#and Stains death/him even being involved was pretty pointless

[problemswithbooks]

I’m just annoyed by AFO, one of the worst characters and he’s the Big Bad. His main body should’ve died against Endeavor so we wouldn’t have to waste so much time with him.

I agree that Hori really didn't need to drag out OG AfO's death. I think he wanted to give All Might and Bakugou a Heroic Moment/Win but it came at the coast of pacing and AfO feeling really redundant. I mean I love All Might and I do think he needed a little bit of a moment before the end of the story but depending on how the story ends it could have possibly been left to his vestige+emotionally helping Izuku.

As for Bakugou getting his moment, again depending on how things go, could have been left for after Shigaraki gets fully possessed, with him teaming up with Izuku.

Because we're still not done with the story I can't say for sure, but I'm a little annoyed that OG AfO wasn't killed by Enji+Dabi. At the moment it seems like if/when Hori redemes the core LoV it will be last minute in a friendship is magic/breaking Shigaraki out of AfO's mind control thing. I'm not a huge fan of that and do wish that Dabi would have helped bring down AfO with Enji and Shoto. He still could have been cheering Shigaraki on from the sidelines to help bring him back, but it would have been the first step in showing he was starting to choose something for the greater good over killing his family for revenge.

It also would have given Enji, Shoto, Hawks and the other UA students that fought him more of a win, while also fitting in with the todofam subplot.

#bnha manga spoilers #bnha #mha #endeavor #enji todoroki #AfO #it just sucks cuz it is a huge drag on the pacing #and so few characters feel like they genuinely helped bring him down #which I think was supposed to be the point #like that defeating him was a team effort #and perhaps animated or read all at once it'll feel more like that #but it really did sort of end up seeming like the Bakugou and All Might show #while also undermining them and everyone else when he comes back 10 chaps later #like idk it feels pointless in that way #which is not how you want a climatic moment to feel #and it makes Hawks loosing his Quirk and Stain's death even more pointless #and Stains death/him even being involved was pretty pointless #and he was my fav character #but he just did not do enough important stuff to be brought back after his first appearance #as a character and what he was supposed to accomplish was just not at all utilized well #like I think he was supposed to be an emotional support for All Might but he was to crazy and had so few moments with him #that he's just useless

[slasherhaven]

Hi! (Forgive me im pretty new to sending requests) I saw your requests were open and I was wondering if you could do a one shot/ head cannon for the Sinclair boys who finds reader was abandoned/ and or used to buy time from their own friends? (How would the Sinclairs react? Would they help reader? Take care of them?) (If doing all three brothers is too much, could you do Vincent Sinclair? 👉👈 thank you❤️)

You’re totally fine! Of course, I like this being a plot of how you meet the brothers!

Bo Sinclair:

When Bo sees what happened he just approaches you, not really caring about how you ended up in this positions.

But when he takes the sight of you in some more, he hesitates.

Angry, sad, and betrayed. Looking up at him, alone and terrified. Something within him just can’t bring himself to be merciless.

He knows that he’s far from good but he isn’t a complete monster. For some reason unknown to him, a small soft spot had developed for you.

Bo has a strong distaste for people in general, especially those outside of Ambrose. Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel the need to kill you, because you had been wronged by them as well.

“It seems those friends of yours don’t care all that much about you” it’s harsh, he knows it is but it also appears to be the truth. “They sacrificed your life to save their own but it was pointless, me and my brothers will get to them. Now...let’s get that injury seen too” 

He doesn’t wait for a response before hauling you off of the ground, forcing the makeshift weapon out of your hand.

Of course you fight him, assuming he’s going to kill you, but he eventually gets you to listen by....well, threatening you. It’s a tricky situation that neither of you have been in before. It’s a learning curve!

He takes you back to the house, letting Vincent deal with your remaining friends.

As he sits you down and grabs what he needs to tend to your injury, he talks about how your friends are selfish and would risk your left for theirs. He tells you that they aren’t worth trying to help at this point and you should look out for yourself like they did.

He’s just trying to give you some advice here.

After tending to your injury and seeing that you have calmed down at least a little bit, Bo gives you your two options.

You can stay here in Ambrose with him and his brothers willingly or you can try to find your friends, who Vincent has probably taken care of by now. You can still join them though, if that’s what you really want...

Well...it looks like you’ll be staying in Ambrose for a while.

Bo is kind enough to not make you deal with anything to do with the death of your friends.

However, if you want to get your revenge on your friends? Bo will definitely allow it, just standing back and watching you do what you have to do. Maybe you were going to fit in here just fine.

Once you’re staying with them, you won’t be getting a free ride.

You’ll have to partake in your fair share of chores. Until you’re completely comfortable with it and he trusts you, he won’t let you get involved with the morbid side of running the town.

You just never expected to start to fall for the charming southerner that spared your life.

Vincent Sinclair:

Vincent’s heart aches for you as soon as he witnesses your so called friends abandon you, even though they would have been fine if they didn’t. He knew that he does some monstrous things but he wouldn’t abandon somebody he cared about like that.

Honestly, they were the evil ones here!

Vincent takes a gentler approach to Bo. He approaches you slowly as you struggle with the locked door.

Eventually you give up, knowing it’s not going to open, turning back to the large masked man with tears staining your cheeks and a knife you found in your shaky hands.

He continues to approach, hand held out in front of him to show that he didn’t have a weapon and that he wasn’t going to hurt you.

You flinch when he reaches for you but any sudden movement you make makes him flinch as well, maybe that’s what gets you to relax a little. He seems as scared of you as you are of him.

He wraps one hand around your wrist as he takes the knife from your grasp, dropping it to the floor with a clang.

When he sees that you’re hurt, his heart softens for you some more.

He takes you back to his workroom, which thankfully has no bodies in it at the moment (since Bo was chasing your friends around somewhere else in the town). That would have only freaked you out more.

He’ll sit you down and you watch him move around the room nervously, wondering what he planned on doing with you.

But then he was...patching up your injury?

He doesn’t speak but he doesn’t seem to want to hurt you, his touch was careful and gentle, like he was trying not to scare you or hurt you.

When you started to cry again, still feeling betrayed by the people you called your friends, Vincent would place his hand on your shoulder. Wanting to comfort you but not make you too uncomfortable by getting too close.

A quiet but confused “thank you” from you makes Vincent smile a little under the mask.

It’s in that moment that he decides he’s not going to let Bo kill you. But he knows that he won’t let you go, you could go to the authorities and it would all be over for them, so...you would have to stay here.

Don’t worry, he’ll protect you from any harm. He won’t let Bo do anything to you.

Lester Sinclair:

You had caught Lester’s eye from the very beginning when he had offered to give you and your friends a ride to the nearest town, Ambrose. You had been kind and friendly with him.

While your friends looked down on him or seemed disgusted by him, you were just grateful that a stranger was helping you all. He felt bad about lying to you.

You had laughed at his jokes and talked to him easily as he drove to Ambrose. He already liked you and thought letting you go into his brothers’ trap would be a shame.

So when he found you after being betrayed by your friends and left for dead, the first thing on his mind was to actually help you.

Lester is the most chaotic out of the three brothers. He’s gentler than Bo but not as careful as Vincent.

He’ll hurry over to you, which probably scares you a little since you think his goal is to kill you or hurt you.

But he’ll be talking, cluelessly shushing you and promising you that he isn’t going to hurt you.

He can be a little full on but he’s not all that aggressive or intimidating so you start to believe him and relax around him.

When he sees that you’re hurt, his heart just aches. He’s not as good as tending to injuries has his brothers but he can do a decent makeshift job. He accidentally cuts himself on things all the time so he knows how to tend to that.

Lester will probably take you back to his house outside of the town. It’s messy but it’s safe for you, for now.

He’ll patch you up to the best of his ability as he mumbles about how awful your friends are, appearing to be genuinely angered by the way they treated you.

Lester knows that Bo will still be searching for you, probably worrying that you escaped. So it was only a matter of time before he had to take you back but he assures you that you don’t need to worry, he’s got your back.

Kinda talks to Bo like he’s trying to get a pet. I promise they’ll be my responsibility! I’ll look after them!

Eventually Bo agrees to it, warning you both that he will kill you if you cause trouble.

But you won’t be staying in the town, you’ll be staying at Lester’s house with him so you don’t need to worry about Bo breathing down your neck all the time.

Lester does whatever he can to make you feel comfortable. Awkwardly apologising for what happened with your friends but promising that he’ll look out for you.

#bo sinclair x reader #bo sinclair #vincent sinclair x reader #vincent sinclair #lester sinclair x reader #lester sinclair #house of wax #slashers x reader #Slashers #slasher #my writing

[pi-cat000]

BNHA: something sad (Implosion)

Summary: The last time Katsuki sees Izuku alive the other boy is rushing to save him.  A ‘the Sludge Villain incident gone wrong’ aka Izuku dies.

Characters:  Katsuki Bakugo

Fandom: My Hero Academia

WARNINGS! Major Character death, swearing, heavy angst, graphic descriptions of violence

Other parts in this AU: (Something Sad),  (Anger), (Grief)

...

(Katsuki gets a taste of vigilantism)

.

“GET OFF!” Katsuki struggles against the hands pulling him down. Down. Down into never-ending darkness. Ahead of him is Deku, trapped in a swirling cocoon of shifting green sludge. The idiot is smiling, so bloody pleased with himself like he isn’t seconds away from death. He yells and struggles but the shadowy figures holding him are unaffected. All they do is watch with empty eyes.

.

Katsuki flings himself upright, taking several hash breaths. The air is still, the silence oppressive. Around him, the walls of his bedroom loom, the single remaining All Might poster he still has up glaring down at him. He is shaking drenched in sweat, hands twitching, itching, eager to blow something up. Anything to loosen the knot of empty, pointless frustration stuck in his chest. In between breaths, Katsuki rolls out of bed, yanking a jacket from where it is slung over his lopsided desk in the same move. He is not wearing a shirt and he doesn’t want to go out completely exposed.

The front door is deadlocked and needs a key. A change brought about by his continued unsanctioned trips outside.  Luckily, it is not his only exit option. Katsuki yanks open his bedroom window, sticking his head out, scanning the narrow walkway that runs between his building and the next. Nothing moves, the dark space is empty save for the apartment’s collection of communal garbage bins. Quickly, he shimmies out through the narrow opening, twisting so he can drop feet first.

It is four stories down and he lets himself fall, forming twin blasts in both hands to slow his descent.

 He had long theorised that he would be able to increase and decrease his momentum with controlled explosive bursts. Pain shoots through his ankles as he lands in a crouch next to the bins but it’s not bond-breaking, so he guesses his theory is correct.

Katsuki straightens, listening to the muffled sounds of a TV playing somewhere in the building next to him. It doesn’t seem like the sound of his blasts had caught anybody’s attention. The air outside is muggy, still warm from the day's heat. Another beat passes and he is strolling off down the street, hands shoved deep in his jacket pockets, bare feet silent on the sun-warmed pavement. Slowly, his breathing returns to normal. Now, if he could only find something to distract his dumb brain from re-playing the scene of Deku’s final moments that would be great. He needs something to fuel his anger and rage so he can distract himself from the new empty bitterness, burrowing into his chest.  

The few people he passes are salarymen returning from an evening drinking and they all give him a wide berth. He glares, daring one of them to comment on his appearance or take issue with the fact that he is a middle-schooler roaming the streets at midnight. None of them do. The cowards.

Katsuki is cutting through backstreets, making his way towards one of the busier sections of the city, when a faint groaning sound catches his attention. He freezes, listening, eyes darting over the plain brick walls, scanning the taller office buildings and apartment complexes for the source. There…around the corner… two streets down…there is someone groaning. He stalks forward, following the murmur of angry voices. In between angry muttering is the yelp of a person in pain.

Katsuki breaks into a jog, turning in the direction of the noise, following till he can make out conversation. 

“I told you to pay up old man. You stupid or something.”

“Please. I don’t have any money…”

There is the thunk of something solid hitting flesh. 

Katsuki comes to a stop near the entrance to a shadowed alleyway just big enough to fit a small car. There is a group of three adults in loose clothing, looming over a downed fourth person. A tall lanky man with a metal bat, a shorter guy with bulging arm muscles, and a greasy-haired man holding a knife are focused on an older man who is holding a briefcase over his head like a shield. Thoughts of Deku fade to be replaced with single-minded determination.

“Hey losers,” he strolls out into full view, “How about you fight someone who’s not missing his geriatrics appointment.”

All three would-be muggers, he’ll call them Tiny, Lanky and Grease-Hair, freeze, turning as one to stare at him. In his chest his blood seems to come alive as his heart rate ramps up.

“What the hell?” Tiny looks to his fellow muggers for confirmation, “it’s a kid?”

There are few seconds of disbelieving silence before Grease-Hair shakes off their collective aneurism. “Hey kid! Why don’t you fuck off? This is none of your business.”

“You weak, wannabe-thugs got a problem with the truth?” He smirks, fingers twitching. His response has three, four if you include the Brief-Case man, incredulous looks directed his way.

“You got hearing problems kid? He said to fuck off,” Lanky steps forward, resting his bat across his shoulder in a display of aggression.

Katsuki cracks his knuckles as loudly as possible and settles into a semi-crouch, ready to use his blasts to propel himself forward. It was time to put his newly confirmed quirk ability to the test.

“Guess the standard for criminals around here just really sucks.”

“You got a death wish brat?” Grease-Hair brandishes his knife, coming to stand beside Tall-and-Lanky, “I’ll make you cry so fucking much you shit stain.”

“HA! as if you could!” All at once his anger, excitement and frustration spike into a wave of adrenalin. 

Before Grease-Hair can take another step toward him, Katsuki launches himself forward, propelling himself with as big a blast as he can manage without breaking his arms. As Katsuki is naturally hardier than the average person-a secondly quirk characteristic- the blast ends up being pretty damn big. WHOOOM! It rattles the glass in the adjacent windows. His last coherent thought before he lets his mind succumb to the rush of exhilaration is that he needs to take out one of these guys as quickly as possible to even the odds.

Crunch, is the sound Grease-Hair’s face and nose make when he slams his knee into it. The snap of bones breaking is unnervingly satisfying. Grease-Hair topples over, eyes blank, expression of shock frozen on his face as he takes an express trip into dreamland. The knife clatters on the concrete.

“Holy crap!” The two remaining men offer shouts of alarm. The bat comes hurtling towards his head and Katsuki hurls himself to the side, ignoring the stab of pain that runs up his shoulder when he lands at an awkward angle. He flexes his hands, throwing both arms up in direction of his attacker who is now trying to bring the bat down on his legs.

BOOM!

Fire and smoke erupt between them, throwing them in opposite directions. The bright flash of light and heat provides enough cover for him to roll on his feet. Tiny and Lanky stumble backward and Brief-Case man makes a run for it while they are distracted. In the main street, several car alarms go off. Katsuki, being unaffected by the explosion, recovers first and leaps through the smoke, fists clenched. Moving his arm around in an arching swing, it smacks into Lanky’s head. He barely feels this sting in his wrist and knuckles as the skin on his knuckles break against his teeth. Blood sprays into the air.

It is at this point that Tiny recovers enough to retreat a few paces and make a slashing motion with his hand. Some invisible force slams into Katsuki’s side and he is flung sideward away from Lanky. Pain blossoms in his ribs and he lets off a clumsily blast to slow his momentum. He still hits the wall of the ally hard enough to leave cracks in the brick. Blood fills his mouth from where he has accidentally bitten into the side of his tongue.

A quirk effect? Something invisible that hit hard and had some range to it. Not great for him. He pushes off the wall, crouching, ready to dodge. Tiny drags Lanky to his feet. They are both glaring at him, eyes dark.

He coughs, and, even as the distant realisation that this might not have been a good idea tugs at his thoughts, he grins, “You pieces of trash are weak shit.”

“You’re fucking dead,” Lanky fumes.

Unfortunately- or maybe fortunately- Katsuki never finds out what the two thugs would have done next in retaliation because there is a loud, amplified shout from the ally entrance.  

“FREEZE COMBATANTS.”

A blinding white light flickers on and illuminates the entire alleyway, making him wince and bring an arm up to shield his eyes.

“Shit. Cops.” Both Tiny and Lanky turn, obviously intending to make a run for it, only to realise that the ally ends in a tall stone wall.

“WOULD ALL COMBATANTS TAKE FIVE STEPS AWAY FROM EACH OTHER AND FACE THE WALL!” 

Katsuki glowers in the direction of the megaphone-enhanced voice but can only make out the silhouettes of almost a dozen figures against the spotlight. Well, he’s definitely in shit now.

“ANYONE WHO DOES NOT COMPLY WILL BE SUBDUED BY FORCE!”

“Shit. Damn it.” Both men throw their hands in the air in a display of surrender not willing to try and take on what looked like half of the Musutafu police depo.  Katsuki begrudgingly follows suit, his breath beginning to even out as the rush adrenalin dips now that the fighting was over.

“Turn around and face the wall,” Is shouted once more, “Keep your hands in the air.” The silhouettes begin their approach. And they all awkwardly stand in a line and stare at the grey brick. Around them, blasted fragments of asphalt and ripped up concrete stand as damning evidence of his involvement. Guess he’ll be taking that ‘trip to the station’ after all. No way the bastards were going to let him off with a stern lecture after this.

“I hope you’re happy you psycho shit,” Lanky snaps, drawing his attention and he notes that the man is now missing one of his front teeth,  “Got us all fuckin in arrested.”

Katsuki spits out the blood that has been collecting in his mouth since he hit the wall. It spats on the ground near the man’s feet, “You got beaten up by a middle schooler. I did the criminal underworld a favour getting your weak asses off the street.”

That hits a nerve going by how the man’s face twists into a snarl of rage “Why you little…” Lanky lunges towards him and is immediately blocked by a swarm of police officers who have since surround them and tackle the man to the ground. “HEY, DON’T MOVE!” “GET ON THE GROUND” There is a lot of yelling, swearing, and spitting but the thug is quickly overwhelmed.

“All right, you, the one standing on the left…”

 Katsuki shifts his attention from watching Lanky get wrestled into cuffs to the tired-sounding cop standing a few feet behind him. Is it just him or does the guy sound annoyingly familiar?

“Put your arms down and cross them behind your back…” the sentence trails off.

“Bakugō?”

Katsuki squints over his shoulder at the familiar face of Senior Officer Watanabe. So…not just him. Fucking fantastic. Said familiar face is frozen, surprised, hands half way to opening a set of bulky cuffs.

There is a long exhale, “What have you done now.”

“Done?” Katsuki sneers, “I saw these assholes beating the shit out of some old man so I beat the shit of them instead.” Now the fight is over, that feeling of irritable restlessness is creeping back.

The Senior Officer shakes his head in disbelief, “Geeze kid, this isn’t like setting off explosives in the park, vigilantism is a serious offence.”

“What? I was supposed to do nothing then?” He grits his teeth. There, he can feel it, the anger flaring up again.

“You’re supposed to call for help. You’re lucky we got reports of the altercation and responded as quick as we did. You’re a mess kid.” 

“Tch. I was handling it.”

The man looks at him funny before letting out a long exhausted breath, “Are you going to come quietly so I can get an EMT to look you over or do I have to put you in these suppressant cuffs?”  A pause, “ And where is your shirt … and shoes?”

“Do whatever old man.” Katsuki ignores the second question. 

A firm hand lands on his shoulder, which he tries and fails to shrug off, pulling him off towards the entrance of the ally. The cuffs are handed off to another officer. They pass Tiny and Lanky who are both now sitting cross-legged on the ground, hands secured behind their backs, facing the wall. Grease-Hair, still unconscious, is being fussed over by two men in white and red paramedic uniforms. There is a small crater where Katsuki had let off his larger blast.

“Your handy work I presume?” Watanabe asks.

 “Hell yeah it is.”

That gets another sigh, “This is all going on your record. You do understand that, right?”

It must be the remaining adrenalin that has him laughing, “Like I give a shit.”

#bnha #mha #Baku no hero academia #my hero academia #katsuki bakugō #graphic descriptions of violence #major character death #coarse language #lots of swearing #vigilante bakugou #bakugou swears and gets into fights #Sludge Villain incident gone wrong #aka izuka dies #fanfiction #fanfic #bnha fanfic #angst #nightmare #something sad au

[mostlyjustwhump]

Gunpoint

Chapter 2 of Lucky’s story.

Things do not go as planned.

TW: Verbal abuse, physical abuse, blood, gun, death threats, BBU, human trafficking, modern slavery

Taglist: @shapeshiftersandfire @slaintetowhump

By the time Tyler came home, Lucky was antsy with anticipation. He strained against the chain as soon as he heard the car pull in and the door open. Tyler laughed when he opened the bathroom door.

“Hey Luck! Eager to get going tonight?”

Lucky nodded vigorously. “Yes, sir!”

Tyler unlocked the chain, and Lucky scrambled to hug him. He laughed more, hugging Lucky back. “Missed me that much, huh?”

“Mhm!” Lucky wondered when a good time to ask his question would be. He knew he still had to wait a bit more—Tyler was probably still a bit frazzled and burnt out from work. He’d get a much better shot later. Lucky unwrapped himself from Tyler’s arms and picked up his water bottle and the remains of his lunch. “How was work?”

Tyler shrugged and sighed melodramatically. “Work was work. My coworkers were a pain, but at least the workload itself wasn’t bad.” 

Lucky nodded sympathetically, despite not being able to relate in the slightest. He wished he had coworkers to talk to throughout the day. Even annoying ones would beat staring at the bathroom wall and pretending to have a person’s life all day.

Tyler straightened, loosening his tie. “Anyway. I was thinking we could have linguini for dinner?”

“Right on it, sir!” Lucky scrambled to the kitchen. He put the water bottle in the sink, and threw out the remains of his lunch. What else could he do to make Tyler more likely to agree with his idea? He picked up a pot, filling it in the sink. The sound of running water relaxed his mind as he explored the possibilities. Some garlic bread on the side of dinner, maybe? Tyler liked garlic bread. He could even make a special dessert! Chocolate pudding would be easy enough to prepare, especially if he used the microwave.

He put the pot on the stove, salting the water and pouring the pasta in. A few rooms over, he could hear Tyler flicking through news channels. Lucky half listened as he prepared the sauce and garlic bread.

When he was putting the bread in the oven, he heard news that made him freeze. 

“Tonight, a lost pet was found injured on the side of the road,” the local news anchor proclaimed in a nonchalant, almost chipper, tone. Tyler wouldn’t skip past this one. In the year or so Lucky had been in the house, Tyler had never skipped past the ones about bad things happening to stray and runaway pets like he skipped past the ones about wars, injustices, and the rare case of pet abuse that made it on television. Tyler turned up the volume. Did he know Lucky listened?

The microwave beeped, and he ran over to take the pudding out. The newscaster prattled on. “The pet, referred to as Reese, was found a couple miles south of his home. He sustained a few broken ribs and internal injuries.” Lucky put the pudding in the fridge to set, listening intensely. “Fortunately, his owner was quick to report his disappearance and law enforcement was able to find him before his condition could get any worse. His owner, an esteemed member of WRU’s marketing department, is shaken but relieved. I imagine I’d be relieved too if my company had such a good pet insurance policy after something like that!” The newscaster stopped to laugh at her own joke before returning to a more serious tone. “Police advise owners to install protective measures to keep pets from wandering off. Even if you feel your pet is well-behaved, it never hurts to be safe!”

Lucky let out a shuddering sigh. He wished Tyler wouldn’t play stories like that. Tyler worried about him running away so much, even though he’d never even had the chance to. It was unproductive to worry about himself ending up dead or hurt in a ditch, so he tried not to think about it as much as Tyler seemed to.

He started to plate the food, giving his owner a noticeably bigger portion. There was no time to feel sad over the news. He had a goal to accomplish, and if it involved being perfectly cheerful to placate Tyler’s worries first, that’s what he’d do.

“Dinner!” Lucky called, bringing out the plates to the dining room and sitting down. The TV shut off. 

Tyler walked in, stopping to smell the air. “Smells good in here.” He looked at the food and his eyes brightened. “Wow! Looks great, too.”

Lucky smiled. He thought it looked pretty good too, especially after he put in the effort to put the flaked parmesan on top and garnish it with a few herbs. “I felt like doing something extra good tonight.” 

Tyler sat and took a bite, nodding. “You’re on a roll today, Luck.”

Lucky could barely contain his excitement. It was working. Tyler would definitely be more open to listening to him now. He squirmed happily in his seat, starting to eat his own food. He wondered when he should bring it up. He figured he should at least wait until he brought the pudding out, otherwise the extra effort to make it would have been pointless.

Tyler shook his head. “Terrible what happened to that pet, huh?”

Lucky forced a bite of pasta around the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. “Yes, sir,” he said in a small voice. He had stopped thinking about it. Why did Tyler feel the need to bring it up?

“Wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t feel the need to run away. You’re too smart for that, huh, Luck?” Tyler looked at Lucky expectantly.

“Of course, sir. I’d never do that to you or myself.”

Tyler smiled. “Atta boy.”

Lucky’s mood brightened a bit again. He said the right thing! Not only that, but he couldn’t remember doing a wrong thing all day! If he asked the right way, this just might work. For the rest of the meal, he mentally reviewed all the ways he might possibly bring up his idea.

When all the food was gone, he stood up to collect the plates. “I made dessert too!”

“Wow, really? Awesome! What is it?”

“I made pudding! We can eat it when we watch TV!”

“Alright!” Tyler pumped a fist into the air, then laughed a little self-consciously. “I’ll wait for you and the pudding on the couch!”

Lucky went to the kitchen, humming a jingle he heard on TV. He put the plates in the sink and walked to the fridge. It was almost time! A sudden spike of nervousness struck him. Oh, gosh, it was almost time. He stopped, one hand on the refrigerator handle. Did he really want to do this? What if it went badly? What if Tyler took it the wrong way? He shook his head and steeled himself. It was a great idea and he knew it. It would benefit both of them, including Tyler, so Tyler would have no reason to say no.

Still, Lucky put whipped cream on the pudding before carrying out, as a last touch. Just in case that made a difference.

The living room was almost a relaxing area, with a worn couch across from a large flatscreen, but since it was the room closest to the front door, Tyler kept a gun attached decoratively to the wall above the couch. The gun effectively made the room unsettling to any guests that Tyler invited, but Lucky loved it. It was the spot he felt closest to Tyler, the spot he watched the people on TV with their better lives, the spot he almost felt normal.

Lucky settled in next to Tyler on the couch and handed one of the pudding bowls over, Tyler eagerly accepted it, putting a heaping spoonful into his mouth.

“Mmm!” Tyler picked up the remote and flicked through Netflix, looking for something to watch.

Lucky stared into his pudding bowl, using his spoon to poke at the dessert. He took a deep breath. Now was the best time.

“Hey, um, sir?”

“Yeah?” Tyler barely seemed to be listening.

“I was thinking… so, um, some people bring their platonics to work to help them with disabilities? I think, um, I think we should maybe do that.” Lucky hadn’t looked up from his pudding once while he spoke. Tyler was completely silent, so Lucky went on, hoping to fill the tense silence. “I mean, you wouldn’t have to worry about being scared at work, and—”

“Is this not good enough for you?” Lucky cringed into the couch. The spoon kept clinking against the bowl in his shaking hands. No, no, no, no… this wasn’t how it was supposed to go!

He forced words out of his frozen mouth. “Of… of course not, sir, I just think it would be good—”

“Bullshit!” Tyler slammed his pudding bowl on the coffee table so hard, Lucky cried out at the noise. “I’m the owner here! I know what’s best! Don’t you dare forget which one of us is in charge!” Tyler grabbed Lucky’s hair, yanking him forward. Lucky yelped in pain, dropping his bowl on the ground. It broke. Tyler yelled louder. “Now look what you’ve done!”

Lucky reached down, trembling, to pick the pieces up. “I’m, I’m sorry sir, but you’d be less scared, and I—”

Tyler shoved him onto the ground. His arms were cut on the broken pieces of the bowl, pudding staining his shirt.”You what?” 

“I don’t want to be locked up all day!” Lucky blurted. The reality of what a damning thing he said hit him, and he started sobbing, choking out more words around his cries. “Please, sir, I...I can be useful...let me clean, at least… please…” 

Tyler stood up, face twisted in harsh fury. “You know.” He raised his voice. “You know why I keep you there, and you still insist on leaving?” He laughed, but there was no humor in his voice. “I want to protect you!”

“I, I know, I’m sorry—”

“Do you want something bad to happen? To wander off, get lost, and die alone? To be murdered if robbers break in? To be stolen and hurt? Is that what you want, huh?”

“No—”

Tyler laughed again, voice rising hysterically. “Well, if you have such a death wish, why don’t I kill you right now?” Lucky tensed, horror rising in him as Tyler took the gun off the wall. “I could do it, you know. No one would care. You aren’t as important as you think you are, Luck.”

Lucky tried to force his voice to remain steady. Tyler was right—if he were shot right now, no one outside the house would care. Most likely, no one outside the house would even find out. “Sir, please—”

Tyler swung the gun to point at him. Lucky whimpered, curling up on himself. His heart hammered so hard he felt like it was going to burst from his chest. How had this gone so wrong? It felt like the room was closing in, leaving him no escape. He vividly imagined bullets blowing him to pieces, and curled up even tighter.

“Oh, so now you’re nice and obedient. It’s too late for that, you know.” Lucky looked up at the man who was going to be the end of him. His vision was blurred by tears, but Tyler almost seemed to be smirking.

Lucky tried to force himself to beg, but all that could escape his throat was the word “please”. He said it again and again, barely above a whisper. He raised a weak, trembling arm, trying to put a hand on Tyler’s foot. It was over. He was going to die. Oh god, he was going to die.

“You’re getting blood on my socks.” Lucky recoiled his arm. It was covered in smeared blood from his cuts. He curled back into himself. Begging had only made it worse. All he could do now was wait.

He mentally detached himself from his body. A heart still pounded somewhere, but it didn’t feel like his heart. Eyes watered, but they no longer felt like his. Even the bleeding arm felt disconnected from his existence. He’d mentally run away like this many times in the Facility, but this time would be his last. The ability had served him well, anyway. He waited outside himself for the fatal shot.

It never came.

Suddenly, Tyler was carefully pulling him back up on the couch. Lucky’s head spun. What was happening? He blinked, glancing around. The gun was back in its place on the wall, as if nothing had happened. Tyler gently held him, running a hand through his hair as he cried. He was such a helpless mess, sobbing, covered in snot, blood, and pudding, yet Tyler, still well put together, was pretending not to notice.

“Shh. Shh. You didn’t think I was really going to shoot you, did you?”

Lucky couldn’t respond. He couldn’t even think clearly enough to string together a coherent sentence. He simply buried his head deeper into Tyler’s shoulder, sobbing out his fear and confusion.

But he couldn’t believe Tyler. He was certain that Tyler really might have killed him, no matter what reassurances he was muttering now. He knew what had happened, even if Tyler didn’t want to admit it to himself. He was sure of it.

#Lucky #Tyler #BBU #Box Boy #boxboy #box boy universe #verbal abuse #tw verbal abuse #physical abuse #TW physical abuse #blood #tw blood #gun #tw gun #gun tw #tw human trafficking #human trafficking tw

[an-ambivalent]

Bleeding Heart [Yandere! Prince! Namjoon]

Word Count: 1.8K 

Warnings: It obviously goes to say that since this is a yandere work, it deals with uncomfortable things that may be uncomfortable or triggering to read. This work is rather angsty? I’d like to say lol, and it contains mentions of violence so read at your own risk.  I do not condone this behaviour, nor do I believe any of the mentioned members would display this type of behaviour in real life.

With certain genius-ness that is marveled at because it exceeds the human expectation comes a certain extent of ostracisation. The man lost himself behind his mask and amongst the very people who cared so little. Then, once darkness shrouded him for long enough and he stopped seeking, he found a pair of hands in the utmost unexpected circumstances that held the answers to all that he searched for. 

To what many may not believe, the reality was that life of a royale could be rather complex. There were those who developed minimum brain cells and stayed blissful in their ignorance -- the one’s with an IQ lower than the room’s temperature; they were the one’s who only selfishly cared about their own needs. To be this type of person was the easiest because these individuals never cared about others. Then, there were people like him, the extraordinary, the exceptional buds who only bloomed once in a blue moon if given the right circumstances. Prince Namjoon was an innocent child of wonder who was forcefully bathed in cold blood of others -- the less unfortunate. If nurtured with an environment of love and taught to be selfless, he could have been the sovereignty who would have reigned with the power to teach love. But that was not the case. Instead, Namjoon had a rigid upbringing and it was one he was never able to break out of. No matter how intelligent he was, he was never smart enough to understand what terms of kindness and selflessness meant, and he was never smart enough to be able to escape the clutches of his own insanity that drove him to ruin everything. 

 “Strive for more power, you will be stronger, you will be more dignified.” 

The only thing he had felt when he had raided the smaller lands, whom the victory was guaranteed against, and the count of blood of the innocent on his hands simply increased, was a hollowness in his chest. 

“Get rid off those who undermine you. Take their life away and added their earnings to yours. You will be on top of the world.” 

Rather than feeling a sense of gaining like he was told he would, he lost the last glimmer of lustre in his irises that was only flicker left of his innocence. The sheer coldness in his eyes, the lack of humanity, and emptiness of all emotions suddenly seemed to become the more defining traits than his unique monolids; for to be undermined was said to be anyone who gave him the slightest wrong remark, action, or emotion. 

He wondered why he had not killed her in their first meeting and what had drawn him to cling onto her. 

With her delicate hands, skin on them was evident of certain roughness. Her skin was darkened due to the soil coating it. With the utmost gentleness and tenderness of her hands, she tended to the flowers in his personal garden. In Namjoon’s eyes, given the ideals he was raised with, it was pointless to cater to flowers with as much caution as she did. As he watched her, the look of determination to do her best with looking after the plants, and the evident love in her gaze, baffled him. 

It was like a pull from a high power that prompted him to walk towards her -- the first sole meeting that was going to take place to give him a taste of what could have been, before everything he comes to care for is taken away. 

Words left him before he even knew he had spoken. 

“Why do you bother trying to cater to something that is weaker than you? It seems pointless.” His cold voice rung out, causing her to halt in the midst of her movements. [Name] stayed stilled for a few moments processing that someone had called out to her. Usually, while her duties were scheduled in the garden, she was never really accompanied by someone; she was always in her own company surrounded by the fruits and flowers of her hard work. This unexpected greeting had made her freeze, and Namjoon, who would generally have a person’s head off if they took so long to respond to him, was oddly patient. 

[Name] turned towards his direction, and as she looked up at him, she blinked a few times,  before she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. Because of her lower status, [Name] did not interact with royals much if any, so she did not know them particularly by their face or even their name. But with the way Namjoon was dressed, it was evident he was someone of high status. So, automatically, she bowed to him in respect in response to his greeting. 

“Please pardon me, I did not hear what you asked of me.” At this, Namjoon’s eyebrow twitched and now, he was beginning to feel annoyed. 

“I don’t like to repeat myself, listen attentively next time when spoken to,” he began harshly. The lack of respect he held for people below him in status was evident in his condescending tone, which had also caused [Name] to wince inwardly. “I asked why do you bother trying to cater to something that is weaker than you? It seems pointless,” he stated stoically. 

[Name] raised an eyebrow as she stood up to her full height Then, without an ounce of fear or hesitation, she looked into Namjoon’s emotionless eyes with her own challenging stare. 

“Do you wish for me to answer truthfully or give you an answer that conforms to your ideals and beliefs?” 

For a minute moment, the corner of Namjoon’s lips seemed to have twitched upwards. But it was so sudden that it might as well have been a figment of her imagination. 

“Humour me with your honesty,” he responded, and [Name]’s eyes widened slightly, before she earnestly nodded. 

“There’s no particular reason for why I care so much. I just do because like you and I, they’re alive. The value of one life form of life over another is just a human concept. Without our possessions, our status controlled by those who believe they have power, we are nothing, just like everything else. All living beings live and die universally, and all of us, sin and carry regrets. If we’re so similar, it’s only fair we do our best to tend to everything around us,” she explained easily, and smiled at Namjoon. In response to her reply, he suddenly found himself feeling flustered. 

In a poor attempt to call her out for her foolish ideologies, he scoffed at her. 

“That is an incredibly foolish perspective. It is a natural cycle of survival of the fittest. The stronger consume and end the weak,” he stated simply, and [Name] glanced away from him, before she sighed. It made Namjoon believe that she thought he was a hopeless case, and he really wondered why he had not killed her yet. 

“You’re right in saying that and if that’s what you want to hear, then it’s only more important I look after plants here, isn’t it? They don’t exist to just look pretty, each can be used effectively for your gain if you wish to. Many here are cultivated into poisons that people of our kingdom use to kill each other, and to kill someone else from another kingdom. But then, where do we draw the line? Where do we realise that we have more than enough and let ourselves and others be at peace instead of alwaying causing more wars and more bloodshed,” [Name] vented, and there was great sorrow vivid in her irides. She wore her emotions and bleeding heart on her sleeve; it was evident from the way she spoke that she had been greatly affected by the ongoing war. 

Somewhere deep within him, the repressed boy buried within him, who used to, and wanted to wear his own bleeding heart on his sleeve, had started to breakthrough. Namjoon felt an odd clenching in his chest, and her words, as well as the expression on her face, hurt him immensely. It made him wonder: how could she hurt him without physically hurting him?

He was interrupted out of his thoughts and returned his attention to [Name] when she let out a dry laugh, with tears at the corner of her eyes. As he observed her silently from beside her, he suddenly wished he had never started this conversation, so he would not be the reason behind her tears. 

“I also think that life is just more fun when you rebel and do the opposite of what you’re told to do,” she said winking at him through her tear-stained eyes; such a merry expression, while tears — an expression of sadness — streamed down her face, caused Namjoon’s eyes to widen. It was on that day when Namjoon came to admire [Name] for the strength she held without weapons, for the wisdom she spoke of her own being, and for the kindness she showed in such a cruel world. 

And he should have known better than to indulge into her as a way to search for his own innocence in an attempt to wash off the blood on his hands; he should have known better than to become involved with an innocent stranger and to allow her to become his sole weakness. 

Despite the horror etched in his eyes as he looked at his own hands that were gripping the hilt of the sword, both covered in her crimson blood, he did not allow his emotions to show. He did not deserve to have the privilege to express his emotions, not after all he had done. And it was almost comical because although he had killed countless, it was [Name]’s blood, his beloved’s sole blood on his hands that took away the last of his humanity. 

He had promised himself that he would always protect her. By killing her himself, and giving her a quick and painless death by his own hands, before an enemy could hurt her, he reassured himself that it was the best way to protect her. 

He had done it for her. She was his responsibility, his weakness, so he had to be the one to decide what was the best outcome for her. 

Blood spilled from her mouth as she fell forwards into Namjoon’s arms, and whatever gushed out of her wounds, pooled and smeared against his clothes. 

“Y-You had no r-right to decide my fate f-for me,” she murmured, as the last of her life left her eyes, and they begin to dull in colour. 

“I’m sorry,” Namjoon apologised pathetically, as he brought her closer. He buried his hand into her hair, and held her dying bleeding heart as it beat for the last time. 

#yandere bts #yandere x reader #namjoon x reader #yandere namjoon #yandere bangtan #yandere prince #bts prince au #yandere bts namjoon #yandere fairy tale #rm x reader #yandere kpop #prince namjoon #bts fanfiction #yandere namjoon x reader #yandere imagines #bts x reader #bts fairy tale au #ambivalent writes

[thewrittenpost]

Entries of the Past

In our search for information regarding the acts of the Great War, spanning throughout generations, a set of journals was discovered buried on a family farm, just inside our borders. Having received them as a generous donation from the family, our scholars set to work preserving the stories within so they could endure for the future.

Changes have been made, to account for spelling and translating the older language to one more accessible to readers. There were also, regrettably, pages lost due to the journals’ lost time.

~Amelie Louring, Headmistress of the Royal Academy of Ronea

I started writing my thoughts as a way to fill the countless, empty, pointless days. Just a mindless task to keep the dark thoughts from making their way in... as they had for so many ways.

In writing them, I sorted them. Rambling at the beginning -if you’ve read this far, you know that. How my thoughts would jump from my childhood to an old man to a random memory that doesn’t connect at all. But things felt... cleaner, putting them on paper.

And in writing, I found myself a new purpose. Not a grand one; I had no intention of sharing my stories to the masses. But it was my chance, my purpose, to put myself on the page. Not the person the world would see, but the person I truly was. The truth is, the majority of what the world knows about me -about the people I served with- is just... off. Not wrong, but also not true. Watered down, a pretty picture that just barely touches reality.

I am not a learned man. I do not have the words to correct those on the street who see heroes and monsters, and I don’t have the strength to do so anymore. I can’t make speeches, or sing a tale to portray what we went through. This is all I can do, and pray that whoever reads this -if anyone does- takes something away from it.

I have already spoken of my actions during the Great War. How much pain and horror we -all sides- caused in the name of “honor”, serving masters who only cared for their own power. I have made excuses in the past, my ignorance and surety that we were doing right... bringing justice and punishment where it belonged, that we would have prosperity in this unified world we imagined.

I was wrong. And I will not -can not- go into it again. Once was more than enough, and I can’t bear to remember all those who were lost again.

But I have never spoken of the end. The day it all changed. Not to my family, my poor sister and nephews who took me in and bear with an old man’s presence. Not to singers who want new tales to sing, not to any living soul. Not even on paper have I documented that day. I have done everything I could to forget... and I have failed. But I was-

[Pages lost; cause unknown]

-hero. Who could have believed him? He was no warrior no fighter. He fled from conflict, hid from battle and somehow expected respect from those who risked everything? He thought a war spanning generations would end because he claimed it was the goddess’ will?

Even now, it is hard to believe Korith would have chosen him. But that is the way of it, isn’t it? The goddess chooses those who are needed... and the world didn’t need another destroyer.

It needed someone of faith. Something with the strength to grow and rebuild, to break down the walls we built. The world needed him.

And it was kings who tore him down. Who had him torn apart, as an example to those who would leave to the hero’s side, to choose the goddess over their expectations.

I was not involved. I wasn’t. The only thing I saw was anger and blood, but those were not new sights to any of us. Our innocence had been lost long ago. We knew, of course we did, what would be done when the king’s loyal dogs, his famed torturers entered the tent.

But to this day, I will swear I never heard him break. Not a single scream, although it must have been horrible; other confessions exist that would admit the same thing.

I thought it made him a fool then. Why not give them what they want? You won’t be given your life, but at the very least it would give you release. End the horror, and find peace in a quick death instead of the slow.

Now I envy him. My faith, renewed by that day, has never been and never will be as strong. His will, unbroken to the end, is one to strive for... one I can never forget. He carried a belief that if he held on, the world could only be better, even if he weren’t there to see it.

And he had hope, something the rest of us had forgotten. Hope that he shared willingly to the world, and that lives on in every person that has come since. In every survivor, every birth, every change... parts of his vision for the world. If only-

[Words illegible due to water damage]

-a light so blinding, you couldn’t see the person standing next to you? A piercing light that reached the depths of your soul, exposing and burning the dark stains you never wanted anyone to see? To know that all your monsters were there for all to see, and to know all the demons those around you carried?

Would you understand the weight it puts on someone, to bring them all with you through a long life? To bear the weight off all the sins that were exposed in that light?

It scares me, how easily it seems to be ignored. How easy it would have been for me to push it aside, to never mention it. To pretend that memory had failed this old man, to dismiss it all as an old man grasping for some reason behind it all.

I was never a pious man before that day. But having seen the goddess, I know how true it all is. Perhaps not faith, like her hero and so many others have, but an undeniable knowledge of what lies beyond. In her light, I knew what waited for all of us in the dark. Maybe I’ll even welcome it, because there I can hide. Shadows welcome shadows, it is said, but the light... nothing has scared me more than that.

But now I must move on, before my courage fails me. I must speak of the goddess, before I run out of time.

I’m sure there is little I can say that hasn’t already been said. But nothing you’ve heard in the songs can compare... this won’t compare, but at least it will be my truth.

The light faded eventually, just enough for us to see she was there. Like every story we had ever been told, a living storm in the shape no different than a mortal woman... and although all was still like the dead, I could feel an uncontrollable force in the air. There was no doubt: to move was to be struck down. To escape the penetrating light, you had to be swallowed by infinite darkness.

And Korith did not care for our fates either way.

Disdain is too strong of a word. Indifference doesn’t quite fit. I don’t know the word that would match what her gaze felt like... anger over her hero’s fate, but also... nothing. She cared for us soldiers in the way that we cared for rates in our food, or the bugs under our feet.

She could destroy us, and then forget we ever existed. Maybe that’s the fate we deserved, a punishment the world could never pretend away.

Instead, she demanded peace. If we mortals could not be trusted to rule ourselves without destruction, then she would enforce this “truce”... one way or another.

And she would prove it.

I can’t tell you how many more died in those next moments. But protests died before they could finish being voiced; bolts of light turned them to ash before the first words came out. All around the field, regardless of home or rank, they were just... gone, in a blinding hot flash. And in the blowing ash, beasts from legend flew, crystal reflecting their queen’s attacks as a warning to the others. Every side of the war lost, humbled under power we had believed to be legend.

You’ve likely heard of the destruction, in stories or songs. It’s easier to handle that way, prettier and easier to accept. But what lives in my mind? I wish it were the way the songs tell it; perhaps the regrets would have died if it were.

But I remember the suffocating pressure in the air. I remember her terrible beauty, and the painful grace of her destruction... bolts of lightning dancing under her skin to explode in the skies. Not one song can accurately portray how the light we take for granted as good can be as monstrous and terrifying and cruel as the dark.

I would have welcomed the shadows then... as I will shortly. Yes, I can feel my time is coming, that soon I will rejoin my comrades in Thearial’s realm.

The priests say that all souls can be redeemed, if they truly wish it. And I wish I could believe that. How could we be worthy of the peace that would come with it? How could I be worthy of it?

See, when we saw our own sins -and the sins of the others- it became a curse. A curse that made it clear how small and broken and how unfixable she saw us. And a curse to make us see how dark and shattered the world was, not just by our own actions but of everyone else’s, and those of the past. We had been judged, and we were not worthy of peace... it was granted only for the sakes of those who had already been lost.

Many people could not bear it. For too long, in our ‘era of peace’, I heard word of deaths happening one after another. Of people who took their own lives, for their own reasons; I can’t claim to know the regrets and thoughts they carried. But for too long, I wondered if I would also join them. I considered it, but at the end of the day... something always stopped my hand. I would die eventually, but I could not find it in myself to take it into my own hands.

I don’t know why I felt the need to admit that, to admit that while I would welcome Death as a friend, I would never seek him out. Why setting the truth of all my thoughts on paper is so important. It just... was.

I am tired now; I grow tired quickly these days. So I will end this now, in a similar place to where I first started my writing.

I am an old man, heavy with fear and secrets and lies and regrets. I have been a son, a solder, a monster and a coward. In my early years, I followed the world into chaos and let it consume me; in later years, I tried to be a better man, to teach those who pick up our legacies to be better than all who came before.

But at the end of it all, I am merely a man who will accept the darkness coming at last. Who will welcome it with open arms and accept the judgement coming, no matter what.

But I hold a prayer, for you reading this and the world to come. A prayer that you can stand proudly in the light when your day comes, and with Korith’s enforced peace comes to an end... I hope you have learned from our cruelty to stand together, and live in harmony.

When I embark on my final journey, I wish you -the future- all the strength I have left to give.

Best wishes. And may all the blessings of the gods be with you.

[Final Note: The following scrawl was found, a scrap of paper inserted into the back of the final journal. Written in a language thought dead, we at first believed it to be a piece from another’s work. However, handwriting samples have proved it to be the author of the journals, and as such, it was included to keep as complete of a collection as possible.

From darkness to light and returning to shadows, against the terror of this world and the next... hold fast to all the good you will bring. Stand proud with others to banish the monsters and greatness will follow.

#my writing #long post #Korith's Month #little bits of a journal someone wrote #Korith #just to be safe I'll put some trigger warnings #there's no strong mentions but I still want to be safe #tw: blood mention #tw:death #tw:suicide mention #I'll reblog this later with my tag list

[emeraldtawny]

[Sex Worker AU] Kenshin x MC: What Is Love? (Pt 1/3)

Welp...you guys wanted him so he’s up first~! Of course you guys HAD to choose the boi I’m the least confident in writing for, but hey I can only improve, right? ;3

Who knows when the next part will be out, but hopefully this sets everything up nicely for you all. Hope you enjoy~! ^w^

Gigolo. It wasn’t a title he could honestly say he hated; it was more the connotations that came with it.

Everyone automatically assumes his work involves sexual favours, sexual appeasement - everything sex. But that isn’t Kenshin. The beauty of his work means he doesn’t have to deal with the bother of appeasing women in that way, something he purposefully distances himself from. He saw no benefit in physical attachments, his past a canvas awash with heartache and discord, hues of reds staining and seeping in to leave him tattered and saturated in the mistakes of his past.

No matter how hard he tries, he can’t bring himself to throw away the ruined canvas, the constant reminder of his distress is his self-destroying way to make sure never to go back - never to let anyone get that close to him again.

But then, there was her.

…

The day is mild as she readjusts the scarf wrapped snugly around her neck to banish the chill. She clicks her phone to life to check the time, the photo background of her and her friends never failing to bring a smile to her face: Sasuke’s insistence on flashing a peace sign, Yukimura’s confused expression pointed at him, Shingen’s playful wink as he plays up to the camera. And Kenshin’s stoic, uninterested stare, his eyes piercing her every time she meets them, the effect his stare has on her still strong even without his physical presence.

(Where is Kenshin? The guys have said he’s been busy lately, but work for a whole week without a break?)

She frowns slightly at her phone, letting her gaze linger on her lock screen before pocketing it. In the short couple of months since she first met them in the cafe on that fateful day, she likes to think that they’ve all grown pretty close. Sasuke was right - despite their taboo work, they are all wonderful people she has come to truly care about. The nature of their work still makes her uncomfortable despite herself, but it’s a hurdle she knows she can overcome.

The streets are relatively sparse as she continues on her way, her eyes naturally wandering to glance at the shop windows and their immaculate displays. The stagnant thought of Kenshin’s absence remains idle in her mind, and she lets her mind drift back to an earlier conversation.

~

[ “Hey, Sasuke? Kenshin said he was a gigolo, right? Do you...happen to know what that entails?”

“Hmm, I myself haven’t asked about details, but from what I gather he acts more like an escort than as a traditional male prostitute. He has mentioned that despite working in the sex industry, he personally stays away from anything of the sort.”

“Huh? But then, why is he in the industry if he doesn’t even like it?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know, ___. That would be something you would have to ask him yourself.” ]

~

(An escort, huh? Like, arm candy for women? I can’t imagine Kenshin being like that.)

So lost in her thoughts, she barely registers the person in front of her until after she bumps into their shoulder. Blinking in shock and stumbling slightly to regain her balance, she whirls around.

“I’m sorr--oh!”

Her apology dies on her lips and her eyes widen as hues of the sea and forest meet hers, his own gaze flickering with shock in return.

The shoulder she bumped into belonged to none other than the very man on her mind. Dressed in a royal blue button-up shirt with a black blazer and jeans, he looks like a contemporary model, the way his blonde hair perfectly sculpts the unfairly chiselled line of his jaw only strengthening the case.

A small cough purposefully made to draw one’s attention does just that, her eyes meeting those a woman, her arm looped comfortably - and in a very showboating way - around Kenshin’s bicep. She is an older woman - around her mid-40s - and dressed to the nines. Her hair is pulled to the side in an elegant bun, the cut of her dress showcasing her slender collarbone and fitting her shape beautifully; one wouldn’t guess she was an older woman from afar, only up close could the subtle crow’s feet etched into the corners of her eyes be noticed, giving an indication of her experience in life.

“I understand he’s handsome, my dear, but you should at least finish the apology before letting your eyes wander.”

Her lightly reprimanding teasing tone makes her blink, a wave of embarrassment rushing through her.

“Uh, sorry. I wasn’t stuttering because of that. I--”

“Oh?” She cuts her off, her eyes crinkling as they narrow, analysing her closely.

She sinks back under her scrutinising gaze, unsure of where to direct her own.

“I would ask you not to intimidate her, Madame.”

Kenshin, who has remained silent, finally speaks, tugging his arm softly to draw the woman’s eyes up to him.

“She’s...a friend. We met outside of work and she knows nothing of my work except in name.”

The woman’s lips purse. Meanwhile, she lets out a silent breath at Kenshin’s saving words, scared she was about to be death-stared into the ground by a woman she had never met. After a moment, the older woman’s lips curl into a refined yet jovial smile, a small reserved chuckle leaving her.

“Ah, what was I thinking? Of course you’re not a client of his. I could have easily guessed that from your appearance alone, but professional jealousy got the better of me.”

Both she and Kenshin blink at the woman’s words, unsure if they heard her correctly.

“Excuse me?”

She meets her gaze, her rouge lips maintaining a kind smile but her eyes dance like a snake’s, taunting and circling its defenceless prey, “Oh, I mean no offence, my dear. It’s just that this man is quite highly sought after by the elites of this city. Someone of your...calibre wouldn’t be lucky or rich enough to afford his services.”

Her aimed jab is precise as it sinks into her heart, piercing in and letting her emotions loose to consume her being. Sadistically predatory eyes crinkle her crow’s feet further as she watches the young girl drop her gaze to the ground.

Her arm around Kenshin’s tightens as she pulls him with an authoritative air, “Come now, Kenshin. We have more to do.”

The clicking of her heels against the pavement echo for one step, then two. Then they stop, the additional two clicks less graceful as her feet stumble to keep herself upright. Kenshin stands steadfast, his form refusing to budge as the woman tried to walk away, his eyes trained on the younger woman still staring at her feet.

“Kenshin. Don’t forget what I’m paying you for your services and the conditions in place.” The silent threat in her tone has Kenshin looking over his shoulder to meet her eyes, his heterochromatic gaze as contrasting as the icy burn of his glare aimed at the woman.

“That gives you no reason to insult ___ so callously. I already told you she has no place in my work life, so leave your petty jealousy aside when you speak to her.”

The woman baulks, eyebrows shooting up in clear shock. “You...you used her name. You--”

Her stuttering halts at his hand resting atop hers to re-secure her grip on him, “Enough of this pointless chatter. You had more to do, didn’t you Madame?”

“Y-Yes, I did.” The woman clears her throat to compose herself, but the shock dilating her pupils still remains, “Let’s go, then.”

“Of course, Madame.”

Kenshin casts one more cursory glance at his friend, her face still cast down yet her eyes peek up at him through the veil of her hair. His eyes narrow, his facial expression complex and just before he turns his back and walks away--

“I’m sorry, ___.”

She blinks, her face frozen in shock. The softness of his voice, she wasn’t sure if it was the same man she has known with how frail his words fell from his mouth. Compared to the robotic monotone of his voice as he addressed the other woman, she wasn’t sure if what she just heard was something her confused brain conjured up just to toy with her more. Left gobsmacked and confused, the only thing she can do is watch him walk away.

(He...apologised?)

Kenshin wasn’t one for the flowery language of compliments and apologies, so having those words - words seemingly unheard of in Kenshin’s vocabulary - leave his lips, she knew he was genuinely sorry for what happened.

She wills her legs to turn around and carry her home, determined to put the entire incident behind her. Yet the encounter plays like a broken record on repeat in her mind and she reaches up to tug the scarf tighter still around her neck, hoping in vain that this will somehow cut off the thoughts from crawling into her mind and infesting her every thought.

Unbeknownst to her, he was hoping for the same, his sculpted lips pursed together in both thought and irritation as he grasps at reason to keep his attention on the woman he adorns for the day. The words she speaks go mostly missed by Kenshin, as they so often do, but this time his focus is infinitely more clouded; his mind is back with her, her downcast expression, the glimmer of shock highlighting the bright hues of her eyes. He can’t get her out of his head.

The two will never know how perfectly they share their turmoil, nor how both of them reach the same conclusion:

(I need to know more.) (She needs to know more.)

#ikesen #ikesen fanfic #ikesen kenshin #sex worker AU #is this gonna be a more convoluted plot than it needs to be? #HECK YEAH IT IS!!!

[mst3kproject]

607: Bloodlust

Guys.  For the sake of yourselves and everything you love, never look for material related to this movie by searching the tumblr tags for bloodlust.  Just don’t.  While you will find the odd bit that’s actually relevant, you will also find… look, I’m sure your imaginations are equal to the task.  Some of the bonus material this week will be stuff from the episode, but there will also be a few things I found in the tag that just made me go whaaaaaat?.  None of them are gross, I promise, they’re just… odd.

A couple of blond dumbasses, who I think are named Johnny and Betty, and a couple of brunet dumbasses, possibly Jeannie and Peter, decide to have a picnic on a tropical island.  Unsurprisingly this turns out to be the home of a transparently evil Vincent-Price-looking asshole, whose hobby is murdering his guests and taxidermizing their corpses (apparently ‘taxidermize’ is a real word – my spellcheck doesn’t underline it).  Vincent-at-half-the-Price’s drunk flunky and cheating wife have an escape plan, but once that’s been foiled it’s just these idiots against the world’s self-proclaimed greatest hunter.

I am apparently in a minority, but I think this episode’s host sketches are brilliant.  Pearl’s first appearance is classic and Crow ruining Mystery Dinner Theatre is great, but my favourite part is when the SOL’s hoedown descends into anarchy.  I can watch that over and over.  If I ever witness a riot I’m going to be very tempted to just shout, “and now promenade!” and see what happens.

Anyway, The Most Dangerous Game is one of those things they make you read in English class, and like many things I had to read in English class it left me mildly traumatized.  It’s a deeply distasteful story about man’s bloodthirsty nature and how the only way to overcome evil is to sink to its level, and every so often I’ll remember it, or Harrison Bergeron, or The Lottery, and it makes my day seem a little more dismal.  I’m pretty sure nobody ever reads it except high school students and the Zodiac Killer.

So if you were wondering why it took me so long to get around to reviewing this one… well, I felt like I had to revisit the story in order to do justice to a review of this movie, and I really really really didn’t want to do that.  Just thinking about it gives me flashbacks to things like Sonnet 116 and that horrible story in which the floor was both lava and snakes.  But I said every episode and so here I fucking am.

Anyway, my return to The Most Dangerous Game, or at least to its Cole’s Notes, proved very educational – it taught me that not only is Bloodlust a lousy movie, it’s also one of those adaptations that completely misses the point of the work it’s attempting to adapt.  The main theme of The Most Dangerous Game is how the only difference between the hunter and the hunted is which one is in a position of power. Rainsford is himself a big game hunter, and discusses this with his friend Whitney.  Upon finding himself on Zaroff’s island, he becomes the prey, because Zaroff is the one with all the power.  At the end, Zaroff had believed Rainsford is dead, which gives Rainsford the advantage of surprise and turns the tables again.

Bloodlust completely discards this theme.  There’s never any real discussion of the power imbalance. Worse, while Rainsford was an experienced hunter and fighter himself, somebody Zaroff considered a worthy adversary, these four clowns are just young people who blundered into this situation and aren’t even Vincent-at-half-the-Price’s preferred prey.  He doesn’t hunt them like he does his escaped criminals, because he thinks it’ll be a challenge, he does it because the only other alternatives are to straight-up murder them or to let them go, neither of which are acceptable to him.

Rainsford was an expert on traps and tracking, which meant he could offer Zaroff a meaningful  challenge. Of the four young people in Bloodlust, only one of them is kind of barely competent, that being Betty the judo expert.  She’s smart enough to figure out how to get away with breaking the window, and manages to keep her head and chuck the lackey into the vat of acid.  When confronted with the John the Baptist dude, however, she freezes and screams along with Jeannie.  The group survives through nothing but sheer luck.

It was luck that allowed them to get out of the house and then back into it without getting seen.  It was lucky that Vincent-at-half-the-Price chose to go after the drunken sea captain first and the boys later.  It was just good luck that Jondor survived the quicksand and showed up in the nick of time to take revenge on his master.  The supposed heroes are barely involved in their own salvation.  At the end of The Most Dangerous Game, Rainsford had to sink to Zaroff’s level and become a murderer.  The four idiots in Bloodlust just stand and watch.

The one kind of interesting spin the movie tries to put on things is when it takes some time to explore why Vincent-at-half-the-Price is the way he is.  He describes how war inured him to killing until he came to consider it a pleasure. This invites us to think about people who become murderers – prevailing opinion seems to be that people like the aforementioned Zodiac Killer are born without compassion, that their killing sprees are inevitable.  Some killers, like BTK or the Green River Killer, have stated themselves that they need to kill and couldn’t put it off forever, even when they managed to take long breaks.  It’s true that many of these murderers come from terrible backgrounds – but other people are abused as children and don’t grow up to kill people.

Vincent-at-half-the-Price’s killing spree is not inevitable.  He claims to have found it distasteful at first but it later became a pleasure as repeated kills eroded the value of human lives in his eyes.  This is actually a bit more thoughtful than Zaroff, who started out killing animals and moved up when it no longer offered him enough of a challenge.  He kills people because he thinks if they can’t escape him then they don’t deserve to live.  Once again, however, this change loses one of the points The Most Dangerous Game was trying to make, which is that killing animals for sport is brutal and pointless.  At the beginning of the story Rainsford and Whitney were on their way to the Amazon to hunt jaguars – not for food, or because the jaguar offers any threat to them, but simply because they can.

So while the source material may have left stains on my young psyche, it at least had something to say.  I will also say that it’s pretty suspenseful, and leaves you honestly worried for Rainsford as Zaroff evades his traps and closes in on him.  Bloodlust, on the other hand, is mostly just boring. You know they’re not going to kill off any of the four protagonists, because the movie just doesn’t have the guts to do it.  It can’t kill the girls because they’re girls, and it can’t kill the boys because then the girls would be sad.  Sandra and the two drunks are nothing but sacrificial victims, because the writers think you can’t have a horror movie without a body count.

Even aside of that, though, this movie would still be boring.  Sandra and Drunk #2 come to the girls’ room (not the boys’ room, because they couldn’t afford another set) to tell them a bunch of things we’ve already figured out for ourselves.  Vincent-at-half-the-Price monologues endlessly as if one of his tactics is boring his guests to death.  We never actually believe that Sandra and Drunk #2 mean to come back for the protagonists, so it doesn’t really matter to us when they’re killed.

I keep wanting to refer to the main characters as ‘the kids’ but I refuse to do so.  They’re at least not as annoying as the cast of your average 80’s slasher film, but they accomplish that mainly by being very bland.  Johnny is Brave, Peter is Nerdy, Betty is Tough, and Jeannie is Scared, and that’s it.  It’s really hard to care about any of them except Betty, who earns a modicum of sympathy by being the only really proactive one (and from my longstanding crush on June Kenney).  Once we realize the movie isn’t going to kill any of them we just stop caring.

I’m not sure what to make of Vincent-at-half-the-Price’s cheating. This seems like they’re trying to make some kind of point with it – he takes a crossbow with three bolts, one for each intended victim, and gives them a gun with one bullet.  This is supposed to be sporting.  But the gun has been disabled, and when he uses the bolts he pulls them out of the corpses, cleans them off, and recycles them.  Since the ending has him just pulling out a gun to shoot his cornered victims at point blank range, I guess the point is that for all he justifies it as a form of sport, really he just likes killing people.  The story managed to say that about Zaroff in other ways.

So yeah, this one really sucks.  Even Mike and the bots couldn’t save it.  There’s a few odd lines that are really funny but most of them are so-so, and there’s stretches when the movie just doesn’t offer them anything to riff.  Watching it without the intermittent relief offered by the host sketches was a chore, and it forced me to re-visit a bad experience from my childhood.  Fuck this movie.

#mst3k #reviews #bloodlust #fuck this movie #flagged as inappropriate #60s

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: Season 14 - Judge Cuts 4

Alright, let’s get this over with...

Easily the most underwhelming show of the round...Even Jay Leno didn’t look very excited to be there...He didn’t seem very invested in what he was talking about and just mumbled it in his signature Porky Pig voice...Pretty disappointing for such a big personality! When Brad Paisley is the best guest judge of the round this season, you know you need to step it up next year!

But most importantly, none of the acts really excited me either...Granted, I have no arguments with who made it (which is saying something since four of them are singing acts), but there was nobody who stepped it up to the point that I’m going to remember them into the next round...But I guess that’s what happens when Berywam, ADEM, Marcin and LBK are all used up by the last week...

I guess the most unfortunate casualties for this week were SOS, Trigger, Callie Day, Dominguez Poodles, and I was curious to see more of Victor Moiseev’s performance, since it went by so fast that it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t a flashback to his audition that we didn’t see...That said, I won’t exactly be mourning any of them either...

And I DEFINITELY won’t be mourning Jonathan Burns or Kara with a K after showing how useless and annoying they truly can be! I mean, Burns probably just got pressured by the producers to do something pointless, but Kara, MY GOD! I can see now that she’s the type who just won’t shut up and insists on being the center of attention! Even in the Youtube promo showing all the acts just standing there doing a pose in slow-motion, she was the only one moving around, shaking her hair like a diva just to be silly...I am glad that they silenced her, and they better not bring her back as a Wildcard!

So let’s move on to the ones that matter...

7: Benicio Bryant. Well, as usual, I must give props for writing his own song...That said, it didn’t give as much opportunity to show off his range as what he covered in the auditions, and the result was an adequate voice singing a rather humdrum song...He might have backed himself into a corner by reaching the original song phase so early...

6: Jackie Fabulous. As I believe I’ve heard Howie say to Vicki Barbolak last year, being a good comedian is not just saying funny things, but saying things funny...Allow me to use that as criteria for Jackie: Her jokes here were actually pretty funny! But my issue with her is that she kinda stays on the same tone of voice, and in effect, it made them a little LESS funny...A good comedian commands your attention with all of their vocal progressions; That’s something I think Ryan Niemiller pulls off very well! My ADD kinda kept tuning out a bit from her, and that’s not the best sign...I see promise in her, but if only one comedian’s going to make the final round this year, I see Ryan as the more likely and deserving candidate...

5: Voices of Service. Not much to say; Still some solid harmonies, and we even got to hear more from the big guy! Nonetheless, the lady’s still the leader here...

4: Marina Mazepa. I will admit, I kinda forgot about her audition for the most part, and it took me until her appearance this time to remember that her gimmick is being weird and creepy...At the very least, this is a pretty effective way to make a contortion act interesting, and I shudder to think of what she’s gonna do in the next round...But in a good way!

3: Emanne Beasha. I guess I can appreciate this act a little more when the song choice is one that I’m NOT sick to death of...yet...So I’ll take a slightly more fair look at this girl, as she probably is the best of her kind since Jackie Evancho (and the cutest since Jackie as well). So...uhhh...she’s really good for her age, and...Well, to be honest, Simon kinda summed up my frustration with these kinds of kids when he talked about how she just had a natural gift...And yes, she does...ALL of these opera girls do! And because of that, they don’t really need to do much other than pick from a VERY narrow selection of arias and perform it, and the judges and audience will all love them for it! This is kinda why in the Final Four of Season 5, Jackie was actually my LEAST favorite to win, because she was surrounded by who appeared to be seasoned professionals, whereas all she needed to do was stand there and sing in her angelic voice, and she would be put on some kind of pedestal over these other acts who worked hard to get that far! (Keep in mind, Jackie wasn’t even a contestant until the notorious Youtube show!) But back to Emanne: She’s really good! I have no real arguments with her getting the Golden Buzzer! It just frustrates me that girls like her don’t really have to do much to be put on a pedestal and pushed all the way to the end of the game...That said, if she did all of her performances while holding her stuffed unicorn, and maybe an ice cream cone from her parents’ shop (though not lick it until the very end of the set as the dairy would mess with her voice), then sign me up!

2: Charlotte Summers. Comparing her and Emanne is like comparing apples and oranges; They’re both great singers in unique ways...But like I just said, Emanne makes it look effortless, whereas Charlotte clearly puts work into sounding and commanding the stage like she does! Also, Charlotte is her own thing, whereas Emanne is, like, the dozenth of her kind we’ve seen on this show...All I’m saying is, Charlotte TOTALLY should have gotten the GB!

1: Eric Chien. I guess it’s bias why I’m putting Eric at the top of this list, but in terms of who in this episode I would see in Vegas, he’s my pick! As Howie pointed out, Shin Lim set a VERY high bar over the last year, and this guy still hasn’t even APPROACHED the level he was at! Granted, Shin didn’t excite me at first either, but looking back, he did start at a higher level than this guy is at now...But enough about last year’s winner, as I don’t want Eric to go on as “the guy following Shin Lim’s footsteps”. This was still a pretty good trick, but there were no big surprises this time (perhaps aside from making an ink stain magically appear on Leno’s hand...and Leno not going Corleone in response!) I’d actually say his audition was better...But I guess he has several more rounds to prove himself...Some people have linked videos of other tricks he did and use them for arguments on why he’s even BETTER than Shin Lim, so I’m curious to see those tricks in later rounds...

Aaaannnnd, the Judge Cuts have ended with a whimper! Oh, wait, that’s Jay Leno trying to speak...

I’ll be back later to predict how next week’s show’s gonna go down, though we already know one act who’s DEFINITELY going to make it...Look at the line-up and you’ll know who I’m talking about...

For now, let’s predict who the Wildcards will be: At the top of my list is Matthew Richardson, who both the judges and audiences alike felt great sadness to see leave so soon...He didn’t impress me that much, but I still see some potential and wouldn’t mind him coming back...

Other candidates include (but I guess aren’t limited to) The Sentimentalists, Lamont Landers (please, no), Gingzilla, ADEM Show, Verba Shadow, Revolution, Ansley Burns (again, rather not), Edson & Leon, Melissa Arleth, Dominguez Poodles, Ben Trigger, and...Jordan Ravi? Nah, if he mattered that much, we would have seen him in the auditions...Right?

And then we have acts that were dropped somewhere between the judges saying yes in the audition, and the actual next round...IDEGO fits the mold after the other acts of this nature from the last two seasons involved advanced technology and special effects as well, but I don’t think they intended anything other than testing their technology on Howie Mandel, and the AGT auditions seemed about as good a place to get the opportunity as any...So I for one don’t think they should come back...Human Fuse on the other hand seems worth giving one more performance to, even though I know he’s not advancing any farther than that...

Those are my guesses...And now, I shall follow the tradition I set last year, and pick my own personal Golden Bu-It’s Marcin! Surprise, surprise!

However, there is one NEW tradition I would like to introduce this year, and that is giving my co-commentator, frankensteindr, the opportunity to select HIS own Golden Buzzer act! Just remember the rules: It has to be someone who has already advanced to the live shows by traditional means! It can’t be an act that was eliminated, it can’t be a wildcard, and it can’t be anyone who already HAS a Golden Buzzer (which includes Marcin since I got first dibs on him...because it’s my blog, nyah-nyah).

I guess you could say you’re getting the table scraps of MY table scraps, but let’s be real here, there are always a couple acts in the live shows that deserved a GB more than most of the ones that DID get it, so you still got some good choices (and I already have two or three guesses on who it could be). Choose well!

And with that, I’ll see you all (or one) later with my predictions for next week!

[kihocrystal]

Summer 2017 - Final Impressions

I may have skipped writing opinions up for Spring season (due to computer issues...), but I’m back for Summer season! I even fell behind this season because of school (hence why this is half a month late), but nonetheless, here are my thoughts on the animes I finished this past season! 

The list of shows is in the tags, and are ordered alphabetically under the cut!

Boku no Hero Academia S2 - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ )

This was another really fun season of Boku no Hero Academia! This season was twice as long as season 1, which meant double the action! Most of the action this season was actually more on the light-hearted side, as two of the main story arcs of this season were the School Tournament, and the Final Exams. These arcs got to see the cast work together and face off against one another, which helped us learn more about their characters in the process! Almost everyone had their time to shine (which was great!), but the one who had the most prominent character arc was Todoroki; we learned about his troubled past with his family, and how he changes his mindset and attitude throughout the tournament, which was great to see! Character development was definitely a big aspect of this season (as seen through both of those arcs), but there was also a good amount of overarching story set-up as well! The main arc showing this off was the Hero Killer Stain arc (which included the Internships), which was definitely my favorite part of this season! Seeing Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida face off against him was super fun and interesting, and also kicked off some plot progression that should go towards future arcs! Midoriya has improved his super power usage over the course of this season, and we also learned about All For One, which will surely be the Big Bad of this series as a whole. The finale also teases more things about upcoming conflicts, which included Midoriya having an interesting interaction with villain Tomura (and a ship might be sailing with Ochako and Midoriya)! It’s a good thing a season 3 has already been confirmed, because an open ending like this would’ve been bad otherwise! As it stands though, it’s a really good lead-in to the next season! Season 2 was great set-up for things to come (and good fun action on its own, of course!); I probably would’ve enjoyed this season even more if there was more interactions with the villains, but that will surely come in the upcoming season 3!

Isekai Shokudou - 7.5 - 8.0 / 10 ( B- )

This was a cute little show that was a good pick for “comfy show of the season”! I enjoyed meeting the wide range of characters and seeing them try out different types of food. I also appreciated how the food reactions were very downplayed, in comparison to more over-the-top fares like Shokugeki no Souma. That being said, they go into just as much detail describing why the food is so good (at least in the earlier episodes). I also liked seeing the patrons interact with each other, including getting into fights about who’s favorite dish is better. Each character’s story about how they discovered the diner (and the occasional backstory) was enjoyable to watch; we didn’t learn much about them outside of that, but we learned more about their interests and relationships via how they interacted with others both inside and outside the restaurant. It was also nice seeing how the restaurant has been a recurring thing for years, going back to the chef’s grandparents! The story is episodic, but each individual story was a nice, occasionally heartwarming, and “comfy” thing to watch once a week. The art-style complemented the easy-going pace as well; it was warm-toned and drew the food quite nicely (even if the animation itself was standard fare). This may not be a super in-depth slice-of-life show, but it’s a good watch if you just want to relax and see some good food!  

Kakegurui - 7.5 - 8.0 / 10 ( B- )

This was the most popular show of the season on MAL (in terms of amount of people who watched it), and it’s easy to see why: high stakes (and over-the-top) gambling, the extreme reaction faces, and VERY sexual characters who get off on gambling (with yuri overtones to boot!). The more sexual scenes kind of got old for me over time, but I enjoyed all those other aspects! The crazy gambling games and characters were fun to watch (as someone who enjoys YuGiOh so much, that’s right up my alley!), and the crazy reactions added to the over-the-top appeal. Yumeko was an enjoyable lead, since she’s got just the right amount of insanity behind her also-enjoyable sweet facade (plus her seiyuu, Saori Hayami, did a great job performing her!). Many of the other main girls got some time in the spotlight too, both student council members and eventual Yumeko allies (though some student council members got more time than others, for sure). The main male lead, Suzui Ryouta, was definitely just there as an audience surrogate though, since he’s pretty bland (though he had some involvement in some gambles too!). When you get down to it, the appeal of this show is the characters and the gambling events themselves; all the story in-between just feels kind of lacking in comparison. Even the finale, which to be fair was anime original, kinda felt like a non-ending; the outcome kind of made that final gamble pointless and didn’t leave me with a good sense of conclusion (but hey, at least it’s better than a full-on cliffhanger or abrupt stopping point!). This show was far from my favorites of this season, but it was still an fun time during the gambling parts (which thankfully there’s a lot of here!). If you enjoy over-the-top gaming action and don’t mind the more sexual aspects (which can get somewhat explicit at times), you might like this one!

Made in Abyss - 9 / 10 ( A )

This is easily my pick for AOTS, no contest! It’s just a great adventure show from top to bottom, with a great sense of adventure and mystery! It also helps that the setting is one of the most unique and mysterious we’ve seen in anime for a long time! The Abyss is full of many different elements that not even the in-universe cast know of, which lends itself well to majestic scenes, along with terrifying secrets (it’s a lawless place, after all). Not to mention that the background art captures it extremely well; the huge amount of detail is a good contrast with the more square and cartoony character art-style! The soundtrack is used wonderfully, as it really gets a grand sense of ambience, mystery, and scale all at once! (Especially that one insert song they use a couple times, but first in the premiere!) The Abyss has been a cool place to learn and see more about over the course of the show, but it can definitely rear its ugly dangerous head from time to time, too. Meaning, this show can be VERY gruesome at times; there’s quite a few scenes involving large amounts of blood, and even body mutilation. It’s definitely not for the squeamish. If you can handle it, these scenes just add to the raw emotion this show has, and will have you on the edge of your seat! As for characters, Riko and Reg were a really good duo to follow in their journey! Their personalities (plus abilities and awareness of danger) balance each other well, and I enjoyed seeing them grow closer over time! Riko’s definitely an odd case since she has no fear of the Abyss despite never being able to return home, though (^^;). My other favorite was Nanachi; she was (unfortunately) only in the *last four* episodes, but her character and story really makes up for it! I enjoyed the rest of the cast too, including the cynical and crazy Ozen and her maid assistant Maruruk (she was so sad when Riko & Reg had to leave ;~;). The only real gripe I have about this show is its… inappropriate jokes at times. Lets just say there’s quite a few penis mentions (and yes, they say that word outright). However, the (double-length!) finale was crazy good; incredibly intense, fucked up, emotional, and with a hope cherry on top (including the balloon scene! I just wish I knew what was written inside!) Just learning the full details of Nanachi (& Mitty)’s backstory was REALLY fucked up… and the whole buildup and execution (I’m sorry…) of Mitty’s death brought a few tears to my eye (and I don’t cry easily when watching stuff!). The story definitely isn’t done yet (which impacts its score as a standalone season a little bit), but it had as good of a conclusion as it could’ve had. It sets up an easy-to-hate antagonist really well too, all within the span of one (double-length) episode! This show is definitely the best of this summer season (and one of my top picks for this year!), so this is a very easy recommendation! (Unless you don’t do well with gore, of course).

New Game!! S2 - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ )

I really enjoyed this second season of New Game! It definitely took a slightly different approach, as there was a bit more emotional and dramatic moments (which personally, I think is a good thing!) I also can relate to this show quite a bit, as I’m now a game design student at a community college; so as a result, seeing the girls work on a game in a variety of ways (along with the working process in general) is very interesting to me! Of course, that’s not to say this show is the most realistic portrayal of the industry, per se, but it’s still cool to see more of this slice-of-life comedy about working in a game company! This season shows the team work on a new IP from start to finish, and all the trials that happen along the way. The girls are challenged a lot more as well, especially Aoba as she gets her first go at being the main character designer (with help from Yagami-san)! The concept art contest was definitely the biggest moment for her character arc; seeing her do her best on an art piece, despite knowing she’s going to lose by default due to a sales decision, was bittersweet to see for sure (but she came out much stronger in the end)! That even tied into Yagami’s character arc as well, since she realizes she’s holding back the growth of her younger employees (;~;). Aside from that, the programming aspect got a bit more spotlight this season! Watching Nene make a game by herself, then see her as a programming intern was great to see! Speaking of interns, we got two new girls this season: Momiji and Narumi! Both of them served as good “rivals” for Aoba and Nene, even if there wasn’t fierce competition between them; I just liked seeing their different (more cynical) viewpoints and how they interacted with the other girls (and learned from them + vise versa!). This season ended on a strong note as well; seeing Yagami leave for France and all the girls going to see her off (plus Aoba’s tearful goodbye to her!) was a great emotional end to the season (and heck, it could be a good end to the series in its own right!). I definitely liked this season even more than season one, as the increased emotional depth added a lot to this cute and fun series! If you like slice-of-life comedy shows, this is a really good one to check out!

Princess Principal - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ )

This show is my runner-up for AOTS, so you know this show is a fun time! It’s always fun to see a new spy anime, and this one really delivers on the spy action! The action scenes are really well done, with fluid motions and well-choreographed fight scenes! Add in the steampunk / early 20th century-style, and you’ve got a really cool spy show! The characters’ art style (for the girls) are definitely more on the moe-side, but they were fun to watch the whole way through! The main girls’ personalities were a good mix, and really interesting to see play out (especially Ange’s deadpan shtick). They all have their own skills to contribute too; even Beatrice, with no spy training, can use her mechanical neckpiece to perfectly imitate other people’s voices! The story is mostly episodic; while there is an overarching premise of an England-esque country being torn apart by war and regimes, each episode focuses on one specific spy case. I liked this approach, as each case told a nice little story than could range from action-packed & tense, to somber & heartbreaking. Each of the main girls get some spotlight time too in at least one story, meaning we get more insight into their personal histories and personalities, which is great! The main character focus though is definitely on Ange and Princess, as they swapped places when they were kids and reunite in the spy team during the present timeline. This story is kept vague (which added a good sense of mystery to these two!) until slightly past the halfway mark; it was great finally seeing their backstory when it came time! Their relationship had a big part in the final two episodes as well; speaking of that finale, it was yet another action-packed good time! But it also was very open-ended; The main villain hasn’t been defeated, and the anti-hero spy (Zelda) in the final two episodes got away as well. At least the main group is back together, and hopefully we’ll see them in a season 2, because the ending makes this season suffer a little bit as a stand-alone show. That being said, this was one of my favorite shows of the season for sure, and you should check it out if you like steampunk-style or spy stories!

Re:Creators - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ / A- )

What a solid show! It’s not every day we see a modern anime have a definitive and satisfying conclusion, but here we are! The first episode might not have won me over initially, but it definitely grew on me over time. Exposition was a bit more heavy-handed in earlier episodes as well (which is the most common complaint I’ve seen), but it’s not as bad later on. Re:Creators had lots of themes and messages about the act of creating things and what can come from it, which was really cool to see, especially since I’m an aspiring artist myself. This show may have had a lot of action, but the characters (both creations & creators) and how they interacted with each other was one of the most enjoyable parts for me. I definitely related to the main character (Souta) quite a lot, as he had a hard time creating things (& enjoying it) due to negative circumstances (albeit his reasoning was guilt-related, via mine being self-confidence). Not to mention he admitted to having negative bitter feelings towards his friend Setsuna due to her success (which I admit I also relate too…). Seeing this kind of character reflected in an anime, in addition to seeing a variety of different creators, was definitely great to see, since I could relate to it so much! The creative process is a big part of plot progression & magic-power-logic as well, which is super unique! Seeing a bunch of different genres being represented was cool as well, including a magical girl! (though I wish Mamika was the first to die & last only 8 episodes… at least she was a great character in that short time!) Magane was probably the other standout character for me, as she had a fun personality and was a real wild card in terms of what she could do (though she took a liking towards Souta, in the end). The villain, Altair, was also a great concept for a villain, since she was a Hatsune Miku-type who could use endless material from fan-works as her powers! Each character got at least a decent amount of development/screentime, and like I mentioned before, the conclusion to Altair’s story was really well done, and even left room for an epilogue episode at the end… I love when they do that! The ride that was Re:Creators was full of action, funny moments, heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. In the end… it’s a really good original action series that’s actually complete!

Sakura Quest - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ / A- )

P.A. Works does it again with another really good “working women” series! Like Hanasaku Iroha and Shirobako before it, this show follows a group of young adult girls working to try and revitalize a small rural town. As I’m getting older, I love seeing anime with characters closer to my age range, as they try to find their place in a working adult world, just like I am! The “revitalizing a rural town” aspect was also interesting to see play out, as there’s a lot that goes into that, like trying to get your name out there (either through the web or through TV) or organizing and planning events! The story plays out over the course of the year, but there’s lots of 1-2 episode-long stories that show off all these aspects, along with highlighting certain characters (which I always love to see!). It’s definitely a slice-of-life show that has a lot of character growth, and seeing the team accomplish things and the town slowly-but-surely come together was great to watch! The cast of characters was also really nice, both main and supporting! Most of the supporting cast were elderly or adults, so seeing them bounce off the young adult main group (& seeing their ideologies clash and work together) was cool to see too! Each of the main girls had their own realizations and journeys to make while working for the Tourism Board, whether it was learning the value of small towns (Yoshino) or finding your own way to do what you want to do, even if you fall short of your dreams (Maki). By the end, all five of them definitely show off some good insight towards adult life! The finale was nice as well, showing their classic festival finally coming together and the Dragon Song showing up again (which was one of my favorite mini-arcs back during the first half). While it’s left unclear whether Manoyama gets absorbed or not, it definitely ends on a happy, conclusive ending for our characters, and the town is definitely better off than at the show’s beginning. This was an enjoyable, down-to-earth show to watch, and you should give it a try too if you like slice-of-life shows (or if you enjoyed Hanasaku Iroha or Shirobako)!

Senki Zesshou Symphogear - 7.0 - 7.5 / 10 ( C+ )

This fourth(!) season of Symphogear was a big, fun action fest, just like the other seasons! The strong points of this series have always been the bombastic fight scenes, the insert songs, and the characters, which continues to be true here too. This was the first season that I stopped trying to focus on the story, and I think my enjoyment actually improved because of it! This series’ story has always been silly and tries to top itself with every iteration, which happens again in this season; it likes to pull explanations out of thin air, and have situations work out for our heroes at *just* the right time so the show can have a cool “badass” moment. I will give AXZ credit though for at least trying to pull elements from past seasons into this season’s weapon upgrades and logic reasoning, even though it still kinda feels like an ass-pull to me (then again, other people disagree with me on this, so YMMV!). The story is definitely this series’ biggest weakpoint for me (which is why I tend to rate these seasons relatively low), but its strongest aspects are in top form and a lot of fun to watch! The fight scenes and power-ups keep finding new ways to one-up themselves, and the main Symphogear girls continue to have an enjoyable dynamic together! The new antagonist group was mostly just okay, but the core three alchemist girls (Saint-Germain, Cagliostro, and Prelati) grew on me after they turn on their master (even though I liked Cagliostro the entire time, really~). The final episodes were a fun time, as always (including Hibiki being an evil god-monster at one point!); it’s notable though that they set up some things here for the already-confirmed season 5! Symphogear definitely grew on me this season, as I realized it’s the epitome of a popcorn-action show; just shut your brain off, and enjoy the spectacle!

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul - 8.0 / 10 ( B )

This was another fun and action-packed season of Shingeki no Bahamut! While I’m not sure whether I liked season 1 more than this one, it was still a very enjoyable watch throughout! One of the main reasons for this was the main new addition to the cast: Nina! She’s such a fun character to watch, as she’s strong, goofy, and jumps into action right away! I wasn’t the most fond of how “horny” she was for other guys, but that settled down a bit once she finds the guy of her dreams…. Which by the way, is also the main antagonist of the show, King Charioce. She falls in love with him when he’s in disguise, but even after his reveal, she still doesn’t give up her love for him (while simultaneously trying to stop his evil crimes). It’s definitely a unique approach to this type of romance for sure, but it was still a bit odd to me that she still stayed in love with him despite all the tyrannical things he did… At the very least, the execution of this subplot was pretty good, as were all the other story beats! This show has strong execution throughout (the prison escape arc was a highlight), with high quality animation (especially those dance scenes!), swelling music, and the right emotional notes. The problem for most people then will be some story beats themselves, mostly at the show’s end. A couple notable characters seem to get killed for no good reason, Charioce’s motivations try to spin him as “a good guy all along”, and his punishment at the end seems too light (as he merely just loses his eyesight); plus it feels like the people being oppressed by his rule turn right around and he gets praised as a hero for defeating Bahamut (which btw he himself summoned)! And oh yeah, Bahamut isn’t actually dead for good (leaving things open for a possible continuation). Oh well, at least the bittersweet aspect of a voiceless Nina and a sight-less Charioce being together is a nice touch. (I may sound mad here, but I didn’t hate these episodes at all ^^; ) In any case, the whole journey was fun to watch, and was full of engaging action the whole way through. I enjoyed seeing all the returning cast come back, and seeing them interact in both the upbeat and darker moments. Even though the ending won’t win over everyone, if you enjoyed the first season, you should have a good time here too!

#boku no hero academia #isekai shokudou #restaurant to another world #kakegurui #made in abyss #new game! #princess principal #re:creators #re creators #sakura quest #senki zesshou symphogear #symphogear #shingeki no bahamut #rage of bahamut #Final Impressions

[what-even-is-thiss]

Fic, Broken Heart

Ha ha. I’m feeling evil today. Screw writer’s block. I’m gonna power through it, no matter how bad the end product is. Let’s see. Who doesn’t get enough angst? Hmmm…

How about Morality? Yeah, I’ll write some angst for Morality. I’m gonna hurt him, you guys. I’m gonna hurt him real bad because I’m really angry at how hard it was to write today. Getting this written down and editing it was like pulling teeth.

Tip Jar

Warnings: Blood. Grief. Body horror. 1,608 words.

Abstract: Has it ever felt like your heart just, broke into pieces? Or you were so upset it was like you weren’t feeling anything for days or weeks on end? Well, I think you get the picture.

Deep emotions and empathy.

It was a hard job. Harder than he made it look. He loved his job, don’t get him wrong, but it wasn’t all sleepovers and cute dogs.

They all had their own ways of dealing with events that affected them physically.

Logan tended to not be harmed as much, but when he was it was never anything too horrifying. Perhaps once or twice he’d been blown up, but that always righted itself quickly. When he was hurt, he continued on with his job, not caring who saw his injuries. They would go away in time. There was no reason to dwell on them.

Anxiety was often alone by choice, so when he was hurt, often times the others didn’t even find out. It wasn’t like it bothered him anyways. He was Anxiety. He’d be back. He infiltrated almost every aspect of their lives. He bounced back relatively quickly.

Roman often got hurt pretty bad, but he wasn’t exactly ashamed of it. He allowed Morality to come in to his space and no one else. He always recovered eventually.

Morality, on the other hand, didn’t always recover completely. If one sifted through his hair, or removed his shirt, or inspected most parts of his skin, they would find scars. He didn’t usually let the others help, but he didn’t hide that he experienced these things either. He just dealt with it.

It was a small thing. Thomas was rejected. The person didn’t like him back.

Patton jumped and looked down at his arm. A crack had appeared and was slowly starting to ooze blood. He smiled slightly.

“Well, that hurt,” he said to no one in particular.

He made his way to his room, putting pressure on the wound all the way. It got a bit bigger. He found his first aid kit and began wrapping the wound in gauze.

Tears slowly leaked out of his face. He smiled. Feeling your emotions was the first step to healing. He’d see if this one scarred. Even if it did, he knew they’d be okay.

It was a bigger thing. A breakup. They didn’t want to be with him anymore.

Morality was floored. He fell over. He probably shouldn’t be moving, but they were in a public place. He pulled himself together enough to get to his room and prevent Thomas from breaking down crying.

As soon as they got home, however, they fell apart.

Thomas wrapped himself in a blanket and began crying. He had no idea what was happening to his heart.

Patton sat on the floor next to his bed. There was no real reason for that, but it just felt right. The waterworks started, and he cried so much it became hard to see. He felt his skin cracking and cuts appearing on his person.

It was a strange mishmosh of human like injury and doll like brokenness. He layed down on the ground and concentrated on breathing. Part of his arm broke off like a piece of broken china and another began bleeding like a sword wound.

He swallowed and cried quietly as he felt an invisible force cutting him and putting pressure on him until he cracked or bled.

Its okay to express your feelings. Its okay to cry. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

Later, he talked to the others about it. He clearly had healing scabs around him, and Roman noted that the pattern was really similar to broken glass. It made him choke a little.

“Why did you not ask for assistance?” Logan asked.

Morality shrugged. He still smiled more than any of them, but today he was smiling less than usual. “I told you before. I don’t need any of you to see me like that,” Patton said, a sad smile on his face.

“Well,” Logic said, “I wish you had told us, but history shows that you will recover,”

“Unless we never find anyone else,” Said Anxiety.

A crack on Patton’s arm reopened and he quickly hid it out of embarrassment.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Roman said, “You’ve injured him further,”

“I’m just saying. It’s a possibility,” Anxiety said.

Logic sighed. “They always get like this when this sort of thing happens. Morality, I’d suggest you go rest,”

Patton nodded quietly and went to get his first aid kit.

Then there was a time that someone close to him died.

They didn’t see Patton for days after they got the news. His corner of the mindspace remained dark and silent where it was usually bright and loud in every sense of the word.

Roman spent most of those days sleeping. Logic was sluggish but still worked. Anxiety was alert and active in a way he was not used to. He kept working but didn’t know where to direct his attention, so he just kind of hung around Thomas not knowing what to say. Maybe once in a while he would say something about death or pointlessness but for the most part he was silent.

After several days of not seeing Patton, Logic brought it up.

“I believe we should see if we should help Patton,” Logic said when he saw a rare moment Princey and Anxiety were in the same room together.

Roman said nothing, but rolled over on the couch he was lying down on and fell asleep almost immediately. Anxiety jumped down from the windowsill he was sitting on.

“I can come, but I’ve got a feeling I’d only make it worse,” He said.

“I’m willing to take that chance,” Logic said.

“You’re afraid of what you’ll see in there,” Anxiety said. “I’ve seen him when he’s like that before. It’s not pretty, and if you’re in there when I am you might see it get worse, and watching it happen is worse than the result,”

“Perhaps I am afraid, but we should still go, and… I do not want to face that alone,”

Anxiety shook his head. “You’re gonna regret this, Logan. Okay, let’s go,”

Anxiety was the one that cracked open the door. Morality managed to whisper a “No,” under his breath as what little light that was in the hallway creeped into his room.

“Hey, dad? I’m not here to hurt you this time. I’ve got Logan,” Anxiety said in a bored voice that for him was almost caring.

“No,” Morality managed again.

“Patton? I am concerned for your well being. I’m coming in,” Logic said.

Anxiety gently took hold of Logan’s hand and led him in to the room. Logic thought this was very uncharacteristic behavior for Anxiety, but once he saw Patton on the bed, he saw why Anxiety had done that.

Logan jumped behind Anxiety and used the other as a shield in an embarrassingly childlike manner. Anxiety’s expression remained stone cold. He’d seen all this before. There were times he had caused it. Blood and pain didn’t phase him one bit.

Patton’s entire left arm, as well as most of the left side of his torso and both his legs were shattered. A series of cracks moved up the rest of his torso and up to his face. Blood slowly leaked from cuts in the shards and the sheets were stained with it. It seemed likely that he hadn’t moved in all the days he had been in here.

Logic pulled himself together and knelt beside Morality’s bed.

“Morality, I know this is terrifying. They are gone. There is nothing we could have done,” He said.

Anxiety stood next to Logan and reached down. He gently touched Morality’s right hand. The pinky had fallen off and it was severely damaged, but the hand moved and gently took hold of Anxiety’s.

“Thomas has been ignoring his friends,” Anxiety said. “They’ll want to know how He’s doing. I know you don’t want to be a bad friend,”

Anxiety had expected this to make things worse, but instead a few cracks on Morality’s face disappeared.

“We’re not alone,” Morality sighed, before falling asleep.

Anxiety put a hand on Logan’s shoulder. Logan took that to mean it was time to get going. They left the room. Thomas texted one of his friends for the first time in days.

It took several weeks for Morality to heal enough to move again. Even then, it was pretty dangerous. Roman began sleeping less, and he visited Morality in his room to tell him stories and run ridiculous ideas by him.

Morality’s skin was now covered in a horrifyingly beautiful network of cracks and lines. Some red or brown from scabbing, and some white like glued porcelain. He moved slowly, because it hurt to move, but soon the cracked face began smiling again.

Sometimes Anxiety hung around too long or Logan brought up something distressing and a wound opened or a chip fell off, but that was okay. Recovery isn’t a linear path.

In a couple more months, Morality was back with full enthusiasm. He made puns and jumped when he was excited and did his best to keep the others from doing things they might regret. He was still scarred, and still healing, but he was able to find happiness and beauty in the world despite the pain involved in simply moving.

The heart. Deep emotions and empathy. Morality. The difference between right and wrong. Yes, it was a hard job. It involves a lot of arguing. It involves a lot of pain. It requires an ability to command the room and be firm but kind. It involves asking questions that can’t be answered, but he loves it. It’s all just part of being alive, and being alive is a beautiful thing.

#roman wrote a thing #I really hate this one #but I had to get my frustration out #I had to write something #goddamn was it hard to write #i'm pissed now but it feels amazing #writing is my therapy #even if its really hard #morality sanders #patton sanders #angst #logan sanders #logic sanders #roman sanders #prince sanders #anxiety sanders #body horror #trigger warning body horror #blood #trigger warning blood #greif #trigger warning greif #thomas sanders #thatsthat24 #fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic #fan fic #platonic logicality #platonic analogical

[terraneantales]

Ice Cold, Razor Sharp

And here is week 3 of 1kwordsaweek! This time features Nate and is darker than the previous two, involving late night musings and murder

~

It was a curious thing, humanity. So self absorbed and yet daring enough to believe that they were the superior race of Terrene. It was an illusion of course, they were little more than ants in reality. Swarming the earth with brains too large to fit such pitiful bodies, leaving behind nothing but filth. Too cocky and greedy for their own good, getting ahead by washing their hands in the sacrificed blood of others, whilst remaining so sure of their own morality. Pathetic. At least from Nate’s perspective.

He hummed to himself contemplatively, looking down at the human beneath the heel of his boot. Lifeless eyes stared back up at him frozen in a moment of terror, cheeks drained of all colour. The bloody wound to the neck was vicious and yet calculatively precise, as was Nate’s way. Not so tough now, he thought with a sneer tugging at his lips. His reputation for cruelty was well deserved, not that he cared much for the opinions of others. Being feared was of course better than being admired. At least then everyone would leave him alone like he wanted.

He had finished his meal a few moments ago, wiping blood stains from his face as he removed his boot from atop the neck below. The hunt had been satisfying as always; the thrill of the chase brought a gleam to his eyes, and he revelled in the swell of power that came from holding life in one’s hands just before crushing it into insignificant dust. It was godlike, and though not in this form he knew that feeling intimately well. The life force of the lives he took were almost palpable when the light left their eyes, as if being transferred into his blackened veins. They surged through to his core as hot as molten lava, breathing momentary purpose and joy into a landscape devoid of meaning.

He hadn’t cared much for the taste of his meal, far too much salt in their diet for his liking. But then again he found he didn’t care for much of anything these days. Life had a simple yet monotone flow to it. Hunt and destroy. Death and suffering. All it did was provide a temporary relief from the dullness of life, from pains he refused to acknowledge. As mind numbing as it was, anything was better than going back there though.

Scoffing as he kicked the body sharply to the side of the alley he began walking his way through the stillness of the night. The air was cool with the threat of rain, as it always seemed to around Sector 5. The area had nothing much to offer save it’s booming metal industry, which he had little but passing curiosity in. There were so many pointless inventions, though begrudgingly he had to admit he was quite fond of some things. Jeans was one of them - such comfortable and yet durable clothing. Humming once more to himself he agreed silently that not all aspects of humanity were worthless. Beer was pretty great too. And not to mention cheese.

He directed his thoughts towards where to migrate to next week as he put up his hood, this hunting ground had become ever so boring. The wind had turned icy as he rounded the corner onto the main high street of the town, deathly quiet as the residents slept peacefully in their homes. The turbulence had at least lifted the smog he so detested. Would it kill to get some fresh air in towns these days? Industry for you, no respect for the environment or its impact on air purity. He grunted a little in amusement at the train of thought. He didn’t give a damn about Terrene. It could burn for all he cared, hell he’d strike the first match if he got the chance.

The next gust of wind brought with it the unmistakably sour scent of vampire in the distance that made his nose instinctively twitch. He paused, squinting down the road and trying to lock on to where it was coming from. He sniffed sharply. Half a mile, South East. Average build. Relatively young, perhaps a year or so. Slow pace. Moving downwind towards him.

He sneered a little as he changed course to hide amongst the shadows of the buildings, making sure to move silently. What a sloppy hunter they must be, to be so easily detected. He may have honed his tracking skills to a fearsome level, but to smell another at that distance? And now as they approached, hear the stomping of shoes on the road? Careless. No wonder the Servos were good at their job. He watched motionlessly from his position as the stranger passed him by. They were drunk both on alcohol and blood, seemingly unfazed by their lack of caution. When did they get so arrogant? He blew through his nose shortly in disgust, eyes flicking down the road they had just come down.

He stiffened at the shadow moving silently across the street. Frowning he sniffed again quietly, growling under his breath. Servo. A damned good one at that, with the way it seemingly melted into the murky darkness. It was in hot pursuit of the vampire now a few metres to his left, and within moments it would be on top of its quarry. Nate smirked to himself darkly; karma was coming for them.

He turned away from the scene quickly unfolding and began to walk away, not even blinking as the shriek of surprise mixed with fear echoed behind him. Life was a vicious cycle; vampire kills human, and servo kills vampire. Unless of course, the vampire killed the servo first. The screams died down as he turned the corner, and he licked a few stray drops of blood from his teeth. He could have helped them he supposed, could have warned them of their impending doom.

But it was a dog eat dog world; He just happened to be a wolf.

#writing #1kwordsaweek #nate #vampires

[loopy-atla-fanfic]

Samsara - Chapter 5

Rating: T

Characters: Mai, Zuko, Ty Lee, Azula

Story Warnings: Ableism, Suicidal Thoughts

Chapter Warnings: Extended description of Suicidal Thoughts

Written for Maiko Week 2017

EPOCH 5

"Come on, Mai. It's time to embrace the day! Hey, that rhymed."

Mai woke and immediately realized what she wanted to do. She was going to fly into the sun, or die trying, whichever happened first.

Really, she just wanted to do something ambitious, because ambition meant work, work meant something that required thought, and as the ancient Fire Sages had posited, 'I think, therefore I'm probably still here, and if not, I would prefer it if you didn't disabuse me of that notion.'

She went through the morning routine as she considered how to go about accomplishing her goal. She had a schedule for the Avatar's sky bison, but knowing where the thing would be throughout the day and actually finding a way to get on top of it without immediately getting thrown off at the speed of a Katara Icicle Special were two very different matters.

Also, the sky bison smelled funny. That would make for a rather inglorious ascent.

The Avatar's glider-staff probably only worked with Airbending, and taking it from him would involve fighting him again. Been there, done that, gotten the blood-stains in her clothes already. Asking the Avatar for a ride might work, since he had to be nicer than Katara, but boys that age were usually finicky about touching teenage girls who weren't Ty Lee.

Then, as part of the long morning briefing (which always happened when Mai failed to pay visible attention), Azula said, "Reinforcements will be deployed to sweep in and destroy the last of our enemies, once and for all!"

Ah, yes, the airships.

Hm.

Airships. Come to think of it, they flew, didn't they? Mai still wasn't used to that being a thing that people could use machines to do, now. Also, the invaders had boats that went underwater. What was the world coming to? What next, something that could sail into volcanos, just to complete the elemental theme?

Or an airship that could actually touch the sun?

She continued on through the daily pattern, following Ty Lee to the temple. As ever, their arrival was quickly noticed by the usual burly army guy, who proceeded to inflict his presence on them with extreme prejudice. "My Ladies, Colonel Lee reporting! I've successfully evacuated the Fire Sages, and my soldiers are stationed throughout the first floor of the main temple building. I have an elite force ready to spill out into the courtyard at a moment's notice, and my subordinates have been given a plan to rapidly deploy continuing waves as required. Naturally, we've saved some space for you two right with that first wave."

"Excellent job, Colonel," Mai snarked. "You've already exceeded by expectations in every way. I have no doubts that with your oversight, this mission will be a complete success, and then the Fire Lord will reward us with gold and cream puffs."

"Thank you, my lady! I do enjoy a good cream puff." Colonel Lee practically glowed at the missed sarcasm. He never picked up on insincere praise, Mai had found. It was almost sad, in a way, but was it really? The man was happy. Ty Lee, who had a similar personality defect, was usually happy. It was Mai who had tripped face-first into a curse that had her reliving the worst day of her life, and might have even driven her a bit mad by now (but not all the way, because she hadn't killed Zuko 'yesterday.' She could take heart in that, albeit a dark, tarnished heart of steel).

The problem with reliving the same day for an eternity was that it was impossible to miss all the patterns.

What was it about Lee and Ty Lee that made happiness so easy? Aside from stupidity and having L-E-E in their names, of course. Hm, maybe that was the key? Mai could take some cycles to track down every single person named Lee in the Capital and poll their general contentment with life. Maybe she could even compose a report and surprise Azula with it during the normal briefing. "Yes, yes," she could say, "the Day of Black Sun is good and all, but have you realized that changing your name might fix your urge to terrorize people? No? Well, I have some graphs here..."

Mai shook the thought away. She had other pointless goals, for now. "Colonel, I'm curious about something. Are you familiar with the new airships that will be deployed today?"

"A bit, my lady. It was decided that the Army, not the Navy, would be the branch administering the new Glorious Sky Domination Group, and so there were seminars on the basic capabilities of the vehicles and the principles behind their function."

"Then what is the minimal crew for operating one of the small war balloons?"

"At minimum, my lady, a single Firebender should be able to make do for a while, although he'd run into trouble if he had to steer and tend the burner at the same time. Officially, a crew of two Firebenders is recommended, but the pilot being a Firebender is a redundant failsafe, unless they're looking for a 'hot hand' on the stick. Ha, ha, just my little joke there."

"Yes. It was hilarious." Mai watched Lee beam, even though she wasn't smiling and the tone of her voice had more in common with the surface of a glacier than actual human amusement. It was like the man subsisted on complimentary words, whatever tone they had been basted with.

As they continued on into the temple, Ty Lee bumped Mai's shoulder. "So you were distracted during Azula's briefing, and now you're letting random people think you're being nice to them. Someone must have gotten a good night's sleep. The first in your life, now that I think about it. But you did get in pretty late last night. Were you with Zuko?"

Mai snorted. That was the first time the question had come up in this context. "I can honestly say that what happened yesterday between me and Zuko was disappointing on multiple levels. I suppose I'm just tired of the effort it takes to be difficult. For now."

"Huh. I guess it had to happen eventually."

"Ha, ha."

Ty Lee settled in the foyer to have her army-issued breakfast, while Mai took her box of rice'n'sausage and went exploring. Or, rather, scavenging. The sages, as befit people who had nominally devoted their lives to the spirituality of fire (along with the communication of that spirituality to the people of the homeland and the political power and riches that came from distributing that spirituality to order like a boxed lunch) kept plenty of materials on hand related to fire. Specifically, there were large torches, sticky liquids that would burn at a selection of temperatures and durations, and powders that could be thrown into a good blaze to make it flare up impressively. All the stuff required to bring awe to the masses and maybe also liven up a good drinking session.

All things that would maybe keep a war balloon aloft for a day, maybe.

Mai pilfered as many of the items as she could stuff into army sacking and snuck out of the temple.

The airship fleet was being prepared outside of Capital City, outside the whole volcano, on the opposite side from the harbor. Really, it was lucky that the Avatar hadn't snuck up from the rear while his invaders made their push, or Azula's whole surprise would have been caught with its metaphorical pants around each and every airship's metaphorical knees. But then, that was probably why Azula had the airships all fully armed and staffed before they were brought over. A hundred Firebenders and a fleet worth of bomb-throwing cannons was an excellent deterrent to security leaks, once it stopped being the probable source of the security leaks.

By the time Mai had found her way to the where the fleet was splayed out on the grass, the eclipse was about to happen. Anchoring lines were being untied and the gunners were doing their pre-immolating stretches. Mai just walked into the commotion like she belonged there, because if there was one thing a soldier working near the Capital was trained to tolerate, it was a noble making no attempt to hide what they were doing. Being sneaky, with a hooded cloak and perhaps a mask, was much more likely to bring down trouble on the cloaked and perhaps-masked head.

She found herself a small war balloon on the periphery, one of the escort units. The pilot was already at the steering stick while the other Firebender was untying the anchoring line. She adjusted her walk, as she approached them, to that faux-shy little trot, and schooled her expression into something like that of a flustered schoolgirl. "Yoo-hoo! Sirs! I'm a special agent of Princess Azula, and I have a question for you."

The Firebenders looked over at her, looked her over, and decided not to overlook her. The pilot said, "Yes, my lady?"

Mai closed the distance and shifted her hips. "Is it okay to disable you, or would a quick death be more merciful?"

The pilot's well-considered answer was, "What?"

So Mai decided to answer for both men.

A minute later, she had a good blaze going in the war balloon's burner, the anchoring line had been cut quite short, and the Firebenders were pinned to the ground and left to watch her commit the world's first documented case of grand-theft-hot-air-balloon. (Mental note: Take a few cycles of days and commit every grand-theft crime available in the capital, including grand-theft-komodo-rhino and grand-theft-one-of-those-sweet-tanks.)

Experimentation proved that the amount of heat controlled the ascent, the fin controlled the direction, and the propeller at the back made the Go happen. Mai pointed her craft away from the rest of the fleet, and let herself be carried away.

As per her original goal, she pointed herself towards the sun. This took her on a different course than the rest of the fleet- which, it seemed, had begun engaging the Avatar on his wing-stick and Katara on the stupid bison. They people in those airship were learning what Mai had, that ticked off teenage Waterbenders did not fool around and oh look another hot air balloon was plummeting to its crew's death.

Besides the battle and the death, the course of Mai's airship gave her an angled view of the Caldera.

It looked like the toy model every child in the city had, with which they recreated (to varying degrees of success, depending on whether one owned the limited edition set of Crimson Guard toy soldiers) the Fire Lord's crowning. And there was the invading army, scurrying back towards the harbor like a particularly disorderly swarm of ants. There were the clean-up crews, getting started on clearing all the giant boulders from the lawns.

There was a particular boulder next to the park, under which would be a runner with a metal leg.

Mai briefly wondered what it would be like to just flip herself over the rail and fall down to the ground at fatal speed. Would it hurt, or would death come too quickly to feel anything?

She had already died in a number of, retrospectively, interesting ways. (Katara had to be responsible for roughly half of them.) Perhaps she should start a new hobby, of mapping out the process of dying? Try doing it slowly, try doing it quickly, try seeing if she could get people to applaud? She would just wake up again to find Ty Lee rhyming. Maybe she could even see if she could arrange her own death to hurt other people, to see if someone like, say, Ty Lee would cry over her or just shrug and move on.

Yes, Mai could learn some interesting things, killing herself over and over.

She leaned further over the railing.

She could learn, just like she learned yesterday that she couldn't bring herself to kill Zuko.

She leaned back from the railing.

Giving up on Zuko had hurt. That had been a self-inflicted death, in a way. Did she really want to keep doing that? Did she really want to learn anything such lessons had to offer? Did she really doubt who cared for her, and who didn't?

No, perhaps not, after all.

Really, just because she had an eternity didn't mean she had no limits. Rather, it might be a point of pride to maintain some boundaries, despite the infinite possibilities. She'd be able to think to herself that, yes, she'd had infinite opportunities to do something especially nasty, but she had resisted that temptation an infinite number of times. That was quite a winning streak.

Really, the concept counted even for people who weren't trapped in the same day. Every moment was the choice to do something hurtful or something benign, or perhaps even something good. And if every moment was infinitely small, then everyone who had refused to do the hurtful thing, whether to one's self or others, had made that choice an infinite number of times.

Great, now Mai was willfully doing philosophy without the encouragement of someone like Ty Lee. Well, that was one reprehensible boundary crossed already.

She watched the Avatar and his friends fly away on their bison, thankfully in another direction, and watched another war balloon give slow chase.

Hm, that was strange. She had noticed it before, but from up here, it looked like that balloon only had a single person inside.

She shielded her eyes and stared.

Ah.

It was Zuko.

So, yes, there was a single person inside, but only until the Avatar accepted his hand in marriage or whatever.

Bah.

Mai adjusted her course and kept flying towards the sun.

She flew out over the ocean, leaving the capital behind. It was the first time since this entire cursed cycling had begun that she had left the city and its surrounding area. Her breathing became a little easier, which was odd, because she had not become aware of an increase in difficulty at any point. Was breathing like those carnival games, where the operator flipped a switch to make the game harder if you looked like you might actually win?

She flew on, watching the ocean and the dolphin-bunnies that played in the waves. She watched the Isle of the Black Cliffs approach on the horizon. She watched the shimmer of the sunlight on the water. She watched the clouds float lazily by.

Sacred ash! It turned out that when you had no fear of falling to your death, flying was actually kind of boring.

Still, it was a new kind of boring. After living through the Day of Black Sun as many times as Mai had, novelty even in boredom was more than welcome.

Locking the steering stick into place, and content that the fire had a good blaze going thanks to those consistently-burning jellies from the temple, Mai sat down against the ship's side and let herself relax.

A few minutes later, she was dozing.

An undetermined amount of time later, she was falling from the sky and on fire.

WHAT?!

Mai's eyes snapped open, and she found that her 'good blaze' had become good enough to reach up and get the balloon itself in on the whole 'consistently burning' fun. Ironically, the hot air was escaping through the holes left by the hot fire, and the whole ship was plummeting.

Well, this would be an interesting way to die. And she hadn't even done it on purpose!

But she always had that choice, to live or to die, even if she wasn't the one arranging the choice.

And, really, how many other times would she go to the effort of arranging to survive being aboard a crashing war balloon?

She grinned. Flying wasn't boring anymore.

Okay, focus. Hitting the ocean wouldn't do much good because, as Katara had ably demonstrated several times before she switched to ice, water could be quite hard even in its liquid state. The Isle of the Black Cliffs was right there, and a glance revealed that someone must have recently been here shearing the local koala-sheep, because a big pile of fluffy white (and very smelly, no doubt) fuzz was piled at a spot up at the top of the cliffs.

Mai crawled back to the controls and shoved the lever that would make the propeller spin at its maximum speed. Then she let go right before the lever caught on fire.

There was nothing else to do but wait at the front of the craft, try not to burn to death, and wait for the right opportunity-

-the war balloon cleared the bay-

-it passed over the tops of the cliffs-

-it was falling rather fast now-

-Mai's eye for angles revealed that she would crash far short of the piled up fluff-

-do some math; angles and acceleration due to gravity and consistent horizontal motion slowed by wind resistance-

-Mai jumped off the front of the airship.

It continued to fall.

She went up very briefly, and then fell again, as physical objects are wont to do.

And then she crashed into the fluff, but it wasn't as fluffy as she had hoped, and so there was an unexpectedly hard stop at the end, the sound of a snap, and then her ankles decided that they were going to knock off early for the day and they'd see her tomorrow.

Mai groaned.

Broken bones were nothing new in this adventure, but they were never fun.

Lying in a pile of koala-sheep fluff (and yes, it smelled awful), Mai looked up at the sky.

A familiar face dipped into view, squinting at her.

"I know you," General Iroh said.

Mai nodded. "I was dating your nephew and gooning for your niece."

Iroh continued to squint. "You're not the cheerful one who liked to do flips."

"No. I'm the other one."

General Iroh frowned. "Are you okay? I saw the crash and came to help."

Mai sighed. "My ankles are broken, but I'm fine here. You can get on with whatever you were doing." And then, through the pain and the shock, she realized something. "Wait, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be locked- oh, that's right, you escape. Wow, you made good time getting out here. Did you steal a war balloon, too?"

General Iroh didn't answer right away. "What are you doing out here? Were you trying to pursue me?"

Mai closed her eyes. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Her heard the distinct sound of wiry gray chin-hairs being stroked, a sound all too common in the Capital. "That sounds like an interesting challenge."

"Okay. Well, I've somehow been cursed so that I keep reliving the Day of Black Sun over and over. I tried to keep Zuko from running away to join the Avatar's crusade, and at best I failed and at worst I got Zuko killed. So I tried to just focus on myself and wound up becoming a super-warrior, and after killing the Avatar I went on to kill all his friends. I decided that Zuko counted as one of those friends, but I couldn't make myself hurt him purposefully. So, to avoid the temptation to just lie down and stop, I stole a war balloon to see how far I could get chasing the sun. The answer is exactly this far, because here I am with broken ankles. You can go ahead and leave me. I can't die. I'll just wake up back in the Capital at dawn."

Mai waited for the inevitable, skeptical questions. Or else the sound of a short man backing away from a crazy girl.

Except she could still hear General Iroh breathing, and there were no footsteps.

He wasn't leaving.

She opened her eyes again.

Iroh was standing above her, and she had never seen someone look at her with that kind of expression. No, wait, she actually had. It took her a moment to place, but that was the same look Ty Lee displayed whenever she and Mai had serious discussions about their families.

It was sympathy.

General Iroh said, "And do you think you're the first person to be trapped in the worst day of your life?"

What.

What?

What?!

It was some time before General Iroh provided any answers. He had to see to his nearby compatriots ("Just some old Pai Sho friends," was all he would say), help them settle their eelhounds ("Almost fast as a war balloon and twice as friendly," he laughed), and then set up a campfire over which he made some tea. ("Because everything is better with tea!")

The sun was well into its setting when Iroh finally handed her a cup of steaming jasmine and sat down with his own tea, right alongside her koala-sheep fuzz bed. "The day I- lost my son, I cursed every force that had allowed his death. Unfortunately, a few of them were listening, and made use of a rare punishment to teach me a lesson."

Mai held her tea. She knew about tea, or at least she thought she did, but she was having a problem remembering what she was supposed to do with it right now. It smelled good; maybe she was meant to dab it on her underarms? Well, she could ask about it after she cleared up another point: "You got out! You- it's possible to get out! How? How did you do it?"

Iroh sighed and sipped at his tea. Oh, so that's what it was for. "I wish I knew. You might have been joking when you said you went a little mad, but that was no joke for me, and it wasn't just a little."

Oh. That was simpler than she thought. "So I'll just go all the way mad. That can't take long."

"Perhaps not, my dear. But do you think I have no regrets about my escape?"

Mai didn't get it. "Why would you have regrets?

"I had an endless number of chances to save my son, and because I lost control of myself, I escaped the loop on one of the sequences where he- where I failed."

Oh. Mai got it. "But you still-" She was about to say that Iroh still escaped, and perhaps the loss of his son was worth it, but she made the mistake of looking him in the eyes, and the haunted expression immediately sucked the air out of her lungs. "N- never mind."

Iroh nodded slowly, and then sipped at his tea again. "In the end, the spirit who first cursed me, a Heron, came back and declared that I had suffered enough. It led me out of the loop, but I was hardly in a state to take control of myself again. I walked away from my army- from my life- and began a slow healing that did not complete until I went with the Heron into the Spirit World. Only when I returned did I feel fit to go home, and by then, my brother was secure in his rule as Fire Lord. At least I came back in time to see Zuko starting down the path I did when I was trapped in the loop."

Zuko- "I don't even know that the thing that cursed me is watching."

"Then going mad might not even be necessary, and I can assure you, my dear, that it would be quite unpleasant."

Mai sighed. "Call me 'my dear' again and I will gut you like a fish."

Iroh laughed. "As you wish. I meant no offense. I can see why Zuko likes you, even aside from your dangerous good looks."

Mai snorted. "If I thought you believed that, I'd bother being offended."

"You sell yourself short. So, tell me, what have you been doing with your time? If you're anything like me, you haven't chosen to tell anyone before now, but sharing our lives with others is how we relieve ourselves of the burden of the memories."

Mai put her tea down and leaned back on her smelly fluff. "Come on, you don't really care. You're in the middle of a great escape, right? Then get going."

"I do not see any reason to bother, and I really do care. My nephew must have seen worth in you, to have started a romance, and satisfying a doting old uncle's curiosity seems like an excellent way to spend an evening."

Mai blinked. "What do you mean, there's no reason to bother?"

"Well, this day is going to loop again, correct? Right now, you are the center of the universe, and until you are free, I will wake up every morning in a prison. I just won't be aware of it, as you are."

Huh. Mai had never really thought about it that way.

She had never considered anyone but herself as being involved in this whole mess.

Still, Mai was inclined to tell him to lick ash. She didn't need relief, and even if she did, forgoing it was a good way to go mad and maybe find freedom. But her broken ankles were swollen and painful, and she didn't really want to drink any tea. Talking would at least not be boring. "Well, the first time, I spent the day waiting around for a chance that never came to help fight off the invasion. When I came back to my house, I found a note on my bed..."

And so she went through everything. General Iroh listened, and drank tea, and kept the campfire going. The evening became the night, and the night became the early morning.

Mai was surprised how much she remembered. She had been convinced that she didn't care about most of it, but people didn't remember what they didn't care for. "...and so I chose not to die in a crash, and jumped down into this fluff. And then a short, smelly old man with strangely muscular arms came and bugged me and made tea at me."

Iroh chuckled. "And how fortunate for both of us that I did! Without tea, I think that tale would have dried you out long ago!"

Mai was just tired enough to laugh along with it. "I guess thanks are in order."

"You are quite welcome, my d- Mai." Iroh sobered. "And I think I owe it to you to say that you've done remarkably well at handling the situation."

Mai quirked an eyebrow. "Going on a murder spree was handling it well?" It was amazing, with this old man serving as a touchstone of sanity, how odd she now considered the notion of deciding to kill people for fun. "Handling it well was turning Zuko over to Azula?"

"I made my own share of mistakes. Some of them might chill your blood. And I did not resist the call of self-harm."

"Fair point." Mai sighed. "But I'm not out of this yet. If I ever am."

Iroh leaned forward. "Might I make a suggestion?"

"Well, it's not like I can stop you."

"Your friend Ty Lee spoke of focusing on yourself, rather than the world around you." Iroh looked up at the stars and smiled. "There is a certain wisdom to that, in some circumstances, but her view is limited by her youth. One's self can be a fragile thing, and it takes a lifetime to discover how to handle it with proper gentleness. If you seek a path to endurance, I think working to change or protect yourself can be counterproductive."

"So what's left?"

"The removal of the self, itself." Iroh chuckled. "I don't think that counts as a proper rhyme, but it has a nice ring to it, regardless. I failed to endure my own curse, but in doing so, I learned how to endure a life in which I am disrespected by most of my family. Even most of my nation! I have endured the- the absence of those who have passed beyond my reach. I have even endured Zuko's tantrums, and those are no small things!"

Mai couldn't help but smile. "Don't I know it. So what's your secret?"

Iroh leaned over and whispered, "The key to endurance is surrender."

"Surrender?" Mai groaned. "I already tried spending an eternity in bed. It got boring."

"No, not apathy. That is something else. I mean to surrender in that you let go of your Self. Let down your barriers against the world, so that the world and the self are the same thing. That is where true joy can be found. You don't get tired of yourself, do you? Then join with the world, and it will always bring you love."

Mai tried to understand that. She really did. She pushed the words into the metaphorical mechanics of her brain, and ended up with stripped gears. "I don't get it."

Iroh shifted, and peered over Mai's head. She turned, being careful of her throbbing ankles, and saw the stretch of the rest of the Isle of the Black Cliffs extending out towards the horizon.

And on that horizon was a line of orange sunlight.

Iroh said, "You will have time to think about it."

Mai closed her eyes one last time for the day. "I guess I will."

"Can I give you a hug? I think you could use one."

"Well, I guess I won't have to tolerate it for long."

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

"Come on, Mai. It's time to embrace the day! Hey, that rhymed."

Embrace the day, huh? That sounded like as good a start to General Iroh's surrender as any.

#maikoweek2017 #suicide #zumai #zuko #avatar mai

[cwdcshows]

Stargirl - S1 E3 - Icle

Honestly, I wasn't nearly as impressed with this episode as the first two episodes.  There were a few decent parts, but the story felt weak and a lot of pointless plot points that felt like something you'd see from an Arrowverse show. The part where Pat took Courtney to the Justice Society headquarters was nice, but that felt like something that should have happened in either the first episode or the second at the latest.  Ditto the ending, when Courtney takes the Justice Society gear to recruit new members; and I don't know how I feel about that either, as it feels a little forced. And what's up with the JSA having giant banners of themselves hanging in their headquarters?  I can buy the villains doing that, but it seems pretty narcissistic of the heroes.

I'm seriously over the trend that happens virtually every new show now to take for fucking ever just to set up the core premise of who the main characters are and what their dynamic is; get to the fucking point.  Maybe I'm to impatient, but I saw nothing wrong with how they used to start a series by using the pilot to layout the framework of the series and then just hit the ground running telling the stories.  Look at the first episode of Buffy, within the first two hours of the series (and let's be honest, "The Harvest" was part two of the pilot) we knew the "sitch" as Buffy would say of who the main characters were and what their deal was.  We met Buffy, Joyce, Giles, Xander, Willow, Cordelia all in the first episode too; plus the big bad of the Master and they still advanced the plot by having the Master try to free himself. Meanwhile, three episodes in it's obvious they're going to make Courtney and the girl who's being harassed and called a "slut" best friends, but Jesus they're dragging that out. And while I applaud Courtney for trying to stick up for her, the dialog felt contrived. Then of course they try to go to the opposite extreme by trying to rush an investment in a new character, just so they can kill them and try to milk some kind of sentiment for an intentional, yet seemingly pointless death.   I fully expect this magic kid (Joey, I think they said his name was) to also befriend Courtney in a Xander-esque capacity (not to lean too hard on the Buffy comparison), but come on, we're supposed to give a shit about this kid getting killed by Icicle just because we saw a couple of scenes of him doing some shitty card tricks (badly); and sharing one scene with the main protagonist?  Let us learn more than his name first; or even just let us be sure his name is in fact Joey if you want us to care when kill him off. And what the hell was up with the level of enthusiasm for this school's talent show?  I think they said something about "regionals" or some bullshit, but come on.  Is this one of those performing arts highs schools?  And if it is, why did Courtney seemed so surprised by everyone being in costume?  Why are they all in costume during the regular school day?  There's need to be in costume all fucking day, rather than change right before your performance; that's what the call time is for.  It's the time ahead of the show during which you get ready. Why were so many students gathering around to watch this lameass card trick?  Who would give a shit?  Are they all stoned?  Did serious no one else, besides the one guy, not see the card Courtney picked, to realize he later picked the wrong card?  Because they absolutely would have called him on screwing up the trick if anyone else had seen. I'm also starting to think the writers have no fucking clue what to do with Courtney's mom.  What was the point of her coming home only to find Pat and Courtney were out?  And why did they choose that exact moment to leave and take a tour of the JSA HQ, when at least Pat knew that what's name would be home before they could possibly get back; to say nothing of his own son. Her being at...whatever that meeting was for city development, seemed random - especially since I either missed it or it wasn't made real clear who Icicle is supposed to be in his public life.  Is he the mayor or something?  Her comment on the community theatre was yet another instance in this episode that seemed random and kind of forced.  And why are these characters, who I can only assume are elected officials, at least in the context of that scene, talking about the community theatre losing money; it's not a fucking subsidiary of a business you own.  Maybe that theatre group is renting space from the city or something, but if they're losing money, that's not really the city's problem, unless they're in a position to support it; and they're not losing money from that fact, unless the theatre group is behind on their rent.  But considering how big of thing the fucking high school talent show is, I'm kind of astounded to hear them suggest their community theatre is losing money.  If they're losing money it's probably because all of the fucking high school students keep renting their costumes and wearing them all day, getting them all sweaty and stained at lunch (theatre rule #12: never eat in costume); and then drop them back off without washing them, so the theatre has to drop a shit ton of money to have all of those costumes drycleaned. But apparently the writers just needed some contrived excuse to show Courtney's mom expressing interest in what's happening in her town to justify her joining whatever board or committee we see her attending later in the episode; rather than just having her say she'd decided to get involved by serving on this committee or whatever, like any normal fucking person would.  And how much you want to bet it's not even the fucking the community theatre board she's joining, but just some random community development committee or something?  Or even who fucking cares?  Because in three episodes they've given her about as character much development as the kid they killed off this week; and I'm not even sure they've mentioned her name.  It seems probable they did, but I'll be damned if I can remember it.  So far the only defining aspect of her character is that she's played by Amy Adams, who is apparently a vampire, seeing as she doesn't appear to have aged in the last 20 years.  We sure as hell haven't been shown anything to show that she and Pat are actually in any kind of romantic or sexual relationship.  I can't even remember if they said they were married.  I think they did, but much like her name, I can't fucking remember. And why did Icicle kill Joey?  What possible purpose did that serve?  He seemed to have an ulterior motive for it, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it could be, other than naming the community theatre after him and milking people's emotions over that.  But they couldn't even be bothered to draw an association between him and the community theatre to make that make sense. Is Icicle omnipotent, that he can so effortlessly manipulate the environment from a distance?  He can light blow, from wherever the fuck he was, and make the road/bridge ice over in just the right spot? Why would Joey just leap into traffic like that, just to retrieve of his stupid fucking playing cards?  Spend a buck and buy another pack?  A lot of card tricks tend to bend up or even tear their cards, so I'm sure you're regularly buying new decks anyway. Even if the road wasn't suddenly icy, he jumped into oncoming traffic, without a care of any cars heading his way.  It's not like the ice made the car speed up; it just made it harder for the car to stop when some asshole jumps out in front of him. And why should we care that his father is also murdered?  It was obvious from the start that he was probably also a former member of the Injustice Society; and given how hard they leaned into the magic stuff in his introductory scene, it was equally obvious that he possessed real magic.  Yet apart from whipping out his wand, so to speak, we don't actually see him display any real magic.  Nor do they really tell us anything worth knowing about him throughout the rest of the episode; other than he was apparently some elected official.   Was Courtney's mom filling his vacancy?  Was the why Icicle killed him?  Because that just seems round about. And, shock, gasp, the boy Courtney was talking to earlier turns out to be the son of Icicle!  Who could possibly see that coming...other than people watching it with the sound on (and probably a few without sound)?