#i love audio drama very much and i want other people to love it too

[all-seeing-ifer]

Audio Drama Recs for Buffyverse Fans

Hey there, dear listeners! Are you a Buffy fan who’s been listening to Slayers and it’s got you interested in learning more about this whole audio drama malarkey? Are you a Buffy fan who’s not been listening to Slayers but are always interested in recommendations for new media to check out? Are you maybe even a Buffy fan who’s already listened to some audio dramas but want some ideas for others to check out? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this is the list for you!

The world of audio drama is a weird and wonderful place where niche independent art can flourish. If you look close enough, there’s something there for everyone! It’s my hope that the release of Slayers can help bring this wonderful medium to more people’s attention, so I’ve compiled a list of a bunch of different audio dramas that I think will appeal to Buffy fans, whether that’s because they have a similar genre, similar tone, similar characters, or something else entirely. 

No matter what it is you like about Buffy, I can almost guarantee there’s an audio drama out there where you can also find those same qualities. And the best part? All of the following audio dramas are absolutely free. An important part of the culture that’s emerged around indie audio dramas is that these shows are pretty much always free to listen to - funded instead by ads and patreon support. So you can just hop on to spotify, apple podcasts, pocket casts, or your other platform of choice, and get some beautiful narratives written by (and I do sincerely believe this) some of the most talented and visionary creative voices of the past couple decades beamed directly into your ears for the low low price of nothing at all. You literally have nothing to lose except time!

So without further ado, on to the recommendations:

Wolf 359 

Listen if you like: Episodic/monster-of-the-week storytelling with an overarching plot, a tone that mixes comedy and drama, pastiches of popular genres (with heart), anti-authoritarian themes, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues

Plot summary: Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. The Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that.

Status: Finished

Episode count: 61 + minisodes and specials

Average episode length: 20-40 minutes

Why you should listen: I’m gonna say something that may be mildly controversial and say that Wolf 359 comes closer to capturing the Buffyverse’s tone and spirit than just about any other piece of media. A child of that mostly unfortunate period of time when every nerd creator on the planet wanted to imitate Joss Whedon’s style and it really does show (not least in the multiple direct references to Buffy the show makes). But while basically every other product of this writing style (including Whedon’s own later work) fell flat on its face into insincerity, Wolf, in a truly cosmically unlikely moment of lightning actually striking twice, just fucking nails it. It’s at once an ironic pastiche of science fiction serials from the golden age of radio while also being a serious and dramatic science fiction serial in its own right, and strikes the perfect balance between the two. While it starts out as more of a workplace comedy set in space, as the show goes on and the characters learn more about the company that sent them on their mission, the tone becomes increasingly serious and dramatic, without ever feeling like too much tonal whiplash. When it’s funny, it’s really funny, and when it’s serious and emotional, it hits depths of devastation few other shows can. While it may be science fiction and not fantasy, it shares the Buffyverse’s anti-authoritarian themes, as well as those shows’ large casts of flawed characters whose problems come just as much from interpersonal drama as from the speculative fiction elements of the story. If you ask me, it’s one of the greatest stories the 2010s ever gave us. But don’t just take my word for it, go check it out for yourself! Go meet Doug Eiffel, Renee Minkowski, Dr Alexander Hilbert, Hera, and a bunch more characters I can’t talk about without getting into spoilers. You can thank me later.

Ars Paradoxica

Listen if you like: A tone that mixes comedy and drama, anti-authoritarian themes, female-led shows, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues

Plot summary: When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe.

Status: Finished

Episode count: 36 + specials

Average episode length: 20-40 minutes

Why you should listen: Ok, let’s say Wolf 359 appeals to you, but you’d prefer your semi-ironic semi-serious speculative fiction dramedy show with anti-authoritarian themes to have a female lead. I mean I’d still recommend listening to Wolf because while Eiffel may be the protagonist you still get to meet Renee Minkowski and Hera and [OTHER CHARACTERS REDACTED], but you could also try out Ars Paradoxica! Another child of the Whedon-influenced era that produced Wolf 359 with a similarly Whedon-influenced tone, I think Ars is a lot messier, tone-wise, but it’s worth working through that. While it starts off quite goofy and irreverent, as the show goes on it really matures and grows into itself and becomes something very special. It becomes the rare time travel story that actually engages in a meaningful way with the political dimension of the time period its characters’ travel to. It’s about the paranoia of the final days of WWII and beginning of the Cold War, it’s about the bigotries that shaped mid-20th-century society, it’s about war and scientific ethics and the desire for progress and what we’re willing to sacrifice for that progress. But despite its often dark themes, it’s also not as heavy as I’m making it sound, with all of its lofty ideas and high concept science fiction being anchored by a cast of highly flawed yet endearing characters, including the inimitable Dr Sally Grissom herself. Compared to other 2010s audio dramas, it’s fallen into obscurity into recent years, and I think it’s about time we bring it back into the light!

The Silt Verses 

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot, anti-authoritarian themes, female-led shows

Plot summary: Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories.

Status: Ongoing (on its final season)

Episode count: 33+

Average episode length: 40-60 minutes

Why you should listen: It’s my favourite audio drama, hands down. More than that, it’s one of my favourite pieces of art, ever. Do you have even a passing interest in horror as a genre? If you’re a Buffyverse fan, then I assume the answer is ‘yes’. In which case, you should listen to TSV. Of all the horror podcasts I’ve listened to, I think TSV is far and away the most genuinely terrifying (I’d definitely recommend checking out the content warnings before listening) as well as having the most unique, well-thought-out, and generally interesting horror concepts and worldbuilding. It also plays with classic horror tropes in a way that feels vaguely reminiscent of BtVS at times, but its tone and atmosphere and writing style is all entirely its own. Despite this far darker tone and approach to horror, it also shares many of the Buffyverse’s themes. It’s a story about broken systems: living in them, dying in them, striking back against them, trying to fix them, burning them to the ground, all explored through a horror/fantasy lens. If you like how the Buffyverse explores its anti-authoritarian themes, you will probably also enjoy TSV’s approach. If you love the various complex fucked up little guys that make up the casts of the Buffyverse shows, then you’ll probably also love the various complex fucked up little guys that make up the cast of TSV, especially Sister Carpenter, the female lead of the show as well as one of the few characters in existence whose greatness rivals Buffy herself in my mind. And if you love the Buffyverse’s outlandish and often formally-inventive monster-of-the-week style episodes, then TSV’s own experimentations and propensity for bizarre fantasy concepts will likely also appeal to you. Really there’s very little else I can say without you experiencing the show for yourself. Do you like good things? Do you like things that are good? Go listen to TSV. Again, you can thank me later.

The Magnus Archives

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot, anti-authoritarian themes, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues, fighting the apocalypse

Plot summary: A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back… 

Status: Finished

Episode count: 200

Average episode length: 30 minutes

Why you should listen: One of the more well-known audio drama podcasts, and definitely the most well-known of the recent audio dramas! A lot darker, more depressing, and heavier on the horror than the Buffyverse shows, but there’s still a lot that Buffyverse fans will enjoy, from the anti-authoritarian themes to the multiple apocalypses the characters face. While TMA starts off as an anthology series, with each episode being a self-contained horror story, as the show goes on recurring characters start to appear and an overarching storyline begins to emerge. The later seasons of the show really display a similar ethos to the Buffyverse shows when it comes to taking their characters to very dark places, and the way that the show plays with horror tropes will likely also appeal to Buffy fans! Prepare yourself for some truly creepy storytelling and truly heartbreaking emotional moments and give it a listen.

Janus Descending 

Listen if you like: Horror, female-led shows

Status: Finished (sequel series ongoing)

Episode count: 13

Average episode length: 15-20 minutes

Plot summary: This limited series, science fiction/horror audio drama podcast follows the arrival of two xenoarcheologists on a small world orbiting a binary star. But what starts off as an expedition to survey the planet and the remains of a lost alien civilization, turns into a monstrous game of cat and mouse, as the two scientists are left to face the creatures that killed the planet in the first place.

Why you should listen: While it’s probably the least similar to the Buffyverse shows of any of my recommendations, I think Janus is still worth looking into simply because it’s a really great “starter podcast” for those who’ve never got into audio dramas before. It’s a limited series of just 13 episodes, each episode is only around 15-20 minutes long, and it uses the audio format in a really unique and interesting way. While it does now have a sequel series called Descendants, the original show works very well as a standalone narrative. The horror and tension and tragedy of the story is really well done, and despite how relatively short it is you still get to feel very close to the two protagonists. Another really underappreciated show that deserves more love.

Old Gods of Appalachia 

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, female-led shows, anti-authoritarian themes

Plot summary: A horror-anthology podcast set in the shadows of an Alternate Appalachia, a place where digging too deep into the mines was just the first mistake.

Status: Ongoing

Episode count: 54+ (not including specials)

Average episode length: 30-40 minutes

Why you should listen: Another dark and gorgeously atmospheric horror podcast (you may be starting to sense a theme here), this one based around an alternate history version of Appalachia where eldritch gods and monsters inhabit the mountains and hills. Much like TMA, Old Gods is primarily an anthology series, consisting of a wide variety of different horror stories set in the same world. These stories range from one-off episodes to season-long arcs, and cover a broad spectrum of horror sub-genres. While I do find it a little hard at times to follow all the different connections between the different stories and arcs, I think it’s still absolutely worth listening to for its tone, storytelling, social commentary (plenty of “fuck capitalism” stories here), and well-written and complex female characters. Definitely a must-listen for all the horror/fantasy fans out there (and I know for a fact that’s a lot of you).

Hi Nay 

Listen if you like: Horror/fantasy, female-led shows, stories about bands of deeply flawed misfits with interpersonal issues, episodic/monster of the week storytelling with an overarching plot

Status: Ongoing

Episode count: 32+

Average episode length: 30-60 minutes (not including specials and minisodes)

Plot summary: A supernatural horror fictional podcast about Filipina immigrant Mari Datuin, whose babaylan (shaman) family background accidentally gets her involved in stopping dangerous supernatural events in Toronto. 

Why you should listen: A very fun urban fantasy monster-of-the-week style show that pulls from both classic horror tropes and Filipino folklore. While I haven’t listened to much of this one yet, it’s a really engaging and often emotional listen with a very fun framing device that uses the audio medium in a clever way!

Of course, this is only a small fraction of the wealth of audio drama podcasts out there. I'm only one guy and I can't listen to all of them! If any of you have any recommendations for other audio dramas you think Buffy fans will enjoy, feel free to add them on! And if you're interested and have any questions feel free to send me a message - I always love talkin' audio dramas!

#buffyverse #slayers a buffyverse story #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #podcasts #ifer rambles #ok WHEW i'm done with this thing #this is it this is my contribution to events #i perhaps get a bit sappy in this post but i do genuinely hope that slayers is able to get ppl more interested in this medium #even if it's just a few people!! that would still be such a win!!! #i love audio drama very much and i want other people to love it too #long post

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Drunk Headcanons

First ramble of the new year. Whoo! I was considering what would be fitting, then I wound up thinking about all the drinking that happens at New Years’ parties and figured, why not go with some drunken headcanons?

Content warning: this post contains talk of drinking, negative experiences with drinking, being drunk, and maybe some smut as well.

Talking about drunk headcanons also gives me the excuse to break out the drunk Jack art drawn by the ever awesome Sauce, since it’s very relevant. Credit as always goes to them for their amazing work and for being cool with me using their art in my rambles about the awesome characters they’ve created.

Isn’t Jack such a cute drunk? Funny how he’s only drunk when MC is though… possibly. After all, pictures like these don’t technically count as canon unless they’re in the game or on one of the official Sunny Day Jack pages, which you can find conveniently listed here.

Speaking of, why not consider supporting the SnaccPop Studios Patreon? If you sign up, you’ll get to see all sorts of exclusive pieces of art and sneak peeks at the lore, as well as amazing audio dramas. It’s well worth joining, in my humble opinion. Just remember to please not share anything privately posted on the patreon. Reposting paid content only hurts the team.

Anyway, back to the topic of drunk Jack, and specifically the teaser art by Sauce that may or may not be canon still.

I’ve talked about this picture before, particularly what it suggests for Jack’s powers, how it probably means he can be influenced by MC’s hormones, and how much he might be affected by MC’s state of being and vice-versa. To summarize, I believe that Jack and MC can sense how the other is feeling, both physically and emotionally, but it’s not quite as strong as the other is experiencing it, and it can be blocked out or minimized. I’ve alluded to it in Sunshine in Hell, as well as some of my short stories, especially the one where Alice is in a lot of pain.

So, as this picture suggests, if MC gets drunk, Jack does too. It makes me wonder though if he broke character and drank alcohol, he could be the one to get both of them drunk instead? The possibilities of these implications, canon to the game or not, are quite intriguing.

Of course, we can’t talk about drunk headcanons without considering what kind of drunk Jack and the rest of the crew might be. As they say, drunk words are sober thoughts, and alcohol does lower inhibitions…

Naturally, it’s kind of dangerous for a yandere character to be drunk. Self-control would be lessened, if not thrown out the window entirely if he’s totally hammered. I think Jack would be a clingy sort of drunk, hanging off his sunshine, shamelessly needing their warmth and reassurance that they love him and need him just as badly. He’s also a possessive and protective drunk, not wanting anyone else near MC. He’d probably insist on carrying them around everywhere even while he’s stumbling, though it’d take one near fall for him to decide that sitting with them in his lap is the better option. He needs to keep them safe, keep them close.

If you think Jack can be clingy normally, he is like glue when drunk, or at least I think so. Even if he was dutifully staying home like MC wanted them, once the drinks hit him through their connection, he’s got to be with them, no matter where they are. Suddenly there’s a clown in the club or party checking to see if they’re okay and wanting to take them home, hanging off them like a big warm blanket while trying to convince them to go and keep them safe from anyone that might take advantage of them.

Once agreeing to leave, Jack would probably forget about any implications or issues that might arise from carrying MC in a crowd of people. Hopefully no one is sober enough to film anything that might complicate things when he’s whisking MC away off into the night. He’s certainly not in any state to really consider consequences.

Well, maybe if they’re lucky any such videos would be assumed to be hoaxes. There’s certainly no shortage of fake “ghost” videos online. Maybe Shaun could use it to promote an upcoming movie…

Of course, if the relationship between MC and Jack is rocky, his desperation is cranked up while drunk. He needs them so, so badly.

Worse, if MC is getting physical with someone else, showing them love instead of him… Jack might not be able to hold back his yandere impulses to make sure that no one steals his sunshine away. He’d certainly have a lot of work to do once sober to convince his sunshine that he was just protecting them from being taken advantage of while drunk, especially if things escalated to outright violence. The level of intoxication, and the intensity of the moment would likely decide how far things might spiral.

Of course, you know me and how much of a sucker I am for my OTP being happy, so let’s swing back around to the fluffier extreme. If MC and Jack are in a relationship, that’s when Jack is drunkenly telling them how much he loves them, and that they should just go home together. There’s not even a token resistance to hold back his true feelings for them. He’s already got them whisked up in his arms, kissing and murmuring sweet words of love. MC is going to have a pretty hard time talking Jack into letting them stay, especially when they’d be more drunk than he is.

Naturally, the type of drunk MC becomes would affect things. Since there are way too many variables there, let’s use that as a segue to how my MC Alice is like when drunk. She’s not the biggest fan of alcohol, disliking beer, and only drinking sweet flavored mixed drinks socially before the breakup with Ian. Even then, it was rare that she got drunk at all.

After the breakup, the idea of drinking scares Alice, especially to the point of being drunk. She almost died after all. As such, the only way she’s getting sloshed in the present day is if she’s unaware that what she’s consuming has alcohol in it until it’s too late.

It’s kind of a shame, as Alice is a giggly, affectionate drunk. She stops caring about people around them and just wants to cling to her partner, giggling between kisses, occasionally gnawing on them or licking them playfully and saying silly things. Ian got quite embarrassed by how overly affectionate she was the few times she got tipsy when they were out with friends, though he certainly enjoyed the attention.

Needless to say, when Alice got drunk after finding out Ian cheated, she was anything but giggly or affectionate. Though the less said about that the better for now. Let’s keep this to fun headcanons, shall we?

Alice is also affectionate to her friends when drunk, telling them that she loves them, giving big hugs and saying what she loves about them. It was very hard on Shaun’s heart the one time he was around when Alice was drunk. She glomped onto him and told him she loved him soooooooooooo much while giggling happily~!

Of course, it was cut into by Ian crying because he was also drunk and thus more sensitive to things, so Alice went over to reassure him that she loved him mostest of all. It was a hard night for Shaun to be the sober driver.

Jack would sadly not get to experience this side of Alice. At least, not under normal circumstances. Knowing she doesn’t drink and isn’t comfortable even drinking a little bit, the moment he felt her get drunk, his protective instincts would kick into overdrive. What if someone spiked her drink? What if they had awful intentions? Even if he found out it was an innocent mistake, probably even a mixup, he would still be very concerned about her.

Well… until Alice latches onto Jack, squeezing him tight in a big hug as she tells him that she loves him. Oh how his heart would feel ready to burst, especially if they’re not together yet at the time. He longed to hear those words from her for so long… it’s just a shame that she’s saying them while drunk. Still, you better believe that his tipsy butt is going to tell her he loves her too. That would send Alice into a fit of happy giggles as she snuggles into his chest, since, let’s face it, her guilty impulses are on full display and his chest has always felt so nice and soft to cuddle.

Jack would be struggling to hold himself back and retain some sense of sobriety, to not ruin things, but it’s so hard when Alice is being so affectionate with him. Yet, he worries that her love for him isn’t the same as the love he feels for her. This is especially true if she was hugging and loving on other friends when he showed up.

Of course, even while drunk, Alice wouldn’t be open to physical contact with just anybody, only those she trusts. Being touched by someone she doesn’t know/trust would result in her fleeing to her nearest trusted friend/loved one to hide behind them, maybe even insisting they protect herrrr, and telling the person who tried to touch her to go away! Shoo! Shoo!

Naturally, if Alice was drunk while she and Jack were a couple, it would be a very strange sight for anyone else there to see her cuddling up to thin air, kissing, licking, gnawing, etc. It’d be even more outrageous to see her scooped up into the air! Hopefully Shaun isn’t there to see it and have his heart broken further. Though if he was around while Alice was drunk, and he was still sober, he would be getting her to drink water and getting her out of there since he knows she doesn’t want to drink alcohol anymore. So he’d be stepping in to help her out until Jack swooped in to steal Alice away from him… again.

Speaking of Shaun, he strikes me as a giggly drunk as well. Though he turns it more into a performance. He’s talking about stories he knows to anyone who will listen. Or anyone who is not listening, since he’d be drunk off his butt. I’m talking grand gestures, booming voice, passion thrown into it as he cries over touching moments in a movie he saw, or what he was directing. Oh, his actors killed it in the beach scene! He’ll tell you all about it, then get interrupted by a different thought halfway through the story, probably something he thinks will be a good idea for another film that he has to scribble onto a napkin. Of course, it becomes a weird scrawl that’s barely legible and makes no sense, but it was certainly exciting to him in the moment!

Of course, Shaun enjoys a good buzz. It makes him want to purr, so it’s a good tell for when he’s getting tipsy. He’s very responsible when he’s the designated sober person, but when he’s ready to cut loose, he’s a tomcat ready to play!

While Shaun is a more bubbly and fun drunk, I think that Ian is the opposite. When he has a nice buzz, he feels pretty good, but when it goes too far and he starts getting drunk… that’s when everything goes downhill. This cropped picture drawn by Sauce makes me think that when Ian gets drunk, that’s when his guilt and self-loathing hits him hard.

Poor guy needs therapy. Also, if you want to see the full picture, which is very NSFW, check it out over on Sauce’s twitter. While you’re there, send them some love for all their amazing art and characters!

I think Ian needs constant reassurance while drunk, especially from his partner. He clings to MC and feels lonely even if they’re a foot away from him. He cries at the drop of a hat, even for silly things like how tragic that is that snakes don’t have legs. Why don't they have legs? It's unfair! He’s going to be needing help not to get dehydrated from all the crying and the alcohol, and his hangover the next day is a bitch.

Needless to say, when Ian and Alice were drunk together, it was a very mushy scene. Ian would be down on himself, then Alice would smoosh his cheeks and tell him to listen to her because he is a prince. Prince Charming! No one else is better. That’d get the waterworks going, and he’d cling to her, crying. She would then start kissing his tears away.

I figure this too also happened when Shaun was around because I’m very mean with the guy and his unrequited crush. Sorry, Shaun, but it’s just too much fun teasing you, haha. Don’t worry though, he’s going to find his own happy ending in Sunshine in Hell with a partner or two who love him more than anything else in the world. Eventually.

On that note, let’s move on to the final love interest, Nick. Nick strikes me as someone who is very smooth when tipsy, but an absolute mess when sloshed. The filter is gone. He’s got opinions, and by God is he going to give them, even if they don’t really make sense. He especially has strong opinions about bad BDSM. That popular book series they made a movie about called, what was it again, 500 shades of fucked up or something? That is not BDSM. That’s abuse pretending to be BDSM. Do you have any idea what that mess has done to the BDSM community and how many people have done stupid things because of it? And don’t get him started on what an awful idea it is to tie someone up with rope from a hardware store of all places!

I see Nick as the type to start recording himself once his inhibitions are dropped. The people need to know! His thoughts have to get out there! His followers need to know the truth! This is why he makes sure that he has to put in several passwords before he can actually upload anything. He learned his lesson that he can’t trust drunk Nick with his socials the hard way. The fans are still making memes and using clips out of context from that embarrassing old video. At least he bounced back from it by joking about it even if inside he’s still dying of mortification.

Speaking of a drunk with complaints, I had the image of Barry really unloading all his grievances when he’s drunk. Fortunately, he knows better than to get sloshed with any of his employees, but if he did, they’d have a hard time escaping from him insisting that he knows what’s wrong with the service industry and customers and how the hell did his latest marketing gimmick fail?! Can’t they see how cute the new mascot is? He paid way too much to the graphic designer! Do you know what artists charge nowadays? It’s highway robbery!

Since we’re going into employees of Yogurtopia, why don’t I touch real quick on the other people on staff who I expanded upon a little in my earliest headcanon posts? Things have changed since then of course, such as the boss having an actual name now. Needless to say, I’m not going with what I came up with for that post, but let’s do a little rapid fire mode with the rest of the employees I want to use for Sunshine in Hell.

Carol is a flirty drunk, which is a big problem if she’s actually in a committed relationship at the time and the person she’s flirting with isn’t her partner. Though I’m sure she’d give her partner permission ahead of time to have sloppy drunken makeouts and sex with her.

Liz isn’t really a drinker so much as a stoner. Though if drunk they would be doodling on napkins and finding the ceiling tiles fascinating.

Susan is underage and isn’t much for breaking the rules, so it’ll be a few years yet before she’d have to worry about how she’d be as a drunk.

I know I haven’t touched on these characters a lot, but I figured why not expand on them when I can, even in small ways. If nothing else, it should make it easier for me to come up with more ideas of what parts they could play in the bigger picture of Sunshine in Hell.

Speaking of my OCs, why don’t I touch on the rest of the King family while I’m at it?

Mama Lycoris enjoys herself a nice glass of wine with good company, most notably her husband, whose name is still undecided. (I’ve narrowed it down to Eden, Seb, Luan, Yuri, or Heliotrope. Picking character names is hard sometimes.) It’s rare for her to get drunk, but when she does, she seeks out her husband, even if she just lost track of him for being out of sight. She’s the type to do the meme where she’s crying while texting them that she misses them while he was just in the bathroom. Once she finds them, she’s crawling in his lap telling them how much she loves him~

Papa King usually is the sober one at a party, embarrassed by his wife loving on them when she’s tipsy. Sometimes Lycoris pretends to be tipsy just to get him flustered. They do occasionally have a glass for a special occasion, like toasting at his anniversary or a special holiday. When drunk, they’re a sleepy sort of drunk, pretty out of it and just off in his own little happy world. They haven’t yet been drunk before though, or even gotten tipsy, as he drinks very responsibly.

Barbie isn’t one for drinking, even socially. Though that’s probably not surprising considering she’s not a very social person. If she did get drunk though, she’d be a mean drunk, eyeballing anyone who looks at her funny and ready to jump into any excuse to fight. It’s probably a good thing she doesn’t drink!

Though, I suppose if Barbie was drunk around Bo, she’ll probably let her dom side out more, ordering him around and getting a bit rough with him. Good thing Bo is a big strong alpha and can’t get drunk due to being an AI, so he’ll be able to take care of his puppy even when she’s gone a bit feral due to alcohol.

Coraline also doesn’t drink, but that’s because she can’t due to medical reasons. It interferes with her prescription medications, so it’s probably best if she sticks with non-alcoholic beverages. If she did get drunk, however, she would probably be similar to her father, being off in her own little world, looking at things as if they were fascinating. She would probably be very keenly interested in holding Elias’ head and examining his neck stump up close, which I’m sure her poor groom wouldn’t quite be comfortable with. He would have to make sure to redirect her focus elsewhere until she sobered up.

Of course, I can’t just end things there. I haven’t gushed nearly enough about Jack and Alice having some drunk shenanigans in a more specific sort of scenario. It might turn into some writing, or it might not, but it’s my post, and I can ramble on longer about my OTP if I want to.

As I said earlier, Jack would be very concerned upon noticing that he’s starting to get tipsy. At first he would probably be confused as to how lightheaded he is, until he realizes that it’s because of his sunshine’s influence. The immediate order of business after that is to find Alice and check to see if she’s okay. With lower inhibitions, it would be hard for him not to worry that someone spiked her drink or something.

While someone spiking Alice’s drink would make for some interesting drama, and a target for Jack to go yandere on for taking advantage of his sunshine… I think I’ll stick with something more innocent for this post and say that there was a mixup with her drink or Alice was unaware something someone brought at the party’s potluck had a high alcohol content until it was too late.

Though if y’all want me to chase that darker and more dramatic plot bunny of Alice getting her drink spiked by some unscrupulous character, and Jack has to save her, do let me know~ ;3

Back to the lighter scenario. While it is intriguing to imagine how torn Jack would be if Alice is loving on him while they’re not together, and she means tells him she loves him in a clearly platonic way, which wrenches his heart… At the moment, I’m more drawn to how much of a cock block it’d be for him if Alice was getting frisky with her affection and turning Jack on, forcing him to hold back his urges and stay responsible even though what he wants to do is take her and fill her with his love until her legs are too wobbly to allow her to stand anymore. He might be tipsy too, but she’s outright drunk, and he’s not going to take advantage of his sunshine in an inebriated state!

Of course, Jack’s first order of business is to get Alice home. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the middle of a party full of people, he’s carrying his sunshine home. Alice doesn’t protest being scooped up by her boyfriend, just giggling in delight before peppering his cheek and neck with kisses now that she’s in range. She also makes sure to tell Jack how she just loves him so, so, so, so, soooooo much~!

Jack does try to be discreet in getting Alice away from the party. He might be pretty tipsy, and his steps a little unsteady, but he needs to protect his sunshine. He needs to take care of her, be responsible. It’s what he’s there for after all.

It’s just a little hard for Jack to focus on walking straight when Alice keeps nipping at his skin. Her giggling tickles his ear too, and it’s hard for him not to melt when she tells him she loves him and that he tastes so sweet.

Having a hardon would also make it difficult for Jack to focus on walking straight. Poor guy. Alice doesn’t think about what she’s doing as she keeps kissing, licking, and nibbling on him, her hands wandering and squeezing his chest despite him trying to gently redirect her attention. He needs her to stop, since he can’t focus, but at the same time he really wants her to continue.

The first order of business once they get back home is to make sure Alice sobers up with some water and food. By the time they’re home, Jack feels like he’s going to go crazy. Like her drunkenness affected him, his horniness affects her, and those playful affections become more lusty as her inhibitions are lowered and the idea of teasing Jack and making him feel good becomes more and more appealing. Eventually it gets to the point that she’s being much more blatant in her teasing, such as tracing his nipples through his shirt with her fingers. Maybe even copping a feel lower down when they’re at the apartment and teasing him about the bulge in his pants.

Needless to say, Jack would be having a very hard time holding himself back. It’d almost be a relief when Alice abruptly nods off due to the alcohol. Of course, he’d have to give himself some real relief, imagining what it would’ve been like if she had sobered up so they could continue. All the while, he’s also swearing to himself that in the morning - provided Alice wasn’t in pain from a hangover - he was going to pay her back for all the love and affection she showed him tonight in spades.

The next morning, Alice is indeed hungover, though not quite as bad as she would’ve been if Jack didn’t have her eat and drink something last night. Of course, Jack is kind and cheerful, endlessly gentle and supportive of her, giving her some painkillers and making her a nice, mild breakfast. She remembers what she did last night and is too embarrassed to talk about it, just thanking Jack for helping her get home.

Though past the embarrassment, fear would slowly build as Alice woke up more and it sunk in how easy it was for her to accidentally get drunk at the party. It was so easy for her to lose control… for something to happen… Jack picks up on her worries right away and reassures her that he’ll always be there to take care of her and keep her safe. He’ll always protect her and make sure nothing bad happens to her. He made sure she got home safely last night, after all.

Jack won’t ever let Alice suffer through anything as awful as the night Ian broke her heart ever again.

Some reassurance and cuddles goes a long way, and Alice is able to let go of her fear and embarrassment to just appreciate how much Jack cares for her and takes care of her, even when the unexpected happens. She melts into his soft and reassuring kisses that soon turn hot and steamy. Suddenly the breakfast dishes are off the table, and she’s the one getting eaten by her very pent up boyfriend.

You better believe that Jack planned to feed Alice then do the deed with her as soon as possible. The moment she shows that she’s receptive to his affection, he starts enacting all the naughty fantasies that he had while giving himself relief the night before, making sure that Alice is the one being driven crazy this time. He won’t rest until she’s begging for him to make love to her. Repeatedly.

Needless to say, if Alice has work that day, she’s missing it. Jack would’ve turned her phone off after sending a text that she’s sick, just in case. There’s no way Jack is letting Barry cockblock him again. Not after he spent a night getting blueballed by a too sexy sunshine that was too drunk to make love to.

Fortunately, in the light of day and fully sober enough to consent, Jack gets to enjoy every inch of Alice, as well as a nice memory of just how fun and affectionate she gets when her inhibitions are lowered. He also has a goal to strive for, to encourage his sunshine to feel freer with him like that when they’re both fully sober so that they can enjoy every second of their lovemaking.

Well, I think that’s a good place to wrap up these drunken headcanons for now. I hope you enjoyed the silliness. It seemed like a good way to start off the year, and it certainly would be a fun start of the new year for these two!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

#Sunny Day Jack #Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack #SunnyDayJack #sdj #swwsdj #Headcanon Ramblings #Sauce-y Art

[physalian]

Humanizing Your Characters (And Why You Should)

To humanize a character is not to contort an irredeemable villain into the warped funhouse mirror reflection of a hero in the last 30 seconds to gain “narrative subversion” points. To humanize is not to give said villain a tragic backstory that validates every bad choice they make in attempt to provide nuance where it does not deserve to be.

To humanize a character, villain or otherwise, is to make them flawed. Scuff them up, give them narrative birthmarks and scars and imperfections. Whether it’s your hero, their love interest, the comic relief, the mentor, the villain, the rival, these little narrative details serve to make all your literary babies better.

Why should you humanize your characters?

To do this means to write in details beyond those that service the plot, or the themes, or the motifs, morals, foreshadowing, or story. These might be (and usually are) entirely unimportant in the grand scheme of things. So, if I wrote lengthy diatribes on pacing and why every detail must matter, and character descriptions and thematic importance, why am I now suggesting go free-for-all on the fluff?

Just like real people have quirks and tics and beliefs and pet peeves that serve our no greater purpose, so should fictional people. Your average reader doesn’t have the foggiest idea what literary devices are beyond metaphor, simile foreshadowing, and anecdote, but they can tell when the author is using motif and theme and all the syntactical marvels because it reads that much richer, even if they can’t pinpoint why.

And, for shipping fodder, these tiny little details are what help your audience fall in love with the character. It doesn’t even have to be in a book – Taylor Swift (whether you like her or not) never fills her music with sexual innuendo or going clubbing. She tells stories filled with human details like dancing in the refrigerator light. People can simultaneously relate to these very specific and vivid experiences, and say “not that exactly, but man this reminds me of…” and that’s (part of) the reason her music is so popular.

What kinds of narratives need these details?

All of them. Visual media, audio, written, stage play. Now, to what degree and excess you apply these details depends on your tone, intended audience, and writing style. If your style of writing is introspection heavy, noir character drama, you might go pretty heavy on the character design.

But even if you’re writing a kids book with a scant few paragraphs of setting descriptors and internal narration, or you’re drawing a comic book – if you have characters you want people to care about, do this.

Animators, particularly, are very adept at humanizing non-human characters, because, unlike live acting, every single stroke of the pen is there with intent. They use their own reflections for facial references, record their own movements to draw a dance, and insert little bits of themselves into signature character poses so you know that *that* animator did this one.

How to humanize your characters.

I’m going to break this down into a couple sections: Costume/wardrobe, personality, beliefs/behavior/superstitions, haptics/proxemics/kinesics, and voice. They will all overlap and the sheer variety and possibilities are way too broad for me to capture every facet.

Costumes and Wardrobe

In the film Fellowship of the Ring, there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where, after Boromir is slain by the Uruk-Hai, Aragorn takes Boromir’s Gondorian vambraces to wear in his honor, and in honor of their shared country. He wears them the rest of the trilogy. The editing pays no extra attention to them beyond a split second of Aragorn tightening the straps, it never lingers on them, never reminds you that they’re there, but they kept it in nonetheless. His actor also included a hunting bow that didn't exist in the book because he's a roamer, a ranger, and needs to be able to feed himself, along with a couple other survival tools.

Aragorn wears plenty of other symbolic bits of costume – the light of the Evenstar we see constantly from Arwen, the Lothlorien green cloaks shared by the entire Fellowship, his re-forged sword and eventual full Gondorian regalia, but all those are Epic Movie Moments that serve a thematic purpose.

Taking the vambraces is just a small, otherwise insignificant character moment, a choice made for no other reason than that’s what this character would do. That’s what makes him human, not an archetype.

When you’re writing these details and can’t rely on sneaking them into films, you have to work a little harder to remind your audience that they exist, but not too often. A detail shifts from “human” to “plot point” when it starts to serve a purpose to the themes and story.

Inconsequentiality might be how a character ties, or doesn’t tie their shoelaces, because they just can’t be bothered so they remain permanent knots and tripping hazards. It might be a throw-away line about how they refuse to wear shorts and strictly stick to long pants because they don’t like showing off their legs. It might be perpetually greasy hair from constantly running their fingers through it with stress, or self-soothing. A necklace they fidget with, or a ring, a belt they never bother to replace even though they should, a pair of lucky socks.

Resist the urge to make it more meaningful than “this is just how they are”. If I’m using the untied shoelaces example – in Spiderverse, this became a part of the story’s themes, motifs, and foreshadowing, and doesn’t count. Which isn’t bad! It’s just not what I’m talking about.

Personality

In How to Train Your Dragon, Toothless does not speak. All his personality comes from how he moves, the noises he makes, and the expressions on his face. There’s moments, like in the finale, when his prosthetic has burned off and Hiccup tells him to hold on for a little bit longer, and you can clearly see on his face that he’s deeply uncertain about his ability to do so. It’s almost off the screen, another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. Or the beat of hesitation before he lets Hiccup touch him in the Forbidden Friendship scene. Or the irritated noise he makes when he’s impatiently waiting for Hiccup to stop chatting with his dad because they have a giant dragon to murder. Or when he slaps Hiccup with his ear fin for flying them into a rock spire.

None of those details *needed* to exist to endear you to his character or to serve the scenes they’re in. The scenes would carry on just fine without them. He’s a fictional dragon, yes, but these details make him real.

Other personality tics you could include might be a character who gets frustrated with tedious things very quickly and starts making little inteligible curses under their breath. Or how they giggle when they’re excited and start bouncing on their toes. Maybe they have a tic where they snap their fingers when they’re concentrating, trying to will an idea into existence. Or they stick their tongue out while they work and get embarrassed when another character calls them on it. They roll around in their sleep, steal blankets, drool, leave dishes in the sink or are neurotic with how things must be organized. They have one CD in their car, and actually use that CD player instead of the phone jack or Bluetooth. They sing in the shower, while they cook, or while they do homework, no matter how grating their voice.

They like the smell of new shoes or Sharpies. They hate the texture of suede or velvet or sticky residues. They never pick their socks up. They hate the overhead light in their room and use 50 lamps instead. They hate turning into oncoming traffic or don’t trust their backup camera. They collect Funko Pops and insist there’s always room for more.

And about a million others.

Beliefs, Behaviors, and Superstitions

*If you happen to be writing a story where superstitions have merit, maybe skip this one.* Usually, inevitably, these evolve into character centerpieces and I can’t actually think of one off the top of my head that doesn’t become this beyond the ones we all know. A few comedic examples do come to mind:

The Magic Conch in “Club Spongebob” and the sea-bear-proof dirt circle in “The Camping Episode”

Dean Winchester’s fear and panic-driven actions in “Yellow Fever” and “Sam, Interrupted”

The references to the trolls that steal left-foot socks in How to Train Your Dragon

I’m not a fan of wasting time writing a religious character doing their religious thing when Plot Is Happening, but smaller things are what I’m talking about. Like them wearing a cross/rosary and touching it when they’re nervous. Having a specific off-beat prayer, saying, or expression because they don’t believe in cursing.

The classic ones like black cats, ladders, broken mirrors, salt, sidewalk cracks can all be funny. Athletes have plenty, too, and some of them, particularly in baseball culture, are a bit ridiculous. Not washing socks or uniforms, having a team idol they donate Double Bubble to and also rub their toes. A specific workout routine, diet, team morale dance.

Other things, too. A character who’s afraid to go back downstairs once the lights are off, or fear the basement or the backyard shed. Or they’re really put-off by this old family photo for no reason other than how glassy their eyes look and it’s creepy. They like crystals, dreamcatchers, star signs, tarot, or they absolutely do not under any circumstances.

They believe in all the tried and true ways of predicting the weather like a grizzled old sailor. They believe in ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, skinwalkers, doppelgangers, fairies. They talk to the cat statue in their kitchen and named it Fudge Pop. They whisper to the spirit that possessed the fridge so it stops making all that racket, and half the time, it works every time. They wear yellow for good luck or carry a rabbit’s foot. They’re not religious at all but still throw prayers out to whoever’s listening because, you know, just in case. They sit by their window sill and talk to the moon and the stars and pretend like they’re in a music video when they’re driving through the city in the rain.

Haptics, Proxemics, and Kinesics

These are, for all you non-communication and psych majors out there, touch and physical contact, how they move, and how they move around other people.

Behold, your shipping fodder.

Two shining examples of proxemics in action are the famous “close talker” episode of Seinfeld (of which every communication major has been subjected to) and Castiel’s not understanding of personal space (and human chronemic habits) in Supernatural.

These are how a character walks, if they’re flat-footed, clumsy, or tip-toers. If they make a racket or constantly spook the other characters. If they fidget or can’t sit still in a seat for five seconds, if they like to sit backwards or upside down. How they touch themselves, if they do a lot of self-soothing maneuvers (hugging themselves, rubbing their arms, touching their face, drawing their knees up, holding their neck, etc) or if they don’t do any self-soothing at all.

This is how they shake hands, if they dance while they cook or work. It’s how much space they let themselves take up, if they man-spread or keep their limbs in closer. How close they stand to others or how far. If they let themselves be touched at all, or if they always have their skin covered. If they always have their back to a wall,  or are always making sure they know where the nearest exit is. If they make grand gestures when they talk and give directions. If they flinch from pats on the back or raised hands. If they lean away from loud voices or project their own. If they use their height to their advantage when arguing, puff their chest, square their shoulders, put their hands on their hips, or point fingers in accusation.

If they touch other characters as they pass by. If they’re huggers or victims of falling asleep on or near their comrades. If they must sleep facing the door, or with something solid behind them. If they can sleep in the middle of a party wholly uncaring. If they sleepwalk, sleeptalk, migrate across the bed to cuddle whoever’s nearest with no idea they’re doing it.

If they like to be held or like to hold others. If they hate being picked up and slung around or are touch-starved for it. If they like their space and stick to it or are more than happy to share.

Do they walk with grace, head held high and back straight? Or are they hunched over, head hung, watching their feet? Are they meanderers or speed-walkers? Do they cross their arms in front or lace their hands behind them? Do they bow to authority or meet that gaze head on?

I have heard that Prince Zuko, in Last Airbender, is usually drawn sleeping with his bad ear down when he doesn’t feel safe, like on his warship or anywhere in the Fire Nation, or on the road. He’s drawn on his other side once he joins the Gaang. In Dead Man’s Chest, just before Davy Jones drives the Flying Dutchman under the waves, two tentacles curl up and around the brim of his hat to keep it from blowing off in the water.

When they fight, do they attack first, or defend first? Do they touch other characters’ hair? Share makeup, share clothes? Touch their faces with boops or bonks or nuzzles and eskimo kisses? Do they crack their knuckles and necks and knees?

Do they stare in baffled curiosity at all the other characters wholly comfortable in each other's spaces because they can’t, won’t, or don’t see the point in all this nonsense? Do they say they’re happy on the outside, but are betrayed by their body language?

Voice

Whether or not to write an accent is entirely up to you. Books like Their Eyes Were Watching God writes dialogue in a vernacular specific to its characters. Westerners and southerners tend to be written with the southern drawl or dialect, ripe with stereotypical contractions. Be advised, however, that in attempt to write an accent to give your character depth, you could be instead turning off your audience who doesn’t have energy to decipher what they’re saying, or you went and wrote a racist stereotype.

Voice isn’t just accent and dialect, nor is it how it sounds, which falls more solidly under useful character descriptions. Voice for the sake of humanizing your characters concerns how they talk, how they convey their thoughts, and how they become distinct from other characters in dialogue and narration.

If you’re writing a narrative that hops heads and don’t want to include a big banner to indicate who’s talking at any given time, this is where voice matters. It is, I think, the least appreciated of all the possible traits to pay attention to.

First person narrators have the most flexibility here because the audience is zero degrees removed from their first-hand experiences. Their personality comes through sharply in how they describe things and what they pay attention to.

But it’s also in what similes and metaphors they use. I read a book that had an average (allegedly straight) male narrator going off and describing colors with types of flowers, some I had to look up because I just don’t know those off the top of my head. My immediate thought was either this character is a poorly written gay, or he’s a florist. Neither (allegedly), the writer was just being too specific.

Do they have crutch words they use? like, um, actually, so…, uh

Or repeat exclamations specific to them? yikes, yowzers, jeepers, jinkies, zoinks, balls, beans, d’oh!

Or idioms they’re fond of? Like a bat out of hell. Snowball’s chance.

Do they stutter when they’re nervous? Do they lose their train of thought and bounce around, losing other characters in the process? Do they have a non-Christian god they pray to and say something other than “thank God”? Are they from another country, culture, time period, realm, or planet with their own gods, beliefs, and idioms?

When they describe settings, how flowery is the language? Would this grizzled war hero use flowery language? How would he or she describe the color pink, versus a PTA mom? Do they use only a generic “blue, green, red” or do they really pay attention with “aquamarine, teal, emerald, viridian, vermillion, rose, ruby”?

How do this character’s hobbies affect how well they can describe dance moves, painting styles, car models, music genres?

This mostly matters when you’re head-hopping and the voice of the narrator serves to be more distinct, otherwise, what’s the point of head-hopping? Just use third-person omniscient.

If you really want to go wild, give a specific narrator unique syntax. Maybe one character is the ghost of Oscar Wild with never-ending run-on sentences. Just be sure to not go too overboard and compromise the integrity of your story.

In the book A Lesson Before Dying, a somewhat illiterate, underprivileged and undereducated minor has been given a mentor, a teacher, before they face the death penalty. At the end of the book, you read all of the letters they wrote to their teacher. There’s misspellings everywhere, almost no punctuation, and long, rambling sentences.

It’s heartbreaking. The subject matter is heavy and horrible, yes, but it’s the choice to write with such poor English that has a much bigger impact than perfect MLA format.

How to implement these details

Most of these, in the written medium, need only show up once or twice before your audience notices and wonders why they’re there. Most fall squarely under character design, which falls under exposition, and should follow all the exposition guidelines.

These details exist to be random and fluffy, but they can’t exist randomly within the narrative. If you want to have your character be superstitious, pick a relevant time to include that superstition.

Others, like ongoing speech habits or movements, still don’t overuse, especially if they’re unique. A character might like to sit backwards in a chair, but if you mention that they’re doing it every single time they sit down, your audience will wonder what’s so important and if the character is unwell.

And, of course, you can let these traits become thematically important, like a superstition being central to their personality or backstory or motivation. These all serve the same purpose of making your character feel like a real person instead of just a “character”.

Just think about tossing in a few random details every now and then and see what happens. One tiny sentence can take a background character and make them candidates for the eventual fandom’s fan favorite. Details like these turn your work from “This a story, and these are the characters who tell it” into “these are my characters, and this is their story.”

#writing advice #character design #writing tips #writing resources #exposition #writing tools #writing a book

[teyamsatan]

lllicit Affairs | Chapter VI: Death by a Thousand Cuts

Pairing: Neteyam x Human/Avatar!Reader

Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X

Synopsis: You and Neteyam both have a dark secret that would change everything between you - and neither of you are willing to share.

Warnings: angst, some fluff, Lo'ak x reader, jealous!Neteyam, both main characters thirsting for each other, mentions of lab work, disease, blood, cursing.

Word Count: 7,2k words

A/N: Chapter 6 is the chapter that sets EVERYTHING in motion for what's to come. There is a LOT to come, a lot of drama and angst, maybe some smut (? 😉) and this chapter is meant as a stepping stone to the beginning of the end. Also, realised I forgot to ever mention, that if the dialogue is ever italicised, that usually means the conversation is in Na'vi, I don't know how I have never made it clearer, but here we are.

Thank you so much for everyone who's been reading and asking to be tagged, I never expected this to gain any traction and I am so grateful for people enjoying it x

My heart, my hips, my body, my love Trying to find a part of me that you didn't touch Gave you too much but it wasn't enough But I'll be all right, it's just a thousand cuts

One second. 

“Just one second, Neteyammm!”, you whined, as he was trying to remove the blanket from your currently very comfortable and very warm body. 

“It’s late, come on! Early bird catches the worm, isn’t that what you people say?”

“Nobody says that, I don’t know who told you this lie.” 

“It was you!!” he says, and he’s laughing at your whinging while trying to remove the blanket. He’s not trying that hard, considering he would make an easy job out of the task if he used a tenth of his actual force, but he couldn’t bear the thought of bringing you any unnecessary distress. You had enough of that in your life, and he wanted to be a source of comfort for you, a shelter in the storm. 

You scooted on one side of the bed close to the edge, and left a big gap which you brought to his attention by patting it aggressively. 

“Press the button on the audio player and lay with me, please? I don’t feel like going out today.”

He couldn’t say no to you, he realises. He would follow you anywhere in this world, do anything you asked of him, regardless how stupid or reckless or crazy it was. He would always follow you, for the rest of time, and he was happy about it. 

A song he liked came on, one that he’s heard you play before and there was no doubt in his mind that he liked it better when you sang it. He circled the bed and lay in it, next to you, in the dark. 

“Thank you, light of my life.” You attached yourself to him, arms sprawled across his bare chest and legs carelessly placed on top of abdomen and hips, and sighed contently. He could feel your warm breaths on his neck, leaving goosebumps in their wake. He turned his head to you and placed a small kiss on top of your head and listened to the soft tune filling up the room. 

“Oh, goddamn, my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand

Taking mine, but it's been promised to another

Oh, I can't stop you putting roots in my dreamland

My house of stone, your ivy grows and now I'm covered in you”

“You’re annoying.”

“I know I am, but you love me anyway.”

I do, Neteyam thought. I really do…

Things happen in life sometimes, and it makes you lose your ability to react. There was no reaction, definitely no overreaction. You stared at the vial of blood that shattered all across the floor, all across you and your mind was blank. Almost robotically, you made your way to one of the benches and got some paper rolls and the IMS laying next to it. You carefully cleaned all of it, and spit whatever made its way to your mouth to the floor to be removed. When you were sure everything was gone, you went to the sink and removed your goggles and gloves, and scrubbed yourself clean. You felt yourself moving, picking up a bucket of water with some floor cleaner, felt yourself adding disinfectant to it and moping thoroughly, but it was like an out-of-body experience. Like you were merely a puppet executing orders from above. Cleaning everything took about an hour, after which you made your way back to your room slowly, deliberately. 

You didn’t sleep. You spent the whole night looking over everything you and the rest of the scientists have ever found out about this virus. You didn’t know its way of transmission. Maybe you had nothing to worry about, maybe it’s not by blood. You knew it’s not by air, you’ve seen plenty of people infected whose family was fine. So even if you do get infected, the people at the lab should be fine. Your friends would be fine. He would be fine. 

Next, incubation period. That’s a tough one, in-vitro studies show it takes the virus anywhere from 2 to 12 months to show symptoms. You don’t know how that changes in humans. You don’t know any of this shit for humans. You could be perfectly fine, you could die within the month. The thought made your blood run cold. 

You sat in your chair for the remainder of the night. Unmoving, unthinking. 

That’s how Norm found you.

“Hey, Ace. What are you doing up?”

You scrambled for a lie.

“Just woke up, actually. Listen, if you are going to check on the boy, can you please bring my supplies to the tent and tell the Sullys I won’t be in today? I was too exhausted to run any experiments yesterday so I will do it today.” 

“Oh… is everything alright? You haven’t missed a day in the village since you got your Avatar.”

“Yeah, everything’s fine, just worried about the boy and want to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later, if possible.”

“Alright, I can bring you back some of his blood to run as well?”

“NO!” 

Norm’s eyes widened in shock at your response and you knew you fucked up, you knew you slipped up. Calm yourself… 

“It’s just not necessary at the moment since I have other blood and I don’t want to overwhelm him, if it’s not imperative. I will retrieve some blood when I check on him tomorrow.”

Norm looked at you with a concerned look, but eventually relented.

“Ok, whatever you think, Ace.” 

“Thanks, Norm.” 

“Let me know what you find tonight. I’ll tell Jake, but they might not be happy with you.”

“You can explain it’s an emergency, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

 

You struggled to get up and get your legs to not want to collapse beneath you. Eventually, you made your way to the sink and washed, you scrubbed your face as hard as you could without removing a layer of skin, and your teeth until you felt the familiar taste of metal coat your teeth. You hoped that maybe you tried hard enough, the last 6 hours can just be erased from your life, from world. You hoped it could undo the damage that would plague you for the rest of your most likely very short life. 

Luckily, most scientists seemed to be out. Claire was teaching Na’vi kids English at Grace’s old school that Jake deemed fit to be reopened, Max left with Norm to check on the situation of the village, and most of the Avatars would be out on missions or training with Jake. You made your way to the quiet halls to one of the labs, and prepared for your long day ahead. This will be hard to do by yourself, but not impossible. 

First step, respiratory fluids. You remove a sterile cotton swab and swab your pharynx as thoroughly as possible and place it in a tube. That’s easy enough. Next comes the blood. Finding a vein has always been hard for people to do on you, and it’s not gotten any easier in time, so after poking yourself a few times in the wrong place, you manage to get enough blood to run experiments on. 

Hours of sample preparation, incubation, pipetting and running went by at an excruciatingly slow pace, like the universe was revelling in making every second of torture last forever. You thanked your lucky stars of the progress made in lab equipment and that you didn’t have to spent days on one PCR, like your mum was saying it had to be done back on Earth about a century ago. Regardless, it took most of the day for you to do everything you needed, check for all the proteins and markers you knew were deregulated with this virus, and by the early hours of night, you were done. 

Aș people were starting to return to the hub as another day was nearing its end, you retreated back to your bedroom to work on the data analysis. You did not want to see anyone, did not want to speak to anyone until you knew at least some things. The less you talked, the less lies that had to come out of your mouth, and that seemed ideal to you. 

Inputting the data and having to wait on some software to give you your literal death sentence felt so tragic is was almost comical, and you had to stop and ask yourself if you were some serial killer in a past life to warrant all the pain and misery life seemed adamant to throw at you. For the first time in so long you couldn’t even remember, things were going… well. You were strong, and doing well, and lived outside of the walls of this lab. You had a chance at something more, you had a chance at maybe one day healing and working through your issues and maybe even coming out the other side a better, healthier version of yourself. You had a chance at love.

And there it was… positive. One second.

THE FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF  STAGE I: DENIAL

Your blood became poison in the span of half a day, but at least you now knew it wasn’t transmitted through air. That means no one else would have to suffer because of you. The thought made you weirdly calm, and you realised you didn’t care about your own health all along. No, you weren’t sad anymore, just relieved. A wide smile appeared on your face at the results, and you jumped out of the chair with enthusiasm at the great news. Everybody would be ok. Norm, Max, they would all be ok. You will handle all the virus experiments and blood samples from now on. They wouldn’t have reason to doubt you or question you, not when it made most sense anyway, since you were always in the village and knew the protocols and techniques the best, anyway. You would go on the same way as you had, and no one had to know or suffer because of your mistakes. 

With those thoughts still floating in your mind and a Xanax on your tongue, you made your way to the comfortable bed and crashed without a dream in sight. 

You were up before dawn again, and ready to get started on your day at the village. You were looking forward to gun training with Jake, and finally putting those years of practice to good use. You found Norm deep in thought in the link room, and he didn’t register you walking in until you patted his shoulder and he jumped out of his skin.

 

“Jesus, Ace. You scared the shit out of me.” 

“I noticed. Why so jumpy, Norm?” 

He gave you the quickest look known to man then quickly busied himself with literally anything else. “No reason, just focused on the task at hand.”

“…turning on the linkpod?” 

“No one likes a smartass, you know?” 

“So how was the village yesterday? How is the boy?” 

“He’s alright, still not great, but his vitals are stable for now.” You noticed he did not answer your question about the village, and found slight panic rising in your chest.

“Is everything okay? Did something happen in the village?” 

“No, Ace, everything’s fine. You don’t have to worry about everything, you know. How did the experiments go yesterday?” 

“The virus is not airborne, it seems to be transmitted by blood, so we need to be very careful handling samples.” 

“We always are. But good work, good to have some concrete evidence finally. I’ll look over your analysis soon.”

“You know, I’m not quite done with it, so maybe wait and we can look over it together?”

“Sure, that makes sense.”

You didn’t buy Norm’s pathetic attempts at deflecting the subject of the village, but you did not want to fight him so early in the day, so you guess you had to find out what happened for yourself. You woke up in your Avatar body soon enough, and could already tell the village was already awake and buzzing with the perspective of a new day. The guitar sitting on the ground next to your sleeping mat caught your eye, and you smiled softly at the memory which now seems a life away. Your fingers lingered on the chords and you strummed it gently a few times, enjoying the sounds that seemed to settle in your heart. Adjusting your braids in the small mirror you brought with you a few weeks ago, you made your way out of your tent and straight into Neteyam’s chest with a loud thud. 

“What the fuck?” You say, indignantly and then look up to find Neteyam watching you with an unreadable expression adorning his beautiful face. 

“Hi.” He says, and tries to muster a small smile. 

“Hi…? Is there any particular reason you have decided to attack me first thing in the morning?” 

“I was just coming to get you, I heard the guitar playing. I didn’t think you would be running straight into me. Are you ready? We can spend the morning tracking a herd of Talioang that the hunter party spotted a few clicks south of the village. It will be good practice for you.” 

“…alright? Can I get some food first? I’m famished.”

Neteyam shifted uncomfortably in front of you and looked… nervous, you realised. What the hell was going on with everyone?

“I have food that Ma packed for us, we can eat in the forest? I’d really rather get a move on as soon as possible, this will most likely take most of today, anyway.”

“Is there a particular reason you seem so eager for me to leave? You and Norm have both been acting weird today, and you are both terrible liars.”

Neteyam gave you a hard look. “Let’s go, Y/N. Unlike what you like to think, you don’t need to know everything, and not everything concerns you. Let’s go, now.” Nothing’s changed, you realised bitterly. Last night was just a fluke and you hated yourself in that moment for letting your guard down. 

“You can be a real dick sometimes, Neteyam.” You said and took off without looking at him. 

You ran for about 5 clicks without checking behind you, knowing full well he was following you, your hearing being one of the many senses that heightened in this body. You stopped suddenly at the sight of a huge footprint, one you could identify as the Sturmbeest, or a Talioang, like it was known to the Na’vi. Soon enough, you saw the ground littered with them, and began carefully tracking the beasts.

“Alright. How far would you say they are and which direction?” Neteyam asked, approaching you slowly. He was back to teaching mode, and you tried your best to learn, instead of recoiling and telling him to go to hell, which is what you really wanted to do. 

You touched the ground and felt it with your fingers, trying to assess the moisture level and deepness of the mark. You thought about for a while.

“I’d say they’re quite fresh. Maybe this morning? Taloioang move slowly, about 1 click every hour or two, so I’d say we’ll find them about 2 clicks east?”

He didn’t even have to touch the ground to be able to assess it. He was impressive. 

“Good. Let’s go. We shouldn’t run, they have good hearing and the wind is blowing east, which means they’ll be able to smell us if we’re not careful. We will take a roundabout way and approach them from the south.” 

You both made your way through the forest and it was your turn to follow him, although you stayed close behind and tried to look around you and pick up on clues, tiny sounds and movements, trying to learn, trying to see. “Eyes on the tracks, Y/N.” 

You rolled your eyes, but did as you were told. Eventually, Neteyam let you deem the appropriate time to stray from the tracks and move south to avoid being spotted. Soon enough, you saw the herd of prodigious beings, bathing in a shallow lake. You made your way slowly, sneaking on the ground, with Neteyam close to you, and you felt his arms grazing your sides every inch of the way. 

The herd was protecting the calves, 5 in total, playing and splashing in the clear water. You watched in amazement, just enjoying the view of these seemingly ferocious beasts that in the moment, felt more like a family watching their children play at the local pool. You couldn’t believe the beauty and mild predisposition, the complex nature of these animals whose equivalents were long gone on Earth, long decimated by humans and their needless desire for wealth and acquisition, for mindless cruelty. You felt your stomach drop at the realisation that soon, this could be Pandora, if you didn’t fight will all your being in the upcoming war. 

You felt a sudden gentle pressure on your lower back, a pressure you quickly identified as Neteyam’s hand and you shuddered at the touch. He neared his mouth to your ears, and you felt his warm breath tickling your neck, a sudden warmth pooling in your lower abdomen. 

“You’re not allowed to kill anything yet, but I want you to show me how you would go about it. Show me your bow work, how would you aim from this position.”

You slowly removed your bow from from your person and sat up, in a now crouched stance, and loaded the arrow, doing your best to accommodate for the uncomfortable position you were in and the tight space you were sharing with another person. You held your breath, engaged your core, and aimed as if you were going to release your arrow on the target about 300m away. Neteyam’s large hand touched your upper thigh, by your left hip and squeezed gently. Your arm dropped suddenly and snapped your head in his direction. He didn’t react to your sudden snap, instead talking lowly, so as to not give your location away. “Your leg is not in a position by which you can maximise release. You will have more power in the shot if you place this knee on the ground and lean into it.” 

You wanted to take that hand and either break it or redirect it on other parts of your body that felt like they would explode if they didn’t feel him, have his touch provide the relief that was desperately yearned for, needed. You wanted to scream at him or make him coax the screams out of you like a war-cry, wild and desperate. You wanted to kill him, you wanted him to kill you, slowly and painfully, taking his time on your body until you were falling apart at the seams around him. You hated him, you loved him. You hated him.

You gave him a hard look, an angry look directed at your thigh, and he removed his hand from you. You wondered if he knew, knew what he was doing, wondered if he felt the same way, if he too was struggling to catch his breath at the torture of knowing he can’t have you, claim you, right now, right in this second, right here. You hoped he did, hope it ate him alive, the yearning and the desire. Because that’s what it was doing to you, what he was doing to you. You turned your attention back to the herd and adjusted your position based on his advice. He was right, you could tell right away, as you felt a lot more power when aiming the arrow this time. 

“Much better. We can go now, we will give the location to the hunting party and the will be able to secure us dinner for a couple of weeks from the back of a couple of Ikrans.”

 

You made your way out of their surroundings, and slowly started walking back to the village. After about half an hour, he stopped on a rock and removed the food he was carrying in a pouch. You didn’t join him, preferring to keep your distance and thus a clear mind, not being able to afford being weak around him anymore. 

“I thought you were famished.” He says, with a slight smile. You shook your head and turned around, taking in the views of the forest, distracting yourself with the flowers reaching out their neon green tendrils towards you. You kneeled next to one, and touched them gently, enjoying the way they cupped around your hand and tugged, like they were urging you to come closer so they can spill their long-forgotten dreams to you. You heard him sigh loudly.

“Sorry for being a dick. Just had a fight with mum and dad, and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have, and I am sorry. Come eat, please? I don’t want you passing out on me, you’re not as easy to carry as you used to be when you were human.” 

You remained on your knees still, focused on only the plants and your gentle tug-of-war. You knew how much pressure Neteyam was under, has been for pretty much his entire life. A prodigy created… or made, no one could really know for sure, he began training when most babies learn to walk, and speak, and play. He has never had a childhood the way Lo’ak, or Kiri, or Tuk, or pretty much any other Na’vi children did, mostly fleeting moments of bliss in between a lot more moments of stress and struggle. He never complained, though. Not out loud, not to anyone else but you, once he realised you were a safe haven from the storm. You didn’t pass judgement, or make him feel bad for sharing his feelings, and he felt like he could tell you all the hardest truths his heart has always craved to speak out loud. You have always wanted to protect him from the world, a world that demanded so much of him, that asked for a sacrifice of which it was undeserving. Being Olo’yektan, leading the people, being the one person everyone relied on was a great honour, a great achievement - one you didn’t think he wanted, but was never given the chance to decline. 

“What happened?” 

You walked slowly towards the rock he was laying on, and sat at its foot, crossing your legs on the slightly damp grass. You grabbed a piece of jerky from the pile of food and slowly chewed through it, humming in appreciation at the smoky taste and rich flavour of the meat. 

Neteyam grimaced and didn’t look at you, choosing to focus instead of his arm guards, picking at something that was clearly not there. “More sacrifices I need to make in the name of the future, of the people.” 

“I see you still haven’t learnt to say no, even after all this time apart.” 

Neteyam’s hand froze in midair, his eyes widening slightly - it was the first time you brought up the year apart. He braced himself for what he thought was the beginning of the end, of you finally demanding answers he didn’t think would ever satisfy you, but no other words left your lips.  

“I can’t say no. I owe my parents everything I have, everything I am. This village, this life, is all I know. My dad gave up on everything he knew to stand up for our people, to make sure we’d get a future worth living, a family worth saving, a world still worth fighting for. He became Olo’yektan despite all that stood against him because he loved my mum, loved us, even then, even before we were born. My grandpa died defending this village, watching home tree get decimated in front of his eyes, with only the people’s safety on his mind and tongue. I see that bow that my mum cherishes like a gift from Eywa herself and I want to be worthy of it, someday. And if it means giving up some things, maybe that’s just how it’s meant to be.” 

“Maybe whatever you’re giving up is making room for something ever better, Neteyam. Sometimes we want something so bad, we can’t see the forest for the trees.” 

He looks at you confused for a second.

“That’s a saying. What I’m trying to say is maybe you are over focused on something you want right now, that you think is the best thing for you, but maybe you just are not focusing on the bigger picture. Maybe in the future, whatever you’re giving up now will make room for something that was much better for you all along.”

Disappointment filled his chest at your words. Neteyam looked at you with deep sadness marking his features, and he could see you were trying to think of things to say that could make him feel better. In all honesty, he wanted - needed - you to tell him to be selfish, and trust his gut, and follow what he knew was right in his heart, but he also knew that being selfish is not a trait that came naturally to you. You have always respected the deep bond Neteyam had to his family and his people and you always used to tell him how proud of him you were for how strong he was, for the lengths he was willing to go to to protect and nurture those bonds. 

You felt an overwhelming sense of grief at the realisation that you will never get to see him become Olo’yektan, see him become the man everybody knew he was. He would never be yours, and although that painful conclusion had settled in your soul and had time to scar in all the time you knew him, a new wound, deeper, bloodier, deadlier, tore your heart apart at the thought you would not even be able to watch from afar. You would have been satisfied with scraps, just watching him rule, and be, and love someone else and imagining it was you. You never thought you’d get more than that anyway, never had any delusions for more. The scraps would have been enough, and now even those were brutally taken from you, like everything else in this life. 

You needed to leave, now. 

“Should we head back? It’s getting late.”

You walked back in deep, uncomfortable silence. Eclipse made the nature shine and glimmer with colours your sadness dulled to muted tones. There was light coming from the village and you realise how badly you wanted to be alone, in your tent and read, or watch a movie or a show, and ignore this world for a little while while you licked your newly-opened wounds. Tonight was a communal dinner around the big bonfire in the centre of the village, and you felt grateful your presence would not be missed in such a crowd. You’ve come to love these dinners, another one of the many ways the tribe connected to the village and to each other, but tonight you couldn’t entertain even the thought long enough to count.

“Can you please tell your family I am sorry, but I will probably head to bed early. I’ll be early for breakfast tomorrow, I promise.” 

“I can do that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You nodded absentmindedly and closed the flap of the tent shut.

Neteyam watched as you left him, still reeling from your conversation. Much like you, he just wished to hide in his family’s tent and pretend for a night things are different, that they are better. Actually, if we are talking about wishes, he wishes he could be in your tent. In all honestly, dealing with you on a day to day basis, seeing you, your body, touching it more and longer than he knew he reasonably had to, was making him think thoughts he knew he had no business thinking. In his wildest dreams, he’d be in your tent and making your eyes roll back in the way that drove him crazy. In his wildest dreams, he’d be coaxing sounds out of you that only he would ever hear. In his wildest dreams, your hands all over him would heal him and break him at the same time. He was desperately in need of some relief, and he loathed all decisions in his life that lead to you not being able to be the one to provide it for him. 

He made his way to the bonfire, and greeted all of the Na’vi that respectfully bowed their heads at his arrival. He saw his family at the centre of the crowd, where they normally sat, and joined them silently. They all gave him uneasy looks - all but one. Lo’ak was blatantly glaring at the older Sully, a look of disappointment and disgust marring his normally kind face that reminded Neteyam so much of their dad. 

“Did you tell her?” 

Kiri elbowed Lo’ak in the abdomen, but he didn’t flinch. He did not even bother to acknowledge Kiri, or the low hiss escaping their mum’s lips - his eyes were still boring into Neteyam, unwavering. 

“No.” Neteyam’s expression darkened and in a split second, he became the warrior his dad moulded him into. “And you will not, either, Lo’ak. Do you understand me?” Lo’ak had to look up to look at his brother who was now dangerously towering over him. 

“Oh, the mighty warrior giving out orders, what else is new?” 

“Lo’ak, that’s enough.” Neteyam heard Jake intervene, and he eventually had to physically put his body in between his two sons, who still refused to look away from each other.

“Fnawe’tu (coward).”

 

Neteyam watched his brother turn his back on his family and walk away from the feast, and although he wouldn’t admit it to himself, he knew deep down that Lo’ak was right.

 

You were almost robotically flipping through the directory of movies and tv shows on the laptop that you had with you in the village, not quite ready to go back to the lab and have to deal with the consequences of your newly acquired “condition”. You had all night to do experiments, and lie to yourself that you were fine until you eventually succumbed to a Xanax-induced blackout. You wanted to be in this body just a little while longer, because, in this body, it was easy to forget the realities of your actual life.

You saw a five-fingered hand emerge from the entrance to your tent, and you laughed incredulously at the clown you loved, who seemed to have a knack for improving your dour mood.

“I am here to bother you.” You got up and started making your way towards the entrance of your tent.

“Shouldn’t you be at dinner?” You say, laughing and pulling Lo’ak by the hand, so he stumbles unattractively into you. 

You wrap your arms around him and hug him gently. “Skxawng.” 

“I should, but I am here instead. We haven’t had movie night in so long.” He lay on your sleep mat and you hissed for him to move over. “You’re getting way too comfortable hissing at people.”

“Not people, Lo’ak, you!” You smiled saying that, knowing you were quoting Kiri, and he groaned exasperatedly. 

A few more weeks passed, and you felt the discrepancy between your bodies become more pronounced than it had ever been. It turns out, the incubation period of a Na’vi virus in a human is not long at all, and roughly around last week, you began displaying symptoms. You were taking every drug under the sun to try to soften them, but you had seen one too many good Na’vi people die due to this to know what was lurking underneath the comfortable cushion of drug-induced health. Despite all that, you felt on top of the world in your avatar. You were continuously improving, and, with a little bit of luck, will be completing your first kill soon - the first stepping stone to becoming Taronyu, hunter. If you do that successfully, you will be taking your Iknimaya with other Na’vi apprentices, and finally get your own Ikran. You were buzzing at the thought, and the image of you flying in the sky was enough to push any other worries out of your mind. 

After that weird day that ended with Lo’ak in your tent watching Friends together and teaching him the chords to a song you both loved, things went back to normal, sort of. You couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that the Sullys were hiding something from you. They exchanged looks, and avoided certain subjects, and you were starting to be worried they guessed you were ill, and were tiptoeing around the subject so as to not upset you. That was a good theory, although it could not explain the heavy tension between Neteyam and Lo’ak that also started that night. 

You saw them bicker and fight your whole life: two opposing personalities, both of whom had misunderstandings about the other. Neteyam could never understand Lo’ak, understand that, despite being the chieftain’s son and the grandson of the Tsahik and former Olo’yektan, people still looked at him like he was not quite full Na’vi. His eyebrows and five fingers made his appearance uncanny enough to always attract whispers and looks, and despite Lo’ak’s apparent devil-may-care attitude, he cared. Neteyam could also not understand anyone who wished to live freely and discover themselves, make decisions and choices that would lead to a happy, fulfilled life, rather than a proud and accomplished one. Finally, Neteyam did not understand that skill and tenacity doesn’t come easy to everybody, and the weight of living in his shadow was bearing heavily on his baby brother’s back. 

On the other hand, Lo’ak never tried to understand the burden Neteyam had to carry, because, in his desire to not appear weak, he took it in strides and never complained. Lo’ak never fully understood the downfalls of what being “the perfect son” brings: no freedom, no childhood, no time, no fun, no choice. He only ever focused on the positives: praise from his family and clan, skill and composure, the title of future Leader of the Omatikaya. He will also never be able to understand the depths of Neteyam’s love for him, who, despite all their differences, would be willing to sacrifice everything, even his own life, to make sure his baby brother would never having to experience these burdens.

This tension felt like more. More than you’ve ever seen, not mended in time, they were always glowering at each other and only speaking to each other if prompted or forced by their increasingly frustrated family. You tried to talk to both of them individually and ask, but you were promptly sent on your way each time. You could tell Lo’ak was itching to spit it out, but every time he got close, he flashed you a look of hurt and fear, and moved on. 

Eventually, you stopped worrying about it. It will come out in time, and you had better things to worry about. Your training became brutal after that day tracking Sturmbeests. Neteyam would come to your tent before dawn, sometimes having to wait for you while you woke up in your Avatar body, and you were always gone past eclipse. You were tracking, joining hunting parties to learn, working on shooting arrows while on Pa’li or in nearly impossible positions (he made you shoot targets hanging upside down from the branches of trees, seriously) and working on guns and practicing with Jake and his soldiers. Jake made you his second-in-command during these sessions, and you enjoyed having the roles reversed and having to watch Neteyam squirm every time you touched his arm, or waist, or thighs, in order to adjust his shooting form. You also taught Lo’ak, sometimes late in the nights, where he would sneak into your tent and ask you questions about guns that he hoped would bring him in his father’s good graces for once in his life. You loved teaching them, and you felt powerful with all the eyes on you, trying to absorb every piece of information coming out of your mouth. 

“In your hands, you are holding a sub machine-gun.” You said and you made your way through the 10 soldiers in your midst. “It can fire up 600 rounds per minute. You have a button on the side of the weapon, as you can see right there”, you stopped and show everyone on your own weapon, “that allows you to choose between semi automatic and fully automatic. What’s the difference, Lo’ak?”

“A semi-automatic guns fires one shot when you pull the trigger, a fully automatic gun fires continuously until you release the trigger.” 

“Tsantu (good guy)!” you said with an intimate smile. Lo’ak was making amazing progress, and you were proud to be even a small reason why. 

Neteyam gave Lo’ak a hard look as he answered your question. He was angry with his brother because of his recent attitude, he thought. That’s the reason. Not at all because you were smiling at him with that dazzling smile that used to be reserved for him years ago, definitely not because he knew Lo’ak was sneaking in your tent at night and doing Eywa-knows-what, a fact which kept Neteyam up nights with images he would do everything in his power to be able to erase from his brain. Neteyam was exhausted. He hasn’t slept since this thing started, not until Lo’ak returned to his tent after his meetings with you, and he was able to look at him in the dim light of the night and gauge for himself if his brother was flushed, or panting, or extra happy for one reason or another. Despite never seeing anything that he could deem suspicious, the images of his baby brother taking for himself what was his, what should be his, haunted him and made him sick to his stomach. 

Coward. Lo’ak words rang in his ears incessantly throughout each day, never being able to fully block them out. 

Neteyam saw you move from Lo’ak and towards him, and tried to remember what they were talking about. Sub-machine guns, right. 

“Now, SMGs are best used in tighter quarters or close to mid-range. The spread will make it inefficient for long-range. If you find yourself on the back of your Ikran shooting at a plane or Valkyrie, make sure you close the gap between you or use your bow, instead.”

“An SMG will have a lot of recoil, making it harder to shoot accurately, but there are a few tips you can use to make to improve your aim and accuracy.”

“First. Always fire in short bursts, if you are firing on automatic mode. A few shots at a time will make sure the kick is not unmanageable. Two, account for the kick and adjust your aim to compensate. Think of shooting an arrow and how you always take the wind, its direction, speed and power in consideration before you actually release. It’s a similar principle. The recoil will make the gun kick upwards, so always aim slightly lower than what you want to hit. Three, don’t aim for the head. Leave that for a bow or an assault/sniper rifle with a scope. Aim for the abdomen and chest, since that is a wider target and more likely to hit. Everyone on the same page?”

Neteyam was forever in awe of you, but it was particularly impressive watching you now. You were confident and powerful and knowledgeable. Neteyam felt bad admitting it, but you were a much better teacher than their dad ever was. Toruk Makto had many incredible qualities, but his patience was definitely not amongst them, and his lessons tend to get a bit derailed by his inability to understand that Na’vi are not predisposed to guns or understanding Sky People technology. You were calm, and kind, and funny, and you made it easy for everyone to follow your instructions. In the span on a few weeks, all of the Na’vi and Avatar soldiers training for the upcoming war became better at pretty much every aspect that they were training in, and I think everyone felt just a bit more comfortable about the conflict that was soon to befall them, with you by their side. 

After the lesson was complete, you left alongside Lo’ak, sparing one last look in Neteyam’s direction. He was already watching you, and you saw a fleeting angry look that was quickly replaced with an expressionless mask. He was getting good at that, you thought. 

“Do you want to do anything? If I have to listen to Kiri talk about all the new types of flowers and plants and shit she keeps finding in the woods, I will lose my mind.”

“Be nice.” 

Kiri has been particularly hyperfixated on her newfound discoveries recently, and you tried your best to pay attention to every time she was describing them, in detail, but in reality you were always so exhausted by the time dinner came around that you were only assimilating about a tenth of all the words coming out of her mouth. You felt bad, and made a mental note to dedicate a couple of days to your friend that you saw less and less each week. 

“Your Iknimaya is getting closer and closer each day, how do you feel?”

“Honestly I haven’t thought about it that much, just taking it one day at a time.”

“I think you should start thinking about it, cause it’s going to happen. You’ve managed to blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. It barely been two months since you got your avatar body, not even my dad did this so fast. You were made for this, Angel.” 

You didn’t know what to say to that. You were grateful for Lo’ak’s faith in you, but with everything happening in your human body, it felt pointless looking towards the future. 

“You will be one of us, soon. I’ve had dreams about this my whole life, you know? It’s like I manifested your Avatar, Norm should be thanking me.” 

“Lo’ak…” 

You didn’t like the turn this conversation took, and felt an uncomfortable twinge settle in your chest at his words. 

“There are perks that come with being an Omatikaya, you know? You can make your bow out of the wood of the Home Tree… and you can choose a mate.” 

Fuck. 

Neteyam was making his way back to the village with the rest of the soldiers, casually chatting to one of the Avatars returning with them. He wasn’t paying attention to the way until his body knocked into one of the Na’vi walking in front of him. Utsou was staring intently at a scene unfolding in front of him, a scene that turned Neteyam’s blood to shards of glass, leaving cuts and bruises along his entire body. It was you, smiling, running your hand up and down Lo’ak’s arm whilst his hand was cupping your face and caressing your cheek. It was such an intimate interaction, it felt wrong to everyone there to even be able to witness it, and Neteyam felt himself becoming nauseous. With the image now seared into his memory and rage turning his breaths to pants, he turned around and left everything - everyone - behind. 

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#neteyam #neteyam x human!reader #neteyam x reader #neteyam fanfic #neteyam reader #neteyam sully #avatar #avatar twow #avatar fanfic #neteyam x avatar!reader #neteyam sully fanfiction #neteyam angst #awow #awow neteyam #loak reader #avatar loak

[gffa]

Realizing that I think I've read probably 80% of the High Republic stories is wild because honestly I thought I was barely halfway, but the stories go faster than I expect them to. There's a lot of good I have to say about the High Republic stories, they're surprisingly fantastic at all the moving parts of the story, that through books and comics and audio dramas and multiple authors writing all of it, it does feel like multiple points of view on a singular created universe, they really got their continuity shit together. They're also very easy to read, I can pick them up at any time, and while I have my issues with the whole thing, I will say that more than half of the books have left me feeling like I want more once I've finished them, that I'm definitely ready to pick up the next one. The issue I have though is that I cannot get over that the whole project feels like a palette swap of the prequels story--the Jedi philosophy is the same, the Jedi abilities are the same, the Jedi's interaction and treatment from the galaxy are the same (put on a pedestal by some, reviled by others, they usually make friends wherever they go, the political entanglements are almost exactly the same), the reasons they're drawn into a large-scale battle are exactly the same, the conversations they have about why they've joined this fight are the same, the technology of the era is almost exactly the same, etc. This works great for me in a lot of ways, because you couldn't have handed me a better example of why the Jedi were doing their best in the prequels and how they were good people, I couldn't have asked for anything more to demonstrate my case except for maybe a silver platter to deliver it all on. But it also keeps me from connecting with the story as uniquely its own, because how am I supposed to care about a character when they're so clearly patterned off Obi-Wan or when half the cool things about them are a nod to Mace? How am I supposed to get invested in a character when the majority of their personality is made up of quirks or that they're the bestest ever ever ever, rather than giving them any kind of bite as a person? I have had zero desire to read fic about any of these characters, which tells me a lot about how much I care about them as characters, instead of plot points. Would I recommend these books and comics? I think so, they're fun, I'm genuinely having a good time, but also at least half the reason I'm reading them is so I can quote them for my Jedi Citations project. They often lack any real bite, but that's an overall Star Wars books problem that's not unique to these ones and, eh, lots of people are super in love with these books and I can see why, it's entirely possible I just am too deep into Prequels Brain so I can't get past that basically half of what's going on in these books is a retread of the prequels' plot points and worldbuilding.

#lumi.txt #star wars #the high republic #meta

[thelaurenshippen]

this is a genuine question not at all meant as a rude gotcha, but I feel like I've seen lots of people cite the relatively low barrier of entry as a huge advantage of podcasts as a medium, "if you have access to decent audio tech you can make a podcast" etc etc. So where does the need to sell a script come in? Is it a financial thing, and IP thing, something else?

this doesn't read like a rude gotcha at all, it's a really good question! there is a much lower barrier to entry when it comes to podcasts compared to tv, film, theater, etc. (though not as low as writing a book if we're talking about hard resources - you can technically write a book with just a laptop and a dream and then self publish! though as a writer who has written a lot of scripts and four books (3 published) writing a book is a much bigger psychological burden imo lol).

the need to sell a script, for me, is entirely a financial thing. if I had the money to produce podcasts at the level I want to entirely independently, I would! I know how to do it! but, unfortunately, I really only have the funds to produce something like @breakerwhiskey - a single narrator daily podcast that I make entirely on my own.

and that show is actually a great example of just how low the barrier is: I actually record the whole thing on a CB radio I got off of ebay for 30 bucks, my editing software is $50/month (I do a lot of editing, so this is an expense that isn't just for that show) and there are no hosting costs for it. the only thing it truly costs me is time and effort.

not every show I want to make is single narrator. a lot of the shows I've made involve large casts, full sound design, other writers, studio recording, scoring, and sometimes full cast albums (my first show, The Bright Sessions had all of those). I've worked on shows that have had budgets of 100 dollars and worked on shows that cost nearly half a million dollars. if anyone is curious about the nitty gritty of budgets, I made a huge amount of public, free resources about making audio drama earlier this year that has example budgets in these ranges!

back in the beginning of my career, I asked actors to work for free or sound designers to work for a tiny fee, because I was doing it all for free and we were all starting out. I don't like doing that anymore. so even if I'm making a show with only a few actors and a single sound designer...well, if you want an experienced sound designer and to pay everyone fairly (which I do!), it's going to cost you at least a few thousand dollars. when you're already writing something for free, it can be hard to justify spending that kind of money. I've sound designed in the past - and will be doing so again in the near future for another indie show of mine - but I'm not very good at it. that's usually the biggest expense that I want to have covered by an outside budget.

but if I'm being really honest, I want to be paid to write! while I do a lot of things - direct, produce, act, consult, etc. - writing is my main love and I want it to be the majority of my income. I'm really fortunate to be a full-time creative and I still do a lot of work independently for no money, but when I have a show that would be too expensive to produce on my own, ideally I want someone else footing the bill and paying me to write the scripts.

I love that audio fiction has the low barrier to entry it does, because I think hobbyists are incredible - it is a beautiful and generous thing to provide your labor freely to something creative and then share it with the world - but the barrier to being a professional audio drama writer is certainly higher. I'm very lucky to already be there, but, as every creative will tell you, even after you've had several successes and established yourself in the field, it can still be hard to make a living!

anyway, I hope this answers your question! I love talking about this stuff, so if anyone else is curious about this kind of thing, please ask away.

#answered #writing #audio fiction #producing #also I say I don't like doing it anymore #but that's exactly what briggon andrew and I are working on #it's gonna be a show where we just split profits equally bc I can't afford to pay them lol #and I'll be sound designing it myself #so apologies in advance #also my GOD lauren can you be succinct once in your GODDAMN LIFE #why are all my posts so long i'm so sorry #also I don't get into it in this post #but using my book example as a jumping off point #obviously it is MUCH more complicated than that #bc self publishing/promoting/etc. #and writing the book in the first place! #is an ENORMOUS effort #as is making an audio drama! #also the grand irony in this #is that the show i was referencing in my original post is a show i first came up with to do independently lol #a two person show for briggon and andrew in fact #and then I happened to mention it to some producers I know and they liked it #so that's a show I COULD make for no money! #but they want to pitch it out and there's no harm in asking around #and in the meantime i just came up with another show for briggon and andrew haha

[sad-drake-lyrics]

alright, i’m having a lot of feelings™ about giyushino & i have to talk about it because otherwise i will implode. i’ve liked the idea of them together from s1, like most people who ship them seem to; but then i stopped thinking about them much due to obsession with other ships, and also because after their initial altercation on Mount Natagumo they don’t really get much screentime together, so i just lost interest.

but in my modern day obamitsu AU (you can find my ao3 link on my page!), i’m featuring giyushino as a background ship, & i am starting to catch fucking feelings myself from writing them. (if you head off to read the fic, there’s only two chapters posted so far & Giyuu + Shinobu are not in it yet, but will be very soon.)

so, here we go. gimme a moment to ramble about what inspired these HCs / character analyses before i get to the meat & potatoes.

street lights by killedmyself is one of my favourite songs despite the fact it being really more of a piece of audio art than a song - it’s mainly a movie dialogue sample mixed with sad boi lo-fi beats, but i play it all the time because it somehow hurts so good. so i was listening to it when thinking of the aforementioned modern AU, & i had an epiphany like “holy fuck, this is exactly how a giyushino relationship would go down, whether in a canon AU or any other story.”

the sample in the song is from No Strings Attached, a typical romantic comedy/drama about two close friends who have a deep understanding of each other and casually have sex, but the guy catches feelings and the girl wants nothing to do with a relationship.

(honestly, most people would probably find this movie boring - it’s a basic white het ship storyline; i only watched it because of the song, & the conversation in the song is literally the best part - otherwise the movie is hella bland & i wouldn't care if i never saw it again LOL so i’m def. not saying “go watch this” here.)

anyway, i’m listening to this song, and i’m like “omg, i can hear Giyuu & Shinobu saying every fucking line.”

basically, in my mind, Giyuu & Shinobu would start hooking up just for the sake of it - probably as a result of a quiet development of closeness born essentially out of convenience (they are always at the Ubuyashiki Estate together or working together), and then one night boning goes down. they’re attracted to each other; they like each other as people; and then the sex is good, so it keeps happening.

& very quickly, sad boi Giyuu, who is typically self-isolated and depressed, starts crushing hard. he’s alone and he’s desperate for human interaction and affection, even though he doesn’t realize it - and Shinobu is beautiful, and he admires her. plus they’re starting to have a lot of sex; & it’s pretty common for that to bloom some sense of love, ranging from base level attachment to infatuation to real feels - and it gets to the point where Giyuu wants to be with her.

but Shinobu doesn’t want the same thing. she cares about him (more than she can admit), but she’s fiercely independent and immensely dedicated to her work (with all her research and crafting of medicines & poisons). she puts this work above absolutely everything else with self-denying devotion - her happiness doesn’t matter; like she tells Tanjirou, she’s angry, and all that matters is success. a relationship for her would be a distraction, & she doesn’t need it - doesn’t want to deal with it; too many emotional ups & downs; too much drama; too much risk; too much intimacy with someone else, which actually terrifies her. so when Giyuu tells her he wants a relationship, she rejects him.

now let’s take the samples that slap me in the face with giyushino feels from street lights, which i can literally hear coming out of their fucking mouths.

Shinobu: You know me, this stuff freaks me out. It's fake. What’s wrong with what we’re doing? It’s working, we don’t have to fight -

Giyuu: Maybe I wanna fight.

Shinobu: Yeah, well I don’t.

Giyuu: What are you gonna do - you’re just never gonna feel anything? How are you gonna do that?

Shinobu: I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.

^ this exchange already starts murdering me because i feel like once Giyuu realizes he has legitimate feelings for Shinobu, and is wrestling with his own self-denial and inability to accept love from others because of how much he hates himself - he sees that Shinobu does the same thing - she doesn’t want to feel anything too deeply because she’s traumatized from Kanae’s death. she doesn’t want to love anyone else in a way that makes them more important than anything else (though, yes, we have to also acknowledge her love for Kanao here, but i imagine that's it for her - no more), so that she can’t experience loss again. she’s scared; she protects herself by being self-sufficient and dedicating herself to her work.

she's also stubborn asf, and sincerely believes in herself and what she's capable of, and so "I don't know. I'll figure it out." is literally what she would respond to this challenge.

Shinobu: I don’t need you to take care of me. I take care of myself. That’s what I do.

^ destroying me because this is exactly what Shinobu does. this is her MO; her armor.

Shinobu: Why don’t you go find some other girl who’s not gonna hurt you?

Giyuu: Because I love you.

^ help. why are they like this. it’s because Giyuu’s so alone, but when he feels, he feels deeply (seen even in his initially inexplicable sentimentality for Tanjirou & Nezuko from the beginning, all the way to when we finally hear his backstory with Sabito). he’s smart and intuitive, he can see right through Shinobu - right through everything she does to protect herself. he also doesn’t give up on people he cares about, and his sad boi meter is off the charts - he probably thinks he deserves rejection. plus we have Shinobu pushing everyone away so hard because she can’t handle it.

also going off the HC here that they’re casually hooking up throughout this: oh boy is this a mess of confusing emotions for both of them, both struggling to keep it bottled up, and Giyuu is clearly the weaker link. he just would be. he’s too sensitive.

Giyuu: It’s obvious, I completely love you - there. You’re such a wimp.

Shinobu: I am not!

Giyuu: Well then be with me.

^ why is this dialogue like, canon. it’s their personalities to a T - the way they push at each other in a way of making fun of each other; the way Giyuu is honest despite his problems with feelings; the way strong, independent Shinobu would be so offended at him calling her a wimp (which he totally would fucking say) - calling her out on how she blocks out feelings for others to stay focused on her mission so she can protect them, but so she also can’t get heartbroken, because she can’t go through that again.

*cough*

anyway. there’s my roughly 1k word count essay on how i envision a romantic giyushino dynamic. i’ll be trying to work this into my modern AU - but considering Giyuu and Shinobu are secondary characters, i don’t know how much i can explore this; still, i don’t have the full fic planned out, so nothing’s off the table.

but seriously, this shit hits me in my gut so hard i could probably write an entire fic about them just on this premise lol.

anyway, yeah. woke up at 7:30, made a cup of coffee, sat down on the computer and just wrote this essay out of nowhere in an hour because suddenly giyushino is also ruining my life.

#giyushino #shinobu x giyuu #giyuu x shinobu #giyuu tomioka #shinobu kocho #tomioka giyuu #kochou shinobu #kny meta #kny #demon slayer #kny headcanons #character analysis #headcanon #kny au #why did i wake up and the first thing i needed to do was write this essay #for a ship i really like but isn't an otp #i eat sleep and breathe demon slayer #all i can do is think about these characters #my writing #writing inspo #my fanfic #ao3 writer #ficlife

[shoezuki]

Shoe im too sleep deprived to go zooming on all those screenshots and redownloadong the bird app, may i ask what is happening w the dream drama u posted? I love ur summaries, they make me laugh about things i am gratefully unaware of

My beloved anon im sorry it took me this long. But i am lazy. No other reason really. So i am now chronicling this dhit on my phone. And oh fuck dude is it a trip

SO. this fuckery began with quackity announcing the QSMP. He did so on the 17th of march and whatever the fuck. He mentioned it earlier than this (edit: just checked but the First announcements was the 10th)

And this is all great. New server that fucks. But what truly started all this. Was dream's tweet on his private twitter.

Im gonna try to be kinda impartial qnd jus. Explain it all as is but first i gotta say who says this shit lmao. So quackity announces his new project and is very passionate about it, he tweets more on his alt(?) About how much it means to him to bring his two languages spanish and english together. And dream on private is like 'wow cool! Guys dont get mad at me when i announce the same thing later tho haha' its just so weird.

But anyways. The usmp wasnt even A Thing. Only written instance of dream makin a multilingual server was in a tweet defending himself from copying quackity. (Altho he allegedly mentions in streams or whatever wanting yo do things w other ppl from other languages? But that shit dont count n im not diggin audio n videos out fuck that).

The actual, official announcement of dream makin a usmp was april 2nd (idk why this says the 3rd but whatever) wherein he announces the 'first multilingual smp' with a list of languages that will be on it such as portugese, spanish, english, russian, etc. And that it has live translation.

The same day, quackity releases a tweet labelling the qsmp as the 'first multilingual smp' and that he is introducing a live translation system to it. Mr beast connects that the usmp and qsmp are similar to which dream responds. Quackity doesnt respond, nor does he acknowledge the usmp at all.

Dream's response is essentially theyre different in that qsmp is spanish and english, he announced his live translator first, they had 'similar good ideas'.

So. This sparked a lot of drama and discussion. Because of the 'first multilingual' bit in that people began discrediting qsmp as it was 'only' english and spanish, and therefore was bilingual and not multilingual. Altho others countered thid by saying quackity himself called it a multilingual server in his streams. Not to mention the idea that the translator was copied but regardless both those things are kinda stupid arguments and just drama inspired by the comparisons.

More notably is that dream team were making fun of the 'first multilingual server' bit after this. Dream was liking some jokes at it as well

Dream also liked some. Vaguely sexual/romantic 'they should just kiss already' art of him and quackity?

Also after this dream started somewhat addressing/replying to quackity more. Quackity didnt respond to any of it.

Dream also tweeted this on his private the day after

Most narrowed in on the 'this wouldnt have happened without quackity' and was often interpretted as dream saying quackity HELPED him w it in some way or that there was more collab behind the scenes but we will find that to be false. Because. On april 27th. Dream dropped his magnum opus. Which i will include in one screenshot.

Anyways i seriously encourage reading the full thing here because its. Something. Theres so much. It is literally 1.7k words. A lot of it is repetitive but i will. Try. To summarize it.

Essentially dream is writing that he has been trying to contact quackity for some time now with no response. He has been messaging him about how theyve ended up with similar servers (therefore noting that neither one know of the other). This gets nothing. Dream tries contacting quackity more publically with jokes. Nothing. He starts going through secondary sources by talkin to ppl to message quackity for him (i think some people who dream knows that are on the qsmp. Unsure who) but quackity doesnt say shit. Dream is being absolutely ghosted.

Im also noting this last paragraph in his first tweet where he describes being 'taken back' when quackity announces the qsmp live translator after his usmp announcement, because he 'knew it would cause more drama'.

He says he messages quackity so they can plan how to deal with the 'vitriol' between the teo 'communities' and that the drama can be solved with 'communication'. He is ghosted. He also mentions that he puts the usmp 'on hold' in the 2nd tweet so it all can be dealt with and he can 'extend love and support to quackity'. Most notably he says that its alluded that quackity wouldnt let ppl who were on the usmp couldnt be on the qsmp which dream tries to say makes sense for quackity to do.

Theres apparently a fucking image limit on the tumblr app which ive hit so i am now not using images and speedrunning this shit. But im quoting this one thing exactly as its most important:

"That being said, I’ve seen the communities split against each other and have tons of hate build around this and around the speculations of peoples motives and friendships and so on, and it’s really really harmful to the community as a whole. I have seen more threats, doxing, fights, slander, and hate between a bunch of fan bases that I’ve seen in a very long time. I personally have experienced an elevated level of in real life threats & stalkers & even had the police involved in somebody showing up at my house, & even putting trackers on my family vehicles, surrounding this drama, for the first time since pre-face reveal. That’s really why I feel like I have to say something about it despite me wanting to avoid any kind of serious talk about all of this, especially even talking about communication publicly feels wrong but necessary in this instance. I never like to air out anything that feels or is private, but I feel like in this case it’s really important for my fan base to be aware of my intentions, motives, thought process, and how we got to where we are. I’ve always been a creator that’s very open with my fan base about everything going on in my life and this is a massive thing right now for my friends & me"

His last tweet begins with him saying he 'doesnt want anymore drama' and ends eith him saying he loves quackity and believes this is all just a miscommunication.

Now, obviously, shit blew up. Hes been ratiod a few times by people meming it. Ive seen many people on quackity's 'side' saying that the usmp doesnt even exist yet, dream is the one causing drama, etc. And people on dream's 'side' saying quackity is being horrible and needs address this because its caused dream to be in danger. Most importantly. Quackity didnt address it at all.

But then quackity announced he was going live in an hour. And a lot assumed hed say something. But he didnt. His stream was roughly 15 minutes long and it was entirely quackity announcing that he was introducing brazilian/portugese speaking streamers onto the qsmp.

Anyways. Theres a lot of details but my hand hurts now. A big thing is whether qsmp or usmp was 'first'. Imo theres a lot more pointing towards quackity having had this is store for a longass time, as he had been hinting and a project of his for months and more notably the qsmp is so organized and put together i doubt he couldve had it finished up 'after' dream as dream's nonexistent server was an idea he got after that squidcraft thing in early March i think?

More recently (i think today) i saw that quackity apparently took two emojis off his twitch that were dream roblox characters and i saw people freaking out in r/dwt2 about how quackity could be so petty? But ya. My condolences if youve read all this.

#fuck everyone this aint going under a readmore SUFFER. #anyways. opinion of the author: dream is fucked up hoohmygod. #dream #dream hate #dream neg #discourse #anon

[monstrousproductions]

I would listen to a audio drama about "your boy jonah" but also, tell me about your boy! Here is a free space to ramble. Please info-dump.

Free space to ramble?! Don't mind if I do!

So, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the story of Jonah, it begins with Jonah minding his business and suddenly being called upon by God to go to Ninevah [the capital city of the Assyrian empire] to call them out for their sins. Instead, Jonah seals his place in my heart by running away from God.

I just find it so immediately endearing that his reaction to being given a divinely ordained job to do is to absolutely nope the fuck out and run for the hills. It's not just hilarious, but it also feels so honest? Like yeah sometimes we know rightly what we're supposed to do, either because of the leading of the spirit or because of our own morals, and sometimes it's fucking terrifying!!

So he runs away, he gets on a boat to sail off to Far Off Lands (poss. southern Turkey) and obviously... God knows. Because it's God. You can't just duck behind a tree and suddenly God forgets you're there lol And God is big mad and sends a storm that threatens to break the ship into matchsticks. The sailors are terrified - I imagine them as these hardened sea-faring men who are used to all sorts of things, and this storm is so fierce they're absolutely terrified.

And Jonah... is fast asleep. Conked the fuck out on one of the lower decks, like he isn't moments from being smithereened. Running away from God is a tiring business, I guess! Also, as a chronic procastinapper, I can't help feeling like he just felt like he had too much on his plate and decided napping is way less scary that That Whole Mess.

So the captain drags him up and demands that he pray to his god because clearly the gods of the sailors are not paying attention lol But they also want to know where the storm came from and why, so they draw lots to see who's to blame? And of course Jonah draws the short straw.

And then this bit I imagine Jonah being super sheepish about OK. Because in this era and place, it was quite normal to accept that other people's gods were real and powerful, but they just weren't your gods. But different gods have different areas of power, so the sailors ask Jonah who his god is. And very grudgingly, Jonah admits that ummm yeah ok so actually his god is... the one who created the sea and the land.

And I imagine there's this moment of absolute silence as these sailors take in the fact that this guy has pissed his god off and who's his god again? Oh yeah, only the one who MADE THE OCEAN which is currently trying to KILL THEM.

"So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea."

But Jonah doesn't drown! God sends a fish to swallow him up, and he sits in the fish for three days and prays while he's in there, because actually all things considered it was pretty neat of God to send a fish to swallow him instead of letting him drown and he's like "I think maybe I have got close enough to death and I would like to stop having an adventure now and go back to being all the way alive."

Which is very cool having his time in the fish being this sort of pseudo-death? Like he was getting a little taste of it. And he even talks about it as being in Sheol, and being out of sight of God and longing to be alive and back where God can see him.

So God tells the fish to vomit him up and tells Jonah again to go to Ninevah, which this time he does! It's a huge city, it takes three days to walk across it, but Jonah made a promise and he sticks to it. He walks and talks and the city repents and God relents from whatever punishment he was going to send.

Which, in a turn that never fails to touch my heart, makes Jonah... absolutely fucking livid. He is so mad about this decision. He's like, "I fucking knew it!! I knew you weren't going to smite these fuckers!" and God is like ??? excuuuuse me ???

And Jonah - I love him so much - he storms off, he stomps out of Ninevah and builds himself a little hu and he sits in his hut and he stares at the city, wishing hellfire and damnation on everyone in it, and sulking like nobody on earth. He is raging and I love it.

But it's the fucking Assyrian desert, it's hot as balls and even in his wee hut, Jonah's got the sun beating down on him. And God makes this plant grow next to him for shade, which Jonah is pretty pleased about - until the next morning, God sends a worm that attacks the plant and kills it. And also throws in some scorching winds and fiery sun for good measure.

And Jonah's lying there about to pass out and he's like, "I would literally rather be fucking dead" and then we get my favourite exchange in the whole Bible:

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

I just love it!! He's having none of it! He is furious and he is feeling more righteous and miserable than any angsty teenager ever could and he's telling God straight out, "You have pissed me off like nobody has ever pissed anyone off before" and I love him so much!!

And God points out that he's that angry about the plant dying, which he didn't even grow or tend to, but somehow it's not fair for God to not be particularly keen on destroying an entire megatropolis full of people and animals who by the way God is responsible for and cares for? Double standards much? And the book ends! It's made its point and off it fucks.

Also there's a bit at the end there where it describes the thousands and thousands of people in Ninevah as "not knowing which is their left hand and which is their right" which I assume is a metaphor for not knowing right from wrong but which I also just love as such a read. Like, "Really? You expect me not to look after these people? Look at them. They're morons, Jonah. They're the kind of morons who would think, oh, I don't know, that they could hide from God in a boat."

I just love how angry Jonah is, and how afraid, and how human! And I love that he has this sassy back and forth with God and that he gets angry at God and argues and has to get put in a fish for a time out. It feels like such a close, bickering sort of relationship and I think the world would be a better place if more people felt like they could look God in the eye and say, "YES! I AM ANGRY!! I AM SO ANGRY I COULD DIE!!!"

#monstrous askbox #come for the podcasts stay for the biblical exegesis #you dont get THAT on the magnus archives

[chemicallywrit]

I’m terribly inconsistent with audio drama sunday but there are so many stand-out eps this week that i HAVE to

@eelerschoice holy HECK, what a fantastic move with a blind protagonist, taking it as an opportunity to describe the world. Malevolent does it, but i think i like the way eeler’s choice does it better. Wonderful.

My beloved Steeplechase ended this week, and what a good ending. Endings are hard, and I know Justin wasn’t super thrilled about DMing, but he did such a fantastic job. I love these old man criminals so much. If you’re looking for Balance from the adventure zone, i’m not sure that’ll ever be recaptured, but if you want a good story, please listen to Steeplechase.

I am OBSESSED with the @kingmakerpod’s synechdekey (sp? i know it’s a synecdoche reference). What a fantastic plot device. This week’s ep was, as always, lovely and hilarious.

Forgive Me! was incredible. Yeah Father Ben, you punch out that scumbag misogynist. I’m so…proud of him? Yeah, proud of him.

I have a weird relationship with Leaving Corvat, because I like it, but it’s really clear to me that it’s American horror written by a European. It maybe actually adds to the horror, because everything feels very slightly…off? You know? However, this week’s episode had me feeling for Sleeper like I never have before, like he actually wants to be a good person, and suddenly I’m much more invested in his double who is married and expecting a kid. It took a very cool turn.

I’ve been catching up with four podcasts at once, as is my wont, and I just finished up Madame Magenta: Sonos Mystica. I. Love her. She’s so good. I can’t wait to start Madame Magenta Presents.

I’ve also been listening through Fall of the House of Sunshine, and if you told me which characters would survive to season three, I don’t think i would have believed you. A dozen of the songs of this show are ending up on my spotify playlists. They’re just so. So! You know? I’m on 3.8 and I’m wondering when the next cringy gross song will happen. We’ve had too many heartfelt ones lately. This is the one i keep thinking about this week:

I also just started Gastronaut! And i didn’t know what I was expecting, but I think I’m in love? More on that another day, I expect.

For personal news, I am hype for the last few weeks of Re: Dracula, especially with the miniseries we’re planning soon. We’re halfway through recording season five of Inn Between, with recording on hold for a bit while I sort job stuff. Gotta make sure you can pay people. I’m also HYPE OUT OF MY MIND for the premier of The Dead, a zombie project I’ve been working on with Bloody FM that premiers on Halloween. Keep an eye out, i’m going to show it off all over.

Speaking of job stuff, I’m currently trying to make rent before i get my first paycheck from my new job! If you liked this or like the other things I do, i’d really appreciate a stop by my ko-fi. Get a sticker while you’re there!

Until next week!

#audio drama sunday #freaking podcasts #audio drama #audio fiction #fiction podcast #Spotify

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 8th October ✨

Happy Audio Drama Sunday! I feel like we’re really in spooky season this week with all the horrors on offer from the audio drama community!!

Big old spoilers below!

🌲 @hellofromthehallowoods (136) I looove when stories show escalating tension at the heart of the story through environmental change elsewhere!! And neither Danielle nor Clem knowing if the shaking was normal hurt my heart a little. They’re babies, your honour! I can’t wait for Danielle and Nikignik to chat again 🤞

HFTH does action SO well and the scene with Mort, Creep and Cindy was just masterful. I was cycling in to work but mentally I was right there. I really hope that Cindy’s plan works - I’ll not get into the ethics of utilitarianism here, but I’ll be so sad if her death isn’t ‘worth it’.

But HELL YEAH, let’s get Ralph back! Time to be useful, my man! Don’t fuck it up!

It’s safe to say that I didn’t have ‘Grug saving Diggory from the Phantom Radio Station’ on my end of S3 bingo. It is very interesting to me that they think their purpose is to die. I think it’s actually vital that the grave digger isn’t dead, but maybe that’s just me?

This final arc is such a white knuckle ride!! I can’t wait to see what happens next!

🦀 @thesiltverses (33) We’re all in agreement that Val is absolutely terrifying, right? Right. Good. We’ve heard the noose tighten a little around Faulkner’s throat, but will he be a different man now that he knows Carpenter is alive? I’m so excited to hear this plan fail.

👁️ @malevolentcast (36) The John memory scenes are done SO well because I literally cannot tell if he is lying or not. I usually want to have the upper hand as the listener and it’s so difficult to not know!! I *think* I’m glad that Arthur is trying to make friends but I did immediately assume that Oscar had run off with that book. Maybe this show has given me trust issues…

🌒 @monkeymanproductions Moonbase Theta, Out (Epilogue) SUCH A GOOD AND PERFECT ENDING. Oh MAN. There was so much to unpack here, but everyone seems content with their choices which makes my heart happy and THEY BROUGHT THE GIRLS TO THE MOON 😭😭😭😭😭 thank you, Deej, that is the best thing that could have happened.

🧛‍♂️ @re-dracula I’ve been trying and failing to catch up with the action this week but the early eps have made me feel very strongly that: WE MUST TALK TO EACH OTHER. Evil wins when good people stop communicating. Talk to your loved ones, reach out to people to might be struggling. No issue is too small for the people who love you. Aaand don’t be sexist lol. That is my Dracula related PSA. Thanks for listening!

🥾 @doyoucopypod (12) Do You Copy really do be about grief!! Poor Reese! But it is good to know that they were both rescued! I really can’t wait to get the final pieces of this puzzle and see how it all fits together!

⚓️ What a delight to catch the first episode of @eelerschoice! I knew this show would be right up my street and the first episode did not disappoint! Also, what a CAST! Very much looking forward to hearing more familiar voices!!

Have a good weekend everyone! 🥰 and if you’re the wishing/praying kind, please do shoot off a few desperate ones for amc’s laptop. my wife spilled water on it last night and we’re too scared to turn it on 🥲

#I hope i can get it fixed and please please save the files that we’re on there #Vesta S2 is THANKFULLY on gdrive #and I have an old back up if S1 on a hard drive #but I’ve been doing a lot since then #all the new music and the new plugins #let’s not think about it too hard until we know if it’s actually broken #eeek #anyway #audio drama sunday #audiodramasunday #hfth spoilers #malevolent spoilers #tsv spoilers #re dracula #do you copy #moonbase theta out #eeler's choice

[wgc-productions]

I don't know if you listen to @meteorcitypod but if you don't you should. The premise is that local ball of tension, Bianca Diaz, returns to her hometown, Detroit, which was the site of a massive meteor strike a decade ago.

Premise:

The city is pretty bombed out, and Old Detroit (or Meteor City) is experiencing a wave of gentrification as an organization named New Detroit Financial buys property and turns it into nice shiny buildings that people want.

Characters

Bianca Diaz: Oh, Bianca. What can I say?? She is always going through it which sucks for her but is great for me as a listener. I'm in Season 2 now which, woof. When I say she is going through a lot I mean it. But the writing makes it so it never feels like dreary or overwhelming. Also, Bianca has that tenacity that I love in my protagonists. She believes in Truth and Justice and she will fight tooth and nail to make sure that those values get to continue in the world. She sees the value that Old Detroit has and she wants to fight for that world and for the rights of the people who were left behind after the meteor hit. She's wants to be a hero so bad, and I want that for her too. Also, terrible taste in romantic partners. Hate that for her.

Wes: Tall, Dark, and Emotionally Unavailable, Wes is our male lead. He was the best friend of Malcolm, Bianca's brother who died in the meteor shower, and he also had a crush on Bianca when they were kids. Boy oh boy, did that crush only grow! Trust and believe, Wes is not going to let his wife keep him from the love of his life. I'm being unfair to him, and their attachment can be very endearing, I just don't like that he keeps so many IMPORTANT secrets. I mean, you fake your death for 10 years, that's a lot to work past romantically, but the heart wants what it wants. If I wasn't such a Bianca-stan I'd like him more.

D: As of episode 7 of season 2 D has done no wrong in my eyes. At the very least she has done no worse than anybody else. She is a comforting presence who is has a diner that is one of the last remnants of Old Detroit and she is sort of a representation to Bianca of everything good about Meteor City. Serves a great role to the plot. Very useful.

There are a lot more characters but because the show has a mystery going on I don't want to give too much away. For example, there's a person stalking Bianca in the first couple of episodes that is pretty important. There's some more characters further in that are signification but explaining why would muddle the experience. You know how it goes.

Special Notes:

Each episode there are these songs interspersed and those are actual songs but indie artists which I think is the coolest thing! I think incorporating these experiences adds a certain aesthetic to the show that make it distinct from lots of the other "creepy sci-fi" audio dramas that are around.

#audio fiction #audio drama #fiction podcast #podcast recommendations #meteor city #meteor city podcast #Spotify

[seventeenlovesthree]

My wishes for future portrayals of the Adventure cast

Since 2023 is coming to an end - and since my Twitter timeline is full of bits about the final Sailor Moon Cosmos movie -, I thought it was time for one final analysis post. Initially, it felt a bit like a "moping post", complaining about how the Adventure writers have written themselves into a corner with a lot of the characters - however, I felt like reframing these and finding a more positive outlook. For 2024, the 25th anniversary of the Digimon anime, and beyond that.

For the sake of this analysis post I will parallel the 12 characters with one another, thus talking about 6 pairs - either because they are facing similar issues or because they are on different ends of the potential spectrum.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD! (I will try to keep it as spoiler free for The Beginning as possible though!)

Taichi & Daisuke

Let's start with our goggle boys first, because they were the reason why I came up with this post in the first place. I had already paralleled them before, but what I haven't talked about yet is that they both represent certain aspects of the "main character syndrome" to me - aspects that can ALSO be found in Usagi Tsukino, and the final arc, Stars, in particular. All these three go through different types of hardships the plot throws at them; those familiar with my analysis posts know how much I consider Tri, the stageplay and Kizuna to be "Taichi suffer porn" and the Stars arc pretty much does the same with Usagi. It's one of the reasons why I have such a love-hate-relationship with these portrayals, because as much as I know how important they are for character growth, I also need there to be a catharsis. And in Taichi's case, I still feel like we haven't gotten there yet. Sure, it's implied that he's on his way to pull himself out of stagnation, accepting Digimon and the Digital World as a part of himself that will never vanish, etc. But on a very petty note, I still wish the writers could have invested more time into paralleling Daisuke and Taichi to one another, instead of just hinting at things. Because Daisuke, as much as he had to face dreadful moments and had to make tough decisions himself, never had to go through the same experiences of loss and grief as Taichi did. In a way, Daisuke is more the portrayal of "hope" in Usagi than Taichi is; Daisuke is usually a catalysator for other characters, he elevates and inspires others in more simple, but still very effective ways. In the DigiFes audio drama, we hear Daisuke say that he hasn't forgotten what happened to Taichi, that he wants to find a way to undo what happened and bring the Digimon back. It's hopeful, it's idealistic, it's Daisuke's good heart that reaches people. Unfortunately, we are not really seeing his own self-esteem struggles outside of audio dramas...

So what would I like to see for them in the future?

Taichi is giving other people hope too, but it's more because they naturally rely on him to be like that. What I need to happen for him is to see the spirit from the last few seconds of Kizuna, running through cherry blossoms with confidence and determination, and completely commit to that. I value Digimon for its realistic portrayal of human struggles and relationships, but with Taichi, they haven't found a good middle ground yet. The reboot absolutely was an attempt to maintain his main character status and popularity without the suffering - but in the process they stripped 90% of what makes his character interesting away from him and that made people more annoyed by his bland, perfectly positive attitude than anything else. I want him to embrace his struggles and see him find his own personal middle ground. Reconnecting with his family, part of the friend group, making difficult phone calls, actually figuring out a way to bring everyone together like they used to - up to a point where he can actually smile to himself again, as tough as early diplomat life can be, until we see him reunite with Agumon. I don't want everything to be perfect, I mean, heck, Taichi Yagami isn't even a canonically people-y person, he just likes to spend his time with weirdos he loves! But I want to see him get back on track. Give me a 15-30 minute short of that and I'll be happy.

As for Daisuke - I think the first audio drama for The Beginning was the perfect set-up for a mini-series dealing with "Daisuke Motomiya's struggles to set up his ramen cart career". Gimme 12 episodes of him facing different obstacles, whether they're physical or personal, that ACTUALLY highlight his qualities and developments in deeper ways, showing him to be vulnerable in front of someone.

Yamato & Ken

This may sound like a very obvious observation, but it's really interesting to me how similar the roles they have been fulfilling are in the context of being foils to the goggle boys. In fact, it's not even like they're impulse controls for Taichi and Daisuke respectively - but that they do exactly that FOR each other. Unfortunately, that makes it difficult for them to exist outside of this context - for example, I think The Beginning (and the third drama in particular) really WANTED Ken to be an integral part of the development, but couldn't really achieve that, even though there were SO MANY potential parallels to Rui. Any other than that, we don't really know what's going on with Ken - what HAS BEEN going on with him since 02 has ended. We know he is popular at uni, he's still a smart bean, in touch with the 02 group - but that's it.

The OG timeline still gave Yamato individual moments in Tri and Kizuna, but it didn't really allow him to bloom further yet - he couldn't really break out of his shell in the same vain as 02 already implied. Again, it's not necessary to give him a perfect happy end where his parents reunite and he'd be perfectly capable of making connections left and right - that wouldn't be realistic. And at least we got glimpses as to why he might get into space, which was nice. On the other hand, you could tell that they didn't really know what to do with him in the reboot aside from forcing him to be "the second strongest character in terms of combat" again for marketing reasons.

(And another thing that's similar to both of them and yet totally different - is the way their romantic lives are framed. And no, for once I don't mean that they're both hopelessly in love with their respective goggle boys, even though that is technically part of it too... Both their supposed future spouses are the ones who canonically make the first step towards vaguely romantic gestures - but we only see one of these interactions framed in a rather romantic light ever since 02 ended, whereas the other has been weirdly brushed under the rug ever since.)

So what would I like to see for them in the future?

Similarly to how I wanted a short showing Taichi's more human side again, I want something like that for each Ken and Yamato too. To see how their daily lives go. Show me Ken and Wormmon fighting crime and Yamato being confronted with WHY exactly there is a threat coming from space, which is WHY he chooses to go in that direction in the first place (even though he totally could have chosen to become a policeman just like Ken too, Tri and Kizuna made very valid points to him LOVING to investigate after all!!!). And I want the writers to COMMIT to show how they're able to form and maintain relationships, because really - we know they are both popular with the crowds, but struggle A LOT with that. ESPECIALLY in the romance department. I know and understand why they WOULDN'T do that considering the fandom backlashes in the past, but... It's been 25 years. That bandaid should have been ripped off a long time ago. Show us why it works - or why it doesn't.

Mimi & Miyako

Mimi and Miyako are loud, proud - and have become quite the fandom favourites throughout the years. Part of that may come from their more "international framing", colourful wardrobes and overall spunkiness within their respective friend groups. The most outstanding part about them is - they aren't plot drivers, but they're perfectly capable of pushing important moments due to them being able to give their emotions a voice and that's what makes them so vital. (What I personally found interesting - even though the fandom me included loves to frame them both as bi-sexual queens, only Miyako is implied to pursue romance, whereas Mimi's actions and love language portrayals can be seen as coming rather from a place of platonic affection.)

So what would I like to see for them in the future?

In my opinion, the writers really have been trying to make these two shine on their own for a while now and there isn't much I'd personally want to change about that. However, giving them mini-series about their careers, showing how they keep changing direction and discovering more things about themselves in the process could be pretty great though. I still want to see someone consistently designing amazing outfits for them (*cough* Sora *cough*), so they could show those off in every episode.

Koushirou & Jyou

I'm gonna say it now - the biggest problem these two have is the fact that they have been among the most consistently well-written characters through the course of Adventure AND 02 (and the stageplay), maybe only rivaled by Ken. Basically, they had already come to their own conclusions by the end of the first and second season respectively - and even if, of course, there were still things that could have enriched their stories, we knew where we were headed with them. They still had their flaws, but they were both continuously growing - even if it was just implied. And thus, ever since Tri, there have been only a few breadcrumbs (such as showing us Koushirou having a close bond to his parents by valuing their anniversary and Jyou showing Gomamon that he's not afraid of blood anymore and thus ready to move forward). Nevertheless, it took a few unfortunate "resets" of their characters for the writers to even have interesting things to say about them - including very questionable romance-leaning subplots that involved an invisible girlfriend nobody believed in and a superficial crush that didn't lead to anything.

Now we're at a point where their characters are basically narrowed down to "Guy who solves all problems and if he's not there, who else should know what's going on anymore, haha" and "Guy who is never around and always busy anyway, haha". The Beginning and the dramas literally made fun of it like that in the same way.

So what would I like to see for them in the future?

Without going too much into detail about this topic again, I really want there to be a short/mini movie dealing with Koushirou's personal life. My boy has been nothing but "work and plot and a lack of sleep and probably being this close to burn-out" for the past few movies (technically since DSB) and I want to see how his individual bonds to the characters have developed. Give me his struggles with interpersonal relationships, show me his setbacks in that regard, show me how he expresses his love languages in meaningful ways - and let the others show him that he is loved for who he is, not for the problems he solves. GIVE ME EMOTIONS.

Similar things can of course also be said about Jyou - give me a situation in which he comes first, in which he is the one who sets things in motion and saves the day for once. Because he WANTS to be around - Hikari's guilty tone in the drama wouldn't have come out of nowhere!!! On the other hand - give him his own mini-series, please, show me the adventures of Doc Kidou saving lives, getting accustomed to his work in the Digital World. Give him something good, he deserves it!

Takeru & Hikari

Most of it has already been said in here - but these two are basically glued together by the hip since forever and still haven't progressed much as characters ever since the end of 02. They're usually more fuel for other characters' development and there's less focus on themselves - The Beginning and the dramas at least imply they are on their way to be fine (aside from Takeru being implied to be a lightweight), but it would still be nice to see that a little more in-depth.

So what would I like to see for them in the future?

Actually, the second drama has already been a nice set-up - let there be a mini-series of these two telling stories about the adventures of the group, either leaving open whether those actually happened or had just been fiction! On the other hand, it actually would be nice to have a movie from their perspective on everything for once. Personally, I do not need any romantic framing, but just watching what may have happened ever since from their perspectives, their thoughts and feelings, would be incredibly satisfying.

Sora & Iori

Oh boy. I guess it's appropriate to call them "the forgotten ones" at this point. Because the writers aren't even particularly subtle about the way they have basically no idea what to do with them. (And even if either of them has very passionate singular fans, they still seem to be the least popular Chosen Children overall.) Even though both of them could have the most interesting developments if they were allowed to be portrayed properly, both of them have traditionally ALWAYS gotten the shortest end of the stick.

With Sora, this is particularly frustrating, because, just like with Taichi, we can TELL that this has not been the end of her story of self-discovery yet. No, we're still in the middle of it. But we're denied to actually see her development - and are just told that she, up to the point we have been able to watch, chose the same path as Jyou, to follow "family customs/wants". But unlike Jyou - who actually TOLD her that she has to do something because she WANTS it when they were KIDS - was never 100% committed to or happy with that. Which, again, is not satisfying to watch, because her path had always been about discovering what her PERSONAL path was. It's still a crime that To Sora wasn't part of Kizuna itself, because there are still a lot of people who don't even understand WHY she chose to stay away and thus see it as her abandoning the others... (Plus, it doesn't help that they basically left her out of the movie, because they didn't want to reduce her to being a love interest AGAIN - especially because, as mentioned, the writers were very careful when talking about those ships in general -, but apparently didn't know what else to do with her...)

With Iori, it's so hard to pinpoint, because, just like with Ken, we basically know nothing about him and what has happened ever since the end of 02. They couldn't even make an "utility character" out of him like Koushirou, because that is already Miyako's part - however, they at least managed to make him look just as overworked and close to burn-out as his dads Koushiroud and Jyou, so...

So what would I like to see for them in the future?

This may sound silly, but I want Sora to go on vacation. Let her go on a scavenger hunt to figure out what exactly she wants. Let her reconnect with the others, step by step - at least those she still feels close with, I don't want 11 reconciliation stories, but there are at least a few people that could seriously help INSPIRE her to get better again, to have an actual, genuine talk with her mother. Heck, let her mother tell her that she never wanted her to diminish herself! I want a Sora movie. Her being the key to solving an issue the gang faces, even if Piyomon isn't back - yet. Or a story of them having freshly reunited and Sora deciding to show her love to the others in individual ways.

With Iori, I want a special about him reconnecting with his dad's past, doing research, finding out his own path as well. Maybe talking to various characters (ESPECIALLY KEN AND TAKERU) in depth about feelings, demanding ACTUAL answers for once. Basically, sending him on a similar self-discovery journey as Sora would be beautiful. Just - putting emphasis on him growing up, being a vital part of the group as an individual, showing him be actually close to people and not just a third wheel.

#personal #my two cents #meta #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #character analysis #happy new year 2024

[revoleotion]

Secret Santa: dishes

@mahi-does-some-art

Puff!! Remember when you said you my secret santa match was very lucky? Yeah. I had to step away from my PC to laugh for a bit. 

This year I ventured out into the world of writing scripts/audio drama-esque texts, and it was a lot of fun to do this with this gang. Imagine this to be a vaguely canon divergence AU where Kuro and Sloth are both a part of one another but also Sloth is the weird twin.

I hope you enjoy!! Merry Christmas (Eve)! 

.

The date: Christmas Eve

The cast: Mahiru, Sakuya, Kuro, Sloth

The problem at hand: dishes 

.

[interior: the Shirota residence. The small apartment is decorated with what its inhabitant perceived to be christmas-themed; there's a little more than a healthy amount of red, gold and green.]

[An old radio by the living room door is playing what seems to be a loop of Christmas songs. It has almost reached a number of repetitions that would instill bloodlust even within the calmest person on earth. Unfortunately, neither of the beings inside this room have a lot of self-control.]

[SAKUYA and KURO are sitting on the floor, next to a small Christmas tree with presents piled up next to it. SLOTH is lounging in front of the TV, staring at the blank screen like it is showing something interesting.]

[there are noises from the kitchen, the clink of dishes in the sink, running water.]

Sakuya: This sucks. 

Kuro: Feel free to offer your help. 

Sakuya: Do I look like…?

Kuro: Yeah. 

Sakuya: (sitting up) Wait, what exactly makes you think I'd walk in there and offer to do the dishes? 

Kuro: Your–

Sloth: (simultaneously) Your crush on him. 

Kuro: What it said. 

Sloth: (turns back to the TV with a shrug) 

Sakuya: That's a little childish now, isn’t it? 

Kuro: No you are childish. In fact–

Sloth: You’re twice more childish than the rest of us. 

Sakuya: You two are five times more childish.

Sloth: Okay but you are infinity times more childish, so checkmate. 

[KURO extends a fist towards the television. SLOTH'S hand snatches out, hesitating, before giving him a fist bump. It looks like this behavior is a recent development.]

Sakuya: I should have accepted Tsubaki’s invitation. But I expect him to be drunk by now, and that’s when he starts telling everybody how much he loves his friends. 

Kuro: Oh god.

Sakuya: So perhaps this is better.

Kuro: Slightly. 

Sakuya: Yeah. 

[A beat.]

Sakuya: Why is he like this. 

Kuro: Tsubaki? I always expected it to be a healthy mix of trauma and mental illness. 

Sloth: That's what people say about you, too. 

Sakuya: Hah. 

Kuro: (shrugs, like this is not something he can or wants to deny)

Sakuya: I meant Shirota, though.

Kuro: Do you expect my answer to change here? 

Sakuya: I didn’t really expect an answer. I was just making conversation. 

Kuro: He likes to be useful. This is probably fun for him. 

Sakuya: Not for us. 

Kuro: It's not about us, though. 

Sakuya: Urgh. 

[A beat.]

Sloth: Does Tsubaki's party have a karaoke machine? 

Kuro: I didn’t think you out of all people would be in favor of abandoning Mahiru like this.

Sloth: Don't imply that I'm a person. That's disgusting. 

Kuro: My bad. 

Sloth: Besides, I wouldn't abandon him. I just want to steal the karaoke machine. Naturally. 

Kuro: Naturally. 

Sakuya: I hate to disappoint you all but there's no karaoke this year. They're doing a board game marathon because karaoke doesn't have enough human interaction, apparently. 

Kuro: So, that's why you're here?

Sakuya: (noncommittal shrug) 

[The sounds from the kitchen have stopped. There are steps in the hallway.]

[MAHIRU stops at the door, looking at the three others in his living room. He seems a little stressed but it’s not a bad look on him. Truly, it’s hard to imagine him in a state where he isn’t stressed at all.]

Mahiru: Does anyone want something to drink?

Kuro: We're good.

Sakuya: We know where you keep the liquor. 

Kuro: Exactly. 

Mahiru: Ah… that's great, then. 

[MAHIRU walks towards the table and starts tinkering with the remaining cups and mugs on it. The display is a leftover from both breakfast and the cake they had in the afternoon – a lot of “oh no, leave it, I will use it later” and then you catch yourself drinking from an unused cup once that ‘later’ arrives.]

[It happens within the blink of an eye. SLOTH'S face grows restless, dangerous. It sits up, eying MAHIRU with pure, unfiltered focus.]

Sloth: Sit down. Now. Or else I'll slit your throat. 

Kuro: Wow. 

Mahiru: (blinks) Sorry? 

Sakuya: Yeah, sorry about that. 

Kuro: (trying to look like he is somehow not related to SLOTH at all) It doesn't speak for all of us, by the way.  

Sakuya: I agree with the sentiment, though. What's so important in the kitchen?

Mahiru: The dishes?

Sakuya: Okay, and now you're done with them. 

Mahiru: I still have to prepare our desserts.  

Kuro: I thought you did that yesterday. 

Mahiru: It still needs a bit of work. 

[SAKUYA rolls his eyes. KURO slaps his arm.]

Mahiru: Is there a problem? Can't you get along for one afternoon? 

Sakuya: Hey. We're being civil here. 

Kuro: Fighting is too exhausting. I refuse to kick that guy’s ass in my free time, I’m already doing it during working hours. 

Sakuya: You don’t work. 

Kuro: Fighting you is a full-time job. 

Sloth: (continues staring at Mahiru like a sleep paralysis demon)

Mahiru: I don't see your problem. 

[MAHIRU grabs a few empty cups and starts walking towards the kitchen again]

Sakuya: He doesn't get it. 

Kuro: Nope. 

Sakuya: Why doesn't he get it? 

Kuro: Because you can’t just say things to him. You need to hit him with a steel chair. Metaphorically speaking.

Sakuya: Wow, good thing you clarified that. 

Kuro: You're welcome.

Sakuya: I don’t want to say anything until we're one hundred percent certain that this is not an elaborate display of kink. Do you think he will get out a maid costume next? 

Kuro: No, that's still wrapped and under the tree. Right next to you. 

Sakuya: Nice. 

Kuro: (shrugs)

Sakuya: Full offense but I want to celebrate Christmas with him, not… (gestures vaguely, before realizing he doesn’t care all that much about hurting KURO’S or SLOTH’S feelings) you. 

Kuro: You need to say that to his face.

Sakuya: Thanks, I would rather die. 

Kuro: Well, if you're lucky, your problem will solve itself in about five to ten seconds. 

Sakuya: How so?

Kuro: (pointing at the empty space in front of the television SLOTH was sitting just seconds ago) 

Sakuya: … It's not going to kill him, right. 

Kuro: No. 

Sakuya: Are you just saying that because you don't want to get up?

Kuro: Wouldn't you like to know.

[A beat.]

Kuro: It wouldn't hurt him. 

Sakuya: (rising to his feet, a little nervous) Are you sure?

Kuro: Yes. It's a part of me. And I would never let anything or anyone harm Mahiru. 

Sakuya: Hm. That’s the one thing we can agree on, isn’t it. 

Kuro: That and our mutual dislike for theater kids. Does that mean nothing to you?

Sakuya: (snorts with laughter, then tries his hardest to make it seem like KURO didn’t just make him laugh) Okay. 

[SLOTH always moves like it’s not human. And of course it isn’t, but the uncanny fills out every little movement, every inch of its body. KURO may pass for a human from time to time but SLOTH refuses that privilege. It drags MAHIRU inside, gripping his festive snowman pullover so tight that it threatens to rip it apart.]

Sloth: Open. Now. 

[MAHIRU is forcefully positioned next to KURO and SAKUYA. SLOTH grabs a present from the pile and puts it into his hands.]

[Despite its rough exterior, and the intense expression in its eyes, SLOTH’S behavior seems less aggressive and more assertive; this is the driving force in this group when it comes to enforcing self-care. It prefers trickery but just like KURO, it has come to terms with the simple truth that you have to push MAHIRU towards his own wellbeing, with the gentleness of a high-speed train.]

Mahiru: But the–

Sloth: We’re here to celebrate with you.

Sakuya: (nodding along, his face gentle) Do you really think any of us care about Christmas? You know how I steal the Jesus figures from nativity scenes that make the mistake of putting him up before the 24th?

Mahiru: No, and I think I preferred not knowing that. 

Sakuya: (shrugs in a way makes it clear that he is not very sorry about this) I declined an invitation for a board games marathon to spend this day with you. 

Mahiru: You love board games. 

Sakuya: I love you more. 

[a beat.]

[He’s never openly said it before, and was waiting for the perfect moment. Perhaps with flowers involved. An Orchestra. He’s pretty sure he imagined rain, too.]

Mahiru: (softly) I just wanted it to be perfect. Because it’s the first time you celebrate with us. I know how important Tsubaki is to you and… I didn’t want to make you pick sides because I’m not your divorced parent, actually. 

Sakuya: Calling you Daddy is off the table, then?

Mahiru: I didn’t say that– Listen, it’s supposed to be a perfect day. And I like doing housework, you guys know that. You’re not making me do anything I dislike at gunpoint. 

Kuro: Except opening presents. 

Mahiru: There was a switch-blade involved, yes. With a candy-cane pattern.  

Sloth: (looking pleased with itself) Festive. 

Kuro: I am supposed to be mad at you but you wanted to stab someone with that on Christmas, so I suppose you stayed true to your word. 

Mahiru: (with a long sigh) Let me open a present, if that makes you happy. 

[MAHIRU squeezes the gift SLOTH gave him. It’s soft, giving in to his touch, the wrapping paper crinkling a little. He suspects that it might be a Christmas sweater.]

[The present is also very maid-costume-sized but MAHIRU doesn’t make that connection yet.]

Mahiru: Okay. 

[he braces himself for it, like receiving an act of kindness is somehow something he needs to emotionally prepare himself for. After a few seconds, he slowly pulls away the wrapping paper. He has a habit of removing all bits of sticky tape first and attempting to leave the wrapping in one piece, but once he tears into it, his movements become at least a little bit less careful.]

Mahiru: That is… 

[MAHIRU pauses. His face is slightly redder than usual.]

Mahiru: (groans) Very funny. A maid dress. 

Kuro: You’re welcome. (pauses) Wait. That’s not my present. 

Sloth: No. 

Kuro: (tilting his head) Great minds think alike?

Mahiru: Just exactly how many maid dresses will I find in that pile, friends?

Kuro: Two. 

Sakuya: And counting. 

Kuro: Oh my god. 

Mahiru: I hate you guys. Worst Christmas ever. I’m going to the kitchen. 

[but he doesn’t move. He’s smiling. For once, he doesn’t look stressed at all.]

#servamp #servamp secret santa 2023

[thecontumacious]

heya!! do you not mind me requesting luxiem college au? like u're both in a healthy relationship idrk hhh

College AU Luxiem

a/n: i think anon sent this after reading my first yandere fic 😭 check out the original boyfriend headcanons if u haven't~ ALSO YES IM SLAPPING THIS FIC AT YALL AFTER JOTC'S PREMIERE IT WAS SO FUCKING LIT AHHHHHHHHHH

reminder that all my work and others in the fandom are purely fiction and intended to entertain, not to be projected irl.

content utc!

Vox Akuma 👹🌹

would take performing arts as his major since he's super interested in voice acting!

you'd think he would take history as an easy way out seeing as he's lived for centuries now but bro i can tell you that he probably sucks at it :'

i can't imagine him taking anything else than performing arts. even then he wouldn't just focus on voice acting only. he'd perfectly take a role in acting too

dancing and singing maybe not too much-

but vox would enjoy them nonetheless since it's all about having fun

he's the popular student, whether he intended to be one on purpose or because he's just naturally charming. not all the guys rly like him since he's practically had all the girls drooling all over him

even the female (sometimes male) professors can't find themselves in the right position to teach him

not with that devilish smile, nope

he aces his practical exams and projects super well, not so much his written tests tho :o

students would sometimes ask advice on voice acting since he was doing that pretty well

no shortage of times where they asked only to get in contact with him, his number if they were lucky

doesn't really do tutoring sessions since he believes he still has a lot to learn himself, asking for advice sure, but teaching? nah

the film/animation students fight over him whenever they're assigned to make a movie production

vox might actually be interested in joining the student council and it's no surprise he's accepted since he's very charming, has relatively good grades and is flexible in group projects

on a more serious note, he loves meeting new people and making new connections so yeah!

besides the student council, would also join the drama club and most likely met shu there

again, for connections and to practice his skills

there have been one too many times where he was casted as the main characters throughout the years he was at college

what can i say? he captures an audience so well~

part time job is obviously barista.

i think vox low key has always wanted to become a barista

to him there's just something so attractive about being one?? or is this just a stigma that i have

whatever, being a barista is cool as hell

oh and he loves the idea of putting down whatever message he wanted on the customers' cup, he could be sweet or flirty

he likes it because he has the chance to make someone's day by simply writing a message to them <3

the job pays well, he can experiment with types of drinks and when there are leftover pastries from the day, vox gets to bring them home to eat

vox is a interpersonal (social), aural (audio) and a visual learner. as mentioned before, he won't be too good at taking written tests so linguistic is out of the question (doesn't mean he dislikes reading tho! i've heard him say that he reads books)

i also don't think he's the biggest fan of studying alone either so he'll always rope in a classmate or two so it's not so quiet

vox remembers much easier when there's something to look at, like pictures or something

audio learner because he wants to be a voice actor duh

he would have to get used to listening to other actors do their work to pick up on how they act in terms of their voice

how you and vox met was through a cinematography project you had

you were required to make a film production with a certain theme and of course as the rumors spread, you heard about everyone in your year fighting over vox as their cast

you too wished you could cast him but seeing as he was probably busy helping the others, you didn't really bother to ask

but vox was working at the cafe your team agreed to work in and he overheard your wonderful ideas for your project, so when he personally delivered your drinks, he also asked if you were open for casting since you came from the same college anyway

surprised to say the least but you couldn't refuse him, so he officially became part of your team too

so that was how you met your current unseiso of a boyfriend they call vox

he asked you out once the project was finished, saying that he didn't wish to stop meeting you

cheesy but romantic all the same

the perks of having a boyfriend who was in the performing arts major rly helped you out as a film student. you got to meet a lot of talented actors and you could ask for vox's help

as long as you paid in kisses and cuddles

at the end of the four year study, vox was obviously asked to make a speech. when he stepped on that stage, he did not forget to mention you:

"and to my lovely y/n, who's given me a path to so many opportunities to help with my development as an actor. thank you, darling."

may or may not have proposed in front of everyone

Mysta Rias 🦊🔶

criminology

because he thinks it's super cool he could track down criminals with rly cool techniques

but then he realized how fucking hard it is to be a criminology student and wished he could've picked something easier :"D

(let's pretend he didn't drop out okay <3)

ofc college was not cheap so at least mysta tried his best to get through

asking for a ton of help from his classmates or straight up the professor

he sure as fuck did not take another four years of this shit

anyway

although mysta is not the best in the class (bottom ten), a lot of people like him for his humor and his rly eccentric attitude about things

his fashion sense became one his trademarks

a good break from the stress of college rly

but people rly do question why the heck he chose this major but eh

definitely the type to hog for homework answers

i actually think mysta would make a huge contribution tho despite his lack of skills in the department when it comes to group projects

what i mean here is that he's always hands down to help however he can, especially the more physical and tedious workload

like needing to print papers, looking for as much material needed for the project or setting up the contents into a powerpoint

i still think that counts as a lot of work <3

professors know him because he frequents them for tutoring sessions, so it's safe to say that mysta is super close with all his lecturers-

but that's not a bad thing at all!

in fact, without mysta rly realizing, this has become his benefit. with most of the teachers aware that he is struggling in his classes, they tend to grade him based on his efforts more than the results of a test

so even if he thinks he's falling behind, ask his professors and they will say the exact opposite!

for school activities, i would say mysta would like to join the sports club as long as his classes don't take up too much of his time

he wants to be able to stay active instead of sitting down and studying all day, plus he gets to meet a lot people and actually where he met the super popular kaneshiro kid!

part time jobs is also something mysta could commit himself to, especially if it meant helping out with student loans

anything works out for him so long as again, it didn't take too much of his time and don't tire him out

lot of times where he fell asleep in the library when he should be catching up with homework and reading tests o.0

speaking of studying, mysta is definitely a visual and kinesthetic learner mostly bcs he's not the type of guy to just sit still and read that fucking textbook

far from being a verbal learner. def not the type to like reading for long periods of time

he claims to be an interpersonal (social) learner, but with a lot of people around him, it's more likely he won't get anything done

this is where you come in

you and him were paired up, and it just so happens that you were one of the students who was doing pretty well in criminology

anyone would've been happy to be paired up with you but mysta is a bit different than just anyone

he was actually intimidated by just how well you were doing and he kept telling himself that he was being such a burden to you

but you never fail to patiently get mysta to work on the ones that need more thinking, even if you have to guide him

for once, mysta knew what the assignment was about this time, due to your composure during work

after that, he may or may not have braved himself to be in one group with you a lot more

it's just that people tend to just give up on him but there you were, staying up late with him just so he could get some material down for an upcoming test

when you fell asleep, mysta let the words of falling for you slip

"really?"

"HUH? YOU WERE AWAKE--"

"i like you too, dummy. now get back to studying. we'll go on a date after the test."

final project weeks were the same. lots of staying up late together (mostly bcs of mysta) and checking each other's work.

when the results were almost out, you actually had to stay over at mysta's bcs of how fucking nervous he was. was he going to graduate? did he have to start another year over?

as you held his hand tightly, mysta opens his results and sees his passing grade, officially now graduated from college

he sobbed against you that night, thanking you over and over again for always there to help him and being so patient

Luca Kaneshiro 🦮🔆

he took me a while to figure out what major best fit him (disclaimer: i swear i've heard him mention what major he took but my tiny brain forgot what it was and from what stream ;-;)

sooo i think it's most likely business since he is in the mafia

the skills could be super useful if he's going to need some extra funds for his syndicate

he'll take only a bachelor's degree because he wants to focus on his mafia work as soon as college finishes

luca is most obviously the jock of the school and one of the more popular students because of his extroverted nature

tbh tho his grades aren't too great??? let's say average :D

he's more like the guy who's looking for the fun of college instead of actually getting the education-

because of this, a lot of people like to hang around him. sometimes students who have super good grades can be a bit unapproachable, ofc not because of the students themselves, but others tend to not feel relatable to someone who does very well in academics

so luca is extremely approachable, easy going and friendly

not the smartest but its the quality of the company that counts right?

professors know who he is because of his popularity and although most of them are okay with luca, some do appreciate him bringing the mood up when classes are tense

the younger lecturers are most likely best friends with him lmao

as aforementioned, man is a jock and is just naturally energetic

OF COURSE HE WOULD JOIN THE SPORTS CLUB

he religiously participates bcs he gets to see his buddies and would always join in on whatever challenges were set onto him. he's not afraid to lose

i also think he would be interested in joining the student council and he did make it! which brought him to meet with vox ^^

luca brings a ton of ideas for student activities and is always happy to help out with whatever he can. with his popularity, it's easy to rope students into whatever event they had going on too

because he has a mafia to run, he rly doesn't make time to do a part time job

definitely a physical (kinesthetic) and interpersonal learner. man can't just sit down to read something and he most certainly will go crazy if he's not loudly memorizing his flash cards without someone else there

so how does he meet you?

the student council asked him to go to the art club to find someone who could handle illustrations for an event they were holding, so luca pitched in and saw you busily working on something in the club room

you didn't really know anyone from the student council so you pretty much had to cling onto luca the entire time when you met up with the student council (esp when this guy from the performing arts department kept hitting on you. vox was it?)

in the end, when the event finished, luca got used to hanging out with you. then he confessed when he realized he was crushing on you :3

he asks you to come by to the sports club all the time so he could introduce you to his friends and when you're alone, you and him would sometimes work out together

you guys go out on a lot of study dates

...which turns to playing around and not really getting anything done :")

luca always teases you to draw him "like of your french girls" but he was caught by surprise when you actually do ask him to model nude for an assignment

he was more embarrassed than he thought he would be

but he liked knowing he could help you out!

he would sometimes cry when you give him a drawing you did of him just because you wanted to. he's framing them all in his room

as a graduation gift, you actually gave him a super elaborate artwork in a pretty big medium too. and well, it's safe to say luca shamelessly shed some tears at the ceremony, showing off your work to everyone there

as his gift to you, he took you on vacation to somewhere you've always wanted to go to.

to luca, you definitely made his time in college so much more fun

Ike Eveland 🖋💙

pretty obvious he took up literature

but let me tell ya, i think he will take literature for his first four years and after he got the degree for that, he's going to change his major to music because again pretty obvious reasons

he would take literature first so he has the writing skills needed later in music making

or, ike could take the option of a double degree since i see him as the type of person who rly likes to bury himself in work especially if it's the things he really is passionate about

but for the sake of his social needs and sanity, let's say our man ike did not take a double degree

ike eveland is obviously the star student of his class, perhaps even top 5 of his entire year

he's also pretty humble about his achievements so he's not the snobby kid who flaunts their good grades

everyone absolutely respects and admires him for it, even going out of their way to ask for tutoring sessions with him

paid tutoring sessions, mind you

he'll take some, but not so much his schedules are full much to the student body's dismay

his professors love him so much as well, using his work as examples no matter how many times ike insists there's no need to do that

is ike the type to join the student council?

ehhhh not rly i don't think?

there was a time where he did consider the choice, seeing how he has potential and all the people around him supported him to join

but i think he wouldn't take up on the opportunity, mostly worried he won't be able to have any time for himself

like i said, ike is super passionate about writing and music so he's going to take all his time really immersing in that world

even outside college hours, he'll do personal projects and all that

so yeah, no to the student council and tutoring sessions if ike wasn't looking for the extra money

i do think he'll take a part time job tho! that's where he gets most of his money

librarian ike anyone? well it's obvious he'd work there.

he's an aural (audio), verbal (linguistic) and intrapersonal (solitary) learner

ike likes to record his professor's lectures and listen to them when he goes back home or while he's practicing his music. even for his literature studies, he usually sings out the things he needs to remember or listen to some music while studying to help him get in the mood

DEFINITELY THAT SUPER COOL DARK ACADEMIA STUDENT ALWAYS FOUND IN THE LIBRARY, HEADPHONES ON WITH A SIDE OF HIS FAVORITE DRINK AHHHHH

also bcs he does frequent the library, he meets this rly weird grey haired guy from criminology who goes there to "study" but ends up falling asleep.

now, what happens after he meets you? :3

i headcanon yall met during his tutoring sessions bet

while he would usually not let students ask for his time for a session, ike would make an exception for you

he'd push away all the other slots so whenever he does have a tutoring session, it's mostly with you

after building up the courage to finally ask you out, tutoring sessions became less and less with the other students

ike prioritizes his study dates with you

ALSO

since he is in the art field, it's very very clear you've become his muse throughout college (both literature and music)

whenever he gets a project to create something, he'll find a way to have it tie to you

especially for his final project

write a story?

you're the main character

compose an entire song?

you're the theme

no shortage of times where he reads out a poem/story or serenade his own songs to you during late night studying

you become his number one proofreader and critic for everything he creates since he trusts you a lot with it. ike would heavily appreciate it if you could give him honest feedback

if it's boring tell him! if it's too cringey, tell him!

ike can take the criticism since he wants to be a good producer one day <3

on the day he finishes his studies and he's called to give a speech for being valedictorian, this is the highlight line you'll forever remember:

"y/n will always be the reason why i'm here today and all the tomorrows. why i've achieved so many things and create stories and songs for everyone to enjoy. thank you so much, y/n, for staying by my side and i hope you continue to stay."

Shu Yamino 🔮✨

unfortunately modern day colleges don't have sorcery or black magic as majors :D

soooo shu would probably opt for computer sciences!

nerd shu poggers

would only take a bachelor's degree for this tho, but he's happy with where he is ^^

shu would much much like it if he stayed on the sidelines minding his own business, meaning he just doesn't wanna be popular. but it's kinda hard staying under the low with how skilled he is in his classes

honestly students just look up to him with how chill he is with his college life

sometimes they would even ask shu to be their partner in most projects since he's super reliable and good at what he does

he's known to be rly patient when teaching someone too so-

but don't get me wrong, shu will fucking now if someone is only taking advantage of his kindness and smarts

you don't wanna rly know what he can do to ruin your college career o.0

AnYwAY

the professors know who shu is and definitely appreciate him for helping out the students whenever possible, although his grades aren't always top of the class, his character and attitude makes up for it

shu would definitely like to join clubs outside his academics, say like the performing arts club

look i know but i can't stop thinking about shu joining the theatre club, just hanging out with a whole bunch of different kids. he likes making friends! plus he likes working backstage more

plays need a reliable technician like him after all

or if not performing arts, most likely an anime club if it was available lmao

unlike ike, he's not one to rly delve into his college life all the way back home. so once he's out of class, he's focusing on his non academic skills

besides clubs, there's a big chance shu works part time, preferably jobs that let him work at night since he has a rly bad sleep schedule.

the atmosphere is quiet too so he can take advantage and use it to study if it wasn't busy

a 24 hour store of some kind should be alright for shu, it doesn't have to be related to his major either

he's more of a interpersonal and visual learner i think

he likes studying with someone there with him like a study buddy since it makes it less boring. visual because he likes to doodle things so i have a feeling he illustrates something he finds hard to remember

also, of course studies only at night time if possible

because of his interpersonal type of learning, this was how you met him

you two were both looking for study buddies then through your friends, you guys met and agreed to study together

originally it was only for that one test you were super nervous of, but as you aced that one because of shu's help (his assignment flawless because he had you to it check over)

yeah you guys enjoyed each other's company and decided to go on more "study sessions" together

i think the way shu would confess to you would be that trend where you would make a program and you just click a ton of buttons saying how much he likes you

and then at the end there's a message box that asks you:

be mine?

with the choices being yes or yes 😭

you go to your next study session, now named study date!

for his final project, you were obligated to stay over at his place until he submitted it. he claims that his brain works more efficiently when you're there with him, plus he'll have a second pair of eyes that hasn't been glued to the same codes over and over again

when shu announced the results, he treated you to some sushi and an all you can eat barbeque for helping him graduate pretty much

with a full stomach, you and him are cuddling for the rest of the night until you felt like getting up

Masterlist!

#author chan’s delivery service 🧺 #luxiem #luxiem x reader #nijisanji en #vox akuma #mysta rias #luca kaneshiro #ike eveland #shu yamino #vox akuma x reader #mysta rias x reader #luca kaneshiro x reader #ike eveland x reader #shu yamino x reader #akurylic #mystart #drawluca #ikenography #yaminoart

[rachelraygifs]

On a train to a work conference and don't have anything better to do so thinking about SuleMio / Gwitch and while I'm enjoying S2 episode to episode I sort of feel like it's lacking some emotional grounding.

The main couple that the show wants us to be really invested in has spent functionally no time together in the second half of the series after Miorine's functional declaration of love, and there were a number of people who didn't really get a lot of SuleMio buy in from many of their S1 interactions because they didn't really have the hallmarks of romance in anime / media. We didn't really see a lot of softness or tenderness -- as far as Miorine goes being a tsundere, she's almost entirely been a tsun.

Now with the second season and maybe the entire series winding up to completion, and Miorine being completely broken by trauma and her own guilt, I don't know that we're really going to get a lot more low impact bonding, which I find kind of a shame because it's the little interactions that help sell the bigger moments, and we don't really know what Miorine is like when she's fully honest with herself and Suletta. Like I want soft, tender moments between the two, like when Suletta spent the night in the green house before she moved into the Earth House dorms. And it's a bit of a bummer that we dont see them talk to each other or figure themselves out together.

Like a lot of people call this Space Utena, but Anthy and Utena had a decent amount more time dedicated to them and their relationship as the very core of the story and it's emotional beats, and Gwitch has been trying to cram so many things into its narrative that I don't know that it's done a great job getting full buy in from its entire audience about all of them -- there's definitely a few things that I thought got resolved too cleanly or just never actually cared about as much as other fans do.

Anyway, this is kind of a ramble brought on by most fanart being of heavy tsun Mio and thinking how I wish we got to see her turn that off, and some disappointment that I don't know that we'll get it. Like there's the Japan trip and the audio drama stuff, but I really wish that was in the show or at least as motion comics or something.

#gwitch #gundam #the witch from mercury #anime #sulemio