#(like ‘yeah she’s the most important person in my life and I love her infinitely more than my long term boyfriend’)

[reflectionsofgalaxies]

the more photos of Sophie T I see the more I understand why she’s so beloved in the fandom. she’s just a whole fucking mood. like

first one she’s completely dead pan doing a perfect thumbs up

second one she’s doing an exaggerated stereotypical Italian hand gesture

and in the third one she’s just fully stanced up with her fucking coffee. what an icon.

[merwgue]

The absolute dumpster fire that is ACOSF and if I had the choice to I would erase it from my memory:

Let’s talk about A Court of Silver Flames, where logic goes to die and every character makes the absolute worst decisions. It’s like Sarah J. Maas took one look at the concept of personal autonomy and thought, “Nah, let’s replace it with some good ol’ authoritarianism, terrible communication, and emotional manipulation!” And guess who’s at the heart of all this madness? Our beloved High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court, Rhysand and Feyre. The power couple we’re supposed to root for—except, plot twist, they’re probably the worst people to ever lead anything, let alone an entire court.

Let’s Start With Locking Nesta Up – Because Who Needs Therapy?

Ah yes, Rhysand and Feyre’s grand plan to “fix” Nesta: lock her up. Forget about therapy or actually talking to her like she’s a person with autonomy. No, no. The best solution is clearly to force her into isolation in the House of Wind. What a brilliant move! Because nothing says mental health recovery like a glorified time-out in the sky with zero chance of escape.

Rhysand and Feyre, in their infinite wisdom, decide Nesta’s problems can only be solved through forced training and “tough love.” Never mind the fact that Nesta has been through war, trauma, and, oh yeah, did we mention PTSD? Clearly, locking her up and controlling every aspect of her life is the most compassionate route. Why bother giving her choices when you can just strip them away for her own good, right? Besides, it’s not like they care about actually addressing the root of her issues. As long as Nesta becomes the compliant little sister Feyre always wanted, who cares about her emotional scars?

And let’s not even get into the moral implications. You’d think, after all Rhysand went through Under the Mountain, he’d be a little more careful about, you know, controlling other people’s lives. But nope! Apparently, totalitarianism is fine as long as it’s wrapped up in flowery speeches about love and family. So progressive!

Feyre’s Pregnancy: Where is the Choice? Spoiler: There Isn’t One

Then there’s Feyre’s pregnancy plotline, or as I like to call it: “Rhysand's Pro-Life Power Play.” Because what’s more feminist than completely removing a woman’s agency when it comes to her own body?

Rhysand knows from the beginning that Feyre’s pregnancy is a death sentence. Does he tell her? Of course not! Why would you ever give your partner the chance to make an informed decision about her own life? That would be way too much like respect and love. Instead, Rhysand just... lets it happen. He decides it’s better to let Feyre figure out that her wingspan baby is going to kill her after it’s too late.

But wait! It gets better. Rhysand decides that if Feyre dies during childbirth, he’s going to die with her. How romantic, right? Except for the fact that it’s the most selfish, irresponsible move he could make. This isn’t a love story—it’s a leadership failure. Rhys is so wrapped up in his Feyre-dying-with-me fantasy that he doesn’t even care about what happens to the actual Night Court. You know, the court he’s supposed to be ruling.

Rhys: “If Feyre dies, I’ll just die too. It’s fine. Amren will handle it.”

Amren, who has already sacrificed enough, is expected to pick up the pieces yet again because Rhysand can’t be bothered to plan for the literal future of his people. Oh, and did he even bother telling Amren that she might have to run the Night Court for the second time? Nope. Why communicate important things like that when you can just die dramatically instead?

Rhysand and Feyre: The Power Couple We Never Needed

Let’s really break down this trainwreck of a couple. First off, Feyre’s entire arc has been swallowed by her relationship with Rhys. Remember how she was supposed to be this independent woman? Yeah, that’s cute. But it turns out, her independence only exists when Rhysand approves of it. Their relationship is all about “choice,” but only if it aligns with what Rhys thinks is best.

Feyre, at the end of the day, is just another cog in Rhysand’s Great Leader complex. She’s constantly propped up as this feminist icon, but her choices are always manipulated by Rhys. Whether it’s going to war, having a child, or, you know, surviving childbirth, it’s always Rhys pulling the strings. If you think about it, Feyre’s “independence” has only been traded from one manipulative man to another. Tamlin was too controlling, but Rhys? He’s controlling for her own good. How convenient!

And then there’s Rhysand, our oh-so-perfect High Lord. Except, newsflash, Rhys is just as insecure and broken as the rest of them. His constant need to be the savior, the martyr, the all-knowing leader is exhausting. He can’t help but make everything about himself, even Feyre’s literal death. Rhysand isn’t a protector—he’s a narcissist with a god complex. And the fact that the entire Inner Circle just stands by and lets him act like this? It’s a miracle the Night Court hasn’t crumbled yet.

Cassian and Nesta: Let’s Just Ignore Our Feelings, Shall We?

Let’s not forget about Cassian and Nesta in this mess. Cassian, the oh-so-loyal general, is too busy being Rhysand’s lapdog to actually think about Nesta’s needs. Sure, he cares about her. But instead of helping her deal with her trauma in a healthy way, he’s like, “Let’s train until you’re too tired to feel anything!” Perfect plan. Rhysand would be so proud. And Nesta? She’s clearly been rewritten into a sex-crazed, self-loathing mess, because gods forbid we have a modest, complex woman character in this series. SJM couldn’t stand the thought of a female lead who doesn’t use sex and alcohol as coping mechanisms.

And did Cassian ever confront Rhys about locking Nesta up without her consent? Of course not! Because no one in this court actually communicates with each other. They just fall in line behind Rhys’s idiotic plans, hoping for the best.

In Conclusion: The Night Court is a Disaster Waiting to Happen

In the end, the entire plot of ACOSF is built on terrible leadership, forced confinement, emotional manipulation, and withholding critical information. Rhysand and Feyre are held up as this power couple, but in reality, they’re just two deeply flawed individuals who’ve made a series of reckless decisions that will probably destroy the Night Court one day.

But don’t worry, everyone. It’s all wrapped up in some sparkly “feminist” packaging, so it’s fine! Who needs actual character growth, communication, or autonomy when you can have sex scenes and pretty prose instead?

[ghost-proofbaby]

I'm gonna cheat because I don't listen to TS but you know how much I love our pair from Maroon. can you tell us which of her newest songs you most associate with them right now. any tidbits you feel like sharing

^ it's me pleading for special treatment because I love you

abi babe i will always give you infinite special treatment always. however i apologize for how long this is because, uh, this is the couple who i specifically think dominates my brain while listening to TTPD.

i've already covered "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", so that one 100%.

besides that, though...

Down Bad. the entire premise of the song being compared to being abducted by aliens and when you're returned to earth being like "actually i liked it better up there take me back" as a metaphor for love feels very much like when you had a good relationship, something you expected to last forever, and it just gets taken from you. however, to spice things up - i think it works better applied to how eddie feels. the whole 'fuck it if i can't have him' is exactly how he feels as he's completely destroying himself in the aftermath. and just for fun, so you don't necessarily have to listen to the songs if you don't feel like it my love, i'm adding the specific lines from each song that i feel apply the most.

"how dare you think it's romantic, to leave me safe and stranded? 'cause fuck it, i was in love. so fuck you, if i can't have us."

^ it applies to both reader/sugar and eddie. first half feels very her, because he left her behind to not risk exposing her to a life that had begun to decay him. but second half feels very him cause... fuck it, ya know?

So Long, London. this one is about just being sad and mad about the end of a relationship, and that's where both eddie and sugar still are mentally. to build something so sacred up only to watch it be burned down by the other person. sugar is far angrier than eddie, though, since she's not really taken the time to work through how she feels with the end of it all.

"i didn't opt in to be your odd man out. i founded the club she's heard great things about. i left all i knew, you left me at the house by the heath. i stopped cpr - after all, it's no use."

also.... honorable mentions to the entire goddamn bridge, but specifically "you swore that you loved me, but where were the clues?" and "i'm just mad as hell 'cause i loved this place for so long"

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can). it's a bit of a spoiler, and a bit of a reach, but i think it's a good perspective from the others looking in. the media, but also specifically corroded coffin. this really only applies to post break-up them story-wise, too. he's wrecked himself, destroyed all that he was, and sugar is the only one seeming capable of bringing him back to what he once was.

"i can fix him - no, really, i can. and only i can."

loml. i guess what i'm saying is basically every single song where taylor got very vulnerable and terribly sad about the end of an important/long relationship. this one speaks for itself quite a bit because of the theme of the guy saying "you're the love of my life" repeatedly, only to leave. which is exactly what eddie did, in the grand scheme of things. and taking it a step further? the small implications of a breakup and attempt at rekindling? yeah, yeah that's them alright, your honor.

"who's gonna stop us from waltzing back into rekindled flames, if we know the steps anyway?"

^ literally what they are doing as we speak ^

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. this one i would mostly apply to all of sugar/reader's anger pre-reunion. that anger of a man who simply ghosts you. she didn't let herself feel the 'breakup' much, but she did go through some of the stages of grief - and she got stuck at anger.

"you kicked out stage lights, but you're still performing. and in plain sight, you hid. but you are what you did."

^ all his self-destruction when she sees it at surface level :) just seeing him as doing nothing more than throwing a tantrum :)

this is getting a bit out of hand now, but when it comes to the double album bit, there's even more. i don't want to bore you to death so i'm just going to list those songs but. yeah. this album felt very maroon coded to me. the losing and the anger and the sadness and the clinging to what once was. should've expected it, in all fairness.

from THE ANTHOLOGY, i'd say that 'the black dog', 'chloe or sam or sophia or marcus', 'how did it end?', 'i look in people's windows', 'the prophecy', 'peter', and 'the manuscript' are the ones that fit best for maroon. some are a stretch, some it's solely based off of one line that i couldn't get over, and some i just simply think it's the vibes. a true matter of the illness that is "they're my blurbos so i'll apply whatever song i want to them".

i'm sure we'll see a few of these as chapter titles going forward, including the anthology ones, so that'll probably be when i dig in a little deeper about specific lyrics. or when i post ominous music posts.

anyways if you made it to the end (especially you abi) i love you so fucking much and thank you for enjoying my absolutely insane ted talk i just basically did on how TTPD is very very sugar x eddie coded <3

[dashielldeveron]

just finished reading the izuku chapter for the second time and im so fucking blown away. your izuku makes me crazy hes so deranged i love it, it makes me feel like my freak is being matched with hoe insane i was trying to figure out who the secret character was lmao.

your izuku has ruined all others for me permanently because where else am i supposed to find a guy who’s as insane and determined and sexy as he is?? where am i going to read about a guy wanting me so much he died because rejected him? and he’s sososo caring + insane. the ask where you replied about him mumbling about all of the erogenous zones. so true and it killled meeee. i love that crazy man so much. not only do i his characterization just in general i also think it’s incredibly accurate interpretation of what izuku would be like in that situation and that’s what kills me the most. i love how (and this is not only talking about current route but all previous ones as well) in character and sexy he is. like he’s doing something in character sexy. like yes he would do all that weird shit and i love him for it. it’s infinitely important to me lmao. i don’t think i really articulated that well but i’m hoping my neurons are reaching your neurons and you know what i mean.

(also very much liked katsuki in this fic because he was also exhibiting 10/10 freak behavior, kissing opened mouth when my soulmate is in the room and the glimpse of our life with him was him having mc sit on his face like a chair? it’s very fun to revisit him in this route considering he was first written if you ever do vignettes [want to make it super clear that I don’t want it to come off like I’m pressuring you to write them, it’s just something I like to think about because this ff has a hold on my soul lmaooooo but that goes for anything you’d want to write ever] it’ll be so exciting to see him again as i love freaks)

world building 10/10, plot line 10/10, my favourite deranged guy 10/10. literally such a perfect last route in so many ways. you are so infinitely talented and your fan fiction has killed me. i am fatally excited for your next fic the way you write resonates with me that anything and everything ive ever read pales in comparison. i hope you enjoy the irreversible damage you’ve done to my psyche forever lmao wear it like a gold star + if you ever publish my old original crack shit theory post in your asks I’d laugh so hard. i was so crazy i asked one of my friends who reads your work their thoughts on my theory and to try point out out if there was anything I misremembered or missed LMAOO

-cork board anon

"my freak was matched with hoe insane" i want this embroidered on a pillow (even though i think it may have been a typo??? bc i think izuku is acting hoe insane). and trust your neurons are reaching mine; i get what you mean, and you're being very sweet about it!!! yeah since i haven't had to attach thoughts of izuku to a plot anymore, thinking about his levels of sexy determination just make my brain pitter out. i Need him.

and i'm soooooo pleased you think he's in character, and all, because i Worry, of course. he's hard to write!!! we don't get a lot of detail about his personality in canon, really, even though he's the main character!!!! i spruced up one of his most attractive canonical traits, which is that he Pays Attention........and apparently, i am REALLY into men who pay attention, bc i also made shinsou and aizawa very much Attention Payers when it comes to reader.......i think it may have helped to have defined their paying attention skills in different ways, and they're all sexy for it: 1) aizawa pays attention to reader so that he can keep her safe by controlling the overall situation they're in. so that she feels safe enough to come to him. 2) shinsou pays attention to reader so that she's so, so comfortable and so that he can take care of her in the ways she likes. so that he can give her what she's always wanted but never voiced. so that she's never nervous when he's around. 3) izuku pays attention to reader so he knows how to fuckin' drive her insane. so that he can infuriate her sexually enough that she cracks. god i love fictional men

KATSUKI KLADS;FJ;JSDFJKL; he was put in an opportunity, and he indulged lolololol. yeah it's so gutsy of him to open-mouth kiss reader while izuku is RIGHT THERE, freshly interrupted from talking about reader and soulmate stuff when she barged in. MEN. and don't worry; i don't feel pressured!!! i'm slowly working on the vignette ideas, and in the meantime, i'm almost done with the first chapter of my next project!!! but just because the art moves on does not mean we have to move on emotionally!!!! i think i have unfortunately written a version of bnha's end game that i like very much--particularly bc tenko/touya/toga get happy endings--so i'll always be down to discuss this fic!!!!

also lololol i'm about to publish your older asks; they deserve to be Seen and Perceived--they're pretty clever about the whole thing!!!! and thaaaaaaaaaaank you so much for being so kind about all of this!!!!! your asks really do make me smile so hard :) xx.

[13xwishes]

Thoughts on the core trio? If you don’t want to answer them in one ask then you can just do Frankie

CHARACTER OPINION MEME || { ACCEPTING }

Anonymous Wishes || Core Trio Gen 1 (Frankie, Draculaura & Clawdeen)

Good thing I have the braincell! I decided to do all three. This is gonna be a bit of a long post so bare with me.

Frankie is the perfectly imperfect main ghoul

As far as it comes to the main, even as one of the ones shown the most, I feel like they did a good job with Frankie's character. She's not just a teen monster at Monster High, but THE teen to help you guide through it and relate to. I thought I wasn't going to like Frankie as much because of how they constantly show her most of the episodes but she balances out with her freaky flaws and difficult struggles.

Frankie's personality is what you expect for a teen experiencing High School life for the first time and is trying to fit in while going on a journey. And she takes us on the journey pretty well. She understands and learns along the way, is VERY protective of her friends and loves them enough to even DIE for them. She gets major credit for that. Plus even when the movie does focus on her, she never really overshadows the other monsters. Instead it feels like she brings them into the fold.

If there's any teen you can relate to the most, it would be Frankie in this series.

Clawdeen the fashionista is a good main that struggles

Ngl, Clawdeen was annoying at the start of her introduction, coming off as a bit of a hypocrite to contradict what she says. But eventually she builds up better from that. Clawdeen is the kinda ghoul that you wanna see throw down and look good doing it. Like her only time she threw hands was during 13 Wishes (best boovie of all) when she finally got to PUNCH someone!

Clearly Clawdeen is the tough ghoul who dreams big and even though she wasn't expanded as much ad Frankie and Draculaura, there were times I understood her plight. Like wanting to impress the people you look up to (she and Howleen are alot alike than they think), dealing with complicated younger siblings in the same school and trying to NOT knock the other monster who is giving you and your friends flat so you don't get suspended.

Scaris happens to be one of my favorites because of how it balances out and how Clawdeen got to balance herself out and learn along the way. She started off stagnant but develops along the way. She's honestly the one in the trio that needs to be exploited more.

Draculaura... the over populated one

Yeah I'm gonna say it: she's overrated (Love you Sam but not sorry!). I mentioned before that Draculaura is listed as one of my top five LEAST favorite characters, but it's not because she's a bad character. She has good morals, she supports her friends and deals with her own struggles. But its more like she's... overly spoiled? Like it's clear she is the brand favorite if you look up how she has the most amount of dolls in the franchise. And even in the remakes she lives one of the best lives in the monster world.

As for her character in itself, I honestly have a hard time sympathizing with her. Even when the movie focuses on her such as WHY DO GHOULS FALL IN LOVE or FRIGHTS,CAMERA, ACTION, the movie instead overshadows the plot for something Laura wants rather than something important such as NOT LETTING DISCRIMNATION RUN FOR THE MONSTER WORLD VAMPIRES!

Draculaura can also be invasive at times to the point where its uncomfortable for the ghouls such as GHOULS RULE on trying to force Clawdeen on a date with a guy (before she's canonically a lesbian). She WAS the head of the gossip pool before Spectra came along. And also she tends to be over-materialistic. If it wasn't for the amount of money or hierarchy she has, I'm pretty sure she and Cleo would be banned from every kind of transportation system EVER. I'm also kind of bitter for the webisode 'Draculocker' of how instead of giving her some kind of infinite purse like Jimmy neutron style, they fill up the school with giant lockers so she can store stuff. THIS IS NOT HOW YOU SOLVE YOUR HOARDER PROBLEM!

So yeah for Draculaura, not hate but they could've done better with her character and humble her down. There are other monsters in the franchise that deserve limelight time.

[nono-bunny]

I tried watching the 2009 K-drama of Boys Over Flowers, but unfortunately by the fourth episode I decided to drop it because it just felt like a bad attempt at recreating the 2005 J-drama while also attempting and failing to create a new backstory for Tsukushi. I tried to write a post about why exactly I didn't like it, actually, but I shelved it because honestly, it was difficult to put into words why everything about it felt so wrong, but like. It did, and I dropped it

Anyway, I went on to try the other HYD adaptation on Netflix, which is the 2018 Chinese Meteor Garden. Going into it, I mostly just knew it was gonna kinda write out the bullying thing, and also that apparently Yoko Kamio really likes that version in particular anyway? So like, I didn't really know what to expect... But ngl, I was not expecting to like and respect it as much as I do

First of all!!! It is undoubtedly the adaptation with the most true-to-manga version of events, which. While I actually really enjoy the weird timeline mashup of the J-drama, after reading the manga I definitely really did wish to see a version that didn't cut out Kazuya and Kinsan, among other things, but yeah honestly I just really wanted to see these two lmao

It also??? Does a fantastic job at creating new things (they might have been in the OG Meteor Garden but I didn't watch that so,,) and adapting to the weird censorship around the instigating events of the story in a way that's genuinely so fun, while also managing to find ways to keep the characterizations of the characters that very easily could've been lost when taking out the whole malicious and violent nature of the F4. It does GREAT character work in general!! Li Zhen being a Makiko-turned-Sakurako as opposed to just erasing Makiko (which I still find hilarious considering the manga literally acknowledges that) by introducing Sakurako in her place is such a unique and fantastic solution to get around the bullying again while giving her a new, sympathetic motivation that feels much more in tune with this less extravagant (as in, making it just slightly less about the class disparity lol) version of the story, and!! As much as I love Sakurako, I feel like I appreciate Li Zhen just as much for like,, losing herself over her jealousy, and coming out of the whole ordeal as a much more confident person who's able to be a better, more proactive friend. Their motives and backgrounds are different, but the results end up roughly the same, and! I'm fine with, heck, I actually rather like Li Zhen not being the cackling narcissistic love rival (as much as that's probably like, my favorite trope), it works well for the story and she's portrayed really well by her actress!

Also, as expected, I love Qinghe, he's my boy!!! God fr I simply do not understand why Kazuya is only a part of the Meteor Garden adaptations of the story, he's so fucking great and it's heartbreaking that he got taken out of most of the adaptations when you can see how much he adds to the dynamic. Like, fr, Kazuya and Tsukasa competing over fishing is so iconic, it's such a dumb, joyous thing they do, like, peak of what "boys will be boys" should be, and!!! As expected it's SUCH a fun thing to see adapted

Kazuya being the loveable loser comic relief added so fucking much to the manga, because like, fr, both of the versions that I've seen that cut him are infinitely more depressing to watch!! He's so important to preserving the emotional balance of the story, not to mention how much better the story feels when Tsukushi DOES have an actual, genuine friend that goes to Eitoku with her. J-drama Tsukushi hangs out with Yuki and Okami A LOT to make up for the lack of any supportive people in her school life outside of F4, and without Kazuya around, ultimately, Tsukushi is definitely less close to the F4 than she is in the manga where his hijinks allow them to genuinely become friends, and the K-drama just didn't have any fun(ny) characters to replace him and it made it so difficult to watch!!! But Qinghe is such a bro, he's just as fun as I expected him to be if not *more*, and! Him being included makes such a huge positive difference

So far, the K-drama is obviously my least favorite adaptation, but I'm genuinely having trouble deciding whether I like the Japanese or Chinese one better, because both offer very different things and I actually love both!! The Japanese version is definitely like,,, the easier version for me to connect to, just because I already know the character names, and the jokes and most of the plot is consistent with the tone of the manga because it's the same setting (my very basic knowledge of Japanese definitely helps too lmao), but. The Chinese version is more fun to watch by virtue of being less depressing (fr, Kazuya makes ALL the difference), which also in a way makes it easy to get invested in it

Overall I'm actually very happy with what I've seen from Meteor Garden so far (I'm about halfway through it rn), and it's great to have another version of the story to cycle through because HYD has very quickly become one of my comfort media

[astralanthropologists]

can you talk a bit about the dynamics of Bones, Jim, Anna, and Riona in your polycule? you sometimes talk about them as each other's sun, moon, and stars, and I'm super interested in how you conceive of those relationships and what that means to you

Oh, man. This is a whole like. Thing. XD Charlie (@aseelierose) and I always throw our OCs into any fandom, and I think that Charlie was super excited when I got into Trek, because they've always been a big fan of it (and are currently getting their partner to watch all of Trek, too). They've always paired Anna with Jim, and I absolutely fell in love with Bones (obviously). And, well. Charlie and my OCs are very bisexual. AOS McKirk is, in my opinion, not even subtext, but y'know. Ship and let ship, and I love watching other people bring other ships to life, especially in rp.

And we're gonna take that quote about dreamers and realists from Modern Family:

“There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You'd think the dreamers would find the dreamers, and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true. See, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists? Well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.”

~*~

For a personal rundown: Riona—Jim is the Sun; it’s also a star, and they’re similar, and he reminds her of her home amongst the sky. Len is the Moon; it’s part of the night sky and pulls the most focus as the brightest light in the darkness. Anna is the Stars; they are her home and most natural place of being, and that’s Anna; she just feels free with Anna. Note: Riona is also a dreamer. Len—Jim is the Sun; he rebuilt his entire fucking life orbiting Jim Kirk without even realizing it. Anna is the Moon; she’s his anchor the way the Moon achors the tides. Riona is the Stars; not only can he not associate them with her, but he just feels like Riona is infinite. Note: Len is also a realist. Anna—Jim is the Sun; he’s been the brightest light since she met him. Len is the Moon; quiet in his brilliance, but no less important. Riona is the Stars; again, the association, but also because of the stars as hope. Note: Anna is also a realist. Jim—Anna is the Sun; she’s big and bold and brilliant and vibrant, and he just feels warm. Bones is the Moon; he feels like losing Bones would be catastrophic. Losing the Sun causes basically instant death. But losing the Moon causes devastation while life can still be sustained, and he doesn’t know how to lose Bones. Riona is the Stars; again, the association, but also because the Stars are constant, and Riona just feels like she’ll always be around for whatever he needs her to be. Note: Jim is also a dreamer.

~*~

So, yeah. It started with Riona/Bones and Jim/Anna, but Riona and Anna almost always end up in a friends with benefits situation, because it's easy for them to sleep together when they're not communicating their feelings to other people. And it's not that they don't have feelings for each other. Riona's love for Anna is something that is very freeing and needed in this verse in particular, as Anna's the first person Riona's fallen in love with since her faerie partner, Aidan, was killed. Aidan's death was what prompted her to join Starfleet; she just didn't feel at home in the faerie world anymore, despite having her family (Aislinn, Aleria, and Logan). It wasn't their whole family, and she just couldn't live with the fragments. Anna, being half-Betazoid, gets a lot from Riona that Riona doesn't say, and Anna is just as open and honest with Riona because of this and because of her Betazoid culture. Anna has a bad break up in Academy that makes it very convenient for her and Riona to get closer, and it's just easy for them. 

~*~

Now, McKirk is something to me that is just obvious, and I have a lot of posts about the two of them. But what it comes down to is that they were both at the lowest point of their lives when they found each other in that shuttle, and then they built these new lives together.

They don’t know how to separate themselves from the other person, and if you don’t believe me, just look at how they react in Into Darkness. When Jim thinks that Bones could die because of that torpedo? He is on the edge of breaking, even though he knows that he would still need to push forward and keep captaining the Enterprise. And Bones? Look at his reaction to opening the body bag and seeing Jim’s corpse. Everything drains right out of him. He’s broken and can’t even stand. He collapses and barely even breathes. 

The two of them have a dynamic that works for them, but it is extremely codependent.

~*~

Jim/Anna is the first couple that like. Actually gets their shit together. Granted, there is some small manipulations there. Spock would call them "calculated decisions". It's an away mission, and they have to pretend to be a couple, and Anna's half-Betazoid and their chief of security, so it makes sense for her to be undercover in this to protect Jim during what is supposed to be a diplomatic event. And playing these parts and having to pretend to be together forces them to actually confront their feelings.

But it's a wonderful slowburn, because the two of them are made of the same stuff. They hide behind big, brash personalities in order to keep their insecurities hidden and put up this wall. But they get each other. They see each other's heart, and they love the way that the other cares so fucking much. They both have so much that they want to go and explore and learn and do, and they realize that they want to do that together. And, for as much as they're similar, they're also different. Anna's more of a realist, and she helps ground Jim.

~*~

Anna/Bones is the foundation of this polycule, though. Maybe it's because they're both the realists; maybe it's because Into Darkness was particularly traumatizing for them. But they have a lot of realizations together and pretty much vow to be there, not only for each other, but for their dreamers. They bond a lot during the two weeks Jim is out before he fully wakes up from being dead, and they have an implicit understanding of each other. That time, that shared trauma, and their understanding is also why Anna is the one other person in the entire universe who is actually able to call Len Bones, but only during very specific instances. They are the ones who make the polycule possible, though.

~*~

Len/Riona is, well, one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for idiots-to-lovers; I'm a sucker for mutual pining that they think is unrequited. I'm a sucker for how they can't quite figure out their timing. They're both so scared, so hesitant. They're so in love, but they're both of the opinion that if something goes wrong, then it's over. Bones is more than content to just be Jim's friend; that relationship doesn't have to be romantic. He accepts his feelings, and he just kind of tucks them away. If Jim ever felt the same, that'd be great, but it doesn't matter.

With Riona, it's different. They are all or nothing, and that's so terrifying to both of them. Riona, especially, because barring some extreme traumatic event, Riona's outliving Len by an eternity. She knows she will lose him someday. And it's easier to pretend like it won't kill her when it happens, and it's easier to not take the risk of making their friendship more, because if it goes wrong, then she lost the person who makes her feel safe.

And all of this is also why, when they finally admit how they feel after dancing around it for the better part of four long years (though they both knew before that, so....), they don't have to date. They already know each other inside and out, know their fears and insecurities, know the way they fit together and can just breathe.

~*~

Jim/Riona is the last piece of the puzzle, and it's their similarities that finally pull them together. The way neither of them know how to give anything less than all of themselves, the way they both are constantly craving home and connections, the way that they both love the stars as if the stars flow through their blood. Sometimes, they're the only person who can get the other one to stop. They're always turned up to an 11, always at the highest setting, but they bond in the quiet moments. They figure things out in shared bad feelings, in taking a breath and looking at the stars, in getting the other out of their head. Jim is the only one who can get Riona to just sleep. And it's usually because he needs to sleep, too, and having a light sleeper makes it so that he can't just get up and go think about things. They're the dreamers, but that means that they can whisper about the bad parts of being dreamers, too.

~*~

And then putting them all together is just....they all came from places of loneliness, of loss, of trying to find who they are. And they found each other. They found themselves along the way, and they owe all of that to each other. They brought light back to each other's worlds.

[love-strawberry]

you and midnight walks

summary : in which they're so in love that it makes everyone jealous.

pairing : ben barnes x reader

warnings : language

author's note : had so much fun writing this!! hope you all like it <33

tagged : @mrsben-barnes @ellora-brekker @slut4benbarnes

masterlist

navigation

----------

----------

liked by tchalamet, freddycarter1, kittheyounger and 3,428,926 others

y/n_ when you're giving him the silent treatment but then HE starts to give YOU the silent treatment<<<

tagged benbarnes

98,628 comments

username dump him, marry me

username he looks so good

username yeah ben wtf

daniellegalligan_ smh ben

username i love them so much your honour

benbarnes i'm sorry, please let me in now

-> y/n_ no

-> benbarnes i made you coffee

-> y/n_ opening the door as we speak

username their relationship>>>

username he's so beautiful

jessie_mei_li forget him, let's date, i'll give you all the attention you want bb

-> y/n_ benbarnes bye, i love you jessie

username 🦋🦋🦋

freddycarter1 did you let him in? he's been texting me constantly

-> y/n_ yeah i did, it's so hard to stay mad at him

jacktwolfe you guys>>>

username ❣️❣️❣️

----------

----------

liked by y/n_, lewistanofficial, amitasuman_ and 3,628,528 others

benbarnes wife appreciation post cause she deserves it. thank you so much for making everyday feel like a dream, i love you <3

tagged y/n_

98,827 comments

username im sobbing

username them them them them them them them them them them

username they invented being in love

kittheyounger stop making all of us feel single, it's not pleasant

username when will it be my turn?!

amitasuman_ the happiest, the most beautiful and loving person i know 🦋🌙

username me on my knees for y/n y/l/n and y/n y/l/n only

username 🛐🛐

username ben 🤝 everyone : simping for y/n

username he loves her so much i can't-

lewistanofficial 🤍🤍🤍

username me @ god for not giving a soulmate : 🖕🏼

jessie_mei_li 💟💟

y/n_ ahhhhhsjhdjsks i love you so much, thank you for being in my life and making it infinite times better

-> benbarnes ❤️❤️❤️

calahan.skogman you guys 🤍✨

username 💕💕

----------

----------

liked by jacktwolfe, archierenaux3, benbarnes and 4,729,529 others

y/n_ you and midnight walks with you are my favourite <3

tagged benbarnes

101,268 comments

username alexa play late night talking by harry styles

username wow, i feel so single rn

username hahaha i hate this hahaha

daniellegalligan_ my loves 💕

freddycarter1 where are you both? your bf is needed on set

-> y/n_ we're getting ice cream, we'll be there

-> freddycarter1 niceee get me cookies and cream. and mint choco chip for jack

-> y/n_ ofc

username fuck romeo and juliet, i want what these bitches have

tchalamet y'all make me sick with love

lbardugo babies 🦋🦋

username no one simps for ben more than y/n and no one simps for y/n more than ben

username their love for eachother is all i want in life

benbarnes these talks about random things with you are my favourite :)

-> y/n_ sameee i love them so much, it's so interesting to hear you talk about memes and how important they are to society

username i wanna hear ben talk about memes

username ben and y/n>>> everyone else

jessie_mei_li making me wanna get in a relationship

----------

----------

liked by tchalamet, kittheyounger, jessie_mei_li and 4,182,927 others

benbarnes happy happy happy birthday to the love of my life <3

tagged y/n_

99,628 comments

username HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUEEN

username Y/N SUPREMACY>>>

username she's so pretty wtf

daniellegalligan_ my wife's birthday :)

username 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

username i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her i love her

username she's so beautiful, ben's so lucky

y/n_ omg i love you!! thank you so much <333

-> benbarnes i love you more <3

username brb gonna cry

jacktwolfe on my way with freddy and kit

username 🥳🥳🥳

username the queen's birthday ayyyy

username her style is top tier

amitasuman_ 💋❣️🦋💕

lbardugo happy birthday to my favourite child <3

username ✨🤍

----------

----------

[rphelperblog]

Gilmore Girls Quote RP Meme

requested by the lovely writer and person @offorester

"I'm afraid that once your heart's involved, it all comes out in moron."

"Well, you know my babbling capabilities are infinite."

"This town is like one big outpatient mental institution."

"Reality has no place in our world!"

“I live in two worlds, one is a world of books.”

"It’s all any of us wants, to find a nice person to hang out with ‘til we drop dead."

"Breathe in, folks. Smells like Fall."

"Why did you drop out of Yale?!"

"Every day that you breathe, you make my life harder."

"People are particularly stupid today, I can't talk to any more of them."

"It’s all any of us wants: to find a nice person to hang out with till we drop dead.

"If you're going to throw your life away, he better have a motorcycle!"

"It's a show?" "It's a lifestyle. It's a religion."

"I'm fine. I'm just being dramatic. It's what I do."

"You can use your mother's old golf clubs. They're upstairs, gathering dust, with the rest of her potential."

“And if eating cake is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”

"You're going to kiss me now? So incredibly predictable."

"Are you ever gonna ask me out? You flirt with me. You act like you like me."

"I just take a book with me everywhere. It's a habit."

"You're a book tease."

"You've got such a great brain!"

“A little nervous breakdown can work wonders for a girl.”

"People can live a hundred years without really living for a minute."

"Coffee, please, and a shot of cynicism."

"Life's short. Talk fast."

"It's not too much food. This is what we've been training for our whole lives. This is our destiny. This is our finest hour."

"I don't know if she ever realized the person I most wanted to be was her."

“I hate when I’m an idiot and don’t know it. I like being aware of my idiocy.”

"Because I love you, you idiot!!"

"I want to live my life so I can read an in-depth biography about myself in later years."

"It’s times like these that you realize what is truly important in your life."

“I need coffee in an IV.”

"Well, if you expect that muffin to fly back to the kitchen by itself you better go get it a cape."

“You have to sleep, it’s what keeps you pretty.”

"I am attracted to pie, but I do not feel the need to date pie."

"Every relationship is just a big honking leap of faith."

"I have liked you for some time now and I don't think this feeling is going to go away."

"It’s just my favorite time of year. The whole world changes color.”

“Everything’s magical when it snows.”

"Oh my gosh, he kissed me."

"I love you, you idiot."

"It is what it is. You, me."

"No men. Just lots and lots of Chinese food."

"It was a great kiss. If one of us had been a frog, it would have had some seriously impressive consequences."

"But marriage is not about always being happy. It's about compromise."

"The Long Island Ice Tea makes you do things you normally wouldn’t do."

"This thing we're doing here -- me, you -- I just want you know I'm in. I'm all in."

"God, that's terrible. It's like drinking a My Little Pony.""Yeah, I'm fine, I'm great. It's a big, fat, happy sunshine day for me."

"You know what I just realized? Oy is the funniest word in the entire world."

"You gotta realize the only way out is in a body bag."

"I'm attracted to pie. It doesn't mean I feel the need to date pie."

"You've got to be patient and wait for what you want to appear, then pounce."

"It's always best to tell each other major life events, so there's no awkwardness."

"You have to tell me why we're committing a felony before we do it."

“Yes, I left behind a glass slipper and a business card … just in case the prince is really dumb.”

"Every relationship is just a big honking leap of faith."

this thing we're doing here, me, you. I just wanted you to know I'm in. I am all in."

"Having babies doesn't mean you can't be rock and roll!"

“I cannot do this alone, I need my mommy and I don’t care who knows it.”

"I'll help you shower when I become a superhero."

"Relationships need verbs."

"If you're going to throw your life away he better have a motorcycle!!"

“You’ve got such a great brain!”

"Mom, you've given me everything I need."

“I’m fine. I’m just being dramatic. It’s what I do.”

"We're almost there & nowhere near it. All that matters is that we're going!"

"I had a meeting at the bank earlier, they like callers."

"I smell snow."

"Oy with the poodles already!"

“Nothing says coffee like six in the morning!”

“Mom, you’ve given me everything I need.”

"You gotta realize the only way out is in a body bag."

“There’s plenty to do tonight that we can be mortified about tomorrow.”

“I’m going to have to quit drinking coffee! And I love coffee — I really love coffee!”

“I need caffeine. Whatever form you’ve got it. I haven’t had any all day. I’ll drink it, shoot it, eat it, snort it, whatever form it’s in, gimme.”

"People can live a hundred years without really living for a minute. You climb up here with me, it's one less minute you haven't lived."

"It's club soda,."

"Oh God, I hope nothing's happened to him. You get so attached to their little faces, sometimes you can hear them talk to you at night."

"My books look sad. Can books look sad?"

"I'm here because I enjoy books, and because I read books."

"Gnome kicking says a lot about a man's character."

"No, it's National Baptism Day. Tie your tubes, idiot!"

"Excuse me. There is a phone call for you and if I'm to fetch you like a dog then I'd like a cookie and a raise."

"Then give me a boa and drive me to rino because I'm open for business!"

"Oh, people die, we pay. People crash a car, we pay. People lose a foot, we pay."

"Cranking Metallica. Is that some sort of drug reference, it's not funny."

"Really? You can see the driveway with your head way up in the air like that?"

"Tell her I gotta take another crack at that closet. I think I hung my Tool t-shirt next to my Metallica t-shirt and they don't really get along."

"I gotta tell you, out of all the nutty barn-raising shindigs this town can cook up, this one wasn't half bad."

"Oh, do you see the books? Feel it. Feels good, right? Now smell it. Nothing, nothing smells like that."

"We could go to a bookstore, I'll watch you browse for six or seven hours."

"Coffee, please, and a shot of cynicism."

"I can't believe we get to sit around and talk about books and get graded."

"We're almost there & nowhere near it. All that matters is that we're going!"

"I don't like Mondays but unfortunately they come around eventually."

“I’m not broken. Maybe just a little chipped.”

“There’s plenty to do tonight that we can be mortified about tomorrow.”

“I can go from zero to studying in less than 60 seconds!”

“Oh, I can’t stop drinking the coffee. I stop drinking the coffee, and I stop doing the standing, walking, and words putting into sentence doing.”

"If it was physically possible to make love to a hot beverage, this would be the one.”

"Give me a burger, onion rings, and a list of people who killed their parents and got away with it. I need some heroes."

"Who cares if I'm pretty if I fail my finals."

"I can be flexible, as long as everything is exactly the way I want it."

"Oh yeah, I've got gold stars plastered all over my forehead."

"Well, I'll bring dick up on the internet and see what comes up."

[musclesandhammering]

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

[work-of-waking-up]

It’s funny how a lot of people are saying season 4 sucked, (not including the ending obviously) except for the scenes with villanelle and eve in the last episode. Um? What? This season literally gave us some of the best scenes/stuff ever. Jesusnelle? We were gifted Jodie Comer in drag ffs. Villanelle killing Hélène? It’s honestly one of my favorite scenes of the whole show, so hot, which is made infinitely better by the fact that it’s preceded by the glorious look of betrayal and jealousy when V learns of Eve and Hélène. Eve dressing Villanelle? That killed all of us. So soft. And all the other soft moments, soft touches, soft looks. Cupid and Psyche. Them meeting across the fish tank, the look on V’s face, just pure awe and adoration. Eve dressed in leather and shooting someone. Gunn and Villanelle. Eve climbs a tree and then gouges out someone’s eyes? Hell yeah. Eve and Hélène.. my personal fav being when Hélène holds Eve’s hand onto the stove. Villanelle watching (and also struggling to watch) Eve get undressed in the hotel. Literally all of the callbacks to the other seasons, subtle or not. I seriously live for that kind of shit. Anytime Villanelle looks absolutely feral, as always. Finally we get Carolyn and Villanelle scenes (even though those scenes look different in retrospect) and I was surprised to like them together that much! They actually would have made a good team. Eve simply coming into her own and her newfound confidence and skills. Jodie Comer’s fucking hands. The music. The tension, as delicious as always. Some of the clothes/outfits/styles *chefs kiss* So many people are saying the writing was terrible, and I’m not saying it was perfect, it never can be, but I really kind of loved a lot of it. I thought a lot of the dialogue was really beautiful and refreshing. The timing of the silence between dialogue was spot on. There were some very poignant moments, revealing moments, and poetic moments, and as a poet I loved all of that. And then, of course, every single minute (except the last 2) that Villanelle and Eve are together in the last episode, which is truly just cinematic poetry. So say what you will, I really loved a lot of what we were given this last season. I do think a lot of it comes down to what you were looking to get out of the show and what was most important to you. This show and these characters are literally larger than life. Full stop. The reason everyone feels so differently about everything comes down to one of the beautiful aspects of this show in that it contains so much complexity and nuance as well as the constant inability for these characters to remain the same. The past 2 seasons have been hard because there has been a disconnect caused by the writers not fully understanding the characters and where they should be. But Jodie and Sandra understood their characters the whole way through, so they carried the show. Many things were left unsaid and undone. We can’t change the choice they made to continue to switch writers so all we can really do is appreciate the good parts we are given. I’m glad I got to enjoy it. And I really am sorry if you didn’t. And this is absolutely in no way an endorsement of Laura Neal’s shitty choices, she failed us. But there was good.

[iloveubee]

I Will Forever love my girlfriend, She Is the most important person to me and, to be honest even if i am with others Like Friends, no one Is at the same level as her, even if il with others without her i feel lonley...She Is the love of my Life and the emotion i have for her are infinite i wanna be with only her for the rest of my life, i can see myself with any other girl other that her, i want i bright future with her, i want to be with her Forever and live togheter in a nice house and be finally Happy. So i was thinking in the future or when we can to propose to her, i wanna make the most breathtaking, emotional and real proposal ever, so i wanted to remake a scene from Steven Universe One of her favourite cartoons of all time, (also i know that It becomes a sad and goes badly but its so pretty and meaningful) i wanted to recreate the proposal scene of Connie and Steven in Steven Universe Future, its so pretty and romantic, also where i live Is full of beatches, and maybe i know the closest match, i have the pick Nick set thats probably the easyest part, gettin the food Is not that difficult, the there Is the outfit idk if i would be wearing the same outfit at Steven, idk maybe i would look cheesy, but maybe yeah to be accurate, the only problem Is the Song part, i can't play a ukulele, but maybe i could Just sing idk or i would entirely skip the ukulele part? Idk i still Need to figure It out, i Will still propose with the glowstick bracelet Like Steven but i Will propetly attach the Ring box with It? Idk i Will surely buy her a Pink or purple ring with a meaningful gem, idk i have still planty of time to decide and, for now i Just i wanna see her so bad, i miss you bee.

[thedeadhandofseldon]

The Anti-Mercer Effect

On the Accessibility of D&D, Why Unprepared Casters is so Fun, and Why Haley Whipjack is possibly the greatest DM of our generation.

(Apologies to my mutuals who aren’t in this fandom for the length of this, but as you all know I have never in my life shut up about anything so… we’ll call it even for the number of posts about Destiel I see every day.

To fellow UC fans - I haven’t listened to arc 4 yet, I started drafting this in early August, and I promise I will write a nice post about how great Gus the Bard is once I get the chance to listen to more of his DMing).

Structure - Or, “This is not the finale, there will be more podding cast”

So, first of all, let’s just talk about how Unprepared Casters works. Because it’s kind of unusual! Most of the other big-name D&D podcasts favor this long, grand arcs; UC has about 10 hours of podcast per each arc. And that’s a major strength in a lot of ways: it makes it really accessible to new listeners, because you can just start with the current arc and understand what’s going on!

And by starting new arcs every six or seven episodes, they can explore lots of ways to play D&D! Classic dungeon delve arc! Heist arc! Epic heroes save the world arc! Sportsball arc! They can touch on all sorts of things!

And while I’m talking about that: Dragons in Dungeons, the first arc, makes it incredibly accessible as a show - because it lets the unfamiliar listener get a sense of what D&D actually is. (It’s about telling stories and making your friends feel heroic and laugh and cry, for the record). If I had to pick a way to introduce someone to the game without actually playing it with them, that arc would definitely be it.

And I’d be remise not to note one very important thing: Haley Whipjack and Gus the Bard are just very funny, very charismatic people. Look. Episode 0s tend to be about 50%(?) those two just talking to each other about their own podcast. It shouldn’t work. And yet it DOES, its one of my favorite parts, because Haley and Gus are just cool.

And a side note that doesn’t fit anywhere else: I throw my soul at him! I throw a scone at him - that’s it, that’s the vibe. The whole podcast alternates between laughing with your friends and brooding alone in a dark tavern corner - but the laughs never forced and the dark corner is never too dark for too long.

Whipjack the Great - Or, the DM is Also a Player!

I think Haley Whipjack is one of the greatest Dungeon Masters alive. The plots and characters! The mechanical shenanigans! The descriptions!

Actually, let’s start there: with the descriptions. (Both Haley and Gus do this really fucking well). As we know, Episode 0 of each arc sees the DM reading a description - of a small town, or the Up North, or the recent history of a great party. And Haley always strikes this tricky balance - one I think a lot of us who DM struggle with - between giving too much description and  worldbuilding, and not telling us anything at all. She describes people and events in just enough detail to imagine them, but never so much they seem static and unreal - just clear enough to envision, but with enough vagueness left to let your imagination begin to run wild.

While I’m thinking about arc 3’s party, let’s talk about a really bold move she made in that arc: letting the players have ongoing control of their history. Loser Lars! She didn’t try to spell out every detail of this high-level party’s history, or restrict their past to only what she decided to allow - she gave them the broad outlines, and let them embellish it. And that made for a much more alive story than any attempt to create it by herself would have - but I think it takes a lot of courage to let your players have that agency. Most Dungeon Masters (myself included) tend to struggle with being control freaks.

And the plots! Yeah, arc one is built of classic tropes - but she actually uses them, she doesn’t get caught up in subverting everything or laughing at the cliches. And it’s fun! In arc 3, there really isn’t a straight line for the players to follow, either - which makes the game much more interesting and much trickier to run. And her NPCs are fantastic and I will talk about them in the next section.

Above all, though, I think what is really impressive is how Haley balances mechanics, and rules as written, with the narrative and rule of cool - and puts both rules and story in the service of playing a fun game. And the secret to that? She’s the DM, but the DM is a player, and the DM is clearly having fun. Hope Lovejoy mechanically shouldn’t get that spellslot back, but she does, and it’s fun. The changeling merchant in Thymore doesn’t really make some Grand Artistic Narrative better, but wow is it fun. And she never tries to force it one way or the other - the story might be more dramatic if Annie didn’t manage to banish the demon from the vault, but it’s a lot cooler and a lot more fun for the players if Annie gets to be a badass instead - and the rules and the dice say that Annie managed it.

Settings feel like places, NPCs feel like people, and the narrative plot feels like a real villainous plot.

Anyway. I could go on about the various ways in which Whipjack is awesome for quite a while - she’s right, first place in D&D is when your friends laugh and super first place is when they cry - but I’m going to stop here and just. Make another post about it some other time. For now, for the record I hold her opinions about the game in higher esteem than I do several official sourcebooks; that is all.

Characters - Or, Bombyx Mori Is Not an Asshole, And That Matters

Okay, I said I would talk about characters! And I will!

Just a general place to start: the party! All of the first three parties are interesting to me, because they all care about each other. Not even necessarily in a Found Family Trope sort of way, though often that too. But they generally aren’t assholes to each other. The players create characters that actually work together, that are interesting; even when there’s internal divisions like SK-73 v. Sir Mr. Person, they aren’t just unpleasant and antagonistic all the time. Listening to the podcast, we’re “with” these people for a couple hours - and it isn’t unpleasant. That matters a lot. (To take a counter-example: I love Critical Role, but the episode when Vox Machina pranked Scanlan after he died and was resurrected wasn’t fun to listen to, it was just uncomfortable and angering and vaguely cruel).

All of the PCs are amazing, and the players in each arc did a great job. If you disagree with me about that, well, you have the right to be incorrect and I am sorry for your loss. Annie Wintersummer, for one example: tragic and sad and I want to give her a hug, but also Fuck Yeah Wintersummer, and also her familiar Charles the Owl is the cutest and funniest and I love him. And we understand what’s going on with Annie, she isn’t some infinite pool of hidden depths because this arc is 7 episodes and we don’t have time for that, but she also has enough complexity to be interesting. Same with Fey Moss: yeah, a lot of her is a silly pun about fame that carries into how she behaves, but a lot of how she behaves is also down to some good classic half-elven angst about parenthood and wanting to be known and seen and important. (Side note: if your half-elf character doesn’t have angst, well, that’s impressive and also I don’t think I believe you).

There are multiple lesbian cat-people in a 4-person party and they both have requited romantic interests who aren’t each other. This is the future liberals want and I am glad for it.

Sir Mister Person, the human fighter! Thavius, the edge lord! Even when a character is “simple,” they’re interesting, because of how they’re played as people and not action-figures. And that matters a lot.

In the same way: the NPCs. There really aren’t a lot of them! And some of them come from Patreon submissions, so uh good work gang, you’re part of the awesomeness and I’m proud of you! The point being, the NPCs work because enough of them are interesting to matter. It’s not just a servant who opens Count Michael’s door, it’s a character with a name (Oleandra!) and a personality and history. They’re interesting. Penny Lovejoy didn’t need to be interesting, the merchant outside the Laughing Mausoleum didn’t need to be interesting, but they ARE! And Haley and Gus EXCEL at making the NPCs matter, not just to the story but to us as viewers. I agree with Sir Mister Person, actually, I would die for the princesses of the kingdom. I actually care about Gem Lovejoy of all people - that wouldn’t happen in an ordinary campaign! That’s the thing that makes Unprepared Casters spectacular - and, frankly, it’s especially impressive because D&D does not tend to be good at making a lot of interesting compared to a lot of other sorts of stories.

And, just as an exemplar of all this: Bombyx Mori. Immortal, reincarnating(?), and described as the incarnation of the player’s ADHD. I expected to hate Bombyx, because as the mom friend both in and out of my friend-group’s campaigns, the chaos-causer is always exhausting to me. And yeah, Bombyx causes problems on purpose! But! She is not an asshole.

And that’s important. Bombyx goes and sits with the queen and comforts her. Bombyx gives Annie emotional support. Bombyx isn’t just a vehicle to jerk around the DM and other players; Bombyx really is a character we can care about. To compare with another case - in the first couple episodes of The Adventure Zone, the PCs are just dicks. Funny, but dicks. Bombyx holds out an arm “covered in larva” to shake with a count, and robs him of magical items, but she also cares about her friends and other people! She uses a powerful magical gem to save her fertilizer guy from death! Yeah, Bombyx is ridiculous, but she’s not just an asshole the party has to keep around for plot reasons; you can see why her party would keep her around. And one layer of meta up, she’s the perfect example of how to make a chaotic character like that while still being fun for everyone you’re playing with, which is often not the case. And I love her.

The Anti-Mercer Effect - Or, “I think we proved it can be fun, you can have a good time with your friends. And it doesn’t have to be scary, you can just work with what you know”

The Mercer Effect basically constitutes this: Matthew Mercer, Dungeon Master of Critical Role, is incredible (as are all of his players). They’re all professional story-tellers in a way, remember, and so Critical Role treats D&D like a narrative art-form, and it’s inspiring. Seeing that on Critical Role sets impossible standards - and people go into their own home games imagining that their campaigns will be like Critical Role, and the burden of that expectation tends to fall disproportionately on the DM. And the end result, I think, of the Mercer Effect is that we get discouraged or intimidated, because our game isn’t “as good as” theirs. (And I should note - Matt certainly doesn’t want that to be our reaction).

So the Anti-Mercer Effect is two things: it’s D&D treated like a game, and it’s inspiring but not intimidating. And Unprepared Casters manages both of those really freaking well. Because they play it like a game! A UC arc looks just like a good campaign in anyone’s home game. They have the vibes of 20-somethings and college students playing D&D for fun because that’s who they are (as a 20-something college student who plays a lot of D&D, watching it felt like watching my friends play an especially good campaign). They’re trying to tell a good story, sure, and they always do. But first and foremost, they’re trying to have fun, and it shows, and I love the UC cast for it.

And that’s the other half of it: it’s inspiring! It’s approachable; you can see that Haley and Gus put plenty of work into preparing the game but it also doesn’t make you feel like you need hundreds of pages of worldbuilding to run a game. Sometimes a cleric makes Haley cry and she gives them back a spell-slot from their deity! That’s fantastic! It’s just inspiring - listening to this over the summer, when my last campaign had fallen apart under the strain of graduation, is why I decided to plan and run my new one!

That quote from Haley Whipjack that I used as the title for this section? That’s the whole core of this idea, and really, I think, the core of the podcast.

The Mercer Effect is when you go “that’s really cool, I could never do that.” But Unprepared Casters makes you look at D&D and go “wow, that looks really fun. I bet I can do that!” And I love the show for it.

And I bet a lot of you do too.

[tennessoui]

FeralObi anon here. How do you come up with these so fast?? Are you an infinite number of ideas and worlds in human-shaped form? I love both of those ideas. The first one kills me tho, Obi gets his first kind touch in years from lil Anakin. Also you can have lil Anakin coming home one day with a skulking, snarling nonverbal murder puppy and saying brightly, "He followed me home, can I keep him?" Schmi thinks this is definitely worse than the time he brought a krayt dragon home.

ah! hello! yes this is the first idea of a feral obi-wan who meets anakin when he's still on tatooine. i will also still do the second idea because like. i liked them equally as much rip me

but i told myself these were going to both be very short snippets and instead this one is uh 2k so i'll post the second one tomorrow instead of tonight!

(ficlet where obi-wan is captured by pirates/unspecified forces at a young age and then tortured for a decade before he escapes to tatooine when anakin is like 6. obi-wan, after a decade of torture is....not alright in this fic though he's only here at the end) (2k)

Shmi had known that when she sent her little Anakin away to follow after the stern-faced, warm-eyed Jedi Master, that this would not be the last time she ever saw her boy. She couldn’t explain how she knew, just as she had not been able to explain how she became pregnant, but she knew beyond a doubt that one day, she would see her little boy back in her arms.

She just hadn’t known it would be so soon.

“He died, Master Jinn died,” Anakin mumbles into the front of her dress, unwilling to move his head far back enough from her hug that he could talk clearly. “On Naboo. And the stupid Jedi council refused to train me even after I was so amazing in the air. Mom, I destroyed a blockade! Entirely! And they wouldn’t--they didn’t--” his little face scrunches up and then he’s bawling into his hands.

A slave, a born slave, knows intrinsically the injustice of the galaxy. It is not often they know hope.

“Oh my boy,” she whispers, smoothing a hand over the top of his head. She has questions. She has so many questions about everything he’s just said and what those strangers have put her son through, but the most important thing is a question she cannot wait until he has cried himself out to ask. “Is your chip gone, Ani? Did they remove your transmitter?”

Because she had sent him away from her so that he could be free. And that had been her own twisted version of hope, that her son could know a life she never would again. If the Jedi masters had proven to be just like every other master in the world, she would find herself sobbing into her own hands.

“Yeah,” Anakin sniffles and wipes at his ruddy cheeks, pulling back a few steps. “They removed it and everything. And--”

He pauses and drops his satchel to the ground in front of her. “They gave me credits. To buy you. For my trouble.”

He spits out the last three words like they’re the most disgusting thing in the entire world. As if Shmi’s freedom isn’t laying at their feet, mere centimeters away.

“Republic credits are no good here,” she hears herself say faintly.

“Padme, the handmaiden you met, she talked to the queen about me I guess,” Anakin mumbles, kicking his feet. “And when the queen learned that the Jedi didn’t want me even after all that, Padme says the queen says I’ll always have a place on Naboo. Me and my family. And then she took the Jedi credits and gave me these instead. It should be enough, Mom.”

Shmi sits down on the floor. With shaking hands, she opens the bag and looks inside. Yes. Yes.

There’s more than enough.

There’s enough to buy her freedom and take her boy away from Mos Espa. There’s enough to take her boy away from Tatooine completely.

“I…” she says. “Ani, I…”

“Padme said she’d send a ship for us,” Ani reports as if their lives are not changing right in front of their eyes. “In two days ‘cause I told her it might take a little bit of time to get Ben to come with us. But we can’t leave without him.”

This is said fiercely and with his arms crossed tightly over his little chest.

Shmi stares at him.

“I’ve already left him once!” Anakin says, stomping his foot. “But that was okay, because I knew you would bring him food and water and stuff. But if we’re both gone, no one’s going to be there for him.”

Shmi bites at her lip. There’s a lot of things happening very quickly right now, and she doesn’t know how to process half of them.

Her son has come back, after only being gone for a week and a half.

He has apparently either endeared himself so much to the queen of Naboo that she was willing to give him the money necessary to buy his mother from slavery and also promise him sanctuary on her planet. He says he’s done this by single-handedly ending a blockade, which is something she just cannot even think about right now.

He has told this queen--queen--that he will gladly live on Naboo with his family. Yes. Alright.

His family seems to include his imaginary friend, Ben.

Anakin has been talking about Ben for years now, ever since he was six and a half years old and sent by Watto to retrieve any scraps he could from what looked to be a crashed pod in the Wastelands. She’d let him ramble on about the ghost of a friend, because she’d known it to be something all children go through and experience. She hadn’t thought Anakin a lonely child, not with the friends he made in Mos Espa, but she’d always known that Anakin had a wandering spirit, ill-suited for Tatooine. If he liked to imagine an older man from a strange world hiding in the caves of the Wastes, then she wasn’t going to say anything.

“You have been leaving him food, haven’t you, Mom?” Anakin asks, almost accusatory. “I told him to expect you and everything.”

No. Shmi has not been traveling to the edge of the Wastelands every day during her precious few hours of free time in order to leave food to be picked apart by womp rats and desert critters and not her boy’s imaginary friend.

“Ani,” she says cautiously, quietly, “we cannot...we won’t be able to bring Ben with us when we go.”

Anakin, predictably, does not react well. “Why not!” he yells, backing away from her even further and looking as if she is the enemy. “Padme’s fine with it!”

“Aren’t you a little old for imaginary friends?” Shmi asks desperately, feeling cold suddenly even though the heat of the mid-morning sun has not abated at all.

If anything, her son looks more offended. “He’s not imaginary! Saying...saying that he’s not coming with us...is...is a bunch of poodoo!”

“Anakin!” Shmi gasps.

“Come on,” her boy says forcefully, grabbing at her hand and tugging her towards the door. She gets on her feet reluctantly and has half a mind to pull back just because he needs to learn that this sort of behavior is not okay, war hero or not. “We’re going to buy you from Watto. And then we’re going to go visit Ben!”

---

Buying her freedom takes less time than Shmi Skywalker ever thought it would. It feels distant as well, as if it’s happening to someone else.

It doesn’t help that her Ani is impatient and surly by turn, spilling the coin out onto Watto’s counter and barely waiting for him to finish counting it before he’s looking at the price of renting a four-person speeder parked outside.

“You won’t survive out there on your own,” Watto sneers, even as he’s passing her the kill-switch of her own slave chip. “Days. It’ll be days until the Hutts find out there’s a newly freed slave with no connections out there in the open. Ripe for the pickin’.”

Watto doesn’t have to tell her any of this. She knows. Gods, does she know.

But Anakin seems so sure about possessing the favor of the Queen of Naboo, or at least her handmaiden, which might be close enough to the same thing. She thanks Watto--she thanks him and then doesn’t even know why--and meets Anakin outside.

He’s bouncing around the speeder, little hands clutching his satchel to his chest. “Good!” he says when he sees her, hopping onto the machine and putting the parcel between his feet. “I got Ben something called a fig on Naboo, but I don’t know how long it’ll take for it to go bad. Apparently they’re sweet.”

Shmi goes along with it. Shmi doesn’t know why she goes along with it, but she does. She can see this is important to her boy, and though she’d rather spend the afternoon and early evening saying goodbye to her friends, she will allow Ani to say goodbye to his imaginary friend. Maybe she’ll even talk to it. “Hi, hello, I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the imaginary blue milk and delicacies I’ve left out for you this past week and half. Oh no, it was no bother. My son insisted.”

The ride is quick--Anakin has always been a driver to push the limits of any engine he comes across--and before she knows it, he’s dismounting on a piece of desert and rock that look exactly the same as the last four pieces of rocky terrain they’ve past.

“Ben!” Ani calls, satchel clutched firmly in his hands as he makes his way deeper into the crevices of the landscape. “Ben, it’s Ani! I’m really sorry that I left! Ben? Ben! I’m back now! Ani’s back!”

It’s actually...quite pathetic, to watch her boy speak so pleadingly to the cold stone faces of the rocks around them, but if this is what he needs to do to say goodbye to his life on Tatooine, Shmi won’t say a word.

“Ben--” Anakin draws in a breath to call again, but then there’s movement out of the corner of Shmi’s eyes, and something jumps from the rock down to land on her boy.

She screams and darts forward, but the thing on top of her son snarls at her in guttural warning.

“No, Ben,” Ani coos, stroking at the face that yes, is human, now that it’s not in unnaturally fast motion. “That’s my mom, Ben.”

Ben--Ben??--growls anyway, pinning the boy--her boy--beneath him with his legs and arms.

“She’s fine,” Ani murmurs gently, one hand reaching up to stoke over the beginnings of a beard on Obi-Wan’s face “Oh Ben, I’m sorry.”

The man on top of Shmi’s child finally looks away from her and at her boy, which is both better and worse.

“Ani,” Ben drawls out, as if the word--or perhaps forming the word--hurts him.

Anakin is happy. Shmi can tell he’s happy without even being able to see much of him. It’s like the very air vibrates with his joy. “Yes!” her son says. “Ani. Ben.” He taps the man’s chest. “Ben. Ani.”

The man buries his head into Anakin’s hair, hands rubbing up and down his sides and his arms and his face.

Shmi needs to say something, wants to say something about this strange man touching boy like he owns him, but the memory of his growl and the flash of his golden eyes stops her from stepping forward.

“Anakin, get away from him,” she hisses instead of stepping forward and tearing the stranger off of her son. She has the distinct feeling Anakin wouldn’t let Ben go anywhere, not with the way his little hands are holding so tight to the man’s shoulders. The man’s shoulders that are covered with one of her old tunics that Anakin had told her became unsalvageable after its last wash.

“No,” Anakin says, tightening his hold on his...friend. “He says you didn’t give him food the entire time I was gone! He’s hungry.”

Shmi thinks there’s a very good possibility that this Ben is going to eat her, but she knows not to say anything of the sort. Not when it’s two against one.

“He hasn’t said anything!” She cries instead.

Anakin huffs at this and pats at the feral’s head. “Maybe not to you, but he talks to me.”

Shmi stares at him and wonders if there’s something she’s supposed to be doing or saying here. The man won’t allow her to tear him off her child, she knows that automatically. But she can’t--she doesn’t know--

“Anakin,” she tries, desperately.

But Anakin doesn’t even look at her, too busy petting over the man, who has at least allowed him to sit up. “Hey, I’m sorry, I thought she would,” he tells him in an undertone. “I really thought she would, but I’m back now. I’m not going anywhere without you again--”

He extends his hand and Ben presses his cheek against it with enough force that it pushes him back slightly.

“You’re coming to Naboo with us, Ben,” Anakin promises, clutching at the ends of the man’s long hair. “Or I’m not going at all.”

To Shmi, it sounds like a threat.

The way her son’s eyes flash an unfamiliar golden color makes her feel cold as a Tatooine night. She shivers, but no one notices.

[jediken0bi]

The Lucky One

Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary:

Spencer has always been good at keeping secrets. This secret just so happens to walk into the BAU to bring him his lunch. The team, supportive as ever, decides to tease him a little and Derek learns a little lesson about making assumptions.

word count: 2763

-

You and Spencer have only been officially dating for about 3 Months.

3 Months, 4 days and 13 hours you hear a voice inside your head. One that sounds suspiciously like Spencers.

You let out a small giggle before shaking your head slightly.

Things couldn't be better between the two of you. You guys had spare keys to the other persons apartment and while that might seem like a rush move for a lot of people you two have agreed that this is the easiest way to maximize your time together. So more often than not, you were staying over at each other's apartment.

You were currently on your way to bring him his lunch since he was in a rush this morning and forgot to take it.

Nothing new to either of you. He often tends to leave his lunch at home only to realize it when he's already on his break resulting in him usually buying himself a cheap sandwich or skipping lunch all together. You decided that, for once, he deserved to have a proper meal. He's been working a lot of overtime lately and it's starting to take a toll on him. On both of you really. He was constantly exhausted and you had to watch him work himself into over drive. Ever since the Hankle case, he's been scared to let even the smallest details go unnoticed which meant that he often spend much longer than the rest of the team on studying the files and trying to solve cases at the speed of light. It's something the team has noticed too over the last couple of weeks. They've been trying to get him to go out with them more often to take his mind off things but he usually rejects them by coming up with some fake excuse.

The reality was that he usually wanted to come straight home to you. He told you the reason he hasn't told the team about you two yet is their constant meddling and involvement in his life. He loves them all dearly and he wouldn't change a thing about either of them, but this was his and his only. He wasn't quite ready to give up the only thing he didn't have to share with anyone. He wanted you all to himself for as long as possible and while you can admit that you were skeptical at first, it's fair to say that you've come to understand Spencers point of view a lot better since then.

So, while you knew all about his team, they knew nothing about you. It didn't offend you though. You are confident that you and Spencer are in this for the long run.

Of course you were slightly worried about running into one of them while bringing him his lunch but that's a risk you were willing to take if it meant that Spencer didn't have to spend another day hungry and exhausted. It's not likely for him to get mad at you if it were to happen anyway. He keeps making small remarks to test the waters.

At this point, he might be scared you don't want to meet his team by the way he's tip toeing around the subject.

Finally arriving at the big scary FBI building you walk inside with caution.

Logically speaking the FBI is the last place you should feel scared to be at, but you can't help but think that this is probably the most intimidating place in the U.S. All those important people in their suits and pencil skirts and their stone cold expressions made you question how Spencer could be so different.

Before you could finish that thought you pass the security check and run straight into someone else on your way to the elevator.

You couldn't get a word out before said person started talking.

"Oh my god i am so sorry, gorgeous! I'm usually more coordinated than this i swear. It's just been a very stressful morning and now i've made yours worse by bumping into you-"

You smile widely as you realize who you must be talking to.

Tech Genius Penelope Garcia

"It's completely fine honestly! It was totally my fault anyway. It's my first time here and i'm a bit nervous"

You felt a bit rude interrupting her but based on the things Spencer told you about her this apology would've went on for at least another two minutes and you would much rather spend that elevator ride having a conversation with her.

After all, she was the BAU sunshine.

And bright she is with her colorful clothes and awesome glasses you think to yourself in that very moment.

It was a nice change of scenery after hushing around serious looking people before.

"Well, looks like we were both a bit dazzled just then! First time huh? Yeah there's definitely something scary about this place. What's a pretty gal like you doing here on a saturday morning? Oh! Are you visiting someone special?", Garcia says in a excited tone before quickly pressing the button taking you two up to the BAU floor.

You were grateful for that because it meant you didn't have to explain why you had to go to that floor too. Of course Penelope was way too hyper to realize i hadn't pressed another button in that moment so i quickly answered her to draw her attention to something else.

"Yeah, i am. I'm bringing my boyfriend his lunch. He hasn't been taking care of himself recently and i want him to at least have a proper meal in his stomach"

Garcia smiled at you with a small nod.

"That's so cute! He is lucky to have you, sweetie. I'm Penelope Garcia by the way!"

She extends her hand and you immediately shake it with a small smile playing on your lips

"I'm Y/N. Very nice to meet you, Penelope"

Not 3 seconds later the elevator doors open and you follow Garcia out of it and straight into the bullpen.

You didn't make it very far before a guy you strongly assume to be the infamous Derek Morgan approached Garcia and, by proximity, you.

"Now that's what you wanna see first thing in the morning! How is my Babygirl?"

Yep, definitely Morgan

"Infinitely better now that i've seen you, hot stuff" says Penelope without even having to think about it.

You can't help but snort at how adorable their friendship is. They're so comfortable with each other.

Derek looks past Garcia and straight at you with curious eyes.

"Well hello mamas. Who do we have here?"

Garcia turns around and has a surprised look on her face when she finally notices you behind her.

"Y/N! I thought you were on your way to meet your boyfriend for lunch?"

I opened my mouth to explain why exactly i was there but Derek beat me to it.

"Now why don't we just forget about that boyfriend and you let me take you out for lunch instead?"

Penelope hits him in the shoulder and i just laugh. Derek looks at me smugly and raises his eyebrows as a way of asking 'What do you say?'

You're tempted to just straight up tell him who you're here for to save everyone from a potentially awkward situation but just as you start talking you see Spencer sitting at his desk focused on his paperwork.

You make the quick decision to simply show Derek instead.

Without saying another word you simply walk past him with a big smile and head towards your destination.

"Hey handsome"

Spencers head shoots up as soon as he hears the familiar sound of your voice. He stares at you with wide eyes. He's clearly shocked to see you and you don't blame him. You just hope he's happy to see you.

"Y/N! What are you doing here?"

Now, if it had been anyone else you're sure this would've sounded rude, but you know Spencer so you know he doesn't mean for it to sound accusing. He's genuinely wondering.

You put on a playful pout.

"Is that a way to talk to the wonderful person who came all the way to the fbi to bring you lunch?"

Spencer finally stands up and looks down on the bag in your hand. He smiles and suddenly it's like he's at home with you. No one else around.

He walks up to you and wraps his arms around your waist.

"No, of course not. Thank you, beautiful"

He presses a small but firm kiss to your waiting lips and you smile up at him.

"You're welcome. I know work has been rough and i thought maybe a proper lunch could make up for some of it. I know it's not a lot and it doesn't cure the bad thoughts but you should know that i made today's lunch with an extra amount of love"

You joke.

You push one of his curls out of his eyes so you can properly look at him. He was already gone by the time you woke up so this is the first you're seeing of him today. He looks tired. Exhausted. And it's breaking your heart.

He gives you a smile that reaches his eyes. The first one in days. There's a feeling of pride blooming inside of you.

"How could i say no to some extra lovin'?"

Your eyes immediately widen and a blush creeps up your face.

"Spence!" You hit his shoulder and he tumbles back a tiny bit, laughing.

"I'm sorry, love. I really am grateful for this. You didn't have to do this"

It's only then that you realize you're not in the confide space of your apartments. You're in the bullpen of the BAU surrounded by Spencers friends and second family.

Spencer seems to realize that too because he suddenly let's go of you and clears his throat.

Confused about what just happened you turn around to spot Derek, Penelope and two women who you assume must be JJ and Emily staring at you with wide unbelieving eyes.

"There ain't no way. Pretty boy!! My man!"

Derek breaks out of his shock first and proudly points between the two of you.

Garcia doesn't waste a second following his example

"Reid is the boyfriend who hasn't been taking care of himself?!"

"What?" JJ, Emily and Spencer all ask at the time.

You can't help but laugh out loud at the absurd situation you got yourself in.

You turn around to look at Spencer. One hand grabbing his chin so he looks at you.

"Yeah, that would be him"

Spencer goes beet red immediately and the team goes wild.

You only smile wider at him and he pulls you back against his chest, wrapping one of his arms back around your waist. He goes to hide his embarrassment by burying his face in your shoulder.

He hates being the center of attention especially when it comes to his team.

"Spence, i didn't know you were seeing someone! How come you hid her from us?"

JJ asks him all excited. She was clearly happy her best friend has finally found someone he loves and trusts.

Spencer grumbles and lifts his head to look at his team.

"I wasn't hiding her! I just wanted something for myself for a little while. We're all up in each others business all the time and i love you guys but it was nice not having to share this part of my life with everyone for a bit. JJ, you did the same when you started dating Will!"

The team looks at each other for a moment and suddenly they all nod understandingly

"Fair enough" they all say.

Spencer hums approvingly and you just smile at the scene before you.

That wasn't that bad! I don't even know what i was afraid of

You were about to bid your goodbyes to the team and Spence so they could get back to work when Dereks next comment urges you to stay for a little while longer.

"Now Reid don't get me wrong but how the hell did you land a smoke show like this? No disrespect kid but i admittedly tried to flirt with her before i knew who she was"

Spencer smiles uncomfortably and shifts from one foot to the other.

"I don't know i guess i was just being myself? I saw her in my favorite book store one day and i just asked her out. Unusual for me, sure, but it's like i didn't have to be afraid with her. I don't know that probably sounds weird"

Your eyes soften and you lay your hand on top of Spencers on your waist. You turn your head a little to press a small kiss to his cheek.

"It doesn't sound weird, Spence. I'm glad you asked me out. I wanted to ask you but i couldn't bring myself to build up the courage. I think you're brave for taking a risk but trust me there was no way i was going to say no to you"

Emily, JJ and Penelope all seemed to melt over the cute interaction between you two but Dereks focus was somewhere else.

He didn't mean any harm you're absolutely sure about that. Maybe it's your instinct to protect Spencer or maybe it's your way of showing him exactly what he's worth but you can't find yourself feeling sorry for what happens next.

"Hold on, you were scared to ask him out? Pretty Ricky over here intimidated you? That's got to be a first"

He laughs with no real malice behind his voice. He's just joking around after all.

Spencer looks down in slight embarrassment at his friends teasing and you decide that now is the time to show them exactly what kind of girlfriend you are.

"I'm not sure we're looking at the same person here Derek because when i was at that bookstore creepily drooling over this hot as hell 6'3 doctor with great taste in literature i knew i had to ask him out. He's the kind of man you want to spend your life with. Not some cheap fling or meaningless 2 week dating experiment. I knew that, once i had him, i was going to hold on to him. So yeah, i was intimidated. It was like staring into your future and i was scared of messing it up. I've never been happier than i am now with Spencer"

Spencer stayed silent the entire time only pressing you closer to him. Once you're finished talking he presses a long firm kiss to your head.

"It's okay. I know, love. Me too"

He whispers loud enough so you could hear it but not loud enough for the rest of the team to hear.

"Woah little mama i meant no offense! I don't call him pretty boy for nothing. I'm just playing with y'all. I love the kid and i'm happy you two have found each other"

He smiles warmly at you and you give him a smile in return.

"I know you didn't. Spence told me all about you guys. I just don't like it when people make assumptions about my relationship with him. Because if anything, i'm the lucky one.

Spencer snorts and you lightly elbow him in the stomach with a grin on your face. You both look at each other with a glint in your eyes

"Agree to disagree" you both say at the same time. It's kind of become your thing. This isn't the first time that debate has been discussed between you two.

"Oh my god they're total nerds in love. Love Nerds!"

Penelope says in a squeaky voice.

You all laugh at her enthusiasm and you turn around to look at your boyfriend once more.

"I better get going. I didn't mean to stay this long anyway. I'll see you tonight? Your place? I'll order us some chinese"

Spencer takes your hand in his and nods with a smile.

"Yeah i'll be there"

You grin and lean up to kiss him goodbye. Seconds before your lips meet you whisper

"You better be. I'm planning on cashing in that promise for some extra lovin' tonight"

You finally press a kiss to lips and turn around as he turns bright red.

"Y/N!!"

You laugh loudly.

"Two can play this game baby!"

You're practically running out of there to avoid any further questioning from his team. All you hear is a chorus of laughter and Spencers embarrassed voice as he tells them to shut up

[that-blue-vault-dweller]

So there’s a bit of dialogue I’d never heard from Nick before. We were just strolling through Boston and he goes “Y’know, it’s too bad you aren’t a synth. Then we could do this till Judgement Day- although I think that happened a while back.” Think you could do a one-shot where Nora finds out she’s a synth when she visits the Institute, and Nick’s subsequent reaction(s)?

Aww!!! 🥺💙💛 I’m not sure I’ve heard this dialogue before, but for some reason it’s familiar to me. Maybe I’ve watched a playthrough or listened to a audio file with it, lol.

I hope you enjoy! I threw 10 times more angst than was necessary, but maybe you’ll still like it??? 😅😅😅💙💛💙💛💙💛

Word Count: 1097

  “Nick…. All of my life… It was… It was fake. Everything I remembered. My son… My husband… It was all a lie,” Nora brokenly admitted to him, hugging herself as she rested her head against his shoulder. He kindly patted her knee, squeezing gently in that fatherly manner that came so naturally to him.

  Nick sighed slightly, his lips a thin line as he furrowed his brow. He knew how hard this must be for her. He knew it must have been torture to find out that everything you know to be true in your life was just a constructed memory by some group of people that want to play God.

  She had just come home from the Institute several days ago. Nick had headed to Sanctuary as soon as he heard, and from what Piper had told him, Nora was an absolutely enormous mess the first day and still was not doing well at all. So he had asked her to go for a walk with him, and they had ended up sitting on the embankment near the creek that ran nearby Sanctuary.

  It was there that they began this conversation.

  “I’m sorry,” he finally expressed to her gently, his voice quiet as it rumbled in his vocal processor. She removed an arm from around herself and looped it in his softly, making a small negatory hum.

  “It’s not your fault… You’re the last person to blame for any of this. It’s the Institute’s fault. I was a toy… An experiment for their own sick enjoyment,” her voice cracked with the last statement, and he could practically feel the oncoming tears that were threatening to take hold of her.

  “I buried Nate, Nick… I remember it. I buried him, didn’t I?” Nora questioned, a bit of hysteria creeping in at the edges of her words.

  “You buried him, yes,” Nick acknowledged, well-remembering the day that they buried Nate. They also buried many of the other vault-dwellers since Nora felt she owed it to them as the only survivor of the vault.

  “Who… who did I really bury? Who was that man?” Nora questioned, her tone quite shaky, and Nick shook his head, not sure how to make this situation any better.

  “I don’t know… Maybe he really was Shaun’s father?” Nick suggested, and Nora shuddered a little, pressing her cheek a bit harder against Nick’s shoulder.

  “Maybe… I guess the poor man deserved to rest. It’s absolutely horrible that I took his wedding ring from him. He wasn’t my husband, and it wasn’t right for me to take something to remember him by when it’s really his reminder of his actual for real wife. Now he’s not only rolling in the grave from his son, but he’s also had one of his most important possessions taken away, too,” Nora told him dejectedly.

  “It wasn’t horrible… If it makes you feel any better, we could go bury it just on top of his grave. That way it’ll be there with him forever,” Nick tried to reassure, desperately attempting to think of something that might make her feel at least a little better about the whole thing.

  “I just… Can’t believe it’s all fake,” Nora expressed, and Nick glanced in her direction, noticing that there were indeed tears flowing down her cheeks at this point. He moved his arm from her grasp and placed it so that it encircled her shoulders, letting her hug him from the side as he held her gently.

  She silently cried, her shoulders shaking every once in a while as she tried to hold herself together while failing miserably. Nick just let her cry, knowing that sometimes people just needed to have a good release of emotions.

  After a while, she finally pulled herself together, sniffling a bit still and pressing her face to his chest as she closed her eyes tightly. Nick just squeezed her shoulder, rubbing her arm gently as he tried to reassure her.

  Once several beats had passed, Nora suddenly spoke up, her voice rough and hoarse from the tears.

  “Do you remember when you said you wished I was a synth, too…?” Nick immediately quieted, immediately knowing where she was going with this. It filled him with dread, and if he were human, he would be feeling quite sick at this moment.

  “We were in south Boston,” she reminded him, and he realized that he had yet to respond to her question.

  “Yeah,” Nick trailed off, trying to let her finish her thought. He tried to keep his face as neutral as possible.

  When he had told her that he wished she was a synth alongside him, he had meant he wished she was a prototype like him. It had never been confirmed that third gen synths lived forever. In fact, from what Nick had learned out in the Commonwealth, the only third gens that seemed to be programmed to live forever were the coursers.

  Which really made this entire conversation infinitely more heartbreaking for him.

  “I guess…Well… Does this mean we’ll be together forever?” Nora questioned, and her voice was so sweetly hopeful that he could not bring himself to crush her hopes and dreams. She was such a wonderful friend to him, and he cared for her like family.

  “I guess you’ll be stuck with this ugly mug for a while longer,” Nick replied in his typical self-deprecating manner, avoiding telling her an outright lie but avoiding the entire truth as well. She seemed to be satisfied with this, and a bit of peace came over her as she wiped at her eyes and just hugged him carefully.

  “That’s… That’s really comforting, Nick. I’m really glad I won’t lose you,” Nora spoke, her voice growing quite solemn as her mind no doubt started to wander to her other friends that were not synths.

  “You’ll always have me, kid,” Nick replied to her with confidence, his words full of nothing but the truth at this point. He would never leave her, and even when her time comes, he planned to be there until the bitter end.

  She then smiled at him for the first time since he had arrived there in Sanctuary, the smile itself a ghost of her usual bright, loving grin that she bestowed upon her favorite people in the world. He felt himself filling with a combination of affection and guilt.

  He would tell her when the time came. There was no reason to hurt her any more than she already was now.

  He just wished she could be right about the whole thing.