#Falling into a Story Candice

[wolfasketch]

A story where a girl finds a book the transports back and fifth between her world and a world full of monsters.

This scene is how Candice and Phrixus met

Inspired by @somerandomdudelmao's alien work and @lillhappycloud's big-n-lil' work(read what there is of the comic and now must wait)

SpeedPaint: https://youtube.com/shorts/FLlxSHM6L9w?si=3oWKZkmrBHal6jtq

Ref sheets:

#Falling into a Story #FiaS #Falling into a Story Candice #Falling into a Story Phrixus #FiaS Candice #FiaS Phrixus #Candice #Phrixus #Phrixus calls Candice Cadence #So #Falling into a Story Cadence #FiaS Cadence #Phrixus is also a prince

[kismetmoon]

me after i said i probably wouldn’t design a side character :

[ID: three digital monochrome drawings of an original stylised Flatland character, Adam Siglon, all on cream backgrounds.

Adam is a light grey square with black stick limbs, a black tail with a leaf-shaped tip, a round eye in the centre of his body, a thick rectangular eyebrow, wrinkles at the sides of his eye and a defined runway under his eye, and dark grey triangles on his corners.

In the first photo, Adam is standing with his hands on his sides. He is looking up with an annoyed expression and a furrowed brow.

In the second photo, Adam is talking to Chief Jr. - a circle character with black stick limbs, a back tail, crescent moon markings, a black crown on his out edge and an eye in the centre of his body with long beaded eyelashes. Atlas, an isosceles character with similar physical features as the others holding a spear, can be seen in the background between Adam and Chief with an annoyed expression. Adam is holding some books in one hand and pointing up with the other hand. He is looking at Chief, who is looking away with a half closed eye and raising on hand. There are two square speech bubbles above Adam with scribbles inside.

In the third photo, Adam is bending his knees and holding out one hand with curled fingers. His other hand is pointing behind him. His brow is raised and eye is wide with a spiral for a pupil. There is a square speech bubble next to him with a doodle of Stella - a humanoid character with a eye for a head and a stumpy black tail and limbs wearing a white dress.

End ID.]

- Mr Adam Siglon, your local old stickler square. The official advisor for Chief Circle and his family, and will make sure you’re very aware of this fact. He knows all about the legal side of things and is well informed in his role, but he would much rather pester the Circles in his free time. He’s not very popular, as you can imagine, and is often holed up with work in his office beside the boiler room. Whenever he’s not in his office, however, he’s usually found tagging along after the youngest Circle trying to “guide him on his life’s path” (and pushing his personal guard into the wall or tripping him up). He’s also very intrigued by the so-called ‘Ghost Girl of Circle Estate’. He’s been trying to catch her for almost two years now, but has never been able to prove her existence to anyone. Yet, that is.

[ID: a digital black outline drawing of Adam as seen from almost directly above on a white background. There is bold white text with a black outline that reads “no circles?” in all caps - in relation to the Megamind ‘no bitches?’ meme. End ID].

#flatland #oc #adam siglon #i hate him i hate him i hate him #he’s got like a candice from phineas and ferb thing going on #or mr crocker from fairly odd parents #where he’ll catch Stella and try to bring her to show someone #but he’ll fall through the loose floorboards or she’ll bite his hand or something stupid #but i know i said i probably wouldn’t bother with him much but he’s kinda my minor antagonist within my characters #so i need him #for story purposes only

[asvterias]

𝖨𝗍 𝖠𝗅𝗅 𝖥𝖾𝗅𝗅 𝖣𝗈𝗐𝗇 ~ 𝖢𝗅𝖺𝗋𝗂𝗌𝗌𝖾 𝖫𝖺 𝖱𝗎𝖾

part two || chapter playlist (1) & chapter playlist (2) || clarisse masterlist

helping palestine 🇵🇸

warnings: the killing of a monster?, character death, crying, some blood mentions & stabbing (not inflicted against us!)

pairings: (both aged up to 16) clarisse la rue ✘ black!fem!demigod!reader (daughter of poseidon) | younger!brother percy jackson ✘ older!sister!reader

genres: sally & reader’s mom (jessica) are lovers bcs GENUINELY FUCK GABE (hate his ass), reader & grover has a sibling bond, hard cold angst, sad angsty beginning, reader’s mom actually dies 🥲, reader’s emotions control the weather, very sad!reader, kinda depressed!reader, reader in denial, MAJOR character death, reader is kinda a girlboss, kinda!dark!reader x always!clueless!percy, vengeful!reader, reader is OUT for blood (specifically the Minotaur)

summary: secrets are liable to make or break the jackson-matthews family until they result in dangerous situations, nearly escaping from death…well nearly most of them managed a safe recovery.

word count: 2.7k+

tag list: @lvrue @kyuupidwrites @xanasaurusrex @urdeadpoet @aurorailvsm @quinnsadilla @st4rzl7 @p0rkbun @star-girl69 @aphroditesmoon @lcvved @tinytea-biscut @dearlydarlings @nvirskies @rocknr0ll @urbisexualfriend @k4zuhas-visi0n @marlswhore @lovelyy-moonlight @thegiganticgirlkisser @thewritingbarbie @apocalypticlibrary @solecitoszn @mira-belcul18 @ampitrit3 @mthefae @sleighingstella @korizzybee @hoku-k @liv444me @lila-went-missing @mariposa555 @cherriesnbutter @justintinderlake4 @natasha-took-fall-damage @b0ok-lover @novastarrs @urfavefag @babyzzlove @importantpotato @laughingcheese037 @iheartamberfreeman @karslyn @haerinfrr @gianni7867 @jimfiqs @4evafvctional @lyzsaphrodite @f4riedimples

author’s note: i really enjoyed writing this ngl! also i have a faceclaim for reader’s mom, jessica matthews is portrayed by candice patton.

Born from the same father but different mothers, your sibling bond with Percy was unbreakable, certainly unconditional. Your mothers were very close, growing up as best friends from when they were teenagers, accomplishing every achievement together for the sake of you and Percy’s life.

Of course, your moms fell in love, hosting a small spring wedding when you were 10 and Percy was 6 years old.

So when Sally had to move again, your mom didn’t ask questions and instead packed your bags, placing them in the car and driving to the airport. A loving family of four was maintained by dark secrets that cost lives.

With everything going on, with the upbringing of your heritage, both of your mothers went through thick and thin. Developing from friends into lovers hardly changed anything, presumably their love maintained massively for themselves and shared children.

It was a rainy day, you and Percy had just been expelled from Yancy. Nancy bullied your brother so you reacted like how any big sister would and punched her before she flew into the nearby fountain, completely drenched in water. That little defense mechanism got both you and your little brother expelled from Yancy indefinitely as you two took a train back to your parents’ apartment.

You two apologized profusely to your moms, but they remained nonchalant, telling you two to pack a bag because you were visiting your residential cabin.

Something was wrong, extremely wrong and you felt it in your gut as soon as you stepped foot into the unkept cabin. From the moment your mom became sorrowful and honest, retelling the story of how she met your father, you knew something was up. Sadly, you just didn’t know that it’d be life-changing for you both.

Interrupted by rapid knocks on the cabin door made you jump a little in surprise and your mom, Sally, went to open the door. It was Percy’s bestfriend, Grover. He was soaked from the rain and began to blabber on to your moms, incoherently talking about revealing the big secret.

“Grover…” Percy speaks, waringly looking down at his friend’s lower body, or rather the lack thereof. Shockingly enough, his lower body wasn’t one of a human’s but one of the legs of an animal, specifically a goat.

“What?” Grover snapped, turning his head to the siblings, hitting his hoove against the wooden floor.

“Grover, why is there half a goat in your pants?”

“Did your mom fuck a goat or something?” The question had to be asked, but it yet remained to be answered.

Doubled in confusion when Grover, Percy’s best friend was also your satyr protector, dedicating to getting both of you at Camp Half-Blood safely. When your mothers’ actually revealed the truth about your father’s real identity, you were appalled, to say the least. You assumed he was a deadbeat and couldn’t care less about his kids, and you were absolutely right. Only now his identity expanded in further detail, making him out to be a god, one of the most powerful gods there ever was. Therefore making you and Percy, forbidden children in both worlds, are continually being hunted by monsters, who strive to see your demise.

“Do you believe this, Y/N?” Percy turns to you, mouth open in bewilderment.

“Right now, I don’t know what to believe anymore.” You truthfully spoke.

“Did you know I’m 24?” Grover asked you innocently.

You and Percy shared the same shocked expression, “Wait? What?”

Grover winces, staring back at the two adults in the car, “Out of curiosity, what exactly did you tell them?”

“We were getting there!” Your moms shouted simultaneously at Grover.

Grover nods his head, leaning back into the seat.

“Moonlight…listen to me.” your mom looks at you through the mirror as your gaze hesitantly meets hers. “You and Percy are forbidden children, monsters are going to attack you every day, this camp can protect you both.”

“Why can’t you and Sally come with us then?” you bargained with her, tears forming in your eyes. You couldn’t imagine, much less experience your life without your mother and Sally. The same women who nurtured you since you were babies and taught you everything you knew. You refused to give up on them, everything they did was to protect and love you, and now it was your turn.

Sally starts to talk, eyes stuck on the road, “We humans are not allowed there. Only demigods like you two.”

“But we don’t wanna leave you two.” Percy persisted.

“You’re our moms.”

“You’re gonna have to, that Minotaur isn’t gonna stop until he kills both of you.”

All of a sudden, a collision hit the car with enough brute force to send the car off the road and everything went black. It was all so quick, the collision, the swiveling of the car and landing on the side of the road, far from bypassers to rescue.

The rain pattering against the car turned into a heavy rainpour as everyone in the car, hanging upside down with the seat belt anchoring them, remained still, all unconscious.

After a while, the dulling pain in your head sharply woke you up, being the first to recover from the crash. Holding your head in pain as you slowly opened your eyes, feeling the blood trickle from your head, surveying your surroundings as you saw Percy and Grover still unconscious. Quickly unbuckling your seatbelt, you got out of your seat, repeating the same action to your younger brothers.

One by one, you carefully got everyone from the car as they began to wake up. A growl from the distance urges you to move faster as you help your other mom, Sally, get out of the damaged car.

Sally, Percy, and Grover were recovering, standing on their feet, checking for any injuries and your mom was the last one who needed rescuing.

“Mom…” you shake her but her body is motionless as the tears well up in your eyes.

You felt Sally’s arm pushing you back, sending you into Percy’s and Grover’s embrace as you nervously observed.

“Come on, come on, Jess…” Sally murmurs, kneeling down, searching for a pulse. “You gotta survive, we have children together, we can’t lose you right now.”

“Is she okay?” Percy chirps up, deciding to speak for you.

You found everything incomprehensible around you, your senses became deafening and a high-pitched ringing in your head matched the loud heart beating in your chest.

When Sally stayed silent, it only worsened your anxiety, “Mom, is she okay?!” Percy speaks again, adding some base in his voice yet his tone slightly wavers.

“She has a fading pulse…” Sally whispers, sparing a sad glance at you and quickly turning back to Jessica, “It’s decreasing rapidly,”

Dropping to the muddy slippery ground on your knees, tears quickly filling the brim of your eyes, threatening to fall as you moved closer to her.

“Mommy…” you cradle her face into your chest, saddened by her face, eyes closed as blood trickles down her forehead.

“We can revive her, right!” Your voice cracks, whipping your head to Sally, “Tell me we can revive her!”

“Y/N…” Sally sighs deeply, trying to contain her own tears. You turn around, looking down at your mother, resting on your lap, body motionless yet her face looks peaceful.

“No! We- I can save her. We can do heart-to-heart compressions,” you shake your head, starting to do heart-to-heart compressions. “Why isn’t she waking up? Mommy, this isn’t funny anymore now, you have to wake up and help us. Please I can’t do this without you, I can’t do this whole new demigod thing without you.” your voice was dry, as you leaned down, blowing air into her mouth, hoping for a miracle to occur.

You didn’t truly believe in miracles, but for your mother, you’d start believing it. Right now, you would do whatever it took to bring her back even if it meant wishing on the impossible.

“We didn’t do plenty of things yet, I wanted you and Sally to meet my first girlfriend, attend my graduation, be there when I move out and eventually get married, and get grandkids from Percy because we both know I’m not going through that torture.”

Your senses became intensely heightened, catching onto Grover’s whisper to Sally, ignoring him as you spoke up.

“I refuse to leave her alone, she isn’t dead, just having some problems waking up and getting a pulse back.” You were in extreme denial, “Come on, mum, you focus on her face, giving her air and I’ll do her chest,” you beckoned Sally forward.

“Sweetheart…she’s already….gone.”

“She’s my mom and Percy’s mom, your wife. She wasn’t supposed to die this early. If all you’re gonna do is stand there and be useless, don’t bother talking to me.” It wasn’t intentional to snap at your other mom, but your emotions were driving you crazy and brazen.

“You’re the sun to my moon, Mommy, I can’t shine when you’re not there with me.” You sobbed. Despite being physically exhausted, you weren’t giving up on trying to revive your mom, she would have never given up on you so you would stop trying until you had something, anything; a pulse, a gasp, her eyes shooting up. “Remember…” You weakly asked, holding onto the moon-shaped necklace on your neck, staring at your mom’s sun-shaped necklace.

The sky crackled with slight thunder as the rain poured down heavier. Finally understanding the meaning of your nickname, you sobbed desperately until the broken cracks of your voice gave out.

There was no sunshine without her moonlight, always them being in a pair, nothing without the other. Sadly, you lost your sunshine, darkening your moonlight to its deepest depths, harvesting it into something vengeful and heartless. Something that even scared you to a certain extent, like this was another new side flourishing because of the horrible circumstances.

“Hold up, is Y/N doing that?” Percy quietly asks Grover.

You rested your mom on the ground, ignoring the cold rainpour.

“She’s gone…” Sally cries, grabbing your arm and pushing you into her body for a hug. You cried into the hug, tightening your grip as your wails echoed throughout the forest. Maybe this was all a nightmare, where you’d wake up and relax in reality. This was the time that your mom needed to wake you up and reassure you that she was right there, staying with you and protecting you.

Your chest clenched against your rib cage, devastation wracked throughout your entire body as the tears relentlessly spilled out.

“But she- she can’t be gone!” You hiccup, eyes glossing over with fresh tears, feeling another arm snuggle around your side.

“I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry,” she caressed your face.

“What kind of demigod I am, if I was blessed with all these supernatural powers, can’t even save my Mom from death? What kind of daughter am I to just stand by and watch her own mother die? I don’t want this demigod life anymore, please take it all away if it meant my mother is coming back, to me, to home.”

“Don’t you ever say that again, you did everything you could, your perseverance is one of your strongest qualities that Jessica adored very much. She wouldn’t want you to doubt yourself like this nor would I,” Sally reassures you, resting a thumb on your cheek, “Our beautiful daughter, she’s so proud of you, I want you to know that.”

Your eyes were puffy and red from tears as you listened to your mother’s words of encouragement and reassurance.

Much to your dismay, another loud roar broke the semi-family grievance, reminding them of the harsh reality.

“We have to go now!” Grover hastily urges.

“I’m not leaving my mom here like this,” you point to her figure on the ground.

“We won’t, I promise you, sweetie. I’ll give her a proper burial, but right now we have to go!” Her tone was urgent as she quickly scanned the dark forest with the illumination from the car light.

You hurriedly rushed towards your mother’s still figure on the muddy ground, leaning down.

“Goodbye, Mom,” you whisper hoarsely, kissing her forehead for the last time. You stared down at her neck, gazing at the sunlight necklace she wore and yanked it off, and shoved the meaningful jewelry into your back pocket. Your heart broke again, realizing she can’t respond back, despite being in extreme denial.

Unfortunately, that was the last time you saw your moms, one died in your arms and the other sacrificed herself for her children’s safety.

The pain and suffering became a dangerous mix of anger and hatred directed at the Minotaur.

Grover’s statements fall on deaf ears, partially drowned out by the heavy rainfall. “Y/N and Percy come on, we’re almost there.” you glance at your blonde brother who holds the same expression on his face. You were going to avenge your mothers, and you didn’t care if you died trying. This monster had already taken your worlds away, so you had nobody else to lose.

Grabbing the pen from your pocket, holding it out, and witnessing it transform into a golden sword at will.

The fight with the Minotaur was brutal and intense, alongside the heavy downpour of rain attempted to slow down the intensity of this fight. Despite double-teaming the monster, he resisted surrender, determined to win and kill you both. Surprisingly, you gained the agility to climb onto his back while Percy distracted him.

Somehow, you gained the ultimate advantage with the lighting sword in your hand and stabbed the monster in its eye, ignoring his roar of pain. If anything its pain only further encouraged you to continue.

Too full of adrenaline, you grab his two horns, gripping them and pulling them out with your utmost strength. A new sudden strength you just obtained. Gasping in shock was quickly outlived when your sword slipped out of your hand and dropped onto the muddy ground, disappearing from your eyesight. Stumbling onto his feet, inflicted by the pain, you groaned, gripping the monster by his rough skin as he attempted to shake you off.

“Percy the sword!” You yelled at him. Your brother throws the sword upwards as you catch the weapon.

You stab the monster in the neck, wincing at his loud screeches, but continue to stab his neck. Once the monster was deemed weak enough, you sliced the sword right through his neck, seizing the opportunity of successfully killing it.

This was all this stupid monster’s fault. If it hadn’t chased after you or slammed itself into the car, your mom would be alive. If it didn’t have such a bloodthirst for demigods, Sally, your mum would still be alive. Alive. Alive. Alive. You just wished your moms were alive, to see you mature into such a courageous daughter to avenge their deaths.

Soon enough, the monster staggered on its feet and its body began to disintegrate into black dust before your eyes.

“Y/N!” The voice becomes disoriented as you stumble on the ground, two arms catching you as you faint, everything fading away into a black abyss.

likes, comments and reblogs are highly appreciated!

© asvterias, 2024. please do not copy, repost, or translate any of my works onto any other platforms without my permission.

#dior goodjohn #dior goodjohn x reader #clarisse la rue #clarisse la rue x reader #clarisse la rue x fem!reader #clarisse la rue x black!reader #clarisse la rue x black!fem!reader #clarisse la rue x you #clarisse la rue x y/n #clarisse la rue angst #clarisse la rue series #clarisse la rue imagine #clarisse la rue oneshot #daughter of poseidon

[co-sharkie]

Revenge is Sweet

(POLY) Grayson Waller x F! Wrestler! Reader x Austin Theory

Summary: Candice LeRae attacked you backstage and your boys help you take revenge.

Warnings: mentions of insecurities

Words: 1490

Disclaimer: Raw brand wrestlers are on Smackdown for story purposes.

Requested 💙

Candice LeRae has always been your rival. You weren't even sure when it started. It could have began when you were picked for the NXT Women's championship over her. She would continuously try to sabotage your matches and insult you online. It was endless and you were getting tired of it.

Just like you, your boyfriends were also exhausted with her. They would have to constantly stop her from interfering with your matches, which resulted in DIY getting involved. Your boys have always been stuck to you like glue, even before they knew of your rivalry with Candice. They were always with you backstage and accompanying you to your matches.

Tonight was no different. They were scheduled for a title defense match against New Catch Republic. They practically begged you to stand ringside for them, but you had to refuse. You had a meeting to Nick Aldis at the same time as their match. You promised to watch them on a screen backstage when you finished. They begrudgingly went out without you.

--

You finished your meeting with Nick and were headed back to your locker room. You didn't make it very far before you felt steel collide with your back. You dropped to your knees but another crash against your spine had you falling face first onto the floor. "You think you deserve a title shot?" It was a familiar voice that screamed behind you.

Candice pulled your head up. Her eyes spoke volumes more than her words ever could. She must have overheard your meeting with Nick and decided to take it out on you. "I've worked so hard and get nothing!" Your face planted on the ground again when she dropped your head from her hands.

She delivered a kick to your side that had you rolling over onto your back. Candice had you thrown into almost every object backstage—tables, crates, walls, and doors. You reeled in pain after each impact but she never let you rest. The entire time she screamed at you, taking out what seemed like years of frustration.

When she finally decided to catch her breath, you took the opportunity to try rolling away from her. You tried getting onto your feet and in the process you noticed the team of DIY clearing off a table that had a ton of signed merchandise. You were unsure of when they had joined in. Candice pulled you to your feet but your knees gave out and you fell to the ground.

Holding your head in pain, Candice continued to yell but the sound of her voice was quickly drowned out by the ringing in your ears. You didn't feel her hit you again, but instead you felt familiar strong arms curl under your legs and back. Your eyes peeled open slowly and saw the face of your boyfriend, Austin. "What the hell happened?" He asked you with a soft but stern voice.

Grayson was next to you within seconds. His hands cupped your face as he inspected you. His expression quickly fell to one of anger. "I'm going to talk to Nick." He stepped over the debris of tables and torn up merchandise. "If they want to touch our girl, they get to answer to us in the ring."

Austin just sighed. Your head rest on his shoulder while he carried you through the halls of backstage and to medical. You almost fell asleep in his arms. Medical checked your body for anything that could be broken or sprained. They cleaned up the cut you didn't know you had above your eye and sent you on your way.

--

The boys had taken you back to the hotel room you shared with them. Austin helped clean up the cut you had on your forehead and replaced the bandage. You laid in the middle of one of the hotel room beds, blankets covered you and phone in hand. You scrolled through your social media while your boys were getting ready for bed. A recent post came across your page, and it was from Candice. "I think we might need a new contender for the championship. (Y/N) might be broken... oops!" You read off her post aloud. It was quickly accumulating likes.

"Ha! She wishes she was strong enough to break you." Grayson laughed as he crawled into bed next to you. He cuddled up to your side and planted a kiss on your cheek.

Austin snorted and grabbed your phone to put it on the nightstand. He got under the blankets on the other side of you. "She won't be saying anything when DIY ends up on the bench after next week." Grayson had updated you two on the way to the hotel about his talk with Nick. Your boys were to face DIY next Friday. In a street fight.

--

Some of the bruises stayed longer than others. There were a few that were still a deep purple. They were a constant reminder of your one-sided feud with Candice. You tried all you could to ignore it, but they continued to plague your mind and were a sore to your eyes. The cut on your face had began closing up enough that there was no need for bandages, but it was again a reminder of when you weren't able to fight back.

While the bruises may have made you feel weak, your boys lifted your spirits. Whenever Austin caught you staring at yourself for too long in the mirror, he'd pull you away and take you to do something else. Grayson would often kiss your bruises to make you feel better and remind you that they were temporary. Despite them comforting you, they both dealt with the internal turmoil of leaving you alone, which resulted in you getting hurt.

--

Friday couldn't have come faster. Grayson and Austin were both beyond prepared for their fight, which was declared the main event of the night. They made their entrance to the ring second and parted the ropes for you. As soon as the bell rang, all hell broke loose. There were no rules in a street fight and they planned to take full advantage of it.

Austin and Grayson quickly took control of the match. You found it suspicious that Candice did not come out with DIY. You scanned the crowd but didn't see her anywhere. The entire match you were on your toes, ready this time for any attack she may bring.

DIY had taken the upperhand in the midst of the match. Tables were broken, chairs bent under the impact of hitting a body, and kendo sticks were snapped. You kept your eyes wandering on your surrounding while cheering for your boyfriends and helping to hype up the crowd.

They had finally regained control. Grayson was outside the ring with Johnny Gargano as they exchanged hits with a kendo stick. Austin was in the ring with Tommaso Ciampa. Austin lifted Tommaso onto his shoulder and executed his finisher. Just before he could start the pin, the referee was distracted by someone hopping on the apron and yelling.

Candice had finally made her appearance. She stood on the apron, leaning over the ropes, yelling nonsense at the referee to keep Tommaso getting pinned. You decided it was the perfect time to take your revenge.

You ran over to the side of the ring Candice was perched on and swept her legs out from under her. She dropped to the floor and knocked her chin on the arpon. She writhed in pain on the ground. You heard the referee hit the mat three times and a bell rang. Austin's music played throughout the arena.

You pulled Candice up by her hair and ran her into the ring post, knocking the last set of stairs over in the process. Austin's music stopped almost as quickly as it started when officials realized the main event wasn't over yet.

With Candice on the ground, you saw Grayson dragging Johnny over to you by the hair. As if Austin knew what you two were planning, he slid out of the ring and cleared off the announcers table.

Wade Barrett and Michael Cole jumped out of their seats and backed up. Even through the roaring crowd, you could hear them begging you guys not to break the table. You pulled Candice up to her feet and dragged her over to the table. Grayson pulled a dazed Johnny up next to her. In sync, you both threw their arms over your shoulders and slammed them backwards onto the table together. The announcers table broke under the weight of their bodies.

The referee ran over, checking the pulses on the duo. You walked over to the time keeps and grabbed the tag team titles. You handed them both to Austin and Grayson. While your rivalry may now never end with Candice, at least you have your boys to back you up no matter what.

#wwe x reader #grayson waller x reader #wwe fanfiction #austin theory x reader

[husbandogoddess]

Candied Hearts Demo

Story

Obsessed with the gacha game, Candied Hearts, the MC finds herself struggling to earn enough points to unlock a limited edition event skin. She isn’t prepared for a thunderstorm that sends her into the game world itself! Journey through the Land of Sweets, try to solve a political family strife and fall in love!

Demo Features

Nameable protagonist (Default name is Candice)

18.2k words (Est. Playtime: 1-1.5 hours depending on reading speed)

Multiple choices and scenes to experience!

3 CGS

Multiple variations

Partial Voice Acting

Accessibility Options

Sound and Image Captions

Self-Voicing (Can be toggled on in the Options menu or by pressing the 'V' key on your keyboard)

Font Options (Atkinson Hyperlegible and OpenDyslexic)

Content Warning

This game contains blood, cursing, potential character deaths, screen flashes, screen shaking, and an abusive parental figure. Please be advised while playing, and take care of yourselves.

Download the Candied Hearts demo on itch.io!

#visual novel #english visual novel #interactive fiction #otome game #indie otome #otome #indie game #indie visual novel #candied hearts #my games

[crookedteethed]

RADIO appearance (1) | e.m & s.h

Pairing: Rockstar!EddieMunson x Radiohost Fem Reader x BandManager!SteveHarrington

Summary: You're seemingly going nowhere at your job at Studio 66. You finally get your big break when your boss meets a terrible fate. Given the opportunity to become Mental in the Morning's newest radio host, you embark on a never before experience when you fall into a love triangle between Corroded Coffins, Eddie Munson, and his manager, Steve Harrington, all while trying not to lose yourself to your sudden fame. What will you choose? 

Warnings: Cursing, Misogyny, Love Triangle, Sexual harassment in the workplace, eventual smut, Drug and alcohol use, slowburn, mentions of blood, Character death

Authors note: Wanted to give writing on Tumblr a try. Let me know how you like the story and thanks for reading.💗💗 Word count: 2,463

RADIO appearance ⭑ materiel list

Divider credits- @cafekitsune

Circa’ 1991 

Spike Van Dyke was an idiot. 

He was the type to ask you for the time, even though he had a shiny metal Rolex banded around his wrist, just to purely get on your nerves. Spike was the type of person to play obnoxious clown honks and buzzers on his morning radio show as hungover parents rushed their children off to school in their minivans or Subarus. Spike also was the person to ask you if you were "Mental in the Morning?!" And if you weren't, you would get sprayed with silly string and get kicked in the tush. 

Spike didn't like me; well, he acted like he didn't like me. Said I had the type of looks that made a freight train take a dirt road, per se, compared to Candace "Candi" Jones. 

Here comes the sad part. My family says it's sad, but I like to think otherwise: After being told I wasn't good enough, I didn't quit. Anyone with an ounce of self-respect in their bones and dignity in their gut would quit after being told they weren't good enough, but I stayed. I've been Spike's humbled assistant for four years now—not like he needed one, though. 

Despite being obnoxious and sometimes rude, Spike was a low-maintenance guy. A day's work for me is grabbing him bottled water after he's choking on a fly, getting into his mouth from gawking at Candace. 

"Metal fucking sucks." The sound of a crowd booing and then a loud tuba-sounding "Womp womp womp" plays in the background—radio imaging. 

Now where was I? Spike Van Dyke was—is—an idiot.

The big and bright “ON AIR” sign lit up my face as I watched from outside Studio 66. 

“Now Spike, you aren’t saying that because Corroded Coffin is coming to studio 66 tomorrow, right?” Candice said, a shit-eating grin plastered on her lips. He only kept Candice as the co-host of Mental in the Morning because she once flashed him her big silicon Double D tits at a wet tank top contest he was hosting. 

“Oh, that’s a load of bullshit, Candi. And you wanna know why?” “Why?” “You wanna know why that’s bullshit, Candi? Because I hadn’t even heard of crowded coffee—” “Corroded Coffin.” “Until you just brought them up seconds ago.” Spike shrugs, leaning his back in his seat and swinging his feet in his chair because they barely touch the ground. 

“I don’t know, Spike, you have a reputation for making your guests mad. Remember when you called Madonna a sellout?”

“She never denied it.” 

“And when you called Steven Tyler a creep?”

"That one's true and we all know it." 

"Ok, so let me get this straight: are YOU, Spike Van Dyke, going to play nice tomorrow for the Corroded Coffin boys?"

Spike shrugs again. "Depends, Candi, why don't you play one of crowded coffee—" "Corroded Coffin." "Eh.. yeah, why don't you play one of their songs? I'll have my conclusion at the end of the break." 

"Welp, you heard it folks, whatever Spike wants, he gets. Here's "Hellmouth" from Corroded Coffin's sophomore album "Mutilation, Sickness, and a Little Death." Make sure you all stay tuned after the break, and also don't forget to stay—"Candice points to Spike, and in his dreadful, languid voice, he says: "Mental in the Morning." 

At a click of a button, the dark and muddy strings of Corroded Coffin's "Hellmouth" ring through the speakers of studio 66; by the time the long interlude is over, I only hear a snippet of Munson's throaty singing before Candice and Spike come out of the studio. 

The "ON AIR" sign is now turned off, but it's only until the break is over. "That was a good take, guys." I softly say as Candice and Spike leave the studio.

Y'know, when I was five, I dressed up as a brick wall for Halloween--I'd thought it'd be funny. Who knew I'd still be in the same costume fifteen years later? Spike walks straight past me, like the wall I am.

Candice does pay mind to me, leaning beside the same wall as I, looking at the short and stout Spike Van Dyke going straight to his favorite intern--Bonnie, I think her name is--just to mess with her for his shits and giggles.

"Should I start making apology gift baskets now?" I ask her.

She asks. "Maybe he'll have a change of heart this time? You know, I've noticed he hasn't been staring at my breast as much lately. I think that's a sign for something."

"A sign for what?" Now it was my turn to tsk. "That he's finally gone through the lobotomy he so desperately needs?" 

I look up at her, and she's laughing. Candice wasn't that much taller than me, but her hot pink stilettos made me look like Stuart Little standing beside her. I join in on the laughter, too. But the joyous moment is cut short when we hear an "eek!" from the intern and see Spike pinching up the ends of her frilly white skirt. 

"Poor girl." Candice says. "One day he's going to mess with the wrong person." Candice mutters.

Black and green sludge starts swishing in my body, and I think I will be sick. I watched the intern's skin become extremely pallid, and her eyes turned a shade of fear. Any other time, her skin would be pretty porcelain, like an antique doll you'll find in an upscale market, and her eyes would shine the brightest green. 

"I hate to say it, but it's kind of like a rite of passage for the girls of Studio 66 to get hounded by Spike, right?" I hear Candice say from afar; she sees I'm gone when she looks over. 

And out of the emergency exit and down three flights of stairs I go, I find myself in front of studio 66, looking out at the crowded streets of New York City, and thinking of Bonnie, the girl with porcelain skin, and Candice, the 5'8 glamazon.

A "Rite of Passage" it was. It wasn't a shocker when Spike liked you; he shows it. He's done it to many women prior before he's done it to Candice, and now he's doing it to Bonnie. Bonnie was just an intern today, but she'll be Spike's new assistant tomorrow. Why hadn't Spike taken a liking to me? Well, according to him, I'm "too boring." I’m simply plain and simple—old, boring Y/N. 

I know it's wrong, but how else should I feel? It's not like I wanted to get filled up by Spike; that's disgusting, but if that meant I get to do something at my job or move up a position, then so be it. 

Fuck. How would I do that when Spike doesn't even look at me?

Bonnie was about to be promoted while I was off somewhere, filling out yet another job application. Maybe I'll apply to Coney Island. At least then, I'll have the joyous laughter of children or exciting screams from amusement parkgoers to drown my sorrows. 

"You have an expressive face." A voice says beside me. I look up at the stranger; his fluffy-looking hair draws my attention away from his face. The warm stink of nicotine fills my nostrils, and I feel the hairs on my body prick the fabric of my clothes. When I relaxed my face, I realized how scrunched tight I had it. 

"Jesus, what kind of deep shit are you in, kid?" He asks. He says "kid" as if he and I didn't look remotely close in age. 

"You got another one of those?" I say, pointing to the cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth. Without hesitation, he goes into his left boot, pulling out a pack of Camels. I pull out a cigarette--his last one. When I have the cigarette in my mouth, he whips a white lighter with its blazing flames. 

"Thanks." I say, my voice almost muffled. I nearly gag from the nicotine as I smoke it. 

Cigarettes sucked. They only looked cool as an accessory--accompanied by a cup of coffee and some old French novel. Other times, cigarettes look fantastic when they're used by guys who stare at you so intensely, waiting to hear what you have to say. 

"Um--" I freeze; his eyes roll down my body before meeting my eyes again. "It's rude to stare," I say, nerves starting to leave my body as the nicotine seeps in. 

"It's rude to leave people hanging." He snaps back. "What's gotten you so pressed?"

I huff, "Spike Van Dyke, that's what." 

He hums. "With a name like that, how couldn't he? Did his mother even love him?" I let out a nervous chuckle, somewhat wary about talking to the stranger, but he gave me his last cigarette, which meant he was ok?

"We're in the same boat, y'know?" he says, playing with the cigarette between his fingers. 

"He'd hit on your girlfriend or something?" I cock my eyebrow, and I feel a smile form on my lips. "Say he did hit on your girlfriend, and you're here to kick his ass; you wouldn't say anything if I let you in without a badge?" 

"No, I'm not here to kick his ass." He breathily laughs. "Your funny." He says. I wasn't joking. I deadpan.

"I'm Steve. Steve Harrington." He introduces.

Why does the name seem so familiar? I squint my eyes at him. 

"Y/n. Y/n Y/l/n." 

"So, I take it you work here." he points his thump to the building. "At Studio 66?"

"Not for long; I'll be working at Coney Island soon. I could get you tickets, perhaps?

He laughs again, and for the second time, I wasn't joking. 

"Yeah, my band--the band I'm managing--you've might've heard of them? Corroded Coffin? I'm here for them." 

Something in my brain snaps. 

"You're Corroded Coffin's manager." I state that's why his name was so familiar. "You're the one we talked to about the interview." 

He nods. "Yep." he drags. "That's me." 

"I didn't expect you to be so..."

Good-looking? The good-looking that would make you instantly popular--taking it back to my high school days. Most of the managers I've met in the past have been the Spike Van Dyke type, y'know, bald and plump with deceitful eyes and a deceitful chin and wandering hands. 

"Preppy? Not the type to manage a band who sings about war, destruction, doom and misery?" 

"Took the words right out of my mouth." 

"I'm reminded of it every day." He says, now leaning on the cold brick wall, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his dark blue bomber jacket. 

"Your interview isn't until tomorrow." I say. 

"Yeah, but I'm here to talk to Spike, that guys an idiot." 

As if that still needed to be established.

"I bet you won't say that to his face." I dare. 

With a smirk on his lips and a sparkle in his eyes, he took me up on the challenge.

Spike took Steve's comment well, I think. 

"Ok, so what do you want me to do?" Spike shrugged. 

"All I'm saying is, Corroded Coffin won't do the interview if you're going to be a..." 

Steve's eyes met mine. I look at him wide-eyed and boggled, sitting on the edge of my seat beside Spike's desk. Steve jitters a bit, switching all his weight from one foot to another. 

"An asshole." 

I would've preferred the word "dickhead" instead, but "asshole" is close enough.

"But "asshole" is my brand. If you or Corroded Coffin don't like it, I'm glad to not have you all on my show." 

"Should I remind you that we were the ones to get a voicemail from you guys? You're the one that wants us here. My group will be damned if you think we're going to let you disrespect us." To convey his authority, Steve places both hands on his hips. A smirk creeps onto my lips.

Spike squints his eyes, gnawing his teeth. "Who sent you here?" He asks. "Was it that hotshot—what's his name? I forget." Spike snaps his fingers. "Munson." 

Steve scoffs. "I'm here on the behalf of all of Corroded Coffin." 

Spike rolls his eyes and says: "Y'know Munson has a "bad" reputation himself. I'd seen his little stunt he pulled with Rush the Radio a few weeks back." 

As if it were him involved in the horrendous event, Steve mutters a "Jesus Christ" and runs his fingers through his bouncy hair. 

"I mean, who gets mad like that over one little question? My poor guy Rush is still paying for the damages that little shithead caused." 

It was Steve's turn to squint his eyes and gnaw at his teeth. 

"You all should be grateful that another radio host wants to have the spawns of Satan on their show." Spike continues. 

With a few nibbles of his fingertips and a long, harsh stare, Steve concluded: 

"Let's agree to disagree. If you don't act like such an asshole, my guys won't either." Steve says. 

"Harrington, I think we have a deal." I had a crawling suspicion that Spike had his fingers crossed behind his back. 

Steve and Spike shook on it, thus the ending of their little spat. It was not climactic enough, but indeed, it was entertaining. Spike gets my name wrong when telling me to walk Steve out. 

"Problem solved?" Steve says, seemingly trying to convince himself and me that "the problem" was resolved. When really, that was only the tip of the iceberg. 

Steve gives me a piece of paper with his personal number on it; his fingertips touch mine in a subtle exchange. I feel a sting of heat that twinges my body; I blame the August searing heat. Steve says to call him if anything significant happens between now and tomorrow, though I highly doubt it. 

I watched Steve walk down the pavement and turn the corner to 13th Street. I feel a small smile creep onto my lips, holding the piece of paper with his number on it close to my chest. 

When I return to Studio 66, my smile fades when I watch everyone scatter around in a frenzy. My eyes follow the pattern of warm blood that puddles to my ankles. The trail of blood seems never-ending, but that myth is busted when my eyes land on a good as dead(?) Spike Van Dyke. 

His eyes were stapled shut, followed by a few staples around his dome and neck. My eyes followed the body that hovered over him. Bonnie—the porcelain skin—intern, hovers over Spike's unconscious body, a stapler in her hand.   

#Eddie munson x reader #Steve harrington x reader #love triangle #90s #stranger things #x reader #steddie fic #rockstar eddie munson #radio host #corroded coffin

[anamoon63]

The other reason of Tyron and Candice's marriage falling apart is Ty's obsession with this young fan of him, Katie O'Dourke. Tyron's brothers have advised or rather begged him to stay away from Katie until he's divorced in order to avoid problems with Katie's father, university professor Liam O'Dourke, who doesn't sim to like Tyron at all. It doesn't help that Katie is also bewitched with Ty.

All that remains is to pray Candice grants Ty the divorce quick, cause, for Katie's parents, if Tyron is really interested in Katie, he'll have to propose to her and marry her before starting any kind of relationship. I don't think getting a divorce is the problem, since Candice is more urgent about it than Tyron is, the real issue is going to be the fight over Brandi's legal custody.

Disclaimer: Katie's pic posted above is from when she and Tyron first met as he delivered a sing-a-gram from her parents. Katie was a teen then, but shortly after she became a young adult, so nothing illegal here. Note and possible spoiler: The Katie affair is not even the tip of the iceberg of problems that await Tyron, clearly not the wisest of the Cho Brothers. 🙄

So, these are the most relevant events occurred in Hidden Springs since Dale and Kelly left for college for their last term. I thought I should update you on what's happened to Tyron, the older of The Cho Brothers and the other people in his life. Talking about side stories 😉

#the sims 3 #sims 3 gameplay #ts3 gameplay #sims 3 simblr #sims stories #stories #hidden springs #the cho brothers #tyron cho #candice barnard #brandi cho #katie o'dourke #los sims de ana #anamoon63 sims

[smallfrenchstudyblr]

Finally finished Yellowface, and I have thoughts -overwhelmingly positive ones- but the main takeway is that... it was not what I expected?

I expected to satire, hate-able MC and satisfying ending that I can close and go "AH ! That's what you get!". And as far as I can see, it seems that this is how the book was experienced by most people?

But I found it way more nuanced than that. Not that I am surprised RF Kuang can write nuance -hell, that's really what she *does*, writing nuanced characters and morally grey plots- but I didn't expect it from this particular book. And yet.

Spoiler under the but - this is not a review, just some thoughts I had about it.

The MC is, indeed, a terrible person. But she is the particularly ordinary brand of terrible. She is not an evil genius, she is not a self-aware mastermind, and we know that because we are in her head. I personally started hating her, but somehow, at some point, it switch to pitying her. I found her pitiful. Perhaps because she is not happy. It's easier to be angry at a terrible person when they are happy ; but June spends most of the book drowning in pettiness, in insecurity, in broken dreams, anxiety and depression. And RF Kuang makes sure that it does not justify any of her decisions whatsoever, and that we know she is still a terrible person. So I both condemned her and pitied her.

The publishing environment described did not feel like satire, because I feel it hits too close to reality for this. The rat race, the twitter obsession, the tokenization of minorities, the marketisation of marginalisation... That's really not satire, that's just plain reality. It's too real to make me laugh, even bitterly - and instead it made me plain sad. You wonder what you can do, as a reader.

And the most terrible thing - in the best way- is that we will never know who Athena was. As I am writing, I am realizing that the whole book revolves around this - Athena's voice being silenced. In the story, this is through June's actions of course ; but in the very structure of the book, it's through us knowing Athena only through second hand accounts. How June describes her, how her ex describes her, how Candice describes her, how her mother describes her... We get different accounts, different descriptions, but we will never know what kind of person she was. And how she felt about her own identity, her own story, her how image. At the end of the story, you can make a case for her genuinely being a wonderful person or an absolute asshole. And like most people, she probably falls somewhere in the middle. There is more to her story that we ever know, but we don't know what this more is.

Narratively, it doesn't matter - her being a good person or not does not affect June being rotten. But as far as the thesis of the book goes, I found it quite powerful - and forcing myself to confront : why do I even want to know ? Why do I care, if she was a good person or not ? June is rotten regardless. I think it calls out or need to have clear narrative to make sense of things, we need the good person and the bad person - but once again, RF Kuang shows that this is not what it's about : we need to find a sense of right and wrong, even when there is no 100% good person and 100% bad person to be found - because that's not how life it, but we still need to find a moral compass to navigate it.

#the book gave me a lot of thoughts #I closed it and just stared at the wall for 10 minutes #but not with the usual post RF Kuang anger and need to start a rebellion #instead I was just so melancholic and sad #next will be the second book of the Atlas duology #I wanted to get Summer sons but my book store did not have it! #yellowface #RF Kuang

[talkingtea]

Grant reposted in his stories Izzy's ig story with the caption about their Broadway show, "Previews with this goober. Come see us fall in love. It's believable, I swear." Cute. But at the same time, there's no way Candice would have been able to get away with it, and there's no way Grant would have acknowledged it, reposted it from her or liked it. She was cheated out of a normal costar interaction with this man and public support from him, and I will never get over it.

Yeah, good for Izzy but it sucks that Grant wasted years being a weirdo and he could have just been a normal costar and made not only the fans but Candice happy as well.

[subliminalbo]

10 Years of Subliminalbo

Candice Swanepoel: Mindless Pet Annotated [ 1 ]

Originally published November 28th, 2013

"You've done well, Candice. Since launching Obedience by Victoria, women just can't seem to get enough of our products. Sales have tripled in the last month alone." [ 2 ]

"Thank you, Master," Candice replied. She was teleconferencing with her boss, who had put her in charge of the Obedience campaign. Candice had traveled across the nation to nine different Victoria's Secret flagship stores [ 3 ], spreading their new product and enslaving the minds of customers who were now feeling so much more loyal to the business [ 4 ]. But they weren't the only ones under the control of this new high-tech lingerie. Candice was, in a way, patient zero.

"As a reward for your excellent work, we've decided to take you off of the campaign. I'm sure we have other models who are just dying to wear Obedience by Victoria. [ 5 ]"

"Master," Candice frowned. "Does that mean...?"

"You no longer have to wear the lingerie, yes." he replied. "We have other lines for you to promote, we can't be wasting you on one thing [ 6 ]."

"Yes, Master, I understand." Candice nodded. A part of her felt worried to be released from her boss' control [ 7 ]. She'd been wearing this lingerie for weeks now and was quite fond of someone thinking for her [ 8 ]. It was just easier.

Time fixed Candice's aversion to thought [ 9 ]. After a few days' worth of withdrawals, she no longer felt the urge for obedience [ 10 ]. With her mind finally cleared, Candice had a lot of questions for Victoria's Secret [ 11 ]. Like why they'd forced her to wear a hypnotic bra for twelve weeks [ 12 ]. So much had changed since Candice went under. Girls would stop Candice on the streets, and she would look into their eyes. Those empty eyes. And Candice knew that they were wearing Obedience, and she knew that it was her work that had taken this girl's mind [ 13 ]. "I love you, Candice. You are my idol," the girls would say, and Candice would remember all of those girls on tour. The ones who had just shown up for an autograph and had left with a new pair of underwear and an empty mind . And those girls had gone and forced their friends and family into mindless obedience as well. The campaign was so successful that CEOs of other companies were falling over each other to copy the Obedience bra's technology. Walmart had enslaved all of its employees to guarantee better service, and McDonald's was replicating the technology for food so that its customers would never eat anywhere else [ 14 ].

Candice was disgusted at this new world, and she knew something had to be done [ 15 ]. She first tried to take it up with her boss, but he was always too busy to listen. Then she tried filing a report to the ethics department of Victoria's Secret, but that too was met with no response [ 16 ]. Frustrated with her employer, Candice decided that she had to do something drastic [ 17 ].

Santiago Cruz was a young journalist trying to find her first major story to break through [ 18 ]. So far she was relegated to covering puff pieces like fashion at the Golden Globe Awards and the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show [ 19 ]. Candice had remembered Santiago from last year's show, but it was Santiago who approached Candice. She'd been focusing on Victoria's Secret in the last few weeks, after a friend of hers had gone completely off the grid reporting on the new line of lingerie. Santiago had an eye for conspiracy, and this really stunk [ 20 ]. So over coffee one morning, Candice spilled her whole story.

"They told me to try on the bra, and then... Well, everything felt so good. I just wanted to do everything they told me to."

"And you didn't know what it did? You didn't know that they were brainwashing you?" Santiago replied. She rarely looked away from her pad which she scribbled every possible detail onto. Notes on Candice's story, important dates, important names. This story was going to be huge.

"I didn't... And the worst thing is what they made me do. I had sex with so many men and women [ 21 ], and they made me go around passing out the lingerie, turning other women into something like me."

"That's awful," Santiago interjected [ 22 ].

"Yes. It's addictive too. After I was freed, I wanted nothing more than to go back. I wanted to be controlled. I wanted it so bad I even tried self-hypnosis [ 23 ]."

"But it didn't work."

"No."

As the interview wrapped up, Santiago asked if anyone in Victoria's Secret knew that Candice was talking to her. Candice told her about the ethics report she'd filed, but assured Santiago that no one knew she was going to the public with the story. The two women shook hands and Santiago promised Candice that justice would be served, then they went their separate ways. A few days passed before Santiago heard from Candice again. This time it was a text that read: New info. We need to talk. Meet me at our coffee place asap. Santiago said she was on her way, and as she left the office, she told her boss that she was going to check up on a new lead [ 24 ].

Santiago arrived at the coffee shop to find it mostly empty, except for the two baristas who stood stoic and guard-like behind the counter, and at a table in the back sat a well-dressed man with Candice, who sat on the floor next to the man, resting on her knees [ 25 ]. Unlike the man, you could not say she was well-dressed. She wore some gaudy kind of cat inspired lingerie [ 26 ].

"What is this?" Santiago asked Candice. "What's going on?"

"You're asking the wrong person," the man spoke up. "She doesn't say much anymore."

"Oh my God, Candice... What did you do to her?"

"My name's Ed [ 27 ], it's nice to meet you. We've reeducated Candice. And to answer your question, Miss Cruz, this is a trap [ 28 ]. For years reporters have been trying to out my company for one dirty reason or another. We're a blight to America's youth, we teach girls to be sexual at a young age... We just can't afford to have a brainwashing conspiracy on our hands so... I guess you'd call this the coverup."

"Candice," Santiago cried. "You've got to snap out of it!"

Ed smiled and ran his hand through Candice's hair. "Go ahead, my pet, you may speak."

"I was wrong to come to you, Santiago," Candice frowned. "Thankfully Master Ed was kind enough to take me back, and I'm sure he'd be happy to have you too, if you asked. We could be good kitties together!"

"No!" Santiago screamed. "I'll never put on your disgusting lingerie!"

"I'll make you a deal," Ed spoke up. "Surrender to me, and I'll let Candice go. Your mind for hers. Or... I keep Candice as my pet, and pull some strings for you. You'll have your own column, your own news show. You'll be able to do anything you want. All I ask is that you don't print that story."

Santiago looked into the empty eyes of a mindless Candice who was busy playing with the bell on her collar. Candice had trusted her to do the right thing. Santiago promised her that she would expose Victoria's Secret, and that this kind of thing would never happen to her again. But Santiago had only taken this story because she wanted her big break, and now she was being offered just that by Ed [ 29 ]. And Candice, she looked so happy.

"Okay," Santiago choked. "You can have her. No one will ever hear a word of this [ 30 ]."

"That's a good girl," Ed smiled [ 31 ].

[ 1 ]. This short was a kind of soft pilot to writing original characters, shifting the focus from Candice Swanepoel to reporter Santiago Cruz. It wasn't the most graceful transition. For example, it created this alternate universe in my series where Victoria's Secret is, inexplicably, a dominant political force responsible for the mass brainwashing of consumers. Obedience By Victoria would come up from time to time in my stories, but I mostly got around the absurdity of the plot by mentioning Victoria's Secret as little as possible after wrapping up Santiago's Story.

[ 2 ]. Consumers being targeted by mass brainwashing campaigns is an idea that I still find really compelling, partly because profit is the most logical motive for mind control, but also because there's just sort of this mundane evil to the whole scheme. Manipulating millions of consumers into submissive puppets to raise profit margins is very funny to me.

[ 3 ]. Yeah, again I don't really know anything about Victoria's Secret campaigns and have no idea where I came up with the number nine but I'm very surprised that Milwaukee was on the list.

[ 4 ]. Probably the worst example yet of telling the audience that there is mind control happening. These days I'd probably just be happy with Candice "spreading the product" (weird word choice too tbh)

[ 5 ]. I don't really understand the motivation to take the campaign away from Candice here, other than to create an inciting incident for the story.

[ 6 ]. From the mind controller's perspective, this just seems like a bad decision. How is Candice not supposed to blow the whistle here.

[ 7 ]. Ah man, I just hate interiority like this. I try really hard to not tell the reader what the character is thinking or feeling.

[ 8 ]. Subliminalbo cliche #3: mind control is nice, actually.

[ 9 ]. This is a stupid sentence.

[ 10 ]. Casually breezing over this harrowing experience right here in a single sentence.

[ 11 ]. Girl, same.

[ 12 ]. I am convinced that these are the four worst sentences that I've ever written in succession. I think it's meant to be understatement as a joke but it's just awful.

[ 13 ]. Classic subject-verb agreement error here. Fun fact, I was finishing up my first semester of freshman English when I wrote this.

[ 14 ]. So much to unpack in this one paragraph. First of all, it's like three paragraphs at minimum. But it's so weird that I didn't put any thought into what Obedience By Victoria is and how it works. Like, how is Walmart implementing mind controlling bras? How did McDonalds put inside fucking burgers? In future versions I think I made sure to note that all of these other companies were exploring their own research, but here I mostly just wanted to stress the sheer number of people who had been mind controlled since the last chapter and I didn't really care how.

[ 15 ]. Girl, same.

[ 16 ]. "Victoria's Secret's HR department" would have been less clunky language.

[ 17 ]. Why would she even try to handle it within the company? Like, what did she expect would happen here?

[ 18 ]. Hell of a way to introduce a new character. Literally just me explaining her archetype to the reader. I could have just pasted a TV Tropes page here.

[ 19 ]. In later versions of this story I focus a bit more on what Santiago actually does. In this first draft I saw her as a Buzzfeed journalist but later have her writing for Trespass, which is an ersatz Vice. Both have struggled in recent years, but Buzzfeed was such an easy target that I felt like Vice was more interesting to criticize. Anyway, I never actually say where Santiago works in this version because everything is surface level.

[ 20 ]. Subliminalbo cliche #4: the paranoid reporter who seeks out trouble because they suspect that mind control is everywhere.

[ 21 ]. I think this concept works better as a straight conspiracy thriller about corporate brainwashing but it's always about sex. What's funny is that I'm too young here to write confidently about sex so I just have the characters mention sex and that's the smut.

[ 22 ]. Don't like the word choice here. You don't "interject" when listening to a person talk about their trauma lol

[ 23 ]. It's nice to get a little bit of Candice's struggle after taking off the lingerie, but it's still really surface level stuff here. 2013 Bo is very committed to telling instead of showing.

[ 24 ]. Eh, this paragraph is fine I guess. I just want to call out how quickly I accelerate out of the scene. We get a brief stretch of dialogue between the two and then a quick summary of everything else they said. It really feels like I'm just trying to get to the end of this story. I'm also not really sure why I went out of the way to mention Santiago's editor, just weirdly superfluous information here.

[ 25 ]. There are like eight sentences inside this sentence.

[ 26 ]. The story follows the manip again.

[ 27 ]. Though I don't name him explicitly here, Ed is based on former Victoria's Secret Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek who was something of a minor celebrity in the model blogging space as the creator of the Victoria's Secret Angels. In 2019 Razek stepped down from his position at the company following misogynist and transphobic comments, as well as allegations of creating a culture of harassment within the company. So uh...I hate this story.

[ 28 ]. I kind of hate the way my characters talk to each other in these early stories.

[ 29 ]. She jumps straight to the rationalization, holy shit.

[ 30 ]. I originally envisioned this story as Candice trapped between two powerful wills, but it's pretty shocking how quickly Santiago folds to Ed. Later revisions have focused a ton on expanding this scene and showing that Santiago ultimately has no choice, but I don't really feel like she's in a corner here.

[ 31 ]. The verdict: my worst story yet. Under baked and ludicrously rushed, you can just sort of tell that I'm writing this as a quick caption to a manip. There are tons of unfortunate real world implications too with all of the Ed Razek stuff that went down at Victoria's Secret, it makes for an icky story that I'm really not proud of writing, but it is important because it marks my transition to original characters. Of all my stories, this is the one I've come back to the most to rewrite, and I've finally gotten to a place where I'm fine with it. If you've read all of this I recommend checking that version out because it really has changed a lot (though a quick glance through it and I'm already finding things I hate about it).

#inside hypnoball #subliminalbo

[alto-tenure]

so a while ago I made a list of how every victim falls in Ace Attorney to determine the most common cause of death. this includes assaults/attempted murders (e.g. Edgeworth being attacked in The Kidnapped Turnabout, DGS1-4, DGS2-2, LV-1)

TL;DR: Stabbing is the most common, followed by gunshot and blunt force trauma.

the dissection is under the cut; spoilers for every game

STABBING: 20

Jack Hammer (Turnabout Samurai)

Bruce Goodman (Rise from the Ashes)

Neil Marshall (Rise from the Ashes)

Terry Fawles (Turnabout Beginnings)

Misty Fey (Bridge to the Turnabout)

Rex Kyubi (The Monstrous Turnabout)

Constance Courte (Turnabout Academy)

Clay Terran (The Cosmic Turnabout)

Metis Cykes (Turnabout for Tomorrow)

Manov Mistree (The Magical Turnabout)

Tahrust Inmee (Rite of Turnabout)

Inga Karkhuul Khura’in (Turnabout Revolution)

Byrne Faraday (Turnabout Reminiscence)

Manny Coachen (Turnabout Ablaze)

Horace Knightley (The Imprisoned Turnabout)

Mason Milverton (The Adventure of the Runaway Room)

Olive Green (The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro)

Jezaille Brett/Asa Shinn (The Adventure of the Blossoming Attorney)

Odie Asman (The Return of the Great Departed Soul)

Klint van Zieks (The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo)

GUNSHOT: 19

Robert Hammond (Turnabout Goodbyes)

Gregory Edgeworth (Turnabout Goodbyes)

Manfred von Karma (Turnabout Goodbyes)

Turner Grey (Reunion, and Turnabout)

Pal Meraktis (Turnabout Corner)

Romein Letouse (Turnabout Serenade)

Thalassa Gramarye (Turnabout Succession)

Dhurke Sahdmadhi (Turnabout Revolution)

Buddy Faith (Turnabout Visitor)

Colin Devorae/Oliver Deacon (The Kidnapped Turnabout)

Mack Rell (Turnabout Reminiscence)

Deid Mann (Turnabout Reminiscence)

Shi-Long Lang (Turnabout Ablaze)

Ethan Rooke (Turnabout Target)

Di-Jun Huang (The Grand Turnabout

John Wilson (The Adventure of the Great Departure)

Pop Windibank (The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story)

Herlock Sholmes (The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story)

Tobias Gregson (Twisted Karma and His Last Bow)

Genshin Asogi (The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo)

BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA: 15

Cindy Stone (The First Turnabout)

Mia Fey (Turnabout Sisters)

Phoenix Wright (The Lost Turnabout)

Russel Berry (Turnabout Big Top)

Kane Bullard (The Stolen Turnabout)

Zak Gramarye (Turnabout Trump)

Paht Rohl (The Foreign Turnabout)

Archie Buff (Turnabout Revolution)

Dumas Gloomsbury (Turnabout Time Traveler)

Miles Edgeworth (The Kidnapped Turnabout)

Ka-Shi Nou (Turnabout Ablaze)

Isaac Dover (The Inherited Turnabout)

Jill Crane (The Forgotten Turnabout)

Jack Cameron (The Grand Turnabout)

Kazuma Asogi (The Adventure of the Speckled Band)

Olivia Aldente (The English Turnabout, PLVPW)

FIRE: 6

Robbs (PLVPW)

Muggs (PLVPW)

Kira (PLVPW)

Maya Fey (PLVPW)

Arthur Cantabella (PLVPW)

Jove Justice (Turnabout Revolution)

POISON: 5

Glen Elg (Recipe for Turnabout)

Diego Armando (Turnabout Beginnings?)

Drew Misham (Turnabout Succession)

William Shamspeare (The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro)

Newton Belduke (PLVPW)

FALLING: 3

Dustin Prince (The Lost Turnabout)

Akbey Hicks (Turnabout Airlines)

Jack Shipley (Turnabout Reclaimed)

ELECTROCUTION: 3

Maya Fey (Turnabout Goodbyes)

Phoenix Wright (Turnabout Goodbyes)

Doug Swallow (Turnabout Memories)

CAR ACCIDENT: 3

Selina Sprocket (Turnabout Time Traveler)

Sorin Sprocket (Turnabout Time Traveler)

Carmine Accidenti (PLVPW)

SUFFOCATION: 2

Juan Corrida (Farewell, My Turnabout)

Taifu Toneido (Turnabout Storyteller)

EXPLOSION: 2

Candice Arme (Turnabout Countdown)

Apollo Justice (Turnabout Countdown)

CRUSHED: 1

Di-Jun Huang’s Body Double (The Grand Turnabout)

TRANSFORMATION: 1

Hershel Layton (PLVPW)

OTHER NOTES:

I honestly thought blunt force trauma would be the highest when I first listed these. I was wrong!

I know (MAJOR PLVPW SPOILERS) that no one in PLVPW actually died except Newton Belduke, but I still felt as though it was prudent to list them here as victims.

Tasing is a form of electrocution.

Technically, falling and getting crushed could both be forms of blunt force trauma, but “blunt force trauma” is more “something hits you” than “you hit something” imo? I think it’s a distinction worth making.

There are a lot fewer poisonings than I thought. I didn’t know whether to put Diego’s poisoning under Memories or Beginnings, so I put both.

Simon Keyes was pretty inventive tbh

English Turnabout is the only case in PLVPW with a proper name. I generally ID the chapters with court segments as the ones that are the “case names”, which works for every case but the last.

I might have missed some? I know for sure I missed the original Di-Jun Huang, but I couldn’t find his cause of death poking around the wiki. Let me know if I missed any more!

#ace attorney #cw death #tw death #plvpw #aa5 spoilers #aa6 spoilers #aai spoilers #aai2 spoilers #dgs2 spoilers #plvpw spoilers #meta #whoops this took me way longer than i thought it would whooooops

[wolfasketch]

Here's my newest child Astraa(Uh-stray-ah)

Me: still trying to think of the whole story for Candice and Phrixus

Also me: But baby

So, Phrixus's kind doesn't have a really have a name(totally not because I couldn't think of one!), but are called the High Ones due to the royal bloodline. Well, how the High Ones bloodline works is kind of like Pokémon, but still different. If the High One is the father, the child will still look like how Phrixus's looks, but different coloring due to genetics. If the High One is the mother, the same happens, meaning the High One of the relationship is the dominant gene. The only thing that changes is how the High One is born, e.i live birth or hatchling. In Phrixus's case, having a white and green High One father and a blue colored Naga mother, he was eggborn. A lot of this changed when Candice fell into Phrixus's world and they fell in love and ended up having Astraa. With Astraa not being born looking like Phrixus, almost everyone thought she wasn't his, but Phrixus knew better. The moment he saw Astraa and held her, he knew she was his, even naming her after their world's Goddess, Astraala(Uh-stay-ah-la). Her being his only became more and more undeniable as her horn, claws and tail grew.

Heights below:

#Falling into a Story #FiaS #Falling into a Story Candice #Falling into a Story Phrixus #FiaS Candice #FiaS Phrixus #Candice #Phrixus #Falling into a Story Cadence #FiaS Cadence #Falling into a Story Astraa #FiaS Astraa #Astraa

[killervibe]

I trust your opinion on The Flash most of all, so how did you feel about Cecile’s character trajectory? I was not a fan of what they did with her character, but I also thought the level of hate she ended up getting seemed unjustified? Everything from the way she was dealing with her grief over Joe’s death during Armageddon to her getting a super suit, she was torn apart for. I never understood the hyper-focus on her in later seasons, but I also think the hate the she gets is insane.

Thank you for asking me this. I'm actually excited to write another Flash essay-response. I missed this.

In short, yes, I found Cecile's meta arc frustrating and confusing but I do not hate her character nor do I have an issue with a middle-aged hero existing.

The problem and fandom obsession with Cecile is multifaceted. She was a doomed character of inherently flawed writing, but her fall from grace through fandom's eyes is nothing short of misogynoir.

The Seal ??? you're going to compare a black woman to an animal for your satisfaction? In a world where black women are constantly described as animalistic and primitive? There is only one character who gets just as much ceaseless vitriolic hate as Cecile and that is Iris.

First and foremost, I would like to raise that where I have seen the absolute worst treatment towards Cecile and Dani N is Twitter--I left Flash Twitter 5 years ago (though I was never truly fully on it) because of the sheer racial animosity I felt on there as a biracial person. I've read so much disgusting racialized hate towards Dani N (including from fans of Candice and Iris, no less and it saddens me to see the community disillusioned into believing that to be protective of a black lead means that any other black character is an enemy destined to be pitted against her) especially in terms of questioning or diminishing her blackness. It was disgusting and it still is.

The problem with empaths/telepaths/mind control powers is that they become limitless very quickly when no boundaries are set in place. Her powers were confusing and used for exceedingly expository purposes that felt like a cop-out the longer it went on. I cannot tell you how many times I have lost my understanding of the "science" plots in the last 3 and a half seasons and that is a good chunk of Cecile's meta problems.

Season 4 worked because Cecile's powers were bounded to her pregnancy. She served as an adequate neutralizer against The Thinker which was needed at the time. Her powers should've had an expiry date and ended when Jenna was born. Or, more accurately, her powers should've been Jenna's. Cecile's powers manifested upon Jenna's conception, it would've served that the source of her abilities came from the baby, not herself. Without going into too much detail, this could've nicely allowed Nora (and Bart) to have family closer in age to be a part of their eventual Flash Fam team roster. Of course, it didn't pan out that way. They needed to give Cecile's powers concrete limits without evolving or "levelling up" in a way that overshadows the titular character. This is a given! They gave her everything and it was ridiculous, empath/telepathy/mind possession/emotive projection - like yeah. It's too much. It's annoying and it's too much!

In Stargirl, the Brainwaves were eliminated early on in the series because they were OP. Those writers were cognizant of that fact and woven in a compelling story that served to ensure that the empath/mind control characters were set in their place without overthrowing the entire capacity of the main heroes of the show.

Cecile made a great lawyer, but she failed spectacularly at all of her crucial lawyering post s3.

And it's a writing problem. Lazy effort went into how to include any in-universe plausible legal processes in this show. S4 Barry trial and S7 KF trial are glaringly obvious examples like this. But we should have known that the majority of the responsibility of these flaws lays in the hands of the writers inability to do justice to ANY of their female characters, which goes exponentially for the black women. So of course I am not surprised that they blundered with Cecile as she was promoted from supporting to main cast.

Nora Allen? Murdered (x150). Tess Morgan, the founder of STAR LABS name? Murdered & never revived unlike the 500 Wells. Linda? Disappeared. Francine? Dead. Tina McGee? Disappeared. Jesse? Erased from existence. Caitlin/Killer Frost/Crystal Frost/Khione? Murdered three times, reduced to repetitive abusive love interest storylines and retconned storylines into oblivion. Cynthia? Murdered. Kamilla? Treated like dirt & disappeared. Marlize? Same. Sue? Disappeared. Joanie? Disappeared. Jenna? Disappeared. Carla and Cisco's mom? Both also awful. Meena? Disappeared. Alexa? Who? Esperanza? Murdered. Allegra was okay ish, and I know there are more (Ralph's mom, Becky Sharpe, but really, I think I've made my point...) but that literally leaves us with Cecile, Iris, and Nora I/II as our black female leads who had to face the brunt of the worst writing (and most hatred when it was their "time" to shine).

This show cannot execute motherhood properly. It refuses to. See: Iris s5 and literally every mother to ever mother on this show except for Nora Allen...

But also, both the creators and the fandom seem to hold this ideology that motherhood is the end all and be all of life and value? Show runners have said again and again that The Flash would have to end when Iris is pregnant because that's when it's "over" ??? I did not understand that when it was first said and I still do not understand that. This concept of femininity directly tied to the merit associated to motherhood is a good chunk of the reasoning behind people claim to hate Cecile--Because she is a superhero who has sacrificed as a single mother and now struggles with balancing her desires vs her obligations? Cecile, who has been written as a black woman who canonically struggled to society's standards of excellence causing her stress and anguish to the point of mental break? I appreciated the s7 psycho-pirate and mental health struggles she had - so I wasn't horrified to see that she struggled with grief in s8's plot. The type of mental health issues that these storylines explored is a real lived experience that many women have, and I find it fascinating that there is this double standard here. This is a superhero show. Like...we're hating her for, what, exactly? For being a superhero and wanting to help people?

I mourn Cecile's "downfall" because she was a great addition to the West family as a supportive cast. I mourn the fact that Iris and Cecile never really had a great relationship despite both being mains. I mourn the fact that she was given more weight than Iris in the last season instead of supporting and encouraging her. Because that's why her role was elevated in the last season, to replace Joe in his absence as Iris' number #1 cheerleader. But it never properly translated that way and that is a shame. That said, her role in the show shouldn't have been strictly reduced to "Mother" and "Grandmother" --That isn't fair. I adored the way she spoke to Nora I in s5 but she did deserve to go on adventures the same way Joe has since s1. Why shouldn't she? I think this is what Eric Wallace was trying to achieve and I applaud him for the idea but have to criticize the execution. The show has failed her in her area of expertise of being a successful lawyer, mocked her by putting her through a pregnancy for a child they couldn't commit to, and then kicked her character into the lion's den for death by turning her into an OP'd meta at the mercy of a prejudiced fanbase already notoriously well-known for mistreating black talent. This could've easily been avoided with more clever solutions that positions Barry--the creator of Gideon--as the focus and true mastermind behind Team Flash plans.

#the flash #cecile horton #s9 #9x13 #tkv rambles #ask #anon

[galvanizedfriend]

It's a real shame Candice King hasn't joined the Christmas movies bandwagon yet*. Feels like EVERYONE in the TVDverse has done it. What is she waiting for?

*I know she's technically been in a Christmas movie, but she wasn't the main character. When I say Christmas movie, I mean ridiculous romance story in some town called Winter Falls, with Chad Michael Murray or Steve Lund as the main guy.

[pynkhues]

why do you think when theres been the recent live action adaptations of classic media, theres always a woman of colour paired with a white man? how to train your dragon, percy jackson, little mermaid, etc etc etc all follow this trend. obviously some exceptions but it seems like woman of color + white man lead/love interest is what hollywood execs have decided en masse. im not against diverse casting im just very curious why it always seems to be that specific formula is now the norm?

Yeah, it's an interesting trend in casting, isn't it? Not a bad one, necessarily - I love seeing more diverse casts for any and all projects - but I do think there's something to be said about how Hollywood views the interchangability of women's (and especially girls') experiences that erases the complexity of intersectional identities.

I was actually thinking about it a bit recently as I was getting excited watching the sneak peek for the new season of AMC's Interview with the Vampire, because that is one of the few shows that has cast a traditionally white character with a white love interest with a man of colour. Jacob Anderson is perfect as Louis, but he's also perfect because of the amount of work the writers put into adapting the story to make his race central to Louis' character's identity, his internal and external conflicts, and his relationships with others.

It really put into stark contrast for me how infrequently women characters get that same treatment. They might be recast with WOC - Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for instance, or like you said, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but their race becomes incidental instead of something that should be crucial to the adaptation of the story.

Because it's not just Interview with the Vampire that did it - Jason Momoa's casting in Aquaman absolutely utilised his Polynesian heritage to inform both character and story, and while I don't think it did a very good job of it, I do think the first season of Bridgerton was conscious of Simon's race moreso than it was Queen Charlotte's and Lady Danbury's, or even Kate, Mary and Edwina's in s2 (I do think they tried to fix this in the Queen Charlotte prequel to mixed results, but I do appreciate that they at least tried not to handwave it away).

I do think genre and audience demographic plays a role in this too. I don't think that it's a coincidence that we see this uptick in diverse casting with content aimed at children or young women, and I especially don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of these stories are fantasy or at least fantastical. Both I think offer writers an excuse to minimise racial identity in favour of fantastical ones - they can argue Hermione being a 'Mudblood' or Ariel being a mermaid is much more important 'in-universe' than either character being Black, and when that doesn't work, there's always the 'escapism' argument to fall back on.

Girls and women want fluff, they want escapism, they don't want stories of racism or racial trauma, which sure! Y'know! Often a lot of women don't! But race is more than that, it's culture and context and history, and to minimise it fails the character and as trends over the last decade have shown, usually results in failing the actress playing her. If you're not putting the effort into understanding how race informs this new imagining of the character, you're probably not putting the effort into understanding the position you're about to put the actress in either. Kelly Marie Tran in Star Wars or Candice Patton in The Flash both spring to mind in that sense (and god, as someone who's watched both, they're so talented and did the best with what they got, but man, they weren't given much).

It diminishes the nuance of womanhood, but that's kind of the point too, right? Hollywood's never understood the intersectionality that sits at the heart of every woman's identity, and the different aspects of her character and her resonances that builds her up or breaks her down, which is a part of why I think women characters, especially characters who are still girls, are seen as easy ways to create avenues to diversity in Hollywood.

After all, creating entry points for diverse casting for usually one (1) actress in existing IP allows studios to tick boxes and pat themselves on the back and say they're investing in diversity without actually investing in diverse stories or making space for diverse storytellers.

(I actually have a rant forever in the back of my mouth about how they're doing this to women's stories in general. After all, all these girlboss reboots of traditionally male franchises like Ghostbusters and Oceans 8, aren't telling women's stories, they're just putting lipstick on a man's).

But yes. I guess where I'm going with this particular point is that if you were to ask me point blank if I think that Hollywood wants to diversify, I'd actually say yeah, that I think they do. The problem is that no one wants to be out of the job or lose power, screen time, or representation, and given Hollywood is foundationally white, wealthy and patriarchal, those stories are always going to be repackaged in ways that centres white masculinity as something aspirational, heroic or crucial to a story, which leaves everyone else to shift roles or focus to prop them up.

Of course, in turn this does feed into the whole trend of pairing WOC and white men specifically, which is what you're actually asking, haha. And look! I do think interracial relationships in film have come a really long way in the last decade, but also still think they have a long way to go and in particular are a long way away from being able to have a non-white love interest. This by default means that if Hermione and Ariel and Iris are Black, Ron and Prince Eric and The Flash will be white, and I don't think the reverse is as 'acceptable' to studios due to the fact that the nature of both systemic and social racism means that white men are threatened by MOC dating white women, which further informs the way these relationships end up being drawn on screen.

(On a related note, there have been a few studies into interacial relationships recently, and they all tend to find that there's enormous social stigma for white women dating outside their race, particularly compared to white men dating outside of theirs, which this study links to white supremacy and incel culture.)

I think shifting beauty standards for women does contribute too, as well as - - y'know. Capitalism. After all, the avenues for merchandising particularly with childrens content (like, gosh, I love to see all the Black Ariel merch that's come out when I'm in the toy aisles shopping for my nephews, but it's also pretty impossible to deny that Disney saw a market there that they could cash-in on), and I do think all of that together probably paints a picture that can be boiled down to Hollywood execs seeing casting of MOC in these sorts of roles as limiting audience, and casting WOC as broadening it.

All of this isn't to say that I don't support these recastings - I do, very much so, but I do wish female characters were treated with more nuance in these contexts, and I especially wish we could get more diverse original stories as well as these recastings.

#film asks #kinda #fun fact: one of the actresses i work with at my theatre company was the understudy for hermione in the cursed child #she's very lovely and very talented and it's always a delight to get to see her perform #she's v good at improv which is like 80% of what working with kids as an actress is haha #welcome to my ama

[luulapants]

Candice, please

Okay, this is a really cool one, especially considering I just had to basically shrug and say "iunno" at another African-origin name.

Yeah, you heard me right - Candice, a variant spelling of Candace - is originally of African, specifically Cushtic, origin! For those not up on their ancient African history, the Kingdom of Kush was located in Nubia, along the Nile Valley around the modern-day border of Egypt and Sudan, and existed from about 1070BCE to 550CE.

However, Candice's predecessor was not actually a name in the kingdom of Kush or later in Ethiopia, from whence it entered into Greek. The name came about as either a cultural misunderstanding between Ethiopians and Greeks or an intentional generalization. Kdke, coming into Greek as Kandake, was actually a title that translated to 'queen mother,' meaning the mother of the next successor to the throne. Kdke would be added after a woman's given name, rather than before. However, Greco-Roman historians tended to refer to all queens of Ethiopia and Kush as "Kandake." Therefore, when the Greek New Testament Acts 8 mentioned Garsemot Kandake, queen mother of Ethiopia, her name was transcribed as Queen Candace (the naan bread/chai tea of royalty) rather than Queen Garsemot.

(It's worth noting that she's not even a key player in that story - her treasurer was converted to Christianity by Phillip, but she never appears in person in the story.)

One interesting irregularity with Candace as Biblical name usage goes: prior to the Protestant Reformation, Christians in Europe typically favored the names of Saints and other prominent New Testament figures (but not bit players like Candace). During this time, Old Testament names were typically used only by Jews. After the Reformation, Protestants began to use Old Testament names and, for some reason, the New Testament name Candace was brought along in this great name shift. So it really wouldn't have been used with any regularity by anyone, Jewish or Christian, until after the Reformation.

Even then, it wasn't truly a popular name until 1942, its popularity attributed to the movie Meet the Stewarts, in which wealthy socialite Candace "Candy" Goodwin marries a blue collar man and has to adjust to her new lifestyle. It hit an early peak in 1950, #172 in the US, and dipped but never dropped, peaking again in 1984 at #101. Interestingly, Candice with an "I" was less popular in the 1950 peak - #271 - but more popular in the 80s peak - #78. Both started dropping precipitously in the 90s, falling off the charts in the mid-2000s.

Abroad, Candace with an "A" isn't really popular, having a few blips in Canada (which, to be fair, only tracks their top 100, rather than 1000 as in the US). Candice with an "I," though, was popular in the UK and Wales, Canada, and Australia. And it's still incredibly popular in France, where it didn't become popular until the 70s, peaked at #52 in 2004, and is still sitting pretty at #151.

So if you start to feel old as a Candice... maybe take a trip to France?

#names #etymology