#This show has the opposite problem of Twilight for me

[tollingbells77]

So em and my wife have been watching J Decker, the 90's mecha anime that my wife has been calling Transformers For She, and this show is going to Kill me.

Tonight, we started with the most "And The Protags Are Also Here" shit with a fuckin gay rivalry between a detective and a phantom thief resolving after 20 years, then the next episode was a mind control statue from Fake Macchu Pichu that made the crane one confront his humanity and superiorty complex and No Shit ends with him getting SMOOCHED by the cute military lady and thenh the next episode pregiew happens and ITS A GIANT PANDA. THE. THE ENEMY IS A GIANT PANDA. ITS JUST A GIANT PANDA.

it's giving me *whiplash*

#This show has the opposite problem of Twilight for me #I like the characters! theres some good stuff in here! the universe SUCKS in this show!!! #The most responsible person is a LITERAL CHILD CONSCRIPTED INTO THE POLICE

[theratboyking]

Heaven Is Not Fit To House A Love Like You And I

Pairing: Vampire!Secondo/Angel!Reader

Word count: 750 (A short one for a change)

Summary: basses off of this ask. I hope this is what you wanted.

Warning: blasphemy, running away together, fluff, angst.

The sun had just begun to set. Looking out towards the field, the flowers almost look like gold as they shimmer in the dying light. You always loved this time of day, always venturing away from your post to catch a glimpse of the world's beauty. It was how you had found him, or rather, how he found you. How you both had found love in the absence of light, the thing you should hold more dear to you. It was in darkness that you found each other. It’s how you both had been making your way back to each other for hundreds of years. It was in the darkness that you now found yourself, waiting once more for your lover to find you.  

The twilight gives its final shine. You could feel him getting closer now. It was only a matter of time before he would show up, fashionably late, as he always called it. He got on your nerves, but he knew you loved it. He was the opposite of order, always finding a way to push your buttons, making you want more, but tonight was not a night to be pushing your buttons. You felt him before you could see him. 

“You’re late.” Your tone was flat. 

He came into view, emerging from the shadows, “I’m sorry, amore, but I got peakish on the way over.” Secondo was nonchalant with his response, letting out a chuckle; he was always so nonchalant. It drove you absolutely fucking mad. 

“We need to talk.” 

It could be your heightened senses, or it could be how well you knew him, but he tensed at your tone. In the hundreds of years he has known you, Secondo had never seen you this serious before. He cleared his throat, bringing his hand up to signal for you to continue. 

“They know about us.” 

He scoffed, “I fail to see how that is a problem, amore. So what?” 

“So what? So what! Secondo, this is serious. I could be expelled for this. They could kill you for this.”

“I don’t fear them, mia angela.” His tone was hard as stone, standing tall. He wore a smirk on his face, flashing you his fangs. 

“This isn’t funny, this is bad, this is very bad.” By now, you were pacing back and forth. Wings puffed out, a few feathers sticking out of place. If it were different circumstances, Secondo would have found you adorable.

“There’s a simple solution; you just can’t refuse to listen.” 

“Secondo, I told you I can’t.” You stop pacing to finally look at him. This wasn’t the first time he had brought this up, but this was the first time he genuinely meant what he was saying. 

“And why can’t you?” He questions, searching your eyes for any sort of real fight behind them.

“I am an angel of the lord. You are a servant of hell. What would the higher-ups think? What would they do to us? We are enemies, fuck I should hate you. We are on opposite sides of this,” Tears began forming in your eyes. “How dare you curse me with love. This has to stop, Secondo.” 

“There’s only our side. It has been that way for a long time, amore, forget sides for two seconds. Think about what you want for a change.” He hesitantly steps closer to you, “It could just be us. We could be just us.” 

“What of heaven? What of my home, Secondo?” The tears in your eyes finally fell; you could feel your resolve slowly fading.  

He closes the distance between you both, taking you into his arms. “Heaven could not house a love like the one I hold for you, il mio angelo caduto.” He tightens his hold on you. “Hell could not stop me from finding your soul. I fly to it like a moth to a flame. We can run amore; I will run anywhere as long as I have you.”   

You relax under his touch, “I’m scared, my love.” 

He pulls away to look you in the eyes. Nothing but love stared back at you. You could get lost in him and only him. A fond smile forms on his face, and he slowly takes a step backward, “Then we can be together.” He offers you his hand, an invitation to follow him. 

Against your better judgment, you take his hand, following him to the ends of the Earth, just as you would for the rest of time.

#the band ghost #ghost bc #ghost band #ghost #papa secondo #Secondo #papa emeritus secondo #vampire secondo #angel reader #papa emeritus ii x reader #secondo x reader #papa emeritus x reader

[greenlantern94to04]

Those Weird Hal Jordan Comics Between "Reign of the Supermen" and "Emerald Twilight"

I've always been fascinated by that brief, strange period in Green Lantern and Justice League comics between Coast City's destruction and Hal Jordan's heel turn, also known as "The Sling Era" (known by me, I just came up with it). The way Hal was handling the death of his 7 million bestest friends varied wildly from issue to issue, almost as if the writers were trying to tell us that he was already having a psychotic breakdown.

Of course, we all know that Hal only behaved that way because DC had no clue what they were gonna do with the character until they went and did it, but it's still kinda fun to look back at that period and search for hints that couldn't possibly be there. So let's do that:

Justice League International #56-57 (October 1993)

These issues came out on the same month as Green Lantern #46 (the Hal vs. Mongul issue) and clearly take place before Coast City went boom, since Hal isn't wearing the sling on his arm yet. I'm including them here anyway because of this telling exchange between Hal and Power Girl, who'd recently found out she was pregnant. For context, Hal and PG had gotten pretty close while they were both in the JLI... but not as close as Hal would have liked:

Maybe it wasn't Coast City's destruction what drove Hal mad -- it was the thought of Aquaman getting into his "girlfriend's" pants before him. (It turned out PG had been magically impregnated by Atlantean wizards, so at least Hal was in the right ballpark.)

JLI #57 includes this amusing moment after Metamorpho says the League won't be the same without Elongated Man and his wife Sue:

Haha, yeah, a member of the JLI turning evil... can you imagine?

Green Lantern #47 (November 1993)

This Green Arrow team-up is pretty much a filler issue with a couple of references to Coast City's destruction thrown in. No one seems that distraught about the fact that their city just exploded. For the most part, you wouldn't know this was a post-"Reign of the Supermen" issue if Hal wasn't wearing that sling on his arm.

Hal and Oliver Queen get caught up in a dumb plot involving Hal's ex, Carol Ferris, his pal Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku, and robot doubles of Carol's dead dad created by her mom due to her "nervous problems." The most intriguing part is Ollie telling Hal "I'm seeing something in your eyes that I never saw there before." (Spoilers: it's murder.)

Later, Hal gives a speech about finally moving on from Carol and "letting go of the past" (so, the opposite of what he's about to do). He also implies that he's gonna be pursuing another of his love interests, Olivia Reynolds, who's trying to get financing for a GL toy line.

The issue ends with Olivia noticing that one of her Green Lantern action figures "lost his head." That's probably the only intentional foreshadowing for "Emerald Twilight" in these issues, but it could just as easily be a tease for another dumb plot that never happened because they switched writers after this issue.

Superman #83 (November 1993)

As mentioned when I covered this issue at the Superman '86 to '99 blog, Hal is in a pretty dark mood here. When Lex Luthor Jr. shows up uninvited to the superheroes' "funeral" for Coast City, Hal bluntly says "This is a private affair. Get rid of him." Then, when Lex says they could salvage some alien tech from Engine City, Hal insists that they just "let it die."

Aquaman (there's that jerk again) takes issue with Hal's idea of dumping a city-sized engine into the ocean. Superman tries to calm everyone down, but Hal snaps and says: "I'm tired of talking! (...) My friends are buried under this junk heap and I'm not about to let it stand as their tombstone!" Later, after Engine City has been safely disposed of and Superman has erected the monument to the dead, there's an exchange between Hal and Ollie that's more meaningful than anything in Green Lantern #47:

Okay, "Can't win 'em all!" isn't the most sensitive way to talk about genocide, but you have to admit it's in-character.

Justice League International #59-60 (December 1993-January 1994)

Hal skipped JLI #58, and the next two issues are mostly set in an alternate timeline caused by a time-traveler who undid the origins of several superheroes, including Hal himself. Conveniently, this means that these issues don't have to deal with our Hal's mental state. In the alternate timeline, Guy Gardner is the heroic Green Lantern while Hal is his biggest fan. Once they figure out the truth, Guy decides to use the ring to go back in time and fix the timeline but Hal tries to stop him, because he knows Heroic Guy will turn into Guy Guy in the corrected reality.

Pretty ironic that Hal didn't want to restore the timeline because he was afraid of Guy losing his "sanity," and then he was the one who went insane (while Guy entered what's probably his most heroic period). Good Guy ultimately sacrifices himself for the greater good, making Hal think: "If this does turn me into Green Lantern... I can only pray that I'll have half the courage and nobility of Guy Gardner!"

Once Hal's memory is restored, they ask him if he can use the ring to travel to the 70th century and stop the villain from creating this whole mess in the first place, but he says he'd "need the whole Green Lantern Corps to do that!" So Hal thinks that if he had the power of every GL, he could change the course of history? Interesting.

Justice League America #83 (December 1993)

Hal is wearing the sling in this issue, so it's definitely set after Coast City's destruction, but he's perfectly calm and seems more concerned with regular League business than reshaping the universe. Maybe he's just trying to bury himself in work?

Valor #14 (December 1993)

Another Sling Era issue. Valor asks some Justice Leaguers if by any chance they know any cures to lead poisoning, which he's currently dying of. Hal says "I wish to God I could help... but there are limits to what my power ring can do." But... maybe there shouldn't be?!

Bloodbath #1-2 (December 1993)

A sling-wearing Hal shows up in the two-part finale of the regrettable "Bloodlines" crossover, though the sling is missing in some panels (perhaps he was already getting better). The only noteworthy interactions here are: 1) Deathstroke telling Hal "Remember that I'm one of the good guys today," 2) Hal referring to the Guardians of the Universe as "control freaks," and 3) Hal telling Superman not to beat himself up because he wasn't around to stop the alien invasion of Metropolis (he was dead at the time). This last scene is by far the best part of the issue, because of a typo when Superman is supposed to say "Poor Metropolis":

Geez, what are they feeding those cows down there?

Eclipso #15-16 (January-February 1994)

Sling Hal and other superheroes (plus Lex Jr., for some reason) talk in the United Nations about the menace of Eclipso, who at the time was president of a small country and had access to nuclear weapons. Then Eclipso shows up and beats them all in two panels, literally.

Hal's only role in Eclipso #16 is as an unconscious body on the floor of the UN. I think I'd also go crazy from the humiliation.

Justice League International #61 (February 1994)

And finally, Hal's last appearance as a member of the JLI consisted of him saying he wished he could help, but he has "pressing business as a Green Lantern!" That pressing business turned out to be crying on a crater and then... well, we'll see that soon enough.

I agree with whoever that guy is: Hal's "I'll be in touch soon" DOES sound pretty ominous. Note that this issue takes place directly after the end of JLI #60 (Hal must have put on the sling between panels). This means that the last thing Hal Jordan did before the start of "Emerald Twilight" was traveling to the far future to stop a supervillain from reshaping history. Wonder if that gave him any ideas...

NEXT: "Emerald Twilight"! And the guy this blog is supposed to be about finally shows up!

#green lantern #hal jordan #justice league #power girl #aquaman #coast city #green arrow #oliver queen #carol ferris #tom kalmaku #olivia reynolds #guy gardner #valor #superman #eclipso #cucked by aquaman #aquacucked #that guy #dc comics

[chain-link-smut]

Hello Beautiful Beasties!

Smut-tember 23, Day 26: Twilight x Reader(Male) - Taverns Alley

Summary: Warding off the taverns working gals who only wanted to give company in exchange for money, you find yourself making a move that you wouldn't have done drunk. it works, but now there's a new 'problem' and it is between your legs. The dark alley doesn't do much to hide you from the voyeur eyes, but you weren't the only one who couldn't wait and didn't mind lookers.

Word count: 1,904

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

With the night still young and a few restless Chain members relentlessly nagging, you were dragged off to a nearby bar in town. There was nothing special about the place: packed with too many people, the smell of cheap ale and stale cigars. Not exactly the scene you liked to be in, but a few drinks weren’t going to hurt.

Hyrule dragged a grumbling Legend to a dart board, Four following. Sky, War, Twi and yourself sat at a table chit chatting about home and what we planned on doing when we all got back. Warriors made sure that there was a steady flow of drinks and shots coming to the table, but with that came the women who worked in the upstairs part of the bar.

“Well look here what the cat dragged in.” A woman with red hair said as she touched your shoulder, three other women with her, each of them hovering near the others. Sky politely told the black haired woman that he was engaged as Warriors leaned closer into the blond that was flaunting her very full chest to him. Twilight simply said no thanks and you just shied away from the contact.

You wished that was the only time that happened. Throughout the night multiple women and sometimes the same ones would come over to flirt and give free drinks. Warriors, every time a free drink was sat down on the table, would drip a drop of some kind of oil into the drink to make sure it wasn't drugged. None were, but it still made you uneasy. Well, uneasy for more than one reason.

"Sugar, why won't you come play with us?" A string of white feathers were tossed around the back of your neck. The woman was very pretty with her red corset top and high front skirt, but it was still a no for you.

The young lady that was by the other's side ran her palms down your chest, inching closer to your groin. "We could show you a good time~"

You grabbed Twilight's pant leg that was closest to you, not knowing what else to do. Twilight cleared his throat, “Ladies, he has kindly declined your advances. Please don’t make us seek business elsewhere.” The two ladies stuck their nose up in the air and walked away.

Sheepishly you looked over at Twi. “Thank you.” He only gave a warm smile.

“I don’t get it.” Warriors laughed. “You have had double, if not triple, the attention yet I’m the Ladies Man.”

Sky elbowed Wars playfully. “Maybe someone stole your pretty boy title.”

“Oooh no, no.” You waved your hands in front of you. “That is a title I don't want.”

“What’s wrong with that title?” Warriors mock offense had you loosening back up. “Why do you turn all of them away?”

Head a little fuzzy from the four pints and six shots, you spill your secret. “I prefer the company of men.”

The silence from the others made you want to shrink to the size of a mouse so you could scurry away undetected. That was until Warriors raised his glass saying, “Hey, about time the club got bigger.” He clicked his glass with yours. “And you owe me money.” He laid his hand out to Sky.

Sky rolled his eyes and dropped a small coin bag into the waiting palm. Twilight leaned a little closer. “Sky thought you would take longer to spill. Wars betted on alcohol would loosen you up to tell us.”

Slapping a hand to your face, you asked, “You all knew?”

Twilight’s carefree laugh told you all you needed to know. “Most of us either dance on both sides of the line: Wars, Legend, Wild and Time, or stay true to one side weather its the same or opposite side of the line.” Twilight gave you a look that sent your heart racing. With his wolf-like hearing, there was no way he didn’t hear it.

Celebrating the victory of being correct, Wars ordered too many drinks for the four of them to handle, though you all drank as much as you could. Him and Sky took (stumbled their way) the extras to the three still throwing darts. That left Twi and you at the table to watch the clumsy two walk off. Unfortunately, the unwanted company came back around, preying on the drunks, but this time it was Twilight in the eyes of the women. How strange it was to see Twilight, the apex predator, being stoked like livestock. Repulsive really.

So when an unsavory hand was combed through his hair like you always wanted to, you bared your teeth, took his face between your hands and had his lips crashing to your own. Twi made a startled noise, but it turned into a sound of enjoyment as he placed his hands on your elbows.

Breaking free of the exchange, you covered your mouth. “I’m sorry!” You feared you had crossed the line doing the simple kiss. You could have blamed it on the ale, but it wasn’t true. “It was the first thing to come to mind w-when she came around and- and oh my goddess you are now going to hate me!”

Your thoughts didn’t allow you to hear anything he was saying, if he even said anything at all, but he didn’t have to say anything for you to understand that he forgave you. He grabbed the belt that laid across your chest and brought you closer, lips parting to give you permission to advance.

Tender, soft lips coaxed you forward with chaste little kisses that made small click sounds when separating. When you moaned into Twilight’s mouth, he pulled away just far enough to look into your eyes. He watched you closing while a warm hand made its way up your leg. Your cheeks had a healthy flush across them and you tried not to groan when his hand cupped over the prominent bulge in your trousers.

You whined when his hand suddenly disappeared, but his words lit a fire inside that needed to be put out. “Let’s get out of here.” He took your hand to lead you not out the way you entered, but the back door.

The full moon gave a silver lighting that made Twilight’s marking and eyes glow. The back alley door closed and gave the illusion of privacy. You threw your arms around his neck, drawing him towards you as your back hit the brick wall of the tavern. The taste of ale was heavy on Twilight’s lips, but you could still get hints of his natural taste and it made you feel more drunk than you already were. There was no getting enough of him even as he pressed his own erection to yours, hands searching for skin to hold.

There was noise to either side of you that caught both of your attention quickly. You two weren't alone. There were others with the same idea as you, already fulfilling their desires with one, two or even three other people at once and preferences didn't matter. It was a free for all.

Getting your attention back, Twilight sank to his knees and began to unlace your trousers and pulled out the prize you had confined. Never would you have thought or dreamed of Twilight on his knees between your legs, your cock in his hand as he stoked you and mouthed at your base. His eyes were glassy, want begging in those blues. When the first bit of pre lazily dribbled out, he swiped his thumb over your slit and spread the clear liquid over the head of your swollen cock.

You had to grip the wall behind you when a wet heat took you in, sucking, slurping and swallowing around you. You were by no means small, so to see your own cock disappear into Twi’s mouth and down his throat, stretching his lips out around you, was an erotic scene that you couldn’t turn away from the sight.

He bobbed and moaned around you, shooting vibrations like electricity throughout your lower body. Saliva coated not only what his mouth touched, but also his hands that were keeping the rhythm at the base. Spit string stayed connected to his lower lip, a bit of it flowing onto his chin.

“Don’t stop…” You whispered while pushing his bangs away. Not realizing that those two words were taken as a challenge, Twilight had you back in his mouth all the way to the root, his nose in your curls, purposely making himself choke (not gag) around you. It gave you the confidence to start rolling your hips. He opened his mouth enough to keep steady friction all the way around you and kept his teeth tucked under his lips as you unapologetically took purely your own pleasure into consideration.

“T-Twi I- I’m…!!” You pressed forward all the way into his mouth, cumming down his throat. The feeling of overstimulation had you hissing and him pulling away to stand on his feet.

He smeared the remnants of your release and his saliva onto the back of his hand. The wolfish eyes on you made you shiver in your boots. His voice was graveled when he spoke. “I want you.”

Strictly a bottom, you shoved your trousers down below your knees, turned around, and wiggled your ass in a, “Come and get it” kind of way. Rough hands spread you wide, thumb tracing over your entrance.

You let out a choked off holler turned into a grunt and it was now your turn to catch others attention. Cheers and claps from a few nearby voyeur pleasure seekers erupted as Twilight sought after his own gratification in fucking you. You were thankful that the drinks you had inside had numbed your sense of pain or else this would have been different.

The feeling of him stretching you open, filling you up, bruising grip on your hips and his thick cock head abusing your prostate was ramping you right back up quickly. Twilight changed his grip by wrapping an arm around your lower torso, making it so he had more control over the movements. His canine teeth scraped along the soft skin behind your ear before nipping the flushed tip of your pointed ear.

“I can tell you are wanting to cum again for me. Go ahead.” His left hand closed around you leaking cock, pumping it faster than his own thrusts into you.

You were at his mercy and it didn’t take long for you to spill white across the red bricks your cock was aimed at. Your hole clenched and spasmed around Twilight, making you even tighter for him. He groaned explicits into your skin as his cock flexed inside you over and over until he was empty.

He encompassed you with gentle arms, both catching your breath and laughing at the situation and scene still going on around you. He pulled your clothes back up , fastening them to how they were, before tucking himself back in. He spun you around and kissed you again.

You smirked at a thought. “Wanna see if the tavern has an open room for the rest of the night for us to continue this?” If you two didn’t have to go past a few of the others in your group, he would have slung you over his shoulder and demanded a room right away.

Keep it Naughty you Beautiful Beasties!🖤

#loz smut #purely smut #smut-tember #st23 #18+ only #twi x reader #twilight x reader #drunk #public smut

[aspoonofsugar]

Wizards Of Waverly Place - Family Business

So, guess what favourite sit-com of my childhood I have rewatched together with @hamliet?

Wizards of Waverly Place has always had a special place in my heart, but by rewatching it I have realized it is better written than I thought...

Of course, it is unapologetically a kids' show + a parody, so there are not overly intricated plotlines nor incredibly deep psychological explorations. It is sometimes silly with no shame. Moreover, I think 1 specific plotline (Stevie's) and some character moments (Justin's) could have been better handled.

That said, it has a great thematic heart which offers many touching moments together with hilarious characterization and honestly brilliant worlbuilding ideas. I really really love the tongue in cheeck worldbuilding of this series. It takes all the most common fantasy tropes and re-frames them in the context of an American family drama. The feeling is that of a discounted fantasy world, which is perfect as the set of very mundane problems like... how can I cheat at school? Or how can I have a guy fall for me?

The result is a series which pokes fun at Harry Potter, Twilight, Monster Hunter, but also at Romeo And Juliet, The Addams Family, The Devil Wears Prada and much more.

Here are some thoughts on the main themes + characters.

FAMILY - THE MAIN THEME

Wizards of Waverly Place is a show about family. In particular:

It tells the story of a family of wizards

It's set in the Waverly Substation - the family sandwich shop

This premise and this set are used to drive home the theme. The Substation itself may be secondary to the main plot, but it is still key in several episodes. Thematically, it is the home of the Russos and it represents the family ideals of sticking together, despite it all.

All being mostly magic, which is both a blessing and a curse for the Russo family. On the one hand it is a secret that binds the 3 siblings, as it lets them go through exciting adventures together. On the other hand only one of them can keep their powers in the end, which makes them all competitors for the same prize.

With the Wizard Competition in the background, we go through several episodes and plotlines, which explore different family dynamics:

DJ who uses magic to mind control his parents and do what he wants

Hugh Normous, who is happily adopted in his family of Giants

Ronald Longcape Jr, who has a legacy of Evil to honor

Stevie who chooses her powers over her beloved brother and ruins their relationship

Felix, a delinquent who turns a new leaf and discovers himself the descendant of the greatest wizard of all times

Up until the family of our protagonists, which itself has been shattered by magic.

Jerry, the father and head of the family, is the winner of his generation's family competition. Still, he gives up magic to stay with his mortal wife Theresa and they have Justin, Alex and Max (the main characters). Jerry also chooses to give his powers to his brother Kelbo, which leaves their sister Meghan with a grudge. Jerry, Kelbo and Meghan are never able to repair their bond and the risk for Justin, Max and Alex is to repeat their story. After all:

Justin is the lawful star student who is expected to inherit the power (Jerry)

Alex is the artsy lazy delinquent who often acts selfishly (Meghan)

Max is the weird airhead, who is difficult to understand (Kelbo)

So, will the Russo siblings repeat the previous generation's mistakes or will they keep their family bond intact throughout the Wizard Competition?

ALEX AND JUSTIN - THE BEATING HEART OF THE STORY

Alex and Justin are respectively the protagonist and deuteragonist, with their bond being the most important one of the series. Superficially, they are opposites:

Alex is an underachiever, impulsive and a rule breaker. She often uses magic selfishly and ends up in trouble

Justin is a hard-worker, lawful and a stick in the mud. He studies hard for the wizard competition and likes following rules

And yet, they are deep down the same, as they are both jealous of the other:

Alex is jealous of Justin's academic successes and is tired of being compared to him. Initially, she thinks she can't compete with him and barely tries

Justin is jealous of Alex , who is loved by their parents, despite her flaws. He sees her as the family little girl and believes that if he were not perfect, others would love him less than her

Deep down, they are both unsure of who they are and crave recognition. Still, they really have to learn from the other:

Alex must grow more responsible and put in the effort, like Justin

Justin must try new things and even break the rules for others' sake, like Alex

This is why their relationship becomes key for both of their developments. On the one hand Alex keeps getting into trouble with magic. On the other hand Justin comes to her rescue and helps her out. In this way, Alex learns from her mistakes and Justin gets to gain life experiences. At the same time, they show each other they care. Alex can openly rely on Justin and Justin can step in as the protective big brother. They usually get on each other's nerves and bicker, but in these moments they know the other cares.

This is their initial dynamic, which slowly changes as they both grow. This growth happens also because of important romantic bonds.

Justin and Juliet - Moving on

Justin and Juliet's story is just Romeo and Juliet told in reverse, where Romeo gets the chance to overcome his flaw and Juliet is a vampire (queen).

Justin and Juliet's story starts with their love solving the feud between their 2 families' sandwich shops

It goes on with Juliet's (first) "death". The two lovers end up trapped and Justin (Romeo) convinces Juliet to have herself mind-controlled by an evil mummy to survive the rise of the sun. However, Alex arrives 5 minutes later to free Justin. Just like in the tragedy, if Justin had just waited nothing would have happened

Here it comes Justin and Juliet's reunion, which soon becomes a second and more final separation. Juliet loses her vampire powers and grows old, so she urges Justin to move on from her

Justin takes some time, but finally falls for another girl. He starts dating Rosie. Rosie is a twist on Rosaline, Romeo's first love interest (here she is the second), who is the archetype of the classical angelic woman. Well, Rosie is literally an angel, but an angel of darkness and she influences Justin to join the dark side :P. Eventually, though, Rosie and Justin's love redeems them. Still, Justin chooses to let Rosie go, as she needs to fulfill her role as an angel and to look over mortals

Finally, Justin meets Juliet again, as she is mind controlled by the demon Gorog (basically Satan). Juliet is once again possessed by a malicious creature and Justin is once again asked to join the dark side for love. Still, he is able to resist this time and together with his siblings he defeats Gorog and reunites with Juliet

Metaphorically, Justin's journey is clear. He needs to learn that sometimes no matter how much he tries, bad things happen and he isn't getting what he wants. He tries hard to be a hero, but only ends up losing Juliet. Later on, he is so scared to lose the girl he loves again that he gives up his morals. So, he has to accept sometimes loss can't be helped. That said, if he keeps on trying and is loyal to his principles and to others, life will find a way to reward him. He just has to make the right moral choice in the end.

Alex and Mason - Putting in the effort

Alex and Mason are an inversion of Beauty and Beast. In the Disney Fairy Tale, Beauty changes the Beast in a beautiful Prince. Here, Alex (Beauty) has to accept Mason (Beast) for who he is. A Werewolf.

Alex and Mason meet and fall in love. Still, Alex gets annoyed by Mason's drawings of dogs (an early hint to Mason's werewolf nature). She gets embarassed by them and charms Mason to become his new Muse. Things get awry as Mason can only think about drawing Alex, which results in their relationship getting compromised. Eventually, Alex accepts Mason's strange art and the two move forward in their relationship

Alex discovers Mason is a Werewolf, but the 2 break up over Mason's instinctual declaration of love to Juliet. Mason doesn't love Juliet and his words are once again the result of his werewolf nature Alex struggles to understand. The following confusion leads to Mason turning into a wolf and leaving

Alex finds Mason and saves him in what is a Beauty and Beast call back. Still, Mason is stuck as a half wolf and Alex is embarassed. Before she can have him back as fully human, she has to accept his beast part

Alex drops out from the wizard competition, which means she and Mason can't be together, as it would be too dangerous. Still, they love each other and Alex decides to give the competition another try to stay together with Mason

Alex gets back into the competition, but a beast tamer called Chase keeps flirting with her and symbolically brings out the Beast in Mason (jealousy). Alex dislikes this side of Mason and breaks up with him

Eventually, Alex and Mason meet again and realize they still have feelings for each other, so they choose to get back together despite their respective flaws

The point of Alex and Mason's story is that a perfect Prince Charming does not exist. If Alex wants to be in a real relationship, she should accept the other's flaws, find compromises and finally put in some effort. She can't turn the beast into a prince, but must become herself a wizard to stand beside the werewolf.

In other words, Justin and Alex's developments are opposite. Justin learns he can't always get what he wants through sheer effort and Alex discovers that a little effort is needed to reach a goal.

GIVE ME A MAX

Max's development is less fleshed out than his siblings', but it is still there. If Alex and Justin compete over the role of favourite child, Max is definately the family unfavourite. He is the odd one out. As he himself says, he is not as clever as Justin nor as devious as Alex. Everybody compares him to them and sets up a standard he can't reach.

His journey, then, has him find his own path through two opposite love interests:

The first one is a girl, who is exactly like him. Still, he lies to her and loses her

The second one (Talia) is his complete opposite. Once again, he lies out of fear of losing her.

Eventually, Max comes clean to Talia and they realize their complementarity is something that enriches them, rather than an obstacle.

At the same time, Max shows he can be just as smart as his siblings. He briefly takes the lead in the Wizard Competition and saves Alex and Justin in the final battle against Gorog. Even in the final Wizard Tournament, he performs rather well. He doesn't need to be someone else. He has his own set of talents that make him unique.

HARPER - THE FOUND SISTER

True, there are only 3 Wizards in the Russo family, but Harper clearly steps in as another sister to Alex, Justin and Max.

Harper is Alex's best friend and the first human who is revealed the Russos' secret. With time, she gets more and more involved in the family dynamics until Alex openly calls her a sister and Jerry and Theresa adopt her.

Harper is Alex's moral pet and she is the one who brings out the troublemaker's most selfless and heroic traits. She is also the one who trusts Alex the most among all the characters. Justin represents Alex's bond to the wizard world and her biological family. Harper instead represents Alex's bond to the human world and her found family.

Still, Harper is not a sister to only Alex, but also to Max and Justin. Her relationship with Justin, especially, is nicely fleshed out and developed. She initially crushes on him pretty hard and slowly starts to move on, as she grows close to Zeke (Justin's best friend). Eventually, she becomes Zeke's girlfriend and this development marks a substantial change in her and Justin's dynamic.

This shift is shown in Moving On, one of my favourite episodes. Justin is still fixed on Juliet and refuses to go out with other girls. Harper, then, asks Alex to transform her into Juliet, so that she can convince Justin to let go. The end result is that Harper ends up in a date with Justin, which is her childhood dream come true. Eventually, though, Harper reveals herself and convinces Justin to move on. The whole scene is framed as both Harper letting go of Justin and Justin accepting Harper's advice to meet new girls. By the end of it, their dynamic becomes that of a pair of siblings. There is love, but it is familial.

Finally, Harper's relationship with Zeke is what drives Justin to tell his best friend the family secret. This in itself is an important moment in Alex and Justin's foiling:

Alex reveals the truth to Harper pretty early on. She does so as proof of their friendship, even if it is an important violation of the wizard rules. Alex shows she is determined to do what is morally right pretty early on. No matter if it can be damaging for her

Justin reveals the truth to Zeke towards the end. He is initially strongly opposed to it, as he and Alex have fallen behind in the competition precisely for exposing wizardly. However, by seeing how the family secret is ruining both the relationship between Alex and Harper and that between Zeke and Harper, he chooses to bring Zeke into the loop

In short, Harper is a key character for both Alex and Justin's developments and becomes the second daughter of the Russo family.

GENERATION XEROX - THE BIGGEST TWIST OF THE SERIES

As the series goes on, Alex and Justin's dynamic starts to change:

Alex grows more responsible and becomes better at using magic for which she has a natural disposition. Not only that, but her heroic traits start to surface more and more, especially when her loved ones (Justin, Harper and Mason) are involved

Justin starts showing his jealousy and his selfish side more. He realizes Alex needs him less and that he is not always the best among his siblings. On the contrary, he too messes up and does so royally

So, Alex shows her positive traits, while Justin displays his flaws. The Final Wizard Competition is built on this.

Initially, the viewers are bound to believe the final round focuses on Alex's development. After all, the episode starts with Alex performing a selfless act for the family. Later on, she quickly falls behind in points and then she convinces Justin and Max to leave the competition to help Harper and Zeke, which results in them all losing their powers. So, it is apparently Alex's duty to fix things, so that she can prove she is good enough to be the family wizard. Except this is really not true.

It turns out the disqualification is really a test for Justin (and Max) to forgive Alex. That is because Alex has already finished her development by the end. She has proven she is selfless at heart, when it counts. Not only that but she has saved the world and her family multiple times already. The one falling behind is really Justin. He is the one struggling to accept his siblings may be better than him at magic. He is the one who risks to break the family.

This is the real twist of the series. Initially, viewers are tricked to believe Justin is Jerry and Alex is Meghan. However, it becomes clear by the end that everything is not what it seems:

Alex has her father's big heart. Jerry has to give up magic for Theresa, while Alex has to win the competition for Mason. Moreover, she always prioritizes her family, even if it goes against her interests or the rules

Justin can be selfish, like his aunt. Meghan resents Jerry because he chooses Kelbo over her. In her eyes, this means her hard work is never aknowledged by her siblings. Similarly, Justin is the one who puts in the most effort in magic and wants this investment to pay off

So, Justin is tested to see if he can take a different path from his aunt. He succeeds and after some struggle the competition is resumed. By this point, Alex and Justin's difference becomes clear:

Alex is bad at theory, but she is great at practical magic. Not only that, but she racks up points in the second part of the competition because it focuses on magic used in the second part of the series. By then, Alex has become better at magic and less dependent on Justin

Justin is great at theory, but falls behind Alex when it comes to applying magic. He takes the lead in the first part of the tournament because it covers magic in early episodes, where his help was asked by Alex more

In the end, Alex performs better than Justin, but goes back to help him, which results in Justin's technical win. Once again, the narrative asks Justin which kind of person he is gonna become. Will he choose the wizard power or his bond with his sister? This is the same choice Stevie had to make btw. She chooses the powers and leaves her brother behind. Justin instead chooses what's right. He admits Alex was better than him and gives her the powers, so that she can be with Mason.

Alex proves her talent and shows she has more than enough heart to be the family wizard. Justin recognizes his limits, but sticks to what's right and is rewarded with full wizardly and his dream job at Wiztech. All 3 siblings get what they want:

Alex becomes the family wizard. Still, differently from Kelbo she has gained the title through effort and talent. Moreover, she can be with the love of her life

Justin becomes the principal of Wiztech. He leaves the family, just like Meghan. However, his bonds with his siblings are stronger than ever

Max becomes the owner of the Waverly Substation, just like Jerry. He ends up with the most down to heart approach to life, despite being often considered as the most over the top among his siblings. He shows instead he can be practical and smart

HEART, MIND AND BODY

Alex, Justin and Max's endings mirror their roles as heart, mind and body characters.

Alex is the heart of the family. She fights to keep the family together and when push comes to shove she prioritizes her loved ones. This is why she inherits the family magic. She is the embodyment of the family spirit.

Justin is the mind of the family. His knowledge comes in handy multiple times and he is the one the family goes to when there is some kind of crisis. He becomes a professor, so he can spread his knowledge to other people.

Max is the body of the family. He is often associated with food and fittingly becomes the owner of the Family Business. Not only that, but the sandwich shop is where the Russos' lair is. As it is pointed out several times, the lair is key for wizards. So, Max is entrusted with the physical domain of the Russos' magic. He may not be a wizard, but he is still key for the family.

All together, the 3 siblings make a unit, which is why the most powerful magic in the series is the one they use to defeat Gorog. As professor Crumbs explains, it is a charm, which is possible to perform only by 3 wizards siblings. Given how often wizards families are shattered, it is poignant it is such a rare and powerful spell. The Russos are able to use it because they will always choose each other over magic.

#wizards of waverly place #alex russo #justin russo #max russo #harper finkle #my meta

[mdhwrites]

So, are you the kind of person who thinks MLP Friendship is Magic should have ended in season 3 with Magical Mystery Cure since you think it went downhill in season 4 onward?

I'm going to answer all three MLP asks you sent together, this, the one asking what I think made S4 start the decline, and if I might go back to Equestria Girls at the same time because the S4 one is short and so is the EqG one: Season 4: I can't say exactly. It's been over half a decade since I watched literally anything MLP:FiM related. I remember thinking the plots were more boring, that characters acted like assholes a lot more and just that I enjoyed it less. Like I remember people praising Rarity in Manehatten while that episode in my opinion killed the interesting elements of Rarity's character. I can't say a lot of specifics though because I just haven't even had other people talking about the show to refresh my memory like with stuff like Avatar. EqG: I have been tempted in the past to go back to it but would honestly rather not do the coin flip for it. After all, Rainbow Rocks, maybe the one MLP thing I could talk more concretely about because I talked about it a lot, I consider to almost be the epitome of all that went wrong with the show. The girls are half the problem, no one actually seems to be nice or give a fuck about one another (Rarity broke down sobbing on stage for some reason, let's YELL AT HER despite being IMMUNE to the anger magic), and the jokes, voice acting and pacing are all just worse than they used to be. So yeah, Sunset is great, I like Sunset, but... I don't want to risk just ending up liking everything less by watching more of it.

ANYWAYS, this ask:

I like S3 a LOT more than I think a lot of people did but I did agree that Magical Mystery Cure had a finality to it. The thing was that it wasn't a series finality to it: It was a character finality. It was the exact opposite of what Twilight had been like when she first entered the show (see why her regressing to make Starlight look better might have pissed me off?) while also still having her intellect. She literally joins her mentor as a peer and is no longer the student. It is a great way to end her journey and potentially bring in a new character.

Even if they didn't, there was still stuff they could have done. Her tackling what being a princess means. Her tackling the power imbalance between her and her friends. How her worldview changes. S4 is even smart enough to start with some of that. Then... Yeah, people are right to call out that they do nothing with this and seem to mostly just ignore that she is a princess.

Honestly, that lack of depth and nuance and interest in exploring the characters is part of the problem I had in the long term with MLP. Everyone was an archtype, yes, but there was a little more. Not so much to make them ever purely escape their archtypes but enough to make them feel vibrant and alive while still being malleable which made them good for the fandom. I feel like S3 was the last time, and this is the ONLY thing I might give the Fausticorn assholes, when a lot of that spark to the characters was in full force. Even then, Faust has freely admitted that other members of her team were helming the show long before she left anyways because she didn't get to do the adventure series she wanted.

The show didn't have to end at S3. Not by any means. But... It sure does feel like they started struggling for ideas more after that half season. At least that's how I remember it.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#mlp fim

[flavaflavbutitznyork]

12H Venus ppl in a previous observation I explain how this is a beauty indicator 🎀 bishes really be gossping bout' y'all females & venusian energy ppl my friend who was like a sister to me has this & LITTERLLY our venusian energy (taurus sun) teacher & female co-teacher would be gossiping☕ in the room as if I wasn't there or gonna tell her uwu

12h does rule hidden enemies so 12h rulers will reveal who these enemies are & also my 12h ruler is in the 3h when I talk in a normal tone people claimed they can barely hear me, also I really be out here overhearing gossip💀 ass-kissers

I have lameia conj. venus at 1° degree orb pretty sure & damn everytime I got into an argument the other persons reason often was "sorry Ig I was Jealous of you" or like "It's your confidence & how you attract others" & bishes really be saying "They think there so cool" envy showed up ⊙_⊙ TF asteroid #248 🐍 Jealousy is twisted admiration don't gemme wrong I used to be monstrous when I got envious & I do like being envied however it's notta good thing💚

12h ruler is connected to a realm of dreams & a lot of the dreams have been school related, my 12h rulers Venus & I'd often be told a girl had a crush on me they kept hidden😶‍🌫️ I suppose if you were to have mars as your 12th ruler males may have hidden feelings about you❤️

❤️‍🔥malefic planets in 7h moreso specifically pluto & mars could have some violent enemies, 🪞however the 7h is kinda like a mirror & shows the type of enemy YOU ARE for ex: mars 7h sporty, fiery, smegxxual enemies yet- you could also be sporty, fiery & smegxxual

💟having mars in a feminine house/sign with venus in a masculine house/sign (even capricorn saturn-ruled) could make a native appear androgynous

10h & 1h might rule nicknames💣 & mars is claimed to rule names

ngl I thought mercury co-ruled how you walked sure mars rules physical movement however- it's not a far fetched Idea considering aries mercury people walking for ex: they often have there head facing directly accross the path there walking with a sort of "Idgaf" face ♈ Naomi Campbell's Mars (physical movement) conj. venus 5h she's a supermodel then her mercury is taurus conj. saturn she has really long legs & has a sort of structure to most runway walks also it would explain why she doesn't age too much her chart rulers conj. mercury which the 3h rules short-distances = walking (Lilith 3h ppl oop)

🌹Virgo moons often have horrible mother-related problems I'm pretty sure a pisces (a full moon aspect) had a virgo moon & his mum seemed very troublesome from what he'd say, honestly I think it's got to do with it not just being a mutable sign but the inner world's ruler is the moon & virgo is a sign very critical not just of others but of themselves & virgo moons often deal with there issues on there own there parents could be very critical & have there kids server there needs like the dude said she took his money for whatever rzn ⊙_⊙ libra moons can feel surreal to be around📺

venus-pluto aspects🤝twilight

🌊Neptune blurs things often- specifically harsh aspects

1h venus composite chart is so pleasent & indicates a really good relationship & friendship, cancer personal placements in composite indicates treating eachother like family my friend & I had this the libra asc 11° & sun opposite venus aries 🌜cutest thing about it is the moon at 11°11 like the number repeated a lot we really good friends y'all seeing angel numbers in natal charts or any charts for that matter don't ignore them ꒰ა♡໒꒱

the degree of your 5h might be associated with the age you start intercourse or have your first child for ex: 20 deg could indicate 🌞 having a child at 20 & as y'all know 5h ruler & planets indicate the child & gender at birth 🍼 you could see your 5h rulers persona chart's & SR chart indications of pregnancy are: cancer rising as scorpio's likely on 5h cusp transformational sexual, degree of your 5h natal being the degree of your 5h SR chart or said degree repeating, 5h ruler, 4h/5h ruler in social houses (if you announce it), 5h saturn might indicate the year you started being more commited for your kid🌕

🌶️Sagittarius ASC Moon persona chart or sag moon & 9h placement could indicate foreign roots even sagittarius IC basically bout' almost eurrbody foreign to this country🔥

♓Pisces might have the same effect☝️ as it's co-ruled by jupiter

#flavaflavbutitsnewyork #astrology #IK Y'ALL BEEN WAITING☝️

[johnnys-breastmilk]

Wally anon: fdjdb the way you hate Eddie keeps killing me. 😂 But, I'd absolutely agree on the tonal inconsistency being the ultimate problem. That & the fact the writing seems to be, like...desperate to just flatly recreate the excessive nationalism in many 80s films & manifesting that with strawmen Russian villains just to make Hopper seem more "awesome" when that completely betrays the subversions the series started with. That also stands in opposition to how the mysteries were always meant to be motivated by more or less the same goal with slight genre differences. Cause you have Joyce & Hopper in literal Russia, El's plot being run from the government, & the Hawkins crew in an ANOES sequel. One might seem like it has the least stakes, but I would've rather completely followed the wannabe Freddy Krueger plot!

I imagine if he has his name sewn in, it's cause, somehow, his underwear used to go "missing" (it was him actually being too...excessive with them in private, & ripping them, so he'd throw them out to hide the evidence), so it became a matter of keeping track so he wouldn't have to keep getting new pairs (& he would've obviously stopped his...prevous activities cause he has an attachment to these now that his name is in them).

Oh yeah, that's one thing I'm worried about for sure. I don't think it'll be an immediate thing since I imagine it'll take awhile for her to get her body back + explain the situation to Simon. And IF that's the route they head in, I hope they don't just throw Wally out to the wolves like what tends to happen to the ~unchosen love interest~. It's why I tend to be opposed to love triangles cause you can always tell where they're gonna go. 🙅

lollllyeah, it's kind of funny cause I don't really actively think of myself as "tall" cause I'm just short enough to not be a giant but then I see an actual size difference between me & somebody else & I'm like, "Oh, yeah, that IS my height." 🫣 Also classified as a mountain for climbing purposes.

And he'd be right back in the same predicament in the bathroom when detention let out. Lesson not learned at all.

And you know if you tried to completely ignore him in class, he'd do whatever he could to get your attention. 👀 Oh, no, please continue with your thoughts on these "bathroom breaks." I'm very interested in what you have to say. 🤭 I know for sure multiple body parts would be tired as hell from all of the attention, though. 🥴

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. He'd be a menace after phys ed if you weren't physical with him yet. He already is anyway (which is why we love him), but him sitting back & watching you the entire gym period doing whatever it is you'd have to do day after day would have him thinking thoughts.

Yeah, I have a love/hate relationship with Eddie. I can see why people like him and he is favorable in some cases, but I don’t like him as a character and he’s just the poster boy for the show’s bad writing. I agree with everything you said, and I think it’s crazy that Joyce’s plot is russians when it just doesn’t line up with much else about her. El has the fact that she was on the run in season 1 and some of season 2, and with superpowers, her story feels inherently Sci-Fi related. I just wish we got more of the Hawkins crew tbh, they stayed at the heart of everything and made it season 4 the most interesting. The main thing I really like in season 4 is the fact that everyone’s split up, and not like in previous seasons where they were all running around the same town.

I wonder what caused them to rip🫣 it takes a bit of strength to rip elastic and cotton soooo… I wonder what he possibly did to get them to such an unwearable state?

Unfortunately the staging of the posters and cover image for the show on Paramount Plus featured Maddy, Simon, and Wally. I love me some Wally on the cover but it felt reminiscent of Twilight and not in the good way… love triangles were the only vibes I was getting from it. I’m just kind of hoping that they have a reversal of everything from season 1. She missed Simon in season 1 to the point where Wally felt stood up? Well, in season 2, she can’t get over her ghost friends and Wally. Hopefully they don’t do a love triangle.

Tall people>>> Sososososo good, doesn’t matter the height. I’m at a point where everyone’s a giant to me which is so funnnn (I love playing the keep out of reach game sm) Wally playing that and doing the “I’ll only give it back if you give me a kiss thing”

He only learned patience, nothing else. LMAO

The dude would bring back spitballing because that’s what his bully friends did. (He seems like the kind of guy to have friends who are bullies because he’s on the football team, but again, he wouldn’t stop them, just feel bad for the victim of it and move on) He might even become a menace and talk about whatever’s on his mind cause he knows you can’t tell him to stop or shut up or go away, you’d look crazy! At least if you forgot your AirPods or something (something that infinitely confused him) he could sing all those stupid songs from the early 80s and 70s that he knows by heart to get you through the lecture. Oh, he’d belt his heart out.

Let’s just say you’d be out of breath and your legs would hurt before you hit the school stairs (they’re such a workout and for what.) He has you kneeling and giving him a bj, your knees on the floor of the bathroom in the very last stall on the end. Somehow, all of that pain—sore throat, bruised knees, breathlessness—all carry through even if his cum splatter on your face disappears. Your face is still red as you picked yourself up off the ground and check yourself out in the mirror, the rules of being a ghost breaking. I’m definitely gonna have to write a fic about this…

You’re sweaty and worked up from playing whatever hell the coach decided to put a bunch of teenagers through. Yet, Wally’s sitting on the bench in your locker bank, looking crisp and ready to workout as ever. I feel like he’d tease you, knowing that you’re exhausted from 45-60 minutes of literal hell that is high school gym class. But seeing you in the same locker room—using the same locker as he did in the 80s (his suggestion, not yours)—reminds him of how he used to ogle guys from that very spot. Now, he’s doing it to you and he can’t take in enough of the sight. Jeez, these are really good fic ideas I may have to go on a writing binge tonight..

#wally clark x male reader #wally clark x you #wally clark #for sillies

[mlplovelight]

Ch. 8 - Friendship Bracelet

Try not to make a fool of yourself, okay TWILIGHT SPARKLE?

Easier said than done; you’ve been trawling through Applejack’s scrap closet for maybe an hour or two, digging through priceless treasure after historical artifact, all the while listening to Applejack share her expertise and knowledge about various mechanical and historical subjects with you.

It’s all you can do to not just start drooling all over the floor.

“So tell me about these things,” you say, holding up a pair of big interlocking rings. “These are Bangles, aren’t they? Have you gotten any of them to work?”

“Nah,” Applejack shrugs, and while you’re disappointed by that answer, you aren’t surprised. “I know how they’re SUPPOSED to work! These Bangles are powerful Old Equestrian magic, and you can still feel the magic comin’ off ‘em, right? Like even compared to a lot of this other stuff, you feel the pulse of magic when you hold these guys in yer hooves.”

“You sure can,” you say, playing around with the rings. “It’s kinda tantalizing. But every Bangle was made with a specific activation key in mind, and those keys were only known to the individual ponies who used them. They wouldn’t have been written down anywhere, so even the Bangles that survived into modern Equestria, those activation keys are lost to time.”

“You’d think so,” Applejack chuckles, and your ears flick up like they’re retrieving an incoming signal from an alien spacecraft. NOW you’re VERY intrigued. “The thing is, these Bangles were rare, right? So a lot of the ponies who had ‘em, you can see ‘em in some of the Old Equestrian art and writing. Read enough about a pony’s adventures, you start to pick up on stuff.”

“If somepony has a very specific habit,” you say, picking up what Applejack’s putting down, “it’s easy to put the pieces together like, oh this must be their activation key to use their Bangle.”

“Exactly,” Applejack nods confidently, and she takes the interlocking rings out of your hooves. She pulls the two rings in opposite directions until their inner bands bump up against each other. “The idea with this one is that yer supposed to take ‘em apart, and then once they’re active they increase yer physical strength.

“Problem is, anypony who can take these things apart probably doesn’t even need ‘em! They’re like solid iron!”

“Still, I’m impressed by your knowledge,” you deign to give Applejack a genuine compliment just this one time. She’s earned it. “And your collection! There are only supposed to be a couple hundred of these things ever made, they started getting constructed near the end of Old Equestria’s recorded history. You said you had more than one of these?”

“Yep, though this is the one I know the most about,” Applejack says, before tossing the Bangle into the scrap heap. “There’s another one around here, I know what it’s supposed to do, it’s like a detecty thing, it’s supposed to be for findin’ stuff, but I don’t have the faintest clue how to activate it.

“Oh, and then there’s this one!” Applejack pulls out what appears to be a pile of rocks attached to each other by a string. Age has done a number on its coloring, but you can tell that the rocks all used to be painted with vibrant hues. “I have NO clue what this one is, but it sure is pretty.”

YES!!!! A CHANCE!!!!! A chance to show off your own knowledge and be really smug about it!

“That is a Friendship Bracelet,” you say, eyes closed and nodding confidently, big smile on your face.

“Is that right?” Applejack asks with a wry grin and narrowed eyes. She doesn’t believe you! Well you’ll show her alright!

“You’ve never heard of a Friendship Bracelet, Applejack?” you ask, really slathering your tone in as much smugness as you can muster. “And here I thought you were supposed to be an expert.”

“I know what a friendship bracelet is, Twi,” Applejack says flatly. “You make a thing with a pal outta rocks or whatever and it looks cute and reminds you of a good time you had. I guess this thing does kinda look like—“

“HA!” you let out a single uproarious laugh, cutting Applejack off and stopping her in her tracks. “You foolish cretin! You don’t even know about Friendship? Embarrassing. Sad even!”

“Uhhhh,” Applejack just kinda stares at you, and you realize you may have overdone it just a bit.

“Ahem, let me explain,” you say bashfully, trying to reign in the smugness. “You’ve heard the phrase ‘friendship is magic’ before, haven’t you?”

“I’m familiar,” Applejack says with a slight smirk.

“Right, well, it’s not just a turn of phrase. It’s literal,” you explain, and Applejack arches an eyebrow. Yes! You get to explain this and sound smart! “A lot of magic is dictated by emotion, right? Feelings of affection for another pony are the most powerful emotions of all, magically speaking.

“So what ponies would do back in the olden days,” you take the Friendship Bracelet out of Applejack’s hooves and wave it around a bit for emphasis, “is they would get together with ponies they were close with, and they would craft these bracelets out of magic rocks, and the magic of the Bangle would absorb their friendship magic and store it, so no matter how far apart they were from each other, they could rely on their friendship for power.”

“Huh,” Applejack blinks. You totally got her! She is SO impressed right now! She probably thinks you’re the smartest pony who’s ever lived and she is SO RIGHT. “Does this one still work?”

“No way, it’s broken as heck,” you say with a scoffing laugh. “Although, actually…”

You take a second look at the bracelet and wonder, humming and tapping your face ponderously. Ow, you accidentally tapped your eyeball.

“This is a raw bracelet,” you explain. “These are the kinds of stones that would be used in the construction of a Friendship Bracelet, and it’s possible the magic of these stones is still active, and that’s the pulse you can feel by holding it.

“The thing is, to really activate the Bangle, you’re supposed to build a shell around it to contain the magic, to protect the stones, and to look cute. Theoretically, with a raw bracelet this intact, we could create a new shell for it and it might become active again, in which case it would be a very powerful magic conduit.”

“That sounds exciting!” Applejack cheers and stamps her hoof, rattling the piles of scrap and knocking something off a shelf. “You wanna build one together with me?”

You stare wide-eyed at Applejack, your cheeks heating up like you’re inside of a furnace. You’re not sure Applejack fully understands the implications of what she just asked you.

Maybe you undersold it even; these Bangles weren’t crafted together by casual acquaintances or drinking buddies, they were used by ponies who dedicated their lives to each other. They even became a symbol of such everlasting friendship that ponies in queerplatonic relationships would build imitation bracelets to give to each other to celebrate each other, even without the magic.

“Uhhhh,” maybe you should explain all that stuff better.

But then again… maybe it’d be nice to pretend you have a friend like that, even if it’s just pretend for just a moment.

No, that’d be weird. You gotta fess up.

“Applejack, I don’t think you understand what you just asked,” you chuckle awkwardly.

“Oh, is this the part where you tell me these things were part of some kinda Old Equestrian mating ritual?” Applejack scoffs, and you remain silent. Mating was a common practice between queerplatonic friends, but that’s not something you should really be thinking about right now. “That was then, this is now. This is a once in a lifetime discovery we’ve made here, isn’t it?”

“I guess so,” you can’t deny that a Friendship Bracelet in this pristine condition is a miraculous find.

“Then forget about all that stuff it’s ‘supposed’ to mean,” Applejack says, taking hold of the Friendship Bracelet and your hooves, causing your heart rate to speed up to ear-pounding levels. “What it means for us is that we’ve discovered somethin’ really special, and I wanna see it through. And I never would’ve figured out what a big deal this thing was without you, so I wanna see it through WITH YOU.

“And, if I’m being honest,” Applejack looks away for a sec and her face becomes bright red, “I’d really like to be friends, if you’d let me.”

What do, Twilight?

Do you do the rational thing, and tell Applejack that she’s crazy and that the traditions of Old Equestria aren’t to be taken lightly, and also that you can’t just ‘make friends’ with someone in a single day?

Or do you do the stupid thing, where you listen to what your heart’s telling you and you say ‘heck yes I would love to build this thing with you, Applejack, you are kind and funny and smart and beautiful and I want to kiss you’?

…

Well, you DID say you would let yourself be stupid this one time.

“Heck yes I would love to build this thing with you, Applejack,” you say, and Applejack snaps to attention, a bright smile on her face and her ears doing the cutest little twitch. “You are—“

Stop right there.

“Uh, pretty cool,” you say awkwardly, “I guess.”

Applejack laughs at that and you breathe a sigh of relief.

You nailed it! How did you get SO GOOD at friendship?

#lovelight #mlp #g4 #fim #fanfic #story posting #twilight sparkle #applejack

[icefrozendeadlyqueen]

Twilight VR │ Reader Insert

First of all, I ask @alecvolturi​ permission to use her tiktok reference. Secondly, I want to thank the people that encourage me. Thank you. 

Warning: Violence

Word count: 3553

Do note title has a possibility to change as the poll is still under way

Hope you enjoy it! If you have any suggestion, let me know. If you have any names wanted to be added (in the Alpha Tester sense) Let me know. This shots will be under the tag TwilightVR. The gif doesnt belong to me. Do note let me know I might not be using warnings properly.

Reader Inset words references:

(y/n) = your name.

(f/c) = favor color.

-x-

"You will experience an all-out war in glitches if any of the main or sub characters move a weird way, write it down. JasperHaleisMyBabyDaddy has brought up an upcoming glitch that Charlie Swan teleports through the door without turning the handle nor opening it, we have fix that”, Barbara pump in extreme annoyance pointing at a brown hair female co-worker on the left side of the table. Everyone applauded, “Remarkable”, I blurt annoyed beyond believe to be here in this specific meeting. I could have been back at home playing the hit game coming out the following November 21 of next year. A multi-language luscious red head calls for everyone’s attention back to her to clear some confusion.

We were all required to use our Alpha Testing names in this meeting. I had to cover my mouth with my hands to stop myself from laughing. It is a magnificent name; however, I am perplexed at Jessica’s boldness, and Barbara ability to say that with a straight face.

Ivelisse Corporation motto is “We do it for your comfort and convenience”. Games from books turn into a bookworm’s dream. A VR paradise though there are some levels of opposition for a game from such a well-known franchise a mistake could cause a fire from the franchise itself burning the VR adaptation to the ground. This is merely very ambitious. Despite a small fandom by either those that admit publicly loving it or those that don’t.

“Barbara”, I stood up from my seat – all eyes shift from Barbara at the front to my I choose the Volturi pajamas. Barbara turns around her hair on a bun locks pocking from the side. She stumbles but stops midway. Everyone closest to her stood up to help her, “I am good”, Barbara mutters a wide smile on her lips. Everyone that stood resumed their previous seating arrangement. The coldness from the AC made me feel at least something other than my annoyance.

“Yes, World Crosser? Do you have any lags, problems, glitches to have pop up on your game through?”, Barbara eyes lock with mine internally. I inhale then exhale gathering the Volturi notebook on the table holding all my notes. I opened the notebook flipping through the pages as I heard Jessica’s voice in the background, “I beg you no more volturi references”.

“Then beg”. Everyone burst out laughing in understanding such an incredible and notorious tiktok.

“Settle down, lights”, Barbara sternly glances at each one of us not in any angry way. She wears a smile herself enjoying the laughter seating the atmosphere from close off workplace to something more comfortable, “In my immerse dive into the Volturi world, a modern item in a different time period could cause an uproar, or the beta tester could be branded as a witch. I have given it a thought because it is something I would probably do starting a witch hunt because it seems like a natural thing to do”, I utter loud enough for everyone in the room to listen to my words, I shrug as people protest at my boldness. How is it bold preventing the Beta tester from dying earlier in game.

“You could leave it. Have it as a possibility for the user; The Beta Tester to be careful on where they use or show their anker item”. I added once more, giving the room a once over. Barbara ponders on every word I said waiting for me to continue.

“In each part of the time period, the reader is experiencing. Shall we work on each section depending which path is available? As It is Alpha Testing, we are living one life through team member to have an idea of what can happen. In the terms, World related. What if? We get a Beta Tester that travels the world on foot then complains to the internet about what we got wrong? I am trying to avoid an apology letter”, I continued through my notes as I flipped the page to my more crucial issue. A short brown hair and brown eyes fellow, Seth’s imprint, pulls his hands up.

I inhaled a deep breath giving my heart and lungs some getaway – forgotten I wasn’t a Vampire in this life. Elliot shakes his hands in hopes to gather my attention.

“Yes, Sethiot?”. I gave Elliot the stage hoping my response had no annoyance nor sounded degrading in anyway. I am working on how sometimes I have a bitch poker face expression indulging people on how irritated they make me.

“I have to agree with World Crosser on world building areas such as Area 51 is a no trespassing zone. Some mountains around 6am to 9am completely disappeared from the game sight. I had frozen the game to get closer to it, and I had unfrozen the environment putting down the time I had frozen things not to disturb the reaction of everyone around. I have the coordinates in my notes; I had also emailed everyone a vivid image of it. I wanted to bring that out. Also, zombie apocalypse works amazing. You guys should try it”. Elliot waves at everyone handing out his hands towards me.

Everyone bursts with their own concerns about things they haven’t even previously brought up. Elliot shakes his head, taking a seat glancing at me an apologetic smile crossed his lips. I wave a hand over by face back and forth motion not even upset. Everyone was waiting for one another to stand up with concern. I am aware to which side 85% of these people are on. It rhymes with another coven. I am not going to mention any names; however, it is a known fact.

I don’t particularly care. Some on my side, the volturi side are here just because their preferred twilight love was taken. All hail Aro Volturi; I signed up early as hell. I slept in the office on sign up day. Well, it was my birthday too. I was lucky to choose first – well, second Barbara was first. It was all work for this particular day. It is my friend (y/n)’s birthday today. I have worked my ass off to get here, and I will do whatever is in my power to get that Beta pass for (y/n).

The least I can do for (y/n)’s birthday is given them a Beta tester pass.

Everyone in the room quiet down, even a needle drop could be heard. I stood frozen on my spot; I listened to my heartbeat ringing in my ears. Elliot stands up on the aid to defend a damsel in distress, “That’s not true and you know it. We are all part of a team World Crosser isn’t any more nor any less. She is part of the team as us doing our best; sometimes staying overnight to work on this project just like all of us”. He tries to compromise the situation by aiding me.

I glance at Barbara for some type of lenience because I missed half or whatever was just said. Barbara points behind her at the screen projector in which my name stood in wide letters reading, “World Crosser first place for an all-inclusive Beta Tester pass”. I whisper to myself not registering any of what I just said. I open my mouth widely as I notice Barbara walk the short steps to the water bottle drinking half of it.

Barbara scratches the back of her head swiftly pointing to the other side of the room. I followed whomever she pointed to there stood Cindy, Jessica second shadow, going on about something. I had absolutely no problem with any of my co-workers whatsoever. I am proud to be socially awkward.

“I have found just as many or even more widely lags and technical issues than her! She has a stuck up her ass thinking she is better than everyone up in Italy – searching and killing people for fun! Her chosen isn’t even good.” Jessica shadows blurts, a widen smile decorate her rosy lips with gleeful eyes. She stood up, a hand on her hips a matter of fact that I could have careless in no way in hell will I care.

Some people agreed just because they are from an opposite coven. This game has made these upright bitches more self-importance.

“As Sethiot returns the stage to me. There is a crucial issue I wanted to specify before we return to the monthly gift for those that stuck support. Charlie mustache h-”. I stop dead in my track at Cindy words. The notebook dropped from my hands before I even realized it. I heard the ring of my heart as blood pump to help me up on that table so quickly I thought I weighed nothing. Elliot had stood up trying to stop me; however, I was over the table in record time as soon as I heard her say, “I am glad Demetri dies in Breaking Dawn part 2”. Cindy words ring on my ears with that amused putrid smile on her lips that I wouldn’t mind ripping it from her lips, stuck up bitch.

                                                               -x-

After the meeting, everyone left the room except Cindy, I and Barbara. We seat in silence Barbara drinks from her water bottle staring into nothing.

I sat on a seat leaning back on the chair not looking at my boss. Cindy seats way far away from me with an icepack on her face. I caress my fingers over me bloody knuckles – I regret absolutely nothing. I would have jumped on her sooner or later.

“I have a date with Vladimir today!”, Cindy sobs devastated, her shoulders shake with the increase of her cries. Barbara sighs heavily, she clears her face of a non-existent dirt gives Cindy a once over.

“Cindy, do you have anything to say?”. Barbara paints a smile on her mouth like an actor about to start a scene. A life changing opportunity – she leans forwards, extending her hand in a mere way to add to her acting. I look up trying to stop myself from imagining the delighted feeling when my knuckles contacted her face.

“She broke one of our rules. She compromised the workplace! Allowing her to have so many privileges and learning! It’s blasphemy! She is a menace!!”. Cindy raises her voice twice her usual stuck-up tone. Her hands go everywhere, and the icepack falls to the floor, leaving a thud to be the only thing to be heard, “Also, you said to call us by our Alpha Tester names!”. She sure chooses more than she could bargain on, I thought.

Cindy whimpers, she shrinks twice her size back in her chair. Barbara glares at her employee.

“Do you think of me as a complete incompetent?”. Barbara asks, she clears her head. Cindy shakes her head in multiple quiet cries lowering her sight.

“Then why are you screaming? We are in a workplace, Cin- VladimirSugarBae. I am so sorry I didn’t call you by your Alpha Tester name. We shall follow the rules we express on that. The #1 rule we agree on as a group Cindy. Can you tell me?”. Barbara speaks softly though powerful enough to project strength through her walk. She could act as a ruler of a nation if she so wishes, particularly she is the mastermind behind this Virtual Reality dream.

Cindy lowers picking up the icepack placing it back on their cheeks. She moves back up to answer Barbara’s question as quietly as humanly possible. She mumbles the words not wanting to finish the words, “Speak up. Clearer”, Barbara adds slapping her hands on the table. Cindy jumps clearing her throat before speaking.

“We NEVER use ‘I wish’ or ‘I am glad’ referring to another Alpha Tester designated mate choice. Neither we are granted permission to question their choices because the same portrait can be done to us. We have to attain the consequences of our actions”. Cindy stands up without saying a word and she rushes out of the meeting room’s double doors in tears.

Barbara waits for the doors to close before turning to me.  

“She didn’t let me finish, but the classes will be free for (y/n) too. Self-defense, karate, swimming, etc. Any classes that they would want to learn about the time period they are learning depending on what age they start”, Barbara blurts sliding a briefcase on the table towards me. She sends a genuine smile towards me. Barbara stands up fixing her Volturi coat hoodie over her head, “I should not indulge in office slander nor conflict. I should send you to HR; however, remind me never to piss you off”. Barbara stuck two thumbs up coming over. She moves her hands over her pockets sticking out a silver key with the Volturi emblem engraved on the handle. She sticks it out to me.

“Give it to me after you use it”. Barbara blurts after I take it from her hands. I place the silver key around my neck; I lower my sight out of respect bowing to Barbara a hand to my heart, “Stop it! We aren’t in the virtual reality world”.

My hands hold onto the briefcase registering how valuable this is. I stood back up walking towards the door. I stop looking back at Barbara, “Will I go lose Alpha Tester?”. I had to be sure.

“No, I did send you a new VR set for (y/n). It’s my gift for them”.

                                                               -x-

(y/n) holds all their grocery bags in their two hands, the ultimate laze level of not wanting to do a second trip down and up six floors – not ideal. Days go in and days go out in a slow matter waiting for this precious day not one to celebrate their birthday; however, they found a VR set in their mail today. They assumed it was a gift, so they left all the mail in closing it.

(y/n) decided to go buy groceries before they ran up six floors of stairs to unbox every single thing before their roommate could explain what this means.

They have both consoles; it is the ups to living with a professional gamer. (y/n) knocks on the front door with their foot unable to use their keys in the back pocket of their pants.

“HEY! Birthday privileges!”, (y/n) screams at the top of their lungs – that’s the only reason they use it.

“Coming”, the door swings open a smiling roommate on the other side. A triumphant air surrounded her, “x help me”. (y/n) whines in their own right. Who on their right mind would pick 10 bags to feel like a weightlifter up 6 set of stairs?

“Sorry”. X helps them take grocery bags from their hands moving to the side to allow (y/n) to come in, “Leave the bags in the kitchen and go to the gaming room”, x closes the front door with her foot.

(y/n) mumbles a soft ‘okay’. They hopped their happiness behind like a bunny in easter to the kitchen. They felt euphoria running up and down every corner part of their body in anticipation. They walk through the boxes on top of each other’s and some of the room is not yet unpacked as they are both recently moved to this apartment.

Only the kitchen, gaming room and tv room are fully set and loaded. (y/n) bathroom and bedroom have essentials necessities that they’ll need day to day. (y/n) comes to a stop at the threshold of the door; A wide circular platform holds different robotic like tools. All in (y/n)’s (f/c). (y/n) stares to her left another set up all in blue stands back – x set-up is right next to this one.

Their hearts started singing symphonies as (y/n) made their way into their roommates gaming room. What does this mean if this extra set up is here?

“Do you like it? I know what you are thinking. Barbara’s welcome home and birthday gift; this means this is your home too, you know”. X speaks out leaning on the door frame. A smile on her lips pondering if she had to say something else.

(y/n)’s eyes prickle with fresh tears that they bite the inner corner of their lips to pull back not wanting to cry for such a nice gesture. This is a whole sophisticated set up – something they would never spend to own.

“Wait... what type of game requires such an immersive set up? It has those censoring things you put on your face…”, (y/n) turns around staring at back at their roommate. They hold their breath watching x walk across the room, “I didn’t know what to get you as your birthday. I had no idea if this is to your liking”, x takes a silver key from somewhere opening a briefcase on (y/n)’s brand new gaming desk table on their (f/c).

(y/n) walks to x hovering over her shoulders their eyes fall onto the briefcase. X holds onto a clear like glass CD holding absolutely no words; however, the faint sighs of pine trees. The CD in itself is beautiful like a mirror glass. X takes the cd closing the briefcase. She wiggles her brows stopping in front of (y/n) new ways more advanced console placing the cd inside. (y/n) raises an eyebrow curiosity swings inside their face at such prospect.

“(y/n) get on the platform and let it adjust itself to you”, x explains pointing the circular platform standing on a circular stand. They stare at it feeling a yearning calling for them; x quietly guides them on the platform not a word spoken by either of them.

“What about the sensory?”, (y/n) asks staring back at the other complicated technological options.

“Don’t worry that was another set up. This one is much more advance – the VR sets covers your whole face is has inter sensing. It will register every time your face moves; you can control it anyways. It will give you options. It will ask you some questions in which era you want to be”. X explains the instructions softly of my comprehension as she checks the security in the platform all hold in place not having their friends having an accident.

“What is the game? What VR game takes so much to mobility and visual effect? What’s with so much suspense?”. (y/n) asks so many questions before their VR headset lowers to their face adjusting to every corner of their face. They breathe in remembering to breath as x points to a mural on the wall side of their game set-up.

“Welcome to TwilightVR – First All-inclusive Beta Tester!”, (y/n) screams at the top of her lungs jumping up and down though her excitement is miniscule as the platform moves with them in place. 

“You are shitting me!!”, they scream at the top of their lungs. X smiles widely opening her the corner of her mouth ear to ear, “Every Beta Tester reports to an Alpha Tester”.

“Tell me I report to you”, (y/n) states, their excitement disappears from their face in utter sense.

“Yes. You’ll have to choose an anker item prior to entering anything for the tutorial. It will explain everything in a more depth depending on what you are into”, x explains, but I am half listening jumping up and down. I breathe in putting my hands up to get a quick question in. X extends her hand leaving the stage for them to speak.

“What about food? Drinks? What happens if I get stuck in the game for hours? I love twilight, but I need to eat”. (y/n) ponders their eyes search their roommate that burst out laughing in mere seconds of their words leaving their lips.

“On the tutorial, yes. In Virtual Reality time works differently there. TwilightVR time and real-life work differently. It takes a couple of weeks to get used to it. After a while you can differentiate the difference between VR and reality. On tutorial time flows the same. Nonetheless, the platform will notify you when you might need to take a break for nutrition”. X sugar coats the extent of Virtual reality and reality time difference. (y/n) knows there is more than time difference that something is there; however, x is probably not wanting to spoil anything major.

“If you want to start, there are multiple ways but to be much more precise close your eyes. I will connect you through”. X mutters loud enough for me to grasp as she instruction they close their eyes leaving x voice to be in the background.

(y/n) opens her eyes breath gets caught in her throat, a forest welcomes them from pine trees as tall as giants cluster so beautifully. The sun meets on one side with blooming flowers while the other side holds the moon with fireflies flying about. It takes them a bit to take in every little detail like a fairy tail both combinations of magnificent excellence.

“Magical”, they mumble.

A voice clear as water speaks through out not to loud to disturb the habitat. It was loud enough that (y/n) could comprehend what was said.

“Ivelisse Corporation wants to appreciate your support as our first all-inclusive Beta Tester. Welcome All-inclusive Beta Tester to the Immersive experience of the Twilight Saga Brand New VR Experience. Twilight VR is brought to you by our beloved Ivelisse Corp. Would you like to start your experience?”.

“Yes”, (y/n) clearly blurts leaving no hesitation in her bone.

#twilight #twilight fanfiction #twilight fandom #reader insert #they/them #roommates #if anyone has any suggestion pr anything related to twilight please reach out I would love to read it or add it #forgive my lack of description #TwilightVR #violence

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Why does the writing in Supermassive games keep getting worse?

Small rant about The Quarry and the Dark Pictures Anthology under the cut. There's some pretty major spoilers, so don't click through unless you're okay with getting spoiled if you haven't played the game(s) yet.

So, I think I've reached the point where I don't want to play Supermassive games anymore. I loved Until Dawn, and I was really excited for the Dark Pictures Anthology when it was announced. Man of Medann was fun, but I wasn't a fan of the twist ending where all the supernatural stuff was just hallucinations caused by gas. That would have been a good twist for an episode of a show like Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, or maybe a 90 minute movie if it was done right, but in a video game it just didn't hit right. Little Hope was absolute garbage. Literally everything in the game except for the opening 20 minutes, one short scene about 40 minutes in, and the very very end was a psychotic break happening to one character. It's bad enough when all the ghosts and witches and demons and danger is all in someone's head, but it's unforgiveable when every single playable character except for one isn't real. In a game where the main objective is to keep everyone alive, it makes the entire game pointless. It also introduced Supermassive's hard on for trying to trick you into making the one bad choice that determines whether or not you get a bad ending or a good one. More on that later. House of Ashes I went into with no positive expectations. I was giving this series one more shot, and if the supernatural shit was fake in this one too, then I was done. Thankfully, the monsters were real. Not only that, they were interesting. I didn't see the twist of them being devolved aliens that crash landed on Earth millions of years ago coming at all, and it was genuinely fun and interesting. The characters were better too, especially the growing respect/friendship between the Iraqi soldier and the gung ho, slightly xenophobic American soldier. I wasn't too fond of the way the game kept expecting me to think the white guy who got cucked by the black guy was somehow the bad guy in that situation, but thankfully it gave me the choices to change that up a bit and make him a sympathetic character (though I would have liked it better if I could have made the cheating wife lose both men because they both realized she's a scuzzy cheating bitch, but whatever, small gripe). My main problem with House of Ashes is that it brought back the gameplay thing I hated in Little Hope. Right in the beginning of the game you actually have to fail a QTE in order to be able to get the best ending. Even if you keep everyone alive and make all the right choices otherwise, you still don't get the best ending because you succeeded in a QTE, the thing that you're supposed to do in all these games.

Which brings us to The Quarry.

The Quarry takes the "don't succeed to win" philosophy to a whole new level. There are like a dozen times in this game where you need to fail in order to not just get the best ending, but to keep characters alive. And the ways you have to fail are so counterintuitive. With at least one character, you need to let them get bitten by werewolves so they turn into a werewolf and that skips them past an unavoidable death scene later. But that's okay, because they can get miraculously cured later. Even the hints in the game mislead you, because sometimes they'll hint that you need to do one thing, but it's actually the exact opposite thing you should be doing. This is purely and simply bad writing. Not just bad gameplay. Even approaching this as a movie and not a game, it's still bad because none of the characters have any agency. Nothing they do, no logical choice they make, has a logical impact. They would have just about the same chance of survival running around doing random shit as they would actually trying to survive. The viewer can't follow the story because it makes no sense. Which is a shame, because for a generic "camp counselors getting killed off" story, it's pretty good otherwise. There are interesting twists and good acting and decent to good writing and playing with tropes the right way and not just "subverting expectations". But there really needs to be more logic. More A then B then C, and less, A then G, but only if you previously did B then E, and skipped F, but not D. And this kind of thing is even more infuriating as a game, because everything I just said about the characters not having any agency goes double for the player. The game will actively lie to you about what you need to do. It doesn't just set you up for failure, it tricks you into it and doesn't let you know until 5 hours later. And maybe that's fun for people who want to play the same game over and over a dozen times to see everything, but I don't have the time or patience for that. I want to be able to try my best and have my skill, or lack thereof, determine the ending and who lives and who dies. I don't want a game to treat me like I'm Charlie Brown and the game is holding the football.

[threeopennames]

16072022: T19

Chapter 19: Good Buys

Plot: Escape from the badpires! Hey, wouldn’t you know it, this is a convenient excuse to have Isabella literally carried through a large chunk of the plot. The scene where she leaves her house is kind of ridiculous, but at least it’s somewhat her own choice and actions that make it up, so it’s not terrible. Everything after though, hoo boy. She might as well be an olympic torch with how much she gets passed around. 

Isabella: Color me surprised, all the bizarre dishonesty that makes up a significant chunk of Isabella’s characters comes to a head here as she must pretend to...hate Edward. I thought at the start of the book that all her awful character traits were going to be something that turned around eventually. Like, she might be hateful and paranoid, but through the power of love she’d learn to open up or relax or something. Instead it seems like the author took the opposite route; Isabella’s lying, bitter, resentful personality is a STRENGTH, not a flaw. This becomes more apparent when she starts yelling at her dad so he doesn’t follow her, where she channels all that bitter rage at Forks and his failed marriage and just spews out bile like a geyser. What an odd message for a young adult novel to take. Not so much the ‘be yourself’ angle, that’s pretty typical, but I’ve never seen a story where the ‘be yourself’ part entails almost entirely negative (or what most people would construe as negative) traits as being a good thing. Bravo, Twilight! 

EDWATCH: He doesn’t like killing vampires, apparently. I’m guessing no good explanation for this will be given in this book. It’s an utterly bizarre blind spot for the author to have, in a world full of supernatural serial killers nobody is concerned with catching or punishing them at all. Maybe there’s like, some kind of weird vampire society protocol that prevents it? Like you’ll piss off their vampire buddies and start a gang war or something? That goes against the whole ‘nomad’ thing they mentioned before but it would provide at least an excuse for the characters to tolerate the existence of evil vampires. The total silence on the topic is deafening. Anyway, the decision made early on to give all vampires super speed proves hilarious here as all the vampires zip around while Isabella just stands around gawking. I’ll grant the author points for consistently applying their superpowers even when it results in completely silly scenes like this. To me giving all the vampires the ability to be invisible by means of superspeed is a writing nightmare, because eventually there will be a slipup where the author forgets and something easily preventable happens, but whatever. I’ll enjoy the clown show for what it is. 

Charliewatch: This had to be a fun chapter to write for the author, given how much garbage gets heaped on Charlie. I can tell because Isabella has to say (twice) how much she just hates, oh hates so much, having to be really mean to her father. There was just no other way to escape from the evil vampire except to make it clear he was a terrible husband! No way to get free except to insult his way of life! Man, what a nice coincidence that the solution to the problem at hand happened to utilize all that hatred Isabella had for the entire book. The author has been priming the reader for this scene since page 1, but has structured the narrative in such a way that not only is putting Charlie down CORRECT, it is a LIFE OR DEATH CRISIS so that there is no choice at all and it must be done. That absolves Isabella of any wrongdoing whatsoever, while she still gets to scream at her father for not being cool enough or something. In fact Isabella is a GOOD PERSON for being so mean to him. It’s the kind of plot pretzel a romantic comedy might set up where the protagonists have to like, fake kiss or something for some stupid reason. Except here it’s used to scream at dad and tell him he was a bad husband. Twilight is a love story after all. 

Jameswatch: James is the evil vampire hunting after Isabella who has existed for maybe half a chapter. We’re told he’s a super brilliant masterclass vampire hunting machine, so I’m eagerly awaiting the series of stupid mistake’s he’ll make. Kind of lame the main villain for your book gets like, no screentime, but whatever it’s romance this guy is just a plot device. 

The actual plot here is deadened somewhat by the fact that Edward can read minds, and Alice can see the future. These were weird narrative choices to make originally because of how much they restrict how much suspense you can have for any given scenario, but here they actually just prove to make what is supposed to be a tense escape scene into something dull. For a ‘horror’ novel that feels really out of place. Like, there’s a super skilled elite hunter vampire out for Isabella, but we already know what he knows because of the mind reading, and we already know the Cullen’s plan worked because Alice goes ‘lmao yeah it’ll work let’s do it’. Very odd choices! 

[rhaenyratargeryn]

Title: sense

Pairing: Adam x F!detective

Summary: just a little scenario I imagine absolutely happened at some point.

Notes: ao3 link

***

“Oh, thank god— Nate, please be the voice of reason here.”

The detective’s tone was one of intense exasperation, her hand rubbing across her eyes as she stood in the Warehouse kitchen opposite of Adam, who was appearing equally perturbed. A deep line had settled between his brows and he had crossed his arms at her words.

Nate suddenly regretted having not gone the other direction.

“Yes, please. As sense has seemed to have completely evaporated.” Adam countered, his eyes trailing over to Nate expectantly.

At a loss, Nate smiled faintly, “... what am I voicing upon?”

“She is putting herself in a position of unnecessary—”

“Adam doesn’t want me sleeping with my windows open!”

The detective erupts over Adam’s voice, earning a cool glare from the other man. Upon moving his gaze to meet Nate’s utterly bewildered one, his pale skin seemed to flush just a fraction. Realization of just how preposterous the detective’s explanation made him seem flitted across Adam’s eyes for the barest moment before he shoved it down deep.

“It is an issue of safety. Anyone could enter through that flimsy screen.”

“I’m on the second floor!”

“As if such a thing would be an issue for a supernatural.” Adam said, rising up taller, as if he’d won with that statement, “You would be safer staying here if you wished to sleep in such a way.”

“If supernaturals are coming to break into my apartment I don’t think glass or locks would be an issue either!” the detective said, throwing a hand up and out to the side in a gesture of utter annoyance.

Adam had no retort for that.

Nate wondered idly if they would notice if he slipped back out. He got his answer when Adam turned to him, eyes as near to pleading as the older vampire could get.

“She has a point,” Nate said slowly, gauging the way Adam’s expression shuttered.

“Fine.” Adam said with bite, “But do not expect us to come running when you place yourself purposefully in harm's way.”

He turned and exited the kitchen, the detective’s words following behind.

“It’s just a window! For goodness sake!”

Once it was obvious Adam had no intention of returning to the conversation, she sat down with a soft thump into one of the kitchen chairs, attempting to return to her coffee and breakfast with minor success.

“How on earth did this start?” Nate asked after a moment, moving to take a seat across from her with a rueful smile.

“I just mentioned how I was happy the weather was cooling down in the evenings… the air is nice and I sleep so much better at home when it gets all cozy like this.” the detective sighed, “And Adam well— was Adam about it.”

“He just cares.” Nate offered, an insufficient excuse for certain, “This is how he shows it.”

The detective looked doubtful, but did not question the honesty of Nate’s words.

--

There was no way she would stay at the warehouse tonight after that display. The detective returned to her own apartment, throwing open both her bedroom and living room windows the moment she arrived and enjoying the chilly air that had settled in the twilight hours.

She brewed a mug of tea and settled into her plush papasan chair, tucked a few pattern pillows out of the way and opened a book. It took awhile for her to turn her thoughts away from her own act of stubbornness, which had in turn put her back into the argument from that morning.

Theoretical arguments with Adam were a constant daydream, right next to the ones where he didn’t flinch when she reached out to touch his face.

It didn’t help that the novel was littered with romantic subtropes and finally, with a sigh, she closed it after darkness finally settled across the room. The detective closed the living room window a fraction, as was her usual routine and shut off the lights, heading to the bedroom.

That window she left wide open, changing into her pajamas even in full view. No one was typically out on that section of the street this late and she was high up enough not to worry about anyone getting too much of an eyeful. Even so, she changed quickly, keeping her bare back to the glass as she tugged on a large t-shirt.

After, she shut off the lights and curled into bed, sighing contentedly at the way the ceiling fan spread out the chilled, night scent of fresh clean air. It was nice after having to spend so much time keeping the heat out to huddle beneath the blankets and slowly drift off.

The detective had just fallen into a soft dream when her phone chimed. Groaning, she turned her face into her pillow.

The phone chimed again. And again. And then finally began to ring.

Throwing her blankets off, she fumbled for the device in the dark and answered.

“...speaking.” she mumbled, barely annunciating her title and name. On the other end, the familiar voice of a patrol officer greeted her.

“Hey, sorry to bug you so late. You got a sec?”

“Sure, sure.” she yawned.

“We keep getting calls from folks in your apartment block. They say there is some weirdo hanging around. Big hulking type. Got folks worried about break ins. Have you seen anything? I’m halfway across town so I figured I’d save the trip if it was nothing.”

The detective took a deep measured breath, held and let it out.

“It’s okay. I got this.”

“You sure?”

“Oh yeah. No problem.”

The officer thanked her profusely, apologized again for waking her and then once they hung up, the detective selected a number from her contacts and plopped back against her pillows.

The answer was quick.

“Commanding Agent Du Mortain.” came the clear, professional answer. Too clear. Too professional.

“Where are you?”

There was a beat of silence.

“I am patrolling.”

“Good, maybe you can help me then.”

“Is something wrong?” his voice lifted, the mask of disinterest fading.

“I got a call from an officer. Says a hulking, unscrupulous and unsavory character is loitering around my apartment parking lot.”

Silence.

“Have you seen anyone like that?” the detective continued, unable to hide the smile in her voice.

“Did you tell them it was handled?” came Adam’s terse, unamused response. The detective thought she heard the sound of his footsteps.

“Yes. Ya know, if you want to keep watch? In the future? Do it from inside.”

There was silence for a prolonged moment and then, the detective startled, sitting up and rushing to find the light at her bedside table at the sound that came from her hall.

“I am inside.” came Adam’s voice, both from the phone and the outside of her bedroom door, sounding way too smug.

The detective threw off her covers completely and marched to the door, throwing it open.

“As I said. Entirely unsound. You did not even hear me remove the screen—”

“Adam.” she said, voice terse and annoyed and tired. Whatever she hoped to say next was lost as her shoulders hunched forward and his expression softened a fraction.

It was then he seemed to note more fully her attire, standing before him in nothing but a thread-bare t-shirt that was so large it hung off one shoulder and a pair of boyshorts. The detective felt the sudden tension roil to the surface, warm and familiar and yet distant. Out of reach.

He swallowed thickly and the detective began to wonder just how long he had been outside her window.

“Just stay here… if you’re that concerned.” the detective said with a sigh, turning and crawling back into bed. She turned to look back at him, noting while his body was frozen his eyes had followed her every step of the way, blazing with vibrant green at the sight of her, half-dressed and lazing on the mattress.

“... I… I cannot.” Adam was at a loss, the prospect no doubt making his head spin and his heart hammer as intently as her own.

“You can. Since it isn’t all of the team, you should be able to find a place to sit out there.” she said with a nervous laugh, the spell breaking the moment Adam realized what it was she was offering. Tension rolled off his shoulders, relief in his exhaled breath.

“You meant in the living room.”

“Where else would I have meant?” the detective replied, making a point of lingering near one edge of the bed, leaving the side closest to him open and terribly inviting. For a moment she enjoyed watching the way his breath puffed from his lungs before catching. That tiny flicker of wanting that he snapped back up and hid down deep the moment it dared rear forward.

“I guess you could always bring a chair in here,” she said, yawning and stretching her arms above her head until the t-shirt rose up high on her waist, revealing the bare line of her thighs. She relaxed and watched Adam’s eyes follow the hem back down.

Without a word, Adam vanished from the doorway. For a moment, the detective felt her heart seize, worried she’d pressed too hard.

But in a moment he returned, one of the antique padded, high backed chairs from her small dining table in hand.

He set it by the window, making a point of glancing out over the parking lot before he sat down.

They lingered like that for a moment, the sound of insects, the soft breeze of the wind outside and the gentle whirl of the ceiling fan filling the silence.

“I’m going to turn the light off.” the detective warned quietly. Adam gave a nod. She leaned over and flicked off the switch, sitting for a moment in the darkness until her eyes adjusted and she could make him out.

He was watching her.

She settled under her blankets, stilling once she had become comfortable again and finding the sleep that had been right at the forefront of her thoughts suddenly illusive.

“...well, good night.” she said with a soft, nervous laugh. Her heart was beating fiercely in her chest. She wondered if he could hear it. No. She knew he could hear it. She willed herself to calm, letting her thoughts fade to the daydreams that helped ease her into sleep. Every once in a while she heard him shift, the sound of fabric, of the chair. His presence was a soothing one, even if it did also make her heart skip and patter in her breast.

It took awhile, but eventually her pulse settled and slowly she drifted back off to sleep.

--

The sound of her heart was like that of a rabbit caught in a snare at first, thrumming with beats and the flow of her blood, rippling like a stream. Adam had felt his own racing to match, falling in pace now as it settled and slowed.

He tried not to move. Not to make a sound. As if doing so would make his being here less— real. Less present.

It did not help.

It only took an hour or so before he could tell she was truly and wholly asleep, her soft breaths deep and even. At that point, Adam felt himself finally able to relax, able to set fully to the task of keeping a watch out over the complex.

This was why he preferred her to stay at the warehouse. Where he could stand watch without her ever knowing he was there. Which he did—every night she stayed with them. Distance made his chest ache, restrictive and demanding. Searching. As if his heart would escape his ribs if it could to seek her out, only calmed when she was near.

Adam knew this was not just fear for her safety. Knew it was deeper than that, but still refused to place the words that so obviously described the feeling to it.

But now, in the dark, in the quiet calm, he let them flit through his head.

He missed her when she was gone. Without reason. Without sense. Which was why he tried to attribute something rational, something vaguely resembling reason when he argued why she should remain at the warehouse. With them. With him.

This, Adam supposed, was suitable enough.

She shifted in her dreams, the blanket pulling from her legs as she clung to it. After a moment, she shivered. Adam stood, pulling one of the soft quilts from the bed out and laying it over her. He smoothed his hand down her leg from the knee, resting his palm on her ankle until she calmed once more.

He had to fight the urge to lift his hand, to retrace the soft path it had just taken. When the feeling was well under control, he returned to his spot by the window.

When the sun rose, Adam would be gone.

But for now, he closed his eyes and listened to her breathe.

#twc #the wayhaven chronicles #twc fanfic #adam x detective #Adam x f!detective #twc Adam #twc Adam du mortain #adam du mortain x detective #Adam du mortain #do I have enough tags #twc fanfiction #NEVER!! #I enjoyed this I just wanted something yearning and piney and sweet #the irony is if Adam just said ‘I want you to stay at the warehouse because I like having you here with me’ #she would be like OKAY *moves all her shit in*

[dnf-fic-recs]

hi, some enemies to lovers dnf fic recommendations pls :DD thx!

that's only my absolute favorite category 😩😩😩

theme & variations by moobloom - Incomplete

"We," Dream says, leaning against the practice room's doorframe, "have to stop meeting like this."

"Shut the fuck up," George says. "I hate you. Why are you even here."

OR: Dream plays the violin, argues with George, and thinks about decking a child.

sunlight by meridies

It begins as all things do: with the sun.

or, Dream is the Guardian of the Eastern Gate, George is the Serpent of Eden, and it takes them thousands of years before they realize they are meant to love each other.

Causing discord is a full time occupation by YumGrapeJuice - Incomplete

It scared him—seeing Dream like this scared him. He was never supposed to be this… vulnerable.

The dagger in his hands was much heavier now. It would take one swing to finish Dream off. In the state he was in, he’d never be able to deflect it.

And yet, George was transfixed in place.

“Sorry,” Dream murmured, and it was so quiet George had to step forward a bit to hear. “I just didn’t… know where else to go.”

His last words were nothing more than a breath, and with them, his legs buckled under him, letting his body fall.

Or, Dream gets injured and shows up at George's doorstep. This wasn't in the hunters' manual.

jaw. by saintaches - Explicit

Dream and George attend the same prestigious conservatoire, and they fucking hate each other.

Born to the Purple by yungluv

"Marriage between royals, Dream," she starts, wrinkles enunciated, "Is the birth of new monarchs."

Dream's stomach curls, his fingers mimicking as skin is pulled taut over his knuckles, fire-tainted veins exposed.

"You and George are soon to be the new royal family."

Or, an arranged marriage between polar opposite personalities leaves little room for the freedom that Dream so desperately longs for. Until it doesn't.

television static by effervescentlies

Day 2: Enemies to Lovers, "I've seen it all, try me."

Dream bites his bottom lip and casts his gaze towards the floor. “It’s like you said. We do it all for the show, right?”

“Yeah,” George whispers. “It’s acting.”

Or: Dream hates George and George hates Dream. At least until they're casted as lovers on a television show, and the lines between acting and real life start to blur.

Objection! by SneakySlurpy

"Can I kiss you?" he breathed.

"You're an idiot," George muttered.

Dream chuckled lowly. "Is that an objection, your honor?"

OR

George is a lawyer who constanly rivals with his colleague Clay, plays Minecraft in the evening with his internet-friends Dream, Sapnap, BadBoyHalo and Skeppy, along with his roommate Karl (who has cute love problems) and Alex, also known as Quackity (who is always around for some reason).

i'll duel you by twilight (and kiss you by dawn) by art3mismh

Dream and George are rivals, and always have been. Ever since their first meeting at just eleven years old, they had become sworn enemies, never missing an opportunity to confront the other with various pranks and insults - both of them being promoted to quidditch captain didn't help anything either. But when an unfortunate accident strips George from his memories of Dream, taking seven years of history and turning them into nothing more than strangers, George has a strange gut feeling that he's supposed to trust the mysterious boy who claims that they used to know each other. What could possibly go wrong?

#I HAVE MORE... but i gotta save them for another ask :) #dnf #dnf fic #dreamnotfound fic #dnf fic recs #dreamnotfound fic recs #recommended by holiday #dreamnotfound

[petra-realsnk]

The Logics of Sessr*n: why is it successful within women?

Hi guys! Here’s the post that I promised. I will try to present some thoughts I’ve been having around the infamous ship, and some of the dynamics I think have contributed to its success. The most logical reaction would be to think that most shippers are men, since the dynamics represented do favour them, but that’s not exactly the case. Some of you have also proposed that this could be explained through self-inserting, but I would like to expand this observation a little further. 

This post will be divided in sections so you guys can read the parts you find more interesting if you don’t feel like going through it all. I thought this would make it more enjoyable since it’s going to be quite long. 

DISCLAIMER: I am not claiming that this is the psychological profile of the average shipper, nor do I think that this is representative of the ideology of all of them. These are just some personal thoughts and facts around some aspects that I think have contributed to its appeal. Also I apologize in advance for the quality of my expression since English is not my first language. 

TW: Mentions of p*dophilia and rape. 

Finally, I would like to thank @doombull​ for facilitating me one of the articles that I’ve used to elaborate this thoughts, and which also served as inspiration for this post. 

Grab something to drink and let’s chat...

About the thrive of “Lolicon” 

We are all aware that Japan does have a problem with the permissive sexualization of children.

 “Lolita complex, the sexual attraction to young, pubescent girls, is woven into the fabric of everyday life in Japan. Turn on the TV and you’ll see group after group of scantily-clad teenage and preteen girls singing or dancing to music. Peek in any bookstore and you’ll find a section of photo books featuring children in swimwear. (...) During the six months from January 2016, police turned over 1,023 cases to prosecutors, compared to 637 cases for the same period in 2011 and 831 cases for the period in 2015, according to National Police Agency statistics.”

These portrayals do have impact on reality, and have been used by real life predators. Contrary to what some shippers say, there are experts in Japan speaking against this matter: 

“Masahiro Morioka, a professor of philosophy and ethics at Waseda University, has delved deep into the psychology of men with Lolita complex, widely known as lolicon in Japan. (...) He says the nation’s obsession with puberty-age girls has justified sexual exploitation and crimes against them — though, of course, not everyone with Lolita complex acts on their desires and commits sex crimes. Like many people, Morioka finds the culture that tolerates lolicon problematic and wants to change it.“

Lolicon didn’t become a recognized genre until the 1970’s when fan artists depicted their favorite female characters of the time as underage girls. The reasons behind the success of this type of content is something that’s still being discussed, but some of it probably has to do with the unhealthy relationship with sexuality that some men seem to develop due to the taboo component of sex within the japanese society. Some of it might also be derived from a mismanagement of loneliness, something some of these consumers seem to struggle with. All of this is combined by some misogynistic takes on the ideal of a woman. These men find the interactions with the opposite sex to be difficult, and even menancing to their masculinity, being easier for them to project their fantasies into young girls whom are esier to shape into their needs.

Anyway, it’s not the intention of this post to really argue the reasons behind lolicon, but there’s something important to have in mind, and it’s the fact that its accessibility has made it so that there are children consuming it. Simultaneously, popularizing Lolicon is a message to girls that they are objects for consumer consumption, and that their youth (and innocence) is especially desirable in a sexual setting. This last element has definitely gotten into the way some women want to project themselves. For that matter, it’s not a surprise that some female shippers project themselves into Rin, since she’s an ideal of femininity to them. 

Sources: 

https://bit.ly/39QA18d 

https://bit.ly/3ixPIFn 

Non-offending Pedophiles | SpringerLink

Internalized misogyny: 

Following the last thread, we can conclude that some girls might desire to appeal to this ideal of woman, which is absolutely normal. Gender roles are being pushed on us ever since we are kids, and it’s natural that some of them try to appeal to the male gaze in one way or another, most times even in a subconscious way. This would also explain why some shippers seem to adhere to some beliefs that have been used to justify the control over women’s sexuality. 

For example, we all have seen them argue about how teenagers are more fertile and prone to survive labor. They also tend to use the “historical accuracy” argument to justify these types of portrayals. However, the imaginary of the middle ages as a place where rape and child brides where totally justified is completely modern. Sadly, these types of tropes are perpetuated by almost every historical drama, fantasy series like Game of Thrones or books like The Pillars of The Earth. It is striking how shows whose action is located in the present are reluctant to show this type of things, while when they are located in the past, they represent them in an almost sexualized way and without any scruples. Male directors do use other cultures and past times to justify this portrayals, and is something that has to be called out.  How interesting is that some far right men identify themselves as vikings right? Wonder where that came from...

But why women? 

After all of what I’ve said, you may think that the majority of the shippers might be men, since all of these dynamics seem to favour them. Even so, despite being a shonen manga Inuyasha had a mostly female based audience. Romance played an important part in the story, and the way it was written seemed to cater better to the preferences of girls. This is also why Sessrin is so potentially harmful… It romanticizes a relationship between a teenager and an adult in a way that’s particularly attractive to girls. We can’t lose sight of the fact that a lot of shippers probably were fans of the og series when they were young, and probably  started to ship it as underage kids themselves. When they grew old, some of them left the idea of it behind but for some others it’s already deeply rooted in them. 

Next I’ll explain how Sessrin it’s appealing to girls. 

The polarization of masculinity and femininity: beauty and the beast

In the anime culture (and outside it) girls are represented as passive, while the male incarnates the active. Boys are the heroes, while girls are mostly portrayed as the object of desire through whatever traits the author finds the most appealing. 

In the case of Sessrin we have a typical example of a contrapposition of the hyperfemenine to the hypermasculine. I have talked about this in some other posts, but in the Inuyasha lore the masculine seems to be greatly associated with the “youkai”, that tends to fall in love with a vulnerable woman. It’s also interesting to point out that female demons tend to represent traditionally negative aspects of female sexuality; they tend to lure men to their demise by their attractiveness, and also do usually have a flirty personality. 

Sessrin does adjust to this type of trope that we can define as the classical beauty and the beast, not in a sense of physical attractiveness, but in the sense that it represents an aggressive masculinity that is soothed by the passive femenine.  The evil spirit is incarnated by the male, while the pure girl has the role of being accepting of this nature, often changing it. This type of trope is insanely popular within women, after all, stories like Twilight and basically every other book where a normal girl falls in love with a supernatural creature seem to adjust to this dynamic to some extent. It’s the idealization of a relationship where the man is a protective figure that holds an unbelievable amount of power over their vulnerable, and often infaltilazed, female counterpart. But on the other hand, women have the ability to tame this ferocity...

What’s the appeal of the monster? 

“I think with the monsters, it’s about power and danger and exoticness amped up to the Nth degree,” says Xavier. “One of the big themes in monster erotica truly is the power dynamic. The monster is big, scary, dangerous, dominating, and uses his monsterly qualities to overpower and seduce the maiden. And I think the idea of being seduced by something so wild and animal and dangerous…it’s kind of like being forced to play with fire and finding out that you enjoy it. It’s kind of this warm, fuzzy corrupted feeling.”

Interestingly enough, there have been studies on why the monster boyfriend trope is so successful. This can be somehow linked to “Teratophilia”, a term which describes the sexual attraction towards monsters or deformed people, though in this case we’ll go with the first meaning. 

Among other things, it has been suggested that monsters can function as an escapist fantasy for some women, since the monster is able to embody masculine attributes without presenting itself as a man, which may embody trauma and terror in extreme cases, or aggravating patriarchal arrangements in the least. 

The monster man represents masculinity through the eyes of women: it’s aggressive, unpredictable, and dominant. These stories allow them to give in into a feeling of vulnerability, they’re in control of the beast, they can even change them… It might not be a type of relationship they would desire in real life, but through these fantasies, they can experience some aspects of their sexuality and transgress the fear of man. This is very significant from a sociological point of view, these women might have been raised to desire this type of masculinity, but are aware of the threat it signifies to them. The monster guardian does protect them from the outside world, where they feel endangered, but they also are the incarnation of an “untamed masculinity” which they don’t need to fear. 

All in all, Sess*in allows shippers access to this type of relationship through self inserting into Rin. However, I hope this post has managed to bring something new to the conversation. There are in my opinion more reasons why girls want to be with Sesshomaru that go beyond his attractiveness, and that may have to do with these factors… 

Feel free to comment and add your opinions :) 

Sources:

https://bit.ly/3o6dERh 

https://tgam.ca/39ZADIS 

https://bit.ly/35YH4dO 

#anti sessrin #anti rinsess #anti hanyo no yashahime #anti lolicon #personal #anti-sessrin #antisessrin #anti sesshrin #yashahime

[autisminfiction]

Thoughts on My Little Pony: A New Generation

The show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is special to me for it’s portrayal of autistic coded characters, and I’d argue it was a pivotal phenomenon in autistic culture. It has since completed it’s run, and the pilot for it’s successor just aired yesterday in the form of the movie My Little Pony: A New Generation. Let’s make it clear from that from get go it’s apparent that this show is not going to be as significant to the autistic community as the previous show was as all it’s characters have less autistic traits than those in the original show. We’ve had our time in the limelight, so it’s fine that now the focus is placed on a different, but I’m still going to miss what we had.

It makes sense that this show is different from the previous one in this regard, as thematically this show focuses on cross-group relational problems rather than in-group ones like the previous show, which is more of a concern for neurotypicals than it is for autistic people since they have a much stronger in-group bias. We can see this change in theme from the first scene, where we see Sunny Starscout, the new lead who kinda feels like a neurotypical version of Twilight Sparkle, interprets Twilight Sparkle as being sent to make friends more as a diplomatic mission between pony races that a personal assignment to develop her social skills. Sunny longs to befriend other pony races (unicorns and pegasi, since shes’s an earth pony) and is only ostracized because such beliefs are considered to be heterodox in her community, contrasting with Twilight who never say the point in pursuing friendship with anyone. While intelligent, well-educated, and a little bit geeky, she lacks Twilight’s intensity while maintaining a social intuition that Twilight lacks, and so on.

There is one character though appears to be neurodivergent, if not autistic coded. That is Izzy Moonbow, the unicorn who Sunny befriends. What intrigues me about Izzy Moonbow is that despite being the comic relief she may actually be the most complex character in the movie, with her deeper character appearing almost as an inversion of her superficial presentation. For example, she appears oblivious to her surroundings, but proves to often be the first to come up with a practical solution from their environment, while bubbly she was socially isolated, and while her descriptions of other pony’s “luminescence” (aura) suggests a New Age archetype, she actually contrasts with other unicorns in the show in that she is NOT superstitious. In particular, she also initially appeared to be the opposite of autistic, but it was later shown that she finds it difficult to relate to her peers because she processes the world around her in a different way then they do.

Izzy Moonbow does not appear to be autistic coded as she has been shown to be quite responsive to the emotions of other ponies. There was at least one gag where she directly reacted to another pony’s facial expression, and she appears to describe other’s emotional states and personalities using can colorful metaphors. However, she also demonstrates limited understanding of what is appropriate behavior in various social contexts, so maybe autism is more plausible than it initially appears. One wonders if maybe her descriptions of luminescence is not a metaphor, but her attempting to describe how she experiences the emotions of others, which she is unable to describe in the way neurotypicals do because she doesn’t experience them in the same way.

Let’s get to the essence of her character. Officially her gimmick is that she likes crafts. However, her crafts are shown to be of remarkable mechanical complexity. She is not just an artist, but a tinker, and the only reason that aspect is masked is because her presentation is more feminine than the stereotype of this archetype. The tinker archetype is closely associated fictional depictions of autism, often under the guise of being more interested in machines than people. That description certainly doesn’t apply to Izzy, but it also isn’t an accurate description of autism, and in many depictions of the autistic tinker they are shown as emphasizing with machines as a result of being rejected by their organic peers despite longing to be accepted by them. Izzy is a bit a different, instead desiring to show her contraptions to friends she never had, but there is still a common thread of social desire persisting after rejection.

There is another link between the tinker archetype and autism that also applies to Izzy. The tinker is highly intelligent, but they find it difficult to express this intelligence through words, and instead demonstrate it through their ability to work with their hands. This certainly applies to some autistic people, though others are the opposite. As for Izzy, her comments tend to confuse others, but she has shown to be very competent at solving problems when she can go straight to using her hooves and horn, such as when she created a bridge from a tree while the rest of the group was complaining about being unable to cross a chasm. I think this is most of all what gets to the essence of Izzy’s character. She does not see the world like others do, but it cannot be denied that her perspective if just as valid because she proves it is through what she does.

Many people have compared Izzy Moonglow to Pinkie Pie, both being social comic characters who are very obviously neurodivergent, but I find Izzy Moonglow to be a much more realistic depiction of someoen who is neurogivergent, while Pinkie Pie is more just a comic character without depth. Both would be difficult to label with any real-world disorder, but while the reason for Pinkie Pie is because there simply is nothing beneath the surface connecting her diverse behaviors, with Izzy it’s because she’s meant to be a individual with personal depth rather than checking of a list of traits. I also wonder if some of the difficulty in identifying what is going on comes from the path that she has a very feminine presentation, but her way of processing things has traditionally been associated with males, and thus sexism in the psychiatric community would lead to them failing to identify her underlying thought processes. That’s certainly the case for many autistic women, and it could very well extend to someone like Izzy.

That’s all my thoughts about how autism and neurodiversity relate to this incarnation of My Little Pony for now. There is going to be a full series following the movie, so I’m looking forward to watching it, and particularly seeing more of Izzy. Depending on how she’s portrayed in episodes I may even decide to give her an actual profile. As for now though, I just think it’s really interesting how both Izzy Moonglow and Twilight Sparkle are purple unicorns who can ambiguously be interpreted as being autistic, but have completely different personalities. Izzy is breaking new ground, as while Twilight Sparkle’s personality was pretty common for fictional depictions of autistic males prior to her being a female instance of it, Izzy’s is one that hasn’t been depicted much at all, and I wonder if any autistic girls relate to her in a way they haven’t related to characters before. So even while the show has a whole is less neurodiversity focused then the previous one, it still has something in it for us, and that can be enough.

#my little pony #new generation #my little pony: new generation #Sunny Starscout #neurodiversity #tinker archetype #feminine presentation #Twilight Sparkle #izzy moonbow