#'well that's what you get for being born in the wrong place serves you right~'

[agenderakali]

If you’re a progressive living in a blue state and you see a minority in the southern US lamenting their situation, if you respond to them with “well you guys voted for it” you sound exactly as callous and cruel as the republicans who enacted this legislation against us. And you aren’t actually progressive.

[the-travelling-witch]

𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

summary: the human custom of sharing clothes had been an unfamiliar one for jade, but he has always been a quick study

pairing: jade leech x gn! reader (both have graduated nrc, but a lot of this is reliving school memories)

warnings: fluff, implied smaller reader; i think it made more sense in my head but have it anyway bc i never wanna shut up about him, please applaud my restraint to not name this ‘boyfriend material’

twisted wonderland masterlist

It was true that wearing clothes was a foreign feeling when Jade first came to the shore all those years ago. But he had come to like the human custom, no matter how tedious it might seem at times. Not only did he realise the way one dressed held a lot of power in the way one was perceived by others, it had also served him in making some fond memories.

The ones he remembered most vividly, however, were those which featured you at the centre of them. Through various means, like the course they had attended or familiarising himself with different types of media above sea level, Jade had learnt that sharing clothes was a thing done between close friends or romantic partners, often being hailed as a sweet gesture and being positively received by characters and audiences alike. So when you had caught the eel’s interest, he had decided to see what the fuss was all about.

Despite his tendency to curate situations which would bring about whatever outcome he desired, the first time the opportunity arose had been a happy coincidence. That day, it had started raining cats and dogs right as the bell signalling lunch break rang. Luckily, Jade’s last class of the morning had been in the building the cafeteria was in, so he could watch in amusement as students swarmed towards the building with various forms of rain repellent keeping them dry- or not.

You had been one of the poor, unfortunate souls who had left their umbrella at the dorm that day, a point made abundantly clear by the way you had sprinted with your PE uniform jacket held over your head in a feeble attempt of shielding yourself. By the time you had made it into the dry hallway, your jacket had been absolutely drenched, the rest of your clothes not faring much better. Witnessing your predicament and seeing a chance to put his theory to the test, Jade had slinked over to your side.

“Oya, if I had known you were this fond of water, I would have invited you to the Coral Sea before,” the eel had said, startling you with his sudden appearance. Your reaction had only served for the polite smile on his lips to grow a tad bit wider. “Yet, here I was under the impression humans don’t like getting their clothes wet. Perhaps I have been wrong?”

“You know well enough this wasn’t intentional, so drop the oblivious act, Jade,” you had sighed, rustling through your backpack for something and subsequently taking your eyes off him. “So what do you want? If you’re trying to rope me into a deal over a little bit of rain, I’ll have to disappoint–”

Something warm and dry had landed on your shoulders then, your gaze landing on the black fabric draped over your form first and wandering back to the tall student afterwards. With your mouth parted, opening and closing in the search of something to say, you had borne a strong resemblance to a fish out of water.  

“I heard humans get sick easily after walking in the rain,” Jade had mused, tugging at his vest and shirt to make sure they sat correctly without his blazer, “and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“What are you–” You had shaken your head, overcoming your initial confusion as you began shrugging the jacket back off your shoulders. At that point you had been sure he had some ulterior motive and you hadn’t felt like picking up any shifts at Mostro Lounge that week. “I can’t take this from you.”

“Oh, but you can,” he had insisted with a smile, a gloved hand landing on your shoulder to keep the clothing in place. “If you are worried about my health, I am most touched. However, us mers are used to the cold and therefore aren’t as prone to catching one.”

“That wasn’t really what I was concerned about,” you had mumbled, crossing your arms. “I’m more worried about whatever strings come attached with this thing.”

“You wound me. Do you really think I would abuse my fellow student’s misery for personal gain?” Despite his words, he had chuckled at your resolute ‘yes, you would’. The hand on your shoulder had pressed into your upper back then to bring you in closer in order to throw you off with the newfound proximity, disguised as shielding you from the throng of people heading to lunch. “If this is what stands in between you and caring for your health, how about this: In return for accepting my blazer, you accompany me to lunch? I’ll consider us even then, I promise.”

You had studied the vice housewarden more closely, yet, as usual, his expression did not give anything away. Just then a chilly breeze had blown through the corridor, making you tremble as you instinctively pulled the blazer tighter around your body. 

“Fine, I’ll accept,” you had relented through chattering teeth.

“Wonderful,” the eel had beamed down at you before guiding you forward, still with his fingers splayed over your upper spine. Students had parted like the sea when they had seen the second year approaching and it was a welcome change of pace from having to fight your way into a spot in the queue.

By the time you had found a table, you had slipped your arms through the sleeves of Jade’s jacket to better hold your tray. And when you rolled up the excess fabric to properly use your cutlery, Jade finally realised why lending someone your clothes was a popular trope in various media. 

To say the piece was ill-fitting was an obvious remark, with Jade easily being one of the tallest students around, you were practically drowning in his jacket. It had been eye-openingly endearing for him to say the least. And that was even without factoring in the expression on people’s faces when they realised whose clothes you had been wearing, the Octavinelle band around your left arm added to the context of the scene being a dead giveaway. Yes, as a born predator of the sea, a possessive side of him had revelled in the feeling of staking his claim over you in this way.

But he had shoved the notion down as you had asked him if he liked the food that day and how his morning had been. While he had been able to tell you were still a little wary, cautiously phrasing your responses at first, falling into a casual conversation with you was easy enough. When the anecdote of his brother doing something reckless again made you snort before laughing, he had filed it away as something he wanted to see and hear more of, especially when he was the cause for it.

Lunch had passed a little too fast for the moray’s liking but with one glance at his watch and then one at the still pouring rain, he had quickly devised a plan to monopolise your time to the fullest before returning to your classes.

“Allow me to walk you back to your dorm, so you can change before your next lesson,” Jade had smiled as he pulled out his umbrella, his arm hovering around your back as you had exited the cafeteria. “I assure you, this favour comes with no strings attached.”

Looking back at it years later, perhaps that last part had been a lie, though he was sure neither of you minded. Because after that rainy day, you had interacted more frequently with pleasantly changed feelings. 

On Jade’s side of things, he had been more fascinated with you and your reactions than ever and the image of you swaddled in his clothes had managed to stir these newfound emotions in him. You, on the other side, had started considering him as more than a devious loan eel and allowed the normally tightly locked thoughts and feelings for him to come out of their confinement little by little.

After playing cat and mouse for a while, you had taken all your courage, grabbed Jade by the collar and confessed, not able to withstand the tension and anticipation any longer.  Of course, he had reciprocated your feelings in teasing delight, which, as your relationship had become public, had easily catapulted you up the list of the school’s lunatics in the eyes of many. But you couldn’t have been happier and, the initial complexities of navigating a new relationship aside, Jade was a dream of a boyfriend if he wasn’t hellbent on prodding and poking you for his own amusement.

So it came as no surprise that, during your school years, you had spent a lot of time at each other’s dorms when Jade wasn’t dragging you up some mountain with him. At that point, you’d felt as comfortable in his room as in yours, even if half of it was shared with the sentient tornado that was Floyd, leaving one half to be pristine and the other opposingly messy. 

Jade fondly remembered the day you had come over to study for your upcoming potionology exam, your own dorm room too loud to concentrate and hoping to rope the merman into helping you with your prep questions, especially as his brother had been absent from their room that evening. While many regarded him as the sly and conniving one in the relationship, Jade had to admit you were very good at playing your cards right to where he found it increasingly hard to deny you. Perhaps this cheekiness was one of the things that drew him to you.

Considering you had given up on studying in your room pretty much immediately and had only grabbed your books before marching over to Octavinelle, you had still been in uniform when you joined him at his desk. Ever observant, Jade had quickly noticed the way you subconsciously pulled at the clothes or squirmed in your seat trying to get comfortable. 

So being the amazing and reliable boyfriend that he was, he had fished some comfortable loungewear out of his closet; he had initially bought it to round out his collection of essential clothing items, though frankly, he didn’t wear it much himself. With no plans to work at the Lounge that night, he had thought that it might be a good chance to give the comfy clothes another shot.

In retrospect, maybe he should thank your uncomfortable uniform. 

When you had both changed into the loungewear, he had not only been amused by the way the shirt, which was a regular fit for him, engulfed your upper body or how you had rolled up the ends of his sweatpants. With some playful huffs at his teasing, you had gone back to work until you had finished writing your study notes, at which point you had relocated to his bed, Jade joining you soon after.

Sitting side by side, your boyfriend had taken to quizzing you to see how much you had retained until he had felt your head drop against his shoulder, which was the first time he had taken note of how late it had gotten. For a few moments he had done nothing but study the way your chest rose and fell with deep breaths, your slightly parted lips inviting him to trace his thumb over the curve of them in featherlight reverence. To think that he of all morays would ever be treated to such a peaceful fragment of mundanity, it had made a warmth tug at his heart the same way the waves rolled over the shore in a calming rhythm, which persisted to this day.

It had pained him to wake you again, so could get ready for bed, persuading you sweetly into staying the night. Though he regretted neither getting to see your half asleep face while you had brushed your teeth, nor how he had been able to pull you close to him under the covers, curling his arms around you as his fingers had wandered over the warmth of your skin under his clothes. 

In the comfortable darkness of his room, you had exchanged hushed whispers and murmured confessions as you had settled in his embrace, lulled to sleep by the steady beating of his heart and the lips that  had spelled promises of safety and adoration against your skin. And for Jade, tugged deep into the crevice of his heart, there had formed the image of a future where this domesticity was normality. 

Years later, after graduation, Jade could proudly claim that this fantasy now lived at the forefront of his heart, that he could fall asleep and wake up to your body next to his, cradled by the allure of forever. After all, for no one but those closest to him would he be up with the rising sun to prepare breakfast, humming under his breath as he relived those memories. Though he considered all his efforts paid off when he heard you shuffle into the kitchen before two arms wrapped around his middle and your head leaned against his spine. 

“Good morning to you too, pearl,” Jade chuckled as finished plating the eggs on two plates, then knowingly slid a fresh cup of coffee within your reach. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did, until someone decided to just leave me all by my lonesome,” you grumbled, detaching yourself from him so you could lean against the counter and take a sip of coffee, prepared perfectly to your liking. “I like seeing my beautiful husband’s face first thing in the morning but alas…”

As you stepped into his field of vision, Jade noticed you had chosen not to wear a piece of clothing of yours, but had instead plucked his black dress shirt from the chair he had draped it over the day prior. His dress shirt and nothing else. While it was long enough on you to hide what was for his eyes only, it still showed off the beautiful curve of your legs, ending tantalisingly around your thighs. The few buttons you had closed still displayed the sharp contrast between your collarbones and the softness of the skin peeking through below. It would be all too easy to slip the garment from your shoulder…

“That does seem rather unfair,” Jade agreed as he stepped in front of you, hands ghosting along the expanse of your thighs to rest at your waist, the look in his eyes reminding you of his origins and sending shivers of excitement down your spine. “If you allow me, I have a few ideas in mind on how to make it up to you.”

Within the blink of an eye, his hands had steeled their grip around your waist and lifted you to sit on the counter as he took the opportunity to stand between your legs. Then, with a gentleness which did not match the show of strength, he carefully cupped the back of your head in his palm and connected your lips in a kiss as light and soft as the golden rays bathing your kitchen in light. Your own hands busied themselves with tousling his bed head once again, slowly sliding his black lock behind his left ear as you parted from one another, like a painter putting the finishing strokes on their magnum opus.

“Hm, I might be able to be convinced about forgiving you,” you teased, the lovestruck look in your eyes mirroring his as you slung your arms over his shoulders and crossed them behind his neck in an effort to be even closer to him. 

“I must be the luckiest man alive,” he mused, meaning every word of his playful response.

Yes, after living on land for so long, Jade had truly taken a liking to the human custom of wearing clothes and all the different possibilities it held. Then again, the fondness those memories held probably had nothing to do with the clothes at all.

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twisted wonderland: @savanaclaw1996 @honehbee42

[knight-of-flowerss]

I Will Wait.

Part one.

|__> part two will have smut I think :p also if u wanna be added to the house of the dragon tag list pls comment on here and I’ll add u!!

Benjicot ‘Davos’ Blackwood x Bracken!Reader.

Fluff + a bit of angst

Song inspo: I will wait by Mumford & Sons

Masterlist

Being a Bracken was hard. Well, being a Bracken girl was hard. Your brother, Aeron, was a pompous arsehole. Always acting like he was this big, tough knight, when in reality, he was a little boy who was playing as a pretend knight.

Your uncle, Humfrey, also known as Lord Bracken, was also a pompous arsehole, but he knew how to toy with people. He wasn’t a pretender, he would make promises and keep them. Like the promise that he would get one of his guards to whoop you as a child if you didn’t stop misbehaving, and as all children are, you continued misbehaving, and as you can expect, your uncle stuck to his words, even had the nerve to laugh at you when you tried to sit down on your sore bottom the next morning.

There are many things wrong with House Bracken. But the worst and most annoying of all was the ongoing rivalry between House Bracken and House Blackwood.

Apparently, to the Blackwood’s, years and years ago, the Bracken’s poisoned their dear Weirwood tree. It could be the truth or it could be another of the miscellaneous lies that both houses seemed to spew about each other to back up their rivalry. But in reality, I don’t think either side really knows why they hate eachother.

But what you did know is that you love a Blackwood.

And that was wrong.

Benjicot Blackwood was a sweet boy. Shy and caring. He was everything you wanted in a man. And he didn’t care that you were a Bracken.

Even when you were little, Benji always intrigued you. He was an honourable boy, an honourable man. He would never include a girl in a family feud that all stemmed from jealous men.

“Benji.. the war is coming, isn’t it?..” You whispered to him. You were both deep in the forest, Benji sitting up against a large tree, and you lying in his lap, your head resting on his chest as you get your large dress comfortable on the ground. Playing with his shirt, you look up at him, seeing him staring infront.

“Yes my love. I’m sorry but I must fight, it’s what I was born for. If I cannot protect my Queen then what type of Lord am I?” Benji breathed out. You sit up slightly, placing your left hand on his leg and your right on your chest, your faces inches apart.

“And what about me Benji? If you cannot come back alive then where does that leave me? Married off like a brood mare to the highest bidder? Dead at the hands of the other Blackwood’s? And what if Aegon wins? You could get executed for going against the crown-“

“And you can’t? Rhaenyra will win. And when she does she just might have mercy on the disloyal houses like House Bracken. Or she might kill you. But I know my Queen. The backers of the usurper cunt call her King Maegor with teats. She mourns her children! Her legacy! But even after all that she would spare the lives of those serving the pretender, because she is a good Queen.”

Tears brim your eyes as you stare at him. Wishing this could all be different. “Benji.. I don’t care who wins and who loses, I just want you. I want us to marry and grow old and have children, I want to not be afraid to love you Benji..”

Leaning your head against his, you squeeze your eyes closed and pressed your lips together tightly, trying not to spill tears or a pathetic whimper.

“I’m sorry my love. I promise you I’ll be back. And when I do, I promise I’ll marry you under the Weirwood tree, under the Old Gods and the New. I’ll love you unconditionally, no matter what any Bracken or Blackwood say. You are mine and I am yours. The day we get back, I either ask for your hand or take you as mine if anyone objects.”

You open your eyes and look at him, lips parting slightly. “Really?..” He adorns his sweet little smile finally and let’s out a small, breathy laugh. “Of course my love, you mean the world to me and I’d rather die than let you be used as a political piece for those piece of shit Brackens. Always have been a piece of shit, do you know what your uncle did to my father when they were-“

You grabbed his face, slamming your lips onto his, it was probably the last time that you could and you were going to make the most of it.

It had been two years. Two full Fucking years. It was over, finally. The usurper, Aegon, had been defeated.

From the start of the war ‘til now, you had matured a lot. All Noble women and children of the Riverland houses had lived in Riverrun since the war started, protecting the houses heirs and family.

Two years ago you were naïve, wide-eyed, and dependent on your surroundings to comfort you. Innocence was your very essence.

Now, post-war, you had come to terms with the world, it couldn’t change, people will continue to kill each other for power. But also, you were ‘ready for children’ according to Lady Tully. She claims your hips have widened and your breasts have grown. She is determined to find you a living husband to carry on your Bracken line but in reality, you wanted to taint that line, with Blackwood blood.

Soldiers were returning home.

Finally, your family was returning home.

Thousands of men from each houses spewing through each and every crevice, determined to get home.

Tully men made their way towards the Riverrun to celebrate their victory with their wives and children, with those who fought bravely along side with each other.

Darkmont men marched their way home, proud banner men who were eager to pray to the Seven, giving thanks for the victory that the Warrior gifted them, grateful that the Warrior answered their prayers of protection, valour and skill in battle.

The Piper men stalked towards the Pinkmaiden Castle near the Golden Tooth and the border with the Westerlands. Their loyalty towards the Tully’s unwavering in and out of battle. They make their way home while their faces reflect their words, ‘Brave and Beautiful’.

Other houses marched home, House Endymion, House Deddings, House Teague and others. They were all either matching home or to Riverrun to celebrate. You would try and pay more attention, but you’re too busy to acknowledge each and every men as you’re looking out for your man.

Your silly, crazed, depraved man that, hopefully, still has that shy, tender-hearted, gentle and loving boy inside.

You were just about to turn away, to pack up and return home to see what was left of your family, when you see it.

Three sets of flags, each having a trail of burned, bloodied and beaten soldiers following.

In the middle there rode a man holding the Clement House coat of arms on a large banner, a white flag with for blue, jagged line going down vertically.

They were loyal men of the Tully’s, Defenders of the Riverlands but there is only so much those soldiers can do before they stick their swords through their chest due to the constant bickering of the houses on either side of them.

On the left of House Clement, there was your family. House Bracken. Holding their golden banner with the Carmine coloured Stallion plastered in the middle up high as if they weren’t serving the pretender, the usurper, the loser. They had been defeated, yes. But their life long rivalry with the house over the field seemed to make them forget that.

You finally spotted your brother, Aeron. He looked utterly defeated. But that was in his eyes, his body and mouth concealed his battered condition with a confident facade.

Even from so far away you could tell they were bickering. They always were.

Finally your gaze drifts towards the right of House Clement, to your enemies.

A large, grey Stallion, big hooves, a dark matted mane with bit splotches of white and grey littering it the further you get towards its back legs moved in sync with the others at the front of the House Blackwood line. It was the most beautiful horse you had ever seen, trotting at a slow pace and showing off its regal strut. For being such a big and burley horse, it was quite elegant.

But, as beautiful as the horse was, a god sat atop it. The Maiden herself reincarnated as a Blackwood boy, Man.

Benjicot Blackwood had returned, more a man than those marching. He held his family’s banner up high, displaying their victory.

You smiled and stepped away from the window, running through the halls of the Riverrun. You stood at the front of the gates, greeting men as they trotted in.

All the other houses entered or passed and then finally House Clement entered, the banner men leading the Fyrd.

Next came your house, House Bracken. Your cousins and siblings came boasting in. Upon an auburn horse, your brother chucked the banner to the on foot soldiers and got off his horse.

“Sister!” Aeron shouted as he rushed towards you, “The fucking bitch Queen won, the little fuckers burnt half our house, I’ll fucking kill them.”

“Maybe it is for the best Aeron, we should at least be grateful she hasn’t burnt us to a crisp. And.. I’m glad to have you back brother.” You smiled and pressed a palm to his cheek. He sighs and wraps his arms around you tightly, “I’ve missed you sister, truly. It was horrifying out there, you ever seen a dragon rip a man to shreds? Well, hopefully not. Has everything been alright while we’ve been gone?”

“Of course it has brother, I’m a Bracken after all. A Bracken woman. I know how to handle myself. Now, go inside and show everyone how a Bracken stands tall, even after a loss.”

He smiled at me, tightly nodding. He let of me and started walking inside, catching up with our cousins on the steps.

Finally, finally the Blackwoods came marching. But that large stallion wasn’t matching at the start, Benjicot Blackwood, your Benji was no where to be found in fact.

Panic set in through you. Where had he gone? Had he fled? Had your family hurt him? Your questions were left un-answered as Lady Tully came out.

“Sweetheart, come inside, celebrate.” She spoke to you with great kindness, her hands gripping the sides of your arms and gently pulling you away into the Riverrun.

While the Lady Tully was coercing you inside, Benji was arguing with your uncle, Lord Bracken.

“Your false, usurper, cunt of a ‘king’ has been defeated Lord Bracken, I see no reason why you still think you can act like you have the upper hand.” Benjicot had started to lose his temper.

He had came to Lord Bracken to ask for your hand in marriage, to throw away their rivalries and start a new beginning of joint houses. Of course this was not Benjicot Blackwood speaking, Benjicot Blackwood would rather die than admit this. No, this was Benji speaking. This was the boy who loved a woman speaking.

But as time passed, his new nickname gifted to him in the war came shining through, Bloody Ben came out. He started losing his temper, lashing out at your depraved uncle, calling out his foolishness.

In reality, Benjicot was being just as foolish, lashing out at a Bracken while their large hoard pricks surround him, fucking stupid. But, he had brought Oscar and Kermit Tully alongside him, two long friends of his. So if shit went down, at least they’d die together.

As the bickering continued, both Bracken and Blackwood became increasingly more agitated and aggressive, the two Tully boys standing there like they’re ready to kill them selves and not the men coated in yellow.

“Young Lord Blackwood, do you really think I’d let your tiny Blackwood cock defile my innocent neice?”

Benji huffs, “Lord Bracken, your neice will have the taste of a real man, not a Bracken boy. The gods know we are destined-“ , “You worship the old gods! You will not say the fake gods destine you and her.”

Kermit moves forward, leaning to whisper into Benjicot’s ear, “Ben, maybe we should leave”, Benjicot puts a hand on his chest and softly nudges him away.

“Lord Bracken, rest assured, the old gods and the new know our binding of houses will avoid years of bloodshed in the future-“

Lord Bracken interrupts him, “Why would you want out houses binded? The Blackwood’s hate the Brackens and vice versa, it’s been like that for years, why would you of all people want that? You wish to take a jab at House Bracken while we are at our weakest? Belittle us?-“

“I love her.” Exclaimed Benji, Kermit looked to Oscar and Oscar rolled his eyes, just wanting to sit and feast, tired from the war.

“You know nothing of love, boy.”

Tags: @thethreeeyed-raven @lost-in-fiction-like-ur-mom @tiredsleepyhead @onlyrealjoy

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

*crying sobbing pounding on dazzle's chest* YOU'RE GONNA COME BACK WRONG AND AS CHAGGIE'S FUCKED UP CREEPY MEDICAL RAT PUPPETEER CHILD!! YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!!!!

Razzle needs a hug and i don't CAAARE if it's just from the reanimated body of what used to be his brother turned little sister >:(

this fankid brought to you by

Charlie running around with bandages after an Extermination trying to patch Sinners up, a thing that would inspire her new goat child and something her and Baffy would bond over.

Vaggie as a mom and also one of the only ppl around scarred by a permanent debilitating wound given by heavenly steel, a thing she and Baffy kinda have in common, and motivation for Baffy's research into healing heavenly injuries.

What if a kid was born from a failed attempt at resurrecting someone else and then had to live right next to said person’s memorial statue while watching their older brother sadly cuddling up to it sometimes? Baffy totally doesn't get trauma from this.

other random thoughts below

Having a health practitioner in the Pride Ring is kinda like installing fire detectors in Hell.

Not only is violence happened all the time everywhere but Sinners normally just pull themselves together afterwards and regenerate unless hit with a heavenly weapon, so what's the point of having someone running around stitching up wounds and treating blood loss?

Well.. what's the point of running around with a torn off arm if you don't have to? Or being in pain longer than you need to?

Baffy thinks that sounds pretty stupid.

Baffy is cheerfully chasing down her next VERY reluctant patient as we speak.

Baffy's heart is in the right place (she checked) but her medical practices and bedside manner are kinda lacking (ironic for a former plushie toy) and most Sinners would rather run screaming into a turf war than let her treat them. She's a little too fond of stiches and blood and excuses to see both.

(And what if not even heavenly steal could scar or permanently kill people...?) (Heaven is NOT happy someone is asking this question)

Hell’s creepy new health practitioner

Unlicensed

Self-taught surgeon via rat autopsies

Uses rat puppets to distract and calm her patients (doesn���t realize they find it disturbing)

Largest rat puppet also serves as her assistant

Craves apples

Can be bribed with apples

Reborn from Charlie’s blood and part of the Morningstar bloodline

Fav bedtime story is of how Charlie kept trying to help bandage Sinners up after Exterminations and how that eventually led to Charlie meeting, helping, and falling in love with Vaggie

Looks and acts a lot like her aunt Niffty

Aunty Angel Dust was the receptionist / nurse for kid Baffy's play pretend doctor fun, and he does it for real whenever Baffy sets up a makeshift clinic in the hotel lobby

Husk grumpily lets her try to help him stop drinking

Sometimes uncle Husk wakes up from a hangover with a YOWEL as Baffy gets him in the hindquarters with a syringe of her own healing blood

Cherri Bomb and Cherri Bomb's bombs are Baffy's main source of patients since they're usually in too many pieces to run away from her

Cherry brings them over when she remembers to

mainly so Baffy can assess the damage and unintentionally give Cherri tips on how to build her next bomb even better

Vaggie as the only one slowly picking up on something being very wrong with Baffy's whole heal people at any cost thing even if the price is her own blood and pain

Vaggie is trying to show Baffy that living with scars can be okay but hotel business and heavenly threats keep interrupting them

Baffy has an X shaped white scar where Dazzle’s mortal wound was

Her scar aches when she touches heavenly steel or when large amounts of it are nearby

Yes her head is on fire no it’s not a problem (for her)

Since she can't use heavenly weapons without hurting she mainly just headbutts people with fire when attacking or puppets her small rat army after them

Has to drink blood daily to survive

HATES the taste of blood

does think it's PRETTY tho

Scared of needles but keeps trying to use blood transfusions to help Sinners heal from heavenly steel wounds like her body did

Emily is her doting "guardian angel" / godmother who helped Charlie and Vaggie bring her into the world / failed at bringing Dazzle back

Lute thinks Baffy's 'birth' in an insult to creation and to her and wants the 'abomination' dead

Emily almost goes full seraph fury on Lute's ass for this

Instead Emily reminds Lute and Sera that, as a blood relation of Lucifer, Baffy has immunity from being targeted by heaven, an immunity Emily WILL enforce

Baffy has a running feud with Cannibal Town over whether devouring bodies counts more as recycling / waste management or robbery from the scientific community (which is so far just Baffy)

Since Dazzle died in dragon form Baffy can't shift into it without tearing open her mortal wound scar

she almost died the one time she tried it

Razzle knew she wasn't his dead brother brought back to life when new born her was given a choice between an apple and a donut and she did NOT choose the donut

He loves his new little sister so much and just wishes Dazzle could have somehow known her too

[tsukii0002]

Mephisto: ...

Mc: Hey, what's wrong?

Mephisto: Hum? Nothing, what would happen?

Mc: ...

Mc: Are you Okey?

Mephisto: Of course I'm fine, who do you think I am, human?

Mc: *sitting next to him and putting an arm in his soulder* iI's Okey you know? Not being okey...

Mephisto: *not looking at them* I dont need your pity.

Mc: It's not pity… I'm just worried.

Mephisto: ...

Mc: ... Okey, if you need something I'll be right over here *gets up and proceeds to leave*.

Mephisto: *graving their hand*...

Mc: Meph-

Mephisto: I'm scared Mc...

Mc: *opening their eyes widely*

Mephisto: *looking into Mc's eyes as tears welled up in his eyes* I'm scared of being replaced….

Mc: That's not-

Mephisto: What is the meaning of my life if I cannot be useful to the person for whom I was born?

Mc: *horrified* Oh Mephisto...

Mephisto: If I'm not useful… Do I have any value? Is that why I was replaced? I will never be brave enough for someone to want me by their side?

Mc: *hugging him* That's not true Mephistopheles!!! You'r worth a lot, and you don't need to be useful, you are not a tool, you don't owe anything to anyone!!! You are an individual, a wonderful demon…

Mephisto: *letting himself be hugged*

Mc: Who made you believe that?

Mephisto: All my life is what I have been taught… The meaning of my existence is to serve the royal family… And since the arrival of those ange- no, of those brothers I have lost my way….

Mc: It's okay, sometimes we feel lost but it's not a bad thing, to find ourselves we have to get lost first, don't we?

Mephisto: *wiping away his tears* For a human, you're pretty good at this… Where do you find the words?

Mc: *tightening the embrace* I am used to, and quite familiar with the feeling of being lost, of feeling in the middle of a place that should be yours but where you don't belong… But it's all right, it's just different.

Mephisto: Thanks Mc...

Mc: Not given them..

Mephisto: Don't say a word about this to anyone.

Mc: Okey, but you have to invite me to one of those extravagant nobles' dinners.

Mephisto: *clinging to the embrace* deal.

.

.

The last lessons have made Mephistopheles gain many points in my heart 🥺, how can you be so tsundere if you have a heart that doesn't fit in your chest? Anyway, a self-indulgent post after lesson 37. That purple-haired demon deserves more love.

[zeke-the-nighthawk]

Through The Eyes of Shermie Pines

Or my Shermie Pines fic that was cross posted on ao3 :)

1950

***

Shermie was five years old when her little brothers were born

They were twins. Two boys. Identical

Well, except for their fingers

One of the twins had polydactyl, which meant he had an extra sixth finger on each hand. But that didn’t matter, Shermie still loved her little brother. No matter how many fingers he had

”Shermaine,” Her mother called. She resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose in disgust

She never liked her name; it was too fancy and had too many vowels. She liked her liked her nickname better, Shermie. It had a nice ring to it

”Shermaine,” Her mother called again “would you like to hold them?”

Shermie nodded and the two of them were placed in her outstretched arms

”Careful,” Her mother said, adjusting her arms so she could hold them right “you wouldn’t want to drop them would ya?”

Shermie stared at them in awe, they were so tiny

One of the babies was screaming his head off while the other stared up at her with wide brown eyes

As she looked at them, Shermie made a promise

A promise that she would protect them, no matter how hard things got, they would always be safe. She’d make sure of it

”What are their names?” She asked her mother; she didn’t want to have to keep calling them “the twins.” They needed names so she could give them nicknames. Just like hers

”Stanley,” Her mother said, pointing to the screaming baby “and Stanford” She pointed to the one with six fingers

Shermie couldn’t help but giggle. Heh. Two Stans

***

1957

***

Shermie was twelve years old when he realized he might be a boy

He knew it was wrong. People didn’t just change their gender whenever they wanted!

Or… did they? He didn’t know, but he knew his father wouldn’t be impressed

His father, Filbrick Pines, was never impressed by anything or anyone. It’d take a lot to impress him

This wasn’t something that would

He always knew he was less feminine than the other girls in his class. His mother would always recall the times when he was a baby and he kicked and screamed whenever she tried to dress him up in a skirt or dress

He remembers the day clearly too

He remembers his brothers being confused on the matter, being only seven, but still being happy they had a big brother

He remembers telling his parents, his mother saying she always had a hunch and his father simply humming in acknowledgment

He remembers running straight to the bathroom, grabbing scissors, and chopping off his hair till it only reached his ears

He remembered how happy he felt looking in the mirror at his reflection

He wasn’t Shermaine Pines anymore

He was Sherman Pines, now and forever

***

1962

***

Shermie was seventeen years old when his brothers claimed to see The Jersey Devil

He didn’t believe them of course but he still played along with their story, giving over exaggerated reactions to their story

They had a wild imagination those two, having dreams of getting out of Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey and sailing the world looking for treasure and babes

He had similar dreams as well, but instead of traveling the world, he wanted to travel through space

Space was always such an interesting concept to him, a vast expanse full of planets, stars and galaxies

It was beautiful, and Shermie planned that when he was eighteen, he was gonna get the hell out of New Jersey and become an astronaut

The Pines brothers had dreams

Dreams of leaving New Jersey and never coming back

Dreams of changing the world and making a name for themselves

Whether these dreams came true or not, we may never know

***

1968

***

Shermie was twenty-three years old when he returned home from Vietnam

So, he didn’t become an astronaut like he planned, but he did serve his country and (hopefully) made his family proud

He couldn’t wait couldn’t wait to see his Ma and Pa again but was mainly excited to see his brothers and newborn son, Henry

He had Henry a couple weeks before he returned to Vietnam and he knew his mother had been working tirelessly to keep the baby healthy, so he’d make sure to thank her

He limped up the front steps and leaned against the door frame. He lost his leg during battle and he had to use a prosthetic. It took some getting used to but he thinks he has the hang of it now

When he opened the door, he didn’t expect to see only one brother standing beside his parents

Only one? Where was Stanley?

“Where’s Stanley?” he asked, eyeing all the individuals in the room

His mother and Stanford averted their eyes away from him, looking nervous

His father however, gruffly replied “He doesn’t live here anymore”

Doesn’t live here anymore? Had Stanley finally decided to move out?

And if so, why before graduation? Why didn’t he take Stanford? Weren’t they supposed to sail the world together?

”What happened?” he asked

There were a million questions running through his head

His father replied once again, this time with more frustration in his voice

“He sabotaged our chances of getting out of this dump. Stanford here,” He placed a hand on Stanfords shoulder

Shermie didn’t miss the way he flinched

His father continued “Was going to go on and make something of himself but that knucklehead Stanley had to go and ruin it. So I kicked him out. He can’t come back until he’s proven himself”

Shermie felt his blood boil

As he got older he started to despise his father and the way he would treat Stanley, constantly belittling him and comparing him to Stanford

It was clear all Filbrick Pines cared about was the money

”Ma, Stanford,” he called calmly “can you leave the room for a second? I need to have a little chat with Pa”

They listened and promptly left the room, Stanfords head laying low on his shoulders

The “chat” ended up being a twenty-minute screaming match between the two of them. Shermie knew his father was an unkind man, but this was too far. Stanley was still only a child

Shermie barely survived his five years out on the battlefield

Stanley wouldn’t last two months

In the end, Shermie packed his and Henry’s bags, kissed his mother on the cheek, and waved Stanford goodbye

He placed Henry in his car seat as he moved to sit in the front. He started up the car and drove out of New Jersey, not looking back

A year later, Stanford would move out and go to college

All the Pines brothers had left New Jersey, even if it wasn’t for the reasons they hoped, never to return

***

1982

***

Shermie was thirty-seven years old when his little brother died in a fatal car accident

Shermie hadn’t seen Stanley in a little over ten years and the next time he hears about him it’s to attend his funeral

He held his mother close as she sobbed into his shoulder, his father not even bothering to show up. Shermie didn’t care, he didn’t want to see his face again anyway

His son wasn’t with him unfortunately, it wasn’t because he was too young to understand the concept of death. No, it was because he wouldn’t understand the loss the people around him are experiencing

He never knew his uncle Stanley, only through stories. So, he was currently being watched over by a babysitter

Shermie scanned the crowd for his other brother Stanford. After looking around for a while he eventually found him standing in front of Stanley’s grave

His heart hurt just looking at the sight

That was his twin brother who he just lost, quite literally losing a piece of himself

Shermie couldn’t help but notice that Stanford looked a little different, but then again, he hadn’t seen Stanford in a long time either

Who knows, maybe at some point he decided to get a mullet

***

1999

***

Shermie was fifty-four years old when he became a grandfather

He was also fifty-four years old when he realized his deceased brother might not be deceased after all

The twins’ birth had definitely been a hectic day

Starting off, his grandson Mason had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, so they made sure to cut the cord off as soon as possible. Luckily, he survived

Secondly, Shermie almost cried when the twins were placed in his arms

They looked so much like his brothers it hurt

What made it worse was that Mason was born with a strange birthmark in the shape of the Big Dipper on his forehead, just like how Stanford had been born with six fingers

Speaking of Stanford, Shermie was starting to suspect he was in fact not Stanford

When Stanford had showed up and gotten to hold the twins he wouldn’t let them go, which Shermie completely understood

Stanford having lost his twin and now there’s a new pair of twins in the family

Shermie could only imagine how he felt

But what confused him the most was Stanford’s hands

While Stanley and Stanford had been identical, it was easy to tell them apart due to their hands. So, when Shermie had gone to retrieve the twins to return them to their mother, he couldn’t help but notice Stanford’s hands— or rather, Stanley’s hands

He had five fingers on each hand and there was no scar indicating that one of his fingers was amputated

Shermie desperately wanted to ask just what exactly was going on, but Stanford (Stanley?) just wouldn’t let the twins go. Shermie had to practically fight him just to get him to hand them over and by the time they were back in their mother’s arms, he had already forgotten that he was going to ask Stanford about his hands

But the real question was, if this was Stanley, then where’s Stanford?

***

2013

***

Shermie was sixty-eight years old when he went with his granddaughters to visit Gravity Falls, Oregon for the summer

They had spent the summer there last year and had apparently loved it so much they begged their father to go this year

He hadn’t been to Gravity Falls up until this point, he knew it was where Stanford lived but he never actually took the time to visit

It was a nice little town surrounded by woods on all sides, a couple of small buildings and houses and whatnot as well. It was apparently so small that everyone in the town knew the twins, including the mayor!

It was a nice quiet walk up to Stanford’s place; the silence being being broken by the occasional greeting from the townsfolk

Eventually, they arrived at Stanford’s place, the “Mystery Shack.” Stanford had (for some unknown reason) transformed his house into a tourist trap sometime after Stanley died, selling fake oddities to unsuspecting tourists. According to his granddaughter Mabel, Stanford had passed down the deed to one of his old employees Soos, so he now ownership of the shack

They hadn’t even made it up the steps before the door swung open and he was face to face with Stanford. Stanford seemed to stiffen under his gaze, “Sherm-“ he was cut off as the twins came barreling towards him with a simultaneous shout of “Grunkle Stan!” and wrapped their arms around his middle

Stanford averted his eyes away from his older brother as he grinned down at the twins, “Hey there you little hooligans!” He ruffled their hair as they both protested

Shermie was about to greet his brother when another voice spoke up from behind Stanford

”Stanley are they here? You said that we would both greet them toge-“ The figure stopped in their tracks

It… was Stanford. The real Stanford. The one that had gone off to college and gotten 12 PhDs. The Stanford with six fingers. The Stanford… he hadn’t seen in a little over forty years

Stanley noticed his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck “Uh, surprise?” He said, giving a half-assed version of jazz hands

Shermie transferred his gaze to him, arms crossed “You two have some explaining to do”

They both winced “Just… why don’t you come inside? We’ll explain everything” Stanford said, leading him inside the shack

The inside was pretty decent, save for the (obviously fake) oddities covering every corner. A six-packalope? How did Stanley come up with this stuff?

Once they were inside the living room they took a seat. Shermie sitting on the couch with Dipper and Mabel on both sides of him while Stanley sat in the recliner with Stanford standing beside him

The air was tense as the three men stared at each other, waiting for someone to speak

Finally, someone did. Dipper cleared her throat awkwardly “Um, me and Mabel are gonna go unpack our stuff in the attic. Is that alright?”

Stanley waved her off “Yeah yeah the sooner you get to it the better” He grumbled, never taking his eyes off Shermie

The two twins nodded as they bolted out of the living room and up the stairs, bags in tow

It was silent once again until Shermie spoke up quietly “If one of you isn’t gonna explain what’s going on I’m getting in my car, going back to California and forgetting this ever happened”

Stanley instantly spoke up “Shermie wait! Just…” He looked towards Stanford “We’ll… we’ll explain everything”

And explain everything they did. Quite literally starting from the beginning in 1962 to Stanley getting kicked out in 1968. Then they eventually got to Stanley’s “business” and Stanford’s time in college

Then… they hit 1982 and that’s where the air got tense. The two of them having a big fight that eventually led to Stanford being trapped out of our dimension for 30 years, Stanley stealing his identity and faking his death

Then they talked the summer of last year and that’s when Shermie finally felt the urge to stop them from talking. His granddaughters had been through so much but were still able to make more friends than they ever did in Piedmont, no wonder they wanted to come back so badly. Still Shermie let them finish

When they were done it was silent. Stanley and Stanford afraid of what their older brother might say in response to all this. Shermie still taking the time to process everything

Stanford opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when Shermie came barreling towards the two of them as he took them in his arms

”I’m so sorry,” Shermie whispered into their shoulders “I promised to protect you and I couldn’t even do that”

Stanley returned the hug and Stanford soon followed “Shit Sherm…” Stanley mumbled quietly “If it’s anyone’s fault it’s ours, don’t blame yourself for it”

“But it is!” Shermie protested “I should’ve been for you guys but I wasn’t! I feel horrible”

”Well, you can be here for us now,” Stanford said “it’s not to late”

Shermie nodded into their shoulders “Yeah.. yeah I like that”

From the stairs, Dipper and Mabel watched with a soft smile as the brothers all embraced, happy to see them together again

The Pines brothers are finally all together again. For now, and forever

[physalian]

Character Types: Femme Fatales & Comic Relief

These two have nothing in common except the one thing I hate about them: By design, they exist to fulfil one shallow purpose, so I’m lumping them together.

—

Comic Relief

Characters that only serve one purpose in the cast stick out like a sore thumb. “Comic Relief” characters exist solely to be funny, as if the rest of the main cast is incapable of humor, and that this character is incapable of any serious moments. Instead of distributing different flavors of humor—sass, dry wit, jokers, pranksters, dark humor, dad jokes and puns—the writer comes up with their grumpy group of heroes, then I guess thinks “oh I need somebody funny to cut some of this seriousness”?

But on top of that, as this character exists just to be funny, there’s usually comparatively less development and rich character nuance for the comic relief over the other heroes. They get whatever crumbs are left over after every other more important character has eaten.

If they do have some tragic backstory or any serious moments, they are still the one desperately trying to cut the tension and either annoying other characters and the audience in the process, or being quite tone deaf in their endeavors.

The one everybody hates: Jar Jar Binks

The one some people hate: Olaf

The one that subverted himself right quick: Sokka

Prequel apologists, step aside. The writing is still terrible and Jar Jar even in Clone Wars features in episodes (“Bombad Jedi”) I routinely skip on rewatches. Maybe he’s funnier for little kids? I haven’t seen every piece of SW media out there but I can’t recall a single moment where Jar Jar has any moment of depth or seriousness and he’s frequently the most inconvenient element of any mission he winds up on.

Honorable mention for C-3PO, far less irritating but still largely a bumbling idiot (I love him, to be clear, he’s just always in the wrong place at the wrong time). The droid factory shenanigans on Geonosis comes to mind, as well as when he was so useless, he was riding around in a sack on Chewie’s back because he got disassembled in ESB.

Jar Jar is funny, but he’s only funny, and most often incompetently funny.

Olaf’s dark humor is what saves him for me personally. “I’ve been impaled” still makes me chuckle no matter how many times I see Frozen. Not only that, but he does have the big heart moment of the movie with Anna. He has zero tragic backstory, he was basically born yesterday, but he’s not a one-dimensional cardboard cutout.

Another honorable mention to, like, 8 out of 13 Dwarves, specifically Bombur, in the Hobbit trilogy. A combined 9 hours of movie and they chose to fill it with Mirkwood River Rapids™ instead of making up development for the heroes.

Sokka, on the other hand, looks like he’s going to be the sarcastic comedic relief, but he becomes so much more and wastes no time doing it. Compare him to the version of him written by the Ember Island Players. He’s been essayed about to death and there’s nothing more I can say about him that hasn’t been said before so I’ll leave it here: Sokka (and Toph) is comedic relief done right.

The whole cast is funny when they want to be, serious when they have to be. No one character gets designated “the funny one” or “the hopeful crying one” or “the buff one” no matter what Fire Nation propaganda wants you to think.

Final honorable mention to Leo Valdez. He has a ton of depth and nuance to him, but is very much "the funny one" of the Seven. Comparing Percy's trip to Ogygia with Leo's and one was a rather sullen "you could have this peaceful escape if you left your destiny behind, but you won't, noble hero" and the other was a bizzare romcom that, to me, wasn't funny, and just created a whole new set of issues surrounding Calypso's character.

—

Femme Fatales

Femme Fatales exist to look pretty, kick ass, pretend to be strong female characters, and be something for the male characters and male viewers to guiltlessly lust after because she’s asking for it. This is not a badass woman protagonist. The classic depiction of this trope is the shallow accessory to a male character, a seductress meant to either manipulate the hero into straying off his moral high ground, or to pit him against another man.

So.

Black Widow.

In Iron Man 2, you can argue that she’s supposed to be shallow. She plays it very close to the chest as a spy and has no reason to let any other characters, especially Tony, behind her mask. It’s not her movie.

In this movie specifically, though, she is this trope exactly. The bodysuit, the perfect hair, the whole changing in the back of the car, her provocative fighting style. She is eye candy that can kick ass, the only thing missing is an attempt at seducing Tony but you'll still catch him looking. That’s the femme fatale.

Extremely popular in 80s and 90s action movies as an accessory to the male protagonist but they've existed as long as film has. If he doesn’t have a damsel in distress to save, he has a sexy leg lamp to woo.

But Black Widow shows up in another decade’s worth of movies and dies to motivate the boys (and because her life matters less than Clint’s because he’s got a family while she can’t have kids), only getting a solo film after they killed her off, but in that time, they gave her plenty to do.

Natasha has many moments with depth, most of them in Age of Ultron and Winter Soldier, but she does have them. She laughs, she cries, she jokes, she’s smart and resourceful in moments where she doesn’t have a male character to impress, she has strengths beyond her physical attributes, and she has flaws. And, she and Steve Rogers miraculously weren’t written a romantic subplot in Winter Soldier.

On the one hand, Natasha knows exactly what she is and her fighting style fully leans into using the weapons she has as a woman… but on the other hand, in creating her character, the writers chose to lean into sexing her up.

I love her character, I just don’t love what they did with her.

—

Both of these character tropes tend to feature in scripts that aren’t the best to begin with. A strong, nuanced cast of heroes doesn’t usually have that one outlier that completely drops the ball.

All I’m asking for is to not designate any one character as the bearer of whatever you forget to give the rest of the cast. “Oops I forgot the funny, let me add in a comic relief, here’s Bob,” is a disservice to Bob. “Oops I forgot the women, let me add in this femme fatale, here’s Nyxandra,” is a disservice to Nyxandra.

Let every character have some funny moments.

You want a femme fatale? Go right ahead, honestly, but maybe don’t make her the only lady in the cast? If she’s a femme fatale because she wants to be, that’s great, but maybe have a woman who proves that you do, in fact, know how to write women?

[rius-cave]

I just saw you mention Adam having PTSD from the exterminations and honestly it's so valid. He did enjoy doing them, he did have fun, yes, but I firmly believe he started it because of his unprocessed trauma that he wasn't even aware of. I mean, I see the way he's masking himself (literally and figuratively) as a way of protecting himself from people. Back when he was "born" he was literally rejected and betrayed by the very people he supposedly loved and who were supposed to love him, then he was practically abandoned and thrown out of Eden by the same people who mentally harmed him in the first place. This guy is badly damaged and no one can convince me otherwise. And he was damaged from the start so he couldn't possibly realize that something was very not okay because these were the very first people he knew. And we all know pushing down our feelings and ignoring them comes with concequences. In his case, the frustration manifested in violence, on top of that violence against his own descendants who chose the wrong path, who had tainted humanity with their acts. He also probably connects them with Lilith and Lucifer who caused it in the first place, bringing evil to the earth. I also love to consider the extermination as a form of personal revenge on Adam's side, since he isn't able to carry out a direct revenge it serves as one for him.

But he knows it's wrong. He knows either way that what he's doing is bad and cruel, and even if he actively avoids admitting that to himself, he subconsciously knows.

Then he gets to Hell. He most likely only used to visit Hell during exterminations, which means his brain most likely strongly connects the place with that. Hence, being in Hell is a constant reminder for him. On top of that, he actually sees what life is like in Hell. That all those "bad bad sinners who can't change and tainted humanity" aren't all bad actually. And perhaps he doesn't care about them, but I don't think he could just ignore that. He has to live among them, he sees the way they live and he's forced to realize that they're still human souls and not pure evil and rotten. It will add to the guilt which he probably also doesn't admit that he feels, because he didn't do anything wrong, right..? Everything was reasonable... But then why does it feel so bad?

Okay this turned our very very long but it just hit me and I could still go on about it lol, I'll spare you from that

First of all, thank you anon for putting into words this thing that I'm not smart enough to do myself.

I really wouldn't dare to say that "canon" Adam is this deep and has oh such big trauma and is only misunderstood by everyone and bla bla, because if I'm honest, the way he's written in the show doesn't lead me to believe that Vivzie really cares about fleshing him out to be a super complex character. And hey, fair enough, I'm taking him from her anyway lol.

But if if we stopped for a second to think about it, Adam definitely has the potential to be a much deeper and complex character that would be able to touch upon themes like this. I desperately need to know when did everything go wrong, was it really Eden? Was it during his time on Earth? Was it after he died???

I honestly think it's kind of a mix of all of them, but the biggest shift was after he died. He was the first human soul in Heaven, hey, it's not so bad in here!! Maybe his suffering on Earth was worth it after all if he was able to spend the rest of Eternity in a place like this! Now he just needs to wait for his family to get there as well so it can all be complete!

Except they don't, not all of them in fact. A couple of his sons, maybe or maybe not his wife, but it's definitely not ALL of them, where is everybody!? He's pretty sure his grandchildren would start aging by now too, where did everybody go!?

Of course, that asshole has them. It wasn't enough for him to steal his first wife and lie to them so they'd get kicked out of Eden, he also took a bunch of his children, his grandchildren, his great grandchildren and so on and so on.

Look at everything they do on Earth, it's disgusting, and it's all that fucker's fault. None of this would've happened if it wasn't for him, if it wasn't for the other sinners who kept repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

And he starts the exterminations after centuries of wallowing in that hatred. But of course, they're only the result of years of watching how everyone just eventually leaves him. And he doesn't realize when that violence starts becoming just a way to cope with his intense hurt.

I feel like I went a little off track there, forgive me I am a little scatterbrained right now. But in any case, I absolutely concur with you!

[evelhak]

I’m curious about a few: Propinquity, Anem and Bitchberg (a great name, lol)

Well, you've already read about Bitchberg by now from the previous ask. :D

Lol, I actually winced a little when I saw you asked about "Propinquity" since it's the current working title of my Akashi centric fic, and I know you don't find him that interesting. It's still just a bunch of "notes" (=bits of monologue and dialogue that come to me and I have to write down so I won't forget). I haven't actively started this fic yet, since I can't really write multiple projects at the same time. I will probably have to finish another shorter fic after The Luminous Things, before I get to this one.

I know the opening lines, though:

Winning is like breathing. Sometimes I wake up, gasping for air, but my lungs seem to have fallen into a partial state of paralysis.

Or something fairly close to that. The idea has been in my head for a long time, because I really enjoy digging up ignored dimensions that kind of naturally follow from whatever is going on in canon.

There is of course one thing in this fic that could interest you: The main love interest is an OC. :) You know some things about Azumi already. Here's a snippet that will probably serve as her introduction in the fic:

I absolutely pretended to be the empress of this micro-utopia, growing up. Not because it was mine to conquer, or control. Because it was mine to know. To pick apart. Explore, taste, and merge with. A little pocket of wonder in this huge city, a bubble with its own rules. That's what I came to realise pretty soon, anyway. About the world. How different, how illogical and ultimately unsatisfying it was, compared to my shrine, my home, my own ecosystem, my island of undisturbed ground. It frustrates me that the rest of the world doesn't know how to do it. Live and let live. Give and take. Circle of life. A system that works. Because I was born into it. An heir to it. Happiness.

Micro-utopias are a huge element in my whole fic series as it progresses, and there are several kinds of them, Azumi's home life being its own example. Utopia is generally something I'm really interested to write about, especially because a lot of people claim you can't write interesting utopia without making it dystopia in the end, and I very much disagree with that, as people are always imperfect, so you don't need to add any intentionally awful circumstances for a story to have conflict, if you're writing believable people. For me, the key to what makes the most out of utopia is to centre it around whose utopia it is and why. This got slightly off topic, these are just themes I really like exploring and since my fics are my playground, I definitely use them for exploration of things I might want to write later in a more polished form in my original fiction.

The working title "Propinquity" came while I was writing a chapter in The Luminous Things where Kagami ends up lost in Kyoto (it's complicated) and spends the night in Azumi's place, where he has many enlightening conversations with Akashi. (Azumi and Akashi are already together in my main fic timeline, their own fic will cover how they got together, among other things.)

Here's a snippet from the chapter also titled "Propinquity", which I haven't yet posted anywhere, so things might still change a little, but for now, Akashi muses something like this in it:

"[Propinquity] is the central theme of this shrine. Things develop, and change, and prosper in propinquity. It rings true, doesn’t it? Right things, wrong things… so it really matters what you surround yourself with. It’s not enough to know and think. You have to see, and taste, and touch… A plant wouldn’t grow from the understanding that it needs water, if it never got it. It would still die from poison, no matter how informed it was. Azumi knew all of this, so bone deep. That’s why she was disappointed with the world. That’s why she retreated back to her paradise. I think that’s what caught my attention at first. How she had a physical place to go to when she needed to get away."

I probably would not have developed any need to write a story about Akashi's love life on my own. (Well, it's not all there is to it, but it is a how-they-get-together type of story). It was the influence of my ex, who's a big Akashi fan, and as I have probably said before, Azumi was originally her OC that we worked on together a lot. Eventually I grew attached to Akashi and Azumi together, and now I have my own version of the story.

I don't think I actually read any Akashi x OC fics myself, but my ex read them and complained about them, usually, and I picked up on two pretty common patterns, which I didn't want to do: I didn't want the OC to be 1) poor, or 2) have a similar family dynamic and childhood trauma as Akashi. This is because I wasn't interested in dealing with the power imbalance that tends to come with very different socioeconomic standing, and I also didn't want to write a relationship where people get stuck in validating each other's trauma, and it takes them a long time to grow beyond that phase because their relationship is centred around how similar their experiences are. I wanted to hit that sweet spot which I like the most, a relationship that centres around growth, having enough common ground, and being inspired by things about the other that you've never experienced before, or even believed really exists in the world. The kind of relationship that makes you feel that you want to fill your own gaps, and a key factor in that is the proximity, or, propinquity to a person you can rely on, because they don't have the same weaknesses as you. I just really love writing about people who are good influences to each other.

A lot of this fic will also be about dissociation and trauma. Yay.

Anem, then, is another original novel I've started multiple times without being completely satisfied. The premise is pretty classic religious cult + good girl/bad girl dynamic, or at least would seem like that in the beginning.

Here's how I seem to have described it on my website at some point:

Dina is a good girl. She picks up flowers every morning, to put on the altar of her family’s home. She’s chaste, she’s beautiful. She fears God. Semira is a “Wild One”, she rarely goes to church, she speaks out of turn. She could be beautiful, if her hair wasn’t so short. Dina doesn’t think it’s her job to save Semira. After all, if the Fathers don’t know how to help the girl, how could she? But Dina keeps ending up spending time with Semira anyway, and the more she does, the stronger the big black swirling something grows in her stomach. There’s clearly something very wrong about Semira. And there’s something wrong about the woods surrounding their isolated village. Dina knows she’s supposed to stay away, but Semira keeps going into the woods.

It has a lot bigger world and anything but clear-cut themes and dynamics, even though it may seem like that in the beginning... and it's one of those early projects that are sort of everything, because you're not good at narrowing it down yet. It's like a dystopian supernatural medieval fantasy horror philosophical cult story I wrote just to barf out everything I was thinking in my early years of studying theology. It's certainly a cult story, but is the cult the big bad or the world around it? It's certainly a queer story, but is it a love story or a hate story? It's certainly trying to say something, but what? No one knows, not even me. It's a big mess.

I'm also starting to feel like I'm dealing with every element and theme I have in this story, in some other story too, and coincidentally someone from my writing group actually just got a book published this year that has a strikingly similar setting and themes, (we both wrote them without knowing about each other) and even though it shouldn't, it does kind of add to my confusion to what to do with this story. I do still want to write it at some point, but it's a big question mark that sort of just pops up from below the surface every time I'm not actively thinking or writing about another project.

Some angsty pictures of Dina, also drawn in my early university years (Oh Lord how obvious my Arina Tanemura influences still were in the way I draw):

Yeah... at least they are accurately dramatic to the story.

Thanks for the ask. I hope there was something entertaining. <3

For anyone curious, here's the WIP list.

[mercurytrinemoon]

Aries risings and eclipses: comebacks and rebrands

There's a few celebrities that caught my attention in the past couple of weeks and I felt the urge to look at their charts and talk about them a bit. What I've quickly realized is that… they're all Aries risings and we just went through a total eclipse in Aries and are still battling through a Mercury retrograde (also in Aries). So, this is an Aries rising-only astro news compilation.

Shakira

During the recent Easter break I found myself having a Shakira moment, reminiscing on her old hits and belting out Underneath Your Clothes. I thought that's probably thanks to Mercury just stationing retrograde, which often makes people go back to old stuff. And then I thought… What if everyone's having a Shakira moment now?

And this is when I realized suddenly she's everywhere: giving a surprise show at Times Square, being a guest on Hot Ones, giving a ton of new interviews that flood my YouTube recommend page. She just released a new album but seems like this is a huge reset for her and her name is, once again, on everyone's lips. Shakira is an Aries rising and an Aries Venus with nodes in her 1st and 7th axis - she's not quite an eclipse baby (although almost a Full Moon baby!) but nodes close to her axis may make her sensitive to eclipse seasons. Her ascendant ruler, Mars, is exalted in the 10th house in Capricorn, giving her a slow and steady rise to success and a grounded, solidified place in the public eye.

Interestingly, she received an MTV Vanguard award just last autumn at a time of her exact reverse nodal return, which already foreshadowed things for her.

Her new album was released on March 22nd this year, just a couple of days after Sun ingressed into Aries and a few days before the eclipse. What's important to note that she's also going through her Jupiter return in Taurus. Mercury retrograding in her 1st house makes people and the media reminisce on her career and what she achieved up to this point. Of course a planet retrograding in someone's 1st house can cause a hiccup of some sorts and that happened in her case as well - there was a small outrage surrounding her comments on the last year's Barbie movie and how she and her sons hated it.

Jojo Siwa

Switching lanes let's get to someone that is now talked about in the media excessively but for the wrong reasons and that is… Jojo Siwa. Now, I had to read up on her after I saw people poking fun at the way she's presenting herself but apparently, she was all rainbows and sunshines until she changed her color palette to black and is now calling herself edgy and groundbreaking. She was on Toddlers and Tiaras I believe… so you get the vibe.

Siwa is a Taurus stellium (makes sense with the bows and glitter) with Aries rising, of course. Her ascendant ruler is right next to Neptune in the 11th house, which can bring potential problems when it comes to how she's being received by the public. The badazzledness of the sweet sweet Taurus is amped up by the flashy Jupiter in Leo (opposed by that Mars and squared by Mercury, certainly adding to the loudness of her personality and the, let's say, overall audacity).

The nodes are pretty significant for her as well, as her Sun is accompanied by the north node (really intensifying the Sun's radiant quality) and… she's actually an eclipse baby, being born in the middle of the eclipse season, only three days after a total lunar eclipse in Scorpio. So we have double the strength of having eclipses in her 1st-7th house axis, as well as being an eclipse child in general.

So the "rebranding" seems, well, on brand for her at this time. But again, Mercury retrograding in her 1st house seems to not serve her well, especially given she has it retrograde natally as well. Uranus being co-present in her sign, a bubbly Taurus, paired with Jupiter, which is still a pretty badazzled planet, didn't result in a true 180° switch that she aimed for. In turn we got a somewhat inflated (Jupiter) sense of self and a warped view of things.

But the plus side is that the current Jupiter transit also helped her gain popularity as her video for the new song passed 23 million views on YouTube. Talk about expansion!

Rihanna

Rihanna didn't make a comeback in the same sense Shakira did but she surely made people talk. The singer is allegedly an Aries rising but she also has quite an Aries planetary party with Moon, Venus and Jupiter there as well. And in a true Aries fashion, even if she's not necessarily doing much with her career at the moment, she made sure to remind everyone of herself, especially that she's also in her 1st house profection year so it's all about "ME!" - something an Aries loves.

Rihanna made the headlines by doing a fashion spread for the Interview Magazine. And, to be more precise, by posing in a nun-inspired outfit. The cover photo made some people outraged, while others were sighing in awe. The news broke pretty much on the eclipse (the morning after I believe).

Rihanna dabbles in these high-fashion, obscure themes probably because of the mixture of her Pisces Sun (religious themes? She surely went all-in for the Catholic-themed MET Gala a few year back) and her Aries stellium in the 1st. The ram likes to shock and be bold and sexual but considering she also has Moon and Venus - two feminine planets - in the sign, makes her bold and daring in her fashion choices as well.

Billie Eilish

The last person I want to talk about is… Billie Eilish. I know, I KNOW, you may think "but she's a Pisces rising!". Well Billie somewhat went through a different kind of rebrand and it's that her birth certificate has just been obtained and according to the new info, she is, in fact an Aries rising.

The confusion might be there although if, like me, you see a massive Pisces influence in her, her "new" ascendant ruler is Mars… in Pisces! A corrected birth time is a big deal already, especially given the eclipse and Mercury retrograde - both helped "refresh" her astrological persona and "status" as an Aries ascendant. But that is not all, as on the day of the eclipse Billie announced a brand new album that she will debut on May 17th.

EDIT: Billie is also an eclipse baby! Born just 4 days after a Solar Eclipse. So this is even more fitting.

What's great about this date is that Mars will already be in Aries, probably making her a lot more active. Also, that is only one day before Jupiter cazimi and Venus conjunct Uranus - a great time to release new things into the world. Interestingly, Venus and Uranus will conjoin just a couple of degrees away from Billie's lot of fortune in Taurus. I truly love when astrology is doing its thing.

[deathbirby]

Decided the Church was the biggest threat??

You do realise she destroys TWSITD too right? But TWSITD is an organisation that isn't made of giant superpowered dragons, they just have the tools to kill a giant superpowered dragon if necessary.

She captures Rhea in most routes specifically so that she can get her help in fighting TWSITD after the war.

She also takes criticism several times. From Manuela, Lindhardt and Ferdinand and constantly changes her opinions.

She doesn't even say the Church is the biggest problem, she says Crests and Nobility are, because, if you fucking recall, the only reason TWSITD were able to kill her siblings at all was because of the nobility system and Duke Aegir!

Holy shit it's almost like she identified the root cause instead of the thing instantly in front of her, which she still ALSO DEALT WITH.

She needed Those Who Slither to capture Rhea, who she keeps free from their grasp. She is using them as best she can to defeat an eternal monarch of all of Fodlan for a millenium, before dealing with the less powerful force. She doesn't call Those Who Slither less important, but you don't win chess by killing the Queen do you? Doesn't mean she isn't the most powerful piece on the board, sometimes it's necessary to do one before the other.

Who would have thought in a tactics game a character would take the time to identify the severity of their threats.

Also Fodlan's history is legitimately twisted BY RHEA. Who's history is she going to listen to? Even Claude gets angry.

The character who most refuses to listen to anyone else's perspective, that would be a very special king man who can't see the forest for the trees. Crests are important because other places have advanced military forces, but y'know, we can't do that so forced caste system and breeding stock of women it is! The rich and poor just need to understand each other and the poor need to understand why I live in a castle and only marry women with crests.

Not only that. There's so much irony in the way that every single route ends with a unified Fodlan, without Rhea as the head of the religious state, who have all undergone reforms that serve to the betterment of the people.

Edelgard legitimately correctly identified the problem areas of Fodlan, that's why all the routes share the same outcomes.

Unification. No Rhea. No TWSITD. Political reform.

Wow!

You argue that she was wrong when she was entirely correct.

Fodlan's past doesn't even matter. It matters to Rhea and TWSITD.

What matters is nobility and crests feed into each other and Rhea is purposefully destroying technology to keep Fodlan in a state of perpetual readiness to accept the return of the goddess who she expects to *drumroll* unite Fodlan! Edelgard blames the Church for a few things they didn't do, but it scarcely matters because the Church is doing wrong things and so is TWSITD and she's getting rid of both.

She doesn't even remove the faith and keeps it running during her occupation of Garreg Mach. What more could she possibly do?

She's not interested in world domination, she never forces Brigid to fight.

She just knows that she can't reform Adrestia without the standing army that is the Knights of Seiros banging down her Empire. Or did you miss the bit where Rhea calls for the summery execution of the head of a sovereign nation without a trial or discussion. And then refuses Byleth when she tries to stop Edelgard from being executed without any form of discussion.

Look, I know people are going to be more harsh on Edelgard and more forgiving to the others because of, reasons? I guess it's kind of evil of her to support disability care where she enables others to work in environments that allow them to reach their maximum potential. Instead of, idk, believing that you're either born strong or weak and the job of the strong is to accept the weak and never try and understand how circumstances may very well be the thing that makes someone "weak."

But what do I know, it's not like there's a character with crippling anxiety that only comes out of her room in a singular route due to the support of someone who helps the "weak" find their strengths. Unlike someone in another route who baulks a being called a shut-in like that very same character. What a guy!

In the end, the history doesn't matter.

Fodlan is a misogynistic, homophobic, feudalist society, ruled by an eternal theocracy, and nobility who would rather assassinate their leaders than attempt reform.

It does not facilitate the common people, who are likely illiterate due to the suppression of the printing press by SOMEONE, and is stifling its own potential for the sake of mindless xenophobia. Which is what the officer's academy is for, by the way, to fight invaders like Dagda and Almyra, two places Rhea has coincidentally collected two people from! Don't forget how Catherine said she would have struck someone who wasn't Shamir down! Rhea did that. Super chill and peaceful. And that's not even mentioning the cover up that was Christophe... Or the treatment of the Western Church, who *checks notes* ah, yes, they eradicated over their errant beliefs over the saints and Rhea's position as archbishop. Yes. She handles dissent from sovereign people well.

The Church seems good because they can afford to appear good because Fodlan has no choice! The nobility are church backed and the church is nobility backed and the Holy Kingdom has no choice because it also church backed!

So yeah, she might have been able to swing an internal reform of her country, all while TWSITD enact their plans in the Kingdom, or she wages a shadow war against them. But, that's probably going to get her the ire of the church if her people start reading and realise their gods are all fake because Sothis is literally dead.

But that's not going to help the poor crested woman in the Kingdom who is needs to have her 10th child so this one, hopefully, maybe might be crested. Which is what Mercedes, Ingrid, Marianne, Dorothea and Bernadetta all have in store for themselves! Oh, and probably Annette and Hilda too but it's less obvious.

Sure would be kind of Edelgard to only help Bernie and Dorothea.

"That example you gave comes from Adrestia!" Yeah, I know. But do you think in the world Sylvain is so afraid of that HASN'T happened? It's unfortunate that the land of Man's Strength didn't have more female students... Unless... You don't think that's indicative of what life is like there do you? Some kind of land where the future king might forget to include one of his close female friends in his list of friends!? The very same one who lost the man she was betrothed to since birth? Surely that places values its women and wouldn't fatten their only daughter up to be breeding stock despite her personal ambitions, all because the loss of crests would destabilize their nation as a whole because the nobility would lose their power and so would the church that legitimises them as an actual nation??

Things are great there. There is no war in Ba Sing Se.

Who fucking cares why Nemesis and Seiros fought. Seiros dragged the entire continent into a war out of vengeance. That's what happened. She then neglected to look into Those Who Slither in the Dark not for one year, not for two, not for five, but for one THOUSAND years.

They're ONLY exposed because of Hubert and Edelgard. Don't fucking forget that. It was their actions that got Those Who Slither killed.

But na, Rhea is gud.

Or at least it's far more comfortable to just believe that both the women are bad and the Boi has all the answers.

"He's setting up the groundwork for a democracy" I hear people bullshit.

You know that's a bad thing right? He's not setting up any fucking schools. Duscur was a genocide. Fodlan is xenophobic. Literally any votes that happen are going to go the exact same way the Voice to Parliament did in Australia and I don't say that as a joke, it's disgusting what happened. Democracy is fucking shit for groups of people who cannot use socially equitable (publically available and suited to the individual circumstances of the user) services to attain political power to force progress.

Dimitri's entire idea isn't to raise these people up, it's to hear what they say and decide PERSONALLY if that's a good idea.

Which is going to go oh so well the first time that comes into conflict with the legitimacy of the church or crests.

Meanwhile Edelgard establishes a system that actively contests her individual judgement through the use of expert testimony filling in for various public and political sectors that are open to literally anyone who proves they are the best in their field, with an intentional retirement plan that breaks the line of succession opening the door for any commoner to rise to the position of emperor.

But yeah, I guess the person who destroys all the major corrupt institutions of Fodlan, believes in rehabilitation instead of retributive justice (she does not kill Aegir or any of the nobles responsible for her imprisonment. She even offers Rhea a chance to surrender and instead serve public reform, something she also offers Jeritza,) creates public schooling, changes her mind on the purpose of religious thinking, grants sovereignty to her vassal state, creates a workspace specifically designed to enable the disabilities of several workers while also aiding them in reaching their personal potential (even while those people could very well turn on her later), and rules the most sexually liberated nation in all of Fodlan, both with regard to gender expression and sexual preference (see Lindhardt, Caspar's less-toxic masculinity, and like, all of the gayness of all the Eagles) which she personally fall under. Yeah. That woman is the stuck up bad guy because she thinks that Nemesis and Seiros fought for the right of humanity to rule itself vs immortals. Instead of. That, ah. Other reason. That they fought.

Yeah Seiros fought Nemesis out of revenge, but did you ever stop to think that maybe Nemesis might not have wanted a dragon pope either? That he may have actually have been a good leader in the north?

Seiros is justified in wanting revenge for her family, but she didn't do Fodlan any favours. She didn't help them. Dagda is doing just fine without the Goddess. Crests may have been genetically wiped out over time if Rhea didn't put so much importance on them to the point they literally change inheritance.

I get it, Slithers bad. They killed Edelgard's family. They hurt her. But it sure must suck to not be able to see the path beyond that and how that was even made possible. Edelgard can see it. She even explains it. Everyone agrees because no one keeps Rhea in charge, including Rhea. And they all kill the Slithers. Except Dimitri who did it on accident and got very lucky it wasn't a Hydra situation... We hope.

Sure is fucked up that Three House's main character dies of screen half the time. Weird.

I also feel like I didn't mention Claude enough. Y'know, the guy who looks into Fodlan's history like crazy. Super fucking crazy and answers all of, zero questions until he asks Rhea who tells him because literally only she has that information and STILL she doesn't know shit about the Slithers.

Yeah, what was Edelgard supposed to do again?

Claude got really lucky. His reformed Fodlan would have been super bad of he didn't know the specifics of *checks notes* Rhea is a dragon and the Slithers did bad things to Fodlan.

Wait. That's the same shit Edelgard knows!

Oh, but it's different because, ah, Seteth and Flayn are still alive, no, wait, that happens in Crimson Flower too.

Seteth is allowed to be in government? The same guy who slaughtered the western church for headcanoning Cichol wrong? Wonderful.

Except, Edelgard doesn't really actually say that Seteth and Flayn can't hold government. She says they can't "rule over humanity" which is contextually different. She doesn't want them to do what Rhea did, but public office is different...

Aww beans. Looks like all she did was start a war under the entirely true pretext that Rhea was abusing her power in the here and now, and so she could break the shackles that her oppressors had over her by turning the tides on them through Byleth or a captured Rhea.

So evil. I hate it when someone comes along to criticise the religiously and politically sanctioned sexual slavery of women and then asks why the King of said kingdom isn't just surrendering to her terms despite the fact that he doesn't have any political motivation outside of:

1. Revenge

2. Occupation is bad? I think? (Wait doesn't the church occupy us-)

when surrending to those terms would actually remove them from under the church's legitimization and provide them with the means to undo the harmful social practices such as sexism and xenophobia instilled within them from the church that lead to his personal trauma in the first place.

But y'know, the name would change. He'd still be in power because Edelgard does maintain the regional leaders for a time while she puts her reforms in place, but the name would change and that's icky. Better die on this hill for some reason so the sacrifice of everyone who died in this war can be even more for nothing as we half ass the same fucking reforms off the back of Rhea's dethroning and the death of the Slithers. Oh shit, that wasn't Dimitri was it. That's Sylvain who does that. The most Eagle Lion to ever be a bisexual man repressed by the sexist and homophobic society he lives in.

Fuck off Edelgard is wrong. The history is vague because Rhea literally hid it and even then it's not actually the truth because we literally still don't know if Sothis was benevolent or not. Rhea is also trying to install a method of governance (Sothis) that already fucking failed. Most good rulers and gods don't let their nations nuke themselves to death but maybe Shamir can tell us of the time Dagda did that to themselves. And the history also doesn't matter. Who cares why Nemesis did what he did. It was bad, it's Rhea's origin story for why she doesn't let humanity advance itself. The cause is irrelevant because it literally can't happen again! Not to mention that, if the Nabateans were as bad as the Slithers, we do genocide the Slithers, but that's okay, because they're bad.

What a useless criticism to level at her. That's like saying it's unjust for me to hate the church for homophobia because I don't understand the persecution of catholics under Nero.

Bitch, who gives a shit they're doing bad fucking stuff now! Yes, I think it's also valid to overturn the government of a nation that wants me dead on sight for being gay, they're violating human rights and citing sovereignty as their excuse, fuck that, people over countries.

War is bad, yes, but y'know what's also bad? Political reforms that fail because the population is uneducated, xenophobic, and democracy is a system of privilege and popularity that gives voices to those who don't know what they're fucking talking about. Just look up Voice to Parliament in Australia, it's just racism that got it knocked back. Democracy gave a voice to racism.

Bring on the Edelgards of the world. I'm disabled as fuck and I want her meritocracy more than anything. Definitely much more than I want dumbfucks "we hear you" new world with upward mobility determined by how able bodied and willing to participate in bioessentialism I am. I think there's a word for it. Ah. Eugenics. Crests are a form of eugenics. Rhea and Dimitri both endorsed eugenics. (remember! He only pairs with crested women! And his right to rule is literally based on his possession of a crest.) Good shit.

Adrestia: Commoners can become the Emperor.

Faerghus: You can become queen if you're afab, heterosexual and have a crest. (You also need to be able to produce viable children who are also crested. It's a good thing nothing bad has ever happened to queens who failed to produce legitimate heirs to a king, that would be a worrying precedent! Henry the who-th?)

"Everyone can participate in politics!" With what fucking education? No one goes to school but the rich! It's the same shit we have irl, it's the same thing they ALREADY HAD.

Just say you're a sexist and move on.

Edelgard bad because no pebis :C

P.S. Claude is just a less effective Edelgard who prolonged the war due to his vanity. His refusal to choose a side so that he could be the ultimate victor stalled the war for several additional years racking up additional loss of life which he could have prevented by deciding that he didn't need to be the sole author of this victory and reform. Either side could have won sooner if not for his impotence. And the Roundtable is still full of crested nobles with no schooling and religious doctrine so it's still a fucking L. Die poor Leonie of the world and anyone who wants higher education. Get born rich next time?

P.P.S. You gotta feel somewhat bad for Dimitri, he can basically marry Dedue or Felix, but he can't actually marry them because he reinforced heteronormative practices that require him to take a wife instead of actually getting to be with his husband. Sure "everyone" can participate in politics, except for the bisexual king who isn't actually allowed to be himself because of all the bigotry he reinstalled in his country. Meanwhile Edelgard and F Byleth are referred to as spouses in the Japanese, exchanged rings, and the English made it homophobic so certain characters wouldn't seem to bad to the sensibilities of particular white men. How. Interesting.

LMAOOO WHY IS THIS OVER 3000 WORDS LONG??

Nahh you gotta out and touch grass my dude, there is no character worth writing a whole college thesis about.

[katyspersonal]

Some Velka rambles

Honestly, Velka is such an interesting oddity amongst the Gods! Her element is 'Occult', which is opposite of 'Holy' (narrative through weapons passive effects..... 👍) and her symbol is literally the white circle of Way of White, but... black instead of white, lol. Her miracles are also dark and purple, which is a coloration associated with using Darkness like magic! I primarily remember attacks of the Four Kings, Artorias and Manus on this one.

Then in Dark Souls 1, her devout followers who turned into crow-headed monsters upon worshipping her (confirmed by Miyazaki to be the reason) and traces of her Pardoners are found in Painted World, a place for those who didn't fit the world the way Gods wanted it! However, she was feared by Gods as well, but also had assassins that pursued those who disrespected Gods.. But, this function got adopted by Gwyndolin, as now it is his Darkmoon Knights who hunt down the sinners and take 'Souvenirs of Reprisal' from them! Items dropped by the crow monsters in the painted world, who have no ears, so these are those they've taken too!

It all makes me feel as though something had to happen. Like maybe she betrayed the Gods and lost at some point, maybe those who feared and disliked her screwed her over as soon as they had the chance, maybe she left herself over ideological disagreements, who knows? But for a God, life form of Light/Fire, she certainly favors the Dark, and effectively humans, more! It feels more like a choice rather than being "born odd", unless she is like half-human or something! The latter would give an extra layer to the idea of her adopting Priscilla... but so would developing some interesting ideology, too!

Like, maybe she appreciated how "versatile" humans could be about ideas of justice? Humans have a sixth sense for injustice and unfairness even if all laws and rules are followed and even if "the right thing" was done! Nobody doubts legitimacy of rules and order like they. We are the species that wishes mercy upon a thief who was only a poor guy dealt a really shitty hand robbing to heal his sick child even if he broke the laws (and someone's property)! We are the species that doesn't want a woman that murdered her rapist to go to jail! And when someone feels drastically different about the matter, they get called soulless or inhumane. We can feel injustice even in justice, and maybe this reoccurring feature attracted Velka?

"Justice is blind" for sure doesn't apply to her, her justice is likely very insightful. Justice that IS blind doesn't care whether the culprit "had sympathetic motivations" or "feels sorry". But whereas Velka did have assassins who pursue sinners for punishment too and snitching on someone to get those assassins on their asses is an option, Pardoners also serve to help to redeem and change. There is a justice that ensures those who sinned will pay and thus the balance will be restored but offers the chance to change until you literally die, and there is a justice that defines you by your sins forever and makes your life, future and possibilities rapidly shrink more and more until you have nothing to do but to embrace the sin as your self. In most case, "making amends" isn't possible. No amount of apologies, change or even actual compensation will erase the pain of affected people, return the time they've spent suffering, let alone more severe consequences. But if there was no faith put into "cleansing" sin, sin would be default state of people, and nothing would matter anything or make any sense. Why ever do better or do anything good at all, if what you did wrong is forever in history?

But that's kind of what Velka defies, too! You get the chance to erase your harm from the passage of time, if this is what you seek! It might seem cheap, but it is actually a virtue too. Even if people have the chance to erase their sins, sure many would choose not too because they don't believe they did something wrong. They'd rather hold onto their grudge or have that one guy always suffer because of them even with mutual consequences. Like, it still requires power of character. Pardoners can offer this possibility, but they can't force petty, spiteful, hateful, selfish people to use it. Like, in this fantasy setting, people deserved this cheat code by showing good intent that is NOT the default! ....and hefty amount of souls but is secondary and you know it hfbgjfnb

On a simpler level, Velka is already a "rogue" and heretic by giving the power of rewriting the flow of time on behalf of people who "feel bad 🥺", because time in this setting as we know it IS creation of Fire! And Dark defies passage of time, as well as time passage is failing as a concept when Fire is dying. Like, she literally defies the order of Fire, and so do her servants. But also? Way of White has Gwyndolin to culturally appropriate replace her assassins with the Darkmoon Blades, but.... not Pardoners. Like!!! They don't have "Pardoners at home". There are no guys who would offer to atone and cleanse yourself in the Way of White. And the fact that they've only copied the punishment part but not the atonement part is VERY telling. It is that "bad once = bad forever" shit us humans despise, until and unless we go fanatical and... well, inhumane.

I would not put it past Gwyn or Way of White people in general to feel this way! With Gwyn, you can only "atone" for literally being who you are; Seath betrayed his own kind and was content with his own being slaughtered, and then there were "four human friends that didn't think my jokes were misanthropic". I would not say pre-corruption Church of the Deep was the tool of atonement either; they seemed to be more keen on cleansing the very filth that human nature IS in the eyes of the Way of White? So, the Deep went extremely dirty from repeated attempts to discard that darkness.. much like how the world started to rot after repeated banishments of the Dark. They WERE very much Way of White, until Aldrich saw twisted beauty in human dregs I guess. There is much more mercy in Oswald's "It's only human to commit a sin" than that shit in comparison, or at least that's what it feels like for me.

Basically there is something in the Dark that is more genuine mercy, and more genuine justice. Driven by instincts and not mind or laws, and Velka is right to appreciate it. For them offering better life to those who sinned if they wish it may be a terrible thing. We alllllll know those pricks who complain about "offering compassion to the baaaaaaad person and not their victim!!!" as though it is a limited resource that can't be offered to both and you choose a side. Justice should make the world better, but fixing a bad person into a good one does that as well. But for the Light and its admirers, you can only deliver justice by amputating the bad guy from the body of society. It feels like Dark beings are strangely less interested in playing predator or pray with Light, despite their animalistic nature

[moononmyfloor]

Dashing Youth Ep 36-40 Commentary

Ep 1-10, Ep 11-16, Ep 17-21, Ep 22-25, Ep 26-32, Ep 33-35

Ep 36

This ep had nothing much of interest for me, all this talk of "bringing Ye Dingzhi back to the rightful path" is boring af like you never asked him what is it exactly that he wants, not before, not now

The part where Dongjun cultivates at the edge where mortal world meets the start of heavens was very cool, if a story wants to convince me that he rebuilt his lost cultivation in a year, this place is as good as it gets for the purpose.

Evil sister being permanently imprisoned and left to rot than being granted an immediate death is super satisfying

This part was pretty sweet, the way he closed his eyes and put his stubbly chin in her palms

Ep 37

When I watched He Yu's Dashing Youth interviews etc, I thought he sounded unusually straightforward and frank for an idol actor. And then I looked at his profile and realised that dude is an Architecture graduate and went to Vancouver for further studies and then returned to China to participate in acting workshops. Well THAT explains a lot of things. For example, how he carries himself with such gravitas and confidence despite being a new actor, he basically stole the show from HMH from the very ep 1 imo and that did not happen just because he looks good, because everyone looks amazeballs in this show anyway.

Not to mention "hurt young dad trying his best" is not a role you often see among Chinese idol dramaland main characters, and even rarer for a newbie actor to take on such a role. Like he came in and served. End of the story.

FINALLY. The two most grounded characters of the show meet up! Funny how at first I shipped them with Dongjun and as time went on the less interesting let alone shippy Dongjun felt and now I can't help but imagine, what if these two met earlier, instead?

And gods, this is exactly what I love about Changfeng. Despite being the sweetest baby of the show, he's incredibly realistic and doesn't care for the popular beliefs let alone factions. He'd rather have a face-to-face with the problem at hand and form his opinion.

"Hey buddy, wanna spar?" Just like that. Unafraid and non-judgemental, because he has not formed any yet, because he doesn't have a reason to. And he instantly won over Dingzhi who rarely trusts anyone. Too bad they met only now.

Aww, I feel like this is a nudge to their other-selves in I Am Nobody, right?

"I've stopped saying corny things and have turned mature because any sentence could be your last in the battlefield, and ends up getting carved on your tombstone."

-insert gremlin laugh-

Yeah Mengsha, that's exactly what will be on your grave. "HAHAHAHAHA"

PFft I love him.

Yeah she found that man and then he died. Huhu.

The rest of the ep is about the so called righteous party trying to beat the hot young dad with their sheer incompetence and that wasn't interesting enough to comment on.

Ep 38

Putting the disturbed souls to rest in the name of his daughter, that's Sikong Changfeng. It sounds kinda morbid on paper, but in truth only the most purest, benevolent person in the world would be able to do that. I was reminded of The Untamed for a second there.

Daring the monarchy from atop the palace gate, as the most peerless person in jianghu atm. I think both Master Li and Master Rain Demon would be proud of you.

Yknow, for Dingzhi who suffered from wishy washy treatment from most people all his life (yes, that includes you too Dongjun), a clear yes/no answer to this question would've been a mercy.

Ep 39

This was unexpectedly hilarious lol

Little girl u are pissing me off. You weren't born when the definitions of right and wrong were created in the world.

"What is wrong is wrong" bruh shut up, you are embarrassing your dad and not in the serotonin-inducing way he always embarrassed himself.

And I called Dongjun blindly idealistic.

Speaking of whom, Dongjun and Yue Yao actually kinda redeemed themselves for me again in this ep, by proving that even at this point, the "righteousness" he cares for is for his Yun ge to get the happiness he deserves.

Would've been better if you actively stepped up earlier than this to safeguard the happiness that he and Wenjun had found by a margin, tho. You had years of opportunity and now it's too late.

For softhearted lackeys, Wuxin's gay uncles are pretty alright regarding being grounded characters. They don't have lots of choices to work with, but at least they aren't led around by nose with all the pointless politics and try their best to follow their hearts.

Ep 40

Yeah yeah, blame the woman in the end. The sad thing is that he's a historian, and it's not a surprise that this came out of his mouth.

Rocket science

Same as with Hanyi, I was mad at Ye Xiaofan too like kid what point exactly are you trying to prove to your ge by appearing like this at this moment, but then he redeemed himself and I'm very happy about that. Give him treats.

Ok I'm crying. Wenjun's conviction and determination in the final act makes me forgive her again. Honestly, I wouldn't have disliked her even a little bit if not for that lazy stupidity the show made her commit in ep 33 anyway.

But alas, it's too late. My baby 😭

Good to hear Yue Yao's sister died, even glad that screentime wasn't spared to see it happen because I really don't give a fuck.

Finally, Dongjun meets his ge's child. Lil Wuxin cowering away from him at first served him right.

It's so sad how Wuxin lost his parents and adoptive uncles all together within such a brief period of time. I remember disliking the uncles when they took Wuxin away in BoY, but now I understand them even though it was AGAIN at the expense of Wuxin's rights to be with the people he wants to at that moment. It's sad that whatever person Wuxin would grow emotionally attached to, he has to part from them because of others' arrangements.

Woah, you two have been canoodling around in your fairy carriage for the whole world to see for years and you haven't been married yet? Scandalous, Dongjun 😂

Final Verdict

Despite the lazy and unconvincing middle eps, the final stretch is near perfect, the characters I've grown to have beef with (Dongjun, Wenjun) redeemed themselves, Yue Yao grew a little bit more of personality, the amazing main characters remained amazing (Dingzhi, Changfeng) and so did the amazing side characters (Lei Mengsha, Master Li, Luo Qingyang, Jade deity). Well, I suppose they've written themselves to a corner with Prince Langya, he feels definitely less glorious of a person than he was treated in BoY, after seeing Dashing Youth. So I'm ok with not seeing his character wrap-up here.

I started with giving this a 8.5/10 and ended with a 7.5/10, but overall I really enjoyed the themes of how different generations of people answer times of suppression, and balance morality, friendship and family, and what exactly is the end goal of a martial artist. The people were extremely pleasant to look at, the fight CGIs were epic visual feasts, and I did enjoy myself a lot considering how I rarely watch idol Wuxia/Xianxia/Xuanhuan.

[sequinsmile-x]

Mirror Image

He was sure when their daughter was older he’d love her wilfulness, the stubborn streak she’d got from both of them. They were traits that would help her when she needed them, things that had served both him and Emily well. 

But right now, he really just wanted her to eat her breakfast. 

-x-

This is a belated birthday present for the lovely @whitecrossgirl. You are the ultimate hype woman and I will forever be grateful for your friendship and the way you yell at me when I write something angsty <3

-x-

Words: 2.8k

Warnings: Pregnancy

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

“Daddy, you’re doing it wrong.” 

Aaron sighs and looks up from the plastic Frozen plate he’d put his daughter’s toast onto, and he looks at his three-year-old, his eyebrow raised as he looks at her across the kitchen counter. 

“Alice, it’s toast. I don’t think it’s possible to get it wrong,” he says patiently, cutting it into strips for her before he places it in front of her. 

“Mommy does it different,” she says, looking up at him with the same wide dark eyes she’d inherited from his wife, “She lets me have her toast.” 

Aaron frowns, his lack of sleep from the last several days catching up with him as he tries to understand what his daughter is telling him, “So, you eat Mommy’s toast for breakfast?”

Alice nods enthusiastically, and Aaron groans, recalling just a week ago as he watched his little girl eating toast off of Emily’s plate. Something he hadn’t thought about every other morning Emily had been away because breakfast had been bowls of cereal, Alice and Jack had talked him into the sugary stuff more than once, before he got them out of the house for school. 

It wasn’t that he couldn’t manage his children, but Emily’s absence was sharply felt by all of them. She was in London helping Clyde with a case, a favour Aaron knew from the nightly phone calls he had with her she regretted agreeing to, and wasn’t coming home for another two days. He missed her, wasn’t used to being in their home without her, and he knew both Alice and Jack felt the same way. 

Alice, however, had struggled the most. 

As soon as they found out Emily was pregnant with her they had conversations about what that would mean for both of them continuing working for the BAU. Ultimately, Emily decided that she would find something different. She only became more sure that was something she wanted to do when they found out they were having a daughter, as if it became all the more clear to her that she didn’t want to repeat the cycle she’d grown up in. Ultimately, either through good timing or Clyde interfering, Aaron knew which one he considered more likely, a position at the Interpol office in DC came up and she took the job. 

It had been a change for all of them, and he missed spending so much time with his wife, but it had been a good one. Made clear whenever he’d come home from a long case to find his family all curled up on the couch and waiting for him. An understanding smile on Emily’s face as they silently agreed they’d talk about whatever horror he’d seen later before the kids jumped on him, thrilled to have him back. Emily being away was different. The job Clyde had found, or created, for her was mostly office based. She had a large team who did the majority of the fieldwork and on the odd occasion she went away it was only for a night or so. This, by the time she got home, would be a week. The longest she had ever been away from Alice since she was born, and the little girl had struggled with it. 

Everything he did was ‘wrong’ or ‘not how mommy does it.’ He knew it wasn’t personal, that Alice loved him, but she had been all about Emily since the moment she was born. A tiny dot of a thing that would only sleep curled up on her mother’s chest and cried if she was taken too far away from her. 

He couldn’t blame his daughter. His wife was his favourite person too, but it meant he’d spent the vast majority of the last week trying to convince a mini version of his wife to do things she didn’t want to do. He was sure when their daughter was older he’d love her wilfulness, the stubborn streak she’d got from both of them. They were traits that would help her when she needed them, things that had served both him and Emily well. 

But right now, he really just wanted her to eat her breakfast. 

He sighs and leans down next to her, his elbows on the kitchen counter as he makes himself her height, “Sweetheart, Mommy isn’t here,” he says, his heart aching a little at the sadness in her eyes, “So I can’t make you her toast.” 

She sighs as if she has the weight of the world on her shoulders and looks down at the, rapidly cooling, toast he put in front of her before looking back up at him, “You can make Daddy’s toast?”

“Sure,” he says, standing back up and picking up the bread before slipping another slice into the toaster, “Daddy’s toast coming right up.” 

He smiles as his daughter beams at him, and he shakes his head. He was counting down the seconds until his wife came home.

___

Emily groans as she sits in her seat, immediately having to readjust to get the tiniest bit comfortable, her hand on her ever-expanding stomach as she settles down. The next 8 hours were going to be long. She could barely sleep on a commercial flight at the best of times, let alone when she was 6 months pregnant, but she was looking forward to getting home and seeing Aaron and the kids. She knew she’d miss them, but she was surprised by how much, by how it felt like she’d left a part of herself at home.

She supposed, in some way, she had.

It was still strange to think that this was her life now. That she had roots so deeply anchored into the ground back home that she felt unsteady when she was away from her family. It was something she had grown up without. Something she’d had to get used to when she and Aaron first got together. The sense of belonging that she had searched for in all the wrong places her entire life. She wanted to provide it for Jack, Alice and the little boy she was currently carrying, and she never wanted them to doubt for one moment that they were loved. 

At first, she’d almost turned Clyde down for this trip, unsure if she wanted to go or, if she was honest, if he was just asking her to go over to mess with her. Ever since she’d turned down his initial job offer for London he’d make jokes about how he’d get her over there one day, how she’d get bored of family life, of the extraordinary ordinary day-to-day she coveted, and come crawling back to him. 

Aaron, despite the fact he did not appreciate those jokes from her old boss and friend, gently encouraged her to go. His hand on her bump as he reminded her it would be a while before she would get the chance to go again. 

She’d enjoyed herself. She’d laughed at Clyde as she told him, with a completely straight face, that she was going to name her son after him and watched his horrified reaction before she told him she’d never dream of actually doing it. She’d done some good with the team there, bringing them up to par with her own team at home. She’d had a taste of the life she could have had, and it made her all the more grateful for what she was about to go back to. 

“Good thing I booked first class, huh?” She whispers, rubbing her bump, smiling as she feels her son shift under her skin, “I don’t think there would be enough room for both of us in a regular seat, sweet boy.” 

“I was just about to offer you a cocktail for take off,” the air steward says, smiling at Emily as she looks up at her, “But I can see that won’t be necessary.” 

Emily chuckles politely and runs her hand over her belly again, “No,” she says, looking at the tray of mimosas with some envy, “Not this time anyway.” 

“Can I get you anything else, ma’am?” 

Emily smiles at the other woman, her unending cheeriness seemingly catching, “Actually, I would kill for a soda, a Diet Coke or something,” she says, sighing at just the thought of it, “My husband is a bit crazy when it comes to my nutrition, so I’d best make the most of it before I land back at home.” 

She knew Aaron meant well. That his attempts to sneak fruit and vegetables into her food with the same tricks they used on their toddler were only because he cared, and that it was something he could control, but it was driving her insane. He’d done the same thing when she was pregnant with Alice and it had led to an argument where he’d apologised with Del Taco, approaching her in their bedroom like she was a lion in its enclosure that he was offering food to. 

Thankfully he’d been a little more chilled out this time around.

“I’ll get that for you right away,” the air stewardess says before turning around and heading back towards the kitchenette. 

Emily smiles as she settles back into her seat a little more, grateful for the extra room, and she chuckles as the baby kicks particularly hard. 

“You’re not going to let me get any sleep are you?” 

___

By the time she picks up her luggage, she’s exhausted. 

A kind man lifts her bag from the carousel for her and she thanks him, yawning as she wheels it away and towards the arrival lounge. She’s idly thinking about getting a cup of tea before she gets her Uber when she hears a familiar voice shouting, stopping her from walking any further.

“Mommy!” 

She turns to see Alice running towards her, Jack and Aaron just a few paces behind, her little arms outstretched. Her wild hair is tied back in two braids, and she’s wearing an FBI t-shirt Derek had bought her as well as a bright pink tutu and leggings from Penelope. Emily immediately feels the burn in the back of her throat as she looks at her family, her eyes filling with tears she will absolutely blame on the baby and not on the fact they’d all made her soft. 

“Hi, sweet girl,” she exclaims, letting go of the handle of her suitcase and bending down just enough to pick up Alice as she reaches her, the little girl's arms tight around her neck. She picks her up, wincing slightly at the pull in her back as she straightens up. Alice hugs her tightly, perched on top of Emily’s bump, and she hugs her back just as fiercely. She kisses the side of her daughter's head, tension she didn’t realise was in her chest dissipating at the familiar scent of her shampoo, “I missed you so much.” 

“Missed you, Mommy,” Alice says, her face pressing into her mother’s neck, “You were gone for so long.”

Emily holds her a little tighter, guilt she hadn’t known was possible before she became a parent and work caused her to miss one of Jack’s soccer games burning at the inside of her chest. It felt like no matter what she was doing the wrong thing. As if she was somehow letting her children down. In moments like this, she wondered how her mother pushed through it. If she’d spent years perfecting how not to be affected by not showing up to dance or piano recitals or even school presentations. 

Sometimes, she wondered if her mother ever felt it at all. 

“Mommy’s home now though,” Aaron says as he reaches them, his arm around Emily as he leans in for a kiss, winking as he pulls away to let her know they were all fine, her emotions are clear as day to him, just as his exhaustion was clear to her. He places his hand on her bump, smiling at the feeling of the baby moving. “Hi, sweetheart.” 

“Hi,” she says back to him, kissing him once more, “I was supposed to get a cab.” 

He hums, raising his eyebrow at her, “Yeah, because I was going to let my pregnant wife get a cab home from the airport. Garcia would never have forgiven me.” 

She laughs before turning her attention to Jack, “Hi honey, are you ok?” 

He nods enthusiastically as he wraps his arms around her other side, sandwiching her in between all the members of her family, “Missed you, Mom.” 

She adjusts Alice to remove an arm from around her so she can pull her oldest in closer for a hug, smiling as Alice grasps even tighter at her as if she was trying to climb under her skin, “You too.” 

They stand there for a moment before Aaron is the first to detach, he nods towards Alice, “Want me to take her?” 

Emily shakes her head, “I can carry her to the car.” 

Whether he agrees with her or not, he nods and reaches for the handle of her suitcase, “Come on,” he says, leading the way towards the parking garage, “Let’s get Mom home.” 

___

Aaron walks out of the ensuite after he finishes his nightly routine and into the master bedroom. He stops just shy of the bed when he sees Alice curled up in the middle of it, the toddler fast asleep and her arm thrown over Emily, her small hand resting over her baby brother. 

“I seem to remember putting her in her own bed only a couple of hours ago,” he says quietly, his smile widening as Emily looks up at him, her own smile shy. 

“She snuck in when you were in the bathroom,” Emily replies, running her hands through the toddler’s hair, “I didn’t want to send her back to her room.” 

Aaron shakes his head fondly as he climbs into bed next to them, “If I’m being honest, she slept in here every night you were gone,” he admits, looking at Alice as she sleeps, “On your side of the bed. She missed you.” 

Emily blows out a slow breath as she continues to play with the little girl's hair, “I missed her too,” she replies, smiling at her husband, “All of you.” 

He watches her carefully, how there’s tension in her jaw. A slight tremble to her chin. And a look in her eyes that she only let him see, a vulnerability that she couldn’t keep hidden from him if she tried. 

“Are you ok, sweetheart?” 

She sighs, “Yeah, I’m ok. It’s just…” she drifts off, not entirely sure how to put it into words, “I guess I got a taste of what my life could have been if I’d taken Clyde’s offer,” she says, “And it would have been great. I would have been happy there but it wouldn’t have been this. I can’t imagine my life without you and Jack,” she looks back down at Alice, “or her,” she laughs humourlessly, her spare hand resting on her belly, “Or him. It’s like I saw the other side of the coin or something. And I feel a little…” 

“Off balance?” He offers as she struggles to finish her sentence, and she nods as she looks back up at him. 

“Yeah,” she replies, “Quite literally actually, I think my centre of gravity shifted yesterday,” she narrows her eyes, “Clyde kept saying I was waddling.” 

“I could punch him, if you want,” he offers, placing his hand on her stomach.

She laughs, “You’d fly all the way there to hit him for me?” 

He nods without hesitating, “I’d do anything for you.” 

She shakes her head at him, her teeth digging into her lower lip and she places a hand on his cheek, pulling him in for a kiss, “I love you. I’m so glad this is my life. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Even if our son is making me waddle.” 

“I love you too,” he says, stamping another kiss against her lips, “And you’re beautiful,” he leans down to press a kiss to her belly, doing the same to Alice’s forehead before he sits back up, “I’m glad this is our life too.” 

She smiles at him and leans into his side as he wraps his arm around her, careful not to disturb Alice as she moves, “So…she gave you hell, huh?”

Aaron groans and kisses the side of her head, “Like you wouldn’t believe.” 

She chuckles, “And the outfit at the airport?”

“You’re lucky I talked her down to the tutu,” he says, running his hand up and down her arm, “She wanted to wear her dinosaur costume.” 

Emily smiles as she looks down at their daughter, fast asleep between them, “We have got to talk to Pen about the number of costumes she buys her. Alice was ok though? Apart from sleeping in here and running you ragged?”  

He hums in response, “Well, she definitely has your attitude,” he says, smiling when she gasps in outrage, “I just hope that she uses it to be a CEO or something, not the leader of a gang in prison.” 

She sits up to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed together, “Hey,” she exclaims, lightly slapping the shoulder she’d been leaning against, “She would run an excellent gang.” 

-x-

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[velvet-vox]

INDOCTRINATION F####NG SUCKS

AND WHY IT HARMS ART TOO.

The title is self-explanatory yet it cannot overstate the massive damage and impact that culture, society, and any other type of long term influence has on the human mindset and its artistic output.

You may be thinking, what is this post talking about? Well let me explain.

You see, the thing about me is that I tend to enjoy more complex stories with complicated characters and dynamics, but not in just the political, real world type of way like Arcane politics, I am towards the type of stories that allow for good characters to remain good and for the status quo to change in a substantial way; for antagonists to be complicated while not having them all be morally grey but showing that even the more seemingly black and white ones are not just pure evil atrocities and are still worthy of a shot at redemption; to not have said redemption be served on a silver platter but not just permanently locking people out of society just because they required said society to invest too much time and effort in helping them become the best version of themselves, because unfortunately, despite the opposite being also true, we are not born equally and some people are going to struggle more than others due to things outside of their control like their personality type and lack of mental fortification.

I want balance in storytelling! Not just gore or wholesome, not just morally grey or black and white, not just big spectacles and pause moments, but all of those combined in ways that force me to reflect on the media I consume and the way I consume it, to dig further in the limits of artistic expression and the classification of art as a whole.....

And indoctrination just ruins all of that, period.

We all, from a young age, are conditioned to uphold certain standards and to not challenge said standards in fear of being cast out by the people around us and the world we live in.

Art, as a medium, should be used to counteract the rigid lines of thinking that we're asked to uphold, but unfortunately, even if just subconsciously, the harmful, more strict lessons that we learn growing up still make their way into our works because of the mass consumption of simplicity we endured in our childhood.

From a very young age we are taught simple, clear cut definitions of right and wrong, and then we are subsequently told to simplify all of our real world problems into easily computable boxes so that we can be more efficient at our job, from moral decision making down to choosing what to eat for dinner; the adults tell us that it's ok to ask questions when in reality we're often punished or ignored for asking them and we all grow to internalise a passive acceptance of the status quo because that's what the status quo taught us to do in the first place.

I wanted to write this post because I was getting angry at myself for screwing up my own ideas due to my pathological need to divide right and wrong into easily checkable boxes and thus creating issues of the "these two ideas cannot interact or mix with each other anymore because of the way I segregated them" kind. I am always afraid of punishing my villains too much and not punishing my heroes enough and it's very hard for me to find that balanced middle ground that all works of art should strive to achieve; and then I realised: the problem has less to do with me and more on the unfortunate mindset that I internalised in my youth that keeps popping back up slowing down my output for thought provoking stories.

Admittedly, this is a larger issue that (contrary to what our collective nurture has drilled into our heads) cannot be easily resolved and probably requires a vocal discussion of some kind since typing can be extremely tiring and doesn't have the same engagement value of a dialogue, I'm very sorry if you found this post amateurish or you think I haven't conveyed my ideas well enough, I hope someone with a cleaner picture can show me what I got wrong and would like to share their opinions with me.

[stxrm-rider]

• [ … ] ❀ you’re not from around here , are you? i figured because you totally just missed { SAWYER DEWITT } walking by. don’t tell me you don’t know who { HE } is/are ? they kind of look like { BRANDON SKLENAR } and i could be wrong but i think that they might be { 31 } years old right now. they’ve been living in palmview for the last { 10 MONTHS }. and i don’t know if anyone has ever told them this before but they kind of remind me of { WESTLEY } from { THE PRINCESS BRIDE }. if you stick around the town long enough you might catch them in action working at {   } as a { ARCHEOLOGY PROFESSOR }. you see this town isn’t really that big of a place, some folks like to call them the { HANGED MAN } of palmview! they took a liking to the name too after a while, go figure. oh crap, they must have heard me yapping. they’re coming this way. i got to warn you though, rumor has it they can pretty { CLOSED OFF } at times. i wouldn’t take it too seriously though, from the times i’ve spoken to them they seemed pretty { EMPATHETIC } to me. we see each other all the time since they live in that { 2 BEDROOM } apartment beside me over in { MANGO BAY }. i better leave you to it. it was nice meeting you!  { DAVIS. 32. HE/HIM. EST. }

basic information

* full name: Dr. Sawyer Hayes DeWitt

* nickname(s): 

* age: 31

* gender: cis male 

* pronouns: he/him

* orientation: Heterosexual 

* Occupation: Archeology professor. Author. Former rodeo star

* language(s) spoken fluently: English, Greek, Egyptian Arabic 

* language(s) understood: Latin, Spanish, French, Italian

physical appearance

* face claim: Brandon Sklenar 

* hair colour: dark brown

* eye colour: blue

* height: 6’2

* build: athletic and fit

personality

* positive traits: Loyal, Empathetic, Considerate, Compassionate, Curious, Principled 

* negative traits: Melancholic, Brooding, Easily frustrated, Preoccupied, Obsessive, Perfectionistic

* mbti: INFJ

* enneagram: 8w7

* skills/ hobbies: horseback riding, reading, hunting, boxing, chess, violin

* pet(s): A yet unnamed 3 month old bluetick coonhound he just adopted

Background

Tw: parental death mention, alcohol abuse, general grief and implied PTSD

Sawyer was born to be atop a horse, or so his father, a bull rider at the peak of his career in Texas, had always said. His Mother often said that he was riding a horse before he learned to walk, or they said those things when they were still alive. They didn’t say anything anymore. 

It was a lie anyway. Though Sawyer had started riding soon after his fifth birthday which served him well, all in all. It was a way for him to be close to his father, watching from the sidelines as his dad won golden buckles by holding onto the ropes attached to some raging bull or another with a white knuckle grip before being tossed. Sawyer preferred horses to bulls and he rose through the ranks as quickly as one could, going from the junior league to semi professional to professional by the time he was 16. He traveled throughout the south with his father, competing in rodeos and breaking the hearts of the young barrel racers he met along the way. 

That was, of course, until the car crash that would change his life, leaving him an orphan who tried to drown his grief in whiskey and girls and a vow to never compete in a rodeo again. 

Then he got a girl pregnant, and then she was gone too, and the shock of it, the way she had screamed at him through tears that she wouldn’t, couldn’t, raise a child with a drunk. Would rather die than allow her child to be subjected to the same thing she was growing up, was enough to finally get him to change. She was gone, and he doesn’t know what became of her, but that’s probably for the best anyway. 

It took years, but he did eventually find his way back to some sort of normalcy. He finished school. Became an archeologist, and is finally in a place where the emptiness he’s felt since he was 18 is nothing more than a dull ache in his chest. He received a job offer from the university and took it, moving to California and leaving Texas and its memories behind him, hoping for a fresh start.