#-sort of structural shift/acceptance he is who he is and that is how he has agency (not solely money?)

[divinekangaroo]

rewatching S6 in bits and pieces for current fic and ahhhhhhhhhh but the whole Jack, Diana, Mosley and Lizzie final dinner is so *viscerally* fucking satisfying on every sensory and intellectual and emotional level of consumption.

[oddballwriter]

Werewolf!Moon Boys SFW Headcanons

Warnings: body horror, nothing graphic but the idea of the shifting process between human and werewolf is considered a form of body horror. Otherwise, wholesome monster bf content.  

Author’s Snip: I'm making food for the monster fuckers/lovers because no one else is in this fandom does and so I have decided to make our meals because I can and someone's got to do it.

Notes: Shout out to @piecesofusboth for the inspo. You are so right that a moon boys werewolf au is so perfect. I'm ashamed that I hadn't thought about it sooner.

Also, shout out to the og @melodygatesauthor too and her vampire MK series The Dark Side of the Moon and vamp!moon boys HCs. She is one of the few who have been feeding us with both monster moon boys and some tidbits of Khonshu. She also has some vampire reader content so go see that as well. Go read it, it's banger stuff.

And if you want I also have a series of my own revolving around a (gender-neutral) vampire reader and the moon boys, so if you're interested it's called Dwelling in the Night.

Anyways, I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

Living

So I envision that the boys live somewhere secluded in the woods so that they can transform without people seeing them and getting scared and also because being a werewolf in a city with nowhere to really run doesn't sound ideal

They all like it in their own ways.

Marc because he likes it because no one will see them or come across them when they're out

Steven because I think he'd just like the atmosphere because he seems like the type to like living in a nice cabin and reading when they aren't affected by the moon

Jake because it gives them somewhere to run around when they turn

It is a bit of a hassle though because sometimes if they turn in the house they scratch something up or leave fur everywhere that someone will have to clean up when the sun returns and they turn back to normal

Turning

Turning doesn't exactly feel good. Obviously, because their whole body structure is shifting and changing in a short amount of time

Marc

Marc will usually leave the house before the moon fully rises because he doesn't want anyone to see it, even if you are his partner and you know and accept it

He just doesn't want you to see it in case it actually scares you off despite you saying that you won't

Marc also isn't too sure what would happen either. I'm going off the idea that when they turn they sort of lose themselves and are a bit more animal-like but still somewhat themselves. So he doesn't remember everything that happens and he doesn't want to risk possibly hurting you

So Marc will leave to turn somewhere in the woods and do whatever during the night in his state of mind and being, knowing that before he fully turns back he will come back to the house. That or he passes out close by and walks the way back

Steven

Steven doesn't really like the whole 'being a werewolf' thing and is actually really scared and anxious whenever the full moon is coming up

He'll also make an attempt to leave before he turns, both to not potentially scare you and as to not make a mess in the house

I do think that he has a little bit more trust in both you and himself though

If he notices that he can recognize things while turned then he slightly tests out the theory that he might recognize you and not harm you

That's how he and the rest of the system find out that they can, in fact, recognize people and things even when in werewolf state and mind

Jake

I think Jake sticks to the no turning inside the house rule most of the time but I also like to think that he says that it's fine if you let him in the house so long as he's not like... tearing shit up

I feel like because the transformation can be stress-inducing, Jake will often be the one fronting while turning and being in their werewolf state, and maybe with being more experienced in being in that state he's just a little bit more there compared to Marc and Steven

Jake will still run around and get everything and anything out of their system while in their werewolf state, but he will actually let you join and be around with him when he's like this

Like usually Marc will tell you not to be near them and Steven will say that you can be with him so long as he's not showing any potential of hurting you, but Jake outright says that you're good to be with him and walk with him around if you want

Aftercare

Turning back to normal is just as exhausting and takes out a lot from them, so you need to take care of them when the sun starts coming back and their body starts shifting back

Marc sometimes passes out before making it back home, and I like to think that he feels cared for when you do the effort to wake up extra early to go find him and bring him back home

He doesn't ask for much, just that you help him clean himself up and lay down

Steven is more aware of time and will be able to make it back and will make an effort to come back in just before exhaustion takes him

Just try and pick him up and carry him to a hot bath to help soothe his sore limbs and lay him in bed so that he can rest comfortably

Jake for the most part just wants you to be there while he shifts back

It might not be a whole lot but having you there gently shushing him feels nice to him. Afterwards, you can help him to bed

[laundrybiscuits]

So I was playing around with an expanded version of this wlw vamp!Eddie snippet (tentatively titled heard you like magic) for Monsterfucker May because, well, 1) it’s pretty good incentive to write something I’d been thinking about anyway 2) I am procrastinating on a fuckton of work right now.

Anyway, I started jotting down some thoughts that wound up being practically a whole-ass essay, and the expanded fic definitely isn’t going to be posted before tomorrow, so…I thought I might as well post this. It’s not very exciting; it's about 1300 words of me ruminating on the worldbuilding/character decisions I’ve been making about adapting Steve’s gender. 

The heard you like magic fic is really just me sort of iterating on the loose sketch of cisgirl!Steve I started noodling around with in feel how you fit around me. Obviously it’s not the same timeline at all; I hadn’t really thought through this AU very much, since it was spontaneously birthed from skimming the lyrics to “Red Wine Supernova” and getting inappropriately stuck on “her canine teeth in the side of my neck” but I’m using it to play with similar ideas. 

I do think a very similar story to canon could have been created with cisgirl!Steve. (If female!Steve is trans, the timelines get a little complicated and there’s literally no way she could have socially transitioned and achieved an unquestioned popularity in the 80s. It could be a good and interesting story, but it would have fundamentally different beats.) Canon!Steve’s initial thematic/narrative function as the hot, popular boyfriend who embodies normality and social acceptance (at a cost) within the context of high-school-drama-turned-supernatural-horror could absolutely have worked with some of the genders shuffled; admittedly, it would likely have been received by audiences very differently. But from a purely thematic/structural perspective, yeah, I think the same story could have been told. 

So the specific question I’m poking at here is: what does that Steve look like, if his largely unquestioned shifting relationship to masculinity becomes a largely unquestioned shifting relationship to femininity? Part of what makes him such an interesting character is how he navigates taking on a babysitter/caretaker role within the group, because that runs counter to his gendered expectations about who he is and what he’s good at. For a teenage girl, though, “babysitter/caretaker” is a pretty conventional role. 

I’ve thought a lot about approaching this as “What would have to change to make female!Steve commercially viable?” Honestly, I do think the production machine would probably have killed her off as planned; she’d be too unlikeable. She’s hot and bitchy in a way that is simply unforgiveable in an 80s-inflected horror narrative. 

But what if they didn’t, though? What’s the minimum amount of change needed to make Stephanie Harrington work in the story and world of Stranger Things?

If we’re cleaving as closely as possible to canon’s themes and structure, Nancy has to be male. Their relationship needs to represent convention and safety, because Nancy’s journey is partly about her inability to let things lie. For better and for worse, she’s not the kind of person who can pretend that everything’s okay when it’s not, and Steve exists to be the temptingly normative option. 

Jonathan Byers is basically already Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club, so that’s straightforward enough: he’s a trope of the artsy “unsafe” alternative, the one Nancy’s parents wouldn’t approve of, but the one who understands and enables her rejection of easy answers. If we’re not concerning ourselves with marketing decisions, he could still be male and fit the same thematic role in M!Nancy’s arc, but that would change Steve’s journey pretty significantly. 

I think it could still be a good story! There’s a lot of potential there. But if we want to keep Steve’s confrontation with Jonathan as a turning point for his character, it just works much better if Jonathan’s a conventional rival. The dynamics also play out pretty differently if M!Jonathan gets in a physical fight with F!Steve—it’s hard to imagine any version of Nancy being super chill about that. F!Steve is also slightly less likely to default to that kind of physical confrontation as socially acceptable/expected, although I could definitely see it similarly escalating to physical violence with F!Jonathan. 

The Stobin dynamic more or less works with the genders exchanged. This is pre-Will and Grace; the concept of a “fag hag” existed but was not nearly as mainstream as it would become in a decade or two, so there wouldn't necessarily be a lot of expectations or models of what their relationship should look like. One minor shift: the public imagination had a much more specific concept of what gay men looked and acted like than it did for lesbians, so Steve would probably be a little more resistant and/or take a little longer to get it. 

The Party can still keep their canon genders; I don’t think that would affect the older teens too much. It might shift the dynamic of Dustin seeing Steve as a role model, but I think that’s a sufficiently indirect/unstated part of their relationship that it could translate reasonably well. I do think Dustin might get a highly embarrassing and often-denied crush on female!Steve, but he absolutely would not admit it. 

Max would probably be a little closer to F!Steve, since she’d have a bit less older-brother baggage, and less drawn to M!Nancy. Mike would hate F!Steve exactly the same amount, and neither Lucas nor Will seem to be that invested in canon!Steve anyway. 

More generally, though, I don’t see F!Steve as taking refuge in “at least I’m a good babysitter,” because to some extent that would be expected. F!Steve probably didn’t babysit for spending money as a younger teen, but it wouldn’t be out of the question. I really cannot stress enough how much growing up in small-town midwest USA pre-Y2K was oriented towards training young girls for motherhood. They got explicit and implicit instructions that young boys simply did not.

I’m not completely convinced that F!Steve would be as inclined towards a big family as canon!Steve, either. For Steve, whose familial model is an almost wholly absent father, a big family is part of the fantasy of belonging. While I do tend to read him as having honest intentions about pulling his weight, he doesn’t have a very practical understanding of what childrearing is like, and anything he does above the bare minimum is going to be praised. F!Steve would be more keenly aware of the scrutiny she’d be under as a mother, as well as the sheer scale of labor involved. Also, she’d be much less likely to want to pop out six kiddos from her own uterus. The calculations are different.

I grew up in a very conservative area with girls whose primary worldly ambition was genuinely to become mothers. When we talked about “careers,” it was with the explicit understanding that it would be a side gig to help support their main role as a mother. Some of them do now literally have six children.

Steve does not strike me as that kind of person on a fundamental level. He has certain normative ideas about what family and relationships look like—his arc really is all about disrupting and complicating those ideas. In the context of F!Steve, though, I don’t think that thread of clinging to hegemonic norms would manifest in wanting a big family; it seems more likely to me that she’d have some vague ideas about two or three kids and a wealthy, attentive husband. 

I also don’t necessarily see her being quite as keen to lean into a tank role. The “woman warrior” trope was gearing up for the cresting wave of girl-power third-wave feminism in the 90s, but it wasn’t quite there yet—certainly not for someone whose narrative category is “the conventional one.” I actually think that could be a good angle for F!Steve’s development; while canon!Steve has his established/normative role as the tank to counter the subversive dynamics of his role as caretaker, F!Steve could potentially flip those: it’s not weird or unexpected for her to babysit, although she might be surprised by how well she does with Dustin, but translating her athletic ability to combat could propel her towards accepting that she might not be 100% conventional after all.

Anyway, I really need to stop thinking about this and get back to the core of this story, which is “what if vampire!Eddie wildly underestimated how much of a monsterfucker Stevie is, and also what if they were both girls”

[yuseirra]

Thanks for keeping quiet about the spoilers if you've been aware of them~ it (being spoiled)had been happening for me over and over for the past month and it had been getting painful, I'd have blocked people who sent that to me at this rate. I was able to.. see it for myself in peace this time hehe

I've seen the full...spoilers (like the whole ch 162)

here's my raw thoughts on that.

I'm honestly not amused... not so surprised either though...

I do hope there's something more to this because there are things that I feel are SO left unexplored, there's a lot I don't like, but if this is all there is to it, it could be, I guess.

I still think.. Fatal is Kamiki's song. That song's vibes IS TRULY what he does feel about Ai, but in a pretty obsessive way I guess... it's not what Aqua would hold towards Ai (or others, like Ruby), that much is made clear in this chapter I feel? and?? Mephisto too?? That HAS to be his song? because it's about wanting to reach out to someone and wanting to meet that person who's already deceased, rather than drifting further apart by sacrificing for their sake. Ruby is alive, and Aqua's in this for her sake, right? And if Kamiki wants to do something about Ai, it should be about him trying to "feel her" or "get closer to her". Aqua and Kamiki's doing the opposite thing here and I feel what Kamiki's doing matches that song more.

at least, that's how I feel about it.

The rest is in the read more:

(I jotted this down as soon as I saw the chapter, in another language~)

I saw spoilers, and seriously???

How do you even "help" someone like this…

I don’t really understand this kind of thought structure or logic…

Wouldn't it be better without the movie arc? If so, I wouldn’t have been so confused either…

If it’s any comfort, I was right about Aqua’s emotions—Aqua really does live for Ruby. I wrote that in an analysis I made earlier(JUST A SINGLE DAY AGO)

(I wrote: Back to the title topic—It’s really obvious that Fatal is Kamiki’s song because,

Though Ai is someone very special and important to Aqua, I think at this point, Ruby is even more precious to him. Aqua still has people around him who are alive, and he has to live for them. Living for the dead is exhausting and hard. There’s so much for him to look forward to (which is, in a way, the essence of what Kamiki says to Aqua in chapter 161). Aqua has Ruby. Ruby is incredibly important to him. He also has Kana and Akane. He’s not at the point where he lives solely for Ai, nor should he be.

Kamiki doesn’t have people like that. Ai is his only reason. To die, to live- whatever he's doing, I feel he's in it for what he THINKS is for her sake.)

I got this part EXACTLY right, didn't I?

For Aqua, Ruby is definitely the most precious person. It’s true that the balance of his life has shifted from Ai to Ruby…

But this is kind of funny… even though it’s a pretty common trope!! I seriously already drew a scene just like this??? The context is different, but still.

In this comic!

What the heck? LOL, so now I feel weird.

THOSE ARE HANDS. IT'S SKETCHY, BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GOING FOR WHEN I DREW HIM BEING DRAGGED AWAY

I was honestly surprised. I drew this back in September 21st? LOL.

Right now, the story feels a bit disconnected,

Because it makes me feel like Ai’s video or her request… wasn’t really necessary.

If the twins’ reincarnation was really just for Ruby, then Ai was just… there to play the role of the mother? To carry Aqua and Ruby as a vessel..?;

Did it really need to be Ai’s child?

Also, does that mean Aqua’s mission was just to die in Ruby’s place?;;?

It could’ve been phrased like 'Take down Kamiki who's grown evil.' It seems like he’s really deteriorated. How does someone end up like that…

Doesn’t Kamiki need some sort of exorcism at this point? The way he talks, it’s like he’s possessed by an evil spirit.

If in this chapter, there was a scene where he says he wants to see or feel Ai and then manipulates people and kills them, I would’ve accepted it immediately, like, 'Yeah, this guy has to die here.' But there’s still nothing about what happened with Yura or if he killed anyone… there’s no clear image. It's about him saying he can’t die yet, and it’s still just about him wanting to see Ai forever. (And that phrase—doesn’t it overlap with the song IDOL, TV VER, where someone in the chorus goes:

(You're my savior)

(My true savior)

(My saving grace)

(I'm with you forever)

(By your side, forever)?

He's the guy who talks about forever when it comes to Ai, I guess?

The glitch effect and the white star turning into a black star… It really looks like he’s the black star. Or maybe a corrupted white star.

So, what’s he been doing all this time?

If he’s this wicked, why don’t they show us any evidence to back it up? Even as background material, wouldn’t that make sense? It feels like it’s not just laziness in drawing… we should be shown what he’s been up to during this time.

I guess it’s true he tried to kill Ruby oh my god…what kind of guy did Ai date.. I can't believe it. If he dies here, he won’t be able to go to the same place as Ai, but he should at least get smacked by her in hell for what he’s done. What was that even supposed to be…

The story is hard to understand because, when he looked at Ruby and his eyes lit up, why was it a white star? Does killing Ruby mean he can see Ai forever?

Honestly… I still don’t really understand the whole 'shine forever' thing, so it doesn’t emotionally resonate with me.

It feels like this isn’t everything.

Is he really just split between two personalities? What is this guy’s deal? If he’s broken this badly, when did it start? Did he deteriorate right after they broke up and then turn into this person obsessed with Ai being the most important thing in the world?

Aqua won’t die.

If Ai’s will has even the slightest meaning, Kamiki shouldn’t end here, either.

If he’s truly irredeemable, then sure, it makes sense for him to die now. But if the songs are some kind of foreshadowing in ANY way, something might have driven him to become this twisted.

I just don’t see the point of turning him into a completely senseless madman…;;

He really seems to have fallen, but shouldn’t there be more to him having become this way than just having been dumped? Being dumped can turn a "noble" soul into this mess? I don't think so.

I feel like something's gotten him to become this way but who knows? If the author wants to explore it, they will, if they want to wrap it up like this, they would..

well, for Kamiki fans, I bet this will be the LOWEST point he'll ever be (or maybe that we find more dead bodies he hid on the news and go 'wow.. so he DID that' and it'd get even worse) so on the bright side, there's only something..you'll feel you can look forward to. Ai's wish is our only hope, why IS that thrown in there? They didn't have to make her say that, so I'm still bothered because i feel that arc somehow.. is a buildup that's led us to recognize saving him is what Ai's wanted.

It's not too long ago since that was addressed, so would they really make it go to waste, I wonder. Because if this guy isn't helped, it's not just about Kamiki as a character but; it's about leaving what Ai wanted as a lost cause.

That guy has seriously gone nuts though, I'm kind of worried not for the manga's sake but for his... what made him like that?? Is it really only him that's brought that upon himself because, I feel he used to be a really kind soul? Or did I just misinterpret him all along? He doesn't seem sane now... I wonder if I'll be able to pity him or not, it'll really depend - whether if he's what he's chosen to be or was possessed/against his will that he became like this.

is it hiatus next week? I hope not, right?

I guess I can.. just sit down and watch whatever they throw at me now. The art was pretty good! I don't like the chapter! but I also feel like regardless of where the story heads (may this chapter be all there is to it or having more twists to it later), this chapter WAS something that was planned. That's why I'm not that surprised.

[polaroidcats]

Breadcrumbs and broken families – a very scientific analysis of “Savour It (I’m Tasty)” by epicblueblanket

One of the most complex literary works of the 21st century is without a doubt “Savour It (I’m Tasty)” by epicblueblanket, also known by the pseudonym @kaaaaaaarf on the popular blogging website tumbler dot com. In less than 1000 words, the author manages to write a story that is not only captivating to any reader, it is also packed full of inspiring and deeply philosophical metaphors.

In this essay I will explore how the sausage rolls and breadcrumbs serve as a metapor for Sirius’s broken family, which might be one of the reasons why Remus feels so familiar to him even if they barely know each other - they're surrounded by broken pieces of something that should have been wonderful but has now been destroyed beyond recognition.

One of the most emotional moments of the story is at the beginning, when Sirius asks Remus if he eats sausage rolls when he is not at work, to which Remus replies with: "Well, I take home the leftovers at the end of my shift. It’s wasteful to throw it away, you know?", causing the following reaction from Sirius: “Sirius shakes himself. ‘Right, yes, of course—makes sense.’", obviously affected by the parallels between his own life – being thrown out and disregarded by his family as a teenager for reasons beyond his control – and the sausage rolls at Gregg’s being thrown out at the end of the day for health and safety reasons, no longer wanted or needed, through no fault of their own at all. The scene leaves the reader breathless with emotion, and it is impossible not to feel sympathy towards Sirius, as well as the sausage rolls at Gregg’s, who now both rely on Remus to help them fill the emptiness they feel from their respective rejections. And Remus seems more than willing to fill any sort of emptiness Sirius needs him to, acting as a very firm support system for Sirius, something he likely has been lacking up to that point, his life most likely as structured as a sausage roll that has been lying in the warm shop window of a bakery for a little bit too long.

Obviously affected and embarrassed by the sheer intimacy of sharing such an intense moment with his new lover, Sirius is quick to belittle himself (“I’m being stupid”) when Remus asks him if he wants to stop their sexual activities in the name of the sausage rolls. Remus is delighted by Sirius’s refusal to stop their activities, stating he has been looking forward to it since Sirius gave Remus his telephone number the previous morning. An interesting detail here is Sirius making the first step, not only in giving Remus his number but even before that, by coming into the shop and consuming “his own weight in vegan sausage rolls”, which not only shows his consideration for other living creatures, but also hints at possible future acceptance towards his difficult situation with his family. Through eating the sausage rolls - on a daily basis - he is helping them fulfill their destiny, something his family has failed to help him achieve. But Sirius’s selfless acts help the sausage rolls reach their goal of being eaten and not going to landfill, something Remus also seems very passionate about, so it is no wonder that the two of them seem like such a perfect match.

Sirius describes watching Remus eat Yum-Yums, and occasionally also sausage rolls, with so much passion, and it is not hard to imagine how this affects Sirius, who sees a piece of himself in every bit of pastry Remus consumes. While on a surface level Remus seems oblivious to the deeper meanings behind the sausage rolls and even misguidedly asks Sirius if it is some sort of sexual fetish, one can speculate that on a more subconscious level, Remus also knows about the healing power of eating sausage rolls in bed with one’s lover, allowing each other to create a mess of crumbly pastry pieces, and finding joy in the brokenness and vulnerability of it all.

Remus understands that not everything needs to be perfect or whole in order to be devoured, a philosophy he applies to sausage rolls as well as Sirius. The hopeful ending of the story sees Sirius enjoying a post-coital cigarette, Remus enjoying a post-coital sausage roll, both of them covered in sugar as well as pastry flakes, and Sirius starting to see Remus’s perspective through all the pastry flakes, feeling the healing powers of sausage roll consumption and sex.

[cross-my-heartt]

Three Act Structure of TBB

(Part One: Season One aka Act One)

So since I’m so boldly convinced that season three will be the third act in the batch’s storyline I wanted to do a more detailed breakdown of this theory by looking back on the story so far.

It might get confusing as separate seasons can have their own internal three act structures (much like a movie from a trilogy can follow the formula on its own) which can sometimes overlap with the larger plot’s elements.

But messy is where the fun’s at and I look forward to hearing if anyone has a different interpretation of things.

Now! Here’s a simplified diagram of the three act structure:

We currently find ourselves at the end of Act Two, right after the crisis when things are looking bad for our protagonists and their plight is yet to be resolved (which happens in act three). Some diagrams point to the beginning of Act Three as being a time for rallying which makes sense in the context of the show:

The batch are scattered, our remaining trio will need to make a plan and get help before rushing in for a rescue, i.e. the climax of the third act.

But for now I want to go back to season one and look at how it fits into the larger picture. I’ll be using an article from braddailey (not putting a link to avoid being yeeted from tags) as reference here.

Act 1: The Beginning (Set-Up)

The Ordinary World (Stasis)

“In most narratives, we’ll spend some time in The Ordinary World of the protagonist. This is where we’ll learn about the rules and ways of the world, what the protagonist’s normal life is like, and who the characters of that world are.”

This is definitely something we have in our story. According to the article this stage can be very brief or even implied but what’s interesting here is that most of it is located in The Clone Wars where we get an introduction of the batch and most of the context for what their world and circumstances are like.

The beginning of Aftermath can also be part of this stage as we get some scenes with the batch on the battlefield (this time with Echo included, to show that he’s now firmly part of the team) and what their more casual dynamic looks like in the scenes in the mess hall.

Then we move on to The Inciting Incident (Call to Adventure) or rather jump back to it as it’s sort of sandwiched and spread in between:

“Inevitably, something has to change. The Inciting Incident either brings about that change, or sets into motion what will bring the change. It might define the protagonist’s goal for the story, but it certainly kicks off the journey or adventure.”

The inciting incident in this case is Order 66 and the Republic’s transition to the Empire. As we know this ushers in a ton of change for the clones by turning their world completely upside down. On a smaller scale the batch’s own normalcy is disrupted by Omega’s appearance and the activation of Crosshair’s chip, both of which are catalysts for major shifts. One regarding the batch’s goals and the other shaking up their established unity.

Refusal + Hesitation

“It’s normal for the protagonist to refuse, resist, or hesitate when the Inciting Incident comes knocking. [...]

But no matter the amount of resistance, the wheels of fate are turning, and the story is set in motion. The protagonist will make a leap of faith, and accept their quest, or they will be dragged into the story against their will.”

This stage is again interspersed throughout the season. As there’s a lot of events happening in season one, we can point to several of them being part of it: the batch refuse to complete their mission of killing the refugees which puts them at odds with the Empire. They commit to escaping and leaving their old lives behind. They take a leap of faith when they don’t leave Omega with Cut and Suu, thus accepting her as a major source of change for their group.

All in all the events that follow in the season all focus on adaption and the batch finding their way around this new world. They sometimes hesitate, sometimes argue but mainly they are now in the thick of it and forced to make important choices that determine the course of their story.

(Interestingly enough the article points to the source of this stage being fear of change. The first person to resist change, either by his own will or not, is Crosshair and his refusal and/or inability to change is what becomes his main theme in the show and is also what separates him from the rest of the batch.)

Act One ends with a climax of its own which for season one is the events on Kamino, i.e.:

The End of the Beginning

“By the end of Act 1, or the beginning of your story, the reader/viewer should usually know:

Who the protagonist is What their ordinary world is like What the nature of the quest is Who or what the sources of antagonism are Who some of the supporting characters are”

So our protagonists are now the batch with the new addition of Omega. We could argue that Crosshair is on a different path at this point which is proven by how little screen time he gets in comparison to the others in the next season.

We’ve had enough episodes to know what the batch’s new reality looks like at this point. We know what their dynamic with Cid is and that they constantly need to fend off the Empire when they come into contact with it. There’s also the reality of an overarching dilemma: to stand and fight or put survival first.

The main nature of their quest for now is to survive however and in particular: to survive with a new more vulnerable member in their group and adapt to life with them.

The sources of antagonism are the Empire and unfortunately, by extension, Crosshair. We may not see him come into direct conflict with the batch anymore but he has lost his status as protagonist for the time being. We’ve established that at this stage his goals and values differ from those of his brothers’.

And finally we’ve had good introductions to some of our secondary cast: Cid, Howzer, Rampart, Gregor and Rex have all been integrated into the story.

All that’s left is to move on to the next act, the one that has the least defined internal structure of the three but generally involves: “[the protagonist] learning new things, testing what they learn, making mistakes, and probably meeting new people.”

Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s season two if you ask me.

But if some of this sounds like things that have already happened that’s because season one has its own, albeit vague, internal three act structure, with its own climaxes, twists and obstacles.

There are all the elements of an act 1 in Aftermath with it introduction of several major changes, the point of no return or the climax of act 1 (the batch’s escape), the mini arcs of act 2 as well as its midpoint with its moment of clarity and revelation (learning about the chips).

Finally, we can point to either War-Mantle (Hunter’s capture) or Return to Kamino (the bombing of Tipoca) as the act two climax, with the characters’ situation looking dire and hopeless before the events (resolution) of Kamino Lost. And while a single episode might seem rushed to be an entire third act on its own, it’s not obligatory for the third act to be as long as its counterparts.

In fact act 2 takes up the majority of the season, with acts 1 and 3 being a very small portion of it. That's because tv series leave a lot more room for their protagonists to grow, evolve, go on side quests and experience minor setbacks that help build character, introduce subplots or facilitate world building.

But anyway these are my two cents on season one. Again, my point of reference is the article on Three Act Structure on braddailey dot com which I highly recommend. There will of course be a part two for season two so please look out for that one!

(Uhh if anyone wants to be tagged for it lmk? Please, I'll combust before I tag anyone without their explicit permission.)

[inkshadow]

monica & cyrus c:

ship meme : accepting !

who hogs the duvet - monica, cyrus rarely sleeps with a duvet on him, he just kinda passes out and stays passed out

who texts/rings to check how their day is going - cyrus, even though neither of them has downtime i feel like he's just a bit more inclined to do that sorta stuff

who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts - i actually don't know that either of them really are since they tend to opt for convenience on most things but maybe cyrus since he's the more... romantic... as of right now...

who gets up first in the morning - depends on who has the earlier shift. i don't know that either would get up early willingly if they can help it

who suggests new things in bed - cyrus, but only bc he's so *wiggles* eager

who cries at movies - cyrus T_T

who gives unprompted massages - cyrus, monica would give them to cyrus in like a "sit down, we're doing this" sort of way

who fusses over the other when they’re sick - monica. cyrus tends to fuss during the lead up to sickness (in the form of hounding probably)

who gets jealous easiest - both

who has the most embarrassing taste in music - cyrus

who collects something unusual - neither

who takes the longest to get ready - monica on a proper night out, cyrus on a normal day

who is the most tidy and organised - monica

who gets most excited about the holidays - monica probably?? i imagine not a lot of people stay at the motel while lots of people are home with family so she gets a break

who is the big spoon/little spoon - i'm ngl, monica is probably the big spoon...

who gets most competitive when playing games and/or sports - cyrus

who starts the most arguments - i.... hmmm. historically they've both been equal.... i imagine that doesn't change

who suggests that they buy a pet - cyrus

what couple traditions they have - not really the type to have traditions. donuts are present in just about every birthday breakfast, along with coffee from their favorite respective shops

what tv shows they watch together - being the structured people that they are, probably proper series that come out weekly. thinking something like hotd. they enjoy the occasional comedy but not slapstick.

what other couple they hang out with - elira and josh c:

how they spend time together as a couple - studying/working together, smashing, cooking/cleaning, v domestic stuff. they do try and make it a point to go outside properly and get fresh air at least one day of the weekend if possible.

who made the first move - cyrus

who brings flowers home - cyrus, we know monica loves flowers on the bed and stuff

who is the best cook - both are okay, but probably not the best. cyrus tends to cook more meals than monica does.

[woodsfae]

I have so many WIPs right now....here's the ones I've been working on the most lately. Which one would you be most excited to see posted?* Expanded descriptions of fics posted below the poll!

*I make no promises about which fic will be posted first, or indeed, at all.

Mr Darcy wakes up the morning after his wedding and is astonished to discover that it is now, inexplicably, the day before he promised to join Bingley at his new estate, Netherfield. He soon decides that, as long as he is forced to relive this part of his life, he may as well woo Elizabeth Bennet without all the bumps in the road they had to overcome. But despite his best efforts, he only seems to offend Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

Mrs Bennet has hyperemesis gravidarum and so Mr Bennet is forced by circumstances to take a more active role in his older daughters' lives. Raised as an only child who loathed going away to school and took solace in his books, his idea of appropriate child rearing is a largely based on how he would have liked to be raised balanced against how much he can tolerate piping, toddler voices invading his study.

Due to a few, small shifts, Elizabeth decides to take a chance on behalf of her family and accepts Mr Darcy's first proposal. The road to love isn't any less bumpy, but the bumps are mostly different.

asioaf: it might be easier to list what hasn't been changed. The Changes Themselves are kick-started by a series of visions that come upon everyone living in the year that Aerys burns Rickard and Brandon Stark. Multi-PoV. The main PoV is meant to follow Lyarra Snow, bastard of Lord Eddard Stark. My main complaints which I am fixing include: lazy worldbuilding (winters, crops); G.R.R. Martin's obnoxious Hobbesian philosphy; G.R.R. Martin's obnoxious sexism (fewer Moms are dead in my version!); and more! Elia lives. This is already long as fuuuuuuuck and would probably take the longest for me to start posting.

In a world with retrocausality, a small change in the Original Trilogies timeline reverberates up and down history, resulting in a Mandalorian Jedi Ben Mereel meeting seven year old Anakin Skywalker on Tattooine.

When Anakin Skywalker follows his visions to Tattooine to prevent his mother's death, he gets caught in a sandstorm which spits him out twenty years earlier. Due to the Force being Insistent, he remains on Tattooine and starts several revolutions.

A sort of self insert goes to sleep by a Big Rock while out backpacking and wakes up by a recognizable Portal Stone in the middle of the Caralain Grass. Shenanigans ensue.

Why does Perrin have the trauma and reflexes of an American Vietnam War veteran? What would happen if some of the characters talked to each other a little more frequently with slightly fewer assumptions? Did you hate how branders*n flattened every structural problem into a shallow issue to be fixed with a better leader? Me too! This will likely take at least a year before I start posting.

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 126 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: putting up a new fence.

How this statement giver tosses around name after name and I don't know who they are?? Who is Rosa, who is George? Who is Desmond? (Apparently someone with some defects most likely to their face?) This is so small town behavior, talking about people without explanation because they think “oh, everybody knows blabla”.

"I know, it was an amateur class, and he was under no obligation to do exactly the work as instructed, but Ray was very clear with the rest of us that we were doing things in a specific order for a reason, and it was just a bit frustrating to see him nodding along to that awful man flagrantly disregarding what we were meant to be doing." If art school has taught me one thing, it's that teachers will praise works which will make you only scratch your head in confusion XD I like the concept, that the Spiral is affiliated with art. In the end anyone can interpret it differently and that's why these discrepancies in perception happen. Also, I think a lot of artistic people have been a bit of outcasts for our "weirdness". Me and my friends certainly all are.

"At least, not until I went to my salsa class the following Thursday, and instead found myself walking into a room set up for sculpture. I was obviously taken aback at what had to be a really significant scheduling issue, but having a quick check of the timetable of classes, it looked very much like sculpting had always been on a Thursday" Oh yeah, this. This is the worst... I hate this...

"He said the key was that faces were twisted. All faces were twisted on the inside, and all you had to do was reach into the deepest part of yourself and put that twisted on the outside of the clay, and as soon as you can scream you’ll have your own face staring back at you." Yep, sounds about right. I went through five years of teachers giving instructions not unlike these. Not all of them were like this of course, there was a pattern to which field of art was more down-to-earth and which felt like nonsense and bullshitting around. Funnily enough, the workshops of these art classes were set structurally exactly like this in my school. Down-to-earth classes in the basement and ground floor and then it got weirder the higher up you moved.

"he said, glancing over nervously to Gabriel, who gave him… big thumbs up. Like it was all some joke they were playing. It didn’t feel like a joke, let me tell you." This statement is so uncomfortable...

"Finally the lines seemed to resolve into a clear shape: A door. 'Perfect!' Gabriel told me. 'It looks just like him!'I asked him if it was supposed to be a face and he told me yes. It was a good friend of his. I asked him who and he said they didn’t have a name. I told him everyone has a name, and he said his friend wasn’t like us, that having a name would only confuse them." The Distortion...

Aside from the horrible gaslighting this episode is an excellent example for cosmic horror. All the impossibilities of things happening, rooms being not the same, shapes shifting, people not being people anymore.

"I could feel his spiraling fingerprints start to turn. Round and around." Reminds me of Annihilation. They were snaking there.

JON: "A Great Twisting, that Gertrude stopped at the cost of a single life. (hm) I thought moving away from my humanity would have made that seem more acceptable. That sort of sacrifice… But it just makes me sad." Queue another discussion on Jon and Gertrude’s relationship to “humanity”. (Also, did he already hunt down a live statement here and is sort of talking about this as well?)

JON: "I remembered Gertrude’s notebook. We found it alongside the plastic explosives, but it rather got lost amongst the business of… (sigh) saving the world at the cost of two lives. It – it’s borderline incomprehensible. Not because of any code, or cipher; there’s every chance I could read those. Just simply because most of it is numbers or fragments of sentences that would no doubt mean something to her, but, well, not to me. I’ve been staring at it for hours, in the hopes something from it would just – come to me. And it worked well enough to point me towards this statement, which is… useful background, and perhaps gives some insight into how Gertrude formulated her counter-rituals, but – not much more." Oh yeah, so the notebook does come up again! (I couldn't remember back in MAG 113.)

JON: "I’ve been trying to check on Melanie’s condition. She refuses to see me – understandably, I,I suppose, and Basira has been looking after her. (sigh) It hurts, of course. But… (sigh) I really hope getting that bullet out of her helps. At least stops it from getting any worse. I can’t have been too late again." T_T Okay, so as a HSP this is just torture. First we get this asshole character which I hated and I couldn't even get into the podcast because of it. Then sweetheart Martin hits and Jon shows more and more that he has a bigger range of feelings than just stone-cold skepticism. Especially when the realisation of Not!Sasha catches up to him. Then we get this character, who we slowly learned to like, get tossed around like a ball in a middle school gym class, we get to see him open up to others, we see that he is liked and loved by others and then THIS for an ENTIRE SEASON! (It’s not like it’s sooo much better in S5...) And even though nobody except for Melanie blames Jon for Tim and Daisy's death, he blames himself and we get to feel that because we mostly see his perspective of course. Jon thought his childhood bully dying is his fault, Sasha dying is his fault. Tim blames him for getting stuck in the Archives and other events (I got eaten by worms because of you - MAG 65), Melanie also started to blame him in S3 (Because it is your fault that I'm here. Fix it or get out of my way - MAG 102). His thinking pattern is centered around guilt.

JON: "I suppose I should be worried, but I have so much to keep watch over." I think this is exactly what makes TMA so good. There's too much to keep watch over, so it manages to surprise you. I've seen stories of a lesser scale fail to surprise because it was easy to keep track of all the elements.

JON: "She didn’t go to Sannikov Land in the end. I don’t know, however, whether that was because she decided not to… or because shortly after this statement was given, they found the body of one Mary Randall in her basement, and she has spent the last nine years in Eastwood Park prison, where she remains to this day." Oh fuck, I missed these research bits that made the statement even worse.

It took me incredibly long to get that Martin is talking to the tape recorders like a pet xD (Also... Web!Martin?)

MARTIN: "It’s because he’s back, isn’t it. He’s back, so now you’re going to be – around, again. Listening in. (amused *hm*) You missed him, didn’t you? (same little laugh) Yeah. Yeah, me too." ༼☯﹏☯༽

PETER: "You talked to him?" MARTIN: "I – I tried not to; I-I-I didn’t mean to –" PETER: (I’m not mad I’m just disappointed) "You talked to him. And that’s understandable, Martin, of course it is; please don’t think I’m upset; it’s just – not ideal." Martin arguing that their meeting was an accident actually sounds kinda fearful. For a short moment this paints a very horrific dynamic between these two, until is shifts into this best buddy-manipulation.

MARTIN: (indignant) "A-a simple ‘hello’ isn’t going to make any difference to –" PETER: "We’ve been over this." God, he wants to...

MARTIN: ""But if I could just explain –" PETER: "And how do you think Jon’s going to react to that explanation, hm? You think he’ll accept it calmly? Come through with a well-considered, rational response?" MARTIN: "That’s not fair." PETER: "Or would he assume he knows better than you and do something rash?" Actually, that's kind of what Jon ends up doing though? Accepting it and trusting Martin, that he know's what he's doing. But Jon is also impulsive and it's easier to talk Martin into this not provoking impulsive, possibly self-destructive behavior, so Martin let's go of his connection to Jon.

PETER: "Martin. This isn’t how any of us wanted it to go. But here we are, and if we don’t pull this off, it’s over for everyone. Jon included." Oh yes, building suspense!

PETER: "Because behind all his bluster, Elias is just like all the rest. He’s so preoccupied playing the game, he doesn’t pay attention to the big picture. He managed to convince himself that he could get his ritual off first, which would have made all of this a bit – moot, but that’s not really an option anymore." Again, I totally didn't have Elias still planing his ritual in the picture when I was listening the first time.

PETER: "I’m just saying that we’d all be better off if your Archivist actually knew how to archive." MARTIN: (enough) "Peter." Lol, it needed to be said?

MARTIN: "When all this is over, I’m telling him everything, with or without your permission." PETER: "Martin, when it’s over, you won’t want to." Yes, more build-up! (Also, Martin nooooooo!!!)

[MARTIN LETS OUT A CONTEMPLATIVE NOISE.] PETER: "But he will be safe. They all will." And more about Martin's motivation. I didn't listen to any of the trailer the first round because I was listening on YT, so this was vital information for me.

PETER: "Never had much of a gift for administration myself – too many variables. Now, this box on the left, that’s the library stuff, yes?" MARTIN: "Wh– n,no! That’s the – Those are the dates! I – (clicking) Look, are you sure you don’t want me to teach you; i-it’s a very simple program –" PETER: "No, no. Can’t stand computers. Besides, that’s why I have an assistant, isn’t it?" Ok boomer xD

@a-mag-a-day

[blackevermore]

x Secrets of The Lake: The Company of Misery and Pain ( Also on A03)

{ Chapter 18 }

Summary: Vladimir Masters’ family tree has always been tainted by secrets swept under the rug. From generation to generation there have been countless reasons the Masters’ family had seemed to keep private from the public. Even to this day, Vladimir was no exception. But what was one to do when a restless spirit from the settlement years finally breaks free from restraints and demands you answer for your ancestor’s crimes? Vladimir doesn’t know. However, Clockworks does.

Notes: We just having fun, rewriting some of the canon, new adventure new characters. I will apologize now for any grammar, spelling, or weird sentence structuring in advance. My brain writes faster than my fingers and even when I go back through to reread it I still miss things. Sorry about that!

Warning: SA in the first part of the chapter

Word Count: 7.5

P.s: I'm knocking this out faster than my Hazbin fic. The sexy tumblr men are fighting!

To tell a man he could create a new life after watching the one he had before vanish was the cruellest advice, in Vladan's opinion. It was insensitive to the loss of a family, legacy, and business that was once flourishing. Vladan had watched the way his mother fell ill to a broken heart after his father's passing and he was sure she would be next to follow. His brother was not getting worse but was far from ever getting better and Tayonna was feeling the weight on her shoulders just as much as her master. Vladan was now the head of the house, meaning every ounce of freedom he had become accustomed to while living in the colonies was gone. It was not an option but his faith as his mother kissed his forehead and told him how much she loved him. Vladan knew way before the illness that struck his brother he would be the one to shoulder the world. 

At a very young age, he quickly disregarded his toys and traded his childhood for academics and business practices. He had lost himself at the idea that he would gain control of the family, which made it even harder to accept his role when he had lost sight of said mindset due to his newly found liberation with Tayonna. In the heat of the family's fall, Vladan took hold and kept his family stable within the colonies, their home across the seas was sold to usher in their transition which caused great distress to Luther. He would miss their country home that sat atop a hill that looked down into the old town square with the beautiful church bells. Vladan would miss them too, they were his haven of knowing the time of day in a melody rather than the rattling that the colony's church called music. Luther could not survive a trip back across the seas, it was dangerous to try no matter how much Luther begged his brother and mother. He wanted to die in the arms of his empire if it was possible. All Vladan could do was promise that when his time was to come he would make sure Luther’s body was taken home and buried with the rest of their family.

It was morbid but it was all the family could do while trying to shift the focus of death away from business. Vladan’s father was a trusted merchant who dealt with the settlement shipments that came in from the other world. Day in and day out Vladan’s father was keeping track of the moving world rather than his own family. Now Vladan was doing the same but at least he had someone to talk to when things become stressful. Tayonna had promised him that she was at his side just as much as she was by his brother’s. Their affair had yet to blossom in the way Vladan’s mother and brother expected. The pair was careful and even scared to express their interest in one another. Even in the comfort of the house, the two kept their relationship with that of a housemaid and her master. Vladan’s mother secretly begged for some sort of entertainment at times but she knew her son. He was like a wolf that only ate the meat it could hunt itself and never the meat it had randomly found. Whether he was prideful or just scared, the boy’s mother huffed at the idea that Vladan would rather wait for her death than acknowledge his burning desire. 

It took Vladan a while to accept that the large oak desk within his father’s study was now his. The books tucked in the wooden shelves collecting dust were his. The handmade furniture his father picked out from Prussia was his. The land and the house that was now empty of the old grumpy man was now his. That awe would strike him at times but would be quickly washed away when stacks of papers and letters came across the desk with his name on them. He had to work. He had to make sure he took care of his family. 

As he finished writing his name across the paper in front of him he felt that something wasn’t right. His mind told him that the paper in front of him wasn’t correct. He placed down his quill and held up the document making sure the ink didn’t run. But there wasn’t any wet ink. There weren’t any handwritten letters either, the paper seemed foreign with the letters seeming robotic and the date at the top seeming so far in the future. Vladan looked back up to the top and the image in the corner caught his attention. It was big, bold with black words and a red outline like a banner; it read ‘Vlad Co.’ which was not one of the ships Vladan had to manage. Vladan's brows knotted as he tried to think of what ship this was but his mind was quickly averted when he looked down and saw the name he had written was not his. 

Vladan placed the paper down and took hold of his head when a pounding pressure began to form right above his eye. He shut his eyes and tried to relax so the headache would subside but it never did and made him miserable. He opened his eyes again and now the paper was back to normal. His name was at the bottom, the top of the page was empty, and the letters in the middle were handwritten. Vladan was confused yet quickly blamed it on his head. He was working too much and the day was far into the afternoon. Normally when the sun was halfway through the sky Tayonna would knock on the door to call him for midday supper. At times she would come in and they would share each other's company.

She hadn’t come. There was no knock at the door and Vladan began to feel a sense of worry. Tayonna never missed coming by, he tried to get up from his seat but he was stuck to his chair. He tried again but when he wouldn’t budge he gave up and looked around to see what was causing this. The headache was growing more and more painful. It felt like he had been slammed against the desk over and over before being thrown to the floor. He stopped trying to get up from his chair and held his head in his hand hoping the pain would stop.

Knock. Knock.

Vladan rose his head slowly and felt a wave of relief wash over him as he thought it was finally Tayonna. But when the door opened his heart dropped and his headache worsened.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Mister Mægisters.” Phoebe Speldercast spoke before she entered. Vladan's brows knotted and annoyance bubbled in his stomach. He didn’t like this woman one bit. 

Phoebe Speldercast was the town’s head judge’s estranged daughter who caused more issues within the town than good. Her father was a nasty man who ran the town with a black cloak that left people blind and at his mercy. He was known for going beyond the book of God and justifying his torture as the gospel that would keep everyone pure. When Vladan found out the judge had children he was not surprised to find that his daughter was just as nasty as him. She was treated with so much honour by her father’s work that it left her untouchable from any wrongdoing she could accomplish. She stuck out from the rest of the town with her fiery red hair and striking blue eyes. It was said that when she was born she was a gift from god as an omen of a plentiful harvest in the autumn. Vladan knew that was the farthest from the truth. She was wicked and cruel to anyone who did not bend to her will, at times calling upon her father to aid her in the destruction of innocent people. 

Phoebe had been the reason people’s businesses were torn apart and given to the court. She was the reason many women feared that at any time their husbands could be taken from them and remarried. Not because the men could not stay faithful but simply because Phoebe said so. The woman was her father’s lurking shadow that made it easy for the man to stay in good grace. If anyone would go against god’s omen then everyone would burn in the depths of hell. The town was submissive, no one wanted to go to hell or even be associated with any wrongdoing that would cost them their life. Phoebe was death. 

This was why Vladan could never understand how someone like Phoebe could have such a sweet and caring twin as Magdalena. Everything Phoebe was Magdalena was not and was better, including having green eyes instead of blue. Vladan couldn’t help but cherish the times he had the honour of talking to the nicer twin. He wishes it was Magdalena’s responsibility to come to him about her father’s stocks rather than Phoebe's.

The woman was dressed in her signature red evening gown she was gifted from France. Due to her status, it was ignored how European she was. The English in the land took a more modest appearance. Phoebe made it clear she lusted for the exposure of luxury from the whiney empire of cheese and wine. It was like the town couldn’t see how outlandish she looked, she was like a ghost walking among the living. Vladan took note she had purposefully worn a dress much lower in the neckline that showed off more than he was willing to look at. Her hair was twisted and curled, pulled into a messy bun that lengthened her neck and made her look delicate.

“I come to speak of my father’s stock. As you know-”

“As I know it is mid-month and the ships from the Germanic states have arrived later than usual. Yes, I have informed your father and made it a point that once everything is settled, he shall be the first to know.” Vladan was quick to cut the woman off. Her voice wasn't annoying, thank god, but it was clear she was putting on an act to seduce Vladan as always.

Phoebe looked annoyed from being cut off but dismissed it, smiled sweetly then took the seat in front of the desk. She sat sideways causing the ends of her dress to rise and pool around her making her lean forward. She was trying to make him look down but Vladan was smart and could never fall for her tricks. 

“Then I come of my own accord,” Phoebe said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear and slowly blinking up at Vladan. He was not impressed.

“What is it, Miss Speldercast? Last I checked, everything you own is in your father’s name, it is his property. Women hold no property.” That seemed to hit a nerve as Vladan saw the way her jaw clenched and her gaze became hardened. Vladan knew this cat-and-mouse game better than any man she had set her eyes on. Despite holding so much power over his head, Vladan knew that without his father’s work, the settlement would fall apart. Phoebe could corner him as much as possible but he was quick to put her back into a position of a powerless woman. 

“I’ve come for you.” She spoke and got to her feet. Vladan tried to get up as well but he was still stuck to the chair. 

“I’ve told you I do not wish to marry you, Miss Speldercast.” The woman smirks.

“Phoebe,” She replied. “We know each other much more personally than for you to be formal. Won’t you say, Vladan?” Phoebe walked around the desk and slid a hand over Vladan’s shoulder before standing behind him and leaning down into his ear.

Vladan tried to move away but he was helpless, Phoebe was amused.

“I’ve wanted you the moment you came into this town and you’ve done nothing but make it clear that you have no interest in me.” She ran her fingers through his hair and Vladan pulled away forcefully, rocking his chair.

“Is it because you have an interest in my sister?” Phoebe slipped her fingers back in his hair, tangling them before pulling his head back. Vladan gasped and glared at her from the corner of his eye. “Little Magdalena, pure and smart, born from the wife of the judge, unlike her sister who was born from the judge’s mistress. Hmm? Is it that? Are you attracted to her purity from a false marriage?” Phoebe threw Vladan’s head and pulled his chair back so she could reach him. She pushed his arms down onto the armrest which rendered him motionless as he tried to get out of her grip. 

“What are you doing to me?!” Vladan yelled and Phoebe quickly shushed him with the tip of her finger. Vladan’s mouth felt heavy and he couldn’t move. Fear rose to his heart and he began to pant as he tried to fight whatever hold Phoebe had him in. 

“She’s a purist you know, she’s the only good thing to ever come from our father. Everyone is born with wickedness and yet my sister is what the bible praises. Father doesn't understand it either. I do. I understand she is the object of your affection.” Phoebe inched closer to Vladan’s face until they were inches apart. He could feel her breath on him and it only made him more enraged. If the force holding him down could break at any moment he would slap her. 

“You wish to fuck it right out of her I know it.” Phoebe grinned and laughed in his face. “You could fuck me just the same and pretend it’s her. We are almost identical if you ignore our eyes.” Phoebe pulled away from Vladan and leaned back against his desk.

“I could give you much more than whatever your father had. I could give you a real status, real power, a real head on your shoulder that would make other people realize your potential.” The woman bit her lip and eyed Vladan up and down, lingering longer on his crotch. 

“Or.” The woman thought for a moment then pulled up her dress and sat on Vladan’s lap. “You crave something worse than an unmarried woman. You crave someone who isn’t even considered a human.” 

Phoebe closed the gap between them, capturing Vladan’s lips in hers. He couldn’t move but the fear in his eyes said it all as the woman began to kiss him again. Her hand ran down his chest and cupped him through his pants. All of his strength went to trying to make his body stop and eventually, he tired himself out. He cursed himself for reacting and shut his eyes to will it away but nature was stronger than his will and Phoebe was well aware of that. 

Vladan kept an eye on the door hoping that Tayonna wasn’t home. His heart sped at the sheer thought of Tayonna finding him like this with Phoebe. He couldn’t bear the idea of his secret love seeing this. He could only hope she was far from the house mending to Luther or in the woods. But that fear came to light as he heard a knock and the door being pushed open. Vladan shut his eyes trying to hide but that wasn’t enough when he heard the sound of plates falling to the floor and footsteps running away.

Phoebe finally pulled away and licked her lips, “You taste better in despair.” She whispered in his ear and Vladan felt his body give way from the force and he quickly pushed the woman off.

Vlad shot up from his bed in pure anger ready to attack whoever was around him. He had to blink a few times to gather he was in his bedroom. He couldn’t remember his dream but knew that whatever it was left a legit bad taste in his mouth, and a brimming anger that could shoot ectoblasts through his walls. He hadn’t felt this angry since…since his bitterness towards Jack. It was an ugly anger that once made Vlad scared of himself. It consumed him, swallowing him whole which caused a brief moment during his mayor career he had to go into hiding. When his anger got out of control it was like a splitting pain that turned into a being that lingered on Vlad’s shoulders. He had given it a face as Plasmius, but that made it even worse when it felt like Plasmius became animalistic. Vlad knew what anger looked like when he hurt Danny, he knew what anger could turn into when he came face to face with Dan. Vlad never wanted to go back there.

Vlad fell back onto his pillows and blinked a few times trying to catch his breath and come back to the living world.

‘What the hell was that?’ Vlad thought, hoping Vladan would answer, but there was silence. He tried to conjure the man but it was fruitless when Vladan kept hidden and silent.

Vlad rolled his head to his nightstand and saw the clock said 10:47 am. He huffed and rolled to his other side towards his large bedroom window. The curtain was drawn but the slip of light that peaked through told him the sun was already high in the sky. He couldn’t stay in bed just because of some dream, that would be ridiculous. With that, he rolled back over and sat up on the edge of the bed. He ran his hands over his face again then through his hair. Just when he thought the roughness of the morning was over he heard yelling coming from the hallways. Vlad shot to his feet and out the door, he heard more yelling and the sound of glass breaking and quickly shot into the air to fly through the house. As he followed the sound of the voice he heard another one begging for forgiveness. 

When Vlad found the source of the yelling he quickly had to dodge as a blast of lighting came flying towards his head. Tayonna was standing in the middle of the kitchen in her ghost form shooting towards the Dairy King who hid behind the island. A few of Vlad’s cabinets had black holes through them and the things behind the covers were broken. A few plates were shattered on the ground and water began to pool from the sink as Tayonna used it to conquer electricity. The kitchen was quickly becoming a battleground and Vlad was rather speechless on what could have caused this. 

Vlad looked between them and then jumped into action to stop the girl from blasting at the other ghost again. He flew towards her, grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to the ground holding her against him. This made her let out a chilling scream and Vlad had to brace himself so he didn’t let go.

“Tayonna!” Vlad was much stronger than the girl but wrestling first thing in the morning was still a lot. He managed to get her to stop thrashing around and finally, she stopped and glared towards the Dairy King.

“You disgusting little man! She was on her deathbed waiting for you!’ Tayonna yelled. Echo blasts of her voice rippled towards the island. The room shook and the center of the island marble top cracked. 

“That is enough!” Vlad commanded and shook Tayonna. She finally seemed to calm down. She panted and tried to escape Vlad’s grip a few times but settled for her capture. 

The Dairy King peeked from his hiding spot and gave Vlad a pleading look to not let go of his attacker. 

“Let me go!” Tayonna managed to yank her body down which caused Vlad to let go of her wrist. She quickly turned around and slapped him across the face which knocked him backward. He caught himself and held his face. Anger was not the first emotion to run through Vlad’s mind, rather, confusion and shock. He held his face and watched as Tayonna’s whole demeanour changed. The anger in her face shifted to confusion then to utter horror. She was speechless, covering her mouth as she saw the damage she had caused. Vlad could feel her core racing as it flipped between confusion and a sense of loss. Did Tayonna not know what she was doing?

“I… What-I…I didn’t….” Tayonna couldn’t find the words to say. Her mind ran blank until she caught Vlad’s eyes again. Vlad could feel her fear and he held up a hand to show her he was not mad. That was a lie. He was beyond pissed at how much destruction she had caused in a perfectly good kitchen. But for some reason, he couldn’t turn that anger towards her. Maybe it was because he was harbouring another person’s feelings in him, or it was just too fucking early for the bullshit.

Vlad took a deep breath and spoke, “What happened?” It was clear he just wanted answers just as much as he wanted a brand new kitchen. 

“I don’t know,” Tayonna mumbled, still looking terrified, Vlad grumbled.

He turned to the Dairy King who slowly came out of hiding holding his cheese hat in his hand. “What happened?”

“She was cooking and then she just stopped to turn to me and just stared at me. Next thing I knew she was seeing red and attacking me like a wild animal, don’tcha know.” The smaller man kept his distance as he looked between Tayonna and Vlad.

“Did you feel something?” Vlad turned back towards Tayonna, she was still in a state of shock, she nodded and Vlad held his breath knowing it might have been his dream. He must have triggered her core when he woke up in a fit of anger.

“I was fine…then I was just so angry. It was a burning feeling that took over me and I couldn’t stop myself.” Tayonna's eyes pleaded with Vlad to understand. The phantom did and motioned for her to calm down. “ It wasn’t him, I know it wasn’t him.” Tayonna held her chest and turned away from Vlad. He knew that what she felt was purely him and that made him feel a bit of guilt. 

“Well, Dairy King seems like you just showed up at the wrong time. On behalf of Tayonna, I do apologize.” Vlad held out his hand for the ghost to take but the King was hesitant. He slowly took Vlad’s hand when the phantom insisted and shook it reluctantly.

“On behalf of my kitchen, I ask that you all leave so I can have this cleaned up and fixed.” Vlad pointed between the two, Tayonna was the first to leave in a hurry while DK stayed behind. Vlad wanted to stop her and tell her he wasn’t upset and that everything was okay. This was genuine, purely from him, much to his surprise he wanted to apologize for causing such an outburst despite it being triggered by something else. 

“She’s like a match, don’tcha know.” Dairy King floated up next to Vlad and the man rolled his eyes. He turned around and crossed his arms giving the old soul a stern look.

“What happened?” Vlad knew the man was hiding something. Yes, Tayonna may have flipped out but something besides Vlad’s core triggered her.

The Dairy King backed away and shrunk into himself as his demeanour from Vlad told him this was no playing matter. The ghost thought for a moment of what to say before he opened his mouth.

“She looked at me as if she was looking into my core. It was a distant look as if she was seeing something far beyond me.” The King was nervous to speak, Vlad knew that whatever Tayonna saw and what she said went hand in hand with whatever guilt the ghost had. Dairy King avoided Vlad’s eyes as his mouth opened and closed and he caught himself from saying something. Vlad's brow rose and he waited for the short man to continue. The Dairy King huffed and shook his head then flew away. Vlad shut his eyes and gave himself a moment to process everything that happened. When he opened his eyes his annoyance came back with force and he was sure that if he stood in the middle of the kitchen for any longer he was going to snap. He called for the ghost maids, they were just as surprised, told them he needed it cleaned and to call for some ghostly repairman to come and fix anything broken. Vlad knew that no matter what the Ghost Zone was always resourceful. Why pay living people when ghosts who enjoyed the labour would do it for free?

~~~

Working while away from Minnesota was supposed to be easy. He didn’t have to go into his Wisconsin headquarters often and he could work from home and do a few video calls. He could process paperwork, look over comments and concerns with his partnerships, read distasteful emails, and even send out a few personal emails to staff members who slacked off, that was supposed to be the luxury of owning your business and working away from it. That, however, was the furthest thing Vlad had ever dealt with while working from home. It seemed like no matter what, something always needed his attention even in the comfort of his sun room turned office. He had three calls on hold from both headquarters and one from a sponsor who just had too much free time on their hands and wanted to chit chat. An email came through about a stock being low thanks to one of Vlad's distant business partners finally being arrested (which he wasn’t surprised). 

The only good thing that came between the shit show that was that morning and his very busy work time was a phone call he had been waiting for.

“Masters,” Vlad answered in a breathless huff as he fell back into his plush armchair.

“Jackson has travel fever, poor man,” Kate said in a very monotone voice.

“He has you to blame.” Vlad retorted.

“He has you to pay for it.” Vlad chuckled and he could tell Kate got a kick from him doing so.

“Report?” Vlad sat up and moved his computer mouse, he was in the middle of finishing emails but that could now wait. He closed down his work email and opened his personal one. Packer green and slices of cheese, such an old man theme. 

“We’re heading home finally, Germany is beautiful but Jackson is clearly American and everyone could tell. Had to save him from shitting himself when a woman threatened to bench press him, he’s so skinny, you need to feed him you monster.” Kate pulled the phone away from her face and said something then came back to the phone.

“Anything actually important?” Vlad secretly missed Kate’s nonchalant behaviour and way of speaking. He knew it was because she didn’t care that he had status, nor did she care he was twice labelled the sexiest politician in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

“Phoebe Speldercast was the second daughter of John Humphrey Speldercast. She was known within her town as the ‘autumn omen gift from God’ before being later tried and convicted due to a connection with witchcraft. She was killed by the method of burning which was said to leave the town covered in a black fog for many months through the winter. She was survived by only one member of her family, her twin sister Magdalena.” Vlad could only hum. If that was all Kate could find then he was once again at a dead end. 

“However,” Kate started again.

“However? You sure do like ‘however’.” Vlad jokes.

“The archives that are in New York show that she may still have living relatives within the state. In the 80s someone had a few family heirlooms documented and placed in a local museum about the settlement years and Phoebe’s portrait is said to be hanging up there. I’ll send over a picture.”

Vlad perked up and leaned into his computer waiting for the email to come through. If he could see what this woman looked like then maybe he could get a start in finding out the truth.

“Our plane is about to take off, I’ll talk to you later, Sir.” Kate didn’t wait for Vlad to respond before hanging up. Vlad didn’t care and placed his phone down. The email finally came through and just as he was about to click it his ghost sense went off and it felt like someone was threading closer than they should. Vlad turned around to look out the windows of the sunroom and saw Tayonna walking about the backyard. He shrugged and turned back to his computer. If was only Tayonna so it wasn’t that big a deal.

‘Go out there, something is wrong,’ Vladan spoke in his mind.

‘Yeah my kitchen.’ Vlad snarled and rolled his eyes.

‘Someone is watching her.’ Vlad stopped and thought for a moment. No one should be anywhere near his manor. The lawn people wouldn't come until next week, his mailman knew better than to snoop, and his neighbours were too far to be casually walking by. It was also a red flag when the back of Vlad’s manor faced the woods. Vlad turned back around and Saw Tayonna walking farther into the backyard then taking a seat in the middle of the glass area. He looked around trying to see if anything was out of place but it all seemed like a normal sunny day.

‘Go out there’

‘No’

‘ Go. Out. There ’

‘I said no, she is fine, no one would be here besides us.’

Vlad didn’t have to see his reflection to know Vladan was glaring holes into him. He also didn’t need to hear the man’s voice to know he was not in the spirit's good grace. Vlad rolled his shoulder when he felt a slight pain shooting up his back. He needed to focus on his task at hand which was opening Kate’s email. He went to grab his mouse but felt someone crawl into his palm. He looked down and saw Vladan’s red mist form into a hand and curl its fingers into his to hold it. Vlad tried to shake it but he was too late as his hand was flipped over and his consciousness was sucked inward. He felt like he was being pulled out of his body and placed in a dark void as he looked out his eyes like they were windows. Vlad had only a moment to figure out what was going on till he realized Vladan was possessing him. Vlad had only been possessed a handful of times in the past and it was the most uncomfortable feeling. Vlad watched as his vision shifted toward the window to the yard again and the reflection he saw was Vladan’s. 

Vlad tried to regain his power and he saw it was effective when Vladan clenched the body’s head and blinked a few times. Vladan looked back to his reflection and glared, Vlad knew that was towards him and he tried again to gain his body back. Vladan didn’t wait to see what would happen as he quickly looked around and found the door handle. Vlad could feel his body moving and it felt so foreign and uncomfortable. No wonder Danny complained so much. Vladan walked out the door onto the back patio and began walking towards Tayonna.

‘You know she isn’t going to be happy to see you!’ Vlad yelled through his mind and that made Vladan stop in his tracks just before he got to the steps to walk down to the grass. Vladan looked down at the body’s hands, he clenched them into fists, Vlad couldn’t hear Vladan but he could feel in his core the man was conflicted. Vladan knew he was right but he wanted to comfort his love. Vlad knew that was a terrible idea and who knew how Tayonna would react if she saw Vladan taking over Vlad's body. Vlad knew Vladan didn’t know how to use his powers let alone defend himself against a very angry ghost. So while Vladan was stuck thinking over what to do Vlad pushed his consciousness forward and gained control of his body. It felt like breaking through water after being submerged, Vlad took a deep breath and held his chest while hunched over. His nerves tingle from his toes to the top of his head, knocking someone else out of power always leaves a person drained.

Vlad shook his limbs out and stretched, he told Vladan to never do that again or he was going to grab an old device and rip the man out of him. Honestly, he should have done that sooner but the thought had just crossed his mind. 

Tayonna turned around when she felt someone around her. She snapped around and that made Vlad flinch and awkwardly wave. She ignored him and turned back around, focusing on something on the ground in front of her. Vlad tsked at how rude that was but complied with Vladan’s request and went to see what the girl was doing. If Vladan now could take over, Vlad was not going to allow the man to be willy nilly. The last thing he wanted to do was have Vladan go to work for him if he was in the middle of a meeting. Maybe ripping him out of him wasn’t a bad idea. 

Vlad put his hands behind his back and walked up to Tayonna, when he was right beside her he saw she was plucking up blades of grass and crumbling them in her hands. He wanted to tell her that the money he spent keeping the place pretty wasn’t just shits and giggles, but he was distracted when he saw her hands glow and the grass turn into the roses he saw before.

“What are those?” Vlad asked. She didn’t seem to be in any trouble as Vladan had put it. Vlad looked around and everything seemed normal, surely if someone had been there he would have known.

“Green Whispers.” Tayonna held up the flower and pulled at its pedals before crumbling it back into her hands. Her hand glew again and when she opened it the flower turned to dust and she blew it away.

“Can you conjure them whenever you want?” Vlad asked. He fought with himself about sitting on the grass while in dress pants but quickly sucked it up. He was already here. He got down on a knee and then plopped down, Tayonna looked at him from the corner of her eye and scooted away. 

“Yes.”

“Do they heal you?”

“Yes.” 

“Is that why you made them when you got hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Are they related to Blood Blossoms?”

“To what?”

“Can you eat them?”

“Yes but-”

“Are they safe for the living and the dead?”

“Yes but why-”

“Can any ghost conjure them?”

Tayonna huffed from the questions and Vlad couldn’t help himself to laugh. That caught the girl off guard and she turned fully towards him with another flower in her hand. She grabbed his hand and shoved the flower into his palm and curled his fingers around it. Vlad felt the surge of power run through him and he felt much better than before.

“Stop asking so many questions.” Tayonna narrowed her eyes and Vlad smirked, he took the hint to stop, and she turned away from him again and went back to plucking at the grass. Vlad was silent for a bit, the sun was high and the day was nice. The sky was clear with a few pure white clouds rolling past, a slight breeze blew rustling the trees and the birds sang without a care in the world. Just another reason why Vlad loved coming back to his manor when the Spring rolled in. For a moment he forgot about why he came out here as he hung his head back and enjoyed the rays against his skin. It was peaceful and cleared his mind. He should have done this more often. 

“I used to feed them to his brother to keep him alive.” Tayonna was the first to break the silence. Vlad cracked open an eye and hummed to let her know he heard her. “I was destined to be a priestess before I was taken away from my home. Luther bought me and became my only friend for a while. He was dying and I knew how much he meant to him and I kept Luther alive as long as possible. When Luther learned it was my doing he asked me to stop, he wanted to die, he couldn’t watch his family suffer because of him he would say.” Tayonna rolled the grass in her hands and then threw it. Vlad sat up straight and leaned into the conversation. 

“Vladan…” Tayonna took a deep breath, she hadn't said his name in a while. “Was so heartbroken over his father’s passing that I thought if I kept Luther alive just a bit longer he would have more time to grieve one loss before the next.”

“Did it work?” Vlad asked, he felt Tayonna’s core pulse.

“Luther stopped eating the flowers, he found out I was putting them in his food and he starved himself. He didn’t do it to be malicious, he just wanted his brother to let go of him. Luther loved Vladan more than anything.” Tayonna curled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. Vlad looked down at the flower in his hand and rolled it around a few times before bringing it up to his nose. It smelled sweeter than anything he had ever smelled before and he couldn’t help but take a bite of it. As soon as it hit his taste buds he quickly began to spit it out. Tayonna heard him and looked over to see Vlad trying to get the pedals out of his mouth. She looked horrified but also amused. Vlad didn’t know what to say and that was enough for the girl to bust into laughter.

“Did you seriously just try to eat the flower raw?” Tayonna covered her smile behind her hand and Vlad blushed wildly. He threw the flower down and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You made it sound appealing, I thought since it was ghostly it would be different. Like the taste of ectoplasm, you would think it tastes like something sour and nasty but it’s actually like a flavorless jelly with a hint of…” Vlad began to blush more. “Why am I telling you this!?” Tayonna laughed harder and Vlad could not keep his embarrassment steady as he finally caved in and began to laugh as well. When they finally calmed down they looked at each other and Vlad felt his heart slow. She really was beautiful when she smiled. He quickly shoved that down and gave her a gentle smile.

“So,” Vlad began. “Was Luther fond of you just as much as his brother?”

“If you mean in the way of courting, no.” Tayonna shook her head. “He was simply a friend. A very annoying witty silver tongue fool who had the biggest heart of them all. He was my friend.” Tayonna's brows knotted, and then she looked back towards Vlad with her mouth open. Vlad was confused until the girl brought a hand up to her head.

“I remember.” She seemed so happy to remember something from her life and Vlad couldn’t help but feel happy for her as well.

“Can you recall anything else?” Vlad felt a sense of hope from both of them. Tayonna closed her eyes and thought for a moment then turned back to Vlad. She slowly opened her eyes and then looked away. Vlad couldn’t read her expression but he knew she was calm.

“I remember Luther wanted us to stay together.” Tayonna sighed and Vlad felt his core begin to burn then slowly turn cold as sadness filled his heart. His body ran faster than his mind and before he could control himself he had reached out and took the girl’s hand in his and held it tight. Tayonna looked down and then at him and Vlad bit his lip and looked towards her. This was genuine, they both knew that, Vlad knew what that form of sadness was like and he couldn’t allow the girl to wallow in front of him.

“You’re holding my hand again,” Tayonna whispered.

“I know.” Vlad held her eyes with his. It was like an intense pull that he didn’t want to pull away, he felt like he was dealing with his own hurt emotions when he spoke to Tayonna. It was slightly addicting. All the emotions of loneliness and sadness Vlad felt about, Tayonna had expressed since they met. Vlad felt like the comfort he was extending to Tayonna also reflected the comfort he likely needed years ago. Vlad knew heartbreak, Vlad knew loneliness, he knew abandonment, what being lost and having to find your way, and he knew what being bitter felt like. Tayonna wasn’t bitter but she was everything else.

Having Tayonna around was like having an embodiment of emotions that Vlad needed to fix. Is This what Vladan meant? Tayonna could help him because he was going to help her, which in turn meant helping himself.

Vlad felt like that was farfetched, beyond him, yes, he was trying to be a better person and turn his life around but to fix something he had shoved down deep into his heart was messy. But looking at Tayonna made him want to fix her pain beyond just trying to put her to rest. They inched closer, never breaking eye contact. They were mere inches apart when the sound of a branch breaking pulled them away from each other. Tayonna’s eyes grew wide and she pulled her hand away, Vlad blushed and cleared his throat. They almost kissed and both of them knew that was a terrible idea. 

Vlad quickly got to his feet and brushed off his pants as best he could. He looked towards the sound and saw a deer coming out from the woods. Seems that nature had its way of butting in at just the right time. 

He cleared his throat again and held out a hand for Tayonna.

“Well, it seems it’s time to go in.” Vlad did his best to not seem flustered and offered a small smile. Tayonna saw the deer and then looked up to Vlad before taking his hand. Once up she pulled away again and Vlad felt a small ounce of hurt from it. He didn’t wish to dwell on it further and turned back to the house. Tayonna looked at the animal, something about it made her tense. Vlad felt his core pull when he made it to the door and he groaned and turned to look at the girl. 

Tayonna tilted her head and the animal followed, when she tilted the other way it did it again. Tayonna knew something about the deer was off but couldn’t figure it out. It looked like a deer, it moved like a deer, but even then that didn’t mean a duck was a duck. She felt locked in a trance with the deer and she couldn’t pull away. Tayonna took a step forward, she wanted to run towards the deer, she didn’t know what she would do but it wouldn’t be good. A feeling of danger and anger crept forward and Tayonna gripped at her dress. Her hands began to heat up as her powers came to life and lighting sparked and popped from her fist. 

“Tayonna?” Vlad called and that broke her from her trance. Tayonna blinked a few times then turned around and hurried to Vlad. Vlad could tell the girl was uneasy but he wasn’t sure if it was because of him. He didn’t feel a shift in emotions or even his core. He didn’t have to ask if she was okay as the girl just nodded towards him and rushed past him to get into the sunroom. Vlad kept an eye on the deer for a moment before brushing it off and closing the door behind both of them.

When the couple was gone the deer peered at the house and then began to slowly melt into a pool of green blob. From the blob, a shapeless figure rose and glared with burning red eyes.

[justablah56]

Since discord sucks with character limits

So we're starting with this.

We start with the exact relation that Zhao and Jodie hold. Their souls are bound together, however they're separate people who lived their own lives in the Close timeline. In the Foster timeline however, their souls shared a body (Jodie's) because of the timeline shift.

Next. We have Jodie's family life. He's not an only child, but is the second youngest, only having a younger sister. He has an older sister (who cut all ties to the family) and an older brother (who is second oldest). Jodie's father and brother are both cops and also why Jodie became one (to make his family proud of him.) (He doesn't enjoy the job all that much, he likes how he feels because he feels in control of things for once. But it's a lot of just sitting and watching cars as a highway cop.)

His family is the nuclear family type. Mom stays at home and cleans and cooks. Dad works. His sisters were taught how to become good housewives for when they got married. Of course this is also why his older sister (and oldest child) cut ties from the family. However before she did, she and Jodie got along when Jodie had his little "rebel" phase (also when I headcanon when he meets Morgan, who was also having a rebel phase). Of course as Jodie gets older past his younger teens years, he stops this and starts becoming serious. He starts doing things that'll help him go into the career path the rest of the men in his family have done.

Of course this causes a lot of issues for him because he kind of doesn't feel like he has an identity besides just being Officer Foster, one of many. He does like the structure though, his ADHD (and his autism that I hc him with because he's so me fr.)

Now in the Close timeline, he starts to just have a routine of getting up everyday and doing his job, going hoke. Showering and then eating. Then sleeps. Repeat. However in the Foster timeline, he meets Morgan, and they fall in love. So instead his schedule also includes his family in there.

Back to his family however. Him and his father have a strained relationship. When Jodie was younger (in his young teen years), they fought all the time. Mostly about how Jodie wasn't going to become another Officer Foster like every other man in the family. :(

And his relationship with his mother isn't the best as well. He loves and adores his mom, but in the foster household, after one of the boys turns 14, they're kinda just ignored by their mother.

Poor meow meow

Moving to the Close timeline. After Zhao is finally let out of being kinda trapped, Jodie and Zhao go to hell with Nick and Dee (obviously). Jodie never expected to get any sort of acceptance into Dee family, or the demon term (pack). So when he was accepted, it was shocking to him. And now he sees Dee as his mama (not mom, as he can't just forget his mom). But being accepted as one of Dee's kits (and now one of 3, as Dee accepts Glenn as her kit too) [dee went from 1 kit to 3 kits]. Also kit is the demon term for kid/child <3 (I have a lot of demon hcs that I will be sharing during this whole thing)

Zhao and Dee also help Jodie with demon stuff. Like how to keep horns and wings and tails in proper condition. And also how to use Zhao's weapons properly. (Though not without a few burns and scars from practice.)

chewing on this ask SO aggressively I love you , kissing you on the face abt this , I love hearing character rants they're literally everything to me actually <33 BUT absolutely OBSESSED w the idea that Morgan started going out with Jodie during his rebellious phase as a teenager ,,, love that so much actually , but god jodies family makes me so 🥺😭 aNd HIM CALLING DEE MAMA BCS HE CANT FORGET HIS MOM F U C K love all of this sm , folding this ask into an origami swan and holding it gently in my hands btw <3 ty for sending me this I shall cherish it forever <3333

[madmanrambler]

Anastasia Steele should Peg Christian Grey.

Fifty Shades of Grey has always interested me in a theoretical sense. Not because its good, and not because it's a fun kind of trashy, but because its framework is fascinating. It's something that my brain has chewed on, a theoretical AU or rewrite that's ticked away in my head from a purely technical interest. It's frustrating, because it's almost so interesting, and I think its worth a look at how that story could be rearranged with very small changes to hopefully lead to Anastasia pegging Christian.

The names of Fifty Shades of Grey are what first got me onto this topic. Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. Our protagonist's name is both a princess and a strong, durable metal. It is not something I would associate with someone submissive or demure. I picture an Anastasia Steele and from the name alone it feels like a powerful, bold, potentially fiery but equally likely cool and considering sort of person. The combination of royalty in the first name and durability in the last name paint a picture, one that I believe Anastasia never plays into.

Christian Grey is an equally interesting name, in the opposite direction. Christian is one of the most common names in the world. It's worldly, its simple, it evokes a common religion, its workaday. Grey implies faded, it implies neutral, it implies common and something your eyes pass over. Christian Grey, going purely by name, should be someone that comes across as, yes, experienced but also quiet, unassuming, paint by numbers. There might be internal complexity but externality our eyes should glaze over Christian Grey. We should not register him, we should not consider him.

Now, obviously the story wants to play at least partially into irony. Anastasia comes from a family that is somewhere in the middle class, and Christian while he grew up poor rose to become a CEO and lives strongly in that realm. The trouble is that it quickly shifts away from the actual possible power in their names and, as far as I can tell, never really digs into it beyond a superficial level. Interesting framework, disappointing execution.

Now we should consider the story. At its most basic, Fifty Shades of Grey is about a young inexperienced girl meeting an intimidating but attractive man, and him immediately taking an interest in her. They then become entangled, with Christian immediately wanting to apply a contract as the means of negotiating their relationship. They have some scenes of romance, feelings grow stronger, but Anastasia can't accept being hurt as a part of the relationship and they break up. The other stories build towards a final reuniting but we'll avoid that in this discussion and focus purely on the first book/movie.

Again, in terms of framework this is interesting, especially with the names in consideration. The princess that lives in something of a common structure catches the eye of an intimidating yet paradoxically unassuming man that has risen to a high position from an impoverished lifestyle, and the ultimate failure of their relationship is centered around the refusal of the princess to suffer for her lover's pleasure. the trouble comes when the story fails in its characterization of Anastasia and throughout she comes across more as uncertain and confused rather then discomforted and struggling with her dueling and quite complex interests. Christian, by extension, is completely failed by the narrative. He feels like a Patrick Bateman like, a person uncomfortable with attraction not defined by rules and law but also wants to love while being scared of it. Instead, he has this all muddled by just being a very attractive boyfriend who protects his girlfriend from all the dangers she doesn't see that also wants to flog his girlfriend without safe words or aftercare. Doesn't land well.

Additionally, the explanation for the contract is a bit ridiculous. Christian Grey makes the women he contracts keep silent about the nature of their relationship, not wanting it to be revealed that he's into BDSM and a dom. While middle America would be (presumably in the writer's assumption) disgusted by an immoral and perverted CEO, it feels like in general the reaction people would have would be a resounding 'figured'. Its a flimsy explanation of why we need to inject drama in a story about BDSM.

The easiest way to fix so much of this, in my mind, is to flip the dynamic. Christian Grey is pursuing Anastasia Steele not because Christian Grey wants a new submissive, but because he wants a new Dom.

This would completely recontextualize so many things in the story. Christian is a self made man turned CEO and carefully maintains an unassuming but rich lifestyle because he's worried the public at large realizing he likes to get tied up and whipped could damage his company. Anastasia struggles with her attraction to Christian and her own enjoyment of a sexual lifestyle with him because she's struggling to understand why she might find pleasure from hurting someone she loves. Christian's posturing and overly protective nature transforms from a creepy focus of protecting his object, it's now the submissiveness of a guard dog wanting to protect it's master.

The urge to pass off all the actual understanding of a relationship onto rules penned by one person with revisions by the other? It goes from a creepy attempt at control by an incredibly shit Dom into a fascinating attempt to impose structure on a relationship that scares a sub as much as it attracts them. the lack of aftercare and safe words? Still Christian's fault, but I think more forgivable in a situation where he's a veteran sub and just wants his Dom to move at their own pace and not worry about it or is scared of imposing rules on her.

And of course, there's the names. Anastasia Steele, on top of everything listed above, feels like a name a professional dominatrix would use. Christian Grey? If you told me that man was submissive off the name alone I'd believe it.

And that's why Anastasia Steele should peg Christian Grey.

...

of course, the trouble is that this is only going to happen in a fanfic. It's a reimagining of a relationship and an attempt to write a fanfiction for a property I have no interest in beyond this interesting little recognition of what could be there going by the framework. There's nothing really concrete here unless you intend to complete rewrite a trilogy of novels purely off of displeasure over poor BDSM practices demonstrated by a duo that should absolutely know better.

It'd be a silly thing to do.

Now mind you, if I wrote a completely original story about a young woman named Diana Irons and her rags-to-riches CEO boyfriend José Brown and their torrid affair as Diana struggles with her partner's worrying fixation on her dominating him...

[mariacallous]

Trans women banned from high-level women’s chess events

As anyone who has ever played the game knows, chess pieces are deceptively heavy. Enormous hand strength and lung capacity are required to move even a tiny pawn across a board. Shifting a rook or a queen? That can exhaust a delicate lady’s fingers for weeks on end. And don’t get me started on the spatial intelligence and mental acuity required for chess. Even thinking about the game makes my poor little woman brain hurt.

Obviously, this is all nonsense. And yet men have long been keen to push the idea that they’re somehow innately better at chess than women. “[Women] are terrible chess players,” Bobby Fischer proclaimed in 1963. “I guess they’re just not so smart … I don’t think they should mess into intellectual affairs, they should keep strictly to the home.”

As recently as 2015 Nigel Short, then vice-president of the world chess federation Fide, claimed that “men are hardwired to be better chess players than women”, adding: “You have to gracefully accept that.” The English grandmaster went on to explain it was clear men and women’s brains are different because he helps his wife get the car out of the garage and she has more emotional intelligence than him.

Fide still seems to believe that cis women are born lacking some sort of chess gene. How else does one explain their recent decision that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until a review of the situation – which may take up to two years – is made by its officials. Certainly, Fide hasn’t made it clear what sort of innate advantage they think trans women may have.

There have, of course, already been several defenses of Fide’s decision. But rather than being based on any firm evidence, they seem to be constructed out of sexist assumption and shaky science. Debbie Hayton, a trans woman who writes frequently for conservative outlets, wrote in UnHerd: “It’s possible that evolution has left men with an innate advantage in chess.” Hayton backed that up with a quote from a (female) Harvard biologist about males having a large advantage over females in spatial ability. But that’s not entirely true. While you can certainly cherrypick lots of studies that show men’s spatial abilities are superior, there are also lots of recent studies that refute this. A 2020 study in Nature Scientific Reports, for example, found no difference between male and female spatial abilities. Any differences previously found, a lot of research suggests, may be down to testing methodologies.

It is true, of course, that men dominate the upper echelons of chess. But why do you think that is? Do you really think it’s because men are brainier? Do you really think it’s because men and women’s brains are hardwired differently? Or do you think it’s because structural sexism stops a lot of young girls from getting into chess? Sexist assumptions seep into us from a very young age: a disturbing 2017 study found that girls as young as six believe that brilliance is a male trait. This social conditioning affects everything from career choices to hobbies.

Forget trans women for a moment, should there be separate women and men’s categories at all in chess? That’s a little tricky. Because far fewer women go into chess than men there’s certainly a strong case for keeping some separate men and women’s categories for the moment. But the idea that you wouldn’t ever see women win if the categories were mixed-sex is misguided. Nigel Short has certainly been beaten by a woman: Judit Polgar, who was ranked as high as No 8 in the world, has a winning record against him.

Perhaps men like Short are so keen on a separation of the sexes because they’re worried about their own performance. Look at air rifle shooting, for example, a sport where men and women are evenly matched. “Shooting wasn’t always split by gender,” air rifle coach Heinz Reinkemeier told ESPN in a 2021 article. “In the 1976 Olympics, the American Margaret Murdock won a silver medal in the free shooting event … after that the men decided to split shooting up into men and women because they didn’t like to be overtaken by the girls.”

Again, I think the question of whether men and women should play in separate categories in high-level chess is tricky. However, I can’t see any case for stopping trans women from competing in the women’s category. Ultimately women’s chess isn’t helped by gatekeeping definitions of women. It’s not helped by excluding trans women; it’s helped by encouraging more women to get into chess and dismantling gender stereotypes. If your argument for excluding trans women is that women have inferior brains than men then you are no feminist, you are a pawn of the patriarchy.

Trump-appointed judge said he supports banning abortion pills because people like looking at babies

Fifth circuit judge James Ho argued: “It’s well established that, if a plaintiff has ‘concrete plans’ to visit an animal’s habitat and view that animal, that plaintiff suffers aesthetic injury when an agency has approved a project that threatens the animal … Doctors delight in working with their unborn patients – and experience an aesthetic injury when they are aborted.” Yes, you read that right, a judge just compared women’s bodies to wildlife habitats. If you are wondering what on earth is going on with the fight over abortion pills in the US, the Guardian has a good explainer here.

A quick reminder: LinkedIn is not a dating app

Up to 91% of US women who use the professional networking site regularly have received romantic messages from other users, according to a recent survey.

Texas jury orders man to pay ex-girlfriend $1.2bn in image-based sexual abuse case

The woman, who went by “DL” in court documents, is obviously unlikely to recover anywhere near that amount – getting her harasser to pay anything at all isn’t straightforward and may require another lawsuit – but the verdict sends a strong message. “While a judgment in this case is unlikely to be recovered, the compensatory verdict gives DL back her good name,” the woman’s attorney said in a statement. Will the harasser, who shared intimate pictures of DL with multiple people, uploaded them on to porn sites and relentlessly taunted DL about the imagery, face any real consequences? Not anytime soon. According to the Washington Post, DL chose to got to civil court “after making multiple attempts to report her ex-boyfriend’s harassment to law enforcement without receiving assistance”.

India’s supreme court issues handbook urging judges to be less misogynistic

The handbook advises judges to avoid words like seductress, spinster and harlot when talking about women. It also counsels judges not to ask alleged rapists if they will marry their victim: “Marriage is not a remedy to the violence of rape.”

[officialgleamstar]

Okay so.

This isn't even all of it

But all I can write rn

So we're starting with this.

We start with the exact relation that Zhao and Jodie hold. Their souls are bound together, however they're separate people who lived their own lives in the Close timeline. In the Foster timeline however, their souls shared a body (Jodie's) because of the timeline shift.

Next. We have Jodie's family life. He's not an only child, but is the second youngest, only having a younger sister. He has an older sister (who cut all ties to the family) and an older brother (who is second oldest). Jodie's father and brother are both cops and also why Jodie became one (to make his family proud of him.) (He doesn't enjoy the job all that much, he likes how he feels because he feels in control of things for once. But it's a lot of just sitting and watching cars as a highway cop.)

His family is the nuclear family type. Mom stays at home and cleans and cooks. Dad works. His sisters were taught how to become good housewives for when they got married. Of course this is also why his older sister (and oldest child) cut ties from the family. However before she did, she and Jodie got along when Jodie had his little "rebel" phase (also when I headcanon when he meets Morgan, who was also having a rebel phase). Of course as Jodie gets older past his younger teens years, he stops this and starts becoming serious. He starts doing things that'll help him go into the career path the rest of the men in his family have done.

Of course this causes a lot of issues for him because he kind of doesn't feel like he has an identity besides just being Officer Foster, one of many. He does like the structure though, his ADHD (and his autism that I hc him with because he's so me fr.)

Now in the Close timeline, he starts to just have a routine of getting up everyday and doing his job, going hoke. Showering and then eating. Then sleeps. Repeat. However in the Foster timeline, he meets Morgan, and they fall in love. So instead his schedule also includes his family in there.

Back to his family however. Him and his father have a strained relationship. When Jodie was younger (in his young teen years), they fought all the time. Mostly about how Jodie wasn't going to become another Officer Foster like every other man in the family. :(

And his relationship with his mother isn't the best as well. He loves and adores his mom, but in the foster household, after one of the boys turns 14, they're kinda just ignored by their mother.

Poor meow meow

Moving to the Close timeline. After Zhao is finally let out of being kinda trapped, Jodie and Zhao go to hell with Nick and Dee (obviously). Jodie never expected to get any sort of acceptance into Dee family, or the demon term (pack). So when he was accepted, it was shocking to him. And now he sees Dee as his mama (not mom, as he can't just forget his mom). But being accepted as one of Dee's kits (and now one of 3, as Dee accepts Glenn as her kit too) [dee went from 1 kit to 3 kits]. Also kit is the demon term for kid/child <3 (I have a lot of demon hcs that I will be sharing during this whole thing)

Zhao and Dee also help Jodie with demon stuff. Like how to keep horns and wings and tails in proper condition. And also how to use Zhao's weapons properly. (Though not without a few burns and scars from practice.)

That's all. For now.

Also i will be getting designs for everybody mentioned that isn't Zhao, Dee and Jodie (the non named Foster's basically)

okay. home now. i can devote some proper attention to this instead of rotating it in my mind while my brother tries to talk to me about city skylines

this is REALLY GOOD. we have such wildly different visions of jodies life and it makes me giggle a lot but ultimately THIS IS REALLY GOOD. the thought of jodie having siblings especially just makes me like... sad. like they lost their brother! he lost them! thats so SAD AUGH

and yes. of course theyre dee's kits. demons are cats. ALL demons are cats, jodie is my little kitty cat. AND THAT PARTS REALLY CUTE. MAN. AWWW bhjbfghjfbdj i love dee so much shes so funny, i wish we got more of her in canon

[begaydodrughailsaten]

Discord hates long messages so

So we're starting with this.

We start with the exact relation that Zhao and Jodie hold. Their souls are bound together, however they're separate people who lived their own lives in the Close timeline. In the Foster timeline however, their souls shared a body (Jodie's) because of the timeline shift.

Next. We have Jodie's family life. He's not an only child, but is the second youngest, only having a younger sister. He has an older sister (who cut all ties to the family) and an older brother (who is second oldest). Jodie's father and brother are both cops and also why Jodie became one (to make his family proud of him.) (He doesn't enjoy the job all that much, he likes how he feels because he feels in control of things for once. But it's a lot of just sitting and watching cars as a highway cop.)

His family is the nuclear family type. Mom stays at home and cleans and cooks. Dad works. His sisters were taught how to become good housewives for when they got married. Of course this is also why his older sister (and oldest child) cut ties from the family. However before she did, she and Jodie got along when Jodie had his little "rebel" phase (also when I headcanon when he meets Morgan, who was also having a rebel phase). Of course as Jodie gets older past his younger teens years, he stops this and starts becoming serious. He starts doing things that'll help him go into the career path the rest of the men in his family have done.

Of course this causes a lot of issues for him because he kind of doesn't feel like he has an identity besides just being Officer Foster, one of many. He does like the structure though, his ADHD (and his autism that I hc him with because he's so me fr.)

Now in the Close timeline, he starts to just have a routine of getting up everyday and doing his job, going hoke. Showering and then eating. Then sleeps. Repeat. However in the Foster timeline, he meets Morgan, and they fall in love. So instead his schedule also includes his family in there.

Back to his family however. Him and his father have a strained relationship. When Jodie was younger (in his young teen years), they fought all the time. Mostly about how Jodie wasn't going to become another Officer Foster like every other man in the family. :(

And his relationship with his mother isn't the best as well. He loves and adores his mom, but in the foster household, after one of the boys turns 14, they're kinda just ignored by their mother.

Poor meow meow

Moving to the Close timeline. After Zhao is finally let out of being kinda trapped, Jodie and Zhao go to hell with Nick and Dee (obviously). Jodie never expected to get any sort of acceptance into Dee family, or the demon term (pack). So when he was accepted, it was shocking to him. And now he sees Dee as his mama (not mom, as he can't just forget his mom). But being accepted as one of Dee's kits (and now one of 3, as Dee accepts Glenn as her kit too) [dee went from 1 kit to 3 kits]. Also kit is the demon term for kid/child <3 (I have a lot of demon hcs that I will be sharing during this whole thing)

Zhao and Dee also help Jodie with demon stuff. Like how to keep horns and wings and tails in proper condition. And also how to use Zhao's weapons properly. (Though not without a few burns and scars from practice.)

Not all of it but

JODIE MY POOR BOY

GOD THINKING ABOUT JODIE IN THE CLOSE TIME LINE HURTS SO MUCH

ALSO DEE SEMI ADOPTING JODIE AND GLENN BRISNCIANOXNFIAVFOABBFOAMCONWIDBBTIAI

THIS HUGE WEIRD ASS FAMILY MAKES ME ILL THAT YOU SO MUCH SCARY DYING RN /POS

[autobotmedic]

"Oh Graaaamps, guess who's back!" That's Ratchet's only warning, before Sari jogs into view, obviously hiding something behind her back. She looks happier than the last time he saw her; brighter, healthier. Spending time with her Father did wonders.

"Soooo, before I left with dad, I kinda... Asked 'Rachni to like, help me build you something to, y'know, help with healing me, her, and... any other techno-organics that could pop up! It uh— okay don't laugh, BUT, it's based off of the scientific research into how cat purrs can help heal injuries or broken bones. 'Rachni explained it all in massive science talk that you can ask her about, but anyway— behold!"

At last the hidden item is revealed; a tool not unlike Ratchet's old sleep tool, but the design, as well as structure, is obviously different.

"So, how it works, is that... it emits some sort of frequency? Arachnia tested it herself, and basically; the ray helps stimulate the organic metal that we both have, and it has different types of frequencies you can infuse into the ray thingy, that targets more organic based areas, like our actual organs... And Arachnia made me swear to not tell you she spent ages on it, but where's the fun in that?"

Creaking accompanied Ratchet's movements as he shifted around to focus on her voice when she arrived. He gave a grunting hum of greeting, but otherwise simply listened. The concept of a vibrating sound being capable of healing was... strange, but then again, organics were strange in general.

He made an internal note for later to ask about that science talk she mentioned.

Ratchet lowered both himself and his servo, palm open to accept the gift, so he could hold and analyze it further.

"... Thanks, kid. That was thoughtful." He hoped it did work. It would be a relief to have some method of helping with injuries he otherwise did not fully know how to treat. "And I won't tell."