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superhero--imagines · 3 years

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Part 2 Here! / Part 3 Here! / Part 4 Here! / Part 5 Here! / Part 6 Here!

A/N: not superhero themed. I just read midnight sun and had this idea and I don’t feel like making another blog so.... hope you like twilight lol

There will be a part two, and just a reminder, I’m still looking for beta readers so DM if you’re interested!

* It probably starts with you reading midnight sun, you remember reading the books/watching the movies when you were younger.

* Man, you really forgot how bad this book was. The writing itself is good, but the plot...

* It’s like everything revolves around Bella, everything is created for her.

* You almost feel bad for the other characters

* Well, whatever, you’ll finish the rest of the book tomorrow and never think about that awful franchise again.

* When you wake up you feel an ache in your head. But you didn’t drink last night, maybe you’re dehydrated

* You shift, noting the smooth silk of the covers. Now you’re alarmed.

* You don’t have silk sheets

* You see a mirror in the corner of the room, and rush over

* The face that looks back at you is different then yours

* It’s the same in some ways, but different all the same

* The curve of your nose is slightly off, your lips are thinner, eyes a little closer together.

* The memories begin to flood in, in this world you were on a graduation trip with your parents, you got an all inclusive package. Three days of sightseeing in Volterra.

* You got sick on the last day, when you were signed for a tour of the castle, your parents went without you

* That was the last you saw of them

* You dumbly followed, asking question where you shouldn’t. And ended up at the volturi’s door

* Aro had grasped your hand to see how much you knew, only too see nothing. Likewise Jane’s powers did not work as well

* They were astounded by this, it appears this was several years before Bella was introduced to the story

* And so, you became a prisoner of the tower

* Your soul must have been in this body for quite some time, but you’ve only remembered now, that’s the only explanation for why their powers didn’t work on you. Your consciousness is not of this world.

* There’s a short knock on your door

* “Are you decent?”

* You call back and Alec pops his head in.

* “Ready to go to the library?”

* He looks so kind. The boyish grin that stretched across his face as you shook your head.

* It was in direct contrast to the sadistic personality you had become accustomed to in the books

* “I need a few more minutes”

* You half expect him to lash out at you for being slow. By he only nods, closing the door and waiting outside for you to finish.

* He was you friend. You realized

* He IS your friend

* You think back as you turn on the faucet. He didn’t like you at first, being assigned to guard a human was insulting

* But he started to warm up to you once he heard you play the piano

* This body was quite used to the ivory keys. And so you charmed him as best you could, half for your survival, because the happier you kept him the less likely he was to kill you.

* And half because- you were so lonely, the Loneliness echoed in this body like an ache. Suddenly an orphan, in a continent where you knew no one. All you had was this boy.

* How long have you been here? You kept a talley at one point, but abandoned it after the thirtieth day. What was the point? You would either die or become one of them

* A shiver erupts through at the thought, in your past life you were a vegetarian, you didn’t relish in the idea of killing something alive and moving.

* You pull on a sweatshirt, ripping of the chanel tag. They bought you the nicest things money could buy, the most lavish food you could have.

* They did the same thing with the tourists they lured, keeping them happy and well fed, the same way the cows that became wagyu beef might be cared for. That way when it came time to slaughter, the meal was that much more delicious.

* You suspected this was similar, that should you be an unnecessary addition, you would make a meal suitable for their palette

* Alec basically talks your ear off the entire way to the Volturi library, mostly about literature

* “What are your thoughts on Anna Kerenina?”

* “That the patriarchy needs to be burned to the ground.”

* “That is.... valid”

* He even talks when you’re at the library, much to the annoyance of a few of the other patrons

* “Which book are you looking for now?”

* You stop mid motion on the ladder and turn to look at him. His ruby eyes glowing, he looks bloated. Like he’s fed too much.

* “Alec, why are we friends?”

* You really should keep your mouth shut. Alec was the only real ally you had, you shouldn’t say anything that might put him off

* And yet, it unnerved you, because the Alec in front of you was a very different character then the one you had come to see.

* He looks at you like you hung the moon,

* “Because you’re the most interesting human in the world”

* You burst out laughing, earning several glares.

* “I-I’m sorry Alec, but I’m not, I’m just the most interesting human you KNOW, there’s way more people who are more interesting than me.”

* You expect to see him offended, and he does, but there’s a twinkle in his eyes

* “I’m not so sure about that”

* The days creep by, reading books, eating snacks, it’s nice

* You learn, that Alec hasn’t talked to a human in a very long time. Outside of the screams he heard after devouring one.

* He hasn’t been outside the castle walls in many years, possibly a century.

* “What’s the best part of the human world?” He asked you once

* It’s the 90’s, so smartphones haven’t been invented yet.

* “One tree hill and friends”

* “Well you have a friend right here”

* “No friends the show”

* “The what?”

* And that’s how you got Alec hooked onto cable television

* Who knew the cure to vampire- sadism was a healthy dose of Jennifer Aniston fumbling about on screen

* “Is this what life is like?”

* You shrug, it was what college had been like for you in your past life.

* “It’s kinda what schools like, but i never got to be on my own”

* This body was only 18 after all.

* Alec doesn’t say anything, but his expression falters

* Alec’s only now starting to understand the life you will be denied once Aro decides when to turn you

* Jane joins later

* One day when you and Alec are lazing around the library when she appears, she says nothing, just sits down next to Alec and reads a book

* You’re sure they hear the uneven thumping of your heart as you turn back to your book. Her power doesn’t work on you, you remind yourself

* Not that she even needs it, she could snap you apart like a Kit Kat bar

* And if it came down to it, you’re sure Alec would let her, he might like you but his loyalty’s always remained with his sister

* “So... you watch human television together?” Her bright red eyes flickered from Alec to you.

* You nodded, never sure what exactly it was that would set Jane off

* You had seen enough in the books to know her moods were compatible at best.

* “I would...like to join” she awkwardly looking away, and you were sure if she could, she would be blushing.

* Honestly it’s kind of cute.

* “Sure, the more the merrier”

* And that’s how you basically adopted the sadist twins

* It’s a little harder to get Jane to open up, but once you make a comment about how Phoebe was the best character in friends, she starts to open up

* “Humans are cruel, even when they’re kind it’s only because they want something from you.”

* “Is that what you think about me? That I’m only nice to you because I want something?” she meets your eyes for a few minutes before turning away

* “I’m not sure”

* You understand very gradually why they’re so twisted

* They’d been treated terribly during their human life, in every kind act lingered a dark shadow, in even minor misunderstanding the image of a monster

* Their centuries in the Volturi didn’t help. Under Aro’s ruthless tutelage, and Caius’s sadistic tendencies, They had no one they could trust but each other.

* They were only surviving just as you were

* “Sometimes I wonder how much of my loyalty is real, and how much of it is Chelsea.” She whispers one day, so quietly you barley hear it

* You rest your hand on hers, it’s the only comfort you could think to offer

* When Jane grasps your hand in hers, she breaks every bone in your hand

* She doesn’t understand the pained screams or your mangled hand fit a second, and then she realizes what she did

* Alarmed she carries you halfway around the castle screeching for someone to help

* You pass out from the pain, when you come to you’re in your bed, a very cold hand holding your own

* “How are you feeling?” You don’t recognize this vampire, but you don’t really know anyone outside of Alec and Jane.

* You feel light headed, a warm feeling washing over you, you must be on some strong drugs

* “My body’s still grieving, but my mind is sharp.”

* It’s incoherent at best, but there’s truth to it, your body is still grieving for your parents and the life you’ve lost, but your otherworldly mind is ten steps ahead, cross referencing every action.

* The man offers a short chuckle

* “You really did a number on your hand. I’ve done what I can but...”

* You look down to your hand, half surprised by the bright yellow cast encasing it

* You had figured you would wake up to be a vampire, it just made sense, these were unfamiliar human aches to them after all and vampirism was a simple and effective cure

* They must want something from you, if they’re keeping you human

* You suspect it’s something along the lines of how they waited until Jane and Alec were burning at the stake to save them, so their power would be that much more potent

* Maybe they’re doing the opposite with you, trying to make you as happy as possible to see what effect it has on your ability

* It’s too bad you don’t have one

* “Thank you for your hard work.” You mumble, being human for a little bit longer is well worth the pain.

* “How did you break your hand?”

* “I held Janes’ hand”

* Your doctor let’s out a short laugh

* “That sounds about right”

* You smile, it does sound right, of course you would break your hand that way

* The conversation flows naturally after that, you talk about all sorts of things

* “You think vampires have souls?” He quirks an eyebrow

* “I’m of the opinion that a soul is something you create through hardship and struggle, being able to live longer means that you have more opportunities to have the experiences that result in a soul”

* “That’s an intriguing notion, I wish I had brought my son with me.”

* You’re about to ask about his son, when you’re interrupted by the door swimming open

* “I heard you were awake, are you alright?” Alec rushes in, his eyes frantic

* “Yeah these drugs are top notch” you press the button that releases the pain killers and let out a giggle

* “Is that alright? Humans are awfully sensitive.” Jane pipes up from behind Alec, you hadn’t noticed her in your haze.

* Your doctor chuckles

* “I’m aware,” he’s smiling but it’s strained

* “What’s wrong?” You ask, he was so calm until a second ago, he doesn’t answer you

* “I’ll give you three a moment.”

* You only register he’s gone when you hear the door close

* The twins rush over to you, Jane is kneeled by your side, while Alec hovers over you

* “I-I’m sorry I hurt you, I forgot-I didn’t remember.” You we’re sure Jane would be crying if she could

* “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean it.” You raise your cast encased hand and give her a gentle pat on the head. “From now on, physical signs of affection will just be one sided.” You joke, which makes Jane grin

* “I’ll practice with some animals before I try touching you again”

* The three of you chat for a bit, they’re both surprised by your cast and ask several questions about its “primary function”

* “I didn’t know there was a doctor here” you murmur, feeling drowsy

* “Carlisle’s not with the Volturi, he’s from another coven in the new world.”

* Your drowsiness flies away in a second

* “That was Carlisle?”

* Jane looks somewhat confused but nods.

* A flutter of hope erupts in your chest, it’s so strong even your grief stricken body feels it

* You might have a chance. It’s slim, Carlisle has a family he loves and needs to protect. But still, they were strangers once too. No different than you.

* It’s a way out of here

* The next few days follow in a drugged haze, Alec and Jane visit every so often, and Carlisle engages you in occasional conversation while checking progress on your hand

* “Why are your eyes gold?” You know, but well, you need him to believe the lie

* “It’s a bit of a long story” he says with a wary smile.

* “I’m not going anywhere”

* He sighs, a genuine smile encompassing his face as he recounts the tale.

* Even though you’ve already heard it all before, it still makes you cry

* Even in the haze, you know something’s.... off

* There’s something about the way Alec won’t meet your eyes when he talks to you, and the uneasy weight that lingers in the air whenever someone else is in the room

* On the third day, it’s Aro who visits you, Alec and Carlisle in tow behind him.

* “Oh my, all that internal bleeding, how awful”

* Even you can feel the insincerity, but it’s the first you heard about internal bleeding

* So that explains it, the drugs and the aches all along your body, it wasn’t just your hand, you were dying

* “Don’t worry, we’ll save you” Aro’s smile is cruel “won’t we Alec?”

* Alec looks afraid, almost pained, but he nods

* Ah, so this was punishment for Alec too. Until that moment, when Jane broke your hand, Aro must have been ignorant to how close the three of you had gotten.

* You close your eyes, you knew this would happen eventually. There were only two ending to this story, and it seemed one had finally been picked

* You feel a pinch on your neck, right above your collar bone, no worse than a flue shot.

* You wait for the pain, the vivid screams you remember from the books and movies, but it never comes.

* Instead it’s just a warm numbness that spreads across your neck and left shoulder.

* “It doesn’t hurt” you murmur, you feel a cold hand rest against your forehead, Alex’s hand.

* It’s so gentle, he must have practiced on some animals first, you think.

* “No the pain comes later.”

* And so you drift into inky black unconsciousness, the last sleep of your human life in this world.

* You dream that you’re sitting at the bottom of a tree, a fig tree, like the one Sylvia Plath wrote about

* Each fig a different path, half of them have already fallen off, dark, as they rot at your feet

* “How do you do it?”

* You look to your side and find the person who’s face you see in the mirror, they’re hugging their knees to their chest, dark circles under their eyes

* “How do I do what?” You ask, they bite their lip

* “How can you be so strong when you’ve just lost everything?”

* You see their eyes brim with tears, and you look away, to the tree that looks over you both

* “I don’t know” It’s the truth, you have an unfair advantage in this world, because you know all the secrets each person carries, while yours remain shrouded in darkness. And yet... it’s not why you persevere

* “All I do know, is that I want to give them hell”

* Your counterpart grins at that, and to your surprise, you feel a smile stretch out across your face

* Yeah, it’s not about power, you just want raise some hell in this backwards misogynistic world.

* “I guess that’s the one you’re picking then huh?” Your counterpart points to a fig, it’s on the tallest branch of the tree, so far out of reach it almost seems unobtainable

* But you only nod

* “Yeah, I think that’s the way I’m going to go”

* They look at you and smile.

* “If you ever get the chance, I hope you punch that jerk Aro right in the face”

* You laugh.

* When you finally awake, you’re still laughing. A smile etched onto your face.

* Everyone’s there, all looking at you with concerned glances.

* Yeah, you’re going to have a lot of fun in this world.

#twilight #twilight saga #twilight imagine #twilight headcanon #Volturi headcanon #Alec imagine #edward cullen imagine #carlisle cullen #superhero--imagines

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lord-explosion-baku · 4 years

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Opia (Night 3)

Vampire!Shinsou x reader x Kirishima

warnings: sexual content, (i wouldn’t call it smut because it’s not graphic, but sex happens...), dark themes, drinking, MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING FOR DRUNK DRIVING HIT AND RUN, blood, pain, mentions of abuse, mentions of sexual abuse, dead dove do not open, blood drinking, vampire shit, jealousy??

A/N: this honestly turned into a miniature vent??? idk what about, but this was kind of relieving to write. anyways, the reader is still kinda dumb... im not sorry

Night 3

The streets were alive with rabid students, elated to be over and done with the autumn semester. Winter break was starting up, and kids in your neighborhood were celebrating by tossing their notes and flash cards out wherever they could (which they thought was virtually anywhere), drinking the night away, and partying hard. You’d heard shrieks of joy and kids hollering at one another and there were a couple of boys from a nearby fraternity passing out fliers for a rager they were throwing tonight. They were supposedly combating against another party house and you had a vague idea who that house might have belonged to. You wanted nothing to do with it.

Ever since the last party you attended, you’d been feeling...watched—unsafe, even in your own home, and it was even worse when you went out. If you were the same as you were a couple years ago, you’d be out and in the same Jeep that had sped down your street for a total of three times this night, smiling and laughing with your friends, singing along, but now you were perfectly content staying home with your movies. Well, not perfectly content. You had to admit that you were lonely.

The phone at your side glared at you, and you had to pull your legs into your chest, locking your arms around them to ensure that you wouldn’t dial any numbers. But you wanted to. It was selfish, and you knew you shouldn’t, but you couldn’t fight the gravitational pull your phone had on your hand.

Just after two rings, Kirishima answered. “Hey, you! What’s up?” You could hear people talking around him. Damn.

“Hi...Ei…” you cringed at the nickname. Calling Kirishima anything but his last name or ‘Kiri’ felt unnatural to you, but when you hooked up with him in the past, you knew that he thoroughly enjoyed it when you called him, ‘Ei.’

“Hey…” Kirishima’s tone dropped. You were glad he wasn’t dumb; he could catch your mood from a simple greeting.

Shifting in your seat, you laid halfway down on your couch, staring out the window. You could tell from the subtle amber hue on your neighbor’s window that the sun wasn’t quite gone from the sky yet. If he was throwing a party, he must’ve just been greeting guests right now. It was early, but you were hoping it wasn’t too early.

“What are you up to?” You purposefully heightened the lilt in your voice to sound sweet—a little more coy than your norm in hopes of grabbing his attention.

“Who is it?” You heard someone—a gravely voice—ask on Kirishima’s end.

“Nobody. Shush,” Kirishima hissed, probably trying to cover the speaker. You didn’t mind being nobody. That was probably for the best. “Uhhh-“ He was walking now, and you heard even more voices and loud music playing. “Not much. Why?”

It didn’t take much to convince Kirishima to come over to your place. Just one, ‘I’m feeling uneasy and I don’t want to be alone,’ got him through the door in no time. You’d heard a few of his friends protest, telling him to just invite you to the house, but those demands went ignored which you were delighted about. You felt a little guilty using Kirishima’s righteous sense of gallantry for your own selfish gain, but that guilt dissipated as soon as you found him on your front porch.

Though it was winter, Kirishima sported basketball shorts and a tank that showed off his impressive brawn. He always used to say that he ran hot and never really got chilly, which you knew to be true when you pulled him into a snug hug. His arms were warm as they wrapped around you and he smelled vaguely like spicy cologne. Taking him in, you thought it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

“Thanks for coming,” you murmured into his broad chest, “I know I’m just being a baby, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Nah, it’s no problem at all! I wouldn’t leave a lady all alone in a big house like this.” He pulled his head away with his arms still wrapped around you. “You look really nice.”

You bit your lip. You didn’t do much besides shower and put a tiny bit of mascara on. You were in your pajamas shorts and you might have put on that one bra that made your chest draw more attention than usual, but you had on a simple look...and you tried very hard to obtain it. Judging by how Kirishima’s eyes kept flicking down to your cleavage, you knew that you’d pulled off your alluring nonchalance with success.

“Can I get you anything?” You asked while walking towards the kitchen while Kirishima unshouldered his backpack next to the couch. “Water? Juice?...Beer?”

“What are you gonna have?”

You casted a bashful look his way. “That depends entirely on you.”

“I’ll have a beer.” Kirishima grinned, his hands in his pockets.

Returning to the couch with two glass drinks in hand, you handed one off to Kirishima and seated yourself next to him, purposefully brushing your bare shoulder against his arm before settling in. Neither of you really cared about what played on the television so you chose a random channel, nervous about spending too much being indecisive, and landed on an old cheesy classic horror movie that was in black and white. Zombies. What a mood setter.

Idle chit-chat survived as the yawning drawls of menacing pale-faced villains gathering to hunt in herds. Kirishima asked how you did on your finals and you inquired about what exactly he was doing when you called. He admitted that there was a party at his house, but said he wasn’t all that into it, explaining that it was Kaminari’s idea.

“He said it was supposed to be a favor for a friend, but I think that was just another excuse to get shit-faced,” Kirishima explained, taking a sip of his second beer.

“Uh-huh…” A friend. You couldn’t help but think about how Kaminari previously referred to Shinsou as a friend, but quietly shook that thought out of your mind. You didn’t want to think about that strange, albeit beautiful enigma while you were with Kirishima.

A blood curdling shriek from the movie snapped your attention back to the scream. You were about to laugh and make a comment about chocolate syrup used as blood, when Kirishima tensed next to you. You looked up at him and saw that he was grimacing, even recoiling a little bit as the zombies claimed their next victim.

“Are you scared, Ei?” You asked, scooting closer to the redhead. You rested your head on his shoulder and peered up curiously, pouting your lips.

“Huh?” Kirishima eyed you. “Nah, ‘course not. I love scary movies.” You could tell by the tenor in his voice that he was lying. You thought it was cute that he was trying to tough it out. “What about you? Sure you can handle a scary movie after you’ve been feeling jittery all night?”

He poked your side and you jumped, laughing bashfully as you attempted to hold his hand back. You gazed up at him through your lashes, focusing on using that innocent look you’d used countless times before when you wanted something.

“I feel very safe with you here,” you whispered breathily, watching as Kirishima’s pupils expanded while your fingers tip-toed up his arms. You pushed yourself up and hooked a leg over his waist, settling evenly over the growing bulge in his shorts. You took the glass bottle out of his hands, kept eye contact with him while you took a sip, and placed the bottle on the side table.

Kirishima didn’t miss a beat, his large hands resting comfortably at your hips. “You really mean that?” He asked as his fingers curled around the hem of your shirt.

You leaned into him, your lips a breath away from his. “I mean everything that I say.” Then, you kissed him, slowly at first, smoothly drawing your tongue along his bottom lip, before he ran his hand up your back and pulled you deeper onto him.

Kirishima kissed you like he was drinking in the taste of you and still coming back thirsty. His hands explored your body as if it were both his first time and possibly the last, wanting to get the most out of you as humanly possible. One of his large hands trailed up your shirt, squeezing your side before cupping your right breast, while the other hand brushed through your hair, tugging on you lightly to elicit soft moans out through your lips.

The familiar sensation of being leered at came after Kirishima stripped you of your shirt.

“You’re so hot,” he breathed before kissing the rounded curve of your breasts. While he worked to unclasp your bra, you glanced back to the window to see your curtains drawn open. Kirishima noticed and asked, “should we close them?”

There was nothing to be seen out the window, but you still felt watched. The thing is, you didn’t care. If there happened to be mesmerizing indigo eyes staring at you through the window, then so mote it be. “It’s okay. Nobody’s out there.”

You sighed when Kirishima took your left nipple into your mouth, pinching your right one with his fingers until they were both taut and colored by the flush of your blood. You massaged his head while his sharp teeth worried at you, growing a little more aggressive. The creeping feeling of being monitored intensified tenfold when you reached down to stroke Kirishima through his shorts. He moaned when your thumb ran circles around the wet spot at the tip of his tent. He pulled you down so you were rubbing against him, and you felt an aching tension grow in your hips.

“Ei,” you mewled, pulling at the drawstrings of his shorts.

“Yeah,” he rasped in understanding, and briskly swept you over and onto your back.

Years ago, an ex-boyfriend of yours told you that he loved to fuck you because you weren’t breakable. He could bite you until you bled, choke you until you nearly passed out (sometimes you did), and hell, he’d even hit you a couple times while he was inside of you. He left bruises all over your body for everyone to see—like he wanted people to know who you belonged to. You didn’t really mind it, at least, not while you were with him. The thing is, he was wrong about you. You were very breakable. You had bones that could shatter and skin that could scar. But a part of you wanted to be broken and that was why you never stopped him, even when you knew he treated you wrong.

Kirishima never treated you wrong. He provided service between your legs, making sure you were shaking and clutching the couch cushions, barely able to form a coherent sentence by the time he was done, and he kissed you up your torso as he would make his way back to face you, where he asked if you were okay and if he could continue. When he was inside of you, he started off slowly, whispering to you all about how good you felt, how tight you were, how he thought about this all the time. No, Kirishima never treated you wrong, but he also knew about your ex-boyfriend. He knew he didn’t have to hold back with you. So after easing into you, after making sure you were well taken care of, he knew that he didn’t have to restrain himself. He hurt you too, like how you’d asked him to in the past.

With each stroke came a pained pleasure, a violent hunt searching for a violent release. He fucked you like you were a secret that he wished the world to know about, and when you yelped and when you cried, it was like you were granting him his wish. You knew it would come to this, and though you wouldn’t have asked him to hurt you now, you didn’t mind it. Kirishima was still a good guy—a sweetheart, your loving friend. You also knew that even the kindest, most caring guys had animalistic urges clawing at their skin. And how could you really deny him this clandestined divulgence when you were the one using him from the beginning?

He came inside of you, panting out a string of obscenities as he thrusted the last bit of his energy into your already tender core. He seized your lips as if they were his to take, though in that moment, one could say that they were, and cradled you in his strong, too-hot arms.

“Holy shit, that was...you were ncredible,” he muttered against your jaw as he began peppering you with more kisses. “I love you so fucking much.”

“What?” You put a hand to his broad chest and pushed back very gently.

Kirishima brows frowned. He was already realizing his mistake. “I...didn’t mean…”

“What?” You asked, gathering your shirt from off the ground. “You didn’t mean it, or you didn’t mean to say it?”

The absurd paradox that was your sex life: you could do pain, you could do borderline abuse, but love was where you drew the line. Kirishima knew that all too well. If you counted on your fingers how many times you have had this conversation with him, you’d need to use your toes as well.

“You know how I feel about you,” he argued, decently handing you your pajama shorts when you pointed at them. “I didn’t mean to say it.”

“Well,” you sighed, not even really having the energy to disagree. Instead, you grabbed your shoes.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. I think I’m gonna go on a walk. I need to cool down.”

“Let me come with you. You said you were feeling uneasy earlier.”

“Are you going to try to talk about us?” You asked, using your fingers to make quotation marks around the word ‘us’.

“I don’t see what the big deal is!” Kirishima stood up to put his own shorts back on. He stopped you when you were at your front door, throwing his hand up to keep it from opening. “You know that I would be good for you…”

“Let me leave, Kiri.”

“Oh, so I’m Kiri now?”

“You’re always Kiri.”

Kirishima shook his head, incredulous. “Not when you want to fuck me. Then I’m Ei,” he accused. He had a point, but you were too upset to admit it. So instead, you crossed your arms and took a step back, glaring out the window. Kirishima sighed. “I just don’t understand why you won’t give us a chance.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it right now.”

“Then when?”

“Ideally? Never.” You reached for the doorknob, but Kirishima kept his hand on the door, unmoving. You shot him a look, softening up an ounce. “C’mon, Kirishima. Let me just...clear my head. I...am aware that I’m overreacting, and I’m sorry. It’s just a touchy subject, I guess.” Gingerly, you touched his arm, and despite knowing better, you gave him a peck on the cheek. “We can talk when I get back, okay?”

Kirishima exhaled, relaxing a bit. “Yeah, okay.” He cleared the way and ambled back to the couch, not casting you another glance until you opened the door. “Just be safe.”

“Will do,” you promised, and you were out the door.

The night air was brisk which you were thankful for. The cool was refreshing against your more-than-hot skin, so it kept you grounded and alert. Your thoughts raged war inside your head as you chastised yourself for being a manipulative bitch. You thought about what you would say to Kirishima, how you would explain to him yet again exactly why you didn’t want to be in a relationship, and what you would do to get any more romantic thoughts out of his head. Growing frustrated with trying to find the right words, you decided to start picking up the litter the kids from earlier tossed around. There was so much of it around, and honestly? you felt like you should do maybe one good deed tonight to balance out your karma.

You zigzagged through the streets, collecting the trash in your hands. You felt gross because a lot of this shit was lodged in the gutter, plastered down by the rain. One flier in particular was especially stubborn with letting you pick it up. You had to use your nails to finally get it in your clutches. You thought that you’d have to make a second shower when you were done with this. Kirishima would probably want to join you...

It came before you knew what literally hit you. Pain shot through you as you were projected back maybe twenty feet through the air. You wanted to scream, but when your back hit the ground, the wind rushed out of your lungs at the same time you heard an excruciating crack. Your ears rang as your fingers and toes twitched until they stilled, disobeying your commands to tell them to move.

Blaring music cut out, and you heard erratic voices muffled by the dull roar of an engine—the Jeep you’d seen earlier.

“Go back!” A female voice cried. It was familiar. Was that Yui Kodai? You were too...out of it to tell, and when you tried to raise your head to check, sharp pain seized up your spine. You attempted speaking, but it was like your lungs were crushed and mangled, no longer able to do their job. All you could do was listen. All you could do was feel.

“It was just a fucking cat!” A man yelled back.

“It wasn’t a cat! You just killed that girl!”

“Will you shut the fuck up!” Quieter and quieter the voices came. “It was a fucking cat, and we don’t tell anybody about this, end of story.”

But I’m alive, you thought loudly at them. Please...come back…

The screeching of those tires bolting down the street was the most devastating noise you’d ever heard in your entire life.

Karma was a dirty bitch that played with her own deck. You affronted yourself, reasoning that if only you had stayed inside with Kirishima, work things out, kiss him, make him feel better, this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe you shouldn’t have called him at all. That really should’ve been for the best. You knew what you were doing when your fingers dialed his number. And now you were paying for it.

So this was it. This was your punishment. This is how it ends. You, laying abandoned in the gutter of your street, dying. At least, you could see the night sky. You had the stars to keep you company, though focusing on them was painful when you fought dizzying sensations that kept the stars blurred and seemingly...red.

“What a shame,” came a familiar loquacious purr. Your mind told you to move your head to find the source of the voice, but again, you were stuck, hopelessly sputtering and defeated.

Then a beautiful creature came into view, though from where you were positioned, Shinsou’s face was upside-down. Still, you were glad—glad that the last thing you were going to see before you died, was something so...incredible.

The movement was like a blur; one moment Shinsou was standing above you, the next he was crouched beside you. Pearly white arms stretched out in front of you, and you felt a scorching burn, then Shinsou brought his hands back, and inspected the crimson liquid that coated his fingertips. He inhaled, closing his eyes as if the smell was enticing to him, and you were suddenly struck with unease. That was your blood.

Blinking up at him in disgust, you were frustrated that you couldn’t bark out a thousand questions like: why don’t you call for help? Why did you just touch a dead girl? Why are you looking at my blood?! But you were stuck, paralyzed, unable to stutter out a single word.

That was when you saw two elongated fangs poking out through his gums. The caged organ in your chest gave a strained thrust and Shinsou’s eyes snapped open as if in direct reaction to your heartbeat.

He sighed. “A shame that you get to taste me before I get to taste you…”

Shinsou’s eyes shifted down the street, then you felt his arms wrap around you. The sky became a blur and then it disappeared, suddenly replaced by shrouds of leaves and branches. You wanted to cry. Being touched—being moved was excruciating, but you couldn’t do a thing besides stare and blink.

“Here’s the deal,” Shinsou began, pulling up his sleeves and discarding the bracelets from around his wrist. “I’m going to give you my blood.”

Hah?! Your brows creased.

“Oh, you can understand me. Good. My blood’s got a healing agent in it that’s probably the only thing that will save your life.” Shinsou looked you in the eyes and you saw the same thing he showed you at Kirishima’s last party: pupils so black that they appeared white. “It’s a highly addictive substance, but I think since you’re already so far gone, it won’t be all too affected by it. You might experience some side effects, such as heightened visual and auditory senses, feeling euphoric or stronger than you are, and-“ he smirked- “increased libido.”

As he kept talking, you felt your mind swimming, as if you weren’t going into hysterics already. Maybe that was it. You were imagining this because you were dying and your brain was graciously giving you a scenario that was better than your reality which was actually you alone and broken on the side of the road. Despite the situation, your lips managed to twitch upwards. At least you were sticking to your character. These past couple weeks, you’d been going insane and now you were leaving the world as batsy as ever.

White wrists met pale lips and a grim noise made your stomach turn as you watched Shinsou bite himself. He hovered his injured arm over your mouth, then he hesitated.

“But wait,” he said in a sardonic tone. “What was it you were going off about the last time we met? Consent?”

If your body could have shuddered, it would have. This was exactly like when you’d try to fall asleep and remember all the embarrassing things you’d ever said and done in grade school, only now you were nearing death’s gate, and you had to endure the memory of you awkwardly sputtering your righteous jargon to a stranger. Good grief. If there was a god who had control over your mind, he was a damn sadist.

“So what say you, darlin’? Want me to save you? Blink twice if yes-“ he shrugged- “die if not.”

You glared at him. Let’s just rub salt into your wounds, why don’t we? Deciding to entertain your delusions, you blinked pointedly, twice, hating the self-assured expression on this sicko’s perfect face.

“I’m glad to see that you value your life,” he said, then raised his wrist over your mouth. You felt droplets fall against your lips. You no longer had the energy to protest—not even to grimace and tighten your mouth. Instead, the liquid lazily trinkled onto your tongue and down your throat.

The change started immediately. Your muscles tensed and tightened in a sort of soothing, weaving motion. You’d heard pops as your bones cracked back into the place which would have disgusted you if you weren’t so distracted by the wonderful sensation on your tongue. Shinsou tasted like nothing you’d ever had before—sweet nectar, rich and pleasing. Your tongue lapped at his skin until feeling returned to your hands and you grasped firmly onto his arm and began sucking harder, greedier, at once needing more and knowing you wouldn’t be able to get enough.

Shinsou began raising his arm away from you, but you chased it, following his motion by lifting your healed torso as more of your bones snapped back into place. Your entire body was frenzying with elated tingles. You felt euphoric, high, and if you were still coerced to believe you were dying, you’d have thought that you’d gone to heaven. But you knew better now. This was present and this was real. This was everything.

“I see that you’re enjoying yourself.” Shinsou pressed his hand against your jaw and dragged it back to the nape of your neck. He stilled, then tightened his hold on you, trying to ease you off of him. “That’s enough.”

But it wasn’t. You pulled, knowing full well this was going to end, but wanting desperately for it to not. Shinsou’s fingers sunk into your hair and pulled, baring his teeth—baring his fangs—at you. Once you were pried away, he sucked in a breath and hissed.

“That’s good,” he said, his thumb wiping at the corner of your mouth where renegade blood seemed to have escaped. “That’s good,” he cooed again, the melody in his voice all but worshipped you. You eyed his wrist, noting that there wasn’t a bite mark in sight. You shook as his thumb brushed against your bottom lip. “Satisfied?”

“More,” you demanded childishly without a care. It wasn’t fair. He was a bully dangling a treat right in front of you while you were starving and tied to a pole. Gathering some sense of morale, you breathed and asked, “please. More.”

“Greedy girl.” Shinsou sneered. God, even when he was making such a nasty face, he was still so...pretty. You couldn’t stand it. “There’s a time and a place for everything, and there’s not a lot that I do without asking for something in return. It all comes with a price.”

“A price?” You asked, still dazed from your elation. At this point, you’d do borderline anything for just one more taste. And honestly, with someone with the same aura as him, you certainly wouldn’t mind doing anything…

“A price,” he reiterated darkly, his lips curling into a grin. “An eye for an eye, as the saying goes…”

“Do you want...my blood?” Your heart jumped.

“I do,” he purred, and as if on reflex, you extended an arm out to him, ushering him to take whatever he wanted. Balls to thinking about what a ludicrous idea that was—you had one thing on your mind: his blood. Shinsou took your arm and brought your wrist to his mouth. You tensed, thinking he was going to bite, but he merely placed a tender kiss to the back of your wrist, sending jubilant waves of pleasure to flutter up your arm. Then, he snickered. “But I can’t take yours tonight. You’ve already lost so much, and your veins are tainted with...well, me.”

Trepidation settled deep in the pit of your stomach. You were not much closer to thinking like a normal human being, but you were hit with the realization that you just drank some guy’s blood...after being hit by a car. You stirred, raring yourself to stand up—if you even could—but Shinsou held you firmly, forcing you to look at him straight on.

A light buzzing noise rang in your ears while you swam in the pools of his magnificent eyes. Your body went numb for the second time this night, but this numb was more of a warm blanket than anything else. You felt secure, despite your situation, and that was what he wanted.

When he spoke, he was simultaneously right in front of you, and inside of you. He was a whisper of a thought, but a furore of a demand as well. He said, “you’re going to go home...send that putrid, hormonal mongrel on his way...and hide yourself under your covers. You’re going to go into a very deep sleep, and if you can help yourself, you won’t be dreaming about anything. Not even me.” His words rocked you gently like a lulling cradlesong. All you could manage to do was nod at his every request. He went on, “and the next time you feel my presence around your home, you’re going to open the door and invite me in. Do I make myself clear?”

As quickly as it came, your calmed mood disappeared as Shinsou blinked at you. Suddenly very sleepy, you tilted your head at the stranger. “Putrid, hormonal mongrel? Do you mean Kirishima?” You grinned when Shinsou’s eyes narrowed. “Were you watching us?”

A low rumble came from Shinsou’s throat that confirmed your accusation. This certainly wasn’t anyway to thank someone who might’ve just saved your life, but you couldn’t help but poke the bear. “What is it?” You ragged. “Are you jealous?”

His demeanor changed in a flash. One moment he looked ready to kill, and in the next, he was tame, wearing a cool mask to support his laxly facade. Shinsou abruptly stood up, cursorily bringing you to your feet with him, and held you so your back was pressed against his chest. You felt the need to stumble—you weren’t used to moving so fast!—but his arms locked you into place.

“You mean like how you were with Miss Kodai,” he quipped against you, his chilled breath caressing your ear. You inhaled sharply, striving to keep yourself from warbling out any embarrassing, telling sounds, but when he pulled some hair away from your neck, and his pinky finger just barely grazed your oversensitive skin, you couldn’t stop the shaky sigh that departed your lips. “Is that why you went out of your way to put yourself in such an uncomfortable situation? Because you were jealous.”

“I wasn’t,” you lied in an attempt to convince yourself that you weren’t. You had no reason to be. You didn’t know him. He was just some kid you saw at a party, and now he was...what was he? Your savior?

Your breath hitched as his hands slithered down your sides, taking their place at your hips. Your heart pounded against your chest when his fingers intentionally grazed over the bit of skin that was bare between your shorts and your shirt.

“You sure about that?” Shinsou dipped his head to lick the column of your throat. A rush of heat settled between your thighs when he flicked his tongue over your pulse point, sucking the tender skin into his mouth. You felt something sharp press against you, and you instinctively craned your neck more to the side to grant him more access, while you pushed your ass back against his hardening groin, nails digging into the arms that were caging you against him. A low groan escaped him, and for a moment, you thought he’d tear through the skin, rip out your vocal chords, and leave you for dead, when he finally pulled his head away.

“Don’t...stop.” You wanted to cringe at your plea. It wasn’t everyday that you actually had to ask for something like this to happen, forget wanting it to begin with. But as Shinsou toyed with the little hairs at the back of your neck, you felt nothing short of longing for things to escalate.

A dark chuckle sounded in your ear. Shinsou whispered, “go home and do as you're told,” before kissing your earlobe. You bit your lip, wanting for his kiss to linger, but instead, he took your chin into his hand and turned you to face him. “And please note that if you don’t, I will find out. I’ll know if your lips touch that mongrel again, too.” You half wanted to inform him that you and Kirishima did far more than ‘touch lips’ earlier, but seeing that threatening look in his eye, you decided against it. “There is a price for everything, my sweet sanguine.”

He released you, and it took everything out of you not to fall to the ground. Shinsou paced a few steps ahead of you when you reached a hand out and called, “hold up!” He stopped, turned his head, and waited. You were going to demand answers to the questions jostling in your head, but you were suddenly very shy. “Where... are you going?”

Shinsou hummed, considering the question and probably enjoying the look of desperation on your face. Finally, he said, “I quite like cats.”

You crossed your arms over your chest and waited for an explanation. When he didn’t give you one, you prompted, “cats?”

“Yeah, cats. I heard there were a couple cretins running around assaulting cats. I just want to make sure your neighborhood is safe.”

“For cats?!” You demanded, but without explaining himself further, he was gone. Like he literally disappeared. The only thing left of him was a playful message resounding in your head.

‘Do try to not get hit by a car on the way home.’

You sauntered the way back to your house, not feeling the least bit sore from the events that unfurled over the night. Having past the spot you’d been hit, you saw dark spots in the road from where you probably had been bleeding out, so you knew that it happened, but your mind was too fuzzy to really contemplate how and why you survived. All you really could think about was how good it felt to have Shinsou touch you—how you’d be counting the days until you would feel him prowling around your house again.

When you got home, you saw that the downstairs bathroom light was on, and the television was on some kind of sports channel. It looked like Kirishima wasn’t entirely invested in the zombie movie you’d put on. You quietly crept up the stairs and slid into the bathroom adjacent to your bedroom. When you saw yourself in the mirror, you gasped.

“Troll,” you hissed at your reflection. Your face was crusty with reds and browns—blood and mud?! And your hair was a mess of dirt and leaves! Your pajamas were shredded and splitter with the same essence that covered the rest of your body. You were disgusting! It didn’t stop there, either! When you took your shirt off, the bruises that littered your skin on your ribs and meat your stomach were countless. You really put the zombies in that old movie to shame.

While you showered, you agonized over the thought of Shinsou seeing you in such an awful state. The water ran down to your drain in a river of rust-colored muck and you wanted to be swallowed down with it.

When you were out of the shower, the only evidence left from the night’s events were the purpling contusions on your torso which you tucked away with your towel. You were sure that the bruising would be worse tomorrow, but you pushed the thought out of your mind and tried to focus on the great night’s sleep you were supposed to be getting.

However, when you opened the door to run to your room, you were greeted with a sheepish looking Kirishima, his hand on the back of his neck. When he saw you standing there in nothing but a towel, his eyes widened and he quickly looked away. “Oh shit, I’m sorry!”

“What were you expecting?” You asked, grinning at the blooming flush of red at the tips of his ears. For god’s sake, he fucked you earlier.

“I...don’t know. Shit, shit. Uh-“

“It’s okay, Kiri.” You leaned against your doorframe and watched his adam’s apple bob. Chewing on your lip, you could already hear Shinsou’s demands swimming around your head.

Send that putrid, hormonal mongrel on his way…

“I just wanted to really apologize to you about earlier...” As Kirishima went on, your attention shot to the bead of sweat appearing on his temple. Heat radiated off his body which made you yearn to be closer to him. God, he was such a good guy. You couldn’t just kick him out in the middle of the night. You didn’t want to. You wanted to be closer to him, which should make you feel bad, but you didn’t feel anything but ravenous.

“Kiri,” you murmured and dropped your towel. Kirishima froze, and with the willpower of a thousand suns, managed to keep his eyes away from you.

“Um. Yeah?” He gulped.

“Ei,” you strummed, lifting your hand out to cup his jaw. You turned his face towards you, watched his eyes trail down your naked body, and kissed his lips, pushing him back and into your room.

When you were done with him, you hid on the covers, and fell into a very, very deep sleep, where you didn’t dream about anything. Not even Shinsou.

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atopearth · 4 years

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Ikemen Vampire Part 6 - Isaac Newton Route

It was really nice of the heroine to be so concerned over Isaac's wellbeing considering how pale and sick he seemed, it was just bad luck that it had to be because he needed blood, and no one had explained anything to her yet lol. Poor Isaac too though, considering how much he restrains himself from human blood, I don't know what he would do if he actually took hers, he already seemed so shaken realising that he was about to bite her but was stopped by Leonardo... Btw, it was kinda cute how Isaac seemed happy that the heroine remembered his name haha. I feel so bad for Isaac though, he really wanted to apologise to the heroine but she was so scared🥺 Like, it's understandable, but seeing Isaac so hurt over her rejection and fear just kinda broke my heart🥺 Isaac's reason for becoming a vampire was so he could have time alone to think? Hmm~ I see, the heroine's sudden arrival made Sebastian more busy than usual and that held him up on giving the "blood" to Isaac in time... I wonder why Isaac seems to need more blood than others though? Lmao, I found it so adorable yet sad when the heroine and Isaac bumped into each other in the hallway, Isaac started running away and wouldn't stop even though she told him to wait haha. He's so considerate, it's sweet. I'm really happy that the heroine proactively went to apologise to him (by bringing him food since he's avoiding her) because she wanted to understand and get along with him. I thought it was really nice to hear her retort to him when he said he was a monster; her saying that monsters are what we fear, but if we come to know and understand them, then they're not necessarily what we deem as "monsters" kinda reminds me of Frankenstein tbh, the "monster" isn't the bad one🥺

I'm glad the heroine told him that she wanted them to talk about happier things such as science and architecture and not focus on her injury that's constantly making him feel guilty. He feels so bad all the time, I feel sorry for him. It's sweet that he was concerned about whether she might not like going on a tour of town with him, he's way too considerate! Anyway, seeing Isaac so passionately talk about science and teach those arguing students what their textbook really was about was rather cute. He's usually really reserved, so as the heroine said, it's nice to see him feel more "alive". But yeah, even though it's understandable, it's kinda sad that the heroine just kinda tunes out when Isaac really gets into his talks about physics etc. Like, it's probably easier to write the story if the heroine "tunes out" but I think it would have been nice to hear a bit of the stuff he rambles. I was kinda wondering the whole time they were on their tour like doesn't Isaac need to eat?? They've been gone for a while lol. So yeah, seeing him desperately go to the kitchen and eat so fast made much more sense to me afterwards lol. His consideration is too much though, I mean it's coming at the detriment of himself! It's really kind of him to not want to interrupt her excitement and everything, but Isaac really needs to think about himself more. But I guess he enjoyed seeing her happy, so I guess it was worth it to him. Aww it was so sweet how when the heroine got pricked trying to help Harry the hedgehog (Isaac's pet), she was more concerned for his vampiric tendencies that she was going to leave before he made himself feel bad again. I also liked how Isaac was (probably not hungry) more concerned over her safety and gave her a handkerchief to take care of the blood. Omgg it was so cute how Isaac could properly express himself and say that the heroine's cooking was delicious (since she's been cooking every meal of his for a week), he's so sweet and honest when he takes the time to put his feelings into words.

It's nice how initially, the heroine was super scared of Isaac, but now, she feels the safest with him haha. Awww, Isaac hiding his happiness and embarrassment by fidgeting with his hair is so cute, it's understandable though, if someone from the future told me that something I invented is still being used to this day, I would be pretty giddy! It's sweet how Isaac is teaching the kids calculus though, Isaac's awkward but he tries his best to do the things he can, and I think that's really cool. Lmaooo at the head of the Sorbonne tackling a running Isaac trying to recruit him as a maths professor hahaha. Just the image of a random old man appearing, Isaac running away, and then the old man tackling him to the ground makes me laugh hahaha. Lmao when Isaac said he's got the wrong guy and that he doesn't even like sandwiches🤣🤣 (since when he solved the puzzle that other professors couldn't figure out at the cafe, he was eating a sandwich hahaha). Ohh, so Isaac used to be a professor, but it wasn't as nice and simple as he thought it would be. His colleagues denied him, took his work, betrayed him etc enough that he seems traumatised over the whole idea of working with people. I'm glad that the heroine stayed beside him and told him that she won't betray him. I mean, it might not mean much when it comes from someone that he doesn't know too well, but I think the words and the thought counts haha. It's nice how the heroine drags Isaac into silly things like falling into a fountain though, I think it really helps to brighten him up and view things in a different light since she's rather different from him. Aww it's so cute how Isaac called her a friend!! I kinda feel sorry for Napoleon though, I'm sure he really wanted to be considered a friend too, but I guess this is progress so I'm sure he'll be happy for Isaac either way!

A vampire with a cold is pretty hilarious, especially since it was to the point of him practically fainting haha. Poor Isaac though, he felt so queasy. But omggg he was so cute and adorable sick. I loved it when he asked her to feed him soup🥰 and he even teased her lmao, touchy feely Isaac is so funny and cute~ He was like a baby lmao. I think what melted my heart the most was him really wanting the heroine to stay with him as he slept and feeling really comfortable with her hand on his forehead, like omgggg, how can Isaac be so adorable?! I guess the reason why Isaac became a vampire is because ever since he began his journey on discovering things about the world, he was pulled into stuff like politics and jealousy of his genius, so he never really got to do what he wanted to do without all these people causing problems around him. It's sad to know how lonely of a life he led ever since he was born though. He never had anyone he could truly trust or rely on, or even just someone he could talk to, because his family never cared about him and others would either bully or be jealous of him. He never got to experience the "normal" stuff the heroine provides on their outings. He's so stubborn about keeping everyone at a distance and yet he feels unbearably lonely and vulnerable when he's sick, it was so cute of him to hold on to the heroine's hand in his sleep wanting her to stay. It was sad to see a bit of his past though, all Isaac wanted was to meet the expectations of others and be a good professor, and yet whether it be his students or his colleagues, they all ended up disliking him because of his genius. It's terrible.

It's so cuteee how flustered Isaac gets when the heroine touches him now that he knows he held her hand the whole time he was asleep hahaha. He's so embarrassed, it's adorable. Aww, I find it so cute how Arthur and Dazai are the ones who tease him the most about apples and gravity, yet they're the ones who watch out for him and talk to him about his "love life" hahaha. It's honestly so adorable of Isaac to run away from the heroine, although I do feel sorry for her lol. I'm glad Napoleon approached Isaac to understand what's wrong with him these days lol, it was nice to see him tell Isaac that he was thinking too hard and that he should just follow his instincts rather than constantly thinking. It was also kinda cute to see him run to the heroine, I mean, seeing him so actively seek her was nice for a change. I found it so adorable how he actually said to her that he ran there because he found it intolerable seeing her with another guy, he's so honest and cuteee. I loved how after Isaac invited her to go out on the weekend, this time she was much more fussy over her outfit and everything. It's so cute how shy they are, yet how natural it all feels. HAHAHA, I was like, Isaac saving the heroine after she herself tries to save the children he teaches was so cliche, but then I loved it when he lit up some flour to cause an explosion and then run off successfully, that was fun~ it was cute how he bought her that ribbon she was eyeing and even put it on her hair🥰 I was sad when he couldn't bring himself to force her to answer whether she was going back to her time or not, to be fair though, it is a difficult decision for her, so I think she honestly needs more time, especially since she just kinda realised that she loves Isaac. Can, uh Shakespeare kindly...go away? I don't care about his interest in tragedies blah blah, leave the innocent Isaac alone and stop confusing him! Just let him confess to the heroine, seriously!

Aww, c'mon heroine! Isaac said stuff like instead of the stars that she called beautiful, he'd rather look at her which is prettier or something along the lines of that! Why are you still scared of ascertaining whether he likes you or not?!😭 Isaac has been pretty upfront already, it's time for the heroine to step up her game! Especially when he said he didn't want her to leave and then kinda took it back, like of course he's just trying to be considerate to her! She should know what kind of person he is by now! He'd sacrifice himself for her. Okay, that was unexpected. Right when I was cheering her on to talk to him properly, and she goes to his room, Isaac ends up caving to his bloodlust (due to how it's kinda out of control now since liking her makes the need for blood stronger or whatever) and actually bites her and can't stop! Omggg! Such a terrible situation, he's gonna kill himself with guilt and think that she needs to go home asap... Like, I understand that the heroine feeling groggy after getting bitten and stuff makes her say things that might not express her feelings properly, but I feel like the misunderstanding between Isaac and her was rather forced? It's like, with the amount of words she sputtered out, she could have just told him she was feeling dizzy and couldn't focus properly etc, instead of saying things that would aggravate him even more. Not to say that Isaac is completely right though, since he should have understood that she'd be kinda confused right after waking up, but I'd give him the benefit of doubt considering he's the one feeling the greatest guilt for biting her, breaking the promise that he would never bite her, having to wait for her to wake up in his murder scene of a room, not knowing whether she was dead or not, and just basically having to live with the fact that his love really might kill her one day. So yeah..definitely the heroine was the more careless one, especially with the giving him blanc before food, making his bloodlust get worse, but it's definitely Isaac's fault for knowing how his body is yet still not eating properly on time. Seeing Isaac cry really broke my heart😭😭 I'm so glad Napoleon was there to soothe him. I'm mad at the heroine though. She heard from le Comte that the reason Isaac bit her was because of his deep romantic feelings for her exciting his bloodlust and she still doesn't try to rectify the misunderstanding with Isaac! Sure, there's still other problems, but that's for them to decide and discuss with each other, why is the heroine wallowing in pain about it "being too late" when she hasn't gone back to her time yet? As long as they are still there in that mansion, she can still reach him and talk to him! I guess to be fair though, Isaac always tries to solve his problems by avoiding and ignoring the heroine, so it's probably difficult for her to not feel down about it all, rejection is tough to deal with. I'm glad Dazai kinda woke her up to realise that just parting like this isn't what she really wants though, like do they really want to end things like this when they're both in love with each other?! These silly people.

Hmmm, I see why Isaac hates people, the Royal Society took all his research as "their property" and expelled him when he refused to delve in enough details that they wanted, then they even made it seem like Robert was the one who accused him of plagiarism in order to kick Isaac out. Pretty despicable. And they knew Isaac would believe it because Robert always challenged his ideas. It's kinda interesting though, to see that even though Isaac didn't like Robert very much because he always seemed to reject all his ideas, Robert on the other hand really liked these debates with him because he felt like Isaac was a worthy rival he could intellectually explore so many ideas with. It kinda shows how much he "loves" Isaac by becoming a vampire just to have more debates with him lol. As usual though, he alike all the other "villains" in the routes somehow have their feelings go out of control and explode in negativity and violence, and then they get killed~ I feel sorry for Robert though, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy that just kinda misunderstood what Isaac really wanted. I think Isaac is right that he already spent his original life all on research, so it's about time he lived this life for the other things he wanted such as making bonds with others. Glad to see they've finally made up their minds and confessed their love to each other though~ Aww the romantic ending is pretty nice, I love how Isaac gained the courage to try out being a professor again, and he asked for tips from other teachers so that he would be able to teach his students better and not leave them behind. I think the sweetest thing is that he thinks what's most important is sharing this knowledge he has rather than keeping it all to himself, I think it's great! Btw, Isaac in his professor garb is pretty hot, I like it!! I love the CG of them kissing on the grass or whatever, it was cute~

Overall, I quite enjoyed Isaac's route. I think it fell off a bit at the end with how dramatic it kinda was and how they were acting, but it was understandable why they pushed each other away I guess. Well, mostly Isaac, the heroine was a bit eh for her reasons imo, but that's okay lol, she tries haha. Otherwise, Isaac is a really sweet guy, it's so cute and lovely how considerate of a person he is and how kind he is at the detriment of himself. He's like this hurt and betrayed little puppy that needed the heroine to soothe him and help him learn to trust others again and I'm happy to see that happen. Seeing him grow and open up to others again was really heartwarming and I'm glad to see him not so reserved anymore and instead being able to be more open and honest with everyone. It was nice to see that him choosing to have the life of a vampire really brought him a chance to live a life he never could before.

#ikemen vampire

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mythicamagic · 5 years

Text

Just the Rain: Yui Komori Oneshot

Writing commission for @s-e-kwan

A foreign exchange student becomes interested in Yui, much to her confusion. Through him, she remembers what normalcy used to be like. Kinda OC x Yui. Mild Ruki x Yui if you squint.

Rated K+

Reaching up on tip-toe, her fingers strained out, trying to reach a book on the shelf above. Yui huffed and jumped, managing to grab the spine and fall back on the balls of her feet- bumping into something.

“O-oh, I’m sorry.” Came a pleasant, accented voice.

Yui turned, finding a foreign young man standing behind her. She hadn’t thought there would be anyone else in the library so early.

She bowed slightly, “I’m sorry too. It’s nice to meet you,” straightening, she offered a smile. “I’m Yui Komori.”

“Ah I’m James, James Walker.” He also bowed, but a little too low. “Y-you um dropped this,” he said, passing her a book.

“Thank you?” She took it, honestly not remembering dropping anything. How strange. “Um, anyway I’ll see you around,” she turned with the intention of leaving.

“Wait!” James stopped, cheeks heating. “Would you…like to study together?”

Yui blinked, before smiling gently.

-------

She had forgotten.

Yui had honestly forgotten what it was like to spend time with another human being. For a year she’d been surrounded by vampires, at first with the Sakamakis, then now with the Mukamis. She never had any friends, too weak in health to keep up appearances or attention too hogged by a blood sucker to really form bonds with others.

James was different.

He listened to everything she said, and took her out during lunch at school, to the park or cafe. He waited even when she was late for their meet-ups, exhausted and anaemic.

He was apparently from the UK and had transferred there for a few months to learn Japanese.

So for a bright few weeks, Yui drifted on cloud nine, allowing the Mukamis to suck her blood without much protest. She had other things on her mind.

However, the daydream was abruptly broken by a flick on her forehead.

“Livestock.”

Yui squeaked, rubbing the sore-spot. “What?”

Ruki’s eyes narrowed as they sat in her room. She didn’t really seem to notice her legs were on either side of his lap, straddling him as he sucked blood from her wrist. “What is this?” He muttered, sliding pale fingers under the thin chain around her neck.

“Oh, it’s a necklace!”

“I can see that. Who gave it to you?” He purred.

“N-nobody…”

Ruki dips her back on the bed slowly. “Lying to your Master, Livestock? What a terrible influence that boy has become on you,” he uttered lowly.

Yui’s eyes widened as the chain was grabbed. With a single tug, it snapped free, sending the cute charm on the end of it clattering to the floor. Her back hit the bed, fangs burying themselves in her neck as she cried out.

-----

Despite the looks of thinly veiled annoyance that morning in the kitchen, she’d persevered in making a bento for him.

“Woah, it looks amazing!” James grinned up at her during lunch at school.

“Oh it’s not…anything special.”

“No, really! You’ll make a wonderful wife someday,” he chuckled, struggling to use his chop-sticks. Yui’s cheeks heated, and she reached over the table, steadying his fingers and adjusting them to hold the utensils correctly.

James blinked, and they shared a look that had her heart fluttering like the fragile wings of a bird in its cage.

From across the room, she could vaguely hear Yuma huff, clearly watching. “If she thinks she can use my veggies to feed that guy again, she’s damn wrong,” he grumbled sourly.

“It…seems like Eve is spending all her time with him lately,” Azusa murmured, sitting next to him. “Feels lonely…ne, can’t we…scare him off a little?”

“Ruki said to ignore it. The kid is leavin’ in a month anyway.”

Yui felt the wings quietly fold in her chest, lashes lowering.

She didn’t need to be reminded.

------

Upon receiving a bouquet of roses, Yui’s shoulders had fallen.

“You don’t like them?” He asked with concern. “Oh- are you allergic?”

“No, they’re beautiful. Thank you so much,” she smiled.

As anticipated, Kou destroyed them upon sight once she got home.

‘Our roses not good enough for you anymore, hah?’ He’d snipped jadedly.

It’s not that, Yui thought tiredly. I just liked not having something taken from me in return for receiving a gift.

But she knew the vampire wouldn’t understand, so she said nothing.

-------

Every day was precious, and she enjoyed how easy and simple it was to be with him, to talk about homework, school, general things. Uncomplicated. James sometimes noticed how unsteady she was on her feet, and insisted on taking her to the school nurse, but apart from that, it became an unspoken law not to pry. She had no answers she could give, just platitudes.

So during the last day of his stay, she’d anticipated more of the same routine, only to be brought up short.

“Yui…I want you to come with me.”

She fell silent.

“I care about you. It’s not like I know anything about your circumstances but you’re…pale a lot of the time. And sad. So I-I bought an extra plane ticket already. Just in case you were scared you’d be stopped by your parents or something,” he murmured, and she almost told him everything then. But he kept talking, excited. “Come with me, we can be happy together, I know it!”

Yui slowly set her cup down, sitting across from him at the café. The bitemarks on her skin ached. She knew without looking there’d be a familiar somewhere outside, watching them.

Her lips tilted up, giving a soft smile. “I can’t.”

“Then can we keep in touc-“

“I can’t do that either,” she murmured. “I’m sorry. We can’t…talk anymore after today.”

His shoulders fell, looking crestfallen. Yui felt a pang of sympathy and regret, but she remained placid and kind the entire date, even when he took her in his arms and squeezed tight, saying goodbye.

Yui watched the taxi leave, body beginning to tremble.

Thank you, James.

For just a little while, she’d remembered normalcy. Before vampires and countless horrors had tainted her life. But it was different now, she was different.

When something wet hit the crown of her head, Yui tilted her chin up to look at the grey skies. More raindrops fell, landing on her face and lightly wetting her hair.

“…Are you crying?”

Yui glanced to the side, feeling Ruki’s watchful gaze on her.

“No,” she murmured, water rolling down her cheeks.

Her lips bent into a painful smile.

“It’s just the rain.”

#Diabolik lovers #yui komori #mukami brothers #diahell #dialovers

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nikatyler · 5 years

Photo

Oooh boy. Why do I feel like I should go straight to the replies, or else I will start talking about having a crush again? No one cares, I’m annoying, I’m sorry. Yesterday around midnight, I actually caved and told my best friend because I just couldn’t keep my feelings to myself any longer, and I was pleasantly surprised by her reaction. I didn’t want to tell her at first because we kinda tend to turn this kind of stuff into jokes, but I guess she did figure out that this time, it’s serious serious - THERE WE GO I’M OVERSHARING AGAIN I AM AN IDIOT. Anyway did I mention I love her? I don’t deserve her. She’s the best, you guys don’t even know her but I just wanted to give her a little shoutout because damn, thanks for yesterday, I thought I would explode. Also, she has an important exam in a week, so if you could send positive vibes her way, that would be great.

By the time you’re seeing this replies, I think I’m playing with Realm of Magic. I’m so excited! Last time I bought a pack on release day was with Seasons. I’m not sure who I will play this with yet. Maybe with Lucian and his girlfriend. I really hope you can somehow turn an alien into a spellcaster, even if that means he’d no longer be an alien. I don’t mind that. Whoops, hold on, was that a spoiler? Yeah, uh, Lucian is a teenager in my game at the moment, he has a girlfriend and he’s not very alien-y and I don’t care about that. Honestly…when have my aliens ever been alien-y? Miracle was the only one and she hated that (and 2019 Ronnie hates that she hated that but 2017 Ronnie didn’t know any better, long story).

Witches are something I’ve wanted in this game for a long time, so they better be good or else I’ll cry. Next up…I know everyone wants university, and I think we’ll get it, but to be fair, I don’t care about it that much. I’ll be playing university irl so I guess that makes sense. 😂 I would really like something like a band game pack, where you can form a band and have concerts and write music and…just do musician stuff, I guess. I was hoping bands would be added in Get Famous but nah, it was pretty much just acting…which I still haven’t explored. 🤦‍♀️ But yeah, band game pack is like my dream. I’m guessing it could be retro themed too, and have many references to some iconic bands?? Imagine if it was like 70s-80s inspired. Imagine THE HAIR. Did I mention I will defend weird 80s hair until the day I die? Yeah. I would really love that. I’m not saying I think a pack like this will happen, but it would be an absolute dream if it did.

TL;DR: I have a crush, I’m playing Realm of Magic and I want a band themed game pack.

autistichatkid replied to your post “Oh wow guess who’s putting nsb on long lifespan because even though…”

psa: you can use mccc to customize lifespan length!!! i dont like how fast normal goes but long is like. So Long. so i use mccc to make everything just a Lil Longer

I know you can do that, I don’t know how but it’s possible, yes! I’m not sure if I want to go for that though, I mean MCCC breaks with almost every update and knowing me, I would forget to fix my settings every single time. I think I’ll just use ea’s long lifespan and then age up people when I feel like aging them up.

desira-sims replied to your post “hey years ago you said you liked symphonic metal, do you still listen…”

Care to share some of your favorites? I’ve been in a music listening mood but feel in a rut.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “hey years ago you said you liked symphonic metal, do you still listen…”

I also don’t listen to e. g. often nowadays and… Their latest album was not my cup of tea except for song or two. And my music preference is now “whatever pleases my ears” even if it will make anyone else’s ear bleed��

Yeah sure, I can share my faves from 2-3 years ago! I’m not saying “from the genre” because I know some of these aren’t that symphonic, at this point it’s all a blur to me, to be fair. Besides, I stopped caring about genres, so…yeah. Just pointing that out so no one comes for me like “how dare you say band xy is that genre”.

Anyway, 2-3 years ago I really loved Nightwish, Within Temptation and Sonata Arctica, those were like my holy trinity, I would listen to them all the time, every single day. The latest WT album wasn’t really my cup of tea, I like their older stuff way more. SA released a new album last week, I kinda liked it but it wasn’t love at first listen. I’ll have to go back to form an opinion on it. Again, their older stuff is better in my opinion. Nightwish…I don’t know if it’s still going on, but people really liked comparing the three different singers they’ve had, and I don’t know why, I think they’re all amazing in their own way. I believe I’ve read on Instagram that new album is coming next year and I’m so excited for that. I don’t think there’s a Nightwish album I disliked.

I also really liked Delain and…Stratovarius, I think it was called? One summer I also listened to Epica a lot, but then all their songs started sounding the same to me. Sorry to any Epica fans that might be following me 😅 And I’m fairly sure I’m forgetting someone, but I believe there should be playlists on Spotify easy to find.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Updates”

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to create a possible spouse(( but I hope there’ll be other possibilities!XD

And good luck!

There definitely will be! Lately, I kinda hate every sim I create, sooo…I’ll leave that for someone else :D

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “That morning, when Vanessa was leaving for work, I had a bad feeling….”

I don’t like this!

I didn’t think this would freak people out so much…but it did…and I’m really sorry :D

1o8percent replied to your photoset “Roxanne: Maybe if I go to bed, it’ll just come to me in a dream. I…”

I’ve definitely had story ideas come to me in a dream. I got several ideas for my completed legacy that way, so good luck Roxanne!

When I’m writing something late at night and I get stuck, it actually helps me to turn off the computer and go think about the story in bed. And ta-da, I suddenly get ideas! Some of them get lost as soon as I fall asleep, but usually the right direction stays in my head and I’m ready to pick it up as soon as I sit down to write again.

igglemouse replied to your photoset Roxy, the interaction said “feel tummy”, not “take the baby out of…”

She just can’t wait to meet her new sibling XD

That’s actually terrifying D:

brightlysimming replied to your post “I got a hug from a girl I barely know and now I’m emo, I already love…”

Aa!! That’s so great! I’m happy you had a good time!!

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “I got a hug from a girl I barely know and now I’m emo, I already love…”

Congratulations! I hope you’ll have fun there! ��

I’m still not over that last weekend. Everyone was so nice and kind and fun and I loved talking to these people so much, uni will be great with them ;-;

The best surprise to me was that there was this person, and they would come to me a few times and ask if I wanted to hang out with them away from the drunk crowds?? (we’re Czech, of course 95% of people who went to that trip got drunk in the evening -_- :D) And that was just so nice? I’m not used to people wanting to hang out with me. Also, we had great time together, if they called now I would quit everything to hang out with them :D

I’m about to start crying again. To all you lonely people struggling out there, trust me, it gets better, you’re not always going to be lonely and miserable. I thought that would be my case, but nope, things are starting to look better. And they will eventually start looking better for you too, I just know it. Don’t give up <3

lilleputtu replied to your photoset “*whispers* guys i wanna chop sunset’s hair off”

she’d look so cute with short hair! also it’s the sims, she can insta regrow it it’ll be fiiiiine

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “*whispers* guys i wanna chop sunset’s hair off”

One of the best things I ever did was put Cassandra Goth in a pixie cut. Doooo eeeet.

autistichatkid replied to your photoset “*whispers* guys i wanna chop sunset’s hair off”

��

deathflowertea replied to your photoset “*whispers* guys i wanna chop sunset’s hair off”

1 & 4 are ��

I think it’s official, we’ll be chopping Sunset’s hair off, yay!

desira-sims replied to your photoset “Meet the Teens! These guys will join my two girls, Crystal and…”

School and real life comes first, but I’ll be excited to see these simmies pop up when the time comes. ��

So am I! I’m not sure what to do right now. I want to play RoM, but when I come back to my NSB…do I finish Sunset’s generation requirements first, or do I just slowly start throwing these teens in? Kind of like I started working on Ross’s aspiration when it was technically still the Mint gen. Eh, I’ll figure it out.

tashsim replied to your post “URL Song Tag”

have to get up at 5:30 for a next month. feel your pain..

That’s not great D: I think I’d have to do that too, if I wasn’t moving to a dorm in Prague later this month. Spending so much time on the train and having to wake up so early would kill me.

elisabettasims replied to your post “Ahh, of course. I kinda forgot that I would get tan in summer, today I…”

I feel this on a personal level.

I kinda never had to deal with this before because I’ve been using foundation only for a year or so. And I’m fairly sure I’m using a lighter one now, because I definitely didn’t feel like a vampire last September :D

toxoplasmajuice replied to your photoset “Scarlett: “I saw you helped extinguish the flames too.” Talia: “I…”

talia… wyd

toxoplasmajuice replied to your photo “Scarlett: “Well, uhh, you didn’t mess up, so…” Talia: “I’ll stay, but…”

TALIA… WYD

toxoplasmajuice replied to your photo “Meanwhile the contestants who have nothing to worry about gathered…”

talia you might be safe this time but you definitely should NOT be thinking you have nothing to worry about after… Earlier

I hate how this turned out D: I’ve noticed that sims in my game aren’t fond of the “enthuse about…” interactions. And then it ruins things like this.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “Madeleine: “Yes! Did you see that? Today must be my lucky day!”

Don’t boast too much, love!

She’s really doing great though! Maybe she didn’t make the best first impression, but she’s been working really hard ever since.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “We didn’t start the fire It was always burning Since the world’s been…”

What’s the name of the song? I love everything connected to fireXD

It’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel! Warning: It’s super catchy.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “I absolutely fell in love with these cute pants some time ago but I…”

I think I will overuse these pants now:D So thank you for introducing them in the first place:D And for shoutout!

I was glad to help! And… I remember those girls!

Thank youuu! I’m a “high waisted everything” kinda girl, so of course I had to recolour these so I could use them even more often. And I’m glad that I’m not the only one, I mean, the reblogs and likes on this post are insane.

And yay, glad you remember them! Juliet and Amber were easier to recognize, I guess, but the other two, Lily and Lavender…I haven’t posted them too much, ever. I forgot how pretty they were *-* I will definitely use them as my models for recolours and stuff.

dandylion240 replied to your post “I didn’t expect to come up with a whole backstory for Caleb and…here…”

I like your ideas for him though

Thank you so much! I’ve been seeing him on my dash a lot lately, so it’s kinda weird seeing like three different versions of him at once, especially when someone makes him do things my version of him would never do :D

whysimstho replied to your photoset “There you go…some gen 3 moments with no context. Good luck figuring…”

#5 Sunset signs here dad up for Simdr #6 it’s lit

1o8percent replied to your photoset “There you go…some gen 3 moments with no context. Good luck figuring…”

I’m intrigued by the last one.

desira-sims replied to your photoset “There you go…some gen 3 moments with no context. Good luck figuring…”

I don’t approve of the second one. No tears! I’ll gladly take more of the 4th and get the feeling she’s a little tired of seeing it all the time. Fire is also bad, but I guess the conversation was to good to stop. And that last one. Oh that’s great.

dandylion240 replied to your photoset “There you go…some gen 3 moments with no context. Good luck figuring…”

Why is Ross crying? Nothing better have happened to Caleb

*evil laughter*

I love how you guys assume the worst. I mean, I’m not surprised. I tend to accidentally kill my sims a lot this year. Well, you’ll find out very soon what is actually going on in these!

Also, just a side note, that child in picture #4 is Lucian and he’s not a girl, but I will admit he looks like one (and I’m fairly sure he knows that too and is okay with that, I mean, if he didn’t want to look like that, he’d beg for a haircut), so no worries. Just throwing it out there.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Oh, try to do Salim Benali!”

Aw he looks adorable! It makes me love him even more,

elisabettasims replied to your post “Oh, try to do Salim Benali!”

Salim is hard because he’s already pretty good looking, etc. He’s the dad of one of my sims who I did a BC with and founded my legacy on her, LOL(Anissa Hoffmann, she has her mom’s last name). Though I guess REALLY Salim and her mother are the founders but, I didn’t start a legacy until after her BC.

I agree, he’s definitely one of the few miracle townies who don’t need fixing.

Also, thank you!

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Ugh, I hate this already. Can I go back to being an adorable evil…”

You can be an adorable evil child instead!

Oh, she will be.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Gwyneth: “Ready to age up, sweetie?” Avery: oh mum you bet”

Why is Gwyneth so cute I can’t even describe it!

Her cute face is the only reason why I thought “well, I could try a BPR I guess…”

Seriously. I’ve never really cared about berries, I’ve always prefered vanilla sims and berries were just something I created in cas from time to time and then never touched again. I still prefer vanilla sims and kinda doubt I’ll ever start another berry save.

elisabettasims replied to your photoset “Right…so now you’re a middle aged mum with a midlife crisis and a…”

I HATE THAT STUPID HAIR AND HOW IT SHOWS UP ON EVERYONE WHEN THEY AGE UP. *coughcough* Sorry. Had a bad flashback seeing that.

I hate it so much too! But actually, wanna hear a deep dark secret? I once used it on a sim…unironically. Like I actually thought it was cute.

I was 11 though, so that makes it okay, I think. I hope.

#replies #autistichatkid #desira-sims #tiny-tany-thaanos #1o8percent #igglemouse #brightlysimming #lilleputtu #elisabettasims #deathflowertea #tashsim #toxoplasmajuice #dandylion240 #whysimstho

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takerfoxx · 5 years

Text

All right, now that I got all that ranting off my chest, let’s go for something a little more positive.

See, at it’s heart, this is a fandom blog. Mostly about PMMM, Skyrim, pro wrestling, and sometimes Touhou, but I’m into much more than all that. So hey, why not use it to gush a little about my favorite characters from...pretty much everything?

So yeah, that’s what I’m going to do for the foreseeable future. Post a different character every day and talk about why I love them. Because why the hell not?

And what better way to kick things off than with one that most of you are familiar with and is quite literally the whole reason I’m here? Starting off, we have...

FLANDRE SCARLET!

Okay, little background: like so many western fans, I was introduced to Touhou through the Bad Apple video. Someone from my college’s anime club showed it during the Christmas party one year, and I was entranced. But the part that made me go from “Hey, this is pretty cool!” to “I must know where all of this is from” is Flandre’s little shadow changing grin. You know the one.

What followed was several days of intense googling, as I looked up first the series and then the characters as they appeared in the video, one by one. A lot of time spent on TV Tropes and other wikis followed, and then came getting the games for myself, as well as diving into various pieces of fanwork, followed by a very influential marathon of Nakateeli’s Let’s Play of Touhou Mother, from which I stole a lot.

And then a little idea for a scene stared burrowing into my head, and I kinda wanted to see where it would go. I was reading a lot of other fanfics at the time and wondered if I should give it a shot. So I wrote out the first chapter, threw it up on FF.net to see what would happen, and...well, you know the rest.

But through it all, Flandre was always my favorite.

I mean, she a centuries old vampire stuck with the body and mind of a child with incredible power, a very tenuous grasp on sanity, a stupidly catchy theme, and a kickass design (seriously, those crystal wings are a stroke of genius). How could she not be my favorite? Plus, there is just so many things you can do with a character like that! If you want her to be super cute, you can!

Absolutely terrifying? Got you covered.

Tragic and sympathetic woobie? Simple enough.

Flashy badass? Say no more!

And they all fit right in with canon, I love it!

Naturally, when it came time to include her in Imperfect Metamorphosis, I decided to say fuck it and do all of the above. Yes, she is cute. Yes, she is terrifying. Yes, she is tragic. Yes, she is awesome. That honestly made her so much fun to write for, which was a relief, since your favorite characters in the original series and your favorite characters to write in your fanfic don’t always line up, but in this case it did. And I loved the relationship that developed between her and Rin, which, as I mentioned before, was entirely unplanned but just sort of happened, and I’m glad it did.

So, here’s to the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s dirty little secret, the younger sister of the Scarlet Devil herself, the lonely child that just wants someone to play with but will likely accidentally pop the head of anyone brave enough to try. Here’s to Flandre Scarlet, without whom I wouldn’t even be there, and for that I at least am thankful.

Kyuu~!

p.s. Yes, she is far from the last vampire on this list.

#touhou project #flandre scarlet #fav of the day

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guacameowle · 7 years

Text

Jihyun Route: Another Story - Notes

Below the cut are the notes of opinions & thoughts I wrote down as I was playing Another Story. It’s below a cut because it’s very lengthy; I think it came out to over 8400 words. I certainly don’t expect anyone to read all of it, but I had a few people ask for me to do this, so here it is. Some of it is more in-depth analysis, most of it is probably nonsense, a lot of it is me thirsting.

Everything written is what I was thinking at the time something happened in the moment of playing the game so you can see how my theories/emotions of the game progress day by day. I did not go back & change anything I wrote after finishing the route. I haven’t even gone back to proofread it yet, so my apologies for ridiculous errors or confusion.

The notes are broken up by days & then by endings (I’ve only completed good & normal endings so far). Obviously, this text will be loaded with spoilers. I apologize if you’re on mobile & the cut doesn’t work & you have to scroll past this horrendously long post.

I’m sure some of what I’ve said here will be controversial, but I’m not here to argue with anyone or create discourse; this is just a means to express my opinions & lingering curiosities about some aspects of the route.

I by no means disliked this route. I very much enjoyed it for all it’s drama, twists, emotional upheaval, discoveries, & Jihyun’s sexy sexy voice.

Prologue

Like hell am I answering any of these calls.

Whyyy are you so obsessed with me?!

Omg they give you a 'call the police option'?! Iconic. I’m doing it.

I AM CRYING LAUGHING. I BAD ENDED & MC GAVE NO FUCKS. Just went home to order some chicken wings. A legend. SHE COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO GIVE A FUCK. Honestly, that is my true ending. Ultimate true end. This is how my story would have ended if this happened to me in real life. Except I would have gone home to a tub of ice cream. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Excellent start to this update. She honestly just disbanded a cult & got dinner afterwards like it was no big thing. Boss MC.

Ok I'll do the prologue & play naive now.

Oh. A blindfold. KINKY~.

MC better be prepared to die because she just willingly let herself be kidnapped. 🙄

DAY ONE

The new music is so so nice. That violin concerto - so beautiful. I need sheet music.

That bedroom at Mint Eye is essentially my DREAM room. Wowza. So much pink! Yeah yeah, Ray, I’ll play your game as long as I don’t have to leave that bed. Ever.

Fuck. Ray is wearing gloves. FUUUUUCK me right up. GLOVES!!!

CATCH MY ASS FLIRTING WITH JUMIN ALL DAY ER’DAY. I told Juju I wanted to hear his voice. I’m so thirsty.

Jumin released a quote book. It probably has great lines like, “Yaaaaaa” or “What is fried chicken?” … I’d buy it. Will probably turn out to be the best trilogy I ever spent money on.

“Mankind is born lonely.” (Call Ray after 00:00 chat). This game just got deep as fuck. I’m not ready for that kind of existential commentary at midnight on day one, ok? Let’s chill. I came here to talk to cute boys/girl, not mull over how mankind was doomed from the start.

Zen is already basically horny & ready to rumble if you tell him you called him in the middle of the night because you were thinking about him & honestly that already makes this a fantastic update.

I’m glad we got a little more context on how Yoosung had a random friend who joined a cult & tried to recruit him. Solid tie-in, Chertiz. Bravo.

JUMIN PREFERS FULL-BODIED WINE. FUCK ME RIGHT UP. THIS MADE ME SO HAPPY.

Yoosung, you’re breaking my heart. I want to comfort him so bad. Everything is still so fresh & he’s so frustrated. He’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster this entire route. I can feel it. Deep in my bones.

“You should be asleep." BINCH. Then why did you call me?!

Ok, day one is almost fucking over, where in the mint wig hell is V?! This is supposed to be his route, right? I’m fixing to start answering for Ray in a hot minute if Pastel Princey doesn’t show up pronto.

ZEN IS SUCH A NARCISSIST & I LOVE HIM FOR IT. “I wonder what I’d look like wet.” Me too, send a selfie quick. Please. I’ll beg.

I can’t stop flirting with everyone holy crap I’m probably going to bad end. I don’t even know who I have the most hearts for currently…

DAY TWO

Why are the longest chats in this game at 2 in the damn morning?! Cheritz, please…

Have I mentioned I really like V’s new sprite outfit? CAUSE I DO. It’s an excellent style. That coat with the pin on the lapel is perfect! Mmmhmm.

Also, V’s sprite’s body language seems pretty important to me. That arm wrapped over himself & holding his other arm feels very closed off. He’s the leader but he’s curling in on himself. Yes, by now we know he has secrets, but this almost feels like he’s unsure of himself for other reasons. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

In a call V says the dark sky was taking over the moon but then in the next chat he says he couldn’t sleep because the moon was too bright. WELL, WHICH IS IT? I am betting that "bright moon" was probably just a lamp. Flip the switch, V. Turn it off & go to bed.

Aye, Jumin went to a foreign university. I want to know where. Have it ever been said how many other languages Jumin knows? I know he goes to New York & China for business a lot, so do we assume he takes translators with him or that he knows enough of the languages to get by? I’m so curious.

HOW V & JUMIN MET IS THE CUTEST SHIT I HAVE EVER READ IN MY LIFE OMGGGG. Jumin calling the insurance company about a toy car. Stop I can’t. I love him so much.

LITTLE JUMIN IN SUSPENDERS OMG I AM SCREAMING. That mini suit is probably bespoke Armani. Damnit.

V & Drunk!Jumin talking about their friendship is going to make me cry.

Jumin talks about almost being kidnapped on multiple occasions as if it were just a minor inconvenience of his day. “Ran out of pancakes, almost got kidnapped, crashed my toy car…”

Yeah yeah Ray. They're AIs. Sure. Uh huh. Totally believe you.

HOLY SHIT. Seven got a major equipment & set up upgrade. Someone tell me he posted to r/battlestations ?!?!?

Ray said he's going to try to tame me with food & honestly I am not opposed to this. He found my weakness so quickly. BRING ME ICE CREAM! STRAWBERRIES! CHAMPAGNE! Ask Jumin to make me some pancakes, I liked those.

Whoa dang. Zen's "sleepy but maybe gonna lose my voice" voice is 💦💦💦💦

V in that robe. 👀👀👀 ((Lynn, why are you like this?))

The first recommended party guest is a vampire (who could pass for Eros Katsuki Yuuri in a cape). I love this silly game. You think if I told Jumin that the 'Twilight' series was really a documentary he would believe me?

So Jumin confirmed he doesn't have siblings. That's actually one of the lingering questions I had about him. I’m glad he & V found one another at such young ages then. One could argue that they’re like brothers.

I am going to say it - I think Yoosung needs to meet with a licensed professional on a set schedule. He has no outlet for these emotions he's feeling & fears being badgered by RFA members when he does express himself. I feel so bad for him, especially knowing, as the player, that he was right all along to question V & the lack of evidence on Rika's supposed suicide. The RFA chatroom is not a safe space for him. Yet on the other hand, he’s being very selfish in wanting the others to grieve the same way he is. This is a very complex character bit about him.

Jaehee continues to be wary of me nonstop… but is 100% convinced that Seven is inviting the actual planet of Pluto to this party. ::looks directly into the camera::

Now Jumin wants to invite an actual bowl of udon. ::looks harder into the camera:: (If these were the guest recommendations Rika got, no wonder she left.)

JAEHEE CG. CRITICAL HIT. WOMAN DOWN. “You look tired.” JuMIN! No! “You look tired…” LyNN! NO!

I think I’m going to bad end if I don’t stop getting Jumin’s hearts… but I can’t help myself. I am a weak weak woman.

Why in the hell is this chat called “Party at Saturn” but then in the chat we talk about Jupiter instead. False advertising!

I could listen to V’s voice all day. That is S I L K Y ~

Ray is reaching obsessive level status. This boy just attaches to anyone that’s remotely nice to him, doesn’t he? I’ll admit, I went into this route but really liking Unknown. He irritated me. I knew he was tormented & abused, but he was not a good man. Ray though, seems really sweet. So are we to believe sometime between now & the two years into the future something happens to him that just causes him to snap & no longer want to be nice?

DAY THREE

Zen is saying “lmao” a lot.

“There’s a perfect medication for that. It’s called… BEER. LMAOOOO.” Zen is just me in college. Confirmed.

Ok so this route has some of the prettiest CGs I have seen in this game. I am loving them.

IT IS 4AM CHERITZ. I DON’T NEED THESE EMOTIONS FROM SAERAN TALKING ABOUT A POTTED PLANT WITH TWO STALKS & ONE OF THEM GROWING WEAKER. GODDAMNIT. I’M GOING TO CRY. OH SHIT HE BUSTED OUT THE CRYING EMOJI. BE STRONG, LYNN.

If this boy doesn’t get some sort of emotional help & redemption in this story I am going to be so so upset.

(Call 707 after “Paradox of the Survival of the ____ Chat) Did Seven just pull a “BITCH WHERE?” joke on me when I called him sexy?!

V's dad is a vampire. Look at that guy. Jumin, don’t look him in the eyes.

TEENAGE ANDROID ZEN!

Jaehee’s "jet pilot" convo had me dying. What kinda Space balls + Monty Python convo was that?!?!

This slow mellow piano melody (I guess V's theme) is very lovely. It makes me sleepy in a good way. That gentle crescendo in the middle with the chimes gives me chills.

CHOIR BOYS JUMIN & V!!!! HOW PRECIOUS!!!

I actually like that we get to see more of V's hesitation & examples of him still struggling with the grieving process.

Yoosung is really lashing out here. I understand his frustrations but he is very blind to his own selfishness.

OMG THE START OF YOOSUNG'S LOLOL ADDICTION! 😨

New order of favorite voices: V, Jumin, Yoosung, Ray, Zen, Jaehee, Luciel. ((This is shocking to me because I tend to prefer high-pitched male voices. Why? I don’t even know. The first time I heard Yoosung’s voice I was like “THIS IS THE ONE. THIS IS IT! QUALITY! GOOD SHIT!” Then I heard Jumin talk & my panties were WRECKED. I couldn’t fight it. I didn’t want to fight it.))

Aye, not to RUSH anything but uhh… when do I get to start giving answers like “V come save me” cause homeboy is at Mint Eye. I’m at Mint Eye. We can fucking leave Mint Eye together. Just saying.

Me In-Game: “Yoosung, I think you need to seek professional help.” Yoosung: “I don’t think I need counseling. I’ll just vent my feelings into my new game!” Me Out-Of-Game: “BOY I HAVE SEEN YOUR FUTURE & WE NEED TO HAVE A TALK!”

DAY FOUR

“Say Yoosung for example … [he’s] set to mourn the death of his precious but is he really sad because of somebody’s death or is he sad because death still remains a mystery to him?” I swear I just looked off into the distance & said, “Holy fuck…” Ray is getting DEEP. He just made a damn good point honestly. My mind is blown. I need a minute. This explains so much about Yoosung, honestly.

Ray just broke all the characters down in like 5 words or less. I am seriously impressed. Chertiz. CHERTIZ, MY DUDES. Your game is fantastic. Your characters are so in depth. None of them are perfect & I love it.

“… plant a seed of happiness inside you.” You’re not planting any seeds inside of me. Nope. Thanks for playing. I don’t want your seed. I can buy seeds at Home Depot if I need them. Thanks.

I’m guessing day 4 bad ending is you basically just joining Mint Eye with Ray at this point… & getting all of his seed.

JUMIN CALLED ME WHILE HE’S LYING IN BED. I AM BLESSED & I AM ALSO LYING IN MY BED.

Ok… I was hoping this call would get sexy but now he’s just talking about mattresses. Look Juju, you’re welcome to come & help me test the firmness of my mattress & I’ll test the firmness of your-

Real talk, Jumin’s exaggerated sigh directly into my ear via headphones gave me chills. Bye. I’m ascending to another plane of existence.

…. I’m waiting for that moment V changes his profile picture. WHEN. WILL. IT. HAPPEN?

The Game of Kings CG. I’m fucking crying.

VANDERWOOOOD.

Zen looking like he did an autumn “back to school” photoshoot for Sears & I am LOVING IT. He’s so cute. Looks like a Sketchers advert.

Yoosung is too innocent for his own good. Just met someone one day prior & already accepting packages from them. STRANGER DANGER, MY DUDE.

WET ZEN SELFIE! MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED! BLESSED.

Yoosung, I want to be your ‘master’. Please & thank you.

Elixir of salvation. Ah, that wonderful combination of harsh chemicals & neurotoxins/hallucinogens. I wouldn’t put it past them to have added piss. Ray says he’s going to make it special for me though by adding flavor to it. This boy is probably going to add a dollop of ice cream in it & say “IT’S AN ELIXIR OF SALVATION FLOAT!” Hard pass.

V COME & SAVE ME ALREADY! But let’s keep the robe…. for reasons… (Hello, you have all been introduced to Meowle’s extensive clothing kink.)

“The secret has got out of my hands…” ::looks directly into the camera with both eyes unblinking:: Boy, I’ve been saying this since uh… 2 years… into your future….

If I’m forced to drink this shit despite choosing the answers of resisting I’m going scream. I DO NOT CONSENT.

SAVE YOURSELF V! RUN!

Ok really, I just want to pick Ray up, toss him over my shoulder, tell him to hush & trust me, & walk out of there while karate kicking everyone in the face. Come at me. (Congratulations Cheritz, you made me like a character I didn’t originally like. You sneaky skillful writers.)

Holy shit, excellent EXCELLENT voice acting by Saeran’s VA. That was absolutely phenomenal. Sujin Kang. Bravo!

DAY FIVE

THIS ROUTE HAS GOT ME EMOTIONALLY FUCKED UP & I AM ONLY ON THE START OF DAY 5?! How am I supposed to do this for 6 more days?

V panting in a phone call = my mind directly into the gutter. Whew.

Yes, because keeping MORE secrets has helped us in the past 4 days. Does nobody learn from their mistakes in this game?

((Explained the current plot of this route to my sister)) Sister: “Ok, if this took place here in Texas, you’d just bust in there with guns blazing to save those pink & mint boys.” Me: “I wouldn’t kill anyone!” Sister: “You could just like… aim for their legs so they can’t chase you out of there.”

“It doesn’t matter what happens to me” This almost feels like V’s emotions go beyond just self-sacrifice for those he cares about. This blatant disregard for his own safety feels very self-damaging. I’m wondering if they’ll tap into this idea further in the story. Does he not feel worthy of existing? Of love?

Whoa… whose voice is THIS? Whomever this lady voice is, she’s got protractors in her eyeballs too, like Juju.

“I’ve lost my violin, something I’ve played for my whole life.” GIRL, I FEEL YOU. My heart is shattering for her & I don’t even know who she is.

Ohhhh it’s V’s mom isn’t it?! Calling it now.

I'm laughing so hard. "IT IS TIME TO ACTIVATE THE INTELLIGENCE UNIT!" & it's not even established yet! Jumin please. Omg.

How adorable!! Teenage Jumin & V!!

Wow, V's philosophy on life sure did a massive 180 in 10 years. Hmm, methinks his mom is going to come in to play for that.

I swear, if anyone else pops in & tries to “cleanse me” I’d start throwing fists. Touch me, I dare you.

V is resisting every romantic approach. I feel bad for trying to flirt with him. I guess I’ll just flirt with Jumin then.

Zen giving Yoosung some major tough love. He didn't have to step up to care for Yoosung, but he did. Zen is a good man.

Yoosung's crying phone call is ripping me apart. Also this voice acting is phenomenal. So so good but so painful.

This is disgusting. Rika has some serious psychosis & V decided to suffer in it as some way to "prove his love". That's not love. This is blatant abuse. I'm appalled. V was blinded by 'love', literally & figuratively.

In the end, V was abused. He had his love for Rika twisted/manipulated & used against him. He was physically hurt by his lover. This makes me angry not just because it happened but because he gave consent. I’m just… so fucking baffled. You do not encourage someone who is mentally unstable (or even stable) to inflict pain on yourself or others as a means for them to try to maintain a grasp on their sanity or ‘happiness’ or because they want proof you ‘love them.’ V encouraged this, he allowed it, he consented & it fucking spiraled out of control. He took on so much pain. He thought by doing this he was somehow helping Rika, but it didn’t! It just made everything worse & Rika went on to hurt more people after this. Yes, I see that V is trying to redeem himself somehow, trying to keep everyone else out of the situation so they don’t suffer like he did & so they don’t get hurt but I can’t ignore the fact that V made mistakes in their relationship as well. Rika’s growing mental instability should have been handled with a lot more care (therapy ((if one doesn’t work try another)), hospitalization, medication). He knew from the beginning she was like this, no? He enabled these tendencies she had & it wasn’t good for either of them. I want to know his end goal. Was he just being selfish? Did he think only he could be a cure for her? What was he getting out of this since it didn’t read as if he was really being loved back. Did he do any of this out of malicious intent? No, I don’t think so - it reads as if he was doing what he thought was right but V made mistakes & I feel sorry for them both. V is a very tragic character indeed. He thought his love was some sort of cure-all for his lover but it wasn’t. This is actually very sad. In a way, I guess he did stop her from hurting others (for a time) or hurting herself, but that still doesn’t make this right.

I was heavily suspicious of V in the original routes (even though his voice was so goddamn sexy), particularly in Yoosung & Seven’s routes. I still think V is not entirely free from blame. I don’t think he’s by any means evil or manipulative, just misguided in what he thought was love but really was just self-sacrifice & pretty damn obsessive if you ask me. It also rings heavily of codependency. You don’t give up every part of yourself so your partner can find ‘happiness’, that’s not a healthy love. Love yourself a little more than that, Jihyun, please.

I don't like Rika. Yes, she did good things while ‘alive’ & at one point she might have been healthy & mentally stable but it spiraled out of her & anyone else's control into a very very dark place where she became toxic, manipulative, & delusional. She's done horrible acts that I refuse to look past regardless of her previous ‘good deeds’. Bad people can do good things for all the wrong reasons. She needs medical help, I can see that, but that doesn't mean I have to like her. Her words & actions against V are very selfish as well, demanding he prove his love by letting her physically hurt him? She targeted his need to please & exploited the hell out of that - backed him into a corner & kept badgering him about him proving his love (even though he seemed all too willing to do just that). This is wrong in every way. Mental illness isn’t a ‘free pass.’

This conversation between MC, Yoosung, & Jaehee felt very productive! Yoosung seemed to actually listen & take in another POV.

DAY SIX

Ok, I officially feel like I have no fucking idea what the actual shit Rika or V are talking about in any of their damn video novel conversations. Too many damn metaphors & nonsense. Yes yes, sunshine, flowers & dark skies. Let’s move along. I’d rather hear Yoosung crying.

Update: V officially changed his profile background picture again but still not his avatar picture.

I hope Elizabeth 3rd isn’t suffering at all through this dramatic period. Is she ok? Is she eating well? How are her jumps coming along? Has she been grooming properly? When was her last bowel movement? I hope my precious baby angel is doing well.

V’s mom is kicking me right in the emotions. Every word she’s saying is just devastating. To lose everything & be outcast, having your child ripped away, not being able to find solace in something you’d taken comfort in for decades… I can’t even begin to imagine.

What a sad sad parallel. V’s mom lost her hearing & therefore her art of music. V is losing his sight & therefore his art of photography. Wow.

Secrets secrets are no fun… BECAUSE IT’S FUCKING RUINING EVERYONE’S LIVES.

I don't want Ray to be abandoned again!

You make one comment about recognizing a 90s computer & Seven suddenly calls you "ma'am." Boy, I oughta...

Jaehee says that V drives a British make car that is silver in appearance. I am hoping it's a silver Aston Martin Vanquish (aka Meowle's absolute dream car - only I want it in black in black on black).

I am laughing so hard at the idea of Jaehee just turning toward Seven & asking, "Do you work out?” ((Another Story - Brought to you by Seven’s Hot Hot Body. He Works Out!))

Yeah girl, I hate to break it to you, but that mask is doing nothing to conceal your identity so…

Hahaaaaa Seven imitating Jaehee in this phone call is pretty damn hilarious.

Someone please tell me there some options to throw a punch or two cause I fucking will. I need a Mortal Kombat option.

Jumin's analogy about V, Yoosung, & the apple tree was really really good! That pep talk was amazing. Jumin hit a home run with that motivation speech.

What kinda photos did Seven find? Naughty photos? Photos of Rika hurting V? Are we going to get to see these later?

Ok ok this might be a stretch but it's almost like V's mom's love & desperation for her child, that concern to only want to shield from pain & no longer finding purpose in anything else in life, is heavily paralleled in V's need to protect his "art" (Rika). Is this why he was so determined to try to be the outlet for her pain? He really thought this was his way of protecting her? A set of photos in his series was called Obsession, right? Was this all about an obsession with Rika? Makes sense to me at least. V is in deep, I'm questioning his mental stabilities as well in these flashbacks, honestly.

This CG with Rika & MC makes me uncomfortable. Hands off, please & thank you.

God bless Jumin keeping me updated on Elizabeth 3rd because right now she's the only bright spot in this horrifically emotional route.

"Once they get used to love... I show them fear again. Just enough to get them scared. And when I save them again, they become happy." What kinda toxic manipulative evil callus twisted deceitful bullshit. Girl, if I get my hands on you I’ll show you something to be afraid of.

Shit is going down & Ray is texting me about sunflowers. "If you leave then I'll be the sunflower. I'm going to stand watching the direction you've gone to." 😢😢😢 Please, don’t hurt him anymore.

I am at the end of day 6 & honestly I don't know if I am about to bad end. Did I fuck up somewhere? Oh geez...

JUMIIIIN stepping in & delegating like a champ. I love you.

Rika just sort of confirmed my little theory about V & ‘noble self sacrifice’, thinking he was some sort of cure-all for her demons but didn't see that he was doing more harm than good. I don't want to agree with her here but I almost kinda have to. I mean, she did ask him to basically keep giving her unconditional love, so she’s also a hypocrite in saying it was entirely V’s fault. He wasn’t the cause of her “devil” but I think he certainly had an inadvertent hand in helping it flourish.

Cheritz, please let me fight someone in this game. PLEASE! I want a full on Mortal Kombat side mode. I will go full on Liu Kang up in here, complete with all the noises he made in Sega Genesis - HUUWAH!

Hell. No. I will not do anything for you ((at least not until I loop back around to intentionally bad end)). You can fuck right the fuck off. I ain't telling the RFA shit for you.

DAY SEVEN

Oh ho ho, defensive & in-denial Yoosung is out to play.

“We’re teenagers. This is the period where we express rebellion.” Cue Jumin tilting his tie clip 30* upward so it’s not perfectly perpendicular to his tie. REBELLION! Drink tap water instead of chilled glass-bottle mineral water. REBELLION! Pay with cash instead of card. REBELLLLLIIIOOOONNNN!

Real talk - Jumin, that was some outstanding advice. He’s telling this to his friend & they’re just children at this stage? That is some serious insight. I will never get over how Jumin, who is so emotionally closed off, is such a damn good friend to V. His delivery was impeccable as well, it wasn’t condescending or judgmental; it was sincere. It was very matter of fact but did have a hint of genuine concern for his friend. Their friendship makes me very happy & I am glad they have one another. This isn’t just a “little” chat. This conversation goes on to very likely change V’s entire life… & Jumin had a massive hand in that. I’m so amazed, y’all.

Ohhhh, I offered Jumin a hug & got shot down. I’m hurt. I’ll never recover. I need to redo his route so I can feel his love again.

“Super-ego” Oooook…. BOTH of y’all need to reevaluate some shit.

Rika had a bullied fucked up childhood & she needs some serious professional help. I feel like a broken record. She’s gone by the wayside, hell she’s lost the map entirely.

All these metaphors & analogies they keep using for their pain & torment, is exhausting. Hide it in prose all you want, what we have here is toxic.

This sort of solidifies my theory that Saeran has a split personality, this isn’t just anger. There’s just no way this is “the same” person. He’s been hurt by so many people. Now it’s sad to watch him hurt others. If they ever make a route of him, I will be very interested in seeing what the event was that causes him to finally shift personalities between Ray & Unknown (at least I’m assuming it’s Ray vs. Unknown & not Ray vs. Saeran).

“I will hack everything” Lmfaoooo. This made me snort laugh so hard my chest hurt. EVERYTHING! HIDE THE TOASTER. HIDE YOUR WATCH.

I can’t fault Yoosung so not believing what any of the RFA members tell him. He has no proof. He’s been lied to, just found out he’d been lied to, & now told to believe something else? Yeah, I wouldn’t believe anyone either. If you try to tell me that the person I loved & looked up to the most went evil, was hurting people, & started a cult I would tell you to fuck right off & laugh in your face. We also forget Yoosung is a scientist (though he’s not acting like one at the moment), he needs to see actual proof otherwise he’s not going to believe it. HOWEVER, he’s so loyal to Rika that if he were to show up at Mint Eye he’d very likely join them just to be with Rika again. I hope the RFA fights tooth & nail to keep him from going to Mint Eye.

Ok ok, in this VN, V expresses that he feels grateful to have been told by Jumin to not live his father’s life & to live for himself & make his own opinion about his mom. So… when is someone going to step in & tell V to not live his life for Rika, because ever since he claimed to be “her sun” that’s what he’s been doing… living for someone else again. V needs to live for himself, find what really makes him happy. A lot of this route so far hints that V is struggling with self-love & being ‘selfish’ enough to find what makes him genuinely happy. Also, Jihyun seems very sensitive to the opinion of others. That’s an interesting character trait - nothing wrong with it. I quite like that he’s played up as sensitive but tries to take on burdens himself to spare others - makes him a very tragic & compelling character.

ZEN MOANING IN A PHONE CALL LORD JESUS I NEED TO DRINK SOME HOLY WATER. THANK YOU, CHERITZ.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Seven coming to Mint Eye on his own is actually a bad idea? You don’t mean to tell me this boy is not going be distracted by seeing his brother like this? Hmm saving brother vs. saving random new girl. … no contest.

“If you can’t relax yourself, I’ll make you relax.” Please please make me relax Zen. Please, omg.

THERE’S A “ZEN, MIND IF I REPLACE YOOSUNG?” OPTION. BLESS YOU CHERITZ YOU ARE TOO GOOD TO ME.

Angry mother-hen Zen is ridiculously amazing.

Oh please oh pleeeeease let there be a phone call to Yoosung where he’s moaning because of his massage.

WHAT IS WITH JIHYUN’S FAMILY "SACRIFICING THEIR EVERYTHING" STOP. NO. STOP THIS TRAIN OF MADNESS.

BLESS THE PHONE CALL WITH YOOSUNG GASPING & LAUGHING AS ZEN TICKLES HIM. Yoosung is ticklish along his sides. It's canon.

“I didn’t love Rika.” WHOMP THERE IT IS!

JIHYUN JUST ADMITTED HE WAS OBSESSED WITH RIKA. THAT IS A BIG STEP, PASTEL BOY! I actually put my phone down, yelled “I WAS RIGHT!” to absolutely nobody because I was alone, walked out of the room then marched right back in to keep playing the chat…

::shuffles notecards:: ::clears threat:: ::lips on the mic:: The sun is a burning ball of gas in space. It is not capable of emotions such as 'unconditional love'. It will instantly kill you on contact. Quit placing so many expectations on the sun in your fucking metaphors. Good day.

That Rika screaming CG makes me uncomfortable. I would now like to be excluded from this narrative.

I just laughed so fucking hard. Rika is having a fucking breakdown & Seven's voice just pops in ‘PSSST, ARE YOU LYNN?!’ I can't.

DAY EIGHT

Ohhh. Ohhhhhhhh. These answer choices are getting trickier. Just completely bash Rika or kinda calmly defend V? Hmm, decisions decisions.

So Seven didn’t see Saeran at all… & still somehow doesn’t know it’s actually Saeran that’s the hacker. Interestiiiiing.

Called Zen after 00:44 chat Day 8. Told him he was doing a good job by watching Yoosung because it was a hard task. “Did you just… diss Yoosung… in a subtle way?” I died when he laughed!

These answer choices all feel too similar to one another. I’m gonna fuck this up. I’m going to bad end on day 10… just watch. ((I have like 5 save files going though so…))

Yep, I expected this from Yoosung. He’s honestly not as bad as I thought he’d be. He even voices that he understands he’s being unreasonable & whiney - he just can’t help the way he’s feeling. This is a very visceral & real reaction. I think I don’t find it annoying because I was fully expecting this. I braced myself for it & I am enjoying seeing it play out. He was the most loyal to Zika, he’s going to take a lot to make him believe. Oh, what if there’s a bad end where he & MC both end up as part of Mint Eye?!

::battered & bruised:: ::speaks into walkie-talkie:: Day 8 on mission of V route. So far no casualties. On the path to Good End still. But V still hasn’t changed his fucking profile picture. Over.

[[Here is where I caved & actually started to spend the thousands of hourglasses I have on buying days in bulk instead of just calls for V & Ray.]]

180 HG for a days worth of chats?! Gooooood Lord. ::clicks accept::

Ray’s clapping happy emoji is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen.

I CAN’T LIE TO HIM & SAY I DON’T LIKE ICE CREAM. I FUCKING LOVE ICE CREAM. I HAVE MORE ICE CREAM IN MY FREEZER THAN ANY OTHER FOODS…

Whoa cool! Ray & Rika (my phone keeps correcting her name to be ‘Zika virus’) have profiles in the hacked messenger!

I told V “art” is part of my job because medicine is an art, right? Isn’t that a saying? “The art of medicine.”

Call V after 7:13 chat. This is a good call from him - not romantic I mean - but definitely good for more insight on how he now views his role in Rika’s progression.

Whoa whoa new chat room theme song when Rika joined in.

VANDERWOOOOOOOOOD!!! Bless. Their haggling is pretty adorable.

Update: V finally changed his profile picture & is emo as fuck.

About time these idiots realize the sun is fucking dangerous. Stop using it for your nonsense. This is driving me more insane than any other aspect of the game. Mention the sun again & I’m going to go stare directly into it until my corneas melt.

Was that finally a confession of feelings for you but kinda backhanded about it? With how torn up Jihyun is about this entire Rika situation, I’m very surprised that this route would even be considered a love endeavor between he & MC. I don’t think he’s anywhere near emotionally ready to pursue a new relationship with someone so soon after this chaos. I don’t know how I’ll feel if either of the ‘good’ endings is them together right away - it’ll just feel so wrong for the progression of his character. I think Jihyun needs to learn to love & accept himself before he can open up again to trying to love someone - at least loving something the right way.

Hahaaaa like hell am I going to say THE SUN is my muse. I’m going to stop going out in daylight at this point. My bones are going to get brittle. Thanks, Cheritz.

Omg V’s mom is such a boss lady. Be strong, Lynn. Don’t cry.

Aw shit, that fucked me up emotionally.

Is this why V doesn’t like people looking at his body? Does he have scars from this fire? I hope we get more on this. Or was that body comment just another glimpse into how unsure V is about himself? Another tidbit of not loving himself? Hmm.

I am honestly at a loss, I don’t know if I’m answering correctly to get to the party.

Noooo! V, why did you lie again?! He asked you point blank. You were progressing so well. THIS CAN ONLY END IN TEARS. TELL SEVEN THE TRUTH! Seven is going to be beyond hurt when he finds out that you just kept lying! He needs to know about Saeran! He needs to save him!

The music in this 22:00 chat is absolutely fantastic. Who is the music developer for this game. Give them a raise & a three week vacation to Hawaii. This soundtrack is so great.

OMGGGG did I fuck up? If V goes back to Rika, I swear. I’m so done. Ohh, that’s going to be a bad end, isn’t it? He’s going to give in again & go back to her!

This relationship is so twisted. We’re talking in fucking circles. This is the most unproductive conversation I’ve ever been a part of & I’ve spoken with anti-vaxxers in person.

I’m absolutely crushed. This was it. This was the moment? That full break between Ray & Unknown… I have no words. This is so so sad. The VA even does a different voice each of them.

I’m crying. Full on tears. Ray…

If this was the moment of the full separation between Ray & Unknown in this timeline, I am still curious what was the trigger to cause the full break between personalities in the original timelines. I really hope we get a Saeran route now. I wasn’t hoping for one before, but Cheritz has me hooked now. I need redemption for Saeran.

DAY NINE

So, I’m guessing I’m on the right track? Because I just realized a lot of the answers in this portion have a lot of self-centered MC options? So I’m trying to avoid the “me me me, V is better off with me” choices & focusing more on the “V is changing & growing for himself” options. I’m sticking with that since I’m fully on board with my theory that V needs to learn to love & live for himself.

DON’T BRING THE MOON INTO THIS. LEAVE HER ALONE. SHE DOESN’T DESERVE THIS.

Juuuumiiiin. I’ve missed you!

How many times do you think Rika had to set up her phone to auto take that photo of her standing in front of the Moon before she got it right?

VANDERWOOD!

VANDERWOOD SELFIE!

GIVE VANDERWOOD AN RFA PROFILE

VAN.DER.WOOOOOOD.

Vanderwood is laying down some fucking truth in this VN with V. Vanderwood - the voice of the people.

At this point, I'm just over arguing & talking in circles.

My heart was in my throat thinking Ray was going to drop the news that Seven was his brother in that chat room they were in together. I was waiting for it; I don’t even think I was breathing.

Oh RFA members + Mint Eye in the same chat rooms?! LET’S DO THIS.

Petition to rename the RFA to something else, anything else.

WHO DID THIS WOMAN JUST STAB. OMG. OMGGGGG. WTF WAS THAT PHONE CALL?!

Nobody has ever given V a hug before? How cold. I’ll hug you. I’ll hug the crap out of you.

I’m going to go hug my mom…

Update: Hugged my dad along the way to finding my mom to hug her. Hugged my cat too. My sister opened her arms for a hug when she saw I was making rounds, but I just high-fived both hands & walked past. I’m such an asshole.

Rika is flip flopping all over the damn place. Did you want his love or not? Is he your sun or not? Are you angry or not? Do you want him dead or not? I’m over it. Go away.

Ok why the fuck was the phone call from Rika about her stabbing someone BEFORE the actual VN where she stabbed someone?! I was so confused. That has to be some glitch.

$10 says now Rika is going to be torn between wanting V to die or not. She’s just going to keep flip-flopping. In the end, she’s just as obsessed.

Wow. Wow. The phone call where Seven is freaking out. Like genuine emotion scared shitless. Excellent acting.

DAY TEN

Rika was off looking for love her entire life when Yoosung was literally there right beside her loving her unconditionally when he finally met her.

Lmao "Don't go to the apartment, Yoosung. There's a bomb there." Yeah that's right, bitches. I can see in the future.

Damn Jaehee. Savage. I liiiiike it.

"I didn't stab him that deep." Confession! WHOOP, THERE IT IIIIIS.

Son of a bitch. Ray is going to sacrifice himself isn't he?! While Rika's off playing house in her apartment again. I'm so pissed. Please please please let Seven save him.

I've been waiting for this Rika/Yoosung messenger chat! Now I fully expect Yoosung to resist harder & plead/beg. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my hat.

Damn they just give MC a straight up "hang up" option on Rika. Take no shit, MC.

Everyone is hella vaguing in their profiles lolololol. You know you’re desperate when you’re vaguing in a closed off messenger accessible to only 7 people. We all know who you’re talking about. You’re not slick.

Oh shit. V's mom making a comeback to slap me right in my feelings.

Ray's call after the 18:00 chat...

I have never been more attracted to Jumin in my fucking LIFE.

Ray’s best call is the one you make to him after 19:49. He cares so so much. He has so much to give despite being hurt & used & broken over & over again. This was a great phone call. Devastatingly sad, but excellent for his character.

Where in the fresh hell did Vanderwood just pop off to? Last I saw him Seven asked him to look after MC. Then never again…

You bet your ass I chose the answer to tie Yoosung up. Like my thirsty domme ass was going to let that opportunity sliiiiiide on by. I’m not even surprised that Yoosung giggled at the idea. Bless his subby heart. Boy wants it bad. I am willing to give & give & give...

Whooooa 21:53 chat: “Ray has entered the chatroom” but ended with “Unknown has left the chatroom” I know this happened before but this is right before the final fight, right? Is Seven going to show up & find Unknown instead of Ray? Are they even going to do the brother reveal? Ray’s going to die, isn’t he? I can’t help but think that if V had told him, Seven would have tried harder, would have gone there personally. But then maybe Seven would get hurt too? Is Seven going to die?!

Yes, Jihyun! Find & love yourself! Live for yourself! This is an excellent idea! I approve of this. You need this. Forget about Rika! I wish you luck!

Sonofabitchfuckfuckfuck. Ray deserved better. RAY DESERVED BETTER. That poor boy. He was so used, so confused, & so so tormented. I’m so angry. This wasn’t fair. I’m going to pout & be pissy about this for a long time. I’m hoping he really isn’t dead. Please please. I’m going to be in denial about this, I know it. I mean, they did show him in the control room in Mint Eye. He gave his final words & then there was the explosion. Is it too silly to hope that he somehow got out? Maybe...

Wowowow. That final chat with Rika, begging like that. That was brutal. Even in the middle there she switched between pleading & saying she’d get revenge. I really do pity her & I hope she gets help in this route but at this point I don’t even know. I’m on this emotional see-saw where I really dislike her but on the other side pity her. I’ll admit, I’m spending a lot more time on the side of not liking her.

DAY ELEVEN

She’s not dead. There’s no way. I won’t believe it until I see a body (same with Saeran). YOU CAN’T TRICK ME. I’M A VETERAN OF THESE PLOYS!

Jumin. Fucking. Han. This man is so good. He’s so strong even though he’s struggling himself. That “lean on me” line nearly had me tearing up. Jumin Han is a GOOD MAN.

Also, Jumin said it isn’t confirmed if the hacker was in the building or not. I mean, being in a direct explosion could very well decimate a body, but what if he got out? Ray did sound pretty desolate about not having anywhere else to go & did seem pretty resigned to this suicide mission though. This isn’t fair.

PARTY ATTEMPT #1 (Invited 24 guests) - Good Ending?

WHAT?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? Is this like a “bad end” party? Why is she here? I fucked up, didn’t I? (I feel like the Minister of Magic in Harry Potter shouting “He’s back!”) ((If she gets to live & Ray actually died... I can’t. I’m still so angry.))

Yoosung, noooo!

OMG YOOSUNG, YES!

V’s mom has managed to make me tear up nearly every time she pops up on the screen. She had such impact on this route despite not be present in the here & now of it. She’s an angel. A fucking angel. Every CG of her’s has blessed me. This background story on her was so amazing. Her struggle & sacrifice for her son & finding purpose in herself after losing so much was... so beautiful. I’m going to cry again.

BABY JIHYUN WITH HIS MOM CG. I’m crying for real. This is beautiful. The emotions for this were so so good.

What is with this game & Alaska?! Everyone is going there. Maybe Ray went to Alaska!

That’s rich, Zen. Calling Jumin an alcoholic. Pot meet kettle.

Shit goddamn Jumin, was it necessary to be THAT savage about Zen’s selfies?

Jihyun turned into a beautiful happy hippie.

Hippie Jihyun is hot as hell. That smile. Wow.

Holy shit. “I want to love you. I will love you. I love you, just as I love myself.” That’s a damn good line! Damn good.

Honestly, I am beyond glad, thrilled, immensely happy that there was a two year gap between Jihyun & MC actually getting together. If he had just jumped right into a relationship with MC after all of this, I would have questioned the foundation of the relationship. He was not emotionally ready for that so I’m glad the story allowed the time break so he could grow, heal, discover on his own.

I like that Jihyun wanted to be called his birth name again, not the ‘persona’ V that he’d created for his art, like a cloak or shield. He found & accepted himself & wanted to be that person. That’s beautiful. Self-love is very hard to achieve. I know a lot of people struggle with it, so it’s nice to see that represented in a character.

I want answers for what happened with Rika. We are just to assume she was sent off somewhere to get help with no updates?

I do not like that Seven was never told about Ray. I know it would cause more hurt for him, but he deserved to know. That just felt dirty. I feel dirty.

I am genuinely impressed that Yoosung was the one to stand up at the end to apprehend Rika. He was a little tornado this entire route & I was glad to see him finally understand at the end that this Rika was not the same one he cared so deeply for. Being the one to grab her & hand her in, had to have hurt him - but he stepped up & did it. That was good progression for him. Took him a long damn while to get to that acceptance, but that action of his took a lot.

I’m glad Jihyun’s route focused more on his development to turn away from obsession & look toward himself. It’s a similar kind of character growth in the other routes (learning to accept yourself & grow beyond something holding you back). These stories were never just about falling in love with someone, they grew to be better versions of themselves in the end. Jihyun’s development was definitely more artistic (cushioned in prose & woven in metaphors & abstracts) than others, but it was interesting just the same.

I like that they made such a big deal about Jihyun getting his eyes repaired. He refused to get them healed other times, but showing he was willing now & grateful to Jumin for setting it up was a nice touch to see how developed he’s become & showing he’s willing to let go of Rika (despite him talking about her every other sentence still…). Baby steps. He’s letting go of the hurt, recognizing he’s worthy of love & happiness too.

Maybe it’s just me, but was anyone else sort of wanting to see a CG of one of Jihyun’s paintings? I would have liked to have seen what they considered his painting style. He looks much more relaxed & carefree in his good ending CG, I wondered if his paintings would have reflected that.

PARTY ATTEMPT #2 (Invited 5 guests) - Normal Ending?

I really like this idea of Jihyun just venturing out on his own to find what he likes, what makes him happy. The self-discovery journey. But boy, you were just stabbed. I don’t think you can be discharged within a day after a celiotomy.

Jihyun talking about his dream house is ridiculously cute. This man essentially wants a little messy cottage in the city. How adorable. He went from being a materialistic & pragmatic teenager to being content with a sort of abstract pleasures in his adulthood.

Oh, so in this ending Jihyun asks MC right off the bat to be with him. Seems a little rushed, no? I don’t think he’s ready. He’s feeling a lot right now. Who is to say his obsession won’t transfer over to MC? He claims to have learned his lesson & to recognize the difference between obsession & love but I still think it’s very soon. I really wouldn’t want this to turn into Jihyun becoming dependent on MC after this emotional trauma & that being the basis for their relationship.

MC’S ONLY RESPONSE IS “ALRIGHT” Omg. So bland.

Are we to assume that Rika is actually dead in this ending? Because she never showed back up? Hmm.

So there’s a 2 year jump in this ending too, only we’re to assume that MC & Jihyun have been together as a couple during that time?

Ohhhhhh you can call Jihyun “darling”! <3

Wait, didn’t Jihyun say he wanted a little house in the city with curtains to block out the sun? This looks like a high rise apartment with massive fucking windows & sheer curtains that let in a lot of sun... but ok.

WHOA WHOA, Jihyun became a musician in this ending?! I want to know what he plays! Does he play piano like his theme song?! Does he play violin like his mom?!?! I will cry.

Jihyun’s pouty voice is ADORABLE! Holy crap where has this been all my life?!

Oh, interesting! He’s still very sensitive to the opinions of others (I mean, I certainly didn’t expect that to go away, you’re always going to fear criticisms). At least, he seems a little more open to hearing them, even if he’s hesitant to play for MC again since he wants her to like what he plays. He’s still a little shy, private, & sensitive. Cute.

These rich boys & their pancakes…

Jumin obsessed with pancake recipes confirmed. I love him so much.

His answer about their relationship was very sweet & shows how he’s come to understand a give & take balance, as well as loving himself & genuinely loving together. That was cute.

Still pissed that Seven never found out about Ray.

I want to know what instrument Jihyun plays!

OTHER

I went from being very skeptical of Jihyun’s character (he just felt downright shady) in other routes to liking him (now that we see the depths of his self-damaging & self-sacrificing behavior & the full reason behind all the secrets). He’s certainly not perfect. He’s made many mistakes. He was misguided in a lot of aspects. He’s still learning & now trying to do better. He’s talented, pretty, sensitive, kind, & generous. He was a victim as well & even had a hand in his own progressing downfall before he realized his mistakes & reevaluated himself & the situation. I definitely like him a lot more now that I know the reasoning behind his actions & seeing the changes in him for the better - especially seeing him accept & appreciate himself more.

Yeah yeah, I’m going to be that person - I’m sad we didn’t get a kiss CG! I wanted one, not going to lie. Maybe we’ll get one for his After Ending if he gets an after ending?! Who knows. I wanna smooch him, that’s for sure.

I expected to like the normal ending more since I liked all the other normal endings for the other characters more than their good endings, however I find myself liking Jihyun’s good ending over his normal ending. I just can’t get past the fact that I think he needed that self-evaluation time away from MC. That two years apart (though probably a lot longer than I would have expected the game to do) felt necessary. In his good ending, Jihyun sounded much more certain that MC was who he wanted to be with & to love instead of asking MC straight away to just stick by him in his normal ending. In his normal ending, MC questioned him, & he sort of recited a dialogue about their love. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it sounded like he was trying to reassure himself? Or maybe MC was just trying to gently remind him that yes, what we have is real, & healthy, & good for both of us & just needed him to say it aloud? Regardless, good ending sat better with me overall.

I still want to know what the other photos were in that series of photographs he took. I mean Seven, sounded pretty damn shocked by them. We didn’t even get a line about if it was actual imagines of inflicted harm or salacious material (I’m not trying to be a pervert for once, I’m genuinely curious).

Ray deserved better. I don’t think I can put it into any other words than that. I was very upset with his end in all of this. He didn’t deserve that. Only Rika & V knew his identity. Rika is either dead or being treated somewhere (depending on whichever ending you cater to) & in neither of the endings did Jihyun make known that the hacker was Saeran. I’m legitimately angry about this. How can Saeran even rest in peace that way? Is only the audience (& MC) to mourn for him? Everyone (RFA) is mourning for Rika in a sense but Ray deserves SOMEONE who knows who he was. Sure, Rika has that moment where she screamed & felt remorse, but she still didn’t speak up. Would anyone have believed her if she had? Maybe not. But he deserved someone trying on his behalf. Maybe I’m sitting too long on this, but it felt dirty. I know I said that earlier somewhere, but I still think it. This was wrong. He died in an explosion, alone, with only two people knowing who he really was & they didn’t fucking say anything. Seven is never going to really know what happened to his brother, so what happens if he goes looking for him in the future? Fuck, I’m crying again. I’m so sorry, Ray. You didn’t deserve this, you just trusted the wrong people.

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bizarrebird · 6 years

Text

Getting back into the old Buffy rewatch. For the record, these are probably gonna be sporadic as I gotta kinda sit down and watch and type scene by scene, but I like doing them, so I’m gonna keep going with it. This episode, which in most shows would be really fillery, I’m gonna cover cause it has one of the most iconic speeches in the whole show, the big Lie to Me spiel from Giles. This episode also deals with some heavy themes and interesting developments for Buffy, and I’m always about that good character stuff for my best girl

So here we go with Season 2, Episode 7: Lie to Me

And we’re starting in a creepy playground. Promising. Drusilla’s here, trying to eat a kid. Like I’m amazed no other vampires have already gotten here. Kid this is Sunnydale, the fuck are you doing? Luckily Angel shows up and scares the kid off (probably to go get eaten by a sludge monster off screen, this is fucking Sunnydale don’t leave your kids unsupervised) He and Drusilla have a weird moment where she clearly knows her and remembers things about her mother. It’s because of this history that he tells her to take Spike and go, but Dru knows Angel won’t actually hurt her. She tells him how she knows he’s fallen for Buffy just as Buffy shows up on a conveniently close roof to watch them get a little too close for comfort and then OPENING CREDITS

To school we go where we find Jenny Calendar and Giles talking about the surprise date Jenny’s planning for them. It’s flirty and cute and I’m sure nothing will mess up this relationship in the very next episode (remember kids, if you’re happy Joss Whedon hates your guts and wants you dead) Sad Buffy is here and she and Giles start talking shop. Giles encourages her to take the night off to go be with her vampire boo (which is sweet, thanks new dad) but Buffy’s a little iffy on that. Next we go to Cordelia being precious in a class where Buffy and Willow are passing notes about the girl she saw Angel with the night before. They leave the class and start talking about it as Xander gets there and immediately wants to know about Angel possibly doing bad things

Okay like, I get that this is supposed to be funny or endearing or whatever, but it just comes off amazingly creepy that Xander “has a happy” when he hears about Buffy’s current boyfriend doing something wrong, cause that means he might have a chance with her. This is beyond ‘cute funny crush’ territory, it’s just obnoxious, why do they hang out with Xander, like ever

ANYWAY

It’s time for the main plot of the episode to start, so here comes Ford, Buffy’s old friend and former crush from her last school, who’s apparently transferred to Sunnydale for his senior year. And oh man, another guy who Buffy knows and is talking to, here comes JEALOUS XANDER TO THE RESCUE. And isn’t that just super endearing. Buffy and Ford explain how they know each other and Buffy’s clearly super thrilled to see him (which doesn’t stop Xander from being a complete and utter tool the entire time, of course it doesn’t, nothing can stop him, literally nothing) Buffy invites him to the Bronze with them that night and takes Ford off to the admissions office in time for Xander to be super gross

Cut to the Bronze where Scoobies + Ford are playing pool and swapping stories. Xander’s still just feeling extra dickish this episode (when is he not) and Buffy goes to get a soda, only to find Angel conveniently brooding by the counter. Across the room, Willow and Xander tell Ford a bit about Angel, how he’s dating Buffy and is older than her (with all the times this comes up it’s really, really rare that it’s mentioned that the age difference is a little sketch, but hey, vampire love story, what’cha gonna do?) When asked, Angel says he stayed in last night and Buffy knows he’s a giant liar face, so she goes back over to Ford and after a very awkward introduction with him and Angel, Buffy pulls Ford out of the club to take a walk, where they talk a little about Angel before Buffy spots a vamp and tries to distract Ford... but that doesn’t quite go as planned and he follows after her (hello ominous music what are you doing here) and gets a full view of the stakeage, which doesn’t seem to surprise him at all. He tells her that he already knows she’s the slayer

We go to Willow and Buffy talking on the phone about the situation and how it’s kind of a relief for Buffy honestly. Meanwhile, Ford heads into the creepiest warehouse possible where there’s a club of people dressed like vampires hanging out and listening to intense music. Ford seems to be sort of in charge here and pops some pills as he promises that soon they will have the chance to ‘die young and stay pretty’. If you didn’t get that Ford is creepy yet, we then see him mouth the difficult to hear speech of a vampire creep in a movie that’s playing in the background of the club

Back to Willow, who gets a knock at the door as Angel arrives to ask her for help. After a little awkwardness (which is super precious, I honestly wish these two had more scenes together, they’re both very much comedic actors who play off each other so well) she invites him in. He asks her to track down information on Ford, which... kinda gives Willow pause and she asks if he’s jealous. Angel admits that he kinda is, cause Buffy is the one shining light in his guilt hole of misery, but he’s still pretty sure there’s something off about Ford. Willow immediately finds something, checking the records and finding that Ford doesn’t actually go to their school. Before she can do more, she has to shove Angel out of the room as her mom calls up to her, and she promises to find more info for him later. He asks her not to tell Buffy

And we very soon see at school the next day that Willow is terrible at lying to Buffy and is instantly a nervous wreck as soon as she sees her, very quickly making an excuse to leave. Giles arrives to give Buffy info so she can contact him that night in case something goes wrong. He’s vaguely concerned when Ford already knows about the vampire situation, but Buffy explains she didn’t tell him, he somehow just already knew (which no one finds suspicious. at all) That night, Buffy takes Ford on a tour of Sunnydale and they spot two vampires heading into the school. She gives him a cross as she leads the way in. They get separated when one of the vamps tackles Buffy over the railing. Ford manages to subdue the other and makes some kind of deal with her we don’t see the end of. Buffy handles her vamp easy and finds Ford alone, saying he dealt with the other one

Meanwhile Xander, Willow, and Angel check out a lead that takes them to the creepy vampire fanclub warehouse. All of them are immediately weirded out, cause they actually live in Sunnydale. They get approached by a groupie, who tries to talk to them about the ‘lonely ones’ (which is like a cool name for vampires or some kinda creepy supernatural species, but not here. all vamps are assholes here. Yes even Angel. Sometimes especially Angel) Angel comes over to shut her down and she goes all tumblr on him saying that he doesn’t get to say who’s valid and leaves. Angel says they should get out cause he knows this type, vampire fans who are really, really upset Twillight won’t be out for a few more years. But that doesn’t explain why Ford is there, so now they definitely know something’s up with him

Back at the library, Buffy’s called in Giles and Jenny, and finds that she pulled them away from their date at a Monster Truck rally, cause Jenny thought it would be a good change for him. Oh Jenny, honey no, you’re trying but... no, no, no. Buffy gets things back on track to talk about the vampires near the school. She already sent Ford home and as she’s mentioning the vamp he took out, she spots a familiar picture in a book: the girl Angel was with the other night. DUN DUN DUNNNNN. Turns out that’s Drusilla, who Giles says is Spike’s lover who was thought to be killed in Prague (idk where that info is coming from, but I’m guessing the Watcher’s Council??? God, they just suck at everything, can’t even keep track of which vamps got dusted) but surprise! She’s... okay well not alive, but not dust, you get the picture. As Giles goes to look for more books on the matter (Oh Giles, don’t ever change) he runs right into a vampire, who literally no one noticed was just rifling through his office this whole time I guess. The vamp makes off with a book and Giles is very offended, but Buffy points out the more pressing point that Ford said he killed that vampire

We go to Dru, trying to get her dead bird to sing to her as Spike enters to ask abut her trip outside the other night. She doesn’t give him much of an answer, even when he brings up Angel, but she’s more about the bird until he tells her a little sharply that it’s dead cause she didn’t feed it, just like the last one. Dru gets all sad and pouty so Spike gets sweet again cause he crumbles when his lady love is sad. He apologizes and offers to get her a new bird just as Ford??? walks right through the front doors???? Spike wonders aloud if he has security here (apparently not, they just don’t make good vampire help like they used to) Te vamp from the library shows up with the book as Ford makes an offer, trying to talk Spike into the typical villain “you have 30 seconds to live/talk” thing. At Dru’s prompting, he reluctantly does the thing and Ford explains he wants to be a vampire. Spike’s hesitant cause he doesn’t really like Ford (not his type, he likes his men taller and more broody) but Ford offers a trade, him getting all bitey for the slayer

And that brings us to Buffy’s place as Angel arrives to tell her Ford isn’t what he seems. GASP Nooooo really? Who could have guessed??? Anyway, Angel tells her the deal about the creepy vampire place and how he and Xander and Willow have all been talking behind her back about this (definitely not for the first time showing in some ways, Buffy is still on her own, and her friends will other her when they need to) She’s mostly not happy about the behind the back going and demands to know about Drusilla. Before he tells her, Angel asks if she loves him (not out of the blue or manipulative at all) Buffy says she does and still wants to know. Angel tells her Drusilla was the worst thing he ever did. Before he turned her, she was a pure, sweet girl (troubled by visions although I think that comes up more when this story is revisiting in Angel: the series) and Angel drove her insane, killing her family and eventually driving her into a convent before he finally turned her. Buffy’s clearly a little sorry she asked, but they gotta get back to the present and Ford, cause they still don’t know what his fucking deal is

This brings us to one of the creepier brightly lit scenes of the series thus far, where Ford encounters Buffy at the school and asks if she wants to come out again with him that night. The camera angles are all spinning and super ominous and it’s actually shot in a really interesting way that I’d get way more into if I was a different kind of film nerd. But I’m not, so we go into the school where Buffy runs into Willow and Xander, who she’s not super happy with, who ask if she knows what’s up, she does and is still (understandably) upset and leaves. Xander can only think about the fact that Angel was in Willow’s room, showing that he’s not just concerned about the guys Buffy dates, but in any woman he’s remotely connected to showing any interest in any other guy

Moving on we go to Ford and his creepy crew, who are super jazzed about the lonely ones coming to bless them. None of these fuckos would make it ten seconds in the rest of Sunnydale, how are they alive in this bunker. But before the vamps can show, Buffy gets there first and Ford subtly signals to have the door shut behind her. Buffy is not pleased especially with Ford’s excuse of ‘everybody lies’ and tries to convince him and everyone else that they’re being stupid and that vampires are picky about who they turn... until she realizes what he was up to and that he was going to give them her (this realization goes fast cause we’re running short on screen time and need to move things along) Ford admits to it as Buffy realizes she’s been trapped in the bunker with them, the door’s rigged so it can only open from the outside and the vampires are on there way as soon as the sun sets. Buffy looks for another way out, but there isn’t one. She tries to talk Ford into letting the others go, but they’re real dumb and won’t listen

Brief scene of Spike getting his forces ready and bringing Dru along. Back in the bunker, Buffy tries the door again, conveniently getting her and Ford up onto this separate upper platform thing for serious talks. Ford admits that the others are probably just gonna be snacked on and won’t get changed (here he crosses the moral event horizon) but he’s cool with it because he will deffs get changed. Buffy tries to explain to him that being a vampire isn’t as glamorous as he thinks and that it basically just makes your body host to a demon (okay tbh for all the focus on vampires and souls here, the show could really do a lot more with it, but that’s another post for another time) Ford then dramatically admits that he’s already dying

And honestly, Ford is a good tragic villain and sometimes I wish they had done more than just a single episode with him, largely because of his connection to Buffy and her past and what that could mean for her as a character, but alas, this is a Joss Whedon show where he only pretends to give a shit about his female characters. Like shit the actor plays this scene really well and it’s a super interesting idea to explore with how the supernatural could fix common problems, but at a cost, and Buffy is super heavily impacted by it, but nah, not gonna make this a long running thing, why bother

ANYWAY Buffy takes a second to compose herself and then tells Ford that she’s sorry for what he’s going through, but he’s still a shit and even dealing with his health issues doesn’t make what he’s doing okay (cool motive still murder.gif) What solidifies Ford’s shittiness is that he calls the other people sheep, just doing the vampire stuff for kicks and giggles, but he doesn’t have a choice. Buffy disagrees, saying that yeah, the hand he’s been dealt is a terrible one, but that doesn’t justify what he’s doing now.

And like, okay, for all btvs’s flaws, it very much hammers in an ‘ends don’t justify the means’ message, which is honestly super cool, and I wish more shows would do that now. For the most part (and there are definitely exceptions to this, which I will cover when they come up) when people screw up in Buffy, there are consequences, and they can be fucking harsh

God, okay, this moment with Ford and Buffy up here is so good, someone yell at me later to write more about it

Ford somehow managed to knock out Buffy???????????? right as the vamps get there. Okay sure, fine. The vamps start eating everyone (surprise, surprise) and Buffy spots Dru, who’s away from everyone just being weird and obvious in her glowing white dress. Buffy holds a stake to Dru’s chest and threatens Spike, who calls for everyone to stop. Following Buffy’s demands, he lets all the groupies go. The groupies wise up and run and Buffy gets Spike to back off enough for her to throw Dru at him and have time to escape, the door shutting behind her, trapping the vamps... and Ford

Buffy gets out right as the Scoobies arrive. She says they should go, cause the vamps are gonna get free eventually, but the have to come back... for Ford’s body. Back in the bunker, we see the vamps trapped and Spike admitting that Ford did in fact give them Buffy. We don’t get to see exactly what went down and in the next scene, Buffy’s walking into the bunker and she finds Ford’s body, unsure whether or not he’s been turned

Sometime between this scene and the last, there’s been a funeral and Ford has been buried (vamps are very patient and only wait till the most dramatic moment to rise, clearly) So we go to Buffy and Giles in a graveyard where Buffy puts flowers on Ford’s grave. They talk about how Buffy wishes this could be easy if she could just hate him and how she thinks Ford wanted to be the villain, but he was really just scared. She talks about how nothing is ever simple anymore and how she doesn’t know who to trust and it’s all just so confusing. Giles says that’s just part of growing up and Buffy asks if it ever gets easy. Vampire Ford pops out of the grave and Buffy stakes him without thinking

Giles repeats her question and asks what she wants him to say and Buffy says the show title “Lie to me” And here comes that iconic speech

“Yes, it’s terribly simple, Good guys are always stalwart and true Bad guys always distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats We always defeat them and save the day No one ever dies And everybody lives happily ever after”

And Buffy calls him a liar as we go to credits

FINAL THOUGHTS: Okay, there is... a looooot to unpack in this episode. You could write entire essays on it, and I’m sure people have. But the main thing is that morals are complicated and Buffy doesn’t know how to deal with it all the time, but she does her best. This is a really, really solid episode and definitely worth some analysis.

Next up, Season 2, Episode 8: The Dark Times (only cause Ethan Rayne is here and I love him)

#diana hush #diana liveblogs buffy #hey look more buffy #btvs #yes i'm still doing this #just had to take a brief pause #gonna try to do at least a few a week #xander hate #as always #i just hate him so much #he's like... sort of less annoying in the next few episodes but #god just every episode i ask why the fuck he's even here #he serves very little purpose #heart of the show my fucking ass

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mermaidinstereo · 7 years

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LIST: 10 of My Favorite Dark Music Videos

What you probably couldn't tell from my ongoing Christina Aguilera project is that I love dark shit. No, you probably won't find me at the local goth club nights (in suburban Florida, we don't have those), or crying to Sisters of Mercy, or blowing an entire week's paycheck at M.A.C. just for eyeliner (because ya girl is broke). Still, I enjoy a good vampire flick (and a lot of bad ones), prefer to rock a good dark lip, and one time blew $50 at Hot Topic on a coat that makes me feel like a tragic Edgar Allan Poe heroine. I guess you could say I'm barely a low-budget goth, but that's okay. That's just my vibe, I guess.

So today, I thought I'd count down 10 of my favorite music videos, that are all at once super totally goth and not at all. In no particular order, of course. (Because of Tumblr’s rules, I can’t embed more than five videos at once. So I’ll link to the bottom five, and embed the top five.)

10. "Mine" - Kim Jae Joong If the former TVXQ member was looking to make a name for himself, other than being just a K-pop prettyboy, well, he did it right. He was already a bankable actor, racking up views on both the big and small screens. And even after departing from TVXQ, with fellow ex-members Park Yoochun and Kim Junsu, formed the group JYJ, also successful in their own right. However, Jaejoong was not content with staying the course of K-pop typicality. In response, Jaejoong tapped into his inner rocker, unleashing "Mine," off his first solo mini album I. In this video, he runs through dark forests, plays with snakes, and struggles to break free from a wall, before appearing at the end of the video as a vampire that looks straight out of a J-rock band. One can only argue that this is Jaejoong's final form. Or is it?

9. "Hyde" - VIXX While VIXX started playing with darkness in "On and On," it was "Hyde" where they really hit their stride. Telling the story of a man struggling with a Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque duality in a relationship, images of the band's six members are juxtaposed--wearing white as cute, loving, boyfriend material, and black as horrifying, nightmarish, even abusive monsters. I gotta give an award to Leo for looking a little too into it when he strangles his lovely lady, shortly before black angel wings burst from his back. Dude is scary. And so is the setting of this video! It appears to be a vaguely decrepit mansion crawling with macabre decor...and some classic creepy crawlies. It's no wonder VIXX are pegged for K-pop's go-to goths. (For more creepy craziness from VIXX, there are a lot of videos to choose from, but perhaps nothing is more terrifying than “Voodoo Doll,” a video so gory it was banned from TV! Don’t worry, though--there is a clean version.)

8. "Election Day" - Arcadia When Duran Duran temporarily split in 1985, they birthed two side projects. On one side, the pop-friendly Power Station, led by powerhouse vocalist Robert Palmer, along with drummer Tony Thompson of Chic, and Duran's own John and Andy Taylor. Then there was Arcadia, the artsier goth-influenced group, comprised of Nick Rhodes, Simon Le Bon, and for a short period, Roger Taylor. In this video, Le Bon just looks like he got a nice dark dye job, but it's Nick Rhodes who got the full goth makeover, because of course Nick Rhodes did. I'm not exactly sure what's even happening in this video--leave that to anything Simon Le Bon did in the 80s--but the image of Nick Rhodes dancing around with a candelabra is pretty goth, if I do say so myself. Also, it's just a damn good song. And album.

7. "Married to the Music" - SHINee As K-pop acts go, SHINee have not always been the group that goes with the flow. Instead of ripping off T-shirts in music videos, they play with unusual concepts, sometimes freaky ones. Among those was 2015's "Married to the Music." While not exactly elegant, "Married" boasted a quirky, camp-horror concept, inspired equally by Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Michael Jackson's "Thriller." In the video, the five members visit a wacky house party in which, throughout the night, they find themselves having various body parts removed in bizarre methods. Key gets his head hacked off while spinning on a giant roulette wheel. Taemin's eyes pop out when he gets smacked in the back of the head by a baseball bat. A phantom hand in the sink rips off Onew's nose. Jonghyun's mouth comes off after some kind of kiss of death. Then, Minho's entire body is sacrificed in a birthday cake incident gone wrong. All this culminates at the end, where our mystery woman uses the discarded parts to build the perfect FrankenSHINee. Like Mary Shelley, but with more BB cream and an Off the Wall beat.

6. "Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold Unlike SHINee, A7X have always toyed with the darkness, but in a similar manner, do it their own way. This cut from 2005's City of Evil is actually a track describing the fall of Babylon, in incredible detail. The video, however, tells of a Faustian tale, through a lens of rock 'n roll excess. A visually striking video, and I'm not just talking about Zacky Vengeance's eyeshadow. Careful what y'all are getting into when signing contracts, guys.

5. "Call Me When You're Sober" - Evanescence I could list nearly any Evanescence video, really. In fact, I kind of owe a lot to Evanescence, since they kind of helped me discover my artistic identity a bit. That said, I picked this cut from 2006's The Open Door. In it, Amy plays Red Riding Hood, on a pretty bad date with the Big Bad Wolf, played by dashing British actor Oliver Goodwill. He cuddles up to the plaid-clad Amy, who is clearly uncomfortable with his advances. Somewhere there is an awesome scene with Amy surrounded by black-clad dancers as they float above the ground, and this is honestly the coolest thing I've seen in an Evanescence video (though, truthfully, "Good Enough" was pretty cool, too). But nothing tops Amy walking toward her douchey wolf--across the table, as dining utensils go flying off the table. Very Once Upon a Time. Regina would be proud.

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4. "Out of My Mind" - Duran Duran

This is an obscure cut from their 1997 album Medazzaland, a period in which the beloved New Romantics got suuuuuper experimental. It's hard to find this video in HD on YouTube, so you kinda take what you get. The then-trio of Rhodes/Le Bon/Warren Cuccurullo traipse around a creepy house, are sometimes ghosts haunting a library, or sometimes--in the case of Rhodes--are Rococo gothic drag queens. Also, Simon rocks a choker at some point. Totes 90s. Also, the setting and cinematography recall Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Hey, wasn't that by an 80s band, too?

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3. "Frozen" - Madonna

I was maybe around seven or eight when Ray of Light was released. Maybe. But I vividly remember seeing this video on VH1 when my mom left it on. I was freaked out by it at the time, but of course, I was a child, of course I would be. A solitary, black-clad Madge dances around a barren wasteland, cuddling nothing but her flowing gown as ravens surround her. I think she was playing with Indian motifs at the time, considering her hand gestures and tattoos (also, Ray of Light boasted "Shanti/Ashtangi," never forget). This was probably the beginning of the Kabbalah thing, too, but it wasn't quite as big a story as it would become years later.

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2. "Within Me" - Lacuna Coil

I'd be betraying myself if I didn't include a Lacuna Coil video in all this, another group that, with Evanescence, led me down an aesthetically dark path. A mellower cut from 2006's Karmacode has vocalists Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia at odds, with Andrea sitting lonely in some kind of elaborate chair or throne, as Cristina crawls the desert, producing these creepy black tendrils for some reason. It's just a pretty video and song.

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1. "Sayonara Hitori" - Taemin

For his first Japanese solo single, SHINee's Taemin pulled out all the stops. None of the cutesy image that was cultivated during SHINee's early period, instead, Taemin fully embraced his darkness, portraying several different characters. The first looks like he walked out of Inuyasha, dancing around a piano (no, I don't know why either) as blue flowers grow around him. The next scene finds him clad in the edgiest black garb possible as samurai spar behind him. Perhaps the most goth thing, however, is Taemin laying in a black coffin as very fabulous mourners lay blue flowers down. Not bad for a kid who somehow loses nearly everything he touches. Gotta keep it relatable. Of course, I subscribe to the belief that Taemin couldn’t have gothed it up without Jaejoong paving the way.

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Now, a few honorable mentions. Okay, a lot of honorable mentions:

Stone Temple Pilots, "Sour Girl"

Sunmi, "Full Moon"

4Minute, "Volume Up"

XIA, "Tarantallegra"

Rihanna, "Disturbia"

Taeyang, "I'll Be There"

Depeche Mode, "Walk in My Shoes"

30 Seconds to Mars, "The Kill"

Christina Aguilera, "Fighter" (I wanted to save this for the Xtina project, whenever I manage to get to this video)

Keane, "Disconnected"

FT Island, “Pray”

INFINITE, “Bad”

2NE1, “It Hurts (Slow)”

#kim jaejoong #shinee #taemin #evanescence #lacuna coil #avenged sevenfold #arcadia #madonna #vixx #duran duran #list

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marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer · 7 years

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MTVS Epic Rewatch #166

BTVS 6x14 Older and Far Away

1) Older and Far Away is the perfect kind of episode to follow up the dark and gritty Dead Things. Shit had gotten too real, so it’s a welcome change of pace because it allows us to breathe a little bit while at the same time advancing the season arcs without crushing us to pieces, you know? It’s also filled with fun moments, and it’s always nice to see ALL the characters interacting in the same situation.

2) Credit where credit’s due, Dawn was trying hard to be a team player and not complain (too much... she’d already complained last week) about Buffy not being there as often as she’d like her to be.

BUFFY: I'm sorry. DAWN: It's okay. BUFFY: No, we're gonna sit down and have a real dinner. Someday. I hate having to run out in the middle, it's just, you know, there's this thing out there. Definitely non-vampire. DAWN: I understand. Well, maybe when you get back we can set up for your party tomorrow.

BUFFY: Yeah. Uh, this could take a while though, I wouldn't wait up. Besides, Willow promised to be on birthday patrol, so there's nothing left for us to do. DAWN: Right. BUFFY: Okay, so, finish dinner, homework, and don't stay up too late, all right? DAWN: Okay

3) Honestly, how much do you love her?

4) I love this line because I love Buffy and Tara and their relationship.

XANDER: No, the party. Or, Tara ... at the party. WILLOW: Oh. XANDER: It's just ... Buffy really wants her there. It seems important to her, so I told her I'd ask you.

Tara was Buffy’s confidante at this point in the season, I think mostly because Buffy really needed someone who wouldn’t judge her and someone who was removed from the situation. The fact that they weren’t that close to begin with is actually what brought them together and the reason Buffy could open up to Tara in a way she wasn’t able to with Willow or Xander.

5) Apparently, Dawn had an amazing time at the mall...

So... I get that the writers were using this shoplifting thing to show that Dawn was craving attention, but she’d been at it for over a year now and no one had noticed, so maybe she should’ve gone for a different attention-grabbing tactic?

Also, it surely can’t be that easy to shoplift a fucking leather jacket, right?

6) This is really sad, though, and I wish the writers would’ve focused on exploring Dawn’s feelings of abandonment and loneliness in a different way. It’s kind of a stretch to connect her shoplifting with how she actually feels, I think there should be a more subtle metaphor or something? I don’t know. Like, I get this is a way in which teenagers act out sometimes, but I expected a bit more from this show. (at the same time, this is just like the rest of the in-your-face “metaphors” that abound in season 6...)

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: I know there's been ... a lot of loss..

DAWN: Yeah. Kinda. I mean, yes. People keep... people have a tendency to go away... and, I miss them. And sometimes... I wish I could just make them stop. Going away. But seriously, it's, it's no big deal. I'm fine.

I mean, it’s such a heartbreaking feeling, and we can all relate to this, you know? I just wish they would’ve found a better way to translate this feeling into Dawn’s behavior.

XANDER: So, who's coming, you invite anyone else? BUFFY: Just you guys. Willow, Tara. The gang. Oh, and Sophie from work.

(that’s what they were thinking, and so was I.)

8) Ugh these two, I love them so much.

BUFFY: Hey! You made it!

TARA: Of course, sweetie. So, how're you doing? BUFFY: Oh, you know. Better. Mostly. Sometimes. TARA: So, is, um... Spike coming? BUFFY: No. He may be a chip-head, but... he still doesn't play too well with others. Besides, I'm definitely not ready to, to...

TARA: Come out. BUFFY: Yeah. I'm all ... stay-inny.

First of all, they are both so happy to see each other. But what I love the most is that Buffy doesn’t even try to pretend her meltdown didn’t happen. She’s owning up to what she told Tara, she’s addressing it and being honest (which goes to show just how badly she needed to talk to someone about what she was going through.) Also, she doesn’t even need to explain how she feels, Tara understands completely (she even completes her sentence for her!)

9) Remember when Buffy said “ Like I'm one of those losers who can't make friends outside her tight little circle? No. I'm friendly.” Well, it seems Spike was really intent on not looking like one of those losers because he brought Clem along. And like, I love this so much? First, I love Clem, I think he’s precious. But also, I love the fact that Spike is the kind of person/vampire that needs a friend to tag along when he’s in a social situation that could cause him anxiety (I also get that he probably thought “if I bring someone along, Buffy will take pity on them and won’t kick both of us out...”) because let’s face it, he was showing at Buffy’s birthday party uninvited but he was also probably kind of freaking out about hanging out with all the Scoobies. You know, that type of pressure anyone feels when they’re meeting their significant other’s friends and/or family for the first time. I can see him thinking “what would she think if her friends don’t like me?” And then he would realize that they actually hate him, hence Clem (his security blanket.)

10) Bless Tara and Clem. This two would make the cutest sitcom duo ever, FYI.

SPIKE: Stupid git! TARA: I don't know. He seemed ... cute. W-was he cute? I mean, I'm not a very good judge, but... I think he seemed cute.

CLEM: I think he seemed cute, yeah.

11) Oh, but that’s hardly a “no”, Buffy...

SPIKE: You wanna slip away for a minute, luv? BUFFY: What? SPIKE: I'll let you blow out my candles. BUFFY: Here. Now? I don't think so.

12)

WILLOW: See? It's a battery-operated back massager. And it's portable so you can take it with you on patrol. BUFFY: Wow. WILLOW: It's like, instant gratification for all your little acheys.

Also, Willow? That’s hardly a best-friendy gift. A back massager? Like, get her an actual dildo.

13) How come no one questioned how a 15-year-old girl could afford a fucking leather jacket?

(at the same time, I love that Buffy didn’t think the worst of Dawn immediately, but more on that later.)

14) Now, this is a best-friendy gift, Willow, take a hint.

15) How old was Sophie?

BUFFY: Welcome! Uh, we're somewhere between, uh, presents and cake. There is gonna be cake eventually, right? SOPHIE: Hey. Uh, my mom told me to say thank you right away, 'cause, otherwise I usually forget. So, thank you. And, also, um, I can't have any, any chocolate, or, or peanuts or egg yolks.

ANYA: Is this the friend you brought from work? BUFFY: Yes. SOPHIE: A-and sometimes dairy. BUFFY: No problem.

16) Plot twist!

17) ICONIC.

SPIKE: I had... a... muscle cramp. Buffy was, uh, helping. TARA: A muscle cramp? In your... pants? SPIKE: What, it's a thing. TARA: Right.

18) This is a rule that should be reinforced in every household. Well, there are exceptions... sometimes people do want to be eaten... and maybe jokes can be made about it...

BUFFY: We do not joke about eating people in this house!

19) This outburst really came out of nowhere, though. Like, I get that Dawn was needy and sad and lonely, but they had just spent 12+ hours together, it’s time to wrap up the party, sweetie, I don’t care how lonely you are. Also, it wasn’t like they were “leaving her”, they had actual obligations to comply with.

BUFFY: I think the first priority has to be to find a way out. DAWN: Sure. Of course you all wanna leave. 'Cause being stuck in here with me, that would really suck, right?

WILLOW: No, Dawnie! It's just, we have more important things to do. DAWN: Yeah, I know. Important. Whatever that means, right?

Also, don’t you want people to hang out with you because they actually want to instead of because they are magically compelled to do so? They were hostages, basically.

20) CLASSIC DAWN HAHAHAHAH

21) Tsk, tsk, Willow.

BUFFY: Well, we don't have any in the house. We got rid of everything. WILLOW: Actually ... not everything. I, uh... might have ... kept one or, or two things. Sort of.

But.. she was honest. She could’ve kept quiet and let them try to figure it out on their own. Or she could’ve kept quiet and try to fix it all on her own (and fall off the wagon in doing so.) This was the most difficult option for her because she had to come clean in front of everyone but more importantly in front of Tara. She knew she might be decreasing her chances of getting back together with her by admitting she’d been keeping a magic stash. But she still chose to be honest, which was a huge step for her.

22) Poor Ricky, though.

Was anyone surprised that Buffy’s birthday party turned into a death party?

23)

BUFFY: What did you want? DAWN: Nothing. BUFFY: Dawn, come on. DAWN: No. You don't know! You have this thing you do. You have all these friends. You have no idea what it's like. BUFFY: What are you talking about? I don't know what, what- DAWN: Being alone! BUFFY: You're not alone! DAWN: Then why do I feel like this?

Mostly, because you’re a teenager. Being a teenager is equal parts wanting to be left alone to die and cursing the world for leaving you alone in the first place. What a beautiful age!

24) I present thee, asshole Anya.

TARA: I'd say we do another spell, but I, I think we've tried everything. ANYA: Well... that's not completely true, is it? I mean, not everything. Not exactly. We're sitting here with an incredibly powerful witch... much more powerful than you, Tara, I'm sorry... only no one seems willing to say it. WILLOW: I can't. ANYA: No, see, that's not exactly true either. Not can't, won't. WILLOW: You don't know how much I hate this. I don't know if there's even... anything I could do. ANYA: Yes... and a good way to find out is to sit around and try nothing. That was sarcasm, by the way. SPIKE: Look- WILLOW: It's dangerous. ANYA: And so is all of us dying! XANDER: Will... look, I don't wanna gang up on you... but Anya kinda has a point. We brought you back from it once. We're all here, it's just one little spell, whatever happens, we can bring you back again. WILLOW: No. I can't. If I start, I... I might not be able to stop. ANYA: And whose fault is that? You know, if you hadn't gotten so much of this in your system in the first place- TARA: Hey! You're gonna back off! She said no, and that's it. You're not gonna make her do something that she doesn't want to. And if you try... You're gonna have to go through me first. Understood?

I love Willow so much in this episode because she’s really trying hard and you can see her struggling but being relentless in her decision not to use magic. I just hate that Anya had to come off as such a big asshole in order to make Willow look good. (and Anya is kind of an asshole for the rest of the episode, btw.) I think it’s an odd choice to have Anya be the one to bring it up and in such a confrontational way. I mean, Spike is right there! It would’ve been SO easy to have him be the one to try and force Willow into doing magic. But Spike and Tara are really on the same page here, and I love that. See? Both Anya and Xander had only been witness to and victim of the most surface-y stuff Willow had done because of her addiction. Tara, on the other hand, had been violated in quite a perverse way. And Spike had witnessed how Willow had put Dawn in an extremely dangerous situation and then had seen her break down and desperately ask for help. I think that memory wasn’t an easy one to forget. And you can see how he tries to intervene on Willow’s behalf when Anya continues pushing the issue, and how he shakes his head when Xander suggests “it’s just one little spell, we can bring you back.” (first of all, NO ONE brought Willow back, she brought herself back and the only one we’d seen helping her out was Buffy! Not Xander, not Anya! BUFFY! So it really seems they were talking out of their asses.) Also, I hate Xander’s “I don’t wanna gang up on you” because that’s exactly what someone who’s about to gang up on you would say. And Xander’s is such a fan of ganging up on people, in case you hadn’t noticed.

And then, TARA. Goddess, cinnamon roll, precious Tara. She understands the timing is not right for her and Willow, but she sees how hard Willow is trying and she is not about to let anyone get in the middle of her recovery. And this is so out of character for her but also in character? Tara is not naturally confrontational, which is something that I love about her. But you mess with someone she loves and she will destroy you, that’s a promise (think of her death stare in Tough Love when Glory was trying to get the identity of the key out of her...) This is a very important moment for Tara as a character, okay?

25) I know the writers needed Dawn’s room searched so that her secret would come out, but yet again it was at the expense of Anya coming off as a dick. (this is sort of in character, though. Anya has always been about survival and self-preservation so far.)

26) Like I said before, I do appreciate that Buffy didn’t jump to conclusions and gave Dawn the benefit of the doubt. And even when it dawns on her that her little sister had really been shoplifting, she still tries to defend her.

ANYA: Half this stuff is from the Magic Box. How could you do this? I work hard at that store, and I helped you! I took care of you. This is how you say 'thank you'?

BUFFY: Anya, hold on, okay? Tell her you didn't do this. Tell her it's a mistake.

DAWN: No!

BUFFY: Oh. DAWN: Buffy... ANYA: How are we supposed to trust you, Dawn? I mean, you... you say you didn't put us here, but look at this stuff! How are we supposed to believe you?

BUFFY: Look, I don't think she- I don't think it's all her fault, okay? She ... there was a guidance counselor, or someone pretending to be a guidance counselor, she, she made Dawn make a wish.

See? That’s the reaction of someone who has been ganged up on so many times that she can’t stand to witness someone else going through that even if they kind of deserve it.

27) I LOVE THIS MOMENT. (click this link, you won’t regret it.)

Now, why do you think both of them pretended not to know the other?

28) I love how the show always used the demon world to comment on society.

TARA: I thought vengeance demons only punished men who wronged women. HALFREK: Oh, that was Anya's little raison d'être. Most of us try to be a little more well-rounded. And actually, we prefer 'justice demon.' Okay? FYI.

29) See? Willow goes forward with her honesty policy, and it works. Tara’s so proud of her!

WILLOW: Thanks... for before. And, and for taking this stuff with you. TARA: No problem. WILLOW: Just so you know, I was never... gonna use it. I mean, not really, I... I just kept it like a safety net. 'Cause... there was always this... thing in the back of my head. This, you know, voice, saying, like, 'what if things get bad, I mean really bad? And what if you can't handle it?' And it made me panic, so... that's why I kept a couple of things. I... kept them so I didn't have to think about it, so I could focus on... on getting better. TARA: I get it. I really do. But it's time to work without the net, Will. You know, I don't know if you noticed, but it actually did get bad in there. Really bad, and... and you still said no.

30) And they’re finally free to go...

#Buffy the Vampire Slayer #BTVS #Buffy Summers #Willow Rosenberg #Tara Maclay #MTVSepicrewatch #BTVSrewatch2015 #mine #Older and Far Away #recap #btvsrecap

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