#I could watch this episode a thousand times and never get tired of it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

actuallylorelaigilmore · 7 months

Text

2022 MOVIE OF THE WEEK #33

disenchanted. i......have been avoiding this review since literally months ago because just thinking about reviewing this movie makes me sad and tired. if you loved this movie, which i think some people must have because i’ve seen the occasional gifs from it on my dash, feel free to skip this. it’ll go behind a cut, because i suspect it’s gonna get long.

(spoiler alert: it got ridiculously long. how did i have five thousand words to say about this? and if anyone besides leander reads this i’ll be shocked but that’s fine cuz they were the one encouraging me to make it through this rant and if they hadn’t i definitely would have given up even trying a long time ago.)

and it is pretty much universally negative, because i could not have been more looking forward to this sequel featuring literally my favorite disney (noncanon but still mine) princess and it not only let me down (as sequels tbh do a lot so that’s not even surprising) but it sincerely broke my heart.

in a ‘wow i’m being really overdramatic about a disney movie’ sort of way, but it’ll make more sense after i explain it, i promise. you had to be there, i think, to care as much as i do, and only @actuallylukedanes was, so it was also pretty convenient that i ended up watching this with them when they were gonna watch it with their partner and invited me to join. cuz they felt the same way i did about the sequel, which is how i knew i was not overreacting.

it was also leander who advised me to start posting completed reviews of other 2022 movies since i was stuck on this one, even though i never posted them out of order before. (i ended up realizing in january that i totally forgot a movie from 2022, so it’s good i wasn’t as obsessed with perfect chronology anyway.)

the first warning sign i had with this movie was honestly its release. they had been talking about an enchanted sequel for so long that i had stopped hoping for one, and then when it was really happening they wouldn’t even put it in theaters!! i was so pissed off about that, because enchanted felt like a magical (pun intended) experience for me in 2007.

it came out exactly on my birthday, when i turned 23, and @actuallylukedanes and i saw it in the theater to celebrate. we lived in utah then, and were happy rather than homeless, and we paid for the movie using a card that had a ‘reward’ system like a lottery where they told you they would at some random time choose a single purchase you made, and reimburse you for it. out of everything we paid for with that card, it was the tickets to enchanted that they made free.

and i couldn’t have been more excited to see enchanted back then, because it was a real live musical, and those have always been rarer than i wish they were, and the cast was ridiculously great. long before amy adams was making bigger movies, she had played tara’s cousin on buffy and a memorable one-episode character on charmed, and i had just always loved her an unreasonable amount like i had been waiting for her to be a movie star. plus i had discovered wicked in college and dove deep into other idina menzel musicals as well as every one of her solo albums (and singles that weren’t sold anywhere, which i downloaded illegally because that is called devotion) and was just generally obsessed with her for years.

and then there was patrick dempsey, reliable dreamy star of grey’s anatomy (which i gave up on quickly but he was good in) and james marsden of the x-men trilogy i had watched a zillion times. (his character was not one i liked in that, but he was great as a comedic part of this.) i had grown up with susan sarandon and wasn’t used to her as a villain but she brought just the right level of Too Much, and her henchman was perfectly cast. they somehow managed to even make the child in the story not annoying, which can be really rare, especially when she has an actual role--but she’s great.

the mix of animation and live-action was really fun, and when giselle’s dress goes from cartoon to sparkly 3d it was so swoony. truly like a disney fantasy sort of moment, they brought so much to life. and they did so even where it shouldn’t have worked! the basic plot of ‘two couples aren’t meant to be so they switch partners amongst themselves and then it’s perfect’ is not one i like in other movies, but here i’m just like, yeah absolutely, dance with patrick dempsey in your pretty dress, and let idina menzel go live in a fairy tale.

but in addition to all of that, and the catchy, catchy music, what i really, truly loved about enchanted, and why it was one of my all time favorite movies to put on that i never got sick of (along with mamma mia and a few others, i really like musicals okay), is how much it turned out that i identified with giselle. how much she not only made sense to me, even as she was supposed to be this wide-eyed disney princess, but how she gave me language for things i was still figuring out, and i got so attached to that.

i was 23 years old. i had left home less than two years earlier, and i didn’t know i was autistic yet, let alone bipolar/anxious/adhd/disordered eating all knotted together. i hadn’t begun thinking about what it meant to be ‘developmentally disabled,’ and how unprepared that made me for adulthood, independence or being in a relationship. I had just leaped into all those things, and i wasn’t necessarily all that good at any of them.

but there was giselle, singing her way through a world she didn’t understand how to navigate either, and it was okay because there was somebody who loved her for her exact weird self and a child who needed her. (substitute cats for child and you see where i’m coming from.) she was relentlessly optimistic but also cursed by forces outside her control, and she was full of creativity.

my absolute favorite moment that giselle has in the whole movie, when it comes to why it was important to me, is when she experiences anger. at first she can’t even name it, and then there’s a kind of joy she finds in it, in having a new feeling...in having the FREEDOM to feel that difficult feeling, and not need things to be perfect all the time. until i saw that scene, i had never realized that my childhood had trained me to not be angry--before i was even conscious that had happened. and once i saw that scene, i started to wonder if maybe anger was something i was allowed to feel, after all.

i think if you’re not me, or you didn’t know me at 21 (a fragile adorable unstable bby desperate to be rescued from my life), it might be hard to understand that, how i didn’t just love giselle for being giselle, but loved her for being the most me a character played by amy adams could be.

up until i fell in love, and was loved in return (my only real wish thanks to moulin rouge), i collected tv and movie characters, made little lists of them, and they were always the ones i wanted to be like, ones i wanted to grow into. usually the snarky best friends, the deadpan wits, the ones who pined but never got the guy. (bby me didn’t think anything but ‘guy’ was an option.) i didn’t spend time claiming characters that were like me, that made me feel seen, until i was older. (i couldn’t, when i didn’t know who ‘me’ was.) so giselle felt like one of the first ones, with her autistic literalism and trust in humanity and her joy in everything.

then flash forward fifteen years and they’re continuing the story. even more amazingly, they’ve brought back the whole central cast (minus the child actor, who i assumed they replaced because New Morgan sings and dances, but i didn’t look it up or anything). idina is much more famous now thanks to her frozen work and of course amy adams is amy freaking adams now, nominated but never oscared, but they both came back. the direct-to-streaming release worried me, but i saw a trailer and the movie looked way better than i kind of expected, so i was excited after all. and as mentioned above, i settled in to watch it with my family.

^^^^and that is where this review left off, almost a year ago--because it was still so hard for me to wrap my brain and my heart around writing it. but at this point i’ve reviewed all the other movies i watched in 2022, AND i’ve watched almost 20 movies this year and reviewed most of them, and those reviews are just sitting in my drafts waiting for me to post them once i finish this. so here goes:

this movie was bad. obviously that’s a personal opinion or value judgement or whatever, but like...it was really, really bad. it bore no resemblance to the original and painfully reminded me how disney’s moviemaking these days is so soulless when it comes to trying to squeeze more money out of its existing IP. and i can handle fairy tale/princess modernizations that aren’t all that impressive (idina was in one of those as well, cinderella), but even those had parts that i liked or that were fun once i was grading on a curve for the whole movie. i can’t say the same for this one.

first of all, we’ve skipped time since the original, which makes sense, since everybody’s older. but nothing about the time progression makes sense, because offscreen fifteen years have passed, making amy adams 48 when this movie came out. giselle and robert have just had a newborn whose royal inheritance is what leads to the movie’s plot--at best, i guess we can assume amy was supposed to be playing giselle a lot younger than she, the actress, was. or maybe her andalasian genes make her immune to fertility averages?

either way, though, that still doesn’t explain morgan. who in addition to becoming literally a different person (and i hope they only replaced her because the original actress opted out, because she was so great in the first movie i’d resent disney for dumping her just to make the new one sing and dance, or whatever other justifications they might have) is a teenager now. Original Morgan was nine years old in enchanted, or the actress was, anyway. if we assume they meant for Original Morgan to be only seven or eight as a character, that still doesn’t explain a now-high-schooler morgan in this movie. it has been literally twice as many years in real time as it would have to have been in this movie world for morgan to be this age! and unfortunately for the movie, it’s mainly about adults, who have aged the fifteen years you would expect. so that’s ridiculous.

but anyway. somehow, all the adults from enchanted look fifteen years older but morgan’s a teen, and her parents have had a shiny new baby. idina’s character moved with prince james marsden to his world, and literally everyone is depressed now except prince james marsden (and presumably the baby). giselle sees a billboard and decides that’s a plausible reason to uproot her whole family from the city she fell in love with and that the others were from even before meeting her...to move to the suburbs.

at first, because of the impression i got from the trailer, i thought she would be moving to a perfect-seeming little enclave that was secretly evil, like a magical stepford or something, and that it would turn her evil and throw her family into peril. but the real plot is not that creative. it’s literally just the three of them moving to an ordinary suburb that (gasp!) doesn’t automatically fix their lives. instead, robert has a slog of a commute now, and in their own ways, giselle and morgan both struggle to fit in with their new local peers.

everything establishing this movie’s setup baffled me because it felt so random and flimsy, when the original was a beautiful sendup of classic disney tropes that managed to be subversive but still magical. i referred earlier to giselle deciding on a plausible reason, and i felt the same way about disney and this sequel: it felt like they decided this concept was a plausible reason to bring the cast back together, mix in a few new actors, and try to make money off the result (in this case by locking it inside their streaming service as though that would force new subscribers to disney+ instead of what i’m guessing actually happened, having less viewers for the movie than they would’ve gotten in theaters--cuz even i, the biggest fan of the original, wouldn’t have subscribed just to watch it).

but their ‘plausible’ setup is therefore that everybody’s feeling a bit meh in new york city. robert’s not excited about his job, morgan’s a sullen teenager, and giselle misses the days when everything felt magical and new and perfect. instead of recognizing that they have a freaking newborn, which i may not have experienced personally but have certainly heard is a difficult phase of life (especially the first time, for giselle), and that they simultaneously have a teenager, which anybody who’s ever been or met a teenager can tell you is a difficult phase of life for both the teen and their parents--heck, instead of just going to THERAPY when new york city is one of the few places it may still be easier to find access than everywhere else these days--they move to a random place where they know no one for truly no reason.

the movie wants us to believe that the reason is giselle seeing a billboard and believing its promise (or still being unusually literal?) but neither of those makes any sense because even if we had reason to believe that giselle hadn’t learned anything or grown in the last mysterious number of years and would truly treat a billboard like a promise rather than an advertisement (and i don’t think what we see of her in the sequel supports that idea) it’s still robert she’s married to now, and we know he’s always been someone who lovingly but firmly points that stuff out.

morgan’s unhappy because she’s a teenager, she doesn’t actually want to move, and as much as robert loves giselle, i don’t believe at all that he would just let her have her fantasy of a fresh start without injecting reality into the situation--so i think the real explanation is that both robert and giselle, for their own reasons, are desperate enough to try it despite knowing it won’t be a magic fix. but then idina menzel and prince james marsden (i should remember their character names but i really don’t at the moment) pop into their new, still-unhappy-just-in-a-different-time-zone, lives and make everything even worse. way to go guys!

continuing the flimsy plot setups, they’re visiting to give a gift to the new baby, to basically proclaim how special she is and make morgan feel like she’s neither special nor giselle’s ‘real’ daughter. giselle is thrilled by the gift from her childhood home and her former prince remains as hilarious as ever (the acting in this movie is good, they’re just not given as much to work with; ‘campy humor’ was the only element they could successfully recreate for some reason). but nancy is clearly already Over It, the former new yorker not exactly as enchanted with prince james marsden as she used to be now that she has to live with his personality 24/7.

you might expect this to be woven in with the central family’s ennui in some way, but you would be disappointed--that general intermittent eyerolly energy is never directly addressed and as far as we know by the end of the movie, she’s still with him. and i guess will remain so forever? because that’s the rule when you choose a fairy tale life?? even though giselle’s story was entirely about leaving fairy tales behind when they weren’t what she wanted???

maybe we’re supposed to read nancy’s reactions as like, lovable occasional annoyance at How Very Much her guy can be sometimes. but it didn’t come across that way to me; it seemed intentionally to mirror the dissatisfaction giselle and robert were struggling with. i could have been giving them too much credit there, i guess, in assuming deliberate parallels.

but the real point is that the adults were unhappy in the city, and now, in the suburbs, they’re still not very happy. after the gift-givers go back to andalasia, giselle makes a wish using her baby’s magic present, wanting to make their family into a fairy tale...and she gets her wish. morgan goes from a strugglng teen to a cheerful girl again, running around singing and eventually having to be the savior of her family. robert goes from a commuting lawyer to a wannabe monster slayer, and giselle slowly transforms into an evil stepmother--while the women in town who’ve been snubbing her turn into an actual villain with henchwomen in tow.

from then on, it only gets more ridiculous. amy adams is an immensely talented actor, and like i said, i’ve loved her since she was on tv. but she is not doing her best work here, switching between normal giselle and evil stepmother giselle in response to a chiming clock in a way that reminded me of one of those over-the-top acts where a guy hypnotizes people and then can trigger them to be a chicken or something. it was just so over the top, and lacked any of the emotional depth the original movie brought to her character that made me care.

and poor robert, it was clear, they did not know what to do with. a convoluted exchange with prince james marsden before the wish created circumstances where he was carrying a sword around on his commute. that, i’m sure, was supposed to help make it seem like it made sense for him to become a giant fighter or whatever. but really, they had a sequel to make in which he had to be there because he was her happily ever after in the first one, except now robert isn’t a love interest anymore, there’s no drama between them--and the actor was never meant to be a major contributor to the musical part of these movies, so what’s the point of his story? to run around looking for monsters, totally separate, and mostly unnecessary, it turns out.

the fairy tale transformations mean that we go from watching giselle being sad and hurt in response to morgan’s attitude to morgan’s being mistreated by her now-evil stepmother--neither of which is fun. in giselle’s intermittent ‘good’ moments, she tries to encourage morgan to be free of her and get help, and eventually morgan does end up in andalasia with nancy (she’s also a cartoon at that point, i think). nancy helps her understand what might fix things, and the fact that it’s up to their teenage daughter (whose complaints the whole time have honestly seemed the most reasonable to me compared to her parents’ vague ennui) to save not just her own family but both worlds from doom...it doesn’t seem at all fair. but okay.

the solution for making giselle good again involves morgan’s memories and singing and the idea that with the power of love it’ll all be fine, but what i remember most about it is that the scene is really just a vehicle for idina menzel to get her own song. which, duh--i was very disappointed that she didn’t sing in the original, and given the success of frozen, it would’ve been crazy for them not to showcase her more this time.

but the song she’s given? it’s so bad. so very bad. the others i was watching this movie with spent a significant portion of the song time mocking it, and i couldn’t blame them. at a certain point, it just devolves into idina belting the words ‘love power’ over and over and over. you know how some words or phrases become completely meaningless if you say them too much? this definitely felt like that, like the big drama’s ‘solution’ was flimsy to begin with, and then they forced a song into it that wasn’t even a good song, and got idina to sing it. she’s so much better than that! it genuinely made me wonder if she has some kind of disney contract that left her stuck dealing with this.

somehow thanks to morgan, though, giselle does stop being evil by the end--i don’t remember exactly how that scene plays out so i doubt it matters too much--and ending the sort of wish curse she inflicted on everybody means they go back to living in a normal suburb. the woman who briefly became her villain nemesis apologizes in a ‘sometimes i’m a lot oops’ way, and giselle is just like ‘hey, me too, no big deal.’

and this brings me to my two biggest problems with the movie, outside of how much it felt like it was trying to destroy any love i still held for the original.

this movie has no real villain. unlike the first one, where susan sarandon was camping it up in a delightfully appropriate way, and was defeated in the end...this movie falls into the same hole that so many New Disney Movies are determined to, for unknown reasons. we can’t have classic straight-up evil anymore; our heroes have to instead be facing antagonists that are less specific or even less corporeal. it’s family! who of course will no longer be in conflict by the end, and don’t actually need to be ‘defeated.’ or it’s emotions! and once they can be accepted rather than avoided then things will be okay again.

i’m not saying that’s a bad thing, in general. i love encanto, and i thought turning red and inside out were great. but when you’re dealing with a now-franchise whose original style was to reference and gently mock and lovingly rework classic disney tropes...why would you toss that out completely and make a sequel that feels like the other movies disney makes now? why can’t people appreciate that beloved movies are beloved for a reason and you can’t just slap the ‘brand name’ on whatever you want and act like it’s just as good?

but yeah. this movie decided to have no villain by way of having two villains, both of whom were only temporarily villainous due to indirect magic and who became normal again once it stopped. they bear no real responsibility for being villains, because after all, they aren’t really. post-movie, it seems like they may even become friends! all’s well that ends well.

which really annoyed me, lol, because it felt so incredibly pointless once i knew that was how it ended. our main character accidentally makes herself evil, makes somebody else evil, has to be saved from being evil while fighting the other evil, and the grand conclusion is that they just finish back where they started? how is that a story that moves forward, let alone a good story with some kind of point or even just a good-versus-evil win, fairy tale style?

it’s like the main conflict of the movie is created by them having problems, but then the problems they were having...are solved because they’re no longer in conflict. which brings me to my second issue with the movie’s ending: apparently the ultimate lesson of this follow up to enchanted is that growing up means learning to settle, rather than believing in happily ever afters.

despite the cheerful singing at the end of the movie that tries to make us believe it’s just as great an ending as enchanted got, i was so underwhelmed and disappointed and tbh freaked out, that they reached that conclusion. the story we were given was giselle and robert and morgan are a family now just like they wanted but they’re all unhappy, so they move out of the city to seek happiness elsewhere. and it fixes nothing which instead spirals giselle into cursing the town but in the end everybody’s okay and there are no consequences and nobody’s mad at giselle cuz she didn’t mean to do it...so she and robert and morgan commit to trying even harder to be happy in their new suburban life.

and all i can wonder is, why is that the lesson? why is that the right place to end up? why couldn’t they go back to the city and figure out their problems there, since clearly suburbia wasn’t a fix on its own? there didn’t seem to be a real reason for requiring giselle, who loved the sparkly harsh city she landed in years ago, to become a suburban mom--or for uprooting morgan, or making robert become a ‘small town practice’ kind of guy.

i guess what grates on me about it is that it has such a hallmark christmas movie vibe of just assuming their real happy ending would naturally be escaping the city, no matter how central it was to their original story and lives. whatever their deeper issues were that made them unhappy in the city, they haven’t addressed those by the end of the movie; they’ve just somewhat improved the issues that moving TO this new place piled on.

therefore my logical brain goes, you were unhappy and tried to fix it by moving but that only made things worse. why wouldn’t you reverse the making-it-worse part by going back, and then continue trying to figure out how to fix it? i just don’t get it. and i may be kind of offended by it, because the giselle who i have always adored is a completely different person in this movie, and not because of some wish curse.

she’s older, and sad, and it’s like nothing about her life is fun anymore...and maybe there could’ve been a way to craft an interesting story out of that, though i don’t know what it would be off the top of my head. but we don’t get whatever that could’ve been. and we don’t get a sequel about our faves from enchanted having more hijinks and having a to fight a new tropey villain, in the style of the first one. what we get is a story about everybody from the first one not liking their lives and having to fight the fallout from that and then concluding that hey, at least the world didn’t end so they must be better off than they thought, time to make the best of it. it deeply depressed me.

and look--i’m not saying i demand happy endings always. i don’t even require happy endings mostly! but unless there is some requirement i’m not aware of that post-pandemic we are no longer allowed happy endings at all, this was not the movie world to bring back just to say ‘the best you can hope for is meh. good luck.’ giselle and everybody else deserved better.

i will say that there was one thing about this movie that i liked. exactly one thing, sadly, or at least only one i clearly remember. i was really excited about the casting before this came out, because i love jayma mays, and maya rudolph is reliably good always. once i actually saw the movie, i was bummed that jayma mays and the other henchwoman didn’t have roles worth including, but maya rudolph was as good as i expected.

and since this movie was such a mess, she also just really stood out. she’s a ‘can do it all’ kind of performer, in a way that makes it look easy, and i feel like that’s the difference between amy adam’s background in a lot of dramatic roles and maya rudolph’s background in snl. they’re both super talented and both have range, but are a good fit for different things because of that.

so there is one song in this movie and one performance (cuz it’s the performance of it that makes it good) that i genuinely enjoyed. it’s basically a face off between the two not-actually-villains, kind of like ‘anything you can do i can do better’ but sillier and maximum camp. it’s the only part where it felt like that was what the movie was deliberately aiming for, and both actresses are fully going for it while sometimes we’re watching them parallel on splitscreen...it was ridiculous but in an entertaining rather than cringe-inducing way.

so that part is great, but also highlights even more what this movie could have been. if only they had let maya rudolph be a proper villain, the leader of a trio of new antagonists for our faves to face, that would’ve been potentially a great movie. she could have gone evil after getting her hands on the baby’s wand, then gone down fighting after the family consulted with their andalasian friends on how to deal with magically corrupted humans. the ending could have been more interesting with bigger stakes than ‘everyone survives and decides to play nice.’

heck, i could write that version of that movie! lol. but i won’t. because it would probably necessitate rewatching disenchanted and that is something i never ever want to do. that was a piece of my heart you fucked with, you jerks. and i’m gonna stay mad.

#disenchanted #rant #amy adams #idina menzel #patrick dempsey #james marsden #susan sarandon #actuallylukedanes #actually autistic #autistic #jayma mays #maya rudolph #negativity #enchanted #2022 motw #my formative years

20 notes · View notes

polarisbibliotheque · 1 year

Text

Devil May Halloween 2022 - The Horror Amusement Park, Dante's Path

Happy Halloween everyone!! Hope you enjoy this one! Vergil's Path will be posted soon ;)

Pairing: Dante x Reader

Summary: After Nico solved the apple puzzle box, you and Dante entered what was called the Carnival of the Damned. Following a devil clown around, you would soon notice things are not quite what they seem - Happy Halloween!

(I think this is quite a long one too, I lost count of words/pages)

WARNINGS: Demonic clowns. I hate clowns, and I figured I'd better warn you, this one is filled with clowns - and cursing, and violence, and blood... You know. A typical Devil May Cry episode.

Author's note: A little bit delayed, but here it is!! I have to say, one of the scenes is inspired by the Ghost Rider movie, because I simply ADORED it when I was a teen (yep, that one with Nicolas Cage. It's wonderful and I don't care how campy it looks xD). It took me a while to post, because a sudden freelance opportunity appeared and I didn't have a professional portfolio - had to finish around 12 drawings in two days to get it all set up and delay writing a little bit. I do hope you guys understand "^^

I hope you all have a great Halloween, and to all my witches out there, happy Samhein ;)

(Also, I used witch as a word for everyone, because I do believe you don't have to be a woman to be called 'witch')

Devil May Halloween 2022 - Dante's Path

You found yourself in complete darkness.

When you admitted to Kyrie you were afraid of the dark as well, it wasn’t just to make her feel better. You really didn’t like it, but there was something a little more unnerving than just darkness in that room…

It was silence.

You heard nothing. Suddenly, everyone was gone, and you had the terrifying realization that you were completely alone.

Alone in a place you had no idea where it was, after a hellish puzzle box sent you there.

“Damn you Hellraiser…” You murmured to yourself, too silently for whatever else that could be there to listen.

“Y/n? Babe? Hey! Are you there?!” But Dante’s voice made itself heard above all that dark. You couldn’t stop yourself from smiling, even if nervously.

“Dante?! You’re here too?! Where are you?!” Waving your arms around, trying to grope anything that wasn’t air, you searched for your red devil. You had to admit, few times in your life you felt so happy upon hearing his voice – it was like a light in that pitch black dark.

“Yeah, I am! Anyone else with you, babe?” You could hear him walking around and trying to find you as well – so you decided to use your ears: closing your eyes, you only followed the sound of his voice.

“Nope, I’m here alone! How about you?”

“Well, I’m here with ya, wouldn’t call that alone, hot stuff.” As he giggled in the dark, you were certain of his position. With a nervous laugh alongside him, you ran towards Dante, finally able to wrap your arms around him. “Hey! Hello there, pretty! It’s alright!”

“Seriously, why did it have to be dark?” You muttered with your forehead resting on his chest, feeling his hands playing with your hair while you both laughed. “C’mon. Why do demonic things never do something out in the sun? No one ever watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre?”

“I don’t think they have, but you got a point there. Don’t have to be in the dark to be scared, right?” He let his hands rest on your hips as you turned your head upwards as if trying to see him. You couldn’t see anything, but you were close enough for Dante to see you perfectly – and, honestly, he would never get tired of having you in his arms like that.

“Exactly. Everyday, I fear Vergil is gonna stab you with a thousand summoned swords.”

Your words were enough to make him break down in laughs and bring you back to the situation at hand. Even if you liked when Dante played with your hair and embraced you, it wasn’t really the place to have a moment.

“Gotta say, that I fear too!” He finally let you go, but you were adamant in holding one of his hands. Dante didn’t seem to care, though. “Ok. We gotta find a way outta here.”

“And find everyone else. Where do you think we are?” You glanced back at him, a little hesitant about your next words. “Hell…?”

“Nah. There are a few dark spots like this in ol’ daddy Sparda’s home, but we aren’t there, pretty eyes.” He sighed, taking a look around. You couldn’t see it, but everything Dante was able to make out was nothing. It was as if you both were trapped in a void. “It’d be different. And trust me, there would be one hell of a reception to my old man’s blood.”

You furrowed your brows as soon as you felt Dante’s hand slightly tensing in yours, holding you a little tighter. He didn’t talk a lot about Hell – he certainly talked about it more than Vergil, but still, it wasn’t much – so you couldn’t help but notice that instinctive reaction from him and mark in your mind as important. Dante tensed over very few things and you never thought the mention of Hell and his time there alongside Vergil would be one of those things.

“Hmmm… Ok. So… You think this is demonic? I mean… You’re the Son of Sparda, where’s the usual reception of soured demons over your dad’s ‘betrayal’…?” As you asked, Dante couldn’t help himself but to snort a laugh in disdain. It was a running joke between you two: demons would always taunt him over his blood, his father’s legacy, the so-called betrayal of Sparda. It was starting to get old, really.

“And you got another point there, babe. No idea.” Dante shrugged, starting to walk around aimlessly while you just followed – never letting go of his hand. “Kinda feeling a little ignored here!” He raised his voice, as if complaining with whatever trapped you in there. You had to giggle a little bit. “But yeah, it’s demonic. You saw Trish’s face. I don’t know what kind of thing that box was, but I’m pretty sure she knew and tried to warn us.”

“Hmmm…” You remembered the look on Trish’s face as she glanced at the shiny red box in Nico’s hands. She did everything she could to reach out on time but failed. “So… You think we can expect cenobites?” As soon as you asked, Dante stopped on his tracks and burst out in a fit of laughter. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you can kick Pinhead’s ass with ease, babe, but they take the pain is pleasure thing a little too far for me, it’s a big no-no.”

Even if you couldn’t actually see Dante, you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling caringly at him. He had the best of laughs: bright as the sun, loud and sincere – it would always make your heart warm hearing him having so much genuine fun. You could crack unexpected jokes the whole night just to have him happy like that. Dante deserved it.

“Oh, but they have such sights to show you!” Of course, he had to joke with one of the lines from the movie, opening his free arm while still laughing at your question. Dante would never say it, but he thought you were adorable when you said things like that – there was something of innocent about using pop culture references to ask what was true or not about Hell. It was an innocence he prayed you’d never lose, for Dante would always do his absolute best to keep you from experiencing that place with your own soul.

“Right now, I can’t see anything. They are clearly failing on that.” You kept your voice as monotone as Vergil when he was complaining, making Dante find it all even more endearing. “If we find the cenobite travel department, I’m speaking to their manager about this. It’s unacceptable.”

Amidst Dante’s laughs – almost to the brink of tears you couldn’t see – your words were followed by a door lighting up in the distance. That made your red devil recompose himself by your side, both of you turning serious for a moment.

“Do you have any of your weapons with ya, babe?”

“What? Of course not!” If you could see him, you would have turned at Dante with the most baffled expression – not that he couldn’t see that in the dark. “Only Vergil brings weapons to an amusement park, but he has issues, Dante.”

“Well, we all have then. Here.” Before you could say anything else, you felt Dante placing one of his heavy guns in your free hand. It was Ebony or Ivory for sure, you knew how they felt even with your eyes closed. “If things go south, you gotta protect yourself too.”

“Where did you put this thing…?” You whispered as you approached the door, trying to remember everything from the night prior to that moment but failing to find where Dante had put his guns.

“Hey, I got my tricks too. Verge isn’t the only one with issues.” And with that comment, Dante finally opened the door.

As you crossed to the other side, a sudden brightness made you both close your eyes – only to open them and find yourselves in the middle of what looked like a cursed circus: bloody tents, half broken luminous signs, abandoned attractions and distorted circus music.

“Ooooh you gotta be kidding me…” Yes, you were in pain. If there was something you hated more than darkness, that was… “Killer clowns. Why does it always have to be killer clowns…?”

Dante did his best not to laugh – you were suffering enough already with just the idea of being hunted by a demonic clown of sorts.

“Hey, don’cha worry, babe! I’m here with ya, remember?” He started walking around, opening his arms while you followed him after a deep sigh. “Nothin’s gonna touch you – and that, is a promise.” With those words, he playfully tapped the point of your nose with his index finger, making you smile. Even if you didn’t want to.

“So…” You sighed again, hands inside the pockets of your black leather pants. “A carnival. A demonic one. I’ve never heard of this sort of demons before.”

“Me neither, but I did kill a few clown-looking spooks back when I was younger…” Dante mused while walking around and trying to find something that could tell you what the hell was going on in that place. “Lady’s ol’ man was the most annoying.”

“Oh, I had forgotten that! His demonic form was… Jester, right?” As you asked, Dante confirmed with his head, smiling back at you. “Can you imagine. You sacrifice everything in your human life to have the powers of a demon and Hell turns you into a clown. He should’ve gotten the clue.”

This time, Dante couldn’t stop himself from laughing. A lot.

“Ya know, you should tell Lady that! She’ll appreciate the thought, really!”

But before you could answer him, you sensed something wasn’t right by your side. As soon as you noticed it, though, the thing was faster than you and suddenly a clown with sharp teeth and bloody sparkly clothes jumped right in front of you, screaming as he did so.

Of course, you screamed as well and instinctively grabbed Dante’s arm, almost hiding behind your red devil. He wouldn’t admit it, but Dante actually liked when you used him to protect yourself – after all, he believed that was the use of his cursed blood.

“Ooooh, maaaan…” You groaned, resting your forehead on his back – Dante couldn’t help but giggle. “I hate clowns…”

“Well, well, little thing! Your reaction is the best I’ve ever seen! You are surely going to be popular here at the… Carnival of the Damned!” The clown spun around, having its arms open, showing that carnival of horrors to you. As soon as it spoke, the music got louder and there were sounds as if attractions had finally been turned on - as well as screams mixed in the wind.

“Great. It sounds great.” You couldn’t be more bitter.

“Hey, spook! What the hell is this?” Dante finally decided to grab the demon’s attention; the clown, though, looked a little shocked.

“Oh. You’re the smart one of the couple, right little thing?” The jester asked, sarcasm dripping from its words. “I can see he’s not the brightest.”

“Ei! Have some respect!” And no one could deny you were a couple, since you and Dante spoke in unison.

“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I’ve been to Hell, and this is not it. I’d remember somethin’ as stupid soundin’ as ‘Carnival of the Damned’ and a sorry excuse for a demon like you.” Dante grabbed his other gun, Ebony, resting it on his shoulder. You did the same with Ivory, knowing very well how your lover liked to intimidate demons. “That box brought us here, we wanna get out. Either you start explainin’, or else you’ll be dancin’ as we shoot, capisce?”

“My, my, quite a temper on this one, huh?”

“I do call him my red devil.” You shrugged, hiding a proud smile on the corner of your lips. “You should see him when he actually loses his temper.”

“Ooooooh, he is scawy, is he?” The clown pretended to be scared, using an ominous but jokester tone, laughing like a maniac right at the ending of the phrase. It was surely having fun while taunting Dante. You wondered if it knew who your red devil was.

“He’s hot, actually.” You answered in a matter-of-fact voice, making Dante turn at you with a huge, proud smile plastered on his red-hot lips. Of course, he wouldn’t be much of a rockstar if he hadn’t makeup on.

“Ya think I’m hot when I’m mad, huh?” Dante planted one of his hands on his hips, making you giggle.

“Of course. I think you’re hot whenever.” You winked back at him, making the demonic clown in front of you completely disgusted.

“BLERGH! I can see sugar dripping from you both, it is hideous!” And once again, Dante just sighed looking back at that thing. You were having a moment, he hated when demons got in the way – something quite usual. “She told me you would be like that. So, I got a little game for you, happy couple.”

“She? Who is she…?”

“A-ha! As always, the smart one, my dear!” The clown bowed to you – and you didn’t know if you should take that as a compliment or as an insult to your lover. “Why don’t you find out? Here! Catch!”

Before any of you could think, the demon threw something at Dante and he instinctively caught what seemed to be a metal ball that glowed in red.

“Oh… Fuck..!” Dante sighed, having to anchor himself on the floor with one of his knees, seeming to lose his strength. You had never seen him like that before. “Not again…”

“Aaaaah, I knew you were not normal! It seems like you have encountered one of those before.” The demon pointed at the metal ball Dante held.

“What’s going on? Dante, let it go…!” You tried to take it from his hands, but Dante refused to give it to you.

“It might kill ya, y/n. Stay back.” And he sounded unusually serious.

“Not to worry, little thing. He will survive… If you return my little friend…” The demon pointed at the ball again. “To its proper place in time! Try to catch me!”

With those words, the demon started running, entering a tent right in front of you.

“Dante, what’s wrong?”

“This thing, it sort of sucks my life. I’m half-demon, so it makes me weaker, and it takes a while to actually kill me.” He explained such a daring situation a little too calmly for his own sake – even slightly smiling at the end.

“What if you trigger, then…?”

“Well… It might take even more time.” Dante winked back at you, getting back on his feet with some difficulty. “Ok, then, hot stuff! Time to hunt down that clown!”

And in a bright, flaming red light, Dante triggered, and you could clearly see your red devil standing in front of you – fangs and claws ready to kill anything that decided to threaten you both.

“I’ll be right behind you, red devil.” It was your turn to wink at him – and you knew Dante was entertained by the way his distorted voice giggled behind his teeth.

“If ya have a hard time to catch up, scream! I’ll be right there with ya!” You just nodded, getting ready to run. It was a fact: Dante’s speed when he triggered was a lot faster than yours – and you hoped it would be to your advantage; after all, he could kill all demonic clowns along the way before you even got there.

You never thought you would catch yourself thinking about something like that, but seeing the trail of dead, clown looking demons and blood your lover left behind actually made you happy that night. Just the thought of not having to deal with those jesters already made you less prone to nightmares with those things, you were sure of that.

You had a lot to thank Dante later.

The tent, just like Mary Poppins’ bag, was bigger on the inside. As you entered and crossed a room filled with creepy circus props and what looked like victims laying around, you crossed another opening right on the other side and, to your surprise, you didn’t end up outside: you were in another room.

You did double back to make sure you weren’t running in circles inside an infinite loop – it had happened to you and Nero once and it took you both quite a while to find out what was going on and that it was supposed to be a hellish puzzle – but it was a different room: a place to house a knife thrower and their assistant.

That kept on for quite a while. Crossing tents decorated as the most gruesome of haunts, following the trail of dead demons. You could hear Dante in the distance – the more he ran, the more tired he sounded. It wasn’t something usual and you had to worry if your lover was alright.

“Dante! Can you see that creep anywhere?!” You decided to ask at some point. You had been running for so long, you lost count how many rooms you crossed.

If, by some chance, you were trapped inside the box, it was one hell of a big box.

After all, you had been trapped in a cursed top hat in a previous Halloween alongside Dante. Being with him was a box filled with surprises.

“Can’t see, but I can smell that garbage and hear it laughing!” His distorted voice echoed in front of you, reverberating through the tents. It always seemed to escape Dante how powerful he was – but it never escaped you.

As you were almost answering him you hoped that whole chase would end soon, you could actually hear Dante’s footsteps ending its frenetic run. After crossing two more rooms, you found your red devil staring at the demon who danced like a fool around a woman standing in the middle of a circus ring, surrounded by blood and demons who seemed to be dismembering each other.

“Ok. That’s new.” You had to point it out. It wasn’t the first time demons would be fighting their own, but it was the first time you were seeing it.

For Dante, though, it was something common to see in Hell.

“Hey, asshole! Care to take your little thing back?” Dante tossed the ball between his claws, grabbing the attention of the woman.

Although… As soon as she looked at you, her eyes seemed to lose all its will and suddenly that witch was nothing but a child. She couldn’t be older than fifteen, at least in your eyes.

“Who… Who are you?” And she looked a little frightened, even if she didn’t want to let it show. She tried to keep the pose, but it was clearly not working.

Like the demon said, Dante could be pretty scary when triggered. You were used to it, though.

“Oh. They don’t know.” You put your free hand on your waist, resting the gun on your shoulder. The girl’s eyes widened, as if she had never seen a gun so close in her life. “You guys aren’t joking, are you…?”

“You brought the wrong people! It isn’t them!” The girl complained with the demon clown, who stopped dancing around and laughing. All the chaos with the demons around seemed to come to a halt and that made you and Dante extra wary.

“They were the ones brought by the box! A couple, just like you said, little witch.” The clown didn’t look too happy – even though it was smiling. There was some sort of hatred permeating its words.

“But… They are the wrong couple! I don’t know them!” She pointed back at you. “One of them isn’t even human! You brought another witch over here!”

“Do I look like a witch…?” You turned back at Dante. “I was supposed to be The Crow.”

“I’m guessin’ she never watched the movie.” He shrugged back at you. “You look great, hot stuff.”

“I did what you told me to do!” The clown now looked positively threatening. You and Dante had your guns ready and fingers on the triggers: even if that girl was responsible for all of that, she was still a human and she had to do a lot of explaining. “Don’t go thinking you are the one in charge here! We are bound to the Carnival and you are just a parasite. A means to an end.”

“What…?!” Now the girl did her best not to stutter. You were starting to pity her. “That… That wasn’t the deal! I control you…!”

“No pitiful human controls us! Your magic was just to set us free, your little petty revenge as a blood sacrifice! Don’t go thinking for a second that you are more powerful than us, that you can bind us in servitude…!”

Furrowing your brows, you realized you heard those words before. Long ago, when Vergil was teaching you some obscure arcane arts, he taught you about binding and deals. For any being to be able to bind a demon in servitude, it was necessary to be a lot more powerful than said demon – that was how, long ago, when Vergil was a lot younger and foolish, Mundus was the only one able to bind him in his Nelo Angelo form.

It was a lesson for you to be careful: even though you were strong and powerful, you still had a long road to run in order to achieve the same level as the blood of Sparda, for instance. You should always know when you could tackle an enemy and when it was too much – it was a logic call that could cost your life. Vergil always reminded you of that.

“Hey! I was talkin’ to ya, I’m feelin’ ignored over here!” Dante finally made you two be noticed by the demon and the witch once again, giving her time to carefully put some distance between her and the jester she thought was under her control. “Where do I put this thing? Or else, I’m gonna feed it to ya!”

“Ooooh someone is getting nervous…!” Of course, the clown had to start dancing.

It was a bad call. Dante was already out of his patience and, seeing there was a human girl in possible danger, he wouldn’t take much of that any longer. After all, it looked like she was close to Patty’s age, and Dante would never deny protection to Patty.

“You know what?” Dante threw the metal ball in the air and, as it floated above your heads, he pointed Ebony at it and shot it right in the middle. The metal ball broke in a burst of energy and red sparkles filled the circus ring. “I’m tired of this shit. C’mon, spook. You’re next.”

With those words, the other demons started to surround you. Holding the gun with both hands, you were ready to fight.

“Babe. Get her and take her out of the way, ok?” He murmured to you before anything else started. You agreed with a nod.

As the red glow of the sin devil trigger took the ring, you started running towards the witch, shooting and punching anything in your way. You could hear Dante’s wings flapping and the sharp sound of something being impaled – he had summoned Devil Sword Dante and you knew things would get too ugly for that clueless girl who just screamed in horror.

“Hey! Witch! Over here!” You waved at her, kicking a demon right by your side and shooting it in the head. “I got you!”

She ran towards you, holding your hand as you tried to find a safe place to keep her and defend your position while Dante let all hell break loose.

“Are you insane?! Trying to control a demon is just for powerful witches! It requires a lot of experience!” You looked over your shoulder to see if the girl was fine behind you, shooting at the demons who tried to catch you without even looking.

“Are you a witch?!” Her eyes seemed to glow in admiration. “Can you stop this?!”

“I don’t even know what’s going on, kid!” With that, you punched the nearest evil clown, giving it a kick before unleashing Ivory on it. “Dante over there, he can handle a lot of stuff! But a Hellraiser magic box is new to even us!”

“It’s just that, a puzzle box!” The girl cried, kneeling behind you to protect herself as you shot another demon. Looking over your legs, she saw Dante, still in his full sin devil trigger form, slicing demons with a heavy flaming sword – while the clown she once thought was under her control commanded all the other demons to kill all of you. “We… We enchanted it! We found a book, a spell, to enchant and control demons! To create realities! To punish our enemies!”

“What kind of enemies a kid has that deserves all of this?!”

“They bully us every day! We’re tired of it!”

You finally halted, looking back at the girl kneeling behind you. Her eyes were filled with tears and horror – and you couldn’t help but to see yourself, a long ago, scared and brimming with rage, trying to claim a little bit of power to fight for yourself. To protect your own pride.

After all, that was how you met Dante.

“What’s your name, kid?” You shot Ivory once more, kneeling beside her, helping to hide both of you behind a couple of chairs.

“Amanda. I’m Amanda…” She kept on crying, holding your hands and trying to explain herself as if you were her parent. “I… We’re not evil, I swear to you. We were just trying, you know…? We wanted them to be scared, to see us as powerful and leave us alone! I swear, we didn’t… The demons were supposed to scare. They said it would only be a scare. We set rules, they weren’t supposed to kill anyone! We didn’t… We don’t want to… We aren’t murderers…!”

“Hey, hey, Amanda, take a deep breath, ok?” You caressed her hair, trying to calm her down. As always, humans were so difficult: they weren’t black and white as demons. Not all of them did evil for evil’s sake – some of them just made mistakes. “Like I said, demons are powerful. You’re a beginner in the occult and there’s a lot of stuff out there on the internet that doesn’t come with the needed warnings. We’re going to take care of it. Can you take us out of here?”

“Yeah… I just… That demon, it has a puzzle box to open the portal to go back.” Amanda pointed at the demon who challenged her previously – and now was fighting Dante. “It is the main demon in this reality, even if I created all this. It said it was going to keep the box safe for me, his master.”

“Wait, you did all of this?” You raised one eyebrow while she just nodded as an answer. “Not bad. You’re more powerful than I thought.”

“This smell… Ha, look what we have here!” The voice of the clown echoed in joy, drawing your attention back to the fight. You could see Dante with a scratch on his leg – something you thought was impossible given his thick skin – while the demon licked his apple red blood. “It’s that vile blood…! What a joy! What a fight! We have a Sparda for the sacrifice tonight!”

“Well, I was wonderin’ how long it would take for the ‘scumbag blood of Sparda’ to start!” Dante rested his weight on his sword, barely bothered by the scratch. That seemed to make the demon even angrier, now with eyes glowing red. “I think this one was the slowest to notice, right, hot stuff?”

“Well, I do think he isn’t the brightest of demons, babe. Give it a break.” You shrugged as you raised from your hiding spot – Amanda carefully placed behind you, admiring how you both bantered in the face of danger.

“Haha! That, you are right! Not the brightest in the slightest!” Dante answered in a sing song tone, delightful even if distorted by his demon form.

“Oh, you shall see, son of Sparda! I will make you suffer endlessly!” The demon summoned others to attack Dante alongside it and even Amanda could see the legendary devil hunter was outnumbered.

“I’d like to see you try that.” Dante’s answer came in a growl from his chest, while he grabbed Devil Sword Dante and prepared a drive move, making it glow like flames when unleashing on the demons.

“Ok, Amanda. You wanna see what real magic looks like…?”

The girl furrowed her eyebrows as you asked, ready to inquire what you meant by that. You didn’t have to do much explaining: simply walking as she followed you in awe, the air around you quickly filled with golden swords – attacking the demons in the blink of an eye, allowing Dante to only care about the main demon attacking him. You were decimating everyone else with the summoned swords Vergil had taught you so well how to use – something Dante never really learned.

“Wow… You gotta be the most powerful witch I’ve ever seen!” Amanda was breathless as you kept fighting without even looking at all the preys. “This is so cool! That’s why you can control a demon!”

“What?” Even though you turned back at her, your golden summoned swords kept doing their job. Again, something well taught by Vergil – bless the day he blindfolded you and pulled an Obi-Wan Kenobi teaching Luke how to sense the enemies around you and attack them. “I can’t control demons.”

“But… What about him? How do you control him?” Amanda pointed at Dante, his fangs showing while he tried to hack the clown in half – missing it by only a heartbeat.

“I don’t…”

You were about to explain when you saw in the corner of your eye a demon ready to grab Amanda. Pushing her away, the demon caught you instead, lifting your feet from the floor as it choked you.

Vergil never taught you how to use summoned swords when you were so unfocused – differently than him, you couldn’t multitask everything you did with energy. It required so much of you, even for the swords, and you still had a lot to learn. You tried to shoot the demon, but it was to no avail: all your shots were lost in its decrepit body.

“Y/n!” Of course, Dante’s attention immediately turned to you.

“Time to say goodbye to your little human! What a shame, I really enjoyed the smart one!” The clown laughed sadistically while the demon that grabbed you prepared a blade to cross your heart.

Your eyes met Dante’s flaming ones. If it was your time to go, at least you wanted him to be the last thing you saw – in whatever form he was. You still tried to struggle, but it was too hard to free yourself; after all, most of your energy was gone with the summoned swords.

You never heard Dante growl the way he did that night. Holding Devil Sword Dante with both of his hands, his feet moved at the speed of light – one you had only seen Vergil moving before. The demon who tried to kill you died before the blade could even touch your chest – making you fall to the ground while Dante ran back to the clown and quickly chopped its head off. Too fast even for it to notice it was dead.

With the same speed, he ended the few demons that were left in that place, while Amanda ran to the clown to find the box inside its clothes. Your legs were shaking as you got up, trying to catch a glimpse of Dante in his frenzy – it was rare, but you knew a threat to your life could trigger that inside him.

“I found it!” Amanda celebrated, showing the red box to you – but immediately stopped smiling as Dante stood in front of her, Devil Sword Dante in his hands, ready to kill.

“No! Dante! Stop!” You forgot how unstable your legs were, running towards them as quickly as possible. His red eyes focused on you, his demon acting almost mindlessly. “Dante! She’s only a child! Stop! She isn’t evil!”

As you reached him, Amanda winced as you gently touched his arm holding the sword. Still looking into his eyes, you eased Dante’s arm down, making him face you. With a few deep breaths, you placed one of your hands on his hardened face, gently caressing him – and, pulling him down, you finally gave Dante a kiss.

That, you would argue, was your greatest magic. Demon Dante was slowly gone, flaming red sparks glistening all over the place while your kind devil turned back into a man – your very own rockstar for the night. You felt as his sharp teeth transformed back into his soft lips, the ones you loved so much – as his leathery skin became his soft cheek under your fingers once more.

Parting your kiss and opening your eyes, you met Dante’s tired but gentle sky-blue eyes looking back into yours.

“Thank you.” He murmured back to you, taking a string of hair away from your face – hands so gentle, one could say they never even held a sword.

“Welcome back, babe.” You smiled in return, as he ran the back of his fingers on your cheek.

Dante always turned a little too soft hearted when he came down from a frenzy like that.

“Wait. He’s a guy? And you two are, like, a couple?” Amanda gestured frenetically while trying to understand what she had just seen. “Wow. You gotta be the most powerful witch. That’s so metal.”

“Wait until I tell you his father rebelled against his own kind and locked demons in Hell, while Dante here killed the king of Hell years later.” You had to boast, at least a little bit. It wasn’t every day you could flex on how your lover defeated the king of Hell, his father locked all demons in there, his brother took over that damned place and his mother was a stupidly powerful witch.

At least you had that in common with Eva: both of you had the hearts of the most powerful demons of their time, you didn’t need to control them.

“What?! You are so cool!”

“Ok, kid. Y/n here said you’re not evil, I’m willin’ to believe in it. Show me wha’cha got.” Dante sighed, making Devil Sword Dante disappear in flames as he always did. Amanda still observed you both in awe and you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling – it did feel like you were dating a rockstar.

“The box, it’s a portal. This is all a spell – this demon was bound to it, and I… We… Thought we had it all under control. I need to help my friends, they’re in trouble too – if this is happening to them...” Amanda stumbled a little upon her words, but her fingers quickly worked on the puzzle box. “We didn’t mean it…”

“If your friends found any of our friends, they’re not gonna need our help.” You winked at her, watching as the box started to glow – now in the form of an apple. “Trust me. His brother is scarier. A lot scarier.”

“He has a brother?!” Amanda couldn’t stop smiling – just like Nico before, she looked like a child during Christmas. “Who are you guys?!”

You and Dante just exchanged a knowing look, smiling at each other. For once, it was nice to be seen as something more than all the usual cursed bloodline.

“Oh, my! You are fine!”

As you walked out of the haunted house, back in the horror park, Kyrie immediately smiled as soon as she saw you, Dante and Amanda. Running towards you, she wrapped her arms around your neck and it seemed like she would never let go.

“I was so worried!” She sighed as you hugged her back, laughing how it seemed like she was about to cry. “I thought you wouldn’t be able to leave…!”

“It’s ok, angel!” You giggled back, trying to calm her down. Dante just laughed while walking towards Lady, Trish and another girl dressed as a witch – obviously the one in charge for the haunting on their group. “I’m happy you ended up with Lady and Trish, though!”

“Oh, yes! They helped to keep me alive!” Kyrie giggled back, finally letting go of you – but keeping a tight grip in one of your hands. “Lady gave me a gun so I could defend myself too, but they did all the work.”

“Oh, right. Sometimes I forget Nero teaches you his craft.” You answered in a solemn demeanor as you both approached the group. “I thought he would end up with you, though.”

“I am praying he ended up with Nico. She is good, but even if she doesn’t admit it, she needs someone to protect her too in all this… Mess.”

“I’d say mess is too kind of a word for all of this.” Trish sighed, leaning on the guardrail alongside Dante. “It’s never good when humans try to mess with demonic things they don’t fully understand.”

“At least we knew what we were looking for.” Lady seemed tired, leaning by Dante’s other side. “That puzzle box is a binding spell thing apparently. You never saw any of those before?”

“Nah. Not in boxes, at least.” Dante shrugged, glaring Lady right after. “There was that demon in a mask that granted people’s wishes once, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. The one I almost made melt you, right?” She giggled while Dante just rolled his eyes – even though you could see him smiling.

“I swear they are best friends.” You felt the need to clarify all that to Amanda and her friend.

“So, he’s a half demon...?” The other girl asked while pointing at Dante. Kyrie immediately agreed. “Wow. I still can’t believe Trish is a demon and Lady is a devil hunter. And you?”

“Devil hunter as well, 100% human.”

“Not just that. Y/n is a witch like us, but super powerful! And not only that, y/n and Dante are a couple. Literally dating a half demon, Abby.” It seemed like Amanda was telling her fried about the coolest person to walk on earth. You had to smile.

“Wow, really?!” Abby looked at you in awe while you only agreed once again. Kyrie just giggled by herself. “Dude. That’s metal.”

“Well, I’m not the only one attracted to half demons.” You looked at Kyrie, making the girls just stare at her as if they couldn’t believe your words. “Nero, Dante’s nephew. She completely owns his heart.”

“You guys are so cool!”

“Kyrie!”

Before you could say anything else, though, Nero’s voice emerged from the house.

“See, airhead?! She’s fine! Told ya!” Nico pointed at the group, being followed by another young witch.

“Nero! You’re fine!” Kyrie ran to his arms, holding him as soon as they touched. Nero grabbed her by the waist spinning Kyrie around as she laughed, and he placed kisses all over her face. “You’re alright!”

“Of course I am! Had to check how my girl was doin’!” You could all swear he would never stop kissing her. “I’m so glad you’re ok, angel. I really am. I was so worried.”

“And I was worried about you…!”

“They are the worst, Sandy.” Nico confided with the witch who had them trapped before. “it’s from that to even more cheap romance.”

Before any of you could answer, Nero held Kyrie’s face for a long kiss, while flipping Nico with his other hand. A classic.

As you watched the crew getting back together, you saw how the coven of young witches was so starstruck with all of you. Remembering Amanda’s words, you understood where her search for power to protect herself came from – how it looked like they just wanted to have a group where they could live peacefully without having to worry about being hurt.

“Hey, Amanda, you said you girls did all of this because of bullying, right?” You finally brought the topic up, drawing Dante’s attention.

“Yeah… There’s this group of people at school who just won’t let us be. They always make fun of us for being witches and such, we wanted to teach them a lesson.”

“We didn’t mean to hurt anyone!” Sandy immediately jumped in the conversation. “We just wanted to scare them so they’d leave us alone, you know?”

“It seemed like a good idea when we found the spell… We didn’t know how much power we needed to actually make it work.” Abby sighed, looking ashamed after all that happened.

“Hmmm… I have an idea to help you.”

“Really?” Dante leaned towards you, interested in what was going on in that head of yours. “What’s it, babe?”

“Well… Vergil isn’t back yet, right…?” You side eyed Dante, a shadow of a smile hidden in your lips. “I think we can put the Dark Slayer to good use today.”

Dante didn’t even have to hear the rest of your words. Using Vergil to scare a couple of teens? That was already entertaining enough to him.

The house was dark and ominous. The group of teenagers found themselves locked in a room that looked like a torture chamber, needing to complete a puzzle to get out. Some of them made fun of the ones who were too scared, others were unbothered and just wanted to leave.

It took them some time, but the key was found in a cubic puzzle box, freeing them from that room. Soon, they were in another room that looked like a mortuary – filled with dead bodies and screams in the dark.

“Oh, c’mon! This is so lame!” A girl pointed at one of the props, laughing at one of the scared boys. “You can’t be scared by this!”

“I just don’t like looking at it!” The boy rolled his eyes, ignoring as she played with the props. “It doesn’t do well for your mental health!”

“Ooooh, he’s a scaredy cat…!” She patronized him, making others join the choir of shame.

“Yeah, make fun of me. I’m gonna laugh when something scares the shit out of you, guys.”

As soon as he said that, one of the other boys jumped back while trying to cross a door.

“Dude, shit! Don’t do that!” He kept one of his hands over his heart, slowly walking back as the ominous figure entered the room.

Vergil stared back at the group of teenagers with the cold look in his silvery eyes – which was enough to freeze them in place and dare not ask him anything. Looking regal and threatening as always, he didn’t say a word while just staring. Menacingly.

“Ok, you’re a good actor, we get it!” The girl who swore she wasn’t scared of nothing still tried to play it cool. “Cut it out!”

Vergil still didn’t say a word – just glanced back at her. That made her, and the whole group, understand they were in actual danger. He wasn’t just an actor.

“Let’s leave. Now. C’mon.” One of the guys started to shove the group to the door, slowly leaving while still staring at Vergil.

“Hey, you jerk! It’s just Halloween, you don’t have to get like that!” Another girl of the group was too scared to leave without saying something. “Go to hell!”

“I have been there…” Vergil’s words weren’t loud but were enough to cut their soul like the sharp blade of Yamato. Glancing back at the group of teens, Vergil’s eyes suddenly lit up in blue, a pair of fangs appearing in his mouth while his fingers turned into claws – voice now distorted by his demonic heritage. “Maybe it is time to take you for a visit and teach you all a lesson.”

“Dude, what…?!”

Before any of them could finish speaking, though, Vergil’s doppelganger appeared behind him – a phantasmagoric image in blue, while the man in the room slowly unsheathed his sword; it was too sharp and bright not to be real.

The group screamed and horror and started running in panic, screaming at every jumpscare meant to get them by surprise while touring the house. Vergil just walked after them, his doppelganger calmly following his footsteps.

“Help! Someone help us!”

“What the hell! Help!”

“Where’s the exit?! He’s getting close!”

As the group ran desperately to exit the house, they almost stumbled into each other when they saw the door that would get them out of there. Screaming while leaving, they looked back only to see Vergil still followed them relentlessly – his doppelganger as an ominous aura.

“C’mon, dude! Leave us alone!” Now one of the girls cried, while it seemed Vergil would never stop – and was more than ready to use his blade.

“There he is! Don’t let him go!” Amanda pointed at Vergil, as the other witches from the coven held hands and chanted something in Latin. “It is time to send you back to Hell, demon!”

“You?! What?!”

“You guys need our help or not?!” Abby asked the boy who tried to argue with them. “He’s possessed! Do you know how to deal with it?!”

“No! It… It isn’t… Real…?”

With those words from another girl, Vergil growled, getting in position for a judgement cut – his doppelganger following him.

“He’s pretty real! Help us, please!” The boy who was previously scared was the first one to say something.

“Don’t worry. We can deal with him.”

The coven moved their hands while chanting their Latin words at Vergil. He seemed to resist for a while, struggling before finally bowing his head and taking a deep breath. The girls didn’t stop the incantation until he straightened his back, the doppelganger disappearing behind him.

As Vergil opened his eyes, their silvery colors were back – claws and fangs gone: a perfectly normal human.

“Thank you for ridding me of that demon.” He slightly bowed his head as you appeared running towards him from behind the coven.

“Vergil! You're alright!” You sighed, holding one of his hands while he just smiled back at you. “I was so worried… Thank you, witches. He wouldn’t be ok if it wasn’t for you.”

“It’s ok. If something else happens, give us a call, ok?” Sandy smiled as you both just thanked once more and left – their bullies watching everything in awe.

“Wow… Really? That’s… That’s all true…?” One of the guys asked while watching you leaving, still scared of Vergil.

“Thanks, really… You guys kinda saved us.” The bravest of the girls admitted, finally feeling remorse for mistreating them for so long.

“It’s fine. Just don’t ever mess with us again, capisce?” Amanda asked back, one of her hands on her waist – just like you used to do in that mess inside the Carnival. “Or else, we’ll turn you into frogs.”

“Ha, you can’t do that!” A boy from the group laughed as quickly as he looked back at them with fear. “Can you…?”

And they did the right thing: didn’t answer – just left the group of bullies with questions and fear, while heading towards a candied apples booth to celebrate their newly acquired power.

“That was one hell of a good idea, babe.” You heard Dante’s voice behind you, right by your ear as you all watched the coven’s victory over their bullies. “Gotta admit. Those bullies will never mess with ‘em again.”

“Hope so. They deserve some peace.” You looked back at Dante, placing a quick kiss on his lips. “You deserve it too, Dante.”

“Hmmm. I already have you.” His arms wrapped around your waist while you two watched the girls celebrating in the distance. “Got all the peace I need.”

“I’m happy to hear that.” You giggled in return. “You know, I felt like dating a rockstar for real tonight.”

“I can be your rockstar any time you want, babe.” With those words, Dante muffled another one of your giggles with a kiss.

“See? Told ya they’re worse than us!”

And of course, Nero’s voice had to interrupt you. Holding Dante’s hand, you two got back to the group, following the crew around the park and continuing your Halloween fun – you both deserved it.

Before entering the next attraction, though, you held Dante by his coat’s collar, pulling him closer to you until your lips were almost touching.

“Just one thing you got wrong, cowboy…” As he would question what the hell was all that, you kissed him once more. “You’re always my rockstar.”

Dante couldn’t stop himself from smiling in return. Entering the haunt with one of his arms around your shoulders, that was already the best Halloween ever for him. It was nice to be recognized as a hero for a change – but to be your rockstar?

Well, that was priceless.

#devil may cry #devil may cry imagine #devil may halloween #dmc #dmc imagine #devil may cry fanfiction #dmc dante #dmc vergil #dante sparda #vergil sparda #dante x reader #dante x you #it took a while but here it is!#I had a little too much fun imagining Vergil scaring a couple of teens though #and Dante fits so well with the rockstar look #I could imagine him like that all the time ^^#happy halloween devil hunters!!

88 notes · View notes

dontbotherwiththepronunciation · 7 months

Note

The Theon poll was so interesting. I was just curious if you’ve ever seen any of the show? I couldn’t remember if you said you read the books first and then watched the show or if you’ve never seen the show at all. If you have, did you watch the whole thing? Was there anything you liked about it or thought the show portrayed well?

It's kind of you to show interest anon and I don't hold anything against you but oh god this was such a struggle and I ended giving up because I can't talk about the show without wanting to hurt people but also the longer I think about it, the less apologetic I want to be. I want to be allowed to tell everyone how much I despise it but I know I would get in trouble for that and I'm so tired of it. The more I think about it, the more depressed I get and the more hateful I become. I think it makes me depressed because fandom proved I'm not allowed to be hateful and angry, although I know I have the right to be.

"Was there anything you liked about it or thought the show portrayed well?"

I actively forget the show exists until someone mentions it, but I filled two journals with show thoughts (they were abundantly negative), so here are the few things I marked down as positives.

I’ve always been a fan of Ramin Djawadi's work and used to play some of his pieces so that was the highlight of the show for me. “Winds of Winter” and some other themes used for Dany give me goosebumps and so does “Light of the Seven”. There was a time I could play that one on the violin and piano.

“Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores.” (I didn't even have to google that sentence. I heard it once and it became engraved to my brain)

Lena Headey and most of the casting for the Lannisters. I hated what they did to Tyrion's character later on and also how they made Cersei less unhinged but I think both of them had the range to play the characters properly had they been given decent scripts.

There was this thing they did with Sansa's hair that I thought was interesting. Her style changed and assimilated to whoever she was learning from/trying to emulate. A nice and fitting touch.

Up to Season 6 (I think. Not fully sure), I liked most of the costuming for Cersei. The red dress with the golden metal corset shaped armour...gay gay homosexual gay.

Florence + the Machine's adaptation of "Jenny of Oldstones".

The adaptation of "The Rains of Castamere"

Dubrovnik and Peñiscola as two of the most important filming locations were such a smart choice! I had been to both of the cities in the past and it was so fun to spot which places they filmed in. They really made the best out of such small and rather niche places and I applaud how much they played with perspective in order to make us ignore the constant use of the same set spaces.

I really liked Isaac Hempstead Wright's acting during Season 2. It felt very similar to this despair and impotence that ACOK Bran feels and my heart ached for him.

Season 6 episode 10 made absolutely no fucking sense but it was the most entertaining one and I think seeing Cersei blow up the sept was the happiest experience I had with that show. What an icon she was, burning all her enemies to the ground...would have made me even happier if her actions had consequences but I still cherished the moment on itself.

I hated everything related to the Greyjoys and the writing team threw every possible interesting plot and dynamic for them out of the window, but there was a scene somewhere in Season 2, when Theon returns to the Iron Islands in which Balon Greyjoy is given a more deeply and hurtful characterisation. Theon accuses him of "giving him away, like a dog he didn't want anymore" and the camera stays at Balon's expression of pain and desolateness. I really dislike most of the fandom's characterisation for Balon. This however, was interesting.

Michelle Fairley's last scream and her following lifelessness during the red wedding was hunting. I am #anti Robb Stark(/j) and I didn't like Richard Madden as Robb so I didn't feel a lot during that scene until she started to shine. Amazing actress.

Season 1, episode 10 (I think), a scene in which we see Catelyn and Robb react to Ned's death. Michele Fairley does this thing where she starts leaning against trees and breaths heavily in order to not let herself cry and Robb is hacking a tree with his sword before his mother hugs him as he sobs "I'll kill them all". I don't like Richard Madden but I loved that scene. The composition and setting was so atmospheric and the musical score was very emotional, love those strings. I rewatched the scene right now to make sure my thoughts were the same and, yes 15-year-old-me, I full-heartedly agree!

The animated shorts were a hesitant and reluctant source of joy for me. @/hell-heron has made use of them in gifs and I think they are lovely to look at.

That's about it

"I was just curious if you’ve ever seen any of the show? I couldn’t remember if you said you read the books first and then watched the show or if you’ve never seen the show at all. If you have, did you watch the whole thing?"

I watched till half of season 2 after spending three years analysing the books without any show influence or imagery, didn't like it, got called a slur and was told to go back to the plantation by show people because I didn't like the whitewashing, finished watching it in 2019 against my will, really hated it.

The concrete things that made the show a source of anger and sadness instead of allowing it only to be uninteresting for me, asides from Stark goggles and overall me hating show!Theon and show!Dany (two of my favourite characters), listed from most to least personally upsetting:

Missandei of Naath (Sexualization, pseudo-maturity and imposed adulthood of black Girls)

Jeyne-Sansa switcherroo (Not doomed by the narrative, just ditched and other unimportant, unsatisfactory, insufficient girls (Jeyne W, Penny, Kyra, Pretty Pia, etc.))

"Dark" "Dark eyes" "Dark hair" "Dark vs Fair" (Whitewashing under the pretence of ambiguity á la fanon!Rue from the Hunger Games)

The philosophical stance of the narrative (Nihilism vs. Optimistic Existentialism vs. Embracing the absurd & The Myth of Sisyphus; conclusion: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING)

Ableism (Wex Pyke, Ilyn Payne and my other fellow (selective) mutes, constant jokes on the expense of mutilated people that the watchers were meant to laugh at, the dismissal of Tysha, Bran's not-sense-making impotence/infertility and the connotations of lovelessness for disabled people, Tyrion making fun of a supposedly mentally disabled cousin just for the lols)

Renly, Loras, Jon Connington, Satin and "Olyvar" (???) (Home of phobia)

Sansa Stark (Destroying a character to marketise a YA Heroine)

Daenerys Targaryen (Slowburn character assassination)

The even stronger orientalist tropes in Dorne (Girlbossing your way through character massacre)

Robb Stark (Simplifying the text and creating a male oc)

Arya Stark & Brienne of Tarth (Contraproductive and unresolved internalised misogyny)

#speaking #anonymous #fandom related #anti got #sorry if this came off as very hostile anon. It's nothing against you. I just really hate that show and how I have to constantly acknowledg #it's existences in this fandom.#Again not against you! You seemed genuinely interested and I am sorry for letting you down.

8 notes · View notes

monstermonstre · 6 months

Text

31 days of horror 2023 (part 2/?)

Every year in October I challenge myself to watch 31 horror movies, 1 for each day, with varying success. If you’re new here, I love horror and so the challenge is more about the commitment, than pushing myself to do something I wouldn’t enjoy or do otherwise (thankfully).

The first half of October went too well, so it was bound to go south eventually. For this second part, there were a couple of terrible watches (although I can't say I didn't see them coming) and there were several days in which I didn't watch anything because it felt like pulling teeth. Fortunately I managed to get back on track with some great shorts (and Chucky).

12. Werewolf by Night (2022): Against my better instincts, I gave this M*rvel short a try. I thought well, the fact that it's from M*rvel Studios doesn't have to matter. It could be a nice short with some cool werewolfing even if they slap one of their magical stones onto it. Well it wasn't. It was terrible, and it got me mad at the people praising it for being "different" and "artistic". 55 minutes of my life wasted.

13. Chucky S3E2: This is when I started worrying that this new season wasn't working for me, that they had finally made a Chucky story I didn't like (I mean, like a lot of people, I didn't really enjoy Child's Play 3; but at the same time it was OK, I've seen worse).

14. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985): I did watch this one on Friday the 13th so ignore the number next to it. Continuing the franchise, I was surprised to find this one as enjoyable as I did. The kills get pretty repetitive and there aren't as many characters you root for as in 4 but the cast was acting their hearts out and that alone really carried me through the film. Also Reggie was delightful and I was so happy to see Miguel A. Núñez Jr.

15. The Fall of the House of Usher E1&2: I didn't go into this thinking I was going to like it but I did think it was going to be a "fun to hate" experience. I was wrong. Nothing about it was fun. I could barely get through the first episode. I pushed myself to try the second episode, thinking maybe...I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe Flanag*n's worst so far, and that's saying something. Anyone saying it is good is insane and has never seen a horror movie before.

16. Ganja & Hess (1973): Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, ... One of the most gorgeous films I've ever seen and packed with so much to say. Must watch for fans of cinema and vampires.

17. Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988): Another "didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did" entry. Incredible commitment to the bit, delightful special effects, some of the worst case of "how do you do, fellow kids" actors in their 40s playing teenagers you'll ever see, and some genuinely funny jokes.

18. Creep (2014): We won't mention that I watched this twice this month.

19. Chucky S3E3: Reminded me why I've loved the show so far. Packed with what I love the most about the franchise and featuring one of its best kills. Maybe the most batshit lines of dialogue on American TV right now.

20. In Search of Darkness (2019): Don't get me wrong, I did watch those 4 and a half hours of talking heads like it was nothing but I was left a little frustrated. It felt like it stayed too at the surface despite its runtime and most of it were arguments we've heard before a thousand times. However when I realised there were 2 more of these documentaries I got excited. Hopefully the other entries will go deeper (but even if they don't, I'll probably still have a good time).

I love horror and watch horror movies year-long. However after two weeks straight of horror every day, I got a bit tired. I took a break for several days and when I felt ready to get back into it, I had 4 days to make up for. So I turned to short movies. And, frankly, I need to stop watching shorter films only when I need to make up for time lost in a challenge because I am missing out on gems like

21. The Tell-Tale Heart (1953): Gorgeous animated short adapting the famous Poe story, with James Mason narrating. I'm gonna link it here because if you have 10 minutes to spare you should watch it. This and the following entry.

youtube

22. The Sandman (1991): Incredible stop-motion animated short by Paul Berry, whose style you might recognise from Nightmare Before Christmas. Like the previous entry, if you like horror, just give it a watch.

youtube

23. Wild Love (2018): This one was just silly and great fun. Reminded me of Treevenge (2008) in its plot and humour. It's on Youtube too but behind an age-restriction, so if you're not logged in (or don't have a neat little extension that bypasses those) you might not see it there.

24. Pontypool (2008): Pretty original concept for a zombie movie and some solid performances but I could not get into it. At all.

And that's it for part 2! I couldn't complete this challenge last year but it looks like it's going well so far. One last week to go!

#mo's horrorthon 2023

4 notes · View notes

alexkellersgymshorts · 8 months

Text

Misguided Revenge - Chapter 3

[Chapter 1][Chapter 2][Ao3]

Alejandro Vargas x Rodolfo Parra

Sadistic Omega Rodolfo Parra x Hurt Alpha Alejandro Vargas

Alejandro discusses what he should do about Rodolfo being right within reach with Valeria. On her advice, he talks to Soap and Gaz, who promise that they can arrange a meetup with Rodolfo for him, though it... quickly goes south.

Warnings: ABO, torture, Dead Dove Do Not Eat, manipulation, gore

“You’re sure it’s him?”

Alejandro paced, having just fully recounted the entire afternoon to Valeria, who had decided to just ditch her class. Alejandro had had to cancel with Ghost, there was no way he could just go and get drinks after what had happened. He’d made the excuse of suddenly getting sick and being unsure he wanted to drink with that. Thankfully, Ghost had seemed to understand. Or… he hoped he had. He knew Ghost would never say otherwise.

“Are you sure? You’re positive it’s him?” Valeria furrowed her brows before shaking her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, it was him. I’d recognize him anywhere.” Alejandro stopped and looked at her. “He also… ran away when I looked at him. It’s too much of a coincidence for it to not be him.”

Valeria sighed. “We agreed to give up looking for him last fucking month and he almost, practically, falls into your lap.”

“Yeah, well, the most annoying part is that he’s friends with Gaz. Alex’s… thing. And, Soap, the cafe owner that Ghost has been interested in.” Alejandro made a frustrated noise before returning to pacing. “That means that this entire time, he’s been in reach and… I… I didn’t even know Soap and Gaz knew each other! Fuck!” He hit his fist against his side before shaking his head. “So close!”

“Why would he run away?” Valeria asked and Alejandro frowned, looking at her. “You said he ran away when he saw you, why?”

“I mean… there’s probably thousands of explanations why. He ran away for a reason, I was part of what he was running away from. He probably hates me for not being there to protect him…” Alejandro took a deep breath before turning away from her, again. “Not that I don’t deserve it. One stupid fucking episode…”

Valeria came to stand in front of him, shaking her head. “No, Alejandro, don’t do that. You’ll spiral again… We’re so close to him, you can’t spiral into another episode.”

“I’m not. I’m- I’m not.” Alejandro shook his head, taking a deep breath. “I’m taking my medication, I won’t spiral. Not now. Not with him practically inches away. I just need to… to get face to face with him and then I can apologize and…”

“Explain?”

“No, no. I can’t tell him the reason why I wasn’t there.” Alejandro immediately backed away from her. “He’ll think I was incredibly weak.”

“But how will he accept your apology if he doesn’t have an explanation as to why you weren’t there? What if it’s not enough for him? What if he looks you in your eyes and he says he doesn’t forgive you? What will you do?” Valeria looked up at Alejandro, and Alejandro found himself cringing back from her. “What will you do, Alejandro?”

“I… I… I’ll figure it out. I’ll lie or… beg for forgiveness. I can’t…” Alejandro was spiralling. God, he could practically feel it. The buzz in his muscles, the way his jaw was already tired from clenching so much. His vision wouldn’t fully focus because he kept glancing around the room. And he was so so desperate to have Rodolfo back again. “I can’t… I can’t lose this chance, Valeria…”

Valeria watched him and then she almost appeared to soften. “I’ll pull strings. Talk to Gaz or Soap, see if they’d be willing to contact him on your behalf. Okay?”

Alejandro relaxed before allowing himself to nod. “Yes, yes, I can do that…”

“We’re close, okay? We won’t let him go, again…” Valeria shook her head and then took a deep breath. “Stay here, tonight, and in the morning we’ll get started. I’m worried about you being alone…”

Alejandro couldn’t blame her, so he just nodded, and then turned, going to the room he usually slept in when he stayed with her. His mind was already consumed by Rodolfo and the idea of getting him back, of having him back in his arms. He couldn’t waste anymore time, he couldn’t be away from him anymore.

Rodolfo had been beautiful, too. The details of him were re-etched into the grooves of his mind. The green shirt he’d been wearing, the way it hugged his body. His dark eyes, so dark, so… dark. Black, practically.

Alejandro wanted to drown in those eyes, he wanted to suffocate in them. He wanted them to fill his entire existence until he had nothing left but just the way they’d looked at him before they’d been filled with recognition and betrayal.

He would do anything to make Rodolfo forgive him. Anything… He was still so desperately in love with him. He’d love to pretend he wasn’t but he was…

Alejandro rolled over onto his side and covered his head with a pillow, taking deep breaths and trying to drown out the sound of Rodolfo filling his head, coating every inch of his skin. Or maybe he wanted more of it, wanted more of the reminder that Rodolfo was right there and within reach…

He was so close…

Alejandro took a deep breath, staring at his phone. Valeria was out, pulling whatever strings she had decided would be helpful. Right now, he was trying to work up the courage to call Gaz, dialing the number and finally putting the phone to his ear.

It rang for a few minutes before Gaz answered. “Hello?”

Alejandro felt like he couldn’t breathe, already. But, he forced a smile on his face and then spoke. “Hi! It’s Alejandro, Alex’s friend? Sort of. Um… I…” Fuck, just ask the question, idiot. “I… Yesterday… You…” it suddenly occurred to him how weird this might be. Whatever, just blast through it. “You and Soap are friends?”

“... you know Soap? ” Gaz asked, sounding confused. “ Yeah, he’s one of my close friends… why? ”

“The other omega you were with… what’s his name?”

“ Why do you want to know? ”

“He looks like someone I used to know… An old friend. You don’t have to tell me but I just… want to know if it’s him.”

Gaz was silent for a bit before he sighed. “ His name is Rodolfo.”

Even having been so sure, Alejandro’s breath still caught in his chest. It really was him… “Do you think you could give him my number? Tell him-”

“ Actually-” it was a different voice, Alejandro recognized it immediately as Soap’s. “ Hey, Alejandro. What if we arranged a meet up? He was just talking about recognizing you. We’ll set up somewhere for you two to meet, again. So you can… catch up. ”

Hope filled Alejandro, causing him to feel as if he was practically bursting with it. It was… so easy. “I- God, I’d love that! Thank you, thank you both. I-” He felt like he needed to repay them in some way. But, how could he? He’d talk to Alex and Ghost, he decided. Kick their asses into gear.

“ Of course, Alejandro. You’re a friend. ” Soap answered. “ We have to go. I’ll text you the location. He would probably prefer somewhere private. He doesn’t like going out much. ”

Alejandro could only imagine. “Of course, no that’s completely fine. Gracias, Soap.”

“ Of course. ” They hung up and Alejandro immediately texted Valeria.

He wants to meet up!

Are you sure?

Yes, I talked to Soap and Gaz and they promised to set up somewhere for us to meet up!

That’s… too easy. Suspiciously easy.

Yes, but that’s exactly in line with this last month. Everything was too easy.

I just don’t know if I trust it. But… if you think it’s fine, go.

Valeria, I am begging you to be optimistic for once.

I am being optimistic, Alejandro! But I’m not being stupid!

What is there to even be stupid about?! What are Soap and Gaz even going to do?!

You’re right, I’m being… overly suspicious. It doesn’t make sense for this to be anything bad. But… please just still be cautious, Alejandro. Don’t just jump at whatever anyone says. I know you want Rodolfo back but please do not sacrifice anything you’re not willing to lose for it.

Alright, I won’t. Thank you, Val, for helping me with this.

Obviously. Someone has to keep your stupid ass in check.

Alejandro rolled his eyes at his phone and then sighed, leaning back in his seat. He could hardly take this anymore. The idea of having to wait even a few days felt almost excruciating to Alejandro, but he knew it was necessary. Oh, but he wished it wasn’t.

However, he didn’t want to complain and risk jinxing everything. When Rodolfo was ready for Alejandro to see him, Rodolfo would say and then Alejandro could… If he pushed things, it might risk Rodolfo running again and then Alejandro would have to completely restart.

So, he just took a deep breath and waited for a time and date.

Alejandro couldn’t help vibrating with excitement as he knocked on the door to Soap’s apartment, trying very very hard to contain himself. He’d not really been able to believe it when Soap had texted him and informed him that Rodolfo had given consent for them to meet up the next day, instead.

He’d also decided against texting Valeria about it, not wanting her to get even more suspicious and pessimistic. Instead, he’d just decided he would tell her, afterwards, and deal with the consequences. So, now here he was, wearing something semi-nice so he looked put together, and he’d brought flowers.

Why had he done that?? Fuck, were they too much??

Well, it was too late, now. He just took a deep breath and knocked again before waiting. Finally, he heard footsteps and then Soap was answering the door, which… despite it being Soap’s apartment, was still quite a bit of a disappointment.

However, Alejandro just shook it off as Soap let him in, though he did note the way Soap side eyed the flowers, looking almost jealous. Oh, don’t worry, Soap. Alejandro had plans to help Ghost pick out a massive bouquet. An absurd bouquet.

“He’s not here, yet. I think he slept in.” Soap informed Alejandro, smiling a little, and he led Alejandro to a couch. Alejandro was kind of surprised to see Gaz was sitting on an armchair, curled up with his knees to his chest. “Can I get you something to drink?”

Alejandro startled and looked up at Soap before nodding. “Uh, just water, thank you.” He didn’t want to be impolite and turn down the offer. After a very brief glance around the apartment, in which he comprehended nothing, he decided to try to make conversation with Gaz while Soap likely got the water. “I uh… I wasn’t expecting both of you to be friends.”

Gaz laughed, softly, and shrugged. “It’s a small world, isn’t it? We didn’t even know you had history with Rodolfo.”

“It really is…” Alejandro relaxed a bit and then nodded. “We were best friends in High School.” He accepted the glass of water he was given, thanking Soap, and noting how Soap sat on a different chair, facing him as well.

“Gaz, when did Rudy say he’d get here?” Soap asked, humming softly. “Did he say a couple minutes?”

“Fifteen.” Gaz answered, getting out his phone.

Alejandro could wait 15 minutes. It’d be an excruciating 15 minutes, but he could do it. His mouth felt kind of dry, so he sipped water, annoyed at how it hardly helped. In fact, it almost seemed to add to it, but he didn’t really want to embarrass himself by guzzling water in front of them, so he just restrained himself to sipping it every few seconds, instead.

Even still, he finished the glass early and just set it down, deciding to attempt to make small talk, instead. “How long have you known Rodolfo?” He asked, curious.

Soap was the one who answered. “We met on a web forum so… A while. Since all three of us were 16, at least.”

“Ah.” Alejandro nodded. So, Soap must have been the friend that Rodolfo ran to. Makes sense. Well, he hoped they’d taken care of Rodolfo, since it’d been so long.

He couldn’t imagine going through what Rodolfo had… especially with the perception of being abandoned, too…

Guilt flooded his chest and he looked down at his hands, fidgeting with the plastic on the flowers. He touched his head, a little tired. He hadn’t slept well the night before, so it made sense. No matter, he could ignore it. Anything to see Rudy, again.

He blinked the tired from his eyes before he was starting to get a bit annoyed. He shouldn’t be this tired, he did still sleep. Of course, now, his body chooses to fuck him over.

“Did you do it?” Gaz’s voice sounded distant and Alejandro looked up at Gaz, a bit confused by the haziness of his vision.

“I’m sorry?” He asked, trying not to appear rude by just ignoring Gaz and his question. “Sorry, I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Did you do it?” Gaz repeated, now fully sitting up. Soap was gone. Where did Soap go?

Alejandro didn’t understand. “Do what?” He asked, rubbing at his temple. Fuck, he needed this to clear up. Did he remember to take his medication?

“Rape Rodolfo.”

“No!” Alejandro exclaimed, immediately, and stood before swaying on his feet and immediately sitting back down. Fuck…

Soap came back, finally, and Alejandro frowned at seeing he had a bag. “Careful, you don’t want to do that.”

Do what? Alejandro tried to ask, but his tongue felt too heavy, he just couldn’t form the words. He slumped to the side, having trouble keeping himself up. Then, it finally started to dawn on him. Did Soap drug him?

“Please, I didn’t- I didn’t…” Alejandro barely managed to speak, but he needed to defend himself. Tears filled his eyes and he took deep breaths. How could he explain without revealing? How could he make them understand? “I didn’t…”

“I don’t believe you…” Rodolfo murmured, his face suddenly in front of Alejandro’s. His voice was so gentle and sweet, so caring… Rodolfo always had been… “How could you do this to me?”

Alejandro let out a heavy sob, trying to reach for Rodolfo, but he couldn’t move any of his limbs. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

His consciousness started to fade and he fought it to keep apologizing, to make Rudy see how desperately sorry he was for not being there. He should have been, he should have been there.

He was so incredibly sorry.

#Alejandro Vargas #Rodolfo Parra #Alpha Alejandro Vargas #Omega Rodolfo Parra #Alejandro Vargas x Rodolfo Parra #Alpha Alejandro Vargas x Omega Rodolfo Parra #Omegaverse #Sadistic Rodolfo Parra #Dead Dove Do Not Eat #Bipolar Alejandro Vargas #alejandro cod #rodolfo cod

5 notes · View notes

murfeelee · 1 year

Text

End of Year Asks

Saw this questionnaire on my dash, and couldn’t resist!

___________________________________________

1: Song of the year? The Rumbling (Attack on Titan OST). AoT started 2022 off CORRECT, lemme tell you.

youtube

2: Album of the year? The Bleach Thousand Year Blood War OST. That Quincy Imperial March gets me going! I can’t wait for the official release.

youtube

3: Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year? Kaho Nakamura, from the Belle (2021) OST. Every song she sang was EXCELLENT, her voice is LITERALLY a bell.

youtube

4: Movie of the year? The only movies I’ve watched this year are anime, and Belle was my favorite, even though it came out in 2021.

5: TV show of the year? TV: AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. Anime: Bleach.

6: Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you? Bleach TYBW S01E01, the hype was real--Bleach is BACK, baby! \(^0^)/ This has been the year of astounding adaptations. We waited TEN YEARS for this, and it was PERFECTION.

7: Favorite actor of the year? Jacob Anderson. My mind was blown, seeing Grey Worm from Game of Thrones turn into THIIIIIIIIS sexy AF vampire, WTF?

8: Game of the year? God of War: Ragnarok. Only been waiting FOUR EFFING YEARS for the sequel.

9: Best month for you this year? June & July, when I was on Summer Break.

10: Something that made you cry this year? So much anime, too much homework.

11: Something you want to do again next year? Go to an anime convention.

12: Talk about a new friend you made this year. I met a nice girl in my Greek class who’s super sweet. We study together and spend most of the time fussing about how much we hate Greek. XD

13: How was your birthday this year? I don’t even remember. My Halloween was lovely though.

14: Favorite book you read this year? The only books I read lately are for school, and none of them are what I’d call favorites.

15: What’s a bad habit you picked up this year? Getting fat off of junk food. I’ve never been this big in my life. I’m depressed.

16: Post a picture from the beginning of the year:

I really didn’t sim much this year--the only pic I posted in January was from my New Years miniset. U_U

17: Post a picture from the end of the year:

My newest hyperfixation--I make myself tired.

18: A memorable meal this year? I ate raw fish at a sushi place for the first time. Never again. At least I wasn’t the one paying. DEEP FRY my food, please, thanks.

19: What’re you excited about for next year? My fave professor’s coming off sabbatical next year, so I’m stoked! I was dead bored this year.

20: What’s something you learned this year? A lot. How much of it will be relevant to my research though....? HA.

21: What’s something new about your place of residence (room, home, or general location) now vs the start of the year? The extra layer of dust over everything, cuz I ain’t in the mood to clean.

22: Favorite place you visited this year? My mom’s is the only place I ever travel to.

23: If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be? Get more sleep, idiot, and put the Pepsi down.

24: Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions? Not really U_U I didn’t get around to doing any Dragon Age or Cyberpunk stuff this year. And I only did a little bit of the Untamed gameplay. The most headway I made was with Bleach, but I didn’t even finish the Substitute Arc--I really wanted to get to the Soul Society stuff.

25: Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one: I REcreated plenty of sims from a bunch of new fandom INSP gameplays, including: Bleach, The Old Guard, Critical Role, and Interview with the Vampire. I think my favorite has been Caduceus from Critical Role.

I had a lot of fun making him and his CC with all the mushrooms, and the lot I built for him, full of plants and stuff. So rarely do I indulge in High Fantasy, because it’s HARD to do fanciful gameplay--especially for MEN, since everything’s female-oriented in The Sims 3 communitty--unless I make the CC myself--which I hate doing. But I really wanted Caduceus in my game, so, alas.

________________________________________________

Thanks for reading!

Happy Simming, and Happy New Year!

#questionnaire #I hate school #music

19 notes · View notes

bugeyedfreaks · 1 year

Note

I was always conflicted about the RRB cause rival twins are the coolest but, like, why did they have to fucking die at the end of their first episode???? Being kissed leading to their defeat could have been funny but why did they have to explode.

Like, I would rather fight them in an PPG action game than watch a story about them cause the battle of the sexes thing was kinda lame and uncomfortable.

Considering some of the more recent things I’ve seen come from screenshots of CMC’s Twitter, they were just supposed to be a one off thing and not villains in their own right, just one of Mojo’s many plans gone awry.

As an aside, the battle of the sexes thing just reminded me that I hope the RRB never come back and that we get animated versions of the Powerpunk Girls instead. I was trying to find a screen capture or something of the comic, and I actually found a recent article by somebody who has already articulated what I was gonna write about them. 😂 I think they’re much better realized versions of the evil twin trope, IIRC they’re just as powerful as the girls are (so they’re not as easily destroyed), and they’re a thousand times more interesting since they don’t come along with the whole tired boys vs. girls thing. I would be OVER THE MOON if they appeared on the show, if it was even possible.

#I’m surprised the reboot didn’t bring them back which makes me wonder #like… CAN they since they were featured in a DC comic?#i have no idea how that all would work or if they could still use characters from the comics in any of the shows hmmmmmm #idk there’s always weird legal stuff going on but it BAFFLES me that they didn’t even try to put them in ppg 2016 #someone go hit up CMC about it and tell him to say NO to misogyny

19 notes · View notes

iguessitsjustme · 2 years

Text

BL ~ Drama Asks

Still home sick and bored so why not. Thanks to @pose4photoml for tagging me

1. If you had to watch one drama forever what would it be?

I’m taking this to mean that I can only watch this one drama and nothing else and it might surprise people but my answer isn’t a BL. It’s Vincenzo. I love that show. But since this is a BL asks game, I’ll also choose a BL for this...I’m gonna say Old Fashion Cupcake. It’s short but it hit all of my sweet spots (no pun intended) and I can’t see myself ever growing tired of it.

2. If you could change the ending of a drama which one would it be?

Just one drama? How about two? My Gear and Your Gown and Enchante. MGAYG could have been so good, it just needed to be tightened up a bit and not throw in that random drama at the end. And Enchante was so very good until that ending.

3. Name your favorite drama and tell who your favorite character was.

My favorite drama? Probably A Tale of A Thousand Stars and my favorite character was definitely Tian.

4. Name a drama you dropped within the first few episodes ~ we all have at least one!

I literally just dropped Check Out after 2 episodes. I’m not saying I’ll never finish it but I hated Nine so much I just couldn’t and then I kept hearing that it doesn’t really get better.

5. Name a popular drama you've never watched and why?

I Told Sunset About You. I KNOW it’s good okay. I know it is. It just feels too real and I simply don’t want something that real. At least not right now. I will probably watch it eventually, just not any time soon.

6. Name a drama you regret watching.

So I binged Hong Kong’s version of Ossan’s Love and then I immediately binged Japan’s version and I would not recommend anyone do this ever. It did weird things to my brain. It’s the same exact show but one is slightly more exaggerated (HK) and one is ever so slightly more serious (Japan). It’s a fine show just...don’t do what I did.

7. Name a drama you thought you’d never watch but did and did you end up liking it?

Cherry Blossoms After Winter. I’m normally not a fan of the stepbrothers trope and was going to not watch this, but I heard that it was actually cute and decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did. It is just genuinely one of the most wholesome and soft shows I’ve ever seen.

Also Secret Crush On You. I was very concerned about the stalker angle after reading the MDL summary but it started airing when I didn’t have a lot else to watch so I gave it a try and it ended up becoming one of my favorite shows ever.

8. Name a pairing you want to see?

MacauChay. Also HinTum from Lovely Writer. I was happy to get bi representation with Tiffy but then I ended up hating her because she just decided that Tum was gay for reasons I can’t even fathom.

9. Name a pairing you didn’t think had chemistry?

YuThanu. What even were they? They seemed like they were both from different alien species trying to convince the other one they were human and definitely wanted this relationship, yes, they definitely wanted it. I have more chemistry with the 30 pairs of socks I found on the ground by the dumpster than these two had with each other.

10. Name a pairing you have seen in another drama that you like?

I’m guessing this means a pairing that’s in multiple shows that I like? I don’t actually have an answer for this. If it’s about the actors, then I’m not really a big fan of pairing actors together and basically making them a set. If it’s about characters, then I’d honestly rather only see the pairing in one show because otherwise that means there’s a second season and I do not trust second seasons.

I’m not going to tag anyone today, but if you want to do this, please go ahead. Just tag me in it so I can see your answers.

#bl tag game #i don't even know what shows i answered so i'm not gonna tag them because i cannot even bring myself to reread what i wrote

11 notes · View notes

lightholme · 1 year

Text

I have experienced mental illness since the age of 13, and have been in the psychiatric system for a decade. In year 8, I spent so much time absent from school that a social worker was called. At 16, I dropped out of A-levels with incapacitating depression and barely left the house for nine months – the empty days stretching out while friends clubbed and kissed. I was put on antidepressants and at 18 decided to move to Russia, alone, in a manic whirlwind, and had the time of my life. At 20, I moved to Oxford and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was told I would have it for life. I moved again at 23, and there is now no hospital in north London I have not been treated in.

In the last few years I have observed a transformation in the way we talk about mental health, watched as depression and anxiety went from unspoken things to ubiquitous hashtags. It seems as though every week is now some kind of Mental Health Awareness Week, in which we should wear a specific colour (although this year no one could agree on which: half wore green, half yellow).

In the last few years I have lost count of the times mental illness has been compared to a broken leg. Mental illness is nothing like a broken leg.

In fairness, I have never broken my leg. Maybe having a broken leg does cause you to lash out at friends, undergo a sudden, terrifying shift in politics and personality, or lead to time slipping away like a Dali clock. Maybe a broken leg makes you doubt what you see in the mirror, or makes you high enough to mistake car bonnets for stepping stones (difficult, with a broken leg) and a thousand other things.

Oh, I know how it’s meant. The lack of stigma should be the same as telling people why your limb is in a cast. But you can’t just put someone with a broken leg and an insane person side by side and expect people not to be able to tell the difference, like the Winklevoss twins or, can we be truly honest, Joanna Newsom songs.

In recent years the discussion around mental health has hit the mainstream. I call it the Conversation. The Conversation is dominated by positivity and the memeification of a battle won. It isn’t a bad thing that we are all talking more about mental health; it would be silly to argue otherwise. But this does not mean it is not infuriating to come home from a secure hospital, suicidal, to a bunch of celebrity awareness-raising selfies and thousands of people saying that all you need to do is ask for help – when you’ve been asking for help and not getting it. There is a poster in my local pharmacy that exclaims, “Mental health can be complex – getting help doesn’t have to be!” Each time I see it, I want to scream.

The Conversation tends to focus on depression and anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. It is less comfortable with the mental illnesses deemed more unpalatable – people who act erratically, hallucinate, have violent episodes or interpersonal instability. I don’t want to pretend that this stigma is merely a hurdle to be overcome. Stigma exists from a place of real fear, and a lack of understanding of the behavioural changes that can accompany mental illness. Episodes of illness can be frightening, frustrating, tiring and annoying for both the unwell individual and those around them.

The key isn’t to deny this, but to educate. Instagram slogans do not make it clear what depersonalisation is, for instance, and that it won’t be solved by a picture of someone walking on a beach. It’s good that Lynx deodorant teamed up with the male mental health Campaign Against Living Miserably, but is “Find Your Magic” not the most patronising slogan of all time? I will admit that I am not well. That writing this, right now, I am not well. This will colour the writing. But it is part of why I want to write, because another part of the problem is that we write about it when we are out the other side, better. And I understand: it’s ugly up close; you can see right into the burst vessels of the thing. (Also, on a practical level, it is difficult to write when one is unwell.) But then what we end up with has the substance of secondary sources. When we do see it in its rawness – Sinéad O’Connor releasing a Facebook video in utter despair – who among us does not wince?Amy Winehouse, voice of a goddamn goddess. We’ll allow. Kathy, 54, works at Morrisons. Not so muchThe primary danger used to be glamorising. It was cool to be a bit mad. It meant you were a genius or a creative. It wasn’t just that certain mental illnesses were acceptable, but certain mental illnesses were acceptable in certain types of people: if you had a special skill or talent or architect-set cheekbones. All of this remains true. Sure, Robert Lowell, great poet. Madness excused. Amy Winehouse, voice of a goddamn goddess. We’ll allow. Kathy, 54, works at Morrisons. Not so much. White woman who has recourse to a national newspaper (called Hannah). Perhaps. Black man who comes from a cultural background where mental illness isn’t recognised and whose symptoms might be put down to the racist trope of aggression in people of colour. Nah, mate. | But now there is also a new danger. It is “normalising”. This is meant to be a positive – as in, “What is normal, anyway?!” Which is a fair question, but I don’t think it’s the woman who crept into my inpatient room, stole the newspapers I had, found me in the lounge and ripped them up slowly in front of my eyes. I don’t think it’s me, sitting in a tiny, airless hospital room, carving my name into the wall with a ballpoint pen, with three guards for company, one of whom later tries to add me on Facebook.We should normalise the importance of good mental health and wellbeing, of course. Normalise how important it is to look after oneself – eat well, socialise, exercise – and how beneficial it can and should be to talk and ask for help. But don’t conflate poor mental health with mental illness, even if one can lead to the other. One can have a mental illness and good mental health, and vice versa. Enough awareness has been raised. We – the public, health professionals, politicians – need to make our actions count. Don’t pathologise normal processes such as grief, or the profound sadness of a relationship breakdown, or the stress of moving house. Conversely, don’t tell me it is normal when I go from being the type of person who will offer children piggyback rides up the steepness of north London to glaring at a crying baby on a bus. Or that it is normal to blow thousands of pounds on sporadically moving house without terminating a current lease, or to send friends bizarre, pugilistic texts in the night. The truth is: enough awareness has been raised. We – the public, the health professionals, the politicians – need to make our words and actions count for more. First, the Conversation needs to be more inclusive when it comes to rarer conditions, and to people whose voices are less loud. Second, we need to recognise that posting “stars can’t shine without darkness” on social media might piss someone off in the midst of desperation and that, actually, anxiety can be a normal reaction and is different from general anxiety disorder, a serious condition. That feeling down is not the same as depression. When I am well, I am happy and popular. It is tough to type these words when I feel none of it. And sometimes when I am most well I am… boring. Boring is how I want to be all of the time. This is what I have been working towards, for 12 years now.When friends decades older tell me off for saying that I am old, at 28, what I mean is: I haven’t achieved all the things I could have done without this illness. I should have written a book by now. I should have done so many things! All the time, I feel I am playing catch-up. Always. I worry, and most of the literature tells me, that I will have this problem for life. That it will go on, after the hashtags and the documentaries and the book deals and Princes Harry and William – while the NHS circles closer to the drain. Maybe it’s cute now, in my 20s. But it won’t be cute later, when I am older and wearing tracksuits from 20 years ago and not in an ironic hipster way but because I no longer wash or engage with the world, and it’s like: my God, did you not get yourself together already? When I left appointments and saw the long-term patients, walking around in hospital-issue pyjamas, dead-eyed (the kind of image of the mentally ill that has become anathema to refer to as part of the conversation, but which in some cases is accurate), four emotions rushed in: empathy, sympathy, recognition, terror. It’s one of those things you can’t really talk about with authenticity unless you’ve seen it, not really: the aurora borealis, Prince playing live and the inpatient wards. Maybe my prognosis will look up, maybe I’ll leave it all behind. I’ve noticed a recent thing is for people to declare themselves “proud” of their mental illness. I guess I don’t understand this. It does not define me. It’s not something that, when stable, I feel ashamed of, or that I hide. But I am not proud of it. I’d rather I didn’t have it – so I wasn’t exhausted, so I wasn’t bitter about it – despite the fact that I know some people, in all parts of the world, are infinitely worse off. I want it gone, so that I am not dealing with it all the time, or worrying about others having to deal with it all the time. So I don’t have to read another article, or poster, about how I just need to ask for help. So that when a campaigner on Twitter says, “To anyone feeling ashamed of being depressed: there is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s illness. Like asthma or measles”, I don’t have to grit my teeth and say, actually, I am not OK, and mental illness couldn’t be less like measles. So that when someone else moans about being bored with everyone talking about mental health, and a different campaigner replies, “People with mental illness aren’t bored with it!” I don’t have to say, no, I am: I am bored with this Conversation. Because more than talking about it, I want to get better. I want to live.

4 notes · View notes

orangejuicetoast42 · 2 years

Text

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR OWL HOUSE S3E1, THANKS TO THEM

I really just want to say what’s on mind right now and hope it isn’t too incoherent.

So, like most I just got finished watching the first special and dear god did I love it! Pretty much everything about it was amazing and didn’t feel rushed or contrived at all. A great start for what is unfortunately the end. Well almost great. Like any usual fan, I turned to social media after my viewing to see what others thought and I noticed that a few were pointing out something troubling about the special, the way Belos was reintroduced to the kids. Here’s where the spoilers start.

To sum things up, Belos makes his big reappearance towards the end of the episode in the form of possessing Hunter and eventually crushing Flapjack out of spite. Not only does this lead to a really heartbreaking scene but also brings up some not-so-great implications that others have pointed out. For a good chunk of this episode, we get to see Hunter slowly heal from his trauma from the Emperor’s coven, from Belos, and starting to be okay with who he is as a person. But it’s safe to say that healing process gets upended when the cause of that trauma takes control of him again, though now in a more literal sense, and kills the first friend he ever had.

That’s painful, it’s harmful, it takes a character who has already been through a lot and seemed to finally be given the chance to move on from it at his own pace but then gets that taken away from him too because we all know that Hunter may never look at himself the same way again. He might now never get to the point where he can’t trust himself and in turn pull away from those he did trust due to the fear of hurting them too. Other fans have pointed out the real-life implications this final scene has which isn’t great either.

But notice how I’ve been bringing up other fans so far. It’s because while I do hope I’m at least somewhat aware and observant of this world we call home, I know for fact that I am not qualified to speak in depth on the facets of abusive relationships and the pitfalls of bring the abuser back into the abused life. I’m just a person who likes to geek over writing and storytelling and uses it to take a break from my real life.

And it’s because of that interest with writing that I don’t necessarily fault Dana and the crew for those implications. Writing is hard, even more complicated when the story you’re tell resonates with thousands of people. You’re bound to make mistakes and having all those eyes on you is only going to highlight those mistakes. It’s a tough position to be in especially since I’m pretty sure it wasn’t done on purpose or with malicious intent.

All we as viewers can do now is say “hey doing that makes it like this” and hope this is taken into account for any future projects. Though I’m not saying this to invalidate the feelings of anyone who is upset by what Hunter had to go through again or those who this situation hits too close to home with. You have the right to take issue with this and speak out so others know why this isn’t alright.

Okay so what am I saying? Well, this is where that interest in storytelling comes back into play. Like I say, I loved the episode but it’s those last 10-15 minutes that the issue makes itself known, so if that’s the case why not just tweak them, given them the old reworking. I guess what I’m saying is that I have a few ideas, two in particular, for the climax of the episode that don’t lead to rehashing abusive relationships while still keeping the same plot beats (mostly....partially).

The first one doesn’t hold much water now but it could still be an interesting idea if given more time to developed and if I wasn’t so tired. Basically, Belos doesn’t possess Hunter but instead continues to leach onto dead animals like he is seen to do throughout the episode until he is finally able to solidify into his monstrous form. Like maybe while Luz is at the vet’s office, she overhears a conversation about the increase of dead animals and reports of how they looked odd. Then when she gets back and she and Hunter try to find Belos, that rat jumps out like in cannon but now they notice something off Hunter notices something off and can’t brush it off.

This all culminates into a full gang chase/fight throughout the forest and graveyard as Belos shifts between different undead creatures as he tries to reach the Titan’s Blood first. Like I said, this idea could use some work but I know it would end with Hunter taking a stand in front of the others saying how he’s tried of the fear Belos causes in him and how he just wants to be himself before blasting the old dude out of the whatever animal he’s in (I’m thinking bear) but is a little to slow to stop him from retreating to the portal.

Now for the second idea, which I would like to say now that I’m unsure if this is just as problematic, but I couldn’t help but think since well...it just made sense. So again, Belos does not possess Hunter, but his endgame isn’t animals either. No instead he has his set on something, no someone more likely to give him the strength he needs. And that someone is Luz.

Throughout this episode we see Luz on this downward spiral of depression and guilt due to feeling like all she does is ruin the lives of those she loves and doesn’t deserve anything but their anger. And the parallels between her and Belos have been hammered home significantly so far. So, who’s to say that it’s completely out the realm of possibility that Luz is the one Belos latches onto in the cabin and Luz slowly falls further into his control due to her own guilt and her mind painting her as being just as bad as Belos.

Belos is eventually expelled from Luz through the combined efforts of Luz’s friends/family reminding her of all the good she has done while fight off Belos’ attempts to destroy them. The final blow is again dealt by Hunter but this time it’s more from the angle of him promising that he will never let Belos take away anything from him again before throwing the vile in the water and diving in after possessed Luz to help her out. Again, a lot more can be done with this but I’m tired and might use this as a fic so yeah.

Also notice how in both of these ideas, Flapjack doesn’t die. I know that it is very much plot relevant and will probably lead to Hunter now being able to use spell circles or at least teleport on his own (theory for another day) but did they really have to do it to him. Like if it is really that necessary save Flapjack’s death for the last special or the final battle. Just anytime where Hunter is not getting repeatedly punch in the gut with trauma.

Alright that’s all I got, sorry if this was a waste of time, please don’t fault the creators too much, and get some sleep. We could all use it.

#toh s3 #the owl house #owl house s3 spoilers #long post #just wanted to get it out #opinions on the ending #the owl house hunter #luz noceda #belos #ending ideas #thanks to them

5 notes · View notes

testerzero · 1 year

Text

Article

In the last few years I have lost count of the times mental illness has been compared to a broken leg. Mental illness is nothing like a broken leg.

0 notes