#(just in case anyone's still using that one)

[30somethingautisticteacher]

Christmas Reconciliation

In case anyone was wondering how Buck and Tommy's Christmas is going today 😆🥰

****

The warm glow of Christmas morning filled Maddie and Chim's living room. Buck sank into the couch, surrounded by the aftermath of gift-opening chaos, crumpled wrapping paper littering the floor

Jee Yun sat cross-legged on the floor, completely absorbed in her new toys.

"Hey, little brother. You doing ok?" Maddie asked, her voice soft with sisterly concern.

"Oh uh yeah. It's Christmas. Why wouldn't I be?" Buck responded, his smile not quite reaching his eyes.

"Buck," Maddie said in a warning tone. "You're staring at that phone awfully hard. What's up?"

"Connor sent me a Christmas text with a picture of him, Kameron, and Simon," Buck said, holding out his phone and showing the image to Maddie.

"Wow, he really does look a lot like you," Maddie observed, taking in the details of the photograph.

"Yeah, he does," Buck agreed. His voice softened, tinged with a deep, aching sadness. "I guess I'm just feeling jealous. I want that. I want to be a Dad on Christmas morning. I want to make Christmas breakfast and wear matching Christmas pajamas."

He paused, his eyes distant. "I saw that future. I could see it as clear as day. Me and Tommy snuggled up on the couch with two kids, drinking hot cocoa and watching a fire burn in the fireplace. And now? My future is just a blank slate."

"Maybe that's a good thing?" Maddie offered gently. "Full of possibilities."

"I don't want possibilities," Buck said, his voice trembling with raw emotion. "I want Tommy."

"Oh, Buck," Maddie said, pulling him into a hug.

She caught Chimney's eyes over Buck's head and nodded.

Buck let himself be held by his sister for a few more minutes before standing and taking a deep breath. "Okay, that's enough of that. It's time to ice my cinnamon rolls." He headed to the kitchen and fell into his chosen form of distraction. His focus was so complete he nearly missed the knock on the door.

"Hey, Buck?" Chim called out, a hint of something suspiciously like excitement in his voice. "I think Santa had one more gift for you today."

Buck wiped his hands on a dish towel, a puzzled look crossing his face as he walked toward the door.

"Tommy," Buck whispered.

"Merry Christmas, Evan. Can we talk?"

Buck nodded, unable to form words. Tommy looked worn and tired but still devastatingly handsome. Buck's heart skipped a beat as he looked into those deep blue eyes.

"Why don't you two go have a chat on the patio?" Maddie said.

"Thanks, Maddie," Tommy replied. He and Buck walked through the house and out the back door, the weight of unspoken words hanging between them.

"Why are you here, Tommy?" Buck asked, the words coming out more harshly than he meant for them to.

"I miss you," Tommy whispered.

"What?" Buck said, confusion and hope warring in his voice.

"I miss you, Evan. I miss you. I miss you so damn much that it hurts. I'm not sleeping, I'm barely eating. My captain even temporarily pulled me from air support because he said I'm not safe to fly in this condition." Tommy took in a deep, ragged breath. "I am so sorry that I broke us."

"Then why? Why did you do it? Why did you leave me? I wanted it all with you. I was willing to give you everything, and you just walked away," Buck said, his voice a mixture of pain and desperation.

"You don't know me, Evan. Not really," Tommy said, vulnerability seeping through his defensive words.

"And whose fault is that?" Buck challenged. "I want to know you. All of you. Not just the shiny cool guy that you let the world see. I want it all. And there were times that you trusted me enough to show me glimpses."

"I'm a mess," Tommy murmured.

"Hello! Have you met me?" Buck replied, a hint of humor breaking through the tension. "I don't care about that. You were my mess. We were each other's messes."

"Do you think there's any chance-" Tommy trailed off, leaving the possibility hanging between them.

"You're it for me, Tommy, and I'm sorry if that scares you, but it's true. I love you, and you are my endgame. Do you think maybe you can try to see me as yours?" Buck said, his eyes filling with tears.

"Oh, baby," Tommy said, gently wiping away the tears as they began to spill down Buck's cheeks. "I love you too, and I am never letting you go again."

They kissed gently at first, but then with more heat, pouring out everything they had been holding back.

"Ahem," The two men broke apart as Chimney appeared in the doorway, a knowing smile on his face.

"Now that that's all settled. How about some Christmas breakfast?"

They grinned as Buck grabbed Tommy's hand intertwining their fingers, and steered him inside.

They still had lots of work to do to repair the cracks in their relationship, but it was a start. And Buck knew that they were just going to get stronger because they were in love - messy, complicated, beautiful love, actually.

[polyamships]

[Image description in ALT. Prompts in plain text under the cut.]

Polyamships is hosting #MultiamoryMarch2025

Multiamory March is a month-long event held each year, starting on March 1st and ending on March 31st, with a prompt for each day.

🎉🎉2025 marks the 5th year since #MultiamoryMarch came to our blog 🎉🎉

Once again we gather to celebrate polyamory in all its forms: OT3s, OT4s, OT8s, V-relationships, QPRs, sedoretus, and any configuration you can think of. In the spirit of this month, we invite you to create works in any medium using the prompts above if you need a little inspiration.

This year we have an additional 10 alt visual prompts for you to choose! Check out the links under the cut.

Remember our prompts are there to inspire you, not restrict you. You can also create freely or even use one of our prompts from past years we’d still love to see fanworks for if they inspire you better. If you use a prompt, please make sure to let us know which prompt you’re creating for somewhere on your post.

At us @polyamships and use the tags #MultiamoryMarch and #MultiamoryMarch2025 in the first five tags so we can hopefully see it. If you don’t see us reblog your post within a few days feel free to send us an ask to let us know, or submit it via the submit link here in case we’ve missed your post or the tags/notifications are being weird.

All ratings are welcome but anything nsfw/triggery should be warned for and behind a read more, as should very long tumblr fic.

We also have an AO3 collection for the event that can be found here and the collection name is ‘multiamory_march_works’.

We can’t wait to see what you create for the month, and please do spread the word about the event. ❤️♾️

Over the next month or two, we will also be doing a number of posts with expanded ideas for each prompt for anyone who needs a little more inspiration than just the one or two word style.

Under the cut you can find the prompts in written form:

Official Multiamory March 2025 prompts

First kiss(es)

Hurt/Comfort

First date as a polycule

N+1 things

Cuddles

Team as polycule

Secret relationship

Friends to lovers

Queerplatonic relationships

Meet the family

Pining

Explaining/mapping the polycule

The polycule taking care of a child or pet

Confessions

and they were roommates

Outsider POV

Soulmates AU

"Don't look at me. This was not my idea."

Chatfic/the polycule groupchat

Time travel

Dreams

Space

Complicated relationships

Trans characters

Touch

Scars

Kink negotiation

Magic

Vampire AU

Role reversal

Morning routine

Alt visual prompts

Always room for one more [LINK]

Home [LINK]

HALSEY - NOW OR NEVER MV [LINK]

Dancing [LINK]

Matching [LINK]

Mythology [LINK]

BTS - BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS MV [LINK]

Family feud [LINK]

Royalty [LINK]

KARD - HOLA HOLA MV [LINK]

[the-ace-with-spades]

Has anyone written a Christmas Carol AU with Rooster as the Scrooge?

Like, you know, Rooster getting calls and texts from various people (Mav, Ice...) on Christmas Eve and ignoring it all to go to a bar instead, telling Nat to go screw herself when she offers, again, that he could spend Christmas with her and Javy -- and Jake, his ex, by extend, who also doesn't have any family to spend it with, but not by choice like Bradley but because he got disowned a long time ago.

Bradley gets drunk off his ass and ends up getting kicked out and falls asleep somewhere in the snow on the way back to his home.

Then he gets visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past and he is shown flashes from back when Carole was alive and cooked proper Christmas dinner with Mav, or back from when he was sixteen and had a very messy/half-assed but domestic Christmas with Mav, who came back from deployment the day before, and Ice, who never had to organise a Christmas dinner before, or back when he and Jake got stuck on base in Japan on a training assignment and spent the whole day in bed, eating Christmas KFC and doing other things.

And then Christmas Present takes over and he is shown the little Christmas dinner Nat organised with Javy and Jake and how Nat is pissed with him and Jake talks about how he was going to use the occasion and have an honest talk with Bradley about their break-up for the last time and how Bradley not showing up seems to him like a sign to give up and move on. And then he sees Mav and Ice with Slider's family at the Christmas dinner, with a seat with an empty plate and unused cutlery left for Bradley, just in case he shows up, and he sees Mav get up and step outside and call Bradley and get one ring and then going straight to voicemail because Bradley blocked him sometime mid-day when he got fed-up. Ice is wearing a warm thick jumper and a scarf indoors.

And finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come gives him a kick and goes in a couple years down the line to show him a sad-looking depressed Mav with zero Christmas decorations around him, sitting alone in a dark living room with a bottle of whiskey and an urn on the unlit fireplace. Then it goes even a few more years later to show pregnant Nat ranting about Bradley preferring to swap duties with someone instead of coming to their Christmas party, just as Jake, looking a few years older, rings the doorbell with some guy that just rattles Bradley's spidey senses and who holds Jake a little bit too tight at the waist when he tries to go greet Javy with a hug. And then he sees himself, tired, flying some stupid Christmas flyover formation when his plane malfunctions and he proceeds to burn alive when he hesitates to open the canopy for too long and the engine explodes with him still sitting a few meters away from it.

He comes back to it and it's once again a Christmas Eve morning. He doesn't answer the texts because he doesn't know what to write back in reply, but he calls Nat and tells her he's going to be there. Instead of going to the bar, he goes to the mall and buys some last-minute Christmas presents for everyone, with a slightly more fancy and/or more meaningful present for Jake.

He goes to the Christmas dinner and he and Nat talk and he apologizes for the way he's been treating her offers so far and he and Jake have a little honest conversation when Jake, a little buzzed on the eggnog, cuddles up to him on the sofa.

When Mav calls, he picks up. He still feels a lot of different things about Mav, so he only tells him he wants to talk to them after New Year and wishes them Merry Christmas and tells them he'll text them with a time he can come by San Diego. He can hear that Mav is crying when he agrees with the plan and wishes him Merry Christmas back.

He and Jake spend the Christmas night together.

[magnoliasandarson]

ice and stone, deadweight redux

In an odd sort of self-punishing way, Jason Todd liked to visit his own grave.

When he first "came back" he had half-crawled back to the unforgiving stone and thrown up, hysterically panicking when his mind told him it was dirt leaving his lips. He had wept and screamed until his voice gave out, trapped in a hellish loop of warring phantom sensations. One second, he was burning alive- the next, suffocating on icy mud.

But that was then, and this is now.

Now, he had once again been unable to keep his cool at a Wayne family function. Now, he had shattered an expensive-looking crystal glass in his fist and stormed out of the formal dining room. Now, he was a monster to them again. Merry-fuckin-Christmas.

So, here he sat, perched six feet over where his corpse once lay, and mourned the boy that should exist instead of him.

It was oddly festive in the cemetery. Blood-red poinsettias and fragrant garlands adorned every other monument, with little LED candles glimmering here and there. The rubble of Sheila Haywood's marble gravestone sparkled in the reflection of bright city lights—like twinkling stars shining accusingly over at him. Sue him, but Jason had taken a crowbar to her marker almost immediately after arriving in Gotham.

He stared at the epitaph: Rest in Peace. There was crystal from his glass still embedded in his hand, glittering like diamonds amidst the rivulets of blood leaving his palm. His eyes followed the journey of the shimmering scarlet over his thigh and down to the powdery snow under him.

He didn't really remember crawling out. The pits had taken away the brunt of the scars, but there were still white lines traced into the tan skin of his hands. He didn't care to think about how deep the scarring must have been for it to stay.

Jason found himself trapped, staring at the red flowers blooming beneath him. Some part of him wondered if the blood would find its way to the wreckage of his casket, to the gore he'd left in his wake so long ago. Logically, he figured Dick would wander over soon, once he got done yelling at Bruce and arguing with Damian.

He never guessed it would be Tim.

"Hey," Jason would never in a million years admit it, but he was privately a little pleased that Tim had come looking for him. He had fucked up so spectacularly with his brother, had given him every reason to despise him- to want him dead, and yet, here Tim was. Awkwardly standing just on the other side of Jason's headstone, face pinched like he'd eaten an especially sour lemon.

Jason tilted his head up, something in his neck cracking as his chin left his sternum, "Sup, Timbit."

Tim looked genuinely pained as he stepped around the grave and lowered himself to sit a few feet away on the snow, "Y'know, just seeing the sights, festive lights, my brother bleeding out in snow- the holiday favorites."

Jason barked a laugh as something in his shoulders loosened, the kid was a bit of a bastard but he was funny, "You get forced to check on the charity case?"

"Drew the short straw, yeah," Tim's face was pale, save for the red coloring his nose, "do you need a med kit?"

Jason Peter Todd; Beloved Son and Friend. Jason's lips half formed the words as he read them over again; when the blood started roaring in his ears, he clenched his fist around the shards- the fresh wave of pain grounding him, "This won't kill me."

"That's not what I asked," the vehemence in Tim's words snapped Jason out of his half-daze, electric teal eyes landing on furrowed eyebrows and a stormy gaze, "Jason, are you okay?"

Jason huffed a weak imitation of a laugh, "Is anyone in this family?"

"This isn't about them," Tim immediately countered, a line on his forehead forming. Jason hated himself for it, for making Tim look like that. This was his little brother, a kid, really, and he looked twice his age because he was forced to babysit the family basketcase.

Jason used his non-gory hand to reach into his jacket pocket and take out a cigarette. "Just tired, Tim," he tucked the unlit cigarette between his lips, lighting it up as he muttered, "That's all—just tired."

Tim's face blurred behind a cloud of smoke, for a moment erasing the unlived age from his features, "You should get more sleep."

"Hypocrite," Jason snapped back with no real heat. It was true; he should have been the one telling Tim to sleep.

The smoke cleared between them as Jason took a long, deep drag. Tim looked half apologetic as he almost whispered, "This family's specialty."

Jason scoffed, unable to stop himself from nearly shouting, "You don't need to tell me that," he pointed his cigarette to the ice-glazed stone before them, "I'm not even a Wayne, Mr. CEO Drake-Wayne." It was cruel, it was mean, but Jason couldn't force himself to care.

Tim's face contorted again, coloring up to his ears with old anger and bitterness. Some cruel part of Jason's mind cheered. Finally, the kid was going to be honest. Go on, yell at the boogeyman who hurt you, tell him to go to Hell. Really end the holiday with a bang. The kid took a long, controlled breath, and evenly asked, "Are you okay, Jason?"

Jason grimaced at the bullshit question, pressing his bloody palm into the scarlet snow as he stood, flicking his spent cigarette at Sheila, "Just dead weight, Tim,"

He turned his back to the boy shivering on the snow, "That's all I ever was."

[oceanwithouthermoon]

okok let me finally do my analysis on kusuke and makoto parallels like ive talked about a thousand times (obvious warning that im gonna talk about incest, and also that im gonna be talking about a gag manga in a serious light so if that upsets you just go away ✌️)... yippee, perverted older brothers with unhealthy dynamics with their powerful younger siblings analysis!!

the most obvious parallel is in their interactions with the others sibling. they literally have the same exact meeting, they both go from being fake nice to "my sibling is special and youre not worthy of them"

not included in pictures but also note that kusuo got rid of makoto by calling on kokomi and kokomi got rid of kusuke by calling on her fans

"the second hes distracted, LETS GO"

"we're the only ones who can match up to each other"

kusukes idea of kusuo being inhuman also influences the way this is treated i think- he tells kokomi that marrying a beautiful man will suit her best and that kusuo is above that kind of thing (aka actual romantic and aesthetic attraction), and it seems that being the only ones who can measure up to each other is probably the closest, in his eyes, that kusuo can get to love (confirmed in my opinion by the marriage/engagement symbolism a few pictures down⬇️). thats why he thinks theyre the only ones worthy of each other even if he doesnt see kusuo in the exact same way as makoto sees kokomi. if that makes any sense :p these are obviously already parallel on surface level, but id say theyre even more similar if you look deeply into it

"i know everything youre thinking" and "everyone else looks like monkeys to me"

associating their sibling with heaven/god

a certain fixation on their sibling's body... top two are specifically them trying to see their sibling naked without consent

? not sure how to describe this. implications of engagement/marriage? this use of an explicitly romantic symbol actually confuses me in kusukes case but thats not really relevant here...

theyre the reason their sibling cant relax or be themself even at home... also note that kusuo specifically says that kusuos masochism (which i guess in some contexts masochism can be non-sexual but in this situation, since kusuke is canonically a pervert and there are several implications and allusions to sexual pleasure, it obviously means he gets SEXUAL pleasure from pain/humiliation) is the main reason he doesnt like him. likewise, kokomi is bothered by makotos overprotective and overbearing nature, though unfortunately she doesnt seem to be aware of his sister complex and thinks hes just being an annoying big brother.

not necessarily something that can be captured in a picture but theres also the fact that they both have pretty perfect lives but are still obsessed with their sibling and only their sibling, its all they really care about and their entire lives depend on them.

makoto is extremely attractive, charming when hes trying to be, and is a famous actor... he clearly gets girls. but he doesnt want any of them because hes stuck in his obsession with kokomi, shes the only girl he wants and its ruined his perception of other girls. he believes hes the only one that can be right for kokomi and touch her, and that likewise kokomi is the only girl he can be with. her presence dictates his life, he skips work just to follow her around and prevent her from getting involved with other guys. we only see maybe a few sentences from him where he isnt talking about kokomi, even when hes on tv.

kusuke is an attractive and charming genius, easily pulls girls, cambridge graduate, and is the favorite child in his family. but none of that matters, it only sets him apart from other humans and gives him a skewed perspective of anyone who isnt kusuo. he believes kusuo is the only person he can get that sadomasochistic pleasure from, and kusuo is the reason he developed it in the first place and he specifically seeks him out and coerces him into it. he really only cares about his family, theyre the only people in the world that are worth anything in his eyes, and his only interactions with anyone else have been using them as tools to get to kusuo. his life goal is (or was, before the end of cat tank arc) defeating kusuo. he has cameras in his familys house that hes presumably constantly watching, implied by him being ALREADY watching before his parents even called him about kusuos limiter.

[rewordthis]

I wonder if anyone has ever thought about taxidermy, for this specific scene.

Because the art of taxidermy is one of preservation. Yeah, it may sound cruel or exploitative like OP is saying here but where I come from, it is mainly about preserving the memory of a certain time, like a first kill of a hunter or for preserving a very beautiful, rare specimen. Sometimes it also can be used as a means to learning, too. Like he has learned how death is for them (plants) now and every time he looks at his sisters he learns anew about death and pain and how deep he can feel both—a test for him to pass every day of his remaining life. A way to still himself against fear and loneliness. And everything OP says here also reinforces this idea, for me.

As Knives said, he kept his sisters so he will “always remember”—his memento mory of sorts. But also of not forgetting the ugliness, the loss and the pain that he experienced first hand that day—because memory is a fickle thing and tends to mainly preserve the “good times” in the long run (and boy, does he have a long looong time to run!). He wants to preserve the events in his mind.

And as far as taxidermy and keeping a corpse close goes, there are cases of people that have had their beloved pets embalmed in order to prolong the time they spent with them—which admittedly is fucked up—but not out of being exploitative but purely out of love. Because letting go is hard. And because being alone is hard, as well. So… yeah. He is fucked up and his love is fucked up as an extension—that’s just his way of expressing it with actions. And he, also is lonely. So so so lonely��

Also @concernedlily’s tags:

Because, yes. We have that, too as Orthodox Christians. It’s us honouring and revering the Saints’ sacrifice. It’s also a proof of existence, a reminder of sorts, that we as well are worthy of salvation and holiness.

At the very bottom of things, he’s not entirely crazy. He is just… weird. And traumatised.

People have pointed out how triKnives keeping the corpses of his sisters/plants shows how truly dismissive and exploitative of them - and by extension Vash - he is, but I don’t really see it as that. (from one angle yes, the case can certainly be made that him tacking up the dead bodies of his own kin around his piano room shows how fucked in the head he is, but there’s more layers to it) Tristamp Knives is different from other iteration in that he is both more vulnerable and more colder than his counterparts. This is the boy that held his hand out to Rem. The boy who was screaming for someone to save sister plants. The boy who gifted his brother a gun so the brother could kill from a distance. The boy who was screaming “how many times will you steal him?” The boy still desperately pleading while he was burning to death, so on and so forth. But yet, he distances himself from humanity in a way ‘98 and trimax Knives doesn’t. And he says he keeps the body of his sister suspended there to remind him, and I think that’s what it actually is. Because, what did he need to remind himself of? He didn’t have the corpses there before he witnessed the Last Run. And sometime after the Last Run, after he cut off Vash’s arm and lost his brother for the second time, is when he puts up the bodies. He could have had doubts, he could have had regrets, even for a person so strong in their convictions. Seeing the plants die all at once changed him, being rejected by Vash changed him, and Knives was still very young then. He could have faltered, could second-guessed himself, could have despaired of ever making the change he wanted, and then became ashamed of his weakness and did something drastic to hold himself to account. Like, yeah, hanging up his dead siblings. Because if there’s one thing Knives does, is do something drastic when confronted with an Issue. And also, there’s something else to consider, maybe it’s a twisted way of honoring his sisters. Of letting them stand free of their glass prisons in death.  Knives must of taken the bodies he displays from the plants after the Last Run, because the bodes are black and burnt, but hundreds of other plants also died, and what happened to their bodies? They aren’t just sick like the red plants still living in their glass tubes, they’re dead. Because, what are the funerary rites for plants? There probably aren’t any at all. They’re probably disposed of as bio-organic waste. Did Knives lay the others to rest somehow, or did Knives just dispose of them and just kept those odd four or five back out of all of them, because he managed to keep those at least? Is the one hanging over his piano the one he tries to touch in July? They’re dead, but he can keep them safe in his room. They’re dead, but at least he can give them the company of another plant, himself. They’re dead, but they remind him he’s not to let this happen again. They’re black and burnt and dead, and so will Vash be in every way that matters, but he’ll be safe, and Knives will keep him company. Yeah, maybe displaying bodies in such a way is outwardly extremely exploitative, but one of Knives’ greatest flaws is how he crosses over to the side he despises to ensure he and his are not hurt by that side. His Hannibal Lecter piano room decor is fucked up way of honoring his dead, and as he says, reminding himself that he needs to do what has to be done. 

[five-rivers]

Ancestral Chapter 26

New Ancestral chapter! You can also read it on my AO3.

.

Because Danny's life was a joke, he had Vlad's number saved to his phone.  

The man had beaten him up, kidnapped him, tortured him, cloned him, and had professed a strong desire to kill his Dad - not to mention a desire for homicide in general - but there he was on Danny's contact list.  It was ridiculous.  But having a way to contact the fruitloop was too useful for Danny to just delete or block him.  

For example, this situation.  

“Are you sure about this?” asked Danny scrolling down to ‘F’ for ‘Fruitloop.’  “He's kind of like rats.  Once he gets into somewhere, he's a pain to get rid of.”

“I'm unclear what is stopping him now, if so,” said Gwensyvyr.  “As you said, he can fly, can he not?”

“I…”  Danny frowned down at his phone.  “Personal comfort?  Here to Britain is pretty long.  And cold.  And he might want to be here in his civilian persona, not just as a ghost.  I think that's most likely, really.”

“Ah, he keeps that secret, then?”

“Yeah,” said Danny.  “Otherwise my parents would probably kill him, and he loves flirting with Mom.”

“Then I think he should not be so hard to handle, after all.  We shall use him.”  She nodded decisively.  “And if he should forget his place and proposition your mother so brazenly, we shall simply kill him.”

“Okay,” said Danny, looking up from his phone.  “I think- I think that's going a little far, actually.”

“As short-sighted as Madlyn is, she is a lady, and one of my descendants,” said Gwensyvyr.  “No one should take liberties, unless she wills it.”  She paused.  “But the killing was, in this case, metaphorical.”

Danny squinted at her.  He couldn’t tell if she was lying or not.  

“Go on, then.  Call this poorly behaved and very wealthy lunatic of yours.”

“He’s not my anything.  He’s not even my archenemy.”

Gwensyvyr, floating as if lying down on something, propped her head on her knuckles.  “Oh?  Who is?  Pariah Dark?”

“That, um…  No.  I only fought the guy the one time, so…”  He shook his head, suddenly embarrassed by the whole thing and not wanting to admit that his archenemy was Dash.  “It’s not anyone you’d know.  It’s stupid.”  He pressed the call button, then the speakerphone button, so Gwensyvyr could hear.  

The phone rang.

.

Vlad Masters was not a man used to being stymied. 

What few doors his prodigious wealth could not open, his ghost powers allowed him to bypass entirely.  Not to mention his dashing good looks and charming personality.  

And yet, stymied he was.  

He shouldn’t have been, by his own calculations.  Avlynys wasn’t any richer than any other tiny European country, and should have been just as ripe for bribery.  However, it seemed impervious.  At least, on the part of official channels that would have allowed him to exist within the country publicly - and pursue his courtship of dear Madeline.

(Surely, her family couldn’t approve of Jack.  The man was a boar.  A common boar.  Meanwhile, Vlad had both refinement and wealth.)

There were likely dozens of smugglers of the underclass that would take him to the islands, of course, as even under the current circumstances people still needed to eat and other necessities still had to be imported or exported.  He didn’t care about those.  If he wanted to get to Avlynys on the sly, he could just fly over on his own.

He was tempted to overshadow the officials involved, but considering that the injunction on travel came from the highest levels of the Avlynysan government, and that the Avlynysan government was very small, and also in regular contact with the few people who could reliably identify an overshadowing… and although Vlad was seventy percent sure that the heir presumptive to the throne, Matthew Dyrys, didn’t truly believe that Daniel had any special powers, well…  There was always the chance that after the incident with the ghost, he would take Daniel more seriously than most adults would take a teenager.  

But he wasn’t entirely out of options.  A man like himself never was.  As he’d said, certain necessities were still moving in and out of the country, and Avlynys had businessmen as well.  People who could make the argument that he could provide vital services, and who could pressure the appropriate politicians.  However, the price was sure to be steep, and the process would be a lengthy one.  

It was annoying.  

More annoying was the fact that his contact, a representative of the French branch of an Avlynysan company, was late.  They should treat someone like Vlad with more courtesy.  He wasn’t at all used to being kept waiting.  

He checked his watch again and wondered, with a malice so practiced that it was almost idle, if the man was conducting some sort of power play, or if he was just incompetent.  Perhaps, after this, he would put some effort into ruining him.  

“Excuse me, Mr. Masters?”  The one asking was a relatively young blond man with flyaway, slightly thinning hair, broad shoulders, and an accent Vlad was coming to recognize as Avlynysan.

“Ah,” said Vlad, looking up and smiling politely.  “You must be Mr… Ambeej?  Am I pronouncing that correctly?”  His eyes slid pointedly to the blond man’s companion, a middle-aged woman with pearly white hair and watery eyes.  

“Ymbyge,” said the blond man, who flashed a quick smile back at Vlad.  “But don’t worry, no one gets it right on the first try.  Please, call me Christian  I’m sorry for how late I am, but I was consulting with my German counterpart, Ms. Shoenhauer.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said the woman.  Her accent was German.  

“You’re not Avlynysan?”

“Avlynyse,” interjected Mr. Ymbyge. 

“We are an international company, Mr. Masters,” said Ms. Shoenhauer, sitting at the table and smoothing the tablecloth in front of her.  “But my family has had much to do with Avlynys in the past.  It is very important to us.”

“I see,” said Vlad.  

“So!” said Mr. Ymbyge.  “What did you want to talk about?  There’s been a lot of interest in our little country recently, but you stand out even with that…”

Of course Vlad stood out.  His business had nothing to do with the assassinations and the recent international commotion and everything to do with his long-standing personal interest in Maddie and Daniel.  

“I was close with Princess Madeline in college,” said Vlad.  It was something that anyone with a brain should have researched already, but he knew that it would also make helping him a much more attractive proposition for people like these.  “I want to offer her all the help I can during this trying time, whether it be emotional, financial or political, but as it stands, it is very difficult to offer such things when I am stuck here.”  He shrugged, projecting - literally, with ghost powers - an air of self-depreciation.  

“Wow, that’s sure something,” said Mr. Ymbyge.  “But–”

Vlad’s phone rang.  “A moment.”  He could make power-plays as well.  They were, in fact, his favorite game.  Besides, it would do well for these two to know where they stood.

The caller ID displayed the words ‘LITTLE BADGER.’  What was Daniel doing, calling him?  Based on Daniel’s normal behavior, Vlad would have expected Daniel to practically forget that Vlad existed.  

Unless, of course, he’d gotten in over his head.  

“Excuse me,” said Vlad, barely glancing at Mr. Ymbyge and Ms. Shoenhauer.  “I have to take this.”  He stepped away from the table and towards the restaurant's lavish bathrooms.  As soon as he was out of sight, he turned invisible and flew up.  No need to risk eavesdroppers.  

He let the phone ring a third time.  No need to let Daniel think he was rushing.

.

Vlad picked up the phone.

“Oh, Daniel, to what do I owe the pleasure?  Now that you’re an internationally renowned prince and sorcerer–”

While syvyr could be translated as ‘sorcerer,’ ledyn absolutely didn’t mean prince.  At all.  But Danny knew that if he let himself get sidetracked, he and Vlad would wind up arguing about toilet paper or something equally banal and ludicrous.  “Listen, I know you’re trying to get into the country legitimately, and–”

Vlad sighed loudly.  “And you want to stop me, I suppose?  You’re as predictable as always–”

“I can get you in, but you need to do something for me first.”

There was a pause.  “Pardon?”

“I want to make a deal with you.  You do something for me, I do something for you.  You do know how making deals works, right?  You can’t have overshadowed people for everything.”

“I’ll have you know that most of my business arrangements are perfectly legitimate.”

“Doubt,” said Danny.  “But do you want in?  Because otherwise I don’t want to waste my time listening to your voice.”

“What guarantee do I have that you would keep your side of the bargain?  You and your sister haven’t been entirely honest with me in the past.”

“Well, first off, that was when you kidnapped me; secondly, we didn’t have a deal, then.  I was just lying to you.”  He saw Gwensyvyr’s eyebrows go up and winced.  Hopefully, that didn’t lower her opinion of him.  “I’ve kept every deal we’ve made, even when you haven’t.”

Vlad made a disgruntled noise.  “How would you even accomplish such a task?  You’re a teenager and–”

“I’m currently living in the same house as the next ruler of Avlynys,” said Danny, which was a true statement no matter who wound up taking the throne, “and like you said, I’m an internationally renowned sorcerer.  Besides, when I tell you what I want you to do, you’ll understand.”

“What is it, exactly, that you want me to do?  You’ve never asked for my help with any ghosts before, and considering your performance against the ghost at that Moon Masque, I can’t imagine that you would start now.”

“Yeah, well, what I need right now doesn’t have to do with ghosts.”

“Well,” said Vlad, “I’d have to hear what you want before I can agree or disagree to anything.  You understand.”

Danny looked up at Gwensyvyr, who was frowning down at the phone.  She glanced back at Danny, then spoke to the phone.  “As one of your standing ought to–”

“Who is that?  That isn’t Jasmine.  Daniel, you didn’t–”

“She’s a ghost,” said Danny before Vlad could work himself into a fit, as funny as that would be.  “Most people can’t even see her.  She’s not going to go around spreading your secrets.”

“A shade, then,” said Vlad, dismissively.  “What does she have to do with this?”

“She’s a relative.”

“One of the dead ones?”

“No,” said Gwensyvyr, sarcastically, “despite being a ghost, I am, in fact, perfectly alive.”

“It has happened before,” said Vlad, equally snide.  “What do you have to do with this?”

“I should expect that it would be self-evident that I want my relatives safe,” said Gwensyvyr.  “I am here to facilitate this negotiation.”

“I suppose it is more convenient to speak to an adult.  So, what is it you want?  A power boost?  Some final request that dear Daniel cannot fulfil?  I suppose he is rather limited.”

“As I was saying,” said Gwensyvyr, rather frostily, “one such as yourself should know the value of information by itself.  We will explain, but we require something in exchange.”

“Yes?  What’s that?”

“All your records of little Danyel.”

“Daniel’s records?  What makes you think–?”

“No, not Dannyl’s.  Danyel’s.  The girl’s.”

“Danielle’s,” said Danny.  Gwensyvyr’s pronunciation wasn’t that far off the English, but it wasn’t like Daniel and Danielle were all that different as names to begin with.  

“Fine,” said Vlad.  “But I won’t be able to do anything about it until I return home, and I’m in France at the moment.  So if what you want from me is time sensitive in any way, you should tell me now.”

Gwensyvyr nodded.  “Right,” said Danny.  “Well, have you ever heard of Revyvtech?”

.

Vlad raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the restaurant where two Revyvtech employees were currently waiting to speak to him.  “A time or two.  Why?”

“We’re pretty sure they’re behind the assassinations, and they used something like blood blossoms to do it.”

“Blood blossoms?  They don’t work on humans.”

“But they do work on liminals.  Do you think I just happened to have a knife that worked on ghosts with me at the Moon Masque, or that Mom just threw darts at a board to decide what she was going to do with her life?  Avlynys is a thin spot.”

Vlad pressed his lips together.  It wasn’t as if this would be the first time he used people who wanted to do him harm - the GIW were one such example - but it did make things so much more difficult.  “And you want me to what?  Investigate them?  Fight them?”

“No.  Aunt Alicia is in a coma, back in Arkansas.  We can’t check her out of the hospital she’s at, because her security team doesn’t count as family and the rest of us are all the way over here.  They’ve sent us pictures of her hooked up to a bunch of Revyvtech stuff, though, so we’re pretty sure they’re keeping her in a coma even if we don’t know why.  We want you to figure out what they’re giving her and get her to Avlynys.”

“And how do you expect me to do that when the hospital will only discharge her to family?” asked Vlad. 

“I don’t know, money boy.  Bribe them.  Or overshadow everyone in the hospital.  It’s what you did to get elected, isn’t it?”

“That part will be easy, yes, but I was talking about determining what medicines she’s on, Daniel,” said Vlad, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  

“Hey, you’re the one always bragging to me about how much you know about ghosts.  Use some of that.  None of us here know exactly what they’re using or what they’re doing, which is why we want you to look into it.  Or at least get Aunt Alicia.  Either way, if you show up with Aunt Alicia, you’ll be let in.”

To be fair, Daniel had been right when he said that it would be clear why they would let him in if he completed ‘his side’ of the deal.  Vlad considered his options.  On one hand, he would very much prefer not to do anything Daniel said, simply on principle.  On the other, the business with Revyvtech sounded potentially dangerous to him as well, especially if they were going around poisoning people with blood blossoms.  Retrieving Alicia would likely gain him the favor of Maddie as well.  She did love her sister, for reasons that, quite frankly, escaped Vlad.  

And being trapped in a hospital like that was a fate he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy.  

“Very well,” said Vlad.  “May I assume you’ll be telling this ‘security team’ to expect me?”

“Yeah, fruitloop.  I’m not trying to get you killed.  I want Aunt Alicia to get here safely.”

“That’s hardly what I’m worried about, Daniel.”

“Well, I am.”

Vlad smiled.  “Oh, really?  I’m flattered, Daniel.”

As expected, Daniel hung up.  Vlad shook his head.  Teenagers!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Your most recent post about how you would(n’t) use Lila was interesting, because after I read how you’d handle a Chloe redemption I thought Lila would make a good counterpart to Chloe for Adrien, an object lesson about how some people can’t/don’t want to be redeemed.

Start out before or near the beginning of the redemption arc with Chloe as the bully with a long history of misdeeds to make up for, and Lila as (Adrien and the audience thinks) a nervous newcomer who told some lies for attention/popularity. Adrien might even think of her situation as Easy Mode or good practice for helping Chloe. Then time goes on, and as Chloe shows signs of improvement, Lila gradually reveals her true nature.

(Chloe post and Lila post for context)

I don't totally disagree. There are versions of canon where Lila and Chloe would be good choices for a nuanced discussion on redemption. For example, if canon was all about the teenage characters and had no adult villains, then Lila would be a great choice for damnation! The problem is that canon didn't take that route or really any route where Lila feels like a good addition to the cast, let alone someone worthy of being Chloe's counterpart in a lesson about the nuances of redemption.

The main plot of Miraculous should have been Gabriel's reveal and downfall. The point of Chloe's redemption should have been prepping Adrien for said reveal and downfall. Through her, Adrien first learns how to cut off someone you love and then learns how to decide if you want to bring that person back into your life. That is a full and complete lesson. Trying to repeat the lesson or supplement the lesson with Lila feels unnecessary for the same reason I don't like her as the new main villain: she's no one. A total rando with no close ties to Adrien or anyone else. Adrien wanting to help her is fine in theory, but hard to see as a valuable addition because she doesn't matter to his character. We have his father, his close childhood friend, and a random girl he barely knows. One of these things is not like the other. That lack of depth removes most or even all of the emotional impact that a failed Lila redemption would have on Adrien. It's not going to have much of an impact on the audience either unless you make some serious changes to Lila.

One of the show's biggest flaws is that Lila is not a functional character. She has no clear motivations, backstory, or even a strong tie to the main plot of seasons one to five, making it hard to care about her. To have her damnation have any sort of emotional impact on the audience, you need to give her those things and have her develop actual relationships. Without that depth, she's an incredibly weak addition to the story who is only here to be a two-dimensional villain. The audience doesn't want her to be redeemed. We want to see her go down! Those are the wrong emotions for a lesson on failed redemption. Failed redemption should be a tragedy if you want the lesson to hit properly. It's easy to give up on people we don't really care about. It's hard to give up on people we love.

Add in the facts that Miraculous already has too many characters and that Chloe's redemption would be a subplot amidst everything else that's going on and I just don't see Lila being worth the screen time it would take to let her have a proper damnation when you're already giving Gabriel a damnation. Plus it's kind of depressing to have one redemption against two damnations and I like to keep the sad elements limited so that they really pop. Damning Lila and then Gabriel would make Gabriel's damnation feel less powerful.

Even if the plan was to redeem Gabriel, I still wouldn't use Lila as our damnation case study. I'd use Nathalie. She's far more interesting and has an actual tie to the overall plot, making her super easy to involve. Her and Gabriel share the screen constantly, making it very easy to contrast them as the story goes on. You can't really do that with Lila and Chloe because Lila and Chloe would never team up in a story where Chloe gets a redemption arc. Canon had to add Chloe's Marinette obsession to make the Lila & Chloe plot work and Chloe's redemption doesn't work if she hates Marinette to that extreme. I don't think that version of Chloe is beyond redemption, but I would never redeem her into Marinette's friend group. Seasons-four-and-five Chloe needs a fresh start with people she hasn't hurt. I don't know if she could ever be friends with Marinette and I don't particularly care to see it.

I love a good redemption, but part of writing those is knowing that there are lines that a character can't cross if you want them to be forgiven and accepted by your core cast later on. It's that whole romanticizing the cycle of abuse thing that I've discussed before re enemies-to-lovers stories and the general concept of redeeming Gabriel. I get why people like it, it's a wonderful fantasy, but for me it's an incredibly hard sell. My suspension of disbelief almost always breaks, leaving me feeling sad and unsatisfied.

[hakugreenfinch]

i actually firmly believe that even if for the wrong reasons, curly was right to not give anya the captain gun.

im basing this on the assumptions/readings that a) jimmy was abusing both curly and anya in different ways, b) he assaulted anya in her sleep (i have several reasons to believe so) and as a consequence c) curly did not realize things were that bad until it was way too late (obligatory "even though yeah he should have taken anya seriously from the first report of 'hey jimmy was in my room last night'") but neither did anya really grasp just how badly she was being abused until after the dead pixel conversation (i think this is important because it shows just how careful jimmy was in his machinations).

the thing is we want to believe that oh sure if anya had a gun it would have been fine. but the other thing is that if you have a weapon in self defense - your attacker also has that weapon. giving anya the gun would have been as good as giving jimmy the gun and cocking it for him too - not to mention we actually experience that the gun isnt easy to fire, thus making it less reliable in the case of an emergency than one would think.

anya assumed curly wouldnt have given her the gun because she knew his relationship with jimmy, she knew curly would be worried she would hurt herself with it and she knew the company sucked and would have penalized them all if the gun got out of its case for reasons they dont deem "justified" - they didnt put locks on the sleeping quarters, i doubt they would rule anya's personal safety as reason enough. i think her assumptions in that were correct, curly isnt super strict as a captain but hes not "sure heres the super locked safety gun" lax. he trusted swansea with the axe because he trusted swansea to use it appropriately, he wouldnt have trusted anya with a firearm if she was in mental distress.

i dont think those were the good reasons to not let anya protect herself in this way ("corporate/jimmy will get mad" just is not it). but i do believe if he did give her the gun it would have been a matter of time before jimmy gets ahold of it and shit goes south a lot sooner. i believe jimmy isnt brave enough to do anything to anya while she could ask for help - his entire tactic is based on only letting anyone else notice small things that he could make excuses for. he probably would have taken it from anya while she was asleep, when she didnt have it right in her hand, when she looked away for a moment. it doesnt really matter, he would have found a way, boom, jimmy has a gun now.

why i think that would have been a lot worse than him acquiring the gun as late as he does in the game is that jimmy is pretty much fueled by a hunger for power and control. he gets those once curly is out of the picture as someone capable of running the ship but before the crash? hes very sneaky about his manipulation. he goes after anya physically when nobody can catch him because he can overpower her but he wouldnt try something like that with curly who is likely physically stronger than him (curly weight lifts in his free time!) which is why he puts pressure on him emotionally. the crash is actually very convenient for jimmy, he gets to usurp the title of captain without having to actually do anything to curly himself (as in, with his very own hands and with the intent of getting him out of his way). i just truly think if he had gotten his hands on the gun while curly still fully believed he was his friend and could fight back things would have gotten very ugly a whole lot faster.

tl;dr i think "anya should have had the gun" is something we want to believe would have saved the entire crew but considering jimmy's methods of exercising power over his crewmates proves otherwise. curly had the wrong reasons to not arm anya, but ultimately the longer the gun is out of jimmy's view the better.

[burning-an-indifferent-hell]

"Sociopath," types the rabid, hysterical quasi-fascist whose driving purpose in life is to punch down at vulnerable targets to feel better about her own helplessness and inadequacy.

"When you claim women aren't oppressed for their sex. When you claim a woman is just a feeling inside someone's head." I do? Where? I'm not a liberal who believes in transcendental-idealism or sex essentialism, I'm a Marxist with a materialist view of sex-based oppression. You have no idea who I am or what I believe, you just pigeonhole anyone who disagrees with you into this vague straw man "gender ideology" because you're incapable of intellectually honest conversation. All of this bombastic deflection and projection is coming from the same place of insecurity and insularity that fuels the rest of your asinine prejudice and misguided rage. It might sound compelling or intimidating to people who lack an ideological foundation in the first place, but not to the rest of us.

"Unlike you, we are not a one dimensional caricatures—" More projection. Everyone is aware of the extreme case of tunnel vision that afflicts your movement. Go on any radfem's blog and it's just post after post obsessing over trans women and mythical "gender ideology". Go on X and look at JKR's page and it's nothing but the same. Even her fascistic billionaire comrade Musk was so disturbed by it that he publicly asked her to focus on something other than trans women once in a while. You bigots aren't feminists, radicals, or revolutionaries; you don't care about anything other than obsessively slandering and antagonizing trans people. You're reactionaries who align yourselves with the explicit enemy and throw vulnerable women under the bus in a heartbeat if it means achieving the singular goal of destroying trans peoples' livelihoods.

"Keep your mouth shut from now on, you smug piece of shit." Shut me up, faceless creep. There's nothing you could say that possibly could. Your ideology, empty threats, and insults are as useless on this blogging website as they are against the real-life patriarchy.

"You clearly don't know what the hell you're talking about, so stop embarrassing yourself." How embarrassing was it when the fascistic and fundamentalist right you allied yourselves with in the name of anti-"gender ideology" raped your movement both ideologically and literally, used you for political propulsion, discarded you, and taunted you with the fact that the rights to your bodies will soon belong to them? How embarrassing is it that you learned nothing from that and continue the same behavior that has accomplished nothing over the past two decades aside from effectively aiding and abetting patriarchal oppressors in their ulterior goal of splintering the feminist movement and destroying women's rights?

Anyways, my original point still stands and has only been reinforced by your response: you really hate trans people so much more than you care about women that you see femicide in action and jump to using those victims as a red herring to antagonize irrelevant and already disenfranchised people. Disturbing and pathetic. And get that picture of Dworkin off your profile, we both know you've never actually read her works and she wouldn't support this impotent, self-sabotaging heap of burning shit that the modern radical feminist movement has devolved into if she were still alive today.

Trans activists:

'Woman is an identity and a social construct'

Planet Earth:

[lovemyromance]

For fucks sake - Elain's horrid black dress was meant to keep the focus on Nesta. Specifically - keep Eris's focus on Nesta. Everyone knows Elain is the prettiest Archeron so they had to find a way to make her look less interesting than Nesta.

Not to mention - if there's any foreshadowing - it's about how Elain doesn't fit into the cruelty of HEWN CITY - not the Night Court as a whole. When she's back in Velaris, she's back to glowing with health.

How are people making such a fuss over how her black dress means she doesn't belong in the night court if in the very next chapter, she's in a gown that makes her look great again - and lo and behold - she's still in the fucking Night Court?

Is Velaris suddenly not a part of the night court now?

This is what is called wishful thinking. This scene had nothing to do with Lucien. It has nothing to do with what color dress she wears or doesn't wear.

I've seen this kinda long shot reach of an argument so many times. How many times do I have to say it? Foreshadowing is A to B. Not A to B to C to D to E to F.

Not to mention - this is all because Elain looked bad in one black dress? Mor never wears black. Amren doesn't either, and yet they're 2nd and 3rd in command of the NC.

Also in case anyone is just as confused as I was when I saw this utter joke of a theory - apparently Elain glowing in an amethyst gown means Lucien endgame because Helion once showed up with an entourage of Day Court people and they wore clothing of crimson, Cobalt, and Amythest,

Guess that means Mor/Lucien end game too now? Or Azriel/Lucien? Because you know - Mor is always in a crimson dress and is described as a bombshell and Azriel is beautiful af in his cobalt siphons.

If these people are going to use that logic - then it should be applied to everyone that fits the criteria, no?

I'm so tired of seeing this stupid argument like ??

Just imagine this hypothetical: the next ACOTAR book comes out. people are confused because surprise it's not Elriel like everyone expected, but it's Elucien?

And when the public is like Sarah, why? I don't understand how you just abruptly switched from Elriel to this?

Do you think it's plausible that the answer from Sarah's mouth will be: silly readers! You could've seen that Elain looked bad in black and looked good in purple and purple is one of the 4+ colors mentioned once 3 books ago that the day court people wore and Helion is the HL of the day court, and Lucien is his son! Wasn't that SO OBVIOUS??

[toadletthefirst]

How stp voices play mafia!

Hero: He's here more for the company than for a game. He will be the first to set the table and bring snacks, but he will also be the first to advise you to stop playing if the situation gets out of hand. Tries to have as little conflict as possible (unsuccessfully)

He can handle any role, but he secretly enjoys playing the mayor. He's not very good at it though, because he always forgets in what order to call the names and which of the characters did what at night. Nevertheless, he tries his best.

Broken: doesn't like this game. At all. Everyone is too noisy for no real reason. If someone drags him into the game, he will spend all evening somewhere in the corner.

Would try to ask the mayor to give him only civilians (Hero would agree btw, not so sure about the others)

One time he accidentally won as a mafia, because he acted just as quiet as usual and no one took notice. Now Smitten tells everyone how skilled he is. He really should stop doing that.

Smitten: Roleplays too much and makes his role obvious. Very emotional. Any lie in the game is perceived as betrayal in real life. At least he recovers quickly enough (to be deceived again). He still likes to spend time with everyone else there though.

He gets too distracted by texting the princess. He probably sends the damsel the most tragic captions to his sad selfies ever possible, but she doesn't realize it's just the mafia game and gets really worried.

Cold: He will be intrigued at first, but soon he will lose all interest to the game. He's had enough of these fools arguing as it is

Paranoid: Would survive long enough in his first run to be with the winning team. Probably as a doctor. But sometimes one round is enough to realise you don't want to do that ever again. This game is too nervous for him. And he doesn't like the constant feeling of being lied to. He would totally make great judgements about others based on their behaviour in the game and don't trust them even more in the future.

They would have persuaded him to play for the mayor, but he doesn't like it either. There's always someone who distracts him from narration and asks useless clarifications. And it's too much pressure overall

Hunted: he would be there for snacks. Would leave early and suddenly. Doesn't speculate much. When asked about his suspicions, he says something around the lines: "I heard X moved when the mayor said Y at night" Someone would probably start an argument about how they were just breathing and all, and hunted wouldn't reciprocate. He didn't really blame anyone in the first place - just said what was worth to be noticed.

Doesn't mind playing as civil. Would make a terrifying mafia, actually

Opportunist: C'mon. We've seen him. Slay the princess is the mafia for him.

Would absolutely love to play and would achieve something even with his reputation, suprisingly.

Would like the power the sheriff gives, but wouldn't be that interested in his abilities rather than using it to blackmail someone. As a doctor would just heal himself until the others ban it. Adores playing as mafia. Giggles viciously. A lot. He's in his disney villain era

Adheres to the majority opinion, discreetly giving it the ideas he needs, and then strikes near the end of the game to his favour.

And yeah, wouldn't agree to be the mayor. It would be nice to lead the narrative of course, but there's no real influence over it and there's no way to win soo not his cup of tea

Skeptic: HE LOVES this game. Especially playing as the sheriff. But let's be honest, he acts like a sheriff even when he's not. In a matter of seconds, he builds grandiose theories about who the mafia is, and then expounds them in monologues. He will agree with other opinions only if they point out a real logical error in his thesis, otherwise it's just useless chatter for him. In most cases, he will be right.

For this reason, sooner or later he will become the first one to be killed on a regular basis. And his death will not arouse suspicion on anyone in particular, because this is the most rational thing any mafia can do. Then he would just sit next to everyone with a "I don't respect any of you" expression, but he wouldn't leave - he's too interested in the game anyway.

He likes rules that he can understand, so he would make a great mayor, but only if you don't mind hearing a heavy sigh after each player's action.

No matter how the game went, he would start a dramatic speech about what happened after each round and how to avoid making similar mistakes again. Half of the players would listen to him just to do the opposite, to annoy him, and the other half would use that time as a break for something else. Nevertheless, he is proud of himself.

Cheated: don't make me say it. We all know how this goes. He gets super exited for the game. Has civilians for ten times in a row. Then finally gets any other role. Gets screwed almost immediately. Destroys the room. Leaves.

Stubborn: He doesn't like all the conversations in the game, but he loves the gamble it gives. He gets bored in discussions: "Just judge anyone already and see what happens, cowards!" However, he will be very angry if someone kills him, and will definitely get into a fight, trying to protect himself from suspicions.

Would make a cool mafia, but would be solved too early. Most likely, he will reveal himself due to excessive hand gestures in an attempt to explain something to the mayor at the night time.

Also, it will be obvious what role he has simply by his first reaction to the card.

Definitely will give some barbarian shout when his team wins.

Contrarian: I honestly don't know what he's doing. He says he's mafia when he isn't. He votes for someone that no one else voted for. Sometimes he clearly spies on what others are doing but doesn't do anything with it. He always changes his seat so that mayor would have to find him every time they need him. He says that he is some nonexistent mafia character.

Turns out he just didn't looked at what his character card was. When turned over, it turns out to be random sonik collection card. Ok.

[hermanoga]

It's Kinda Nice to Help People Find Their Precious Thing : The timeless journey of love, regret, trust, death and hope through Shiguang's life in Link Click Yingdu Episode 1

part -1

It's a very personal rambling actually, not a very critically sound one, if you still wanna read, just letting you know, you are not alone, I went through a lifetime of emotions while watching this.

What’s wrong with the timeline? : Before discussing this, I want to talk about Lu Guang’s age. I have this formula,

Lg’s age : X + 3n, X= his original age, n= the number of times he has dived back in the past to reach the situation of our timeline where Cheng Xiaoshi survived season 1 and made it to the end of the season 2. I am presuming that ‘n times Cheng Xiaoshi dies’ stopped in our timeline, so let us denote our timeline as ‘n*’, which has successfully changed Cheng Xiaoshi’s fate. (For people thinking, where did I get that ‘3’ in my formula, the episode of the lost child in season 1 says that the kidnapping of that little boy happened three years ago, when Shiguang were supposed to be in Yingdu. Basically Shiguang first met and went to Yingdu in 2018.)

The first four minutes of the episode 1 (Successfully made me cry like a wounded hyena left in the middle of a cold desert): What timeline is it? It is one of those timelines of ‘n’ where Cheng Xiaoshi died. Cheng Xiaoshi dies in every nth timeline, except n*. The first time he dies, let us call that timeline ‘n0’. And the first four minutes, let’s suppose it is nEp-1. Is n0 = nEp-1? If yes, then why Vein is punishing Lu Guang for changing the past? It implies that Lu Guang attempted (and succeeded kind of? since he is accused of changing the past) to change the past before? Why would he? For what reason? I have an answer to this convoluted question – Vein is punishing a past Lu Guang (‘innocent’ Lu Guang who didn’t dive and do shit) for the deeds a future Lu Guang committed. Eh? Every theory I suggest contradict with the thing I say next.

Still what I feel is that the narrator Lu Guang who gives the ‘butterfly effect’ speech is not the one who dives in the given visual. The hesitation in the visual suggests that Lu Guang is diving for the first time. I don’t have galaxy brains to understand the timeline theory anyways. And it is probably too early to start guessing.

Basketball symbolism: Life, death, trust, partnership.

I think now we all understand that the basketball motif really stands for a deeper philosophy of life and companionship. And Haoling actually puts that theme in big fat words in case someone missed, “It is so precious to have a trustworthy partner in life”. It is not about basketball. The exposition of first 1 minute 25 seconds deals with it.

1:26 – I howled. That’s not the point. The point is that Vein is actually interested in shooting Lu Guang, he wants his life, not Cheng Xiaoshi’s, he just physically defeats him. (My poor kitty, what the fuck did you do to deserve this, if my theory is right then…). Cheng Xiaoshi fucking dives to take the bullet.

Now, um. Why am I re-watching this? Cheng Xiaoshi dies and transfers his diving power to Lu Guang, the basketball symbolism recurs. Qiao Ling is dead and captain Xiao is dead too. Good. Cheng Xiaoshi says sorry for some reason and asks Lu Guang to save ‘them’, it’s his death wish. So, I am presuming that Lu Guang started diving because it was Cheng Xiaoshi’s last wish to Lu Guang (I need ibuprofen). From my perspective, Lu Guang when he dives, he is not sure what he is able to achieve. He probably goes back to the past just to relive those moments, those three years again. If everything goes well (LMAO my audacity) and Cheng Xiaoshi survives in this Yingdu arc, I am presuming that is our story then will be directly continuing in the two seasons.

Now let us heal a bit. First of all, congratulations to all, Lu Guang is gay. I don’t care what anyone opines, he is gay. He is the owner of that freaking Shakespearean sonnet book and he is the literal tsundere, come on, guys, it should be canon now.

Lu Guang holds his hand as if trying to say, “Please, don’t go”.

You are in acute denial if you say the visuals are not romantic. The white butterfly sits on the basketball he is holding.

That visual is so pretty! The butterflies remind me of tgcf ngl.

Bro, what kind of house does he live in. He is damn rich.

Cheng Xiaoshi : Partner, lets play basketball together again tomorrow. And the content smile Cheng Xiaoshi gives.

Still, somehow, The Eye is the most moving piece of animation I have ever seen, it feels like life with all heartaches and smiles present. I will carry this song with me till the end of time.

Oh, also. How are Vein fans doing? Just checking :D

This song is causing me physical angst.

I wish I can cosplay in my uni’s anime club’s event one day.

Okay so, a friend of mine pointed out that Lu Guang cosplayed as the hero of that RanXi chronicles when there was an attempt to dress Xiaoshi as the heroine. Ok.

Lu Guang checking that damn watch once in a while breaks my heart.

Parallel narrative, foil characters again – metanarrative, two-folded narrative embedded within the narrative (that girl’s story about perseverance, hope, regret, passion, taking the damn risk and further hope, story of RanXi chronicles and Lu Guang explicitly saying how he relates to the story of RanXi’s heroine)

Now I am saying again, I am Sapphic and Qiao Ling, that is Sapphic behaviour, my love, me and my Sapphic friends approve. “That girl is so lovely” the way she says it. AND YES QUEEN! Link Click never forgets to address social issues. Btw, I personally related to that girl when she was rebuked vehemently for voicing her career choice. My acceptance of what I really wanted to do in my life and pursuing it changed the trajectory of my life too. Life is not a flower path but “there are no regrets in dedicating your life to something you care about” – again it echoes the central theme of link click.

Also, (with a shiver) I am realising how the interpretation of the first and second season is rapidly changing (and I like it).

Cheng Xiaoshi, are you jealous?

The chibi shifts are so cute!

Lu Guang has this deep sense of lack of agency, understandable because it arises from the agony of the death of a loved one and this depressive existentialist mood makes him conform to the ‘power’, even though he can be rebellious but that threshold is only initiated with Cheng Xiaoshi’s active intervention.

Again saying, idk what kind of concept of queerness people (most of them who are not queer at all, how do they know what queerness is? How are you dictating?) have, but your friend’s image reflecting in your eyes when he brings a moral and ideological change to your mind and shatters your conformity, that surely is. This continuously happens in season 1 and 2, but we don’t get to know, you know why? Lu Guang’s pov was silenced deliberately. Without him soliloquizing, it’s impossible to know what his real emotional undercurrent is. The way Haoling crafted Lu Guang as a complex and delicate character, man. Man, I would die for him.

Btw, I too agree that putting a hand over his mouth is the second best option to silence him.

Ik it's bittersweet, but princess Guang-guang, don't run away from your fated prince! ( HOW THE FUCK AM I CRYING AGAIN)

this roughly wraps up to 34:30. I can't do more pain today, maybe tomorrow.

[dykedvonte]

I find your takes on Jimmy's behavior patterns interesting, especially in regards to how he treats Curly.

What do you think is the cruelest vs kindest he's ever been to him pre crash? Curious about the range; what Curly might hope is potential for better in him vs the biggest hit he was willing to take in hopes Jimmy became better before everything imploded.

I always find this question fascinating. The question of what Curly will tolerate towards himself vs towards other's with Jimmy.

The fandom creates this misconception around their dynamic due to a lot of hindsight we have and a lot of emotional/relationship dynamic gaps being filled. We assume Curly has to be equally as dependent and unable to regulate/understand his feelings towards Jimmy as Jimmy is to him as we never really get Curly's motives or inner thoughts towards Jimmy. I personally think this is far from the case and while still unhealthily attached to Jimmy he is still very aware of him, doesn't believe he'd ever go as low as he did in the game but knows he's petty/vindictive to an abnormal extent.

I think it's important that in HFIM he (Jimmy) is represented as a parasite on the fish rather than a real, helpful and needed part of him (Curly). It is something that slowly kills the fish if left unchecked or there are multiple (coughP.Ecough) and the fish would live better without but can't get out by itself. A parasite in which the specific method of latching is rather gory/unpleasant for the host the whole way through. I see people use this parasitic relationship as an example but never actually look at the specific relationship exemplified. How it is one formed without any consent or real want of the host but they are stuck in it no matter what they do, so they must adapt or be killed. In the games unfortunate circumstance, it just doesn't affect the host.

Jimmy on the other hand likes to test the waters, likes to see how deep he can really latch onto Curly so he can never really be pulled out, not without doing more unnecessary damage. I've said it before but I think they have breaks: Curly does have enough of a backbone to separate himself from him when he can, when the circumstances allow but he's not willed enough to keep him out, not when Jimmy inevitably finds a way to latch back on and sink deeper. Pulling him out again just rips more out of him, makes him less sturdy to it, drains more. He can take the parasitism. He thinks he's taking it.

As mentioned previously, Curly can't get/cut Jimmy out of his life alone. He will inevitably give him another chance because Jimmy will do something to make him think he deserves it. He will clean himself up. He will try to keep a job longer than a month. He will be polite, civil. He won't ask for a favor and if he does it's small and he'll repay it. He worms his way back in while also pushing others out. Anyone who claims it's all an act again or he's just doing it to get back in Curly's good graces just doesn't get him. They don't get them. Curly's upset he's seen it over and over again, the dip in progress, the lows. But the peaks get higher each time, he can't leave when he sees how good Jimmy is doing. He's scared without him the next low will be his last. Jimmy no doubt put that idea in his head.

But to answer you question: I don't think Jimmy's cruelty towards Curly's comes not from actions but conversations, the way he's conditioned Curly to view himself as underserving to complain. He's rendered him unable to talk about his pains because by "objective" comparison he's always worse off. I don't think its one cruel dismissive act in this vein but multiple, the act of uncaring and disinterest while also demanding the same attention Curly so desperately craves from anyone not just Jimmy. The want for his friend to act like a friend and be so purposely shut down or condescended to when he just needs the shoulder to cry on he always provides. The emotional relief he gives him returned.

I imagine he's told him to suck it up when pets die, to quit shaking when a career deciding meeting was about to happen, to get over and just "fuck someone new" when he has another failed fleeting relationship the few months back on Earth. Maybe it's said within a joke to make it less sharp, maybe with the same "You have it to nice to be acting like this) attitude. It's that type of cruelty that breaks him down and makes it harder to ignore that Jimmy truly doesn't care about him, does not have the same desire for him to be happy like Curly has for him. Jimmy doesn't really try to hide it either and he just never would outright say it. He calls it tough love, saying its just how he is and Curly doesn't know how much longer he can actually take it if it's really true.

Curly is willing to keep taking these hits in hopes Jimmy realizes how he hurts others, how it hurts him with every dogged look or abrupt end to a conversation. It doesn't and every time he's almost ready to just give up. If Jimmy won't be kinder for him, the only person that's still there for him, why continue to bother? Why believe he'll change.

Kindest? The fact he always tries to come back? That he stayed his friend and such a close one despite how long he'd be gone. That Curly is the one he calls and trusts and lets him know that. Curly has friends, we know that, but we also know they don't know him. Maybe they never did or maybe because of his job, the distance made it harder to keep knowing him. Jimmy didn't always work there and yet he stayed, close enough so that Curly was never alone when he came back. That he didn't come back to friends shocked he was coming back or a dozen new faces that were new at family gatherings/the news of who passed. He chose to remain consistent for Curly, with Curly, he never changed for Curly. That's how Jimmy explains it whenever Curly needs a reminder that he's not so bad. He's physically hear for him, he's something that's set and that already more than Curly should be asking for considering all he has. Curly thinks it's a major kindness considering no one else has done it for him.

I feel like people mischaracterize Jimmy in that he does not take pleasure or gain a feeling of superiority from the direct act of being cruel. He'd get nothing from directly making Curly hurt cause it's fleeting but he likes when Curly feels bad and lesser cause he can imagine it's lesser than him. When it's something he knows is gonna be a lasting mark. His kindness likewise if supposed to be a kiss on the initial boo-boo he makes. Purely for Curly and shallow. Jimmy likes Curly, I don't think him seeing him as a friend is debatable, yet we can question how utilitarian he does view friendship in general,

[rauchendesgnu]

Since I keep seeing people and fic mentioning Silco's lack of depth perception, I'm gonna spend a minute on writing this. Obviously, there are many, many different ways blind and visually impaired people experience the world, and my view (haha) is just one of them. However, I do think my disability comes close, at least in part, to what Silco likely experiences, which is why I decided to write this thing.

How does lack of depth perception work? The magic happens in the brain. It gets two images, one from each eye, and the brain makes them into one (simplified, I'm not a doctor). Lack of depth perception happens either if one image goes missing, e.g. because of blindness, or if the brain doesn't do the thing right.

People can adapt to it. I've been born with my disability, so it's all I've known, but people who experience trauma that leads to the lack of vision on one eye will still be able to adapt. This means that as long as the things we'd like to grab are on the stronger side of our vision, we will not have any issue in actually grabbing it. I'm not going to miss the glass and spill water everywhere because I live with my vision every day, and since neither I nor the glass are moving, I know roughly where it is and I can pick it up without issue. The problem is when things are either in the area of my weaker eye, or if they start moving.

Movement. This is where it gets tricky. It makes things like dodging, moving out of the way, jumping over obstacles, catching and throwing things, climbing, and almost all kinds of sports incredibly hard, especially if you play/train together with able-bodied people. It's easier when the movement is slow. I would probably be able to catch a ball if it was thrown at me slowly in a nice, high parabola. Anything with speed, such as all ball sports I know, is nigh impossible.

The weaker eye. Again, I'm not a doctor, so the way I define terms will not line up with what an oculist might call it, but my main visual input comes from one eye. That's what I use to navigate my life. The other eye is all periphery vision for me. The vision is very weak and the overlapping part (the part of the input of both eyes that overlap (think venn diagram)) of my weak eye mixes with that of my strong eye, but they don't quite align, plus I assume my brain works on eliminating as much the signals my weaker eye sends so as to not impair my vision even more, that if I close said weak eye, it feels like I'm losing periphery vision, not half my vision. Sometimes, I catch myself closing my weaker eye to concentrate better. This happens when the weaker eye's image interferes too much with my stronger eye. In addition, if you have a lazy eye, it's likely that its image moves around a bit (at least it does for me), while the stronger eye is steady, which adds to more confusion.

How do we apply all of this to Silco? I am going to assume that Silco's vision is somewhat similar to mine, based on the fact that his left eye follows the movements of his right eye, so he has some control over the muscles that move the left eye and a direction of where it needs to go, so it's unlikely that he doesn't have any vision at all in that eye. A) His eye is likely very dry and needs to be moisturised a lot. B) It seems like what is causing his impairment is the damage brought by the toxins. For his vision, we can assume this means that it eats away at e.g. his lens, which would mean that his vision on the left eye is blurry and the eye itself is highly sensitive to light to the point where the outside light of cloudy days can be painful. At the same time, we see that his pupil doesn't dilate, so the iris isn't working properly, which means that in case of head trauma, internal bleeding can't be checked. There could be more damage that affects his vision, but since I have no experience with other impairments, I won't include them here to avoid spreading misinformation. (If anyone has similar visual impairments or disabilities, feel free to add to the list.) C) He probably lacks depth perception. This will play out the way I have illustrated above. D) It will be easier to startle Silco when not announcing the approach from his left due to the weak vision of his eye. E) In addition to the pain from having toxins in his eye, he's likely to get headaches and eye strain.

I think that's all for now. I might add to this if I come across something else, but for now that's what my tired brain can come up with. I think what's most important to me personally is that we are more capable and independent than many people think (which is pretty universal to all people with disabilities), and also that we don't walk around as if the world was made out of egg shells. We're perfectly fine doing most domestic tasks. Some of us need a different system for it than able-bodied people, but that doesn't make us less capable.

[hartnellwho]

OMG, so much to talk about here and lots of it will be spoilery for anyone who hasn't listened (IN WHICH CASE YOU SHOULD!) so I'm putting it all under a big cut here...

I'm still so bitter about the "the Doctor got us there on the first go" cop out. Like; they could've left a gap for more stories but didn't and it's such a waste.

I'm torn between two different headcanons to give Oliver more stories.

The first and most simple is the Doctor didn't get them there on the first go, he couldn't and made excuses for why it didn't work every where they went. Eventually he gave up trying to get them there, but eventually he realised he had to try, got it right and immediately acted like it was the first try because it was the first try... of this set of tries. Steven of course knew and by this point so did Oliver better than to try and correct him.

The other is a lot more complicated, but I enjoy the idea of it a lot more... when Four manages to defeat the Vardans in The Invasion of Time he puts them in a time loop. Which to me sounds like what the Time Lords did to the War Lords in The War Games. And what was said there...

"A force field has been placed around you, and around your planet, so that your warlike people will remain prisoners forever. You have been found guilty of all charges, and you and your murderous associates will be dematerialised. It will be as though you had never existed."

So after the Vardans have this done to them they were retroactively never on Grace Alone. The Doctor, Steven and Oliver arrive to a fully crewed station in no trouble and have to conspire to cause/create/fake the criminal records they saw in the future that made them come there in the first place.

I've posted about this idea before here. But I've pondered trying to expand it into a brief fanfic. But the problem is I'm not a great writer and haven't even tried to make fanfic before. But I just love the idea so much I want to spread it, haha.

As to the idea that Oliver had to have a tragic ending because of where he fits chronologically... I originally wholeheartedly accepted that idea as it was explained in the CD extras. Like: it was sad he had to die, but he did have to die 'to fit the tone of that era'.

What changed my mind to the polar opposite was another CC, called The Vardan Invasion of Mirth. it is set in the time where Steven is the sole companion so must be after the Oliver trilogy and before The Massacre. Steven even knows the Vardans so must have faced them before.

But what happened: no mentions of or any thought given to Oliver, the Vardans easily defeated and a happy ending.

I was so pissed off, I hated it so much and I still don't consider it canon.

But the main thing it did was destroy the argument that things have to fit the tone of the era. If the people in this story could get a happy ending in a story set in the same era then why couldn't Oliver?

Oliver getting a happy ending could've been a brief light in an otherwise dark era. A small hope spot that says even in hard times things can sometimes work out or go well.

So yeah; I no longer feel like Oliver "had to" die and so am a lot more bitter and upset about the fact that he did. it feels like the bury your gays trope in action.

I'd just love if BF retconned his death away and gave us new stories with this team: go full cast with Steven Noonan as One even. Or do another CC but with Oliver as the narrator so we can get in his head and Steven as the guest voice rather than the main!

The First Doctor and companions Oliver and Steven. Admittedly, I do need to listen to these stories... Whoops!