#(and if it doesn't maybe i'll do select scenes as well)

[michyeosseo]

On your first day, I warned you not to take sides. Not even mine.

Liu Yifei and Wan Qian as HUANG YIMEI & SU GENGSHENG

THE TALE OF ROSE (2024)

[codtrashsammy]

oh no i'm having more soft Ghoap thoughts

okokko this is more of a little ficlet thing but it makes my lil heart happy so enjoy <3

also y'all i do not be editing these. at all. I just be throwin shit down on paper and making my brain produce dopamine.

if you all have any requests though pls feel free to drop into my ask box <3 I will gladly write whatever. I'm sure i'll come up with rules eventually, but rn I'm pretty open-minded and can't think of much I would refuse <3

You're waltzing around your apartment, half asleep but with a tired smile on your face. Johnny comes back today, after all, and of course that means Simon will be coming too! You've been dating Johnny exclusively for a few months now. Sure, sometimes Simon will hold your hand, or pull you in for a hug. And sure, sometimes Simon sits with you in the early mornings on the balcony while you drink a warm drink, and he smokes a cigarette- looking at you with rapt attention and soft eyes, hanging onto every word you say. Okay, and maybe he calls you 'love' and 'darling' but he's British, so it's probably normal. But it's entirely platonic- you're at least 78% sure, and plus only Johnny had asked you out- so you have to stay loyal to him even if you do feel something for the bigger brute.

But! You need to get your ass into gear and make your boys- boy something to eat- knowing damn well they- he will be hungry when they- ah fuck it. You're going to cook them a good ass meal to enjoy- knowing they will enjoy it after a month of MRE's and shitty mess hall food (Johnny's words). So you do. You work away in the kitchen- though the clock reads barely past 2AM, knowing they should arrive around 3AM at this point. You've timed it perfectly, so by the time you set everything out on the kitchen island, still steaming and hot, you hear the familiar playful rapt at your door.

ba ba baba ba

With a grin you glance over the selection of food first- mashed potatoes, green beans, fried pork chops, and freshly made black tea- you make your way over to the door and open it with a grin. "'m glad you're back!" You bout out happily, sending both men a bright grin despite your slightly tired eyes along with theirs. "Missed ye, bonnie," Johnny is quick to just waltz right on in, arms wrapping around you and lifting you up slightly with one hand, his other hand occupied carrying his duffel bag.

A snort of amusement leaves your lips as you hug him back, pressing a kiss to his lips before batting at him to put you down- though he doesn't hesitate once he notices the smell in the house. "Oooh, what's this, bonnie?" Johnny hums out, dropping his bag somewhere in the living room as he makes his way to the kitchen.

A soft laugh leaves your lips at his reaction, but you don't bother to answer him as you turn your attention to Simon, whose closing the door behind him. He's wearing his usual little black medical mask- the one he wears in place of the balaclava when he's off duty.

So imagine your utter shock and dumb fuck surprise when he pulls the thing down, steps forward, places a gentle hand on your cheek and kisses you. "Missed ya, too, love," Simon quips easily, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear before simply dropping his bag and just walking right into the kitchen.

Sir, I'm sorry, what the fuck was that?! It's a thought, no words leave your lips as your cheeks heat up.

Oh no, you just cheated on your boyfriend- in the same house with him- with his best friend.

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU DO NOW?!

Apparently, nothing but walk into the kitchen with your boys, watching as the two of them are already seated with stacked plates in front of them. You blink blankly at the scene.

You hesitate before taking a seat, sitting across from Johnny and resting your hands on the table, looking between the two of them as they converse casually.

"Take such good care o' us, bonnie, dunnae ken what I did to deserve ya," Johnny quips, looking at you with bright blue eyes and a genuinely content smile on his face between shoveling bites of food.

"Stopped bein' a bloody prick fer more than two seconds," Simon says, voice low and monotone yet somehow tinged with amusement.

You blink again. Huh "You kissed me?" You say it as a statement, but it comes out as a question as you look at Simon, ignoring their banter even though it makes you want to snort in amusement. You're too dumbfounded and bewildered right now to handle this situation. "Uh huh." Simon responds, flatly, like it's the most obvious thing in the world as he takes a bite of mashed potatoes. Johnny looks between the two of you, a slow smirk pulling at his lips, "LT, you sly dog," Johnny murmurs with clear amusement, elbowing the bigger man in the side playfully. You sputter for a moment, looking back over at Johnny, "A-and you're just- okay with that?!" You ask in utter confusion, bewildered but not exactly disappointed at the scene.

So you didn't cheat on your boyfriend with his best friend? Johnny looks at you and this time he blinks in confusion before turning his head and grabbing Simon's jaw, pulling him close and planting a kiss on Simon's lips, causing Simon to grunt in annoyance- only because he was still eating.

Johnny turns back to you with a shrug, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "Even?" You stare at the scene with heated cheeks before throwing your hands up in defeat, "...Even." You relent with a huff. ....can't cheat on your boyfriend with your other boyfriend who is also your boyfriends boyfriend you suppose.

[xf-cases-solved]

S2E6: Ascension

Case: Part two of our three part (+ one fever dream) arc begins with a very Will Graham-esque "this is my design" bit with Mulder visiting Scully's apartment, which has now become a crime scene. (Ik X-Files predates Hannibal, it's just what it reminded me of, leave me alone. Plus, Red Dragon predates X-Files by over a decade, soooo) 

Anyway, Scully has been kidnapped by Duane Barry, oopsie daisy! He needs someone to take his place for the next abduction, and he has selected Scully for the job. Good thing Mulder and Krycek are on the case and manage to get her home safe and sound before the end credits roll!

Or... maybe actually they do the opposite of that.

Mulder gets progressively scruffier throughout the episode and nearly kills himself and Krycek on the road bc he hasn't been sleeping since Scully got kidnapped; Scully loses her necklace for the first, but CERTAINLY not last time; Mulder and Krycek take a couple's vacation to a ski resort and Mulder holds a tram operator at gunpoint for suggesting that the tram is "not safe"; Krycek messes up his carefully slicked back hair while pistol whipping the tram operator and then fails to murder Mulder in what may or may not end up being just one of many assassination failures in his pathetic assassin career; Scully is taken by "THEM!" (whoever they are); Duane Barry is dead and the military performs the autopsy bc "there wasn't an FBI pathologist available this morning" (☹️); and Assistant Director Skinner apparently has had the power to reopen the X-Files this whole time??

Does someone die in the cold open: No, but Mulder does do the worst consoling job ever by approaching Scully's mom with Scully's blood on his outstretched hand and then staring blankly at her when she asks where her daughter is.

Does Mulder present a slideshow: This man should not be operating any sort of heavy machinery be it a car, a tram, or an early 1990s projector. (Of the three, though, the only one he doesn't operate during this episode is the projector.)

Does the evidence survive the investigation: Loooool. Nah. Scully's gone, Duane Barry is dead, Krycek has disappeared, and Mulder is left with nothing but some overgrown stubble, scruffy hair, and a worsening of his already substantial insomnia problem.

Whodunit: THEM!!! (Aliens? The shadow government? Both? Neither? Who's to say?)

Convictions: Oh hon. You had to have known Duane Barry was never getting out of this alive, right?

Did they solve it: I am going to go with "no, but." No, but Mulder (and Skinner) are at least aware that they have been massively screwed over, and so Skinner reopens the X-Files in retaliation, and I'll consider that a leveling up. You may have lost all your evidence, almost got framed for murder (tho tbf you did strangle the shit out of him), and got your only real friend in the world abducted by aliens/the shadow government/THEM, but at least you got your special files back, Mulder! I'm sure the first X-Files case you take on after their reopening will be very important, and not one that is just a fourteen year old emo kid's wet/fever dream fantasy...

But, ah, you know what? I'm getting ahead of myself. Ad break! 

[how do i determine if a case is solved? check the scale here: x]

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: Quitting your job and disconnecting your home phone number. Are you currently leading a double life, pretending to be someone you're not in order to gain the trust of someone you intend to royally fuck over for your bosses in the shadow government? Have you completed your mission and are ready to move onto bigger and better* things? Well, then that means it's time for you to try quitting your job and disconnecting your home phone number! Don't worry, it's the 90s, you don't have a cell phone with a tracker on it, nobody will be able to find you. Go live your life, free as a bird. I mean, at least for now... *We do not guarantee that the things you move onto will be bigger, and we CERTAINLY don't guarantee that the things you move onto will be better. In fact, they might be worse. There's actually a high likelihood that they will indeed be worse. But don't worry about that right now. Everything is going to be probably possibly maybe just fine.

***

General Total Stats:

(green means stat has changed since last ep; red means new stat added to list)

Total Cases *Definitively* Solved So Far: 15 (streak not broken bc i didn't bother to restart it in the first place 👉🏽😎👉🏽)

Total Number of "Mulder/Scully, It's Me": 9 (teeeechnically she does say "mulder, it's me" in this episode, but it's the same one from the end of the previous episode, so counting it felt like cheating)

Total Number of Times Scully Has Conveniently Not Seen Something Crucial: 6

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Been in Mortal Danger: 10 ½ (if only krycek were competent 😔) 

Total Number of Times Scully Has Been in Mortal Danger: 10 (i think as long as we don't know her whereabouts it's valid to consider her as being in mortal danger)

Total Number of Sexually Charged, Uncomfortably Intimate, and/or Flirty Moments Between Friendly Coworkers: 15 (mulder climbing a hill and staring longingly at the sky is so insanely melodramatic that i'm counting it)

Total Number of Autopsies Scully Has Performed On Screen: 5 (ngl the line "there wasn't an fbi pathologist available this morning" hits the feels a bit)

Total Number of Times Scully Plays Doctor: 2

Total Number of Times Mulder Talks to an Informant: 19!! (and he was extremely unhelpful 😃)

Total Number of Times People Making Out in a Car Are Hurt or Killed: 2

Total Number of Times Someone Correctly Guesses a Password: 3 

Total Number of (Plot Relevant) Nosebleeds: 5

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Tasted/Sniffed/Touched Something Questionable Without Following Proper Safety Procedures: 3 (no, but he did completely ignore all warnings in regards to using the unstable tram thing, which is similar in spirit, if not in practice)

Total Number of Times Someone Says "Trust No One": 3 

Total Number of Times Someone Says "I Want to Believe": 4 

Total Number of Times Someone Says "The Truth is Out There": 2 

Total Number of Cigarettes Cigarette Smoking Man Has Smoked: 13 (but he NEVER. FUCKING. FINISHES THEM. look at that fucking ashtray at the end of the episode. he takes like one drag and then puts them out. why? why not smoke the whole thing?? drives me insane)

Total Number of Maggie Scully Sightings: 2! (she's not having a good time!)

Total Number of Lone Gunmen Sightings: 2

Total Number of Alex Krycek Sightings: 3!!!!!! (get outta town, rat boy! no, seriously, get outta town. we'll call you when we need you to fuck something up later)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look Up What State the Episode Takes Place in Even Though I Literally Just Watched It: 11½ (ascend to the stars, mother fucker)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look at an Episode's Wikipedia Page to Fill This Out Because It Was Fucking Confusing and/or Too Boring for Me to Pay Attention: 5

[dearchloe]

1 december

"I'll send you a copy of that application when I file it, anyway."

"Thanks, Jess." Ivy hung her jacket up behind the door of her office and took down her coat from the peg. The quiet and select surroundings of the chambers in Duke Street could never be called bustling, but today, late on the afternoon of a dreary Sunday when no one wanted to do anything other than curl up in front of the TV, they were the only people left in the building, and she was in as much of a hurry to get home as anyone else.

"No worries. If you wait to get it back from the court, you won't see it until January."

"It would be funny if it wasn't true." She fastened her scarf around her neck and shook hands with the other woman. "Are you heading my way?"

"The Tube station."

"Oh, I'll walk with you."

"Great." Jess finished buttoning her coat, threw one bag over her shoulder, and picked up another. If there was one thing that you couldn't do as a barrister, Ivy reflected, it was travelling light. "Ready?"

"When you are."

The two of them set out, winding their way through the dim corridors of the courthouse and making small talk which had nothing to do with their case until at last they found themselves in the fresh, crisp air of the street outside.

"Do you go over the bridge?" Ivy asked. Jess shook her head.

"I normally go through the High Street. The lights are lovely at the moment, too."

"Sounds like a plan." With a shared nod, the two lawyers turned to the left and followed the road, around the grand sweep of the corner and into the pedestrianised stretch which made up the town centre. Ivy had to admit that Jess was right. The lights, though nothing out of the ordinary, were effective in the gathering gloom of the early winter evenings, and they reflected in beautiful fractals from the rain-soaked paving below. Between the lights above and the lights below, individuals and families, wrapped in their winterwear, hurried one way or another, bound home for the evening or out for a meal, and above the quietly murmuring voices came the unmistakeable sound of Christmas music, piping from one or another of the shops lining the sides of the street.

Ivy only realised she had stopped when Jess paused ahead to look back at her with a questioning expression, and the brunette smiled sheepishly, hurrying to catch up. "Sorry. Just, it looks exactly like a Christmas card."

"It really does." The two linked arms, and continued on their way, steps falling unconsciously into time with the rhythm of I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. "I tried taking a photo on my way home yesterday, but it doesn't show up very well. Maybe I should try with a proper camera instead of just my phone."

"It couldn't hurt."

They slowed as the road grew busier, and Jess craned her neck over the heads of the crowd to see what was causing it. "Oh, that's cute. It's Santa's Grotto, look."

"Rather him than me," Ivy remarked, gathering her coat more closely around herself. "It's too bloody cold to sit around out here all night."

"Scrooge."

"And proud of it."

Jess rolled her eyes. "Where's your Christmas spirit? Come on, this way."

Ivy, taken by surprise and already in Jess' grip, had no choice but to go with her colleague as they made a beeline across the road towards the grotto. "What are we doing?"

"We're going to get in the Christmas spirit."

The brunette eyed up the scene in front of her and did not like the obvious result. "Oh, come on. This is the kind of thing you have to be drunk to do if you're older than about seven. And I'm not drunk, Jess."

"Well, it'll make a nice change for him." The blonde winked at her, steering her to the end of the line, where Ivy made a rapid survey of her fellow queuers and decided that, excluding the parents, they were the oldest by about two decades. "Come on, live a little."

"I'm here, aren't I?"

At last, they reached the front of the queue, and Jess pushed Ivy forwards, a look of almost sadistic glee on her face. "After you."

Glaring back at the other woman, unaware of quite how stroppy this made her look, Ivy stood somewhat awkwardly beside the red-suited man who sat at the centre of the Grotto, surrounded by his retinue of elves and mumbled "Um, hi." All her erudition, so present in court, seemed to have deserted her, and she had a sudden overwhelming feeling of embarrassment. She was, in fact, tongue-tied.

The man smiled up at her from behind his white beard. Ivy had to admit that he was at least a step above the normal charity-bucket Santa. The beard might even be his own, and he had properly twinkling eyes, and red cheeks — although come to think of it, her own were probably pretty rosy in this biting cold. "Not at all, my dear." Even his voice seemed right. "Come and see Santa."

If her cheeks hadn't been red before, they were now, as she walked slowly across to the old man and perched, slightly awkwardly, on the invitingly extended knee.

"Well now, little girl, have you been good this year?"

A very peculiar feeling passed over her. Ivy felt at once very large and very small, and the old man's face seemed suddenly to be a long way above her. There was an enormous lump in her throat, and when she tried to speak, all that she could do was gulp. The barrister made a couple of attempts to offer the snarky response she'd concocted, and then, giving up, just nodded.

"Excellent!" He beamed down at her, and she squirmed on his knee, feeling suddenly immensely uncomfortable for some reason that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Then I'm sure you'll get everything you ask for from Father Christmas. As long as you're telling me the truth, that is."

Again, all that Ivy could do was nod, and Jess grinned at her as she got to her feet, suddenly recovering the use of her legs.

"See, that wasn't so bad."

Ivy, still unnerved by the experience, scowled in a way that made her colleague take a step back.

"Shut up."

[an-interview-with-j1janedoe]

" AN INTERVIEW WITH URANIUM CITY'S PRIZED 'WRAITH.' "

(Ignore how the image text & the title text thing are slightly different I'm tired)

Yello, I'm back with another askblog! I didn't want to clog up my other Jane Doe/Penny Askblog.. so you get this! — @watermel0ns-dumb-cringe

[ALL ART USED BELONGS TO ME ; DO NOT REPOST. NSFW/PR0SHIP DNI.]

Format looks like this ⬇️

[⚙️]— "J-1 / Jane Doe."

" .. Must I be required for this? "

☆ RULES —

- No NSFW. Suggestive jokes are fine every now and then, but be wary for the person running this blog is a MINOR.

- Have basic human decency, please. This is an AU blog, being (partially) separate from canon. Ships most likely won't be included- aside from subtle hinting & already canon things. <3

- I'm completely fine with spamming asks just don't spam the same thing over & over.

J-1 doesn't have a larger role in the Target Aquired story yet— but you can read it here if ya want.

☆ IMPORTANT NOTE —

[May contain triggering/sensitive topics & imagery. Examples may include violence, blood/gore, & character death. Posts will have a TW/CW when necessary.]

FAQ under the cut

☆ FAQ —

Q: "What is the Target Aquired AU?"

A: Basic storyline for now is that that Penny Lamb was the only one to die in the Cyclone Roller Coaster Disaster, with the rest of the choir recovering in the hospital. She remains unidentified.

Before her funeral can be held, the unidentified body vanishes from its grave, the remaining alive members of the Saint Cassian Chamber Choir being found dead just after being released from the hospital.

Now having a robotic head, J-1 (Jane) essentially becomes something similar to The Terminator. Minus the time travel shenanigans. Not much is known about her other than the fact of Uranium City's residents slowly being picked off once they unknowingly are selected as a 'target' assigned to kill.

But maybe... Jane wasn't supposed to end up this way. Maybe she wasn't meant to be brought back as a killing machine. After all, a lot can happen when an incomplete 'machine' ends up in the wrong hands.

Nobody knows who she is, seemingly. Neither does she— her memories are gone. Programming blocking her feelings as to not get attached to 'targets,' and to not defy said programming pick those she's assigned to off.

However, J-1 seems.. a tad reluctant on the hunt for her most recent target. Is it rememberance? Is it pity? Or is it something else? Who knows. Her 'target?'

A painly familiar teenager. Perhaps someone she once knew before her death.

I'll leave the rest undiscovered for now. :) (fun fact, this doubles as a fic as well! .. even if it's from the pov of someone else.)

Q: "What are 'Targets?'"

A: Self explanatory. People that J-1 are supposed to hunt down & murder. She tends to leave odd symbols & writing at the scenes of the crimes.

Q: "Where can I read this?/Is there some kind of larger story?"

A: you can find it here! As mentioned earlier. :)

Q: "Who runs this blog?"

A: Yours truly! (@watermel0ns-dumb-cringe)

Q: "Who is he?"

A: ERROR. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.

[⚙️]—

" That's classified information. "

[raayllum]

More Than Anyone or Anything

or why I think Callum is Like That: The Meta.

AKA because I realized that while I've talked about Snake Boi Callum and why I view him that way before, it was mostly in regards to explaining his canon traits that aren't usually very disputed. These being:

His sometimes obsessively dangerous qualities, specifically surrounding magic (1x04, 1x05, 2x04, 4x01, 4x02, 4x04)

His ambitious side (man heard from the one magical 'expert' he knows that humans just flat out cannot do primal magic naturally, said fuck that, and got it in a week after one week of practice)

His temper (1x01, 1x06, 1x09, 2x07, 3x08, 4x01-4x04, 5x01, 5x05, 5x08)

His ruthlessness (turning on Viren the second Ezran is in danger despite trusting him for years beforehand; his attitude towards Claudia in 2x07 after she's likewise betrayed him; smiling when killing corrupted soldiers in 3x09 even when Ezran expresses grief and Janai expresses horror when she was facing a similar scenario during the timeskip; arguing to take the violent route in 5x05 whereas Ezran and Rayla pick the more preventative one).

Therefore, for this meta, I will be focusing specifically on why I interpret Callum as Selectively Loyal to the point of being willing to help free Aaravos in order to spare, specifically, Ezran and Rayla's lives (and not necessarily anyone else's, such as Zym and Soren).

Strap in boys — this is going to be a long one.

Disclaimers: As always, this is just my opinion, and an interpretation being popular in fanon does not automatically mean it's better or more valid / rooted in canon than any other kind of (less popular? maybe common) interpretation. I will also be making it clear when I'm drawing on sections/snippets from supplementary material (TDP short stories, novelizations, and Tales of Xadia) but give that it's supplementary material, feel free to take it with the ultimate grain of salt.

Related Metas (that's worth reading if you're interested in other Snake Boi aspects that are not going to be heavily touched on here):

Callum's temper (S1-S3) and how it links to him typically feeling helpless to fix/aid his loved ones, causing him to lash out even sometimes at them

How Callum operates differently from Ezran and Rayla (S1-S4), but very well embodied I believe by the scene in 5x05 where Ez and Rayla side with the "violence as a last resort" option and Callum does not

How Callum views Zym and the egg in Arc 1 differently from Ez and Rayla, or how Callum sees things as tools and why he gets fixated on / what he projects onto objects (much like Viren with the mirror)

Differing Priorities for Callum and Rayla in TTM, in which Rayla only engages in their scheming because she thinks Viren is a threat to the whole world, and Callum comes up with their scheme because he just wants to give her closure

What does the Trio's Tales of Xadia's bios actually mean? (this one will be touched on the most down below, so feel free to skip unless you want a more detailed refresher)

Specifications:

If you're someone who doesn't see Callum this way, but you're genuinely interested in reading a differing perspective, please read on. If you're someone who doesn't necessarily see Callum this way, but you're curious and/or on the fence, please read on. If you'd like to add your own thoughts to this post, feel free to add on if it's in support; if it's differentiation, please make your own post (I'll engage respectfully with if it I want to).

If you're someone who is only going to get upset with my viewpoint, please curate your internet experience and do not read this post. If you're only going to make thinly veiled meta rebuttals of this post in a rude way ("even though some people may think...", linking to this post, general assholery), please do not read this post. You would be far happier if you were less obsessed with an opinion I've held for 5+ years and months & months before you likely joined the fandom. i just want to chill in my corner, please do not chuck pillows at me for doing what I've always had a good time doing that doesn't hurt anyone.

With all of that out of the way, let's get into it

What do I mean when I say selective loyalty?

Loyalty has always been an interesting trait to me, simply because in the bulk of storytelling, it is a necessary character trait for a story to function. One of the biggest things that a character can do to be disliked is be a traitor towards someone that trusted them, and if a character is too disloyal, they can be hard to engage with due to a lack of consistency. Characters who start out loyal to no one/nothing inevitably have arcs, provided they stick around in the story long enough, of garnering loyalty for someone (usually found family loved ones > a cause) in order for them to be able to progress as a character. We want characters to bond, and we want them to be there for each other, and if they're not at all, we want to see what happened or what other bonds they might form with other people. If not loyal, we want to see why they're working with someone at the very least.

Therefore, everyone in real life or in fiction has some elements of 'selective loyalty,' since we all have people (the people we know and love) we are more loyal to, fundamentally, than others (strangers / people don't know at all). It's just a natural normal thing to adhere more to valuing and looking after the people in your immediate circles over people you don't know at all, even if that doesn't mean we're void of caring about strangers, either. Our empathy or compassion, as well as the social structure of our living units and lives, are more cohesion for caring for strangers than it is for competing with strangers or being wholly indifferent.

For a quick overview of the way selective loyalty can work, I'm actually going to talk about Claudia quickly, and her internal hierarchy. While she is loyal to the princes ("Their Dad is dead and you lied about it. Plus they're our friends. It's wrong") to the point of that possibly being an opportunity for severance, initially, with her father ("Careful, if you tell the truth you will lose her"), Claudia's loyalty to her father ultimately trumps her loyalty to the princes, and even to her family with Soren.

For the opposite approach of selective loyalty, I'm going to talk about Rayla, who regularly bails out strangers (the boys in 1x03, Phyrrah in 2x07) and enemies (Bait as a frenemy in 1x05, Nyx in 3x05) as well as the people she grows to love (the boys on regular intervals). She and Runaan, as is Soren, are all willing to put their perceived missions/duties not only above but in direct opposition to their familial loyalty / family ties.

Callum, TO ME, is not, and here's why.

When I say that Callum is selectively loyal, I mean that there is ultimately nothing he will put above Ezran and/or Rayla at any interval with very few exceptions (aka if they're still breathing, he's still going to be fighting for them). This is for a few reasons.

I'm going to talk more about why it's Ez and Rayla specifically later, but for now I want to talk briefly about how they factor into his decision making and what see of them from people who have lost his loyalty.

Despite knowing and having trusted Viren for the bulk of his life ("Claudia! Lord Viren! Anyone!"), as soon as Callum learns that Viren has put Ezran substantially at risk ("Two [targets]? What do you mean?" "I'm here for the king, and I'm also here for his son, Prince Ezran") Viren is fucking Dead To Him.

It's not just that Viren lied, it's that Viren's lies and choices put Ezran in danger, and that's just not acceptable. We see this happen again with Claudia in S2, even after Callum defending her and trying to give her chances. She lied, yes, but she scares Ezran and attacks Rayla again, and that's the breaking point.

When you threaten the people he loves, when you scare them, if he trusted you, he will never look at you the same way again. Any loyalty he felt towards you will snap and snap hard, permanently, like a wishbone.

Callum loves and cares for other people. He loved and cared for Viren and Claudia. But unlike Ezran, who is willing to give Claudia a chance in 3x09 to the point of running after her, helping hand extended, and unlike Rayla, who still adamantly loves Runaan even after their fight and with no hint of change from him, Callum does not take other people hurting his family lightly, at all.

He loves and cares for Amaya, and Soren, and Harrow. But even Harrow, his father, is someone he's willing to put on the backburner — despite having an offered chance from Rayla to save him — in order to do what Harrow asked and what Callum's first instinct is: to look after his brother, because it is fundamentally unsafe for Ezran to stay at the castle for any longer, and he knows it.

Callum knows what the egg might mean, but he does not follow Rayla out the dungeon door blindly. He runs only after Ezran does, and only after Claudia might hit Ezran with lightning. Then he acts. Then he makes a choice. Because his loyalty to his brother outweighs after other substantial relationship in his life, at this point, but it doesn't necessarily stay that way.

Inner circle

In Tales of Xadia, all the characters are given values. While the values have more generic explanations (i.e. Callum's highest one, Liberty, is labelled as, "Have you ever resisted the control of others? This value is about freedom and autonomy. You’re motivated by a world without oppression or suppression") the characters individual bios help offer more clarity on their specifics. Callum's, specifically, states, "I am beholden to my inner circle, not some silly kingdom." Ouch, from Katolis' crown prince and Ezran's heir apparent.

It is, of course, important to not take this trait entirely literally. If Callum truly valued his own personal autonomy over everything else, he would've taken Finnegrin's deal in 5x08 in a second if all he wanted as his own freedom. Instead, Callum's highest value being Liberty is far more about his place with Freedom as a Theme more than something he wholly actively desires; again, we see in 5x08 he's willing to risk more of his freedom by doing dark magic in order to save Rayla.

There are things that Callum values more than his own personal freedom and there are things that he values more than magic (2x04: "Callum, you're being an idiot! Why would you do that? You can't risk your life to learn magic") vs throwing himself off the top of the Storm Spire at the slimmest chance of, once again, saving Rayla.

That said, this value and quote is still very useful, as it does then, beg the question, of who exactly is Callum's inner circle? Well...

Ezran and Rayla are the most important people in the entire world to him. Full stop. There is nothing he will fundamentally put above them. He only stays behind in 1x06, thereby not sacrificing the egg by proxy, because Rayla points out "We'll need to be up here to pull [Ezran] out." Even when he was stressing about whether they'd gotten to the Sea of the Cast Out on time, the second Rayla showed a hint of major discomfort/potential self-deprecation, he was offering to get back into the goddamn boat to comfort her ("I'm getting out—" "No. I can't do it, but you have to"). He's hesitant to go into town to find a vet for the egg because "We will definitely find some elf hating humans," pouting further when Rayla brushes him off, and flings himself off his balcony when he thinks there's even a chance that Ezran isn't okay into what he knows would subsequently be a trap. He's the first to say that they need to leave Rex Igneous' chambers after protecting Ezran from falling rocks with his own body, and the last to actually leave, almost being crushed by rocks himself because he's so committed to standing there and watching Rayla leave.

He equates Rayla's love for him with his love for Ezran on Day Nine (2x03: "I couldn't tell him. And I understand why you couldn't tell me. When you care about someone, it's hard to hurt them. Even when what you're saying is the truth.")

Hell, he even forgets that Sol Regem is there in 3x01 because he tunnel visions on Rayla needing his help so intensely she has to point out the massive ton dragon actively trying to kill them to him.

He's a nurturer, a fixer, a solution seeking. He wants to make you feel better ("See it's working right? Don't you feel a little better?"), he is a kind reassuring word ("Don't be so hard on yourself, Ez") always, he thinks of your problems even when you don't (Rayla's binding in 1x07), he will lay his life down for you without question ("I am Prince Ezran"), he will get mad at you for treating yourself poorly (3x04, like almost all of S4), he dotes, he notices, he will compromise his beliefs for you ("Could he really bring himself to go through with his plan? What if he didn’t succeed? What if he compromised his beliefs and it was all for nothing? [...] But Rayla was in trouble"—S2 novelization).

You mean everything to him: "Rayla's strong, thin arms wrapped around him meant everything" (S2 novelization of the hug scene in 2x04) / "You're my brother, and you mean everything to me" (2x06).

You are his whole world.

If you're part of his inner circle, and not everybody is, so let's talk about it.

[ Callum, excluding Claudia and Soren from their support system, even though the siblings haven't yet betrayed them, while including Rayla, even though he and she haven't made up yet. ]

What about Soren and Zym?

As stated before, Callum's selective loyalty does not mean he doesn't care about other people in his life, such as Claudia (in the past) and people like Amaya, Soren, and Zym in the present. Merely that, slightly like Claudia, Callum does have an internal hierarchy of care — the way you might have friends vs best friends — of who takes priority, and we see S1, S4, and S5 in particular demonstrate this quite well.

As already stated, Callum prioritizes Ezran over the egg in 1x06 and is held back emotionally by Ezran fuelled logic and physically by Rayla. In 1x07, he doesn't want to risk going into town — even to potentially find help for the egg — because of his last disastrous experience with humans and Rayla. In 2x04, Callum is perfectly happy to walk around a sea to let Rayla avoid her fear of water, and approximately 5 minutes later is getting on Ez and Rayla's case for goofing off (with Rayla's thinly veiled and fallible disguise) because "Sometimes getting someplace slightly faster is important, like right now." Wasn't quite the tune he was singing earlier, now was it? For Zym, we see this again in 3x04 — Rayla is having a breakdown, so she has more of an excuse, but Callum should conceivably be much more clear headed, and he still tunnel visions into leaving Zym alone with Nyx leading to the theft. Likewise in 4x07 when the group thinks Zym might be gone, Ezran is the one who states, "I'm not leaving without him," and Ez and Rayla are both pretty broken up about it; Callum is sad, for sure, but he mostly focuses on taking care of Ezran and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Then you have Amaya, who Callum loves dearly, but isn't particularly torn up over not trusting or lying to (1x04, 5x03) in spite of being close to her, and isn't as vexed even when he thinks that maybe something bad has happened.

Even when Callum thinks it was bad, and potentially very bad ("The way Gren was talking, I thought maybe the world was ending or something!") he doesn't get angry and he doesn't get demanding. This is very different from how he responds to Ezran and Rayla being potentially in danger or just in trouble.

Which on that note also highlights another key importance between how Callum treats Rayla, in particular, versus how he treats Soren. Now, you could argue that Callum in 5x01 has emotionally matured/healed further than he has in 4x01 prior to Rayla's return, and that would be perfectly fine to do. However, it doesn't change the fact that just the hint of Soren keeping a secret — even before Callum thinks, at all, that it's about Ezran — makes him wait on the battlements to coldly and sternly interrogate Soren about it. With Soren, he demands,

C: I know this — the ties are true as the ocean is deep [...] It means I trust her. Unconditionally. Let her go. Now. R: About your key and the bow. I can explain. C: No, I meant what I said. You don't have to explain or justify anything to me.

Even when Rayla engages in actually shady behaviour — omitting the truth if not outright lying, stealing his key, and retrieving a painfully poignant weapon — Callum doesn't get mad, at all. Soren just implied he was potentially keeping a secret from Callum at the council meeting and lowkey got his ass handed to him, with Callum literally shoving him out of his way and needing Corvus' help to coral the angry step-mage.

Furthermore, even when Soren goes missing in 4x06, although concerned, Rayla is by far the most broken up about it. Ezran is optimistic because he's, well, Ezran; Rayla is torn because even though she doesn't know Soren that well, she feels like it was 100% her fault he's gone missing and has possibly gotten hurt; and Callum, well... mostly focuses about how she feels about it, and less so about his actual friend (because if Ezran or Rayla are emotionally hurting, they will take priority to him). He's focused on making sure she feels better.

Again: Callum loves Amaya, and Zym, and Soren. He loves them dearly. He wants to and does protect them. He can and will take care of them. But push come to shove, they're not in his inner circle — he doesn't trust them the same way, and he doesn't focus on them the same way, because when it comes to his inner circle, he loves them

More Than Anyone or Anything

So after seeing Callum like this from S1 onwards, you can imagine I was pretty thrilled upon opening up his bio in Tales of Xadia — which seems to be the most 'canon' of the supplementary materials thus far (scenes and ages are changed in the novelizations; timelines get a little wonky in the prequel graphic novels; some designs from "Callum's Spellbook" ended up being different; the art book is full of beautiful concepts, of course, that never understandably got off the ground) except perhaps for Though the Moon — said the quiet part out loud. Not only does TOX have plenty of lore drops and hints at future arcs that are coming to fruition (Aaravos' connections to Elarion, mentioning the Great Bookery of Lux Aurea and Leola, etc) but they did something very interesting when it came to what values which character had. There's some leeway as this is very much an Arc 1 reading (probably most clearly seen in Soren's bio) but there is still plenty of bleed over into Arc 2.

Now, as I said before, we don't want to take the Values too literally. As talked about previously, a lot of the characters highest values seem to be things their arcs are set up to thematically test rather than being a 1:1 what they value the most. But I feel like you can glean a good deal from them, so let's look at the trio:

EZRAN:

Justice — 10: I expect the best of people and try not to become an agent of cruelty.

Devotion — 8: All creatures—regardless of origin—deserve love and appreciation.

Liberty — 8: I value the liberty of everyone, sometimes even more than my own.

RAYLA:

Devotion — 10: Love and devotion compel and define me.

Justice — 8: At great personal cost I will strive for what’s right.

Liberty — 8: My only allegiance is to my heart and those who know it.

CALLUM:

Liberty — 10: I’m beholden to my inner circle, not some silly kingdom.

Devotion — 8: I value those close to me more than anyone or anything.

Mastery — 8: I aspire to know the great wonders of every primal magic.

Out of all the more 'heroic' characters listed in the handbook (Amaya, Janai, Aanya) only Callum and Lujanne do not have Justice, "Have you ever been compelled to fix what’s wrong? This value is about balance, virtue, and reward. You’re motivated by adherence to fairness and what you think is right" among their top 3. Each have it at a 6, instead, which the guide labels as, "This matters, but so do many things" and is the second lowest ranking a value can have. None of the main cast have any value at the highest ranking, 12, either, to help indicate scale perhaps.

Devotion, then, is the one we're currently the most interested in for Callum, since as said before, while the general value descriptions are useful, the specific ones help show more indication. Devotion is referred to in Tales of Xadia as, "Have you ever been obligated to others? This value is about duty, faith, and friendship. You’re motivated by the bonds of loyalty and your love for others."

Although devotion is Rayla's highest value, her devotion value makes no indication of who/what she is Devoted to. Whereas Ezran's reflects his deep love and appreciation towards animals (hence saving the baby glow toads in S5) and Callum's we'll get to in a moment, Rayla's we're not privy to. Instead, we can look at her Liberty value, as it states that her allegiance is to her heart ("My heart for Xadia") and to her loved ones (her friends, her family). Much of her arc is therefore feeling torn between what she thinks/feels her duty is versus what her heart is telling her, indicated by her letting Marcos go in 1x01 and the subsequent fallout.

We can also see her state this more clearly in Through the Moon, in which Callum is the one primarily concerned with her parents ("he’s stuck worrying about her parents. About what happened to Runaan. She can’t move on, not without knowing the truth of what happened [...] I hope you find your parents. And Runaan"), versus Rayla going along with the plan, "Callum, listen. Soren was worried about Viren too. Worried that we never found a body. We need to know what happened to Viren. He’s a threat to the whole world! This might be the only way to be sure he’s actually gone! [Upon entering the Portal...] Okay. Viren. My parents. Runaan" and then 5x01 spells it out even more directly.

R: Callum and Ezran need me. A great evil is trying to return to Xadia and we have to stop it, at any cost. I think this is what you would want me to do. I love you, and I haven't forgotten about you. I never will. [...] It hurts me to know they're trapped like this. It's agonizing. But our mission comes first. The world is in danger, and you can trust me to stay focused.

Now this makes sense, as Rayla having this push and pull has not only been a defining feature of her arc most seasons, but is ultimately what's going to be the most challenged when the Callum possession plotline rears its head. Does she kill/incapacitate the man she loves in order to protect the world, or does she fight to get him back no matter what, even if that may lead to ruin and chaos? (I'm hoping for the second one, but I will eat either up, lemme tell you.) Does she finally refuse to sacrifice, or does she barrel on hoping she'll only have to sacrifice herself?

The reason I bring Rayla up at all is because I think it provides a good contrast to how Callum operates, specifically in 5x04, in which case he reaffirms his devotion ("I would do anything for you") and then risks everyone's lives by staying late at the Great Bookery, even when Rayla says three times that well, this isn't the time: "Not yet, Callum... Believe me, I want to do something, but... Callum, we need to leave!"

Rayla cares about everyone, and is willing to risk her life for enemies and for strangers. She will abandon her mission for the world in favour of looking after individuals because they need help, regardless of what it asks of her: "Live or die, this dragon goes home." (And because she believes Ezran and Callum can accomplish the mission without her, but that's a post for another day.) As Bloodmoon Huntress makes explicit, as Ethari says:

Who I love, where I love, what I love, are all specific. But to Runaan and those like your parents... love is rooted in all families, all creatures. Souls like that feel called to protect everyone as fiercely as those they hold close. Each time Runaan leaves, it is with the weight of knowing that he may not come back. That to fulfil his duty, he may need to sacrifice everything, himself, and all that we have here.

Rayla likewise feels called to protect everyone, and that's precisely why by the end of Bloodmoon Huntress she's chosen to literally and figuratively follow in Runaan's career path, in order to be able to help protect and save people like Suroh (a stranger she immediately becomes entangled with). As Rayla says to the vision of Runaan and her parents in 5x01, "I think this is what you would want me to do," because they are ultimately all more alike (even in the occupations Rayla holds, such as assassin or dragonguard) than they are dissimilar.

The reason I highlight Rayla here is because 1) it is her highest value, being the only character to have it as said highest value (Claudia's, likewise, is only an 8 — but everything she does is indeed for her father, and unknowingly herself) and 2) I think it provides a clear contrast to Callum.

Because Callum's devotion does outline who, or what, he's loyal to. He isn't loyal just to causes and he isn't loyal just to concepts. While he cares about the world, when his back is up against the wall and it's a choice between that kind of security vs the life of a loved on (Ez, Rayla), Callum will always choose the latter. He cares about the world — to a Point.

I've talked about it before, but merely a statement of "I value those close to me more than anything" would accordingly be a lot more vague. There could be discussions and debates on what the 'anything' constitutes (morals, responsibilities, hurt feelings) with a lot more grey room as to whether it would include people (strangers).

“Maybe there is something I can do,” Callum said. “Ezran, you stay here. Protect Bait and Zym. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon—with Rayla.” [...] Could he really bring himself to go through with his plan? What if he didn’t succeed? What if he compromised his beliefs and it all ended up being for nothing? […] But Rayla’s blade bounced off with a clang, sparks flying. She reeled back and tried again. Nothing happened. She was in trouble. Callum inched toward Claudia’s [book].

—Book 2: Sky novelization

But the inclusion of "more than anyone" changes that. It does include people. There is no wiggle room about that.

Now, I'm not going to base my whole thing on one (1) statement from a supplementary material. As previously stated, I've seen Callum with that exact same sentiment for years now, well before Tales of Xadia (March 2022) was released, and well before S4 or S5 premiered. I've gone over a lot of the reasons I thought Callum had selective loyalty even in S1, but I haven't touched too much on one of the biggest reasons why I think that selective loyalty includes a devotional component that borders on dangerous (at least, in a story). And that's, well...

“Rayla told me you used Dark Magic,” [Ethari] said, more stiff and cold. Callum shrank a bit, but his eyes hardened. “I couldn’t just let her die.” “You’d do it again." The prince scowled. “I’m not like Aaravos. He twisted the primal to be like Dark Magic. I would never do that.” “Unless you felt like you had to,” [Ethari] reiterated. “To save Rayla.” “Wouldn’t you do anything to save the person you love?”

—chapter 13 of a fic I co-wrote called in search of silver linings (we discovered gold) from july 2019, respectively

As soon as Callum opened up the door with dark magic in 2x07, I knew it was something he likely would never be able to entirely close. Not for lack of trying or wanting — but that his willingness to engage in dark magic at all spoke to a few different things. The first was the effectiveness — what spell to use, what would be most useful, and what Rayla's biggest problem would be (her swords unable to cut chains) — but most of all was what pushed him there: his devotion.

While magic has always been the thing presenting Callum with paths (to be a mage or not a mage, to be a primal or a dark mage), his bonds with other people, and his love for them — Rayla in particular — has always been what's actually pushed him down certain paths. His love for his mother, and her love for him, is what helps him unlock the sky arcanum. Callum unlocks his wings out of his love for Rayla; he goes down on the path of mage because "you called me a mage, and that felt right."

Although mastery of magic is one of Callum's highest values (an 8, just like his devotion), it was always clear to me that magic is not something Callum values above the people he loves. He can be obsessive, and his love for magic can sometimes put himself and other people unintentionally at risk, but thus far we've always seen him course correct the minute he realizes what's happening. The second things begin to go south at the Banther Lodge, Callum reflects, "We never should've come here," and completely forgoes the quest for the cube. He tries to risk his life just for magic in 2x04, but as we've gone over, he's unable to go through with it, but he will risk his life for his loved ones.

His rejection of dark magic was, to me, of being a dark mage, of not also pursuing primal magic, of relying on dark magic. Not that he would never, under any circumstance, ever do dark magic again if the show put him in the right circumstances. And then he did, in spite of knowing it would make him more vulnerable to Aaravos, in spite of not having any confirmation it wouldn't bring on a second possession, in spite of the fact he was fine being tortured if that meant not doing it or participating.

Then we have Callum giving up the spell, and the fact that the Ocean arcanum is linked more directly to love within his arc — "To love is to simply know this: the tides are true as the ocean is deep" (5x01, 5x08) — in addition to being aware that there are unknown depths in what he's willing to do for said loved ones/Rayla.

This is not to say that none of the main cast would do dark magic — although I don't think Soren or Ezran ever would, and I think Rayla would but only perhaps using herself as spell parts — but that, as the primary mage character, it's going to and is playing a much bigger part in Callum's arc than the others, who are given other thematic considerations.

He hates dark magic. He doesn't want to let Aaravos control him. He refuses to help Finnegrin. He folds on all of those things motivated by love. It's a weakness and a strength; something that, in my eyes, will likely lead to his fall to Aaravos ("Seems to me love's got a tighter grip on you than those chains around your wrists, so I'll do you a favour [by killing Rayla] and set you free") as well as what might save him. But to focus on the fall, with everything already said behind us:

Why Love Instead of Curiosity?

Now, obviously the theory of "Callum will free Aaravos because of [insert non possession reason here]" could be wrong. There's merits in having arcs about the tragedy inherent in losing your agency, it would still open up an interesting arc after the fact, and all that good stuff.

Callum has also very much always been an Icarus figure. He can be obsessive with magic, he can take it too far, and he does have a deep curiosity and thirst for knowledge that has already gotten him in trouble by not excluding dark magic from the bunch.

And deep curiosity is already hinted to be what partially causes him to fall further into Aaravos' clutches in a few different places. The mirror ("What secrets are you hiding?") and the cube ("Perhaps it will be you, Callum, who discover's the cube's secrets") seem accordingly linked and fittingly so, for the Mystery of Aaravos, as is magic: "it's the secret of the primal".

Zubeia also warns regarding curiosity, citing that, "Aaravos was able to give them something they wanted very badly. Aaravos chose as his instruments people who had strong minds and strong hearts… but who had an insatiable thirst and fascination with magic. Aaravos could offer them access to the great mysteries of the universe. Mages were his prey," which implies that this thirst for magic is what got them (primarily) into trouble. This is reflected (pun intended) in both Aaravos' reading of Viren as "You are too curious, hungry for knowledge and power," and while Callum is hungry for knowledge (and not necessarily power), his short story in which he finds the mirror highlights one of these things as well:

Callum’s eyes prickled with dust and tears. He rushed back to the spiral staircase—but as he reached for the figurine that would activate them, he noticed one last door he hadn’t checked. The small chamber beyond it lay dark and silent. A gleam caught his eye. Callum blinked at his own reflection. Curious, he stepped through the door—and there it was. A mirror.

With all that in mind, and I'm sure there's ones I've missed, too, why on Earth am I arguing that while curiosity may play a factor, I think it's going to be love that ultimately causes his initial downfall / playing into Aaravos' hands?

Well...

For starters, I personally find "doing terrible things for love" to be not only a primary theme of arc 2, but much more fundamentally sympathetic than just getting in over your head because you were a dumbass who couldn't read the signs. I know for myself that if Callum fucks around and accidentally gets himself into a place where (under possession at that point or not) he helps free, or just flat out helps, Aaravos knowing everything that he knows, if he does it for love I will defend his choice every step of the way. If it happens just because he wants more power or magical knowledge (hello Viren 2.0 beat for beat) I'm gonna be a lot more critical of him. After all, Claudia has done a lot of awful things but I still have sympathy for her because they were for her family, in their own fractured way, and operating out of a place of deep emotional pain. If she was doing that just because she wanted to be Powerful and Knowledgable, then no, I'm not going to be that sympathetic.

The other half of it, which you might have already guessed, is that curiosity is not a Motivation. It's a manifestation of a character's pyschological makeup. Even for a character like Viren, who very much chased power, ultimately, for the sake of power, we take time to dive into WHY he wanted those things ("To know that I mean something to you, it means everything to me" / "I dream of a bright future for humanity") and his internal justifications, no matter if some of those turned out to be lies.

Characters who are curious are curious because they want to solve puzzles and have a hard time letting things go; or else they are curious because they want to prove themselves by solving things first; or else they are curious because they deeply love and want to understand and protect the world; or else they are curious because they want to know and have access to tools so that they can fix problems; or else... Well, you get the idea.

Even if it is primarily Callum's curiosity and love/thirst for magic that gets him into trouble (and thus far it largely hasn't been, as we see in S2 with his motivation for doing dark magic — yes, there was a part of him that was undeniably curious about what it would be like, but I don't think he would've pushed himself into doing it without the dire straits of "I had to, to save my friends")... That doesn't answer why he's curious.

Either he will pull a full Greek tragedy and be so scared of freeing Aaravos he accidentally walks into it by trying to prevent it directly (and one of the main reasons he's scared of Aaravos is because he's scared he might hurt people he loves through possession) or he needs another motivation, but it can't just be "Callum really wants this [insert magical knowledge here] and it ends badly," because that offers a plot summary, not an emotional character beat. There's no motivation. They'll have to explain why he wants the magical knowledge, why he's chasing it, why this level of curiosity is something he cannot or will not put down even with all the risk factors at play. It has to be grounded in some kind of sympathetic emotion, and love or fear or a desire to be helpful/useful, or all three makes the most sense to me and with all the prior setup.

Conclusion

As a closing note, as well as thank you for reading this far if you have because this got wildly long and out of hand, I want to reiterate that in many ways, to me, Callum's devotion to his loved ones — that he says "I would do anything for you" and mean it — is indeed his saving grace and biggest difference from Viren, who would rather offer up himself or others or have Harrow die than relinquish the egg, because he would never put a weapon into Xadia's hands. Being devotional — valuing the individual — is not always a good or bad thing, nor is prioritizing the 'greater good' always a good or a bad thing. TDP is deeply interested in exploring all the different circumstances of motivation, sacrifice, and choices.

Nor is selective loyalty a bad thing. I'm not wired that way, but some of my closest loved ones are (and of those in the fandom have, overall, greatly aligned with this perceived aspect of Callum). Merely, this meta is meant to examine the claim in Tales of Xadia that "I value those close to me more than anyone or anything," why I was surprised but delighted to see my view of Callum be so directly spelled out, why I had that view and continue to have it, in addition to aspects/pieces of the text that I think support it.

I believe that Callum is loyal to Ezran and Rayla on a fundamental level he does not really extend to anyone else (including many other people who are also his family) and while this is in many ways something that creates the best sides of him — his nurturing, compassionate, thoughtful and protective traits — it is also something that can be exploitable and dangerous, particularly in a narrative where he is set up to be controlled/coerced by the big bad.

And this meta hopefully explained why.

You can take it or leave it.

—Dragons out

[shanastoryteller]

Happy holidays! Can I get some trans tonks scene from siat?

There's something off with her potion.

Tonks is no potions master, but she's been taking these things for over a decade. She floos her apothecary, but all she gets is a harried apothecarist's apprentice who confirms her prescription and then ends the call.

Maybe they just adjusted the ingredients or something. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's wrong. She's never had any issues before.

But there's a first time for everything. And being selectively cautious is literally in her job description.

She only knows the one potions master. At least this is happening in the summer, when he's marginally better tempered.

"What do you want?" Severus snaps from his place hunched over his desk. He doesn't look towards the fireplace, but Tonks is sort of touched that he answered at all.

"I think there's maybe something off with my hormone potion."

That gets his attention for a moment, but he just scowls and looks back down. "Talk to your apothecarist."

"The apprentice seemed a little distracted," she answers.

He sighs, glaring at her like she's the loudest first year in his class. It hadn't worked then and it certainly doesn't now. "Fine. Come through."

She pulls her head back, then stands up and steps through the floo. It pops her out in Severus's office and she only stumbled a little before handing over the box of vials.

He lifts one, shakes it, then frowns. He uncorks to take a sniff and his eyebrows push together. Finally, he taps a drop of it onto his finger, then sticks it in his mouth.

"Well?" she asks, trying not to sound impatient because she knows exactly how far that gets her.

"You're right, this is a blood thinner at best," he says, just as irritated as before but now it's directed at her potions rather than her. "Are you on the same dosage you were when you graduated?"

"Yes," she answers, "how did - blood thinners aren't even that color!"

He snorts. "I doubt it was done on purpose. It looks like white clover was used instead of red. Stay here."

Tonks considers pointing out that she's not a student anymore and he can't just order her around, but she did come to him for help so maybe he can.

She's still working through the debate when he comes back and shoves a bag into her hand. "Here. I'll tell the Potions Masters Board to inspect your normal apothecary. Get your potions directly from St. Mungo's until they've been cleared. Go away now."

"I don't want to get anyone in trouble," she protests, opening the bag and seeing a full quarter's supply. "I can't take all this! Aren't there students who need it?"

"You didn't get anyone in trouble. Incompetent people get themselves in trouble with no help from anyone else. And yes, but in case you've forgotten the reason you came here in the first place, I'm a potions master. I'll make more. Go away now."

"Thank you," she says sincerely, clutching the bag to her chest.

He rolls his eyes and sits back at his desk, pulling out a fresh sheet of paper and pointedly ignoring her.

She sticks her tongue out at his bent head and goes back over to the fireplace. She has one foot in the flames when he says, "Ten points from Hufflepuff for your cheek, Miss Tonks."

Laughing while traveling by floo is ill advised. All she gets is a mouthful of ash for her trouble.

[wings-of-ink]

Hi!! I know you said you'll refrain from answering long asks, and this ask is pretty long but I sent it anyways cause I think the answer would be pretty short! If not, please don't feel pressured to respond! If u don't respond I'll take that the answer is longer than I thought it would be, so I've saved it on my notes app and will gladly send it again when u end chapter 3 or whenever u allow it! :)

Now to the ask,

Will it be possible to romance a RO without flirting w/ them? Is it possible to flirt w/ everyone (but this specific RO) or just like one RO and even so end up in a relationship w/ a different RO? I'm thinking of playing a mc that is really attracted physically to people like Zhan but he's been in love w/ Oswin since forever. And he thinks flirting is for when you're playing w/ someone (even tho he's probably seen his parents flirting constantly lol), but since he loves Oswin he doesn't need to play, he can just be genuine. But he still thinks he has no chance w/ Oswin, so he flirts with Zhan (without moving on 😭). But I also feel kinda sad about Zhan I don't wanna hurt their feelings😭 if we flirt w/ them and maybe hook up are they gonna be sad if we get w/ someone else?? 😞 Cause like my mc will start to genuinely care about them but won't be in love pls let's just be besties who used to have benefits🥺 Also if this whole situation is possible, how would Oswin react to it?? Poor boy must be😧🤨😳

Sorry for the long ask, the demo was gigantic and amazing!! Ty so much for your hard work <3

Hello Anon-dear! If your ask is a bit long to read-that's fine, if it's long to answer, that's where I'll need to pause for the time being. That's where I get hung up and distracted, lol. I'm still taking those too, it's still Friday somewhere, lol.

To answer your question, it will absolutely be possible to romance someone without flirting. The "flirt" options are passively tracked just so I can program certain flirty responses that will be directed back to the MC by those ROs (it's a way for me to track if it's okay with reader/MC so I'm not directing like super suggestive come-ons towards them that aren't okay).

I absolutely love how you're going to play your MC. That's part of the reason I wanted to do things this way. The way I play my MCs sometimes makes flirting almost out of character for them, but of course I'd want the romance, lol.

Your MC will be free to flirt and do some other things with Zahn (they are all kinds of okay with that, lol) and then lock-in with Oswin later - no flirting required.

Zahn will be totally fine if your MC doesn't end up with them. They and Duri are both good with physical-only and flirty relationships. Your MC will make selections as they go about how they feel about each potential suitor, and the hook-up ROs will have a selection that you can choose if this is just for fun or if it's got some feelings attached (whether your MC is fully aware or not). [Lucky for your MC, I added a light spicey scene for Zahn in chapter 3 if they so choose] :D

If Oswin is aware of relations between the MC and others, he's going to feel a little strange about it and be concerned (for MC's well-being because he cannot help himself, lol). Mainly, things like that aren't his bag, but he also knows that for many people physical and romantic relationships can be separate. He's more concerned with having his lover's heart above all else, so ultimately he will be okay with it. For MCs that have been involved with the hook-ups, particularly the ROs, Oswin may have a harder time digesting that the MC is choosing him to remain with. (He may feel that the connection between the MC and Zahn/Duri was deeper and never considered that the MC would ever go for him). It will be an interesting conversation for sure (one that the programming for is already frightening me, lol).

Thank you so much for the Ask and kind words! I really appreciate you digging into my story and having a good time with it! ^_^

[the-silly-urge]

Hag-Eyed and Volo's Ersatz Eye cosmetics

Okay making this post because I haven't seen anyone do it and I've wanted it to be a thing so many times I might as well do it myself! This will include images of the cosmetics on all viable companions as well as player races with unique eyes.

Volo's Ersatz Eye:

Player races (Dragonborn, Githyanki, Tiefling) Volo cares not for the color of your sclera.

Origin Characters Karlach's has the slit pupil! As does Lae'zel's!

Hag-Eyed:

Player races (Dragonborn, Githyanki, Tiefling) The eye didn't show up in Magic Mirror for my Tiefling so this is a dialog screenshot- sorry

Origin Characters

Wyll isn't included due to not having a good eye to spare and as such being barred from both eye replacements. Minthara, Halsin, and Jaheira will refuse to obtain Volo's eye, and I'm not sure it's possible to get any of them to the Hag. Minthara maybe... But I don't have a file in which I could test it.

Additional context below + how to obtain both eyes if you need it. -(Will contain a GIF)

Volo's Ersatz Eye: You will first find Volo in the Emerald Grove, and if you talk to him, he will explain that he's going to visit the Goblin Camp. When you find him there, interact with him, and then rescue him. He'll eventually be at your camp, and you can talk to him about your affliction and he'll say he can fix it. Once you've had a Long Rest, talk to him again and he'll propose to do surgery on you. From what I understand, the scene is very graphic both visually and in narration, and is also pretty long. If you have issues with eye trauma like I do, I recommend covering your screen with a sheet or enlisting a more confident friend to tell you when it's done... (You do need to pick dialog options though) Anyways, once you've had that impromptu surgery, Volo will offer to replace your eye with a relic as payback. This eye gives you a permanent See Invisibility condition, as well as the cosmetic change, which makes it a net positive. Though I believe companions do disapprove of the surgery.

Little bit of a closer look at the Ersatz eye on a Dragonborn... It doesn't glow and it's not animated, but doesn't have a visible sclera. You can get this effect normally by selecting "human" eye colors. It doesn't really match with classic DB eyes though. EDIT - The Ersatz Eye seems to always have a slightly green-tinted sclera when the sclera is visible. You can only really tell up close, but it's worth noting I guess.

Hag's Eye: The Hag's Eye can be obtained in the Sunlit Wetlands after talking to Auntie Ethel in the Emerald Grove. Just go to the quest marker there. Going through with this will give you the Hag-Eyed tag and the "Paid the Price" condition. Unlike with Volo's Ersatz Eye, you get to pick which of your eyes is replaced. The condition will give you a +1 to Intimidation, Disadvantage on perception checks, and Disadvantage on attacks against Hags. In Early Access, it made it impossible to land Critical Hits, but as far as I can tell this is no longer a thing! (Also fun fact- After giving the Hag their eye, all the companions have custom overworld dialog. I'll leave you to look at that yourself though!)

For Dragonborns, the eye has a very visible black sclera, and is unanimated, as you can see here. It's up to you whether you think that matches well with classic DB eyes or not.

If you want the effects but not the cosmetics, there are mods on Nexus which remove the visual component in both cases. I may add links to those mods down here later, but Nexus is down right now so it'll have to wait.

[reggieblk]

what's If We Were Lovers? I was scrolling on the Tomarry tag and I'm so curious now! I love longfics. What's the concept?

hi! thank you for asking!!

if we were lovers is the second long fic I've ever written, and I'll try and explain the concept to you though please keep in mind that I am so bad at explaining the premise of this fic and I rarely do the actual fic justice when I explain it lol

but! basically it's a no magic AU that takes place in the 90's (so same era tomarry) with some timeline mashups when it comes to secondary characters. the premise is that Harry gets into a very prestigious and selective school for the arts (he attends for theatre) and his arrival sparks a bit of controversy because students are only accepted at 12yo or never at all, and he is 18, so joining the last year theatre students. his arrival is not taken well by Tom, whose class he is in, because students get cut every year, and by arriving in their last year Harry has subverted that threat that the others faced every year. there are five other boys with Harry and Tom in seventh year that i love a lot. I'll put the list of tags I have up until now at the end of this post to give you an idea of what's gonna feature in this fic!

concerning the actual writing of the fic, initially it was heavily inspired by the book If we were vilains by M.L Rio, if you've read that. though the inspiration kind of dies out after the first Act of this fic, so it doesn't resemble the book plotwise at all, merely in vibe. as such, I decided the write this fic in 5 Acts, each comprised of 12 scenes (the fic will be posted in Acts so each update will be very long, and there will be a total of 6 "chapters"; Acts 1-5 + an interlude for a rough total of 260k words).

Additionally over the months I made this post, this one, and more recently this one about this fic if they can give you a vague idea of what's gonna be going on.

And, here's the list of tags I have so far :

And here is the summary (which may change bc i literally just wrote it now for this post) :

When Harry arrives at the most prestigious theatrical school in the country under very suspicious circumstances he doesn't have many expectations. The most unexpected thing he encounters, however, is one Tom Riddle. Amidst peers of great talent, his worry for his Godfather, unconventional professors, and a vague sense of unworthiness, Harry falls in love with the only other person who deals with feelings as well as him. But maybe, just maybe, he and Tom will find out that not all love stories have to end in tragedy.

Okay!! sorry for going on so long, like I said I'm really quite bad at explaining the premise of this fic lol. I promise the fic is actually good, and with so much divergence from the canon works, there's quite a bit of world building and stuff.

thank you again for asking!! i hope my answer piqued your interest, and feel free to ask anymore questions I will be more than happy to answer! I'll come up with a posting schedule some time this week and post it but the whole fic will be going up in December!

[girleboy]

booktok rant no. 36828382

i'm a third through powerless by lauren roberts which is the latest viral booktok darling and it's just so like, appallingly bad. it's every YA dystopia/fantasy trope condensed into one really badly written novel. we have a beautiful silver-haired protagonist called PAEDYN who's edgy as hell and never gets pulled up for threatening to slit princes' throats. the two princes are half-brothers who greatly enjoy saying 'well – he's just my half-brother, of course', and another character completely insanely refers to one of them as her half-cousin, which no one caught in editing. am i stupid? can you have a half-cousin? there's a character who's a total copy of celeste from the selection like she's just the misogynist punching bag. she is introduced as 'bitchy blair' because she fauns over the princes – this is only okay when the protagonist does it, and she proceeds to call her a bitch at a fancy dinner for no fuckin reason. i'm just rambling there's nothing to glean from this if you've got this far just scroll. the protag and her prince love interest meet when she robs him on the street; she bumps into him and sleight-of-hands some coins which is whatever but she. manages to get her hand into a 'secret inside pocket' and steal whatever's there..... then he gets robbed again by people who get violent about it and she feels bad and saves his life?? ummm & he's a 'morally grey' love interest who's meant to be wiping out the 'ordinary' people without special powers of some sort and we go on a mission with him to kill some wee girl and he's like 'i don't kill children' and secretly packs her off to the desert. i'd genuinely like him more if he'd just killed her. do your job. there is this completely ridiculous scene where he and the protag are just standing in the hallway and she puts his own knife to his throat and he puts hers to hers and they just stand like that exchanging banter and it's like the third conversation they've ever had. someone's currently blowing up the ballroom and it's so directly ripped from the selection that i'll be stunned if bitchy blair doesn't get a redemption and die. if you're going to plagiarise i don't know why you'd plagiarise from the fuckin selection by kiera cass. there was an interview scene that was just the hunger games as well. the protag has this best friend who's described 100 times as squeaking or squealing and we're told regularly how much they care about each other but never shown it because she's busy squeaking, i guess. she's definitely going to die. idk man this is 250 pages in. not only is this book published but it's a legit bestseller. i never thought i'd say that more people should have read the selection or red queen or the hunger games as teenagers but maybe if they had they wouldn't be falling over themselves for this shit. like it's just so bad it's not even fun

[transmutationisms]

New to your blog and enjoying it heavy. The bodily superiority convo reminded me of the opening scene of the series. Logan pissing on his penthouse carpet in the dark. Any illusion of Logan's inborn superiority doesn't get the chance to bloom, I've always relished in the writers introducing us to him and their world like that. It sets the stage so well for their politics: the decline of an empire and fragility of capital. I actually doubt from hearing Jesse Armstrong talk about the show that him and I would agree, but there's meat there to read into a politic I favor over the show's: before anything we live in flesh piss and bones that all morph beyond our control, before even a social contract we all share a common dependence on mutual assistance (the carpet's the wrong place to piss, and still Marcia reorients Logan back to bed with affection and concern), and the alienation and complication that capital introduces only ever comes after (it's only after that scene that we know anything about the business).

interesting. have you read kropotkin? i ask because he proposed mutual aid as a rational and beneficial social behaviour promoted via natural selection, directly critiquing huxley's social darwinism and its emphasis on the 'struggle for existence'. i also see some hint of rousseauvian historical thinking in your third point. both of these are, i would agree, foundational elements pointing toward a view of nature, the body, and evolution / degeneration that is radically different than the eugenic capitalist thinking by which logan runs his kingdom. if his argument is essentially that nature 'just is' competitive, cruel, and inclined toward the elimination of the weak, then your response (and kropotkin's, lol) would be that evolutionary theory and natural selection do not inherently need to be joined to these specific ideological dimensions, which upon closer inspection are in fact specifically capitalist in nature. thus logan's beliefs about power, strength, and domination are not simple observations of natural truths, but deeply political assertions he is economically staking out, and specifically the fact that he is tormented by his own aging and loss of health is a function of his eugenic capitalist ideology and the profit-driven abandonment of natural cooperative tendencies to care for one another.

obviously i can't speak for jesse armstrong, but i don't think the show is hostile to such an argument. it's maybe a bit more strongly anarchist than is in vogue in anglo leftist politics these days, but probably not disqualifyingly so. i think though that what you might be picking up is that the show is simply not as interested in offering an alternative to logan's thinking as it is interested in exploring the internal ramifications of logan's thinking, and the accompanying bourgeois alienation. at times this may come with some risk of reifying a realist defence of logan's worldview, though i don't believe that's ever the intention of the writers. but i'll acknowledge that structuring the entire show around logan's bodily decline and his eugenic social darwinist understanding of it, without offering a coherent alternative reading of nature or evolutionary theory, may simply be somewhat bleak lol.

i would add that the work being done with matsson's character in 4x05 and mencken's character in 3x06 reinforces, to me, this fundamental interest in exploring the ramifications of capitalist discourses on the body rather than offering an alternative. matsson and mencken basically offer two slightly different ways of embracing open fascism where logan has been more tacitly fascistic in the past. there's no discontinuity between waystar and mencken's political spectacle or matsson's master race meritocracy, and that's certainly a critique of logan and his capitalist-fascist hierarchical and competitive thinking. but it's true that just outlining this type of critique is not the same as actually endorsing any other view of nature and human society, whether kropotkin's or someone else's.

i would be curious, though, to know what specific politic you DO see the show defending!

[gyllenhaalstories]

Hey :D I watched a few movies with Jake and I was wondering what are your fave movies and your least fave? Just curious!

hi anon!!! i hope you've enjoyed the movies you've watched so far!!! 💖 i've made it through almost his entire filmography, i think i'm missing 2 of them? yeah, that's about right. i'm avoiding nocturnal animals like the plague so maybe one day i will be brave enough to watch it and complete jake's whole filmography. it was pretty easy to select my 3 least favourites, but my top 3 had me questioning everything. i just love so many of his movies, it's not my fault! thank you so much for asking this question! i love rambling.

TOP 3 FAVOURITE MOVIES

Demolition (i remember watching this movie and i loved it so much that i watched it a second time right away. it holds such a special place in my heart and it always will!)

Brokeback Mountain and Love & Other Drugs (it feels criminal to put them at the same level but i just love them too much okay!!! they both make me cry a river)

Road House (yeah <3 jake has so many amazing movies but the rewatchability factor is very important to me and i've watched the movies mentioned above SO MANY TIMES and what's the other one that i also watched an alarming amount of times? road house. it's funny, it's pretty, it's not boring, it's not too long, it's got some depth, it's just so good. ambulance would also qualify, i love it so much too. if i was smart i would put wildlife because it gave me a similar gut punch as demolition did the first time i watched it, but i'm not smart so my vote goes for the gyllentitties)

TOP 3 LEAST FAVOURITE MOVIES

The Sisters Brothers (i love john morris & his multiple accents so much and there are elements of the movie i liked, but... it's so long... it's so boring... it's so yeehaw gold rush... it's one of the few movies of jake i have on DVD and i can assure you it won't be played very often <3)

Highway (call me boring and lame and everything you want, but i don't like alcohol and weed and stuff centered around those topics so it's kind of obvious that this movie wasn't for me. pilot's cute, i like him, but yeah. it took me forever to find this movie online in english and not spanish or russian? for some reason? so the intensive research was not all that worth it. if i ever watch it again, it's for pilot)

Life (i love david jordan and his yo-yo!!! i love him so much!!! i watched 2 alien movies in my life and they were essentially the same and i did not like them. why do they always let the aliens inside the spaceship??? aren't astronauts supposed to be smart? it's so stupid that they just think it will end well. it never ends well! so yeah i'd rather watch accidental love than life and that says A LOT.)

honourable mention for spirit untamed. i will never watch spirit untamed. i grew up watching spirit: stallion of the cimarron and my spirit would never!!! i can tell that jake's voice acting improved a lot between this movie and strange world and that's all that matters.

as a bonus, i'll give you the 3 movies that pleasantly surprised me! moonlight mile (i wasn't expecting much? i don't know, i thought it would be pretty meh but it was so good! i really liked it and it's definitely one of my rare comfort watches because jake hates me and doesn't do enough movies i can just watch easily), end of watch (it's so... intense. i almost threw up because of a certain scene, i thought i would have stopped watching before the end but i loved brian taylor so much) and stronger (one of jake's most underrated performances like woah this was so painful and so good and so yeah! i really liked it. you can tell that jake was passionate about telling this story and it deserves a lot more recognition). i'm done rambling now, thank you again for sending this! 💖

[the-one-who-lambs]

Ohohoho excited to read this now~

Do you have any other scenes you want to talk about? it's interesting to read you

ChEWING. ON THE BARS OF MY ENCLOSURE. While trying to decide how much I wanna spoil

You know what, I'll tease a bit of Chapter 7.

It's the day before the Blood Moon Festival. Thenana, the cult seamstress, finally decided to try talking with Narinder. Narinder recognizes just enough of her modern sign language and its similarities to Old Faith sign that they can communicate well enough. He initially only cooperates because Lambert has been nagging him about trying to socialize with the other followers, and if he talks with her maybe they'll get off his ass. He is not entirely thrilled about the situation until he realizes he can make this a game: she's trying to befriend him and he's not budging, but if he gives her the idea that he might cave eventually then he gets to feel in control. He tells her he doesn't bother with mortals because their lives are so trifling, and convinces her to disrupt the Blood Moon festivities to essentially prove she has free will. At the end of the chapter, Lambert hauls her off to prison for devouring over half the apple stash that the cult was saving for festival purposes. Hence why this chapter is titled "The Apple Murder Case."

The parts that aren't said out loud, but will come back closer to the surface later:

Those who remember Thenana from my first write of this series know she's smart as hell: she sees his relationship with the Lamb coming earlier than either Narinder or Lamb do, she deescalates tense situations by simply popping in at exactly the right time, she guides Narinder to solutions that he struggles to see himself. In this chapter, she sees that he's trying to egg her on for his own enjoyment, and she can tell why. He thinks mortal followers are all mindless fools, and he doesn't actually consider that any of them might be worth trying to forge a friendship with. She goes along with his shenanigans, but mostly because if she proves herself interesting enough for him to consider her worth his time, he'll eventually realize, through knowing her, that even followers who seem silly and carefree can indeed have complex lives, that he can empathize with them. Though he resents this fact, he shares a lot more in common with the other followers of the cult than he wants to consider. So, yeah, she'll pretend to fall for his little scheme if it means he decides befriending her acquainting himself with her isn't a total waste of time. But in the long run, Thenana's the one tricking him. She's very selective with her friends, but when it comes to the few individuals she latches on to, she knows how to pull some strings in her favor so Narinder doesn't even see she's become a genuine friend until it's already too late. She's cunning and analytic, but she's good-natured about it.

[brawlqueen]

i think the poll i put up is busted ? or glitching . . please let me know if it works or not if you have time ! if not i'll probably delete it and look stuff up on how this works because i never really do polls whoops.

mizuki things:

lifting your muse bridal style / princess carrying effortlessly be it friend , family , and somehow s/o. ( aka the slow burn of five million years but it would be worth it, yes i do enjoy ships i just love plotting them out in whatever form they take ex: platonic, familal, romantic (late teens only obv) and also mizuki is not easy in terms of how much she's bearing so . . plus it isn't really her priority?) putting you down maybe after . . . well, enough time. you will very much weigh nothing to her , especially at eighteen .

full analysis on what i'm doing with horadori institute ! also just the martial arts mizuki studies and how she puts them into practice since she was 11!

doing a bingo card at some point like everyone else has done but me whoops ! believe it or not she's a very caring person underneath the fifty walls she's put up. and if she cares about you, be it platonic, familial, romantic (post ai1 only), she will protect you while respecting and encouraging you. unless you're being stupid she will be that gf.

how i'm keeping the explosion for continuum. honestly if her left eye got blown clean out than it's . . . likely if debris and explosives hit her , that she . . . doesn't have much vision in her surviving right eye. debating giving her a faint scar from when it happened six years ago . again , this is aini divergent so debating if tearer even exists .

mizuki just....interacting at both ages i usually put her at, the ages before date adopted her . her at eight, terrified and quiet and mute and angry.

more writing of mizuki during the cyclops serial killings . just . . all the scenes we didn't see but characters spoke of her in.

lots of stuff ! i'll keep working on my fall drafts and the shorter things i have as i get to those much easier with my brain rot but let me know if you ever want my discord ! or i'll add you ! kinda selective on that but i really love making friends.

[mariasabanahabanabana]

Do it like a girl

A/N: At first this should be a fic (?) Inspired by the scene from “Grown up”, where Lenny breaks his son's leg, but as I adapted it, I don't know how to put the scene, so, I'll make two parts. (¿?)

Summary: Layla gives (T/N) a lifelong lesson.

Pairing: Jake Lockley x Marc Spector x Steven Grant x Layla El-fouly x Platonic!Reader

Layla el-fouly x reader

Warnings: pure fluff, soft and a Message of female empowerment / breaking gender roles

Yellow - konshu

Orange —Layla

Blue – Steven

Red - Marc

Green - Jake

Tired from the club's fair and multiple activities, you finally made it home. You couldn't wait to have a bath, eat the leftover slices of the frozen pizza you bought during the week with the money Layla and the guys left you and finally finish watching the last Star Wars trilogy, which to your surprise, one of the main characters was identical to Marc, Jake and Steven, however, when you heard that British accent and female voice coming from inside the flat, you rushed to open the door and then ran to hug them. —”Steven, Layla, guys, they're back…”

— It is nice to see you again, little human. -commented Konshu.

—”Oh, don't overdo it, you giant pigeon, I'm also glad you're not back in a statue this time”

With a moment's strength that was inordinate for the time they were gone, you hugged the boys.

-You really missed us, didn't you, love?

-I didn't remember you being so strong, it looks like someone was training, I just hope it wasn't while we were out or that someone was risking their own life trying to be like those New York clowns in their PJ's.

-You bet "compa"…Hey take it easy "pulga", our backs aren't what they used to be.

You forgot about your peculiar appearance, your grassy hair, dirt-stained socks and muddy face.

— I see someone had a particularly wild day with nature. I didn't know today was earth day.

Realizing what Layla was referring to, you immediately shook your head to tell them about your day.

-So in retrospect, you have to select one or more club before next week.

—”Yeah, there's only a problem, I don't know which to choose. I tried American football and Football and I loved both, but I can only take one, since they're on the same schedule”

— You mean, football and soccer…”Marc commented.

-"Like I said, American football and football."

-No, no, no, Babe, it's called football and soccer….

-”Dios”, only you gringos call football that way. -Jake refuted. -It's soccer!!!

-Actually it's football, since the sport as it's known worldwide was formalized here in England in the 19th century.

-”Gracias hermanito.”

-Marc, honey, you know I hate to take sides between the three of you and I usually support you where I can, but… you Americans and maybe some other country call soccer to football.

-¿What about you shifu? What do you call the sport of "balon pie?”

-For the tenth time you insensate human, my name is Konshu, not Shifu and as for the other, due to the immortality that my title of God confers upon me, I must say with certitude that while Marc Spector is not wrong he is also not correct, as the name varies by region, though it is popularly known as football and not football.

-Anyway, sweetheart, what was the problem you were saying you had?

-Oh that, I can't choose one and besides…. Well, I feel like I'm not the best, so I don't think they'll accept me…..

-Dear, nobody born wise, and besides, that's what your classes are for, so you can learn?

-Yes, but that doesn't seem to matter to the coaches, or at least not if it's from a girl"….

Out of nowhere and without realizing at what moment he took control, Jake spoke.

-¿Quien carajos do they think they are to talk to you like that? Tell us who they are, and I assure you that Konshu and I will make them see their worst nightmares to those hijos de pu...

Layla understood what you meant and immediately sat down next to you to cheer you up. -Wait, Jake…Habibi listen, if that's what you really want to do it, don't let anyone, especially a man tell you what to do, if you want to play football or soccer, do it, if you want to do science, do it, if you want to be or do such a thing, do it. If it's something you are passionate about, go for it and more. But just do it

-"Thank you, Layla"

Image credits to their respective artists

Translate

Compa - friend (informal way / mexican slang)

Pulga - little one / chil / kiddo, etc (latin slang most use in Mexico)

Dios - God

Gringos - (American people)

Hermanito - Little brother / brother (hispanic / latin expression)

Balón pie - Football / soccer (Mesoamerica sport)

Quien - who

Carajos - Fuck / damn (it's a swear)

Quien carajos - wHO the hell / fuck / bloody hell / heck, etc (it's a swear with multiples uses)

Hijos de put4 - sons of a b!tch (latin swear)