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jess-rewatches-prodigalson · 3 years

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Take Your Father to Work Day (S2, E4)

As many people have said: This is one of the STRONGEST Prodigal Son episodes to date. It was incredible. My time-stamped thoughts for this episode are below.

I reference Malcolm’s mental health and sexual violence in this one. So if that’s going to be a trigger for you, don’t keep reading.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

0:16 - OMG. Destiny’s Child. Whoever is in charge of the soundtrack for this show needs a raise. Or an award. It’s SOO GOOD.

0:18 - How great is this montage of Martin’s prison life too? I mean the insane mundanity of it combined with “Survivor” and Michael Sheen’s incredible acting is some perfect mix between hilarious, captivating, and just brilliant.

1:06 - I feel so bad for Mr.David. He has to deal with Martin’s theatrics every day. Poor guy looks done in this episode.

1:35 - CAN HECTOR BECOME A BIGGER CHARACTER?! PLEASE. He’s hilarious and I love him. “Bro. You got your ass jumped at Sunday School.”

2:09 - Wait. What? Jerry’s getting released?!? I mean, I understand that he’s no longer in need of psychiatric care......but he still killed someone. Shouldn’t he just be getting transferred to a different prison?

2:25 - Does Jerry have a death wish?!?! He’s talking about being released in a room full of jealous murderers. Everyone looks sooooo pissed at Jerry.

2:54 - Martin is such a liar. However - Michael Sheen’s performance is astoundingly good. Like he shines brighter than usual in this episode.

3:17 - Poor Malcolm. “What’s going on?” Poor boy looks terrified.

3:23 - I love everything about this scene. I love how freaked out Malcolm is. I love you extra Jessica is. BUT HANS. Holy shit. I want Hans in every episode. He’s crazy in a good way and such a beautiful comedic relief.

3:30 - OMG. “Skinny milennial” might be the best thing anyone has ever called Malcolm. Someone please tell JT and Dani - hell, even Gil. They would tease him forever and I want to see it.

3:45 - 1) Malcolm is a terrible liar. 2) Jessica knows he’s lying. 3) This story about the wine is interesting. I wonder when and how Malcolm first told Jessica the story. Was it the same night? AND HOW DID ENDICOTT’S BODY END UP IN ESTONIA?!? I WANT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THAT NIGHT.

3:54 - “Ainsley and I came back from the hospital after Gil’s stabbing.”....we never saw Ainsley at the hospital. Was she there and left before Malcolm got there? Or is this a plot hole I need to ignore?

4:05 - The way that the flashbacks of Endicott’s murder is spliced into this scene with Malcolm’s cover story is so perfectly executed. It’s so captivating and so so well done.

4:14 - Malcolm’s eyes look quite manic during the retelling of this story. Poor guy is desperate to have everyone believe the story. Poor guy probably wants to convince himself that the story is true.

4:16 - Wait. What? Ainsley has always been clumsy? .....interesting. I’ve seen no evidence of it but I’ll believe it for the sake of the plot.

4:23 - “At least one of you has a soul.” Holy shit. hahaha Hans is brutal. I love him so much. I also love how this line makes me, as a viewer, think “does that mean the writers want me to think that Ainsley doesn’t have a soul?” ...or more likely that she doesn’t feel emotion (which can be interpreted as a lack of a soul). That she’s a psychopath like Martin?

4:27 - OMG. Jessica loves Hans. He speaks to her dramatic rich woman soul. So entertaining.

4:30 - Poor. Malcolm. This boy is always in some sort of emotional turmoil. For once I wish he was happy (but also I love the emotional whump so if that could continue that would be great).

4:44 - “It’s so much more than that.” *chef’s kiss* comedic genius. I would watch a whole episode of Mr.David making fun of Martin. But can we all just take a minute to appreciate that Martin doesn’t seem bothered at all that Mr.David is basically verbally telling him that he sucks? It’s almost like Martin thinks they’re friends?

4:50 - Martin is strangely chill talking to Mr.David in this scene. It’s a little off-putting. He almost seems normal. He’s not putting on his usual theatrics or ranting about doctor stuff. It makes you wonder how many different sides of Martin that Mr.David has witnessed.

5:01 - “Oh no. Not Jerry.” LMAO. HOLY SHIT. Michael Sheen needs an Emmy. His delivery of that line might be the funniest thing this show has ever given us. hahahahaha

5:29 - Damn. This is not Gil’s month. First Jessica dumps him. Then he has to deal with Martin Whitly in the flesh. That plus the on-going drama of worrying about Malcolm’s mental health and the stress of reintegrating into work after a STAB WOUND.

5:31 - Gil’s face. hahahahaha he’s like, “Kill me. This can’t be happening. I hate everything. I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.”

5:37 - “Yeah. Why’d you do it?” GIL. OMG. I’m so proud of Gil for dissing Martin to his face. BUT ALSO I worry that that’s going to give Martin more of a reason to hate Gil. I’m genuinely scared that the writers have Martin escaping as the pre-finale episode and Martin trying to kill Gil as the finale. Maybe Gil shows up trying to save Malcolm, AInsley, and Jessica (whom Martin is trying to abduct or hurt or something) idk I just feel like it’s going to be a likely subplot somewhere. I don’t want an attempt on Gil’s life to become a season finale tradition.

5:56 - Ew. “Gilly” That is a terrible nickname. I think I threw up a little.

6:00 - Damn. I love this scene. I could watch Martin and Gil pretending to be civil to each other for years. So entertaining.

6:29 - hahahahaha OMG. Gil’s reaction to Martin saying, “Thank you” PLUS Edrisa’s sudden excitement at realizing she’s 10 ft away from Malcolm’s Dad - a medical legend, is magical.

6:35 - Not gonna lie. When Edrisa said, “Ok. I’m gonna play it cool.” I had to pause my TV and walk away to calm down. I was experiencing a mixture of second hand embarrassment for Edrisa’s inevitable behaviour, excitement for what is to come, and fear that Martin would be a jerk to our precious Edrisa.

6:44 - Edrisa and Martin interacting was everything I’d hoped. It was strange, funny, sweet, and disturbing at the same time. The sweet, eccentric girl who attends cuddle parties is getting buddy-buddy with a literal serial killer. Hilarious. Even better is Gil’s background reactions as he desperately tries to keep Edrisa away from the psychopath. hahaha <3

7:12 - Gil is currently living in a nightmare. hahahahaha

7:47 - I love this. I love how Malcolm and Ainsley interact. Malcolm is such a good big brother. IDK something about these two adult siblings chilling on a couch and warning each other about Mom’s current rampage reminds me of myself and my younger brother. <3 Warms my cold dead heart. <3 PLUS has anyone else noticed that (as long as Ainsley isn’t hounding Malcolm about a story or airing out his mental health diagnoses like the bs from Q&A) Malcolm is extremely calm around Ainsley. Like maybe the calmest we’ve ever seen him?

8:20 - “Oh Ainsley, that’s a horrible idea.” This is adorable. Malcolm is totally acting like Ainsley’s surrogate dad. He’s trying so hard to protect her. <3

8:42 - There’s something about the way that Malcolm says, “Hey Gil” that makes my heart swell. Idk why. I just their father/son relationship. So much. And it makes me so happy to see Malcolm having semi-normal interactions with people in general.

8:48 - This. Is. The. Funniest. Episode. Of. Prodigal. Son. To. Date. Holy shit. The comical dread on Malcolm’s face. Martin’s glee on the phone. Gil’s general “done with life” body language. Ainsley’s utter joy at her luck. MALCOLM DRAINING THE ALKA-SELTZER. Ainsley saying “chug chug”. So perfect.

9:27 - Is it just me or has Jessica been showing way more concern for her children’s well-being this season? At first I thought it was because she was so happy with Gil....but that’s not a thing anymore (because Jessica is a MORON - seriously if this show gets cancelled before Gil and Jessica are living happily ever after I will riot) so now Idk.

10:02 - EDRISA WHY DID YOU NOT TELL GIL AND MALCOLM THAT THE SURGEON WAS ON THE PHONE?!? For a hot second, poor Malcolm looks like he thinks he’s hallucinating.

10:40 - Gil hanging up on Martin and then telling Edrisa that she needs to make new friends is everything. It’s vicious. Gil looks absolutely furious in this scene and I love it.

11:07 - Yo. Edrisa’s got some baggage. hahaha Malcolm looks soooo uncomfortable with her outburst.

11:18 - I would pay good money to watch Martin and Gil have a pissing match in front of Malcolm every episode. It’s amazing. They’re constantly trying to one-up each other. The tension is palatable. And someone Malcolm is the only one acting like a mature, working adult. Malcolm. My mentally unstable, skinny millennial.

11:34 - OH SHIT. Martin did not just bring Jessica into this. Oh SNAP. Does Martin know that Jessica dumped Gil?!?

11:56 - “I’m going to need a little more than that.” Damn. Malcolm looks pissed here. Pretty sure he hates that Martin just brought up Gil/Jessica. Malcolm’s bio-dad and real dad are fighting and it’s very clear that Malcolm is on Gil’s side.

12:17 - The look that Gil and Malcolm share here is perfect. I love it so much. You can see how annoyed they both are, how much they hate that they need Martin on this case, how much neither of them want Martin’s help. <3

12:23 - SOMEONE GIVE GIL A MEDAL. This man just grit his teeth, smiled, and let MARTIN WHITLY - the man who tried to KILL HIM work on his case. Why? Because Malcolm silently asked him to. Because Gil loves Malcolm and knows that it’s better for Martin to work with them officially than for Malcolm to work with Martin in secret. At least this way he can look out for Malcolm.

12:42 - “It’s taken Dr. Marsh years...” soooo was Dr. Marsh the name of the Asian doctor leading group therapy last season? Is this just a new actor, same character scenario? OR am I supposed to forget that Asian doctor existed last season?

13:04 - I can’t tell if Gil hates this whole “father-son in group therapy idea”. He looks kind of like he hates it (although he is looking at Martin in the shot). I’m inclined to think that Gil is worried. He doesn’t like how nice Martin is acting toward Malcolm. He doesn’t want Malcolm to get hurt again. BUT I also think there’s probably a part of Gil that thinks group therapy might be beneficial for Malcolm’s mental health? I mean it was only ever going to be terrible or amazing. Nothing in between.

13:12 - “They hate you don’t they?” GIL BRINGING THE FIRE. hahahaha angry Gil is really funny.

13:43 - OH HELL YES. More Hector. <3

13:46 - hahaha YES. Hector this is Malcolm - the son. You know, the one you had to role-play? hahaha I feel like Hector is a really cool dude (aside from the murder).

13:53 - Damn. Hector pays attention in group. He has a lot of info about Malcolm. I would’ve thought the other inmates would just tune Martin out when he starts his monologues.

13:59 - “He’s got a thing with hands?” hahahaha OMG. How did I never connect the hand thing. DOES Malcolm have a thing with hands? ....I kind of want that to be cannon?

14:00 - “You’re crazier than me.” Ouch. That must’ve hurt. Think about it - Malcolm is ridden with guilt about Endicott. He’s haunted by what he experienced as a kid and by what his father is. Malcolm believes he’s broken beyond repair. On some level Malcolm thinks he’s crazy. Now a literal killer just told him he’s crazy. That just affirms what Malcolm already believes about himself. :( PLUS right after Hector tells Malcolm that he’s crazy - the camera pans to Martin. MARTIN looks scared. Martin is losing control of the situation and he doesn’t like it. Martin knows on some level that he ruined Malcolm’s mental health. He almost looks a little guilty?

14:31 - FINALLY. We have a cannon occurrence of someone calling Malcolm “Mal” (or “Malc” if you’re going by HULU’s subtitles?). I hope the writers start having people call Malcolm by Mal/Malc more often.

14:35 - I can’t ignore it anymore. DID HECTOR HAVE THAT SCAR ON HIS FACE LAST SEASON?!? I DON’T REMEMBER IT.

14:38 - YES YES. Malcolm looks angry. I LOVE IT. Scream at him Malcolm! Give him hell!

15:03 - Yikes. Malcolm sounds like he’s about to cry here. :( My heart breaks for him. .....I wonder if this is the first time Martin has ever heard how much pain he caused Malcolm straight from Malcolm? Martin looks hella uncomfortable here.

15:25 - The inmates (literal murderers) empathizing with Malcolm is twisted, beautiful, and haunting. These guys understand how much it sucks to hang out with Martin. These guys can see the real pain in Malcolm’s expression. They know he isn’t lying. Part of me honestly wonders if one of them is going to try and hurt Martin for Malcolm. They looked pissed enough by the end of the conversation that I kind of believe they might.

16:00 - Malcolm is not acting here. For once he’s not projecting his problems onto potential suspects. He’s just venting to suspects. No pretence. I love it. BUT 100% of me wants to know where Gil is during this session. Is Gil listening? Is the session being recorded for evidence? There’s no way Gil (or Dani) wouldn’t confront Malcolm about this. Even if they just asked him if he’s okay.

16:10 - hahahaha look at Doctor Marsh. He’s like “ooookkkkkaaaayyyy. I’m a psychiatrist in a psychiatric facility for people who have committed violent crimes. BUT THIS IS THE NUTTIEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN.”

16:12 - Look at the way Martin narrows his eyes. He’s trying to figure out if Malcolm is acting. He’s finally realizing that Malcolm truly hates what Martin subjected him to as a child. I honestly think this interaction will cause Martin to shift his “become a murderer like me” agenda from Malcolm to Ainsley. He’s finally seen the depth of Malcolm’s hatred and pain and knows deep down that Malcolm will never turn into a serial killer. But there’s still hope for Ainsley. That’s not to say that Martin won’t stop gaslighting Malcolm - he totally will.

17:10 - Martin has been at Claremont for 20 YEARS. How is it that he didn’t know a gold card existed?!?

17:21 - I honestly thought Marsh was going to get shanked. For the gold card. No other reason.

18:07 - It’s not supposed to be funny but Burt freaking out and punching Marsh is HYSTERICAL. hahahahaha

18:10 - That guard who pushed Malcolm out of the room and into a safe area? He’s in my good books. Every time I watch him push Malcolm to safety I want to give him a hug. Just for doing his job. What the hell is wrong with me?!?

18:18 - UGH. I hate that creepy, satisfied look that Martin gives Malcolm. It’s the same look he gave baby Malcolm in the pilot. It’s the “we’re the same” look and it clearly bothers Malcolm. :(

18:26 - Oh look. 18 minutes into the episode and we finally have a Dani appearance!! annnnnnd no mention of JT. I mean, I get it. He’s on paternity leave. I’m happy for him. BUT TWO EPISODES WITHOUT A JT APPEARANCE IS TORTURE. At least give me a throw away line about how happy JT is or about the baby!?? Honestly - it’s my biggest gripe with this episode.

18:56 - soooo either Dr. Marsh is a terrible psychiatrist OR you can’t “cure” murderers.

19:08 - The NYPD knows that Martin cured Jerry?!? HOW? Did Mr. David get Martin to admit to shocking him? Did Mr. David tell the police?!? I don’t remember Martin telling Malcolm. I specifically remember Malcolm saying, “I don’t want to know”

20:02 - Damn. I want Ainsley to go dark so badly. I want to see how badly it would destroy Malcolm and Jessica. I am evil.

20:52 - Malcolm’s burgundy jacket is gorgeous. That is all.

21:10 - Malcolm knows that Martin wants to escape. This is good. I love this.

21:55 - THERE’S A WOMENS WARD?!? REVOLUTIONARY INFORMATION. I THOUGHT THEY HAD A SEPARATE HOSPITAL.

22:00 - Oh wow. Finally - a perk to gender inequality.

22:52 - This Brightwell scene is so cute. I love watching Malcolm be excited about solving the crime. I love watching Dani gently tease him about how weird he is. I love watching them subtly flirt. Is Malcolm ready for another relationship - hell no. Do I think Dani has forgiven him - not totally. If they got together now it would end badly. But I do want them to be endgame.

23:11 - Andre is really suspicious throughout this whole scene. I’m convinced that if Dani and Malcolm weren’t too busy flirting Andre would’ve become a suspect really fast.

23:15 - Why do people get released from psychiatric prisons?!? This is a genuine question. I would’ve thought that everyone in Claremont has committed some seriously heinous crimes and only a very small portion of them are actually sick. The rest of them just pleaded insanity and had good lawyers. But even if they are/were sick. I don’t think the types of mental illnesses that drive people to murder and/or rape is something that can be cured. Sooo why are they getting released? I guess I just wonder because there’s this guy that’s been in my local news on and off for like 10+ years. He’s molested/raped many young women between the ages of about 16-25. He’s been arrested and released multiple times. He keeps getting released to different major cities in my province (usually a city with a big University) and reoffends within 6 months of being released. Most recently he was arrested last month after being released in October 2020. Clearly he’s going to keep reoffending - so why does he keep getting released? I guess I just don’t understand what the criteria are that allow an inmate who has committed that sort of crime to be released. Here’s a link to one of the more recent news stories if you’re interested: https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/police-warn-of-high-risk-sex-offender-moving-to-victoria-1.5149264

23:23 - hahaha Andre is like, “Yo. This dude is freaky.”

24:15 - Look at how proud Malcolm is of his whole “lobster = murderer” profile. <3 So freaking precious. <3 and Dani looks so amused with him. <3

24:37 - Sooooo Mr. David isn’t listening to this conversation? He left the room?

24:40 - Jessica going to Martin for parenting help is terrifying. This is a woman in crisis.

25:20 - But Jessica was right to be paranoid in 97′. She wasn’t being cheated on romantically but her husband was murdering people.

25:24 - Martin is so selling his kids out here. He knows it. He doesn’t care. He’s having too much fun torturing Jessica. He’s rejoicing at the fact that he gets to play the “I turned the kids to the dark side” card.

26:40 - Poor Jessica. She looks suspicious and scared. Scared that she raised a killer even though she tried desperately to prevent that very behaviour.

26:56 - Damn. Martin is having a really good day. First he gets to annoy Gil Arroyo in the flesh. Then Edrisa talks medical with him. Then he gets to work with Malcolm. THEN his ex-wife calls him and he gets to toy with her mind. THEN his daughter, who has literally murdered someone comes to visit him. He is a proud Dad right here and he’s having an amazing day.

28:00 - Rhonda is terrifying. This girl has perfected the “I’m sweet and unthreatening” while lying and manipulating people. I swear she’s a teenage Queen B personality with a side of violence.

28:30 - I love how protective Malcolm is of Ainsley. Look how positively livid he is that Marin is talking to her. Malcolm is terrified that Martin is going to purposefully and successfully turn Ainsley into a serial killer. Malcolm doesn’t want to lose his sister. He doesn’t want Jessica to lose her ‘stable’ child.

29:09 - This scares me. This is the kind of Ainsley behaviour from last season that made me believe she is the Whitly child most like Martin. Her ruthlessness and lack of a conscience when it comes to looking for a news story is extremely upsetting.

30:11 - What the hell happened to Tevin? AND WATKINS?!? We got no closure on those guys. Are they dead? In prison? Is Tevin still in Claremont? Were they transferred to facilities outside of New York State?

30:28 - Malcolm yelling at Martin is perfect. *chef’s kiss* Finally this boy is being honest with his father and he isn’t holding back.

30:40 - Michael Sheen is an incredible actor. This is an Emmy worthy scene. By Sheen AND Payne.

30:48 - I love how you can see Mr. David just chilling. Sitting outside the door and staring across the hall during this scene. It’s just....can’t he hear the screaming?!? Is he just like, “I can’t take anymore of this today. Not my circus and not my monkeys.”

30:55 - Soooooo this is Martin showing his true colours. There’s definitely a part of Martin that hates Malcolm. I honestly wonder if that part of Martin actively tries/tried to emotionally torture Malcolm now and throughout his childhood.

31:00 - “And your mother. And you ruined HeR!!!”....does this mean Martin was trying to make Ainsley a serial killer? Maybe after the camping trip when he realized Malcolm was too “weak” to kill anyone? Is this Martin saying that Ainsley is ruined because she didn’t become a serial killer? Or that Ainsley is ruined because she killed Endicott?

31:05 - “But that’s not me.” hahaha OMG. Michael Sheen just flipped between two personalities like nobody’s business. Respect.

31:08 - Martin’s outburst hurt Malcolm. Badly. You can see it all over his face. Even now, when Malcolm is being strong and showing some backbone to Martin, Martin can wound Malcolm with a single phrase. :(

31:41 - soooo where has Gil been for the past 10 minutes of this episode?

32:02 - Sooooo did Andre kill Jerry for Rhonda? Or did he just know about the murder and keep quiet for Rhonda? Or is his oblivious to the fact that Rhonda killed Jerry? I’m honestly confused here.

32:20 - Holy shit. Rhonda is crazy. Andre is dead now. Right?

32:48 - Wait. Why did Andre have a gold card? Mr. David only has red. What kind of qualifications does a guard need to get a gold card vs blue, green, or red?!?!

32:55 - Claremont isn’t a punishment for Martin. Solitary is. Martin should live in solitary. He deserves to suffer for his crimes (and the ongoing torture of his son).

33:05 - How messed up is it that Mr. David’s job is to protect a serial killer? I don’t think I’m brave enough to do something like that. I also don’t know if I could do that for moral reasons.

33:14 - Damn. That elevator looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since it was installed. It’s sooo much nastier than the hallway outside of the elevator.

33:50 - Sooo does this mean Martin is eventually going to try and murder someone down here?

33:54 - HE CALLED FOR BACKUP <3 <3 <3 OUR BOY IS GROWING UP AND I’M SO PROUD. <3

35:40 - FINALLY SOME MALCOLM WHUMP. <3 THIS SEASON HAS BEEN LACKING IT.

36:00 - This is really interesting to me. I honestly wonder if Martin has some sort of split personality disorder (personality #1: murderous, selfish, psychopath; personality #2: loving, concerned father and lawful doctor). You can see how desperately he wants to escape. But also how much he loves his son. I honestly thought he was going to leave Malcolm to die.

36:06 - Ugh. Look at his whumped face. <3 <3 <3 ....one thing that I couldn’t stop thinking during all the tazing (which was amazing FYI, I’m not complaining) is this: in QxA (1x07) Mr. David says that he only has a single shot tazer. Why did Andre have a multi-shot tazer? Is this a gold card vs red card thing?

36:40 - WHY THE EFF DOES BACKUP NOT INCLUDE GIL?!?! I KNOW HE’S STILL IN THE BUILDING.

37:03 - MARTIN, IF YOU TOUCH A HAIR ON DANI’S HEAD I WILL PERSONALLY HUNT YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU MYSELF. He honestly looks like he wants to murder her.

37:50 - Martin’s speech is not going to help Malcolm’s mental state. At all.

38:31 - No. No. No. Martin you do NOT get to talk to Dani on a first name basis. Look at how much Dani hates it.

38:35 - I love how soft Malcolm looks as Martin lifts him up. Look at how Malcolm gently leans into the touch. It breaks my heart. After 20 years Malcolm is still comforted by physical contact with his father. :(

38:37 - “Put your hands on me again Dr. Whitly, and I’ll blow your head off.” OH HELL YES. Dani is my hero. Iconic. Also - anyone else notice that Dani is chewing gum in this scene (I don’t think she’s chewed gum on camera since the pilot?) it makes her look like so much more of a badass in this scene.

38:55 - Oh look. The rest of the backup finally showed up. Where were these assholes 5 minutes ago when DANI WAS ALONE? AND WHERE IS GIL?!?!

39:00 - Malcolm thanking Dani is so so precious. And the fact that he’s clearly struggling to breathe and stay conscious is giving me life. ALSO Dani saying, “YOU’re welcome.”?!? *chef’s kiss* :) :) <3

39:30 - So Malcolm definitely knows that Martin almost left him to die so that Martin could escape.

39:33 - ......Ainsley is currently living with Jessica. Why is Ainsley not at the family dinner? We literally see her in the house in like 30 seconds.

39:35 - Malcolm in a polo shirt. Malcolm in a polo shirt. Why is it so attractive?!? He looks like a baby cinnamon roll? <3

39:51 - WHO THE EFF LET AINSLEY INTO THE MURDER BASEMENT?!? WHY AM I EXPECTED TO BELIEVE THAT JESSICA DIDN’T RE-SEAL IT AFTER WATKINS?!?!

40:15 - Jessica desperately tearing apart the living room is heartbreaking. :(

40:29 - Question: Did Jessica send her staff home before she tore apart the living room? Because I can just imagine two of them staring into the living room from the hall like, “She’s finally snapped. Should we call someone?”

41:00 - Jessica is the queen of drama. HOLY SHIT. This reveal was so extra and so perfect.

41:13 - “I killed him.” “You’re lying.” I love this interaction between Jessica and Malcolm. Malcolm has spent his whole life trying to convince people that he’s not a murderer. To protect Ainsley, his baby sister, he will say the words “I killed him”. Even though that is literally killing a part of Malcolm. Jessica knows it. I love that Jessica can see that Malcolm is lying. She’s not trying to convince herself that he’s innocent. She literally just accused him of murder. She’s scared. Because Malcolm just admitted to killing someone - his biggest fear - and it was a lie.

41:35 - Watching Bellamy Young’s facial expression as Jessica realizes that Ainsley killed Endicott is a thing of beauty. This woman needs an Emmy too. HELL, CAN WE GIVE THIS WHOLE EPISODE AN EMMY?!?!

42:00 - Poor Jessica. The guilt she must feel. She’s always thought that Malcolm was the one at risk of being a murderer. He’s a boy (they’re statistically more prone to violence than girls), he was older than Ainsley, he remembers terrible things, Malcolm had continued exposure to Martin throughout his childhood (Ainsley didn’t - I think?). But the child she neglected, the child she thought was safe, the child she thought remained free of Martin’s evil killed someone. It’s a plot-twist that just ripped Jessica’s heart into a million pieces.

42:30 - Yep. I promise you Malcolm has been psychoanalyzing Ainsley’s past behaviours since the moment she killed Endicott. He’s found traits common to serial killers and he’s terrified that she’ll become one if she remembers what it felt like to kill Endicott. He’s probably kicking himself for not noticing sooner. He’s probably questioning his ability as a profiler and as a big brother. AND the fact that MALCOLM has to protect Jessica AND Ainsley is heartbreaking. It’s way too big a burden. No wonder Malcolm’s mental health is on a downward spiral.

42:33 - This is the moment Jessica begins grieving for Ainsley. The fear, disbelief, and horror on her face. It’s torture that I can only describe as someone telling a mother that her daughter is dead. Because Ainsley is dead. The person Jessica believed Ainsley was - that little girl is dead. Because Jess just found out the truth.

42:55 - Jessica is now terrified of her own daughter. That is maybe the most upsetting thing this show has given us.

43:00 - I saw an interesting theory about how Ainsley is regressing back to her childhood (crawling into bed with Mom, moving back in with Mom) and I must say - that would be a really interesting way for this story to go. Ainsley regressing to a child-like state as she is convicted of murder. As a result she ends up in the women’s ward of Claremont because she can plead insanity.

This episode was amazing. Seriously, one of the best Prodigal Son episodes to date. Definitely the best of season 2 so far. If you’ve read this far - thanks for hanging out.

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ryuichirou · 3 years

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Lord God Savior of All Ryu, I ask for but one noble request. lol i just wanna see all your AUs. Like, I always here about them in replies and stuff but I've almost never seen what they actually look like. So if you could just tag pics of them or doodle (they can be super bad 30 sec doodles too, it don't matter to me) them, I would be the happiest, most joyful little shit ever.

Anon!! Thank you for being so interested in our AUs and wanting to learn more about them. It was a very good excuse for us to go through the list of the AUs, doodle them, revisit some of the older ones, etc. So yeah, your wish is granted lol

Here’s the majority of them, we decided not to include those that we’ve barely talked about and thought out... I’ve put tags for those AUs where we have at least something posted. Most of them are something we haven’t even talked about at all and they don’t have a single sketch, but I liked drawing chibis for them way too much. Sorry, I used your ask lol

We have a general tag for our aus and specific ones for some of them, but sometimes an au from here is not tagged separately, so you might have to use this general tag...I tried to fix it, I don’t think I missed anything, so it should be ok now! ;w;

1. Space AU. It’s a story about a space expedition.. which turned out to be not exactly what everyone planned thanks to Erwin. What a commander!

2. Tribal AU. It’s a story about Eren becoming a part of the tribe where Erwin and Levi live.

3. Babysitter AU. Levi is a babysitter to Eren and Zeke, unfortunately for Zeke, who’s 17 and not exactly thrilled about being babied. Sometimes there’s kid Erwin too. We’ve never posted anything related to this AU, I think, and I don’t think we will. There’s another AU related to this one, but 19yo Eren from the paths (he has the memory of the manga events) keeps kid Eren company as an invisible ghost, while others think that kid Eren is cursed or something.

4. SnK AU. A classical one, where Eren has dreams about the plot of SnK, but when the story stops progressing, he decides to kidnap Levi to make the plot go on. Erwin finds out later... and keeps Levi in the basement because he wants to know the ending too lmao plus it’s hot.

5. Mines AU. Erwin gathered a team for his wonderful plan to find a treasure, but it’s not like the rest of the team needs to know where they’re really going. Zeke’s particularly terrified to find that out. Despite its name, they spend the majority of time in the forest. Also, there’s a timeskip of 11 years.

6. AU with Neetwin who’s a history teacher. We don’t tag this one though, it’s not like it’s our AU. So now it’s a Neetwin tag, although one of the drawings is with adult Levi... eh, who cares.

7. CC AU (cleaning company). Levi works in a cleaning company and cleans up Neetwin and hobo Eren’s apts. They need a lot of work. Yes, they make their apts even dirtier to make Levi spend more time there.

8. Prison AU. Damn this one is good... we came up with it before reading the timeskip in the manga, so Eren’s appearance doesn’t really match his age, he’s 17 lol Levi is a mafia member who goes to prison because he need to kill one of the inmates (who later became Zeke) on Erwin’s (Levi’s boss) request. Eren’s his personal guard, although Eren works as a regular guard too.

9. King Kong AU. It’s an AU where the Beast Titan is King Kong lmao Zeke is having fun killing dinosaurs... Levi, not so much. Thank Erwin for his wonderful plan of going to this island.

10. Rus AU, basically just characters living in Russia. Because ofc we will have this type of a setting... Damn, I thought we drew this one more often, huh.

11. Sea AU. Mainly our modern AU, we use it as a base for other modern stuff for the most part. Levi’s getting two boifrond rings, he lives with Erwin, Eren visits them often, Zeke bitches a lot, fun times with and without Zeke, stuff like that. There’s also a subplot (11.5) where Eren gets “kidnapped” by a witch, so Zevi have to find him and bring him back. Titans exist in this AU, Eren and Zeke are titans, and all of them have military training, but Erwin and Levi retired some time ago. We don’t have a tag for just a modern setting, though.

12. Cult AU. Eren lives on a farm and has a whole village of his followers. He also has cursed animals... and I think we’ve told about some of the plot points in replies. Erwin’s really into all this cult stuff because it affects reality for real, so he asks Levi to follow rituals, although Levi came to ask Eren to go back to normal life and finish the fucking school.

13. Serial killer AU. Eren’s a serial killer, duh. Never posted anything with this one, unfortunately, but Eren got disappointed in the police when he was a child, so he decided to fix the situation himself, while Erwin and Levi, as a part of a special department, investigate his “fixing”. It also has a time skip. I really need to redraw at least one sketch...

14. Hospital AU. Levi gets into Marley trying to make Eren go back, but it’s not that simple because Eren doesn’t want to lol Basically canonverse with this small change.

15. Hobo AU. Eren and Levi are hobos, Zeke wants his brother to stop living under a fucking bridge. Later Erwin takes both of them under his roof because he really likes Levi, but he can’t leave Eren alone.

16. Doggies AU. AU where Eren’s a wolf and Erwin’s a doggo. Levi got Erwin because he was a retiring trained dog and sniffed enough drugs in his life, and Eren... his “owner” found him on the streets and lied to Levi about Eren being a dog. Later Eren turned into a magnificent beast and now he doesn’t want to leave. There’s also Zeke, but he belongs to Xavier.

17. AU where Eren wants to become a mangaka. The first post is self-explanatory, although I’d probably make some changes now if I cared enough. There’s also a time skip where Eren ditched his manga and became hobo!Eren. His editor was pissed lol

18. Scolopendra Eren AU. You know the drill, and I’ve talked about the plot in some of the replies.

This post doesn’t show up on the tag for some reason.

19. Ghost Eren AU. I should’ve named it combini AU... Anyway, I’ve talked about this one a lot, although poor Erwin gets neglected a little bit lol it’s hard to compete with a ghost when you’re just a mere stalker... but a very invested one. Eren likes Erwin here, they’re vibing on the same malicious-towards-Levi wave.

20. Shark Eren AU. It’s just for us for funs, Eren’s a shark, and Levi’s there to help him fight depression. Eren later escapes into the sea.

21. Midsommar AU. Levi and Erwin get an invite to go to the village from Yelena, Eren’s a part of a cult who is kinda attracted to one of the newcomers... Such a good movie, we need to draw them properly. Both Yeagerists and Eldians are a part of the cult, they don’t have any specific rules by which I categorised them... Although not all characters are present, and some of them (Jean, I think) are newcomers who will join the cult later. Sorry, I don’t remember much.

22. Silent Hill AU. It started with Erwin peeking into Levi’s apartment, but now there’s Eren too... We haven’t thought out this one, I’m bad with Silent Hill AUs for some reason.

23. House Eren AU. Eren’s a house, and we’ve explained how it works too, so just check out the tag. Levi actually lives there with Erwin, but I don’t remember if we’ve mentioned it or decided to skip this info.

24. Eren pack AU. It’s an AU where Erens of all ages (6 of them, I believe) are a little bit feral, and they have wolf ears and tails, and they live in a specific place and Levi visits them every day and takes care of them. They love Levi. Here’s the only post that survived, and here’s a link for a twitter post which I never got back on tumblr after it got deleted.

25. Trailer AU. The story is about Levi who has to live with Zeke for a month as his slave because Erwin lost him in a game of cards lol To be fair, Erwin lost a lot of money and their whole flat, and Zeke gave them a choice between that and Levi (he’s horny ok), and Levi agreed. Zeke even put Levi on a chain, although Levi doesn’t even try to escape...

26. Flower shop AU. Eren’s a plant, and he brings death to the whole planet. He keeps Levi alive though, as a treat for himself. We’ve explained some of the stuff in the replies.

27. Blair Witch AU. It’s pretty much explained in this post, and if you saw the movie, there’s nothing for me to tell you. Everything that’s different from it is in the post lol

28. Corpse AU. Eren’s a corpse, Levi’s a pathologist who works on difficult and mysterious cases alongside the police. Eren later comes to life along with a couple of other bodies...

29. Antichrist AU. Zevi adopt baby Eren, but Eren’s a fucking satan. He loves Levi, but Zeke... not so much. Zeke loves Eren to death, though. Eren would love to organise that, but first he needs to grow up a little bit. It doesn’t mean that he won’t torture his parents during his journey. And everyone else who interact with them.

30. This one doesn’t have a title, but it’s an AU where kid Eren went missing, and Levi goes into the forest to find him. Levi owns Erwin who’s a good doggo and helps him find Eren. It turns out Eren killed two adult dudes, and he has paths!Eren telling him what to do and how to do it... Paths!Eren has the memory of the canonverse.

31. Zombie apocalypse AU. There’s only one drawing with it though, but basically Levi builds himself a wonderful place to survive the apocalypse, and he keeps Zombie Erwin in the basement in hopes of Hange finding a cure. Then Eren joins just because he can and because Levi’s very awesome. Eren has a boner for the apocalypse and enjoys every second of it.

32. No title, but Eren was casted away from the canon universe for the rumbling, and now he’s a mythological giant wolf who lives in a deep very old forest. He was very surprised to find out Levi exists in this universe... So he kidnapped him ❤️

33. Halloween AU. You’ve seen this one, it’s a story where Jean, Connie, Sasha and Eren get into the wrong house and find a ritual instead of a Halloween party... So after saving the child who, as it turns out, is not really a victim, they decide to ditch him at Eruri’s place.

34. Okusan AU. Levi’s a housewife, Erwin is a cuckold who’s really into adultery. He invites both Zeke and Eren from time to time to act as Levi’s husbands, and they (Levi and Erwin) almost get caught because the “husband” suddenly came home... Sorry, we’ve read too many doujinshis lol

35. Island AU. Erwin loves sending Levi to dangerous places to get souvenirs for himself, and now it’s time for Levi to get a crystal from a very isolated island full of strict rules in terms of interacting with outsiders. We have a cool idea for a two part drawing (like with our flower shop au), but it’ll take us ages to complete anything at this rate... I have like two sketches on Patreon for now, but damn this AU has so many cool visuals we wanna draw... It’s another cult AU with people living on Paradis (more like one village in the middle of the island), isolated from the rest of the world. They don’t welcome strangers, and Levi has three months to find and steal that crystal, although it’s not that simple.

36. Erewan. Not exactly a full AU, but Erewan’s a cursed animal plushie who kills people and loves Levi a lot.

37. Cat AU. Everyone’s a cat (duh). Not really our AU, but it has its own tag, and it’s only asks.

38. Tiny founder Eren AU?? Again, not really our AU, but now it has its own tag.

I’ve also found the reply where I talk about how characters’ relationships work in some of the AUs, you can check it out too. I thought it was fitting for a master post.

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127-mile · 4 years

Text

Welcome to Crystal Lake.

Pairing: Yuta x reader.

Genre: serial killer, summer camp | Fluff, angst.

Warnings: alcohol consumption, blood, like a lot of blood, explicit and non-explicit deaths, stabbing, injuries.

Plot: Summer has finally arrived, and after a grueling year, you are excited to return to work at camp Crystal Lake where you used to spend your summer vacations as a child. You are all the more excited to see the other councilors again, and to escape the tension of the city for a whole month.

This is your last time working there, and who knows, it might even be your last summer too.

Word count: +5.1k.

A/N: This was requested by the incredible @neo-cult-ure as part of Something in the shadows. My inspiration was American Horror Story 1984 and Friday the 13th. Oh, and happy October 1st

"Alright, listen to me! The rules are not only for the campers, they are for you too!" the new director of the camp says, and you sigh. You are not the only one to be bothered by a change of staff without having been warned, the other counselors are too, and they do not hesitate to show it. Johnny coughs every time she opens her mouth, and Yuta immediately goes to his rescue, speaking way too loudly.

"Mister Suh, should I send you home? You look sick." the director is annoyed, and you nibble on your lower lip so as not to laugh when you see Johnny straightening up, his arms crossed against his chest. "No, everything is fine, but thank you for worrying about my health, that's very kind of you." you roll your eyes, that's so typical of Johnny. "Mr. Suh, this is your first warning, I don't care that you have been working here for 5 years, I will not hesitate to kick you out."

It is true that it is different from the former director. The latter was nice, and much younger, her goal was for the camp to be fun, and for everyone to have a great month. But this one does not seem to have the same ideas. "And what are the rules ?" a voice rises from the crowd of councelors, and the director seems delighted with the question.

"So, the bathroom hours have changed. The girls will shower in the morning, and the boys in the evening, so are you. I refuse the entry of alcohol and any kind of drugs. For anyone. The curfew is now at 10 pm. The electricity will be cut to make sure neither of you decides to go out discreetly, I will give you flashlights to check if all of the children are in the cabins. Of course, it is strictly forbidden to undertake anything loving or sexual between your, or with the campers."

The counselors look at each other, grimacing, the thought of dating a camper has never crossed anyone's minds, knowing that neither of them is of legal age, it's disgusting. "A breach of the rules will give you a strike, after the third, you will be asked to pack your bags and go home, and you will not be paid for the time you have been here."

You frown, and you raise your hand to speak, but when the director looks at you and blatantly ignores you, you open your mouth anyway. "But that last rule doesn't sound very legal to me." the director shrugs her shoulders. "I don't care what's legal or not, you work for me, so I expect you to follow the rules."

"You can leave, the children will be arriving early tomorrow. I want you in front of the camp half an hour before." with these words, the director comes down from her makeshit platform, and she walks to her office, where she will certainly be locked up for the next few hours. Several counselors turn on their heels and go through the camp, but the last boys turn to you, they all have the same expression.

"This is bullshit, dude." Yuta mumbles as he walks over to put un arm around your shoulders. "At least, you're here." he rubs his cheek on top of your head like a cat would, and you laugh softly, pulling away from him. "I need the money man, there's no way I'm following you in the plans you've probably already made to annoy her."

Johnny laughs as he puts his hand on his chest. "You hurt me, Y/n, do you really think I could do something like this ? I didn't think you could be like that." he says, falsely offended, and you sigh. "It's true that you are, Johnny, a real angel. I'm sorry I thought you were able to do such things." Johnny smiles, and you can't help but do the same, and he nods. "Thank you, and I accept your apology."

Idiot, you think.

You take the direction of the caibe you share with several counselors, but before you can put a hand on the hangle, a hand lands on your shoulder. When you turn, you smile when you see Yuta. He hasn't change since last year, except for the color of his hair, he's still handsome. "Do you want to go for a walk ?" you thought you would get a little rest, but you are not going to refuse him, not after he has spent the last few months begging you for some time together.

You appreciate all the counselors, the friends you made over the years working here, and even coming as a camper yourself, but you always had a soft spot for Yuta and his smile. You can't deny him anything, and you know that at some point, it will cause your problems. "Yes ok, but not too long, I don't want to be stuck in the dark when she cuts the electricity." once more, he puts his arm over your shoulders, and he takes the opposite direction to the cabins. "Don't worry, I'm here to protect you."

Yuta takes you to the bridge which overhands the river, and he rests his elbows on the railing, his gaze lost in the sky who are turning a pretty shade of pink. "I can't believe this is our last year here already." Yuta's voice is so low that you have to come closer to hear it, and you nod. "Yeah, but it had to end at some point."

Okay, you really enjoy spending your summers here, but now you can do like all the other adults you know, go on vacantion, and enjoy somewhere quiet without having to worry about the survival of twenty children for which you are responsible.

"I like this place." Yuta begins. "It's like none of the horrors happening outside reach this camp. Nothing can happen to us here." you frown, he is right about the first point. The reason you came back this year, at the last minute, is to escape the tension of the city, but not the tension caused by the tourists and the cars, but because of the lurking killer. In the last few months, several murders with the same patern have been deported by the police, and as Yuta said, nothing is happening here. Nothing can happen in the middle of nowhere.

"Nothing is reaching this camp, but I'm not sure it really makes us safe." Yuta turns his head toward you and he frowns. "Hear me out. Imagine the killer shows up here, or any psychopath from Friday the 13th, ready to battle with the monitors he had some beef with when he was younger. The city is 30 kilometers away, the payphone works one in five times, and we're not going to beat a deadly killer with a plastic baseball bat."

"You really have to stop watching horror movies." Yuta chuckles, and you nod, he is right about that, you create a paranoia for yourself that doesn't have to be with the films you watch. "Anyway, you know, if a killer infiltrates our ranks, you always have to run away from him, and turn right, you never know what's on the left."

The lightness in Yuta's voice prevents you from thinking about the innuendo in his words, so you shrug. Yuta has always had an incredible imagination. "We should go, it's getting dark." he says, and you follow him without a word. The counselors are already all locked in the cabins, either drinking the reserve of alcohol they have hidden in their suitcases, or sleeping. When you stop outside of your door, you turn to Yuta.

"Please, you and the boys, don't do anything that might get you fired by the director. I don't want to be alone for the summer." Yuta laughs, and you can't help but laugh too, it's so infectious. "Do not worry about me." he leans over and places a soft kiss on your cheek before turning on his heels and heading for one of the other cabins. "Remember, always turn right." he yells before disappearing from your field of vision.

Lying in bed, you turn several times. You can't sleep, it's way too hot in the cabin, and one of the girls is sleep-talking, and it's particularly annoying. You end up standing up with a sigh, you are not going to fall asleep, that's for sure.

You get out of bed, and pick up a jack before leaving the cabin. The electricity is not yet cut, maybe the director will give you at least one night without being afraid to go out to the bathroom. At least, it's not difficult for you to find your friends' cabin. The lights are on, you can see shadows begind the dirty curtains hanging on the windows.

You knock on the door, and suddenly, the movements stop. "Open up, you idiots, I know you're not sleeping." the door opens on Taeyong who smiles. His cheeks are already red, and he smells of alcohol, it makes you wince. "Can I come in ?" of course, the question does not arise, he pushes himself and you enter. The boys are either slouched in the beds, or on the floor. They all have a bottle of alcohol in their hand, and you wonder how many they've brought back.

"So my little one, were you already missing up?" Johnny asks, and you roll your eyes as you settle down next to him on his bed. "Yeah, you have no idea." you look around, and you are surprised not to see Yuta. "He's gone to take a shower." Johnny says before you have had the time to open your mouth, so you nod.

"I odn't know what he took, the Yuta, but he said weird things earlier." Jungwoo exclaims, and you turn your head toward him. "Y/n, I think you gave him your fascination for horror movies, because he was clearly off the rails." you sit up, picking up Johnny's beer bottle to take a sip. The liquid is lukewarm, it's disgusting. "Yeah, he told me weird things when we were walking earlier."

Eyes turn to you, and you would like to be swallowed by the mattress if that was possible. "He said you always have to run away from a killer, and turn right, because-" Jungwoo cuts you off. "Because you never know what's on the left." you nod, it's strange.

"No need to worry, it's Yuta, he's always had a weird touch, but we love him anyway." with your eyes closed, you are not sure which boy just spoke up, but you nod, maybe he is right. The cabin is hot, and humid, it's nasty, but you do not move from Johnny's bed, even when he is using your shoulder as a pillow.

"To another successful summer!" you hear a boy sream before a thud is heard, said boy has most definitely tripped over his own feet. You let yourself be lulled by the sound of bottles clinking and the laughter of the boys who are trying to be discreet. Well, that's a fail.

You wake up later that night and you frown when you notice that the cabin is dark except for a flashlight on and riveted to the ground. Johnny is no longer next to you, and when you sit up, you see several bodies near the window. "What is happening ?" a face turns to you, and he puts a fingers to his lips, indicating to be silent.

You get up from the bed, and you walk up to the boys. You question Jungwoo with a simple nod of your head, and he approaches you. "We heard screams." he whispers close to your ear, and your blood freezes. "Is that a joke ?" you ask in a low voice, and he shakes his head. His face is serious, even in the faint flow of the flashlight.

"Turn off the flashlight, turn it off !" you hear Taeyong's distraight voice, and the light goes off, plunging them into total darkness. A shadow appears behind the window, and you all try to make yourself even smaller. You hear movement, and you notice the shape against the door, trying somehow to block the entrance when the handle turns a few times.

You press your hand against your mouth, convinced that the sound of your breathing will be enough to get all caught, but it is nothing compared to the sound of your head pounding in your chest. Lound knocks are given on the door, and you slowly back away, never getting up. Jungwoo grabs your hand, and you try to stay calm. If you had been alone in your cabin, you most likely would have used the back door to run away.

It would've been a silly reaction that could get you killed instantly, you've seen enough movies to know that. But maybe it's just the joke of an instructor, or children who arrived a little earlier. It happened already that parents dropped them off way too early in front of the camp and they been left to fend for themselves until the early hours of the morning, and boredom pushed them to try and scare the counselors.

The banging stops, and you all wait to see if the person behind the door leaves. After a minute, the sound of footsteps echoes on the wooden square, and disappears a little further away, certainly ready to attack in the next cabin. "Yuta." you whisper, looking at the other boys whose eyes you feel are turned toward you. "We have to find him."

You wonder why he hasn't come home from his shower a couple of hours ago, he can't gave gotten lost, he knows the camp like the back of his hand. You wait five more minutes, then the flashlight comes back on and you see Johnny holding it. He gets up, and the others follow suit. "We also have to go see the director." Jungwoo says, and you nod. "We should call the police."

Your hear a sigh next to you, and your gaze meets Doyoung's who shakes his head. "No, we have to wait. If this is just a prank, we're gonna look stupid in front of the police." its true, the police don't like to be disturbed for something as simple as a prank, and even if it was true, they would take too long to arrive. "Y/n, Doyoung and Jungwoo, you're going to get Yuta. Taeyong, Ten and I are going to go see the director and wake the others up."

"Wait at the phone booth as soon as you have Yuta, okay ?" you nod, and you turn to the other two boys. Johnny opens the door and he look each side to make sure no one is waiting for you, and when the way is clear, he opens more to let the three people out. "Stay safe." he says, handing you another flashlight.

The problem with the camp is that it is surrounded by a forest, and the signal is practially non-existent except near the entrance, so you can't use your phone. You leave the cabine, looking around. No one. But the electricity has been cut.

"Come on, let's go to the bathrooms." you run through the camp, with the bathrooms set back a bit to provide campers with a minimum of privacy. You hate this stupid rule. You suddenly stop when a loud cry tears the peaceful silence of the camp. "Help me! He's coming!" Jungwoo is about to walk over to the person calling for help, but Doyoung holds him back, shaking his head. "We have to find Yuta, we'll go see what happened later."

Unfortunately, in this kind of situation, it is personal survival that comes before anything else. In this kind of situation, you have to be selfish, and Jungwoo hates that, you see it on his face. "Come on Woo, we have to go."

You start running again, and soon, you arrive near the bathrooms. You head to the men's side, and showers. No one is there, and you whine weakly. You trail the beam of your flashlight around you, and you suddenly stop on the ground. There's a puddle. It's red, and definitely fresh. Blood.

"Look." your voice is shaky, and you feel bile rising in your throat. The metallic smell is everywhere, or maybe it's just your mind playing a trick on you. "Oh fuck fuck fuck." you hear Doyoung whisper. It's not a joke anymore. You can tell fake blood to real blood, and this is definitely real blood. "We need to find Yuta, especially if he is hurt."

You walk through the showers, following the drops of bloog that have fallen on the tiles that were once white, and you shigh when you come to the door. "He went that way." in front of you, the forest stretches for several miles. "I do not like that one bit, I hate this forest." you feel a hand on your shoulder, and you gasp. "We're together at least, Yuta is alone, and probably scared."

Without a word, you set off to the forest. You find a small path that has been created by the years and the campers who like to venture there at night for a little rush of adrenaline. You are careful with the roots who almost make you trip more than once. You hear noises all around you, the sounds of the forest, the sound of threes moving, and the footsteps of your friends.

"We don't even know where we're going. What if we get lost ?" you ask, and the boys stop walking, they are thinking the same. You have never set food so far in the forest, because of the stories told by the counselors when you were still a young camper. According to them, the spirits of the people who died in the camp remain in the forest, and will attack anyone who dares to disturb their rests. You are not ready to see if that's true or not.

"Maybe we should turn around, maybe Yuta has found a way out of the forest to find the others." you turn to Doyoung and nod. Usually, he is the most reasonable, and the one you trust the most of all the other boys. You turn around, and you waste no time getting out of the forest.

"The infirmary !" you exclaim, and you run to the cabin where all the medical supplies are. You feel stupid for not thinking about it before, maybe you would have found Yuta by now. The door is open, and blood is on the handle. "Look." Doyoung goes first, and once again, you put your hand over your mouth.

What you don't expect is to find the director lying in a pool of her own blood. Her shirt is covered in dark blood, and it was ripped off where the blade of a kinde when through. "Oh no." the director's guts are as much on the outside as they as on the inside of her body, and it is too much for you. Tears run down your face, and you gasp. You need to take a deep breath or you're going to throw up. Seeing guts and so much blood in a movie is nothing for you, but the reality is so much worse.

Another scream snatches you from your torpor, and you turn towards the door. It is too much for Jungwoo who runs out of the infirmary and straight to the origin of the scream. "Jungwoo, no !" but it is too late, he is already out of reach. Doyoung does not waste a second in following him, and soon, you find yourself alone in the infirmary. Well, not really alone, since the director is there too.

You find a lanket and you put it on her body. Anyone who enters will not have to see the horror sight of the mutilated female body. You don't know what you are supposed to do now that you are all apart.

"Okay, think Y/n." you mumble, and you leave the cabin. The silence in the camp has nothing to do with the silence you are used to. The silence is heavy, its patiently waiting for something to happen. And you don't want to be there when it happens, but you have no choice, you can't just leave in the middle of the night without your friends. After a minute, you notice that your legs have led you further into the camp, and you come to a stop when you hear footsteps behind your back.

When you turn around, you open your eyes wide. Taeyong staggers towards you, his face covered in blood, and he is holding is stomach. He puts pressure on a cound. "Taeyong!" you walk up to him and catch him when he falls. "Yuta.." he whispers, and you shake your head. "We haven't found him yet." you pull his hair back from his face, and rest your hand on Taeyong's who cries in pain. Blood is flowing profusely from his wound. He was stabbed a couple of times in the stomach.

"It's okay, Yong, the boys will come back and call for help." you whisper, hoping to be convincing, but the boy shakes his head. His breathing is shallow, you notice it at the way his chest lifts. God knows since when he has been bleeding out, wandering the camp in search of help. "It's all right, I promise." when you can't hear the boy anymore, you look down at him and bite your lip hard enough to draw blood.

Taeyong is there, in your arms, his eyes wide open. If you hadn't noticed that his chest had stopped moving, you would have thought he was admiring the starry sky. But no, he is indeed dead. A sob escapes your lips, and you slowly release yourself from Taeyong's grip. You lay his head on the grass and delicately close his eyes. You'll have plenty of time to mourn him later, you must find the others, and get out of this bloody camp.

You walk through the camp, covered in blood. Covered in Taeyong's blood, but you try not to think about it. You try to clear your mind so that you can no longer hear the screams around you, they are just background noises, nothing more.

Finally, when you look up, you are near the phone booth. Someone is already there, and you tilt your head, narrowing your eyelids. The batteries of your flashlight are already dying, the light is weaker and weaker. "Yuta ?" you ask, and he turns to you. If you thought you were in a bad condition, Yuta is even worse. His hair is red and sticky with blood, his nose is probably broke, and blood is flowing from a bad cut on his forearm.

"Y/n!" he drops the phone and runs to you before hugging you tightly. He runs his hands over your cheeks, leaving a trail of blood at the same time. "The director is dead. Taeyong is dead. And I'm pretty sure the others are dead too." you sigh, and he shakes his head, a smirk on his face. "Yeah, Johnny is dead, Ten is badly injured and I believe Jungwoo fell into the river after being stabbed."

You look up at him, it talks about it in such a light tone, it's almost scary. You shake your head, before hitting his chest with your fists hard enough to make him whine. He grabs your hands to stop you. "Hey, that hurts !" he mumbles. "You moron! We were only there for the damn director, not the others!"

Yuta shrugs, forcing your arms around the back of his neck, his torse pressed to your chest. "Yeah, but I couldn't find you, so I had to keep busy." you roll your eyes, and he leans in to place a long kiss against your lips. It tastes like blood and salty with your tears, but you are used to it. Before you can slide your tongue into his mouth, he breaks the kiss and you frown. "Oh, look who's here."

Before you have time to react, you are turned around. You back makes violent contact with Yuta's chest, and you feel the coldness of a blade against your throat. Your gaze falls on Doyoung who runs toward you. He is limping, and he is holding a knife that he probably got from the kitchen. "One more step, and Y/n dies." Yuta says in a loud voice, and Doyoung stops dead.

You close your eyes, the cold of the blade is pleasant against the burning skin of your throat, but you can't take advantage of it, Doyoung must believe in your little game. You open your eyes, suddenly in pure panic. You try to escape Yuta's grip, but the blade only digs into your skin, making you bleed a little. "Doyoung, help me!"

"Stay calm." Yuta whispers in a voice as shard as his knife, the last thing he wants is for you to hurt yourself trying to lure Doyoung closer.

"Put down the knife, Doie." Yuta asks in a soft voice, and the boy does so before raising his hands prominently. He takes a step towards you, but Yuta tightens his grip around you. He tilts his head. "Why, Yuta ? Why did you do all this ?" Yuta shrughs.

"The director." he begins. "She's my step-mother." he remains silent for a moment, he lets his words weigh on Doyoung. "She cheated on my dad a few months ago, she had to pay." you refrain from rolling your eyes. He would have killed her wether she cheating on his father or not, Yuta always hated her. Even if she only had cross his path at the wrong time, he would have killed her. It's Yuta, he is like that. You learned to know him, adn to accept his quirks.

"But why the others ?" Doyoung asks, his voice broken with a sob. "I was bored." suddenly Yuta straightens up, and he released his hold on you, pushing you away with enough force that you fall onto the grass and Doyoung rushes over to help you. "I'll give you three minutes to run. After that, the hunt will be on."

It was not in the plan, you think.

Doyoung starts running and you follow him, not without picking the knife he had thrown earlier. "We have to find the others and leave before he finds us." Doyoung sayd, breathlessly, and you shake your head. "They're all dead, Doyoung, it's just us and him."

Doyoung stops, suddenly realizing everything. From the death to his friends, to the hunting party that Yuta has just started, and he falls to his knees. You stop in front of him. "Doyoung, we have to go, we can't stay here." you squeeze him, grabbing his arm to stand him up, but he doesn't move. He shakes his head. "What's the point ? If he killed everyone, we're next. Even if we run away, he'll find us." You hear Doyoung's voice dying out, he has lost all of hope of survival.

"Oh Doyoung !" You whine, and he looks up at you. "We can't stay here, we'll find a way to survive, please, I can't do this without you." the sob coming out of Doyoung's bruised lips could almost breah your heart, and he takes your hand which you offer to get up. "We have to get out."

You run nonstop for long minutes, and you start to feel the burn in your lungs, you won't be able to run any longer. But the moment that thought crosses your mind, you see the entrance of the camp.

"We are almost there !" Of course, Yuta is a smart man, he knew you would be heading towards the entrance, so he is already there, his back pressed against a tree trunk, he inspects the blade of his knife. And he smiles when he sees you. "Ah, finally !"

Doyoung stands in front of you, he wants to protect you at all costs, it is admirable. "Kill me, Yuta. But let Y/n leave." the killer laughs heartily, throwing his head back. "One of the rules for surviving an attack is to never turn your back on one of the killers." Doyoung doesn't understand, and he frowns, but when he feels a sharp pain in his back, everything lights up.

The blade of the knife digs into his back, and he crumbles to his kness on the groun, his cry is chokec by the blood pooling in his mouth. You turn around him, and with the tip of your foot, you push him so that he falls to the ground. Yuta stops next to you, his arm around your shoulders, he places a kiss on the top of your head. "You should do it more often, you look very sexy when you kill." You roll your eyes, nudging him slightly.

You retrieve the phone from your pants' pocket, and smile when you see that the signal is back, and you type in the emergency number. After several beeps, a woman answers. "Help me, please!" you scream, fake sobbing. "I'am at Camp Crystal Lake, and one of the monitors killed everyone, come quickly please, he's going to kill us!"

The woman asks you for the exact address of the camp, and you continue to sob under the gaze of Doyoung who is still on the ground, bleeding to death. You do not know if he can understand you because of the pain, but you hope he does. "His name is Kim Doyoung, he's picked on everyone, and.." you yell before hanging up.

Yuta laughs softly when he sees you throwing your phone on the floor hard enough to break it. "See, everything went as planned." the sun is already rising behind the threes in the forest, and you drop to the ground, you are exhausted. Physically, and mentally. You didn't expect to lose your friends tonight.

In less than an hour, the police will face a terrible scene. A massacre. And they will find the two survivors, ready to tell the story of Kim Doyoung, the surviving killer who snapped and decided to kill everyone one summer night.

#nct #nct imagines #yuta imagines #nct scenarios #yuta scenarios #nakamoto yuta #let's see if the tags work #and it's bad i'm sorry

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daily-rubbersoul-redux · 2 years

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beneath cut bc long :]

but like read it it's very important plot-

Mae lay on the dingy basement floor. She had completely lost track of time by this point (even though it had been less than a week) but really it wasn’t as if it mattered what day it was. She was stuck here, and she… She couldn’t do ANYTHING about it. Like, what was she going to do, use her ACCOUNTING SKILLS to escape a SERIAL KILLER? Yeah, THAT’LL work. She covered her face with one hand, groaning.

Honestly, the only thing worse than this whole situation was the fact that she was ACUTELY AWARE of just how little she could do. Old coping mechanisms of ego inflation be damned, ever since that Umbra girl had done… Whatever it was she had done to her, she had been completely unable to keep the feelings of inferiority at bay anymore.

And it FUCKING SUCKED. It sucked, because it made her realize how much SHE sucked. She was a massive bitch to everyone because she thought it made her seem like she was cool and smart when really she was only getting good grades because she never did anything but schoolwork and studying, she was jealous of her own sister for thing she couldn’t even control, and worst of all, she was too damn insecure about it all to admit it or get help! And where did that stupid fear of doing anything get her? Locked up in a goddamn murder basement!

…Maybe this was divine retribution. Maybe she deserved this. It wasn’t as if many people would miss her anyways, only her family and maybe her few friends. But even then, what if they didn’t actually…

Before she could finish that depressing thought, the door to the basement slammed open, almost as if it had been kicked. Mae was a little startled, but didn’t move or show any sign of it. The jackass could slam the door as hard as he wanted, she still wasn’t going to be afraid of him.

Not anymore, at least.

Dying 23 times does that to a person.

“…Why are you laying on the ground?”

Mae sat up immediately. That… That was not the shit-ass serial killer’s voice oh ok wHAT-

She looked up, and was met by…

“Wh-

A-

Aren’t you that guy who used to wear the school mascot costume???? Why the hell are YOU here!?”

Laurence grinned, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, that’s me! Honestly surprised you remembered. But we should probably get out of here while that guy’s not around, yeah?” He replied, easily ignoring what was kind of the more important of the two questions.

But if there was one thing Mae had learned during this whole thing, it was to not question anything. So she decided to leave it there, and focus on just seizing the opportunity she had been given. “Oh he’s not here? That’s what you’re telling me right now? No wait, who cares, just gET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE-“

With that, the two made their way out of the basement, making their way through the seemingly empty house.

“Gah- OW” Mae’s hand instinctively flew to her eyes as she walked into the regularly lit hallway that lead from the basement to the rest of the house.

“Uh… It’s not that bright, y’know.”

“I WAS STUCK IN A DARK BASEMENT DUMBASS, ANY LIGHT IS BRIGHT TO ME RIGHT NOW.” She snapped. “Ugh, whatever, just… Where’s the exit.”

“It’s a bit of a walk from here. Up the stairs, and then through some more rooms and hallways.”

“Wait, stairs? Was I- Does this-

DOES THIS HOUSE HAVE TWO BASEMENTS???”

Laurence shrugged. “I dunno, seems like it I guess.”

“That’s stupid.” Mae grumbled, before the two started walking again.

It was quiet for all of 1 second before Mae spoke up again. “But no, actually, why are you of all people here? And don’t even say you’re secretly a master detective or some shit, I know you got kicked out for failing your first year like 3 times.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Laurence replied, throwing his arms behind his head. “I knew who was responsible for the weird stuff that’d been going on with people disappearing, but I didn’t know where they were.

So I accessed a police database without permission and found that guy’s address, and then came here to get you and put this whole thing to rest.”

Mae gave him a look of confusion, exasperation, anger,- Just, EVERYTHING she was feeling right now. “You.

You knew who was doing this.

AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ANYBODY!?”

Laurence looked confused. “I mean, yeah, why would I? I had the whole situation under control, y’know?”

Mae had stopped at this point, and she grabbed the front of Laurence’s jacket stopping him as well before yanking him down to her eye level. “DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I’VE DIED!?!?”

“Yeah, and I made sure to revive you after every one! See, all under control!” He looked proud of himself, but Mae was now only EVEN MORE CONFUSED.

“WHAT.

WHAT-“

He could just do that, huh? Just BRING PEOPLE BACK FROM THE DEAD? And all she could do was change the temperature of things? Hell, she couldn’t even do that right now! Stands are fucking bullshit.

“Ah but anyways,” Laurence continued, standing back up since she had released his jacket while pondering how fucking stupid this all was “we should probably get moving. We’re almost to the stairs anyways, yeah?”

“Y-yeah, sure, ok…”

Once again things were quiet as the two made their way to and arrived at the staircase. Mae was simply still trying to process all of this. It felt like she was missing just… SO much context. So much! But really, she didn’t care right now. She was going to leave, and go home, and it would be great. So just…

Wait. Was… Was someone coming down the…

“Alright, ladies first, heh!” Laurence said jokingly, gesturing to the staircase.

“Wait, hold on, I think someone else is he-“ Before she could finish, the sound of a gunshot rang out, and Laurence hit the ground.

Mae didn’t want to look. She already knew what had happened, especially as an all to familiar sadistic and patronizing laugh came down the stairway, along with the man it belonged to.

“I can’t believe how EASY it is to get away with this shit with you people! I mean, really, he barely even CHECKED the house to see if anyone was around! I don’t know whether to think it funny or sad, honestly.” He stepped fully out of the shadow of the stairway as he finished his sentence, and for the first time, Mae was able to actually see more than a silhouetted figure.

And any retort she had caught in her throat as she did, and her eyes widened. That was… But why… How…?

“Ah, this IS your first time actually catching a good glimpse of me, isn’t it? Oh, but don’t even bother calling out my name in surprise or any of that trope-y nonsense. That’s not even my real name any who.” The man sneered. “Ah, but how poetic this is considering this little game is at an end. I heard everything you two were conversing about, and by my thinking…” He aimed the gun he was holding at Mae, who was completely frozen in fear at this point. “Well, if the cause of my little problem is gone, then the effect should be as well, hm?

Let’s test it out.”

Mae squoze her eyes shut, bracing herself for the end. The REAL end.

…But before the trigger could be pulled…

Laurence groaned, getting to his feet. “…Ow… That REALLY wasn’t cool, man.” He tilted his head, hitting one side of it with his palm until the bullet that had killed him fell onto the floor.

Murder Man and Mae just stared at him, mouth agape, as he did some stretches and let out a sigh. “Man, I was hoping this would be quick and easy, but ah well. I’ll just have to make du-“

Before he could finish talking, Murder Man made his move, jumping at Laurence with a syringe in his hand. Said syringe found itself firmly planted into Laurence’s shoulder, and the boy began to feel weak and drowsy.

“Damn…” He slurred, trying to stay conscious and throwing a weak punch at the man, which did… Nothing. “Mae, you… need to get outta… here…” He got out before looking over to where she stood, only to find her out cold on the ground with a syringe sticking out of her arm as well.

“Oh… Dammit…”

And with that, Laurence collapsed into an unconscious heap as well. The serial killer stood there for a minute catching his breath, before lowering his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. Oh god fucking dammit with this shit-

Well, he guessed he now had TWO unkillable teenagers he would be keeping in his basement. Fucking great. Phenomenal even.

After this, he was going to need a whole pot of coffee, maybe even more.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mae finally came to, only to find herself back in the murder basement.

Oh. Great.

…Was that all a dream? Surely, it had to be right? Yeah, yeah she probably had just fallen asleep while thinking about… Things. Yes, that had to be it…

“Man, this place sucks, huh? I can’t believe you’ve been stuck in here for like, a week.”

She whirled around, only to see Laurence going around and inspecting the room. The door had several dents in it as well, as if he had been trying (and failing) to break it down while she was out.

Which.

Which meant that-

Oh God It Was Not A Dream.

Somehow, things had just gotten So Much More Confusing

#[neon lights] laurence 'jake' kranium #[burning icy glare] mae okane #[an eternal slumber] murder figure #[actual lore?] story post

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juminhandfs · 3 years

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Well, while I wait for the update to finish (they took the Juju icon away from me, I hate it here! 😭) let me tell you about that one time I watched like 20-30 minutes of Fifty Shades and how that was enough to see what is the problem with that story, because I keep seeing everywhere people saying that the bad ending 2 is a "bad ending for a reason", but nobody says what the reason is? Which IMO if you pay attention to all the routes should be pretty obvious...

Trigger warning under the cut for mentions of abuse, rape and CSA (yeah, that bad...)

Now, before I watched those 30 minutes I used to watch all these videos in YouTube where people make fun of the movie (particularly Alex Meyer channel which is hilarious and Amanda The Jedi and another British angry blond skinny guy with glasses whose name I don't remember, he had a girlfriend) because... well, we all could use a laugh once in a while 😸 so I have a basic knowledge of the plot (?) of the story.

I don't think I need to say it, right? You know: Anna interviews Gray, they meet, they have sex and Gray tries (very stalking-ishh) to convince her to be his sex slave...

The scene I watched was with the 2 of them walking in a lake? and he trying to convince her of this by telling her how he was initiated in the ropes and chains... And Io and behold! I want to puke writing this:

He tells her that when he was 15 (!!!) his adoptive mother's friend (40 I think) had sex with him... Like this... He tells her that he was HER SEX SLAVE for 6 years, he was dominated, sodomized by this woman for six years... And Hey! They are still friends! And ohhh, how liberating that experience was... when he was 15... (God I really want to puke... I haven't been well of my stomach lately)

I don't think I need to say how wrong an adult grooming a kid to have sex is (at 15 they are still kids!!!), but when you use something like ropes and chains to immobilizing them... I can't think in any other word than rape, that's rape dude...

But what makes this worse is Anna's reaction who only says "Oh, a Mrs Robinson"...

Like excuse me Anna but Mrs Robinson didn't fucked a minor, the movie is called THE GRADUATED, HE WAS GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE, AN ADULT. VIRGIN, BUT AN ADULT.

(I went and watched The Graduated BTW, an infinitely better movie, and yes Mrs Robinson was predatory as hell and the scene is very uncomfortable... The guy even seems to dissociates during it, but again, HE WAS AN ADULT)

And well... What it follows to this is a montage of Gray very insistently, to serial killer levels, of asking Anna to sign the contract, sign the contract, sign the contract (what they say is true, if he weren't rich and attractive this would be a triller horror movie) until Anna emails him saying good riddance (playfully).

He shows at her house angry by her response, he ties her and they fuck again (oh, but she CAN'T TOUCH HIM, he claims that what happened to him was great but he can't bear to be touched... I feel like this movie would have been waaaaayyy shorter if Anna just had a little of common sense)

Eventually she signs the contract and blablabla I went to bed...

Now, what is wrong with this? I talked a lot about Anna's response but what is really wrong here is the whole premise of the movie/story because what makes Gray so sexy according to this movie is that he was abused when he was 15!! And now he is repeating that abuse onto others! This is a glorification not only of the sexual abuse of a minor, but also of the abuse cycle/circle.

Another thing that I watched in one of those videos is that Anna isn't the first submissive he has, he had like 6 before... And one of them was so broken that she stalks him and wants to serve him again...

Now, we talk a lot of how Jumin isn't Christian Gray, and yes, Jumin has a lot more going on for him, and he is not as worldly as this Gray dude, he is really innocent. The sad truth is that he is really easy to manipulate once you gain his trust... But the question is: once this MC who got the bad ending 2 is done with him, couldn't he be?

Did this Gray dude had an MC? his first submissive, who told him that it was OK if he did to her the same bad, traumatic things he experienced, to her? The things that make him not want to be touched?

Did he tried to fight this, as Jumin did, until he was convinced that it was okay for this woman?

Imagine what it is to be scared of something, to experience something horrible, and then see yourself doing this exact same, horrible things to someone else, someone LIKE YOU, someone who reminds you of YOURSELF before that moment.

This is what breaks Jumin when he puts Elizabeth in the cage, this is why he says she really must hate him to runaway from him, why he says he was a bad owner, why he hates himself and calls himself mutant. Because he sees himself on Elizabeth, and the abuser (his stepmother/mother) on him. Now imagine this being celebrated by someone you trust.

This is also what breaks Rika when Ray tries to kill himself because she sees her mother on herself in that moment, this is why she needs to blame the RFA, because she can't deal with the guilt.

Now onto the dlc, what our MC has going for her is that at difference of Anna, she doesn't know why Jumin does what he does, like most of the players who played that ending, most likely she thinks is just a kink...

So probably this is were the dlc is going, if the past is discovered and the MC has the right reaction this could be their chance of a good ending...

#tomorrow I'm going to post something lighter I'm going to finish Hantober and remind why Jumin good ending is the best ending #mystic messenger #mysme #jumin han #jumin #mysme jumin #tw: abuse #tw: csa #tw: r*pe #my mysme analysis

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tomorrowsdrama · 3 years

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I watched the first three episodes of Tale of the Nine Tailed and...I like it but I’m not obsessed with it like I thought I would be. I left the first episode feeling “meh,” the second feeling “Ok I guess,” and the third feeling “all right it’s finally getting interesting.” So maybe by next episode, I’ll fall in love? I just wanna preface this by saying that this is not a hate post! These are clearly just my very objective/biased/personal opinions that have no effect on how others may feel about the drama.

I think the main issue about this drama so far for me is that I don’t feel much chemistry between Lee Dong Wook and Jo Bo Ah which is surprising because I thought they looked fine together in the gifs I’d seen before I started watching. It feels very....I don’t know how to describe it. Everything background story/plot/set up wise about their characters should theoretically make me eat out of the otp’s hands like a starving fiend but I’m kind of just left with “cool story bro, but where’s the actual emotional resonance?” I think this is mostly a result of the lacking chemistry that I feel. I know right now they don’t have romantic feelings for each other and are at the bickering phase, but we’ve all seen the whole bickering “enemies” to lovers trope. There should be plenty of chemistry even at this stage. But to me, there’s not much oomph/heat when they bicker. At most, it just feels kind of akin to siblings annoying each other.

And to me, the crux of this whole drama is Lee Yeon’s undying love for Ah Eum that has endured hundreds of years and caused him to break immortal god world rules and give up his station as a mountain god. So when the heart of the story is the epic romance, it’s kind of hard for me to love the drama when I don’t feel any romantic chemistry. The set up/tragic backstory can only do so much for me. Eventually, I will need to also feel and believe in Yeon’s love. I think maybe it’s also because LDW is turning up the smolder/pining to like level 11 every time he looks at Ji Ah/Ah Eum and Jo Bo Ah isn’t quite at the same level. But again, that might just be because we’re not at that stage in the drama where she likes Yeon back so it makes sense for her not to look at Yeon with such intensity.

Acting wise, LDW is fine AND FINE. Thank god he’s looking good and not playing a morally reprehensible serial killer so I can thirst in peace (here’s looking at you Strangers from Hell). His red hair does not actually look that bad in action. Surprisingly, his early 2000s hot topic raver girl furry boot hair as a mountain god did not look that bad either. It must have helped that I was watching on a tv from afar and not wearing my nearsighted glasses lol. But yeah, acting. He’s fine. Nothing to complain about.

Jo Bo Ah is ok in the role to me. I haven’t really seen her act before this so I didn’t really have any impressions/expectations one way or another. I think as I watched more episodes, she started to feel more settled into her role. I don’t want to say her acting leaves me cold, but there’s a little something left to be desired. The best way to describe it is that I don’t think she’s bad, but I’m also not wowed. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I think part of it has to do with the writing of the character. I can see how some people may find her a bit “too badass” (whatever the hell that means) or even a bit Mary Sue-ish. The drama so far has a habit of putting her in a precarious situation and then reveal that AH-HAH it was actually all according to her plan and she knew about the bad guy’s intentions so she actually planned ahead and pre-empted it. See e.g. the episode where she knew the schoolgirl was the culprit, she was secretly filming the fisherman who threatened her, etc. I think it’s meant to show us that she’s clever, street smart, and a bit jaded/untrusting but the execution is a bit hamfisted and forced. Because it happens so often, it makes us (or at least me) feel “oh wow another ploy she predicted and foiled” instead of “damn she’s so badass.” But I suppose the drama writer did kind of subvert our/Ji Ah’s expectations in episode 3 where she got tricked by the old shaman lady with the tea. I will say though, it is a very nice change to see a smart and competent female lead. I just wish it was executed in a way that didn’t feel as forced.

Kim Bum as Lee Rang is...please don’t figuratively egg me...I am not impressed by the character or his acting choices. *ducks for cover*. Right now it’s just a lot of smirky smirky, look at all my perfectly white and aligned teeth as I get really close to you and make some sort of threat/taunt, smirky smirky, ok bye now. Also, he takes joy in killing people and seeing them suffer. How am I supposed to feel for him when that’s all I’m shown so far? Based on spoilers for future episodes, it seems that I may become a bit more sympathetic towards his character. However, as of right now, I DO NOT LIKE.

Anyway, this was longer than I intended and may come off as me being a hater. But like I said, I actually like the drama. I just think there are areas for improvement. I will be more than happy to be proven wrong by the drama.

Also, seeing all the nature spirits and mountain god stuff made me want to re-watch Natsume Yuujinchou and Inuyasha.

#lee dong wook #tale of the nine tailed #kdrama

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 3 years

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Riverdale 5x02 Review.

So I’m really late with this review I know, to be honest I was undecided about whether I was even going to write it because well this wasn’t my favourite episode and I try to avoid being too negative and this review did feel like I was being very negative and repeating alot of the issues that I had brought up in other posts and reviews but ultimately I decided that I had said I was going to review Season 5 and despite it not being my favourite episode I thought there were still some really great moments in there which I would like to talk about but overall I do feel like there were some plotlines that were too rushed and just not fleshed out properly. Also I can’t watch episode 3 until tomorrow morning where I am it’s like 1 am at the moment so figured I’d kill the time by writing this. But anyway lets get into it and as always these are just my own opinions you are welcome to disagree but please be respectful and obviously there are spoilers.

Archie

So first I want to talk about Archie’s storyline. So here’s the thing I kind of feel like Archie has had PTSD since the blackhood shot his dad all the way back in season 2. I think each new bad thing that happened only contributed to it, going to jail and being forced to fight in the underground ring, being attacked by the bear and nearly dying, the whole survive the night thing with penelope, then his dad being killed by a reckless kid. Just one of those things would be traumatising let alone all of them at once. I also feel like he has never really dealt with any of that trauma properly until this episode when it all just spills over. I think KJ did an amazing job with this storyline. I think alot of his pain this episode stems from his father’s death. Archie is having all these big milestones that he should be sharing with his father but can’t. I mean he’s just had prom without his dad there, graduation is coming up and so Archie who already misses his dad is probably missing him even more. Then on top of that he gets this video tape that takes him right back to when he felt the weakest and he has to confront all of the anger and pain that wells back up again. To start wth Archie tries to work through the feelings with physical excerise, punching his boxing bag or going for a run, working out in his gym but when that doesn’t help he starts to have angry outbursts. I mean Archie has alot on his plate at the moment, not only is he trying to work through his feelings about his dad not being there for these big moments , he doesn’t know yet if he’s even going to be able to graduate with his friends and then there’s the whole having feelings for betty and veronica and that mess plus his mum asking if he wants to write the letter for the guy who killed his dad. I think Archie said it best when Betty asked him if something was wrong and he replied what isn’t wrong. Also I’m sorry to say this but a really hated that scene. Not because of Archie snapping at Betty but because it made me a little irritated at Betty. I mean Betty at this point knows that Veronica found the song Archie wrote for Betty and that he doesn’t know if he’s going to graduation and she’s standing there with her arms wrapped around the guy she chose over Archie asking him if there is something wrong, I don’t know it just seemed like both an insenistive and kinda dumb thing for Betty to say. I want to make it clear that I’m not hating on Betty here we all have flaws and I think its more an issue with the writing than anything else but yeah that scene irritated me a bit. Also it did show us that whilst Veronica is still very much sticking to the lets pretend everything is fine plan Archie clearly is not comfortable with the plan and it does seem to me like he feels alot of guilt about lying. In my opinion Archie is the kind that whilst he makes mistakes he likes to own up to them and tell the truth so not telling Jughead the truth doesn’t feel right to him and I think this is frustrating him and the only reason he hasn’t come clean is because of Betty. Another issue I had with Archie’s storyline this episode is something that I’ve talked about before several times and it’s one of the shows biggest flaws in my opinion which is the storylines and characters not crossing over at all. I mean its pretty obvious in this scene that Archie is struggling at the moment and you’d think that having seen this his friends would reach out to him and try to support him and yet just like last episode there is practically no interaction between the core four in this episode. I mean even something as simple as one of them trying to ring Archie and him not picking up and then one them saying they are worried about him would do, something as little as a couple of lines of dialogue to show that his friends are concerned for him but instead it just came across as his friends either didn’t care about what he was going through or were too wrapped up in their own lives to notice that Archie needed them.

One of my favourite scenes was when Mr Augustine comes to see Archie and ask him to write the letter for his son instead and Archie makes that speech about how he understands that his son made a mistake when he hit his dad and that it was something Archie could have done himself but that the one thing Archie wouldn’t have done was keep driving. I do think this is true like I said before Archie is someone who will own up to and try to make his mistakes right. I think this scene also really showed how much pain Archie is in and how he is struggling with forgiving the son despite understanding that the son had made a mistake. I just think KJ’s acting in this scene was soo good and he hit the right balance between anger and pain.

Another scene that I thought was really heartbreaking was when Archie comes home and finds his mum watching the tape. I just felt so bad for Mary seeing what Fred and Archie went through because of the Black Hood and her realising just how much trauma her son was keeping inside. My heart really broke for her when she said ‘I need to know what’s going on inside of you.’ This poor woman can see how much her son is struggling but he’s keeping it all inside and I know how scaring it is when you know someone is in pain but they are hiding it and you don’t know what’s going on inside their head. Also I find it so sad that Archie still feels like he was a coward and that he let his dad down. It’s after this conversation that Archie really goes over the edge though and smashes up the tv and then his uncle shows up and I think his uncle knew whated he needed, that he needed to get the anger out however I’m not so sure the method of letting Archie beat the living crap out of him was the best but I spose it seemed to work and again it really wrenched at my heart when Archie finally broke down crying hugging his uncle also I did get chills when the camera panned to the punching bag and you see that its covered in blood where Archie has been hitting it so much that his hands have bled.

Ok so now I want to talk about my absolute favourite part of the episode, Archie’s letter to the judge. I full on teared up when I heard it like everything about it was perfect and I just know Fred would have been so proud of his son for writing it but the one line that really made me cry was the line ‘Fred Andrews believed in lifting up those around him and in second chances.’ If you could sum up Fred Andrews in one sentence it would be this one because Fred was always supporting those around him and trying to help them achieve their best.

Charles and The Auteur Mystery

If Archie’s storyline was my favourite of the episode then this was my least favourite. My biggest issue with it was how rushed it was also the reveals were really underwhelming in my opinion. So this sotryline is kicked off with Betty and Jughead getting a call at 3am from Bret telling them he has information and asking to be moved to Solitary. But when Betty and Jughead go to visit him the next day and discover he’s been brutally murdered. At first they think it was David who killed him but then David himself shows up dead in what looks like an apparent suicide. But then the mystery thickens when Donna calls Betty afraid and on the run because someone is killing the Stonies and tells Betty that Joan is dead too and she thinks she is next and that it is connected to them trying to kill Jughead. Betty of course is having none of it and puts the phone down on her. But the next day she trys to get a hold of Joan and finds out that she really was killed by someone bashing her head in with a rock. So we reach the reveal of Charles being a serial killer. I full on rolled my eyes at this reveal. I hated it no other way to put it I just straight up hated and not just because I really like Charles’ character and seeing his relationship with Jughead and Betty grow but because it made little sense and wasn’t properly explored. To me it almost seemed like they got to this episode and then suddenly remembered that plot point where Charles visited Chic in prison and thought crap how do we explain that oh I know lets just have him murder some people in this episode and say he’s a serial killer that’s shocking right? Except it wasn’t shocking at all. Especially when by this point in the episode Hermosa had killed three people and Penelope had wiped out at least six people who happened to be her own family all because they weren’t letting her daughter get her own way. And then they expect me to be shocked that Charles killed two people and asked his boyfriend to kill a third. Also at least Charles had a fairly decent motive unlike Penelope, he killed the Stonies because they had tried to hurt his little brother and pin it on his little sister and most of them got away with it and he killed David because he was helping Bret but I also think that him letting Jelly Bean have access to those tapes could have played a part into it, I mean it is like Charles says he only kills horrible people who hurt the ones that he loves, and he does seem to be very protective of his siblings, it’s sweet in a very dark twisted kind of way. But like I said this plotline had no build up at all. I mean the whole Stonie’s murder mystery was started and ended in this episode they could have done it so much better just by moving things around a little. If they had revealed that Joan had been killed in an earlier epsiode for example. Maybe right after Jughead discovered the tape of masked Betty hitting masked Jughead over the head. How much creepier would have been for them to see that tape and then right after find out that Joan had been killed by a rock to the head? Not only would it have heighted the mystery of the tapes but it would have introduced the new mystery of who was killing the preppy’s sooner. Then they could have had Bret die 5x01 after Betty and Jughead went to see him they could have gotten that phone call they got in this episode and then found out he had been killed. Then have the final murder have David happen in this episode and the reveal that Charles was the one behind it. The mystery would only have been a few episodes longer but at least it woul dhave given us as an audience time to one get invested in the mystery and two actually wonder who could be behind it like we did with the video tapes. Also another thing that disappointed me was the lack of reaction from Charles’ family, like they hardly react at all, we don’t see Alice and FP’s reaction to the news either so again that was really underwhelming. But I think the thing that bothers me the most about this particular storyline is that if you took it out it would make no difference to the plot. Like this plot point of Charles being a serial killer changed nothing and was so unnecessary. But it’s ok I know a way they can fix this (just as a disclaimer they are not going to do this but its a fun idea so) I am chosing to believe that there is another twist to the story and that actually Charles is a victim and actually innocent in this, I’m choosing to believe that the Farmies, through Chic hypnotised Charles to kill the Stonies and David because Evelyn was working with them in the plot to kill Jughead and frame Betty and when they heard Bret was talking to Betty and Jughead they decided to tie up some loose ends and get rid of the Stonies. Also they wanted to get revenge on Betty and Alice for their roles in Edgar’s death and Evelyn’s imprisonment and so decided taking Charles away from them was the right price for them to pay. Yes I know it’s got some holes in it but I still think it’s a better storyline than the one we got so I’m sticking with it. In all seriousness though despite not likely how his character turned out I do hope we see Charles again. It is possible that maybe a little down the line they’ll give him a redemption arc I mean in Riverdale is murder really that terrible of a crime? I think the saddest part for me about this reveal is that I feel like Charles played a big part in helping Betty overcome her fears around having the serial killer genes because she knew her big brother had them too and he had his stuff together and was a respected FBI agent and if he could live a normal life and not go around killing everyone because he has these genes then she can too. Now they’ve taken that away from her which is probably going to make her doubt again and make her feel like a ticking timebomb. I just don’t think its necessary to make every person who comes into these characters lives evil. Also it is a rehash of the whole evil brother thing that they did with Chic and I said way back when Charles first started acting a little shady that I hoped they wouldn’t do a repeat of that storyline because that’s just boring and that’s exactly what they did. It would have just been so much more interesting to have him be morally grey but not a full out phsycho who kills people. Anyway I think I have ranted on long enough about this topic so lets move on to another underwhelming plot reveal.

Jelly Bean is behind the tapes. See this is one that really should have been shocking. But again the way it was written just made it seem so underwhelming. Like the reason for her doing it was so weak, she didn’t want Jughead to go to college. Also I wasn’t hyped on the way the characters just shrugged it off like she full on terroised the whole town not just Jughead she brought Archie’s trauma back up causing him to pretty much have a break down this episode so she better march herself over to the Andrews house with a really good apology and start saving up to buy them a new TV because that’s the least she could do. Instead she just says she’s sorry to FP and gets a hug. I get the whole message they are saying here that Riverdale has created this situation were kids are doing really dark things but because of the amount of trauma they are put through they have got to the point when they themselves don’t even recognise when they are doing something really dark. I just think it could have been better written. Especially because other than Jelly Bean we didn’t know who any of the other people are in those videos. They mention that she had been hanging out with Ricky again and he was the one who started helping her with the tapes, they could have easily put a scene or two in where we saw them hanging out together even if it was just quick shots of them in the background of other scenes like we spot them sitting together in a booth at Pop’s. At least that would have given some build up to the reveal but again like Charles’ it kinda came out of nowhere. Also is it just me or are there a lot of people invested in what’s going on with Jughead I mean there’s Jelly Bean making the tapes, Charles murdering people for even daring to attempt to hurt a hair on his baby brother’s head and Veronica who pretending to still be with her ex to spare Jughead the pain of knowing his girlfriend cheated on him. Look I love Juggie too I’m just not sure he’s worth this much trouble especially as they are doing more to make his life more complicated than making things better for him as they are intending. Come on guys Juggie is a big boy you’ve got to let him deal with his own problems. Also as a side note I did find it kind of funny that when Jughead decided to tell FP about Jelly Bean he took his alcoholic Father for drinks, though it does look like whilst Jughead is drinking alcohol FP looks like he’s drinking water.

Blossom and Lodge Family Drama

Ok these two plotlines I’ll be honest I didn’t care a whole lot about it was just kind of the same old stuff we’ve seen before. I did like the Lodge woman all banding together and standing up to Hiram and I love that Hermione finally grew a backbone and decided to divorce Hiram. But I must confess their plot to overthrow Hiram and the way they went about it was kind of dark I mean Hermosa literally arranged to have their own father beat up. I do think that maybe Hermosa has an ulterior motive to wanting to overthrow Hiram and if she sticks around in season 5 I could see her becoming an even worse villan than Hiram though it does seem like from some interviews with KJ that Hiram is going to be taking all that extra time to make Riverdale even more of a mess than it is already so we’ve got that to look forward to.

As for the Blossom storyline again I didn’t care a great deal about it. I think it’s sweet that Cheryl is trying to right the wrongs her family has committed over the years by creating sanctuary land for the Uktena people. I also find it hilariuosly over the top that when they refuse and Cheryl tells her mother her mother’s respose is to just straight up kill them all. Especially as Penelope usually only does something if it benefits her and I’m not really sure how this will benefit Penelope unless it’s just an oppurtunity to revenge kill the family. Again I feel like there is probably more to this plotline and that it is somehow going to come back to bite Cheryl in the butt but only time will tell. Other than that I don’t really have much to say about these storylines.

Theories for episode 3

So my theories for 5x03 are

1) FP will leave Riverdale with Jelly Bean to protect her from the town’s corruption and hopefully get her plenty of therapy.

2) Betty will finally tell Jughead about her kiss with Archie. I really hope she is the one to tell him and that he doesn’t hear it from someone else. And I also really hope that he does find out because it’s starting to seem like he won’t and I don’t think that’s fair to Jughead and honestly will make me think less of Betty.

3) Betty and Jughead will break up realising that with the distance they won’t make it especially as the trust between them has broken due to her kissing Archie again, if he can’t trust her when they are in the same town then how can they make it work when they are apart.

4) Betty and Archie still won’t talk to each other and that’s gonna really annoy me. I mean they’ve only been friends since childhood so why would they need a one on one scene right.

5) Kevin and Fangs might finally confirm their relationship.

6) There are going to be lots of moments that are going to make me cry.

7) There will be no mention of Charles or the effect him being a serial killer had on the family at all.

8) Cheryl will be arrested for her uncle and maybe the rest of her family’s murders.

9) There will be lots of references to Fred and maybe Archie saying goddbye at his grave before leaving for the army and that’s defo going to make me cry.

10) The last few minutes of the episode will be a flashforward of Betty with the gun and will set up the new mystery.

So that’s it for now, I’m gonna be staying out of the Riverdale tag now as like I said earlier I’m not going to be able to watch the episode for hours yet where I am it doesn’t come on to Netflix til about 8-10am in the UK.

#riverdale #riverdale review

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thegeminisage · 4 years

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hey liz i've been thinking a lot about story structure lately and i wanted your take on how you decide what structure your stories will have? i know there's that "you have to do what your story needs and tells you to do" thing but these bitches dont ever tell me anything they just multiply so. thoughts? - bma

(as an aside, i don't know whether involving medium would change many things but it may be worth considering. mainly i think medium is just a matter of arrangement and that the story would be for most intents and purposes the same no matter how you choose to tell it. i guess you could argue that structure is arrangement in itself and intrinsically tied to medium but i sort of feel like it is secondary arrangement, if at all? like if you consider time as an element to outline -- the time IN the story (how things happen to your characters) is not necessarily the time you’re telling the story IN (how you are telling your reader that things are happening) aka internal chronology doesnt equal your work’s pacing? or should it??? does this make sense? i dont think so. i am sorry.) - bma :|

NOOO dont be sorry ur making total sense

i think there’s 3 thots to unpack here (medium, structure, & chronology) & i’m gonna start with medium bc it’s easier. im also putting it behind a cut bc it’s gonna get just stupidly long and rambly. i’m sorry in advance if it’s not helpful to you, i have a lot to say for someone who has never taken even one single class on writing and as a result doesn’t know jack shit (there’s a tl;dr at the end dont worry)

about MEDIUM:

so like ok i’m just some goof-off with a HS degree who writes fanfiction but In My Very Super Qualified Personal Opinion, i don’t think that most of the time medium is intrinsically tied to STRUCTURE of the main storytelling arc...i think the art of storytelling itself is distinct from the medium you choose to tell the story IN. this post puts it better than i ever could but basically for me, i feel like the story itself is sort of the raw, malleable concept, and the medium you choose to tell it in is how you convey the information??

like in a book, you can say “she forgot her keys” and in a film you have to show her smacking her forehead, heading back into the house, and swiping her keeps off the counter. you can’t TELL in film, you have to show. similarly i regret every day i cannot perfectly describe a facial expression with words when i see it so clearly in my head. for audio-only podcasts that are dialogue heavy out of necessity you have different limitations than you would for, say, animated music videos with no dialogue at all. games allow for more interactivity and exploration while sacrificing accessibility, tv shows allow for more length while sacrificing, uh, a big hollywood budget...medium affects the kind of story you can reasonably tell which is why some stories are better suited to one medium than another. i think trying things in other mediums is a good way to stretch your storytelling muscles but with enough skill nearly any story could be told in any medium. i think when trying to decide on a medium you just gotta weigh the pros & cons and what you feel comfortable with/what you think would be most effective/what would evoke the strongest reaction

re: structure:

firstly “do what the story tells u to do” is a little silly like...the story isn’t sentient. come on. that’s like “i can only write when the writing gods inspire me” there are no writing gods! inspire yourself! it’s all in our weird messed up brains! ok anyway.

this is, again, just how i do things, and i am 700% self-taught so take it with a grain of salt, but when i sit down and start blocking out a story from scratch i don’t...actually consider the big structure at all! sorry if that’s not helpful to you. i like to make a list of everything i want to happen, and then put it together in a few different orders to see what looks best. and when i’m finished, whatever i have just like...IS the structure i go with, with perhaps minor tinkering to make it flow more smoothly. (i think this might be in the same spirit as “do what the story tells you” with less bullshit and more Agency Of The Writer.)

for long and more complex projects, i actually usually have several lists - one list of stuff that is, for example, the Action Plot (the kingdom has been cursed, i’m tracking down my serial killer sister to bring her to justice, i’m running from djinn who wanna kill my dad, i’m trying to bring my dead not-boyfriend back to life). then i have another list for Character A & Character B’s romance or whatever. and maybe a even another one for solo character development (magicphobic prince learns to love magic, former werewolf hunter figures out his family is a cult, half-demon learns to embrace his own nature). and as many lists as we need for however many Main Characters and or Plots/Sideplots

how i order the lists: individually first. don’t mix them together to start with. when deciding the order of an individual list i like to, for example in a romance arc, use escalating intimacy. “A and B have dinner together” is naturally gonna go way sooner than “A and B kiss” or “A and B talk about A’s angsty backstory” because that’s more satisfying. draw it out, good/important stuff last, dangle that carrot so we have a reason to keep reading! for singular character development, it’s basically a straightforward point A to point B...if i want my guy to start hating magic with everything he is and end up being very comfortable with it, i have to put “reluctantly uses magic to save his own life” WAYYY before “casually using magic to light torches and reheat his cold stew.”

the tricky part for me is when i’m done with these lists and then i need to mix them together To Pace My Whole Story. (this is usually why i wind up with a rainbow colored spreadsheet.) i don’t like to put too many things too close together because then the pace feels uneven. even if my Action Plot is only a thinly veiled excuse for romance and character development, i still don’t want to focus on a romance for 30,000 words and then go “and oh yeah in case you forgot Serial Killing Sister is still coming for your asses.” the more sideplots and major character arcs you’re juggling the harder it is to get an even distribution, which is my main concern always

and like, generally, whatever i have when i’m finished...is my structure. (sorry.)

i don’t know much about the classic 3-act or anything like that, but i usually can divide them up into 3-5 big arcs based on story turning points. sometimes i take a scene out of one arc and put it in another because it fits better and i like for my shit to be organized, but usually by the time i’m finished with all that, that’s what the final story is mostly gonna look like. (there have been a few exceptions when i realized i needed extra scenes/changes while i was MID-DRAFT and let me tell you that murders me EVERY time. it happened on the merlin fic i’m currently posting and that was like my own personal hell.)

this is also where thots about chronology come in:

i think time CAN be an element of this if you WANT it to be, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. if you want it to be, i would consider it just another “list” like character development or the romance arc.

i usually plot without considering Time very much...to me, it’s all down to the events you want to show, and however much time it takes is the byproduct. if you want to show something from a character’s chilhood but then tell the bulk of it when they’re adults, that’s one thing. if you want to show a scene from their childhood, teenhood, young adulthood, etc, that’s a different kind of pacing?? i usually do it this way so i can regard time like wordcount: it takes as long as it takes. 3 days or 3 years, a 1.5k drabble or a 100k epic...overall, my LARGEST CONCERN is that even distribution. in the same way that i don’t want one chapter to be 30,000 words when the rest are 10,000 words, i personally am not a fan of huge timeskips offscreen

(because this where i think someone’s own internal chronology DOES matter...this is just a personal preference, as a reader i have a hard time really comprehending, say, a year timeskip or a 10yr timeskip when all i did was turn one page. like, a year is such a long time. i can’t even begin to describe how different i am now to how i was a year ago. it’s the same for character development. time IS development and as a writer i’m not really comfortable having that take place offscreen - for main characters, at least. it’s just too jarring. a little prologue with something happening 10 or 20 years ago is usually fine, but for the most part, i’m not a fan. ...i can do one chapter per year a lot easier than i can do two chapters in childhood and the other 8 in adulthood. of course you can play with this a LOT with nonlinear storytelling, which is a whole other very cool thing, and someone skilled in their work can keep me sucked in no matter what, but imo if you don’t want to risk throwing your reader out of your work it’s better to keep things steady)

HOWEVER sometimes time IS an element u wanna consider outside of just making sure your shit is evenly distributed...if your heart is moved to tell a story in a specific timeframe, over a year, or from solstice to solstice (this was almost the timeline for my merlin fic and then i changed it), for the first six months of a friendship, or even a huge journey in the span of a single day (toby fox had a lot of success with this one lol).

i think it can help to choose a start and end point for your chronology the same way you do for character development (prince goes from hating magic to being ok with it, story takes place from ages 8 to 25, or from new year’s eve 2038 to 2039, whatever) - that way you can keep your distribution even, if that’s a thing you want to do...even if you have a lot of skips you can still note what happens offscreen to make it work better in your head? like, if you just make it another List, another column on your spreadsheet, when you’re in the early stages of organizing you can be conscious of it and make sure it’s playing into the story the way you want it to

anyway these r my thots im SOOOO SORRY this is so long lmao. brain machine broke today which is why i had to ramble more to explain myself. the tl;dr in case ur brain is melting out of ur ears & u didn’t sign up for an essay:

imo medium is totally distinct from storytelling tho ofc some stories are better suited to some mediums

structure? i don’t know her. i plot w/o regard to structure and then if it looks funny i mush it into a more structurally sound shape

my main concern when structuring anything, including time, is an even distribution of Events and a steady rate of escalation

structure to me is just what i have when i’m finished plotting. i’m sorry one day i’m gonna take a writing class

internal chronology matters to me personally because i have a little bit of time blindness but maybe not to everyone, i know many very successful stories where they disregarded that entirely to no ill effect

writer’s block isn’t real! everyone just needs more rainbow spreadsheets

thank u for asking I HOPE i didn’t make you regret it too badly lmao and that at least a little of it was helpful!!

#personal #liz loves writing #liz answers asks #brit marling anon #i couldn't figure out how to answer u without walking u thru my entire process #so that's what i did and that's why it's so long. very sorry.#im gonna set this up to reblog itself at the time u sent ur ask so that ur sure to see it!!#edit: there was SUPPOSED to be a cut on this but tumblr put it in the ASK?? i can't seem to fix it. rip

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steve0discusses · 4 years

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Yugioh S4 Ep10 pt 1: Yugioh Predicted the California Drought

Ah, my break is officially over, and it’s a new year, and so far, this year kind of sucks so lets get distracted and watch some TV. IF ONLY we could solve the world’s issues with a bunch of lost children from Japan carrying magical paper cards, amiright?

Anyway, Seto reflects on these cards that he came alllll the way to California to learn about, only to learn about them, and then decide “Yeah I didn’t really want to know that, Yugi.”

I just want to remind everyone that last episode I said “and now Kaiba has joined the party” and it lasted like less than one conversation with Yugi before Seto was like “oh hell no” and just walked out in that purple ball gown, trailing behind him like a complete diva.

Yugi needs to curse his friends to like him more often, is what I’m saying.

(read more under the cut)

So, staring at the fallout of their rekindled friendship with Kaiba that lasted less than a minute, Joey makes an observation.

And then Yugi just wonders “the hell is this plot supposed to go if a Kaiba isn’t here to abduct my family/tell me what to do/get abducted themselves?”

So they decide to reach out to the only other person on this show with a degree than Seto Kaiba.

(And TBH, Seto probably just decided to buy a new degree in graphic design from Devry so he wouldn’t have to finish public school and spend another millisecond in the same room as Joey Wheeler.)

And I have to give Yugi credit for finally deciding to visit the only adult he knows in America. Way to finally find an adult, Yugi. Took 4 season’s but you’ve finally done it. Gonna go visit Arthur Hawkins and dance awkwardly around this Rebecca situation that I guess Tea is fine with now. She used to be jealous, but I think Tea genuinely enjoys spending time with Rebecca now. The jealousy kind of disappeared once the plot picked up.

And Kaiba just takes off in the most wasteful plane ever invented, off to destroy precious fossil fuels on some other side of the planet.

Kind of weird that Tea would rather fly in that asshole dragon plane than Duke Devlin’s sweet retro car, but youknow...I’ve mentioned before that Tea is secretly just a Kaiba-lite without the cards. Of course she’d prefer an asshole dragon jet.

And Yugi would be able to fit in the suit-case compartment of the dragon jet. Just put the suitcase on Mokuba’s lap, and then stuff Yugi into that little slot, he’d be fine.

And honestly Kaiba made the correct choice, because what these guys had to go through is absolutely ridiculous. First off, Duke is like “Oh, this is really close to here” (remember they are in the Financial District of SF) and he just turns directly off of 101 and blows through some bird sanctuary somewhere.

Like y’all, everywhere that doesn’t have a house or a cow field on it in the Bay Area is a protected bird sanctuary, weird fact about the Bay Area, and Duke killed so many birds this episode. The South Bay is SO DEVELOPED.

Course, that is again assuming that the art staff knew that they were drawing the Bay Area, which they SUPER DID NOT.

Now this rock structure, I’m sure, is there to mimic the next shot with the giant ass building--it helps make pleasing screen transitions. But...at what cost?

AT WHAT COST?

Just....

Like I am starting to think the landscapers only knew how to draw one type of mountain and that was it. Square mesas only. They were just unprepared for hills. And like...we only have wild grass that is green like this for like...2 months of the year. That’s it. That’s what my Winter looks like, it’s when the grass is alive.

How did this happen?

Anyway, Mai is alive, and really upset about it. Will she at all reflect on her behavior, and realize that if the main mini-bosses are telling you to knock it the hell off, then maybe there is something wrong with you? Like these are two people who I assume harvested a ton of souls off screen like actual serial killers and they’re like “Girl. You’re like being hella mean right now and need to tone it down.”

I mean, if Mai gets better, than that basically gives Joey absolutely nothing to do in this season so, gotta keep Mai completely bonkers. There she goes. On a motorcycle.

And if you thought Yugioh was done throwing recreational and vintage vehicles in your face, well don’t worry, they even got the OG vintage vehicle, check this one out:

A freakin horse.

And I have to tell you...horses are hard to draw and animate and Yugioh doesn’t do a great job and it is wonderful. I love seeing this horse kind of awkwardly stumble around. It’s very good stuff. Like clearly these artists do not love horses as much as they love one of these:

Of course, get allllll the vehicles in this episode, Yugioh, bring back Marik on his yacht, I dare you.

And then...this very bizarre set of things happen in succession. I’ll just show you.

NICE.

WOW.

That entire house just exploded.

Not just a part of it--but the entire freakin house.

They were there for like less than 30 seconds, and just demolished that entire house like it was Independence Day the movie.

And like that whole house situation was pretty bonkers anyway, not sure why they need a planetarium when they research undersea structures, but youknow what? Arthur Hawkins would.

And don’t you dare do the math and think about how much a house with a planetarium and a horse stable in it would cost in Silicon Valley. It’s way too depressing, trust me.

And yes, that probably exists. Lots of horse people in Los Altos, and it makes me wonder if maybe they based Rebecca’s home on Stanford University? Maybe? I feel like these animators think Stanford is in San Fransisco. That one seems likely to me.

Also, kudos to the horse that it got blasted 50 ft away by an explosion and not only is the horse completely OK, but so is all of her groceries. That is one power horse, right here. I mean the groceries are still covered in so much horse ass smell, but youknow, Rebecca’s 12 so it’s not the horse’s or Rebecca’s fault that she has no idea how groceries work. We should just be glad that she bought vegetables when she went to the store and not just 8 cartons of pop tarts.

So, hours pass, no police show up, and Yugi and co walk into this bleak situation.

Fortunately, the massive explosion did not explode the truck-led RV outside.

A truck that...could’ve been used to go and get the damn groceries, may I add. If Arthur Hawkins used the TRUCK and done his own job without sending his granddaughter into a modern town on a horse, then he would have been at the grocery store and his house would never have exploded. This one is on Arthur, honestly. Then again, he seems like he kinda has the parenting skills of Yugi’s family, who just kinda...delivered him to San Fransisco un-aided and was like “have fun storming the castle”

This ship is kind of hilarious in action, not gonna lie. Yugi’s here with a grandpa who came back from the dead and is like “They don’t really need your grandpa, so he’s probably fine” and it’s like wtf. That’s terrible advice, Yugi.

Anyway, they apparently needed the Oricalchos necklace that Yugi handed off to Arthur back in like the first episode. So Yugi didn’t exactly mean for this to happen, but yet again, because Yugi and Pharaoh can’t be bothered to keep track of their own magical items themselves, someone else goes off with them and gets super screwed. Again. At least Arthur isn’t totally evil (although he still might and go rogue like Marik, and we all know that would be a very funny hairstyle if it happened)

So Rebecca happens to have this necklace just on your person (WTF, ARTHUR THAT’S YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER) and she gives it back to Yugi, where it should have stayed in the first place since he’s haunted by powerful ghost powers and is the only one here that can handle all these haunted Mordor rings. (just remembered he left Bakura’s ring in Japan. I’m sure that’s not going to be a problem later.)

So, that’s all for Part One. As you can see, I’m a little behind schedule, but youknow, I got lazy over the break, and then I drew Joey Wheeler a bunch when I planned to be typing, and it was overall a really great use of my time. No regrets.

And if you just got here this is a link to read the Yugioh recaps from the start. One of these days I’ll put the link into seasons but that does mean I have to retag stuff.

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luna-lime · 4 years

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I’m a huge fan of Riverdale. I know the show can get out of hands sometimes (or most of the time). I usually watch TV shows without any expectations on how it ends, since I am usually not right about the outcome. I’ve tried it once and I wasn’t right, I leave that to the experts. I’m no expert on theories, pretty lame if I’m being honest. BUT LISTEN! I’ve told myself, that ok I may try it this one time. So, take it with a pinch of salt, since this is just what I’m figuring out. Season 4 is different from the previous 2 and there are these recurring themes, mostly of the flashforwards to the supposed death of Jughead. Let me put one thing straight, I don’t think the creators of the show would kill of such an important character to the show and the comics itself. I’ve never read Archie comics so please don’t come at me please, but from what I’ve gathered, Jughead is one of the main characters in the comics so too. So, it pretty much neutralizes the possibility of his death. I think we’re okay on that boys. I’m rambling too much already so let me just get straight to what I’ve thought of and you can make your own mind up on it.

In this last episode 04x11 Jughead had to give an idea about the upcoming book he will be writing. Since he was in a rush and pretty much, have been pressured to take inspiration as the teacher said “from his own experiences” he had to go with the Black Hood. I don’t think of Jughead as an asshole and it was pretty much the last option he wanted, clearly from his reaction towards Betty.

Bret told Betty about it to, get into her head not because he wanted to “backstab” Jughead, clearly. And here was a heated argument between Betty and Jughead for that reason.

This whole private school thing is sketchy from the get-go, so is Bret himself. (Is he Bret or Bred? I mean not that I give two fs about that mofo but yeah, pardon me), The whole secret society? SKETCH!

I know this “theory” doesn’t come from my head and I am not taking the full credit for it either, it has been said many times before I said it. But I humbly think that I’ve maybe cracked something from the last episode. It has been said many times before that the flashforwards are possibly Jughead’s book plot. From the first episodes it was hard to crack and understand those flashforwards, but after today’s episode, this theory gets even more accurate, I think. Jughead mentioned that one of the characters in the book has a girlfriend whose father will be the “Brown hood”. And that is when it hit me.

I think the plot of the book will be something like this: This main character (who is portrayed as Jughead) gets into a private school where he meets these privileged kids. One of them (portrayed as Bret/Bred) feels threatened by the talent and successes of the newbie. He doesn’t want to make it too obvious, so he befriends him, even accepting him into the secret society. There is this competition in which, he thinks he will surely win, but the newbie wins instead. That is when he decides he must get rid of him. So, he starts doing what he is best in, getting under his skin and under the skin of everyone around. His girlfriend (Betty) realizes that something isn’t right about that guy and starts to snoop around. He feels threatened by her and somehow, IDK how he kills this newbie. In some sick twisted way, he somehow turns the shade of guilt over to his girlfriend and their friends for killing him, so he gets off squeaky clean. He keeps ruining his relationship with his girlfriend, creates scenarios before his death that it will point to his girlfriend for killing him. Because she was jealous and mad at him for getting what she hasn’t gotten (getting into Yale, ripping off her serial killer father, not telling her about him joining the secret society and I am sure more lot to come). But since his girlfriend is Betty, she won’t let herself be framed so easily and somehow finds a way how to get out of that situation and in the end, proving guilty this guy (and probably the kids in the private school).

I don’t think Bret/Bred will turn into a serial killer, it’s so cliché and we had that for over two seasons. I think he will be more likely a psychological sociopath or something of that sort. He has to get things his way or no way. He will torture Jughead, Betty and anyone who stands close to Jughead.

So yeah this is pretty much what I’ve come up with. Feel free to add anything you think of, this was just a very short rant about my thoughts what I had in my head after watching the last episode. Oh and I am sure that Jughead’s book is going to be a hell of a success.

#riverdale #betty cooper #jughead #bughead #riverdale 04x11 #it's just a theory #A MOVIE THEORY

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dachi-chan25 · 4 years

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How do months in 2020 manage to last years and yet end in the blink of an eye???

Anyway I did finish my TBR so...

1 -The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles 5) by Anne Rice

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Sooo, this one was my least favorite the 1st time I read this series and I hoped to like it more since I wasn't finding Armand as annoying in the first 4 books but gosh I really feel Anne Rice doesn't have much love for characters that are not Lestat, cuz I feel Armand could have been intresting but the book lacks the passion and wit Anne adds everytime she writes Lestat so yeah it was pretty meh. I love the cover tho.

2.-Dead and Alive (Prodigal Son #3) - Dean R. Koontz

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I was plesantly surprised. I hadn't very high expectatives for this one cuz even though I enjoyed book 2 I thought the pacing was waaaaay too slow, the plot wasn't advancing much. But this one was super cool, it picked up inconcluse storylines from the 1st book and that CLIFFHANGER!!!! The romance between the detectives was meh, like I wish I had liked them both more but the Erikas have my heart and I want to see more of Deucalion.

3.- Wild Cards I - George R. R Martin

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I was so disappointed. Ok so the concept is pretty cool. Like an alien virus is set loose and it causes some people to have amazing superpowers and other people gets terrible mutations, What's not to like??? But oh my fucking god. The mysogyny of this book. I can usually read books with mysogyny like I enjoy classics like 1984 despite the rampant way in which the protagonist hates woman. I couldn't handle it here. The female characters have less dimension than a sheet of paper and they depend entirely on the male characters it ruined the whole thing for me, and the writing was mediocre at times (I mean I know this was written by multiple authors but at points the quality of the writing droped like super hard) I am not picking the next one.

4.-My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

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I just love horror stories where a pretty girl is the killer. Like they are so enjoyable. And this particular story is so good because we have this 2 sisters, they are very different, one is like the epítome of beauty and the other is an average woman. The pretty one literally can do no wrong in everyones eyes and that’s just fine cuz she just so happens to kill her boyfriends. Her sister who is a nurse helps her clean up and get rid of the bodies because at first she believes they were abusive towards her sister but then she starts to get suspicious and things are super cool and intresting. I feel it could have gone deeper with some stuff but it was a great and quick read.

5.- Moloka'i - Alan Brenett

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I cried so much. This book is about Rachel, a girl diagnosed with leprosy at 7 years old during the 1890's and is sent away to live at the leprosarium in Moloka'i, Hawaii. We follow Rachel as she makes friends and family and loses them all over again to the sickness as she grows older. This book was so beautiful and pretty diverse (I loved Leilani I had never seen trans representation in a 19th century book) full of history and humanity. An amazing read I fully recommend it.

6.- New Suns: Original speculative fiction by people of color - Nisi Shawl.

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I Loved it. One of my main problems with anthologies is that inevitably I find some stories better than other but that was not the case here, every story had an intresting premise and amazing writing (my fave was maybe the one with the lesbian mermaid or the one were a woman raised the death to get rid of colonizers) like I need to read more from all these authors ASAP.

7.- Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevski

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I love me some good classic. This one is really amazing , I love how much we get into Raskolinov's psyche and the things that lead him to comit the crime and the effect it has on him once he does. And all this conversation about morality and if it's ever valid to commit a crime even if it's for the "greater good" and all that good stuff about how people trapped in poverty are more likely to fall down the rabbit whole of prostitution and crime and yassssss it was good,

8.- A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I struggled like I should have known they would use the slang like in the movie (but I watched the movie in Spanish) so I was just vibing in the first few pages of the book barely understanding shit, except those words in other lenguages and then I started to pick it up and the book is so good??? Like Alex is awfull but the book actually makes a compeling argument about free will and the concept of choosing between good or evil. In general terms the movie is super accurate tho and yeah I really enjoyed this read.

9.- The Winter of the Witch (Winternight #3) - Katherine Arden

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I LOVED it. This book absolutely messed me up. Like I suffered a lot for my girl Vasya. And then all the stuff with the Bear and Morozco and the war, ahhhhh it was a LOT, but the ending was pretty satisfying, I cried tons and I am hoping we get another saga maybe following Marya this time????? I will just read anything Katherine Arden writes tbh.

10.-Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters - Emily Roberson

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It was ok??? I wished it had been more about the sisters together as opposed to make Ariadne "not like the other girls" I am sick of that trope, and the "beautiful but doesn't know it" and less about the romance. Like the premise of retelling this greek myth as a reality show actually picked my interest but the execution wasn't that great it had lots of clichés I hate and mentioned before, what I kinda liked was that even though Ariadne had a romance she decides to start over by herself when things kinda fall apart and she is maybe open to dating another dude at the end, which honestly was a relief for me cuz I feel a lot of time YA pushes this idea that your first love is the only love you'll ever feel and that’s dumb .

11.-The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

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I really love this play, well Tennessee Williams plays in general, and aire felt like re reading this one. I love Laura so much and it was a pleasure to read this again.

12.-In the Miso soup - Ryu Murakami

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This is a very gorey book. Lots of graphic murders and violence, mentions of the sex trade in Japan. This was a very intresting read, lots of insight into the japanese society and how this very cliché image people have of it is completely wrong. Again sex trade is heavily discused as our protagonist makes a living out of taking foreigners to experience the sex clubs in Tokyo he meets this sketchy american guy who hires him, our protagonist has a feeling he might be a murderer and it goes from there. I really enjoyed it a lot and might consider reading another book by Ryu Murakami.

13.- The Downstairs Girl - Stacey Lee

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It was amazing to read about an asian girl in the post-civil war era, and how this minority kind of lived in a limbo cuz white people didn't think much about them when making up all this crap ass rules about where PoC where supposed to live in or sit. And our protagonist Jo, is really a charming girl with a lot of opinions and so passionate I loved her so much. It was a bit cheesy at times, and I saw the book's big reveal coming but still it was a pretty good read.

14.-En el bosque bajo los cerezos en flor - Ango Sakaguchi

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Me gustaron mucho las historias, todas realmente te meten a una atmósfera japonesa: las imágenes como las flores de cerezo, los kimonos, templos, budas. Y las mezclan con un terror por lo desconocido y lo no visto que encaja tan bien en cada una de las historias. Realmente lo disfrute muchísimo y me gustaría leer más trabajos de este autor.

15.- Agamemnon - Aeschylus

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I am weak for the greek plays. And this rocks so much. Chlymenestra is a queen, I stan her so hard. This play always makes me feel so bad for Cassandra, like how shitty is it to have the power to make super accurate predictions but no one ever believes you???

#july 2020 wrap up #booklr #dachi reads stuff

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disappearinginq · 4 years

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Hey I was kind of a bitch to you in the past... Holy Fuck I’ve just understood why you hate shippers, ok I’m a shipper but yikes others are worse. I mean so many people who just want their faves to get together quickly, yikes that can ruin a show fast. I mean yes certain characters could be great together but it needs to be done right not in the batshit crazy cheesy cringe way the shippers demand, yikes. And sorry again for being a bitch in the past.

(2/3)Shippers who are like “and now kiss” or “oh that look they are going to become a thing” and a whole bunch of other BS annoy me so much. If the writers of any show are dumb enough to listen to that it would kill it fast (oh yeah ranting about the Magnum fandom). As a shipper (hahaha you probably hate me now sorry) I cringe when I see others behave like that, I think maybe there’s potential but kinda in a slow burn way (though not ultra show because way too slow and it would end like TIVA).1 (3/3) 2. If a ship is being done right the chemistry needs to build more over time and certain aspects need to change about the character. I just hate the “toxic shippers” who act all entitled wanting a relationship to just happen. Like no it needs to build and the characters need to grow and change slightly, though I can see the possibility of a relationship though I could also see one or two other possibilities that would probably make the psycho shippers burst into flames 😂😂

You know, I’ve held onto this for a long while because I wasn’t entirely sure how to answer it. It’s not even the people who basically mash characters together and don’t care about plot (though it does contribute). But I like watching some of my mutuals having their ‘ships that they follow and love and adore and I get these happy little moments of ‘awww, I just love them, look at their faces!’ or even talking with people about ‘oh, wouldn’t it be interesting if so and so wound up together? I think they could be good, etc’. People who have their happy little bubbles, and their happy little ships, and write their fun little coffee shop AUs where everyone gets to be happy....fine. It’s not my deal, just like dark, super angsty whump fic prrrrobably doesn’t fall into their orbit. It’s cool.

I do not like the little shitfucks who pop in just to harass people about either 1) preferring a different ship or 2) not liking their ship. I don’t like the people who get so fucking worked up about an imaginary character that they ruin real lives. Clearly, they don’t like getting that sort of hate, so their brave little selves show up on anonymous so I can’t (unless I feel like recalling OPSEC training that I wasn’t really paying attention to the first time around to back track their digital footprint to throw molotov cocktails at their very real front doors, but I am fundamentally lazy, so...). Shippers of that type are the reason why I stopped watching Voltron - you know, a goddamn kid’s cartoon. Because people were heinous and harassing the voice actors and the writers to the point that the creators didn’t want to work on it anymore.

And the romance thing I hate because it’s quite often lazy writing, and they make it super melodramatic just for the sake of arguing or having something stupid to bring up later. Chloe and Lucifer = I adore. They spend four whole seasons, each character evolving, becoming better, finding out more about themselves, having real life problems and doubts and trying to decide if they even like who they are with their person. Those stories? I love. But that is pretty much the only one I can think of that didn’t make me shriek at the TV “JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET A GODDAMN PLOT”. I hate that media and shipping just ignores any other relationship. I hate that years of friendship are ignored or put on the back burner because ROMANCE. I hate the stupid, awkward ‘oh, well, we once slept together and now we have to work together and this is weird haha’ - no, it’s fucking garbage. I hate that once shippers decide ‘this is what I want to happen’ they don’t care about anything else. I hate that relationships are becoming these awful, horrid things where people just fight and bicker and break up and make up and just become an awful round robin of WHERE THE HELL DID THE STORY DISAPPEAR TO?!

And it’s not like it can’t be done well. Like I said, Lucifer and Chloe. Danny Rand and Colleen Wing from Iron Fist (WHO I LOVE AND ADORE), Jessica Whitly and Gil Arroyo (talk about a trash fire where the least dramatic thing is almost having a moment with the guy who caught your serial killer ex-husband) in Prodigal Son, Martha and Francis from Mr. Right, Ty and Amy from Heartland, Jake and Leslie from Republic of Doyle, Danny and Lexi from Blood & Treasure, Jules and Shawn from Psych. And that’s just off the top of my head.

Thomas and Higgins have potential, but not if writing is still bullshit. There are honestly some moments in episodes where I love how Higgins changes. I love the way that she takes one look at Thomas as he considers having to tell a woman that her newly wed husband died and immediately does it for him rather than making him be the one. That is a solid example of character growth and mutual understanding. I hate the constant fake dating, fake marriage, fake whateverflavoroftheweek. I would hate it in any show, but I really hate how they use it in this show because they just...ruin any progress she mad as a character, and any progress they made as writers. The next thing we’re going to have is a fake pregnancy, or a fake shared child, or some other equally awful crap that sidelines Rick and TC to their own spin-off within their own show, doing exactly what they made fun of Robin for doing to them in the pilot episode despite the ‘rolling like Musketeers’.

And for anyone who thinks I just hate on Higgins, my least favorite episode is actually “Die He Said” which has nothing to do with her, but just...wtfuckery plot holes and shoddy writing.

Just....ARGH. They’ve proven they can do this story and these characters justice, but then they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

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signoraviolettavalery · 5 years

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strategist-scientia replied to your post “I know Carina is bringing Malex into the light and I am infinitely...”

Kinda scared now tbh because Carina said "Yes" when someone suggested that Michael is probably reminded of Jesse Manes's hand in causing the deaths of his people whenever he looks at Alex. ��

I hope it’s ok that I use your response as the jumping-off point for some meta, because I’ve been wanting to write this since i saw Carina’s tweets, and the inevitable Malex panicking that ensued. There’s a couple tweets about Michael’s headspace that she made that I want to get into, as I consider where Michael’s character will go next season and what that might mean for Malex.

Now, my immediate response to this is: Yes?? Good?? Carina is saying Michael is going to have a character arc next season, and this is a good thing. Characters need arcs, and frankly, I’ve been frustrated that most of his “arc” this season has just been taking care of other people. Equally frankly, I’m glad that this will be the arc, because Michael is completely traumatized right now. He not only lost his family right after finding them, but he’s witnessed the genocide of his race. I’m glad the show is going to deal with that instead of sweep it under the rug. That’s what Michael s a character deserves. And I know it sucks to put queer characters through trauma and misery and suffering, because it seems like that’s the only thing they ever get to experience in narratives. But in a well-written story, you can’t shield your characters from the world and have nothing bad ever happen to them. There need to be low points in order for there to be development, as long as there are high points.

The other tweet that people have been worrying about is this one, about how Michael will react to Alex and how their relationship will changed, based on the fact that Alex’s family is responsible for literally all of the suffering of Michael’s:

This is where people start worrying that Malex will crash and burn, or that Michael will blame Alex for what happened even though it’s not actually Alex’s fault.

So, first of all, I’m going to point out the obvious: it doesn’t sound like English is this person’s first language (which isn’t a dig at them, but just the observation that there may be a language/communication barrier here). Carina’s “yes” is vague af, and twitter is a really shitty medium to sort-of-but-not-really hint at character motivations and what’s coming.

Moving on from that, my thoughts are that Michael isn’t going to outright blame Alex - after all, Alex didn’t do anything. In fact, Alex has literally shut down project Shepard and blackmailed his father to protect Michael, and if Michael knows about project shepard he knows this. Logically, he understands this. But I do think that Michael will pull away from Alex - just as he’ll pull away from Max, Isobel, Maria, and even Liz. He’s going to need space, and he might get self-destructive in all his relationships, not just the one with Alex, because he’s going to blame himself for what happened. It’ll be difficult to watch, but I think that Alex, who himself has extensive experience sabotaging his own relationship as a result of fear and trauma, will understand where he’s coming from and try to help.

I do also think Michael will have a hard time with Alex specifically. Again, it’s not that he’ll blame Alex, because he clearly didn’t blame Alex for his hand, if his desire to rekindle a relationship ten years later is any indication. But Alex will be a living, breathing reminder of the Manes legacy, which has taken literally everything from Michael, starting with his hand and ending with his family. It’s going to get complicated, because just last episode, Michael was telling Max that he believes that there’s no place for him here (on Earth) - something that Jesse made him believe, and something of which his hand serves as a reminder. And now he has even more proof, painful, heartrending, visceral proof, that there is no place for him on this planet, in the sense that humanity as a whole does not accept him for what he is. And the Manes legacy is largely responsible for this.

But. The irony is that while the Manes family has destroyed his family, his life, his home, and his hope, Alex has been all of those things for him. Alex offered him a home when he had none. Alex told him “you’re my family.” Alex, as Michael said in 1x11, made him believe there’s is a place for him here on earth. Home can be a person, and Alex has been his.

And I think Michael will realize that. If Liz can get over the fact that Max covered up her sister’s murder and was responsible for her family suffering hate crimes for ten years, then Michael can get over Alex having a legacy that he has completely and utterly rejected. But it will take time, because trauma isn’t rational, and because Alex did enlist in the military and become a “Manes man” before he ultimately chose Michael. So Michael will have to reconcile those two things - what Alex’s family took from him, and the fact that Alex himself gave back all those things to him. Honestly, I think it’s going to be the culmination of the arc that they’ve been planting the seeds of this season - that home can be a person. Michael Vlamis also hinted that Micheal probably won’t be deciding whether to leave the planet this season, so perhaps this will be a decision he’ll have to make next season. Alex will give him the spaceship piece and set him free, understanding that Michael has never felt like he belongs on Earth and that now he feels like he belongs even less, and that his family is responsible for it. And Michael will have to realize that despite Alex’s legacy, which he has outright rejected, Alex is his home.

It’ll be a long journey, but I honestly think it’ll be fine in the end. Think of it this way: ships, just like characters, need arcs. I know we all say we’d happily watch an entire season of them just cuddling in bed, but come on. None of us actually would. We’d like an actual story. That’s why we tuned in. We want to see characters facing challenges and overcoming them. And yes, just like with queer characters, we don’t want queer pairings to just keep suffering endlessly. But we do want them to have actual, meaningful storylines. And what Carina is hinting at above sounds like an actual storyline. It’s Michael working through legitimate trauma instead of sweeping it under the rug, and Alex learning to live with the legacy of his family. If done well, this is a good storyline. The alternative is either no storyline, or contrived relationship drama, and no one wants that. Remember when, on The Vampire Diaries, Damon and Elena finally got together and the writers had to come up with a dozen reasons to break them up (the sire bond, Katherine possessing Elena, Damon temporarily dying and Elena erasing her memories of him and about a dozen other “plots’)? We really, really don’t want that. We want an actual arc.

Of course, how much you believe Carina and the writers will do justice to this arc depends on how much you trust them to actually meaningfully write it, and that’s up to each viewer to decide on their own. Based on my own personal experience, I think it’ll be fine, because whatever the various flaws of season 1 of Roswell (and they definitely exist), the emotional beats have rung true to me. I understand why characters behave the way they do, their fears, their traumas, and their progress (with some exceptions). So, I think we’ll be fine.

Part of the reason I’m so confident is because every other time we panicked because of a tweet, a promo, or a promo photo, we turned out to be pretty wrong to panic. Let’s recap:

1x09 This is the OG throwback episode, and when Shiri leaked that photo of Michael and Maria naked in the desert, we panicked. We thought Michael and Maria would have a full-blown romance and Michael would leave behind Alex and forget about him, or that Maria would sleep with Michael while knowing about Alex, or any number of worst-case scenarios.

What actually happened: Alex ended things, with finality. Previously, he’d walked away - and we’re led to believe he’s done this multiple times, which means that he’s also come back multiple times, because to walk away again, he had to come back first. But now, for the first time ever in ten years, probably, he said “we’re definitely over.” The love of Michael’s life broke his fucking heart by making him believe they could never have a future together, and Michael’s response was literal suicidal ideation. That line about “I’m just wishing a meteor would strike me down and end my suffering”? That’s suicidal ideation, y’all.

So yeah, he hooked up with Maria because he needed comfort and a connection with someone - but one that he was 100% certain wouldn’t get romantically complicated and messy. He picked Maria because he had a connection with her but thought there wasn’t a chance in the world that she’d catch feelings.

And then Alex came back to him and he took him back and bared his fucking soul and revealed every single one of his deepest secrets.

1x11 This was the UFO emporium re-opening episode, and everybody panicked that Michael and Maria would talk and kiss and/or hook up in the place of Malex’s first kiss. Come on, guys. Like, I get panic, but this was a bit much.

What happened instead: Michael misses Maria, who was pretty much his only friend, and tries to get back onto the same page they were (flirty banter that meant nothing), but which is pretty hard to do once you’ve slept together. Michael believes he and Alex are completely over, and....he skips the Emporium reopening (probably because it’s too painful). Then, Maria, the person he pretty much considers his only friend, gets roofied and possessed by an alien serial killer. So yeah, he’s concerned, and he watches over her, because Michael Guerin is, at heart, a protector who takes care of people, and frankly, if he wasn’t worried about Maria, I’d like him slightly less as a person. Maria drunkenly indicates potential feelings for him, which he shows absolutely no indication of actually reciprocating (he looks concerned and frustrated at best).

1x12 We all thought Malex was going to break up in this episode, despite the fact that they were already broken up and Michael thought they were “over.” We knew there was a tear-inducing Malex moment and we listened to Tyler’s song and I saw no end of posts going around saying Malex was going to break up.

What happened instead: Alex confessed his love for Michael, called Michael family, stayed by him in the face of literal certain death, and physically and emotionally supported him during a moment of devastating heartbreak.

So yes, I get the worry. I especially get the worry because apparently The Magicians fucked over their queer viewers just last night. Believe me, I understand, and I’m not a person to have faith easily. I’ve been through Supernatural fandom and the great Destiel queerbait that was season 8. I’ve been through Sherlock fandom and The Johnlock Conspiracy of seasons 3/4. I am intimately familiar with the nonsense shows pull on queer viewers, and I understand the context in which queer viewers are wary of trusting and investing emotionally. I’m a queer viewer as well, and I get it. I really do. But my personal experience of Roswell has been one of the fandom panicking (because we’ve been burned so many times), followed by us getting literal fanfiction on our screens, with actual love confessions and words like “cosmic” and all the tropes. So in this particular case, I choose to trust, because thus far, I think the show has done well by Malex for the most part, and because so far, almost all of our worries have turned out to be for nothing. And I’m also excited for Malex to have meaningful storylines and things to work through.

That’s my two cents. Thanks for letting me ramble. Feel free to reblog if you think we could stand to spread some positivity.

#strategist-scientia #roswell new mexico #malex #roswell new mexico meta #malex positivity #roswell new mexico speculation #malex speculation #michael guerin #character analysis #character arcs #seriously thanks for letting me ramble

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darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts · 5 years

Text

Echo pt3

@forallyourikemensengokuneeds

Warning: This is a little dark. There is blood, death, Strong Language and yeah … please read with caution. **Still not sure what direction this is taking so I should add a warning for Author with no plot **

Masterlist

—

Echo part 3

He was in the garden when she arrived. A big telescope set up on the patio angled at the moon as always. A small flask and something in a Tupperware container were placed on the table near a deck chair. She grabbed a blanket from the house and made her way out back towards him.

“Think you forgot this.” The sound of her voice calling out made her dad nearly knock over the tripod he was adjusting. Forgetting the contraption for a moment he stood up and wrapped his arms around her in a big hug.

“Kit? When did you get here?”

“Just now. Please tell me that’s just coffee in that thermos.” Kit played off the slight discomfort she felt at being embraced by pointing to the old man’s typical vice. Ever since she could remember he had sat outside on a full moon set up the telescope and spent the night getting progressively more and more inebriated.

“It’s just coffee in the thermos.” He released her and pulled back. The attempt he had to maintain a poker face was thwarted by the smile he couldn’t shift from his lips.

“Why don’t I believe you?” Kit playfully huffed and rolled her eyes, causing her dad to chuckle at the familiar sight.

“What brings you here Princess? Want to do some moon gazing?” He crouched down and was tinkering again with one of the legs on the tripod trying to adjust it so it was level.

“Sounds good but I actually have something I want to ask.” Kit waited for a moment. Everything happening was connected but that was only true if you could believe the ramblings of one person over the fact there was nothing concrete to link it all together with facts. But it was a fact that the findings from 30 years ago matched with the findings they were getting now. Logically she had it in her mind that maybe they were looking for a particular kind of murderer or a serial killer. The gap between cases could be due to them being caught for another offence and put in prison or they moved out of the area for some reason. Still she from the moment she was told of the case she had felt something was wrong. The buzzing in her head was still there no matter how much she tried to shift it. Every now and then she would catch sight of her own reflection and a shiver would wash over her body like a warning that something was coming but she had no idea what. “The night you met Colin for the first time. What happened?”

“Christ, you’re not beating around the bush, are you?” Her dad stopped again this time rolling back onto his haunches and looking up at her from his knees. Those familiar kind eyes she was so used to seeing this time looked like they were in a lot of pain.

“Wasn’t it you who taught me being direct was best?”

“Princess… Why do you want to know?” His voice seemed very distant like he was talking from somewhere else as he answered her.

“Because whatever happened back then is happening now. Bodies are turning up and no one has any ideas. The same thing happened back then but it all stopped and I want to know why. I want to know what the hell is happening.” She was agitated. She knew that and as much as she told herself to calm down, she found she couldn’t. Her life had been spent finding solutions to problems. Logically mapping them out for others. Finding facts in a sea of lies and turning tables on whatever big bad thing was happening. She couldn’t do any of that if she didn’t know anything and it was the not knowing that was getting to her the most right now.

“Its… it’s a very long story and I’m still not sure that—”

“Dad I swear if you say I’m not ready or I’m too young so help me I’m taking your thermos away and pouring down the sink, along with every other drop of alcohol in the house and putting out your information to all the 24/7’s and liquor stores in the area in a 200-mile radius preventing you from buying any more.” She cut off her dad as he attempted to dissuade her. The fact he was being so defensive meant there was something he could tell her that was more than just stuff in the files she had procured. If that was true then she wanted the information even if it hurt in some way to get it.

“Haha, how did I raise such a troublesome child?” Looking worried he rubbed his large hand over the back of his neck and held it there as he looked down on her. The pain in his eyes was still there for whatever reason but it appeared to be joined now with a kind of resignation.

“If anyone is troublesome around here it’s you.”

“Very well. I think we should probably move inside for this though.”

---

The rift was still there, almost imperceptible but to a seasoned tracker, you could make out the displacement in the scenery clearly. It was like looking through glass made of rippling water, clear enough to see through but obviously distorted when you got close enough to see the scenery through it warped and bending.

Clutching the yellow crystal from the Queen in one hand the Scout stepped into the rift and vanished. Their partner stayed close by keeping a lookout but as good as they were, they couldn’t detect the cloaked figure moving behind them until it was too late.

---

Steam from the mugs in front of them swirled and curled around over the freshly brewed tea. It was a ritual in away. No matter the problem he would always hand her a cup of tea and they would sit there in front of them on the table untouched while they talked.

“How much do you know?” he hesitated slightly as if trying to gauge her response in what to tell her.

“What is in the files and what Col told me, which wasn’t much to be fair. He said it was your story to tell so here I am.” She blurted out with slight impatience.

“I see. Where to start?” He paused.

“The beginning would be nice.” She answered the rhetorical question with a sarcastic tone. He knew only too well that after this, there was no going back.

“You said yourself what is happening now happened before. Around 30 years ago when we first arrived here.” He checked to make sure he hadn’t misheard her the first time.

“Arrived?” She jumped. His choice of words added to her confusion.

“Kit. If you want to know I will tell you. If you want to interrupt it’s going to take a lot longer.” It was his story to tell and he was going to tell it without her comments. He smirked as the childlike, almost innocent expression she was looking at him with now. She always had been such a curious child.

“Sorry.” She said quietly motioning him to continue.

“When we arrived here it was after a big fight back home. I don’t know how it happened really but we fell together through a rift and landed here. You were out cold in my arms and I couldn’t focus on anything but it was at that point that Colin found us and looked after us.” He stared off as if trying to grasp as something but not quite reaching it.

“He said you looked like you had been hurt badly. But what do you mean fights and rifts? I don’t follow. And what do you mean home? We’ve always lived here.” The questions came out so fast that it made him look at her suddenly.

“No.” he blurted out as if scolding her for the outburst with the reply. “I’m sorry sweetheart but that was something I told you when you woke up. You couldn’t remember anything and the healers- doctors here said you had probably got amnesia and not to push it. I was grateful for that small mercy.” A coolness was now in his voice. It gave his voice a strength that made her feel calm even if her head was pounding and struggling to understand.

“Grateful? Dad, you must know that all this right now is kind of hard to figure out it all sounds like a weird episode from one of the cheesy late-night tales of the unexplained on tv.” She mocked trying to understand where this was going.

“We aren’t of this world.” He stated with such ease, it took her back. She could tell when people were lying. It had been one of the things she was very good at even as a child, and he showed no signs of anything other than being completely sincere.

“What?!” was all she could come out with, after such a shocking statement. What was he saying? The buzzing in her head was getting louder but it seemed to be connecting to her nervous system. Spreading out now through her whole body and the small unusual tingling sensation took root.

“We’re not from this realm. When we fell through the rift we arrived here. There was no way I was going to take you back there it was too dangerous. And when we were getting settled in here Colin told me about the bodies. He was really shaken up. I thought…. I wanted to repay the debt I owed him so I…” He paused and she could see sadness in his eyes for the first time in years.

“Dad? What did you do?” Fear was starting to creep into her reply and her mind.

“I found the one responsible and took care of it. I closed the rift and that was the end of it.” His rushed reply made her heart stop. His expression, tone, everything was blank. She had seen it in the returning men from missions. She didn’t have to ask for more details to know what taking care of it entailed.

“Ok hold up. Let me try to put this in order. We are from somewhere else, someplace dangerous where something happened. There is a rift, whatever that is. And you are telling me that you took care of what was killing things back then and closed the rift? What the hell is this? Am I being Punked?” She physically started looking around for a camera crew of someone hiding nearby.

“Kit. I realise this is kind of unbelievable.” He tried to get her attention by reaching out for her hand only for her to drag it back from him.

“No. not kind of… it is unbelievable. Who the hell are you?” Her voice raised with each word. Her blue eyes swimming as she looked at him, searching for answers but at the same time not wanting them.

“I am the 7th son of Lord Lan. I’m your father. Kit, where we come from, is different. To use the terminology from this realm we are from a different dimension. The land we came from was peaceful and beautiful but before we left it became something else and it was dangerous. I had no choice but to retreat and protect you.” This speech came out so easily to him, it was as if it was rehearsed.

“Me? What’s so special about me?” Still trying to take in what she was being told, she now realised that for some reason this was all happening because of her and she wouldn’t rest till she knew why.

“Everything. I’m so sorry sweetheart. If the killings are happening again it means the rift I closed is open again. It means I can no longer protect you.” The light in his eyes seemed to fade at that comment and a coldness started to creep into her. Surely this is just madness she thought?

“Dad I really, really think you are not very well right now. I’ll get in touch with some guys and have you booked in for some tests and—” Kit said as she tried to reason with the unbelievable by being rational and fight the unknown with logic to find a solution. She was a scientist; nothing was ever just one thing there was always a reason for it. Always a catalyst for a reaction and a the same had to be true for this now. And yet the more she tried to process this logically the harder something inside her was pushing against it.

“Kit I don’t need tests. I need you to listen. You might not be able to remember but part of you knows what I am saying is right. You can sense it you know it to be true. Please just be careful. Danger is coming and it's coming for you.”

---

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