#i feel bad for people who follow me for 1 particular fandom with how much i jump around

[omchar]

Ok so like. I was abducted by some gemcyt people on mcci and fell deeply into that rabbithole. So now we're here! Have these:

Designs belong to @chrisrin

Skin download thingies under the cut :D

also also: flower husbands ft. poppies (i was too lazy to get pictures of the skins themselves)

#ive been wanting to make more mc skins for a while #so this was a good excuse to do so :D #also im currently working on false and might do joel after that? #we'll see how far the brainrot will carry me #gemcyt #trafficblr #<- technically #scott smajor #jimmy solidarity #tangotek #bigbstatz #if you have any other recommendations for who i can make please let me know :D #im terrified to post this #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #i feel bad for people who follow me for 1 particular fandom with how much i jump around

[ruskaroma]

ordinary, corrupt human love. | chapter 1: written in blood.

Warnings: this series will include highly disturbing/dark topics such as stalking, unhealthy obsession, graphic descriptions of violence, blood and gore, manipulation, gaslighting, large age gap, emotional/psychological abuse, dom/sub undertones, bad BDSM etiquette, etc.

this is a dark fic, written in john's pov and a glimpse of how his mind works. if you still continue to read and get triggered, that is not my responsibility.

Summary: John finds himself a new obsession.

Author's note: this is my first ever fanfic for this fandom and i am beyond excited to share this with you guys! though i must say before you begin, english is not my first language and there might be a few errors in my writing here and there, so i apologize in advance.

but either way, i still hope you enjoy this piece, and i can assure you that once i finish writing this series there will be more to come! i really enjoy writing john wick be a merciless bastard who kills everything that breathes, and i hope you enjoy it too as much as i did.

please, please, PLEASE tell me what you think in the comment and reblogs and likes would be so appreciated. it motivates me to write even more :)

(also this is not edited so all mistakes are on me and i apologize)

Word count: 8.1k

also read on ao3.

It’s one of those days again.

The sound of his watch ticking is the only thing keeping his car from being too quiet. His eyes watch every single movement of his target, never leaving his sight. It won’t be too long for John to finally strike, he just doesn’t want too many civilians seeing the horror that’s about to happen right before their very eyes.

His mind is thinking of many things he could do with this target in particular. A lowlife thug that got himself involved with a very dangerous Italian mob, but then again that’s not the reason why John’s murderous intent is at its peak at the moment.

He’s angry at something, he just doesn’t know what. And this target of his isn’t helping his situation at all. Reading his criminal record made John think this could be a chance to cure his boredom. This man is not only a sex trafficker, but also a pedophile who has a history of targeting teenagers to rape and sell to the black market that’s as fucked up as him.

He doesn’t normally take his time thinking of ways to kill his targets. He points, shoots, leaves. This one in particular though, got him facing a side of him that John himself doesn’t want to face.

He would start by breaking every single one of the man’s fingers. And if that doesn’t do any justice, he’ll cut them off.

One by one, let the man savor the feeling, let John relish the nightmare.

He could slit the man’s throat, watch as life drains away from his body, watch as the man clings to his legs for mercy. John could even pull out the man’s dick, step on it, fucking cut it off and shove it so far down his own throat that he couldn’t scream for help if he tried.

It’s John’s version of Colombian Necktie. A classic, only ever tried it out four times, hopefully this would be the fifth.

John is never the one to take pleasure in killing people, but these past few months have proved him otherwise.

Maybe it’s because of Helen’s death, and the way he was basically forced to sculpt the demons he buried back into himself. His only remaining bit of humanity was taken from him, and he’s coping in the most unhealthy way possible. Perhaps Winston was right about dipping his pinky a little too much into the pond, but it was inevitable.

John has gone back to his old ways. Taking contracts here and there to distract himself from the void in his heart. He remembers how burying a knife into someone’s throat for the first time in many years has ignited something in him he didn’t even know he had.

That’s why he’s here, exiting his car in a swift move, following his target as quietly as possible into a narrow alleyway that stinks of garbage in piss. This would be a nice place to kill a guy like him – right where he belongs.

John’s movements are so discreet the man couldn’t even sense him until John wrapped his right arm around his neck and his other hand went to cover the man’s mouth. He walks them both to the back of a building as the man struggles, where John’s sure no more people are present, and he kicks him on the jaw to stop the man from making any more noises.

John can make this quick. Pull out his gun and blow his brains out. But there’s that sinister glint in his mind that’s telling him to do something unimaginable – grotesque even – a death a man like him deserves.

The man tries to swing his arm at John but misses pathetically. The poor guy’s already shaking and John hasn’t even begun.

John doesn’t respond to the pitiful attempts of questioning who he is and who sent him here, he simply pulls his knife from his pocket and wastes no time slashing it against the man’s throat, the blood spraying all over his face. The man tries to stop it by shakily covering the deep cut with his hand, but it’s useless.

He’s gargling, choking on his own blood, and John’s watching it all unravel with a familiar glint in his eyes.

John is contemplating if he should follow the plan he made in his head or just leave it like this. Somehow, the sight looks rather incomplete to him. He knows what he’s done is not enough, but that could be just the rage talking. The man’s already dead, and surely cutting off his dick and shoving it so far down his throat it comes out of the wound would leave an ugly reputation on his name. 

Would that be a good thing? John is already feared enough, would it be a good thing to make people fear him even more? But then again, this won’t be the first time he’s done it. Doing it again one more time wouldn’t make any difference.

He glances down at the dead body on his feet before he kneels down to do the unforgivable.

Slicing off a man’s cock is easy. Too easy. John’s knife is perfectly sharpened and stoned, he merely uses any strength to cut it off. The sight is so fucking ugly, too much blood, but nothing he can’t handle.

Once that’s done, John uses his other hand to force the dead man’s jaw open, immediately greeted by the foul stench of blood as he shoves the unpleasant dick into the man’s open mouth. The genitalia is definitely not long enough to reach the throat, but that won’t be any problem for John.

He grits his teeth as he forces his hand in there, not bothering to care even if the jaw breaks and the hole becomes even wider, his goal is the only thing in his mind.

The blood continues to drip and he has never been so grateful for wearing an all black uniform for this occasion. Soon enough, after a few minutes of such a brutal wrongdoing, John sees the tip of the cock reaching the deep wound on the man’s throat as it continues to peak its way out.

A sick, small smile spreads across John’s face. The smile is barely there, but he’s fucking enjoying this more than he’d like to admit. He can only imagine how the news would spread across the assassin underworld like a wildfire.

The Boogeyman’s back in business and he’s scarier than ever.

Perhaps this might be the way to lay his point across. This is a way to show them that it was not a good idea pissing him off, killing what’s his, and bringing him back in business. They’d regret it, but it would be already too late for that.

John uses his other hand to pull the cock right out of the man’s throat but not completely. Half of it is hanging out and John thinks he could even consider this as a masterpiece. There’d be flies and maggots that would make the scenery better, but the cleaning service is there for a reason. He can’t just not use it.

John stands up from his position, pocketing his knife back into his pocket before retrieving his phone with the other. He dials a number, waits for them to pick up, all while admiring his work on the ground.

His previous contracts these past few months all ended in such an unimaginable, ugly way. He figured that by showing them that he’s capable of such brutality, it would increase the numbers of people calling him in for more jobs, because this is exactly what they wanted. They wanted Baba Yaga, the ruthless killer of the underworld who stops at nothing to finish his job, and he’s simply giving it to them.

Someone picks up the call and he straightens his posture, checking the time on his watch before speaking.

“This is Wick. John Wick, yes. I would like to make a dinner reservation for one.”

The news spread faster than anticipated.

The notorious man John Wick, the hot topic of the criminal underworld at the moment, even gained the attention of The High Table, and it all happened in the span of one day. That’s how quick the news spread amongst his fellow assassins, though that’s exactly what he was going for.

John expected it so he isn’t surprised when he receives a call from Charon saying Winston wants to meet him.

He inserts a coin in the door and the small window opened briefly. The guy on the other side immediately recognized him, not wasting a single moment to open the door and let the man of the hour in. All eyes are on him the moment he steps into the club, but no one dared to murmur anything to anybody – not when the man himself is here.

They know better.

John spots Winston at his usual spot drinking his usual order, signaling John to sit beside him where a glass of bourbon is already present. 

“Jonathan,” Winston greets, raising his glass. “We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

“I figured,” John replies, though not interested. He slides himself to the booth and takes a sip of his own drink. “I don’t understand why though.”

“Are we really playing this game, Jonathan?” The manager raises a brow. 

“I was just doing my job.”

“In a way you don’t normally do,” Winston then adds. “Or should I say, in a way you don’t even do.”

John gives him a look, but he could tell Winston doesn’t know how to interpret it. His face remains emotionless, not letting the mask slip and grant Winston the privilege to take a peak. John will continue to play this game until he’s satisfied, until he feels something again. Surely he’ll find what he’s looking for while doing the only thing he’s ever good at – slaughtering.

“Let’s just say I was trying out a new technique,” John says, voice deep and almost sinister. Winston’s scared, though he doesn’t show it, John knows. 

“I have known you ever since you started, Jonathan. Not once did it cross my mind you would do something so.. horrifying as this. You discarded the body like he was some sort of pig, so believe me when I say I couldn’t believe it at first.”

John has no idea why Winston’s whining about him being horrifying, when that’s all they’ve been saying about him ever since he joined. He didn’t gain this reputation for no reason, now he’s just simply showing them what more he’s capable of.

“You should’ve seen his record.” His tone is menacing, swirling the drink in his hand as he stares deeply at Winston’s eyes. “He’s worse than a pig.”

The drop of the curse word takes Winston by surprise. “So is that what it is, then? You killed him that way because you think he deserved it?”

“Not really,” John simply sighs, leaning back on the leather seat as he takes another sip of his bourbon. He really isn’t planning on staying longer, but Winston seems to be taking his sweet time asking him a bunch of stupid questions. “I couldn’t care less of what he’s done. I was simply… bored. Saying that I did that because I think he deserved it gives people a reason to think that what I did was justifiable.”

The look on Winston’s face says enough. He’s afraid of John, afraid of what he has become. Hearing John say he did such an unforgiving thing just because he was bored is beyond frightening. No man has ever inflicted so much fear on him before – at least not until John.

“I think we’re done for tonight,” Winston finally says, not wanting to hear any more disturbing thoughts of John, but he remains polite and calm for the sake of their friendship. “You have a good night, Jonathan.”

John gives him a nod, standing up from his seat and downing his drink in one go. “Goodnight, Winston.”

He exits the club with an eerie aura following behind him, not caring about the way people are looking at him like he’s got Death himself walking beside him.

It makes him wonder that maybe death doesn’t follow him after all.

Maybe it is him.

Someone offered him five million to fuck up a man who allegedly stole a fuck ton of kilograms of cocaine from their warehouse, and really, who is John to decline the offer?

Hunting the man is easy. It didn’t even take a day to locate where the man lives, and John’s already breaking into his apartment to shoot the guy and leave. There’s no point in rummaging the place for the cocaine, all of it is already up the man’s system by the looks of it, and killing him is John’s job.

John wants to finish this one fast, he’s got other business to attend to. As he backs up the frightened, pathetic excuse for a man against the wall, he takes his gun out of his holster and aims directly at the head, right between the eyes, and he watches in great pleasure as the residue of his brains splatter against the walls and the floor.

This man didn’t even put up a fight. John thinks this is a waste of time.

He exits the apartment with disappointment heavy on his shoulders, slamming the door shut. Although the gun he used has a silencer, the rooms are too close to each other. He’s sure there might be other people who heard the shot of his firearm.

The apartment building is located at the filthy side of New York, where most known drug dealers and junkies do their nasty deals. It’s no surprise that as soon as John steps a foot out of the worn out building, all eyes are on him, but mainly on the clothes he’s wearing. They’re planning on mugging him out, and John would like to see them try.

Just as he’s about to walk to his car, his phone rings abruptly in his chest pocket. He retrieves it in one swift motion, not noticing that a gold coin fell out as he does so, and he continues walking to not waste any more time.

“Sir! Excuse me, sir, you dropped something!” John hears from behind. He doesn’t bother looking.

The call isn’t nearly as important as the business he needs to attend to, so he hangs up the call and pushes his phone back into his pocket. As soon as he does that, he feels a small hand touching his shoulder.

John’s hand immediately flies to wrap his large hand around the person’s wrist, turning around to see a young woman with a bewildered expression on her pretty face, little fingers holding his golden coin that looks far too big on her hand.

She looks scared, terrified, and oh how fucking awful that makes John feel. Like he’s been punched right in the fucking gut. He’s enthralled.

“I wasn’t–you dropped it and I’m just giving it to you, I promise!”

She’s looking at John with big, doe eyes. She also looks freshly showered, wrapped in a black puffy jacket that makes her even smaller than she already is. John lets his eyes linger on her lips, so plump and glossy. Her voice sounds sweet, soft, something John isn’t used to hearing.

John can’t help but to stare.

“Are you–are you gonna let me go, mister?”

The way she stutters triggers a hot feeling in John’s guts, and can’t help but to rub his thumb on the girl’s dainty wrist before slowly letting her go.

So delicate, he could snap them in half.

“Sorry,” John apologizes, taking the coin from her hold, and his fingers itch at the way her skin feels so soft against his rough hands. “Force of habit.”

“It’s okay,” she smiles a little, and there goes that hot curl in John’s stomach once again. “That thing looks expensive so be careful next time.”

Just like that, John doesn’t get the chance to reply back. She makes her leave and patters away from him, and he watches. He watches until she’s out of the view, taking a turn to a corner, leaving John with something he can’t quite figure out yet, but he soon will be.

For the first time in a while, he feels something new.

Suddenly, everything is too good to be true.

John will find himself staring at his hands for too long, still feeling the ghost of her soft skin on his fingers, fantasizing about her pretty face and soft, plump lips.

It’s scary for him to feel something again because that only means destruction. John likes to believe he has a gift of ruining everything he touches, especially the pure ones – like her. It’s a proven statement. Just look at Helen and Daisy.

This little one won’t be any different, he’s sure of it. John’s whole body is heating up everytime he thinks about her. The look on her face when she saw John’s chilling expression, her wide eyes, so glossy and innocent.

John wants to see her again.

His fingers itch, yearning to touch her again. 

Why he’s suddenly interested in a young woman he just met a few days ago, he has no idea. John’s a bit confusing – fucked up, even. He long accepted the fact that his mind is nowhere near healthy years ago. He tried to push those thoughts away when he met Helen, but now he’s out of his shell and back in business, there’s no need to.

He’s always been one of the wolves, and now that he’s laid his eyes on his next meal, he will make sure there’s not a single thing that will get in his way to hunt her down.

He had a crisis for two days before doing the unexpected. It didn’t take long for John to find her. 

Now, John has been following her around for a week, and he noticed a certain pattern his little one likes to follow as she goes on her day.

The very place where they met is where she lives, surrounded by a bunch of goons who have no idea what to do with their lives. John begins to wonder why she’s living in a place like that. He could take her, put her somewhere safe, under his care and protection. Make sure no one will dare to lay a finger on her.

John knows where she works. At a veterinary clinic not too far from her apartment, which is why she walks to work every three in the afternoon, but not without stopping by in her favorite deli and getting a large order of her favorite sandwich. She’s a part-timer. She’d be at school from seven to twelve, and at work from three to eight.

John finds the little things she does amusing. He’d be seated in a cafe right across from her work, watching how she moves around her office through a big window, petting and cooing at the animals who come and go.

She’s so perfect, so pure, so naive. She has no idea that a monster is lurking ten feet away from her, watching her every move like a hawk, thinking about the ways he could destroy her, make her his.

John is not delusional. He’s fully aware of what he’s doing and he’s aware of what people might call him. 

Stalker.

Creep.

They don’t know him though. They don’t know why he acts this way. They’d do the same if they were him, that’s for sure. He’s not the bad guy here, he’s simply just protecting her little one, even from afar. John went as far as destroying a whole Russian Bratva for a mere puppy and a car, he’d do even worse if she’s somehow taken away from him.

John sees her exiting the building and his first thought is to follow her. He stands up from his seat, the cup of coffee long forgotten as he makes his way out of the café and keeps a safe distance between the two of them. It’s risky, especially in the broad daylight, but John knows she’s too oblivious to notice.

She’s with her friends this time, and it doesn’t go unnoticed by John how she clings at the shirt of her co-worker as they cross the street, small hands fisting at the fabric. He thinks about how he won’t ever let go of her hand once she’s his. He’s not big on physical affection, having to grow up with no parents and a rather strict orphanage, but maybe he could be gentle. Engulf her hand in his, stroke it with his thumb, tuck her hair behind her ears, show everyone that she’s already owned.

They wouldn’t dare to lay their hands on her again.

John walks in the middle of the sidewalk, not bothering to move away despite seeing people approaching. He doesn’t need to, the look in his face is enough for people to give him the way. It’s interrupted however, when someone does try to get in his way, placing a hand on his chest and pushing him back a little.

John clenches his jaw, pissed. He takes his eyes from his little one and on the person who so rudely interrupted what he’s doing – it’s Marcus.

“John? I was just looking for you at the Continental.” Marcus has a small smile on his face, clearly not aware of John’s expression.

His eyes dart behind Marcus, where his little one is supposed to be, but she’s gone. John feels something curl in his stomach, his fingers itching again, eyes rapidly searching for her in the sea of people.

He looks at Marcus again, deciding he’ll just find her later, but he worries that something might happen to her now that John’s attention isn’t on her.

“Why?” he almost snaps, voice deep and laced with no emotion.

“Why? Because it’s been quite some time, John. I haven’t heard from you since the Iosef situation, but I did hear you’re back in business,” Marcus replies, but when he sees how distracted John looks, his voice falters. “You working?”

“Yeah.” The lie comes off smoothly. “I’ll see you around.”

John taps Marcus’ shoulder, trying to sound as polite as possible even though he badly wants to break a couple of his teeth for taking his attention away from her. He knows Marcus is probably noticing something, but John’s never the one to care.

Marcus drops the subject. “Alright, John. I’ll see you around.”

With that, John disappears in the crowd with no looking back.

It’s been awhile since John last took a job.

He can’t seem to take his eyes away from his little one. He can’t stop fucking stalking her from morning to night time.

John’s afraid that once he takes his attention from her even for a second, something bad might happen to her. It’s engraved in his mind that she can’t protect herself and he’s solely there to be the protector.

No one would understand. He’s doing this for her own good.

John’s absence at the Continental doesn’t go unnoticed by Winston and Charon. They’re his favorite, after all. Watch his every move carefully ever since that ugly murder John did. Perhaps he could make his next kill even uglier. To them, it’s vile and grotesque. For John, it’s special and unique.

This time, it took a good self-beating before John decided to take a contract. Three million to hunt down a rival crime lord, nothing he can’t handle, but somehow it brings an unusual feeling on his shoulder he isn’t fond of. Perhaps because John’s leaving his little one for a while and he isn’t quite sure what to feel. Worried and pissed – but mostly worried.

That is why he hired someone to trail his little one on his behalf. Everyone in business would do anything for a coin despite how fucked up disturbing it is. John offered a generous amount of coins to keep the assassin’s mouth shut, but he also held him at gunpoint and gave him a good talk before he sent the dog out in the field.

His only job is to keep an eye on her, report everything he’ll see to John, and maybe even take pictures for safety purposes.

John has been overseas in the last three days, and everything that’s been sent to him has been his only form of entertainment. There’s videos of her giggling with her friends, videos and photos of her in the library, outside her school, her work, and even in her apartment. There’s also information sent to him about the background of her friends – every single one of them, because John didn’t pay so much for nothing.

There’s one particular friend that ticks off John in all the worst way possible. He’s young, around her age, and the way he hugs and touches her just fucking sets him off. John wants to break his fingers in half. He reminds himself that once he’s home, he’ll make sure to take care of that boy himself.

“What else have you got?” John questions through the phone, and it doesn’t take long for his precious dog to respond.

“Oh, he is one creepy motherfucker. I’m starting to understand why you’re so riled up with this guy, boss. The urge to strangle him every time he gets in the picture gets stronger and stronger everyday.” He hears a laugh at the other end. The guy that’s working for him – Alex, if he remembers correctly – is young, new in business, knows not to fuck with John so he keeps his job adequate. If Alex ever notice how fucked up John is for making him follow a young woman to keep his life in order, he doesn’t say anything about it. “Just tell me when I can shoot this guy and I’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

“Leave him. Keep an eye on him, but don’t kill him,” John advises, his tone leaving no room for discussion. “I’ll handle him myself when I get back. For the meantime, focus on Y/N and keep any troubles out of her way. Fail that task and I’d serve your head hot on a platter.”

“You got it, boss.”

John is playing nicely.

He’s not going to force his way into her life. He’s gonna be welcomed, with open arms, desired.

There are times he’d thought about giving in to his desperation and act with his dick instead of his head. There are times he’d thought about following her to a dark street, where no one’s around, he’s on the prowl and ready to pounce. He’d put a fabric against her mouth and nose, laced with enough chemicals to make her pass out and for him to carry her in his car with no problems whatsoever. John thinks about how he’d make it look like he’s just picking up his very drunk and passed out girlfriend and no one would know a goddamn thing.

John would keep her in his house where she won’t need anything but him. 

But of course, he’s not that cruel.

They’re only thoughts. Thoughts that he tries hard to keep away, but at the end of the day he reminds himself that he’s better than that.

John is not going to force his way into her life.

He’ll make sure to get her addicted enough to come crawling at his feet herself. She’ll be dependent on him, won’t be able to live without him. John will make sure his plan will go out smoothly or otherwise he’ll be the one bringing Hell with him on this land and seek as much havoc as he possibly can.

The death emissary himself will strike tonight.

A Friday night out with her friends has John on high alert. That’ll only mean she’s constantly surrounded with people, god knows what could happen if John even takes his eyes off her for a second. He lurks on the side, blending himself with the crowd as much as he can all while keeping his gaze on her. 

He doesn’t need any drugs to keep his mind insane, because the sight of a specific man getting very close to what’s his is enough to make him visualize all the ugly and twisted ways to kill a man.

She’s wearing a thin silky dress that’s low on her cleavage and shows her perky breasts. She’s currently the flame in a room full of moths, John included. Everyone’s eyes are on her, observing the way she sways her hips and sings along to the loud music – John’s fingers itch.

The itch to kill is back again, driving into his veins, his hands twitch on the table. John wants to pull out his gun and shoot everyone in this fucking room. He wants to stab them in the eyes one by one and make them feed it to themselves. He wants to grab this guy on the neck and slam his head against the wall repeatedly until his brain scatter all over the fucking place and there’s nothing left for him to ruin.

This guy is getting on his fucking nerves.

John watches as the man smoothly brings his arm on her shoulder, whispering something in her ear that doesn’t make her look so impressed. In fact, she looks disturbed, uncomfortable, tense. Despite the guy being her friend, John could tell she doesn’t feel comfortable with the way he’s showing her affection.

It’s hard to see her like this, but he knows he can’t just jump in between the two of them and beat the shit out of the guy until he chokes on his own blood. He’ll have to wait, maybe after this party, he’ll strike and discard the body in a way that’ll make even Winston spook in his sleep. It’s not a major offense to kill a man that’s not in the game anyway – or at least that’s what John tells himself.

This guy wouldn’t be able to be three feet near his little one once John’s done with him. He’ll be six feet under.

John sees her swiftly moving away from his touch, trying to make her rejection look as polite as possible, which receives a not-so-amused reaction from her little friend.

This guy doesn’t deserve her at all. No one does. Except maybe John, but that’s because he knows he’s capable of actually taking care of her and keeping her safe. Nobody would understand what he feels, what he yearns, what he wants.

Good girl, John thinks. Walk away.

His gaze follow her as she makes her way to the backdoor and out to the cold air of the city. John follows in a hurry, keeping a safe distance between the two of them, then opens the door as quietly as possible so he wouldn’t let his presence known.

There are a few people on the street, either having a smoke break or making out against the piss stained wall, but she stays just beside the busy road as she wraps her arms around herself.

His gaze burn daggers on her exposed back, the urge to cover her up with his jacket and take her home. A drunk man comes stumbling out of the club, accidentally tripping over his steps and he pushes her hard enough to make her yelp as her heels lose balance and almost making herself get run over by a passing truck.

Almost.

Everything happens so fast. One moment John is standing five feet from her, the next is he’s grasping her wrists in his hand and pulling her back to her feet and dragging her back to the curb. He was already on the act once he saw the man exiting the club, he knew exactly this would happen.

The scene looks strangely familiar, one John could never forget. The same position, same hand placement, same rough fingers around her wrist and dark eyes boring into hers – their very first meeting.

“You!” she gasps, not caring about the fact that she almost just got hit by a fucking truck. “I know you! You’re the guy outside my apartment that day! What are you doing here?”

John stares. Predictable. Of course she’s talking to him like they’ve known each other for years. She’s too friendly.

“Hello to you too,” John replies, though his tone is blank as well as his face. “You remember me.”

“‘Course I do,” she giggles, a little tipsy, pupils dilated and licking her lips nervously. “You’re pretty hard to forget. I remember asking my neighbors around the area if you’re new there, turns out you were just visiting.”

John furrows his brows, hand still not letting go of her wrist. What does she mean by she’s asked around the area about him?

His face must’ve looked confused, he sees her grinning childishly. “It’s a coincidence that I see you again!”

Not a coincidence, but fate.

John doesn’t believe in a lot of things, but he believes in fate. Fate brought him Helen, and now fate is bringing him another angel. If she really went as far as asking the neighborhood about his existence, then it must be fate.

“I’m Y/N. I figured if we keep bumping into each other then you should at least know my name,” she says, completely oblivious that John already knows everything that has to be known about her. From her little mannerisms to the last name of her fucking grandmother. “May I know yours or are you just gonna stare at me all night?”

“It’s John,” he gulps, not wanting to look like a loser in front of her, not after everything he went through for her. “It’s really nice to see you again.”

He sucks at this. He fucking sucks at this.

“You haven’t answered my question, by the way. What brings you here?”

It hangs in the air, John lets go of her wrist. Luckily, he thinks fast enough and says the first thing that comes to his mind. “Work.”

“Ah, work,” she nods. “You work here? In the club? What are you, a bouncer or something?”

“I don’t. Someone I work with is in the club.” A lie, but it’s not like she would know. “We had a talk.”

“Not really a man of words, eh?” she raises an eyebrow teasingly. 

“This is the most words I’ve said in the past few days,” John says. “I’d say you’re special.”

The look on her face is enough to make his entire night even better. Blushing, lips opening and closing, not knowing what to say. John wants to graze his thumb on her lips, thinking about how good it would feel stretching over his cock.

He blinks. Where did that come from?

“For someone who doesn’t talk much, you sure make it sound smooth when you do. Are you always this slick, John?” she giggles again, music to his ear. “That’s actually better than what I heard from my friend earlier, so thank you.”

“That’s good to know.”

Before she could say anything back, the door of the club opens once again and her friends appear, waving a hand at her and beckoning her to get inside. She looks at John, gives him a sympathetic look, as if apologizing that their talk gets cut off too soon.

“I’m really sorry but my friends want me back in there. Hopefully we can continue this again, yeah?” she smiles cheekily, tucking her hair behind her ear. “If you want, you could give me your number so we can talk someplace else? You know… with no one bothering us and all that.”

There it is. John didn’t think it would be this easy to sink the hook in. All he needs to do is pull and take what’s meant to be his.

“Sure.” He enters his number swiftly, feeling that familiar burn in his guts once again when he sees the wallpaper being her pretty face. “Feel free to message me whenever you want. I’ll make time for you.”

She looks at her phone and smiles before starting to walk away from him, waving a hand goodbye, but it doesn’t feel like a goodbye. John knows it isn’t. She’s already his the moment she started talking to him again.

“Of course! Get home safe, John! I’ll see you soon!” 

“You too.”

She doesn’t know John won’t be heading home any time soon until he knows she’s safe and sound in her apartment.

Jay Lopez.

The name burns on his tongue. Bitter and resentful. He stares at the photos his precious dog sent to him and he has to stop the impulse to burn every single one of them.

Jay Lopez is the guy that’s been leeching on his girl since the dawn of time, and thankfully John is here to put an end to it. 

He’s hideous. It’s interesting how John stooped this low that he’d be willing to kill a college student for being too near his little bambi, but alas, he’s never the one to care for such things. Morals and righteousness have never been in his book, not now, nor ever.

It’s only a matter of time until he gets rid of this pest. He’s fucking creepy, follows around not only Y/N but a bunch of other women. 

John doesn’t want his death to be quick and simple. He wants to do it in an ugly way, make sure his body will never be found, make sure he’ll never get to lay his hands and eyes on what’s his. The way Jay stares at her in these pictures ignites something evil within John’s veins. It’s been awhile since he felt something like this.

“Alex.” he looks at his pet standing by the door, waiting for the next command. “Bring him to me alive.”

“Can I at least rough him up a bit?”

John doesn’t answer at first, looks back at the photos on his table. “Do what you want, just make sure he’s still breathing when you bring him here.”

“On it, boss.”

Truth be told, John doesn’t need a pet to order around for this job. He has himself – a labeled attack dog of the Tarasovs for years, their hellhound, chained and muzzled unless they need him to kill. He’s a one man army as some would say, he doesn’t need Alex running around doing tasks for him, but it sure does make the job a lot faster.

It’s not a way to downgrade his reputation nor skills to hunt, he really just needs this Jay guy gone as fast as possible.

On the same day, Alex manages to haul a very brutally violated Jay to the floor of his basement. He stinks, pants wet from piss and a face John is having a hard time recognizing.

“You said rough him up a bit, not make him look unrecognizable.”

“Same thing.”

Jay is sobbing his eyes out, his cries of pleas falls to deaf ears and John just wants to fucking bash his skull with his own foot. “W-who are you guys?! What the f-fuck did I do?! Get me out of here or I’ll tell the fucking police–”

John kicks him on the chin hard to stop the goon from rambling. “You’re not telling anybody any shit, tough guy.”

“So, what are you planning to do to him? Can I watch?”

“Can you handle it?”

Alex shrugs. He’s in the presence of the most dangerous assassin in the underworld, wouldn’t hurt to learn anything from his skills and techniques, doesn’t matter how fucked up it is.

John nods towards the chainsaw sitting at the corner of the room, and Alex turns to face him with wide eyes. “Jesus Christ, man. You serious? Last time I heard you’re a hitman, not a serial killer.”

“Same qualifications. Same thing.” John grabs the man by the arm then drags him to a chair. He takes a rope from the table and swiftly ties him up securely. “We start with the head, then arms and legs. It would be hard to put his entire body in a drum full of acid, so we need to cut him off one by one.”

Alex looks like he’s about to run off somewhere safe from what he’s witnessing. “You’re talking like you’ve done this before, holy fuck.”

John gives him a look, and Alex immediately shuts his mouth. Right. He’d done this before. This is completely normal.

“I’ve been following you for a while, Jay. You’re a creep who befriends pretty girls, then you’ll drug them and make them have sex with you,” John taunts, the sound of his heels hitting the concrete floor is enough to send shivers down his spine. “Is that what you’re also planning to do with Y/N? Be her friend and fuck her once she’s drugged up and vulnerable?”

It’s a bold statement coming from John himself since he’s no better man than Jay, but at least his intentions come from a different place.

“You-you’re fucking sick!” Jay spits.

“I’m sick? I’m not the one going around making girls uncomfortable now, am I?” he picks up the chainsaw, then watches in enjoyment as Jay widens his eyes in fear. “We’re going to have a lot of fun, Jay. You won’t be able to use your pathetic little dick of yours to any woman ever again, and most importantly –”

John fires up the chainsaw, adrenaline coursing through his veins when he sees the horrified look in the man’s face as he tries to get up and scream for help.

“I can finally sleep well at night knowing you’re not in Y/N’s life anymore.”

As John steps into the light, a roaring chainsaw in his hands, Alex could only watch in horror as the basement gets painted with blood in mere seconds.

There’s a vacant apartment just across her room, giving John the perfect view of what she’s doing while she’s alone.

Most of the time, John will pull up a seat beside the window and take pictures. The other half of the time is just him staring, observing. It seems that she’s too comfortable knowing there’s no one across the building so she doesn’t close the curtains, leaving John no choice but to keep his eyes on her.

He found this place just three days after following her. He couldn’t help it. Following her to school and work suddenly wasn’t enough for John that he had to find a way to somehow watch her even in her sleep. 

He should be ashamed of himself. He should feel guilty for what he’s doing – he should stop, but he just can’t. John’s already done too much. This is like being pulled back into the underworld all over again but this time, there’s something good that’s waiting for him on the other side.

Maybe it’s the delusion that comes with it that’s not stopping John from whatever he’s doing. Lately, he’s been thinking about how life would turn out to be if his plan goes out smoothly. They’d live happily ever after, she would end up loving him just the way he planned it out to be, and John will make sure no one will ever dare to take those peace away from him again.

He’d make sure no one will ever come close to her again once she’s his. She’d be isolated but protected. Just how John likes it.

It’s been two days since John gave his number, but he knows she’s just giddy and nervous to text him. He’d seen her staring at her phone, biting her bottom lip anxiously, thinking if it would be a good idea or not. He knows she’ll give in one way or another because he sees it in her face. She’s too easy, too gullible, too naive.

She’s lonely, just like him.

John could tell she’s waiting for someone – she’s desperate, no wonder she asked for his number the second time they met. She wants someone to take care of her, to hold her, tell her that she deserves the world. That someone is John whether she likes it or not.

This isn’t just any unhealthy obsession. John finds himself too deep to get out. He knows her little mannerisms, studied her every action, has a red room full of her pictures and no one can’t say he’s not ready to give up anything for her. John has already given up his sanity ever since he mutilated a man for being too close to her.

She’s his life now, his everything.

John watches intensely as she shreds her clothes in her room, baring him the full view of herself naked, and John grips the side of his chair too hard his knuckles turn white. This is the first time he’d seen her naked, it’s so sudden and so… perfect.

His cock fattens in his pants as he observes every curve of her body. Her waist is fucking perfect and her body is thick yet delicate. John thinks about bruising her sensitive skin, leaving a mark that will show everyone that she’s owned. He would love to see her in a collar, hear it jingle when she crawls. 

She’s completely fucking naked that John wonder just how naive she is to think there would be no one seeing her like this. What if John isn’t the only one watching her? What if somebody else sees her like this? His fingers itch, jaw clenching.

He’d kill them. He’d kill them in front of her, and the thought somehow made his cock hard even more. He grimaces, disturbed at the reaction of his body.

John doesn’t really understand the sexual aspects of killing, but now he’s thinking about how she would react if she sees him working. He’d kill someone in front of her and he’d see the look of disgust and betrayal in her face. He can already imagine how her eyes would well up with tears and fuck, his dick shouldn’t be this hard.

She’d fear him, and John would be turned on. How fucked up would that be? Just how fucked up can his mind get?

He resists the urge to wrap his hand around his cock because fuck no. He would not stoop this low, he is not a teenage boy. No matter how strong the thoughts get, the thoughts of wrapping his own hand around her neck, squeezing it hard and cutting off her airflow as John forces his cock in her cunt, hearing her mewl and scream and beg to just –

John sucks in air, eyes back on her in her room, wrapping a robe around herself and heading to the bathroom. This is fucked up. His cock is incredibly hard and leaking, and his mind won’t stop thinking about how good her pussy would feel around him.

He’d talk her through it. Whisper sweet nothings in her ear as she releases around her cock, praising her for being such a good girl. Then he’d fuck her again, in a different position, debauching her in different ways not even the devil himself could think of.

John would ruin her, and she will have no choice but to accept it.

He brings his hand to his face as he sighs deeply. He wonders what Helen would feel of what he’s doing. Disgusted, no doubt. This is not the same man she fell in love with years ago. He would never do something like this, but fate has its plans, and John believes everything happens for a reason.

She was brought into his life for a reason and it’s up to him whether he takes.

John doesn’t realize that he’s been staring at nothing for too long until she comes back in his view once again. Her hair is still wet, still wrapped up in a fluffy pink robe, and John’s fingers itch to grab, squeeze, possess.

He sees her picking up her phone, staring for a moment before her fingers start typing. John has been anticipating this moment for so long, the time has finally come.

In his chest pocket, his phone buzz silently, the vibration sending excitement in his whole body.

There it is.

13.06.15 11:46 PM UNKNOWN NUMBER : hello! this is Y/N from the club the other night

13.06.15 11:46 PM UNKNOWN NUMBER : also that Y/N who returned your super expensive looking coin hehe ;) i hope you didn’t forget about me!

There it fucking is.

John’s lips curl into a small smile. His efforts are finally paying off. 

All he needs to do is to get what’s his.

#john wick #john wick x reader #john wick fanfiction #john wick imagine #john wick fanfic #john wick chapter 4 #john wick x you #john wick 4 #keanu reeves #john wick smut #ochl #my works

[bluishfrog]

HAPPY 1-YEAR OF DRAWING ANNIVERSARY TO ME!

(Warning: slightly longer post incoming cause sometimes I gotta be a sentimental bitch ok? So let's go on a little trip down memory lane.)

This day, a year ago, I made my very first fanart. It was dnf (if that surprises you, then welcome to being on my blog for the very first time). I drew a little frog face too so I could use it as a watermark (fun fact: I still use that very same first one).

I immediately put my drawing up on twt because I told myself that I wasn't gonna be afraid of having people see that I was at the very beginning of this journey and had no clue what I was doing. That instead of being bad at art, I was gonna be awesome at being a beginner who doesn't know shit.

I started with little doodles and silly comics and then I laughed way too long when the first drawing of mine that gained some attention was a dnf butt joke. At the time I was trying to balance shipping and non-shipping art so I didn't even draw dnf that much but in hindsight it's probably the only possible way this could have gone.

At the very end of August I woke up to @honelle56 caps-locking at me in my messages - I was very confused and tired (I am no morning person and I will never be, fuck off with your mornings) because Dranart liked my drawing of singing Dream. Dranart was my 17th follower on twt which is a useless yet extremely funny fact about my time on that hellsite.

I also drew human!patches because a) patches was and will always be my favorite dteam member and b) it was a really cute trend and while I do love drawing dream, george and sapnap, I was also quite happy to try drawing anything but a white man for once. And I really liked how the drawing turned out.

Much, much later, I tried to draw my first slightly more realistic looking drawing. I was extremely confused on how to draw anything like this. Especially their hair gave me tons of trouble but given my experience, I think it's not a bad attempt.

When hijacked smp started I obviously wanted to participate, and I drew c!blu who doesn't associate with any side in particular but instead serves soup to everyone who visits her tavern 'The Soup House'. She also wants to be paid in stories from all around the map.

One of the events I was most excited about was dnf week. I even collaborated with two talented writers and I drew the corresponding art for two fics.

(Fun or not so fun fact: when twt had like three hundred collaborative aneurysms about the situation at that moment, that was when I created this tumblr account. I didn't use it super actively (I guess I needed another situation to fully make the switch) but I at least started the account that now developed quite a bit since then.)

I didn't really draw at all through January and February and I actually kinda thought I would move on from that hobby and fandom (not because of negative feelings, just because I didn't really have the urge to create anything within this fandom) and then situations happened and now I am here; and for some reason that is beyond any logic and my understanding I am now even more insane about dteam.

Wild to me but we are rolling with it now, I guess.

Since I got here, I drew more than ever (I actually think I might have made more drawings in the month since I got here than I made the whole rest of the year). There's just such an active and funny community here that cares about fan works for the sake of creating and not just because a CC might see it.

Unfortunately, Tumblr won't let me add more than 10 images in one post (maybe fortunately for everyone who has this monstrosity of a post on their dash). So if you want to see all the progress I made since I got here, you can look at everything in my art tag. For now, I will close this post with one of the art works from the past month that I like the most:

Can't wait to see what the next year might bring :)

Love, blu

#blu rambles #like a LOT #but if you made it to the end of this post you get a hug <3 #bluishfrog art

[theerurishipper]

Hi~ Hope you have a lovely day. I want to get your opinions on my rant lol and ask.

Marinette is such a disappointment of a lead female character in a western magical girl cartoon. She isn't a good leader and all her team consist of yes men and women and sidekick Chat Noir where her real partner Alya is standing over to the side. I liked her in the first two season and maybe some in s3 but the s4 and onward just got to me ngl. It's her world and we're all just living in it. Miraculous is so weird when it comes to team dynamics because I get she's guardian but I really wished it were someone else and not her because she chooses people she already get along great with. It fun for team dynamics to add be different and broader.

The whole she's just 14 the fandom spouts only goes so far how many messes do you do until you realise you need to own up to them even at that age when you should know better on your conduct ?

I get it hard to communicate but onwards I always thought the bigger of the two in the conflict was her because of her secrecy and her controlling tendencies. I disliked it so much in the ephemeral episode and her betraying her partner disgusted me. Sorry to those who like or defend her character this much but I can't stan or like a character that does this much crap to a friend let alone a love interest and then gloss over or minimize it and not be called out for it. Like, are people standards that low they think she's a good leader or a good proper representation on feminism when this show reeks of misogyny and misandry. She's the ultimatum voice for Astruc.

A communication issue with her Chat was fine a long time ago but now in s5 she crossed it hell nah how do people still support a ship with her knowing she followed Hawkmoth command for Adrien. I literally can't anymore with this show. Every guy she likes gotta be so 100 percent in effort and like in the Shadybug special him always comforting her makes me so jaded whenever she cries what about a change in dynamics had we ever seen her comfort him in turn how are people invested in this ship? Like that time in the bench and she just thought of ways to woo or give presents instead of just comforting him is so sad to watch.

She really followed in Master Fu steps. The bar is in hell and she crossed it in the finale. There is no excuse no handwaving it away and i know in my heart they gonna minimize it for Adrien own good. Everything is for his own good huh? What good is it rooting for a ship that just reeks of pity points. Like, she was never my favorite but who knew 8 years ago she'd pull a stunt like this and people bending over and doing mental gymnastics to rationalise this insanity. She really is a good foil to Gabriel ironically to bad she has no sway in this family drama we call the Agreste.

I know she has good intentions and it's not wrong for her to wish to save her prince but like thats all that is intention. Her actions are also important and the effects she's done is so bad that if she weren't the Main character and we haven't spent the chunk of the majority in her pov alone she'd be disliked.

I feel like compared to other respective series Winx Club s1-3 Bloom, Danny Phantom, Ben 10, Totally Spies they have it much more harder and so many more all show the consequences of your actions and how you do them right and they're her age. I feel like whenever someone bring up consequences it's like people in this particular fandom think we do it to punish Marinette but no I just never ever saw it properly done in this show because she's very coddled in the narrative. I don't see other MC as coddled as her before in a show where when they MESS UP it's actually integral and important.

Rant over.

You encapsulated all my thoughts perfectly, anon. I've said so many times before that I loved Marinette from Season 1-3 and even during Season 4 as it aired. What made me fall out of love with her character post Season 4 was the utter lack of acknowledgement of her actions and the insistence in portraying her as in the right at all times. Like you said, it's not just your intentions that matter. Your actions and the effects that they have on the people around you also matter. The writers don't seem to understand this, and it hits Marinette's character worst of all. She had so much potential to be such a great character, which is why I feel so sad seeing just how badly the writing failed her. Marinette deserved better.

Thank you for your ask!

#MLB #ML Salt #ML Writing Salt #ML Writers Salt #Marinette Salt #Meta #Asks

[thenamesblurrito]

assorted Transformers fics to rec (part 1...?)

i really do think fic recs are valuable to fandom so here’s a random collection of Transformers fics i like, with no particular theme. these were compiled by frantically googling half-remembered bits to try and find the only ones i remember reading years ago, and i know i’m missing some i’d like to include

EDIT: part 2 here!

A Prime Performance

TFP AU, incomplete, AO3. Megatron is an actor in a children’s show. this is just as hilarious as you think it is. some slowburn MegOp. i love all the easter eggs and references and the way this in-universe show is created and run?? it’s fascinating

All Roads Lead to Rome

no set continuity/vaguely Bayverse, oneshot, AO3. a huge robot warrior like Sunstreaker is odd enough in modern times, just imagine him in ancient Rome. extremely interesting premise to me i love this bit and would love more. warning for typical crass patriarchal expectations for women in marriage but nothing actually explicit

Another Gate

Bayverse, complete multichap, FFN. whatever Sam is now, it isn’t human. some REAL good body horror, friendship, and alien strangeness ooooo

Bodies (break)

IDW, oneshot, AO3. Ultra Magnus goes to therapy and Rung is something wrong. oooooooghhghghhf i LOVE when people lean into the oddness and creepiness of the local god

Brave New World

fan canon, ongoing webcomic, TFW05. a spin on BW among other things, following Rodimus Prime’s crew of beastformers as they face down an assortment of bad guys and mysteries. LOVE this canon guys i LOVE it, very very good beast mode choices, very heartfelt and very funny, i also love seeing the art progression over the years. lovely webcomic here

Burn a hole in the old grip of the familiar

TFP, complete multichap, AO3, NSFW near the end. it’s focused on Ultra Magnus/reader but the first half of this fic is probably my favorite. the overwhelm and incredulity the reader character grapples with for awhile, i feel like it’s pretty realistic for someone who’s been shoved into a weird new world. DEFINITELY did Breakdown dirty though. has sequels that i haven’t read

dares for the first time

G1, oneshot, AO3. lovely little take on a G1 Guiding Hand that makes me feel things

Dog of Law

IDW, complete multichap, AO3. the Lost Light crew don’t find Minimus in Tyrest’s cells, they find a small green turbofox. lovely character driven piece here and honestly i just really like when his canonical turbofox alt is used i think it’s a shame we never got it in the story proper

First Contact

IDW, incomplete, AO3. listen it’s only a little bit written but i am OBLIGATED to post isekai/modern girl in Middle Earth/falling into fiction type of stories and i really liked the setup for this one okay! i love isekai and this was the only one i could remember to track down

Grey Is The Night

Batman/vaguely IDW crossover, complete multichap, AO3. there’s a new police car in Gotham, and it’s up to no good. listen i don’t even do DC stuff but Batman meeting Prowl here is done MARVELOUSLY ohhh i love this very much, the plot is GOOD, and i bet folks who actually like DC will love it even more

Hazard Light

IDW, oneshot, AO3. a hanahaki take on Brainstorm/Perceptor that i actually like, despite not usually enjoying hanahaki at all, with some nice Cybertronian biology too

How to Save the World in 8 Minutes and 3 Seconds

vaguely G1/continuity soup, oneshot, AO3. how does Prowl save a species, with blocked communications, no visuals, and a short time limit? why, he just keeps an eye on social media of course! a lil dark and fun and clever

In Media Bellum

TFP, incomplete, AO3. human reader is caught up with Team Prime in a delightful exploration of culture and introspection and found family. no shipping but masterful platonic relationship work! it feels... idk relaxed? caring? i love the tone of this writing

Juxtaposition

vaguely G1, complete multichap, FFN (also on AO3 but never finished crossposting). a human OC gets in a car accident and starts hearing voices in her head, unknowingly saving a Cybertronian’s life, even if it’s in a very atypical manner. love this OC, love the whole premise here and the exploration of an alien reality from a human POV. no shipping, if that’s not ur thing

Lost Light/Rodimus

IDW, oneshot, Tumblr. the ship comes to life and has something important to ask Rodimus. i love this concept it’s very good, very intriguing

Magnus Carey

IDW, oneshot, AO3. Verity teaches Minimus about Christmas. short and sweet, i love their friendship

My Totally Real Mary Sue Husband Who Lives Back On Cybertron

TFA, oneshot, AO3, Dratchet. “Ratchet offhandedly mentions he's conjunxed. Bumblebee refuses to believe him. Hijinks ensue.” funny and in character and sweet

Mythbusters Season Nine Interlude: The Autobot Special

G1/Mythbusters crossover, oneshot, AO3. busting some myths AND some Decepticons! it just keeps getting better and better the further you read. i laughed out loud so many times, and cheered at recognizing so many classic Mythbusters bits, and i will get on my hands and knees to beg for a Dirty Jobs sequel these shows were my CHILDHOOD

Patronus

TFP, twoshot, AO3. Megatron has teatime with Rung, who... is not a normal bot. more good good Rung being something wrong

Property Of

Bayverse, incomplete, FFN. when Sam and Mikaela meet Bumblebee, it isn’t as an Autobot scout, but rather as a new owner of these recently discovered organic animals called “humans”. a very well done human pet fic that doesn’t veer into psychological torture or boundary crossing or anything (sorry if that’s your jam) and while it’s incomplete i still love what’s there, especially as the kids learn how to communicate their personhood to an ignorant Bee

Rules to Follow When Making First Contact

continuity soup/fan canon, ongoing series, AO3. listen i know many folks aren’t here for the human characters but i LOVE all the humans here they are each characterized so well and i love seeing how its been blended together across canons. this is a very clever, very engaging setup with a very grounded presence for alien robots that hits in ALL the right places for me. AUTOBOTS LEARNING ENGLISH YALL!!! YES!!! very good very good

Scrimscrim

TFP....... sort of, incomplete, AO3. what do you do when you end up with a Starscream toy brought to life? this is a hilarious premise with good characterization, a lovely human OC, a ridiculous situation handled very realistically, and generally good fun to read. reverse isekai is perhaps more of a favorite of mine than isekai!

SG Prime

TFP SG au, ongoing webcomic, own website and DA. REALLY REALLY COOL YALL. fantastic designs and inclusions and expanding on TFP lore and making very interesting SG dynamics and just. excellent.

TFP Wheeljack in TFA

TFP/TFA crossover, ongoing series of posts, Tumblr. i LOVE crossovers, i will kill and die for crossovers, and this is one of the few i’ve been able to find! there’s enough posts under that tag that i haven’t been able to read them all but what i did see is GOOD

The Echo Garden

IDW/TFP crossover, incomplete, AO3. Soundwave gets picked up by the Lost Light. okay i am a SUCKER for crossovers as previously stated and this one is Good. leans fully into being a crossover and expounding on the differences between universes. Soundwave needs to figure out what to do with himself! also features some delightful slowburn SoundRod and a lovely ensemble cast. Toaster is the best

The One Where The Decepticons Are The Good Guys

TFP SG au, incomplete, AO3. i’m not typically a fan of Shattered Glass stuff but this doesn’t feel terribly OOC or completely upended or alien to the original plot, i think this is done very well and i can’t wait for more

Transformers Recovery: Primal Launch

fan canon, complete multichap, AO3. it’s like the Lost Light but weirder, i don’t even know how to convey its awesomeness. VERY funny, VERY cool, Sky Lynx is there, Swerve is important, Riptide is such a good bot, Megatron exists, just all good things here. treat yourself and read this it’s such a delight

Twenty-Five to Life

vaguely IDW, oneshot, AO3. Starscream/Minimus soulmate au that makes me wheeze when i read it because it it so painfully in character and hilarious oh my god i am CRYING laughing by the time i finish it. petty criminal Starscream, noble Minimus, oil and water. gets raunchy but nothing explicit with an NSFW sequel

Under Control Till You’re In Front Of Me

G1, oneshot, AO3. i need more people to join the Shockwave/Moonracer ship please please it’s good

Xenoethnography

canon soup/based in TFP, ongoing series, AO3. a more hard scifi take on Transformers from the POV of an anthropologist hired to study them. y’all, THIS IS GOOD. seriously if there’s one fic out of all of these i could keep, it’d be this one, it’s just so so good ugh. ugh i love it i need to catch up with it again

#fic rec #rec list #macaddam #transformers #transformers fanfiction #long post #hey look its story isnt that weird #theres still a few open on my tab holder i need to get around to rereading and put on here but! thatll be an eventual part 2 ig #if you have any crossovers or isekai esque fics not on here send them my way and i will add them to my to-read list

[gleedyke]

Here comes my two cents on anti-Neil Gaiman posting that I hope comes across civilly and that if you choose to interact with you are also polite about.

Everyone has the right to like/dislike a creator and to separately like/dislike their work. I happen to like this particular creator quite a bit, and I do notice that not everyone GOmens posting does, which again, of course, is fine. Disagree with choices made, that's healthy, but the way I keep seeing "us (fandom) vs him" mentality on any type of post feels bad. This isn't a defense of him; I don't fucking know him, nor does he need that. I'm actually quite happy when I hear folks say they simply don't follow/interact with him if they dislike him. That's great energy, but the rest of us seeing it all over is less great. Thought some reminders posted into the void would help lighten up the energy around here, or at least get it off my chest lol.

1. I've been properly queerbaited by media. This is not fucking that. Take a deep breath and heal with me.

2. A lot of vitriol towards Neil, and frankly Michael and David too, seems to be about being straight men creating this. Have we still not learned to mind our business on this front. You don't know them, we don't know them, but everything we've ever seen from them proves they're on our side. You wanna be mad at a straight man for actually fumbling the bag Steven Moffat is right th- sorry I forgot this isn't about him I tried not to bring up Sherlock in point 1 I really did. ANYWAY. I'm not implying anything, but I have learned to mind your business a little when telling someone why they can't create something queer. That's all.

3. This is his story, and it's not over. It took so long for him to get an adaptation made that he actually wanted to do, and he's doing it. I point y'all to Percy Jackson (I know there's some overlap in demographics here) and how much better the new series is just because Rick Riordan is more involved in adapting it. Having an author of the original work handling the adaptation this thoroughly is a gift regardless of how you feel about him. Additionally, he's writing the rest of the story that he and Terry Pratchett didn't tell. In Terry's honor. For himself. For all the people with beat up original copies. For all the people who have just joined because they realized there is something magical here. But above all it's still his. Take a deep breath and remember this is a love story, and if you still are not content in the end there's always AO3 my friends.

TL;DR vent away on your Tumblr if you don't like Neil Gaiman, nobody is gonna like everyone and certainly nobody's perfect. But before spreading negativity against him on every corner of the GOmens tags, I encourage you to remember how essential he is to the work regardless of your opinion. And remember that those who do like him and his work are also doing so with the best of intentions. Aren't we all. Peace and love this new year. Wait and see. Etc.

#good omens #gomens #neil gaiman #i almost didn't tag this bc i don't actually feel comfortable up on this soapbox but i would like at least somebody to find comfort in it

[eashgirl]

What are some things you hate about fandoms? Just wondering

There is quite a lot of things actually, I know some may disagree with me on these, which is perfectly fine to each their own.

1- I don't like how when some of the widely accepted fanon headcanons are treated as truth by everyone even though there is no basis for it in canon, I'm totally one for headcanons, I love seeing ideas,and creating them myself but I don't like how when one headcanon is so beloved by everyone that it's treated as canon and anybody else who has different opinions are shut down for not accepting that. Again I'm not objected to people having their own interpretations, but sometimes it really does get to a point when I try to point out it's not canon several people would attempt to correct me and say it was.

2- this part mainly concerns shipping, another thing I don't like about certain fandoms is they can't seem to accept that people will like different things as them, just because a certain ship is canon will not automatically make people like that ship more or stop them from shipping those said charecters with another person. Canon is canon I understand that, it's important to respect the creator's work and what has been established but at the same time the amount of times I've seen people deliberately writing hate comments under a post of a ship they don't like, and even create anti- blogs for the ship is insane.

Is it that hard to respect someone's opinion? Even I have certain ships I don't like and am even grossed out by(we are not talking about child/adult ships those are a whole another thing entirely),but the amount of dedication haters have to constantly put down others just to feel superior everytime I see something like that all I think about is how immature that is.

One time when I was thirteen I legit had one of my followers stalk me on instagram and screenshot a photo of a ship account I follow, that person hates that particular ship yet constantly checks accounts posting that particular ship just to write hate comments,they were blabbing about "ship loyalty and all that" I remember feeling so aggravated when they told me that, I instantly blocked them. It's that sort of childishness I'm talking about.

I'm open to discussing about opinions as long as it's a civil conversation, sometimes people just like different things, is it too much to expect some decency and respect?

3- Another thing that annoys me from time to time is the villainization of a particular charecter, evidence from the media does show that, that person has their flaws, major flaws and people act like that person is a devil's incarnate and anyone who has the audacity to feel a shred of sympathy for them is automatically labelled a horrible person.

Now I'm not suggesting at any means that trauma justifies your actions, no one has the right to harm anyone under that excuse,you can acknowledge the fact they are a horrible person and still feel bad for them because they are caught in a never ending cycle of abuse and are unable to escape it, this leads to them committing even worse actions.

Something else that ties into this is liking villains in general, it's important to understand that liking a certain charecter does not mean justifying their wrongdoings, you can like a charecter but still agree that yes this is a horrible person. This might seem like common sense but I have seen people trying to outright justify murder, SA, terrorism just because they happen to like that charecter. On the other hand there are certain villains who are objectively just as bad and are baby-fied because they happen to be more likable, when that person is just as bad.

Of course some topics may just feel too personal for people who have experienced it first hand I can understand that really I do, someone who went through a toxic relationship would probably not enjoy a relationship dynamic between two charecters that can be considered to very unhealthy for eachother. And some people may not prefer an otherwise sweet relationship if it's not enjoyable, we use media for entertainment and as humans we all have different preferences so it's important to understand and respect that

At the end of the day I'm not trying to villify anyone, I'm really not

Thanks for the ask anon! Hopefully this doesn't lead to me getting attacked again 😅

#opinion #ask #thanks for the ask #transformers #mha #aot #jjk #hazbin hotel #miraculous ladybug #atla #harry potter #shipping #charecters #winx #dc #ninjago #that's just about it #fandoms #fandom opiniom #criticism #oshi no ko

[thesternest]

tag meme: my top 9 characters

i was tagged by @regallibellbright so with no particular order lets get into it

I have decided to not put any characters of my own here because then this list would be filled with my characters and nothing else

also only one per series since i want this to be an overall representation of my favorite characters

1.Phosphophyllite/Phos (land of the lustrous)

Phos is by far one of my favorite characters due to how they change throughout the series

also watching them suffer is what got me my permanent angst craving

phos is one of those characters that unfortunately due to being by far the most popular character in the series the fandom tends to dislike every other character in the series (particularly in this case since a lot of the other characters have mistreated phos in some way) which i think is a disservice to those characters

but phos is still my favorite

2.Blake Thorburn (Pact: Devils and Details) (no art for him because im too lazy to ask for permission to put him here and i dont want to put a piece of art on my post without permission)

ill be honest it was hard to pick if Taylor or Blake were going to be put here, since i didnt want to put two wildbow protagonists here, and while Worm was much more enjoyable for me to read i think Pact was a much more memorable story for me,

Since like blake struggled through the horrors, i struggled against decaying attention span

In general i gravitate toward fantasy stories more than superhero stories

3. Eve and aoi (birdie wing golf girls story)

hey remember a second ago when i was debating over which wildbow protagonist to put here because i didnt want to put both

Yeah fuck that these two are a pair because i love them both and refuse to seperate them

These two are genuinely one of my favorite protagonist duo's ever

like they are so funny with their insane antics and golf

4. Yuki Takamiya (thirteen sentinels aegis rim)

this one proved to be really hard to decide between Yuki, Okino or 426 since they are all favorites

i decided that it was best to fit one of the protagonists into this since it would be hard to talk about the other two without spoiling anything and needing a ton of context

from the second Yuki showed up i knew she would likely be a favorite

what i didnt expect was for her to be arguably one of the smartest characters in the game

I would say out of the protagonists she is the second smartest with Gouto being the smartest

Like i did not expect her route to be a detective story

5. Power (chainsaw man)

first person on this list who isnt a protagonist, and i did consider putting Asa instead of her and while i am undoubtedly more invested in Asa im also much more entertained by power

also i need to put one character who isnt a main character here lest i be seen as a basic bitch

6. Sayeon Lee (hand jumper)

we only have one season of her but this girl is so mentally unwell its like catnip to me

im eagerly awaiting the start of season 2

also to my surprise me reccomending vibes this webtoon caused a bunch of wormblr people to read this too so when season 2 starts i could probably talk to those people about it

7.Daan/ the doctor (fear and hunger termina)

this was a tough descision between Daan and Marina because while i love them both equally Daan has the better narrative in my head with his doomed by the narrative swag

8.Iwha (hero killer

she's cool when she murders people

9. Kikuri Hiroi (bocchi the rock)

girl who is doomed by the narrative

but the narrative is a slice of life so overall its not that bad

@n0brainjustvibes@tranz-regent@worstgirl-online i nominate you to follow in my example and list characters

Also feel free to analyse me like a lab rat for these picks in the notes

#also why is there such a clear gender divide in my faves #i did not expect that #phosphophyllite #land of the lustrous #blake thorburn #pact #pact web serial #pactblr #otherverse #birdie wing #birdie wing golf girls' story #aoi amawashi #evangeline burton #yuki takamiya #13 sentinels #13 sentinels: aegis rim #power #chainsaw man #sayeon lee #hand jumper #Daan #fear and hunger termina #Iwha #hero killer webtoon #bocchi the rock #hiroi kikuri

[bramble-scramble]

Wow, I haven't really followed the paper mario fandom, although I loved the games. But that sounds really bad. If it's not too personal, what sort of things happened? (if it is i totally understand if you'd rather not talk about it)

Wheeew! Let me tell you a sad story. At least what I experienced from my perspective.

So, I first got into the Paper Mario fandom not long before Super Paper Mario's release. This was back on deviantArt, mostly. I adored the first two games, and when I heard about SPM, I was skeptical at first. It was more like a platformer? Why was the art style so strange? ...But when it came out, it ended up being my favorite! I knew that as soon as I finished it.

Of course, not everyone felt that way, and there were already people who didn't like SPM because of how different it was, or the story didn't resonate with them. But to be honest, I didn't interact with those people very much. I was mostly friends with other SPM fans, and at the time, if they liked that game they probably had played and liked the first two as well, or at least one. It was a happy time as far as I was concerned. Most people, even if they didn't like SPM, seemed to think it was just going to be some kind of weird spinoff and they'd get back to the traditional gameplay soon enough.

....And then years later, Sticker Star came out and its complete blankness of story and personality hit us all like a speeding truck. This is when things fell apart pretty quickly. Pretty much EVERYONE in the existing PM fandom hated it, for good reason in my opinion. This is also where I became more sharply aware that certain people had a resentment towards SPM, since it was either seen as the "beginning of the end" as far as the gameplay starting to go off the rails, OR people outright blamed the story for being too out-there and emotionally charged which caused Nintendo to put the brakes on all that and go in the complete opposite direction (which was backed up by dev comments that came out around the time).

So from here on out I started to feel more and more like a weirdo for maintaining that SPM was my favorite, and a game that means a great deal to me personally. But after Sticker Star, the PM fandom just became an irreparably damaged and bitter place. Initially, the blame was put on Miyamoto because the understanding at first was that he had mandated the PM series 1) put less emphasis on story and 2) no longer be a typical RPG, really, since the Mario & Luigi series also existed to fill that niche. There were a lot of ageist comments made about Miyamoto in particular. Over time, as more info came out, the blame largely shifted to Kensuke Tanabe.

Things only got worse when Color Splash was announced and it looked like more of the same. People said the worst things about the devs, especially the people in charge, and looked for any reason to hate the new game and wish for it to fail. Even though Sticker Star and the soon-to-be-released Color Splash didn't have many defenders of their own, a lot of the larger Mario/Nintendo fanbase began to grow tired of old-school Paper Mario fans, as they... we... started to develop a bad reputation. And with good reason! Looking back, the complaints were understandable but the behavior was often unacceptable. And you know what? I got caught up in it too. I'm not gonna pretend I was above it all. Those were easily my worst days as a fan of anything. I didn't go out of my way to be vocal or mean about it in Nintendo's replies or anything, but whenever I did bring it up personally or on my own stream or discord or whatever, I was bitter. In the past few years I've sometimes come across old comments I made that I'd cringe at now. You might think of me as someone who is largely positive and tries to focus on spreading joy and dwelling on what I love, not what I hate. But the PM fandom at that time was bad for me. Between the Sticker Star and Color Splash days, I was definitely not the kind of person I try to be now.

When Color Splash came out, I didn't even play it for a couple years. But in that time, I largely stepped away from keeping up with the fandom, and I mellowed out a lot, and continued to grow into the person I strive to be today. And then when I finally did play Color Splash in 2018..... I liked it!!! The writing, the scenarios, the general creativity and even the gameplay are just SO FAR above Sticker Star and I think most people didn't even give it a chance, and because so few people own a Wii U, it might be forever doomed for people to just assume it's a slightly better Sticker Star unless Nintendo ever ports it.

And by the time Origami King came out, I was soooo done talking about the series and debating it. I had just totally burnt out. But I was at least tentatively looking forward to the game itself. And whlie I don't love every choice made for Origami King, I liked the experience as much as Color Splash, if not more. It's a nonstop interesting game with utterly fantastic graphics and music, and further steps back in the right direction as far as characters and lore go.

And that brings us to today. There are people, sometimes people that I myself have known for years, who NEVER stepped away, who never stopped acutely feeling the pain of the Sticker Star days, and wage a campaign of complaining to Nintendo to this very day. Meanwhile, Origami King (and to a smaller extent CS and even SS- what I'd call the Real Paper Trilogy) has a sizeable fanbase of its own, especially among younger players. Oldschool PM fans tend to see fans of the newer games as simpletons who have no taste, and fans of the new games often write off people who miss the old style of PM as boomers who can't accept change and are forever bitter and annoying. And then SPM fans just kinda feel like our own thing sometimes, the black sheep of the family. But as someone who likes (almost) all the PM games, I've had people be rude to me just for talking about any side of the issue. One time I was talking about how much I liked Profesor Toad from Origami King only to have some stranger, unprompted, reply to me about how ALL OF TOK'S CHARACTERS WERE SHIT AND THEY ALL SUCKED AND HAD NO PERSONALITY and I'm like no??!!?!? That's not true!!! That's not true AT ALL! I didn't stream TOK when it came out, I wouldn't fucking dare, because when I did play Color Splash for the first time it was on stream and I had to deal with at least one person coming in and being like "why are you playing a terrible game?" despite my repeated warnings that I didn't want to get into a debate on the game's merits. And on the other side of things, I've seen people come up with the most specious arguments to claim that TTYD is actually a Bad Game because it has some backtracking or whatever and that PM as a series was never actually good. There's just... so so many frustrating things I've encountered in the fandom that I'd have to double the size of this answer, which is already a novella, to enumerate them all.

But yeah. I kinda want nothing to do with it anymore. I'm just going to keep appreciating Flavio in my own time.

#alter answers #bramble ramble #I'm not about to tag this with PM because I don't want to get into arguments lol #THIS IS JUST MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE #look how afraid I am of anyone beefing with me

[yourlocaldisneyvillain]

author interview

thanks to @allaganexarch for the tag!!! <3

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

29! considering i only started posting in march 2023, i think that's not too bad!

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

207,225 ! it's gonna go up by a LOT with the new fic i'm planning, that one is easily gonna be 80k or more lol. but for now, it is this! :)

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i am only inspired by one (1) tall british woman lol

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

particular

push me gently (into love)

when the last restraint is gone

violet soul

danger level - one

honestly, i am not surprised! checks out ahaha. people love rom-coms and porn i suppose :)

5. do you respond to comments?

always! even if it takes me A While(TM) lol. i feel like people who bothered to take the time and leave a comment deserve my response!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmmm. my endings ten to be kind of melancholy/open ending type of shit if it's angsty. but the angstiest, as in it's objectively an upsetting ending for a particular character, i think it's either the sad option on my ruin tastes so sweet (almost as sweet as your lips) or violet soul, followed by inevitable (even though i might even consider that one a happy ending given the Circumstances. like it could have been much worse i feel lol)

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

it's either particular or push me gently (into love)!

8. do you get hate on fics?

yes, but not in the ao3 comments! lol. they Find Me on tumblr and yell their grievances here lmao

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

i only have a couple of fic that *don't* feature smut of some kind lol. i love writing smut! as for what kind...... the lesbian kind. often really kinky, but not a rule! i've written vanilla stuff, too!

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

not a lot tbh! but i think a fun one i've done is a star wars/wednesday crossover that i exclusively wrote bc i wanted larissa weems and captain phasma to fuck lololol and i wanted to feature a chrome dildo as hommage to phasma's armour. it's fun, silly and really filthy porn if you wanna give it a read lol. chrome and lipstick

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not an entire fic, but i have had my ideas plagiarised, actually by some well-known fandom names. or if i've shared an idea in a chat that person would accidentally get the same idea and post it before me lol. so that has taught me not to share my wips with anyone but my innermost circle lol.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i don't think so? i don't think i'd like be thrilled with that tbh.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i tried, but the person ghosted me lol. it's a shame, i really like her work.

14. what's your all-time favourite ship?

i have spent a significant amount of time in the malora fandom, and i feel that illustrates the type of dynamic i Enjoy lol, but honestly idk if i have a Favourite(TM) ship Ever. i don't control what i'll go Nuts over at any given time.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

if i *want* to finish it i likely will at some point. if i don't, that means i have lost passion for it and i don't want to finish it anymore.

16. what are your writing strengths?

describing emotional states, pacing, dialogue, Very Specific Character Dynamics, smut, incorporating Motifs(TM) and themes.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

world-building (horrible at it, also super disinterested in it), describing places accurately and in a detailed manner unless it's Just Vibes, and i feel i'd be horrible at writing any kind of action scene. i am very good at Internal stuff, not so good at External stuff, i feel. i also sometimes get a bit too dash happy lol. just end the sentence gurl.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i just find it distracting and unnecessary, and if you don't actually speak that language, i'd say don't bother. it comes out weird. just my opinion though! i think a phrase, a sentence, expression or a single word can be fun, but i wouldn't write a whole dialogue in another language, unless i really wanted to use it for some sort of effect. like a point being made of the character whose pov i was writing not understanding something really important or whatever idk.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

i honestly don't remember. it may have been supergirl?

20. favourite fic you've written?

i can't choooooose. maybe inevitable? i also love particular. and i am quite fond of our little dance and my entire luci/maz cinematic universe haha!! and when the last restraint is gone. i can't pick a favourite child (i can pick Least Favourites though lol).

tagging: @zephyr-is-tired @dianneking @the-frankenman-writes @alder-saan @gerrikellmansbitchboots @notinmyvocab aaaaand my brain is blank, pls consider yourself tagged if you see this and wanna do it!

#tag thing! #i will produce my own garbage and also consume it

[anghraine]

A few bad but fairly typical P&P takes got me thinking about ... Mako from Legend of Korra, actually, and also, just fandom dynamics.

Many of you weren't in that fandom (or perhaps any fandom) back when LOK aired, but I was very active in it. I actually liked—and still like—some aspects of LOK better than ATLA, and I certainly liked the fandom better than ATLA's.

That said, LOK fandom was still less a dumpster fire than a landfill explosion. To this day, I couldn't even identify the single character who got hit the hardest by LOK fandom's approach to discourse, which like most fandoms today, painted a thin veneer of social justice over good old-fashioned stanning/ship wars, but did it much more transparently.

In any case, if I were going to try and pick the character who got hit hardest by the LOK discourse truck, Mako would at least be in the running. The later days of LOK fandom can give the sense that the basic ship war from Day 1 was Korra/Mako (Makorra) vs Korra/Asami (Korrasami). But my strong impression back when the first book aired was that the ship war dynamic was much more Korra/Mako vs Korra/anyone-but-Mako.

There were plenty of not-Mako options. Korra/Bolin was pretty big for awhile. Korra/Tahno had a substantial following during/after Book 1—Tahno was the waterbender from the rival pro-bending team who got curb-stomped by Amon. There was, of course, Korra/Asami (seemed like no chance in hell at the time, but sweet). It was even a good fandom for hero/villain shippers like me.

I think a lot of this activity ultimately coalesced around Korrasami. But at the time, it hadn't quite happened yet. The fandom was wanky (sorry, discourse-y) about virtually every character, but a lot of people really, really, really hated Mako in particular—Mako haters could encompass people who liked or hated the first season, people who loved or hated Korra, people still mad about Zutara, whatever. I didn't like him at the end of Book 1, myself, though I couldn't buy into the screeds about how abusive and exploitative and otherwise problematic he supposedly was.

Since I didn't actually have much of a stake in the main ship wars, I've always found this dynamic more interesting than anything else in terms of fandom behavior, because I've seen it happen many times, but I hadn't often seen it at the level that Mako hatedom took it to back then. So I was thinking about how this happens, and the particular way it happened with Mako back in the aftermath of Book 1.

Early in Book 1, Mako is revealed to be a tragic, brooding orphan with a slight edge trying to support his sweet-natured younger brother and himself through a mixture of industrial work and magic sports. He gets swept off his feet (literally and metaphorically) by a beautiful, very cool, very rich girl (Asami) and enters a romantic relationship with her, only to feel increasingly drawn to his beautiful, very cool, very powerful friend Korra, our heroine.

Some people pointed out that "which awesome and hot girl do I choose :( it's really hard :( :(" is not the most sympathetic quandary for a character to be in, and for the target audience, particularly unsympathetic coming from a young man. And the choice to repeatedly cut from shippy Mako/Korra moments to Asami looking upset didn't help (especially since Asami lost almost everything when she chose to stick with them and turn on her father). And Mako's eventual apology to Asami was genuinely a bit underwhelming—it's basically "mistakes were made."

And, yeah, those things are true. But fandom is not always so OTT hostile about the man in that kind of love triangle taking awhile to get his shit figured out, even when the man is much older than Mako, a literal teenager. Like, I never thought I'd compare Avatar to Bridgerton, but the Edwina-Anthony-Kate dynamic seems roughly similar and most of the fandom came away from it really invested in Anthony/Kate and sympathetic to them. It depends on the fandom and on the depiction.

It's not that Mako didn't screw up in Book 1. It's that the reaction—he's an awful person for pretty ordinary missteps and some poor relationship choices, he's an abuser, he's the worst character in the show, whatever—just seemed wildly disproportionate.

And also, yeah, overreacting to minor misdeeds and reducing a character to ultra-exaggerated versions of their worst selves out of sheer annoyance is a fandom staple (especially when the misdeeds take up as much air as the early LOK love triangle seemed to for many people, with other aspects of the story crammed into limited space). But the extent of the hatred still struck me as rather extraordinary, especially since he seemed to go from reasonably well-liked to feverishly hated in a short period of time.

My theory after B1 aired was that this really came from the intersection of a fandom that was very prone to this kind of exaggeration and poor faith readings with the actual structure of his characterization in B1. We quickly discover his tragic past with his parents being murdered, and that he's been struggling on the streets, and has to look after a cuddly but clueless brother who doesn't seem to get the urgency of their problems. He uses his prodigious lightningbending abilities to make just enough money in a sort of magic power plant to get by in combination with pro-bending successes. Essentially, we're given far more than the minimum required to sympathize with him and tolerate the occasional asshole moment.

But later on in B1, a lot of his characterization and scenes are directly tied up in the love triangle, and many of his original, somewhat more ... pressing concerns, end up getting pretty much resolved in one way or another. So a lot of those original sources of sympathy that were so concentrated in his early scenes are no longer a concern, while others are no longer being emphasized by the narrative.

And it's certainly the case that Mako was much less widely and disproportionately hated later on, at least in my fandom experience. Some people still hated Makorra with a passionate fire, but Mako himself seemed much more endearing to many people once the narrative dialed down the love triangle, explicitly paid attention to his loyalty as a friend, his basic heroism, his close yet sometimes difficult relationship with his brother, and a certain adorkableness that was not absent in B1, but which wasn't as heavily emphasized.

I don't mean to argue that this later narrative treatment was necessarily better, but I do think the more even distribution of sympathetic qualities or revelations about him alongside his flaws made him much more palatable to a lot of the fandom. It's like people ... just kind of forgot why many of them originally liked him unless the narrative went out of its way to remind them.

This is really long, but I did feel that B1 kind of overplayed its hand with Mako early in the season, and then underplayed it in the later parts of the season, and fandom being fandom, people enormously overreacted to their sense of what was going on in that phase of the story (for many: ARGH!!) and not all the information they actually had.

This isn't a hill to die on for me, exactly. It was just how I saw what was going on—this kind of toxic mix of fandom bullshit with some peculiar choices in the structure of his characterization and what got emphasized (or even mentioned) where. That is still my general impression, though—that the fandom's response wasn't coming from nowhere, but that we were getting this kind of intersection of a fandom even more prone than most to over-reaction and poor faith assumptions + some genuine oddities in structure and emphases in his characterization during that first season.

What does this have to do with P&P? Well, I'll get to that. But this post is honestly long enough already, so I'll do the follow-up tomorrow, probably.

#anghraine babbles #more than usual! #long post #i need a tag that's not a main tag for this tbh #i guess i'll start with #lok fanwank #mako critical #it's not the point but definitely digs into some of the stuff in the show that people were overreacting to #general fanwank

[theygotlost]

i will still remain here as my primary social media until its physically impossible but all night ive been thinking about what I would do if/when tumblr is gone for real so here are my options:

twitter: probably not. its become a completely unusable wasteland ever since musk bought it and I deleted my account shortly after that. it used to me my other main social media but I can't see myself returning to it any time soon.

cohost/bluesky/pillowfort/some other new twitter alternative: ive never tried these out so idk how I feel about them but I'm thinking of making an account now and testing the waters. even if I do end up liking one of them I sincerely doubt many of my mutuals/followers would end up migrating with me, so there wouldn't really be much point. I would only have like 10 followers

neocities: ive never used this one either but idk how it's supposed to work as a social media. you can make your own website but is there like a feed where you can see other people's posts? I still want to be able to see what everyone else is up to

instagram: i hate instagram so much i really do but I feel like if I overhauled everything and made a new account and changed how i engaged with it it might genuinely be my best option at least for posting art. it's really not even good for posting art (the way i draw a lot of my art is optimized for being formatted on tumblr) but who knows. i currently have an art account there but a lot of irls from school follow it so I have to use my government name and I havent posted anything in over a year so I think the most viable option is to just start over with a new account exclusively for my tumblrinas. posting on instagram removes 1 year of my lifespan though

discord: not a social media website but I will make sure to add all my mutuals who I havent already. just like everyone else Im so bad at maintaining 1 on 1 conversation so I would rarely feel like hitting up anyone in particular and I also hate almost all servers. maybe I could finally cave and make my own mutuals server but i feel like nobody would give a shit

reddit: reddit scares the shit out of me cause i feel like its 90% straight men. there are fandom subreddits but they probably suck. and its not like i can post art there

go offline cold turkey and magically become a normal well adjusted functioning member of society with no mental issues: still waiting for this one to happen.

kill myself: 🤷‍♀️

[tarot-junkie]

Ive been perusing off and on. Making observations as I dabble in/do a pulse check on other fandoms. I’m curious. I’m working on energy to get back into reading. It’s been hard, because my mental energy is not in the right headspace for readings. I draw cards and go completely blank. And it’s super frustrating, because it’s not clicking right now. So I’m trying to occupy my brain in the meantime. And I’m sorry I’ve been awful about responding. Soon.

I was reading around the internet on this topic before, and said I would have some feedback. Consider this part 1.

When I look at other fandoms I see the same examples of:

Proof of location via some surrounding item in a social media post (a countertop, a bed frame) and not always posts by the main character, either.

Checking into relationship validity via follows on social media. Sometimes follows of follows….and watching their updates to keep tabs.

Confirmation of location via time that the social media posts are made.

People looking at/for reflections and what they contain.

People emailing/contacting normal folks to verify data when a “sighting” happens. Pretending to be someone or something they’re not bc…well that’s just too much.

Hate accounts that cross-pollinate from one social media platform to another, and are well-known.

The assumption that the females are “bad” for their dudes (ok some might be… but STILL).

Some people who gatekeep data BUT I will say, some fandoms explain (pretty rationally maybe?) WHY they gatekeep and they discuss how they validate their sources. This is interesting.

The threat of doxxing is high on the lists for almost all, in some respect or another.

The assumption that either the actual celebrity OR some of the significant others are on tumblr, and loose association that “proves” it. It’s usually some rando Carol Burnett ear-tug scenario.

In most cases, wild conspiracy theories abound about the love lives, usually in the form of some succubus ingenue…who needs press and persuasion to MAKE IT BIG in the business.

Or this person is dating a racist (hear me out) based on 10 yr old tweets or affiliations dug out of the abyss. Can cite Jakey G, Henry C , Chris E and Ben B as examples where this was brought up. Which is not to say things don’t REEK from the disgusting posts made, but it is absolutely something people look for. Is it more gross that it’s not that hard to find, sometimes? Sad. Gross. Check check.

Or sexuality is ambiguous, which encompasses some part of the discussion. (This happens a LOOOOOOT too). Saw this for years in the Jakey g fandom, and dozens of others.

They always date some random midwesterner 😂😂 apparently the Evan Peters fandom is experiencing this knee-high-by-July uni-CORN bread gf now? Idk.

People automatically assuming a new couple is “endgame” regardless of the rumor starting yesterday or 2 years ago. lol. I’ve seen this seeeeveral times.

Some, not all, have either particular tarot readers- or are asked about frequently.(I find the ones asking about Leo D…I think that guy is who he is. And that’s that. Snooze).

This is barely scratching the surface, considering I’ve not ventured into the Styles and BTS dumpster fires. ✌️

If I’ve forgotten any items, feel free to let me know in the comments.

#fandom tangents

[shiteating]

i finished the limbus event ages ago but forgot to post my thoughts (still gotta grind in the upcoming weeks) but what a tour de force of an event. i quite liked it. the chickens rolling 11-13 on one coin was pretty annoying so anyone reading this who hasn't started: bring your high rollers. at any rate, i like that it gave limelight to characters that haven't had much so far— it feels as if they combed through the script of the cantos released so far and listed sinners in order of not necessarily who said the least, rather who hasn't really had a chance to show off their personality as much. i do quite understand and feel it— "gives spotlight to characters who needed it" is quite cliché praise that conveys nothing, at the end of the day. but it's true.

spoilers under the cut, for like everything potentially, but especially the event of course. (also may include my grievances with the fandom so if youre not about negativity...well if you follow me here youre probably ok but just a warning out of courtesy)

I LOVED HOW IT GAVE FOCUS TO CERTAIN SINNERS!!!! especially meursault, yi sang and hong lu!! donQ was funny!! gregor was cringefail moe!! more of ryoshu is NEVER a bad thing!! (ryoshu pussy destroyer, apropos of nothing) i think even though sinclair had his introductory canto already with arguably the best sinner to story+dungeon integration and immersion so far, its nice to see him not suffering and just being some guy. i did say "they gave the characters who didn't do much more spotlight" rather than "didn't say much" because in the grand scheme of things, sinclair didn't do that much in canto 1 and 2, and 3 was an interesting facet of him but nonetheless we hunger for these sinners in any situation funny or tragic.

but also because i have a huge issue with "XYZ doesn't talk much" sort of justification for mischaracterization. this concerns mostly yi sang and meursault. now, to preface things, usually i am not the kind of person who likes to heckle people and demand they meet prerequisities before consuming a work (well it depends, for me personally i like going in production order when it comes to games and anime but this is different+if someone came up to me demanding stuff my response would be "no way" out of spite a lot of the time. though i try to respect the work by honoring its othee branches IVE GONE OFF ON A TANGENT SORRY), but yi sang and meursault in particular are about the most straightforward original book to limbus character translations there are probably. i think i mentioned it on main before, but the solution to "i don't know how this character is" is probably to look back on the source material. i suspect it is due to the short length of their respective sources, even yi sang who seems to take after his poetry as well and not just the wings, does not come up to even 50 pages all together probably. (i have not read all his poetry but i've read crow eye's view right after this event because i was further spurned to do so, i read the wings last week) the stranger is about 100 pages. it makes sense, when you have a longer source like for example crime and punishment, you have more room to do more topsy turvy aversions like mixing sonya and rodya's convictions together and switching stuff around ever so slightly... also the genderbending but that's obvious. prosthetics racism aside, they played with sinclair a bit still, but all in all it's following most of demian's beats quite closely, down to demian magically making kromer go away in an act of demian ex machina (though on screen as opposed to off in the book, though the mystique is arguably not lost because the fucker is floating like some kind of ghost or guardian spirit. not saying he is any of this but yknow). P.S. i think if they somehow work eva into limbus i might lose my mind that was such an insane part of the book

however even before this event, in the three cantos we have available, i feel that yi sang and meursault have been adequately characterized. i read the stranger in high school so my memory on it is fuzzy, and as aforementioned i read the wings last week, and they are represented quite faithfully! not to mention meursault wasn't even scarce in canto 3! i understand that they're a little dry as characters, maybe that is seemingly boring to some people but i don't think it is an excuse. there's no REAL need to read the books and that's not my point here at all, but still, i think what we have in the game even pre-event paints a quite clear picture as it is. i'm trying my best not to sound like i'm looking down on anyone, i say this all the time but before limbussy i had only been reading non-fiction books for years because i lost my spark for fiction. i'm happy it revived it. so i'm not gonna come from the angle of "read books or die" cuz that's not me. i'm saying this because i have intense anxiety but i will repeat again that while i speak strongly and perhaps even harshly, i do not think any less of most people. though maybe i cannot hide my annoyance at fandom types much even if i am trying. <-im just a guy

though i will spill the beans on myself and admit that i feel that you miss out on so much when not reading at least some of the books. sure, some of them follow quite closely, but there'a so much fun in comparing and contrasting. seeing the subversions and aversions, and what they chose to keep as is. I LOVE IT!!! i want you guys to know this joy. and i love that my reading block is going away. btw i am reading stuff in canto order. 👍

my comments on donQ in laconic because no one wants to hear it (will oblige if you ask but it is groanworthy so i will use my discretion regardless) (also clarifying again cuz i have anxiety but i do not ever think donQ being silly is bad. she is perfect. i have 0 complaints. it is more about fandom treatment):

and then there was hong lu.

this one's a real stinker. hong lu isn't topping much of my lists but i think he is a charming and nuanced character who is unfortunately probably the most flanderized sinner next to heathcliff and donQ (THE CROWD BOOS AT THE NOTION OF DONQ BEING FLANDERIZED). as with many people, i don't know if a day may come that i will read dream of the red chamber in whole— i may attempt it of course, but the length is undeniably daunting. i don't know much about it, only that hong lu himself is not a character in it, but more like some kind of metaphysical mishmash of different elements in the novel (even his name is derived from the title itself). it is not difficult to surmise that the odds are stacked against him. i don't think this section will be too long, but i feel that not only is the nuance in his character in limbus easily disregarded, but it is being superceded entirely by this phantom of what the fandom has thrust onto him. i am not anti-fun, nor am i "you're enjoying it wrong grrr" (this is a lie i kind of am sometimes but i am self aware of it)

but even just judging from the material in limbus alone i do not see where people got the "hong lu is a frivolous shallow whore" thing outside of idk, him being a handsome somewhat kind of sort of gender non-conforming male character and acting (strong emphasis on acting) a little ditzy and being showy. he's quite sheltered, i do not deny that he says ignorant things because of his upbringing, but the event did lay it on thick in one scene that he also enjoys messing with people a bit. but i think it will still be taken super literally regardless. he is a character with hidden depths, so far not much of it is revealed, but he shows moments of great emotional intelligence at times (like in canto 3 when he told a different sort of half truth to saude about effie being "fine"... i mean it's uh. not a lie) and the guy can definitely read the room if he so chooses to do so. the moment in the event where he got a little cagey and perhaps even introspective when faust used him as an example to explain distortion was another moment of depth uncovered: i think it will be a slow process overall. which is great. there are some characters that we will continue to learn more and more about incrementally throughout the run of the game (however long that will be, but i will be there no matter what) rather than getting a seemingly complete baseline right away. (because really, everyone has hidden depths still, it's just that sinners in the position not unlike hong lu's just have MORE hidden i suspect donQ is the same— /shot

but yeah. i had a lot to think about because of the event. but i love the direction it went with showing the sinners' individuality off and who they chose to show more of. i could not be happier with it. i feel like very few mobage are able to do this balancing act of fleshing out characters outside of story. i think fgo also does it well (CROWD STARTS THROWING ROCKS AT ME)

P.S. i do not assert that my interpretation of the characters is 100% correct and infallible EVER— everyone sees things differently. however what is objectively incorrect is stuff that just ignores canon outright and on a consistent basis. at that point idk if we are reading the same text.

#m #postmortem #kinda

[minutia-r]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @ilthit

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 

229

2. What’s your total A03 word count?

736,388, including fics written with coauthors.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I'm not currently super involved in writing for any fandoms unless you count various ttrpg universes, in which case the rp writing I've done that's made it onto AO3 is my and @ilthit's Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades epic.

Other fandoms that I've written more than ten stories for, and were my main fandom at one point or another, include Stand Still Stay Silent, Diana Wynne Jones books (mostly the Chrestomanci series but not exclusively), Vorkosigan Saga, Percy Jackson and related fandoms (mostly Heroes of Olympus characters/era), and Legend of Korra (plus one A:tLA era/characters fic). But there was also a period where exchange fandom was my fandom (I still do the occasional exchange but not as much and usually not the big ones), and also I have been known to write a fic as a reaction to a book or a piece of media and then move on, so the vast majority of fandoms I've written for, I've written a single fic for. Tomorrow? Who knows!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Natural (Howl's Moving Castle, by far my most popular fic by most metrics, and will likely become my top fic by hits any day now as well) [redacted] [redacted] The Family Expert (Vorkosigan Saga) Five Strays Elizabeth Naismith Took in (and One That Got Away) (Vorkosigan Saga)

Vorkosigan fandom is pretty generous with feedback in general.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Almost always. It can be a good way to have a conversation with readers and even make friends (although most of the time, I'm too awkward to respond even to detailed comments with much more than a "thank you", which I realize is counterproductive for these purposes /o\). More importantly, I want to let the commenter know that I appreciated their comment. There is a chance that this will lead to more comments, if not from that particular commenter, then from others?

(I'm not saying that authors have to respond to comments, or that they should if they don't want to, but personally I prioritize leaving comments on fics whose authors consistently respond to comments, because that way I have a good indication that comments are appreciated. I realize that the vast majority of authors like getting comments even when they don't respond to them, but I have actually run into a few who don't really care either way. Not to mention that if you're reading older fics, the account may have been abandoned or something and the author may not even see your comment. When every comment takes time and mental and emotional energy, it just makes sense to prioritize.) (I know, I should make an effort to leave more comments on the stories I read. /o\ It it what it is.) (Also, perhaps I should add that as much as I like getting comments (I really like getting comments), I also appreciate kudos and other forms of feedback etc.)

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ah, hmm. I have written a lot of bad ends and angst, but I think I would have to go with [redacted].

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Again, hard to answer. Do you mean the fic where the characters are happiest at the end, or one that fixed canon the most, or gives the most triumphant or warmest fuzziest feeling to the reader, or what? I will say A Year and a Day (Mr. Fox, folk song), which fits several of these criteria, and was also very gladly received by its recipient.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Almost never.

9. Do you write smut?

I do, but I have gotten into the habit of not linking to it or discussing it in detail here, because I had young followers. (The ones I knew about have since grown up, but I don't know the life of everyone who follows me. Seems like a reasonable habit to keep up, much respect to people who systematically block underage followers or just warn them away to maintain an adult space, big fan of adult spaces, but it could not be me on here.) Hence the [redacted]s.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Occasionally. Much more often I will have ideas for crossovers which I can't quite wrangle into a coherent fic. (Same as AUs really).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not personally, as far as I know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Several, mostly into Russian, one into Chinese. (And maybe some more on sites other than AO3 that I have forgotten about). I have a blanket permission on my profile, which helps encourage this. Anyone who wants to translate, podfic, remix, write fic of, or make art of my fics, PLEASE DO.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Mostly as previous mentioned with @ilthit

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

My most written ship on AO3, setting aside OC / OC which is several ships in a trenchcoat, is Emil/Lalli from Stand Still Stay Silent. It's as good an answer as any.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Several, alas! Of the ones that I went as far as to start posting on AO3 I will call it a tie between The Hunt of the Unicorn (Chrestomanci) and Get Me to the Church on Time (Heroes of Olympus).

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, characterization in general, prose. Some readers have complimented my worldbuilding, but I don't feel like I'm that good at worldbuilding? Perhaps I make up for in creativity and vividness what I lack in consistency and thinking through everything, idk.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing things, alas. Being able to write fast or consistently, and to stay focused on a project. Also, perhaps relatedly, plot, and planning ahead in general.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have done it, I like to do it, but I do feel like there should be a reason for it beyond "this character is speaking a different language now." Also, if it's a language I don't speak well, I would be extra hesitant to do it without a consultant who did speak that language well. I have been lucky enough in the past to be able to find consultants. Conlangs are a different and greyer area.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I, uh, hm. Depending on how you define your terms, probably Animorphs? Never finished or posted that story; I don't know if the notebook I wrote it in still exists in my parents' basement or what.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Ah, I cannot narrow it down! But of the fics I've posted on AO3, the ones I've written with @ilthit were probably the most fun to write.

Has everybody been tagged? @grammarpedant, you up for it? (no worries if not).

#minutia's big ego #it's fandom town #gosh this got long

[chemicalbrew]

@elendsessor listen, I love your blog and the way you curate stuff!!! that comment was honestly self-defeatist on my part, and I'm sorry if it made you doubt yourself, you're one of my absolute favorite mutuals at the moment (even though we don't talk, your blog is so awesome!), and I was genuinely worried you'd not follow me back when you remade, wahhh (mostly because I barely post fandom lately, and all I do is lazily scroll my dash and scout the katana zero tag, and I am so self-conscious about how much i love kz these days... i gotta stop with that)

ANYWAY!! back to your original inquiry, at full force

9. worst part of canon

stealth levels in games that are not otherwise about stealth tend to be quite ruinous. off the top of my head, two examples I am forever a little salty about are Ghost Trick and Katana ZERO (though it's partially optional in the latter - I always opt to kill my way through the prison on replays)

For Ghost Trick, that's legitimately the only issue I have with it. For Katana ZERO, however... the ending stretch of the plot is somewhat poorly paced\unsatisfying compared to everything else + hard mode is genuinely unbalanced to the point where I actually gave up on it last month (but god, the itch to play more has not left)

SMT4: rapid-fire complaints from someone who hasn't played other SMTs yet: most of the plot after the Tokyo reveal felt weak, the game needed to be a little more obvious early on about how your choices matter, I wish Flynn had a bit more personality, just to match his companions, the Isabeau twist in particular sucks ass, Burroughs turning out to be a goddess sucks even more, App Point costs were unbalanced, they could have afforded to use multiple asset sets for Domains, I didn't like the prospect of endgame grinding.

I said Chrono Trigger is perfect, but that's only if you ignore what follows after (especially the tie-ins attempted in CTDS). I still do not have it in myself to wholeheartedly love Chrono Cross

Pyre is a wonderful game, but the second half of it was a huge drag and could stand to be less repetitive

Hades has an ending that basically ruins the rest of the plot and it's BAD. also, endgame grind is way too tedious and the progression system can break in places

Brandish 1: the remake doesn't have speed options like the original game did, Tower is a bland-looking stage with awkward music, boss music in this game is uninspired outside of HEADLESS Brandish 2: literally nothing important to the larger narrative happens in this game when you think about it, endgame is not fun and absolutely ridiculous (I get why, but this is truly old school game design at its worst), boss music still sucks (most of the OST outside of the opening hour is honestly weak), there's a different Tower and it sucks for different reasons (backtracking yay) Brandish 3: the fact that the translation isn't out yet (serious answer: this game, iirc, has more backtracking than the others. Sanctuary was a really gimmicky stage in particular) Brandish 4: for fuck's sake, who decided the Temple stage was acceptable? it's literally an assault on the senses

Trails series: awful with ships. awful. the main ship of the first arc of the series is a case of adopted incest lol there's some other really gross tropes like this all throughout and I really don't feel like reciting them right now, so... I'll list other stuff: the games weren't intended to have multiple difficulties, so playing on anything that's not Normal will suck in some way you have to be extraordinarily meticulous to 100% or use a guide as the series went on, it became easier to break the difficulty into pieces with how ridiculous skills get despite that, superbosses and scripted losses that you have to win to 100% are a tradition of the series and can be really annoying to deal with as the series went on, it also started using more modern anime tropes to appeal to more people and it UNFORTUNATELY has been working

Ys series: modern games suffer from trying to be more like Trails, which they shouldn't <3 end of story

Xenoblade 1: battle system as a whole was unrefined and unsatisfying, worst sidequests in the series, female party members are all suffering in some way (Sharla's arc was cliche and unsatisfying, she sucks to use, her design is awkward; Fiora's situation was not explored deeply enough and she got fridged; Melia suffers in the story so much it almost turns into comedy and suspends disbelief) the only antagonist that resonated with me was Zanza.

Xenoblade 2: (DLC fixes most of this) The obvious: there needed to be less titties; The obvious again: Tora's introduction sucks ass (and he doesn't get truly better ever :() AND Tiger! Tiger! can go fuck itself; The introduction in general is slow and is why I won't replay this even though it's a GOAT; I actually like the gacha being around (I got lucky and the only real trouble I had was getting KOS-MOS imo), but it should at least become infinitely more generous in NG+. AT LEAST THAT. The infamous roadblocks to 100% like Ursula's affinity chart; The UI issues that everyone harped enough on; The maps got so much worse in this game compared to 1 like? I had so much trouble navigating here compared to other XB games.

Xenoblade 3: (DLC fixes most of this) literally the worst antagonists in the series; not a great party either (RIP Sena); Noahmio was kinda boring for half the runtime; in general the messages made by the game are not interesting to me and did not resonate like 2 did; the class system ruins every good change made to battle system; chain attacks suck, and not just their music - they're worse than 1's; weakest soundtrack (same issue as Brandish 2, where it starts strong but as a whole is eh); probably the only XB game that I do not ever intend to actually finish, because it's such a slog somehow.

The only sin Kid Icarus Uprising committed was its control scheme. Might have been justified, but it sucks.

Ace Attorney has too many issues to count <3 I'll just mention that: The series as a whole sucks at guiding you when you get stuck Big Top sucks, we all know this AA6 ruined Athena and Apollo and has questionable setting\design choices AAI2's last case dragged on for too long even if it was hype

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's battle system as a whole really sucks if we're being honest, and nowhere is this shown off better than the final battle.

VA-11 Hall-A often goes overboard with humor, but its worst offense is the optional bullet hell minigame they put in

#zero.txt #whew i like pointing out flaws in things #TO BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR ALL OF THESE ARE GAMES\SERIES I LOVE AND I WOULD NOT RATE THEM LOWER THAN 8\10 (except for xb3) #i could have elaborated on ys tbh but every game is so different....