#(for his family and esp daughters to live on) was ruined by love

[necrosin]

thinking abt how love ruined suguru and everything he loved don't mind me.

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

MDZS Notes + Analysis — Chapter Two: “Reincarnation”

Three main things stood out to me when rereading this chapter: the theme of status, our intro to WWX, and the information we’re given about his state after death.

…Well, four things, but the other one will get its own post.

The theme of status is immediately introduced* with ‘MXY’’s treatment and the backstory of MXY and his mother, yet again showing just how well MDZS’s ideas are integrated into the text and how well it’s paced! You’re introduced to every important theme so, so early on. Two screenshots are analysed below:

(See: entitlement of the upper classes towards the lower classes, and how this can exist even between members of the ‘same family’; and arguably the idea of debts between a richer family and someone who was 'taken in'. There are a surprising amount of parallels between MXY and WWX, but I'll make my own post about that)

(See: once again, differences in status between members of the same family, and also the worse, and disposable, treatment of one daughter because she was "the daughter of a servant". Now, why does that phrase sound familiar...?)

Also, MXY's mother was sixteen when she attracted JGS's attention... if you somehow needed even more material to hate the guy...

We also get introduced to WWX’s personality(!), which immediately disproves the rumours from last chapter on how he'd cast the world into ruin:

(That's one of the first questions he asks after waking up – I love how he's so concerned about this! It shows us two important things, too: 1) Morality is important to WWX, and 2) Doing immoral things seems to be out of the ordinary for him. Both of these stand in direct contrast to the picture of WWX we were painted earlier!)

(Same thing here, along with showing us some of the (healthy!) pride WWX has – he wouldn't be offended at this if wasn't something he held as important within himself)

(I use this quote again, but here it's once again proving that the vengeful, evil WWX who'd sink the cultivation world into "nothing but chaos and despair" at the first chance he got... very much does not exist.)

(And finally, it's explicitly confirmed here that he's not the type to take exessive revenge and take pleasure in it... at least at this point in time, because. MXY definitely had reason to think this considering Sunshot!WWX, if everyone had been working from the truth. But importantly that isn't who he is now, and isn't who the WWX villified by the cultivation world was – imo that's including Nightless City, we'll get to that when I reach it. But note that actions during the Sunshot campaign aren't even mentioned in the prologue, because, shock, they actually helped the cultivation world win the war! Though that doesn't mean they weren't part of rumours + the WWX hatred mill later.)

Then some non-morality related things:

This is just really funny to me, with how the makeup being badly applied (:o) is enough of an issue to merit a thought – WWX I love you.

And then this way of thinking comes back a few times esp during the earlier chapters, enough to be noted I think.

Confirmation on WWX's status after he died – it's not anything new to point out, but this chapter does give us rare insights into what state he was in during the post-death, pre-rebirth period.

So, he was somewhat conscious, enough to be aware of what he was(n't) doing – seeking vengeance, haunting the living – and was seemingly in control of those actions. However, he was specifically a "wandering ghost" – his soul didn't pass onto the afterlife or "return back to Earth"** like the body-offering spell's caster's would. He was conscious that a long time had passed as well, and this long period of downtime where he could accept + deal with what happened in his first life is what likely allowed him to be so well-adjusted the second time round – even taking into account the remarkably good way he tends to deal with things in general (cue the "forgetting the wound when the pain fades" quote, it summarises WWX's mindset really well)***.

Also, as for resisting the summons from the prologue – I'm wondering how much was due to WWX's experience with resentful energy + general capability (if that affects it..?) allowing him to consciously refuse, how much was due to WWX not being the type to hold onto resentment (so possibly spells targeting ghosts, full of this resentful energy, wouldn't be as affected?), and how much was due to the relative lack of knowledge about how ghosts/resentful energy works compared to WWX. Or, if it was something else. Either way, achieving the impossible, that's WWX for you :D

It is interesting that he hasn't heard a voice in ages despite wandering, too – do ghosts just not hear the same way, or did he deliberately avoid areas with people? I could see both, the second being more likely, especially considering how many people wanted to summon him back for... less than stellar purposes.

Misc:

Poor Mo Xuanyu....

--

*Well, reinforced – in the prologue, one of the things said about WWX is that "if not for the YunmengJiang clan’s adopting and teaching him, he would have been a hobo living on the streets", which is among the insults people throw. So of course, class-affecting-perception is tied to WWX from the very beginnning! But this is the first time it's actually explored, not a throwaway line.

**Though that may be what's literally happening to WWX's soul here – it is wandering around Earth – I don't think that's what this line refers to. There's a very good meta on how different translations handled that line, I really recommend it (tysm @/mxtxfanatic for finding it)!

***It would be very interesting to read a fic where it felt like no time had passed for him since his death, actually! Though the extremely stressful circumstances are gone, it would still be interesting to see a WWX for whom the Siege, Nightless City, Qiongqi Path etc are pretty recent – but only in fic territory, since I'm so, so glad we got the WWX we did in canon. Also, I'd love to see a fic maybe exploring some of his time as a ghost...?

[dyne-osaur]

might be rambling this might mean nothing but omg has anyone thought about how a huge thing™ in dead boy detectives is how women were wronged ?? (and also not just women who were wronged but boys who were shitty assholes but in this essay i am focusing on how women were wronged) am i looking too much into it.. (this is prob not intentional and i am overthinking as per usual but like)

spoilers duh

also this got really long i apologize

so in episode 1 we meet crystal who is basically like the catalyst for everything happening right and this is kinda obvious but like the whole kinda happens because her toxic demon ex bf stole her memories (fuck you david) and like? that was a horrible thing to happen to her and he sucks boo >:( and also throughout the whole show she has to deal with his shittiness and whatnot

and also in episode 1 we obviously see becky aspen who is like a child (specifically a little girl) who was kidnapped by esther (who also only goes after girls like hello?) and about to be fed to her giant snake which like ?? hey now,,, and they have to go in and save her and i feel like it's kinda important esp with the last episode ("she killed hundreds of little girls to stay young; who gets justice for them?" or smth) like it's built on the backbone of women who were wronged

in episode 2 with the dandelion sprites we have niko who lost her dad and her mom wants her to just be better and the sprites literally like infected(?) her while she was trying to feel better or smth (prob a bit of a stretch ngl) so we don't rly see much of this in episode 2

in episode 3 the most obvious thing of all is that the devlin guy murdered his entire family (his wife and two daughters) because he was a bitch and hated that they wanted to leave him which like ?? okay fragile male ego (as crystal so eloquently puts it) like these girls felt haunted by him in life and even in death they were stuck in a loop getting killed by him over and over and over because of his fear they would leave them. he was controlling and abusive and a creep and in the end he killed them. (obviously this episode has other important themes like how charles' trauma is reflected in this and his emotional response to devlin and the horror of controlling/abusive family members but i feel like there's smth to be said with how women keep getting wronged in this show idk)

in episode 4 we get crystal who is still dealing with the effects of her lost memories and her desperation to find her mom (we all know how that turned out) and importantly we get the stuff in the gift shop (specifically lillith and ig the washer woman)

the washer woman is washing away the blood of humanity yadda yadda (she's a rly interesting character i love her) and like when she and crystal are left alone crystal is desperately trying to find how she can have her lost memories and past back and the washer woman gives her that riddle to help her smth smth (basically crystal's memories)

lillith is more introduced here as the goddess of wronged women (and blood magic) (this is self-explanatory i hope)

in episode 5 (this one i feel is also obvious) we get those charming-but-actually-really-shitty jocks who died because maren (brad's gf) murdered them because they were being really horrible. we get shelby who killed herself because they drugged her and ruined her entire life and her future and everything and even in death the boys (though i love them, this was a fault of theirs) were skeptical because the jocks were just so charming

and then we get maren who invites crystal over because of her fear that she would get caught when she was trying to protect herself and she made a(n albeit huge) mistake. brad sent her nudes to his bff richie and they never thought they were in the wrong like hello? i was like wtf but anyways they practically ruined the lives of these girls (maybe not maren because they never fully got out but they could've and either way she ended up turning herself in from her guilt and stuff)

(also note: crystal says "we all lost our lives to boys who went too far" and like.. a big thing™ from my perspective is also how men/boys go too far e.g. the schoolboys (edwin and charlies) and david (crystal) and also the jocks and devlin and later esther's husband and arguably the cat king (don't come at me i actually love him towards the end but for more info check out this post i love their take on him) etc. there's probably more i just can't think of them atm)

in this episode we also meet maxine for like a second(?) time (first being devlin murders in ep 3) where she obviously wronged jenny by stalking her and she doesn't see what's wrong with what she did when she literally tried to murder her, she stalked her, she's apparently done this MULTIPLE times (smth ab this happening "again" which ? oml) and jenny feels horrible about this because she put herself out there for once and she got hurt. and at the end of this episode we see them all hang out and of course david comes back because crystal can't catch a break but back to the topic jenny was almost killed by maxine who did a horrible thing to her

episode 6 we finally hear tragic mick's story. sedna was literally a girl who got sacrificed by her dad because he thought it would help. she was a woman wronged out of the many women wronged on this show and she became a goddess for her trauma yay?? but at the core of that backstory was sedna who was a woman wronged by her father. (and ofc tragic mick and how he became human POOR GUY)

we also have crystal who finally has a way to get david out of her head (did anyone notice it doesn't break till she says "i just wish i could be normal" or smth which is prob kinda why she lost her powers?) all of this has been culminating since the beginning and then later he comes back and he's taunting her and yelling at her for giving up "the one thing that made you special" (come on man :|) she does get her powers back later though yippie (and sees her badass ancestors)

and jenny who is still dealing with the trauma is obviously upset throughout the episode because yk maxine was crazy

episode 7 we have the boys in hell but to keep in theme we have crystal who feels horrible that charles won't let her help and she just goes out to get david to open a gate and jenny follows. jenny then gets violated as david literally possesses her and we get kinda the climax and then the resolution of david and crystal as she realizes her power and takes her memories back and buries him because he was a horrible horrible person to her (and also the comments he made were so creepy like "i want to get back inside you" "let me back in" WHAT THE HELL no way that wasn't intentionally creepy)

and then jenny (poor jenny) has to deal with the fact that she has now been possessed and has to deal with all this creepy shit like can homegirl catch a break goddamn (and speaking of jenny we see maxine on the stairs still clueless to what she did wrong MAXINE OPEN YOUR EYES)

crystal eats her memories

episode 8 she finds out she was a horrible person and her past was not as great as she thought it would be. she treated her friends and strangers badly and she wakes up and she feels horrid. and she thinks it will get better and she calls her mom and her parents did her dirty. they neglected her (didn't even REALIZE she was MISSING) and didn't do shit for her and she probably acted out for attention (in horrible ways i am in no way defending what she did btw but she can be a horrible person and changed as a person crystal they could never make me hate you) and she swallows the rest of her memories and finds out that she was not the person she wanted to be

in episode 8 we also find out esther's backstory. the big bad of it all and i think a huge point in the story is how at the core of it all was a woman who was wronged and turned horrible for it. her husband cheated on her and she killed him but then she couldn't get enough and just wow. just to me the fact that at the core of the story is a woman who was horribly treated and as a result turned into a horrible person (and kind of parallel to crystal who was horribly treated (by her parents and by david) and she finds she can still turn things around and be good) and esther is too far gone as she yk decides to continue being evil

in episode 8, the end of it all, we see that turning point where crystal goes into esther's head and summons lillith. the goddess of wronged women. we see her as crystal yells that esther has been tormenting girls, WRONGING WOMEN, for decades (centuries?). we see the rage in lillith's face as she turns her stare on esther for skewing the gift that lillith gave to a woman scorned. we see lillith drag esther out of the house screaming and AGH i love that so much idk

but yeah those are my thoughts on the amount of women i just saw wronged and this could all mean nothing and i could be very insane and crazy but ! whatever !

[eagna-eilis]

The metaphysical mechanics of Anakin's Force Ghost are the single biggest mystery of the period between RotJ and TFA to me.

If he can Force Ghost, or at least sometimes, then what governs what he can and cannot do, and who he can or cannot speak with?

If he can appear to others the way Obi Wan, Qui Gon, Yoda, and eventually Luke can, it makes very little emotional sense unless something is blocking him.

I like to think that Anakin, in death, had enough respect for Leia not to appear to her. His actions killed her real mam and dad, the people who raised her into a kind, strong person with integrity in every step. He tortured her, he destroyed her homeworld and her culture. He wouldn't be so stupid as to think that a nice father-daughter chat would solve everything.

I like to think that he loves her from an observational distance, and brims with pride at every step she takes for the galaxy that he injured gravely and so nearly destroyed. So like Padmé, her justice-seeking Naberrie qualities nurtured like rare orchids by Bail and Breha, who were themselves so principled and just. Anakin might also see the ways in which she is not like any of the senators or royalty who made her who she is. He might want to take credit for the parts of her that are so brave, so impassioned, so willing to challenge any authority she sees as unworthy or unjust. Obi-Wan told her, when she was very young, that this was her inheritance from Anakin. But Leia doesn't want anything from him, and he understands. So he spends time watching, in grieving pride, at what his daughter became in spite of him.

I also like to think that at a certain point he would have to try, if he could, to intervene in what was being done to her family. In my heart there is no version of a redeemed afterlife Anakin who does not try to save another Skywalker child from what he went through.

He would have tried to materialise, blue-aura-lit and kind eyed, into the living room of a Chandrilla apartment, to try to soothe the terror and discomfort of a tiny child levitating cambiblocks and breaking glass in distress. He has far more experience with child murder than child rearing, but by the Force he'd damn well TRY.

It probably wouldn't work, and I think some of us fans (esp those who love the sequels or those who are more interested in the Skywalkers than the Disaster Lineage as a family) deserve to know why.

Why, in my headcannons, does Anakin spend years trying to send thoughts of 'no kiddo that isn't me, I'm me, your grandpa, and I can tell you that your mom and dad love you so much and that those other voices are full of bantha-poodoo, please trust me, please believe me, please hear me' out through the Force, only for them to never find their way to their intended recipient?

Why can he not appear to Leia and say, 'I know you don't want to talk to me and I don't want you to have to endure the distress of talking to me but it's about your kid. I can't make the past alright, but let me please give you the information you need to stop the cycle repeating'.

Why can't he warn Luke? 'There's a storm coming and the lightning is not natural. You have seen that lightning before, standing right by my side, and it comes from the same source. Our nephew dreams things that are not his own. Consider striking him and you will doom the world, but also our family. Don't let the Darkness guide you, its only goal is to make more Darkness.'

There are several potential answers, of course.

The first is that Anakin can get through but nobody listens. It's a steady stream of 'stay away from my child, stay away from my academy, don't corrupt our future with the evil of the past'. This option reflects negatively on Luke and Leia, but it also feels true to traumatised families. I'm a firm believer in the fact that Luke, Leia, and Han as having unwittingly done poorly by the next generation of their kin does not 'ruin' their characters, it makes them more sympathetic and human, and so it doesn't upset me if this is the option. It's bad parenting and good storytelling.

The most obvious answer is of course, Palpatine. He can block Anakin's access to the likes of Luke, Leia, and Ben. This means that a dead Palpatine is still torturing a dead Anakin. Excuse me while I cry for a thousand years. Now either this means that Palpatine thinks Ahsoka is small potatoes and it doesn't matter if Anakin can see her in the WBW, or that Anakin could only communicate with Ahsoka BECAUSE she could enter the WBW. So, considering that the Ahsoka show takes place after 'Last Shot', it still makes no sense that Anakin doesn't go 'please see what's going on with Leia's kid, I'm worried about her and about her lil guy.'

The third option is the one that I find genuinely upsetting. Not in-world upsetting, but what-are-they-doing-with-our-story upsetting. It's also the one I find the most likely:

DLF in general and Favroni in particular are pushing Disaster Lineage out in front, and trying to sublimate the Skywalkers. I see Ahsoka as Anakin's sister, and I don't think it is inappropriate for him to love her the same way he loves his children, his grandchild, or his brother Obi-Wan. It makes emotional sense for him to reach out to her, and love is not a finite resource.

But a set of wider storytelling choices is highlighting that the most important inheritance of the story is Yoda to Dooku to Qui Gon to Obi Wan to Anakin to Ahsoka to maybe Sabine, or Jacen Syndulla. I feel in some ways that shifting Anakin's attention, or the context in which we encounter him, may give the audience a sense of the greater legitimacy of the Disaster Lineage to the long term future of the galaxy.

I have ZERO problem with this being the thread by which Force training is maintained in the GFFA through the sequels and into the post-sequel era. I prefer it to watching my beloved Rey of Jakku doing it all alone.

I have a HUGE problem with the idea that we may never get more Skywalkers in context with one another. And more importantly, the idea that we really shouldn't care about what happened to them after Return of the Jedi. That the sequels don't matter.

Anakin is the greatest silence in the sequels. I suspect that they didn't get Hayden back because they were still nervous of prequel hate (sweet summer children that they were, not knowing that the penis-brains were gunning for them, too). Many of us hoped that the New Republic Era TV series would inflect upon the ST the way that Clone Wars inflected upon the PT.

So far it really hasn't.

[mswyrr]

Ahsoka, ep 1 & 2 [SPOILERS]

I really enjoyed these. List of things I liked:

-Lighting, set design, costumes, everything was done so beautifully. It felt very lived in and everything had weight and history to it. I loved the design work on the ancient ruins, the map itself, and the way each location had a distinct visual feel. The framing of shots and mise en scène is often thoughtful and evocative. Film quality work overall.

-When I was growing up I dreamed of Sci Fi/Fantasy stories with this many women getting to be distinct and interesting. It's a pleasure to see. It's not absent male characters, but women's journeys and struggles are foregrounded.

-I'm fascinated by the two master and apprentice duos - a father and daughter relationship that is more formal and distant (IMO) because of the introduction of that (and what DOES Dad feel about Jedi??? I'm intrigued) - and then Ahsoka and Sabine, for whom that bond is about moving closer. Perhaps, in many ways, it is all Ahsoka knows of being family with someone, and Sabine (in light of her grief and equally broken/war torn childhood as Ahsoka?) needs "structure" and a sense of purpose.

-It totally works for me how Ahsoka is sharing with Sabine the spiritual, philosophical, ethical, and martial components of force training - that it doesn't matter whether Sabine is super gifted in the force. The force is with her, and within her, as it is with all living beings, and exploring it is a discipline that offers her and Ahsoka a bond they need and a sense of grounding that Sabine longs for. The power levels obsession is something I dislike; it turns the force into just another superpower, where only superheroes with super gifts matter. I like the Rogue One and TLJ more mystical pov.

-I thought I'd be all about Shinsoka before watching, but so far I'm shipping Shinwren [edit: I guess people are calling them Wolfwren?] pretty hard and having fun with it 🤷 PUNK girl/Emo Goth girl Enemies to Lovers ship ftw lol Shin didn't stab Sabine center mass - she hit her on the side and Shin's dad is reluctant to kill Jedi trained/force using people, perhaps his daughter is too? Also perhaps she's lonely - how much social interaction does she get with other force users? Esp ones near her own age? We'll see!

[halestrom]

McLeppard Regency OR Single Dads?

im gonna do BOTH bc i can!.

MCLEPPARD REGENCY

Okay so this one is more of a vague idea. I love Regency AU's, esp in like a semi-bridgerton show style where the only thing regency about them is the clothing/pining no touch and no time era racism/sexism yadda yadda ya. But basically, Evan and Rodney were childhood sweethearts and they fell in puppy love but then Evan went Off To War and time passed and stuff happened and they drifted apart. While Evan was away the Sheppards moved in next door to the McKays and everyone thought it was so lucky that they both had single sons to MARRY THE FAMILIES TOGETHER and so John and Rodney are like...kinda Swan Princessing it at this point. They think each other is cute but Cannot Stand Each Other

CUE EVAN RETURNING FROM WAR AS A HERO. (John was also at War Bc I Said So) but Evan is more dramatic about it. And he and Rodney still like each other a lot, but Rodney likes John also but he won't say anything.

Basically, a fuck tonne of pining, no touching except for brushes of hands and longing sighs. Ther might be some letters, a little bit of angst, and then they all fall in love and ride off into the sunset together.

SINGLE DADS

Okay, this is post canon Atlantis, John is Old and Whumped Badly enough he can't actually function and so retires back to Earth. Drinks more than he thought, wham bam thank u man, suddenly John is a single parent bc the Mom was like cute kid but not for me in a totally reasonable way. The kids name is Amelia Teyla Sheppard but she is four in the story and loves lizards and so john calls her Liz (which tickles him bc Elizabeth). he's chilling, loves his old team but doesn't talk bc the long distant rates between galaxies are HORRIBLE.

Rodney comes over and is like. HEY ATLANTIS IS GONNA BE INDEPENDENT HOLY FUCK WHY DO U HAVE A CHILD and one thing leads to another but John ends up back on Atlantis with a TBD job, a four year old. And Rodney also has a kid from some Ancient Machine that he named Carson John but everyone calls him CJ and he's a year old and doesn't speak but when he does its creepily clear. like perfect english.

Basically its a slow brady bunch love story where John's living his best life as silver fox dad on Atlantis and Ruining Peoples Days when he's sexy silver fox in board shorts playing with his daughter in a pool and Rodney's enjoying having his BFF back, especially a BFF who is a pro at kid stuff now. Bc John always gives it his all

Feat: Teyla/Lorne dating but Kanaan is also around so Lorne and Kannaan are bff's. John's bitch best friend is Jennifer Keller who is still on Earth and people getting second chances at happiness.

Ronon snorted, before dropping a hand to Amelia’s head and squeezing slightly. “Hey, baby Sheppard. Guess what this is” “Your hand,” Amelia said, trying to tilt her head back. “No, it’s a brain sucker, guess what it’s doing,” he said with the same sort of joy John remembered from when Ronon had first been retelling bad jokes the marines told him. “It’s starving.” “Why do you need my brain Uncle Ronon?” Liz asked, turning and staring up at Ronon with a frown. “I don’t,” Ronon said, dropping his hand away and looking a little put out. “The brain sucker does.” “But it’s your hand,” Liz said before her face cleared in understanding and she wrapped her arms around his legs. “It’s okay, Uncle Ronon! I can share my brain with you if you need one! Daddy says I’m smart so I can be smart for us both!”

[talkingtea]

The show lost viewers this season because it was insanely dreadfully bad. If they want any chance of a successful season 8, they're going to have to make some serious changes.

1) un bloat the damn cast. We do not need DP playing 2 shittily written mediocre characters with no plot taking up screentime when they can't even write 1 well. If they're not going to get rid of them both, I'll take Caitlin's blank face looking ass over white privilege Frost. Get rid of that dumbass Chillbean. Get rid of all and any Caitlin love interests forever bc DP has no chemistry with any of them. Cecile needs to be guest or recurring - she has no more use for the plot, esp now that Jenna is nonexistent and Joe is sharing scenes with Kramer. Unless they have a continued significant plot for Joe next season, he needs to be bumped down to supporting cast too and ACTUALLY support his pregnant daughter. Allegra doesnt need to be in episodes not focused on Citizen plots. Even if I dont mind her character, we don't need Sue back. She serves no purpose in the overall narrative. Why tf did they feel the need to bring her back and write for her when they can't even write their existing longterm characters properly?? Too many plates at the table. This focus on side characters has got to go. They didn't develop them well when they first joined the show which they should have done to make us invested. Trying to force in filler for that now after the fact is too late and disrupts the trajectory of the show. The only one they've done right is Chester.

2) go back to the roots of the show, with the Wests and Westallen family at its core and the characters and character dynamics driving the narrative, not the terrible and inconsistent plots. The show needs to stop being so invested in the spectacle and focus on the heart.

3) cool down the corny goofiness and gearing this towards kids bc I doubt the younger audience make up the majority of viewers at this point. This may not be a late time slot show but it is starting to resemble Disney shows with how "kiddy" and silly it has become. If s8 is indeed the last season, I hope they say fuck it and stop giving a damn about those (probably made up) constraints. Is it really that much to ask for the main couple to have some intimacy in bed? Even just cuddling under the covers? Steamier kisses?

4) let the writers who have experience writing the show and characters have more episodes because inconsistent characterisation and writing is ruining pivotal moments. And conversely, stop letting longtime writers with a clear anti agenda have pivotal WA/Iris episodes to write because again, inconsistent characterisation and writing is ruining it

5) they need to do right by Iris. Proper journalism story arc, proper pregnancy arc with her husband, proper investment in her vulnerability emotions and fears. Enough with the misogynoir.

6) a strong overarching villain with good, steady buildup and good motive who has stakes in the personal lives of every character, otherwise ppl are not going to get invested in the fight.

7) utilise their stronger actors more. They have significantly better actors with less screen time playing support like roles and keep pushing the actors who can't fucking act or carry episodes at the forefront and it is resulting in pretty bad episodes. A good actor can make bad writing tolerable. A bad actor just highlights all the flaws in the show. The focus on side characters exposed the show, bad writing, and how crappy some characters are this season, which we've been able to disregard in the past for the most part because at least there was fantastic acting and moments we could focus on instead.

8) they refuse to dismantle Team Flash at this point, so they need to make Barry a CLEAR leader. No more looking to others for decisions or having them in his ear all the fucking time. He's spent all seasons needing everyone's help for everything. How is he supposed to build his legacy as legendary if he needs everyone else to tell him what to do? He's about to be a father. They better have him shape up quick and learn to be a protector and leader in his own right. He's a muppet I can't take seriously at this point. If the titular character is written shoddily, the rest of the show won't hold up.

And 9) STOP PANDERING TO THE RACISTS AND DUMBASS WHINY BITCH FANBOYS. How hard is it to understand that whenever they do, the show suffers for it and has worse episodes, and when they don't, it thrives?? It's morons running this show I swear. How are fans of the show understanding the show more than the actual ppl who made the show??

It's not too late for the show; they can turn it around and end on a higher note but they seriously need to reevaluate the wrong turn they took after s4/s5ish.

🗣🗣🗣

[machinesandman]

Can we have a glimpse of Robert Jonez and how he handled keeping the blueprints of the shaska armor?

Colors blended together. Reality shifted, and time rewound...

The year, 20XX... Location, classified. Meeting between scientists, military, and various world leaders. Not all of them which heavily suggested that this had been a disagreement between them. The subject wasn't secret or a mystery.

Ever since the public reveal of the new break through iof replacable organs, the medicine, to save the Jonez child, they had shown the suit and armor there as well. For full honesty. It had been secret for many years, hidden under the guise of study. But it couldn't stay that way. So that the World Robotics Convention, they had to come clean. How this shuti protected their daughter, regulated her health and vitals, while also giving her so many abilities that could help in the field. What it was meant to do, for safety finding new ruins, delving into dangerous places most can't handle. The way it can keep the organic material of a living being safe from most outside elements, go anywhere. The Jonez family had wanted to give these break throughs for medical sciences to save lives, for archaeological study, as well as search and rescue. Everything in one... While that had been met with stunned awe and praise, there had been many who were concerned about the spiral it might start. 'The road too hell is paved with good intentions'. That saying seemed to follow everyone, didn't it? Through out history...

Their discovery and study of new science, of Atlantian things, had been meant to better the world. Uncover the past, learned from it, grow from what was left. A bastion of hope! Not a bulwark of battle...

Robert stood at the end of a large table, hands on the surface as he was hunched, brown eyes on fire with burning determination. They had been around this song and dance before, a tango of intimidation really. And now it had come too a head. Nothing they could do legally would affect them, and anything underhanded had been opened too public eyes instantly. So now things had to be extreme...

"Surely you see the reasoning of why we need those blueprint designs?" One larger man spoke, his accent thick. A russian from the sounds of things. He'd not been able to get Cossack on his side either. "We need those for our own safety, the soldiers could help defend us all with that."

"That's rich coming from one of the global super powers that holds some of the most nuclear armaments." Robert shot back sharply, eyes flicking over with a blaze of barely contained anger. "What on earth would anyone need that for, when it comes to so called protection and defense? Sounds more like a power grab." The man was no longer going to be polite, no longer playing nice. It had the individual sitting on his high chair fall silent. Only for a different voice across the room to speak up. An american perhaps? One of the military men, a general probably.

"If we had this during the Stardroids, maybe we could have done something!" He shouted. "Robotics can not hold the front line, not when they could-" The older man cut himself off and went quiet.

"COULD WHAT, GENERAL?! Go on, finish your sentence! I'd love to fucking hear it, sir!" Two seconds, and Robert knew what was going to be said, standing straighter with shoulders squared. He was am American, and a Jonez, they always felt so strongly, and wouldn't put up with anyones shit. Especially after the harassment they had been getting. The others in the room muttering among themselves at the outburst. Until finally another voice across the room, an older woman somewhere in the back, decided to say it. "The Robot Masters, esp-ecially those of Doctor Albert Wily-" Robert cut in. "THE ONES WHO HELPED SAVE US?! They all worked together to stop the Stardroids, for christs sake!" The woman lifted her hand, motioning him to be silent as she continued, "-could easily turn and wipe us out with a single command. Or baring that, perhaps even their own choice. We do not know."

"Exactly, you don't know. Aside from that, you would condemn all Robot Masters? Really? With that line of logical thinking, you may as well condemn the soldier who follows the orders of their commander, of their government. Have NONE of you ever learned from history?! Basic high school CIVICS CLASS?!" Robert shouted. He was getting off track, he had to reel it in, use his mind's more debating and intelligent side, instead of feeling with his heart that could run so blindly. That was something he was always chided for even at home. So, slowly, he took a deep inhale, and exhaled slowly. Voice lowering again. "There needs to be different changes in the world, not a frantic grab for power or counter strength. That would only start another new arms race and end up with a world war. Mankind needs to look back on history, and learn from it. Or, we are doomed to repeat it. As a historian, and archaeologist, I know this perhaps most of you in this room. There will be a Revolution coming, be that for good or worse, depends on all of you."

Another flurry of muttering ranged across the room. It was impossible to tell who might take the next stance, the next move in this proverbial game of chess, as messy as it was. And everyone was bearing down on Robert Jonez. His eyes darting back and forth in careful calculations, taking note of who he could recognize here, what governments had decided to stay for this. Anyone he'd need to be careful of, even if many under their command never agree'd with the methods.

Someone stood across the room. "Is that a threat?" He asked. A british accent, an odd uniform. Dark, golden accents, badges, white hat- Navy. Commander probably. Robert kept his stance tall and head held high. "Nothing of the sort. Just a fact. Look back at the history of the world. Tensions rising bit by bit, until something gives, or something breaks." That was just a fact, that left the two standing men quiet. The Navy Commander spoke up again. "Then you know exactly why we require those designs. We could protect our men and women who fight for our countaries, our lives. These are the people who keep you safe, Doctor Jonez."

They wouldn't move on from what had stuck out so much. Just caring about one portion, not the lives behind it, not the true functions... "Don't keep me safe, sir, with all respect. They keep you and your leaders safe. The citizens are what get caught in the cross fire."

"Are you insulting us?! We fight to protect people like you! We keep you safe! We give the people hope!"

"No! You protect your ways of life! And I will NOT endanger the innocent lives of this world, nor MY OWN DAUGHTER, by handing this over! It is patented and Jonez work only! any move against it will have a legion of Lawyers, as well as the entire Robotics committy, down your throats! You scavengers!" He would have kept going but-

"ROBERT!" A female's voice rang out, silencing the entire room in surprise. A woman walking in from the side door that had just opened. It made the man immediately calm down and step back in surprise. "Moira? But... why are you here?" His voice suddenly soft, subdued, like he was tamed. The woman didn't stop, looking like she had been ready for a fight, long brown hair tied back in a braid, green eyes sparking with defiance. "Here to protect our family. You don't do this alone, dear."

He tried to get her to calm down, but it was too late. The woman had joined him at the table, standing there unflinching while staring down the rest of the gathering individuals. "With respect, gathered members, I shall also speak for our creations." Her voice carried an air of collected calm, but would be taking no bullshit. Moira Jonez was a woman who did not play nice when things got messy. And it seemed everyone else knew this, and wouldn't even try to remove her. Robert merely stood at her side. Equals in this.

"Ma'am. With all due respect, surely you understand the needs requires for these scientific breakthroughs?" Once more, the Navy man was speaking. He seemed Adamant. Moira didn't so much as flinch as she began speaking with an air of commanding control. "The medical side? Absolutely. It can save lives. The robotics side of new parts? Indeed. Being capable of the search and rescue functions? Many out there in the world could put those to good use finding those caught in collappses, rock slides, avalanches, and so on. This is all just the immdediate sense of it. The perfect designs for finding new discoveries the world over alone could become a boon for the scientific and hostorical communitties."

"That... Is not what I meant."

"I'm aware how you meant sir, and that is not the intended purpose or function. Would you take away the safety of our only child, her hope, and turn it into a new menance in this world? Ruin the chance of a future for every other child that comes after any of you? Not a single one of your number has taken into consideration the implications. Let me educate you." Moira's voice maintained that eerie line of calm as she placed one hand on her hip. Green eyes narrowing in a vicious gaze. Almost predatory.

Her arm raised then, pointing at the Navy man. "Is there anyone among you here, who would stand on the front line with those men you arm? Would you take the risk of untested science for so called safe keeping?" Her arm lowered then. "None of you get that this will do exactly what you do not want. Blur the lines you are so intent on keeping. Aside from that, struggling for this and claiming it's for peace and safety? That's a poor excuse for merely trying to acquire the next means of war weaponry. Don't try to use the excuse of Robotics coming after you. You want to go after them." It was a heavy realization. "We're done here. No, you are not going to acquire our blueprints or designs for that suit." She turned to leave, pulling Robert along. "The descision is final."

Another voice shouted aloud, German this time. So many hadn't actually given their opinions. "You'll regret this! You and your Robots!"

At the door Robert stopped, and he finally felt his patience snap. The scientist of many talents slowly turning his head, eyes wide and pupils small. Expression was schooled into a calm nature, but the sheer fury in his gaze could set fires. "Do not threaten my family. Man, or machine, we are family. And we do not bow too you. We are free. My daughter is not your play thing. Robot Masters are not your tools, nor your scape goats. I hope you learn histories mistakes, before you make them anew."

The door slammed behind them then, marching away with fury boiling in their veins. But the fear, the worry, settled deep inside their bones...

...

Hours later, on the long drive, Robert held his steering wheel with a white knuckle grip. It had been tension in the car since they left. He took a heavy deep inhale. "Did we do the right thing?"

"Of course. We can't let this fall into the wrong mans hands, hun." Moira responded, softening quickly as she reached over, placing a hand on his shoulder. Robert released a shaken laugh. "No, not that. I know we did in there, but..." Brows furrowed then. "... For our daughter. did we do the right thing, what we did? Or did we condemn her?"

The thick silence that followed held the weight of desperation and heart break. The same sort that had pushed them in the first place, when Shelly had been diagnosed as a baby. Had struggled to live and clung so tightly onto life despite all the odds. The entire family had pitched in, Mother, Father, uncles, aunts, cousins, it went on... They translated the Atlantis codes, the medicine discovery. Then better robotics and replaced organs as they failed from the normal elements of every day. But they didn't know where or when to stop. Jonez just never did anything at half. They kept going until... Until the suit was there, the armor- the impossible designs, back too Atlantian technology.

It was a blessing, and a curse.

The woman sighed deeply. "We will never know until the future is here, love. Our DJN family will help us along the way. They care as much as we do, Robert. No matter what happens. She won't be alone." Moira smiled, making the man ease up with a soft breath, sitting a bit more comfortably. "You're right. But I can't help but wonder if... We saw that we could, but didn't stop to ask if we should."

"Only time will tell. We do not know the future... We can just do our best and be there."

If only the two of them would know what would happen a few years down the road, and the fate that waits for them.

[sillyguyhotline]

UwU Actually comes from a big family! However he and his mom and his grandparents are the only ones who stayed in Japan. His aunt and her family lives in the US. Keiji and his mom does fly out there for the Holidays. Keiji has a bunch of potted. His mom got him a monstera and a bamboo plant as housewarming gifts when he moved out (Post-Mr. Policeman's death). They're surprisingly still alive. Since then he has gotten more plants to add color and life to his apartment. Ms. Shinogi loves hidden object games. On her days off, her and a younger Keiji would play hidden object games on her old computer. She owns the whole collection of the Nancy Drew Hidden Object games. One can say this help kick start Keiji's obsession with being a detective/police officer. On the topic of computer games, Keiji like point n' clicks games and solitaire. He's really at solving good at Sierra and LucasArts games but he's shit at playing card games unless it's Uno. Before she had Keiji, Ms. Shinogi used to be a model/child actor. Ms. Hitomi saw Keiji as her way out of the spotlight. Keiji thinks he ruined her career despite her reassurance. Keiji has experimented with hair dye once he starts going to therapy and taking medication. Blue, orange, brown, and green are out of the question. He's thinking about a dirty blonde or at least letting his roots show through. Keiji gets his neck rubbing and other hand gestures from his mama. Keiji and his mom often cook meals together. It's their way of winding down and asking each other about their day. Keiji is a dad (WHEN HE'S LIKE 35). UwU Depending on which AU, Keiji is either married to Kai with a daughter named Athena. Single dad who's coparenting with/dating Q-taro with a daughter named Amelia. It's a lot. If you knew my mind, you would understand. Ms. Shinogi loves to knit. She makes matching gloves, hats, and scarves for Keiji (and his daughters). Keiji doesn't wear scarves. Doesn't like having his neck restricted in any way. Keiji likes calamansi soda. An unique flavor. His mom likes lemon flavor soda. Bestie, I have so many family headcanons. I wish I could write about them.

I LOVE ALL OF THESE… the little nancy drew detective thing helping jumpstart keiji’s desire to be a detective is so cute… i love keiji caring so much about his mom and still trying to be a good son… i love keiji taking care of plants too :] especially with him actually being good at caring for them because you’d definitely expect him to be the sort of person who’d struggle with that. but no he’s a protector he likes taking care of things esp at low stakes !!

[transsexualhamlet]

Sending you more bc these r fun 2 7 (second question) 41 50 63 70 😸

SO TRUE THANK YOU BESTIE MY BELOVED

2-Do you mourn for a place or person you’ve never known?

Yeah, I really do. I feel awful for my mom a lot of the time, because she's like,, she's kind of an old mom, her mom died when I was just a little kid and I barely remember anything about my grandma before I got cancer, all I know about her is from the pictures of them and her old things and my mom's stories and she seemed like such a wonderful person. I have a kind of, complicated relationship with my mom yknow, eldest daughter and mom who was the eldest daughter and the *grandma* being the eldest daughter type but she deserved the world and she got none of it because she married a crappy man, got a shitty hand and did so amazing with it anyway, always did the right thing and had so much enthusiasm and life and love and never got to see how much she impacted my mom and her kids too. She died when i was like, eight, and every day my mom still tells me she wishes she could tell her mom things, ask her mom things, show her me because I'm apparently so much like her and my mom needs her mom and she just doesn't know what to do. She always wishes she could show me things I never got to experience, like the countryside she grew up on that's all basically ruined now because of climate change. And her family home, the one that my grandma lived on and all of my mom's stuff from when she was a kid is all destroyed now because my grandpa is a senile old fuck and everything is gone or covered in garbage and she hasn't been able to go in there for years because of the mold. We're just going to burn the whole place when he finally dies, which really should be soon considering how much he keeps refusing any medical help even though he keeps mismanaging his diabetes and having to get more and more Limbs Amputated haha lol, and when he does and we burn the whole house and the whole old farm property down so much of her childhood and her mother is going to go with it but there's no way to save a single bit of it.

Sorry that got Heavy but man. I think about it a lot.

7-Are you in love? Do you want to be?

oh boy you really picked The Question huh. /pos So, I'm arospec, I'm somewhere on the spectrum and I really can't tell where, cause esp with the Autism it is so difficult to tell what even constitutes romantic vs platonic feelings, especially separate from sexual attraction, which I just don't feel for real people at all (though that doesn't mean i can't choose to be sexual or enjoy sex, i just am not, like, *attracted* to people that way)

I think I'm greyromantic, cause I barely barely ever feel romantic attraction or tell the difference between platonic/romantic attraction but I certainly do feel very warm and fuzzy feelings towards people sometimes very infrequently and thats the closest I can get to really understanding it

The reason why i keep switching from aro to greyro and whatever else and i am so confused is i think you have somehow become my exception slash srs

sorry that is totally out of pocket but!! i have feelings for you. not sure which ones they are. i think it would be so swag if we were in the same place so we could hang out hhghdshfgfg 👍

And yeah, I think that those moments of love that i sometimes feel (and that isn't limited to romantic at all, i just have moments sometimes where im like omg i love my friends so much. i wanna be with you guys forever. i love helping you and i love being with you. lets hug YAKNOW) but although it is 100 percent not necessary to feel those, I think it's an amazing feeling and it really gives me hope for life and humanity that I just don't usually get, yknow? I don't seek it out and I don't feel it's necessary for me to live, but it's a really nice treat sometimes and it can give me a lot of meaning.

41- What fundamentally matters do you?

I don't know, I just think that consciousness is really important and that appreciation of the things we experience is just so good. I know it sounds like im saying literally everything fundamentally matters but idk?? We're born to observe and to think and to exist and to interact with our surroundings and watch little bugs and big waterfalls and look at the stars and conflict with each other and touch fuzzy blankets and cry and wonder what we're here for because what else are we supposed to do!

50- What do you expect from a friend or partner?

Hmm, I just think the only thing that really matters is human connection. That two people could just get something out of being together and understand each other and have shared experiences and thoughts and can just exist as a collective. I like people who we can mutually provide support and happiness to each other, yknow? I sound like a sap omg just like. If you enjoy being around someone and they enjoy being around you any interaction is sacred. atoms can't do shit on their own except sit there

63-How confident are you, really?

That's a good question!! I think a lot of the time I'm super overconfident but then I realize how much I constantly question myself about every little thing down to my own personality and i realize lmao no i am not. I tend not to worry about a lot of things I really should worry about, mostly relating to my success and academic ability, but when it comes down to social interaction, that is not the case. So I'd say yes I'm overconfident in school? In regards to like, my abilities and stuff? But anywhere else no i am not

70- What’s the tragedy of your life?

KAKHFSDHFF i would feel soooo ridiculous to try to come up something for this omg

Like, I don't feel like I've had nearly as much trauma and bad experiences as so many other people I know, and generally, I've kind of had it ok, even though I'm not doing wonderful. But no one really is right now, to be honest.

I think really for me the year everything started to go to shit was 5th grade, you know, all my friends leave me at once bc im too autistic and poor to care about and then i get lyme disease and lose every ability that my dad was so proud of and have them think im just trying hard enough for two years and constantly letting them down

cause i used to run 5ks as a kid? like, as a little kid and elementary schooler? I ran FAST 5ks and i was in girls on the run and shit and i was GOOD and my parents had really high hopes for me and enrolled me in track and cross country then boom i got bitten by the climate change bug. Then I'm still stuck in sports and the teachers yell at me and I cry while I run and lay down on the courses and see myself not being able to make times i made in kindergarden and watching my parents lose all fucking hope in me

but yknow. i'm kind of over that now and at least they understand i'm not just being a little bitch baby for no reason now

i just, yknow. really wish things could have been different

WOW THIS ASK GAME REALLY IS TRAUMADUMP TIME KAKGHSDHFS BUT U ASKED FOR IT

[stvpidinlove]

[ JESSICA VU, SHE/HER, CIS WOMAN ]  —  [ PRIMROSE “PRIM” TRAN ]  is a child of  [ MELINOE ]  with the power of  [ MEDIUMSHIP ] .  they were born in  [ 2000 ]  and have been in nemean lion since  [ 2015 ] .  with the change, they  [ ARE TRAINING IN ]  the  [ HERO ]  role which makes sense since they’re usually  [ DRAWING PORTRAITS & MAKING CANDLES ] .  if you’d like to meet them try the  [ SUN ]  building .

yes...here i am again...!

BASICS

hometown: evanston, il

eye color: hazel

hair color: brown

height: 5′5

sexuality: bisexual

birthday: september 5, 2000 ( virgo )

BIO

prim’s parents met in college, at georgetown university. it was a long and arduous journey for both of them, though in very different ways. her father came from money in vietnam, but he moved to the states for college and didn’t speak much english, he only read it well enough to meet the requirements for foreign admittance (plus, he was exceptionally intelligent). meanwhile, prim’s mother was the daughter of immigrants who had always wanted more for their daughter. they were thrilled when she managed to get all the grants and scholarships necessary to attend, since they never could have afforded to send her to such a prestigious school otherwise.

naturally, prim’s mother was granted work study and she got a job in the main office, which is how the two met. they first bonded over a shared language and she was often tasked with helping him, and eventually she offered to help him with his college transition outside of the office.

and when i say prim’s parents...i mean the people who raised her. these two would fall in love in college, but neither admitted it aloud, out of fear of ruining the close friendship they’d forged.

after graduation, they both stayed in the dc area, but they didn’t talk as regularly. at some point, prim’s father met a darkly enchanting woman at the opera, of all places. in the grand theater of the kennedy center, their eyes met from across the expansive room, and prim’s father would go on to explain it to his daughter as “spellbound at first sight.” because it wasn’t love, it never became love, something he knew even before she became pregnant with his firstborn child. it felt nothing like the safety and warmth he’d felt with his college love who he’d never properly dated.

once melinoe was gone, prim’s father became a single parent in his late-twenties, a responsibility which he took on with care and composure. after his own experiences in the united states, he wanted to give his daughter a name that would be unique and beautiful but familiar to americans, so he chose primrose after the plant common to the dc area. his own parents back home were horrified by their single son fathering a child, though when they finally met their granddaughter face to face, they couldn’t help falling in love with her innocent face.

he reconnected with prim’s eventual stepmother when his daughter was five years old, and they got the second chance that few people ever do. they were married less than a year later, which was still a long time coming.

soon thereafter, prim’s stepmother got pregnant, and prim became a big sister to three rambunctious triplet boys. she remembers when it was just her and her father, but she can’t imagine life without her mom and brothers, who she’s particularly close to.

the only thing that stood in the way was the fact that she’s always felt different, and her father was somewhat secretive when she was a child, but by the time her powers manifested at the age of twelve, she knew why she was seeing people that others weren’t. it’s impossible to describe the feeling of playing alone in her room with polly pockets and suddenly having another girl join in. in this way, prim was rarely alone, but often felt isolated. it was like having imaginary friends with real stories and families and a whole history.

it was difficult and scary at first, but prim learned to take it in stride. she really liked hearing their stories, looking at obituaries that featured black and white photos of ghosts she knew from when they were bearing much younger faces she hardly recognized. she tried not to think too hard about the ghosts her own age, she just did her best to be there for them, because if she was seeing them, it must be for a reason, right?

her power was never something she wanted to control better, she liked acting as a conduit for those who happen to pass through her life, but she wasn’t much good at fighting off monsters and needed to come to nl for her own safety. despite her lack of fighting skills, she so deeply wanted to help people, so when the time came she decided to pursue the hero track.

RANDOM FACTS

prim totally can summon ghosts of her own volition...mostly. it takes a lot of effort and full on seance vibes right now, but she’s still learning! she prefers it when the spirits reach out to her, because that’s a whole lot easier and more exciting.

she actually kind of loves her powers, even when it gets heavy. most of the time ghosts just want the company or they don’t even know they’re dead, so she tries to be their friend and listen to their stories.

she often draws portraits of the ghosts she meets, particularly the ones she can’t get out of her head, who linger for days or weeks or months on end.

because ghosts are temporary, she tries not to get too attached, and it’s also a good thing because not all ghosts are that pleasant to be around and she doesn’t have a lot of luck with getting them to go away.

prim does have a decent collection of crystals and some tarot cards (and a crystal ball that is purely decorative). one of the only ways she’s learned to summon spirits is by using crystals to set her intentions, though it’s still pretty hit or miss.

super open and honest, esp about her powers! def doesn’t believe in using them for ~evil (like pranks or similar things lolol)

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

someone desperately longing to speak to a dead loved one (or a not-so-loved one?) 

someone who feels guilty about the death of another and the deceased reaches out to prim to help them convince the living person that the death wasn’t their fault???!

a flirtationship that prim doesn’t take too seriously because she’s friendly and can never tell when someone actually likes her. whether your char is on the same page or not is up to you!

someone Intrigued by her because she’s so upbeat and cheerful even though she’s constantly seeing dead people

ur char is convinced a ghost is haunting them and prim is like i promise u are not being haunted <3

someone who IS being haunted and doesn’t know it hehe

[xbaebsae]

OTP Questions

Tagged by @f0xyboxes , @dieguzguz, @nightwingshero, @deputyrhiannonhale and @returnofthepd3 thanks for thinking of me sweethearts♥

(art by minilev)

Rheese Bennett & Jacob Seed (idk if anyone even reads these except me but under cut because long post)

DISAGREEMENTS

Who is more likely to raise their voice?  Jacob. Now don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t loose his cool all that easy but Rheese can be a pain sometimes and he lacks the patience.

Who threatens to leave but never actually does?  Neither of them.

Who actually keeps their word and leaves?  This is actually what Rheese does when they break up about three months before the game. He finally is too deluded by Joseph’s demands of him that she cannot get through to him anymore and keep him from hurting people. They have a pretty bad fight about him torturing people that ends with him actually slapping her with the intention of making her shut up because she wouldn’t stop arguing against him. She gives him one moment to apologize for that, but he doesn’t so she leaves :’)

Who trashes the house?  They frequently throw things at each other.

Do either of them get physical?  Depends on when. Jacob pushes her around sometimes or touches her pretty roughly when he suffers from the effects of his PTSD. No domestic violence though. They also land real blows in training fights, same level bad on both sides really.

It’s worse during the arrest when they aren’t together anymore. Jacob was pretty devastated when he realized she actually left for good (he interpreted ‘i am leaving’ as her going home). It resulted in a lot of self blame (justified) which his family couldn’t really deal with. Joseph convinced him in the end that she was just another test he had to overcome in his life to find his correct path. So, he pretty much behaves just like he does in-game. She doesn’t get special treatment, she gets starved and thrown into murder trials like everyone else.

How often do they argue/disagree?  Pretty often. In the beginning it’s all they do, until they realize that having normal conversations every once in a while isn’t so bad actually.

Who is the first to apologize?  Apologies are for the weak :)

SEX

Who is on top?  Jacob

Who is on the bottom? Rheese (though she won’t admit it if you asked her)

Who has the strangest desires?  It’s nothing very strange tbh (at least not by my definition of strange... god i’ve seen ... things on deviantart. Definetly none of that!)

Any kinks?  Yeah, the perfect combo of wanting to feel powerless and wanting to feel in control. It complies with their character really. Rheese was forced to take care of herself ever since her teen years, which developed her into a pretty tough person. She likes the control she has over her life, and doesn’t let herself be pushed around by anyone. Feeling stripped of that control is however really exciting for her. Jacob’s kinda the other way around (imo anyway) in that he’s constantly following orders nevermind when or where, even within his own family (to not disappoint Joseph).

Who’s dominant in bed?  Jacob, Rheese only if he forces her to be :)

Is head ever in the equation?  Yes

If so, who is better at performing it?  Rheese. Slightly unfair though because she’s simply worse on the receiving end.

Ever had sex in public?  Yeah, much to her dismay.

Who moans the most?  Rheese

Who leaves the most marks?  Both do in different ways.

Who is the more experienced of the two?  Jacob

Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’?  Even the nastiest sex is ‘making love’ to them really. It’s frankly a form of talking to them because they both truly suck at verbal communication. Also, Rheese has the old fashioned rule in her life that she won’t sleep with people she isn’t sure about, so before actually being together they don’t have sex. Tho she’s close to breaking that rule multiple times.

Rough or soft?  Rough, sometimes foreplay is soft.

How long do they usually last?  Depends on time and mood. Also Rheese is a lot younger so she sometimes could go again when he can’t. However that doesn’t mean he gets the best of her sometimes :’)

Is protection used?  Yes on her side

Does it ever get boring?  No

Where is the strangest place they’d have sex?  Some small cabin at the place they train Judges. It was kinky, they got caught and she prefers to just not talk about it ever again.

FAMILY

Do they plan on having children/or have children?  No, they never wanted to. Their daughter Jaina was an unwanted accident.

If so, how many children do they want/have?  They have 1 and that’s already more than they wanted.

AFFECTION

Who likes to cuddle?  Rheese

Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places?  Jacob usually. But sometimes she’s good at it as well.

Who struggles to keep their hands to themself?  Jacob, and it bothers her a lot in public. He doesn’t really care about what his people think of him, he knows he’s the boss so they can’t say shit. It’s also a way of just showing off that she belongs to him and that’s exactly why she doesn’t like it, cause she ain’t property. Also, people might believe she only became a Chosen trainer because she fucks the boss, which isn’t true because she got that position from someone other than Jake, based entirely on her performance.

How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable?  Until Rheese falls into deep sleep and starts spreading her limbs everywhere uncontrolably.

Who gives the most kisses?  Jacob

What is their favourite non-sexual activity?  Honestly, just existing next to each other is enough. They are just as happy just sitting in the same room, doing their own tasks, as they are going out for a fishing trip (actually she hates fishing, but the lakes are nice).

Where is their favourite place to cuddle?  The bed

How often do they get time to themselves?  Usually evenings and nights. They would have more time together if Rheese didn’t value her alone time. Sometimes she prefers to spend her days off alone, going on a ride through the forests or just relaxing without anybody around. He doesn’t quite approve of that but she doesn’t let herself be locked up.

SLEEPING

Who snores?  None of them

If both do, who snores the loudest?  Nobody

Do they share a bed or sleep separately?  Share a bed when living together.

If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart?  Usually fall asleep cuddling but where they end up is entirely up to chance.

What do they wear to bed?  Underwear usually. Though t-shirts along with that in the beginning.

Are either of them insomniacs?  Jake has trouble sleeping and often wakes up. Her presence helps him but she’s not a magic sleeping pill so the issue never fully disappears.

Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside?  Nah

Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side?  Usually the first, when it’s too hot the latter.

Who wakes up with bed hair?  Both. Rheese loves his messy hair, especially after she bullied him enough into letting it grow a bit. He however calls her hay-head, because her hair gets all tangled up and poofy despite being tied into a braid.

Who wakes up first?  He does, good luck getting her outta bed before 10.

Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other?  Nobody does, they aren’t romantic.

What is their favourite sleeping position?  Rheese digging her face in the space between his neck and shoulders while one leg and one arm hugs him and he has an arm around her.

Do they set an alarm each night?  When there’s work the next day.

Can a television be found in their bedroom?  No, though she sometimes uses his laptop to watch movies.

Who has nightmares?  Jacob has real ones, Rheese only the occasional bad dream we all get sometimes.

Who has ridiculous dreams?  She dreams demented shit sometimes, never talks about it though.

Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed?  Rheese, she’s a restless sleeper. Got kicked out of the bed for it more than once.

Who makes the bed?  Neither of them. They don’t care about it being untidy.

What time is bed time?  Depends. Usually Rheese stays awake longer to finish watching movies.

Any routines/rituals before bed?  Nothing special, sometimes talking, sometimes a movie, sometimes sex, sometimes just hugging in silence.

Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up?  Jake, esp when she talks too much in the morning.

WORK

Who is the busiest?  They both are pretty equally busy.

Who rakes in the highest income?  It doesn’t really matter to them. The cult pays food and since they don’t care much about materialism, they don’t need much money.

Are any of them unemployed?  They have their job in the cult. Rheese works as a deputy before and after her stay there. so no.

Who takes the most sick days?  Neither really take any unless they are really so sick they can’t move. It’s an unhealthy work ethic but they feel useless when just lying in bed all day.

Who is more likely to turn up late to work?  Jake didn’t before, but he sometimes does because of her in the morning. Not that he really minds though, who’s gonna say anything against him?

Who sucks up to their boss?  Jacob in regards to Joseph, which Rheese thinks is very unhealthy. She doesn’t like how he lets himself be used so much and mostly blindly follows whatever his brother says. They have a lot of arguments about this and in the end it’s what ruins their relationship.

What are their jobs?  He’s head of security at Eden’s Gate. She’s a deputy, then pseudo joins the cult and works herself up to become a trainer of the Chosen, then she returns to her deputy position for the arrest.

Who stresses the most?  He does

Do they enjoy or despise their careers/occupations?  Police work wasn’t her passion. It was just a career she thought wouldn’t be boring. No noble motives and such. She only reprises her role as the deputy for the arrest because she falsely blames herself for everyone who’s been hurt by Jake’s hands after she left him. Her return is based on her trying to redeem herself. She had fun training Chosen, but she wouldn’t want to be part of any torture cult.

Jacob barely has any opinion on his work. He believes what he does is what needs to be done and he’s the best suited person for the job. You won’t find him complain, though he secretly just wants peace in his life. He hopes the cult’s actions will ultimately lead to that.

Are they financially stable?  They have enough.

HOME

Who does the washing?  Neither until one of them is fed up with the pile in the sink or the lack of clean plates in the shelf.

Who takes out the trash?  Usually Rheese is bothered by it first.

Who does the ironing?  They don’t

Who does the cooking?  She makes good pancakes. But other than that? Don’t allow her in the kitchen because she can’t cook for shit. He can cook a couple of things but is often simply too lazy to ‘play housewife’ so their dinners often consist of very simplistic things. Occasionally one of them will bring home takeout.

Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying?  Rheese, just...keep her out of the kitchen.

Who is messier?  Both pretty much. His place is a mess and she isn’t bothered by it because her apartment looked the same.

Who leaves the toilet roll empty?  Jake, to annoy her.

Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor?  They both just throw them wherever.

Who forgets to flush the toilet?  Jake, again to annoy her. (her ‘ewww you’re fucking nasty’ face is really entertaining)

Who is the prankster around the house? Neither, they diss each other a lot, sometimes joke on the other’s cost but no deliberate pranks.

Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere?  Doesn’t really happen.

Who mows the lawn?  No lawn

Who answers the telephone?  They answer their own cells respectively. He refuses to get a smartphone.

Who does the vacuuming?  They don’t own a vacuum cleaner. Only a broom and a mop.

Who does the groceries?  Usually he does.

Who takes the longest to shower?  Rheese, she enjoys the feel of hot water on her skin.

Who spends the most time in the bathroom?  Not much difference there. Rheese doesn’t bother anymore with any routines and such after Jake told her he hates when she wears makeup because it makes his hands sticky when he touches her face :’) Though sometimes she will still put eyeliner out of habit.

MISCELLANEOUS

Is money a problem?  No, they don’t need much.

How many cars do they own?  Jake own an old truck and a motorcycle, Rheese used to have a car but sold it. She prefers riding on her horse Nugget anyway.

Do they own their home or do they rent?  She had an apartment in Missoula before ‘joining’. Then she lived at Stone Ridge for a while, then she moved in with him to his place. A tiny cabin far up a mountain at the far outside of the region.

Do they live in the city or in the country?  Country

Do they enjoy their surroundings?  Yes, especially the forests.

What’s their song?  You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

What do they do when they’re away from each other?  Working, doing their own thing, living. He’s more possessive about her than she is about it. But they both function normally when not being together.

Where did they first meet?  Technically at the church during her very first sermon to ‘join’ the project. But they only interacted about a week later when he’s supposed to bring her to her initiation at John’s place. They immediately hate each other :’)

Who spends the most money when out shopping?  Whoever does the grocery shopping? They both aren’t big on other shopping trips.

Who’s more likely to flash their assets?  She’s not very show off-y. Jacob likes showing she ‘belongs to him’.

Who finds it amusing when the other trips over?  Both

Any mental issues?  Rheese doesn’t really, she lost her parents and her family is extremely distant but it never gave her trauma.

Jacob still deals with the aftermath of war esp. His PTSD gets bad sometimes and he has sleeping issues.

Who’s terrified of bugs?  She is afraid of spiders, and would appreciate if he killed them when they are in the house. But usually he ends up throwing them at her and tells her it’s therapy to defeat her fears.

Who kills the spiders around the house?  Neither, see above

Their favourite place?  A small lake behind a mountain near his cabin.

Who pays the bills?  The cult

Do they have any fears for their future?  Yeah, they are very conflicted about it. Neither of them know where it all leads and their differences (esp the age one) is an issue at times.

Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner?  They don’t really do that.

Who’s the tallest?  He’s 6'1, she is 5'2. He constantly calls her ‘Shorty’, not in any endearing cute nickname way, but purely to mock her height.

Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other?  Happens with both of them frequently. Tho Jacob is more prone to this because he showers less on his own. So when she’s in there he’s often like ‘might as well join’.

Who wanders around in their underwear?  Rheese starts this trend which he really doesn’t complain about. She also argues that it makes sense because then there will be less laundry to take care of. Can’t really argue with that really.

Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio?  She does, very very badly cause she can’t sing.

What do they tease each other about?  Her short height and his age. Always.

Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times?  Doesn’t really happen but he does judge her Power Rangers T-shirt she wears for sleeping.

Who crushed first?  They both kinda did. They blamed it on physical attraction at first, which made Rheese mad because he wasn’t her type. It takes them a couple of months to actually admit they might eventually possibly perhaps maybe have feelings for one another :)

Any alcohol or substance related problems?  Not really

Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am?  Rheese does once, and another time they do it together.

Who swears the most?  Jacob, though she’s pretty good at it too.

Tagging @joeyhxdson @fadedjacket @shallow-gravy @chazz-anova​ @ja-crispea​ if you want to. Idk who did this by the time this gets posted.

[thephantomporg84]

As much as I love the trope of characters that hide that they have a lot of negative feelings by putting on an act, I really wish it was made more obvious Dante's cuhrayzee wahoo pizza man act is partly a front, since it kinda seems like people don't notice? Sure there was DMC2 but DMC2 is treated as barely canon by most, and Dante's characterization was one of many big complaints about it.

Oh god I totally feel this Anon. 1,000% agree, as someone who love love loves this trope, too. Lol. It’s why I devour a good DMC story on AO3, especially if the writer knocks this trope out of the park.

But yeah. That was sort of one of my bigger nitpicks about DMC5 as a whole. Like. While I do appreciate that the game (and series, really) can be played and the story does mostly work if you’re not invested in it and taking it at face value / just want a good action game — which is a super helpful tactic to bring new people in with such a gap between titles — I hate how it ruins the context of a lot of stuff.

Vergil (as V) all but looks directly at the camera and says ‘I’m a bastard and did what I did because I was afraid/wanted to be loved and protected’ but Dante’s internal conflict is wayyyy more subtle and it’s cheapened if you really have to spell it out, imo — because I feel like the ‘negative feelings behind a goofy exterior’ thing is easy to portray hard to give real depth to. As in, it’s easy to make Dante be cuhrayzee and swing his chainsaw motorcycle around, but hard to show that it’s an act to fool others (as well as himself, probably to some degree). Unfortunately, on top of all that, lot of people aren’t gonna wanna bend over backwards like you, me, and others have done to discuss and pick Dante’s (or any character from any series, really) personality apart.

That said: I don’t think there are nearly enough contextual clues present in any of the games to make this more apparent, either. I remember some guy made a pretty good video a few years back about how the anime proves Dante is actually depressed on YT, and that video blew up and got nearly 100-150k views (which is a lot, esp. when you consider how dead this series was ‘till E3 2018), and a lot of people were ‘shocked’ and ‘never noticed xyz indicator’ before.

Like... If you give me a scene and have given me all the clues I need, but they’re super vague and I miss it? That’s on me, and totally my bad — another reason to replay the game with a more watchful eye. But I feel like DMC has left way, wayyyy too much out about how Dante feels to even do that, now.

I think one of the best examples of that lack of any kind of solid clues about Dante’s personality is in DMC5: In game, Patty calls to invite him to her birthday, and is loud and chatty and kind of annoying. Dante just seems to cringe and brush it off/hang up. If you weren’t familiar with the anime, then you might just brush it off as a gag, or see it as a brief throwback/cameo if you were. Either way, you could chalk it up to ‘oh wow wrong number / what an annoying girl haha.’ But then if you look in Before the Nightmare, which isn’t even available in any language except Japanese, we see that Dante is incredibly uncomfortable at the idea of being around ‘normal’ people, and I believe it even mentions that he plans to make it up to her.

This ties back into my complaints about putting so much meat from the story in the side material, and then not even making the side material available with the game or even easy to access. I feel like putting that kind of interesting characterization in side material is almost criminal lol. Because that makes the whole scene have so much more weight — especially because it sets up that this man is clearly uncomfortable with what he is, possibly now more than ever, and is about to be asked to kill his brother, again... because of what they both are. You also lose that family dynamic of Nero experiencing the same type of isolation as Dante without even fully understanding why.

And if that wasn’t enough, you also lose some AMAZING bits of characterization if you never read Before the Nightmare like:

Dante still sending Grue’s (from the DMC1 novel) two living daughters / their other caretaker (Morrison looks after them, too) money. Dante also had to mercy kill Grue’s oldest daughter. He sends it to them from using money out of his own savings.

The former patrons of Bobby’s Cellar (re-named Grue’s Cellar) and those in the mercenary world immensely disliking Dante, and fully blaming him for the deaths in that bar, Grue’s death, Nell Goldstein’s death, and the hospital invasion/massacre that happened in the DMC1 novel. So, Dante is even hated in the mercenary world, and shoulders the blame for a lot of stuff that he didn’t do / has probably lost a lot of work because of this — and a lot of it is stuff that Gliver (👀) did or instigated.

The caretaker of Grue’s girls absolutely hating Dante, even though the sisters defend him, and he most likely knows and just says nothing. The caretaker even remarks that she thinks he’s a bad omen and she ‘Hopes he’s dead’ and that ‘If he’s alive, I’d love to stick a shotgun up his ass’.

Lady noticing that the qliphoth is growing in Redgrave City, and then noticing the name on Dante’s guns later — then wondering what the connection was there — indicating how little even people like Lady really know about him.

Like, holy shit that’s just a few things and it already adds so much depth to Dante’s character that’s not there in the games alone. I know I’ve said a million times not to take the series that seriously or in realistic terms, but... I mean... even ridiculously goofy stuff like JoJo’s has really well developed, layered characters that will surprise you / break your heart in the blink of an eye. So it’s not impossible for something like DMC to make some stuff a little more apparent.

Oh, and as for DMC2 — if it hadn’t followed the trend at the time of randomly making your protagonist into a dark/angsty/edgelord version of themselves, and had given the angsty turn some logical explanation, then I don’t think it would have been quite so hated (at least, janky gameplay and rushed design aside). Itsuno said that’s the one he’d remake if given a choice to do a remake, and I can’t help but think he wouldn’t say thay without having some ideas on what he’d do differently.

(SORRY I KNOW THIS IS SUPER LONG. But it’s something that really irks me a lot because it could be SO GOOD if handled a little better lol.)

[kegareki]

most of the time i do not care much about viserys, but somehow i’m writing an au that actually has me interested in what other ways he could have grown if things were different, and i’m mad about that

ramble under the cut

it’s my asoiaf soulmate au, because OF COURSE. in that one he’s soulmates with arianne martell

the westerosi conception of soulmates is that the other person is “made for you,” tailored to fit with you in whatever way you need (a lover, a sworn brother, etc), but the valyrians called soulmates “soul-mirrors”, believing them to be a reflection of the other and not a wholly separate being, as they are joined by pain (and--in the cases of dragonriders and their soul-mirrors--they share the dragonriders’ immunity to fire)

and because daenerys is my self-insert, i’ve been thinking of soulmates through the valyrian lens

and viserys as soul-mirrors with arianne... both of them concerned about their birthright and petty and hateful and plotting the ruin of the person they believe is responsible for their ‘stolen birthright’... both of them fitting stereotypes for their families/heritage... both of them being children when their lives as they know it are altered... both of them having two siblings (though arianne is an eldest child and viserys is a middle child)... both of them treated canonly as children not to be trusted with information about their lives because of their apparent immaturity and therefore never receiving information that might have changed how they went about things moving forward

in this au, i repair doran and mellario’s marriage a little bit. or a lotta bit. after the fiasco of sending quentyn out to be fostered and mellario being like what the FUCK is WRONG with you, he’s too young, and how DARE you use your child for POLITICS, doran decides to, y’know, talk to his wife about why he wants to send arianne to essos and what ways they could do that without irreparably damaging their relationship

doran: so like... remember when oberyn sailed to essos a few years ago

mellario: yes, i recall

doran: he went to essos to find the surviving targaryens, and he successfully betrothed arianne to viserys targaryen

mellario:

doran: so i would like arianne to meet the man she will marry. however, they will have to meet in essos, and do so secretly

mellario: you want to send our daughter to ANOTHER CONTINENT?

doran: yes. but. i know that you would be distressed at another long-term absence

mellario: “distressed”

doran: so perhaps we may come up with a different reason for her to visit essos. like. a visit to your family?

mellario: ... i’m listening.

because mellario is norvosi. she’s FROM A FREE CITY IN ESSOS. and doran’s plan in canon was to send arianne to TYROSH? to be a cupbearer for the ARCHON OF TYROSH? when THERE’S A WHOLE DAMN MATERNAL SIDE OF THE FAMILY IN NORVOS????

like. dude. dude.

like, is it just me? is it just me who thinks that “mellario taking arianne on a tour of essos, including a stay in norvos to visit family” would have been a lot easier to plan, and a good deal more palatable to mellario, the woman he married for love, than sending arianne as a cupbearer to tyrosh?

SO , in parallel to arianne’s “wow my dad wants to DISINHERIT ME and have my YOUNGER BROTHER be his heir? fucker. i’ll show him.” Not Happening In This AU, here viserys is actually informed of his betrothal (and the alliance it implies) before willem’s death

which, like... i think it’d help? for viserys to know that at least one family truly supports him and wants him on the throne? especially after willem’s death when he has to take daenerys and seek refuge in other lords’ lands. like. seeking help is humiliating sometimes, probably especially for someone like viserys who is of royal birth and was pampered during his early childhood.

i think that, like. like. okay. viserys is never going to be the type of person who can swing a sword. he’s always going to be a pampered little lord who will need to depend on other people for that. but. viserys learning to manipulate other people--learning to read intentions, learning how to play people to benefit him and daenerys--i think that’d be interesting

as well as like. another aspect of soul-mirroring with arianne. because arianne’s entire Thing is about manipulating people, getting people to be loyal to her and then listen to her, discarding any doubts they may have

and, like. per canon, at the time of the books, viserys was a husk of the person that he had once been, having been hollowed out by their ordeals over the years until only rage was left. so like. this is BEFORE he’s hollowed out. he doesn’t ever get hollowed out here because his circumstances have altered.

do i want viserys as king? no

do i think it’d be interesting as hell to see what an alliance between the martells and the targaryens might look like, esp when aegon the possible mummer and proclaimed son of elia martell gets involved? Yes

(in canon i DO think that the guy claiming to be aegon is fake. but i like what-if scenarios and sometimes write him as the real deal. idk what path i’m gonna take in this au yet tho)

this is literally the only asoiaf au i have where viserys is a main character and i didn’t even START THIS because of him

i just... need to figure out how daenerys and jon will meet... and then i will happily set aside the viserys & arianne stuff

[foxofsunholt]

How would the ros act if due to time travel schenanigens they met their children before they got together with the mc? What would they say to the child and the mc? How would they feel?

This ask was really interesting, thank you for sending it in! I kept trying to make it more light-hearted, but in the FOS-world, the idea of fate is very strong—any one of these characters confronted with the idea of what their future would assume that’s what’ll happen 100%. For some characters, the implication of that is too great–the extreme disconnect between the idea of them eventually having a family against what their current situation is…is just too…jarring? It should be a hopeful sign, but it would wack them in the face like a raw fish, esp. pre-getting together with the MC in which they’re just ripe with emotional issues.

Anyway my point is this really ran away from me ajskhdkajdh

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━      

    Colette is thrilled to meet her parents, but she keeps her lips sealed about the nature of her birth. She is blonde and smiles without shame–she looks so much like Adelaide that a connection can no longer be denied. Adelaide hugs her daughter, weeps into her arms at the very idea—that one day her life is happy. Colette is eager to know The Fox of Sunholt beyond what she has heard in stories; to get to live through the legacy of her parents. Adelaide will not discuss the logistics, but she pulls you aside and speaks with excited whispers. Look at what this means, she says, it means we win. Colette is hope, and everything Adelaide could have wished for and more.

But Adelaide has never spoken of her affections for you, and with news of your child in the future, she concerns herself with never speaking of it. Colette tells you of a great love-story–yours. She speaks with reverence and her words feel like a lie. You ask her why she’s never told Adelaide about these stories (which you still don’t think are real). She grows very quiet; she reminds you a lot of yourself like that, as she tries to make herself small. She said she doesn’t want to hear it, your daughter confesses. You feel her pain as she tries to hide her love for the both of you away, for Adelaide’s sake.

The future can be bright and beautiful, she’s addressing the people of Sunholt and for the first time you notice the way her lips quiver when she lies. Colette is just a symbol of a future Adelaide pretends to believe in.

When faced with the truth, the princess cowers.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Theodore and Theodosia know better than to incur their mother’s ire, so they only tell you about the circumstance of their being. It’s clear they’re uncomfortable around Camille. Confused, you ask them why. It’s Theo who answers, picking at the dirt under his nails. She’s just really..different. But the magic the twins use is hard to hide, their techniques proof of secrets passed through Camille’s family. The idea of this ‘future’ unnerves her. The thought, the mere idea, that her life turns out okay is horrifying. What had all her pain been for? What then is the point of all her work? And how–how in the name of Seven is this magical future supposed to happen? As far as she’s concerned, their future is not hers. Vehemently she denies it, and them.

And in doing so, she pulls from you. She might run, one day, if her loyalty to Adelaide did not anchor her to this journey. Everything is just something waiting to go wrong–and knowing there is a life out there with you–that is something she’d never be able to accept the inevitable ruining of.

You get to know your children well, but they don’t recognize their mother. And you find yourself knowing Camille less.

I wanted to set the world on fire, she tells you, standing over ash and rubble, now what?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Ares runs with his arms open to hug you immediately, and then to Mars. He doesn’t think about the implications of being so open about his parents, he’s just happy to see the two of you. It is a shock to see the brave warrior he knows to be his father suddenly a stiff and grumpy man, but his boundless energy is enough to cancel out even Mars’ awkwardness–most of the time, at least. Mars himself struggles to bring the topic up with you, or Ares. He insists this is some trick, he tries to draw away from you but he misses you too much when you are apart. He has not accepted that Ares is his son, or that there is some future with you–but he takes it in stride, best he can.

One day, when Ares is fast asleep, Mars gathers the courage to speak. What does it mean? He asks and you shrug. Might he be an impostor? You shake your head, Ares is too honest for that. And what do you think? Do you—do you really believe that we–that there’s— Words catch in his throat and confidence dies on his tongue.

There is an idea of the future that Mars has always had. It is one lived alone in a world of blacks & whites. There is no place for love in his future, but he asks you if you’ll allow him to be wrong, just this once.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kai stumbles into the group with a bloody nose and a crooked grin. He smiles the way Faith does, with mischief behind his teeth. You make the connection instantly, though he denies sharing any details of his parents. Your stomach twists as you eventually piece together who the other-half is in this equation. Me? You shout one night, dangling your feet into a cold lake with Kai silently by your side. He frowns but nods and draws a finger to his lips. If you tell her, she’ll run—then I’ll poof outta existence. That’s how future stuff works, right? He’s astute, he gets that from you.

The future is scary, that’s what Faith tells you. She says it’s her biggest fear and then laughs as though it’s merely a joke. Behind her veneer of flirtation and confidence there is a woman who is so deeply afraid and you gather that she knows. You don’t talk about it, or who Kai is. It would ruin something, you think, and even Kai feels it.

One day, he tells you, you two will be really happy, I promise. I’m not gonna get in the way of you guys gettin’ there. Then he pauses, never one for physical affection he succumbs to the urge to hug you. I love you both and I’m sorry.

As it turns out, even without the conversation, Faith runs.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Lucy is nonchalant about it. Sid is a little less. A kid! As far as he’s concerned, it’s great news. He hugs her first hard and tight and she has to pry him away. Then he hugs you, with just as much force. He laughs loud and he holds you close. It’s great, he says this over and over again as though he’s trying to convince himself of it. Lucy isn’t very talkative, you think she gets her need of privacy from you. Sid is louder than normal, forcing out a friendliness that’s uncharacteristic even for him.

This means we make it out okay, he says, it also means we’ve got somethin’ special to be fightin’ for–not just an idea. But what does it mean for you two? You’re friends, naturally, but a child? Sid seems unconcerned with speaking of the logistics here. Tactfully, he avoids the topic altogether and tries his best to act unchanged with the knowledge.

It’s weird, Lucy tells you, seeing you both like this. When you quirk your brow at her, she elaborates. Unhappy, I mean.

Sid is at his ship, your knife pressed to his throat. it’s strange, ain’t it? He says, arms thrown up in the air, you’d think knowing it’ll all be okay would make this a lot easier, wouldn’t it?

It’s just funny! Lucy groans in frustration, you denying her a mug of ale, you two are supposed to be like gross and– she presses the tips of her fingers together, stammering through poorly attempted kissing noises. –but it’s nothing like that!

You run your hand over where Sid’s blood has burnt through the steel of your blade. Fate is wrong, Sid told you once, a lifetime ago, destiny’s never set in stone–life’d be too easy if it were.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Juno and Bora ambush you in the words, snickering behind hand-crafted fox masks. Yoon regales you with an old tale about two trickster spirits, Juno can’t keep herself from jumping in and finishing the story–which spurs Bora hitting her sister behind her head, which then results in Juno retaliating and what once felt like a threat against your life has dissolved into childish bickering between two siblings. Needless to say, they’re bad at keeping secrets.

You know what this means, you let Yoon’s suggestive joke drift through the air. The Fey population is dwindling.

But it all feels like a joke, perhaps because Yoon takes nothing with seriousness. His children are amused by his apathy for only so long, before they turn to you, finding that your pessimism is equally as unamusing.

The world’s a lot less sad in the future, Juno tries to tell you, Colette and Theo and I collect frogs from the lake behind the castle and then ‘Dosia gets really mad ‘cause Theo puts them in her bag but you an’ Dad always laugh! Not at ‘Dosia, ‘cause that would be mean, but when we tell you about our day you get like— she mimics a smile, you shoot her a look of confusion.

Forget it, Bora interjects, no one ever tells us what it was like during the war, it’s like everyone’s trying to…

Hide it in ‘Dosia’s bag!

…Metaphorically.

Yeah, duh, not really, ‘cause that’s where the frogs go.

They tell you stories of the future, of their friends and the school you will help to build. Yoon sits and listens to them one day, his face unreadable. There is a conversation to be had, you and Yoon are due for a lot of those. In lieu of one he takes you to that lake behind the castle—which is not a lake at all but a Rot-stained swamp. He presses his palm against the corrupted trunk of a nearby tree, letting it burn through his skin, blood tricking down the bark. Imagine a child playing here and tell me it doesn’t sound like a lie.

You have a hard time telling him any different.

[romancingromanoff]

Dream at Dusk Part 1/? Ofc x Cullen Family

Author’s note: I know I’ve been gone for almost two months or so but I’ve literally had to move my entire life across the world to another continent I’d never stepped foot on until now. To celebrate breaking my leave of absence, here’s an extended first chapter of the Twilight universe fic I mentioned earlier. I began writing this three or four years ago and I haven’t changed any of the content so I’m not completely happy with the style but I have a lot of plans for this story and can’t wait to develop it into what is possibly a collection of fanfics.

Basically, this story takes place in the Twilight universe pre-Bella moving to Forks (though that will come up very soon) when a newborn vampire named Maggie who is a young teenager stumbles across the Cullen Clan. There’s nothing romantic or sexual in the plot (yet, hehe but I’ve been waiting for YEARS to set this character up with one of the Denali girls) and it’s more focused on the family bonding esp. the mother-daughter relationship between the main character and Esme. 

Oh, also, new Nat fic coming out soon. 

Maggie

Two things ran through Maggie’s mind when she came across the house in the woods. Number one: She was scared that she would catch someone’s scent and so she planned to turn around and run. Number two: She couldn’t stop wondering what kind of job the owner of the house had. Were they an heir to a family company? A part of the mafia? Lottery winner? But the longer she stayed to admire the architecture of the serene, modern home with the perfect location in the middle of the woods, she began to realize that its residents weren’t exactly normal people.

She flinched when her eyes landed on what could only be human hair. Her body automatically engaged itself to pounce although in her mind she begged that she’d have the strength to pull away and send herself running in the opposite direction. However, she found that she didn’t need to. Even though she had recently obtained perfect sight, she rubbed her eyes as if she were in a trance before taking another look at the woman inside the house. She had the most beautiful and voluptuous brunette curls that framed her kind face so well and a soft smile that seemed to soothe Maggie’s nerves even while she was scrambling to figure out what was going on.

The problem was that there was no smell. There was absolutely no scent of blood.

At first, Maggie instinctively grabbed her neck trying to feel if it was still sensitive from the primal urge to drink. She secretly hoped that her newfound affliction had simply run out its course, but was disappointed to find the cravings inside of her still burned all throughout her throat. Then, examining the woman even closer, she noticed something strangely off about her appearance. I mean of course she was absolutely stunning and Maggie thought she looked like an angel, but then she started to wonder if the woman happened to look a little too perfect to be real.

Maggie knew she should be going, but was too caught up in her fascination with this person  and how dream-like she appeared. There wasn’t a blemish on her skin which was, coincidentally, exactly what Maggie had first noticed when she had woken up and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Other things like her absolute perfect posture and unnatural grace and poise also gave it away too. She must’ve been like Maggie. But then she was caught in the light of those piercing golden eyes.

Maggie carefully unzipped her backpack, which held the last of her possessions, and took out the compact mirror that was shaped like a purple seashell. She smiled briefly looking at it, remembering what few happy memories from her childhood that it carried, before opening it to check her own face. But it was just as she suspected: Red eyes.

The sound of the front door opening caused her to slam her mirror shut so fast she almost would’ve broken the glass were it not for her dangerously keen precision. She counted one, two, three bodies as they left out the front door and began walking in her direction. There was still no smell of human blood for miles which also explained how the three figures seemed to surround the base of the tree she was perched in so quickly.

There was probably no point in running for Maggie. She figured that if these folk were much more of the..... experienced type (just based on how sophisticated and settled their lifestyle was compared to hers) then they could easily chase her down pretty swiftly. So she opted to remain as quiet and still as possible and foolishly clung to the hope that they might not have noticed her yet.

“Good evening,” the sound of one of the male figures confirmed that she had, indeed, been spotted. She winced back instinctively at first but then unclenched her tightened muscles as she started realize that his tone wasn’t hostile. “My name is Carlisle Cullen and these are two of my children. We live in the house just nearby that you must have seen. We’d be happy to host you there and offer you shelter and a shower.”

Maggie certainly wasn’t the expert on her species, but didn’t assume that they would be the type to live in packs just based off of how the media portrayed them. Weren’t they supposed to dwell all alone in the ruins of ancient castles and sleep in festering coffins? This man had used the word “family” however, as if there was some type of normalcy to them. It certainly intrigued the young girl but she also made sure to take precaution with such information. They might have been trying to lure her down after all.

“Carlisle, I don’t think she...” the sad, shorter brown haired male mumbled to who must have been the groups leader.

“We’re different too. Just like you,” the littlest of them, a rather small brunette with a pixie cut who almost looked as small as Maggie herself, chimed in grabbing at her curiosity once again. “I know it’s pretty crazy and a lot to take in but we can help answer all of your questions.”

As tempting as the prospect seemed, Maggie stood her ground. She might have been young but it wasn’t like she was born yesterday, right?

A chuckle broke from down below and it seemed like the gloomy one was laughing at her for some reason, yet she hadn’t said anything! “I’m sorry,” he then apologized. “My name is Edward. Edward Cullen. Might I ask what yours is?”

The two syllables rested just on the tips of the poor girl’s lips but she didn’t dare speak. Strangely, it didn’t seem to matter because he already knew her name.

“Her name’s Maggie,” she heard him speak before the female of the group suddenly got super still, the name triggering her. Even compared to the other two she was distinctively paler all of a sudden and looked to be completely frozen from what Maggie could tell.

“Alice, what do you see?” Edward gently rested his hand on her shoulder almost as if he was nudging her back into consciousness.

“S-She was one of us,” her voice had gotten ten times more quiet and it wavered in the harsh winds that surrounded Maggie up in the trees so that she couldn’t hear the next few words that were said. All she could see was Alice speaking before Carlisle’s mouth moved as if he were asking her a question. “And Esme… Esme! We need to get Esme right now! Edward, go!”

He was gone before the last few words had left her mouth, leaving Maggie alone with the other two down below her. If he had run back to fetch someone else then now was probably the best chance she had of slipping out of there before she would be even more outnumbered. Desperate but unsure of herself, Maggie hesitated to make the jump over to the next tree. Even though she felt like she could make it, she didn’t want to overestimate her abilities and risk falling.

“Make a decision. Go. Now! No, don’t! Not there!” Her mind raced as she kept prepping to jump before psyching herself out. After only a few failed attempts at that she could hear two more figures running back towards her. It was too late.

The only expendable plan she had left was to climb as high as she could to the very top of the tree. Maggie felt like her heart should be in her throat by now but still managed to map out a route she could take through the branches as she looked up in despair. She was just about to reach her hand out and begin her ascent when a new voice stopped her.

“The poor thing, she looks scared to death. Edward, you should have just let her introduce herself when she felt ready. Just imagine what kind of crazy conclusions she could have come to with you vocalizing what you read so openly. She must be terrified!” The voice flowed so musically that it almost made her words sound like music. To Maggie’s surprise, it was coming from the same woman she had seen in the window. For some reason, that almost made her worries evaporate up and into the clouds far beyond the tree tops that she was know reconsidering escaping to.

“Sorry, Esme.”

Then, she spoke again. And each word seemed to pull Maggie down closer and closer to meet her. “I apologize that my family frightened you. I’m Esme Cullen. Would you mind telling me your name? I spotted you earlier from my window and was sad to see you run off so soon and before I could get to know you.”

How could she sound so genuine and non-threatening that it seemed to relieve Maggie of all of her normal suspicions? She had never trusted anybody and certainly not just upon meeting them, but something in her gentle voice and soft, encouraging smile soothed over whatever fears she had.

“Maggie. Just Maggie…”

Her eyes seemed to light up when she finally answered. “Well, Maggie, that’s a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. I’d love for you to come down so we could talk more. It wouldn’t have to be with anyone else either, just me and you if that’s more comfortable.”

Almost as if on cue, the two men immediately raced off back to the house to leave them alone. The little one, Alice, shuffled behind for a little while with an obvious look of concern on her face. Esme merely gave her an affirming nod before the small brunette gave a pleasant wave to Maggie before zooming off after the others.

Timidly making her way down the tree, Maggie tried to move with a bit of haste while still being as careful as possible not to loose her footing during the descent. She didn’t want to be rude and keep the kind lady waiting for her so she eventually sped up to a speed a little past her usual comfort zone and was soon greeted by the familiar feeling of the ground underneath her feet as well. She turned to find that she was even more beautiful up close and that she hadn’t been wrong thinking that the woman would radiate a sense of happiness all around her.

“Hi, I’m Esme,” she stuck out her hand accompanied by a big smile. Esme was, of course, by nature a hugger but didn’t want to make the young girl uncomfortable if she didn’t like much physical contact. A flash of nervousness in her eyes seemed to prove her right, but eventually she slowly reached out her hand to meet hers. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Taking a minute to study her face, Maggie was surprised to see that Esme’s facial expression remained pleasantly calm as a reaction. She seemed to completely understand Maggie’s reason for staring and wasn’t offended in the slightest like Maggie feared she might have been.

“You’re... like me... aren’t you?” she struggled to find the right words but was grateful Esme knew what she meant.

“Yes, I am,” she smiled in response. “And I’m sure you have lots of questions. I certainly did when Carlisle changed me.”

The mentioning of the man with the golden hair made something click in Maggie’s mind. When he had spoken of his family, she assumed he must’ve been the father-figure then. That would make Esme the wife and mother.

Mother.

“So, you two are together? And the others are your children? But not due to biology but because he changed all of you?”

“Well, yes, yes, and sort of,” she replied with a small chuckle at how quick the young one was to connect the dots. “You picked that up rather quickly, huh? Yes, Carlisle changed Edward to save him from death but soon found him to be a comforting companion to help fill a sense of emptiness that he had carried with him from being lonely for so long. Not too long after that, he did the same with me. I just happened to be the one to fall in love with him.”

“When was this?”

“Hmm,” Esme had to take a moment to think about the question. In many ways she felt that she had known Carlisle for thousands of lifetimes and couldn’t think of how to express their relationship in terms of relative time, which had seemed so insignificant after all these years. “I suppose it was 90 years ago or so but I remember it all like it was yesterday.”

Esme carefully mirrored Maggie’s cautious  pace as she began to slow down. She watched with curiosity as a sense of contemplation overtook the girl who had suddenly become engrossed with her surroundings. Her eyes caught on everything up above them as she studied the details of each tree in the forest amongst the sea of dark, heavy green.

“I used to think it was impossible for any other living thing to be as old as the trees,” she said almost dazed by her own realization as it was dawning upon her just as she spoke. “But I guess I was wrong…” Then with an abrupt halt her entire demeanor changed as the concept of immortality seemed to sink in. To Maggie, it seemed more like a curse the more and more she felt the burning in her throat grow. “I don’t think I can live like this forever. It’s been a week, maybe, and I don’t want to hurt anybody so I’ve been avoiding people but it just keeps getting worse.”

Esme instinctively went to wrap her arm around her shoulders which she was then glad didn’t make her run away. She could tell she was definitely a newborn but hadn’t realized she’d been denying her own thirst since she’d awoken. It amazed her thinking of the strength and discipline that this young child had in her. “You don’t have to live that way or either of those ways, Maggie. My family and I only hunt animals and for the most part it allows us to interact fairly normally in human society. We can show you.”

“Animal blood?” Maggie’s eyes quickly darkened at the mere realization that there was another, viable food source for her. She didn’t really care what it was and all she knew was that she craved it.

“Here, let me show you,” Esme smiled as she unwrapped herself from holding her (which strangely left Maggie feeling somewhat empty) and offered her her hand. With very little need for time to make her decision, Maggie gladly reached for her and the older vampire went running off.

With a full belly and a new friend making her day much better than she expected, Maggie was much more easily coaxed into the Cullen house with how relaxed she now was. The promise of a shower also didn’t hurt. As expected, she was a bit shy and kept her greetings quite short with the others (especially Emmett and Rosalie who she hadn’t met yet) but felt this weird sense of calmness wash over and soothe her when being introduced to Jasper. She allowed herself to indulge in the glorious feeling of hot, clean water and took the opportunity to scrub herself down three times. After running around in the woods for days trying to avoid civilization, she certainly felt gross in her muddied skin and was glad to wash it off.

After rinsing out her hair and wrapping the towel around her body, she was surprised to step out of the bathroom and find a fresh new outfit of clothes laying out for her on the bed.   She had overheard Alice trying to pick out a dress for her while she was in the bathroom, but was glad to see that she had gone for a simple pair of sweatpants and a warm hoodie instead. Maggie wanted nothing more than to snuggle up in some zipperless, fleece lined pants and be able to pull her sweatshirt sleeves over her hands. Not only was it extremely comfortable and an anxiety-soother for her, but she was also too scared to touch anything in the house. Everything from the intricately designed wallpapers to the delicate china vases looked way to expensive for her to accidentally ruin with her fingerprint smudges, or worse, by breaking them. Her new sense of strength was something she had yet to learn to control.

“Maggie,” she heard Esme’s voice carry from downstairs out and up through the airy halls. “Come join us we’re just in the family room.”

Carefully peeking around the corner of the steps, Maggie was met with the sight of all of the Cullens spread out and around the wide room which was beautifully decorated to no surprise. Edward was sitting at a baby grand piano and tried to offer as best as a smile as he could. Rosalie was the furthest away, standing next to the wall covered in bookshelves and though she wore a tight, slightly intimidating expression on her face, Maggie could have sworn she was trying to smile through the entire affair which surprised her. The tall, curt blonde didn’t appear to be the most open and accepting of strangers, but then again, neither was Maggie. They weirdly seemed to see eye to eye as they both judged the other from a safe distance.

Alice was giggling gleefully as she swung her arm by her side that was also holding onto Jasper’s hand. They were standing just behind a loveseat that was currently occupied by Emmett who had looked up with a giant grin on his face to wave at Maggie. Directly across from them was a longer couch where Carlisle and Esme sat side by side, his arm gently wrapped around her. It was unorthodox to say the least, but Maggie couldn’t help but think they really did look like one happy family.

“Sit,” Esme patted the space next to her on the couch. As she took her place, she noticed Rosalie and Edward began to circle around the rest of the group slowly approaching her. It weirdly felt like they were studying her which itched that certain bone in her body that always kept her uncomfortably alert in wary situations. Maggie recognized suspicion in another person’s eyes when she saw it. The only difference between her and Rosalie (besides the fact that she seemed to be the goddess of supermodels) was that Maggie didn’t have nearly as much self-confidence as the much taller, strikingly bold woman. She felt small compared to her. Edward just seemed to know much more than he was letting on, which had Maggie quite nervous too: Like how he knew her name in the woods.

“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a newborn join us,” Carlisle spoke.

“A newborn? Like a newborn vampire?”

“Exactly, I told you she was very bright,” Esme gently nudged Carlisle next to her as she wore a proud smile on her face. It almost made goosebumps crawl across Maggie’s skin she felt so flattered.

“Within the first year of being turned, newborns are able to summon great power from the blood that still lingers in their veins. It makes them even stronger and faster than older vampires.”

“But not stronger than me,” Emmett cut in which made everyone chuckle.

“However, it’s also the hardest to control your thirst during the first year,” Carlisle continued.

“Maggie, when were you turned? Do you remember anything at all?” Edward asked the question they were all thinking of. It made a deep pain form in the middle of her chest.

“Maggie,” Esme instinctively took the young girl’s hands into her own to which Maggie made no protests. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to. We all understand how painful this is to go through.”

“It’s okay,” Maggie said so soon it even surprised herself. “I remember him clearly though he wasn’t a nice man… not in the slightest.”

If it were possible for tears to form in Alice’s eyes, Maggie would’ve sworn that she could see her tearing up across from her. Jasper also gave Alice some comforting rubs which left Maggie to think her story must’ve been all to familiar for the usually perky person.

“He said he wanted my gift,” she pressed her two lips together just remembering how his icy voice made her hair stick straight up. “When I woke up he had already tied me down with some chains but somehow I was able to break free and just barely outrun him…. And I’ve been running ever since just trying to keep away from people until I ran into you all. I think today is the fourth night for me.”

“Where are you from?” Alice inquired, curious to know exactly how much ground she’d covered during that time.

“Originally? I don’t know. But my orphanage was in New York, not the city though. A small town between Albany and Utica. I’ve basically lived there all my life.” Silence.

“This gift… did he say what it was? Or how did he know that you would be gifted as a vampire?” Jasper was still hung up on that small detail that had suspicion written all over it to him. After all he had experienced he easily recognized a puppet-master playing vampire at work.

With everything that had happened to her in the past week or so that tiny bit of information had simply been one decodable mystery amongst the countless others; it hadn’t occurred to her what he could have possibly meant. But now here she was with the Cullens, who had promised her answers, yet they seemed just as confused as she did. She gave herself a mental slap on the head for not remembering that detail earlier.

“I’m not sure,” she frowned, disappointed that her mind was immediately rendered useless as the familiar feeling of numbness right behind her eyes left her confused and unable to process words. “It’s fuzzy for some reason…. Could I sleep on it?”

Being a vampire took away the physiological function of blinking, but Esme couldn’t help but do so in that moment as she was staring blankly at the girl’s face.

“Maggie, we don’t… We don’t sleep.”

“Ever?” Her voice wavered, dropping down to a soft whisper.

“No, we don’t need to. We don’t get tired, sweetheart.”

It was a good thing that she was already seated on the couch because she immediately fell backwards, quite figuratively and literally, into a deep sleep.