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hamliet · 3 months

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Hazbin Hotel Has Better Theology Than Most Modern "Christian" Stories

As a Christian who was raised in a fundie cult and escaped to now have a far healthier and vital faith, I genuinely really like this show. The songs are bops. The characters are well crafted and interesting, and likable too. The art design is bizarre but appealing.

And, as a theology nerd who studied theology as part leaving said cult and also has since gotten papers published in theology, I'm actually fairly impressed by the show's handling of theology.

No, I'm not expecting the story to preach or even like, be explicitly Christian in a lot of ways. But it's taking a lot of the really beautiful aspects of Christian theology and re-contextualizing them in a way designed to provoke thought: by juxtaposing them with the antithesis of what you would think, by making demons heroes. In my opinion, this makes the beauty shine brighter.

Yeah, yeah, it's designed to be offensive and obscene in a lot of ways. Yet, it's never (thus far) mean-spirited. On the contrary, it seems to have a big, beating heart at its core that is perhaps best embodied by Charlie Morningstar, its protagonist and the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith.

Critique of the Church, with Caveats

The story works best with an interpretation that heaven isn't actually heaven or God (who has been conspicuously absent), but instead as a critique of the church. Specifically, the evangelical American church, and specifically, white evangelicals. (Same as She-Ra's premise, actually).

God's absence therefore makes sense, because while Christians do believe God is present as a living reality among us, we also can't like, see him physically now. So, God being not even mentioned in HH makes it seem more like a mortal reality rather than an immortal one. Honestly I kinda hope God doesn't appear in the story, not only because I think it could cross some lines (which is admittedly personal), but also because I don't see that the story really needs it.

Adam in particular reminds me of every "theobro" on Twitter (I'm not calling it what you want me to, El*n). Basically a dudebro coopting his supposed salvation to flex in an often misogynistic way, who doesn't realize that he has absolutely no love in him and therefore is actually a worse human being than everyone he condemns on the regular.

(Which is kind of why I'm expecting Adam to wake up in hell next season...)

Think red hats. And Mark Driscoll. And, I have a list of pastors. Sigh. They advocate for how "simple" Christianity is, except they themselves make it ridiculously complicated and don't even examine what they suppose is "simple" if it requires them to take the planks out of their own eyes. "Shallow" is a better description of what they actually preach.

But what sends people to hell or heaven anyways?

Eschatology and Atonement Theory

Hazbin Hotel combines a lot of theories, throwing not only the idea of a physical hell (albeit mixed with Dante's idea of what hell is the Inferno, but to be fair a lot of the church has adopted that idea too) but the idea of annihilation, which HH calls "extermination."

See, in Christianity, there's a lot of debate about hell. Like, since 2000 years ago. The reason is because a lot of Bible verses seem to indicate hell, but others indicate the eventual redemption and salvation of absolutely everything in the universe, so you have Christian universalism tracing itself back just as long. But, setting aside universalism, people who do believe in hell tend to fall into one of two camps:

Physical hell, aka suffering for eternity, or annihilation: the idea that souls that aren't saved end up annihilated, or snuffed from existence. HH combines both of them, wherein everyone lives in hell but then every so often heaven "exterminates" a certain number of sinners.

And then you also have Catholic purgatory, which is also adapted in HH in that... for most Christians, physical hell doesn't offer the ability to redeem yourself. Chance over, you're dead. But, Catholic Christianity, which draws on ideas of praying for the dead, has the idea that people can improve themselves or be prayed out of it and into heaven. This seems to be somewhat similar to the idea of Charlie's hotel, in that sinners can improve, redeem themselves, and rise to heaven.

And, I mean, it's already kinda worked. Sir Pentious acted out Jesus' words: Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

But anyways, the branch of theology that deals with the afterlife is eschatology. And Hazbin Hotel takes on a related form of theology as well, a type of theology I've only seen covered in stories once before (The House in Fata Morgana): atonement theory.

Atonement theory is something I remember well from my theology 101 class, as in I remember sitting with a friend and her turning to me and being like, "okay, so we know Jesus' death and resurrection give us eternal life, but we have no idea how or why?" To which the answer was "basically, yeah."

Most of the white, American evangelical church is very "penal substitutionary atonement," but the reality is that this theory has only been popular for the past few hundred years. It's also, imo, somewhat scripturally unsound. But there are a lot of other theories, and sometimes the theories overlap. Here's a fairly decent summary. (I'm in general a believer in Christus Victor.)

So how does atonement theory tie into Hazbin Hotel? Well, essentially the scene where Charlie and Vaggie are debating with Emily, Sera, Adam, Lute, and others in heaven is them going over various atonement theories and realizing that they actually know nothing at all. How does one get to heaven? How is one saved? They don't know.

Sera criticizing Emily for asking questions was also very relatable, and I feel for Sera. She's genuinely scared but the truth will set you free, Sera. John 8:32. Anyways, the point is like... the angels are an organized religion, an evangelical church, that preaches about simplicity but mistakes shallowness for simplicity and discourages depth and discovery.

Anyways, the whole crux of theological study and atonement theories is that they should promote humility. We don't know for certain on this side of the curtain. That's okay. So what do we have to guide us?

Love. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8).

Charlie is Jesus

"Why would you endanger your immortal life for these sinners?"

Adam, the absolute worst, says the above to Charlie in the finale.

I mean... look. That's literally the premise of Christianity. That the immortal son of God comes down to earth, lives with sinners, loves us, and dies to save us. However that happens. Charlie even responds:

"They're my family!"

In other words, she loves them. Yeah, sure, they're destined for extermination, but they are going to be exterminated over her dead body.

In a lot of branches of Christianity, and even in some creeds--though I'm going to give into my pet peeves here and state that it is NOT Scriptural and relies on the faulty assumption that God is bound by time, when I think God exists outside of it--state that Jesus descended into hell after his death and took all the souls of people who were saved prior to his coming to earth to heaven. Again, I think that's small-minded at best. But, the idea that Charlie is working among them to bring them to heaven is pretty reminiscent of this idea. And I don't hate it lol.

Charlie sees worth inherent in everyone, and no matter what they've done, thinks there's a future for them. Honestly we need people like her on this earth.

Angel Dust

Angel Dust is clearly my favorite character. Bite back your shock, I know (I have a type). But his name is also a fascinating multi-layered pun.

Angel is clearly foreshadowing his endgame. Let's be real, we all know Angel is ending up as an angel. And "angeldust" is of course a name for PCP, and considering Angel's drug habits, yeah.

But, dust also has another meaning to it. See, when Adam was created in Genesis 2:7, the words in Hebrew are "apar min ha'adamah," which is translated literally as "dust of the ground." So the dust is what creates Adam, literally "ground."

In other words, I very much expect Angel Dust to end up being foiled with Adam even more so. Adam might be the first man, but Angel is the first sinner working towards redemption. And let's be real, for all Angel's flaws, he's already a better person than Adam. And if there's any hope for Adam (not that I particularly care if there is but) it'd be through realizing that he and Angel aren't actually different after all. Conversely (and not necessarily mutually exclusively), Angel might serve as a more symbolic "adam" in that he becomes the person all sinners look to for hope. Which, y'know, since "the last Adam" is also a Scriptural term for Jesus...

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45).

I fully expect Angel's arc, alongside Charlie's, to bring life and redemption for everyone around them. Maybe, maybe even the dramatic "all" of Colossians 1:20 (which means, literally, all, everything, everywhere, in the entire universe).

Closing Thoughts

But honestly, regardless of how the story ends--besides that it will presumably end happily because HH is at its core feel-good despite being profane--season one at least has got good theology. Why? Because it's digging into the questions that theology is concerned with. It's digging into the ideas of human nature, of what it means to be a good person, of what it means to redeem oneself, of affirming how precious each individual human soul is.

It doesn't offer cheap answers, and it specifically calls out the white American evangelical church for how it purports to be simple but actually just confuses people and punishes them for things they can't help, that creates more stumbling blocks than it does shine a light. And it does it in a way that is scandalous. Offensive to many religious people.

But, y'know, Jesus was pretty scandalous too.

So I really love the story so far because it emphasizes what I find so beautiful about my religion, and criticizes the parts that have also hurt me. I don't think it's remotely aiming to be a Christian allegory or anything like that, and I don't at all think anyone has to be religious to enjoy it or gain the core message of it, but I do think that it's doing a hell of a lot more good in the world message-wise than most evangelical movies of the past 30 years.

#hazbin hotel #hamliet reviews #theology #christianity #charlie morningstar #jesus #angel dust #angel hazbin hotel

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another-goblin · 3 months

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2.0 SPOILERS and random thoughts

So the hotel building was a prison, right? It sort of makes sense, hotels and prisons have similar layouts. But imagine, the place of concentrated suffering of hundreds of thousands of prisoners, or maybe more (look how big it is), now turned into a weird supernatural hotel - what could possibly go wrong? (what if they kept prisoners in dreams too, and the dreamworld is a former prison dreamworld. And they were fed Soulglad to keep them docile). These cells were quite spacious though.

The way Sunday talked to somebody in the end reminded me of Cocolia. Is it possible a stellaron is involved here too?

The dead characters - no way Robin and Firefly will stay dead. They look playable, and you don't kill characters before they become playable (unless it's Qiqi or Blade)

I have a theory based on nothing, that Robin is alive and is actually behind whatever is going on. (Maybe her plan is for all these disruptive guests to kill each other in the name of harmony) She's in cahoots with Sparkle who pretended to be the body.

Sparkle - with her ability to shapeshift, aren't we supposed to be constantly paranoid? Anybody can be Sparkle. But also, seeing how vicious and unhinged she is, she feels like she should be the main antagonist in her own story arc, not just an extra. I mean even Sampo seems apprehensive of her.

I understand people who were enamored with Firefly and saddened with her death, but I personally weren't, because for me her part has the outward appearance of a romantic story, but inside it's just two hours of lies and tutorials. I also saw theories about her different identity and If it's true I hope the writers know what they are doing. Also why is our character so sure she's dead? Don't people who die in a dream just wake up in real world?

If Duke Inferno is dead, and stays dead, and his cool gang is never mentioned again, it's going to be the funniest thing in this game yet.

BTW how did Acheron allegedly enter the hotel using Duke invitation? Aventurine knows that we know that it's very hard (he witnessed our problems with DH's invitation). Make it make sense.

Gallagher - either he's up to something or he's extremely incompetent. He let go an actual stawaway and the huy who fits the description he just provided (Caelus - a guy with grey hair). Also it was him personally who stole confiscated Aventurine's stuff.

Speaking of which. I think Aventurine mentioned "cornerstones", plural. So it's not just his aventurine, but others too? Ratio implied that these things are crucial for their success and that Aventurine might be in danger from IPC without his rock, I wonder what's that about, and why Aventurine is so dismissive about losing them.

Anyways I'm still curious why IPC sent these two. It looks like they decided to achieve their goals on Penacony in a more or less peaceful way (unlike their military invasion on Jario-6). So why did they send Dr. Ratio, notorious for having the social grace of a nuclear bomb, and Aventurine, who isn't doing that great either.

I wonder how the game expects us to see Aventurine. The game probably expects us to see him as slimy but charming and dangerous. And yeah, he somehow (conveniently behind the scenes) managed to come to some agreement with Black Swan, but otherwise he fails miserably in most of his interactions.

When we first meet him, he pretends that he has the power to help us with our invitation problem, awkwardly compliments Robin and Sunday, tries to buy our friendship with a ridiculously small sum (well it was probably all the money he had left). Then he tries to intimidate us but gets spooked by Acheron. Ratio leaves in the middle of their conversation, Sparkle catches him stalking her and roasts him, and so on.

So my current VERY subjective impression is that he's quite desperate at this point. He constantly fails but tries to save face. He lost his confidence after his stuff was confiscated, he can't count on buying people's loyalty with giant bribes as he probably used to.

He obviously had a difficult childhood, he had to claw his way up, and IPC doesn't seem like a place that nurtures one's appreciation for genuine human connections. He probably learned to see genuine feelings as liability. As the result, he only sees people as assets, and "friends" as tools. He talks a lot about friends and trust, but never even pretends that he wants to achieve genuine trust or friendship with anybody. (I can continue but this post is long enough and it'll probably become obsolete with the next update anyway)

And I know it's probably too much to hope for, but maybe he'll get some character development, making him more open to the idea of genuine human interaction.

I already have seen a lot of interesting theories about what's going on, and I really hope the game won't just ignore all these hints and details it gave us, and all these things are actually important.

#honkai star rail #my stuff #hsr spoilers #hsr 2.0 #hsr 2.0 spoilers

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honey-minded-hivemind · 9 months

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For the Infected!AU, we have a few choices for platonic yandere/s. I've mentioned how different mutations will influence how the infection affects the mutant/human/being. For now, I want to explore how it affects the feral mutants, and how the bby reacts (plus possible mutations for the bby). And the thing is, the bby has backstory with their yandere/s. So, the infected's previous life and relationships can influence them, even after the infection has taken effect and obscured their past memories into a haze of blurred emotions and fragmented thoughts. For now, we will discuss some possible mutant variants of bby.

Possible mutations for their bby include, but aren't limited to:

Harpy!bby: they have a small pair of functioning wings, sharp talons akin to Sabretooth, and act a little feral. Acts like a bird sometimes, collects shiny stuff and rocks and bones. Their wings fluff up when they are highly anxious or scared, and they remind the platonic yan of a baby bird trying to look threatening. Has seen some sh*t, and lived to tell the tale. Can swallow food almost whole, inhaling it quickly as though it will disappear into thin air. Some nicknames for them given by the platonic yanderes (the feral, or anyone you want to imagine) include: fledgling, chick, hatchling, nestling, birdie, Tweetie

Empath!bby: a bby who can feel the emotions of those around them, and possible branch-offs of their mutation could include things like sharing memories between themself and another person, influencing emotions based on their current feelings and mood, feeling someone else's pain and letting someone feel their's, etc.. Very loving and warm, wants hugs all the time, spends a lot of energy trying to help who they can. Possible nickname for them given by their platonic yandere/s (feral or otherwise) include: bleeding heart, sweet stuff, love,

Pyrokinesis!bby: a bby who could be anything from a walking ember (pretty much can warm up like a heated stone), disco-inferno where they can set themself on fire or become a fire being (can be any color of flame, and might look like a light show), flame thrower (where they can generate flames and aim them at enemies), or any other flame ability. Maybe they can even start fires! They are passionate, enjoy marshmallows, and survived by cooking or boiling anything they consumed. Nicknames for this bby given by the platonic yan/s (feral, otherwise, or something else) include: Hot Stuff, Flaming Hot, Lava Lamp, ember, little light

Eldritch!bby: a bby who is a bit... unsettling. Perhaps their teeth are too sharp or too many. Maybe they have tentacles or whisps or limbs sprouting from their back. They could have multiple eyes, a larger and mind-warping form, hypnotic abilities, or anything that fits something eldritch and unimaginable. They love sea food, water, and nighttime. Can be cranky if they haven't slept for over 36 hours. Nicknames the yans could give them include: squid, H. P. Lovecraft, moon eyes, favorite (kid, friend, sibling, elder god)

GemBody!bby: like Emma Frost, they can become a living, breathing organic gem person. Perhaps they are opaque; or marbled; maybe they are two-toned; color-changing; they could look like any gem imaginable, from bumblebee jasper to obsidian to ametrine to amber to agate to any type, really. Maybe they have sharp crystals sprouting off of them in that form. Or perhaps they can find gemstones in the wild. Mayhaps they even can consume rocks in that form, and turn those rocks into gems. This bby is the sort to hit someone too hard, and apologize profusely... even if that person was someone who they were just fighting with. Keeps band-aids on hand, as well as water. Nicknames for this bby from the platonic yan/s can include: jewel, gem, diamond in the rough, gold-heart, geode

There are many other mutations that the bby could have in this au, or any others. But for now, we have these options to satisfy our craving for choices. These were some honeycomb thoughts on different mutant!bby variants!

#platonic yandere marvel #honeycomb thoughts #platonic yandere x reader #yandere platonic marvel #yandere x-men #Infected!AU

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chidoroki · 8 months

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182 Days of TPN - Day 159

Chapter 159: "Thank You"

C'mon now, which one of you three idiots asked if this child was in pain? Did y'all not see him get smacked hard across the room a couple chapters ago? The trio is lucky they're all cute so I'll forgive them especially since their smiles are precious.

They are pretty incredible, as one would imagine from a couple fullscore kids, though this kinda makes me wish Ray had a big moment like the other two. Don't get me wrong, I love him and my boy definitely put in a lotta work back at GF, even way before the series began, not to mention all the assistance he provided to Emma & their family after the escape, but destroying the entire demon nobility and making a promise with the demon god are pretty huge, ya know?

To be honest, I thought Sonju was on the verge of snapping here. We've known for about hundred chapters that he still craves human meat and was waiting patiently for his chance to eat it once again and now he's coming to the realization that wish of his won't be fulfilled. Due to his beliefs, he of course wouldn't eat our trio since they aren't wild humans, but just imagining the possibility of him turning on them here would've been kinda exciting to witness. Surely the conflict would be solved by talk-no-jutsu from both Emma & Mujika and I could just feel the tension of having him & Ray pointing their weapons at each other which would be so good since they sorta have that teacher-student relationship yet still respect one another. Norman would kinda be a little clueless in the middle, though definitely fearing for his life since he originally had the intention to kill Sonju & Mujika.

I understand why it would be hard for Sonju to be accepted as the next king, but ya could've still tried, dude. Even if he didn't want the position in the first place, he literally could not have been any worse than Legravalima. She set the bar pretty low.

Pfftt I like how we see Norman react a bit to Mujika's words here. The dude took several fans to create a whole inferno with that extermination plan of his.

I honestly would've been so sad if this was their true last goodbye but thankfully they make a last minute appearance in ch178.

Just let it happen, Sonju. You can't fight a protagonist's affection.

When Emma brings up all the demons she's met over the years and how they take lives to eat just as humans do, she eventually brings up death and I always loved the different reactions we see between Norman and Ray, with the former being far more surprised than the latter to even hear our optimistic sunshine child think about something so depressing, as Norman tends to always see Emma in a positive light. It could also be the short amount off time Norman's seen Emma since their initial reunion back at the paradise hideout so they didn't really get the chance to indulge in their own personal struggles with everything else going on, which could also explain Ray's expression. He seems far more understanding since he's been at Emma's side ever since the escape (minus the three weeks after GP) so it's safe to say he knows her worries firsthand and can even empathize about the similar thoughts, even if we as readers never saw such a conversation happen between them regarding death before. (also really love that group shot of their whole family. a nice attempt to lighten the mood here.)

Okay, now this scene of Emma imagining her death has fascinated me for the longest time. The main reason being because it's uncertain when and where it takes place, but as I had rambled on about three years ago, I still believe this moment happens right after Emma made the promise with the demon god. To give as brief summary of that post as possible, I started off by wondering how Emma seemed relatively fine upon her return from the Seven Walls in ch144, despite learning that she was gonna lose her memories and be separated from her family, even going as far as to say "Oh. That was okay too. I'll tell you later!" when Ray had asked the requirements of the reward. Of course her response is sorta deflecting, but in all fairness, they did have to rush to capital to stop Norman's plan. It's also understandable that she kept the reward a secret to prevent her family from worrying about her, since no matter what they would say, the reward couldn't be refused. Demon god was cunning with his choice and wouldn't change His mind, so Emma had no choice but to accept it, so how was it that our girl, who is known for having such a huge heart of gold, seemed "okay" with the fact that she would lose everything that's so important to her? Well, for one, she's a brilliant actor, as this series has demonstrated several times in the past, so chalk up that quick conversation as another successful performance by her. I think another reason behind her "good' mood is that Emma had already taken time to herself to grieve about her future loses and it's this flashback right where I think that moment of reflection takes place. Once again in ch144, Ray informs Emma (& us) that it's been three hours since he first returned from the Seven Walls, which leads me to believe that Emma gave herself that much time (though probably a bit less, depending on how long the conversation with demon god actually took) thinking over the price of the reward, what would happen to her afterwards, if she could've worded the promise differently to prevent all that, etc. This girl adores her family and would do absolutely anything for them, but to live a life without them has gotta be the worst kind of punishment for her that she'd rather die than to experience it, so she eventually wonders what could be the best possible way to make that happen, if it truly had to, and remembers Sonju & Mujika.

Now, obviously, I could be completely wrong about that panel (& im splitting up these thoughts in half because i know long blocks of text are intimidating), but as I brought up in that same post from 2020, I'm still certain it happens sometime after GP, if her hair in the braid is anything to go by at least. The way she's laying down is also similar to how Ray shows up at paradise hideout once he was kicked out of the Seven Walls, though one could argue why did Emma appear somewhere outside instead of inside the base as well. Maybe she asked demon god to transport her there, I dunno, He works in weird ways. Anyways, another detail to take note of is the full moon, which is kinda important since she & Ray left for the Seven Walls during a full moon, as shown in ch130/131 since the ritual to arrive at the entrance requires one. The only nitpick about the moon however is that Anna mentions in ch144 that it's the afternoon when Emma returns, so it might not have been dark enough to see the moon that clearly in the first place, unless the demon world works differently. Who knows. (& random, but in that old post of mine, i wondered if the kids were in the southern hemisphere due to how moon phases work, but Ray literally confirms in ch5 they're in the northern hemisphere due to the way the sun rises, so just ignore that little bit on nonsense if ya choose to read that original post back.) To this day I'm not entirely sure about when & where that panel of Emma contemplating death happens in the story, but I like holding onto this little headcanon regardless. Also, I didn't mention this in that old post since I only thought of it recently, but the shadows on her neck cover her number, so if this moment does take place after Emma learned the reward, then I say keeping her number hidden is a nice, little foreshadowing moment.

...Anyways, sorry not sorry about all that. I'll keep the rest short, like how Mujika finds Sonju's brief freak out over his lost meat amusing and how discouraged he becomes when she admits she has no idea how to fix their broken demon society situation.

Favorite panel/moment:

I mean.. I would hope my favorite moment was obvious enough with all the nonsense I rambled on about it, but aside from that and Sonju's silly, little breakdown, here's some cheerful kiddos. Look at how happy they are that I'm finally shutting up.

#the promised neverland #tpn manga #182daysoftpn #chidoroki used chatter

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synergysilhouette · 1 year

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Some changes I'd make to Bayonetta's story

For so long, I was pretty disappointed by the story aspect of Bayonetta, and fans would essentially tell me that the game was more designed for gameplay rather than story content. As someone who plays for story (primarily), I didn't understand why we were given such a cool concept if it would be phoned in. This made me want to make some changes.

Bayonetta 1. Explain more info on the culture of the witches/sages. I imagine that if they're gender-specific, then they typically procreate with humans (or maybe other supernatural creatures; that'd be cool) and the daughters of sages and sons of witches are left with their human parents. 2. Show more of Bayonetta's past, not just her friendship with Jeanne. 3. Make it so that Jeanne, Bayonetta, and Balder aren't the only witches and sage in the world; make the clans go into hiding following the war and having suffered many casualties, secretly plotting against each other. This will be important in B3. For most of this game though, Bayonetta is battling other sages, along with a few witches who want to control/recover the Eyes of the World. 4. Give us other creatures to contend with outside of angels and demons, ones that stay within the human realm. 5. Make Luka actually matter. I like him, but his whole "revenge for my father" thing doesn't really work because nothing he does will ever harm Bayonetta or Balder. Maybe make him a human immune to demon/angel attacks, or one of the other species I mentioned? Maybe the king of fairies like Lukaon?

Bayonetta 2 1. Let Loki actually be a force to be reckoned with. While he can stand his own against some angels, he can't do anything against bosses, which is pretty underwhelming, given his power. Plus I'd probably nix the amnesia arc; it's Bayonetta 2.0. And maybe make him a bit less brash; Bayonetta is just as cheeky as him, but much more sophisticated. Make him a bit more charming to match his mischievous side. 2. Remove young Balder, but involve more witches/sages to discover/recruit/battle against. It'd be mostly witches if we go to Inferno, though Loptr has recruited/brainwashed sages. We can still get more flashbacks of Bayonetta's life, though! 3. Have most of the game take place in Inferno, resulting in the 80% witch/demon and 20% sage/angel battle and recruit ratio. 4. Have Bayonetta battle against Sheba following her journey into Inferno, either because the demon/witch alliance is fluctuating, or because some sages are on Bayonetta's side at this point. 5. Have something between Luka and Bayonetta form here, assuming they're still going to go the romantic route in B3. 6. Show Bayonetta and Jeanne in their daily lives. Having Jeanne as a high school teacher would be so cool, along with seeing if they have friends outside of their battle group.

Bayonetta 3 1. Untether the multiverse story. It comes out of nowhere, with no buildup from the other games. Instead have Singularity incite another war between sages and witches, hoping to wipe them all out, noting that his ability to traverse other universes after destroying ours. He'd also be scoping out sons of witches and daughters of sages to reveal their true identity and manipulate their pain and hatred. I'm essentially nixing the sci-fi stuff; he's a supernatural being, not an artifical human. Maybe mention that he uses Purgatorio in order to traverse through different multiverses. The battle would be Bayonetta and allies against witches and sages in equal measure--though perhaps certain bosses include the sons of witches and daughters of sages who are hurt for being cast aside. 2. Give Viola a better design. Granted, everyone except Jeanne has a rather drab color scheme, but Viola's whole look is too busy! Personal preference. I also like the idea that Loki/Aesir is the one who brought her to present day. 3. Allow Bayonetta/Luka/Jeanne to take on different forms; even if they're not traversing the multiverse, I like the idea of them calling upon their alternate selves' powers to save their universe. 4. Make Viola Jeanne's daughter. I'm mainly saying this because of their hair similarity, but I like the idea that the next generation has to do with Jeanne rather than her Umbra sister. Her father is undisclosed. Kinda like the idea of Luka asking Bayonetta if Viola is hers and we get a callback to "raising children vs making a baby" from B1. 5. The story ends with the decimation of both clans--seemingly. In reality, the witches and sages now integrate themselves into society largely made up of the Umbran Warlocks and Lumen Sages (daughters), continuing to influence them, though the sage vs witch war has made them want to focus on rebuilding themselves rather than picking fights, sparking hope for unity (albeit separate unity, similar to before).

#bayonetta #bayo 3 #bayo 2 #Bayo

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snepril · 10 months

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So I've mentioned before that my sphinx fursona exists in a wider universe. I figure I should actually explain that!

The Millennium of Magic is my personal urban fantasy setting. In writing it, I wanted to create a setting that blends fantastic elements into our world in a way that's believable and consistent while still leaving plenty of room for fun, interesting stories.

Core to the Millennium of Magic is, as the name would imply, magic. When writing magic for this setting, I had two goals in mind:

Create a system that feels magical - something mysterious, grand, and yet deeply personal, something felt as much as observed, and something that can't just be reduced to "science with added special effects."

Build a setting that allows individual characters to express themselves through magic, but that also gives magic a sense of history and tradition that reflects the many forms magic has been believed to take over the course of human history.

To that end, magic in the Millennium of It is, simply, the ability of a conscious mind to exert its will on the material world - "mind over matter", in a sense. Magic is innate to all sapient beings - anyone or anything with a sufficient degree of self-awareness can practice magic. However, that doesn't mean everyone does practice magic - in fact, most of the world is completely unaware of the existence of magic. What holds most people back is, simply, belief. Casting a spell requires confidence that one can cast a spell - doubting the possibility of it for even a moment can shatter one's grip on the ethereal forces of magic. Needless to say, in a world trained to believe in science, this is a rare thing to come by. However, believing that you can cast a spell only the first step. As I mentioned before, magic is intent and belief given form - and this is what makes magic so difficult to use!

For example, suppose you wanted to conjure a flame. The question, then, is this: what does "conjure a flame" mean to you? Do you picture a great, raging fireball? A flickering candleflame? A crackling campfire? Do you picture a gentle mote of warmth, a beacon of light in a dark night, or does the pain of an old burn and the sight of a terrible inferno come to mind instead? Something so simple - "conjure a flame" - can mean many different things to many different people, or even to a single person on different days! A sorcerer, then, must learn to control their thoughts, to shape and guide them so that, at the moment they release a spell into the world, the picture in their mind is exactly the result they wish to see. How sorcerers accomplish this varies - some prefer simple incantations, words that evoke specific meanings through practice and repetition, while others employ specific instruments or reagents to achieve their desired results. The methods of magic are as varied as its practitioners, and no two will ever cast the same spell in exactly the same way. Because magic is derived from perception and imagery, magic is inescapably personal and completely unique to each and every person who touches it.

And that is the most important characteristic of the Millennium of Magic - a system of magic that isn't bound by rules and formulas, but is shaped by the experiences, biases, and quirks of each and every spellcaster. A hidden world ruled not by strict rules, but by older, nebulous forces. A setting where who we are and how we have lived matters, where the more human side of life is cherished and celebrated - even for those of us who aren't human!

#urban fantasy #millenium of magic

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callme-pako · 3 years

Text

The 9 circle of Pride

Helluva Boss Episode 7: “Ozzie's” has many little details that reveals and debunked many theories. But there was one details that people could have easily missed, even I missed it the first time watching this episode.

In the beginning of the episode, when they were showing Imp City from above, there was a billboard saying ‘Imp City: Second Circle’. Which is weird since we know that Hell has Rings not Circles and why is this the second circle?

While in the pilot the billboard said on what year Imp City was established on (1981). It's a very random thing to change and probably isn't as deep as what I think but it's still worth mentioning.

The second circle can be the second circle of everything but I think that it's that of the Pride Ring. Why? Because Imp City is in the Pride Ring, after all and since Imps can become servants to powerful sinners it's beter to put it there. But what does circle mean? City. That's my answer. I think that city were referred to as circle in Hell but I don't think that they're still using that term. People die everyday as time passes in Hell and a lot of people becomes sinners, the population is rising and I bet that learning everyone the terms of Hell is very hard especially when you have demons like Alastor who instantly starts provoking chaos.

The idea of circles being cities sounds interesting especially when you realize that it's been mentioned by our (or my) favourite homophobic praying mantis news reporter demon.

Katie Killjoy! She said and I quote: "What in the nine circles makes you think a single denizen of hell would give two shits about becoming a better person?!”. When she said it people were thinking that she was referring to the Nine Circles of Hell from the Dante's Inferno and Hell would also have Nine Circles. But what if the Nine Circles aren't of the entirety of Hell but just for the Pride Ring. Since Sinners can't travel between Rings they might think that the Pride Ring is the only place there is and the Nine Circles are just Nine Cities. We currently know only 3 out 9: Pentagram City, Cannibal Colony and Imp City.

What could the 6 other circles be? For know I think that Stolas's mansion is located in another circle and that's all that I have.

So that concludes my theory, since HAZBIN HOTEL is about sinners I really hope that we get some info about what the circles are. I'll try posting another theory about The Seven Rings, Deadly Princes and Sins before the end of the YEAR and oh boy I feel like this account is slowly dying but I ain't giving up on it.

#helluva boss #hazbin hotel #vivziepop #ozzie's #help this is so awkward #helluva theory #pride ring #Imp city #katie killjoy #my account is slowly dying #please send help

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general-sleepy · 2 years

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If you are interested, would you share your full thoughts on Eli Roth? I've hated him since the obnoxious advertising for The Green Inferno.

For the record, I've only seen Cabin Fever and the first two Hostel movies and a bunch of clips of The Green Inferno. This turned into a ramble, so I'll give the you the mercy of a read more.

The core problem is that he can't write compelling characters. I'm not saying that every movie has to have likeable characters--though likeable characters are very effective in creating entertaining movies. There are movies I like where the protagonists are utter monsters, horrible people who spend the movies committing atrocities with a minimum of conscience at most. Cannibal Holocaust or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer come to mind.

But, what's important about these characters is that they are people you want to watch, even when that interest is mingled with disgust for them and yourself. I'm a big believer in the Eight Deadly Words, the audience sentiment that will kill any story: "I don't care what happens to these people." You don't have to like the protagonists, but you have to want to spend an hour and a half with them.

That's not the case with the characters in Eli Roth movies. They're just concretely, relatably obnoxious. In Hostel, they're a bunch of frat boys constantly throwing out casual sexism and homophobia. Their interests, motivations, and values aren't interesting. They're not likeable and they're also not terrible enough to be entertaining in a train wreck way. They're just shallow.

This is, of course, except for Josh in Hostel. Josh does obnoxious things, but we see hints of internal conflict, of the fact that he's a good person who wants to do better. Insofar as final boys are a thing, Josh has great potential. I think it's unintentional on Roth's part, but I get the impression of a really interesting potential plotline about Josh coming to terms with his sexuality. But, then, either for shock value or because he's just a bad writer, Roth kills him off early and leaves us with the simultaneously unpleasant and boring Paxton. He's nothing but still grates. Going fully into the, at best uncomfortable, sexual politics of Hostel would require a whole other post and this one is rambling enough. What stands out in terms of Roth as a filmmaker, is that I don't think the sexism and homophobia originates from a deliberate, calculated malice. My impression is that Eli Roth just doesn't think.

That, and the movie is just ugly. Not in the way that something like the August Underground movies are, where there is meant to be an oppressive atmosphere of misery and malice. For the most part, the direction offers nothing. There are numerous shots of naked women that are clearly meant to be sexy. (I think to highlight the horror of the later violence, like the comedy cops in The Last House on the Left), but they are shot in a way that drains any eroticism. Look, I'm a pig; it is very, very hard to make a naked woman not sexy. Roth does it effortlessly and not intentionally. Everything feels rote and uninspired. (When I think about it, the only rare good moments of direction are in scenes with Josh and the Dutch businessman).

The rape scene in Cabin Fever (in summary: the protagonist is in bed next to his love interest, who he is not in a relationship, and fingers her in her sleep; Roth acts like the more horrifying thing is that this is how he finds out she has the flesh-eating disease; the rape is never mentioned and we are supposed to sympathize with our monster of a protagonist after this; I'm not sure if Roth knows this was a rape scene) would make any movie irredeemable, regardless of the rest of the quality of the rest of the movie. But, Cabin Fever is also full of blandly unlikeable characters, whose goals and interests are uninteresting. Karen, the woman who is assaulted, is as far I remember, the most kind of likeable character, and again is killed off early.

What Cabin Fever had to offer was just being a showcase for the disease effects. That's valid: the diseased flesh is disturbing to look at, and contagion is an inherently horrifying concept. If the story was window dressing, just to highlight that, it would have a purpose. August Underground, for example, only exists to provide an excuse to show off the gore effects and unsimulated brutality. Cabin Fever bogs itself down in a boring story with a bunch of boring characters.

As far as The Green Inferno goes, I like the whole Amazon cannibal genre of the 70s and 80s. They all have a fascinating aesthetic and general feeling that is really enjoy. But, I also think it's a genre that's stuck in its time. The movies were hideously racist; that's just unescapable. There was a brutal reality to them that was compelling, but in practice so unethical that no quality of film could justify them, and I'm not just talking about the actual animal deaths. You can't just replicate an Amazon cannibal movie in the 2010s, no matter how much you love them. They're like museum pieces. As a creator and fan, you have to exercise a kind of self-awareness and self-control. Maybe he could have paid homage to the genre by interweaving it with the current folk horror trend. Again, I haven't seen The Green Inferno, but from what I know of the movie, Midsommar seems like the far better modern iteration of Cannibal Holocaust.

In the interests of balance, I liked him in Inglourious Basterds. His talent might actually be in acting. I mean, he was terrible in Cabin Fever, but I think that's just because it's an Eli Roth movie.

I'm sorry that this is kind of a jumble of thoughts. If anyone can name an Eli Roth movie that they like that avoids these problems, I'm open to taking suggestions and giving them a chance.

#i hope this is clear from the rest of my blog #but i don't mind if anyone likes eli roth movies #unless it's straight up birth of a nation or the turner diaries #i don't begrudge anyone the media they enjoy #i've admitted to watching cannibal holocaust and august underground in this post #forget legs #i don't have anything to stand on to judge anyone else #you do you #me doing me is hating hostel

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alastanor · 3 years

Text

In less than a week my feed has been plagued by the "hot takes" of entitled fans of the Hazbin and Helluva universe.

As a result, I know I promised some analytical information regarding what we know of Hazbin's version of hell thus far, which will be included in this post. But there will be some other things added as well to address some of the more frequently expressed "concerns" I have seen being (rather rudely) expressed in posts.

Some of the things I will be talking about in these posts, so while I will be utilizing quotes or things said in @total-mal 's very well articulated response post, I recommend going to read that response post in it's entirety. Like... now.

The complaints I tend to see typically fall along these lines.

So in this post I will be addressing these things and other things I typically see.

Story

As was very well put in the aforementioned post, the series of Hazbin barely has an hour of content. Yet for some reason people complain that it's a mess. How?

The Pilot itself is meant to establish the setting, who the characters are, what their relationships to each other are, establishing dynamic, and establish the premise of future story that is meant to follow. All of these things the pilot did exceedingly well. A pilot is NOT meant to drop dozens of hours worth of world lore and future plot points in one half hour segment. It is supposed to hook people into being interested in and watching the follow up episodes. Which, considering the rather quick cult following that preceded the pilot debut, I would say it did that and more even without the world lore dump people are demanding.

No story is going to give you every facet of the characters and the world they inhabit in the first episode or the first novel. No story worth it's weight in salt, that is. Any good story teller will tell you that content needs to be put on an IV drip as the story progresses, or else you will lose the majority of your audience's interest.

Helluva Boss is it's own standalone project set in the same universe as Hazbin, but it's job is not to provide lore for Hazbin. The kernel of lore we got from episode two was great. But that is very likely not going to be the norm every episode. Nor should anyone expect otherwise.

The comics were also their own projects, meant to strengthen an already existing narrative with Hazbin and establish both Angel and Alastor's motives for joining the Hotel. They are not meant to expand on the lore. Their existence could also very likely be overlooked by fans who only pay attention to what is popping up on Youtube or on their Twitter feed.

As for Addict, that began as a fan-created song Vivzie liked enough to animate into a music video which expanded on Angel and Cherri's relationship. It was not meant to be an entry to any Vivziepop Hell lore.

Hazbin is a story driven by its characters. This is why the characters are the focus and take up the majority of any screen time given to any entry of Hazbin. Mal puts it very well:

World

So this is where we will be getting into what we know so far about the world of Vivzie's hell.

So Vivzie's hell is, from what we understand, loosely based on Dante's inferno with other inspirations and deviations mixed in. For example, there are only seven circles of hell as opposed to 9.

In Dante's inferno only circle two through five are after the Seven Deadly Sins. Whereas in Vivziepop's version of hell, every circle is for one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

From what we understand so far, Pride is the top circle, or Ring. Sinners, AKA those who were alive prior to becoming demons, are only allowed to exist in Pride.

We do not know what "can only exist" means. As this doesn't imply that sinners can't leave Pride. Simply that they cannot exist anywhere else.

And also from what we understand, the big marker that differentiates each of the circles is the colors of the sky.

Pride, from what we have seen thus far, has a red sky.

While Greed has a green sky.

This is further confirmed on Twitter, however whether it was confirmed by Vivzie or one of the other official Twitters, I cannot recall.

Now, I know there are quite a few who keep asking this question.

And there are many who seem to think that this little detail means that the fact dump from official Twitters means the story and lore are ruined. This is actually false. Especially when you consider that Sinners are not a finite population. Nor is their influx a small trickle. So expanding Sinners into other parts of hell is only a temporary solution to a more overarching problem. It may slow down the necessity for purges, but it would also increase the number needed to be purged each time a purge was necessary. Further, it is doubtful that Lucifer would be keen on the idea of angels traveling deeper into Hell just as it is doubtful that he sees a reason to be exceedingly merciful to sinners- the creation he detests and is more or less what brought him to Hell to begin with. It also would erase any place to escape for Hell-born demons.

So in this regard, no. Nothing is ruined. People just aren't paying attention. The devil is in the details, after all.

As for what the difference is between circles and rings, perhaps this will shed some light.

Rings seem to be segments of a circle that separate sinners by the subcategory of their sin in each circle. Whether or not Vivziepop's version of hell follows this, I personally doubt it. Ring and Circle, from observation, seem to be used interchangeably. So the two could very well be the same thing.

The other bits we know are lore facts Vivzie has given previously that may no longer be true as the world exists now. For example, previously Alastor was scared of dogs. But more recently, Vivzie said that is no longer true and Alastor simply just does not like them. So any older facts should be taken with a grain of salt until they are reconfirmed.

Switching gears on the world, there have been complaints popping up that Vivziepop's hell is not "hell-y" enough because there is not enough fire and brimstone.

To take a phrase from total-mal once more, there are countless alternate depictions of hell as hell being other people instead of the place itself. The phrase exists from Sartre's No Exit, but has been revisited numerous times in other media depictions of hell to display that the definition of "punishment" can be broadened to a much larger spectrum than originally imagined.

In the Hazbin universe of Hell, punishment is the constant threat of physical and emotional harm from those around you, not unlike being in prison or living in a ghetto. You have the increased potential to be abused or taken advantage of if you show a moment's weakness.

And while some in the demon hierarchy might have it better than others, there is still the constant threat of being killed or overthrown by someone stronger or someone just wanting to prove themselves.

In the Hazbin universe of hell, you wear clues to your life, your sins, and your death on the outside for all to see (and in some cases, manipulate). You are thrust into a demon hierarchy one wrung up from the lowest class, unless you are lucky and strong enough to become an overlord. In which case, then you are two wrungs up from the lowest class. And your punishment is living every day with the constant threat of those around you. Of always needing to have your guard up because someone will take advantage of you or worse. That isn't even mentioning the annual threat of the purge.

Livestreams

This is another one that I see get mentioned and awful fucking lot in the complaint/concern/hot take posts.

There are always complaints about how the livestreams are useless, serve no purpose, or are just "jerkoff sessions." Mind, these same complaints almost always seem to come from the same people complaining about having no information about the show or having no lore surrounding the universe or the story.

Nevermind that Vivzie and the cast are all under NDA and cannot disclose much that isn't already known about the show and, where VAs are concerned, cannot do any voice lines that go beyond what has already been said in the pilot lines.

The Livestreams serve SEVERAL purposes, however. One of those purposes is to drum up interest surrounding Hazbin and Helluva, as well as to advertise and to disclose any lore that they have permission to disclose to the audience. Something to whet their appetites as they wait for the small Indie studio A24 to finish production of Hazbin's first season in the middle of a pandemic. Because that last bit people seem to forget is still ongoing.

Without those livestreams done by Viv and the cast, many of the impatient fans in this fandom would be practically breaking down the door on Vivzie's DMs demanding to know where Hazbin is or why she seems to have given up on it. Or at least, more than what is currently going on now anyway.

People need to calm down, let the Devs do their job, and pay more attention to the details given in what we have thus far. Vivzie has done a GREAT job at eluding to the bigger picture in her details. Particularly where her characters are concerned. And I for one am here for it.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel fandom #hazbin hotel info dump #hazbin hotel discourse #hazvin hotel discussion #helluva boss fandom #helluva boss discussion #helluca boss discourse #vivziepop fandom #vivziepop #hazbunnies #entitled fans #impatient fans #toxic fans

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scuttle-buttle · 3 years

Text

Chapter 1

Summary: Catherine Sinclair is the younger, estranged half-sister of renowned F1 driver James Hunt. Things get a bit complicated when she decides to reenter James’ life and ends up meeting his rival - Niki Lauda. Engines ignite as Catherine finds herself caught between her feelings for Niki and the rivalry that the two men share. Will she pump the brakes or let herself crash in the inferno?

Pairing: Niki Lauda (Rush 2013) x fem!OC Catherine Sinclair

Word Count: 1k

Rating: E for eventual smut

T/W: language, eventual smut, hot second of accidental implied incest (but there is none), rivalry, mentions of substance use, F1 racing, mentions of extramarital affairs & pregnancy

A/N: So while this is OC I’ve written it as minimalist as possible so it's virtually a niki x reader, also I’m unsure if the Nurburgring crash will occur in the story. My vibe is like mixing the ‘75 and ‘76 seasons so that James is McLaren but that Niki doesn’t have the accident/will win the season. We will see how it goes.

You made your way through the crowd of people looking for a quiet spot. The pit buzzed with excitement, each of the drivers and their crew preparing for today's race. Only those with passes were supposed to be in this section. No one paid you any mind as you wandered.

Originally you intended to find your estranged brother when you arrived. Now that you were here though you felt as though there was a rock in your stomach. You had snuck into the pit to find him and his tent was easy enough to spot, but nerves made you delay. I'll just find him after the race, you thought as you continued to watch the cars fly on the track.

The pleats in your skirt blew in the cool early spring breeze, dusting your calves. Oversized sun glasses perched on your nose, you took a minute to watch the bustle around you.

Some 30 meters away one of the drivers noticed you looking out of place. Usually when women entered the pit it was on the arm of a driver. There was something different about you. Confident stature, yet your face suggested you were unsure of yourself in the unfamiliar territory that was Formula 1. He wondered why you were alone. The man couldn't help but notice how naturally attractive you were. It was a kind of subtle beauty, rather than overemphasized like in the movies and magazines. You didn't look as though you were there to catch the eye of someone, unlike most. He turned away and resumed setting up the car.

"Hey Niki, there's gonna be a party at the Lotus hub later. You should come, have a little fun for once, " Clay offered.

"No, thank you."

"Aw come on, you always say no!"

"And yet you always ask," Niki shot back. He wanted to focus on the race and his strategy to beat Hunt.

"You need to make friends, Niki. Talk to some people. They all think you're an asshole."

"So what? Let them think I'm an asshole, I don't care."

Clay threw up his hands in defeat before leaving Niki to himself. Niki watched him walk back towards his own vehicle before beginning to turn back to his own. Looking to his left towards where you had been standing a minute before he noticed you had vanished.

Finally finding a bit of calm, you leaned against a trailer to watch the race. The drivers had all lined up in position. With a deafening blast the cars shot off along the track.

Time went rather quickly as you watched. James was neck and neck with another driver for most of it. You weren’t even in the race yet you felt alive with adrenaline. In the second to last lap you were sure James was going to place second, behind one of the Ferraris. Suddenly James pulled tight around a curve, whipping past the Ferrari by what looked like inches before settling in the lead.

The last lap blurred by with Hunt in first. He crossed the finish line mere seconds before the Ferrari. People screamed and cheered for Hunt; you yourself broke out into a grin. James celebrated at the podium with his bottle of champagne, the press eating up his theatrics.

You made your way closer to the track and your brother but stayed at a distance so as to not disturb the revelry.

"Can I help you?" came an accented gruff from behind you. Spinning, you saw one of the drivers standing there with his hands on his hips, sweaty with his red track suit partially unzipped. You hadn't realized how close you were standing to his car - the red Ferrari.

"Oh no I'm sorry - I didn't mean to be in the way…"

"You're not." He stared at you and pursed his lips. You shuffle your feet, unable to look away from his gaze. "Is this your first race?"

"How could you tell?"

"Why aren't you joining the party?" was his retort.

"I'm not really the type." He nodded once. "So that was you out there competing against the McLaren?" You weren’t quite ready to reveal that you knew James just yet.

"Yes." He really doesn't say much, does he?

Niki could sense the growing awkwardness between the two of you. "You need to be more friendly, people will think you're an asshole" Clay was always reminding him. He didn't know why but he felt he wanted to make an impression on you. Licking his lips he added "I often find myself competing with Hunt. He has talent. But he has no regard for risk. That curve was my line, I had it. He could've killed us both," Niki scowled.

Agreeing, you said "sounds about right for him. He made some ballsy moves today. It was thrilling watching the two of you compete. You're really talented."

"Thank you," his tone was cocky.

You continued to chat with the driver about the race. He explained how the points system worked to you, adding in that he and James had been neck and neck all season. Niki enjoyed your company. He found it refreshing that you actually wanted to know more about what it was he did, that you weren’t there seeking fame and attention. He was even more impressed that despite knowing very little about F1 you had some knowledge of cars. “My older brother really likes them,” you shrugged.

“Perhaps you will come to the next race?”

“It really depends on what I’ve got going on, I am a busy girl,” you laughed.

“Hopefully not too busy to come by the garage this week. I would like to hear your ideas about setting up the car.” Niki figured there wouldn’t be anything you could suggest that he hadn’t already thought of, but he liked talking with you. You seemed practical, and he was a practical guy himself.

“I don’t even know your name.”

He held out his hand for you to shake; “Niki Lauda.”

“Catherine Sinclair.”

Tags: @ay0nha

#niki lauda x reader #niki lauda fanfiction #niki lauda rush 2013 #daniel bruhl niki lauda #niki lauda x oc #rush 2013 #daniel bruhl fanfiction #daniel brühl #daniel bruhl #scuttle-buttle #scuttle-buttle masterlist

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thedelusionreaderbitch · 3 years

Text

We All Need Saving Sometimes - Kaz Brekker x male! Reader

A/n: I don't even know why this took me so long to write because this was so fun! Anyways sorry it took so long!

Warnings: Violence? + Language (it is me you should expect it at this point!?

Request: Hiiii, I just discovered your account and I love it! I've been searching for shadow and bone x Male readers but there aren't that many so I figured I could request one 😅 I was thinking about a Male reader x Kaz Brekker, maybe the reader is like a vigilante and saves Kaz or something like that. Just do whatever you want with it :)))

(The reader is kind of like Nightwing btw)

The blood rushed through his veins as he swung around and smashed the crime boss in the face. Adrenaline courses through him as the man stumbles back and he takes a few steps forward.

"I- Please, I-I'll do-do anything! Please!" Y/n just rolls his eyes and cuffs him to the pole on the top of some random Ketterdam building with his special handcuffs. Although this thug isn't very skilled at pickpocketing much less pick locking so he really didn't need to use it. Either way, the man wouldn't be able to leave till the stadwatch could come to get him or he would die from dehydration.

Well, he did say Ketterdam.

He jumped from the building still hearing the pleas of the older crime (failing) boss. Some considered him a hero, some did not. He was kind of in the middle, he would kill (like he said this is Ketterdam for ghezen sake!) But sometimes he would let them go. Most of the time his vigilante persona - Inferno, was just so he could keep the innocent children out of the way of the crime schemes that happen in this totally lovely city.

The thing with Y/n was that his superhero persona, Inferno was a tad bit different from himself normally. Inferno could be described as calculative, cool, and intellectual.

When he was just the L/n boy though... He's clumsy, anxiety-ridden, and what some would call a classic 'nerd' case, to name a few. Trust Y/n when he said this; he wasn't a mental case it just both of the sides were him but... Not always completely him. Inferno and L/n were two sides to him that only really did have two things in common; their terrible corny jokes, and never ever doing something without thinking about it first.

So he didn't know why he did it. Why he jumped off that building landing headfirst in a fight to help some strange teenager with a cane. All he knew was when he took one look at the teen he didn't even think he just did.

A man tried to swing a weak left hook at Inferno but he just rolled his eyes and dodged gracefully and judo flipped him onto his back, his face letting out a satisfying CRUNCH! As his foot put all its pressure on the man's disgusting face. While the man scream's out in pain he turns his attention to the two others. The teenager seemed to have one all he had to do was get the oth- WAIT IS THAT KAZ BREKKER?!!

A punch is delivered to Inferno's face and he feels rage build up inside him. Fuck this shit he's done. He goes full in and tackles the other man that's not attacking the Brekker boy and with his rage the man's dead in seconds. Welp, he would just have to add that to the number that he can't remember how many people he's killed.

The answer would be a lot, but hey! He did say protecting the (innocent) children and teens were off and on, apparently, it was on today.

He hears a giant wack! And he turns around just in time to see the other attacker fall to the ground and for the boy to withdraw his cane.

"I didn't need your help."

Inferno roll's his eyes and nods sarcastically; "Sure Brekker, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"Who says I sleep?"

"Well, we're on the same boat for that one buddy!" I laugh and I could feel L/n slipping through Inferno almost like they were finally coming together after meeting this young criminal. But why?

"Don't mention this to anyone or I'll have your head." The Brekker boy says threateningly, well it would be to anyone else if they weren't so entranced by him. (Cough, cough, Y/n.)

"Hey, I saved you!"

"I thought you only saved children?" Then at that moment, their eyes meet and Y/n can see right through his soul. His eyes are cold, but they're so hypnotic and they make him fall for this bastard of the barrel. They both seem to come closer till there almost chest to chest, it was like an invisible magnetic force was pulling them together.

"We all need saving sometimes, Brekker," Y/n whispered and Brekker turned his head away probably trying to recollect himself.

"Call me Kaz please." Y/n knew that Dirtyhands wasn't polite nor did he beg. But this wasn't Kaz Brekker neither was it Dirtyhands. This is a scared boy who was peaking out and Y/n was holding out his head and he thinks he just took it.

"I Have an offer for you. Meet me at the Waffle House near the fountain. of Crows at six."

Y/n raise's his eyebrow and a slow smile crawls upon his face. "Oh, it's a date then Brekk- Kaz!" He jokes.

Kaz rolls his eyes. "Just remember who I am Inferno."

So Kaz hasn't figured out that Y/n was Inferno, give Brekker about a day and he would probably figure out his identity. But an unusual feeling spread across Y/n's chest and he observed it wasn't panic that Kaz would find out who he really was. He couldn't place what the feeling was just yet but he discovered that he trusted Kaz.

And that was more terrifying than any villain.

"Just count yourself lucky you don't owe me anything after saving your ass!"

Kaz just rolls his eyes at the statement and starts walking away from Y/n but pausing midway just almost out of his line of vision.

Without turning his head Kaz yells; "You Better not be late for our date L/n!"

Y/n's eyes widen and any confidence that might have been there was wiped away with just a few words and he's left in a flustered mess. Not even realizing that he had already figured out who he really was outside of his superhero persona.

He's frozen, going through Brekker's words over and over again trying to comprehend what the hell just happened.

Holy fuck he just got a date with Dirtyhands.

Fate must have been up to something but whatever it was he was ready and with a grin, Y/n took off into the night.

Bouns:

"This way sir." A petite but kind lady walks him towards a table where there it was - the bastard of the barrel, someone who he could be himself and join his two half of himself together without pressure was there.

He was actually there.

And he, Y/n L/n was late.

He carefully slid into the booth seat on the opposite side of Kaz examining the boy in front of him. He was holding a newspaper, his hat was drawn forward enough so it could cover his eyes and he didn't even acknowledge him.

Just at that moment he place's the newspaper down and raises an eyebrow at the L/n boy.

"Your late L/n."

A sly smirk plays on Y/n's face as he remembered what Kaz had told him before hand in there last visit. Fate really did have a funny way of doing things.

"Oh Please Kaz." He leans forward so now they're both eye to eye.

"Call me Y/n."

Words 1217

-thedelusionreaderbitch

Shadow and bone taglist: @kaqua @rika90 @thefandomplace @musical-theatre-obsessed-dumbass @gallysonegoodlung @navs-bhat @sumsebien @dontjudgeabookbythecover

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angry-geese · 2 years

Text

Blood Ties - Chapter Twenty Six: Inferno

soulmate au Choso x Reader

Warnings: depictions of violence and injury. blood mention. death mention (not for any major characters).

synopsis: you and your brother head into tokyo to hunt for some curses.

a/n: ngl i kinda hate this chapter but at the same time its necessary enough to the plot that i cant just cut it because it's setting up a few things that are going to happen in the next two chapters, plus it furthers the arc of the retrieval of choso's brothers so :///

word count: 4.4k a bit of a longer chapter lol whoops

prev - next

masterlist

The rain has let up; going from a solid shower, to a light mist. You’re drenched to the bone, with water dripping off your hair, and soaking through your shoes. The only parts of you that are spared are your parka, which is mostly waterproof, aside from a few holes. As far as you can see, the streets are empty. The lateness of the hour doesn't help. If there is anyone—or anything—out at this hour, they’re in hiding. Something you have the feeling you should be doing.

There's one single apartment with its lights on. It's quite a few floors up- maybe ten or so. And the curtains are closed. If there are any figures behind it, you can't tell. With as dark as it is, you doubt they'd be able to see you all the way down here.

Still, you worry. You don't want anything sneaking up on you.

“Sense anything?” asks James.

You shake your head. “Nothing. Not even residuals.” Which is a bit comforting. Though you're more worried about human counterparts. Curses are predictable; people are not.

"Keep looking," he says, "I know we're not alone."

You have to jog to catch up with him. “What's your plan, anyway?” You ask.

“We're going to kill some curses.” He says. “What did you expect?”

Anything but tramping around Tokyo at night…

“I expected to be exorcizing curses right now.” You say.

“Don't be a smartass,” he says, “they're probably hiding. Anyone with a bit of reason wouldn't be out in the open right now.”

You stop, turning to him. “Like we are. Right now.”

“Yes.” He says. “I was thinking we’d check around the first Tokyo colony barrier. If there's going to be anything, it’ll likely be around there.”

Personally, you think anyone with a bit of sense would avoid the place. But maybe that's just you.

You smell it before you see it. Sunscreen. And burning rubber; like someone has lit a pile of tires on fire. The foul scent makes your nostrils burn. The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, and your heart rate picks up ever so slightly. A cursed spirit. It's different from the cursed energy of a human.

"One's nearby," you say. Can't be further than a block. It's on your left; the air gets staticy whenever you turn your head that direction.

"How close?" He asks.

"Maybe a block." You say. "Up ahead on the left. Can't tell how strong it is, though."

Can't be too strong. If it's alone, the two of you should make quick work of it. Making sure the two of you don't get overwhelmed is your main concern. A handful of curses aren't bad when you're fighting one at a time, it's when they appear in numbers that they become an issue.

"There it is," you say, ducking to hide in a doorway. It hasn't noticed you. Yet.

At first glance, it's not particularly threatening. The cursed energy that radiates off of it isn't too strong, and it doesn't appear to be too intelligent. At the very least, it's not capable of speech. It's vaguely humanoid—at least compared to some of the other curses you've seen—but doesn't appear to be a mutated human. Stringy black hair hangs over its face, which is gaunt, and boney. Greying skin hangs loose off it's bones. Two sunken eyes glare up at you as it hunches over a corpse, of which is too mangled to make out what it once was, but it's too big to be a dog.

“What's it look like?” He asks. “Can you tell what grade it is?”

“Not a clue.” You say.

It's true height isn't shown until it stands on its hind legs, towering well over your head. A clawed hand reaches for you, of which you knock away with the flat of your blade.

Read it's attacks. Where is it going to move next?

It's going right.

You take a step forward, then to the side, before breaking out into a sprint. Once you’re behind it, you bring your blade to it's back, slicing through a large chunk of its body, but not severing it. Foul smelling blood splatters back at you, coating your blade, and part of your face.

It's not enough to exorcize it. You need to hit it again.

You slip as both your feet meet the wet ground and your body stops, but the rest of you doesn't. Your bag falls down your shoulder, which you haphazardly sling back across your back, swinging your other arm out so as to not fall on your blade.

“Don't slow down,” James says, “you lose a lot of power when you’re stationary.”

“I know that!”

You thrust your blade out, jerking it upwards, catching the curse across the arm and severing it at the bicep.

It's pretty sturdy, you’ll give it that. Though it's not too destructive in nature, it is tough, so you’d put it somewhere between a semi-grade two and three.

"Watch your footing," he says, "keep a low center of-"

"You're not helping!"

“Then try to draw from the air around you,” he says. “Your cursed energy-”

“I'm trying!”

There's hardly anything to take. Such an action takes an immense effort to do—let alone on purpose. The air is dry of usable cursed energy. Maybe if he got up off his ass and used his!

For now, you'll settle on drawing from your own reserve.

In your free hand, gathering in strength, is cursed energy compressed to it's very limit.

With what you've gathered in your palm, you thrust your hand outwards, sending a beam right through the heart of the creature. Through its chest you see straight moonlight. A clean hit. The curse doesn't even have the chance to take another step before it drops.

You feel jittery. Like you've just swallowed a lightning bolt. Like electricity should be crackling from your fingertips. Whether it's adrenaline, or something else entirely, you can't tell. The only thing you can compare it to is a runners high: a sudden rush of endorphins, followed by a state of calmness. Your muscles relax, but you can feel your heartbeat between your ears.

Is this what the others feel?

“Did I do it?” You ask between heavy breaths. It takes another moment for your pulse to settle down.

“No, you didn't. We need to find another,” he says. “Also what the fuck was that?!”

He watches as your head tilts up. You smell something else. Another cursed spirit. This one is further away—by quite a bit. Hard to tell which direction it's in, but getting back to the main road should give you more to go off of. It's far more open—easier to see anything coming at you.

As you exit onto the main street, you find it empty. No surprise there. Unless someone was right by you, the noise shouldn't have attracted much attention.

At some point in time, you find yourself in what looks to have been a gift shop. One of the windows has been shattered. It looks to have had a rock thrown through it. Glass crunches underfoot as you step through the window.

It's far too dark to see on your own, you have to use the light from your phone. Racks of clothes, and various other trinkets line the walls. Nothing appears to be stolen, but the lights are out, and a thin layer of dust covers everything.

With a harsh click, the lights switch on. James has found a lightswitch.

“What are you looking for?” You ask.

He shrugs. “Supplies. Food, ‘n stuff.”

“We have that back at Jujutsu Tech,” you say, “we don't need to scavenge around anymore.” At this point it's plain stealing.

“Yeah well we need to find you new clothes,” he says.

“What's wrong with my clothes?”

“You dress too much like a sorcerer.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” You ask, clearly offended. “And you dress like fuckin’ Charlie Swan, your point?”

“I'm gonna tell mom you said that.”

“And I'm gonna tell her you joined a cult that's currently trying to end the world. How would you like that? Huh?”

Momentarily you stop at a display. Nothing in particular has caught your eye, so much as you need something to stare at, so you're not looking off into space. It's a sale display, holding an assortment of objects. Cheap headphones, phone chargers, snacks. Things people would buy while on a road trip.

“Hey check this out!” You hold up the box, “it's a disposable camera!”

James hardly gets out another word as you're tearing it out of the box, checking to see if there's any film in it. You haven't used one of these since you were a kid…

The first thing you point it at is his scowling face.

“I'm going to slap you,” he says, making a sudden dash for the camera, “give it here!”

“No way!” You say, hopping behind the counter, just out of reach, “this is perfect blackmail. You look terrible in this.”

“I know,” he says with a groan, “please burn it.”

“Never gonna happen.”

You snap one more; it's of yourself. The flash makes your skin look washed out, and the camera’s far too close to your face. In the background, the broken window is visible.

“C’mon,” he says, offering you his hand, “let's go fight some curses.”

When you refuse, he makes a sudden dash for the camera. You bring your elbow out and into his sternum, causing him to double over, clutching his ribs. The nearest exit is the window you came in. Your hands plant on the windowsill and you shove your body up and through the broken window. Your landing is less than graceful, but at least you’re still standing.

Tucked in an alley behind a laundromat and a thrift store, is a curse.

It's quite a bit smaller than the last, and far less human looking. It resembles a dog far more than it does a person. But it's head is much larger than its body, making it roll around on its shoulders much like a bobble head. The thing seems to struggle to keep its own head up. Cursed energy radiates off it in waves. Pulsing like a heartbeat. It swells suddenly as you look at it.

It's maw opens, sending a wave of foul-smelling breath towards you, and a scream so loud that the windows of the nearby buildings shatter. Instinctively your hands move to cover your ears, in a weak attempt to protect your hearing. They do little to deafen the noise.

You turn to your brother and yell, but instead of your voice, all you hear is ringing. Blood streams from his ears, down his jugular. His eyes have a glossy, dazed look to them.

Your ears ring too loud for you to gain your bearings. It takes you two tries to grab your sword. The first, your legs give out as you reach down to grab it. You land on your knees, then your hands, and a shock of pain is sent up your wrists. Cold concrete greets your hands, and you begin fumbling around blindly for your sword. Your hands hit the ground as you shove your body upwards, praying you’ll stay on your feet. You bring your hands to your own ears. Nothing. No blood. Which you hope is a good sign.

By the time you round the corner of the alley, and exit out onto the street, you’re met with silence.

It's… gone.

When the ringing finally settles down, it feels like someone has stuffed cotton in your ears. You move your hand by your left ear. Nothing. You bring it to your right, and finally you hear the sound of your hand brushing against your skin. It's faint, and muddled by a ringing noise, but it's there. You can only hope this will disappear with time. But something tells you you won't get off that easily.

As time goes by, the hearing in your left ear gets clearer. All you hear in your right is ringing. You can only hope that means you’ll get some hearing back soon.

This is going to be a pain to explain to Shoko.

“See where it went?” You ask.

James mouths something that you think is a “what?”

“Can you even hear me?” You ask.

“Yeah, sorry,” he says, “ears are still ringing.” He brings his palm to the side of his head, wincing when he feels blood.

The next scream you hear is far quieter, but close. Maybe you're still too deafened by the first to hear it's true volume. It's hard to dictate the direction of it. You find your head turning to the right to make up for your lack of hearing in your other ear.

As you turn onto a connecting street, you're met with what looks like a crime scene.

A man hunches over the cursed spirit—it's corpse. The body is beginning to dissipate. It's only recently been killed. As far as residuals go, you only detect some. A fight went down here.

The man himself is rather unimposing in nature. He’s not particularly tall, or large of frame, and he's dressed as a simple businessman. Bits of congealed blood cling to his face. In the dim light it's hard to tell if it belongs to a curse, or a human. He has no weapons—not that you can see—and his cursed energy feels weak.

He's a sorcerer.

“What's your name?” He asks, not bothering to look up.

“Uh…”

He stands—suddenly—tossing something aside. “You're not a player…”

When he looks up at you, you find yourself frozen in place.

A new sorcerer. One made by Kenjaku. Why hasn't he entered the barrier yet? He must have… only a few days left to declare participation. Is this his cursed technique?

No. Can't be. You don't sense any residuals.

This is fear.

You have about a second to duck as he sends a column of flames towards you.

shitshitshitshitshitshitshit

You’re hit with a wall of cursed energy so potent it makes your head hurt. You quickly gather some cursed energy in your hands, using Rend to give him a shove. It doesn't do much in the way of damage, but you’ve effectively tripped him up.

You're not going to lose him out in the open like this.

So you turn and run, followed shortly behind by your brother.

“Listen, I really don't want to fight this guy,” you say.

“I don't think he’s gonna give us much of a choice.” Says James.

You exchange one last look before taking off in different directions. In a matter of seconds, you’re making a break for a nearby building, hopping in through the broken window. Glass breaks underfoot as you climb a flight of stars. The first emergency exit is locked, you have to head up a second flight of stairs to find one left slightly ajar.

Not a moment later appears the man, followed by your brother.

He's a few inches taller than the man, and maybe has fifty pounds on him, if not more. That size difference proves a clear advantage—at least when it comes to raw strength. James charges, and both hit the ground. His teeth clamp onto James' hand. There's a crunch, and when he pulls away, blood pours from the wound.

“He mentioned a player,” you say, “you think this has to do with the culling game?”

James shrugs. “Hold him down for me, will ya?” he says, pulling his knife from his belt, “I wanna see something.”

The tip of his knife presses into the man's arm. Enough to draw a bead of blood. James gathers a bit on his fingers, before popping them into his mouth.

A solid few seconds pass as you sit there, mouth wide open.

Did James just- why did he-

Gross!

You watch his cursed energy stutter, before fading out entirely. His body sizes up like rigor mortis has set in. The air around him shimmers similar to heat waves off a road.

The man’s foot finds your chest, knocking the air from your lungs. You collapse onto your side, clutching your chest. Nothing feels broken, but it's near impossible to take in a breath.

He lets out a laugh. A hollow laugh that echoes in your sore chest.

He doesn't seem as concerned with your brother. Good. Now's your time to run.

If you can draw him away from James, that'll give him time to escape. From there you just have to lose him. After that, you suppose you'll rendezvous near the school.

The first fireball misses you entirely, shooting a hole through the wall directly in front of you. That's when you’re standing, making a break for some cover—the kitchen counter. The second catches you across the upper thigh, searing your skin, and burning a hole through your pants. You take a step and collapse. Without thinking, you use your hands to rip the burning fabric away.

The pain doesn't hit you until you look down.

Out of all the other injuries you've experienced, this is by far the worst. There's not many things you can compare burns to. Pain-wise, at least. The wound itself is about the size of an apple. Heat radiates off the flesh, which is both charred black, and a raw shade of red. Not like blood, and certainly not the color of your skin; more like a steak that's been cooked rare. Your hands are raw, but in considerably better shape than your leg. It’ll be a while before they blister. And the smell… you've smelled something like this before. Where? Any kitchen, really. It smells like cooked pork.

Those flames were pure cursed energy—why didn't your body absorb it? Did you not brace in time?

Fear prickles in your fingertips. The sudden burst of adrenaline has worn off, leaving you wobbly, and exhausted. You let that terror—that fear pool in your heart, gathering in strength. Maybe that's not the right term for it. It's agitated, practically vibrating in nature.

Your hands…

Healed. Good.

Now how about your leg?

You bring your hands to your leg and close your eyes. You try to replicate what happened the first time, allowing your emotions to fuel the flow of your cursed energy. But the action is awkward, and from the very beginning something feels wrong. You can't muster enough cursed energy to do it.

Can't do it.

"Fuck," you say, following this with a sigh, "fuck!"

Get up. Get! Up!

Your leg can still support your weight, which is good. But any movement of your leg sends shocks of white-hot pain up your thigh. The second your pants brush across the wound, your vision goes black, and you're doubling over, landing on your hands and knees.

Fight or flight has kicked in, and the fear you feel far overpowers any pain. Then you're on your feet, bolting up one, then two, then a third flight of stairs. The first two emergency exits are locked. It's only the final door that's been left ajar. You exit out into a hallway. All the doors are closed. At the end of the hall is a fire exit; a metal platform with stairs that go down a few levels, but not quite to the ground, facing a neighboring building. In the bottom of the alley, you can see a chain link fence, and what you think is a dumpster. Part of the railing has rusted beyond repair, and is marked off with yellow caution tape, and a sign warning people not to lean on it.

That's a long way down…

Cursed energy pours down your arms, into your closed fists.

Still, you make an attempt to barricade the door; slamming it shut. It doesn't lock from the outside. You’ll have to find some other way to keep it shut. You pry away part of the rusted railing, stuffing it under the handle of the door. When he tries to turn it, it gets stuck in the bar.

Good. That'll buy you some time.

To do what? You're not exactly certain. There's nowhere to run. Fighting isn't really a smart choice, but that may be your only option here.

"Why are you trying to kill my ass?!" You shout through the closed door.

You doubt he's going to give you an answer. You should be trying to run. He's clearly shown no problem with using his cursed technique in an enclosed space, so leading him out into the open may be a problem.

His cursed energy burns. It's volatile in nature; moreso than you're used to. The air around him feels as if it's heating up.

"I bet your cursed technique does jack shit out in the rain like this!" You say. Though you have no way to prove this.

And as if on cue, the rain stops.

Something akin to a stone hardens in the pit of your stomach. He doesn't want to kill you. At least not yet. If he wanted you dead, he wouldn't have missed. At the last second, you turn to avoid the mix of flames, and shards of glass spraying up at your face.

It's not long before he has his hand out the broken window, clawing the bar out from under the door handle.

Grimsever isn't much use in a narrow space like this. There's not enough room to swing. And hits you would land, wouldn't have much force behind them.

Screw the sword. Your hands work, don't they?

Your right fist connects with his sternum. Then your left—which has considerably more power behind it—strikes him square in the jaw. He takes one step back, then another, losing his footing on the wet metal. He makes an attempt to catch himself on the railing, but it's far too rusted to hold the weight of a human being. You reach out to grab his shirt too late. He falls right through that railing, and onto the concrete below.

A fall of a few stories- no human is surviving that.

The sound is the worst part. It sounds like someone’s thrown a sack full of eggs against the sidewalk. Immediately you take a step back, so as to not look at him—his body. But that noise echoes through your head on a loop.

You watch as your brother leans over the railing, grimacing as he pulls back. He curses something under his breath.

“He's still alive,” James says, “c'mon. Let's go down there.”

“Wait-”

“If you don't finish him off with a blow of cursed energy, he’ll come back as a curse.” He says. “Now come.”

You walk like a man being marched to his execution.

The ladder screeches from the railing as it's moved from its place. It doesn't reach quite to the ground; there's still a three foot drop at the end.

His limbs jut out from his body stiffly, and his spine looks to be twisted at an odd angle. He much resembles a wax doll in that matter. A doll that's been carelessly thrust aside. Much to your dismay, there's not a lot of blood. A little on the corner of his mouth. And some on his head. But not much.

It was you or him. You were only doing what you had to in order to survive.

It feels like a black mark on your soul. A weight clings to your shoulders that you can't shake. It settles on your shoulders and threatens to bring you down with it.

You find yourself frozen. No matter how hard you try, you can't force your limbs from their place.

“If you walk away, he’ll sit here and suffer.” James says. “This is a mercy killing.”

It's not like this is the first time you've taken a life—certainly not the first human one either. You've done it before, why can't you now?!

There must be another way. What about getting him to a hospital? Would he make it that long?

In the few minutes it's taken you to climb down, his face has paled. And if he is breathing, it's hard to see, but he makes a rasping noise like he's trying to.

He's trying to say something.

You can make out a few words. Standstill. Game. Nothing much more than that. You assume enough blood has filled his lungs and throat that speech is becoming impossible.

It takes too much effort to look at him. At either of them.

"Fine," James says with a scoff, "I've got it."

He pulls his knife from his belt. And though your head is turned away, you feel the swell of cursed energy. There's a crunch, and the cursed energy that lingers in the air dissipates.

Typically the body would be cremated to further prevent him from coming back as a curse. But you doubt he'll be given a proper burial. It feels wrong to leave him here. But you can't take him back to Jujutsu Tech. there's nowhere nearby to bury him.

"Jesus you're gloomy," James says. "Want a cigarette?”

You take one, holding it between your teeth as you light it. “What the hell was the- why did you-”

“I thought through the consumption of his blood, I’d be able to recreate his cursed technique.” James says. “In doing so I’d be able to mimic his soul.”

“Did it work?” You ask.

He holds up his hand. From his pointer finger, a small flame appears. It much resembles a candle in nature. Then he winces, extinguishing the flame. His fingertips look raw, and irritated.

"To a certain extent, yes," he says. “but I didn't take into account that he’s not protected from his own cursed technique.”

That's lame. He can wield fire but not without burning himself? What a useless technique.

“I suppose if I were to master a reversed cursed technique, I could wield it without worrying about any lasting damage done to myself.” He says. “But… I’d need more blood to do that. I think I consumed too much of my own—there wasn't enough of his in what I took in. It wore off before I could do much.”

“You think you’ll be able to do it with Fushiguro’s blood?”

He nods. “I don't think it’ll be easy, but I’ll manage.”

His hands tremble as he lights his cigarette, bringing it to his lips and inhaling. His fingers leave bloody prints on his cigarette. The moment he notices, he’s quick to wipe them off on his pants.

“Do I have a human heart?” He asks.

“I dunno,” you say, “if I stab you through it, will you die?”

He shrugs, before saying “probably.”

“Then I'd say you’re still human,” you say, “you haven't come back to curse my ass yet.”

#first fic of the year ayyyy #jjk x reader #choso kamo x reader #choso x reader #choso kamo #choso #jjk #should i be tagging this as jjk spoilers?#its probably fine #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #cw violence #cw injury #cw blood

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mocacheezy · 3 years

Text

And the title of "Was so amusing I forgot he was supposed to represent a ruthless villain" goes to: ✨Beast Wars Megatron (1996)✨

[Show spoilers below, but you probably know that already.]

Extra note: I am a TF newbie. This is my opinion and I don't have all the details for the many continuities that exist. I just need to scream about a purple T-Rex.

As the shows main villain, he seems more comical than threatening, but during the second and third season he:

Cut out an immortal spark from a failed Maximal science experiment, and continuously used it to torture said experiment (both for his amusement AND practicality, since Rampage would destroy him otherwise)

Called a deformed protoform ugly, "with an ugly name to match its appearance", and called it useless since it is unable to transform.

(Yeah, the above doesn't sound bad or unusual by villain standards, but these are things that had me go "What the fuck, aren't you the theatre kid of a villain? What is this?!", so if it made me react like that it's on the list. The following things also contribute to my reaction)

Set up the before mentioned protoform to an impossible task of essentially killing all Maximals and bringing proof of their deactivation as a test of its competence (bring me their heads... Dramatic✨)

By calling it useless since "It can't even transform!", he is spitting on the name of his predecessor, the original Megatron

(I am atleast 90% certain that G1 Megatron (and any other Megatron really) would take a look at it, figure out if it can hold a gun/fight/be useful and let it fight. Can't even transform my ass, as long as it can be manipulated and/or fight for the Cons it doesn't matter if it can or can't transform you copper bitch!)

Decided to cut the Maximal science experiment's immortal spark in half to create a new Frankensteined transmetal super soldier.

In order to obtain more power he took the original Megatron's spark and "mingled" it with his. And by mingled, I mean he inserted it into his own spark chamber with his own spark and kept it there. Not intending to return it to the original frame most likely.

Until the very last episode of the third season, until the last 10 or so minutes, it looked like he was going to win. I am talking the whole "Are the good guys going to win?" kind of doubt on my end.

But the real kicker and the reason why I'm so shocked?

He was in character through all of this! He didn't get "more evil" or "crazier" or "ruthless" as the seasons progressed. He wasn't "meaner" or "less charismatic". He behaved precisely as he did in the first season, same dramatics in his movements and speech and all of that!

The only difference was that he was doing something actually threatening and villainous in front of us viewers!

That's what had me staring at the screen with wide eyes; the fact I got fooled by his personality and didn't perceive him as an actual threat.

From the 3 shows I finished watching so far (Prime, Animated, Beast Wars) he threw me in for the biggest fucking loop.

Because with other Megatrons it's very clear what kind of a villain they are from the start:

Prime Megatron looks like a threat, moves like a threat, and while he has charisma, we don't see it that often. And he has dramatics, but those are mostly reserved for fights with Optimus or Unicron-poprock-crystal-candy induced hallucinations. And even then it's more like grand, over the top speeches, not silliness.

Animated Megatron has class. He is charismatic and uses this to his advantage to the extreme. He manipulates everyone and anyone, his followers are ready to fight eachother for a crumb of his praise, and a chance to be called "most loyal". He has dramatics (more than just the fact he twists his oil barrels into goblets) and he has embarassing moments infront of his troops, but those are due to circumstances, not him being silly.

I am in the process of watching Cyberverse, and so far this Megatron is a threat, doesn't seem like much of a threat when fighting the autobots, and to my limited spoiler-fueled knowledge, will become a bigger threat later on.

Take another look at Beast Wars Megatron and tell me if you'd consider this guy a threat:

He monologues and laughs TheVillainLaugh so often, you start to expect it and just wait for it most episodes. At one point he laughs so hard he ends up choking on it. And after his coughing fit he resumes his plan monologue as if nothing happened. And it's not like the other Predacons don't acknowledge their boss' behaviour:

That doesn't mean he doesn't have some loyal Predacons; Scorponok, Waspinator and Inferno being the ones that come to mind (also the ones that crave his approval and praise the most), with the other Preds leaning more towards treachery. But how he handles treachery or disobedience or even talking back, where it seems like he's bantering, not threatening them,

His personality just doesn't fit with the traits and behaviours the other two Megatrons exibit, the kind of traits that I started to expect of Megatron as a character.

He doesn't fit my perception of a Megatron that is a threat.

Which, considering the narrative of transformers, says alot about me and the way I essentially placed the character into a mold and went "alright, angry, commands and demands attention, can be ruthless, is stupid enough to keep a guy as his SIC/ on his team, despite multiple murder attempts and scheming".

Now, if we get into actual details, Beast Wars Megatron wouldn't count as "an actual Megatron", since the show itself is set after the Great War between the autobots and decepticons, G1 timeline. This Megatron took his predecessors name, so for all we know his name could be Joe before he changed it.

But his actions and the "destroy and conquer and lay the groundwork for future plans while you're causing mayhem" thing he has going on? That is Megatron behaviour as far as I can see.

And, granted, Beast Wars is the oldest out of the three shows I've watched (Animated 2007, Prime 2011), and so he is older than both of them, his characterization might be much closer to G1 than both Prime and Animated!

But before this becomes a full on essay full of misinformation (and more spelling mistakes), I'll just give my thanks to each continuity being it's own thing, with enough variety to keep you on your toes, while expecting how the general plot might go.

I hate that I can't even fully hate him, because he is so incredibly entertaining, so I am stuck looking @ the screen, cursing the fucking prehistoric grape lizard fidget spinner of the future, because he is so vile but he does it in style.

Here's a flattering picture of him as I seethe.

🎉Congratulations you metal Barney on rollerskates!🎉 You are truly despicable, the worst! I hope you choke on a rubber ducky💕

[He also gets a smaller trophy for his Transmetal MegaMode (or whatever it is called officially), because its a fucking dragon. He went from a bubblegum T-rex, to a copper rollerskating T-rex that can fly, to a red and gold dragon that can breathe fire and ice. So yeah, drastic transformation wise, no competition here, as well as levels of drama that came with each alt.]

#Moca talks #transformers #beast wars megatron #I simultainously love AND hate the bitch #(and I forgot to post this rant as soon as it was drafted so egh)#moca screeches

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

Text

beast warsss s1

soooo ruth and I finished beast wars s1!

ok we watched the last 6 eps like a week ago bear w/me here

ok so what even happened in these eps god. ok so there was the ep where rhinox farted on the predacons which sure was. something

ruth: I shant be rewatching that ever again!

ok I loved when blackarachnia was like ‘you talk to yourself a lot’ to ultimate shakespearian play actor megatron and he was like ‘yessss I like intelligent conversation’ LMAOOOO

and also the part where tarantulas was taken hostage and megatron just shot him lmfao no wonder tarantulas isn't loyal. also I just watched speed for the first time and I was like ayyy

then following up that goofy ass episode was an ep where tigatrons snow tiger friend FUCKING DIED??? that was so sad and fucked up god

and then tigatron got all disillusioned w/the war (understandably) and peaced out AS I GUESSED HE WOULD...

he did come back in the end, so I think maybe he’ll peace out more permanently in the future idk we’ll see

also I really liked seeing the differing perspectives on the conflict - specifically tigatrons and dinobots

like, dinobot has an interesting POV, in that the maximals exist to prevent the predacons from trying to conquer the galaxy - if they didn’t oppose the predacons that would be bad

but tigatron has an interesting point too, in that SOMEONE has to stop fighting first...

and then the fact that dinobot says he also hates the war, just like tigatron...

its a fascinating grey situation honestly

also im so curious now like...what made dinobot defect and join the maximals?? he seems to acknowledge that the predacons conquering everything would be bad, but doesn't really delve into why he thinks that, or what he thinks the maximals are trying to accomplish (other than stopping the predacons)

ruth said that she wanted an ep where the predacons DONT show up and attack, and the conflict is all internal, and mannnn I agree. I feel like I wanna see more from all the characters - why they’re fighting, their history with each other, what they think about what they're doing...this ep was kinda the closest we got to that and I liked it a lot

also I find it funny that now inferno is here as dumb grunt #3 (to round out the squad with waspinator and terrorsaur) and they're all just sooo dumb lmao

then suddenly we shift to ALIENS as if the main characters aren't all aliens lmao what am I talking about and the golden disc comes back also???

I find it funny that that was shown/mentioned in the first ep then never brought up again. like, what was that about?

this seems to be a different gold disc too??? idk bro

anyways that part where megatron sends a weird floating head hologram message to optimus primal was so hilarious. the DRAMA

and then they had a TRUCE!!!! that was so funnnyyyyy they were like ‘ok truce time I guess ugh’ and then kept trying to kill each other but just not with guns. anything else was fine tho???

then things got very looney tunes for a bit

megatron had a good episode-ending monologue there

and ALIENS ARE COMING....and brooo that plotline has been brewing in the background this whole season and its so fascinating ahhhh I was so hype....I like how it’s been built up to in such a steady and subtle way

then...THE FINALE

this shit was WILD bro!!!!!!!!!!!

plot was FULL ON, no time for hijinks

when airazor got pulled into that dome then zapped a bunch...fuckin wild

when unicrons giant floating head showed up I was like HHHH????? H??????????? but then it was just a stand-in symbol which I honestly loved

like I feel like that was perfect fanservice - acknowledging the OG stuff but not Actually having it be unicron

and fr I have no idea what these aliens are or anything about them. I'm pretty sure they're original to beast wars (so not like the quintessons or something)

everything came together here....we get to learn a little more about that booby-trapped alien frisbee and stonehenge, and the fucking second moon, and that ep where optimus got eaten by that alien pod thing

also the aliens were VAGUE AS FUCK about what's going on so there's still plenty of mystery remaining

then OPTIMUS PRIMAL FUCKING DIED as is tradition for OPs, but I loved how he was like ‘no team, it must be me who goes up on this dangerous self-sacrificing mission...but you guys absolutely have to grab me after I evacuate the pod bc I DO NOT plan to die here’ but then he DID

I found it interesting that like half the cast was barely in the finale (like, the last 3 eps, which all kinda went together), like we saw a lot of op, rattrap and airazor, but barely any of rhinox, dinobot and tigatron...same w/the predicons, lots of megatron and the spiders, not much of anyone else

oh also I loved megatron in the finale...I feel like we finally got to see him in full megatron-ness, with all his manipulations finally coming into play...up until now he’s been kinda more of a bystander, sending out his minions to do stuff but rarely leaving the base and joining the fight himself

so yeah it was rlly cool seeing him predict tarantulas actions and use that to his advantage - that also explains why he’s kinda let tarantulas do his thing (to an extent) up until now

also damn tarantulas rlly knew what was up even when literally nobody else seemed that concerned abt the impending alien attack. wrow

a lot of that happened offscreen tbh - like, it was obvious throughout this season that tarantulas had a bunch of stuff going on that the viewers weren't seeing/hearing abt, and this is kinda where we get to see all of it

same w/megatron actually

its p cool how the show is able to show stuff like that without feeling the need to map out every single character motivation and action on screen...tbh that would be tough w/a cast this size

SO YEA beast wars s1!!! was wild!!! I cant believe they left off on a fucking cliff hanger w/optimus primal DEAD. christ. so yeah I'm excited for s2!!!!

#goddddd this is like 6 weeks old oof #better late than never i guess [side eyes 9 month old hxh liveblogs sitting in my drafts]#lj and ruth watch beast wars

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valiantthewriter · 5 years

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@sbiderslut made this amazing moodboard for my most recent fic. It can be found here and on ao3. Thank you, twin <3

TW: Angst, Underage, Sexual Scenes, Did I mention angst?

Anything and Everything

“He shall never know I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same.” -Emily Bronte

He was done for and he really should have known better than to grab the boy by the hips to pull him close. But it felt so good. So, so good.

Tony kept making that mistake. Several times over, sometimes twice in a day, and he knew there was no way he could stop now. Peter was too beautiful, too supple, too compelling. Tony would give this boy almost anything and everything.

“You love me, right?” Peter whispered, his back to Tony's front, Tony's hand lazily drawing circles on Peter's abdomen as they laid in bed. To say the least, the question took him by surprise.

His answer also took him by surprise.

“How could I not?”

“Oh god...Mr. Stark, please! Please please please!”

God save him for loving that sound.

Forget about God. Peter is now his god. His darling, golden angel that Tony has placed on a pedestal. The adoration must come with a heavy weight.

It started slowly then came all at once. Peter's shy glances, Tony's lingering hands, the way they danced around each other in the lab…

Tony was a goner from the very moment he saw Peter walk into his aunt's living room. The boy was fifteen then; he is only seventeen now.

Seventeen. Too young. Bad idea. Seventeen.

It's too late now. The fire was slow to burn at first and then it became an inferno. Tony wanted to blame it on Peter, the boy planted himself in his lap and rolled his hips. He placed his hands on Tony's chest, raked his fingernails down, and said his name with that pretty mouth. If Peter hadn't leaned down and licked Tony's slack jaw then they wouldn't have combusted.

Tony tangled a hand in Peter's unruly locks and manipulated his head so he could look him in the eye. “You're playing with fire, Pete. You sure you want this?” Tony asked, looking for a way out while simultaneously looking for a way in.

“Yes. Please, Mr. Stark. I need this, need you. I want it-” Peter's pleading was cut off by Tony kissing him a little too hard with a little too much teeth. The kiss was sloppy due to Peter's inexperience but Tony revelled in it.

Abruptly, Tony stood up, hands gripping Peter's ass as he carried him from the chair in the living room to his bedroom. Along the way he would stop to pin Peter to the wall, biting at his neck and sucking marks on whatever bit of skin he could reach. Once they finally made it to the bedroom Tony tore off his shirt and stalked to where Peter was hastily stripping on the bed.

Tony crawled onto the bed hovering over Peter, forcing the boy to lay down against the mattress. The blue duvet looked lovely against his skin.

“You ever done this before, babe?” Tony asked, licking his lips and grinding his jean clad cock against Peter's nakedness, knowing the friction probably stung a bit against the boy's sensitive flesh.

Peter blushed and looked away, clearly embarrassed. “No, Mr. Stark…” he confessed, biting his lip before turning his doe eyes to Tony.

Tony groaned at the response, grinding against Peter harder than he should,causing the teen to cry out “Good.”

When Tony took him the first time Peter cried from the pain. Tony tried to be gentle, tried to soothe the boy and kiss his tears away.

Each tear drop tasted like a mistake. They tasted like suicide.

“Why do you still have to be with Pepper?”

“You know why.”

“You said you loved me, Mr. Stark.”

“How could I not?”

“Please, right there! Oh fuck yes!”

“That's it, gorgeous. Move those hips for me.”

Being deep inside Peter felt like heaven, like his own slice of cherry pie.

They went on a trip to Miami to have some fun and blow off some steam. Tony rented the penthouse suite in a prestigious hotel on the beach. Peter loved the view of the ocean.

“It looks amazing!! Look, Daddy! It's so blue,” Peter exclaimed, pressed against the window with the world's biggest smile on his face. Tony knew he did good picking this place with this view.

“Very blue, doll. Let's get ready for dinner so Daddy can have his dessert,” Tony teased, grabbing Peter's ass through his tight swim shorts.

Peter loved the beach. He looked like a nymph frolicking in the waves. He looked like treasure being washed onto the shore.

Tony wanted to savor this forever.

“Why do you always say that?”

“Say what, sweetie.”

“You never say you love me.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Why can't you just say it, Daddy? Why?”

“You know why.”

“I really don't. Explain it. Enlighten me.”

“Angel, you know why “

They spent most of the summer touring Europe. Peter was ecstatic to be away from May and Pepper, saying it made him feel ‘grown up.’ But Peter was seventeen turning eighteen, still too young but broken into.

Peter didn't even know that Tony robbed him, broke into his beautiful body and took more than he should have. He shouldn't have taken anything at all. The guilt came in a cycle but how could he let it weigh him down? Peter, his little prince, was busy prattling on to Tony as they walked along the Seine in Paris.

“...And I applied to Columbia so I can stay close to you,” Peter finished, looking pleased with himself as he licked at his strawberry ice cream cone.

“What honey?” Tony asked, shaking himself from his train of thought. This was his stop anyways.

“Oh, I said I applied to Columbia so we can stay together,” the boy chirped, standing on his toes to kiss Tony's cheek, leaving a sticky feeling behind.

Tony frowned, stopping to look at Peter. “Didn't we agree I would pay for MIT? That's where you belong, baby. You belong with people of your caliber,” he scolded, brushing a stray curl off of Peter's forehead.

“But...what about us? Don't you want me close?” Peter looked close to tears.

Tony moved to fix it, kissing Peter and getting his lips sticky in the process. “Sorry honey. I'm just trying to do what's best for you. Besides, I'll come visit you.”

He would, right?

Tony had Peter bent over his desk in his office. Peter stopped by for a surprise visit in a pair of denim cutoffs that attracted many stares of his employees.

How could Tony resist temptation?

So, he bent the boy over his desk, sank to his knees behind him and ate his boy out until he was sloppy and open. The boy was begging incoherently by the time Tony pushed in. Peter left looking disheveled with bruises on his hips.

No one said anything about it.

“I really don't. I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you!”

“I know, baby, I know. You know how I feel for you. You know it.”

“Say it.”

“Baby…”

“SAY IT.”

“I can't.”

Well, why couldn't he?

He bought Peter a flat off campus for school. He filled it with furniture, electronics, clothes, luxuries, anything and everything he could think of. He put a picture of them from Europe on the nightstand, the one of them in Venice in the gondola that Peter insisted they take throughout the city. The bedding was blue.

He created a trust for Peter filled with more than enough money to last a lifetime.

It was time now.

“What do you mean?”

“I'm marrying Pepper.”

The world seemed to freeze in place.

“...but...what about us?”

“I'm sorry.”

“What about me?”

“I'm sorry.”

“Am I not enough?”

“Angel-”

“Don't.”

“Sweetheart-”

“If you love me then why are you marrying her?”

It was their last time. Peter didn't know, but it was their last time. The boy cried while they made love, and it was making love. Funny how the last time is also a first.

He kissed each tear. They tasted like regret. They tasted like blood.

“But I love you.”

“Come here.”

He never visited Peter. He never answered any calls. He never texted back.

But when Peter showed up out of the blue, he couldn't say no. He would do almost anything and everything for this boy.

“Do you even love her?”

“Peter-”

“Yes or no?”

“It's complicated.”

Tony remembers their first spat very well. Peter was angry that he and Pepper were back together, that he found out through a tabloid at a newsstand. Tony understood, he really did, but it couldn't be helped. It was a necessity that he be with Pepper, or at least it felt like it. It was different than his need for Peter. Pepper was a necessity whereas Peter was the very thing that kept his heart beating.

“I really don't understand why you guys are back together. Am I not enough? I can be better, I'll do whatever you want,” the boy pleaded, honey eyes tearing up and filled with so many emotions. Confusion. Sorrow. Agony.

Tony sighed and set his head in his hands, elbows on his knees. He had been sitting in the chair for over an hour now hashing out the same thing with Peter as the younger man paced throughout the room, playing with the fraying sleeves of the blue sweater he was wearing. Perhaps the answers to their problems were hidden in the floorboards, but Tony doubted that there was an answer at all.

“Baby, I told you. It is for the public and the company. It isn't that you aren't good enough, little prince, but that she is a necessity,” he explained for the umpteenth time whilst massaging his temples. Peter was still not accepting his answer. Why wouldn't the boy just accept it?

“This isn't fair. What if I dated MJ? You'd hate that!”

Tony would.

“Why can't we just run away? Then it won't matter how old I am or anything!”

Oh, only if he could.

“You know what? I'm gonna go home.”

“I agree. You really should.”

Tony knew he was in love with Peter the moment the boy batted his long lashes at him when he was 15. He knew it was sick but he couldn't help himself. Tony was not renowned for his self-control and his genius IQ was not working in this situation.

Peter asked if he could stay late one night and Tony agreed. This was truly his first mistake, the first step on the staircase to his personal hell that would become his only sanctuary.

“Pass me the wrench, kiddo,” Tony said, holding out his hand as he worked on an engine to a car. Peter did as asked, fingers lingering for a split second and eyes full of teenage lust. This was the spark that lit the fire. He still wishes he could say it was Peter's fault.

The years passed in a series of heated glances and barely there touches that came to a head when the pretty boy fell right into his lap.

“You know you can't stay, right? Pepper is coming home in a couple hours.”

“Good. Let her see me.”

“Baby-”

“Please, no.”

“You. Can't. Stay.”

“Are you going to throw me away again?”

“Please don't cry.”

“You were never able to give me this part of you. You never even told me you loved me.”

“How could I not, baby? How could I not?”

He didn't leave Pepper and he watched his angel drift out of his life. It was for the best; Peter deserved someone that wasn't broken like him.

He went back into the room to change the sheets, taking off the blue ones and putting the red ones on.

A year later, Tony sat down for breakfast with his wife one morning, a rare thing to happen. He smiled, she smiled, and they ate in peace.

“Do you remember Peter? The one intern you had for a few years?” Pepper asked, sipping her coffee while flipping through a magazine.

Tony felt his stomach drop to his knees. “I do.”

Of course he did.

“Well, turns out the he and Harry Osborn got together a while back and are engaged! That's so exciting. I loved that kid!” Pepper exclaimed with a big smile.

“Me too.”

How could he not?

#valiant writes #tony x peter #peter x tony #tonyxpeter #peterxtony #thank you for the moodboard twin

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