#(completely understandable as she's THE QUEEN of writing only things that he would absolutely fucking say)

[rotisseries]

worst thing about getting into bsd rn is my trusted sources telling me that the fanfic fucking sucks like ok WHAT am I supposed to do when I finish this then

[gojuo]

Maybe I don't have text interpretation skills, but I never understand when people say that F&B is a book biased in favor of the greens. For the love of God, on the contrary, every time I read it, it's as if the author was inducing the reader to root for the blacks

Daemon is described more as a hero than anything. Not a hero who saves people like Superman, but the badass Greek hero who kills the monster

Gyldayn says that Jacaerys is a worthy heir to the throne, even though he insinuates all the time that he is a bastard

GRRM put the fandom's favorite houses on Rhaenyra's side

Baela e Rhaenys badass

Mushroom has a sympathy and affection for Rhaenyra that Eustace doesn't have for any of the Greens, he even calls Aemond a kinslayer

And this becomes more obvious when you think it's a medieval war of succession based on a fucking medieval succession and Rhaenyra had more allies, when that's completely unrealistic! No king would choose his daughter above his son! The Anarchy was between Matilda and Stephen, they were not brothers, Mathilda's brother died and that's why she became heiress! After all, a king would still prefer a daughter to a nephew!

The only thing we have is Aegon& Sunfyre bond being so strong and their will to survive and win

but that's going to be ruined in this shitty show that only makes what was bad worse

At this point, if anyone calls anything in F&B Green propaganda I'm just going to assume that 1. they have never read a single page of Fire & Blood, or 2. they're a Targ Stan so the worth of their opinions or critical analyses of the text amounts to a total of absolutely nothing before all else. GRRM did not sit there and write a 700-page lore book with no truth to it in any corner. If you have even a basic understanding of his themes and quirks, it's easy enough to figure out what he was going for in F&B. And yes, he leaves enough room in the text to leave the details hanging in the air for readers to make up their own canon, but he's not writing an outline of the story and its beats that's false. Because what is the point of wasting time and effort to write F&B then in the first place?

Even when you look at F&B in-universe ... Rhaenyra's son becomes king and her other son Hand for the next 40 or so years. Why would a historian risk their career by writing about how the king's late mother (whose death was a huge source of trauma to him) sucked major ass? It's more likely that accounts sympathetic to the Blacks survived rather than those that weren't. We even hear about Baelor burning Mushroom's Testimony (was probably Viserys who ordered it though) for revealing a lot of the things Rhaenyra did, like Brothel Queens. Gyldayn in the text often dismisses Mushroom's writings because they weren't repeated in or by other sources, but who is to say that those other sources weren't burned? There could have been dozens of other accounts confirming Mushroom's writings about the Blacks and Rhaenyra but just weren't lucky enough to survive Baelor's purge. Or you can rationalize it away by understanding that those accounts were either never written by authors or kept/maintained by lords because they were too afraid of the king's wrath. For every pro-Green Septon Eustace account there might as well have been multiple other pro-Green authors who weren't protected by the organization of the Faith and couldn't get off scot-free for talking shit about the king's mother.

Even as I say all that, it's important to remember that the main source for the Dance was written by a guy literally held in a dungeon cell by the Blacks awaiting trial. It's only logical to me that he thought being most favorable towards Rhaenyra and her cause would mean leniency. So if anyone thinks that Orwyle was biased against Team Black and was writing down some mad shit about Rhaenyra, then like I said, they've never read a single page of F&B in their life.

People often repeat the idiotic "Maesters wrote F&B so of course it's pro-Hightower Greens!" lie but this take is so braindead that it could only be the crazed utterings of a worthless Targ stan whose opinions one should never take seriously anyways. If the Citadel wanted to slander Rhaenyra so bad according to these Targ stans, then Gyldayn would have had a ton of material to work with. Instead, he has to rely on one High Septon, one captive held in the dungeons by the Blacks, and a sex-crazed literal court jester who was Rhaenyra's #1 fanboy. Where are these so-called sources written by Archmaester Greenyle, Archmaester Fuckblacks and Archmaester ThreesomeswithMushroomwascanonys then? The Hightowers during the Dance were pro-Green, but eventually they all died and Lyonel became lord, who is explicitly said to be under the influence of his pro-Black wife Samantha Tarly. Lyonel made peace with the Blacks and was approving of Aegon 3 ascending the throne. So if any maesters wanted to talk mad shit about Rhaenyra (the sitting king's MOTHER), pro-Black Samantha Tarly would have just told Lyonel to stop sending money to the Citadel, which would have scared them off because they'd know this would happen.

Gyldayn himself wrote F&B during Robert "Kill All Targaryens" Baratheon's reign. It makes the most sense to me that he isn't pro-Green or pro-Black in any way, rather he's just anti Targaryen.

[redsparko]

Hopefully this reaches the right audience.

I’d like to talk about Maya Sokolov and her writing and the analysis of what Miss Rina Kent could’ve done with her character and her story. I know Rina said in one of her Insta stories that for sure Remi, Maya, Vaughn, and Gareth were not getting stories. I can be fine with Remi and Vaughn not getting stories (Remi not so much but I can live) while Maya and Gareth I can feel some potential with.

And I get it from Rina’s POV, miss girl has written like 35 books within 3-4 years. And if she feels no passion or connection with certain characters then she won’t write it. I understand and agree with that completely.

It doesn’t mean I won’t have any ideas about it yeah? Even if it’s not canon that’s what makes it fun.

Anyway back to the point, Maya Sokolov and her character

She falls under the lines of the Queen Bee, diva, bitch. Something like Silver, Nicole, and Reina. I absolutely love those three. Personally, Silver should’ve gotten the trilogy, Reina was done dirty lowkey, and Nicole’s story (Empire of Hate) left me with wanting more groveling. But out of the three I found I relate to Nicole more.

It’s the inferiority complex. I love that shit, I have it too, and I eat it up. And that’s clearly scene in Maya too. In the end of GOR it’s referenced/implied/canon that Maya was jealous of Mia and made a monkey’s paw type wish that came true.

There’s something so raw and sad and powerful in that that can and should be shown in Maya’s character (speaking from personal experience) feeling something so negative that it results in an act of hurting another person you REALLY care about because it comes from a place of deep sadness and insecurity.

Maya can act like the biggest girl boss and look at everyone like they’re the dirt beneath her feet (literal quote from GOR) but that does not disguise the fact she can only act like that because no one else will ever hate her more than how she hates herself.

And as readers we can really see it, and even theorize it from in between the lines. In GOF we read about Nikolai’s thoughts about the twins.

There are people saying that GOR ruined the relationship and wished it never happened. I can’t say the execution of it was done well but I can’t say it was a total trash fire either. It’s a 50/50 depending because there are good things I absolutely loved and things that could’ve been improved.

But mostly people are saying that the relationship between Maya and Mia was sabotaged and it would’ve been better if it never happened. I disagree, I prayed for times like this to come—kidding, but the layers of anger and frustration and love in the relationship between them makes the relationship deeper. But we never get to see that in its completion.

Think of Landon and Brandon in GOF. We love them so much because behind that ire and blockage from both sides they came through that and love prevailed. This is why I stand by Rina Kent MALE friendships/relationships. They’re much more complex and thought out than the female friendships which come off as somewhat shallow. I’ll make another rant abt that later.

What I wish was done better was mentioning the difference in Maya, Niko and Mia’s relationship. It’s clear that Niko likes Maya less than Mia. And Maya feels less than Mia because she’s seen that Mia is favored. It’s not Niko’s fault but it’s like an unconscious thing, he’s just closer with her because he sees that he is similar to Mia. It’s a common and natural thing, you’re just closer to people you feel like you can relate with. That checks out.

I feel like even both of Maya’s siblings only see her for what she pushes herself out to be, a shadow diva who sees herself as superior (obviously hiding an inferiority complex). They don’t stop to acknowledge that maybe she’s compensating for something? Especially Nikolai, in that quote saying that he and Mia would fuck up each other’s demons but what abt Maya? You can’t be close to her because she doesn’t have flaws or negative thoughts or demons either?

This feels less like a “it’s Nikolai’s personality” issue and more like a “Rina Kent wrote Maya to be nothing more than her character archetype”

Other than that, I also wanna mention Maya’s relationship with Ilya and how it could enhance her character and dynamics.

Ilya is down to earth, not egotistical like Landon, or notoriously violent or volatile like Nikolai, nor with the high status like Jeremy. He’s a perfect match for Maya.

It’s mentioned by GOR from Mia’s POV that Maya wants someone high status with lots of money (I agree, get it girl slay) but Ilya is not those things. He’s just a bodyguard and the money in comparison isn’t that good. But he can see Maya for who she truly is, someone who is hurt on the inside, insecure and needing some help.

It’s not what she wants but it’s what she needs. She needs someone who won’t isn’t already existing in the circle who prefers Mia to her.

Although I do wanna say that I love the angst in early chapters if Maya felt some jealousy and sadness from believing that Ilya prefers Mia to her (seeing as how Ilya doesn’t regard Maya with the same reverence as other boys do) and he’s actually friendly to Mia while he’s bitchier to Maya. It’s all part of the angst. But endgame wise he would choose Maya cause he sees right through her and is more interested in the true part of her that’s vulnerable and scared to love in fear that the one she loves will love Mia more.

[daizthecraze]

Watched the new Helluva Boss episode that we waited forever for.

Honestly at this point I give every episode without Stolas at least 1 star automatically because I'm so tired of him. He’s as complex as a wet paper bag and it amazes me how he's so popular in the fandom.😭😭

Kesha’s character, whatever the fuck her name is....Queen Bee? Yeah her design confused the absolute hell outta me, more specifically her hair cuz it's like she had a patch of normal-ish hair then the designing team was like “SHE NOT INTERESTING ENOUGH!” and then just slapped that lava lampish kind of shit on her and it just didn't work for me at all.

I also had no clue she was the ruler of the gluttony ring until I read a post here on Tumblr and I just.....WHAT?? she just seems like a regular ass hell hound that they slapped some random goofy shit onto to make her look more “special” and like I read on another post here...SHES DATING A HELLHOUND!? Who are seen as lower than Imps so what the fuck makes Stolas and Blitz relationship so dire and special in the first place!? Like according to levels of authority Blitz and Stolas’s relationship should be better then Queen Bee and Vortex cuz Stolitz level of authority are more closer together than a ruler of the rings and a hell hound..?? This really annoys me cuz with how the show is going I really doubt they're even gonna talk about what's going on with that and why one is acceptable and the other isn't.

Like at least with Fizz and Asmodeus it seems they're keeping their seemingly more romantic side hidden from the general public which looks like it's gonna be addressed in a later episode but with Queen Bee’s relationship she's just public about it...??

Also another note...am I the only one that was confused with what the hell was up with Lonna during the beginning of the episode? Like she seemed nervous then ran into a random ass group of girls who she apperently knew who made her more upset after shoeing a emmbarring photo. Like ok I get what she was upset for with that…but then that ends and she’s continues to be upset through the rest of the first half and I’m like why is she still upset throughout the whole song?? I wish they would give her some fucking dialogue to talk about her emotions other then be so god damn vague cuz I had no clue what the fuck she was thinking and it felt like they wanted her to be upset for random conflict without giving us a reason as to why she’s acting the way she is. After she meets Queen Bee she can’t even be completely shocked and upset cuz she already knew Vortex had a girlfriend cuz he told her in episode fucking 3. The only thing she would be surprised about was that he was dating a leader of the ring….but we don’t specifically understand what the fuck she’s so upset about…

I don’t know. It just really bothered me cuz I was expecting to learn more shit about Loona but I have to remind myself that this show really has a terrible time writing female characters.

Also the ending with Blitz and Loona would of been a decent moment if we didn’t already see that she completely physically beats him and acts like a massive bitch the first time we see her in the next season so 🙃🙃🙃

Episode didn’t really feel all that special….

[kneelingshadowsalome]

I promised, promised myself that I wouldn’t read the Roman König x Fee fic until it was completed because I knew i would get absolutely drawn in, wrapped up in your exquisite prose, then get addicted and suffer from withdrawals. Unneeded to say I broke said promise and welp here I am 🤡

Thing that surprised me was how quickly he endeared himself to me? A cock swinging village massacring brute that I was FULLY prepared to hate had me sighing by then end of chapter 3 with the “you care about my head?” ✋😩 YES I worry for your stupid head you adorable monster.

It’s uncanny how similarly Fee and I felt as the plot progressed. I know this is a self insert and though I made an OC for fee, you were able to capture the feeling of hate to curiousity to distrust to budding emotions on the readers side so beautifully and in only three chapters?? What sorcery is this?? I could go on and on about how I’m just… in awe of your writing skills.

It’s the small things too. The effort he went through to understand Fee, learning her language like he desperately wants to be a part of her. It’s just his delight in the simple things like having a woman and buying her pretty things. I AM GOING TO GNAW OFF MY ARM THIS IS SO GOOD!! I don’t know if you’ve watched HBOs Rome, but they remind me of Pullo and Eirene so much! Like you can’t tell me König doesn’t fit that goofy brawdy soldier who’s only hobbies are drinking and fucking and fighting to a T!

Then it got me thinking…. If König is Pullo then Simon is Vorenus. He has that straight laced, no bs aura about him. Now I’m imagining them both in this universe and please excuse me while I melt in a puddle 🫠

This is perhaps the best piece of fiction I’ve read in a while. I can’t wait for part 4, I have no doubt it will be wonderful as usual. Please accept my maladaptive daydream interpretation of Fee (first she was supposed to be a wood nymph, then the earth goddess then a fairy queen?? I’m not sure anymore. There was so much great imagery couldn’t settle on one. Your honor, we lost the plot.)

Oh my goodness OH MY GOODNESS ❤️❤️❤️

You shower me with praise and I’m over here like aaahh... for me? 🥺❤️

And yes I’ve watched Rome like four times at least! Every time I watch it just gets better, the producers and crew really outdid themselves with all the details in that series. I consider it one of the best TV shows ever made and excuse me but you opened a Pandora’s box here, I'm just so pleased you brought this up...

It took so much time for Pullo to grow on me, I was so frustrated with his character but when he killed Eirene’s man because he was so in love with her and was just like: “Oh there's something in the way of our love? Oh well. *there*, solved.” Gosh I was IN LOVE. I’m sorry, I’m a horrible person, but I fell in love with Pullo right that second. And yeah König is kinda like Pullo in that sense! Eirene wails at the corpse of her ex-lover and Pullo is just like “Um, yeah nasty business but… why are you crying? Oh, oh yeah, oops. But hey, we could be together? Oh, you don’t want me? Damn. How come?” I wanted to shake and kiss him for being so dumb and adorable.

And Ghost is Vorenus YES, you get it 100 %! And the tragic love story of Vorenus & Niobe, oh god, took me about a month to get over it. And Vorenus being under the protection of Mars first and then literally becoming Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld… The mythology nerd in me is swooning over here. The only thing about Vorenus that's slightly König coded to me was when Pullo had to explain to him what a clitoris is, and Vorenus is like “How do you know this about my wife?!?!” and almost kills him :D That’s so so Roman!König.

But AHHH let me squeal about your maladaptive daydream adaption next: she’s the most gorgeous Fee ever, so lovely and feminine and yet, strong and possessing that earthly power in her. I love the color of her dress too!! There’s a lot of earth & water elements linked to Fee so that color (green to turquoise?) is the most perfect combination of earth and sea, while König is more like fire & air, coming from the mountains and slow to anger but when the fire rises, no one is safe...

This was so lovely, thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story 🩷💋

[tirsynni]

I’m unsure everyone’s thoughts on TotK spoilers at this point, but just to be on the safe side, putting my thoughts Sidon and Link and other under a cut. Just ramblings and some mild cackling.

Okay, so TotK presented a new fun facet for Sidon: they gave him a bride. Obviously, Sidlink fans went completely nuts. Makes sense. This is a big change from the BotW dynamics. So first things first: my thoughts on the betrothal itself.

Some people went batshit and accused Nintendo of queerbaiting. Of all things, they insisted that Nintendo saw people so excited about Sidlink that they inserted Yona to break up the pairing. I have multiple thoughts on that, which will be split up a bit through my flailing meta. Most obvious first, though: Sidon is the Prince of the Zora. He is the only heir left. A betrothal makes sense! Yona was known to him, trusted, and she seems to have a solid head on her shoulders... and is also good for not taking Sidon’s shit. She is a good choice for a Queen, both for the Zora people and for Sidon personally.

I love Sidon to death, but he absolutely needs someone to balance him out. The Zora people are a monarchy. While they lack the divine rule of the Hylian Royal Family, they do have a definite strictness and structure. There is a great deal of respect for the royal family, for the structure that is in place, and the Zora people also rely on the royal family for multiple things. The Zora royal family is clearly not symbolic or there for show: they are the guardians, protectors, and leaders of the Zora people. Whoever would be paired with Sidon would need to fulfill those roles. 

From what we’ve seen of Link, he has two sides: feral little warrior or duty-bound Knight. He doesn’t try to take leadership roles: he hears of a problem, sighs a little at how the problem isn’t being solved, and does it by himself. He works with teams, but there’s no indication of him ever leading. He’s the Tony Hawk of Hyrule. He’s the guy who does things so quietly that people are baffled when they’re successfully done.

So where does all of this leave Sidlink? I think there are a couple takes on it.

While Sidon is canonically marrying Yona (and absolutely no Yona bashing on my blog: I adore Yona), I think if Sidon married her and Yona acted as his queen and the Queen of the Zora, and yet he still had a full relationship with Link on the side... he would do so with everyone’s blessing. Dorephan’s, the Zora people’s, Yona’s... Fuck, he literally put a ring on it, and he was congratulated. He has a statue of him and Link, and everyone honors it. He has it literally in writing on the wall how much he adores Link and wants everyone to know how awesome Link is. And fuck, did everyone talk to Yona after Link successfully finds the Zora greaves? Sidlink isn’t even my ship and it seems like she is giving her blessing and sounds thrilled that Sidon found such a great side piece.

Seriously, my favorite pairing is Revalink, and every Zora interaction seemed like Sidon was madly in love with Link, and despite marrying Yona, everyone in the kingdom was cheering Sidon on. Wouldn’t be the craziest thing, really, and would require no effort to make Sidon/Yona a political, if happy and respectful, marriage, with the King (and really, the Queen, providing no children come from it) having concubines/lovers/etc. Which makes the second possibility for this subject even funnier.

This is my go-to, although, again, even for a non-shipper, Sidlink is amazingly easy in TotK: Sidon and Link have nothing going on. It’s completely platonic. It never occurred to either of them that people interpret their interactions and Sidon’s comments as romantic. Everyone -- Dorephan, Bazz, Yona, everyone -- is convinced Sidon and Link have been fucking for months, if not years, and they’re okay with it. Hell, they’re thrilled by it. Yona adores Link and is fine sharing Sidon with him. Hell, she encourages it (with neither Link or Sidon understanding it but happy to have some time to hang out together). Dorephan is convinced that he has a pseudo-son-in-law and couldn’t be prouder. He expected to have Link as an actual son-in-law a century ago, anyway. Everyone thinks they’re screwing, and everyone is happy with it, with Sidon and Link never catching on. 

Bonus points if Link is actually in another relationship, and one day, I might write that little bit of crack.

More bonus points if Sidon is actually ace (which is really, really easy to headcanon, honestly) and Yona attributes his struggles with babymaking to his love for Link.

There’s possibly Link struggling to figure out where he fits with Sidon after learning about the engagement, with most of the kingdom (including Yona) taking it for granted that of course Link would stay with Sidon. There’s Sidon struggling with figuring out how to insert Yona in his life and the canon struggling of having someone else to lose. (At least he’s confident that Link can and will survive, even though Link vanishing must have scared the shit out of him.) There’s possibly Link knowing that such things exist due to his travels and his own history with royals but not connecting it to himself, especially when he sees Sidon struggling with his relationship and upcoming marriage to Yona. Multiple opportunities for both fluff and plotty tension.

But yeah... at no point do I see Yona actually being a barrier to Sidlink. It’s amazingly easy to see her as a fucking Sidlink shipper, whether the pair or actually together or not.

(And honestly, I think she did what it wouldn’t have occurred to Link to do: yell at Sidon to put aside his personal feelings and fears and fulfill his damned responsibilities. I think Link would have just accepted Sidon’s actions and tried to solve the problem on his own, as he does. It is Yona who recognizes that it shouldn’t just fall to Link and that Sidon has to take care of his own responsibilities, too, and get out of his head.)

Of course, for the people who want to write Yona and Sidon breaking up the marriage, write Link taking up a leadership role and stepping up as a fellow ruler, whatever... this bit of meta absolutely is not critiquing any of those takes. I’m of the firm mindset that people should write what they want, that fanfiction is amazing for exploring, and if people dislike a certain writer’s takes, they should just leave the fic instead of going “Well, I disagree with what you did here and here’s why.” Hell, even if it’s not with my headcanons or whatever, Sidlink writers are awesome in this fandom and write many solid fics, both with worldbuilding to back up their choice and with fics without the details and background and just happy fluff (and porn). If you like the above takes, awesome! If you prefer for it just to be Sidlink (no Yona bashing, please, though), also awesome. It’s fanfiction. Have fun with it.

[one-britt-to-rule-them-all]

Just me rambling about my fanfic projects

(I didn't really proofread, I'm sorry.)

Listen, I know nobody's really gonna give a fuck, but screw it, I need to word vomit a bit.

I've posted on another platform about how I've been writing some Twisted Wonderland fics behind the scenes – three of them, to be exact. I haven't published them because I've been enjoying writing and indulging in this hobby in a stress-free manner, because I sometimes feel overwhelmed when having to cater to an audience, which incidentally takes the fun out of writing for me and causes me to block or burn out easily.

Doing this has really been making me happy, and I'm on the fence about publishing the fics. I probably will at some point; it would be a waste to not share the works. Plus, they're already written in a reader insert format, so it's not like I'd have to change much about the stories to cater them to my typical audience. I think I'd publish them only when I'm nearing their completion or when I have a lot – and I mean a lot – of chapters done. That way, I can set a consistent upload schedule.

But regardless of what I end up doing, I'd like to share the basics of the three books I've been working on! So continue reading if you're interested! ~

I'd like to give a preemptive warning that the second story I talk about is heavily NSFW-based. So, if you're uncomfortable with that, then skip over to #3.

Another thing: the reader is referred to with she/her pronouns throughout the explanations, though if published, they might be changed to GN, but I'm not really sure yet.

#1

So, the first book I want to talk about is called 'The Devil's Wonderland.'

This story is definitely inspired by some elements of Obey Me, though you don't need to have played Obey Me to understand what's going on because although it's inspired, it's not a crossover and the OM characters are never mentioned. 

This book does follow Twisted Wonderland's main story, though, with some artistic liberty taken to make it more unique to me and my story-telling. The reader is the highly-respected and somewhat feared demon lord of the Nether Realm (hell) and runs an institution where demons of all ages learn various things about the Nether Realm and important skills to have as a demon. The idea of the institution was first brought forth by the previous demon lord, her father, but the reader is the one to have actually gone through with it. Much like the Twisted Wonderland side of things, the institution has seven dorms with one demon at the head of each of them, and each dorm is based on one of the seven deadly sins. The dorm heads are personally very close to the reader in one way or another, and all come from different social standings of demon hierarchy. 

Her office has a mirror that allows her to look into different universes and realms, as well as travel to said universes, which is where the reader learns of Twisted Wonderland, a Realm she finds absolutely enchanting and fascinating and was contemplating taking a vacation there. However, when one of the freshmen, a mischievous cambion who has already earned himself the reputation of being troubled, gets called into the office, he goes into the mirror and Twisted Wonderland. So, with her trusty right-hand demon man at her side, they go into the mirror, where they are transported into Twisted Wonderland at NRC. They end up using humanoid disguises with magic to not draw much attention to themselves — they're unaware of what constitutes normal for the world — and originally have a mission to retrieve the troubled student and bring him back to the Nether, but they get dragged into the mess of the prologue of the main game. The thing is, the reader realizes that she likes being in Twisted Wonderland because of the way she's being treated. She's not being treated with fear and superiority. People aren't sucking up to her or blindly following and adoring her for her status because the NRC men don't know that this is the literal queen of hell.

She likes it. She likes being just another person. Hell, she gets excited when people outright disrespect her because nobody would ever dare say their true thoughts to her back in the Nether. So, she wants to stay in Twisted Wonderland to experience a semblance of normality, though she still has to flip-flop between realms because she has duties back in the Nether, so she's living this double life. Much to the chagrin of her right-hand man.

To make the story more unique to me, I've implemented a lot of elements of the original universe I've been building for myself and OCs, and there a few of OCs that will be added to add a little something! 

I'd like to briefly introduce these OCs to you. Please note that all the artwork that I'm about to show you have not been made by me. They are all paid commissions of my characters, directly taken from my ToyHouse account. I'd also like to apologize for the poorly-done collages of the images. I tied to condense things as much as possible.

Obviously I won't be revealing too much info on them as I don't want to spoil things should the books come to the public, but I want to share a few tidbits!

Starting off with my personal favourite and one of the most relevant characters, meet Alastair:

Al is the right-hand man and butler to the reader. His loyalty to her knows no bounds, and he's almost always seen with her. They actually have a very close relationship and respect each other as way more than just business partners, instead seeing each other as very close friends. Alastair is an absolute badass in his own way and possibly my favourite character. I'd even go as far as to say that he's my favourite of ALL of my OCs. I've just grown super attached to this dude and can't wait to show him off in story.

Next, we have Luka:

Luka is the cambion that got Alastair and the reader in the mess in the first place. Being half demon and half human, he struggles with his identity as he's unsure of where he fits in best. He faces prejudice in the human community for being unpure (racism is actually a big thing in my universe regarding human views on non-humans) and the demon community often reject cambions for being 'not demon enough'. Luka gets a lot of character development throughout the story, and his relationship with Alastair is pretty comical, and the relationship he grows with the reader is so wholesome to the point where I'm debating not making Luka a love interest because I feel like they have a very familial bond.

So, Luka and Alastair are the main OCs and the ones that are seen the most. The other OCs get introduced slowly but surely and are less present — though they still hold weight — so I will rapid-fire them at you.

So, let's get into the seven dorm heads of the demon institution!

First, we have Melchom:

Melchom is the dorm head of the Superbia dorm, which is centred around the sin of pride. He is a noble who is very well-acquainted with the reader and her family, being a childhood friend of hers. They were brought up with the intent of wedded to one another, but that didn't happen for reasons I'm not spoiling. With striking good looks, great power, a high rank in demon society and the sheer confidence he exhibits, Mel is definitely one of the more popular and admired demons at the institution, seemingly being perfect in every sense of the word.  

Next is Lucius:

Lucius runs Avaritia, the dorm based around the sin of greed. Although neither a noble nor anywhere near royalty, Lucius is a pretty successful business demon. He's incredibly skilled in business affairs and has made a name for himself in both the Nether and human realms, but is his money all from honest, hard work? Probably not. But he sure is good at convincing others that it is. He's a demon, give the shady man a break!

We move on over to Jinn!

Jinn is at the top of the Invidia dorm, which is based on envy. Out of all the dorm heads, Jinn is the most difficult with which to get along. Deep-rooted insecurities manifest as envy towards his comrades for one way or another, making it difficult to form a genuine bond. 

Next is the duo of Gael and Aziel:

Leading the Ira dorm, based on wrath, are Gael and Aziel. Gael is the only human that currently inhabits the Nether Realm, and he shares his body with a demon named Aziel. The reasons as to why Aziel is possessing Gael are redacted for the time being as I don't want to spoil, but much like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing, Gael and Aziel are completely different in terms of personality, and Aziel can take over Gael's body.

Next, we have Ezekiel, or just Zeke for short:

The Luxuria dorm is based on the sin of lust, and Zeke is the one who runs it. Zeke is a super open, chill and fun-loving guy who is all about self-expression and will absolutely shame kink and slut-shamers. He's allergic to wearing proper shirts, but if he must, he will. He also runs various clubs at the institution, including a dance club and a yoga club.

Next is Iblis:

At the top of the Gula dorm, home of gluttony, is Iblis. Iblis is an absolute sweetheart and cinnamon roll, whose tail and butt will do little waggles when food is involved. Despite constantly eating, he's rather fit due to gluttony demons essentially being bottomless voids, nearly immediately burning up anything they consume. And yes, his tail is as warm and squishy as it looks, and he's all for letting people use it as a weighted blanket. Once a human, reincarnated as a demon after death, one really wonders what the hell this guy has done to wind up in hell, he's such a sweetie... ~

For the last dorm head, we have Izzin:

The last dorm, representing sloth, is Acedia, which is run by Izzin. Much like, Iblis, Izzin was also once human and turned into a demon after death. Being a sloth demon, Izzin is forced into a perpetual state of sleepiness and because of that, he's the most uninvolved of all the dorm heads. Make no mistake, even in sleep, he's somehow perfectly aware of what's going on around him. He hears all, don't test him. Though when he's awake and aware, he's amongst the more mischievous and scheming of the dorm heads and often gets involved in Lucius' scams- I mean business.

There's one last character I want to show, and that's the reader. Now, in and of itself, the reader is not given a set appearance. The skin colour, body type, hair colour and style, eye colour, etc. remain ambiguous so that the reader can insert themself or their OC. Plus, this is made to be my sona as the MC of the story, but I still wanted to show! This is more to show what I have in mind with the outfit, crown, wings and horns when in demon form.

OKAY. Moving on to the next book!

#2

The next book is... something. It's called 'She's a Monster.'

Let me explain this book's existence with a simple conversation between my friend and I.

Friend: Hey, Britt! You know how everybody writes fics where the reader is a monster fucker?

Me: ... yeah?

Friend: Well, hear me out... what if the reader is the one who's a monster, and the guys are the ones who are monster fuckers??

Me: ...

Me: *Opens Google Docs.* Say no more.

So... this book is a collect-all-the-men reverse-harem-porn-with-plot... thing.

To make this simple, it's Twisted Wonderland, but the reader is a big, strong, naga woman that brings out the monster fucker in the NRC men. There's the plot that follows TW and my added plot lines, but there's a lot of sex and kink exploration.

My portrayal of nagas is not accurate to our real-world legends. My portrayal of nagas is purely driven by my original universe and narrative, so keep that in mind!

The gyst is that the reader is a naga — half human, half snake monster — a rare creature on the brink of extinction in Twisted Wonderland. The reader has been living completely isolated in the depths of a forest near the Dwarf Mines. She's rather lonely and craves having a clutch — what nagas use to refer to their group of mates — so when she sees Yuu, Ace, Deuce and Grim adventure into the mines, she's compelled to help them out a bit and interact.

Now, in this story, nagas are rare and almost extinct, so while it's not normal for her species, the reader is willing to get with humans and humanoids because she's a little desperate. Here's the thing: nagas have a weird male-to-female ratio, with females being much rarer than males, where there's only about a single female for every nine males, so it isn't uncommon for females to have multiple partners, and this instinct is still very present, and so that is why the reader is compelled to get with multiple guys. However, despite this, female nagas are very respectful and gentle with their partners and love them all equally.

The reader in this can shift between her proper, monstrous form and a more humanoid form where she has legs, though she's not fond of being in that form as she gets sore from containing her monster form. So, there are scenes where the men fuck the reader in her human form and some scenes where it's human on monster.

The reader is portrayed as a switch in the book, but there's a focus on her being dominant. I'm just tired of always writing submissive readers, so I'm trying something different. Plus, female nagas, in this interpretation, are typically larger, stronger and more dominant than the males.

Also... the reader has both female and male anatomy. I primarily work with female anatomy in the story, but when in her full monster form, the reader can sheathe and unsheathe two dicks, so there are some scenes where the dudes get dicked down.

There's some genuine fluff and emotional connections made, it's not all smut, and there are definitely some comedic moments, especially with the reader just... not understanding everyday slang, technology and human things in general.

So yeah, this one is definitely sexually charged and not for the sexually squeamish.

I'd like to give a visual reference of my OC that I've used to base the reader off. Again, keep in mind that my showing you these images is only to give you an idea of the physical traits the reader has in her monster form. Her skin/scale colour, hairstyle and hair colour, body type and shape, eye colour, etc, are all for you to pick. The basic appearance of the reader's insert is their choice, but this is a template for you to know what I have in mind when writing in terms of physical traits. The reader's 'colour palette' while in her monster form isn't mentioned, so feel free to think of her as the colour of your choice. Doesn't have to be purple and gold.

Her name's usually Lilith in my universe, but she's (Y/N) here, obviously! I have some more art of her, but the images are... very NSFW. So, I'm not showing.

Onto the last book!

#3

The last book is called 'Monsters & Magic.'

I don't have a cover for this one yet, but here's a commission that's in progress that I should get this week. There's gonna be a nice background of NRC's courtyard!

POKÉMON X TWISTED WONDERLAND CROSSOVER!!!

Okay, so this book is a little different... it's kind of a CYOA? 

Also, you don't NEED to be a pokémon expert to read this, but it definitely helps.

Basically, the reader is a champion-level and gets yeeted into the world of Twisted Wonderland thanks to Arceus. Basic stuff. But here's where it gets a little different: the book has three prologue chapters, and in the third prologue chapter, the reader stands in front of the mirror, and the story branches. There are seven branches for the seven dorms, and the reader will be placed in one of the dorms, and you choose which paths you want to read. So there are basically seven stories in one.

I decided to do this because I wanted to follow the stories of Twisted Wonderland, but I wanted the reader to experience the events of every dorm from the perspective of someone who's in that dorm. I wanted to write a bit more of an inside view of the dorm dramas and characters, with added plot lines and scenes made by me, of course. This is also a good way to give more depth to some characters I feel got screwed over by the writers. Leona, my love, I'm looking at you.

The reader also changes depending on the dorm she's in. Her personality and backstory are different, her pokémon team is different, etc. This is for variety because I don't want to write the same character over and over again but in a different setting.

The reader is from a different region for every dorm and has experienced the events of the main games associated with that region, plus more. The thing is, there are nine main regions and only seven dorms, so I can't honor them all. Plus, if you count Hisui, Orre, Fiore, Almia and Oblivia, there are even more regions.

Since I wanted to involve as many of the regions as possible, I fused some of them together, so here's what I got:

Heartslabyul: Paldea + Galar

Savanaclaw: Sinnoh

Octavinelle: Hoenn + Alola

Scarabia: Orre

Pomefiore: Kalos

Ignihyde: Kanto + Johto

Diasomnia: Unova

Because Hisui is basically old Sinnoh, I decided to not include it at all, but there are some nods and references to Legends Arceus, notably in the prologue of the book where Arceus brings the reader to Twisted Wonderland, and how pokémon are portrayed to be, as they are, wild creatures that can be extremely dangerous when not tamed.

Fiore, Almia and Oblivia... as much as I love the ranger games, I decided to not include them. Mostly because I haven't plsyed the games in so long that I don't remember them that much, but also because I wabted the reader's history to be more trainer-oriented.

Orre is included becasue I'm a sucker for the GC games, but also because I think the story and atmosphere based on those regions is great, and I'd love to incorporate it!

----

All in all, I'm having so much fun writing these books, and if I ever release them to the public, I hope y'all will enjoy them as well! 

Welp, thank you for coming to my TED talk! See ya!

[the-owl-tree]

Your post about Sandgorse makes me think that Tallstars’ revenge would have been an excellent way to explore how it feels to grieve a parent who was either toxic or straight up abusive. The thing is, most people without wanting or meaning to, do deify the recently deceased, tend to remember only the good moments or minimize the bad. Having Talltail realize at the end that his father was truly abusive, and that even if the hurt he feels is understandable, he was not a good father and he doesn’t need to feel guilty for moving on, would have been a pretty good lesson towards the younger audience. I’m saying this as someone who went through a similar experience with a family member, was relating to Talltail’s guilt and stress about lack of closure, and then felt utterly betrayed when the books painted Sandgorse as a good parent and Talltail as someone that needed to “make up” for him . They even present Palebird as somehow being worse, when she was experiencing post partum depression on top of losing a child (this seems to be a recurring theme in warriors, since Sparkpelt goes through nearly the same thing)

Absolutely agree with you! The first half of Tallstar’s Revenge sets this up: Tallstar needs to learn to accept he can’t keep envisioning Sandgorse as a hero he needs to live up to. I love stories about rocky relationships with guardians, of children who have to grow up and realize they can’t be the person their parents want them to be (or that their parents won’t become someone they want them to be). It’s good juicy drama and often times these stories are satisfying in the sense of seeing people grow and move on. But it doesn’t happen.

The recurring theme of fathers in warriors is that there never needs to be a reckoning of their absence (Stormtail) or their shotty treatment of their children (Sandgorse and Raggedstar). The narrative either twists it around so that the father’s shitty behavior is never acknowledged, or worse, it completely puts the blame on the mother figures in the situation (once again, not excusing Lizardstripe or whatever being abusive but like….why does the cat who talks about how it’s unfair toms don’t have to give up anything when having children become the abusive mom. Can we think critically here. Raggedstar abuses both Yellowfang and plays a part in Brokenstar’s rise to power and he’s a fucking footnote compared to her).

Just a note for this next session on Palebird, I’m moreso talking about her from a writing perspective. Not as a real mother with PPD. That’s a distinction I want to make clear.

I think the thing that bothers me more about Palebird’s story is that she is absent in Tallstar’s life as a child, she doesn’t defend him from her father and her arc is wrapped up by, not talking with her son or asking for support from her Clanmates, but by remarrying and having more children. It’s a baffling and, with the rest of the series treatment of mothers in mind, shitty way to conclude her story.

I will fight tooth and nail that Sparkpelt being able to rely on other queens to ensure that her children were cared for was GOOD and NOT NEGLECT. What’s the alternative? A depressed mother who can barely care for herself takes care of two children as well? There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, there’s nothing wrong with leaning on community for support. ESPECIALLY if it means two children will be cared for, the prioritization of Sparkpelt being the sole caretaker would’ve put Finchkit and Flamekit in a much worse situation.

But Palebird doesn’t get that help and the story, from what I remember, never really comments on that? It’s a bit of a mess. I’m not fond of how they wrote her. Honestly, both Sandgorse and Palebird are interesting conceptually but the execution and resolutions of their characters is just sort of “I want to throw these two in the trash and start from scratch” energy to me lol

[cynical-gamer-media]

23 for the Triangle Strategy ask meme?

Any unpopular opinions?

From a writing perspective I think Benedict's Route is the most interesting route (thus my favourite). The fact that everything seems to be going so well, only for the ending to slap you across the face is done so damn well. With a negative character arc of Serenoa becoming a cold king, Frederica falling out of love with him and just staying to do anything to support her people, Benedict winning his quest of vengeance, the implications that Gustadolph is still in power, Norzelia crumbling due to capitalistic exploitations, Roland working with Idore to spread his teachings in hopes of saving others, it's all absolutely brilliant stuff. This route made me feel the most: I felt like shit after finishing it, and realising 'I am perpetuating (or going to perpetuate) the cycle'.

People saying Frederica's Route is second to Golden Route in terms of bringing prosperity and freedom to the most people is odd, for in her route the entire continent of Norzelia suffers an on-going war. Many innocent people are caught in it: civil war in Aesfrost, Glenbrook totally abandoned by Roland (which was bad writing; he should have returned, or the writers should have painted him negatively as a coward abandoning his people), Hyzante still being around and preaching its horrific teaching. It's heavily implied that Norzelia will collapse. Understandable Frederica puts her people's needs first and foremost, as she should. Still it seems odd that she has shown compassion to all [especially those who suffer oppression] and yet doesn't give a damn that the entirety of Norzelia will suffer. I really find it weird that a number of fans paint this route as Golden Route-lite/second to Golden Route, and that the only bad thing to happen is Serenoa's death???

All three non-Golden Routes are extremely flawed and show that there'll always be people left behind/to suffer: that's the point. Of course you can debate which is more beneficial, which is also a point and great to discuss, but in the end none of them are 'all lived happily ever after'. None of them.

Roland's negative character development didn't feel OOC when you play the right routes, BUT there was some clunky executions that made him seem to forget he believed in one thing then completely forgot [horrified by Hyzante's slavery, then forgetting they do that???]. (He doesn't truly believe in Hyzante's teachings; he just wants a quick solution, and falls for the trap of utilitarianism.)

Serenoa being Roland's half-brother amounted to nothing. The plot point could have been Benedict wishing to create a new dynasty to take the throne (as history has shown many times to have happened) as a fuck you to those who used Destra [Serenoa's mother] and nothing would have changed. The half-brother feels like the writers pulling a 'no homo' rather than a 'twist for twist sake'.

Despite Roland ammending in Golden Route and maturing, I still think he shouldn't have been king. Cordelia has always shown a willingness to lead, so she should have been queen.

The game's beginning isn't THAT talkative. It may have trimmed the length but I wouldn't have downright cut back on anything. Really I think there are only two cutscenes (not including Extra Story) that are over 10 minutes? The rest are usually 2 minutes, maximum 5.

I LOVE that each character is unique to another in gameplay. You have three-four healers yet they are so different. It actually makes me want to try out different characters!

There may be more, but those are the ones to come to my head!

[slytherinsnekxvii]

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

Hi, I absolutely adore your writing and it’s quite inspiring and making my imagination go WEEWOO!

Could I request something for YJ With Dick? So like a headcanon or one shot (which ever you prefer queen) where the reader is quite reserved, snarky and can get angry real fast. They have feelings for Rob and they are especially snarky to him to hide their feelings, but they eventually start to open up more and during the events of episode 24 (you know, the one at haly’s circus), they open up to him and they confess? And he does the same?

Flower Language

Pairing: Dick Grayson as Robin x Reader

Warnings: Blood and injuries and plant death.

Word Count: 3.8k words

A/N: This is kind of my take on the Hanahaki disease, kind of. This was so much fun to write honestly, I didn't realize I like all this floral stuff so much. It also reminded me of another 'True Love's Kiss' trope I wrote for Dick Grayson as well. Also I changed the episode this was based on because I’ve already done something based on the episode with Haly’s circus @hanbedumbaf I really really really hope you enjoy it! Sorry it was so late, I finished it a month back but it was in my queue.

Adrenaline was a common feeling to you. A little too familiar. The life of a superhero puts you in peril more times than you would like but it was the only life you had known. You knew the familiar feeling of sweat forming on your skin and your heart pounding so loudly that you could hear it in every step you took.

However, when you heard the pounding, it was because there was a supervillain, usually hairy, chasing after you and determined to get your head on a stake.

Although, feeling your heart jump to your throat was becoming more familiar whenever you were around a certain someone. Robin annoyed you to no end, whenever he was around you couldn't help your face from growing warm and your lips from tingling to form a permanent smile on your face.

Having a crush was irritating, you couldn't think or even function without thinking of him. It was frankly humiliating, you were always so gung-ho about being bold and to the point and yet whenever you were around Boy Wonder, you couldn't help but bend your personality to something you felt like would appeal to him more.

Sometimes, you couldn't even stand yourself.

And so, as a pathetic act of rebellion, and maybe as a clear-cut sign that you had no idea how to handle emotions or anything similar to it, every time your heart got just a little soft, your tongue got a whole lot sharper. Probably not the best way to win a boy’s heart. But you weren't here for a romance story.

It was also a true sign that you had no idea how to flirt, thinking that borderline insulting witty banter was the way to go. Or perhaps it was a way of controlling your emotions, since being bitter and snarky was the thing that came easiest to you.

You seriously needed better tactics.

It was also your oblivious mistake thinking that Robin only saw what you wanted him to see. He was raised to be a detective, of course he was more observant than that. Papa (or let's be real, Alfred) didn't raise no fool.

You made the mistake of thinking Robin saw you as strong and independent and bold, just as the rest of them did. But he saw much more than that.

Robin was distressed by the number of crying faces around him, the kids were inconsolable which was understandable because of just how many things went wrong in the past couple of hours. To be quite frank, Robin was a couple seconds away from having a fit himself.

"Shh, little one," He heard distantly and his neck practically snapped. You were crouching in front of the few who were crying, with a small nurturing smile. It was the first time he had seen you out of uniform, usually referring to you as Antheia, named after the goddess of flowers, but this wasn't she.

"I know you're scared, my flowers, but I promise, we will find your parents." You soothed, gently wiping away their tears. They still looked up at you apprehensively and with uncertainty.

"I'll show you a magic trick." You began, grinning as the kids began to smile back at you. You pulled a seed out of your pocket and held it between closed hands, using a bit of your powers and felt it grow in your palms. When you revealed what you were holding, they collectively gasped.

A bud of a flower now rested in your hand. You smiled at their innocent eyes and held it to them, "Now I'm going to need your help for the next part. Everyone has to blow on the flower."

They nodded eagerly, crawling around you and on the count of three, everyone followed your instructions. And low and behold, the bud bloomed into a beautiful blossom right between your fingers.

One of the girls clamoured into your lap to hold the flower herself and you chuckled, wrapping your arms tightly around her, "You know what this flower means?"

They shook their heads, "It means faith, and hope. If you have faith and hope in us, then you'll get something beautiful in return."

For once, they look contemplatively and you chuckled, feeling pride at the fact that you managed to sow some wisdom in their minds. The girl that had been sitting in your lap turned in your grasp, with the flower in her hand and then reached up to tuck it behind your ear.

"For me?" She nodded happily and you smiled widely, kissing her cheek, "Thank you, petal."

Satisfied that you were able to calm them down, you gently placed the girl back on the floor before moving away from the group. Just as you were about to join the others, you ran into Robin. You didn't know he had just seen the whole thing.

Pulling the flower from behind your ear, you handed it to him, "You know in some cultures, this flower means to pick up the slack and stop looking like a confused chicken." You snapped.

Business as usual.

Robin looked back to the flower you had slipped into his hands, you had said it meant faith and hope, and you had given it to him. He looked back up to see you shuffling away from him quickly, a blush on your face. He smiled.

You were more nurturing and kinder than you let on, it was like it was programmed into your personality and yet you never showed it when you knew they were watching. That wasn't the only part of yourself that you were hesitant to show them.

And the more Robin observed you, the more he realized that you used flower language to depict a lot of your emotions. It was a silent way of letting them out, without having to tell other people what's really in your heart.

You thought you were sly about it, but nothing went under Robin's radar.

Everyone was watching a movie on the flat screen in the rec room. You hadn't realized you were so tired, the movie was boring, something that M'Gann had picked and you hadn't slept the night before, busy patrolling your city.

Your eyelids began to droop before you could even understand what was going on, your head lolling as you drifted in and out of consciousness.

Robin hadn't realized that he was napping through the movie until he felt a weight on his shoulder. He nearly jumped awake and glanced to his side to see you sound asleep, breathing gently. He nearly chuckled, was this what you looked like when you weren't scowling at everybody?

His heart skipped a beat, god, were you beautiful. The smell of flowers vaguely hit his nose and he noticed the red gardenia plant growing steadily in the corner of the room.

'Red Gardenias means a secret love,' Robin recalled from a book he had read, 'It's a secret way for someone to say I love you.'

He glanced back at you still sleeping peacefully, face completely relaxed and briefly wondered if your powers were taking the lead on your emotions and making gardenias grow around the cave. Or were you dreaming about something?

Something in his heart grew, here you were sleeping against his shoulder, making symbols of a secret love grow around the room. This had to be a sign of something, right?

Before he could contemplate it any further, you squirmed and then began to stir. Your eyes fluttered open, hazily taking in your surroundings before they landed on the boy beside you and widened in size, skin darkening with a blush.

"Why the fuck didn't you wake me up?" You snapped and turned on your heel to stomp out of the room without even waiting for a response from him. The others who noticed the way he was just staring at the place you were in surprise. You always do such a 180 when you're around him and conscious.

"Wow, sunshine's crabby in the morning." Wally commented from beside him. When he didn't get any response, he looked over to see Robin with a silly smile on his face.

Dick couldn't stop himself from grinning. The gardenias were still blooming.

***

"Antheia, do you think you will be able to stop the plants from growing any further?" Batman turned to face you, only to find you staring at him with a hazy, blank expression.

"Antheia?" Robin called but you didn't even flinch, your eyes were locked onto the holo-computer, seeing the thick vines that were twisting and turning. Their call was overwhelming, you could feel them grow even beneath your feet. It was like a siren was blearing through your head.

You couldn't tell what they were trying to say, it was like they were muffled. It was confused and lost, following Ivy and it was happy listening to her. And yet, it was feeling pain, the Justice League was busy pruning her as we speak. It was scared, crying out for someone to help them and you felt obligated to help. Your mind was getting heavy, throbbing with an oncoming migraine.

"(Y/N)!" Your eyes snapped open and focused onto the boy in front of you. Everyone was staring at you in concern and you blinked, suddenly not able to remember what the hell was going on. You were just trying to focus on something other than the screams and cries of the plant.

"......What?" You asked a little dumbly, noticing the concern on Robin's face. The plants were still crying. You couldn't get the painful sound of their screams out of your mind. You felt like curling up into a ball and crying.

"Batman asked if you would be able to stop the plants?"

"Oh, um, no." You answered in a distracted way that made his face pinch with worry. His hands were still grasping your shoulders tightly, keeping his face in close proximity to yours. You didn't even realize, too out of it to even notice.

Robin on the other hand felt his cheeks get uncomfortably hot the more you stared at him with those innocent, beautiful eyes of yours. If Batman hadn't been breathing down his neck, he was sure he would've kissed you in the moment.

Unfortunately for him, his dad always knew how to ruin the moment. And he would continue to for the rest of his life. Until death do them part. Even after the two of you grow up and live together, the Batman would find some way to interrupt your fun.

"Robin?"

"Huh?"

"The mission."

Oh. Right.

***

"Robin!" You screamed when one of Ivy's plants wrapped around his neck and slammed him against the trees. They didn't let up curling tighter around his throat. Fear struck you as he began choking from breath and you knew you had to do something.

Suddenly murderous intent took over you and you glared at Ivy who returned it with a smug smirk of her own. Oh, how you'd rip that smirk off her face.

"Okay Ivy, you wanna play? Let's play." You ground out, slamming your hands against the vine around Robin's neck and it began disintegrating beneath your fingers. He fell to the ground, gasping for breath and you tuned out the sound of the plant crying as it died beside him.

Ivy heard it just as loudly as you had, she screamed and more plants lunged towards the both of you.

"Go help the others! I'm about to snap this twig." You spat at Robin, using your powers to kill the roots as it reached you. It was working slowly, your powers weak to the pain of the plants around you. Even as every cell of your body told you not to, you clenched your fingers into fists and watched as the creeper feel to the marsh, dead.

You engaged in battle with Ivy. Plants were screaming for mercy all around you but you couldn't stop for even a second. Life around you was trembling but you had to keep fighting the villain in front of you because if you hesitated for even a second, many more would die.

Thorns scratched your skin, drawing blood and curled around Ivy, sinking barbs into her skin.

"Face it girlie! You're never going to overpower me!"

"Oh, I'm not trying to overpower you, just distract you long enough for Robin to get rid of the control system." You replied, just as smug as she had been at the start of the fight. Now you got to see her face melt into one of panic just as Robin jumped over her head and to your side with a grin identical to yours.

"Cover your ears!" He sang, wrapping an arm around your shoulder and ducking, covering your body with his own. You were grateful for it; you weren't sure you could even keep your body upright at the moment.

Then you heard the explosion and your heart stopped. Every single fibre of your body burned red hot fire as you heard screams and cries around you. Bile was crawling up your throat and your breathing got thin. They were sobbing a heart-broken wail and your eyes misted at the mere sound.

Without realizing it, you were gripping onto Robin's hand, brows furrowed together. The sound of the explosion cleared, the Injustice League was captured and he pulled you up to stand with the others.

It was silent for a moment. You had won.

And then the consequences of your actions hit you.

Everyone's necks snapped towards you when you let out a heart-wrenching sob. Robin, who was standing right next to you caught you just in time before your body hit the ground. Pain exploded in your chest as you began wailing against him.

"(Y/N)? (Y/N)! What's wrong?!" He panicked but you didn't respond, crying into his chest as you gripped his cape in an iron fist. Everything hurt and all you could feel was sorrow and guilt.

The other heroes crowded around you but your eyes were screwed shut, tears making your eyes sting. Robin held onto you tightly, pulling your body against his as you continued to cry.

"What's happening?" Artemis murmured, looking around to see the environment change before her eyes. Everyone else followed her lead to see how leaves began rotting, then the trees. The smell was pungent. Thorns and weeds were crawling up the dying trees, pulling them into the swamp.

"(Y/N) please, what's wrong?" Robin whispered in your ear but you couldn't hear him. The sounds of plants screaming and wailing was echoing through your mind. How they begged you to save them. How they begged you to stop.

And then it got hard to breathe, your chest constricted and you were wheezing. Robin had to watch in horror when petals and blood poured from your mouth. You were choking, throwing up and sobbing in his arms, and he was unable to do anything to help you.

"Flash get her to the Batcave." Batman said gruffly, he was shocked and worried for you but didn't say anything, not wanting to scare his son more, "Sending you the coordinates now."

"Alfred prepare the med-bay."

Dick watched with a sinking heart as he handed you into Flash's arms. It took him a few seconds for his mind to stop whirring, he was still kneeling in the swampy marsh when the team huddled around him.

"It's gonna be okay." Wally murmured, wrapping an arm around his shaking body.

"We just have to hope for the best."

***

When the others had gotten back to the Cave, you had just been moved there, after being looked over by Alfred. He joined you in the med-bay, wanting to keep an eye on you. But as of yet, you still had to wake up.

Dick wasn't supposed to be listening to the adult’s conversation, but he couldn't help himself, he had to know if you were going to be okay.

"The situation is undeterminable, sir. But as of now, the flowers that are clogging her respiratory system keep growing. If we don't find a cure for this, it's inevitable that she will suffocate and pass."

His heart stopped. Die? You couldn't die, not when he still had so many things to tell you. For so long, he hadn't told you of his feelings, wanting to keep the relationship between the two of you professional. But now more than anything, he wished he had said something.

There were so many things he didn't get to do with you yet. You had yet to give him a bouquet on your first date. He wanted to lay in bed with you, smelling fresh flowers as you told him what different plants symbolized. He had yet to see moments where you can't control your powers and make plants grow around the cave.

He hadn't even given you a flower yet.

"Rob listen, I did some research on this 'disease'." Wally said, falling into step with him, "It's called the Hanahaki disease."

"That's fiction Wal—"

"But that's the best we've got right now." Came his curt reply and Dick's heart clenched.

"Hanahaki disease is a fictional sickness that only occurs when someone is suffering from unrequited love. The victim will cough up flower petals that symbolize their love. This disease is only cured when the victim's feelings are romantically returned." Wally read off his phone before turning to Dick with a smile.

He raised a brow, "What?"

"You have to kiss (Y/N)!"

"What!?"

"Yep! You have to return her unrequired love!"

"Wally that's ridiculous, kissing someone doesn't cute anything."

"Well, it's the only thing we have. And for (Y/N), we need to try anything." He said, pushing him towards the med-bay. His voice was tight and tense, like he was holding onto his as his last hope and Dick prayed that it would work when the door of your room came into his sight.

You were asleep and if he hadn't known any better, he would've thought you were healthy. Wally closed the door behind him, leaving Dick alone with you. The only sound in was the beeping from your heart monitor and your light wheezing. It was getting harder to breathe.

Dick inched his way closer to you, watching as your eyelashes fluttered gently in your sleep. Leaning over the bed you were lying in; he pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead before moving his head in line with yours.

"God, please let this work." He whispered and your bottom lip was caught between his. It was feather-light but yet, electricity was buzzing through his veins and fireworks went off in his mind.

For a minute, nothing happened and his heart clenched in his chest before he kissed you a little harder. This had to work because they didn't have any other lead. Dick felt you exhale feebly against him and he almost gave up hope.

But then you took a deep breath, stealing the breath from his lungs and he pulled away quickly to see your eyelids fluttering open. The colour was returning to your cheeks and your eyes were sparkling up at him. You smiled gently and he blinked away tears of relief. Thank goodness.

'His eyes are blue' You thought, staring deeply into them. They were beautiful, alluring. You didn't know why but just looking into his eyes was addicting. Was this what it felt like to be so deep in love? That even his eyes were enough to captivate you?

"I'm so glad you're awake." He muttered, cupping your cheeks firmly and planting another kiss on your lips. You giggled lightly, heart overjoyed to find the boy you had been in love with for so long had returned your feelings and you responded to the kiss eagerly, placing your palms over his hands and leaning into him.

With your regaining strength, you felt a flower materialize in your hands. The stem between your fingers brought you comfort just as the scent of the flower brought you back life.

When Dick pulled away, you delicately slipped it into his hands and he turned his attention to it, blue eyes softening when he recognized this particular flower in his hands.

"It's an Aster." You whispered quietly, lips brushing against his and he chuckled. It was the only flower you thought of when he came to your mind, "Get it?"

Dick turned his eyes away from the blossom and looked at you again. Your heart jumped, noticing just how much love he held in them. Eyes you could swim in, overflowing with love for you. Suddenly you were overwhelmed, feeling adoration and attraction. You needed to be closer to him, even though he was pressed against you.

Your fingers curled into his collar and pulled him closer to you, slanting your lips over his in an open-mouthed kiss. Dick gasped against your lips, startled for no longer than a second before sinking against you and wrapping an arm around your waist to pull you closer.

Your lips moved gently against his, the blushing flower trapped between both your bodies. The smell of fresh flowers clouded Dick's mind with everything that was you. Your hair, your smile, your lips. If you kept kissing him like that, he was certain he'd forget his own name.

And then you pulled away and Dick noted that you were as beautiful as a fresh flower. Your skin was glowing with life and your tired eyes were twinkling. You smiled sleepily at him, eyes closing shut and he lowered you back to the bed. Immediately, you slipped back into slumber, exhausted from the day's events.

He watched for a couple seconds, making sure you were able to breathe without any problems before realizing he should tell the others that you were okay.

He slipped out of the room quietly, stealing a final glance of you sleeping peacefully in the bed and a huge smile grew on his face, "She's awake."

It was only then he noticed just how colourful the room had gotten in the few minutes he was with you.

The walls were covered with vines and roses of different colours, camelias and carnations of different shades. It littered the room, not leaving a single inch of the wall untouched and scattered petals all over the floor like confetti.

Different creepers hung from the ceiling, dusting all the superheroes with sparkling pollen and colourful petals. Not to mention there were stems crawling up the Justice League members, flowers hugging their ankles lovingly.

Batman looked a lot less intimidating with petals in his cape and a rose stuck behind his ear. Robin blushed at the sight of everyone giving him knowing smiles.

"We noticed."

Aster: This flower became a symbol of love when in Greek mythology it was placed on the altars for the gods. So now, when you send a bouquet featuring this vibrant bloom, the message of "Take Care Of Yourself For Me" is implied. It conveys deep emotional love and affection for someone.

Forever Taglist:

@simonsbluee

DC Taglist:

@emmacata

@p--e--a--c--h--e--s

@sometimeseverythingsucks

@sokkas-honour

@unstable1902

@lostgirlheart

@missdisapear

@tadpole-san

[celestialrry]

I wish you would write a fic where...

the main character is the daughter of a really important producer harry is working with and he has a major crush on her but 1) he doesn’t want her dad to feel like he’s taking advantage of her 2) she has a rule of not dating musicians

too young

OOOOOOHHHHHH

HIIII GUYS..... i started school again and honestly for the longest time i've had no inspiration to write but then i got this ask!!! (thank you for your patience anon ily) and was like i love this prompt but then i wrote the first part and had no idea how to continue it,,, but I finally finished it!! ε(♡'-')з (this is me giving you all my love and affection for sticking with me) 

(NOT EDITED)

2k

warnings: alcohol consumption

Harry was in a dilemma.

Usually, he could sweep all his issues under the rug, save them for another day, but this one... he couldn't do that. Not because he didn't want to, but because this problem was more than just a dust bunny on his hardwood floor.

Y/N was the problem.

Or to be more precise, his feelings for Y/N were the problem.

Harry had confidence when it came to his crushes. He was smooth, flirty, and snagged almost every single person he's caught feelings for.

But not Y/N.

No, she was almost unreachable, for quite a few reasons.

One, the only reason he knew her, met her, was through a producer he had been working with the past few months. Arlo was massive in the industry and Harry was flattered when Arlo approached him with interest in collaborating. And only a month into working together, he met Y/N.

Harry's head snapped towards the door that had just burst open, a girl barging into the studio that he had never seen before. She was gorgeous, he had to admit, but he couldn't ignore her blatant disrespect for coming in and making a scene while he, Arlo, and a few of his bandmates were working annoyed him to no end.

"Dad! Oh my god, you will not believe what just happened, I was on my way over here and I fucking bumped into Zach," The girl began ranting, approaching Arlo and huffing as she stood next to Arlo's chair. "Of all fucking people I could see just walking down the street, it had to be him. The world is against me today I swear. Anyways, I brought that drum pad you wanted."

She dug into her big brown bag that was slung over her shoulder and pulled out the music board, placing it on the table in front of Arlo.

"Where'd you see him, Y/N? We're about to go on break and I can leave and go kick his ass in," Arlo checked his watch. "7 minutes."

Y/N, Harry now knew her as, sighed and crossed her arms. "He's long gone by now, think he shit his pants when he saw me walking near him."

"Atta girl, thanks for bringing my board too," Arlo smiled up at her from his chair. He then turned to see Harry, and Mitch staring at the two of them. "Oh sorry guys, this is my daughter, Y/N. Y/N, this is Harry and Mitch."

She turned to look at them and smiled wide. "Nice to meet you!"

"You too." They both said in unison, looking at each other with a smile, before focusing back on Y/N.

"We'll be done soon, if you wanna go out and get lunch." Arlo said, turning back to his daughter.

"Sounds good, just text me," Y/N replied, giving him a smile before turning back to the boys. "Nice meeting you guys, again."

And before they could even respond she was gone.

Two, Y/N was younger than him. 6 years younger to be exact. It didn't seem like much, but when put into perspective, she was 21, only just being legally allowed to drink in the States, and Harry was 27. Practically 30, if you ask him, and he was positive Arlo would have his head if he found out Harry liked his daughter. 

And three, she doesn't date the people her dad works with. 

He had found this out one night when he, Arlo, Y/N, Mitch, and a couple other writers were hanging out at the studio, drinking some wine (she had even exclaimed that this would be her first time drinking red, and Harry was yet again reminded of her age) and chatting after a long day of working. 

Harry and Mitch were laughing with Arlo about the first time they met Y/N, and her comments about this “Zach” guy. 

“He’s my ex, and had worked with my dad on one shitty song that never got far because he’s just so-- music is just not his thing, to put it nicely. But he was an absolute asshole and after him I made rule to never date anyone Dad works with. It would just go terribly.” She explained, letting Arlo take a few more jabs at the guy before stopping him.

So yeah, Harry was in a dilemma. 

In all the time he’d known Y/N, he just kept falling for her. She was kind, funny, beautiful, lit up any room she walked into, and treated Harry like fine porcelain. 

She was just fucking perfect. 

｡:°ஐ

Y/N had probably been in a lot of worse positions than the predicament she was in now.

For example, that time her dad walked in on her and her ex making out in the studio, or her 21st birthday when she got completely wasted and almost got into the wrong car instead of her uber, and the next day found out that the man driving that car was actually a convicted criminal.

So there’s worse things that could happen than her liking Harry.

But it doesn't mean it wasn’t bad.

The thing is, Y/N didn’t fall for anyone easily. Her one and only ex Zach treated her like a queen until he could officially claim her as his. The flowers he gave her before every date remained at the shop and the consistent compliments turned into insults and muttered claims of discontentment. 

Hence why he was her ex. It took Y/N quite a long time to work up the courage to end things with him. He was her first kiss, first time, and first boyfriend. She was yet to find her first love, she never really loved Zach. The way he used to treat her in the beginning, she thinks she loved, but him? No, she would never call him her first love. 

So when Y/N’s time crush on Harry began to develop into real feelings in such a short span of time, it terrified her. She had really never felt this way about someone before; butterflies would erupt in her stomach every time he shot her a smile and her mind would erupt into pure chaos when his body brushed up against her own. 

So yeah, it could be worse, but it certainly wasn't good.

｡:°ஐ

Y/N enjoyed spending time at the studio with her dad, and surprisingly, spending time with her dad’s “co-workers”. Even though she didn't usually hang out with the pop stars and spent time mostly with the backing band/producers (they were usually 50 year old men, but they were pretty nice) she enjoyed herself fully, having lunch breaks and talking about where their children when to school and whatnot. 

Sometimes though, every blue moon, Y/N would hang out with a super star her dad was working with. Usually when most stars are at the studio all they did was record, which was understandable, but she never had the chance to meet a lot of them.

With Harry though, everything was different. It wasn’t just lunches at the studio, or dinner at someone’s house, no, tonight they were going out to a bar. 

It was completely unexpected too, they had just wrapped up a song, and Harry, being in a particularly good mood had yelled out about going to a bar to celebrate. Of course, Y/N ignored his shout, knowing she wasn’t invited, and after Arlo had said something about “not being able to party as much as I used to”, she gave her dad a hug good night and waved a little goodbye to the band. 

“Wait!” Harry had exclaimed, chasing after her in the hallway. “Where are y’going?”

Y/N’s eyes widened and she looked behind her before looking back at Harry. “I was just gonna head back home.”

Harry’s head tilted, and looked at her questionably. “Y’not comin’ to the bar with us?” He practically pouted.

Her brows shot up in surprise. “Oh! I- yeah I’ll go out with you guys.”

Which lead her here, decently tipsy, and sitting in a booth between Harry and Sarah, laughing at a story Adam had been telling. Every now and then she would glance over to Harry just to find his gaze already on her.

Her heart fluttered every time, and if Harry’s cheeks weren’t already flushed from the alcohol, Y/N would have noticed him blush every time they locked eyes as well. 

“M’gonna get another drink, does anyone want anything?” Y/N piped up, a resounding chorus of “no, thank you’s” answering her question. Except for Harry who spoke softly, “A beer? Go ahead and put it on my tab.”

She shook her head at him as he stood up to let her out of the maroon leather booth. “Can’t make you pay for that, I offered.” She said, standing to lock eyes with him yet again. 

“Nope,” He grinned. “You can, and you will.”

“But-”

“No buts.” He chuckled, giving her a dimpled smile.

Accepting her defeat she nodded and squeezed his arm with a murmured “Thank you.” before making her way to the bar.

Harry sat back down again, eyes trailing her figure as she walked away before looking back at the table to be met with knowing eyes. 

“What is it?” He asked, glancing around at everyone.

“You’re whipped, mate.” Charlotte grinned, everyone else nodding in agreement.

“What?! I am not.” Harry pouted, eyes flicking over to Y/N, who was making her way to the table, one drink in each hand, before back to everyone else. 

“She’s really sweet H, you should go for it.” Mitch said.

Harry shook his head, eyes now on Mitch. “I’m not interested in her like that, she’s way too young for me, anyways.”

Just then did he hear the soft hit of his beer and her cosmo land on the table. His gaze trailed up her hands to see Y/N’s shattered face. “Here.” She practically whispered to him.

“I just remembered I have an early class tomorrow, so I should go, but thank you guys for inviting me out.” Y/N explained in lighting speed as she leaned over Harry to grab her purse and toss is over her shoulder. 

Words of confusion were tossed around the table but she was already booking it out of there, leaving Harry just as devastated as she was.

“I think she heard you, H.” Sarah said, frowning. 

Harry let out a muttered “Fuck!” before taking out large bills from his wallet and tossing it on the table. “For my tab, m’sorry, I gotta go.” And he left just as fast as Y/N did, weaving through the tables and people before bursting out the door to see her standing on the street, arm wrapped around her waist and another holding her phone.

“Y/N!”

Her head whipped around to see Harry bustling towards her and she quickly wiped her eye as he approached.

“Wait, don't go,” He said, struggling to find the words. “We all want you to stay, I want you to stay.”

“I have to get to class Harry, plus, I’m too young to be staying out this late anyways.” She grimaced at her own words. 

He sighed, eyes flickering from her own to her lips then back again. “I-fuck, you know I didn’t mean it like that.”

This time, she fully turned to face him, brows knitted in distress. “Then how did you mean it? Because honestly I don’t think there is another way to mean it.”

This was his only chance, Harry knew it. 

“I just, I tried for so long to tell myself it was wrong to feel this way about you because you’re so much younger than me, and m’pretty sure your father would have my head if he knew but m’fucking infatuated with you, Y/N. M’so sorry I said that earlier, age is my only excuse for not asking you out and it’s not a good enough excuse anymore.”

With this her mouth was gaped like a fish, and her face was akin to a deer caught in headlights. In a flash her arms were wrapped around his neck and he was holding her waist, reveling in her touch. 

“Oh, Harry,” She pulled away. “I really like you too.” And with that she pressed a swift kiss to his cheek, leaving him a blushing mess. 

“Good, thats... thats good.” He stammered.

“So,” she nudged his arm. “Y’gonna ask me out now?”

[krreader]

diamond maknae | too suspicious.

pairing: jeon jeongguk x maknae!reader ; bts x reader (platonic) fandom: bts warnings: eighth member of bts!reader ; mentions of sex genre: fluff ; smut word count: 1.1k+ other: for more diamond maknae content, please check out my dm masterlist

a/n: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REQUESTING THIS, I had a blast writing it

Oh, how much you loved concerts in countries other than South Korea.

Korea was and would always be your home and doing concerts for your fans there would always feel special, but in other parts of the world, you could just be more.. free in what you were doing on stage. Nobody batted a single eyelash if you exposed a bit too much boobs, in fact, they all screamed even louder if you did so.

One thing that you incorporated into this world tour was that you had special performances in every single country. Just you.

For every country, you were performing a different song, had a different choreography... just to spice things up for people. You knew that tour details would always get leaked, so this part would be the surprise that fans were able to look forward to each and every time.

And well, today had more than one surprise in store for them.

Because while you were usually performing on your own – this was supposed to be your solo performance, after all – one of your members joined you this time.

“I like it,” Jeongguk had said as he had watched you practice for this performance back home in Korea, walking around you in a circle, his hands buried in his sweatpants. The next part, he whispered into your ear as he stood behind you, though, “But it could use a bit more spice, you know?”

You let out a snort, still breathing heavily and watched him through the practice mirror, “And what exactly did you have in mind here.”

It was as if he had been waiting for an opportunity like this. Jeongguk didn't waste a single second , grabbed your wrist and pulled you towards his body, his other hand sneaking around your waist and his fingers gracing your butt, “Me.”

“That's not a good idea,” you giggled, trying to escape his hold, but he just pulled you closer towards him, “How would we even explain that. Me performing like this with you as my partner... that's too much.”

“You said you wanted them to be surprised. They will be.”

“This isn't surprise anymore, Jeongguk. Doing this will make the rumors blow up.”

One of his hands came up to your chin and he made you look up at him, a confident grin on his face, “Fine by me. Let the entire arena know that I'm the one you're riding.”

“Jeongguk,” you pushed him back, but laughed wholeheartedly.

“Come on, let's just try this. I bet it would look amazing.”

That's how this entire thing had started and it didn't take very long for you to realize that he was right. What had been missing from your performance had been a partner. That was the last piece of the puzzle. The moment he joined in, it was perfect.

But it was also... very sexy.

So... you didn't tell anyone about it. Not even your members knew.

You wished you could have seen their faces when Jeongguk suddenly ran on stage, just in time for the last part of your performance.

The fans screams roared through the arena when they spotted him and they became even louder when he grabbed your wrist and pulled you towards him. Just like in the studio, he turned you around and wrapped one arm around your middle. You continued singing, him smirking at you while his eyes were clearly saying: “I want you so badly right now.”

And while you had been completely aware of your surroundings before, the moment he was here with you, everything else faded away. You still performed well, even better than that, if you were to give your own humble opinion, but there were absolutely zero boundaries anymore. Despite you having set them with him beforehand.

“No funny business,” your words. Out the window the moment that he looked at you like that.

You turned around in his arms and the two of you began dancing to the song like you had practiced, but the looks, the “inappropriate” touches – according to Bang later – and the fact that you two made it so obvious that you were fucking might have been a bit... too much.

You only realized that after the concert was over and Namjoon was yelling at the two of you. To be fair, you only listened with one ear, as you were simultaneously reading the thousands of tweets in regards to the performance.

“Hey! I'm talking to you!” Namjoon yelled, not believing his eyes that you'd be this disrespectful.

But you just chuckled and read out loud: “I never thought I'd want to be sandwiched between (Y/N) and Jungkook, but here I am, gay and straight at the same time.”

Jeongguk pretended to give more of a shit than you, so he only smirked a little.

“Do you think this is a joke?” Jin asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “This is going to get us in so much trouble.”

“What, exactly?” you looked up at them, “Because the alternative would have been one of our backup dancers that are all 3+ years older than me. Did you want me to dance with them like this? Did you want them to touch me like that?”

That made them shut up relatively quickly, but Namjoon, as the leader, was understandably still upset, “This was inappropriate to say the least. You're like our sister.”

That made Jeongguk snort and get up, ruffling through his wet hair, “But she's not, hyung.”

That pissed Namjoon off even more and he ran after Jeongguk when he walked out of the room, probably to give him yet another earful. The rest of the group spread out, some grabbed a bite to eat, others just rested... and then there was Taehyung, narrowing his eyes at you as you were still scrolling through Twitter.

He hadn't seen any of these tweets himself, but he pulled out his phone a moment later and went through the respective hashtag, just to see what people were tweeting about.

And it was only the first tweet that he saw that nearly made him throw up, “They're definitely fucking,” he read out loud.

You instantly looked up at him, your eyes a little wider than before. Taehyung had looked at you normally, but when he saw your looks, his eyes widened too, his mouth opening and then closing again, especially when you looked back down to your phone without denying it.

The tweets ranged from sweet “I really hope they're happy if this is true” messages to 18+ “Idk what I'm more jealous of. That Jeongguk gets ridden by this queen or that (Y/N) gets fucked mercilessly by this king” tweets.

And let's just say that Taehyung fell into a deep deep dark hole of imagining it all... and hating every second of it.

[unhealthyfanobsession]

Omg I love all your drabbles they are so amazing and brilliant I can’t believe you do that for free! What a blessing you are!! I was wondering whether there would be a part four to the vacation au and if not could you do maybe more jealous Cassian but in your lawyer au I’m obsessed but honestly anything you write has me happy!

This is so sweet I am so glad you’re loving the drabbles! I did a second part to the vacation AU a couple days ago so I’m going to go with Jealous Cassian in the lawyer AU. I already *kind* of did this but I’ve been doing jealousy light lately and this time we are cranking it up to 100. This one is kinda long and pretty angsty and I think I definitely need to smoosh all these lawyer drabbles into a mini story that follows Nessian from meeting while studying for the bar exam and then through snippets of their careers so maybe that’s what I’ll do next.

Actually facing Nesta in court was an extreme rarity. All of her non pro Bono work was strictly solicitor. Drafting contracts and negotiating deals in different chic board rooms with little glass bottles of Perrier and complimentary latte carts trolling the halls.

Nesta thought that she didn’t want to litigate. She thought that people didn’t like her and because of that she was a bad advocate. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Watching Nesta fight for something that she believed in, truly believed in, was the closest thing to a religious experience Cassian had ever known.

“And I would urge you to consider in your decision, your honour, the fact that even if it should apply in this case, the very law my learned friend is attempting to uphold is currently under review by the Supreme Court and may soon be overturned on the basis of being unconstitutional as well as unconscionable.” Nesta took a pregnant pause.

“If that happens. If this law is overturned, as you well know, it will not be retroactively helpful to my client. My client who was born here. My client who grew up in Queens. My client who can draw you a map of which bodegas has the best coffee vs the best sandwiches and their proximity to the nearest train, and if that doesn’t qualify her as an American, and a New Yorker, then I don’t know what does.” The judge smiled a little at that. It was a calculated risk, the emotional appeal. But Judge Miluski was already on Nesta’s side and she was a born and bread New Yorker and she had the rare distinction of being a member of the judiciary with a sense of humour. “If this law is overturned, which we both know is highly likely, then my client will be sent to another country, a country she has never even been to, not because she did anything wrong, but because this trial happened a few weeks too-”

Nesta trailed off, eyes caught at the quietly opening gallery door. A man stepped in. Tall and thin and… greasy. Hair slicked back with so much product Cassian didn’t think he’d feel it if he hit him on the head with a hammer. Which he desperately wanted to do. That brutish, violent, raised in foster homes in Harlem side of him that even a legal education and a closet full of Armani suits could never quite polish out of him lit on fire at the sight of this creep. This asshole who was wearing fucking asics with his $4000 suit. And no tie. Top three buttons of a pinstripe white shirt unbuttoned. What a fucking rube.

Except that this guy. THIS fucking guy, made Nesta lose her train of thought. This guy who walked into court late and had yet to drag his eyes up from Nesta’s ass, had distracted her. Caused her to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and smile a little. This shy, light, cutesy little smile that absolutely did not belong on Nesta Archeron’s face.

When Nesta smiled it was a sly, knowing, victorious thing that curled across her lips and set Cassian’s heart hammering in his chest.

This… this was insanity.

The man smirked, deep and arrogant, as he stood at the back of the courtroom, hands slid into his pockets. Not even respectful enough of the proceedings to sit down.

Nesta gathered herself quickly. The whole mess over in under 20 seconds, but Cassian noticed it. Even as Nesta went on and cited the law and the competing jurisprudence and the ethics and the constitution, he couldn’t focus. All he could think about was that little smile.

Cassian said his final piece, the judge ruled, as they both knew she would, in Nesta’s favor, and it was all over.

Nesta didn’t even gloat like she usually would have. She just stuck her hand out, the absolute picture of professionalism, and shook his.

“Good working with you, Counseler.” She said, as if he hadn’t pulled her around the side of a building and pushed her body up against a brick wall the other day, moulding her into him as they fought over this case. Discussed their future. Their passions.

She’d rejected his invitation to dinner, but she always did. It was a part of the game. A game that Cassian was determined to win.

“Who’s the tech bro?” The sneakers with the suit and the unbuttoned shirt and the general shitty attitude all pointed to that being the only reasonable profession.

“Babe,” the slimy man in question pushed past the swinging waist high half door that separated the gallery and the space where counsel’s desks sat. “Let’s go.” He wrapped and arm too tightly around Nesta’s waist and pulled on her a little.

Cassian curled his fists into his palms so hard his nails bit imprints into the skin of his palms. Babe? Telling her when to leave? The pulling? No.

“I’m Cassian.” He held out his hand. “ADA. What firm do you work for? Haven’t seen you around.”

“Tomas.” The man scoffed, “And I’m not a lawyer. Not interested in all that gibberish you’re type is always spewing. Sounds like pure nonsense to me. I’m a tech investor.”

Yeah. That sounded about right. No actual skills. Not an engineer or developer or even a business manager. Just an idiot with a trust fund throwing money at whatever looked cool.

“Well, Tomas. Do you know why they call that big exam full of all that gibberish you hate the bar exam?” The weasel just raised his eyebrows. “It’s because once you pass it, then you are an attorney. And allowed to cross past this BAR.” Cassian pushed Tomas back out the little half door again. “Which separates the civilians in the gallery from the lawyers making their cases. So maybe learn how to show a little respect.” Cassian scoffed, flicking his eyes to Nesta, “In a few different areas of your life.”

“What the fuck, bro?” Tomas rolled his eyes. “This is why I fucking hate going to your lawyer parties and shit. Jackasses like this.”

“Tomas, please.” Nesta placed a hand on his chest, Cassian tensed, and that seemed to calm Tomas down. Not Nesta’s touch, but another man’s jealousy.

“Why don’t you bring the car around. I have to work out a court date for another matter with Cassian but I’ll be right out.”

“Yeah, ok.” Tomas glared, keeping eye contact with Cassian as he kissed Nesta’s cheek, hand travelling too far down her back. “Hurry though.”

“Of course.” Nesta smiled that same tiny little smile that made her look like a doll on a shelf and Cassian wanted to scream.

“What the fuck are you doing with a piece of shit like that?” Cassian minced no words as he turned to face Nesta.

“Excuse me?”

“Pretty straight forward question, Nes.”

“You… you don’t know him. He’s not like that once you get to know him.”

“Sure he’s not,” Cassian scoffed.

“What is your problem?”

“My problem is that your boyfriend, who I’ve never heard of or seen before today despite knowing you for years, had a chance to see you in court. Had a chance to watch you all fired up and passionate and brilliant and instead he walked in late, stared at your ass instead of listening to what you were saying, and then shoved his way up here and pulled at you to leave like you were some kind of toy he didn’t mind tearing the arm off of.”

Nesta blinked. Huffed out a breath. “We’ve been on again off again for a while. That’s why you haven’t seen him before. And he just doesn’t like lawyer stuff that’s why he’s like that in here ok? Not that it’s any of your business.”

“So you’re dating someone who not only doesn’t recognize how brilliant you are but won’t even let you talk about your job?” That was wrong. That was so wrong. That was… why Nesta was so intense with him. Why she debated and fought and talked for hours. Because she couldnt do it at home.

“Why do you even care, Cassian? Let’s just set a date and-”

“Fuck you, Nesta.” Her jaw fell open. “Fuck you for even asking me that. You know why I care. You can’t play dumb with me like I assume you do with him.”

“You don’t know anything about my relationship!” Nesta defended a little too vehemently.

“I know you can’t yell at him about his take on immigration laws,” Cassian stepped closer to her. “I know you can’t get a little tipsy off your favorite Malbec and go on a rambling tirade about the corrupt judiciary and your twenty three- or twenty five depending on the night- reasons why voting for judges completely undermines the integrity of the legal system.”

The was almost no space between them as Cassian looked down, gently set his hand under Nesta’s chin and raised her gaze to meet his. Burning with anger and passion and barely concealed desire. “I know that he didn’t understand why you were crying when RBG died. Because he doesn’t care about how appointing Supreme Court judges works or what that meant for the future of the court. And because I know that you weren’t with him that night. You were with me. Just like election night in 2016. And the Kavanaugh trials. And when the travel ban came into effect. You found me. Because I get it, and I care about your thoughts on all of those things. I’m devastated by them too. You were with me, Nes. And don’t you dare pretend that doesn’t mean anything.”

“It does,” Nesta let her cheek sink into his palm. “It means everything Cassian, but…”

“But we fight,” he smiled. “We bicker and yell and cross ideologies and disagree on all the little things. But not the big things, Nes. Never on the big things. We disagree on how to change the world, not what we want to change in it. Isn’t that what matters?”

Nesta swallowed. “I can’t risk losing you.” She said quietly. “I need you. For all of those reasons, I need you to be in my life and if we… I hurt the people I love, Cassian. So if I let myself love you, I would only hurt you. And I can’t bear the thought of hurting you.”

“So you date him.” Realization was an arrow sailing into Cassian’s chest. “Because you won’t hurt him. Because you could never actually love him.”

Nesta swallowed. “See? See how awful I am?”

Cassian moved his hand to her back, pulled her into his chest. “Go,” he whispered. “Go do whatever you need to do. I’ll be here. And I’ll be waiting for you to realize that I’m not going anywhere. That I can take it. Whatever you want to throw at me, I can take it, Nes.”

[magnus-the-maqnificent]

Let's Analyze - Alec in CoFA

So, I’ve been seeing plenty of discourse on two of my mutual’s blogs about this topic… so I thought I’d sit down and write another analysis post about my beloved Alec Lightwood cause people are still giving him shit for a book that came out ten years ago 🤦‍♀️

This is gonna be in two parts, and I'm putting both under the cut:

PART 1 - ALEC’S INSECURITIES 

So, the first part - how Alec’s insecurities drove him to saying stupid things in CoFA

A quick disclaimer - I’m NOT blaming Alec alone for his and Magnus’s break up. What happened was pretty complicated, and the blame cannot be put on one person alone. 

That said, let’s start with Magnus and Alec’s early ‘official’ relationship, in trsom.

These scenes are taken from only the first part of the book, but I’m pretty sure they’re more than enough to get a sense of Alec’s insecurities and all the chinks in their relationship. Throughout the entirety of trsom, we see more bits and pieces of Alec’s insecurities about Magnus’s sexuality, and his past and all the people he might have known - and that’s okay! Insecurities happen, cause brains are stupid like that.

But all of Alec’s insecurities could’ve been laid to rest with a simple conversation. But the conversation never happens. Magnus tends to deflect and change the topic every single time his past is brought up. I understand Magnus’s reasons for hiding his past, of course, but it doesn’t help his relationship with Alec. Magnus hiding a good chunk of his past will inevitably lead to Alec questioning himself - why is he so secretive? Why is he not telling me anything? Does he not trust me? ...and so on.

And when Alec is already feeling insecure in this relationship, this happens - (sorry about the terrible cropping btw)

And then later, while Magnus is talking to Camille,

Now… when people are insecure about something, they get irked at the smallest of things. I’m saying this as an insecure person myself. So now, you've got Alec, who's insecure as fuck, and his vacation with the person he loves got cut short by his ex who refuses to talk to anyone but him, and when they get there, his lover and his lover's ex seem to have obvious chemistry, he gets hit with the reality that his lover has dated several, probably even hundreds of people before him; and he has to leave them alone in a room so they can talk, and then he hears the ex basically just list all his shortcomings - i.e, his mortality, his appearance is compared to some random dead guy (sorry, Will) whom your lover had a crush on, which is just weird, and when you've had enough and open the door, it's to see your lover and his ex, standing close as fuck, and he's! touching! her! face! and! looking! into! her! eyes!

*takes a sip of water* yeahhhh... Alec was straight up having a bad day.

And at this point, a) Alec is still in his first relationship. He didn't get to navigate romance when he was younger, and while there's nothing wrong with that, there weren't exactly cutesy presentations titled 'how to keep your relationships healthy' floating around the internet. Heck, he didn’t know the internet. He didn't know that he had to communicate with Magnus, and it doesn't help that boy avoids conversations about feelings like the plague. And b) at this point, Alec would be facing several negative emotions - insecurity, obviously. Hurt. Helplessness, because of his mortality. Fear, that he might not live up to Magnus’s past lovers. Jealousy at seeing Magnus and Camille so close.

Negative emotions like these often tend to show up as anger or sorrow... and in Alec’s case, that would be anger. Which leads us to THIS- (🙈)

*sighs in second-hand embarrassment*

*drinks more water*

*this is gonna be so hard aksjakak*

So. Alec dealt with his insecurities... by being a mean, mean bitch to Magnus :/

Let's break this scene down, slowly, bit by bit.

First, Alec cuts into a conversation between Magnus and Jordan, when Magnus mentions Woolsey Scott, followed the rest of that particular page. To Alec, he's just a figure from Magnus’s past, and a possible lover, though in Alec’s defense Woolsey Scott WAS Magnus’s lover. This is the first instance that we see in which Alec lashes out at Magnus. It seems like he's trying to make a point to Magnus - "I don't know anything about your past, and so I don't know who you've had romances with, but I want to know." Except he makes his point in the worst way possible and ends up slutshaming Magnus.

The "What's true?" line, in response to Jordan saying "so it's true what they say about warlocks, then?" is pretty obvious. Alec is clearly not liking the idea that this random werewolf might know about warlocks, and in particular, his Warlock boyfriend.

Next... ooh boy... Alec basically snaps and in the next few paragraphs accuses Magnus of wanting to flirt with others which... is not a good look on ya honey 😕. These lines are the ones that get him accused of being biphobic... but is he really? I'm gonna talk about that in part 2.

So, in the first paragraph, where Alec makes the comments about Jordan, I find his choice of words pretty... interesting, seeing as 'messy-haired', 'broad-shouldered' and 'chiseled-good-looks' are all used to describe Alec in the series. Not sure if its relevant, but definitely interesting.

And in the next one, where Alec says, "or there are plenty of pretty girls here, since apparently your taste goes both ways. Is there anything you aren't into?" The 'apparently' makes me curious. In rsom, Alec mentions that he's only recently heard of the term bisexual, and there's plenty of time between rsom and cofa, so Alec should be absolutely sure of atleast the basic meaning of bisexuality. But I'm pretty sure it's just inconsistency on cc's part, since if rsom didn't exist, this book would be the first time Alec learns about Magnus’s bisexuality. (Which is obvious when you look at the scene after Magnus reveals that Camille is his girlfriend.) And as for the second sentence, I feel like it's a fallback to earlier in the book when Magnus says (I'm just gonna write the dialogue from memory), "I've dated men, women, warlocks, faeries, vampires, werewolves and even a djinn or two." Here, Alec is angry, and he takes the knowledge that Magnus has dated a variety of people and once again, lashes out.

Looking at all of it together, Alec’s insecurities are definitely a factor in all of this. We know Alec has pretty low self esteem in tmi, and he keeps having irrational thoughts about someone else grabbing Magnus’s attention, like in the trsom scene I've posted above. And he ends up taking out his insecurities on Magnus.

Was it wrong of Alec to say all those things to Magnus? Yes, absolutely. But looking back through all his scenes in cofa, it's easy to see how he could've fallen into the pit trap of emotions.

And before anyone says "but it wasn't addressed in the later books", it was, in CoLS. I’ve hit the image limit, so I'm just gonna type it out -

"[Magnus] said it would be better if he didn’t come. Apparently him and the Seelie Queen have some kind of history."

Isabelle raised her eyebrows.

"Not that kind of history," Alec said irritably. "Some kind of feud. Though," he added, half under his breath, "the way he got around before me, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Alec!" Isabelle dropped back to talk to her brother....

So, there. Alec makes yet another slutshaming comment, Isabelle overhears and is clearly not happy about it, and it's clearly implied that she talks to Alec about it. And Alec doesn't make any more slutshaming comments since then. Boy now knows what he did was wrong, and makes sure not to repeat it again.

Although, I do wish we had more than this. I wish we had more of Magnus and Alec talking about this argument, heck, even about all their arguments and the reasons they broke up, but you can't get everything you want, apparently :(

And now onto the next part...

PART 2 - IS ALEC BIPHOBIC?

The short answer, uh, no, not really.

The long answer.... would be complicated.

So, back in the day, when this discourse was at an all time high, I remember reading a bisexual person's essay about this topic, and they said that this comment from Alec - "or there are plenty of pretty girls here, since apparently your taste goes both ways. Is there anything you aren't into?" - would be a biphobic microagression.

According to Google, a microagression is "a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority".

And in Alec's case, IF his words were biphobic, they were completely unintentional. They were microagressive. Which is... still bad, of course, but it's more complicated than that.

If you look back on Alec's supposedly biphobic statements, they're more about Magnus’s hypersexuality and promiscuity than anything else. Yes, even the line i mentioned like two paragraphs ago. At first glance it may seem like a direct attack on Magnus’s sexuality, but think over the explanation I gave for the line and it will make sense. And a lot of people know that the whole 'bi people fuck around a lot and are cheaters' thing is a stereotype.

Now, it may seem like I'm going off topic here, but bear with me. I couple of days ago, I watched this video by chance. (Tw for the aids crisis and lots of biphobia, not from the narrator, if you wanna watch the video). Basically, back in the 1980s, bisexual men were scapegoated for spreading aids to the straight community and were vilified by popular media as being promiscuous scepters who would cheat on their wives with gay men and then give aids to their wives. (Yikes 😬). And since bisexuality was practically unheard of before all this (several bisexual activists have stated that all this shit, though unfortunate, pulled bisexuality out of the closet), it's safe to assume that this is how those stereotypes came to be - through 1980s propaganda.

But living with this propaganda is... a very limiting experience. The people who leaned and unlearned and fought against this propaganda are mostly US Americans who grew up with it, either the actual propaganda itself or passed down by their parents. But like I said, it's a very limiting experience. US is but one country out of many, and even for those living in the USA there's a chance that they grew up in a very hush-hush environment. People who grew up hearing all these stereotypes will see it as biphobia, while people who didn't - like Alec, and me, and several other people will not. A lot of people grow up with absolutely no knowledge of the queer community, and chances are that they'll be incredibly confused when a stereotype is pointed out to them, and they often get no more explanation than 'this is a harmful stereotype'. Queer experiences aren't the same for everyone, and while I respect the people who see this as biphobia, they should recognize that there are many people who won't see it that way.

I have seen bisexual people say that Alec's words were biphobic, and I've also seen bisexual people say that they weren't. Thus, there is no clear consensus about whether or not Alec was being biphobic. And like I said earlier, Alec grew up far, far away from mundane anti-queer bigotry. He was essentially a clean slate when it came to knowledge of eer microagressions of any kind, because microagressions and stereotypes are often incredibly specific, don't have anything to do with a person's race/sexuality/gender, etc. and will make zero sense unless you know the history behind them. To Magnus, who lived through the anti-bisexual scapegoating, the words would've definitely stung, but Alec didn't even know the implications he would be making with this words! Of course, the impact is greater than intention, and I imagine Magnus would sit Alec down one day and talk about all this history with him.

And idk if I can even blame cc cause the history of bisexual men is RARELY ever talked about, atleast on the internet.

Also, this scene in cofa is the only instance where he can be interpreted to be biphobic. Nowhere else in all of tmi, and even tec, do we see Alec express hatred or disgust or microagression towards bisexual people. If this was seen in a repeating pattern from Alec, one could argue that he's biphobic... but he isn't. Some might point to some of his internal thoughts in trsom to argue otherwise, but I believe that actions are superior than thoughts.

There's also the thing about unlearning prejudices, but in Alec's case there was hardly anything to be unlearned. The only prejudices he did pick up on were against himself, through vague homophobic comments from Robert.

P.S if you've read this far, I am legally entitled to compensation for thinking of cofa Alec for 48 hours. Put your favorite Alec moments in my askbox cause I wanna focus on his good side now. 😎

But yeah, the main thing here is that Alec has grown from his mistakes, apologized, and hasn't repeated this behavior at all.

And lastly, I just wanted to add - I don't think all this was unintentional on the author's part. She's grown up with the us American queer community, and has mentioned that she has bisexual friends, who have no doubt faced prejudices because of these stereotypes. I think she was trying to condemn making such statements, but a lot of people don't read between the lines and end up misinterpreting it and make both the character and her to be biphobic.

So... TLDR; was what Alec said biphobic? Maybe. It depends on who you're talking to. Is Alec, as a person, biphobic? Nope. Not at all. 😌

[persepholline]

I've read that article about the romanticization of the Darkling and while I absolutely understand people who are pissed off/sad and I agree that it's shitty, I find LB's attitude towards Darkles stans very funny in a "girl what are you doing" sort of way because it's so petty like I've never heard of a bestselling author writing a portion of their fans into their books as a crazy cult before, it clearly hit a nerve

I'm new to the fandom but the feeling I get is she wrote something problematic ten years ago and became very embarrassed about it afterwards so she turned on the fans that liked it as a way to absolve herself. Especially since fandoms in general have become a lot more focused on discussion of what constitutes healthy/acceptable relationships to write about. And in a way I get it I had a huge Twilight phase in high school and afterwards I was super embarassed about it because of how problematic and cringe it was. But now with distance and more maturity I'm able to both still see why it was problematic and also why I was drawn to it (mostly the very unhinged representation of female desire) and like...it's really not the end of the world and no it never made me believe that breaking into somebody's room at night to watch them sleep was actually ok in real life lmao. This feels so obvious to me but apparently it needs to be said.

(More under the break this is turning into an essay, I've been thinking of this a lot recently)

And of course it's good to have these discussions about how historically romance tropes have echoed social dynamics of men's shitty behavior being romanticized and excused. But these days they often are so simplistic and focused on chasing clout that they become this weird new puritanism and moral panic about oh now women are reading novels it's going to make them hysterical or something

So you have these weird assumptions that you can't like a character and also be critical of their actions, or enjoy certain parts of a character and not others, or wish they were written differently and like them more for their potential (which I'm sure stings a bit for an author lol) - it assumes that if you like a character it means you would approve of their actions in real life, or that people just stupidly reproduce whatever they see on TV. That tendency to treat fictional characters like real people is the thing that actually worries me, to be honest, because it indicates a lack of distance and critical capacities regarding how stories are used and received. But people - fans and authors - are so scared of being called out as problematic and harassed for it that they're going to shy away from any nuance.

And yeah I think that it's good that standards of what constitutes an ideal relationship are evolving and becoming more feminist and communicative and all that and we definitely need more of that. But not all fiction has to be aspirational! Sometimes you just want to read about fucked up shit, because it's cathartic or fascinating, even healing at times because with fiction you are absolutely in control and can choose when to close the book. Toxic relationships in fiction can have an appeal specifically because they go to extremes of feeling that we don't want to go to in reality, in exactly the same way as horror movies or very violent action movies - which I don't see a lot of people besides fundamentalist Christians argue that they turn you into violent psychopaths (and that feels very obviously sexist). And for women, who are often taught growing up that love is the purpose of life, the "saving someone with your ability to love" can be a power fantasy in the same way that being a buff superhero who saves the day with their capacity for incredible violence can be a power fantasy for men. Still doesn't mean those women are going to fall in love with actual murderers or that those men are going to start beating up people at night. And love is scary, and weird, and weirdly close to horror at times, with all the potential for loss of self and being vulnerable and overwhelming feelings and potential for being horribly hurt and it should be possible for stories to explore that without anybody screaming about how this is going to Corrupt the Youth or something

And I mean I get it LB wanted to write a cautionary tale for teenagers, but it just did not work for reasons a lot of people have already written about - the fact that the Darkling is the leader of an oppressed minority and is the only one with a real political agenda to end that oppression in the first trilogy, the fact that he helps Alina come into her own power while her endgame LI is someone she keeps herself small for, that she's shamed for wanting power after growing up without any, a generally very wonky conception of privilege, and a lot of other stuff with yucky regressive implications to the point where stanning the villain actually feels liberating and empowering which is a surefire sign that the narrative is broken (unless it's a villain focused story lmao). But of course that Fanside article makes almost no mention of the political dynamics, it's all about interpersonal stuff which is an annoying trend in YA, there are those massive events happening in the background but it's made all about the feelings of the hero(ine) ; war as a self-development quest (which is kind of gross). Helnik is kind of an example of this too - I like them, I think they're fun ! But Matthias spends a big part of the story wanting to brutally murder Nina and her kind, and he mostly changes his mind because he finds her hot. Like you don't feel there is some sort of big revelation that his entire moral system and political framework is completely rotten ; it's all better because of feelings now.

As a teenager that kind of sanctimonious bullshit would have annoyed the hell out of me ; I read those books in my early twenties and I found the ending so stupid I wouldn't have trusted any message or life lessons coming from them. And I liked reading/watching dark stuff as a teenager, as a way to deal with the very intense inner turmoil I was dealing with - and I turned out fine ! Meanwhile I've seen several times women in very shitty relationships being obsessed with positive energies and stories ; they were so terrified of their life not being perfectly wholesome they ended up being delusional about their own situations.

Like personally I think the Darkling is a compelling, interesting, alluring character and also a manipulative, murderous piece of shit and that Alina should get to punish him (like in a sexy way) - but he's also the end result of centuries of war, oppression and trauma and reducing that to "toxic wounded boy" feels kind of offensive ngl ESPECIALLY since the books don't offer any kind of systemic analysis or response to oppression beyond "the bad guy should die" and "now the king/queen is a good guy our problems are solved!!!!"

In Lives of the Saints, we see how Yuri is abused extremely badly and almost killed by his father, and so when his father dies when the Fold swallows Novokribirsk, he thinks the Starless Saint has saved him. Later in KoS/RoW he's turned into this fanatic who explains away all the Darkling's crimes. The other followers talk about how the Starless Saint will bring equality for all men. Then the Darkling comes back and actually thinks his followers are pathetic, which feels again like a very pointed message to his IRL stans. Which is absolutely hilarious to me. Like oh no, if he was real he would not like you and think you're pathetic ! Yeah ...but he's not. Real. Damn right he would not like the fics where Alina puts him on a leash. I'm still going to read them. What is he going to do about it, jump out of the page ? Jfjfjjdhfgfjfj

Anyway I think the intended message is "assholes will use noble political causes for their own gain and to manipulate people" and "being abused/oppressed is not an excuse to behave badly." Which. Sure. But that's kind of like...a tired take, honestly ? A big number of villains nowadays are like this ; either they've been bullied as kids, or they're part of an oppressed group, or they have "good ideals but too extreme". This is not surprising because a lot of mainstream heroic narratives present clinging to the status quo as Good and change as chaotic and dangerous. And like sure in real life people often do bad shit because they're wounded and in danger. But if you want to do a story like that, you have to do it with nuance, talk about cycles of violence, about how society creates vulnerable people to be exploited, about how privilege gives you more choices and the luxury of morals, etc. The Grishaverse does not have this level of nuance (maybe in SoC a little bit but definitely not in TGT). So it kind of comes off as "trauma makes you evil" and "egalitarianism is dangerous" and "if you're abused/oppressed you're not allowed to fight back". And ignores the fact that historically, evil generally comes from unchecked privilege.

I guess my point is that there are many things I like about LB's writing, she knows how to create these really exciting character dynamics, and the world she has created is fascinating. But these stories are not a great starting point for imparting moral lessons. And her best characters tend to be, at least in canon, the morally grey ones. I hope one day she'll be at peace with the fact that she wrote the Darkling the way she did and leave his fans alone but in the meantime I'm just not going to take this whole thing seriously I'm sorry