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eldritch-nightmare · 9 months

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heyy!! can i request LJ and Candypop ( ,,if you write for him) sharing a fem!reader? (headcanons or something else) i don’t mind <33

a/n: I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT CANDY POP WAIT omg he's one of those creepypastas that i heard about but never really looked into so. first time writing him so i hope i did him justice for you! i wasn't sure if you wanted something more lighthearted or something darker so i did my best to keep it balanced.

LJ and Candy Pop sharing a fem!reader.

warnings: my knowledge of candy pop comes from the creepypasta files wiki page so just a heads up if i get something wrong, opted to make reader a creepypasta here but it's very vague, lj and candy pop are like frenemies in this i suppose, sorta hints that the reader might've been forced into this relationship, my hand slipped and i dropped a 'good girl' in here somewhere i couldn't help myself, possessive behavior from both of them, implied unhealthy relationship.

Man, what's it like having a 7ft tall imaginary monochrome clown that terrorizes children and a 7ft tall colorful Night Terrors possessed jester be in love with you? It's probably a strange experience.

They both argue over who caught feelings for you first. LJ swears up and down that he fell for you first, but Candy Pop claims it to be love at first sight. Honestly, you've just chosen to believe that they both fell for you around the same time.

The two of them were definitely hesitant to share you, though that was more on Candy Pop's side than it was LJ's. Listen, sharing a body/soul with the literal demon king makes you a bit possessive over things, okay?

You don't particularly mind either way, to be honest. They're both a bit... much to handle at times, but you guys make it work. Like... literally. You had to plan out an entire schedule and everything because they kept bickering about how much time the other spent with you.

LJ gets you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while Candy Pop gets you on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sundays are days you spend alone because it's always good to have some time for yourself.

Of course, they don't... follow the schedule that often. Why would they? They aren't confined to the mortal chains of schedules.

They are both equally romantic in their own right, and you won't lie, you certainly have enjoyed a few of the spontaneous dates they've taken you on. Sometimes, they'll even get together long enough to plan out an outing for all three of you. They can get along, see?

Now, we can't forget that they are both murderous entities. One is an imaginary friend turned serial killer and the other is... something. A demon? A poor possessed soul of a jester? Whatever he is, he's deadly. Shall I provide some examples?

Example one: Laughing Jack was abandoned by the one person he was created to befriend, so trust me when I tell you that he has some deeply rooted abandonment issues. He's all fun and games until there's even the slightest possibility of you leaving him. Even if someone makes an offhand remark about how you should leave him, his entire persona does a complete 180.

Suddenly, his hold on you is just a bit more tighter than it normally is, and you can feel his nails digging into your skin, threatening to draw blood. It's a subtle, silent threat of what he could do to you if you ever tried leaving him.

Example two: Candy Pop, as a whole, is somebody you have to be wary around because his mood can flip like a switch. He'll be happily humming away about some random topic one moment, and the next he's pushing you up against a nearby wall and looking at you with such a crazed look that it's almost hard to believe that this is the same person who claims to be in love with you.

He's the type to remind you of where you belong. You belong by his and LJ's side, so don't you ever forget that, okay? You really don't want to see what'll happen if you do.

In the end, though LJ and Candy Pop have a habit of bickering with each other, they'll make one hell of a team if it means keeping you in their grasp. You don't fit with anyone but them, and you don't need to fit with anyone other than them. They're the perfect match for you, and you'll come to see that sooner or later. So, all you need to do is be a good girl and stay by their side, got it?

It's Sunday. Sundays are supposed to be your day. You had plans to hang out with the other girls, maybe even play dress up with Sally if she was up for it. So, why the hell were you currently stuck in bed, sandwiched between a clown and a jester?

You have no clue because you just woke up and they were already here. Sure, you could just… wiggle your way out of bed but then they would wake up. Do they even need to sleep? They aren't mortal like you are, so sleep doesn't seem like a necessity to them. But it's not like you can just stay in bed all day either. You had things you wanted to do!

So, with a very silent sigh, you slowly start to sit up, untangling yourself from the mass of limbs trapping you to your bed. You were able to sit up with relative ease, the hard part would be crawling over either LJ or Candy Pop to get out of bed. That would be… that would be difficult.

Even if you were to try and crawl over one of them, you weren't able to because before you could even decide which one to crawl over, you were being pushed back into laying down again by Candy Pop.

You let out a small 'oof' as soon as your back hit the mattress.

"Where do you think you're going?" You hear LJ ask, and with one quick glance at him, you can see a slight pout on his face. It was almost enough to make you forget about the feeling of his nails gently grazing your stomach.

If he just decided to dig them into your--

"She's not going anywhere." Candy's voice murmurs directly next to your ear, effectively cutting off your train of thought. You only belatedly realize that he had buried his face into your neck, his hair brushing against your face, "Right, angel?"

Well… it seems like you're not going to be getting rid of these two today, so whatever plans you had for the day were going to have to be put on hold until next Sunday. You just hoped the two of them didn't make a habit of this.

#anon #laughing jack x reader #candy pop x reader #laughing jack x you #candy pop x you #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #creepypasta #literally slapped a photo of candy pop into pixlr and hyper zoomed on his eyes to look at the pixels to figure out the exact shade of them #and i didn't even mention his eyes in this so it was a pointless endeavor #i spent 4 hours writing this i think bc i kept getting distracted so if it's a mess im sorry

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mushroomjar · 7 months

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Did you think I forgot about it? The Halloween vocaloid playlist is done!! I'll include the links in a reblog so Tumblr doesn't bury the post, there's a YouTube playlist and a Spotify one, the YouTube one being the longer one with nearly 100 songs... yeah, I got carried away lol Reminder for those who have forgotten/not in the know, this playlist starts with cute lighthearted songs about Halloween and monsters, and gets darker in tone and sound the deeper down the playlist you go

I don't want to make the post too long so I'll just include a general content warning for the songs in the playlist, and under the cut I might list all the songs and ramble a bit about what it was like to make the playlist. I hope you enjoy!^^

Content Warnings: flashing lights, bright images, loud sounds and jumpscares, disturbing images and noises, death, body horror, gore, cannibalism, abuse, stalking, potentially paranoia-inducing songs/lyrics

The playlist has been done for days, I've just been procrastinating on actually making the post until now lmao sorry! I had a lot of fun making the playlist and going through the suggestions, it also made me fall in love with some producers I hadn't paid much attention to before (shout out to all of the people who sent in Babuchan suggestions, as you can see I went down a bit of a Babuchan rabbit hole and added tons of his stuff to the playlist, same for machigerita lol)

I'll admit that one of the reasons the playlist kept getting longer was because I'd look at other creepy/scary vocaloid playlists on YouTube for inspiration, and every time I was nearly done I would write down 20 more songs to check out, which is why it took me a whole month to get this playlist done lol. I hope it was worth it! I'm very pleased with how it all turned out

There were also many songs/producers I really liked but decided not to include in the playlist, for example I found DaijoubuP, who I really like, but I didn't think it fit the vibe of the kind of Halloween playlist I wanted to make, so none of his stuff is in the playlist. Same goes for SEIKAI, his songs sound very creepy but I found the lyrics a bit too dark and I wanted to try to keep the playlist a bit more lighthearted. Maybe I'll make a more general vocahorror playlist sometime to highlight all of these producers' work! Who knows

Something else I realized because of this playlist is my standard for creepy vocaloid music might be a bit different than other people's. I got many Maretu suggestions, and I love the guy and completely understand why some of his music was suggested (such as Coin Locker Baby), but it surprised me just how much I'd see him suggested in the notes of my post or in Spotify playlists, he's never really given me the creeps even with his darker lyrics. Not judging! Just an observation I had

You'll notice that I've been using vocaloid as a bit of an umbrella term, since there are a couple of songs that use UTAU and even Synth-V voicebanks^^

I think that's all I have to say for now, so I'll just list all the songs in the playlist and hurry to put the links in a reblog! Thank you so much to everyone who helped with the playlist, all of your suggestions were really appreciated, I would not have as good a playlist if it wasn't for you^^

The song list is mainly because I tried to link back to the original producers whenever possible, and also sometimes the songs were very hard to find, so a lot of the titles are in Japanese, so I figured having the songs and producers written out here would make it a bit easier for you to navigate the playlist^^ Anyway, songs:

Happy Halloween - Junky

SLASH/ER - Circus-P

Ghosts Play To The Audience - PinocchioP

Kikkai Kettai - Meddmia

Zen'yasai no akuma - mayuko

Furaan Furaan Zombie - nem

Fake-Cryer Pumpkin - CycleP

Zen'yasai no kuroneko - mayuko

Halloween Patisserie TrickaTorka - machigerita

Halloweenya - Chinozo

Dream-Eating Monochrome Baku - nem

Creepy Toast - CircusP

Pumpkin March - momocashew

Selfish Princess - fujiwo

Pumpkin Head Spooky Dance - machigerita

Dream Meltic Halloween - machigerita

Giga giga witch - Kurosawa Madoka

Trich, Trach, Trick Parade - sasasaP

Happy Hollow And The God Club - Nanou

Saa, Docchi? - HINATA Haruhana

Propaganda! - Crusher-P

What Gave It Away - R.I.P

Shadow Shadow - Azari

Splatter Party - Camellia

Who? - Azari

Pandemic - YuugouP

Twilight Homicide Song - Kiraboshi Hikaru

Greedy Halloween Candy Nights - machigerita

Gochisou - Xitoo

Spiral-Luvox - Tune Tonic/Switch

Mrs. Pumpkin's Comical Dream - hachi

trick and treat - OSTER Project

Strange Masquerade Halloween - machigerita

Oxidation And Dream Monsters - Ghost

Oz no Kaitai Show - Ankoku DouwaP/Joruzin

Sadistic.Music Factory - cosMo@BouSou-P

Hourglass - HiiragiKirai

Dance With The Dead - Ghost

Alice of Human Sacrifice - Yugami-P

Candy Addict Full Course - machigerita

The Boy Who Went To Hell - SHUDDER

Crazy Clown - Intro-P

Ideal Picture - NanoritaP

Serial Contraption of Malice - Ghost

Twins - Babuchan

Not As It Seems - Creep-P

Amydgala's Rag Doll - Ghost

Hyouhon Shoujo - Kiyozumi

Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance - machigerita

Grotesque Love Song - shoutarouP

That Woman - shoutarouP

Musunde hiraite rasetsu to mukuro - hachi

Hide And Seek - Ho-ong-i

Tokeru Sakana - Yuzuri_Hal

Greetings From The Bottom Of The Well - machigerita

Color & Electricity - mushiP

Patchwork Toxin - machigerita

Bacterial Contamination - Kanimiso-P

Song for Great Satan - Nanka-P

Taiyou-sama - Abuse/Abuse-Ken

Fear Garden - Chaa

Despair The Burguer Factory - Groy Anderson

The Cyclops - David K.

Tears of Artificial Flowers - Babuchan

Moon Prescription - Babuchan

Rugrats Theory - Crusher-P

Monochrome Ward - Yugami-P

Bone Dead Mansion - Babuchan

50/50 - Risshuu

Dark Woods Circus - machigerita

Wide Knowledge of the Late Madness - machigerita

Tell me you'll love me - Babuchan

After School - Okashi-P

Lavender Town - neku

???????? - SocialPhobiaSynaps

behe-laino_hotza-bihotza - sakizakisaki

In A Rainy Town, Balloons Dance With Devils - hachi

Sand Gum - MOL.

Nodoka na Kyuujitsu - HikkieP

Broken Toy Mania - Babuchan

Red Flower - Babuchan

Cry Baby - Babuchan

Fuzai - MondaijiP

Boku Yaranai, Kimi Itooshi - nicol

Ant Observation - Healing-P

A 13-Year Old Killer - Sunazame

0 People's Waltz - Babuchan

Varicella - Babuchan

Kagome Kagome - Zawazawa-P

potatoman - MondaijiP

Okaasan - machigerita

VOCALOID UTOPIA - dennoko-P

Hyperpnea - Hikkie-P

Crushed Mary - Mondaiji-P

Nakazu to mo Rokkaku Wrench da Hototsugi - MondaijiP

Complex - Watashi no koko

#vocaloid #vocal synth #vocahorror #halloween #utau #synth-v #vocaloid horror #vocaloid halloween #vocaloid playlist #playlist #halloween playlist #cat rambles #musicposting #now to post the links in a reblog faster than lightning #three... two... one... go!!

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loveselenade · 2 months

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Madoka 1.5

Since I’m watching PMMM for the first time (with a lot of it spoiled due socmed lol), I figured it’d be fun to write my thoughts so far, 1.5 episodes in. It goes without saying, but don't send me any further spoilers, as this is only fun if I can manage to remain as ignorant as I am now.

Things I knew before hand:

-Kyubey is a bastard.

-It has Shinbo Akiyuki's artistic sensibilities all over it (reason I started watching, tho I'm unclear what exactly his involvement in this is lol). Also, Urobuchi Gen is the main writer for this lol

-Madoka dies.

-Madoka is the paragon of good.

-Lesbian Satan.

-Homura has catholic guilt??

-Someone's backstory involves a brother or something.

-Guns

-Time loop.

-Jewel seeds but evil (this only makes sense if you've watched Nanoha, sorry lol)

-Witches

-Madoka saved a cat

---

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Illusory motion.

[image id: top view of a monochromatic, distorted staircase that looks like a spiral.]

An upwards climb or a downward spiral? The irregular curving of the stories and the pattern alternance sure makes it look like it's spiraling inward. As our lace curtain lifts so the play can begin, this is our first look at the kind of world that awaits us.

[image id: gif showing a close up to Madoka's legs and then a panoramic top view as she runs through a monochromatic hallway with a chessboard pattern]

I don’t have a lot to say about the witches’ labyrinths yet, but I’m always a sucker for dreamscapes (I loved them dearly in Flip Flappers, where they had the incredible work of Studio Pablo strengthening the storybook look), and I’m assuming the labyrinths symbolize something about the interiority or the difficulties the witch in question faced. I don’t have a lot to go by with the two labyrinths in episode one, but I did love the glimpse of the one we get in the opening sequence. I love the effect that it creates when alternating between panoramic shots or extreme close-ups to Madoka’s legs and back as she runs—respectively making her look too small against this overwhelming set piece or claustrophobically trapped in her impotence. As the camera moves along, there’s a sensation that the different patterns in the floors are moving. Because of the way we perceive depth via ascertaining the apparent parallelism or convergence of lines and value/color contrast, among other things, the pattern alternance in this monochrome set piece creates illusions of either motion or that each row is a step more elevated than the other. It’s a properly trippy place. I enjoy it. The straight white for the lighting and tiles creates an artificial and alienating atmosphere. The uniformity of its looks is disorienting. Is Madoka going the right way? It’s really a fantastic introduction to the world of Madoka Magica.

The path you must follow has been prepared for you.

[image id: A green, flourescent exit sign is centered in the screen, hanging above a dark path framed by silver chain fence]

Despite the disorienting feeling, Madoka follows mostly straight paths and there's a clearly labeled, correct exit. This brings to mind the predetermined paths present in Revolutionary Girl Utena's imagery.

Additionally, I find the way Madoka’s run is boarded reminiscent to Utena’s chase after Anthy in Adolescence of Utena:

[image id: gif showing a panoramic view of of landscape shwoered in sunset lighting and red, square pillars towering over the space. Utena, looking tiny, runs further into the place.]

[Image id: gif showing a top down view of a long monochromatic corridor with chessboard pattern that Madoka, a mere pink dot in the screen, crosses running. The corridor is right in the middle of the screen and surrounded by different equally black and white mandalas that turn slightly.]

We get panoramic overhead shots emphasizing the disorienting, geometrical maze and the impotence of our heroines' tiny figure against them.

Before reaching their destination, they both cross a stairs-bridges of sorts; Utena, towards the dueling arena where Anthy waits for her to continue the dueling cycle with Utena as champion; Madoka, towards the foyer where she can find her exit to where Homura is struggling against another hopeless, fighting cycle, one which Madoka choses to perpetuate when making a contract with Kyubey…

[Image ids:

The image to the left shows shows a stich of two Adolescence of Utena's screenshots: the one on top showing Utena crossing a bridge; due the top down angle and the inclination of the bridge, the planks on the bridge look like stairwells. The image on the bottom shows Utena crossing the bridge against the creamy, pinkish sunset sky. The bridge railing is shown a black silhoutte in the foreground.

The image to the right is a stich of two monocrohmatic Madoka Magika episode one screenshots: the on the the top shows Madoka crossing a corridor, the foreground is dominated by abstract geometric shapes. The one on the bottom shows Madoka going up an ample stair well, and the surrounding walls have a similar geometric patterning.]

Absolute Reality.

[Image id: Predominantly black and white screenshot showing a dark tree on the foreground and black debri flyaing around. A little to the right of the middle line stands Madoka, with Kyubey sitting on top of some fallen pillar. The subtittles are Madoka's dialogue and read: "Can I really do something to help?"]

The offer that tempts Madoka into a contract is the promise of agency. She can’t stand the reality where there is nothing she can do, thus it's the promise she does actually have power to influence the narrative and help others and stop their suffering what Kyubey dangles in front of her. Madoka feels deeply moved by the pain of others and has a strong empathetic response that makes it very easy for her to be preyed upon by our resident ugly cat here. It’s detrimental to her. Maybe Homura has a point in reversing her wish to be the divine embodiment of Goodness.

It’s then interesting that she expresses disappointment upon waking up not only in the premiere but in episode 02, as well. Her waking up animation might as well become bank during this introductory arc (I’m betting it does, can’t wait to be wrong). When confronted with the thought the world her senpai Mami introduced to her, one of great danger but also apparently fulfilling and actualizing, Madoka expresses disappointment. Even though she has a happy, easygoing life full of friends and family that love her and that she loves in return, there is something else she is looking for.

Confronting your own humble plainness again.

[Image id: Screenshot of Madoka's room dimly lit. Madoka is drawn towards the bottom left edge, hunching and hugging her huge body plush with a beleagered expression.]

Appearances, facades.

Trained confidence.

[Image id: Screenshot showing makeup labelled with numbers, as if to indicate the order of steps.]

Following Madoka’s "dream", we learn about her homelife anchored around her interactions with her mother as they talk about the love lives of the people around Madoka, contrasted to Madoka's own assertion that no one has an eye on her. Their whole bathroom conversation could be characterized as "girl talk": they go on about love and the need to maintain an appealing image as means to reach it. I could easily accuse this scene of being sexist (and it did rub me the wrong way initially), but the dialogue is naturalistic enough to paint a trusting, warm bond between mother and daughter; plus the repetition of the make-up motif in the second episode while interspersed with Mami's explanation draws attention to themes of appearance and desire.

A remark that can easily be taken as reinforcing gender essentialism lol

[Image id: Screenshot showing the sinks at the foreground barely visible at the bottom edge, with Madoka and her mother in front of them. Madoka is holding her red ribbons with her left hand hesitantly, while her mother has her hands over her hips, talkig matter-of-factly: "A woman's appearance is the one thing she can't afford to get looked down at."]

The contrast in the way mother and daughter carry themselves is apparent. When Madoka relays her reports about her homeroom teacher's love life, her more experienced mother offers keen observations about the possible state of the relationship. Where Madoka takes things at face value, her mother can see deeper. The same applies to the image they project to the world— where her mother has a set (numbered) method to achieve her ideal image, Madoka fumbles and fusses about her ribbon choice and not being seen as too much. The frame pan showcasing the end result has Madoka standing timidly with her hands folded over her lap and her back reflection shown in three different angles in the background mirrors, as if she's being thoroughly scrutinized. While her mother confidently observes her reflection in the mirror, Madoka shrinks at being observed.

[Image id: Screenshot showing Madoka in the middle with a dopey and hesitant expression and her arms drawn close. Her reflections are shown in the mirrors in the background.]

I can't say that Madoka’s self-confidence is worryingly low given what we’ve been presented with—while she lacks the self-assurance her mother possesses, she doesn’t seem particularly self-deprecating. While her affirmation that no one looks her way reflects that self-consciousness, Madoka doesn't further put herself down. Instead, it could simply be that she's a teenager only now discovering her identity, what she's comfortable with, what she wants and what place can she carve for herself in this world. Her mother advises her to train the image and behaviors of someone confident as a first step to grow more certain of herself. The scene places emphasis on the process of purposefully building the image you project, which becomes relevant as episode two's layouts play with a reflection motif around talks of desire.

While thinking back on Kyubey’s proposal of granting them one wish in exchange of risking their lives, Madoka ponders about what she wants. Her waffling contrasts to her mother’s immediate, cutting response concerning pragmatic concerns from her work life when Madoka echoes the question to her. Although, of course, her mother lacks the whole context that makes the decision heightened, Madoka’s roof talk with Kyubey and Sayaka reinforces that there isn’t anything she wishes for that strongly. Yet.

Additionally, when Madoka proposes a bigger ambition to her mother (“Wouldn’t you rather become CEO yourself?”), the image her mother projects into the mirror changes drastically into a more fierce and dangerous look, complete with the repetition of her labeled make-up symbol. This ties a connection between the image people project and what they desire. And just like Madoka has a rather inhibited persona, so do her desires appear mild.

This takes us to Mami, their helpful senpai.

A slightly distorted image seen from below the glass table totally screams trustworthy.

[Image ID: Screenshot of Mami drawn in a low angle, showing her sitting with her legs neatly folded under her backside and her hands resting on her lap. Despite the sunset light filtering through the windows, she's very dimly lit. Most of her image, from the waist up, is shown slightly distorted as its filtered through the glass of the table. The table legs curve outwards and frame her the image in a strange way. The subtitles present her offer: "You should see for yourself what it's like to do battle with witches."]

Knowing the spoilers that Homura is trying to save Madoka from death via time loops and preventing her from forming a contract with Kyubey has an interesting effect— that is, it casts suspicion over other characters. Mami is the helpful senpai that shows up in the nick of time to save them from the witch, heals Kyubey, explains the situation to them and even promises to protect them from Homura at school. She also offers to show them the fieldwork so they can make up their mind about whether to become contracted! The earlier, careful portrayal around purposeful appearances and the reflection motif repeating during their talk can’t be coincidence. Clearly, she wants to be seen as someone who’s dependable, and whether this has more sinister implications or is stemming from personal wishes is unclear to me yet. Mami feels more like Kyubey’s sales associate than anything else. “You can come observe” it’s the pitch you give someone unsure whether to join a club so you can lure them further in. She’s encouraging them to take on a responsibility that can have rather grim outcomes, despite her early assertion that magical girls don’t necessarily work together to reap the rewards of fighting witches—a statement that further reinforces the narrative of Homura as an antagonistic force to our young heroines. Mami either is very upstanding and thinks it’s a duty they should take on since they were chosen or there is something deeply fishy going on here.

For all intents and purposes, Mami is a completely separate entity to our young heroines, not unlike Homura. She’s the one who’s a magical girl already, they’re the uninitiated. They sit on the same side of the table, opposite to her. This shot emphasizes their separation through the black leg of that foreground furniture.

There’s clearly a lot we don’t know about her.

[Image id: screenshot showing Mami's living room. There's sunset light still filtering in, but the room is mostly dimly lit. Mami is on the side of the wall, so she's in the shade. They're sitting at the table, Madoka and Sayaka together on the same side and visually opposite to Mami. The black legs of a furniture are shown in the foreground, creating a strong visual barrier between Mami and her juniors.]

Isn’t it just so fun how this reflection shot obscures her face? Like she’s covering it with her hands in sorrow. Seems charged that it coincides with her explanation about witches causing suicide and murder, does she know of someone who was a victim of them? OR better yet, someone who became One?

I know that magical girls become witches in this series, which also poses interesting possibilities…

[Image id: Screenshot showing Mami's lap with her hands resting on top of it as she sits in front of the table. Because of the top angle, the reflection of her face shows dimly on the glass table. Her face overlaps her hands. The subtitles read: Many of the inexplicable suivides and murders that occur..."]

Are my suspicions on Mami’s intentions totally off-mark? I have no idea, but it’s incredibly fun to doubt her lol

Speaking of despair lore, I usually raise my eyebrow—think it’s full of shit— when there’s worldbuilding that links suicide and violence to supernatural entities; it’s a run-of-the-mill battle shonen explanation, Noragami also uses it with Ayakashi as amalgamation of negative feelings and energy from the people of the places they haunt. Now, this could still work on an allegorical sense of how oppressive environments lead to such emotional outcomes, since most stories don’t engage with the structural causes of such problems… It can be that, or end up attributing a metaphysical cause as the source of all darkness without even so much extending understanding and sympathy to the people who suffer from it. Where does Madoka Magica fall, I wonder…

Blessed fools.

A pained smile framed behind by bars, a surefire sign that someone isn’t totally trapped.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Sakaya's back with her face turned in profile towards the right. She's smiling ambigously and her right hand is holding to the white chain wall that dominates the background against the bright daylight sky. The subtittles read: "Well... Maybe the pair of us are just fools?"]

Given our young heroines lack of direction, ardent ambitions or anguishing desires, Sayaka muses that perhaps the fact they don’t have anything they’d die for is a sign they’re blessed fools. This rings true for Madoka. She’s a happy kid with a supportive family and friends. Despite her longing for something more—her own agency? confidence? Romantic love?—, there doesn’t seem to be anything that is making her actively miserable. Her mild adolescent ennui is not necessarily something pernicious and would’ve likely resolved itself as she experienced and tackled more challenges in her life with the guidance and support of her family. This whole business paints more ill-fated for her (and I mean, I know it is. What a tragedy, hers).

But is this true for Sayaka? This brief shot with its ominous red sky and its bedridden figure shrouded in darkness begs to differ… The fact she feels guilty over being chosen, thinking there’s people who’d make use of a miracle much better than them makes me think it’s rather someone she knows… Is this her motivation to get into Kyubey’s magical girl agency? I don’t have a lot to go by…

[Image ID: Screenshot representing a short-haired person in bed shown facing right . Most of the shapes are represented as black silhouttes, sans the translucent curtains and the ominous red sky framed by the window. The subtittles read "We've been so blessed.."]

Sayaka and homoeroticism.

Welcome back, Shinohara Wakaba.

[Image id: Screenshot showing Madoka, Sayaka and their irrelevant friend Hitomi at the park. Sayaka is hugging a slouching Madoka from the back, saying "You must be my bride, Madoka!".]

The Girl Talk in episode one continues as we follow Madoka’s commute to school with her two friends: the blue one, the to-be Magical Girl, Sayaka and this one random girl that I'm surprised it's even there. The banter and physicality to Sayaka and Madoka’s interactions is fun and warm, selling their chemistry as friends. And near the end, Sayaka playfully proclaims Madoka must be with her, which immediately brought to mind Revolutionary Girl Utena’s Shinohara Wakaba's own ambiguous, very physically affectionate date-play with Utena.

Rather than being a maiden in the sidelines, however, Sayaka is positioned as Madoka’s protector against Homura. Given Homura is fighting to be Madoka’s silent protector herself, this is unbelievably funny to me. When Madoka finds Homura's staring off-putting during P.E., she hides behind Sayaka. When Madoka— with Kyubey in her arms— is alone facing the inscrutable, darkness-shrouded, threatening Homura, the one who shows up to save her is Sayaka. When they're alone within the creepy labyrinth, Sayaka protectively embraces Madoka. When Madoka is worried that Homura might try to attack them at school, Sayaka offers to punch Homura. This antagonistic placing of Madoka's two protectors is hilarious, and I'm curious to see if the dynamic fizzles out as we delve into Sayaka's innermost wishes and struggles or if the tension will boil over into something interesting.

'Get behind me, Madoka! I got the fire extinguisher!'

Such a hilarious way to break the tension.

[Image id: Screenshot showing Madoka and Sayaka in a dark parking lot, with most of the background shrouded in shadows. Sayaka is holding a fire extinguisher that she's shooting towards the left, and Madoka stands behind her, holding Kyubey.]

Even their sitting order in class positions Madoka behind Sayaka lmao Does Sayaka have a thing for Madoka or just a hero complex?

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Madoka and Sayaka sitting in their classrooom. Sayaka is shown sitting a row in front of Madoka, a column to the left. Madoka is holding Kyubey in her arms. The subtittles read: "If she tries anything on you, I'll punch her lights out!"]

The show acknowledges the homoeroticism between the two in a tongue-in-cheek manner during their commute in episode 2, when their normie friend feels put off by the apparent intimacy of their silent (telepathic) communication:

"You've been staring so intently into each other's eyes… What on earth did you do after I left yesterday?!"

This girl is too homophobic to become a magical girl, smh.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Sayaka, Madoka and their friend Hitomi drawn in profile at the park. Sayaka and Madoka are positioned on the left side of the screen, with a tree in the background subtly serving as visual barrier between Madoka and Sayaka. Madoka is slouched and halfheartedly reaching to Hitomi. Hitomi is positioned on the right side of the screen, with her hand to her heart and running towards the left. Her dialogue reads: "Don't you see that it's a love that can never beeee?!"]

Madoka points out that their normie friend's remarks sound a lot like what Sayaka tells to her on a regular basis, lending credence to my Wakaba comparison lol This gag could simply be an acknowledgement of the charged homoeroticism present in the series, but it still amuses me so far a lot of it has circled around Sayaka and Madoka.

Akemi Homura

Her soundless, despaired scream as she catches sight of Madoka with Kyubey was so cinematic ❤️

[Image id: gif showing a zoom out of Homura's face as she screams. She's resting on a tree branch that's represented as a black silhouette, with debris floating around represented in the same way.]

Speaking of homoeroticism, it's time to talk about Homura. I actually felt a little sad that I already know about her motivations because she's so incredibly off-putting, I'd have had a lot of fun speculating about the meaning of her actions, the way she's framed and the meticulous way her micro expressions are portrayed. However, it's not like there isn't still some room to have fun reading into them. She enters the picture via the classic transfer student trope. From her introduction alone, she creates an awkward atmosphere with the way the standoffish silence lingers due her laconicism.

Despite her aloof demeanor, and in pure transfer-student fashion, Homura still stands out both in academics and physical feats (she even breaks the regional high jump record lol!); as such garners the attention of her peers. Nonetheless, she couldn't be more uninterested in them, as the one she can't keep her eyes off is Madoka. Her taciturn, blank-faced and cutting demeanor can paint her staring as downright aggressive. This is further reinforced by being color coded with the darkest values in the cast so far: black and purple are her signature colors, classic villain palette.

Her conversation with Madoka as she rehashes the "could you show me where the infirmary is" routine is the big standout of hers in episode one —the tropey nature of this encounter makes it very easy to imagine how their first interactions went down the first time—. The low angle that emphasizes her head tilt and the accentuated shadows on her face and body make her look haughty and intimidating.

She's literally staring down Madoka lol Worth noting this same framing is repeated as she warns Madoka in a few minutes, complete with rotating animation for gravitas, contributing to Homura's bad vibes.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura's face and shoulders slightly turned to the right side of the screen. The right side of her face is heavily shadowed and so are her shoulders. She's looking down on the viewer. Her dialogue reads: "May I ask you to accompany me?"]

While one could think that the reason she approached Madoka was to issue her warning, I'm actually not that certain. It could be due the way her anguished reactions to being around Madoka make her look quite erratic as she tortures herself with these distorted echoes of her memories—but I also have to point out the abrupt way she brings the interaction to a halt, stomping and suddenly turning. The way she behaves through the whole interaction feels quite impulsive, which gave me the impression of Homura purposefully trying to recreate the past (whether out of indulgence or to torture herself, I'm not really sure).

It's really fun the way this obscured close-up to her profile hiding her eyes— making it difficult to parse her emotions— paired to how the next highlighted extreme close-ups have her clenching her teeth led credence to the "Homura is a hostile party" narrative. Personally, the timing is what gets me. She reacts deeply upset to the fact Madoka politely yet impersonally addresses her as "Akemi-san" lol This girl was in the trenches.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura's shadowed profile facing left. She is holding her face up, seemingly imperious and her mouth is tightly shut.]

The way the timing makes it seem like she's really pissed at Madoka’s remark that her name is weird + subsequent fumbling is very funny lol I wouldn't say she's not upset from it, but mostly in the "it's painful to be around you" way.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing a extreme close up to Homura's clenched mouth, as she lowers her face. There's heavy shading on the left side of her face and lens flare coming from the right side of her face.]

There's a lot of natural verticals in the panels of their classrooms and the windows they transverse that create visual divisions between the two. I found it particularly noteworthy that while there's a natural sense of distance and awkwardness between the them, Homura is the one who accentuates it and fully brings herself to the other side of the threshold when she suddenly skips forward ahead from Madoka. The idea she's intentionally cultivating a distance between the two is very intriguing and appealing…

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura and Madoka facing left as they walk through the corridor with blue window panes. There's a particular wide vertical division in between Madoka and Homura, placed more or less in the middle of the screen. Homura is on the left side of the screen, but closer to the blue vertical division. Madoka is falling behind, with more white space between her and the middle.]

Their sitting order reinforces this idea, situating Homura all the way to the front, completely out of reach.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura sitting in the front row, looking back at Madoka's seat.]

They look fully at odds with each other thanks to the high contrast between the bright windows and the shaded frames. The dark values to their visual barriers fully bring out the tension brought by Homura's sudden halt-and-turn as she issues her warning. Homura is framed as thoroughly oppositional to Madoka, and she herself doesn't bother to correct any misunderstandings. It's pretty interesting she's fine with being vilified if it might grant her any slight chance to get what she wants.

[Image ID: screenshot showing Homura and Madoka drawn in a symmetrical composition, separated visually by the regular window panes. Homura is drawn towards the left edge of the screen, facing right and standing imperiously. Madoka is drawn on the right side of the screen, towards the edge as well, slightly slouched and in a timid pose. Subtittles show Madoka's dialogue: "Yes, really! I couldn't lie about that."]

Homura's dead-eyed ominous warning vs Mami's personable, smiling offer of support, fight! But this is truly why I can't trust Mami lol Should you really be tacitly encouraging them, Yellow Senpai? A cutting warning really seems more befitting here…

[Image ID: Extreme close up to Homura's blank left eye with the right side of her face being heavily shaded. The subtittles read: "Because if you do, you will end up losing all of those things.]

Odd ends.

There's a lot of small gestures that really bring out charm to the interactions and feelings, but if I pointed out absolutely everything, I'd never finish this lol

There's one thing from the Madoka-wakes-up Bank I do want to point out, though: the odd feeling Madoka’s head turn with the hard shading gives me. Now, I know it's a Shaft™ thing, I've watched another TV series directed by Shinbo that was produced there and I've heard of it. But I still find the timing peculiar— after the opening sequence with her running to the rooftop in episode one and the brief recap with Mami's transformation in the second, just before she wakes up. Of course, this reinforces that sense of being at the verge of waking up from an odd dream, which Madoka fully believes, but it can also get a sense of deja vu. Typically, one would assume that Madoka’s run towards the rooftop is a glimpse to an event that will happen later down the line. But given the nature of this being a time loop and Homura's insistence on preventing Madoka’s death via preventing her contract altogether, which it's implied to happen in that sequence, I don't think there isn't any reason to think that it's not something that didn't already happen. If this ends up being the case, I'm curious how that'd affect further loops.

Tell me your secrets, you pink little one.

[Screenshot showing a extreme close up to Madoka's eyes facing towards the left. Her face is drawn almost facing front, leaning towards the right. There's heavy shading on her face and a black background.]

Expectations for the rest of the introductory arc:

-Second half of episode 2 will end in a cliffhanger that'll destabilize routine while they fight a new witch.

-Said cliffhanger will involve Mami (I HOPE IT DOES). I'm suspicious of her and hope she does something terrible, but I think it's equally, if not more, likely that something terrible happens to Her lol

-🤷🏻‍♂️

Hmm that's it. I'm not very good at imagining scenarios lol

I'm also half-expecting to be wrong about nothing making Madoka miserable, mostly because I've been obsessing over Takamachi Nanoha, another seemingly well-loved, normal kid who turned out to have Important Baggage lol

#pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #madoka kaname #Homura Akemi #Sayaka pmmm #Mami pmmm #so this post made me discover that the image limit is 30 pictures LMFAO #anyway i'm dead and i'm tired. I get it now. I need to save a back up of my file and images and write the img ids as i go #i'm dead #long post #like extremely long post #Mami Tomoe

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syrupyyyart · 1 year

Photo

finally, finally finished the ~definitive~ designs for my main Motley girls :’)

Extensive design notes under the cut (mostly for documentation purposes, but also because i like talking about my ocs lol)

In my last post, I introduced the idea of giving each character multiple colors, rather than being one uniform color throughout the design. The idea is that the characters can earn up to 3 new colors as they age+experience new things.

For each color they earn, they’ll wear a new ‘evolved’ version of their previous outfit.

For comparisons sake, here’s the initial pass I took at trying to give my characters more colors:

(euhg. theyre really really ugly. im honestly embarrassed i ever posted these at all lol)

Fact: it’s actually incredibly difficult to design monochrome outfits for characters without the designs looking extremely unfinished (to me, anyways lol). In an attempt to break up the monotony of the monochrome outfit designs, I found myself over relying on the outline colors to fill in their outfit pieces (cherrys pants, limes turtleneck, etc). This hypothetically works, but it ended up causing a lot of confusion as to how many colors the characters had actually earned, especially when the outline color was vastly different from the intended color. Basically, the tl;dr is that over relying on the outline colors felt like cheating, looked bad, and caused a lot of issues.

All of this explanation is to set up the 2 design rules I gave myself for the New Definitive Designs:

1. Outline colors MUST NOT be over relied on, and should be used as sparingly as possible

2. Nothing is sacred. If it looks bad, throw it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also decided to shift around their body types slightly, since I realized that practically every character had the same build with a different height (with the exception of Banana). Marshmallow is a bit curvier, Watermelon is slightly more muscular, etc. And, while you cant really tell because of their baggy outfits, Lime is much boxier and Blueberry is lankier and has wider shoulders than the others.

Finally, here’s some specific design notes for each character, how they changed, and why:

Cherry Pit - Cherry may not have had the most drastic changes, but hers were definitely the most important. She’s had the same hairstyle ever since the first time I drew her (back in ....... middle school lol), and as attached as I was to it, it caused a LOT of problems. It gave her an ugly silhouette, the sharp edges kind of ruined her circle motif, etc. So it had to change. I decided to give her a fluffier hair style to incorporate more round edges into her design, and I truly cannot tell you how many hairstyles I cycled through before I landed on that one. It was major development hell. But I think the new style is much much cuter! Due to story reasons, I also decided to give her 2 outfit colors instead of just one, and she seriously looks so much better because of it. Big fan of Cherrys new design lol

Blueberry Cobbler - Ohhhh where to start with this one. Blueberrys design has always been a headache to me. I found it difficult to draw consistently, and even when I got it to look how I wanted, it still didn’t look very good. So, my goal for her redesign was to overhaul her design while keeping the general idea behind it; most importantly, she needed to be Fun To Draw. So, I changed the silhouette of her sweatshirt by giving her a more exaggerated hood, replaced her bulky zipper with the hanging ties (idk what theyre called lol), and Changed Her Ugly Ass Tights into baggier pants. I also crimped her hair to make it more angular. In the context of this universe, cold colors have naturally colder body temperatures, so they have to wear insulated clothing to stay chilly; the overall baggier clothes really just fixed all of my issues with her design honestly. Better for her personality type, prettier silhouette, in-universe reasoning, etc. Scrumptious.

Lime Pie - I decided to swap out her cargo pants for a long skirt, and let her hair down. This was mostly because, with the monochrome outfit she needed to wear, the turtleneck+cargo pants combo just wouldnt work without looking Pretty Bad. It also helps her outfit stand out a bit more, as she’s now the only character in the main cast that is wearing a skirt. She’s meant to be an inversion of the “nerdy girl lets her hair down and puts on a dress and Now She Is Popular” trope, so the idea is that when she earns her 2nd color, she will start wearing her hair up again, and the cargo pants can come back. Maybe.

Marshmallow Fluff - I honestly hit the nail on the head with this one in the initial batch of concepts I did, so I didnt change much lol. The biggest change is that I made her hair light again. This was because shes obviously meant to have a cloud motif, but her sister (who I rarely post about lol) has a thundercloud motif-- basically, I’m just saying that the darker hair is gonna go to her sister instead.

Banana Pudding - Again, she looks almost exactly the same. I just changed the red outline of her original dress to be less contrasting, since I got a lot of people asking if she’d earned two colors or not. Hopefully, its more clear now that she’s only earned one.

Watermelon Sorbet - As much as I liked her original design, many many people told me she looked like a ‘cool yoga instructor’ character. Which, while not terrible, wasn't exactly what I was going for; she’s meant to be more of an ‘edm dancer’ kind of character. So, I decided to change out her pants for bigger legwarmers that I’m hoping make her look a bit more hyper active.

Thats all my notes lol. I have no idea if anyone is gonna read this far, but if you do, thanks :’) I fully realize that making so many notes about this looks silly, considering theyre OCs and not like ..... widely known characters. So Im sure a lot of what Ive said just sounds like gibberish. But its fun to ME!!!!!!!!

I’ve got more character designs to post over the next week or so; namely, the 3 Antagonists (Grape Soda, Orange Custard, and Angel Cake) + the parents (which includes 2 characters Ive never shown before, but Im very excited to share lol). Those posts wont be accompanied with longwinded notes like this one is; Im just the most excited about these designs and wanted to talk about them.

#motley #cherry pit #blueberry cobbler #lime pie #marshmallow fluff #banana pudding #watermelon sorbet #i am terrified to post this lol #my art #ocs #original characters #original character #oc #idk how to tag oc posts

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spockandawe · 26 days

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Hello! I've been thinking about binding some danmei novels in my native language, but I don't know where to start. I found your blog recently and find it very inspiring! I was wondering if maybe you could share with me what tools and materials would be good to get started with?

Sure!!!! So, I'm on mobile and don't have links at hand, but if you go back through my bookbinding tag, there are other replies I've got about the materials for making a book specifically. The renegade publishing blog also has resource documents that walk through the bookbinding process and include links to educational materials, etc. So for here, I'll focus on the danmei side of things!

So, a fun feature about these books is that they tend to run LONG. I've seen a number of people try to take up bookbinding in google docs, and honestly, it's doing things on hard mode. For many danmei, it's basically impossible. I think my EARLIEST earliest attempt at svsss began in gdocs, and that's not a super long novel, but gdocs was choking on it. A word processor on your desktop is going to be your best bet. Personally, i invested in a microsoft office license, because it was familiar and i could afford it. But the free parallel to that will be libre office, which does basically everything word can do, with just minor differences.

On the fancy end of bookbinding software, affinity, indesign, and microsoft publisher are also names you may hear tossed around. These can do fancier, more artistic layouts, but also come with a heavier price tag. And because i had webnovels on my radar from the start, i wanted something ROBUST. I wanted to be able to dump all of the husky and his white cat shizun into a single file and work from it. And i did eventually do that! Being able to typeset a single file rather than repeat each step across several is great, especially since i tend to tweak design choices as i go.

For danmei, you're also going to want a robust printer. I have a color laser that's been an absolute beast of a machine, but a black and white laser can get you a long ways, and monochrome designs can be very elegant. You don't want an HP brand printer, their toner subscription practices are downright predatory, but Brother and Canon are names I've seen recommended highly. You probably don't want an inkjet printer, because long books take a LOT of ink. The one exception would be if you can find an affordable ink tank printer.

And the last major thing i can think of is that if your main computer is a laptop, consider typesetting with an external mouse and keyboard! Danmei novels are split into lots of short chapters, frequently split across just as many web pages, with lots of footnotes to format, and laptops are convenient but not ergonomic. Doing too much on there is just asking for a repetitive strain injury. I've done it, but often paid for my sins in pain! And your laptop keyboard may start complaining too, I'm almost certain my first typeset of mdzs was the nail in the coffin for my last laptop's keyboard, haha

I hope that helps! Best of luck to you! Ive found binding cnovels to be EXTREMELY rewarding, even though my original reason was because these things would NEVER be licensed in english 😂 I'm delighted to see people experimenting with it for other translations in other languages, I really hope it goes well for you!!!!

#spock replies #bookbinding

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chaoticevilspacewitch · 3 months

Text

Objectively Correct Opinions on Inter-RWBY Ships

Bumbleby: I mean, do I really need to say anything? They're soulmates, they're destined for each other, in every life. They're the incarnation of the faunus princess and her human lover. Their arc is amazing and they deserve all the happiness in the world.

WhiteRose: There's a reason almost every piece of spinoff material goes heavy on WhiteRose subtext. One of my few gripes about the storytelling in RWBY is that I wish they had laid the foundations of this so that we could get a dramatic payoff for it in the final volume. The 'Ruby's friendly affection helping Weiss through her damaged upbringing -> Weiss being there for Ruby when the weight of the world truly crushes her' dynamic could be *chef's kiss*. My dream delivery would've been Ruby leaving a piece of her cloak behind when she drank the tea, and Weiss picking it up, sobbing into it, and making it a scarf... followed by a Vacuo scene where Weiss confesses that she didn't have the courage to admit her feelings for Ruby until she thought she'd lost her. And then they kiss.

Monochrome: Obviously not going to happen now, but the enemies to lovers arc could've been fantastic. Plenty of antagonism, if not outright hatred, at the beginning, that slowly blossoms into grudging respect, friendship, and affection. Maybe some climax where Weiss gets captured by the White Fang, Jacques of course refuses to pay a ransom or concede anything to save her, but Blake goes to rescue her. The symbolism of Atlas and Menagerie coming together to stand against the Grimm would be so powerful.

Freezerburn: If Monochrome is the angst-loaded E2L path, Freezerburn is the fun and fluffy one. A frenemy relationship full of light-hearted antagonism that overlays growing affection. They both feel it, but Weiss is too proud, and Yang can't imagine it's reciprocated... until some dramatic even like near-death or major loss pushes Weiss to confess and throw herself into a very surprised, but happy, Yang's arms.

(at this point, I'll just add that BeesSchnees + WhiteRose / Everybody Loves Weiss is probably my favorite RWBY romance configuration)

Ladybug: Honestly the hardest for me to see, although I'm enjoying my attempt to write it. They don't have the natural chemistry for me that the others do, but I definitely think it *can* work with a little effort. I think there's a great dynamic there of Blake being something of a 'cool aunt' figure to Ruby, who desperately needs her pure-hearted affection when her past catches up to her.

Pollination: (Without Enabler. Whenever I reference it, it's presumed to be without Enabler unless otherwise stated). Controversial since it gets used for a lot of purely pornographic smut fantasies that, sadly, frequently cater to male gaze. But I do genuinely feel like all of RWBY harbors a great deal of platonic affection for each other, and I think it's interesting to push that a little bit further into romance. ESPECIALLY if you're willing to go the extra mile of exploring how their inter-group dynamics might work, and their feelings for each other clash. Say, Yang and Weiss being very protective of Ruby, while Blake believes in her ability to take care of herself. Occasional tension still ongoing between Weiss and Blake causing distress for Yang and Ruby, particularly if Yang tends to pick Blake's side and Ruby backs Weiss... OR, the opposite, with Yang having a 'toughen up' attitude that aligns more with Weiss while Ruby's pure compassion leaves her more empathetic to all Blake has been through. All on top of their genuine love for each other. It's *such* a fertile playground for the imagination!

#rwby #rwby ships #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #bumbleby #whiterose #monochrome #freezerburn #ladybug #pollination

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phantomskeep · 1 year

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Putting the "Fun" Back in "Funeral" Chapter Three

AO3 | Chapter Two --- Chapter Four

Chapter Three: Emotional Constipation Has Never Been Easier

When Danny made his way out of the swirling green abyss many dimensional beings called home, the sun had long since set. As he was hovering over the Ops Center of his childhood home, he sent a quick text to a chat that was fondly named “Ghostly Therapy Plus Some.” It was a work of love that Tucker had made for the original ghost-fighting trio - a private server so encrypted that even the Guys In White couldn’t get in. The chatroom was home to many summons for late-night calls, memes based around the Amity Park rogues, and various debates between the now-adults who occupied it. Danny knew, even at ass-o’clock in the morning, that his friends would respond to any message he would send.

It was with no small amount of guilt that any sort of late-night text left Danny’s side of the chatroom. His friends, Jazz and Danielle included, had completely normal lives outside of Danny’s whacky one. Each one of them had successfully left Amity Park. They were in college, or out exploring the earth with no care in the world. It was Danny who was stuck, who was stagnant in a haunt that no longer felt like his.

However, the Ghost King also knew that if he just disappeared for a few weeks his friends would freak.

So, a quick text was sent. A completely normal “hey guys can u call rq” which elected an immediate response from Tucker. It made sense, as he was off in California double majoring in computer science and computer programming. It wasn’t quite as late for him, especially compared to Jazz and Sam. Both of them were on the east coast with majors in psychology and social justice respectively - they were an hour ahead of Danny, timezone wise. Ellie was… somewhere in the world. Chances are she would either respond within a few minutes or would not respond at all.

While the local ghost hero was waiting for a response, he was lazily heading south from Fentonworks. Easily drifting on his back above the cloud layer currently overhanging Amity, Danny couldn’t help but rest his heavy gaze upon the millions of twinkling stars before him. It was only twenty-four hours ago that he had fought his last ghost as a semi-normal person. His entire world had shifted, changing completely. Danny now had the ultimate power of the Ghost Zone. It was a startling realization that hit him quickly, and he couldn’t help but grieve his childhood. While he hadn’t really had much of one in the first place, Danny still wished things could have been different. That he was in university with his friends, studying astrophysics, trying to be an astronaut.

But no. He had to step into a portal to a different dimension and have it open up on top of him. He had to die before he even started highschool - and he couldn’t even do that correctly.

A loud groan of annoyance left cold lips, gloved hands coming up to grasp at white hair. The ghost boy flipped around to float on his belly, facing the dark clouds rumbling below him. Grasping on the tingling feeling of intangibility, Danny summoned his power to the forefront of his being before letting gravity take hold of his form. He dropped quickly towards the ground, eyes closed. Powerful winds encased Danny in a mockery of a hug, tugging at him like a plea to stay in the air where he was safer. It was from years of practice that the halfa knew when to allow such a pesky notion of gravity peel away from him, his monochrome shape hovering just above the down-trodden apartment complex he called home.

A bright flash lit the sky behind Danny’s still form, the clap of thunder chasing behind not even a second later. Bright green eyes tracked his shadow as the late-spring lightning storm passed through Amity. He hovered there, for a moment. Allowing the wild winds whip around him as the storm’s power picked up, shaking the leaves of blossomed trees. Distantly, Danny registered that rain began drizzling from the cloudbed he was just so far above. It was with a mournful shake that Danny finally moved to enter his barren apartment.

When his boots lightly tapped his threadbare carpet floors, Danny let the rings of his transformation wash over him. Gone was the royal outfit he had still yet to inspect, and in its place was the slightly dirty clothes the young man had pulled from his floor earlier that very day. Black hair flopped to cover his eyes, no longer snow-white and being kept out of view by his powers. It was with a quiet sigh that Danny moved to push the strands back, pulling his beat-up phone out from his pocket.

With practiced movements, Danny allowed himself to fall back onto the worn couch shoved in the middle of his living room. The halfa didn’t move to turn on the lights around him - there would be no point in it, after all. He could see better than an average human. Just another of the many side-effects of half-dying.

A quick entering of his password had Danny’s cracked phone unlocked, icy blue eyes skimming the two messages of confirmation from Sam and Tucker. Quickly tapping out “jazz?” and smacking the send button allowed Danny to let the device fall onto his lap. He threw his arms back dramatically, face tipping back to eye the water damage on his ceiling critically.

He really should put in a maintenance notice.

A buzz from the top of his thigh had Danny grabbing his phone. He unlocked it, read the message sent by his older sister, before heaving his body from the old couch. Wandering into the single bedroom of the apartment, Danny snatched his laptop from where it was charging on his bed. The man booted up the clunky device, quickly joining the video call where Sam was already waiting.

The sound notifying other members of the call pinged twice, and Danny couldn’t help the grin and automatic “Jinx!” said at the exact same time as Tucker. Laughter filled the cyberspace as Sam rolled her eyes at her two boys.

“Hello to you too.” The goth’s sarcastic voice echoed around Danny’s barren bedroom. With a dramatic sound, Danny turned and flopped himself onto his bed, keeping a steady hold of his laptop the entire time.

“Hi, Sam, Tuck,” Danny said, smiling as he burrowed himself into his pillows. “How’s school going for you guys?”

Tucker’s loud groan caused Danny’s smile to widen. “It’s nothing but studying for finals and finishing up projects, man.”

“That’s what you get for being stupid and wanting two degrees.” Sam’s cutting remark was waylaid by her smile.

The young tech genius smirked at his camera, using a hand to move his glasses up on his nose. “I think you mean being smart?”

“Actually-” whatever friendly argument Sam was about to stir up died before it could live when a loud ping alerted the three friends to another person joining their call. A round of greetings passed in response to Jazz’s tired appearance, and Danny couldn’t help but feel guilty for interrupting his big sister’s sleep.

“Hi, everyone.” Jazz’s smooth voice came through the speakers of Danny’s beat-up laptop. “Is everything okay, Danny?”

Said man had to fight to keep the guilt from showing on his face. Not only was he interrupting Jazz’s sleep but he was also worrying her with late night calls. While it was true that the young man hadn’t been the best at keeping up with his friends (and sister), he had been trying to talk to them more in the few weeks leading up to his coronation. Obviously, if Jazz thought he would only call if something was wrong, Danny wasn’t doing the best job at it.

“Yeah, yeah.” He said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “Clockwork and I were just talking earlier today and I kind of wanted to get you guys’ opinion?” He paused, but quickly rushed out the last part of his weird explanation. “Well I kind of already agreed to it so I guess this is more of a warning? Kind of?”

Silence filled Danny’s bedroom as his three friends cautiously exchanged pixelated looks. “What do you mean by that?” Sam was the one who spoke, sounding exasperated.

“Yeah, man, can we get some context?” Tucker spoke next, looking worried.

The halfa heaved a large sigh, bracing himself to dodge around the truth as he had learned to do. “So, I was in the Ghost Zone, yeah? And Clockwork and I started talking. He asked me if I could go on a long-term time adventure for him in like a different dimension or something?” He paused, pulling air into his lungs in a habit he never could quite break. “He said that it would only be a few weeks that would pass in this dimension, but a few years in the other.”

Sam immediately started protesting after the words left Danny’s mouth. “No. Absolutely not.”

“I’ve already agreed to it!”

“No! You don’t get to just up and disappear on us for years!”

“It won’t be years, Sam! It’ll just be a few weeks! You guys will all be busy with your finals, anyway!”

“It’ll be years for you, though! You would be like what, twenty-six by the time you came back to us?”

“Maybe, yeah, but it’s not like it’ll matter!”

“Of course it matters, you idiot! You’ll be alone, in a different dimension, growing up without us!”

“It’s not like I can grow up, anyways!” Danny finally shouted, hair being pulled by his shaking hands. He didn’t look up from where he was staring at his laptop’s keyboard. He didn’t want to look at his friends as he finally admitted an ugly truth he had been trying to prepare himself for since gaining the knowledge that he was the future Ghost King.

A stunned silence filled the call, the only sounds Danny could hear was the gentle pitter-patter of rain tapping along his window and the distant sound of rolling thunder.

“Danny,” Jazz’s hesitant voice broke the agony whirling throughout the young man’s head. “What do you mean by that?”

Blue eyes flickered back and forth across his keyboard, taking in the broken “enter” key that he never quite got around to fixing, to the dent the old technology had on its lower left side. Danny remembers when he was told that his forms would stop aging. The raging denial that had filled Clockwork’s tower as he argued against his mentor. How his being had filled with absolute betrayal, all aimed towards his own body.

Clockwork had explained, back when Danny was first told about what being the Ruler of the Realms would entail. How all ghosts eventually stopped aging at the top of their prime, how very few of them had changes happen to their forms after only ten years of being a denizen of the Ghost Zone. He had explained to his ward that because Danny was only half of a ghost and still had a human form, usually this means he could continue to age regardless - though at a slower rate. However, because Danny was meant to take the throne and would therefore have to perform the coronation ritual, he would stop aging as soon as the Realm fully accepted him.

When Danny originally questioned what Clockwork meant, the old ghost had gone on to explain to him that being the King of all Ghosts involved gaining new powers on top of his responsibilities. As soon as Danny gained all his new abilities and learned to control them, his aging would halt.

The near-panic attack that the halfa had after that particular information bomb was something the two had silently agreed to never bring up again.

So, yeah. For the past couple of years, Danny had the time to come to terms with not only being the Ghost King, but he also had to learn to accept that he would never be able to grow old. He would never be able to follow his family and friends into death - a rough lesson he had to learn with Dan - and he would be forever alone in a castle surrounded by the dead. It was something Danny did his best to never truly think about, even though his ghostly mentors did their best to support him through his journey of becoming the King of the Zone.

Danny had never brought it up to his friends before. Ghost Writer, after one particularly bad fight with Valerie, had taught him a lesson he would never forget. The halfa had gone to the ghostly author to rant about how his friends had been pushing him into telling Valerie that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one and the same. Typically, whenever Danny needed someone to vent to he often went to anyone except Ghost Writer, but the then sixteen-year-old had honestly been itching for a fight. Instead of a brawl, though, the gray-skinned being had sat Danny down in one of his library’s squishy armchairs and taught him. The halfa had reluctantly listened as Ghost Writer spoke to him about an old legend of a man who’s cunning was his greatest power. Of how this man, adrift from everything he had ever known, had used the knowledge he had gained fighting enemy after enemy to prove everyone around him wrong and get back to his homeland - to his family. Ghost Writer wove words together in a beautiful way, that night, and for a while Danny really thought he had a shot at telling Valerie why he was being such a bad boyfriend to her.

The two of them were not trying to fight, honestly. But the pressure of having to run off at the drop of a hat to take care of a ghost problem had been quickly becoming too much for both of them. Hence, running into the Ghost Zone to pick a fight with someone who would actually be a challenge. It wasn’t his fault that Ghost Writer suddenly decided that teaching Danny was better than fighting him. And, despite it all, Danny had walked away from his time in the library more sure of himself than he had in a while.

However, when he passed through the portal, he saw a small, helpless blob ghost fighting against the restraints being used to hold them down. Danny was shocked still as his parents shot a bright, electric blue beam straight through the helpless being, leaving behind only a smoking spot on the steel table. His parents had cheered, after that, not noticing their greatest failure hovering in front of their greatest success. The two had excitedly talked about how they were sure that test was the best one they’ve had in weeks, about how excited they were to learn more on how to destroy the pesky unfeeling masses of ectoplasm.

It had made Danny sick to his stomach.

The hope that Ghost Writer had given him that day had rapidly turned into a warning Danny always held closely to his heart. Knowledge is power. Don’t let anyone know you, don’t let anyone see you. Don’t be a fool and give them the power to destroy you.

So Danny hadn’t told Valerie about who he really was. He hadn’t told his best friends about being the future Ghost King. He never dared to tell his parents that their invention had killed him before he even made it to highschool.

Knowledge was power, and power killed.

But here he was, ignoring the story of Odysseus, and telling his friends that he would never get to grow old with them. That he was stuck, forever caught in the body of a young adult until someone challenged him for the throne and did him in.

“I mean…” Danny finally croaked out, curling up a little bit as he carefully balanced his laptop on his knees. “I mean that I’m going to stop aging. Soon. Clockwork said. And I-” He broke off, wishing he could hide his head between his ripped jeans and never have to face his friends as he spilled out such a bitter fact. “I won’t be able to grow up with you guys, anyway.”

“Oh, Danny…” Jazz’s soothing voice wasn’t as comforting as one of her hugs, but her familiar cadence still caused him to shudder out a sob. “Little brother, you know we love you no matter what. If you stayed as a scrawny fourteen year old boy we would still stay by your side. You’re still my brother if you’re old and gray, or if you stay as young as you are now.”

“Yeah,” Tucker’s voice had a shaky confidence to it, sounding forced to even someone as socially inept as Danny. “Y’know you’re stuck with us forever, Danny.”

“But it won’t be for forever,” another sob tore out of Danny’s chest, though there were no tears. “I’m going to be forever. You guys will grow up, you guys will die and I’ll be alone!” He spat the last word out, tearing his hands from where they had been buried in his dark hair. His trembling digits were caught in the eerie green glow of his ecto-blasts, body filled with too many emotions but with no way for them to get out. Sharp eyes turned to the screen where his friends’ faces were warily watching him. Danny caught the reflection of his irises, a radiant neon beacon shining in the darkness of his room. Lightning cracked across the sky, and the sound of it filled up the empty space he had created with his confession.

“I’m going on this mission,” Danny said with a confidence he did not feel. “Clockwork said it would help me. I trust him. He- he wouldn’t tell me something that’s not true.”

“Alright,” Tears were spilling from Jazz’s teal eyes. “Alright, Danny. We trust you, we trust Clockwork.”

“No!” Sam also had tears in her eyes, but she didn’t let them spill. “If this is true, then we need to figure out a way to stop it. There’s got to be a way!”

Tucker’s broken voice cut over the last of the resident goth’s. “Sam, Sam no-”

“We can fix this!”

“There is no fixing it.” Danny distantly noticed his voice was an empty, broken thing. “I’ve asked.”

“We can find a way-”

“Sam, you’re not helping right now,” Tucker cut in. He was scowling, glasses reflecting the light of his laptop. “Like Jazz said, we trust you Danny. If you think this will help, then go for it.”

“We just want you to be safe, to be happy.” Jazz added. Her voice was still shaky, but she was doing her best to be brave in the face of her little brother’s emotions. “If Clockwork says this is something you need to do, then go for it.”

Danny paused, bowing his head. The toxic green glow that had once surrounded him had dimmed, but the pattering of rain only grew louder as the wind picked up. “Clocky said there’s others like me there. That a friend of his would be able to teach me.”

Jazz hummed, the sound barely picked up by her own laptop’s microphone. “That’s good, little brother. Did he say for sure how long you would be gone for?”

“Not really,” Danny said, barely lifting his head. His voice was still devoid of emotion, just a shade of who he was. “He- he said it would be a week or two for you guys. He never really told me how long I would be in the other place.”

A smile that was blinding white despite being forced graced Jazz’s elegant face. “Well, I know for sure Valerie would be more than happy to take care of Amity Park while you’re gone. Thank you for letting us know you’ll be gone!”

Danny was suspicious at Jazz’s sudden acceptance of what he just told her, but brushed off his concerns. At this point, he just wanted to hang up and mope until he felt brave enough to go back into the Ghost Zone. Nor did he want to tell his older sister that calling on his ex-girlfriend was not going to do any good, as he could simply ban travel into Amity Park while the halfa was dealing with this other dimension. That would mean explaining how he could order ghosts around, which was really something he wanted to avoid for the next sixty years.

“Yeah, yeah of course…” Danny said skeptically when Sam and Tucker didn’t say anything. He chanced a glance at his screen, noticing both of them looking down and furiously typing.

“Just- just at least text us before you go.” Emotion coated Jazz’s voice, though Danny wasn’t able to fully pick them apart by the time Jazz kept speaking. “We love you, Danny.”

“Yeah, Danny,” Tucker agreed, his voice still filled with that false confidence. “Maybe see if you can keep us updated every once in a while?”

“I don’t think that would work,” Sam cut through. “So just… keep a journal or something. We all know you have the failing memory of a goldfish.”

Danny couldn’t even muster up the energy to feed into the age-old argument between the two of them. “Y-yeah, okay,” he nodded as he spoke. “I can do that.”

“Good.”

A yawn, obviously fake even to Danny, cracked open Jazz’s jaws. “I need to get back to bed. But, Danny, go get packed and let us know before you go, okay? We’ll keep an eye on Ellie and Amity as much as we can.”

“Sure, Jazz.” Danny agreed, trying to smile at his friends. “I’ll text you guys before I go.”

“You better.” The threat came from Sam, who was no longer angrily typing but was now visibly fuming. “I don’t like this, so you better be safe.”

“Of course, Sam.”

“And get us souvenirs! Take pictures, be a tourist. I expect a lot of stories about everything when you get back.” Tucker cut through the tension created with an easy-going grin.

Danny found it in him to give a small, genuine smile to Tucker. “Yeah, Tuck. I’ll bring you guys back something cool.”

It was then that the four finally said goodbye, and Danny closed his laptop with a definite click. He stared out at his barren room, at the boxes that had never been unpacked.

When Danny originally moved out from his parents’ house, at the ripe age of eighteen, it was with a certain type of excitement. Jazz had helped him house hunt and Vlad - who had long since given up on any attempts at being a major Fruit Loop - was on call to discuss the legal side of things when the siblings got tripped up. He had picked his current apartment because it was on the cheaper side. Because even if Vlad said “no strings attached” with a steady stream of please believe me-this is not a trick-honesty-honesty-hONESTY, Danny couldn’t help but be a bit wary of accepting help.

However, when it came around to actually packing up all his stuff from his childhood home, Danny’s excitement had fled. Packing up his model rockets, he couldn’t help but be surrounded by the memories attached to them. The Saturn V his dad had helped him build when he had come back from his first day of kindergarten crying about his classmates making fun of him from having kooky parents. His dad had helped Danny build it for all of thirty minutes before he was distracted by something down in the lab, and little five-year-old Danny finished it up himself after waiting for his dad to come back. For seven hours, Danny waited for his father to live up to his promise to be back in “just a second”.

His hanging International Space Station had been a gift from his mom, back when he broke his leg fighting off the mutant food in the fridge. Danny had been so scared of the rotted deli ham that had attacked him whenever he was looking for a meal. Jazz had been at a Mathlete meeting or something, so it had been up to Danny to get his own food that day. The sliced ham, old enough to be green without the assistance of ectoplasm, had jumped on him as soon as he opened the fridge. He remembers screaming for his parents to help him, and he tried to climb on top of the kitchen table, away from the mutant meats. They had surrounded him for hours, crying for someone to come save him. When he finally started to gather up the courage to bolt for his room, though, the possessed processed food had finally managed to climb onto his hiding space. Danny had been so scared that he had fallen off the table, twisting his leg in a way that it snapped, the break echoing across the empty house. It was only with the help of adrenaline that he managed to hide himself away in a closet, stuffing random coats under the crack of the door so that the meats couldn’t get to him.

That was how Jazz found him, when she finally made it back from her meeting. She dropped out of Mathletes the next day.

Danny had been seven at the time.

Those memories had haunted him as he packed up the various models he had gotten as birthday presents from his schoolmates, or apology gifts from his parents. It was with a certain sadness that he pulled down the glow in the dark stars lining his walls and ceiling, remembering how Jazz had pestered their parents into helping him put them up.

At the time, it had seemed like every small childhood thing in his room was tainted by the signs of how badly his parents had treated them.

When Danny had finally finished packing up his old room, he couldn’t find the energy to unpack the unlabeled boxes in his new home. So they were stacked hazardously throughout every room. His kitchen, the living room, even his bathroom wasn’t safe.

It was now three years later, and they were still untouched. It had taken his parents six weeks to realize that Danny had moved out. The call he had gotten from them was a furious one - Danny had yelled at them with a type of security he had never felt before. He listed off every reason why he had been so excited to finally move out from under their thumb. Why he was angry at them for not noticing if he just disappeared. How they only ever noticed the bad but never the good. How he couldn’t live in a house where they tortured and experimented on sentient beings.

It was at this point in their argument that his mother hung up. They hadn’t spoken since.

“Get yourself together, Fenton,” Danny mumbled to himself, brushing his laptop off of him. The Ghost King stretched, gazing forlornly at the sealed childhood around him. Shaking himself to get rid of the hazy feeling, the young man started to gather up various important items he might need in a massive blue duffle bag covered in NASA and ghost themed patches.

It was time he packed up, took a nap, and then set off towards Clockwork’s tower, after all.

╭( ๐_๐)╮

Want to keep reading? The rest of the chapter is on ao3 because goDDAMN THIS IS ONE LONG BOI

Taglist (as always, if you want to be added/removed just let me know!): @vixen-uchiha @apointlessbox @mentalcarebear @asphyxia778 @horribly-lost-and-gay @may-rbi @blacksea21090 @kyrianclawraith @fisticuffsatapplebees @stargazing-bookwyrm

#dead on main #DCxDP #DPxDC #dp x dc #dc x dp #Putting the Fun Back in Funeral #the spirit of gotham is a lesbian #pariah dark is a seahorse dad #danny fenton #danny phantom #jason todd #danny fenton needs a hug #danny fenton is a sad little baby man #he's trying to file his taxes #same tho #I just filed mine #and yikes #danny fenton died of taxes not the ghost portal #L bozo

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