount of empty space. i cannot imagine this runs in an acceptable manner on switch.

the good parts of sailing are the thoughtful controls: the compass, the wind on the compass, and the little sail trim bar. you should also keep an eye on wave direction bc that will really impact your top speed. you CAN tack back and forth directly into the wind but this game will make you fucking work for it, which i do like. i also liked sailing with the camera zoomed all the way in, it felt very fast and dangerous on the very long wait to get to the next island. and then it was no longer fun on the very long sail to get to the next island. i am almost confident these islands are procgen, it’s possible i got a weirdly big seed but i don’t care enough to fire up a new save.

the general pace of the game/this first area feels a little underbaked or weirdly optimized. i got enough wood in the first hour to upgrade to the best available one-mast sloop, i fought a pirate which required a lot of precision seamanship with my one lonely bow gun, i did a race, i declined a target practice course, i poked my head into eight different map locations. despite this variety, it all felt very samey. generally the map locations have one or two things to do plus one resource (the precision seamanship required to collect resources is fun for the first two islands but then stops being interesting) or one collectible. no one island is particularly memorable. i really loved Sunless Sea, a game that also features a large map and very slow travel, but there’s a WAY more resource management and random events, and shit is simply closer together in that game.

if i was looking for a very slow podcast game and was 20% cutesier as a person this would be ideal, but for who i am right now? not for me.

making

my siblings visited! we did not kill each other, nobody had food poisoning, and nobody died! that's all i can really ask for. here's me and my sister looking at a big quilt at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum

phil went to the emergency vet sunday afternoon bc her spay site was looking Gnarly. she either has an infection or a reaction to her sutures but the treatment is the same either way. the emergency vet said we could probably skip our normal vet visit on friday but, given that we discover a new problem every time we go to the vet, we will be keeping that appointment. all recent pics of her are smushed up on my lap at a goofy angle. have a pic of mackaroni and beans

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #Spotify

[suenitos]

A point for point summary of dream's drituation talk from 11/10/2023 stream under the cut

(disclaimer: this is not a transcript. a lot of this is taken from his words, but with some clarifying wording from me and some shifting i did of certain points he made to create a more structured and detailed summary. i recommend watching the vod to hear it from his voice and his wording because there are some details i left out, but this is basically what he said if you dont feel comfortable approaching the topic through audio.)

1. he didnt groom her. there's lots of complications in talking about it because its a very intense/serious thing to accuse someone of.

2. it's very scary to talk about for him because its such a real issue and anything you say in defense can devalue other victims from having their voices heard. but, she is a liar, and manipulated the situation. its scary for him to say that because it can devalue victims and come across as accusatory

3. because people made accusations of this sort to other people close to him (sapnap, bad) he was the first person to jump to their defense so he had to handle this very differently as the one in the hot seat. he told people not to publicly jump to his defense.

4. because she did not end up going to the police/legal route, suing her to prove he didnt send her any messages on snap or IG at all would be very difficult. defamation is insanely hard to prove because it involves having to prove the person you're suing is lying, lying on purpose, and with malicious intent.

5. for first few months, lawyers told him to wait and just countersue if she did go through suing, and sit tight. nothing moved at all from her side, so nothing ended up happening. he feels more comfortable to talk about it because enough time has passed and she has done nothing to go forward with her accusations. on her end, she only proved he messaged her privately but did not provide strong evidence of grooming. deleted messages of her own, apparently had a bf and fake accounts he doesnt really know exactly what happened

6. timing thing- he has to think of public opinion and his reputation because unfortunately a lot of this hinges on his reputation as dream. him and his lawyers had to think about the "strategy" of talking about it with timing, and he was busy with other stuff, and now that he's becoming more active again content wise he feels it's appropriate to address it.

7. plans to make a video on dreamxd in the future to talk about it

more details:

-he downloaded snapchat data to reveal that she doctored stuff, he questions her choice to not do that in order to prove her accusations

-didnt know she was a stan (which he admits sounds ridiculous), deleted the whole chat from instagram multiple times (swiped out of inbox, but until you block someone on instagram the messages stay forever). chatted about music and only had friendly messages becuase he thought she wasnt as big a fan/wanting to get into streaming because she asked him about that

-he has 3 snaps: priv priv snapchat (close friends family), private public snapchat (mod team, editors, old irls, csgo lobbies etc) <- the one she was on, the Public snapchat (that everyone can add him on, dreampublic)

questions from chat:

-why did you add her on snapchat? talking about music, wanted opinions outside of friends, and wanted to share on snap (deletes messages after 24 hours because she could leak it from ig and he didn't trust her)

-but she was a fan? didnt think she was that big a fan, also he tried to get her out of the inbox many times. assumed she was a small cc or a fan but not a stan

-why on personal snap? WASNT personal snap, it was front facing but it wasnt his public public one

-sexting: he thought she was 18 which doesnt really matter BECAUSE nothing he "wanted" from her was sexual. he never sexted her, her story takes place during the faceless era and that he added her on snap and then a week and a half of "talking" sent her a dick pic

-what proof does he have to show dishonesty: timeframes, intentions, snap data, transcripts of IG dms, she deleted a lot of messages that made her look weird that were showed in her video

-gift cards: grooming often involves gift giving and this is something people weaponized against him because he gave her a gift card as she said it was her birthday. she had said it was her birthday and he gave her one (he gave a gift cards to his mods etc for christmas and had a lot left over), not grooming just him being nice

-the meetup: the only person he met up with while faceless was sapnap, he didnt meet up with anyone during that era

-bikini comment: (apparently) he said she was gorgeous after she sent him a picture of her in a bikini when she was 18. he said saying that compliment probably wasnt far fetched from him but that message wasnt there on snap data, proving he didnt say it. he also thinks given the fact he is a massive figure who was faceless this entire time that it makes no sense for him to be so careless about who he's meeting up with or messaging and he always has to be careful about how he approaches messaging people who are under 18 or who he doesnt know. considering he had never even showed one of his best friends his face before meeting up with him, it makes no sense that he would be so risky about being "intimate" with someone he isn't that close with.

final comments:

-it affected him more than anyone knows. he was a victim in a situation but he doesnt want to victimize himself. he cares more about actual survivors and he wants to be respectful of that and be careful of what he says because it could come across as harmful or triggering to survivors

-there are factors of this situation that are out of his control like her (she can just say "believe victims" and people will be quicker to jump to her defense due to her positionality), and he wants this to die off as much as possible. he's talking about this against the advice of his management but as dream it's never going to die down so might as well talk about it.

-he understands as a controversial and flawed figure, the only way to convince people and get through to people is through compassion when people are spreading misinformation or malicious information against dream -> then he moved on to a conversation about general misinformation and how he thinks we as an audience can help mitigate toxicity and increase compassion and kindness from the community

reiterating this again: this is not the only time he's talking about this. he plans to make a video on dreamxd providing more concrete proof and actually going into depth more than this stream.

#tw grooming #drituation #also “her” being amanda to make it clear #take care of yourselves please i know its a touchy topic for a lot of people 🫂

[tonberry-yoda]

Babydoll - Alastor

Pairing - Alastor x f!reader

Warnings - none! (also, i do understand that alastor is both aro and ace, i just loved his vibe so much and wanted to write him a love interest that contradicted him so much. just know that i do acknowledge that and the aro and ace community and love everyone! <3 i just wanted to write this so i really hope you enjoy!! <333)

Word Count - 1,023

Notes - i fell way too hard for this show oml. and i guess the TV demon i created is kind of like an OC, but i just thought it would be awesome to have a video killed the radio star moment. hope you enjoy and stay hydrated everyone!! <333

“So, what do you want to do next, dear?” Alastor reached out and grabbed Charlie’s hand, placing a soft kiss onto her knuckles.

The hotel looked great. It was clean, bright and welcoming. It didn't look like a dirty motel anymore, so that was fantastic. Charlie didn't want to admit it, but she was actually thankful for the radio demon. If not for him, they wouldn't be here.

“Well, if it's okay, Alastor, I was thinking we could work on-”

Suddenly, the door flew open, Charlie’s hair blowing from some wind that was created. She squinted at a bright light coming through the door to reveal a demon in bright clothing, her hair staying still despite the wind. She looked in a small compact mirror and fixed her babydoll lips. “I heard that there was a party going on without me.” Her voice was staticy, but not like Alastor’s, it was brighter somehow. Her skin was a bright gray, almost white and her dress was sparkly and black. She looked like someone out of a black and white silent film.

“Oh, Al!” She raised her arms with a smile seeing Alastor, her boa that was draped around her shoulders dropping feathers on the ground. She ran up to him and threw her arms around the back of his neck. Charlie just noticed that his constant smile dropped. And fast. “It's so good to see you, sugar!” She waved her hand and the bright lights that were behind her dropped.

“Ah… yes…” Alastor’s words were hissed behind clenched teeth as he tried to smile at her. “Good to see you too… dear.” It sounded like he was being forced to say it.

Charlie placed her hand on Alastor’s arm looking up at him with a slight concern to her eyebrows. “A-Alastor, who is th-”

He pulled away from her, not once looking at Charlie. His smile was back, but it suddenly made the room feel cold. Alastor walked towards the TV static looking woman and grabbed her hand, placing a kiss on it. He had a faint radio hum that sounded angry. “Might I ask what you’re doing here… doll face?”

The demon’s face dropped hearing him say that. “Might I ask what you’re doing here?” She pulled out the compact mirror again and fixed her eyelashes.

“I asked you first, dear.”

She rolled her red iris’, the only colored part of her black and white demeanor. “I didn't want to miss out on the fun, Alastor. Why else would I be here?”

“I say the same for myself, little lady. Unfortunately though, I am going to have to ask you to leave.” The whole time they were talking, Alastor’s smile didn't drop once.

“Leave?” She put her hand to her chest, clearly offended. “Leave?! Alastor, that's no way to treat a guest! I want to talk to the owner!”

She walked slowly over to Charlie, rubbing her feather boa underneath Alastor’s chin with a giggle while he was clearly unamused and angry, even with a bright smile upon his lips.

“You’re the owner, right dear?” She grabbed Charlie’s chin, looking her face over and pinching her chubby cheeks.

“Uh… yesh?” Her voice was muffled as the demon still had a grip on her face.

“You would look great with babydoll lips, you know that? Your style is just so…” she looked her up and down and sighed. “Boring. I would like to see you brighten it up a bit. But that’s besides the point! Might I help with this whole… Happy Hotel thing, dear?”

“I mean, we are short staffed so-” Charlie drifted her words off slowly seeing Alastor behind the TV demon trying to stop her from what she was about to say. “Uh… what can you help us with?”

“Well,” Alastor jumped in front of Charlie, grabbing the TV demon’s hand. “That sounded like a no to me, my love, sorry about that.”

He went to lead her out of the hotel, but she pulled away, fixing her hair. “How do you think TV runs down here, dear? I could get you advertisements. Grow your business.”

“No, I don't think Charlie is interested,” Alastor began pulling her out again. “Come on babydoll, let's get you out of here. You probably have better things to do anyway so why don't we-”

“Alastor!” She pulled away and hit him with her boa which suddenly turned into a live snake with feathers covering it that hissed at Alastor. “Let me live my life! This is just like 1947! I can't believe you’re doing this again, Al!”

Charlie could feel the room filling with an awful energy. She needed this to stop. “Okay, okay,” Charlie ran in between them and held her arms up to try and stop the argument. “If this keeps happening, both of you will be kicked out of the Happy Hotel! This is not what we stand for. So if both of you want to stay, you’re going to have to learn how to like each other. Both of you are great candidates for staffing, so don't ruin that! Got it?!”

Her and Alastor turned towards each other and back at Charlie nodding slowly.

“Now be nice and go clean something or something!” Charlie stormed off leaving the two alone with each other.

The TV demon turned to Alastor and finally got a good look at him after all this time. “You look sharp, Al.”

“You think so?” Alastor adjusted his bowtie and held out his arm.

She placed a small kiss on his cheek and locked her arm with his. “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to make the most of making our lives with each other a living hell.”

“We did it once before, darling. Just come with me one last time, will you?” Alastor grabbed her chin with his available hand and smiled, his lips only inches away from hers.

“Anything for you, darling.” She placed her lips onto his as he wrapped his arms around her waist with a smile.

This was going to be a shit show, but it was going to be their shit show.

#alastor #alastor x reader #alastor hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel #alastor the radio demon #hazbin hotel x reader #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #my writing #<3

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SIDE B

Hamlet Propaganda:

Have you seen the man. Is he clinically insane or just putting on an antic disposition. Is the ghost real

Kim Dokja Propaganda:

I haven't read orv but he's fucking gotta be from what I've osmosised

He tries to remove his emotions out of the narrative soooo much, literally the most repressed guy ever. Okay so for context orv is about how this guy, Kim Dokja, has been the only reader of an obscure post-apocalyptic webnovel for years and the novel suddenly becomes reality. And at first you'll probably get the weird impression that his behavior is pretty strange for, you know, a literal apocalypse happening in his world - like yes, he is concerned with survival but he doesn't seem all that scared and he kinda treats it like a video game where he has to grind to make himself stronger and he also treats his companions like a party in an rpg. Then there's also the way he approaches the protagonist of the webnovel, from the start he just kind of describes him as a ruthless psychopath and jerk that is unfortunately a pretty useful ally. And also there's the fact that he carefully omits any mention of his past and when somebody asks if he's worried about his family when the apocalypse starts he just kinda... brushes it off? Anyway so yeah, this bastard is definitely traumatized, although I don't know how much of spoiler territory that would be, considering the fact that literally when he first reveals his trauma he's also unreliable about it. And turns out he does indeed, care A LOT about this world and the people around him. Because well, he kinda didn't care to mention that this webnovel that has become reality was like... literally his whole world before it literally became his whole world. Like, it was the only thing keeping him going for 10+ years and the protagonist that he likes to call a stupid jerk was his comfort character who he pretended to be when he felt like he couldn't handle something in his life by being himself. The protagonist is also canonically the person he loves the most according to a prophecy and he literally can't fathom the thought of him dying, even the timeline versions of him that directly oppose him. And I haven't even mentioned the Fourth Wall yet but I feel like this propaganda is a little long already

misreading the intentions of his companion (yoo joonghyuk) so many time.

YOU DON'T UNDERSTANDDD DOKJA IS SUCH A UNRELIABLE NARRATORRRRRR GOD I COULD WRITE AN ESSAY BUT I KNOW YOU LOVE DOKJA TOO BUT OMG HE'S JUST SO AAAAAAAAAAAH

Rest of Propaganda under cut!

he is the worst like actually. he starts the story talking about how normal and average he is. he is not. he is constantly mischaracterizing his friends and he's so good at lying to the readers that you don't even realize it at first. almost every single time he cries we have to be told by other characters because he never says it himself. there is literally a scene where his narration says "i wasn't crying" and then the in-universe entity that narrates the actions of people (orv is really weird and meta) says that he was, in fact, crying. honestly genuinely anything he says about himself (or doesn't say) cannot be trusted. he is just so frustrating. he drives me mad. i love him dearly. but he drives me so mad.

Dictionary definition of unreliable narrator. Does not tell the reader anything and then things happen and he's like oh yeah btw there was also this and this earlier but i just didn't feel like mentioning it. There's even a thing called the "Fourth Wall" that is able to see through kdj's bs so occasionally you get gems like,

Kim Dokja: I didn't cry

The Fourth Wall: [Kim Dokja was crying]

Imagine being so unreliable as a narrator you need a more powerful narrator to call out the actual narrator.

^ same submission, just spacing it out

This goes into spoiler territory, but; Kim Dokja is in possession of a skill called the Fourth Wall, which on the surface seems like it appears because he read the book that reverse-isekai’d into his own. However, as the story goes on it becomes clear that it’s pretty much a souped up version of his pre-existing dissociation. You cannot trust him to be honest about his feelings, his past traumas or his feelings about his past traumas, not to mention his tendency to just outright omit information that only gets revealed later on either when it becomes relevant or when an outsider POV reveals what’s actually happening.

Exhibit A: he says (in 1st person POV) that he’s not crying. The Fourth Wall immediately contradicts this (as it is literally words of the novel) by saying (in 3rd person POV) ‘Kim Dokja was crying’.

Exhibit B: Fails to mention entire actions when it shows him emotionally honest even in the slightest; we had to read from another character entirely when Kim Dokja was being physically affectionate with his companion. It’s so bad that there’s this entire paragraph about Kim Dokja describing himself hiding his eyes in his hands in jerky, weirdly specific detail and just AVOIDING EVERY WORD THAT MIGHT SHOW HE’S CRYING. The brilliance of ORV is that when you re-read the entire thing you get hints that ‘yes, this WAS hinted at the entire time’ but you have to dig it out of Kim Dokja’s repressed, depressed self-hating internal dialogue with your own two hands.

^ same submission, spacing it out (i really should've done this earlier.)

i am a simple man (not a man). i see a tumblr text post with the words “unreliable narrator in it”. i read nothing else. i reblog & tag #kim dokja okay but in all seriousness i’m just going with the musty basic example: so there’s this moment where he sacrifices himself to save this guy. as he lays on the ground bleeding out, he says “hey, you don’t like me, right? you should kill me to get some money” the guy says “no kim dokja i cant do that (going through the five stages of grief except there’s only one and it’s anger)” the constellations (twitch viewers irl) are like omg he (the guy) doesn’t want to kill his companion (kim dokja) and shower him (the guy) with money kim dokja: oh, he’s not killing me for the money. smart!

as i quote a brilliant youtube video (all of omniscient reader’s viewpoint in 6 minutes) “yoo joonghyuk sees kim dokja as a c_____”

yoo joonghyuk: companion

kim dokja: cunt

^ same submission, once again. spacing it out.

Hides his true feelings, tells the readers what he thinks is convenient for the plot and that his own personal feelings don’t matter or are not so significant. Has unreliable thoughts abt his companion and is a liar. And is also an omniscient reader.

Kim Dokja always perceived his companions in this like nonchalant way like “oh yeah we get along but really we’re just fighting to survive (apocalypse setting) it doesn’t run that deep” when they all do genuinely care for him and he does in turn. He just, doesn’t think of it as an equal relationship? Dokja’ll sacrifice a lot for them but will get seriously flabbergasted if they do the same thing, so fricking problematic. Not to mention Yoo Joonghyuk, his “Life and Death Companion” (read: husband). Kim Dokja always seems to think that Joonghyuk has it out for him, which is kinda true, but he is literally blind to the fact that he’s attached to him. Like, it’s so obvious??? Also they have hella sexual tension but that’s another thing entirely

se get some many pov changes where kdj in his pov just assumed things based on what he knew the characters would do. however because of his interference the characters have changed and he wouldn’t know that if it hit him in the face

He's an unreliable narrator because he lies to himself and thus the audience. He literally rewrote his own childhood core memory. If someone says, "this guy is my friend!" He will go through so many hoola hoops in his mind just to rationalize it. Because he fundamentally believe that no one could love him and even if they did they couldn't know him and he's just gonna hurt them. He cries sometimes in canon but a lot of those times it's not even mentioned as crying he's that unreliable of a narrator. No joke, one time this guys he has a gay thing with called him his "companion" to someone who had just killed him (long story) and this bitch thought "oh wow he's doing it for the coins (another long story) he's so smart i wish I'd thought to that. He's terrible. He literally has an exchange with something called the Fourth Wall (an even longer story) where it said "you're crying" and he said "no I'm not" but he was crying. He makes me insane because the reader is supposed to project onto him. He made me see how much of an unreliable narrator I WAS. ORV is just like that tho.

#hamlet #shakespeare #hamlet prince of denmark #kim dokja #kdj #orv #omniscient readers viewpoint #if kdj gets this poll blacklisted again im blowing him up #unreliable narrator battle #unreliable narrators #polls #side b

[twodoorsnotone]

I transcribed the entire music reveal monologue to the Disney Channel Theme defunctland documentary for a friend so now I offer it to you, Tumblr, you're welcome. 👍 😭

I love what I do. I get to make videos, for a living, on subjects that I'm passionate about, that people watch. I am so lucky and I am eternally grateful for every second that I am able to do this, but I'd be lying if there wasn't a small part of me that hates that this is called a video and not a documentary or a film. That I am referred to as a YouTuber or a contact creator, not a filmmaker or documentarian, or an artist.

Because the truth is that I could do this, make videos on this platform every day until I died, and I would be happy everyday. But that small part of me: that selfish, arrogant, pretentious, miserable part of me, would not be happy if that were my legacy when I'm gone. Because living my dream looks a lot different than I imagined as a kid or even 10 years ago.

I didn't know Alex Lasarenko, and unfortunately, I never will. I made this video 2 years too late and I missed my chance to interview him. I can't ask him what it was like composing for commercials and networks. I can't ask him how he came up with the Disney channel theme.

But I think the first question that I would ask would be, are you ok with this? Do you even want to be credited with writing the theme?

Because this was his most popular work. He composed for other networks and shows and commercials and films, some of which some people may recognise. But nothing comes close to these four notes. How could you compete with something that has been playing non-stop for millions of people for 20 years? And according to everyone I've spoken with, he probably wrote it in a day. And he might not have thought about it again after that. It was just another job.

Alex is well remembered by his friends and family and coworkers, but on a broader public and cultural scale, he does not have a well-defined legacy. There's the tribute that Fritz Doddy wrote, the IMDb page, the archived website, and one single photo, but when I release this video and credit him for composing this theme, it will likely become the thing that he is known for - and I'm hesitant to do that. I'm hesitant to condemn someone else to the fate that I fear for myself.

And worse, in this case, it's just four notes.

There is an obvious solution to this, and that is to expose you to some of Alex's other work while I have your attention, to give you a broader sense of his talents and artistry outside of this four note mnemonic. I could play a few clips from other compositions. I could link to some of his work and encourage you to go listen to it on your own.

But I don't have to, because you've already listened to his music. In fact, you're listening to it right now, and you have been, the whole time, since the beginning.

You've been listening to the music of the late Alex Lasarenko.

#defunctland #kevin perjurer #defunct tv #defuncttv #disney channel #disney #alex lasarenko #disney channel theme #disney channel theme: a history mystery

[five-rivers]

Cryptid Crawl! Chapter 2

See on AO3 for better formatting. Tumblr ate it for some reason.

For @aggressivelyclueless @going-dead @currentlylurking

AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

Ghost Activity Map, Forums, Local Business Directory, Advice Blog

Forums -> Human Affairs -> Tourism -> Tourism Problems

Thread: MASSIVE PROBLEM

Cynosure (OP): @MOD I’m not sure if this is the right place for this thread, so don’t snipe me, but I’m kind of freaking out right now.  Apparently this big paranormal show is coming to Amity.  They’re always garbage, I know, but what if they actually see something?  We already have so many stupid tourists.  This thing is viewed nationally. 

Pharaoh (MOD): Mod here.  OP, we’re going to need some more detail if we’re going to figure out what to do, if anything.  Unfortunately, we can’t actually stop outsiders from coming in.

merknlurk: we could if you weren’t a coward

Pharaoh (MOD): Once again, we’re not killing anyone.

Bog Mummy: Hey OP how do you even know this.  Are you watching this show.

Cynosure (OP): Take your bad grammar and stuff it.  I’m looking for a good link now. 

Phantom (MOD): Is this that Cryptid Crawl thing?  If so don’t worry about it.  National or not no one takes those guys seriously.  We just have to play unfriendly locals and steer them away from any fights. 

Cynosure (OP): I’ve never heard of Cryptid Crawl before.  I’m talking about this. 

Phantom (MOD): ****.

.

[Video starts, showing two young men standing in front of a bank of old CRT television sets.  The sets initially show static, but moving humanoid figures can soon be distinguished in them.  Eventually, letters resolve from the static to spell out ‘The Investigation.’  Video shifts to a montage of the same two young men in various locations.  Locations include: an underground area shot in night vision, a bridge during the day, walking around a field with backpacks and EMF sensors.  The montage fades out, then fades back in to reveal an office-like space with several conspiracy cork boards.  The two young men walk in.  Both are wearing flannel shirts with the sleeves rolled up.  They are joined by a third extremely tall man who is wearing a trench coat and turtleneck sweater.  While the other two men are posed naturally, looking directly at the camera, and smiling, the third man has a thousand-yard stare and is standing completely straight.  Words at the bottom of the screen briefly identify them as Ned, Azrael, and Jimmy.]

NED: Welcome, investigators, to the first half of our very first two-parter. 

AZRAEL: And to those of you joining us for the first time this very special day, welcome to our Investigation into all things paranormal.  I’m Az, and this is my older brother Ned. 

NED: And this is our best friend Jimmy. 

JIMMY: Hng. 

NED: You’re right, we’re not paid for introductions.  What we are paid for is investigating the truth behind paranormal events all across America.  So.  Az, tell us.  What are we doing this week?  Where are we headed?

AZRAEL: This week we’re not headed anywhere.

NED: What?  But we’ve got to go somewhere.

AZRAEL: And we will!  You see, we’re going to be filming the second half of our two-parter live, on location, in the most haunted city in the world: Amity Park, Illinois. 

NED: Allegedly haunted.  And why aren’t we going this week?

AZRAEL: Because if we went this week, we wouldn’t have time to tell our viewers the whole, supernatural history of Amity Park.  That’s how haunted this place is.  We can’t even summarize it in one hour. 

NED (crosses his arms): It sounds like Az fell for the hype machine, huh, Jimmy?

JIMMY: Hng. 

AZRAEL: I did not fall for the hype machine.

NED: You’ve been tourist trapped, little bro. 

AZRAEL: Shut up and let me show you my research, okay?  By the end, Jimmy will be agreeing with me.  But first, I want to let you know we won’t be the only investigators, little i, on the scene.  We’ve got some rivals.

.

The Smart Twin: Hey, I hate to be that guy, but there’s more.  A whole bunch of the usual suspects were really insulted by the whole Cryptid Crawl thing.  And they’ve teamed up this time. 

Cynosure (OP): Are you telling me there’s three groups of weirdos about to descend on this town?  Three?  We already have the GIW and the Fentons.  If we get any more, we’ll hit some kind of weirdo critical mass. 

Phantom (MOD): Hey!

Thecooltwin: Guess that tells us its thename thief today

The Smart Twin: Anyway, the clip I saw is here.

.

[Video starts, showing seven young people and a tiger standing in various power poses.  Video has a ‘static’ effect filter.  Dramatic, spooky music plays.  The title ‘Groovy Ghost Blasters Extreme’ fades in.]

VOICEOVER: WELCOME TO THE GROOVIEST BLASTIEST EXTREMEST GHOST TEAM AROUND.  WE GIVE YOU VID.  THRASH.  DOWNLOAD.  BRENNER.  SULLIVAN.  ANDY.  FRAN.  SCAREDY CAT!  PREPARE FOR EXTREME.  GHOST.  ACTION.  IN AMITY PARK.  IN ONE WEEK.  NO CRYPTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDS!  SCREW YOU CRAWLEY!  YOU SUCK!

VOICEOVER (more quietly and in a completely different tone): BroughttoyoubyGhostBlastersUnlimitedCorporationinpartnershipwiththeGroovyGangandGhostbreakersExtremethisisnotanendorsementofviolencegoodbye.

.

Phantom (MOD): ****!

Phrontist (MOD): @Phantom (MOD) Please stop swearing, there are little kids on this server and they look up to you. 

Phantom (MOD): I’m not swearing I’m just saying ****.

Phantom (MOD): ****?

Phantom (MOD): ****

Phantom (MOD): @Pharaoh (MOD) Did you do this?

Pharaoh (MOD): Oops, I forgot about that. 

Phantom (MOD): We’re in the middle of a crisis and you do this to me.  Unbelievable.  

JACK FENTON: this gives me a great idea!!!!!!!!! :)

[@JACK FENTON has been permanently banned.] 

[@JACK FENTON has been restricted from viewing forum posts.]

Phrontist (MOD): I’m not angry.  I just want to know who gave him access to the forums again. 

Phantom (MOD): ****.

Pharaoh (MOD): Crud, I thought I fixed that.  I’ll be back on it after I figure out how Mr. Not Supposed to Be Here got back in. 

Phantom (MOD): Oh you did.  I’m just swearing for real now. 

.

AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

Ghost Activity Map, Forums, Local Business Directory, Advice Blog

Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: Paranormal Investigator Discussion Board (PINNED)

Phantom (MOD) (OP): As you may have heard by now, three separate groups of out of town paranormal investigators will be coming to Amity Park next week.  These groups range from experienced to clueless and well-regarded to unknown.  They will all be attempting to film ghosts and humans for their viewers.  Please use this board to post any information you have about these or other groups who may be coming as well as any ideas you have for preventing these groups from successfully spreading more information about our ghosts.

Additionally, certain local ghost hunters may attempt to film and post videos online during this time.  As they will undoubtedly complicate the Paranormal Investigator situation, they may be discussed here as well.

Point25Back: why are you saying lOcaL gHoSt HunTeRS we all know its [EDITED BY MOD]

[@Point25Back has been banned for one (1) day.]

Pharaoh (MOD): Speaking of people who are banned, why do we keep letting him back in when he keeps breaking the rules?

Phantom (MOD) (OP): He hasn’t tried to dissect anyone yet.  Puts him ahead of the curve.

Pharaoh (MOD): Our standards are so low.

Lovetheshow: we're getting a crossover?  two crossovers?  Best.  Day.  Ever.

Valorous1: @MOD Maybe I'm not the one who should say this but is this guy even from Amity?  Or Elmerton?

Pharaoh (MOD): Yeah, we checked. 

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Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: Why are we even trying to stop this?

West of West (OP): I think my question says it all, but just in case it doesn’t, why are we trying to stop the TRUTH from getting out?  It sounds like someone has an ulterior motive.  I say, let the Investigators in.  Tell them everything.  Let the world know. 

Valorous1: If you try to convince any of these idiots that any of the humans in town are ghosts, I will not be responsible for what I do to you. 

ashtree: of course you watch the investigators

West of West (OP): It’s the Investigation!

[THREAD LOCKED BY MODS.  DELETION PENDING.]

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Forums -> Forum Bugs and Complaints -> Complaints

Thread: THE MODS ARE BIASED TYRANTS

West of West (OP): The mods keep deleting my perfectly reasonable and on-topic threads.  This is tyranny.  We need new mods. 

nobineryginger: why haven’t they deleted this one then lol man bro you just gotta follow the roleplay rules

West of West (OP): THIS ISN’T A ROLEPLAY.

Phantom (MOD): @nobineryginger It’s because we think it’s funny.

passthemike: Make your own site if it bothers you that much.

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AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Advice Blog

Recent Articles

Paranormal Investigators, Tourists, and Community Safety

Author: Phrontist

This week, we learned that several groups of Paranormal Investigators will be visiting Amity Park.  The last time something similar happened, it was for the one million dollar bounty (since withdrawn) on the ghost Phantom.  During that event, and in the immediate aftermath, the damages accrued by the city totalled more than…

READ MORE

A Statistical Analysis of Tourist Injuries and Tourist Related Injuries

Author: Pharaoh

Everyone has that story.  You know, the one about how some rubbernecking tourist crashed into your car during a ghost fight, completely derailed an orderly evacuation, or gave Technus ammunition because they couldn’t keep their phones in their pocket.  In this article, I’ll be exploring the relationship between high tourist…

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Do I really need to explain why hunting people on live TV is bad?  Apparently.

Author: Phantom

Hello, everyone.  I’m Phantom, your friendly neighborhood ghost.  Although this fact seems to escape some people, I am in fact a person, and I don’t enjoy being hunted.  That’s a pretty normal thing.  I read the Most Dangerous Game, too.  That the hunting is being done with a camera and the only thing being killed is my privacy…

Dangerous Ghost Plants and How to Handle Them, Part 17

Author: Photosynthesis

In this latest installment of DGP, we’ll be covering Audrey-type carnivorous plants.  Now, although these critters are named after the star of Little Shop of Horrors, they typically don’t get quite that large, and smaller specimens can be taken care of with careful application of standard gardening tools.  We’ll be going over DIY and professional…

READ MORE

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Forums -> Advice Blog -> Do I really need to explain why hunting…

Thread: I'm not hunting anyone, I'm a journalist.

West of West (OP): [EDITED BY MOD.]

Pharaoh (MOD): You might not have named names in this, but you included enough personally identifiable information to doxx not only yourself, but several members of this server, so we're deleting it anyway. 

West of West (OP): This is targeted harassment!!!

Photosynthesis (MOD): Keep this up and you'll be on the same thin ice as Point25Back. 

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AMITY OF AMITY PARK: A Friendly Helping Hand

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Forums -> Ghosts -> Hunting (INVITE ONLY)

Thread: ‘Groovy Ghost Blasters Extreme’

Valorous1: I hate to ask, but has anyone here worked with any of the (sigh) ‘Groovy Ghost Blasters Extreme’ before?  I want to have an idea of what they're like before we start talking about them on the public boards and offering help with the 'problem.'  As you know, I welcome the idea of more ghost hunters in Amity, but, you know.  Competent ones.  The name does not fill me with confidence.

My Hair: They've all worked in Amity before.  Their tiger almost mauled me once.  None of them caught Phantom for the bounty.

The Cooler Phantom: no 1 catches phantom tho xcept val theyr not sprcial

Valorous1: Are you telling me that's a real tiger

JACK FENTON: I caught phantom once!!!!!1!! super excited to teach new hunters the tricks of the trade!!!!! :)

Valorous1: jfc @MOD

[@JACK FENTON has been permanently banned.] 

[@JACK FENTON has been UNINVITED from the Hunting (INVITE ONLY) board.)

[@JACK FENTON has been restricted from viewing forum posts.]

Photosynthesis (MOD): @Pharaoh (MOD) He came back again. 

Pharaoh (MOD): HOW does he keep doing this?!?!?!  He doesn't even know what hacking IS.  I ASKED.

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Forums -> Advice Blog -> A Statistical Analysis of Tourist Injuries…

Thread: Fine.  You win. 

West of West (OP): Your hype squad makes some good points.  I guess.  I won't expose the TRUTH until the government gets a clue and sets up real ghost countermeasures.  But the Investigators are professionals.  It doesn't matter what I do.  They'll know. 

merknlurk: u know u sound like a comic book villain right

Tubalover: Wow and that's coming from merk. 

merknlurk: what's that supposed to mean

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Forums -> Forum Bugs and Complaints -> Bugs

Thread: my account stops working all the time :(

JACK FENTON (OP): my account stops working all the time. :(

for a while it workd fine but then I'm not on the page anymore and it wont let me back in.  :(

I keep fixing it but it keeps happening.  :(

FootballPoet: I think thats because youre getting banned dude?????

ashtree: not sure how the mods can make it clearer

tubahater: You break the rules more than @Point25Back 

JACK FENTON (OP): you sound like the guys who tried to take my license :(

but I'm still driving :)

Cynosure: Well, that's horrifying.

Pharaoh (MOD): @JACK FENTON could you tell me how you fixed it?  Maybe that will let me figure out what's breaking.  😇

JACK FENTON: sure!  :)  [EDITED BY MOD]

[@JACK FENTON has been permanently banned.] 

[@JACK FENTON has been restricted from viewing forum posts.]

Pharaoh (MOD): Gotcha.  😈

Bog Mummy: brutal

[THREAD LOCKED BY MODS.  DELETION PENDING.]

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Forums -> Advice Blog -> Paranormal Investigators, Tourists, and…

Thread: I SAID YOU WIN

West of West (OP): I said you win.  You can call off your attack dogs nkw.

Phantom (MOD): Do you think we run the Advice Blog just for you or???

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Forums -> Community Alerts -> Paranormal Investigators

Thread: But they have a point amigos

Roswell’s Child (OP): you knwo ive been looking at cryptid crawls stuff and they kinda have a point about phantom.  like obv their video stuff has like spectral degradation and all that but its a pretty lit theory you got to admit.  and theresthe whole phantm not being a ghost thing food for thought amigos

Cynosure: [Insert: Incredibles ‘please, I can’t do this again, I’m not strong enough’ meme.]

Locker724: What does this mean?

#danny phantom #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #cryptid crawl

[nighty-night-nh]

I finished two books in the span of a month, be proud of me.

Here I stand on the other side of Eagle Strike and I have some Thoughts. A little negative to start but we go up from there.

First off, not gonna lie, I think I was less engaged with the book than the others for the first half. Unfortunately I didn’t find Damian Cray an interesting main villain at the start or when it was all over. He’s at the bottom of favorite main bad guys for me at the moment behind Julius Grief, and I like Grief so that’s an oof for him. He does get brownie points for the pennies execution method and his own ‘Syndrome from The Incredibles’ adjacent death.

Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely bits at the start I enjoyed. Like the fact that we hardly get 300 words into the book and Yassen is just There to ruin Alex’s holiday and the matador moment but overall it was a slightly sad “Ok he’s dealing with a madman with nukes that thinks he’s doing the world a favor two books in a row. Sarov did this way better than you months ago and this book is rapidly ending. Where is the third act shoe-drop that makes people like this book?”

And, um, the shoe certainly did drop. Several of them.

Starting with Sabina’s kidnaping at the hospital. Not only was it the first ‘normal’ thing in the book grounding it to reality but it just made me feel sick to my stomach because something like that happens to girls often irl. I really hope she does ok until the next time we see her. Then there’s the whole business with the plane. I’m not American but as somebody who watches videos speculating on hypothetical WWIII start points, the hijacking of air force one did properly freak me out.

And finally, what you’ve probably been waiting for me to get to: Yassen and The Big Reveal.

Yall just watched me get attached to this man knowing full well this is the book he died in, huh.

I was so enjoying him fighting himself on what he was doing with Alex and trying hard not to strangle Damian. Of course there’s the conflict of interest: Money vs not being able to live with himself if he killed the son of the man who saved him. No wonder he spoke so fondly of him. I mean he still put him in the bull ring but w/e. But this isn’t everything. He may be dead now but I’m still in the dark about a part of his story. Why and how did he start? How did he get to be this good, and this hardened to contract work? Where exactly did his code of not killing kids come from? It couldn’t have been from Alex, he already didn’t kill kids. I have so many questions that’ll probably get answered in the next few books.

My last point of note is realizing the Rider brothers were on two sides of the same coin. They both killed. John was a contract killer for money, Ian worked for MI6 and both hid it from people in their lives. Did they know? Did they ever know? We can’t ask dead men questions, can we.

Now with all of that out of my system, I move onto Scorpia. Which is the book I am actively scared of. I heard whispers of it in Never Say Die, Its consistently voted the favorite of the entire series and I’ve heard it’s the start of Alex’s even emo-er arc which he 100% deserves by the way.

I am in for a world of pain for this next book n’ I don’t think I’m ready.

#nicky rambles #alex rider #alex rider eagle strike #ar: eagle strike #yassen gregorovich #i literally had to take a 5 hour break to look at cotl stuff and calm down b4 a made this post the ending shook me that bad 😭 #not much in the way of tags this time. said all i had to say in the post itself #except that this traumatized British boy might be the thing to break my 4 year streak of now humans drawn #i might have to make fanart chat. i love him that much now #anyway. onto scorpia. its prolly gonna kill me lamo