#(whatever happened to just liking a ship without expecting for it to become canon anyway)

[sonknuxadow]

please tell me people are joking when they say sonic prime is queerbaiting with sonic and shadow. that is not whats going on here please be serious you guys just see sonic and shadow interact in any way and become unable to turn your shipping brains off

[sqeeebus]

Saw a post about this and would like to share my take on it, no use clogging up this person’s tumblr and all that when I could just make my own point.

Big tw for non-con/rape, sexual abuse, etc

Besides, it doesn’t matter that much because this is a fictional character and not an actual person, so it’s nothing to really fight over— unless people who believe this actually support/enjoy/do non-con and other such gross things in real life, in which case— kindly omit yourself from this planet because you are sick and we don’t need people who actually find shit like this “hot” or would even do it themselves. Fuck you, I am a victim. If you like to believe this aspect is canon because it adds something for you (that is hopefully not erotic or romantic…) then do what you want, I guess. Not my thing, but I can just stay away from it so it’s not a big deal. Again, it is a fictional character but your opinions on what they do is REAL and can affect you and your actions.

Also when you post about that shit and justify it or whatever, you’re making multiple people feel unsafe and you’re making multiple rapists feel VERY safe, just so you know. So maybe make it clearer that you’re not about that in reality.

Anyway, all that done, let’s talk about the more specific and less important argument;

I see people so often characterize Hannibal as someone who is okay with or practices non-con and other such sexually heinous things, based on his attitude and actions in the show.

In my opinion, while we see Hannibal commit obviously horrible things— like murder and cannibalism, creating awful power imbalances and malpractices, as well as performing non-consensual and non-sexual actions on others— we don’t see him doing anything sexually heinous, and in my opinion I don’t believe he would do so.

For one, he encourages Margot to kill her abuser, Mason. Not that this isn’t a thing he would do regardless, but he also drugs and has Mason self-torture, paralyzes Mason to elongate his suffering and to also leave the revenge up to Margot herself, and even aids in the killing of Mason. We do know that he sexually violates Mason, but it isn’t for sexual motivation, as it is a clinical violation in order to harvest his sperm. I will admit, this is rather gross and sexually heinous, but not done for sexual pleasure or in support of sexual assault (rather the opposite I’d think).

This post I saw pointed out that Hannibal also said that he “liked this dragon” in regard to Francis Dolarhyde, who sexually assaulted his victims. This is a good point, and the only real opposition I have for this is that he only said so to get on Will’s nerves, or that he meant it in an entirely different way— that he’d like to kill the dragon/have Will kill the dragon, as that’s why he’d sent the man to his house in the first place (not knowing Will wouldn’t necessarily be there), because Francis already had a vendetta against Will and Hannibal would like to have Will get back into killing. I do know that Hannibal is well-aware of Francis’s crimes, as he reads about them through the paper and so I can’t say that he didn’t know about the necrophilic part of his killings, and that any of them very well could’ve been subject to it. I can only refute by saying he expected Will to kill Dolarhyde and “become the dragon” before any of that could happen.

Hannibal’s whole motto is “eat the rude” and I’d say people who commit sexually heinous crimes would be considered very rude, and he even seems to dislike them when they’re not even targeting himself.

This is not about projecting morality onto dark characters as much as it is my personal take and also to those who need to hear it: stop projecting your creepiness onto dark characters. They can be dark characters without being sexually disturbing.

I guess, personally, I’d just like to have a favorite character/favorite ship that does not perform/support sexual violations. Don’t know how you can fault me for that.

[ishomieokay]

Hi! (Big rant I'm sry, I am such a yapper)

What do you think of homelander x starlight ?

For me atleast, I think it's a missed opportunity to develop both of their characters. They have so much parallels going on. I wouldn't say I wanted a full blown romance in s3, but more of a confusion about who is really is the enemy from starlight's side- since homelander is the biggest victim of Vought . And from homelander's side, every women in his life except for maeve have somehow used and taken advantage of him, starlight is the last person who would do that ! He would be really confused that she isn't doing that. She also never knew his horrid past that too.

I don't think homelander is a character who could really be redeemed, he is so long gone for that. But their fake dating arc could have opened so many doors for both of their character development.

I knw I am being delusional enough to think that he is very much obsessed with starlight in s4 as much as he is obsessed with butcher. Like she is his nemesis who stood up against him for godsake idk why the show has watered down her purpose to petty rival with firecracker. Eric kripke is so bad at writing the show Lord 😭✋

Yes, she was watered down without a doubt. And again and again, Billy is given an importance he doesn't really deserve. The whole nemesis thing he has going on with Homelander makes no fucking sense to me. Ryan has no reason to care that much about Butcher. Beyond the fact that Butcher is relentlessly trying to fuck him over, Homelander has no reason to be so obsessed with him either. Narratively speaking, Starlight should be his nemesis, not Butcher.

I actually am such a BIG FAN of Starlander. Weakness by RovingOtter is an amazing fic about them that honestly changed my brain chemestry. Not to mention it's the main reason why I like Homelander so much.

I realize this is an unpopular opinion in the fandom, but I don't think the issue is so much that Homelander is past redemption. It's just that the writers don't want that to happen. The narrative is not going there, even thought THERE ARE elements that would allow it to happen. For example, I don't see Homelander becoming a hero in any capacity, but after all the abuse he was subjected to by humans, he could have easily fallen in a more morally gray area a la Magneto. The writers are just not interested in exploring that because they are all about politics (which I do believe was a direct result of the US elections) and to get their message across Homelander needs to be an irredeemable Big Bad. If they redeemed fucking A-Train and even made Hughie forgive him after *killing Robin and laughing about it*, everyone gets a pass in my opinion though.

Also, it's about the times. You'd find that the main reason why many people don't want Homelander to be redeemed is that he is a rapist. Nowadays that's just unacceptable. Believe or not, back in the 2000s it was something forgivable and sometimes even expected in certain genres (I'm looking at you yaoi). Talking about Western media, I think the most obvious example of this is Spike trying to rape Buffy, his love interest, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That wouldn't fly today, lol.

The dubiously consensual (or just uh, not consensual) sex scene or attempted rape between the main couple was also a super common trope in Soap Operas back in the day. Don't mind me I'm Latin American and for a long time I didn't have cable.

Anyway, I'm rambling. My point is Homelander is never going to be redeemed in canon, but as far as fanfiction goes, who cares? It's fiction, and you can do whatever you want with fictional characters. The world is your playground!

Homelander does have some parallels with Starlight, but tbh, that's not really the reason why I ship them. He actually has much more parallels with Kimiko (which is also an amazing ship in my opinion, and it really doesn't get the recognition it deserves!). He also has parallels with Butcher, with Soldier Boy, and even with Frenchie. So that's not really what I look at when shipping.

I think Starlight is the only character who could potentially see anything good or worth saving in Homelander, and just that makes their relationship very interesting to me. The fact that they are archenemies (or they would be, if the show made any sense), is the cherry on top. We love some good enemies-to-lovers here!

[reineyday]

i’m back to say that magnificent was so so so good!! i love the uta mihawk interactions and how mihawk wants to protect her. i think my favorite part though was when mihawk was talking to shanks all nervous about whether he could call uta his daughter, but shanks answers with an “of course.”

this fic made me wonder why mihawk would do if he was present during the one piece film red… would he come along with the red crew, or would he already be there like the others (luffy, law, etc)?

awh 💖💖 thank u for your continued support! it means a lot :') and im happy you enjoyed the fic haha 🥰

UH, long answer short: i kind of have headcanons that position him before, during, and after the movie hahaha. sorry this reply turned out longer than i expected but my brain's got a mihawk & uta agenda goin' on rn. 😂 thanks again for the ask! ➡️

i actually have a bit of a draft going of mihawk seeing the "shanks destroys elegia" headline, seeing what's up, and finding uta, which i started before i wrote up magnificent lol. that's kinda where i picture him--doing something before everything happens, bc his curiosity makes him wonder why shanks would do smthg so uncharacteristic.

i recognize that's kind of a cop-out answer tho LOL so in regards to the movie itself in the canon(ish) timeline, i imagine he'd probably be there beforehand like luffy etc. he'd be there bc buggy and his crew got tickets and he was somehow dragged there against his will (similar to how law says he's chaperoning bepo but a lot more antagonistic about it aha), probably bc croc decides it might be beneficial to go, for whatever reason. probably scoping the crowd. (pls imagine the cross guild at uta's concert garnering Looks and standing out very obviously, but no one wants to say anything about it LOL even if the crowd is very anti-pirate. like, the strawhats and soen charlottes were there so. why not some ex-warlords?)

when there, he'd be like, "hey wait isn't that shanks's kid? didn't he say she left to sing? huh." and then maybe possibly even dial shanks on his baby den den about it bc if he's the type to bring luffy's poster all the way to an island, he'd probably try to ring up shanks. then he wouldn't be able to connect and clock that something is Up bc he knows shanks is just kinda hanging on his ship rn, on his way out from wano. i dont think he'd be with shanks along with his crew, and i dont think he'd bother going after the fact to help if he wasn't there to start with, which is why i think he'd already be there for separate reasons. ;P

anyways, i also have the start of an idea where the movie happens but uta survives, and shanks, stressed, is like, "hey, y'know what, everything's ramping up and everyone's trying to kill uta and she's still recovering from this wakeshroom shit so she'd probably be safer on land but the marines will be looking for all my known close associates... i'm gonna drop her off with mihawk. he trained those two other kids and the misanthropic fucker (affectionate) has probably found a new island by now anyways, since he isn't a warlord anymore. it should be fine. he'll say yes."

he sets out with his crew to follow mihawk's vivre card. benn and yasopp get the news coo and start laughing about something but they don't tell him, and whatever, he's going to see mihawk soon. he's definitely being led to land, which makes him feel vindicated, until it becomes more and more clear that the structure standing out on the shore is a huge big top tent, and there's an unfortunately very familiar flag flying, and shanks is like, "oh god, don't tell me," and then promptly has to dodge a flying fist and yelling about how he isn't welcome here and what the fuck is mihawk doing with buggy???? and benn and yasopp, having seen the cross guild poster in the news and hidden it from shanks, are laughing so hard at him while he deals with this momentary crisis where two completely different parts of his life have seem to connected without his knowing about it.

(buggy is happy to see uta bc for all that they fight shanks and buggy did make some sort of effort with their brotherhood every now and then so he knows uta and she calls him "uncle bugs"!; mihawk ofc says "yes" to taking care of her bc he feels qualified to handle young adults now lol (he says this with an air of gravitas that is hilarious when considering how he interacts with zoro and perona, which is stoically and poorly); uta makes fun of her dad relentlessly for not having made any moves on the guy he's been in a situationship with since she was a literal child; and croc comes home from a meeting to find international pop sensation uta (that the news said tried to take over the world during her concert or something???) reclined on their couch drinking tea. wild day for everyone.)

[delicatecherrys]

is there a protocol on here to talk about “last reblog”?

i don’t wanna clog their post with my opposing view in their tags. i see their point, but i kinda disagree? i think it’s great to interpret media without caring about what the author meant, and we will always continue to do that even if the author comes outright and says they meant it the opposite way. (hell, is that not what we do with “canon divergent” fanfiction that explores characters reacting differently in a situation than they did when the author wrote them?)

but i don’t think it’s fair to dismiss authorial intent like that. art DOES become more (or less) meaningful if it was put together with thought & intent, rather than being the product of accident. i DO care if the author meant to portray love that was meant to read as queer, rather than accidentally (badly!) writing brotherly love. i’ll have my own interpretation, but i want to know what they were trying to say, if i can.

it sucks that we have to speculate. it sucks that heterosexuality is the default and we have to seek validation for our queer interpretations. but that IS reality.

and i do agree it takes away from art being subtle & dynamic, which is not a good thing, but i guess…i dunno. i don’t know what the solution is. but when we get continually harassed for our queer reading of a piece of media…

it’s not my business how other people interpret art, but the heteronormativity of the spaces we exist in means that being confident in my own reading of something is not enough. it means someone is gonna hold it over my head and laugh and be bigoted, because there isn’t “proof”. is it really so unbelievable that queer people are seeking that validation? or at the very least hoping not to see heteronormativity shoved into every work that can read as queer, giving ammo to every asshole out there to act like we’re delusional for reading queer subtext in a story?

idk what i’m saying, this has been bothering me given the increased harassment & homophobia i’ve personally experienced on twitter since 431 came out. i think it’s a bit dismissive to say “just be content with what you got and interpret it your way, why do you need proof/validation”.

(which we never did, at least i didn’t. all i was asking for was there to be a space left to interpret things in a queer way without an emphasis on your typical het ship. if there really was censorship involved & author’s hand was forced, i think 431 is the kindest way it could have happened for us queer folks. but it’s undeniable that it still fucking sucks.)

nobody follows me here so i don’t expect anyone to read/respond to this lol, just needed to rant. if you did read it, sorry, it probably didn’t make much sense.

if op of that post happens to see this (i really hope they don’t), this wasn’t an attack on you or your take, you make solid points, i just happen to disagree.

anyways. good job horikoshi on going from writing a flawed but nonetheless interesting trope subversion of your main female “love interest” type character, to burying your one explicitly queer character and having her love be used as a way to push a het ship & reducing your female lead’s arc to be all about love/all about the boy she loved, ALL in one chapter. himiko’s treatment in this manga is truly a slap on the face, and i’m not even a himiko stan. can’t imagine how her fans feel. and ochako doesn’t even make sense. even if this chapter was a product of censorship and forced by editors/publishers, there were many more tasteful ways to accomplish teasing the het romance than…whatever that was.

also apparently this volume is selling a tonne which could be for any number of reasons (bonus cards, promise of bonus content, final volume, vol 1 parallel nostalgia, etc) but given its success, it really does make me feel small in my discontent. at the end of the day, as loud as our corner of the internet may be, it’s not enough. 🥲

[aceinejghafa]

just finished a binge watch of shadow & bone season 2... have some thoughts!

(many many spoilers for every single episode, so I'm putting this under the cut)

generally: absolutely amazing. The incorporation of the crows & the relationships within the crows (cough WESPER WESPER WESPER cough) are especially well done.

however. I gotta say I'm mad about what happens to Alina. So much of the books is about how Alina doesn't want to be the one to fix Ravka—she doesn't want to be queen, she's only doing it because it needs to be done. look at this quote:

“They wanted a Grisha queen. Mal wanted a commoner queen. And what did I want? Peace for Ravka. A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. An end to the guilt and dread that I woke to every morning. There were old wants too, to be loved for who I was, not what I could do, to lie in a meadow with a boy’s arms around me and watch the wind move the clouds.”

She wants peace for Ravka, she doesn't want to spend her life ruling the country. That is so much of the point of Shadow and Bone — the happy ending isn't marrying a king and fixing the country; it's an ordinary life, full of ordinary things—if love can ever be called that. (interesting that nikolai was brought into that quote in the show. love that he's a hardcore malina shipper. actually I think I might like nikolai more in the show than in the books, which is saying something).

but ANYWAY the show just. destroyed alina's whole arc there. throughout the show, she's all "I need to fix Ravka" and she seems to want that responsibility, rather than just wanting it to actually get done.

and then the ending. using merzost to resurrect Mal. not losing her Sun Summoner powers (unless you count possibly trading them for Darkling powers, which I don't). MARRYING NIKOLAI. Mal becoming Sturmhond 2.0 is fun & all, and the show did lead up to it pretty well, but it's just not what book!Mal would have wanted. STOP HAVING A CRISIS OF PURPOSE AND LIVE AN ORDINARY LIFE FULL OF ORDINARY THINGS—

so yeah I might be mildly irritated by some parts of the show there

that being said—Nikolai is SO well done

I think I might've mentioned this earlier, but show Nikolai might just be better than book Nikolai (Nikolai in TGT, at least)

like... the whole love triangle situation was significantly better? Nikolai and Mal didn't hate each other—they actually had a pretty great friendship (and I'm guessing people are going to start shipping Nikolai/Mal/Alina a lot more sometime soon)? Nikolai didn't basically assault Alina? I'm actually really impressed since usually a show would Up The Drama, and this one didn't <3

Nikolai giving Alina the compass, which is associated with Mal's whole true north thing... and then Mal getting the compass in the end... actually pretty cool

the quote about hope being the wind in the sails! "when people say impossible, they usually mean improbable"! yes yes YES !!!

zoyalai hints <3 tbh I was hoping for more than that but I am obsessed with what I got <3

also! dominik being alive at the start! so we get to meet him! and get bits of backstory!

and then he died which. I was expecting. but also :(((((((((

speaking of dying.

DAVID AND GENYA OH MY GODS

kinda disappointed that they skipped the "I'm not ruined. I'm ruination" quote

but on the other hand! the I know metal speech! that was AMAZING <333333333 they are so soft

and then they. kill david off. and i CRY

THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN UNTIL ROW

so yeah upset about that but not really mad... denya is definitely one of the best ships in the show...

and then!!! the crows!!! the crows!!! the crows!!!

SO MUCH WESPER CONTENT. we are BLESSED guys. Jesper & Wylan having a one-night stand pre-canon??? then getting to know each other??? and having a more serious relationship??? amazing showstopping top-tier content

a bit worried about whatever happens in the soc spinoff when jesper finds out that wylan is a van eck—could be kinda painful

also I'm hoping they entirely skip jesper kissing kuwei, never really liked that bit in the books

"I kinda like your face" <<<< "maybe I liked your stupid face" but admittedly it's hard to do the book quote when you don't have the Kuwei tailoring plot

Wylan saving the day by knowing cool botanical facts <3 I love him so much guys

actually the whole thing with Sankta Neyar is fantastic? like WOW I was expecting to dislike any non-books content but I did NOT that thing was GREAT (and showed that there's a future for superpowerful Grisha that is not becoming the Darkling, which is excellent because it's TRUE).

Inej & Mal & Tolya & Tamar going off to hunt slavers together—some mixed feelings about that. I have faith that Inej & Kaz will meet up again in future seasons, but idk?

kinda weird how all those CK plot elements showed up... Kaz beats Pekka and makes him beg, but then Pekka just starts running Hellgate from inside? no real consequences? unsuccessful revenge? and all the plot from CK (fake plague, Alby) is used up already

so yeah that was annoying

but also the scene where Inej asks Kaz what he wants... and you can SEE the words You, Inej. You running through his head... and then he says "to die buried under a mountain of my own gold"... every time they quote the books I go FERAL and this is no exception

so basically I'm worried about what they'll do with the crows in possible later spinoffs/seasons but also I absolutely adore all the content they gave us <3

fun fact: I watched the whole show on 1.5x speed because I only had 5 and a half hours. I used subtitles so I could always understand what they were saying, the only weird thing was any shot of anyone walking ever. still worth it so that I could watch everything, though <3

[psychewritesbs]

Chapter 211: Ripen—Megumi, on the power of suffering + a bunch of other stuff

Happy JJK Sunday! Gege is a sadistic cat and is going to “punish” Megumi. In case it wasn’t obvious... my favorite mangaka are always sadistic to their creations--I’m looking at you CLAMP’s Okawa Nanase.

So this chapter made me feel like Tomoyo and her adorkable obsession with Sakura...

There’s just something so cathartic about seeing a blorbo be put to the wringer for the sake of character development. And now, my favorite cursed cat is going to pull some machiuvelical, Greek Tragedy, Mexican telenovela style, twist on us. yesssssssssssssss!

I have a nasty migraine so... don’t expect much intelligence underneath the cut. 

Also, did I ever publicly mention that this particular scenario is one of my favorite self-indulgent head canons? You know... Tsumiki turning out to be at the crux of Megumi’s conflict because she’s up to no “good”?

Like just imagine the shock to Megumi’s schema of the world, the pattern interrupt to his logic, but more importantly, his inability to exert his will upon another being’s free will.

THE DRAMA... 

Sea-Urchin-Head

I wasn’t going to write anything for this chapter... 

So my plan was to just be a troll and write about the evolution of Megumi’s hair and how it went from this...

to full on epic sea-urchin-headness proportions.

But like... how to bring up the evolution of Megumi’s hair without also addressing the evolution of the art style and how much Gege has improved over the last 5 years?

And it’s not just the art that has improved from an aesthetic perspective, but the way he draws brings the characters to life on a new level. The characters aren’t static 2-dimensional figures on a 2-dimensional surface any longer...

Rather, the characters reflect their character development and multi-dimensionality in that Gege has also improved at showing emotion...

And how characters express their unique and diverse emotional landscape.

Just look at the sheer terror on his face... have we ever seen Megumi drop the poker face and betray his emotional state THIS MUCH?

This is like the worst chapter reaction liveblog I have ever written...

Megumi, on the power of suffering

If you’ve been reading my rambles for a while, then you know Megumi shares the #1 spot for my favorite animanga character with Sumeragi Subaru (who, interestingly enough, shares a lot of interesting similarities with Megumi). 

I LOVE Megumi and I ADORE the way Megumi is written.

Megumi is, true to his name, a bright light in the midst of darkness. His voice, the voice of conscience trying to find its way in the dark. 

If Gege is a genius at writing poetic justice, then Megumi is poetry in action. 

I’ve written before about how he got off “easy” after Shibuya and how that could mean his moment to shine and have his ego brutally destroyed is coming.

IT’s HERE! FINALLY! 

It’s not that I’m excited to see him suffer... it’s that I know that the suffering will be like turning lead into gold. ok yes I want to see him suffer because fck yeah catharsis my beloved!

Whatever the case, however Gege executes, Megumi is about to have another “come to Jesus moment” like or much more impactful than the one he had during The Origin of Obedience arc.

Anyways. Shipping dynamics aside, whether Tsumiki has been corrupted or is a vessel to a sorcerer from the past, the fact that she is turning “against” (for lack of a better word, don’t hate me, no nuance to be found in my brain today I have a damn migraine) Megumi isn’t just Reggie’s curse activating... it’s a reversal on Remi’s situation with Reggie. 

It’s a reversal on Megumi looking down on Remi for her unwillingness to see Reggie for what he was.

What an asshole! I love him your honor!!!

Perhaps even a reversal on Megumi looking down on Remi for becoming Reggie’s puppet?

You know... just following down daddy’s steps...

Regardless of what happens...

OH, THE DRAMA!!!! 

Like... The implications for how events can unfold are so juicy!!!!!! 

Let’s see where Gege takes it from here.

Hana

Me before Gege finally introduced Kurusu Hana: she’s poison! Don’t trust her! She’s not to be trusted! She’s probably a horrible person!!!!!

Meanwhile Hana:

Also me: Dammit I love her... my symbol analysis was trash looool (or is it?!!!!! we still don’t know what’s Angel’s deal).

Ripen

Just a reminder that the kanji that Gege uses for the word “fate” includes the kanji for “fruit”. 

The timeline has been super confusing so let’s see how Gege executes and brings it all together.

Allright. Thank you migraine. I’m done. I'm over it. Not even proofreading before publishing.

Thanks for reading to all 10 people who usually read lol. Don’t hesitate to say hi or share your own reactions! 

Happy JJK Sunday.

[goldeneyedgirl]

Year of the OTP - February Prompt (Truth Pollen): Know Your Guilt

Ah yes, posting a February prompt in late March. How on brand. I absolutely fell flat on my ass in March, health and mental-health wise but I'm back and doing a lot of writing these last two weeks. Not promising anything because everything goes wrong when I do.

Anyway, another short space-verse ficlet; one, I'm in a world-building mood at the moment, and two, there's an anthology I'm planning on submitting to later in the year and I'm using space fic as a bit of a warm-up for that. However, March's piece is half done and I promise, it's a Canon AU.

When the call came in from Jovan, no one was thrilled to go. A small planet that prized its wild forests, the biggest settlement was little more than a village with a population that was deeply cautious around off-worlders. In recent years, small resistance groups calling for complete isolation had started protesting off-worlders and it was just… annoying. Annoying to have things thrown at them, supplies stolen, the ship vandalised. No one seemed particularly grateful for thousands of credits of medical supplies they desperately needed; or willing to offer food and water in return. There were only two reasons they went: the first was how solemnly Carlisle took his vow of helping without judgement, and the fact that the Federation paid them more than fairly for the trouble. 

Alice was up and working again, shutting herself in the analyst office for hours every day with Edward. She was quiet and pale, and still visiting the med bay for oxygen and supplements regularly. Her new augmentations were fitted, but she was still limping as they settled, most of the muscle from her calf and thigh cut away. Jovan wasn’t an ideal job for someone so fragile, and Jasper honestly wished Carlisle had taken any other of the jobs on offer. 

“It’ll be fine,” Emmett says, after Alice leaves breakfast having eaten only a minuscule portion, and chased it with a blue med-patch on her temple. “It’s boring, but we’ll get some decent fruit and some of that wine that fucks everyone up, and then Carlisle wants to dock with the Denali because Eleazer needs some bro time.”

It’ll be fine. 

Famous last words.

—

So the protestors have become terrorists. No one was expecting that; the same way that no one was expecting Esme - of all people - to have grabbed a pistol from the gun-lock. 

It’s a pretty routine visit. A lot of nodding regarding the supplies, a line up of worried looking women and children who need medical attention beyond the shaman and midwives the culture insists upon. The older men refuse all care with a silent mood of disdain and disinterest; the younger ones are curious but will not be witnessed to seek out Carlisle and Rose. 

It’s dullest for him and Emmett, who are on security for the whole day; Rosalie is often a target of violence because of her former people’s beliefs, and people mistake Esme’s gentleness for weakness. And no matter how ‘peaceful’, a community is, there are always thieves. 

Alice is seated in the corner with a tablet, logging supplies and patients quietly - few of the population will offer their real names or ages, so the records are nigh on useless for keeping track of the people, but the Federation demands them. 

It all goes wrong when Rosalie inspects the cut on a leg of a boy just at puberty - all and wiry and very ill. Rose looks grim as she begins treatment (cutting the wound open to drain, medication and packing, wrapping, and antibiotics). The boy is weeping as she works, Esme talking quietly to him, and Jasper is sympathetic because the shiny black substance beneath the infection of the wound is bone. And whatever grass-scented poultice the shamans have used on him has inspired an angry, weeping allergic reaction. The kid is a mess. 

It surprises everyone when the explosion - if it can be called that - happens. The bang in the village centre, just outside of the guest hut they use, sounds more like a cheap party cracker than a serious weapon. But Esme hands him the pistol and he and Emmett go out, and he can’t understand spoken Jovan well enough but Emmett certainly can and he looks horrified. People are moving away, vanishing into the words, into homes and businesses, as a group of very, very angry men begin yelling a message out. 

“We’re leaving right now.” Emmett is closing off the gate to the hut, and no one complains that they haven’t attended to everyone. 

Carlisle is complaining, and Rosalie is trying to work faster, and Esme is packing the things when the next explosion happens just outside the wall and half of the building crumples - made out of wood beams and huge leaves coated with some kind of amber-venom-resin substance, there is little resistance. 

Alice is already dialling into the ship, to alert Edward to what is happening, to pull up the GPS location of the ship and their trackers on the big screen. 

“Yeah, they just called for our deaths for invading their sacred space, we need to go,” Emmett snaps, and Emmett getting snappy is what makes them all get their shit together. 

Except three more bombs are thrown as they emerge, and everyone scatters away from the path - supplies are dropped, Alice’s tablet is crushed underfoot, and they all dart into the forest; Jasper follows Rose’s blonde braid into the underbrush and when he turns around, the damn terrorists are following them. 

He can’t see Alice, and the wheeze of Carlisle’s hydraulics has faded. 

They run for a short time - away from the ship, which annoys the shit out of him - before they burst into a clearing, all from different angles. 

The tree reminds him of an Earth Willow, with long drifting branches that he and Rose have to push through, throwing clouds of green-yellow pollen into the air. He’s relieved to see Emmett dragging Alice along, her gait lopsided and awkward. Both of them are filthy, with abrasions on their faces. Somehow, the faint dusting of pollen on Alice’s hair and face are beautiful, the way it clings to her eye lashes and hair. 

“I love you.”

The words are husky and rough, and the thing that alarms him the most are the fact that they are said by him. Rosalie is looking at him incredulously, but in a way that implies something much bigger is happening, her hair sticking to her face. 

Her short hair. Rose has long hair. 

His mouth is so dry, and Carlisle is wheezing, and suddenly Rosalie is scratching at her face and letting out this terrible noise, and Esme drops to the ground and begins to sob and Alice just stands there and starts saying things, these things that he worries about late at night, and he can’t stop saying that he loves her and he’s sorry and he hates what he did. 

Emmett is talking but everything is a blur of noise so he can’t understand it, but what he does finally understand, as Rose’s spine elongates and Emmett throws his stained jacket over her as a cloak, is that something is terribly, terribly wrong. 

Carlisle is gasping through words and Alice is calm, even if she is rocking as she talks, staring off into the distance.

And Jasper just dreads the moment when everything stops and he has to hear, really hear, every ugly little truth that’s been thrown into the air.

—

It takes another hour to find their way back to the ship. Rosalie is crying, but it’s an angry, rage-filled cry that sounds rasping and harsh; he cannot see her face from underneath the hood of Emmett’s jacket, but he doesn’t try very hard. 

Edward is pacing as they climb the ramp, Emmett scowling at the message scrawled crudely across the hull. 

“Know your guilt,” he mutters. “I’m not fucking coming back here, Carlisle.”

Jasper agrees. 

—

The pollen sticks to them, green-yellow dust that stains the skin if they try to brush it away. The decontamination shower takes far too long to strip it from their skin, and it’s late as they take their places around the dining table. Esme has piled the table with odds and ends from their supplies, no one interested in preparing a fresh meal. 

The seaweed noodles are particularly slimy and salty as leftovers, but reassuring in a silly way - like a favourite meal from childhood. How many times did Carlisle prepared seaweed noodles when she first joined the ship? It was the first meal he taught her to cook from scratch successfully. 

She can’t look at anyone as she eats, the words still hovering in the air, the way they forced themselves out of her like she had been holding her breath and gasping for air.

You weren’t supposed to save me. I was supposed to die. Why didn’t you let me go?

Emmett’s putting the left over fritters on Rose’s plate, not making eye contact. Rose is icy and not really eating, her hair scraped so tightly into a bun that Alice’s own scalp pinches at the thought of it. Rose got it the worst, much worse than those words forcing themselves from her mouth - the pollen had stripped away her face, stripped her right back down to a Faceless. Seeing Rose hunched and curled over on herself, making a rasping noise that Alice likened to hysterical shrieks of rage.

(She’d never seen Emmett move so fast, peeling off his jacket as he rambled about cheating on an engineering test to get on his first ship, about reversing charges to afford to get all his siblings into the right classes, about being the one that killed Esme’s dansi plant. He’d draped it over Rose’s back and head, letting her cloak herself in fabric.)

Esme’s eyes are still red, and Carlisle looks a hundred years older.

Jasper she cannot look at. She’s been avoiding it since they got onto the ship, since Carlisle forced the masks on them all, pushing oxygen laced with inhalant painkiller, allowed them to clear the pollen from their lungs and tissue.

(“I love you, I always loved you and always will, and that why I hated you so much.”)

(“You didn’t love me enough not to hurt me, and that scared me more than I’ve ever been in my entire life. I’ve been in the ugliest places, I’ve starved and been hunted like an animal, and your rage was what broke me.”)

Emmett had grabbed her by the arm after she dropped the tablet, half dragged her away. He’d been on Jovan before, during the last generation of extremists, back on his first or second ship. The way they executed anyone who came too close to the off-worlders - men, women, children. The ship had lost five people - two had been murdered falling behind during evacuation; one had disappeared, and two had been taken hostage and integrated into the community as some kind of warning or living sacrifice. 

“I didn’t really speak much Jovan back then,” Emmett admitted, hoisting her over a fallen tree with one arm, still running. “Did a few trips out here, got to see the before and the after. Hoped the after would stick.”

The Federation had intervened back then, dealt with the extremists and put in place a strict agreement for Jovan. Then it had been a relatively chill place to visit - free fruit and booze, and a hefty Federation pay check. That was the Jovan Emmett had aggressively tried to remember. 

“Religion fucks everything up,” Emmett had told her before they had both fallen down the side of a hill and she didn’t get a chance to agree. 

(The pollen tasted sharp, and she’s not surprised that her mouth is bloody when she gets back to the ship, that something that could force out their darkest truths did so by burrowing into the soft flesh of their mouths and gums and noses. It’s the taste of the blood that lingers.)

—

She curls up on the bed in the guest suite, the oxygen mask tight over her mouth. Her lungs were still giving her trouble, something that Carlisle was keeping a careful eye on, and over the last few weeks, the feeling of the mask moulded flush over her face has become reassuring, the cool feeling of the oxygen. 

There’s nothing that can take back all those things that she said, or the things Jasper said, staring at her desperately. Love and hate and regret and trauma was all twisted up into a mess; when she closes her eyes, she can see his desperate look, his eyes soft, and it’s like the old him is there - the one that made plans with her, that laughed often, and asked her to marry him with a fruit-flavoured kiss, and helped her save the flowers from her hair after the ceremony. 

He’s right there, he’s so close, and he might as well be gone forever. And she deserved it. She knew the lie, she lived the lie, and she pretended that whatever they had was worth tucking it away and hiding it, that it was cruel to tell him - as if it wasn’t crueller and sneakier to hide it.

She might fear the rage, the violence that came with the truth, but she deserved it, earned it well. Whatever the others think, she didn’t leave because he scared her or hurt her or anything. She left to punish herself, to make sure he had the safe space. It was always her fuck up that ruined them. 

(Sometimes, she dreams of that last night. Of his hand so tight in her hair that he pulled it out, threatening her in a dark voice. She cut her hair off after that, to her chin. Too short to hold her tight and frozen, to tangle around his hands. She’s blocked out everything else from that night, but not that. That memory sticks to her, along with the animal fear she felt, dangling off a precipice of something terrible about to happen.)

The idea that everyone knows everything, all the thoughts in her head that she tucks down and doesn’t talk about makes her feel sick and she wonders where she could go and hide. Call Carlisle’s bluff and get him to send her to a mental health spa. Or even go stay at Masen House for a while, use her health as an excuse. There’s still a few staff at Masen House, so it’s not like Carlisle would be paying for her upkeep specially. 

(It wasn’t a death wish, really. She knew the doctors she sought out were, at best, shitty scam-artists who knew that she had no choice but to pay up and accepted whatever standard of care they gave her. And that she was sick again. She was tired, worn out, and done with everything. She didn’t plan to be dead, she just expected it. It’s why she didn’t have any food or water in her bag; seemed like a waste of money. And Jasper… he had the paperwork to prove he was her next of kin, if there was any debate. Her savings could have paid off his fines, a final apology for lying to him. It seemed very, very neat right up until Rose found her semi-conscious and decided to save her and ignored her when she tried to protest.)

Her lens beeps at her - someone wanting to come in - and she expects Carlisle when she absently accepts and the door unlocks. 

But it’s Jasper. 

She feels very vulnerable as he slips into the room, carrying a drink and a dish with something pink on it. 

“Esme found some old dessert in the freeze,” he says awkwardly, setting the drink and plate down. “We thought you might need some.”

She nods. It’s always like this; her tiny and curled up in the big guest bed in flimsy ship-issue sleepwear because she hasn’t gotten around to digging out her old boxes from storage, with an oxy-mask strapped to her face; and Jasper looms over her in clean clothes, his hair tied off his face, looking exactly as he always does. 

They haven’t talked since she woke up in med bay with him sitting beside her. Nothing beyond pleasantries, really. 

“Thank you.” Her voice is muffled and raspy. He nods. 

“…Do you want some company?”

He’s staring at the floor when he says that, and everything in her clenches up in a confusing mess of delight and hope and fear. 

There are a million different things that ‘company’ could mean, and she’s just still so tired, she’s not sure she can manage any of them. 

She looks at the sweets that Esme sent to her - a little pink sponge-square, with seeds pressed into the top. Sweet, like some kind of fruit-flower hybrid. Made by Esme, humming to herself in the kitchen. It’s a child’s sweet - offered to children from vendors in the parks of most cities - and something about that makes her sad. 

“No,” she replies softly and she feels like a monster when Jasper flinches and nods, moving to leave.

“Not yet,” she manages, and that makes him turn back to look at her with desperate, naked hope in his eyes. 

“Not yet?” He repeats and she nods. “You… you let me know when, okay?”

She nods, and he leaves, and she closes her eyes and pretends that the idea of ‘when’ isn’t terrifying and thrilling all at the same time. 

(“You’re it for me. I love you. And that scares and angers and delights me, and I don’t know if it can ever happen again because of everything we did to each other. I think I ruined the one good thing that I ever had, and that makes me wonder why I even bother.”

The words taste bloody and tears of frustration roll down her face and the dry, angry sounds of Rosalie losing control feel right - raw and real and painful.)

[lunar-years]

What are they bitching about? Is it shippers? I hate sounding like an oldie with the whole "back in my day" thing, but I miss the days of fandom where if your ship didn't become canon, you mostly didn't expect it would, and anyway, thats what fanfiction is for. I know there were some Tbecca shippers in particular who were VERY vocally displeased that it wasn't canon

honestly in typical twitter fashion everyone starts yelling at one another without giving full context on anything so idk the details of what happened, and I'd rather not dive deeper. From what I've seen, it appears like there wasn't a specific interaction that caused it, and so I don't want to target a specific group of fans. Who knows, maybe it has nothing to do with fans and he deleted for personal reasons. Apparently, he was blocking a bunch of fans a week or two back because people were still being out-of-pocket about the ending not being to their liking, and there was a certain pocket of the fandom straight up harassing the man after his reddit AMA answers.... (I didn't like all of his answers either, so I made one annoyed tumblr post about it and then moved on with my life. Like??? it isn't hard to find a space to vent without being nasty directly to others, cmon.)

Idk how far back we're going with old fandoms, but every fandom I've been in has had a certain level of wacky behavior tbh 😂. the biggest shift I've noticed in recent years is moving away from inter-fandom "ship wars" (thank god, or maybe I've just better learnt to mind my business and stay in my corners lol) to directing anger about ships, storylines, and whatever else at the creators themselves and especially the writers, and as you said, feeling entitled to what they want to happen actually happening on the show. Which, again, I also cry "bad writing!!" all the time, like I'm not pretending to be a fandom saint, but there's a way to do it without tweeting out hatred to the artists.... 🤷‍♀️ at the end of the day it's their show and they get to write whatever tf they want, just like how i can open my little word doc and write whatever EYE want!! in a way that isn't super unhinged, weird & mean!!

[ariveth]

SHIPPING INFO! ♡

Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST. Don’t reblog!

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE? Don’t really have one in terms of Skyrim NPCs! I guess I did consider Teldryn after I first created her, but the fit wasn’t quite right.

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING? Honestly? Anything. Angst, fluff, smut, unhealthy dynamics, comfort, hateships; whatever! My faves are ships that promote character development (especially when it’s mutual).

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE? As long as all characters are 21+, age gaps don’t matter to me at all.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING? I am, but only when it comes to the actual writing (I don’t ship based on faceclaims or lack thereof, and I don’t care whether a character is an OC or canon), and the quality of the character: I like complex, characters that have been fleshed-out with a strong presence, balanced strengths and flaws, and an established, consistent personality that I can bounce Ariveth off.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED NSFW? I think clothes-off is the cut-off, or intimate touching that becomes graphic in description. Depends on the thread!

WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH? Basically all the characters she’s currently romantically involved with lol. There are also a few characters I can see future potential with too, for sure.

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU? Not really, unless you want to plot a pre-existing thing! Chemistry is key, and that requires in-character interaction. If an interaction naturally ends up flirty/romantic in nature, I will almost certainly be keen to ship without having to be asked (though I do like talking about ships anyway, and about the characters, where we want them to go, how we want them to develop etc. tl;dr I’m a talker dkdflks).

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP? Anytime, since I love shipping in all forms: flirtationships, flings, ex-lovers, star-crossed lovers; everything. And luckily, Ariveth’s character lends itself well to all of that. I’m just a lot slower to ship serious, longterm stuff because I like to get into a thread or two to test the dynamic first.

ARE YOU MULTISHIP? Sort of! I plan to have a single ship for Ariveth’s canon storyline, but I’ll consider multishipping in AUs.

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS? Gosh I literally don’t know dbfjsdhf. Both?? Let’s say in-between lol.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM? I.... feel like its controversial so I’m not gonna say lmfao

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU? Ask me for a pre-established non-serious romantic connection, or just interact and lets see if it happens! Ariveth’s flirty nature makes it very easy to ship with her. 

As for endgame ships (and specifically Ari’s ‘canon’ ship): that’s something I’ll only consider doing after extensive writing. If our characters have already established chemistry and a romantic dynamic in more than one thread, and I feel like the other muse would be a good match for Ariveth, I will mention the possibility to you. This isn’t something I care to rush however, given the slight exclusivity it entails, and I want to make sure there's compatibility plus a healthy relationship/mutual investment with the other mun. I wanna be clear: I do not expect more time/effort be devoted to our ship than others at all (in fact I’d encourage equal investment among all your ships) but I’m very wary of committing Ariveth to a character whose mun neglects the ship or gets bored/goes through ships quickly. I prefer to have minimal yet quality ships. I hope you can see it from my perspective and understand my trepidation. I really want to be sure. If you ARE interested in this, interaction is the only route toward it; I will not pre-plot without proper development.

TAGGED BY: stolen off the dash  TAGGING: whoever sees this and wants to do it, steal it from me!

[ask-alois]

OOC information / about

🦋 i answer questions in character as alois

🦋 admittedly im not a very formal typer irl anyways, but all slang/acronyms/typos are in character . i dont think alois would be very formal with this lol its just his own lil blog

🦋 keep in mind that while this is a form of rp , this is an ask blog , and everything here is over the internet . this isnt paragraph / third-person style rp . alois is using tumblr ( or whatever vague social media u wanna pretend this is ) and you are seeing him post . does tht make sense? ^^;; these kinds of blogs were way moare popular wen i was a kid but i dont really see this kind of rp around these days . ueueueueueueue ;w;

🦋 modern setting ( not this exact year / timeline , like not specifically 2024 , just . not victorian era . since this wouldn't be possible if it was LOL )

🦋 alois is 14. dont be a creep*

🦋 please do not expect Alois to be sweet to u . he is a right brat ( as is canon ) , especially if hes in a bad mood . he can be sweet / friendly too , but dont get mad or sad or whatever if he reponds in a bratty or mean way to your question / ask

🦋 if u wanna paragraph-style rp , ask and maybe we can !! ive been wanting to actually , it probs would just be separate from this blog lol , i wouldnt be turning this account into a paragraph style rp blog , itd get confusing / jumbled up on tha dash

🦋 im more than happy to interact with other kuroshit characters !! ciel , lizzie , finny , sebastian , etc-- all are welcome , even if they never interacted in the anime . just remember , as stated above : alois may not always play nice ;3

🦋 as of right now , he currently has no relationships with other characters outside the household** . i havent decided if he knows ciel yet or if ciel is just that stuffy earl who barely attends any parties or does any press interviews sbxbGZBNXJXJXA

🦋 ^^^ following that : while demons do exist / claude is still a demon in the AU that is this blog's canon , things are chiller rn . if we follow the canon of the anime ciel and alois are gonna end up killing eachother pretty quickly lol , for the sake of longevity lets just ignore the part where claude and sebastian manipulate alois and ciel into turning against ecahother 🫶💕 . that isnt to say theyre bffs all of a sudden, of course . catch alois posting about how he met THE ciel phantomhive at a party and hes such a snot nosed little brat 🙄 . " guys i got stabbed 🧍🏽 " dhxjGAJFJABNFMVMVKVA

🦋 please do not godmod , or try to establish a ship without asking me ( even platonic relationships , dont just pop in like "hey its me ur best friend that you totally talk to every night remember that time we went bowling ?" ) . im not currently interested in playing with OCs but if you send enough asks you may become ur own character lol / it may just happen naturally

🦋 🦋 🦋 🦋 🦋 🦋 🦋

* he might flirt or make a dirty joke or whatever, if it would be in character for him to do so at the moment. i get it , i was also hypersexual at a young age due to trauma . thts not an invitation 2 be a creep!! u dont need 2 focus on it, or send really explicit asks !! behave !!

** if you know anything about alois , you will know what TWs this blog has . that being said , i dont anticipate things like that coming to the forefront ? it isnt something that will be focused on , not right now at least-- idk if anything super angsty is gonna happen / get brought up in tha future . THAT being said , claude is still mistreating alois and alois is still attached to him . you will be able to pick up on it if ur paying attention , but again , thats just something thats going on in the background for now

to be clear , my portrayl of their relationship here is not romanticized / fluffy / shippy ( except for maybe from alois's pov sometimes ? like omg claude is so great blah blah blah or whatever ) but i mean . lol . its pretty much canon , isnt it ? that alois loves claude , and claude does not love him back . it isnt healthy or happy and is something alois struggles with rather than being anything ~shippy~ , but again i figured i should warn for it , because while not being focused on right now it may come up later

[ddaeng-danvers]

lake house

pairing: anakin skywalker x reader

genre: fluff

summary: in which anakin doesn’t turn to the dark side and padme gives you a lake house

warnings: canon-typical violence, death, pregnancy 

word count: 2610

a/n: i literally did this in one sitting bc i’m stupid and it’s so bad, so please do not expect a masterpiece,, for reference this is the nightgown i refer to at the end ----,, also this was slightly inspired by an ask i sent to @etherealsanakin the other day so here is that -----

masterlist

Anakin had been staring out the window of the Council room for what felt like hours, but you were sure was only a few minutes. His gaze was strong and hard. It wouldn’t take a force-wielder to understand something was on his mind. You knew he’d been agitated since his placement on the Council without becoming a master, but you knew there was more to this story. You held your tongue until you saw a single tear roll down the side of his face. 

“Ani, my love what is bothering you?” You crouched down next to his seat and wrapped his hand in your own. He squeezed your hand. 

“The Chancellor, he’s,” He closed his eyes and took in a shaky breath. “He’s the Sith Lord.” You let silence fill the room, before placing a chaste kiss on your and Anakin’s entwined hands. 

“Have you told anyone? Anyone on the Council?” Anakin nodded ever so slightly. 

“I informed Master Windu, and he told me to stay behind. That he would handle it.” He closed his eyes for a moment as if to better gather his thoughts. “I’m feeling, confused. I’m not sure of my place in all this.” 

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean, Ani. Are you talking about the Order?” Anakin pulled his hand away from yours and pressed his palms to his face. 

“The Chancellor promised me powers. Powers greater than any Jedi has ever possessed. The power to save you, from whatever it is I keep dreaming about.” Everything slowly started to click into place. Asking Anakin to be his representative on the Council. The nightmares and visions. Why no Jedi could sense a Sith Lord right under their noses. It was all the Chancellor’s manipulation. All of it. You stood up from your crouched position and stood in front of Anakin. You brought your hands to either side of his face and touched your foreheads together. 

“My love, I need you to listen to me right now. And I need you to trust me. Can you do that?” Anakin smiled and his eyes curled up, sending a few stray tears down his face

“I always trust you.” Your heart warmed at his confession.

“I know you feel conflicted right now. You aren’t sure where your alliances truly lie.” Anakin nodded as if answering the question. “But if the Chancellor is a Sith Lord like you’ve said, he’s been manipulating you. Anakin, he wants you to join the dark side, and I know that’s not what you want. I know that’s not who you are.” Anakin stays silent, waiting for you to continue. “I have my criticisms of the Order, just as you do, but they want the best for you, I promise.” You place a kiss on the top of Anakin’s head. “I love you. I love you so much that I won’t let the Chancellor make you the man you’re not.” Anakin stands up from his seat and turns to look out the window. 

“I love you too, Y/N. I-I just don’t want to lose you. I can’t” 

“And you won’t. I’m right here.” You bring his hands to your cheeks. “I’m not leaving you.”

“I want to aid Master Windu,” Anakin admits. 

“Then let’s go.” Anakin smiles up at you and grabs your hand. You both run from the Council room to the hanger, and grab a ship to fit both of you. The journey is short. As soon as you land, you both jump out and begin running towards the Chancellor’s office. While running, your each out for Anakin’s hand and grab it. “I’m not gonna lose you Ani.” Anakin looks at you, his expression still serious.

He simply says, “You won’t.” Before you knew it, you ran into the Chancellor’s office. The window had been shattered and blown out. Master Windu held his lightsaber to the Chancellor’s throat. The Chancellor was laying in front of Master Windu, his hands up in “peace”. 

“You are under arrest, my lord.” Master Windu proclaimed. You and Anakin have released hands since entering the room but chose to remain close. 

“Anakin, I told you it would come to this.” Anakin looked down at the Chancellor. A man he thought he could rely on, a man he thought he could trust. A man that turned out to be a liar. “I was right. The Jedi are taking over.” 

“You are mistaken, Chancellor!” You exclaim.

“The oppression of the Sith will never return. You have lost.” Master Windu adds. 

“No, no. You have lost!” The Chancellor yells as he shoots force lightning towards you and  Master Windu. The lightning strikes you before you have a chance to ignite your lightsaber. You fall to the ground, and attempt to hold out. Anakin stands there, confused and conflicted yet again. All of his senses are overwhelming him. He trusts you, with his life. But the Chancellor had promised him the power to save you, and he couldn’t afford to lose you.

“Anakin!” You yell over the noise. You cannot hold out much longer, the Chancellor is too powerful. “He is lying to you, Anakin. He can’t help you!” Moments later, the Chancellor shouts out a response, still shooting out lightning. You are writhing on the floor. 

“I have the power to save the one you love!” Ironic, Anakin thinks, as he’s shocking you with lightning. “You must choose!” 

“Don’t listen to him Anakin!” Master Windu shouts out. You can barely hear what’s going on, too focused on keeping yourself conscious. The pain suddenly stops, and you try to pull yourself off the ground. Anakin leans down and helps you to your feet. You pull away from him as he pulls out his lightsaber. 

“I trusted you, Chancellor! I trusted you, and all you did was lie!” Master Windu stepped aside slightly as if he knew what was to come. “You’ve done nothing but lie. And you hurt the one I love.” With that, Anakin swung his lightsaber and struck the Chancellor. And the Clone War was over. 

---

Immediately following the Chancellor’s death, Master Windu sent you and Anakin to the med bay to treat your injuries. They were relatively minimal, considering the nature of the attack. Anakin stayed with you the whole time, he refused to leave your side. You suspected he blamed himself for waiting so long to step in. 

“My love I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t your fault.” Anakin looked at the floor and shook his head. 

“I let it go on for far too long, love. I shouldn’t have just let you lay there on the-” 

“Anakin.” You interrupted. “You killed the Chancellor, you resisted his manipulation. The war is practically over.” Anakin squeezed your hand. 

“You flatter me, Y/N.” The medical droid spoke up, reminding you of its presence. 

“Y/N suffered minor burns and will make a full recovery. 

“Thank you, 2-1B.” The droid held up its hand as if it had more to say. 

“However, during the scan, I have found the Y/N is pregnant.” You feel your heart sink to your stomach. Was the baby okay? Had anything happened to it when you were attacked?

“Is the baby alright” Anakin spoke up. 

“Yes, the baby is healthy.” 2-1B responded. You stood off of the bed and moved next to Anakin. He looked at your face before moving his gaze down to your stomach. 

“My love, this, this is wonderful.” Anakin envelops you in a hug, squeezing you ever-so-slightly. “And the war is ending, this is perfect timing.” Anakin’s smile seems to increase tenfold with every passing second. 

“Anakin, we’re still Jedi. What’re we gonna do?” Anakin smooths down the back of your hair and runs it between his fingers. “We’re not gonna worry about anything right now. All right?” You nod. “This is a happy moment. The happiest moment of my life.” 

---

In the weeks that followed, Jedi and their platoons were sent to resolve any remaining conflicts. Luckily, the Council, recognizing your and Anakin’s efforts that ended the war, were absolved from duty. 

Padme visited after the final negotiations concluded, and the treaty was signed. At this point, you were only a month or so along, and still found it easy to hide it from others. However, you’d spoken with Anakin the other night about plans for the future. What were you going to do when you couldn’t hide it. And clearly, you’d both broken the Code. You both came to the conclusion that your best bet would be asking Padme, a trusted friend if you could use her planet as a refuge.

“Padme!” You exclaimed as you opened the door to your quarters. You both gathered each other in a hug, having not seen each other since the Chancellor’s death. As you separated, you invited her in. You took a seat on your bed, as she gave Anakin a brief hug before sitting down. 

“How have you both been?” Padme asked. She looked concerned. It’s clear she’d been worried since hearing about the nature of the Chancellor’s death. 

“We’ve been doing well. Actually-”

“Y/N’s pregnant.” Anakin blurted out. As much as you were annoyed that he spoiled the announcement, you couldn’t be mad at the lovestruck expression on his face. 

“Congratulations!” Padme stood up to give you another hug. Anakin stood up as well and placed a comforting hand on your back as you and Padme separated. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Yes, actually.” Padme looks at you, ready to listen. “The Order prohibits attachments, which clearly we have not abided by.” Anakin laughs softly. “So, as things become more obvious, we’re going to need somewhere to stay. We wondering if-”

“Of course you can come to Naboo!” Padme interrupts. “You two are always welcome. You can stay in one of my family’s lake houses, we don’t have much use for them anyway.” 

“Thank you, Padme, truly.” 

---

Eventually, it was time to present your situation to the Council. You and Anakin had decided to leave the Order so you could raise your family in peace. You had had enough fighting for a lifetime. You never wanted to become a General in the first place, but the war threw many of your plans out the window. 

The only Council member who knew of your situation was Obi-Wan, who was incredibly accepting (and also very excited to be an Uncle). He promised to do as much as possible to lessen any consequences given by the Council. 

Anakin grabbed your hand and pressed a kiss to your knuckles before you entered the room. “Everything will be okay, my love.” As you stepped into the room, you were met with the many faces of the Council. The Masters that raised you, trained you. You owed your life to these individuals, and it would be difficult to part with them. 

“Master Skywalker, Master Y/L/N,” Master Yoda begins. “A request for us, you have?” 

“Yes Master Yoda,” Anakin begins. “If I may be blunt, Y/N is with a child.” Several Council members made audible expressions of surprise, but many also looked as if Anakin had made the most obvious statement in the galaxy. 

“You really think we weren’t aware of your attachment?” Master Windu chuckled. “The pregnancy, however, is a surprise.” Master Windu looks around at the members, who all nod their heads. “But we are willing to excuse this ignorance of the Code because of all you two have done for the order.” 

“Thank you, Master Windu, but Anakin and I were planning on leaving the order to raise the child.” Many members begin to whisper among themselves. 

“Many we ask why?” Shakk Ti, your former master asks.

“Master Ti, I think we’ve all had enough fighting for a lifetime.” Many members smile and chuckle at your comment. “I own the Jedi Order my life. But I am ready for another chapter of my life.” 

“Granted, your request is.” Master Yoda replies. 

---

You, Anakin, and Padme head to Naboo only a few days later, and Obi-Wan is there to send you off. 

“You must send me holo-vids once the baby is born. I’m not sure how often I will be able to visit.” 

“Of course, Master. We wouldn’t let you miss anything.” Anakin smiles.

Obi-Wan pulls you into a hug. “I wish you the best of luck, Y/N. I remember when you 

were just a youngling, and look at you now.” Obi-Wan’s memory makes you smile. Some of your earliest memories were of the older padawans playing with you and your youngling clan in the Creche. It’s sweet to know Obi-Wan was one of those padawans. 

“Thank you, Master Kenobi.” You look up to Anakin. “I’ll be with Padme, I’ll let you two say goodbye.” Anakin looks at his former master for but a moment before wrapping him up in a hug. 

“Thank you, master. I’ve never thanked you enough for putting up with me all these years.” Obi-Wan chuckles. 

“It was a pleasure, Anakin. It was a pleasure and an honor to train you. And I wish you well. Take care of her.” 

“I plan on it.” With that, Anakin boards the ship to Naboo with you and Padme. 

--

Upon landing, Padme excitedly shows you around the house her family is gifting you. The house is modest. A few bedrooms, a couple of refreshers, the perfect home for the (growing) family moving in. 

“We can’t thank you enough, Padme.” 

“It’s really no problem, let me know if there is anything else you need. I’m just a holo-call away.” With that, Padme left you two alone. You continued to move about the house. With what little possession you and Anakin had, there wasn’t much to decorate, you hoped that would change over time. You eventually ended up in your and Anakin’s room. It wasn’t much, but it was yours, and that’s all that mattered. However, when you opened the closet, you found it fully stocked. You’d always admired Padme’s gowns, and it seems she left you some of your own. One, in particular, struck your eye. A blue silk nightgown with pearls at the neckline. You slip in on, thankful to be out of your Jedi robes for one of the first times in your life. 

You make your way out onto the balcony overlooking the lake. Anakin is already there watching the sunset. He senses your presence and turns around. 

“Love, what are you wearing?” He asks, a smirk rising on his face. Anakin holds out his hand and pulls you to him. He looks from your eyes to your lips and kisses you. 

“Padme left all kinds of things in the closet. I thought I’d try one on.” Anakin smiles. 

“I’ll be sure to give Padme my thanks.” Anakin pulls you in closer and kisses you harder. He eventually pulls away to breathe. The happiness on his face is contagious. 

“You look happy, my love.” Anakin lays his forehead against yours. 

“It’s because I am, love. Maker, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. We’re here, together, and the baby will be able to grow up here.” Anakin places his hands on your stomach, and his expression changes quickly. 

“What is it love, is something wrong?” His expression of surprise changes to one of content. 

“Nothing it wrong, Y/N. I’m not a med droid but I think I sense two force presences in there.”

“Two? Two as in-”

“Twins, yes, twins! Twins Y/N!” Anakin picks you up and practically spins you before setting you down and embracing you again. “I love you so much, Y/N.”

“I love you too, Anakin.”

[twiceasfrustrating]

Absolutely Nothing

I said I wouldn't post my new fic until after SWBQ is done, but I want to begin posting it before S4 drops. It won't update consistently atm, but it's there... I will only be posting the first two chapters to Tumblr. Everything else is going on AO3 because Tumblr is not longfic friendly.

Rating: Teen and Up

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Category: Gen

Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!

Characters: Main Character, Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor, Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Luke, Solomon, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Original Angel Character(s)

Additional Tags: Other Additional Tags to Be Added, War, Trauma, Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Canon is like a vampire, it can't enter this house unless I let it, Emotional Baggage, Lies, Manipulation, Ships not intended but I'm not stopping you

Summary: War is not unknown to the three realms, but that does not make them any less a tragedy of strategy. Though relations between the three have never been favorable, they have never truly gone to battle with each other. At least, not until now. The heavens have been planning for a long time and have finally decided to execute their machinations. Now it is time to see how every piece will play out this bloody battle.

A/N: These tags are for the overarching fic, not the first two chapters. Only Lucifer, Simeon, Micheal, and Gabriel show up in the first two chapters.

Chapter 1: I Will Not Go With You

“We’re heading for a war,” Lucifer warned, “and I want you to come with me.”

Simeon solemnly blinked a few times before closing his eyes. The weight of the choices laid before him pricked at the edges of his mind. He’d known this was coming. He’d known for a long time that this question would eventually be asked of him and for just as long he’d known what his answer would be, “I must decline.”

“Why?” Lucifer spat out, “Simeon, you have to know what’s about to happen. If we don’t fight then Lilith-”

“I am not stopping you from this rebellion.” He opened his eyes and looked to the pages stacked neatly in the corner of his desk, carefully flipping through the avalanche of writings he’d collected over the years. Somewhere, buried deep in the pile, he vaguely recalled his moment; where his brother would ask him to do the impossible. He’d hidden it away from prying eyes, afraid that others would find it and interpret it as he had. Though, even if they had read it and understood what the contents were, it was nigh impossible to change the events that were foretold.

He pulled the page from the pile, taking care so the others above it would not collapse onto the delicately inlaid wood of his desk, and perused the contents held within. The paper was so old that it had begun to grow fragile to the touch and discolor at the edges. Simeon desperately wished that time had chosen not to show its touch on this particular relic he would rather have forgotten about. It was frightening how long he’d known about this day and he would rather pretend he was shocked when Lucifer had come to him. Sometimes, having a glimpse into what would eventually be was a cruel reality.

That brother, who would come in need of his fellow, will find no quarter. So shall he return with hands left empty, but convictions emboldened by the forge of his stature. He shall take with him those who share his resolve and lead them to where metal sings and cries. Blood shall be shed but on one side, though the cost of the blood spilled shall

It was an old, short paragraph he wished he could forget. Though he could never truly put it out of his mind, because he knew it was left unfinished and his mind and pen longed to see the end of the story. However, his heart and will would prefer not to know every detail of this particular future. For so long, he’d clung to that final shall and hoped that not knowing the entirety of the story would somehow keep it from unfolding. However, his pen only put the stories to page. He was not responsible for the events that inspired him to write.

“You will have to make do with those who are already on your side. No one else will turn their back on Father for your cause.” It was the only warning he could give. In those words he hid the message that Lucifer should tell no one else. If war was approaching, then it was better he have the element of surprise.

Lucifer could only stare at him in disbelief, “Is that your answer?”

“It always was.” He placed the paper face down atop the pile, “I cannot aid you in this, Lucifer.”

“Then you would fight against me? You would condemn Lilith in the same way as our Father?” His voice shook, the rage building inside of him clearly beginning to boil over even as he tried to contain it.

“I will not betray my family.” Simeon’s face remained unchanged as he pushed his chair away from the desk and rose to his feet. Despite the malicious aura that began to circle around his fellow Seraphim, he approached with an unguarded stance until they were only an arm’s reach away from one another. No matter how upset Lucifer may become, Simeon would not fear him. Though, he did fear *for* him, “You and she are still of my kind and that means I will not meet you on the battlefield.”

Lucifer’s eyes widened at the declaration. This time, it was his turn to fear for the other, “You can’t stay out of this. You know they won’t allow you.” If he did try to remain on the sidelines, Simeon would still be seen as a traitor. Not in the same vein as him and his siblings, but a traitor nonetheless, “I won’t ask you to fight if you really refuse to lift your blade, but you can’t stay here.”

“As much as you and Lilith are my family, so are Micheal, Raphael, Uriel, and Gabriel. I cannot leave them.”

“Simeon…”

Simeon’s lips pulled back into a smile and he let out the shortest of laughs, “You worry far too much, Lucy. You are aware that I am still a Seraphim, are you not? Even if I do not step onto the battlefield, I do not believe I am in nearly as much danger as you are putting yourself in.” He wanted to reach out and touch his brother one last time as the fear of the unknown overtook him, but he kept his hand within his own space. He did not know what would happen at the end of all of this, but he knew it would not be the same and reaching out to hold onto what they had would only pain them both.

Lucifer looked over the other angel’s shoulder, toward the pile of papers where Simeon had placed one face down. Countless writings that revealed the future to their author and Lucifer did not envy that gift. Others often wished to know what would be, but he had seen far too many times the burden placed on Simeon for having such a skill; the amount of times he had been made to see both grace and tragedy was carved on his face, just behind that smile. That is why, despite knowing that whatever was on that page was related to this very discussion and his ultimate goal, he would not pry. It was not as if knowing the future allowed it to be changed anyway.

“We’ll still be on opposing sides, you know?” No matter how much Simeon proclaimed not to betray his family, that was an unavoidable truth.

He nodded, “I am aware.”

“And you refuse to go against your family?”

This time his confirmation was wordless.

Lucifer took in a deep breath, “Then once the battle begins, I believe we can hardly be considered family anymore.”

Large blue eyes shot up to look at his pale face. It seemed that Lucifer had said something Simeon hadn’t expected, “What?”

“You will not betray your family, but you know they will not allow you to remain neutral in this. As soon as the drums of war beat, it is fine to stop thinking of me as your brother.”

There was a long moment of silence before Simeon could reply, “You cannot ask me that.”

“I am not asking. I am stating a truth,” one that would hopefully allow Simeon a way to follow his morals and gain some leniency if he continued to insist on this path, “I refuse to be your brother from that moment on.”

“Please... you cannot ask that of me.”

“I am not asking anything of you. I am simply stating where we will stand.” And now he needed to leave before the hurt welling in Simeon’s eyes tugged at his heart anymore and shattered his resolve.

He dipped his head in a polite bow, “Thank you for your time, Simeon. I do hope we may speak like this again.” He turned on his heels, refusing to truly look at the other angel again. His only goal was the door, where he opened it wide and stepped through the threshold.

“Lucifer! Wait!”

It took far more will than Lucifer would ever care to admit as he shut the door behind him without saying another word, and even more to walk away.

-----------------------

Chapter 2: Traitor

“How long have you known?” Micheal nearly growled as he stared down Simeon where he kneeled. His pale blue eyes ran wild with rage and it was clear he was just barely holding himself together. That was to be expected after everything he had just been through. Lucifer was unapologetically his favorite brother so it was unimaginable the distress he was in right now as he came to terms with having lost a member of his family. They had been like two halves of a whole, and now they were fractured.

“How long have I known what?” Simeon asked, feigning ignorance.

“That Lucifer would lead a rebellion against Father!” Micheal’s voice raised so loud that the room literally shook around him.

“Calm yourself, Micheal,” a melodious voice shushed him and lithe hands rested on his shoulders to hold him steady, “We’ve lost enough of our siblings today. There is no reason to lose yourself and risk losing another.”

“You would call him our brother after that disgraceful scene, Gabriel?” The disgust in his voice was clear and overwhelming, “He knew this would happen and refused to warn us or lift a finger. Everything we lost today is because of him.” Simeon had to know about today. He was blessed with the gift of prophecy and spent his time writing what was to come. If he had simply shared whatever he knew about today, Micheal knows they could have prevented the rebellion. He knows that he could have convinced Lucifer to stay somehow. Instead, he was left to face his own brother on the battlefield. He could still recall the cold eyes Lucifer had looked at him with as if they barely knew one another. That sight would never leave the darkest parts of his mind.

“You are blinded by your pain, Micheal.” She removed her hand from his shoulders and moved to stand over Simeon, “He is clearly as much our brother as ever. If he were against us he would have joined Lucifer, but Father has deemed that he is still worthy of his halo. Is that not enough for you?”

Micheal chuckled darkly before answering, “Uriel nearly lost an arm and he’s one of the lucky ones.” Even with so few numbers on their side, the rebellion had a gifted Dominion that made the most of their small force.

“And everyone harmed will heal, but we gain nothing in dividing ourselves further, and our brother has already been punished for his transgressions.” She took a knee before Simeon, reaching out her hand and running her fingers through his silken hair, “Will you not put our brother’s worries at ease, Simeon?”

Simeon knew the threat in those words. As kind as Gabriel pretended to be, she was someone he feared far more than Micheal. Not because she was stronger, but because she knew exactly how to most hurt those who upset her. As such, he had no interest in declining her wish, even if what she was asking for was for him to show his shame.

He took a deep breath before unfurling his wings behind him. They shimmered golden in the neverending light of the Celestial Realm, a blessing bestowed upon him by their Father that reflected his very essence. Every angel had such a blessing; different colors, shapes, a range of sizes, and lays of their feathers all differed from angel to angel all dependent on their Father’s grace. That included how high in their Father’s favor they were, and it was obvious at a glance just how out of favor Simeon had fallen. His six beautiful wings, the blessing afforded to all Seraphim, had been reduced to a simple two.

Gabriel’s eyes filled with pity for him but Micheal’s face twisted in glee and disdain, “Is that all? You betray us and all Father does is reduce your rank.” The laugh that left his throat was so dry that it sounded like it hurt, “You must really be beloved to get off with such a light sentence.” If it was up to Micheal himself, Simeon would face the same punishment as Lilith.

“Still your anger, Micheal. As you can see, Father has spoken.” She raised to her feet once more, her nails pulling painfully at Simeon’s hair as she stepped away from him, “Simeon is still of our kind and as one of our subordinates it is our duty to shepherd him.”

A wicked smile crossed Micheal’s face as he continued to look down on Simeon and his now unsightly form that marked his betrayal, “You may be correct, Gabriel. It is only right that we guide lost sheep, especially those of our own flock.”

[androgynousblackbox]

Thoughts about the fifth season (spoilers)

Okay, so normally I would make these posts as neutral as possible because I want them to reach anyone who enjoys the show. Even if you are someone that really fucking hates incest ships you can read them and still have an idea of what I liked, what didn’t, etc, without me bringing up that element. You can disagree or agree without being reminded “oh, yeah, he is one of THOSE fans I don’t like” and that is totally fine by me. Curate your own online experience and all that. But this is season is quite literally about the relationship between Rick and Morty, so as a rickmorty shipper I just can’t separate that from what I enjoyed about it and thus I am going to be talking from that position during all of this. If that makes you uncomfortable, that is cool, I get it. You can skip this one if you want. Also, this is going to be a general big mess of thoughts and whatever because I have lots of them so, bear with me. -Some of the shippers I was with on a server will know this already, but from the very first episode I was sure we were going to have two major themes: 1. Rick is a flawed human being, not a god, not a ultra genius who is always destined to be on top of everything and knows how to get out of any situation. Just a man. And that is why he needs other people, which is somethig he had to accept and understand about himself, especially after the fourth season was all about dethroning him as the patriarch of the family and break away the illusions that Beth had about her own father. We have standed too long having Rick win on everything and coming out like a badass, so it’s time to kick him down a bit and let him lose. 2. Morty’s heart is always going to get fucked over, which is something that gets even more explored on the Planetina episode: he wants a place to belong with a person who doesn’t make him feel like the odd one out. Combine the two and my idea was: they want to assure us about their relationship on some kind of way, this is about them and what they feel regarding each other. Probably about why or how Rick became so jaded because why else include Rick freaking out about Mr Nimbus just mentioning Diane’s name and how much he changed, on a first episode no less, if this isn’t something we are setting up to see later. They explicitely brought someone from Rick’s past to talk about that past and make a point to tell us that changed Rick. -So, we have the two major player set up like this: on one hand, Morty aspires for that companionship but he is not willing to compromise his own moral for it, whatever he has left after starting to take on some Rick’s traits. He is desperate for that connection and if that means leaving Rick behind, so be it. Rick will still be there anyway. On othe other hand, Rick also wants that connection and companionship but it’s too disfunctional and can’t make it quite work because there is always a part of him that wants to keep distance. With the alien lady, evne with the crows, it’s all about escapism and pretend like everything is fine, it’s just fun and he doesn’t have to care because they are just having a good time together. He tried to do that too with BP by keeping away the info about his daughter, but he called his bluff because BP knew Rick too much to not see that comic. It’s rebound after rebound because he is missing the one person that can keep him in check, that truly knows what a piece of fucking shit he is and somehow still comes back to him. BP saw that, knew what was happening, and prefered to get the fuck away because he didn’t want to compromise his own values like that either. But Rick doesn’t have that problem with Morty. It truly is Rick and Morty one hundread years because, no matter how fucking bad it gets, they still choose one another. -Now, the way they keep building up this relationship, these connection, even regarding the rest of the family, to me is brilliant in restrospect because it perfectly illustrate how much they have changed from what they were before and what that means. Morty is more independent and less afraid, right, but that doesn’t make him more happier because he is still lonely and Rick is being reminded, over and over again, that he can’t be alone either. -Regarding the way Morty have behaved, I have seen some people being concerned about how Morty is becoming more independent and therefore not relying on Rick as much for anything, so it’s like what is the point of their relationship anymore. And like, to me it makes sense they show because they have already told us on past seasons that Morty has stopped viewing Rick with that wide eyed expression for a long time. He is learning from him and can defend himself, so why does he need Rick at al? The answer is because he loves him. You can read that as platonic or romantic or whatever, but for better or for worse Morty just loves Rick. You shouldn’t love people because you need them, or at least that is not a healthy basis for any relationship. I said this on another post: you cannot make anyone to be your center for your mental health like that, and I feel like they aware of this point, which I really fucking love because it would have been easy as fuck to write any pairing like that.  -If you stay for the “Behind of scenes” scenes, the writers talk about how this season is about building trust between Rick and Morty. So it starts with Morty going around cleaning up some of the messes Rick left behind without telling Rick and then fucking the portal gun because he doesn’t trust Rick to not “kill him” to finding out he did that, just like Rick in fact doesn’t trust Morty to not be doing unnecesary bullshit. So Morty, hurt because his suspicions were right, puts an ultimatum and Rick, being the petty fuck we all know him to be, takes it kind because of course he would. -What does Morty does immediately after this? Latch onto another sketchy as fuck older man whose name ends with Ick and hope that is the connection he craves, because after all “we are like brothers now.” So rebound for him, rebound for Rick, rebounds for the crows, rebounds for everyone. Yay. -I know it has been however many years have passed since this show started, and it was obvious for fucking everyone who watched it, but I do really like that they use the exact words for how their dynamic has been: unhealthy, toxic, abusive. Lack of trust, lack of boundaries, secrets. Just straight up calling it as it is. So they have both of them confronting that fact, being aware of it, and to top it all off, make Morty the only being now on their universe that knows everything about Rick, every single thing he has kept even from BP, like the true reason he joined to their guerilla group, and still makes the conscious choice to go after Rick even when, as far he was aware of at least, there was another option.  -So, okay, now what, might someone ask. We have put everything out there and we have talked about what is wrong about their relationship, does this mean we are doing the boring healthy bullshit now? Well, nope. Considering that Morty did went out of his way to guilt trip Rick into getting back and Rick admits point blank admits he get it, Morty refusing to demand things be different because he is just desperate... they are still and probably always going to be a condependent mess, but hey, a condependent mess that at least is kinda self aware about it and won’t pull the “I am going to break up with you on a whim” move again, hopefully. I do think and expect some things to change, but only as far their dynamic during adventures goes and regarding the rest of the family, with everyone being on the know that those two are an item neither of them can get in between. Rick is probably still going to want to keep some things in control, he is still not going to express his feelings to Morty directly and Morty is still going to be a little shit that will want for validation that won’t come his way. It’s a shithole house, but at leat it’s their home kind of thing, and personally, that is how I like it. -The “adventures as a metaphor for a relationship so this is not like a real break up” is real funny when you hear the writers literally calling it a break up and a relatonship. Also, the amount of times that they say “my partner”. Like, I am sorry, but how the fuck I am supposed to believe this wasn’t for the shippers, fucking how? Like even if you aren’t one, and you go “it’s a metaphor!! it’s not like an actual relationship, they are not saying they are together as a couple”, that is flimsy as fuck because we have determined already that Rick uses adventures as an extension for all his relationships. There is a intentional paralel between BP and Morty and how Rick treats the both of them, like he would do anything for them but still be kind of a lying piece of shit too, so it’s definitely canon on the sense -Omg, we had miniature cute Mortys who like crayons and also big hot adult Morty, fucking finally. I cannot fucking believe they wouldn’t know the blessing they were throwing to fandom with that one, they know what they are doing.  -Rick as a boy dressing on the same colors of Morty could have been a cute little detail, like aww, they are family, so they pass down those colors from one generation to another because family, but fuck all of that, let’s make it creepy and fucked up because why not. But it’s also interesting because if Ricks breeded Mortys and put those colors on them, isn’t that another way of saying “you are connected to us just as much as we are connected to you”? Because they didn’t had to chose those colors, but they did it because it meant something for them. On a very fucked up way, I think they might even feel themselves more fathers to Morty than even Beth, because many of them didn’t cared manipulating her in order to gain more Mortys even if they could just clone them easily. -”You all really are bred for forgiveness”... Not really, or else “Evil Morty” wouldn’t exist and Cop Rick, the good one, would have never been attacked by using the attachment of Ricks against him. But Morty had made his choice and that choice was Rick, and even then Rick cannot fucking believe it so he has to reduce it to his breeding. -So, the finite curve has been destroyed and almost all Ricks were killed, the ones that weren’t coincidentally fucking off to another place just when that happened. That means that now there is true infinite universe where Rick is not the smartest man on the universe, where Rick doesn’t even exist at all, so we may have adventures where other people where the smartest people on their universe and Rick could finally meet his equal or someone even worse.  -The final speech of Mr Poppybutthole is kinda the perfect ending to everything, because he is talking avoid being afraid of the people he loves finding the “true” self of him and not loving him anymore, but Morty did that and he still loves Rick and, listen, I have FEELINGS about it, okay.  -After exploring this, which was the true only canonical mistery of the whole series, while also dumping off the backstory of Rick so nobody has to theorize about it anymore, it feels like they going two routes: either we are dumping anything about serialized anything, at least for a while, and we are back to just silly adventures with asshole grandpa and traumatized kid, or... we are introducing another big baddie that we are going to drag to hell and back. Maybe Evil Jerry? That could be fun to explore on the show. My bet is on the second option because I think that is the kind of thing that Justin really enjoys doing and that is why it appears on Solar Opposites as well, with the whole Wall as a central points behind all the shenanigans of the aliens.  -The only misteries left are: the weird Rick that killed his family, if he wasn’t killed already on the Citadel, and Birdperson reunion with his daughter, for which he might ask Rick’s help in the future when he cools down or maybe Rick gets his daughter back for him on a ridiculous plan to make him return his calls, because that is something he is going to pull. The Jessica thing and her quest for becoming an actual character with her own thing going on. -This finale made rickmorty canon on all the ways it could without having them literally making out willingly, and after Naruto, I don’t think that is a line they are not willing to cross at some point in the future, even if it’s just a joke. They already did with the parasites. I honestly don’t even know how you can watch the show and think “fuck yeah, they hate those ships just as much as I do!”, because with the way the writers talk about it and literally this entire season being nothing but a building up for their relationship, I would have been turned if I didn’t ship it already.

[reluctant-mandalore]

🎃Mandoctober🎃Day 23: Rifle

After being captured, the Mandalorian is shocked to see you come to his rescue while skillfully wielding his pulse rifle. 

Warnings: Canon typical violence, mentions of blood and injury. Weapons usage (pulse rifle). Also reader kicking some scummy bounty hunter ass. Not beta read. 

Pairing: Din Djarin x Gender Neutral Reader (also badass reader)

Word Count: 1,644

a/n: Hey everyone! Just a short and sort of cheeky fic about the reader using Mando’s pulse rifle to save him. I’m not good at writing fight scenes so its mostly just ambiguous without much detail to it. Anywho, I thought it was a nice little change up from some of the typical stuff I write! Endings kinda weird ngl, but I honestly had no clue how to end it. So... 👀

The Mandalorian had never been more angry in his life. The job was supposed to be a simple one that involved the capture and a return of a petty thief, but of course nothing seemed to be that easy for him. Out of all the things that could have gone wrong with this job, he never thought it would turn out to be a plot meant to capture the Mandalorian and the child. 

This was what exactly had happened though, and what was supposed to be a simple job, had turned into something much more complicated. He had ended up finding himself ridiculously outnumbered and overpowered more quickly than he had liked, resulting in his capture by the other bounty hunters. How he fell to some scummy low-life hunters he’d never know, but it had happened, and now he had to find a way out of the situation. 

The other bounty hunters had chuckled and chattered in delight over being able to trick the Mandalorian. The confidence they had felt from doing so wafted off of them in waves, annoying the beskar hunter beyond belief. Once he got himself out of this, he’d make sure to wipe those smirks right of their cheeks. 

One of the hunters had sauntered over to the cuffed Mandalorian, confidence in each step he took. He only stopped when he was standing mere inches in front of the imprisoned man. At first the hunter had only stared at him, his head tilting at the sight of the blood which dripped from the wound in Mando’s side. 

“That’s gotta hurt, huh?”

The Mandalorian didn’t reply, refusing to waste words on someone like the hunter before him. This man held no honour in his eyes, and as far as he was concerned, he wasn’t worth a single syllable from his own lips. 

“Not goin’ to talk, are ya?” He laughed, “Should hav’ expected as much from someone of yer kind.”

The smirk on his lips was crooked, his eyes holding a sinister glare, as his voice dripped with more venomous taunts, “Won’t be long till the rest of the boys get back with the asset and that precious little ‘friend’ of yers anyway.”

Flames of anger began to ignite within the Mandalorian at the mention of you and the child. The thought of the two of you being in danger now due to his oversight made his blood boil and his heart ache in panic. He knew he had to find a way to get out of this in order to save you both. He couldn’t stand the thought of knowing that you were in trouble, and it honestly terrified him to his core. 

The concern he felt  made him begin to pull at the restraining device holding him, ignoring the pain which shot through him from his wound that continued to bleed steadily. Seeing this had made the hunters in close proximity laugh at his attempt, the one standing before him loudest among the bunch. Their reactions had only solidified his need to free himself though, and his mind desperately searched for a solution for his current predicament. 

“Ya know…” The hunter trailed off, eyeing the beskar covered man and the helmet which rested on his head, “I heard once that Mandalorians don’t ever remove their helmets.”

One of the other hunters had scoffed, “That’s ridiculous!” 

“No it’s true!” Another had piped in, “I heard they don’t ever show their face to no one.” 

Murmurs had spread out among the group of hunters nearby now, small bits of bickering could be heard as they discussed the rumors around his helmet. The Mandalorian had frozen in place at hearing their words, as now he was also becoming increasingly worried for the creed he had swore. It wouldn’t be the first time an enemy has attempted to remove his helmet after all, and he wouldn’t put it past these ones to try as well. 

“Well Mando is it true?” The hunter before him asked, “Hav’ ya never really taken off that bucket of yers?”

Silence. The only sound coming from the Mandalorian, who sat in his own blood, was the soft intake of breaths he took. Behind him, his hands fiddled with the restraining device quietly, hoping he’d be able to get it undone before the hunter tried whatever he was thinking of doing. 

“Don’t matter if ya won’t answer.” The hunter taunting him approached closer now, his grimy hand grabbing roughly at the chin of the helmet shielding the Mandalorian’s face from view. “Cause I want a peek, whether you like it or-” 

The man never got to finish his words, as in an instant he had turned to puffs of ashes and sparks before the Mandalorian. Everyone in the dimly lit room had jumped from surprise at the sudden attack, not prepared for it to occur, and panic soon flowed from hunter to hunter, as they tried to find the source of the blast.  

After the first shot, it didn’t take much longer for more to follow. Every shot from the pulse rifle in question hitting its desired targets without fail, the bright blasts shooting across the open area and disintegrating each hunter they managed to hit in an instant. The other bounty hunters fell quickly, not able to keep up with the assault that was suddenly brought upon them, and the Mandalorian watched in bewilderment at the chaos taking place before him. 

Honestly, he just really hoped that this unknown person with a pulse rifle was here to rescue him, though he knew not to get his hopes up either way. 

Once again silence had filled the space, the other bounty hunters now either piles of ash or limps bodies on the floor surrounding him. Shuffling could be heard in the distance, and he watched impatiently for his rescuer to come into view, though nothing could prepare him for what he was about to see. 

The Mandalorian had felt his jaw drop while watching you walk out from the shadows, his pulse rifle held firmly in your grasp. The light filtering in through the cracks of the ceiling made itself into a shimmering veil around your form, illuminating you in the darkened space, and making you seem like a divine being sent from the maker themselves. 

“Hey Mando!” Your voice was cheerful and light, almost as if you didn’t just blast a bunch of men twice your size to pieces, “Sorry I’m a little late.” 

His mouth had moved in an attempt to form words, but the shock running through him kept them firmly in his throat. He didn’t know what to say or how to react when seeing you here. He never expected to have you come to his rescue, and honestly he wasn’t even aware that you knew how to shoot.  

A happy hum had left you as you went to work untying your Mandalorian companion, removing the restraining device that had made itself home onto his wrists. Afterwards, you had helped him stand, allowing him to put his weight onto you, while he winced from the wound on his side. 

“Careful now, don’t want to make that any worse than it already is.” You said, worry crossing your features at the sight of his injury. 

Din looked around, still shocked by the devastation brought on by you and a single rifle, “Did...Did you do all this on your own?”

“Of course?” You said, your face morphing to that of confusion, “Now come, let’s get out of here. Your son is waiting for you back at the ship and that wound needs to be looked at.” 

Helping him walk out of the building and out into the daylight, you guided him all the way back to the Razor Crest. When finally back at the ship, you had even helped him up the ramp, settling him on one of the crates in the hull before moving away to find some medical supplies. 

The hatch to the child’s cot was closed—hinting that the little one was taking his evening nap—which made the Mandalorian relieved to see. He didn’t want the child to see him in this state. The child didn’t need more things like this to weigh him down at such a young age. 

“Oh yeah!” You said suddenly, grabbing his attention, as you maneuvered his pulse rifle off your shoulder before holding it out for him to take, “I borrowed your pulse rifle, it's really nice! Probably one of the best I’ve ever used.”  

After your comment and return of his rifle, you went back to searching through his med supplies and medpacs to find the bacta patches. While you did so, the Mandalorian gently ran his fingers over the rifle in his hands, the shock of seeing your skill with it still bouncing around in his mind. The need to ask you about your handling of the pulse rifle crawled at his throat, but he resisted speaking at first, as he wasn’t sure how to word his questions without coming off as rude. 

He was honestly surprised to see the whole thing go down. He never knew that you were so handy with a gun when he had first hired you to work for him, and honestly assumed you couldn’t. At times you seemed too sweet to ever pick up a blaster of any sort, much less a full on pulse rifle. Clearly, he still had much to learn about his new partner.

“You know…” He trailed off when he finally spoke, a hint of wonder in his tone, as he looked up at you from the gun. “You never told me you could shoot.”

A smirk spread across your lips at his words, and you looked over at him with a medpac in hand, a shrug of your shoulders quickly following suit.

“You never asked.”

---

Tags:

@starrywatermelon​ @ah-callie @readsalot73 @karnita-mexicana

[variousqueerthings]

some thoughts on queerness in narrative (using cobra kai as a main point)

1. intro

It’s interesting getting to engage with pop culture right now versus even five years ago, where there was something kinda sordid and undercover about queer reads of text and even just talking about being into stuff very passionately while being queer in spaces that included creators was considered somehow icky (supernatural is always a good example, but definitely was just the most visible of these types of interactions between fans and cast/creators). Obviously that’s where a lot of modern definitions about queerbaiting and bury your gays comes from.

A lot of this kind of drama centred on queer ships rather than queer characters in their own right (dean/castiel, merlin/arthur, derek/styles and maaaan just a lot of white brunette/blond pairings, which is another post and I acknowledge that Lawrusso is also literally that... the irony)

But also this isn’t so much about “shipping.”

2.

There’s a danger of flattening out the ways in which we create a dialogue with text when it becomes just about whether or not our ships become canon (in general the way fandom discourse revolves around ships can be incredibly unhelpful for engaging critically with text) – for context I am queer and I’m queer through my transness and aromanticness and asexuality, and I also write a fair bit of shippy fanfiction and analysis, but personally am not (always) thaaat bothered about how the connections with queer-coded people are realised in text, as long as those connections are acknowledged in a queer way. How that works varies from text to text.  There is no one-size fits all proper queer representation.

An example: SE Hinton (because I just read The Outsiders/watched the movie) being really dismissive of people reading her characters as gay on twitter (why do we ever try to do this sort of deep textual analysis on twitter, why do creators – like Hinton – think that they ought to espouse opinions on twitter, why twitter folx?)

I wrote – kinda for the void, because I write a lot and I like posting some of that on tumblr, but I don’t expect people to engage necessarily – about how The Outsiders is absolutely a queer text, whether or not the creator intended for it to be. Long story short, queerness has been – and often still is – illegal and/or frowned upon in canon text, so a semiotics was created to make something queer if you knew how to read it. The fact that cis-straight creators play with and use those semiotics without knowing doesn’t negate the fact that that language is there and was deliberately created for that purpose.

That also doesn’t make it queerbaiting. Maybe cis-straight dumbassery, idk (wouldn’t be if you just went “huh, didn’t think about that, cool read”)

Intentionally playing with and acknowledging those semiotics also isn’t necessarily queerbaiting.

Definitely queercoding though.

3.

Anyway this is all a bit murky territory, so let’s talk about Cobra Kai, my current little obsession, and about Star Trek, my always-obsession. Time-was you could get sued for your Star Trek fanfiction. Nowadays that fanfiction can get turned into a for-fun zoom play and read out loud by the two actors who played the original characters (Alexander Siddig and Andy Robinson). This is very fun, new territory for a lot of us.

Meanwhile Hayden Schlossberg and the other writers of Cobra Kai are openly aware of the fact that lots of people read their lead characters – Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence - as probably bisexual (and probably as in love) and are on good terms with several active members of fandom and fic-writing. This is… so fucking fun. And it doesn’t have that weird overtone of shit like Teen Wolf (“We’re on a ship” winky-face, followed by that about heel-turn “just think it’s weird and strange” or however tf it was described later on - that shit: definitely queerbaiting).

In Star Trek there’s a slim-to-none chance that these characters will ever become canonically queer in the main text, but the acknowledgement and the light-hearted open engagement with it makes such a massive difference (not that Siddig and Robinson weren’t talking openly about it as far back as the 90s).

In Cobra Kai there is no obligation to make Johnny or Daniel canonically bi because there’s been no promise to do so – there is, in my opinion, an obligation to create a world in which queerness exists and not just on the sidelines. In the same way as there’s an obligation to generally create a world that accurately depicts what LA looks like in multiple other ways (cough, not mainly white, cough). If a part of that were through exploring how 80s era toxic heteronormative masculinity could throw people deep into the closet for most of their lives, hey, that’d be a neat storyline (such a neat fucking storyline), but it’s not the only way to do it.

While I do like canonically queer couples in stories, I also think it’d really limit what queerness can do for a text if that were the only way it was represented - sure I ship Lawrusso, but I find the above-mentioned analysis of toxic masculinity’s effects on the characters-as-queer-coded to go much deeper than whether or not they get together. 

I also would love trans and/or other-gender characters - we all know Johnny needs his “gender-what?” ignorance challenged and the potential for characters like that to fit into a narrative around trauma, loneliness, and misfit-families is kinda perfect (and when I say characters, I mean that plural, we’re not a one-size fits all).

Lastly I think there is also an obligation to do exactly what the showrunners are doing - what didn’t happen with Hinton or SPN or Teen Wolf or Star Trek of yore or so much other popular fiction: say, oh yeah, that language is absolutely there, we recognise it, we can read it and it’s not weird or sordid or something to be judged. So that’s already a massive thumbs up/promising start.

4. some final thoughts:

Idk where all this’ll go. I’m still missing a lot of canonically queer representation - and when I say representation I mean more than just shoving in a queer character into a scene and not thinking about how that affects the world that’s been established. But I’m feeling a lot better about queerness and story than I used to.

I’m hoping that whatever comes moving forwards in culture in general it’ll have some thought put into it. I’m hoping that queerness and queer allegory and coding will be recognised more and more as important reads of text and will go into informing how something is made (Hannibal, Black Sails, Sense8, Pose). I’m just hoping this’ll mean some interesting, intelligent, wildly varied narratives.

Just very excited.