#((Butterfly effect if you will))

[ri-afan]

Okay, you know those inconsequential moments in movies and shows where something is done or said but it doesn’t matter until the Protagonist connects things/uses the info later?

Enter Danny.

This is a small job that he does while working with Clockwork. Danny walks around doing or saying things that might move the time stream to the ‘ideal’ outcome. Does he know how it helps? Nah, just that it does since he knows the slightest change can have big impacts. He doesn’t know exactly how long he’s been doing it in this universe, but it’s something to do.

Tim, the Connector of Dots, has recently caught onto a pattern of things, but he’s not sure what he’s looking at.

[coern-art-very-cool-and-nice]

one wish that leads to another wish that leads to another wish that leads to another w

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Maybe it's because I watched all of Arcane after the series was finished and didn't have time to develop theories in between episode drops, or in between seasons. Or maybe it's because I've been on my Paul Atreides bullshit for most of a year (character who undergoes a transformation that alters his experience of reality to something incomprehensible to a normal human, but still maintains a human understanding of and responsibility for his actions). But it never once occurred to me that Viktor was doing the things he does in S2 out of anything other than his own free will. The idea that he was being controlled or manipulated by the Hexcore (beyond it giving him the power to amplify his worst impulses way beyond what would have been possible otherwise) was not a theory I even considered until I started reading meta about S2. It's way more interesting, and imo thematically and tonally consistent, if my man did all that shit himself.

Damaged people spiraling to extreme actions is like the driving force of the plot of this show. Vi and Vander both lash out at someone they love in a moment of shock and grief, in a way that defines the life of that person for years to come. Caitlyn, with her guilt and her need for vengeance and her longing for respect, becomes a military dictator when given unchecked power. Jinx, with her impulsiveness and suicidal self-hatred, becomes a nihilistic vigilante when encouraged to indulge her violent urges without thinking about the consequences. In both of those cases they had someone (Ambessa and Silco) who nudged them onto that slippery slope for that person's own ends. But they still did all that shit themselves.

With Viktor I don't think the force is a person. (And I don't think it's the Hexcore either. Whether the Hexcore is sentient to the degree of having plans and goals is also something I have thoughts on but that's a subject for another post.) I think it's terror at his own powerlessness in the face of his impending mortality. He escaped the conditions of his birth, clawed his way up out of the undercity using nothing but his brilliant mind, and it doesn't matter. The conditions of his birth are gonna get him anyway. He's dying of poverty. If suddenly given the power to Fix Things, of course he is gonna take it. And if he can Fix Things for himself then why not others, who no more deserve to live in these conditions than he does? Of course he's gonna start out from a completely understandable and sympathetic position and take things WAY too far, one seemingly logical step at a time. That's how everything in this show happens.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Is your chosen username anything to do with Ray Bradbury’s story by chance? If so, Mildly ironic given the current stete of fandom

It's not the primary reason for my URL (that would be the Simpsons), but yes, "A Sound of Thunder" and the butterfly effect are among the many reasons I love butterflies. I don't think it's ironic re the current state of fandom though, I've long noticed GRRM citing the butterfly effect to explain how a small adaptational difference can lead to great changes by the end, since 2011, and particularly since GOT S5 and S8. So it's not surprising GRRM cited it again re HOTD, it's one of his standards along with Scarlett O'Hara's kids. Heck, he cited both things in an interview (regarding the question of whether HOTD was "canon") only 2 years ago. By definition the butterfly effect is just a single wingbeat that eventually makes a hurricane, but for GRRM it's a drum he's never stopped beating.

So, regarding the butterfly effect in GOT... let's give some examples. One of the butterflies GRRM used to talk about was that in the show, Khal Drogo killed Mago (in the epsiode airing June 5, 2011) whereas in ADWD (released July 17, 2011), Dany is captured by the khalasar where Mago is a bloodrider, and GRRM has said he'll be a significant character in TWOW. How the show handled it... they basically replaced him with Khal Moro, and tbqh, due to GRRM's own flat characterization of the Dothraki, it's hard to tell if there will be any difference between one brutish thug threatening to rape Dany vs another brutish thug with a slightly different name. Maybe TWOW will surprise us there, but if so, I really will be surprised.

Another butterfly (mentioned in the Mago link above) was that in GOT, Marillion never went to the Eyrie, and instead went to KL and got detongued by Joffrey. Thus, Marillion never became Lysa's favorite, and his plot with Sansa in ASOS/AFFC never happened. So Petyr didn't have anyone to blame for Lysa's murder... and yet in the show, he really didn't need Marillion, he convinced the Lords of the Vale that Lysa committed suicide. However, this was done by Sansa revealing her true identity to them... which cut off the Alayne plotpoint altogether. And that leads to what GRRM might call the greater "toxic butterfly" of Jeyne Poole not being an actual character in the show (she appears for half a second at Winterfell and never again), and thus Sansa took her place in the Ramsay storyline. But to be frank, I don't believe Jeyne's absence had any real "butterfly effect" on the show... even if had she been an actual character and Sansa's companion that Littlefinger made into a prostitute at one of his brothels, D&D never would have brought her out again to play "Arya". David and Dan deleted the Alayne plotpoint and Sansa's AFFC/TWOW storyline, and instead sent Sansa north to be married and raped because that's what they wanted to do with her character, not because they "had to" because Jeyne wasn't there. (And if they ever told GRRM otherwise, they lied.)

And that's the truth about the "butterfly effect" straight up. GRRM seems to believe a story must flow logically to its conclusion and thus removing even a small element changes that conclusion. But the truth is that D&D could have done whatever they wanted, dead/nonexistent characters or otherwise. Aegon and JonCon not existing is not what made Dany a mad queen and burn KL, they chose to make her a mad queen because that's the story they wanted to write. The bizarre nonsense of the show Dorne storyline is not because they removed Arianne, but because they wanted to make Ellaria both vengeful and uncaring about her lover's family. Smalljon Umber surviving the Red Wedding is not why Osha and Rickon died, it's because they wanted to kill off Osha and Rickon and add another heartless Northern villain. Flow does not truly apply, this isn't an atmospheric system and it's not a real history. Nothing forced D&D into doing anything except budget/orders from above/other business issues. It's fiction, it's the story they constructed, they chose to construct it that way, because "Creatively it made sense to us, because we wanted it to happen."

Now, regarding HOTD -- let me first provide a quote from GRRM from the "canon" interview I linked above:

George: And the more you read about history, the more inconsistencies you had. So I thought it would be fun to do that in Fire and Blood. And so when I’m relating what happened here, and I’m thinking about what can happen. Yeah, I… oh, this would be great. This would be really outrageous, it would be… and then, eh, it’s probably too outrageous. Here’s probably what… the more realistic version of it. And wait a minute, this version makes Fred the villain and Bill the hero. And this version makes Bill a villain and Fred the hero. And then at some point it hit me. Why don’t I give all versions? Cause history is uncertain. I’ll give all versions and it’ll be fun for me. I can put in all the really outlandish scurrilous things, the way Mushroom sees it, but I can also put in the things that are probably more…  Aziz: They’re sources, yeah.  George: And that worked fine for those who liked that thing, although some don’t. But if I was writing it as a novel, if I’d been writing this in the form of the books in A Song of Ice and Fire, like Winds of Winter, which I’m writing now. When I get to a chapter in The Winds of Winter and I know something’s gonna happen. How does it happen? What are the things? I think I could do it this way. I could do it that way. I have to make up up my mind. In Fire and Blood, I didn’t have to have to make up my mind, but Ryan and Miguel, when they’re adapting it, they largely had to make up their mind. 

So. In his (deleted) blog post, GRRM talks about the absence of Maelor being a butterfly, so that the Blood & Cheese scene didn't have Helaena choosing between two sons (only between a son and a daughter), and he thinks it's unlikely they'll have the Bitterbridge scene with the Kingsguard Rickard Thorne heroically trying to protect Maelor (who is torn to pieces by the crowd). GRRM said that this will affect Helaena once again, because Maelor's death is why she commits suicide in F&B and he says in the S3 outline Helaena does it for "no reason". Welp. First of all, it's kind of hilarious that the wiki immediately cited GRRM's blog post, because IDK if GRRM recalls that in F&B he gave multiple reasons for Helaena's suicide (several weeks after Maelor's death!) through the book's conceit of multiple historians:

because she learned she was pregnant after being gangraped in a brothel along with her mother per Mushroom's wild story of the "Brothel Queens" (though Gyldayn reasserts no part of Mushroom's story is credible)

because she watched two knights who had tried to rescue Corlys be hanged and this upset her, per Munkun (though Gyldayn thinks it's unlikely because she didn't know them)

because Mysaria told her that night that Maelor had died and how he died, per Septon Eustace (though Gyldayn says it's hard to understand what motive Mysaria would have had for doing so)

because she didn't actually commit suicide, she was pushed, because Rhaenyra ordered her murder (what the smallfolk believed, which per Mushroom was a rumor spread by Larys Strong, and note Gyldayn does not discredit him here)

So whatever reason they're choosing for Helaena's suicide in HOTD (I doubt it will remain "for no reason" between outline and script and broadcast), it may be hard to argue it's not textually based given the multiple choice options in the text. Plus, there's a possible reason in the book that is unmentioned by Gyldayn -- that only a short time before, Daemon had his murder-suicide battle with Aemond above the Gods Eye. Though it seems that the news of that battle didn't reach KL until a day after Helaena's suicide, book!Helaena was not a dreamer the way show!Helaena is. And the show has already drawn a connection between Helaena, Daemon, Aemond, the battle above the Gods Eye, and prophecies. So again, I very much doubt she will kill herself "for no reason" in the show. It may not be the same reason as in F&B, but there should be some reason.

But the fact that GRRM stated outright that the Maelor reason is the real one and therefore he's an important character who should not be butterflied away -- well, that blog post did what his book deliberately failed to do. GRRM wrote a book with so many multiple choice conflicting narratives, deliberately, because he didn't want to make up his mind, so in its adaptation the HOTD writing team chose to write a narrative that picks and chooses among them (and sometimes, yes, makes up new shit), because they did have to make up their mind (and not do a Rashomon framing device). And only now he's like "no that's wrong, there is a real true history there and I'm mad they're not doing it"? I'm sure it's frustrating to GRRM, but if it's a problem, it's been a problem since the very start!

I mean, I am deeply sympathetic to him being disappointed by an adaptation once again, especially if he thought being an executive producer would give him more power than GOT's co-executive producer status but again that was just an empty title with no power at all. And especially if he has been telling the HOTD writers truths the book didn't, only to be dismissed with something like "well you didn't say that in the book so we're doing it differently". And especially if he thought a particular scene was very fine writing and characterization, and is disappointed that the show is unlikely to broadcast it to a greater audience. Y'klnow... damn the NDAs, but someone really ought to get GRRM's opinion regarding Septon Meribald's broken men speech, frequently considered one of his best, and how they did something rather different in GOT... and lbr, the Rickard Thorne Bitterbridge scene was a nice bit of a knight actually keeping his vows for once, but it doesn't compare.

(Seriously, let's be real. We all know GRRM's real issue is with what GOT did to his legacy. HOTD is just the one he thinks he might be able to nip in the bud before they make so many changes... and if he can't, that's just the wound of GOT all over again.)

And I do agree that Helaena's suicide is important, however it happens. The KL riots being sparked by her suicide are also important. (Though I very much doubt they won't exist at all in any form -- again see that vision from S2E8 and the fact that it included a scene evidently from the Storming of the Dragonpit.) And Maelor is important as well for something GRRM didn't mention (perhaps he thought he couldn't get away with it, though evidently he couldn't get away with saying anything) -- the fact that his death is what causes Daeron's heel turn from a sweet kid to a war criminal, and thus the Sack of Bitterbridge and Lady Caswell's own suicide (imo far more emotionally moving than Thorne's stand against the crowd). But... those butterflies don't necessarily have to be "killed", as GRRM fears. Daeron (who at least we know exists in the show) can have a heel turn for a different reason. Bitterbridge can be sacked for a different reason.

If that's what they choose to do, because yes, Daeron doesn't have to have a heel turn at all, Bitterbridge doesn't need to be sacked at all, the entire southern campaign can be a different story, they can write anything they want, as faithful to F&B as they want or otherwise. But GRRM's greatest worry seems to be that a less-than-faithful adaptation won't be a "logical and convincing" story where all the points lead to a conclusion, and... I'm truly sorry to say, that does not necessarily follow. Whatever conclusion HOTD reaches will be the sum of whatever came before. If some parts aren't built up as well as they should be, lbr F&B's Dance has had the same critiques for years. And again, the multiple-historian conceit, as well as it being a history and not a POV narrative, has never helped this issue, because it lead to one of F&B's greatest faults -- that it is not consistent with itself. (Unrelated to the Dance: see Alysanne's attitude towards Baelon inheriting at the end of the Long Reign chapter, vs pages later in the Heirs of the Dragon chapter. "You will be a great king" vs "a cock is not essential"... these chapters were written years apart, and not edited together nearly as well as they should have been.) If GRRM has a different story in his head that is more consistent than was put on the page, again this may be too little too late for all the work already put into the show.

However... I have a very strong feeling that it's not "Maelor the missing" or even whatever's happening with Helaena and the riot, or Daeron and Bitterbridge, that's GRRM's real worry about "toxic butterflies". I think the subject he really wanted to talk about, and knew he absolutely could not (and yet perhaps hoped that post could pressure HBO about), is the absence of Nettles. Her absence would greatly change the relationship of Daemon and Rhaenyra, who we've seen HOTD has chosen to portray as an OTP, a toxic one perhaps, "always meant to burn together". But it was already portrayed as odd in F&B for Daemon to lose his head chasing after a teen girl (if IMO entirely consistent with his personality), but with HOTD's apparent Daemon/Rhaenyra plot... Well, see S2's process starting with him leaving her in ep2, to their reunion in ep8 convinced she's the queen chosen by the gods... is Nettles going to come in and blow that up? Make Daemon abandon Rhaenyra again? It could be told in a "logical and convincing" way, I still think it should be, but at this point it's hard to see how it would be. (And looking at GOT in comparison, Nettles does not have either the textual value nor the fanbase that Brienne has, and just look how they ended their toxic OTP of Jaime/Cersei, despite the books.)

But plot and relationships aside, Nettles is a character whose meaning reaches well beyond F&B, to affect ASOIAF itself. Her legacy regarding Targaryen exceptionalism, to the subject of who can really ride a dragon, her legacy regarding the Vale's Burned Men... all these are elements that may be extremely important in TWOW and ADOS. So if GRRM has been trying to convince Ryan that Nettles is the most important character that should not be eliminated, and yet has been shut down... well, no wonder he's been depressed about his own legacy.

And again, I'm sure it's the deeper wound of GOT's ending that's been truly paining GRRM regarding his legacy, that their ending that may be the only thing anyone ever sees. Perhaps he was hoping that HOTD could help correct the issue. That its foreshadowing would help readers understand the truth, what happens in TWOW and ADOS, the real ending. But... again I'm deeply sympathetic, and I'm sorry HOTD couldn't be that for him, but the truth is no other television show can be GRRM's legacy in that way. The only thing that can correct GOT is his own words. The only thing that truly matters is him finishing TWOW and ADOS... and it's been 13 years since ADWD, 5 years since GOT S8. I want to tell him, so much, fuck the butterflies-- as you've said so many times yourself, the show is not the books. Leave them be in their other universe and focus on your own, please. Please.

Because, again, let's be real. If GRRM does finish his grand epic and completes his legacy, his last word on the subject... if this makes HBDiscFlix want to do a GOT remake once they have an actual story to adapt "correctly" (which they still won't)... you know that when the final season of Game of Thrones Brotherhood comes out in 2050 and Tyrion rides a dragon despite having no Targaryen ancestry... all the clickbait sites and YouTok will have vidposts like "The Missing Character from House of the Dragon - What You Don't Know About This GOTB Development!" It won't matter what HBO did or didn't do with HOTD. It's just GRRM's own words in the end... if he has them.

[ahollowgrave]

-- friends.

[bisonaari]

Imagine being Bojan and you apply for eurovision with your band, hoping to bring attention to slovenia

And a couple of months later your life is now intimately tied to Finland, your band is beloved there, and you have a weird ass finnish gremlin as a best friend

[strangersteddierthings]

No Regrets - Part Three

This one got longer than I expected, so it's only about Spring Break. We return to the apocalypse next part.

Part One🦇 Part Two🦇Part Three🦇Part Four🦇Part Five🦇Part Six

"-eve?"

Waking up again is disorienting. His head aches like the beginning of a migraine. There was something he was thinking about but it's fading quickly. A conversation in a boathouse...? That's not right. The boathouse was empty. The police had beat them there.

"Steve?"

No. No conversation in a boathouse. But there was a phone call. He knows he remembers that. Joyce had called last night. Her and Murray sharing a phone between them as Steve- Oh! Right. Steve told them he knew about Hopper in Russia.

"You have to go, though. Hopper is alive and waiting. And there's a demogorgon. Demodogs, too. You have to kill them all. Any connection to the Upside Down left alive helps Vecna. It's like having a tether to here makes him stronger."

"I can't just abandon El," Joyce sounds conflicted, and Steve gets it. He does.

"You aren't. You're going to be giving her back her dad. She's got Jonathan and Will and Mike. Argyle, too, if he wants to be there. Just. Just get them on the road and back here as soon as you can. If they don't leave soon than Brenner will-"

"Brenner? What do you mean Brenner? He's dead. Right? He's supposed to be dead."

"Yeah, well, he's not. He- I don't know the full details, just. I was just given an overview because, y'know, other shit was going down. But he makes El relive a lot of traumatic shit from her past and yeah, it gets her back her powers, but she's just a kid. She's just a kid."

"Her abilities, they aren't gone?" It's Murray who asks.

"No. She's just traumatized, in a different way. It was... it was Jonathan who said this, actually, to me. I mean, he hasn't said it yet, and if everything goes the way I want, he won't need to say it ever, but that's- sorry, that's not important. He said he thinks El blocked her abilities because she lost Hopper. An internal block, you know? 'Cause she couldn't save him with them, so what was the point of having them?"

"And you think bringing Hopper back will free her of that block?" Murray asks.

Steve can't help it. He laughs. "Hell no. I think years of therapy might, but having her dad will help. There's no way it hurts, right? Also, uh, you're the parent here, Joyce, so I'll let you decide what to tell her, but the big, awful thing that Brenner made her relive? It was a massacre. At the lab, when she was there. Another guy, another number, killed a bunch of the people there. It was El who saved the remainder. She stopped him from killing anyone else by opening the first gate to the Upside Down. She tossed him in and closed it. She's not a monster. Oh, that part you have to tell her. She's not a monster."

"Steve!"

There's more to the phone call, Steve knows he knows that but there's yelling and it's distracting.

"Steve!!"

"What?" Steve snaps, both with his shout and back into himself. He's sitting at the picnic in Forest Hills. Everyone is looking at him with varying degrees of concern.

"You okay?" Robin asks, "we've been trying to get your attention for a while now."

"What? Yeah, sorry," Steve says, distracted, standing up and looking around. Eddie's trailer is right there, and Wayne's truck is parked in front. He knows Wayne. Knew Wayne? He's in charge of the gardens at home base. A real green thumb, not that you can tell by looking at the trailer now. "You think that with Fred's death, they'll stop suspecting Eddie?"

"What? We don't know that they suspect Eddie," Dustin is quick to say, "I know he didn't do it, and so do you so-"

"Yeah, I know! I do know that, but Chrissy died in his home and then he ran. Of course, he's a suspect. But he was in jail last night. So. They can't suspect him still, right?"

Nancy purses her lips, giving Steve a look he knows isn't good. "Well, it will depend on when they apprehended Eddie, which we don't even know they did. How do you know he was in jail last night?"

"Good point. I don't, not for sure. But Wayne might," Steve says as he starts walking away. He can hear everyone at the picnic table shouting for him and scrambling to follow. Steve picks up speed, dashing up the steps and pounding on the door before anyone catches up.

"Steve, what are you doing," Max hisses, because she's the fastest and therefore the closest.

"I just gotta-"

"Can I help you?" Wayne Munson greets, voice even. Steve watches as his eyes sweep the group, pausing on Nancy before coming back to Steve.

"Hopefully. Uh, I'm a friend of- well, no that's a lie. I don't want to lie to you. I'm not Eddie's friend, but I want to be, and Dustin here is, so we just wanted to know if you could tell us if Eddie's okay?" Steve says. "You already talked to Nancy yesterday, but she didn't know that we, like, knew him. Have you heard from Eddie?"

Wayne eyes him with suspicion, which is fair, "I ain't heard from him."

"Please," Steve says, because he's got to try one more time. Either Wayne doesn't know for real, or he's lying because he doesn't trust Steve. He's not sure he'll be able to tell which is which, but he has to ask again, "I swear that we just want to help Eddie. Whatever happened to Chrissy wasn't his fault, I know that. I just need. I need to know he's not- not out there, alone and scared. Please."

Wayne stares him down and Steve refuses to look away. Wayne's eyes flick away from him to the single police cruiser still stationed nearby, then back. "Get in here."

He doesn't need told twice. Wayne retreats into the trailer and Steve follows. Immediately his eyes jump to where the gate will form. Currently it just looks like water damage on the ceiling, but Steve knows. No gate yet, but it'll be there tomorrow. Probably fully formed by the time Vecna tries to take Max.

Robin, the last one in, shuts the door behind her gently.

"I told her yesterday that Eddie didn't do this," Wayne nods his head towards Nancy but he never takes his eyes off Steve. "Didn't stop them from arresting him."

"Thank God," Steve breaths out, which is the wrong thing to say, given how quickly Wayne's face morphs to anger, so he quickly adds, "shit, I mean, that means, he was in police custody when they found another victim last night, right? That'll prove he's innocent."

Wayne doesn't respond right away. Instead, he takes his time looking at each and every one of them, lingering on Nancy before settling on Max. "You live 'cross the way, don't ya?"

Max looks surprised to be recognized. "Yeah."

"Did you see anything?"

"I saw..." she trails off, brows furrowing as she thinks. She looks from Wayne to Steve. He doesn't know what she sees on his face, but he watches as she steels herself, a decidion made, before looking back to Wayne and saying, "What I saw is whatever I'll need to have seen to help Eddie."

"You'd lie to the police for Eddie?"

Max and Wayne have a silent conversation following the question, judging by their stare down and raising and following brow lines. When Max does speak, she says, "I've lied to police for worse people."

"Huh," is all Wayne says as he settles back against the counter behind him.

"Thank you," Steve says, even as his mind starts to calculate. They'll probably keep him the full 48 hours, since there isn't evidence enough to charge him. Right? There isn't really any evidence. Except, perhaps, what Eddie might have told them. Shit. Would Eddie say anything? "Can you let me know when they release him? Whatever happened, whatever he saw, probably freaked him out. I don't want him to feel alone. I mean, we don't."

Dustin is looking at him now like he's grown a second head but Wayne. Wayne is looking at him like he's made a realization. Drawn some unknown conclusion that he must approve of because he nods. "Sure, son."

"You got pen and paper? I'll write down my number."

The silence from his friends is deafening and does not bode well for Steve. He just knows they're going to bombard him as soon as they leave the trailer.

Which is exactly what happens. They wait until they're back by their cars before starting in, though.

"Steve, what the fuck was that?" Dustin says.

"How did you know he got arrested?" Max demands.

"Steve, you are acting so strange right now," Robin says, worry painted across her face.

"Explain," is all Nancy says, crossing her arms.

Should he? Does he even know what's happening? No. Not really. He's got memories of a future that's bleak and dark and terrible and he doesn't want it to come true. Are they even memories? Did those events even happen? He doesn't know for sure. All he does know if he wants to do everything in his power to prevent it from happening though. He doesn't want to have regrets about.... about something.

"We don't win," he says. "We don't win this one. Or, we didn't? We might now. Things are different this time."

"What?" Robin asks.

Steve ignores the question, giving instead more of the information he knows, "Hopper's alive. Joyce and Murray are on their way to Russia to save him."

"WHAT?" he's not sure who asked. Maybe all of them.

"And El is- I don't know. On her way, I hope. But she won't have her powers when she gets here. Or maybe she will? If she believes she's not a monster and really is the hero."

"Steve, you are not making any sense!"

"I know!" Steve shouts and drops into a squat. "I know! I'm not the- the figure it out guy, or the plans guy, or whatever. I'm just the guy who knows things he shouldn't, and I can't tell if it's because I actually lived it, or if I was just given knowledge about it somehow. I know the Upside Down has a red storm that never ends, more democreatures that just gorgons or dogs, and that Vecna slash Henry slash One is a goddamn monster who opens a giant hell gate and causes the apocalypse."

"Whoa, whoa," Dustin sooths, and when Steve looks up, Dustin's got both hands up and approaching like Steve's a wild animal. He kind of feels like one right now. "Slow down and explain."

There's a lot Steve could say. Should say. Steve is kind and soft, even in the face of the end of the world, but he's also learning that he's a little ruthless. Not heartless, but enough that he can see where they are, where they need to be, and how to get there in the easiest way possible. His eyes flick to Max. "Chrissy and Fred. They were both seeing the guidance counselor. You've seen them both there, right Max?"

"I- yeah. Yeah, I have."

"And Nancy, you've got a hunch, right? You need to go to the library to check it out?"

She narrows her eyes at him but nods.

"Okay. So, uh, let's use that as proof. You and Robin go check out your hunch, and I'll stick with Dustin and Max. Take Max to see Ms. Kelley and see if she'll tell Max anything that connects them?"

"You already know what we'll find, don't you?" Nancy asks, and Steve shrugs. "You're right. I won't believe you. Not without this proof. So, we'll go, Robin and me. And when we meet up, I expect you to tell me what we learned."

Max is completely silent the entire drive, an exact opposite of Dustin who shoots off so many questions in a row that Steve can barely remember the first by the time he's onto the next. Not that it would matter, because Dustin doesn't pause between any of his questions or comments to let Steve answer anyway.

Max launches herself from car almost as soon as Steve pulls up to the curb with a loudly groaned, "finally" before she slams the door and bounds across the street.

"Steve! Are you even listening to me!?" Dustin has finally lost steam or ran out of breath or something.

"Are you done yelling at me?" Steve retorts.

Dustin lets out a really big sigh then says, "For now. I just- Let's start with this. How do you know that Hopper's alive?"

"Joyce and Murray confirmed it when I talked to them on the phone. They're supposed to be getting El and crew heading back this way while they go to rescue him, but I don't really know how that's going."

Dustin squints at him. "I thought you could see the future now."

"No. I saw the future, so like, lived it or something. And it's like... You watch Back to the Future yet?"

"Yes."

"Okay, so like, the part where his family starts to vanish from the picture? Because he made his mom want to bang him-?"

"That is a disgusting oversimplification of the plotline, Steve."

"-it's like that. Except I want to change the events because we definitely end up in the bad timeline."

"Okay. Say I believe you. You said we don't win this time. Explain that."

Steve sighs. "Can that wait for like, everyone? Explain it all at once?"

"What made it so bad you have to alter the course of all of human existence?" Dustin demands.

"The Upside Down breaks through, man," Steve says, "Like, toxic air and no more sunlight or blue skies kinda bad. Full on, end of the world apocalypse type shit."

"Shit. We, like, lose lose," Dustin says in a small voice Steve doesn't think he's ever heard Dustin use before he huffs and falls out of view with a click and the sound of squeaking leather. Steve watches as Dustin reclines his seat back so he can stare up at the ceiling of the BMW.

"Yeah," Steve says before they fall into silence until Max sprints back, screaming for him to drive before she's even got the door closed behind her and certainly isn't wearing her seatbelt yet.

They all converge at the school, and Steve tells them what Nancy and Robin learned at the library, then Max puts together the thread that connected Chrissy and Fred, and he has to watch, again, as she accepts she's going to die. She even looks to him, as if he'll confirm that with a shake of his head or a nod.

He just blinks back at her until she looks away.

They want answers he isn't ready to give. Not until tomorrow, after Vecna tries to take Max. Given how today has gone, tomorrow shouldn't be much of a change. Nancy and Robin will still go the Pennhurst, and Steve will take Max everywhere she wants to go, but this time he'll be ready. It's not too late, so the little music store down from Melvald's will still be open. Hopefully they have Kate Bush handy. He'll make sure Lucas has a backup cassette player and-

"Wait. Lucas should be told. He should be here. Why isn't he..." Steve trails off, trying to remember why Lucas would be here. He went to party with the basketball team and- and what? There's something he's missing. Something changed. His head hurts and the white noise is back, and it hits him so suddenly he sways and stumbles backwards until he hits a wall.

"Steve!" Robin gasps his name and rushes to hold him up. Dustin is at his other side just as quick.

"I'm ok," Steve says with eyes closed. He can't explain it, but he's changed something. He knows he has. Lucas is with them tomorrow, he remembers that, and there's this feeling that he should be here now. That he should have shown up at the school, but the reason eludes him. Slips from his grasp like he's trying to hold water. "It's- there was something that was supposed to happen. Something that made Lucas find us here at the school. I remember that. I- I almost hit him with a lamp. But he's not here. He didn't- something's changed. Whatever happened before didn't happen again."

"What, like, you changed the past?" Dustin asks.

The laugh Steve lets out is manic, even to his own ears. "I don't know! I can't remember! It's there, the why, but I can't reach it. It's faded, man, like the picture. It's faded."

"Okay, I think it's time we get some rest," Nancy says. "Dustin, you'll radio Lucas tonight and fill him in. Tell him Steve or I will pick him up tomorrow morning to join us. Let's go everyone, before someone does show up."

Nancy takes Dustin and Max, and Robin sticks with Steve. She doesn't even question his detour to the music store, just helps him find the Kate Bush tape. Doesn't even raise an eyebrow when he buys two cassette players, five blank tapes, and a tape recorder.

"Who is the mix tape for?" Robin asks him only once they're at Steve's house and settled in for the night in front of the fancy stereo in Steve's living room. Robin's called her parents already and told them she was staying with a friend, and they had leftovers for dinner from.

"Just in case. Now, shh," Steve says, and once Robin has properly quieted, he pressed record on the tape recorder and play on the stereo. He's already found the track he wants, so it's just a matter of waiting the song out, pausing the tape recorder quickly, then rewinding the tape. He goes too far back, so his finger just hovers over the record button until Running Up That Hill comes back on, and he repeats the process. Over and over again, until the hour long tape is filled with nothing but one song.

Robin watches him do it in complete silence. She doesn't move or shuffle until after he's paused the recording, stilling again once he hits record. He knows she doesn't understand why, but also that she doesn't need to understand. He knows that she knows he'll explain as soon as he's able.

He's just afraid to say too much right now. He can remember tomorrow; the Pennhurst plan, how it is supposed to go based on what remembers Nancy and Robin saying. Max will bully him into driving her around, and they'll end up at Billy's grave. He'll be ready this time, he already knows the answers they're seeking but he doesn't want to risk too much.

He has a plan. And it'll work. It has too.

Because he can't remember what happens after. Patrick dies, and there's... water? A lake? But why is Patrick at a lake in the dark? He isn't, is the thing. It's like there are two memories overlapping in Steve's mind and he doesn't know which is real. Or if either of them are.

There's a memory of... of Eddie? Eddie talking about Patrick floating but there's also a memory of hearing it on the news, Patrick found dead in his room, murdered the same way as Chrissy and Fred with no sign of forced entry in his house. Both memories feel real, but Steve doesn't know, can't tell, which is.

Robin and he falls sleep wrapped around each other that night.

-

@i-less-than-three-you @nburkhardt @afewproblems @skepsiss @apomaro-mellow @eddie-munsons-lunchbox @sirsnacksalot @livelifeliketheresnotomorrow @sageclipse @schnukiputz @mbloggotdeletedsothisismybackup @lumoschildextra @juleswashere3 @yet-still-more-banched @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @yearningagain @starlight-archer @chaosgremlinmunson @aol19 @goodolefashionedloverboi @gutterflower77 @moomkin77 @wonderland-girl143-blog @krazyperson @sevenmerrymagpies

[fob4ever]

you dont understand. the whole reason why fob even came off the hiatus in the first place. was because patrick made a Sad blog post and pete read it and wanted to help him be a little less sad. fob at its core has always been about love and friendship. do you get it now

[yuseirra]

What if the Twins were NEVER born?? They weren't meant to be in the first place.

Okay I could be ALREADY off, answers could be popping out anytime now but It occurred to me, like 3am in the morning so I came to write:

The protagonists, the twins, weren’t meant to be born in the first place, but Tsukuyomi saved them…

So, how would the story have unfolded if they hadn’t been born? Couldn't that have actually been better for some characters?

Suddenly, I remembered: Ai was an idol, but she had a boyfriend, and more importantly, children. That's why someone like Ryosuke, thinking "An idol with kids? What a liar," ended up killing her, right?

But Ai's twins weren’t originally supposed to be born; they were destined to be stillborn… Tsukuyomi intervened and let them be born alive.

If Ryosuke hadn’t found proof that Ai had kids, he wouldn't have gone after her to kill her, would he? It’s only because she had children with Kamiki, that he used it as a reason to attack her.

I used to think that the twins were born for Ai's sake. If she had lost those children, Ai may have fallen into despair… So I thought Tsukuyomi helped her out of kindness. And since I also thought Ai was a deity or a reincarnation of one, I believed she might be a "god who loves humans." If that were true, then through her children, she discovered what love really meant, right?

But… I’m not sure how things would have turned out if the twins weren't there. Sigh… I'm not saying it's a bad thing they survived, I never believed so and thus this idea never occurred to me till the very end, but what if it's actually caused more misfortune than good in some way?;;

Let's go with the premise that both Kamiki and Ai were originally gods, the ones that bless the entertainment industry, Sarutahiko and Amenouzume. Around that time, Kamiki had already been pretty broken, and Ai was left as his only support. His eyes had already darkened, and though he might not have fully understood his own powers, maybe they were leaking out unconsciously. What I'm thinking is, if he had wished, "I don't want Ai to leave," back then, that could have prevented their children FROM being born. That’s kind of chilling… I think Kamiki HAS something to do with wishes. He seems to have some kind of power to make wishes come true, but they end up twisted. He proposed right after hearing about the pregnancy, and since Ai wanted to raise the kids together, he probably wasn’t someone who would reject his children. It’s just that… what he wished for always seemed to turn into something that brought him misery. Originally, Sarutahiko is a god who guides things in a "right" "positive" direction, right? Maybe he had already started going down the opposite path by then because he was broken by the malice?

Anyway, if the protagonists hadn’t been born back then, could they have reconciled? Maybe Ai wouldn’t have died?

I think the "divine mission" the protagonists were given is probably tied to their divine parents.

Ruby's role is to fulfill her mother Ai's dream -> surpassing her, shown through comparison and growth in the story.(not entirely convinced that she's the better version but it is still her objective)

As for Aqua, he likely was assigned by Tsukuyomi to do something related to Kamiki. I think Tsukuyomi might have tasked Aqua with stopping or killing Kamiki. If Kamiki is a god, then he’s too broken and needs to be dealt with… I have a hunch that's why Tsukuyomi probably kept giving him hints about revenge.

If Tsukuyomi hadn’t saved the twins…; at the very least, Ai wouldn’t have been killed by Ryosuke, but she might have faced danger due to overwhelming depression. But considering Tsukuyomi is a goddess of fate, wouldn't she have known what consequences her actions would bring? If the butterfly effect of saving the twins caused trouble to both Kamiki and Ai, then didn’t Tsukuyomi just start a snowball effect that sent both gods of the entertainment industry to their demise? What is her deal, anyway? What if she’s the black star? Haha.

Probably not… but it’s unsettling, isn’t it? However, isn't there a chance that the story could have turned out better if the twins hadn’t been born?

I personally still hold onto the idea that Kamiki would have never tried to harm Ai. It wasn't his personality, and he didn't do much in particular before Ai died, did he? What did he do?;; If he was the type to obsess and harass to make Ai come back to him, why didn’t he take any drastic actions for those four years? If Ai was the one who reached out to him first and said she wanted to let him see the kids, doesn’t that mean he wasn’t causing her trouble during that time? Ai was always sharp; she wouldn’t have made a reckless choice for the children she cherished… Would Kamiki have really wished his children gone??;; That's really too messed up. The way he acted in front of his children was so far from that too, and yeah, as always, regarding this guy, I trust Ai's conviction and guts... I want to trust him on this the way Ai did.

If you look at it positively, the reincarnation would have been for Ai and the two reincarnated souls. But thinking negatively, it might have been an attempt to retrieve the two gods who interfered in the human world and rewrite their fate. And the twins’ existence became the excuse for a killer to target Ai, driving Kamiki to madness. He kept acting out of a desire to see Ai again, and that led Aqua to believe he must be taken down for the sake of Ruby's future.

What if the protagonists hadn’t been born back then? If this had all happened when Ai and Kamiki were in their early 20s, wouldn’t things have been different? Wouldn't they have just announced their marriage and lived well together? It’s just that they were too young, so Ai decided to keep it a secret even though she liked him, and they ended up breaking up. But really, if they had gotten married, wouldn’t they have lived happily…? Both of them wanted that, after all. So if the children weren't born back then, but they reconciled later on... is that a possibility that could have been possible?;

If Tsukuyomi is guiding fate, even if she wasn’t the one to plan everything, the fact that she intervened in the twins’ fate means she wanted to change it. Was there any benefit to them being born far outweighing everything tragic that unfolds in the plot of onk? If Aqua's mission was to take down Kamiki and Ruby's was to surpass her mother, then…

Was Kamiki really beyond any hope of recovery…?

Because, he wouldn't have done whatever the heck he's been doing if only Ai didn't die, would he? Did he already have it in him and thus deserved to die?;; Is that it? This is giving me a headache...

[prinvessdior]

after 8 months I have returned to u, and all I can offer u is vaguely self indulgent blonde lego man 😞 we’re going to also ignore how this was SUPERRR impulsive

sorry for the mostly word vomit of me going crazy but if I did not write at least SOMETHING for this man I think my brain would’ve gone boom still getting back into the swing of things (as always) but please enjoy!

Might’ve been under the influence of a green plant aswell

brief summary: Lloyd breaks down ur window in the middle of the night cuz he wants to watch the stars with you, but you’re the only star in his sky teehee

WC: 850 (ish, tried to get to 1k 😞 didn’t make it)

Tap. Taptaptaptap.

‘nope. better not check that’

Being rudely awakened around midnight wasn’t something most people would appreciate. In the darkness I groaned shifting around in a crumple of sheets and blankets.

sweet silence once again, I blinked back against the darkness of my room. Already awake by the noise, I just got to sleep too. Sighing into the welcome silence. it was probably too early to be alive anyways, eyelids drifting shut once more, lulling me into a peaceful slumber.

Taptaptap THUD.

“GOD- Okay!”

Fumbling, I threw the covers off my body standing on shaky, tired legs as I pushed back my bedhead from my face trying to get some semblance of what was happening anyways.

There were a few more taps at my window as I cautiously made my way towards the haunting item.

‘Okay rationalize first actions second. You live on the second floor so obviously no one is at your window. No plants grow up this high either. Oh what if..’

no that’s silly ghosts aren’t real.

Deciding to give up on rationality, I stepped in front of my window pulling back the curtains quicker than I really should’ve.

“Ah, darkness.”

“Wow, that’s kinda hurtful.”

“OHMY GOD-“

I’d know that voice anywhere, though not at midnight, when my brain is barley working and I’m still reeling in how the hell did my boyfriend get to my second story window.

oh yeah. Ninja. Whatever.

unceremoniously, I threw myself back from the window arms shot in the air not expecting my damn window to respond to me.

“Window god I am sorry for disappointing yo-“

“Can you just let me in please?”

I skipped giddily back over to my window, deciding to ignore my former embarrassment to instead unlock the window for Lloyd, still clad in the green ninja gi, hop down from my windowsill.

“Missed you,” he sighed out dreamily opening his arms to welcome me into a hug. Happily, I extended my own to wrap around his torso as he brought me in close for a much needed hug.

He sat his chin atop my head his arms winding around my waist and resting there comfortably, we stayed like that for awhile. The only noise being the ticking of the clock next to my nightstand and our mixed rising and falling of our chests.

Slowly, I could feel myself falling asleep once again it’d been so so long since I’d seen Lloyd last. Despite how badly I craved to soak up all his attention like a sponge, how warm he was how it felt to be held again by him was too nice.. yeah this is home.

“Are you sleeping standing up?”

“No.”

he laughed, like really laughed the kind where you snort and have to hold a hand up to your mouth to cover the strength of your giggles.

I whined at the loss of his arms falling towards him onto his chest to steal more of his warmth.

“Don’t fall asleep just yet, don’t you wanna go on a ride?” Lloyd asked as he snuck a finger under my chin to tilt my head up to face him, he was smiling. He’s pretty.

“Huh?”

I tilted my head not quite focused on whatever he was saying, he snorted in amusement. “It’s really pretty on the mountain, plus it’s a clear night and we can take a drive up there to stargaze, maybe if-if you want.”

Yep. Totally awake!

I smiled wrapping my arms around Lloyd’s neck especially because of how by the end of his suggestion the tips of his ears turned pink and his pretty green eyes tore away from mine for a moment.

“Yeah, lemme put on better clothes and I’ll meet you.” I nodded pointing down to the pajamas I was still currently wearing, Lloyd’s gaze followed my finger and I had half a mind to curse my half awake brain.

“Oh- yeah Kay.”

He released me with pink cheeks turning his back to me to face the window, I could only giggle at his back and I saw his shoulders sag slightly at that as I made my way to my closet. Well.. these clothes aren’t that bad just a jacket and well, shoes.

“Alright!”

I announced returning dutifully to Lloyd’s side interlocking our fingers together, “Ready?” He asked as he looked down to our joint hands back to my face with a bashful smile.

“Yep! I’ll tell you all about the stars.” I mused dramatically turning to unlock the window with my free hand, though I missed the soft sigh and murmur that passed through Lloyd’s lips as we made our descent.

“Luckily, I have my very own.”

[crowliphale]

the sleepyhead is finally put to rest

[fistfuloflightning]

In all honesty, they hadn’t been enemies at the beginning, not until Shen Qingqiu had pitted them against each other. Then they became rivals. But it’s an old, old trope and Ming Fan is tired of fighting. Each go-round is the same thing, each life a painfully familiar path, no matter what changes. Sometimes he lives, sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes at Luo Binghe’s hands, sometimes not.

Those times are the worst, because Ming Fan can never forget those large, horrified eyes watching him die.

[motof1bfs]

The Butterfly Effect.

[frenzymutt]

Young Lloyd drawing!

I actually really like this :D

[edgymilkshakeart]

two of them

[rocco-the3rdstormfilearchiver]

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT: ONE THING LEADS TO THE NEXT.

Paps design and whole au and idea by SwApFell I hate you!