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chantiepie · 3 days

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MOTEL ROOM🩸/ MYG

Intro.

VampireYoongi X Reader

When I met you in that hotel room I could tell that you were so bad news

Sinopse: Your client for tonight awaits you in the room of a motel.

Genre: Horror/Darkromance.

Warnings: Unprotected sex, masturbation,blood, intimate conversations.

ko-fi ☕

18+

Words: 5k.

The elevator music was boring and repetitive as the floors passed by and the screen above your head indicated the current floor. It was your first time at that hotel, and despite its expensive and rustic appearance, it also felt strange, sober... A red light seemed to hover everywhere, and people looked at you with curiosity.

The conversation with the receptionist had been uncomfortable. The cold, almost mocking look was not the kind of friendly reception you were used to in commercial places. It was as if you were the joke, something only you didn't know about.

The cloudy weather had persisted for days, and it was so strange that you couldn't even remember the last time you felt the sun on your small balcony. What surprised you was the sound of your phone notifying you of your 'manager' informing you of the time and place where you should be.

Just these details, no photos of the client were necessary. He would be there, paying and evaluating who he wanted. The reality was clear: this would be your first and last time being paid for sex. When you entered this life of being an escort, it was literally to accompany, for dinners and events. However, as this got into your veins, the inevitable greed led to things like striptease. When they touched you, it made you want to vomit, it was exhausting. Some guys always wanted to force something or put their hands in intimate places. This didn't mean you were a bad person, you just wanted the most money possible to get away from all the poverty and need that surrounded you during your childhood and adolescence. Being alone in the world brought more traumas than it seemed.

About a year ago, the decision was made: you would start saving money, get out of this, and open your own business. For that, you agreed to this last encounter. When you were informed a week ago that they were closing a deal related to a possible sexual encounter, your refusal remained firm until you saw the amount of 2 thousand dollars drop into your account just for considering the matter.

You felt bad for selling yourself for so 'little'. It was inevitable, the feeling of deviating from your ethical and life values. Realizing that corruption was not as distant as you believed. Upon accepting, you were only informed that at some point you would receive the information, so you needed to stay alert. Unsurprisingly, the day arrived and not knowing with whom you would meet for the first time left you with an empty stomach, a slight feeling of discomfort.

Your thoughts were interrupted by the elevator's ding, indicating your arrival on the seventh floor. The doors opened, and unsurprisingly, the red of the corridor walls screamed once again.

Before leaving the elevator, you checked yourself in the large mirror at the back, as there was no other in the hotel. Your long black dress flowed lightly with the slit running up to mid-thigh. The matching black heels with silver details added a discreet touch in contrast to your long, full hair with gentle waves that went past your waist. The light makeup highlighted your lashes and lips, which only had a gloss with a slight pinkish tint. You looked perfect for the nearly haunted place.

Your gaze lifted, capturing the camera, and lingered for a few seconds before you moved through the vast corridor. The hotel was not surrounded by cameras, which was unusual considering it seemed like an expensive place where its patrons should have substantial financial clout. Ignoring that, you checked again the real-time location you had sent to one of your colleagues. It was a habit to keep each other informed to avoid any mishap and maintain a sense of security.

The cold wind was coming from the balcony, sweeping through the entire room, sending a chill due to the thin fabric of your dress. There was no sign of anyone in the room, where the only illumination came from the moonlight and a lamp on a nightstand beside the bed. The nervousness returned, and the urge to turn back and go home prevailed.

You might not even consummate the act, you had heard from some prostitutes that a minority of them simply liked the company of a young woman to boost their ego, compliment them, complain about work with them... Who are you kidding? In a situation like this, with 10 thousand dollars at stake, it was almost impossible.

The loud noise coming from the balcony startled you, as if something had suddenly been thrown against the glass. Impulsively, your body stepped back, your hands flying to your chest to check the accelerated rhythm of your heart, which only increased when your back collided with a body, rather, someone's chest. Automatically, you froze, your breath trapped in your lungs, feeling like you were going to collapse, your brain trying to escape that condition.

You felt the unknown person slowly bend their head, the strands of hair starting to tickle the base of your neck, tracing a line up to your ear along with the cold sensation of the tip of their nose.

"You really smell very good." The voice was hoarse and low, as if it had been trapped in the throat for a long time, ready to come out. Despite the panic at that moment, you couldn't help but notice how that sound was at least attractive. The smell of whiskey quickly invaded your senses, mingling with something that seemed like mint, fresh.

He pulled away brutally, without further explanation, leaving you still and unresponsive. He walked past you without explanation and sprawled on the armchair on the left side that led to the balcony. You finally noticed the half-empty bottle on the coffee table, along with a used glass.

Your gaze met the owner of your near heart attack again, but not for long, as it seemed like he could see right through you during the two-second exchange of looks. It was too intimidating, and his physique only added to it. He was undeniably handsome. No, not handsome—gorgeous. In the short time you had, you noticed his moon-pale skin, his almost shoulder-length black hair perfectly framing his face.

Your eyes landed on his hand, noticing the thick silver rings and the beginning of a tattoo, thick black lines that remained hidden by his long-sleeved shirt. His entirely black, casual attire didn't make him look simple; on him, it appeared elegant. In two minutes, you already understood that this wasn't someone you would see in everyday life—he truly seemed like a person from another reality.

"Please, sit." He said nonchalantly.

He realized he was being analyzed, even if briefly, and seemed unbothered. He was used to people staring at him.

Immediately, you adopted the demeanor you were accustomed to when accompanying old men to their events. You didn't fake a personality or anything; after all, there was no room to show your true self, but you acted more open and friendly, trying, even minimally, to be as close as possible to how you were with people in your everyday life. It was hard to work pretending to be someone else. You admired the girls who could easily adapt to their clients. Your luck was that you were always good at being receptive.

You walked to the edge of the bed, as close to him as possible, and settled there on the soft mattress covered with black sheets that seemed of great quality. It was the closest spot to where the man was. So this was Mr. Min. What did you know about him? According to the brief conversation, you only got the information that it was the first time he had contacted any of the services, with no history even of hiring someone just for company.

He remained quiet and unashamedly stared at you. It was his turn to analyze. Unlike you, he had that right. Everything happened so quickly that you almost missed his gaze sweeping over you from head to toe.

"I must say you look even more beautiful in person... Honey Bunny." The nickname made you shudder; it wasn't a normal reaction from your body to feel attracted. In fact, some guys repulsed you. From his mouth, it sounded sweet and domestic.

Why was a guy like him seeking such a service? He could easily have any woman at his feet.

That thought lingered in your mind as you thanked him with a smile. "You look very handsome too."

Finally, with the courage to look at him, you saw his mouth curl into a slight side-smile. He already knew this, but hearing it from the girl who mesmerized him amidst the catalog of so many others satisfied him. "Do you like the place?"

"Well... It's very elegant. I feel a bit like I'm in a horror movie like 'The Shining'." A bit surprised that he was actually starting a conversation and how he changed his behavior in less than a minute. "Your entrance didn't help with the less eerie atmosphere."

Min exhaled through his nose, almost like a chuckle. "I must admit you're not wrong. It's an old place with over 200 years of history. Very exclusive, in fact. Many don't even know exactly what it is, since it has a fixed clientele." Now you understood why you had never heard of it. "Interesting reference. Are such movies your favorites?"

He leaned towards the center table to grab another glass of whiskey. When you noticed, you made a move to get up to do it for him, but stopped when he raised his hand politely for you to halt.

"My favorite genre is definitely slasher. It doesn't truly scare me. I find it a bit amusing, actually—teenagers in an isolated place being chased by a killer with an iconic mask, usually out for senseless revenge. That same old stereotype."

Min settled back in, taking a sip of his drink, and extended the glass a little towards you. You accepted. The man, almost gallantly, took a clean glass and poured the liquid carefully, then handed it to you. Your fingers touched at that moment. Again, the cold skin sent shivers down your spine, making you wonder if it might be better to close the window or turn off the air conditioning, even if it was a hot night. But you didn't want to be intrusive now.

You savored the drink carefully, not wanting to be startled by the taste, as just the smell emanating from the glass made the alcohol level apparent.

"Good taste, but I must admit I'm a little disappointed." He tilted his head and placed his hand on his chin, making you focus again and notice the large veins and the contrast between his hands and the almost delicate face. "I thought it would be more related to monsters, werewolves, zombies, vampires."

"I guess things more related to reality captivate me more than fantasy." Leaning back and resting your back on the mattress, you took a large sip of the drink, keeping your eyes on him. You felt the slight warmth rising to your cheeks, given his intense gaze, eyes darker than his hair.

"The world is too mysterious to be so sure, Bunny." The suggestion didn't have a joking tone, but entering that topic was a tension relief. You knew you had misjudged him due to the scary reception, but since that moment, he seemed, in his own way, to want to make you feel comfortable. "Anyway, what made you change your mind?"

Of course, he knew he had been rejected, but it wasn't something you wanted to delve into deeply, explaining that it would be your last night in this job or even why you started in it. However, precisely because he was your last client and the first you would have physical contact with, you ended up revealing just that information.

He wasn't surprised.

Min was a more reserved person, which showed in his clothes, gestures, and even the type of meeting.

"I don't know if I feel sad or honored to be closing this chapter." He put his hand on his face theatrically, pretending to think seriously about the matter. "I'll choose the latter; it's an honor to have you here with me."

Unable to suppress a small laugh, you covered your mouth to muffle the sound.

"Come on, I feel like you want to ask me something. It's okay. I want to ask you things too."

Your lips parted hesitantly to continue speaking. He had caught you off guard. Your reaction was quicker than planned. Were you really that desperate? Even you were surprised by that.

Still hesitant, you decided to take advantage. Most likely, in a short time, he would be seeing you naked, so there was no reason to worry about a bit of intimacy now. "I don't want to be rude, but why am I here, Mr. Min?" You took a deep breath to continue the line of dialogue. "I mean, you're an attractive man."

"It's something I'm questioning myself too. I don't like seeing something I want and can't have." What surprised you was the simplicity. Min really didn't seem like a guy used to this. "I'm a bit selfish with my desires." His eyes gleamed, and that depth returned, remaining fixed on yours as he said this casually, showing no remorse in saying something like that.

You felt the sticky liquid in your panties, pressing your thighs together and adjusting uncomfortably on the bed. The domination he displayed oozed from his pores. It wasn't about trying to be attractive; it was about being attractive. From the beginning, the man wasn't faking a personality to play a game; he was the game. He liked to play cat and mouse, or in this case, Bunny and hunter. Tease and soothe. While he was rational, his actions carried an impulsive streak. Min was truly obsessed with mind games, corrupting people satisfied him more than a full meal. Seeing you with a lost look, even if for a few moments, left him ecstatic.

He wasn't paying for sex; he paid to have you and to be able to conquer you. We're not talking about romance, far from it... It's about power. Even though his interest in you was instant, Min refused to have a woman beneath him who didn't want to be there willingly.

You felt the air grow denser around you, and the ensuing silence seemed almost palpable. Min was an enigmatic man, and his raw honesty left you unsettled, yet strangely drawn. Unsure of how to respond, you chose to maintain eye contact, challenging him to continue.

"Sometimes," he continued, "people cling to conventions, social rules, expectations... I prefer to follow my own instincts." Min took another sip of his drink, his posture remaining relaxed, but his eyes never leaving yours, as if he were analyzing you deeply.

You pondered his words, feeling a mix of curiosity and apprehension. "And what are those instincts?" you asked, trying to sound casual, but your voice came out softer than you expected.

Min smiled slightly, a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Instincts to possess, to control, to deeply understand. It's more about the journey than the final destination. Each interaction, each moment, gives me a new perspective, a new emotion."

He leaned a little closer, sending shivers down your spine once again. "And you, Bunny? What brings you here, aside from it being your last night? What is your deepest instinct?"

You took a deep breath, feeling the intensity of the moment. Whether it was the whiskey or his proximity, your barriers were crumbling. "I think I seek freedom," you admitted, almost in a whisper.

Min nodded slowly, as if understanding perfectly. "Freedom is an interesting concept," he said, more to himself than to you. "Sometimes, we think we have it, but in reality, we're trapped by our own limitations."

He stood up, slowly pacing around the room, his gaze now distant and contemplative. "I'll be honest with you, Bunny. It's not just about control or power for me. It's about connection, even if brief, that can change everything."

You settled on the bed, feeling more exposed than ever, but also strangely excited. "And what do you intend to do with this connection?" you asked, your voice filled with anticipation.

Min stopped pacing, turning to look directly at you as he extended his hand to help you up. As he did so, he carefully took the glass from your hand and placed it on the same table he had left his own earlier. "That depends on you," he replied, his voice low and intense. "The night is ours, and what we make of it depends on how you want this story to unfold."

The atmosphere in the room was charged with tension, and you knew you were on the brink of something unusual, something that could change your perspective on many things. As scary as it was, it was also incredibly exciting.

"Bunny... Do you call all your girls like that? Or give nicknames to everyone?" It came out more innocent than planned, almost coquettish.

"Only the special ones get nicknames..." He said almost choked out while one hand detached to your face and the other slid from the top of your waist down to your hips delicately, remaining in that position. You felt the gentle pressure of his large hands slowly squeezing you. "No worries, Bunny, I haven't had anyone special in a long time," he said with a playful tone, as if putting on a little show for the two of you.

Even in a vulnerable situation, you couldn't help but release a sarcastic giggle, understanding his game. It didn't make you less apprehensive about the current situation unfolding.

Contrary to your thoughts, he didn't proceed to seek more physical contact. Instead, he began to sway you gently from side to side, as if in a dance together. It was then that you became more aware of the world around you and noticed a low melody playing in the room, most likely since the moment you entered and went unnoticed.

The hand that was on your face guided one of your arms to his shoulders, to serve as an example of what you should do with the other, and so it was done. The hands on your hips carefully, without pressure, guiding you in a comfortable dance.

He leaned down slowly, brushing away a few strands of hair that fell into your eyes and tucking them behind your ear. He then returned to the initial position, resting his head on his chest. Your heart was racing from all the contact with such an attractive man. You tried not to let yourself be carried away by that feeling and remember that you were there for a role, the prostitute.

You would be just one of his girls tonight, but it didn't matter. For those hours, you would let yourself be carried away, feel coveted by someone you also wanted. It would only be that moon that you would have each other, and after that, everything would be over. You just needed to fulfill this.

Several thoughts roamed your mind with him so close. What was stored in the back of your head was how you hadn't realized how broad his shoulders were even with a thin body and delicate appearance. He seemed to have strength.

But what was really a bit disturbing was that you couldn't hear his heartbeat, even though you were literally leaning against his chest. It could be the interference of the music or just that he could relax in that strange situation. Your head was slightly bowed down, so automatically your gaze dropped again to his hand, more precisely the long and thick fingers that carried the rings that caught your attention at first sight. On all of them, there were small signs, it was hard to understand what they were since it was nothing like you had ever seen. Clearly, they were expensive and heavy, but they were not from any known brand, they were probably made especially for him, since they fit perfectly.

The feet, which you were only wearing socks, soon lost their attention to what was under them, the rug. The brightness was too low to really be able to focus on the details. They seemed like small drawings scattered as far as you could see without moving too much, and he noticed.

Hypnotized by the sensation and the symbols, his inclination of the head towards your right ear went unnoticed. "Just focus on us," he whispered huskily, planting small wet kisses near your sensitive spot, sending an electric current coursing through your body. Your lips parted, releasing a faint trace of voice, a soft moan.

You leaned back slightly, bringing your face close to his, locking eyes, closer than ever. Something had changed; the glint in Min's eyes had a slight reddish tint of promiscuity. Nothing else was in the room, better, there was no room, no motel, no last night, and no payment, just the two of you.

You had never been hypnotized in your life, but you were sure it was the same sensation being near him.

Min's gaze gradually descended to observe your lips, your breath low and panting, nervous. It was a cardinal rule that many men followed: when with a prostitute, kisses were forbidden. But neither you nor he seemed to care as the approach happened.

Impulsively, he felt your excitement as your head leaned back slightly, conflict evident in your expressions. Min moved one of the hands that were positioned at your side to the back of your head, firmly. He wanted it, he physically and psychologically desired to roam your mind.

A cold breeze hit your face, and the lips met. Soon he requested entry with his tongue, nibbling on your lip gently, eliciting a whiny complaint from you, and consequently, still with his tongue entwined with yours, he let out another chuckle.

Still in the kiss, the pale-skinned man gently pulled down the strap of your dress, which, being light, slid down your body, leaving you only in white lingerie. You were like an angel in the nest of snakes in his view, the silky skin, the ample breasts, the figure he wanted when he saw you on his friend's phone, who was looking for a girl to play with.

His thumb invaded your mouth and began to play with your tongue, letting it moisten. "Suck, Bunny," he said, as the grip on your waist returned, his eyes shining toward you. He noticed the confusion and struggle you were facing between continuing or running away. Min wouldn't allow that; your body craved him, to be satisfied.

His thumb left your mouth, and you gasped for lack of it. Soon it was replaced by a real and loud moan when he released the bra with just one hand and grabbed one of your breasts. "They're perfect," he began to play with your nipple, squeezing a little too hard. You were very sensitive in that area, and he liked that.

"Min..." you placed your hand on his chest and felt the warm skin under the palm of your hand. He looked at you, "Yoongi is my name. I need you to know what you'll be screaming."

Your legs trembled at the mention of the name. The high heels that remained didn't facilitate stability, and quickly you got rid of them, becoming aware of the height difference. Yoongi was even taller than he seemed.

He guided you to the bed, getting on top of you, without kissing you again, he was teasing. Friction between the bodies began to occur, and a squeaky moan escaped your throat. Your mind didn't focus on anything else; before you could notice, you felt a wet trail through the fabric of your lace panties. "I repeat what I said, Bunny. You smell very good." Impulsively, your legs threatened to close around his head, quickly interrupted by his hands on your knee.

He transferred a slap to the accessible part of your ass. "Never do that again." It wasn't a request, it was an order, as he pulled your hips up, getting rid of the only piece that kept you covered.

"Yoongi, you don't have to do this. It's not your obligation." Your gaze remained on the ceiling, more precisely on the chandelier, too embarrassed to look down.

He didn't bother to respond, just began to lick and suck your little button, covering your entire pussy. Every inch of your body was struggling to maintain a minimum of decency and not be scandalous.

You were clutching the sheets and looked down. He was staring back at you with only his tongue playing with your pussy. It didn't take long, and your trembling thighs began to close around Yoongi's head. Incoherent murmurs escaped your mouth. Your moans stimulated him. "Don't stop." And a small scream signaled the end. You clenched your jaw when you finally came.

Yoongi kept his eyes on yours as he pulled down his pants and removed his shirt. Wow, he had a thin body, but, as you imagined, he definitely worked out. Everything seemed better because of the tattoos; there were many, covering from his hands to his chest. It wasn't certain yet, but they seemed to extend to his back. A sudden movement awakened you; Min was holding the condom between his teeth, tearing it with fury.

You tried to stop him, claiming it was your turn to satisfy him, since besides really wanting to, that's what you were there for, but you weren't heard.

"We have eternity for that," he said, unrolling the condom over his pink head and aligning his hips with yours.

"Necessarily for the rest of the night," you joked with a chuckle, trying not to think about how his member would fit, even though you were already prepared. It really was above average.

Yoongi smiled, brushing his lips against yours. Gripping your left thigh, he pulled it, making your knee touch your chest. It seemed he had noticed that he needed as much openness as possible before inserting himself into you. He left your other leg stretched out on the mattress. He sat on his legs while grabbing his cock with his free hand, lightly masturbating with the sight. Until he started pressing it through your fold, touching your still sensitive clit, which made your body recoil closer to the headboard, being prevented by his strength.

"Easy, you're dripping on me, Y/N. You'll only feel pain if I want you to," he said, lowering himself to push the tip past your entrance. Another slap on your butt and you choked in shock again. His eyes were fixed on the circumference sliding through your hole, feeling your walls, slowly, squeezing him.

"Damn, you're needier than I thought." He slapped again, but harder and rougher, holding your raised leg to ensure you didn't fall. All words escaped you; he was deep inside you, and your only reaction was your groans, which were a cute symphony to Yoongi.

"Oh my God, Yoo-nngi!"

As his hips began to pound into you, he remained fixed on the movement of his penis against your body. His hips pounding into you as he fucked you against the mattress.

Tears began to flow from your eyes as you struggled to remain minimally rational. But at that point, it seemed he was there to serve you and not the other way around.

His name was all that came out of your mouth, repeatedly, in a whiny manner.

Yoongi abruptly stopped his thrusts, remaining inside you. He leaned near your mouth. "Ass up," he instructed as he rolled his hips one last time.

As soon as you did as instructed, Yoongi parted your buttocks with his soft hands, squeezing them with as much force and giving a slap, which would turn purple later. He grabbed your hips and pulled your butt up, smacking your other cheek, making you complain loudly. "Damn..." Yoongi groaned.

With his hands squeezing your butt, you suddenly felt him entering again. If your body weren't fully supported on the mattress, it would have been a nasty fall. Your face was sinking into the pillow, not allowing you to see anything around, just the sensations.

Your heart was racing in your chest. "So fucking good..." Yoongi grunted, fucking you in a rough and desperate rhythm.

There was no escaping the pain you were feeling all over your body, the sound of the headboard banging against the wall was an indication of his strength. He leaned over your back, and his lips found the curve of your neck after he grabbed your hair between his fingers and lifted your head to have access. Your eyes rolled back; he was too close, and so were you.

"You like this, don't you?" he murmured, not interrupting the movements. "Tell me, Bunny, how much do you like being fucked like this?"

You could barely form words, but you mumbled something between moans, "So much, Yoongi, I like it so much..."

A few more thrusts, and the warm and familiar sensation began to grow in the pit of your stomach.

"I'm... I..." The words got lost in your throat.

Yoongi kept his mouth on your neck, and during the release, you felt a bite on the spot, like needles. It was sore, but the mixture of everything, the deplorable situation you found yourself in, left you inert.

"Mmmm..." You heard Min grunt like an animal in your ear as he let go.

Yoongi didn't slow down as they both climaxed. Your whole body was trembling with pleasure and pain, mixed in an overwhelming way. He continued to move inside you, prolonging your orgasm until you could no longer distinguish where the pain ended and the pleasure began.

Finally, when Yoongi slowed down and pulled out of you, both of you were covered in sweat and panting. He lay down beside you, pulling you close.

A overpowering drowsiness accompanied you afterwards, and you couldn't even get up to clean yourself, just turned over on your back. The last thing you remember before falling asleep are Yoongi's red eyes comforting you as he said, "You can rest, Bunny. You did a great job."

Hello, long time no see… I've been a bit absent because I've been job hunting (unsuccessfully) and busy with college stuff… Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy my next story and feel free to comment on what I can improve or praise. Don't forget that I'm always open to answering questions. xoxo.

#bts au #yoongi #yoongi fanfic #yoongi x reader #min yoongi #suga #bts suga #fanfic #bts #bts junkook #jung hoseok #jimin #jin #rm #taehyung #jeon junkook #yoongi smut

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dippedinmelancholy · 2 days

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It's 100% my own fantasy and will never happen because Maas cannot pull herself off of Rhysand's mediocre dick, but I wish more than anything just ONCE Feyre had defended Nesta to the IC. She spent much of her time with the IC demonizing her sisters, so much so that Cassian feels justified in attacking Nesta for her failures as a LITERAL CHILD the first time he meets her. From the very first time the IC sees Nesta, they already hate her. They hate her for Feyre's pain, and nothing she can do can change their minds. I wish, just once, Feyre would stand and tell them all that while Rhysand was playing his stupid games to protect Velaris, damning 2/3rds of his court, fucking Amarantha and going out of his way to make Tamlin miserable and jealous, despite Tamlin being the ONLY ONE of the High Lords to not be trapped by her, that it was the thought of NESTA that kept Feyre fighting. That it was the knowledge that Nesta would never cower before any villain, no queen, no king, no crown. That she would do everything in her power to protect the people that she loves. The it was her eldest sister, her cold, viper tongued sister who is hated by all of them, that ultimately gave Feyre the strength to stand in opposition to impossible odds. That it was Nesta who taught wild Feyre to never break, no matter how the world tries to cut you down, even when everything is ripped from you, even when they humiliate and belittle you. The Archeron sisters are beautiful. They are complicated, twisted, fiery and loved. I wish, more than anything, that the story of the ACOTAR world was about them standing in defiance together, even when they hate each other, whether they are mortal or fae, in the face of adversities that would destroy anyone else. I wish that the there were more lines that no matter what the world tries to take from them, whether they are poor or rich, mortal or fae, they are Archerons, and no one can ever take that from them.

#acotar #sjm #pro nesta #nesta archeron #feyre archeron #maasverse #maas critical #acotar critical #I hate that im obsessed with this series

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lostthistime · 1 day

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I feel like Gojo becoming a vessel, and especially a vessel for Yuta is shitty writing. Listen I completely get the perspective of Yuta, and I don't blame him for this action. He is Gojo's unofficial successor and he knows they have to push the limits in order to win against Sukuna because Sukuna is incredibly powerful and he is the current biggest problem they are all facing. But this is wrong on sooooooo many levels.

First of all, why give Yuuji that fuck ass montage of him switching bodies with people if he was not going to fucking swap with Gojo, I would have honestly let it go because Yuuji is the main character and was literally born with the ability to do so. Now WHY TF WOULD IT BE YUTA TAKING KENJAKU'S TECHNIQUE TO GO INTO GOJO'S BODY?!!!!

Yall just gonna do Itafushi like that???? Crazy I thought they were the new Geto and Gojo.

ANYWAY besides that, Gojo giving Yuta some fuck ass consent to use his body after he is dead pisses me the fuck off because OF COURSE HE FUCKING WOULD!! WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE HE SAYS NO AND ALL HIS KIDS DIE??!!!

The man has been a weapon his whole life, his family has considered him one, his friends, his teachers, his students like the only fucking person who ever saw him as human was Geto Surguru and HE HAD TO KILL HIM FOR THE SAKE OF THE FUCKING WORLD

can you fucking imagine, for the sake the world that has always treated you as some sort of justice adbiding monster, you have to kill the literal only person who ever saw you and understood you as a human being with feelings and thoughts. Imagine that person that you love so much, literally going out and changing society because he realizes that if he doesn't change the status quo you will always be trapped having to be the strongest. Then that same society that you are being told to protect, they are the ones who fucking make you kill him and then it turns out that EVEN WHEN YOU DIE THEY CONTINUE TO USE YOUR BODY WHEN YOU DIE.

I think his skin fucking crawled at the thought of his body being used after his death. I think he saw what happened to Geto and for the first time in his life Gojo was truly afraid of death and what it would mean for him to actually die.I think he wanted to die for sure, like he wanted to be at rest with the people he cared about, but I think that after witnessing what happened to Geto first hand, that he would not have agreed to be used after his death unless he deemed it absolutely necessary. He literally was crippled with guilt for not disposing of geto's body properly and indirectly causing his possession and now you're telling me that he is a-okay with being a weapon even after his death????

Doesn't make any fucking sense

like even in gojos body, you're telling me Yuta is going to finish off Sukuna within 5 minutes????

Like this is not gonna work, yall had Shoko stich up Gojo for no reason and now Yuta is also gonna die on his mission to become the new Gojo martyr. LIKE GEGE WHYYYYYYYYYYY

you honestly should have just left him as an off screen death because what the actual fuck is this arc

#Gojo #Gojo satoru #jjk #jjk gojo satoru #jjk Suguru geto #Suguru geto #satoru gojo #jujutsu kaisen gojo #jujutsu kaisen manga #jujutsu kaisen #jjk spoilers #jjk manga leaks

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aihoshiino · 2 days

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chapter 150 thoughts!

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 7…. ttttttechnically? they don't actually mention that the kiss happened, so i'm counting it…

ladies, gentlemen and those who know better, our long national nightmare is finally over

after… literally I've lost count of how long it's been since we had some proper Aqua introspection, our landmark chapter 150 is almost entirely dedicated to putting us back in Aqua's head (quite literally!) and sort of catching up with him. Some things about Aqua that have been mostly only communicated through showing over telling are explicitly told in text and i'm ngl, there's one or two things where seeing textual confirmation of them got me barking like a fucking dog. Overall, while the pacing of the start of this arc has been bit clunky and this chapter itself isn't free of that either, it actually feels like things are moving and meaningful characterization is happening which after the Movie Arc is a bit of a luxury lol.

As usual, I want to gush about Mengo's art before I touch on anything else. Setting the majority of this chapter in a dream sequence allowed her to do some incredibly fun things with the staging and imagery here. Aqua in that eerie void with his feet drenched in blood… Aqua and Gorou still stuck in that hallway where Ai died, while Ruby has managed to take steps to leave… It's so fucking good.

There were some absolutely top tier Kanas this chapter, too… her little baby tantrum in flashback and that gorgeous final page of her… But I'm getting ahead of myself.

While I described this chapter up top as being communicating things about Aqua, it very much feels to me like it's also serving as closure for Gorou, both in the sense of him as a person and resolving the posthumous arc that he's been going on as part of Aqua. This chapter at last draws a clear and explicit distinction between the two, that Aqua is no longer Gorou, even if he might have been built on the foundation of his identity. Gorou is even described as a 'role' that Aqua has been compelled to play that Gorou himself is now urging him to step down from - he is offering to relinquish Aqua's future back to him… if that's what Aqua wants.

This was how I'd initially read the relationship back in my 143 review - that 'Aqua Hoshino' created from Gorou, his core values and driving ideals, but 18+ years of living a whole new life in a whole new social role, meeting people and having experiences Gorou would never have and literally having a different body and brain in the process have made him different and the sum total of those differences is the person we call Aqua Hoshino. This chapter seems to lean into this interpretation, casting them as a pair of briefly intersecting lines that once crossed but have now diverged onto their own paths.

I also just really liked the dynamic that they were shown to have this chapter. Whenever we've seen this conflict externalized in the past, Gorou has always been this frightening, overwhelming presence whose existence actively prevents Aqua from having any kind of happiness or peace. Here, though, they have a much less adversarial energy, which is a really nice reflection of Aqua being able to gradually start pulling himself out of the shit he's been stuck in. Gorou almost feels fatherly or big brotherly here, not just in how he behaves in regards to Sarina-as-Ruby, but for Aqua, too.

But……….. okay, I'll stop dodging around the elephant in the room now lol

After over 25 chapters of very deliberately avoiding putting us in his headspace, 150 finally puts the ball in Aqua's court vis-a-vis the AquRuby tension and he answers in a way I think would be pretty hard to walk back: That Ruby is his precious sister and that's it. That her feelings for him are the result of her projecting Gorou onto him, chasing a ghost that is fading from this world and that she does not actually love him. Whoof.

This was another thing where seeing it in text felt pretty great. I'd caught pretty early on that there was a weird divide in the way the story was handling the AquRuby dynamic - namely, that there wasn't an AquRuby dynamic and all the supposed ship development of it was largely happening in retrospect, beefing up the intensity of the GRSR relationship and having Ruby express her feelings to Gorou-through-Aqua. When the idea of Aqua and Ruby romance was floated, by contrast, it was always treated like a gag. With the Movie arc being as much of a mess as it was, it was hard to work out what the intentionality of that was (if there was any to begin with) but this seems to make it about as clear as it can be: neither Gorou or Aqua have any had any feelings of that sort of Sarina-through-Ruby and neither of them want to pursue romance with them.

Once again tapping into my powers of Claire-voyance, I already know a lot of people are trying to insist that this is Aqua lying to himself or 'settling' and that he does secretly want a relationship with Ruby for reals! but that really isn't how it comes across to me in the art. He's calm, speaks straightforwardly and without hesitation and makes his point pretty clear. We know how it looks when OnK character lie to themselves and this isn't really it. It would also just be strange for that to be the case when this is a scene about Aqua starting to consider the idea of moving past the things that hurt him and live out his future with someone.

And who that someone is… seems to be coming into focus, but I don't think we'll be getting there quite yet.

I will say that for as much as I liked this as a chapter and as a goodbye for Gorou… it kind of doesn't really make a lot of sense as a resolution for his guilt lol. This chapter frames things in such a way that centers his guilt on Sarina and that seeing her live her life as Ruby has given him some catharsis over it. This is a sweet idea but… that's, uh, not how this was framed anytime prior! When we've seen Gorou intrude on Aqua's happiness before, his self hate and his guilt all center on Ai's death and his inability to save her. The last time we saw him in this capacity in 95, that's what he was saying with his whole chest: that he deserves to suffer as punishment for Ai's suffering, Ai's death. I'm sure that knowing Sarina is living on as Ruby was very cathartic but… it has nothing to do with Ai! Why is this being framed as narratively resolved in this way?

Like… if I chew on it a bit, I can make it make sense: since chapter 1, Gorou has been pretty open about projecting Sarina onto Ai, processing his grief that way and imagining her living vicariously through Ai's success. The idea of Ruby doing the same by continuing Ai's legacy and keeping her radiance alive being the thing that gives him release over Ai's death is interesting and I can understand it emotionally, it just feels like a weird unexplained leap for the narrative to make. I was talking to a friend about it, trying to work it out by externalizing it, and they theorized that this was always the intended endpoint of Gorou's posthumous arc but that the story had drifted in the middle section and Akasaka hadn't quite realigned them. This makes a lot of sense to me and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the case.

I will say that it really bugs me. I've already talked about the ways Ai's importance to the twins as their mother has been gradually downplayed and diluted as the Movie Arc has gone on. In my original post, I attributed this to Akasaka trying to amp up the intensity of the GRSR -> AQRB relationship in a soap opera-y sort of way, but given that this chapter seems to shut down AquRuby, I don't really know if that's the case. In general, Ai has been treated as sort of narratively 'resolved' as of 137, as if that chapter was the capstone to her posthumous character arc and while that might be the case for Ruby… I really don't think it is for Aqua!

It's possible that this is intentional. Aqua still has a shitton of work to do on unfucking his relationship with Ai and the ways his view of her, as implied by the Movie Arc, is warped by his grief. I could see this final stretch of the story being primarily about that - after all, this chapter is about confronting Aqua with the binary choice of revenge or love. In a lot of ways, this has always been what he's struggling with but putting the ball this firmly in his court establishes Ai's death entirely as his own trauma that he has to work through on his own. After all, Aqua might have confronted Gorou in this chapter, but there's a certain someone we also saw in chapter 95 that Aqua hasn't dealt with yet…

I'm talking about Kana, obviously! (ducks thrown tomatoes)

I don't have a ton to say about the AQKN romance setup in this chapter other than… yeah, I kinda saw this coming! It's interesting to see Gorou, the representation of Aqua's guilt and self destruction, be the one to so directly confront him and push him towards trying to find some happiness with her. Aqua quietly noting that he knows the things he likes about Kana and he knows that moving on with her makes a lot of sense - but what makes this especially interesting is the way it mirrors Kana's own reflection on her relationship with Aqua at the end of the chapter.

I like that a lot of the AQKN moments the two reflect on are just… mundane, everyday instances of the two of them stumbling through life together. I've seen a lot of people say AQKN is 'boring' or 'flat' because it lacks the drama of AQAK or AQRB but honestly, I feel like this is what makes it work (when it does work) - their relationship, whatever form it takes, is a safe and quiet space where they can just exist outside the drama and transactional utility of so many of their other relationships.

That said, while those montages mirror each other, what makes them interesting is their divergence point. Kana decides to commit to choosing 'love', with that absolutely gorgeous full page panel, but Gorou hands the knife - the symbol of the violence that blighted Aqua's life - back to him and makes it clear that love or revenge, the choice is now entirely in Aqua's hands. We don't see what he chooses, but… if Oshi no Ko really is a story with a happy ending, I think it's a foregone conclusion. And that makes me really happy.

Not that it's happening anytime soon, lol. I'll be very shocked if Kana's confession doesn't result in a rejection from Aqua, at least at this point in time - there's too much else going on in the story for this to be the right place for Aqua to commit to Kana. She's still an idol, after all and Kamiki is still around. The bets I'm placing right now are that AQKN are going to get their resolution, whatever form it takes, at the Dome concert during or after Kana's graduation.

As for their date… Call me cynical, but I also don't see it going particularly well. After all…

Aren't we forgetting somebody?

#oshi no ko #oshi no posting #onk spoilers #chapter reviews

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thedeviltohisangel · 3 days

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I LOVE CASS AND BUCKY AND THE INJURY PROMPTS. It’s really fulfilling my need for hurt/comfort.

What about 23 and/or 29 from the list for when they are getting liberated from the camps when Cass is injured?

Also, I’ve absolutely loved the fics we’ve gotten to see of them reuniting in the camp and the failed escape attempt. Will we get a chapter focused on the times we haven’t seen? Love your writing!

INJURY BLURB PROMPT ERA

(thank you, lovey! yes, the plan will be chapters/interludes/blurbs to fill in all the gaps. you can ask me about them in my inbox or DMs literally anytime)

23 can be found here!

29. “Tell me where it hurts, and be specific.”

what is cass up to while john is hanging the flag? why, i am so glad you asked...

tw: depictions of a fight, death

While the men were watching the fire crackle and enjoying the small semblance of warmth that it offered, Cass was watching the Germans. She was keeping track of the paths they walked from building to building. The numbers they travelled in. Where the ones with documents went, how long they were there and what they left with.

"How's the hip?" John asked as he stood by the log she was sitting on by herself. She had been quiet for far too long for his comfort. When she didn't answer, "Captain?"

"What?" She spared him a glance then went right back to counting their steps in her head. "My hip? It's stiff but not painful."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were thinking spooky thoughts."

"I'm curious. That's all." His eyes went to her fingers which were acting as a metronome against her thigh. She was more than curious. She was plotting. John wanted to beg her against it. Remind her that their goal wasn't documents for the OSS or reacquainting her with Gestapo interrogation techniques. But the words sounded hollow even in his own mind. Not after all the trouble he had caused himself.

"Good." Cass doesn't remember the conversation between them ever feeling as forced as it did now. Even the first time she had met him. She hated to think that things had felt more natural when they thought she was dying. That it was easier to talk to her husband when she was bleeding out and writhing with pain. Now they were just shells of the human emotion that had driven her here in the first place. "I'll be right over there." He pointed towards a group of men and she nodded.

"Ok. I'll be here." If she had the energy, she might cry over the loss of John Egan. If the world hadn't beaten her into submission and kicked a little extra dirt on her for good measure. "Two strides to the left in-" The hum of a plane engine paused her final check of the movements of the German officer.

"That's a P-51!" She heard the confirmation ripple through the crowd and the plane ripped through the skin, putting a few holes in the towers as it did. A smile spread across her face as they all cheered. Maybe this was the harbinger of the end she had been hoping for.

"It's coming back!" She had no time to react before something hard slammed against her and knocked her to the ground with a grunt. After the moment of surprise, her nose hit the skin of his neck and his natural scent soothed any confusion in her mind. Cass closed her eyes and breathed him in and let everything around them fade away. If he was only going to love and protect her this one last time...she wanted to soak in every second.

"Were you hit? I'm sorry I wasn't quicker, my love, I-" The term of endearment fell from his lips without deliberate thought. He had been too distracted by the elation of the first pass of the Mustang to get to her quickly enough to shield her from the second.

"You haven't called me that in so long," she whispered as she looked up at him from where her back was against the dirt. John could see his reflection in her glassy eyes. He sat up and moved off of her in the hopes distance would clear his head. And he heard the stampede of men behind him before he saw them, hands pushing at his arms and urging him towards the center of the camps where the last of the German forces we huddled.

"Cass? Cass?" he called as he spun in a circle to try and find her again. He grabbed the first lapel he could. "The woman I was just with. You see where she went?" The man shrugged.

"Sorry, Major. Maybe she got trampled." He shoved him away and tried to move back the way he had come.

"Cass!" His voice sounded rough to his own ears as he called her name again and again with no glimpse of her spritely form anywhere. Eventually, the crowd was becoming too much as they engaged their German guards and the tide of the camp turned firmly in the direction of the Allied forces.

For some reason, he was having trouble breathing as he looked up at the Nazi flag and wanted nothing more than to rip it down. No matter how angry he was with her. No matter how certain he was that the nail was in the coffin on their marriage. No matter how she made him feel love and despair in equal parts, the end of the war was something he wanted to share with her. He wanted her in his arms when this is all over. Wanted her to feel the way his heart was beating back to normal. Back to the way it was when he as a kid in Wisconsin. John just wanted to be happy with his wife. Even if only for a second. Even if only for one last time.

"Exactly as I fucking thought," Cass murmured as she had finally made her way to the building that she had guessed held the pieces of paper she was looking for. The tables in the building were covered in maps and official letters and morsels of information. She wanted all of it.

"Little petal. Come for one last goodbye?" The officer had lost some weight during the march but she would recognize the man who took the most joy in beating her anywhere.

"Come to try and kill me one last time?"

"Not until I get the taste of you I am owed." He lunged towards her, Cass ducking and rolling the side before kicking out her leg and aiming for the side of his knee. He crumpled with a yelp but recovered quickly enough to grab a fistful of her hair drag her towards him.

"You fucking pig!" She used both hands to reach for his wrist and gritted her teeth as she twisted until she heard something pop and he released her with a scream. With a newfound determination, Cass stood and stalked towards him, her boot kicking his gun away as he reached for it and crushing the bones of his fingers under their sole.

"No, please!" he cried.

"You fucking bastards want to take everything from me!" She dropped to her knees over his torso. "Started a war and took my brothers away from me!" Her knuckles burned as the recoiled from his nose. "Fucking smiled as you tried to break me over and over and over again!" She thinks it was blood splattering across her face. "And then you took the best thing that ever happened to me and you caged him and you beat him and are going to make it so I fucking lose him!" Her scream would be described as animalistic if anyone had overheard it as the man lay still underneath her. His face unrecognizable and her knuckles torn to shreds. He sputtered once and she drew her arm back again when she was pulled back against a chest and held steady.

"He's not going to hurt you anymore, Cass, he's not going to hurt you anymore. I've got you." She wept into his chest as he rocked her gently, his hand brushing through her hair and his lips pressing soothing kisses to her forehead. "There you go, my sweet love. Get it all out." After awhile, her cries reduced to hiccups and she felt a peace settle over her against his chest.

"How much of that did you see?"

"Enough." Her hand shook as she gripped at the front of his jacket. “Tell me where it hurts, and be specific.”

"Just my hand and the back of my head. I promise." John held her hand tenderly against his heart, cradling her wrist like it was as delicate as an egg, his other arm wrapping around her waist to help her stand. Their bodies stayed pressed together as he reached for a handkerchief on the table and wrapped her hand tightly, kissing it softly once he was finished.

"That'll have to do while we get out of here." He jutted his chin towards the table of papers. "You get everything you need?" Instead, Cass looked down at the German.

"Yes. I think so." On cue, his hand twitched as he groaned. In a moment of mercy, Cass sighed and reached for his abandoned gun on the floor. John's finger wrapping through her own stopped her.

"You don't need any more nightmares, Cass." His thumb traced over her bottom lip. "He one of the ones who hurt you?"

"The one who enjoyed it the most," she answered as his fingers moved to twirl her hair that was falling from her braid around his fingers.

"Wait for me outside. I'll only be a moment."

She didn't even flinch at the gunshot.

#john egan #masters of the air #john egan fanfiction #masters of the air fanfiction #mota #john egan x oc #answered #cass and bucky

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symphonyofsilence · 9 hours

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No, but it's such a significant thing that Geto wanted to protect Gojo and take care of him! throughout all his life Gojo has been "the strongest". He's been extremely valuable, but nobody had ever thought of protecting him or taking care of him. Even if they did love him. Because he was the strongest. Surely he could handle everything. And if a danger had already breached Gojo's defences it could definitely crush everyone else so trying to protect him was pointless. Nobody but one person. Geto was not as strong as Gojo, in fact, Gojo was so much stronger than him, but Geto not only took care of him (asking him if he was getting him enough rest, expressing concern when he learned that was not, encouraging him when he completed a mission, asking Hibara to bring sweets with him because Satoru would want to eat too) but he actually tried to protect Gojo! (Both against Toji and against Kenjaku) Something that literally nobody else did. And something that was probably pointless, but nevertheless protecting Gojo came naturally to Geto. So much so that even his dead body came to life to protect him!

It's such a natural thing when you love and care about someone and only have them and their safety in mind that you don't even think about how strong and invincible they are and how powerless you are to protect them. You just move out of instinct to protect them.

I'm thinking about how really telling & important each and every selected moment we got with Satosugu was to establish the special relationship that Gojo had once with only one person- his blue spring- and never experienced again.

And honestly, I think Gojo joining Geto in the afterlife was his happy ending. 'Cause in his last 11 years he's been at the top of the world. He had everything. He was the strongest, he had power, wealth, looks, and people who loved him and looked up to him. And I don't think he was unhappy. I think he tried to live his life as best as he could and enjoy every moment he got. And yet he kept circling back to Geto. He kept thinking about him. Sitting in an empty classroom and going over their memories and Geto's fall and their separation again and again. Everything he did- from using "Boku" instead of "ore" to becoming a teacher to murdering the higher-ups- he did while thinking about Geto. Gojo always had that touch of melancholy with him- and it's okay. Everyone does. He lived his life the best he could. And he even died the best way he could. As he said himself his only disappointment was not having Geto in the crowd to pat his back. But now that Gojo's finally reunited with Geto, I think he can finally be happy, in peace, and fulfilled. There was a huge devouring emptiness in the place that Geto left in Gojo's life that only Geto himself could fix.

(And I think the airport was real and not Gojo's imagination because there was no way for Gojo to know about how Nanami saw Hibara in his last seconds in life)

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #gojo satoru #my two cents #geto suguru #satosugu #satoru gojo #suguru geto

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ming-sik · 3 days

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My dear good comrade in the trenches against AoB's nonsense: I'm having Ferdinand thoughts (derogatory, mostly) and stewing. You said you thought Ferdinand's boring, if you would be up for it we could complain to hell and back about him T_T (aka, I remembered someone saying “Lestilaut's bad and he doesn't even have [Ferdinand's] trauma excuse!” as if... trauma... is an excuse for... anything... also did we forget the system was inherently abusive and traumatizing orrrrrrr)

i'm always up to complain about ferdinand. i swear i tried to like aob's golden boy but he just... is bad.

like ok my main problem with him is honestly just that by being the most perfectest bestest coolest guy ever he makes the story so fuuuuuuucking boring. there are so many potential conflicts especially from part 4 onward that just get completely ironed over with "ferdinand took care of it offscreen" or "literally as soon as the problem was introduced ferdinand already had the solution", half of the remaining conflicts are just getting ferdinand to stop being an asshole long enough to easily solve the conflict, and half of the conflicts left over after that are how to stop ferdinand from being so incredibly selfless that he burns himself out solving all the story's problems before they can go anywhere interesting. it'd be one thing if he existed in a story that wasn't trying to be serious or if he was used very sparingly as a hermit whose help was difficult to acquire or came at a high price, but as it is i can't even bring myself to get that invested in new conflicts because aob's world has been mostly converted into a playground for rozemyne and ferdinand to flex their enormous brainpower over because obviously the only thing more interesting than one ridiculously overpowered protagonist whose only flaw is being too self-sacrificing is two of the damn things.

to which the counterargument is obviously "noooooo ferdinand isn't a perfect angel, he's deeply flawed!" and yeah he is, but not in a way the narrative is at all interested in doing anything but glorifying. i love it when characters are deeply flawed unpleasant assholes, but only if 1) that's taken in an interesting direction and 2) the story doesn't lie to my face and pretend everyone loves them. YS's society is systematically and inherently abusive, which means that every noble we meet is dealing with an intense web of motivations and pressures that mean being a "good" person in yurgenschmidt's nobility is basically impossible, but ideally that's a way to set up interesting tragic characters, not a reason i'm supposed to excuse ferdinand(and only ferdinand) from judgment for perpetuating that abuse and call for the execution of anyone who thinks he's an asshole.

and the counterargument to that is "oh it's not the narrative that thinks ferdinand is perfect, it's rozemyne!" but that's objectively wrong. the entire plot point of ferdinand's marriage to detlinde is when the story just spends basically an entire volume repeatedly telling the audience that ferdinand is actually the only reason anything gets done in ehrenfest ever and he's the most wonderfulest person ever and everyone is overcome with grief that their savior is gone. even sylvester's habit of pushing off work seems to exist basically entirely so we can have the literal archduke be hugely reliant on ferdinand for day-to-day work just so he can get a little extra credit.

that's not to say that he and rozemyne aren't massively codependent. they are. and again i understand that ferdinand doesn't intentionally put rozemyne in a position where he's literally the only person she can fully trust and she's both completely reliant on him for guidance and terrified of losing him, he does do that. he claims he wants her to rely on wilfried but outside of trying to train him to be more competent(unsuccessfully) he doesn't actually do anything to achieve that, and he never thinks of the perhaps more sustainable option of trying to get her an actual support network. a lot of the tragedy of her losing her life in the lower city is that originally she had a wide group of people to trust: she had her family for comfort, benno for guidance, and lutz as a peer who also knew the full story of her reincarnation. afterwards, she only has ferdinand, and the paranoia he teaches her prevents her from trying to find anyone else, to the point that she only realizes that elvira knows about her commoner origins when he's leaving! and. again. i get so hard that this is an understandable result of ferdinand's trauma making him extremely insular, it's in character, but it's also really, really something that i want the story to, at some point, actually interrogate, but it doesn't! even when ferdinand is totally for real ripped away during the marriage plotline, he actually isn't because they stay in contact the entire time and then she has an excuse to come rescue him and post-battle he's literally just back on the team and it's like he never left so that ended up having the same emotional impact as if he just moved to the next town over. so he never really "leaves", and rozemyne never has to actually get used to life without ferdinand, which would've been really interesting and a way to actually deliver on the ticking time bomb that is grooming subplots.

which he is! and to be clear, he's a groomer in the general sense, not even specifically the pedophilic sense(although yknow. he is explicitly pro-child marriage), i mean that he grooms her to accept that the way yurgenschmidt's society works is normal and fine. he's not solely responsible for the inherent abuse of feudalism, but he's a product of the system he lives in and a product that's not particularly interested in changing that system, so he views myne primarily as an aberration who needs to be incorporated into yurgenschmidt's nobility and made to understand that things work the way they do because this is the best system. i think people rail against ferdinand being called a groomer for two main reasons-- firstly people think that if you say a character is immoral you're saying that they're a bad person for liking them or finding them interesting, and secondly people not understanding that grooming isn't as simple as mustache-twirling villain evilly and intentionally completely controlling a helpless child. bc yeah rozemyne struggles against ferdinand's attempts to fit her into noble society and at multiple points does the opposite of what he tells her to, but that doesn't disprove my argument! it's actually repeatedly acknowledged(well, joked about) where characters including rozemyne and ferdinand themselves say that ferdinand has made her more and more similar to him. like basically the first thing that happens when he gets her into noble society is him convincing her to start participating in the buying and selling of orphans and speaking of orphans do not get me started on the temple it drives me so insane how her turning it into a company town where they serve as her unpaid labor is presented as her being a saint. that can't totally be blamed on ferdinand but he sure does talk her into accepting that the only way she can interact with lower status people is through the lens of a benevolent master. one of the main facets of their relationship is him making her worse.

which is interesting! conceptually! ferdinand is entirely a product of the cycle of abuse and his reaction to his trauma is to preserve that cycle even as it continues to harm him and everyone around him because it's just the way things are. on that topic, he's completely bought into yurgenschmidt's view of children where 5-year-olds are expected to be capable of fending off psychological warfare and 15-year-olds are expected to be fully mature adults, so he has a vitriolic, burning hatred for wilfried age 6 and later detlinde age 15 despite both of their biggest crimes being not magically overcoming the fact that they're being neglected and abused, because he did, which means it is possible and therefore required. even his favorite oops all negative reinforcement education is irl infamous for being literally the worst possible way to educate children because it doesn't work very well and also traumatizes them, something which rozemyne herself seems to understand when she tries to keep ferdinand from being so harsh on letizia but never ends up interrogating because she can keep up with it. just kind of because? the implication is that she has a big headstart from her being an adult university student in japan but we actually don't see him do much instructing outside of giving his pupils a bunch of stuff to memorize and then getting really mad if they don't do it fast enough, which is... not the most effective strategy, wouldn't help with her memorizing new information, and also requires her to show a level of attentiveness and reading comprehension she never actually shows when she's onscreen doing stuff because when she's onscreen she lacks basic reading comprehension and stops paying attention to literally anything she's not interested in, but all of that's just ignored because the whole reason ferdinand cares about rozemyne is that she's the only one who understands that he's just trying to do the right thing and she's the only one who can keep up with him in this world of idiot sheeple. and i don't like that either i think it's pretty boring.

the specific combination of his plot purpose mainly being to instantly solve problems and his actual character just kind of being an insufferable asshole who won't shut up about how awesome child abuse is means that unfortunately every time the male lead of the series is onscreen i'm booing and throwing tomatoes at the page because he isn't interesting enough to pull off being morally grey or fun enough to pull off being a terrible little freak. and i really do not feel sorry for him because everyone in the story is experience similar levels of abuse but mysteriously the story can recognize that it's bad when literally anyone else treats any character the way ferdinand treats everyone all the time.

the lestilaut comparison is so specifically dumb oh my god. like yeah he has the trauma excuse.... everyone does... if we take dunkelfelger seriously lestilaut was raised in an environment where his worth was entirely placed on how physically strong he is and the only solution to any problem is physical force, so that's the only way he can think of to solve problems. his main character flaws are being kind of a jerk in a way that's very normal for a teenager! like his character introduction is revealed to be him misinterpreting hannelore's desire to hang out with the cute shumils as a need to have them at any cost which combines with the existing prejudices he's been taught(yknow the excuse that works for ferdinand and nobody else) to mean that he executes a stupid plan, and then even the bride-stealing ditter plot which is... not his finest moment, definitely, but is him trying to save rozemyne from what he thinks is severe abuse. which isn't an excuse for his actions, like i said with sylvester you kind of lose the right to appeal to good intentions if your mistakes have a body count, but you could make the exact same criticism of ferdinand. i mean his "i'll get ahrensbach for you" bit is basically just the shumils thing but it's treated as romantic instead of "what the hell are you doing"

tbh in the AU i'm working on i just toss him out the window entirely but if he IS going to stick around he neeeeeeeeds to have his untouchability be dialed way the fuck down. he can't just solve literally every story problem with "and then ferdinand pulled the solution out of his ass" and there need to be things that he is actively bad at which other characters are good at. also other characters NEED to be able to criticize him for things other than being too self-sacrificing or limply saying that even though he's the most skilled wonderful guy ever it's a shame he's such a jerk. instead of having people being worried about how dependent rozemyne is on ferdinand be played for cheap jokes about her being in love with him you could idk have it GO SOMEWHERE because if ferdinand isn't totally perfect then you could have that relationship actually negatively affect her in some sort of way that could perhaps cause a narrative conflict, and there should be sympathetic characters who actively dislike him for reasons other than not being able to keep up with his amazingness. like florencia just thinks he's a massive piece of shit because he tried to get her 6 year old son condemned to the ivory tower, or lutz thinks ferdinand is wrecking the myne he knows and loves in order to fit her into noble society, or charlotte and wilfried just end up hating him after he tries teaching them because he's an abusive jerk. i don't even wanna give him a redemption arc because i don't want rozemyne to need to "fix" him and idk who else it would be outside of maybe sylvester? if i was gonna try and not fundamentally change the structure of aob i genuinely think i would just move detlinde's assassination attempt to basically as soon as he gets settled in ahrensbach and also have it succeed. just fucking kill him! make rozemyne navigate the world without him! it also killing off justus and eckhart could even make it so they're also invading ahrensbach without knowing anything about lanzenave so the silver cloth and instant-death poison can actually matter.

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sanktpolypenbourg · 2 days

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I feel very conflicted about Spot from 'Spiderverse'. I can't decide if from a pure writing angle, he's a great concept or a train wreck that would have needed a lot more work.

On the one hand, it's fun and fascinating to have a character who is such a gruesome apocalyptic threat be such a silly little guy at the same time. Literally he is like Spiderman's clumsy and even weirder, goofier brother or cousin. He even speaks in the exact same tone and makes the same sort of jokes Spiderman does. Which, of course makes him a great counterpart, sort of a mirror spiderman.

On top of that, he is such a civilian, not a big warrior or mastermind but just some guy flailing around in that world of superheroes like a fish out of water. First time we meet him, he acts like a perfectly ordinary person put into extraordinary circumstances, dealing with it with a mix of gallows humor and relatable social awkwardness. Even the shape of his body serves as a visual aid, not a big muscular superhuman but an unflattering but believable mix of lanky limbs and potbelly (cool side-effect: he looks a bit like a humanoid spider, himself).

You get this sense he's not a villain, just a silly guy caught in the crossfire, and maybe we can sort this out and be friends, maybe he could even be Spiderman's sidekick, or at least a sort of gag villain who fluctuates between nuisance and weird neighbour.

At the same time, all of that only makes it hit so much harder when his violent, murderous side is revealed. Like no, none of the charming, relatable and silly traits keep him from being the most dangerous and vicious villain spiderman ever faced, and that only makes it creepier?

On the other hand, did they stick the landing?

I am left confused by his rants about how Spiderman "ruined his life".

What life? From what we can tell, Spot had no friends, no family, only a job as a low level scientist at EvilCorp.

When they first interact, he doesn't sound AT ALL like he hates Spiderman. They are bickering, but it's almost friendly. He is trying and failing to declare their nemesis-ship, but it's more in a tone of "let's play superhero together".

I can't quite figure out the shift to complete murderous obsession and emotional turmoil.

Is it Spiderman's "rejection"? Realizing that Spiderman is not, in fact, eager to invite him into his world? In a twisted way, he talks like they're family. About their supposed relationship.

When Spot says Spiderman took everything from him, surely it is not his past life as a background character he is referring to - but the life he thought he was entitled to, with Spiderman? His hopes and dreams of being frenemies with Spiderman?

Is that the key to him - is he simply a Spiderman incel?

Still, I am torn - would we have needed to see more of him, to understand him better?

Or is that the point - he is a threat ballooning in the background? While the protagonist and the audience are distracted, he grows ever more resentful, and ever more powerful. He gets worse the less attention you give him. That's brilliant?

I tend to have that issue with certain shows, though - is it actually genius, if you have to put so much thought into figuring out how it is genius?

Or is your first impression the "valid" one - in this case, Spot and by extension the conflict being very awkward to figure out?

#spiderverse #across the spiderverse #spot

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queenerdloser · 5 months

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i just finished dark heir

#me foaming at the mouth during the last chapters: HE IS! FUCKING! SAVING YOU!#i am huddled around will kempen hissing like a mama cat none of these fuckers are allowed to look at him #dark rise #okay but like. cyrian at literally every moment in the book you see will anticipating things and making connections #that you never make. doing things like a leader & being fucking smart and strategic. and your dumb ass really thought.#hm. must mean i shouldnt listen to him about the magic staff that can literally stop the end of the world. must be evil.#me: [screams into the abyss]#i know i cant expect characters to react like readers and they DID all react like i knew they would but god it was so infuriating!!!!!#and heart breaking! god!!!! god!!!!! will reliving his mother's initial betrayal over and over and OVER again #and thinking about all the little moments we get where the novel tells us: if these 'evil' characters had just been accepted #instead of tossed aside maybe they wouldnt have fallen. if they had been protected instead of killed maybe they would have #become protectors instead of killers. maybe if will's mom hadn't tried to butcher him for the sin of his own birth #he wouldn't have been so scared to tell people he lied to them.#anyway im not normal about will kempen and if book 3 doesnt give me his friends fucking accepting him i'll kill someone #me looking directly at visander: i dont care how charming you are i'll murder your ass about it #i read this book in like 5 hrs im being very normal about it

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msnihilist · 2 months

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I'm not super involved in the Nicktoons Unite fandom, but I have been combing through fics and I'm already tried of Danny being portrayed as the big brother/second smartest one instead of what he actually is: a fucking idiot.

#nicktoons unite #danny phantom #danny fenton #i mean this as affectionately as possible btw #if anything JIMMY should be the tired older brother who subsists off of coffee and no sleep #danny and timmy have adhd and probably three brain cells between the two of them #I'm not saying Danny is a dunce #he's passionate about flight and space travel!#but let's be honest — he's 14 in canon. those are passing interests #they're not. like. something he could tell you every single last detail about #source: i am also into aeronautics #second source: i grew up with dp and I'm tired of the dumbass erasure #danny has no thoughts and only has teenage angst when a ghost is manipulating him lol #i know we all want our favs to be cool #but danny is literally just the biggest dork in the world #he's not a gritty 20 year old with 5 o'clock shadow who needs to smoke just to feel something #everyone's entitled to their interpretations obvi but #i think dp fandom has become so far removed from canon at this point that they created a whole new character who just is not danny fenton #and i don't really enjoy it because I always liked danny for the character he HAS not the one i think he should have had instead #this became kind of a tangent and this is probably an unpopular opinion but yeah i just wanted to say my piece #i can't really interact with the dp fandom anymore because they're basically all fans of a made-up show at this point

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lieutenant-amuel · 7 months

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It feels like people really forget sometimes that Shuriki has been ruling for 41 years, there are two generations that have grown up under her and have no idea what life looked like before she came

#Personal #*Avalor under Shuriki*#The biggest port in the whole EverRealm #Merchants arrive from over the world to trade there #Therefore Shuriki is bad #…#I mean yes she erased their culture #their national identity #And THIS is what bad #Not that she’s an evil sorceress #She wasn’t even violent she just sat at the throne and gained power #She literally didn’t care about people #Which means she neither thought about them nor harmed them #Thanks to Esteban life in Avalor wasn’t that terrible #The young generations like Gabe’s have NO reason to hate her #This is how they got used to live because they had NOTHING to compare with #Unless their parents were some rebels but this is unlikely if you care about your child’s safety #You cannot tell me that every single Avaloran hated her #There’s been SUCH strong propaganda under her it literally can’t work like that #Why would young generations care about festivals and music if they never experienced it?#There’s no way I’m saying Shuriki is nice of course not #But c’mon guys let’s be realistic #Even if we take Gabe into account #Do you really want to tell me that he had anything against her?#When he was a kid and a young teen?#With absolutely non-rebellious parents?#Yes Mateo is different because he learnt magic and was literally breaking the law so of course he treated Shuriki differently #But the majority of Avaloran kids were like Gabe #Because again they didn’t have anything to compare with #And if we talk about old people and adults too there must have been people who supported her this is just a lot more realistic

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e-adlirez · 2 months

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Treasure Seekers 2 go brrrrr

So this sequel... exists :D

Welcome to the second entry in the Treasure Seekers trilogy that I'm gonna ramble about for the next six hours (in me time, in you time it's probably gonna be like thirty minutes or less), if you wanna read it yourself before reading this ramble, here's an Archive copy. Otherwise, enjoy the ride :D

So our story begins with the Thea Sisters locked in a basement in the dark, with Russia's penchant for matches (and the basement's lack of a smoke alarm) coming in clutch. Seems like another vacation's gone awry for them :3 How could it have possibly turned out this way?

Flashback: so the girls are vibing in Moscow, visiting all the cool sights and all that, Pam is wanting to try some Russian cuisine, when they spot this girl that's wearing what appears to be a barrette that used to belong to Aurora's sister Hannah Lane. They follow her a bit, find a THUG JUMPSCARE, follow the girl, Cassidy and co into the building they're heading into, and oh dear door with passcode is in the way. They find this dood Sergei, explain to him the situation, deal with him being like "who is u, and wth are you on about mate" until they hear a scream and oh dear turns out that girl with the barrette is Sergei's sister Irina and she's in trouble.

Sergei opens the door, they go in, walk in on Cassidy, Stan and Max (who I will from now call SM for simplicity) doing their whole thug jumpscare thing and kidnapping Irina in 4K. SM somehow rolls a high enough strength roll (or the girls roll a low enough initiative) that two roughly intimidating guys successfully trap six people into a basement without breaking a sweat get yourself some self-defense classes girls oml, and that's the end of that.

Luke's up to his shenanigans again, and it seems that he's targeted Irina Lenenko for the same reason the girls double-taked at the sight of her barrette: Irina (and Sergei in conjunction) is a descendant of Hannah Lane, and Hannah Lane may or may not have known a thing or two about one of the seven treasures. It's such a shame tho that Irina doesn't wanna spill any of the tea. What's this about a "queen's jewel"?

Oh also Luke has Aurora's third diary. I would like you to pay attention to this detail in particular. Oh and he's keeping Irina ratgrabbed until she tells them what he wants to know from her. Oh naur

Meanwhile the girls infodump all of the TS 1 LANE LOORRREEEE to Sergei in one whole sitting and finally manage to get around to "what the hell does this have to do with my sister". Sergei thinks it's not really possible for Irina to know anything about great-grandma Hannah's involvement with Aurora, but Irina's still in trouble soooo time to solve this nerdy-ass science trivia keypad puzzle to get outa the basement. Irina's nowhere to be found in the lab itself, so they regroup at Sergei's place to use his phone tracker app on his computer.

Bad news, SM dumped Irina's phone somewhere in the lab so the tracker app is useless; good news, while looking for some Lane Lore™ to get some context about the situation, the girls find some Lane Lore™ :D

Turns out Aurora was looking for one of the seven treasures again, y'know just updating her sister on that, who'd moved to Saint Petersburg with her husband Ivan.

Seems like Aurora's quest at the time involved "the queen's jewel", which Aurora said she was 1000% down to ramble about to Hannah, maybe when she's done finding all seven treasures and hiding them from Jan.

I would like to take this moment to remind you that Aurora is a British Amelia Earhart, and if you dunno what that means, look up what Earhart was famous for and then look at this with that given context :']

With that lead, the girls plus Sergei take a ride on presumably the Krasnaya Strela night train to Saint Petersburg, read some Lane Lore on the way, Peter-Griffin upon realizing that they spent the whole night reading AO3 fanfics Aurora's diaries and it's like 2AM now, land in Saint Petersburg, stop by Nevsky Prospekt Street to have some breakfast (I think they went to Venezia?), and discussion.

(For the rest of this review, please assume when I say "the girls", I'm including Sergei because Sergei tags along with them and helps them out in their entire journey. It's okay, Sergei may be biologically male but he is an honorary female in our hearts /j)

Aurora mentioned the queen's jewel in her diary, and when you're in Russia, the first queen that comes to mind is Catherine II, so maybe something relating to her? Some Lane Lore of Aurora taking interest in Catherine II's Amber Room in her palace specifically confirms their theories, sooooooooo it's time to go to the Amber Room to see if Aurora left any clu--

The girls are about to walk out of the Catherine Palace to Peter Griffin in private when SM JUMPSCARE--

So SM is stalkin' around the Catherine Palace looking for something, so the girls stalk them back and follow them out of the palace, into a car (the girls called a separate taxi to follow them), and to a little gray building in the outskirts of the city. They don't follow SM into the building because it might be dangerous, but Irina's scarf lying around near the premises confirms that Irina was in fact there and possibly being held hostage in the building.

The girls do a little tactic I like to call "the Ding Dong Ditch": Pam and Nicky knock on the door, SM answers it, do a little Metal Gear exclamation point "HOW DID YOU GET HERE", Nicky and Pam book it so SM chases them, and that's literally how the other girls plus Sergei sneak into the building to get Irina out. (You dunno how badly I wanted to make a videogame reference for this but I couldn't find anything so here we are--)

With that, the girls plus the Lenenko siblings book it outa there without SM being none the wiser (seriously it doesn't even cross their mind that there are more than two Thea Sisters, that's how dum they are). Irina books a hotel room at a friend's place and gives them some extra Lane Lore that she never told Klawitz despite the interrogations:

Hannah Lane was once visited by Aurora unexpectedly, a little after Hannah and her husband moved to a house near the Ob River, in Siberia. Possible lead :3c? The girls think maybe, so they decide to head on over to the exact address in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

In Siberia, the girls cross the frozen Ob River in Novosibirsk to this abandoned little house, where they find this little note with a riddle that talks about Cleopatra and an emerald she had at one point, and CASSIDY JUMPSCARE--

Cassidy busts in, snatches the note and books it away on her snowmobile before the girls can even react. You may be wondering, how the hell did Cassidy get there and know where they were? The answer is the same as the reason behind the SM jumpscares in Russia and in book 1, and that is Luke.

Luke Von Klawitz is doing a little segment that I like to call: Luke Touch Grass, where it becomes increasingly clear that Luke's spent way too much time on 4Chan (/j but you'll see what I mean). Luke hears about SM's failure and facepalms. Then he calls his friend Petrovski, who has access to the database of all of Russia's airports, for help tracking down "six mice leaving Saint Petersburg". Petrovski gives him results in minutes: the girls and Sergei are leaving Saint Petersburg and heading for Novosibirsk, Siberia (most likely Tolmachevo Airport). With that intel, Klawitz looks into his own database of Aurora Beatrix Lane, finds a picture of Hannah and Aurora together, and uses his own version of Google Lens to figure out the exact coordinates where the picture was taken, which happens to be in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

No this man does not in fact canonically touch grass on the regular, who's asking

Anyway so he sent Cassidy the coords, instructions and Aurora's diary to go, and that's how Cassidy walked in on the girls in that little abandoned hut next to Ob River. Only thing is uh, she dropped her purse on the way out. A purse that just so happened to contain Aurora's diary that Luke gave her.

So the girls scoop that puppy up and assume that the treasure is Cleopatra's emerald, thus they think it's in Egypt.

So the girls go to Egypt :D (29 and a half hour flight there good god no wonder they conked out in the plane--)

The girls read some Lane Lore, something about Aurora finding the treasure and hiding it somewhere in a desert, in an "expanse pure and white" that a star compass will lead to. First thing the girls think of at the desert bit is the White Desert (Sahara el Beyda), specifically a spot near Cleopatra's pool, so they leave the airport (not realizing Cassidy is following them now) and head over to a market to buy some supplies because might I remind you, they initially went to Moscow, Russia for vacation.

While in the market, Pam meets a guy named Omar. Pam tells him a little bit about them going to Cleopatra's pool in Sahara el Beyda, and she finds out that Omar just so happens to be an Archaeology major in Oxford University who's here on his summer vacation and works as a guide for Sahara el Beyda, and is more than down to give the girls a tour. Talk about lucky :D

The next day the girls take the scenic route and after a while make it to Siwa, where Omar books a room in a hotel for them, and the girls find this interesting myth there about Cleopatra that I will summarize here:

Cleopatra was once given a jewel that maxes out the owner's rizz and the effect is supposedly indefinite. Cleopatra liked the jewel so much that she wore it on her crown at all times... until she grew a bit self-conscious about the gem's maxxed rizz effect and how everyone kept eyeing the emerald a second too long for comfort, so she decided to hide away said rizz in a spot where none of her rivals could get to it. Oh and uh Cleopatra wrote up a dedication to Ra that's hella cryptic too.

One long rest later, the girls go to Cleopatra's pool on a donkey cart. Yes, a donkey cart. It was Omar's idea. Speaking of Omar, prepare yourself buddy because the girls have dubiously decided to give you some Lane Lore to chew on. O-oh you like it a lot. A lot a lot. Well okay cool, maybe you can help out, cool.

The girls manage to figure out the riddle in Cleopatra's dedication, find a little stone coffer that has the queen's treasure and-- SM JUMPSCARE

With a donkey as the girls' only escape method and Omar having suddenly disappeared, a scuffle ensues where the girls play hot potato with the box until SM gets their hands on it and opens it, and here we get a very accurate depiction of what SM and the girls found in the box once it was actually opened.

Description: a hand made of salt shaped in an upside-down "ok" symbol, circa 1920s-30s.

The sheer whiplash of this leaves both sides of the conflict losing enough HP that they're all on red-- SM is blaming the girls for this (how dare >:[) and dip. Omar is gone, and all the girls get as compensation is the empty box and a letter from Aurora telling them that they'll know to read the hidden clues. The girls head back feeling very hollow and dead inside, and this is the one time one of the girls questions how the hell did SM know they were at Siwa. I mean they never get any answer to this (kinda), but it is a milestone! They're aware of it now!

Once they get back to Cairo, they ask around and find that Omar's completely up and vanished, and they decide they'll just head back to Moscow since their investigation has come to a dead end. On the way, Pam comments about the falafel she bought being hella salty, which leads Violet to an epiphany that hey, the Sahara isn't the only desert that exists, let alone the only desert known for how white it is (like how Boracay Beach is known for how white and fine its sand is, but it's not the only white sand beach that exists). A quick Google search (and a long flight (35 HOURS CAIRO TO SUCRE???)) leads them to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Nicky reserves a room for them at Hotel Luna Salada (a real place you can book a stay at actually :D), and they make a friend by the name of Adriana, a local waitress in the hotel restaurant. Adriana helps them pick out a dessert, fills them in on some stuff about the Salar since the girls came here 100% out of impulse, and talks about possible itinerary locations to go to, like the Isla de Pescado, Tiwanaku (the "Gate of the Sun"), Lake Titiaca, and Laguna Colorada. Y'know, typical tourist stuff, and Adriana was so kind to show them pictures she took when she visited said places herself! :D

Anyway so while the girls long rest, Luke is mulling about in his base waiting for updates. Someone calls him about the whole Egypt thing, and Luke calls the girls incompetent? Rude, oh and something about the caller being Luke's "secret weapon". Cassidy calls him on a theory she has about the gemstone being in Cleopatra's palace, and since the girls are currently long-resting (which means they aren't doing anything), Luke figures that a little diving trip in Alexandria to search for the gem with Cassidy won't hurt. Besides, he still has his secret weapon.

Oh yeah and he knows the girls are long resting because he has a drone in Bolivia spying on them and showing him their every move. Touch grass, Luke. No, going on a diving trip in Alexandria doesn't count, there's barely any grass there /j

Morning comes in Bolivia, and the girls head out early to search the Salar as much as they can. They look around the flat white desert, eat some late breakfast, toy around with forced perspective camera shenanigans for a bit, and read up on some LANE LOOORREEEEE

So Aurora's been to Pumapunku and Tiwanaku which is cool, she paid a visit to the archaeological site probably and that's really cool. She says something about hiding the queen's treasure in a fish's stomach covered in very fine thorns. Sergei ends up having an epiphany, and that leads the girls to Isla de Pescado, which just so happens to be "Fish Island" in Spanish, and has cacti on it, it's all coming together :D

Oh and the fish drawing Aurora made is coords to the treasure seemingly so that's cool-- OMAR JUMPSCARE

The girls are very surprised to find Omar joining them, and Omar explains that he booked it when SM came over and lost his cellphone as a result. However, he managed to figure out that Aurora's riddle was about salt and not sand, and decided to head on over to Bolivia since he assumed that's where the girls are going. How did he find them? It was just out of pure coincidence, and also the fact that the girls are extremely recognizable. Hm.

Anyway, Paulina plugs the coordinates into her GPS and leads the girls plus Omar to a little cave at the bottom of a little embankment. The girls find that, lo and behold, there's an old tin box containing a bright green emerald!

Meanwhile Luke is not finding anything in Alexandria haha L, LVK L get dunked on Luke, Cassidy girlie that's not a man to simp for find someone else gurl-- oh dear Luke is alerted that the treasure has been found and now he's planning on heading over to Bolivia? Now how could he possibly know that?

In the meantime, I dunno what's up in the air or if it's the Archaeology major speaking in him but Omar's really invested in this treasure, even more so than the girls to the degree that the girls are a little freaked out by it-- RHEA JUMPSCARE-- Paulina calms the big bord down and gets it to not trample Omar please, he's still a friend of theirs. Colette picks up this blue notebook Omar seems to have dropped.

The girls plus Omar head back to the SUVs, and Omar is really trying to persuade the girls that he should bring it back to Cairo. The girls are not jazzed at the idea because Omar bringing it back alone will be too unsafe, y'know with Luke and Cassidy and SM and all. They gotta think about this rationally-- WHOA OKAY OMAR calm your man tits buddy why are you demanding they trust you like you automatically deserve your trust-- ohh that's how Klawitz has known about the girls' whereabouts, Omar was working as a double agent.

So yeah Omar snatches the box from Colette and drives off in his SUV, leaving the girls in the dust. The girls freak out and are feeling that EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, but Colette for some reason is very calm about Omar booking it with the emerald. And that's because SHE HAS IT :D she did a lil' switcheroo so now the emerald's with her while the box is with Omar.

For context about how Colette knew about this, remember the blue notebook Omar dropped? Yeah that notebook was a company LVK notebook, straight from Luke himself. Then after Colette saw it, everything about Omar became incredibly sus, so she performed this precautionary measure.

So now the girls talk to the local authorities about how the whole thing with the emerald is gonna go down, and soon the girls are waiting for a plane back to Moscow.

As for Omar, well, he goes over to Luke's super-fancy hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, and he hands the box to Luke, explicitly stating that he decided he'd let Luke open it before he himself can appreciate it.

Luke opens the box, and here we see an accurate depiction of what Luke sees.

Description: an upside-down "ok" symbol drawn in strawberry pink lip balm, signed Colette [insert last name], circa 2018.

Luke punts the box (prolly with the lip balm still inside it) into the swimming pool, tells Omar to get out, and that's the end of that. Haha Omar L Luke L

The girls head back to Moscow to drop Sergei off when SURPRISE PARTY BY IRINA'S SQUAD :DDD

Then the girls are about to return to Whale Island to presumably Peter Griffin in their dorms, when Colette suggests they make a journal a la Aurora Beatrix Lane, and they do. In a pink notebook because it was Colette's idea so we might as well give her that

And they take a black-and-white group picture of them wearing adventurer clothes like Aurora would've done. The brainrot is real, these girls are mentally ill /j

And that's the book :D

... Honestly it's the most meh out of the trilogy besides the big-brain bits in the middle and the end imo

The writing was so much more stilted in this one, even for Scholastic standards, and everything feels pretty..... kid's book. Even more so than the usual in the book's English translations. I do readings for the books in some of my Discords, and this book did not read well at aaallll. And I haven't even mentioned the typos in the book (they're not a lot, but they exist, and they're kinda egregious :D) and some grammar errors if I'm remembering things correctly. It might just be a translation thing-- I worry a bit for the translator who had to put this together.

Luke's character here is also kinda wonk? For one we see him directly contradict his anti-friendship spiel in TS 1 since he literally greets Petrovski like a friend (maybe it's a "friendship doesn't exist except in 4Chan" thing, I dunno). Then in the middle of the book, he gets... very Disney villain-y. The most egregious example here is the chapter "Lurking in the Shadows", where as you can see

I am confusion?? Luke has been described as a to-the-point brat who hardly cares for the means to his end (unless it will impact his ability to achieve the end) and is so fixated on his goal that he doesn't touch grass. Is this not-touching-grass behavior? Yeah, definitely, but this??? This is too Disney villain???? Why does the man break into an evil cackle in front of Cassidy???? I understood it in book 1 because man thinks he's doing a "You may think you have outsmarted me but I have OUTSMARTED YOUR OUTSMARTING", but this one?? Maybe it's my personal taste, but it's too cartoonish and too... deviated from what we know of him up to this point.

ALSO TWIRLING HIS MUSTACHE? WHAT MUSTACHE IS HE TWIRLING THAT THING IS NOT TWIRL-ABLE

Also time to address the one big plot hole in this book: Aurora's diary.

So in this book there's only one diary, which is infinitely simpler than the two we got in the first book. This diary supposedly contains Aurora's records of her mission in hiding Cleopatra's Rizzmerald, and the details are supposedly vague enough that Luke felt the need to kidnap and interrogate Irina, a Hannah Lane descendant, to fill in the blanks. However, when you look at the contents of the diary itself (which lord knows how many times Luke himself has looked through it), there's hardly any blanks that need to be filled, at least if you're Luke.

The diary itself is mostly in the background-- like I said, not as much Lane Lore here as the previous book, the girls mostly rely on Aurora's letters to Hannah here-- but there's one specific entry the girls read in the latter half of the book that explicitly mentions Pumapunku and Tiwanaku, and how Aurora is there for her mission to hide the emerald. Complete with coordinates hidden in a little drawing! My one question I have for Luke is, why didn't he go straight to Bolivia and started searching there? Why did he go through all the effort of kidnapping Irina, tailing the girls around Sahara el Beyda, letting SM fall for the salt replica gambit, left his base to touch grass and go on a dive with Cassidy in Egypt; all if he could've just gone straight to Bolivia to look for the treasure there? Sure, Aurora did a good job hiding the coordinates in the fish doodle, but someone as observant and as obsessed about the outcome instead of the journey like Luke would rather have sidestepped all the Aurora shenanigans and beelined straight to the goal if he was able to.

Luke hardly has an excuse here because he owned the diary at the start of the book, and most definitely read through it many times (and we know he's the type to do this, see TS 1). The plot hole is plot hole-ing, it seems :/

Maybe it was just an excuse for the girls to get a giant glowing arrow pointing in the direction of the treasure? It certainly feels like it.

Anyway, the things that carry this book and made it memorable when I first read it (and allowed me to ignore the iffy bits) are the gottems and Omar as a character. Aurora setting up a salt replica of the Rizzmerald as a gottem in a time capsule, only to be opened almost a hundred years later to still be as potent as intended when it was made so long ago? That is amazing, like c'mon, pure comedy material.

Even funnier is Colette doing the exact same thing, only with her lip balm. Luke is quaking in his bougie-ass leather boots.

Now for Omar. This may be a hot take of mine here, but Omar's sus-ness is actually at a decent level compared to the girls and what they usually deal with. On one hand, Omar is incredibly suspicious with how incredibly lucky the girls are to find an Archaeology Oxford major working as a Sahara el Beyda tour guide; but on the other hand, the girls had almost the exact same situation with Diego in Mexico (I didn't mention him in the first review, but he came in clutch in TS 1).

The girls met Diego in Merida, Mexico, and he helped them with their research into "the invisible place", which happened to be Uxmal, along the Puuc Route. Diego also just so happened to be a tour-guide-in-training for the Puuc Route, which was the place the girls just so happened to need to go to find Aurora's second journal.

In comparison, the girls meet Omar in Khan El-Khalili while they were looking for supplies for their trip to the Siwa Oasis. It comes up in conversation that the girls are headed to Siwa, and Omar just so happened to be a tour guide for Sahara el Beyda, which was where the Siwa Oasis is, and it just so happened to be where the girls needed to go. When you stack them up together, it made perfect sense that the girls thought they could trust him-- Diego didn't know much about their trip and helped them the best he could (which was a lot), so why wouldn't Omar do the same? He's an Oxford Archaeology major, too, for crying out loud, the girls struck gold in the end!

Gold that was too shiny and too good to be true. Gold that was, in the end, nothing more than pyrite, fool's gold.

Omar is a good case for why you should be careful with who you trust, and when you should start thinking a little bit when you're getting a little too lucky with the people you meet. When the girls got to know him a little more and decided to trust him and tell him the deal with their trip, he got way invested in the gem-- too invested to not be a little bit suspicious. Maybe the girls mistook it for his passion for his archaeology major, maybe they mistook it for something else-- but whatever the case, Omar pulled the cheesecloth over the girls' eyes and really only fell apart near the end, when his alibis and behavior started becoming more and more suspicious; and by then, Omar didn't need to be as inconspicuous, and the girls had gotten to know him too much to readily say to him "okay buddy can you kindly f%ck off, your vibes are not vibing here".

The girls probably should've been suspicious when Omar reappeared in Bolivia out of nowhere, but I guess his alibi was just good enough (and the girls at this point were probably running on adrenaline, caffeine and a brain on 70% capacity at most) to pass the Deception check.

Fr tho there were some bits where the girls should've found him sus but they didn't (him accidentally saying "I did it" when they uncovered the emerald, and also him handling the emerald the way he did), so shrugs. It could be a translation thing, but it could also be something else.

Anyway, kinda meh for a sequel, but it does have its standouts that allow it to somewhat stand on the same level as the first and third books. Kinda.

Hey, at least it's not as bad as Crystal Fairies-- that's the bar of bad-ness I'm setting. It's not as bad as Crystal Fairies and that's what matters--

Also special thanks to @ishmeowwow (it won't let me ping you for some reason bestie <:[) for making the lil' artworks haha

#geronimo stilton #thea sisters #thea stilton #book review #book rambles #book rant #thank you ishmeow for making the gottems for me :D #you came in clutch while my ipad is still dieded thank you bestie <3 #in the book it's just the lip balm but ishmeow decided to go all-out with the gottem gag and i can't be more grateful lmao #same goes with the gemstone in aurora's gottem (it's just the fake tiara plus fake gem) but hey the more salt the merrier :D #book 2 luke is so jarringly different from his other depictions but at the same time #he does not in fact touch grass and he does crack an evil cackle at least once a book so #i dunno how i feel about it . .#on one hand it adds to him not touching grass #but on the other hand it doesn't connect with his “this villain is supposed to make you shnit your pants at how intimidating he is”#he's intimidating because of his connections his ability to basically spy on the entire world and control everything from his base #and y'know he can tell his goons to do whatever and they'll literally wreak havoc to fulfill said requests #he was so intimidating in concept that they had to nerf him with incompetent goons lmao #after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D #like good god i thought a ten hour flight was unbearable and made your body stiff but holy damn #i'm not complaining too much about the timeline tho because this is hilarious and makes the girls look so neurodivergent #“what do you mean we flew a total of 64 hours by plane feels like it's only been a day to m--”#*dies*

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