#Did not care at all about the majority of the series I found it funny at best uncomfortable at worst and boring usually but it was short

[orb-weaving]

Practicing drawing Overhaul’s monstrous form.

[pinkblahaj]

rick riordan's female characters pt 1: annabeth

this year i reread pjo and hoo for the first time since finishing the series five years ago, and i now understand the (somewhat?) common opinion that the way he wrote female characters was definitely flawed in some ways. although, i don't completely agree with all the criticisms, and i still love the majority of his characters. because i have so many thoughts on annabeth, i'll make this post just about her and discuss other characters later.

i'm certainly not one of those avid annabeth haters, but i do think there are valid reasons to not like her- I think there are valid reasons to not like any character. for me, there are moments where she is a bit too arrogant or mean. but i don't think she should have been written with an entirely different personality either- it makes sense why she is the way she is, and all the characters are flawed in their own ways, which is what makes them relatable. i just don't relate to annabeth like i do to the characters i like more.

i see how some ppl dislike the dynamic between percy and annabeth, but i feel like a lot of those issues are just a product of their time. the judo-flipping scene in mark of athena has been made to be way bigger of a deal than it is. it was not annabeth "abusing" percy- it's more akin to play wrestling. but... i do agree that moments like this would be clearly unacceptable if annabeth were a boy (which, i know, those "if the roles were reversed" type discussions sometimes are used to weaponize the suffering of men in order to diminsh women's issues, and i am not trying to do that here). it unfortunately does make sense when you think about the whole anti-femininity trend that used to be so common, and existed in rick's books as well (ex: aphrodite's children). annabeth is supposed to be tough and scary, not soft and weak. but we should also keep in mind that every relationship's boundaries our different- annabeth might joke about percy being dumb, but it's obvious that doesn't bother him and he likes the nickname "seaweed brain".

annabeth's treatment of rachel in botl seems to be a dividing topic, and i can see both sides. i honestly was quite bothered by it when i reread botl, and i find it strange that some ppl will hate on percy on this book while not criticizing annabeth. but honestly that's probably because i'm a sensitive person. some ppl find it funny, which is probably how it was supposed to come across. it was probably just as obvious to rachel as it was to us readers that annabeth was only being mean out of her fear of losing percy... and rachel did indeed like percy. but i do wish that we would've seen someone call her out or see her apologize, and while her abandonment issues are an explanation for her behavior, they are not an excuse. but again, it's safe to assume that rachel was not that affected by it, and being a teenager who is rude to someone bc they like the same guy as you is not the worst thing a person can do. (i do think it's interesting how this situation is brought up more frequently than leo bullying frank, which actually did hurt frank.)

contrary to what i've seen other ppl say, i actually really liked annabeth in heroes of olympus. i thought her povs were great, and i loved to see her interact with the new characters, especially piper. i also found her more likable (ik some think she was too perfect, but i loved seeing her as a competent leader). the scene with frank and the finger trap was so cute and because i love and relate to frank, i will forever appreciate her for that. however she was def underutilized- outsmarting arachne by attacking her pride made sense because of arachne's backstory, but that strategy became overused (the way she defeated nyx was kind of ridiculous). and of course, who doesn't love the percabeth scenes- sure they were obsessed with each other, but that makes sense. they just met the rest of the seven, ofc they're not going to care about their new friends to the extend that they do for each other (side note: i don't disagree that seven felt like "co-workers", but i don't see a problem with it either).

leah was a perfect choice for the tv show adaptation. i honestly could not care less that she's not blonde and white. yes, the acting could be a bit better, but they're young and i've seen worse acting from older actors. what i do have an issue with is how annabeth was written in the show. i feel like the writers read that she's the brains of the group and she's serious and forgot that she's also a twelve year old girl. annabeth is a great character because she is strong, smart and skilled, but still flawed, realistic and relatable. i wish the show delved into other parts of her character, such as her love for architecture, the scene with the spiders, and her relationship with luke- this last one especially is such an important part they missed out on, because it's a huge source of her vulnerability in the books. i'm completely fine with them cutting out her crush on him, but the fact that she looks up to him and sees him as family is so central to why she can't accept that he's betrayed her. her believing that there is still good left in luke is also key to how they defeat kronos with luke's help. show luke says that annabeth is like his little sister, but without us actually seeing this relationship, it's going to be hard to understand in later seasons why annabeth defends him.

overall, annabeth is a great character and deserving of her popularity, but i don't think that if you dislike her you hate complex female characters. while she's not my favorite, i see her as a testament to both rick's ability to write good female characters and some of his shortcomings in this area.

[blurredcolour]

Take These Broken Wings

Dick Winters x Enlisted!Unnamed Female OC/Reader

Trapped behind his desk, Dick finds out the unthinkable has happened to the woman he cares about. Now he has to deal with the consequences; first as her commanding officer and then as the man who loves her.

Warnings: MAJOR Canon Divergence, Angst, Implied Sexual Assault, Descriptions of OC/Reader Injuries, Discussion of Retaliatory Violence, Gentleman's Agreement Not To Prosecute, Period Specific Ideas about Honor and Protection of Women, PTSD, Weapons, Language, Inevitable Historical and Military Inaccuracies, Mature/Explicit Themes - 18+ ONLY.

Author's Note: Self-indulgent canon divergence with little explanation ahead, read at your own risk. Because of the sensitive nature of this fic, I chose to write it in the third person but only a nickname is used so it can be read as a reader fic. This is a work of fiction based off the portrayal by the actors in the HBO series. I hold nothing but respect for the real life individuals referenced within, particularly the Red Devils in this case!

Special Note: Dearest tag list, I have chosen not to tag any of you because this is so wildly different than my usual fics, I just wasn't sure who would want to read it.

Word Count: 4148

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

October 17, 1944 – Schoonderlogt, Holland

It had never been his intention to fall in love with her. With any of the female paratroopers in the 506th, for that matter. But like the slow erosion of a river carving a new path through bare rock, she had ever so gradually hollowed out a place for herself in his heart until all at once he realized he could not live without her. Of course, if one were to ask her, she fell in love with Dick Winters the first day they met in Toccoa, Georgia, sun scorching their skin, blazing his hair copper – or so she liked to remind him often.

His realization had not come until he’d found her halfway up a tree in Normandy, tangled in the lines of her parachute, desperately trying to slice herself free before she was discovered by enemy troops. The sheer panic he had felt as his mind flooded with all the possible ways he could have lost her that night had only served to drive home how deeply he cared for Peaches. Dick didn’t often use the nickname that Nix had bestowed on her; a nickname born of some sordid adventure involving cans of peaches that he’d decided he’d rather not know about. But he did love the way it made her nose crinkle when he slipped it into their stolen moments together. Moments that were becoming harder and harder to find now that he had been placed in charge of 2nd Battalion.

Several pages being laid on his desk by Zielinski tore Dick out of his inner musings and he lifted his pen to add his signature to the line where his Orderly pointed expectantly. Sink had assured him the paperwork would be ‘nothing to sweat’ but Dick was certainly sweating it now. The call of Nixon’s voice as he came up the stairs was a welcome reprieve from the rapidly multiplying stacks of paper on his desk, something that his friend seemed only too happy to point out.

Dick could only feel envy, mixed with trepidation and a certain amount of helplessness, as Heyliger informed him Operation Pegasus was preparing to launch in a matter of hours and he remained trapped in his combination office and bedroom in the attic. As the pair of them made their way down the stairs and out of the requisitioned farmhouse, Dick looked up from his typewriter once more as he heard Nixon’s bright greeting.

���Hey there Peaches, you’ve got something on your face.”

“Very funny Captain. Lieutenant.” He heard her voice reply and did his best not to grin.

“Zielenski, could you go grab a new box of pencils from the storeroom? It’s going to be a long night.” Dick swallowed, doing his best to come up with an excuse for two minutes alone with her, five if he was lucky.

“Yes, sir.” There was a note of confusion in the man’s voice but thankfully he complied, hustling down the stairs.

There was a moment of silence before he heard the door shut followed by the sound of her jump boots scuffing up the worn wooden steps, grinning as she was startled to find him waiting for her at the top of the stairs.

“And here I was thinking I’d surprise you…Who was that?” She glanced back towards the door, and he sighed, shaking his head.

“Don’t worry about it, how’re you feeling about this thing?” He asked softly, taking her hands in his.

“Should be fine, Moose picked mostly people who can swim, the Canadians are nice. That Colonel Dobie sure is handsome.” She teased lightly, lacing her fingers with his.

Despite her teasing tone, Dick still felt a little annoyed at the comment, particularly given the fact that the man was free to swim the river in reconnaissance and join the operation that night while he was a glorified paper pusher.

“Too bad for him I like ‘em tall as a stalk of corn and copper as a penny.” She leaned in to press her lips to his and Dick felt his eyes fall shut, tension that he’d been carrying for hours slowly ebbing from his body.

She pulled back with a soft smile before frowning apologetically. “Sorry my love I got grease paint on you.” She licked her thumb and swiped at his cheek like he was a grubby toddler, and he could not help the broad grin that stretched his features even as he felt his cheeks heat up at the term of endearment she’d only recently begun to use.

“I’ll get it in a moment, Peaches.” He muttered, glancing around to ensure they were still alone before sliding an arm around her waist to pull her close, kissing her soundly. “Be safe out there…don’t do anything I wouldn’t do…”

“Oh, like run across a field toward two companies of SS by myself?” She narrowed her eyes at him, and he pressed his lips together, still able to hear every word of her displeasure at being left behind for the agonizing seconds it took for the red smoke signal to appear.

“Especially that.” He muttered, clearing his throat and taking a step back as he heard the door open at the bottom of the stairs.

She quickly grabbed her handkerchief and soaked it with water from her canteen, passing it to him so he could scrub at his face, hopefully removing all evidence of their interlude.

“Pencils sir.” Zielenski held out the box proudly and she raised an eyebrow, introducing herself warmly to the Orderly.

“That’ll be all, Sergeant, good luck out there.”

“Thank you sir, appreciate your time.” She replied smoothly, looking completely unaffected while Dick was very aware of the residual heat in his face.

Dick took his time opening the box, watching her back as she slowly descended out of sight until the door closed shut behind her. Sinking into his chair he submitted himself to another few hours of pointing and signing with his Orderly before sending the boy to bed, peering out his window hopefully when a great ruckus arose from one of the barns out back.

Glancing at his watch to confirm it was nearly 0200, he smiled a little to himself as everything seemed to have gone off alright. Rain drops began to sporadically strike the windowpane before the clouds opened into a steady, driving rain. Dick dropped the curtain with a sigh, the room filled with the rhythmic sound of water striking the roof and rolling off the eaves. It was dangerously tempting to lay his head down on his desk and give in to the heaviness in his eyelids, to allow himself to be lulled to sleep. Shaking himself physically, he turned back to yet another report and began striking the keys of his typewriter with a vengeance, hoping to keep himself awake with the racket.

Dick was just spooling a fresh page into place when Nixon was suddenly hurrying up the stairs, followed by Colonel Dobie himself. Both men were wet as drowned rats, but it was the seriousness of their faces that pulled Dick to his feet immediately, securing the pencil from between his teeth into his fist.

“Dick, you remember Colonel Dobie.”

“Yeah…yeah I do…” He replied slowly, trying to ignore the feeling of a sword dangling over their heads as he waited for them to tell him what was going on.

“Terribly sorry to barge in at such a late hour but I wanted to inform you of this incident personally. Well, incidents more precisely. It appears that one of our men, a Holman from Yorkshire, has been severely beaten by a couple of your men from Easy in retaliation for his attack on one of your female soldiers.”

Dick nodded once as he processed the news, heartrate picking up immediately. There were a total of twenty-seven women in 2nd Battalion, but given that it had been only Easy involved in Pegasus, that narrowed it down to a possible nine, of which just a handful had been chosen for the operation. Dick merely had to glance at Nixon to confirm his worst fear. Peaches.

He didn’t realize how tight his grip on the pencil in his hand had grown until the wooden object snapped in two.

“I am willing to consider the matter settled and in need of no further action. The man in question will be returned to England and assigned to some menial duty once he recovers from his injuries.” Dobie continued.

“That will take some time?” Dick asked calmly, despite the searing rage he felt rushing through him.

“Your men were thorough, Captain.” The Colonel replied, grimly.

Dick stood there a moment, eyeing an ink stain that had seeped into the wooden desk top while he was refilling his pen, considering. A beating and unpleasant assignment as punishment for heaven knows what the man had inflicted on her. But to demand more formal proceedings would immediately require testimonies and punishments for the men who had taken it upon themselves to defend her honor. He closed his eyes a moment, vision immediately flooded with her smiling face on one of the blissful outings they had enjoyed during their furlough in England. Forcefully setting the image aside, despite the way it wrenched at his heart to do so, he nodded again. If only to save her further pain.

“Agreed.” Dick offered his hand, Colonel Dobie sealing their agreement with a firm handshake.

Dobie turned to shake Nixon’s hand as well before seeing himself out, Dick waiting until he heard the door close before he spoke again. Two questions on the tip of his tongue, two men inside him, warring for dominance. To his dismay, he had to allow the Battalion’s commanding officer to speak first.

“Who are our vigilantes?”

“Martin and Randleman.” Nixon replied, sitting on one of the folding chairs at the small table in the corner with a heavy sigh. “Moose has them downstairs if you want to talk to them.”

“Yeah. Show them up.”

Nixon leveraged himself out of the chair and was halfway across the attic before he suddenly turned back. “She put that can of peaches in Parkes’ footlocker.”

Dick eyed his friend in confusion, the information seeming utterly irrelevant to their current situation until he suddenly remembered one of Sobel’s impromptu barracks inspections back in Toccoa.

“That dumb bastard wouldn’t leave the women in her squad alone, so she planted it there to get him in trouble – never expected him to get thrown out entirely.” Nixon sighed heavily.

“Where is she?” Dick asked quickly, the words almost melding together in his haste to get them out of his mouth.

“Johnny thinks she’s holed up in the supply barn, I’ll find out.” Nixon replied with a frown and Dick nodded silently, muscles of his jaw clenching almost painfully as he clung to the last vestiges of his focus.

He tossed the broken halves of the pencil onto the desk, frowning at the mess of lead on his palm and pulled the handkerchief from his pocket, frown deepening at the smudges of grease paint there from her face. He clenched the fabric between his fingers as Moose entered the office followed by a hard-faced Martin and a typically laidback Randleman.

“What happened?” He asked plainly, eyeing them expectantly.

Moose stood off to the side, watching Martin and Randleman exchange a look.

“Don’t all talk at once…” Dick prodded calmly, and Martin turned back to him.

“Bull and I were on our way out of the celebration, wanted to beat the rain and get back to our quarters – didn’t work out. Ran into Peaches as we got around the corner of the building. She looked like hell, roughed up, wouldn’t tell me what happened.”

“She just ran, not like her at all, sir.” Randleman chimed in.

“And then that bastard from the Devils, or whatever they call themselves, came around the corner looking all pleased with himself. Adjusting his pants.”

“Knuckles busted up.” Came Randleman’s addition once more.

“Anyway,” Martin continued after a sharp nod of agreement, “it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.”

Dick exhaled a slow, measured breath. “I can appreciate why you both did what you did. Next time, and we can only hope we never have to have this conversation again, bring him to Moose, to me. We have systems in place, alright?”

“Sir.”

“Yes, sir.”

“All that said…well done.” Dick said with quiet emphasis, letting his pride and gratitude burn brightly in his gaze. “And you’re both on latrine duty for the next two weeks.” He tacked on because he really had no choice but to punish them.

A pair of smirking salutes was the only response before Moose ushered them out. Dick waited until the count of twenty before sliding the suspenders of his OD pants onto his shoulders, shrugging into his jacket and clapping on his helmet. Grabbing his M1 and flashlight, he quickly made his way down the stairs and out into the persistent deluge toward the supply barn, nearly slamming into Nixon on the way.

“Follow me.” His friend nodded and continued to lead the way, nodding to Liebgott who was standing guard at the door, soaked to the skin.

“Joe.” Dick greeted him, noting the way he had his collar turned up obscuring half his face. The way his hands were shoved deep into his pockets.

It easily could have been in an attempt to protect himself against the elements, but Dick also knew Liebgott was the sort of man to never let anything go unanswered and if he was standing out here in the rain, he was surely more involved than anyone was letting on.

“Peaches is in there, sir. Doc Roe tried to help her, she wouldn’t let him touch her. Thought I’d make sure no one bothered her until she was ready.”

“Good thinking.” Dick swallowed.

He ought to press further, ferret out the truth of Liebgott’s involvement, but standing just outside where she was hiding, the other half of him was very much in charge now – wanting nothing more than to throw the door open and charge in. But by the sounds of it, that approach would be quite unwelcome.

“Why don’t you go warm up for a bit, we’ll take a turn.” Nixon said to Liebgott who looked between the pair of them before nodding in return.

“Thanks, sir.” He agreed, glancing back toward the barn once before jogging off into the night.

Dick waited until they were well and truly alone before slowly opening the door, stepping into the dim space, sliding his helmet from his head. The sound of footsteps retreating into the far corner behind crates of supplies drew his attention and he took a slow breath, calling her name softly.

“It’s me. Dick. I’m here to check on you.”

There was a soft, smothered sound and he clenched his fists, keeping his progress gradual and measured, trying not to make any sudden movements or noises to startle her. As he reached the rear of the barn, he rounded a stack of crates and his heart clenched painfully as his eyes fell on her wedged between a few bundles of blankets and sacks of something it was too dark to read the labels of. Her knees were hugged tightly to her chest, M1 tucked into the crook of her elbow as she eyed him warily in the dark.

Her normally tidy hair was in disarray, and the side of her face that he could see sported a gash across her eyebrow. He took another step closer, the air shuddering from his lungs as she flinched away, pressing tightly into the wall behind her, revealing her split lower lip, the swelling along her left cheekbone, the barely-dried tear tracks on her face.

Dick had never seen her shy away from anything since the day they’d met – not the obstacle course, the rifle range, Currahee, or jumping out of a C-47. For his proximity to garner such a reaction from her felt very much as though she had torn his heart from his breast and stomped it beneath her heel.

Sinking slowly into a crouch, he swallowed before speaking just above a whisper. “Peaches…”

The look of disgust, whether it was at the nickname or at herself – perhaps both, mixed with horror that crossed her face had Dick seriously considering if he had enough time to find Holman before his trip back to England and land a few blows himself. He gently corrected it with her name, teeth grinding together audibly in his skull as she turned her head to the side revealing small knicks at her throat. He’d held her at knife point.

“They’ve already found him. Some of the boys took justice into their own hands, but his superiors know now too.” He tried to reassure her, let her know he was no longer out there, no longer a threat to her.

Dick’s eyes dropped to follow the movement of her fingers as she picked at the torn ends of her nails, several cuts visible on her hands as well. Knowing her she’d probably put up a hell of a fight.

“P–” He stopped himself before he accidentally used the offensive nickname again. “…please you’re hurt. Can I clean you up?” He asked, voice trembling with the emotions he was desperately trying to keep at bay for her sake as he shifted forward onto his knees.

She shook her head violently in response, hugging her limbs tighter to her body, which hadn’t even seemed a possibility until it was done. Dick swallowed painfully, carefully laying his rifle and helmet down on the wooden floor beside him, sitting back on his heels.

“I love you.” He blinked rapidly at the gathering dampness in his eyelashes. “No matter what’s happened, I will always love you. I’m not going anywhere.”

She eyed him skeptically, no words passing between them for a long while. The sound of the persistent rain outside pounding against the roof filled the barn, drowning out the sound of their breathing, until she opened her mouth to speak at last.

“I froze.” She whispered, tone thick with self-loathing as she released her grip on her M1, laying it down beside his before sealing her palm over her mouth.

She began to shake with sobs so ferocious that no sound passed her throat, rendering the smothering effect of her hand unnecessary. Dick felt his heart shatter as he automatically reached for her, wanting nothing more than to pull her close and soothe some of her pain. Her repeated aversion to his touch, however, came flooding back and he froze, arms outstretched and aching to hold her, but wanting to respect her wishes.

The feeling of her body colliding with his chest as she launched herself into his arms punched the air from his lungs for several reasons, nearly sending him toppling over backwards with the force of it. Dick’s arms quickly gathered her onto his lap, one hand rubbing along her spine as her strangled sobs soaked his jacket, her hands clutching at him in return.

“You survived, my love.” He whispered against her hair, deciding he really ought to call her that in kind. It was only fitting for it was exactly how he felt. “You did what you had to do to survive in that moment. Please forgive yourself.”

He felt her shift against his sternum, the shudders wracking her body gradually slowing as she took deeper and deeper breaths, sniffling and wiping at her face carefully.

“Who did you have to yell at?” She murmured wetly, peering up at him cautiously.

“Martin and Randleman. Fairly certain Liebgott is somehow involved as well.” Dick replied softly, fighting back the urge to stroke her face. One step at a time – being allowed to hold her would more than suffice for now.

She sniffed. “Johnny must have figured it out first. I couldn’t even come up with a plausible lie I just…ran away from him outside the party…” Her eyes lowered in shame before she sat up slowly, Dick biting back a frown at the barely concealed wince that crossed her features.

“Nix is outside keeping watch. Can I take you back to CP? Get you cleaned up?” He swallowed, really wanting her to allow Roe to look her over but doubting that would be an option.

She looked to him, eyes suddenly wide with the terror of realization. “Oh god Dick, what if I catch something or…wind up pregnant…oh fuck…” Her face began to crumple, and Dick swallowed, quickly cupping her uninjured cheek hoping to startle her out of that train of thought.

As she jumped and looked to him sharply, he apologized gently. “My love, we don’t know if any of those things will happen. Hopefully they won’t, but no matter what comes next, we’re going to face it together.”

“But Dick I’m–”

“Don’t go and say something melodramatic, now. You’re the woman I love and something horrible has been done to you. It doesn’t change who you are to me.” He replied firmly, swallowing as she stared at him startled for a moment, before nodding slowly. “Now I’m taking you to CP and we’re getting you cleaned up, ok?”

“Should I salute you, Captain?” She raised an eyebrow before wincing and restoring her face to a neutral expression.

He felt his cheeks redden, a sure sign that things would some day return back to normal. That the woman he loved was still with him, she just needed a lot of care right now and he was more than happy to provide it. “That won’t be necessary, Sergeant.” He replied and tried not to smirk as she scoffed slightly in surprise before shifting to her feet slowly.

Dick passed her rifle to her before grabbing his own, rising to his feet and sliding his helmet on his head. He offered his hand to her, swallowing back his sigh of relief as she laced her battered fingers through his and followed him out through the maze of supplies to where Nixon was still waiting in the rain.

“Christ, Peaches…” He breathed when she came into view and Dick shot him a sharp look, trying, too late, to stop him using the nickname.

“Son-of-a-bitch ruined the nickname, Nix. I trust you to come up with a new one.” She sighed, sounding positively exhausted, and Nixon nodded quickly in reply.

“Noted. You sure you’re alright?” He asked softly and she shook her head.

“No. But someday, maybe.” She replied honestly and Nixon nodded empathetically as Dick squeezed her hand gently.

“Let’s get out of this rain.” He led the three of them back into the farmhouse, taking her straight to the washroom where he filled the basin with water. “Help or no?”

She paused a moment, staring at her reflection in the cracked mirror left behind by the home’s original owners and Dick waited patiently until she turned back to him. “I can do it.” She replied softly and he nodded, closing the door to wait in the hall.

Nixon shuffled by carrying his pillow and Dick raised an eyebrow. “Give her my bed, I’ll take your crappy little cot.” He muttered, making his way to the attic before he even had the chance to reply.

The ghost of a smile crossed his lips as he leaned his head back against the wall, thoroughly spent by the events of the day, knowing he’d have to be up in just a few hours to face the rest of the paperwork on his desk.

“Dick?” Her soft voice startled him, making him realize he’d actually fallen asleep standing up, for just a moment.

Her lips twitched slightly with a hint of amusement, and he smiled slightly in return, nodding as she looked more herself despite the still-fresh injuries.

“This way.” He offered his hand and led her towards Nixon’s room, gesturing at the bed. “Gift from Lew.”

Her face softened, eyes glistening suddenly, reminding Dick just how fragile she still was. “Where is he sleeping?”

“Attic.”

“Then you need a bed too…” She replied as she crawled onto the mattress, sighing at the softness of the bedding.

“Oh, the floor is fine I…”

“Please hold me.” Her voice was small, her request simple and one that he did not need to hear twice to honor.

He unlaced his boots and removed his outer layers before crawling in with her, letting her curl up against him before sliding his arm around her carefully. “Comfortable?” He asked in a hushed voice.

“Very.” She replied sleepily and he allowed himself to drift, listening to the rise and fall of her breath, letting sleep nibble at the edges of his consciousness.

“Dick?” She whispered and he snuffled awake quickly.

“Yeah?”

“Does it smell like pee in here?”

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

Band of Brothers Masterlist

[dickarchivist]

Tell Me Again.

Wolffe × Fem!Reader, new relationship

Word count: ~1700

MINORS BEGON 🔞

Contents and Warnings: n s f w 18+, Minors DNI, small fight resulting in minor cuts and bruises, vague hints of an abusive ex, fingering, counter sex, riding, unprotected PiV sex, Wolffe being protective of you, Wolffe being soft, Mando'a lesson. Fluffy smut, how nice.

Summary: After a fight with friends, you wear a few bruises with pride. Wolffe comes home for shore leave, and teaches you a few words in Mando'a while tending to your needs.

Mando'a used: Mesh'la (beautiful, pretty. Used as a pet name). Cyare (beloved, loved, popular. Used as an improper pet name, corrected by Wolffe). Cyar'ika (darling, sweetheart. Used as a pet name).

Author's notes: A continuation of the "Don't Stop on my Account" fic, which can be found [here].

Oh, to be in the hands of a hot man as you give him words of affirmation. This ended up in directions I didn't think it would, I was planning on it just being fluff, but then it became double smut, akin to the first of this series.

You'd gotten more used to the comings and goings of your favorite clone commander. Wolffe still kisses you when he leaves in the mornings, tells you how he looks forward to your next moment together. You've caught him trying to sneak out a few times since the first time you caught him, but you've succeeded in getting him to be more upfront about when he has to go for a while.

Your friends have been warning you again, however. "There's no guarantees." "We just don't want you to get hurt when he stops showing up." "There wouldn't be anyone to tell you if he died or not." "All you have is physical." "Honey just let him go, find a real man, not one of those credit a dozen toy soldiers."

You get into a full out fist fight with the one who calls Wolffe a toy soldier. It takes the others to separate you, you've never had that kind of impulse before but it made your blood boil and you couldn't help but wind up a punch. It's a new sensation for you, looking in your bathroom mirror and seeing the shiner and split in your lip.

You've come home with these in the past, but instead of the fear you felt in the past, you somehow feel proud of these marks. You got them defending the man you care about, and not from the one who was supposed to care about you.

You discard your top and pants, checking yourself for any major injuries. Few small bruises starting to bloom, some scraps, but all told nothing serious. You're about to turn on the water in the refresher when you hear the front door of your flat slide open.

"Mesh'la, you home?" There's a flutter in your chest at the sound of Wolffe's voice. Even among other clones, you feel like you could pick him out among them.

"In here!" You go to grab some concealer, but hesitate. These are badges of honor for you this time, why would you hide them? You turn around to stride out, but Wolffe is already there.

His eyes go from soft to shock, then anger, and for just a second you think it's aimed toward you. "Who did this? Who hurt you? I'll kill them."

You laugh, much to both of your surprise. He crossed to you, hands rough but surprisingly gentle around your face, "This isn't funny. You're hurt. Shoulda been here..."

"I got into a fight with someone because they called you a toy soldier, Wolffe. Trust me, they're worse off than I am."

You're starting to like this shocked face of his. Wolffe blinks down at you, really looking at the bruise around your eye, the pad of his thumb ghosting across your lip, just light enough to feel it. He takes your hands, looking at your bruised knuckles, smirking a little, "Kept your thumb out like I showed you?"

"Threw a mean punch like you showed me," you smirk up at him, and he gives you an impressed look as he sets his hands on your hips. "Like what you see Commander?"

Wolffe chuckles a little, kissing the corner of your mouth, "Of course Mesh'la, I'm lookin at you."

"What does that mean?" You try to steal a real kiss, but Wolffe pulls away a little with a husky chuckle and your breath hitches softly. You adore that sound.

"What does what mean?"

"Mesh'la... you call me that a lot, what does it mean?"

There it is again, that husky chuckle. This time, paired with kisses against your neck, making one hand grip the bathroom counter behind you as the other cards through the hair at the nape of Wolffe's neck. "It's Mando'a. Means beautiful. Pretty. It means you, Mesh'la."

You moan softly, lulling your head to the side as Wolffe sucks a hickey into your neck. He comes off you with a pop and blows on the newly forming dark spot. It makes you moan again, and your hips move forward in Wolffe's hands. "Is there a word for handsome?"

"Why? You wanna call me handsome?" Wolffe lifts you with ease and sets you on the edge of the counter. He moves forward a step and you open yourself for him, hooking your legs around his waist to bring him nearer. As his hand runs along your inner thigh, he answers you, "Don't know of one, Mando'a doesn't have gendered words like basic."

"Teach me..." your words are breathy already and he hasn't even touched you yet.

"Teach or touch?" There's two fingers stroking the front of your small clothes, making you whine, and Wolffe can't help a light laugh, "So tough a second ago, what happened?"

"Wolffe..." you whine again, hands holding his shoulders as your body shakes at even the touchs through thin fabric. You're starting to ache, needing more, "Do both, but touch first, please, touch first..."

"Kriff... you're wet, soaked through your panties already?" when you nod at his words, Wolffe walks his fingers under the thin fabric and presses a finger directly to your swollen clitoris. You jump, and he laughs, the rumble low in his throat, "no fight left?"

His fingers start to work you slowly, swirling your slick through your folds. Wolffe's going slow on purpose, you can tell, but it feels so good you don't want to rush him. It feels like a reward.

There's desperation creeping into your voice, your hips move forward to meet Wolffe's hand, "More..."

"More what, Mesh'la?" But he knows, he's already giving you what you desire. His hand moves lower within your folds, touching your entrance with teasing strokes before two fingers dip into your slick waiting walls, "This what you wanted pretty girl?"

Wolffe kisses the side of your head as you lean forward into his chest. His thumb works your clit as his fingers curl and pump inside you. "Wolffe... oh- mmm... Wolffe..." your legs open a little wider for him, and you close your eyes as you lean against his chest. You're panting hard, fast breaths as he brushes that sweet spot within and you see stars.

Your climax hits suddenly, and as you cry out, Wolffe's arm caresses the back of your head. He holds you safely against him as your legs tremble, clenching on his fingers as his movements slow. You're so dizzy, head light in ecstatic pleasure. You finally get a kiss out of Wolffe, a proper one. It hurts for a moment, but you've wanted that kiss since you saw him in your doorway, it was worth the wait.

"What's... what's Mando'a for "you are loved"?"

There's a pause, before Wolffe speaks softly to you, kissing your shoulder and neck as punctuation, "Cyare. Beloved... sometimes used for popular."

When his hand leaves your folds, you're worried that maybe you pushed those words too soon, but as he lifts you from the counter and removes your small clothes, you know it's anything but. Wolffe carefully lays you onto your bed, then dofts the rest of his clothing to lay beside you. He doesn't mount right away this time, not like you'd become accustomed to. No, his hands trail down, eyes following, tracing patterns onto your skin.

You tangle your legs with his, closing what little gap there was, and palm his length, pumping the stiff length in your hand. Wolffe growls and stops your hand, looking into your eyes, "Why'd you ask that?"

"If I can't call you handsome, I want to call you loved, because that's what you are, Cyare." Your cheeks are hot when you say it, but you know it's true.

"That's not how you say that."

"Did I pronounce it wrong?"

"Yes, but you're going for the pet name, yeah?" You nod, and can't help but find this whole thing endearing you further to him. A man of his word, he touched first, and taught second. "It'd be cyar'ika, then. Adding "'ika" makes it an endearment."

"Then I love you, Cyar'ika."

There's hope in his eyes, soft, loving hope, as if he'd convinced himself you were playing a joke on him when you'd said it before. "Tell me again."

You move on him, getting on top of Wolffe and straddling his hips. His hands rest on your thighs, and you share a moan as you take in his length until you're seated flush against him. "I love you, Cyar'ika."

As you swivel your hips, panting again already, the Commander watches from below. He looks dazed, eyes not leaving your face, there's disbelief and pleasure there, "Again."

"I love you."

You start to bounce on him a little, rolling your hips, clenching tight around his length, hands pressed to his chest for support. Wolffe bites his bottom lip and bucks into your tight walls, drawing a cry from your lips. Your repeat yourself again, "I love you."

As you bounce on Wolffe's length, you repeat the words over and over, gripping his chest hair, your legs shaking as you climax again. Wolffe isn't far behind you, with a few more hard thrusts his hips buck sporadically until he grunts, spending himself within your walls. You fall onto his chest, panting with him as he puts his arms around you in a protective embrace.

Wolffe is quiet for a moment after. You've since returned to your sides, your back pressed into his chest, his arms secure around you, legs tangled together. He presses a kiss to the cone of your ear, whispering, "You mean that..?"

As you turn your head to see him, you steal a kiss before he can pull away to spare your split lip. "I love you Wolffe. I love you, and I mean it."

Wolffe kisses you properly, still careful of the split in your lip. His hands rub your back, the curve of your hip, he's careful with you in a way he hadn't been before. He doesn't say it in words, but his actions tell you for him. Wolffe loves you too. As he nuzzles your heads together, tucking you close to him, he whispers a word you know now, and it makes you smile against his shoulder, "Cyar'ika..."

Tag List!: @wolffegirlsunite @anxiouspineapple99 @wizardofrozz (sorry if I missed anyone or added someone by accident! Not used to people asking to be tagged in stuff haha)

[aftgficrec]

Hellooooo, I can’t believe this is open!1!1!!1 First of all, I wanted to thank you all so much for all the work you do!

I wanted to ask for fics about the twinyards pretending to be each other. Mainly light funny ones if you find them but any will do. Thank you so much!!!

Hi there, anon! Most of the light funny ones can be found in our previous ask for this. -A

NB: in longer fics this could just be a quick switch, so read them with that in mind

previous recs:

the twins switch 1 here

‘the glow in our mouths’ and ‘The Morning AUs Chapter 52: The Parent Trap AU’ here

‘The one with Kevaaron’ here

‘Aftg Youtube AU’ here

‘Forming a Family; Forging a Future’ here

you may also like:

Neil mistakes Aaron for Andrew here

twinyard mistaken identity here

‘If I Knew You’ here

aaron minyard is a little bit cursed series by BlueJay26 [Rated G, 2 complete works, Updated June 2023, Locked]

Part 1: Jeremy Knox Solves the Transmutation Question: Baffles Centuries' Worth of Alchemists [1429 Words, Twinyards Appreciation Week 2022] [Merriam-Webster] metamorphosis| \ˌme-tə-ˈmȯr-fə-səs\ : a change of physical form, structure, or substance especially by supernatural means // the metamorphosis of a perfectly nice teak table into gold (by your baby cousin who won't stop getting cursed) Or, Nicky endures the twins' shenanigans in every possible universe. **Written for Twinyards Appreciation Week, prompt - metamorphosis**

Part 2: AITA? No. Am I cursed? Very probably. [505 Words] I impersonated my twin brother to play a trick on his boyfriend. AITA?

AFTG Bingo 2k18: The Twinyard Card by exactly13percent [Rated T, Collection, Complete, 2018] 

Chapter 2: Pretend College is difficult enough to navigate without Andrew playing games with Aaron's best friend.

Two of a Kind by gluupor [Rated T, 9957 Words, Complete, 2019]

When Aaron didn't get offered an exy scholarship while Andrew did, they came up with a plan. Andrew would play exy and Aaron would go to class. No one would ever know that they were actually two separate people. What could possibly go wrong?

After Aaron goes to Andrew’s Press conference by @iserenademefan [Tumblr, 2018]

Andrew and Aaron pretending to be eachother by @offbrandginger [Tumblr, 2017]

angstier twins switch:

‘Give Me Another Minute (to Lay Here in Your Echo)’ and ‘another turning point, a fork stuck in the road’ here

‘Unlucky Lies’ here 

‘aparecium’ here 

‘Brother’s Best-Friend’ here

‘white walls’ here

‘Deals With Devils’ here (updated)

Doctor, What Doctor by AceSirenSinger [Rated T, 4081 Words, Complete, 2023]

And then, unfortunately, Aaron has an idea. The idea itself is almost not worth having. It is deeply unethical. It is the opposite of ‘do no harm,’ and it is not even guaranteed to work. Aaron actually thinks that this idea might be worse for his license than performing illegal care on a probable criminal in a back alley in the dark. No, Aaron thinks, it is undeniably worse. “You’re a survivor,” Aaron repeats. “You should already be dead, but you’re not. You should pass out sometime in the next few minutes, but I’m guessing you won’t.” Aaron squares his shoulders, makes himself say the words. “If I give you an address, can you get there? •• An AU where Aaron is a doctor, Andrew is FBI, and Neil’s gone rogue against the mafia. Neil needs medical care, and it really should be Aaron performing it, right? Right??

tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: major character injury, tw: blood, tw: violence, tw: needles

Your love is my drug by babyprincess675 [Rated G, 24524 Words, Incomplete, Updated June 2024]

Andrew Minyard’s life has been painfully mediocre for years since high school, nothing but guilt keeping him alive up until his twin brother invites him to his Christmas themed wedding in Alaska, where everything changes. Or Andrew gets invited to Aaron’s wedding after years of no contact and things go wrong.

tw: anxiety disorder, tw: suicide attempt, tw: overdose, tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced murder, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced self harm, tw: implied/referenced torture, tw: violence, tw: alcohol

in a manner of speaking by likearecord [Rated T, 6335 Words, Complete, 2021]

In Andrew's defense, blind dates are terrible and almost all of Kevin's friends are even worse. Nine times out of ten, calling in a favor to get Aaron to switch and tank it for him would be fine. Unfortunately, Andrew found number ten.

Crossfire by RoseGold_En [Rated M, 18396 Words, Complete, 2018]

The year is 2073. Andrew and Aaron Minyard are twins born into a world with a strict one-child policy due to overpopulation. They take on a singular identity as "Adam Minyard", with only one of them allowed outside at a time. Siblings who are discovered are separated from their families and put into an eternal cryosleep. One day, Andrew disappears. Aaron and Nicky have to find him while maintaining the twins' cover. It's up to Aaron to find out who sold them out and why a bureau agent named "Neil" knows his brother's real name.

tw: vomit, tw: alcohol, tw: violence, tw: gun violence, tw: death, tw: choking, tw: blood, tw: involuntary outing, tw: fire, tw: needles

Secret twin royalty au by @professionalfangirl24601 [Tumblr, 2021]

When queen Tilda gave birth to male identical twins, she knew it could be a threat to her country's future stability. In order to avoid the brothers fighting for the throne, she decided to give one of them up. He would be raised by a maid and then imprisoned with an iron mask constantly covering his face. 

Backliner Andrew by @palmettofoxden [Tumblr, 2017]

Part 1: Andrew takes Aaron's place  Part 2: Andrew takes Aaron’s place - follow-up ideas  Part 3: Backliner Andrew 3/? 

aaron is fat and buff too!!! hc by @palmett-hoes [Tumblr, 2020]

they're deals on deals on deals. meta by @thespineoftherighteous [Tumblr, 2023]

Art

Minyards art by @lnmei

HAPPY TWINYARD DAY!!! art by @babaleza

Aaron and Andrew sand castle building art by @emry-stars-art

POV: You’re Riko and the Twinyards are burying your body. art by @/capt.christine on instagram

nerdy Minyards art by @/intradaya on instagram

Mindyards on defense art by @/kulartly on instagram

andrew & aaron sarcastic healing art by @oliviaillustrations

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: The Worst Duke in London by Amalie Howard

4/5. Releases 9/24/24.

vibes: 10 Things I Hate About You, weird crunchy heroines, Big virgin heroes, sex deals

Heat Index: 7/10

The rather slimy Lord Huntingdon wishes to court Viola--but Viola can't be courted until her rather odd and aloof sister, Evangeline (sometimes known as Effie) is courted as well. That's where Gage, the completely broke new Duke of Vale, comes in. Huntingdon offers him a deal: if Gage courts Evangeline, Huntingdon will settle the debts Gage's late brother left behind. It seems easy enough. What Gage didn't expect was Evangeline's prickly nature--or, that when she did warm up to him, she'd offer a deal of her own. Sexual exploration with no strings attached? It sounds great to her. But Gage might not be able to keep himself from falling...

Obviously, this is a 10 Things I Hate About You retelling. I actually don't like that movie; after a somewhat more recent rewatch, I realized that it super isn't for me. Fortunately, this book is a lot more fun, with a much more endearing heroine (who is a weirdo, yes, but not an asshole) and a hero who basically falls headlong.

This is very much a romcom--and probably the most antihistorical of this series thus far (more on that later) which isn't a bad thing. It fully embraces its roots while dialing the heat up a good bit and throwing in some rather zany hijinks that you can really only get in a historical romance.

Is it perfect? Not quite--the pacing is a bit off to me, which leads to a pretty rushed finale. There isn't ever any major reason why our hero and heroine can't be together (I mean, at least none that she's aware of). But the book is a solid romp, and it's QUITE sexy. In fact, I would say that the sex is the best part of the novel, which is a compliment. This is a refreshingly sex positive book, and while Gage and Evangeline obviously fall in love (and fall hard) there's never any sense that either of them should feel any type of way about having casual sex for the sake of it. And they're both virgins!

Quick Takes:

--To go back to that antihistorical thing... While I wouldn't say any books in this series have been accurate or cared to be, this one felt less so? That's not a critique. I sincerely don't care about historical accuracy, as long as the writing and story is good. This did push it a bit, to the point that I felt like it was trying a bit hard. But for the most part, I found it funny, and I look forward to the handwringing over everything.

--There's a rather fabulous author's note in which Howard details the history of sexual education and pleasure for women of bygone eras, especially those we typically see depicted as repressed sex haters in certain historical romance novels. I loved every bit of it, and I so appreciate the resources!

--Briar and Lushing have always been the couple I was most excited to see, and the set up we got here has me even more hyped.

--Evangeline is truly an odd girl, and Gage is absolutely about it. Her obsession with animals led to some super funny moments--Gage is covered with kittens and rescues lambs and plays with her dog, and she is so horny she could SCREAM.

--Gage claims to be English versus Scottish (because his dad is English; his mother is very much Scottish, and he loves Scotland) but from the moment we're told that he's Big as Fuck, it's clear that he's a classic Scottish historical romance hero. Evangeline is all too happy to have him in a kilt.

The Sex:

Like I said earlier--the sex scenes in this book, as well as the way sex is discussed, are really the standouts. Gage and Evangeline have great chemistry. There's a real playfulness to their dynamic fairly early on, and this doesn't let up in the bedroom. Both Gage and Evangeline are virgins, and there isn't much dithering or concern over why he's chosen to abstain (somewhat--I mean, he clearly did STUFF). It's just a thing, and it does lead to a first penetrative sex scene that's rather funny, and also rather tender.

You get some stuff we're only now started to see more of in historicals--sex toys! There's some semi-public sex. "I need you now" sex (OOOOOH I LOVED THAT SHIT). An untouched orgasm that made me read the scene twice to ensure I'd read it right. DELIGHTFUL!

If you're looking for a blithe, irreverent, and super sexy historical romcom, this is what you want. It does get a little caught up in the weeds at points, but it stays funny, and it stays hot. Which I'm certainly not mad at, personally!

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Well look at you!!! Are you dressed as Wirt from Over the Garden Wall!!??? I really love that show, although I really don’t watch it as often as I should. I first watched it like any old kid does, pirated through YouTube with the actual episode in the corner as a tiny square and the rest of the screen filled with other nonsense! Boy, you really haven’t lived if you haven’t done that at least once in your life. Once watched someone’s upload of the entire Toy Story 4 movie like that — can you believe it? Someone posting the entire Toy Story 4 movie on YouTube! The best part is, it stayed on there for like four weeks! What a fun time.. now, fortunately nowadays with me being on the interwebs more often I know some peeps have posted the whole OtGW series on Google docs which they’ve then shared around, which is pretty nifty indeed! Really appreciate folks doing stuff like that, because otherwise digital media can just vanish into the air with the way streaming is nowadays. Rotten stuff.

Oh, anyway, Over the Garden Wall! Yes, I remember when I first started watching that show. I remember watching the very opening, thinking, “Scenes of the past? No, scenes of fantasy? No… perhaps passing memories, fleeting dreams and thoughts?” I like to think I was pretty right, personally! I like that we’re shown… well, I won’t say much, but with such a simple opening everything happens in plain sight. Even moreso when you look at the Easter eggs, like the intro of each episode!!! Gosh, I felt amazed when I learned all the things it hides!!! I used to gobble down theory videos one after the other about the show! A good show really has you thinking and looking at things with a keen eye and ear, doesn’t it? Over the Garden Wall is such eye candy too, it’s funny how a show can have a simple style like that and yet so detailed too, I’m sure the art style took a while to brew and develop.

My very favourite character was Wirt, no doubt you can guess, when I watched OtGW I was but an insecure teenager myself and as an oldest sibling who plays clarinet, well, it was like a match made in the Unknown! Now that I’m more grown Wirt comes across more silly to me now, ha. Funny how that is you know? When you grow up, you can see the same story at different points in your life, but relate to different characters. That happened to me once with this book about a primary school age girl in foster care. When I was a younger kid, I related a bunch to the main character and her frustrations and struggles, but when I later read the book again as a… teen maybe? I found myself relating more to the adults in her life. It was a strange kind of thing to experience. It helps me remember that to children, things that may seem small to adults, can be really major and big! Children’s concerns should be taken into account all the same, they shouldn’t be simply brushed off as nonsense. Teenagers’ too!

Actually, hey! Speaking of Over the Garden Wall, this I hope you’ll like, I put a little reference to it in my most recent tumblr fake dashboard post! I haven’t seen anyone point it out at all!?? It is none other than fishblr user burgle-the-turts! Their icon no doubt confirms it: a teapot, similar to the kettle Greg wears — I mean, sorry, his elephant costume. The “burgle the turts” line lives in my brain, what can I say. I dropped many other fun references to media in the post, for example, fishblr user greenXD is a reference to that funny thing Master Wu says in the Lego Ninjago movie. THAT’S RIGHT I WATCHED NINJAGO but I haven’t sadly seen the movie and I kind of fell of the show when Zane was kidnapped..?? I did watch the snake stuff, and the whole season where…..

(I proceed to elaborate at length. You never receive your candy.)

trick :)

[oscconfessions]

This’ll turn into a long rant so I’m sorry in advance but the way some of the AIB fandom (not all of it, and hopefully not the majority) treats some of the female characters — Nabla and Pitchfork in specific — in comparison to some of the male characters — Alef and Glowstick in specific — is actually insane to me.

As a preface, I don’t support GatlingGroink, I just like AIB as a series and wish that it could be picked up and continued by a different creator.

There’s such a wild double standard.

Pitchfork will get harassed, catcalled, and perused for who knows how long by Glowstick, even after telling him multiple times that she doesn’t like him. When she’s at her limit, she lashes out at him, she yells and breaks something, because he literally would not listen to her otherwise.

But Glowstick is the victim here? Glowstick is seen by some people as the poor little guy who got his heart broken and “really Pitchfork didn’t have to yell at him!!! She could’ve gently declined, he didn’t deserve it 🥺🥺” she did! She tried to! He didn’t listen! She had a right to be upset, being constantly flirted with and harassed is so frustrating! And if yelling is the only way to get it through his head that she doesn’t want to date him, so be it!

Don’t even talk to me about how that mindset feeds into the societal standard of how women need to protect a man’s feelings even though the man does not show any regard to how she feels. (Which is also persistent through this next ramble.)

And then there’s Nabla and Alef. Maybe people missed it, because of how far apart episode 4 was from the rest of the series, but Alef bullies Nabla. Often. They’re related, and he’s been bullying her for years, and you can’t say it’s just familial riffing because no! Familial riffing doesn’t have one person completely belittling the other at every turn, as Alef belittles Nabla. Alef insults her, he could’ve destroyed her belongings and doesn’t care, and he treats her like garbage multiple times throughout the series.

That’s like, textbook bullying.

But the moment Nabla tries to fight back, it results in an accident (Alef getting stuck literally. Was not purposeful. Nabla and Glue just laughed at it because Alef was finally making a fool of himself after making Nabla look foolish and stupid and lesser for who knows how long. He was getting a taste of his own medicine and they found it funny), and suddenly Nabla is a horrible monster and Alef is just an innocent little guy who didn’t deserve any of what happened.

Are you? Serious?

Alef experiencing the same humiliation he inflicted upon Nabla for the first time doesn’t make him a good person, and it doesn’t invalidate the harm he caused. Nabla laughing at him because her bully isn’t the one in power anymore doesn’t suddenly make her a terrible person.

Like. I get that Nabla’s issue is far less black and white than Pitchfork’s (I 100% believe Pitchfork is in the right in that situation, and no one can change my mind). But at the same time, Nabla is a victim of bullying who finally fights back and is villainized for it, while her bully’s behavior is excused because she did one mean thing to him.

Again, this is not talking about the entire AIB fandom, just a loud minority of people I have seen within it. Also sorry for this rant being so long, I have Feelings about it.

.

[gay-dorito-dust]

Also to rephrase what i meant is wednesday x male reader who is like kiryu chan

I live for your energy my friend, I love being reminded of my love for the yakuza series (even the less favoured ones which I think was yakuza 3 I think…my man kiryu didn’t have much to do in that one other then fix peoples shit. Which shouldn’t be his job in the first place.) ichiban is my dumb baby boi, I love him so. He’s the epitome of ‘heart of gold, dumb of ass.’

You don’t have a sense of fashion, no need to worry cuz Wednesday doesn’t have much of one either but she could hold together an outfit for herself but for someone else, not so much. Which made you an eyesore for poor Enid who has to take away that faux gold suit away from you muttering, “no, just-no.”

Other then that, you were what some would consider the strong silent type who no one should fuck with unless they wanna be punched with a bin or even a vending machine. Your freakishly strong for a guy which was an advantage for Wednesday as it meant no one would bother her if her massive guard dog was nearby, staring them down with his resting bitch face. Spoiler: it’s just your face.

Your dream was to run an orphanage, so when parents weekend comes about, you go out of your way to take the younger students who’s parents were unfortunately not alive anymore out to Jericho for the day and buy them whatever they want until the weekend was over. You were the acting older brother figure for a majority of them that even after parents weekend they’d go out of their way to ask you for advice or go with them to Jericho.

Especially when Rave’n comes and they want your opinion but you direct their inquiries to Enid instead from the last time you were left with the responsibility of telling someone how they looked. Wednesday wouldn’t admit it but your tender side for children born from less fortunate beginnings did always warm her coal heart. While you may look like a man with no care, you held the biggest heart in your chest and would bare the weight of the sky if it meant seeing those kids smile.

You also have this random male student in a Leopard print blazer, an eyepatch and a metal baseball bat that is seemingly obsessed with you and would always be raring to fight you whilst hiding in the most estranged places ever…you once found him in your dorm, wearing Wednesday’s clothes and a really shitty wig put into pigtails…what a weird guy…he’s strong and quick you had to hand him that but you felt that you fight better alone.

You’re also quite protective over the people you hold dear; Wednesday, Enid, Thing, Ajax, Bianca,Kent, Divina, Xavier, Eugene, you swore you’d protect them all when the Hyde attacks started picking up. So whenever you found yourself in a situation where the hyped seems himself to be; the sleeves are up to your elbows and your blazer was already on the floor as you prepare to give the son of a bitch an ass beating he wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

You also wondered why it was that Tyler conveniently got bad bruising on the exact places you punched the Hyde or how he’d often flinch whenever you brushed past him in the street. Wednesday knew and she found it funny to see Tyler scared to death of your inhuman strength. It was entertaining and she would often drag you to weathervane just to see Tyler hold his breath and bite his tongue in your presence.

Many also considered you a leader with your cool headedness and straightforward thinking but you never wanted to be one in the first place, it just didn’t feel right for you to take that position, no matter how many times you were offered it. It wasn’t apart of your plan to become a leader and it never will be.

You made yourself a legacy at Nevermore that many would remember even well after you’ve grown old but still able to pack a fucking punch.

Overall Wednesday was glad to have you as you respected her wishes and desires more so then others because you too wish to have days to yourself and you both knew that you’d always go back to each other when company is highly appreciated.

Also nobody tears up karaoke night like you do. It’s just me stating a well known fact.

[thecrenellations]

okay, trying to go for at least one answer that’s funny because it’s extremely expected and one that’s funny because it’s unexpected???

2 3 6 12 21 25

these are the questions.

I think you succeeded, my anonymous inquisitor! (I laughed/smiled when I read the questions.)

2. Did you reread anything? What? YES, I DID! I was going to provide some numbers for this and got a little lost in the details, but half of the individual books I read this year were ones I've read before, I read some of those books (Lion Hunters) multiple times, and then I went and reread a bunch of the ones that were new to me, especially the Lymond Chronicles! The Game of Kings wins, I think. No, I know. I love rereading, and my favorite stories are the kind that make me love it more!

3. What were your top five books of the year? In alphabetical order, with an only-one-book-per-series restriction and my apologies to a few books I liked nearly as much or the same amount as these ones: The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan, The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor, A Power Unbound by Freya Marske, and Stateless by Elizabeth Wein.

6. Was there anything you meant to read but never got to? I should have thought to split up my answers, but yes! I remembered a few of the nonfiction ones: The Power of Babel by John McWhorter, Ducks by Kate Beaton, Caring For Your Books by Michael Dirda, Karachi Vice by Samira Shackle, and a biography of John Gielgud

12. Any books that disappointed you? Certain aspects of the Lymond Chronicles, the new-reading highlight of my year, disappointed me in ways that I have also found deeply interesting to talk and think about, and I felt that Wild Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the Natural World did not quite deserve its title. Get wilder and more curious!

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama? These questions are from 2019, so I suppose they predate booktok becoming a major thing! But I certainly watched Claire run around Schuler books and, dramatically, cause The Thief and Code Name Verity to sell out!

At @red-sea-itinerary, the capital of booklr, our polls have been very dramatic, and an author has weighed in. We should all remember Abreha's palace's water clock. Nearly everyone prefers coffee with Turunesh over kingship and no one thinks Medraut should have the latter. Birds. And Telemakos is taller than Lleu!!!

25. What reading goals do you have for next year? To get around to a few of those books in 6, to read more nonfiction (I think trying more via audiobook would help), to read more diversely in terms of authors (including time periods), and to read another series that's new to me! Maybe to help poke a certain loose book club into meeting again? To have fun and escape and think and learn. Reading was enough of a challenge during and after college that I still feel delighted and grateful that I've been reading regularly and finding new books I love. :)

[mx-piggy]

Almost forgot it was new Futurama day until I came across a post about it. Thank you, random Tumblr user. Spoilers ahead!!

I hadn't really expected much from Related to Items You've Viewed, and it was probably one of the episodes I had the least excitement for. But, I really was pleasantly surprised! It's not in my top 10 Futurama episodes of all time, but it's pretty strong on the whole compared to the other episodes of this revival. I can definitely see people not liking it by virtue of the fact it's basically 'the Amazon episode' (not to be confused with the Amazonian Women episode, Amazon Women in the Mood) and plenty of fans will go into it not wanting to like it, but I personally came out of it thinking it was pretty decent! With the last topical episode (the crypto episode), I saw some people on here dislike it just because it was 'about crypto' and they were like 'crypto episode bad', because they equate topicality with being bad, even if the way the episode did it was pretty unique and clever. And, it's valid not to like something. But, some people on here have such unnuanced opinions it's kinda laughable.

Like I said, I think everything about it- story, humour, sci-fi concept, characters- are all very strong, compared to, say, Children of a Lesser Bog, that was very strong character-wise but had some story issues at the beginning, or the Impossible Stream, which had some really funny jokes but had a sci-fi premise I found kind of boring.

Admittedly, I'm only vaguely familiar with Amazon and the poor treatment of its workers, but I think this was a decent commentary on it; if you're more informed about this kind of thing, feel free to correct me. Even if Amazon and the invasive nature of our devices is kind of an overdone thing and seems kind of late to be seen as fresh in a 2023 Futurama episode, I still think it simultaneously worked as a story within the Futurama universe as well, if that makes sense? Like, even if it is meant to be a commentary on Amazon, I think you could watch it without having much knowledge about Amazon and it still works as a Futurama story, too? No idea if I've articulated that in a way that makes sense (I tried!) I think that the sci-fi premise of the warehouse being able to expand on its own was pretty neat and worked with the commentary they were making.

Outside of the Amazon stuff, the story was pretty standard but it was still enjoyable, at least for me as a Freela fan. It's great to see the writers committing to Fry and Leela's relationship, and I think it was natural for them to do a story about Bender being jealous of them (I'm also a Freeler fan, if you couldn't tell). I think it was fun for them to go and rescue Bender from the Momazon warehouse, and I like that, throughout the episode, the characters really do care about one another. Fry being so concerned about Bender was really sweet.

I think these really nice character relationships elevates this revival over a lot of the episodes in the Comedy Central revival, which, at times, felt pretty mean-spirited. I really like how this revival is very sincere in the character relationships it protrays.

My only major issue with the episode is the fact that I don't think Mom had as big of a presence as she did in the original run, and she felt under-utilised. I wished we'd gotten an interaction between her and the Professor- I love their dynamic and it felt odd that they didn't really interact. I'm hoping that we get to see more of her because she's one of my favourite recurring characters, and I'd love to see them build on the reveal in Bender's Game that the Professor is Igner's father.

But, that's a very minor issue! The episode was really funny, had some really good character dynamics, and I really liked the sci-fi premise! Also, I adore the Moon setting as a fan of the Series Has Landed, so it was neat to see that again, as well as the Luna Park mascot. Also, shout-out to the Moon conservative and his three robot daughters.

There are so many good jokes in this episode I won't list my favourites this time.

Overall, I think this might be my second favourite episode of this season, with first place going to Children of a Lesser Bog (which I adore despite those expositional issues that I've complained about every week since lmao). That said, I'm really prepared to enjoy episode six, because Johnny 2 Cellos said on his podcast with Toonirific Tariq (Cartoons that Curse; go check it out if you haven't already) it was his favourite episode of the revival out of the first six episodes (he had early access to them all) and I trust that man's Futurama opinions. After my disappointment with Parasites Regained, it feels really good to be so positive about this episode!

[anzuhan]

Do you have any 00 characters you like, aside from the innovades and the Trinitys?

yes and im sorry i dont really talk about them or draw them (only sometimes) 😭 i posted a tierlist awhile back & i have no idea where it is . so i will just talk about everything here now :) it will probably be VERY long so i am putting it under a read more. also this will be full of spoilers but i guess that makes sense <- saying if anyone stumbles upon it & is still watching

edit its super long 🙏🙏🙏🙏 HOPE YOU ENJOY READING

my absolute favorites besides the innovades (trinities included) are neil and chris! i did draw neil a few more times than anyone else thats not an innovade, and sadly only drew chris once for her bday 😭 IVE REALLY GOT TO DRAW HER MORE shes so cute and fun to draw..

my opinions of neil were very rocky at the start and i didnt like him AND IT WASNT EVEN HIS FAULT 😭 i first played dwg3 before watching anything gundam related at all (and then started by watching 00); i didnt know which lockon stratos was in dwg3 but he was kind of annoying to me </3 and because i couldnt tell them apart i just supposed it was neil and hereby disliked him 😭 well . that one was lyle but i found that out later ... thruout s1 i slowly got to like neil more and more and by s1 finale i was absolutely crushed . my opinions on tieria may also be foreverchanging, but one thing we share for sure is that we hated neil till he died then just didnt anymore </3

chris i liked a lot from the beginning because of how easygoing and nice she was with everyone, and in more ways than one she reminded me of myself 🥺 i also dont really see very often characters that like coding or technical stuff & are extroverted & like fashion so this felt like a win for me.. finally... some representation (real). this all and her whole thing with weekly crushes is so 😭😭 when she first saw johann and got a pic with him IMMEDIATELY and thought he was hot n then got sad that he was evil and fucked up was so me 🙏 so with how much chris meant to me & how they basically replaced her with mileina that i do not like for variety of reasons was my personal 9/11 for this anime

now besides these two i also hold quite literally majority of all characters in high regard. i love patrick a lot for being funniest guy around & kati his not bayonetta badass wife ... i dont usually do shipping but theyre really so cute together i always go 🥺🥺🥺 when they were just happy together. saji and louise too !!!! the whole story with how their relationship changed and evolved was so great and i was hooked. marie is absolutely one of my favorites in terms of backstory & the peak of s2 to me (yes ... despite the innovators because i didnt like a lot of handling of them 😭) — i really didnt care all that much about soma in s1 and then they elevated that so hard in s2. i am not a person that holds family things in high regard due to my own personal bad experiences, but besides her backstory with allelujah, the scenes between her and becoming smirnov's family were always so dear to me whenever we got them 🥺 this was also really just from a little side thing of the extra s2 chibi animation, but that scenario of them all taking a trip to heaven and marie making andrei talk to his parents and them getting all together was so sweet as well i love loved that one ...

despite it all, i also truly believe graham is best boy of the entire 00 series. this guys so peak i dont even know where to begin; the bond between him and his other squadron members was so good. it was a real shame they kind of had to go 😭 his love for the flags was also so real... and this guys VERY good at what hes doing, like my guy could fight off whole gundams with gn drives in some far underdeveloped flags. i know some people didnt like the turn they went for with him in s2 where he became weeb supreme but i thought it was so funny 🙏 MR BUSHIDO LOVE. he also got a super cool custom ms so i gotta give it to him ... all & all as well, this guy then sacrificed himself, died a hero, and was so cool he just came back to life to become a new meister. how can any other guy in this beat THAT ☝️

for the rest of meisters, i am sorry everyone. i did not care about setsuna that much </3 i acknowledge him and his greatness and how much hes helped multiple people here, but whenever they just wanted to mirror setsuna and saji i always ended up being more interested in saji im sorry 😭 ; allelujah is a little guy i just felt sorry for the entire time for literally everything . all the way from the start from the debacle with tieria that was so crazy to the hallelujah struggles to then having to also struggle with soma 😭 this guys just the real struggler. the supreme struggler of all time. i hope he gets some rest he really needs it asap ; lyle i used to not like because of . how he even started off in the scene with feldt </3 AND I LOVE FELDT like get ur hands off her omg ... but he did grow from then and i think hes pretty epic now, him killing off ali was also super satisfying in the end of it all :)

for the rest of ptolemy, talked briefly about feldt above, i think shes great but also her changing crushes between meisters was so funny 😭 like you go girlie i guess ... ! she tried her best . her holding the crew in such high regards as her own family was very wholesome 🥺 LICHTY 😭 lichty was so funny too and. well. LIKE I GET IT i get the drama that went down in s1 but i wish it didnt have to end like that skllwmegj😭😭😭😭 i wish theyd just have a near death experience and then him and chris could just get to be happy together after but i guess not 😔 sumeragi & kati's intertwined backstories we got to know more of thru s2 were really cool to see, and billy's love for her punched me and kicked me into a wall. this man loved her SO much its unreal . hes such a good guy 😭 (which it kind of ticks me off he ended up with mina ........... LIKE COULD YOU GUYS NOT FIND A MORE NORMAL PERSON FOR HIM 😭 i think he deserved better but thats just my personal opinion ... im sure theres a lot of people out there who want mina right NOW and would disagree. so this ones for u guys . if u think shes epic and cool then i guess he got peak ! good for him) ; other unmentioned members i had no real big opinion on 😭😭😭😭 i sometimes even forget lasse exists i am sorry . hes done nothing wrong just left absolutely no opinion on me 🙇‍♀️

now im not gonna detail THE REST as well but again i literally hold everyone in high or at least neutral regard from ali to whatever the name of the a-laws blond evil guy was im sorry 🙏 the only two i can even say i dislike in the slightest are mileina and alejandro 😭 which is such a duo out of every character in this to tie together . i know . but yeah i hope you enjoyed the sumi rambles 00 NO INNOVADES edition 👍👍 i tried to be as true to myself and my opinions as possible so heres all of them . on paper. digital tumblr paper

[the-al-chemist]

Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 25: In the Beginning

A/N: it’s a funny title for the last chapter of a half a million word-long series, but I hope you’ll see my logic by the end. The end. Wow, it feels weird to say that. There’ll be an epilogue, but the bulk of Artemis’ story ends… here. And what a journey it’s been. Featured characters include Ellie Hopper @thatravenpuffwitch and David Willows & Amelia Booth @that-scouse-wizard. Warnings: mentions of violence, death and betrayal, an incredibly nostalgic and somewhat bittersweet ending. I cried writing the last few paragraphs, and you might just cry reading them. Sorry.

News always spread quickly around Hogwarts, and it did not take long for the school to begin whispering about Artemis Hexley and her friends’ heroic defeat of the cabal and destruction of the infamous Cursed Vaults. With each passing day, the rumours and stories grew increasingly far-fetched, and by the time the school gossipmongers had moved on to the latest scandal - namely, Slytherin winning the Quidditch Cup after they cheated their way to victory over Gryffindor in the final match of the year, much to the obvious chagrin of Professor McGonagall - Artemis was surprised that anyone even believed in the Cursed Vaults or the Circle of Khanna anymore.

Not that she really cared, of course. She and the other seventh years had bigger things to worry about: their N.E.W.T. exams. Having spent the majority of her final term breaking curses, Artemis had not put as much effort into her revision as she should have. She had attempted to study as hard as she could in the few weeks that followed the night she had destroyed the Cursed Vaults and preceded the exams, but she had found it harder to focus on the N.E.W.T.s than she had the O.W.L.s. She was not sure whether that was because the subject material was more complex this time, because she no longer had Rowan there to motivate her with revision timetables and long library sessions, or because she was still unsettled by what she had discovered in Dumbledore’s pensieve. Probably, it was a combination of everything.

Still, she had managed to struggle through her written exams and, as always, she fared far better in the practicals. She could only hope that she had done enough to get the grades she needed to get onto the Curse-Breaker training scheme at Gringotts. 

Merula Snyde had also applied for the programme, however, she didn’t seem concerned about her exam results at all.

“They won’t care about grades,” she told Artemis as they left their final, abysmally difficult Ancient Runes exam. “Not when I’ve already given them something better.”

Artemis frowned. “What?”

“Let’s just say I managed to get a pretty convincing letter of recommendation for my application,” Merula said, her eyebrows raised. “After all, I know someone whose opinion on Curse-Breakers gets taken very seriously.”

“Who, Bill?”

“No, dungbrain. I mean Madam Rakepick, obviously.”

“There is nothing obvious about that,” replied Artemis. “How did you even-”

“I wrote to her in Azkaban. They are allowed to receive letters, you know.” Artemis didn’t know, but she nodded anyway, and Merula continued, “I told her that after the Buried Vault and what she did to Khanna, she owed that much. And seeing as she took the three of us on as apprentices and got Bill a place, it was only fair that she do the same for us, too.”

Artemis blinked. “Us?”

“Yeah, I told her to write a letter for you as well. She sent me back one for each of us, basically saying that they’d be idiots not to take us on, and I forwarded them on to Gringotts. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I just don’t remember the last time you did anything this nice for me, Merula,” Artemis replied. “Actually, I don’t remember you��ever doing anything this nice for me.”

Merula rolled her eyes. “Don’t get used to it.”

“You mean, you don’t want us to be work friends as well as school friends?”

“We’re not friends at all, Hexley. I barely tolerate you.”

Artemis laughed out loud, and as she walked away, she could’ve sworn she saw Merula smirking to herself. 

On the last day of term, the final years were asked to meet with their Heads of Houses. When the Hufflepuffs arrived at the greenhouses, Professor Sprout was already there, smiling at all of them with a look of mingled sadness and joy in her eyes.

“Thank you for taking time out of your last day to sit and listen to me,” she said. “There are a few things I wanted to say to you, and I’m not sure that there will be time before the leaving ceremony tomorrow morning. I expect that you will want to spend that time with your peers and with your families, and not your head of house.

“However, as your head of house, I do want to spend a little time with you. I remember your first night at the castle, when you all were first sorted into Hufflepuff. You were all so nervous and you looked so small under that hat, and now, look at you all. All grown up and ready to leave.”

“To be fair, Professor, some of us still would look small under that hat,” said Tonks, and Artemis stuck her tongue out at her.

“Hufflepuff house has always valued hard work, patience, dedication, fairness, loyalty, and kindness,” Sprout continued. “Now, I know what some say about our house, and those of us who are sorted into it. I believe the word ‘duffers’ gets thrown about fairly often, and I suppose that next to the bravery of Gryffindor, the wisdom of Ravenclaw, and the ambition of Slytherin, our house does seem a little bit humble in comparison. But, what those people fail to understand is how there is brave you must be to truly care for others, how hard work requires ambition, and how treating others fairly is always the wisest choice. Our values are nothing to be sniffed at. You’ve done a great job at upholding them whilst you’ve been here, and I do hope you’ll continue to uphold them after you leave. Remember, there is strength in being kind.

“Now, obviously, there is one less person here than there should have been. I don’t want to linger too much on sad events when you’ve all achieved so much to be happy about, but I’d like us to take just a few moments to remember Rowan.” Professor Sprout paused, placed one green-fingered hand over the other, and bowed her head. Several others followed suit, including Artemis. After almost a minute, Professor Sprout spoke again, “I think Rowan would be as proud of you as I am. And I am so very, very proud of you. I’m sorry to see you go, but I can’t wait to see how you’ll continue to make me proud in the years to come.” She smiled and wiped a single tear from her cheek. “I’ll let you all get on. Murphy, Diego, Artemis. A word, please.”

“Did we do something wrong, Professor?”

“Not at all, I just need to take back your prefects’ badges and Captain’s armband,” she told them. Diego unpinned his badge and gave it to her. Artemis waited until he had gone to do the same. Professor Sprout squeezed her hand as she pressed the badge into her green palm. “And you thought you wouldn’t make a good prefect.”

Frowning, Artemis’ nose wrinkled. “Did I make a good prefect?”

“You made an interesting one, I’ll give you that,” Sprout chuckled. “But overall, I think you did a good job. Thank you.”

“Thank you, Professor Sprout. For everything.”

“You’re welcome, Artemis. Now, have you sent off all your invitations for the ceremony tomorrow?”

Artemis shook her head. The following morning, the final years would take part in the annual leavers’ ceremony before returning home, and they had each been given a set of invitations to send to their families. Artemis had already posted invitations to her great-aunt and uncle, along with the newspaper clipping detailing the results of the magizoological photography competition she had entered earlier in the year, but had yet to send out the other two.

One she had thrown into the bin, having decided that her mother probably wouldn’t want to come, and not being certain that she wanted her to come, either. The final invitation was meant for Jacob, but she still didn’t know when he would be released from Azkaban. She had kept hold of it in the hope that he would be allowed out in time to attend, but it was looking less likely by the hour, despite several written requests to Kingsley Shacklebolt that he try to hurry the process along a bit.

“There’s still a little time,” Professor Sprout told her gently before she let go of her hand. “Murphy, your armband?”

Murphy handed it to her. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” 

For the first time in seven years, Murphy had nothing to say. He simply shrugged his shoulders, a look of glum resentment on his face. Professor Sprout sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Murphy, when I said just now that I’m proud of you all and your achievements, I don’t just mean the big wins. You were faced with an opponent that was not playing fair, and you chose to stick to your principles rather than stoop to their level. As far as I’m concerned, that was a great achievement in its own right. Besides, Quidditch shouldn’t just be about winning. It should be about being part of a team and having fun with your peers. And you know, even though you’re adults now, it’s okay for you to do things you enjoy just for the fun of them.”

Artemis’ eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

“I almost forgot!” she blurted out. “Murphy, I’ve got an idea. Can you get the Quidditch team together? Tell them to meet on the pitch right after lunch. I’ll make sure Andre and Charlie know to come, too.”

And so, with Penny’s help spreading the word, several assorted members of the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor Quidditch teams and the entire Circle of Khanna met on the pitch, ready to play one final game while they still could.

“But there’s too many of us,” said Andre, frowning at all the people who had gathered around to join.

“So? We can have more Chasers and Beaters, or we’ll just swap players in and out as we go.”

“That’s actually against the rules,” Murphy told her. “You’re only allowed to substitute players after the beginning of the match if the game goes on for more than-”

“Sod the rules. This is just for fun. Anyone who wants to play can play. Who’s in?”

In the end, they managed to sort out two teams of nine players, made up of students from all four houses, with both Murphy and Lee Jordan sharing the commentary. 

It was chaos. With more players on the pitch (many of whom did not usually play Quidditch), two commentators, and no team robes to distinguish who was who, Artemis found it hard to follow what was actually going on, even from the vantage point she was using in order to look out for the golden snitch. 

"Egwu saves, but Diego Caplan picks it up on the rebound," announced Lee Jordan. "From what I hear, this is something of a speciality for Caplan, who-" 

"Caplan passes to Hopper," Murphy interrupted him wearily, "who flies back to the scoring zone. Hopper has a remarkable shooting record in the past, so Egwu will have his work cut out for him. But what's this? One of the Weasleys-"

"I think it's Fred. Could also be George."

"It's a fifty percent chance either way. Weasley aims a Bludger at Hopper, but it looks like... Yes, Bludger is deflected by Lee. Excellent defence from newcomer Lee there, leaving Hopper free to shoot. She shoots, and she scores!"

"Ten points to... Which team is that?"

It was not Artemis' team that had scored, but she applauded anyway as Ellie Hopper flew away from the goalposts and smiled at Barnaby, who blushed and dropped his Beater's bat. 

On the other side of the pitch, Artemis thought she could see a flash of something gold, so she flew closer to investigate. She wasn't the only one. Charlie Weasley must have seen the same thing, for he flew in the same direction. 

"You saw it too, then?" he asked her, his eyes scanning the pitch.

"Dunno what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't."

Artemis stopped feigning ignorance and grinned before squinting to try and see the snitch, to no avail.

"I think it's gone," she said, frowning.

"I think you're right," replied Charlie, but he kept looking for a few more seconds before shrugging and turning to her. "What's the score?" 

"You're asking the wrong person. I think my team is winning, though."

"For now, maybe. Ow! That's a foul, you know."

Of course, Artemis did know, but she didn't care. She laughed and zoomed away from Charlie, leaving him to rub his upper arm where she had just flown into him sideways. She took both hands from her broomstick and held her arms wide as she accelerated, raising her face to the sunlight and feeling the breeze filter through her outstretched fingers. She was going to miss this feeling.

The sound of applause from down below drew her attention back to the game, and she saw that Beatrice Haywood had managed to score a goal for her own team. She clapped her hands, and scanned the pitch once more for the Snitch.

And she saw it.

There, near the other team's goalposts, the tiny golden ball was flitting around the hoops, weaving its way between them. Artemis put her hands back on the broom and accelerated towards it, the wind whipping her face and hair as she flew faster and faster through the air. She was focussing so hard on the Snitch that she almost didn't notice Charlie in her peripheral vision, but she just about managed to catch a glimpse of his distinctive red hair. She pushed further forward, descending into a dive as the Golden Snitch spiralled down the length of the middle goalpost. 

Having nearly reached the ground, the Snitch shot out across the middle of the pitch, flying so low to the ground that it was almost touching the grass. Artemis pulled out of the dive and swerved to follow it, and so did Charlie. 

Her broom was the better model, more suited to sharp turns than Charlie's, but he was the more skilled flier. He turned with pinpoint precision, and accelerated after the ball. Artemis flattened herself so low to her broom that her chin almost touched the handle, willing it to fly faster, but Charlie was gaining speed, and now they were neck and neck, and the Snitch was so close, so very close.

Artemis reached out her hand to catch it, but it ducked under her hand and dodged sideways, closer to Charlie. In desperation, she slammed her hand down, hard. She did so with such speed and force that she forgot to brake and her broom slipped out from beneath her, but she didn't care. Beneath her right palm, the Snitch's left wing was trapped and pinned to the ground. Unfortunately, however, the other wing was also trapped by another hand. As she had fallen from her broom, Charlie had jumped from his own, and had also managed to trap the Snitch by holding it down to the ground.

“Now what?”

The other players flew down and dismounted their broomsticks. 

"Well, I think the fairest thing to do would be to see who touched it first," said Penny. "After all, don't Snitches have flesh memories?"

"They do, but this one is second-hand. It'll say I caught it, regardless of who did this time."

"So, what do we do?"

Charlie turned to Artemis. "Tie?"

That was good enough for her. "Tie."

Murphy and Lee Jordan called out the final scores, but Artemis was no longer listening at all. Not just because she didn't mind about winning or losing, but because from under the stands, she could see someone emerging who looked incredibly familiar, even from the distance.

"Hey, Hexley, isn't that..."

"It's my brother," she said. "It's Jacob."

She waved the others ahead and walked across the pitch towards her brother, who began to clap his hands as she approached him. 

"Not bad," he grinned. "You're a decent flier."

Artemis shrugged. "I was just taught well."

"Humble, too. No wonder the hat put you in Hufflepuff," Jacob looked across at Artemis' friends, many of whom were surreptitiously watching the pair of them. "Want to get out of here?"

Together, Artemis and Jacob made their way through the grounds to the covered bridge, which gave them a clear view over the Forbidden Forest in one direction and the Black Lake in the other. Jacob looked out at both as if he'd never seen them before.

"I don't think I'll ever get over these views," he said. "Although any view is an improvement on what I've been staring at for the last ten months."

Artemis looked at her brother properly. He was paler than he used to be, his robes hung from his body as if they were too big for him, and his cheekbones were more pronounced than ever. His eyes had dark circles beneath them, and his smile didn't quite reach them. 

"I'm sorry I didn't write to you. I would’ve done, but I didn't know they let you send letters to Azkaban," she told him. "When did they let you go?" 

"Late last night."

"But Dumbledore asked them to release you weeks ago!"

"Yes, but because lying in a court of magical law is also a crime, I had to finish a shorter sentence before I could leave," Jacob explained. "So last night it was. Didn't want to be alone, so I stayed at Newt and Tina's. I came here as soon as they stopped telling me about your photo competition. Uncle Newt is incredibly pleased that you are the second-best magizoological photographer in the country. He's had the article framed and everything."

"He has?"

"Twice. Apparently one of the Crups ate the first frame."

A small laugh escaped Artemis' mouth, and the fine lines in the corners of Jacob's eyes deepened as his smile widened. 

"Did they tell you about the leaving ceremony tomorrow?" she asked, and he nodded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her last invitation. "Do you want to come?"

"Definitely. I think I've missed enough already," Jacob said. He took the invitation from her and wrapped his arms around her. "It seems very strange to think of you being old enough to leave Hogwarts."

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do next?"

"What I'm good at," said Artemis. "Curse-breaking. I've applied for the training position at Gringotts." She frowned. "What will you do? Where will you go?"

"I want to solve mysteries. The mysteries." For the first time since Artemis could remember, Jacob's eyes brightened. Not understanding his meaning, her eyebrows furrowed deeper, and he explained, "Mysteries that have been around for so long that people have forgotten they ever even existed. Like the Chamber of Secrets or the Fountain of Fair Fortune."

"Those are just stories. They're not real."

"Muggles believe that Merlin is just a story. We were told that the Cursed Vaults weren't real. They are, they've just been talked about so much that people have stopped believing in them. In every legend there's an element of truth, and so I want to find out exactly how much truth there is in everything we now consider to be a legend. As for where that will take me, I don't know."

Artemis swallowed. "So, you'll leave? And I won't know where you'll be going or when you'll be back?"

"Or you could come with me."

"You really mean it? You and me, going around the world, and working together?"

"Why not? Between us, we managed to do the impossible with the Vaults. What's to stop us from doing more impossible things?"

Artemis could scarcely believe her ears. This was everything she had ever wanted to hear, everything she had longed for in all those years of searching and missing her brother. And yet... 

Perhaps it was just that it felt too good to be true, or perhaps it was because she already felt homesick for Hogwarts, or because so much had changed, but she felt suddenly apprehensive. It was as if she were being pulled in two different directions, and she didn't know which way she should go. So, instead of agreeing, she asked:

"What about Gringotts?"

"You don't have to go to Gringotts. I doubt you'd like it, anyway. They have a lot of rules their curse-breakers have to follow, and there's a lot of studying and paperwork you'd have-"

"You don't know that," Artemis said. "You've never worked for Gringotts."

"Patricia used to talk about it."

"Patricia? Oh, Madam Rakepick," Artemis nodded, and gave a little shudder. "It's so strange hearing you call her that, thinking how you were friends, after everything she did." Jacob made a humming noise, and Artemis continued, "Did you know Merula wrote to her about Gringotts and asked her to write us both recommendations?"

"No."

"Yeah. She actually did it as well. Wrote the letters."

"Makes sense," said Jacob. Artemis stared at him incredulously. "She saw something of herself in you. I think she was quite fond of you."

"Yeah, she seemed really fond all those times she tried to murder me."

"She was fond of you, but she cared about the Vaults more."

"Like Dad?"

She hadn't meant to say it. She had been so happy to see Jacob that she hadn't wanted to bring up everything she had seen in Dumbledore's Pensieve the night she destroyed the final Vault. She didn't want to feel angry at Jacob, not after he had just spent months and months in Azkaban to keep her safe, without her even writing him a letter.

"You know about Dad?" Jacob asked, his body stiffening.

"Yeah. Dumbledore told me-"

"He shouldn't have done that."

"- and Ma gave me back my memories." Jacob didn't respond, so Artemis elaborated. "You know, the ones you stole from me."

"Look, you don't…” Jacob sighed. “You were six years old, Artemis. You were confused and scared, and it was better that you didn't remember what happened. You were better off without those memories."

"I don't care. They were mine. You had no right to-"

"Actually, Artemis, I did have the right. After Dad died, I was left in charge of everything, including you."

Artemis glowered at him. "This is the part where you're supposed to apologise."

"I'm not going to apologise to you for doing the right thing," Jacob told her. "You might not like it, but I did it to protect you. Every single thing I have done has been to protect you, and some of it might not have been to your liking. Some of it wasn't to my liking either, but I did it anyway, because there is nothing - nothing - that I wouldn't do to keep you safe."

He stopped talking and turned his face away from her to look out over the grounds. Artemis frowned. His words echoed in her ears, reminding her of something someone else had told her, not too long ago. Duncan Ashe.

She bit her lower lip before asking in a quiet voice: "Like betray someone to R, you mean?"

"What are you talking about?"

Jacob asked the question in a level voice and with only a moment’s hesitation, but in that split second before he spoke, what little colour her had left in his cheeks drained from them entirely, and even in profile Artemis could see that his eyes had widened, just a fraction.

"I'm talking about Duncan," she told him, and he exhaled. "He thought that you betrayed him, had chosen him to die over me. He said that you'd told him yourself, and I thought he had just gotten the wrong end of the wand, but..." Artemis shook her head. She had just seen the truth on Jacob’s face. "You did, didn't you? You deliberately made it seem like he was the person you cared about more than anything or anyone else, just so that the Cabal wouldn't come after me."

Slowly, Jacob nodded his head. "It was the only way, so I... That I will apologise for."

The look in his eyes was one of genuine guilt. And something else, Artemis realised, as he looked at her properly. She narrowed her eyes at him and he looked away again. As he did, she realised what it was. 

Relief.

"What else?" she asked him, her blood running cold as she did so. She wasn't sure whether she really wanted to know the answer, but she still repeated her question. "What else did you do?"

Jacob said nothing, just continued to look out at the grounds. There were tears in his eyes. Something in the front of his neck moved up and down. Artemis followed his gaze and saw that it was focused on the Forbidden Forest. She closed her eyes. 

"The letter," she murmured. "The one Corey found. The handwriting, it... I thought it looked funny. Different. I assumed it had been written in a rush, but..." 

She opened her eyes, but she was still unable to see the forest. Even Jacob was blurry through her tears as she looked at him and asked him:

"Was it you? Jacob, did you send that letter to Rowan?"

"Artemis..."

"You did. You sent it. All this time I thought it was my fault, and all of this time... It was you." Artemis' sense of cold dread was draining from her. She was growing hot all over, almost burning with rage. "You plotted it, all of it. You and Patricia. You're the reason Rowan was there in that forest that night, and you're the reason she..."

Jacob looked her in the eye and told her: "I'm sorry."

"Would you do it again?" 

Artemis' question hung in the air, unanswered.

"Then you're not sorry," she said, half-spitting the words at him. "And I don't have to forgive you."

"I didn't ask you to forgive me."

"Good, because I don't, and I never will. I'll never forgive you." Jacob closed his eyes, but Artemis' stayed open, staring at him in contempt. "You know what? You should just leave and not tell me where you're going or when you'll be coming back. I don't even care anymore. And I'll be having this." She snatched her invitation from his hands so furiously that it was a miracle it didn't rip in half. "I don't want you at the ceremony. I don't want you anywhere near me or my friends. Here, you can have this back instead."

Her fingers trembled as she removed the watch Jacob had given her for safekeeping all those years ago, making her fumble as she undid the clasp. Jacob watched her with his eyes wide.

"I don't want it," he said gently.

"Neither do I. I don't want any part of you."

Finally she managed to take the watch off. She threw it at Jacob's feet, not even caring if it broke, and glared at him, daring him to contradict her.

"You'll always have a part of me, Artemis. Like it or not, I'll always be your brother."

"I already have a brother. His name is Bill."

She had nothing left to say, so she turned tail and ran away, down the covered bridge, out past the stone circle, and through the grounds, her heart pounding and aching and breaking. 

Nearing the owlery, she stopped and half-threw herself down under the red-berried tree outside. Her head on her hands and her elbows on her knees, she let out a strangled scream, not caring if she startled the group of Thestrals that were grazing on the grass behind her. 

Her whole life, everything she ever had been, had been defined by the Cursed Vaults. And now, the Vaults were gone and she was leaving Hogwarts, and she wasn't Jacob's younger sister anymore, nor was she the Cursed Vault girl, or even the Hufflepuff prefect or Seeker. She was just... Well, she didn't really know who she was without all that. So, what was she supposed to do now?

She unfolded herself from the ball she had curled herself into and looked up at the branches above her, adorned with red berries and green leaves. The last two times she had come here had been on New Year's Eve - Rowan's birthday - and the tree had been almost bare. Now, it was full of life, but it would be bare again by December. That was just how things went. They kept going on. And so would she. 

She looked down at her hands, still clutching the invitation to the leaving ceremony that had been meant for Jacob, and an idea came to her. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the invitation in her hand, duplicating it wordlessly, and  carried the invitations up to the owlery. As she stood in the doorway watching two owls fly away from her, one due south and the other in the direction of the village, she wondered why it had taken her so long to send them, and hoped that she hadn't left it too late to do so.

The clock tower bell chimed seven times, and she returned back to the castle, her home for one last night, where the end of term feast would soon be beginning.

The sun rose early the morning that Artemis awoke in her dormitory for the final time, and so did she and her friends. With seven years’ worth of textbooks, clothes, assorted knick-knacks, and a single bat having having found a home in the room, sorting everything out had proved to be somewhat of a challenge, and they still had the last few items to pack before they could attend the leaving ceremony.

“Whose scrunchies are all these?” Chiara asked, holding up five hair bands for the other girls to claim. “And that scarf isn’t mine, either.”

She pointed to a striped cardigan that was draped over the end of her bed. Fergus lay belly up beneath it, batting the pom-pom tassels with his forepaws. Artemis stopped unpinning the photos from behind her headboard to look at it, her chest tightening as she did so.

“It’s Rowan’s,” she said. “She bought it in Diagon Alley the day we first met.”

“Do you want to keep it?”

“I… Not if anyone else wants it.”

“Nah, you take it,” said Tonks. “You were there when she bought it. She was your friend from the beginning.”

Penny, whose face had been pink and eyes dewy since the night before, promptly burst into tears. Artemis let go of the scarf.

“You can have it if you like, Penny. I don’t mind.”

But Penny dismissed her offer with a shake of her head.

“It’s not the scarf, I just…” she sniffed and looked around the dormitory. “It’s just that we’re really leaving, and we won’t come back in September and all be here together. I just… I can’t believe it’s all ending. It feels so… so…”

Artemis swallowed hard as Penny’s voice tailed off. She understood all the feelings her friend was struggling to put into words.

“We were always going to leave eventually,” said Chiara. She put down her packing and walked over to hug Penny. “And it’s not like we’ll never see each other again.”

Penny wiped away her tears and nodded. “Well, yes, okay. But you have to promise, all of you, that we will all stay friends, no matter what happens. We will write to each other, and we will make sure that we meet up whenever we can, and you’ll all come and visit me in Paris.”

“Eh,” Tonks shrugged. “I’m probably just going to find some new friends. Honestly, I’ve spent the last seven years waiting to get rid of you.”

She winked at Artemis, who tried to keep a straight face as she told Penny: “Yeah, about Paris… I think I might be busy that week, actually.”

Penny reached into her trunk, pulled out her favourite slippers, and threw one at each of them.

“You’re both horrible!” she shouted, but she was at least laughing now.

The girls’ laughter carried with them as they left the Hufflepuff common room one last time and made their way up to the Great Hall, where the professors, all dressed in formal robes and ornate hats, were gathered with their families. Floating trays of sparkling liquid in tall glasses drifted between the guests, the benches had been arranged in rows facing the top table, and stacks of black pointed hats had been placed on the daïs. 

Penny was quick to find her family and drag them over to greet Chiara’s parents, and Tonks made her way over to where her mother and father were chatting with two older witches who each had an arm around Tulip Karasu. Artemis went to greet her own guests, pleased to see that all four of her invitees were in attendance; not just her great-aunt and uncle, but Madam Rosmerta and Kingsley Shacklebolt as well. She hugged each of them in turn.

“I thought you might not be able to make it,” she said to Ros and Kingsley. “I left it so late to send the invitations.”

“I wouldn’t have expected anything else from you, Tiny,” replied Kingsley, with a deep chuckle. Madam Rosmerta squeezed Artemis’ shoulder.

“You know I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Now, where’s your camera?”

Rosmerta wasn’t the only adult wanting to take photos. Once she and Artemis’ friends’ family members were satisfied that they had enough photos of the graduating students, Professor McGonagall tapped her glass with a spoon, and the guests took to their seats. She held out a scroll of parchment, and told the students:

“When I call your name, you will come to the daïs, and have a hat placed on your head before you sit down. Ali, Badeea!”

One by one, each of the students approached the daïs and had Professor Dumbledore shake their hand and put one of the smart black pointed hats placed on their head, while the rest of the hall applauded gently. Once Talbott Winger’s hand had been shaken and a hat placed on his tawny-haired head, McGonagall rolled up her scroll, and Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat.

“And so, that’s that,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling behind his gold-rimmed glasses. “Every year we greet a new set of students and say goodbye to another, and it appears that we have come full circle, once again. This is always a bittersweet moment as educators. Even our more stoic members of staff” - Artemis could have sworn that he glanced at Professor Snape - “have forged strong bonds with the young people sitting before me today, and we will miss you all sorely, just as I flatter myself to think that you will miss us in return.

“For the last seven years, Hogwarts has been a place of safety - by and large - and a home away from home for you. I understand how unsettling it can feel to leave, to be sent out into the world and all the uncertainty that it holds. I can tell you all I like that Hogwarts will always be your home, but as true as that is, I fear that it will be little reassurance to you. So, instead, let me say this:

“You may have heard it said that circle has no ending. This is true, however, it is also true that a circle has many endings. In fact, it has a multitude of endings, an infinite number of them, but,” Dumbledore paused, his lips twitching slightly, “each of those endings is also a beginning. And so, while this may feel like the end, it is not. It is merely the beginning.

“In that spirit, it is time for you all to return to the place where you began, ready to end this journey and begin a new one, wherever it may take you.”

The doors to the Great Hall swung open, and Professor McGonagall led the final years out into the entrance courtyard, where Hagrid was waiting for them, with tears in his eyes and Fergus the cat in his arms.

“I reckon ‘e was worried yeh were goin’ ter leave withou’ ‘im,” he whispered to Artemis, who grinned and let Fergus climb onto her shoulders.

“I could never do that.”

She stayed near the front of the procession of students, teachers, and guests that followed Hagrid down the cliff path to the Black Lake, where the boats were ready and waiting on the shore.

“Four to a boa’!”

As Penny and Chiara climbed into a boat with Jae and Ben, Artemis and Fergus climbed into an adjacent one with Tonks and Charlie, Hagrid steadying the boat as they climbed in. 

“We’re missing a fourth person,” said Tonks, her pink eyebrows furrowing. “Should we ask-”

“No,” Artemis shook her head and pulled the pom-pom-tasselled scarf from her cloak pocket and placed it on the bench next to her. “This seat is taken.”

She avoided looking either Tonks or Charlie in the eye by watching others as they began to float away in nearby boats. Murphy McNully had joined Andre, Tulip, and Badeea in one, while the Slytherins - Merula, Ismelda, Ben, and Liz - were in another. Diego and Corey were sharing a third with Talbott and Victor Ketsueki, who raised his eyebrows at Artemis. She rolled her eyes at him but smiled to herself once she’d looked away, back at the shore where the guests had gathered with the teachers.

Bill Weasley waved to her with the arm that wasn’t wrapped around his mother’s shoulders as she cried into a handkerchief, and Kingsley nodded to her before conjuring another handkerchief and passing it to little Beatrice Haywood, who had been using her sleeve to wipe her tears from her face. Madam Rosmerta was smiling, and two Crups were yapping at her Aunt and Uncle’s feet. Professor Dumbledore bowed his head to her, and the clock tower bell chimed ten times. 

The sun was not yet high in the sky, but its beams burst through the scattered clouds of the midsummer morning, illuminating the castle and basking it in a soft golden glow. Artemis smiled to herself. 

This was how she wanted to remember Hogwarts: golden, glorious, and finally at peace, for however long that peace would last. She kept her eyes on the castle that had been her home as the little wooden boats carried her and friends away towards their yet unknown futures, across the still and slightly glittering waters of the lake that no longer held a Cursed Vault.

[charliethomascoxuniverse]

Charlie Cox didn't have a clue about that big Treason twist, either

The Daredevil actor, now starring in a buzzy Netflix spy drama, talks GQ through the series' biggest twist, why it's more than a Bond calling card, and getting back on the Marvel saddle

By Jack King   27 December 2022 (X)

The following article contains major spoilers for Netflix's Treason.

Charlie Cox doesn't get much time for work outside of Daredevil, but when he does — as in the new Netflix spy drama, Treason — he wants it to be worth it. This new series, thankfully, is a complex beast. He portrays family man Adam Lawrence, a rising star in the MI6 who, after his boss ("C," not M, played by Ciarán Hinds) is struck down by an attempted poisoning, finds himself in the top job. But it's hardly that simple: what unfolds is a tapestry of Russian collusion, compromising illegal dossiers and enough assassination attempts to knock off Fidel Castro.

With the series having dropped on Netflix on Boxing Day, GQ sat down with Cox for a spoiler-heavy chat about Adam's journey on the show, his array of complicated relationships, and why it isn't just a Bond calling card — plus, of course, the obligatory Daredevil check-in.

GQ: Adam is a very compelling hero – an ambitious guy who makes a number of mistakes that haunt him on the road to the top in the MI6. Did you like him on the page?

Charlie Cox: I don't know, I genuinely try not to think about that. I'm actually quite good at not holding judgement on these particular characters that I'm playing, or potentially playing. It's hard to divorce how I feel about the character from how I feel about playing the character. And of course that's something that made it very interesting to me, that he wasn't this traditional hero, completely clean-cut and morally righteous all the time, who just found himself in a funny situation where he'd been unfairly judged or mistreated, and then he was out to clear his name. There was a history there.

What makes him interesting to me is that he's not just burying those times where he crossed the line, whether he knew it at the time or not, and explaining it away and making peace with it, because his mind can't allow him to go to that place. And that's what I think makes him a hero: not because he just naturally always gets it right, it's more that he's able to recognise where he's got it wrong, and then do the right thing at his own expense.

There's a lot that goes unsaid in Adam and Kara's relationship. Maddy eventually confronts Adam over it, and asks whether he's still in love with her, which he denies, but it feels like there's a level of ambiguity in the air. How did you read that? Fifteen years later, is there a lingering love between them?

Yeah, the way I viewed it at the time was I think he's being honest — I don't think there's any love in the traditional sense for Kara. But I think that he's the kind of person when there has been love, there is a residue always. When you've loved someone and cared for someone deeply, it's never completely gone.

The way I thought about Adam and Kara is that, certainly for him and probably for her, that was a very serious love affair and was very impactful on them both, and has at times haunted him. He's trying to act in a way that is respectful of his current wife and his children, and his life, and his livelihood, but also done in a way where, if possible, he can make amends to some degree for what happened over fifteen years ago.

Did you know from the get-go that Adam was gonna die?

No, no.

So when did you find out?

I knew it was a possibility. But I don't like to be told the whole story before we start filming, I like to read the episodes when they're available — I like to read the episodes like an audience member, because I think it can be informative. You get to feel, to some degree, what the audience should be feeling, and sometimes that can be relevant to your performance. So when we first started shooting I'd only read the first three. I didn't get four or five until a month or so into filming. I knew it was on the cards, you can tell by the contract, you know. [Laughs.]

Of course, but still — how'd you feel when you found out?

When I read it, I felt like it was the right thing to do for the story.

Dramatically, absolutely.

I felt like it was impactful, it was unexpected, and especially when it happens as well. There's loads of really high-quality spy dramas out there, I think there were three or four coming out over Christmas, so anything that can set you apart or make you a bit different is really important.

I certainly didn't have any lingering sadness around [it]. I've only really had that once or twice before, but those were the characters I played for years. You know, when I got the phone call for my character in Boardwalk Empire, that was painful.

When you tell people you're doing this spy show, that it's set around the MI6, are they asking if it's your Bond calling card?

[Laughs.] Yeah, in the interviews. Everyone has brought it up at some point. I actually think the opposite is true. I think that this probably takes me off any potential list, because I've done the TV version of it.

Yeah, it's one of those questions, isn't it? It's not like you're going to say no. Or would you?

I have to be honest with you, I don't really think I'm in that conversation. I don't really keep up on social media. I purposely don't read stuff about myself, because that's not helpful to anyone. But I'm not really on those lists. And I secretly hope they do something different with it.

If not Bond, how about a villain? Would you be down for that?

Oh yeah. Who wouldn't be? But then, you know, the only downside to that is you only probably get to do it once. Whereas, you know, I'm sure that Daniel Craig is exhausted, but when he looks back in years to come, he'll probably remember this fifteen years of being Bond… I mean, I've got a little bit of a taste of this with playing Daredevil, in that you must never lose sight of the fact that when you've got a role like that, it's so rare in the acting world to have a role that is so fun to play.

A lot of acting is, you can end up being in something really amazing, but a lot of acting can be quite samey. It's a lot of very intelligent conversations in impressive locations. But with something like Daredevil or Bond, you know, you get all of the emotional drama, and then also get to jump off buildings and do all that. The sun is setting on my ability to do a lot of that stuff, literally. So while it's there, it's really important to relish it and love it for what it is, because it does make the whole acting process so much more fun.

On the other hand, though, do you wish that you could do more projects on the side? I'm actually curious as well — had you signed up to do Treason before you found out before you were going to come back as Daredevil?

Yeah, no, I knew that we were gonna do a Daredevil show, because Marvel had to agree to let me to do Treason, and that was fun because it gave me some sort of timeline. When I think back to my early few years, first… probably ten years, there were periods where I was busy, and I would do a film, and often I'd get a decent part in a film, and I'd go off on location and have a really fun time. But there were months and months at a time where I couldn't get any work. So it's difficult to pick holes and find fault with my current circumstance, which is that I get to work quite a lot.

And yes, as you say, doing something like Daredevil means that it can take over your life a little bit, and there's less opportunity to do other stuff. But I'm so grateful for the work, and I have such a good time doing it, I'm genuinely so grateful that still after twenty years I get to participate in this industry so much and so regularly that I can't see it through a lens of negativity, as it were.

You know, my hope is that I do find time to do varied stuff and interesting stuff — but I also have young children right now, and it's difficult for anything to trump that. So if I do a long-running show, and then I get a few months off, then I'm really gonna wanna get that time with my family. But I know what you mean, I have friends who if they have five minutes free, they sign on to do something. I don't seem to operate that way. It has to be really important and moving to me to take me away from the family.

Now that the excitement around Daredevil's return to the MCU has quietened down a bit, have you settled back into the role?

No, no. To date I've only done that cameo in Spider-Man and the one episode in She-Hulk, which was tonally so different from anything I'd done before. So no, I'm now in the process of preparing for next year when we shoot the show: I've re-reading the comics from start to finish, and I'm just starting to try to get back into shape for a role like that. I think because of the number of episodes they've committed to, there'll be a heavy influence of courtroom stuff — Matt Murdock the lawyer in the new show. So I'm heavily focused on researching that area of this character, and his life. It was one of the areas we didn't do a huge amount exploration around before. Even my accent is probably really rusty.

No, I'm really excited. I'm right in the thick of preparing for next year, and getting back into it. I think it's important that I don't just take it for granted that I know that character now and just show up and say the lines, I think you've got to reinvestigate and recommit yourself as if it was a first time job again, and that's how you'll continue to find the nuance and deepen the character to make the show as good as it can be.

Do you have a date for when you'll be stepping back on set?

No, I don't have an actual date. I believe it's like the first quarter of next year. So I'm imagining February or March.

~*~

[todayisafridaynight]

hey, i hope life's treating ya well this week! i finished y6 yesterday and came to share some thoughts if you don't mind :)

i think kiryu tried to project on his kids what he wanted kazama to be like as a father, but ultimately kazama'ed all of them, especially daigo. i found the ending of y6 very touching, but that's because i like daigo in all of his bland npc glory, and i agree with a lot of criticism of that ending being somewhat weird, especially when we had so little interaction with haruka, who just. you know. woke up from a coma. i wrote this already in my blog, but i'll repeat myself: that ending would've made much more sense if we had just more of daigo in general amd/or saw his transition from his y2 version to his version later in the series. like, we know haruka and kiryu are close, and we assume daigo and kiryu are close too, but i'd love to see more evidence of it in the actual text. that one substory in y0 clearly wasn't enough. i wish we could have more of haruka, MUCH more of haruka, too. the lack of her agency in y6 after y5 felt frustrating

i did enjoy the game, though. i really liked the callbacks to the previous games. as for side activities, it never seizes to amaze me how the eroge minigames are become just more and more unhinged. but all the missed storytelling opportunities, man

(it's also v funny that daigo's sr card code in clan creator is kiryusavemepleaz. i don't speak japanese and therefore haven't played rggo, but i know about a story where majima lets daigo win him on purpose or something? also the situations daigo's often put in (which are mostly near death experiences), him never getting any kind of resolve with ryuji as well... i think yokoyama kinda hates daigo lmao)

Heya! I sure love thoughts and I sure love talking about Daigo :]

On the note about 'Kazama'ing his kids, I'm going to be ugly and take a minute to interpret what that means if you don't mind.

When it comes to what Kazama did to his kids, he allowed Nishiki and Kiryu to join the yakuza despite knowing the dangers of it at their insistence. Ergo, we see Kazama prioritize the yakuza, telling Kiryu to leave the Dojima situation in Y1 alone. Moreover, despite Kazama lacking faith in Nishiki's abilities as a yakuza, he still expected him to be able to lead a family by himself while he took care of Yumi in hiding.

As for Kiryu and his kids, it was evident Kiryu wanted to be able to parent the kids at Morning Glory- to speculate, maybe as a way to atone of Kazama's messy paretning without outright admitting Kazama had faults. However, his bond with those in the yakuza inevitably kept him coming back, especially in regards to Daigo (who, of course, we find out he sees as a son. In this, it's a case of Kiryu still wanting to be a good parent, but the priorities aren't exactly there). In this (and I've discussed this in a post prior), Kiryu's attempting to spread himself thin when it comes to his family: he wants to help the Tojo, if not predominantly due to Daigo's presence there, but he also wants to father the orphans at Morning Glory. Unfortunately, since Kiryu can justify leaving the kids as Okinawa's a safer setting and he's admittedly at his best in a fight, he ends up leaving for Tokyo every time action's needed.

It's actually Kiryu's constant leaving that had me assume he was writing his letter to Haruka at first during Y6's ending, specifically when he was talking about how he lamented not spending more time with her. On the subject of Haruka, Y6 really did her disgustingly: as soon as she was of age, she becomes a mother and, on top of that, she gets hit by a car and is in a coma the majority of the game and doesn't even get to properly spend time with Kiryu before he vanishes. I genuinely wish and- foolishly- hope one day Haruka can actually get the respect she deserves after having been such an important, prominent, and interesting character throughout this franchise.

To talk about Daigo and Kiryu, the main subject of this ask I feel, I think RGG did as much as they could when it came to demonstrating Kiryu and Daigo's relationship. In Y5, it's revealed that Kiryu believes that people who become close to him suffer (and in this scene in particular, he's referring to Daigo after he gets shot on the roof)- how long he's had this mentality I couldn't definitively tell you, but I wouldn't be surprised if this has been a thought since everyone's deaths in Y1. Because of Kiryu's fear for others' well-being, it can be reasoned that Kiryu might have wanted to keep his distance from Daigo as much as he could lest something go wrong (but of course, he also feels responsible for protecting others, leading him to take action where he should probably leave things be). In Y4, we can see the buds of Kiryu regretting not being there for Daigo when he needed him most, outright apologizing to him for putting him in the position of chairman without any proper training or time. Considering all of this, Kiryu's letter to Daigo aligns with what we've seen: even if Kiryu wasn't able to be close to Daigo and properly guide him like he should have, he still confesses that Daigo was incredibly important to him and he regrets letting that fear stop their bond from deepening.

Daigo on the flip side, we become very aware that he values Kiryu immensely. To return to Y5, at the end of his taxi ride he tries to reassure Kiryu that he's able to carry himself without his help (i.e. 'I'm trying my best to walk this path' after Kiryu kicks him out of the car). Daigo's need for Kiryu's approval is also evident in RGGO: the story with Majima you're talking about is one of his character stories where he first becomes chairman. In this story, Daigo struggles to understand what Kiryu's intention was entrusting him to the Tojo Clan, but once he realizes it, this is his turning point to stop being the brute he was in Y2. To extend on RGGO shining light on Daigo's feelings for Kiryu, during his initial meeting with Mine in Mine's story, he lets Mine know he was so ardent in watching the Tojo at first so he could make 'the man' who put him in that position proud, and later during their bar conversation in another one of Mine's stories, he lets Mine know that while he doesn't consider Kiryu family at this point, he still considers him someone incredibly close to him (and as we see in Y6, Daigo will do a hard 180 on this and proudly call Kiryu his father). To jump back to Kiryu for a second, we can argue that Mine's whole 'what could Daigo see in a man like you' line could have contributed to Kiryu's want to distance himself from Daigo. Because what if Mine had a point: what WAS there to admire in Kiryu? What could Daigo POSSIBLY like about Kiryu, and would it not just be better if he wasn't in his life after- inadvertently- getting him put in a coma? To end this segment on a goofy note, Daigo's clan code being 'kiryuhelpmeplz' is super funny with the father/son lens: Daigo's gotta call his dad to help him out </3

EDIT: In regards to the RGGO story I mentioned here, I misremembered the exact quote and that drastically changes the scene and meaning I'm referencing, and significantly portrays the relationship between Daigo and Kiryu differently from what I've said. For the correct quote and sentiment, please refer to this ask here (x)

In all of this, it's reasonable that RGG couldn't expand on Kiryu and Daigo's relationship, but that's what makes Kiryu's letter so significant. We see from Kiryu and Daigo's sides individually that they saw each other as family, but neither of them were able to confront that fact directly for one reason or another (Kiryu, again, with is fear of hurting those he loves and his general inability to express his emotions perfectly. Daigo might have thought seeing Kiryu as his dad was inappropriate, especially after having had to believe he killed his actual dad). Kiryu lamenting the bond they could have had wouldn't have had the same merit if Kiryu and Daigo were actually able to bond more, but because they didn't and we see they still cherish each other, the impact's there.

My long ugly ramble aside, I'm glad you still enjoyed the game! I don't know if you have any more of the games left to play, but if you ever get around to them I hope you enjoy them!

[augment-techs]

If there was a card season for PR not Megaflop

Like say something like fantasy or yugioh then what would your ideal team be? Could have any character from the series.

Unfortunately for anyone reading this, I don't care about the actual card part of YGO, but I can think of fantasy oriented card sets with a collective of Rangers that would work rather well with them. The first thought is Tarot, the other is the Cardcaptor series. One works for slightly darker genre, one works for much lighter. As this is PR, a mesh would work well. To keep things organized, I would probably use the Major Arcana for the three primary Color Rangers, and the Minor Arcana for the Alt Colors, the aids, and the two necessary background characters. They can alternate as needed, but some of the cards can usually be found with one person. To appease myself, I would probably take up a sort of interdimensional/time stream scenario not terribly different from Shattered Grid or Forever Red. Bound together by necessity and to get the hell back to their own places. Red: Grace Sterling. I'm not going to sort out all the cards the top three Colors get, but I will explain my choices. Grace has PTSD from her first and only mission because of Zordon and Psycho Green and had been trying to relive the feeling of being a Red her entire adult life. She needs this, and I am going to give it to her.

Blue: Tori Hanson. No lying, I was VERY tempted to give this position to Ollie Akana...buuuuuut he wouldn't work well with people he doesn't know, and Tori is very flexible (as seen in her Good Villain/Evil Ranger misadventure). Also it's funny how short she is compared to Grace and Terona. Plus the age disparity.

Yellow: Terona Washington. This man deserves nice things, and one of them involves getting to be a Ranger when he doesn't have to go back to war and when he has people around that he knows and trusts. Plus, plus, also, AND--people seem to forget that he and Grace are leaders in their own rights. He needs and deserves this.

Pink: Kapri. SHE IS KICKASS AND POWERFUL; it is a CRIME that we never got her or her sister in a battle that meant something (Tori's visit to the land of Oz doesn't count). So she gets the Four of Wands and the Chariot.

Black: Leelee Pimvare. I don't need a reason to make her Black. If she's not Purple, she's Black and she EARNED THIS. She also earned the High Priestess and three of the Wands at any given time.

Green: Matt Cook. I am so sick and tired of Tommy in this spotlight, and while I love a lot of the Greens, this guy needs a fucking break. Which is also why I'm giving him Temperance and the Hanged Man to keep.

White: Udonna. Queen of White Rangers and wonderful in her own right even without Powers; she gets the seat here because it's so very important to keep her. She has most of the Cup cards, as well as the Empress.

Gold: Eric Myers; making him a Gold because it would be SO FUCKING FUNNY. Finally, he gets to a Color before Wes did--and he can't rub his face in it. How sad. Though it helps that he gets all of the Knights in the Minor Arcana.

Purple: Bulk. I don't care what age or timeline he's from, but Coinless or Lost Galaxy age seems vaguely appropriate. He has the Pages of Cups, Coins, and Wands; and the Magician.

Orange: Skull. Like Bulk, I don't care what age he is, though his Coinless counterpart would be IDEAL in this situation. Mostly because I am giving him ALL of the Sword cards, except for the Knight--which was exchanged for The Devil.

Aid/Tech Support: Billy Cranston. Can take the Blue Power Coin when he needs it, but he mostly gets used for his tech savvy. He gets the Hermit, the Kings of Wands and Cups, and the Moon.

Necessary background 1: Fran. She gets the Tower, the Star, and all of the Aces in the Minor Arcana (except Sword). She makes sure everyone is fed and watered and stitched up as needed.

Necessary background 2: Betty. Oddly, she helps out Billy when he's stuck as she has a POV and experience where he doesn't. Except for the Sword, she gets three Queens in the Minor Arcana, and the Wheel of Fortune. She also helps clean up when everyone is too exhausted, but she's not a pushover.